Syracuse, N.Y.  New Yorks top law enforcement agency is conducting an investigation into the Syracuse Police Department, city officials say.

New York Attorney General Letitia James is reviewing the policies and practices of the Syracuse police, with help from local officials, City Hall says.

Mayor Ben Walshs office said his administration is cooperating with James office. He said hes confident in the progress the department has made under its new chief, Kenton Buckner.

The city has been working with the Office of the Attorney Generals review of Syracuse Police Department policies and practices since March and welcomes its involvement, Walsh said in a statement Thursday. As part of that process, we have provided to the Attorney General the significant progress we have made under Chief Buckners leadership in: improving police standards, policies and training; increasing community engagement, transparency and accountability; strengthening officer discipline systems; expanding diversity within the force; and enhancing collaboration with the Citizen Review Board.

Walsh and Buckner have come under increased scrutiny lately from activists and protesters demanding more police accountability and transparency. The AGs investigation, however, predates the protests that have filled Syracuses streets, according to Walsh.

At a meeting two weeks ago, protesters outlined abuses theyd suffered at the hands of police and called for action from Walsh, Buckner and others. They specifically asked Walsh to strip $20 million from the departments budget and detailed reasons why police officers should be required to live in the city. They also demanded officers be removed from the citys schools.

Several speakers asked Walsh to support giving the Citizen Review Board the authority to discipline officers. Walsh said he does not support that. His administration is currently fighting a legal battle to take disciplinary power away from arbitrators and put it firmly in the hands of the chief and the mayor. The police union is challenging that effort, and won an initial court battle earlier this year.

Walsh has pledged to do more to support police reform, but has also pointed to prior efforts. Buckner overhauled the departments use of force policy and created other policies, including one for interacting with transgender people.

The city has also been forced to pay out millions to settle several high-profile police brutality lawsuits.

The AGs office declined to discuss an ongoing investigation.

The mayors office did not say what prompted the investigation.

Under James, the AGs office has taken an assertive role on high-profile topics.

She beat President Donald Trump in a lawsuit over Trumps tax returns last year. Trump sued James over a state law permitting the release of elected officials tax returns upon request from Congress. James upheld the legality of the law, and a federal judge dismissed Trumps case.

Last month, she held public hearings where protesters in New York shared accounts of violent interactions with the New York Police Department. She scolded Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea for not showing up to those hearings.

During a conference call with reporters last week, James said that the NYPD had lost the trust of the communities it polices.

It was impossible to deny that many New Yorkers have lost faith in law enforcement, she said, according to Newsday.
Rating Action: Moody's assigns NCL Corporation's planned secured note issuance a Ba2 rating; no change to Ba2 CFR

Global Credit Research - 16 Jul 2020

New York, July 16, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service, ("Moody's") assigned a Ba2 rating to NCL Corporation Ltd.'s (NCL) proposed senior secured note issuance. The company's other ratings are unchanged including its Ba2 Corporate Family Rating, Ba2-PD Probability of Default Rating, Ba2 existing senior secured rating, and B1 senior unsecured rating. The company's ratings remain on review for downgrade, including the Ba2 rating on the planned secured note issuance.

The proceeds of the planned issuance of $675 million senior secured notes, along with a planned issuance of $250 million of convertible senior notes and $250 million of common equity, will be used to bolster the company's liquidity including refinancing its $675 million fully drawn revolver that expires in March 2022. "The planned issuances improve NCL's liquidity profile by adding cash to the balance sheet and pushing out maturities, important steps as the company endures this period of suspended operations and material monthly cash burn," stated Pete Trombetta, Moody's lodging and cruise analyst. Pro forma for this transaction and the company's $2.4 billion capital raise in May, Moody's estimates the company's cash balance should provide the company adequate liquidity to withstand no operations through late 2021. This includes ongoing ship operating expenses, administrative operating expenses, interest expense and expected capital expenditures and excludes cash refunds of customer deposits as well as cash inflows from new and existing bookings.

Assignments:

..Issuer: NCL Corporation Ltd.

....Senior Secured Regular Bond/Debenture, Assigned Ba2 (LGD3); Rating on Review for Downgrade

RATINGS RATIONALE

NCL's credit profile is supported by its market position as the third largest ocean cruise operator worldwide, as well as its well-known brand names -- Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, and Regent Seven Seas Cruises, as well as the strong performance of its new ships in terms of pricing and bookings relative to its other ships which enables the company to compete against larger rivals across all its price points. Moody's view that over the long run, the value proposition of a cruise vacation relative to land-based destinations as well as a group of loyal cruise customers supports a base level of demand once health safety concerns have been effectively addressed. In the short run, NCL's credit profile will be dominated by the length of time that cruise operations continue to be highly disrupted and the resulting impacts on the company's cash consumption and its liquidity profile. The normal ongoing credit risks include its high leverage, the highly seasonal and capital intensive nature of cruise companies and the cruise industry's exposure to economic and industry cycles, weather incidents and geopolitical events.

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The review for downgrade will focus on NCL's recovery prospects in 2021 given the recent resurgence in coronavirus cases in certain states increasing the uncertainty around the reopening of the US and the company's plans for the eventual return to service of its US operations, including what precautions will be put in place when sailings do resume and the associated incremental costs.

FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS

Prior to the ratings being placed on review for downgrade the factors that could lead to a downgrade include: operations being suspended for longer than our base case assumption or updated expectations for a weaker recovery, that results in debt/EBITDA remaining above 4.0x or EBITA/interest is below 4.5x over the next two years. Any deterioration in liquidity could also cause negative rating pressure. Given the review for downgrade an upgrade is unlikely in the short term, however longer term ratings could be upgraded if debt/EBITDA and EBITA/interest expense improved to below 3.75x and above 4.5x, respectively.

NCL Corporation Ltd., headquartered in Miami, FL, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Ltd. Norwegian operates 28 cruise ships with approximately 59,150 berths under three brand names; Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, and Regent Seven Seas Cruises. Net revenues were about $5.0 billion for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019.

The principal methodology used in these ratings was Business and Consumer Service Industry published in October 2016 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1037985. Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

REGULATORY DISCLOSURES

For further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and sensitivity analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and Sensitivity to Assumptions in the disclosure form. Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions can be found at: https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_79004.

For ratings issued on a program, series, category/class of debt or security this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series, category/class of debt, security or pursuant to a program for which the ratings are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the credit rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular credit rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt, in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would have affected the rating. For further information please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.

For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit support from the primary entity(ies) of this credit rating action, and whose ratings may change as a result of this credit rating action, the associated regulatory disclosures will be those of the guarantor entity. Exceptions to this approach exist for the following disclosures, if applicable to jurisdiction: Ancillary Services, Disclosure to rated entity, Disclosure from rated entity.

The ratings have been disclosed to the rated entity or its designated agent(s) and issued with no amendment resulting from that disclosure.

These ratings are solicited. Please refer to Moody's Policy for Designating and Assigning Unsolicited Credit Ratings available on its website www.moodys.com.

Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating review.

Moody's general principles for assessing environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in our credit analysis can be found at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1133569.

The Global Scale Credit Rating on this Credit Rating Announcement was issued by one of Moody's affiliates outside the EU and is endorsed by Moody's Deutschland GmbH, An der Welle 5, Frankfurt am Main 60322, Germany, in accordance with Art.4 paragraph 3 of the Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 on Credit Rating Agencies. Further information on the EU endorsement status and on the Moody's office that issued the credit rating is available on www.moodys.com.

Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued the rating.

Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.

Peter Trombetta Asst Vice President - Analyst Corporate Finance Group Moody's Investors Service, Inc. 250 Greenwich Street New York, NY 10007 U.S.A. JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653 Margaret Taylor Associate Managing Director Corporate Finance Group JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653 Releasing Office: Moody's Investors Service, Inc. 250 Greenwich Street New York, NY 10007 U.S.A. JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653

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When Frank Luises brother-in-law drove him from Florida back home to the Lehigh Valley when the coronavirus pandemic began to spread across the United States, the word ciao had no real meaning to them other than as an Italian greeting.

Mere months later, its the name of the newest Downtown Easton eatery that the two of them and a friend are preparing to launch.
An MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 3 alongside Federal San Diego Firefighters combat a fire aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6)

U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Kory Alsberry

The US Navy announced Thursday afternoon that all known fires aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard are out. There is still the possibility that fires continue to burn on the ship.

Hundreds of sailors, as well as many federal firefighters, have been working around the clock for over four days battling the blaze that first started Sunday morning.

A senior Navy official said Thursday that "it is too early to make any predictions or promises of what the future of the ship will be."

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

After more than four days of intense, around-the-clock firefighting, the US Navy said Thursday afternoon that all known fires on the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard are finally out.

The Navy still does not know exactly what caused the devastating fire. "Our fire teams are investigating every space to verify the absence of fire," Rear Adm. Philip Sobeck, commander of Expeditionary Strike Group Three, said Thursday.

"Until every space is checked and there are no active fires we will not be able to commence any official investigations," he said.

He also said in a statement that the extent of the damage is still unknown, indicating that "it is too early to make any predictions or promises of what the future of the ship will be."

A fire was first reported aboard the big-deck amphib, which has been in maintenance for the past couple of years and was in port at Naval Base San Diego, at around 8:30 am Sunday. Sobeck revealed earlier this week that a sudden explosion forced the crew to evacuate before they could secure the area where the fire broke out and activate the fire suppression system.

The fire, which is suspected to have started in a lower vehicle storage area, spread rapidly through the ship. Sobeck told reporters Tuesday that once the fire spread up to the well deck, it was "off to the races."

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Over the past few days, hundreds of sailors and federal firefighters have been battling fires aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard. The Navy reports that 63 people  40 sailors and 23 civilians  have been injured, suffering from things like smoke inhalation and heat exhaustion.

Sobeck told reporters Sunday evening that "we're absolutely going to make sure it sails again," adding that "we're just going to get right back at it once we get this thing contained and put out."

In an update Monday, he said that he remains hopeful, even as expert observers suggested the ship was too far gone and possibly not worth saving. He continued to express optimism in later updates.

Read the original article on Business Insider
An update has been provided regarding the status of Dave Jackson, who sustained serious injuries during an on-track accident at Clinton Raceway on June 28.

Jackson, 50, remains hospitalized in critical condition. After the accident, Jackson was transported to Clinton Hospital, and was later transferred to London Health Sciences Centre.

Jackson has been diagnosed with severe head trauma along with a neck injury. He has been moved out of ICU and is now on the regular trauma floor at LHSC. The London native has a long road to recovery.

Jackson is a familiar face in the harness racing industry. He can be found warming up horses for many trainers at The Raceway at Western Fair District, Flamboro Downs, Grand River Raceway and Clinton Raceway, just to name a few.

The Raceway at Western Fair District and the Central Ontario Standardbred Association have kicked off a GoFundMe campaign, as both organizations have made $1,500 donations.

All proceeds from the GoFundMe campaign will be sent to Dave Jackson.

(With files from The Raceway at Western Fair District)
Berlin, July 16 : Since its inception in 2015, the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue (BETD) has developed into a leading international forum for the whos who of the Energiewende worldwide, organisers said on Thursday.

But this year like many other international events, the coronavirus pandemic has lead to the cancellation of the physical event at the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin.

With a great deal of creativity and dedication, the BETD team has now taken the conference's content online.

The virtual Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue is a joint initiative of the German Renewable Energy Federation (BEE), the German Solar Association (BSW-Solar), the German Energy Agency (dena), and eclareon and is supported by the German government.

After all, the energy transition does not allow any further delay, and the willingness to discuss and act has only increased as a result of the pandemic.

In July, a cross media campaign for the virtual BETD was launched with many new formats and big plans ahead.

"The current global challenge requires a global solution. With the transition to an energy system based on renewable energy at its core, a global green deal will enable sustainable growth for all and pave the way for a truly green recovery worldwide," German Renewable Energy Federation (BEE) President Simone Peter said.

"The tools are in our hands. Collaboration of politics, industry, science and civil society in a new multilateral framework is a precondition for the global green transition. Companies, innovators, decision and change makers are ready to deliver the necessary solutions. It is up to policymakers to provide the right framework to combine various national realities with global goals," German Energy Agency (dena) Chief Executive Andreas Kuhlmann said.

In the campaign's digital repertoire, participants will find formats such as the Green Sofa Dialogues, where celebrities are interviewed on the now well-known and well-travelled green sofa.

They are complimented by podcasts with energy transition experts, and explanatory videos on hot energy policy topics such as green hydrogen.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: At a time when private hospitals in the city are charging exorbitant amount for treating Covid-19, a hospital in Dubai waived off Rs 1.52 crore bill of a patient from Telangana.

Odnala Rajesh (42) of Venugumatla village in Gollapalli mandal of Jagtial district, was admitted to Dubai Hospital in Dubai on April 23 and tested positive for the virus. Rajesh took 80 days to recover and while getting discharged received a bill of Rs 1.52 crore.

His ordeal was brought to the notice of Indian Consulate in Dubai by the Gulf Workers Protection Society president Gundelli Narasimha. Following that, the Consulate wrote a letter to the Dubai Hospital. "The family has requested us to repatriate Rajesh to India and has expressed their financial inability to afford the bill. We shall be grateful if you can waive off the charges on humanitarian grounds," Harjeet Singh, Consul (Labour), wrote in his letter. His request was accepted by the hospital.

A person named Ashok Kotecha provided free flight tickets from Dubai to Hyderabad to Rajesh and his escort Dyavara Kankaiah and paid another Rs 10,000 for their expenses.
By PTI

KOLKATA: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said the Centre was not standing by the people amid the economic downturn due to COVID-19, as she hit out at the BJP-led government over Air India's decision to send certain employees on leave without pay for up to five years.

She accused the central government of taking advantage of the crisis and tweaking laws and rules to keep on with their "dictator-like attitude".

"Sometimes, I feel not to say anything against them and work together to fight COVID-19. But then, I feel sorry that when we are passing through such a critical time and everybody is fighting the disease, the central government and BJP are taking advantage (of it)," the chief minister said at a press conference in state secretariat 'Nabanna'.

"They have already amended so many laws without any consultation (with any political parties), so many laws have been changed and whatever they need to maintain their dictatorship they are doing it. I am shocked," she added.

ALSO READ | Cost-cutting has to be done: Hardeep Singh Puri on Air India's leave without pay scheme

Slamming the Centre over the Air India move, she asked what will happen to the employees after five years.

"What's happening in the country? I've never heard of this. Will not the Constitution come into play in this case? I am really shocked. How can they snatch the democratic rights of the people...Five years on leave without pay and after five years where will they go," she said.

"Five years of no pay in this situation when people want cash," Banerjee stated.

"Is this the manner in which a democratic government works? Everything is lost...Everybody is afraid, scared and ashamed. What will they do?" Banerjee said.

Air India Thursday said it has started the process of identifying employees, based on various factors like efficiency, health and redundancy, who will be sent on compulsory leave without pay (LWP) for up to five years.

ALSO READ | Air India to send certain employees on leave without pay for up to five years

She further said that the central government was not paying heed to the advice of senior economists to give money into the hands of people at this hour of crisis, and instead was allowing FDI in several important sectors such as the railways.

"How can they snatch the rights of the employees of Coal India with 100 per cent FDI? Banks are also been merged," she said.

Banerjee urged all the trade unions to unitedly fight against the decisions of the Centre.

"I will appeal to all trade unions, including the BJP's, to unitedly stand against this without surrendering...I will request them not to bow their heads and stay together to support this cause," she said.
Explainer: What's behind rising tensions in the South China Sea? FILE PHOTO: A view of the flight deck of USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19) is seen at Changi Naval Base in Singapore

By James Pearson

HANOI (Reuters) - The United States this week hardened its position on the South China Sea, where it has accused China of attempting to build a "maritime empire" in the potentially energy-rich waters, despite regional concerns.

The rivals have accused each other of stoking tension in the strategic waterway at a time of strained relations over everything from the new coronavirus to trade to Hong Kong.

A statement from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on July 13 was the first time the United States had called China's claims in the sea unlawful and accused Beijing of a "campaign of bullying".

But heated rhetoric has also been on the rise in the region, where Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam challenge China's claim to about 90% of the sea.

REGIONAL TENSIONS

Vietnam, frequently at loggerheads with China over the issue, is this year chairing the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

At a June 26 summit in Hanoi, Vietnam and the Philippines - China's most vocal challengers over the sea - warned of growing regional insecurity amid concern that Beijing was advancing territorial claims under the cover of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As China held military drills in the South China Sea this month, Vietnam said Beijing's actions were "detrimental" to its relationship with the Southeast Asian bloc. The United States simultaneously deployed two aircraft carriers to the area for what it said were pre-planned exercises.

In a blustery response to the Chinese drills, Philippine Foreign Minister Teodoro Locsin said China "will be met with the severest response, diplomatic and whatever else is appropriate", if the exercises encroached on Philippine territory.

That followed a surprise move by President Rodrigo Duterte - who had courted Beijing since taking office in 2016 - to suspend his decision to scrap a two-decade-old troop deployment agreement with the United States.

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TROUBLED WATERS

China illustrates its claims with a vague, U-shaped "nine-dash line" that includes swathes of Vietnam's exclusive economic zone, or EEZ, as well as the Paracel Islands and Spratly Islands. It also overlaps the EEZs of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

A tribunal at The Hague, based on a suit brought by the Philippines, ruled in 2016 that China has no "historic title" over the waters, and that its line was superseded by the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Last year, Chinese and Vietnamese vessels became embroiled in a months-long standoff in Vietnam's EEZ where a Chinese research vessel conducted a sweeping seismic survey of waters overlapping Vietnamese oil blocks.

In May, the same Chinese research vessel was involved in another month-long standoff with Malaysian ships in Malaysia's EEZ, close to where a drillship contracted by Malaysian state oil firm Petronas had been operating.

Chinese incursions happened 89 times between 2016 and 2019, Malaysia's government said on Tuesday.

Indonesia has also begun to take a tougher stance. In January, Jakarta summoned China's ambassador and dispatched air and sea patrols after Chinese vessels entered Indonesia's EEZ around the northern Natuna islands.

The tensions have already affected Vietnamese oil production in the area, including operations controlled by Russia's Rosneft and Spain's Repsol.

"We're already seeing reduced appetite for oil and gas investment in Vietnam," said Andrew Harwood, research director at consultancy firm Wood Mackenzie.

"Escalating tensions will not improve the situation".

(Reporting by James Pearson; Additional reporting by Karen Lema in Manila; Editing by Matthew Tostevin and Nick Macfie)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 12:47:36|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The fundamentals of China's long-term sound economic growth have not changed and will not change, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Wednesday in a reply letter to global CEOs.

He also pledged that China will keep deepening reform and expanding opening-up, and provide a better business environment for the investment and development of Chinese and foreign enterprises.

Writing back to representatives of Global CEO Council members, Xi said he appreciates their firm confidence in China's peaceful and open development, their commitment to staying rooted in China, and their constructive suggestions on China's economic development.

China, he added, is dealing with the COVID-19 epidemic and socio-economic development in a coordinated manner, striving for a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and eradicating poverty.

He said China will comprehensively implement major policies and measures aimed at ensuring the six priorities of employment, people's livelihoods, development of market entities, food and energy security, stable operation of industrial and supply chains, and smooth functioning at the community level, and ensuring stability in the six areas of employment, finance, foreign trade, foreign investment, domestic investment and market expectations.

China will foster new opportunities and create new prospects for Chinese and foreign enterprises, Xi said, adding that those CEOs have made the right choice to stay rooted in China.

In today's world, the interests of all countries are highly integrated, the human race is a community with a shared future that shares weal and woe, and win-win cooperation is the trend of the times, stressed the Chinese president.

China, he added, will be unswervingly committed to pursuing the path of peaceful development, making economic globalization more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all, and promoting the building of an open world economy.

Xi expressed his hope that those CEOs will adhere to the principle of win-win cooperation and common development, strengthen exchanges and cooperation with Chinese companies, and contribute to the world economic recovery.

Xi's letter was in reply to a recent joint letter from 18 CEOs of the Global CEO Council, which groups 39 multinational companies that are global leaders in their respective industries.

The CEOs spoke highly of the fact that China, under Xi's strong leadership, has rapidly contained the coronavirus epidemic, taken the lead in resuming work and production, and played a positive role in supporting the global COVID-19 fight and maintaining world economic stability.

They added that Xi's proposition on creating new opportunities out of crises and opening up new prospects in changing circumstances, as well as his resolve to unswervingly promote economic globalization in a manner that will be more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all, have further consolidated their confidence in China and commitment to staying rooted in and serving China.

In their letter, the business leaders also offered suggestions on China's economic development and international cooperation in the post-pandemic era. Enditem
In a country thronging with statues of movie stars, politicians, and their henchmen, a few for those who died in the service of the country feels deserving, to say the least.

Now, a community in Suryapet Town in the Telangana State has decided to honour a brave-heart son of the soil, Colonel Bikkumalla Santosh Babu, who was martyred in the recent Galwan clashes against Chinese troops on June 15. Col. Santosh Babu was the commanding officer of the 16th battalion of the Bihar Regiment.

Comprising friends and admirers of the martyred soldier, the community has chosen to build a statue for the martyred Colonel in Suryapet, his hometown. Interestingly, the fibre-cloth statue has been made using digital sculpting technology, apparently a first for the country.

For services rendered

The making of the statue was commissioned by Tanguturi Ramakrishna, president, World Arya Vysya Seva Mahasabha, and Eagan Dayakar Gupta, president, Suryapet District, to renowned sculptors the Vadayar Brothers of AK Arts from Nattarameswaram, West Godavari District, in Andhra Pradesh.

We hope Col. Santosh Babus services will be remembered and will serve to inspire others to dedicate themselves to the country, Ramakrishna explains.

Arun Prasad Vadayar, one of the Vadayar brothers, shares with us that they received the order for the statue around June 20, a job they took up on priority and completed in two weeks.

Yes, the statue was for immediate delivery and we completed the task, as needed, as a mark of respect for Col. Santosh Babu, he adds.

A first for India

The highlight of the two-and-half feet statue is that it was made using digital sculpting technology. Apparently, Vadayar brothers are the only sculptors in the country to use the technology. In making the fibre-cloth statue using digital sculpting technology, the Vadayar Brothers used a photo of Col. Santosh Babu to set the anatomy on a computer so they could prepare a mock-up model for him.

We chalked out the first mould in Plaster-of-Paris (PoP), and then made a clay model and converted it into fibre cloth, elaborates Arun Prasad. Later, we mixed resin and papier-mache and other ingredients in the desired ratio for the output.

Digital sculpting technology is used for high-quality art and level of detailing; in other words, the technology ensures that sculptors can make a statue of someone with a precision of 0.01 microns meaning a high life-like resemblance which is as close and accurate as one can get with statues. The martyred colonels statue has been made in the Indian Army outfit.

Proud relations

While the fibre-cloth statue will be unveiled in Suryapet a month later, a bronze statue on behalf of the Telangana State Government will be installed at a junction in Suryapet.

Meanwhile, the martyred colonels brother-in-law Mukhteswar expressed his heartfelt thanks towards those who thought of keeping alive his brothers memories. Describing the gesture a warm one, Mukhteswar shares with us that he is proud to welcome the initiative.

Talking of how the family has been receiving hundreds of letters from the people from various states hailing Santoshs sacrifice while praying his family has the strength to carry through these difficult times, Mukhteshwar adds, We hope Santosh continues to inspire youth and instil patriotism among people.
Two of the extraordinary challenges confronting the nation today aren't new. The current movement for racial justice erupted in May following the death of George Floyd, a Black man killed in police custody in Minneapolis, but it originates from a much longer history of racial discrimination in the United States. And financial hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is only exacerbating the economic challenges many Americans were already facing.

Standard metrics such as median household income and the unemployment rate do not show the extent to which either of these problems affects Americans' quality of life and feelings of economic security. To more effectively understand the barriers that exist to achieving a high quality of life in the fullest sense, community leaders must be proactive in listening to residents' views and experiences. The Greater Washington Community Foundation and Gallup recently conducted the VoicesDMV study (Voices of the Community: DC, Maryland and Virginia) to do just that.

Earlier this year, The Community Foundation and Gallup conducted the Community Insights Survey throughout the Greater Washington region, spanning the District of Columbia and surrounding counties in Virginia and Maryland. The probability-based mail survey paints a picture of a region with significant economic and racial justice challenges months before COVID-19 and recent civil unrest transformed the national discourse.

Four in 10 in the Greater Washington Area Have Experienced Discrimination

When asked if they have experienced discrimination within the past year, about four in 10 Greater Washington residents report having felt discriminated against. The overall rate of self-reported discrimination is higher among Black adults (49%) and Asian adults (51%) than among Hispanic adults (41%) and White adults (33%).

Experiences of Discrimination Among Greater Washington Region Residents In the past 12 months, how often have you felt discriminated against? Overall White adults Black adults Asian adults Hispanic adults % % % % % Daily 2 2 4 1 1 Weekly 3 3 3 3 6 Monthly 9 5 15 10 11 Less than once per month 26 23 27 37 23 Never 59 68 50 50 60 Greater Washington Community Foundation/Gallup, December 2019-January 2020

The most common situation in which residents perceive being discriminated against is in social interactions with people they do not know. Among Greater Washington residents, 27% cite these interactions as problematic. This is followed by 11% who say they have experienced discrimination at work and by 10% who say they've experienced it in social interactions with someone they know.

The situations least likely to be cited as problematic for Greater Washington residents include searching for housing (2%), applying for a bank loan (2%) and going to school (3%).

Experiences of Discrimination in Specific Situations Among Greater Washington Region Residents In the past 12 months, did you feel discriminated against in any of the following situations? Overall White adults Black adults Asian adults Hispanic adults % % % % % In social interactions with people you do not know 27 20 32 32 32 At your current job 11 9 10 11 17 In social interactions with people you know 10 10 7 11 12 When trying to find a job 7 6 11 4 6 When interacting with government officials or agencies 5 3 7 4 8 In interactions with the police 5 1 9 7 8 In a healthcare setting 4 4 6 3 4 At school or when pursuing your education 3 1 3 7 4 When banking or applying for a loan 2 1 4 1 4 When trying to obtain housing 2 1 4 0 4 Greater Washington Community Foundation/Gallup, December 2019-January 2020

About one in 10 Black residents (9%) report feeling discriminated against during interactions with the police, compared with 1% of White residents. Also, Black residents are four times as likely as White residents to report having experienced discrimination while trying to obtain housing (4% vs. 1%, respectively).

When it comes to perceived reasons for discrimination, residents of the Greater Washington area are most likely to cite race or ethnicity (25%). Asian adults (41%) and Black adults (38%) are the most likely to say they have been discriminated against due to their race or ethnicity, followed closely by Hispanic adults (31%). The rate drops to 10% for White adults.

Gender is the second most likely reason noted across the region for discrimination, cited by 14% of residents, followed by 11% citing age. Other reasons for which more than 3% of residents perceive they've been targeted for mistreatment include income level (7%), appearance (7%) and religion (4%). Language is mentioned by 3% overall, but is more of an issue for Asian adults (10%) and Hispanic adults (7%).

Perceived Reasons for Experiences of Discrimination Among Greater Washington Region Residents In the past 12 months, for which of the following reasons did you feel discriminated against? Please mark all that apply. Overall White adults Black adults Asian adults Hispanic adults % % % % % Race or ethnicity 25 10 38 41 31 Gender 14 16 12 8 18 Age 11 11 13 8 9 Income level 7 4 11 4 7 Appearance (e.g., height, weight, size, tattoos, piercings) 7 6 6 7 9 Religion 4 4 4 3 1 Language 3 1 2 10 7 Because you have a child or children 3 3 2 2 3 Sexual orientation or gender identity 3 3 4 1 2 Because you do not have a child or children 2 3 2 1 3 Marital status 2 3 1 1 4 Disability 2 1 3 0 2 Pregnancy status 0 0 0 1 0 Greater Washington Community Foundation/Gallup, December 2019-January 2020

Homelessness, Economic Insecurity Are Significant Challenges

Personal familiarity with homelessness is widespread across the region, with roughly one in three residents saying they know someone who has experienced homelessness or is at risk of becoming homeless. Optimism about solving homelessness is in relatively short supply, as 20% strongly agree that homelessness can be eliminated in the region, 6% say homelessness has decreased in the past year, and 4% strongly agree that their local government cares about addressing homelessness.

Homelessness is also an issue that many residents may identify with on an even more personal level. At the time of the survey, well before the pandemic, three in 10 Greater Washington residents reported being very or somewhat worried about paying their rent or mortgage, with substantial differences seen on this item by race. Whereas 42% of both Black residents and Hispanic residents reported being worried about affording their housing, this fell to 35% among Asian residents and 17% among White residents.

Concerns About Paying Rent or Mortgage Among Greater Washington Region Residents How worried are you about not being able to pay your rent or mortgage? Overall White adults Black adults Asian adults Hispanic adults % % % % % Very worried 7 3 17 4 5 Somewhat worried 23 14 25 31 37 Not too worried 34 36 33 38 29 Not at all worried 35 47 24 28 28 Greater Washington Community Foundation/Gallup, December 2019-January 2020

Financial insecurity is generally widespread across the Greater Washington region, with more than a third of residents saying they could manage financially for less than two months if they lost their current sources of household income. Again, there is a substantial racial gap on this perception, with 56% of Black residents saying they could manage for less than two months, compared with 35% of Hispanic residents, 26% of Asian residents and 24% of White residents.

Levels of Financial Insecurity Among Greater Washington Region Residents If you lost all your current sources of household income, including your paycheck, public assistance or other forms of income, about how long do you think you could continue to live as you live today? Overall White adults Black adults Asian adults Hispanic adults % % % % % Less than a month 19 14 35 9 13 At least one month but less than two months 16 10 21 17 22 At least two months but less than six months 22 22 19 23 24 At least six months but less than a year 19 21 14 18 22 At least a year but less than two years 11 15 4 16 10 Two years or more 14 18 8 17 9 Greater Washington Community Foundation/Gallup, December 2019-January 2020

When it comes to specific approaches for addressing the homelessness issue, roughly four in 10 residents strongly or somewhat agree that homelessness can be solved by increasing the supply of housing, and 40% agree that they would be willing to pay more taxes to help increase the supply of affordable housing.

Bottom Line

Like many Americans, residents of the Greater Washington region reported experiencing discrimination and economic challenges prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. While leaders now attempt to craft solutions aimed at the immediate needs of residents facing unprecedented job and income loss, recent events have only exacerbated challenges many were already struggling with.

To create solutions that address these systemic inequities and remove barriers to opportunity and employment, it is critical that leaders do not just look at traditional metrics but also listen to the voices of their people. Residents can provide the information needed for leaders and communities to ensure they are focused on the challenges facing people today and preparing their communities for the emerging needs of tomorrow.

Learn more about the VoicesDMV study.
Last week while grocery shopping at Trader Joes in Royal Oak, Daniel Millen was shocked to see a woman pushing her cart around the store without a mask.

When he brought it to the managers attention, he sympathized but explained it was allowed: she said she had a medical condition that exempted her from wearing one.
New York, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Automatic Power Factor Controller Market Research Report by Type, by Component, by Installation Type, by Industry - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913323/?utm_source=GNW



On the basis of Type , the Automatic Power Factor Controller Market is studied across Active APFCs and Passive APFCs.



On the basis of Component , the Automatic Power Factor Controller Market is studied across Capacitors, Displays, Microcontrollers, Relays, Resistors, and Switches.



On the basis of Installation Type, the Automatic Power Factor Controller Market is studied across Self-Standing APFC Panels and Wall-Mounted APFC Panels.



On the basis of Industry, the Automatic Power Factor Controller Market is studied across Commercial, Enterprise, Manufacturing, Military, and Utility.



On the basis of Geography, the Automatic Power Factor Controller Market is studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas region is studied across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The Asia-Pacific region is studied across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. The Europe, Middle East & Africa region is studied across France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom.



Company Usability Profiles:

The report deeply explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Automatic Power Factor Controller Market including ABB Ltd., Crompton Greaves Ltd., Eaton Corporation PLC, EPCOS AG, Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc., General Electric Company, Larsen & Toubro Limited, on Semiconductor Corporation, Schneider Electric SE, Stmicroelectronics N.V., and Texas Instruments, Inc..



FPNV Positioning Matrix:

The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Automatic Power Factor Controller Market on the basis of Business Strategy (Business Growth, Industry Coverage, Financial Viability, and Channel Support) and Product Satisfaction (Value for Money, Ease of Use, Product Features, and Customer Support) that aids businesses in better decision making and understanding the competitive landscape.



Competitive Strategic Window:

The Competitive Strategic Window analyses the competitive landscape in terms of markets, applications, and geographies. The Competitive Strategic Window helps the vendor define an alignment or fit between their capabilities and opportunities for future growth prospects. During a forecast period, it defines the optimal or favorable fit for the vendors to adopt successive merger and acquisition strategies, geography expansion, research & development, and new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth.



Cumulative Impact of COVID-19:

COVID-19 is an incomparable global public health emergency that has affected almost every industry, so for and, the long-term effects projected to impact the industry growth during the forecast period. Our ongoing research amplifies our research framework to ensure the inclusion of underlaying COVID-19 issues and potential paths forward. The report is delivering insights on COVID-19 considering the changes in consumer behavior and demand, purchasing patterns, re-routing of the supply chain, dynamics of current market forces, and the significant interventions of governments. The updated study provides insights, analysis, estimations, and forecast, considering the COVID-19 impact on the market.



The report provides insights on the following pointers:

1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on sulfuric acid offered by the key players

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The report answers questions such as:

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MEXICO CITY - A plane carrying the former head of Mexicos state-run oil company took off from Spain and was expected to land late Thursday in Mexico, where the former executive faces charges equivalent to money laundering, bribery and conspiracy.

Prosecutors claim Emilio Lozoya took corruption to such lengths during his tenure as head of the state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos that he diverted bribe money intended for the former ruling party to buy a $1.9 million house for his family.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has made rooting out corruption his main cause, and has said that Lozoya has offered to turn testify about bribery and corrupt contracts.

He agreed voluntarily and made a commitment to talk about what happened in these alleged frauds he is accused of, and I think he will talk about Odebrecht and other types of crimes, Lopez Obrador said Thursday.

That was a reference to millions of dollars in bribes he allegedly received from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht. Prosecutors also say Lozoya was involved in the 2015 purchase of a fertilizer plant by the oil company known as Pemex from a Mexican company at an inflated price.

Prosecutors allegations against Emilio Lozoya were released Monday after Spain approved his extradition. Spanish police arrested Lozoya in the southern city of Malaga in February. Lozoya has denied wrongdoing.

Many in Mexico had expected Lozoya might implicate others in the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, perhaps including former president Enrique Pena Nieto, who governed Mexico from 2012 to 2018.

There had been speculation that Lozoya, who helped run Pena Nietos 2012 campaign, used bribe money to get his boss elected.

But according to the court papers released Monday, Lozoya asked Oderbrecht for $4 million for the PRI campaign in 2012  and then spent half of it on a property in his wifes name.

In exchange for his help ... in March 2012, the defendant asked for a payment to help support the PRI political campaign, according to Spains Audiencia Nacional. Between April, June and November  the elections were in July  the company deposited $4 million into accounts controlled by Lozoyas family, but part of this money was used on August 23, 2013, by his wife Marielle Helen Eckers to buy a property for $1.9 million in the state of Guerrero in Mexico.

That appears to be a reference to a property in the Pacific coast resort of Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo that was briefly seized by Mexican authorities.

The year 2013 appears to have been lucrative for Lozoya. The court documents say Oderbrecht allegedly offered him $6 million in bribes to get a contract for renovating an old oil refinery. The Brazilian firm allegedly wound up paying him $5 million.

A Mexican firm, which later sold an overpriced old fertilizer plant to Pemex when Lozoya was director, allegedly paid him $3.4 million in 2012. Lozoya allegedly used $2.58 million of the money to buy a property in an upscale Mexico City neighbourhood.

Lozoya, who directed Pemex from 2012 to 2016 during the Pena Nieto administration, has always denied wrongdoing, but fled Mexico and led authorities on a monthslong overseas manhunt. Spanish police arrested Lozoya in the southern city of Malaga in February.

In another major case, authorities in the northern border state of Chihuahua said Thursday they have seized more than 50 properties belonging to former Gov. Cesar Duarte, who was arrested in Florida last week for extradition to Mexico on corruption charges. Many of the properties appear to be rural ranches.

The state government said the properties are worth over $22 million. If the state successfully defends the seizures in court and sells the properties, it plans to spend the money on health, education and public safety projects.

In 2018, Chihuahua state officials opened a new investigation into Duarte and dozens of officials from his administration. The probe centred on the possible diversion of the equivalent of about $320 million in government funds in 2016, when Duarte was governor.
He lived through the Great Depression and served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. He spent a career working for, and later volunteering at, the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Syracuse.

Now, amid the coronavirus pandemic, Charles Chuck Reiner is turning 100. Plans for a big birthday party, of course, had to be shelved.

Instead, his family plans a different kind of celebration. On Saturday (July 18), theyll have a parade in front of the residence where he lives with his wife, Dorothy, at Brookdale Summerfield senior living complex off Velasko Road in the town of Onondaga. It will feature friends, family and representatives from the VA, the American Red Cross, Disabled American Veterans and more.

Following that, Reiner will be honored at the VA hospital, where he worked as chief of medical media productions for 25 years and then volunteered for an additional 31 years.

We are saddened that we cannot have the party that we originally planned, but are hoping to make his birthday as special as he is, Reiners daughter, Randi Rhinehart, said.

Reiners actual birthday is July 22, but the parade and celebration will be Saturday so more people can attend, Rhinehart said. The events will follow social distancing and other safety protocols. (See event details below).

Its a big summer for Reiner: On Aug. 22, he and Dorothy (who is now 98) will celebrate their 78th wedding anniversary. August also marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Reiner, who grew up in Rochester, had a role in ending the war.

He enlisted in the Army Air Corps in January 1942 just weeks after Pearl Harbor and was stationed for much of the war at Mitchel Field in Hempstead, Long Island. In 1945, he was deployed to Tinian Island in the Pacific.

There, as a staff sergeant, he worked in flight operations at the time Tinian served as the launching base for U.S. bombers and other aircraft, including the planes that dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

Chuck Reiner in his U.S. Army Air Corps uniform during World War II. He turns 100 next week.

Dorothy Reiner once wrote a memoir of their wartime experiences for the family.

On Tinian, as part of the 313th Bomb Squadron, Chuck ... was on Flight Operations which kept track of the planes progress to and from Japan on their bombing raids, she wrote. Tinian Island is approximately 4 mi. X 8 mi. and had the largest airfield in the world at that time. Many bombing missions using B-29s emanated from there. ... Shortly after Chucks arrival on Tinian, a Top Secret mission originated on this tiny Marianas island. President Harry Truman gave his approval of the use of the atomic bomb. The B-29 Enola Gay took off from Tinian August 6, 1945 and dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. Nagasaki became the next target on August 9, 1945 and in the face of such mass destruction the Japanese opened peace negotiations on August 10th.

After returning home, Chuck Reiner, who had worked before the war at Kodak, went back to school and trained as a biomedical photographer. He worked at several hospitals before getting a job at the VA Hospital in Syracuse just three weeks after it opened in 1953. He retired as the chief of Medical Media Productions in 1978.

After leaving the VA, he drove a school bus for Westhill Central School District for more than 10 years. Then he began what Rhinehart calls his long volunteer career. He was a volunteer driver for the Red Cross and the Disabled American Veterans, and also served as a volunteer greeter for his former employer, the VA hospital.

He and Dorothy, who is also originally from Rochester, lived for 62 years in Westvale before moving to the senior living center last fall. They had three children, Randi, Debbie and Rick (who died of leukemia in 1997). They have five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Though the birthday party isnt going to happen exactly as once planned, Randi Rhinehart is excited by the chance to have a public celebration for her father.

It (will) be great to see my father recognized for all the contributions he has made to his community and his country, she said.

Other families have also had to adjust plans to honor loved one during the pandemic. In June, the family of decorated World War II veteran Daniel Galuppo honored his 100th birthday with a socially distant backyard party.

EVENT DETAILS

Chuck Reiners 100th birthday celebration, July 18:

1 p.m.: The parade starts at Brookdale Summerfield senior complex, 100 Summerfield Village Lane, off Velasko Road in Onondaga. Representatives from the Veterans Administration, Disabled American Veterans, American Reed Cross, National Association of Retired Federal Employees will join friends and family.

3 p.m.: Following the parade, Reiners family will take him to the VA Medical Center, 800 Irving Ave. in Syracuse. There will be a ceremony hosted by the medical center and Disabled American Vets Transport. Reiner will be presented a lifetime achievement award for 31 years of volunteer service as a driver for DAV Transport and a greeter for the VA hospital.

Don Cazentre writes for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook.
NEWPORT NEWS, Va., July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Huntington Ingalls Industries announced it has signed on to be a business partner of the Virginia Ready Initiative (VA Ready), a new initiative to help unemployed Virginians across the commonwealth get back to work quickly. In response to the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on unemployment, VA Ready, in partnership with businesses and Virginias community colleges, equips people who are out of work with the required skills for in-demand jobs in high-growth sectors.



We are proud to support the VA Ready initiative and help develop the talents of Virginians looking for work in the manufacturing sector, said Mike Petters, HII president and CEO. Workforce development is at the core of our business at Huntington Ingalls Industries. For more than 100 years, we have been developing a skilled and diverse workforce to meet the challenges of shipbuilding and manufacturing. I strongly believe that retraining out-of-work Virginians will serve as an important catalyst in reviving our economy and our communities.

As the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic continues, we are seeing an urgent need to get Virginians back to work, said Glenn A. Youngkin, co-founder and chairman of VA Ready. Employer engagement is critical to retraining thousands of Virginians for in-demand jobs. Im grateful to Huntington Ingalls Industries and the unique coalition that is partnering in this much-needed effort.

More than 800,000 people in the commonwealth have filed for unemployment benefits since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Low-wage earners and minority communities have been hit the hardest. At the same time, demand is projected to grow for specialized jobs in the fields of technology, healthcare and manufacturing/skilled trades.

VA Ready, a newly formed public charity, rewards out-of-work Virginians who commit themselves to training for in-demand jobs. VA Ready Scholars earn a credential in one of many selected training programs through FastForward, a state-led short-term workforce credential program to train Virginians for top, in-demand jobs across the commonwealth. FastForward is offered through the Virginia Community College Systems (VCCS) 23 community colleges. Upon achieving their credential, VA Ready Scholars receive a $1,000 Credential Achievement Award and are offered opportunities to interview with VA Readys business partners.

The goal of VA Ready is not just to give our scholars a credential, but a clear path to a high-quality job at one of Virginias best companies, said Caren Merrick, CEO of VA Ready. Likewise, companies will have access to talent they know have been through a credential program that reflects their needs, which will enable them to grow their businesses, remain competitive and stimulate our states economy. It is a win-win for everyone.

As a VA Ready business partner, HII will be supporting the initiative in several ways, including:

Financial support for Credential Achievement Awards and awareness efforts.

Input on offerings and curricula to VA Readys Talent Task Force with VCCS to ensure training program success.

Participating in the VA Ready Job Exchange and providing job interview opportunities to VA Ready Scholars.

For more information on VA Ready, including how the recently unemployed can apply, or how a business can become an employer partner, visit www.vaready.org .

Huntington Ingalls Industries is Americas largest military shipbuilding company and a provider of professional services to partners in government and industry. For more than a century, HIIs Newport News and Ingalls shipbuilding divisions in Virginia and Mississippi have built more ships in more ship classes than any other U.S. naval shipbuilder. HIIs Technical Solutions division supports national security missions around the globe with unmanned systems, defense and federal solutions, nuclear and environmental services, and fleet sustainment. Headquartered in Newport News, Virginia, HII employs more than 42,000 people operating both domestically and internationally. For more information, visit:

HII on the web: www.huntingtoningalls.com

HII on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HuntingtonIngallsIndustries

HII on Twitter: www.twitter.com/hiindustries

HII on YouTube: www.youtube.com/huntingtoningalls

HII on Instagram: www.instagram.com/huntingtoningalls

About The Virginia Ready Initiative (VA Ready)

VA Ready is uniting stakeholders, including the commonwealths business community and the FastForward program of the Virginia Community College System to retrain out-of-work Virginians with high-demand skills and build career opportunities.

Contact:

Beci Brenton

Beci.Brenton@hii-co.com

(757) 880-3934
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More guidance provided on off-Island travel

More guidance has been provided for Manx residents who are planning trips off-Island in the coming weeks.

From Monday (July 20), travel restrictions are being lifted allowing people to travel freely to the UK and beyond, and return.

Anyone who does leave must self-isolate for two weeks upon their return.

Kevin Wilson, Senior Investigating Officer at the Testing and Contact Tracing Service, explains what to do when arriving back on the Isle of Man:

Media

Wilson Travel
By ANI

NEW DELHI: A day after makers dropped the trailer of Vidya Balan starring biopic 'Shakuntala Devi,' actor Akshay Kumar on Thursday lauded his 'Heyy Babyy' co-star for her flexibility to mould herself in every role.

Akshay took to Twitter to share the link of the trailer to the biopic made on the life of real-life genius Shakuntala Devi.

"This woman can pull off any character with ease. Looking forward to watch the effortlessly amazing @vidya_balan in and as #ShakuntalaDevi. All the best @vikramix @Abundantia_Ent @PrimeVideoIN," he tweeted.

The movie will see Balan portraying the role of the real mathematical genius Shakuntala Devi who was known for solving even the most complex mathematical problems within minutes.

The screenplay is written by Anu Menon and Nayanika Mahtani, while the dialogues are penned by Ishita Moitra.

Amazon Prime members in India and in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide can watch the endearing story of Shakuntala Devi from July 31.
The number of people employed fell by another 74,000 last month with 2.6million on benefits, it was revealed today.

Some 650,000 fewer are on the payroll than before the crisis after another 0.3 per cent reduction between May and June, according to official figures.

Vacancies are at a record low and hours have also tumbled, the Office for National Statistics data show. The claimant count has risen by 112.2 per cent, or 1.4million, since March.

However, the massive furlough and self-employed support schemes appear to be masking the scale of the issues. Rishi Sunak said the government's response was 'protecting millions of people from unemployment'.

A separate survey by the British Chambers of Commerce has found that a third of firms are planning to lay off staff over the next three months.

It came after Boris Johnson insisted he does not have a 'magic wand' to save jobs, admitting that a wave of redundancies is looming. The OBR warned this week that four million could be on the dole queue next year.

Some 650,000 fewer are on the payroll than before the crisis, according to official figures

The total number of hours worked in the UK hit a record low in March-May, according to the latest figures

The respected NIESR think-tank added projections to the ONS figures, suggesting that annual pay in the private sector is tumbling while in the public sector it is rising

A third of firms plan to lay off staff in the next three months Almost a third of UK firms plan to lay off staff over the next three months in a further sign of the coronavirus pandemic's devastating impact on Britain's job market, according to a report. The British Chambers of Commerce (BBC) quarterly recruitment outlook reveals that 29 per cent of 7,400 firms surveyed expect to axe jobs over the third quarter - a record high for the study. The report - compiled in conjunction with Totaljobs - found that 28 per cent of firms polled had already cut roles between April and June. The study also showed that 41 per cent of large companies and 41% of small and medium-sized firms expect to cut staff over the next quarter, with 18% of micro businesses forecasting workforce reductions. Recruitment also ground to a halt, with just 25 per cent of firms looking to take on new hires in another grim record for the report. Advertisement

The PM is set to appeal for Britons to return to their offices to rescue deserted town and city centres from disaster tomorrow.

Tories have been demanding that the official government advice - which still urges people to work from home if they can - is changed.

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey warned in a discussion with Conservative MPs last night that the reluctance of people to travel in was a major problem for business.

Meanwhile, guidance on using public transport is set to shift, with trains still only 20 per cent full as people have been told to avoid it where possible.

The ONS said unemployment fell 17,000 between March and May to 1.35million, with the rate unchanged at 3.9 per cent.

Experts said this masked a fall in employment, down 126,000 in the quarter to 32.95 million, with the rate dropping to 76.4 per cent.

With 9.4million people on furlough classed as employed, the true impact is expected to only be shown after the current support scheme ends in October.

Vacancies for April to June were at the lowest level since the figures started being compiled in 2001, at 333,000.

That was 23 per cent lower than the previous record low after the credit crunch in 2009.

Pay has also been hit hard by the crisis, dropping 0.3 per cent in the three months to May compared to the same period last year. Accounting for inflation, that is equivalent to a 1.3 per cent reduction.

Jonathan Athow, deputy national statistician at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), said: 'As the pandemic took hold, the labour market weakened markedly, but that rate of decline slowed into June, though this is before recent reports of job losses.

'There are now almost two-thirds of a million fewer employees on the payroll than before the lockdown, according to the latest tax data.

'The Labour Force Survey is showing only a small fall in employment, but shows a large number of people who report working no hours and getting no pay.'

He added: 'There are now far more out-of-work people who are not looking for a job than before the pandemic.'

Stark divide between private sector and public sector pay The stark divide between the fortunes of the public and private sectors during coronavirus was underlined by new figures today. Public sector pay is surging during the crisis while private workers see their incomes plunge - and the gap is getting wider. The gulf reflects the fact that state employees have escaped the wave of furloughing, salary cuts and redundancies that have hit other parts of the economy. Instead they have benefited from longer-term Government pay awards that are more generous than previously as austerity had been lifted. There are grim predictions from the government's OBR watchdog that four million people could be on the dole queue by next year - almost all of them in the private sector. The difference was highlighted in figures published by the Office for National Statistics today, showing annual growth in regular weekly pay was 4.8 per cent in the public sector in May. By contrast in the private sector the equivalent figure was minus 2.6 per cent. Regular pay data tend to underplay incomes in the private sector as bonuses are more common - but many of these extras have been suspended in the Covid crisis. Separate forecasts from the respected NIESR think-tank building on the ONS data suggest the trend will get more pronounced in the coming months. For total pay - including bonuses - the change in the three month average for annual pay is expected to be minus 2.9 per cent by September. In the public sector the relevant figure will be 4.9 per cent. Advertisement

Business Secretary Alok Sharma said the situation was going to be 'very, very difficult for lots of people'.

'I think the best thing we can do is continue to open up the economy in a phased manner, a cautious manner, and get businesses up and running again,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds said the unemployment figures underlined the need for continuing Government support to hard-hit sectors.

'Clearly there are some trends that can be discerned - the number of hours worked going down and the amount of economic inactivity going up as well,' she told Today.

'I think this is a very concerning time because we could see that being worsened by changes going ahead with the furlough scheme.

'We do think that for particularly badly affected sectors there does need to be continuing support, otherwise we will see extra waves of people potentially moving into unemployment or economic inactivity.'

In the Commons yesterday, the PM said 'no-one should underestimate the challenges' the UK faces after the government's economic watchdog warned four million people could be on the dole queue by next year.

The OBR said this week that the government faces a gap of at least 60billion in its finances - equivalent to as much as 12p on the basic rate of income tax - as it poured cold water on hopes of a 'V-shaped' bounceback from coronavirus.

It said GDP will fall by up to 14 per cent this year, the worst recession in 300 years, with national debt bigger than the whole economy.

Underlining the scale of the hit, government liabilities could be 710billion more than previously expected by 2023-4. That is equivalent to nearly 11,000 for every man, woman and child in the UK.

If the 'downside' scenario comes to pass the national debt could be roughly 1trillion higher by 2024-25.

Almost a third of UK firms plan to lay off staff over the next three months in a further sign of the coronavirus pandemic's devastating impact on Britain's job market, according to a report.

The British Chambers of Commerce (BBC) quarterly recruitment outlook reveals that 29 per cent of 7,400 firms surveyed expect to axe jobs over the third quarter - a record high for the study.

The ONS figures today show average weekly public sector pay was rising year-on-year in May - but private sector pay was falling

The OBR's downside scenario sees unemployment rising to more than four million next year - with a rate higher than seen in the 1980s

Boris Johnson insisted yesterday that he does not have a 'magic wand' to save jobs, admitting that a wave of redundancies is looming

The report - compiled in conjunction with Totaljobs - found that 28 per cent of firms polled had already cut roles between April and June.

The study also showed that 41 per cent of large companies and 41% of small and medium-sized firms expect to cut staff over the next quarter, with 18% of micro businesses forecasting workforce reductions.

Recruitment also ground to a halt, with just 25 per cent of firms looking to take on new hires in another grim record for the report.

Nye Cominetti, senior economist at the Resolution Foundation think tank, said the relatively muted effects in the latest ONS figures were not cause for celebration.

'While the initial shock is levelling off, that doesn't mean the jobs market is in recovery.

'The next big test of this crisis - on rising redundancies and unemployment - is still to come as the furlough scheme that has supported over nine million jobs is phased out.'

Samuel Tombs, at Pantheon Macroeconomics, added: 'The unemployment rate will surge over the coming months as people re-engage with the labour market.

'Their chances of finding a new job look slim, given that job vacancies were down 59 per cent year-over-year in June.

Rishi Sunak hints taxes will have to rise amid coronavirus meltdown Rishi Sunak delivered another strong hint that tax rises are looming yesterday as he insisted the public finances will need to be put back on a 'strong and sustainable' footing. After the OBR warned about spiralling national debt from the coronavirus crisis, the Chancellor said he would need to take action to balance the books over the 'medium term'. But despite the government watchdog stating that tax hikes and spending cuts are inevitable, Mr Sunak also appeared to shut down his options by echoing Boris Johnson's vow that income tax, National Insurance and VAT will not increase before 2024 - in line with the Tory election manifesto. The comments came as Mr Sunak gave evidence to MPs on the Commons Treasury committee. Advertisement

'What's more, employment remains likely to fall during the autumn, when firms will have to start to contribute to the wages of workers that remain furloughed.'

Mr Sunak's Plan for Jobs unveiled in last week's summer statement was aimed at heading off soaring unemployment, including a Job Retention Bonus scheme to give 1,000 to firms for each furloughed employee they bring back to work.

He also announced a Kickstart Scheme and an apprenticeship recovery programme to help shore up the jobs market.

But there are fears this will not go far enough.

James Smith, ING developed markets economist, said: 'The gradual unwinding of the job retention scheme over the summer is being seen as a potential catalyst for firms to begin making changes, and the jury is out on how far the new government bonus scheme incentivising firms to bring furloughed workers back will cushion the blow.'

The British Chambers of Commerce separately on Thursday urged the Chancellor to do more to protect jobs, calling for a temporary cut in National Insurance contributions.

Mr Cominetti added: 'The Chancellor should deliver further support in the hardest-hit parts of the labour market to prevent the rise in unemployment being large and long-lasting.'
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We have always worked with and respected the Cherokee Nation, and we look forward to building a similar relationship with the Creek Nation, Thorp said. Based upon discussions I have had with both tribes, I am confident that our relationship will prosper. We  the state, Cherokee and Creek Nations  all see the need for partnership in the criminal justice realm. I am convinced that working together we can continue to protect citizens and fight crime.

I have always been in awe of all the good the Cherokee Nation has done for not only the citizens of the Cherokee Nation, but also the communities and counties in District 27.

Thorp said according to the ruling and an interpretation by a person with the Creek Nation, the only change to the general enforcement of the law will be for tribal member Indians within these (Creek Reservation) boundaries.

The McGirt ruling solidified what we have always known, that the Cherokee Nation has never been disestablished by Congress, said Cherokee Attorney General Sarah Hill. Our nation looks forward to continuing our mission of protecting Cherokee citizens while working with District 27 and state, county and city law enforcement to insure the safety of all people that reside within our Reservation.
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
Shaune Brown has lost an appeal of his conviction and sentencing for second-degree murder in the Aug. 30, 2012 fatal stabbing of Cory Fleetwood in Peterborough.

Brown was sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance for parole for 13 years following his Feb. 2, 2017 conviction after a three-week trial.

His appeal was heard July 3 through a teleconference and a panel of three Ontario Court of Appeal judges led by Justice David Doherty dismissed both the conviction and sentencing appeals on Thursday.

Doherty ruled that Superior Court of Justice trial judge Justice Bruce Glass did not err in his ruling and the sentence is not demonstrably unfit.

Glass had upped the eligibility for parole period to 13 years from the minimum of 10 years under a second-degree murder conviction because of the violent nature of the murder, Brown having been the aggressor and Brown having a significant prior criminal record.

Browns lawyer and the jury had called for the 10-year period, while the Crown sought a 14-year period.

After the sentencing, Brown said he would appeal and that he wanted a judge-only retrial.

The jury failed me. Ill be back in a couple of years, hopefully, Brown said after the March 2, 2017 sentencing.

Brown stabbed his friend 30 times, 20 times in the back, while he was in Peterborough on a week-long visit at Fleetwoods Bethune Street home.

While drinking and playing video games, they got into an argument, court heard.

Fleetwood scratched the hard drive of Browns Xbox. In response, Brown smashed Fleetwoods own Xbox hard drive before going upstairs to gather his belongings to leave.

There, Fleetwood suddenly approached Brown, yelling at him. A startled Brown pushed Fleetwood in the chest, causing him to fall over his computer and to the floor of his bedroom, court heard.

When he got up, he appeared to be swinging at Brown, who grabbed at Fleetwoods hand expecting a punch. Fleetwood turned out to have a knife, which Brown grabbed, sustaining a significant cut to his right hand, court heard.

Brown testified he was defending himself from a surprise attack. He underwent surgery to repair his hand when he returned to Toronto that night, prior to going to Montreal with his father and uncle.

He was arrested in October 2012.

The physical evidence and the appellants post-offence conduct offered ample support for the trial judges conclusion the appellant was the aggressor, Doherty ruled.

Although the trial judge did not specifically indicate he made the finding on the reasonable doubt standard, there is nothing in his reasons to suggest he applied the wrong standard.

In the appeal of the conviction, Browns lawyers unsuccessfully raised issues over references by the Glass and the Crown to 30 stab wounds misstating forensic evidence, the judges instructions to the jury and the judges statements of defence evidence. Doherty rejected the grounds of appeal.

 It goes without saying that all counsel and trial judges do their best to state the evidence accurately. Neither the Crown nor the trial judge are, however, required to use terminology that best accords with the defence position, Doherty ruled.

Considered in the context in which the trial judge and the Crown used the phrase 30 stab wounds, and bearing in mind the limited purpose underlying the distinction drawn by Dr. (Toby) Rose (deputy chief of the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service, who conducted the autopsy) between incised wounds and stab wounds, the use of the phrase 30 stab wounds did not misstate her evidence or mislead the jury.

Fleetwood, who was a morning baker at the Tim Hortons at Lansdowne Street East and Ashburnham Drive, was 29 when he was killed.
In lieu of live sketching, Ms. Ramirez asks clients to send her as many photos of themselves as theyd like. She also encourages images of inspirational outfits, bouquets and pets. The more pictures they send me the better, she said. That way, I can get a better feeling of what their style is.

Next, Ms. Ramirez draws subjects with an Apple Pencil on her iPad Pro and utilizes Procreate, an illustration application equipped with a digital collection of brushes, inks and other media. Photoshop is used to add text. Prices range from $150 to $400 for custom designs, and the final work is delivered in two to four weeks.
Two California men have been charged with kidnapping a Chinese-born businessman in a $2million ransom plot that went awry when the victim died after being beaten and tased.

Anthony Valladares, 28, of Pasadena, and Alexis Ivan Romero Velez, 24, of Azusa, were arrested by FBI agents on Tuesday and could face life in prison if convicted, according to a statement from the US attorney's office.

Federal prosecutors contend that Valladres was hired as 'muscle' and Velez as the driver of a minivan in the July 16, 2018, abduction of Ruochen 'Tony' Liao from a mall parking lot in suburban San Gabriel.

Two California men, Anthony Valladares, 28, and Alexis Ivan Romero Velez, 24, have been charged with helping kidnap Ruochen 'Tony' Liao, 28 (pictured), who died after being beaten and shocked with a stun gun in July 2018

Suspected masterminds Guangyao Yang (left), 25, and Peicheng Shen (right), 33, were previously charged with kidnapping and extortion

Valladares told investigators that he was to be paid $1,000 for his role in the scheme and said he hired Romero as the driver, according to an FBI affidavit.

Liao, 28, owned a Southern California car dealership that sold high-end cars such as Porches and Bentleys.

Liao's parents in China were sent ransom demands and ordered to deposit a $2million payment in Chinese bank accounts within three hours.

According to a criminal complaint, Liao's father got a call through the WeChat app from his son, on which the young man pleaded: 'Father save me, help me, I have been kidnapped.'

An unknown male voice then came on the line and said in Mandarin: 'Your son has made me very poor. I have lost everything and suffered a divorce because of him. I have been looking for Tony for a long time. You must pay two million US dollars in exchange for his life.'

Liao, 28, owned a Southern California car dealership that sold high-end cars such as Porches and Bentleys

Shen, Yang and their cohorts allegedly used this Land Rover to transport Liao to a house in Corona, California, where he was stuffed into a closet and beaten

'Proof-of-life' photos that were sent to Liao's family suggested that the businessman had been restrained with duct tape, blindfolded and badly beaten.

For an unspecified reason, Liao's parents did not pay the ransom to free their only child from captivity.

Investigators stated that Liao had been shocked with a stun gun until the battery in the device died.

He was believed to have been held in a closet at a home in Corona and died the day after the kidnapping and was buried in the Mojave Desert, authorities said.

On the same day, one of the alleged masterminds of the plot, Peicheng Shen, 34, allegedly 'had the closet of the Corona house re-carpeted'.

Shen's co-conspirator, Guangyao Yang, 26, also performed an Internet search to determine how fast a corpse decomposes in soil, court papers stated.

When FBI agents searched the closet later, they discovered bare footprints placed close together near the bottom of the wall, which they said 'was consistent with a person lying on their back on the floor with their feet bound together.'

Liao's remains were found in the desert identified through DNA testing last year.

Liao's father received demands for ransom and proof-of-life photos showing his badly beaten only child. For an unspecified reason, Liao's parents did not pay the ransom

Two Chinese citizens who had been living in West Covina have been charged with conspiracy to kidnap, kidnapping, attempted extortion, and threat by foreign communication for allegedly orchestrating the botched plot.

Shen and Yang are being held in China on charges related to the kidnapping, the US attorney's office said.

It was believed that the men arranged the kidnapping to collect a debt from Liao, according to court documents.
Britain's security centre said the group responsible was APT29 which is also known as "the Dukes" and "Cozy Bear". The centre is 95 per cent certain that APT29 is part of the Russian intelligence services. APT29 was responsible for the hack of the Democratic National Committee's emails, which were later published by Wikileaks. David Higgins from global software security company CyberArk's Sydney office said the style of the hacking was common. "The attacks that the NCSS are reporting bear all the hallmarks of a multitude of previous attempts that have affected the private and public sector - exploiting people or a known vulnerability, then seeking to use valid credentials to access the systems or data they are targeting." Matthew Schmidt, an expert on Russia at the University of New Haven in the US, said the attacks demonstrated Russia's weakness under President Vladmir Putin.

"That Russia hacked vaccine research is a statement of the weakness of Russian science under 20 years of Putins rule," he said. "He has failed his country; Russia was once a world leader in science." In May, Britain and the US said networks of hackers were targeting national and international organisations responding to the pandemic but did not connect them to the Russian state. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. Credit:Pippa Fowles British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said it was "completely unacceptable" that the Russian intelligence services were targeting those working to combat COVID-19.

"While others pursue their selfish interests with reckless behaviour, the UK and its allies are getting on with the hard work of finding a vaccine and protecting global health," he said. "The UK will continue to counter those conducting such cyber attacks, and work with our allies to hold perpetrators to account." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Russian involvement and said the accusations were not backed by proper evidence. On Thursday, for the first time the centre identified the custom malware being used by APT29 as "WellMess" and "WellMail" to target a number of organisations that are developing vaccines. The centre said the group had been using publicly available tools to collect authentication details to large numbers of global systems with negligible intelligence value but was likely storing them for future use, with the aim of penetrating systems further.

"We condemn these despicable attacks against those doing vital work to combat the coronavirus pandemic," the centre's Paul Chicester said. "Working with our allies, the NCSC is committed to protecting our most critical assets and our top priority at this time is to protect the health sector." In a written statement to the Commons, Raab also accused Russia of hacking British government documents relating to the UK-US free trade agreement that were used by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn during the December campaign. Corbyn held up copies of the unredacted documents at the height of the campaign, claiming they were evidence that Johnson and US President Donald Trump were conspiring to sell off the NHS. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn presents documents related to post-Brexit UK-US trade talks which he says will affect the NHS. Credit:Getty Images

Raab said the government was "almost certain" that Russian actors had sought to interfere in the 2019 general election by illicitly acquiring the government documents and leaking them online the social media website Reddit. "Whilst there is no evidence of a broad spectrum Russian campaign against the General Election, any attempt to interfere in our democratic processes is completely unacceptable," Raab said. "There is an ongoing criminal investigation and it would be inappropriate for us to say anything further at this point." The revelations came amid an extraordinary putsch against Number 10 over the prestigious role of the Intelligence Committee. Julian Lewis, a conservative MP was booted out of the partyroom after he launched a late-hour campaign to beat Number 10's candidate Chris Grayling as chair of the committee.
By Liz Lee

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - U.S. Customs placed a detention order on imports of products made by subsidiaries of the world's largest medical glove maker, Malaysia's Top Glove Corp Bhd, an action taken against firms suspected of using forced labour.

The bar on Top Glove products comes at a time when demand for medical gloves and protective gear has skyrocketed due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has hit the United States harder than any other country.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) website showed Top Glove Sdn Bhd and TG Medical Sdn Bhd were placed on its list on Wednesday. Its "withhold release orders" (WRO), detaining imported goods, are specific to forced labour issues.

In an emailed statement, CBP said that through extensive inter-agency consultations it had found evidence of forced labour practices, including debt bondage among other practices in Top Glove's units.

"This WRO sends a clear and direct message to U.S. importers that the illicit, inhumane and exploitative practices of modern day slavery will not be tolerated in U.S. supply chains."

CBP, however, said it was aware of the current critical need for disposable rubber gloves and would continue to allow entry of gloves produced by all other manufacturers. It estimated that the order against Top Glove entities in Malaysia would have no significant impact on total U.S. imports of that type of glove.

Top Glove, which also has factories in China and Thailand, had earlier flagged that the U.S. move might be related specifically to recruitment fees paid by migrant workers to employment agents.

"We are reaching out to the CBP through our office in U.S., customers and consultants, to understand the issue better and work towards a speedy resolution of the matter, within an estimated 2 weeks," it said in a bourse filing.

In an evening conference call, Top Glove bosses told reporters and analysts that shipments from its two units represent half of its U.S. sales, and 12.5% of its group sales. However, the group said other subsidiaries could still sell to the United States and that other countries would easily absorb any returned shipments.

Story continues

"We continue to ship because we can ship. Worst comes to worst, other countries will take up as well because the order book is more than 100%," Executive Chairman Lim Wee Chai said.

ONE MORE LABOUR ISSUE

Top Glove said it had been bearing all recruitment fees since the start of last year, but still had to resolve an issue regarding retrospective payment of recruitment fees paid, without its knowledge, by workers to agents before January 2019.

"Over the past few months we have been working on this issue, which involves extensive tracing, to establish the correct amount to be paid back to our workers, on behalf of the previous agents," the company said.

Top Glove's share price slipped 2.57% before it temporarily halted trading, a minor blip after a rise of over 350% this year.

Last year, U.S. Customs took similar action against another Malaysian glove maker, WRP Asia Pacific Sdn Bhd. The detention order on imports of WRP's goods was lifted in March after remedial action was taken.

Independent migrant worker rights specialist Andy Hall said in a note to reporters on Thursday that forced foreign labour in Malaysia's gloves industry could only be addressed and reduced when past recruitment fees and related costs, which hold such workers in debt bondage, are fully repaid.

"In order to ensure no future debt bondage of these workers, ethical recruitment practices or zero cost recruitment policies should be put in place in practice, if the industry moves ahead to recruit more foreign workers in the future," he said.

World consumption of protective gloves is expected to jump more than 11% to 330 billion pieces this year, two-thirds of which are likely to be supplied by Malaysia, according to the Southeast Asian country's rubber glove manufacturers group.

(Reporting by Liz Lee; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Mark Heinrich)
More than 100 children set to be released by July 17, but a federal judge will rule on their parents release next week.

The scheduled release of roughly 124 children from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention could present families with further separation, an issue for which the immigration enforcement agency has previously faced heated criticism, or further detention.

Immigrant children held by ICE will be eligible for release on Friday, after a federal judge ruled in June the US government must release children held in three family detention centres that hold roughly 335 people by mid-July, citing dangers of the coronavirus pandemic behind bars.

Judge Dolly M Gee of the US District Court for the Central District of California decided the case and called for swift removal of children in ICE detention centres in Texas and Pennsylvania.

The case cited concerns about ICEs compliance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines related to the coronavirus pandemic.

But Judge James Boasberg of the US District Court for Washington, DC said he would not rule on whether immigrant parents held in family detention centres should be released until next week, meaning families and children would possibly be unable to exit detention at the same time.

Antonio Arellano, interim executive director of Jolt Action, a Texas-based progressive Latino civic engagement organisation, told Al Jazeera this is a heartbreaking situation and called for ICE to immediately release children and families.

Arellano agreed with Gees ruling, saying detention centres are susceptible to COVID-19, which exacerbates the danger [immigrants] are put in even while being detained under normal circumstances.





US news organisation NBC reported that a potential outcome could be that parents would remain with their children until all are able to exit detention.

This arrangement has happened in the past, most recently in May when all 366 people in ICE family detention centres declined to be separated.

Possibly giving children to strangers or relatively unknown individuals is just morally corrupt and not the right course of action, Arellano said. Moving forward, families should not be given that ultimatum.

At least three immigrants have died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, in ICE custody.

The latest was Onoval Perez-Montufa, a 51-year-old from Mexico, who died on July 12 in a Florida hospital.

Perez-Montufa had been receiving inpatient treatment since July 1 after exhibiting symptoms, ICE said in a statement.

Roughly 3,500 people held in ICE custody have tested positive for the virus, according to the latest figures from the agency. Most have been released or deported, with 1,169 still in custody, according to agency figures from July 14.

Gee court ruled that parties will have a video conference on August 7 to discuss compliance with the order on releasing children.
The Hillside police chief who filed suit against the mayor last month after he was suspended for a second time is now being sued by a captain who was temporarily appointed to fill his role last year.

Hillside Mayor Dahlia Vertreese appointed Capt. Lashonda Burgess to run the department while Police Chief Vincent Ricciardi was suspended for four days in October 2019. Burgess filed suit on Monday claiming Ricciardi ordered her to work from 6 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. when he returned from his suspension and not to affiliate with any political persons during working time.

An attorney for Ricciardi, Ronald Ricci, said the chief had not yet been served with the lawsuit and declined to comment further. Attorneys for Burgess - John Vlasac and David Cassidy - declined to comment on the suit through an assistant when reached by phone on Wednesday.

Burgess claims her issues with Ricciardi began in 2014, when he attempted to discipline her for insubordination and other charges her suit says were not sustained. Her suit claims she also filed a workplace harassment complaint against him in 2014, his emails to her were condescending and demeaning, and he refused to nominate her for the FBI National Academy in 2019.

Ricciardi also criticized Burgess in April, at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, for accepting a lunch donation for other officers, the suit says.

She sent correspondence in December 2019 to the mayor, business administrator and township attorney asking for a formal investigation into the harassing, discriminatory and retaliatory actions by Ricciardi, the suit says. Burgess, who is African American, claims she was discriminated against based on her gender and race.

Burgess is suing the township and the police department because she alleges they did not take any action. She is not, however, suing the mayor.

Attorneys for the township declined to comment on the suit.

Hillside Police Chief Vincent Ricciardi stands with the town's mayor, Dahlia Vertreese at a police academy graduation ceremony in 2018.

Her lawsuit marks yet another chapter in a contentious back and forth between the mayor and police chief. Ricciardi sued the mayor last month after he was suspended a second time, this time - he says - over a stipend for another officer.

Superior Court Judge Karen Cassidy ordered him back to the job and ruled last week that he could not be removed or demoted until the Union County Prosecutors Office concludes its investigation into the matter. The prosecutors office said it is still overseeing the department, ever since the mayor had issues with reinstating Ricciardi after the judge ordered him back to work.

Ricciardis attorney said the prosecutors offices investigation into Ricciardi hasnt concluded, but he expects the chief will be exonerated. If the mayor still wants to bring administrative charges after the investigation concludes, Ricci said, she will need two-thirds of the township councils approval to do so.

An administrative hearing would be held if a majority of the council does not object, Ricci explained. If the chief is found guilty of administrative charges he could ultimately appeal to the state Civil Service Commission.

Ellen Harris, the township attorney, told NJ Advance Media that Riccis explanation about the township council was incorrect. She did not respond when asked to elaborate.

The superior officers and patrolmen unions both cast votes of no-confidence against Ricciardi last month.

Previous leaders in Hillside, a town of about 22,000, have squabbled with past police chiefs. Former Mayor Angela Garretson demoted the previous leader of the department, Louis Panarese, and he sued twice to get his job back.

Panarese settled his case for $281,000 last year. Ricciardi was promoted to chief in 2017 during the legal battle under Garretsons tenure.

Vertreese became mayor in 2018 after a close run-off election, and her relationship with the town council and Hillside Democratic Committee Chairman Anthony Salters, who endorsed her for mayor, have soured. She claimed in a Star-Ledger guest column that she was bullied by the council.

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Rebecca Panico may be reached at rpanico@njadvancemedia.com.
ANN ARBOR, MI  University of Michigan students will be on campus this fall in what officials are calling a public-health-informed semester.

Preparations are underway to keep students as safe as possible from the novel coronavirus while on campus, but its not just administrators doing the work  its students, too.
She is the former reality star who is known for her enviable frame.

And Luisa Zissman looked sensational as she soaked up the sun in a crop-top on Wednesday.

The ex Apprentice star, 33, slipped into a black scalloped trim crop-top, which displayed her ample cleavage and glowing tan as she sipped on a drink.

Wow: Luisa Zissman looked sensational as she soaked up the sun in a crop-top on Wednesday

The star teased a glimpse of her taut midriff as she posed, with a delicate gold necklace adorning her visage.

Luisa accessorised with a pair of gold overized shades and appeared to go make-up free for the snap.

She captioned the photo: 'Sunsets, cocktails.'

The star has been keeping followers updated with her sojourn away and on Wednesday posted a snap of herself in a leggy blue dress and sliders.

Style: The star has been keeping followers updated with her sojourn away and on Wednesday posted a snap of herself in a leggy blue dress and sliders

Last month the star shared a throwback picture of the wedding dress she wore for her legal ceremony in Dublin to husband Andrew Collins five years ago.

Luisa took to Instagram to post the snap on Thursday, in celebration of their wedding anniversary, showing off her short tiered gown she wore on the day.

The wedding was an intimate affair and they had a second ceremony in Cannes a month later, with Luisa wearing the short dress again for her evening reception.

Memories: Last month Luisa shared an Instagram picture of the dress she wore to her legal ceremony in Dublin to millionaire Andrew Collins on their five year anniversary

Happy times: Luisa shared this sweet post alongside the picture and her best friend Sam Faiers also commented

Luisa wore a diamante tiara and lace veil for her Dublin wedding and wore light-coloured shoes with a strap detail.

She wrote: '5yrs ago today we got married in a little church  in Dublin with just our families there .'

Luisa and Andrew first laid eyes on each other when the Irish millionaire bid on her at a charity auction, where they raised over 3,000 for charity.

She began dating Andrew shortly after her marriage to Oliver Zissman broke down and he popped the question in October 2014 on a romantic trip to Paris.

He gave her an eight-carat diamond ring during an intimate candlelit dinner with a view of the Eiffel Tower.

Luisa is mother to Dixie, 10, with her ex-husband Oliver and Indigo Esme, three, and Clementine, two, with Andrew.

She previously confessed she was bored with pretty boys and had chosen personality over looks with Andrew.

Luisa told The Sun at the time: 'Good-looking men are a******s... and normally rich men are too ... It's all about their personality.

'My boyfriend now is lovely. He's good looking to me but I didn't pick him on that. He's kind and considerate and respectful.'
Frustration with the slow pace of the roll-out of 13 community CCTV schemes and data protection restrictions to prevent crime in Laois boiled up at the recent Laois Joint Policing Committee.

The meeting, which saw Raheen CCTV been given the all-clear, was told of huge problems being experienced by community alert groups who are trying to set up schemes.

It also led to sharp exchanges between one public representative and the council official tasked with overseeing the scheme in Laois.

The issue at the core of the problem highlighted is not a new one. It relates to the retention of the images / data captured by the cameras. The issue has delayed schemes in Laois for years and also blocked funding.

A Laois Federation of CCTV schemes was set up after Laois County Council agreed, reluctantly, to be the data controller. The law states the council must manage the data if schemes are to operate legally.

Ongoing difficulties getting around the obligations on schemes was first raised by Sinn Fein TD Brian Stanley.

There is a huge problem at the moment. There are community groups across the county have done years of work.

They have cameras in place and in some cases there is information on the cameras that cannot be lifted by the gardai and community groups are not in a position to give it to gardai to solve crimes, he said.

Deputy Stanley said the problem goes back to the issue of data controller. He believes that it is being used by design so that the CCTV schemes fail.

The system by which the local authority becomes the data controller is so bureaucratic and so bound up in regulation that it is proving impossible for some groups to get their schemes approved, he said.

The Laois Offaly TD said one group has already provided reams of information to county hall. A further 12 sets of information has been sought.

He said there is total and utter frustration in community groups adding that they are facing a mission impossible.

If you make something too complicated it will not work, he said.

He said the only way it could work is that if garda vetted people on a community alert group are designated as the data controllers.

The facts are this has been stopped in its tracks and we need to find ways of simplifying it - its too bureaucratic. There is too much red tape. We need to solve it, he said.

He proposed that meetings take place involving gardai, council and the community groups so that schemes can proceed one by one.

Committee chairman, Cllr Tom Mulhall said a number of other schemes have been approved but cannot take up grants because of the data controller problems.

He said an extension of time is needed.

Cllr Aisling Moran agreed that criminals are getting away with crimes such as dumping that have been caught on cameras but the images cannot be used.

She called for a time limit to be put on the roll out.

She said there are plenty of companies that could act as data controllers.

Cllr Paddy Bracken is chair of the Laois CCTV Federation which was set up to solve the problem. He said it has been frustrating and Covid-19 has not helped.

He is also on the Mountmellick CCTV committee and hoped there would be progress.

Donal Brennan is the Laois County Councils Director of Services tasked with facilitating the setting up of the data controller aspect of the schemes.

The council has to be the data controller. That is not within our remit to change. The law can be changed up in Dublin but that is the law, he told the Laois Joint Policing Committee.

He said meetings were due to take place with the Department of Justice but were postponed due to Covid-19. He added that the Data Protection Commissioner has been in contact with the council over CCTV. A meeting is planned.

He said data has to be more securely stored than jewellery.

Some places have data in boxes on the side of the road. That could be cut down and taken, he said.

He said a series of details has to be sorted, such as the requirement that CCTV can not take images from private property.

The council is a data controller so the council must be satisfied that the system will be capable of operating in accordance with the law, he said.

He warned that there is an amount of work to be done.

For us to take on the role of data controller the scheme must provide us with sufficient documentation and assurance that the data is totally protected. If we do not have that information we cannot say it is a proper scheme, he said.

He said work started in January with the schemes that had received approval and that was interrupted by Covid. He insisted that the council was not making excuses but trying to comply with the law. He reiterated that community groups must provide all the information needed.

It is not a rubber stamp exercise. It is very serious and must be taken very seriously, he said.

He added that there are penalties if this is not done correctly.

He also added that the council could not manage the data within county hall because the law does not facilitate this a

Laois County Council confirmed in January 2019 that it convened a workshop to address practical issues associated with the successful implementation of community CCTV schemes.

The meeting was convened after the council reluctantly confirmed that it would assume the role of data controller required under the law for schemes to be set up.

At the time the council said that the workshop was attended by existing and prospective CCTV groups in the county. In a statement issued at the time, the council said that the outcome of the meeting was that all groups would form a local

Federation of Community Based CCTV Group Schemes that is to be independent of, but supported by, Laois County Council and that on this basis the council would agree to act as data controller under the 2006 legislation.

On foot of this, the council said that all applicants for new CCTV schemes and associated funding are now free to submit applications for further processing and approval by the Department of Justice and Equality.

The council said it is anticipated that new schemes can proceed to installation in the short term.
Rating Action: Moody's affirms Grossmont Union HSD, CA's GO at Aa2; outlook stable

Global Credit Research - 15 Jul 2020

Assigns initial Aa3 to the district's 2020 lease revenue bonds

New York, July 15, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service has assigned a Aa3 to the California School Finance Authority Lease Revenue Bonds (Grossmont Union High School District Project), Series 2020, expected in the amount of $33.2 million. Concurrently, we affirmed the Aa2 rating on Grossmont Union High School District, CA's outstanding general obligation unlimited tax (GOULT) bonds, affecting about $615 million. The outlook is stable.

RATINGS RATIONALE

The Aa2 general obligation (GO) rating reflects the district's very large and growing tax base, average resident income measures, and solid financial position, which we expect to continue given management's prudent budgeting practices and a recent reversal of the district's declining enrollment trend. While general fund reserve levels are below similar rated peers, reserves are nonetheless stable and broadened by solid funds restricted for debt service. The rating also incorporates the district's moderately elevated but manageable debt, pension and other post-employment benefit (OPEB) liabilities. The above average legal strength of California school district GO bonds is also incorporated.

The Aa3 rating on the Lease Revenue Bonds is one notch lower than the Aa2 GOULT rating. For a California school district, Moody's typically applies a two-notch distinction between a GO bond rating and the rating on lease-backed debt secured by a "more essential" asset. The two-notch distinction reflects both the absence of California GO bond security features, which provide uplift to the GO rating, and the weaker legal structure of a standard abatement lease, despite the more essential nature of the asset. In this case, we have narrowed the rating distinction to one notch, recognizing that the bonds materially benefit from the availability of certain special revenues, consisting of 11 redevelopment pass-through payments, which the district has covenanted to use as the primary source of funds for lease payments. Based on conservative projections of future pass-through payments, as well as a minimum account deposit of these special revenues which the district covenants to maintain, we expect these special revenues will provide moderate coverage, insulating the general fund.

Story continues

The legal provisions for the Lease Revenue Bonds include that the district will provide rental interruption insurance for 24 months and will not require a debt service reserve fund, which is a negative credit factor. This negative credit factor is partly mitigated by the district identifying additional unencumbered assets that could be substituted in an abatement situation.

We regard the coronavirus outbreak as a social risk under our ESG framework, given the substantial implications for public health and safety. The coronavirus crisis is not a key driver for this rating action. We do not see any material immediate credit risks for Grossmont Union HSD as California's Senate Bill 117 guaranteed state funding during fiscal 2020, based on average daily attendance through February 29, 2020, and waived instructional time penalties, effectively holding districts harmless. For fiscal 2021, Governor Newsom and legislative leaders reached an agreement to preserve spending for K-12 schools and rescind a 10% cut proposed in the May budget revise, a positive. Increased deferrals will pressure cash flow, however we expect Grossmont Union HSD's adequate operating liquidity position and practice of issuing tax and revenue anticipation notes, to supplement cash flow, will mitigate these disruptions.

RATING OUTLOOK

The stable outlook reflects our expectation that the district will maintain an adequate financial position, despite reduced state aid growth, through prudent fiscal management. We expect the district's leverage will remain manageable, and the tax base will realize additional growth, albeit at a slower rate than prior years because of the coronavirus driven economic slowdown.

FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OF THE RATINGS

- Substantial and sustained improvement in general fund reserves and liquidity

- Significant reduction in long-term liabilities

- Improved socioeconomic indicators

FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO A DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS

- Meaningful deterioration of financial reserves below current levels

- Inability to manage growing pension costs

LEGAL SECURITY

The lease revenue bonds are structured as a standard California abatement lease, secured by the district's covenant to annually budget and appropriate lease payments for the use and occupancy of the leased asset. Lease payments are made by the district to the California School Finance Authority for the use and occupancy of Valhalla High School, which we consider more essential. Upon completion of the project, the district expects to substitute the transportation yard as the leased asset, which we also consider more essential.

The district has also covenanted to utilize certain special revenues, consisting of 11 redevelopment pass-through payments, as the primary source funds for lease payments under the lease agreement. The district covenants to annually transfer all redevelopment pass through payments into a special payment account, with such amounts to be applied first toward lease payments and second to maintain a minimum account deposit of about $0.5 million each year.

The GOULT bonds are secured by the levy of ad valorem taxes, unlimited as to rate or amount, upon all taxable property within the district. The portion of the levy restricted for debt service is collected, held, and transferred directly to the paying agent by San Diego County (Aaa Stable), on behalf of the district.

USE OF PROCEEDS

Proceeds of the bonds will be used to fund the construction and renovation of the district's transportation and bus maintenance facilities, collectively the transportation yard.

PROFILE

Grossmont Union High School District is located in eastern San Diego County and encompasses about 465 square miles. The district serves all of the cities of El Cajon, Santee and Lemon Grove, most of the City of La Mesa, a small portion of the City of San Diego (Aa2 Stable) and the unincorporated communities of Alpine, Dulzura, Jamul, Lakeside, and Spring Valley. The district currently operates nine comprehensive high schools, one continuation high school, two alternative education sites, three special education facilities, a middle college high school program, a Career Technical Education Program, an adult education program and a day care facility. The district is also the sponsoring local educational agency for three charter schools. The district is the eighth-largest high school district in California as measured by enrollment, with 16,893 students projected for fiscal 2021.

METHODOLOGY

The principal methodology used in the general obligation ratings was US Local Government General Obligation Debt published in September 2019 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBM_1191097. The principal methodology used in the lease rating was Lease, Appropriation, Moral Obligation and Comparable Debt of US State and Local Governments published in July 2018 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBM_1102364. Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of these methodologies.

REGULATORY DISCLOSURES

For further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and sensitivity analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and Sensitivity to Assumptions in the disclosure form. Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions can be found at: https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_79004.

For ratings issued on a program, series, category/class of debt or security this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series, category/class of debt, security or pursuant to a program for which the ratings are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the credit rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular credit rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt, in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would have affected the rating. For further information please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.

Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating review.

Moody's general principles for assessing environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in our credit analysis can be found at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1133569.

Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued the rating.

Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.

Kirstyn Lee Lead Analyst Regional PFG West Moody's Investors Service, Inc. One Front Street Suite 1900 San Francisco 94111 US JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653 Tatiana Killen Additional Contact PF General Administration JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653 Releasing Office: Moody's Investors Service, Inc. 250 Greenwich Street New York, NY 10007 U.S.A JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653

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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...
Pappu Yadav's Tweet

Earlier this week, on Wednesday, former Union Cabinet Minister Dr Subramanian Swamy also wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking for CBI investigation for the same. According to reports, Subramanian Swamy also penned a letter to Mumbai police commissioner requesting all electronic evidence be sent for forensic examination. Actor Shekhar Suman and BJP MP Roopa Ganguly have asked for a CBI investigation into the case.

Rhea Chakraborty's Tweet To Amit Shah

The late actor's rumoured girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty through Twitter has also reached out to Amit Shah asking that the case be handed over to CBI. She wrote, "I have complete faith in the government, however in the interest of justice, I request you with folded hands to initiate a CBI enquiry into this matter. I only want to understand what pressures, prompted Sushant to take this step."

Fans Trend #CBIForSushant On Twitter

Fans have also been trending the hashtag #CBIForSushant on Twitter since Mumbai police began the investigation. Apart from family and co-stars, Mumbai police called in many celebrities for questioning including Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Rhea Chakraborty, Mukesh Chhabra, Sanjana Sanghi, Shanoo Sharma and others. It was also rumoured that Salman Khan would be called in for questioning, but DCP of Mumbai Police, Abhishek Trimukhe, has denied the reports.
The issue of Purkeys mental health arose in the run-up to his 2003 trial and when, after the verdict, jurors had to decide whether he should be put to death in the killing of Jennifer in Kansas City, Missouri. Prosecutors said he raped and stabbed her, dismembered her with a chainsaw, burned her and dumped her ashes 200 miles away in a septic pond in Kansas. Purkey was separately convicted and sentenced to life in the beating death of 80-year-old Mary Ruth Bales, of Kansas City, Kansas.
In accordance with current public health directives related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Midland has cancelled its annual Touch a Truck event.

Instead, the community's families are invited to a contactless form of the event: DON'T Touch a Truck at Plymouth Park, at 10 a.m. on Thursday, July 23, at 1508 E. Wheeler St.

At DON'T Touch a Truck, attendees will be treated to a "parade" of the many vehicles and pieces of heavy equipment the City of Midland uses to keep the community running smoothly, including police cars, fire engines, dump trucks, refuse trucks, construction equipment, and more. Flashing lights and an occasional honking horn should be expected.

Vehicles will make two laps along a route beginning at the south end of Plymouth Park, traveling north on Plymouth Park Drive from E. Sugnet Road to Wheeler Street, exiting at Wheeler, then heading east on Wheeler, south on Swede Avenue, and west on E. Sugnet.

Attendees are encouraged to spread out along the event's route and remain at least 6 feet away from others outside of their households. Kids can join in the fun by creating a sign to hold up as the drivers pass by.

To provide a safe and efficient driving route for city vehicles, the following roadways will be closed to through traffic beginning at 9:30 a.m.:

 Plymouth Park Drive from E. Wheeler Street to E. Sugnet Road (access will be allowed for parking within the park)

 Plymouth Street at Plymouth Park Drive

 Hillgrove Parkway at St. Andrews Road

 E. St. Andrews Road at E. Sugnet Road

Parking for the event will be available at the Plymouth Park Fun Zone and park shelter, Plymouth Pool, Plymouth Elementary School, and Northeast Middle School. Residents are asked not to park vehicles on streets along the event's driving route. Access to parking areas located inside Plymouth Park will close at 9:50 a.m.

Residents attending DON'T Touch a Truck are reminded to wear a mask or facial covering when outdoors and unable to consistently maintain a distance of 6 feet or more from individuals who are not members of their household.

In the event of rain or severe weather, DON'T Touch a Truck will be rescheduled for 10 a.m. Friday, July 24.

For more information, contact the Midland Parks & Recreation office at 989-837-6930 or recreation@midland-mi.org.

-- Processed by Ashley Schafer, Ashley.Schafer@hearstnp.com
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Linkedin Jerome Cartillier (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States  Thu, July 16, 2020 09:25 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666b371b 2 World Donald-Trump,politics,coronavirus,COVID-19,pandemic,US-presidential-election,US-presidential-race Free

Pummeled from all sides, US President Donald Trump appears increasingly desperate to turn the page on the unrelenting coronavirus pandemic eating away at his prospects for re-election in November.

"Great News on Vaccines!" he tweeted Wednesday, striking a hopeful note.

But the reality is stubborn and sobering: 136,900 Americans have perished, confirmed new cases are on the rise in 40 out of 50 states, California announced Monday it was re-shuttering parts of its massive economy, and Trump is clashing with health experts tasked with fighting the crisis.

With infection rates that have taken radically different trajectories than those in Europe, the United States is in bad shape -- and the president appears to be dodging the subject.

At a Tuesday press conference where he denounced China but also vilified his Democratic rival Joe Biden, Trump barely mentioned the government's efforts to stem the COVID-19 outbreaks.

On Wednesday he traveled to Atlanta -- not to visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for an update on the pandemic response as cases spike in Georgia and elsewhere, but to deliver a speech on modernizing America's infrastructure.

His attempt to discredit respected infectious disease specialist Anthony Fauci, who has bluntly warned that the US strategy against the virus is faltering, has flopped.

Even some voices within his own camp are urging the president to tackle the problem more seriously rather than blame scapegoats.

"We don't have a Dr Fauci problem," stressed Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. "I think any effort to undermine him is not going to be productive."

Obama weighs in

The White House has sought to calm the waters, even as one of its own sowed new confusion.

In an opinion piece Tuesday in USA Today, Trump's chief trade advisor Peter Navarro attacked Fauci with renewed animosity, writing that "Fauci has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on."

The administration rushed to mop up the mess, saying Navarro bypassed normal White House channels when he published his op-ed.

Trump himself castigated his advisor.

Navarro "made a statement representing himself. He shouldn't be doing that," Trump told reporters.

"We're all on the same team, including Dr Fauci."

But Trump and the White House have repeatedly criticized Fauci in recent weeks.

Fauci described the efforts as "bizarre," telling The Atlantic magazine that "ultimately, it hurts the president to do that."

Amid the hubbub, Barack Obama weighed in with an appeal for apolitical action.

"The latest data offers a tragic reminder that the virus doesn't care about spin or ideology," the 44th president tweeted Wednesday without naming the 45th, but clearly referring to Trump.

"The best thing we can do for our economy is to deal with our public health crisis," Obama added.

Biden, for eight years Obama's deputy, appears content to run a minimal campaign with few public appearances, but he nevertheless has sought to seize the momentum from a flailing Trump.

Enjoying favorable polling, including in some traditionally Republican states, Biden denounced Trump for his "complete and utter failure" to combat COVID-19, as he shifts his own electoral strategy.

On Tuesday, Biden aired his first campaign ad in Texas, a state that has not voted for a Democratic presidential nominee since 1976 but where polls now put him in a dead heat with Trump.

"I know the rise in [coronavirus] case numbers is causing fear and apprehension," Biden says over images of masked emergency responders, and loved ones communicating via webcast or through glass.

"If you're sick, if you're struggling... I will not abandon you."

There is palpable concern in the Republican camp. Biden leads Trump by nine percentage points in national polling, according to an aggregate compiled by RealClearPolitics.

The Democratic challenger, 77, is also ahead in at least five of the major swing states that could decide the election: Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Trump for his part is sticking to a limited line of attack: portraying his opponent as a listless old man easily manipulated by the "radical left."

But the 74-year-old Trump committed his own slip of the tongue Tuesday when he said Biden had been pulled to "the right" by Bernie Sanders, the leftist who fought him for the Democratic nomination.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP)  A neglected site where the Alaska territorial flag was designed, sewn and first flown will be demolished despite last-minute efforts by Alaskans and a preservation group to save it.

The Seward City Council voted Monday to raze the Jesse Lee Home, once a Methodist-run facility where orphans and other displaced children from Alaska Native villages were sent, many after the Spanish Flu epidemic of a century ago.

The homes most famous resident was Benny Benson, a 13-year-old Aleut who won a territory-wide contest in 1927 with his flag design  seven gold stars fo...
A small bottle labeled with a "Vaccine" sticker is held near a medical syringe. Dado Ruvic | Reuters

Hackers linked to Russian intelligence services are trying to steal information about coronavirus vaccine research in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., security officials said Thursday. Officials said a group known as APT29  also known as "Cozy Bear"  was likely to blame for the attack. They said the group, which is believed to be associated with Russian intelligence, used spear phishing and custom malware to target vaccine researchers. The U.S. Department for Homeland Security, the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency, the National Security Agency, Canada's Communications Security Establishment and the U.K.'s National Cyber Security Centre joined forces in accusing Russia of the hacking campaign. "It is completely unacceptable that the Russian Intelligence Services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic," U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement. "While others pursue their selfish interests with reckless behaviour, the U.K. and its allies are getting on with the hard work of finding a vaccine and protecting global health."

"We condemn these despicable attacks against those doing vital work to combat the coronavirus pandemic," said Paul Chichester, director of operations for the U.K.'s National Cyber Security Centre, or NCSC. "Working with our allies, the NCSC is committed to protecting our most critical assets and our top priority at this time is to protect the health sector." "We would urge organisations to familiarise themselves with the advice we have published to help defend their networks." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the allegations Thursday, according to the state-owned TASS news agency. Peskov said that Russia had nothing to do with alleged cyberattacks on pharmaceutical firms and research institutions, adding that the claims were not backed by proper evidence.

The group of hackers used spear-phishing to "obtain authentication credentials to internet-accessible login pages for target organizations," the NCSC said in a report Thursday. Spear-phishing is an attempt whereby cybercriminals send messages that appear as though they're from a trusted source to get their victim to reveal sensitive information.
The trustees of the Kenya Ports Authority pension scheme and a lawyer have returned Sh70 million in an out-of-court settlement deal following a fraudulent land transaction.

The Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (EACC) had been seeking to recover the money from them since June 2017.

The commission started the asset recovery proceedings against 11 people and trading companies who it claimed they obtained the Sh70 million from the Kenya Ports Authority Retirement Benefits Scheme.

The proceedings were against lawyer Joseph Karanja Kanyi, Cecilia Faith Mango and Michael Kioko Maundu all trading as Kanyi & Company Advocates.

Others are Kikambala Development Company Ltd, Ephraim Maina Rwingo, Jane Njeri Karanja, Seline Consultants Ltd, Fredrick Otieno Oyugi, Joy Kavutsi Asiema, Joan Zawadi Karema, Juma Benson Thoya, Harry John Paul Arigi and Maurice Milimu.

The asset recovery case is nearly concluded save for the legal costs and interest which have not been agreed.

But pending the recording of the final consent on closure of the case, Justice John Onyiengo has dismissed respondents' application to transfer the matter to the anti-corruption in Mombasa for the final determination.

The respondents urged that the cause of action having arisen in Mombasa and them also being residents of Mombasa, the interest of justice would demand that the matter be transferred to Mombasa.

But Justice Onyiengo rejected the application saying for the respondents to raise the issue when the matter is almost complete is perhaps an afterthought considering that the anti-corruption court in Mombasa is yet to start hearing cases.

"If parties enter consent judgment for payment of the principle sum, they can submit on the award of costs and interest which can take a short time and the court shall deliver a ruling.

"I hope with the electronic proceedings now in place, most mentions shall be conducted virtually hence no need to spend money by travelling to Nairobi," said justice Onyiengo.

The commission moved to court following investigations into allegations that the trustees of the retirement scheme, popularly known as KPARBS 2012, had illegally and corruptly entered into a sale agreement for purchase of 100 acres of agricultural plots in Kikambala area at a price of Sh700 million.

The scheme executed the sale agreement on December 18, 2014 with Kikambala Development Company Limited which was not the legitimate owner of the land and a deposit of Sh70 million was paid to the company.

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The company was incorporated by lawyer Kanyi to act as a special purpose vehicle where he would be represented by a proxy Ms Jane Njeri Karanja, EACC told court.

Later the company entered into a simultaneous sale agreement with the actual owners of the land, Amkeni Farm Limited, but failed to meet its obligation rendering itself unable to honour its agreement with the Scheme.

It also failed to refund the sum of money after the rescission of the contract.

The commission had earlier obtained injunctive orders against the respondents restraining them against dealing with the land parcels or transferring of Sh5 million held in British American Asset Managers LTD portfolio in the name of Karanja Kanyi.
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The situation in the border zones of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) and Armenia remains calm. This is what ex-spokesperson of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia Artsrun Hovhannisyan told reporters in Ijevan today, adding that the situation remains unchanged at this moment.

During todays government session, the emergency situations minister asked what color can the paramedics truck be painted in so that it doesnt become the adversarys target, and in response to this, Hovhannisyan said he wouldnt be surprised, if the enemy targeted a paramedics truck.
Mexicos state oil firm Pemex has the highest number of employees who have died of the coronavirus, according to Bloomberg estimates of company data and official statements.

On Tuesday, Pemex said in its daily bulletin that as of July 14, a total of 202 of its employees had died of COVID-19, while a total of 4,119 cases had been confirmed among active workers, retired workers, and family members.

According to Bloombergs estimates, this is the highest number of deaths at any company anywhere in the world. The death toll at Pemex exceeds the deaths in the whole U.S. meat and poultry industry.

The possible reasons for the high death toll at Pemex include many workers with pre-existing conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes, Silvia Ramos Luna, general secretary of the National Union of Petroleum Technicians and Professionals, told Bloomberg in an interview. Other reasons possibly include the fact that it is difficult to practice social distancing on offshore oil platforms, as well as Pemexs initially slow reaction to take measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus, according to Ramos Luna.

A few days ago, Mexico became the country with the fourth-highest death toll from COVID-19 in the world, after the United States, Brazil, and the UK. More than 35,000 people have died of the coronavirus in Mexico.

The health emergency at Pemex comes as the Mexican state oil firm is grappling with huge debts and low oil prices.

Pemex is asking some of its contractors if they would agree to be paid for their services next year, people familiar with the payment situation at the company with US$105 billion of debt told Bloomberg earlier this month.

Pemex also plans a debt swap for a total of US$22.4 billion long-term bonds.

Mexicos leftist populist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador planned to make Pemex the pillar of a turnaround for the countrys declining oil production, but the oil price crash further deteriorated the finances and the debt of the Mexican oil company.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
A woman who exploited her job as a court registrar to hack into a computer system and issue a false intervention order against a friend's ex-partner has been jailed for at least 13 months.

Sara Borg had a front-row seat to the administration of justice for 10 years as a court registrar but misused that position of trust in October 2018 by posing as a lawyer in emails she sent for a friend involved in a custody dispute with his former partner.

Sara Borg outside court last month. Credit:Eddie Jim

On October 25 of that year Borg was working at Werribee Magistrates Court when at lunchtime she insisted a colleague take a break, locked the empty court room and used other registrars' log-in details to create an intervention order. She then used a magistrate's judicial number to issue it.

Borg sent the order to South Australian police for it to issue against the woman and in the following days travelled interstate posing as her friend's lawyer. Had the order been served the woman would have had to give her child to Borg's friend but police and court staff became suspicious and traced the order to its origin.
The point has been made by critics of the ongoing voter registration regime who argue strongly that it is problematic and legally untenable to allow a registered voter to vouch or guarantee for other eligible registrants to participate in the exercise.



Their contention is that there cannot be a registered voter properly so-called unless and until the Electoral Commission conducts a validation or exhibition exercise of the register in the aftermath of the registration and furnishes the political parties with copies of the final voter's register. And so, they argue that merely going through the registration process and getting issued with a voters ID card does not make one a registered voter for various purposes including vouching for other eligible Ghanaians.



I humbly invite you to come with me to look at the factual and legal arguments regarding the propriety of a registered voter vouching or guaranteeing for prospective registrants who are without any of the breeder documents (i.e. Ghana Card or passport) in order to entitle them to register in the ongoing ECs mass registration exercise.



Once again, the point has been made that merely going through the registration process and being issued with a voters ID card doesnt make one a registered voter. And that, unless and until the voter exhibition exercise is complete and the final register is certified and issued to the political parties, no one can call himself a registered voter.



And so, according to those belonging to this school of thought, it is legally untenable for any person who has been issued with a voters ID card merely by reason of him having gone through the registration process to guarantee for others since the purported guarantor is himself not a certified registered voter as yet.



Here is the response. First of all, on the factual ground, this arrangement has been the practice since the advent of the Fourth Republic. Persons who have gone through EC registration process and issued with voters ID cards have always been entitled to guarantee for other prospective registrants. They never had to wait for voter exhibition to be conducted. And indeed, records have it that for each of the registration exercises conducted in the country since 1992, more than 80% of the registered voters got their names on the electoral roll through the guarantor system. So, what the EC is doing now is certainly not novel.



On the legal argument, again, it is instructive to note that the guarantor system has since the beginning of the Fourth Republic, been provided for in all the Constitutional Instruments governing the registration of voters in the country. And of course, same has explicitly been provided for in C.I 126, the subsisting Constitutional Instrument for voter registration.



More importantly, the point must be made that in law, theres something we call the *doctrine of presumption of regularity* So, on the basis of this doctrine, so long as one is registered, he is presumed to have gone through a regular act and therefore, the law sees him as a legitimate registered voter until otherwise proven.



In other words, once a person has gone through the registration process and he is issued with a voters ID card, he is presumed to be a legitimate registered voter for all purposes including guaranteeing for other prospective registrants.



The person doesnt have to wait until the exhibition exercise is undertaken and his name captured in the final register before he is entitled to guarantee for other eligible Ghanaians.



Also note that, because it is the law that permits an innocent third party to depend on this doctrine in presuming that a person who has gone through the registration process and issued with an ID Card is a legitimate registered voter, the same law protects the third party when this presumption turns out to be wrong.



So, what happens when it is eventually established that the presumed registered voter has some propriety deficit thereby defeating his competence to have served as a guarantor?



If the presumption later turns out to be wrong, and that, the person (guarantor) did not qualify to register in the first place, all the people (maximum of ten per C.I. 126) that he had guaranteed for are protected by the law except he himself (the guarantor). This is because equity does not suffer wrong without a remedy.



In the light of the foregoing, please be reminded that as much as you have a legal right to guarantee for at least 10 eligible Ghanaians who do not have any of the required documents, you alone will bear absolute responsibility for all propriety deficits surrounding your competence or otherwise to register as a voter as well as all propriety deficits surrounding the competence or otherwise of all the people you guaranteed for to register as voters. So, be guided accordingly.



Assalamu alaikum



Iddi Muhayu-Deen

#ForGodAndCountry

[email protected]

Source: Iddi Muhayu-Deen/[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.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 12:47:46|Editor: huaxia

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by Xinhua writers Pan Lijun, Liu Yanan

NEW YORK, July 15 (Xinhua) -- China is on track for impressive economic recovery from the COVID-19 shock thanks to the nation's effective efforts to contain the outbreak, experts said.

"We think the economic recovery is well on track," Lucy Qiu, emerging markets strategist at UBS Global Wealth Management, told Xinhua on Tuesday.

"Effective containment of the pandemic and proactive policy support have supported Chinese economy's early recovery vs. the rest of the world," said Qiu.

Industrial production and fixed asset investment, property and infrastructure investment in particular, have led the recovery so far, said the analyst.

Export growth returned to positive in June while consumption remained weak, she noted, adding the country is capable of unleashing the potential of the sector with targeted policies,including support for micro and small enterprises and policies focused on protecting jobs.

Experts expect China's GDP growth to stage noticeable progress in the second quarter and beyond, buoyed by effective virus control and policy stimuli.

"According to our forecasts, quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year growth will be positive in 2Q 2020," Aditya Bhave, senior global economist at Bank of America, told Xinhua on Tuesday.

While "it is too early to characterize the shape of the Chinese recovery," so far it has been relatively V-shaped as the economy has transitioned out of lockdowns, Bhave noted.

Mehran Nakhjavani, emerging markets strategist at research firm MRB Partners, told Xinhua that China's economic readings for May and June have recovered, and "we see this pace continuing in the second half of the year."

The Institute of International Finance (IIF), a global association of the financial industry based in Washington D.C., said in a research note last week that China has been on the path to normalization with industrial production and manufacturing posting a strong rebound.

Noting "normalization in the retail sector could be an uphill battle," IIF analysts said they "are confident that overall activity is staging a V-shaped recovery."

Meanwhile, experts noted that headwinds remain for China's economic recovery with weak external demand among the key challenges, as other countries are mainly lagging behind in virus containment and a second wave would postpone the global reopening process. Some also cautioned against risks from renewed U.S.-China trade tensions.

Looking ahead, experts said that a combination of fiscal and monetary policies will continue to bolster the momentum in the world's second largest economy.

"China's experience suggests a strong recovery in industry might be feasible in countries where virus containment measures are effective," said IIF analysts. Enditem
Gables Residential, a leader in the management and development of multifamily communities, recently announced several key promotions of senior leaders within the organization.

Gables is pleased to announce the promotion of Donna Summers to President of Gables Management Company. Donna will lead the operations of the company, while taking on additional responsibilities to grow the portfolio and drive operational performance.

Donna has over 34 years experience in the property management industry, of which 26 years have been with Gables. She has held numerous Property Management and Operations positions overseeing multiple markets throughout the country. In her most recent role as Senior Vice President, Operations, Donna managed day-to-day operations and revenue management for the Gables owned, joint venture and third-party portfolios.

Gables Chief Executive Officer, Sue Ansel, shares Donna is a smart, hard-working, and thoughtful leader, dedicated to her teams success and excellence. She started her career as a leasing associate and expanded her roles and responsibilities over the years through diligent effort. During her tenure with Gables, she has continued to expand her duties and influence, driving operations, and leading our associates. In her new role, I am confident that Donna will continue to build and lead a successful team.

Donna holds her CPM certification and is an active member of the Institute of Real Estate Management. She has been a speaker at numerous industry events, she served on the Board of Directors for the Apartment Association of Greater Dallas and on the Legislative Committee for AAGD.

I am humbled and grateful for the opportunity to lead a strong team of operations professionals, including a seasoned team of Senior Vice Presidents, while having the opportunity to continue to influence and impact our success here at Gables. Our industry continues to grow and innovate, and I look forward to driving both those processes for our company. I am truly #GablesProud and couldnt be more thrilled about this opportunity, said Donna Summers, President of Gables Management Company.

Six other Gables leaders were recently promoted to the role of Senior Vice President. Dawn Severt, Chief Financial Officer stated, We are incredibly proud and eager to see what this leadership group will accomplish moving forward as we have already experienced the benefits of their past accomplishments. This new senior team of leaders will continue to achieve positive results, while influencing and mentoring their respective teams and all associates.

Rob Presley, a 31-year veteran of Gables, was named Senior Vice President of Facilities Management and Quality Assurance. He has taken on an increased leadership role by adding the Quality Assurance department to his current responsibilities, including Facilities Management and Procurement.

Rob has served as a positive role model for many Gables associates as he has demonstrated that hard work, persistence and commitment generate success as he has worked his way up through the Gables organization, originally starting as a service tech in Memphis in 1988.

Gigi Giannoni, overseeing the marketing and public relations department, has been promoted to Senior Vice President, Customer Experience. Gigi has over 33 years experience directing extraordinary brand value, with over 10 years at Gables. Gigi continues to lead the efforts on the digital, marketing, brand and PR front while driving innovation and service. In her new role, she will continue with those responsibilities while leading new projects that will provide greater levels of customer service and enhance the consistency and expectations relevant to the customer experience.

The Gables operations team has also promoted three remarkable leaders that will oversee the success of the Gables operating portfolio:

Greg Gasior has been promoted to Senior Vice President of Operations. Greg has been with Gables for over 25 years and has held many significant roles during his tenure. Greg has been extremely influential throughout his tenure with Gables on many fronts from development and design to operational protocol and strategic alliances. Prior to his promotion, in addition to operations, Greg took on a role facilitating the design efforts on Gables renovations and new lease-ups working nationally with the investment and design teams. In his new role, Greg will be responsible for overseeing the east region including Massachusetts, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, and Florida.

Mary Hollands has been promoted to Senior Vice President of Third-Party Operations. Mary started with Gables as a leasing associate and has assumed increased responsibilities over the past 24 years, taking over the leadership of growing Gables third-party business and client services. She has brought structure, passion, and success to the efforts of growing the third-party business model, while developing, enhancing, and maintaining strong client relationships.

Melanie Trapnell has been promoted to Senior Vice President of Operations overseeing the west region including Texas, Colorado, and California. Melanie is a rising leader within the Operations team. Over the last two years, her tenacity and drive have inspired others while she has taken on the responsibilities for many task forces and strategic initiatives.

Melanies involvement in these task forces and initiatives has led to the successful implementation of new programs that enhance the day-to-day operations of the company.

Jorgen Punda has been promoted to Senior Vice President of Investments. He has been a leader in the Gables D.C. office since joining the company over 13 years ago. Jorgen has led the development of many successful new projects in the D.C. market and has served as the key driver of Gables expansion in the Boston market. Jorgen exhibits cross-functional teamwork at its best working through each new development project in a truly collaborative fashion.

Jorgen is a key thought leader on the Gables Investments team with a keen eye for creating company value through new real estate developments. Jorgen crafts projects that capture the essence of the local environment while simultaneously enhancing the neighborhood. We look forward to his continued success and leadership, stated John Akin, Chief Investment Officer.

About Gables Residential

Gables Residential is an award-winning, vertically integrated, real estate company and privately held REIT specializing in the development, construction, ownership, acquisition, financing, and management of multifamily and mixed-use communities. Gables Residential owns, develops, and manages communities in high-growth U.S. markets such as Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Dallas, Denver, Houston, South Florida, Southern California and metropolitan Washington, D.C. Gables also provides third party management services in the New York, Baltimore, Frederick, Tampa, Phoenix, Seattle, Charlotte, Central and North Florida markets.

Gables manages approximately 30,000 apartment homes and approximately 225,000 square feet of retail space and has received national recognition for excellence in development, construction, management, sales, marketing, training, and benefits. These achievements reflect the impact of Gables experienced and dedicated team members, its superior knowledge of the markets served, and its expertise in development and management. For additional information about the company and its real estate portfolio and services, visit http://www.gables.com.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- After the citys 19th homicide, Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Payne called for people to stop the violence.

Payne talked about the violence Wednesday, July 15, after a 23-year-old man was shot and killed outside the Wealthy Market at Wealthy Street and Diamond Avenue SE. The shooting happened about 2:30 p.m.

The alleged shooter called 911 and was taken into custody from a location across the street. He cooperated with police and is being questioned.

This is upsetting to me that this senseless violence is occurring on the streets. There is no reason for it and it has to stop.

He was on his way to a unity event when he heard about the homicide.

This community deserves better and we can do better by working together. If you sense Im a little upset about this, I am and everyone should be, he said.

Payne called on community members to do their part and help police by providing tips and information about crimes and violence.

We cant do it alone, he said.

Payne had a message for everyone affected by violence.

Those that are out there doing it, stop. Enough is enough. Those that are out here being victimized, cooperate and work with us. We will work together to solve this, but this has to stop, he said.

More from MLive

Michigan reports 891 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, July 15; highest number in 2 months

Grand Rapids man to stand trial for series of accidents that led to familys fire deaths
Idea of US Ban for Chinese Communist Party Members Welcomed by Chinese Netizens

After news reports emerged that the U.S. administration was considering banning Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members and their family members from traveling to the United States, the Chinese regime reacted angrily, while netizens welcomed the decision.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying warned Washington not to conduct such a ban during a July 16 press conference, while state-run media also ran articles criticizing the proposal.

The New York Times first quoted anonymous sources in a July 15 report that the Trump administration was considering a travel ban on CCP members and their families.

China has roughly 91.9 million Party members as of the end of 2019, according to state-run media Xinhua. Almost all Chinese government officials and military officers, as well as leaders of state-run firms and organizations, are Party members.

In the past decade, amid Chinas political and economic instability, a growing number of CCP officials family members have immigrated to the United States and other Western countries, and transferred their assets overseas.

Many top Party officials also send their children to study abroad in the United States, such as Chinese leader Xi Jinpings daughter, who graduated from Harvard University; Chinese premier Li Keqiangs daughter, who studied at Harvard in early 2010s; and Politburo standing committee Wang Yangs daughter graduated from Tufts University in Massachusetts.

If there is indeed a travel ban in the works, those family members may choose to return to China and reunite with the officials, while many Chinese students will have to give up on their hopes of studying abroad.

However, Chinese netizens were excited about the news, and urged the White House to launch this ban as soon as possible. On the social media platform Weibo, they expressed that the ban would stop corrupt officials from transferring their embezzled assets abroad, and prevent such officials from escaping China once they get in the regimes crosshairs. Twitter is banned inside China, but many use firewall-circumventing software to access the platform.

China suffered from corruption for decades. [The travel ban] is the specific medicine that we have waited for so long, wrote Chinese netizen Baozi on Weibo on July 16.

Chinese citizens wait in line to submit their visa applications at the US Embassy in Beijing, China on April 27, 2012. (Ed Jones/AFP/GettyImages)

President Trump is the director of Chinas anti-corruption bureau! one netizen Qingchun joked on Weibo.

Netizen Yan Yilin suggested that other members of the Five Eyes alliance, Canada, Australia, UK, and New Zealand, should join the United States in launching such a ban.

Some overseas Chinese netizens even proposed: Every Chinese needs to claim on social media that he/she is not a CCP member before he/she enters the U.S. When applying for immigrant visas to the United States, travelers are asked whether they are a member of communist party organizations.

They explained that a real CCP member wont dare to claim on Chinese social media that they are not, because Chinas internet surveillance would catch the message and authorities are likely to punish the official or his family for such disloyalty.

Ban CCP Members

On July 16, the Wall Street Journal quoted an insider who said senior Trump administration officials were discussing the travel ban.

At a July 16 press conference, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she didnt know about the travel ban. If this is true, I think that the U.S. is very pathetic, Hua said.

She also asked rhetorically, As the most powerful country in the worldaside from giving out threats and sanctionswhat other impression could the United States give to the world?

Meanwhile, Hu Xijin, chief editor of state-run newspaper Global Times, posted a long article on Weibo to criticize the travel ban: It is a crime that damages world peace. It will push human beings into a 21th century that is filled with enormous uncertainty.

After Hua and Hus comments, the Chinese words for Quit CCP (tuidang) became a popular keyword on Googles search term trends.

Google Trends show that the Chinese words, Quit CCP, became a popular keyword on July 16, 2020. (Screenshot)

In China, the regime doesnt allow CCP members to quit the organization.

But in recent years, a grassroots movement has emerged among Chinese people around the world, to denounce and quit the CCP. According to the information available on the website of U.S.-based nonprofit the Tuidang Center, to date 360 million people have renounced their association with the CCP and its affiliated organizations.
A city employee from Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, dispatched for disaster relief efforts to Kumamoto Prefecture, has been found to be infected with the novel coronavirus, the Kumamoto government said Monday.

The employee from the city of Kagawa, a public health nurse in his 30s, had been assisting the management of evacuation centers set up at a junior high school in the city of Hitoyoshi and at a former high school in the town of Taragi, according to the Kumamoto Prefectural Government. He is not showing any symptoms.

Kumamoto suffered widespread flood damage due to downpours caused by a seasonal rain front.

The Takamatsu municipal employee was always wearing a face mask, so we believe the chance that he infected others at the evacuation centers is low, a Kumamoto official said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, parent agency of the Border Patrol, has removed four employees, suspended 38 without pay and otherwise disciplined 27. (File photo)

The largest federal law enforcement agency has fired four employees for their participation in secretive social media groups that have featured violent, sexist and racist posts against migrants and members of Congress, the Los Angeles Times has learned.

More than a year after launching an internal investigation into 138 employees for "inappropriate social media activity," Customs and Border Protection  the parent agency of the Border Patrol  has removed four employees, suspended 38 without pay and disciplined an additional 27 "with reprimands or counseling," according to data provided to The Times by the agency.

Investigators from Customs and Border Protection's Office of Professional Responsibility determined that 63 of the cases  roughly half  were "unsubstantiated." Six cases remain open, and the Homeland Security Department's inspector general is also investigating.

Last July, the office began looking into more than 60 current employees and eight former staff following reports of a secret Facebook group in which members used dehumanizing and derogatory language regarding Latina members of Congress and deceased migrants.

The existence of the group, known as Im 10-15, the code used by Border Patrol for migrants in custody, was first reported by ProPublica, and at one point had 9,500 members. The group's vulgar posts included an illustration of Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez being sexually assaulted by President Trump and others that mocked migrants who drowned in the Rio Grande.

Ocasio-Cortez did not immediately provide comment.

The probe, which is not criminal, ultimately doubled the number of individuals under investigation, and included several additional private social media groups.

Most of the cases deemed unsubstantiated involved personnel who reported themselves or others as part of the groups and provided information to investigators, but whose history showed they'd never posted or been active in them, an agency spokesperson said Thursday, declining to be named.

Story continues

Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), who said on Twitter she was "one of the Latina members of Congress targeted by the hateful attacks," but had not received information about the investigation from Customs and Border Protection, added that the investigation should include why the posts weren't reported by the group's members.

"This secret FB page mocked the deaths of migrants," Escobar said, "vulnerable people dehumanized by a broken system."

At the start of the investigation, Matthew Klein, assistant commissioner of the agency's Office of Professional Responsibility, emphasized that the privacy of the social media groups does not protect current or former employees from disciplinary action.

It's far from the first investigation into offensive social media posts by Border Patrol agents or Customs and Border Protection officers. As of the beginning of the investigation, since January 2016, the office had investigated 80 individuals for inappropriate posts in at least three social media groups, Klein said at the time.

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said Thursday that the four firings were "a step in the right direction to demonstrate that federal law enforcement agents cannot act with impunity." But he added that the lawmakers would be requesting more information "on why so few individuals were terminated and held fully accountable.

For far too long, there has been a rancid culture and systemic problems within Customs and Border Protection," Castro said in a statement.

The agency spokesperson said Thursday that the initial results of the investigation have been shared with Congress.

"Customs and Border Protection addresses misconduct that violates our standards of conduct and is contrary to our core values of vigilance, service to country, and integrity," the spokesperson said in a statement.

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), whose panel has not yet received a report, said he was "glad" the agency was holding employees accountable for abhorrently racist and sexist social media posts."

But, he added, "We still need to know how the agency is addressing its systemic cultural problems which have clearly been exacerbated by President Trumps extreme anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Just the idea of Texas schools reopening their doors for fall 2020 has infuriated some Houston-area teachers and parents.

They're not afraid to air their opinions and frustrations. As COVID-19 case counts and hospitalizations escalate to an unprecedented rate across Texas, the thought of putting students' and teachers' health at risk in order to provide in-class instruction is unacceptable to teachers across the state.

"It's pretty atrocious that in preparation for returning to school this fall, teachers are writing wills, getting medical power of attorney established and taking out extra life insurance," tweeted teacher Jessica Schwinn.

'IT'S SO SCARY': Houston, Texas teachers voice concerns about reopening schools this fall

According to Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath, Texas public school districts must reopen campuses for an in-person instruction in August in order to receive state funding, unless the governor issues a school closure or confirmed case of COVID-19.

"On-campus instruction in Texas public schools is where its at, Morath said during a conference call with superintendents. We know that a lot of families are going to be nervous, and if they are nervous, were going to support them 100 percent.

This is not sitting well with many Texas teachers.

"Like everyone, I am desperate to send my kids back to school. Remote learning is hard on my wife and me, and terrible for our kids. If we thought it were safe to do so, we wouldn't hesitate. But there's no way we're going to risk their health or ours, IF IT'S NOT SAFE," tweeted Jeremy Konydyck.

"@MikeMorath @GovAbbott Why is it okay for you guys to work from home but you're willing to sacrifice the lives of teachers, administrators, clerks, counselors, custodians, cafeteria workers? If in person classes MUST be offered, both of you should join us in the buildings," tweeted teacher Tania Andrews.

SCHOOL REOPENING: With schools ordered to open next month, Texas teachers ask, 'Is it worth risking our lives?"

"Last week, it was announced that Texas schools MUST reopen in the fall or risk states funding. This is extremely dangerous and covid cases here are increasing rapidly!! teachers in Texas cannot strike without losing their teaching certificates. they need help, call to action," tweets dirt prince.

"And after that, we're going back to school like nothing happened, "tweeted Sol.

Texas teachers say they are now forced to choose between their health or their jobs. Some with health issues have already resigned. According to a report by KHOU, HISD teacher Michelle Shah had a difficult time, struggling with a decision to resign, but she said the health of her children comes first.

HISD teacher Meghan Hokom also recently resigned over the same concerns. Hokom had a heart transplant three years ago, and has a low immunity after the procedure.

While several teachers express that they miss their students and the classroom, they just can't afford to not play it safe.

"I miss my students. I LOVE my job. I want to return to work and be able to help students again, as this is my whole heart. More than that, I want YOUR kids to be safe. It's disgusting that @realDonaldTrump is playing politicas with school reopening. It is NOT safe in Texas," tweeted educator, Tammy Tashi.

According to HISD officials, the district is still planning to start its academic year in late August, allowing 10 days for students who suffered a delay because of the coronavirus pandemic. The school year is expected to end on May 28.

alison.medley@chron.com
President Muhammadu Buhari has dispatched top security chiefs to interface with stakeholders in Zamfara on the lingering security challenges in the North West.

The Inspector-General of Police, Muhammad Adamu, said the meeting with stakeholders would review the security situation in the area and adopt strategies to tackle the situation.

Mr Adamu made the disclosure when the security chiefs paid a courtesy visit to the Emir of Gusau, Ibrahim Bello, at his palace in Gusau on Thursday.

Mr Adamu said the meeting was part of the federal governments efforts in tackling insecurity not only in Zamfara but the North West zone in general.

We are sent to Gusau today by President Muhammad Buhari as part of his concern on security challenges in Zamfara and North West in general.

Mr President gave us a matching order to stop the current insecurity in this region.

He directed us to come and talk to the stakeholders and identify the remaining challenges that have not been taken care of, the IGP said.

We need to strategise our efforts in addressing banditry, kidnapping and other forms of crimes in this zone.

We hope during the close door meeting with stakeholders, we will be able to discuss the remaining challenges.

During the close door, we are going to discuss several issues concerning security issues in the state and North West in general with a view to have a general solution, he added.

In his remark, the emir thanked the security chiefs for the visit and pledged that the traditional institution would

continue to pray and advise you in the efforts at tackling insecurity.

We appreciate the efforts of security agencies, we want to advise that there is a need to strategise and adopt new measures in addressing the situation.

We want efforts to be focused on tackling bandits informants existing within the communities.

We have information that in this state some people are giving out on rent and selling houses to bandits.

We are calling on the government to promulgate a law to ensure arrest and prosecution of those providing weapons to bandits, Mr Bello said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the IGP was accompanied by the Directors General, Department of State Security Service, Yusuf Magaji, and National Intelligence Agency, Ahmad Rufai, Chief of Defence Intelligence, AVM Muhammed Saliu, and other top security chiefs.

(NAN)
CORAL GABLES, Fla., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- KipuHealth, an electronic medical records (EMR) company based in Coral Gables, Florida, announced it has named Hushabye Nursery of Phoenix, Arizona to its Community Partner Grant Program, which gifts technology products and expertise to outstanding, in-need 501(c)(3) non-profit facilities. Hushabye Nursery provides care for opioid-exposed newborns suffering from withdrawal symptoms, known as Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS).

Hushabye Nursery was founded by Tara Sundem and Kelly Woody, two caring neonatal nurse practitioners who saw a need for a sustainable model to assist infants recovering from Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome. The center provides a holistic approach to help babies with NAS by treating mother and baby together for substance withdrawal without an emotionally painful separation. According to the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), recent data show that nearly 80 babies across the United States are diagnosed every day with NAS.

"We are honored that Kipu has included us in their grant program," said Tara Sundem, co-founder of Hushabye Nursery. "Taking care of a newborn with NAS requires an investment of time and resources, we need to make an emotional connection with the patients and scientifically monitor their medical healing. By using the KipuEMR platform, we will have more time to connect and care for our patients and eliminate the manual and time-consuming operations that have overwhelmed our staff for so long."

"It is our privilege to assist Hushabye Nursery in their efforts to help the 'tiniest victims of the opioid crisis,'" said Jeffrey Fiorentino, CEO of KipuHealth. "It's a frightening fact that an infant is born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome  withdrawal symptoms  every 19 minutes. The work of this remarkable organization is truly heroic."

"We understand the challenges that face today's non-profit treatment facilities," said Fiorentino. "Financial constraints preclude many non-profits from acquiring the latest and most efficient data technology. With the power and efficiencies that we've designed into the KipuEMR, The Hushabye Nursery staff will spend less time struggling with paperwork and more time serving the needs of infants with NAS and their families."

KipuHealth is encouraged by the work of Tara Sundem and the Hushabye Nursery staff and is proud to be associated with such a dedicated, talented group of professionals who are determined to save new lives from the horror of infant withdrawal and Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.

About Kipu

Kipu is a fully customizable end-to-end cloud-based EMR and billing platform for substance use, behavioral health and eating disorder treatment centers. Designed specifically forand withinthe treatment community, Kipu EMR is the largest and most widely implemented software in treatment of addiction, eating disorders and behavioral health used by over 80,000 medical professional daily in 1,600 treatment facilities through North America. To read the latest news from Kipu please visit: https://www.kipu.health/kipu-news/

CONNECT WITH KIPU: Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Read our CEO Blog

About Hushabye

Hushabye Nursery is located in Phoenix, AZ and provides a therapeutic and inviting environment of short-term medical care to infants suffering from Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) and their families. They offer non-judgmental support, education and counseling to families in a cost-effective manner.

Press Inquiries:

Christina Caballero

[email protected]

SOURCE Kipu Health

Related Links

https://kipu.health


(Newser)  Activists are calling attention to a tragic Pennsylvania case in which a 13-year-old boy has been charged, as an adult, with felony homicide after fatally shooting his 9-year-old brother during a game of "Cops and Robbers." The July 8 incident started when the brothers were playing in the living room around 6am; the younger one, Jonivan Wayne Snyder, at some point lay down on the couch to watch videos on his cellphone. The older one allegedly told police, per an arrest affidavit cited by PennLive, that he fetched a gun his father kept in the room and that he knew was loaded, pointed it at his brother's head, and pulled the trigger.

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The teen "related he did this because the victim was not complying with his commands while playing cops and robbers. He admitted to being angry with the victim for not listening to him," the affidavit states. An obituary for Snyder and a GoFundMe campaign raising money for his family both note he had a good relationship with his brother and sister. "We not only lost a 9 yr old precious little boy, but we could potentially (lose) his 13yr old brother," Snyder's aunt writes on the fundraising web page. "He is still just a child also." Activists echo that to People. "Kids who go into the adult court re-offend quicker with more violent crimes, with very, very poor life outcomes," one says. "That poor family, where's the sense of justice there? How is this making life better or solving anything that this family is going through right now?" (Read more Pennsylvania stories.)
Two dozen residents and six employees at a Citronelle nursing facility are continuing to be treated Wednesday after testing positive for COVID-19.

Crowne Health Care, which has facilities all across Alabama, said in a statement that one of the residents is currently being treated in hospital. The remaining 23 residents have remained in the care of the nursing home. The six ill employees also avoided hospitalization.

While there have been no deaths at the 69-bed-facility in Citronelle, Crown Health of Mobile experienced 25 deaths among residents and staff during first few month of the pandemic. Three employees and 22 residents died after contracting the deadly virus.

In total, 69 residents and 59 employees at the Mobile facility tested positive. The Alabama National Guard was also called in to help control and clean the care home.

We are blessed with great employees who are dedicated to our residents, said Crown health spokesperson Frances Coleman. They believe in our mission, which is to provide compassionate and professional care for the people entrusted to us.

Coleman added: The virus continues to be active nationwide and locally, and we will not let our guard down against it.

In Mobile, people in the age group of 25-49 have been infected in far greater numbers than other age groups. However, of the 147 recorded deaths as of July 14, a vast majority have come within the 65+ age group. Most of those people had underlying conditions and 59% were residents in long term nursing facilities, according to data released by Mobile County Health Department.

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey committed $18 million to help nursing homes deal with the surge in infections and deaths.

Some of our largest outbreaks of COVID-19 were within nursing homes and we must do everything possible to contain the spread within their walls, Gov. Ivey said in a press release earlier this month.
Brian Kemp

Kevin Cox/Getty Images

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp sued the city of Atlanta on Thursday after Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said she would defy an executive order barring localities from issuing mask mandates.

Kemp issued on executive order Wednesday extending Georgia's state of public emergency, and he said that masks are "strongly encouraged" but not required.

Bottoms immediately pushed back, saying at a Thursday news conference, "It's my belief that the city of Atlanta still has the appropriate standing to mandate masks, especially as it relates to buildings and places that we own and operate."

Kemp's lawsuit accused Bottoms and the Atlanta city council of violating his executive order by imposing an ordinance saying that not wearing a mask is punishable by a fine and up to six months in jail.

"Local governments, such as the City of Atlanta, do not have the ability or authority to regulate and control the State of Georgia," Kemp's lawsuit said.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp sued the city of Atlanta on Thursday after Bottoms said she would defy an executive order barring localities from issuing mask mandates.

Kemp issued on executive order Wednesday extending Georgia's state of public emergency, and he said that masks are "strongly encouraged" but not required.

Bottoms immediately pushed back on the order, and she imposed a mandatory mask order saying that not wearing a facial covering is punishable by a fine and up to six months in jail.

"It's my belief that the city of Atlanta still has the appropriate standing to mandate masks," Bottoms said at a press conference Thursday. "Especially as it relates to buildings and places that we own and operate."

"I am not afraid of the city being sued," she added.

Kemp's lawsuit against Bottoms and the Atlanta city council said that as governor, he "is vested with 'chief executive powers' by the Constitution of the State of Georgia ... It is the duty of Governor Kemp to insure 'that the laws are faithfully executed' and he is 'the conservator of the peace throughout the state.'"

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"Local governments, such as the City of Atlanta, do not have the ability or authority to regulate and control the State of Georgia," the suit said. "As the Mayor of the City of Atlanta, Mayor Bottoms is charged with implementing the terms of Governor Kemp's COVID-19 Executive Orders within the city; Mayor Bottoms does not have the legal authority to modify, change or ignore Governor Kemp's executive orders."

Kemp also released a statement accompanying the lawsuit.

"This lawsuit is on behalf of the Atlanta business owners and their hardworking employees who are struggling to survive during these difficult times," the statement said. "These men and women are doing their very best to put food on the table for their families while local elected officials shutter businesses and undermine economic growth."

"Just like sending in the Georgia National Guard to protect those living in our capital city from crime and violence, I refuse to sit back and watch as disastrous policies threaten the lives and livelihoods of our citizens," the statement continued. "We will fight to stop these reckless actions and put people over pandemic politics."

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr also sent out a tweet, writing, "The State of Georgia continues to urge citizens to wear masks. This lawsuit is about the rule of law."

Meanwhile, Democratic officials across the state have skewered Kemp over his ban on mask mandates amid a resurgence of coronavirus cases.

Georgia was one of the first US states to begin reopening its economy despite not meeting the White House's recommended criteria. The state has 131,275 confirmed cases to date and reported 3,441 new cases on Thursday, according to data from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

But Kemp has repeatedly refused to require his constituents to wear masks and has issued previous executive orders saying that local ordinances cannot be more restrictive than state orders.

"On one hand we're fighting COVID. On the other hand we're fighting our governor," Savannah mayor Van Johnson told MSNBC this week. "Our hands should be totally and unequivocally working to fight this virus, but unfortunately, for whatever reason, our governor has chosen and continuously chosen to make a public health emergency into some type of political issue."

Read the original article on Business Insider
BRUSSELS, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The General Court of the European Union (EU) on Wednesday rescinded an EU order which had required U.S. technology giant Apple to repay Ireland 13 billion euros (14.9 billion U.S. dollars) in tax arrears.

The decision effectively canceled an August 2016 European Commission decision. The EU court ruled that the Commission had wrongly declared that Apple Sales International (ASI) and Apple Operations Europe (AOE), which were companies incorporated in Ireland but not tax resident in Ireland, had been granted a selective economic advantage and, by extension, state aid.

The clear-cut decision by the EU General Court could now face another appeal at the top European Court of Justice.

In its initial reaction, the European Commission Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager said on Wednesday that Brussels was studying the judgment and would reflect on the next steps.
Announcement of Periodic Review: Moody's announces completion of a periodic review of ratings of Auckland Council

Global Credit Research - 16 Jul 2020

Sydney, July 16, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has completed a periodic review of the ratings of Auckland Council and other ratings that are associated with the same analytical unit. The review was conducted through a portfolio review in which Moody's reassessed the appropriateness of the ratings in the context of the relevant principal methodology(ies), recent developments, and a comparison of the financial and operating profile to similarly rated peers. The review did not involve a rating committee. Since 1 January 2019, Moody's practice has been to issue a press release following each periodic review to announce its completion.

"IMPORTANT NOTICE: MOODY'S RATINGS AND PUBLICATIONS ARE NOT INTENDED FOR USE BY RETAIL INVESTORS. SUCH USE WOULD BE RECKLESS AND INAPPROPRIATE. SEE FULL DISCLAIMERS BELOW."

This publication does not announce a credit rating action and is not an indication of whether or not a credit rating action is likely in the near future. Credit ratings and outlook/review status cannot be changed in a portfolio review and hence are not impacted by this announcement. For any credit ratings referenced in this publication, please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for the most updated credit rating action information and rating history.

Key rating considerations are summarized below.

The baseline credit assessment of a1 and rating of Aa2 rating reflects the Government of New Zealand's ("the Crown" - Aaa) well-established institutional framework for local government. Auckland Council's (the Council) standalone credit profile, as measured by the baseline credit assessment, reflects the Council's flexibility to adjust revenues and spending, and its strong governance practices as demonstrated by reporting and planning requirements. The Council's operational revenue strength underpinned by its unfettered right to adjust property rates.

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The Council exhibits a high debt burden which it forecasts will further increase to fund capital spending to support the increased infrastructure requirements resulting from rapid population growth.

This document summarizes Moody's view as of the publication date and will not be updated until the next periodic review announcement, which will incorporate material changes in credit circumstances (if any) during the intervening period.

The principal methodology used for this review was Regional and Local Governments published in January 2018. Please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

This announcement applies only to EU rated and EU endorsed ratings. Non EU rated and non EU endorsed ratings may be referenced above to the extent necessary, if they are part of the same analytical unit.

This publication does not announce a credit rating action. For any credit ratings referenced in this publication, please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for the most updated credit rating action information and rating history.

John Manning VP - Senior Credit Officer Sub-Sovereign Group Moody's Investors Service Pty. Ltd. Level 10 1 O'Connell Street Sydney NSW 2000 Australia JOURNALISTS: 61 2 9270 8141 Client Service: 852 3551 3077 Marie Diron MD - Sovereign Risk Sub-Sovereign Group JOURNALISTS: 852 3758 1350 Client Service: 852 3551 3077 Releasing Office: Moody's Investors Service Pty. Ltd. Level 10 1 O'Connell Street Sydney NSW 2000 Australia JOURNALISTS: 61 2 9270 8141 Client Service: 852 3551 3077

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English French

Rueil-Malmaison, 16 July 2020

VINCI Airports  traffic at 30 June 2020

Passenger numbers down 61.4% in H1 2020 due to the global travel restrictions imposed to limit the spread of Covid-19

Introduction of hygiene measures across the entire VINCI Airports network

Gradual return of commercial flights in June in the large majority of the network

The travel restrictions imposed by many countries (including population lockdowns, border closures and quarantines) caused operations across the VINCI Airports network to grind to a near standstill in the second quarter of 2020. Passenger numbers fell nearly 98% in April and May compared with the same period the previous year. The recent easing followed by the gradual lifting of restrictions has enabled passenger traffic to slowly resume, although it still remains low (down 94.1% in June 2020 versus June 2019).



Overall, with a total of 2.4 million passengers handled at the 45 airports in the VINCI Airports network1, passenger numbers in Q2 2020 contracted 96.4% compared with Q2 2019. Despite the collapse in commercial traffic, airports continued to operate flights throughout the period to meet the air travel needs of public services, such as repatriating people from abroad, transferring patients, healthcare professionals and medical equipment, and transporting freight.

In collaboration with local authorities, VINCI Airports has put in place protective hygiene measures in all of its airports in order to facilitate the resumption of commercial traffic. These measures include in particular reducing passenger density through every stage of the passenger journey by managing flows accordingly, using floor markings to ensure social distancing in queues, requiring passengers to wear face coverings, providing hand sanitiser and ramping up cleaning, disinfection and ventilation of indoor spaces throughout the airport.

The airports in Portugal saw passenger numbers in Q2 2020 shrink 97.5% year on year, primarily due to the travel restrictions imposed by other countries. Since borders in the Schengen area reopened on 15 June, traffic was able to resume gradually, for example on the routes connecting Lisbon and Porto to Lyon Saint-Exupery airport.



saw passenger numbers in Q2 2020 shrink 97.5% year on year, primarily due to the travel restrictions imposed by other countries. Since borders in the Schengen area reopened on 15 June, traffic was able to resume gradually, for example on the routes connecting Lisbon and Porto to Lyon Saint-Exupery airport. In the United Kingdom, passenger numbers at London Gatwick and Belfast International was close to zero in Q2 2020 (down 99.6% and 99.2%, respectively, year on year). As of 15 June, a limited number of flights have been operating, primarily between the two airports. The announcement made by the government on 3 July lifting the quarantine imposed on people entering the UK from around 50 countries should lead to a more substantial recovery of passenger traffic.

On 15 July 2020, Standard & Poors completed a review of Gatwick Funding Limited's Class A debt following which it maintained its investment grade rating of BBB but assigned it CreditWatch negative from Outlook negative2. On 24 June 2020, Moody's affirmed Gatwick Funding Limited's rating at Baa1, but revised the Outlook from stable to negative. On 30 April 2020, Fitch Ratings affirmed Gatwick Funding Limiteds BBB+ rating, but revised the Outlook from stable to negative.

In Japan , passenger numbers in Q2 2020 fell 93.5% year on year across the three Kansai airports. It was hit hard by the foreign travel restrictions, in particular with China, and the advice from the Japanese government to avoid all but essential domestic travel. The easing of these measures from 19 June meant domestic travel was able to resume, leading to falls in June passenger numbers at Osaka-Itami and Kobe of 75.9% and 80.6%, respectively.



, passenger numbers in Q2 2020 fell 93.5% year on year across the three Kansai airports. It was hit hard by the foreign travel restrictions, in particular with China, and the advice from the Japanese government to avoid all but essential domestic travel. The easing of these measures from 19 June meant domestic travel was able to resume, leading to falls in June passenger numbers at Osaka-Itami and Kobe of 75.9% and 80.6%, respectively. In Chile , traffic at Santiago airport remained very low throughout the 2 nd quarter (down 95.1% year on year) due to the closure of the countrys borders and its concerning health situation.



, traffic at Santiago airport remained very low throughout the 2 quarter (down 95.1% year on year) due to the closure of the countrys borders and its concerning health situation. In France , passenger numbers were close to zero in April and May (down 99.9% on 2019). The end of travel restrictions meant domestic flights were able to resume on 2 June in Toulon (with Paris Charles de Gaulle), 8 June in Lyon, Nantes (Saint-ExuperyNantes Atlantique), and Clermont-Ferrand (with Paris Charles de Gaulle), and 15 June in Rennes (to and from Lyon Saint-Exupery). International flights resumed on 15 June from Lyon and Nantes, as borders with several countries reopened in the Schengen area. Nevertheless, traffic in June still remained very low (down 96.5%).



, passenger numbers were close to zero in April and May (down 99.9% on 2019). The end of travel restrictions meant domestic flights were able to resume on 2 June in Toulon (with Paris Charles de Gaulle), 8 June in Lyon, Nantes (Saint-ExuperyNantes Atlantique), and Clermont-Ferrand (with Paris Charles de Gaulle), and 15 June in Rennes (to and from Lyon Saint-Exupery). International flights resumed on 15 June from Lyon and Nantes, as borders with several countries reopened in the Schengen area. Nevertheless, traffic in June still remained very low (down 96.5%). In Cambodia , foreign travel restrictions due to the pandemic were behind the near complete eradication of traffic during the quarter (down 97.7% year on year). There was no change to the situation in June.



, foreign travel restrictions due to the pandemic were behind the near complete eradication of traffic during the quarter (down 97.7% year on year). There was no change to the situation in June. In the United States , domestic flights resumed in June, which accounts for the relatively moderate drop in passenger numbers at Orlando-Sanford airport (down 78.8% in Q2 and down just 60.2% in June).



, domestic flights resumed in June, which accounts for the relatively moderate drop in passenger numbers at Orlando-Sanford airport (down 78.8% in Q2 and down just 60.2% in June). In Brazil , Salvador airport saw passenger traffic sink 91.4% in Q2 2020, sustained somewhat essentially by domestic flights. The announcement by the airline GOL that it would implement a base in Salvador with optimised connections is expected to support the recovery of passenger numbers forecast for Q3 2020.



, Salvador airport saw passenger traffic sink 91.4% in Q2 2020, sustained somewhat essentially by domestic flights. The announcement by the airline GOL that it would implement a base in Salvador with optimised connections is expected to support the recovery of passenger numbers forecast for Q3 2020. In Serbia , passenger traffic at Belgrade airport for the quarter fell 94.6% in Q2 2020. The recent announcement by the airline Wizz Air that it would base a third plane at Belgrade flying a dozen new routes, including to and from Lisbon, confirms the appeal of the Serbian capital and is expected to support the recovery that began in late May (down 88.5% in June, compared with June 2019).



, passenger traffic at Belgrade airport for the quarter fell 94.6% in Q2 2020. The recent announcement by the airline Wizz Air that it would base a third plane at Belgrade flying a dozen new routes, including to and from Lisbon, confirms the appeal of the Serbian capital and is expected to support the recovery that began in late May (down 88.5% in June, compared with June 2019). In the Dominican Republic, the border closures in place until July heavily impacted traffic, which was close to zero in Q2 (down 98.2%). The resumption of commercial flights on 1 July marked the start of a gradual return to operations.





About VINCI Airports

VINCI Airports, as the leading private airport operator in the world, manages the development and operation of 45 airports located in Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, France, Japan, Portugal, Serbia, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. Served by more than 250 airlines, VINCI Airports' network handled 255 million passengers in 2019. Through its expertise as a comprehensive integrator, VINCI Airports develops, finances, builds and operates airports, leveraging its investment capability and know-how to optimise the management and performance of existing airport infrastructure, facility extensions and modernisation projects. In 2019, its annual revenue for managed activities amounted to 4.9 billion, for a consolidated revenue of 2.6 billion.

www.vinci-airports.com

About VINCI

VINCI is a global player in concessions and contracting, employing 222,000 people in some 100 countries. We design, finance, build and operate infrastructure and facilities that help improve daily life and mobility for all. Because we believe in all-round performance, above and beyond economic and financial results, we are committed to operating in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. And because our projects are in the public interest, we consider that reaching out to all our stakeholders and engaging in dialogue with them is essential in the conduct of our business activities. VINCIs goal is to build long-term value in this way for its customers, shareholders, employees and partners, and for society at large. www.vinci.com





Appendix  Passenger traffic and commercial aircraft movements at 30 June 2020

I. Passenger numbers by airport

In thousands of passengers VINCI Airports share (%) Q2 2020 Q2 2020/

Q2 2019

change (%) H1 2020 H1 2020/

H1 2019 change (%) Rolling 12-month period Year on year change (%) Portugal (ANA) of which Lisbon (LIS) 100 243 -97.1% 5,651 -61.3% 22,212 -25.8% Porto (OPO) 100 87 -97.5% 2,285 -62.9% 9,237 -26.1% Faro (FAO) 100 36 -98.8% 798 -79.9% 5,834 -34.7% Madeira 100 11 -98.8% 624 -61.7% 2,363 -30.1% Azores 100 31 -95.5% 374 -65.7% 1,745 -27.4% TOTAL 409 -97.5% 9,734 -64.6% 41,392 -27.6% United Kingdom Gatwick (LGW) 50 45 -99.6% 7,545 -66.0% 31,892 -31.6% Belfast (BFS) 100 15 -99.2% 1,031 -66.8% 4,209 -35.5% TOTAL 60 -99.6% 8,576 -66.1% 36,101 -32.1% Japan (Kansai Airports) Kansai (KIX) 40 174 -97.9% 4,994 -69.0% 20,767 -31.0% Itami (ITM) 40 565 -86.1% 3,709 -53.1% 12,333 -25.1% Kobe (UKB) 40 103 -86.9% 814 -48.3% 2,604 -18.7% TOTAL 843 -93.5% 9,516 -62.8% 35,704 -28.3% Chile (Nuevo Pudahuel) Santiago (SCL) 40 273 -95.1% 6,388 -49.2% 18,447 -25.1% TOTAL 273 -95.1% 6,388 -49.2% 18,447 -25.1% France Lyon-Saint Exupery (LYS) & Lyon-Bron (LYN) 31 34 -98.9% 2,068 -63.7% 8,127 -29.3% Nantes Atlantique (NTE) 85 28 -98.7% 1,153 -65.7% 5,015 -25.3% Saint-Nazaire Montoir (SNR) 85 1 -86.3% 6 -49.4% 14 -32.7% Rennes Bretagne (RNS) 49 1 -99.7% 111 -73.5% 544 -38.9% Dinard Bretagne (DNR) 49 0 -100.0% 10 -77.3% 62 -40.3% Grenoble Alpes Isere (GNB) 100 0 -99.8% 204 -22.0% 250 -20.7% Chambery Savoie Mont Blanc (CMF) 100 0 -99.3% 104 -42.8% 127 -39.1% Toulon Hyeres (TLN) 100 9 -93.9% 72 -71.6% 326 -43.4% Clermont Ferrand Auvergne (CFE) 100 1 -98.9% 77 -64.6% 292 -33.0% TOTAL 74 -98.7% 3,805 -63.6% 14,756 -28.9%





In thousands of passengers VINCI Airports share (%) Q2 2020 Q2 2020/

Q2 2019

change (%) H1 2020 H1 2020/

H1 2019 change (%) Rolling 12-month period Year on year change (%) Cambodia (Cambodia Airports) Phnom Penh (PNH) 70 57 -96.0% 1,144 -62.2% 4,149 -28.8% Siem Reap (REP) 70 0 -100.0% 618 -72.3% 2,317 -46.9% Sihanoukville (KOS) 70 8 -98.3% 188 -75.1% 1,113 -4.3% TOTAL 65 -97.7% 1,950 -67.5% 7,579 -33.3% United States of America of which Orlando-Sanford (SFB) 100 199 -78.8% 850 -50.2% 2,431 -23.5% Hollywood Burbank (BUR) MC* 176 -88.1% 1,224 -54.5% 4,443 -18.5% Atlantic City (ACY) MC* 32 -88.8% 301 -50.3% 831 -29.7% TOTAL 407 -85.0% 2,374 -52.5% 7,705 -21.5% Brazil Salvador (SSA) 100 130 -91.4% 2,144 -42.5% 6,198 -21.4% TOTAL 130 -91.4% 2,144 -42.5% 6,198 -21.4% Serbia Belgrade (BEG) 100 85 -94.6% 1,008 -61.4% 4,556 -21.3% TOTAL 85 -94.6% 1,008 -61.4% 4,556 -21.3% Dominican Republic (Aerodom) of which Saint-Domingue (SDQ) 100 22 -98.0% 1,029 -51.8% 3,411 -17.5% Puerto Plata (POP) 100 0 -99.8% 287 -47.4% 604 -31.8% Samana (AZS) 100 0 -99.9% 55 -47.2% 121 -30.6% La Isabela (JBQ) 100 1 -93.0% 19 -50.7% 64 -6.0% TOTAL 24 -98.2% 1,390 -50.7% 4,200 -20.2% Sweden Stockholm Skavsta (NYO) 90 14 -97.9% 358 -66.3% 1,572 -29.2% TOTAL 14 -97.9% 358 -66.3% 1,572 -29.2% Costa Rica Liberia (LIR) 45 0 -100.0% 428 -42.1% 913 -22.8% TOTAL 0 -100.0% 428 -42.1% 913 -22.8% *MC : Management Contract Total VINCI Airports 2,384 -96.4% 47,671 -61.4% 179,123 -28.1%





II. Commercial movements by airports

Commercial flights (ATM) VINCI Airports share (%) Q2 2020 Q2 2020/

Q2 2019

change (%) H1 2020 H1 2020/

H1 2019 change (%) Rolling 12-month period Year on year change (%) Portugal (ANA) incl. Lisbon (LIS) 100 3,529 -93.8% 46,005 -55.9% 159.379 -26.2% Porto (OPO) 100 1,722 -93.2% 19,955 -56.2% 70,888 -24.7% Faro (FAO) 100 616 -96.8% 6,344 -76.0% 38,706 -34.3% Madeira 100 544 -92.0% 5,593 -56.3% 18,865 -29.3% Azores 100 1,957 -76.1% 6,711 -50.8% 22,553 -22.5% TOTAL 8,382 -92.8% 84,640 -58.3% 310,481 -26.9% United Kingdom London Gatwick (LGW) 50 670 -99.1% 50,800 -62.9% 194,543 -31.2% Belfast (BFS) 100 2,079 -84.5% 11,055 -55.4% 35,453 -30.3% TOTAL 2,749 -96.9% 61,855 -61.7% 229,996 -31.1% Japon (Kansai Airports) Kansai (KIX) 40 11,832 -77.4% 51,019 -50.1% 155,466 -19.9% Itami (ITM) 40 13,632 -60.6% 46,525 -32.1% 116,482 -15.9% Kobe (UKB) 40 3,844 -48.9% 12,381 -15.3% 29,149 -2.5% TOTAL 29,308 -69.0% 109,925 -40.7% 301,097 -16.9% Chile (Nuevo Pudahuel) Santiago (SCL) 40 3,371 -90.7% 42,483 -47.4% 118,957 -25.0% TOTAL 3,371 -90.7% 42,483 -47.4% 118,957 -25.0% France Lyon-Saint Exupery (LYS) & Lyon-Bron (LYN) 31 2,248 -93.1% 26,094 -57.5% 87,078 -30.0% Nantes Atlantique (NTE) 85 542 -97.1% 11,483 -62.6% 43,960 -28.7% Saint-Nazaire Montoir (SNR) 85 112 -75.8% 586 -36.3% 1,317 -23.0% Rennes Bretagne (RNS) 49 75 -98.0% 1,884 -71.9% 8,381 -38.3% Dinard Bretagne (DNR) 49 82 -77.8% 201 -61.9% 934 -30.8% Grenoble Alpes Isere (GNB) 100 52 -87.3% 2,530 -17.2% 3,346 -15.1% Chambery Savoie Mont Blanc (CMF) 100 213 -74.2% 3,885 -25.7% 5,511 -19.4% Toulon Hyeres (TLN) 100 601 -81.6% 1,851 -62.2% 8,069 -28.8% Clermont Ferrand Auvergne (CFE) 100 262 -89.6% 2,100 -56.1% 6,453 -32.8% TOTAL 4,187 -93.3% 50,614 -57.2% 165,049 -29.6%











Commercial flights (ATM) VINCI Airports share (%) Q2 2020 Q2 2020/

Q2 2019

change (%) H1 2020 H1 2020/

H1 2019 change (%) Rolling 12-month period Year on year change (%) Cambodia (Cambodia Airports) Phnom Penh (PNH) 70 1,766 -86.8% 13,613 -49.9% 42,438 -21.6% Siem Reap (REP) 70 90 -99.0% 7,555 -64.9% 25,808 -39.7% Sihanoukville (KOS) 70 175 -95.8% 2,644 -65.5% 12,812 +1.8% TOTAL 2,031 -92.4% 23,812 -57.7% 81,058 -26.0% United States of America incl. Orlando-Sanford (SFB) 100 2,481 -64.8% 7,926 -38.6% 19,396 -17.5% Hollywood Burbank (BUR) MC* 16,102 -56.8% 47,015 -33.3% 123,046 -9.5% Atlantic City (ACY) MC* 372 -81.9% 2,520 -41.1% 6,350 -24.2% TOTAL 18,955 -59.1% 57,461 -34.4% 148,792 -11.4% Brazil Salvador (SSA) 100 4,999 -69.0% 24,773 -33.6% 65,743 -17.7% TOTAL 4,999 -69.0% 24,773 -33.6% 65,743 -17.7% Serbia Belgrade (BEG) 100 3,090 -82.9% 15,452 -51.2% 54,177 -20.7% TOTAL 3,090 -82.9% 15,452 -51.2% 54,177 -20.7% Dominican Republic (Aerodom) incl. Saint-Domingue (SDQ) 100 1,740 -83.3% 11,625 -43.6% 34,334 -15.5% Puerto Plata (POP) 100 22 -98.5% 1,871 -50.7% 4,280 -32.5% Samana (AZS) 100 2 -99.3% 364 -54.3% 884 -36.2% La Isabela (JBQ) 100 670 -71.0% 2,735 -44.3% 7,356 -22.2% TOTAL 2,440 -83.2% 16,641 -45.0% 47,004 -19.2% Sweden Stockholm Skavsta (NYO) 90 199 -95.1% 2,744 -59.2% 10,201 -26.6% TOTAL 199 -95.1% 2,744 -59.2% 10,201 -26.6% Costa Rica Guanacaste (LIR) 45 24 -99.3% 4,382 -45.6% 10,288 -23.9% TOTAL 24 -99.3% 4,382 -45.6% 10,288 -23.9% *MC : Management Contract Total VINCI Airports 79,735 -84.9% 494,782 -50.9% 1,542,843 -23.8%





1 Data at 100% estimated to 16 July 2020. 2019 figures including airport passenger numbers over the full period.

2 Refer to the London Stock Exchange press release of 15 July 2020, available on the following link: https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/79IU/credit-rating-update/14615439



This press release is an official information document of the VINCI Group.

PRESS CONTACT

VINCI Press Department

Tel: +33 (0)1 47 16 31 82

media.relations@vinci.com

Attachment
The Pakistan High Commission has filed a habeas corpus petition in Gujarat High Court seeking custody of a 28-year-old Pakistani resident who is "stuck" in Surat after his arrest in a fake currency case in 2016.

The commission has sought a compensation of Rs 20 lakh for the "illegal detention" of the man despite his acquittal.

The commission has said in the petition that "the life and liberty of the illegal detainee are in danger at the hands of Respondents (state government) and the future uncertain as he faces darkness around him, with denial of any hearing, by any authority."

The strongly worded petition, filed by Muni Akhtar Satti, an employee of the commission in Delhi, says that Sajjad Burhanuddin Vora, a Karachi student, is in "illegal detention by the people, who are responsible for human right protection and are guardians of law....because tolerance of such illegal detention, would amount to acceptance of systematic subversion and erosion of rule of law...because the illegal detention of the illegal detainee is the worst kind of crime in a civilized society...because it is the negation of rule of law. It tarnishes the image of the Nation..."

Before this petition, Vora had approached the high court seeking permission to be allowed to go back and this continues to be pending.

The division bench of Justices Sonia Gokani and NV Anjari allowed the petition of Vora to be joined as party respondent. Earlier, on Tuesday the bench asked the lawyer representing the Commission to file an affidavit "as to in what capacity he (Satti) is permitted to espouse the cause of the corpus (Vora) and that he is authorised by the Pakistan High Commission."

"Vora is in illegal custody in Surat as he is not allowed to leave the country despite his acquittal by the trial court which was confirmed by the high court," said Vora's lawyer Aum Kotwal.

In November 2016, Vora, belonging to the Dawoodi Bohra community, had come to India to participate in religious functions in Surat and Mumbai where his relatives also live. In December, he was arrested by the Surat Railway Police with fake currency. He was tried by a sessions court which acquitted him in August 2018. The state government challenged the order in the high court which passed an order in July 2019 upholding the lower court's order.

Vora made representations to local police and Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) requesting for an exit permit. FRRO sought a No Objection Certificate from local police which has not responded to Vora's letters since September 2019.

"My client has been running from pillar to post to get an exit permit but to no avail. Finally, we filed a petition in the high court where the state government stated that it is going to challenge the acquittal in Supreme Court but even after a year nothing has been done and therefore, the court has sought paper-trail from the government in the next hearing on July 21," said Kotwal.
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As the coronavirus still looms over the US, everyone is looking to technology for help with keeping the pandemic at bay  even the Navy.

The Naval COVID Rapid Response Team plans to implement a proximity tracking program to determine how effective social distancing policies are at limiting the spread of the virus.

The group is exploring options for a wearable that stores records of users within six feet of each other and is capable of identifying 100 different devices in close proximity under one minute.

The military group is currently taking submissions for existing commercial or advanced prototype technologies for the program, but notes devices cannot store personal information or have WiFi and GPS, as the services can be a security threat.

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The US Navy is exploring options for a wearable that stores records of users within six feet of each other and is capable of identifying 100 different devices in close proximity under one minute (stock photo)

The US Navy has been hit the hardest among the military branches, due to a number of soldiers living closely on battle ships.

It was revealed in April that at least 40 ships had cases on board and 26 of them were still infected  more than 3,000 service members tested positive and two had died.

Following multiple outbreaks, officials are now looking into technology to stop the coronavirus from spreading.

'The Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Naval COVID Rapid Response Team (NCR2T) is seeking comments on draft requirements, market research, potential sources, and best practice information for commercially available or advanced prototype technologies for a proximity tracking program, reads a report.

The Naval COVID Rapid Response Team plans to implement a proximity tracking program to determine how effective social distancing policies are at limiting the spread of the virus, following a number of coronavirus outbreaks among the group

The program is looking to use a wearable that is equipped with storage and processing stations, allowing the technology to capture data points showing total time and at what distance' individuals wearing them are near others, Nextgov reports.

'The proximity records will primarily be used to identify those individuals that were too close for too long to a person that has tested positive for COVID-19,' officials wrote in the request.

'Secondarily, this data will be used to determine if social distancing policies put in place by the government employers are effective.'

The request also requires wearables be no larger than three square inches, similar to the size of a large men's watch, and not exceed a thickness of 3/8 of an inch.

However, unlike traditional wearables, the one chosen by the Navy cannot have the ability to store any personal identifiable information or health data of the wearer. The Navy is also interested in other features to promote social distancing, such as haptic feedback that alerts users when they are too close to someone

The battery life must last at least five days, but a 30 cycle is preferred.

However, unlike traditional wearables, the one chosen by the Navy cannot have the ability to store any personal identifiable information or health data of the wearer.

The Navy is also interested in other features to promote social distancing, such as haptic feedback that alerts users when they are too close to someone.

It's unclear from the request for information if the Navy would use the wearables on deployed ships, where the spread of the coronavirus has run rampant in the past or at bases.

According to the report, devices 'are only intended to be worn while at work.'

'At some point or at multiple times during the day, the proximity records will be transferred to a station(s) that will store the records for all employees of a given organization where all of these records can be viewed and analyzed.'
University of Cincinnati physicists celebrated a new world record as part of a research team working on a Japanese particle collider.

The SuperKEKB collider observed a record rate of particle collisions, referred to as luminosity, since launching in 2018. And this is only the beginning. The collider is expected to top that record 40 times over in coming years as researchers try to explain basic principles of the universe.

UC physicists Kay Kinoshita and Alan Schwartz are pursuing several topics including dark matter, which is believed to make up a majority of the matter in the universe but hasn't been observed, at least directly.

"We hope our accelerator experiment can detect dark matter if it exists in a way that hasn't been probed before," Kinoshita said.

More collisions mean more opportunity to explore puzzles of particle physics that could help explain fundamental forces in the universe: like why matter prevails over antimatter. The accelerator fires positrons and electrons at each other around a 3-kilometer ring. When they collide, they often create new matter.

"We observe dark matter indirectly from astronomical observations. The question is what is it?" Kinoshita said. "This experiment is looking in new corners of possibility that have opened up."

Particle physicists are especially excited about SuperKEKB because of its potential for observing more unusual phenomena.

Schwartz and his students designed and built one of the particle detectors at the collider. They used precision-crafted bars of optical-grade quartz that they assembled on site to identify new particles created by the collisions.

"This milestone represents a significant advance in accelerator design," Schwartz said. "The accelerator uses the so-called 'nano-beams' approach, in which the beams are squeezed in the vertical direction to become very thin."

Schwartz said this greatly increases the likelihood of electrons colliding with positrons traveling at each other at nearly the speed of light.

Schwartz said SuperKEKB will be flattening the twin beams even more to just 60 nanometers, or less than 1% the diameter of a human hair. Likewise, the collider will generate more electrons and positrons to generate more collisions and more data.

The global pandemic has interrupted international travel for the UC physicists. But SuperKEKB has continued to run, and the Belle II experiment to accumulate data, thanks to members around the world taking turns around the clock to monitor its operation remotely. Kinoshita finished training to supervise one of these remote shifts.

"It is pretty intense. These experiments are incredibly complex. So many things can go wrong," she said.

But Kinoshita has been preparing for this experiment her entire 38-year academic career. She has been working in experimental particle physics since 1982.

"It's fun because it's challenging. You know you're working on things nobody has ever worked on before," she said.

###
Protesters march in Graham, N.C., on July 11, 2020. (Logan Cyrus/AFP via Getty Images)

North Carolina City Approves Reparations, Apologizes for Role in Slavery

A city council in North Carolina unanimously passed a resolution that apologized for the citys role in slavery and is aimed at leading to reparations, or payments to black residents.

The Asheville City Council passed the resolution 7-0 this week.

The City Council and the City of Asheville apologizes and makes amends for participating in and sanctioning the enslavement of black people, for its enforcement of segregation, and for carrying out an urban renewal program that destroyed multiple, successful black communities, the resolution states.

Reparations arent in the form of direct payments.

City Council members directed Ashevilles manager to establish a process that would allocate money to specifically address the creation of generational wealth and to boost economic mobility and opportunity in the black community.

Councilman Keith Young, a Democrat, mentioned the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis on Memorial Day.

The blood capital that we have banked to spend today to fight for significant change came predominantly not from our allies, but from black men, women, and children who died, Young said.

It is simply not enough to remove statues. Black people in this country are dealing with issues that are systemic in nature, he added.

Slavery of black people in the United States was legal until the 1860s, when it was abolished by the 13th Amendment.

Ashevilles population is 83 percent white and about 12 percent black.

Residents had mixed reactions; most who spoke were in support of the resolution.

Rob Thomas, community liaison for the Racial Justice Coalition, which helped advocate for reparations, told members that this is a really, really good gesture as far as the foundation of what we can build.

Another public speaker, Jacqueline Morrison, pointed out that the citys police chief, city manager, and some council members are black. Thats an indication that blacks can succeed in Asheville. So, to dump this all on us white folkI think is offensive, she said.

The Black Asheville Demands coalition, informally affiliated with Black Lives Matter, had demanded the city fund reparations.

A number of residents spoke in favor of reparations during the City Council hearing. One said that the funds should come out of the Asheville Police Department budget.

City officials said theyre working on a response to demands by the Black Asheville Demands coalition.

The coalition, which is informally affiliated with Black Lives Matter, had demanded the city fund reparations.

Its also calling for defunding the Asheville Police Department by 50 percent and redirecting the money to supporting businesses owned by black people, improving education for minorities, and funding an all-civilian oversight committee that would oversee the department.
Axiomatics is the pioneer and the thought leader in dynamic and attribute based access control. As the market matures, more businesses require an externalized dynamic authorization solution.

Axiomatics, the leader in externalized, fine-grained dynamic authorization, today announced that KuppingerCole has profiled its Dynamic Authorization Suite, giving the platform high ratings across all functionalities. The Market Compass report focuses on the dynamic authorization management market and rates vendors based on the security, deployment, functionality and usability of centrally managed authorization services.

As organizations expand their IT infrastructure with multiple cloud platforms and applications, they require consistent access control across the company to permit or deny a user's access request to resources, in real-time. The Axiomatics Dynamic Authorization Suite is the fastest, most accurate and comprehensive dynamic and externalized authorization solution available. The suite provides externalized authorization through Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC) for applications, databases, big data, APIs and microservices.

"The Axiomatics Dynamic Authorization Suite offers an extensive solution, supporting a variety of deployment environments and application integration requirements. In addition, enterprise policy analysis and maintenance will benefit from Axiomatics reverse query facility to browse user entitlement lists," said Graham Williamson, senior analyst for KuppingerCole and author of the report. "Another strength of Axiomatics is that they offer support for intercepting and controlling database access and access to big data environments."

The report also highlights other strengths of the Axiomatics Dynamic Authorizations Suite, including:



Provides a broad set of integrations with other solutions

Standards support with participation in XACML and JSON development

Flexible support for cloud migration

Policy-based, dynamic filtering for relational databases

Axiomatics is the pioneer and the thought leader in dynamic and attribute based access control. As the market matures, more businesses require an externalized dynamic authorization solution, said Babak Sadighi, CEO and founder of Axiomatics. KuppingerColes report reinforces our dedication to providing state-of-the-art IT-security products as the market grows and healthy competition enters this potentially massive market.

To read the report in full, please visit https://www.axiomatics.com/resources/kuppingercole-report-market-compass-dynamic-authorization-management/.

For more information about Axiomatics, please visit https://www.axiomatics.com. For more information on KuppingerCole, visit https://www.kuppingercole.com.

About Axiomatics

Axiomatics is the leading provider of fine-grained, dynamic authorization delivered with Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC) for applications, data, APIs and microservices. Axiomatics Dynamic Authorization Suite is utilized by government agencies and Global Fortune 5000 companies to enable digital transformation, share and safeguard sensitive information, meet compliance requirements and minimize data fraud. Axiomatics innovative solutions allow enterprises to share sensitive, valuable and regulated digital assets  but only to authorized users and in the right context. To learn more, please visit http://www.axiomatics.com or @axiomatics.
President Trump replaced his 2020 campaign manager on Wednesday evening as numerous polls showed the incumbent trailing behind Democratic rival Joe Biden.

Trump promoted Bill Stepien, a longtime aide, to campaign manager while Brad Parscale will continue as a senior campaign adviser. Parscale will also continue to oversee the campaigns digital strategy arm.

Both were heavily involved in our historic 2016 win, and I look forward to having a big and very important second win together, Trump wrote in a Facebook post. This one should be a lot easier as our poll numbers are rising fast, the economy is getting better, vaccines and therapeutics will soon be on the way, and Americans want safe streets and communities!

The move comes as polls show Biden with a wide lead, with RealClearPolitics polling averages giving Biden almost 49 percent to Trumps 40 percent as of Wednesday. Biden has consistently bested Trump in these polling averages since fall 2019.

In a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released on Wednesday, 51 percent of likely voters said they would choose Biden while 40 percent said they would back Trump.

President Trump has hit the trifecta in the misery market, commented Peter Hart, a Democratic strategist who worked on the poll. The three key indicatorsjob rating, personal feelings, attitudes on re-electionare all deeply submerged underwater.

However, the poll showed that 54 percent of voters approved of Trumps handling of the economy. A Monmouth University poll released Wednesday also found that most voters believe there are secret Trump voters who wont tell others of their intentions.

The media consistently reports that Biden is in the lead, but voters remember what happened in 2016. The specter of a secret Trump vote looms large in 2020, Monmouth University Polling Institute director Patrick Murray said.

More from National Review
Photo: Twitter

Beware donkeys on the runway.

A Bluebird Aviation De Havilland Dash 8-400 suffered a landing gear collapse and burst into flames when it tried to avoid a donkey on the runway in Beledweyne, Somalia, on Tuesday.

The charter freight flight had just arrived from Djibouti with three crew on board, according to aviation website aeroinside.com.

The captain reported they were landing when a donkey entered the runway and was struck by the plane. The aircraft skidded off the sand/gravel runway, injuring all three crew members.

The aircraft sustained substantial damage, including the fracture of its right wing.



Somalia's CAA reported the aircraft was carrying food in support of the charitable African Union Mission in Somalia. The aircraft had been chartered by the U.S. Department of Defence.

The incident is under investigation.
Reportedly many of the jail inmates and police personnel deployed in the jail have been infected with COVID-19.

Hyderabad: The committee for the defence and release of Dr GN Saibaba urged the Maharashtra government to release him in view of Covid-19 outbreak in Nagpur prison where he is lodged and the already precarious state of his health. Reportedly many of the jail inmates and police personnel deployed in the jail have been infected with COVID-19.

Speaking to The Asian Age, G. Ramadevudu, Saibabas younger brother, who lives in Hyderabad said, In view of Covid-19 crisis, I have applied for parole for the second time on June 16. We havent received any reply from the jail authorities. My brother Saibaba who was an ex-Delhi university professor is 90% physically challenged and has remained incarcerated in the Nagpur central jails and a cell (solitary confinement) since his conviction on March 7, 2017.

Compounding the situation, Ramadevudu added is the fact that their 74-year-old mother has been diagnosed with high grade non-Hodgkinson lymphoma cancer in part of the immune system called the lymphatic system. It limits the bodys ability to fight infection. Saibaba himself suffer from heart and kidney issues and recently he was diagnosed with gallstones and surgery was recommended. However, as there is no one to take care of him, he was couldnt undergo the surgery. Considering all this, Ramadevudu urged the jail authorities for parole.

When he recently spoke to us, Saibaba complained of severe pains in body parts like shoulders and hands. One of the prisoners near his cell tested positive for Covid-19. The disease has reached very close to me, Saibaba is reported to have said, and that it was only a matter of time since it reaches his cell as he is highly vulnerable due to existing co-morbidities. My brother Saibaba (53) is wheelchair-bound. If infected with Covid-19, he cannot recover and survive on his own, said Ramadevudu.



The first time Ramadevudu applied for parole, the Nagpur jail authorities rejected the application "based on the 'false' report by Telangana state police claiming that my residence in Jawaharnagar and nearby areas MoulaAli are in containment zones. But, actually, they are not. However, now the definition of containment has been changed, we have applied for parole for the second time and its almost a month now but we are yet to hear from the jail authorities."



Outraged at this inhumane treatment of a sick, disabled man, Prof. G. Haragopal, chairman of the committee for the defence and release of Dr. G. N. Saibaba said "In view of the precarious health condition of Dr. G. N. Saibaba, we appeal to the Maharashtra state government and the central government to release him by granting him bail or parole immediately so that he can avail appropriate medical treatment either in Hyderabad or Delhi where his family members are living,"
The Huawei Oil & Gas Virtual Summit 2020  exploring 'Data to Barrel'  gathered global customers, industry partners, and thought leaders, including representatives from the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), Schlumberger SIS, and the former Chief Information Officer (CIO) of French giant Total, to share their experiences of helping oil and gas companies increase profits while cutting costs, creating added value through digital transformation. Key suggestions on how the industry can overcome challenges at this particular point in time, adapting to the new normal of the pandemic and post-pandemic periods, were also fully explored.

In the first half of 2020, due to the global economic downturn amid the spread of Covid-19, international oil prices fell to a low of 30 dollars per barrel. In May, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures prices even turned negative, a historically unprecedented event. Undoubtedly, the oil and gas industry has entered an extremely difficult period and is witnessing changes, the likes of which have not been seen for over a century.

Huawei has been working hard to help oil and gas customers cope with these current challenges. David Sun, Vice President of Huawei's Enterprise Business Group and Director of the Global Energy Business Department, noted that, over the past decade, Huawei has partnered with customers in the oil and gas industry and together witnessed oil prices peak at 120 dollars per barrel, as well as fall to that low of 30 dollars. Along the way, Huawei's role has changed  and upgraded  with the support and help of oil and gas companies. Evolving from a vendor that simply provided switches, routers, and network devices, to becoming a full partner dedicated to providing digital transformation solutions, Huawei works with partners and customers alike to jointly promote the application of 5G, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and big data in the oil and gas industry. It continues to explore new technologies and applications, where solutions to the current challenges lie.

Indeed, using elastic computing, big data analytics, AI, and cloud data centers, Huawei has already helped oil and gas customers achieve digital transformation, promoting the construction of intelligent oilfields and increasing oil and gas reserves.

Working with partners, Huawei planned and built a computing AI platform for an industry customer, to implement AI training and big data analytics. This has, in turn, led to an increase in both oil and gas reserves and in production. Indeed, solutions have been implemented in various scenarios, including artificial-lift fault diagnosis, well-logging and reservoir identification, and seismic first arrival wave identification, extracting significant value from underutilized  formerly 'useless'  data.

In the words of Dr. Mohamed Akoum from ADNOC: In an era of change for industries around the world, ADNOC continues to drive innovation and embed advanced technologies across its value chain to optimize performance, boost profitability and build resilience.

Today, 150 years after the first successful extraction of oil from a drilled well, accessible underground oil resources have been all but exhausted. Oil companies, by necessity, are therefore now exploring deep-water, pre-salt, and unconventional reservoirs.

At 60 years old, Daqing Oilfield  the largest oilfield in China, situated in Heilongjiang, the country's northernmost province  has faced enormous challenges in terms of reserve replacement, stable production pressure, cost reductions, and efficiency improvements.

At the Huawei Oil & Gas Virtual Summit 2020, Zhang Tiegang, former Deputy Chief Engineer of the Exploration and Development Research Institute at Daqing Oilfield, explained that seismic exploration technologies to detect oil and gas reserves have been the method of choice for most oil companies. Increasing seismic exploration while decreasing well drilling, he noted, has become a new measure widely used in the industry. However, high precision and massive data processing have brought their own challenges to seismic exploration and oilfield exploration and development. With a single seismic exploration work area now expanded to over 2000 square kilometers, the volume of data collected through the broadband, wide-azimuth, and high-density seismic data collection technology has exceeded 1 TB per square kilometer.

To help Daqing Oilfield address these issues, Huawei built a dedicated oil and gas exploration cloud. The cloud data center improves computing power by eight times and has similarly improved prestack seismic data processing capability by five times, from 400 square kilometers to 2000 square kilometers, matching work area requirements. Elsewhere, AI and big data capabilities have been used to re-analyze 10 PB of the customer's historical exploration data, to mine new value from it and support extraction decision-making, bringing huge additional value to the oilfield.

Huawei is empowering a wide range of industries through 5G networking. In the oil and gas industry, 5G technologies are changing the operation modes of seismic data collection. Huawei has put 5G network features to work  including high bandwidth, wide connectivity, and low latency  to help achieve high-speed backhaul of seismic data, reducing the manual cabling workload and significantly improving the efficiency of seismic data collection.

Elsewhere, Huawei 5G networks are already being used in oilfields and stations to support robot inspection, drone inspection, and Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) applications.

Additionally, the Huawei Horizon Digital Platform helps oil and gas customers break down legacy siloed service systems and quickly release service applications as micro-services, to meet the complex and changing needs of the industry. For example, Huawei has deployed an enterprise cloud for SONATRACH, the national state-owned oil company of Algeria. The cloud-based solution manages and coordinates multiple data centers, eliminates resource silos, and greatly improves overall operation efficiency.

As a global ICT solutions provider, Huawei is committed to bringing digital to every oil and gas company. At the Huawei Oil & Gas Virtual Summit 2020, Wang Hao, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the Oil & Gas Development Department for Huawei's Enterprise Business Group, said that Huawei will use ICT as a new engine to work even more closely with industry customers in challenging times. Indeed, Huawei is already working with 19 of the top 30 oil and gas companies, in 45 countries and regions around the world, helping them achieve digital transformation. Ultimately, this will bring more benefits to the upstream, more security to the midstream, and more value to the downstream.

Such innovative ICT technologies  AI, cloud, edge computing, and 5G  will reshape the oil and gas industry. As David Sun concluded at the Huawei Oil & Gas Virtual Summit 2020: "According to IDC's latest survey, Chinese industrial users see Huawei as the digital transformation leader, ranking number one. In the future, we hope to share Huawei's digital transformation capabilities and experiences in China's oil and gas industry with global customers, to help achieve ever greater business success." Tradearabia News Service
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- During normal times, traditional economic data work fine, offering reliable insight into growth, employment, prices and all sorts of other aspects of the U.S. economy. The drawback is that delays of as long as a month or even a quarter make some of the data of limited use during times like these, when a pandemic has thrown the entire economy off kilter. So there's a case to be made for the merits of alternative data  everything from new infection rates to apartment rental rates near college campuses  which can offer daily reads of the state of the economy, provided they are used with the appropriate caveats. We recently asked several Bloomberg Opinion writers to cite some of the non-conventional metrics they're paying attention to during the coronavirus recession.

Mohamed A. El-Erian writes about economics, markets and central banks for Bloomberg Opinion. He is the chief economic adviser at Allianz SE, the parent company of Pimco, where he served as CEO and co-CIO:As many traditional data reports are deemed mostly out of date even before they are released, economists have had no choice but to expand the data they monitor and how they are analyzed.

This means paying a lot more attention to higher-frequency data, such as daily mobility indicators, retail traffic and restaurant dining.

Second, epidemiological metrics -- the coronavirus R-naught infectious rate, hospitalizations and fatalities -- are critical to follow for their insights into key influences on household and business behavior, as well as the thinking and actions of policy makers.

Measures of financial resilience and solvency become even more important given uncertainties about how long we will be living with Covid-19. In addition to the usual balance-sheet data, debt rollovers and access to new financing, this expands to include highly micro anecdotal indicators such as the number of people turning to food banks.

None of these measures are perfect. Moreover, they dont make up for the inaccuracies that accompany virtually any forecast these days. But they do help to shed more light on our unprecedented economic situation, as well as help shape the questions we should be asking.

Story continues

Jim Bianco writes about markets and economics for Bloomberg Opinion. He is the president and founder of Bianco Research, a provider of data-driven insights into the global economy and financial markets: As summer turns to fall, attention will turn to the presidential election. How should investors measure the horse race? More importantly, how can one judge if an event is changing the outlook for the election? Enter the betting markets, such as the political betting site predictit.org.

First, how should betting markets be viewed? Simply that they reflect the aggregation of all known information into one probability. So, they act like real-time polls, reacting quickly to new events.

The chart below shows the betting spread for who will win the presidency, Donald Trump or Joe Biden. Biden is essentially a 60-40 favorite to win. The trend in these numbers can tell us a lot: Trump had a bad June but the worst, for now, may be over.

What is the probability that either one of them wins the election? One can pay expensive Washington consultants, or create complicated computer models. Or, they can check the betting market and in 10 seconds get the same information.

Tim Duy writes about the economy and Federal Reserve for Bloomberg Opinion. He is a professor of practice and senior director of the Oregon Economic Forum at the University of Oregon: A key feature of this crisis is the decline in population mobility as we strive to contain the spread of the virus. That reduction is a direct reflection of economic activity and it provides insights into the direction of the economy.

The Dallas Federal Reserve Mobility and Engagement Index relies on cell phone data. The index is scaled so that zero is the average from January-February of this year and -100 is the lowest weekly for the U.S.For the nation, the index hit a low on April 11 and then began recovering. This is consistent with our understanding that many sectors of the economy bottomed out in mid-April. After that, a gradual reopening began. Subsequently released data such as retail sales confirmed this trend. But the index stopped rising in the week ended July 4. This likely reflects a surge in cases in some stages such as Texas, slowing the economic recovery. This may be an early indication that the pace of gains in traditional metrics such as the employment report will soon ebb. This would be consistent with predictions that full recovery will only come after the virus is contained to the point where we can freely move and interact as we did before the pandemic.

Conor Sen is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist focusing on labor and financial markets and the economy: Perhaps no measure of the economic recovery is more important than the rebound in employment. The official data we get on a weekly basis is jobless claims, which tell us something about the number of workers being laid off but nothing about employers posting jobs or hiring people.

It's for that reason that weekly online job postings data from Indeed, written up by its chief economist, Jed Kolko, are so valuable. What we're seeing so far is a gradual improvement, much as we've seen from some other indicators. What's critical is that through the week of July 3, there hasn't been much difference in the pace of recovery between virus hotspots and non-hotspots. This may change in the weeks ahead, but it does suggest a durable recovery is taking hold.

Scott Kominers is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, writing about economics and markets. He is the MBA Class of 1960 Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and a faculty affiliate of the Harvard Department of Economics:Throughout the Covid-19 lockdowns, delivery services have seen huge spikes in demand. Watching whether that changes during the next few months will give us a sense of how consumers are responding to staged reopening measures: are they going out or staying hunkered down at home? As the table below shows, grocery delivery has soared as people have avoided trips to supermarkets; the same is true in other categories. In the meantime, looking at who is providing delivery services can help us understand which businesses have managed to adjust their operations creatively during the pandemic. (Some more expensive sit-down restaurants, for example, have started offering delivery or take-out options for the first time.)

As more businesses start opening up, looking at how many hours they're in operation each day will give further insight into consumer sentiment and business owners' demand expectations, especially in urban areas.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

James Greiff is an editor for Bloomberg Opinion. He was Wall Street news team leader at Bloomberg News and senior editor for Bloomberg Markets magazine. He previously reported on banking for the St. Petersburg Times and the Charlotte Observer.

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.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 15:28:52|Editor: huaxia

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NEW DELHI, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The recovery rate of COVID-19 patients Thursday increased to 63.25 percent, India's federal health ministry said.

The ministry said 612,815 patients had been cured and 331,146 were under active medical supervision, as the recovery rate stood at 63.25 percent.

During the last 24 hours, 32,695 fresh positive cases and 606 deaths were reported in the country. The nationwide toll has risen to 24,915.

The top health research body Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said 12.7 million samples have been tested until Thursday morning and 326,826 samples were tested during the past 24 hours.

ICMR is continuously scaling up its testing facilities for COVID-19 by giving approval to government and private laboratories. Until now, 1,234 laboratories across India have been given the approval to conduct COVID-19 tests. Of these 874 are government-owned laboratories and 360 are private laboratories.

With 968,876 cases, India is now the world's third worst-hit country due to the pandemic.

Of the total cases in the country, Maharashtra tops the tally with 275,640 cases, followed by Tamil Nadu and Delhi.

A government spokesman said over 20 states in India were already conducting 140 tests per day per million population, which is higher than the World Health Organization's (WHO) prescribed norms. Enditem
BRANFORD  Human remains were found buried in a shallow grave behind a local restaurant Wednesday night as investigators continued the search for a missing East Haven mother, police officials said.

The investigation into the disappearance of 27-year-old Lizzbeth Aleman-Popoca led East Haven police to the rear parking lot of LoMonacos Ristorante Italiano at 990 West Main St. in Branford, according to East Haven Police Lt. Joseph Murgo.

East Haven police were joined by Branford police and Connecticut State Police.

Upon our arrival, we located what we determined to be an area with disturbed dirt behind the dumpster area, Murgo said. The Connecticut State Police Central District Major Crime Squad responded and located human remains buried in a shallow grave.

Murgo said authorities have not yet identified the body, which he said was transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. An autopsy is scheduled for Thursday. Murgo said the autopsy will reveal more details.

Aleman-Popoca hasnt been seen or heard from since July 1. Family reported her missing to police on July 3.

During a press conference Wednesday night, East Havne Police Chief Ed Lennon confirmed a deceased human was found. He said it was a very, very active investigation.

The chief said more details on the discovery would be shared Thursday.

The police activity and discovery in Branford came just one day after police and law enforcement held a press conference Tuesday afternoon, pleading with the public for any information on her whereabouts.

Police also asked anyone with surveillance footage in the area of Main Street to review their footage between about June 28 and July 9, and turn over any video that might show something suspicious.

Anyone with information regarding Aleman-Popocas whereabouts is asked to contact East Haven Lt. Joseph Murgo at 203-468-3824 or jmurgo@easthavenpolice.com.
By Jenn Dorsch-Messler

Photo courtesy of Carrie Miller

Members of the Brethren Disaster Ministries leadership team in Puerto Rico, where the staff are celebrating completion of a home rebuilding project that was started following Hurricane Maria: (from left) Raquel and Jose Acevedo (District Disaster Coordinator), Carmelo Rodriguez, and Carrie Miller.

Brethren Disaster Ministries is celebrating completion of a rebuilding project in Puerto Rico in partnership with the Puerto Rico District of the Church of the Brethren. The project worked on homes that were destroyed or damaged by Hurricane Maria, and completed 100 homes. Brethren Disaster Ministries also celebrates the opening of a new project site in Dayton, Ohiothe first resumption of volunteer work since a shut-down due to COVID-19 that began in mid-March.

Puerto Rico work completed

Since Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in Sept. 2017, Brethren Disaster Ministries has worked in partnership with the Puerto Rico District of the Church of the Brethren to support those who were affected. This began with coordinating relief supplies and funds, and continued from Sept. 2018 through June 2020 when a volunteer rebuilding site extended the collaboration. The project was previously planned to close at the end of June 2020, but the last two-and-a-half months of volunteer work were cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions and concerns.

Through the work of this project, 100 homes were completed either with volunteer labor, contractor work, or by providing the materials that homeowners could not afford but had other ways to install on their own. Another seven families have been provided materials and the work will be completed soon through their own means. More reporting information about the project will be shared and celebrated in coming months.

Dayton site opens

Brethren Disaster Ministries has resumed volunteer work on national sites since a shutdown due to COVID-19 that began in mid-March. A handful of local volunteers who live in the Dayton, Ohio, area began a week of service on July 14 to serve a family affected by the 2019 Memorial Day tornadoes. Wearing masks and observing other safety and cleaning protocols, the volunteers are spending their days installing vinyl siding on one home. The volunteers return to their homes at night and no housing is provided by Brethren Disaster Ministries.

North Carolina move

The Brethren Disaster Ministries Carolinas rebuilding site has been closed after over two years of being housed in Lumberton, N.C. At the end of June, project vehicles and equipment were moved northeast to a new location.

The new coastal North Carolina project location is in Bayboro, Pamlico County, N.C. This area was greatly affected by Hurricane Florence in Sept. 2018, mostly due to flooding. Florence brought a record-breaking storm surge of 9 to 13 feet and devastating rainfall of 20 to 30 inches in some areas along the coast of the Carolinas. The Pamlico County long-term recovery group reports that there are still more than 200 families in the county that have not completely recovered, almost two years later.

Currently, Brethren Disaster Ministries volunteers are scheduled to begin serving on this project in mid-September if possible. Volunteers will be housed at Mt. Zion Original Freewill Baptist Church in Bayboro, and work partners have been established.

Nebraska short-term response

Brethren Disaster Ministries has planned a short-term response in Nebraska during the weeks of Aug. 16-29 to rebuild after spring flooding in 2019. Volunteers can sign up for one or two weeks to serve as spots are available. Housing will be provided at a hotel in Omaha, Neb., with work close by. Anyone interested should contact Kim Gingerich, long-term project leader, at 717-586-1874 or bdmnorthcarolina@gmail.com . Financial support for this response comes through a grant from the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD) through funding provided by UPS.

Brethren Disaster Ministries will be monitoring the COVID-19 situation prior to the scheduled dates, and changes or cancellations may be made based on travel restrictions or guidance in August and conversations with local partners. If this response takes place, there will be specific COVID-19 safety protocols in place and all volunteers will be expected to follow them. Onsite project expenses from Monday through Friday will be covered by Brethren Disaster Ministries but travel expenses to and from the site are the volunteers responsibility. Please note that Brethren Disaster Ministries is not responsible for non-refundable travel expenses if cancellations occur due to COVID-19.

 Jenn Dorsch-Messler is director of Brethren Disaster Ministries for the Church of the Brethren. Find out more about Brethren Disaster Ministries at www.brethren.org/bdm .

Go to www.brethren.org/Newsline to subscribe to the Church of the Brethren Newsline free e-mail news service and receive church news every week.
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An Indian Institute of Technology Madras-incubated start-up Modulus Housing has developed a portable hospital unit that can be installed anywhere within two hours by four people.

Called MediCAB, it is a decentralized approach to detect, screen, identify, isolate and treat COVID-19 patients in their local communities through these portable microstructures, a statement released by the institute said.

MediCAB has been launched recently in Wayanad District of Kerala where the units are being deployed to treat COVID-19 Patients. The startup is developing micro hospitals that can be deployed rapidly across the nation. The Medicab is foldable and is composed of four zones  a doctors room, an isolation room, a medical room/ward and a twin-bed ICU, maintained at negative pressure.

This deployment in Kerala has been undertaken with grant funds from Habitat for Humanitys Terwiliger Centre for Innovation in Shelter. The startup collaborated with Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology who provided inputs on the certifications and customizations necessary for the project.

Founded by two IIT alumni in 2018, Modulus Housing was supported by IIT Madras Incubation Cell and has a vision to revolutionise housing through modular prefab structures. They have re-purposed their designs to support the fight against COVID-19.

Modulus is working on a Dual design where these can be rapidly launched as COVID-19 isolation wards. Post-COVID-19, these can be transformed into micro-hospitals/clinics in Rural India where the medical infrastructure needs to be augmented. Modulus Housing has set up its manufacturing unit at Chengalpet (located about 35 kms from Chennai).

India has 0.7 beds per 1,000 persons. Innovations such as the MediCAB will help boost the health-care infrastructure in India as it can be rapidly transported (Six units can fit in a truck). It can be deployed at any time and to any place.

Highlighting the innovations from startups supported by IIT Madras Incubation Cell, its Chief Executive Officer Dr. Tamaswati Ghosh, said, We are very proud of our startups who are working on a range of products that are vital to Indias fight against COVID-19, from N95 masks, ventilators, affordable testing kits to portable hospital infra.
Determination of disputes in the business premises tribunal (BPT) will stall for a while following the suspension of five members picked by Trade Cabinet Secretary (CS) Betty Maina last month to preside over the tribunal.

The appointment of Mr Cyprian Mugambi Ngutari, Ms Patricia Chepkurui, Mr Kyalo Mbobu, Mr Andrew Mutuma and Mr Chege Charles Gakuhi was put on hold by Justice Maureen Onyango to await the outcome of a petition filed by lawyer Benard Odero Okello on July 28.

Justice Onyango of the Employment and Labour Relations court was told the BPT is a quasi- judicial body whose members are supposed to be appointed by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) and not the Cabinet Secretary for Industrialisation, Trade and Entrepreneurship.

Mr Okello told the judge that the procedure used to appoint the five members of the BPT to take over from the Mbici Mboroki team whose term expired June 14 this year was wrong and irregular.

Ms Maina published the names of the five in the Kenya Gazette Notice Number 4244 of June 22 2020.

The appointments were to take effect from June 22 for a term of three years.

Mr Okello claimed that the CS did not advertise for the posts so that interviews and vetting could be conducted and those who qualify be appointed

"The CS settled on the five members as the qualified one without disclosure to the public on the process employed to arrive at them," Mr Okello told the court.

He told the told the court that the CS also breached the two-thirds rule by selecting only one woman Patricia Chepkurui and four men contrary to Article 27(8) of the Constitution.

The lawyer is asking the court to prohibit the CS from appointing the five as members of the BPT and further asking the court to quash the Gazette Notice.
UC Web, the company behind the UC Browser, UC News and Vmate has stopped its services in India owing to the ban on Chinese apps

UC Web, the company behind the UC Browser, UC News and Vmate has stopped its services in India owing to the ban on its three popular apps. The Indian government, on June 29, issued a blanket ban on 59 mobile apps including TikTok, Shareit and more citing national security issues with these apps that either originate from China or have links to the Chinese state.

Now, as a follow-up to the ban imposed on UC Browser, UC Web and Vmate apps in India, Alibaba Group Holdings owned UC Web has halted its services and has laid-off some staffers according to some reports. As per a UC spokesperson, the company is terminating its services indefinitely. We have complied with the governments recent directive concerning 59 apps and stopped the service, UC Web said in a statement to the press.

UC Browser, UC News stops services amidst ban on Chinese apps in India

After the ban imposed on three of its popular apps in India, UC Web issued a letter to its employees and as per a report by Reuters, the company has terminated its services due to the ban which prevents the company from currently operating in the country. Its unclear whether UC Web is temporarily stopping its services or has completely exited the country.

In 2017, a year after its launch, UC News reportedly had 100 million active users and in 2018, UC Browser became the sixth most-downloaded app in India and crossed 130 million monthly active users shortly afterwards. The offices of the UC Web in Mumbai and Gurugram have been shut down and its unclear whether the employees will be compensated for the closure of UC Webs business in India.

The Indian government, in its order, states that it has found these apps engaged in activities which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, the security of the state and public order. In the following days, all the 59 apps were removed from Google Play Store and Apple App Store with some companies stopping their services such as TikTok and more. As the order is in effect, these apps cannot operate in India and have to be temporarily shut down until the ban is lifted.
They keep tabs on people they consider political troublemakers and control Chinas government in Beijing. They enforce rules that have led to the internment of more than a million members of minorities like the Uighurs in the countrys west.

Yet voices of dissent have also come from the party. Dr. Li Wenliang, who sounded the alarm online about a mysterious virus that emerged in China and was interrogated by the police for his trouble before dying of Covid-19, was a party member.

So, too, is the Uighur economist Ilham Tohti, a winner of the Sakharov Prize.

Recent statistics showed 12.3 million of them are 30 or younger, about half have college or university degrees, and 27.9 percent are female. Many party members also offer child care services, run schools, manage technology companies, organize beach cleanups, act in blockbuster movies and do outreach to older Chinese citizens. Alongside them are academics, scientists and business people  lifelines for a U.S.-Chinese economic relationship that has persisted despite souring ties.

For those not at the top rungs of power, membership in the party is often a way to fuel ones career by making the right connections. During the boom years from the 1980s to the early 2010s, many Chinese joined the party to get a leg up in business, academics and the arts.

A party born of a civil war

Founded in 1921, the Communist Party has dominated politics in China since it won a civil war against the Nationalists of the Republic of China in 1949. Since then, it has gone through many evolutions, some dictated by practicality, others by the small-minded calculations of power grabs.
Lowe's customers wear masks as they load building supplies into their truck during the coronavirus pandemic in New York.

Lowe's CEO Marvin Ellison said the retailer had unique advantages that helped it weather the coronavirus pandemic in its early months: more stores in rural areas and a large base of do-it-yourself customers.

As the pandemic stretches on and Covid-19 cases spread beyond big cities, however, the home improvement retailer said it's seen the struggles of small businesses in rural areas. It's looked for new ways to serve and market to customers in a time of social distancing.

On Thursday, Lowe's pledged $25 million toward grants for small businesses in rural communities, including some home professionals and contractors who shop at its stores. It will also turn a few of its parking lots into drive-in movie theaters, an idea that may expand to more locations.

Lowe's Chief Brand and Marketing Officer Marisa Thalberg said like companies owned by minorities and women, rural businesses face certain challenges like limited access to capital and fewer nearby services.

"As we started recognizing where the [pandemic] impact was being felt, we just felt that there wasn't enough conversation around the impact in rural America," she said.

For the home improvement retailer, the pandemic struck at a time when it's trying to reboot its image, overhaul its website and ramp up its business among home professionals. Those efforts have become more complicated during a pandemic  yet Lowe's has seized upon the chance to introduce itself to new customers and woo back former ones as it remained open as an essential business.

Lowe's added curbside pickup to all of its stores. It launched a free video tool for virtual home visits in June to try to entice more plumbers, electricians and other home professionals to join its loyalty program. And it stepped up philanthropic efforts, including a previous $25 million commitment toward grants for minority-owned and women-owned businesses. It's now adding $5 million to that fund, bringing its total small business grant program to $55 million.

Retail was the largest sector to receive the first round of business grants, followed by construction and other services, such as barbershops, nail salons and dry cleaners, company spokeswoman Amy Allison said. She said the businesses covered a wide range from grocery stores and car dealers to plumbers and painters. Each business receives up to $20,000.

In May, when Lowe's first-quarter earnings were stronger than expected, Ellison said the retailer had been buoyed by a few factors. About 25% of its stores are in rural areas that weren't as hard hit as bigger cities in the early months of the pandemic. About 20% to 25% of its sales come from pros  less than Home Depot's 45%. And Ellison said many of its professional customers are "pickup truck pros" who operate small businesses that haven't been hurt as badly as some of the major companies.

Lowe's shares hit a 52-week high of $144.94 on Thursday. The stock is up about 19% so far this year.

Thalberg said the retailer is getting creative to reach customers. It will host drive-in movie screenings for families. A store in Charlotte, North Carolina, will screen "The Secret Life of Pets" and "The Pursuit of Happyness" this weekend. It will have a similar event in early August in Cornelia, Georgia.

The movies will be free, but Lowe's will accept donations to support relief efforts for local small business with the Local Initiatives Support Corp., a national nonprofit that's helping Lowe's distribute its business grants. The retailer will match the donations 2-to-1 ne up to $50,000.

Stores will be closed during the events, but each car of moviegoers will receive a Lowe's movie bucket with masks, hand sanitizer, sanitizing wipes, bottled water and snacks.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ahead of the 26th anniversary of the deadly terrorist bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentine President Alberto Fernandez reaffirmed his government's commitment to bring to justice those responsible.

"The truth is that for Argentines, the AMIA attack is very painful. This was not an attack against the Jewish community only, it was an attack against Argentina," President Fernandez said on an American Jewish Committee (AJC) Advocacy Anywhere program today. "The victims, many of them, were members of the Jewish community. But they were Argentines first and foremost and it hurts us as such."

In a 45-minute conversation with Dina Siegel Vann, director of AJC's Belfer Center for Latino and Latin American Affairs, President Fernandez discussed the AMIA bombing, Hezbollah, antisemitism, his visit to Israel, the coronavirus pandemic, and Argentina's relations with the United States.

Fernandez shared emotionally how the bombing affected him personally. He was teaching at the University of Buenos Aires, but on the morning of July 18, 1994, one of his students did not show up for class. Paola Czyzewski, age 20, was one of the 85 killed in the explosion. Another 300 were wounded.

The president affirmed his commitment and that of his predecessors to apprehend and prosecute the individuals who planned and carried out the AMIA attack. In 2007, the Argentine government concluded that Iran and its terrorist proxy Hezbollah were responsible.

Fernandez criticized Iran for not cooperating in the investigation and not allowing any of the five Iranian officials sought by Interpol to be extradited. "If they are eventually found innocent, they will regain their freedom and go back to Iran, and if not, they will have to be held accountable for what happened," he said.

"What we need is to know the truth. If that truth is unattainable, justice cannot be attained," he said.

A year ago, Hezbollah was added to Argentina's Registry of Terrorist Organizations. "In the case of Hezbollah, there are legal actions against the organization, initiated in Argentina which have advanced, including the confiscation of resources to underwrite their activities," said Fernandez.

"The truth is that terrorism cannot coexist with a democracy," said Fernandez. "The international community cannot coexist with terrorism and cannot be passive against terrorism, its ideologies, and motivations."

Argentina's recent adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism "was easy," he said, because it reflects "what the vast majority of Argentines believe."

"The Jewish community is absolutely an essential part of Argentine society as a whole," he said. "We are all Argentines, and we respect each other's religion, place of worship, origin."

Fernandez discussed his visit to Israel in January and meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "Relations between the State of Israel and Argentina are optimal, as they should be. I always repeat the same thing: we are obliged to have very good relations because we have a very important Jewish community, and there's no room for us not to get along. We are compelled to get along," he said.

The occasion of his first visit to Israel was the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. "That day for me personally was very moving because it put in perspective a moment in history that entailed both tragedy and freedom, the tragedy of Auschwitz and the liberation of those who suffered in Auschwitz. Any human being who witnesses this can only be moved by such a memory," he said. Argentina was the only Latin American country that participated in the January 23 commemoration in Jerusalem.

On how Argentina has been managing the coronavirus pandemic, the president credited his country's public health system for keeping the infection and fatality rates low 1,500 have died  compared to other countries. "No patient is left without medical assistance. This is very important to us. Our hospitals were never oversaturated. Everyone has been able to receive medical attention," he said.

But the president cautioned on the pandemic's economic impact. "I believe that there is a false dilemma surrounding the pandemic. The dilemma of whether to take care of health or take care of the economy. The truth is, no economy works with dying citizens."

The president called Argentina's engagement with the United States "a respectful relationship that must exist between two countries that have always been related and linked."

But he noted contrasting approaches to the situation in Venezuela. "Especially in times of the pandemic, imposing an economic blockade is not a good solution because  beyond the current government of Venezuela  there are Venezuelans who suffer," he said.

"When problems of democratic coexistence appear in a country, members of that country must solve that problem," He added that Argentina and other countries in the region can facilitate achieving a solution. "What I am not willing to do is to participate in imposing a solution on Venezuela."

AJC, the leading global Jewish advocacy organization has maintained a close and collaborative relationship with Argentina and its Jewish community for more than seven decades. For 30 years, AJC had an office in Buenos Aires. AJC delegations regularly visit the Argentine capital to meet with top government officials, as well as the Jewish community. AMIA is an AJC international partner.

SOURCE American Jewish Committee

Related Links

http://www.ajc.org


The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will on Tuesday next week begin hearings in which 48 institutions are expected to shed light on the issues raised by the Auditor General in his 2019/2020 report.

In a telephone interview with The New Times, the PAC Chairperson; MP Valens Muhakwa said that the hearings will commence on July 21 and conclude on August 5.

"We are receiving 48 institutions including districts and the timeframe of the hearing means that we will be receiving about six or seven institutions a day," he said.

Muhakwa said that the hearings will be held face to face but will only allow limited attendance in line with the Covid-19 social distancing guidelines.

Taking on new role

This will be MP Muhakwa's first big test since he was unanimously voted by 78 members of the lower chamber to lead the committee in June this year.

He came in to replace Jean-Chrysostome Ngabitsinze who was appointed Minister of State in charge of Agriculture and Animal Resources in March this year.

Like his predecessor, Muhakwa belongs to the Social Democratic Party (PSD).

Muhakwa, 37, who holds a Master's degree in Public International Law, told The New Times that his education background makes him keen on upholding compliance.

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"I am also keen on value for money. Our country's resources are limited and our budget is funded by citizen taxes and from borrowing, so it's imperative that the money is used right," he said.

He added that there are loopholes in the country's laws that can be used as an excuse for anyone who wants to embezzle government funds.

"The institutions that are given these funds must put them to use them in line with the law. We have clear laws and there are no loopholes that you can use as an excuse. I am a lawyer so when it comes to compliance, I am very strict," he said.

Prosecution is key

In an interview recently, the Auditor General Obadiah Biraro said that prosecuting those responsible for causing government losses would go a long way in fixing the issues.

"You have to have enforcement. If you have not implemented the Auditor General's recommendations, what happens to you? There are rules and if you go against them, you should face the consequences. There is no way out of this other than prosecution. There is no shortcut," he said.

Biraro said that leadership should come with accountability and those trusted with the task to disburse public funds should be stripped of these responsibilities and tasked to refund the monies they lost.

In 2019, the government lost a staggering Rwf5.6 billion due to delayed and abandoned contracts, idle assets and payment of non-existent employees.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is pleased to announce the launch of new Science Partner Journal, Energy Material Advances, published in affiliation with the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT).

Energy Material Advances is an interdisciplinary journal which provides an advanced platform for investigations and research in the fields of material, energy, environmental, photoelectric, electromechanical, and mechanical sciences, as well as physics, chemistry, and biology. The scope will cover multiple fields from cutting-edge material to energy science, investigating theoretical, technological as well as engineering aspects. The journal will publish Research Articles, Review Articles, Short Communications, Perspectives and Editorials.

Feng Wu, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, and Asia Pacific Academy of Materials, and chief professor of energy and environmental materials discipline at BIT, and Jun Liu, the Washington Research Foundation Innovation Chair in Clean Energy, and both Professor of Chemical Engineering and the Campbell Chair Professor of Materials Science & Engineering at the University of Washington , will serve as the Editors-in-Chief of Energy Material Advances.

Energy Material Advances is currently open for submissions and will publish under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). Two additional Science Partner Journal titles from BIT are also launching this year. Cyborg and Bionic Systems is currently open for submissions and Space: Science & Technology will launch later this year.

"Currently, energy science and technologies has become a new hotspot in scientific and industrial development." said Professor Feng Wu, Editor-in-Chief of the journal. "Energy Material Advances focuses on the cutting edge of energy materials and provides a platform which is open for collaborative innovation for the scholars in the field," continued Wu. "We are excited to make unremitting efforts for broader international academic exchanges, more in-depth research and exploration, and more efficient information sharing, to enable this journal to promote and witness the bright future of new energy materials".

"We are delighted that the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) has created the international journal Energy Material Advances with the support and assistance of AAAS," said Professor Jun Zhang, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, and President of the University. "As an important pillar for world economic development, energy and material science is the essential foundation for the high-tech advances in various subject areas and is also one of the most preponderant disciplines of our university," continued Zhang. "The creation and development of this journal will provide an excellent academic exchange platform for relevant scholars around the world to share the latest research achievements in this field and to disseminate the up-to-date progress and cutting-edge trends."

"The Science Partner Journal program is happy to welcome three new journals with another top tier partner, Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT)," said Bill Moran, Publisher of the Science family of journals at AAAS. "Energy Material Advances will cover a wide range of research dedicated to cutting-edge fields that will help advance our knowledge and implementation of critical energy and material science. Under the leadership of Feng Wu and with BIT's guidance and collaboration, we are confident the journal will excel."

New titles participating in the Science Partner Journal program will launch on a regular basis and participation in the program is kept to 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 Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT)

Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) has been one of the key universities in China since the founding of New China. BIT now has 18 professional schools and more than 3,400 staff, including 26 academicians, 47 "Chang Jiang Scholars Program" professors, 40 winners of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, 33 leader talents of the Supporting Program of Global Experts, 4 state level teachers, 6 state level teaching groups, 5 innovative teams of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and 10 innovative teams of the Chang Jiang Scholars Program. BIT has 2 national collaborative innovation centers, 9 state level cooperative innovation centers, state level laboratories and 6 state level research centers. BIT aims to develop students as leaders with ambition, wisdom, innovation and sense of duty. Currently, BIT has established inter-university collaboration with more than 346 renowned universities in 73 countries and regions on six continents and student exchange program with more than 70 partner universities. Its materials science program ranks 53th in the QS 2020 World University Rankings and in the top 100 in 2020 World University Rankings by US News. Since 2010, the BIT materials science program has been in the top 1% of the world in ESI, and the chemistry science program has been in the top 1% of the world in ESI since 2011. Currently, the materials science program ranks 0.103% and the chemistry science program ranks 0.133%. BIT is building an international university and has created a global network for exchange and cooperation. BIT has always formulated its strategies in light of national strategic needs and global developments in science and technology and education, and in accordance with its own strengths and missions. BIT has developed a clear edge in technologies relating to intelligent and bionic robotics, space adaptive optics, green energy, modern communications and industrial process control. See http://english.bit.edu.cn/.
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Bristol council have removed a statue of a Black Lives Matter protester around 24 hours after it was secretly raised on a plinth where a memorial to Edward Colston once stood, before it was dumped in a nearby harbour by demonstrators last month.

Pictures from the scene show workers at the site at around 5.20am on Thursday, more than a month after demonstrators tore down the Colston statue, rolled it through Bristol's streets and dumped it in the city's harbour.

Bristol City Council said it was removed at their request, adding: 'This morning we removed the sculpture. It will be held at our museum for the artist to collect or donate to our collection.'

Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, said he has a 'relentless commitment to build a city for all Bristolians.'

He told Sky News: 'We're not taking down a statue of Black Lives Matter protester, we're taking down the work of a London-based artist who erected it without permission and without any conversation with the city.'

Speaking yesterday, the London-based artist who sculpted the statue of Jen Reid, which stood atop the plinth for around 24 hours, said he didn't have 'any expectations' on how long the piece would stay up.

The toppling of the Colston statue prompted a wave of attacks on varies monuments to historical figures from Britain's past, including Winston Churchill, Oliver Cromwell and Admiral Lord Nelson.

Last month PM Boris Johnson warned: 'We cannot now try to edit or censor our past,' as protests led to some statues in London, including Churchill's and one of Nelson Mandela, being covered up.

Bristol council workers arrived at the former memorial to Edward Colston at around 5.20am this morning to remove a statue of Black Lives Matter protester Jen Reid

The sculpture has been taken to Bristol Museum to collect or donate to its own collection - which will also house the statue to Edward Colston that was toppled last month

Council workers lifted the sculpture of Jen Reid away from the plinth where Edward Colston's statue once stood, and loaded it into a lorry

The sculpture of Ms Reid, titled A Surge of Power, was secretly raised in Bristol on Wednesday and removed earlier today

Sculptor Marc Quinn told MailOnline yesterday he had 'no idea' how long the BLM statue would last after it was erected on a plinth where a memorial to slave trader Edward Colston once stood

The statue, by artist Marc Quinn, was put up in the early hours of Wednesday.

Quinn's lifesize black resin and steel piece of Jen Reid was inspired after seeing a photo of her standing on the empty plinth following the toppling of the Colston statue.

The sculpture, entitled A Surge of Power (Jen Reid), was installed without the knowledge or consent of Bristol City Council.

On Wednesday, Bristol mayor Marvin Rees tweeted: 'I understand people want expression, but the statue has been put up without permission.

'Anything put on the plinth outside of the process we've put in place will have to be removed.'

The Mayor had earlier issued a statement stating that the future of the plinth, and any memorials, must be decided 'by the people of Bristol'. Mr Rees said he has established a 'history commission', which will help authorities 'decide on city memorials and the future of the plinth'.

He said: 'We need change. In leading that change we have to find a pace that brings people with us. There is an African proverb that says if you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.

'Our challenge is to take the city far. The art of building our city will be finding a way to live with our difference so that even where people do not get what they want, they know they live in a city that is their one and respects them.'

A Surge of Power, the title of the sculpture in Bristol raised yesterday, was removed by council workers and taken to a nearby museum

Artist Marc Quinn said he was inspired to create the sculpture after seeing a picture of Ms Reid atop the plinth in Bristol during last month's protests

Black Lives Matter protester Jen Reid posed in front of a statue of herself in Bristol yesterday - this morning council workers have removed the sculpture

I understand people want expression, but the statue has been put up without permission.



Anything put on the plinth outside of the process we've put in place will have to be removed.



The people of Bristol will decide its future. https://t.co/dEsZF9kNRt  Marvin Rees (@MarvinJRees) July 15, 2020

The Edward Colston statue was pulled down in Bristol on Sunday, June 7 during Black Lives Matter protests after years of protest over the former slave trader

Demonstrators then rolled the statue of the 17th century slave trader and pushed it into Bristol Harbour on Sunday, June 7

The statue of Edward Colston had to be fished out of Bristol Harbour and is being restored before it is taken to a museum

Ms Reid, a descendant of Jamaican immigrants, had attended the march in June 7 - her first BLM demonstration - with husband Alasdair Doggart, who helped roll the statue of Colston into the river when it was pulled down.

Speaking yesterday she said seeing the Colston statue being toppled felt like a 'truly historical moment'.

She added: 'This sculpture is about making a stand for my mother, for my daughter, for Black people like me. Its about Black children seeing it up there. Its something to feel proud of, to have a sense of belonging, because we actually do belong here and were not going anywhere.'

Artist Marc Quinn said the new statue was a 'temporary public installation'.

He told MailOnline yesterday: 'We have no idea how long it will be there, we don't have any expectations.

'Jen and I are not putting this sculpture on the plinth as a permanent solution to what should be there - it's a spark which we hope will help to bring continued attention to this vital and pressing issue.'

The monument to Colston is currently being restored after being fished from the water and will eventually be placed in a museum.

A team of ten people led by Mr Quinn worked quickly and in secret to erect the statue. Workers arrived in two lorries and had the sculpture up within 15 minutes using a hydraulic crane truck parked next to the plinth.

Protesters tore down a statue of Edward Colston on Sunday, June 7, on the same day a memorial to Winston Churchill in London was defaced with the words 'was a racist' written on a plinth underneath.

A 'hit list' of memorials to some of Britain's most famous figures has been created by an anti-racism group and uploaded to the website Topple The Racists

It prompted a wave of statues being targeted with graffiti or being attacked during protests, culminating in some statues, including ones of Nelson Mandela and Winston Churchill, being covered up to be protected from vandals.

The Topple the Racists campaign launched a comprehensive list of statues it wanted to see removed as it believed the names behind the monuments held racist beliefs.

It led to Oriel College at Oxford University voting to remove a statue of Cecil Rhodes, a colonialist politician in southern Africa in the 19th century.

Boris Johnson wrote last month: 'We cannot now try to edit or censor our past. We cannot pretend to have a different history. The statues in our cities and towns were put up by previous generations.

'They had different perspectives, different understandings of right and wrong. But those statues teach us about our past, with all its faults. To tear them down would be to lie about our history, and impoverish the education of generations to come.'
'Decade of Excellence Forex Brokerage Asia 2020' award marks an important milestone in the global expansion of HotForex, the award winning multi-asset broker whose unrivalled reputation has spanned the corners of the world

PORT LOUIS, Mauritius, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- HotForex, the internationally acclaimed forex and commodities broker on CFDs, has been proudly presented with the 'Decade of Excellence Forex Brokerage Asia 2020' award by Global Banking & Finance Review, as a result of its commitment to providing innovative high-quality trading services to all its clients in the Asian region and beyond.

George Koumantaris, CEO, HotForex, commented: "Winning this award is a nod to the top-quality services our company provides to its clients and reaffirms our position as an industry leader in the Asian region. Our aim is to continue to apply our expertise skills in serving the needs of our clients complying best practices, experience and knowledge. It's a true honor to receive this award and we take this opportunity to thank all our loyal clients for their support."

This year, HotForex celebrates ten years in business. In only a decade, the company has become a leading global FX broker with award-winning services that include full client support and protection, all the latest trading instruments and tools, and regulatory licenses from world renowned authorities.

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WASHINGTON  After several days spent weathering attacks from White House officials, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci hit back Wednesday, calling recent efforts to discredit him bizarre and a hindrance to the governments ability to communicate information about the coronavirus pandemic.

I cannot figure out in my wildest dreams why they would want to do that, Fauci said in an interview with The Atlantic published Wednesday, speaking of recent attempts by President Donald Trumps aides to undermine him. I think they realize now that that was not a prudent thing to do, because its only reflecting negatively on them.

It was the latest salvo in a war that has broken out in the middle of a pandemic between Fauci, the governments top infectious disease expert, and a White House that has never evolved beyond the bare-knuckle tactics of the 2016 campaign.

On Wednesday, Peter Navarro, Trumps top trade adviser, published a brazen op-ed article in USA Today describing Fauci as wrong about everything. Over the weekend, another of Trumps top advisers shared a mocking cartoon that portrayed Fauci as a leaky faucet. Other White House officials have targeted Fauci by distributing opposition research-style documents to reporters that detail what they say are his mistakes.

All the while, White House officials  including the president and the press secretary  assert in the face of the evidence that there is no concerted effort to attack Fauci.

Were all on the same team, including Dr. Fauci, Trump told reporters Wednesday as he left the White House for Atlanta. When he was asked about Navarros choice to go around White House channels to publish the op-ed article in USA Today, the president added that Navarro shouldnt be doing that.

Fauci, 79, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a post he has held since 1984, is no stranger to criticism. He oversaw much of the governments response to the AIDS epidemic, weathering criticism from activists like Larry Kramer, who called him a murderer and an incompetent idiot.

Trumps administration presents a different challenge. Because Fauci is a career civil servant, his job is not in jeopardy, and it is unlikely that Trump can completely exile him, given his emergence as the governments most credible voice on the pandemic. He has not briefed Trump in weeks, preferring to work with Dr. Deborah L. Birx, who helps coordinate the administrations coronavirus response, or to send his messages through Vice President Mike Pence.

Without directly criticizing the president  both men have emphasized their personal fondness for each other  Fauci has begun fighting back.

On Monday, he met with Mark Meadows, White House chief of staff, to discuss his ability to speak about the virus on television  his broadcast appearances have been sharply curbed in recent weeks by Meadows and members of the communications staff. And in The Atlantic interview, Fauci complained that the administrations actions had made it difficult for health officials to communicate accurate information.

It distracts from what I hope would be the common effort of getting this thing under control, rather than this back-and-forth distraction, which just doesnt make any sense, Fauci said. Weve got to almost reset this and say, OK, lets stop this nonsense. Weve got to figure out, how can we get our control over this now, and, looking forward, how can we make sure that next month, we dont have another example of California, Texas, Florida and Arizona?

He added, So rather than these games people are playing, lets focus on that.

In the interview, Fauci discussed the op-ed article by Navarro, which had the stark headline, Anthony Fauci Has Been Wrong About Everything I Have Interacted With Him On. In the piece, Navarro presented what White House officials have been saying privately about Fauci and what Trump has said publicly: They like Fauci personally, but he has made mistakes.

Fauci responded with bewilderment. I cant explain Peter Navarro, he said. Hes in a world by himself.

The White House sought to distance itself from the attack by Navarro, but it did not denounce its substance.

The Peter Navarro op-ed didnt go through normal White House clearance processes and is the opinion of Peter alone, Alyssa Farah, White House director for strategic communications, wrote on Twitter, adding that the president values the expertise of the medical professionals advising his Administration.

White House officials declined to comment when one of the presidents closest advisers, Dan Scavino, posted a mocking cartoon of Fauci to social media.

Tension between Navarro and Fauci has been brewing since the early days of the pandemic this year. In a coronavirus task force meeting that Navarro asked to attend, the two argued over the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine, a drug that Trump has promoted as a cure for the virus.

Navarro, an economist by training, has since defended his credentials when it comes to sparring with Fauci over possible medical treatments.

Doctors disagree about things all the time. My qualifications in terms of looking at the science is that Im a social scientist, Navarro told CNNs John Berman in April. I have a Ph.D. And I understand how to read statistical studies, whether its in medicine, the law, economics or whatever.

Navarro is known to go around official channels to make sure his opinions are aired. In his op-ed article, he wrote that I confronted him with scientific studies providing evidence of safety and efficacy, and he promoted a new study that he said showed a 50% reduction in the mortality rate when the medicine was used. Medical experts have criticized that study, published by the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, as incomplete.

Navarro also wrote that he had warned officials in late January of the threat posed by the coronavirus, while Fauci had fought against the presidents courageous decision to close U.S. borders to travelers from China.

It is true that a memo that Navarro wrote outlining the threat of the virus was the earliest high-level alert known to have circulated inside the West Wing during the early days of the administrations response. It is also true that Fauci was initially skeptical of closing the countrys borders, over concerns such an action could limit the movements of doctors and other health professionals trying to contain the disease. But by the end of January, Fauci and other public health experts were on board with the decision.

Despite the continuing attacks by administration advisers and the attempts to limit his television appearances, Fauci has not stopped other public appearances. On Tuesday, he urged Georgetown University students to trust public health experts over politicians, without criticizing the administration he works for directly.

You can trust respected medical authorities. I believe Im one of them. So, I think you can trust me, Fauci said. I would stick with respected medical authorities who have a track record of telling the truth, who have a track record of giving information and policy and recommendations based on scientific evidence and good data.

He added, Dont get involved in any of the political nonsense, calling it a waste of time.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Apple is soon going to be the subject of another antitrust probe from the EU. As per Reuters, EU competition regulators are currently asking for information from nearly 400 companies to see if companies like Apple and Amazon are indulging in anti-competitive behavior using their voice assistants Siri and Alexa in any way.

The EU decided to investigate the segment after noticing the amount of user data thats generated and involved with IoT devices. Thus, it wants to make sure that dominant players like Apple are not using their position to put their competitors at a disadvantage.

It sends an important message to powerful operators in these market that we are watching them and that they need to do business in line with competition rules, European Competition Commission Margrethe Vestager told a news conference.

The EU wants to make sure that all the voice assistants and IoT devices are interoperable with each other. This is certainly not possible as things stand right now, at least on the HomePod. While one can playback music from Spotify on Alexa- or Google Assistant-powered speakers, Siri only plays well with Apple Music on the HomePod. The company is adding an option to change the default music provider on the HomePod with iOS 14 but as of now, it is unclear how this feature will work and what limitations it will have.

There are other limitations with Siri on the HomePod as well which do not exist on Alexa or Assistant speakers. This is perhaps also the reason why the HomePod despite its outstanding sound quality failed to attract consumers.

If any of the companies are fined guilty of breaching the antitrust rules, the EU has the power to fine them up to 10% of their global turnover.

[Via Reuters
Lawmakers have also challenged the appointments in other ways. A bill approved Tuesday by the House Appropriations Committee stipulated that none of the funds made available in this or any other Act . . . may be used for the salaries or expenses of more than five political and presidential appointees in the Bureau of the Census. The appointment of Cogley and Korzeniewski brings the total number of appointees at the bureau to six; the House is expected to vote on the bill this month.
Man, dog pronounced dead after early morning explosion, structure fire near Harbor Springs

A man and a dog have both died as the result of an explosion and structure fire early Tuesday morning in West Traverse Township near Harbor Springs.
London, July 16 : Shamima Begum, a British resident who ran away in 2015 to become an Islamic State (IS) jihadi bride, has won a legal battle to be allowed to return home to fight the government's decision to remove her UK citizenship, a media report said on Thursday.

In its ruling, the Court of Appeal said she had been denied a fair hearing because she could not make her case from the camp, the BBC reported.

The judgement means the government must now find a way to allow the 20-year-old to appear in court in London despite repeatedly saying it would not assist removing her from Syria.

Responding to the development, Daniel Furner, Begum's solicitor, said: "She has never had a fair opportunity to give her side of the story. She is not afraid of facing British justice, she welcomes it.

"But the stripping of her citizenship without a chance to clear her name is not justice, it is the opposite." Begum had argued that the government's decision to revoke her citizenship was unlawful because it left her stateless.

In 2015, Begum, then aged 15, was one of three schoolgirls from Bethnal Green Academy who left their homes and families to join the IS.

Kadiza Sultana, then 16, and Amira Abase, then 15, and Begum boarded a flight from Gatwick Airport to Istanbul, Turkey, on February 17, 2015, before making their way to Raqqa in Syria.

Sultana was reportedly killed in an air strike in 2016, while Abase's current whereabouts remain unknown.

Begum has claimed that she married Dutch convert Yago Riedijk 10 days after arriving in IS territory, with all of her schoolfriends also reportedly marrying foreign fighters.

She told The Times newspaper that she left Raqqa in January 2017 with her husband and her children who later died.

Her third child died shortly after he was born.
The House Ethics Committee has cleared Democratic Rep. Lori Trahan over allegations that the freshman lawmaker failed to properly disclose the source of $300,000 in personal funds she loaned to her congressional campaign in 2018.

Conservative groups filed complaints against Trahan following her 2018 victory, claiming she failed to properly disclose all her personal financial assets until after winning her House race. The Massachusetts Democrat later acknowledged mistakes with her initial disclosure filings and campaign finance reports and filed amended versions of those documents.

Trahan released a document stating that her husband, Dave, a homebuilder, moved funds into a joint checking account held by the couple. Those funds were then loaned to Trahan's congressional campaign

The Ethics Committee announced last December that it was taking up the case following a review by the Office of Congressional Ethics, the independent ethics watchdog.

In its announcement Thursday, the Ethics Committee said Trahan had not violated any House rules.

Representative Trahans prenuptial agreement with her husband established clear delineations as to the couples income and assets and rights to their income and assets during their marriage, the committee concluded. Based on the prenuptial agreement, the Committee found that Representative Trahans loans to the Campaign were from her personal funds, not excessive contributions from her husband, and therefore did not violate House Rules, laws, regulations or other standards of conduct.

The Ethics Committee also found no evidence that Representative Trahans omissions of required information or errors on her Financial Disclosure Statements and [Federal Election Commission] reports were knowing and willful, and accordingly, did not merit further action. In fact, Representative Trahans amendments to her disclosures on her own initiative show her good faith effort to comply with the relevant disclosure requirements.

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The Ethics Committee said if there were any problems on her campaign disclosure reports, that was an issue for the Federal Election Commission and Trahan to resolve.

In a statement, Trahan blamed the conservative groups for the controversy and said she acted properly during the campaign.

"The respected House Ethics Committee  made up of Democrats and Republicans  investigated this matter thoroughly and has now unanimously confirmed what Ive always maintained: that my campaign acted ethically and that these baseless accusations were just politics," Trahan said in a statement.


By David Lawder

WASHINGTON, July 16 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's executive order ending Hong Kong's special status under U.S. law effectively ends the territory's separate customs treatment from China - but the immediate impact on trade is likely to be limited, trade law experts say.

Trump's order https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidents-executive-order-hong-kong-normalization, issued late on Tuesday to punish China over a new national security law imposed on Hong Kong, does not explicitly mention tariffs nor Hong Kong's separate customs status.

Instead, it suspends a 1992 law granting Hong Kong special economic status, referencing a statute governing country-of-origin labeling for imported goods.

The net effect is to rescind Hong Kong's status as a separate customs territory, said Georgetown University law professor Jennifer Hillman, a former World Trade Organization appellate judge.

That means goods from Hong Kong will now be considered as being from China for duty purposes, Hillman and other Washington trade lawyers said.

As Hong Kong shifted from being a manufacturing center to a trading and finance hub, its goods exports to the United States have fallen, to only $4.7 billion in 2019. The largest category, according to U.S. Census Bureau data https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/product/enduse/imports/c5820.html, was $2.2 billion worth of returned goods initially exported from the United States.

The next largest categories were gem diamonds at $388 million, jewelry at $317 million and other gemstones at $247 million.

"It's not going to be a devastating blow to Hong Kong's economy," said Claire Reade, senior counsel with Arnold and Porter in Washington. She added that much of Hong Kong's exports had shifted to services.

The change also could leave many U.S. tariffs unchanged. Before the Trump administration's trade war with China, goods from both Hong Kong and China had long been subject to duties at the U.S. Most Favored Nation rate, which WTO data show averaged 3.3% last year.

A "Section 301" list subjected many Chinese consumer goods, including diamonds and jewelry, to a 15% U.S. tariff in September 2019, reduced in February to 7.5% as a result of the Phase 1 trade deal with China.

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The Trump order means that gems and jewelry from Hong Kong - among the biggest imports from the territory - along with some other products, are now subject to the same duties.

Several trade lawyers said they were still examining the implications of the order on Thursday, and noted that the U.S. Trade Representative's Office has the ability to grant exclusions from the Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods. A USTR spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump's order does not immediately affect the United States' $30 billion to $40 billion in annual exports https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/product/enduse/exports/c5820.html to Hong Kong, which are largely tariff-free, nor Hong Kong's independent membership in the WTO. However China's threatened retaliation could dampen sales of U.S. goods there in the future, trade experts say.

The port and trade hub is consistently the source of the largest U.S. bilateral trade surplus - $26 billion in 2019 - with top U.S. export categories including semiconductors, diamonds, jewelry, beef and aircraft engines and parts. (Reporting by David Lawder editing by Heather Timmons and Jonathan Oatis)
Voter turnout under 6 percent may not seem like an achievement for democracy, but it made Texas Democrats optimistic Wednesday as they look to break Republicans statewide dominance this fall.

A total of 955,735 people  5.8% of registered voters  cast ballots in Tuesdays Democratic runoffs. That is more than double the amount of votes cast in the 2018 Democratic runoffs, when a race for governor was at the top of the ticket instead of a race for a U.S. Senate seat.

Party leaders said it was the highest raw number of votes cast in any Democratic primary runoff in history. Thats in large part due to the growing electorate, however.

Turnout for the 1994 Democratic runoffs, featuring a U.S. Senate race between Dallas millionaire Richard Fisher and former Attorney General Jim Mattox, was 8.3%, though the number of votes was 746,641.

Gilberto Hinojosa, chair of the Texas Democratic Party, said in a statement that the turnout showed that Texas Democrats are fired up and are ready for change.

Texas is the biggest battleground state in the country, he said. There is unprecedented energy across our great state, and Texas Democrats are putting in the hard work to turn Texas blue in November. This is our moment.

Republicans dont appear threatened. Dave Carney, longtime political strategist for Gov. Greg Abbott, dismissed the numbers on Twitter as not much to tweet about.

We have this same phony debate every two years, he wrote. Its exhausting.

Republicans didnt have any statewide runoffs Tuesday night, so there was no comparable vote count available.

Turnout in runoffs can indeed be hard to evaluate. Often, the biggest influencer can be the nature of the races on the ballot. This year, the ballot was topped by a statewide race between retired Air Force pilot MJ Hegar and state Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas. (Hegar emerged victorious.) Other years, there are no statewide competitions.

But turnout hasnt cracked 3% in a Democratic runoff in the past decade. And the party had reasons to suspect numbers would be lower. This election was in July, usually a sleepy month in politics. Moreso, voting took place in the middle of a pandemic. Democrats had sued state leaders in an attempt to expand the availability of mail-in voting, but those lawsuits failed.

We are really thrilled with the turnout for this, Hegar told reporters as results came in late Tuesday night. A primary runoff electorate should be really small. This is a symptom of trouble coming for John Cornyn this general.

Patrick Svitek contributed reporting.

The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Bachelor in Paradise star Niranga Amarasinghe appears to have taken a swipe at the show's lack of diversity.

The 28-year-old aircraft engineer wrote a telling message on his Instagram, as he shared a group photo of the remaining contestants after Thursday night's episode.

'People say one picture speaks a thousand words. This picture speaks an infinity,' wrote Niranga to his 3000 followers.

'One picture speaks a thousand words!' On Thursday night, Bachelor in Paradise star Niranga Amarasinghe (centre, back) appeared to take a swipe at the show's lack of diversity

In the promotional image, the male bachelors are seen standing behind the female bachelorettes they gave roses to.

In the centre of the group shot, Niranga is seen smiling, directly behind Mary Virturino. The couple, at this stage, are the only people of colour on the show.

This fact wasn't lost on viewers of Channel Ten's popular franchise.

'They have a POC [person of colour] guy on #BachelorInParadiseAU and they don't give him any screen time. Please gimmie some diversity,' one fan begged on Twitter.

Speaking out: The 28-year-old aircraft engineer wrote a telling message on his Instagram, as he shared a group photo of the remaining contestants after Thursday night's episode

Telling: 'People say one picture speaks a thousand words. This picture speaks an infinity,' wrote Niranga to his 3000 followers

'You guys really need to stop casting token Asians and/or PoC for your bloody shows! Show some real DIVERSITY and by diversity I don't mean just blondes [or] brunettes,' quipped a second.

'Niranga chose Mary! Do they have a romance? We'll never know because there's literally no footage of them. Like any island where a group of white people turn up... this is skewing racist,' commented a third.

A fourth was to the point: 'Give Niranga more screen time! it's almost like Channel Ten just threw him in there for some "diversity" and then said "eh... good enough."'

Speaking out: 'They have a POC [person of colour] guy on #BachelorInParadiseAU and they don't give him any screen time. Please gimmie some diversity,' one fan begged on Twitter

Another fan drew attention to the success story that is MasterChef: Back to Win.

'So after an amazing celebration of Australian diversity in #MasterChefAU we're going to #BachelorInParadiseAU where 11 of the 13 look to be white af and of course completely heteronormative,' they said.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Niranga and Channel Ten for comment.

Bachelor in Paradise comes after the culinary cooking show celebrated its most diverse season yet.

Scathing: 'So after an amazing celebration of Australian diversity in #MasterChefAU we're going to #BachelorInParadiseAU where 11 of the 13 look to be white af and of course completely heteronormative,' another fan pointed out

Asian Australians have made up one-third of the returning favourites on Back to Win.

Contestants Brendan Pang, Khanh Ong, Reynold Poernomo and Poh Ling Yeow are all of Asian descent, as are Sarah Tiong, Jess Liemantara and Amina Elshafei, who is of Korean and Egyptian descent.

Ousted contestant Ben Ungermann, who was dropped from the series, is of Indonesian and Dutch descent.

Diverse: Asian Australians have made up one-third of the contestants this season. Pictured left to right: Jess Liemantara, Khanh Ong, Poh, Brendan Pang and Reynold Poernomo

The ratings juggernaut has also included a number of openly gay constants including Brendan Pang, Reece Hignell, Courtney Roulston and Khanh Ong.

Judge Melissa Leong told The Herald Sun on July 5 that many viewers finally have a reflection of themselves on TV.

'Everybody deserves to be seen and to be heard. Regardless of whether that is your culture, your language, who you love, your ability, or the way you chose to live your life, everybody deserves to be seen and be heard.

She added that 'it makes me very happy that people who look like me' can see themselves on TV.
A Middlesex County woman alleges she was shackled to a hospital bed during her labor, which required an epidural and a C-section, by correctional officers  a practice long condemned by medical professionals, according to a federal lawsuit filed last week.

The lawsuit details the final months of the 30-year-olds pregnancy and the birth of her son in 2018 as she was remanded to the Middlesex County jail following a substance abuse relapse in a drug court program.

From allegedly having her ankle shackled to her bed in labor while experiencing painful contractions to being restrained in the postpartum recovery room, the lawsuit alleges the woman, whose identity is anonymous, experienced the unnecessary and barbaric practice of shackling pregnant women.

What stands out to me is how needless and cruel it was to put restraints on her, Katie Rosenfeld, one of the attorneys representing the woman, said in an interview this week.

It is very emotional for her and deeply traumatic for her. It remains a sore in her life, she added. This was the manner in which her only son  who is now a lovely, healthy 2-year-old boy  came into the world.

Shackling pregnant inmates during labor has long been denounced by correctional and medical professionals as it increases the potential for harm to the woman and baby, according to the American Medical Association.

The New Jersey Department of Corrections adopted new regulations in 2017 that prohibited shackling pregnant inmates, though it did not become a state law until Gov. Phil Murphy signed the Dignity for Incarcerated Primary Caretaker Parents Act earlier this year.

Even at that time, everyone understood that shackling a woman during labor was the wrong thing to do medically and doing so showed a deliberate indifference to medical needs, said Larry Lustberg, another attorney representing the woman.

However, the lawsuit alleges that there were other pregnant women at the Middlesex County jail and Middlesex County officers used restraints on all pregnant prisoners who were confined at the same time in 2018 as the woman who brought the lawsuit. The other women are not named and are not apart of the lawsuit.

The woman in the lawsuit declined to comment through her attorney, though Rosenfeld said the woman really wants to make sure other people there dont go through this.

According to the lawsuit, the case is about Middlesex Countys inhumane and dangerous conduct of shackling a pregnant prisoner.

The 30-count lawsuit filed against the county, its jail, the sheriffs office and the officers who allegedly shackled the woman includes allegations of deliberate indifference to serious medical needs, subjecting her to dangerous and inhumane conditions of confinement and excessive force.

The warden of the correctional facility, Mark J. Cranston, did not return multiple requests for comment regarding the lawsuit. Neither did county officials or the sheriffs office.

The woman was four months pregnant at the time she was incarcerated at the Middlesex County jail, according to the lawsuit.

From February until July when the woman was transported to off-site medical appointments or court appearances, the lawsuit alleges that the officers transporting her unnecessarily restrained (the woman) by placing her in handcuffs, despite being well aware she was pregnant.

Her experience allegedly worsened, according to the lawsuit, as she went into labor on July 11.

Around 9 p.m. that day, the womans water broke. She pleaded with jail staff to allow her to call her family to let them know she was going into labor, but the staff refused to permit her to call her family, and also refused to do so themselves, according to the lawsuit.

No one from her family would know she was in the hospital until the next day, according to the lawsuit.

She was soon transported to St. Peters University Hospital in handcuffs by correctional officers. When she arrived at the hospital, she was allowed to use her hands to change into a gown and use the bathroom, but when she got into the hospital bed, an officer allegedly immediately shackled her right ankle to the bedrail, according to the lawsuit.

The shackle was allegedly extremely tight and caused the woman pain, the lawsuit alleges. She was trapped on her back and unable to fully turn to her side or otherwise easily changing positions to manage the extreme pain of labor, according to the lawsuit.

When a nurse asked if the woman being shackled was necessary, according to the lawsuit, one of the officers in the room allegedly said he was following protocol.

Over the next 12 hours, the woman allegedly remained shackled through the majority of labor as officers from the Middlesex County jail and Middlesex County Sheriffs Office monitored her in rotations, according to the lawsuit.

The woman, according to the lawsuit, continually asked to be unshackled and have her family notified that she was in labor. Officers allegedly refused to both.

She was a really brave advocate for herself and yet, she couldnt convince them to stop this conduct so I think about other people who maybe arent as together in this moment as she was and may have been subjected to worse shackling practices by these defendants, Rosenfeld said.

In one instance, officers also allegedly initially refused to remove the ankle restraint when the woman was going to receive an epidural, but they eventually removed it briefly so it could be administered, according to the lawsuit. The officers put the restraint back on immediately after the epidural, even though the woman lost the ability to use her legs effectively and was not a flight risk, according to the lawsuit.

Doctors soon determined an emergency C-section needed to be performed. As she was wheeled to the operating room, the officers did not remove the ankle restraint on her, according to the lawsuit.

Shortly after 10 a.m. on July 12, the woman gave birth to a boy who weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces.

When medical personnel handed (the woman) her baby, in what should have been a purely joyous moment, (the woman) cried because she was alone, humiliated, and shackled to a bed, the lawsuit says.

Her family, including her fiance, was unaware of the birth of her child until afterward, according to the lawsuit.

Rosenfeld, the womans attorney, said not allowing the woman to contact her family was gratuitously nasty.

According to the lawsuit, the woman remained in the hospital the next few days and at nights, she allegedly remained shackled to the bed. When she was transported back to the Middlesex County jail she was cuffed with her hands behind her back and also cuffed around her ankles, according to the lawsuit.

When asked why she was being restrained like that, an officer allegedly said, youre not pregnant anymore, according to the lawsuit.

The woman has since been released from the jail. On Sunday, she celebrated her sons second birthday.

But a cloud still hangs over head of how she was allegedly treated as her first child was born, Rosenfeld said.

It is something that has haunted her for the last two years, she said.

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Joe Atmonavage may be reached at jatmonavage@njadvancemedia.com.
One of Ontarios premier blues festival is the latest casualty of COVID-19.

The Canal Bank Shuffle in Thorold, which gathers about 35 acts in multiple venues every October, has pulled the plug for 2020. Organizer Bob Liddycoat says even if provincial restrictions for concert crowds start loosening up in time for October, its too late for Niagaras largest music festival.

The situation made it impossible, he says. We would need everything to be wide open right now in order to even plan.

The festival usually has plenty of American performers, and the closed border made this years event a long shot, Liddycoat adds.

Even if we went with an all-Canadian (line-up), wed still have to know right now, he says. And we just dont.

The sponsors too. Weve got a program thats been heavily supported by local business and it probably not economically feasible for them to pay for those ads this year.

It will be the first time in 18 years the four-day festival wont happen. Its also the final music festival in Niagara to announce its cancellation this year.

Founded in 2002 with 12 Canadian acts, the festival has been a drawing card for blues buffs from Toronto and Buffalo. Liddycoat says many blues acts which couldnt find gigs in the big cities would be booked for multiple shows in Thorold.

The event has also raised more than $200,000 for local charities over the years.

Despite not having a program this year, Liddycoat says hes always focussed on the festival, and plans to have shows throughout the year in Thorold with pandemic safety measures in place.

We dont want to let that reputation go, he says. In the meantime, we hope to run some one-night events. We always had six or seven one-offs every year, so maybe that will start up again.
(Bloomberg) -- This spring, Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale gave the operation he had been building for the last three years a nickname: the Death Star. It is firing on all cylinders. Data, Digital, TV, Political, Surrogates, Coalitions, etc. In a few days we start pressing FIRE for the first time, he wrote on Twitter Inc.

But now that the time has come for the Death Star to be fully operational, Parscale has been removed from its command. On Wednesday night President Donald Trump replaced Parscale with Bill Stepien, his administrations former political director. Parscale will stay on to run the campaigns digital and data operations. But it was a humbling demotion for the operative who was largely seen as the mastermind of Trumps unconventional 2016 run, and a reminder that campaigns are about more than tactics.

As head of Trumps digital operations four years ago, Parscale ran an aggressive advertising operation that focused on Facebook Inc., using the companys Lookalike Audiences tool to target users of the social network who met the profile of Trump supporters. The campaign also engaged in a strategy of self-described voter suppression, where it targeted Black voters, White liberals and young women with anti-Hillary Clinton messages.

Trumps campaign also ignored conventional wisdom to target states like Wisconsin and Michigan that the Clinton campaign seemed to take for granted. Just days before the 2016 election, reporters were asking why the campaign was sending Trump to Grand Rapids, Michigan. But Parscale and his digital operation ultimately won the support of enough working class white voters to pull out surprise victories in those states. He became a sudden star, and Democratic strategists worried that his success showed that theyd fallen far behind in online campaigning, setting up 2020 as a do-over.

Now the Trump campaign is in a deep slump, for reasons that have less to do with campaign tactics and more to do with the presidents performance on the coronavirus. I think the shake-up is to be expected. Indeed, the only surprise here is that it has taken this long, said Steven Livingston, the founding director at the Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics at George Washington University. It can be explained by two words: Tulsa and polls, he said, referencing the presidents poorly-attended campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. When youre running about 15 percentage points behind your opponent, somethings got to give. That something was Brad Parscale.

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Many campaign expertsincluding Parscale himselfsay that what he did in 2016 wasnt so revolutionary. Brad Parscale is no digital dark arts genius, says Tara McGowan, founder and CEO of Acronym, a non-profit associated with the Democratic Party that is focused on digital campaigning. Brad was proficient at digital marketing best practices, took them seriously and he was empowered to do them seriously at scale.

Trump named Parscale as his campaign manager in early 2018a remarkably early decisionand Parscale began laying the groundwork for an even more aggressive data operation for the presidents re-election bid. The campaign spent heavily online. It has used waves of ads on Facebook and Alphabet Inc.s Google to ask voters to sign petitions on behalf of the president, often highlighting culture war conflicts that motivate Trumps strongest supporters.

The targeted ads are often aimed at getting people to share an email address so the campaign can assemble profiles on prospective voters in order to turn them out to vote. Trumps mobile application, which in June had nearly 800,000 downloads, asks for permission to access far more data than the campaign app of Joe Biden, his Democratic rival, according to MIT Technology Review. It has also been fastidiously collecting voters phone numbers.

Parscales fixation on data collection was a factor in one of the campaigns largest failures to date: the sparsely-attended rally in Tulsa. The campaign continued to collect reservations even after the waiting list had far more people than the venue could accommodate. Parscale boasted that the large number of total reservationswhich were inflated by a prank by Trump opponentswas a sign of deep support. When voters didnt turn out for the rally, he tried to position the real-world outcome as inconsequential, since the campaign got their data anyway.

Parscale did other things to alienate the president. He took the unusual strategy of turning his own Facebook page into a sort of campaign surrogate. He has attracted headlines for his Ferrari and $400,000 boat. He violated campaign rule 101 which is dont promote yourself more than you promote the campaign, said Ben Nuckels, a Democratic media consultant and former campaign manager.

Demoting Parscale suggests the campaign sees its problems in terms of flawed tactics, according to Livingston. He described its strategy as, change leadership and get yourself a new tactical strategist.

But its not clear how much Stepien intends to change the strategy, especially with Parscale continuing to run the digital operation. In a statement Thursday, Stepien said Parscale would be heavily involved, and questioned the accuracy of the polls showing Biden with a large lead. We have a better team, better voter information, a better ground game, better fundraising, and most importantly, a better candidate with a better record, he said.

Many people who are following the campaign see Trumps problems as running far deeper than Parscale. It doesnt matter how good your tactical strategy is if your message is not resonating with voters, McGowan said. I was surprised that they werent savvier to pivot to a new message strategy. They were just going back to what worked in 2016, and the world is very different now.

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The recently inaugurated Steering Committee for Nigeria Digital Identity for Development Ecosystem Project is a pointer to the commitment of government to sustain its digital transformation drive, writes Emma Okonji

Since the commencement of the registration of National Identification Number (NIN) and the issuance of national identity cards in 2012 by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), the government agency has been struggling to achieve its mandate of ensuring that all Nigerians including those in Diaspora, are registered and are issued with NIN and permanent identity cards.

The NIMC Act of 2007 stipulates that the NIN is a unique identifier for all citizens and legal residents; and must be presented and verified to confirm their identities before other functional agencies can provide service. According to NIMC Act, all Nigerians are expected to register for NIN and NIMC is mandated by law to ensure the enforcement of the provisions of the law on NIN registration.

In spite of the law, NIMC has encountered many challenges, especially financial, in achieving its mandate. For instance, in eight years, NIMC has struggled to achieve only 41 million NIN registrations, even though the figure accelerated from seven million in 2015 to 39 million by the end 2019 and 41 million.

Worried by the challenges militating against the speedy registration of NIN, the federal government, in September 2018, through approved a strategic roadmap for accelerating the development of digital identity in Nigeria using the ecosystem approach by leveraging the capabilities and facilities of public and private sectors to speed up enrolment. Government also got commitment and approval from three development partners - the World Bank, Agence Francaise de Development (AFD) and the European Union (EU) - to fund the roadmap implementation in the tune of $433 million.

Recently, the federal government went ahead to inaugurate a Steering Committee for the Nigeria Digital Identity for Development Ecosystem Project, to fast-track the implementation of the strategic roadmap for accelerating digital identity development for Nigeria.

The committee

Inaugurating the committee, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha, who also doubles as the Chairman of the team, said digital identification is central and critical to realising the objective of the government's Economic and Recovery Growth Plan (ERGP).

He said the strategic roadmap, approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in 2018, "is a culmination of the enormous collective efforts and contributions of so many institutions and stakeholders which began in the year 2015 when this Government took a decision to forge a credible and cost-effective pathway for identification management."

To accelerate the implementation of the strategic roadmap, therefore, "Government considered and adopted a three-tiered institutional arrangement comprising a Steering Committee, a Strategic Unit, an Implementation Unit situated in the NIMC, and with responsibilities for providing overall governance and coordination, ecosystem partners' coordination and communication and day-to-day project implementation respectively."

The Project Steering Committee was established as the highest body with the responsibility of providing policy, institutional and operational guidance towards delivering on the identification vision and promise of the strategic roadmap. Members of the Steering Committee were appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Members of the committee include Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha as Chairman; Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed as Alternate Chairman/Member; Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami as member. Other members of the committee are: Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu; Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire; Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami; Director-General, National Orientation Agency, Dr. Garba Abari, and the Director-General of NIMC, Aliyu Aziz, who is member/secretary.

Committee's mandate

Among other things, the committee is charged to positively steer the project to accomplish government's objectives, consolidate efforts to date and deliver goals outlined in the strategic roadmap.

Mustapha said the work of the steering committee shall be guided by the following terms of reference as approved by President Buhari, which include: to review the legal and regulatory framework for digital identity development; implement the strategic roadmap; utilise foundational identity to access services; determine the location of the ecosystem strategic unit; and receive the report on the implementation through the DG NIMC and provide necessary guidance and approval.

Addressing the committee at inauguration, Mustapha said the strategic roadmap would offer a credible pathway for the government to develop identification, at a low cost, fast pace and in a trusted environment.

"The task before the committee is to ensure that Federal Government of Nigeria leverages the existing ecosystem of government agencies, states, and trusted private partners to carry out nationwide enrolment through a viable partnership strategy with an effective public awareness campaign.

"As a nation, we have a lot of grounds to cover and our fundamental ID goal can only be reached through joint efforts and coordinated approach.

"Of course, without meaning to enumerate the issues associated with the absence of a foundational ID system which you are all familiar with, the existence of a National Identification Number (NIN) for all Nigerians would improve our delivery of Government services," he said.

While giving assurance that the federal government is "fully committed to early actualisation of this Project to enhance effective development and efficient delivery of government services," the SGF added that discussions, contributions, and decisions of the Committee "are expected to help build foundations towards the institutionalisation of a robust and reliable system of identity envisioned to link all functional identities including a digitised civil registration system with the NIN."

The task

One of the challenges facing NIMC in the discharge of its mandate on NIN registration is funding, which has over time, limited its speed of operations. Industry stakeholders are looking up to the steering committee to live up to expectations and ensure that the necessary framework is put in place to reposition NMIC to expand its registration centres across the country.

The registration centres are expected to expanded from the present 1,000 registration nationwide to over 5,000 registration in order to decongest the crowd at all its 1,000 centres nationwide.

Nigeria is a big country with a huge population and creating awareness and sensitising about 200 million people is not an easy task and requires a lot of resources and logistics to achieve, in terms of NIN registration. Industry stakeholders therefore, called on the steering committee to ensure that NIMC is able to develop its infrastructure framework that will enable it carry out awareness drive nationwide on NIN registration.

President of Computer Society of Nigeria, Prof. Adesina Sodiya, who had earlier frowned upon the slow pace of NIN registration, called on the steering committee to ensure they put in place, measures that will make NIMC financially buoyant to implement projects that will speed up NIN registration and issuance of permanent national ID cards.

Sodiya said NCS shall support NIMC to create a framework for issuance of temporary National Identity Number using complex data matching algorithm and facial recognition.

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"This will allow Nigerians to register for NIMC by themselves using a simple mobile phones. The application will be capable of working offline with upload to the central server when the network is available. Nigerians can get their NIN in a "Do it Yourself," framework and from the comfort of their homes. NIMC can still collect and add fingerprints later for the temporary NIN to be permanent, if fingerprint is important," he said.

President of the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Mr. Olusola Teniola, called on the steering committee to make recommendations that would address the issue of paucity of funds at NIMC, to enable the government agency have sufficient funds to roll out its infrastructure nationwide in order to reach more Nigerians and get them registered to obtain their NIN.

According to him, "The committee should seek to work with NIMC management to address the issues raised on poor funding, the challenges identified in the Nigerian Broadband Plan 2020-2025. The funding recommendations may bring some solutions to how the identified gaps can be closed.

"With the harmonisation of SIM registration database with NIMC database, it is assumed that most of the challenges identified will be resolved. Further funding will also remove the barriers of access to easier capture of citizen information in a speedily manner. Other solutions will be considered during implementation to accelerate the process."

He, however, said: "The population size and lack of coordinated birth records alongside an updated census data set makes the task a very cumbersome one. Adoption of innovative data capturing and cross checking of disparate data to ensure a robust national ID database is going to require more effort from all relevant government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs)."
France will make masks obligatory in all indoor spaces open to the public, with effect from next week, Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Thursday.

Mr Castex told the Senate in Paris that the coronavirus situation was heading in a rather positive direction on the national level.

There were, however, certain local situations that call for greater vigilance, he said, citing the South American territory of French Guiana.

France was one of the European countries hardest hit by the virus, with more than 30,000 deaths.

A strict lockdown was in place from March 17 to May 11.

The countrys public health agency warned last week that the number of confirmed cases was rising again in mainland France, but remained at a low level.

President Emmanuel Macron said earlier this week that he wanted masks to be made obligatory indoors within weeks.

They are already compulsory on public transport and in most of the cultural sites that have reopened.

In bars and restaurants, staff must wear masks, as must customers if they are moving around inside  though that rule is often not followed.

READ ALSO:

The new decree will also apply to all shops, and Mr Castex said workplace protocols could also be revised to make them compulsory in workplaces that are not open to the public.

Mr Castex, who was appointed by Macron two weeks ago, said he expected negative economic growth of 11 per cent this year due to the virus, which would be Frances worst recession on record.

(dpa/NAN)
Garth Williams white quad-cab pick-up truck rolled into the Triple Rock Ranch, a scenic property on the Blackfoot River, last Friday fully loaded.

He and his colleague, Cody White, debated the best spot to get to work as vehicles rolled past on the dirt road to the Ninemile Prairie Campground. Unlike them, these two decided to avoid the water.

They werent here to re-create, they were here to paint. The two Idaho landscape artists came to western Montana for the Dana Gallerys 18th annual Plein Air Paint-Out, a choose-your-own-adventure celebration of making art in the elements, where the trade-off for a beautiful view are obstacles such as heat, rain, wind, potential lightning and invasive bugs, along with the ever-shifting color and light.

This particular afternoon, Williams and Cody held out their phones, or folded their forefingers and thumbs into square view-finders and scanned the area for a composition.

Williams had advised against bringing their gear all the way down to the river, which, while tempting in theory, would burn up the half-gone afternoon for the sake of a view mostly obscured by vegetation.

So they studied the hills around them, and both having found their spot, began unloading the truck, whose interior and bed were stuffed with canvases, plastic tubs and buckets, several of which contained an arsenal of caulking guns filled with oil paint.

After a false start, the two paused and brought out their tent, too. Beyond providing relief from the 80-degree heat, Williams explained how the brightness of direct sun on his canvas would make it difficult to paint properly. Once theyd picked smaller-scale ones they could execute in part of an afternoon, they got to work.

Williams lay his materials out on two folding tables, where he could paint with a palette knife instead of a brush, and mixed on the canvas with those caulking guns.

Earlier that day, Williams had set up in Hamilton and painted a road lined with trees and a crooked fence, with the mountains looming the background  an impressionist through and through, the green canopy sculpted from squares of pigment. The road was shades of deep purple and mauve.

Williams learned to paint from Robert Moore, the award-winning painter based in Declo, Idaho. The ability to elaborate on natures palette while creating a legible landscape is something he picked up from Moore, who has a novel system that teaches that value  lights and darks  take precedence over hue. Williams explained that as long as the hillsides are rendered with the correct intensities, hes given more freedom with the colors he picks.

White, too, is an apprentice of Moores, who he met at church and soon became engrossed in painting in favor of his original path of culinary arts.

Its his fourth Paint-Out, which he loves in part for the mountains and the tamaracks, which arent native to his stomping grounds.

I always know when I get close to Missoula, I start seeing those trees, he said.

White blocked in shapes, such as the distant hills and road. He moved one tree farther toward the center of his canvas to make the piece more interesting. While some landscape artists are purists about such things, he prefers to edit as needed.

Youll see things that look awkward, but you dont have to paint that. As an artist, we can know what looks good and add on that, he said. In some cases, there might be, say, a tree lining up too closely with a mountain, that if reproduced verbatim, would destroy the illusion of distance hes trying to generate.

***

Anna Moore, daughter of Robert Moore, brought a more portable plein air set-up: a folding wooden easel, and so she chose a farther point where she could paint a hollow in the trees framing the mountains on the distant east end of the valley.

Moore, also of Idaho, was painting her first piece of the Paint Out, blocking in her composition with a muted brown base before expanding upon it.

She didnt immerse herself in painting until college, studying graphic design eventually, and working with her father after graduation and showing work at the Dana.

Its very generous of heart for Montana people to embrace us Idaho painters, she said.

Its her third Paint Out, and while she typically paints from photos in her studio, I prefer to paint outside. Theres a lot more inspiration, way more things to pick up and run with.

The photographs feel stifling. In nature, though, youre bombarded.

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Scientists have been left baffled after a mysterious alien-like sea creature washed ashore at a popular beach.

The pink blob-like creature was photographed by Damien Said just north of Hervey Bay in Queensland.

Beachgoers struggled to identify the mottled pink and white sea creature after images were posted to Facebook by environmental conservation organisation SCF Australia.

The gelatinous pink blob was photographed by Damien Said just north of Hervey Bay in Queensland

One of the images was set taken beside the photographer's foot to show the sea creature's enormous size

'Can anyone ID this?' they wrote.

Three images were posted alongside the request for information of a translucent jellyfish lookalike.

One of the images was set taken beside the photographer's foot to show the sea creature's enormous size.

Many social media users were stumped and noted its 'alien' features, but a few people suggested it may be a type of nudibranch - or sea slug.

The invertebrate species are bottom dwelling creatures with more than 2,000 known species.

'This is a hooded nudibranch of the genus Melibe. What an amazing animal!' one person posted.

But one follower was more concerned about the photographer's safety.

'Why would you place your foot near it? It might sting you,' they wrote.

Experts at the Australian Museum are seen images and are working to identify the species, according to Yahoo news.

The mysterious creature washed ashore north of Hervey Bay in Queensland (pictured)
An international expert group led by Mathias Wirth, Professor of Systematic Theology and Ethics at the University of Bern, has developed recommendations for avoiding triage of COVID-19 patients in extreme situations.

The recommendations should support medical personnel in difficult decisions during a second wave of the infection and ensure better patient care.

"A lack of intensive care ventilation units owing to rapidly increasing infection rates numbers among the most significant nightmare scenarios of the corona pandemic," says Mathias Wirth, Head of the Ethics Department in the Faculty of Theology at the University of Bern, because: "Shortages of supply can result in triage of patients suffering from severe cases of COVID-19 and thus force a life or death decision." Here, triage means favoring some COVID-19 patients over others depending on urgency and prognosis.

Together with experts from Yale University, King's College London, Charite Berlin and Essen University Hospital, medical ethicist Mathias Wirth has prepared a statement on these difficult decisions. The statement was published in the "American Journal of Bioethics (AJOB)", the most frequently cited scientific journal in the entire field of ethics.

Triage is only ethically justifiable under very specific circumstances

The experts warn against the possibility of prematurely implementing triage; even though triage allows for decisions based on fairness in extreme situations, it leads to significant strain on the affected parties, relatives and medical personnel.

In order to avoid it, every effort must be made to transfer seriously ill patients to other hospitals without shortages of supply - across country borders in case of emergency, according to the authors.

In concrete terms, Mathias Wirth's team of researchers recommend increased regional, national and even international collaboration in intensive care for COVID-19 patients in preparation for future waves of infection.

Just because triage is correct under some circumstances does not mean that it is correct under all circumstances. There is no real and legitimate triage situation as long as treatment spaces are available elsewhere." Mathias Wirth, Head of the Ethics, Department in the Faculty of Theology, University of Bern

Negative decision requires special care

Secondly, a negative triage decision for individual people should not under any circumstances mean that their medical and psychological care is neglected. Quite the opposite: If they are deprived of a ventilator, maximum effort is required for their care and treatment, both for them and for their relatives.

The statement from Wirth et al. presents all stakeholders who advocate for more collaboration in the future situation with strong arguments. Because the judgments associated with triage give too little consideration to moral problems, according to medical ethicists.

"The suffering that triage decisions involved for patients, relatives and medical personnel in the epicenters of the first wave attests to this," says Wirth. Thanks to the recommendations, triage planning can be classified more clearly as a last resort, meaning that alternatives must be afforded greater attention.
Doctors in Kisumu County have called off their strike after 35 days of boycotting work following yesterday's ruling by the Employment and Labour Relations Court.

Justice Nduma Nderi had directed them to resume work by tomorrow (Thursday) and directed the County Government to effect promotions and salary arrears by August 30.

Consequently, the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) Nyanza branch on Wednesday asked all its members to resume work immediately and not later than 11:59 Thursday.

Chairman Dr Kevin Osuri and Secretary Dr Lameck Omweri said they remain hopeful that Governor Anyang' Nyong'o's administration will respect court orders.

The doctors were protesting the county's failure to honour the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) of 2017.

Justice Nderi ordered Kisumu County to issue promotion letters to 126 doctors and clear their salary arrears by August 30, backdating those promoted to July 2019.

PUBLIC INTEREST

The Judge said that while they were engaged in a strike, the court had considered the overriding public interest in deciding to direct the doctors to resume work due to Covid-19.

The doctors have been on strike since June 6 and efforts by the County to have them resume work flopped.

The union had remained adamant that their demands, which include promotions and salary arrears, needed to be met first.

Their counterparts, the nurses and clinicians who were also on strike, suspended their boycott on June 24 after a similar order by the Labour court.

Last week, Dr Nyong'o held an emergency meeting with members of the County Health Management Team and ordered them to find a solution to the doctors' strike.

"I want to you to find out why the doctors are still on strike when I have addressed most of their grievances. Why are they not in hospitals?" The governor posed to the management team.

He asked the striking doctors to stop blame games and resume work as their pending grievances are addressed.
Pope Francis meets with Cardinal Philippe Barbarin in 2019. Cardinal Barbarin was France's highest-ranking Catholic until he was convicted f failing to report sex abuse - HO/AFP

The Vatican has issued new advice to bishops on reporting cases of sexual abuse of minors by priests. A new 30-page manual published on Thursday tells bishops they must report abuse to civil authorities even if they are not obliged to by local law, strengthening its official guidance on an issue that has caused significant damage.

The much-awaited vademecum doesnt introduce new legislation on the issue, but represents a key step forward in the Vatican's efforts to fully report and investigate cases of priests accused of raping and molesting minors or vulnerable adults.

The request for this new tool was made during the global summit of the presidents of the episcopal conferences on the protection of minors, organized by Pope Francis in February 2019 to address what he called one of the deepest wounds in Church history.

In the new document, issued in six languages, the Vatican tells bishops and high prelates to report possible sex crimes even when not obliged by local laws, strengthening the current policies that require Church authorities to report allegations only when legally bound.

Even in cases where there is no explicit legal obligation to do so, the ecclesiastical authorities should make a report to the competent civil authorities, if this is considered necessary to protect the person involved or other minors from the danger of further criminal acts," the manual says.

Chilean victim of sexual abuse, Juan Carlos Cruz, addresses the media outside the entrance of the Paul-VI residence in 2019 - VINCENZO PINTO/AFP

The guide seems aimed at stripping clerical authorities of any excuse not to launch a preliminary investigation into alleged sex crimes or not to cooperate with law enforcement.

The manual states that allegations should not be dismissed even if there has not been a formal complaint, or if the news was first published via mass media or social media, or even if the source is anonymous. Even in these cases, the guide suggests an attentive evaluation of any type of information received.

Story continues

The manual stresses that the protection of the victims is the top priority. It calls for ecclesiastical authorities to ensure that the alleged victim and his or her family are treated with dignity and respect. They have to be offered welcome, attentive hearing and support, also through specific services, as well as spiritual, medical and psychological help, as required by the specific case.

The guide adds, however, that the same can be done with regard to the accused, who must always be guaranteed the right to self-defense.

The definition of sex abuse provided by the manual is quite broad and can include sexual relations (consensual or non-consensual); physical contact for sexual gratification; exhibitionism and masturbation; the production of pornography; inducement to prostitution and conversations and/or propositions of a sexual nature, which can also occur through various means of communication.
COLUMBUS, OhioDuring the first few weeks of the coronavirus crisis, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine won widespread praise from a large number of Democrats for his swift stay-at-home and business closure orders.

But if the response to DeWines coronavirus speech Wednesday evening is any sign, the governors coronavirus honeymoon with Democrats is quickly giving way to criticism for not implementing a statewide mask requirement and continuing to roll back other social-distancing rules even as cases in Ohio are again on the rise.

In his speech, DeWine urged all Ohioans to take immediate action to slow the spread of the virus, including wearing masks while in public. But he also didnt announce any new health orders, saying that discussion is for another time.

As Ohioans tuned in tonight seeking assurance during these chaotic and frightening times, many of us hoped to see the governor take decisive action to slow the spread of COVID-19, said Ohio House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes in a statement following DeWines speech. Instead, what we witnessed was a governor who refuses to lead in times of crisis for fear of standing up to the political pressure within his own party.

His cowardice keeps him from doing the right thing, and keeps Ohioans suffering far longer than is necessary, Sykes continued.

David Pepper, the Ohio Democratic Partys chair who unsuccessfully ran for attorney general against DeWine in 2014, noted in a statement that he publicly praised the governor in the early months of the coronavirus crisis.

I could not be more disappointed in his speech today, Pepper said. As cases and deaths rise, he announced nothing that will change that direction. ...More must be done. Immediately. And a broad, bipartisan majority of Ohioans strongly supports more being done.

A number of Democratic candidates for state legislature tweeted similar criticism of DeWines speech.

A big nothingburger with a side of disappointment, wrote Patricia Lawrence, the 2018 Democratic nominee for House District 65, a heavily Republican district in Clermont County.

DeWines fellow Republicans, meanwhile, offered little public response to his speech.

State Rep. Jon Cross, a Northwest Ohio Republican whos been a vocal critic of the DeWine administrations coronavirus orders, tweeted during the speech that people should check out a new program offering grants for technology training.

A spokesman for Senate President Larry Obhof, a Medina Republican, didnt immediately reply to a request for comment about the governors remarks.

When asked for a statement about the speech, House Speaker Larry Householder, a Perry County Republican who has also frequently criticized DeWines coronavirus rules, issued a one-sentence statement Wednesday evening.

He did a nice job, the speaker stated.

Read more Ohio politics and government stories:

Gov. Mike DeWine signs mini-capital bill providing $555M for state construction, conservation projects

Ohio Supreme Court to hear media case over releasing video footage of judges shooting

Suit challenging Ohio State University airports tax exemption accepted by state Supreme Court

Ohio travelers must now quarantine when visiting New York, New Jersey, Connecticut due to coronavirus spike

Ohios new color-coded coronavirus alert system guidelines leave a lot of room for interpretation
China is engaged in an economic blitzkrieg to supplant the United States as the worlds only superpower, Attorney General William Barr declared Thursday -- the latest in a series of scathing comments about Beijing by top Trump Administration officials.

Speaking at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Barr said the U.S. response to Chinas global ambitions may prove to be the most important issue for our nation and the world in the twenty-first century.

China uses a variety of predatory and often unlawful tactics to gain an advantage over the U.S., according to Barr.

How the United States responds to this challenge will have historic implications and will determine whether the United States and its liberal democratic allies will continue to shape their own destiny or whether the CCP and its autocratic tributaries will control the future, Barr said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.

Among Chinas alleged predatory practices Barr listed were currency manipulation, tariffs, quotas, state-led strategic investment and acquisitions, theft and forced transfer of intellectual property, state subsidies, dumping, cyberattacks, and espionage.

US Imposes Visa Restrictions on Chinese Tech Companies' Employees Announcement is seen as the latest move to punish Chinese Communist Partys alleged human rights abuses against country's minority Muslim population

Beijing has long rejected many of the assertions made in Barrs speech. Chinas foreign minister warned on Wednesday that Beijing will retaliate with sanctions of its own against U.S. individuals and entities. The ministry said that Hong Kong affairs are purely Chinas internal affairs and no foreign country has the right to interfere, according to media reports.

American business leaders remain the principal focus of Chinese foreign influence operations, said the attorney general. He warned that U.S. executives who fail to disclose their relations with China could run afoul of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. FARA requires agents of foreign governments to disclose their activities and their relationship with foreign entities.

You should be alert to how you might be used, and how your efforts on behalf of a foreign company or government could implicate the law, Barr said.

The attorney generals speech comes amid elevated tensions between the U.S. and China and is the latest in Trump administration officials often strident remarks about Beijings global ambitions in recent weeks.

Last month, National Security Advisor Robert OBrien said decades-long U.S. efforts to moderate the Chinese communist system resulted in the greatest failure of American foreign policy since the 1930s.

US Mulls Ending Deal Underpinning Trading in Chinese Companies Frustration at lack of Chinese transparency is driving move that could push Chinese firms off US exchanges

The days of American passivity and naivete regarding the Peoples Republic of China are over, OBrien told a group of Arizona business executives on June 24.

FBI Director Christopher Wray weighed in last week, saying China poses the greatest long-term threat to U.S. economic and national security.

Almost half of the FBIs 5,000 counter-intelligence cases involve China. The bureau is opening a new China case every ten hours, Wray said.

And at this very moment, China is working to compromise American health care organizations, pharmaceutical companies, and academic institutions conducting essential COVID-19 research, Wray said during remarks at the Hudson Institute on July 7.

In the coming days, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will sum up what is at stake for the United States and the free world, Barr said.

I hope these speeches will inspire the American people to reevaluate their relationship with China, so long as it continues to be ruled by the Communist Party, he said.

The speeches come as U.S. and China have clashed over a host of issues ranging from trade to Hong Kongs autonomy and the coronavirus pandemic. While at one time President Trump aggressively sought to strike a trade deal with China, his administration is taking an increasingly hawkish stance toward Beijing, blaming China for initially covering up the coronavirus and for undermining Hong Kongs autonomy by imposing strict national security laws.

On Wednesday, Trump signed legislation and an executive order that said the U.S. will hold China accountable for its oppressive actions against the people of Hong Kong. The legislation imposes sanctions on Chinese officials who undermine Hong Kongs autonomy, while the executive order ends preferential treatment to Hong Kong.


WASHINGTON, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Family Research Council is pleased to announce that Bob Fu has joined FRC's Center for Religious Liberty as Senior Fellow for International Religious Freedom. As religious persecution continues to spread around the world, and as China in particular continues to play a troubling role, Bob will bring to FRC his specific expertise handling religious freedom issues in that country.

Bob was a former student leader in China during the Tiananmen Square democracy movement in 1989, and a professor and house church leader in Beijing until he and his wife, Bochun "Heidi" Cai, were imprisoned in 1996. After he was exiled to the United States, in 2002 Bob founded ChinaAid and continued to advocate for religious freedom in China. Bob is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and regularly testifies and briefs policymakers and legislators on religious freedom and national security, foreign policy, and rule of law, as well as refugee issues in the free world. He graduated with a Ph.D. from St. John's College at the University of Durham in the U.K. in the field of religious freedom.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins stated:

"We are pleased to have Bob Fu join our team, as his expertise will assist and bolster our efforts to advance religious freedom in China and around the world."

Bob Fu, Senior Fellow for International Religious Freedom at FRC, added:



"I am very honored to join the talented team at FRC as I continue to fight for religious freedom in China and elsewhere around the world. Working together, we can better advance religious freedom for the persecuted worldwide."

SOURCE Family Research Council
A British man convicted of killing a French woman in Ireland in 1996 appeared in court on Wednesday to fight his extradition to France to serve a 25-year murder sentence.

Ian Bailey, now 63, appeared at Dublin's Criminal Courts of Justice to resist surrender to France, which last year convicted him in absentia of the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier.

Plantier, the 39-year old wife of French film producer Daniel Toscan du Plantier, was found dead outside her isolated holiday home near the seaside village of Schull in County Cork on December 23, 1996.

Bailey, who has denied any involvement in the killing, did not speak as he watched proceedings from the back of the courtroom early Wednesday, wearing a navy suit and tie and a green neck scarf.

His lawyer Ronan Munro insisted that two previous Irish court rulings blocking French extradition bids gave him an "ironclad" right not to be surrendered.

"The central submission is that there is a binding judgement of the supreme court that prohibits the surrender of Ian Bailey," Munro told judge Paul Burns.

"In Mr Bailey's case there was a final judgement in 2012; if that wasn't enough there was another judgement in the high court in 2017."

Munro said the third attempt to bring Bailey to France was "prima facie... indicative of an abuse of process."

He added that it was "strange" French authorities had not invited Bailey to attend his own murder trial.

He then read out a written statement from Bailey which said he had "nothing to do with" the death of du Plantier, discovered dead in the early morning wearing night clothes and having been beaten on the head with a concrete block.

Bailey said in the affidavit that he had suffered panic attacks, depression and outbreaks of skin problems as a result of being "overwhelmed" by the stress of his 23-year-long involvement in the case.

"My sleep patterns have been prone to being disturbed with very realistic hunt and re-arrest dreams," the statement said -- adding that he found the loss of his ability to work as a journalist "very distressing".

"Because of my predicament of being a suspected murderer, news organisations were reluctant to be associated to me," said Bailey -- who has never been charged by Irish prosecutors over the case.

He was furthermore unable to travel abroad for fear of being extradited to France and had to miss his mother's funeral -- an ordeal he described as "one of the cruellest aspects of this whole process".

The trial is due to continue on Thursday and Friday with a decision to be delivered at a later date.

(with AFP)
Repeated incitement to violence, planned and organised rioting by armed mobs, targeting of religious places, and multiple incidents of police inaction  these are some of the findings of a committee appointed by the Delhi Minorities Commission to probe the northeast Delhi riots in February. At least 53 persons died and 400 were injured in the riots that rocked the district.

The committee, headed by Supreme Court advocate-on-record MR Shamshad, submitted its 130-page report to lieutenant governor Anil Baijal, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia , other Delhi government ministers and speaker of the Delhi legislative assembly on Wednesday.

The report has been based on individual victim testimonies and physical surveys of damage to religious sites.

The committee said that in the Delhi election campaign between December 2019 and February 2020,multiple speeches delivered by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders such as Kapil Mishra tried to incite the people against anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protesters and called for forceful removal of protesters from the Jafrabad area.

Mishra, who delivered one of his speeches on February 23, denied allegations. He told HT earlier that even legal experts said there was nothing wrong in what he said that day. What I said is captured in video, and everyone has seen that video (on social media), he said.

Referring to local politicians, student activists and some leaders of anti-CAA protesters who were arrested, he had said: The truth of Delhi riots is out; how long they have planned, their funding and why they especially chose the days of [US President] Donald Trumps visit [in February-end]; everything is exposed already.

The report said the violence was not spontaneous and had been planned. It said armed mobs selectively targeted Muslim individuals and properties while shouting slogans.

The attacks were targeted to the extent that in instances where the owners were Hindus but the properties had been rented to Muslims, the buildings were spared but the moveable properties were looted or burned outside the premises, the report said.

Eleven mosques, five madrasas, one shrine and one graveyard were attacked and damaged in the violence, the report said, adding: Non-Muslim places of worship in Muslim majority areas remained untouched and were guarded by Muslims neighbours during the riots.

Multiple testimonies collected by the Fact-Finding Committee recount reports of police inaction even as violence unfolded before them, or of police not arriving despite repeated calls on the emergency call number. Testimonies also suggest how police were patrolling the area but when asked for help, they refused saying they had no orders to act, the report said.

Citing multiple testimonies, the committee noted that first information reports (FIRs) had either been delayed or had not been acted upon and in some cases police were complicit and abetted the attacks or police merely stood as onlookers while the mobs engaged in looting, burning and violence.

Delhi Police said the department had not received a copy of the report, but had been doing a fair and professional investigation of all the 752 FIRs filed in connection with the communal violence.

We started a designated helpline and put advertisements on various platforms, urging people to come forward and file their complaints. As a result 752 cases were registered, mostly on the complaints of people from the minority community. Of them 372 have been solved and more than 200 have been charge sheeted. A total of 1,470 people have been arrested so far. We are still open to receive complaints related to the riots. A special court has been created and special prosecutors have been appointed to expedite the trial of the cases. A claims commissioner has also been appointed for assessing the damage to property in the riots and making rioters compensate the damages, said Delhi Police spokesperson Anil Mittal.

The report said Muslim women were attacked based on their religious identity and threats of sexual violence were also made against them.

The report asked the government to form a five-member independent committee to ensure proper registration of FIRs, probe the complicity and abdication of duty by Delhi Police, make sure that compensation is properly distributed.

We will study this report and if there are any corrective measures that need to be taken, we will absolutely do that, a Delhi government spokesperson said.
Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday said that the Indian government is at advanced stage of negotiations with atleast three countries- France, US and Germany - for bilateral air bubble in view of coronavirus pandemic.

Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday said that the government is at a very advanced stage of negotiations with at least three countries  France, US and Germany  for air bubble in view of coronavirus pandemic. Puri said at a press conference that till International Civil Aviation can reclaim pre-COVID situation in terms of numbers, he thinks that the answer lies in the bilateral air bubbles which can carry as many people as possible but under defined conditions because many countries are still imposing entry restrictions like India.

He also said that the Indian govt is at a very advance stage of negotiations with at least three countries  France, US and Germany for air bubble. Air France will be operating 28 flights from Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru to Paris between July 18 to August 1.

The minister said that in the case of the United States, India has an agreement with United Airlines to operate 18 flights between India and US between July 17 and July 31 but this is an interim one. India has a request from Germany also and an agreement with Lufthansa is almost done.

Also read: Kulbhushan Jadhav granted second consular access

Also read: Disengagement at LAC an intricate process, requires constant verification: Army

He said that normal civil aviation operations will depend on the behaviour of the virus. As per the governments protocol, every passenger who will travel from other countries to India needs to go to seven-day quarantine. Puri said that the government has brought back 687,467 citizens who were stranded abroad in the view of coronavirus-induced restrictions.

Puri said that till July 15, 687,467 citizens have been repatriated. An operation was carried out to evacuate people from Kuwait in August 1990 and around 170,000 people were evacuated from Oman to Mumbai. Air India then entered Guinness Book of World Records. Today, India has repatriated 687,467 citizens so far and this figure increases day by day. India is adding 20,000 passengers every day. Very soon numbers will be over 10 lakh.

Also read: Only God can save us: Karnataka Health minister B Sriramulu amid Covid-19 surge

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Lost amid headlines about the coronavirus pandemic and the seemingly unstoppable stock market rally, has been the monthslong escalation of tensions in the U.S.-China trade war  and it's likely here to stay.

Why it matters: The tariffs continue to impress a sizable tax on U.S. companies and consumers, adding additional costs and red tape for small businesses, farmers, manufacturers and households trying to stay afloat amid the pandemic.

"The trade war has been quietly intensifying," Stephen Gallagher, chief economist at Societe Generale, tells Axios.

Driving the news: White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said late Wednesday that administration officials are "looking at the national security risk as it relates to TikTok, WeChat and other apps" from China and could announce bans in the coming weeks.

That followed remarks from President Trump on Tuesday that he had no plans for "phase two" trade deal negotiations and was "not interested right now in talking to China.

What's happening: The "phase one" deal was cheered by investors as a positive first step, because it stopped a tit-for-tat tariff escalation that was poised to add a tax to nearly every product traded between the U.S. and China.

However, it did nothing about tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese imports already in place that are paid by U.S. companies.

Why you'll hear about this again: With the U.S. ratcheting up the pressure, there is a decreasing likelihood China lives up to its "phase one" agreement.

That means a diminished outlook for industries that were counting on the $200 billion in increased purchases of U.S. agriculture, energy and manufacturing after a brutal 2019.

Remember: The primary cost of tariffs isn't the tariffs themselves, but the deadweight loss of consumers buying more expensive, or less efficient, products.

The trade war also is a major factor pushing businesses to pull supply chains and production out of China, increasing costs and uprooting longstanding relationships.

For big companies, this will weigh on margins; for small companies, it could mean going out of business.

Don't sleep: Deutsche Banks global head of tech strategy Apjit Walia warns that the demand disruption, supply chain upheaval and bifurcated tech standards from a "Tech Cold War" between the U.S. and China could cost the sector more than $3.5 trillion over the next five years.

What's next: Even if Trump loses in November, investors don't expect a significant change in the U.S. approach to China given Joe Biden's recent rhetoric and bipartisan legislation condemning China for its treatment of Uighur Muslims and restrictions on public companies.
YEREVAN, JULY 16, ARMENPRESS. The number of Armenian servicemen wounded in the military operations launched by Azerbaijan on the border with Armenia has not changed, Head of the Crisis Information Center Artsrun Hovhannisyan said at a briefing in Ijevan town.

One of the wounded servicemen is still in critical condition, he said.

10 servicemen of the Armenian Armed Forces were wounded from the Azerbaijani military operations launched in the north-eastern section of the Armenia-Azerbaijan state border. 5 servicemen are in moderate condition. The remaining 4 will soon return to the military service.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan


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Not for distribution to U.S. Newswire Services or for dissemination in the United States of America. Any failure to comply with this restriction may constitute a violation of U.S. Securities laws.

CALGARY, AB / ACCESSWIRE / July 16, 2020 / Sparta Group (TSXV:SAY) (the "Corporation", the "Company", "Sparta Group" or "Sparta") is pleased to announce that its TruckSuite Canada division has assembled an exclusive, symbiotic suite of COVID-19 safety tools to assist the trucking industry. This protective package comes with the added benefit of capturing much needed data to assist society-at-large with its understanding of the effects of the novel coronavirus.

Sparta is a company that prides itself on its environmental stewardship related to its diverse suite of technologies to convert sources of societal waste into new forms of energy. However, the TruckSuite safety tools stand as an important application of intellectual capital in these unprecedented times.

The Sparta team, which includes engineers, scientists, and trucking industry experts, will soon be able to share the details of the proposed safety package, which will cover at least two forms of COVID-19 testing for truckers, a complete pathogen protection package for the drivers and the cabs (where they spend the greatest portion of their life), as well as a comprehensive set of monitoring tools that will provide vital data (in real time) to indicate the health of the driver and the health of the vehicle at all times. Keeping drivers healthy has obvious benefits; keeping the vehicle healthy means less downtime and more uptime, which in-turn amounts to profitability.

The company is presently working with a few different application software developers to finalize apps that will address all aspects of trucking health, including safety and performance status, emissions monitoring, and compliance, along with a sophisticated human health app that can warn drivers of impending health dangers and predict the likelihood of a driver getting sick. There are also other aspects to the TruckSuite safety program that focus more on diagnostic tools; the details of which, we look forward to sharing with the trucking industry and the rest of the world soon.

"Trucker safety was already on the minds of Sparta management and staff before the SARS II virus struck, but the challenges posed by the pandemic are reinforcing that we are heading in the right direction. Our recently formed, TruckSuite Canada division has been in the works for quite some time with both the health and safety of trucks and truck drivers in mind, but now protecting this front-line service while capturing randomized test data is even more urgent. We believe that we have assembled a solid distribution system to service both owner/operators and fleet clients alike. We look forward to making the program available to all in the very near future so that data can be captured to gain a better understanding about the spread of this virus", said John O'Bireck, President and CTO of Sparta Group.

According to the American Trucking Association there are approximately 3.5 million professional truck drivers in the United States. However, the total number of people employed in the industry, exceeds 8.7 million. In fact, about one in every 15 workers in the country is employed in the trucking business, indicating that trucking is an exceptionally stable industry that is likely to continue generating jobs in the coming years. In 2019 alone, the U.S trucking industry generated 389 billion dollars in revenue.

Without healthy truckers, hospitals wouldn't get supplies, service stations would run out of fuel, manufacturers face massive component shortages, mail doesn't get delivered, food shortages occur, and ships sit idle in ports. Most people have now imagined such a scenario due to the worldwide pandemic. Sparta's TruckSuite safety program is designed to help avoid disruptions in trucking.

About Sparta

Sparta Group is a company that owns or holds a controlling interest in a network of independent businesses that supply energy saving technologies designed to reduce energy inefficiencies, achieve reduced emissions, and increase operating efficiencies in various industries. Sparta's network of independent businesses provides a wide range of specialized energy capturing, converting, optimizing, and related services to the commercial sector. Sparta provides capital, technical and engineering expertise, legal support, financial and accounting knowledge, strategic planning and other shared services to its independent businesses.

Sparta is a publicly traded company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. under the symbol "SAY" (TSX.V: SAY). Additional information is available at www.spartagroup.ca or on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

For further information please contact:

John O'Bireck, President & CTO

Email: jobireck@spartagroup.ca

Telephone: (905) 751-8004

Cautionary Statements:

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. When used in this news release, the words "estimate", "project", "belief", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "plan", "predict", "may" or "should" and the negative of these words or such variations thereon or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. Although the Corporation believes in light of the experience of its officers and directors, current conditions and expected future developments and other factors that have been considered appropriate that the expectations reflected in this forward-looking information are reasonable, readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking information because the Corporation can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date of publication of this news release and the Corporation undertakes no obligation to update such forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change. Furthermore, the Corporation undertakes no obligation to comment on analyses, expectations or statements made by third parties in respect of the Corporation. These include, but are not limited to, the failure to obtain necessary regulatory approvals, necessary financing and risks associated with the environmental technologies industry in general. All forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Sparta Capital Ltd.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/597688/Sparta-Announces-Upcoming-Release-of-TruckSuiteTM-Safety-Program
CHICAGO, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the new market research report "Eye Tracking Market with COVID-19 Impact Analysis by Offering (Hardware, Software, Services), Tracking Type (Remote and Mobile), Application (Assistive Communication, and Human Behavior & Market Research), Vertical, and Geography- Global Forecast to 2025", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Eye Tracking Market is expected to grow from USD 368 million in 2020 to USD 1,098 million by 2025; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 24.5% from 2020 to 2025. The high demand for eye trackers in the healthcare vertical, especially for the assistive communication application is one of the key driving factors for the eye tracking market. The increasing penetration of eye tracking technology in the consumer electronics vertical, and high demand for eye trackers for personalized advertisements and consumer research purposes are a few other key factors having a positive impact on the growth of the eye tracking market.

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Mobile eye tracking segment to witness highest growth rate in the eye tracking market between 2020 and 2025

The market for mobile eye tracking is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Mobile eye tracking provides more degree of freedom for the subject, which entails a natural head and eye movement to be recorded. This approach is gaining traction in market research applications in the retail and advertisement sector.

Assistive Communication application to dominate eye tracking market, in terms of size, during forecast period

The eye tracking market, by application, is segmented into assistive communication, human behavior & market research, and others. The eye tracking market for the assistive communication application is expected to hold a dominant position during the forecast period. The need for effective assistive communication devices for physically impaired people and improvements in eye tracking technology drive the market for this segment.

Browse in-depth TOC on "Eye Tracking Market"

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241 - Pages

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North America to hold largest share of eye tracking market by 2020

North America is expected to hold the largest share of the eye tracking market by 2020. The US and Canada are the key countries contributing to the growth of the eye tracking market in North America. Europe is expected to account for the second-largest share of the eye tracking market during the forecast period. The UK and Germany are significant demand-generating countries for eye tracking technology-based products and services in this region.

A few key players operating in the eye tracking market are Tobii (Sweden), EyeTracking (US), SR Research (Canada), Seeing Machines (Australia), PRS IN VIVO (France), Smart Eye (Sweden), EyeTech Digital Systems (US), Eyegaze (US), Ergoneers (Germany), ISCAN (US), iMotions (Denmark), and Lumen Research (UK).

Related Reports:

Gesture Recognition and Touchless Sensing Market by Technology (Touch-Based and Touchless), Product (Sanitary Equipment, Touchless Biometric), Type (Online, Offline) Industry and Geography - Global Forecast to 2025

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On July 3, P. Sarith Kumar walked into the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport to collect a rather heavy carton addressed to an official working at the United Arab Emirates (UAE) consular office in the city. The bespectacled 39-year-old Kumar claimed to be a Public Relations Officer with the consulate who had come to collect the carton for an attache. Two days later, he was arrested by Customs officials for attempting to smuggle gold into the country.

After receiving the nod from the ministry of external affairs, officers of the Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate opened the 70-kilogram carton in the presence of the acting in-charge of the UAE consulate.

The sight that greeted their eyes may not have been what they expected: the carton had an assortment of pipes, taps, and door handles amidst food items and other electronics, according to news website The Lede. The pipes, however, werent hollow. At least 30 kilograms of 24-carat gold  the best quality  estimated to be worth at least Rs 15 crore, were hidden inside them.

Since January, seven air cargo consignments, some heavier than 30 kg, had reportedly arrived in the state. Preliminary investigations by the Customs officials found that P. Sarith, who had worked for the UAE consulate but wasnt currently employed with them as he claimed, had received multiple such consignments.

Officials suspect that at least 300 kg of smuggled gold flooded the yellow metal market already. Last week, Kerala chief minister Pinnarayi Vijayan wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting a probe by central agencies. Every link of this crime should be unravelled, he wrote. The case has serious implications as this undermines the economy of the Nation. In fact, it has more than one angle warranting a thorough investigation, he wrote on July 8.

On July 10, the National Investigation Authority (NIA), which usually tackles terror-related cases, took up its first gold-smuggling related case. It filed a First Information Report against four: Kumar, who was already under arrest, and three others  Swapna Suresh, Sandip Nair and Fazil Fareed, an alleged smuggler from Ernakulum but based in the UAE  whose names were revealed during interrogation. On July 15, it added one more name to the FIR: an alleged gold smuggler named KT Ramees.

The NIA charged all of them under Sections 16, 17, and 18 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), which is usually invoked to deal with terrorists and those who pose a threat to the integrity of the nation. The suspected offence: Conspiracy and commission of terrorist act by raising funds through gold smuggling to threaten the economic security and monetary stability of India. On Wednesday, the NIA moved the Interpol to extradite Fareed from the UAE, as a Kochi court issued an arrest warrant against him.

A multi-agency probe monitored by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval is underway which includes the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), the Intelligence Bureau (IB), and Enforcement Directorate (ED) besides the NIA and Customs (Preventive) Division.

Suspects tracked down

On Saturday, the NIA arrested Suresh and Nair from a hotel in Bengaluru, and brought them to Cochin on July 12. The two have been remanded to NIA custody by a special court till July 21.

Suresh worked at the UAE consulate generals office before she joined as an operational manager of the Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Limited under the state IT Ministry in 2017. It was likely at the consular office that Suresh and Kumar came to know each other, and even after they stopped working at the consulate, they remained in touch with each other.

Suresh, in her early forties, claims to hold a Bachelors in Commerce degree from Maharashtras Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University. However, the university clarified that it didnt offer such a course. The controller of examinations at the varsity, Dr. Vivek S Sathe, said her degree was fake. Her estranged brother Bright Suresh, based in the United States, told local television channels that she had not passed her matriculation.

However, Suresh is known to be fluent in Arabic, English, Hindi, and Malayalam. She also played a key role in many programmes such as the Loka Kerala Sabha in 2020, a global meeting of non-resident expatriates from the state.

Kerala assembly speaker S Sivaramakrishnan told media channels that he had inaugurated an automobile workshop owned Sandip Nair  whom he did not know  three months ago, at Sureshs request. I never knew about her past and I thought she is a high-ranking official, the speaker said.

Soon after she was named in this case, Suresh went underground.

Last week, she applied for bail at Kerala High Court her case was to come up on July 15. She also circulated an audio tape to a news channel in which she claimed that there was a concerted move to target the Kerala government ahead of the assembly elections next year and she had been made a scapegoat. She also claimed that she made a call to the Customs on July 3 to release the consignment because she was asked by the UAE consular office to do. She said she feared for her life.

Since Suresh was arrested, the anticipatory bail hearing now stands infructuous.

A political storm

The seizure of gold smuggled through the cover of a diplomatic channel has set off a political storm in Kerala as opposition party members have demanded chief minister Pinarayi Vijayans resignation, claiming that he had knowledge of the wrong-doing.

Soon after she was named, customs officials raided Sureshs house. During their investigation it was revealed that the chief ministers principal secretary M Sivasankar was a frequent visitor to her house. In a series of swift political moves, Sivasankar was removed from his post on July 7, the chief minister denied the involvement of his office in Sureshs appointment in the IT ministry body, Suresh was sacked from her job, and on July 8, Vijayan wrote the letter to the PM seeking a probe by central agencies.

However, the Opposition wasnt willing to let go and members protested, calling for his resignation. Almost a week passed since the case came up. Not a single FIR was filed against Swapna Suresh though many cheating incidents against her surfaced including fake certificate. We suspect she is getting protection from higher-ups, said opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala on July 11.

Though the CM welcomed the NIA probe  he said that such a probe would worry many people  the party is wary because it fears that his office may also come under the ambit of inquiry. Nobody can browbeat an elected government. The union government announced the probe as sought by the CM. Let them investigate but we will not allow any victimization in this regard, said Anathalavattom Anandan, senior leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

The Customs department questioned M Sivasankar at their office in Thiruvananthpuram for nine hours, till the wee hours of July 15. A day later he was suspended.

It is a big setback to the CM who is trying for a second term riding on the so-called Covid success story, said political observer Sunnykutty Abraham.

Meanwhile, the MEA has also had to ensure that diplomatic relations between the two countries are not affected because of this case. The Gulf is home to millions of Indian expatriates with a range of work profiles; at least 1.8 million belong to Kerala. The UAE has ordered a probe into this matter and said that it will assist the ongoing probe by Indian agencies, in a brief statement.

Last week, the MEA minister of state V Muraleedharan also clarified that the baggage was not in the diplomatic baggage category and the Customs department had only sought the ministrys nod to open the package due to the rules stipulated under the Vienna Convention, a framework on diplomatic relations between countries.

Meanwhile, the MEA has also made a request to the UAE embassy in Delhi to meet a few employees at the consular office in Thiruvananthapuram for more details. The acting in-charge of the UAE consulate, who present during the opening of the consignment on July 5, left the country this week.

Yellow metal market

It started with innocuous looking packets of cookies, noodles and dates sent from the United Arab Emirates to its consular office in Thiruvananthapuram, which raised the suspicions of customs deputy commissioner Rama Murthy.

Since January, seven such consignments flew in including door knobs, water taps and even shower caps. The trouble was that the packages which came as air cargo addressed to the consulate, enjoyed diplomatic immunity.

In Kerala, the trade of illegal gold is a thriving business as it is cheaper in the Gulf. Whats more with an import duty of 12 % and an additional GST of 3 %, smuggled gold often costs Rs 8-10 lakh per kilogram lesser than legally imported gold.

The state tops in the country in terms of gold seizure. During the last financial year, 550 kg gold was seized from four airports of the state. At least half of this quantity is from Kozhikode international airport, Sumit Kumar, Customs commissioner in-charge of Kerala and Lakshadweep region, said.

Dates, bra straps, belt buckles, shoe soles, and sausages are few the ingenious methods used to smuggle gold into the country.

It is a fact, that a good quantity of smuggled gold is present in the market. We have to change our flawed import policy to check this. Tax evasion is also high in the industry, which gives employment to 60 lakh people directly and indirectly, says Malabar Group Chairman M P Ahmed, who runs one of the largest jewellery store chains in the country.

According to DRI officials, who spoke anonymously to HT, the union government was waiting for an opportunity to intervene, as they suspected that much of the smuggled gold also funded terror activities and hawala operations.

Custom and DRI have limitations in a foreign land. NIA can intervene here effectively and dig into the plush network. Invoking terror sections will really help to unearth the well-entrenched syndicate, said the senior DRI official in Kochi.

But this case has also given other agencies a filip to get tough on smuggling. Customs commissioner in-charge of Kerala and Lakshadweep Sumit Kumar, on Wednesday, issued an ultimatum to smugglers to surrender. At least six persons in connection with gold smuggling have been arrested.

We have a list of regular offenders and we are out to break their syndicate. The multi-agency probe is going as planned, he said.

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1 Market Buzz

Google too gets on the Jio bandwagon

Google will buy a 7.7% stake for $4.5 billion in Jio Platforms, becoming the latest A-list investor in the digital arm of RIL. The announcement came during the 43rd annual general meeting of Reliance Industries which saw Indias most-valued private company unveil its digital ambitions that range from launching 5G services using home-grown tech to designing low-cost 4G or 5G smartphones in partnership with Google. Chairman Mukesh Ambani also announced the launch of Jio Glass, a new mixed reality headset. The oil-to-retail behemoth is looking to expand JioMart to include electronics, fashion, pharmaceuticals and healthcare. To read more about the key announcements, click here.

2 Big Story

US rolls back visas curbs for foreign students

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A portfolio must-have

Midcap funds have outperformed their largecap counterparts over the last one year. The category cannot be ignored for sure, as an essential ingredient for your portfolio. Value Research data indicates that midcap funds lost 2.95 percent as a category over the last one year, whereas their largecap cousins declined 5.78 percent. Even when the markets bounced back after the rout in March, midcap funds delivered 21.09 percent gains, versus 19.9 percent that largecap schemes managed. Many schemes in the category increased exposure to segments such as pharma that rallied substantially over the past few months. Their relative resilience is one of the reasons to consider midcap funds to your portfolio. Read here.

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Oxfords COVID-19 vaccine on track

Positive news on initial trials of the University of Oxford's potential COVID-19 vaccine that has been licensed to AstraZeneca could be announced as soon as on July 16, ITV's political editor Robert Peston said, citing a source. The potential vaccine is already in large-scale Phase III human trials to assess whether it can protect against COVID-19, but its developers have yet to report Phase I results which would show whether it is safe and whether or not it induces an immune response. The developers of the vaccine have said they are encouraged by the immune response they have seen in trials so far. Read here.

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Over 2,500 games removed from Apple's China app store

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7 Tailpiece

FIFA releases 2022 World Cup schedule

World Cup fans will be able to watch an unprecedented four games a day on television, spread out over 11 hours, during the group stage of the Qatar 2022 tournament after the schedule was confirmed on July 15. With the relatively short travel distances for the venues in and around Doha, it could be possible for fans who travel to the 32-team tournament to attend multiple games each day. The opening game on November 21 will be at the 60,000 capacity Al Bayt Stadium, with its distinctive 'tent' style covering. The final on December 18 will be held at the 80,000 Lusail Stadium. Read here.

Disclosure: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.
Technavio has been monitoring the CMOS image sensors market and it is poised to grow by USD 10.15 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of almost 11% 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/20200716005570/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global CMOS Image Sensors 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. ams AG, Canon Inc., GalaxyCore Inc., Himax Technologies Inc., OmniVision Technologies Inc., ON Semiconductor Corp., Panasonic Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Sony Corp., and STMicroelectronics NV 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.

Rise in automation across industries has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. However, the high cost associated with 3D packaging might hamper market growth.

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We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the CMOS image sensors market, including some of the vendors such as ams AG, Canon Inc., GalaxyCore Inc., Himax Technologies Inc., OmniVision Technologies Inc., ON Semiconductor Corp., Panasonic Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Sony Corp., and STMicroelectronics NV. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the CMOS image sensors market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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CMOS Image Sensors Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist CMOS image sensors market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the CMOS image sensors market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the CMOS image sensors market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of CMOS image sensors 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

Consumer electronics Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Automotive Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Security and surveillance Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Industrial 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

North America 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

PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK

PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES

Market drivers

Market challenges

PART 11: MARKET TRENDS

Technological advances in CMOS image sensors

Growing number of strategic partnerships

Growing investment in autonomous cars

PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Overview

Landscape disruption

Competitive scenario

PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

ams AG

Canon Inc.

GalaxyCore Inc.

Himax Technologies Inc.

OmniVision Technologies Inc.

ON Semiconductor Corp.

Panasonic Corp.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

Sony Corp.

STMicroelectronics NV

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/20200716005570/en/

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The Chinese and U.S. national flags are seen during a promotional event in Beijing, China, on Jun. 30, 2017. (Fred Dufour/AFP via Getty Images)

Second Group of US Diplomats Fly Back to China Amid Frayed Ties

More than 100 U.S. diplomats and family members flew to China on Wednesday, according to internal State Department emails, as Washington pressed ahead with its plan to restaff its diplomatic mission amid heightened bilateral tensions.

A chartered commercial aircraft left Dulles airport outside Washington for the South Korean capital, Seoul, where passengers would transfer to another aircraft outfitted for medical operations before flying to the Chinese city of Guangzhou.

The flight, only the second of many required to return more than 1,200 U.S. diplomats with their families, was the first since negotiations hit an impasse two weeks ago over conditions China wanted to impose on the Americans, prompting the State Department to postpone flights tentatively scheduled for the first 10 days of July.

The U.S. is working to fully restaff its mission in China, one of its largest in the world, which was evacuated in February because of COVID-19. A Department email dated Wednesday and viewed by Reuters said more flights were being arranged.

For those still waiting to return, we are in the process of getting approvals from the Department for subsequent flights to Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Tianjin/Beijing in the coming weeks. Due to PRC regulations, these flights will be limited to a maximum of 120 passengers, it said.

Bilateral relations have deteriorated to their lowest level in decades over issues including Chinas handling of the coronavirus pandemic, bilateral trade, and a new security law for Hong Kong.

Washington and Beijing have been negotiating for weeks over the terms of how to bring U.S. diplomats back and the top issues of disagreement have been testing and quarantine procedures as well the frequency of flights and how many one journey can bring back.

The U.S. state department told Reuters it continues to work towards the safe and secure return of all our diplomatic personnel to China in a manner consistent with the standards for diplomatic inviolability enshrined in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

The State Department internally told its staff it received assurances from Beijing that parents would not be separated from their children if they tested positive.

But disagreements over other issues, such as testing being conducted in Chinese labs, have persisted.

Diplomats say agreeing to be tested contravenes the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The internal email said that on arrival in China, adults and children of all ages should be prepared to be tested for COVID-19.

By Humeyra Pamuk
Kroger and Walmart joined other major retailers Wednesday when they announced that they will require shoppers to wear face masks.

The new restriction goes into effect at Walmart on Monday and at Kroger on Wednesday.

We are taking this extra step now because we recognize additional precautions are needed to protect our country,Kroger said in a statement. We are committed to doing our part to help reduce the spread of the virus.

Some shoppers say they cant wear a mask for medical reasons. Kroger suggests those shoppers use a face shield or shop online. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kroger has waived its $4.95 fee for grocery pickups.

Deadline for Illinois first marijuana social equity grants is July 20 The application deadline is approaching for one of the key programs driving the states equity-centric approach to marijuana legalization, and the state is looking to hire hundreds from disadvantaged communities to review those applications.

Among national chains, Costco and Apple were the first to require face coverings. Best Buy and Starbucks started requiring customers to wear masks this week, and more stores are expected to mandate the practice, which has the support of health experts but has become political for some people.

Major industry groups are encouraging chains to expand masks beyond what local and state officials have recommended.

The National Retail Federation on Wednesday called Walmarts decision a tipping point in this public health debate and encouraged other companies to adopt a nationwide policy that requires customers to wear masks.

Walmart, the biggest U.S. retailer, said that about 65% of its more than 5,000 stores and Sams Clubs are in areas where some form of government mandate on face coverings is already in place.

To help bring consistency across stores and clubs, we will require all shoppers to wear a face covering, Walmart said in a statement.

Walmart is also training employees to be health ambassadors who will stand at the front door to remind people without masks of the new requirement.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker outlines targeted approach to COVID-19 spikes in Illinois, lays out criteria for state to take action

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Kabul calls on Islamabad to refrain from unacceptable rocket attacks as four killed in Afghanistans Kunar province.

Afghanistan has condemned an alleged rocket firing by the Pakistani army on its soil resulting in civilian casualties and damage to their houses.

In a statement released late on Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry said the rockets were fired on eastern Kunar province, along a disputed border that Pakistan is fencing since mid-2017.

A police spokesman in the province said at least four civilians were killed and nine others, including women and children, were wounded in the rocket firings on Wednesday. Two houses were also damaged.

Kabul called on Islamabad to refrain from unacceptable artillery attacks and arbitrary installations, as it can cause further escalations between the two countries.

A lawmaker from Kunar, Wazhma Safi, said if Pakistan continued to fire over the border, the issue would be discussed at the diplomatic level. She said she believes Taliban rebels, backed by Pakistan, were behind the attack on Afghan soil.

Afghan forces stationed there responded to the attacks, Abdul Ghani Musamem, a spokesman for the governor of Kunar province.

In Pakistan, police accused Afghan forces of initiating an exchange of fire a day earlier. Mamoond district police chief Shahzada Kaukab said a rocket fired from Afghan forces struck a home in the district on Tuesday, wounding a woman and damaging her home.

Mamoond district was once a haven for local rebel and Taliban fighters. Pakistan says the army has cleared the area in recent years, although violence persists. Rebels who were not killed have mostly fled across the rugged mountains into neighbouring Afghanistan.

The development comes as a fresh round of peace negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban are expected this month in the Qatari capital Doha. The so-called intra-Afghan talks were delayed due to postponement of a prisoner exchange between the sides agreed as part of a deal between the United States and the Taliban.

Under the February 29 signing of the US-Taliban peace agreement, the Afghan government is to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners and the Taliban are to release 1,000 Afghan national defence and security personnel.









So far, the government has freed 4,015 men and the Taliban has freed 669, according to the Afghan government.

The Pakistani and Afghan governments often accuse each other of initiating fire in the border region, where rebel groups are often interlinked on both sides of the border.

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Pakistan and Afghanistan are divided by the Durand Line, a 2,400km (1,500-mile) frontier with villages straddling the border and mosques and houses having one door in Pakistan and another in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan and Pakistan are in dispute over whether the border is officially recognised. In addition, Kabul accuses Islamabad of supporting the Taliban forces fighting against the US-backed Afghan government, a claim Pakistan denies.

In 2017, Pakistan said it had started building a fence along the border as part of efforts aimed at curbing fighting. But the move sparked condemnation in Kabul.

Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in a phone conversation with Afghans foreign minister offered to host intra-Afghan peace talks if both sides agree, said ministry spokesman Gran Hewad.

Rocket attack on Ghazni during Ghanis visit

Meanwhile, several rockets landed near a ceremony in the Afghan city of Ghazni on Thursday, where President Ashraf Ghani was delivering a speech, local media outlet Tolo News reported.

At least three people were wounded after two rockets landed in #Ghazni on Thursday morning just as President Ghani visited the city, source said. #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/dXRKGtjR84  TOLOnews (@TOLOnews) July 16, 2020

Two rockets landed as close as 200 metres from the area where the ceremony was going on, wounding at least three people, with one in critical condition, provincial councillor Khaliqdad Akbari said.

Helicopters were seen hovering over the city following the attack. All roads leading to the city were closed to traffic a day earlier.
Hitachi ABB Power Grids, a Swiss-based joint venture company that works with electricity grids, has significant confidence in Egypts domestic market, aiming to make Egypt a regional hub for energy

In interview with Ahram Online, country managing director for Egypt and North Africa at Hitachi ABB Power Grids, Mohamed Hosseiny, reveals the companys future plans and investments in Egypt and worldwide.

On Tuesday, Hitachi announced the acquisition of 80.1% of ABB for extended operations in Egypt and the region.

Ahram Online: How do you see business and the investment climate in Egypt?

Mohamed Hosseiny: Some people may be surprised that were launching a multi-billion dollar company in these extraordinary times. Actually, were convinced that now is the right time for our unique joint venture to start in the Egyptian market. Now more than ever, the world needs innovative energy solutions to address the huge challenges facing society. Only by balancing social, environmental and economic value in harmony can durable progress be made  the basis for our generation and those that follow. And this is why we believe that now is the right time for us, for Hitachi ABB Power Grids.

How do you see the incentives and procedures that the government introduced?

We see a perfect storm; the chance for government, consumers and industry to seize this moment to drive for a greener economic recovery by investing in a sustainable energy future, underpinned by modern infrastructure and power systems.

How do you assess the private sectors role in the Egyptian economy?

Since 1928, Hitachi has been well-established in Egypt. We have been the partner of choice for our customers and governments in their projects. We are aiming to support the government to transform Egypt into an energy hub for the Africa region.

What are the total investments of Hitachi ABB Power Grids in Egypt?

Globally, we are a $10 billion business (by business volume). Hitachi ABB Power Grids has two state-of-the-art production facilities in Egypt, located in the 10th of Ramadan Industrial Zone. The first has been renowned for manufacturing transformers and has been hugely successful in exporting to more than 30 countries across the MENA region, while the second is a high voltage products factory.

Why is Hitachi ABB Power Grids particularly focused on the Egyptian market?

Egypt acts as a hub for North and West Africa, covering more than 27 countries with branches and representative offices in Morocco and Cote dIvoire respectively.

How will the new acquisition (80.1 percent of ABB) benefit the company and Egypts efforts in electricity and energy sector development?

The joint venture is aimed at merging Hitachis leading open digital technologies with ABBs world-class power grid solutions, in order to play an active role in the global transformation and decarbonisation of energy. In Egypt, we are focusing on serving four key sectors. The first is the transport sector, serving power-fueled vehicles. The second is the industrial sector. The third is infrastructure and facilities, and the fourth reinforcing the implementation of smart cities. The new giant aims to thrive with green renewable resources.

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In an upcoming documentary on the COVID-19 pandemic in India, Microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates said that the country will be able to produce the vaccine not only for itself but also for the entire world. He also spoke hopefully about the great capacity of the Indian pharma sector.

Meanwhile, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced that the government is in negotiations with France, the United States and Germany to create an international air travel bubble.
A consortium of 15 international organizations focused on climate change have come together to try to hold G20 governments accountable for economic policy decisions made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic; among them is the Winnipeg-based International Institute for Sustainable Development.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/7/2020 (552 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A consortium of 15 international organizations focused on climate change have come together to try to hold G20 governments accountable for economic policy decisions made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic; among them is the Winnipeg-based International Institute for Sustainable Development.

On Wednesday, the consortium launched the website EnergyPolicyTracker.org which will track and post all government spending related to energy or climate policy from all G20 countries, retroactive to the beginning of the pandemic response.

The funding announcements are categorized by their relationship to a fossil-fuel-based economy or a green economy that will help governments achieve emissions reductions.

"We have, right now, a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reshape our future with investments that are now squeezed immensely into this very short period of time because of the (pandemic) crisis," said Ivetta Gerasimchuk, an IISD renewable energy expert based in Geneva, and the project lead on the energy policy tracker.

"Governments may not have the same amount of funding in future years. So, the future is made now. Unfortunately, (the numbers) are showing that money is not going in the right direction."

To start, the website has tracked 200 policies from G20 countries.

Their categorization shows that approximately US$151 billion has been committed to support carbon-intensive industries from fossil fuel production and extraction, to airline industries.

That figure is subcategorized into funding that was conditional on climate goals being set or met, but only 20 per cent of the $151 billion fell into that category.

Meanwhile, the countries promised US$89 billion in clean energy projects.

"This isnt surprising to us at all. This is why the consortium started this project, because already four or five months ago we had a fear that it may end up this way," Gerasimchuk said.

She explained that a large chunk of the fossil fuel industry money was going to airlines around the world, which have been devastated by the pandemic.

Gerasimchuk said it was unsurprising that governments would step in to rescue the airline industry, but she is encouraged that some governments are embracing the "new normal" of demanding these companies create or adhere to some kind of emission reduction targets.

"At least there were attempts  from France, from Austria  to impose conditionality on airline bailouts," Gerasimchuk said.

Canada has barely registered any green spending at this point but did receive commendation from the group for how it supported the fossil fuel industry through orphan well cleanup. Such a policy allows former oil and gas workers to have a place to go, explains Vanessa Corkal, an energy analyst with IISD who worked to compile the Canadian data for the project.

"Were fully supportive and very much want the government of Canada to take steps to promote a just transition for fossil fuel workers and those communities (affected)," Corkal said.

What accounts for most of the fossil-fuel-related stimulus spending in Canada is the Alberta governments support of the Keystone XL pipeline to the tune of $1.5 billion in equity investment, paired with a $6-billion loan guarantee.

Overall, Corkal found spending in Canada has proven far less green than compared with other countries  with $11.9 billion committed to fossil fuel industries, and only $223 million committed to green projects.

Whereas in the United States, green stimulus has been pushed by sub-national state governments, in Canada provincial governments have not taken up the challenge.

"So, a huge portion of the fossil (fuel spending) that we quantified was from Alberta," Corkal said.

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"In Ontario, weve seen $2.6 billion just announced for highways and bridges. Infrastructure is all fine and good, but infrastructure supporting fossil-fuel-powered mobility  thats not necessarily getting us on the path to transit or clean transportation."

Meanwhile, little industry-specific stimulus spending has been attempted in Manitoba, and as a result has not contributed to the figures tracked by the project.

"The key is that now that its clear that were past this emergency relief stage, now is really the moment for the government  federal and provincial governments  to think about how future spending will be tied to climate change objectives."

On Wednesdays, analysts will update the website to reflect new announcements and stimulus spending.

sarah.lawrynuik@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @SarahLawrynuik
We Must Ensure Young Adults Can Access Public Support During COVID-19

While President Franklin Roosevelt and a Democratic-led Congress were crafting the New Deal in the 1930s, and defending its Depression-era social programs against Republican opposition, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt amplified the voices of Americas youth when she expressed that she was terrified of losing an entire generation. Americas youngest workers, predominately in low-wage, low-skilled jobs, were most severely impacted then and during every major economic downturn since. The New Deal operationalized the most comprehensive relief, reform and recovery effort in U.S. history. It was inclusive of youth, providing young men and women with access to employment opportunities and financial assistance, though not equitably. Because of segregation, African Americans received less financial support than their White counterparts, even when they applied for it.

Today, the coronavirus pandemic has pulled back the covers on the deep inequalities that have plagued Black and Brown people and, broadly, communities of color since this nation existed. A recent national survey of young adults of color by nonprofit talent development accelerator LeadersUp shows that a majority (60 percent) of Generation Z and young Millennial workers (ages 16-30) are not receiving any type of public assistance at this unprecedented time. Most are part-time workers or in the gig economy, so they do not have health insurance. They are the first to go and the last to return to the workforce, yet ineligible for traditional unemployment benefits. More than half (52 percent) of respondents said they are in living arrangements that financially support their families, children or friends. This labor market disruption could mean significant loss of household income. Whats more, youth disconnection leads to adult disconnection. Young adults failure to launch their careers in their early 20s, while incurring debt and unable to gain the skills or experience necessary to fill the jobs of the future, is both detrimental on the micro-level (individual) and macro-level (economic growth).

The next generation of talent could be called Generation Stress. These young adults have lived through 9/11, the recession of 2008 and, now, a global pandemic has canceled school and graduations, and placed their dreams of financial independence on indefinite hold. In L.A., unhoused college students and those living in food deserts are at risk of hunger daily. They also are at risk of COVID-19, part of a grim statistic of adults between ages 18 and 49 dying at disproportionately higher rates.

However, the youth of this generation are not unlike their predecessors who lived through wars, infectious diseases and shortages of essential goods and services. They need support during the crisis and they will after, as well. Those in leadership must amplify their voices to ensure those most deeply impacted by COVID-19 are not left out of the recovery. We must catalyze economic mobility for our youth to ensure their futures, which is what the New Deal intended but failed to do for African Americans. At this moment, many of our young people have basic needs for food and shelter, and to sustain their health and well-being. Its important that they know what they are entitled to through the California Employment Development Department.

Under the federal CARES Act, part-time and gig economy workers not eligible for traditional unemployment insurance can apply for pandemic unemployment assistance. It also covers business owners, the self-employed and independent contractors for up to 39 weeks through December 26, 2020, and up to a 13-week extension for those who run out of regular unemployment benefits.

Fewer than half of low-wage workers (those making less than $14 an hour) have access to paid sick leave. Anyone unable to work because they have or have been exposed to COVID-19 can file a disability insurance claim with the state. Caring for a family member who is ill or quarantined? You may be eligible for Paid Family Leave of up to six weeks of payments equal to approximately 60 to 70 percent of your wages.

Short-term relief will help young adults support themselves and their families; mitigate economic outcomes that are largely tied to social issues; gain confidence in the marketplace; and jumpstart spending.

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If young people from disadvantaged communities are not applying for these benefits, we can only assume they are unaware of them or lack Wi-Fi access at home. Lets be diligent about getting the word out to ensure that the economic circumstances of young people who either were struggling or starting to make gains before COVID-19 arent deepened during this crisis.

Jeffery Wallace is president and CEO of LeadersUp, which connects employers with the untapped potential of the next generation of diverse talent.
A former managing director of the interim management committee of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Joi Nunieh, has vowed to make more revelations about the corruption in the agency.

She said this minutes after she was rescued by the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, from her own house which was earlier today besieged by armed police officers.

The armed police officers were reported to have surrounded Ms Nuniehs private residence since 4 a.m. Thursday.

But a video on social media showed the state governor leading a procession to Ms Nuniehs house, and leading her to the government house, Port Harcourt.

Now at the government house, Ms Nunieh alleged that the siege on her house was on the orders of Niger Delta minister, Godswill Akpabio.

Ms Nunieh was due to appear before a panel of the House of Representatives over the corruption allegations rocking the agency she once headed, but the siege barred her.

The eventual session that was held ended in an impasse as the new NDDC management walked out on the House panel, accusing its leadership of corruption.

I think he (Akpabio) wanted to stop me from giving my submission today (at the House of Representatives Committee hearing on NDDC), Ms Nunieh told reporters.

He succeeded. But I am sure the House of Representatives would give me another day, and Nigerians will hear more.

Akpabio cant kill me. Definitely, he cant. I am not from Uyo now, she added. But why do people think he has the monopoly of violence?

The man who (sexually) harassed me is at home. The man who stole money is at home. The man who stole government files is at home. The man who took money is at home. The man who wanted me to take (a fetish) oath is at home. It is a criminal offence, its life imprisonment, to take such an oath. To even offer me an oath is liable, the former NDDC MD said.

When reached, Mr Akpabios aide, Anietie Ekong, said Dont you think the police would be in a better position to explain why they wanted her?

The state police spokesperson, Omoni Nnamdi, claimed ignorance of the siege.

Both Ms Nunieh and Mr Akpabio have been dishing out corruption allegations and counter-allegation recently against each other.

On one hand, Ms Nunieh has accused Mr Akpabio of corruption, sexually harassment, offering her bribe and attempting to make her take an oath of secrecy in Abuja.

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Mr Akpabio on his part denounced the claim, saying Ms Nunieh is temperamental and corrupt.

At the centre of the controversies is the Niger Delta Development Commission, whose mandate to develop the oil-rich region has been sluggish for two decades of existence, largely due to corruption among officials in the agency.

Ms Nunieh acted as the commissions head after the removal of Akwagaga Enyia in October 2019, but she was sacked four months later as the crisis rocking the commission over abuse of funds kept mounting.

PREMIUM TIMES exclusively learnt that Mr Akpabio played a major role in the removal of Ms Nunieh.
Labour will make a formal apology to seven of its former staffers who called out antisemitism within the party in a BBC Panorama investigation last year.

The whistleblowers took legal action against the Labour party soon after the documentary aired last July, claiming senior figures in the party had made defamatory statements about their characters and motives.

Now the party will apologise as part of a settlement, despite Jeremy Corbyn faithfuls accusing Keir Starmer of yielding to the former staffs' demands, reports The Guardian.

The programme, Is Labour Anti-Semitic?, made allegations surrounding Labour's handling of antisemitic abuse within the party.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer faced his first challenge as antisemitism row raged on. He's pictured above jogging through the streets of north London, April 18

Panorama also claimed that Miss Formby attempted to interfere in the workings of the National Constitution Committee, (NCC) which decides if members are expelled following behaviour such as antisemitism.

Leaked email chains appeared to show that she tried to influence the selection of the panel for the case of Jackie Walker, a former vice-chairman of pro-Corbyn group Momentum, over claims of anti-Semitic comments.

On May 5 last year, Miss Formby wrote: 'The NCC cannot be allowed to continue in the way they are and I will also be challenging the panel for the Jackie Walker case.'

Copied in were Mr Corbyn on his personal email address, director of communications Seamus Milne and Mr Corbyn's chief of staff Karie Murphy.

Iain McNicol, Miss Formby's predecessor as general secretary, told Panorama: 'The emails you've shown me are really important... the issues that are raised should ring alarm bells across the party.'

A Labour spokesman said: 'The party is implacably opposed to anti-Semitism.' He added: 'The leader's office did not intervene. These former disaffected employees sought the view of staff in the leader's office, which was complied with in good faith.

'The emails... are simply about ensuring the NCC is held accountable.'

Now the party looks set to settle the case, despite Jeremy Corbyn (right) faithfuls accusing Keir Starmer (left) of yielding to the former staff's demand

Former Labour staff who have taken legal action against the party now include former head of disputes Sam Matthews, former head of compliance Mike Creighton; former disputes team investigator Dan Hogan, and former disputes officer Louise Withers Green. An eighth staff member, former general secretary Iain McNicol, appeared on the programme but is not taking action.

A statement made by the Labour party, soon after the broadcast of the former staff's allegations, accused them of having 'political axes to grind' with the party's leader and of being 'disaffected former officials'.

Up until now Labour has continued to contest the Panorama findings, with Mr Corbyn claiming it contained 'many, many inaccuracies'.

In a speech to the Durham Miners' Gala days after the show was aired Corbyn said: 'The programme adopted a pre-determined position on its own website before it was broadcast.'

After a case was issued by the whistleblowers' media lawyer Mark Lewis Labour continued to vehemently contest the allegations.

A spokesman for Labour said at the time: 'These are justified statements of opinion. Any claims will be vigorously defended.'

It is believed legal advice offered to the party while Corbyn was leader stated that the party could win the case.

The Guardian spoke to one former member of its ruling national executive committee who said: 'It was clear advice: we were told that the Labour party would win the Panorama case. Then Keir came in and he seems to have decided to settle.

'If the legal advice has changed, it should be shared with the NEC, and they should be allowed to ask whether it is a good use of a significant sum of money.'

The BBC stood by its decision to air the programme while Ofcom rejected 28 complaints claiming the programme was bias, Ofcom stated the programme had been 'duly impartial'.

The move to settle the case against the whistleblowers comes as another separate case brought by Panorama's presenter John Ware is reportedly likely to be settled - he claims the party defamed him following the show.
The US has 4.3 per cent of the world's population and 25.8 per cent of the world's cases. UK's outcome has not been good: chief scientist Britain has not achieved a good outcome in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, the government's chief scientific adviser said on Thursday, adding that he was sure mistakes had been made in the response to the crisis. Britain has the highest COVID-19 death toll in Europe, which, including deaths from suspected cases, is nearly 56,000 according to a Reuters tally of official data sources. Patrick Vallance, the British government's chief scientific adviser. Credit:AP

Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered a lockdown on March 23, though a former member of the government's scientific advisory group has said that introducing measures a week earlier could have halved the death toll. "It's very difficult to know exactly where we stand at the moment. It's clear that the outcome has not been good in the UK, I think we can be absolutely clear about that," Patrick Vallance said, adding that some countries had done worse. "There will be things, decisions made, that will turn out not to have been the right decisions at the time, I'm sure about that as well." Brazil nears 2 million coronavirus cases, with 75,000 dead A thousand deaths a day. Since late May, three months after Brazil's first reported case of the coronavirus, it has recorded more than 1000 daily deaths on average in a gruesome plateau that has yet to tilt downward.

The country hit at least 75,000 confirmed deaths on Wednesday and is expected to report 2 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 by Thursday evening. Even as cases wane somewhat in the biggest and hardest-hit Brazilian cities, the virus is peaking in new locations across the largest country in Latin America. Loading Experts blame denial of the virus' deadly potential by President Jair Bolsonaro and lack of national co-ordination combined with scattershot responses by city and state governments, with some reopening earlier than health experts recommended. An interim health minister untrained in the field is presiding over the pandemic response. Bolsonaro himself is sick with COVID-19 after repeatedly flouting social distancing recommendations and undermining local leaders' restrictions on activity.

Brazil's roughly 7000 COVID-19 deaths in each of the last seven weeks is equal to several airplanes packed with Brazilians crashing every day, former health minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said. "People have become callous," Mandetta said. "When you say, 'Yesterday there were 1300 deaths', people say, 'OK, then it didn't go up. It was 1300 people the day before, too'." Loading Brazil's nearly 2 million cases is second only to the US and experts believe the number to be an under count due to widespread lack of testing. A model created by professors from several Brazilian academic institutions, based on the number of confirmed deaths, estimates Brazil has had 10 million infections. Virus was direct cause of death for 89 per cent of Italian victims

The new coronavirus directly caused the death of 9 out of 10 of Italian COVID-19 victims, a study released on Thursday said, shedding new light on the epidemic which mainly struck the country's northern regions. Since discovering its first infections in February, Italy has reported some 35,000 COVID-19 fatalities. However, health authorities said many of those who died were also affected by other ailments and this provoked a fierce debate on whether the virus was the actual cause of death. The study published by the Superior Health Institute and National Statistics Institute ISTAT showed the coronavirus was the direct cause of death for 89 per cent of the 4942 victims in the sample.

The remaining 11 per cent had coronavirus but died as a direct result of other medical conditions, including heart disease, cancer and dementia. However, the virus might have aggravated their condition and accelerated their death. The study was based on deaths reported at the end of May, when Italy had already loosened its rigid lockdown rules. Loading Pneumonia was observed in 79 per cent of the people whose deaths were directly tied to coronavirus and was the most common complication for COVID-19 patients, followed by other respiratory diseases. The report showed COVID-19 was also fatal for some people who did not have any underlying health problem.


PARIS (dpa-AFX) - Automakers Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. and Peugeot S.A. or Groupe PSA, who have agreed on a 50/50 merger of their businesses, plan to call their combined new entity STELLANTIS.



The next step in the process will be the unveiling of a logo, which, along with the name, will become the corporate brand identity. The names and the logos of the combined company's constituent brands will remain unchanged. The companies will use the new name exclusively at the Group level, as a Corporate brand.



In a statement, the companies said the new name has its roots in the Latin verb 'stello' meaning 'to brighten with stars.' With the name's Latin origins, the Italian and French companies hope to pay tribute to the rich history of its founding companies.



They said, 'It draws inspiration from this new and ambitious alignment of storied automotive brands and strong company cultures that in coming together are creating one of the new leaders in the next era of mobility while at the same time preserving all the exceptional value and the values of its constituent parts.'



Following media speculation, the companies had confirmed their ongoing merger talks in October last year, and the $50 billion combination agreement was announced in the following December. The merger is expected to create the world's fourth-largest carmaker by volume.



The deal, as announced earlier, is expected to occur in the first quarter of 2021. This includes the approval by both companies' shareholders at their respective Extraordinary General Meetings.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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The redevelopment of the Central Vista area in the National Capital will not harm any heritage buildings in the area and historical landmarks like the Rashtrapati Bhawan, the North and South Blocks, the Parliament house and the National Archives will be conserved, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has told the Supreme Court, which is expected to hear the matter on Friday.

The Central Vista is being redeveloped after taking into account the present needs of the city and will be carried out with extreme sensitivity to preserve the areas heritage, a counter-affidavit filed before the top court on July 4 stated.

HT has reviewed a copy of the affidavit.

The Supreme Court is hearing two petitions which challenged the redevelopment project that aims to create a new Parliament house and 10 administrative buildings for all the government ministries, convert the North and South blocks into museums, and develop the Central Vista avenue that connects Rajpath to India Gate.

While making the recommendations, DDA has ensured that no heritage building is /will be harmed during the process of redevelopment, the affidavit said.

Many of the buildings on the Central Vista, including the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Parliament and the North and South Blocks, as well as India Gate, were designed by British architects Edward Lutyens and Herbert Baker in the 1920s and 30s and are Grade 1 heritage buildings.

DDA also stressed that there will be no loss of green area due to the project, saying open spaces in the Central Vista will be kept intact by adequately compensating the loss of 9.5 acre of green cover in the district park by adding 5.64 acre of green area along Rajpath and another 3.9 acre in the C-Zone.

The district park is the plot on which the new Parliament building is expected to come up, and currently houses a reception area, parking and other service infrastructure for the Parliament house. It is marked as a district park in the Parliament house complex. The entire Central Vista precinct falls within Zone D. The C Zone refers to the Civil Lines zone, which includes features like the Roshanara Bagh from Mughal times, and the old Secretariat Complex from the colonial period.

The present District Park area of 9.5 acre has been compensated by providing 5.64 acre in D Zone (Central Vista) and 3.9 acre in C Zone, thereby keeping the green spaces intact. It is pertinent to mention that as per modified plan, the green area along the Rajpath will increase by 5.64 acre, the affidavit said.

The redevelopment project proposes to do away with the encroachments along the avenue and increase the green cover on either side of the path.

Advocate Rajeev Suri and Lt Colonel Anuj Srivastava filed petitions in the Delhi high court in February, following which the court ordered that the DDA should approach it before notifying the proposed changes in the land use.

A division bench of chief justice DN Patel and justice C Hari Shankar, however, stayed this order prompting Suri to move the Supreme Court.

The top court had on March 3 transferred the entire case to itself from the Delhi high court on the ground that the issue involves larger public interest. The case will be heard by a three-judge bench headed by justice AM Khanwilkar on Friday.

Suris petition stated that the DDA did not have the power to notify changes to land use and standards of population density.

The change in land use is in the direction of aligning the existing land use with the proposed Central Vista Development / Redevelopment Plan and it is not going to alter any fundamental character or historicity of this area. It is only a readjustment / reorganization of the Central Government Ministry offices, the DDA said in its affidavit.

It was contended that the change in land use was in conformity with the Delhi Development Act and each and every provision of the Act as well as the Delhi Development (Master Plan / Zonal Development Plan) Rules was followed.

Srivastava challenged the public hearings held in February, and argued that they were not a meaningful exercise.

The DDA rebutted this argument stating, Public hearing was held on February 6 and February 7.Full opportunity was granted to each and every person who approached for public hearing. The objections were duly categorized by Board of Enquiry and Hearing and persons raising similar issues were heard at the same time. The opportunity of public hearing had not been denied and in fact submissions of each person have been duly considered by the BoEH while giving its recommendations, the DDAs response said.

The DDA stated that the proposal will not increase residential population density in Central Vista area though floating population will increase due to proposed government office buildings.

The proposed modification will increase the floating population which will be offset to an extent on account of persons moving out of existing offices housed in six hutments of 90 acre (which will developed into organized spaces). This land use change proposal is not going to alter any fundamental living history and heritage of this area, DDA said.

The Supreme Court in June declined to stay the redevelopment of Lutyens Delhis Central Vista for the second time in two months, saying it could prevent government authorities from acting according to the law.
For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME.

Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire.

Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III.





to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever.





Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation.





View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union.

Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history.

Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words.




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"This approach could be used as an early intervention to reduce the infection among people who have tested positive, but aren't yet suffering symptoms. But we also see this as part of a larger antiviral strategy," said Robert Linhardt, lead author and a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute."Ultimately, we want a vaccine, but there are many ways to combat a virus, and as we've seen with HIV, with the right combination of therapies, we can control the disease until a vaccine is found."To infect a cell, a virus must first latch onto a specific target on the cell surface, slice through the cell membrane, and insert its own genetic instructions, hijacking the cellular machinery within to produce replicas of the virus.But the virus could just as easily be persuaded to lock onto a decoy molecule, provided that molecule offers the same fit as the cellular target. Once bound to a decoy, the virus would be neutralized, unable to infect a cell or free itself, and would eventually degrade.In humans, SARS-CoV-2 binds to an ACE2 receptor, and the researchers hypothesized that heparin would offer an equally attractive target. In a binding assay, the researchers found that heparin bound to the trimeric SARS-CoV-2 spike protein at 73 picomoles, a measure of the interaction between the two molecules."That's exceptional, extremely tight binding," said Jonathan Dordick, a chemical and biological engineering professor at Rensselaer who is collaborating with Linhardt to develop the decoy strategy. "It's hundreds of thousands of times tighter than a typical antibody antigen. Once it binds, it's not going to come off."To hear Linhardt and Dordick discuss this research, watch this video.Internationally recognized for his creation of synthetic heparin, Linhardt said that, in reviewing sequencing data for SARS-CoV-2, the team recognized certain motifs on the spike protein and strongly suspected it would bind to heparin.In addition to the direct binding assay, the team tested how strongly three heparin variants -- including a non-anticoagulant low molecular weight heparin -- bind to SARS-CoV-2, and used computational modeling to determine the specific sites where the compounds bind to the virus.All the results confirm heparin as a promising candidate for the decoy strategy. The researchers have subsequently initiated work on assessments of antiviral activity and cytotoxicity in mammalian cells."This isn't the only virus that we're going to confront in a pandemic," Dordick said. "We don't really have great antivirals, but this is a pathway forward. We need to be in a position where we understand how things like heparin and related compounds can block virus entry."In previous work, a team led by Linhardt and Dordick demonstrated the decoy strategy on viruses with a mechanism similar to SARS-CoV-2. In 2019, the team created a trap for dengue virus, attaching specific aptamers -- molecules the viral latches will bind to -- precisely to the tips and vertices of a five-pointed star made of folded DNA.Floating in the bloodstream, the trap lights up when sprung, creating the world's most sensitive test for mosquito-borne diseases. In work prior to that, they created a synthetic polymer configured to match the sialic acid latch points on influenza virus, reducing influenza A mortality in mice from 100% to 25% over 14 days."This innovative approach to effectively trapping virusus is a prime example of how biotechnology approaches developed at Rensselaer are being brought forward to address challenging global health problems," said Deepak Vashishth, the director of the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies at Rensselaer, of which both Dordick and Linhardt are a part."Professors Dordick and Linhardt have worked collaboratively across disciplines, and their research shows promise even beyond this current pandemic.""Characterization of glycosaminoglycan and novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) spike glycoprotein binding interactions" was published in. At Rensselaer, Linhardt and Dordick were joined on the research by Fuming Zhang, and also by researchers at the University of California San Diego, Duke University, and the University of George, Athens with support from the National Institutes of Health.Source: Eurekalert
The claim that governing is easy would now sound delusional in the mouth of our overmatched president (though his claim that the U.S. government is afflicted by clowns still has the ring of truth). Trump has attempted to compensate for his incompetence by criticizing acts of his own administration on Twitter (I disagree with @CDCgov on their very tough & expensive guidelines for opening schools. . . . I will be meeting with them!!!). This is an absolutely bizarre way to conduct business in the executive branch. Instead of working through a process to produce a consensus policy, which would generally be announced in a carefully prepared speech, the president takes pot shots at government experts on social media. Rather than leading, Trump seems more comfortable spectating and commenting. Whether this is a result of his laziness or his inability to operate the levers of power, it is pathetic.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16

Trend:

Azerbaijani military units shot down Armenian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), Trend reports on July 16.

This morning, the Armenian armed forces, using the X-55 tactical UAV, tried to carry out reconnaissance mission over Azerbaijani positions in Tovuz direction of the state border of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan's armed forces located the UAV, and shot it down.
Jenna Schiferl was born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina and is a graduate of the University of South Carolina. She has worked as an education reporter for The Post and Courier since 2019.
Joe Biden unveiled a proposal Tuesday to transform the nation's energy industry, pledging to eliminate carbon pollution from power plants by 2035 and spend $2 trillion to turbocharge the clean energy economy.

The plan would significantly reduce the country's reliance on fossil fuels, and the 15-year timeline for a 100 percent clean electricity standard is far more ambitious than anything Biden has previously proposed.

It was Biden's latest attempt to channel the liberal energy in his party, as well as a response to calls for sweeping plans to lift a struggling economy. The blueprint was quickly hailed by environmentalists and liberals as a big step forward in the climate fight, and just as quickly denounced by Republicans as an unwieldy plan that would raise energy costs.

"We're not just going to tinker around the edges," Biden said in a speech in Wilmington, Del. "We're going to make historic investments and seize the opportunity and meet this moment in history."

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee proposed upgrading 4 million buildings and weatherizing 2 million homes over four years, which his campaign estimates would create 1 million jobs. Homeowners would be given cash rebates to upgrade home appliances and install more efficient windows. Car owners would receive rebates to swap their old, less efficient cars for newer ones that release fewer pollutants.

Biden also said he would create a new "Environmental and Climate Justice Division" within the Justice Department to prosecute anti-pollution cases. "These aren't pie-in-the-sky dreams," he said. "These are actionable policies that we can get to work on right away."

Many of Biden's proposals build on the recommendations of a task force made up jointly of allies of Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Those recommendations include plans to dramatically expand solar and wind energy, including the installation of 500 million solar panels and 60,000 wind turbines.

Biden's plan is likely to trigger a vigorous debate with President Donald Trump, who has a much different approach to the country's energy sector and climate policy.

Trump, a strong backer of fossil fuels, has sought to roll back Obama-era policies aimed at decreasing carbon dioxide emissions and setting new standards for household items such as lightbulbs. He has also downplayed the science behind climate change, and in 2017 he pledged to pull the United States out of the Paris climate pact.

Trump's embrace of the coal industry was one of his signature issues in 2016, part of his portrait of Hillary Clinton as disdainful of the country's industrial workers. It's not clear whether Trump can successfully level similar attacks against Biden, or whether the political landscape has shifted to make that difficult.

In 2016, Republicans attacked Clinton for her comment that "we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business," though Clinton was suggesting this would happen because of market forces, not as part of her plan.

Trump, meanwhile, pledged to revive the ailing coal industry, telling miners in West Virginia that "we are going to get those mines open" if he were elected. But the coal industry has continued to struggle under Trump, largely because of competition from natural gas and renewable energy.

The Trump campaign was quick to go after Biden's proposal Tuesday.

"His plan is more like a socialist manifesto that promises to massively raise taxes, eliminate jobs in the coal, oil or natural gas industries, and crush the middle class," said Hogan Gidley, the campaign's national press secretary."He's pushing extreme policies that would smother the economy just when it's showing signs of roaring back."

Biden, in pledging Tuesday to achieve 100 percent clean electricity by 2035, embraced a more direct approach than President Barack Obama, his boss at the time, took a decade ago during his own efforts to rein in emissions from the power sector.

During his first year in office, Obama worked with congressional Democrats on a cap-and-trade system, in which companies buy and sell credits permitting them to release carbon into the atmosphere.

But the measure proved politically toxic. It passed the House but was never given a vote in the Senate.

Instead, Biden wants to require electric utilities to get more of their power from carbon-free sources - including wind, solar, nuclear and hydroelectric - and to improve the energy efficiency of their systems or face penalties.

While some changes could be made through executive actions, a sweeping plan like Biden's could face resistance in Congress - one reason the campaign is framing it as an economic package and not solely an environmental initiative. If Biden wins, its fate may depend on whether Democrats retake the Senate, but the plan's supporters say it has more appeal than a cap-and-trade system.

"It's built on a smart approach that's already been tested in the states," said Dan Reicher, a former Energy Department official who co-founded Clean Energy for Biden, which is fundraising for the campaign. "It will be less controversial than a national cap-and-trade system or carbon tax, with real prospects for bipartisan support."

Similar standards have proved to be politically viable at the state level. A majority of states - including several conservative ones such as Montana, Iowa and Texas - have imposed their own renewable energy requirements on local utilities. But no standard exists at the federal level.

The ratcheted-up targets came after Biden faced pressure from young left-leaning activists and major environmental groups to do more to address what they see as a generational crisis.

Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president of government affairs at the League of Conservation Voters, praised the Biden campaign's announcement for going "further than the strong plan he put out last summer," saying public polling shows voters have an appetite for action. Nearly two-thirds of Americans say the federal government should act more aggressively against climate change, according to a recent poll from the Pew Research Center.

The big-spending League of Conservation Voters, which pumped more than $80 million into the 2018 election, endorsed Biden in April only after he promised to toughen his climate plan.

Biden said Tuesday that the proposal was aimed at twin goals of rebuilding the economy and fighting climate change. Much of the spending, he said, would go toward repairing bridges and roads and improving public transportation systems.

He claimed that his proposal was doing what Trump has not, in what became a running joke as the White House week after week said the president would focus on repairing the country's infrastructure, only to digress into other subjects.

"It seems like every few weeks when he needs a distraction from the latest charges of corruption . . . the White House announces, quote, it's infrastructure week," Biden said. "But he's never delivered. He's never even really tried."

Biden's proposal says all American-built buses should emit zero greenhouse gases by 2030, and it would also aim to convert the country's 500,000 school buses, including those running on diesel fuel, to zero emissions. As Biden has promised previously, he would also aim to build 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations.

To tackle climate-warming pollution from the transportation sector, the nation's biggest greenhouse gas source, Biden is endorsing a bill from Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., that would pay people to trade in gas-guzzling cars for electric and other low-emissions vehicles - essentially a "cash for clunkers" program on steroids.

While comparing his proposals to what the Obama administration did during the 2009 stimulus, Biden said, "We'll do it again. But this time bigger and faster and smarter."

Biden also said he would use the government's purchasing power to convert 3 million vehicles in the federal fleet to clean cars, giving the auto industry an incentive to produce more environmentally friendly cars, trucks and postal vehicles.

Biden's campaign declined to describe exactly how he would pay for the new spending. Some of it, advisers said, would be through stimulus funding, which could add to the ballooning federal deficit. It could also be offset by rescinding the tax cuts pushed by Trump and approved by a Republican-controlled Congress in 2017, or by "asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share," the advisers said.

The campaign intends to more fully describe how its plans would be funded in the coming weeks, after Biden outlines more of his spending plans, aides said.

The climate proposal does not go into detail about what would happen to areas of the country that are heavily reliant on the fossil fuel industry, although one part of Biden's plan aims to create 250,000 jobs plugging abandoned oil and natural gas wells and reclaiming abandoned coal, hard-rock and uranium mines.

Biden is also calling for the creation of a "civilian climate corps," an idea that was promoted during the Democratic primary by Gov. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., and modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corps established by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Great Depression.

Biden has spoken with Inslee, who ran against him in the Democratic primary with a campaign focused sharply on climate change, and former Inslee advisers have been working with Biden's campaign to craft his energy policy.

"This is the single most comprehensive and ambitious climate plan ever advanced by a major presidential nominee," said Sam Ricketts, who co-authored Inslee's climate plan and co-founded Evergreen Action, a group pushing to implement the Inslee plan.

Biden is also calling for several environmental justice provisions, including a proposal that some 40 percent of the money he wants to spend on clean energy would go to historically disadvantaged communities.

Biden held a fundraiser Monday with about 140 executives where he spoke about his focus on clean energy.

"I don't have to be Pollyannaish about this: Donald Trump has ignored the warning, refused to prepare," he said of the climate crisis.

The former vice president also said he would take swift action and set a more urgent timeline than his earlier proposal, which would have sought to eliminate carbon emissions from power plants by 2050.

That 2050 deadline, he said, "is a million years from now [for] most people. My plan is focused on taking action - now. God willing I win and even if I serve eight years, I want to make sure we put down such a marker that it's impossible for the next president to turn it around."
The Guardian

The Steelers quarterback is headed to the Hall of Fame. But he was unloved outside Pittsburgh for understandable reasons Ben Roethlisberger almost certainly played his final game in the NFL on Sunday. Photograph: Ed Zurga/AP Ben Roethlisberger is lucky that football legacies are not decided by finales. If Sunday night was indeed Big Bens last ever NFL game, as he has strongly hinted, it wasnt exactly a mic drop. In the 42-21 beatdown by the Chiefs, Roethlisberger struggled with rollouts, and l
The British government's decision to ban Huawei's involvement in 5G networks is "a hammer blow" to the country's ambition to become a global 5G leader, an industry analyst warned Tuesday.

"Having been on the back foot in 4G, the UK has enjoyed a strong 5G start with four live commercial networks already in place since the start of the year," said Kester Mann, director of consumer and connectivity at CCS Insight, an industry analyst firm.

"The decision will inevitably lead to delays in 5G network roll-out and higher overall costs for operators," Mann told Xinhua via email.

Earlier Tuesday, the British government announced that buying new Huawei 5G equipment will be banned after Dec. 31, 2020 and all Huawei equipment will be removed from the country's 5G networks by the end of 2027.

"The timing (of the announcement) is particularly unfortunate, with the demand for high-quality connectivity never higher due to the coronavirus lockdown," Mann said.

The British government announced in January its plans to safeguard the country's telecoms network, approving a restricted role for Huawei in helping build the country's 5G networks. Tuesday's decision marks a U-turn in Britain's policy concerning the Chinese technology company.

"We will conduct a detailed review of what today's announcement means for our business here and will work with the UK government to explain how we can continue to contribute to a better connected Britain," said Ed Brewster, a spokesperson for Huawei UK in a statement.

Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden admitted that the latest decision by the British government is expected to delay the country's 5G roll-out.

From an economic viewpoint, eliminating Huawei from Britain's 5G infrastructure market could be expected to lead to higher prices and delays in roll-out, according to a recent report released by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, a research institute in Britain.

A previous study, conducted by Oxford Economics and commissioned by Huawei, also said that restricting Huawei from helping to build Britain's 5G infrastructure market would increase roll-out costs by 9 percent to 29 percent.

"Ultimately, this will impact consumers who could end up paying more for their service and have to wait longer to connect," Mann said.
The official information is provided, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Defense constantly provides information, and we need to transmit to the international community that which we have transmitted until now. This is what Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan told reporters today, touching upon the military operations provoked by Azerbaijan on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.

Azerbaijan has committed provocative actions in the direction of Armenias state border. Our armed forces have given an adequate response and have prevented a sabotage attempt, including the one last night. As always, the Azerbaijani armed forces are not only shooting at our soldiers, but are also shelling villages and the civilian population. All this is strictly condemnable and are clearly violations of all international conventions, Mirzoyan said.

According to him, the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and parliamentarians are providing details to Armenias international partners and organizations to which Armenia is a member.

Asked for his opinion on the reason for Azerbaijans provocations, Mirzoyan said there are different analyses, but the main reason is the coronavirus situation in the country and several political and economic issues and the fact that the countrys leadership wants to gear the peoples discontent towards Armenia and all Armenians.

Asked how he would assess the response of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, Mirzoyan said the statement was a call for peace and added that Armenias colleagues in the CSTO are aware that the Armenian armed forces are in full control of the situation and that there is no need for intervention.
Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, has been making headlines for quite some time now because of his link to the late pedophile and disgraced financier, Jeffrey Epstein, and the accusations that the royal had sex with one of his alleged victims.

Who could forget Prince Andrew's November 2019 interview, where he attempted to explain his connection with Epstein?

The Duke denied the accusations being thrown at him.

However, that interview didn't seem to help him. Many thought that instead of clearing up his name, he had thrown it to the ground even more, bringing along the British monarchy.

The BBC interview was seen as a complete disaster. The 60-year-old royal didn't seem believable, nor have shown empathy for the women that Epstein has trafficked in the past.

Following that interview, the dad of two was forced to step down from his royal duties. Prince Andrew was even wanted by the U.S. authorities, as they want to ask him a couple of questions.

American prosecutors claim that the royal hasn't been cooperative and has avoided taking their calls to be extradited to the U.S.

However, it may not be possible because of what happened with his brother, the future King, Prince Charles.

On July 2, 2020, Ghislaine Maxwell, the former companion and "madame" of Jeffrey Epstein, was arrested.

Since her arrest, many wonder if the Queen's favorite son will be extradited to American to speak to investigators of the Epstein case.

According to Nigel Cawthorne, in his book "Prince Andrew: Epstein and the Palace," he believes that the Duke of York "could only try to plead against potential extradition if he had immunity from prosecution as a government official or as a member of the Queen's household."

He claims, "It is accepted that it is the one' get-me-out-of-a-US-jail card' before one gets shunted into the American legal system."

Cawthorne said that the Prince of Wales set that get-out-of-jail card.

He explained that in 1977, Prince Charles was sued after a 10-minute address at the opening of the law faculty building at the University of Cleveland.

"Before it could go any further, however, the U.S. State Department intervened and extended legal immunity to Charles."

He continued, "The Prince had set a frequently cited precedent that would now be the best chance of avoiding extradition, should it be requested, for his younger brother."

Though there are is no news or plans of Prince Andrew being extradited, he is said to be feeling "incredibly nervous" after hearing that Maxwell has been arrested.

A source told Us Weekly, "That really scares him." The source added that the 58-year-old madame was also said to be "doing almost anything to escape jail time."

If Ghislaine Maxwell gets immunity once she provides the names of high-profile people who sexually molested the women and young girls, everybody is confident that she wouldn't even bat an eyelash and give the investigators the names immediately.

It may not be the case for Prince Andrew if Maxwell names him as one of the perpetrators, and it is unsure if the British monarchy will save his butt again this time.

READ MORE: Royal Wedding Showdown: Whose Wedding Was the Most Expensive in British Monarchy?
Makayla Colby, a junior in the College of Education and a mentor in the Summer Start program, places welcome materials in a residence hall room for incoming Summer Start students. (Purdue University photo/John Underwood)

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  As new Boilermakers arrive on campus for Summer Start and Early Start programs, they are welcomed by many people in a short amount of time.

But it is the work of a small group of students who can make the biggest impression over a collegiate career: student mentors.

This year, 34 students are serving as mentors  30 for Summer Start and Early Start, and four for visiting Purdue Polytechnic High School students  during the next five weeks of programs and classes.

Mentors are a critical component for student success, said John Gipson, director of summer session. They have been through similar experiences before so they serve as role models for incoming students. Students are often more comfortable talking with other students than faculty or staff. Mentors open a line of communication that helps promote a successful transition to Purdue.

Students interested in becoming mentors complete an application process, including interviews. Once selected, they complete training on topics ranging from diversity and inclusion to guiding students through the redesigned residential experience and changes on campus.

The summer session staff and our partners across campus have provided excellent training for our mentors as we welcome students for navigating campus and informing everyone of all of the new requirements, Gipson said.

The mentors work with students in a variety of ways  ranging from answering questions, providing assistance and guidance on resources and networking  all while taking classes themselves and living in the residence halls with program participants.

Last week, Summer Start mentors Makayla Colby and Christian Nichols were placing welcome kits in student rooms at Harrison Hall. Colby, a junior in the College of Education from Portage, Indiana, and Nichols, a junior in the College of Science from Indianapolis, are both Summer Start alums from 2018 and say the opportunity to serve as mentors is a great way to give back.

Colby said she is grateful for the opportunity to serve as a mentor during the next five weeks.

"I wanted to be sure that other students of color, with a main focus on Black students, could have support. Representation is important, Colby said. There are other people I can connect with them to make them successful, as well.

Colby encourages students to engage with mentors and staff during their transition. Ask for help when you need it, she said. Find a group that doesnt make you feel uncomfortable. Find spaces and be authentic. Network with people.

Nichols is in his second summer of serving as a mentor. Coming in early gets you adjusted to campus. Come with an open mind and really make yourself ready for adjustments, he said, adding that program staff are there to help students succeed.

Nichols said the mentors are trained to work with students in a variety of settings, including virtual, and to do some activities outside. Well be working within the students comfort zones. Every student is going to be different, he said.

Gipson continually receives positive feedback on the mentors and their role in helping new students adjust to campus. It is not uncommon for mentors to meet with their mentees for lunch or other activities after the summer component has concluded. Peer mentors from out of state also seem to be especially important for helping students who are thousands of miles from home for the first time, Gipson said.

This year, more than 1,000 new Boilermakers are participating in Purdues Summer Start and Early Start and other on-campus programs, which allow students to arrive early, take summer classes for credit and become adjusted to life on campus. The programs have both in-person and online components. The programs will run for five weeks.

Summer Start is a direct-admit program created in 2015 by Purdue President Mitch Daniels to expand access to a Purdue education, especially among lower-income, first-generation and minority students who fell just short in the admissions process but are considered otherwise qualified to succeed at Purdue. Since its inception, Summer Start has given 850 students the opportunity for a Purdue education they otherwise would have been denied. More than 71% of students in the 2020 cohort are from Indiana, and one in five are underrepresented minority students. Summer Start helps prepare Boilermakers for academic success, and complements Purdues land-grant mission of accessibility to a diverse group of students.

Organizers have worked with the Protect Purdue Health Center and University Residences to develop a safe move-in process that involved temperature checks, testing, wellness kits and welcome packets. The Protect Purdue Health Center has developed a detailed plan on contact tracing.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to todays toughest challenges. Ranked the No. 6 Most Innovative University in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at purdue.edu.

Writer, Media contact: Matthew Oates, 765-586-7496 (cell), oatesw@purdue.edu, @mo_oates

Source: John Gipson, director of Summer Session, 765-494-5296, gipsonj@purdue.edu

Journalists visiting campus : Journalists should follow Protect Purdue protocols and the following guidelines:
He Qianru, an official in Langbazhai Village, Lushui City, Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, Southwest China's Yunnan Province [For Women of China]

Women influencers in remote rural areas are contributing to poverty alleviation by selling local specialties of their hometowns on livestreaming platforms in the battle against poverty and building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

The efforts have promoted local products, increased rural people's income and energized the rural economy, creating a targeted poverty alleviation model that enables farmers to escape poverty through expanding production and sales by themselves.

He Qianru: Village Official Boosts Rural Industry via Livestreaming

He Qianru, an official in Langbazhai Village, Lushui City, Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, Southwest China's Yunnan Province. [For Women of China]

He Qianru, a woman of Naxi ethnic group, resolutely went back to her hometown to be an official in Langbazhai Village, Luzhang Town, Lushui City, Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, after she graduated from the Kunming University of Science and Technology in 2015. She wanted to be on the front line in the fight against poverty in Nujiang, one of the most impoverished regions in the country.

Langbazhai is located deep in the Gaoligong Mountains. The climate is humid. In the past, most of the villagers made a living by planting corn and rice with annual per capita income less than 2,000 yuan (US $285.8).

He soon found that matsutake (a kind of mushroom) could be a good source of income after she came to the village. She learned techniques from various sources, guided villagers to find matsutake, and purchased equipment to preserve the mushrooms.

Matsutake tastes fresh within only three days. If it is not sold as soon as possible, it will be worthless. So He began to sell the mushrooms through online stores and livestreaming platforms.

Given her efforts, the matsutake in Langbazhai becomes famous. It is sold across the country through the Internet and is now one of the designated suppliers of a famous food show.

Although matsutake is profitable, it is an "unstable industry" that depends on the weather. How could villagers achieve stable income growth? After discussing with a member of the village-stationed poverty alleviation team in Langbazhai, she felt that cultivating common morel (another kind of mushroom) would be a good solution, since the village has high forest coverage, good water quality and fertile soil.

They raised money to build a planting base and gained relevant knowledge. Although the morel harvest in the spring of 2017 was not a good one, the net profit was more than 6,000 yuan (US $857.4) per acre.

The livestreaming shows of mushrooms also boosted sales of sausages, eggs, black sugar and dried beef in the village.

"Encouraging villagers to find market through online platforms is a good way to help them be self-independent in production, promotion and earning income," said He.

Wuyinga: Mongolian Woman Shares Hometown's Scenery, Culture Online

Wuyinga, a Mongolian woman from West Ujimqin Banner, Xilin Gol League, North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. [For Women of China]

Wuyinga graduated from Inner Mongolia University of Finance and Economics and went back to her hometown to start her own business in 2017.

Once when she was on a train, the passenger next to her asked curiously whether everyone can ride horses and shoot arrows in her hometown. Do they only eat lamb and no vegetables? Are horses their only transportation?

She realized that people have strong interest in Mongolian culture but don't know much about people's life in Inner Mongolia, so in 2018 she decided to promote both the folk culture of the Mongolian ethnic group and the beautiful scenery of her hometown via short videos and a livestreaming platform. Now she has nearly 550,000 followers.

"People lack a sense of security when they travel to an unfamiliar place. After they watch my video, people will trust me and come here," said Wuyinga. Wuyinga's uncle runs a tourist attraction. Once Wuyinga recorded the construction process of her uncle's Mongolian yurt, the video brought more than 100 tourists to her uncle's place, greatly increasing his income.

Many people ordered local specialties via her livestreaming shows and she once set a record of sales valued at 192,000 yuan (US $ 27,430) in three days. In the past two years, she created nearly 800 short videos to over one million viewers on the Internet and created sales valued at more than seven million yuan (US $ 991,900).

Wuyinga said, "I hope to show the magnificent scenery as well as the people and culture of Inner Mongolia through the lens, so that more people can know what the grassland look like and how the Mongolian people live thousands of miles away without leaving home."

Gerongzhuomu: Young Internet Celebrity Promotes Tibetan Specialties Online

Gerongzhuomu, a post-95s Tibetan woman who lives in Gongsha Village, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Southwest China's Sichuan Province. [For Women of China]

Gerongzhuomu is a post-95s Tibetan woman who lives in Gongsha Village, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Southwest China's Sichuan Province. With thousands of followers on short-video platform Kuaishou, she is a beneficiary of the Happy Countryside Project and was invited to attend a training program in Tsinghua University. She drove the villagers to sell products worth more than 4 million yuan (US $571,600) in 2019, which was four times the sales level of the previous year.

Once she let her father take a video of her and her mother picking cordyceps (a kind of Chinese medicine), and it received more than 500,000 views. Hundreds of people asked her how to buy cordyceps after they watched the video.

Since cordyceps has a potential market, Gerongzhuomu and her husband Du Mokui started using short videos to promote local specialties. In the digging season, the couple lives on the mountain at an altitude of more than 4,800 meters for a month, where the environment is tough.

In addition to the videos of digging cordyceps and matsutake, Gerongzhuomu also prepared some videos showing the beautiful scenery and folk culture of her hometown, including blue sky, rainbow, mountains, and ethnic costumes.

Gerongzhuomu established a cooperative to help villagers increase their income in 2019. She is now preparing to develop a homestay business to boost local tourism.

"People from all over the country have come to experience life," said Gerongzhuomu, adding that some tourists come to dig matsutake while others come to paint pictures or just relax. They often stay for two or three months.

"I enjoy my life now, and I hope to stay in my hometown to help more people," she said.

Shi Linjiao: Returned College Student Uses Web to Improve Local People's Lives

Shi Linjiao is one of the first generation of college students who returned to Shibadong, their hometown and a village in Hunan Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Central China's Hunan Province, and started their businesses. [Xinhua/Xue Yuge]

Shi Linjiao is one of the first generation of college students who returned to Shibadong, their hometown and a village in Hunan Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Central China's Hunan Province, and started their businesses.

Shi worked in a company in Liuyang City, Hunan Province, after she graduated from Zhejiang Conservatory of Music.

She quit her job and returned to her hometown in early 2020 and started her own business together with two other returned college students. They have helped local villagers sell specialties via short videos and livestreaming.

The videos they made and uploaded to Douyin, a popular video-sharing platform, are usually 10 seconds long and feature the 24-year-old woman's daily life in the rural areas.

They depict her making smoked Miao-style bacon, transplanting rice seedlings, picking up firewood and feeding chickens.

The videos quickly attracted viewers curious about this village. The most liked comments included: "This Miao village situated in green mountains and clear water has the taste and smell of an earthly life," "The video reminds me of my childhood" and "So that's how Miao-style bacon is cooked. I want to buy some."

Over the past five months, the team has helped villagers sell specialties worth about 40,000 yuan ($5,720), including smoked bacon, pickled radish and Miao clothing.

"To start a business in my hometown and make small contributions to my hometown's development is my lifelong pursuit," said Shi.

(Women of China)
Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday demanded that jailed poet and activist Varavara Rao be released immediately and admitted to a super speciality hospital. Rao's health is a matter of grave concern, Chidambaram said.

The 80-year-old activist, an accused in the Elgar Parishad case, has tested positive for COVID-19. He is lodged at the Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai under judicial custody and was admitted to the Maharashtra government-run JJ Hospital in Mumbai earlier this week.

"The condition of Shri Varavara Rao as described by his family is a matter of grave concern. It is beyond belief that the State, the police and the prison authorities can behave in such an inhuman manner under the watch of the NHRC," Chidambaram said on Twitter.

"Shri Varavara Rao should be released immediately and admitted to a super speciality hospital that will treat him properly," he demanded.

Rao has been in jail for about 22 months and had earlier approached the special NIA court, seeking bail on medical grounds and the prevailing COVID-19 situation.

Rao and nine other activists have been arrested in the Elgar Parishad case, which was initially probed by Pune Police and later transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

The case is related to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial.
Kidsafe NSW has issued a warning about using essential oils and diffusers around young children because ingesting the fluids can cause 'serious poisoning'.

The announcement was shared on the child safety group's official Instagram page, with the caption stating that less than a teaspoon of oil or vaporiser fluids can cause major harm.

Essential oils are extracted from plants. These oils can have some of the properties of plants, including the scent, and can be used in aromatherapy treatments or to make perfumes.

According to experts working at NSW Property Identification Codes, not much is known about the 'safety' of these products when consumed.

Kidsafe NSW has issued a warning about using essential oils and diffusers around young children because ingesting the fluids can cause 'serious poisoning'

'While some sellers make claims about the health benefits of ingesting the oils or rubbing them directly onto skin, NSW PIC does not recommend consuming essential oils,' Kidsafe said.

You can also be poisoned by exposing certain oils to the skin - resulting in burns and irritation - or inhaling them, which will sometimes affect your breathing.

Australian paediatric doctor Dr Nelu Simonsz shares Kidsafe's concerns about essential oils, writing in 2018 that they are an 'unknown danger' around the house.

'Hopefully parents and childcare workers know that locking up cleaning products and medications away from curious little hands can be life-saving but did you also know that an unknown danger is essential oils,' Dr Nelu said at the time.

'While some sellers make claims about the health benefits of ingesting the oils or rubbing them directly onto skin, NSW PIC does not recommend consuming essential oils,' Kidsafe said (stock image)

Australian paediatric doctor Dr Nelu Simonsz (pictured) shares Kidsafe's concerns about essential oils, writing in 2018 that they are an 'unknown danger' around the house

'Yes the seemingly harmless rosemary oil and eucalyptus oil can be very harmful to children if swallowed.'

Dr Nelu said essential oils can cause anything from 'severe vomiting to drowsiness to changes in the heart's electrical activity to chemical burns to seizures'.

'After a recent admission of an infant who was fed some oil by their cheeky older sibling it's a good reminder that people may not aware of how lethal these oils can be,' she said.

Dr Nelu said parents should adopt a few tactics to ensure their children aren't exposed to any dangerous oils.

'Try to buy bottles with a child safe lid where possible,' she told FEMAIL.

'Some kids are too clever for this so make sure all cleaning products, essential oils, medications, sprays and basically anything that could be dangerous if swallowed, are kept in high places or a cupboard that can't be accessed by kids with childproof locks on them.'

Dr Nelu said parents should adopt a few tactics to ensure their children aren't exposed to any dangerous essential oils

What are the symptoms to look out for? CLOVE: large ingestions can have hepatotoxicity similar to paracetamol poisoning, renal failure, inhalational pneumonitis, coma FENNEL: Nausea, vomiting, seizure activity, pulmonary oedema GERANIUM: Allergic contact chelitis LAVENDER: CNS depression, ataxia, photosensitiser that promotes hyperpigmentation, contact dermatitis LEMON MYRTLE: Skin irritation and corrosion NUTMEG: hallucinations, coma THUJA: Multiple tonic-clonic seizures WINTERGREEN: (Methyl Salicylate): nausea, vomiting, tinnitus, vertigo, hyperventilation, seizures WORMWOOD: Acidosis, acute renal failure, respiratory acidosis, rhabdomyolysis, visual alterations, delirium, restlessness, paranoia, tremor, and seizures Source: Royal Children's Hospital Advertisement

'If you are using these products, make sure either the kids aren't around or you don't put the product down with your back to the child (it doesn't take long for them to pick it up and put it in their mouth).

'Don't forget the poisons hotline has a wealth of information if you are worried about ingestion of any potentially harmful products.'

According to the Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne, common essential oils to be aware of include lavender, tea tree, nutmeg, sage, peppermint, wintergreen, fennel, geranium, lemon myrtle, thuja, woodworm and clove.

'Toxicity can occur from the essential oil itself along with the hydrocarbons or emulsifiers added to many of the preparations,' the site read.

Eucalyptus oil is one of the worst essential oils for a child to ingest, with the RCH stating even small ingestions of the pure oil can lead to severe symptoms.

Tachycardia and Hypotension have been reported, as well as depression and apnoea, bronchospasm or signs of aspiration pneumonitis.

If your child has been exposed to something and you are concerned about poisoning, call the Poisons Centre on 13 11 26 immediately. Take the product with you to the phone (or a photo of it) so you have all the product details.
A team of climate scientists and geologists including Robert DeConto of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst has received a five-year, $7 million grant from the National Science Foundation to drill through the Greenland Ice Sheet and into the bedrock below, where they will be able to evaluate how long it has been since the last ice sheet retreated from the land surface.

DeConto is co-director of the UMass School of Earth and Sustainability. He is a professor in the Department of Geosciences.

Greenland has been a target area for climatologists attempting to gauge the pace of global warming, as well as its potential impact. Videos of melting snow and ice on the worlds largest island (if Australia is classified as a continent rather than an island) are often used in televised reports of climate change and global warming

Greenlands ice sheet holds enough water to raise sea levels nearly 24 feet. Scientists warn that even smaller levels of rising seas over shorter periods of time, caused by significant loss of the ice sheet, would bring calamitous effects.

An overarching question were trying to answer is just how sensitive the Greenland Ice Sheet is to a warmer climate. Loss of the ice sheet, even a small amount, would be catastrophic for many people and coastlines, DeConto said.

In addition to UMass Amherst, investigators at Columbia, Penn State and the University at Buffalo will receive $3 million in research funds and $4 million for field operations from the National Science Foundation for the project, dubbed GreenDrill. Drilling at four sites will go through hundreds of meters of ice before collecting bedrock.

Among other things, the researchers will use the new data to test the hypothesis that northern Greenland is more sensitive to warming than the southern part.

This project has the potential to substantially improve our understanding of how the ice sheet behaves and responds to a warmer world  with great benefits to society. For a climate scientist, thats about as exciting as it gets, DeConto said/

DeConto and colleagues will explore how far the ice sheet can be pushed before ice loss become unstoppable and irreversible, and what part of the ice sheet is likely to respond first to a warming climate.

The project is focused on the northern part of the ice adjacent to the Arctic Ocean, which DeConto said is now warming very quickly.

There are likely important linkages between the Arctic Ocean  its temperature and loss of sea ice  and the health of the ice sheet. Its absolutely critical that we know how much ice Greenland lost in the past, and this is still very uncertain,' he said.
An international team tracking the 'new physics' neutrinos has checked the data of all the relevant experiments associated with neutrino detections against Standard Model extensions proposed by theorists. The latest analysis, the first with such comprehensive coverage, shows the scale of challenges facing right-handed neutrino seekers, but also brings a spark of hope.

In all the processes involving neutrinos that have been observed, these particles exhibit a feature referred to by physicists as left-handedness. Right-handed neutrinos, which are the most natural extension of the Standard Model, are nowhere to be seen. Why? The latest, extremely comprehensive analysis carried out by an international group of physicists, including the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN) in Cracow helps to answer this question. For the first time, data from all the relevant experiments, directly and indirectly dedicated to neutrino detections, were included and checked against the ranges of parameters imposed by various theoretical extensions of the Standard Model.

The first subatomic particle, the electron, was observed more than 120 years ago. Since then, physicists have discovered a whole plethora of them. The richness of the building bricks of nature is explained on the assumption that the world consists of massive quarks, occurring in six flavours, and much less massive leptons, also in six flavours. Leptons include the electron, the muon (weighing 207 times the mass of the electron), the tau (3477 times the mass of an electron) and the corresponding three types of neutrinos.

Neutrinos interact extremely poorly with the rest of matter. They also show other features of particular importance for the shape of modern physics. It has recently been discovered that these particles oscillate, i.e. they are constantly transforming from one type to another. This phenomenon means the observed neutrinos must have a certain (though very low) mass. Meanwhile, the Standard Model, a modern theoretical tool describing subatomic particles with great accuracy, leaves no alternative: within its framework neutrinos cannot have any mass! This contradiction between theory and experience is one of the strongest indications in favour of the existence of unknown subatomic particles. The mass of neutrinos, however, is not their only puzzling property.

"We learn about the presence of neutrinos by observing the decay products of various particles and comparing what we have recorded with what theory predicts. It turns out that in all cases indicating the presence of neutrinos, these particles always had the same helicity: 1/2, i.e. they were left-handed. This is interesting because other particles of matter can have both positive and negative spin. But there are no right-handed neutrinos to be seen! If they don't exist, then why not? And if they do, where are they hiding?" asks Dr. Marcin Chrzaszcz (IFJ PAN).

An article just published in the European Physical Journal C by an international team of physicists brings us closer to answering the above questions. Scientists from IFJ PAN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research - CERN, Universite catholique de Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium), Monash University (Melbourne, Australia), Technische Universitat Munchen (Germany) and University of Amsterdam (Netherlands) ) carried out the most accurate analysis to date of the data collected in over a dozen of the most sophisticated experiments in subatomic physics, both those of a general nature and those directly dedicated to observing neutrinos (including PIENU, PS-191, CHARM, E949, NuTeV, DELPHI , ATLAS, CMS).

The researchers did not limit themselves to merely increasing the number of experiments and the amount of data processed. In their analysis, they considered the possibility of hypothetical processes proposed by theoreticians that require the presence of right-handed neutrinos. One of them was the seesaw mechanism associated with Majorana neutrinos.

In 1937, Ettore Majorana postulated the existence of a particle of matter that is its own antiparticle. Such a particle could not have an electric charge. Since all particles of matter carry electric charge, except for neutrinos, the new particle can be a neutrino.

"The theory suggests that if Majorana neutrinos exist, there can also be a seesaw mechanism. This would mean that when neutrinos with one helicity state are not very massive, then neutrinos with the opposite helicity must have very large masses. So, if our neutrinos which are left-handed have very low masses, if they were to be Majorana neutrinos, in the right-handed version they would have to be massive. This would explain why we haven't seen them yet," says Dr. Chrzaszcz and adds that massive right-handed neutrinos are one of the candidates for dark matter.

The latest analysis, carried out using the specialized open source GAMBIT package, took into account all currently available experimental data and parameter ranges provided by various theoretical mechanisms. Numerically it was extremely onerous. The seesaw mechanism itself meant that the calculations had to use floating-point numbers not of double, but of quadruple precision. Ultimately, the volume of data reached 60 TB. The analysis had to be carried out in the fastest Polish computing cluster Prometheus, managed by the Academic Computer Centre Cyfronet of the AGH University of Science and Technology.

The results of the analysis, financed on the Polish side from grants from the Foundation for Polish Science and the National Agency for Academic Exchange, do not inspire optimism. It turned out that despite many experiments and a huge amount of collected data, the possible parameter space was penetrated to only a small extent.

"We may find right-handed neutrinos in experiments that are just about to begin. However, if we are unlucky and right-handed neutrinos are hiding in the farthest recesses of parameter space, we may have to wait up to one hundred years for their discovery," says Dr. Chrzaszcz.

Fortunately, there is also a shadow of hope. A trace of a potential signal was captured in the data that could be associated with right-handed neutrinos. At this stage it is very weak and ultimately it may turn out to be just a statistical fluctuation. But what would happen if it wasn't?

"In this case, everything indicates that it would already be possible to observe right-handed neutrinos in the successor to the LHC, the Future Circular Collider. However, the FCC has a certain disadvantage: it would start working about 20 years after its approval, which in the best-case scenario may take place only next year. If it doesn't, we will have to arm ourselves with a great amount of patience before we see right-handed neutrinos," concludes Dr. Chrzaszcz.

###

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 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:

Dr. Marcin Chrzaszcz

The Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences

email: marcin.chrzaszcz@ifj.edu.pl

SCIENTIFIC PAPERS:

"A Frequentist Analysis of Three Right-Handed Neutrinos with GAMBIT"

M. Chrzaszcz, M. Drewes, T. E. Gonzalo, J. Harz, S. Krishnamurthy, Ch. Weniger

European Physical Journal C, 80, 569 (2020)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-020-8073-9

LINKS:

http://www.ifj.edu.pl/

The website of the Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences.

http://press.ifj.edu.pl/

Press releases of the Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trumps plans for a grand convention keep shrinking.

The Republican National Committee announced Thursday that it is sharply restricting attendance on three of the four nights of its convention in Jacksonville, Florida, next month.

As the GOP looks for ways to move forward while coronavirus cases are spiking in the state, party leader Ronna McDaniel said in a letter to RNC members that only the roughly 2,500 regular delegates to the convention would be permitted to attend the first three nights. Delegates, their guests and alternate delegates would be allowed for the final night, Aug. 27, when Trump is set to deliver his acceptance speech.

The GOP had already moved most of the convention from Charlotte, North Carolina, after local officials ruled out a full-capacity crowd during the pandemic.

When we made these changes, we had hoped to be able to plan a traditional convention celebration to which we are all accustomed, McDaniel said. However, adjustments must be made to comply with state and local health guidelines.

In recent weeks, Florida has seen significant increases in confirmed cases. Jacksonville has instituted a face covering mandate, and the state is limiting gatherings to 50% of a venues capacity.

The convention notice comes as Trump aides and allies have increasingly questioned whether the event is worth the trouble; some advocate scrapping it. Conventions are meant to lay out a candidates vision for the coming four years, not spark months of intrigue over the health and safety of attendees, they have argued.

In the end, the decision about whether and how to move forward will be Trumps.

Thursdays announcement was expected to reduce the number of attendees  even regular delegates  who make the trip to Jacksonville, in most cases spending thousands of dollars of their own money to attend a convention that will lack many of the traditional festivities. Already some had been having second thoughts about going, given that some states have imposed 14-day quarantine orders on people returning from virus hot spots such as Florida.

People coming from out of state, my guess is the guest list will be very small, said Florida Republican Party Chair Joe Gruters.

The RNC was working to determine a programming lineup for the event. McDaniel said the convention was planning to use indoor and outdoor spaces. GOP officials said the marquee evening program, including Trumps speech, was expected to take place outdoors to accommodate the largest crowd possible.

Clustered near an indoor 15,000-capacity arena in downtown Jacksonville are a 5,550-capacity music amphitheatre, a minor league baseball stadium and the Jacksonville Jaguars football stadium.

The GOP will be providing on-site temperature checks and face coverings and will have COVID-19 testing available for attendees.

We can gather and put on a top-notch event that celebrates the incredible accomplishments of President Trumps administration and his re-nomination for a second term  while also doing so in a safe and responsible manner, McDaniel wrote.

Gruters said he was informed that the RNC would provide daily rapid tests for every attendee.

The formal business of renominating Trump will still take place in Charlotte, but with a far smaller group of delegates casting proxy votes.

Democrats will hold an almost entirely virtual convention Aug. 17-20 in Milwaukee using live broadcasts and online streaming, according to party officials. Joe Biden plans to accept the presidential nomination in person, but it remains to be seen whether there will be a significant in-person audience there to see it.

___

Associated Press writer Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee contributed to this report.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 16:11:01|Editor: huaxia

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Zoran Zaev, leader of the ruling Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM), celebrates victory of his party in early parliamentary elections, in Skopje, North Macedonia, July 16, 2020. The ruling SDSM party declared victory early Thursday after the State Election Commission (SEC) data showed that their coalition took the lead in early parliamentary elections. The SEC data suggests that the SDSM-led coalition was ahead with 36.13 percent of votes when 93.96 percent of the total votes were counted. (Photo by Tomislav Georgiev/Xinhua)

SKOPJE, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The ruling Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) party declared victory early Thursday after the State Election Commission (SEC) data showed that their coalition took the lead in early parliamentary elections.

The SEC data suggests that the SDSM-led coalition was ahead with 36.13 percent of votes when 93.96 percent of the total votes were counted.

Speaking at a news conference in the early hours of Thursday, SEC spokesman Admir Shabani said the commission cannot give a projection on the number of seats parties have won in the 120-seat parliament.

The coalition led by the main opposition VMRO-DPMNE party has garnered 34.65 percent of votes, followed by the Democratic Union for Integration party with 11.57 percent and the Alliance for Albanians and Alternativa with 8.79 percent.

The commission declared that a suspected hacking attack caused the SEC website to crash soon after polls closed on Wednesday evening, delaying preliminary results.

SDSM leader Zoran Zaev declared his coalition's victory during a news conference early Thursday.

"Our coalition 'We can' is the winner of these parliamentary elections, the biggest, the most deserved, the most powerful coalition," Zaev said.

Addressing party supporters in Skopje, he declared that "citizens voted for a safe future, unity and solidarity, economic patriotism, order and justice."

Early parliamentary elections in North Macedonia were first set for April 12, but were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Voters arrived at the polling stations wearing mandatory masks.

Polling stations closed at 9:00 p.m. local time (1900 GMT) on Wednesday, with the election commission saying turnout had reached 50.86 percent (922,678 citizens) 15 minutes before polls closed.

North Macedonia's parties reached an agreement for the April 12 snap parliamentary elections after the country's bid for accession negotiation with the European Union was denied in October last year.

North Macedonia has had a caretaker government since Zaev's resignation as prime minister in January. In February, North Macedonia's lawmakers voted to dissolve the parliament, paving the way for early elections set for April 12.

SEC spokesman Shabani told the news conference that the number of parliament seats will be revealed on Thursday, after all voting data is processed.
16.07.2020 LISTEN

The Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service has paid a private visit to the family of the KNUST SHS final year Business student, Richard Sam, who passed away on Tuesday, July 7, 2020, at the Manhyia Government Hospital.

The visit which took place on Thursday, July 15, 2020, at the family home at Ahenema Kokoben New Site was led by the Deputy Minister for Education, Hon. Gifty Twum-Ampofo, who represented the Minister for Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh.

She was accompanied by the Deputy Director-General for Quality and Access of the GES, Dr. Kwabena Bempah Tandoh who represented his Director-General, Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa.

Also part of the delegation was the Financial Controller for the GES, Reverend Dr. Christian Koramah, the Regional Director of Education Mary Owusu Achiaw and the Ashanti Regional Secretary of GNAT Mr. Boateng.

Speaking on behalf of the Ministry and Government, Hon. Twum-Ampofo expressed the deepest condolences of the Ministry and the Government to the bereaved family and consoled them for their loss.

She extended to the family the sympathy of Hon. Matthew Opoku Prempeh and the entire Education Ministry.

On behalf of the Government, Hon. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, who had wished to be here himself, and the entire Education Ministry, we express our heartfelt and deepest condolences for the loss of your beloved son. It is very sad to lose such a brilliant student at this crucial time, she consoles the family.

On behalf of the entire management and staff of the GES, Dr. Tandoh also expressed the sincere sympathies to the family.

The Director-General will work to ensure that an investigation into the death of your son is fully conducted, he assured the family.

On the part of the family, they thanked the government delegation and expressed their assurance that they will work closely with the authorities to bring closure to their loss.

Before the departure of the delegation, there was a separate private meeting between the father, mother, and the delegation where heartfelt conversations took place allowing the parents of the late student to confer with the Deputy Minister and her team.

The delegation promised to visit again and the family also promised to keep the ministry and GES informed of their plans about the deceased burial rites.

It will be recalled that on Tuesday, July 7, 2020, Leonard Sam, an ulcer patient, died after suffering from stomach pain for more than three hours without being given any medical attention at the school campus.

The victims colleague students, who attended to him until his father arrived on campus to convey him to a health facility where he later died, said the school authorities left the patient to his fate despite reeling under intense pain with vomiting bouts.

---OtecfmGhana
Zeotap Raises $42m to Expand CIP and ID+

SaaS-based customer intelligence platform (CIP) Zeotap has raised $42m in a Series C round of funding, which it will use to continue invest in its platform, and in its recently launched universal marketing identity solution, ID+.



Launched in 2014 and headquartered in Germany, Zeotap has additional operations in India and the US. The company aims to help clients understand their customers and predict their future behaviour, and last month rolled out ID+, promising to help counter the challenges posed by the phase-out of third-party cookies and other platform identifiers, as well as the regulatory landscape, by establishing a 'universal identity'.



Half the company's new funding was secured this year, and the remainder was raised last year from existing backers. Latest investors include Neue Capital, the European Investment Bank (EIB), KfW-backed fund coparion; Kathaka, socialite Caroline Rupert's family office; MathCapital; and TTCER Partners; along with several prominent business angels. Existing investors that also participated include New Science Ventures, Capnamic Ventures, Iris Capital, HERE, Innov8 (Singtel), and IONIQ.



Zeotap co-founder and CEO Daniel Heer (pictured), comments: 'Once again, some of the world's most established investors have placed their trust in us. In a tumultuous time for the industry, this will allow us to continue on our mission to deliver solutions to marketers' most pressing problems'.



Web site: www.zeotap.com .




Weather Alert

...Bitterly cold temperatures expected starting Wednesday Afternoon... ...Slick Roads possible late Wednesday Afternoon and Night... An Arctic blast of cold air will move into the Quad State region Wednesday afternoon, pushing the entire region below the freezing mark by 7 pm Wednesday. Once the cold air moves in, temperatures are not expected to rise above freezing until early Saturday afternoon. Gusty north winds will produce very low wind chills Thursday into Friday morning. Wind chills below zero will be likely over southern Illinois and southeast Missouri, with barely above zero wind chills over west Kentucky and southwest Indiana. Wind Chills will remain in the single digits for parts of the area all day on Thursday and into early Friday morning. Anyone traveling or working outdoors should bundle up in layers to protect yourself from developing hypothermia and frostbite. Consideration should also be given to protect pets and livestock left outdoors. For those with water systems vulnerable to an extended period of sub-freezing temperatures, be sure to keep a trickle of water running through those systems. A Winter Weather Advisory is currently posted for part of southwest Indiana and the Pennyrile region of west Kentucky late Wednesday afternoon and night, where the best accumulation of wintry precipitation is expected. However, with temperatures expected to plummet and remain below freezing, any wintry precipitation still left on roadways and sidewalks across the Quad State late Wednesday afternoon and night will freeze. Travelers should use caution while traveling and be watchful for any slick spots on roadways, especially elevated bridges and overpasses. Please stay tuned to the National Weather Service in Paducah for the latest forecasts and statements associated with this winter event.
Dumfries Rd. near Bristow Rd., 2:58 p.m. July 2. A 19-year-old woman reported that she arranged a ride via a ride-hailing app just before 5 a.m. and during the ride, the driver exposed himself and sexually assaulted her. The woman was able to separate herself from the driver before arriving at the requested destination. No injuries were reported. The driver, a 27-year-old Waldorf man, fled.
A seven-months pregnant mother woke up from two weeks on a coronavirus ventilator to be told her unborn child had died in South Africa.

Marzanne Lennox, 29, was admitted to the Life Wilgers Hospital in Pretoria with severe Covid-19 symptoms on June 30 and was put on a ventilator straight away.

Mrs Lennox - who was 30-weeks along at the time - was too weak for an emergency Caesarean delivery and her oxygen levels were dangerously low.

Her family were told that the baby had died shortly after, South African site News 24 reported.

Mrs Lennox herself was told Tuesday - once she was strong enough.

Seven-months pregnant Marzanne Lennox, 29, (pictured) woke up from two weeks on a coronavirus ventilator to be told her unborn child had died in South Africa

Mrs Lennox's father Skip Scheepers said: 'The baby didn't make it - he is with Jesus.

'The pain just won't go away - we now have to start organising a funeral.'

Doctors then performed a Caesarean section on Mrs Lennox to remove the baby.

Her father added: 'They told her they were going to remove the baby moments before the operation. She was very emotional.'

Her husband Thomas, 30, was able to visit the hospital to meet with her doctors this week.

Mrs Lennox (pictured with her husband) was admitted to the Life Wilgers Hospital in Pretoria with severe Covid-19 symptoms on June 30 and was put on a ventilator straight away

Her husband Thomas, 30, (pictured on their wedding day) was able to visit the hospital to meet with her doctors this week

But due to rules put in place by the hospital to slow the spread of the virus none of the family have been able to visit Mrs Lennox herself. She remained on the ventilator for two weeks.

South Africa has the most confirmed coronavirus cases in Africa with over 224,000.

Gauteng province - home to Pretoria where the hospital is - has the country's most cases with over 75,000, or 33 per cent.

Provincial official Bandile Masuku, a medical doctor, last week told reporters that Gauteng is preparing over 1.5 million graves.

Mrs Lennox (pictured on her wedding day) - who was 30-weeks along at the time - was too weak for an emergency Caesarean delivery and her oxygen levels were dangerously low

'It's a reality that we need to deal with,' he said, and it's the public's responsibility 'to make sure that we don't get there.'

But the province in a statement Thursday sought to calm fears, saying it 'does not have over a million already open dug graves' and clarified that the official was saying the province has enough space for that many.

It also said six members of Gauteng's Covid-19 War Room have tested positive for the virus.

The number of cases in the country is continuing to rise with 12,757 reported on Wednesday alone.

Its death toll is fluctuating with 174 deaths reported on Tuesday and 107 reported on Wednesday. However, the total number of deaths is on an upwards curve.

Modelling has shown that South Africa will have between 40,000 and 80,000 deaths by the end of the year.
Ellembelle Constituency Executives of the new patriotic party (NPP) on Tuesday expressed gratitude and maximum support to Dr. Ben Asante, the CEO of Ghana Gas for his unprecedented developmental agenda on Nzema land.



The party in a press statement on Tuesday, 14th July debunked a press conference organized by Nzema Youth which sought to create the impression that the Nzemas are being denied employment opportunities and other developmental projects under the reign of Dr. Ben Asante.



According to the constituency Chairman Mr. Samuel Akainya, the group calling itself Nzema Youth are NDC surrogates from only two communities, Anokyi and Asemda-Suazo, and are on the political trail to mislead and denigrate the hard-won reputation of Dr. Ben Asante.



Advancing his argument, he said the leader of the group, Mr. Awotwe once an NDC organizer and his group needlessly extended the same vituperation and unwarranted attack on our highly respected paramount chief, Awulaye Amihere Kpanyili (III).



This is total disrespect and disregard to traditional authorities from a youth group seeking to undermine the authority of the overlord of Eastern Nzema.



Dr. Ben Asante, the CEO of Ghana Gas has the Nzemas at heart and doing everything possible to lift the image of Nzema by creating more job opportunities to local people. He concluded.



The Constituency Research and Elections officer, Mr. Isaac K. Polley enumerated several social interventions programmes enrolled and projects built by Ghana Gas under the leadership of Dr. Ben Asante.



The Press release concluded that we encourage Dr. Ben Asante to stay focus and implement the good policies and programmes earmark for Project Affected Communities and ensure that Ghanaians enjoy an interrupted Gas supply for reliable power generation.



Read the full statement below;



Ellembelle NPP Executives Support The Developmental Agender Of Dr. Ben Asante On Nzema Land



We read with shock and disappointment a press conference organized by a group of NDC surrogates referring to themselves as Nzema Youth. When was this Nzema Youth formed and what has been their modus operandi?



To begin with, the content of their statement is riddled with factual inaccuracies and tribal bigotry purported to tarnish the image of Dr. Ben Asante the CEO of Ghana Gas.



They sought to create the impression that we the Nzemas are being denied employment opportunities under the reign of Dr. Asante, this assertion beat our imagination since it is clear that the number of Nzemas in the company have more than doubled and expanded to cover all the three Nzema Districts-namely Ellembelle, Jomoro, and Nzema East under the leadership of Dr. Asante. If these simple checks were done by the so-called group, they would have recused themselves from making those ethnocentric statements to create the impression that all Nzema Youth are involved in this divisive tendency.



To set the records straight we will like to highlight a few of the good intentions of the current CEO towards Nzemas.



Under the current CEO, the Community Relations Department of Ghana Gas is dominated by personnel from the locality and headed by two Senior Managers all of them Nzemas, which was not the case under the previous regime.



Dr. Ben Asante, who the group claim is anti-Nzema has instituted a support scheme for Traditional Council Meetings in all the three Nzema districts to ensure that Awulayemo and Nanamon are supported in their quarterly meetings. The CEO has also made a personal commitment to attend all Kundum Festivals in all the Paramountcies.



Our checks at Ghana Gas indicates that most of the local contracts including CSR projects are awarded to local contractors to build their capacity in the world of business.



SAMUEL AKAINYA ISAAC K. POLLEY



CONSTITUENCY CHAIRMAN CONSTITUENCY RESEARCH OFFICER



0557961031 0242132397





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.

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WEST HAVEN  U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal called Wednesday for further federal funding to aid Metro-North Railroad and help keep the service running while allowing passengers to maintain appropriate social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic.

Blumenthal advocated for his colleagues to pass the HEROES Act, which would include $32 billion to support mass transit, including funding for Metro-North. Metro-North previously received $224 million through the CARES Act, Blumenthal said.

The additional funding is necessary to help Metro-North offset its losses and encourage more trains to be put back on the tracks so people feel they can appropriately socially distance while riding the rails, Blumenthal said.

This additional infusion and investment of resources is vital. And the country should be demanding that Mitch McConnell put this bill on the floor, give us a vote, said Blumenthal, during a press conference at the West Haven station. Safe and reliable transportation is not a luxury. It is a necessity. And equally necessary is the equipment and trains to enable physical distancing.

Metro-North Railroad President Cathy Rinaldi agreed more funding is needed.

We appreciate the Senators tireless advocacy on behalf of Metro-Norths customers in the state of Connecticut. We share his commitment to the safety of our customers and our employees, and we are taking all necessary steps to ensure that the customers who are starting to return to the Metro-North system have the best possible experience, Rinaldi said in a statement. Metro-North is the engine that drives the economy in southern Connecticut, and we agree with the Senator that substantial federal funding will be necessary if Metro-North - and the region - are to recover from the devastating effects of this historic public health crisis.

Edward Valente, general chairman of the Association of Commuter Rail Employees, said that Metro-North has been devastated financially during the coronavirus pandemic, as ridership has decreased significantly.

At the same time, he said, workers have continued to do their jobs, putting our health on the line to keep the trains running.

Valente called for Metro-North to run more trains and ideally return to full service.

He said that more than 70 trains have run while more than one-third full since July 1, according to ACREs count, which does not allow for social distancing by Metro-Norths definition.

As we continue to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic, let me assure you that the men and women of ACRE will be there for our passengers and will do our part to keep the New Haven line running, said Valente.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
Early-stage human trial data on a vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University will be published on July 20, The Lancet medical journal said on Wednesday. The vaccine candidate is already in large-scale Phase III human trials to assess whether it can protect against COVID-19, but its developers have yet to report Phase I results which would show whether it is safe and whether or not it induces an immune response.

"We expect this paper, which is undergoing final editing and preparation, to be published on Monday, July 20, for immediate release," a spokeswoman for the journal said. The Lancet's statement came after reports earlier on Wednesday that the Phase I data could be released as soon Thursday.

Developers of the vaccine, known as known as AZD1222, said earlier this month they were encouraged by the immune response they had seen in trials so far and were expecting to publish Phase 1 data by the end of July. A preclinical trial of the shot in pigs showed that two doses produced a greater antibody response than a single dose.

More than 100 vaccines are being developed and tested around the world to try to stop the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed hundreds of thousands and ravaged the global economy. The World Health Organization's chief scientist said in June that AstraZeneca's AZD1222 was probably the most advanced in terms of development.

The company has signed agreements with governments around the globe to supply the vaccine should it prove effective. Researchers in the United States reported on Tuesday that Moderna Inc's experimental vaccine showed it was safe and provoked immune responses in all 45 healthy volunteers in an ongoing early-stage study.

Moderna started its Phase II trial in May and expects to start a Phase III trial on July 27.

Also read: Coronavirus drug: Hetero Healthcare to supply 60,000 vials of Covifor
The COVID-19 outbreak is spreading more rapidly in Nueces County than anywhere else in virus-ravaged Texas, spurring officials there to enact a curfew and ban vehicles on its popular beaches.

Were unfortunately the county that has the highest number of new cases every day per 100,000 in population, Corpus Christi City Manager Peter Zanoni said in a public briefing this week.

The coastal region of about 362,000 people reported 605 new cases on Tuesday: its highest count yet. On Wednesday, the county reported 500 new cases of COVID-19, its second highest daily count.

Bob Owen /San Antonio Express-News

To stem the flow of visitors and rein in the outbreak, Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales issued an order to prohibit vehicles on beaches starting Thursday, and no one will be allowed on the sand from sundown to sunrise.

All of the out-of-town visitors that are coming for day trips, short vacations and just general summer fun, its got to stop, Canales said. It has to. Because at 600 cases a day, its untenable. Those 600 cases, theyll turn into hospitalizations, a portion of them. Theyll turn into ICU, and it pains me to say this, but theyre also going to turn into fatalities.

The countywide order extends until Aug. 1.

We may have to close them even longer, Zanoni said. Thats what weve asked the state permission to do.

Bob Owen /San Antonio Express-News

He added, People can walk to the beach or run or bike or fish or swim or sit down in a chair or camp, to the extent they can get the equipment there to the Gulf beaches. They just cant drive on the beach.

Until this month, the virus had left the highly trafficked tourist destination about 170 miles south of San Antonio relatively unscathed.

From April to June, Nueces County recorded only eight COVID-19-related deaths. So far this month, 62 people have died from the disease there, launching the county into second place in average daily fatalities in Texas.

Now Playing: Animation shows spread of COVID-19 across Texas from March to April. Video: mySA

Day-trippers flooding in from nearby counties to visit the beaches are likely driving the surge, said Port Aransas City Manager David Parsons.

Its like every weekend is Fourth of July, he said.

Experts say transmission of the virus is much less likely outdoors. But trips to the beach are still risky, Parsons said.

Theyre piling into the convenience gas stations, he said. Thats where its happening. Its not the beach. Its at the Stripes store, the 7-11. Its the fast-food restaurants. Its all the preparation that a family or a group of people take to get to the beach.

Orders banning vehicles on beaches are an effective way to discourage visitors, Parsons added.

Its a major inconvenience, he said. Lets say it cuts down 50 percent of the traffic. Every little bit helps. Its a good medium. Youre not chopping the businesses off at the knees.

Canales had previously issued an order banning vehicles on beaches over the Fourth of July weekend. That order had a significant impact on visitors, Zanoni said, reducing traffic on the John F Kennedy Memorial Causeway bridge to about 4,000 vehicles over 12 hours.

By contrast, 25,000 vehicles passed over the bridge over 12 hours on Memorial Day.

Focused measures are necessary to blunt the worrisome trajectory, Canales said.

Over time, weve moved from the bottom to the top, she said. When youre number one in Texas, its hard to figure out where else its worse. I need people to act as if their lives depended upon it  because they do.

bchasnoff@express-news.net
The Bible family has talked about Busicks plea for months and what is the best option, said Lisa Bible Brodrick, Laurias cousin.

Though many will agree this isnt enough time, in the big picture, time is of the essence, and we need to get all the information we can to find the girls, Brodrick said.

Rather than be upset over the time he (Busick) is facing, we want to use that energy to pray for his eyes to be open and his mind will be clear, she said.

Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Agent Tammy Ferrari and District 12 District Attorneys Investigator Gary Stansill have been analyzing and researching possible search locations for the remains of Lauria and Ashley, missing for over two decades.

Investigators have spent months searching mine shafts, ponds and other spots of interest in the former Tar Creek mining area.

These locations came from recent information received from an undisclosed source, Stansill said.

The family continues to plead for people who have information but still havent shared it to come forward.

We need to bring the girls home, Brodrick said.
This is part of Debt Nation, a series of interviews with people about how student loans have shaped their lives. Read the rest here.

Education: Bachelors in public health, masters in public policy

Current job: Works on program support for state prisons

Household income: $270,000

Relationship status: Married, expecting a child

Peak student debt: $53,000 in 2013

Current student debt: $0, last payment was May 2017

I am student loan debtfree. My parents paid for my undergrad education. My mom is in management in the social work field, and my dad works for a trucking company in sales. We were not super wealthy growing up. My parents got a bit of a late start. They met in the Army in training and served together. Then they went to school on the GI Bill. It took them a while to build their professional careers. They didnt have a ton of savings, so they just paid out of pocket for my education. But because education had been such a help for them, it was really important to them to get me and my two sisters started. The deal was everyone gets undergrad paid for, and then grad school you figure out on your own.

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I just feel very grateful for my parents help but also guilty for how much opportunity I got and how much advantage Ive had.

I went to UC Berkeley for undergrad. Tuition at that point was probably $7,000 to $10,000 a semester. They covered that and also living expenses in the Bay Area. I lived cheap, in cooperative housing, but still it was a thing I didnt have to pay for. All told, Im estimating that the amount they paid was probably $80,000 or so. But I didnt have to pay for it, so I didnt pay that much attention.

My mom has some student loan debt from her graduate education, but the environment is really different now in terms of educational costs. Im the oldest, so my college experience was my parents first time going through the process. My dad has a background in accounting, which was extremely helpful in figuring out, OK, my rent is this month. I get this much monthly from my employment. My scholarship amount is this much, and then books and electric bills and food cost this much. He helped me calculate how much I would have to take out in order to cover the gap between my scholarship and my expenses.

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Then I did a masters in public policy at Georgetown. I had no counseling about loans. Basically you just kind of go online, and you type in how much you want. I had a pretty heavy scholarship there for a lot of my tuition, and I worked part time as well. In the end, I still had about $53,000 in loans. One of the things I thought a lot about was trying to pick a highly regarded institution, because I wanted to have a lot of options when I left grad school to be able to pay off the debt. Because I didnt have debt from undergrad, that made it a lot easier for me to have flexibility about where I went. For example, I was offered a full-ride scholarship to another school that I turned down even though the financial aid offer was better.

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My payments, when I graduated, were roughly $670 a month. And then every couple of months I would throw $500, $1,000 extra at it. I would get my tax refund check, and I would throw that at it. Another thing my parents did for me was they co-signed on a loan and paid a down payment on a house for me in my hometown. That was huge for me, obviously, because I then had this asset, which has now appreciated substantially. They helped subsidize me for a little bit so I could make that monthly student loan payment while still being able to make a monthly payment on this house.

In mid-2015, my husband moved in with me as well. He had a similar amount of debt from his grad school and also no undergrad debt. Were both high-income earners; we earn relatively the same, about $10,600 each a month. Between our two incomes, our relatively cheap house, and not having to save for a down payment, which is what a lot of our friends were doing at that point, we were able to really aggressively start paying off our loans.

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We had been dating maybe for four years when he proposed. I had still probably $15,000 in loans, and he had some savings. He had paid off his loans by then, and we just decided to wipe my loan debt out. And then we were able to start putting the money that would have gone toward student loans toward a wedding and things like vacations.

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My husband and I do not pay enough in taxes. Its ridiculous.

I did not expect to be making anywhere near this amount of money at this point in my career. It just kind of worked out that way. When I was leaving school, before I decided to come back to California, Id actually accepted a job working for a consulting firm in D.C., largely just related to the amount of debt I had. When youre looking at jobs where you can use a public policy degree, consulting way out-earns anything in the public sector. But I wanted to come back to California. My parents helping with the home purchase is the thing that made the decision for me. Paying D.C. rent and paying off my student loans, even working for a consulting firm, it would have taken me forever to get enough money to pay a down payment.

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I have about 70 staffers who work for me, and a lot of them are very close in age to me. All our jobs require college educations, so they all have at least a bachelors degree, and many have lots of debt. I just feel very grateful for my parents help but also guilty for how much opportunity I got and how much advantage Ive had. It feels so deeply unfair.

My husband and I still have our jobs right now, but I have been thinking about how grateful I am that Ive paid off that debt and its just not a liability that I have to worry aboutbeing pregnant in a pandemic and thinking about having to save money to pay for day care and college funds and things like that. We just bought a new, bigger house, and we thought about selling the old one because we would have gotten a lot of money from the equity. But we decided to hold onto it as a rental property and then by the time our kids are ready to go to school, that property will be paid off, and well just have the rental income. Thats one of our thoughts in terms of paying for a kid to go to school. But yeah, we plan to pay for our kids education.

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I think theres this sense that folks who have done what I did and aggressively paid off their loans somehow feel like, Well, other people should have done that. That is not how I feel at all. I dont think we should be allowing people to get into this kind of debt. Its just outrageous and stupid. I also dont think education should be this expensive. I would love to see other peoples debt wiped out. This will 100 percent play into who I vote for. My husband and I do not pay enough in taxes. Its ridiculous. Anyone else who earns like us needs to be paying more in taxes.

Rachel Johnson is a pseudonym.
Naomi Watts welcomed an adorable rescue pooch named Izzy into her family this year.

And on Wednesday, the Australian actress cut a colourful figure as she and her new best friend went shopping in The Hamptons.

Putting safety first, Naomi, 51, sported a fabric black and white floral print face mask as she went about her errands.

Girl's best friend! Naomi Watts (pictured) cut a colourful figure as she went shopping with new rescue pooch Izzy in The Hamptons on Wednesday

The King Kong star looked sensational in a loose-fitting rainbow coloured striped midi dress as she enjoyed her getaway in the affluent beachside town, located not far from New York.

Naomi protected her porcelain skin from the harsh summer sun by covering up with a chic wide-brimmed straw hat.

She coordinated her effortlessly casual ensemble with white sandals and silver-framed sunglasses with pink lenses she slung over her bust when she wasn't wearing them.

Saftey first: Naomi also sported a black and white print face mask as she ran her errands

Naomi skipped the makeup and wore her shoulder-length blonde locks tied up under her hat.

Little Izzy looked happy to be along for the outing, being carried by her famous owner in a sling.

Naomi appeared in high spirits as she picked up several bags of shopping.

The American-based star shared a number of videos and images of Izzy on Instagram when she adopted the pooch back in May.

'New family member alert with Izzy the pup,' Naomi captioned one post.

She also shared a sweet video of Izzy running on the grass as the song 'Who Let The Dogs Out' by Baha Men played in the background.

'New family member alert': The American-based star shared a number of videos and images of Izzy on Instagram when she adopted the pooch in May

Naomi and her ex-partner Liev Schreiber have been hunkering down together with their sons, Sasha, 12, and Kai, 11, in the Hamptons amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Back in May, the family thrilled fans when they did a fun TikTok dance routine.

They performed to Doja Cat's hit single Say So, as part of the viral 'He-ain't-never-seen-it-in-a-dress-like-this' challenge.

Before heading to The Hamptons, Naomi, Liev and their sons had been staying in LA with Liev's model girlfriend, Taylor Neisen.

Lockdown life: Naomi and her ex-partner, Liev Schreiber, have been hunkering down together with their sons, Sasha, 12, and Kai, 11, in The Hamptons amid the coronavirus pandemic. Back in May, the family thrilled fans when they did a fun TikTok dance routine (pictured)

It is unclear if Taylor, 26, who was crowned Miss South Dakota in 2012, made it to The Hamptons with the family.

Liev and Naomi announced their separation in September 2016, after 11 years together.

In December 2016, Liev spoke about their approach to co-parenting after their split and said they would always be a family.

When asked on CBS This Morning if the change in his personal life was scary, he said: 'Yeah, of course it is.

'But we're parents together so we'll be together for the rest of our lives no matter what and we're very close. Hopefully that never changes and I don't think it will.'
ANSONIA  Police have charged a man they say was involved in a 2015 assault and robbery in which the victim was stabbed and robbed of cash and a phone.

Edward Brown, 54, of Naugatuck, is charged with first-degree assault, first-degree robbery, conspiracy to commit first-degree assault and conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery, stemming from an assault on a 45-year-old man in Gatison Park May 9, 2015.
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It had agreeable amounts of grit and female agency, and some thoughtful and even helpful reflections on the choices that teenage girls have to make. And, alongside Deborah Foreman in the role of San Fernando Valley girl Julie Richman, there was the captivating young Nicolas Cage, whose stiff-necked vulnerability added an unexpectedly poignant layer to the character of teenage LA punk Randy. It also ensured that anyone who played Randy in a remake would be on an absolute hiding to nothing.

First things first. Martha Coolidge's 1983 Valley Girl (which is also on Stan) was a terrific movie that deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as all the John Hughes teen classics that followed it.

It's too easy to miss brilliant streaming shows, movies and documentaries. Here are the ones to hit play on or skip.

The new Valley Girl is an unrecognisable beast  a fluoro-coloured jukebox musical that seems unlikely to appeal much either to those who grew up in the '80s, or to modern teenagers who have no connection to the music.

Writer Amy Talkington and director Rachel Lee Goldenberg seem intent on making a cartoon caricature of the '80s, every scene crammed with garish colours and things like Sony Walkmans, Ronald Reagan masks, aerobics workout gear, E.T. dolls and MTV logos. This time around, Julie is played by Jessica Rothe (La La Land), who was about 30 at the time of filming and so isn't the most teenage-looking schoolgirl ever to hit the screen. That said, Olivia Newton-John was around 30 in Grease  and Stockard Channing some years older  and nobody would change that.

Once again Julie is living a comfortable if stultifying life in the valley, with more set to come when she finishes high school. Enter once more Randy, this time played by English actor Josh Whitehouse (Poldark), who can play guitar but who otherwise resembles a rag doll more than an '80s punk rocker. Will they get together in the end? Place your bets now.

Fans of '80s music won't enjoy their cherished tunes being churned into pap by the cast recordings, and fans of the original movie won't enjoy the counterproductive changes to the story.
As India crosses the 1 million mark for coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases, here is the most important statistic of the diseases run through the country : at least half the 330,725 active cases in the country as of Wednesday night were reported from just 10 cities, with a third of all such cases in one state , Maharashtra.

A district- and state-wise analysis of active coronavirus infections by HT shows that urban centres, or city districts, are significantly more affected by the virus and account for a majority of the active cases; just the 10 cities account of 52.7% of all active cases in the country.

Active cases -- those still under treatment -- is a crucial metric because it directly reflects the pressure on the health care system in any region. It is calculated by subtracting the number of recovered patients and deaths from the total tally. As of Wednesday night, of the 968,405 total Covid-19 cases reported in the country, 330,725 (34.2%) were active, according to HTs Covid-19 dashboard.

To be sure, most states do not release city-specific data, so the analysis has relied on district-wise numbers from states to zero in on the worst-hit cities in the country. Among the 10 districts with the highest number of active cases, eight are city-districts or districts that constitute a single city. Most major metropolitan cities in the country are districts among themselves (with the exception of Delhi, which consists of 11 revenue districts). Raigad (5,192 active cases) and Palghar (4,916 active cases), both in Maharashtra, are the only two districts in the top 10 that are not entirely urban.

Three of the five worst-hit cities in terms of the total number of active cases are in Maharashtra (Chart 1), a fact that highlights the overwhelming numbers emerging from the spread of the virus in the western Indian state. Thane has 34,721 active cases  the highest in the country  with Pune at the third spot with 25,510 active cases and Mumbai at the fourth spot with 22,888 active infections.

Hyderabad, which has the second highest number of active cases in the country, appears with stand-out numbers with nearly 99% (28,783) of the 29,111 cases reported in the city currently active -- a clear indication of how things have suddenly turned bad for the southern city. Among the top 10 cities based on active cases, Delhi has the lowest proportion of active cases  15.2%  followed closely by Ahmedabad (at 10th spot) with 15.4% of cases active.

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In terms of states, Maharashtra continues to have the highest number of active cases with 112,099 active infections (40.7% of the total Covid-19 cases in the state) as of Wednesday. This means one-third of all active cases in the country are in Maharashtra, which is not surprising as it is the state with the highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases and deaths and accounts for 28% of all cases in the country.

For perspective on the high active case count in Maharashtra, the state has more active cases than the combined total of such cases in the next four states on the list  Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Karnataka and Gujarat.

Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope said that taking cognisance of the lack of availability of beds, especially ICU beds in some cities in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) the state has ramped up health infrastructure to deal with this rise in active cases. With the help of community participation and new interventions like antigen tests involving private doctors, the state will contain the spread in MMR and other parts of the state too.

Dr Avinash Supe, former dean of Mumbai-based KEM hospital and member of the expert committee appointed by the state to recommend steps to curb the spread, said that he expects active cases to come down in a few weeks. Comparing the total number of cases in the country, Maharashtras share has come down drastically; it used to be almost half one point of time. Its now less than a third of the national total. Even Mumbais number of active cases has improved in the last few weeks and we expect it to come down to 15000 in the next couple of weeks, he said.

With 59% of all cases active, Karnataka has the highest proportion of active cases to the total caseload. The state, which on Tuesday replaced Gujarat as the fourth worst-hit state in the country, has seen a sharp rise in cases over the past two weeks. This recent spike in cases in the state is also responsible for the high number of active cases  with two-thirds of its caseload appearing in just the last two weeks, the states recoveries are yet to catch up.

This trend of states with fast-rising caseloads having a high proportion of active cases is also visible in other states such as Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal (Chart 2)  all of them have a higher proportion of active cases than the national average (34.2%).

With inputs from Surendra P Gangan in Mumbai

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Nairobi  The Ethics and Anti- Corruption Commission (EACC) on Wednesday arrested two Former Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) officials, over irregular payment of Sh30 million for three transformers which were never installed.

EACC Chief Executive Officer Twalib Mbarak said former KPC Chief Manager-Technical Elias Maina Karumi and Former Chief Electrical Engineer Josphat Kipkoech Sirma will be arraigned in court on Thursday.

The search for the former KPC Managing Director Charles Kiprotich Tanui was also intensified with Mbarak urging him to present himself at the commission offices at Integrity Centre.

They are accused of abuse of office, making a false document and willful failure to comply with law relating to procurement.

"The EACC established that a total Sh30 million was paid to M/s Redline Limited using false documents whereas the items were never installed, tested or commissioned as per the contract agreement," Mbarak said.
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Mrs Joy Nunieh, former acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Interim Management Committee, has de...





Mrs Joy Nunieh, former acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Interim Management Committee, has declared that she will consider exposing the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio.





Nunieh said she will not stop telling Nigerians about the activities in the NDDC, adding that Akpabio cannot kill her.





The ex-MD stated this on Thursday in an interview with reporters at the Rivers State Government House in Port Harcourt after Governor Nyesom Wike rescued her from a Police siege at her residence.





She said she was safe at the Government House, accusing Akpobio of trying to use security operatives to stop her from giving her submission before the House of Representatives Committee on the NDDC.





She stated I was supposed to be going today to Abuja to make my submission before the House of Representatives Committee. Im sure its about that.





Meanwhile, the man that harassed me is at home. The man who stole the money is at home. The man who stole government funds is at home. The man who took government money is at home. The man who said I should go and take an oath is at home.





It is a criminal offence. It is life imprisonment to take an oath, to even offer me an oath is liable. So, I am here.





I feel very safe in the Government House. I am safe here. Akpabio cant kill me. He cant. I am not from Uyo. He cant kill me. And why do people think he has a monopoly of violence?





Recall that Governor Wike had moved Nunieh out of her residence to Government House Port Harcourt on Thursday.





Officers of the Nigerian police had stormed the home of Mrs. Nunieh at 3, Owuru Creek view, off Herbert Macaulay Street, Old GRA, Port Harcourt.





Wikes visit was predicated by the invasion of the residence of Nunieh by the police.




By Express News Service

SIDDIPET: Finance Minister T Harish Rao inaugurated a 100-bed COVID hospital here at Siddipet on Wednesday. He said that the government has been providing good medical services to COVID-19 patients at government hospitals and institutions.

The Minister inspected the isolation wards and spoke to the doctors about the treatment being accorded to the patients. He also inquired about the energy drinks which will be given to the patients and its usage. Stating that 20 out of the 100 beds would be Intensive Care Units (ICU), the Minister said that every bed in the hospital would have oxygen supply facility and that only one person would be kept in each block.

He said that patients suffering from mild COVID-19 symptoms would be shifted to the 100-bed isolation facility, where they would be provided the necessary treatment. "The government has already appointed 28 doctors and 150 nurses exclusively for the isolation block," he added.

He further said that people who test positive, but do not have symptoms, will be advised to stay under home quarantine.

However, the Minister clarified that people suffering from serious symptoms such as breathlessness will be shifted to Osmania or Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad. He called upon the people to extend moral support to doctors, nurses and sanitation staff. Zilla Parishad Chairperson, V Roja Sharma, MLC Farooq Hussain and others were also present.
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday the United States will support countries that believe China has violated their maritime claims in the East Vietnam Sea but suggested it would do so through diplomatic rather than military means.

We will support countries all across the world who recognize that China has violated their legal territorial claims as well  or maritime claims as well, Pompeo told reporters.

We will go provide them the assistance we can, whether thats in multilateral bodies, whether thats in ASEAN, whether thats through legal responses, we will use all the tools we can, he said at a news conference, referring to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The United States on Monday rejected Chinas claims to offshore resources in most of the East Vietnam Sea, drawing criticism from China which said the U.S. position raised tension in the region, highlighting an increasingly testy relationship.

Mondays statement reflected the first time the United States had taken the position that Chinas claims to the East Vietnam Sea were completely unlawful.

The United States has long opposed Chinas expansive territorial claims on the East Vietnam Sea, sending warships regularly through the strategic waterway to demonstrate freedom of navigation there. Mondays comments reflect a harsher tone.

China claims 90% of the potentially energy-rich East Vietnam Sea, but Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam also lay claim to parts of it.

On Wednesday, Vietnams foreign ministry spokeswoman, Le Thi Thu Hang, said in response to the hardened U.S. rhetoric on the region that Vietnam welcomed any views on the East Vietnam Sea that were in accordance with international law.

Peace, stability, cooperation and development in the [East Vietnam Sea] are the common aspirations and goals of countries in the region and the international community.
A young mother-of-two has shared a candid picture of herself cradling her newborn son just moments after giving birth to him on the bathroom floor.

Vanessa Jeffery, from Brisbane, delivered her baby boy Nathaniel at 1.10am on Saturday, June 27 in an unplanned birth at home.

The 32-year-old teacher had planned a vaginal birth in hospital after delivering her firstborn via C-section with the support of her doula Selena Rollason.

But after enduring hours of labour with mild contractions, little Nathaniel couldn't wait any longer and arrived unexpectedly into the hands of the doula - as his doting father Chris rushed to get towels.

'While I was labouring quite calmly, Selena and my husband were getting things ready to move to hospital but when they came to get me, I realised the baby was making a much quicker entrance into the world,' Vanessa told Daily Mail Australia.

'He ended up being born in the bathroom. That's where I had been the most comfortable in the last stages of labour.'

Mother-of-two Vanessa Jeffery pictured cradling her newborn son Nathaniel just moments after giving birth to him on the bathroom floor

The 32-year-old teacher was taken to hospital by a paramedic after she delivered her son unexpectedly at home (pictured on a stretcher, next to her husband Chris with their newborn)

Vanessa and newborn son Nathaniel were taken to the hospital for a check-up overnight

'I was always planning a VBAC [vaginal birth after Caesaraen] for my birth with this baby and I had planned to labour at home, however giving birth at home was not part of the plan. He just came much more quickly than any of us expected.'

Before the dramatic birth, Vanessa was experiencing 'inconsistent' contractions.

'I had been in early labour with mild contractions most of Friday. I had been checking in with Selena regularly during the day as I had hired her as my doula,' she said.

'As things intensified later in the evening Selena came over to be a more active support person.'

Had we of moved her 20 minutes earlier there is no question about it, she would have delivered the baby in the car.

The contractions were slowly building for hours but the plan for the expectant mother was to labour at home until she felt ready to head to the hospital.

But things quickly took a surprising turn when her baby's head was coming out despite her waters never breaking until the delivery.

'At first it was pure disbelief. I thought I still had hours of active labour to get through,' Vanessa said.

The mother yelled out from the bathroom: 'Selena I think my water sac is coming out', and as the doula rushed over, she could see the boy's head being born, 'still fully encased in the membranes and waters'.

Her husband Chris returned with the towels, and placed them beneath Vanessa, and within minutes, she delivered her baby safely into the doula's hands.

Selena handed Nathaniel into the waiting arms of his mum where he 'cried straight away' - as the paramedics were called to the home post-birth as a precaution.

Selena handed Nathaniel into the waiting arms of his mum where he 'cried straight away'

Hello! Baby Nathaniel couldn't wait any longer and arrived unexpectedly at his family home

The paramedics were called to the home post-birth as a precaution as the mother and newborn son were taken to hospital for a check-up

'My mind was very quiet when I got to hold my baby for the first time. It was much more emotional and instinctual than I could have imagined,' Vanessa said.

'Once he was in my arms, I felt that instantaneous bond and love for my baby with a huge sense of accomplishment with what we had achieved.

'The hospital system makes you fight every inch of the way to be able to birth the way our bodies are made to, especially after a cesarean section. This is my little piece of proof that women's bodies are amazing.

'It was the most calm beautiful birth and that's what I was aiming for and why I had asked Selena to be my doula as she helped me achieve that.'

The mother and newborn were taken to the hospital for a check-up overnight - and the family were home and settled within 24 hours.

Selena, who's a birth photographer, quickly captured the beautiful moment on camera showing the mother looking overjoyed as she held her newborn just moments after birth.

'I still can't quite believe how it all unfolded,' Vanessa said.

'I'm immensely proud of all of us. I'll cherish that photo and that memory for the rest of my life. I'm so grateful to have had Selena there.'

The 32-year-old smiling with her adorable baby in her arms after his unplanned home birth

Happy family! Husband Chris and wife Vanessa creating beautiful memories with Nathaniel

Selena, a certified doula and a VBAC mother, said when she was observing the pregnant mother at home, she noticed the common signs of imminent birth had not yet presented.

'Her waters had not ruptured and behaviourally (and physically), she wasn't showing many of the normal signs that come with being close to delivering the baby,' Selena told Daily Mail Australia.

'I gave her the option at the time to head to the hospital or stay at home and wait it out. She chose to stay home and wait it out. And to be honest, it's a good thing she did. Within 20 minutes of that discussion, she was giving birth.

'Had we of moved her 20 minutes earlier there is no question about it, she would have delivered the baby in the car, in what would have been so much more of a stressful and unmanaged situation.

After the mother delivered her baby 'perfectly', Selena captured the raw moment.

'To be honest, I don't even remember what it was like capturing this moment on camera because I was so blown away with being the one to deliver the baby. It all happened so fast and it was a few minutes - and a washing of the arms - before I even thought to take a photo.' she said.

'For me though, capturing this moment wasn't even the best part. The best part was actually catching the baby in my own hands as Vanessa delivered him on the bathroom floor. Nathaniel was born fully in the sac, which ruptured on delivery.'

Doula and birth photographer Selena Rollason pictured with baby boy Nathaniel after she helped his mother Vanessa deliver him in an unplanned birth at home

During the delivery, the quick-thinking doula sprung into action.

'I was completely calm. At no point did I feel scared or anxious, instinct and experience kicked in and I just instinctively knew what to do. There was no time to even ring paramedics, baby was coming and coming fast,' Selena said.

'I feel proud of Vanessa for trusting her body and happy for her to have had such a wonderful outcome. This image will always be very special to me and a reminder of the strength and courage that women have during birth. It will forever be a reminder that we are the own authors of our stories.'

After sharing her powerful picture on her Brisbane Birth Photography Facebook page, she was met with a 'fabulous' and 'wonderful' response.

'There is always the risk that people will judge because they don't understand the full story, and it is extremely upsetting for everyone when they do that,' she said.

'But in this case it was a fabulous response. It is such a heartwarming story to share amongst all the challenges in the world right now so people jumped on the beauty and positivity of this moment.'

Selena said as she laughed: 'As a doula I do not wish to make a habit of catching babies unexpectedly at home, I'd rather leave that to the midwives.'
Shareholders of Jaiz Bank Plc are to receive a total of N884 million dividend payment subjected to appropriate withholding tax.

The Chairman of the Bank Umaru Mutallab disclosed this at the 8th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the bank held via webinar on Thursday.

Mr Mutallab said the premier non-interest bank had approved the Banks proposed first dividend payment of N0.03 kobo per 50 kobo ordinary share for the year ended 2019.

This dividend despite being modest signifies a lot to our Shareholders, Board and Management. We remain strongly committed to sustaining the tempo in the coming year, Gods willing Mr Mutallab said.

He stated that the payment will be made electronically to shareholders whose names appear in the Register of Members as at June 26.

He said they must have completed the e-dividend registration and will have mandated the registrar to pay their dividends directly into their bank accounts.

The Bank declared a Profit after Tax of N2.4billion in its audited financial results for the year 2019, showing a surge of 193 percent from N834.4million recorded in the corresponding period of 2018.

The Bank also declared a 135 percentage increase in profit before tax for the period under review from N879.7million recorded in 2018 to N2.1 billion as at 2019.

Highlights of the audited financial statement showed that Gross Income grew by 80 per cent to N13.5billion in 2019, from N7.5billion recorded in 2018, while Total Assets gained 54 per cent to N167.27 billion in 2019 from N108.46 billion recorded in 2018.

In his remarks, the Managing Director, Hassan Usman, said the progress the Bank recorded in 2019 was broad-based, apart from stronger Income Statement and Balance Sheet.

He said they had also tackled the banks efficiency base, with the consequent reduction in its Cost-Income-Ratio (CIR) from 87.28 per cent in 2018 to 80.21 per cent in 2019.

He said the bank delivered stronger Return on Equity (RoE) of 13.57 per cent during the year, a significant increase of over 100 per cent when compared with that of 2018.

He said the bank is strongly committed towards creating optimum value to all its stakeholders.

(NAN)
DERBY

Kellogg Environmental Center offers a webinar, The Eastern Coyote, July 23, 3 p.m. Registration required. For information e-mail susan.quincy@ct.gov

Kellogg Environmental Center free webinar, Monitoring Monarchs Larvae Project, July 25, 10 a.m. Registration required. susan.quincy @ct.gov

EAST HADDAM

Goodspeed Musicals I'll Drink to That Instagram live Mondays 5 p.m.; Greatspeed, relive some of the theaters greatest moments with special guests, Tuesdays, 5 p.m., on Zoom; In the Spotlight podcast every other Wednesday; Home Office, for fans of new musicals, Thursdays, 5 p.m., on Zoom. gooodspeed.org

ESSEX

Connecticut River Museum is open. Events and programming can be found at ctrivermuseum.org

Essex Art Associations virtual exhibit, Art in Isolation, on view. Submissions on a rolling basis accepted. essexartassociation.com

Spectrum Art Gallery is open. Summer Gallery Show: Resurgence and Regrowth, Through Sept. 6. Summer Gallery hours: Thu-Sat noon-6 p.m.; Sun noon-5 p.m. 860-767-0742, spectrumartgallery.org

IVORYTON

Ivoryton Playhouse announces its Ivoryton Women Playwrights Festival. Submissions of one-act plays by women playwrights will be accepted by e-mail only until Aug. 30. jhubbard@ivorytonplayhouse.org.

KILLINGWORTH

Spectrum Gallerys Classes and Workshops online: Storytelling with Collage, July 29, Aug. 5, 12:30-2:30 p.m. $120. Make-up class Aug. 12. $120; The Art of Writing Poems about Art. Steven Ostrowski, July 13, 20, 6-7:30 p.m. $80 includes both sessions. spectrumartgallery.org

LITCHFIELD

Litchfield Jazz Camp, Virtually Yours, July 20-24. Classes will run every other hour from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. to allow for food and exercise breaks. Registrants can join for one or both. Camp culminates in a free live-streamed Litchfield Jazz Festival, July 25. 860-361-6285, litchfieldjazzcamp.com

MADISON

Virtual Author events hosted by RJ Julia Booksellers on Zoom: Our Revolution: A Mother and Daughter at Midcentury by Honor Moore, July 23, 4 p.m.; Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace by Carl Safina, July 28, 7 p.m.; Summer to Summer: Houses by the Sea by Jennifer Ash Rudick, July 29, 4 p.m. Register. 203-245-3959, rjjulia.com

Susan Powell Fine Art is open to the public with guidelines. Summer in New England, through Sept. 26. 203-318-0616, susanpowellfineart.com

MASHANTUCKET

Foxwoods Resort and Casino is partially re-open with restrictions and limitations. Visit website for whats open and for updates. foxwoods.com

MIDDLETOWN

Oddfellows Playhouse Youth Theater and Children's Circus of Middletown present a completely digital circus, From the BIG TOP to the LAPTOP, through Aug. 7, Mon-Fri, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. For ages 5-15. Explore circus arts, dance, capoeira, fitness, digital animation, visual art, and more. The program is free, but registration required. oddfellows.org, 860-347-6143, e-mail circus@oddfellows.org.

MILFORD

Milford Arts Center, 40 Railroad Ave. offers online classes in Tap, Tango, Nia, bodyArt, and Dance Exercise, through July 31. Prices vary. 203-878-6674, milfordarts.org

The MAC: Recreated, a slate of online and outdoor events. milfordarts.org

Arts Council offers Artist to Artist, via Zoom, through July 28, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Free. Donations welcome. Color Exhibit: Red, virtual exhibit through July 30. visualarts@milfordarts.org

NEW HAVEN

New Haven Symphony Orchestra presents Alternative Programming online and social media: Christmas in July, through July 31; HomeCooked Music Festival, Aug. 1-8; NHSO @Home Series: NHSO musicians and guest artists perform music from home; Instrument Selection Resource Center; and Listen Up! Podcast Series. newhavensymphony.org

New Haven Museum: Documenting the COVID-19 Crisis, an effort to collect stories and photos of life in New Haven during the coronavirus quarantine. Also virtual offerings. newhavenmuseum.org

Beinecke Library at Yale University digital exhibits: Carl Van Vechtens Harlem Renaissance Portraits, America and the Utopian Dream, Making the Medieval English Manuscript. beinecke.library.yale.edu

SalonThrive with Liz Antle-O'Donnell, a virtual gathering place for art discussion and discovery, hosted by Kehler Liddell Gallery, and ArtEcon Initiative on Zoom, July 26, 5 p.m. Each episode features a different local Connecticut-based artist host, broadcasting live from their studio. Registration required. 203-389-9555, kehlerliddellgallery.com

Seeing Nature Through Art, exhibit features 30 works of art created by the instructors of Yale Peabody Museums Natural Science Illustration Program, is now online. peabody.yale.edu

City Gallery re-opens with a Photo Exhibit by Joy Bush, Where I Go Is What I See. Runs through Aug. 1. The Gallery is located at 994 State St. Free. 203-782-2489, city-gallery.org

NORFOLK

Norfolk Chamber Music Festival will stream via website, Facebook and YouTube, four new concerts performed at the historic shed. All concerts begin 7 p.m. Alumni from Norfolk Chamber Music Festival return to perform, July 25. norfolkmusic.org

ORANGE

Historical Societys Academy Museum and Antique Shop located at 605 Orange Center Road, is open for business Saturdays, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Masks required. 203-795-3106.

SHELTON

Comedy Club with Stefano Sanzo, Sam Hunter, Dan Kalwhite and Pat Oats, Center Stage Theatres outdoor stage, July 24, 6-8 p.m. $20. Reservations required. Seating is limited to comply with social distancing regulations, and masks required. Phone: 203-225-6079, centerstageshelton.org

STRATFORD

Library offers Books Over Coffee online with This is How It Always Is, by Laurie Frankel, July 29, noon-1 p.m. 203-385-4164, stratfordlibrary.org

Summer Concert Series takes place at Paradise Green, Tuesdays and Fridays, 7 p.m. Some concerts have rain dates. townofstratford.com

Music at Outriggers Restaurant: Dawn & Greg, July 24, 25, 31; Mile LoGuidice, July 26. Showtime is 5:30-9 p.m. Weather permitting on the outside patio, social distancing will be followed.

New England Guitar Society, virtual concert hosted by Stratford Library on Zoom, July 25, 2 p.m. Free. 203-385-4162 Register at stratfordlibrary.libcal.com

National Helicopter Museum located at the Stratford Railroad Station (east bound) is open by appointment only. Masks and social distancing required. 203-375-8857 to schedule a visit. Free admission and parking.

TRUMBULL

Milford Concert Band, July 27 (no rain date); What It Is, July 28, (rain date July 30), Town Hall Green, Main St. All concerts are 7-8:30 p.m. Social distancing and masks required. 203-452-5060, trumbull-ct.gov

UNCASVILLE

Orlando Baxter, Comix Roadhouse at Mohegan Sun Resort & Casino, 1 Mohegan Sun Blvd. July 23, 8 p.m.; July 24, 7:30 p.m.; July 25, 7, 9:30 p.m. $45-$15. comixroadhouse.com mohegansun.com

Bellator MMA: Bandejas vs. Pettis returns to live action, Mohegan Sun Arena, 1 Mohegan Sun Blvd. July 24, 10 p.m. 1-888-226-7711, mohegansun.com
In the wake of the United Kingdoms move to ban Huawei from the countrys 5G infrastructure, pressure is mounting on Canada to take a decision that observers say will either distance it from longtime allies or risk further eroding its relationship with China.

Ottawa is expected to make a call on the Chinese telecom giants involvement in 5G this year.

The decision has been further framed this week by the U.K. ban, which leaves Canada as one of last two nations in the Five Eyes security alliance  also comprised of the United States, the U.K., Australia not to have banned Huawei from 5G projects over security concerns. New Zealand has previously rejected the companys involvement in 5G in a move many say is effectively banning them, but said Wednesday it will not impose blanket bans and instead decide on a case-by-case basis.

The Five Eyes is taking a pretty united decision on Huawei and the security risks and the implications of any Huawei decision, says Sam Armstrong, spokesperson for the newly formed Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China.

IPAC is an international consortium of parliamentarians concerned about Beijings actions globally.

Armstrong said Canadas silence on Huawei is likely being welcomed by China as it seeks to divide the Five Eyes alliance.

I have no doubt that on telecommunications, like every other issue, China is rubbing its mitts at the very prospect that the Five Eyes might not be united, he said.

A united allied free world is Chinas worst nightmare. A divided Five Eyes is its dream come true.

The Star is offering free digital access on select COVID-19 stories. Misinformation is plentiful and dangerous and coronavirus news and knowledge evolves. Star reporters are working to bring you clarity, context and responsible facts. To help you get the information you need, articles that provide a public service will live outside our paywall.

Last fall, at a security conference in Halifax the national security adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump warned Canada not to approve the company because its technology would be used as a Trojan horse against democracy.

Robert C. OBrien warned Chinas government could even use the technology to undermine Canadian elections. Chinas ambassador to Canada has denied those allegations.

In May, the U.S. banned Huawei from sourcing microchips that use U.S. technology, a move that forced British officials to reassess their view of the security and sustainability of using the companys equipment in 5G networks.

The U.K.s National Cyber Security Centre led a review that concluded the new U.S. sanctions meant Huawei would have to use potentially insecure technology, making 5G security risks impossible to control.

If Canada goes a different route and accepts Huawei, the country risks alienating itself from allies in the Five Eyes, says retired Brig.-Gen. Robert Spalding, a China analyst and author of the book Stealth War, which examines Chinas attempts to influence and control the world.

Their access to intelligence sharing and other things with the Five Eyes will be restricted, Spalding said of Canada. A more expansive relationship is going to be out of the question.

Spalding said cross-border communications between Canada and the U.S. could also be affected due to integration concerns around Huawei and U.S. networks.

If Ottawa approved Huawei, Spalding said, one of the biggest gains for Canada would simply be the admiration of the Chinese Communist Party.

It would also open up Canada to intelligence gathering of its citizens and risks the countrys independence and sovereignty, he said.

Last month, two of Canadas major telecommunications companies, Bell and Telus, which at one time were intending to use Huawei for their 5G equipment, announced contracts with other companies.

Compounded, this means Ottawa now has a stronger case to similarly ban Huaweis involvement in 5G on security grounds, Christopher Parsons, a senior research associate at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, told the Star.

Complicating Canadas situation is the state of its relationship with Beijing and a set of circumstances that differentiates this country from the U.K.

The U.K is concerned Huawei may have to rely on less technologically advanced and secure products. Canada can say the same, but this doesnt change the fact China is holding Canadians hostage and is also one of our largest trading partners, Parsons said.

Whether the Canadian government thinks it can afford to articulate its concerns about Huaweis security as loudly as the U.K is the difference, he said.

The detentions of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig in China have been widely described as direct retaliation for this countrys arrest in December 2018 of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou.

Meng was arrested in Vancouver at the request of U.S. authorities seeking her extradition to face fraud charges, starting a downward spiral of China-Canada relations.

China has hinted it would release the men if Meng is released.

Since Canadian authorities arrested Wanzhou, Huawei has pursued a public relations strategy of distancing itself from Beijing and providing more transparency about its business.

But, experts say Huaweis noticeably greater transparency hasnt done much for its international image, since in many countries, the company has become emblematic of anxieties about Chinas rise as an authoritarian superpower.

In a statement to the Star on Wednesday, Huawei Canadas vice-president of corporate affairs said the U.K. decision will not change the companys goals in Canada.

We support and respect the Canadian governments review of 5G suppliers  and we look forward to the government reaching an independent, evident-based conclusion regarding Huaweis potential role in 5G in Canada, Alykhan Velshi wrote in an email.

He noted Huawei has a diversified business model in the country.

Its not just selling network equipment. We also sell consumer devices such as smartphones, sell fixed wireless equipment to rural telecom carriers and fund world-class research and development, he said.

In recent months, Huawei has been shifting its research and development centre from the United States to Canada. This means the company will hire hundreds of local staff and invest hundreds of millions on research funding  on top of its existing collaborations with Canadian universities.

Ultimately, Huawei has established research and development operations here in Canada because of the tremendous expertise and knowledge that exists here, Velshi said.

The company spent nearly $200 million in Canada in 2019, and this year, that amount will be higher, he said. And compared to 540 R&D employees Huawei Canada employed in 2018, it now employs approximately 800.

Parsons said this greater influx of jobs and money into Canada could give Beijing more leverage on Ottawa by threatening they could force Huawei to pull out of the country.

Parsons also cautioned that Canadas cybersecurity strategy should not stop at finally making a decision on whether to ban Huaweis involvement in 5G development.

Hacking isnt going to stop if Huawei stops making our network equipment. Thats why its so important to develop a robust cybersecurity strategy to protect Canadians, and not just an anti-Huawei system, he said.

Correction  July 16, 2020: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said Canada is the last nation in the Five Eyes security alliance to ban Huaweis involvement in 5G infrastructure development. In fact, New Zealand has said it will not impose blanket bans and instead decide on a case-by-case basis.

With files from Bloomberg and The Canadian Press

Joanna Chiu is a Vancouver-based reporter covering both Canada-China relations and current affairs on the West Coast for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @joannachiu

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The massive drive-in at Six Flags Fiesta Texas is extending its stay in San Antonio, adding new flicks and promotions to its schedule.

Los Angeles-based Rooftop Cinema Club announced in a news release Wednesday that it will continue to run its pop-up business venture until Aug. 2. The drive-in was originally scheduled to end its stint on July 5, according to a previous press release.

The company, which is known for its unique rooftop venues and movie-watching experiences, told mySA.com it will keep screening movies as long as the city continues to show interest in the drive-in that is located in the parking lot of Six Flags at 17000 W. Interstate 10.

READ ALSO: 'Breakfast Club' star Anthony Michael Hall to host drive-in movie festival at EVO Entertainment theaters in Schertz, Kyle

With the extension, Rooftop Cinema Club is adding some new films to its lineup such as "Selena," "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "The Wizard of Oz." The company is also including $20 tickets per vehicle for its new "Late Night Date Night" promotion and is offering a 15 percent discount to military members. Click here to purchase.

Regular tickets are priced at $24 or $32 per vehicle, depending on seating preference. Guests have the option to bring their own snacks or purchase food from the drive-in's on-site concession stand.

The company also has $5 "Community Screenings" every first Tuesday of each week, in which 100 percent of the proceeds will go to the San Antonio Food Bank and to Black Lives Matter organizations.

The company diverted its cinema plans to drive-ins due to the coronavirus pandemic. In Texas, it has two drive-ins in Houston and one in San Antonio.

Scroll below for Rooftop Cinema Club's summer lineup in San Antonio and photos from one of the earlier screenings at the pop-up drive-in at Fiesta Texas.
Like other states across the country, Maine is grappling with the new coronavirus outbreak, impending elections, and an economic downturn, but those challenges did not stop Governor Janet Mills from taking a momenta day, in factto celebrate the work of author-illustrator Ashley Bryan. Earlier this week, Mills issued a proclamation declaring July 13 Ashley Bryan Day in honor of the 97-year-olds canon of more than 50 books, including his recent WWII memoir, Infinite Hope, Beautiful Blackbird, and Freedom Over Me.

Through his art, Mr. Bryan has illuminated the African American experience and cultural heritage for which he has been recognized by universities and institutions internationally, and continues to pave the way for Black writers and illustrators, creating opportunities for greater diversity in the world of childrens literature, Mills said in her proclamation.

Bryan was born to Antiguan immigrant parents and served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He later taught at Dartmouth College and moved to Maine, where he has lived for the last 60 years.

It means the world to me to have my work recognized in my home state, and across the country in this manner, Bryan told PW. It's a tremendous honor, and will help get more books to the children, for whom I do all of my work.

At Devaney, Doak, and Garrett Booksellers in Farmington, Maine, owner Kenny Brechner praised the announcement. Im so pleased to see a store favorite become a state favorite, Brechner said. Who could be worthier of being honored than the sublime Ashley Bryan, an artist and author who has brought so much richness and depth to his readers lives?

Bryans works have garnered multiple Coretta Scott King Awards, and Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life received the Newbery Honor in 2017. Bryan has been a longtime advocate for public art, education, and storytelling from South Africa and Kenya to the Isleford area of northeastern Maine that he first visited in 1946.

Bryans editor Caitlyn Dlouhy, v-p and editorial director at Atheneums Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, called Bryan a national treasure and said she hopes the states recognition is the first of 50.

One of the greatest honors of my career has been working alongside Ashley, she said. He never ever stops being creativehe was on his porch filling a huge canvas with massive oil painted flowers just the other week. What Ashley creates, from books to sculpture to stained glass window, are gifts to the world that come straight from the heart, that speak to others hearts, and that can only help us all grow in our humanity. And with this recognition, our great hope and dream is that more of the world will now also learn of Ashley and his books, and that growth blooms.

With all of the challenges young people are facing right now, Bryan encouraged them to turn to art. As Ive written in Infinite Hope, about my time during World War II in France on D-Day, the arts give meaning to all of our lives, he said. So: paint! Draw! Write! Sing! Dance! Whistle! Make music! Practice your art every day! No one can take creativity away from you, and the joy that comes from it can help anyone through the darker times, for with creation, there is always hope.
100 Years Ago  1920: Mystery surrounds the shattering of a $100,000 necklace by a bullet fired into the package in which it was received at the Radnor home of Gurnee Munn. Who fired the bullet, when it was fired, and the reason for the vandalism are a puzzle to the police of Philadelphia and New York, who are making an investigation after its express shipping from Tiffany & Co. The damage to the necklace is estimated at between $3,000 and $5,000. Several of the largest stones of the necklace, a family heirloom in the Munn family, were broken to small pieces.

75 Years Ago  1945: Reece L. Thomas, 93, who retired from the First National Bank in 1937 after serving that institution with distinction for 55 years, died Sunday at his home, 1149 Potter St., after an illness of several months. With his passing Chester loses another link with the courtly old school gentlemen. Old residents will remember his serene and unhurried helpfulness which distinguished his contacts with the public at the institution which he joined in 1882, about 18 years after its founding.

50 Years Ago  1970: Crozer-Chester Medical Center is negotiating for the purchase of the Crozer Theological Seminary property adjacent to the center on Upland Avenue. However, there are others interested in the 40-acre site and nothing has been dedicated, a hospital spokesman said. The seminary announced plans in May to consolidate with the Rochester Theological Seminary in Rochester, N.Y.

25 Years Ago  1995: A historic home which overlooks the once-bustling mill town of Lenni will be restored to its 1799 appearance by Ed Westlake, owner of Westlake Plastics. We hope to have a showplace, Westlake told Chester Heights Borough Council last month when requesting assistance with his project on the so-called Lundgren House at New Street and Lenni Road. Council agreed to Westlakes request to permit the old house  the front of which now houses Westlake  to tie into Aston Townships public sewers.

10 Years Ago  2010: As Chesters state of emergency comes to a close a week from today, Mayor Wendell N. Butler Jr. said he will never stop his push against violence. Whether Im the mayor or not, Im going to be here with you, the city-bred, police-officer-turned-politician told a crowd of about 200 at the Mayors Anti-Violence Night Out. Anything that can help to open the lines of communication between the community and the police is a good thing, said Magisterial District Judge Robert Blythe, who served on the police force for 32 years before joining the bench five years ago.

 COLIN AINSWORTH
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Over 6.87 lakh Indians have returned from abroad after the government launched the "Vande Bharat" evacuation mission on May 7 in view of the coronavirus pandemic, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday.

The fourth phase of the Vande Bharat mission, which is currently underway, has been augmented with the addition of around 120 flights between July 15-31, MEA Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said at a media briefing.

"These additional flights will cater to the demand for repatriation from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Malaysia, Singapore, the UK, Europe, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine," Srivastava said.

With this augmentation, this phase now has 751 international flights catering to 34 airports in India, he said.

"If feeder flights to different states are included, there would be a total of 926 flights under the fourth phase. These include around 180 flights by Indian private carriers IndiGo, GoAir and SpiceJet," Srivastava said.

CLICK HERE FOR COVID-19 LIVE UPDATES



"As of 15th July, 6,87,467 Indian nationals have returned. 1,01,014 nationals have returned from Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh by land borders. The number of returnees by Indian naval ships from Maldives, Sri Lanka and Iran stands at 3,789," the MEA Spokesperson said.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Thursday announced that they would be starting bilateral air bubbles between India and the US, Germany, France and the UAE, Srivastava said.

This will allow airlines of both sides to carry passengers to each other under defined conditions, he said.

Some of these air bubbles have been finalised, while others are under negotiation, he added.

"This would help movement of people between these countries and India till international air travel is restored to normalcy," the MEA Spokesperson said.

The ministry is in regular contact with India's missions and posts abroad to monitor the demand of repatriation of stranded Indians and for arranging Vande Bharat Mission flights as required, Srivastava said, adding that it was doing this in discussion with the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The first phase of the mission was carried out from May 7 to 15. The second phase of the evacuation mission was scheduled from May 17 to 22.

However, the government had extended it till June 10. The third phase of the evacuation exercise was scheduled from June 11 to July 2. Currently, the fourth phase of the evacuation mission is going on.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp speaks to the media during a press conference at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta on April 27, 2020. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Georgia Governor Bars Cities, Counties From Requiring Masks

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on July 15 overrode more than a dozen local orders requiring masks to be worn in public.

In a new executive order, the Republican said that any laws, orders, rules, or regulations requiring people to wear face coverings of masks in public are suspended.

Georgia residents are strongly encouraged, but not required, to wear face coverings while outside their homes, the order states.

A number of counties and cities in the state had required people to wear masks.

Candice Broce, a spokeswoman for Kemp, highlighted the part of the new order that states no local laws can be more or less restrictive than state mandates.

Spectators in masks look on during the DraftKings All-American Team Cup in Atlanta on July 4, 2020. (Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)

We have explained that local mask mandates are unenforceable. The Governor continues to strongly encourage Georgians to wear masks in public, she said in a statement.

Kemp announced the order late July 15, writing on Twitter that his new mandate extends the gatherings ban of more than 50 people, renews business restrictions, protects the medically fragile, and strongly encourages Georgians to wear masks in public.

Local officials expressed anger over the order.

It is officially official. Governor Kemp does not give a damn about us, Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, a Democrat who issued an order requiring masks in public, wrote on Twitter on July 15.

Every man and woman for himself/herself. Ignore the science and survive the best you can.

Athens-Clarke County Mayor Pro-Tempore Russell Edwards, a Democrat, called the new order an example of sociopathic disregard.

Quite a time thumbing through the thesaurus to describe this malignant Governor and his abominable actions, he wrote on Twitter. Kemp has encouraged state residents to wear masks and regularly dons one while in public.

Some public health officials say wearing masks helps stop the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19. Critics say there isnt enough evidence to force people to wear masks.

A man wears a mask as he arrives at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on April 23, 2020. (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, a Democrat, ordered residents last week to wear masks in public. She wrote at the time that Kemps June executive order didnt contain a requirement or prohibition concerning the use of masks or face coverings, meaning her order didnt conflict with his mandate.

Exemptions were outlined for people eating and drinking, driving, swimming, and other activities. Children under 10 were also exempt.

Like most mask orders, Bottomss didnt contain details about how the requirements would be enforced. Some areas have threatened fines if people dont comply.

In a statement after the Atlanta order, Kemps office called all local mandates unenforceable.

We continue to encourage Georgians to do the right thing and wear a mask voluntarily. If the Mayor wants to flatten the curve in Atlanta, she should start enforcing the current provisions of the Governors orders, the statement read.

The governor said in June that a statewide order would be a bridge too far.

Theres some people that just do not want to wear a mask. Im sensitive to that from a political environment of having people buy into that and creating other issues out there, he said. But its definitely a good idea.
The Acting Managing Director of The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Daniel Pondei, has led a walk out on the House of Representatives Committee on Niger Delta.

Mr Pondei, who appeared with other management staff of the commission, accused the chairman of the house committee on NDDC, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, of corruption. He said because of that, his team will not speak before the committee.

We are not comfortable with the chairman of this committee presiding over a matter he has been accused of.

He asked the committee chairman to recuse himself from the investigation.

There is no point of order here. As long as he is the chairman of this committee, the NDDC will not make any presentation here, he said.

When lawmakers intervened and told the NDDC team that nobody could decide its modus operandi, the NDDC management staged a walk out.

The house is conducting an investigative hearing on the alleged financial malfeasance and other activities in the NDDC.

In May, a group accused Mr Tunji-Ojo of having benefited from award of contracts in the commission

The lawmaker described the allegations as shameful and baseless.

In a statement, the lawmaker described a newspaper publication attributed to some inconsequential groups claiming he was awarded a 17 km road contract as smear campaign.

Mr Tunji-Ojo represents Akoko North East/ West Federal Constituency of Ondo state.

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported how an ex-managing director of the NDDC, Joy Nunieh, raise alarm that her home in Port Harcourt had been surrounded by armed police officers and therefore she would not be able to travel to Abuja to appear before the lawmakers.

Ms Nunieh has accused the Minister of Niger Delta, Godswill Akpabio, of corruption in the management of the NDDC, an allegation the minister has denied.

Read an update of this report here .
New Delhi:

Amid the ongoing heated war of words between Tata Group and outsed group chairman Cyrus Mistry at Tata Group, Finance Ministry has asked financial institutions including LIC and banks to keep a watch on developments to safeguard the interest of investors.

Since LIC as well as banks have invested depositors' money in various companies under Tata Sons, it is their duty to see that public money is not put at risk, Finance Ministry sources said.

Safeguarding depositors' interest is paramount, they said, adding that as investors, banks and financial institutions are keeping a close watch on various developments taking place post the ouster of Cyrus Mistry as chairman of Tata Sons.

Sources said that while there is no doubt that Tata Group is one of the largest and reputed industrial houses in the country, Standard Operating Procedure has to be followed in all the cases.

Life Insurance Corporation of India alone has an exposure of about Rs 37,500 crore to different Tata Group companies. While LIC owns 3.2 per in TCS, which is the most profitable Tata firm, it owns 13.6 per cent in Tata Steel which is the most troubled group company now due to thelingering troubles at its British operations.

At the same time, New India Assurance, another public sector insurance firm owns 1.17 per cent in Tata Steel.

In Tata Power LIC owns 13.1 per cent stake, 7.13 per cent in Tata Motors, 8.8 per cent in Indian Hotels and 9.8 per cent in Tata Global Beverages.

Mistry was unceremoniously removed last month by the board of Tata Sons as its Chairman. Interim chairman Ratan Tata has met V K Sharma, the acting chairman of LIC.

Mistry has accused Tata Sons of cornering him into being a "lame-duck" chairman in the near four-year tenure and also hiding USD 18 billion of potential write-downs across five group firms, including Tata Motors and Tata Steel Europe.

He has also alleged potential financial issues at the various companies and violations of securities regulations. His family firm Shapoorji Pallonji Group has 18.4 per cent in Tata Sons. As much as 66 per cent shares in Tata Sons are held by philanthropic trusts endowed by members of the Tata family.
The Edo State Government has reiterated the need for residents to adhere to the COVID-19 preventive measures as confirmed cases in the state rose to 1,850 with 60 deaths.

The State Commissioner for health, Patrick Okundia, told journalists in Benin City that it had become necessary to intensify the campaign on use of face masks, hand washing and physical distancing to protect people from contracting the virus.

Mr Okundia charged citizens to support the governments efforts at curbing the spread of the disease and protect the people by complying with set guidelines.

Complying with these directives will imply that we care about the wellbeing of others, especially the elderly.

The Edo State Government has taken serious steps to contain the pandemic across all communities in Edo.

But we have observed poor compliance among members of the public toward COVID-19 preventive measures.

This is even as some give out wrong addresses and phone numbers during sample collection which makes it difficult for contact tracers to track down confirmed cases after laboratory results are released.

READ ALSO:

If you have any COVID-19 symptoms, please call these toll-free numbers 08001235111 or 08002200110 for assistance, he said.

Mr Okundia said Edo State has so far recorded 1,850 confirmed cases; 8,038 suspected cases; 4,643 line-listed contacts; 347 persons of interest (POIs) and 60 COVID-related deaths,

He however, noted that 1,099 patients had so far been discharged.

(NAN)
Officials of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, again, had a misunderstanding with lawmakers. This time, it was with members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance, and other Financial Institutions, at a public hearing on Wednesday.

The hearing is on two bills: Banks and other Financial Institutions Act Cap B3 LFN 2004 (Repeal and Reenactment) Bill 2020 and Electronic Transaction Bill, 2020.

The first bill seeks to update the laws governing banks, financial institutions and financial services companies as well as to enhance efficiency in the process of obtaining/granting banking licences.

It also seeks to clarify and accurately delineate the regulatory functions of the Central Bank of Nigeria in the financial services industry and updating and incorporating the laws for enacting, licensing and regulation of micro-finance banks in the country.

The other bill legalises electronic transactions and criminalises online fraud.

Delegates from the ministry were present to make inputs to the legislation.

However, when called upon, the Director of Productivity and Labour Standards at the labour ministry, Eyewumi Neburagho, who represented the minister, demanded that both the hearing and the bill be suspended pending when the Senate committee would formally invite the ministry and send a copy of the draft bill to it.

Apparently, the labour ministry was not among the stakeholders invited to the hearing.

Mr Neburagho wondered why the ministry was not carried along, being a major stakeholder. He emphasised the need for the ministry to know how it will affect the interest of workers.

"Although the ministry has never seen the bill and was not invited to this public hearing, we felt constrained to make an intervention in view of the information that section 45 of the bill is intended to make legislation to cover matters relating to labour administration and industrial relations, which matters are within the purvey of the Federal Ministry of Labour."

He further stated that Nigeria has ratified the ILO convention no 144 on tripartite consultation, traditional labour standard. The ratification implies that in undertaking a process of enactment of any global policy or legislation, the Nigerian social partners, comprising governments and employers of workers organisations must consult and dialogue among themselves with a view to reaching consensus on the proposed law or policy in question.

"We in the Ministry of Labour and Employment have not been availed or presented with a copy of the said bill on which this public hearing is called.

"Rather, in view of the interventions of the Nigerian Labour Congress on part of the bill as it affects the issue of labour legislation, we will like to state that this public hearing be stepped down until the bill is circulated to all social partners to ascertain if the bill meets international labour standards and best practices and our aspirations to enhance decent working, promote fair labour practices and ensure industrial harmony in the economy.

"... the ministry of labour and employment wish to propose that the bill and the public hearing be stepped down until the labour issues in the bill are sorted out in the appropriate tripartite consultative forum. On the other hand, the sponsors of the bill may wish to expunge the labour aspect of the bill and go ahead with the areas on digital financial transactions," he said.

Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Labour Governance Nigeria By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.

His demand was not well-accepted by the panel members who insisted that the legislative process on the bill would continue.

The Chairman of the panel, Uba Sani, also warned the ministry against dictating to the National Assembly how to carry out its business.

"We are federal lawmakers elected to make laws for the good of the country and we would not sit here and watch an appointee of an executive arm of government dictating to us on how to conduct our procedure."

There was no resolution as to whether the panel will send a copy of the legislation to the ministry as other stakeholders were called upon to make their contributions to the bill.

The sour relationship between the legislators and the ministry has lingered for weeks now following controversies surrounding the Special Public Works programme aimed at employing 774,000 Nigerians.
Savvy clients are spending more time vetting homes online before shopping in person, so our audience was eager for more expansive, interactive imagery.

Chicago real estate brokerage Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago is pleased to announce the debut of the firms all-new Luxury Collection Magazine. A long-time leader in Chicagolands high-end residential real estate market, the firm redesigned the monthly digital magazine to showcase the finest residences presently offered for sale by the company in a fresh, new format.

Diane Glass, COO, said, Our new Luxury Collection Magazine is an exquisite visual delight that demonstrates luxurys diverse landscape. The definition of luxury is so very personal these days too, with discerning buyers actively curating their options. Savvy clients are spending more time vetting homes online before shopping in person, so our audience was eager for more expansive, interactive imagery. As a firm whose agents are recognized for their expertise in this important market segment, we wanted to update the magazine to reflect a new luxury lifestyle. We invite you to view Luxury Collection Magazine and the beautiful properties and lifestyles it imparts. Enjoy!

Luxury Collection Magazine is an exceptional guide to the luxury lifestyle. Distribution includes promotion on BHHSChicago.com, in social media, Chicago Tribune online and in our Luxury Collection print advertising. Luxury Collection Magazine is sent monthly to more than 10,000 of the areas top brokers and is shared regularly with the firms international broker networks. Impressions on Chicago Tribune exceed 75K per month.

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicagos dedicated Luxury Marketing Team works in conjunction with the firms full service Marketing Department to provide luxury agents with additional service and support for their luxury clientele. Additional avenues of support can include: copywriting, graphic design, public relations, e-campaigns, digital media support, print media support, property event support and custom media plans. For more information, visit BHHSChicago.com.

ABOUT BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HOMESERVICES CHICAGO

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago is a full-service real estate firm with nearly 1,400 real estate professionals and staff in 25 offices serving customers throughout the Chicago metropolitan area, the North Shore, West Suburban communities, Southern Wisconsin, Northwest Indiana and Harbor Country, Michigan. Recognized as the #No. 1 Top Workplace in Chicago by the Chicago Tribune in 2019, their local roots are complemented by the extensive global reach of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, one of the nations leading real estate brands. Affiliated and ancillary services in the form of Prosperity Home Mortgage, Fort Dearborn Title, and HomeServices Insurance complete the comprehensive services offered to clients. Visit BHHSChicago.com.
T he Mayor of Bristol said the statue of a Black Lives Matter protester erected to replace that of Edward Colston "had to come down" as he spoke out on the "very delicate time" the city is facing.

London artist Marc Quinn created the life-size black resin and steel sculpture of activist Jen Reid after seeing a photo of her standing on the empty plinth following the toppling of the 18th Century slave trader.

Quinn's sculpture, entitled A Surge of Power (Jen Reid), was installed shortly before 4.30am on Wednesday without the knowledge or consent of Bristol City Council.

A sign reading Black Lives Still Matter was placed at its base. But the statue was removed by the council on Thursday.

The Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees said he "welcomed contributions from the artist" to pay for the cost of its removal.

The statue was removed from the plinth and loaded into a recycling and skip hire lorry on Thursday morning / PA

He told Sky News: "I prefer to say we're not taking down the statue of a Black Lives Matter protester but we're taking down the work of a London-based artist who erected it without permission and without any conversation with the city.

"We set up a process that we think is really important to make sure that in a very delicate time we include the whole city and make sure everyone feels respected, and it was put up outside of that process and therefore had to come down."

Mr Rees said if the artist had requested permission from the Mayor before erecting the statue he still would have said no.

"We've pulled together a history commission in the city," said Mr Rees.

"We want a group of historians to help restore [the city] coming to contact with its full story across race, class, gender, trade union activity, and within that context we will be in a better position to make decisions about who we want to honour."

Statue of Black Lives Matter protester removed from Bristol

Mr Rees told BBC Radio 5 Live that, when he spoke to the sculptor, the artist was unaware that the toppling of the Colston statue also caused damage to the grave of Scipio Africanus, a memorial to an enslaved African man.

Running around provoking debate without any awareness of the potential consequences of that debate is not OK," said the Mayor.

He added that how race was navigated in the UK was a delicate balance.

Its increasingly delicate for me because every time I talk about race, as a black politician, Im boxed in  all I do is talk about race, he told the programme.

The irony is 200-odd years or 300 years after Colston died hes coming back to get this first black politician.

Contractors use ropes to secure A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) statue / PA

The sculpture will now be put into storage and discussions will take place with Marc Quinn and Jen Reid about what they want to do about it.

The artist has obviously said that he wants to sell it and give the money to local charities, said the Mayor.

I will say too  and this is the point Ive made and its not a flippant point  but actually were facing a major funding crisis through Covid at the moment as well.

Weve lost revenue and weve had increased costs. Local authorities all across the country are talking about the financial crisis.

It cost us money to take this down. The money we spent taking the statue down actually comes from accounts that we spend on adult social care and childrens services.

Wed really welcome a contribution from the artist.

On June 7, protesters on the Black Lives Matter march used ropes to pull the Colston statue from its plinth in the city centre.

It was dragged to the harbourside, where it was thrown in the water at Peros Bridge  named in honour of enslaved man Pero Jones who lived and died in the city.

Mrs Reid described the Colston statue being thrown into the river as a truly historical moment.

Protesters throw statue of Edward Colston into Bristol harbour 1 /13 Protesters throw statue of Edward Colston into Bristol harbour PA Keir Gravil via Reuters PA PA PA PA PA PA PA PA

The city council retrieved the statue on June 11 and said it would be displayed in a museum with placards from the Black Lives Matter protest.

Mr Quinns previous works include self-portrait Self and a sculpture entitled Alison Lapper Pregnant, for the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square.

The artist, who had been following events following the death of George Floyd in the US, contacted Mrs Reid after a friend showed him a photograph on Instagram of her standing on the plinth.

My first, instant thought was how incredible it would be to make a sculpture of her, in that instant, he said.

PA

It is such a powerful image, of a moment I felt had to be materialised, forever. I contacted Jen via social media to discuss the idea of the sculpture and she told me she wanted to collaborate.

Mrs Reid went to his studio and 201 cameras were used to create a 3D print and a mould for the sculpture.

Mr Quinn said it was not put on the plinth as a permanent solution, adding that it may only last days or weeks before taken down.

We want to keep highlighting the unacceptable problem of institutionalised and systemic racism that everyone has a duty to face up to, he said.

He described the sculpture as an embodiment and amplification of Mrs Reids ideas and experiences.

If the statue is sold, all profits will be donated to Cargo Classroom and the Black Curriculum  two charities chosen by Mrs Reid, Mr Quinn said.
As a Puerto Rican growing up in New York City during the late 70s and early 80s, my community was Black and brown. I was told that there was no difference between a Black person and a Puerto Rican. We were in the same boat, in the same struggle.

Now, the conversation around race has changed. There's a real recognition of colorism  and it helps to explain my experience. When my friends and I would go steal candy, I was always the one relegated to doing the actual stealing. It was because all my people were darker and they would distract the store owner while I literally stole candy from the store.

The booty was always shared equally among my darker-skinned counterparts. But I, the light-skinned Puerto Rican, gained all the respect and admiration. I got the "street cred." Colorism is real.

I am now a leader in the movement. And at this moment, I want to challenge my other Latinx leaders. This is not a moment to passively sit by. This is a moment to act.

The protests are working. Each day, we are exposing the cancer of hate that courses through the veins of the system. Latinx people know that we row in the same boat with Black America, but too many pretend otherwise. When the focus is on someone else, you take the chance to breathe.

But believe me, the heavy nightstick that falls on Black bodies falls on our people as well. The boot on our neck has been heavy as our countries and communities are ravaged. Our blood has also been shed and we continue to bleed. And we are part of the African diaspora. We cannot take pride in that only when it seems safe, only when it gives a sway to our hips. We will benefit from ending police brutality, so we must fight alongside those who are suffering because they are part of us. Our faith leaders must cry out, our Latino communities must use their considerable mass to say "No mas! Black lives matter!"

More Information Rosemary Rivera of Albany is co-executive director of Citizen Action of New York. "New Voices" is a series of essays written by local residents at the request of Times Union editors, aimed at broadening readers' understanding of the issues confronting people of color in our diverse community. See More Collapse

According to Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Latin America had over 10 times the number of slaves imported than the United States. But for years, Black people in Latin America did not consider themselves as Black. The mix of race and the difference in language allowed many to think of themselves as other than Black.

Many capitalized on all that was Black and then rejected all that identified them as Black. Perhaps it was a survival mechanism. Maybe they thought "as long as someone else is getting the proverbial boot on neck, then I can slide by and not be noticed by oppressive forces. After all, I just want to breathe."

Well, the time has come for Latinx people to understand their history. Slavery was, and continues to be, a worldwide injustice. Those in countries just south of the United States did not escape the brutality of colonization and the erasure of who we are. Now we are a rainbow people. Yet to white supremacists, we are no better than the black skin they love to hate.

We must see our history. It will allow us to see how we cannot ignore the plight of Black America. The blood of our ancestors calls to us, and we know that if our Black siblings weren't carrying the brunt of this, that whip would fall on us. We must unite in solidarity, lift up the voices of the Black bodies that are falling, while we understand that we cannot be free until Black people are free.

The chains that bind us are now the chains of fear. We must break out of them and shout with all our might that Black Lives Matter. It's unjust to separate ourselves from white people when it's convenient and then be silent when Black bodies are experiencing modern day lynchings. We are but a shade away from the wrath of white supremacy.

To my fellow Latinx leaders: let's bridge the divide by showing up, speaking out, and not letting our light-skinned Latinx brothers and sisters think that they can somehow escape the hate. The generational trauma of our ancestors was passed on to us, and with it the strength to fight. See you in the streets.
After graduating from New York Universitys Stern School of Business, Zyskind began working as an investment banker at Janney Montgomery Scott in New York. Two years into the job, another opportunity within the financial sector came his way. In 1998, Zyskinds father-in-law, Michael Karfunkel, and his brother, George Karfunkel, both veterans of the real estate business, got the chance to buy a specialty niche insurance company from Wang Holdings. Michael asked Zyskind if he wanted to take part in the acquisition and then work for the firm; Zyskind agreed.

We wanted to build something successful and something big and something that would last for a very, very long time, he explains. The company we had acquired had a small niche  they insured electronics  so we started from there.

AmTrusts continued focus on niche specialty property & casualty markets helped the newly formed company stand out from larger insurance carriers. The search for underserved niches eventually led AmTrust to the workers compensation arena and established its strength in small commercial business.

We've really stuck to our plans  we still insure electronics through our warranty business, Zyskind says. We also are one of the largest small workers comp insurers in the United States. By staying focused and staying in our niches, we've continued getting better.

During his tenure at AmTrust, Zyskind has also come to realize the value the insurance industry provides. It's an underappreciated business, he says, but I think insurance companies play a critical role in the economy, and when you get [into the industry], you realize how important it is to the economy and how you can make difference.

Insuring Americas backbone

Specializing in small business insurance has paid off for AmTrust. More than 99% of businesses in the US are considered small, and they employ almost 50% of all employees in the country, according to the Small Business Administration. That translates into a large client base.

Small business is something that we believe will be here for many generations to come, Zyskind says, and they're always reinventing themselves, whether it's a dentist, a doctor, a restaurant, a specialty retailer or a contractor.

In the same vein, AmTrust has also evolved. In 2001, Zyskind wanted to diversify the companys insurance offerings for small businesses and decided to get into workers comp. However, the decision was a controversial one, as the 1999 scandal involving Unicover and its failed workers comp business was still on everyones minds.

At the time, I was leading the company, and my father-in-law was the chairman, and I remember going to him and telling him that we wanted to get into workers comp, Zyskind recalls. At first he told me that he didn't think it made sense, and I came back with the plan, and ultimately he said, If you want to do it, do it. It was something where I had this strong feeling, and the more I learned about it, the more I wanted to do it.

AmTrust began by building a workers comp underwriting team in the US. Then, in 2002, it acquired the renewal rights for The Princeton Agencys workers comp business, which helped to expand its footprint in the US and supercharge the new line of business.

Looking forward

In the first few years after founding AmTrust, the companys leaders were focused on buying companies and books of business that offered something of value to the fledgling company. These acquisitions included buying the renewal rights to Associated Industries Insurance Company in 2004, which added to AmTrusts book of business in Florida and, one year later, acquiring the renewal rights to Alea North Americas specialty middle-market P&C business.

The deal-making continued in the years that followed, which helped AmTrust grow its presence around the world, as well as its teams expertise. In 2016 alone, AmTrust completed 14 acquisitions. However, its growth strategy has since shifted.

Acquisitions have played a critical role, Zyskind says, noting that over the last two years, weve really focused on making sure that systems and people are marching in the right direction. We've transitioned from a company that did a lot of acquisitions and became very large to a company looking to principally grow [organically].

One of the current areas that Zyskind and AmTrust are paying close attention to is the E&S marketplace, which is seeing more activity amid a harder market. We feel good about being able to take the things weve learned in the admitted market and apply them to the E&S market, Zyskind says, and also learn how to combine some admitted products with non-admitted products.

To help the company remain profitable and safeguard its success into the future, AmTrust launched the organization-wide AmTrust Forward program last year. AmTrusts leaders pinpointed the companys strengths and what was important moving forward, which involved selling some operations that didnt fit into this plan. Now the AmTrust plane is ready for takeoff, despite some turbulence brought on by the pandemic.

Before COVID-19 hit, we were seeing a lot of momentum, and we're continuing to see the momentum, so we feel good about where we are, and we feel we're focused, Zyskind says. AmTrust Forward is taking the best of what we've done in the past and positioning ourselves for 2020 and beyond.
By Barani Krishnan

Investing.com - A day late, but perhaps better late than never for the bears in the market.

Crude prices fell 1% on Thursday, reacting belatedly to the decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries from a day earlier to rollback 20% of production cuts that OPEC had maintained since the start of May.

The market rallied instead on Wednesday, responding to a large unexpected drawdown in U.S. crude oil stocks.

Oil news is very light other than people weighing in on the relaxing of the OPEC oil cuts that are coming, said Scott Shelton, energy futures broker at ICAP (LON:NXGN) in Durham, N.C.

For now, there wasnt enough demand information that clearly indicated a bullish or bearish market for oil in the coming weeks and months, Shelton said.

He, however, added: The evidence in the U.S. that I see suggests that there is enough demand to increase runs to some extent as gasoline stocks are drawing and margins are OK.

New York-traded West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for U.S. crude futures, was down 42 cents, or 1%, to $40.78 per barrel by 1:13 PM ET (17:13 GMT).

London-traded Brent, the global benchmark for oil, fell 46 cents, or also around 1%, to $43.33.

WTI settled up 2.2% on Wednesday while Brent rose 2.1%, responding to a blockbuster weekly drawdown on U.S. crude.

The Energy Information Administration reported in the previous session that US crude stockpiles fell 7.5 million barrels for the week ending July 11. Analysts tracked by Investing.com had expected a decline of 2.1 million barrels, after the previous weeks rise of 5.6 million barrels.

The EIA also reported a drop of 3.1 million barrels in gasoline stockpiles and slide of nearly 500,000 barrels in diesel-dominated distillate inventories. Analysts had expected a gasoline draw of 643,000 barrels and distillates build of nearly 1.5 million barrels.

The Saudi-led and Russia-assisted OPEC+ alliance, meanwhile, said on Wednesday it will withhold 7.7 million barrels a day from the market from August onward, compared with the 9.6 million in July.

Story continues

Some say that a 2 million barrel reduction in OPEC cuts could go a long way in negating weekly draws in U.S. crude.

Case in point: Crude inflows into the United States fell by 1.8 million barrels last week, the most in four years, underscoring the work by OPEC, or precisely Saudi Arabia, to reduce shipments to the United States in order to create low inventory levels that would boost WTI prices.

if the Saudis start sending more of their cargo in the direction of the United States, that could change.

And the jury is still out on how demand for oil could fare amid the new wave of coronavirus infections across the world.

The United States reported more than 67,000 new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday. Top U.S. pandemics expert Anthony Fauci said recently the daily case growth could reach 100,000 without proper social-distancing and other safety measures.

Some 3.5 million Americans have already been infected by Covid-19, with a death toll reaching nearly 140,000. A new model by the University of Washington predicts 200,000 coronavirus deaths in the United States by Oct. 1, casting further doubts on economic reopening from lockdowns.

The U.S. economy shrank 5 percent in the first three months of 2020 for its sharpest decline since the Great Recession of 2008/09, as most of the 50 states in the country went into lockdown to stem the outbreak of the virus. While most businesses have reopened over the past two months, economists still warn of a double-digit recession by the second quarter.

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The Perspective

Atlanta, Georgia

July 14, 2020





For any society to prosper, it needs to have a government to run its affairs. The government helps to sustain the social contract that binds every member of the state. Thus, the price that is paid for a state to be prosperous is for it to have an established government that enforces the social contract. Members of an ordered society, called a state, must pay taxes sufficient to carry out the functions assigned to the state. In Liberia, costs associated with the running of government have increased dramatically over the years such that an increasingly reduced proportion of public revenue is available to support and implement the primary functions of government. Consequently, the discharge of beneficial government functions has been hampered. Its no news. The curse of leadership plagues Africa, and Liberia is chief amongst its sufferers.

The discussion of Liberian politics has long focused on the role of the executive (President), or on the party, and less commonly on the role of the legislature. Big men (and now a few women) dominated national politics, either as democrats. They and their close associates were salient and largely determinative of political machinations and outcomes. Thus the President was for many decades omnipotent in the majority of Liberian politics. According to the Liberian 1986 constitution, the key function of the Liberian national legislature is to constrain the arbitrary or capricious acts of the executive on behalf of the citizens whom legislators are meant to represent. Oversight is essential to any democracy because it ensures both the vertical accountability of rulers to the ruled as well as the horizontal accountability of all other government agencies to the one branch  the legislature  whose primary function is to represent the citizens. In the past year, I made a clear determination to steer clear talking about government without being able to do anything. However, I am forced to write in clear terms in this article about the arrogances of 3rd term Representative of District #5, Montserrado County, Representative Thomas Fallah of the Congress for Democratic Change, and presumptive senatorial candidate Montserrado County in the ensuring 2020 bi-senatorial elections and Representative Rustonlyn Dennis of the Liberia Transformation Party (LTP) representing District #5, Montserrado County

Rep Rustonlyn Suacoco Dennis (L) and Rep Thomas Fallah

Last week, we were served another national comedy when Representative Thomas Fallah wrote on his official Facebook page 18 years ago, I was denied from entering a university because I couldnt afford by September 2021, the T. Five University will open to the poorest of the poor. Never give up, remember that nothing is more powerful than the resilience of the human spirit. The question is, Da your pa f-cking money? For her part Rep. Rustonlyn Suacoco Dennis (District #4, Montserrado) said she will not seek treatment at the John F Kennedy Memorial Medical Center under its current administration for fear of her life after the recent passing of Representative Jay Nagbe Sloh of District #2, Sinoe County at the John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Monrovia. On July 8, 2020, we got the unfortunate news of the passing of Rep. Munah Pelham-Youngblood (CDC, District No. 9 Montserrado) a short while ago in Accra, Ghana.

One of the unintended consequences of the legislatures unilateral pending action brings to the front-burner questions about the size of government, the excessive cost of governance, and the fraud and corruption in Liberia. An examination of the operational style of successive Liberian legislatures since 2006 would reveal an array of demagogue politicians who always pretend to mean well in the kind of policies they have pursued in the running of government, but a perusal of their factual performance records would disclose only deliberate and systematic pillage of our national wealth, reckless misappropriation of scarce resources and brazen disregard for the needs of the people. These pretentious politicians, who always claim to have people-oriented and focused leadership qualities, are in fact, the least endowed with the virtues of transparency, probity, and accountability in the running of government business. The result of all these debaucheries is the emergence of a powerful privileged class that has suddenly supplanted the yearnings and aspirations of teeming Liberians with its bloated appetite for opulent and ostentatious lifestyles.

Meanwhile, despite our bloated and behemoth government bureaucracies, the pre-occupation of our lawmakers has ceased from being servants of the Liberian people to maintaining and protecting themselves and their numerous cronies. While corruption and cronyism continue to fester in government circles, the people continue to wallow in inexplicable squalor and denial. Liberians generally observed and agreed that Liberia is a nation blessed beyond belief but, as at today, a nation in abject poverty, with confused leadership, and obscurity. Many articles, opinions, suggestions, etc. have been written about Liberia in the recent past. More of these critical, but constructive viewpoints have been adjudged by the very objective minded as poignant, relevant, and indeed requisite for all those leaders who wish Liberia well. It is depressing that several years of huge democratic investment in Liberia have yielded no fruitful gain, rather, a downturn in development and growth.

The national legislature is made up of unserious elements, and self-centered individuals. Our lawmakers are not justifying their monthly pays, vis-a-vis the number of days and hours they sit in a week, and the number of times they go on vacation every legislative calendar. How can Rep. Fallah who was once poor, but after being elected to the legislature, now, boast of building a multi-million university? Why are our lawmakers playing on the sensibility of our poverty-stricken people? Is Liberia under a curse of Leadership? Is leadership Liberias greatest challenge? Is it corruption? What will we do about it? Will there ever be an end? Are we at a tipping point? Is there hope? Is there a way out?

I would like for you to take a little glimpse of the present crop of leaders who govern our affairs, starting with the lawmakers and others in subsequent articles. These are the leaders we have elected in the past elections to serve our interests. Most of these leaders collect huge funds from the Liberian government and not only spend them lavishly, but keep increasing their expenditures at the expense of capital expenditure. They are part and puzzle of why Liberia is spending 90% of her entire budget on recurrent expenditure.

The Lawmakers Budget in Post Conflict Liberia

Fiscal Year (FY) 2006-2007: US $ 9,456,230

FY 2007-2008: US $16M

FY 2008-2009: US $18M

FY 2009-2010: US $19M

FY 2010-2011: US $23M

FY 2011-2012: US $26M

FY2012-2013: US $39M

FY 2013-2014: US $39M

FY 2014-2015: US$41M

FY 2015-2016: US$54M

FY2016-2017: US$47M

FY2017-2018: US$49M

FY2018-2019: US$49.2M

Office of the Speaker of the House

FY 2009-2010: US $605,412

FY 2010-2011: US $ 619,952

FY 2011-2012: US $631,167

FY 2012-2013: US $911,793

FY 2013-2014: US$1.3M

FY 2014-2015: US$1.5M

FY 2015-2016: US$1M

FY2016-2017: US$1M

OFICE OF THE DEPUTY SPEAKER

FY 2009-2010: US$334,088

FY 2010-2011: US$387,928

FY 2011-2012: US$545,204

FY 2012-2013: US $508,724

FY 2013-2014: US$521,746

FY2014-2013: US$1.2M

FY2014-2015: UU$1M

FY2015-2016: US$1.4M

FY 2016-2017: US$930,132

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE

FY 2009-2010: US $ 634,900

FY 2010-2011: US $ 517,904

FY 2011-2012: US $ 911,227

FY 2012-2013: US $906,979

FY 2013-2014: US$1.6M

FY 2014-2015: US$2.3M

FY 2015-2016: US$9.5

FY 2016-2017: US$1.3M

PLEASE NOTE: FOr some strange reasons, the speaker, Deputy speAKer, and president pro TEMPORE OFFICESXSPENDINGS are no more captured in the budget since cdc led government assumed office.

Liberian "lawmakers"

Look at the statics in the last decade, the average income of each of our legislators has gone up every budgetary cycle at the expense of the entire working force in Liberia. Now, this kind of inequality -- a level that we havent seen since the formation of the Liberian states -- hurts us all. When average Liberia families can no longer afford to buy the goods and services that businesses are selling, when people are slipping deep into abject poverty, it drags down the entire economy from top to bottom. Recent studies have shown that countries with less inequality tend to have stronger and steadier economic growth over the long run. Inequality also distorts our democracy. It gives an outsized voice to the few who can afford to participate in politics, and it runs the risk of selling out our democracy to the highest bidder. Our representatives and senators earn so much; do you expect them to defend the hapless & helpless majority against a cruel government or its policies? It leaves the Liberian people else rightly suspicious that the system is rigged against them that our elected representatives arent looking out for the interests of most Liberians. You know why! Its why they ignored all the waste in the budget but jerked up their budget every fiscal year. Our lawmakers have been looting public funds through budgetary allocation and generally being a nuisance since 2006. Amidst the pervading abject poverty across the land, our lawmakers allocated to themselves US$49 million in the FY2018-2019. This is part of the reason why 90% of the nations budget is allocated to mainly recurrent expenditures. This means the CDC led government is spending less on capital investment projects the contributing fact can arguably be traced to the waste in government including the US49 million, a huge chunk of the nations resources to service less than 103 legislators and their staff in a country of over 4.6 million people. Where is the opposition in the legislature? Collaborating Political Parties, National Democratic Coalition, National Union for Democratic Progress, etc.? Birds of a feather flock together!



The reality is Liberia has never worked, and may never work if we dont rise and confront the system of socioeconomic marginalization. The combined salaries and incentives of the representatives and senators in the Fiscal year 2018-2019 were US49.2 M and in the Fiscal year, 2017-2018 was US$49M. What do the Liberian legislators contribute to earning so much when the majority of our people are living in abject poverty and unemployment is soaring. This is why members of the legislature are so boastful and arrogant instead of being humble and servants of the people. What kind of country allocated in the 2018/2019 budget to the national legislature allocated US$49.2M while the educational sector was allocated US$25M, and the agriculture $37M (6.2% of the budget)? Why is Rep. Rustonlyn Suacoco Dennis feared for her life if she is admitted to the government-owned John F. Kennedy medical center? Does she know the paltry amounts allocated to health care by the legislature branch exemplified the misplaced priorities of the Liberian budgets?

Not only have Liberia neglected the economic sector but also the social sector. It is generally acknowledged that investment in healthcare is necessary to maintain a healthy and quality population. Similarly, investment in education and agriculture are important for human resource development. In effect, education, health & agriculture sectors are necessary for social and economic development. An educated and healthy population that feeds itself enhances the competitiveness of a nation. Unfortunately, these three sub-sectors are neglected by the Liberian government.

Given the contribution of education to development, the United Nations recommends that countries allocate 26 percent of their resources on education. In the 2018/2019 budget, the Liberia government never meets this budgetary target. The government allocated only 4.2% of its budget to the education sector (US$25M), which is lower than comparable African countries such as South Africa (26%), Cote dIvoire (30%), Ghana (31%), and Uganda (27%). Budgeting for education is one thing, getting commensurate outcomes is quite another thing. The Liberian government and legislators like Representative Thomas Fallah and Senator Prince Johnson invest in building schools and classrooms instead of the improvement of teacher quality and welfare, providing books and materials, and ensuring that children remain in school. Teachers' training and incentive packages for teachers improve academic performance far more than spending on lucrative building contracts for political party apparatchiks. In education as in everything in public finance, the quality of spending is as important as the amount and proportion of the total budget.

The health sector across Liberia reveals an area of national life that is in dire need of rescue through new policies, regulations, and strengthened institutions. That is why I am surprised why one legislator recently died and many have died seeking medical treatment in Europe, America, Ghana, India, etc. Across the country, treatable diseases like malaria and cholera are still killers, infant and maternal mortality rates are amongst the worst in the world, while our life expectancy seems to be dropping. The government has greater responsibility for healthcare than any other tier, being in charge of primary and secondary healthcare. We had hoped that our governments budgets would be more effective, and higher in both quantity and quality. Sadly, that is not the reality the 2018/2919 as well as previous budgets revealed. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that 15% of national budgets be allocated to healthcare. The 2018/2019 budget of US$79 million is just about 13.4%. With the widespread dysfunctions in governance that we are experiencing as a country, the under-budgeting for the sector is worsened by the fact that actual releases are usually far less than the amounts allocated. Additionally, effective utilization of the little that gets released is hindered by the corruption and incompetence that exist in the public sector agencies.



Liberia on the other hand, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) 2016 statistics, has a total land area of 9,362 Hectares with an agricultural area of 2710 Hectares. In simple terms, about 47% of the land in Liberia is arable, out of which less than half is currently under cultivation. Not only do we have vast amounts of arable land, but we also have favorable weather for year-round cultivation of crops. Despite the foregoing, Liberia does not produce enough food for internal consumption. In fact, according to the FAO 2020 statistic. Rice for human consumption accounts for over 80% of imports in Liberia, while wheat and maize account for about 13% and 6%, respectively. Sadly, these are all products that can be grown locally and if managed properly, can be exported in the near future.

For a country blessed with so much with the potential of food production endowments, the 2019 Global Hunger Index (GHI) scored Liberia at 112 out of 117 qualifying countries. This index assesses all available data on hunger, undernourishment, and the pattern of food consumption within countries, and the higher the score, the more serious the nations hunger challenges. According to the ranking, the score of 34.9 for Liberia, therefore, indicates a serious hunger problem in the country. Ironically, nations like Botswana, Namibia. Iran, Iraq, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Syria, and Oman which are substantially desert nations scored less than 5 on the GHI, indicating the near absence of hunger and malnutrition.

We cant go on like this. It will take a fight. The slavery our children will be subjected to will know no bounds. We are enslaved by our very own, our blood, our kinsmen! They ridicule us with their plunder, getting audacious with every unchecked loot they take from the system. Once we can ensure frugality at the legislative, they will exert pressure on other branches of government. We have allowed those meant to keep a check on the system become loose. Insanity! I can never entrust a primary school to any of these looters, they will ruin it! We are close to a tipping point, a point where we are being reminded daily of why we should save our nation from their destructive hands. We are at a point where we must make strategic efforts to sacrifice now so we can gain tomorrow, for Liberia, amongst other issues, is living up to delivery services to our people.

How did we end up putting these guys at the helm of national affairs? Why are re-electing folks who keep pushing waste and spending more on our national budget? Most of these lawmakers are personal failures in their system, hence the need to amass wealth by all means possible. The wastes from Liberian legislature, when put together, will build schools; equip hospitals, clinics, community road, et al. Is this why we were told to sacrifice a little? What do we do? We must demand a cut down of these wasteful salaries, allowances, and incentives accruing to the national legislature, at least 50% cut. Protest against any increase from the savages at the national legislature. We must demand the Liberian government adhere to the World Health Organization's (WHO) recommendation that 15% of national budgets be allocated to healthcare, the United Nations recommendation that countries allocate 26% of their resources on education. For the agricultural sector to be restored as the mainstay of our economy, the spending priorities of the government must genuinely reflect a national commitment to the sector. Allocating in 6.2% of the budget to agriculture is insufficient to enable us to attain the food sufficiency we direly need, much less position us to be a major exporter of cash crops. Agriculture must be made a priority bearing in mind that our other resources are a non-renewable, finite resource that will be exhausted sometime in the future, or replaced by greener or cheaper alternatives. The budgetary allocation figures also need to be tilted sharply in favor of capital expenditure. Allocating 96% of the entire budget on recurrent expenditure is ludicrous! Agriculture is a practical and ground-based profession. The enormous personnel costs incurred on redundant government employees including our legislators add little or nothing to the development of our agricultural sector. Those monies budgeted for the research institutes need to be invested in the real or pilot production sites (farms) and the acquisition of the seedlings, fertilizers, chemicals, and equipment required to make them boost crop output. Better coordination with infrastructural Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), aggressive investment in storage capacities, low-interest loans, and greater extension and support services should command the attention of agricultural policymakers at states and federal levels.



Studies indicate that every US dollar spent on agricultural research produces nine dollars worth of added food in developing countries. Agricultural research which successfully drove the first Green Revolution in Asia can also do the same in Liberia. Obviously, this does not refer to wasteful expenditure on personnel cost, engaging in excessive domestic and international travel, purchase of un-needed SUVs, and other pea-brained budget heads that constitute the bulk of typical MDA recurrent expenditures. A worthwhile investment in biotechnological hardware, software, and attracting the best and brightest minds to agricultural research will pay off in the medium to long term. Liberia must attain food sufficiency so that the paradox of hunger in the midst of plenty will no longer apply to us.



In closing, we must occupy Liberia, by rejecting members of the current legislators up for re-elections in the senate in December of 2020. To achieve this, our ideology and strategy must be error-proof, must be near-perfect! The enlightened man must get to the poorest/not enlightened person and educate him/her to vote wisely and there is power in their votes. When we enlighten and empower the common man, he would need no coercion when the elastic limit is reached! The streets, the grassroots; thats where the power lies!

Leadership failures! Leadership curse! Leadership collapse! This is Liberia, at present, the land of the living dead. We need a re-awakening!

About the Author: Karweaye is a Liberian residing in the United States of America and can be contacted at s.karweaye1668@student.tsu.edu




Vanity Fair's latest issue features Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis on its cover, making her a rare Black cover star in the magazine's 107-year history  but even more notable, the man who shot the image is the first Black photographer to shoot a cover for the publication.

Dario Calmese, who has been shooting for the magazine since last year, earned the long-overdue honor for Vanity Fair's July/August issue  a groundbreaking moment he took seriously.

'I did know that this was a moment to say something,' the 38-year-old told the New York Times. 'I knew this was a moment to be, like, extra Black.'

Big deal: Vanity Fair's latest issue features Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis on its cover  and was the first cover ever to be shot by a Black photographer

The snapper: Dario Calmese, who has been shooting for the magazine since last year, earned the long-overdue honor for Vanity Fair's July/August issue

For Calmese, that meant staging a particularly powerful image of Davis, who wore a MaxMara trench dress for the cover shot.

Shot from behind, the photo shows the dress falling off her shoulders and exposing much of her back.

It's incredibly glamorous  unlike the image that inspired it.

Calmese said he based the shot on an iconic photo from 1863 called The Scourged Back, which shows the scarred back of a man named Gordon who escaped slavery.

'This image reclaims that narrative, transmuting the white gaze on black suffering into the black gaze of grace, elegance, and beauty,' said Calmese, who attended School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and now directs fashion shows for the label Pyer Moss.

'Its about replacing the images that have been washing over all of us for centuries, telling us who we are and our position in the world and our value,' he went on.

'For me, this cover is my protest. But not a protest in "Look at how bad youve been to me, and Im angry, and Im upset," [but rather] 'Im going to rewrite this narrative. Im just going to take ownership of it.'

Inspiration: Calmese said he based the shot on an iconic photo from 1863 called The Scourged Back, which shows the scarred back of a man named Gordon who escaped slavery

Star: Davis is one of eight Black cover stars cast since editor-in-chief Radhika Jones took over two and a half years ago; in the 35 years prior, there were just 17

In introducing the new issue, Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Radhika Jones highlighted the excitement of Calmese's participation.

'This month brings its own milestone. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first Vanity Fair cover made by a Black photographer,' she wrote in her editors letter.

'This is his first major magazine cover, and we celebrate him and honor his vision at this heightened moment in American history.'

The magazine has also had a dearth of Black cover stars. in the 35 years before Jones became editor, just 17 covers featured solo Black stars.

She has added eight more since she took over the role two and a half years ago, and also featured two interracial married couples.

'Our cover star this month is Viola Davis, and in the course of her conversation with Sonia Saraiya, she points to an incontrovertible fact about this magazine: "Theyve had a problem in the past with putting Black women on the covers,"' Jones continued.

'For most of the magazines history, a Black artist, athlete, or politician appearing on a regular monthly issue of Vanity Fair was a rare occurrence.'

It took until 2018 for Vogue to hire a Black photographer to shoot its cover, after Beyonce hand-picked him to shoot her for the September issue

Honor: Tyler Mitchell was the first Black photographer to shoot a cover in 125 years of the magazine

It's not a problem for Vanity Fair alone  and neither is a lack of Black cover photographers.

It took until 2018 for Vogue to hire a Black photographer to shoot its cover, after Beyonce hand-picked him to shoot her for the September issue.

Tyler Mitchell was the first Black photographer to shoot a cover in 125 years of the magazine.

'You know, we should be shooting covers of Vogue month to month, not just as a first,' he told NPR at the time.

'[Photography] was known as a rich man's art, so it was mostly for white men who were able to afford all of the chemicals, the films, the cameras that went into it in the very early stages,' he went on.

Another: Rolling Stone went 51 years before hiring a Black photographer for a cover, choosing Dana Scruggs to shoot Travis Scott for the January 2019 issue

Her words: Scruggs said the honor was 'sweet and bittersweet'

'It's a historical thing that goes into why there just haven't comparatively been as many black fashion photographers as white fashion photographers. But the part that I can't answer is why they haven't been recognized ... the amazing Black photographers and black fashion photographers that have been shooting.

'The iPhone is the thing that opened up everything. The beautiful thing about now is that it's no longer somebody that can afford the best camera, but it's about what your eye says.'

Rolling Stone went 51 years before hiring a Black photographer for a cover, choosing Dana Scruggs to shoot Travis Scott for the January 2019 issue.

Scruggs said the honor was 'sweet and bittersweet'.

'Im out here making history when a year ago I was on the verge of giving up on being a photographer altogether,' she said. 'Never give up on yourself or your dreams. Ever.'
The first word, Black, was designed by Tijay Mohammed, a Ghanaian-born artist, and used vibrant Kente fabric design and Adinkra symbols, which represent concepts like royalty, unity and legacy.

Sophia Dawson, a Brooklyn-based visual artist, took the second word, lives. The L contains the faces of the mothers who have lost their children to police killings. The I uses imagery inspired by Emory Douglas, an artist for the Black Panther Party; the V highlights the culture of the African diaspora; the E contains faces of Black Panther Party members who are currently in prison; and the S carries a passage from the Bible.

The street painting at Foley Square resembles many that have been done around the country in its word choice and placement, but part of what has been lost in the national debate over the art and the political statements they make is the logistical care, intentional placement and artistry that went into the creation of many of them.
In an effort to prevent more hacked accounts from posting crypto scams, Twitter has apparently chosen to temporarily disable tweets from verified accounts. Though the company has not yet confirmed this to us, Engadget staffers have experienced this with our own verified accounts. At the same time, we were able to tweet using our unverified accounts. Other users on Twitter were having the same experience.

You may be unable to Tweet or reset your password while we review and address this incident.  Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 15, 2020

So far, the only tweet weve seen that acknowledges the issue is this one from Twitter Support, which states You may be unable to tweet or reset your password while we review and address this incident. Weve since reached out to Twitter for additional information.

While verified users were unable to tweet, they could still retweet. Several prominent Twitter accounts (like NBC News below) have taken to posting from alternate accounts and then retweeting them from their official verified accounts as a workaround.

It appears Twitter has halted tweeting from verified accounts as they deal with the July 15th verified account compromise event.



We will temporarily tweet significant updates here, and retweet them to our verified accounts, as a service.  Temporary NBC News (@TempNBCNews) July 15, 2020

Most, if not all of the hacked accounts from earlier in the day were from verified accounts such as Elon Musk and Barack Obama. This could be the companys way of preventing more of those crypto scam tweets from occurring, at least temporarily.

Verified Twitter accounts typically include not just celebrities and politicians, but also media outlets, brands, emergency services, public transit alert systems, official government agencies and more.

Again...NWS Lincoln, IL cant tweet right now because of the Twitter lock of verified accounts. What a mess. There is a tornado warning in effect. https://t.co/9Ft705qfMB pic.twitter.com/eS3kynJtey  Derrick Snyder (@Derrick_Snyder) July 15, 2020

Update 8:31pm ET: It appears that the ability for verified accounts to tweet has returned, but it might be in flux. Twitter Support tweeted the following statement:
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Linkedin James Pearson (Reuters) Hanoi, Vietnam  Thu, July 16, 2020 19:45 551 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666dc4fa 2 World South-China-Sea,territorial-disputes,China-ASEANRelations,US-China,US-China-tension,maritime-border Free

The United States this week hardened its position on the South China Sea, where it has accused China of attempting to build a "maritime empire" in the potentially energy-rich waters, despite regional concerns.

The rivals have accused each other of stoking tension in the strategic waterway at a time of strained relations over everything from the new coronavirus to trade to Hong Kong.

A statement from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on July 13 was the first time the United States had called China's claims in the sea unlawful and accused Beijing of a "campaign of bullying".

But heated rhetoric has also been on the rise in the region, where Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam challenge China's claim to about 90% of the sea.

Regional tensions

Vietnam, frequently at loggerheads with China over the issue, is this year chairing the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

At a June 26 summit in Hanoi, Vietnam and the Philippines - China's most vocal challengers over the sea - warned of growing regional insecurity amid concern that Beijing was advancing territorial claims under the cover of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As China held military drills in the South China Sea this month, Vietnam said Beijing's actions were "detrimental" to its relationship with the Southeast Asian bloc. The United States simultaneously deployed two aircraft carriers to the area for what it said were pre-planned exercises.

In a blustery response to the Chinese drills, Philippine Foreign Minister Teodoro Locsin said China "will be met with the severest response, diplomatic and whatever else is appropriate", if the exercises encroached on Philippine territory.

That followed a surprise move by President Rodrigo Duterte - who had courted Beijing since taking office in 2016 - to suspend his decision to scrap a two-decade-old troop deployment agreement with the United States.

Troubled waters

China illustrates its claims with a vague, U-shaped "nine-dash line" that includes swathes of Vietnam's exclusive economic zone, or EEZ, as well as the Paracel Islands and Spratly Islands. It also overlaps the EEZs of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

A tribunal at The Hague, based on a suit brought by the Philippines, ruled in 2016 that China has no "historic title" over the waters, and that its line was superseded by the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Last year, Chinese and Vietnamese vessels became embroiled in a months-long standoff in Vietnam's EEZ where a Chinese research vessel conducted a sweeping seismic survey of waters overlapping Vietnamese oil blocks.

In May, the same Chinese research vessel was involved in another month-long standoff with Malaysian ships in Malaysia's EEZ, close to where a drillship contracted by Malaysian state oil firm Petronas had been operating.

Chinese incursions happened 89 times between 2016 and 2019, Malaysia's government said on Tuesday.

Indonesia has also begun to take a tougher stance. In January, Jakarta summoned China's ambassador and dispatched air and sea patrols after Chinese vessels entered Indonesia's EEZ around the northern Natuna islands.

The tensions have already affected Vietnamese oil production in the area, including operations controlled by Russia's Rosneft and Spain's Repsol.

"We're already seeing reduced appetite for oil and gas investment in Vietnam," said Andrew Harwood, research director at consultancy firm Wood Mackenzie.

"Escalating tensions will not improve the situation".
Superintendents in three Michigan school districts are among eight contenders to be interviewed for the top administrative post in the Center Line Public Schools.

The group of current and former high-ranking education administrators was selected by the Center Line Board of Education from a field of more than three dozen people who applied to become superintendent.

The process to find a successor for retiring Center Line Superintendent Eve Kaltz began earlier this year as district officials solicited public input on the qualifications and attributes the next superintendent should have. Progress was postponed, however, in March and through most of spring as officials dealt with the statewide closure of school buildings as ordered by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The school board eventually resumed, and in mid-June met with the Michigan Association of School Boards to develop superintendent selection criteria as part of the executive search. The job posting closed June 24 and attracted considerable interest with 39 individuals submitting applications, according to the MASB.

By our evaluation, via an extensive paper screening, the applicant pool is very strong relative to other searches as it includes a higher proportion of applicants with prior superintendent experience and numerous applicants with considerable district-wide administrative experience, said Greg Sieszputowski, MASB director of leadership development and executive search services.

Board members already are familiar with one of the applicants to be interviewed, Lisa Oleski. She is assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction in the 2,531 student district, located in most of the city of Center Line and a small portion of surrounding Warren.

The other seven are:

* Angel Abdulahad, superintendent of Madison District Public Schools

* Dorothy Blackwell, superintendent of Vassar Public Schools

* Mary Ann Cyr, assistant superintendent of the Taylor School District

* Joseph Haynes, assistant superintendent of Yale Public Schools

* Richard Klee, former director of curriculum, instruction, state and federal programs for the Crestwood School District

* David Rabbideau, former assistant superintendent of Harper Woods Public Schools

* Melody Strang, superintendent of the Genesee School District

The school board met recently to narrow the field and to pick candidates for a first round of interviews.

I think the board feels by and large the pool is an excellent pool, board President Gary Gasowski said. It wasnt easy getting down to these eight candidates.

Gasowski said the board could vote as early this week to select two  or possibly more  finalists for a second round of interviews. The board hopes to extend a contract offer to a top choice by the end July.

The public question-and-answer sessions of the eight applicants will be conducted by video conference 6-10 p.m. Wednesday, July 15 and 6-10 p.m. Thursday, July 16. Four applicants are scheduled to be interviewed each evening.

The virtual meetings are open to the public and can be viewed by logging into the Zoom app with Meeting ID: 917 5566 0987, and password: SE0826. Attendees can opt to listen by phone by dialing 1-312-626-6799.

Many of the applicants in this pool met the criteria established by the board, Sieszputowski said.

Applicant pool data for the Center Line Public Schools superintendent vacancy included:

* Highest degree received: 42% earned an Ed.D. or Ph.D.; 26% received an Education Specialist or 6-year equivalent; 32% masters degree

* Highest position experience: 37% former or current superintendent, 39% assistant superintendent/central office administrator; 24% building administrator

* 30% of candidates were from outside of Michigan

District officials invite residents, parents, teachers and other Center Line school employees to log in to the virtual meetings. Log-in information for the applicant interviews also can be found on the districts calendar at clps.org/apps/events/.
By Trend





Peace in Nagorno Karabakh is only possible if the will of the general public and the UN resolutions are taken in the account, diplomatic activities correspondent at Pakistans BOL News agency Anwer Abbas told Trend.

Starting from the afternoon on July 12, units of the Armenian armed forces, grossly violating the ceasefire in the direction of the Tovuz district of the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border, shelled Azerbaijani positions using artillery mounts.

Talking current situation at the frontline, Abbas noted that it has been observed across the world that a party that does not want peace or has illegally occupied lands of another country starts provocations by violating ceasefire just to have the negotiations fail.

Another fact is that the aggressor country always tries to distract the world from its crime by starting violent actions. This very tactic is being used by Armenia as they do not respect peace or value human lives. Throughout history, Armenians remained barbaric and brutal in their actions whether it is Tovuz now or in Khojaly, Abbas said.

The journalist emphasized that Armenia always attempts to start aggression whenever there is a mediation or peace attempt.

Without resolving Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in accordance with the will of the general public and the UN resolutions it is impossible to establish peace in the region. Azerbaijan should give a befitting response to make Armenia understand that if they make any expedition it will cost them greatly, he said.
MELBOURNE, Australia - Australias coronavirus hot spot, Victoria state, moved to increase available hospital beds Thursday and reported a record 317 new infections.

The government had planned to restore hospitals to normal medical services by the end of July before infections began to rise in recent weeks.

Instead, the Victoria government responded to the latest spike by reducing non-urgent surgeries allowed in hospitals to increase beds available for COVID-19 patients, Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said.

Two men in their 80s died in Victoria in the last 24 hours, bringing the national virus death toll to 113.

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said the full impact of a six-week lockdown in Australias second-largest city, Melbourne, was not yet apparent because it was only a week old.

It will take some time to bring that stability to the numbers and then of course to start to see a pattern where they are driven down, Andrews said.

Australias highest daily tally before Thursday was 288 in Victoria on July 10. Both exceed the previous record of 212 in New South Wales state during the first peak of the pandemic.

Its a big number. It needs to turn around, Victoria Chief Health Office Brett Sutton said of the 317 new cases. In some ways, I expect it to turn around this week. But as Ive always said, its no guarantee. Its upon all of us to be able to turn this number around.

Given the week the lockdown has been in effect, the incubation period of the virus and the time for cases to be confirmed and counted, we would really expect a plateauing in the next couple of days, Sutton said. But we cannot be complacent and expect thats going to happen automatically.

New South Wales, the only other state regarded as an active Australian virus hot spot, reported 10 new cases on Thursday.

Australia enjoyed similar success as neighbouring New Zealand in suppressing the spread of COVID-19 in the early weeks of the pandemic. Australia adopted a suppression strategy while New Zealand pursued full eradication.

The strategy has succeeded in New Zealand, which has gone 76 days without a community-spread infection and has active cases only among quarantined people who travelled abroad.

Just as Australia was lifting its lockdown restrictions, breaches of infection controls in hotel quarantine led to community spread in Victoria state.

In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:

 Indias virus cases surged another 32,695, taking the nation closer to 1 million and forcing a new lockdown in the popular western beach state of Goa two weeks after it was reopened to tourists. The new confirmed cases took the national total to 968,876. The Health Ministry also reported a daily high of 606 deaths, taking total fatalities up to 24,915. The ministry said the recovery rate was continuing to improve at 63%.

 Tokyo reported 286 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, a record for the city, Gov. Yuriko Koike said, raising alarm Japan may be reopening its economy too quickly. The previous record for new cases in Tokyo was 243 on July 10. Japan has never had a total lockdown but the government asked businesses to close and people to work from home under an emergency declared in April. That has been lifted and restaurants, schools and stores have reopened and people are going back to work on packed commuter trains. One reason for the recent rise is an increase in testing, Koike said. Separately, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe acknowledged a need to re-examine the governments Go to campaign, which offers discounts for travel within Japan, set to start next week. We are looking at the situation with a high level of nervousness, Abe said. Tourism is among the hardest-hit sectors in the massive fallout from the pandemic, causing the worlds third largest economy to tumble into recession. Japan has confirmed fewer than 23,000 coronavirus cases and about 1,000 deaths.

 South Korea reported 61 new cases, most of them tied to international arrivals. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday said the countrys caseload was now at 13,612, including 291 deaths. It says 12,396 people have been released from hospitals while 925 remain in treatment. The KCDC says 47 of the new cases were tied to people arriving from overseas but it didnt immediately say where they came from. South Korea has been requiring two-week quarantines on all passengers arriving from overseas since April.

 New coronavirus infections hit an all-time high in Hong Kong on Thursday, with 67 cases reported for the day. Authorities said 63 were locally transmitted. They could not trace the source for 35 of them. The city has so far recorded 1,656 infections with 10 deaths. Hong Kong has tightened social-distancing measures in light of the recent upsurge, restricting public gatherings to four people and banning dining-in at restaurants past 6 p.m. Businesses such as beauty salons, gyms and amusement parks have been ordered to close for a week.

 Chinas economy has rebounded from a painful contraction to grow by 3.2% in the latest quarter compared to a year ago. The expansion came as anti-virus lockdowns were lifted and factories and stores reopened. The reported growth was a dramatic improvement over the previous quarters 6.8% contraction that was Chinas worst performance since at least the mid-1960s. But it still was the weakest positive figure since China started reporting quarterly growth in the early 1990s.
Officials with 'Post Time with Mike and Mike' have issued a preview of the upcoming episode of the show.

Guests will include Nancy Takter, Pat Woods, Tim Tetrick, and David Miller.

Woods will join the program from Winbak Farm to discuss the farm's Ontario yearlings that will soon be available for purchase this yearling season.

Takter, Tetrick, and Miller will discuss their upcoming chances in the 2020 Meadowlands Pace. They will also discuss some of the other horses the will be racing during the stakes-laden program.

The show can be heard live every Thursday at 10:30 a.m. via posttimewithmikeandmike.com or on the archive at blogtalkradio.com/ptmikeandmike.

(With files from 'Post Time')
After shunting out the collector, Superintendent of Police (SP) of Guna district and Inspector General (IG) of Gwalior range over the beating of a Dalit couple at Guna, the Madhya Pradesh government on Thursday suspended six police personnel allegedly involved in the incident.

Outgoing Guna SP Tarun Nayak issued orders suspending six police personnel including two women cops, official sources said.

Ashok Singh Kushwaha, Rajendra Sharma, Pavan Yadav, Narendra Rawat, Neetu Yadav and Rani Raghuwanshi were suspended.

The incident at Guna town comes ahead of bypolls to 25 Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh.

Taking the matter seriously, the BJP government on Wednesday night transferred collector S Vishwnathan, SP Nayak and IG Rajababu Singh, a senior official said.

Home minister Narottam Mishra also informed that a high-level probe had been ordered by Chief Minister Shivraj

Singh Chouhan into the incident.

On Tuesday, a Dalit couple drank pesticide when officials tried to evict them from a piece of government land in Guna city, allotted for a college, which they were cultivating. Their condition was now said to be stable.

Rajkumar Ahirwar (38) and his wife Savitri (35) had reportedly leased the land from those who had encroached on it, officials said.

Police were compelled to use force against them as they resisted the eviction and refused to go to hospital after drinking pesticide, officials said.

A video which went viral on social media showed the police beating the man with batons severely.

Opposition Congress slammed the use of force and demanded action against those responsible for the incident.

Madhya Pradesh BJP president Vishnu Dutt Sharma alleged that Gabbu Pardi who had allegedly encroached on the land was a Congress worker who was close to a senior Congress leader.

"It is a very unfortunate incident. The government has taken it very seriously and removed the Collector, SP and IG," he said.

State Congress working president and former minister Jitu Patwari termed Sharmas allegations as "baseless" and alleged that Pardi was a BJP worker.

State Congress spokesman, Bhupendra Gupta demanded a probe by a sitting judge in the matter and also suspension of senior officials.
Localities and all links in the tourism value chain need to join hands to boost domestic tourism, which is now a priority for the struggling industrys recovery post-pandemic, tourism experts have said.

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The sector has mapped out three scenarios for its recovery this year based on reopening the country to international visitors in June, September or December, Nguyen Huu Tho, chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association, said.

Whatever the scenario, the maximum number of international tourists expected is just 4.6 million while the number of domestic tourists expected is around 34 million, he told a recent meeting held in HCM City.

Last year those numbers were 18 million and 82 million.

For the time being, the countrys borders are firmly shut, and the industry is now focused on reopening to domestic tourism, Tho said.

Domestic travel began to recover in mid-May with the launch of a national campaign titled Vietnamese People Travel in Vietnam.

The campaign that will run until the end of this year aims to boost domestic tourism with the involvement of the entire value chain across airlines, hotels and resorts, restaurants, tourist sites, travel agencies, tour operators, and tourism service providers to put in place quality tourism products and service packages at reasonable prices.

For now the fear of coronavirus transmission is one of the biggest barriers to domestic tourism, Tho said.

It is vital to strengthen propaganda efforts to make people feel safe about travelling domestically.

Nguyen Tri Dung, director of the HCM City Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said though the coronavirus situation is now under control and the risk of community transmission is very low, it is still a major concern among travellers and holiday makers.

The country is not going to open all at once, he said.

The tourism sector should gradually take steps to revive domestic tourism and adhere to strict infection prevention measures, he said.

Vo Anh Tai, deputy general director of Saigontourist Group, said HCM City should step up efforts to promote itself as a safe destination after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides.

Hotels and tourist attractions in the city are complying with mandatory health and safety protocols to prevent coronavirus transmission to employees and customers, he said.

The citys tourism authorities should launch stimulus programmes to encourage city residents to learn about the citys historical and cultural values, he said.

Surveys show that many people in HCM City have very little knowledge about its historical and cultural attractions, he added.

Vo Thi Ngoc Thuy, deputy director of the city Department of Tourism, said a campaign called Hello HCM City would be rolled out soon as part of efforts to introduce new tourism products and make over the citys tourism image.

There would be a tourism stimulus programme offering 70 tours at reasonable prices with the participation of 24 travel firms and six hotels, she added. VNS

Central provinces join hands to stimulate tourism At the signing ceremony on tourism development cooperation held on May 30, leaders of Thua Thien-Hue, Danang and Quang Nam agreed that cooperation is very essential.
The elk skull with antlers discovered in a lake near Fenton over the Fourth of July weekend has found a temporary home at the Cranbrook Institute of Science. It is also undergoing radiocarbon testing that will shed some light on the skulls origin.

Family finds elk skull with antlers in lake near Fenton, where elk havent roamed since 1875
Huawei is now facing a new patent infringement case in the US thats centered around the imaging technology in its products. The case, brought before the Eastern District of Texas by Cedar Lane Technologies, isnt limited to smartphones either. Instead, it reportedly covers a wealth of Huawei-branded devices. Including Huawei smartphones or tablets such as Huawei Mate X, Xs, 20, and 20 Pro. Or the MediaPad M5, M6, and T5.

Products released under Huawei-subsidiary Honor branding are also up for question in the suit. That includes devices such as the Honor View 10 and Honor 8.

Cedar Lane Technologies claims that Huawei not only infringes on the patents by releasing those devices and others for sale. It also claims Huawei was knowledgable about the patent in question. And that it had its employees internally test and use the products associated with the patent.

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The plaintiff, in this case, is seeking compensation for damages as well as an award in terms of costs and fees.

How this imaging patent infringement suit will play out is very much up in the air

Now, this new case against already-embattled Huawei is likely a fairly daunting proposition. The company has been facing an increasing number of difficulties globally as a result of US sanctions. It has also been subject to increased scrutiny elsewhere on the legal front. Thats largely been the result of an ongoing trade war between China and the US.

That has essentially ballooned into a full-on war between Washington and the Chinese tech giant.

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Conversely, the patent  as described in reports  appears to be relatively vague. The technology in question is a method for interfacing analog/digital converting means and JPEG compression methods. Thats compression on a device with built-in memory and following a specific sequence. First, the patent describes the method as sequentially reading a predetermined number of image lines from the image data output.

That description appears not to be too different, at least on the surface, from how essentially all digital cameras process and compress imaging data. And that can impact the outcome of these types of cases. So it will remain with the courts to determine whether Huawei can make its case or is forced to shell out compensation.

Huawei has not responded to the claims yet

In at least a couple of cases, the companys defenses and attempts to explain itself in the US have also been brushed aside outright. So it would make sense for the company to have some reservations here. And, at least for the time being, Huawei hasnt responded to the claims leveled against it with regard to this imaging patent infringement case.
Its so predictable.

No matter the crisis, no matter how many actual issues scream for attention in the middle of the pandemic, our legislature still finds ways to push ideas to help itself.

So it is that the Republican Senate just approved a measure to change the state Constitution -- for political revenge and partisan gain.
Two Chinese spy ships spotted near Taiwan during military drill

ROC Central News Agency

07/15/2020 09:06 PM

Taipei, July 15 (CNA) Two Chinese reconnaissance vessels were seen off the east coast of Taiwan on Wednesday, during a live-fire exercise by Taiwan's armed forces, a military source told CNA.

When the presence of the two Chinese spy ships was detected, a Taiwan Navy warship was dispatched to monitor and deter them, and they eventually sailed away, said the source, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak on the issue.

At the time, all branches of Taiwan's military were preparing to engage in a live-fire exercise at Jiupeng military base in the southeastern county of Pingtung, during which the country's major missile systems were to be test fired, according to the source.

The weapons fired from the coastal base included the indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III anti-ship missiles and Tien Kung I and III anti-tactical ballistic missiles, and the U.S.-made Harpoon missiles, Patriot PAC-2 missiles, and Standard Missile 1 (SM-1), according to the military.

The drill was part of Taiwan's Han Kuang series of exercises, its largest annual war games involving all branches of its armed forces, which are being held July 13-17.

Prior to Wednesday, Taiwan's military had spotted the two spy ships, disguised as civilian vessels, sailing some 40 nautical miles off Orchid Island, which lies east of Taitung County, the source told CNA.

On Wednesday morning, just before the missile exercise began, the two Chinese vessels were again seen approaching Orchid Island, the source added.

Taiwan's military suspected that the two spy ships were collecting intelligence on the weapon systems and missiles used during the live-fire exercise in Pingtung, which simulated Taiwan's counterattack against a Chinese invasion by sea, according to the source.

The Ching Chiang-class patrol ship dispatched by Taiwan's Navy has electronic warfare equipment that can monitor Chinese vessels and block any efforts to obtain intelligence, the source said, adding that the two Chinese vessels left the area at about 8 a.m.

The live-fire drills will end Friday, and the second stage of the annual Han Kuang exercises, which comprises computerized war games, will be held Sept. 14-18.

(By Lu Tai-cheng and Joseph Yeh)

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A heartbroken father who tried in vain to rescue his baby daughter and young stepson from a horrific inferno has revealed he feels like he 'let down' his babies.

Des Cooke whisked two children to safety when an inferno tore through their family, but was unable to save eight-year-old Brayden and his baby sister Arianna.

Along with his partner Nicole Mulligan, Mr Cooke escaped with two of their children, Lucas, six, and Brianna, two, as flames engulfed their Christchurch home about 10.45pm on Tuesday.

But little Brayden didn't make it out, and neither did his baby sister, who was just nine months old.

When Mr Cooke realised the house was on fire, he desperately tried to save the children - even crawling back in when he realised Brayden hadn't escaped.

Scroll down for video

Brayden (pictured), eight, and Arianna, nine months, died in the blaze in Christchurch, New Zealand, at 10.45 on Tuesday night

Mr Cooke initially assumed Brayden had escaped out the front with his brother, so he focused his efforts on trying to save nine-month-old Arianna.

'She was my precious girl. She lit up my heart with her infectious smile... I tried my absolute best to save my baby,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'But I couldn't. I just couldn't enter the room. The flames and smoke were unbearable. I tried to push past it but I just wasn't able to.'

When he finally conceded and made his way out of the burning building, he realised Brayden had never made it out - and desperately turned back to save him.

'I crawled back inside the house to search for him. A neighbour came with me but we were unsuccessful. They literally dragged me out of there,' he said.

Arianna's father, Des Cooke (pictured), visited Brayden's grandparents in the hospital room where he apologised for not being able to do more for Brayden

Nine-month-old Arianna (pictured) also died in the blaze. A neighbour said he can't get the children's screams out of his head

It is believed little Brayden had tried to save Arianna after his tiny body was found in fire-damaged doorway of her bedroom.

Mr Cooke told Daily Mail Australia little Brayden adored his 'wee sister'.

'He had a very caring, loving soul and nature,' Mr Cooke said. 'He was the most gentle, caring boy you'd ever meet... He loved his wee sister.'

Mr Cooke said he'd received plenty of praise for his actions since the fire, but felt like he had failed his family.

'People keep calling me a hero. I sure don't feel like one,' he said.

'I let two children down.'

Brayden's grandmother, Angela Martin, told Stuff she learned of the fire shortly after it tore through the family home.

Arianna (pictured) died in the fire. Her mother later said she thought she was 'having a nightmare'

Ms Mulligan called her in hysterics to tell her half of her family had perished in the fire.

'She said to me, ''my babies have died, I'm having a nightmare'',' Ms Martin revealed.

The grandmother then had to call her son Shaun Gibson, Brayden's biological father, and pass on the news to him.

'I heard his voice and I just started howling on the phone and I had to hand the phone to my husband,' she said.

Ms Martin and her husband arrived at the scene just as Brayden's body was being taken away by an ambulance.

Arianna's father visited them in the hospital room where he apologised for not being able to do more for Brayden.

Nicole Mulligan, her partner Des Cooke (pictured together) and two of their children, six-year-old Lucas and two-year-old Brianna escaped as flames engulfed their Christchurch home about 10.45pm on Tuesday

'He walked into the room and just said ''I tried so hard, I'm so sorry, I tried'',' Ms Martin said.

Fire area commander Mike Bowden described the blaze, particularly near Arianna's room, as 'unsurvivable'.

Firefighters retrieved the boy from the home, but neighbour Matt Fitzsimmons said 'you could just see it was too late,' he told Stuff.

Mr Fitzsimmons and his wife Theresa had been watching TV in bed when they heard screaming.

When he realised their neighbours' windows were bright orange with smoke billowing from the crevices, he ran outside and grabbed the hose.

As he tried to extinguish the flames, he heard the father yelling 'my baby's inside'.

'The sound, the kids, the flames, the roar, the glass, the guy screaming out my baby ... I was seeing everything firsthand, it's just something I never thought I would ever have to deal with,' he said.

Lynn Baughan was among the people who tried to help the 'hysterical' father save Arianna, not realising at the time his son was also inside.

'We went in on our knees and had a look around, smoke and fire was everywhere. I told him we had to get out, it wasn't safe.'

Neighbour Corey Dunnill said he 'can't get the screaming out of my head'.

Fire and rescue rushed to the scene but it was too late to save the young children

The 22-year-old grabbed a hose and tried to extinguish the flames, before he saw a body being dragged out of the smoke.

A Give A Little fundraiser page was set up by a relative to raise money for the family who lost two children and all their possessions.

It has already raised more than $114,000 for the family.

'Your donations will help the family of Brayden and Arianna cover funeral costs and help them get back on their feet without the financial burden that will accompany this horrific loss,' it said.

Vicki-Anne Parker, founder of Christchurch charity NZ Gifts of Love and Strength has created care packages for the family with donations from the community.

'I think it's amazing, once again Christchurch comes out as a resilient city and wants to help people going through a tragedy, it's just so heartwarming,' she said.

A spokesperson from Fire Emergency New Zealand confirmed four crews attended the scene at 10.47pm.

Detectives section the home off to determine the cause of the fire.

'Police and Fire and Emergency New Zealand remain at the scene today,' police said in a statement.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 20:50:45|Editor: huaxia

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ISTANBUL, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Turkey has been looking forward to the arrival of Russian tourists with the resumption of air travel between the two countries, some Turkish tourism sector representatives said Thursday.

Turkish transport and infrastructure minister Adil Karaismailoglu announced on Wednesday that the two countries had agreed to resume their mutual flights after three and a half months of suspension due to COVID-19.

"The agreement promised hope for the future of the Turkish tourism sector, which has been passing through challenging times due to the spread of coronavirus," Firuz Baglikaya, head of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies, told Xinhua.

He noted that Russia is the most important market for Turkey's tourism industry, and it has a strategic significance for the Mediterranean and Aegean regions, which are among the most popular destinations of Russian tourists in the country.

Due to the pandemic, the number of foreign tourists visiting Turkey started to plummet rapidly from March onwards. According to the latest official data, nearly 30,000 tourists visited the country in May this year, down from 4 million visitors during the same period in 2019.

Turkey hosted 45 million tourists last year, including over 5 million Russian travelers, generating a total of 34.5 billion U.S. dollars of revenue.

"Russian tourists act as a locomotive in the development of our country's tourism," Baglikaya stressed, noting that Turkey would be happy to host its Russian guests and do its best to make them return to their country with good memories.

Turkey has so far resumed international flights with 32 countries, including Russia, and has been negotiating with 20 others, according to Karaismailoglu.

Burhan Sili, president of the Alanya Tourism Operators Association, told reporters that Turkey's tour operators in Russia are planning to launch their "charter" flights by the end of July.

"That means that we will see a vital dynamism in the region that would increase the morale and motivation of the industry," Sili was quoted as saying by the Demiroren news agency on Thursday.

With its five-star hotels and holiday villages, Alanya, a district of the Mediterranean province of Antalya, is the most preferred location of Russian tourists.

Meanwhile, Turkey's national flag carrier, Turkish Airlines, told Xinhua on Thursday that it has been waiting for a green light from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to be able to resume its scheduled flights with Russia.

Turkish airline companies had partially resumed their domestic operations on June 1 and international flights on June 11, in line with the easing of the COVID-19 measures.
The Bay Area has been slowly lifting social distancing restrictions on businesses and gathering places, though the full reopening of restaurants has garnered a mixed reaction. Some diners are excited to get out again, while for many others, the prospect of eating next to strangers sparks a great deal of anxiety. Reactions among restaurant owners and workers is similarly mixed, with some eager to get back to work and others decrying the systemic failures that led them to a lose-lose situation.

Inspired by similar work by Abigail Koffler, writer of the This Needs Hot Sauce newsletter, I solicited peoples thoughts on reopening on Instagram a few weeks ago. I received hundreds of responses from diners, restaurant workers and owners, and even a few infectious disease experts. The following is a sampling of what I got, though I also took the step of following up via phone with some to ask for elaboration.

At the time, Marin and Napa counties had gone further in the reopening process than anywhere else in the Bay Area, with indoor dining resuming; San Francisco was on track to allow the same on July 13. But after a surge in COVID-19 cases in the region and the state, some of those allowances have been set back.

Reopening is complicated, and getting into the nitty-gritty of it matters. The simple word  reopening  blurs over the very careful and specific allowances that well need to progress through for a full return to normalcy. Generally speaking, most of the people I talked to for this story were fine with restaurants offering takeout  but when the topic moved to outdoor dining, impressions were much less consistent.

The following interviews have been edited for clarity and length.

The caterer

Christina Wilson, chef of the Pleasure Principle Supperclub & Dining Events in Oakland

Reopening feels like a gesture toward normalcy that were not ready for nor prepared for. In addition to the health crisis and the fear aspect of it, heaped upon that is the financial crisis. Youre asking yourself if you should be ethically continuing to endeavor in a field where you have to make and prepare food for people. And wondering whether youre exposing them or you and what youre bringing home to your family. But cooking is what you know how to do, so you have to do it.

That part feels inherent. There should have been something in place for all of us to not be this worried about losing our livelihoods, homes, businesses. If you dont rush and reopen, you might be forgotten as an establishment.

Now, I take two to three hours a day making calls, be it demanding justice for murder or asking legislators to take action on the economy. We might have had universal basic income in the first place. But we dont. It just bums me out. Im doing what Im supposed to do as an entrepreneur: creating jobs, strengthening the economy and creating opportunities. Thats what makes for a better community. Still, even if you do your part and pay your taxes, you just get let down.

The diner

Noelle Trinidad, photographer in San Francisco

After being cooped up in my apartment with my 3-year-old daughter for three months and the state of world affairs, my seventh wedding anniversary and Fathers Day, I thought that it would be a nice change of scenery to go out to Fishermans Wharf and eat at Scomas. In my head, it would be a way to celebrate making it this far and being alive. The location is great, its off of the main drag and its a sorta locals secret, so I knew it wouldnt be too crowded. Cant beat watching fog rolling by while eating delicious crab cakes and calamari, and they were on point with cleaning and precaution. After my experience at Scomas, I will use it as my ruler for other restaurants.

In comparison to other cities, I think San Francisco is doing OK. I think outdoor seating is good. Now I tip up to 40 percent of the total bill, not the usual 15 to 20 percent. My husband currently works in food service, and in high school and college I worked in the industry as well. We appreciate and notice when people are busting their asses to serve us to make us feel at home. With the mandated safety precautions added on to their regular responsibilities and the stress of potentially contracting/giving COVID-19, we hope a little extra tip will help in these trying times.

The Michelin-starred chef

Christopher Kostow, executive chef of the Restaurant at Meadowood and owner of the Charter Oak, both in St. Helena

From the get-go, we were like, shut it down, and I was trying to get all the restaurants to do it locally. Weve always been motivated first and foremost by some sense of public duty. Were analyzing every decision in that light: As the coronavirus cases are rising, should we remain open?

I dont know that theres an answer other than to say, Charter Oak has always had outside seating  its safer and people feel safer eating there. And our sanitary protocols I feel very good about. At Meadowood, which reopened July 1, its the same: People are seated outside and were doing everything we can to mitigate harm.

I was telling the team, we have to be great not because were an expensive restaurant but in spite of it. Especially with all the things happening now, be it the pandemic or Black Lives Matter, we have to ask ourselves as chefs, as businesspeople, what is the point? Why should we do this? Why should we think this is OK in light of this happening in the world?

So whats the best for the team? I think being open, working together and working toward a singular goal is what we all need right now. I always come back to the idea that the creation of beauty and the process that comes along with it has inherent value. There is something inherent in the act and the resulting product that hopefully may serve as a salve in even the most challenging days.

The omakase restaurant owner

Tan Truong, co-owner of Hina Yakitori and Ju-Ni in San Francisco

Reopening doesnt make sense for our businesses. You can reopen eventually, but its going to be at 50% capacity with social distancing, face coverings. Half capacity doesnt work numbers-wise for restaurants like mine that have 14 seats each  thats seven people per seating. At the counter, the chef is not 6 feet away from you. Then also, the experience is just different. You want to go in there to have a conversation with the chef and hear about food preparations. It just takes away from that when you have a mask on or a piece of Plexiglas in front or next to you.

Thats not the experience that we thought people would want to pay for at Ju-Ni or Hina. So well keep doing what were doing now. Takeout is keeping us safe: keeping the restaurants running, the doors open, the people paid and insured. Safe.

When does this go back to business as usual? Realistically, not until theres a vaccine out there and we know that theres an actual solution to this. Right now this just feels like theres no solution. Everybodys grabbing at straws trying to figure out how this ends.

The pop-up founder

Christopher Russell, co-owner of Reds House in South San Francisco

Im trying to stay optimistic but finding myself becoming more depressed. I miss providing an experience for people. I miss laughing with guests  making jokes. With the takeout thing, Im wearing a mask, greeting people at a loading dock. I put the food down, they take the food. Theres no real connection.

But I still think we reopened too soon. People who are going to clubs and such are being selfish. They need to realize theres a bigger picture. Maybe youre not showing symptoms, but youre affecting so many other people. Everyone needs to take a collective approach to this: We need to think of how to protect each other.

At the same time, my bills are due. My credit card is due. Im buying supplies for service with my credit card. Were only just starting to break even because of the Black Lives Matter movement inspiring people to support Black-owned businesses, but before that I was really drowning. I dont even let my mom know how hard it is. I dont want to burden her with that. If I can just keep things going for as long as possible ...

The back waiter

Sarah Tralka, who works at a Berkeley restaurant

Calling essential workers heroes has no tangible value to those workers (and I have a whole other issue with which people are considered essential and therefore forced to work). Especially coming from government officials who could be offering real support to vulnerable people, it feels so shallow and empty. If were so grateful and so indebted to these people, why arent we offering them free health care? Hazard pay? Reducing work hours to limit exposure? Paid time off for people who dont feel safe working in a pandemic? Its like the essential-worker equivalent of thoughts and prayers.

The attitude of diners is so deeply entrenched in entitlement that they have decided that worker safety is less important than being waited on. We saw it all the time pre-pandemic, that customers feel so entitled to their experience that workers are expected to work in conditions ranging from uncomfortable to invasive and unsafe for the sake of preserving that experience. And now, during the pandemic its never been more clear that for a lot of people clamoring to reopen, our lives just matter less than being served.

The infectious disease expert

Chesa Cox, public health analyst at San Francisco General Hospital/UCSF

My main thing against eating out right now is that infectious diseases give no fs about your socioeconomic status or state/city lines, and people are starting to travel. A big part of travel is eating, and I worry that people from places with less concern for COVID (like Arizona) will go to other states/cities with better public health policies and infect the population there. We still have no vaccine and the best treatment is still being researched, and essential workers/vulnerable people still cant access testing.

If COVID-19 continues to circulate through the summer at high rates, public health workers are super worried about fall/winter when flu season kicks up again.

The restaurant general manager

Who works at a Marina District restaurant and asked to remain anonymous

My bosses have totally discredited my fears and my employees fears. They just want money and have no empathy toward the people who are showing up every day to run their business.

Were currently building parklets in front of the restaurant so people can eat there, but I dont have any staff. No one wants to come back to work. I dont want to come back to work. Im terrified. Were constantly washing everything and telling people to wear face masks. Its a really difficult situation.

I care about my staff so much and I dont want them in danger. Its their decision to come to work, but I want them to feel safe when theyre here. Dealing with Marina kids as customers, its like the last three months didnt mean anything. I didnt take a pay cut to do takeout for three months and for us to reopen and for you to act like nothing happened. I think its a little too soon.

I understand everyone has cabin fever, but come on.

Were in hospitality for a reason; we want to take care of people. Restaurants mean a lot to me, and Im sure other people feel the same way. But its really frustrating when you have to be the police. Saying I cant serve you if youre not wearing a mask, having little arguments with customers all the time. I dont know what to say, and I feel defeated. I want restaurants to come back and everyone to have a great time, I want my servers to make money, but I also want everyone to stay at home so we can fix this.

Soleil Ho is The San Francisco Chronicles restaurant critic. Email: soleil@sfchronicle.com
business 3 Point Analysis | What will be the impact of RILs ambitious tech plans Let's understand what these tech announcements mean for Reliance Industries
Toronto police are warning the public about taxi drivers pocketing debit cards during late-night rides.

Const. Jenifferjit Sidhu of 14 Division says shes been assigned to look into five separate incidents of taxi fraud since the beginning of July. In each case, the driver pocketed a debit card while distracting passengers using debit card machines for payment.

The police division covers the Annex, Christie-Ossignton, Little Italy, Chinatown, the Waterfront, South Parkdale and Trinity Bellwoods.

The taxi drivers stole the cards late at night between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., and switched riders debit cards with alternates while the passengers were distracted, Sidhu said.

Those who had their cards stolen were picked up at College Street and Ossington Avenue, Queen Street West and Bathurst Street, Yonge Street and Adelaide Street, King Street West and Spadina Avenue, and Queen Street West and Spadina Avenue.

No particular taxi service was linked to the fraud, and Sidhu said police are still uncertain whether one driver or more are responsible. They have yet to settle on a description of the suspect or suspects.

We had numerous taxi scams in past years, including at the beginning of 2020. Over the past couple of months, they seemed to have stopped as I didnt see any in my workflow, Sidhu told the Star.

The public need to be mindful of their debit card, and ensure they keep possession of their card at all times, she said.

Sidhu said passengers can avoid using debit if theyre concerned about falling prey to the scam.
LONDON  Europes top court on Thursday struck down a trans-Atlantic agreement that allows scores of companies to move data between the European Union and the United States, causing uncertainty for businesses that rely on moving digital information seamlessly around the world.

The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg ruled that the agreement, known as Privacy Shield, did not comply with European privacy rights. Privacy Shield, created in 2016, allows businesses in the European Union and the United States to move data more easily between the two regions. More than 5,000 companies use the system.

The decision is the latest twist in a long-running campaign by privacy-rights activists in Europe who want to prevent companies from moving their personal information to countries with looser data protection rules. The efforts stem from revelations in 2013 by the American former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden about how U.S. government surveillance programs collected electronic communications from private businesses.

The overall effect of the courts decision was not immediately clear beyond creating a dizzying amount of new work for corporate legal departments. Few expect a sudden disruption for moving data between Europe and the United States. Before the decision was announced, European officials played down the potential fallout, saying plans were in place to ensure commerce would not be interrupted. American and European officials will now try to negotiate a new deal for transferring digital information.
TORONTO, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. (Kirkland Lake Gold or the Company) (TSX:KL) (NYSE:KL) (ASX:KLA) today announced that the suspension of operations at the Companys Holt Complex, in effect since April 2, 2020, will be extended until further notice. The Company suspended business activities at the Complex as part of its COVID-19 protocols, and at the same time continued with a strategic review to assess a potential restart of the operations.



The Holt Complex, including the Holt, Taylor and Holloway mines and Holt Mill, was designated as non-core by the Company on February 19, 2020 with the Company planning to consider all options to maximize the value of the assets. The Complexs high cost structures, low grades, diminishing reserves and requirements for new investments have resulted in significant negative cash flows from these operations, and are key drivers of our decision to extend the suspension of business activities.

Tony Makuch, President and Chief Executive Officer of Kirkland Lake Gold, commented: When we transitioned Holt Complex to suspended operations in early April, our first step was to provide base wages to all affected workers for the first month. We also began working to identify opportunities to re-assign as many employees as possible from the Complex to new roles at other sites within our Canadian Operations. I am pleased to report that, to date, more than 220 employees at Holt Complex, from a total workforce of 475 people, have been re-assigned to new positions, or have recently been offered new roles within the organization. In cases where it is not possible to find alternative employment arrangements, and where employees have been on an extended temporary layoff, we now believe that the best course of action is to provide severance packages.

Extending the suspension of operations at Holt Complex was a difficult decision. I want to personally thank everyone at the Complex for their efforts and contribution to our company. Going forward, we will continue to review strategic options for the Holt Complex properties, including the potential for additional exploration activities in the area.

About Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd.

Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. is a growing gold producer operating in Canada and Australia that produced 974,615 ounces in 2019. The production profile of the Company is anchored by three high-quality operations, including the Macassa Mine and Detour Lake Mine, both located in Northern Ontario, and the Fosterville Mine located in the state of Victoria, Australia. Kirkland Lake Gold's solid base of quality assets is complemented by district scale exploration potential, supported by a strong financial position with extensive management expertise.

For further information on Kirkland Lake Gold and to receive news releases by email, visit the website at www.kl.gold .

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains statements which constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs and current expectations of Kirkland Lake Gold with respect to future business activities and operating performance. 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 suspension of operations at the Holt Complex, and anticipated effects thereof and the ability of the Holt Complex to fully resume operations in the future, if at all.

Investors are cautioned that forward-looking information is not based on historical facts but instead reflect Kirkland Lake Gold's management's expectations, estimates or projections concerning future results or events based on the opinions, assumptions and estimates of management considered reasonable at the date the statements are made. Although Kirkland Lake Gold believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking information are reasonable, such information involves risks and uncertainties, and undue reliance should not be placed on such information, as unknown or unpredictable factors could have material adverse effects on future results, performance or achievements of the combined company. Among the key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information are the following: the future impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic and the risk of future shut downs as a result thereof; future development and growth potential of the Companys projects; future exploration activities planned at the Holt Complex and the Companys Canadian and Australian properties as a whole; risks relating to equity investments; risks relating to first nations and Aboriginal heritage; the availability of infrastructure, energy and other commodities; nature and climactic conditions; currency exchange rates (such as the Canadian dollar and the Australian dollar versus the United States dollar); risks associated with dilution; labour and employment matters; risks in the event of a potential conflict of interest; changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; changes in applicable laws; and compliance with extensive government regulation. This forward-looking information may be affected by risks and uncertainties in the business of Kirkland Lake Gold and market conditions. This information is qualified in its entirety by cautionary statements and risk factor disclosure contained in filings made by Kirkland Lake Gold, including its annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2019 and financial statements and related MD&A for the interim period ended March 31, 2020 filed with the securities regulatory authorities in certain provinces of Canada and available at www.sedar.com and www.edgar.com.

Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Although Kirkland Lake Gold has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be others that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Kirkland Lake Gold does not intend, and do not assume any obligation, to update this forward-looking information except as otherwise required by applicable law.

Cautionary Note to U.S. Investors - Mineral Reserve and Resource Estimates

Certain terms referenced in this news release have been prepared in accordance with Canadian National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (the "CIM") - CIM Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves, adopted by the CIM Council, as amended (the "CIM Standards"). NI 43-101 is a rule developed by the Canadian Securities Administrators, which established standards for all public disclosure an issuer makes of scientific and technical information concerning mineral projects. The terms "mineral reserve", "proven mineral reserve" and "probable mineral reserve" are Canadian mining terms as defined in accordance with NI 43-101 and the CIM Standards. These definitions differ materially from the definitions in SEC Industry Guide 7 ("SEC Industry Guide 7") under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and the Exchange Act.

In addition, the terms "Mineral Resource", "measured Mineral Resource", "indicated Mineral Resource" and "Inferred Mineral Resource" are defined in and required to be disclosed by NI 43-101 and the CIM Standards; however, these terms are not defined terms under SEC Industry Guide 7 and are normally not permitted to be used in reports and registration statements filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). Investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of mineral deposits in these categories will ever be converted into reserves. "Inferred Mineral Resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an Inferred Mineral Resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian rules, estimates of Inferred Mineral Resources may not form the basis of feasibility or pre-feasibility studies, except in very limited circumstances. Investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of a Mineral Resource exists, will ever be converted into a Mineral Reserve or is or will ever be economically or legally mineable or recovered.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT

Anthony Makuch, President, Chief Executive Officer & Director

Phone: +1 416-840-7884, E-mail: tmakuch@kl.gold

Mark Utting, Senior Vice-President, Investor Relations

Phone: +1 416-840-7884, E-mail: mutting@kl.gold
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of Sinclair Lewiss novel Main Street, the breakthrough work of an author who would become, a decade later, the first American awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Harry Sinclair Lewis was born in 1885 in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, which he later described as a prairie village in that most Scandinavian part of America, Minnesota, the son of a country doctor. After a childhood and adolescence of voracious reading, he attended Oberlin College for one year and from there went on, at his fathers insistence, to Yale University, earning money along the way by doing newspaper work and even, one summer, travelling to England and back as a hired hand aboard a cattle ship. And always he was writing.

In all, Lewis published 24 novels, including six books of varying seriousness prior to Main Street. The latter, his first important work, was an enormous success, selling 180,000 copies in its first six months and within a few years, an estimated 2 million.

Sinclair Lewis in 1914

In the following decade and a half, Lewis produced what readers and critics generally consider his most important books, namely Babbitt (1922), Arrowsmith (1925), Elmer Gantry (1927), Dodsworth (1929) and It Cant Happen Here (1935).

Although Lewis, who died in 1951, has long since fallen from the syllabi of high school and college American literature courses, his major works merit reading a century or so later not only for their engaging storytelling and the vivid chronicle they offer of American middle class life in the first half of the twentieth century in particular, but also for their withering satirical attack on the hypocrisies, and worse, of that American life.

Main Street tells the story of Carol Kennicott. When we meet her, in the first decade of the last century, she is still Carol Milford, a highly sensitive but moderately talented co-ed at the fictional Blodgett College on the outskirts of Minneapolis.

Carol yearns to conquer the worldalmost entirely for the worlds own goodbut cannot determine how to accomplish this feat. With a humor that is characteristically frank yet sympathetic, Lewis tells us that at various times during Senior year Carol finally decided upon studying law, writing motion-picture scenarios, professional nursing, and marrying an unidentified hero. Such vacillation on Carols part seems at first the result of youthful wistfulness, but the beauty of her character is that, as Lewis warns us early on, Whatever she might become, she would never be static.

After a few dull years working as a librarian in St. Paul, Carol meets and marries the solid Dr. Will Kennicott of Gopher Prairie, feeling for him an affection short of love that will evolve through moods and complications to form as clear-eyed a portrayal of a marriage as is to be found in American literature. (In the marriage to a doctor and the banality of small-town life, there are obvious hints of Gustave Flauberts Madame Bovary, 1856.)

Kennicotts Gopher Prairie is a market town loosely based on Lewiss hometown of Sauk Centre, but generic of Midwest prairie towns of the time in its ad hoc ugliness and devotion to money-making. Kennicott persuades the relatively, and self-consciously, urbane Carol to travel back with him and make Gopher Prairie artistic, pleading with her, Make us change!

First edition cover of Main Street

The prospect of beautifying one of these prairie towns ignites in her a passionate enthusiasm, and the novel follows Carols various schemes for accomplishing this mission, from attempting to build a beautiful town hall to wishing to produce edifying plays by George Bernard Shaw. Time and again her efforts bump up against the complacence and venality of her neighbors, and Carol contemplates what it is that makes the more intelligent young people (and the fortunate widows!) flee to the cities with agility and not come back in passages such as this:

It is an unimaginatively standardized background, a sluggishness of speech and manners, a rigid ruling of the spirit by the desire to appear respectable. It is contentmentthe contentment of the quiet dead, who are scornful of the living for their restless walking.

It is to Carols credit as a character, and Lewiss as a novelist, that her understanding of Gopher Prairie and her relationship to it are not summed up in such passages. At times she is filled with compassion for the towns inhabitants and at others becomes swept up by the beauty of the countryside and is convinced that she loves Gopher Prairie. Such moments of peace, though, Lewis likens to the contentment of the lost hunter stopping to rest.

Throughout Main Street, Lewis sees to it that Carols consciousness develops, growing more complex as she continuously examines town life, her marriage and herself. Further, her restless spirither dedication to beauty, to frankness, to justice for the farmers who are exploited by the towns businesses, to her own fulfillment as a human beingnever flags, making her one of the most compelling female characters in American literature. As she says of herself near the end of the novel, Ive never excused my failures by sneering at my aspirations, by pretending to have gone beyond them.

As noted above, Main Street was an instant bestseller and its publication a national literary event. As Lewiss biographer Mark Schorer remarks in Sinclair Lewis: An American Life (1961), It was the most sensational event in twentieth-century American publishing history. Part of the novels importance at the time was that it partook of both fame and infamy. Schorer again: No reader was indifferent to Main Street: if it was not the most important revelation of American life ever made, it was the most infamous libel upon it. The novels popularity and influence were underscored by the fact that the phrase Main Street became a common term denoting a particularly American brand of philistinism.

In 1930, Lewis observed that the novel had been a succes de scandale, because one of the most treasured American myths had been that all American villages were peculiarly noble and happy, and here an American attacked that myth. Scandalous. Some hundreds of thousands read the book with the same masochistic pleasure that one has in sucking an aching tooth.

Lewiss greatest strength as a novelist was his sensitive detection of large social forces as they work themselves out culturally and in the desires and behavior of individuals. Carol Kennicott, for instance, in addition to constituting an intensely detailed and convincing consciousness, serves for Lewis as an embodiment of middle-class liberalism. She imagines improvements to Gopher Prairie that will make the town more pleasant to look at and live in, and she significantly wants to ease the discomfort of the economically oppressed, as when she dresses up the rest room that Gopher Prairie grudgingly provides for the wives of farmers who have been brought to G.P. on market day.

Yet Carol is also easily discouraged, giving way to personal emotion when she meets with resistance or ingratitude. And though she occasionally mouths socialistic sentiments, she has no stomach whatever for the hard, unglamorous work of political organization. (Toward the end of the novel she does lend a hand to the suffrage movement, but she notes the vast difference between herself and those women who are truly committed to the work.)

Among Sinclair Lewiss most astute observations along these lines are the connections he is able to draw between small-town politics and full-blown political reaction, as well as his recognition that the latter is primarily an anti-working class, anti-socialist phenomenon.

His remarkable novel Babbitt is his first to explore these themes in any depth, with the boosterism practiced by businessmen like George F. Babbitt (again, Lewis contributed something to the English language) in the fictional city of Zenith, Ohio, shown to be at once inane in its promotion of pep and zip, and sinister in its suspicion of those who would challenge the premises of the money-worshipping life. A glimpse of Babbitt can already be seen in Main Street, in the person of Honest Jim Blausser, a land speculator and hustler who comes to Gopher Prairie to boost it, that is, to make it grow, and who delivers demagogic speeches against all knockers of prosperity and the rights of property.

In It Cant Happen Here, Lewis confronts fascism head on. While the novel may not compare favorably with his novels of the 1920s as a work of art, its analyses of fascismas a tool of capitalism, as ruthless toward opponents and as fundamentally irrationaland of specifically American demagoguery make it valuable reading in 2020 America.

Burzelius Buzz Windrip is a senator with dictatorial aspirations, intended by Lewis to echo the populist governor of Louisiana, Huey P. Long. The Senator was vulgar, almost illiterate, a public liar easily detected, and in his ideas almost idiotic.  Like Donald Trump and others, Windrip is a symptom of the objective conditions of his time, a worldwide depression and the rise of fascism in Europe, and in It Cant Happen Here, an obviously ironic title, Lewis considers seriously and with insight just what an American corporatist (Windrips word) authoritarianism might look like and how the American people might respond.

Missing from Lewiss analysis in the novel, as from his social outlook generally, is any grasp of the working class as a potentially revolutionary force. And 1934, the year before the novel was published, had witnessed three historic strikes (in Minneapolis, San Francisco and Toledo) that shook the ruling class to its core.

What little hope It Cant Happen Here offers is concentrated in the liberal middle class, and at that in its most individualistic elements, as in the person of Doremus Jessup, the books newspaperman protagonist.

Lewiss reputation has suffered sharply over the years, to the benefit of more or less contemporary figures, such as Theodore Dreiser, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos and William Faulkner, and to more recent ones. However, despite their shortcomings, It Cant Happen Here and Main Streetalong with Lewiss other novels of the 20sare well worth reading, both as literary art and as contributions to our understanding of American life.
NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP >> In the wake of several pedestrian fatalities, the Newtown Township Board of Supervisors is moving forward with a multi-pronged plan to improve safety along Sycamore Street, the townships downtown commercial corridor. At its Jan. 13 meeting, the board voted unanimously to follow the short term and long term recommendations of its traffic engineer, Derek Kennedy, who was...
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Paris, France  Thu, July 16, 2020 09:45 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666b4b2d 2 Sports Dakar,senegal,Youth-Olympic-Games,Olympics-postponement,coronavirus,coronavirus-effect,COVID-19,pandemic,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus Free

The 2022 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar will now take place instead in 2026, the IOC and hosts Senegal announced on Wednesday.

The four-year delay was forced by the global health crisis generated by coronavirus, and the holding back by a year of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and a slew of other major international sporting competitions.

"The postponement of Dakar 2022 allows the IOC, the National Olympic Committees and the International Federations to better plan their activities, which have been strongly affected by the postponement of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020," read a joint statement issued by Olympic rulers the IOC and Senegal.

"The IOC and Senegal understand that this news will be disappointing for many young athletes. Both parties can only appeal to their understanding," it added.

IOC chief Thomas Bach thanked Senegal president President Macky Sall for their "exceptional relationship of trust and quality".

"I am sure that, together, we will organize fantastic Youth Olympic Games Dakar 2026 for Senegal, the entire African continent and all the young athletes of the world," Bach said.

The four-year delay was ratified by the IOC on the fist day of its conference moved from its intended location in Tokyo to video link.

"I take this opportunity to reaffirm my confidence in the Executive Board and welcome the commitment of its teams, working side by side with us, to make Dakar 2026, the first Olympic event in Africa, a successful and memorable occasion," said President Sall.

Singapore held the inaugural Summer Youth Games in 2010.
Now Mandatory for Aged Care in Lock Down Zones Workers to Wear Surgical Masks

Australias federal health minister Greg Hunt announced on July 13 that it will be mandatory for aged care workers in locked down zones to wear surgical face masks, concerned by the outbreaks of the CCP virus.

Speaking on Nines Today Show on July 15, Hunt said, I think if we are honest, there will be more lives lost, and there will be people admitted to ICU and more on ventilation.

Four million masks were made available for over 60,000 aged care staff. This is in addition to one million masks provided for health workers last week.

According to Hunt, this will immediately assist an estimated 449 residential aged care facilities and 425 home care providers, with a total of 60,427 aged care recipients in these services.

Currently, eight Victorian aged care facilities have residents with COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus. Staff at a further 24 nursing homes have tested positive for the virus.

There are 111 people hospitalised with COVID-19, the highest in a day since April 29, where there were 93 patients. Also, 28 people are in ICU and Hunt said 21 are on ventilation.

Australia Trials New Anti-Viral Drug

Australia has also become one of the first nations in the world to offer treatment with an anti-viral drug known as remdesivir, commonly known as Veklury.

Remdesivir received provisional approval from Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) on July 12, the health minister announced in a media release on July 13.

The drug which has been touted as being able to reduce recovery times for COVID-19 will be used as part of a strategy to enable patients to leave hospital earlier, freeing beds for those in need, said Hunt.

Australia, through TGA, is one of the first regulators in the world to authorise the use of remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19, following on from recent approvals in European Union, Japan, and Singapore, said Hunt.

Trials on remdesivir were held in the United States and China earlier this year but yielded mixed results.

Trials held in Wuhan, China, between February and March 2020 were dismissed because an insufficient number of people were tested to conclude the drugs effectiveness.

Of the two trials held in the United States, one showed that COVID-19 recovery time reduced from 15 days to 11.

It is not a prevention or a cure for those with mild symptoms, but it is an important part of our response to support those who are most impacted. Remdesivir has been shown to assist those who have been hospitalised with COVID symptoms, Hunt said

Victoria has already recorded three more deaths in the past week from COVID-19, taking the states total in 27.

On July 14 and 15 a man and woman, in their 80s, and a woman in her 90s, died from the disease.

Nationally, 111 deaths have been attributed to the CCP virus.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's top court fined on Thursday Romania and Ireland for delays and incomplete application of the bloc's rules against money laundering and terrorist financing, it said in a statement.

Romania was ordered to pay to the European Commission a lump sum of 3 million euros, while Ireland was fined 2 million euros.

"Both member states failed to transpose in full, within the period prescribed, the directive on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing," the court said, referring to anti-money laundering rules adopted by the EU in 2015.

Those rules reinforced surveillance requirements for banks, lawyers and accountants and mandated more transparency on company owners.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio; Editing by Alison Williams)
The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in State agencies continued to surge Wednesday forcing the affected ministries to scale down operations.

The ministries of Treasury and ICT sent notices to their staff announcing the scaling down of operations to minimise further spread of the new coronavirus after dozens of employees tested positive for the virus.

In a memo, from the Principle Administrative Secretary at the National Treasury to all staff seen by the Nation, the staff were informed that 10 employees have tested positive for Covid-19.

The memo also said that 200 people will be tested per day from July 14 to July 16.

"The Ministry of Health will be conducting testing of all staff of the National Treasury," the memo reads.

Meanwhile, all operations and services at the head office of the Ministry of ICT were scaled down following the death of an employee. Several workers at the headquarters were also confirmed to be infected with the virus.

These notices come just two days after the Public Service Commission (PSC) announced scaling down operations to minimise the spread of coronavirus after 10 employees tested positive.

PSC Chief Executive Simon Rotich said targeted testing showed that 10 workers had the virus.

The commission said work would be scaled down for 14 days, effective July 13 and that access to the offices would be restricted.

"In this regard, staff and interns will be required to proceed for self-isolation. During this period, access to commission offices will be restricted except where there is prior clearance," Mr Rotich said in a memo to the workers.
New Delhi: The China Study Group (CSG) headed by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met on Wednesday evening to discuss the emerging situation in Ladakh and how to proceed further with China.

Army chief MM Naravane, Northern army commander Lt Gen Y K Joshi and 14 corps head Lt Gen Harinder Singh, who has been negotiating with his Chinese counterpart on disengagement, are reported to have attended the CSG meeting.

CSG, which is apex policy advisor to the government on China discussed the outcome of the 4th Corps Commanders meeting between India and China, said sources. The CSG meeting took place at a time when there are indications that the second phase of disengagement between India and China is going to be tough and will need more negotiations. Army gave a briefing about the Corps Commanders meeting and overall ground situation at the line of actual control (LAC). Cabinet secretary and secretaries of home, defence and finance and representatives of the intelligence agencies are part of the CSG.

The Corps Commanders meeting between India and China on Tuesday went for 15 hours to finish at around 2 am in the morning (4:30 am Beijing time). Sources said that there were hard negotiations from both sides. However, there is still no official word yet on the meeting. The CSG meeting is likely to give direction on how to take negotiations further with China.

India wants China to completely disengage from Pangong Tso and Depsang plains besides reducing its troops strength from LAC where China has amassed tanks, artillery and radars, jammers.

Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday that the 4th Corps Commanders meeting achieved progress in pushing forward disengagement of frontline border troops from both countries and easing border situation.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh will visit forward areas in LAC and LoC this week to take stock of the situation. Mr Singh, who will be accompanied by Army Chief will visit Ladakh on July 17 and Srinagar on July 18.

A special meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council, under Mr Singh on Wednesday delegated the powers for buying urgent weapons and ammunition upto Rs 300 crores to the armed forces to meet their emergent operational requirements.

This will shrink the procurement timelines and ensure placement of orders within six months and commencement of deliveries within one year, said the defence ministry. It said that the special meeting was called considering the security environment due to the prevailing situation along the Northern borders and the need to strengthen the armed forces for the defence of our borders.

In the last meeting on June 30, 14 Corps Commander Lt Gen Singh and South Xinjiang Military Region, commander Maj Gen Liu Lin had agreed to mutually move back their troops in flash points by upto 2 kilometers in the Ladakh sector to bring down chances of a confrontation. However, further movement of troops away from flash points will not be easy, said sources.

Last week Indian and Chinese troops completed their initial phase of disengagement from flashpoints by mutually moving back from Galwan Valley, Hot Springs, Gogra Post and finger 4 area of Pangong Tso. However, in Pangong Tso Chinese are still occupying ridges in finger 4. Chinese troops still have to vacate area between finger 5 and finger 8, which India claims is its territory. In May 2020, Chinese troops in an aggressive move occupied the area between Finger 4 to Finger 8 and prevented Indian troops from patrolling the area.
Twitter hackers who used high-profile accounts to convince users to give them money walked away with more than $116,000 in bitcoins.

Wednesday's breach - said to be one of the largest hacks in history - worked on several unsuspecting Twitter users and secured the hackers 12.86644654 BTC from 378 transactions, according to public blockchain records.

Of that total, 12.85345191 BTC has already been sent out from the account. That translates to approximately $116,602.

Wednesday's breach - said to be one of the largest hacks in history - worked on several unsuspecting Twitter users and secured the hackers 12.86644654 BTC from 378 transactions

Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk were all among victims of the four-hour attack which saw hackers infiltrate Twitter's systems and post messages to their accounts asking for Bitcoin

Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk were all among victims of the four-hour attack which saw hackers infiltrate Twitter's systems and post messages to their accounts asking for Bitcoin.

The fraudulent tweets all followed a similar formula, and directed potential victims to send bitcoin to the same anonymous wallet.

'I am giving back to my community due to COVID-19!' read the scam tweet posted to Obama's account.

'All Bitcoin sent to my address below will be sent back doubled. If you send $1,000, I will send back $2,000!' the fake message continued.

Users patiently awaited their return before realizing they had been scammed

The message shared on Bezos' account stated he is 'only doing a maximum of $50,000,000.'

Users quickly shared screenshots showing that they had donated, while others poked fun at them for being so gullible.

'People really thought that sending bitcoin to rich people would put on some 2x multiplier,' one user said, calling those who gave money 'confused stonks.'

A couple of people shared hilarious memes and gifs of people counting or swimming in piles of cash, suggesting that the hackers were enjoying their new found riches.

'People really thought that sending bitcoin to rich people would put on some 2x multiplier,' one user said, calling those who fell prey 'confused stonks'

Several users just knew that the hackers were celebrating with their huge cash haul

One bold user tried to get in on the money grab, telling others: 'Instead of sending Bitcoin to them (popular people), send it to me. I won't send you anything back in return. I promise.'

'Who seriously falls for this sh*t? It's illogical,' one user declared.

Another stated: 'Y'all really still falling for the oldest trick in the book in 2020.'

One bold user tried to get in on the money grab, telling others: 'Instead of sending Bitcoin to them (popular people), send it to me. I won't send you anything back in return. I promise'

Another stated: 'Y'all really still falling for the oldest trick in the book in 2020'

One person hilariously compared the social media giant's security to lace masks being sold in Brasil to stylishly 'combat' the coronavirus

Another person used a now infamous meme of Will Smith at the latest Red Table Talk to show a disgruntled Twitter's security team

And while Twitter users expressed disbelief that people fell for the scam, they couldn't help but note that the site's security really didn't do its best job when protecting users and their data.

One person hilariously compared the social media giant's security to lace masks being sold in Brasil to stylishly 'combat' the coronavirus.

Another person used a now infamous meme of Will Smith at the latest Red Table Talk to show how disgruntled Twitter's security team was trying to handle the mess from the hacking.

Twitter's security was commonly compared to weak gates that were barely guarding whatever barrier they were meant to establish.
Anti-Brexit supporters protest outside Downing Street in Westminster urging Prime Minister Boris Johnson to release the report from the intelligence and security committee examining Russian infiltration in British politics on 18 January, 2020 in London, England.

A long-delayed report into Russian influence in British politics will be published in the next week, parliament's intelligence and security committee agreed on Thursday, a day after a dispute over the appointment of its chairman.

The committee, which oversees the work of Britain's intelligence community, has been in focus since the publication of the report into Russian influence was delayed by last year's election, and the appointment of the group was also postponed.

Opposition lawmakers have accused the government of seeking to tighten its control over the committee. But those attempts, which officials deny, seemed to be derailed on Wednesday when Conservative lawmaker Julian Lewis was voted as chairman.

He beat former minister Chris Grayling, who had been tipped as the government's choice, and Lewis was promptly expelled from the Conservative Party, in what some said was another sign that Prime Minister Boris Johnson will not tolerate dissent.

Lewis will keep his parliamentary seat, and the committee chair, as an independent.
Swara Bhaskar, whose latest show Rasbhari received a lot of flak on social media, will take on the role of a policewoman in her next show, Flesh.

The multi-faceted actor had told us that Rasbhari was basically a criticism of the hypocrisy about sexuality that is prevalent in our society, particularly in relation to men. She has three more shows to release on the OTT platform besides Sheer Qorma a short film that is ready for release.

Sheer Qorma, says the actress, is an LGBTQ romance. She plays one of the two protagonists, while Divya Dutta plays the other.

Its a love story of two Muslim women who are also coloured people living in Canada, elaborates Swara, I play a Pakistani Canadian while Divya Dutta is of Indian origin. Its a sweet story which touches upon many issues and also incorporates a lot of culture and emotion.

Talking of her experience working with Shabana Azmi in Sheer Qorma, Swara says she was lucky to have the chance. Her sheer presence is a sort of a magic. Its beautiful to see her. She is so lovely. She plays Divyas mother.

The film was to premiere in London in March or April, but the pandemic derailed the plans. Swara is not sure when the premier will be held.

Asked whether it would be released on an OTT platform, the actress says thats a call for the producer Faraz Arif Ansari to take. As actors we do not have that much of a say. But as far as releasing on OTT goes, I think because it is a short film it has to be made available online so that the maximum number of people can watch it, she says.
Clockwise from top left: Terry Woods of StraightUp Solar, Cynthia Meyers of ReThink Electric, Maricella Garcia of Fresh Coast Solar and Bejeray Morrison of Sunrun. The training programs created by the Future Energy Jobs Act show that renewable energy can create careers for people who have too often been denied opportunity. In order to build on this progress, we need to pass legislation that supports renewable energy growth.

Illinois renewable energy job training programs showed strong progress in 2019, but policy change is needed to prevent the collapse of the states wind and solar industry and ensure more renewable energy jobs will be available in Illinois. The 2019 Workforce Development Implementation Plan Report filed with the Illinois Commerce Commission reported that, in 2019:



93% of job trainees completed the program

94% of eligible individuals found employment

Training participants were 39% African American, 37% White, 22% Hispanic or Latinx

Training programs served 71 people who were returning from incarceration

Training programs served 203 residents of environmental justice communities

Trainees landed in roles in solar installation, sales, inspection and more. Illinois renewable energy industry has grown rapidly in recent years and both large and small businesses have been eager to hire training program graduates. The Illinois Solar Energy Association held job fairs to connect applicants and community organizations with its solar business members; the most recent event was held on March 11 in Midlothian.

But without a change to Illinois energy policy, job growth and opportunities for job trainees will grind to a halt in the coming months. Illinois Power Agency data shows the states renewable energy program, as it stands, wont support new projects beyond 2020 and Illinois will fall far short of its mandated clean energy goals.

A few of the trainees who joined Illinois solar industry in 2019:

Terry Woods completed training and was hired as a solar installer at StraightUp Solar in Bloomington. Reflecting on the impact of the programs, Terry said, I am the change everybody talks about. Im an ingredient to a greater solution.

Cynthia Meyers is a lead solar installer for ReThink Electric, which is based in Wood Dale. Cynthia completed the LYTE solar training program and earned her NABCEP certification in January 2020. Cynthia chose to work in the solar industry because I saw an opportunity to inspire women and inspire people in my community to do something that was changing history.

Maricella Garcia graduated from the Aspira job training program and started as a solar installer for Fresh Coast Solar in October 2019. She previously worked in retail and enrolled in the training program to expand her opportunities. Doing my part to bring these systems online has been more than enough to make me confident, said Maricella. Were building a better way to power our communities.

Bejeray Morrison is the Solar for All Program Manager at Sunrun. Bejeray previously organized waste reduction projects in several communities on Chicagos South Side. After completing solar training with the Chicago Urban League and joining Sunrun, Bejeray noted, solar energy has allowed me to keep fighting for people in my community to live better lives while expanding my own career opportunities.

The training programs created by the Future Energy Jobs Act show that renewable energy can create careers for people who have too often been denied opportunity, said Rep. Will Davis, sponsor of the Path to 100 Act. In order to build on this progress, we need to pass legislation that supports renewable energy growth.

ISEAs member companies have been proud to strengthen their teams by hiring graduates of Illinois job training programs, said Lesley McCain, Executive Director of the Illinois Solar Energy Association. Its important we create long-term stability in Illinois solar market so we can expand on the early successes were seeing today.

This report shows that the solar industry is committed to hiring people from historically marginalized communities and making the states policy goals a reality, said Nakhia Morrissette, Central Region Director for SEIA. But we cant continue creating solar jobs unless the state has a stable solar market. Legislation to fix the states renewable energy program will allow us to continue creating a more diverse clean energy workforce.

Path to 100 is supported by labor and renewable energy organizations working to create jobs in Illinois. For more information, visit http://www.pathto100.net.
Up to 1.1 million barrels of oil could spill into the Red Sea causing a disaster four times worse than the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, the United Nations Security Council heard on Wednesday.

Time is running out to prevent a dilapidated oil tanker stranded near Yemen from causing a "looming environmental, economic and humanitarian catastrophe," United Nations Environment Programme chief, Inger Andersen, warned.

The Yemeni-government owned tanker, FSO Safer, started taking on water in May. If its oil does spill it could cause irreversible damage to the Red Sea's rich biodiversity, including coral reefs and mangroves.

A spill from the decaying oil tanker, SAFER, off the #Yemen coast could directly affect 1.6 million Yemenis - many of whom already depend on humanitarian aid. I briefed the UN Security Council on the situation. The UN remains ready to address the problem: https://t.co/tP94gojQKn pic.twitter.com/zBsGVekV5h  Mark Lowcock (@UNReliefChief) July 15, 2020

"Cleaning it up afterwards is not a viable option," said U.S. Amb. Kelly Craft.

The damage would also have severe economic implications for at least 1.6 million Yemeni people, said Mark Lowcock, the U.N. humanitarian affairs chief. "Essentially every fishing community along Yemens west coast would see their livelihoods collapse."

Nearly all of those communities at risk already require humanitarian aid because of the years-long war in the Arab world's poorest country, he added.

The conflict, which began in 2014, has seen Iran-aligned Houthi Shiite rebels attempt to topple the internationally-recognized government by taking control of the capital Sanaa. A Saudi-led coalition has been supporting the government in fighting the rebels.

Story continues

The tanker was built in 1974 and has been regularly inspected by the U.N. But it is moored in territory controlled by the Houthi militia, which has blocked access.

Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned the militia for blocking the U.N. mission.

"The Houthis must grant access before this ticking time bomb explodes," he said during a briefing.

U.N. agencies have been raising the alarm of the risk posed by the tanker for more than a year, Lowcock said Wednesday.

Concerns were heightened in May when a leak sprung in the engine room, creating a risk of explosion. Lowcock said the leak was relatively small and divers were able to patch it up and contain it. However "it is impossible to say how long it might hold," he added.

Image: FILE PHOTO: Ship carrying a shipment of grain is docked at the Red Sea port of Hodeidah (Abduljabbar Zeyad / Reuters file)

The U.N. has proposed a plan to repair the damage and enable the oil on board to be salvaged and sold, providing income to local workers, according to the Yemeni government.

Yemen's foreign minister, Mohammed Al-Hadhrami, told the Security Council that the government has accepted the U.N. plan, but said the Houthi militia was not cooperating.

Al-Hadhrami also warned that giving the Houthis access to the government-owned tanker "will not solve the problem, and it will enable them yet again to hijack the issue in the future, when the pressure is lifted."

Lowcock said while the Houthis have rejected the U.N. mission, the Houthi militia last week announced it had changed its position.

However, he cautioned that permissions were promised in August 2019 only to be cancelled by the Houthis the night before deployments.

Reuters contributed to this report
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Avet Adonts today held phone talks with Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy Manilo Di Stefano, as reported the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia.

Avet Adonts shared with his Italian counterpart information about the current situation created as a result of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces attacks along the length of the northeastern sector of the Armenia-Azerbaijan state border, as well as the ongoing aggression of Azerbaijan against the civilian population and civil infrastructures. In this context, the deputy foreign minister also condemned the biased and provocative statement issued by the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Manilo De Stefano stated that Italy hasnt changed its viewpoint according to which such issues need to be solved exclusively through negotiations. He emphasized that the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already issued a press release calling on the sides to refrain from further escalation of tension, return to the field of constructive negotiations and solve the issue within the scope of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship, exclusively through peaceful negotiations. The Italian Undersecretary added that Armenia can expect Italys full support in this regard.
Scientists planning to build one of the world's largest telescopes on a Hawaii mountain said Wednesday construction won't begin until at least next year.

TMT International Observatory Vice President Gordon Squires told Hawaii News Now that the coronavirus pandemic presents a complicated and unsafe situation for moving ahead.

"With the pandemic and other factors that have come in, winter seems like a long ways away, but it's not that far away and for us to resume construction activities on site, winter on Mauna Kea just isn't feasible," Squires told the TV station.

He told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that it takes a minimum of three months to gear up for the start of construction during optimal times. But bringing equipment and personnel from the U.S. mainland could now require double the preparation time, he said.

Still, Squires said the consortium behind the $2.4 billion project remains committed to Hawaii.

A group of universities in California and Canada plan to build the Thirty Meter Telescope at the mountain's summit together with partners from China, India and Japan.

Native Hawaiian activists prevented the construction from moving ahead last year by blocking the road to the mountaintop. They say Mauna Kea's summit is sacred and the new observatory will further defile the site, which already hosts several telescopes built in recent decades. Law enforcement arrested several dozen elders participating in the demonstration.

Kealoha Pisciotta, one of the leaders in the telescope fight, said she was saddened by the consortium's new plans.

"While it gives us some respite, it still means we're waiting for a year for the continued desecration of our mountain to occur," told The Associated Press.

She said she's glad TMT won't take action during the pandemic.

In March, protesters who had been camped out on Mauna Kea to block construction dismantled their large tents and left because of concerns about the spread of the coronavirus. A few protesters remained, Pisciotta said.

Still, she said TMT's intention to continue construction later means "the human and civil rights of the Hawaiian people will continue to be violated and more arrests of our elders will continue."

The group behind TMT have selected the Canary Islands in Spain as a backup site for the observatory.

Explore further Hawaii governor visits those blocking telescope construction

 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Oman Cement sees 9% decline in 1H20 profit

16 July 2020

Oman Cement Co has reported an 8.7 per cent decline in net profit after tax to OMR2.1m (US$5.46m) for the first half of 2020, compared to OMR2.3m in the 1H19.

However, the companys total revenue edged up 1.1 per cent to OMR26.4m from OMR26.1m.

Published under
The Dow dropped for this first time in five days on Thursday.

Three experts weigh in on the move.

Drew Matus, chief market strategist at MetLife Investment Management, said the chances of a V-shaped recovery are gone.

"We are seeing some positive movements in the economy. They are not though what people had hoped for. So, the idea of the 'V' is gone. I think people will begin to understand that. You only have to look to China to see that it's just not happening. And that you know what we've lost, we've lost and now it's time to kind of clamor our way out and figure out how is the best way to do it."

Lindsey Piegza, chief economist at Stifel, lays out expectations for growth.

"I do think that we will see a strong rebound in third quarter coming off of those very low levels of the second. We do expect a retreat of around 25% to 30% GDP in the second quarter followed by a 10% to 15% rebound so in the positive realm in the third quarter, but if we aren't able to contain this virus and we do see the second round flare-up continue or if we do see a third round show its head in the wintertimes, we would expect growth to fall back into negative territory by the end of the year."

Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's "Mad Money," said investors have to weather indiscriminate selling.

"Johnson [earnings] better than expected, it doesn't matter. Abbott Labs, complete blow-away, it doesn't matter. Taiwan Semi [Wednesday] night, fantastic, doesn't matter. ... And when you get like that, that just says, 'OK, let the sellers get their job done.' There's some agenda here. They're obviously not caring about news and not reacting to better retail sales, which I thought was terrific or even jobless claims down again."

Disclaimer
New Delhi, July 16 : After the recent crackdown on wanted criminals by Delhi Police in the past few months, the police has now updated its new list of 12 'Most Wanted' criminals who have gone underground after committing heinous offences. Five of the 12 in the list are from northeast Delhi.

The first criminal to figure on the list of is Narender alias Ravi Gangwal wanted under MCOCA at police station Ambedkar Nagar. He runs his own gang and has been a challenge for Delhi Police for his involvement in various heinous crimes in the city. He is a resident of Madangir and carries a reward of 50,000.

The second criminal on the list is Delhi's ex-MLA Rambir Shaukeen, a resident of Nangloi in Delhi. Rambir Shaukeen is the maternal uncle of gangster Neeraj Bawana. In 2015, an AK-47 was allegedly recovered from Shokeen's Bawana property. In 2018, Shaukeen absconded from Delhi's Safradjung hospital in Delhi from the custody of UP police. A reward of 50,000 has been declared on his arrest.

The third criminal in the list is Rashid, alias Cablewala, a resident of Chauhan Banger in Trans Yamuna area of North East Delhi. He is wanted for several cases including murder and Arms Act at police station Welcome. He carries a reward of 50,000 for his arrest.

The fourth is gangster Kapil Gangwan infamous as Nandu. He operates his own gang in Najafgarh and the adjoin areas. He too is wanted in cases of murder and Arms Act amongst other crimes in the capital. Kapil too carried a reward of 50,000 for his arrest.

Jyoti Sangwan, the brother of Kapil Sangwan is the fifth criminal in the most wanted list. He too has almost the same number of heinous cases registered against him in Dwarka North police station including that of murder.

Kasim, another criminal from North East Delhi features on Delhi police most wanted list at number six. A resident of Brahampuri, he is infamous in the area as Raju Bachain. He is wanted in murder, attempt to murder beside several other cases in New Usmanpur police station. He too carries a reward of Rs 50,000.

At number seven, Delhi police has the name of Hashim alias Baba. He is a resident of Mustafabad. Besides murder and attempt to murder many other cases have been registered against him in North East Delhi's Jafrabad police station. Hashim carries a reward of Rs 1 lakh.

Vikas Langpuria, another dreaded criminal is at number eight on the most wanted list of Delhi Police. He is a resident of Jhajjar in Haryana and has several cases registered against him in Najafgarh . He is wanted in MCOCA too. Vikas too has a reward of Rs 1 lakh for his arrest.

At number nine is Vijay Singh, alias Vijay Pehalwan. He is a resident of village Kishan Garh in Delhi and has several cases registered against him including that of murder at Vasnt Kunj North in Delhi. Vijay also carries a reward of Rs 1 lakh.

Abdul Nasir, a notorious criminal from Jafrabad is listed at number 10. He is wanted by crime branch of Delhi Police under MCOCA.

At number 11 is Samir alias Chhotu, a resident of North East Delhi's Jafrabad. He too carries a reward of Rs 1 lakh and is wanted in Seelampur police station for murder and other cases.

At number 12 is Rohit Chowdhary, a resident of Aya Nagar in Delhi. He is wanted in murder case of Saket beside other criminal offenses. He too carries a reward of Rs 1 lakh.

Delhi Police in the past few months has launched an offensive against its most wanted criminals and has been successful in arresting Jitender Maan alias Gogi (29), Delhi's most-wanted gangster, who was carrying a bounty of Rs 6.5 lakh on his head, and was arrested by Delhi Police along with his three accomplices, from Gurugram in March this year.

On July 8, the special cell of Delhi Police was also successful in arresting notorious criminal Sandeep Dhillon from Siliguri in West Bengal. He fled from police custody in February 2018 from a Delhi hospital.
Peacefmonline.com can confirm that the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) has issued an arrest warrant for Samuel Adam Fosters aka Samuel Adam Mahama for prosecution over his role in the Airbus bribery scandal.



Adam Mahama is being charged for accepting bribes to influence a public officer and acting in collaboration with a public officer for the public officers' private gain, in a "Red Notice" issued on July 10th.



For the offence charged with, he is liable to a term of imprisonment not exceeding of 25 years.



Fugitive?



The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) unit of the Ghana Police Service, disclosed this in an interview with Peacefmonline, a few hours ago.



In the "Red Notice" titled "Fugitive, Wanted For Prosecution", Interpol indicated that once Mr Adam Mahama is traced, assurances are given that an extradition will be sought upon arrest of the person, in conformity with national laws and/or the applicable bilateral and multilateral treaties.



Passport Details & Address



Samuel Adam Foster aka Samuel Adam Mahama was born in Tamale on 14 December 1962 to Emmanuel Adamah Mahama and Nana Suluwu.



His current Ghanaian passport was guaranteed by John Mahama, described as former president of Ghana as first guarantor, and Alfred Abdulai Mahama, described as a Civil Servant, as second guarantor.



Alfred, John, and Samuel are brothers of the full blood in descending order of seniority. His UK address is 19 Avenue Road Penge, London, SE20 7RT, UK.



"Bullshit Castle"



Ghana is one of five countries in which the European aviation giant, Airbus, is alleged to have paid millions of dollars in bribes in exchange for contracts, leading to a court in Britain slapping a hefty fine of 3 billion on the company.



In court documents and hearings, Airbus admitted five counts of failing to prevent bribery, using a network of secret agents to pay large-scale backhanders to officials in foreign countries, including Ghana, to land high-value contracts.



The scheme was run by a unit at Airbus French headquarters, which its one-time chief executive, Tom Enders, reportedly called bullshit castle.



According to the report, there are six key actors involved in the scandal regarding Ghana.



Investigators from the UKs SFO identified them only as Government Official 1 (high ranking and elected), Intermediary 5 (British national and a close relative of Government Official 1), Company D (corporate vehicle for Intermediary 5  shareholder), Intermediary 6 (British national and associate of Intermediary 5), Intermediary 7 (British national and associate of Intermediary 5), as well as Intermediary 8 (Spanish company and front for Intermediary 5).



More soon

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BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- China firmly opposes and strongly condemns the move of the U.S. side of signing the so-called "Hong Kong Autonomy Act" into law, said a statement released on the foreign ministry's website Wednesday.

In disregard of China's serious representations, the United States recently signed into law the so-called "Hong Kong Autonomy Act" passed by its Congress, according to the statement.

The Act maliciously denigrates the national security legislation for Hong Kong, and threatens to impose sanctions on China. It seriously violates international law and the basic norms underpinning international relations. It constitutes gross interference in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs.

"The Chinese government firmly opposes and strongly condemns this move by the United States," said the statement.

The enactment and enforcement of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) is fully consistent with the relevant provisions of the Chinese Constitution and the Basic Law of the Hong Kong SAR.

It provides the institutional and legal safeguards for the sound and sustained implementation of "one country, two systems," and serves to uphold sovereignty, security and development interests of the country as well as the long-term stability and prosperity of Hong Kong. The Law is unanimously supported and endorsed by all the Chinese people including the people in Hong Kong, the statement said.

Noting Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China, the statement said Hong Kong affairs are purely China's internal affairs. No foreign country has the right to interfere. China is firmly resolved to uphold its sovereignty and security, safeguard the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong, and oppose external meddling in Hong Kong affairs. The U.S. attempt to obstruct the implementation of the national security law in Hong Kong will never succeed.

In order to safeguard its legitimate interests, China will make necessary response and sanction the relevant individuals and entities of the United States, said the statement.

"We urge the U.S. side to correct its mistakes, not to enforce the so-called 'Hong Kong Autonomy Act,' and stop interfering in Hong Kong and other internal affairs of China in any way," it said, adding that if the U.S. side insists on going in the wrong direction, China will respond resolutely.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang on Wednesday summoned U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad to lodge stern representations over the so-called "Hong Kong Autonomy Act" and related executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Zheng noted the Act and executive order maliciously denigrate the national security legislation for Hong Kong, remove relevant special treatment for Hong Kong, and threaten to impose sanctions on Chinese entities and individuals. "This is a gross interference in China's internal affairs and a grave violation of international law and basic norms governing international relations. China firmly opposes and strongly condemns this."

"To safeguard its legitimate interests, China will make necessary response to the wrong actions of the United States, including imposing sanctions on relevant U.S. entities and individuals," Zheng said.

Noting Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China, Zheng said China's National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, in accordance with the Chinese Constitution, the Hong Kong Basic Law and relevant decisions of the NPC, enacts the national security legislation for Hong Kong, which is entirely China's internal affair, and no foreign country has the right to make irresponsible remarks or interfere in the matter.

China urges the U.S. side to correct its mistakes, refrain from implementing the so-called "Hong Kong Autonomy Act" and executive order, and stop interfering in China's internal affairs in any way, Zheng said.

"I would like to sternly warn the U.S. side that China will resolutely counterattack any bullying and injustice imposed on China by the United States, and its attempt to block China's development is doomed to failure. We urge the U.S. side to stop its slanders and provocations against China and not to go further down the wrong path," Zheng said.
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.
An author claims to have located the London home where creator Ian Fleming placed James Bond - a 5.2million terrace in one of Chelsea's most desirable streets.

William Boyd, who wrote the Bond continuation novel Solo, believes the author imagined his character lived in a Grade-II listed property on the stunning Wellington Square.

He pinpointed the location of fictional spy Bond's home while researching for his novel, which was published in 2013, he said in The Times Literary Supplement.

Mr Boyd re-read all Fleming's stories and found vital clues about its sought-after location and interior in Moonraker, Thunderball and From Russia with Love.

William Boyd, who wrote the Bond continuation novel Solo, believes creator Ian Fleming imagined James Bond lived on the stunning Wellington Square, Chelsea (pictured)

Mr Boyd claims he pinpointed the location of Bond's home while researching for Solo, which was published in 2013. Pictured: Sean Connery as Bond in From Russia With Love

Bond's creator refers to his home as a 'comfortable flat in a Plane-tree'd square off the King's Road' in Moonraker, Mr Boyd says, before he 'let slip a crucial co-ordinate' in Thunderball.

In the 1961 novel, the ninth in the series, Fleming describes Bond driving out of the square into King's Road and then 'fast up Sloane Street and into the [Hyde] Park.'

This led Mr Boyd to conclude Wellington Square was where Fleming imagined 007's home, an opinion shared by John Pearson in a biography of Bond written in 1973. Here, the exact house number was identified as 30.

However, Mr Boyd believes it is more likely to have been No 25. The home had belonged to The Sunday Times literary critic Desmond MacCarthy when Fleming worked at the newspaper as foreign manager.

Bond's creator refers to his home as a 'comfortable flat in a Plane-tree'd square off the King's Road' within Moonraker

Pictured: One of three sitting rooms inside the home believed to be the setting of Bond's home

The terrace has five bedrooms, two bathrooms and three reception rooms, one of which was described as a 'long, big-windowed sitting room' in From Russia with Love

The terrace has five bedrooms, two bathrooms and three reception rooms, one of which was described as a 'long, big-windowed sitting room' in From Russia with Love.

MacCarthy and his wife Molly were 'legendary entertainers,' says Mr Boyd, and it is 'highly probable that Fleming went to one or more of the MacCarthys' parties.'

'The circumstantial evidence is compelling,' Mr Boyd added.

The home in Wellington Square was owned by the MacCarthy family until May last year, when it was sold to Frank Cordes and architect Iride Rosa.

Clues led Mr Boyd (pictured) to conclude Wellington Square was where Fleming imagined 007's home

The home has five bedrooms set across four floors in the stunning, Grade-II listed property

Bond's home is nestled on a road where houses sell for as much as 10 million, with an idyllic shared garden featuring a fountain standing at the centre

The couple told the Times they were interested in the house because of Mr MacCarthy's connection with the Bloomsbury Group.

'I am a huge James Bond fan,' said Mr Cordes, of Boston Consulting Group. 'I thought this might be my ticket to an Aston Martin but it is the mortgage that will probably stand between me and that car.'

The impressive property happens to be close to where British author John le Carre placed fictional spy George Smiley on Bywater Street.

Bond's home is nestled on a road where houses sell for as much as 10 million, with an idyllic shared garden featuring a fountain standing at the centre.
- Several well-known personalities from ABS-CBN were recently seen in 24 Oras of GMA-7

- The said show decided to air the statements of Vice Ganda and two network executives regarding the franchise denial

- It was Mel Tiangco, a former employee of the Kapamilya network, who reported about it

- The said incident just proved that network rivalry is set aside in these trying times

PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed

Vice Ganda and the respected bosses of ABS-CBN appeared on 24 Oras of GMA-7 in what was described as a rare moment on national television.

KAMI learned that the said show in the Kapuso network decided to air the statements of those in the rival network with regards to the franchise renewal issue.

Vice Ganda (Photo from Flickr)

Source: UGC

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In the hope of upholding balance and fairness, the videotaped messages of Carlo Katigbak and Mark Lopez were shown as part of a report.

It was Mel Tiangco, a former news anchor in ABS-CBN, who reported about how deeply hurt the two executives were due to the decision of the Congress.

In a separate report by Mariz Umali, an emotional Vice delivered a statement about the decision to reject his network another 25-year franchise.

Hindi ko po alam ang sasabihin ko sa inyo, hindi ko po talaga alam. Para akong nanginginig na hindi ko alam, he told GMA-7 News and other reporters.

"Basta ang alam ko lang, malungkot na malungkot ako ngayon. Mahalaga ito sa akin dahil buhay natin ito, he added.

PAY ATTENTION: Shop with KAMI! The best offers and discounts on the market, product reviews and feedback

Here are the videos of the said reports:

ABS-CBN is one of the leading broadcasting firms in the Philippines. It is currently facing a heavy issue with regards to its franchise to operate.

Recently, a former broadcaster in the said network bravely took a swipe at Carlo Katigbaks statement that he is concerned about all of his employees.

Several Kapuso celebrities also aired their honest and unsolicited reactions after learning about the closure order against the Kapamilya network.

Please like and share our Facebook posts to support KAMI team! Dont hesitate to comment and share your opinion about our stories either. We love reading about your thoughts!

Source: KAMI.com.gh
16 July 2020

The European Patent Office (EPO) and the Japan Patent Office (JPO) express their deepest sympathy for the loss of life resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, and declare their solidarity with all those suffering personal and economic hardships.

Global solidarity and co-operation are needed more than ever before to defeat the virus and ensure a swift recovery from the economic and social effects of the pandemic. Innovation will play a central role in these efforts, supported by effective intellectual property protection.

The EPO and the JPO have responded to the crisis by adapting our services and procedures in support of inventors. Both of our Offices have offered assistance to patent applicants by providing flexibility with regard to procedural deadlines, along with a wide range of other measures to ensure business continuity[1].

We stand by inventors and researchers, and will continue to support their efforts in developing technological solutions to this global challenge by offering access to patent information on technologies, through our free public patent databases so that they can build on previous advances. We will provide solid IP rights that enable scientists, inventors, and researchers to innovate further, helping them to attract investment, bring their technologies to market, and create jobs.

The EPO has launched a tool to provide insight on patent landscapes related to coronavirus, which supports scientists and researchers with ready-made search strategies. The JPO also offers a tool in the form of an open licensing database, where businesses can connect, and find information on available technologies.

Over the years we have established various joint initiatives to support inventors worldwide, such as fast-tracking examination of patent applications through the Patent Prosecution Highway programme, and promoting the alignment of our examination practices and procedures, for example in the area of computer-implemented inventions.

We reaffirm our commitment to addressing the challenges together and building further on the longstanding and productive co-operation between the EPO and the JPO. Companies and inventors from Japan and Europe have always figured prominently among the applicants at both Offices: last year Japanese and European firms filed more than 20 000 patent applications with the EPO and the JPO respectively.

Due to the global nature of innovation today, with scientists, companies and researchers co-operating across borders, we are determined to seek global solutions for the benefit of the international IP community, and to advance bilateral co-operation initiatives. We will intensify our joint work towards an efficient and harmonised international patent system, in particular within the framework of the Trilateral co-operation together with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and the IP5[2], which also includes the China National Intellectual Property Administration and the Korean Intellectual Property Office.

Together the EPO and the JPO will contribute to the economic and social recovery from the pandemic by collaborating on intellectual property issues in support of innovators worldwide to promote an efficient, cost-effective and user-friendly international patent landscape.

Antonio Campinos

EPO President





MATSUNAGA Akira

JPO Commissioner

1 To find out more about measures implemented by the EPO and the JPO in response to the coronavirus pandemic, please visit our websites, www.epo.org/news-issues/covid-19.html and www.jpo.go.jp/e/news/koho/saigai/covid19_procedures.html.

2 To read more about the Offices' initiatives for effective multilateral co-operation on global IP issues, visit the IP5 website: www.fiveipoffices.org
DAVID Walsh Engineering, the company responsible for carrying out the Tullamore Street Enhancement Project, will finalise all of its work this week.

This includes repairing any damage done to shops and businesses during the course of the works.

Some shops sustained cracked plinths, and timber while others had cement splashes.

A spokesperson for David Walsh Engineering said the company hopes to be finished by Friday of this week [July 17].

Work began on the Tullamore Street Enhancement project in January 2019. The project attracted controversy from the start with many of retailers and councillors unhappy with plans to pedestrianise O'Connor Square as they felt this would have an adverse effect on businesses in the town.

Councillors spent months debating the number of parking spaces that should be left in O'Connor Square. They finally agreed on 34 parking spaces, a reduction of 18.

More delays came when Irish Water undertook works on William Street. Then in the middle of March the coronavirus hit which further halted work.

The streets is now finished with nothing left but snagging and cleaning. Last Friday morning July 10 the ESB were out in force under-grounding all the overhead cables.

At last week's Tullamore Municipal District meeting councillors expressed their satisfaction with the works and said most people were now happy with the new look roads and paths.
DUBLIN, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Automotive Turbocharger Market by Vehicle (Passenger Car, LCV and HCV), by Engine (Gasoline and Diesel), by Technology (VGT/VNT, Wastegate and Electric Turbocharger), by Operation, by Region, by Company, Competition, Forecast & Opportunities, 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Automotive Turbocharger Market is anticipated to reach USD 26 Billion by 2025, growing at an impressive rate during the forecast period on account of rising production of commercial vehicles and strict government regulations on the emission and fuel efficiency of the automobiles. Moreover, the increasing demand for vehicle high power outputs and low exercise duty on smaller engines are driving the growth of the automotive turbocharger market. Based on the technology, the demand for VGT technology is anticipated to grow in the forecast period as it can overcome the limitation of the fixed geometry turbocharger (FGT).



Based on the vehicle, the market has been segmented into passenger cars, light commercial vehicle and heavy commercial vehicle. The passenger car segment is forecast to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period owing to the rising concerns over fuel economy and strict government regulations.



In terms of regional analysis, Asia Pacific is anticipated to dominate the market during the forecast period due to the increase in disposable income and the rising demand for automobiles in the region.



Some of the major players operating in the Global Automotive Turbocharger Market are Borgwarner, Turbo International, Calsonic Kansie, Turbonetics, Bosch Mahle, MHI, TEL,Delphi Technologies, Cummins, Continental. Major companies are developing advanced technologies and launching new products in order to stay competitive in the market. Other competitive strategies include mergers & acquisitions and new product developments.

Objective of the Study:

To analyze and forecast the market size of the Global Automotive Turbocharger Market, in terms of value and volume.

To classify and forecast the Global Automotive Turbocharger Market based on vehicle, engine, technology, operation, and regional distribution.

To identify drivers and challenges for the Global Automotive Turbocharger Market.

To examine competitive developments such as expansions, new product launches, mergers & acquisitions, etc., in the Global Automotive Turbocharger Market.

To conduct the pricing analysis for the Global Automotive Turbocharger Market.

To identify and analyze the profile of leading players operating in the Global Automotive Turbocharger Market.

The author performed both primary as well as exhaustive secondary research for this study. Initially, the author sourced a list of manufacturers across the globe. Subsequently, the author conducted primary research surveys with the identified companies. While interviewing, the respondents were also enquired about their competitors. Through this technique, the author could include the manufacturers which could not be identified due to the limitations of secondary research. The author analyzed the service offerings, distribution channels and the presence of all major manufacturers across the globe.



The author calculated the market size of the Global Automotive Turbocharger Market by using a bottom-up approach, where the data for various end-user segments was recorded and forecast for the future years. Researchers 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. Impact of COVID-19 on Global Automotive Turbocharger Market



4. Executive Summary



5. Voice of Customer

5.1. Product Pricing

5.2. Factors Influencing Purchase Decision

5.3. Product Awareness



6. Global Automotive Turbocharger Market Overview



7. Global Automotive Turbocharger Market Outlook

7.1. Market Size & Forecast

7.1.1. By Value & Volume

7.2. Market Share & Forecast

7.2.1. By Vehicle (Passenger Car, Light Commercial Vehicle, Heavy Commercial Vehicle)

7.2.2. By Engine (Gasoline and Diesel)

7.2.3. By Technology (VGT/VNT, Wastegate and Electric Turbocharger)

7.2.4. By Operation (Conventional Turbocharger and e-turbocharger)

7.2.5. By Company

7.2.6. By Region

7.3. Market Attractiveness Index



8. Asia-Pacific Global Automotive Turbocharger Market Outlook

8.1. Market Size & Forecast

8.2. Market Share & Forecast

8.3. Asia-Pacific: Country Analysis



9. Europe Global Automotive Turbocharger Market Outlook

9.1. Market Size & Forecast

9.2. Market Share & Forecast

9.3. Europe: Country Analysis



10. North America Global Automotive Turbocharger Market Outlook

10.1. Market Size & Forecast

10.2. Market Share & Forecast

10.3. North America: Country Analysis



11. South America Global Automotive Turbocharger Market Outlook

11.1. Market Size & Forecast

11.2. Market Share & Forecast

11.3. South America: Country Analysis



12. Middle East and Africa Global Automotive Turbocharger Market Outlook

12.1. Market Size & Forecast

12.2. Market Share & Forecast

12.3. MEA: Country Analysis



13. Market Dynamics

13.1. Drivers

13.2. Challenges

13.3. Opportunities



14. Market Trends & Developments



15. Competitive Landscape

15.1. BorgWarner Inc.

15.2. Continental AG

15.3. Cummins Inc.

15.4. Delphi Technologies

15.5. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd

15.6. Garrett Motion Inc.

15.7. IHI Turbo America

15.8. Magnum Performance Turbos



16. Strategic Recommendations



17. About the Author & Disclaimer



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/feoug5

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

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For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



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Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

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The dismembered body parts of a tech executive was discovered in his posh apartment. The 33-year-old victim, Fahim Saleh, was murdered and chopped up with an electric saw. His dismembered body parts were scattered all over his apartment.

Saleh's quartered corpse was discovered last Tuesday at the Lower East Side of Manhattan in his luxury condo unit. Inside, law enforcement authorities found an electric saw that was used to sever the victim like a slab of meat in the market.

According to the New York Police Department, the victim's relatives positively identify the corpse as Saleh, as cited in Oxygen.

Dismembered body parts were stuffed in bags

New York Post reported that the sawed-off body parts were placed into plastic bags close to an electric saw. Both his arms and legs below the knee were severed by the unknown killer. His head was found inside the apartment too.

On Tuesday, the sister of the victim came to visit at 3:30 pm when he was not answering her calls. She decided to check on him to make sure he was alright. But when she arrived at the scene, she was horrified to find his dismembered body parts.

The New York Times was informed via a police source that the murderer wanted to disposed of the body quietly. When Saleh's sister went to his unit, the saw was allegedly still connected to the socket.

Meanwhile, the CCTV footage in the condo captured the victim accompanied by an oddly dressed person wearing a black suit and mask just hours before the murder.

Also read: Suspect Who Dumped Bodies of Two Sisters With Bags on Their Head Arrested

One source said the suspect was like a ninja and might be a 'professional hitman.' The cleaner was adept at killing Saleh and cutting up the victim for compact disposal, plus getting rid of signs that a murder was committed.

The unknown assailant followed the victim as he entered the apartment. Later on, both were seen fighting as Saleh's suspicions grew. It was the last time Saleh was seen alive.

Later, the cams captured his sister visiting him after the struggle with the murderer. Speculation exists that the killer was able to get away via a secret staircase.

NYPD says that the gruesome dismemberment slay is a homicide, but the official cause of death is yet to be determined. The police have released a statement that they have no suspects yet and are still investigating the murder.

His death was verified on Wednesday by Gokada, which is the motorcycle ride-sharing company he started in Nigeria during 2018. Saleh is a self-taught innovator who created apps including the startup KickBack app, as stated on his LinkedIn profile.

Another app he made was Prank Dial that is used to make prank calls. When the pandemic struck, there was a shift in how to run the company from ride sharing to deliveries in NYC.

The mutilation of Saleh sent shockwaves to the community. Jason Rivera, a resident, told the press that he couldn't fathom how anyone can hack off a head and body parts so grossly.

Related article: Woman Shot Dead, Man Injured Due to Altercation Over Dog Poop

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Some private elective surgery patients are being urged to delay procedures for up to a year and aspiring parents may have to push back plans to conceive with IVF as the state government hits pause on non-urgent procedures in a bid to free up hospital capacity for coronavirus patients.

As the state reported a record daily increase of 317 new infections on Thursday, Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos announced all category three elective surgeries would be paused across Melbourne's public hospitals.

Public hospitals will drop their elective surgery capacity to 50 per cent of normal operations to free up space, while private hospitals will pull back to 75 per cent. Credit:Nic Walker

There are now at least 2128 active COVID-19 cases in Victoria, with the number of people in hospital rising by four to 109 over the last 24 hours. Twenty-nine people remain in intensive care.

Professor Paul Myles, director of The Alfred hospital's anaesthesiology and perioperative medicine department, who is leading a taskforce screening Australian surgery patients for coronavirus, said growing global evidence suggested those infected with COVID-19 were at heightened risk of dying post-operatively.
VICTORIAMore work is getting underway in British Columbia to restore caribou habitat that the province says has been degraded by forestry, mining, oil and gas exploration, and other human activities.

Seven projects approved by the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation will receive nearly $1.1 million in grants.

The provincial government says in a news release that habitat restoration includes planting trees to cover up old roads and seismic lines that were cleared for oil and gas exploration, which give predators clear lines of sight and access to caribou.

The province has allocated $8.5 million over three years to the conservation foundation and 11 projects received grants worth about $1.2 million last year.

The foundation will be accepting applications again between September and early November.

The B.C. government has committed $47 million over three years to build what it calls a comprehensive, science-based approach to preserve 54 caribou herds in the province.

Earlier this week, a study published in the journal Biodiversity and Conservation found flaws in a 2019 report that the province relied on while expanding its wolf culling program. The study by researchers from Raincoast Conservation Foundation and the universities of Alberta, British Columbia and Victoria found killing wolves has had no detectable effect on reversing the decline of endangered caribou populations.

More than 460 wolves were culled last winter.

Read more about:
Flower One's June sales grew 144% over May and 78% over April with the re-opening of Las Vegas on June 4th

TORONTO, July 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Flower One Holdings Inc. (the "Company") (CSE: FONE) (OTCQX: FLOOF), a leading cannabis cultivator, producer and innovator in Nevada, today reported its financial and operating results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2020. The Company also provided a corporate update including preliminary financial and operational highlights subsequent to quarter end. All amounts are expressed in U.S. dollars unless indicated otherwise.

First Quarter Highlights

Delivered revenue of $8.8 million , representing sequential quarterly growth of 52%;

, representing sequential quarterly growth of 52%; Achieved record monthly sales in March of $3.9 million ;

; Maintained industry-leading cultivation performance levels with an average harvested cash cost of $0.49 per gram; and,

per gram; and, Received Nevada state approval to launch three vape brands, including The Clear, Old Pal, and Heavy Hitters.

"Revenues of $8.8 million in Q1 2020 were just shy of our total revenues for the full year 2019, and March revenues set a record for our company," said Ken Villazor, President and Chief Executive Officer of Flower One. "Coinciding with our strong revenue growth, we continued to cultivate flower at industry-leading levels with a cash cost per gram of $0.49 for the first quarter, with substantial improvements in overall quality. If the events of 2020 to-date have demonstrated anything, they show that the depth and overall cannabis competencies of the Flower One team are amongst the best in the industry. Our ability to optimize our operations to continue to support all our leading brands and retail partners without interruption shows just how flexible and efficient we are as a company. With the recent launches of Cookies and 22Red, we could not be more excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for Flower One."

Highlights Subsequent to Quarter-End

A. Market and Revenue Highlights

In June, signed Lift Tickets Laboratories, premium California brand and pre-roll innovator, as 16 th brand partner. Lift Tickets is expected to launch in Q3 2020;

brand partner. Lift Tickets is expected to launch in Q3 2020; In July, successfully launched premium brands Cookies and 22Red into the Nevada market. Launch inventory for both brands, including Cookies' entire line of products  the namesake Cookies brand, along with Lemonnade, Powerzzzup, Grandiflora, Runtz and Minntz  and 22Red's full selection of dry flower, pre-roll, vape cartridges and CBD selections, have essentially been pre-sold;

market. Launch inventory for both brands, including Cookies' entire line of products  the namesake Cookies brand, along with Lemonnade, Powerzzzup, Grandiflora, Runtz and Minntz  and 22Red's full selection of dry flower, pre-roll, vape cartridges and CBD selections, have essentially been pre-sold; As of the date of this news release, the Company continued to achieve sales growth from recently launched vaping products, such as Old Pal, and is looking forward to broadening its vape product SKUs with the launch of Heavy Hitters in Q4 2020;

Successfully closed two non-brokered private placements on May 4, 2020 , and June 29, 2020 , totaling $13.9 million ;

, and , totaling ; Eliminated CDN$26.6 million of corporate debt by way of partial conversions of November 2019 and March 2019 convertible debenture issues; and

of corporate debt by way of partial conversions of and convertible debenture issues; and As of the date of this news release, the Company's pace of sales continued to improve. Following a 78-day closure of casinos in Las Vegas , and with the reopening of the Strip on June 4, 2020 , Flower One's June sales grew 144% over May and 78% over April.

B. Operational Highlights

The Company's production facility is now delivering more than 100 SKUs to the market, remaining an industry-leader in producing the widest and deepest range of high-market finished product derivatives;

In Q2 2020, the Company successfully validated its optimized Fresh Frozen harvest process allowing Flower One to expand its product offerings while also continuing to provide best-in-class concentrates to the market;

Through continued improvements in efficiencies in the Company's upstream extraction processes, Flower One's first-pass distillate are now achieving an average of 92% THC across all lots; and,

The Company previously announced that effective today Geoff Miachika will be stepping down as Chief Financial Officer. David Kane has been appointed Interim CFO, effective July 16, 2020 . Mr. Miachika will continue to work with Flower One in an advisory capacity to ensure a smooth transition. Mr. Kane, a certified public accountant, joins Flower One with more than three decades of capital markets, accounting and operations experience. Most recently, Mr. Kane was CFO at Xtreme Cubes Corporation, a manufacturer of high-end modular structures, and at Tryke Companies, a vertically integrated cannabis cultivator, manufacturer and retailer in Nevada .

First Quarter 2020 Financial Results

Revenues

Revenue for Q1 2020 was $8.8 million, an increase of 52% on a sequential quarterly basis. The increase is primarily from the benefit of a full three months of flower sales out of the Company's greenhouse, which did not commence until August 2019, and cannabis-derived products out of the greenhouse, which did not commence until September 2019.

Expenses

Cost of sales was $6.3 million for the quarter. The increase in cost of sales over the prior quarter is in line with the higher sales volumes in Q4 2019 combined with increased costs on a per gram basis of inventory sold during the period. The cost per gram is in line with Q3 2019, but represents an increase in per gram cost from Q4 2019. The increase in per gram cost is a result of lower production in Q1 2020 versus Q4 2019 of flower and extracted products out of the lab, resulting in an increased costs basis for those products sold. As sales of branded products expand, driving higher production for flower and extraction products, the Company expects to realize higher margins going forward.

General and administrative expenses for the quarter totaled $6.2 million, a decrease of $0.6 million over Q4 2019. The Company continues to identify ways to manage expenses and reduce overhead costs.

Profitability Measures

Net loss for the quarter was $6.4 million, driven mainly by a one-time non-cash write-down of inventory totaling $10.6 million. The Company's sales declined in Q2 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, certain flower grown by the Company was set to expire beginning in late Q2 2020 through the end of Q4 2020. As such, management determined that a portion of inventory carried on the books will be sold as distillate or related products, instead of flower. This strategic decision to take a one-time non-cash write-down in Q1 2020 allows Flower One to extend the shelf life of this inventory and positions the Company strongly for the opportunities presented by its newest brand partners and strains.

This write-down, along with general and administrative expenses of $6.2 million and finance expenses of $6.7 million, were partially offset by $7.5 million in fair value gains on biological assets, $7.5 million in gains on fair value of derivatives and $3.1 million in foreign exchange gains as a result of the convertible debentures.

Gross margin amounted to $2.5 million, or 28% of revenue, for Q1 2020, compared to $2.6 million, or 44% of revenue, in Q4 2019. The lower gross margin as a percentage of revenue in Q1 2020 was attributable to the increased cost basis on flower and extracted products due to decreased production in Q1 2020. The recent brand launches combined with increased production are expected to drive an improvement in gross margins.

Flower One's Q1 2020 financial statements and management's discussion and analysis will be issued and filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com on July 15, 2020 and available on the same day on Flower One's website at www.flowerone.com/investors/financial-reports.

Second Quarter 2020 Guidance

As previously announced on June 8, 2020, Flower One continues to expect revenue of approximately $3.8 million for Q2 2020, ahead of the original company guidance of $3.25 million to $3.75 million for the quarter.

Guidance expectations for Q2 2020 are based on the following:

COVID-19-related decisions by the State of Nevada resulted in a notable constriction of its cannabis market during the months of April and May. As a result, the Company's sales declined to approximately $1.9 million during the first two months of Q2 2020;

resulted in a notable constriction of its cannabis market during the months of April and May. As a result, the Company's sales declined to approximately during the first two months of Q2 2020; The re-opening of dispensaries in early May to in-person sales, combined with the re-opening of casinos and the Las Vegas Strip in early June, appears to be having a positive impact on inventory levels at cannabis retailers. The Company has seen a notable increase in its weekly orders through its retail accounts since early June. As previously noted, sales in June following the reopening of the casinos grew 144% over May, to $1.9 million ; and,

; and, During Q2 2020, the Company added 11 new bulk and retail accounts to continue to broaden its overall customer base and maintain its retail penetration of over 90%.

Flower One also anticipates that entering Q3 2020, the Company will continue to reduce its variable operating costs as a result of continued operational efficiencies and a right-sized crop management plan through the upcoming quarter.

Notice of Conference Call

Management of Flower One will host a conference call at 8:30 a.m. ET on July 16, 2020 to review Q1 2020 financial results. To join the conference call, please dial 647-427-7450 or 1-888-231-8191. A live audio webcast of the call will be available at http://bit.ly/FONE-Q1-2020. Please connect at least 15 minutes prior to the conference call to ensure adequate time for any software download that may be required to join the webcast.

For those unable to join the live call, a replay will be available until July 30, 2020. To access the archived conference call, please dial 1-855-859-2056 and enter the conference code 2884538. An archived replay of the webcast will be available online for 90 days.

About Flower One Holdings Inc.

Flower One is the largest cannabis cultivator, producer, and full-service brand fulfillment partner in the state of Nevada. By combining more than 20 years of greenhouse operational excellence with best-in-class cannabis operators, Flower One offers consistent, reliable, and scalable fulfillment to a growing number of industry-leading cannabis brands. Flower One's flagship 400,000 square-foot greenhouse and 55,000 square-foot production facility is used for large scale cannabis cultivation, processing, and manufacturing. Flower One also owns and operates a second production facility in Las Vegas, with 25,000 square-feet of indoor cultivation and a commercial kitchen that will produce several of the nation's top-performing edible and beverage brands. Flower One produces a wide range of products ranging from wholesale flower, full-spectrum oils, and distillates to finished consumer packaged goods including flower, pre-rolls, concentrates, edibles, beverages, and topicals for the top-performing brands in cannabis.

The Company's common shares are traded on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the Company's symbol "FONE", in the United States on the OTCQX Best Market under the symbol "FLOOF" and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol "F11". For more information, visit: https://flowerone.com.

Forward Looking Statements

Statements in this press release that are not statements of historical or current fact constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities laws and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of United States securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other unknown factors that could cause the actual results of the Company to be materially different from historical results or from any future actual results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In addition to statements which explicitly describe such risks and uncertainties, readers are urged to consider statements labeled with the terms "believes," "belief," "expects," "intends," "anticipates," "potential," "should," "may," "will," "plans," "continue" or other similar expressions to be uncertain and forward-looking.

Forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, statements relating to the Company's Q2 2020 revenues and gross margins; future opportunities; potential growth including sales growth; future operating costs and optimization; potential new brand partners; the timing of the launch of Lift Tickets and Heavy Hitters in Nevada; tourism levels in Nevada; business continuity as a result of COVID-19; the Company's leadership as a cannabis cultivator, producer, innovator and full-service brand fulfillment partner; the Company's ability to offer consistent, reliable and scalable fulfilment to a growing number of industry-leading brand partners; and the production of a wide range of products for the nation's top-performing brands.

The Company is indirectly involved in the manufacture, possession, use, sale and distribution of cannabis in the recreational and medicinal cannabis marketplaces in the United States through its subsidiary Cana Nevada Corp. Local state laws where Cana Nevada Corp. operates permit such activities; however, these activities are currently illegal under United States federal law. Additional information regarding this and other risks and uncertainties relating to the Company's business, including COVID-19, are contained under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Information Form dated June 23, 2020 (the "Annual Information Form") filed on its issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement, the "Cautionary Statement regarding Forward-Looking Information" section contained in the Annual Information Form. All forward-looking statements in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. The forward-looking statements contained herein are also subject generally to assumptions and risks and uncertainties that are described from time to time in the Company's public securities filings with the Canadian securities commissions, including the Company's Annual Information Form.

Although Flower One has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, there can be other factors that cause results, performance or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended, including, but not limited to: dependence on obtaining regulatory approvals; risks associated with COVID-19 and other infectious diseases presenting as major health issues; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; expectations regarding the size of the Nevada cannabis market and changing consumer habits; investing in target companies or projects that are engaged in activities currently considered illegal under United States federal law; changes in laws; limited operating history; reliance on management; requirements for additional financing; competition; hindering market growth and state adoption due to inconsistent public opinion and perception of the medical-use and adult-use marijuana industry and; regulatory or political change.

Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this news release are made as of the date of this release. Flower One Holdings disclaims and does not undertake any intention or obligation to update or revise any such forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR THEIR REGULATIONS SERVICES PROVIDER HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

SOURCE Flower One Holdings Inc.
If you plan to fly during the pandemic, youre better off choosing an airline with a policy of keeping the middle seat empty. Such a policy lowers the risk of contracting COVID from 1 in 4,400 to 1 in 7,300, according to a new academic study.

That estimate comes from Arnold Barnett, a statistics professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management. His findingswhich suggest a no middle seats flight reduces risk by 79%also note that the risk of dying from catching COVID on a flight are less than 1 in half a million.

Barnetts conclusion on the risk of middle seats comes as U.S. airlines pursue different approaches. For instance, Delta, JetBlue and Southwest have chosen to keep middle seats empty, while United and Spirit are filling them. American is also doing so as it runs many flights that are over-capacity.

The new research should be taken with a grain of salt, however, as Barnett himself acknowledges. In his paper, he emphasizes that his findings are rough conjecture in light of the difficulties in calculating such a risk.

Barnetts calculations are based on numerous assumptions, including that all passengers are wearing masksa step he says reduces risks of catching COVID by 82%. He also assumes that someone is more likely to catch COVID from those in the same aisle rather than from those in rows behind or in front of them

The findings also disregard the risk of catching COVID from trips to the restroom, or from boarding or getting off the plane. But the latter situation may pose a significant risk according to the Wall Street Journal, which notes the close proximity of passengers waiting to board or scrambling to store luggage.

The Journal, which cited the Barnett study, suggested that flying is not especially dangerous overall, in part because planes frequently replace the air in the cabin.

For his part, Barnett concludes by noting that middle seat policy will also be informed by economic considerations facing the airlines.

Story continues

The calculations here, however rudimentary, do suggest a measurable reduction in Covid-19 risk when middle seats on aircraft are deliberately kept open, he writes. The question is whether relinquishing 1/3 of seating capacity is too high a price to pay for the added precaution.

More must-read finance coverage from Fortune:

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Few in Silicon Valley could have predicted that a mild-mannered young Austrian lawyer who spent a semester studying there would one day become high-tech companies' worst nightmare.

But on Thursday Max Schrems, 32, racked up the latest in a string of legal victories in the field of online privacy, with the EU's top court striking down the crucial "Privacy Shield" online data arrangement between Europe and the US.

After the decision Schrems tweeted a video of (non-alcoholic) champagne being uncorked in the offices of the privacy NGO NOYB -- standing for "None Of Your Business" -- that he helped found.

The European Court of Justice "said 100 percent what we argued for", he said in an interview with AFP Thursday, adding: "US surveillance law is well and alive and that's the core problem".

Privacy Shield was the successor to another EU-US deal, Safe Harbour, which was itself torpedoed by a similar court ruling in 2015 -- again in a case brought by Schrems.

Both deals were relied on by giant corporations such as Facebook to facilitate the transfer of data from the EU to the US.

But Schrems grew concerned at leaks from former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden in 2013 according to which the NSA had access to users' data on Facebook and other US tech companies.

In the wake of the 2015 judgement Schrems said the ruling confirmed "that mass surveillance violates our fundamental rights", adding that it made clear that "US businesses cannot simply aid US espionage efforts in violation of European fundamental rights".

That verdict even prompted Snowden to congratulate Schrems on Twitter.

"You've changed the world for the better," wrote the whistleblower, who currently lives in exile in Russia.

- 'Wild West' laws -

Schrems' trademark grin has been much in evidence since he began his fight against Facebook almost a decade ago, after spending a semester at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley during studies.

'Do they live somewhere in the Wild West?' /  AFP

Schrems said he had been startled by American companies' lax attitude towards European privacy laws.

"The general approach in Silicon Valley is that you can do anything you want in Europe" without facing major consequences, Schrems told AFP in a previous interview.

"The core issue is: do online companies have to stick to the rules or do they live somewhere in the Wild West where they can do whatever they want to do?"

Following his return to Austria, he asked Facebook to provide him with a record of the personal data it held on him.

Schrems was shocked when he received no fewer than 1,222 pages of information.

These included photos, messages and postings on his Facebook page dating back years -- some of which he thought he had deleted -- the times he had clicked "like" on an item, and "pokes" of fellow users.

"When you delete something from Facebook, all you are doing is hiding it from yourself," he said.

- Battle goes on -

He has opened numerous other fronts in his David-versus-Goliath battles in the field of online privacy.

"As an average citizen, you can neither afford to engage in these fights, nor do people have the nerves to insist on their rights for that long," Schrems recently said about his case against Facebook in the Austrian courts which has been passed between various jurisdictions for six years and counting.

NOYB started operations in May 2018 and promptly set about using the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to file complaints with regulators against some of the tech world's biggest names over their abuses of data.

In France NOYB was one of two advocacy groups which helped inflict a defeat on Google over its data consent policies, landing the company with a 50 million euro ($56 million) fine from the country's data watchdog.

More days in court surely lie ahead as part of Schrems' pro bono work for NOYB, but he says he finds time to head to the mountains and snowboard when not poring over legal developments.
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PTC India (formerly Power Trading Corporation of India) has revived plans to sell its controlling stake in its NBFC arm PTC India Financial Services, according to an official disclosure to the stock exchanges. The Delhi-headquartered firm, which is backed by NTPC, Power Grid Corporation and Power Finance Corporation, has invited potential suitors or investors to submit their expression of interest by July 31.

The board of PTC India had initially proposed the divestment plans to shareholders on August 7, 2019 but received the requisite internal approvals for the deal after delays on account of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

As the parent, PTC India wants to dilute its majority stake in PTC India Financial Services as the latter is non-core to its operations, an individual told Moneycontrol. The deal is likely to attract interest from infrastructure-focused NBFCs and funds who are keen to float an infra development fund as the target has the licence due to its IFC (infrastructure finance company) status, he added.

PTC India currently holds a 64.99 percent stake in PTC India Financial Services and at current market capitalisation the value of the majority stake is around Rs 572 crore.

IDFC Securities has been appointed as transaction advisor for the deal and the promoters are looking to exit at a premium, a second individual told Moneycontrol.

Both individuals spoke on the condition of anonymity. Moneycontrol is awaiting an email response from PTC India and will update this article as soon as we hear from the company. IDFC Securities couldnt be reached immediately for a comment.

We further submit that after obtaining necessary board/shareholder approvals (as required) and execution of the definitive agreement(s) with the investor(s), the company will update the stock exchanges in accordance with applicable laws, the official announcement stated.

PTC India Financial Services, being an infrastructure finance company, is engaged in the business of making investments in, and providing financing solutions to companies with projects in the power sector and related areas across the entire energy value chain. The business model of the firm is to partner in infrastructure development and support the power sector by catering to the financial requirements of the sector. According to its website, the firm offers debt financing, fee-based services and also equity investments for both greenfield and brownfield projects.

PTC India, a leading provider of power trading solutions in India, was established in the year 1999 as a Government of India initiated public-private partnership, with a mandate to develop a commercially vibrant power market in the country.
Sure, it might be warm Wednesday, but what about the rest of the week?
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-17 00:33:07|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 pandemic could reverse gains made by African countries in their quest to reverse biodiversity and wildlife loss, says a report launched in Nairobi on Thursday.

John Waithaka, regional chairman for East and Southern Africa at the International Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said the global pandemic was undermining the protection of endangered species.

"Monitoring of illegal wildlife trade, conducting anti-poaching operations and carrying out regular patrols have slowed down since the outbreak of the pandemic," said Waithaka.

He spoke during the launch of the report, "The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on Africa's protected areas operations and programs' in Nairobi.

Waithaka said that COVID-19 is hampering security operations, weakening protected areas' collaboration with key partners and taking away the revenue that supports many biodiversity conservation programs.

He said that without adequate law-enforcement personnel on the ground, poaching, illegal wildlife trade and other crimes against nature are likely to escalate.

"The conservation gains achieved in the recent past are at high risk with dire consequences to sustainable development, human health and well-being," said Waithaka.

According to the report that was compiled from 19 African countries in June, the widespread impact of COVID-19 may necessitate the development of Africa-wide strategies for responding to future pandemics.

It urges support of conservation outside protected areas, monitoring illegal wildlife trade and protecting endangered species by conducting regular field patrols.

"A possible spike in poaching calls for strengthening of regular patrols and enhancement of security measures, including anti-poaching, gathering of intelligence and conducting targeted investigations that have been weakened by COVID-19," said the report.

The report identified inadequate financial resources as one of the challenges facing protected areas, weakening their capacity to cope with the impacts of COVID-19.

"COVID-19 has made a bad situation even worse, with most countries losing 60-100 percent of the revenue from tourism and other sources during the lockdown period," says the report.

It says that 79 percent of protected areas in Africa could only sustain their basic operations up to 6 months due to financial hardships linked to the pandemic. Enditem
Australian woman Sara Connor has been released from Kerobokan Prison after serving four years for her role in the fatal assault of a policeman on a Bali beach.

The Byron Bay mother-of-two was jailed in the notorious Bali prison after the bashing death of police officer Wayan Sudarsa in Kuta in 2016.

She was jailed alongside her then-boyfriend, British national David Taylor, after they were found guilty of the death.

A brief statement from security firm Tora Solutions said the 49-year-old woman was released on Thursday into the custody of Indonesian Immigration.

Connor was all smiles as she posed for a photo in the lead up to her release.

The former hairdresser also showed off her inked fingers after being issued her release papers.

Free at last! Sara Connor is escorted to a waiting car after being released from prison in Bali

The Australian woman covered her face with a headscarf as she was bundled into the back of an immigration vehicle

She was all smiles the day before being released from Kerobokan Prison after serving four years for her role in the fatal assault of a policeman on a Bali beach

Connor and her British boyfriend were convicted over the murder of a local policeman. She is pictured (above) inside an immigration office after her release

'Ms Connor is still waiting to be issued with travel documents, which were requested 91 days ago from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT),' the statement from Tora Solutions read.

'Upon receipt of these documents, Ms Connor will be repatriated.'

The statement went on to say Ms Connor was looking forward to returning home and grateful for the support she had received.

Connor will be deported back to her sons in Australia, having spent her time inside honing her craft as an artist and undertaking hair-dressing, crochet and make-up courses.

She will leave ex-boyfriend Taylor, who is serving a six-year sentence in Kerobokan's male prison for his part in the officer's death.

However, there are concerns she could be killed in a revenge attack as soon as she's released after a cop killer on the popular tourist island was recently murdered in Sulawesi upon their release from jail.

'We want to ensure her safety when she is released from prison. We don't want another revenge killing,' Mr Suprapto, the corrections division head of the Law and Human Right ministry's Bali office, told The Daily Telegraph.

'Her safety is our consideration. Cases where victims are police officers can attract persecution.'

The Byron Bay mother-of-two was issued her release papers on Thursday after a four-year stint behind bars

Connor showed off her inked fingers before she was released from Kerobokan prison in Bali

With the number of flights between Bali and Australia drastically reduced during the coronavirus pandemic, the mother of two could become a sitting target.

Connor may need to be held in a detention cell at Denpasar Airport until a flight can be made available.

When she eventually arrives in Australia, she will then have to serve a further 14 days in a COVID-19 hotel quarantine.

Prisoners serving time with Connor say she has grown paranoid in the weeks leading up to her release and will lash out at anyone she suspects is trying to take a photo of her.

Although she has retrained as a hairdresser during her sentence and took up painting, insiders say she has grown very withdrawn and now rejects any jail activities including exercise, arts and even food.

'Sara keeps to herself and is not friendly. Not to anyone. She didn't participate in our recent fashion show and never gets involved with dance, or anything that the jail asks her to be part of,' a prisoner, who did not wish to be named, said.

'She thinks people will sell her photo and is crazy and paranoid about that. She loves her ciggies and coffee and hanging out in a quiet corner.'

Connor is pictured in hand cuffs during her trial at Denpasar District Court in Bali on February 14, 2017

Connor (pictured) is set to walk free on Thursday after spending the past four years behind bars for her role in the fatal assault of a local policeman at Kuta Beach in August 2016

Connor's 'relaxing holiday' turned into a 'nightmare' when her then British boyfriend David Taylor (pictured) beat a police officer of 35 years to death with multiple objects

A man walks past the main gate of the notorious Kerobokan Prison where Connor is currently being held

Connor's 'relaxing holiday' turned into a 'nightmare' when her then British boyfriend David Taylor, beat a police officer of 35 years to death with multiple objects.

They included a mobile phone, the officer's own binoculars and a Bintang beer bottle.

The holidaying couple were cuddling at the water's edge at Kuta Beach before the killing unfolded.

An Indonesian court found that the now 38-year-old 'DJ Nutzo' confronted officer Wayan Sudarsa after Connor had lost her purse.

He began to frisk Mr Sudarsa before the situation violently escalated.

Connor was found to have put her arm around the policeman's neck and sat on his stomach an was convicted of fatal assault in company.

The mum, whose children are now 13 and 15, claimed she was bitten by Mr Sudarsa when trying to separate the pair, and ran away, ending her involvement.

Taylor claimed he was 'in fear of his life', when he struck Mr Sudarsa over the head with a beer bottle.

Security consultant John McLeod (pictured) has been approached to escort Byron Bay mother of two Sara Connor out of the notorious Kerobokan jail

When Mr Sudarsa was motionless, Taylor took the officer's identification cards.

At Ms Connor's trial, the judges said she cut up Mr Sudarsa's ID cards not to protect his identity and stop them from being stolen, but because she panicked and felt guilty.

Taylor later told Ms Connor the police officer was 'passed out' on the beach.

They had no idea, they claimed, of the seriousness of Mr Sudarsa's injuries.

Dr Dudut Rustyadi, who performed the autopsy on Mr Sudarsa, told their trials it would have taken him at least two hours to die and had someone intervened he might have been saved.

Instead, Connor and Taylor returned to their hotel, cut up Mr Sudarsa's cards and left for nearby Jimbaran later that morning.

Two days later, Connor turned on her mobile phone and learned of his death.

She has since offered $2,500 in compensation offered to the policeman's widow, and has always maintained her innocence.

Taylor is serving a six-year sentence for his part in the officer's fatal assault.
Naqvi, who founded one of the largest private equity firms in Dubai, The Abraaj Group, has close links with Pakistan's top politicians, bureaucrats and big-time hawala operators.

London, July 16 (IANS) Ostensibly at the behest of Islamabad, Pakistani diplomats are going all out to scuttle the extradition process of Karachi born business tycoon Arif Naqvi, who has been accused of global money laundering by the US authorities.

On the request of US federal authorities, the Scotland Yard had arrested Naqvi, who lives with his family in Central London, last year.

Sources said that soon after his release in May 2019 from London's Wandsworth Prison, Naqvi had met Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who was on a state visit to Britain.

Naqvi's family is also said to be close to Pakistan's High Commissioner in London, Mohammad Nafees Zakaria.

The career diplomat from Pakistan, Zakaria had an early stint as Deputy High Commissioner here, and has considerable clout in the British political and legal circles.

Islamabad fears that Naqvi's extradition to the US will spill the beans on the Abraaj Group's connections with some of the most influential people in the government, including Karachi and Dubai based hawala operators with shady backgrounds.

Islamabad also helped Naqvi return all the money the group owed to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and other Americans associated with the funds. On the basis of settling accounts with the Americans, Naqvi's lawyers argued that a trial could now be held in the UK where Naqvi lives.

Sources said that besides a battery of lawyers engaged by billionaire Naqvi, Pakistani diplomats are providing documentation and logistical support to the alleged scamster, accused of misappropriation of funds worth over $230 million. Naqvi, as per records available with IANS, led the Abraaj Group in Dubai which once claimed to manage $13 billion funds, and later got involved in misusing public money, stealing public funds and money laundering.

In Abraaj's healthcare fund, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation also invested large amounts. Initially it was the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which got a whiff of the racket and raised concerns about misuse of its funds, helping trigger the Abraaj Group's demise.

Interestingly, Naqvi's family had earlier established the Aman Foundation, an NGO in Karachi, and went ahead to forge an alliance with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to start a family planning programme with blessings of the state government in Sindh province.

A graduate from the London School of Economics, Naqvi has served in several multinational companies. In 2002, he founded Abraaj Capital, and in 2012 the company merged with Aureos Capital to become The Abraaj Group.

When the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation raised an alarm over misuse of funds, Naqvi quietly stepped down as CEO of The Abraaj Group, as the company became the subject of multiple investigations regarding its fund management practices.

Questions have also been raised over Naqvi's rich collection of arts. Before the collapse of Abraaj, an art work owned by Naqvi was sold through Christie's for 2 million pounds in 2018.

--IANS

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Opposition parties struggle with how to play a Covid-19 role

South Africas opposition parties appear to be confused, chasing shadows or paralysed by the enormity of the Covid-19 crisis.

Opposition parties, are supposed to hold government accountable, offer new ideas on post-Covid-19 economic, political and social reconstruction and act in such a way the public would perceive them to be able to do a better job if they would have been in government. Yet, South Africas opposition parties appear to struggle to come to terms over what role they should play in the pandemic engulfing South Africa.

Some opposition parties, such as the Inkatha Freedom Party, United Democratic Movement and the GOOD party appear to have entirely disappeared from the public scene in the aftermath of Covid-19 crisis.

At the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak the opposition parties started well-enough. Outside parliament the 14 opposition parties issued a joint declaration: The 14 political parties in our Parliament are standing together, across party political divides, to fight this disease together. We hereby demonstrate practically that we are united as the leaders of our nation to overcome this global crisis facing our country and our people.

Opposition parties even made innovative proposals then. For example opposition parties proposed that government gave an Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) contribution holiday to employers, allow for Value Added Tax (VAT) refunds and for government to encourage business to propose payment holidays on property loans, business loans and vehicle loans. After that things went peer-shaped for the opposition.

The Economic Freedom Fighters since have supported Madagascars untested herbal drink as an African solution cure for Covid-19. The World Health Organisation has rejected the herbal drink saying ordinary Africans also deserve medicines which have been clinically tested, just like communities in Western or other developing countries.

EFF leader Julius Malema have also been touting African herbs including the herb commonly known as Umhlonyana in isiZulu, Lengana in Sesotho, Wilde Als in Afrikaans and Artemisia or African Wormwood in English. Lets start bottling it nicely because the only thing that we buy from these people is their fancy packaging, Malema said.

Separately, Malema said South Africans must be defy moving the lockdown to level 3 on 1 June, saying if the EFF was in power, it would keep the lockdown at level 5, even if it means collapsing the economy. If this white economy collapses, let it collapse, he said, as if the economy is only made up of white participants, and as if only white, not black people will suffer if the economy collapses.

Economic Freedom Fighters MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi saw a conspiracy in US billionaire Bill Gates offering to help African countries amid the coronavirus outbreak, rather than embracing help to stem the rising Covid-19 tide from overwhelming South African and African health and economic systems.

Ndlozi tweeted: Nothing qualifies the university drop out Bill Gates to lead debates on vaccines & medical responses to #covid_19 except that he holds shares in BIG pharmaceutical companies. Its a FACT that Gates is an under educated computer nerd who dropped out of university to become rich!

The Democratic Alliance attacked Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel for gazetting a list of clothing and related products that could be for sale in retail stores during level 4 lockdown as frankly mad and seem more at place during the 1980s under the Soviet Union than they do in a democracy like SA.

Patel defended the clothing regulations saying they were requested by industry bodies and was aimed at pushing SA-made products to boost the local manufacturing and retail sector. The clothing industry bodies supported Patel. The National Clothing Retail Federation (NCRF), the industry body which include Mr Price, Pick n Pay clothing and Queenspark, and the Apparel and Textiles Association of SA (Atasa) supported the gazetted regulations for their potential to ensure a form of social and economic recovery by many distressed companies in the sector.

In holding government accountable, the opposition, should try to articulate realistic alternative policies for governing the country, which means they have to promote the interests of, and be relevant to the wider population. Off course, an opposition party, may decide it wants to remain small, and would rather just play a minimal watchdog role and only focus on the interests of a small core constituency, or alternatively just criticise government for the sake of it, just to get attention, with no intentions of wanting to be taken seriously as a possible government-in waiting.

Nevertheless, the opposition should ensure the sitting government make decisions in a transparent, rational and fair way. And get government to explain the reasons for coming to certain decisions. As a case in point, there has been very little rational explanation from government why tobacco and alcohol could not be sold during level 5 and 4 lockdowns and why e-commerce was not allowed.

Currently there has been no parliamentary oversight or even debate of the Disaster Management Act or the declared state of emergency, which gives the government extensive powers, nevertheless, opposition parties can still do so in parliament. They have not done so.

The DA and the Freedom Plus (FF+) did say they were planning to go to court to challenge the constitutionality of some lockdown regulations.

The government has reopened schools, yet with no readiness plan, given that social distance in public transport and schools are almost impossible, that many public schools do not have basic amenities such as working toilets and that pupils, if infected, will in turn infect vulnerable family members at home.

Mmusi Maimanes One South Africa movement had petitioned the Constitutional Court to challenge governments decision to reopen schools, but the court dismissed the application.

The opposition should hold government accountable to ensuring that human rights, freedom of expression and equal treatment is respected during the implementation of the lockdown. They must make certain that food gets to the poor on time; that the unemployed can access Covid-19 social grant quickly and easily without red tape; that distress businesses can get help quickly and fairly from the R500bn Covid-19 fund.

They should insist civil society organisations to get funding from the R500bn Covid-19 fund, which is not currently the case. They should safeguard against corruption, mismanagement and waste of Covid-19 funding; and watch over Covid-19 funding to ensure it is given to struggling businesses based on merit, fairness and common sense.

They should push for government to partner with civil society and business to deliver public services during Covid-19 crisis; and to advocate for the public and private health sector partner to share resources, expertise and services to combat Covid-19, which is not currently the case.

William Gumede is Associate Professor, School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand; and author of Restless Nation: Making Sense of Troubled Times (Tafelberg). This article was first published in the Daily Dispatch.
The Centre's nodal ministry for labour and employment has been missing in action during the biggest job and income crises of our time.

How many workers lost jobs and incomes due to the lockdown? How many have been rehired since the unlocking began on June 1? How many migrants went home and how many have returned? How many of those who lost their jobs received government assistance?

These are basic questions to which no answers are available because the government is not tracking these developments.

There is official confirmation on this.

Working in a complete information and policy vacuum

On June 1, the day the unlocking began, Minister for MSMEs and Road Transport Nitin Gadkari said there had "not been any official analysis" of job loss, grudgingly admitting that the lockdown "definitely impacted it (jobs)" when the evidence was all around, staring at the face.

Also Read: Rebooting Economy V: Why healthy environment is critical to fight COVID-19 pandemic

For the labour ministry, this is an encore. It was missing in action during the job crisis of pre-pandemic years too. One can be forgiven for not knowing the name of the union labour minister.

This is contrary to the mandate though.

The ministry, on its website, claims that its "main responsibility" is "to protect and safeguard the interests of workers" and that it is "focused on promotion of welfare and providing social security to the labour force both in organised and unorganised sectors".

These claims sound hollow.

A simple tracking of its activities through the statements it has issued would show why.

The ministry's website lists 20 press statements in all, issued between April 18 and July 8, 2020.

Of these, 12 relate to provident fund (PF) related matters.

Not one mentions the state of employment or job loss or income loss of workers. There is no information about mass reverse migration except for a passing mention that it is collecting and passing on information to states for assistance. A statement says Rs 4,957 crore has been paid to construction workers (Rs 1,000-Rs 6,000 to each) from their welfare fund. This is just 9.5% of Rs 52,000 crore lying unutilised in the welfare fund.

Why is there so much focus on EPF?

It is because that constitutes a pivot of the government's response.

There are three moves relating to PF.

First, on March 29 the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) Scheme of 1952 was amended "to allow withdrawal of non-refundable advance by EPF members/subscribers...up to the amount of basic wages and dearness allowance for three months or up to 75% of the amount standing to member's credit in the EPF account..."

Second, PF contribution for employers and employees reduced from 12% to 10% until August.

How allowing organised sector workers (6% of total workforce) to withdraw from their own contingency post-retirement fund constitutes a state assistance defies logic. Or, for that matter, a temporary reduction of 2% in contribution to PF fund?

Third, the PF support to establishments having up to 100 workers and 90% of them claiming less than Rs 15,000 a month is extended (announced in March) to August. This is to protect jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Is it working? There is no evidence either way or how much money the government has paid to save jobs.

Also Read: Rebooting Economy IV: Is govt using environmental laws to protect polluting industries?

These measures are for the organised sector. What about the unorganised workers constituting 94% of the total workforce and the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic?

A few measures have been announced for those, including the migrants who went back home.

One is an additional credit facility for the MSMEs providing second-most jobs at 111 million after agriculture. But there are no takers.

There wouldn't be any takers for such credit until economic uncertainty continues as the world has repeatedly learnt since the 1929 Great Depression. Businesses don't need to take credit or invest in capacity building when demand is weak and industrial production has crashed. Liquidity measures are a waste and the RBI knows it. (For more read, ' Coronavirus Lockdown XIX: Where is excess liquidity generated by RBI going ?')

The uncertainties would continue for some more time with several states (Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal) and cities (Bangalore, Chennai, Guwahati, Hyderabad) continuing complete shutdown a month-and-half after the "unlocking" began on June 1.

Then there is the Garib Kalyan Rozgar Yojna, announced in late June, which is an amalgamation of 25 existing schemes with no additional allocation. It would provide jobs to migrants who went back home in 116 districts in six states. But that means the existing local jobless and job seekers in these areas would be short-changed and hence, it is a zero-sum game.

Then there is the additional allocation of Rs 40,000 crore for the rural job guarantee scheme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), long condemned as a "living monument of UPA's failures", inadequate to meet existing work demand for several years and the average days of work for households remains less than 50 days (average of five previous fiscals is 48 days).

All three measures are designed as distress relief measures ab initio.

These are not part of a job creation policy or strategy to address structural deficiencies that caused a job crisis in the pre-pandemic era in the first place.

What about the job crisis in urban areas? Nothing has been heard.

To cut to the chase, the government is working on a complete information and policy vacuum.

Job crisis unacknowledged and unattended for years

India's job crisis is not new but the NDA-II regime has refused to acknowledge it or take remedial measures even though it promised one crore jobs every year.

In January 2019, the government stopped the release of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) of 2017-18 report for showing the unemployment rate (UR) at a 45-year-high of 6.1%. It was released post-2019 election win but the three subsequent budgets (one interim) and two Economic Surveys were silent.

Amidst the current job crisis, the government released the PLFS of 2018-19 in June stating that the Unemployment Ratio (UR) had fallen to 5.8%, even though it is statistically insignificant (The error margins (RSE) in UR for both reports is 1.8-2%) and irrelevant to the current crisis.

The pandemic has worsened the job crisis.

Riding on precarious 94% of workers in unorganised sector

Indian economy is riding on one of the most enfeebled and vulnerable workforces in the world.

The labour ministry's website says, 43.7 crore of a total workforce of 46.5 crore is in the "unorganised sector". This works out to be 94% of the total workforce.

By its very definition, the unorganised sector and workers have little legal protection, jobs or social security in India. The unorganised sector is defined as enterprises with less than 10 workers, owned by individuals or self-employed; unorganised workers are home-based, self-employed or a wage worker in the unorganised sector and includes those in the organised sector not covered under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. (For more, read " Labour reforms: No one knows the size of India's informal workforce, not even the govt ")

Besides, there are a large number of "informal" employments in the organised sector (no legal and social security protections), such as short-term contracts (quarterly contracts, for example), causal and retainers. That should take the number of precarious workers (called 'precariat') to a higher level.

In January 2020, the government declared it would hold a survey to count their numbers for providing them social security. But, the COVID-19 pandemic has postponed it indefinitely.

Internationally, similar enterprises and workers are called "informal". Informal enterprises are not covered by law or insufficiently covered by formal arrangements. Informal employments are de facto or de jure not subject to labour laws or entitled to social protection and benefits like advance notice of dismissal, severance pay, paid annual or sick leave, etc.

Also Read: Rebooting Economy III: All that's wrong with India's environmental governance

Though not the same, India uses both "informal" and "unorganised" alternately for some decades now. For example, without an official definition for "informal", the Economic Survey of 2018-19 said "almost 93%" of the total workforce is "informal", without even disclosing its source of information.

Globally, India stands at the top when it comes to "informal" workers.

An OECD-ILO study of May 2019 says India's informal workers constitute 88.2% of the total workforce. India is clubbed with some of the least developed economies like Sub-Saharan Africa, Bangladesh, Nepal, Cambodia etc.

Broadly speaking, the report says, informality represents 70% in developing and emerging economies and about 18% in developed countries.

Why informality is a concern?

The OECD-ILO report, 'Tackling Vulnerability in the Informal Economy', lists some: (i) higher presence of unskilled workers and low productivity (50% of formal sector workers) (ii) in-work poverty risk is 200% higher - 42% informal workers live in poverty worldwide (iii) greater risks and vulnerability due to unprotected status, inferior working conditions and (iv) higher presence of low-paid wages and a high wage gap from formal employment.

In India, the Economic Survey of 2015-16 found that wages in the organised/formal sector are over 20 times higher, on average.

The Indian economy is riding on 88.2-94% of such low-skilled, lowly paid with little job or social security cover. Are they capable of building a robust economy? Or quickly rebuild an economy battered by the lockdown?

No social security for 88.5% of workers; their numbers are growing

How many Indian workers have social security?

No official data exists but an estimate can be made.

Also Read: Rebooting Economy II: What stock market boom means to people and economy

The PLFS of 2018-19 says 51.9% of regular wage/salaried in the non-agriculture sector are "not eligible for any social security benefit". Since regular wage/salaried constitute 23.8% of the total workforce - the rest being self-employed (52.1%) and casual workers (24.1%) - those without social security work out to be 88.5% of the total workforce.

Social security benefits mean provident fund (PF), pension, gratuity, healthcare, and maternity benefits singly or in any combination (as per the PLFS report).

Those not eligible for any social security benefit in 2017-18 were 49.6%, as per the PLFS of 2017-18. In 2018-19, their number went up to 51.9%.

If the well-off among the self-employed, like doctors, lawyers, chartered accountants, and others, who would have their own private social security arrangements, are added, the total number would go up but by what is not known in absence of data. Assuming an addition of 2%, those without social security will still be 86.5%.

Toothless social security laws

Such a poor social security cover is because of official negligence.

The only law that provides social security to unorganised workers is the Unorganised Workers' Social Security (UWSS) Act of 2008. It is proposed to be subsumed in the Social Security Code of 2019, now pending before a parliamentary committee.

Neither the UWSS Act of 2008 nor the Social Security Code of 2019 is designed to ensure what they claim to do.

Here is how Prof. Ravi Srivastava, an eminent labour economist with long experience in formulating social security measures as a former member of the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS), currently a faculty at the Institute for Human Development, explains their failings.

Also Read: Rebooting Economy I: Why stock market is booming when COVID-19-hit economy sinks

Regarding the UWSS Act of 2008, Prof. Srivastava says, "It did not provide an adequate legislative framework for universal social security to unorganised workers. It didn't provide a financial framework as social security was to be provided through separate schemes. It provided for registration of unorganised workers, but even that has not been implemented by successive governments."

About the 2019 Social Security Code, he says, "Almost the same provisions have been incorporated in this code. Further, it has taken out informal workers in organised sector, like contract and casual workers, from the purview of organised sector schemes of EPF and ESI. They are now part of unorganised workers without any mandatory social security coverage."

That is because Prof. Srivastava says these laws are so designed to provide for framing various social security schemes, but there is no timeline, nor is it mandatory for those to be universal.

Strong protests from trade unions and labour economists forced the government to send the 2019 Code to a Parliamentary Standing Committee for re-examination.
The U.S. Space Force has selected the first active-duty airmen to transfer into the new service.

It announced Thursday that it has chosen 2,410 members within the space operations (13S) and space systems operations (1C6) career fields, who will start transferring Sept. 1.

Read Next: US Backs France in Standoff with Turkey over Warships

"This is an exciting and historic time for these space operators, who will be some of the first members to join the Space Force," said Lt. Gen. David "DT" Thompson, Space Force vice commander, in a release. "Each one of them has an important responsibility to contribute bold ideas to shape the Space Force into a 21st century service."

Officials said in June that approximately 8,500 active-duty airmen across 13 eligible officer and enlisted career fields had signed up to move permanently into the Defense Department's sixth military branch, which is part of the Department of the Air Force. The branch, which was signed into existence by President Donald Trump on Dec. 20, 2019, is currently operating with the aid of 16,000 airmen and civilians detailed temporarily from what was formerly known as Air Force Space Command.

Officials have said that about 6,000 of those temporary personnel will be offered the opportunity to formally transfer into the Space Force by year's end.

The service currently has only 88 members. They include Gen. John "Jay" Raymond, the chief of space operations and head of U.S. Space Command; Chief Master Sgt. Roger Towberman, the senior enlisted adviser of the Space Force and command senior enlisted leader of Space Command; and 86 new lieutenants who graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in April.

The Air Force ran an application program in May. Officials have said there will be windows for the other service members -- such as those in the Army and Navy -- to apply and join, but news of a limited inter-service transfer will not be announced before next year. Any Army and Navy personnel chosen to move will not do so until fiscal years 2022-23, according to the release.

The 13S and 1C6 career fields are considered "organic space specialties," officials said Thursday. Those chosen will soon receive messages via the MyPers website on the next steps for their commission or enlistment into the Space Force.

"While most members will execute their transfers around Sept. 1, some members awaiting various administrative processes, such as a pending promotion board, will transfer at a later date when those actions are completed," the release states. "The actual number of members who complete transfers may differ slightly from the number approved for transfer as members make this personal decision based on their individual and family circumstances at that time."

The airmen who made up the 8,500-person pool included volunteers from specialties that are common to both air and space jobs, such as intelligence (14N), cyberspace operations (17X), developmental engineer (62E), acquisition manager (63A), operations intelligence (1N0), geospatial intelligence (1N1), signals intelligence (1N2), fusion analyst (1N4), targeting analyst (1N8), cyberspace support (3D0), and client systems (3D1).

For volunteers in these common career fields, transfer boards will be scheduled in coming months, with initial transfers beginning in February 2021.

Should airmen in the organic space fields change their minds or decline a transfer, the Air Force will work with them to apply to transfer into a new career field, move into the Reserve, or apply for separation or retirement, the service has previously said. These members should expect a notification in MyPers later this month, according to the release.

"In the meantime, those members will remain in the Air Force and may be assigned duties in the Space Force," it adds. "At the end of the transition period, expected to be sometime in 2022, organic space specialties will be removed from Air Force inventory, and assignments in those mission areas will no longer be an option for Air Force members."

Guardsmen and reservists who are already executing space missions and currently aligned with the Space Force will continue supporting it; officials are weighing how best to incorporate them. A Space Force Reserve component is still being considered.

In June, the Space Force announced how its personnel will be organized, down to the squadron level.

The service will operate with three primary field commands: Space Operations Command (SpOC), which will support combatant commanders with Space Force personnel and capabilities; Space Systems Command (SSC), which will acquire space systems from industry; and Space Training and Readiness Command (STARCOM), which will be responsible for training space professionals, according to a separate release.

In the Air Force, subordinate to its headquarters is the major command, which is then composed of a numbered air force, wing, group, squadron and flight.

The Space Force by comparison will have only three echelons of command: the field commands, deltas and squadrons, officials said.

Other pending Space Force decisions include uniform updates, insignia and a logo design. Officials are also deciding what to call its members.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.

Related: Major Space Force Units to Be Called Deltas, Officials Announce
Twitter

Washington: Unidentified hackers broke into the Twitter accounts of technology moguls, politicians, celebrities and major companies in an apparent Bitcoin scam.

It included bogus tweets from former President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and a number of tech billionaires including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

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Barack ObamaCelebrities Kanye West and his wife, Kim Kardashian West, were also hacked. The fake tweets offered to send USD 2,000 for every USD 1,000 sent to an anonymous Bitcoin address.

There is no evidence that the owners of these accounts were targeted themselves.

The Biden campaign, said that Twitter's integrity team locked down the account within a few minutes of the breach and removed the related tweet.

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Obama's office had no immediate comment. The FBI said it was aware of Twitter's security breach, but declined further comment.

The security problem was severe enough for Twitter to warn that many of its more than 166 million daily users might be unable to tweet or reset their passwords while the company tried to lock things down.

TwitterThe Bitcoin account mentioned in the fake tweets appears to have been created on Wednesday. By the end of the day, it had received almost 12.9 bitcoins, an amount currently valued at slightly more than 114,000. At some point during the day, roughly half that sum in bitcoin was withdrawn from the account.

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Bezos, Gates and Musk are among the 10 richest people in the world, with tens of millions of followers on Twitter. The three men are worth a combined 362 billion, according to the latest calculations by Forbes magazine.

This is hardly the first time hackers have created mischief on Twitter.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 20:58:28|Editor: huaxia

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HONG KONG, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The number of COVID-19 cases surged in some Asia-Pacific countries on Thursday as India, Japan's capital, and Australian State of Victoria reported the highest daily spike of new cases.

India's federal health ministry Thursday morning recorded 606 new deaths and 32,695 more COVID-19 cases during the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 24,915 and total cases to 968,876.

This is said to be the highest single day spike in the number of fresh cases in the country so far.

The recovery rate of COVID-19 patients increased to 63.25 percent. The ministry said 612,815 patients had been cured and 331,146 were under active medical supervision, as the recovery rate stood at 63.25 percent.

Bangladesh registered 39 more deaths from COVID-19, bringing the country's death toll to around 2,500.

Senior Health Ministry official Nasima Sultana said in a briefing that "2,733 new COVID-19 positive cases and 39 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours across Bangladesh."

"The number of confirmed infections in the country totaled 196,323, while fatalities stood at 2,496," she said, adding that the COVID-19 fatality rate in Bangladesh stood at 1.27 percent.

The number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines surged to 61,266 after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 2,498 new cases.

The death toll also increased to 1,643 after 29 more patients have succumbed to the viral disease, the DOH said.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said late on Wednesday that Metro Manila will remain under general community quarantine until July 31 despite the steady spike of coronavirus cases in the capital, home to about 15 million people.

The COVID-19 cases in Indonesia rose by 1,574 within one day to 81,668, with the death toll adding by 76 to 3,873, Achmad Yurianto, a health ministry official, told a press conference.

According to him, 1,295 more people had been discharged from hospitals, bringing the total number of recovered patients to 40,345.

The Tokyo metropolitan government confirmed a record 286 new infections in the capital, with the latest figure surpassing the previous daily record of 243 cases reported last Friday.

The metropolitan government amid a recent uptick in cases has raised its coronavirus alert level to the highest on its four tier scale.

The latest rise in cases brings Tokyo's cumulative total to 8,640 COVID-19 cases, the highest among the nation's 47 prefectures and accounting for more than one-third of all cases nationwide, official figures showed Thursday.

The Australian state of Victoria recorded its biggest daily increase of COVID-19 infections since the pandemic began, with 317 confirmed cases.

Victoria is the center of a renewed outbreak of COVID-19 in Australia, with close to 2,800 new infections for the state in July alone.

According to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, 289 of Thursday's cases remained under investigation by health experts, while 28 were connected to known clusters.

Andrews also revealed that two men in their 80s had died after contracting the virus, taking the national death toll to 113.

Fourteen more U.S. soldiers and their family members tested positive for COVID-19 amid rising concerns about imported cases, the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said Thursday.

The total number of infections among the USFK-affiliated personnel rose to 88, according to Yonhap news agency.

It came amid growing concerns about the imported cases. In the latest tally, South Korea reported 61 more COVID-19 cases for the past 24 hours, raising the combined number of infections to 13,612.

Malaysia reported three new COVID-19 infections, bringing the national total to 8,737, the Health Ministry said.

Meanwhile, the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition (LIMA) scheduled from March next year, has been cancelled over concerns related to the outbreak, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. Enditem
A leading Australian stylist has revealed the best budget dupes for expensive shoes - including on-trend Jimmy Choo heels and the iconic Chanel two-tone pumps.

Jamie Lee, from Sydney, said loving fashion and having good taste needn't cost you thousands of dollars, and you can easily find cheaper pieces that rival the expensive brands.

Recently, the stylist uploaded a YouTube video, detailing the budget dupes she has found for the likes of Mansur Gavriel, Chanel, Fendi and The Row.

So what do you need to know?

Scroll down for video

A leading Australian stylist has revealed the best budget dupes for expensive shoes - including on-trend Jimmy Choo heels and the iconic Chanel two-tone pumps (Jamie Lee pictured)

The first pair of shoes that Jamie found a dupe for was her beloved Jimmy Choo embellished shoes, which cost $1,350 (left). Jamie found a version available from Kurt Geiger for just $290 (right) and she said they were the perfect 'occasional' shoe

Jimmy Choo embellished shoes = $1,350

Kurt Geiger embellished shoes = $290

The first pair of shoes that Jamie found a dupe for was her beloved Jimmy Choo embellished shoes, which cost $1,350.

'I remember when I first came across the designer version of these shoes and I thought they were absolutely divine,' Jamie said on the video.

'I loved the detail and the embellishment across the strap and I hadn't seen anything else like them.'

The stylist (pictured) explained that a love of fashion needn't cost you thousands, and you can often find budget dupes

Jimmy Choos unfortunately often cost upwards of $1,000, which - for Jamie - was too much for an 'occasional shoe'.

'But I stumbled upon this $290 pair from Kurt Geiger,' she said, commenting on their similarities.

'I actually think I prefer the budget dupe,' she said.

'The designer version is a patent leather, and I find with a bunion on my left foot, patent shoes just don't really cut it for me.

'They are often really uncomfortable, so I tend to go for leather.'

Jamie said she has invested in the Kurt Geiger embellished shoes, and finds them 'perfect'.

'I love the apricot-toned nude as opposed to being more of a cooler, lighter nude, and I think they're very flattering and elongating on the foot,' she added.

The second pair of shoes that Jamie took a look at was a pair of slingback heels by the French brand, Mansur Gavriel ($732; left). She found a version available from Everlane for just $231 (right) and said they are almost identical in style

Mansur Gavriel slingback heels = $732

Everlane slingback heels = $231

The second pair of shoes that Jamie took a look at was a pair of slingback heels by the French brand, Mansur Gavriel.

'I always wanted to buy a pair of slingback pumps, but these ones were over $500 and so I set about looking for a cheaper pair,' she said.

The stylist eventually found something in Everlane's Editor slingback heel pumps, which are very similar, but cost just $231.

'They effectively do the same thing as the Mansur Gavriel shoes, they just don't have an adjustable leather strap on the side,' she said.

'I thought these were a really good match, but at a much friendlier price point.'

When Fendi released a pair of $1,547 combat boots, fashion lovers were quick to rush to get their hands on the stylish staple (left). But there is a Tony Bianco pair available for a fraction of the price, at just $249.95 (right)

Fendi combat boots = $1,547

Tony Bianco combat boots = $249.95

When Fendi released a pair of $1,547 combat boots, fashion lovers were quick to rush to get their hands on the stylish staple.

But there is a Tony Bianco pair available for a fraction of the price, at just $249.95.

'If you don't like things that scream designer, you might actually prefer the Tony Bianco shoes,' Jamie said.

'They don't have the logo on them, they're very classic and you can wear them year after year.

Chanel's dad sandals costs cost $1,580 and tap into the 'ugly shoe' trend (pictured)

But you can get your hands on a similar pair from the Iconic brand Atmos and Here, which cost just $109.99 (pictured)

Chanel dad sandals = $1,580

Atmos and Here dad sandals = $109.99

When it comes to fashion pieces like dad sandals, while it can be tempting to fork out big bucks for them, Jamie said in fact you're far better off getting a cheaper trend piece.

'The Chanel sandals are a bit of a Marmite one, as they have a velcro strap across the feet and kind of look like an orthopaedic sandal,' she said.

'If money was no object, I would find a pair, but I did spot that Atmos and Here at The Iconic have a great budget version and they are a really good dupe.'

Jamie said she loves the quilted effect on the Atmos and Here version, which adds a luxury feel.

You can never go wrong with a classic Chanel two-tone pump, but at $1,340, they are a pricey investment (left). But Jamie said a pair of $229 pumps from Vaneli is a great alternative that will save you big dollars (right)

Chanel two-tone pumps = $1,340

Vaneli two-tone pumps = $229

You can never go wrong with a classic Chanel two-tone pump, but at $1,340, they are a pricey investment.

But Jamie said a pair of $229 pumps from Vaneli is a great alternative that will save you big dollars.

'These are such a classic, timeless shoe that you can wear forever,' Jamie said.

'I love the Vaneli version and have two pairs. They are fantastic and really great quality.'

Finally, you can never go wrong with a pair of suede loafers. But why spend $1,299 on a pair from the It brand The Row (left) when you could buy a similar pair from Seed for $39.95? (right)

The Row suede loafers = $1,299

Seed suede loafers = $39.95

Finally, you can never go wrong with a pair of suede loafers.

But why spend $1,299 on a pair from the It brand The Row when you could buy a similar pair from Seed for $39.95?

'I spotted a similar pair to the beautiful Row loafers on the Seed website recently,' Jamie said.

'They have the same look in terms of silhouette and look, and they come in four different colours.'

The stylist said they could be a good addition to your working wardrobe, particularly with more of us working from home more frequently in light of the coronavirus crisis, as they smarten any look in seconds.
Comal County hospitalizations from COVID-19 have doubled over the last week, officials told county commissioners on Thursday morning.

The county added 46 new cases of the disease but no additional deaths.

As of this morning, we have 1,468 cases of the virus in Comal County, which is an increase of 46 from yesterday, said Paul Anthony, county public information officer, reporting in place of Public Health Director Cheryl Fraser.

Anthony said there are 1,117 confirmed and 351 probable cases, with 30 dead and 533 now recovered from the virus.

That leaves us with 905 active cases in the county, he added. Of those, 62 are hospitalized, which is roughly double the amount we reported last week. Hospitals are experiencing a lot of stress right now  their staffs are also being affected by COVID-19.

Weve seen hospital numbers double from the 31 we reported last week, and since then weve added 323 new cases. So its not looking like (coronavirus cases) will be going away anytime soon.

Anthony said he is working with Resolute and CHRISTUS hospitals to publicize COVID-19 data on open and occupied hospital beds, staffing and other information specific to Comal County. That information is updated daily on dashboards in Bexar, Travis and other counties.

They are reporting those numbers to STRAC (Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council) but its been hard (deciphering) the way they report it, Anthony said. But were seeking a way to get that information out to the public.

Anthony said of 9,017 tests, Comal Countys positivity rate  the percentage of tests with a positive result  is now 16.28%, up from 16.05% on Wednesday and 14.06% one week ago.

Anthony said the state has assigned two additional epidemiologists to help track Comal County virus cases. One will focus on studying ever-increasing cases among nursing home residents and staffers.

Because of this volume, public health has assigned one of its four epidemiologists full time to just communicate with and help these facilities on a daily basis  to find out what numbers they have and what means they have, he said, adding the state is also providing two data entry clerks to help process data into the states virus tracing system.

+2 New Braunfels ICUs near capacity with increased COVID patients Administrators at Resolute Health Hospital and CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital - New Braunfels 

Public health is also working with the Department of State Health Services to provide education, evaluation and recommended best practices to assist them in improving outcomes because COVID-19 had significantly affected their populations, Anthony said.

Jeff Kelley, Comal Countys emergency management coordinator, is leading the countys partnership with the city of New Braunfels in providing help for nursing centers. Long-term residential care facilities that need personal protective equipment or other resources are asked to call 830-221-4618.

Drive-thru testing

Drive-thru testing continues, with 185 samples taken on Tuesday. Anthony said testing is also held on Fridays for those forwarded through the countys testing hotline, 830-221-1120.

County Judge Sherman Krause last week expressed hopes the county might extend testing to three times weekly, but admitted staffing shortages have made that difficult to arrange.

Anthony again expressed that Thursday, adding said test results are taking longer due to the increased numbers of tests throughout the country.

Its now taking several days; before we were getting results in a day or two, he said. Its up to a week, depending on the lab, but it could take longer than that.

County employees saluted

Commissioners presented letters of appreciation to staffers from other county departments who pitched in to help man phones while public health office staffers were recovering or quarantined because of the virus.

Honorees included county clerks office staffers Annyssa Sauceda and Cathleen Schul; district clerks office staffer Annette Leal, and Kyra Swartz of the criminal district attorneys office.

There are a lot of people in our county family who have gone above and beyond and its real important to recognize them when they do, County Judge Sherman Krause said. These four people have certainly done that.

Added Precinct 3 Commissioner Kevin Webb: In hard times, successful people, teams and companies pull together and dont fall apart. This is a great example of us all working together. Im really proud of (our employees) for the way theyve reacted  they deserve a lot of credit.
Our partnership with HealthTrio will provide our members with the state-of-the-art tools they need to better manage their care through their providers and Sendero, and get the information they need to improve their health.

Sendero Health Plans announced today a new initiative to bring the latest web- and mobile- based healthcare solutions to improve the healthcare experience for its members. The local non-profit community-based health plan, providing personalized care to the Central Texas region, contracted with HealthTrio, a leading healthcare digital experience provider. This partnership will implement innovative solutions that deliver better healthcare access, inform healthcare consumers, and improve provider performance and quality care outcomes.

We worked with our members to identify how we could improve their care. As a direct result, we are investing in solutions to improve member interaction and engagement with the healthcare system and Sendero, said Wesley Durkalski, CEO of Sendero Health Plans. Our partnership with HealthTrio will provide our members with the state-of-the-art tools they need to better manage their care through their providers and Sendero, and get the information they need to improve their health.

Sendero Health Plans selected HealthTrio for its innovative, user-focused approach and streamlined single sign-on solutions that increase transparency, communication and collaboration to tackle complex challenges impacting the healthcare industry. Those solutions include:



Member Portal: Providing members a central hub for all activity to connect Sendero members to all of the personalized tools they need in one place  from paying their monthly bill to getting answers on their coverage, copays and deductibles and managing claims.

Provider Portal: Connecting Sendero, providers, and members in one central, secure location ensures consistent, real-time health information that supports everything from eligibility requests to claims data to tools supporting patient care.

Cost Transparency Tool: Enabling members to find and compare providers and treatments based on cost, quality and other key factors.

Provider Search: Giving members access to an easy-to-use, intuitive directory to locate a provider that meets their exact needs from one of the largest networks of doctors and specialists of any health plan in the area.

Mobile App: Providing a mobile application so members, who live in a vibrant tech community and the start-up Capitol of the country, can to securely access health information via a mobile device.

We are so proud to partner with Sendero Health Plans and provide their members an excellent online digital experience, said Dominic Wallen, President and COO, HealthTrio. Sendero is dedicated to improving the health of the community by providing affordable, quality healthcare and we committed to helping them deliver on that mission.

Sendero Health Plans new online experience powered by HealthTrio will be live in the Fall of 2020.

About Sendero Health Plans

Formed in 2011, Sendero Health Plans, Inc. is a community-based nonprofit Health Maintenance Organization supported by the Travis County Health District, known as Central Health, dedicated to improving the health of the community by providing affordable, quality healthcare coverage, especially for Travis County residents with low income. Sendero offers its IdealCare and SelectCare plans on the Federal Health Insurance Marketplace and is available in Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, Burnet, Fayette, Lee and Caldwell counties.

About HealthTrio

HealthTrio provides digital engagement solutions that optimize self-service, value-based care, healthcare consumerism and real-time data integration. Our selection of tools is as broad as the markets we serve  from everyday tools such as eligibility, benefits and claims to advanced features supporting provider quality performance, cost transparency and automated authorizations. With in-depth security capabilities, HealthTrios Smart Series platform extends beyond the traditional member, provider, employer and broker access to include guests, caregivers, community-based organizations and a variety of other user types. For over twenty years, HealthTrio has supported health plans, administrators and integrated delivery networks to decrease costs, increase access and improve health outcomes.
Moody's Investors Service said on July 16 that the Rs 12,450-crore capital injection in three state-run insurance companies is 'credit positive' as their capital had been significantly depleted over the last few years.

Last week, the Union Cabinet had decided to put on hold the merger of National Insurance, The Oriental Insurance and United India Insurance and approved a Rs 12,450 crore capital infusion into these three general insurers.

"The capital infusion is credit positive for the insurers, which are among the largest non-life companies in India's insurance market, because their capital has been significantly depleted by several loss-making underwriting years and significant top-line growth," Moody's said in a statement.

Further, focusing on the insurers' profitability will ensure that the improvements in capital and risk management are maintained, it added.

"After the capital injection, we expect renewed focus on improving the insurers' risk management and profitability. We expect the insurers to enhance their risk-based pricing and underwriting discipline to ensure organic capital growth and attract foreign reinsurance coverage, which will further aid capital adequacy," Moody's said.

It further added that, the government's goal of listing the companies on the stock market will become feasible only after this.

"The stock market listing itself brings in prospects of foreign ownership, which would diversify funding sources, reduce exposure to high-risk assets, enhance actuarial-led reserve and pricing and enhance the risk-based capital management.

"Additionally, given these state-owned insurers' dominant position in India and ability to undercut other companies' pricing, improved pricing discipline will benefit the wider market's underwriting performance," Moody's said.

However, if after the capital injection the three insurers continue to write business on loss-making terms and profitable growth is not achieved, their capital depletion and volatile required solvency margins (RSMs) will persist, which would put the plans to list the insurers at risk, it added.
She made the remarks at the ceremony held to present the Friendship Medal of the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba to Vietnamese Ambassador to Cuba Nguyen Trung Thanh in recognition of his contributions to the development of the special traditional relations between the two countries over the past three years.

The highlight of the progress thus far is the visit by Vietnamese Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong to Cuba in March 2018 and the visit by President of Cuba Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez to Vietnam in November of the same year, she noted.

The Cuban diplomat appreciated Vietnams participation in Cubas strategic development programmes, particularly the national food security programme as well as the support of the Vietnamese Party, State and people in the struggle of Cuban people against the US embargo.

The Cuban Deputy FM also highlighted the three-year contribution of the Vietnamese Ambassador to Cubas achievements.

At the ceremony, Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla presented the Friendship Medal to Ambassador Nguyen Trung Thanh.

The Vietnamese diplomat said that the special friendship between the two countries is an invaluable asset for future generations while affirming that Vietnam has and will always stand side by side and support the revolutionary cause of the Cuban people.
Trump Announces New Campaign Manager Bill Stepien, Replacing Brad Parscale

President Donald Trump announced late Wednesday that he has appointed Bill Stepien as his campaign manager, replacing Brad Parscale. who will remain as a senior advisor in the campaign.

Stepien previously worked for former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), and also had served as manager for Christies gubernatorial campaigns in 2009 and in 2013. He also worked for other New Jersey Republican politicians prior becoming involved with Christies campaign. He was fired in 2014 after Christie said he lost confidence in Stepiens judgment.

Stepien served as a senior political adviser and a national field director for Trumps 2016 campaign, and later served as a White House political director in the Trump administration. He was the deputy campaign manager prior to now taking on the campaign manager role.

In a statement, Trump said that Parscale would be a senior adviser to the campaign.

I am pleased to announce that Bill Stepien has been promoted to the role of Trump Campaign Manager. Brad Parscale, who has been with me for a very long time and has led our tremendous digital and data strategies, will remain in that role, while being a Senior Advisor to the campaign, Trump said.

Trump said that both Parscale and Stepien were heavily involved in bringing victory to the 2016 presidential elections and expressed hope to win once again in 2020.

This one should be a lot easier as our poll numbers are rising fast, the economy is getting better, vaccines and therapeutics will soon be on the way, and Americans want safe streets and communities! Trump said.

Parscale is a close ally of Trumps son-in-law and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner.

In June, Trump held a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that drew less-than-expected crowds, although it was held amid the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing requirements, as well as threats of violence from activists.

Parscale, however, came under fire after the rallys poor showing, coming just days after he said that more than 1 million people requested tickets. The Tulsa Fire Department said later that about 6,200 people showed up for the event, although Trump campaign officials said that about 12,000 attended.

Days after the rally, the Trump campaign announced changes in staffing, but Parscale remained as campaign manager at the time.

Jack Phillips and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Extinction Rebellion supporters in last year's protests were overwhelmingly middle class, highly-educated women from the south of England, a new study has found.

The research shows the Extinction Rebellion (XR) activists who brought London to a standstill last year had a much broader and more diverse age profile than previous environmental direct action protests.

Academics at the University of Exeter, Keele University and Aston University discovered that around 64 per cent of protesters at the April demonstration and 56 per cent of protesters at the October demonstration were women.

The team interviewed 303 people and received 232 mailed questionnaires back from protesters. They also attended court hearings for 144 XR activists charged with minor public order offences.

A new study has found that Extinction Rebellion supporters are most likely to be middle-class, highly educated women from the south. The study looked at the demos in London last year

The climate activist group has celebrity supporters including actress Emma Thompson (pictured) and model Lily Cole who was seen visiting hunger strike protesters in December

The study revealed around 85 per cent of those who took part in the action in London last year had a degree, and a third had a postgraduate qualification.

HOW TO SPOT AN EXTINCTION REBELLION ACTIVIST Data shows that the average protester at last year's Extinction Rebellion demonstrations were: Female

Middle-class

Highly-educated

Identify with the Green Party

Southern - most likely from the West Country

Self-employed, part-time worker or student Advertisement

Two thirds identified themselves as middle-class while a high proportion were self-employed, part-time workers or students.

Three-quarters of those who were charged with offences lived below the Severn-Wash line, traditionally separating the north and south of England.

The research also found that XR activists were mostly non-metropolitan. A third of those who appeared in court were from the West Country with hotspots in Stroud, Totnes and Frome.

This contrasted the six per cent who appeared in court and were from Birmingham, Greater Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Bradford, Sheffield, Glasgow, Swansea and Cardiff combined.

Professor Clare Saunders, from the University of Exeter, said: 'Our analysis shows one strength of Extinction Rebellion has been to involve people who are not natural protesters, and perhaps even less so natural law-breakers, but who were already persuaded of the rightness of the climate cause, and frustrated with the inability of both politicians and lifestyle environmentalism to bring about change.

'Mobilising this group enabled Extinction Rebellion to significantly expand the numbers of people willing to engage in environmental direct action, broadening its age profile, and bringing non-violent direct action on climate change into the centre of political life in the UK.'

Extinction Rebellion is a global environmental movement who aim to use non-violent civil disobedience to try and compel government action to tackle climate change.

In April last year, more than 1,000 activists were arrested after protesters occupied four sites across London as well as blocking roads, disrupting a railway line and conducting a protest at Heathrow.

Extinction Rebellion activists glued themselves to a DLR train at Canary Wharf in April last year

Extinction Rebellion protesters sprayed the treasury with 1,800 litres of fake blood in October

In October, protesters used a decommissioned fire engine to spray the front of the treasury in London with 1,800 litres of fake blood, holding banners which read 'STOP FUNDING CLIMATE DEATH'.

The group has received celebrity backing since their profile has grown including the likes of actress Emma Thompson and British models Lily Cole and Daisy Lowe.

The study, which was published yesterday and funded by the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, revealed that XR supporters are also more likely to be new to protesting than other environmental activists, with 10 per cent of those who took part in the April 2019 protest being first-time demonstrators.

British model Daisy Lowe seen at October's Extinction Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square is one of many celebs to back group

The majority of protesters surveyed said they most closely identified with the Green Party at 59.1 per cent while 15.5 per cent said they backed the Labour party.

Researchers say there was almost no support among Extinction Rebellion activists for the Conservative party and very little for the Liberal Democrats.

Professor Brian Doherty, from Keele University, said: 'We found Extinction Rebellion activists are much more likely to vote and be members of political parties than the general population.

'But they are also sceptical about the ability of political parties and government to deliver effective solutions to environmental problems.'

Dr Graeme Hayes, from Aston University, said: 'Protestors said they did not believe in reliance on companies and the market, governments, or lifestyle changes by individuals to solve the climate crisis.

'Almost all said they were protesting to raise awareness of the climate emergency, and to pressure politicians to act.

'This is a potential point of contention for Extinction Rebellion. Its strategy emphasises lobbying the government for action, but its activists do not think the government can deliver.'
China accused Britain of working with the US to "discriminate, oppress and exclude" Chinese firms and warned of jeopardised relations after Huawei was banned from the UK's 5G network.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced a diplomatic backlash yesterday in response to his U-turn over the Chinese tech giant, a move which Donald Trump claimed credit for.

Mr Johnson ordered telecoms firms to remove Huawei equipment from the 5G network by 2027 in a move costing billions and delaying the deployment of 5G in the UK by up to three years.

The ban came after a government-ordered review found the security of Huawei's equipment could not be guaranteed because of US sanctions.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying warned in a briefing that the ban "will only hurt the UK's own interests", adding: "This is a big world and the UK is just a small part of it.

"Without any evidence the UK, under the pretext of risks which don't exist at all, co-operated with the US to discriminate, oppress and exclude Chinese companies in violation of the principle of market economy and free trade. This breaches the UK's promises," she said.

"The UK has made the wrong decision that undermines severely the Chinese company's interests and the mutual trust between China and the UK. This is about China facing a major threat in its investment security in the UK and our confidence whether the UK market can maintain openness, fairness and non-discriminatory We have severe concerns on that and we remind all Chinese companies to pay attention to the increasing political and security risks."

Meanwhile in London, China's ambassador to the UK Liu Xiaoming accused Britain of behaving like a "junior partner" of the US. He suggested ministers imposed the ban because they "had to succumb to pressure" from the "China hawks and China-bashers".

Mr Johnson acted on Tuesday after coming under pressure from his own party's MPs and from Mr Trump's administration as the UK tries to broker a post-Brexit trade deal with the White House.

Mr Trump spoke of having "convinced many countries", including the UK, not to use Huawei. He said: "I did this myself, for the most part", adding: "If they want to do business with us, they can't use it."

UK health secretary Matt Hancock acknowledged the US sanctions played a role in the ban and said trade discussions were also an important consideration, but insisted it was "a sensible decision".

"We all know Donald Trump, don't we?" he told Sky News. "All sorts of people can try to claim credit for the decision, but this was based on a technical assessment by the National Cyber Security Centre about how we can have the highest quality 5G systems in the future."

Downing Street insisted it was a UK decision in response to the assessment of the sanctions from the US which were "like nothing we had ever seen before". "The US imposed the sanctions, it was then for the NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre) to assess the impact of those sanctions on the security of the UK's 5G network," Mr Johnson's spokesman said.

The UK's government was "clear-eyed" about dealing with China but "we remain committed to a constructive relationship", he said.

Huawei, which denies being a security threat, urged ministers to reconsider the move.

UK telecoms firms will be banned from next year from purchasing new 5G equipment from Huawei and will have to remove all the Chinese company's kit by 2027. They are also expected to be ordered to shift away from the purchase of Huawei's equipment for full-fibre broadband networks for up to two years.

In January, the firm was given permission to play a limited role in the 5G network.

But Downing Street insiders acknowledged the sanctions imposed by the White House in May were a "game-changer".

Meanwhile, at GCHQ, the UK's intelligence and security hub, a protective signals intelligence network is on stand-by to detect any attempt to mount cyber attacks on the UK following the decision.
Lorna Jane has been forced to re-brand its new active wear after claiming the clothing 'protected against viruses and germs'.

The company was forced to pull advertising for its 'exclusive' LJ Shield technology after being accused of trying to profiting from COVID-19 panic.

The company is under investigation for breaching the therapeutic goods act, which could attract a maximum penalty of $11million if they are found to have done so.

Lorna Jane has been forced to re-brand its new active wear after claiming the clothing 'protected against viruses and germs'(pictured: Lorna Jane active wear)

Lorna Jane was forced to pull its advertising for its 'exclusive' LJ Shield technology

The active wear brand has been accused of trying to profit from COVID-19 fear (Pictured: a model poses in Lorna Jane activewear)

Marketing materials online suggested Lorna Jane had developed a technology that could be sprayed on to clothing to stop the spread of bacteria.

The website claimed the L J Shield 'breaks through the membrane shell of any toxic diseases' including 'bacteria or germs that come into contact with it, not only killing that microbe but preventing it from multiplying into anymore'.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners President Dr Harry Nespolon slammed the company and accused it of intentionally misleading buyers.

'Active wear is great for the gym but it can't protect you against viruses or bacteria,' Dr Nespolon said.

'I suspect Lorna Jane are cynically trying to exploit fears concerning the COVID-19 pandemic to sell clothes.'

He said it was irresponsible advice that could could lull people into a false sense of security.

'If you spray their product onto any fabric and expect that it will act as a 'shield of protection' for you by breaking through the 'membrane shell of any toxic diseases' I have some bad news for you  this will not happen,' he said.

Since complaints were aired over the active wear's new technology the branding has been pulled from the website and changed to remove any mention of the word virus

The new materials refer to the technology instead as 'anti-bacterial'

'The only thing that will be ''terminated'' by the ''shield particles'' is the money in your bank account.'

The branding has since been pulled from the website and changed to remove any mention of the word virus.

The new materials refer to the technology as 'anti-bacterial'.

'We don't want to alarm you but we've been avoiding germs since way before COVID-19,' the website now reads.

The active wear brand was founded by Lorna Jane Clarkson (pictured)

A spokesperson for Lorna Jane denied they were trying to take advantage of the environment of fear.

'We started working on this technology at the start of the year when we named it... we didn't want to mislead anyone,' the spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia.

'We are not trying to profiteer in any way on the fear around COVID-19 because we were developing this and working with our partners on this before the outbreak.

'Our testing shows that LJ Shield is an important part of stopping the spread of both bacteria and viral infections and should be used in combination with other precautionary measures such as face masks and thorough and frequent hand washing.'

The Therapeutic Goods Administration is looking into the company's claims.

'With some exceptions, claims that a product can prevent infection with coronavirus, or other microorganisms that can cause illness, are therapeutic use claims and result in the product being a therapeutic good, and therefore subject to therapeutic good regulation,' the TGA told ABC news.

Lorna Jane has been contacted for comment.
Representational image

Indian information technology (IT) major Wipro has brought home on chartered flights more than 500 employees whose visas have expired or are near expiry, from the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

The first such special flight carrying over 100 employees from New York landed in Bengaluru on July 15, Wipro President and Chief Human Resources (HR) officer Saurabh Govil told The Times of India.

We are also chartering flights to bring back our employees from London and Germany, Govil said, adding that the company is also working along with the Centres Vande Bharat mission for some flights.

Follow our LIVE Updates on the coronavirus pandemic here

He added that they bring back employees every quarter, but the process had been backlogged as flights were not operational due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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

Besides Wipro, other IT majors have also brought back employees facing similar concerns  most from the US.

Also Read | International flights on July 16: Daily updates on arrivals, departures under Vande Bharat Mission

Tata Consultancy Services Global HR Head Milind Lakkad said as many as 900 employees have been repatriated  close of 500 of these from the US alone. Infosys also brought back 200 employees from the US, while Tech Mahindra repatriated 210 employees via a special chartered flight from Dallas, Texas to Hyderabad  which landed on July 14.

But Govil denied that temporary suspension of H-1B visas is the cause. Stating: We have over 70 percent localisation in the US and do not see big disruption or an impact right now. The company will hire from campuses this year in a staggered manner. He said that last years offers have been honoured but declined to give a figure for this year, as per the report.

The company in January had said it will hire 12,000 posts via campus placements in India, but the process seems shaky given the current coronavirus situation.
In a fresh twist to the Kulbushan Jadhav case, Pakistan Additional Attorney General Ahmed Irfan claimed that on June 17, 2020, the retired Indian naval officer -- who Pakistan accuses of being a spy -- was given a chance to appeal against the death sentence imposed on him by a Pakistan military court.

Commander Jadhav, Irfan claimed, refused to file an appeal and instead preferred to follow up on his pending mercy petition.

India's ministry of external affairs dismissed Irfan's claim as a 'continuation of the farce that has been in play for the last four years'.

India has repeatedly requested Pakistan to grant it unconditional access to Commander Jadhav since he was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of 'espionage and terrorism' in April 2017.

Dominic Xavier offers his take on the latest Pakistani gambit in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case.

Feature Production: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
Zindzi Mandela, the daughter of South African anti-apartheid leaders Nelson and Winnie Mandela, tested positive for coronavirus the day she died.

Her son Zondwa Mandela today revealed his mother did have the disease - but it has not been confirmed what caused her death aged 59 in hospital in Johannesburg on Monday.

Zindzi is the worlds highest profile victim of coronavirus, which has killed more than 4,400 people in South Africa alone.

The Johannesburg regime is fighting a worsening coronavirus outbreak despite keeping cases down early in the global pandemic with one of the world's toughest lockdowns and quarantine regimes.

Zondwa told state broadcaster SABC: 'My mother did in fact test positive for Covid-19 on the day of her passing.

Zindzi Mandela (pictured in 2013), the daughter of South African anti-apartheid leaders Nelson and Winnie Mandela, tested positive for coronavirus the day she die. She is pictured during the Global Citizen Festival in 2018

Anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela escorts his daughter Zindzi Mandela on her wedding day

Catherine Duchess of Cambridge meets Zindzi Mandela (right) at the film premiere of 'Mandela: long walk to freedom' in London on 5 December, 2013

The fourth of Mandela's children to die Only two of Nelson's children, Zemani and Pumla Mandela, are still alive. Makaziwe, his first child, died in 1948, aged just 18-months-old. On the same day as his sister, in 1969, Nelson's eldest son, Madiba Thembekile Mandela, died in a car crash. In 2005, Nelson's son Makgatho died of AIDS, leading to the president announcing the need for publicity around the disease. 'Let us give publicity to HIV/AIDS and not hide it, because the only way to make it appear like a normal illness like, like cancer, is always to come out and say somebody has died because of HIV/AIDS, and people will stop regarding it as something extraordinary.' Advertisement

'Although, this doesn't therefore mean that she died of Covid-related complications, but simply that she tested positive for it.

He added: 'Simply by the virtue that there was a positive test, we are therefore obligated to function and work within the framework of the existing regulation related to such cases.'

Zindzi Mandela, South Africa's ambassador to Denmark, died on Monday morning in hospital.

Zindzi rose to international prominence when she read out Nelson Mandela's rejection of then-president P.W. Botha's offer for freedom in 1985.

The white minority government offered to release Nelson Mandela from prison if he denounced violence perpetrated by his movement, the Africa National Congress, against apartheid.

She read his letter rejecting the offer at a packed public meeting which was broadcast around the world.

South Africa has the most confirmed cases in Africa with over 224,000.

Gauteng province - home to Johannesburg where Zindzi died - has the country's most cases with over 75,000, or 33 per cent.

Provincial official Bandile Masuku, a medical doctor, last week told reporters that Gauteng is preparing over 1.5 million graves.

'It's a reality that we need to deal with,' he said, and it's the public's responsibility 'to make sure that we don't get there.'

But the province in a statement Thursday sought to calm fears, saying it 'does not have over a million already open dug graves' and clarified that the official was saying the province has enough space for that many.

It also said six members of Gauteng's Covid-19 War Room have tested positive for the virus.

The number of cases in the country is continuing to rise with 12,757 reported on Wednesday alone.

Its death toll is fluctuating with 174 deaths reported on Tuesday and 107 reported on Wednesday. However, the total number of deaths is on an upwards curve.

Modeling has shown that South Africa will have between 40,000 and 80,000 deaths by the end of the year.

Speaking of Zindzi's death, ANC spokesman Pule Mabe said: 'This is untimely. She still had a role to play in the transformation of our own society and a bigger role to play even in the African National Congress.'

The Mandela Foundation posted earlier that on this day in 1969, Nelson's eldest son, Madiba Thembekile - Zindzi's half brother - died in a three-car collision, which left another four people dead.

Zindzi's other half-brother, attorney Makgatho Mandela, died of AIDS in 2005.

His death led to an impassioned statement from then President Mandela, who called on the public to 'give publicity to AIDS' and to 'not hide it'.

Another of her siblings died in 1948 at just 18-months old.

Last year Zindzi stirred controversy by calling for the return of the white-owned land to South Africa's dispossessed Black majority.

'Dear Apartheid Apologists, your time is over. You will not rule again. We do not fear you. Finally the land is ours,' she tweeted in June last year.

President Cyril Ramaphosa led the tributes to Zindzion Monday.

'Zindzi Mandela was a household name nationally and internationally, who during our years of struggle, brought home the inhumanity of the apartheid system and the unshakeable resolve of our fight for freedom,' he said.

'After our liberation, she became an icon of the task we began of transforming our society and stepping into spaces and opportunities that had been denied to generations of South Africans.

'Her spirit joins Tata Madiba and Mama Winnie in a reunion of leaders to whom we owe our freedom.'

South Africa's foreign affairs minister Naledi Pandor has expressed shock at Mandela's death, describing her as a heroine.

Only two of Nelson's children, Zemani and Pumla Mandela, are still alive. Madiba Thembekile (right) died on this day in 1969 and Zindzi's other sibling Makgatho Mandela (left) died of AIDS in Johannesburg in 2005. Another of Mandela's children died as an infant

Zindzi Mandela (pictured in 2013), the daughter of South African anti-apartheid leaders Nelson and Winnie Mandela, tested positive for coronavirus the day she died

'Zindzi will not only be remembered as a daughter of our struggle heroes, Tata Nelson and Mama Winnie Mandela, but as a struggle heroine in her own right. She served South Africa well,' said Pandor.

Zindzi was born in the midst of the anti-apartheid struggle, the same year that her father's African National Congress created its armed wing. Zindzi, her mother, and her sister Zenani, faced harassment by the ruling National Part while her father was imprisoned on Robben Island, the BBC reported.

In a 1995 interview with Thandy magazine, Zindzi said: 'I am something of a rebel.'

'I never knew a normal life,' she added.

Zindzi Mandela reads the refusal of her father, Nelson Mandela to leave prison after South African President P.W. Botha offered him conditional release on Feb. 10, 1985 in Johannesburg, South Africa

Nelson Mandela with daughter Zinzi Mandela Hlongwane (back) at his birthday party in Johannesburg, 1995

'The day I buried the father of my child, my own father was released from prison'

Only two of Nelson's children, Zemani and Pumla, are still alive. Nelson Mandela died in 2013 at the age of 95.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation is currently consulting with the Mandela family. The Danish Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the MailOnline.

Zindzi is survived by her husband and four children.

Who was Zindzi Mandela?

Zindzi Mandela was born in 1960, just a year-and-a-half before her father was first incarcerated for anti-government activities.

Her early life was marred with the constant imprisonment of her father and occasional removal of her mother for months-long prison sentences.

Care for the young Zindzi often fell to her older sister Zenani in these early years.

When Zindzi was 17 years old she moved with her mother who had been banished to Free State.

In 1985, Nelson was offered a release from prison by President PW Botha, on the condition that he 'unconditionally rejected violence as a political weapon'.

With both Winnie and Nelson in prison, Zindzi delivered his rejection of the offer at a public meeting.

The letter read: 'What freedom am I being offered while the organisation of the people [ANC] remains banned? Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts.'

In her personal life, Zindzi was married twice, first to businessman Zwelibanzi Hlongwane, whom she married in 1980.

Her second marriage, in March 2013, was to Molapo Motlhajwa, of the African National Defence Force.

She also had four children, who she noted were from four different fathers: Zoleka Mandela, (1980), Zondwa Mandela (1985), Bambatha Mandela (1989) and Zwelabo Mandela (1992).
Zachary Flowers, a government and civics teacher at the Chattanooga High School Center for Creative Arts, has been chosen to participate in the Harvard Case Method Workshop. This two-and-a-half day professional development project will take place at the Harvard Business School in Cambridge, Massachusetts on August 16 through 18, 2020.

The project will be led by award-winning Harvard Business School professor David Moss.

Dr. Moss compares student immersion in case after case studies to batting practice that helps train judgment.

Mr. Flowers was nominated by The League of Women Voters of Chattanooga in partnership with the League of Women Voters of Greenwich, Connecticut and the Harvard Case Method Institute for Education and Democracy in Cambridge, Ma., because of his teaching accomplishments in the area of government and civics.

The Case Method Project, which will now be an online virtual experience due to the Covid-19 pandemic, is intended to help teachers improve their method of teaching government and civics to their students. It is an interactive teaching tool meant to deepen students understanding of American democracy and goes beyond historical skills and factual content. Through an objective understanding of events, emphasizing content, chronology and comprehensiveness, it aims to hone decision-making skills. Rather than merely knowing which decisions historical figures made, the program engages and inspires students to understand why.

Mr. Flowers, who has been teaching at Chattanooga High School Center for Creative Arts for three years, oversees senior projects in addition to teaching Government and Civics, Economics, and Personal Finance. He was chosen for this project after submitting an essay to Chattanoogas League of Women Voters and says he believes history is about telling a story. I believe wholeheartedly that the Harvard Case Method will provide all of my students with the tools to learn the history of their nation, wrestle with the conflicts that existed, and defend their ideas about the past while shaping their opinions and beliefs for the future.

Legislators and educators have been trying to revive Civics which has been in decline in schools for decades. From the Constitutional Convention to Civil Rights and beyond, 22 case studies in this project explore key decision points in the history of American democracy to lead to an objective understanding of events.

Government and civics classes have a reputation for being dry. This means that too many students forget what theyve been taught. Two-thirds of Americans could not name all three branches of government, according to an Annenberg Public Policy Center survey published in 2015. Only a third could name a single Supreme Court justice. Lee Ann Mills, a former high school principal and member of the local league says, Civics education empowers us to be well-informed, active citizens and gives us the opportunity to change the world around us. Its important to understand public issues as a voter so you feel youre a full participant in the political process.

Schools eager to avoid controversy have sanitized their curriculums. Since then, courses on government have remained common, but most offer little more than rote study of the structures of government. Mr. Flowers will be asked to certify that he is willing and able to teach the cases in a non-partisan way.

Mr. Flowers said, it isnt a matter of right versus wrong every time, but is it more about a differing view on those experiences. To heal such a divide requires equipping citizens with the ability to engage those with differing opinions through a productive and respectful discussion. He believes that the Harvard Case Method will provide his seniors with the ability to do just that, and in turn, enter their post-high school lives with the skills to unite the country, or at least, make an impact on the communities they live in.

Teaching Civics with this method offers students real-world situations and allows them to parse out important aspects of a given dilemma. They learn to think fast on their feet with limited information which sharpens their analytical skills and empowers them to make critical decisions in real time. They begin to understand how different people use the same information to arrive at diverse conclusions.

Teachers chosen for this initiative agree to teach at least four of the democracy cases in their classrooms after the workshop, and are asked to lead a community discussion with their local league. Mr. Flowers has agreed to lead a discussion hosted by the Chattanooga League of Women Voters.
Two 19-year-old Grand Blanc women were injured after they fell down the side of a snowy slope at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

The incident began around 7:30 p.m. July 11 when the Teton Interagency Dispatch received an emergency call for an injured hiker whod fallen approximately 500 feet down steep snow on the east slopes of Paintbrush Divide.

Samantha Edgcombe and Mackenzie Finton were hiking from Cascade Canyon to Paintbrush Canyon over Paintbrush Divide when they each slipped on snow and slid, crashing into large rocks, per a Grand Teton National Park news release.

It was first believed only one of the hikers was significantly injured, but both women were found at the scene.

The Teton Interagency Helicopter transported two rangers to the area and each hiker was short-hauled with a ranger to the Lupine Meadows Trailhead and then transported via park ambulance to St. Johns Health Care in Jackson.

Short-haul is a rescue technique in which an individual is suspended below the helicopter on a 150 to 200-foot rope that allows a rescuer more direct access to an injured party where conditions make it difficult to land a helicopter in steep and rock terrain.

The conditions of both women were not immediately available.

More on MLive:

Missing Grand Blanc Township man found safe in Ohio

Former Gov. Snyder denied qualified immunity in lawsuits for second time

Candidates face off in primary election for 48th District House seat
Supreme Court Keeps Florida Law Requiring Felons to Pay Fees Before Voting

The Supreme Court on Thursday kept in place a Florida law that requires felons to pay fees before they vote.

This Courts order prevents thousands of otherwise eligible voters from participating in Floridas primary election simply because they are poor, Justice Sonya Sotomayor wrote (pdf). Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Elena Kagan dissented with the majoritys opinion.

She described the mandate as a voter paywall, while adding that the Supreme Courts inaction continues a trend of condoning disfranchisement.

The move will prevent some voters from registering in Floridas August primary and possibly in the November election.

Lawyers for Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis had argued that Florida would be irreparably harmed if a patently erroneous injunction is reinstated, enabling hundreds of thousands of ineligible voters to take part in the upcoming elections, one of which is only a month away, according to TampaBay.com.

The case involved a 2018 initiative where voters ended the permanent disenfranchisement of felons who have completed their sentences. Many other states have similar measures.

Up until that year, convicted felons were not allowed to vote in Florida at all. DeSantis then signed a bill, which included the provision that formerly incarcerated people must also pay their legal financial obligations such as restitution to victims, court fees, and fines. The Republican-controlled legislature enacted the provision that included the payment of restitution, fees, costs, and fines.

Access to Floridas ballot box has been at the center of myriad legal disputes, underscoring the important role the state plays in determining the balance of power not only in Florida but also in Washington. With thin margins often deciding key races, the outcome of the legal battle could have deep ramifications because the states estimated 774,000 disenfranchised felons represent a significant bloc, according to an analysis from The Associated Press.

Many of the states felons are black and presumably Democrats.

The left-leaning Southern Poverty Law Center, along with other organizations representing felons, asked Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas earlier in the month to set aside the stay.

With impending registration deadlines and a primary to be held next month, the urgency is ratcheted up, said Nancy Abudu, the deputy legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, according to The Associated Press. We are asking the Supreme Court to maintain the district courts order which set clear, direct guidelines for the state and counties to follow after months of delay on the states part, so that all eligible Floridians can cast a ballot in the 2020 elections.

Judge Robert L. Hinkle, of the Federal District Court in Tallahassee, had issued a preliminary injunction before a three-judge panel at the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit echoed his ruling.

The State of Florida has adopted a system under which nearly a million otherwise-eligible citizens will be allowed to vote only if they pay an amount of money, Hinkle wrote. Most of the citizens lack the financial resources to make the required payment. Many do not know, and some will not be able to find out, how much they must pay. He argued that it is a pay-to-vote system.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 18:40:55|Editor: huaxia

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TEHRAN, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Iran's COVID-19 cases rose to 267,061 on Thursday after 2,500 new infections were registered over the past 24 hours, state TV reported.

The total fatalities over the novel coronavirus in Iran hit 13,608 after 198 more deaths were added overnight, Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman for Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, said during her daily update.

So far, 230,608 patients have recovered and 3,471 remain in critical condition, said Lari.

A total of 2,073,791 lab tests for COVID-19 have been carried out in Iran as of Thursday, she noted, adding that 25 Iranian provinces are in high-risk or alert condition over the disease.

Iran announced its first cases of COVID-19 on Feb. 19.

Iran and China have offered mutual help in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.

In mid-February, at the early stage of the coronavirus outbreak in China, Iran lit up the Tehran Azadi (Liberty) Tower to show its solidarity with China, and donated 3 million masks to China.

In return, China has delivered several shipments of medical supplies to Iran. On Feb. 29, a five-member Chinese medical team visited Iran for a month-long mission to help Iran fight the pandemic. Enditem
On March 24, 2020 an 84-year-old resident of Ina Grafton Gage home in St. Catharines became Niagaras first COVID-19 causality. Since then, at least 388 more Niagara residents who contracted the novel coronavirus have died.

The Standard is publishing this page of remembrance because these people are not statistics. They were fathers and mothers, sons and daughters. There are 389 grieving families in Niagara and their loss is the communitys loss.

This page will be updated periodically. If you have lost someone to COVID-19 and would like them to be included here, please contact reporter Grant LaFleche at grant.lafleche@niagaradailies.com

Rose-Bobyk-Semby

Age: 88

Residence: Niagara Falls

Died: April 9, 2020

Bobyk-Semby was a founding member of the St. Marys Ukrainian Catholic Church and Parish Hall in Niagara Falls and president of the churchs womens league. She was a resident of Lundy Manor retirement home in Niagara Falls.

Charles Hudson

Age: 92

Residence: Niagara Falls

Died: April 11, 2020

For 30 years Hudson owned and operated Charles Hudson Aluminum in Niagara Falls. Along with is late wife Lucinda, Muskoka Glens Campground from the mid-1970s to 1996, returning to Niagara Falls to retire. He was a resident of Lundy Manor retirement home in Niagara Falls.

Edward Schanck

Age: 87

Residence: Niagara Falls

Died: April, 8 2020.

Edward Schanck was a Niagara Falls resident who retired to Lundy Manor to spend his twilight years with his wife, Barbara. He was a career firefighter who served the City of York for 35 years, retiring as a platoon chief.

Barbara Schanck

Age: 83

Residence: Niagara Falls

Died: April 10, 2020

Barbara Schanck was a long-time night school secretary for the Etobicoke Board of Education, after working at Roselawn Dairy in Richmond Hill. She retired to Lundy Manor with her husband Edward Schanck after they sold their home in Niagara Falls.

Wilma Morrison

Age: 91

Residence: Niagara Falls

Died: April 23, 2020

Wilma Morrison was a local activist and advocate for Black history in Niagara. She won several awards for her work including the Lieutenant-Governors Ontario Heritage Award, the Niagara Falls Arts & Culture Wall of Fame, and the Hamilton Black History Committee Award of Merit. She was also awarded an honorary degree from Brock University. She was a resident of Lundy Manor.

Jennifer Ann Langelaan

Age: 55

Residence: St. Catharines

Died: March 29, 2020

Jennifer Ann Langelaan, a mother of three, worked at the Niagara Falls trucking firm of G. Zavitz Ltd., but later started a home daycare business. A common sight in local hockey rinks, soccer fields and bowling leagues, Langelaan remained a friend to many of the people who were once in her daycare. In the last few years, she returned to trucking to support her family and help her children through high school and university.

Marilyn Burns

Age: 90

Residence: Niagara Falls

Died: April 25, 2020

Marilyn was mother of 4, grandmother of 11 and great grandmother of 5. Born and raised in Ottawa, Niagara Falls became home when she married Robert Burns in 1952. She was an active volunteer in Niagara Falls in her younger years. Marilyn was a resident of Lundy Manor.

Pat Kelly

Age: 85

Residence: Niagara Falls

Died: April 5, 2020

Pat was one of Canada's most successful boxing coaches, trianing Olympian Mike Stranger, and professional title contender Billy Irwin. He was also the founder of the Shamrock Boxing Club

Eileen Lindey

Age: 87

Residence: Welland

Died: April 9, 2020

Elieen was lifelong resident of Crowland/Welland. Her career was to be a stay at home mom raising 5 children. She was a resident of Royal Rose Place at the time of her passing.

Margaret Upper

Age: 80

Residence: St Catharines

Died: December 26, 2020

Margaret was a long time member of the St. Catharines YMCA. She loved Port Dalhousie, Kentucky horse races, and her favourite place, (where she went numerous times), Disney World! Margaret leaves behind her husband, Lou, her kids, Dave (Mairi) and Shannon, 5 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild.

Semso Ligata

Age: 77

Residence: St. Catharines

Died: Jan 1, 2020



George Niles

Age: 92

Residence: St. Catharines

Died: Jan 22, 2021

A residents of Tabor Manor in St. Catharines, George was a retired General Motors worker, hunter, poker player, country music fan and cancer survivor. He was a "tough cookie."

Bruce O'Grady

Age: 66

Residence: Welland

Died: March 18, 2021

Bruce was a junior A and junior B hockey coach. He played hockey professionally and made it as far as the Montreal Canadiens training camp in 1976.
San Antonio's recent string of daily triple-digit temperatures may have you longing for a trip to the nearest beach to beat the heat.

While beaches are allowed to remain open even as COVID-19 cases in Texas surge, some have restrictions and advisories you should be aware of before making the trip.

RELATED: 'Coastal distancing': Corpus Christi official asks San Antonians to stay away from beaches

On Wednesday, Corpus Christi officials announced that vehicular access at its beaches, including Port Aransas, will be prohibited from July 16 to Aug. 1 due to the surge of COVID-19 cases in Nueces County. The Texas coastal city has made national headlines in recent days for its sharp increase in positive cases.

At Padre Island National Seashore, for example, overnight camping is not allowed in all areas of the beach and its visitor's center is closed.

Scroll below for the restrictions and advisories at some South Texas beaches.
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She's been proudly showing off her figure in an array of bikinis.

And Billie Faiers was proudly displaying her incredible figure in a funky floral bikini as she headed to the beach during her sunny break to Ibiza.

The Mummy Diaries star, 30, looked incredible as she headed to the ocean for a swim with husband Greg Shepherd after travelling to the Spanish Island to shoot content for fashion brand In The Style.

Jaw-dropping: Billie Faiers, 30, was proudly displaying her incredible figure in a pink floral bikini as she headed to the beach during her sunny break to Ibiza

Billie displayed her amazing physique in the funky pink bikini with a geometric print in shades of blue and purple as she slowly stepped into the ocean for a swim, before covering up in a matching sarong.

The mother-of-tow highlighted every inch of her toned figure, with her blonde hair swept back into a low bun, and her eyes protected behind round-framed sunglasses.

Billie certainly seemed to be enjoying her brief trip to Ibiza as she relaxed by the beach with husband Greg, who ever the attentive spouse helped her in and out of the water.

Amazing: The Mummy Diaries star flaunted every inch of her physique in the funky multicoloured bikini and matching sarong (right) as she enjoyed some time in the beautiful sunshine

Mr and Mrs: Billie was joined by her husband Greg Shepherd as they enjoyed a dip in the ocean together during their Spanish break

Topping up her tan: After her swim Billie and Greg relaxed on their sunbeds, enjoying some much-needed downtime after days working on the new In The Style collection

Confident: After her swim Billie donned her pretty matching sarong to head back to her sunbed, before ditching it so she could top up her tan (right)

Cooling down: The mother-of-two enjoying the beautiful ocean waters with her husband Greg, after spending weeks at home in lockdown

Billie has no doubt been glad for the welcome distraction of a work trip as she anxiously awaits a planning permission verdict.

Billie and Greg have submitted new plans for the renovation for their dream home - a 1.4 million mansion in Brentwood, Essex.

The couple recently purchased the run down 1920s property and had dreamed of turning it into a five-bedroom luxury home over a planned year and a half long project.

Amazing: Billie has joined stars including Charlotte Crosby, Jacqueline Jossa and Molly-Mae Hague in Ibiza to shoot new content for the fashion brand In The Style

Dramatic: Billie has no doubt been glad for the welcome distraction of a work trip as she anxiously awaits a planning permission verdict

On hold: Billie and Greg have submitted new plans for the renovation for their dream home - a 1.4 million mansion in Brentwood, Essex

Big changes: The couple recently purchased the run down 1920s property and had dreamed of turning it into a five-bedroom luxury home over a planned year and a half long project

But after they were refused planning permission last month, the couple have drawn up new plans for a slightly smaller house.

According to The Sun, the design and access statement states that the new home's extension height will be reduced by just 500mm.

The Mummy Diaries stars have also made adjustments to the design so the property is not quite as close to their neighbours.

The report states: 'The planning officer confirmed that these now overcome the reasons for refusal on the original application. They therefore recommended that a revised application be submitted.'

New property: But after they were refused planning permission last month, the couple have drawn up new plans for a slightly smaller house

Distance: They have also made adjustments to the design so the property is not quite as close to their neighbours, with the new home's extension height will be reduced by just 500mm

The former TOWIE star suffered a blow last month after planning officials refused their application to covert their new property into their dream home.

Brentwood Borough Council rejected their plans, calling them 'too grand'.

The council officer's report states: 'it would be the biggest house on the street and the increase in size from the original home would not be acceptable.'

Plans: Former TOWIE star star Billie, previously admitted that the interior of the sprawling house is 'old and dated' and estimated that it will take the pair around a year to completely renovate it

House drama: It's been claimed the previous owners were granted permission to build two houses on the land, yet still, the plans for one large home have been turned down

The reports also had concerns about whether the home would be sympathetic to the local area.

The decision notice states: 'The proposed extensions when combined would create a development which is excessive in terms of bulk, size, massing, roof design and siting, resulting in overly dominant additions to the existing dwelling and a substantial building out of character and appearance within its context.

'It would unacceptably reduce the spatial quality between properties which is characteristic of the area, to the detriment of local visual amenity.'

Reports: The neighbours had expressed concern that the property would be too close to theirs and affect their privacy. Yet the report did not find this to be a concern

Happy: Billie and Greg tied the knot last year in a lavish ceremony in The Maldives, and they have two children, Nelly, six, and Arthur, three

Trip away: They have been openly documenting their sunny Ibiza getaway on social media, and the star has flaunted her array of holiday swimwear

Plans: Ahead of her trip to Ibiza, Billie was also spotted heading to auditions for Dancing On Ice 2021, along with stars such as Denise Van Outen and Love Island's Luke Trotman

It's been claimed the previous owners were granted permission to build two houses on the land, yet still, the plans for one large home have been turned down.

The neighbours had expressed concern that the property would be too close to theirs and affect their privacy. Yet the report did not find this to be a concern.

The Sun writes the report concludes: 'Taking all matters into the planning balance the proposal cumulatively results in significant harm to the appearance and character of the area, and cannot be mitigated by the imposition of planning conditions; the proposal therefore conflicts with policy CP1 and is recommended for refusal'.

Former TOWIE star Billie, previously admitted that the interior of the sprawling house is 'old and dated' and estimated that it will take the pair around a year to completely renovate it.

Billie and Greg tied the knot last year in a lavish ceremony in The Maldives, and they have two children, Nelly, six, and Arthur, three.
Minister of Health Paulette Lenert gave a short phone interview to our colleagues at RTL Radio following a massive spike in infections within the last 24 hours.

163 new infections were recorded within last 24 hours.

The government and health officials will debate potential new measures. A state council meeting will likely take place on Sunday.

The percentage of positive tests was slightly over 1%. In other countries this percentage lies at around 5%, Lenert said.

The main source of new infections remain private gatherings, Lenert explained. Extensive testing and contact tracing remain the key tool to break infection chains, she reiterated.

Paulette Lenert confirmed that Luxembourg is facing a second wave of infections.

The new numbers in detail here.
Wednesdays Twitter hack kept getting stranger and stranger. First, a set of high-profile accountsbelonging to the likes of Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Kanye West, and Elon Musktweeted out a fraudulent cryptocurrency donation link. My first thought was: If I were Bill Gates, I think Id be using two-factor authentication for Twitter. (Thats when you have to use a second step in addition to your password to log inlike using an authentication app.)

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Then, Twitter temporarily blocked all of its verified users from posting in an effort to prevent any further scams, and announced to users Wednesday evening, You may be unable to Tweet or reset your password while we review and address this incident. These steps were a strong sign that this was not an isolated set of accounts that had been compromised due to weak passwords or poor security but instead something much bigger and companywide. Indeed, Joseph Cox at Motherboard reported that the hackers had been given access to an internal Twitter user administration tool by an employee, which allowed them to, among other things, reset the email addresses associated with users accounts.

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One of the people whom Cox spoke with claimed they had paid a Twitter employee for access to the tool, and Twitter confirmed to Motherboard that an employee had been involved but said it was still investigating how exactly it happened.

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Its also possible that the attackers gained access to the tool by stealing an employees credentials, perhaps via social engineering or phishing of some sort. That would align with something Twitter tweeted out on Wednesday night: We detected what we believe to be a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools.  We know they used this access to take control of many highly-visible (including verified) accounts and Tweet on their behalf. Were looking into what other malicious activity they may have conducted or information they may have accessed and will share more here as we have it.

One or more employees could have been tricked into sharing their credentials or, alternatively, into resetting accounts by claiming to be requesting those changes on behalf of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and others. The former seems more probable in this case, however, both because of the publicly distributed screenshots of the internal Twitter tool and because of the scale of the compromise.

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If this incident was, in fact, the result of social engineering, thats actually good newsit means that Twitter can protect against future such compromises by locking down the authentication mechanisms for its internal platform or instituting stricter policies for how carefully employees have to verify the identities of people requesting account changes. If, instead, as the hackers told Motherboard, they paid a Twitter employee to give them access, thats much harderthough not impossiblefor the company to try to guard against.

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It should come as no surprise to anyone that there is an internal tool at Twitter where employees are able to make changes to user accounts. Twitter has to be able to do those things, in some capacity, for its customersotherwise it wouldnt be able to help users who had forgotten their passwords or lost access to old email accounts or experienced any other account-related mishaps. As former Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos pointed out in the wake of the breach, its impossible to describe the chaos inherent in dealing with the account lifecycle issues of the general public. The breadth of ways people lock themselves out of services that are critical to their lives is breathtaking, and we cant just ignore those folks.

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But that doesnt mean it should be quite this easy for someone to get access to a single company interface and change a whole bunch of accounts before anyone noticed. To its credit, Twitter has already announced that it has taken significant steps to limit access to internal systems and tools. At the very least, changes to things like the email addresses associated with accounts should trigger notifications to the original email addresses, and changes to high-profile accounts associated with real people should require some fairly rigorous verification of those peoples identities and perhaps also confirmation by more than one Twitter employee. Similarly, an employee changing an abnormally large number of user accounts in a short period of time might trigger some alerts to Twitter higher-ups.

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Its not clear how much those measures would have helped if what happened in this scenario was that the perpetrators didnt just gain access to the internal Twitter tool by stealing an employees credentials but instead, potentially, by directly bribing an employee. No matter how many controls are in place, if its possible to buy off employees with the needed access to manipulate accounts, then theres only so much Twitter can do by way of technical protections. After all, someone at Twitter has to be able to reset Bill Gates account. But at least if two employees had to sign off on those changes, then it wouldnt be enough for an intruder to bribe only one of them. Beyond doing things like that and restricting how many employees have access to these types of tools, insider threats are awfully hard to protect against.

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So many questions remain to be answered about this breach. If there was a bribe, how could the Twitter employee ever imagine getting away with this? What other kinds of information did the intruders have access to through this tool? For instance, could they read users direct messages? Who was behind the compromise? Will there be any follow-up crimes (such as trying to extort the owners of compromised accounts based on stolen private information from their Twitter accounts)?

For all of us, its a reminder that even the accounts we dont think of as being high-valuesay, because they dont store any credit card informationcan be used against us in surprising ways. I might have said, prior to this, that the worst thing anyone could do if they got access to my Twitter account was publish a lot of offensive tweets, that there was no obvious way for them to make money and therefore no reason anyone would bother. But clearly that was because I had a very limited threat model for the service in my head. (Aaron Mak details how the hack could have been much worse than it seems to have been.) Ideally, this incident would serve to expand all of our ideas about how Twitter and other social media platforms can be misused and lead to those companies making some changes that make it just a little bit harder for those exploits to be acted on.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
The suspect is accused of punching an elderly man before stealing his vehicle (Houston Police Department)

Suspect Attacks 83-Year-Old Man, Runs Him Over With Own Car: Police

Officials in Houston are searching for a suspect who allegedly ran over an 83-year-old man after punching him at a gas station.

The suspect, who is black, also ran the victim over with his own vehicle at a Valero station in West Houston in late June, the Houston Police Department said on Thursday.

The victim walked out of the store after making a purchase and then started his vehicle before going outside to smoke a cigarette, said the police department in a news release.

The suspect then approached him and suddenly punched him in the face, which was not captured on surveillance footage. That caused the victim to fall to the ground, according to police.

The suspect then got into the elderly mans vehicle.

Suspect runs over 83 year old male after punching him in the face during a robbery at a West Houston gas station on June 28th at 4:00 pm. The male then returns later that day and is captured on camera inside the store. Call @CrimeStopHOU w/info. See story>https://t.co/1i0AKbYLYy pic.twitter.com/UMKUC68vEm  Houston Police Robbery (@hpdrobbery) July 16, 2020

The victim stood in front of his Toyota Camry in an attempt to not allow the suspect to drive away, the police news release said. The suspect then drove forward, running over the victim, and then reversed the vehicle to where he was able to flee the scene.

The suspect is a black male, 20 to 30 years old, 60 to 62, and 180 pounds to 200 pounds, officials said.

The suspect was seen returning to the store later in the day while wearing a red bandanna, black shirt, and black pants.

The victims vehicle was found abandoned several days later on July 1.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 23:27:27|Editor: huaxia

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ISLAMABAD, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan said on Thursday that 221,279 nationals had been repatriated who were stranded abroad due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Pakistan started repatriation of its nationals in March amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"As of July 14, 2020, 221,279 Pakistani citizens have been repatriated from different parts of the world," spokesperson of the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs Aisha Farooqui said.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and our missions abroad continue to facilitate and assist our fellow compatriots all across the world," Farooqui said at her weekly press briefing.

The foreign ministry said earlier that a special cell, namely the Crisis Management Unit, is working at the foreign ministry around the clock with a dedicated team to monitor the phased repatriation of Pakistanis across the globe. Enditem
Executive Management of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has received a petition from a health worker of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) accusing the Sawla-Tuna- Kalba District National Health Insurance (NHIS) Manager, Mr. Mahama Sakara of an attempted sexual assault.



In her petition, the Nurse in the Savannah Region alleged that Mr. Sakara visited her duty post on July 8, 2020 at about 9:00am under the guise of Monitoring and sexually assaulted her.



We wish to assure the general public and all stakeholders that the Authority has already taken action with regards to the petition. The District Manager has been issued a query and his response has been received. There is also an on-going investigation by the Police service and further actions will be taken as the facts of the case unfold. In the meantime, the District Manager has been asked to step aside.



The NHIA strongly condemns all incidents of sexual harassment, sexual assault and gender- based violence in our society. The code of ethics enshrined in our conditions of service abhors such behaviour.



The organisation will continue to champion the cause of individuals rights and liberties to live and work without interference especially women.

Source: NHIA Corporate Affairs Directorate









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July 16, 2020 Hontiveros calls on gov't to pursue an independent and interdependent foreign policy to protect Filipino fisherfolk Senator Risa Hontiveros on Thursday said the government should pursue an independent foreign policy and reassert its ownership of Philippine territories, amid growing international consensus against China's excessive and unlawful territorial assertions. "Government must ensure that what is ours remains ours. The potential loss of the West Philippine Sea is tantamount to the loss of livelihood for Filipino fisherfolk who depend on these resources. Lalo na at may pandemya, dapat may seguridad ang hanapbuhay ng bawat Pilipino," Hontiveros said. The senator also highlighted that our independent foreign policy should be strengthened to end any further destruction that China has caused our seas, which has ballooned to over P200 billion worth of damage in our reef ecosystems. "Kapag sira na ang mga likas-yaman na ito, saan pa maghahanap-buhay ang ating mangingisda? Ang pambubully ng Tsina ay ikinapahamak ng 14 nating mangingisda na hanggang ngayon ay hindi parin nahahanap. Ang pambubully ng Tsina ay ikinalubog din ng mga mangingisda ng Gem-Ver, ikinawala ng kanilang hanapbuhay, at ikinautang pa nila," the senator said, citing a report stating that Gem-Ver fishermen had to spend about P2.1 million to repair their boat after they were rammed by a Chinese vessel in 2019. The current COVID-19 lockdown has also prohibited fisherfolk from going fishing. Hontiveros added that China's aggression in our territories despite the pandemic is an additional burden and threat to our fisherfolk. "Kailangan magpasya ang gobyerno na tulungan na agad ang ating mga mangingisda dahil kung hindi ay unti-unting mawawala ang kanilang kabuhayan, at mas lalong mawawalan sila ng pag-asa," she said. Hontiveros also welcomes the United States' recent pronouncement that rejected China's maritime claims around the disputed waters. "It's becoming clear that only China recognizes this so-called 'nine-dash line,' a self-serving declaration that has no legitimate basis. We must be able to work with like-minded countries, especially our allies in Southeast Asia to defend our sovereign rights, and to ensure that our fisherfolk continue to enjoy access to our own waters," she said. Hontiveros also said that while the Philippines is dealing with Beijing on the West Philippine Sea, the country could become caught in a strategic tug of war between China's Belt and Road Initiative and the U.S.'s Indo-Pacific Initiative. As such, the senator said the reinforcement of an independent foreign policy is needed to maintain a balance of power in the region. "Small countries like the Philippines are often stuck between competing interests of giants. As the US and China further their own interests, the government should not allow these superpowers to use the Philippines as a pawn in furthering their own agendas. We are our own country. Atin ang Pinas. We should have the full right and power to protect our land, seas, and people," she explained. The senator underscored that reaffirming both our independent foreign policy and the rules-based international order is the only way to resolve conflicts without the use of armed force, and crucially, the only way to ensure that our fisherfolks have access to our exclusive economic zone. "Sa huli, ang ordinaryong mamamayan ang malalagay sa panganib kung hindi maproprotektahan ang ating mga teritoryo. Hindi lang soberanya ng bansa ang mawawala, pati narin pamumuhay at dignidad ng mga Pilipino," Hontiveros concluded.
As our readers know, Minnesota has suffered under the high-handed dictates of Governor Tim Walz, who implemented by executive order one of the most extreme COVID shutdowns of any state. Minnesota ground to a halt, economically, socially and academically. The effects of the shutdown were (and are) catastrophic, even though Minnesotas coronavirus problem was confined overwhelmingly to nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, as Scott has tirelessly documented.

The organization that I run, Center of the American Experiment, swung into action in April to oppose Walzs extreme orders, at a time when virtually no one else in the state was standing up to the governor. We created a video in which Minnesota small businesspeople told their stories:

We set up a web site, Back2WorkMN.com, where people could easily sign a letter protesting against the shutdown and asking the governor to let Minnesota go back to work. Each letter went via email to Governor Walz, with copies to each signers Senator and Representative, based on zip code.

We publicized Back2WorkMN.com on the radio and with billboards:

We launched a major social media campaign to drive traffic to Back2WorkMN.com, with digital ads like this one:

Our campaign resulted in more than 50,000 emailed letters being sent to Governor Walz and Minnesota legislators. While the battle continuesGovernor Walzs emergency powers remain in effect, with the Republican Senate voting to end them while the Democratic House refuses to let them expirethere has been considerable relaxation and most businesses have been able to resume in some fashion.

The State Policy Network, the umbrella organization for state-based conservative policy groups, has now released the finalists for its award for the Best Issue Campaign of the last 12 months, and the Centers Back2WorkMN campaign is one of the three nominees.

SPN selects the finalists in each category, but the winner is chosen by popular vote. SPN encourages nominated organizations to enlist their friends and supporters to vote for them. This publicizes not just the awards, but the nominated organizations and SPN itself. So: you can carry out that mandate by going here and voting for Center of the American Experiments Back2WorkMN for Best Issue Campaign.

Last year we won in the category of Most Influential Research for our work debunking green energy. We hope to win again this year. So, thanks for your vote! Once again, this is the place to go.
Theres no estimated end to the new restrictions imposed on Pennsylvania restaurants, bars and gatherings in response to a new wave of COVID-19 infections.

While this step may feel like a move back toward the yellow phase, we need individuals to see the seriousness of the situation and to take personal action, state health department spokesman Nate Wardle said.

Gov. Tom Wolf offered no estimated duration on Thursday afternoon.

Were trying to shut this down in a short, focused way so that all of us can get back to work as quickly as possible, he said. If we do nothing, were going to be overwhelmed by this disease, and thats going to be a bad thing for all corners of the economy.

Wolf announced the restrictions Wednesday, saying contact tracing has shown much of the surge results from younger people socializing in eating and drinking establishments while ignoring social distancing and the need for face masks.

However, the health department later said, we do not currently systematically compile information such as how many cases in [Pennsylvania] originated from bars, restaurants or churches.

Given that, Wolf was questioned Thursday on how the state can assure the public the restrictions on restaurants, bars and establishments including wineries are truly justified and focused on the right things.

Wolf said he believes the state can produce the data to back up the decision. He added with what we know, thats where we saw the outbreak. Thats where people were congregating together. Thats where they were in close contact  we put all the evidence together and that seems to be the source.

Wolf has said the surge could interfere with reopening schools in six weeks if it isnt brought under control.

State health secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said the key to controlling the surge and moving toward normal is to social distance, wear masks in all public and outdoor situations where other people are within six feet, and wash hands frequently.

As Wolf announced the new restrictions to news reporters, he communicated by video conference with Dr. David Rubin, who is involved with a Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia model that apparently played a role in the decision.

The model looks at hotspots all over the country. Rubin described a wave of infections flowing into Pennsylvania from places including Cleveland, Washington, D.C. and Baltimore.

Wolf also blamed much of on interstate travel, southern states that didnt react as aggressively and reopened quickly, and a lack of a coordinated national response.

Wardle said state officials will be watching assorted models and data in deciding when restrictions can be lifted.

He said much focus will be on 7- and 14-day averages of new cases and the rate of positive tests.

As of early this week, about 4.4% of COVID-19 tests were coming back positive in Pennsylvania. But rates varied substantially by region. Among counties with large population centers, rates ranged from 7.8% in Allegheny County to about 2% in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties.

Levine said a rate under 5% is good, while a rate that goes above 5% is bad, especially when it approaches 10%.

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.
Technavio has been monitoring the global cleansing lotion market size and it is poised to grow by USD 641.39 million during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of 4% 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/20200715005848/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Cleansing Lotion 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. Beiersdorf AG, CHANEL Ltd., Christian Dior SE, Groupe Clarins, Johnson Johnson Services Inc., L'Oreal SA, Shiseido Co. Ltd., The Estee Lauder Companies Inc., The Procter Gamble Co., and Unilever Group 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.

The increasing demand for beauty products has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market.

Cleansing Lotion Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Cleansing Lotion Market is segmented as below:

Distribution Channel Offline Online

Geographic Landscape 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=IRTNTR40708

Cleansing Lotion 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 cleansing lotion market report covers the following areas:

Cleansing Lotion Market size

Cleansing Lotion Market trends

Cleansing Lotion Market industry analysis

This study identifies the rising demand for multifunctional cleansing lotions as one of the prime reasons driving the cleansing lotion market growth during the next few years.

Cleansing Lotion Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the cleansing lotion market, including some of the vendors such as Beiersdorf AG, CHANEL Ltd., Christian Dior SE, Groupe Clarins, Johnson Johnson Services Inc., L'Oreal SA, Shiseido Co. Ltd., The Estee Lauder Companies Inc., The Procter Gamble Co., and Unilever Group. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the cleansing lotion market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Cleansing Lotion Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist cleansing lotion market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the cleansing lotion market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the cleansing lotion market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of cleansing lotion market vendors

Table Of Contents :

PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT

Preface

Currency conversion rates for US$

PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE

Market ecosystem

Market characteristics

Market segmentation analysis

Value chain analysis

PART 04: MARKET SIZING

Market definition

Market sizing 2019

Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market outlook

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 DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL

Market segmentation by distribution channel

Comparison by distribution channel

Offline Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Online Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by distribution channel

PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE

PART 08: 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

PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK

PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES

Market drivers

Market challenges

PART 11: MARKET TRENDS

Multifunctional use of cleansing lotions

Increasing demand for organic cleansing lotions

Increasing number of M&A activities

PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Overview

Landscape disruption

Competitive scenario

PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

Beiersdorf AG

CHANEL Ltd.

Christian Dior SE

Groupe Clarins

Johnson Johnson Services Inc.

L'Oreal SA

Shiseido Co. Ltd.

The Estee Lauder Companies Inc.

The Procter Gamble Co.

Unilever Group

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/20200715005848/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/
Photo: (Photo : Photo from Facebook)

The supposed big smiles of children in a hospital turned to tears of a charity founder. Fairy Bricks founder, Kevin Gascoigne, shared that he was devastated when he learned that their headquarters had been robbed last Sunday.

Around 18,000 sets of Lego were stolen in the charity's warehouse at Moldgreen, Huddersfield.

The charity is now calling for everyone who spots any of the stolen sets to call the police.

READ ALSO: 6-year-old girl wants to save the world from plastic [by litter-picking]

Break-in at the headquarters

On Monday, Fairy Bricks posted on their social media accounts of the horrific sight that welcomed them at their warehouse.

We are saddened to report that we have suffered a devastating robbery at Fairy HQ over the weekend. We still have asses the full extent of the stock taken. Our van has also been stolen. @WestYorksPolice are fully aware and are working to apprehend the criminals. pic.twitter.com/UwLmzrREvI  Fairy Bricks (@fairybricks) July 13, 2020

According to their initial post, the charity's van was stolen along with the sets of Lego bricks. One of the photos posted show a small opening made on one of the warehouse walls. Neighbor informed Gascoigne about the incident on Monday morning. The neighbor told Gascoigne, "I came down, and that was it. I witnessed the devastation and saw what they'd taken. We've been in bits."

READ ALSO: 14-year-old Colorado boy with a rare disease that turns him to stone asks for help with his treatment

Call for help to bounce back

Gascoigne describes the incident as a dark place in which their charity is put. However, the founder is positive that they will bounce back immediately because the kids need them. Fairy Bricks already coordinated with the West Yorkshire police. As authorities are already on the case, the charity is also calling for help from the community. On Tuesday, Fairy Bricks posted on their social media accounts the photos of the building bricks which were stolen.

They called for those who might notice unusual sales of the same building bricks models in large volumes. According to the charity, they urge the public to report this to the police for proper coordination immediately.

READ ALSO: Man in superhero costume keeps helping kids despite pandemic

Fairy Bricks' advocacy

Since 2014, the charity has been giving away building bricks to sick children in the United Kingdom. Last year, they were able to give away 50,000 Lego sets. During the coronavirus pandemic, they were able to donate more than 32,000 building bricks sets to children of NHS workers. After the incident, the charity garnered positive noise online. Gascoigne said that the positive comments they received mean more than the number of items that they lost. Even hospitals who witnessed the advocacy of Fairy Bricks take place, sent their support to the group.

So sad to see this happened! Fairy Bricks help so many patients. We send lots of love and support to Kevin and his team. @Leeds_Cares @fairybricks @Leeds_Childrens @LeedsHospitals https://t.co/AAtorg5cqI  Children's Day Care And CSAL (@ChildrenLounge) July 14, 2020

READ ALSO: 2 Boys raise $400 to help a food pantry during the coronavirus pandemic [they made dog treats]
Crown Point Mayor David Uran said Hampton Inn will be a great addition to the city.

Uran thanked Good for building the hotel in Crown Point.

"I want to change the name of Jeff Good to Jeff Great," Uran said.

Uran said Crown Point has offered a lot of amenities for those traveling to the city, whether it be for those going to the Sportsplex or those families wanting a place to stay while their loved ones are in nearby medical facilities.

In past years, Uran has had to send visitors and travelers to hotels in other communities and now won't have to see "taillights leaving the city."

"This hotel has a stake in everyone's life in a positive way," Uran said.

Chareice White, the mayor's representative to the South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority and a Crown Point resident, said she was pleased to see the project go forward.

"We're very excited to see the first hotel being built in Crown Point making Crown Point one of the crown places to stay," White said.
Guatemalan migrants Felipe Gomez Alonzo, 8, and Jakelin Caal, 7, died in 2018 after being detained by US border patrol.

The deaths of two migrant children in the custody of the United States border patrol in 2018 could have been averted and US agencies need to do more to protect migrant childrens health, medical doctors told a congressional committee on Wednesday.

Felipe Gomez Alonzo, age eight, and Jakelin Caal, age seven  both from Guatemala  died shortly after being detained by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the US-Mexico border.

Available records make clear that Jakelin and Philippe both suffered terrifying and painful deaths that could potentially have been prevented by timely access to paediatric medical care, said Fiona Danaher, a paediatrician at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Danaher appeared before the Homeland Security Committee of the House of Representatives, where Democrats are pursuing an investigation of a policy of the administration of US President Donald Trump: separating migrant children from their parents. Felipe and Jakelin were among six minors who died in US border patrol custody between September 2018 and May 2019.

Friends and family gather around the coffin of Jakelin Caal, a seven-year-old girl who died after developing a high fever while in the custody of US Customs and Border Protection [File: Carlos Barria/Reuters]

Caal died of septic shock which, because it went untreated over many hours, cascaded into multiple organ failure, Danaher said. Alonzo died from untreated influenza complicated by pulmonary haemorrhage in the context of bacterial pneumonia and sepsis, she said.

By detaining children in crowded conditions without adequate access to medical care, the CBP is perpetuating systems that place children at risk for medical neglect, Danaher told the committee. And the emergence of COVID-19 adds new risks.

The Government Accountability Office, an oversight arm of the US Congress, issued a report on Wednesday finding the CBP has not consistently deployed medical care to its stations along the southwest border and has mishandled emergency medical funds Congress provided. A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector Generals report found there was no malfeasance by individual CBP officers in the deaths of Alonzo and Caal.

Both deaths were preventable through early recognition and treatment, Dr Roger Mitchell Jr, the chief medical examiner for the city of Washington, DC, told the committee.

Catarina Alonzo, the mother of Felipe Gomez Alonzo, an eight-year-old boy who fell ill and died in the custody of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), reacts at her home in the village of Yalambojoch, Guatemala, in December 2018 [File: Luis Echeverria/Reuters]

Representative Mark Green, a Republican and also a medical doctor, in Wednesdays hearing defended the CBP from blame for the childrens deaths.

The standard of care that applies in hospitals in the US is not a reasonable benchmark for triaging 160 migrants in the dark of the night in Antelope Wells, the remote New Mexico area where Caal was detained and placed on a 90-minute bus ride with her father to a border station, he said.

The answer is not to turn CBP stations into Mass General, Green said.

The CBP deployed an additional 300 contracted doctors and medical professionals to its border stations in response to the deaths.

More than 5,400 children have been separated by US immigration authorities from their parents at the US-Mexico border under the Trump administrations zero tolerance policy, according to a 2019 estimate by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The policy generated intense controversy in the US and, although Trump announced a reversal, the CBP continues to separate children from their parents, migrant advocates and lawyers for families say.

Committee chairman Representative Bennie Thompson said DHS was intentionally impeding the committees investigation by refusing to produce subpoenaed documents. Thompson said the inspector generals report absolving CBP officers was incomplete and potentially misleading.

The report fails to examine the many troubling questions that these deaths raise regarding CBP ability to care for children in custody, including questions about the adequacy of the agencys policies, procedures and training, Thompson said.

US Border Patrol agents keep watch on a large group of migrants who they say were attempting to cross illegally in El Paso, Texas, in May 2019 [File: US Customs and Border Protection handout via Reuters]

If children are to be detained in CBP facilities, it is incumbent upon the agency to strengthen its medical infrastructure, Danaher said.

Given the current COVID-19 epidemic, and the impending arrival of another influenza season, time is of the essence, she said.
Financing provides added fuel to accelerate company growth

PORTLAND, Ore., July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Puppet, the industry standard for infrastructure automation, today announced it has secured $40 million in financing from funds managed by BlackRock. The new funding will support Puppets growth as it continues to scale operations and build out its product portfolio of infrastructure automation solutions.



Puppets technology runs some of the worlds most critical businesses in the most demanding environments, from financial services to government agencies, said Yvonne Wassenaar, Puppet CEO. This new capital will allow us to accelerate our go-to-market efforts and further fuel our innovation investments -- from extending the power of Puppet Enterprise in the areas of continuous automation, compliance and patching to our newly-launched event-driven automation solution Relay, built to extend Puppets expertise into cloud-native and API-driven environments.

Now, more than ever, businesses are under pressure to increase efficiency and deliver more value from IT investments, while taking advantage of new cloud-native technologies. An OReilly survey found that nearly 70 percent of organizations have either adopted or at least have begun to adopt cloud-native infrastructure.

However, infrastructure management is becoming increasingly complex and IT teams are struggling to keep up with the demand created by the proliferation of tools and technologies needed for these hybrid cloud environments. Puppet connects the dots across the enterprise, enabling Global 5000 customers to contain costs, drive efficiency and ensure business continuity without turning their backs on innovation. The adoption of automation to help streamline infrastructure management is on the rise. According to Gartner, by 2023, 60% of organizations will use infrastructure automation tools as part of their DevOps toolchains, improving application deployment efficiency by 25%.

Story continues

"Puppet is a leader in infrastructure automation across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Covid-19 has pulled forward demand for the Companys technology, which has become more critical than ever," said John Doyle, BlackRock Director. We look forward to partnering with Puppet as they lead the industry through this next wave of growth.

About Puppet

Puppet makes infrastructure actionable, scalable and intelligent. From the data center to the cloud, Puppet helps enterprises modernize and manage their infrastructure to deliver innovation and efficiency through continuous automation. More than 40,000 organizations  including more than 80 percent of the Global 5000  have benefited from Puppets open source and commercial solutions to ensure business continuity, optimize costs, boost compliance and ensure security - all while accelerating the adoption of DevOps practices and delivery of self-service. Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, Puppet is a privately held company with offices in London, Belfast, Singapore, Timisoara, and Sydney. Learn more at puppet.com.

Media Contact

Devin Davis

VP of Corporate Marketing and Communications @ Puppet

pr@puppet.com
Rapper Megan Thee Stallion Says She Was Injured In Shooting Sunday Morning

The Los Angeles Police Department could not immediately confirm which shooting the rapper, who was born Megan Pete, was injured in, but KCAL9 reported that an Instagram story showed Stallion at a party in the Hollywood

Hills Saturday night with Kylie Jenner and rapper Tory Lanez.



Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, was arrested during a shots fired investigation about 4:30 a.m. Sunday in the 1800 block of Nicholas Canyon Road in the Hollywood Hills West area, according to the LAPD. He was booked for having a concealed firearm in a vehicle, but it was not immediately clear if investigators believe he was responsible for the shots fired.

One person was taken to a hospital with a foot injury, the LAPD said.

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On Sunday morning, I suffered gunshot wounds, as a result of a crime that was committed against me and done with the intention to physically harm me, Stallion said in a statement on Instagram.

The police officers drove me to a hospital where I underwent surgery to remove the bullets. Im incredibly grateful to be alive and that Im expected to make a full recovery.

Further information was not available from the Los Angeles Police Department.

Stallion, 25, is a rapper from Texas who gained attention in recent years in part through freestyling videos shared widely on Instagram. Her song

Savage went viral this year on TikTok and in May topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Vijaya, living along the famed Marina beach in Chennai, is at her wits end now. A bajji (snack) seller, her pushcart remains in disuse, and most probably will remain so in the foreseeable future, given that the citys corporation has prohibited public visits at the beach.

Her sons temporary job with a private company came to an end, after the firm's funds for salaries dried up. She is now, totally and abjectly, in the mercy of states rations for food.

The lives of the subaltern classes have taken a turn for the worse since the first coronavirus lockdown in March, eroding their agency to earn a living and rendering them dependent on the state for essentials, from food to medicines to emergency care. The effect of the pandemic on those living on the fringes, with no real social security, has been debilitating, say people in the unorganised economic sector.

As an added layer of misery, some livelihoods have been dealt a double whammy: their chances of getting back on their feet are minimal even after the phased 'unlocking'.

"We don't know when the beach will be open for public. The officials keep saying Chennai is seeing a surge in cases and ask us to not venture out. We used to get Rs 100 a day. On Sundays, we get Rs 200-300... this is how we survived so long," Vijaya says.

"Now there is no income," she continues. "We only get free ration but how can we survive this way?"

She says her son is currently jobless, even as the electricity bill continues to increase; coming up to Rs 4,000 in her block.

"We are asked to stay indoors. All of us are staying at home and the power bill also shot up. With no income, what will we do," asks the bajji seller, who has been running a stall at the Marina beach for 30 years.

With the prohibition of pushcarts on the Marina, several others have been unable to conduct their business. Another seller, Malar, shares her current challenge:

"Push carts are prohibited across the city because officials say crowds gather around such carts. So where will we go and sell now? We dont know how long this situation would last as the pandemic is not yet over, she says, adding that a similar situation is faced by those who live in the locality, as most of them had stalls at Marina beach, including pani poori and bajji shops.

In their own ways, people like Malar and Vijaya have managed to keep afloat, but the predicament of those living in the Sri Lankan refugee camp in Gummidipoondi in Tiruvallur district is worse as people have had to remain within the camp for the entirety of lockdown.

Sixty-year-old Angamma has been running a temperature for three days now.The only grocery shop in the Sri Lankan refugee camp in Chennai has nothing beyond Vicks Action 500 in stock. With no Paracetamol available, and extremely limited access to the outside world, Angammal is in a precarious situation. For now, its home-made pepper rasam which comes to her rescue.

Ever since the lockdown, the refugee camp is barricaded and it is difficult to step out, even for essential services such as going to a nearby hospital or pharmacy, Angamma says.

"Also, the pharmacy is more than a kilometre away from the camp and public transport and autos are banned here. Senior citizens like me are also scared to step out," she says.

Angamma wants a medical camp to be set up for refugees amid the pandemic. "Many people are catching cold or fever now," she says.

Hundreds like Angamma hope for the government to start monthly medical check-ups for the Gummidipundi camp.

However, this is not the only problem faced by the camp refugees. Most of them do not have permanent jobs. They are employed in daily-wage jobs such painting gigs, construction, among others. Ever since the onslaught of the lockdown, their livelihoods are at stake; they are unable to get jobs from contractors even after the city begins phasing into opening up.

We have had no source of income since the end of March. All we get per month is Rs 1,000 from the government and free ration. This is not enough to survive a month. My son who has been working as a painter on a contract basis is still not getting jobs due to coronavirus," said Vijayalakshmi, another refugee battling the effects of lockdown.

"The little income we used to get before has stopped. Our lives have come to a standstill. My son is anxiously waiting to get back to work but we dont know how long the current situation will last," she said.

There are concerns that the current divide between the haves and the have-nots would expand as a result of the pandemic. While there has been severe job losses in the white-collar world too, the pandemic has delivered a a complete blow to those employed in the unorganised sector. Until businesses pick up gradually, every day will be a struggle for the working classes.
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As Chinese companies also look beyond their borders to test the vaccine, they are running into mistrust and skepticism. Health experts have questioned why the Canadian government is allowing CanSino Biologics, which has teamed up with the Peoples Liberation Army, to run human trials in the country. Rumors have spread about the authenticity of a Chinese-made vaccine that is being tested in Brazil, as supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro cast doubt.

The strategy is born out of necessity.

Chinese companies cannot find enough candidates at home to conclusively determine whether their vaccines would prevent infections, a problem faced by research institutes and pharmaceutical makers in countries that have largely tamed the coronavirus. Phase 3 trials, the final stage before approval, require vaccines to be tested in roughly tens of thousands of volunteers in places with large, active outbreaks.

Along with the testing at the oil company, Sinopharm, which has completed Phase 2 trials for two products, has injected the vaccine into its chairman and other senior officials, according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, or SASAC, the government agency managing all employees at state-backed companies. The Chinese government has allowed the CanSino-military vaccine to be given to its armed forces, a first for the military of any country.

Yang Zhanqiu, a virologist at Wuhan University, was skeptical about the decision to give vaccines to state-owned employees for business travel.

It does not make much sense at all because the length of time that the employees take to travel is not the same, the locations may be different, and it is not easy to do tracking and monitoring, Dr. Yang said. It may just be a psychological comfort for employees.

A PetroChina employee based overseas confirmed that his colleagues in China had been invited to take the vaccines. PetroChina, SASAC and Sinopharm did not respond to requests for comment.
GROUPS OF parents and other anti-communist organizations condemned the acquittal of about 15 leaders of the Communist Party of the Philipp...
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.
Representative image

India has witnessed 10 percent more rainfall than normal, India Meteorological Department said on July 16. IMD also issued red alerts for coastal Maharashtra following heavy rains in Mumbai and adjoining areas. "Increased rainfall activity expected for next three-to-five days along the coastal areas," it said.

"Under the influence of strong lower-level wind convergence along south Gujarat and North Konkan and east-west shear zone in mid-tropospheric levels, fairly widespread to widespread rainfall very likely over Gujarat, Konkan and Goa during next two days," IMD tweeted.



Weather forecast and multi hazard warning for next 5 days based on 0830 hrs IST of 16.07.2020 pic.twitter.com/qn11NNah9I

 India Met. Dept. (@Indiametdept) July 16, 2020

Heavy rains lashed Mumbai overnight with some parts receiving extremely heavy showers. Areas like Bandra and Mahalaxmi in the city received 201 mm and 129 mm rainfall, respectively, between 8.30 am on July 15 and 6.30 am on July 16, IMD's Mumbai Deputy Director General KS Hosalikar said.

Twelve people were killed in rain and flood-related incidents across the country on July 15. While seven people died in Assam floods, four, including a pregnant woman, died in a house collapse in Uttarakhand. A farmer was killed after being struck by lightning in Maharashtra.

In the wake of the heavy downpour in Mumbai and coastal Maharashtra, the IMD upgraded the warning status from orange to red. Red alert has been issued for Mumbai, RK Jenamani, a scientist with the National Weather Forecasting Centre, said.

Mahesh Palawat of Skymet Weather, a private forecasting agency, said Delhi received only isolated light rains over the last few days as the monsoon trough had shifted towards the foothills of the Himalayas.

At present, the axis of monsoon lies south of Delhi. It will start moving towards the north on July 17 and cause rains in northwest India, including Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.

A fresh spell of 'light to moderate' rains is expected from July 17 to July 20 in the national capital, Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of the regional forecasting centre of the IMD, said.

"We expect to record around 20 mm rainfall in Delhi during this period which will reduce the deficiency to a certain extent," he said, adding the mercury is expected to dip to the lower 30s.

(With PTI inputs)
Own A Hyundai Kona EV? You Are Not Alone

Hyundai KONA Electric achieved the 100K milestone in just over two years since its launch

KONA Electrics class-leading driving range, fast-charging capability, safety and convenience features have led to sales success and industry accolades

Hyundai seeks to sell 560,000 EVs annually by 2025, leveraging KONA Electrics global success



SEOUL, July 16, 2020  KONA Electric, Hyundai Motor Companys globally loved full electric compact SUV, has surpassed the 100,000 global sales milestone. Cumulative sales of KONA Electric reached 103,719 units as of June 30just over two years since its launch in March 2018. Sales outside of its home market Korea accounted for more than three quarters of the total.

KONA Electric has been widely lauded for its class-leading driving range, fast-charging capability, safety and convenience features.

In April 2020, the inaugural TopGear Electric Awards named the model the Best Small Family Car, based on its performance during a 24-hour, 1,600-km European road trip. The same year, U.S. News & World Report named it the Best Electric Vehicle. In 2019, WardsAuto included KONA Electric on its 10 best engines list. In 2018, Auto Express named it the Affordable Electric Car of the Year. The EV also played a role in the KONA nameplate winning Spanish newspaper ABCs Best Car of the Year award. It also won the 2019 North American Utility Vehicle of the Year.

Building on KONA Electrics successful legacy, Hyundai Motor Company is focused on making zero-emissions mobility a reality, making it a significant part of its long-term strategy. By 2025, the company aims to sell 560,000 battery electric vehicles in addition to FCEV models.

About KONA Electric

Compact electric SUV segment-leading 250-mile estimated range

Bold, fresh design elements with extroverted color options

Signature LED headlights, taillights and daytime running lights

High-efficiency 201 horsepower (150 kW), 291 lb.-ft. electric motor powertrain

High-voltage 64 kWh lithium-ion battery

Standard floating touchscreen with Apple CarPlay/Android Auto capability

Hyundai Smart Sense (HSS): Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist with Pedestrian Detection Driver Attention Warning Lane Keeping Assist Blind-Spot Collision Warning Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist High Beam Assist

Premium technology availability: 8-inch navigation system Shift-by-wire center console drive controls with additional lower storage Next-generation Blue Link connected car system Heads-up display (with active pop-up display screen) Rain-sensing wipers Qi wireless-device charging





Editors note: The vehicle specifications and features in this press release are for the US market and may vary depending on country/region.



###



About Hyundai Motor Company

Established in 1967, Hyundai Motor Company offers a range of world-class vehicles and mobility services in more than 200 countries. Hyundai Motor sold more than 4.4 million vehicles globally in 2019, and currently employs some 120,000 personnel worldwide. The company is enhancing its product lineup with vehicles designed to help usher in a more sustainable future, while offering innovative solutions to real-world mobility challenges. Through the process Hyundai aims to facilitate Progress for Humanity with smart mobility solutions that vitalize connections between people and provide quality time to its customers.

More information about Hyundai Motor and its products can be found at:

http://worldwide.hyundai.com or http://globalpr.hyundai.com

Disclaimer: Hyundai Motor Company believes the information contained herein to be accurate at the time of release. However, the company may upload new or updated information if required and assumes that it is not liable for the accuracy of any information interpreted and used by the reader.
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Police on Thursday identified a person of interest in the death of a tech entrepreneur who was found decapitated and dismembered in his Manhattan apartment earlier this week, police sources confirmed to ABC News.

Police also said that the victim, identified as 33-year-old Fahim Saleh, was tased before he was stabbed and dismembered. They have not publicly named the person of interest.

The death was officially deemed a homicide on Thursday, with the cause being multiple stab wounds to the neck and torso. No arrests have been made and the investigation remains ongoing.

MORE: Alleged masterminds behind ex-Nissan chief's international bail jump have been denied bail

Saleh co-founded Pathao, a ride-share app that's popular in Bangladesh. More recently, he was the CEO of Gokada, a motorcycle ride-sharing and delivery company based Nigeria, which has faced financial setbacks and recently laid off most of its staff.

According to surveillance video from Monday, Saleh was seen around 1:40 p.m. being followed into his apartment elevator by a man wearing a suit, gloves, hat and mask and carrying a briefcase. When the elevator arrives at the seventh floor, which opened right into Saleh's apartment, he falls immediately, the apparent result of an attack.

Saleh's body was found Tuesday afternoon by his sister who was concerned after she had not heard from him for a day. She can be seen in surveillance footage entering the building, but the suspected killer is not seen leaving, leading law enforcement to believe she may have interrupted the act of dismembering, police sources said. There is a second way out of the apartment, through a service entrance, according to the sources.

PHOTO: Fahim Saleh, co-founder/CEO of Gokada, explains his company's operation during an interview with Reuters in Lagos, Nigeria, May 3, 2019. (Temilade Adelaja/Reuters, File)

He was pronounced deceased by first responders on the scene Tuesday afternoon.

Saleh's torso was detached from his head and limbs, which were found nearby in several large bags, sources said. An electric saw was also recovered, still plugged into an electrical outlet, according to law enforcement sources. His dog was found alive in the apartment.

Story continues

Detectives are investigating Saleh's finances for a possible motive, especially his dealings with Gokada.

"The headlines talk about a crime we still cannot fathom," Saleh's family said in a statement. "Fahim is more than what you are reading. He is so much more. His brilliant and innovative mind took everyone who was a part of his world on a journey and he made sure never to leave anyone behind. Fahim found success at an early age and built on it year after year, while remaining grounded and committed to helping others.

MORE: Tech CEO seen on camera barraging Asian family with racist rant has resigned

"No matter what he did, he did it while thinking of the greater good and his family," the statement continued. "His parents and his sisters were his light and he was theirs. There are no words or actions to provide any of us comfort except the capture of the person who exhibited nothing short of evil upon our loved one."

Gokada confirmed the "sudden and tragic loss" of its founder and CEO via Twitter, calling him "a great leader, inspiration and positive light for all of us."

"Our hearts go out to his friends, family and all those feeling the pain and heartbreak we are currently experiencing, here at Gokada," the company said. "Fahim's vision and belief in us will be with us forever, and we will miss him dearly. Thank you for understanding as we get through this."

In a second statement on its official Instagram Wednesday afternoon, Gokada said it was "shocked and saddened" by the "tragic circumstances" surrounding Saleh's death.

"Fahims passion for Nigeria and its youth was immeasurable. He believed young Nigerians are extremely bright and talented individuals who would flourish if just given the right opportunity. Fahim also believed that technology can transform lives and improve safety and efficiency. He built Gokada to act upon these beliefs," the statement said.

The company noted Gokada's growth under Saleh's leadership, adding, "As painful as these last days have been for us, we at Gokada owe it to ourselves and to Fahims memory to act and fulfill his vision for the company and for Nigerian youth."

It continued: "RIP, Fahim. You will be missed by everyone at Gokada and by the entire Nigerian startup community."

Person of interest identified in case of tech CEO found decapitated and dismembered originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 14:13:32|Editor: huaxia

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MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, July 16 (Xinhua) -- At least 16 fighters including eight security personnel were killed in clashes erupted in Dawlat Abad district of northern Balkh province on Thursday, district governor Mohammad Yusuf Alomzada said.

A group of Taliban militants, according to the official, launched massive offensives on security checkpoints in part of Dawlat Abad district early on Thursday morning and the security forces returned fire. A total of 16 fighters including eight militants and eight security personnel were killed.

Over a dozen more security personnel were injured, the official said.

Taliban militants who are active in parts of Balkh province with Mazar-I-Sharif as its capital have yet to make comments. Enditem
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 16)  Three thousand pesos await COVID-19 patients from San Juan City who will agree to be transferred from their homes to a city-based quarantine facility, Mayor Francis Zamora announced.

He said the cash incentive will serve as additional help for the families of the COVID-19 patient who will choose to be monitored and treated in a local government-manned isolation facility instead of undergoing home quarantine. Aside from this, he said patients in the city's centers will get free medical treatment during their quarantine.

"Kapag kayo ay lumipat dito, libre ang inyong almusal, pananghalian, at hapunan. Libre ang gamot. Mayroon kayong 3,000 mula sa pamahalaang lungsod para makatulong sa inyong pamilya," he said in a media interview on Wednesday.

[Translation: If you choose to move to isolation facilities, you will receive free meals and medical treatment. You will also receive P3,000 from the local government to help your families.]

The government wants to scrap the home quarantine option for COVID-19 patients who don't have a separate room and bathroom. Home quarantine will also not be allowed for those living with children, elderly, pregnant women, and those with preexisting health conditions.

The national government recently launched the "Oplan Kalinga" program wherein COVID-19 patients who cannot comply with the home quarantine protocols will be fetched from their houses and brought to government quarantine facilities to control the transmission of the disease.
In perhaps the first major meeting of leaders since the outbreak hit, the stakes were too high not to meet face-to-face.

There are limits to videoconferencing: When there is a lot of money at stake, people like to look each other in the eye.

So, on Friday, leaders from 27 European Union nations will be meeting face-to-face for the first time since February  despite the dangers of the coronavirus pandemic  to try to divide up a potential package of 1.85 trillion euros ($2.1 trillion) among themselves, and, just as importantly, to see who will pay in the most.

In perhaps the first such major meeting of leaders since the COVID-19 outbreak hit the world, the stakes were just too high to maintain extreme physical distancing.

You can feel the mood, as it were, Germanys Europe minister, Michael Roth, said of such flesh-and-blood summits. I wouldnt claim to be a psychologist, but I would say it really does help.

It better had since five remote video summits so far this year failed to bridge the financial gap between rival nations needing to agree on a more than one-trillion-euro ($1.14 trillion) budget for the next seven years and a 750-billion-euro ($856bn) fund to allow nations recover from the coronavirus crisis.

A worker vacuums the red carpet at the European Council headquarters in Brussels, Belgium [File: Yves Herman/Reuters]

It was already clear at Easter when I was calling, the first time, all the different capitals, that such a decision can only be taken if the leaders, prime ministers, heads of state, meet in person in Brussels, EU Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn said.

French President Emmanuel Macron swept into town late on Thursday already, eager to get in as many encounters as possible. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will wait until the official kick-off time early on Friday.

Whatever happens, it will make for an EU summit unlike any other at the urn-shaped Europa headquarters.

They will be well spaced. EU official preparing the summit

For starters, the cosy meeting room on the top floor, where the leaders have clashed at close quarters over everything from Brexit to migration issues, will be exchanged for the prosaically-named meeting room EBS-5, where normally 330 people fit in a space of 850 square metres (9,150 square feet).

They will be well spaced when they go into a restricted session with barely a few delegates, deadpanned an EU official preparing the summit.

There will be no group photo of the leaders like at last Decembers summit because of physical distancing requirements.

Often, the toughest of summits have so-called confessionals where the president of the proceedings takes one or more leaders to the side to see where they might budge. Other leaders can gather in mini-sessions to defend common regional or financial interests.

It is bound to happen again, but this time, every room which will be used at the summit centre will be deep-cleaned. The main summit room will only use filtered, non-recycled air.

The meeting room where an EU leaders summit will take place is seen especially adapted to keep the physical distancing at the European Council headquarters in Brussels, Belgium [Yves Herman/Reuters]

As soon as their vehicles pull up into the driveway outside the Europa building, the leaders will immediately experience the difference, officials said. Most of their delegations will be split off immediately and parked in an adjacent building. And instead of a warren of microphones and cameras seeking early comment, they will have the option to make a comment to a neutral outlet, no questions asked.

The already byzantine map of the building has been redrawn to avoid unexpected crowds and certain elevators for the leaders will be limited to a maximum capacity of two.

At the start of a session, leaders will be urged to mask themselves and respect at least 1.5 metres (4.9 feet) of distance for the informal greetings, often a moment when body language gives away how tough a summit will be. Yet, if Mondays trial run of foreign ministers was anything to go by, discipline was often lacking.

Should the worst happen and a leader suddenly shows symptoms, doctors will be on site once he or she is taken out of the room. A nation cannot put in a replacement, and it can only ask a friendly colleague to vote or speak in its place.

So, even if it will be a true face-to-face meeting, it will be one laden with provisos.

It doesnt automatically mean that excellent results will be achieved and that agreement will be reached quickly, Roth said. But after all, I am an optimist.

Others are already looking at an extended summit running even into Sunday, with another one possible within two weeks.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lashed out at President Trump for his handling of the coronavirus crisis while saying she wished she could be working with any other former Republican president.

'Observing his behavior I have concluded he is like a man who refuses to ask for directions,' Pelosi announced at the top of the weekly press conference Thursday.

The California Democrat implored Trump to fully utilize the Defense Production Act to increase the country's COVID-19 testing capacity and also provide frontline responders with more personal protective equipment, as there are still shortages, she said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she believed President Trump was like a 'man who refuses to ask for directions.' She implored that the president listen to the scientists and also fully utilize the Defense Production Act to boost testing and PPE production

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, photographed wearing her mask as she entered her weekly press conference, said she 'yearn[ed] for other Republican presidents' because they 'had a shared commitment to the governance of our country'

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also ripped President Trump (pictured) for his insistence that schools reopen while a majority of the country is seeing coronavirus spikes. She said the least he could do is get the schools proper equipment

'The president has made so many bad executive decisions we wish he would make a good executive decision and do that,' Pelosi told reporters.

She pointed out that 'all of the answers are there.'

'The scientists have the answers,' she continued. 'We know that testing, tracing, treating, distancing, masking, sanitation can stop the spread of this virus.'

'And yet the president continues to go down the wrong path and refuses to ask for directions from scientists who know better than any of us,' she added.

She said the testing delays - with some Americans not receiving COVID-19 test result for one or two weeks - and continued PPE shortages amounted to a 'massive dereliction of duty' at the hands of the president.

'People are dying,' Pelosi said.

Pelosi also ripped Trump for his insistence that children head back to school, while the outbreak is ticking up in a majority of states.

She said it was personal because her youngest grandchild attended public school in San Francisco.

'Instead of threatening schools, instead of the secretary of Education saying children should take risks, astronauts take risks. Oh really? Oh really? ... the very least the president could say is we're going to have the equipment necessary.'

She knocked the broader Republican Party and Trump for suggesting things like the $600 extra a week in unemployment benefits were too pricy for the country.

'Two trillion dollars that's what they added to the deficit to pass their tax scam a copule years ago, which gave 83 per cent of the benefits to the top 1 per cent,' Pelosi pointed out. 'They're in like a caste-system mode.'

And when she was told that Trump was hosting a White House event Thursday afternoon focused on cutting more regulations, she went after him for his recent decision to roll back part of the National Environmental Policy Act.

'I'll tell you this, he's done a lot of bad things,' she said. 'What does he do but say, "I've got beans on my desk" and people cover that,' she said, a light smack at the media.

She was referring to Trump posing with cans of Goya beans after liberals called for a boycott for the CEO being complimentary of the president.

'He's going to rise up people from poverty by making them breath foul air. I don't get it,' Pelosi also said.

The House speaker mentioned that NEPA was a Richard Nixon-era law.

'I yearn for other Republican presidents,' she said. 'While we may disagree on many points, at least we had a shared commitment to the governance of our country.'

Pelosi arrived in Congress in 1987, meaning that she served in Washington alongside GOP Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, prior to Trump.

And as she previewed some of the bills Democrats planned to pass in the coming weeks, she taunted Trump again at almost a whisper - as the president has broadly objected to the removal of monuments, including Confederate statues.

'We're going to be passing bills next week or the next about removing statues from the capitol of people who have committed treason against the United States of America,' Pelosi said.
Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Thursday described the power tussle going on between Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and rebel Congress leader Sachin Pilot as a fight between "autopilot" and a "fighter pilot".

Taking a swipe at Gehlot, the BJP leader said his every statement proves the "Gandhi family's proprietorship" over the Congress.

"The political war between Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot is a clash between an autopilot and fighter pilot," Shekhawat said in a statement.

On Tuesday, Shekhawat had taken a dig at Gehlot, saying the Rajasthan government was on autopilot as the chief minister was "busy chasing a pilot".

On Wednesday, Pilot was sacked as Rajasthan's deputy chief minister and president of the Congress' unit of the state.

Attacking the Congress, Shekhawat said the party had killed internal democracy decades ago. He said the Congress levelled baseless allegations against others all the time.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government on Wednesday pledged to launch an inquiry into allegations of sexual harassment against Mayor Park Won-soon, who committed suicide last week.

The city government said a committee of civilians and public officials will look into the allegations brought by Park's former secretary.

Opposition lawmakers are calling for prosecutors to investigate, but normally investigations are dropped once the suspect dies. Police have already announced that there is no need to seek an indictment against the mayor since he is dead.

A Seoul city spokesman told reporters, "To guarantee fairness and objectivity, we will set up a joint investigation committee with external experts on law, women's rights and human rights."

But the plans drew criticism because Seoul city officials are accused of ignoring repeated complaints from Park's former secretary accusing him of years of sexual harassment. They are also suspected of leaking the complaints she filed with police to Park before he killed himself.


The Supreme Court on Thursday pulled up the Central government for not making timely appointments of judicial members in the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) and directed it to do the same within a period of one month.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde also said that the court is inclined to extend by 3 months the tenure of officers retiring on July 22 and 23.

We will extend the tenure. In the meantime, Union can make regular appointments, CJI Bobde said directing the Central government to make appointments in one month.

Attorney General KK Venugopal, appearing for the Union of India, suggested giving a time of three weeks to consider names for appointments and said that there will be a huge vacuum in the tribunal as officers are retiring on July 22 and 23.

Pulling up the Attorney General, the CJI said, When we enabled you to make appointments, you havent done anything. Why must we give you directions every time?

Venugopal, responding to the apex court, said that the same could not be done due to certain difficulties. (ANI)

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FILE PHOTO: Empty box office is seen at the China Film Cinema, which has been closed following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Beijing

By Sophie Yu and Brenda Goh

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China will allow most cinemas to re-open from July 20, the film administration said on Thursday, six months after they were forced to close as part of draconian measures to contain the novel coronavirus.

The relaxation has been long awaited in the world's second-largest film market, where lockdowns have eased gradually as infections have dropped sharply since March, with many restaurants and malls open for months.

Cinemas in low-risk areas will resume operations but curbs, from limited film showings to mandatory masks, will still apply, although those in medium- and high-risk areas will stay shut, the China Film Administration said in a statement.

No area in China is now categorised as high-risk, the government said, however, and just four neighborhoods in Beijing, the capital, are graded medium-risk.

"This is breaking news for the industry and people are thrilled," said Gao Jun, former general manager of Beijing-headquartered Xinyinglian Cinema Chain.

"This industry is in a desperate situation because of high operational cost: the rent."

Cinemas that re-open will have to limit audiences to 30% of normal and keep vacant seats between patrons, who are required to book in advance and not carry in food and drinks, the film authority said.

The theatres were forced to shut in late January as China battled the virus that emerged in its central city of Wuhan late last year, before spreading worldwide to cause 14 million infections and 583,000 deaths.

Shares in China's largest cinema owner, Wanda Film jumped on the news, to end up 1.1% percent, outperforming a drop of 5% in the benchmark Shenzhen Composite Index.

"Wanda Film's preparations are progressing in an orderly fashion," the company, which runs more than 600 cinemas nationwide, said in a statement, adding that it planned to announce re-openings.

Last week, it forecast a swing to a first-half net loss of up to 1.6 billion yuan ($230 million), from a gain of 524 million yuan in the corresponding period last year.

Social media users welcomed the news, despite the restrictions. "I have many films that I want to watch in the cinema!" said one user on Sina Weibo.

(Reporting by Lusha Zhang, Judy Hua, Sophie Yu and Brenda Goh; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa and Clarence Fernandez)
BOSTON, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cohere Health has announced its company launch, with the mission of aligning the relationship between physicians and health plans around the care journey in a way that is appropriate for each patient. By leveraging its innovative technology platform that encourages transparent, high-value care alignment across an entire patient journey instead of individual service transactions, Cohere Health aims to improve the quality of care delivered, lower total cost of care, and transform the patient and physician experience.

Cohere Health's launch is flanked by the news of its recent $10 million Series A funding round led by Flare Capital Partners, with Define Ventures as an investor and partner as well as participation from an additional leading national strategic partner.

Cohere's platform replaces the existing patchwork of legacy, siloed processes and antiquated technologies that contribute to enormous administrative burden for physicians and health plans. It further facilitates the transition from fee-based services to value-based arrangements by providing an evolutionary path that can support all payment arrangements while reducing unnecessary variation in clinical outcomes.

Cohere Health has assembled an impressive team of proven leaders, including Gary Gottlieb, MD, former CEO of Partners Healthcare (now MassGeneral Brigham) as Chairperson of the Board of Directors. "As a physician, it's clear to me that the administrative complexity of the current system gets in the way of delivering the care that patients deserve, that physicians want to provide, and that health plans want for their members," Gottlieb said. "If we're going to realize the promise of value-based care, we need an approach that is based on all available evidence, shared expectations and transparency."

Siva Namasivayam, CEO of Cohere Health, explained: "The current system is resource-intensive, unwieldy and creates a frustrating experience for patients, physicians and health plans. There's no reason it should be so miserable for everyone involved. We have the evidence-based clinical algorithms, human-centered design and innovative technology to improve the system dramatically." Namasivayam, who has more than 20 years of experience working on transformational healthcare businesses, was previously the CEO/Founder of SCIO Health Analytics.

Michael Greeley, General Partner at Flare Capital, which led the Series A round, says Cohere Health is positioned to create real change in healthcareand the timing couldn't be better. "The flaws of the current healthcare system have been exposed further with the COVID-19 crisis," he said. "We believe that transformational technology and analytics need to be applied to ensure patients get necessary care and make the system a win-win-win for physicians, health plans, and above all patients. With the experienced and dynamic team that Cohere has assembled, I can't wait to see how they will transform the business of medicine into a system that's better for everyone."

About Cohere Health

Cohere Health is a patient-journey-focused software-as-a-service company on a mission to significantly improve the experience of patients, providers and health plans; increase the quality of care delivered; lower total cost of care; and increase transparency across the patient care journey. For more information on Cohere Health, visit www.coherehealth.com and follow us on Twitter @coherehealth.

About Flare Capital

Flare Capital is a team of proven healthcare technology venture capital investors and senior operating executives known for their unparalleled strategic industry resources, insight and total commitment to the success of its entrepreneurs. Flare Capital raised one of the industry's largest dedicated venture capital funds focused exclusively on early stage opportunities in healthcare technology innovation and is privileged to closely partner with founders and management. Selected investments include Aetion, Aspen RxHealth, Bright Health, Circulation (acquired by LogistiCare), ClearDATA, Cohere Health, Curisium, Eden Health, HealthReveal, HealthVerity, higi, Iora Health, Oui Health, Somatus, Suki, Tausight, Valence Health (acquired by Evolent Health), VisitPay and Welltok. Learn more at www.flarecapital.com and follow the firm on Twitter @flarecapital.

About Define Ventures

Define Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on building digital health companies redefining healthcare that will change all of our lives. We believe unparalleled change is happening in healthcare at the intersections of healthcare, technology, and consumer trends. Define believes that digital health entrepreneurs deserve investors that have real digital health expertise and experience to partner with them to redefine healthcare. We focus on partnering with entrepreneurs from incubation to Series B investments. Our partnerships include Unite Us, Verana Health, Lightship, Dawnlight, Folx Health, etc. For more information, please visit www.definevc.com.

MEDIA CONTACT

Tara Stultz

Amendola Communications for Cohere Health

440-225- 9595

[email protected]

SOURCE Cohere Health

Related Links

http://www.coherehealth.com


A security officer talks on his mobile phone during the sentencing hearing at the North Jakarta District Court in the trial of police officers Ronny Bugis and Rahmat Kadir Mahulette, who were accused of attacking Indonesian corruption investigator Novel Baswedan with acid, July 16, 2020.

An Indonesian court convicted and sentenced two low-ranking policemen Thursday to two years and 18 months in prison, respectively, for an acid attack that left a corruption investigator blind in one eye, after a trial which the victim himself and rights groups denounced as farcical.

A three-member panel of the North Jakarta District Court found officers Rahmat Kadir Mahulette and Ronny Bugis guilty of committing a premeditated assault on Novel Baswedan, an investigator at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). He lost vision in his left eye permanently after acid was thrown in his face during the April 2017 attack.

The defendants have tarnished the reputation of the police force, chief judge Djuyamto said in reading out the verdict.

The two officers, who had pled guilty, said they accepted the sentences and would not appeal. Rahmat was sentenced to two years in prison while Ronny was handed an 18-month jail term.

Speaking after the court handed down its verdict, Baswedan said he had not expected justice to come out of the trial of the two men accused of attacking him.

Even if the sentences were heavy, the trial had been designed to fail, Baswedan, who did not go to the courthouse to witness the verdict, told BenarNews by phone.

Earlier in the day, the state news agency Antara quoted him as describing the trial as farcical.

Any punishment meted out must be based on objective facts and evidence. We cant punish people for things they did not do, even if they agree to it, he said.

The prosecution had sought a one-year sentence for the two, arguing that even though the attack was premeditated, the defendants did not intend to throw the acid on Baswedans face. The indictment brought against the two policemen said the motive for the attack was personal, and not linked to Baswedans work for the agency tasked with fighting chronic corruption in Indonesia.

Baswedan was investigating cases that implicated senior officials when two unidentified men on a motorcycle attacked him on April 11, 2017.

Human rights groups have called for a new independent investigation, and also denounced the trial as a farce.

Rights activists have questioned the prosecutions argument that the defendants did not intend to throw acid in Baswedans face, but on his body.

In a statement issued Thursday, the Indonesian office of Amnesty International said the trial was riddled with irregularities.

Three key witnesses were not called to testify at the trial, even though they were questioned during the investigation, Amnesty noted.

The defendants were also provided with legal assistance by the police force, including a defense lawyer, despite police claims that the two officers were not on duty at the time of the attack, the London-based rights advocacy group said.

Last year, police formed a joint fact-finding team with the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), consisting of 65 members including 53 police, to investigate the attack on Baswedan.

The team found that it occurred when he was investigating six high profile corruption cases, including a mega-graft case surrounding an electronic ID card project. He was the lead investigator in the embezzlement scandal, which saw more than 2.3 trillion rupiah (U.S. $163 million) disappear from a national project to issue new biometric identity cards.

The scandal led to the political downfall of then-parliamentary Speaker Setya Novanto, who lost the position before being sentenced to 15 years for his role in taking kickbacks.
President Donald Trump returns from his travel to Atlanta, on the South Lawn of the White House on July 15, 2020. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

Police Group That Endorsed Obama Twice Backs Trump

A police lobbying group that represents some 241,000 members says its endorsing the reelection bid of President Donald Trump.

The National Association of Police Organizations formally endorsed Trump, in recognition of his steadfast and very public support for our men and women on the front lines, especially during this time of unfair and inaccurate opprobrium being directed at our members by so many, the groups president, Michael McHale, wrote in a letter to the president.

In 2012 and 2008, the group endorsed Democratic nominee Barack Obama, whose running mate for both elections was Biden. The association didnt endorse Trump or Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016.

McHale highlighted several actions taken by Trump recently, including directing Attorney General William Barr to prosecute people who attack officers, signing the Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act, and revitalizing a program aimed at reducing violent crime.

The national association, a coalition of police unions and groups across the country, represents more than 1,000 units and associations and 241,000 sworn law enforcement officers.

Trump, in a social media post, shared the letter while thanking the group for its endorsement.

I will ALWAYS back the men and women in blue, and never let you down. LAW AND ORDER will prevail! the president said.

Trump has come out against recent efforts to defund the police. Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said last week that he believes some funding should be redirected from police departments.

That answer appears to contradict a campaign statement issued last month that stated: Vice President Biden does not believe that police should be defunded.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks in Wilmington, Del., on June 30, 2020. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

The president fights everyday  for the cops that keep us safe while Joe Biden has done nothing to stop his partys defund the police movement and remains silent as police officers across the country are being attacked by violent rioters and protesters, Bob Paduchik, a Trump campaign adviser for law enforcement and labor unions, said in a statement.

Bidens campaign and the Democratic National Committee didnt immediately respond to requests by The Epoch Times for comment.

While accepting the groups endorsement in 2012, Biden said, The President and I are honored to accept the endorsement of the National Association of Police Organizations.

Over the past week, we again saw the incredible sacrifices of our nations police officers and first responders, Biden said at the time. Every day, these brave men and women put their lives on the line to keep our communities saferunning into harms way when everyone else is running out. The President and I will continue to do everything we can to keep police officers across the country on the beat and fight back against cuts that would put our public safety at risk, and make an already tough job even tougher.

Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
TSX.V: VIPR, OTC: VIPRF

Systematic Exploration Continues on Two Fronts at the La Virginia Project.

Drilling at the El Rubi Discovery Zone Continues to Expand the System

Exploration Drill now Mobilizing to Second Exploration Target, Rubi East

VANCOUVER, BC, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Silver Viper Minerals Corp. (the "Company" or "Silver Viper") (TSX-V: VIPR) is pleased to provide results from four new drill holes at La Virginia, two from the El Rubi discovery area and two from the exploration prospect, Macho Libre. As systematic exploration continues along trend at El Rubi, the initial test of Macho Libre is now complete with results from six holes still awaited. The exploration drill is currently moving from Macho Libre to Rubi East prospect.

Drill hole results reported here form part of the ongoing drill campaign at La Virginia. Phase II of the campaign had advanced steadily from November 2019 up until a pause in late March 2020, by which time the Company had completed 24 holes for a cumulative 6,955 metres. Work recommenced in June, under comprehensive and strict new safety protocols and monitoring.

Recent work at El Rubi has focused on a north-northwest trending mineralized zone composed of a steeply-dipping, gold-silver bearing quartz stockwork/breccia zone, underlain by a series of additional mineralized structures, currently interpreted as being parallel to the main zone. The El Rubi zone has been intercepted over 450m along trend to date. A second drill mobilized to site in March has provided a very early test of the first of three exploration targets, considered by Silver Viper as "High Priority." Initial drill testing of the first of these targets is now complete, with a total of 11 holes for 2,516m over a 1,000m long portion of the Macho Libre trend.

Silver Viper's President and CEO Steve Cope states, "Work on site progresses steadily and systematically. We explore with a section by section approach at El Rubi. Results of a newly generated airborne geophysics survey are expected to assist in our definition of drill targets along the El Rubi trend. We are pleased to have completed the initial test at the Macho Libre prospect and that the drill is now moving to Rubi East while we await the balance of Macho sample results."

Tabulations of significant intercepts for drill holes LV20-232 and LV20-234 (El Rubi) and LV20-231M and LV20-233M (Macho Libre) are included below. A drill plan showing the relative locations of the collars is accessible on the Silver Viper website.

SELECTED EL RUBI DRILLING RESULTS

Hole ID From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Est. True

Width1

(m) Ag (g/t) Au (g/t) LV20-232 213.0 220.5 7.5 4.50 32 0.54













LV20-234 116.0 122.0 6.0 4.26 11 2.05 incl 117.5 119.5 2.5 1.18 16 3.59

1 True widths are difficult to estimate at this early stage of exploration. The estimated true widths presented are based on current geological interpretation of the mineralized zones. Estimated Widths reported from El Rubi are 60% and 71% of LV20-232 and LV20-234 respectively. Estimated true widths of Macho represent very early exploration results, intervals have been presented using a 60% of drilled width. Presently the mineralized structures are interpreted as being sub-vertical. This interpretation may be revised as additional data are generated

Drill hole LV20-232 (Azimuth 240, Dip -650) was drilled within the main El Rubi trend, and is accompanied by several lower-grade stringer zones, not reported here as significant. Hole LV20-234 (Azimuth 240, Dip -500) which also encountered additional low-grade stringer zones, represents the northernmost drill hole at El Rubi with assays to date.

SELECTED MACHO LIBRE DRILLING RESULTS

Hole ID From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Est. True

Width1

(m) Ag (g/t) Au (g/t) LV20-231M 176.9 196.5 19.6 11.76 24 0.63 incl 190.5 196.5 6.0 3.60 54 1.07













LV20-233M 165.0 166.5 1.5 0.90 26 1.41

Macho Libre, lies 1.2km southwest of the southernmost El Rubi drilling. The two Macho Libre reconnaissance holes tabulated herein were both drilled from the same pad and are the southernmost test of the prospect. Hole LV20-231M (Azimuth 090, Dip -500) and LV20-233M (Azimuth 090, Dip -600) intercepted the projection of the target structure, with significant width reported in the case of LV20-231. The holes targeted a mineralized structure identified at surface. Mineralization is related to silicified and oxidized breccia hosting fine quartz veining. Sample results related to six drill holes have yet to be returned from the laboratory.

About the Project

La Virginia is located 220km east-northeast of Hermosillo, Sonora. It is a large exploration area, primarily prospective for fault-controlled, low-sulphidation epithermal precious metal mineralization. The Property and historical exploration database were acquired by way of option agreements made with two distinct parties. Gold and silver mineralization at La Virginia occurs within breccias, veins and stockworks, hosted primarily by andesitic volcanics, often in close spatial association to, or cross-cutting pre-mineral dacite dykes and controlled by fractures and faults that define the regional structural trend. Originally 37,700 hectares in size, Silver Viper's reconnaissance program has identified key targets and trends which are of primary interest. The Company has filed reductions of the large concessions to better focus efforts on the high priority trends.

At La Virginia, Silver Viper's Phase I drilling comprised work over five target areas totaling 4,753m in 20 drill holes. Phase II drilling was paused in March of 2020 at a meterage of 6,955m in 24 holes. Work recommenced in mid-June and is expected to continue for the coming months. Hermosillo-based drill contractor, Globexplore Drilling Corp., has provided the drilling services. Drilling by the Company to date builds upon a sizeable database including 52,635m of drill core from 188 diamond drill holes, generated by the efforts of previous operators between 2010 and 2013. Silver Viper is expanding upon this work by continuing exploration northward into prospective untested ground. A recently completed airborne survey was flown by Geotech Ltd.

QA/QC

Analytical results of drilling intercepts reported by Silver Viper represent samples of halved diamond drill core submitted by Silver Viper staff directly to Bureau Veritas, Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. Samples were crushed, split and pulverized as per Bureau Veritas method PRP70-250, then analysed for gold by lead collection fire assay fusion on a 30g split with AAS finish, and for a multi-element suite including silver by multi-acid digestion with ICP-ES/MS finish. Samples triggering precious metal over-limit thresholds of 10g/t Au or 200g/t Ag were retested by lead collection fire assay fusion with a gravimetric finish. Silver Viper monitors QA/QC using commercially sourced standards and locally sourced blank materials inserted within the sample sequence at regular intervals.

Dale Brittliffe, P.Geo., Vice President of Exploration, is the 'Qualified Person' under National Instrument 43-101 and has approved the scientific and technical information contained in this news release. Ongoing verification of scientific and technical information is achieved by direct involvement in the exploration work.

About the Company

Silver Viper Minerals Corp., is a Canadian-based junior mineral exploration company focused on precious metals exploration in the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora. The Company currently operates the La Virginia Gold-Silver Project. Silver Viper has 100% ownership of the La Virginia concessions acquired from the most recent operator, Pan American Silver Corp., and has an option to acquire a 100% interest in the Rubi-Esperanza group of claims internal to those concessions. Silver Viper is under management provided by the Belcarra Group, which is comprised of highly qualified mining professionals.

On behalf of the board of directors,

Steve Cope

President and CEO

Forward Looking Information

Information set forth in this press release contains forward-looking statements. 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 exploration and development, the ability of the Company to obtain additional financing, the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations, fluctuations in the prices of commodities, operating hazards and risks, competition and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in the Company's financial statements 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, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.

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 Silver Viper Minerals Corp.

Related Links

https://www.silverviperminerals.com/


When Lottie Dawson trod on something sharp while paddling at the seaside, nurse mum Nikki assumed a jagged rock was to blame.

It wasn't until her toe turned black and her foot swelled to twice its size that the pair realised something more sinister was lurking in the waters.

On closer inspection, Mrs Dawson saw a spike sticking out of Lottie's toe  belonging, it turned out, to a weever fish.

Lottie Dawson, 13, was left in pain after she stood on something sharp while paddling at the seaside in Sutton on Sea, Lincolnshire and her foot began to swell

Her mother Nikki, a 37-year-old nurse, assumed her daughter stood on a jagged rock in the water but was shocked to see a spike poking out her foot

The fish, which are about five inches long and bury themselves in sand on the shore, have spines on their backs and gill covers that secrete venom.

Mrs Dawson, 36, was enjoying a trip to Sutton on Sea, Lincolnshire, with 13-year-old Lottie, pictured.

She said: 'Lottie was just paddling, she wasn't far in at all and then she screamed. There was blood dripping from her foot.'

After Mrs Dawson pulled the spike from Lottie's toe, her foot started to swell and they rushed to hospital. Mrs Dawson said: 'I am paediatric nurse so I have worked with lots of little traumas  but I haven't seen anything like this.'

The mum called 999 and was told a warning had been issued about the fish being on Mablethorpe beach in 2018 by the coastguard.

She was told to place the foot in water as hot as her daughter could bear to try and bring the poison out.

The blackness was reducing, but Lottie's foot had now started to balloon in size, so Nikki decided to take her to Boston Pilgrim Hospital.

She said: 'It was on top of her foot so she stood on it underneath. I thought that doesn't look very good.

Lottie had the spike of a weever fish in her foot. The five-inch creatures fury themselves in sand on the shore and have spines on their backs and gill covers that secrete venom

'We went to Boston Pilgrim Hospital and they were really worried about it because they this point her foot had tripled in size. There was a lot of fluid there. It was really big and swollen.

'The puncture side had then got an ulcer beneath like a blister.

'She was seen by nurse and doctors, but no seemed to know what was wrong and what they needed to do.'

The medics gave the schoolgirl an anti-tetanus as well as anti-biotics and anti-histamines before allowing her to return home on the instruction that she must return within 24 hours for another check-up.

However, when the family got home, the foot had swollen up even more.

Nikki said: 'We went home, she got in the shower and her foot had literally got even bigger.

'By this time the inflammation and swelling had tracked up her leg so her calf was really big. You couldn't see her ankle.'

The mum called 101, who told her to take her daughter to hospital amid concerns she could develop the potentially fatal deep vein thrombosis.

The girl and her dad went to hospital and again after treatment she was allowed home.

Lottie has since been back to Boston and while the swelling has gone down slightly the family have been told the damage could last for a year.

The youngster's foot began to swell and her toe turned black before she was rushed to hospital

Nikki said: 'We went back to Boston yesterday. He said he was a lot happier with it now the swelling has gone down.

'But he said he had done a lot of research about it and apparently it can last up to a year like this which is obviously is not great.

'It is awful, it is really big and swollen and there is lots of fluid there.

'I thought this cannot happen to anyone else. We are a sensible family, we don't go to the beach loads. It's one those things.

'She did have flip flops on for ages but took them off because the sand had gone really nice and soft.

'She took them off and unfortunately I think it was hidden under the sand and she stood on it.'

The mum now wants to warn other parents so the same thing doesn't happen to them.

She said: 'It was just to make others aware that all from stepping on this horrible fish that is the most poisonous fish in the UK that they need to be aware and wear beach shoes all the time.

'As a nurse in the NHS you do see some really nasty traumas. Nobody I have spoken to has seen this before. I think it is really scary.

'My daughter thinks I am unsympathetic but I think that is the nurse in me as you have to find out what is going on.

'We just have to wait and see, if anything changes we will take her straight back.'
The test will identify high-risk individuals and enable earlier and targeted treatment. The project has received funding from the Research Council of Norway

The molecular diagnostics company Age Labs, the Department of Genetics and Bioinformatics at the Division of Health Data and Digitalization at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, the Lab for Dynamic Gene Regulation at Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet and the Department of Acute Medicine at Oslo University Hospital, Ulleval, and the Department of Medicine at Brum Hospital, Vestre Viken have partnered to develop a novel test with the aim of improving the outcomes of those infected with SARS-CoV-2.

This team will develop a simple blood test to identify high-risk patients early in the course of COVID-19 disease, or even prior to disease onset. The innovation within this project leverages diverse areas of expertise among the collaborators and their many years of experience in developing novel biomarkers based on genome-wide epigenetic data from white blood cells.

A clinical need

COVID-19 disease has a high hospitalization rate, an unpredictable clinical course, and a high mortality rate. The current treatment is mainly supportive, based on treating complications after they have occurred, and there are currently no clinical markers to determine which patients are at greatest risk for severe outcomes.

"The clinical course in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 is unpredictable, and some patients deteriorate fast. Tools that may help us identify who will deteriorate at an earlier stage will be of great importance and enable us to improve the treatment of each patient. We also hope this project may increase our understanding of the biological processes involved in this disease," expresses physician Anders Tveita, who will lead the patient inclusion at Brum hospital.

Platform technology

Age Labs uses state-of-the-art machine learning technology and data from biobanks to develop biomarkers. The company measures the epigenetic state of immune cells, with a particular focus on age-related diseases.

"As medical doctors and clinicians, we understand the challenges confronting our colleagues in the field. When the pandemic hit Norway in March, we quickly realized that our platform puts us in a unique position to contribute" explains Cathrine Hadley, Head of Clinical Development at Age Labs.

A predictive test

The test will first be used in hospitals to decide the appropriate level of care and to tailor specific treatment. The test also has the potential to become a screening test to differentiate between individuals at high risk for severe disease from those with an innate protection against COVID-19.

About us

Age Labs is a Norwegian molecular diagnostics company that uses advanced machine-learning to develop and commercialize biomarkers for the early detection of age-related diseases. These biomarkers are suited for evaluating epigenetic drug effects in clinical trials.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200716005347/en/

Contacts:

Espen Riskedal, CEO

espen@agelabs.com

+47 414 36 739

www.agelabs.com
Damilola Adegboye, the sister of Nigerias first female combat helicopter pilot, Tolulope Arotile, who died on Tuesday, has demanded an investigation into her death.

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported the death of Ms Arotile, who died as a result of head injuries sustained from a road accident at a naval base in Kaduna.

She was reportedly killed in a freak accident when a driver was reversing, naval authorities claimed.

Last year, the NAF winged Ms Arotile as the first female helicopter combat pilot.

She had then successfully completed her pilot training courses at the Starlite International Training Academy, South Africa.

Aggrieved sister

In an interview with The PUNCH on Thursday, Ms Adegboye said the family is devastated by the untimely death. She, however, called for an investigation into the death.

Mrs Adegboye reportedly said, We in the family are not convinced that Tolu can just die like that in a freak accident. I know that the military is well trained in the art of investigation, we want them to carry out a thorough investigation that can convince us beyond all doubts that the incident that led to her death was real.

She said on the day of the incident, she and the deceased were in the room and she (Tolu) was sleeping

A call came into her phone which she picked but from the way they spoke, I knew the caller must be a senior officer calling her to come to Airforce base. She felt reluctant and I offered to drop her off.

One hour later, I read online that something serious had happened to her. I couldnt believe that somebody I just dropped off is dead, she added.

In the said vein, the Aareonakakanfo of Yorubaland, Gani Adams, has called for a probe.

The tribal leader, in a statement on Thursday, by his spokesperson, Kehinde Aderemi, described the death as a personal loss, especially, to the Yorubas.

He also urged the international community to compel the authorities to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death.

Nigeria has lost one of its best brains in the military in such a suspicious circumstance, Mr Adams said. The late Tolulope Arotiles short span in life was remarkable with a track record of being the first female combat helicopter pilot. The best we can do as a nation is to get to the root of the circumstances culminating in her death.

As far as I am concerned, reports of her death still remained suspicious to me because her death has raised many questions, he added.

He said the way the 24-year-old reportedly died raised more questions than answers.

READ ALSO:

How would such a promising, young girl be killed by a reversing car within the premises of the barrack? Who drove the car? What was his or her name? Where was the suspected killer at the moment? And what is the present situation? We will like to know, and that is why I am charging the international community to investigate and look into the circumstances surrounding her death, Mr Adams said.

Mr Adams added that the death of such a promising, young girl has exposed the nation as a country that never values the lives of its citizens, especially, the best and exceptional citizens.

Tolus father said he spoke with his daughter by 1 p.m. and by 5 p.m., a few hours later she was reportedly killed by a reversing car and was in the mortuary, he said. That story needs to be investigated because her case is one out of the many deaths of great Nigerians that made positive impacts toward making Nigeria great.
The funding is being provided under the EU assistance package to Ukraine.

The European Union is to disburse EUR 105 million in support for small- and medium-sized enterprises and reforms in Ukraine.

"Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Olha Stefanishyna has signed three agreements with the European Commission on the financing of new EU assistance programs for Ukraine worth EUR 105 million," the Ukrainian government said on its website on July 16.

Read alsoZelensky's Office chief, World Bank official discuss provision of US$350 mln loan to Ukraine

This funding is being provided under the EU assistance package to Ukraine, aimed at supporting small businesses, pursuing reforms and overcoming the effects of the COVID-19 epidemic.

"The assistance from the European Union will be focused on a number of areas  from strengthening the capacity of the authorities and providing expert consultation on the reforms path, to investing in small farms and innovation grants for the development of small and medium enterprises," Stefanishyna said. "The implementation of the aforesaid programs will stimulate the development of Ukraine's economy, as well as allowing more effective counteraction to healthcare challenges."

Of the sum, EUR 60 million will be allocated under the 2020 Technical Cooperation Program to increase the capacity of the authorities to carry out reforms under the Association Agreement. In particular, the ministries will receive expert support in the process of development and implementation of reforms. The program will also improve the quality of legislative processes in parliament, carry out the necessary reforms in the healthcare sector and more.

Another EUR 25 million will be channeled into the implementation of the EU Support Program for the Development of Agriculture and Small Farms in Ukraine. Under the program, small farms will be eligible for receiving additional grant support, advice and new skills for the development of their production process, as well as for the purchase of land. Besides, the program will help improve resource management in fisheries and forestries.

In addition, EUR 20 million will be allocated under the EU4BUSINESS: Support for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Ukraine. The program provides grants for innovative projects aimed at the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, job creation and business development at the local community level, as well as improving economic policy in this area in line with international best practices.

The EU aid package to Ukraine, aimed at fighting and overcoming the consequences of the COVID-19 epidemic, is worth more than EUR 190 million. Assistance will be provided in the following key areas: supporting urgent and short-term needs in the healthcare sector; strengthening healthcare facilities, increasing the institutional capacity of the Health Ministry; and overcoming the consequences of the crisis in the social and economic spheres.
COVID-19: UNODC-WCO Container Control Programme continues support through online training

 UNODC



16 July 2020 - Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic with the resulting travel bans and quarantine measures, the Container Control Programme (CCP), managed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the World Customs Organisation (WCO), has been seeking to continue its support to and cooperation with Port and Air Cargo Control Units across the globe. Several options have been tested to continue the scheduled training activities in CCP participating countries.

As a first step, an assessment of the situation in all operational countries was made to identify the impact by the COVID-19 lockdown for staff, to verify the percentage of officers working from home, to ensure that social distancing measures are in place and to check the internet possibilities in the respective countries. Based on the feedback provided, a number of pilot countries were identified to pioneer the CCP online training.

The first online training was initiated with Bolivia, followed by Colombia and Viet Nam. The first online pilots of the CCP received excellent support from the General Directorate of Viet Nam Customs, Fiji Revenue and Customs Service, Cambodia Customs, Bolivia Customs, Police and SENAPI, Colombia and Afghanistan.

The experiences made have been very encouraging. The online training facilitated sharing of first-hand information about drug trafficking situations between countries and regions and the CCP will continue to support all countries currently participating in the programme and reach out via online channels to new countries joining the Programme.

To date, 130 online CCP trainings have been completed with 1361 officers were trained online. Certainly, such virtual training cannot fully replace face-to-face training delivery by the CCP training experts and staff, but it will be an additional option also for the future to intensify cooperation and collaboration with partnering countries.

Further Information

UNODC-WCO Container Control Programme
The family of a young mother allegedly murdered by her hulking estranged husband has faced off with him in a Melbourne courtroom.

The body of Elaine Pandilovski, 44, was discovered underneath her Mill Park home, on the northern outskirts of Melbourne, on Tuesday.

Zoran Pandilovski, 45, has been charged with her murder and on Thursday appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court before devastated family members.

Zoran Pandilovski has been charged with the murder of his estranged wife. Pictured: Elaine and Zoran Pandilovski

Elaine Pandilovski's (pictured) body was discovered after police conducted a welfare check at the home on at Mill Park at about 9.30pm Tuesday

Dressed in a white t-shirt, Pandilovski stared blankly throughout much of the procedural hearing.

Seated in the front row was his own grieving mother and brother, who shared a remarkable similarity to the hulking man behind the glass in the prison dock.

Across the courtroom were members of Mrs Pandilovski's family, who sat in silence throughout the short filing hearing.

Pandilovski was arrested on Wednesday after slamming his car head-on into a random motorist in what detectives suspect may have been a deliberate act to kill himself.

He faces two further charges of reckless conduct endangering life over the alleged callous act.

A teenage boy was among those injured in the sickening crash, which Pandilovski appeared to have escaped mostly uninjured.

His estranged wife had been found dead inside her own home at about 9.30pm on Tuesday during a welfare check.

No explanation was offered by prosecutors as to why Pandilovski allegedly killed his former partner.

Instead, prosecutors deliberately withheld a police summary in order to keep the allegations secret.

It was a move that clearly annoyed highly respected magistrate Peter Riordan, who chastised Victorian lawyers for their repeated attempts to withhold information from the public.

'The public have a right to know about matters. It is through the media they get the information,' he said. 'I can't understand why lawyers get in the way.'

The court heard Pandilovski's mother and brother, whom he lived with at Epping at the time of the alleged murder, lived in fear of reprisals from random members of the public.

Prosecutors asked for 10 weeks to prepare their case against Pandilovski, telling the court they needed time to forensically analyse a dozen different pieces of evidence.

A further 20 more items of interest were located at the scene.

The brother of Zoran Pandilovski (far left) and his mother (right) leave the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Thursday

Family members of Elaine Pandilovski field questions from Channel 7's 'Harvester of Sorrow' Cameron Baud (right), who famously asked wife killer Borce Ristevski on day one whether he was a killer. He was

Pandilovski made no application for bail.

His lawyer revealed Pandilovski had been struggling with anxiety and depression and suffered from diabetes.

Pandilovski's mother broke down in tears as he was led from the court dock back to jail.

She held her other son's hand and sobbed as family members across the courtroom stood up and left.

Outside court, family members from both sides were met by a sea of reporters.

Pandilovski's mother and brother made their way through the pack without making comment.

It was a similar scene from Ms Pandilovski's family, who left the court house with a homicide squad detective.

Earlier, family of the special needs school teacher, who also cared for her 10-year-old son with autism, described Ms Pandilovski as a 'beautiful angel'.

Elaine Pandilovski and Zoran Pandilovski (pictured) were high school sweethearts. They had a son together

Ms Pandilovski's aunt shared a heartbreaking post about the loss of a 'beautiful, caring and compassionate' woman

'My beautiful niece, words can't explain how we are feeling now. Your life was taken from us and we couldn't help... I love you always, life will never be the same, our hearts will never be the same,' Ms Pandilovski's aunt wrote on social media.

'Rest In Peace my beautiful Angel.'

The couple were high school sweethearts and had been together for 15 years.

But according to neighbours they had recently separated and Pandilovski was living in the nearby suburb of Epping.

Local residents said Mrs Pandilovski was a devoted mother and had been living at the single-storey home with the couple's son, Thomas.

Pandilovski had been at the house earlier in the day to pick up an Ipad or computer which was broken, the Herald Sun reported.

Thomas had been staying at his grandmother's house when his mother's body was discovered by police.

'She was the most beautiful person in the world. She was caring, compassionate  did everything for everyone,' the aunt said.

'She was more my best friend more like a sister than a niece. I did everything with her.'

One nearby resident described the woman and her son as 'good people'.

Detectives (pictured on Wednesday) are seen leaving the Mill Park property on Wednesday

'I just can't believe it,' the neighbour said.

'There was a kid outside crying. Feel sorry for who it is. This is a quiet area.'

In 2011, Pandilovski opened up about their relationship, telling the Sydney Morning Herald the first year 'was probably the toughest' year in their relationship.

'We've since had a little boy and that, of course, adds even more pressure to a relationship. But I think now that we've made it this far we are pretty well-equipped to work our way through any problems that might arise.'

Pandilovski will return to court in November.

If you or anyone you know is experiencing domestic violence you can call the national hotline 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) or Lifeline 13 11 14.

The brother of Zoran Pandilovski pushes past a media pack that hurled questions at him on Thursday outside a Melbourne court
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 16, 2020 14:42 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666cf26d 4 News destination,Yogyakarta,travel,tourism Free

Amid the still alarming pandemic, some tourist attractions in Yogyakarta have opened, but not yet to visitors from outside the region.

As reported by kompas.com, the Yogyakarta city administration has opened some of its tourist sites, such as Yogyakarta Palace, Malioboro, Taman Pintar (Smart Park), Taman Sari and Sonobudoyo Museum, but only to local residents.

Selected groups of family members, communities or agencies are also welcome, but tourists from outside the region are encouraged to plan their visit for August instead, according to Yogyakarta Deputy Mayor Heroe Poerwadi on Wednesday.

"Please be patient, as we're currently still implementing a limited trial phase [at several tourist sites] to avoid coronavirus contagion," said Heroe. "There'll be a time when Yogyakarta will open to all [visitors]."

Read also: Borobudur temples Zone 1 reopens to public

Heroe added that tourists coming from so-called red or black zones, or areas with a high risk of COVID-19, would be required to show negative rapid test results prior to entering the city. Meanwhile, foreign visitors will have to present PCR test results.

I there's a tourist who gets sick during travel, they will also be prohibited from stepping out of their vehicle, said Heroe, adding that officials would be ready to check visitors' health certificates at designated parking spots.

All visitors will also be required to wear face masks, wash their hands frequently, maintain a safe distance from others and comply with other aspects of COVID-19 protocols.

If a mask is not worn in a public place, there will be a fine of Rp 100,000 or community service. The goal is for everyone to be cautious to avoid new spread of the virus, said Heroe.

As of Wednesday, Yogyakarta has recorded 42 cases of COVID-19. Three of the patients are undergoing treatment, 37 have recovered and two have died.

Separately, Malioboro's Abu Bakar Ali parking area manager Doni Rulianto said that groups of tourists had started to arrive in Yogyakarta on weekends.

A big portion came from Central and East Java. Last weekend, 14 tour buses arrived, said Ali.

Ali said the areas management was ready to implement the administration's order to request health certificates from incoming tourists.

Previously, we just checked that incoming tourists wear masks and ask that they wash their hands in the places provided, said Ali. (car/kes)

Topics : destination Yogyakarta travel tourism
 Close 'Are you kidding me?': CNN anchor slams Trump for 'hawking' beans brand from Oval Office amid pandemic

Donald Trump took a detour from his White House address on rolling back regulations to wax lyrical about his hair and incandescent lightbulbs, which make everyone look better. Likely why light bulbs are making a comeback.

Mary Trump continued her media blitz to promote her new book, telling MSNBC she has heard her uncle use the "n-word" and say anti-Semitic slurs.

The CDC, meanwhile, released a report claiming the president's China travel ban was too late to slow the spread of coronavirus as Dr Anthony Fauci said 30,000 people would participate in a vaccine trial starting this summer.

Check out The Independent's live coverage below:
H eather Morris has paid an emotional tribute to her former Glee co-star and close friend Naya Rivera, whose body was found at a lake in California.

Rivera, 33, was on a boating trip with her four-year-old son Josey Hollis at Lake Piru when she drowned. Her death was ruled an accident by the Ventura County Medical Examiners Office.

Morris played cheerleader Brittany Pierce on TV musical-comedy Glee, while Rivera played her on-screen girlfriend Santana Lopez.

The pair became close friends and Morris joined Riveras family at the lake during their agonising wait for news.

Morris has now shared a lengthy tribute on Instagram, saying they created the most beautiful friendship built out of love and understanding.

Morris wrote of her "beautiful friendship" with her co-star / Jerod Harris/Getty Images for MySpace

She revealed details of the last time they met and said Nivera left her two succulent plants, adding I look at them everyday and think of you.

Morris said she listens to Riveras EP on repeat, because from the moment I heard it, it struck me and I always wished the world knew more of your voice.

She added: You always shared recipes and I admired your love for food. We vowed to spend every Easter together, even though Covid stole this last one from us.

You are and always will be the strongest and most resilient human being I know, and I vowed to carry that with me as I continue to live my life.

Naya Rivera - In pictures 1 /24 Naya Rivera - In pictures Getty Images Naya Rivera Naya Rivera Getty Images Glee Glee Naya Rivera and Ryan Dorsey at The UNICEF Dia de los Muertos Black & White Masquerade Ball 2014 Getty Images Glee Glee Glee Naya Rivera attends the Women's Guild Cedars-Sinai Annual Gala 2019 Getty Images Naya Rivera of 'Step Up: High Water' speaks onstage during the YouTube portion of the 2018 Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour Getty Images Naya Rivera arrives at the MTV Video Music Awards 2013 Scott Gries/Invision/AP Glee FOX Image Collection via Getty Images Naya Rivera and Ryan Dorsey attend the March Of Dimes Celebration Of Babies Luncheon Getty Images Glee Glee Glee

Morris, 33, posted pictures of her and Riveras children playing together, explaining: We never took photos together because we mutually hated taking picturesour relationship meant more than proof.

Morris added: I speak to you everyday because I know youre still with me and even though Im feeling greedy that we dont get more time together, I cherish every moment we had and hold it close to my heart.

Riveras death was confirmed on Monday when her body was recovered from Lake Piru, a popular spot for swimmers about 56 miles north-west of central Los Angeles.

Police said her final act may have been to help her son back onto their rented boat before she became too exhausted to save herself.

Other Glee stars, including Darren Criss, Demi Lovato and Gwyneth Paltrow, also shared tributes to Rivera.

With reporting by Press Association
"You must reside in Ward 3, and have been a resident in Ward 3 for at least a year," said borough Manager Christine Hart.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. (Associated Press)

After initial resistance from some Republicans, Congress is inching closer to an agreement to extend at least some of the $600-a-week federal unemployment insurance subsidy approved this spring to help American workers hurt by the coronavirus crisis.

When they return next week to begin talks on another major relief bill, lawmakers face a tight deadline to renew the popular benefit, which expires at the end of the month.

The recent resurgence in COVID-19 cases in many states, including California, is providing a political tailwind for Democrats who want to extend the money.

"The extra $600 per week has been an absolute lifeline for these Americans," House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.) told reporters Wednesday. He said it was "cruel" to leave unemployed workers in limbo so close to the deadline before Congress reaches agreement about whether the money will continue.

And while some in the GOP remain adamantly opposed to extending the money and argue it discourages some workers from returning to their jobs, a few Republicans  including some White House officials  have begun floating the idea of approving a reduced or more restricted federal subsidy to assist the nearly 50 million American workers who have applied for unemployment insurance since the pandemic began.

In public comments over the last two weeks, Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin and economic advisor Larry Kudlow seemed to open the door to a compromise on the issue.

Unemployment insurance is just one of several sticking points.

Fights are also brewing over whether to include incentives to reopen schools in the fall, how far to go in shielding companies, schools and others from COVID-19-related liability lawsuits and how much federal aid  if any  state and local governments should receive to shore up their budgets.

They'll also need to agree on how to make the Paycheck Protection Program loans more attractive to small businesses, whether to continue the moratorium on evictions for people living in public housing or renting homes with federally backed mortgages, and whether to issue another direct cash payout of up to $1,200 per adult and $500 per child.

Story continues

With the traditional August congressional recess looming, there is not much time to reach a deal. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) vowed to get a package on President Trump's desk before leaving.

"We'll have a bill and hopefully we'll have it sooner rather than later because people really need to have it, and we should have it before the expiration of the unemployment insurance," Pelosi said Wednesday.

Direct negotiations between Democrats and Republicans have not yet seriously begin, but both sides have begun publicly sending up trial balloons through news conferences, statements and television appearances.

It will mark Congress' first major response to the pandemic since the spring, when it passed several laws that provided a total of nearly $3 trillion in emergency economic aid.

Negotiations over what to do next stalled in May, with Republicans saying they wanted to wait until July to see how the money it already approved  the largest single economic aid package passed in U.S. history  affected the economy before approving more.

Democrats pressed on, and the House passed a $3-trillion package without Republican input or the broad support that they hope will be the starting point for current negotiations. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called it a wish list and a nonstarter in the Senate.

McConnell has been adamant that the next package would originate in his office. Previous coronavirus bills were largely hammered out between Democrats and Mnuchin, much to the frustration of Senate Republicans.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) told Senate Democrats in a call Wednesday that McConnell has not reached out to them for input and that it appears Republicans are trying to sideline House Democrats. But he said Senate Democrats would only negotiate the next package with House Democrats in the room, according to a source on the call.

House and Senate Democrats want to extend the $600 federal unemployment benefit through the rest of the year.

The Trump administration and congressional Republicans have called the flat subsidy a disincentive for people to return to work because some lower-paid workers are making more money being unemployed than they would have at work.

Even so, in a departure from his previous position to end the subsidy, McConnell acknowledged this week that unemployment insurance will be addressed in the next bill, though he provided no details.

I think you could anticipate this coming to a head sometime within the next three weeks, beginning next week, McConnell told reporters in Kentucky on Monday.

Economic experts argue that the purpose of the benefit was to encourage people to stay home and not look for work as a way to control the spread of the coronavirus. Government officials also said providing a flat amount, based on a national average, was the fastest way to get the money out, rather than making adjustments by state or based on workers' pay  something beleaguered state unemployment systems were not designed to manage.

With the rate of positive cases climbing again in more than half of the states, Republicans have begun talking about extending the benefit at a lower amount going forward or finding a way to cap the benefit to no more than a person's normal take-home pay.

One possibility being considered is to cut the unemployment benefit from $600 per week to between $200 and $400 per week, and making up at least part of the difference by sending another round of $1,200 stimulus payments to some families.

Pelosi told reporters Wednesday she is open to negotiations on the $600, saying that it needs to be considered in totality alongside potential direct payments to individuals.

McConnell reiterated Wednesday at an event in Kentucky that the next aid package must include liability protections for reopening schools, healthcare providers and businesses. Democrats had initially called such liability protections a nonstarter, but have hedged a bit in recent weeks. Pelosi said Wednesday businesses would be protected from lawsuits if the Occupational Health and Safety Administration passes safety regulations they want for workers.

McConnell also said the bill he plans to put forward will include incentives to get children physically back to school in the fall so that parents will be able to return to work. That could take a substantial federal investment, he said.

The issue has become a key focus in recent weeks, with Trump threatening to tie federal aid to whether schools open fully so children are physically present. While he cannot do that on his own, he could insist on Congress conditioning the aid in some way. Some of the nation's largest school districts, including Los Angeles Unified, are already saying they will not reopen for in-person instruction in the fall.

McConnell didn't say education funding should be contingent on reopening, adding that rotating children in and out of schools to limit class sizes may be necessary.

"It can be safely done. You have to weigh the consequences. What are the consequences of staying home versus being back in school? Clearly, even though some school districts out West are shutting down again, I think all the evidence indicates that distance learning for kids is not as good," McConnell said. "We need to find a way to safely get back to work, and we feel, I feel like the federal government will have to play a financial role in helping to make that possible."

Democrats want the package to address how to reopen schools safely as well, with money for protective safety gear for educators and students, improving ventilation systems and more technology for distant learning. But they oppose Trump's threat of connecting federal aid to schools reopening physical locations, saying student and teacher safety has to be paramount.

"We cannot risk their health and safety and indeed their lives [and the] lives of anyone that they might bring this home to," Pelosi said. "Our teachers, our custodians, our people who work in public schools need to be protected. We can't follow the attitude of this administration: 'If you don't open up, we're not giving you money,' No, we'll give you money so that you can open up."
Evening Standard

Transport for London said significant progress was made over Christmas and the trial operations phase, which began on November 20, saw upgrades to train and signalling software and tunnel fire safety schemes. A precise opening date has yet to be announced but TfL commissioner Andy Byford said he would not allow the line  which will be renamed the Elizabeth line when services start running  to open until he was sure it was reliable. Originally due to have been opened by the Queen in December 2018, Crossrail has gone billions over budget, with the total cost now in excess of 20 billion.
The suspended chairman of the anti-graft agency, EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, has been released.

He was released on Wednesday evening.

A family source who asked not to be named informed this newspaper that Mr Magu arrived at his official residence at about 5 p.m. in the Maitama District of the Nigerian capital.

PREMIUM TIMES could not immediately confirm if he has concluded his appearance before a presidential panel probing allegations against him.

Mr Magu was arrested last week Monday. He has been appearing before a presidential panel investigating allegations of corruption and insubordination levelled against him by Abubakar Malami, Nigerias justice minister.

Mr Magu and Mr Malami have had repeated disagreements on the anti-corruption war and many Nigerians including a member of a presidential committee on anti-corruption, Femi Odekunle, believe Mr Magus ordeal is part of a power play with Mr Malami.

After his arrest, a combined team of police officers and operatives of the State Security Services (SSS) searched Mr Magus house in Karu, Abuja. Nothing incriminating was found during the search, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.

On July 11, President Buhari confirmed the suspension of Mr Magu and the appointment of Muhammed Umar, the EFCCs director of operations, as interim head of the anti-graft agency pending the conclusion of Mr Magus investigation.

This newspaper also reported how at least 11 EFCC senior officers were suspended in connection with the probe.

Among those suspended is the EFCC Executive Secretary Olanipekun Olukoyede. Some unit heads at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja were also affected by the suspension, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.

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One of the affected officials, who spoke to this newspaper, confirmed the situation.

I wrote and sent in my handing over note yesterday (Tuesday), he said, asking not to be named for fear of victimisation.

Our sources said among the unit heads suspended were those of legal unit, economic governance unit and tax fraud unit.

Some international anti-corruption groups last week wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari on what they consider the unfortunate treatment of Mr Magu.

The presidency has, however, said that those who see the investigation as a signal that the fight against corruption is failing, have failed to see the point.

Garba Shehu, President Buharis spokesperson, said the investigative panel set up to probe the series of allegations against Mr Magu was in compliance with the law. He also said the suspension of Mr Magu is proof of the governments commitment to fighting corruption.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Forty fishermen, who were stranded in Iran after they could not board the Indian Navy vessel INS Jalashwa at Bandar Abbas Port earlier, reached Chennai airport on Wednesday. L Praveen, general secretary, Maritime People Welfare Association told Express that, of the 44 stranded Tamil Nadu fishermen, 40 returned, while four of them preferred to stay in Iran.

He said Captain Sanjay Parashar, chairman of International Maritime Federation, helped the seafarers return home. This also comes after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister urged the Central government to arrange for the repatriation by air of 40 fishermen from the state stranded in Iran. A total of 681 fishermen stranded in Iran returned safely to the state by Indian Navy Ship INS Jalashwa on July 1.
Malini Parthasarathy has been appointed as the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of The Hindu Group Publishing Pvt Ltd. She succeeds N Ram, who stepped down as Chairman after touching the age of 75.

Parthasarathy was earlier Co-Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the company.

At the Board of Directors meeting held on July 15, 2020, Parthasarathy appreciated Rams outstanding stewardship at a time when the media industry was in turmoil. She said that it was Ram who always urged the company and the paper to be the best versions of themselves, and added that this was an important legacy that she would strive to uphold.

Ram expressed confidence in Parthasarathy, who has been contributing to the newspaper in various capacities for more than three-and-a-half decades and has also taken an active interest in the business side of the company. He added that Parthasarathy would succeed in fulfilling the responsibilities that come with her new position.
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FMCG firm Marico on July 16 said its chief financial officer Vivek Karve has resigned from the company. It has appointed its executive vice president & head  finance, Pawan Agrawal as its next CFO, Marico said in a regulatory filing.

The board of the company in a meeting held on Thursday has accepted the resignation of Karve, who was associated with Marico from last 20 years.

"The Board accepted the resignation of Vivek Karve, Chief Financial Officer, to be effective from the close of business hours on September 10, 2020.

"The board appointed Pawan Agrawal as the CFO of the Company with effect from September 10, 2020, in succession to Karve," Marico said in the filing.

Besides, the board has also approved the scheme of amalgamation between Marico Consumer Care Ltd (MCCL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, and Marico Ltd.

"The scheme is subject to the requisite statutory/regulatory approvals including the approval of jurisdictional National Company Law Tribunal and the respective shareholders and creditors of the company and Marico Consumer Care," the firm said.

MCCL owns various Intellectual Property Rights which are licensed to Marico.

The amalgamation of MCCL and Marico would result in consolidation of business, elimination of a multi-layered structure, and reduction in administrative, compliance and other operational costs.

"There is no cash consideration involved. Since MCCL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Marico, no shares of Marico shall be allotted under the Scheme in lieu or exchange of the shares of MCCL," it said.

Karve had joined Marico in 2000 and was appointed as the Chief Financial Officer of the Company on April 1, 2014.

"In his 20 years stellar career in Marico's Group Finance, Karve contributed significantly to the Company's growth and transformation journey," the filing added.

Agrawal a Chartered Accountant, had joined Marico in 2004 as Regional Operations Manager for South Sales Division in Hyderabad.
The provinces police watchdog has invoked its mandate after a 73-year-old man was shot and killed by police northeast of Haliburton, shortly after he allegedly assaulted a Minden grocery store employee over a mask dispute.

In an interview with the Star, OPP Sgt. Jason Folz said the worker was cleaning carts outside the store Wednesday morning and attempted to give the man a free mask, which all customers are required to wear, when he was assaulted.

The man then left, driving dangerously through the parking lot, Folz said.

Our units caught up with him on Hwy. 35 and tried to stop him, but that pursuit was discontinued in the interest of public safety, Folz said.

Excessive speed and wild driving played a part in calling off the chase, Folz said.

The Special Investigations Unit said in a news release that the OPP was notified that a man had assaulted individuals at about 9:25 a.m. before leaving the scene. Folz said only one person was attacked.

After abandoning the police chase, officers made their way to a residence on Indian Point Road, about a 30-minute drive away, after running the vehicles licence plate, the SIU said.

Outside of the mans residence, the SIU said there was an interaction and two officers discharged their firearms, striking the man.

He was transported to hospital where he was pronounced dead shortly before noon, according to the SIU.

SIU spokesperson Monica Hudon told the Star that understanding what transpired, including whether or not the man was in possession of any weapons, will be part of the SIUs investigation.

On Thursday, the SIU confirmed a semi-automatic rifle and a pistol were discovered in the investigation. The firearms belonging to two police officers have also been secured, they said.

Four investigators and three forensic investigators have been assigned to the case so far, the police watchdog said in the release. Investigators have yet to locate the mans family.

Four officers with the OPP have been called on as witnesses in the investigation.

Linda Easton, the owner of Eastons Valu-mart, told the Star that she was proud of her staff for mitigating a bad situation.

I want to say how great staff are in grocery stores everywhere during COVID, and that they need a lot more recognition for the services they provide to customers, Easton said.

We all need a lot of recognition and we dont know who comes into our building so I dont know if we all get that, Easton said.

Earlier this month, a video went viral that showed a man at a T&T grocery store in Mississauga shouting racist insults at employees after he was asked to wear a mask.

Easton said she didnt want to comment on the events that unfolded after the incident at her store.

What happened here is one thing, but what transpired after is a whole different story, Easton said.

The OPP Association said on Twitter that they couldnt comment on the specifics of the investigation.

Our Ontario Provincial Police Association representatives are engaged with our members at this time, reads their message. In all traumatic situations involving police we are concerned for the well being of all affected.

The Special Investigations Unit is an arms-length agency that investigates reports involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.

The SIU is urging anyone who may have information about this investigation to contact the lead investigator at 1-800-787-8529. The SIU is also urging anyone who may have any video evidence related to this incident to upload that video through the agencys website.
Its increasingly clear that July 4 celebrations are contributing to a spike in Michigans coronavirus case numbers.

Wednesday, the state reported 891 new cases -- the highest daily number since April, not including a May 14 report included a backlog of cases.

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South Africa: Mbalula outlines new COVID-19 rules for taxis

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula has urged taxi operators to adhere to the regulations set out for public transport in order to protect themselves and passengers from Coronavirus.

Mbalula briefed media on Thursday, following President Cyril Ramaphosas address to the nation on Sunday where he introduced risk-adjusted regulations as the number of COVID-19 infections rises exponentially in the country.

For the taxi industry, these new regulations include, among others, the mandatory use of face masks (or other appropriate item covering both mouth and nose) by all those in the taxi; sanitising of passengers before boarding and alighting; the use of jammers to keep windows open by at least 5cm, and a 70% loading capacity for inter-provincial travel, while local taxis will now be able to carry passengers to full capacity (100% load).

Mbalula said the regulations were introduced after wide consultations, in an effort to contain the spread of the virus.

Consultations with health experts were undertaken and their additional recommendations in the face of the increased loading capacity were duly considered and accepted, said the Minister, adding that preserving livelihoods was not an easy balance to strike.

Safety first

Mbalula said disinfecting of vehicles, sanitising and social distancing have been in placed squarely in the hands of public transport vehicle owners.

Meanwhile, no operator may allow anyone to enter their vehicle without wearing a cloth face mask, homemade item, or another appropriate item that covers the nose and mouth.

Similarly, drivers and other employees must wear face mask or appropriate item that covers the nose and mouth, together with a face shield, said the Minister.

According to the Department of Transport, you also need to wear a protective mask if you are driving with other passengers in your own private vehicle.

Local transportation

Buses, taxis, e-hailing, meter taxis, shuttle services, chauffeur-driven vehicles and scholar transport vehicles are also permitted to load 100% of licensed carry capacity for any trip not regarded as long-distance travel, which refers to any trip that is 200km or longer.

Also, commuter rail is permitted to carry 70% of licensed carry capacity.

Operators must sanitise vehicles before picking up and after dropping off passengers. Areas to be sanitised also includes vehicle doors, window handles, armrests and handrails.

Meanwhile, passengers must sanitise after they enter the vehicle and after getting off the vehicle. Marshals, security officers and passengers are obliged to wear a cloth face mask that covers nose and mouth throughout the journey.

No person or passenger will be allowed to use any form of public transport or enter a building, place or premises if they do not wear a cloth face mask or a homemade item or another appropriate item that covers nose and mouth, Mbalula stressed.

In addition, intra-provincial, metropolitan areas and district public transport are permitted to operate without the requirement for a permit.

Permits

Long-distance travel is permitted for a person permitted to travel between provinces in terms of level 3 and permits remain compulsory, Mbalula explained.

Law enforcement authorities have a duty to enforce compliance with the law. This is a necessary evil, whose sole purpose is to curb the spread of the virus across provincial epicentres, he said.

He said mini and midi-bus taxi vehicles and buses may not carry more than 70% of their maximum licensed passenger-carrying capacity for long-distance intra-provincial travel and permitted inter-provincial travel.

Transportation of liquor

The President put a suspension on the sale, dispensing and distribution of alcohol, as well as reinstated a curfew between 9pm and 4am.

The Minister explained, however, that the transportation of liquor is only permitted for movement from a manufacturing plant to storage facilities, and from manufacturing facilities to exit ports for export.

Transportation of liquor for sale, dispensing and distribution to customers is prohibited, said Mbalula.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2020-07-16. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
The European Peoples Party has issued a statement expressing its strict concern over the recent escalation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and stating that the conflict needs to be solved within the scope of the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and under their fundamental principles.

The European Peoples Party also calls on all the sides to respect the ceasefire regime and immediately stop the military operations in order to avoid further casualties, especially among peaceful civilians.
Manchester & London Investment Trust Plc - Results of General Meeting

MANCHESTER AND LONDON INVESTMENT TRUST PLC

(the "Company")

Results of General Meeting

16 July 2020

On 24 June 2020, the Company issued a Circular and convening a General Meeting of the Company.

The full text of the resolutions can be found in the Circular which is available on the Company's website:

https://mlcapman.com/manchester-london-investment-trust-plc/

The Board announces that, at the General Meeting held at 11.55 am today at 12a Princes Gate Mews, London, SW7 2PS, all resolutions were passed. The votes were all cast by proxy due to restrictions in place as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The total number of proxy votes cast in relation to each Resolution was as follows:

Resolution Votes for Votes against Votes at Chairman's discretion Shares marked as votes withheld / abstentions Resolution 1 (Ordinary resolution) - To authorise the Board to allot shares in addition to existing authorities 3,845,198 410,882 1,025 4,349 Resolution 2 (Special resolution) - To disapply statutory pre-emption rights in limited circumstances in relation to the issue of Ordinary Shares 3,835,383 421,498 1,025 3,548 Resolution 3 (Ordinary resolution) - To approve the issue of New Ordinary Shares to the Related Party by way of any issue & approve the issue to the Related Party on the 12th February 2020 3,836,681 416,276 1,025 7,472

In accordance with Listing Rule 9.6.2, copies of all resolutions will be submitted to the National Storage Mechanism and will shortly be available for inspection at: https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism

LEI: 213800HMBZXULR2EEO10

Enquiries: M&L Capital Management Ltd ir@mlcapman.com

END.
The federal government is everywhere. It employs nearly 9.1 million workers, which is nearly 6% of total U.S. workforce. This includes nearly 2.1 million federal employees, 4.1 million contract employees, 1.2 million grant employees, 1.3 million active duty military personnel, and more than 500,000 postal service employees. They operate trucks, construct highways, build buildings, drive heavy equipment, blanket our highways with government vehicles, and are ubiquitous in our national economy. Every year, government pays an estimated $35 billion annually because of vehicle crashes alone, an estimated 12.6% of the total economic cost of crashes (Federal 7.1%, State/local 5.5%). For limited government advocates, the numbers are astonishing. For subrogation professionals, however, the numbers should represent a tremendous opportunity.

Sovereign Immunity

The federal government does not simply roll over and let you sue them. They enjoy sovereign immunity. Sovereign immunity refers to a governments immunity from being sued by its citizens in its own courts without its consent. It can trace its roots as far back into the English common law as the 13th Century. Underlying sovereign immunity is the concept that the king can do no wrong, because his word was the law. The American legal system is predicated on an entire body of laws not found in any books  English Common Law. Sovereign immunity found its way into American law books via the common law. Long before the Federal Tort Claims Acts was passed, the only way to sue the federal or state government was to get its consent, something rarely given. For many years after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, there were no exceptions to the immunity of the federal government.

Federal Tort Claims Act

The Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) is a limited waiver of the sovereign immunity of the U.S. It was passed in 1946 in order to make the federal government liable for certain torts and actions of its employees in the same way a private individual might be liable, although with many exceptions. Title IV, 60 Stat. 812, 28 U.S.C. Pt. VI Ch. 171, 28 U.S.C.  1346(b), 2671-2680. The FTCA allows recovery for injury or loss of property, or personal injury or death caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of any employee of the Government while acting within the scope of his office or employment, under circumstances where the United States, if a private person, would be liable to the claimant in accordance with the law of the place where the act or omission occurred. It is strictly construed in favor of the federal government and all ambiguities are decided in favor of the government. The FTCA operates vicariously  if a government employee commits a tort in the course of his or her employment, the federal government, not the employee, becomes the defendant. All damages are paid by the government, not the employee. The federal district courts have exclusive jurisdiction over FTCA actions.

The FTCA relies on substantive tort law of the state in which the claim is filed. Molzof v. U.S., 502 U.S. 301 (1992). Therefore, if a particular action is not recognized in that particular state, the plaintiff cannot sue. Midwest Knitting Mills, Inc. v. U.S., 950 F.2d 1295 (7th Cir. 1991). The extent of the U.S. liability under the Act is determined by state law, except that punitive damages are not allowed. 28 U.S.C.  2674; Molzof, supra . The FTCA is the exclusive remedy in any civil case resulting from actions committed by a federal employee in the course and scope of employment. If the employee is sued in state court rather than the U.S., the Attorney General will have the case removed to a federal court, once it has been certified that the employee was acting within the scope of his or her employment.

Process for Making a Claim and Filing Suit

Under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), a person who plans to file a personal injury action against the federal government must present a written notice of claim, or administrative claim, to the government agency that is responsible for the injury. A notice of claim is a prerequisite to a personal injury action against the federal government. If no notice of claim has been given, a court will dismiss the action. In order to sue the federal government, you must first file an administrative claim prior to filing suit. This claim must give the governmental agency enough notice of its nature and basis so that it can begin its own investigation and evaluation, and it must demand payment for a sum certain.

The administrative claim must be filed within two (2) years of the injury. 28 U.S.C.  2401(b). Tort claims against the U.S. are forever barred unless they are first presented in writing to the appropriate federal agency within two (2) years of accrual of the cause of action, and then brought in court within six (6) months following denial by that agency. 28 U.S.C.A.  2401(b); Severtson v. U.S., 806 F. Supp. 97 (E.D. La. 1992). Failure to file an administrative claim means any lawsuit will be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. After a plaintiff files an administrative claim, the government must deny the claim in writing before suit can be filed. If the government does not take action on the claim within six (6) months, it will be considered denied and then suit can be filed. 28 U.S.C.  2675(a). After the claim is denied (either by direct denial or inaction), the plaintiff has six (6) months to file suit. 28 U.S.C.  2401(b).

Sufficient detail and notice must be contained in the claim. It must be specific enough to make the government aware of the action, so it can prepare to defend itself. The claim is not required to provide more than the minimal details of the facts involved in the incident in order to give the government sufficient notice. A Standard Form 95 is frequently used to present claims against the U.S. under the FTCA. It can be found HERE. Standard Form 95 is not technically required to present a claim under the FTCA, but it is a convenient and safe format for supplying the information necessary to bring an FTCA claim and is the preferred method for doing so.

Statute of Limitations

Typically, the FTCAs two (2) year statute of limitations will apply, even to allow a claim which would be time-barred under applicable state law. However, under the FTCA, [t]he United States shall be liable in the same manner and to the same extent as a private individual under like circumstances. 28 U.S.C.S.  2674. State law establishes FTCA causes of action, but federal law defines the limitations period. In other words, the FTCA incorporates the substantive law of the state where the tortious act or omission occurred. Augutis v. United States, 732 F.3d 749 (7th Cir. 2013). This creates some tension between applying the FTCAs procedural time limitation and adhering to the same manner and to the same extent requirement of the FTCA. Therefore, in states that treat statutes of limitations or repose as substantive, rather than procedural, the FTCAs procedural requirements are to be in followed in addition to those substantive state requirements. For states which treat statutes of limitations or repose as procedural, only the FTCA two (2) year statute will apply. In some states, statutes of limitations and/or statutes of repose are considered to be procedural, or even a hybrid between the two, and the FTCA two (2) year statute of limitations is not preempted by state law. The tendency has been to rule that statutes of repose are substantive and statutes of limitations are procedural.

Right to Jury Trial

There is no right to a jury trial in actions brought under the federal statute, except in actions to recovery wrongfully collected taxes or penalties, even if one would have existed in a suit against the employee. 28 U.S.C.  2402; 28 U.S.C.  1346(a)(1).

Damages

The FTCA allows recovery for injury or loss of property, or personal injury or death. 28 U.S.C.  1364(b)(1). Compensatory damages are the only damages recoverable. Injunctions, attorneys fees, and/or punitive damages are expressly forbidden. 28 U.S.C.  2674; Joe v. U.S., 772 F.2d 1535 (11th Cir. 1985). Attorneys fees claimed by attorneys for successful plaintiffs are limited to 25%. 28 U.S.C.  2678. Unlike the Tort Claims Acts of many states, the FTCA does not contain a damages cap. The amount recoverable is unlimited, other than limitations a private party would be limited under the relevant state law. Therefore, the U.S. is able to take advantage of any damage limitations or tort reform measures in the state in which the suit is pending. Carter v. U.S., 982 F.2d 1141 (7th Cir. 1992).

Exceptions to FTCA

While the FTCA waives immunity of the federal government, it does not waive all immunity for all actions. There are major exceptions set forth in the statute 28 U.S.C.  2680.

Product Liability Claims. Products liability claims are not specifically addressed in the FTCA. However, cases that have dealt with questions of federal government liability for defective products generally dispose of such claims on a government contractor or discretionary function grounds. In one case against the federal government involving exposure to toxic chemicals by an infant, the claims against the government were barred under either the independent contractor exception or discretionary function exception. Goewey v. U.S., 886 F. Supp. 1268 (S.C. 1995). Strict liability for ultra-hazardous activities is also not allowed against the federal government under the FTCA. Laird v. Nelms, 406 U.S. 797 (1972).

Discretionary Acts. This is the broadest and most contentious of the FTCAs exceptions. As is the case with most of the state Tort Claims Acts and state case law involving claims against states, municipalities, and local governments, the most significant exception to liability under the FTCA is the discretionary function exception. The federal government retains immunity for the discretionary acts of government employees. A discretionary function is an act involving an exercise of personal judgment. The basis for the discretionary function exception to the FTCA is the legislative branchs desire to prevent judicial second-guessing through tort actions of legislative and administrative decisions grounded in social, economic, and political policy. The discretionary function exception appears to be, in some respects, an affirmative defense that can arise to an absolute defense and allow the federal court to dismiss claims. This defense to liability arises when the act in question requires the exercise of judgment in carrying out official duties.

The U.S. Supreme Court has developed a two-step test to determine whether a particular government action constitutes a discretionary action. In Berkovitz v. U.S., 486 U.S. 531 (1988), affirmed in U.S. v. Gaubert, 499 U.S. 315 (1991), the Court noted that a trial court must ascertain the precise governmental conduct at issue and consider whether that conduct was discretionary, meaning whether it was a matter of judgment or choice for the acting employee. If a federal statute, regulation, or policy specifically prescribes a course of action for an employee to follow, and the employee follows it, the action is not discretionary. In many cases the issue becomes whether the act in question was controlled by a shall versus a may. If the act is governed by a shall, the employee has no rightful option but to adhere to the law. If it is determined that the employees actions were discretionary, the second element is whether the discretion requires the exercise of judgment based on considerations of public policy. The subjective intent of the employee in exercising the discretion conferred by statute or regulation is not the issue. Rather, the court looks at the nature of the actions taken and on whether they are susceptible to policy analysis. The challenged action must be based on considerations of social, economic, or political policy  the type of judgments the exception was intended to protect. The second prong is met if the actions were susceptible to policy analysis, regardless of whether the government employee actually made a policy determination. This second prong gives judges considerable leeway and is frequently used to reflect and inject political preferences. If both elements of the Berkovitz-Gaubert test are met, the discretionary function exception to the waiver of sovereign immunity applies and the government may not be sued.

Ministerial Acts. Immunity from tort liability does not apply if the action was mandated by law or regulation and the employee had no choice or discretion in how to undertake the actions. Ministerial acts are those that do not require an officials discretion because they follow a predetermined plan and cannot be changed, such as following a health department checklist regulation, or they do not involve any special expertise, such as operating a motor vehicle. Similarly, if the government builds and operates something, then it has a ministerial duty to maintain it, and will be liable for failing to do so.

Examples of Ministerial Acts. Examples of ministerial or proprietary functions of government include owning and renting out real property, in which case the government is wearing its landlord hat; providing medical or psychiatric care, in which case the government wears a physician hat; owning and operating a school, in which case it wears a parent hat. Also, proprietary would be operating an electric utility. If a government escalator malfunctions, there is no statutory or regulatory law specifically governing how the government should respond in that situation. Therefore, it is discretionary and immune. A prime example of a ministerial act which is not immune and for which the government is liable is negligence in the operation of motor vehicles. U.S. v. Gaubert, 499 U.S. 315 (1991). Although driving requires the constant exercise of discretion, the officials decisions in exercising that discretion can hardly be said to be grounded in regulatory policy.

Subrogation Under the FTCA

An insured and its subrogated insurer may both proceed against the U.S. government under the FTCA. U.S. v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co., 338 U.S. 366 (1949). Although an insurer that is subrogated to the rights of its insured may maintain an action under the FTCA, the insurers claims against the government are limited to only such rights as the insured possesses. Kodar, LLC v. U.S. (F.A.A.), 879 F. Supp.2d 218 (D.R.I. 2012). The pleadings should be made to reveal and assert the actual interest of the plaintiff and to indicate the interests of others in the claim. An insurer making a subrogation claim under the FTCA must provide notice to the U.S. government under the same timeline and in the same manner as the insured. Great American Ins. Co. v. U.S., 575 F.2d 1031 (2nd Cir. 1978); Liberty American Ins. Group v. U.S. Air Force, 2008 WL 906848 (N.D. Fla. 2008). Where the insured does not file a claim with the government agency, the insurer must do so within two (2) years after the incident, regardless of when their claim payments were made. Progressive Am. Ins. Co. v. U.S., 913 F. Supp.2d 1318 (M.D. Fla. 2012). This is because the subrogated carrier stands in the shoes of its insured. If a subrogated carrier files the Form 95 claim, the form should indicate that the insureds carrier is pursuing subrogation rights.

Administrative Notice of Claim by Subrogee

An issue which often arises is whether a Notice of Claim filed by an injured employee or insured sufficiently preserves the claim of the subrogated insurance company, or vice-versa. In Ahmed v. U.S., 30 F.3d 514 (4thCir. 1994), the court held that when the insured relied on his auto insurers Notice of Claim regarding subrogation of property damage and a deductible, the insured failed to allege a sum-certain value of claim with a simple reference to a potential personal injury claim was included in the insurers attorney on insurers subrogation claim for property damage and claimants deductible claim, and the insurers attorney was not given authorization to represent the injured insured in the personal injury claim. Following settlement of insurers subrogation claim, the insurers attorney informed the Navy that he would not be seeking further payment.

A subrogated carrier is usually included in and protected by its insureds administrative claim against the federal government under the FTCA if the original administrative claim filed by the insured was brought for the full amount of the insurers claim. The insureds claim would then satisfy the claim filing requirement under  2401(b) on behalf of the insurer and would not prejudice the government. Interboro Mutual Indemnity Ins. Co. v. U.S., 431 F. Supp. 1243 (E.D. N.Y. 1977); Severtson v. U.S., 806 F. Supp. 97 (E.D. La. 1992). In Cummings v. U.S., 704 F.2d 437 (9th Cir. 1983), the court considered an FTCA action for damages brought by an insured against the government in which the subrogated carrier filed a complaint in intervention. The government moved to dismiss the intervenor for failure to satisfy  2401(b)s limitation period. The court stated that the insurer as subrogee was the real party in interest to the extent of the subrogation. The court reasoned that the complaint in intervention had the same effect as substitution of the insurer as the real party in interest under FRCP 17(a), which relates back to the filing of the original complaint under FRCP 15(c). The 9th Circuit stated that the outcome under this analysis is consistent with the holdings of other courts which have considered the insurer/subrogee problem under the FTCA. See Wadsworth v. U.S. Postal Serv., 511 F.2d 64 (7th Cir. 1975) (amended complaint to substitute insurer as proper plaintiff related back to the filing of the original complaint by insured); Executive Jet Aviation v. U.S.,507 F.2d 508 (6th Cir. 1974).

Section 2675(a) of Title 28 and 28 C.F.R.  14.2(a) require two elements for sufficient presentment of a claim to an agency: (1) written notice sufficient to cause the agency to investigate, and (2) a sum-certain value on the claim. See Adkins v. U.S., 896 F.2d at 1326. The sum-certain requirement is one of substantial importance, and even courts liberally construing the presentment requirement under the FTCA require that the claimant place a certain value on the claim. See, e.g., Williams v. U.S., 693 F.2d 555 (5th Cir.1982) (we have held that no particular form or manner of giving such notice is required as long as the agency is somehow informed of the fact of and amount of the claim within the two-year period prescribed by  2401(b).). An insurers request for reimbursement alone may not adequately perform those notice-giving functions. The claims of an injured party and his insurance carrier are not always coextensive. An insurers claim will never exceed that of the injured party; the injured party, however, often seeks recovery for damages not encompassed in the insurers claim. This distinction is inherent in 39 C.F.R.  912.6(D) which permits subrogees to present wholly compensated claims, but requires both insurers and injured parties to participate, either jointly or individually, in filing partially compensated claims. Shelton v. U.S., 615 F.2d 713 (6th Cir. 1980).

Some courts allow a subrogee to assert an FTCA claim when only its subrogor had filed an administrative claim. In Executive Jet Aviation v. United States, 507 F.2d 508 (6th Cir. 1974), the 6th Circuit held that this complied with the FTCA because the subrogee stands in the shoes of the subrogor. The court also reasoned that tolling the statute of limitations for the subrogee made sense because the subrogors administrative claim gave the U.S. sufficient notice to begin assembling witnesses and evidence in preparation for a defense on the merits. Id. The 9th Circuit followed Executive Jets holding in Cummings v. United States, 704 F.2d 437, 439 (9th Cir. 1983).

In Interboro Mutual Indemnity Ins. Co. v. U.S., 431 F. Supp. 1243 (E.D. N.Y. 1977), the insured filed a timely claim with the Coast Guard for both bodily injury and property damage arising from a car accident and filed suit within six months after it was denied, but only for personal injury. The insureds auto carrier filed a claim for property damage which was not acted on because the insureds claim was denied. The insurer intervened more than six months after the denial of the insureds claim. The court held that the subrogated insurer was not included in the claim filed by the insured without its consent and was not barred by the six-month limitation. In Executive Jet Aviation, Inc. v. U.S., 507 F.2d 508 (6th Cir. 1974) and Sky Harbor Air Service v. U.S., 348 F. Supp. 594 (D. Neb. 1972), the insured filed a claim without naming the insurance company. When the insured brought suit, the government moved to dismiss on the ground that the real party in interest did not file a claim as required by  2401(b). In Executive Jet Aviation, Inc., the court held that the insureds filing did cover the insurance company because the government was not prejudiced and because the purpose of the FTCA was not to make recovery from the government technically more difficult. The same result was reached in Sky Harbor Air Service where the court held that the insurance company was covered by the insureds filing.

Subrogating against the federal government requires preparation and timing. When a federal employee, U.S. Postal Service vehicle, or other federal apparatus is involved in an insurance claim, subrogation should be at the top of the list of claims handlers responsibilities. Check with subrogation counsel to determine what must be done and when, including whether the claim is the sort of claim for which the federal government waives immunity.
Airline job security in Pandemic 2020 - Fly Guy Column (Micah Fluellen Los Angeles Times / Getty)

The COVID-19 crisis has turned traveling by plane into a dystopian endeavor. Passengers and crew peer from behind face masks that help prevent transmission of the coronavirus. In an effort to curtail person-to-person contact, in-flight food and beverage service has been minimized or eliminated.

Casual conversations are a relic of the past, replaced by unspoken questions about a seatmates personal hygiene. Reduced travel demand has created fewer flight options and increasingly crowded airplanes.

For passengers, air travel is awkward and worrisome. For airline employees facing job cuts, the situation is much worse.

In an effort to remain solvent, the U.S. airline I work for (one of the worlds largest) made the inevitable decision to downsize. During our darkest days in April, capacity fell by 80%, pushing revenue to a negative position.

By June, revenue had crept up to $1 billion, compared with $4 billion in 2019. The 75% drop and bleak outlook for future profits forced the airline to slash flights, retire aircraft and cut costs.

Pilots, flight attendants, customer service agents, baggage handlers, management personnel, mechanics and others were asked to accept early-retirement packages, leaves of absence or reduced work schedules.

These concessions, however, will not keep the airline airborne.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act provided the airline with $5.8 billion in payroll support from the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In exchange for the cash, the company agreed not to furlough employees until Sept. 30. As that date approaches, the airline faces a difficult decision.

Approximately 27,000 flight attendants are employed by the airline. According to a management letter posted on our employee website, by the end of September when the furlough restriction ends, some 7,000 to 8,000 flight attendants may become redundant.

In a last-ditch effort to reduce those numbers, the airline will offer a third and final early-retirement package. (Previous packages included a one-time payout of up to $32,000, two years of group healthcare insurance and free, space-available air travel.)

Story continues

Additional leaves of absence will be offered to further reduce the ranks. Once these numbers are calculated, the airline will know precisely how many flight attendant jobs are at risk.

The letter went on to say two of 12 operational bases are closing. Flight attendants stationed in St. Louis and Raleigh, N.C., will be reassigned to bases in Dallas and Charlotte, N.C., respectively.

Displaced flight attendants are left with two unappealing options: Uproot their families and move to the new base or commute by plane to and from their base using space-available employee travel passes. (Those unwilling to move from Raleigh to Charlotte have the added option of a 2-hour drive to the airport.)

For anyone facing a furlough, however, commuters and base transferees are in enviable positions.

In the letter to flight attendants, management explained there will be fewer crew members scheduled to work a flight. Beginning in October, staffing on wide-body aircraft is reduced to the Federal Aviation Administration minimum (10) plus one. For example, long-haul flights to Europe and South America on Boeing 777-300 are staffed with 13 flight attendants. Come October, that number drops to 11.

From a safety standpoint, nothing changes. One flight attendant, as per FAA regulations, is assigned to each of the aircrafts 10 doors. But because in-flight service has been pared, 11 flight attendants will remain to serve 304 passengers on a typical eight- to 10-hour flight.

Perhaps the most harrowing announcement was that 19 of our international routes have been terminated. Not postponed. Terminated. We will no longer fly from Los Angeles to Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Buenos Aires or Sao Paulo, Brazil. Other hubs  Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia and Charlotte  have terminated routes to Milan, Italy; Barcelona, Spain; Paris; Berlin; and Budapest, Hungary.

These drastic cost-cutting measures create a trimmed-down airline better suited for survival. But for thousands of airline employees bracing for September, survival is a bitter pill to swallow.




July 16 : After addressing the demise of Sushant Singh Rajput recently, actress Rhea Chakraborty urges home minister Amit Shah for a CBI inquiry in the case and admits that she was the girlfriend of the late actor.

Actress Rhea Chakraborty just took to her social media profile and wrote a two-part tweet, addressed to Home Minister Of India, Mr. Amit Shah.

It read, @AmitShah sir, Im Sushant Singh Rajputs girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, it is now over a month since his sudden demise. I have complete faith in the government, however in the interest of justice, I request you with folded hands to initiate a CBI enquiry...I request you with folded hands to initiate a CBI enquiry into this matter. I only want to understand what pressures, prompted Sushant to take this step. Yours sincerely #satyamevajayate @AmitShah sir

Rhea has been facing a lot of backlash and wrath of Sushant Singh Rajputs demise. Many believes the actor hung himself because she refused to marry him, at this point all this is mere hearsay, and nothing has been proven so far! The police are investigating the circumstances that led SSR to take such drastic measures, ending his life.

Interestingly this is first time that Rhea Chakraborty has confirmed that she was Sushant Singh Rajputs girlfriend, and urged for a CBI inquiry into the late actors death.

Latest updates on Sushant Singh Rajput Death Mystery
Transactions at Bao Viet Corporation. The country's total insurance premium revenue last year reached VND160.2 trillion (US$6.89 bilion), posting 21 per cent year-on-year increase. - Photo courtesy of Bao Viet Group

On the list of 10 most prestigious insurance companies in Vietnam in 2020 released by VNR, up to 90.5 per cent of surveyed businesses were optimistic about the insurance sector in the second half of the year.

According to the report, the insurance market has seen high and stable growth, contributing to building a transparent financial background as well as stabilising the macro-economy.

Total insurance premium revenue last year hit VND160.2 trillion (US$6.89 billion), a 21 per cent year-on-year increase. Total non-life insurance premium was VND52.4 trillion and life insurance was VND107.8 trillion. Insurers paid VND44 trillion for customers.

VNR said leaders of insurance companies have reviewed their operation and distribution model based on customers, sellers and investments into databases and digital tools due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than half of insurers said their decisions relating to risk management, human resource management, service management and customer approaches and digital transformation have gradually changed with the outbreak, the report said.

However, the insurance industry still saw stable growth as financial and risk management has been improved. Insurance products and services have met customers diversified demands.

VNR said three biggest opportunities for the sector would be strong development of technologies in all phases of the insurance value chain, the improvement in peoples awareness about insurance and prospects for the macroeconomy recovery.

Another report from the US-based credit rating agency AM Best provided a stable outlook for Viet Nams non-life insurance market in 2020.

The reasons for the rating include the relatively high level of risk capitalisation associated with a prudent portfolio and favourable population structure and insurance demand for medium and long-term growth prospects of retail non-life products. In addition, the impact of the US-China trade war may aid Viet Nam as multinational companies look for new markets outside China.

Figures from the General Statistics Office showed the total insurance premium in the first half of the year rose by 11 per cent from the same period last year. Of which, revenue from life-insurance posted a 13 per cent year-on-year increase and non-life insurance was 8 per cent. Life insurers expect to resume their growth in the second half of the year.

Insurers said there were four products with high potential for growth. Vehicle insurance is forecast to grow strongly, especially after Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc signed Decree No 70/2020/ND-CP stipulating a registration fee reduction of 50 per cent for cars. After the COVID-19, people continued to face a new concern with dengue fever and diphtheria. This makes people more interested in insurance than before, boosting life insurance.

The Governments good control of the pandemic has contributed to enhancing the reputation of Viet Nam to foreign investors. The increase in investment and relocation of production facilities of multinational corporations as well as cash flow given by the Government to support economic development will create growth opportunities for many businesses and public services. This will also open up opportunities for technical property insurance.

Meanwhile, AM Best also forecast that Viet Nam's non-life market will maintain stable capital in the current situation. However, in the medium and long term, insurance enterprises may need to increase capital for growing demand.

Many large international insurance groups that own shares at Vietnamese insurance firms expect to increase their ownerships through additional capital contributions or acquisitions of existing shares. However, this depends on the divestment plan of the Government, which is often delayed due to administrative procedures.
Kolkata, July 16 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, here on Thursday, hit out at Governor Jaddeep Dhankhar for his criticism of the state's education system. A governor couldn't talk like a political party's representative, she said.

"I urge the Governor to respect the Vice-Chancellors. He can't talk like a political party representative," Banerjee said at Nabanno, the Secretariat.

During the day, Dhankhar criticised the education system and said the quality of education in West Bengal was rapidly falling due to political control and affiliations.

"It's unfortunate that the education is politically controlled. The politically-controlled education system can never serve the purpose. The political grip on education is tightening in Bengal. It will hurt students, education scenario and society at large," the Governor said.

Terming education important, he said, "It's the soul of the society as it passes from one generation to another. Neglect of education will hurt generations." His remarks came a day after the state government refused permission to VCs to attend a virtual meeting, called by Dhankhar on July 15, citing the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Are we his servants? It's going too far now. He (Dhankhar) is constantly asking for information from the state government. What should we do? Should we only reply to his queries and do nothing else? I have been in touch with him over phone. I won't show you the telephonic thread as it's not proper. The Chief Secretary and the Home Secretary have met him several times to update on various issue," Banerjee said.

Earlier, the Governor said he had scheduled a virtual conference with the VCs. "You will be shocked. The government said there is no provision for virtual conferences. Can you ever imagine in changing India the virtual conferences are being held day in and day out by the Chief Ministers. The government has the audacity to write to the Governor saying there is no such rule," he said.

Stating that he is here for a year and trying to improve the education scenario, Dhankhar said, "I have interacted with former VCs, students, guardians and academicians. They all share my anguish that education in the state, which is gifted with the finest and oldest institutions, is rapidly falling due to political control and affiliations." "If I am raising the issue of quality of education, I want students to get the best. I don't understand why the government is objecting to this," he remarked.
San Francisco and San Mateo counties appear to be destined for the dreaded California state watch list, where counties become subject to state-mandated business closures if they appear on the list for three consecutive days.

There are six different indicators that can land a county on the watch list:

1. A seven-day average of fewer than 150 tests conducted per 100,000 residents

2. More than 100 cases per 100,000 residents over 14 days

3. More than 25 cases per 100,000 residents over 14 days AND a seven-day average of test positivity over 8%

4. A 10% increase in the three-day-average for hospitalizations

5. Having less than 20% of ICU beds available

6. Having less than 25% of ventilators available

Most counties go on the list due to case and hospitalization increases (2 and 4). Analysis first conducted by the Mercury News and confirmed by SFGATE shows that both San Francisco and San Mateo counties have recorded over 100 cases per 100,000 residents over the past 14 days, which should land both counties on the watch list sometime in the near future.

SFGATE analysis found that San Francisco has seen 115.9 cases per 100,000 residents over the most recent 14 days of reporting and San Mateo has seen 124.6 cases per 100,000 residents. Unless daily case increases dramatically decline, it will likely be difficult for the two counties to get off of the watch list in under three days.

San Francisco and San Mateo are the only two Bay Area counties not on the watch list at this point, as Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma have all been on the watch list for well over the three days required to trigger business closures. Counties on the watch list for more than three days are required to shut down indoor operations for hair salons, nail salons, other personal care services, gyms, malls, places of worship, and offices for non-critical sectors.

For San Francisco, the new closures would not impact the county much as officials have continued to delay the reopening of most indoor businesses. For San Mateo, however, the state-mandated closures would likely upend the local economy once again as indoor businesses have been open with modifications for almost a month.

Counties that have already been ordered to close businesses have been instructed to keep them closed for at least three weeks.

MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE:

Sign up for 'The Daily' newsletter for the latest on coronavirus here.

 San Francisco's health director discourages 'hard-to-resist' gatherings

 Gauging the early impact of Fourth of July gatherings on Bay Area coronavirus spread

 San Francisco Unified to begin fall semester in August with distance learning only

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Alameda County allowed to reopen outdoor dining, Oakland Zoo after state approves variance

Eric Ting is an SFGATE digital reporter. Email: eric.ting@sfgate.com | Twitter:@_ericting
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2020) - TransCanna Holdings Inc. (CSE: TCAN) (XETR: TH8) ("TransCanna" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that with the recent state-wide final license approval, today its wholly-owned subsidiary, Lyfted Farms, Inc. ("Lyfted"), has begun preparations for the commercial launch of distribution activities at its flagship 196,000 square foot Daly Avenue Facility in Modesto California.

The goal of Phase 1 is to focus on expansion and ramp-up of the companies' distribution activities. The revised design of Phase 1 of the Daly Distribution build-out increases capacity by 16,000 square feet, allowing the Company to expand this core business unit to service escalating demand from customers.

"After many months of planning and preparation, our team is thrilled to begin operations inside of Daly," said CEO Bob Blink. "We look forward to rewarding our investors' patience with this initial phase and present the true potential we believe The Daly Building has to offer. As early as Q4 2020, we expect to see an incremental increase in revenue from Distribution activities in the vicinity of $6,000,000 CDN per quarter. When combined with existing revenues, our target run-rate by our fiscal year-end should exceed previous projections and be in the neighborhood of $36,000,000 CDN."

Lyfted Farms has accepted a contract with Bay Alarm Company to install a state of the art, integrated security system in preparation for commercial activity at the Daly facility. Pre-site preparations are underway, and system completion is expected by August 15, 2020.

Additionally, the facility's triple-redundancy heating, ventilation, and air conditioning "HVAC," sub-forty-degree Fahrenheit freezer, and distribution area systems have been activated for pre-cooling and calibration within the areas of operation. Employee technician training has started on the Company's high speed automated packaging systems, combining WeighPack Swifty Baggers and Combiscale 14-head rotary scales to provide high-efficiency and precision filling, which reduce labor and material costs to industry-leading levels.

Story continues

Packaging and support materials began arriving this week into the Daly distribution center with completion of the Phase 1 Distribution build-out expected by September 15, 2020.

About TransCanna Holdings Inc.

TransCanna Holdings Inc. is a California based, Canadian listed company building Cannabis-focused brands for the California lifestyle, through its wholly-owned California subsidiaries.

For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.transcanna.com or email the Company at info@transcanna.com.

On behalf of the Board,

Bob Blink, CEO

604-349-3011

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release includes certain statements and information that may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws or forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect the expectations or beliefs regarding future events of management of the Company. Generally, forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "intends" or "anticipates", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "should", "would" or "occur". This information and these statements, referred to herein as "forwardlooking statements", are not historical facts, are made as of the date of this news release and include without limitation estimates and forecasts and statements as to management's expectations for growth and the commencement of operations of the Company's Daly facility.

The forward-looking information in this press release is based upon certain assumptions that management considers reasonable in the circumstances, including that operations will commence at the Company's Daly facility in Modesto, California as and when expected.

These forwardlooking statements involve numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, events or developments to be materially from any future results, events or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties associated with the forward looking information in this news release include, among others, dependence on obtaining and maintaining regulatory approvals, including state, local or other licenses and any inability to obtain all necessary governmental approvals licenses and permits to complete upgrades to its Daly facility in a timely manner; engaging in activities which currently are illegal under U.S. federal law and the uncertainty of existing protection from U.S. federal or other prosecution; regulatory or political change such as changes in applicable laws and regulations, including U.S. state-law legalization, particularly in California, due to inconsistent public opinion, perception of the medical-use and adult-use marijuana industry, bureaucratic delays or inefficiencies or any other reasons; any other factors or developments which may hinder market growth;; reliance on management; and the effect of capital market conditions and other factors (including those related to the COVID-19 pandemic) on capital availability; competition, including from more established or better financed competitors; and the need to secure and maintain corporate alliances and partnerships, including with customers and suppliers.

Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, forward-looking information or financial out-look, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/59909
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Policy makers should increase child benefit and consider difficulties faced by families on low incomes in order to avoid the COVID-19 pandemic heightening existing inequalities and creating new ones, according to a new study.

COVID-19 has caused additional, often extreme, hardship in families' lives with policy responses often not focused on the needs of families with dependent children. Now, as we approach the end of lockdown, the 'future' looks highly uncertain for many.

Researchers at the Universities of Birmingham and York say that the 'new normal' brings with it new costs for such families, who havein some casesbeen left hungry, fearful, stigmatized and excluded.

Emergent findings from researchers' participatory work with parents and carers emphasize the need for a cash injectionhighlighting that supermarket vouchers replacing free school meals have had a poor uptake, often seen as a stigmatizing substitute for financial support.

Working with Child Poverty Action Group, the researchers launched the COVID Realities project to explore the experiences of parents and carers on low incomes, discovering among other things that:

Daily essentials became more costly and less available, raising household costs;

People's mental health is suffering from both new and compounded strains;

Financial, emotional, and social support are needed to navigate additional barriers;

Food provision is sometimes insufficient, causing parents/carers to feel guilty; and

Future concerns focus on finding work and managing financial difficulties, as lockdown eases.

Researcher Dr. Kayleigh Garthwaite, a Birmingham Fellow in the Department of Social Policy, Sociology and Criminology, commented: "We're calling for an increase to Child Benefit of 10 per child per week to help families cope with the additional costs caused by lockdown and associated pressures around home schooling.

"We must also embed the experiences and perspectives of people living on a low income within policy making decisions and debates. Only by so doing can we ensure the 'new normal' is better for us all and make a real contribution to tackling poverty across the UK."

Researchers worked with parents and carers, who kept diaries and took part in activities during June 2020, to produce their initial findings.

The COVID Realities project will see parents and carers managing on a tight budget share their experiences in online diaries and activitiesworking with the research team to develop recommendations for policy change. Findings from the 18-month projectfunded by the Nuffield Foundationwill seek to influence the evolving social security policy response.

Parents and carers described how lockdown made their usual budgetary practices impossible, for example visiting different supermarkets to find the best prices or buying unbranded goods. Several families across the UK have already shared their experiences with researchers as part of a pilot study, including Angela, a single parent of two young children, in receipt of Universal Credit, who said:

"There are lots of empty spaces on the shelf so you have to grab what there is and some of those products you wouldn't usually buy it is a financial cost," said Angela.

Sarah, a mother of two boys, said, "My little boy who is five is always hungry  I ran out of jam, bread, eggs, which is the stuff I use to fill him and really can't be going shopping again till Sunday."

Researchers discovered that perpetual strain affected some families' mental health, with parents describing depression, low mood, paranoia, anxiety, insomnia, apathy, and a loss of routine and control. Some also felt humiliated by having to ask for help with basic survival needs.

"Parents expressed feelings of guilt and shame linked to their inadequate access to food," added Dr. Garthwaite. "The loss of emotional and interrelated financial support from family was also experienced sharply.

"Before lockdown, grandparents had provided emotional support, but also crucial practical and financial help like shopping, lunches or dinners. The closure of schools left children without social contact with their peers, and some parents feeling unsupported or alone."

Dr. Garthwaite added that some parents and carers had also used programs during lockdown to defer payments or bills. They now felt intimidated at the prospect of these returning, along with continuing heightened costs of lockdown.

Explore further Children show increase in mental health difficulties over COVID-19 lockdown

More information: More information can be found on the Covid Realities: More information can be found on the Covid Realities: www.covidrealities.org/
DUBLIN, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global mHealth Market By Type, By Services, By Devices, By Stakeholders, By Application, By Region, Industry Analysis and Forecast, 2020 - 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global mHealth Market size is expected to reach $206.1 billion by 2026, rising at a market growth of 31.6% CAGR during the forecast period. Mobile health (mHealth) refers to the practice of mobile-supported public health and treatment, such as smartphones, personal digital assistants, tablets, and wireless systems. Under digital health, mHealth covers both multimedia and telecommunications infrastructure technologies for delivering health information.



mHealth applications include; education & awareness, assistance for diagnosis & treatment, management of the health care supply chain, remote monitoring, management of chronic diseases, among others. The mHealth industry is expected to witness substantial growth over the projected period as mHealth facilities are increasing globally. Increasing demand for home-based remote patient monitoring services for the aged population is also a key factor in fueling growth in the mHealth market.



Some of the prominent developments the industry is experiencing include growing application of cloud-based mhealth applications through healthcare, growing use of mhealth applications for customized patient experience, as well as remote tracking and increasing emphasis on consumer-centered connectivity solutions.



Growing innovations in preventive healthcare and increased funding for mHealth start-ups are also driving the market growth. Mobile healthcare applications are gaining momentum in the healthcare sector with the advent of numerous digital start-ups. In addition, the rise in adoption of mHealth is due to factors such as increased penetration of smartphones, high internet use, and the easy availability of mHealth apps.



In addition, recent developments in wearable technology and a growing prevalence of chronic diseases, particularly cardiovascular disorders and diabetes, have contributed significantly to the growth of the segment. Aside from technical advances, a viable business model and strategic partnerships are the two most important factors for businesses to create structured revenue channels. Nonetheless, factors such as data protection issues and poor network coverage can hinder the market growth.



mHealth apps are expected to see a lucrative growth rate over the projected period due to strong consumer demand. Increased adoption of wearables by patients and the health-conscious population is expected to also have a positive effect on the market. It has been observed that the majority of digital healthcare start-ups have adopted the B2C business model, which allows faster adoption compared to multi-stakeholder structures in the primary healthcare sector.



The major strategies followed by the market participants are Partnerships. Based on the Analysis presented in the Cardinal matrix, Johnson and Johnson, Medtronic PLC, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., and Bayer AG are the forerunners in the mHealth Market. Companies such as DexCom, Inc., Koninklijke Philips N.V., AllScripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc., Omron Corporation, Cerner Corporation, and Sanofi S.A. are some of the key innovators in mHealth Market.



The market research report covers the analysis of key stake holders of the market. Key companies profiled in the report include Bayer AG, Medtronic PLC, Johnson and Johnson, Koninklijke Philips N.V., DexCom, Inc., Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (Samsung Group), Omron Corporation, AllScripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc., Sanofi S.A., Cerner Corporation.



Unique Offerings from the Publisher:

Exhaustive coverage

Highest number of market tables and figures

Subscription based model available

Guaranteed best price

Assured post sales research support with 10% customization free

Key Topics Covered:



Chapter 1. Market Scope & Methodology



Chapter 2. Market Overview

2.1 Introduction

2.1.1 Overview

2.1.2 Market Composition and Scenario

2.2 Key Factors Impacting the Market

2.2.1 Market Drivers

2.2.2 Market Restraints



Chapter 3. Competition Analysis - Global

3.1 Cardinal Matrix

3.2 Recent Industry Wide Strategic Developments

3.2.1 Partnerships, Collaborations and Agreements

3.2.2 Product Launches and Product Expansions

3.2.3 Mergers & Acquisitions

3.3 Top Winning Strategies

3.3.1 Key Leading Strategies: Percentage Distribution (2015-2019)

3.3.2 Key Strategic Move: (Partnerships, Collaborations, and Agreements : 2015, Jun - 2020,Feb) Leading Players



Chapter 4. Global mHealth Market by Type

4.1 Global Services Market by Region

4.2 Global Devices Market by Region



Chapter 5. Global mHealth Services Market by Type

5.1 Global Monitoring services Market by Region

5.2 Global Diagnosis services Market by Region

5.3 Global Healthcare Systems Strengthening Services Market by Region

5.4 Global Other Services Market by Region



Chapter 6. Global mHealth Devices Market by Type

6.1 Global BP Monitors Market by Region

6.2 Global Cardiac Monitors Market by Region

6.3 Global Pulse Oximetry Market by Region

6.4 Global Blood Glucose Meters Market by Region

6.5 Global Apnea & Sleep Monitors Market by Region

6.6 Global Neurological Monitors Market by Region

6.7 Global Wearable Fitness Sensor Device & Heart Rate Meters Market by Region

6.8 Global Others Market by Region



Chapter 7. Global mHealth Market by Stakeholders

7.1 Global Mobile Operators Market by Region

7.2 Global Device Vendors Market by Region

7.3 Global Healthcare Providers Market by Region

7.4 Global Content Players Market by Region



Chapter 8. Global mHealth Market by Applications

8.1 Global Cardiovascular Diseases Market by Region

8.2 Global Diabetes Market by Region

8.3 Global Respiratory Market by Region

8.4 Global Neurology Market by Region

8.5 Global Other Applications Market by Region



Chapter 9. Global mHealth Market by Region

9.1 North America mHealth Market

9.2 Europe mHealth Market

9.3 Asia Pacific mHealth Market

9.4 LAMEA mHealth Market



Chapter 10. Company Profiles

10.1 Bayer AG

10.1.1 Company Overview

10.1.2 Financial Analysis

10.1.3 Segmental and Regional Analysis

10.1.4 Research & Development Expense

10.1.5 Recent strategies and developments:

10.1.5.1 Partnerships, Collaborations, and Agreements:

10.1.6 SWOT Analysis

10.2 Medtronic PLC

10.3 Johnson and Johnson

10.4 Koninklijke Philips N.V.

10.5 DexCom, Inc.

10.6 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (Samsung Group)

10.7 Omron Corporation

10.8 AllScripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc.

10.9 Sanofi S.A.

10.10 Cerner Corporation



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ttz7h4

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]



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SOURCE Research and Markets

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YEREVAN, JULY 16, ARMENPRESS. The Yazidi community of Armenia condemns the provocative actions launched by Azerbaijan on the border, Yazidi MP from the ruling My Step faction Rustam Bakoyan said at the extraordinary session of the Armenian Parliament.

The recent military provocative actions of Azerbaijan receive an adequate response from the Armenian side. The Yazidi community condemns these provocative actions of Azerbaijan, and dozens of Yazidis living in Armenia have applied and are ready to go to the border and protect our common border if necessary, the lawmaker said.

He called on the Yazidis around the world to actively cooperate with the Armenian Diaspora in order to give a concrete diplomatic response to Azerbaijans provocative actions.

Overnight July 16, at around 03:40, the units of the Armenian Armed Forces have noticed movement of the Azerbaijani side. Switching to all-round defense, the Armenian Armed Forces prevented the sabotage infiltration attempt of the Azerbaijani side. After a hot battle the adversary was pushed back suffering losses. Thereafter, at 05:20, the Azerbaijani forces started shelling Aygepar and Movses villages of Tavush province, firing mortars and D-30 howitzer.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
The independence of Venezuela's justice system has been "considerably undermined", fuelling impunity and human rights violations, the UN rights chief charged Tuesday in a report. The 15-page document by Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, was commissioned in September by the UN Human Rights Council and is to be presented before the body on Wednesday. It was released a week after Venezuela's Supreme Court, comprised mainly of judges loyal to President Nicolas Maduro, ordered Juan Guaido to relinquish his position as leader of a main opposition party. Venezuela has been in political turmoil since 2019, when Guaido declared himself acting president, charging that Maduro's 2018 re-election was fraudulent. The United States no longer recognises Maduro as president and has been trying unsuccessfully to oust him, in part by recognising Guaido as the country's interim head. Around 60 other countries have followed Washington's lead. Meanwhile, the report by Bachelet's OHCHR office said it "remains concerned about the lack of independence in the justice system in Venezuela. "OHCHR considers that the independence of the justice system is considerably undermined due to insecurity of tenure of judges and prosecutors, the lack of transparency in the process of designation, precarious working conditions, and political interference. "This situation prevents the judiciary from exercising its key role as an independent actor in protecting human rights, and contributes to impunity and the persistence of human rights violations," the report said. The UN body charged that alleged victims of human rights violations had difficulty obtaining justice. Venezuela's attorney general should reduce "high levels of impunity for killings in the context of protest, security operations, allegations of torture and ill-treatment, and gender based violence", the report said. It made 21 recommendations. Among them was completing judicial reforms announced in January to guarantee the system's "independence, impartiality, transparency, accessibility and effectiveness". The report said Caracas must investigate alleged human rights violations, including "deprivation of life, enforced disappearance, torture and sexual and gender-based violence involving members of the security forces". Bachelet also urged Venezuela to publish a comprehensive report on the investigations and criminal proceedings concerning deaths that occurred "in the context of protests in 2014, 2017 and 2019". Civilians should no longer be tried by military tribunals, it added. The report by Michelle Bachelet (pictured June 2020), the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said her office "remains concerned about the lack of independence in the justice system in Venezuela"
A Call by the Health Minister for mandatory face coverings in shops has split policing and retail unions over who will enforce the rules.

Robin Swann said yesterday that he will recommend the measure to the Executive.

The UK Government has already announced plans to make face coverings compulsory in retailers from July 24.

Mr Swann said that wearing face coverings in enclosed spaces "will have to become second nature" to prevent further spikes of Covid-19 in the autumn and winter.

He added that the measure would provide "clarity and reassurance" for the public and that he was backed by Northern Ireland's chief medical and scientific officers.

Mr Swann said it was also necessary to reassure vulnerable people as shielding measures are due to be paused on July 31.

Shopworkers union Usdaw said it should never fall on retailers to enforce face coverings, while the Police Federation of Northern Ireland said enforcement should be a last resort and officers couldn't be expected to respond to every incident.

Usdaw general secretary Paddy Lillis said: "It is right to make the wearing of face coverings mandatory in shops, but we must recognise that expert advice says it is an additional protection on top of existing safety measures.

"Even if face coverings become mandatory in Northern Ireland, Usdaw is urging employers to stay with the established two-metre social distancing, using screens at tills and limiting the number of shoppers in store at any one time.

"We are clear that it should never fall on shopworkers to enforce the wearing of face coverings, they are already dealing with more abuse than normal and this could be another flashpoint.

"Our members would need clarity on age identification procedures under the 'Think-25' policy when a customer is wearing a face covering."

Mr Lillis said a public information campaign was also needed detailing the correct use of face coverings and who is exempt.

The Police Federation called for a partnership approach between officers, shop owners and the public.

"Enforcement will play a part but that will most likely be a last resort. However, retailers must also take some responsibility for encouraging customers to comply," it said.

"The police cannot deal with this in isolation and will rely on society as a whole taking responsibility.

"We anticipate a situation where people generally will wish to willingly comply to limit the spread of the virus and help society return to the nearest we can get to pre-lockdown conditions.

"Officers will, of course, intervene in situations where there is a refusal to comply but we would sincerely hope that this will only be in exceptional circumstances."

It warned that limited police resources could not be stretched unnecessarily and that more serious crime and public safety remained paramount.

In an interview with the Belfast Telegraph, the Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride said a shift in evidence had now strengthened the case for face coverings.

Ulster Unionist leader Steve Aiken said it was a "sensible" option to reduce the risk of a second outbreak.

"The need to ensure that we are not overwhelmed by any new wave of Covid-19 is paramount," he said.

"Spikes and outbreaks across our nation, islands and beyond show that until a proven vaccine arrives, we must take precautions such as wearing face coverings."

The PSNI has yet to comment on the minister's proposals.
By Jonathan Allen and Shubham Kalia (Reuters) - The U.S. government executed a convicted murderer on Thursday in the second federal execution in as many days after a 17-year pause, overcoming court orders that said condemned men should have time to contest the legality of a new one-drug lethal-injection protocol.

By Jonathan Allen and Shubham Kalia

(Reuters) - The U.S. government executed a convicted murderer on Thursday in the second federal execution in as many days after a 17-year pause, overcoming court orders that said condemned men should have time to contest the legality of a new one-drug lethal-injection protocol.

Following another overnight volley of final legal challenges that were cleared away in the small hours by the Supreme Court, Wesley Purkey was pronounced dead at 8:19 a.m. EDT (1219 GMT) at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons said.

The resumption of capital punishment this week has divided the public, the families of the condemned men, Supreme Court justices and others.

Relatives of the victims of Daniel Lee, who was executed on Tuesday, opposed his execution in anguish, noting his accomplice in the murder of an Arkansas family in 1996 had been sentenced instead to life in prison.

In contrast, the family of Jennifer Long, the 16-year-old girl raped and murdered by Purkey in Missouri 1994, expressed relief on Thursday morning after witnessing Purkey's death.

"We took care of today what we needed to take care of," William Long, the girl's father, told reporters. "It has been a long time coming. He needed to take his last breath, he took my daughter's last breath. And there's some resolve."

If a third convicted murderer is put to death on Friday as planned, President Donald Trump's administration will have completed as many federal executions in a single week as happened in the preceding 57 years, though executions by some state governments remain common.

The Justice Department began efforts to revive capital punishment in the federal justice system soon after Trump's inauguration in 2017, announcing last year it would replace the old three-drug protocol with lethal injections of a single drug: pentobarbital.

The department sought to end a de facto moratorium engendered by a spate of botched executions, legal challenges and difficulty in obtaining lethal-injection drugs. It spent much of 2018 and 2019 building a secret network of companies to make and test the drug, some of which were identified in a Reuters investigation last week.

Inmates on federal death row, including Purkey and Lee, sued the Justice Department over the protocol, saying it would cause unconstitutional suffering as the caustic drug quickly filled their lungs with bloody fluid before they lost consciousness.

U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington is overseeing the lawsuits, which are ongoing even as the plaintiffs are put to death by the defendants one by one.

She sided with some of the condemned men's arguments, issuing injunctions once last year and twice this week in order to let their lawsuits play out, which were each overturned by higher courts.

Twice this week, a 5-4 majority in the Supreme Court cast out Chutkan's injunctions. But the court's liberal justices have questioned whether any form of capital punishment can be allowed.

Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in a dissenting opinion this week that "the resumption of federal executions promises to provide examples that illustrate the difficulties of administering the death penalty consistent with the Constitution."

Lawyers for Purkey, 68, had argued that his Alzheimer's disease had advanced to the point that he longer understood why he was being executed, but he was lucid in his final words while strapped to a gurney.

He apologized to his victim's family and to his own daughter for the "pain and suffering" he had caused them, according to a reporter who was allowed to witness the execution and share notes with other outlets.

"This sanitized murder really does not serve no purpose whatsoever," Purkey said a few minutes before he would be pronounced dead. "Thank you."

(Refiles to add omitted byline)

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York and Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Peter Szekely and Daniel Trotta; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Bernadette Baum)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Pakistan on Thursday provided Indian officials consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former naval officer sentenced to death for alleged involvement in espionage, for only the second time since he was detained in March 2016.

The Indian side took up Pakistans offer only after receiving assurances regarding unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional access to Jadhav, external affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said.

India has been requesting for unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional consular access to Kulbushan Jadhav. On the basis of assurances provided, our officials proceeded for the meeting [on Thursday], Srivastava told a weekly news briefing.

The Indian side will assess the situation and comments on the matter after the officials who met Jadhav submit a report, he said.

The timing of the meeting was crucial as it was held just four days before the expiry of a deadline for Jadhav, his legal representative or the Indian government to file a review petition in the Islamabad high court under an ordinance promulgated by the Pakistan government.

Unlike the past meetings with Jadhav, which were high-profile affairs, Pakistani authorities did not release any photos or video footage of Thursdays meeting that was kept tightly under wraps.

Before the meeting, India had made it clear that the Pakistani side couldnt impose conditions such as making audio and video recordings of the conversation or insisting that Jadhav and the officials speak only in English, people familiar with developments said.

A statement from Pakistans foreign ministry said consular access to Jadhav, 50, was provided for the second time following an Indian request. Consular access under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations was first provided in September 2019, while Jadhavs mother and wife were allowed to meet him in December 2017.

Two consular officers of the Indian high commission in Islamabad were provided unimpeded and uninterrupted consular access toJadhav at 1500 hours, the statement said.

The statement repeated Pakistans accusations that Jadhav was arrested in Balochistan province on March 3, 2016 and that he had confessed to his involvement in terrorist activities. India has already dismissed such charges and said the former naval officer was kidnapped by Pakistani intelligence operatives from Irans Chabahar port, where he was running a business.

Earlier this month, India had accused Pakistan of coercing Jadhav not to file a petition seeking a review of his case and of not complying with the International Court of Justices (ICJ) verdict to review his conviction.

New Delhis response came after senior Pakistani officials contended Jadhav had refused to file an appeal in the Islamabad high court against the death sentence given by a military court. The Pakistani officials had also said Jadhav preferred to follow up his pending mercy petition.

ICJ had ruled in July 2019 that Pakistan had violated Jadhavs rights under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, and stayed his execution while calling on Islamabad to take all steps for an effective review and reconsideration of his sentence, including enacting appropriate legislation.

The Pakistan foreign ministrys statement said the country remains committed to fully implementing the ICJs judgment of July 17, 2019 and hoped that India will cooperate with the Pakistan court in giving full effect to the said judgement.

India has pushed for the full implementation of ICJs judgment and sought unimpeded access to Jadhav to discuss his remedies under the new Pakistani ordinance.

Pakistan also rejected numerous requests from India for free and unimpeded access to Jadhav. India has also repeatedly asked for a lawyer from outside Pakistan to be allowed to appear for Jadhav in any review proceedings but Islamabad has denied this.

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"Congoleum is EBITDA-positive and growing, but we must achieve a more viable capital structure," said Congoleum CEO Chris OConnor. " Today's reorganization announcement represents a decisive, positive step that will strengthen our position for future prosperity.

Congoleum, one of America's oldest resilient flooring manufacturers, founded in 1886, today announced that it has initiated voluntary reorganization proceedings in the District of New Jersey under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The Company intends to use the court process to pursue a financial restructuring designed to reduce its current debt load, maximize value and position the Company for long-term success. Congoleum plans to continue operating in the ordinary course of business, under the court's supervision, and remains committed to being the consumer-centric Company that has shaped the resilient flooring industry for more than a century.

"Congoleum is EBITDA-positive and growing, but we must achieve a more viable capital structure," said Congoleum CEO Chris OConnor. " Today's reorganization announcement represents a decisive, positive step that will strengthen our position for future prosperity. Over the past 134 years, Congoleum has earned the distinction of being one of the most respected and well-recognized national flooring brands. We will continue serving our customers, employees and other stakeholders, operating business as usual throughout this process."

Congoleum has a long and storied history as a market-leader driven by an entrepreneurial spirit and committed to excellence in design, quality and innovation. The invention of in-register embossing for sheet goods, introducing the worlds first rigid and groutable LVT and most recently the launch of its patented, digitally printed, PVC-free Cleo family of products are but a few of the innovations that have not only driven the industry forward but have quite literally changed the way the world sees resilient flooring.

Despite our numerous achievements during the past several years, the Company remains saddled with high legacy debt and increasing costs associated with running the business. As the industry adapts to changes in product mix, import vs. domestic production, and rising operating costs, these contributing factors make the current level of debt unsustainable, OConnor explained. For the last few months, we have engaged in discussions with our lenders to evaluate a range of potential strategic plans for the Company. Ultimately, we determined that the best way to protect the Company, for the benefit of all stakeholders, is to reorganize through this court-supervised process."

Stressing that it is "business as usual" at Congoleum, OConnor noted that the Company had proactively filed expected motions as part of the court-supervised process and intends to work closely with creditors, customers and employees to identify value-maximizing restructuring plans that will benefit all stakeholders.

"Congoleum is a heritage American brand that has been in business since 1886," OConnor said. "We have a very tenured workforce of more than 300 people who live and breathe our values of teamwork, quality and creative problem solving. I am extremely confident and optimistic about our future."

For additional information about the reorganization, please visit: http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov or https://cases.primeclerk.com/congoleum/Home-Index.

About Congoleum

Since 1886 Congoleum Corporation has been committed to developing innovative flooring products that push the industry forward. Congoleum holds numerous patents for novel creations over the years, and these patents have resulted in products that are like no others in the industry.

Congoleum manufactures residential and commercial resilient products that are engineered with state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and that demonstrate Congoleums quality and design leadership. With more than 5,000 retailers selling Congoleum products across North America, Congoleum is proud of its strong and iconic past, energized by the future and as always, unwavering in its commitment to quality, design and innovation.
Six police personnel, including a sub-inspector, were suspended on Thursday for beating up a Dalit couple for resisting an anti-encroachment drive in Madhya Pradeshs Guna district on Tuesday. The couple also consumed pesticides in protest and are in hospital, where the district administration said they are out of danger. The incident provoked outrage after a video went viral.

An ugly situation was created due to Rajkumar Ahirwar and his wife [Savitri] consuming pesticide during anti-encroachment drive initiated by the revenue department on July 14. Sub-inspector Ashok Singh Kushwah was sent to maintain law and order. However, a video went viral regarding the use of force by the police team. Hence, the police personnel who were present on the spot are being suspended given their suspected role in the use of force, Guna police superintendent Tarun Nayak said in an order, a copy of which has been seen by HT.

Apart from Kushwah, the others suspended were Rajendra Sharma, Pawan Yadav, Narendra Rawat, Neetu Yadav, and Rani Raghuvanshi, , all constables at the Cantonment police station, Guna.

The police personnel also assaulted Ahirwars brother, Shishupal. Ahirwars mother, Geeta Bai, said they repeatedly requested the police team to let them stay until they harvested their crop. She said police did not listen to them, abused, and beat them.

The district administration says the four-acre land was earmarked for a government college and the state government released 12 crore to begin the buildings construction a year ago. But a local strongman, Babbu Pardi, encroached upon the land and rented it out to the Ahirwars for farming illegally. The Ahirwars say they took a loan of R3 lakh and paid Pardi to grow crops on the land.

The state government on Wednesday announced a high-level inquiry into the incident and transferred Guna collector S Vishwanathan, Nayak, and inspector general (Gwalior zone) Raja Babu Singh. Vishwanathan had earlier defended the police action, saying the local residents resisted the polices anti-encroachment drive.

Senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member Jyotiraditya Scindia tweeted: The Guna SP and Collector have been removed, and inquiry has been sought into the incident. I am confident that action will be taken against all those who are responsible for this heinous act. In a tweet on Wednesday, Scindia said: Guna incident is unfortunate. I had a discussion with chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and requested him to take action against insensitive and irresponsible officials. Taking a serious note of the incident the CM has ordered shifting of Guna collector and SP.

The opposition Congress attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government as the video of the assault went viral on social media on Wednesday. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi posted the video on Twitter and said: Our fight is against this ideology and injustice.

The Congress said a party delegation will visit Guna on Friday and submit a report on the incident to state party chief Kamal Nath. The delegation will gather facts about the incident, said Congress leader Chandraprabhash Shekhar. He added the delegation will include former minister Bala Bachchan.

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati condemned the incident and demanded immediate action against the guilty. Forcing a Dalit couple to attempt suicide by destroying their crops is extremely cruel and extremely shameful. The state government must take strict action against the guilty.

State home minister Narottam Mishra said the law and order situation is fine in the state. We immediately removed the IG, SP, and collector when we came to know about the incident. A high-level inquiry is going on. The state government will also provide all possible help to the family.

(With input from Yogendra Lumba in Guna)

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LONDON - Hackers linked to a Russian intelligence service are trying to steal information from researchers working to produce coronavirus vaccines in the United States, Britain and Canada, security officials in those countries said Thursday.

The hackers, who belong to a unit known variously as APT29, "the Dukes" or "Cozy Bear," are targeting vaccine research and development organizations in the three countries, the officials said in a joint statement. The unit is one of the two Russian spy groups that penetrated the Democratic Party's computers in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election.

"It is completely unacceptable that the Russian intelligence services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic," British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said.

The announcement comes as reported coronavirus cases globally have topped 13.5 million, deaths have surpassed the half-million mark, and the stakes for being first to develop a vaccine are high.

Officials did not divulge whether any of the Russian efforts have been successful, but, they said, the intention is clear.

"APT29 has a long history of targeting governmental, diplomatic, think tank, health-care and energy organizations for intelligence gain, so we encourage everyone to take this threat seriously and apply the mitigations issued in the advisory," said Anne Neuberger, cybersecurity director for the U.S. National Security Agency.

Moscow has denied the allegations.

"We have no information on who could have hacked pharmaceutical companies and research centers in Britain," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Tass state news agency. "We can only say this: Russia has nothing to do with these attempts."

U.S. officials say a desire for global prestige and influence also is driving nations' actions.

"Whatever country's or company's research lab is first to produce that [vaccine] is going to have a significant geopolitical success story," Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers said earlier this year.

Canada's Communications Security Establishment, responsible for gathering foreign signals intelligence and the Canadian equivalent of the NSA, said the attacks "serve to hinder response efforts at a time when health-care experts and medical researchers need every available resource to help fight the pandemic."

A CSE bulletin said that a Canadian biopharmaceutical company was breached by a foreign actor in mid-April, "almost certainly attempting to steal its intellectual property."

The agency also said in May that it was investigating possible security breaches at Canadian organizations working on coronavirus-related research, but did not indicate whether the alleged breaches were state-sponsored.

"We've seen some compromises in research organizations that we've been helping to mitigate," Scott Jones, head of the CSE's Cyber Center, told a parliamentary committee. "We're still continuing to look through what's the root cause of those."

More for you European police hacked secret phone network, used AI for major bust

The joint announcement comes two months after the FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned that China was also targeting covid-19 research, and that health-care, pharmaceutical and research labs should take steps to protect their systems.

"It's not unusual" to see "cyber activity" traced to China soon after a pharmaceutical company or research institution makes an announcement about promising vaccine research, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray said last week. "It's sometimes almost the next day."

Attorney General William P. Barr said Thursday that Beijing, "desperate for a public relations coup," is perhaps hoping "to claim credit for any medical breakthroughs."

The "biggest thing to keep in mind is Russia's not alone," said John Hultquist, director of intelligence analysis for the cybersecurity firm FireEye. "We've seen Iranian and Chinese actors targeting pharmaceutical companies and research organizations involved in the covid-19 response. This is an existential threat to almost every government on Earth and we can expect that tremendous resources have been diverted from other tasks to focus on this virus."

U.S. officials say Russian government hackers have penetrated energy and nuclear company business networks

The Russian hacker group scanned computer IP addresses owned by the organizations and then deployed malware to try to gain access, officials with Britain's National Cyber Security Centre said. In some cases, the hackers used custom malware known as "WellMess" and "WellMail" to conduct further operations on a victim's system, British officials said.

Paul Chichester, director of operations at the NCSC, said in a statement that APT29 launched "despicable attacks against those doing vital work to combat the coronavirus pandemic."

The World Health Organization reports that of the more than 160 vaccines being developed, 23 have begun clinical trials in humans - including top candidates being developed by academics, national laboratories and pharmaceutical companies in Britain, Canada and the United States.

Russia is developing 26 vaccines, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said Wednesday, but only two are undergoing clinical trials. A month-long trial on 38 people for one of the vaccines concluded this week. Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, the country's sovereign wealth fund, told reporters that a larger trial with several thousand people is expected to begin in August.

"We will produce 30 million doses of the vaccine in Russia, or 50 million if necessary, which means that Russia may complete vaccinations early next year," Dmitriev said.

Alongside their legitimate efforts, the Russians are probably cheating, Western analysts say.

"I have absolutely no doubt that if there was the slightest probability of stealing it, the Russians would do it," said Jonathan Eyal, international director at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank.

"Mr. Putin has not had a good pandemic," Eyal said. "He has devolved the handling of it to regional governments to try and escape responsibility. He's nowhere to be seen. The figures about the numbers who have died are clearly manipulated."

The Russian hacking group APT29 is well known to cyber experts. U.S. intelligence officials say it is part of the SVR, Russia's foreign intelligence service. That outfit hacked the White House and State Department email systems in 2014. It also infiltrated the Democratic National Committee servers in summer 2015, many months before the Russian military spy agency GRU did, investigators said.

The GRU funneled hacked emails to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, which released them online, in an attempt to sow discord in the party. The SVR, by contrast, hacked the party's servers apparently for classic espionage purposes - to glean insights into the plans and policies of the potential next U.S. president.

"They quietly steal information from their targets, and if you are hit by this actor, you may never know it," Hultquist said. "We're talking about an intelligence collection operation where Russia quietly leverages the research of others to advance their own."

How the Russians hacked the DNC and passed its emails to WikiLeaks

Britain's Raab also told a parliamentary intelligence committee Thursday that "Russian actors" sought to interfere in the United Kingdom's 2019 general election by acquiring unpublished documents used in trade talks between the U.S. and Britain, and then leaking the material via social media.

"Sensitive government documents relating to the U.K.-U.S. Free Trade Agreement were illicitly acquired before the 2019 General Election and disseminated online via the social media platform Reddit," Raab said in a written statement to Parliament.

The foreign secretary added, "It is almost certain that Russian actors sought to interfere in the 2019 General Election through the online amplification of illicitly acquired and leaked Government documents."

Moscow called the charges of election interference "unfounded."

"The British administration is making the same anti-Russian mistake again and thus not only further undermining bilateral relations with Moscow, but also its own authority," Leonid Slutsky, head of the Russian State Duma's foreign affairs committee, told reporters Thursday, according to the Interfax news agency.

"Raab is using the phrase 'highly likely' again," Slutsky said. "That is, a criminal case is again being initiated on the basis of 'highly likely,' in the absence of specific evidence, which the head of the Foreign Office admits. What happened to the presumption of innocence? Where is the evidence?"

After the trade documents emerged online, they were used during the December 2019 election by the opposition Labour Party and its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Conservative Party of preparing to "sell off" precious access to the National Health Service to U.S. companies.

The charges were a hot-button issue at the time but did not change the outcome: Johnson won the election in a landslide.

A much-delayed report into allegations of wider Russian interference in Britain's democracy is due next week.

---

Booth reported from London and Coletta from Toronto. The Washington Post's Isabelle Khurshudyan in Moscow, Karla Adam in London and Adam Taylor in Washington contributed to this report.
Ever since mid-March, when the coronavirus pandemic started disrupting the way bars and restaurants do business, owners and managers have had to adapt to frequent changes in the rules of operation. Not to mention different phases.

On Thursday, there was a new sense of frustration as Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued new and different rules for service at bars.

The new directives require that all alcohol sales be accompanied by food, and prohibit patrons from ordering directly from the bar (they must be served in their seats). Those are in addition to existing rules on wearing masks, social distancing and the 50% limit on occupancy.

I understand what he (Cuomo) is trying to do to control this thing, said Pat Cregg, owner of Swallows bar on South Avenue. But I hope he understands what this means. To provide that service, Id either have to double my staff and make a lot less money, or just shut down.

Bar owners also say the rules are often unclear. For example, what counts as food? A bag of potato chips or a full dinner?

The rules are constantly in motion and all that does is it creates more gray areas, said Rob Podfigurny, of The Evergreen in Syracuses Hanover Square. Its hard to keep up.

At The Hops Spot in Armory Square, managing partner Matt Bartelson was trying to digest the new directives Thursday. To illustrate the lack of clarity, he said, staff there thought the existing rules already prohibited ordering at the bar.

I dont know  were we doing it right before? he said. Are we doing it right now?

Its a common question.

A lot of places, 75% Id say, want to do the right thing,' said Bud Loura, a bar and restaurant consultant with his own company, RestaurantQB.com. But then the rules dont make and sense and how are you supposed to know what to do?

Beyond that, Central New York bar operators also tend to think the latest rules are a reaction to complaints and violations that are happening more often in New York City and its suburbs. Cuomo said today the state has been flooded with complaints.

I mean, why are we paying for Downstate? said Will Minney, owner of Wild Wills Saloon in Syracuses Hanover Square. Thats what it seems like.

Still, many places are trying to make the best of it. When The Evergreen reopened last month for limited indoor and outdoor dining, it replaced its old model of ordering food from a window. Now it uses traditional table service.

So, for us, thats good because were already in that model, Podfigurny said. Weve gone to a model that is more about the dining out experience than just coming in for a beer. I feel bad for smaller places that havent made that kind of adjustment, or cant.

Wild Wills, though at heart a small, old-fashioned neighborhood bar, did make that adjustment.

Weve got plenty of outdoor seating and were serving the tables, so well be alright, Minney said.

At Swallows, the model has always been that customers order their food and their drinks on their own, with no table service.

Every place is different, Cregg said. Thats why its hard to understand these rules and apply them to the way we operate. What works in one place may not work every place.

MORE ON FOOD AND DRINKS

Armory Square street to close for traffic, open for outdoor dining this weekend

No more alcohol without food at NY bars and rstaurants, Cuomo says

Whats a PARKlet? The latest idea for expanded outdoor dining in Syracuse

Syracuse Downtown Dining Weeks to make special summer appearance

Winery, brewery, and distillery tasting rooms: Open, but different

Don Cazentre writes for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook.
More retail chains are requiring masks nationwide to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Target announced Thursday it will require customers all customers to wear face coverings beginning Aug. 1; exceptions will be made for those with underlying conditions and young children. The company says it will provide disposable masks at store entrances for guests who do not have one.

According to Target Corp., more than 80% of its stores already have mask requirements due to local and state regulations. The company has also already required its employees to wear masks.

Kohls, BJs and CVS Pharmacy similarly announced that masks covering the nose and face at all times will be required in stores nationwide beginning Monday, July 20.

With the recent spike in Covid-19 infections, were joining others in taking the next step and requiring all customers to wear face coverings when entering any of our stores throughout the country effective Monday, July 20, CVS said in a statement.

The use of a facial covering does not replace social distancing guidelines. All posted safety measures, including social distancing and the requirement of a facial covering, should continue to be adhered to while shopping, BJs said.

KTSP reports Kohls said it would offer new limited-contact store drive-up service, among other options, for customers who do not want to shop in stores. Other retailers are also offering pickup or delivery services.

The moves come after Walmart, Sams Club, Best Buy, Starbucks, Kroger and other businesses announced face coverings would be required at all stores nationwide. Walmart, the nations largest retailer, said its policy will go into effect Monday and workers will be stationed near entrances to remind customers of the new requirements.

The Associated Press reports the Retail Industry Leaders Association, which represents Walmart and other major chains, sent a letter to governors requesting states mandate store customers wear masks. The organization said differing rules in different states have created confusion and conflicts between customers and workers trying to enforce store rules, on top of Covid-19 concerns as cases spike in many states, including Arizona, California, Florida and Texas.

The National Retail Federation issued a statement Wednesday encouraging all businesses to adopt a nationwide policy on face coverings.

Workers serving customers should not have to make a critical decision as to whether they should risk exposure to infection or lose their jobs because a minority of people refuse to wear masks in order to help stop the spread of the deadly coronavirus, the NRF said.

More than 35 states now require face coverings in public settings as coronavirus cases top 3.4 million in the U.S. As of Thursday, more than 137,000 deaths have been reported.

Dr. Robert Redfield, director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the U.S. could get coronavirus under control in less than two months if everyone wears face masks.

If we all rigorously did this, we could really bring this outbreak back to where it needs to be, the CDC director said Tuesday. I think if we can get everybody to wear a mask right now, I really do think over the next four to six, eight weeks, we can bring this epidemic under control.

The CDC recommends people wear cloth face coverings in public settings and when around people who dont live in your household, especially when social distancing isnt possible. Cloth face coverings help prevent respiratory droplets from traveling into the air and onto other people when the person wearing the cloth face covering coughs, sneezes, talks, or raises their voice.

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS

Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources

First Covid-19 vaccine tested in US poised for final testing

No more alcohol without food at NY bars, restaurants, Cuomo says

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp bans cities, counties from requiring masks amid coronavirus

Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com
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It is a pleasure to report that the Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) is up 59% in the last quarter. But in truth the last year hasn't been good for the share price. The cold reality is that the stock has dropped 37% in one year, under-performing the market.

See our latest analysis for Discover Financial Services

To paraphrase Benjamin Graham: Over the short term the market is a voting machine, but over the long term it's a weighing machine. One flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price.

Unfortunately Discover Financial Services reported an EPS drop of 17% for the last year. The share price decline of 37% is actually more than the EPS drop. So it seems the market was too confident about the business, a year ago. The less favorable sentiment is reflected in its current P/E ratio of 7.46.

The graphic below depicts how EPS has changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

It's probably worth noting we've seen significant insider buying in the last quarter, which we consider a positive. That said, we think earnings and revenue growth trends are even more important factors to consider. Dive deeper into the earnings by checking this interactive graph of Discover Financial Services' earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What about the Total Shareholder Return (TSR)?

We've already covered Discover Financial Services' share price action, but we should also mention its total shareholder return (TSR). The TSR is a return calculation that accounts for the value of cash dividends (assuming that any dividend received was reinvested) and the calculated value of any discounted capital raisings and spin-offs. Dividends have been really beneficial for Discover Financial Services shareholders, and that cash payout explains why its total shareholder loss of 35%, over the last year, isn't as bad as the share price return.

Story continues

A Different Perspective

While the broader market gained around 11% in the last year, Discover Financial Services shareholders lost 35% (even including dividends) . Even the share prices of good stocks drop sometimes, but we want to see improvements in the fundamental metrics of a business, before getting too interested. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 1.1% per year over five years. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. 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. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 2 warning signs with Discover Financial Services , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

Discover Financial Services is not the only stock insiders are buying. So take a peek at this free list of growing companies with insider buying.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on US exchanges.

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.



Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
Michigan reported 891 more confirmed cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, July 15, its highest number since mid-May when the daily report included a backlog of cases.

The state also reported four new COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday.

Wednesdays number is the highest daily number since 1,191 cases were reported on May 14. However, the May 14 report included a backlog of cases from a commercial lab, state officials said at the time. Excluding that situation, the last time the daily case report was that high was April 29.

In total, Michigan has reported 71,197 confirmed cases and 6,085 deaths linked to COVID-19.

Health officials recommend looking at seven-day moving averages to evaluate data trends during the pandemic. The state is averaging 526 new cases, and 11 new deaths per day.

Sorry, but your browser does not support frames.

As of Wednesday,the states hospital systems were treating 415 coronavirus patients, up from 388 on Monday. There are currently 109 on ventilators, down slightly from 113.

About 72% of in-patient hospital beds were reported occupied in total, which is unchanged.

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Twenty-six of Michigans 83 counties reported no new cases on Monday.

Wayne County had the most new cases in Wednesdays report with 199 followed by Oakland (177), Macomb (113), Kent(71), Washtenaw (34), Genesee (32), Ottawa (32), Berrien (16) and Monroe (16).

Heres a look at the five Michigan counties with the most confirmed cases.

1. Wayne County: 24,525 cases (2,762 deaths)

2. Oakland County: 13,022 cases (1,110 deaths)

3. Macomb County: 8,037 cases (929 deaths)

4. Kent County: 6,061 cases (145 deaths)

5. Genesee County: 2,986 cases (291 deaths)

Sorry, but your browser does not support frames.

Of the 33,821 tests processed on Tuesday, 1,194 -- or 3.5% -- came back positive for COVID-19.

To find a testing site near you, check out the states online test finder, here, send an email to COVID19@michigan.gov, or call 888-535-6136 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays.

For more statewide data, visit MLives coronavirus data page, here.

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.

Read more on MLive:

Whitmer orders mask use in Michigan, violators could be fined up to $500

Pronto Pups owner issues social media rant against coronavirus masks and Black Lives Matter

Pfizer coronavirus vaccines being manufactured in Michigan get FDAs fast track status

Michigan already has more coronavirus cases in July than all of June; track the trend in your county
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 23:56:27|Editor: huaxia

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BAGHDAD, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi health authorities decided Thursday to reduce partial curfew hours and ease some restriction measures, while the Health Ministry reported 2,281 new COVID-19 cases.

The Higher Committee for Health and National Safety, headed by the Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, decided in a statement that the partial curfew hours will start from 9:30 p.m. (1830 GMT) to 6:00 a.m. (0300 GMT) as of the coming week, except for the full curfew days of Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

On June 29, the committee imposed a partial curfew from 7 p.m. local time (1600 GMT) to 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) for the remaining four days every week.

The committee also decided to completely lift the curfew after the Eid al-Adha holiday, which is expected to end in the early days of August according to the Islamic lunar calendar, the statement said.

The committee decisions also included reopening the airports for the flights starting from July 23, in addition to reopening two crossing border points with neighboring Iran and one with Kuwait for commercial exchange, according to the statement.

Meanwhile, a statement by the Health Ministry said that 2,281 new COVID-19 cases were detected during the day, bringing the total number of infections to 86,148 across the country.

The ministry reported 90 more deaths, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 3,522.

It also said that 1,695 people recovered during the day, bringing the total recoveries from the disease to 54,316.

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, Iraq has been taking measures to contain the pandemic.

China has been helping Iraq fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

From March 7 to April 26, a Chinese team of seven medical experts spent 50 days in Iraq to help contain the disease, during which they helped build a PCR lab and install an advanced CT scanner in Baghdad.

Since March 7, China has sent three batches of medical aid to Iraq. Enditem
Suriname, a small country in South America, recently created history by ending dictatorial rule and elected Chan Santokhi, an Indian-origin former police chief, as its new president.

In May, Santokhi had won in the general elections, beating his rival Desi Bouterse.

Suriname Herald

Who is Chan Santokhi?

Chandrikapersad "Chan" Santokhi, who is 61, leads the country's Progressive Reform Party.



Born in Suriname, which is a former Dutch colony, he studied at the police academy in the Netherlands. After his return to Suriname, he became a police inspector and in 1991 was named chief of police.

From 2005 to 2010 he served as minister of justice. He ran for the presidency in 2010 but lost to Bouterse.

Suriname Herald

Bouterse was re-elected to a second term in 2015 and was confident of winning a third consecutive term in elections in May but it was Santokhi's party which emerged victorious.



The Progressive Reform Party won 20 of the 51 seats in the National Assembly, enough to form a coalition government with the General Liberation and Development Party. The latter is led by Ronnie Brunswijk, who will serve as vice-president.

Suriname Herald

Santokhi, better known as Chan, will inherit a devastated economy in the South American nation of about 600,000 people.



The new ruling coalition has said it needs to determine what the country owes its creditors, and analysts say it may need to work out a debt rescheduling plan with the International Monetary Fund  something that could require a potentially unpopular phasing out of fuel, water and electricity subsidies.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 12:12:16|Editor: huaxia

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VIENTIANE, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The final of the 13th "Chinese Bridge" Chinese proficiency competition for middle school students in Laos had been held online from July 10 to July 13, the Chinese Embassy to Laos told Xinhua Thursday.

The competition, co-hosted by the Chinese Embassy to Laos and the Liaobei School, a Chinese school in Muang Xay, and several Chinese schools, was themed with "Chasing Chinese Dreams, Seize the Day."

With the guidance and support from the Chinese embassy, the contest, overcoming the unfavorable internet conditions, was carried out through live video and video clips to ensure order and fairness, a press release from the Chinese embassy said, adding that the contestants had shown their full enthusiasm.

Altogether 15 middle school students from seven Chinese schools in Laos competed through speech, knowledge quiz and talent show, demonstrating their Chinese language skill and understanding of the Chinese culture.

The winner of the contest, Wang Yanqi from Vientiane's Liewtou Chinese school, will represent the Lao middle school students to compete in the "Chinese Bridge" semi-final and final contests. Enditem
The video captures an apparent lack of urgency to render aid to Floyd for long minutes after he stopped moving.

Body-camera footage made public Wednesday from two Minneapolis police officers involved in George Floyds arrest captured a panicked and fearful Floyd pleading with the officers in the minutes before his death, saying Im not a bad guy! as they tried to wrestle him into a squad car.

Im not that kind of guy, Floyd says as he struggles against the officers. I just had COVID, man, I dont want to go back to that. An onlooker pleads with Floyd to stop struggling, saying, You cant win! Floyd replies, I dont want to win!

A few minutes later, with Floyd now facedown on the street, the cameras record his fading voice, still occasionally saying, I cant breathe before he goes still.

Four now former police officers were charged in the days following the killing of George Floyd on May 25. From left: Derek Chauvin, who placed his knee on Floyds neck and J Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao [Hennepin County Sheriffs Office/via AP Photo]

Though transcripts of the footage were released earlier, the video itself is the fullest public view yet of Floyds interaction with the officers who were later charged in his death. It also captures an apparent lack of urgency to render aid to Floyd for long minutes after he stopped moving.

The recordings from officers Thomas Lane and J Alexander Kueng are part of the criminal case against them and two other officers in Floyds May 25 death in the United States. Derek Chauvin, who held his knee against Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes, is charged with second-degree murder. Lane, Kueng and another officer, Tou Thao, are charged with aiding and abetting.

All four officers were fired the day after Floyd died. Journalists and members of the public were allowed to view the footage Wednesday by appointment. Judge Peter Cahill, without explanation, has declined to allow publication of the video.

The footage shows the officers view of a death already widely seen on a bystanders mobile phone video, which set off tumultuous protests in Minneapolis that quickly spread around the world and sparked a national reckoning on race and policing.

Floyd appears distraught from the moment officers ask him to step out of his vehicle near a south Minneapolis corner grocery, where he was suspected of passing a counterfeit $20 bill. When Floyd did not immediately display his hands, Lane pulled his gun, leading Floyd to say he had been shot before.

Protesters gathering at the scene where George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the US [File: Eric Miller/Reuters] [Daylife]

Floyds hands are soon handcuffed behind his back, and he grows more anxious, telling the officers that hes claustrophobic and pleading with them not to put him in the back of a squad car.

In the struggle, Floyd loses a shoe. What appears to be Chauvins chest-mounted body camera winds up underneath the squad car, and Floyd eventually winds up on the pavement with the officers holding him down.

Chauvin and Kueng each grip one of Floyds handcuffed hands to hold them in position behind his back, with Kuengs knee appearing to press on Floyds bottom or just below. Lane is at Floyds feet.

The officers sound clinical as the minutes tick by. I think hes passing out, one officer says. You guys all right, though? someone asks. Yeah  good so far, says one. Another  apparently Lane  says: My knee might be a little scratched, but Ill survive. Kueng reaches out with a free hand to pull a pebble from the police SUVs tire tread and toss it to the street.

Lane did not sound particularly worried the first time he asked Chauvin whether they should roll Floyd on his side and suggested that Floyd might be in delirium. People in the crowd can be heard expressing fear for Floyds condition, asking whether he had a pulse and was breathing.

A couple of minutes later, Lane sounds a bit more concerned when he asks again about rolling Floyd onto his side. The officers go quiet but show no apparent urgency as Kueng checks for a pulse and says he cannot find one.

Lanes camera shows him following an unresponsive Floyd on a stretcher into an ambulance, where EMTs instructed him to perform CPR. The video shows Lane performing constant chest compressions by hand with no visible results.

The ambulance parks a few blocks away from the store for several minutes while Lane and the EMTs work on Floyd, rather than heading straight to the hospital, even though they all know that Floyd is in full cardiac arrest, as indicated by dispatcher audio.

Christine Hill, a spokeswoman for Hennepin County Medical Center, the hospital that provided the ambulance, said she could not talk specifically about Floyds treatment because of medical privacy restrictions. But she said it is not unusual for paramedics to load a patient into an ambulance and move to a more secure location as they provide life-saving care.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump wearing a face mask with the words Wheres the love? after announcing on Wednesday the filing of a civil lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and the officers involved in the death of George Floyd [Jim Mone/AP Photo]

A coalition of news organisations and attorneys for Lane and Kueng have said the court should allow the body-camera footage to be copied and published to provide a more complete picture of what happened when Floyd was taken into custody.

The viewing of the video took place on the same day Floyd family attorney Ben Crump announced a lawsuit against the city and the police officers involved in Floyds death.

The body camera videos and transcripts were filed in court last week by Lanes attorney, Earl Gray, as part of a request to have Lanes case dismissed. Gray said at the time that he wanted the videos to be made public, telling the Star Tribune that they would show the whole picture. Gray said the bystander video shows just the last piece of what happened and is not fair.

Grays request highlighted portions of the body camera video that show Floyd actively resisting and acting erratic with officers. It also noted Floyds request to be put on the ground. Gray also argued that Lane did not have a clear view of what Chauvin was doing.

Kuengs attorney, Tom Plunkett, has also asked that the video be made public.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16

Trend:

Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops 89 times, Trend reports referring to Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.

The Armenian armed forces were using heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, sniper rifles, mortars and other artillery weapons.

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.
Mumbai, July 16 : Actor Namit Das has shared the experience of playing a cop for the first time in his latest digital series, "Mafia".

Sharing a photo that shows him in khaki, he posted on Instagram: "This was right after the first shot that I gave for #MAFIA as Nitin Kumar. Having never played a cop there was something undiscovered that I felt after i wore this uniform. I felt proud. There was a certain sense of responsibility. And all of this by just wearing the costume; playing a character that I will live only for the days that we were shooting. I look beyond and salute the work of all those who protect us." "Policemen, Army, Airforce, Naval for whom I am sure it goes beyond the uniform. It's not a character they play. It's the life they live & the life they know. A sense of gratitude descends. It's their sacrifice which knows no boundaries. Probably the reason why I live, I breathe & can think about a future. Thank you @birsadasgupta @rohan_ghose & @aritsen07 for letting me live Nitin. It did give me a flavour of what responsibility can feel like. In the politics of humanity we often forget the people who are most important. My sense of gratitude towards those who really matter," he wrote.

"Mafia" is about six college buddies who reunite for a bachelorette party that turns into a game of whodunnit as the past returns to haunt them.

In the psychological thriller, Namit plays Nitin Kumar, a Dalit from Bihar, who enters the police force to fight against the injustice meted out to his community.
Arlene Foster has said she wants to build a positive, respectful North-South relationship as she prepares to welcome the Taoiseach on his first official visit to Northern Ireland.

Micheal Martin will meet the First Minister and Deputy First Minister here today before holding separate meetings with the SDLP, Ulster Unionists and Alliance.

Mrs Foster told the Belfast Telegraph: "We want to build a Northern Ireland where everyone feels at home and part of this community.

"Our relationship with the Republic of Ireland is an integral part of this. We want to be good neighbours. We want a relationship based on respect and mutual benefit."

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She stressed that she hoped to build a level of North-South co-operation which "benefits all our people".

She said: "It should not be based on advancing constitutional politics but on mutual respect.

"Whether it is on Covid-19, infrastructure, healthcare, tourism or education, we share a land border and it makes sense to co-operate for the benefit of people living in border regions."

Ulster Unionist leader Steve Aiken MLA said: "We've built up quite strong links with Micheal Martin over the years, but now represents an opportunity to reset the North/South and East/West relationships that are vital for everyone on these Islands.

"Much has been said about the approach of his predecessor, and that of the Foreign Minister, in their quite frankly tone-deaf approach to both Northern Ireland and unionist concerns.

"This meeting today gives us the chance to work constructively again on matters that are important for us all."

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood MP said a strong North-South relationship was essential.

"We need to work more closely than ever to chart a course through the Covid-19 pandemic, the end of the Brexit transition and the climate crisis," he said.

"The SDLP worked to secure a shared island unit in the new Irish government and I'm looking forward to working with our new Taoiseach to deliver for people in all our communities."

Alliance deputy leader Stephen Farry MP said: "We look forward to meeting Micheal Martin in his new role as Taoiseach.

"We will be keen to discuss a number of issues.

"They include collaboration of responses to Covid-19, preparation for Brexit, justice co-operation and how North-South relations and an all-island economy can be further developed, in areas such as infrastructure and renewable energy."

Meanwhile, the Taoiseach has said he was left with "no alternative" but to sack Barry Cowen after he refused to make a statement to the Dail.

The former agriculture minister was sacked on Tuesday after he refused to provide further public statements on his 2016 drink-driving offence.

Former chief whip Dara Calleary has been appointed Agriculture Minister.
Instagram confirmed it's preparing to soon launch its TikTok competitor, known as Reels, in the U.S. The company expects to bring the new video feature -- which is designed specifically for short-form, creative content -- to its platform in early August, according to a spokesperson. The U.S. launch comes shortly after Reels' arrival in India this month, following a ban of TikTok in that market. Reels has also been tested in Brazil, France, and Germany.

NBC News reported this morning Instagram would arrive in the U.S. and more than 50 other countries in a matter of weeks, citing sources familiar with the matter.

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the U.S. (and international) launch, saying "Were excited to bring Reels to more countries, including the U.S., in early August," without providing specific details of which further markets will be added.

"The community in our test countries has shown so much creativity in short-form video, and we've heard from creators and people around the world that they're eager to get started as well," the spokesperson added.

Reels was designed to directly challenge TikTok's growing dominance. In a new area in the Instagram app, Reels allows users to create and post short, 15-second videos set to music or other audio, similar to TikTok. Also like TikTok, Reels offers a set of editing tools  like a countdown timer and tools to adjust the videos speed, for example  that aim to make it easier to record creative content. Instagram, however, doesnt have the same sort of two-tabbed, scrollable feed, like TikTok offers today.

The move to more quickly roll out Reels to more markets comes as TikTok has come under intense scrutiny for its ties to China. India banned the app, along with 58 other mobile applications designed by Chinese firms, in June. The Trump administration more recently said it was considering a similar ban on TikTok, for reasons related to national security. Yesterday, it said such a decision could be just weeks away.

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Since the news of a possible ban hit, other TikTok rivals got a boost in the charts, including Byte, Triller, Dubsmash, and Likee, for example. Snapchat also began testing TikTok-like navigation for its public video content, and YouTube is running a smaller test of its own.

Because of Instagram's reach, it has a shot at stepping in to pick up tens of millions of U.S. users if TikTok disappears. But TikTok users may not jump en masse to a single new app if a ban takes place. Already there are signs of the TikTok community splintering -- dancers prefer apps like Dubsmash and Triller, while young Gen Z'ers like Byte, for example.

No exact launch date for Instagram Reels in the U.S. was provided.
Quebec holds first Arrima draw since January Details of Quebecs June 18 invitation round have been released

Quebec holds first Arrima draw since January Details of Quebecs June 18 invitation round have been released

Quebec holds first Arrima draw since January Details of Quebecs June 18 invitation round have been released Shelby Thevenot Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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Quebecs Ministry of Immigration, Francization, and Integration (MIFI) has released details of the second draw of 2020, which took place six months after the first.

On June 18, Quebec invited seven candidates to apply for a Quebec Selection Certificate (CSQ). These candidates were either except from the cap that had been in place when they first applied to the Regular Skilled Worker Program or they were residing in Quebec on a study or work permit on June 16, 2019 when about 16,000 Regular Skilled Worker Program applications were cancelled with the introduction of Bill 9.

The Government of Quebec previously stated in August 2019 that rounds of invitations for these candidates were to take place until January 16, 2020. Yet this draw of seven people still included candidates that were affected by Bill 9.

Find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs

In order to be invited, candidates needed to have filed an expression of interest with MIFI before December 17, 2019. They also needed to be either a temporary resident of Quebec when they applied, or hold a work or study permit in the province at the time.

In order to immigrate to Quebec under the Regular Skilled Worker Program, candidates must first submit an Expression of Interest through Arrima. MIFI will then review the bank of profiles and issue invitations to those who meet specific criteria based on the labour market needs of Quebec.

What is Arrima?

Arrima was introduced in 2018 to manage the bank of candidates for the Regular Skilled Worker Program after the program was switched from a paper-based first-come, first-served application approach to an Expression of Interest system.

Quebecs EOI system manages the bank of candidates for the CSQ, which is required in order to apply for permanent residence in the province through the Regular Skilled Worker Program.

Candidates express their interest by creating a profile in Arrima, which is then placed in the pool of candidates and ranked based on either a score or other criteria.

Quebecs immigration ministry issues invitations to apply for a CSQ based on either a candidates score or other factors such as labour needs in the provinces regions.

If you received an invitation to apply for a Quebec Selection Certificate, you may email qcita@canadavisa.com to learn about the next steps regarding your application

Find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs

 2020 CIC News All Rights Reserved
Surging coronavirus infections. Bars and gyms forced to reshut their doors. Talk of new layoffs. The economy's check-engine light is blinking red again.

As lawmakers return to work next week to debate a new stimulus package with a price tag in the trillions, the summer Covid-19 sequel is playing a lot like the spring original. The urgency this time isnt so much to cushion the economic blow, but to keep the nascent economic recovery on track.

The worrying data points are accumulating:

California, accounting for nearly 15 percent of the national economy, abruptly shut down many businesses on Monday, following new closures in eight other states. The number of Americans who say they're unemployed has risen over the past three weeks, the Census Bureau has said. And leaders of some the nations largest companies warned this week that theyre bracing for a longer, more painful recession than they initially expected.

The concern now is that as Covid-19 cases rise around the country we might be headed into a roller coaster recovery, where rolling waves of outbreaks crash against the economy, Glassdoor Senior Economist Daniel Zhao told POLITICO. Data from the recruiting website found that new job listings dropped 5.5 percent at the end of June and early into July.

Its a sign that the recovery is stalling, which is alarming, Zhao added.

How Congress acts in the coming days could determine both the length of the recession and the outcome of the November election  if voters head to the polls in an economy that continues to be worse than anything seen since the Great Depression.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said a new package will come together in the next three weeks. With the new signs of economic trouble, Republicans have signaled they may be willing to expand that package to include more federal jobless aid.

Democrats are seizing on the moment to push for an extension of emergency unemployment benefits that are due to expire at the end of July. But Republicans and the Trump administration have opposed an extension of the aid at the current level of $600 per week, arguing that workers make more on unemployment programs than they would with their paycheck.

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We're sadly approaching the deadline for the expiration of the unemployment benefits, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at a Wednesday news conference. Imagine the uncertainty in households across America now who depend on the unemployment insurance because through no fault of their own, they have lost their jobs because of this pandemic, and they have to wait and see what the Senate will decide.

McConnell said Monday that the next package would have a "continued emphasis on jobs, meaning unemployment insurance for those who are unable to get back to work."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks at a news conference on Wednesday.

Official data is only starting to pick up the tremors of a new employment crisis. The unemployment rate has fallen over the last two months, but that doesnt reflect new shutdowns that began in the second half of June.

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moodys Analytics, predicts job growth will be weaker in July than in June and May. The economy took a huge body blow and its still reeling, he said in an interview.

And if the virus continues to intensify and we don't get some support from Congress and the administration soon, we will go back into recession, Zandi warned.

New weekly unemployment claims have remained above 1 million for 17 weeks, nearly double the peak seen during the Great Recession.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that 1.3 million workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, a small decline from the previous week. But that figure is seasonally adjusted to account for factors like the warmer weather and school schedules.

The DOL estimated the number of actual initial claims filed last week was 1.5 million, which would be an increase of nearly 109,000 from the week before.

In addition to that figure, another 928,000 individuals filed claims for the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which was created in March for individuals not typically eligible for state programs including the self-employed and many workers in the gig economy.

Jobless claims are also starting to pick up again in states like California, Florida, Arizona and Georgia, where Covid-19 cases have been on the rise.

It looked like we were coming back, said Lee McPheters, director of Arizona State Universitys JPMorgan Chase Economic Outlook Center, of Arizonas labor market. The May numbers were pretty strong, we added back about half the jobs we lost. And it seemed like there was, you know, kind of blue skies ahead.

With business restrictions now in place in the state, McPheters said he expects Arizona will be going through another perhaps one to two months of very weak job growth, maybe job losses.

Gov. Gavin Newsom this week barred most Californians from entering houses of worship, gyms and barbershops, in an effort to prevent months of progress on containing the virus from being erased.





Any hope that Californias recovery would be quick and steep has fizzled as the pandemic numbers worsen and the brief psychological and economic lift of reopening has passed, said James Wilcox, an economist at the University of California, Berkeleys Haas School of Business.

Many businesses  from the tiniest mom and pop stores to the largest chains can survive getting knocked down once or maybe twice, he said, but theres a limit to how many months they can survive without operating at some reasonable level.

When youre swimming underwater, two things count: depth and duration, Wilcox said.

Florida saw its unemployment rate jump to 14.5 percent in May as the coronavirus shuttered the states tourist-based economy. Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has said the situation has improved as the economy has begun to reopen, but in the last few weeks the state has seen a spike in coronavirus infections that is outpacing the rest of the nation. Florida now has more than 300,000 confirmed cases.

Disney World in central Florida opened its doors over the weekend, joining other theme parks that also have reopened under new safety protocols. But the increased number of infections has led some local authorities to reimpose restrictions on restaurants. The DeSantis administration in late June told bars to stop serving alcohol on site.

State economists are scheduled to meet Friday to begin work updating the Florida economic outlook.

Texas also saw evidence of deterioration in economic conditions in the state in the second half of June, said Pia Orrenius, vice president and senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. She cautioned that the immediate data is less reliable than other sources, but said that the rising number of new unemployment claims in the state suggest additional layoffs.

Orrenius said it's too early to call it on the future of Texas labor market.

Amid the new shutdowns, banks and some of Americas largest companies are already bracing for more economic pain.

JPMorgan is preparing for double-digit unemployment through the first half of next year. "This is not a normal recession," CEO Jamie Dimon told reporters Tuesday, pointing to government assistance programs that have helped boost income and savings for consumers as well as home prices. "The recessionary part of this youre going to see down the road."

In its second quarter earnings report released earlier this week, PepsiCo warned of plans for plant closures and layoffs through 2023. The company disclosed estimates that it will spend approximately $1.75 billion on "severance and other employee-related costs," a sign of job losses to come.

While unemployment fell in May and June, permanent job losses more than quadrupled at the same time to 2.9 million, according to the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics. About 18 million people are receiving unemployment benefits, and that number could soon increase: The number of workers reporting to the Census Bureau that theyre unemployed has risen by 2.6 million in the last three weeks.

The numbers reflect an ongoing turnover as workers initially on furlough or temporary layoffs are informed that they won't be returning to work, economists say. In fact, 42 percent, or 11.6 million, of all jobs lost through April 25 due to Covid-19 will become permanent, according to research from the University of Chicagos Becker Friedman Institute.

"It does, of course, appear that many people as they were laid off were told that if possible, their jobs would return," said Ryan Bourne, an economist with the Cato Institute. "But of course theres a huge range of uncertainty here. And I dont think any of us truly know what the economy is going to look like."

Katy Murphy, Victoria Guida, Eleanor Mueller, Gary Fineout and Kellie Mejdrich contributed to this report.


The proposed executive order, if signed by President Trump, could also allow for the U.S. government to strip visas from any party members and their family members already in the U.S., forcing their departures.

The idea comes as relations between the two countries are at a low point, and China would most likely retaliate against Americans living in or trying to visit China.

Prospects: Details of the plan have not been finalized, and Mr. Trump could ultimately reject it. Its legal justification would reside in the same statute of immigration law used in the administrations barring of arrivals from a number of predominantly Muslim countries.

Who is affected? Many party members are not aligned with official ideology. There are academics, scientists and business leaders whose careers benefit from its network. Even some dissidents are members. Dr. Li Wenliang, who sounded the alarm in the early days of the pandemic in Wuhan before dying of Covid-19, was a party member.
The routes of 35 adult female green turtles traveling to their foraging grounds in the Western Indian Ocean after the end of the nesting season on Diego Garcia, Chagos Archipelago. Turtles tracked in different years are indicated by different colors. Stars = final foraging site, crosses = turtles not tracked all the way to their foraging grounds. Credit: Nicole Esteban, Swansea University

One of Charles Darwin's long-standing questions on how turtles find their way to islands has been answered thanks to a pioneering study by scientists.

A team from Deakin University, University of Pisa and Swansea University equipped 33 green sea turtles with satellite tags and recorded unique tracks of green turtles migrating long distances in the Indian Ocean to small oceanic islands.

The study provides some of the best evidence to date that migrating sea turtles have an ability to redirect in the open ocean, but only at a crude level rather than at fine scales.

Seven turtles traveled only a few tens of kilometers to foraging sites on the Great Chagos Bank, six traveled over 4,000km to mainland Africa, one to Madagascar, while another two turtles ventured north to the Maldives.

Most of the species tracked (17) migrated westward to distant foraging sites in the Western Indian Ocean that were associated with small islands.

It shows that the turtles can travel several hundred kilometers off the direct routes to their goal before reorienting, often in the open ocean.

In 1873, Charles Darwin marveled at the ability of sea turtles to find isolated islands where they nest. However, the details of how sea turtles, and other groups such as seals and whales, navigate during long migrations remains an open question.

Animated tracks of 35 green turtle migrations tracked from nesting beaches in the Chagos Archipelago (Indian Ocean). The year of migration is indicated by colors; red = 2012, black = 2015, orange = 2017 and blue = 2018. Stars (n=33) indicate migration endpoints and incomplete migrations (n=2) are denoted by black crosses. Animation timing has been adjusted so that turtles from all years depart nesting beaches at the same time and migration duration in days is indicated by the counter in the lower right hand corner of the video frame. Of 35 equipped turtles, 33 were tracked all the way to their foraging grounds. The animation highlights the often circuitous routes of individual turtles. Credit: Nicole Esteban, Swansea University

Answering this question using free-living individuals is difficult due to thousands of sea turtles being tracked to mainland coasts where the navigational challenges are easiest.

The study also showed that turtles frequently struggled to find small islands, overshooting, and/or searching for the island in the final stages of migration.

These satellite tracking results support the suggestion, from previous laboratory work, that turtles use a crude true navigation system in the open ocean, possibly using the world's geomagnetic field.

Swansea University's Dr. Nicole Esteban, a co-author in the study said:

"We were surprised that green turtles sometimes overshot their ultimate destination by several hundred kilometers and then searched the ocean for their target. Our research shows evidence that turtles have a crude map sense with open ocean reorientation."

Explore further Aussie scientists turn to drones to protect sea turtles

More information: Jeanne A. Mortimer et al. Estimates of marine turtle nesting populations in the south-west Indian Ocean indicate the importance of the Chagos Archipelago, Oryx (2020). Jeanne A. Mortimer et al. Estimates of marine turtle nesting populations in the south-west Indian Ocean indicate the importance of the Chagos Archipelago,(2020). DOI: 10.1017/S0030605319001108
JEFFERSON PARISH, La.  When Tiffany McGee picked up her phone one Friday night in March, she received news no mother is prepared to hear. Her 14-year-old son, Tre'mall, had been shot and was at the hospital.

Speeding across the bridge toward the east bank of Jefferson Parish, a New Orleans suburb, McGee prayed that her son was still breathing. When she arrived at the hospital, a doctor assured her Tre'mall was alive.

A detective was also there. He told her she could not see her son that night but said little else, McGee recalled.

She left the hospital thinking Tre'mall had been a victim of street violence. Only later that night, by accident, did she find out that the bullet that had cut through her son's shoulder and left arm had been fired by a deputy with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office.

"No one said anything," McGee said. "No one spoke up to say an officer shot my child."

Image: (Annie Flanagan / for NBC News)

The public silence lasted months.

Jefferson Parish authorities didn't publicly disclose that a deputy had shot a teenager until late June, more than three months later, when Sheriff Joe Lopinto was asked about the incident at a news conference.

Since then, Lopinto has offered little more, saying the state's child privacy laws prevent his office from commenting on cases involving juveniles. He declined NBC News' request for an interview.

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office's initial report on the incident, viewed by NBC News, describes in detail a pursuit of a car stolen days before and the search for the teens riding in it, but makes no mention of a deputy-involved shooting, or that anyone was taken to the hospital.

Nearly four months after the shooting, the list of what Tiffany McGee still does not know runs long. The deputy's name. Those of the other officers. Why no one told her what happened that night. Whether anyone will be held to account.

Tre'mall, too, has questions.

"Why'd you shoot me, sir?" he said. "What's the point?"

Story continues

'I thought we had honesty'

Sheriffs hold extraordinary power in Louisiana, as across much of the South. They not only enforce law on the streets, but often run the jails, impose fines and collect taxes. They are accountable to their voters, who often re-elect them for decades, but are subject to far less oversight than many municipal police departments, experts say.

Harry Lee, who was the sheriff in Jefferson Parish for 28 years and died in 2007, once described the job as the "closest thing there is to being a king."

In the wake of national protests triggered by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, critics of the sheriff's office have grown louder, staging rallies in a parish unaccustomed to picketing and marches. They point to the failure to report the teen's shooting as emblematic of its lack of transparency, particularly when it comes to use of force against Black residents.

"I thought we had honesty," said Gaylor Spiller, the head of the parish's NAACP chapter. "This 14-year-old boy that they kept hidden, it's very telling."

While state law bars officials from naming children arrested and charged with nonviolent crimes, juvenile law experts said law enforcement across the state routinely share details of cases without naming them. The practice is similar in other states including New York, California and Ohio.

"To deny the existence or not confirm a deputy shot someone in an arrest is gaslighting, pure and simple," said Hector Linares, a longtime juvenile public defense attorney now at Loyola University College of Law. "If the facts were favorable to them, they'd be shouting it."

One of the state's largest and best resourced offices, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office has its own crime lab, helicopter and a raft of military-grade equipment, including BearCat armored tanks it has rolled out in recent protests.

But it has steadfastly refused to adopt body-worn cameras, now routine in the New Orleans Police Department, right next door. Lopinto says maintaining video on 300,000 calls a year, and 800 deputies, would cost millions.

That's one reason questions linger about many of the use of force incidents in the majority-white parish, which have disproportionately left people of color dead.

At least 12 men and boys have died during an arrest or pursuit by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office since 2015, according to an NBC News review of news articles and documents.

All were Black or Latino. Three were under the age of 18.

In a case with echoes of the killing of George Floyd, Keevan Robinson, 22, was asphyxiated in 2018 by a Jefferson Parish Sheriff Office narcotics officer who restrained him by "draping his shin over Robinson's neck," according to an investigation report by the sheriff's office, which found officers did not violate department policy. This week, the Jefferson Parish district attorney declined to bring charges against the officers.

Experts caution that it's difficult to judge a case without all the facts. The question of whether a shooting is justified, much less criminal, can be answered only with a thorough investigation.

"One little detail can change the whole picture," said Emanuel Kapelsohn, a use of force expert in Pennsylvania.

But certain policies in the parish highlight the wide deference the sheriff's office gives to those who carry a badge.

At least three of the 12 men died after Jefferson Parish deputies shot at a vehicle they said was moving toward them in a threatening manner, which is permitted under the agency's use of force policies, reviewed by NBC News.

The sheriff's office did not respond to a detailed list of questions from NBC News about the McGee case, the 12 deaths, use of force policies and body-worn cameras.

The New Orleans Police Department prohibits its officers from shooting from or at a moving vehicle unless its occupants are using deadly force other than the car itself.

As part of a federal consent decree, the New Orleans Police Department also bars its officers from high-speed chases unless suspects are wanted for something violent, or their escape threatens someone else's life.

Jefferson Parish has no such policy, which was one reason deputies encountered Tre'mall McGee that night in March.

'I got shot'

The sheriff's office and the Jefferson Parish district attorney declined to comment on the events that led to Tre'mall's shooting, citing privacy restrictions.

The following account was pieced together from interviews with the McGee family, the father of other boys there that night, accounts from their attorneys, conversations with neighbors and a review of documents.

On the night of March 20, Tre'mall was hanging out with friends, including Ineis O'Quinn, 19, and his 16-year-old brother, Nijel Simmons. A friend picked them up in a black Nissan Maxima.

Tre'mall said he did not know it had been stolen several days before. It was not clear if the others in the car were aware.

As they were driving through the town of Westwego, they saw police lights in the rear view. The driver, Jacolby Simmons, 18, sped off, and deputies followed. The driver ultimately screeched to a halt.

"Everybody started running," said Tre'mall. "So I ran."

Tre'mall and Nijel hopped a fence into the backyard of a small home at the end of the block. Nijel hid under a shed. Tre'mall, who has no criminal record, was on his stomach, trying to crawl under the shed when officers arrived.

Image: (Annie Flanagan / for NBC News)

Image: (Annie Flanagan / for NBC News)

Tre'mall remembers lights and yelling and men in uniforms, several of them standing near him. One deputy told him to stop moving, he recalled. Another told him to put his hands on his head. He was lifting his arm to comply, he said. "Next thing you know, I got shot."

Deputies cuffed Tre'mall and dragged Nijel out from under the shed, said his father, Nathan O'Quinn. Ineis was arrested nearby. Jacolby fled the scene and was not arrested, authorities said.

They put Nijel in a cruiser and sat Tre'mall on the curb to cut his shirt off, he recalled. He had wounds to his left shoulder blade and armpit, and through his left bicep, according to medical records and photos of his injuries. He knew he was alive, he said, but thought he would lose his arm.

Tre'mall remembers the back of the ambulance, the mask over his face, and then it goes blank. The next thing he recalls, fuzzily, is the hospital room.

'Chasing ghosts'

Tiffany McGee left the hospital without seeing her son that night, still thinking he'd been shot by a civilian. She called O'Quinn, the father of Ineis and Nijel. When she told him the news, he was frantic, she said, particularly about his youngest son, Nijel. They were thinking the worst, "that he's laying in the gutter somewhere."

O'Quinn called his sons' phones, the jailhouse and the juvenile facility. He got no answers

"We were chasing ghosts," he said.

Using a locator app, Life360, the parents traced Tre'mall's phone to the Westwego police department, one of several within Jefferson Parish.

McGee asked a deputy about their sons. After checking with colleagues inside, she said he emerged and told them it was a Jefferson Parish deputy who had fired the gun.

"That's when we found out the police shot her son," O'Quinn said. "We didn't know."

The following morning, McGee went to pick Tre'mall up at the juvenile lockup, which listed him on its paperwork as 5-foot-6 and 130 pounds. He was wearing hospital clothes, she said, and his left arm was in a sling, his white T-shirt stained red with blood near his left bicep.

Image: (Annie Flanagan / for NBC News)

She looked at Tre'mall, taller than her now but still with round cheeks underneath his fronds of dreadlocks.

"I hate those moments of feeling helpless with my children," she said. "I'm supposed to be their superwoman."

"Who shot you, son?" she recalled asking Tre'mall. "He said, 'It was the police.'"

'My son was shot by an officer'

Tre'mall's shooting came just as Louisiana tumbled into the coronavirus pandemic. The day after he was released, Gov. John Bel Edwards issued a stay-at-home order. Life went into limbo as the hospitals around New Orleans filled.

The restaurant in the French Quarter where Tiffany McGee worked as a cook shut its doors. When the governor's order lifted, she took on a new job, a single mother playing the role of amateur detective to ferret out what happened to her son.

She went to the sheriff's office, she said, to try to find her son's phone and make a complaint. She called Internal Affairs, the FBI and the Sheriff's Office, trying to get information as to what happened that night. On sticky notes and the back of envelopes, she saved the names and numbers.

"I've called everyone I needed to call, but I'm not getting any answers," she said. "I'm getting the complete runaround."

On May 27, two months after the incident, she returned to the sheriff's office. In a recording she says she made that day, provided to NBC News, the head of the shooting squad told her he hasn't heard of any shootings.

"We haven't had any officer-involved shootings," the man said. "He was shot with a firearm, not a Taser?"

"A firearm, sir," she told him. "My son has a bullet wound that's never going to go away. At 14 years old. My son was shot by an officer."

A week later, she went back, trying again to speak to detectives and make a complaint. The video of George Floyd's final moments had just gone viral. Closer to home, people were talking about Modesto Reyes, 35, who was fatally shot by Jefferson Parish deputies two days prior. The detective she spoke with told her these things take time.

"There's a lot of moving parts in these kinds of things, especially when it's either a homicide or a shooting or police involved shooting," he said in the audio recording she says she made that day.

Only after that did she get a call from Steven Bradley, a detective who was assigned to the case. He asked her to bring Tre'mall in to give a statement. She took him in the next day.

"I didn't hide behind an attorney," she said. "I came in on my own."

Image: (Annie Flanagan / for NBC News)

About two weeks later, she received a summons notifying her that the office of Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul D. Connick Jr. was charging Tre'mall with "resisting by flight." The office declined to comment on the case, citing the state's child privacy laws.

McGee was incensed.

"Before, you all didn't know nothing about the shooting," she said later. "Now you guys want to try to charge him?"

Nijel Simmons, 16, was also charged with "resisting by flight," though his attorneys said prosecutors are reconsidering those charges. The district attorney's office told NBC News it did not bring charges against Ineis O'Quinn, 19, "because of insufficient evidence."

A warrant is out for the arrest of Jacolby Simmons, 18, authorities said. He's wanted on charges of resisting an officer and possession of stolen property, records show.

"THERE'S NOTHING THAT WAS HIDDEN"

On June 23, Sheriff Lopinto held a press conference to address news swirling about the Reyes shooting, which had become a rallying call for some of the protests unfolding around New Orleans. Tre'mall's name had surfaced at protests as well, after an article about his case appeared in Youth Today, a nonprofit news outlet focused on youth, and in the local press.

Tre'mall's shooting happened in the first week of COVID-19, Lopinto explained. An email should have gone out, he said, and all deputy-involved shootings would be announced going forward.

"There's nothing that was hidden," he said. Lopinto added that he didn't know if the media had reported the story or not. "It wasn't something that was on my mind back then."

He said that his office was investigating the incident.

Lopinto also accused the McGee family of hiding behind the lawyers who recently took the family's case, who also represent the Reyes family.

"That kid was in the backyard," Lopinto said. "He knows what happened. Come in and give a statement."

But Tre'mall had, nearly three weeks prior.

"Lopinto is so eager to say that shooting a 14 year old was justified, he doesn't even know that the child had been cooperating," said Christopher Murell, one of the attorneys representing the McGees.

Murell said that an investigative report from Lopinto's office shows that detectives found Tre'mall's shooting was justified because officers believed he was holding a weapon when he stretched his arm.

"They are attempting to say that the officer said his life felt threatened because a child raised his hand," Murell said.

Lopinto has confirmed Tre'mall was unarmed, but that doesn't always make the case clear-cut.

In court and often within departments, the rules around use of force generally fall in an officer's favor. Under a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1984, Tennessee v. Garner, an officer can legally use deadly force when there's a "reasonable" threat to life.

"The band of error is so wide in the law that to find somebody guilty of a criminal case is very difficult to prove," said Peter Scharf, a criminologist at the LSU School of Public Health.

In the court of public opinion, law enforcement needs to convince residents that its investigations are thorough and fair. That, too, is growing harder as the fissures between police and many communities widen.

"The country is about as polarized as I've seen it," Scharf said. "How does an agency build trust in the aftermath of the use of deadly force?"

Spiller, from the NAACP, said cases like Keevan Robinson's and Tre'Mall McGee's have eroded trust in the legal systems in Jefferson Parish.

"A lot of the Black community believes and feels that there is no justice for us," Spiller said.

Tre'mall, who turns 15 next month, doesn't know what comes next for him in the legal system. His prosecution is on hold for now. According to his lawyers, the district attorney is taking another look at the charges.

Tre'mall says the first thing he does in the sweltering July mornings is wake up, walk downstairs and open the refrigerator. He sticks his left arm inside. The cold air helps the pain from his bullet wound, which throbs in the heat.

Image: (Annie Flanagan / for NBC News)

Fragments of the bullet are still lodged in Tre'mall's body  evidence, his mother said, that the sheriff's office still owes her answers.

"I'm fighting just to get you to be accountable for what you did," Tiffany McGee said. "Just take responsibility. That's all I want you to do."
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Former Air Force base in Gettysburg on market for $4.5 M

A former air force base near Gettysburg is up for sale. The base is listed as having 50 beds and 15 bathrooms on a 42-acre parcel of land.
Seven Turkish security personnel have died after their plane crashed into a mountain in the east of the country, state media reported Thursday. The reconnaissance plane crashed into Mount Artos, a dormant volcano in the province of Van, Anadolu news agency reported interior minister Suleyman Soylu as saying. Communication with the aircraft -- which was carrying two pilots and five "technical personnel" -- had been lost at around 10.45 pm (1945 GMT) Wednesday, he said, adding it had crashed at an altitude of 2,200 metres (7,200 feet). Soylu later arrived to inspect the scene of the crash, according to pictures posted on his Twitter account that showed him alongside military personnel in rugged terrain. The 2015-model plane had been conducting "reconnaissance and surveillance" in Van and the predominantly-Kurdish Hakkari province since Monday, Anadolu said. Hakkari province borders Iraq and has seen numerous clashes between Turkish forces and Kurdish militants during a decades-long insurgency. Van provincial governor Mehmet Emin Bilmez paid tribute to the seven "heroes" on Twitter and sent condolences to their families. A government investigation into the incident was underway, he added. Two Turkish pilots died in 2018 when a military training plane crashed during an exercise in the western province of Izmir. Remote and mountainous Van province on Turkey's eastern border was struck by two avalanches in February that killed 41 people. Earlier that month a magnitude 5.7 earthquake in neighbouring Iran injured dozens in the province.
Fine Gael Dublin Mid-West TD Emer Higgins got into trouble with Ceann Comhairle Sean O Fearghail after she brought nitrous oxide canisters into Dail Eireann.

The TD held up a silver nitrous oxide canister in a sitting of Dail Eireann in the Convention Centre in Dublin while discussing the dangers of the recreational use of the laughing gas drug yesterday.

However, she got into trouble with the Ceann Comhairle for bringing the canister into the chamber.

The Deputy was speaking about how easily accessible the gas is and can be bought online for as little as 1.

I didnt have to search very hard last night to find this used canister, she told the Dail, while holding it up.

They litter my local parks in Lucan, in Clondalkin, in Rathcoole and in Palmerstown. Minister, we need to act now to protect our young people.

After she made her speech, the Ceann Comhairle said: I thank Deputy Higgins. As she is a new Deputy I am sure she is not aware of the protocols of displaying devices in the Chamber so I will just draw her attention to that.

The TD defended her decision to bring the canisters in saying that it would raise awareness.

I got in trouble for that, Ms Higgins told Independent.ie.

I think its important, parents are at home, they might be hearing about this, but they dont know what they look like and people are seeing these when theyre out and about in the park.

But Im happy to defend that, I dont think theres anything wrong with bringing it in and showing it to people because thats how parents can understand, some people are getting these delivered to their home and parents are completely oblivious.

[Ceann Comhairle] was okay, he got over it, Im a newbie so its not too bad, but I genuinely didnt realise."

I picked up two but theyre everywhere, she said.

The Fine Gael TD said the use of the gas amongst young people is a huge issue and that two teenagers have passed away after using nitrous oxide.

All of a sudden, it just seems like an epidemic. [The canisters] are just everywhere. If youre going for a walk or a run, there are piles of them.

Most generations have a drug craze unfortunately but this one seems to be particularly dangerous, she added.
SPRINGFIELD -- The city will open cooling centers from Saturday through Monday in anticipation of a heat wave that is expected to hit Western Massachusetts.

The locations of the cooling centers have changed from previous years because of the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, the number of people allowed to enter the centers will be limited to 25, face masks will be required and those visiting the centers will be required to give their names, addresses and phone numbers so they can be contacted if someone at the center later tests positive for COVID-19, according to Mayor Domenic J. Sarno and Health and Human Services Commissioner Helen Caulton-Harris.

Springfield continues to practice an abundance of caution in adhering to recommended safe practices. Your patience is appreciated as we continue to combat this deadly COVID-19 virus, Sarno said in an announcement.

The cooling centers will be open from noon to 6 p.m. each day. They are located in the Mason Square Library Community room, 765 State St.; Kenefick Park fitness center, 310 Plainfield St.; Forest Park conference room next to the administration building; Indian Orchard Citizens Council, 117 Main St., Indian Orchard; Clodo Conception Community Center, 1187  Parker St. and South End Community Center, 99 Marble St.

According to the National Weather Service temperatures are predicted to hit a high of 93 degrees on Saturday, 98 degrees on Sunday, 95 degrees on Monday and 93 degrees on Tuesday.

People who have pre-existing conditions may be more vulnerable to stress-related illnesses and should take extra precautions when dealing with extreme heat, city officials said.

People are reminded to stay hydrated, stay out of the sun, limit physical activity, avoid large meals and remain on the lowest floor of a building to avoid the heat. They are also asked to check on relatives, friends and neighbors who may be more vulnerable to the heat.

People with pets are reminded to never leave them in a car, even for a few minutes in high heat. Pet owners should keep their animals inside where it is cooler during the hottest part of the day and make sure they have plenty of water. Pets can also suffer sunburn so people should make sure dogs have available shade if outside.

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MANISTEE  The State of Michigan has created a new grant program to help businesses and organizations with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Small Business Restart Program through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) is allocating $4.5 million in funds through the Networks Northwest regional economic development organization. The federal CARES Act is the source of funding, passing through the state to the local businesses. The Manistee Area Chamber of Commerce is an active partner in Networks Northwest and will be the local economic development lead on the new program for the Manistee area.

2020 has been challenging for our Manistee area businesses with decreased revenues from temporary closures and postponed events, said Stacie Bytwork, president of the Manistee Area Chamber of Commerce. There is a strong need in our community for assistance, and we are grateful to Gov. Whitmer, the legislature, MEDC and Networks Northwest for addressing these challenges with the Small Business Restart Program grants.

The chamber worked in April to promote a similar program, assist applicants and score applications from the MEDC named the Michigan Small Business Relief grant program. For this latest grant program, the chamber advocated for broader eligibility across the area and other changes to make the process easier. Unlike the last round of grants, businesses and organizations from the entire Manistee County area can apply.

We are excited to be able to participate in this process again, said Bytwork. The first grant was extremely important for our area businesses, and with greater funding and eligibility the Restart Program will have an even greater impact.

The Restart Program grants will be between a range of $10,000-$20,000 each and be used for eligible expenditures of payroll, rent, utilities or similar expenses. The enabling statute that created the program requires that 30% of the recipients be women-, minority- or veteran-owned businesses.

There are many eligibility requirements, including showing business revenues have been impacted by COVID-19, demonstrating need with their available working capital and expenses, having a Pure Michigan Business Connect Account, and having 50 employees or fewer both at the time of grant submission and as of March 16. It is important for applicants to read all the application instructions.

Nonprofit organizations impacted by coronavirus are eligible to apply for this MEDC grant, said Dennis McCarthy, Manistee Area Chamber of Commerce Board chair. However, even though the Manistee Area Chamber of Commerce has lost revenue from COVID-19 and could apply, the chamber will forgo the grant opportunity in order to provide more assistance to our local businesses and organizations.

It is expected that the legislature will amend the statute that created the grant program this week to make additional changes. The changes will allow previous recipients of the Small Business Relief Fund to apply for this round of grants, however, previous recipients will be capped at $20,000 for their total award between the two grants.

Approximately $260,000 of grant funding will be made available to the Manistee area. The Michigan Small Business Restart Program competitive grant application went live online at 9 a.m. on July 15 at michiganbusiness.org/restart or on the homepage of ManisteeChamber.com.

The anticipated demand for this small business grant program will be high, and it is possible to expect some delays with the web-based application. It may be helpful to strategize on when to apply. To help businesses, MEDC will have a telephone helpline in operation during weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at (888) 522-0103. The grant deadline is Aug. 5, with an award date in mid-September.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday announced that the government has suspended his former principal secretary M Sivasankar, a senior IAS officer, for flouting service rules amid reports of his imminent arrest in the gold smuggling case.

Vijayan said the action was taken on the basis of an inquiry conducted by a two-member panel headed by chief secretary Viswas Mehta.

Inquiry report pointed out that there were some lapses on his part and he violated all-India service rules, said the CM.

The opposition Congress and BJP said the CM cannot get away with action against his former secretary. He took action against his secretary since needle of suspicion is turning towards him. We want the CMs resignation said BJPs Kerala unit president K Surendran

Considered close to Vijayan, he was removed from the powerful principal secretarys post last week after reports surfaced that he was allegedly close to one of the key accused in gold smuggling case Swapna Suresh. He was grilled by the Customs department for nine hours on Wednesday.

Officials found discrepancies in his statement and decided to call him again for questioning, people familiar with the investigation said. They also said his arrest was imminent. The case blew up after Customs seized 30 kg gold from a consignment that came in the name of an official of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) consulate in Thiruvananthapuram on June 5. Later the case was handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Many other central agencies are helping the NIA in the investigation.

The UAE attache in Thiruvananthapuram Rashed Khamis Ali Musaiqri Alsheme who enjoys diplomatic immunity, left the country via Delhi on Tuesday. Earlier, the Union government had made a formal request to the UAE embassy for a meeting with him.

Meanwhile ,the Ministry of External Affairs has cancelled the passport of Faisal Fareed, one of the accused in the gold smuggling case who is reported to be in the UAE. After a court in Kochi issued an arrest warrant against him the NIA had approached Interpol and issued a blue corner notice against him. People familiar with the investigation said he will be extradited in a couple of days.

During investigation the NIA found that he used to procure gold and send it to the country through different channels. Fareed, who is said to run a gym and motor garage in the UAE, is reportedly close to many in the film industry. On Thursday, least 12 people were arrested by Customs and revenue intelligence in connection with the case.

Earlier this week, a NIA court had remanded four persons in the agencys custody - Sarith Kumar, a former employee of the UAE consulate, IT consultant Swapna Suresh, Sureshs friend Sandeep Nair and K T Rameez, an alleged agent who used to distribute smuggled yellow metal to jewellers.
While implementing strict safety measures amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese enterprises have also managed to guarantee the construction and operation of overseas projects under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, stimulating local economies and improving peoples livelihoods.

The China-assisted Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway project in Indonesia has been making steady progress this year. The projects No. 3 and No.5 tunnels have been drilled through and the first multi-span rigid frame continuous beam for the No. 2 Bridge of the railway has been closed.
Bachelor in Paradise star Abbie Chatfield has broken her silence after leaving the show on Thursday night.

The 24-year-old took to Instagram soon after her elimination episode aired, confirming she was 'single and ready to mingle'.

The Brisbane-based reality star also revealed she had been 'banned' from dating app, Tinder, while suggestively licking the top of a cocktail.

Bye for now: On Thursday, Abbie Chatfield announced she was 'single and ready to mingle' after she was booted from Bachelor in Paradise

'The journey is over but at least I can let you know ya girl is single and ready to mingle,' she told viewers and fans.

Abbie went on to say her experience on Bachelor in Paradise was 'so different' to her turn on Matt Agnew's season of The Bachelor.

'I could cry thinking about all of the incredible support I received this time around.' she said.

She then encouraged viewers to be kind to other cast members on Channel Ten's island romp for unlucky-in-love reality stars.

Banned: 'The journey is over but at least I can let you know ya girl is single and ready to mingle,' she told viewers and fans, while letting them know she's been banned

'Please remember to be kind to all the cast this year, despite what you think they have done,' she said. Abbie finished by saying she was 'ok' and will forever be watching.

On Thursday night, Abbie was left blindsided when Jamie Doran, 40, failed to give her a rose, and chose Brittney Weldon instead.

After being booted from the rose ceremony, the buxom blonde said: 'I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. I cannot believe this.'

Plot twist: On Thursday night, Abbie was left blindsided when Jamie Doran, 40, failed to give her a rose, and chose Brittney Weldon instead

After being booted from the rose ceremony, the buxom blonde said: 'I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. I cannot believe this.'

Having fun? Abbie turned off the lights and Ciarran instructed her to get under the flimsy cotton sheets

During her two-episode stint, Abbie showed a keen interest in Ciarran Stott.

The pair had a raunchy bedroom session and went on a date, but Ciarran later showed more interest in co-star, Jessica Brody.

Bachelor in Paradise continues Tuesday at 7.30pm on Channel Ten
Every five or six weeks I would travel to England to see my 91-year-old father in the West Midlands. He lives independently, but is supported by my brother and his family who live close by. Just before the Cheltenham Festival, I was due to travel over to him to watch the races on TV together as we have done for the past 10 years.

But with the advent of Covid-19 and concerns around the festival itself, I consulted my brother and we both decided it was not worth taking the risk.

I have to admit it is upsetting for me that I cannot see my father but, with or without rules, I am imposing my own travel regulations to avoid exposing him to the virus.

However, if I were determined to see my father I could fly or drive to England at any point without any restrictions. There are no quarantine regulations there and my only issue would be the return journey.

I always flew to England but I would be wary of flying now, having watched a CNBC journalist's video of her flight from Los Angeles to North Carolina to see her family.

She took every precaution, disinfecting her luggage, maintaining social distancing in taxis and at the airports, and was fully masked at all times.

However, the plane she travelled on was completely full with all seats occupied.

Even though all the passengers were masked, the masks had to be removed to take food and drink and, in any event, everyone was sitting cheek by jowl.

Her conclusion was that travel should only be undertaken if absolutely necessary. I had already considered that travel to England would be preferable by ferry and her video absolutely convinced me that this would be the safest option. At least I would be cocooned in the car for part of the journey and social distancing would be easier to achieve on a ferry than a flight.

But if I were to travel now by ferry I would not be able to return via Dublin without filling in the necessary entry - or in my case re-entry - form and self-quarantining for two weeks.

Except of course if I return via the North. I could cross over to Holyhead from Dublin but drive on my return via Stranraer, get the ferry to Larne and cross the Border without any form to fill in or requirement to quarantine. This is clearly arrant nonsense.

Furthermore, it is inevitable those choosing this option are likely to be those who are going to be more relaxed about taking the risks that most of us are trying to avoid. And if they are prepared to take those risks, they will be re-introducing risk back into the community.

The journalist Mary Kenny was scheduled to speak at the Percy French Festival in Roscommon on July 22 and inquired on Monday via Twitter about whether there were any travel restrictions in place. It was somewhat surprising that she didn't consult the Government website gov.ie rather than social media, but the upshot of the Twitter flurry that followed is that she will no longer be taking part.

However, it has not prevented ill- informed speculation about whether it is safe for people to travel. It is simply not possible for anyone travelling through an airport to guarantee that they will be free from infection even if they have been self-isolating at home for months. We still do not know enough about the virus to reach these conclusions. The only way to ensure 100pc safety is a vaccine, but that is not imminent. Even testing, given the nature of the virus, is not an absolute guarantee of safety because the infection could be at too early a stage for detection, or could be acquired post-testing.

Within the last two weeks I have travelled on buses and trains. Passengers are, in the main, few and far between. Most - but not all - people on both modes of transport are masked, but there are transmission pinch-points around doors and getting on and off where it is nigh-on impossible not to be close to others no matter how much you try.

Many commuters are clearly avoiding public transport and are using their cars. This would explain that while Dublin city centre seems fairly deserted even at peak rush hour, the roads in and out of town are as busy as ever.

I minimised my risks for months. I visited shops a handful of times over three months and barely left the house because I was fortunate enough to be able to work remotely. However, in recent weeks my movements and public activities have increased. I make no complaint about this and it will be most people's experience as we gradually return to our workplaces. It is inevitable nonetheless that risks will increase and that means the possibility of a second wave or individual clusters and lockdowns will occur.

With the glaring and appalling exception of nursing homes, Ireland has performed well in terms of its Covid-19 response. In the UK, infection rates have been higher. I am not sure how long my father will be in self-imposed lockdown, with food delivered to the door, but I know for his sake that I probably won't be able to visit for a long time.

Some people may think I am overcautious and the risk is slight but none of us is qualified to have any certainty of knowing for sure.

My mother died a long time ago but her best friend lived on in the same area my father lives in. She died in April. From Covid-19.
This Sunday evening will give you goosebumps as Zee Telugu, one of the leading GEC channels in Andhra & Telangana will take you through a spine-chilling journey where you will experience fear, terror, anxiety, panic and horror. The channel is hosting the World Television Premiere of Akasha Ganga 2 on Sunday, 19th July at 6:00 PM only on Zee Telugu and Zee Telugu HD.

Arathi Varma (Veena Nair) the current heiress of the Maanikesseri royal family and the daughter of Unni and Maya, is an MBBS student and an atheist. She doesnt believe the stories told about her family or the evil spirits that reside in her house. Soumini, played by Ramya Krishnan, daughter of Mepaddan who helped Arathi family in the past, tries to explain to Arathi about the negative energies and how she can speak to souls. Listening to this, Arathi accepts the challenge that her friends, Gopi, Titus and Jithu put forward and decides to communicate with the soul of her mother who died while conceiving her. As dark spirits untangle, she is pulled into the grim and wretched ways of Akashaganga, the evil soul that once tormented her family. Will the evil spirit once again be successful in carrying out the revenge against Arathis family?

With a great cast, gripping story and lauded screenplay, Director Vinayan moves away from the cliche film making and creates a classy horror masterpiece.

You can run, you can hide but you cannot escape Akashaganga. Watch the mega Telugu spine-chilling premiere of Akashaganga 2 only on Zee Telugu and Zee Telugu HD. Experience the magic on 19th July 2020 at 6:00 PM.

As we welcome the new normal and further our entertainment proposition, we urge the audience to stay safe and continue enjoying their favorite shows at the comfort of their homes.

To enjoy the show, subscribe to Zee Telugu, available in the Zee Prime Pack at Rs. 20 per month

To ensure you do not miss out on your favorite Zee Telugu shows, choose the Zee Prime Pack that includes Zee Telugu, and Zee Cinemalu alongside 7 other top channels of the Zee Network that cater to the daily entertainment needs of your entire family at Rs. 20 per month only. For further information, contact your DTH or Cable operator.
Lakshmi Mittal, steel magnate and CEO of Arcelor Mittal has donated 3.2 million pounds to Oxford Jenner Institute which is currently testing the efficacy of its coronavirus vaccine. The institute said that the "generous gift" from Mittal will assist in securing the future of a critical professorship in vaccinology. That post from hereon will be known as 'Lakshmi Mittal and family Professorship of Vaccinology' in recognition of his support. Currently Professor Adrian Hill holds the position.

Talking about the endowment, Lakshmi Mittal said that this year has been a wake-up call to the world to be better prepared for pandemics. He said that Professor Hill's work is not only extraordinary but essential.

"Having always had a keen interest in healthcare, like many I was following with great interest the work on potential vaccines and treatments for Covid-19. After a fascinating conversation with Professor Hill, my family and I concluded that the work he and his team are doing is not only extraordinary but essential, not just for this current crisis but for other challenges we may face in the future. The importance of dedicated and ongoing research in this field cannot be overestimated and we are delighted to be supporting this vaccinology professorship at Oxford," he said.

Professor Hill is the principal investigator of the human trials of the Oxford University's COVID-19 vaccine. The university is partnering with AstraZeneca to manufacture coronavirus vaccine candidate. In fact, some positive news is expected from the first phase trials of the Oxford corona vaccine this week. The researchers said that they were encouraged by the immune response witnessed in the trials so far and are aiming to publish the data of Phase I by end of July.

Professor Gavin Screaton, Head of Oxford's Medical Sciences Division thanked Mittal and his family for their support to secure the future of the 'pivotal leadership post'. "The University can continue to deliver and grow its world-leading vaccine research and focus on pandemic preparedness. The results of this work will have a significant impact on people's lives around the world and will enable humanity to respond with even greater speed to the next global pandemic," he added.

Jenner Institute is a leader in vaccine development. It had first started developing vaccine for the Ebola outbreak in 2014, with Professor Hill at the helm. ArcelorMittal was the founding member of the Ebola Private Sector Mobilisation Group that coordinated response from the private sector against the outbreak.

Also read: Coronavirus vaccine: Zydus Cadila, Bharat Biotech start trials; Moderna enters final phase

Also read: India's first COVID-19 vaccine candidate COVAXIN gets approval for human trials
563 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Guterres offers Merkel job at UN

Armenian church revamped in Iran

World oil prices going up

Newspaper: ECHR rulings increase after Armenia revolution in 2018

Newspaper: Armenia ex-President Sargsyan to give interview instead of press conference

Azerbaijan MFA falls into hysterical rage by France FM statement

The Pope to donate 100,000 to help migrants on border of Belarus and Poland

Fourth vaccine against COVID-19 is not enough for Omicron

World is on verge of country defaults

French Foreign Ministry considers unacceptable Azerbaijan statements about Pecresse

US to return two valuable artifacts over 4,000 years old to Iraq

Germany may consider halting Nord Stream 2 if Russia attacks Ukraine

Israel successfully completes test of anti-ballistic missile system

Plane landing in Sochi struck by lightning

Putin and Aliyev discuss Ukraine situation

Greek PM Mitsotakis threatens Turkey with sanctions

Handelsblatt: US and EU abandon idea of disconnecting Russia from SWIFT international payment system

Artsakh President meets representatives of non-governmental organizations

Avalanche kills person in Iran

Erdogan says he is pleased with decline in volatility of lira

NEWS.am daily digest: 18.01.22

Turkey and Azerbaijan to start laying gas pipeline to supply Nakhichevan

UK begins to supply Ukraine with anti-tank weapons

Armenian PM holds meeting on Armenia's Transformation Strategy until 2050

Nagorno-Karabakh: Remains of another Armenian soldier found in Jrakan region

Tehran to not accept any border change in South Caucasus

Dollar holding relatively steady in Armenia

Armenia special representative: Future process depends on Turkeys constructiveness degree

Erdogan: Gas from Mediterranean to Europe can only be pumped through Turkey

Iranian Consul General discusses customs cooperation in Nakhijevan

Inecobank brings Apple Pay to customers

Parliament vice-speaker says he is familiar with Armenia proposals on border demarcation commission work

US Secretary of State to visit Kyiv

Russia, Iran and China to hold joint naval drills

OSCE Chairmanship on Aliyev statement: We reiterate our full support to Minsk Group Co-Chairs

Artsakh NSS denies rumors about penetration of Azerbaijanis into Karabakh villages

Indonesian parliament approves bill to relocate capital

Armenia PM to Bulgaria colleague: Our interstate relations are marked by continuous development of cooperation

Armenian President meets Abu Dhabi Crown Prince

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Every second person trying their hands at baking during the #WFH mode is now being found whipping their baton and pouring the batter into pans that lead to making of visually appealing bundt cakes! Pictures of tempting and gooey bundt cakes have been surfacing in stories of denizens on various social media platforms. So, is this the start of a new food trend?

Bundt cakes are actually the new banana bread! Every other baker in town is attempting to make it and upload their pic on social media, says Shubhpreet Kaur, a Delhi-based baker, adding, The beautiful spiral of the bundt cake is what makes it look so interesting! In a month, I generally get orders for 25 to 30 bundt cakes, and the number of orders is picking up pace rapidly. Of late, many of our clients asked for their birthday cake to be bundt cake!

Agreeing to Kaur, Manisha Khera, owner of Chill Bakes, DLF Phase IV, Gurugram, adds, Recently, we have been getting many orders for bundt cakes. Customers love fresh vanilla bundt cake. This demand has particularly risen in the past few months. Also, bundt cakes sell well as they have a good shelf life as they have no cream, and therefore more appetising for weight conscious people Their USP is that they are low on sugar.

According to recent google trends, people have been searching for the term bundt cake and bundt pan increasingly. Its quite interesting to see how after banana bread, theres a sudden hype about bundt cakes. I knew I had to give in to this trend, so I went ahead and ordered a bundt pan online. Ive been baking these cakes since then, and I just love the way their shape comes out! What I particularly like about these cakes is how easy it is to centre fill them differently, says Chaitali Aggarwal, a Delhi-based baker and food blogger.

Author Rakshanda Jalil also put up a picture of a bundt cake in one of her recent Facebook stories. My daughter, Aaliya Waziri had baked that marble cake with chocolate swirls between a plain pound cake, shares Jalil, adding, I use the bundt tin for all sorts of interesting flavours. So far, Ive baked a lemon cake with a lemony icing drizzled on the top, a marble cake, a plain vanilla cake and so on.

Author Rakshanda Jalil recently shared this picture of bundt cake, in one of her Facebook stories. (Photo: Facebook)

Bundt cakes have been highly in demand lately. Its a very special kind of an enriched cake with equal proportion of flour, egg, butter and sugar. Best part is that its not restricted to a single flavour, and no special garnishing is required as the bundt pan itself is in decorative shape. This is why they are easier to create.

 Harshita Sharma, owner , Bake My Day in Navi Mumbai

The trend of bundt cakes has seen a rise not only in Delhi-NCR, but across India. Harshita Sharma, owner of Bake My Day cakenmore in Navi Mumbai, says, Bundt cakes have been highly in demand lately. Its a very special kind of an enriched cake with equal proportion of flour, egg, butter and sugar. Best part is that its not restricted to a single flavour, and no special garnishing is required as the bundt pan itself is in decorative shape. This is why they are easier to create, for any novice baker!

Those ordering this delectables bake concede that their interest arose after seeing its rising popularity on social media. Bundt cakes are my new obsession! Banana bread is old school now. I recently ordered a chocolate bundt cake to see what the whole fuss was about, and I got addicted! I spend hours on gathering various bundt cake recipes to try my hand at. When everything else failed, I simply ordered a bundt cake, and grammed it before I ate, says Arnab Haldar, a Delhiite.

Author tweets @FizzyBuddha

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An artist's rendering of Mamie Nichols Townhomes affordable housing complex planned for the Point Breeze neighborhood in South Philadelphia. Read more

A nonprofit developer wants to build an affordable housing complex of 33 rental apartment and rowhouse units on what is now city-owned land in South Philadelphias Point Breeze area, a neighborhood thats seen soaring housing costs in recent years.

The Womens Community Revitalization Project, based near Kensington, was approved through a vote last week by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority to buy the tract at Reed and South Capital Streets, west of South 20th Street, for a nominal fee to build what it is calling the Mamie Nichols Townhomes.

City Council must also approve the deal.

The Mamie Nichols Townhomes are important in Point Breeze, where affordable rental housing is disappearing, to ensure that long-term residents get to stay in their community, said the organizations president Nora Lichtash.

The complex, named for a deceased Point Breeze community leader, is to comprise a mix of one-bedroom apartments and two- and three-bedroom rowhouses.

Some apartments are to be available at heavily subsidized rents  or even rent-free  for military veterans with disabilities, Lichtash said. Monthly rent at the rowhouse units are expected to range from $170 to $775.

The project is to be completed under an ownership structure known as a community land trust, which caps the potential markup on the rental complex if it is ever resold so that the units remain affordable to low-income renters.

The Womens Community Revitalization Project is developing five additional rowhouses on a nearby parcel that it plans to sell to individual home buyers under the land-trust structure, which will limit how much those owners can earn by reselling the properties.

These homes will be permanently affordable, Lichtash said.
They were first linked romantically back in May.

And Sophia Bush and Grant Hughes were spotted grabbing a bite to eat during a low-key lunch date on Wednesday.

The 38-year-old One Tree Hill star and her beau both sported casual attire for the Venice, CA outing.

New man: Sophia Bush and Grant Hughes were spotted grabbing a bite to eat during a low-key lunch date on Wednesday

Sophia wore ripped blue jeans and a long, striped shirt over a tank top.

The Incredibles 2 voice actress covered her face with a face mask, per CDC recommendations, and wore her brunette tresses loose for the outing.

Hughes, meanwhile, wore dark jeans along with a black T-shirt, as well as his own facial covering.

Bush has kept her love life relatively private since her last major relationship with former costar Jesse Lee Stoffer.

She was briefly married to Chad Michael Murray in 2006.

Taking it easy: The 38-year-old One Tree Hill star and her beau both sported casual attire for the Venice, CA outing

The look: Sophia wore ripped blue jeans and a long, striped shirt over a tank top

Not happy: The California native took to her Instagram Story on Wednesday to voice her concerns about the ongoing SAG-AFTRA negotiations

The California native took to her Instagram Story on Wednesday to voice her concerns about the ongoing SAG-AFTRA negotiations.

The talks between the actors' union and the Hollywood studios appeared to have angered Bush, who admitted she was 'vibrating' due to her anger over the proposals in the new agreement between the two parties.

She described the protections for women in the agreement regarding sexual harassment to be 'a joke'.

'We are not going to sign this,' said the actress, before encouraging her fellow union members to fight for a better deal.
Describing the recent rise in coronavirus cases in Pennsylvania as unsettling, Gov. Tom Wolf announced new restrictions on bars, restaurants and other businesses in a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

Wolf said hes issuing an executive order limiting bars and restaurants to seating people indoors at up to 25% of their capacity (currently, seating is allowed up to 50% capacity). In addition, alcohol in restaurants can only be purchased with meals but takeout purchases will be permitted. Outdoor dining will still be permitted, but bars and nightclubs that dont serve food wont be allowed to stay open, Wolf said.

The governor is also directing businesses to have employees work remotely, if the work does not need to be done in an office.

Were at a tipping point where we have to act, Wolf said.

The governor also directed gyms and fitness centers to prioritize outdoor activities, though they can continue indoor operations. In addition, Wolf is prohibiting indoor events and gatherings of more than 25 people, along with outdoor events and gatherings of more than 250 people.

Wolf and Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine have both voiced concerns about the recent uptick in cases in recent weeks, particularly among younger adults.

You can watch it here.

During the past week we have seen an unsettling climb in new COVID-19 cases throughout Pennsylvania, Wolf said.

The governor said medical experts are projecting the rise in cases will continue. What were seeing right now could be worse than what weve seen before, Wolf said.

Wolf cited a host of factors in the uptick of cases, including some people flocking to bars and restaurants and not wearing masks and social distancing. He also pointed to people traveling to other states where cases are surging and bringing the virus back to Pennsylvania.

This virus does not respect state boundaries, Wolf said.

Pennsylvania has slowed the rate of infections since the early spring but cases have been rising in recent weeks. The state Department of Health reported 994 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday. At the peak, the state regularly surpassed more than 1,000 new cases each day, reaching a peak of 1,989 new cases on April 9.

By acting in a targeted way now, Levine said, We can get ahead of the curve.

The state has reported an average of 788 new daily infections over the last seven days. In mid-June, the state reported less than 500 cases per day, on average.

Wolf said he understood Pennsylvanians want to get back to a more normal way of life. He said these measures offer a chance at maintaining activities Pennsylvanians enjoy.

I dont like this any more than anybody else does, Wolf said.

Wolf also said if cases continue to rise, it could affect plans for schools to open for in-person classes in the fall. Ultimately, he said it may not necessarily be a matter of him pulling the plug on in-person classes.

Its going to be teachers not wanting to go back to schools, Wolf said. Its going to be parents not wanting to send their kids to school.

Schools around the state are scrambling to plan for the new school year, which is slated to begin in some districts in a little more than a month. Many schools are planning face-to-face instruction but also offering remote options for parents wary of sending their kids to classes. Earlier today, the Philadelphia school district said city students would only attend classes in person two days a week, while learning remotely the other three days.

Dr. David Rubin, a pediatrician and director of PolicyLab at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, said the virus is starting to show a resurgence in the northeast, including Pennsylvania. He said plans to open schools in the fall largely depend on suppressing the spread of the virus.

We are seeing now widespread community transmission throughout the northeastern area, Rubin said.

To ensure schools can open in the fall, Rubin said, The time is now for action.

Earlier this week, Levine said she the rise in cases among young people in the spring led to adults over 50 getting infected, and the pattern is repeating again.

More than 97,000 people in Pennsylvania have contracted the coronavirus and more than 6,900 deaths have been tied to COVID-19, according to the state Department of Health. Cases have been rising in southwestern Pennsylvania, with Allegheny County alone reporting more than 240 new cases Wednesday.

The health department is seeing increases among younger age groups, including those 19 to 24 years old. In southwestern Pennsylvania, about 23 percent of cases reported in July are in that age group, compared to 5 percent of cases in April, the department said. In other regions, adults 19-24 make up 12 to 17 percent of the infections reported in July.

The health department reports 667 coronavirus patients are being treated in hospitals, well below the peak of about 2,800 seen in the spring. However, the number of people in hospitals has risen in July, up from just under 600 at the beginning of the month.

Wolf was asked why statewide measures were necessary since hospitals have more than sufficient capacity. The governor said the new restrictions, while targeted, are a critical step to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed, as some other states are seeing.

If we do nothing, we are going to overwhelm our health care system, Wolf said.

Levine distinguished this from the earlier statewide orders largely shutting down wide swaths of Pennsylvanias business sector. She said these are targeted efforts rather than the statewide restrictions of the past.

She contrasted Pennsylvanias response with Florida, where cases have been surging in recent weeks, reaching over 15,000 new cases in a single day recently. She said Florida illustrates what happens by opening too soon without appropriate mitigation efforts.

Thats what happens when you let this burn, Levine said. We cannot be Florida.

In the last day, nearly 28,800 COVID-19 test results were reported to the health department, the highest one-day number to date.

More from PennLive

Where are Pennsylvanias 97,665 coronavirus cases? July 15 map, county-by-county breakdown

Pa. restaurants, bars and social clubs cited for not abiding by COVID-19 guidelines

State of coronavirus in Pennsylvania: Where do the counties rank?

Pa. House passes bill that lays out a plan for counties to move out of green phase of reopening

Its about choice: Levine urges Pa. residents to choose masks, choose to avoid people, businesses that reject them

How do you deal with people who refuse to wear a mask? Experts weigh in with advice
Googles Arts and Culture vertical has been known to release fun apps and tools to help people engage with art and history. In 2018, it launched a feature to let you find your fine art doppelganger by taking a selfie, and more recently it added ways for you to apply filters to your photos to take on the style of masters like Van Gogh or Da Vinci. Now, the company is launching a web-based AI tool to let users interact with ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and also help researchers decode the symbols with machine learning. Its called Fabricius, named after the father of epigraphy, the study of ancient inscriptions, according to Google, and will let you send roughly translated messages in hieroglyphs to your friends.

Fabricius has three sections: Learn, Play and Work. In the first part, you go through a quick six-stage course that introduces you to the history and study of hieroglyphs. There are activities here that include tracing and drawing a symbol, with machine learning analyzing your drawings to see how accurate you were. For example, my drawing of an Ankh symbol after having seen it for five seconds was determined to be 100 percent correct, while my attempt at a sceptre was deemed 98 percent accurate.

In Play, you can type into a text field and the system will generate its closest approximation of your message in hieroglyphs. You can then choose to share it over social media or send a link to your friends. As Google cautions, these translations arent academically correct and are just for fun.

Google

Finally, researchers can check out the Work section on their desktops to decode symbols they have on file by uploading images to the workbench. According to Googles statement, Fabricus is the first digital tool that decodes Egyptian hieroglyphs build on machine learning. Prior to this, Google said experts had to manually dig through books upon books to translate and decipher the ancient language. This tool is also being released as open source on Github to aid research in the study of ancient languages.

You can visit the Fabricius site to learn about or create messages in hieroglyphs on your phone or desktop, while the decoding workbench is only available on the latter. This machine learning platform could help researchers uncover more about our worlds history, but also offer a fun way to learn about our past.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 19:59:18|Editor: huaxia

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By Oliver Trust

BERLIN, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Leverkusen midfielder Kai Havertz is said to follow the example of German international Timo Werner and join the Premier League side Chelsea.

Several German and English media reports speak of the 21-year-old having told his German side he intends to leave this summer. Euro League participant Leverkusen is demanding up to 100 million euros for the gifted youngster.

The sports-magazine Kicker is referring to several sources confirming Havertz's decision without mentioning further details.

Other German media talk about inside information confirming the transfer.

Recently, German champions Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge announced the club couldn't address Leverkusen's financial claims due to the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Due to similar reasons, Real Madrid is said to have pulled out of the battle.

Leverkusen's CEO, Rudi Voeller, said no offer from other clubs has yet been received. The former German international made clear his club won't accept any "corona-discount" offers below 100 million, including bonuses.

In case of a transfer, the German side also said Havertz must stay with Leverkusen and finish this season's Euro League campaign before getting the approval to depart.

The midfielder's contract is valid until 2022 and isn't containing an exit clause.

The BBC reports Havertz is considering to join Chelsea even though the club is still struggling to qualify for next season's Champions League campaign.

Although he wants to play in Europe's elite competition, it is not thought to be a deal-breaker for any move. Only the Premier League's top four clubs will qualify for the Champions League next season after Manchester City's European ban was lifted last Monday.

Other than Havertz, his future team-mate Werner decided to skip the remaining Champions League campaign with RB Leipzig to secure an early start at Chelsea.

The 24-year-old joined the Blues for reported 53 million euros signing a contract until 2025.

Former Ajax winger Hakim Ziyech has also started training sessions at Chelsea after his 40-million euro move.

It is an open secret that club owner Roman Abramovich approved significant investments for the 2020/21 season. Signing Havertz would underline the ambitions to return to the continent's leading clubs. Enditem
Owner Anthony Cianciculli stands in a warehouse filled with tents at Anthony Party Rentals in Norristown, Pa. on Monday, July 13, 2020. Read more

The Broad Street Run no longer needed his services. Neither did brides, grooms, and universities stranded at the altar by a pandemic for which there remains no vaccine. But the phone is now ringing off the hook at Anthony Cianciullis battered tent-rental business. On the line is a desperate potential client.

School districts, private K-12 schools, and even some college and universities.

Scrambling to expand their real estate sufficiently to create socially distanced classrooms ahead of openings that are only weeks away, districts and other large educational institutions are exploring the use of tents. Its a commonsense idea for adapting to the fact that life indoors as we knew it has now become, amid COVID-19, very much a public health hazard.

If only they were getting the support from our government that could actually help them make this happen.

The public and private schools calling Anthony Party Rentals in recent weeks are asking what it would cost to rent one or more tents through November. Only the private ones, so far, have pulled the trigger, as Cianciulli put it. That very likely has to do with deep pockets and flexibility that our battered public schools do not have.

Despite months to prepare for the return to school during a pandemic that has devastated most everyone but white-collar employees and stock investors, there has been virtually no meaningful federal pandemic aid to schools districts. Not from our viciously apathetic White House or from its partner in annihilation of the middle class, the Republican-controlled Senate.

There have been only bloviating directives and destruction through passivity.

Were getting tons of phone calls, Cianciulli said when I called and found him at his desk this week at Anthony Party Rentals. From colleges, universities, high schools, private schools  everyones calling us.

Only a few have locked any in by lodging deposits on them, he said.

None of the schools moving forward so far is a public one. Cianciullis confirmed jobs include an elite Main Line K-12 school that is private, and several colleges and universities, he said.

Our federal government should be doing everything in its power to help public schools secure and finance solutions such as this. Instead, our nations leaders are popping popcorn while schools devolve into a whoever-can-afford-it Thunderdome match for surviving the pandemic.

Cianciulli says reserving tents comes with risk for both parties.

He is requiring nonrefundable deposits for tents that could cost anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000 each to rent for several months. He has no choice, he says, after being forced, earlier this year, to fully refund deposits for clients as the pandemic prompted government-ordered shutdowns of business and large gatherings.

His company in Norristown is at half staffing. Most of his tents are out of service. Even some of his trucks are off insurance  thats how tight things have gotten.

Instead of making a typical $1 million in May, he watched a meager $56,000 roll in by June.

Normally, there are weeks in June, he said, when every single tent is rented out.

Business ticked up after Gov. Tom Wolf approved outdoor dining. Anthony Party Rentals installed tents at restaurants. He also put one up outside a refrigerator box outside of one of the hospitals, he said.

Then came a flurry of school calls.

Theyre asking for classrooms outside, he said of K-12 schools. Or overflow areas for cafeterias. Or long covered walkways that students can stand under while waiting their turn, through social distancing, to enter cafeterias.

 READ MORE: Schools cant reopen safely without better COVID testing for kids, say these Philly pediatricians l Expert Opinion

Some schools also are asking for floors in tents. Others want walls, only to then realize that walls are part of the problem that everyone is trying to avoid.

Not one public school, though, has booked them after getting quotes.

We still dont know what theyre doing, he said.

The Trump White House and Mitch McConnells Republican-led Senate, whose generous-to-bailing-out-businesses caucus includes influential Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, have refused to act on authorizing pandemic rescue funds to schools. Philadelphia says it will need $60 million to $80 million more just to open in a vastly scaled-down fashion this fall.

 READ MORE: Phillys coronavirus back-to-school plan: no full reopening, most students in class 2 days, will cost $60-$80 million more

Our federal government bailed out private equity-owned businesses but has refused to throw a lifeline to the public institutions of greatest value in our nation: public schools.

In Pennsylvania alone, school districts educate 1.7 million children.

When public schools shut down this past spring, students were left with little to no education for months.

Its one reason why finding a way to reopen safely is so critical. In-person instruction requires more space than most districts possess. Tents could be an emergency solution to help with social distancing. If only our cash-strapped districts had enough money sloshing around to make it happen.

Imagine what the school district business would do to help a small business like Cianciullis at a time when our economy is in tatters.

Look at them all, Cianciulli said as we walked past aisle after aisle of stacked, unused tents in a warehouse on Main Street. Theyre all rotting away.

Yes. Rotting away like our schools, sooner than later, in the hands of the majority party in Washington during a crisis of unprecedented danger and damage.
Abuja  The Senate at an executive session wednesday mandated the leadership of the National Assembly to urgently meet with President Muhammadu Buhari over the contentious issue of the employment of 774,000 public workers.

The issue had led to exchange of words between the National Assembly and the Minister of State for Labour, Mr.Festus Keyamo, who had announced on Tuesday that President Buhari had given him go-ahead to recruit the social workers without recourse to the National Assembly.

Sources told THISDAY that Keyamo's latest assertion on the programme which is to gulp N52 billion formed the basis of the closed-door session that lasted from 10.30am 12.30 pm.

Senators across party divides were said to have expressed reservations about Keyamo's vituperations and called for urgent steps to be taken against the junior minister by the legislative arm.

A ranking senator said it was on this basis that all the Senators present at the executive session agreed that the President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Lawan and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, should meet with President Buhari and impress it upon him the need to maintain the cordial relationship between the executive and the legislative arm of government.

THISDAY learnt that the meeting with the President is expected to hold before Tuesday which is the next adjourned date of the Senate "as the upper legislative chamber is scheduled to hold another closed-door session on that day to discuss the outcome of the Assembly leadership's meeting with President

Buhari.

The Senate has also chosen not to glorify Keyamo with any reply and it has asked its spokesman, Senator Ajibola Basiru, not to issue any statement on Keyamo's tantrums or grant any media interview.
South Africa: Sisulu welcomes judgement against CT illegal evictions

Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has welcomed the Western Cape High Court Judgment against the City of Cape Town on illegal evictions.

The Western Cape High Court declared on Wednesday that the Citys actions and conduct in demolishing and evicting the community of Hangberg in Hout Bay, was unlawful and unconstitutional.

Sisulu said the State will do everything to enforce this court order and ensure that the City of Cape Town officials comply.

As the court said, such evictions are in violation of Section 36 (1) of Alert Level 3 regulations made in terms of section 27 (2) of the Disaster Management Act of 2002, Sisulu said.

The department also welcomed the courts instructions that the City must rebuild the same size and dimensions of the structures they demolished, within 48 hours of the court granting the order.

The South African legislation prohibits evictions of residents, and the State is obliged to ensure that such violations of residents' human rights has consequences and is stopped immediately, the Minister emphasised.

Section 26(3) of the Constitution states that no one may be evicted from their home, or have their home demolished, without an order of court made after considering all the relevant circumstances.

The Constitution further prohibits any intimidation, cutting off of services, or any other measure that makes residents living conditions unbearable in order to evict them.

The State will intervene to enforce the Constitution and the Disaster Management Act, which gives effect to alert level 3 regulations. The State has a duty to protect the rights of all residents, Sisulu said.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2020-07-16. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Bella Hadid is certainly making a splash in Calvin Klein's new swimwear campaign.

The 23-year-old model - who is a brand ambassador for the company - is fronting the American brand's CK Spring 2020 Swim collection in a stylish campaign shot by British fashion photographer Charlotte Wales.

Bella - the younger sister of 25-year-old model Gigi Hadid - looks sensational in the latest set of black and white photos, that she shared to her 31.6 million Instagram followers on Thursday.

Making a splash: Bella Hadid shimmers in revealing one-piece as she models new Calvin Klein swimwear collection in photos shared to her Instagram account on Thursday

The daughter of former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Yolanda Foster showed off her slender physique in the portraits, striking a series of poses while wearing the very revealing swimwear pieces.

Recently, the fashion label released some color shots of Bella, modelling several other pieces from the range including a hot pink swimsuit and in an black one piece in which she is seen posing underwater.

The collection is inspired by 90s fashion and come emblazoned with the classic Calvin Klein logo across all swimsuits, whilst the bikinis have the company's retro logo.

Putting her back in to it: The 23-year-old shows off her slender frame in a stylish campaign shot by British fashion photographer Charlotte Wales

Reaching new lengths: Bella - the younger sister of 25-year-old model Gigi Hadid - looks sensational in the latest set of black and white photos

The new campaign is not the first time that Bella has fronted an advertising push for Calvin Klein swimwear.

Last year, Bella was chosen as one of the faces of the company's Summer 2019 collection alongside models Abby Champion and Matthew Noszka.

The catwalk star also was one of the models that appeared in the #MyCalvins IRL underwear ad campaign along with Naomi Campbell, Diplo, Cara Taylor and Beth Ditto.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Bella starred in a Jacquemus campaign which was shot over FaceTime due to social distancing measures to prevent the spread of the deadly respiratory illness.

The campaign - which is called Jacquemus At Home - was photographed by Pierre-Ange Carlotti and creative-directed by the label's designer Simon Porte Jacquemus.

However, Bella was responsible for doing her own hair and make-up, possibly due to following strict social distancing guidelines.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-17 00:05:40|Editor: huaxia

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ADEN, Yemen, July 16 (Xinhua) -- At least three women were killed on Thursday in an indiscriminate shelling launched by the Houthi rebels in the country's southern province of Lahj, a government official told Xinhua.

According to the local government source, who asked to remain anonymous, "shells fired randomly by the Houthi rebels landed on a number of residential houses in Lahj province."

He said that "the shells struck one of the residential houses located in the northern parts of Lahj, killing three women at the scene."

"A number of houses located nearby were partially damaged by the random shelling carried from Houthi sites in the border areas between Lahj and Taiz province," the source said.

Houses and civilians in border areas located between Taiz and Lahj province are frequently targeted with rockets and mortar shells due to the sporadic fighting raging there, according to local sources.

The pro-Houthi forces also keep trying to make ground advances towards the southern provinces including Lahj, where key strategic army camps are located.

The Iran-allied Houthi rebels seized the northern provinces including the capital Sanaa in late 2014, forcing Yemen's President Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government into exile.

An Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened militarily in the Yemeni conflict to fight against the Houthis in March 2015, in response to an official request from Hadi to protect Yemen. Enditem
Was it a bureaucratic decision to award a multimillion-dollar contract to a charity that has paid Justin Trudeaus mother thousands of dollars, or was it a political one? And either way, why did the prime minister have anything to do with approving the deal?

Those are among the questions Trudeau and others might face when a parliamentary committee begins hearings Thursday on the governments now-abandoned effort to use WE Charity to administer its student volunteer program.

On Wednesday, WE Charity announced it would be restructuring its operations and refocus its efforts towards international development. It also said it would cancel its WE Day mega-events, where celebrities and politicians  including Trudeau  talk to students about volunteering and leadership.

Thursdays finance committee will be the publics first official look into a deal that has been criticized for its lack of transparency, and led to apologies from the prime minister and Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

Its a mess, said Allan Tupper, head of the political science department at the University of British Columbia.

There are questions right out of the gate about this thing as to why a program of this sort needs to be done and administered in this way.

For weeks, Trudeau has faced the backlash from his governments agreement with WE Charity to deliver a $900-million summer student program, even though his brother and mother received $282,000 in speaking fees from the group between 2016 and 2020.

Trudeau, and Morneau  whose daughter works for the organization  said this week that they should have recused themselves from discussions about the agreement with WE.

The agreement was nixed amid widespread criticism, and has sparked an investigation by federal ethics commissioner Mario Dion.

Tupper said the affair raises questions around the management and the complexities around the program, the timeline and what documentation the government has.

Its a bit of a dogs breakfast, he said.

Thursdays hearing may begin to see some of the questions answered.

While some committee members may attempt to score political points over the controversy, there will also be inquiries about details and documents that are central to understanding how the agreement took shape.

No government documents have been disclosed to the finance committee ahead of the hearings, a Conservative spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Among those set to testify are Bardish Chagger, Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth, and high-ranking public servants involved with the file.

Michael Barrett, the Conservative ethics critic, told the Star he wants to see documents because the specific wording in them is very relevant  particularly in the agreement between WE and the government.

The Opposition has framed the WE deal as a sole-source contract, rather than what the government has characterized as a contribution agreement.

A spokesperson for Employment and Social Development Canada told the Star in an email that contribution agreements are used to further policy objectives, and allow the recipient to operate the program how they see fit, with the government setting guidelines for expense eligibility, outcomes and performance.

A sole-source contract, on the other hand, could be used to get a service that directly benefits the government, be it in goods, like new office chairs, or services, like computer technicians for a department.

Barrett characterized the differentiation between the two types of agreements as spin.

Were seeing the best attempts at crisis management, he said.

Theyre saying that they gave this contract to this organization because the federal public service couldnt administer it. So, its a misdirection at best.

A government source familiar with the agreement said that the expectation was that WE would distribute the $900 million in grants to students, and stressed that if not all the money was used, it wouldnt go into WEs pockets.

It doesnt work like that, they said, only speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The $19.5 million going to WE as part of the overall agreement had to be shown to be going to eligible expenses for administering the grant program, the source said.

About $5 million of that was to go to other non-profits and another $300,000 was allocated for accessibility measures ensuring students with disabilities could still access the program, they added.

They couldnt say why it was a contribution agreement and not a sole-source contract, which are contracts done up without going through a competitive process.

For a non-competitive contract to be penned, the government typically has to demonstrate that only one provider is able to deliver the service required, that the need of the service is a pressing emergency, or that the nature of the work means soliciting bids wouldnt be in the publics interest.

Officials have consistently stated that the public service, which is supposed to be non-political in its decisions, recommended WE Charity as the only organization capable of delivering the student grant program.

To drill into the decision-making, Barrett said his colleagues plan on calling the prime minister, his chief of staff, the finance minister, the clerk of the Privy Council, and people outside of government to testify before committees.

Theres a lot of questions that need answers, he said.

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New Delhi, July 16 : Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday said that no other option is left with Air India but to go in for privatisation.

Replying to a question during a press briefing on civil aviation issues, the minister said that the airline cannot depend on state funding to survive.

He cited that due to the Covid-19-induced economic turbulance the Centre might not be in a position to support the airline as massive financial resources have been deployed to safeguard the vulnarable sections of society.

Furthermore, the minister without naming anyone said the airline should be left to those who know how to run it. He was replying to question on sharp political reactions that have been received on social media regarding the airline's 'Leave without Pay' policy.

Recently, the national carrier has instituted a scheme whereby employees can opt to take "leave without pay" ranging from six months to up to five years.

Additionally, the airline's management will also have the option to send any employee on leave.

An Air India staff notice, which was accessed by IANS, read: "The Board of Directors in its 102nd meeting held on July 7, 2020 has approved a scheme whereby employees can opt to take 'leave without pay' ranging from six months or for two years and the same can be extended to up to five years.

"The scheme also authorises the CMD to pass an order on behalf and in the name of the company whereby an employee could be sent on leave for six months or for a period of two years extendable to up to five years." However, this provision can only be exercised depending upon factors such as "suitability, efficiency, competence, quality of performance, health of the employee, instance of non-availability of the employee for duty in the past, as a result of ill health or otherwise and redundancy".

The Air India unions are yet to decide on the future course of action.

An Air India union leader told IANS: "LWP has to be across the board for all employees and burden has to be shared by all employees. This is not market standards. This is cherry picking by the top management." According to Air India PIM document, as on November 1, 2019, the airline on a standalone basis (without subsidiaries) had around 14,000 employees, including fixed term contract staff.

The development comes as the Centre has re-initiated the airline's divestment plan with new norms.

Puri, further said that the airline's management is in touch with all sections of employees and if privatisation does not takes place then "everyone" might lose their jobs.

Besides, he said that privatisation might save the passenger carrier from the fate that many airlines around the world have recenetly suffered.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Several high-profile Twitter accounts, including those of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and former president Barack Obama appeared to be hacked simultaneously on Wednesday with a message soliciting participation in a Bitcoin scam.

The hacking effort also targeted Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Kanye West, Warren Buffett, and the corporate accounts of Uber and Apple.

A tweet from Musk read, Feeling greatful, doubling all payments sent to my BTC address! You send $1,000, I send back $2,000! Only doing this for the next 30 minutes.

Many of the tweets included a link to a Bitcoin wallet address. Close to 300 people reportedly fell for the scam and contributed more than $100,000 to the fake wallet.

Biden and Obamas accounts posted a similar message, promising to double the money of participants who contributed to the Bitcoin wallet over the following 30 minutes.

Uber posted a similar tweet that said, Due to Covid-19, we are giving back over $10,000,000 in Bitcoin! All payments sent to our address below will be sent back doubled.

The ride-hailing company confirmed in a subsequent tweet that its account had been hacked.

Like many others, our @Uber account was hit by a scammer today. The tweet has been deleted and were working directly with @Twitter to figure out what happened, Uber said.

Hours after the first tweets appeared, Twitter said at 5:45 p.m. EST that the social media company is aware of the breach and is working on resolving it.

We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly, Twitter Support wrote in a tweet.

More from National Review
A ruthless Iowa meth kingpin who killed five people, including two young girls, in 1993 in a bid to thwart his prosecution for drug trafficking is to become the third federal inmate to be executed this week.

Dustin Honken, 52, would become the first Iowa defendant to be put to death since 1963 if he is executed as scheduled on Friday.

Iowa abolished the death penalty in 1965 but federal prosecutors sought to execute Honken for killing US Government informants and children.

Dustin Honken, pictured in 2005, has had appeals to delay his execution denied (Cliff Jette/The Gazette/AP)

Honken is set to die by lethal injection at the prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he has been on death row since 2005 and two other men have been put to death since Tuesday after a 17-year hiatus in federal executions.

His appeals to delay the execution have so far been denied.

Lori Duncan, her new boyfriend Greg Nicholson and her daughters were kidnapped and killed by Honken and his girlfriend in 1993, seven years before their bodies were found.

Susan Torres, 54, who was Ms Duncans sister-in-law and aunt to 10-year-old Kandi and six-year-old Amber, said of Honken: He does deserve what hes getting. I can tell you that. He deserved it a long time ago.

Ms Torres, of Des Moines, Iowa, plans to attend the execution with other victims relatives.

I am not going to lose any sleep if he is executed Prosecuting judge Mark Bennett

Mark Bennett, the federal judge who oversaw Honkens trial, said he generally opposes the death penalty but if anyone deserves to be executed, it is Honken.

He said Honkens crimes were reprehensible and he had a fair legal process, including talented lawyers who did an outstanding job with virtually nothing to work with.

I am not going to lose any sleep if he is executed, said Mr Bennett, who has since retired from the bench.

Normally I would but the evidence was so overwhelming.

Mr Nicholson, who was one of Honkens dealers, began co-operating with investigators in 1993 after coming under suspicion.

Honken was arrested and indicted for conspiring to manufacture meth after Mr Nicholson secretly recorded him and testified before a grand jury.

The kingpin informed the court he would plead guilty but days before his July 1993 plea hearing, he and his girlfriend, Angela Johnson, went searching for Mr Nicholson.

They found him at the home where he had moved in with Ms Duncan and her daughters.

Honken's victims Greg Nicholson

His partner Lori Duncan

Her 10-year-old daughter Kandi

Six-year-old Amber Duncan

Dealer Terry DeGeus

Honken forced Mr Nicholson, 34, to record a statement declaring him innocent of the drug charges.

Mr Nicholson and the Duncans were taken to a remote area, fatally shot and buried.

Honken withdrew his guilty plea and gave his lawyer the videotape of Mr Nicholson.

As the investigation into Honken continued, his other dealer, 32-year-old Terry DeGeus, disappeared months after Mr Nicholson and the Duncans.

Johnson lured Mr DeGeus, whom she dated before Honken, to a property where the kingpin beat him with a bat and shot him.

Investigators found the bodies of Mr Nicholson and the Duncans in 2000 in a wooded area outside Mason City.

The adults had been bound and gagged and shot multiple times. The girls had each been shot once in the back of the head.

Mr DeGeus body was found a few miles away, his skull fractured.

Honken was convicted of the killings in 2004 in a trial that featured extraordinary security measures, including an anonymous jury.

He was bolted to the floor of the courtroom and forced to wear a stun belt under his clothing to prevent escape attempts.

The jury recommended Honken be put to death for killing the girls and Mr Bennett agreed.

Johnson was convicted in a separate trial and sentenced to death.

Mr Bennett later reduced her punishment to life behind bars, which she is serving at a federal prison in Minnesota.
Complementary biomolecular transfer modalities added to Kintai platform through integration with Flagships Senda Biosciences

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kintai Therapeutics, a pioneer in unlocking the power of the human enteric signaling network and its signals throughout the body to combat disease and promote health, announced today that it is in the initial stages of combining its operations and talent with fellow Flagship Labs-founded company Senda Biosciences. Founded in 2019, Senda is developing novel platforms designed to solve the challenges of transferring therapeutic payloads across biological barriers. Dr. Guillaume Pfefer, CEO-Partner at Flagship Pioneering, and Dr. Scott Plevy, CSO of Senda Biosciences, will serve as CEO and CSO of the newly combined company, respectively.



Dr. Pfefer is a 25-year veteran of the biotech and pharmaceutical industries who most recently served as Senior Vice President, Global Vaccine Leader for SHINGRIX, GlaxoSmithKlines (GSK) vaccine for the prevention of shingles. Prior to joining Senda Biosciences in 2019, Dr. Plevy served as CSO at Synlogic, Inc. and previously led the Gastroenterology Disease Area at Janssen Immunology Research & Development. Having led the establishment of the companys deep and diverse pipeline of clinical candidates over the past two years, previous Kintai CEO Dr. Paul-Peter Tak will continue to serve the newly combined company as a senior advisor.

We are delighted to add the business and scientific expertise and experience of Guillaume and Scott to Kintais exceptional executive leadership team, said John Mendlein, Ph.D., Chairman of the Board of Kintai Therapeutics and Executive Partner of Flagship Pioneering. As the medical community continues to recognize the role of enteric biology in diseases as far ranging as oncology and COVID-19, this is an exciting time to leverage Kintais industry first enteric biology and small molecule chemistry platform for generating innovative product candidates with first-in-class mechanisms for a number of therapeutic areas, including metabolic, cancer and neurological diseases. We thank Paul-Peter for his many contributions and look forward to the important contributions Guillaume and Scott will undoubtedly make in harnessing the innovative platform opportunities and expertise of the newly combined Kintai and Senda organization to combat disease and promote health.

Story continues

Dr. Pfefer is an experienced life sciences executive who brings a wealth of expertise spanning research and development, manufacturing, strategy, commercial, business development and operations. As part of his role as Global Vaccine Leader for GSK, he led the U.S. launch of SHINGRIX, where he and his team delivered one of the best biopharma launches in North America over the past decade as independently assessed by IQVIA. Prior to GSK, Dr. Pfefer served as President and CEO of Kala Pharmaceuticals, where he helped transform the company from a pre-clinical technology platform start-up to a leading ophthalmology company currently with two commercial products on the market. He holds a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering from the National School for Chemical Engineering (Nancy, France), a Ph.D. in Materials Science from Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France, and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

I am excited to be joining a team dedicated to translating breakthrough science and technology into new solutions for preventing and treating diseases, said Dr. Pfefer. With its novel biological insights based on the generation of human sample data and machine learning capabilities and modular chemistry proficiencies, Kintai is ideally positioned to bring transformative medicines to patients suffering from a broad array of metabolic, cancer and neurological diseases. I am also enthusiastic about the potential of a company that will meld the resources and expertise of Kintai and Senda and eager to unveil the full potential of this combined organization in due time.

Dr. Plevy is a gastroenterologist and molecular immunologist who, prior to his appointment as CSO of Senda, held leadership positions at Synlogic, Inc. and Janssen Immunology Research & Development, LLC. During his career, Dr. Plevy has published over 110 refereed papers, served as the lead investigator on multiple early-phase clinical trials and performed translational research to advance the understanding of novel immunologic interventions in inflammatory bowel disease and other immunologic disorders. Dr. Plevy earned both an M.D. degree and an A.B. in mathematics from Columbia University and completed residency training in internal medicine at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston. He subsequently completed a clinical fellowship in gastroenterology at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, UCLA School of Medicine.

I am thrilled to be joining Kintai at this important time in the companys clinical advancement, said Dr. Plevy. It is truly a rare opportunity to be able to join a team working at the forefront of an entirely new approach to precision therapeutics that elucidates broad implications of enteric biology and microbiology in many human diseases with unmet medical needs. I am honored to play a role in helping to bring the promise of Kintais Precision Enteric Medicine discovery platform to reality.

About Kintai and Senda

Kintai Therapeutics is uniquely focused on unlocking the power of the enteric signaling network and its signals throughout the body to fight disease and restore health. The companys Precision Enteric Medicine (PEM) compounds are based on a deep understanding of the interconnected biology of the microbiome, gut immune system, and enteric nervous system. Kintai has pioneered a new frontier in gut science, resulting in a unique understanding of a wealth of new genes, metabolites, and signaling molecules, leveraging these insights to rapidly translate into a highly actionable pipeline. Through the companys focus on human biology, experimental medicine, bioinformatics and machine learning, Kintai has created a discovery and therapeutic development approach to identify and deliver new medicines. Kintais multidisciplinary expertise and its technology platform has delivered a pipeline of programs across multiple therapeutic areas, including oncology, neurology, metabolic disease and immunology. Kintai believes that its core strength lies in the hearts and minds of its talented employees who keep patients at the center. Kintai was founded in 2016 by Flagship Labs, the innovation foundry of Flagship Pioneering. To learn more, please visit the companys website at www.kintaitx.com . Founded in 2019, Senda is developing novel platforms designed to solve the challenges of transferring therapeutic payloads across biological barriers.



About Flagship Pioneering



Flagship Pioneering conceives, creates, resources, and develops first-in-category life sciences companies to transform human health and sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, the firm has applied a unique hypothesis-driven innovation process to originate and foster more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in over $34 billion in aggregate value. To date, Flagship is backed by more than $4.4 billion of aggregate capital commitments, of which over $1.9 billion has been deployed toward the founding and growth of its pioneering companies alongside more than $10 billion of follow-on investments from other institutions. The current Flagship ecosystem comprises 41 transformative companies, including Axcella Health, Denali Therapeutics, Evelo Biosciences, Foghorn Therapeutics, Indigo Ag, Kaleido Biosciences, Moderna, Rubius Therapeutics, Sana Biotechnology, Seres Therapeutics, and Syros Pharmaceuticals.

Contact

Kristen Bridge

Kintai Therapeutics

kbridge@kintaitx.com
MOSCOW -- The Moscow City Court has upheld the two-month pretrial arrest of Sergei Furgal, the governor of the Far Eastern Khabarovsk Krai region, who is charged with attempted murder and ordering two murders in 2004-2005, as his supporters rallied in the city of Khabarovsk for a sixth day.

The July 16 court session was held behind closed doors as investigator Yury Burtovoi insisted that some people implicated in the case had been threatened.

Furgal took part in the hearing via a video link from the Lefortovo detention center in Moscow.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people in Khabarovsk, the capital of the Khabarovsk Krai region, continued to demand Furgal's release.

The protesters gathered on the central Lenin Square and marched across the city, chanting "Freedom!" and holding posters saying "Khabarovsk Never Gives Up On Its Own People!" and "We Trust Our Governor!"

Last weekend tens of thousands gathered in support of Furgal in Khabarovsk, a surprisingly strong showing given how far the city is from the Russian capital and how the Kremlin has marginalized all political opposition in the country.

The protests were also the largest in the country since a national vote that has set the stage for President Vladimir Putin to remain in power until 2036.

Smaller rallies were also held in the military-industrial city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur and other towns in the region.
A man shot dead by police during a "frenzied attack" on a woman in parkland in Melbourne's north-west on Thursday afternoon was known to officers, but did not have a criminal record, Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius said.

The Gladstone Park woman, who had yet to be formally identified due to the extent of her injuries, was fighting for life in Royal Melbourne Hospital where she was taken in a critical condition.

Assistant Commissioner Cornelius said the junior officers at the scene were "terribly shaken up" by the shooting in Gladstone Park.

Police at the scene of a police shooting at Gladstone Park on Thursday evening. Credit:Eddie Jim

Police were called to what was believed to be a stabbing at John Coutts Reserve just after 3.30pm on Thursday. Minutes after they arrived, officers found a man believed to be in his 30s attacking the older woman.
New insights into Ewing sarcoma, an aggressive childhood cancer, were published July 15 in the prestigious journal Nature. Researchers from the Long School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio contributed to the study.

Ewing sarcoma is a bone and soft tissue cancer that primarily affects children and adolescents. The discovery, made by scientists at the University of Toronto, relates to cell structures called nucleoli and a physical change they undergo called phase separation.

The Toronto team observed that to form normal nucleoli, a structure must be made in the DNA. This is accomplished by the delicate balance of two different, but opposing, genetic code-reading machines. If these systems are not in balance, nucleoli lose their form and break up into smaller entities, the team found.

Study author Alexander Bishop, DPhil, of UT Health San Antonio, with team members at the Greehey Childrens Cancer Research Institute, previously showed that one of the genetic code-reading machines is overactive in Ewing sarcoma. In the newly published study, they confirmed that, in Ewing sarcoma, this overactivity causes the nucleoli to break up into smaller entities.

We are working now to better understand the impacts of this biology in Ewing sarcoma and how we can take advantage of it therapeutically, Dr. Bishop said.

Dr. Bishop joined UT Health San Antonio in 2005. He is an associate professor in the Department of Cell Systems and Anatomy of the Long School of Medicine, is a researcher in the universitys Greehey Institute, and is a member of the Mays Cancer Center, home to UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson.

Funding for the UT Health San Antonio investigators is from the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.

Nucleolar RNA polymerase II drives ribosome biogenesis

Karim Mekhail, Karan Abraham, Negin Khosraviani, Janet Chan, Aparna Gorthi, Anas Samman, Dorothy Zhao, Miling Wang, Michael Bokros, Elva Vidya, Lauren Ostrowski, Roxanne Oshidari, Violena Pietrobon, Parasvi Patel, Arash Algouneh, Rajat Singhania, Yupeng Liu, V Yerlici, Daniel de Carvalho, Michael Ohh, Brendan Dickson, Razq Hakem, Jack Greenblatt, Stephen Lee, Alexander Bishop

First published: July 15, 2020, Nature

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2497-0

# # #

The Long School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is named for Texas philanthropists Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long. The school is the largest educator of physicians in South Texas, many of whom remain in San Antonio and the region to practice medicine. The school teaches more than 900 students and trains 800 residents each year. As a beacon of multicultural sensitivity, the school annually exceeds the national medical school average of Hispanic students enrolled. The schools clinical practice is the largest multidisciplinary medical group in South Texas with 850 physicians in more than 100 specialties. The school has a highly productive research enterprise where world leaders in Alzheimers disease, diabetes, cancer, aging, heart disease, kidney disease and many other fields are translating molecular discoveries into new therapies. The Long School of Medicine is home to a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center known for prolific clinical trials and drug development programs, as well as a world-renowned center for aging and related diseases.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, also referred to as UT Health San Antonio, is one of the countrys leading health sciences universities and is designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education. With missions of teaching, research, patient care and community engagement, its schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have graduated more than 37,000 alumni who are leading change, advancing their fields, and renewing hope for patients and their families throughout South Texas and the world. To learn about the many ways We make lives better, visit www.uthscsa.edu.

Stay connected with The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.
US President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump is facing backlash on Twitter for sharing a picture of her holding a can of beans in support of Goya Foods  the company that attracted a social media boycott trend after CEO Robert Unanue's effusive praise for US President Donald Trump at an event last week.

According to ABC News, Unanue had said, "We're all truly blessed at the same time to have a leader like President Trump who is a builder, and that's what my grandfather did," said Unanue, who runs the New Jersey-based business.

He further added, "We pray for our leadership, our President, and we pray for our country that we will continue to prosper and to grow."

Goya Foods, which is quite popular among the Latino Americans and is the largest Hispanic-owned US food company, sparked controversies as a large population of Americans considered Trump's policies towards the Hispanic people racist and discriminatory.

Following Unanue's praise, an immigrant youth-led social media group, United We Dream, also launched an online boycott petition claiming Unanue had "aligned the Goya brand with Trump's white supremacist agenda".

"If Goya wants our business, they must respect and fight for our humanity," the group said as per the ABC report.

This was only fueled more with Ivanka Trump's promoting Goya Foods.

After President Trump tweeted about his love for Goya, his daughter followed up the same late Tuesday by tweeting a photo, holding a can of Goya Beans and saying, "If its Goya, it has to be good. Si es Goya, tiene que ser bueno."

If its Goya, it has to be good. Si es Goya, tiene que ser bueno. pic.twitter.com/9tjVrfmo9z Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) July 15, 2020

The hashtags #Goyaway and #BoycottGoya soon began trending on Twitter, with netizens taking to her post to express their disregard for her through harsh allegations and memes.

Many even pointed out how she is violating a law of 'United States Office of Government Ethics' that states: Executive branch employees may not use their Government positions to suggest that the agency or any part of the executive branch endorses an organization (including a nonprofit organization), product, service, or person.

Why is a senior White House official endorsing a food product? Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 15, 2020

This family will sell ANYTHING The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) July 15, 2020

If it's Ivanka, it has to be vapid, feckless, insincere, and complicit. You never even held a can of Goya before your racist dad #RecklessTrump decided he needed a distraction.Stop worrying about the Goya.Start worrying about the DEAD.pic.twitter.com/dDcc9Sb6IW BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) July 15, 2020

Goya fuck yourself. Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) July 15, 2020

Omg! Ivanka is using her official position paod by tax payers, whatever that is, to advertise a product. Is she getting paid for this by @GoyaFoods ? Will Trump's white nationalist base who wanted kids in cages and stolen from their parents actually buy the product? Olga Lautman (@olgaNYC1211) July 15, 2020

Youre kidding me, right? No ethics left in this White House on issues big or small. Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) July 15, 2020

According to reports, Unanue said that he was not going to apologise for his statement and cited freedom of speech in his defense.

However, the White House has defended Ivanka Trump tweeting of the photo stating that she had "every right" to publicly express her supports, reports The Guardian.

Opposition groups contend Ivanka Trumps action is an indication of how the president and those surrounding him often "blur the line between politics and governing."

"Only the media and the cancel culture movement would criticize Ivanka for showing her personal support for a company that has been unfairly mocked, boycotted and ridiculed for supporting this administration  one that has consistently fought for and delivered for the Hispanic community," said White House spokesperson Carolina Hurley.
Two fighters of the anti-Rwanda militia group known as the Conseil national pour la renaissance et la democratie (CNRD) were captured by the DR Congo army on Monday, July 13, according to a Congolese online publication.

According to the publication, 'Col' Christophe Bolingo and his escort were captured in Kalehe territory, in South Kivu Province.

The two were captured along with three assault rifles.

Last year, the DR Congo army stepped up an offensive against Rwandan terror groups in an ongoing effort to rout all foreign armed militias based there.

By the end of 2019, the Congolese army had captured and forced more than 2,000 anti-Rwanda militia fighters and their dependents to repatriate.

The CNRD is one of the groups that parted ways with FDLR, an offshoot of the forces that crossed into DR Congo after slaughtering more than a million people during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, in 2016.

The CNRD is led by former FDLR vice president 'Lt Gen' Laurent Ndagijimana, alias, Wilson Irategeka or Rumbago.

Its military wing, FLN, is led by 'Lt Gen' Habimana Hamada.
"There are no announcements to be made about that today. That shouldn't be read to mean there will be announcements made tomorrow. We plan for every single contingency. It's too early for us to be moving to a whole new stage. This is in the hands of every single Victorian, though. "If you want to make that less likely, you want to get out of these sort of restrictions as fast as possible, then we all have to play our part and not rely on our doctors and nurses as the last line of ultimate defence against this virus, but instead acknowledge we're the ones on the front line." Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton. Credit:Jason South Professor Sutton said he expected Victoria's numbers to plateau as a result of the stage three restrictions in the next "couple of days". "But we cannot be complacent and expect that's going to happen automatically," the Chief Health Officer said.

Loading The Victorian reproduction number - the number of people, on average, that one infected person will subsequently infect - is dropping to be close to 1, according to Professor Sutton. Authorities aim to limit this number to be less than one in order to prevent exponential growth in cases, "This is a good sign," he said. 160 outbreaks being monitored in Victoria, aged care concern Victoria is monitoring about 160 outbreaks, Professor Sutton said, including 27 aged care outbreaks although some of the 160 are no longer active.

Urging caution throughout Victoria, Professor Sutton said the idea that 29 deaths in Victoria was minor compared to an average flu season was "absurd" and said Victoria could experience 1000 deaths a day if restrictions were fully lifted. "The idea that 29 deaths is nothing, and that we can lift all restrictions and that we can let it run, is absurd," he said. "It's an exponential growth in cases when there aren't restrictions in place. If we can drive numbers right down, and if we can follow them through a test and trace procedure, we can avoid all the worst outcomes of this virus." Victoria has 109 coronavirus patients in hospital, up from 105 on Wednesday, and 2128 active cases. Victoria's new case numbers have see-sawed in recent days: the state recorded 177 on Monday, 270 on Tuesday and 238 on Wednesday.

Of Thursday's 317 cases, eight were linked to the JBS abattoir in Brooklyn, taking the total for that cluster to 29. The facility is closed indefinitely and about 1200 workers are in self-isolaiton. A cluster at Somerville meatworks in Tottenham grew by four to 37. All residents from Menarock Life aged care in Essendon have been moved to acute care in hospital after an outbreak of staff and residents from the facility reached 31, up two from Wednesday. Glendare aged care in Werribee has 23 cases and Estia aged care in Ardeer has 21 cases. Professor Sutton said more aged care outbreaks were occurring in Victoria's second wave because of a higher rate of community transmission that was infecting workers across Melbourne. "I don't think moving residents out who are infected is always the control measure that is required," he said.

Loading "The primary thing is to never have infection introduced in the first place ... We need to focus on making sure the staff who are turning up positive are excluding themselves at the very first symptom." Professor Sutton said aged care facilities had been asked to limit the number of staff working across multiple sites in response to cases where one individual worker had unknowingly introduced coronavirus to more than one facility. Some elective surgery paused in Melbourne The government will pause all category three elective surgery, such as hip and knee replacements, at metropolitan Melbourne hospitals in preparation for a surge of coronavirus patients.

Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said more than 1000 spaces for ICU beds in Victoria have been created or upgraded since the start of the pandemic as part of a $1.9 billion government investment. Professor Sutton said on Wednesday that Victorias surge capacity for intensive care was up to about 2000 beds. The old Peter Mac cancer centre has undergone a $30 million refurbishment into an 84-bed intensive care department and Ms Mikakos said it would be renamed St Vincents on the Park and be managed by the nearby St Vincents Hospital. In addition, public hospital surgery capacity would be capped at 50 per cent and private hospitality capacity limited to 75 per cent. Thursday's net tally increased by 302, after 15 previous cases were reclassified.
Disappointing news

In early 2014 I made the decision that, as a professional in the foreign service field, I needed to finally do postgraduate studies. My eyes set to see the world, I found a two-year masters in international studies to be undertaken by scholarship in Vienna, Austria.

Much to my dismay, I didnt get the scholarship and I guess you could say I was really cut up. Nevertheless, I decided to pray about it, and the peace of God that I found in this loss, was true comfort. God had assured me that he had bigger plans, and though I had no idea what they were, I was content with just knowing that.

Many are the plans in a persons heart, but it is the LORDs purpose that prevails (Proverbs chapter 19 verse 21, NIV).

A chance encounter with providence

I did not know what would be next, but one day in the office, a colleague called my attention to another Government employee she was currently assisting with a visa to study in New Zealand. She basically invited me to seize this opportunity and I took some time to peruse the information. Feeling confident with what I saw, I decided to apply.

I would go off on vacation to New York to attend my uncles wedding that June, and the very morning after the wedding, I awoke to the email advising that I was provisionally accepted to the University of Auckland in New Zealand. At that moment, I started to see the onset of the bigger plans that God had spoken of. I had not secured a scholarship yet, but I knew God was on to something.

When I returned home, I submitted the scholarship application and in October of that year it was made crystal clear that I had secured a New Zealand Aid (NZAID) Scholarship to undertake postgraduate studies in Development at the University of Auckland. As amazing as this all was, this was very new terrain. First, I had never thought I could get a scholarship, and I never dreamed I would get to live in the astounding New Zealand.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans chapter 8, verse 28, NIV).

The Journey

It took me about twenty hours just to get to New Zealand, but I relished the journey. I started out on a Sunday morning and arrived in Auckland on Tuesday morning. I completely lost Monday.

I was in this beautiful new place to acquire more qualifications, but little did I know that this journey would be life-changing; that it would bring me closer to God. Though I had one friend from Jamaica who considerably helped me out, I quickly began to get homesick without the fellowship of a church. Eventually, on club expo day at the university, I found the University of Auckland (UoA) Christian club and soon signed up for weekly Bible study and gospel dinners.

This considerably changed my outlook and whole stay in New Zealand. Their Christian hospitality was heart-warming. My Bible study coordinator was into full-time ministry. Though she had attended the University of Auckland and attained her degrees (Bachelors and Masters) in Engineering, she explained that this was her full-time ministry. She would relentlessly take us to UoA events and just ensured we were generally okay.

Eventually during my second semester, when I changed dorms, one of my hallmates heard me mention the need to find and church. She invited me to Life Church, which was a Hillsong affiliate. The first week I attended church the theme was God, Money and Me.

It was basically about the importance of stewarding your money in the Kingdom. I found this very timely as God had been teaching me some new things about money/tithing before I had come to New Zealand. Needless to say, they had a Christians Against poverty (CAP) programme which I gladly took.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight (Proverbs Chapter 3, verses 5  6, NIV).

My Lessons

I learnt some important lessons about loving myself as is, without all the additions I was used to back home. Lets just say there were some things I believed to be true about my appearance and God stripped that away. I must admit that I never thought I could look great without straightened hair or make-up.

These were two things that I lived without for all of nine months and now I can choose to wear make-up or not. When I do wear it, its not because of that lie I used to believe. I can now choose to go out without wearing it and feel just as beautiful. As for my hair, I chose to wear it natural and lock it. I have never felt queenlier.

I realised that I am smart enough to get and maintain a scholarship and though I am still not a straight-A student, I certainly represented the Kingdom well. I would not have had that chance, I believe, had it not been ordained by God.

I got the opportunity to develop my writing skills through workshops with published writers I met in New Zealand. I documented a few memorable moments from my Kiwi experience in this blog at https://jamaicankiwikim.wordpress.com/.

I was able to live in a faraway land, and although there were times I literally felt like God wasnt with me because of the unfamiliar, I know that he is everywhere.

I found an amazing set of believers at school and church and it became hard to leave that fellowship behind. But it wasnt just fellowship, it was truth Christian growth.

I ultimately became a stronger person and I now know what God was talking about when he said he had bigger plans for me. You see, I thought New Zealand was about school, and yes it was that too, but for God, it was my pilgrimage to certain truths I needed to learn. I got to see the world from a whole new angleI got to see me from Gods eyes. It was after my return that I realised that this whole experience was my modern-day pilgrimage.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah Chapter 29 verse 11, NIV).
Taipei (AFP) - Taiwan on Thursday warned China could use the sweeping national security law it imposed on Hong Kong for "hostage diplomacy", urging democratic countries to unite against Beijing's "autocratic" expansion.

The Hong Kong security law has rattled nearby self-ruled Taiwan, which China regards as its own territory and has vowed to one day seize, by force if necessary.

A provision within the law claims global jurisdiction and allows China to prosecute especially serious cases instead of semi-autonomous Hong Kong's independent judiciary.

The law would enable Beijing to carry out "hostage diplomacy", Chen Ming-tong, head of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), Taiwan's top China policy body, told reporters.

"The national security law for Hong Kong has seriously invaded democracy and human rights to impact regional security and unnerve the international community."

The law says national security offences can be prosecuted even if they take place outside Hong Kong or China and are committed by foreigners.

That has raised fears that Beijing critics could face prosecution and extradition to China if they travel to or transit through Hong Kong.

Chen urged democratic countries to "stand united in order to effectively counter China's expansion in an autocratic nature".

Canada accused China of "hostage diplomacy" after two of its citizens were detained soon after Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Vancouver on a US extradition request.

The two men have since been hit with spy charges.

Taiwan's government now fears something similar could happen with the Hong Kong law.

Beijing has taken an especially hardline towards Taiwan ever since the 2016 election of President Tsai Ing-wen because she regards the island as a de facto sovereign nation and not part of "one China".

Taiwanese critics of Beijing have been increasingly turned away by Hong Kong authorities in recent years.

Story continues

Tsai, who has been critical of Beijing's clampdown against Hong Kong protesters, has warned of "countermeasures" should the new security law cause any "damage" to Taiwan.

Taipei has a trade and cultural office in Hong Kong handling unofficial ties.

But it has been devoid of a chief since mid-2018 as Hong Kong has yet to issue a visa amid worsening ties between Taipei and Beijing, as well as Taiwan's support for the city's pro-democracy movement.

Over the years, China has used national security laws to prosecute Taiwanese nationals on the mainland.
AMSTERDAM (dpa-AFX) - Dutch brewer Heineken NV (HKHHF.PK) reported Thursday that its first-half preliminary net loss was around 150 million euros. The results will include exceptional items of around 550 million euros of impairments on tangible and intangible assets. Net profit before exceptional items and amortisation or beia declined 75.8 percent. Operating profit (beia) declined organically by 52.5 percent. The results were significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. First-half net revenue (beia) declined 16.4 percent on an organic basis, driven by an organic decline of 13.4 percent in consolidated volume and 3.6 percent in net revenue (beia) per hectoliter. Beer volume declined organically by 11.5 percent. The company noted that the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, as expected, deepened in the second quarter. After a low point in April, volume started to gradually recover into June as lockdowns were lifted around the world. Beer volume was most affected in the Americas and Africa, Middle East and Eastern Europe regions with a decline in the mid-teens due to full lockdowns in Mexico and South Africa. This was followed by Europe with a high-single digit decline, whilst Asia Pacific showed the highest resilience driven by Vietnam. The Heineken brand reported a 2.5 percent decline. The brand grew double digits in 14 markets, including Brazil, China, the UK, Poland, Germany, Ivory Coast and South Korea. Looking ahead, HEINEKEN said it remains confident in its ability to navigate the ongoing short-term challenges, while continuing to build a bright future. HEINEKEN has a strong balance sheet as well as undrawn committed credit facilities. The company plans to announced its final first-half results on August 3. 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.
Some 332 lawmakers voted for the decision.

The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has backed the appointment of Kyrylo Shevchenko, head of state-run Ukrgasbank, as the new governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).

On Thursday, July 16, some 332 lawmakers voted for the decision with the required minimum being 226 votes, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

Read alsoZelensky decides on new NBU governor's candidacy

The motion to appoint Shevchenko the country's chief banker was tabled by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The nominee was endorsed by the parliament's Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy.

As was reported earlier, Shevchenko, 47, had been head of Ukrgasbank for a long period. He was among several potential candidates considered by Zelensky's office after the then NBU Governor Yakiv Smolii's exit.

Smolii signed a letter of resignation on July 1, 2020. The move was a result of what he claimed was long-standing political pressure. He forwarded the letter to Zelensky. Under Ukrainian law, Smolii's resignation had to be accepted by the president first and then, his technical dismissal had to be confirmed by parliament. On July 3, Ukrainian parliamentarians voted to back Smolii's exit.

Prior to Shevchenko's appointment, the NBU governor's duties were performed by First Deputy Governor Kateryna Rozhkova.

Shevchenko said in parliament he supported the NBU's policy of ensuring macroeconomic stability, which must contribute to economic growth.
- Six lionesses aged five years each were injected with contraceptive hormones at Lewa Wildlife Conservancy

- KWS said lions dominate the food chain in the parks hence there was a need to administer contraceptives to lionesses as a predation control measure

- Kenyans were perturbed by the decision to control the birth of lions, arguing the wild animals were few in the country

Kenyans have expressed angered after the Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) administered contraceptive implants in six lionesses.

The KWS said lions do dominate the food chain in the parks hence there was a need to administer contraceptives to lionesses as a predation control measure.

READ ALSO: COVID-19: Health CS Mutahi Kagwe tells Kenyans seeking coronavirus tests to avoid Lancet lab

KWS angers Kenyans after administering contraceptives to lionesses at Lewa Conservancy

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Zinedine Zidane lifts lid on relationship with Gareth Bale after Welshmans recent touchline antics

The lionesses based at Lewa Conservancy were first immobilised by KWS veterinary medics before the birth control hormones were deployed in their bodies.

"The lion reigns supreme on the food chain. To maintain this balance, KWS vet Dr. M. Mutinda, deployed a hormonal contraceptive implant (prevents conception for a year) in an immobilized five-year-old lioness at Lewa Wildlife Conservancy,

Six lionesses will be implanted to reduce the predation of endangered species" said KWS via Twitter.

Kenyans were perturbed by the decision to control the birth of lions, arguing the wild animals were few in the country.

They challenged KWS to find another option of balancing the food chain and allow lions to give birth naturally and freely.

KWS angers Kenyans after administering contraceptives to lionesses at Lewa Conservancy

Source: Facebook

The step taken by the wildlife agency was also interpreted by some netizens to mean lions were overpopulated in the country, contrary to what many think.

Do you have an inspirational story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Tuko news

Couple gives birth to triplets after 21 years of trying | Tuko TV

Source: TUKO.co.ke
CNN anchor Chris Cuomo lambasted Donald Trump for posting a photo to social media promoting the food company Goya after its CEO praised the president, a move that triggered backlash and calls for a boycott.

Cuomo delivered the scathing remarks during his Wednesday night show, calling a photo the president posted to social media with several Goya products from behind the Resolute Desk bull**** and insisting his criticism had nothing to do with politics.

Tell me how a president in the middle of a pandemic has got time for this bull****, the anchor begins, pointing the photo of a smiling Mr Trump with two thumbs up, grinning behind cans of beans and coconut milk. Are you kidding me? Hocking products? Goya, I dont care who it is. Resolute Desk? This is what hes resolute about?

Mr Trump posted the photo to his Instagram page after Goya Foods CEO Robert Unanue received mounting criticism for comments he made in a press conference earlier this month, in which he said the country was truly blessed to have a leader like Mr Trump, calling the president a builder and adding: Thats what my grandfather did, he came to this country to build, to grow, to prosper  and we pray, we pray for our leadership, our president, and we pray for our country.

The statement led to fierce backlash against Goya, the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the US, with actor Lin-Manuel Miranda writing in a tweet: We learned to bake bread in this pandemic, we can learn to make our own adobo con pimienta. Bye."

Ivanka Trump also posted a photo to social media holding a can of Goya black beans, writing in a caption: If its Goya, it has to be good. She also included the Spanish translation: Si es Goya, tiene que ser bueno.

Both the president and his daughters posts were immediately met with questions about potential ethical violations and conflicts of interest.

Pandemic priorities? Mr Cuomo said. Are you kidding me? Marketing for a brand following calls for boycotts after Goyas CEO heaped praise on Trump last week. On your dime. In the middle of a pandemic.

He added: Theyre selling beans? Are you kidding me? Seriously, seriously: This is not left and right. This is reasonable my brothers and sisters. The guy is sitting on the Resolute Desk with a bunch of Goya products!

The TV anchor wasnt the only one sounding the alarm over the photos.

Former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul wrote in a tweet: Had I done this while working at the White House during the Obama administration, I would have been fired , probably on the same day, but surely by the following day.

In a Washington Post Op-Ed, Walter Shaub, former head of the Office of Government Ethics, wrote: Ivanka Trumps posts violated an executive branch ethics regulation prohibiting employees from misusing their official positions to endorse commercial products. As a pictorial representation of the Trump administrations war on government ethics, both photos are perfectly clear. They scream the rules dont apply to us, a central message of the Trump administration from the start.
BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian public services holding company Empresas Publicas de Medellin (EPM) said on Wednesday it has issued $750 million (594.91 million) in bonds on the international market and will use the proceeds to strengthen its liquidity and financial position during the coronavirus pandemic.

The bonds were issued in two tranches, including 635 billion pesos ($175 million) in reopened EPM bonds due in 2027, and another tranche of $575 million that will mature in 2031.

The bond issue received an investment grade rating, matching that of EPM's, from Fitch Ratings and Moody's.

"The results of the placement reflect local and international investors' confidence in EPM's financial strength, even amid the world economy's current uncertain circumstances due to effects caused by the coronavirus pandemic," said EPM general manager Alvaro Guillermo Rendon.

"The organization has built a solid position in international financial markets since its first bond issue in 2009, based on transparency of information," Rendon said in a statement.

The bond issue drew demand from investors based in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, Colombia, Chile and Peru.

EPM is a public services company which operates household utilities including water, energy and natural gas in Medellin and more than 100 municipalities in Antioquia province, where it serves 3.6 million inhabitants.

The company is building the Hidroituango hydroelectric plant in northeast Colombia, which has faced delays due to heavy rains and the instability of the terrain.

($1 = 3,631.54 pesos)

(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Richard Pullin)
In one of the strangest incidents, a Japanese woman visited a doctor complaining of a soar throat, only to find out that there's a worm wriggling inside her tonsil.

According to a report in The Guardian, doctors at the St Lukes International Hospital, Tokyo, found the worm to be still alive after removing it with a pair of tweezers from the left tonsil of the 25-year-old woman.

The 38 mm (1.5 inches) long worm was identified as a nematode roundworm  one of several parasites infect people after consuming raw fish or meat.

As per a case study published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, the worm when removed was in the fourth stage of its larva, while the infection was caused by its third-stage larva, which was present in a sashimi dish consumed by the woman five days prior to the operation.

ALSO READ: 23-Year-Old Woman Had a 6-Inch Live Worm Removed from Her Brain

However, medics and scientists have stated that there has been a rise in the number of such incidents after the consumption of sushi and other raw or undercooked fish and seafood dishes has gained popularity worldwide.

A CNN report states the illness caused by eating parasite-contaminated fish or seafood is called Anisakiasis.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2020) - Ely Gold Royalties Inc. (TSXV: ELY) (OTCQX: ELYGF) ("Ely Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it will be conducting a Town Hall Webinar on Monday, July 20, 2020 at 11:00 am EST.

Trey Wasser, President and CEO, will update shareholders on recent Ely Gold transactions, its Key Assets and the importance of its focus on North America and the Company's growth strategy to become a premier gold royalty company.

The Webinar will be interactive and will be hosted by Follow the Money Investment Group. All stakeholders and interested investors are welcome to tune in and participate with questions. The playback will then be available on the Company's website.

To participate in the Town Hall Webinar please register here: https://www.bigmarker.com/ftmig1/Ely-Gold-Royalties-Investor-Update?utm_bmcr_source=Press

About Ely Gold Royalties Inc.

Ely Gold Royalties Inc. is a Nevada focused gold royalty company. Its current portfolio includes royalties on the Jerritt Canyon, Goldstrike and Marigold, three of Nevada's largest gold mines, as well as the Fenelon mine in Quebec, operated by Wallbridge Mining. The Company continues to actively seek opportunities to purchase producing or near-term producing royalties. Ely Gold also generates development royalties through property sales on projects that are located at or near producing mines. Management believes that due to the Company's ability to locate and purchase third-party royalties, its strategy of organically creating royalties and its gold focus, Ely Gold offers shareholders a favourable leverage to gold prices and low-cost access to long-term gold royalties in safe mining jurisdictions.

About Follow the Money Investment Group

Follow the Money Investor Group is an investor focused digital marketing company that provides the content and information needed for investors to navigate the ever-changing capital markets. Our global community uses our platform to discuss and collaborate daily on all facets of their current and potential investments. Our goal is to help retail investors make the right financial decisions that fit their individual needs.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Signed "Trey Wasser"

Trey Wasser, President & CEO

For further information, please contact:

Trey Wasser, President & CEO

trey@elygoldinc.com

972-803-3087

Joanne Jobin, Investor Relations Officer

jjobin@elygoldinc.com

647 964 0292

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/59887
By Ayya Lmahamad

SOCAR will resume oil transportation via Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline starting July 17 this year, local media reported with reference to companys Deputy Head of Public Relations Ibrahim Ahmedov on July 16.

According to the statement, company plans to transport 585,000 tons through the Baku- Novorossiysk pipeline in 2020.

It should be noted that last year 824,000 tons of oil was transported through this pipeline, which is by 36.5 percent less than in 2018.

Transportation of oil through Baku- Novorossiysk pipeline was suspended in January for technical reasons.

Filling the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline with oil started in October 1996. Maximum capacity of the pipeline is 105,000 barrels per day.

Pipeline has 3 pump stations - Sangachal, Sumgayit and Siyazan. Diameter of the pipeline is 530 mm, and length of the pipeline is 1,330 km, out of which 231 km is Azerbaijani part.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
RALEIGH, N.C. - North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis was outraised nearly 3-to-1 by his Democratic challenger in the last quarter, according to campaign reports that signal a more precarious reelection bid for the Republican in the presidential battleground state.

Cal Cunninghams campaign took in a whopping $7.4 million in the second quarter, compared to $2.6 million by Tillis, according to filings due late Wednesday at the Federal Election Commission. The two campaigns were essentially tied with cash in their coffers starting July 1  Tillis had almost $6.9 million and Cunningham $6.6 million.

The fundraising for Tillis  slightly more than what he collected in the first quarter  contrasts with Cunningham, whose campaign said he took in the largest quarterly haul ever raised by a North Carolina Senate candidate. The fundraising period began April 1, during the depths of North Carolinas COVID-19 stay-at-home order and weeks after both candidates won their respective primaries.

The money chase results could indicate trouble for Tillis, who is one of a handful of Senate Republicans considered vulnerable this fall. The Democrats need to net four additional seats  or three seats while winning the presidency  to take back control of the Senate.

If you thought things couldnt get worse for Sen. Tillis, they just did, Cunningham campaign manager Devan Barber said in a news release while crowing about the fundraising advantage. She predicted that after November, Tillis will be quickly forgotten following a failed Senate career and unbelievably weak candidacy.

Tillis campaign on Thursday noted that Tillis was outraised by Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan in 2014, only to win by just 46,000 votes. Tillis benefited from independent expenditure spending that attacked Hagans record, contributing to a race that at the time was the most expensive Senate race in history at $118 million.

Cunningham, a former state senator, Iraq War veteran and 2010 U.S. Senate candidate, was recruited to challenge Tillis by Senate Democrats. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee endorsed Cunningham in the primary.

Tillis campaign spokesperson Andrew Romeo said Tillis will win even if he were outspent.

Voters are smart and they will reject the extreme liberal agenda that Cunningham, (Senate Minority Leader Chuck) Schumer and his deep pocketed cronies are trying to force on the people of North Carolina.

Compared with 2014, Tillis is running as the incumbent during a presidential election year in which President Donald Trumps approval numbers have dropped during a pandemic and unrest over racial injustice. Trump last year endorsed Tillis, who was later one of the presidents strongest defenders during his impeachment trial and took every opportunity to hitch his wagon to Trumps.

Tillis has instead emphasized consensus during the COVID-19 crisis. Among the over 50 online town halls hes held during the pandemic, Tillis praised Democratic Gov. Roy Coopers stay-at-home order and has consistently supported the wearing of face masks in public.

Cunningham has blasted Tillis for failing to get enough federal COVID-19 aid and resources to North Carolina residents and local governments.

Hes returned consistently to health care. On a conference call last week, Cunningham repeated that Tillis helped pass a law while state House speaker that blocked expansion of Medicaid that could have allowed hundreds of thousands of people to have coverage now. North Carolina remains one of about a dozen states that hasnt accepted expansion.

Its clear that the occupant of this Senate seat has not served the people of North Carolina when weve needed it the most, Cunningham said in a newspaper op-ed this month. Im ready to put this seat back to work.

Tillis has pitched a more personal and populist message during the general election campaign, reminding people that he lived in a trailer park while a youth and who worked to become a partner at IBM. He said the strong economy before the COVID-19 crisis will win over voters.

I know were going to win because people remember how good their lives were in February, Tillis said at last weeks virtual state GOP convention. The two candidates have agreed to three televised debates, but Tillis has wanted more.
[music]

michael barbaro

From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today: In major cities across the U.S., gun violence is surging just as activists are calling to defund the police. My colleague, Ashley Southall, on how that is playing out in New York City. Its Monday, August 24. Ashley, what has been the story of crime in New York City up until this moment?

ashley southall

So around the 70s and 80s, we saw crime start to really rise in New York. And we went through the drug war, the crack epidemic. And in the 90s, we saw crime sort of peak all across the United States, but especially in New York. And there were thousands of murders each year and even more shootings. But as the 90s wore on, and into the 2000s 

archived recording The crime rate in this country is continuing to fall. The F.B.I. reported today that violent crime fell 5.5 percent last year. Thats three years in a row now.

ashley southall

 we saw crime decline. And there was a strong decline for years, to the point where we were having just hundreds of murders a year.

archived recording 1 The N.Y.P.D. says there have been 289 murders this year. Thats down from a peak of more than 2,200 in 1990. archived recording 2 Crime in New York City dropping yet again, this time to levels not seen since Harry Truman was president. archived recording 3 Police admit its probably the worst kept secret in the city, that New York is now the safest big city in America.

ashley southall

And the question was when was New York going to reach bottom?

archived recording 1 Breaking news on this Sunday night. archived recording 2 Crime is up across the city. Thats according to the latest numbers released by the N.Y.P.D. this  archived recording 3 The N.Y.P.D. now having to adapt to a noticeable rise in crime since the beginning of the year.

ashley southall

At the beginning of the year, we started to see crime rise over several categories. Then in June, we see it really take off.

archived recording 1 It has been a violent weekend in New York City. archived recording 2 The N.Y.P.D. investigating a spree of shootings on this first official weekend of summer. archived recording 3 More than a dozen people were shot between Friday night and Saturday morning.

ashley southall

And in July, the trend seems to just accelerate.

archived recording 1 Nine victims fatally shot tonight across four boroughs. archived recording 2 Deadly shootings started just before 1:00 this morning in Brooklyn and continued throughout the day in Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island.

ashley southall

So that by the end of the month, wed had more shootings this year than all of last year.

[sirens blaring]

And we still have five months to go.

michael barbaro

Mhm. I guess we should acknowledge, Ashley, that there is a siren behind you, which has nothing to do with this conversation. Its just what it means to live in New York.

ashley southall

Yeah. Im five blocks from a hospital. So its part of the soundtrack of my everyday life.

michael barbaro

So at this point, there are meaningfully more shootings and meaningfully more murders. So Ashley, how should we think about the causes of this? What exactly is going on here? I think for a lot of people, the instinct might be to think that this is somehow related to this moment in American policing  this forceful rejection of how policing has occurred, the protests against it and the response of police to those protests.

ashley southall

I mean, sure, its easy to think that because its right in front of us. It almost seems obvious. But its really much more complex. And there are really three big theories about whats happening. The one that has the most consensus around it is that the pandemic is exacerbating longstanding problems of gun violence and particularly unemployment. There are a lot of people with no jobs and nothing to do. And people are sinking deeper into poverty, which creates a greater desperation. And theres also a lot of illegal guns in New York City. And thats a really combustible situation.

michael barbaro

Well, what do you mean? How does that work?

ashley southall

What weve long known in New York City is that a small number of people are responsible for the vast majority of the violence. And those are people who are largely in gangs and crews, particularly in public housing. And those groups compete in normal times. Some gangs sell drugs. And they have turf that they cover. But when you have a pandemic hit that causes lots of unemployment, theres less people buying drugs. And so theres less of a market. And when you have less of a market, that increases the competition. So then you have these violent gangs fighting more fiercely for less of a pie.

michael barbaro

OK. So under this theory that the pandemic is exacerbating existing problems in the city, that explains the pandemics effect on the people doing the shooting. What about the effect the pandemic had on the police?

ashley southall

Immediately what we saw was officers being removed from duty because of the virus. We had thousands of officers calling out sick every day. And at the height of the pandemic, almost 20 percent of the force was out sick because of the virus.

michael barbaro

Wow.

ashley southall

And that had two effects. On-the-street officers, their presence is a deterrent to violence. Youre probably not going to shoot somebody with a officer standing right there watching you.

michael barbaro

Right.

ashley southall

But if theres no officer, theres no real deterrent. And then, after a shooting occurs, theres an investigation. In the police department, detectives work in these squad rooms where theyre very close together. Theyre practically breathing on top of each other. So if one of them gets sick, then theres a chance that everybodys sick. So they all go out sick, and investigations come to a halt. Well, thats a problem. Because one shooting often leads to another shooting, whether that person continues shooting rivals, or whether someone is now looking for him. And its almost always a him. So when you have cases that cant be investigated, that means that the ones that can be solved arent being solved and that that pattern of violence continues uninterrupted.

michael barbaro

All right. Thats the first theory, that the pandemic is both fueling more shootings and sidelining the officers who could potentially prevent those shootings. Ashley, what is the second theory of why crime is going up in New York?

ashley southall

Well, you touched on this earlier. We had massive protests break out in May after the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis, just as police were coming back from the virus. That required resources. We saw in those early days, the police deployed about 4,000 officers to the protest. But there was rampant looting in some parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn. And they had to double the force to about 8,000 police officers. So that meant that officers have to come from somewhere. And they typically come from the streets. And some of them come from detective squads. So that means that fewer police resources are involved in investigating shootings. And there are less officers in the neighborhoods where shootings are more likely to occur.

michael barbaro

And how do the protests themselves play into this theory?

ashley southall

Amid these protests, you start to see a political response to the demands to reform the police.

archived recording (dermot f. shea) Within the last hour, I just chaired a meeting of senior executives of the police department.

ashley southall

And one of those changes was to disband the anti-crime units.

archived recording (dermot f. shea) It is regarding the deployment of precinct level and P.S.A. level anti-crime units. These are the plainclothes units that operate our traditional anti-crime.

michael barbaro

And explain what an anti-crime unit is.

ashley southall

Anti-crime officers are the main group responsible for getting guns off the street in New York City. And they confiscated thousands of guns each year.

archived recording (dermot f. shea) The men and women of the police department were doing what I and others before me asked. They have done an exceptional job.

ashley southall

But they were controversial. And they became known as the jump out boys. Because what they would do sometimes is stop in their cars, get out and throw somebody up against the wall, search them, and leave without any explanation or finding any weapons. And it had led to a lot of tension between police and communities of color.

archived recording (dermot f. shea) And it is lost on no one, certainly not the people that live in the neighborhoods that we serve, that endure being stopped, or their children being stopped.

ashley southall

But what was also problematic about anti-crime is that they were involved in a lot of police-involved shootings.

michael barbaro

And why exactly is that?

ashley southall

Because anti-crime officers are trained to look for guns. Theyre looking for violent people. And so in expecting violence, they are prepared to use it. And the calculation was that New York City could not afford to have a police-involved shooting at that time. So the commissioner had been thinking about this, about disbanding anti-crime for a long time.

archived recording (dermot f. shea) Effective immediately, we will be transitioning those units, roughly 600 people citywide, into a variety of assignments, including detective bureau, neighborhood policing and other assignments.

ashley southall

And finally, he made the decision in June to pull the plug.

archived recording (dermot f. shea) Its a big move when you look at, culturally, how we police this city. And what we always struggle with, I believe, as police executives, is not keeping crime down. Its keeping crime down and keeping the community working with us. And I think those two things at times have been at odds. We can do it better. We can do it smarter. And we will.

michael barbaro

Is there a feeling, Ashley, that disbanding this unit, at a time when gun violence is going up, has contributed to the increase in shootings and in murders?

ashley southall

Theres certainly a sense that removing anti-crime officers from the street and publicly announcing that has let people who carry guns and who are also involved in violence know that theres no one there to stop them. And one of the things that weve seen as shootings and murders have risen, is that gun arrests have declined. And since the anti-crime unit was disbanded, shootings have only continued to go up.

michael barbaro

And under this second theory, thats centered around the rule of these protests in the rise of crime, what role does the actual frustration at the heart of these protests play here  the mistrust on the side of the protesters toward the police?

ashley southall

Well, theres always been a level of mistrust of police in communities that experience higher levels of crime. Because they have experienced aggressive policing in the past. But what happens when you have a death like George Floyd thats captured on video, where hes saying the last words of Eric Garner, who died here six years ago, is that those old wounds are scratched again and they reopen. And that mistrust for a while is laid bare again. You know, that can manifest as people not calling the police or not seeking them out to help with the problem. And one of the things that the police have said is that they had people who were cooperating with shooting and murder investigations before the protests who have now backed out. Because they dont want to have anything to do with the police. And that makes it harder to solve crimes that might lead to future ones, like shootings.

michael barbaro

And what about the police side of this equation, this message of the protests? How are officers in New York City, from your reporting, internalizing this message and reacting to it, and perhaps changing their behavior and their approach in response in ways that might be fueling all of this?

ashley southall

So when you talk to the cops, or even if you listen to the things that top brass say, what cops take from the protests and the political response is that their work isnt valuable. And nobody supports them. That the city doesnt have their backs. And so what were seeing is that, in moments where police might have been proactive in making an arrest or in intervening in a situation that could spiral into violence, theyre actually standing down. One of the examples that people often give to me is that there are these barbecues and street parties that go late into the night. Usually the police would break them up. But instead, theyre going on well past midnight to 2:00, 4:00, sometimes even 6:00 a.m. And the police arent doing anything about it. And what weve seen in some instances is that those parties often lead to a shooting. And one or more people get hurt or are killed.

michael barbaro

And the cops youre talking to are telling you, yeah, were hesitant to engage with these kinds of situations right now.

ashley southall

Yeah. I mean, think about it from the perspective of the cop on the street who, hes thinking, you know, well, the public doesnt want me here. And if I step into a situation where I think someone might have a gun or this thing could get out of control, then I could be arrested. And then thats the end of my career, and I cant support my family. Thats a very scary thing for cops.

michael barbaro

But Im curious, Ashley, if in your reporting you get the sense that, on some level, this may be police saying to the protesters, OK, so youre so disgusted by us, and you are making all these demands for budget cuts to fund the police. Do you want to know what the world would look like if you get your vision implemented? Well, here, well give you a taste of it. We will not go in and break up the barbecue. We will not make the arrest. In other words, is there some form of kind of protest going on by the police of the work that they typically do in order to say to the public, this is what it would be like if you get what protesters out on the streets are demanding?

ashley southall

It certainly seems that in some way the cops are responding in a way that almost seems flippant. You want to abolish the police? You want to defund the police? Well, this is what it looks like when you dont have the police. And there is a prevailing sense that cops are stepping back to prove that they are, in fact, necessary.

michael barbaro

Ashley, it doesnt seem like theres a ton of debate around these two theories that you have laid out here  the role of the pandemic and the role of the protests against police. Do I have that right?

ashley southall

Yeah. Theres a lot of agreement on the role of the pandemic and also the effect of the protests. But the third theory is where theres a lot of debate. And its heated.

michael barbaro

Well be right back. OK. So Ashley, tell me about this third theory about why crime in New York City is rising, and why is that theory such a source of disagreement.

ashley southall

So the third theory is one advanced almost exclusively by the New York Police Department itself. And that theory is that a couple of measures taken by both the city and the state over the last few years  first with criminal justice reform and then through some of the steps theyve taken to slow the spread of the coronavirus  that those measures are contributing to putting people back out onto the street who have not just engaged in criminal activity, but who are also violent.

michael barbaro

I wonder if you can break those two things down. Maybe start with the criminal justice reforms. Whats the theory there?

ashley southall

So last year, the New York state legislature passed a bail law 

archived recording (andrew cuomo) The old system was too reliant on cash.

ashley southall

 that allowed more people to get out of jail while their cases were winding through the courts.

archived recording (andrew cuomo) The old system was if you were rich and you could pay bail, youd get out. If you were poor and you couldnt pay bail, you went to jail.

ashley southall

And in most cases, people who are assigned bail do make bail. But it takes some time. And being in jail for a day, two days, a week, a month, can have serious consequences for peoples lives. They lose their job. They lose their housing. And they might even lose custody of their kids.

michael barbaro

Right.

ashley southall

And thats all before the case is resolved. So the bail law was intended to fix this problem that was largely affecting poor people in communities of color.

archived recording (andrew cuomo) It was never supposed to be about money. The whole justice system was not supposed to be about whos rich, whos poor.

ashley southall

But what the theory is now, at least from the police department, is that that law put more people onto the streets who were not only criminal, but are also violent. The police commissioner, Dermot Shea, hes gone after this bail law ever since he became commissioner and predicted that it would cause a rise in crime.

archived recording (dermot f. shea) When you have individuals that are standing before a judge and immediately being released, and essentially everyone in the room knows that this person is a danger to the community, I think we need to look at the system and make sure that judges can make common sense decisions.

michael barbaro

So because that law was passed last year and is being implemented now, the theory here is that a criminal justice reform with a good intention, right, of not making people buy their freedom before their charges even get processed by the court, may result in more people who might be violent, who might do something like get involved in a shooting, being out of prison and on the street.

ashley southall

Thats exactly right. And the second part of this theory is that the measures undertaken to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the citys jails and in the state prison system have also put more violent people onto the streets.

archived recording (bill de blasio) Well everyone, I want to talk about what we all will be doing and will need to do to make these adjustments and to deal with our new reality. Were seeing milestones in the growth of this disease that are just absolutely staggering. Things we could not have imagined.

ashley southall

So as the coronavirus was spreading, the city started thinking about who it could release from its jails.

archived recording (bill de blasio) In the course of this evening, I will be given results of an effort by Department of Corrections and N.Y.P.D., and our mayors office for criminal justice, to review a list of approximately 200 inmates for a potential release. Those individuals will be released tomorrow. We hope to make decisions on them very quickly. But this process 

ashley southall

And so the argument is that some of these people who have been coming back onto the streets are involved in the shootings and some of the murders that we are seeing on the streets today.

michael barbaro

Is there evidence to support that? Because my sense is that the bail reform deliberately avoided letting violent people  or allegedly violent people  out. And the Covid-19 mitigation plans also attempted to avoid letting out violent people. So is there any evidence that people charged with violent crimes were let out through either of those measures?

ashley southall

Not really. The problem with this theory is that the N.Y.P.D.s own data dont really support what they say.

archived recording (alexandria ocasio-cortez) At first, the N.Y.P.D., they went out and they said, OK, this uptick in crime is happening because of bail reform.

ashley southall

And sometimes the data contradict them. This is something thats been noted by critics including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is, of course, a congresswoman representing part of the Bronx and Queens.

archived recording (alexandria ocasio-cortez) They just released data a couple weeks ago that showed that out of almost all the people who have committed crimes, et cetera, almost none have been re-released due to the bail reform. So why is this uptick in crime happening? Well, do we think this has to do with the fact that theres record unemployment in the United States right now? The fact that people are at a level of economic desperation that we have not seen since the Great Recession?

ashley southall

The police departments data doesnt establish a connection between the people who are out there shooting other people and the people who are getting out on bail. There are some examples of people who have been released who have been rearrested on a gun charge. But the police havent provided any evidence linking them to shootings in any kind of substantial way. Its mostly been, like, an anecdote here or there, but no consistent pattern.

michael barbaro

And Ashley, what about the release of people from places like Rikers Island, that famous New York City prison, because of Covid-19? Has there been any evidence that has led to the surge in shootings and murders?

ashley southall

So this theory plays out similar to the one about bail. And once again, we have a situation where the N.Y.P.D.s own data does not show a strong connection between those people and the violence the police are trying to pin on them.

michael barbaro

So Ashley, you have laid out these three theories. And the first two seem like theres a sort of interplay between them. That people are increasingly desperate and out of work because of the pandemic, and with cops out sick, the shootings were escalating even further. And then the protests started, and people were reluctant to engage with the police at the same time that the police were reluctant to engage with the community. And Im mindful that one of the things that seems to support these first two theories is that all these forces were also at play in the other cities around America where we have seen rising unrest in recent months. Other cities with historic issues between police and communities of color  so Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle. Whereas bail reform and prisoner release, those are factors that are specific to New York. But even so, I have to think that regardless of the explanation for the rise in crime, that it gives critics of the defund movement an argument for opposing that move. Right? They can make the case that a moment where shootings and murders are up is a pretty bad time to cut funding for traditional policing. So do you feel like the fact that these numbers are going up is going to make the case for defunding the police in New York City harder? Is that what youre seeing?

ashley southall

On the one hand, yes, because no politician wants to be the person who takes money away from the police department while more people are getting shot, and more people are dying, and dying from violence that is preventable. The police presence is supposed to deter violence. And youre taking money away from them. They dont show up. And so the violence continues. And so youre going to take the blame for that. It makes the moment inopportune. But at the same time, people point to the police failure to get a handle on shootings and murders that have been rising now for three months straight. And people see that as evidence of the failure of police to do their most basic job, which is to keep people safe. So they say, lets cut their funding and try something else.

michael barbaro

So this moment could actually strengthen the case for defunding the police?

ashley southall

Yeah. Thats it. Because its not keeping people safe in communities of color at this moment in New York City.

michael barbaro

Mhm. But Ashley, if you believe that the forces behind the rising crime rate are connected to the pandemic, and that situation will resolve itself in the next couple months or a year, and police could start doing their jobs again as they did before, wouldnt that be enough to keep shootings historically low like they were over the past few years? Or has something now changed that will make it difficult to go back to before?

ashley southall

I wish I could go back in the past and kind of do some tweaks to tell you what it might look like if things had played out differently, if there had been no pandemic and no protests. But I cant. What I can tell you is that even before these events, the police recognized that there was a really big impediment to fighting crime. And that was a broken trust between the police, and particularly communities of color, that was decades in the making. Commissioner Shea, in disbanding anti-crime, acknowledged that although they were effective in getting guns off the streets, their tactics were sometimes harmful. And that was counterproductive to building the kind of public confidence the police need to have people not only reporting crimes  because remember, not all crimes are reported to the police and many people dont report crime at all  it also keeps people from helping the police to solve crimes. Repairing that trust was paramount before the pandemic, before any protests, and its only gotten worse. And so its not going to be an easy fix.

michael barbaro

So what youre saying is that the crime rate, the number of shootings and the number of murders reported, has not necessarily been a great reflection of whether policing in New York is actually working. In fact, it might have been a pretty misleading number to begin with because of these deeper root issues that have been there during that period of quote, unquote low crime. So going back to before is a kind of flawed way of thinking about this.

ashley southall

Thats right. In this moment, we see these wild cards  the pandemic and the protests  exacerbating the factors that already fuel gun violence. But even before those came into play and up till now, were talking about a very small group of people who carry guns. And the research shows that they do so because they feel caught between two worlds that make them feel unsafe. One is the violence in their communities, whether it be conflicts between gangs with rivalries or crews in neighboring housing projects that have beefs. They also feel unsafe around the police. They feel at any moment they could be targeted, that they could be a George Floyd or an Eric Garner. So there is no one in their lives who they feel can protect them. And so they pick up a gun to do it for themselves. So pandemic or no pandemic, protests or no protests, ultimately its the problems in their lives that need to be addressed. And what the experts will tell you is that policing, even with reforms, is just one part of a very large puzzle.

michael barbaro

Ashley, thank you very much. I really appreciate it.

ashley southall

Thanks for having me.

michael barbaro

Well be right back. Heres what else you need to know today.

archived recording (louis dejoy) As we head into the election season, I want to assure this committee and the American public that the postal service is fully capable and committed to delivering the nations election mail securely and on time.

michael barbaro

In testimony before Congress, the postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, said he was confident that the U.S. Postal Service could handle a major surge in voting by mail this fall, despite the cost-cutting plans that he has put in place, which have slowed delivery across the country.

archived recording (louis dejoy) We deliver 433 million pieces of mail a day, so 150 million ballots, 160 million ballots over the course of a week is a very, very small amount. Adequate capacity.

michael barbaro

Nevertheless, over the weekend, the House of Representatives passed emergency legislation that would block DeJoys changes and inject $25 billion dollars into the Postal Service before the election.

archived recording (carolyn b. maloney) This is not a partisan issue. It makes absolutely no sense to implement these dramatic changes in the middle of a pandemic less than three months before the November elections. The American people do not want anyone messing with the Post Office.

michael barbaro
Demi Moore has addressed her carpeted bathroom after fans criticised the questionable home decor choice.

Last week, the actress shared a glimpse of her bathroom turned office, where she recorded her new erotic podcast Dirty Diana, on Twitter.

In the photos, Moore can be seen sitting on a floral-printed couch in the middle of the wall-to-wall carpeted bathroom - prompting immediate reactions of confusion and horror on social media.

I have seen a lot of questionable home decor in my short life, but nothing quite like Demi Moores bathroom, one fan tweeted. One word: CARPET.

On Tuesday, during a virtual appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, the Ghost actress defended the home furnishing.

Calling in while sitting on the floral couch, Moore explained that the carpeting wasnt actually her decision, but rather her ex-husband Bruce Williss.

That originally was a Bruce Willis choice, not to put it off on him, Moore said of the Idaho house where the couple raised their children.

The 57-year-old also acknowledged that climate played a part in the decision, telling Meyers: We also live in the mountains where it gets very cold. So, its never bothered me, its actually quite good.

We put rugs in our bathroom! she added.

Despite the criticism, Moore said she has enjoyed the public interest in her home decor choices.

I appreciate the interest that has gone into all of my little oddities because this place definitely houses a lot of my treasures, she said. I have had some big laughs over the comments with my family.

While the mother-of-three seemed to find the comments about her home decor choices amusing, she did point out that there was one detail she was most disappointed that people seemed to overlook - that the couch in question was actually a miniature couch.

Recommended Demi Moore and Lena Dunham to star in erotic podcast

Explaining that she couldnt fit full-sized furniture into the bathroom, Moore said that she instead relied on the miniature couch she made for my children long ago.

So I just whipped this baby in there, she said.

As for why she decided to record her podcast in the bathroom in the first place, Moore revealed that the room had the best sound.

We were doing this podcast, that were here to talk about, and we had to find the place for the best sound, she said. So I did a test in my closet, I did in various places. What came back is that the bathroom had the best sound.
When Chris Grayling entered the Macmillan Room in the House of Commons on Wednesday, he thought his election as chairman of the intelligence and security committee was a mere formality.

But the ex-minister, to whose political career the word hapless has been frequently attached, failed to notice a half-smile on the face of fellow Tory MP Julian Lewis.

Then Grayling saw the ballot paper bearing Lewiss name next to his. He had been ambushed.

Lewiss audacious manoeuvre could have come straight from the pages of the novel, A Very British Coup, by Chris Mullin.

The book, twice turned into a TV series, charts the unlikely rise to Prime Minister of backbench Left-winger Harry Perkins. Lewis demonstrated the same impeccable timing and superior intelligence gathering of Mullins hero to snatch the prestigious job from under the nose of a man nicknamed  not always unfairly  Failing Grayling.

Frankly, it would have been a travesty if Grayling had secured the chairmanship of the vitally important committee that oversees MI5, MI6 and other security agencies.

Lewis (right, pictured with Boris Johnson) is impeccably qualified for the role. Hes independent-minded, has served on the committee before, and chaired the defence select committee

Parliament appoints its nine members from both the Commons and the Lords after considering nominations from the Prime Minister and discussions with the Leader of the Opposition. The chairman should command cross-party support, but Grayling, who quit the Cabinet before he was sacked after the general election, was widely suspected of being eased into the job simply to be Boris Johnsons yes man.

The role requires both expertise and interest in the work of the intelligence agencies, something the ex-TV man has never demonstrated. Even the PMs own loyalists were concerned at how Graylings appointment would be perceived.

One former minister told me: Downing Street should not be playing games with national security. Grayling would have been out of his depth and he would not have been scrupulously independent of the PM.

After a series of calamities during his time running both the justice and transport departments, Grayling is widely seen as one of the most incompetent ministers of modern times.

By contrast, Lewis is impeccably qualified for the role. Hes independent-minded, has served on the committee before, and chaired the defence select committee. When he worked for the Tory party HQs research department in the 1990s, he ran the defence and security desks. A hawkish Conservative, hes spent a lifetime opposing the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, seeing its aims as being at odds with Britains long-term security.

The softly spoken Lewis is thought to be the only MP who refuses to engage with his constituents or colleagues by email

In 1982, during a demonstration against the Falklands War led by socialist MP Tony Benn and miners union leader Arthur Scargill, he drowned out the speeches by playing the national anthem.

He was a great conspiracist and saw reds under every bed, says a former colleague. Its why we nicknamed him Witchfinder General. A lifelong Eurosceptic, Lewis resigned from Tory HQ in 1996 because he felt John Majors government had not been sufficiently critical of the European single currency.

One of his objections to the EU is the fear  some would say paranoia  that a federal Europe would one day be dominated by Germany.

Lewiss family came to Britain from Poland at the turn of the century; many of his relatives were murdered by the Nazis.

Scholarly and eccentric, the softly spoken Lewis is thought to be the only MP who refuses to engage with his constituents or colleagues by email. Letters, phone calls [and], where appropriate, surgery appointments are perfectly adequate for people who genuinely need my help, he has said.

Only mass manipulative campaigners and obsessive individuals find this a problem.

Then Grayling (pictured) saw the ballot paper bearing Lewiss name next to his. He had been ambushed

As hes not on email, there was no paper trail this week to alert the Tory whips  who enforce party discipline  that the MP for New Forest East was secretly planning to seize control of the committee. Perhaps he learnt some of the darker arts of the Commons from his long-term friend and ally John Bercow, who stood down as Speaker last year. The two men were both first elected in 1997; Lewis was Bercows best man when he married Sally Illman in 2002.

Born in Swansea in 1951, Julian Murray Lewis went to grammar school and Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied philosophy and politics. He later received a DPhil in strategic studies and was a Royal Navy reservist between 1979 and 1982.

At 68, he is probably in his last Parliament before retirement. Having now been ejected from the Parliamentary party, the Tory whips no longer have any power to make Lewis toe the line.

He is expected to prove a sharp thorn in the side of the Government; some believe he will play havoc with Boriss plans. A long-delayed report into alleged Russian interference into British politics may now be released as early as next week.

Tory grandee Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a former foreign secretary and past chairman of the committee, said: That post should have been filled after the election  not seven months later. Julian Lewis was a distinguished member of my committee, independent, and unwilling to go with the herd.

Now that independent mind could prove a serious nuisance to Boris Johnson after the PMs latest miscalculation.
Wandering thunderstorms wreak havoc in the city on the island of Sicily.

Firefighters in the Italian city of Palermo have worked through the night searching for people thought to have been trapped in a car in a flooded underpass after the most violent rainstorm in memory, according to local officials.

The rain, which reportedly fell intensely for several hours, caused widespread flooding in Palermo on Wednesday and resulted in the hospitalisation of two small children for hypothermia, Italian news agency ANSA said.

As the underpass search continued, police said they had received no report of people missing.

Leoluca Orlando, mayor of Palermo on the island of Sicily, described the downpour as the most violent rain in the history of the city since at least 1790, equal to that which falls in a year.

The statement does not appear to be entirely true as the annual rainfall for Palermo is approximately 615mm (24 inches) and local reports suggested that roughly 80mm (3 inches) of rain fell in a few minutes.

The rains effect, however, was obviously severe, with at least one metre (3.3 feet) of floodwater gathering in underpasses and lower parts of the city  an extraordinary event for July when then the average rainfall in Palermo is 5mm and rain is expected on just one day of the month.

Its cause was not unusual, but unfortunate; an arc of summer thunderstorms formed over the Tyrrhenian Sea and drifted slowly over southern Italy.
A Federal Circuit Court judge removed a threat to imprison parents who did not follow his family law orders when he released a written version of his oral decision, an appeal court has found.

The decision has renewed calls for a federal judicial watchdog to investigate complaints against judges at arm's length from the courts.

In the latest decision criticising the conduct of Judge Salvatore Vasta, the Full Court of the Family Court said the judge engaged in "impermissible editing" by failing to include the threat made on February 6 last year when he published a written decision on April 29.

Federal Circuit Court Judge Salvatore Vasta is at the centre of a number of critical appeal judgments.

Judge Vasta "could not amend his oral reasons as he did", the court said.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) is sharply restricting attendance on three of the four nights of its convention in Jacksonville, Florida.

The committee is looking at ways to make sure the August event can go ahead despite the surge in coronavirus cases in the state.

RNC chair Ronna McDaniel said in a letter to RNC members that only the approximately 2,500 regular delegates would be permitted to attend the opening three nights of the August's Republican Convention.

Delegates, their guests and alternate delegates would be permitted to attend the final night, 27 August, when President Donald Trump is set to deliver his nomination acceptance speech.

The convention was moved to Florida after officials in Charlotte, North Carolina, ruled out the full-capacity crowd that the president wanted due to the ongoing pandemic.

The formal business of the renominating Mr Trump will still take place in Charlotte, but with a far smaller group of delegates casting proxy votes.

When we made these changes, we had hoped to be able to plan a traditional convention celebration to which we are all accustomed, Ms McDaniel said. However, adjustments must be made to comply with state and local health guidelines.

In recent weeks, Florida has seen the number of new cases of Covid-19 break records, and the number of deaths is now beginning to climb in line with the lag between the two numbers seen in other states.

Jacksonville has instituted a face-covering mandate and the state is limiting gatherings to 50 per cent of a venues capacity.

The RNC is still working to determine a programming lineup for the event, with Ms McDaniel saying that the convention was planning to use both indoor and outdoor spaces.

GOP officials familiar with the planning said the marquee evening program, including Mr Trumps speech, is expected to take place outdoors to accommodate the largest crowd possible.

There will be on-site temperature checks, face-coverings will be provided, and Covid-19 testing will be available for attendees.

Ms McDaniel said in her letter: We can gather and put on a top-notch event that celebrates the incredible accomplishments of President Trumps administration and his re-nomination for a second term  while also doing so in a safe and responsible manner.

Florida has recorded more than 300,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19, and 4,520 deaths as of Wednesday.

The Democratic National Committee has already downsized its convention's venue in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

While Joe Biden will attend to accept the nomination, a news release states that the four-day event will "include both live broadcasts and curated content from Milwaukee and other satellite cities, locations and landmarks across the country.

With reporting from the Associated Press
Regarding the meeting, Pakistan said two Indian officers were provided unimpeded and uninterrupted consular access to Jadhav on Thursday

Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav was granted second consular access on Thursday. Meanwhile, the MEA said that it was waiting for the assessment report from the Indian officials who met with Jadhav.

The second consular meeting came hours after New Delhi had asked Islamabad to give "unconditional consular access" to Jadhav, as per sources.

Addressing the MEA's weekly press conference, spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said, "On Kulbhushan Jadhav case, we have been demanding unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional consular access to him. On the basis of assurances provided the officials have proceeded for meeting today. We are yet to hear from them. Once, we assess the situation based on their report, we will comment."

Earlier, the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, "Pakistan provided second consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav at Indian request today. Two consular officers of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad were provided unimpeded and uninterrupted consular access to Jadhav at 3 pm."

Pakistan claimed that Jadhav had refused to file a review plea on the Pakistani court military court's judgment which awarded the death penalty to the former naval officer on charges of espionage.

India said that he had been coerced into doing that.

"Last time what they did was insulting to his mother, father and wife and insulting to India as a whole. So we want that consular access should be unconditional," Arvind Singh, Kulbhushan Jadhav's childhood friend, told ANI.

Pakistan claims that Jadhav was arrested from Balochistan in 2016 on charges of espionage. India has rejected Pakistan's allegations about Jadhav's involvement in spying and subversive activities and said he was kidnapped from the Iranian port of Chabahar.

In early 2017, a Pakistani military court sentenced him to death. In May 2017, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) stayed his execution.

In July last year, the ICJ, by a vote of 15-1, had upheld India's claim that Pakistan has committed an egregious violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations on several counts.
The Border Security Force (BSF) on Thursday handed over a 'protest note' to Border Guard Bangladesh after an Indian jawan was attacked by Bangladesh smugglers. A BSF jawan was at the border outpost on duty, at the International Boundary with Bangladesh, when he saw suspicious movements of two cattle smugglers trying to smuggle two cattle.

The movement of the smugglers was obscure due to the high growth of jute crop and bad weather due to rain. Constable Bubai Nurki challenged the smugglers and chased them. The smugglers sped up and started running towards the Bangladesh border which was just 100 metres from there. During the chase, the BSF constable caught hold of one smuggler and was trying to take him under his custody.

While doing so, his accomplice suddenly attacked the jawan with a stick. Consequently, during the scuffle, the jawan sustained injuries on his right hand and his finger got fractured.

Taking advantage of the muddy jute field, both the smugglers fled away towards Bangladesh leaving behind their cattle. The BSF jawan successfully rescued both the cattle from the clutches of smugglers.

However, the BSF authorities of South Bengal Frontier Kolkata is determined to ensure that there is no loss to the life and property of the BSF troops at any cost. After this incident, the company commander of BOP-Jalangi, 141 Bn held a flag meeting with the company commander of Border Guard Bangladesh and handed over a protest note with the request to ensure that no criminal from Bangladesh enters India by violating the sanctity of the International Boundary.

It has been observed that due to ensuing Qurbani Eid, cattle smugglers from Bangladesh are desperately attempting to smuggle cattle by adopting different kinds of modus operandies. But due to the aggressive and proactive strategy adopted by the BSF troops, cattle smugglers are not getting success.

The frustration and desperation level of the smugglers is so high that they are mis-adventuring into attacking BSF troops on duty using bricks, sticks, daggers, sickles, dah etc. Even in a few incidents, the smugglers have used country-made pistols and bombs also.

Consequently, on few occasions when life and property of the BSF troops are endangered, they are compelled to make judicious use of the firepower as per non-lethal policy by exercising the right of self-defence and protection to the property. This results in casualties to the miscreants of both the countries.
Alaska Air Group (ALK) is expected to deliver a year-over-year decline in earnings on lower revenues when it reports results for the quarter ended June 2020. This widely-known consensus outlook gives a good sense of the company's earnings picture, but how the actual results compare to these estimates is a powerful factor that could impact its near-term stock price.

The stock might move higher if these key numbers top expectations in the upcoming earnings report, which is expected to be released on July 23. On the other hand, if they miss, the stock may move lower.

While management's discussion of business conditions on the earnings call will mostly determine the sustainability of the immediate price change and future earnings expectations, it's worth having a handicapping insight into the odds of a positive EPS surprise.

Zacks Consensus Estimate

This airline is expected to post quarterly loss of $3.39 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of -256.2%.

Revenues are expected to be $307.68 million, down 86.6% from the year-ago quarter.

Estimate Revisions Trend

The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has been revised 46.95% lower over the last 30 days to the current level. This is essentially a reflection of how the covering analysts have collectively reassessed their initial estimates over this period.

Investors should keep in mind that an aggregate change may not always reflect the direction of estimate revisions by each of the covering analysts.

Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Earnings Whisper

Estimate revisions ahead of a company's earnings release offer clues to the business conditions for the period whose results are coming out. This insight is at the core of our proprietary surprise prediction model -- the Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction).

The Zacks Earnings ESP compares the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter; the Most Accurate Estimate is a more recent version of the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. The idea here is that analysts revising their estimates right before an earnings release have the latest information, which could potentially be more accurate than what they and others contributing to the consensus had predicted earlier.

Story continues

Thus, a positive or negative Earnings ESP reading theoretically indicates the likely deviation of the actual earnings from the consensus estimate. However, the model's predictive power is significant for positive ESP readings only.

A positive Earnings ESP is a strong predictor of an earnings beat, particularly when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold). Our research shows that stocks with this combination produce a positive surprise nearly 70% of the time, and a solid Zacks Rank actually increases the predictive power of Earnings ESP.

Please note that a negative Earnings ESP reading is not indicative of an earnings miss. Our research shows that it is difficult to predict an earnings beat with any degree of confidence for stocks with negative Earnings ESP readings and/or Zacks Rank of 4 (Sell) or 5 (Strong Sell).

How Have the Numbers Shaped Up for Alaska Air?

For Alaska Air, the Most Accurate Estimate is higher than the Zacks Consensus Estimate, suggesting that analysts have recently become bullish on the company's earnings prospects. This has resulted in an Earnings ESP of +16.33%.

On the other hand, the stock currently carries a Zacks Rank of #3.

So, this combination indicates that Alaska Air will most likely beat the consensus EPS estimate.

Does Earnings Surprise History Hold Any Clue?

Analysts often consider to what extent a company has been able to match consensus estimates in the past while calculating their estimates for its future earnings. So, it's worth taking a look at the surprise history for gauging its influence on the upcoming number.

For the last reported quarter, it was expected that Alaska Air would post a loss of $1.27 per share when it actually produced a loss of $0.82, delivering a surprise of +35.43%.

Over the last four quarters, the company has beaten consensus EPS estimates four times.

Bottom Line

An earnings beat or miss may not be the sole basis for a stock moving higher or lower. Many stocks end up losing ground despite an earnings beat due to other factors that disappoint investors. Similarly, unforeseen catalysts help a number of stocks gain despite an earnings miss.

That said, betting on stocks that are expected to beat earnings expectations does increase the odds of success. This is why it's worth checking a company's Earnings ESP and Zacks Rank ahead of its quarterly release. Make sure to utilize our Earnings ESP Filter to uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they've reported.

Alaska Air appears a compelling earnings-beat candidate. However, investors should pay attention to other factors too for betting on this stock or staying away from it ahead of its earnings release.



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Alaska Air Group, Inc. (ALK) : Free Stock Analysis Report



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 16, 2020 / Silver Elephant Mining Corp. ("Silver Elephant" or the "Company") (ELEF.TO)(SILEF)(1P2N.F) is pleased to announce that the Notice of Intent ("NOI") to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement ("EIS") for the Gibellini Vanadium Project ("Project") located in Eureka County, Nevada, USA was published on July 14, 2020 in the Federal Register. The Gibellini Project is 100% owned by Nevada Vanadium LLC. ("Nevada Vanadium"), a Nevada corporation that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Silver Elephant Mining Corp.

The NOI formally commences the 12-month timeline to complete the National Environmental Policy Act ("NEPA") review and EIS preparation by the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management ("BLM"). The NEPA process is designed to help public officials complete permitting decisions that are protective of the environment and includes a public engagement process.

Per news release from The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Mount Lewis Office:

"If approved, this project would provide hundreds of jobs and will contribute to the nation's domestic source of critical minerals," said Doug Furtado, Battle Mountain District Manager. "The Gibellini mine would also be the first vanadium mine in the U.S. and, in accordance with Secretarial Order 3355, we anticipate having a record of decision in 12 months.

As there is currently no primary domestic production of vanadium, the United States is dependent on foreign sources of vanadium; this creates a strategic vulnerability for both the economy and military to adverse government action or other events that can disrupt the supply of this key mineral."

Please visit www.nevadavanadium.com for the full news release from Nevada Vanadium LLC.

SILVER ELEPHANT MINING CORP.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"John Lee"

Chairman

For more information about Silver Elephant, please contact Investor Relations:

+1.604.569.3661 ext. 101

ir@silverelephant.com

www.silverelephant.com

Story continues

Neither the Toronto Stock Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Toronto Stock Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Some statements in this news release are about future events and performance. Such statements are based on current estimates, predictions, expectations, or beliefs. The subjects of the statements include, but are not limited to, (i) the PEA representing a viable development option for the project; (ii) construction of a mine at the project and related actions; (iii) estimates of the capital costs of constructing mine facilities, bringing the mine into production, and sustaining the mine, together with estimates of the length of financing payback periods; (iv) the estimated amount of future production, of both [raw material?] and metal recovered; and (vi) estimates of the life of the mine and of the operating and total costs, cash flow, net present value, and economic returns, including internal rate of return from an operating mine constructed at the project. All forward-looking statements are based on Silver Elephant's or its consultants' current beliefs and assumptions, which are in turn based on the information currently available to them. The most significant assumptions are set forth above, but generally these assumptions include: (i) the presence and continuity of vanadium mineralization at the project at the estimated grades; (ii) the geotechnical and metallurgical characteristics of the rock conforming to the sampled results; (iii) infrastructure construction costs and schedule; (iv) the availability of personnel, machinery, and equipment at the estimated prices and within the estimated delivery times; (v) currency exchange rates; (vi) vanadium sale prices; (vii) appropriate discount rates applied to the cash flows in the economic analysis; (viii) tax rates applicable to the proposed mining operation; (ix) the availability of acceptable financing on reasonable terms; (x) projected recovery rates and use of a process method, which although well-known and proven with other commodity types, such as copper, has not been previously brought into production for a vanadium project; (xi) reasonable contingency requirements; (xii) success in realizing proposed operations; and (xiii) assumptions that the project's environmental approval and permitting is forthcoming from county, state, and federal authorities. The economic analysis is partly based on Inferred Mineral Resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as Mineral Reserves, and there is no certainty that the PEA based on these Mineral Resources will be realized. Currently there are no Mineral Reserves on the Gibellini property. Although the Company's management and its consultants consider these assumptions to be reasonable, given the information currently available to them, they could prove to be incorrect. Many forward-looking statements are made assuming the correctness of other forward-looking statements, such as statements of net present value and internal rates of return. Those statements are based in turn on most of the other forward-looking statements and assumptions made herein. The cost information is also prepared using current values, but the time for incurring the costs is in the future and it is assumed costs will remain stable over the relevant period.

These factors should be considered carefully, and readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements by Silver Elephant or its consultants. Silver Elephant and its consultants believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements contained in this news release and the documents incorporated by reference herein are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove correct. In addition, although Prophecy and its consultants have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events, or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events, or results not to be as anticipated, estimated, or intended. Silver Elephant and its consultants undertake no obligation to publicly release any future revisions of the forward-looking statements that reflect events or circumstances that occur after the date of this news release or reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as expressly required by law.

SOURCE: Silver Elephant Mining Corp.





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/597777/Silver-Elephant-Notice-of-Intent-to-Prepare-EIS-Published-for-Gibellini-Vanadium-Project




Ahmed Ali, a Bangladesh citizen and the father of British woman Shamima Begum, who ran away to join the Islamic State extremist group in Syria in 2015, speaks to reporters in his home village in northeastern Sunamganj district, March 5, 2019.

The Bangladeshi father of a now stateless woman stuck in a Syrian refugee camp, after she joined the Islamic State group as a teen, welcomed a British courts ruling that she could return to fight for her U.K. citizenship, which was revoked on national security grounds.

Shamima Begum was 15 when she traveled to Raqqa, the capital of the Islamic States so-called caliphate, along with two friends in 2015. While there, she married a Dutch fighter with IS and converted to Islam.

I am pleased with the courts decision. My daughter will face trial if she committed the offenses, I have nothing to say about that, her father, Ahmed Ali, told BenarNews by phone on Thursday from his home in Sunamganj, a district in northeastern Bangladesh, as he reacted to a decision by the Court of Appeal in England earlier in the day.

I think she deserves the legal right to defend herself in the court.

Ali said he wanted to travel to the England to support his daughter.

I will fly to London if I get a ticket, he said, adding that tickets were scarce.

My daughter made a mistake. Correction of such a mistake is very difficult. Which parents want their children to go the wrong way? he said.

Ali, a Bangladeshi, first went to London in 1975.

I have not taken British citizenship due to my family problem. I live both in London and Bangladesh and my wife is a British national, he said.

Shamima Begum, who was born in Britain, ended up in a refugee camp in Syria following the March 2019 collapse of IS by U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

Earlier this year, the Special Immigration Appeal Commission (SIAC) ruled that the British governments decision last year to revoke Begums citizenship was lawful.

On Thursday in London, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeal agreed unanimously that she be permitted to return so her appeal would be fair.

The Court acknowledges that there are national security concerns about Ms. Begum but the Court reaches the conclusion  that, notwithstanding those concerns, the only way in which she can have a fair and effective appeal before SIAC is for Ms. Begum to be permitted to come into the U.K. to pursue that appeal, the court said in its six-page ruling.

Begums case came to light last year through an interview she gave to BBC News from a Syrian refugee camp.

In the TV interview, Begum, then 19, pleaded to British authorities to allow her to return to the country of her birth. But she was criticized for making comments during the interview, where she seemed to justify an IS-linked suicide bombing that killed 23 people at a concert hall in Manchester in May 2017.

After the BBC interview, Britains Home Office announced that it was stripping Begum of her citizenship and barring her from returning to the country.

Renu Begum holds a picture of Shamima Begum, her youngest sister who fled Britain to join the Islamic State extremist group in Syria, during an interview in central London, Feb. 22, 2015. [AFP]

Not welcome

Meanwhile on Thursday, Bangladesh government officials said Begum was not welcome in their country.

Shamima has never been a Bangladeshi citizen. Her mother is a British national. We have nothing to say about Shamima and her family, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told BenarNews.

But what I can assure you is that she would not be allowed to enter Bangladesh. Even if she comes to Bangladesh, she would face a terrorism charge under the anti-terrorism law because she is an IS militant, he said.

Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen agreed that Bangladesh should not allow Begum to enter the country.

Bangladeshs former law minister, on the other hand, made a case for her being welcomed in.

Shafique Ahmed, a member of the ruling Awami League who served as the law minister, said Begum would be eligible for Bangladeshi citizenship because of her father.

Bangladesh does not revoke the Bangladeshi citizenship if any of its nationals accepts British citizenship, he told BenarNews.

The British laws do not allow a person to be stateless. Shamima should be tried for her offense, but this is unacceptable that a country would cancel its citizenship of a person and ask them to adopt citizenship of another country, Ahmed said.
The national debt could be pushing towards 3trillion by the time of the next general election as the cost of dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic spirals, the official budget watchdog has warned.

In a bleak report published this week, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has laid bare the damage the health crisis is doing to the economy and the public finances.

Its 'central' projection was for the Government to borrow 372.2billion this year and 899.2billion over the next five years  pushing the national debt above 2.6trillion in 2024-25.

The Office for Budget Responsibility estimates the Government will borrow 372.2bn this year and 899.2bn over the next five years - pushing the national debt above 2.6trillion in 2024-25

But its 'downside scenario', where the economy fares worse than feared, includes borrowing of 441.4billion this year and 1.2trillion over the next five years.

That would push the national debt to well over 2.9trillion in 2024-25, and is a major headache for Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak.

The next general election is due to take place in 2024 but it could happen earlier than that.

Sunak yesterday admitted 'tough choices' lie ahead when it comes to considering what tax changes should be made following the pandemic.

Giving evidence to the MPs on the Treasury Committee, he refused to be drawn on whether the Government would be able to honour the commitment in the Tory election manifesto not to put up income tax, national insurance or VAT.

'Our ambition is to deliver on all the priorities that we set out but on any questions on future tax policy I can't comment one way or another. Those decisions are made as always in future budgets,' he said.

The national debt dates back to the late 17th century and took more than 300 years to reach 1trillion. It stood at around 300billion at the start of this century but smashed through 1trillion in 2010.

The pile hit 2trillion this year after the outbreak of Covid-19. And the surge towards 3trillion comes as the cost of the virus crisis adds up.

As well as spending billions extra on schemes to support jobs, businesses and the health service, the pandemic and subsequent lockdown have triggered the deepest recession in 300 years, hitting tax receipts in the process.

The OBR is warning that receipts over the next five years will be 418.5billion lower than anticipated as recently as March.

The take from income tax and national insurance is slated to fall 165billion due to lower wages and higher unemployment.
She's getting back to reality after returning from her sun-soaked getaway to the Bahamas.

But Devon Windsor continued to prove she's her own best advert as she shared a stunning bikini snap from her recent trip modelling a piece from her swimwear collection on Thursday.

The Victoria's Secret model, 26, showed off her lithe physique in the chic white two-piece from her brand Devon Windsor Swim.

Gorgeous: Devon Windsor proved she's her own best advert as she shared a stunning bikini snap from her recent trip modelling a white two-piece from her own collection on Thursday

The blonde beauty flaunted her toned abs and endless legs as she posed on the side of a boat for the Instagram snap.

She wore her golden tresses in beachy waves loose around her shoulders and completed the vacation look with a pair of black sunglasses and a shell necklace.

The Missouri born model captioned the post: 'When they tell you to act natural....'

The sizzling bikini snap was shot during her recent getaway to the Bahamas with friend and Model Squad co-star Olivia Culpo.

Making waves: The model, 26, clearly took plenty of pictures during her Bahamas trip, having shared a plethora of images onto her Instagram account as of late

Devon clearly took plenty of pictures during their trip, having shared a plethora of images onto her Instagram account as of late.

Devon has been working hard promoting her eponymous swimwear collection Devon Windsor Swim, which she founded last year.

Releasing the line is something of a dream come true for Devon, who has wanted to launch a collection ever since getting started in modeling.

'Since I began in the modeling industry, my end goal was to always build my brand and start my own line!' she told Forbes.

Sun-kissed: Devon looked stunning as she posed in a gold bikini from her swimwear range during her recent trip to the Bahamas

'It wasn't until years later that I realised my love for resort wear, and at the same time noticed a gap in the market for swim that has more design detail and that is more elevated than just your average triangle bikini.

'That considered, it has always been important for me to create a brand that won't completely break your bank, while still maintaining great fit and quality materials.

'I'm also not limiting myself at just swim  sooner than later, I will be offering some affordable RTW!'

The 5ft 11in beauty wed Johnny Barbara - co-owner of fashion label Alexis - at St Bartholomew's Anglican Church on the Caribbean island of St Barths on November 16 2019.
South Africas Prudential Authority expects that business-interruption claims linked to the Covid-19 pandemic poses little systemic risk to the insurance industry.

The regulator is in talks with the countrys Financial Sector Conduct Authority and insurance companies on claims from policyholders who incurred losses when they were forced to close because of a national lockdown to curb the coronavirus.

The matter remains a market-conduct issue, which the FSCA oversees, the Prudential Authority said by email.

At this stage, we are not of the view that the business-interruption insurance issue has systemic implications for the industry, the Prudential Authority said.

South African insurers are rejecting claims in cases where they say payouts are only triggered by physical events such as an infection at a companys premises. But the FSCA last week warned the industry to stop broadly rejecting claims from businesses related to the COVID-19 lockdown, after a Cape Town court ruled against one local insurer.

In the UK, some insurers are starting to acknowledge that payments may be unavoidable. If a High Court hearing on policy wording goes against insurers, it will have far-reaching consequences for losses, capital and valuations, in the country, Bloomberg Intelligence credit analysts Arun Kumar and Zheli Zhang said in a note.

South Africas Prudential Authority last month suspended the issuance of new insurance licenses for six months because of the pandemic.

Related:

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics COVID-19 Claims
The Telugu Desam Party on Thursday sought the urgent intervention of President Ram Nath Kovind in upholding the democratic values and rule of law in Andhra Pradesh which, the party alleged, were given a go-by during the present YSR Congress Party government.

A delegation of five TDP members of parliament met the President in New Delhi and submitted him a 52-page representation with a long list of complaints against the Jagan Reddy-led government in Andhra Pradesh.

The TDP members brought to the notice of Kovind how the YSRCP government had systematically destroyed democratic and constitutional institutions in the state and infringed upon the fundamental rights of the people in the last 13 months.

The YSRCP has ignored a fundamental dictum in a democracy, that governments may change, but governance is a continuous process. Right from demolishing the Praja Vedika (Peoples Forum) in June 2019 to unleashing a reign of terror against the political opponents, the Jagan government has ruined every system, they said in the representation.

The TDP lawmakers alleged that the YSRCP had injected a sense of fear in the government officials, forced university Vice-Chancellors to resign, concocted cases against the Dalits in Guntur district thus making them refugees in their own state, indulged in killing opposition party supporters and slapping cases against the farmers who are peacefully protesting in Amaravati.

They pointed out that the Jagan had resorted to threatening his own party member who raised voice against his policies. The YSRCP leaders had also issued unofficial orders to ban News channels and indulged in illegal mining and transporting of sand and various other scams like in house sites and ambulances.

The President of India has given an assurance that he will examine the representation and take appropriate action, TDP MP Galla Jayadev said.
YEREVAN, JULY 16, ARMENPRESS. Lithuanias foreign minister Linas Linkevicius expressed his deep concern over the current situation on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border and called for an immediate ceasefire.

Deeply concerned that clashes on Armenia-Azerbaijan border continue. Escalation gives no benefit to both sides. Call for immediate ceasefire, avoiding any further escalation and returning to dialogue and negotiations under the auspices of OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, the Lithuanian FM said on twitter.

Since July 12th, Azerbaijan has launched a series of cross-border attacks against Armenias northern Tavush province.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
The erosion of press freedom is both a symptom of and a contributor to the breakdown of other democratic institutions and principles, a fact that makes it especially alarming.





by Zulkifli Nazim





Media freedom has been deteriorating around the world over the past decade. In some of the most influential democracies in the world, populist leaders have overseen concerted attempts to throttle the independence of the media sector. The fundamental right to seek and disseminate information through an independent press is under attack, and part of the assault has come from an unexpected source - The Elected leaders.





These are those who should be the staunchest defenders of Press freedom; but quite regrettably to our consternation and dismay, they have made explicit attempts to silence critical media voices and strengthen outlets that serve up favourable coverage. The trend is linked to a global decline in democracy itself.













The erosion of press freedom is both a symptom of and a contributor to the breakdown of other democratic institutions and principles, a fact that makes it especially alarming.





Our bleak, unlivable and insufferable existence will be seen, when we are deprived of writing, speaking or expressing ourselves in any form. The life and work of writers facing this peril must be protected and is urgent, but along with that urgency we should remind ourselves that their absence, the choking off of a writers work, its cruel amputation, is of equal peril to us, the ordinary folk.





Because proclaiming the truth is trouble for the warmonger, the torturer, the corporate thief, the political hack, the corrupt justice system, and for a comatose public. It is also an inconvenience and a source of difficulty for the ignorant bully and the sly racist. And the efforts by powerful governments to censor, starve, regulate televising, broadcasts and annihilate such writings and writers are clear signs that something important has taken place.





So they resort to special methods which include surveillance, censorship, arrest, even slaughter of those writers and broadcasters informing and disturbing the public  these are: Writers - journalists, essayists, bloggers, poets, playwrights who can disturb the social comatose functions of the population.





Media accounts of reality have the potential to influence public opinion and decision making processes. Therefore who has and who does not have access to the media and can make their voice heard is a crucial question with serious political consequences.





The life and work of journalists are not a gift to mankind; they are its necessity.





On the other side of the coin we see in some of the most influential democracies in the world, large segments of the population are no longer receiving unbiased news and information. This is not because journalists are being thrown in jail, as might occur in authoritarian settings. Instead, the media have fallen prey to more nuanced efforts to throttle their independence. Common methods include government-backed ownership changes, regulatory and financial pressure, and public denunciations of honest journalists.





Governments have also offered proactive support to friendly outlets through measures such as lucrative state contracts, favorable regulatory decisions, and preferential access to state information. The goal is to make the press serve those in power rather than the public.





The problem has arisen in tandem with right-wing populism, which has undermined basic freedoms in many democratic countries. Populist leaders present themselves as the defenders of an aggrieved majority against liberal elites and ethnic minorities whose loyalties they question, and argue that the interests of the nationas they define itshould override democratic principles like press freedom, transparency, and open debate.





Democracies in general are undergoing a decline in political rights and civil liberties. Certain government administrations in the world have had great success in snuffing out critical journalism, blazing a trail for populist forces elsewhere.





Leaders in some countries have consolidated media ownership in the hands of their cronies, ensuring that the outlets with the widest reach support the government and smear its perceived opponents. Case in point - In Hungary, where the process has advanced much further, nearly 80 percent of the media are owned by government allies.





Our powerful neighbour  The Asian Superpower - India, the worlds most populous democracy, have also started sending signals that holding the government accountable is not part of the responsibility of the press and other associated media. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has supported campaigns to discourage speech that is anti-national, and government-aligned thugs have raided critical journalists homes and offices.





The media have become widely flattering of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who won the re-election, amid allegations that the government issues directives on how the press should cover his activities and intimidates journalists who push back. The Indian government has also been selective in the allocation of television licenses, effectively excluding unfriendly outlets from the airwaves.





Not forgetting of course the most concerning development of recent years, press freedom has come under unusual pressure in the United States as well - the worlds leading democratic power. Although key news organizations remain strong and continue to produce vigorous reporting on those in office, President Donald Trumps continual vilification of the press has seriously exacerbated an ongoing erosion of public confidence in the mainstream media. Among other steps, the president has repeatedly threatened to strengthen libel laws, revoke the licenses of certain broadcasters, and damage other business interests of media owners.





The breakdown of global press freedom is closely related to the broader decline of democracy. Although the press is not always the first institution to be attacked when a countrys leadership takes an anti-democratic turn - repression of free media is a strong indication that other political rights and civil liberties are in danger. Assaults on media independence are frequently associated with power grabs by new or incumbent leaders, or with attempts of entrenched regimes, to crush perceived threats.





While populist leaders in democracies seek to secure and build on their gains by taming the press, established autocratic governments continue to tighten the screws on dissenting voices, as any breach in their media dominance threatens to expose official wrongdoing or debunk official narratives. In Russia, authorities moved to block the popular messaging application Telegram after the company refused to hand over its encryption keys to security officials. The government in Cameroon shut down internet service in the restive Anglophone minority.





In Myanmar, two Reuters journalists were sentenced to seven years in prison after a flawed trial in which the court ignored plain evidence that they had been entrapped to halt their investigation of military atrocities against the Rohingya minority; although they were recently pardoned, they were not exonerated.





In Pakistan, security agents have allegedly warned journalists against coverage of taboo subjects, such as abuses by the military, or given reporters instructions on how to cover specific political issues. The regime in China has worked to close off the last remaining avenues for accessing uncensored information by increasing pressure on private technology companies to police the content on their platforms more persistently.





The 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi interests was the most infamous recent case, but it was hardly unique. Also a Tanzanian journalist investigating the murders of local officials disappeared, and his fate remains a mystery. Sri Lanka too has had its fair share of accusations.





These downgrades in various countries can be attributed to a range of legal, political, and economic factors, but some stand out as more concerning and pervasive. Violence and harassment aimed at particular journalists and media outlets illustrate the ways in which already difficult environments can grow steadily worse in the absence of meaningful international support for media independence and other fundamental rights.





However, experience has shown, that press freedom can rebound from even lengthy stints of repression when given the opportunity. The basic desire for democratic liberties, including access to honest and fact-based journalism, can never be extinguished, and it is never too late to renew the demand that these rights be granted in full.
Australias former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull speaks to the media during a news conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Aug. 15, 2018. (AAP/Lukas Coch/via Reuters)

Former Australian PM Says Business, Higher Education Sectors Need to Wake Up to China Threat

Australias former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said Wednesday that the countrys business and higher education sectors need to wake up to bullying and threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Turnbull, whose government banned tech giants Huawei and ZTE from Australias 5G networks on national security grounds, criticized the nations business chiefs and academics after they condemned the Australian government over its relations with Beijing.

Such behavior, the former prime minister said, would only encourage more bullying from China.

Turnbull, who was prime minister from 2015 to 2018, said that some parts of the Australian business community have been pretty shameful in their response Beijings use of trade threats to influence policy.

Addressing a webinar hosted by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), he made reference to comments made in 2018 by the University of Sydneys Vice Chancellor Michael Spence.

Spence accused me of Sinophobic blatherings, Turnbull recalled. That was because he has a large number of his foreign students whove paid full tuition fees, come from China.

We had to gently remind them and make a few points about, well, you know, essentially a little bit of patriotism wouldnt have gone too far, he added, without elaborating.

The greatest leverage China has in the region is money, he continued, noting that China was Australias biggest trading partner, with the export of commodities being a large part of the economic relationship.

Every now and then, when it suits them, they rattle the cage and threaten trade consequences and sometimes some exports are held up  those threats are made, he said. And the Australian business community I have to say to date has been invariably sensitive to this and tends to criticise the Australian government, pretty shameful actually.

The one thing the Australian business community and academic community have got to learn, is that if you want to encourage more bullying from China, continue behaving in the way they do, because every time they do that and criticize the Australian government over its China relations, reflexively, Beijing says, Wow, gee that works, thats terrificlets do more of that.

Turnbulls comments come as the Australian government increasingly pushes back against recent aggression by the CCP.

Australia was one of the first countries to call for an investigation into Beijings handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and has suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong over concerns around the new national security law. The country also is standing its ground against an escalating number of economic threats and intimidation from China.

Turnbull said Australia must have confidence in the services and products it sold and not be bullied because it is, honestly, it is a slippery slope.

Countries must not be intimidated by confected outrage from Beijing, Turnbull said.

Bowen Xiao contributed to this report.
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Civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday said that bilateral air bubbles is the only way to resume international air travel. "Till international civil aviation can reclaim its pre-Covid numbers, I think the answer will lie through bilateral air bubbles which will carry a possible number of people but under defined conditions as countries are still imposing entry restrictions including India," Puri said at a press conference.

Puri said that as many people as they can ferry would be ferried through these air bubbles but it would not be free. He said many foreign countries are imposing restrictions and there would be many checks and balances even for people with visas.

The minister said that India is at a very advanced stage of negotiations with at least three countries including France, US and Germany for air bubble. "Air France will be operating 28 flights from Delhi, Mumbai & Bengaluru to Paris between July 18 to August 1. We have an agreement with United Airlines to operate 18 flights between India-US between July 17 and July 31 but this is an interim one. We have a request from Germany also and an agreement with Lufthansa is almost done," he said.

Puri added that domestic flights are operating at 33 per cent capacity. "We have to navigate difficult terrain," he said.

Scheduled international flights have not been operational since March 23 due to coronavirus lockdown.

The minister commended Air India on its efforts to evacuate stranded Indians from several countries. He said that Vande Bharat Mission is currently in the fourth phase. Puri said that 619 flights will bring back more than two lakh Indians. "We are evacuating about 20,000 people every day," he said.

Hardeep Puri said that 687,467 people have been brought back home, out of which Air India ferried 215,495 people, while other private carriers brought back 12,258 Indians.

Also read: Coronavirus fallout: Air travel demand to tumble by 49% for Indian airlines in 2020, says IATA

Also read: Coronavirus fallout: Airlines staring at Rs 1.1 lakh crore loss over three years, says CRISIL Research
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra sued the Trump administration Wednesday, challenging a revised rule he charged would make it harder for students to get loan relief from predatory lenders and for-profit colleges.

The U.S. Department of Education has replaced critical borrower protections with a process that makes it virtually impossible for victimized students to get the relief they should qualify for, including canceling their federal loans, Becerra said in announcing the lawsuit.

He was joined in the suit by 22 other state attorneys general, all of them Democrats.

This is yet another grandstanding, politically driven lawsuit meant to grab a cheap headline, said Angela Morabito, the Education Departments press secretary. To any objective observer, our borrower defense rule clearly protects students from fraud, ensures they are entitled to financial relief if they suffered harm and holds schools accountable.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos revised the rule for the federal Borrower Defense to Repayment student loan relief program in August, saying Obama-era regulations just werent working and that the change corrects the wrongs of the 2016 rule through common sense and carefully crafted reforms.

DeVos has said the Obama administrations rule on the loans was a too-lenient giveaway for students.

While students should have protections from predatory practices, schools and taxpayers should also be treated fairly, she said in a 2017 talk to a Michigan Republican group. Under the previous rules, all one had to do was raise his or her hands to be entitled to so-called free money.

The new rule establishes a three-year deadline for student borrowers to seek loan relief and makes it tougher for students to prove they relied on false claims by a school to enroll and seek a loan. It also saves the federal government an estimated $11.1 billion in loan guarantee costs.

Were suing because this rule is nothing more than a free pass to allow schools to continue defrauding students, said Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, who joined Becerra in a telephone news conference announcing the suit. The court action seeks to reinstate the Obama-era rule.

The suit pits Becerra against President Trump, who in May vetoed a bipartisan measure passed by Congress that would have dumped the new revision and left the previous rule intact.

Trump called the measure a misguided resolution, saying former President Barack Obamas regulation had forced for-profit colleges to close and kept students from choosing the kind of education they want and need.

The suit is designed to provide students with the protection they arent receiving from the administration, Becerra said.

Secretary DeVos puts students and those who borrowed money in good faith ... behind the predatory lenders who have exploited them, he said.

The new rule applies to all student loans made on or after July 1, 2020.

John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth
Piers Morgan has announced he has a new book coming out, titled Wake Up: Why the liberal war on free speech is even more dangerous than Covid-19.

Speaking about the book, which will be published by HarperCollins on 15 October, Morgan said: The biggest threat to our freedom in the 21st century isnt coronavirus but hysterically woke liberals trying to kill democracy by suppressing free speech.

This is my clarion call, as a liberal myself, for them to stop screaming, shaming and cancelling everyone they disagree with, and start being part of the solution to global disharmony and division  not the problem.

The presenter and journalist is known for his antipathy to woke liberals. In January, he tweeted: Woke means being constantly, self-righteously certain that your ultra-liberal, virtue-signalling opinion is not only always right but anyone who disagrees is an idiot. You know the type...

During a 2019 interview with American commentator Ben Shapiro, Morgan said: This snowflake culture that we now operate in, the victimhood culture, the everyone has to think in a certain way, behave a certain way... Everyone has to have a bleeding heart and tell you 20 things that are wrong with them

I just think it is all completely skewed to an environment where everyone is offended by everything and no one is allowed to say a joke.

In 2018, Morgan was accused of being utterly offensive after he joked about Caitlyn Jenners gender reassignment surgery during a TV interview.

Morgan announced the news of his book to his 7.6 million followers on Twitter. The post was accompanied with an image of his upcoming book.

The reveal disappointed Morgans followers who expected a more monumental announcement. The controversial journalist had earlier tweeted: Ill be making a big announcement at midday. Watch this space.

One Twitter user replied to Morgans news of his upcoming book: Ive never felt more underwhelmed by an announcement. Another said: Is that it? A bloody book. No one will read lets be real.

Following Morgans teaser Tweet this morning, there was speculation on social media that the presenter would be quitting Good Morning Britain. He had previously said he was possibly set to leave the daily ITV chat show once his current contract expires.

Executive publisher Oli Malcom described Wake Up as an urgent, assertive but above all hugely compelling read.
Los Angeles, July 16 : Hollywood star Brad Pitt reportedly doesnt have a relationship with his eldest son, Maddox, as of now.

"That relationship continues to be non-existent," a source told Us Weekly.

The source added that the actor neither sees the 18-year-old Maddox nor does he speak with his 16-year-old son, Pax.

In October 2019, a source had said that the actor considers his falling out with Maddox, who studies at Yonsei University Seoul, a "tremendous loss". The source added that Maddox "hasn't been receptive".

During that time, Pitt was optimistic about his chances to fix his relationship with his and actress Angelina Jolie's son Pax.

"With Maddox overseas (for college), Brad is also hopeful that Pax will also be interested in reconnecting without the influence of his older brother," the source said.

Pitt and Maddox have had a strained relationship since an alleged altercation during a private jet flight to Los Angeles in 2016. Pitt was cleared of wrongdoing.

Former couple Jolie and Pitt also share Zahara, 15, Shiloh, 14, and Knox and Vivienne, 12.
Former US President Barack Obama, Former Vice President Joe Biden, billionaires - Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Mike Bloomberg, celebrity couple Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West, as well as corporate Twitter accounts of Uber and Apple were reportedly involved in a simultaneous socially-re-engineered attack.

Analysts and federal agencies are examining the total financial damage and loophole even as initial estimates peg the damage at a few thousand-dollars. Reports indicate that the list of celebrities and market-moguls could be in double-digits.

Tweets from high-profile celebrity Twitter ids were key in the latest Twitter hack. Followers were tweeted to deposit $1,000 to an unidentified bitcoin address in exchange for a reward of $2,000 reward.

Thursday morning saw Twitter swing into action and claim that it was aware of the breach. Twitter Support id tweeted that it was investigating and taking steps to fix the issue even as verified users were unable to post a tweet from their ids.

The spoofed-tweets were taken down by Twitter. The micro-blogging site referred to the latest hack as a "coordinated social engineering attack" targeting employees who've had access to internal systems and tools. The staff accounts may have been compromised to gain access to high-profile and verified accounts.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation probed the technology breach and Twitter swung into action. However, 12.9 bitcoins estimated at $114,000 were transferred to that account. A few hours into the scam, the masterminds managed to withdraw at least half of that money.

"It is highly likely that the attackers were able to hack into the back end or service layer of the Twitter application," Michael Borohovski, director of software engineering at security company Synopsys, was quoted as saying in media reports.

The scammer's website was quickly pulled offline. Kristaps Ronka, chief executive of Namesilo, the domain registrar used by the scammers, reportedly explained TechCrunch that the company suspended the domain "on the first report" it received.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted, "Tough day for us at Twitter. We all feel terrible this happened..."

"We're diagnosing and will share everything we can when we have a more complete understanding of exactly what happened," said Dorsey.

Spokespersons for the global-elite were quick to disown the fake tweets. "Appears to be part of a larger issue that Twitter is facing," said a spokesperson for Microsoft's Technology Adviser and Philanthropist Bill Gates.

Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Tesla's Elon Musk were yet to respond while a Joe Biden's campaign representative was quoted as saying that Twitter's integrity team "locked down account within a few minutes of the breach and removed the related tweet."

The latest security breach prompted Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, to send a letter to Dorsey urging him to work with the FBI and the Justice Department on ways to improve Twitter's security. "A successful attack on your system's servers represents a threat to all of your users' privacy and data security," wrote Hawley.

Twitter shares were reportedly down three percent with netizens reminding themselves of a similar fiasco - last year, mischievious hackers broke into Twitter Chief Jack Dorsey's account to post racist and vulgar comments.

Disclaimer: With inputs from agencies and image attributed to ijmaki from Pixabay
They came. They performed. They conquered.

The Jefferson Davis High School marching band appeared on Tuesdays episode of Americas Got Talent, impressing all three judges on the NBC reality series.

The band from Montgomery made a splashy entrance on the 7 p.m. show, marching through the audience section of the studio -- empty due to the coronavirus pandemic -- and past the judges.

Then, the Marching Vols really got down to business, filling the stage with energy and music. Their mashup of Lizzo songs earned yes votes from Simon Cowell, Howie Mandel and Sofia Vergara. That means the band will move on to the next phase of the competition, known as the judge cuts.

One ailing judge, Heidi Klum, was missing from the episode, which was filmed in advance.

Band director Brandon Howard introduced the troupe, saying, Montgomery, Alabama, has a lot of rich history. Its a very difficult place to live in at this point in time. The crime rate is kind of high. The poverty rate is high. Most of my students come in, theyre really rough around the edges, but the students come to the band room, they learn discipline, they learn how to play their instrument, and its an escape from everything else going on in the city.

When asked by Cowell where the band gets its funding, Howard said, The funding is something that we actually do ourselves. We go out into the community and raise money. We do what we have to do.

This could be the perfect platform for you, Cowell said. Well, Im really hoping this goes well.

A single episode of judge cuts is set to air July 28. A total of 60 acts, including the band from Jeff Davis, will compete in that round, and 44 will move on to the quarterfinals, according to a report by USA Today. If all goes well, the band from Alabama will compete for a $1 million prize.

The band from Jeff Davis already has a national profile, earning acclaim in fall 2019 when videos of its performances were showcased -- and applauded -- by social media personality @PubbyLongway. At the time, the nearly all-Black ensemble was led by a white drum major, Justin Heideman, whose nickname is Vanilla Funk.

PART 2!! That man justin not playin wit yall man! pic.twitter.com/vdcvW5AO3U  Pubby Longway (@PubbyLongway) October 8, 2019

Longway said he discovered the initial video of Heideman performing with the band on Facebook, according to a report by Andre Toran of the Montgomery Advertiser.

I was just chilling, and I had videos just running, Longway said. Next thing you know I left the room, and I heard some band stuff playing, and I like band music, because I was in band myself. So, I said, Let me go back and listen to that. I ran back to my room and I saw Justin. I was like What!? Its a white boy leading the pack.

The videos showcased by Longway have received more than 4 million views, the Advertiser said, but theres also been a substantial backlash. Critics said the video downplayed three other drum majors for the band, all of whom are Black, and gave undue praise to the single white member of the ensemble.

Heideman had the support of his bandmates, however, and they said he earned the job of lead drum major through hard work and talent.

When you get to looking on the internet, everybody is slandering him, Dominic Williams, one of the other drum majors, told the Montgomery Advertiser. Saying, What is he doing as a white head drum major leading a Black band? To me, (his race) really doesnt faze me, but as to see people talk about him, its stupid. Justin, all the things he went through, all the trials and tribulations that he took to become the person he is, a lot of people dont see that side of him, because they just see him on the internet.

Heideman performed with the band at the Americas Got Talent auditions, and presumably will be there for the judge cuts episode. He graduated from Jeff Davis this spring and has announced that hell attend Alabama State University in the fall to play trumpet in the Mighty Marching Hornets band.
On Wednesday night, the 2020 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Online Event #15: $1,000 PLO 8-Max attracted 386 players who rebought 277 times. The 663-entry field resulted in a $629,850 prize pool, and after more than 12 hours of play, it was Guy PhilLaak Dunlap, who hails from Portland, Oregon, claiming victory for a $133,780.14 top prize plus his first gold bracelet.

According to HendonMob, Dunlap has $106,317 in live tournament earnings including a career-best $26,104 for finishing third in the Pendleton 2011 Fall Poker Round-Up $500 Main Event. In addition to having success in the Pacific Northwest, which includes several victories in smaller events, Dunlap has also amassed six figures playing online. Now, hes the proud owner of a WSOP online bracelet.

2020 WSOP Online Event #15 Final Table Results

Place Player Prize 1 Guy PhilLaak Dunlap $133,780 2 Shane danish01 Daniels $82,069 3 Todd chi.t.420 Sladek $56,749 4 Jacob Bandit275 Powers $39,870 5 Keith thxsimgod Ferrera $28,469 6 Blake shampainpopn Whittington $20,659 7 Matt jacksup Matros $15,305 8 Anthony heheh Zinno $11,526

After wippitywap bubbled the tournament in 100th place, the top 99 players got paid including Jesse mrjessejames Sylvia (78th - $1,700.59), Erik NW1Time Seidel (60th - $2,015.52), Event #13 champ Michael miguelfiesta Lech (43rd - $2,582.38), Event #6 winner Nathan surfbum Gamble (28th - $3,023.28), Event #3 bracelet winner Robert bustinballs Kuhn (15th - $5,416.71), and Calvin "projector52" Anderson (11th - $6,865.36).

Todd chi.t.420 Sladek began the final table as the chip leader while two-time WSOP bracelet winner Anthony heheh Zinno was the short stack. Not surprisingly, Zinno was the first to go after he got it in on the flop with a set of aces against three-time bracelet winner Matt jacksup Matros, who had a flush draw. The diamond flush came in on the turn and Zinno failed to pair the board on the river to fall in eighth place.

Matros wound up following him out the door after getting it in preflop with kings against Sladeks aces, and then Sladek eliminated six-time circuit ring winner Blake shampainpopn Whittington cracking kings when he made two pair on the river.

Next to go was Keith thxsimgod Ferrera after getting it in with a flush draw and missing against Shane "danish01" Daniels, who finished the hand with two pair. Daniels then busted Jacob "Bandit275" Powers after the duo got it in on the flop with the former holding an open-ended straight draw and the latter a set. The straight came in and that was all she wrote for Powers.

Sladek bowed out in third place after getting short, and that saw Dunlap take an 8.4 million chip lead into heads-up play against Daniels, who had 4.8 million. For the second time in the 2020 WSOP online series, Daniels was heads-up for a bracelet, though in his first outing he had to settle for second place in Event #6: $600 PLO8 Six-Max for $55,283.

Once again, Daniels was denied WSOP gold as he was unable to spin up his stack, ultimately calling it off when Dunlap had aces in the hole. Both players wound up making a club flush on the runout, but Dunlaps was best to eliminate Daniels in second for $82,069.

The next tournament on the schedule  Event #16: $500 No-Limit Hold'em Turbo  will take place at 3 p.m. PDT on Thursday. The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will once again be reporting all the action, so be sure to tune in then to see who captures the next 2020 WSOP bracelet!
A Nova Scotia resort will only accept guests from the Atlantic bubble this summer and will turn away guests from the rest of Canada, the U.S. and beyond.

White Point Beach Resort offers lodge and cabin accommodations on its waterfront property on the South Shore. Typically, it attracts guests from around the world.

General manager Dylan Meisner said this year, its guests will only come from the four Atlantic provinces.

"The introduction of the Atlantic bubble breathed new life into the Atlantic provinces. The idea that we may be opening up shortly thereafter to the rest of the country, it really did concern me," he said.

So even if a Canada bubble opens this summer, White Point will stick to the East Coast.

CBC

Meisner said when they reopened in June, staff called past clients from outside Nova Scotia to make the clients aware of the proper self-isolation guidelines.

He said many people did not understand them, but expected they could take walks and drive around town during the isolation period.

"That's not at all what it means to us, or to the government. So the closer it gets to all of that opening and reopening, it just made us more and more nervous," he said.

Keeping the curve flattened

He said he feels for people who now won't be able to stay at White Point this summer.

"But at the same time, I feel that the safety and the well-being of the people that work here year-round, that come to play here year-round, and for all of those people that have worked so hard inside of the Atlantic provinces to really flatten the curve, deserve a really safe place to come," he said.

Digby Pines, another major resort in the province, said it will take bookings from across Canada. If the potential guest is from outside the Atlantic bubble, Digby Pines staff will ask if they've already completed their two weeks of isolation before they are allowed to check in.

Liscombe Lodge, a resort on the Eastern Shore, won't limit bookings to the Atlantic bubble. General manager Karen Wenaus said staff will ask visitors from outside the bubble if they have isolated for two weeks.

Story continues

"So we definitely do ask the questions if anybody's phone number or their address is not from the area that we at this point in time are bubbled in," she said.

Wenaus said Liscombe Lodge isn't expecting a banner year. "It is looking far better than what I projected it to be at the beginning of May, I will say that," she said.

Fears of a second wave

Geoff MacLellan is Nova Scotia's tourism minister. He said he respects the decisions made by private businesses, and he's confident the province will be safe either way. And he knows tourism businesses are worried about a potential second wave of COVID-19.

"They've been able to stay afloat for this round, but if there's a second flare-up, a second phase and it's because we didn't take all the right measures around the opening-up process, they're done," MacLellan said of their fears.

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Georgia governor Brian Kemp issued an executive order Wednesday overruling mask mandates put in place by local governments in the state to mitigate the spread of coronavirus, calling such rules unenforceable.

Kemps order, which extended the states COVID-19 restrictions through July 31, prohibits local municipalities from enforcing mandatory mask orders that are more restrictive than his statewide order that only encourages face coverings, effectively voiding orders issued by at least 15 local governments across the state, NPR reported.

His previous order, set to expire on Wednesday, had banned local municipalities from taking more restrictive steps than the state, but the new order explicitly prohibits cities and counties from requiring masks.

Atlanta, Savannah, Athens, Augusta and other local governments had defied orders and issued their own mask mandates in recent weeks. Kemps office insisted that such orders are non-binding and legally unenforceable.

The Republican governor has strongly encouraged residents and visitors to wear coverings as practicable insisting that mask mandates are unenforceable and a bridge too far.

Previous executive orders  and now this order  state no local action can be more or less restrictive than ours, Candice Broce, a spokesperson for the governor, tweeted. We have explained that local mask mandates are unenforceable. The Governor continues to strongly encourage Georgians to wear masks in public.

Georgia reported its second highest new coronavirus case count on Wednesday, with 3,871 new confirmed cases and 37 deaths, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Half of all new cases are being reported in Atlanta.

Kemps new order requires vulnerable residents, including the elderly and those with underlying health conditions, to shelter in place. It also restricts public gatherings to no more than 50 people and requires businesses to maintain social distancing precautions.

Story continues

Georgias move comes as more and more states issue mask mandates, including Alabama, where Republican governor Kay Ivey instituted such a rule on Wednesday. Walmart, Starbucks and Best Buy are among a growing number of large chains that have announced they will require masks in stores nationwide.

Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, who had been the first local official to shirk Kemps previous rules on mask mandates, tweeted his criticism of the governor Wednesday, saying It is officially official. Governor Kemp does not give a damn about us.

Every man and woman for himself/herself. Ignore the science and survive the best you can, he said. In #Savannah, we will continue to keep the faith and follow the science. Masks will continue to be available!

More from National Review
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

Albuquerque Public Schools unveiled plans for what the 2020-21 academic year could look like should schools reopen this year, proposing a remote start, then transitioning to a schedule that would alternate between in-person classes and distance learning.

APS is slated to start online the week of Aug. 12. The technology department has a plan to make sure students have access to devices.

Under the plan, the earliest classrooms would open  with 50% of the student population at one time  is Sept. 8, which was pushed back from the original proposal of Aug. 25.

When schools open for in-person learning, Acting Superintendent Scott Elder said the plan is to divide students into two cohorts based on their last names  group A through L and group M through Z  which would attend school on a rotating schedule.

While one group attends in-person class Tuesday through Friday, the other group would learn from home. A deep clean would happen on Mondays, while all students learn remotely, and then the other cohort would attend in-person school for the week.

Elder said this allows siblings to attend school at the same time. If families have different last names, they can work with the school to get on the same schedule.

He added that parent feedback has been split on the model and a major concern is finding childcare.

Elder emphasized the plan we are submitting is as of July 15 and can change, especially if there is new direction from the state.

Reopening schools may ultimately be halted. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said that start dates could be pushed back by several weeks or into the winter depending on coronavirus data.

Campus safety, cleaning

Districts throughout New Mexico have been prepping based on a reentry framework released by the state Public Education Department in June that outlined some requirements for back to school, including rapid response testing programs for staff, social distancing, and the use of face coverings for students and employees. PED Secretary Ryan Stewart told the Journal recently that a hybrid model  a mix of in-person and online classes  is still the expectation as of now, though the state still has to review plans and has said it would work with schools.

PEDs framework left a lot of the logistics up to individual charter schools and districts.

The APS plan for reentering schools includes:

 Masks will be made available for staff and students, if needed. Masks must be worn on the playground and common areas.

 High-touch surfaces will be cleaned regularly and schools will be cleaned daily.

 Bus drivers will sweep and sanitize the bus in high-touch areas after each trip, in addition to evening cleaning.

 Riders and drivers will be required to wear masks, and siblings will be seated together.

 Children will be discouraged from sharing toys, books and other supplies.

 Water fountains will be off limits.

If a student has any COVID-19 symptoms, they will be placed in an isolated area until they can be picked up, according to the plan. Staff and visitors with symptoms or known exposure to COVID-19 will not be allowed on campus.

If a student or teacher tests positive, Elder said the school will be shut down and disinfected, and students will learn remotely during that time.

The district will post its reentry plan on its website at APS.edu.

Educator pushback

Many teachers publicly opposed in-person schooling at this time, saying lives could be on the line. The public forum speakers aligned with feedback from the Albuquerque Teachers Federation, which is urging the district to push back in-person classes for students until at least after Labor Day.

I urge you to enact 100% online learning and not consider any form of in-person school until Bernalillo County is free of new cases for at least two full weeks, said Kristine Mayle, a teacher at Garfield Middle School.

Staff are scheduled to go back to work on Aug. 5 and will undergo training on teaching in the new environment.

Gradual transition

School districts across New Mexico are grappling with how to reopen schools this fall.

Rio Rancho Public Schools plans to offer two options. The first is a hybrid option where students in grades K-3 will attend school full days on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday; and students in grades 4-12 will attend school two days a week and learn from home three days a week. Students will also be allowed to do 100% virtual learning, but those who choose that option will have to stick with it for the first semester.

The Santa Fe school board, meanwhile, will consider a proposal on Thursday to start the school year remotely. The plan calls for a gradual transition to a hybrid model based on coronavirus infection transmission rates. The school board will consider three options for reopening  remote, full reentry or hybrid.

The Santa Fe school district and teachers union representing most public school educators are proposing remote learning for the first nine weeks, with plans to bring students into a pilot hybrid model if the transmission rate falls below 1.05.

T.S. Last and the Rio Rancho Observer contributed to this report.
Rhea Chakraborty, who was reportedly dating actor Sushant Singh Rajput , has finally broken her silence on being blamed for his death by a section of people on social media. She has penned a powerful note along with proof of rape and death threats shes been receiving.

Naming and shaming a social media user by attaching a screenshot of a rape threat by the person, she wrote, I was called a gold digger ..I kept quiet. I was called a murderer ....I kept quiet. I was slut shamed ....I kept quiet. But how does my silence give you the right to tell me that you will get me RAPED and MURDERED if I dont commit suicide @mannu_raaut ?

Asking the cyber crime cell to take note of it, she further wrote, Do you realize the seriousness of what you have said? These are crimes, and by law no one, I repeat NO ONE should be subjected to this kind of toxicity and harassment . I request @cyber_crime_helpline @cybercrimeindia to please take necessary action . ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

On Tuesday, Rhea had written an open letter to the late actor a month after his death. She wrote, Still struggling to face my emotions.. an irreparable numbness in my heart . You are the one who made me believe in love, the power of it . You taught me how a simple mathematical equation can decipher the meaning of life and I promise you that I learnt from you every day. I will never come to terms with you not being here anymore. I know youre in a much more peaceful place now. The moon, the stars, the galaxies wouldve welcomed the greatest physicist with open arms. Full of empathy and joy, you could lighten up a shooting star - now, you are one . I will wait for you my shooting star and make a wish to bring you back to me.

Also read: Ludo first look: Rajkummar Rao, Fatima Sana Shaikh walk in with a baby and swag to spare for Netflix release

She added, You were everything a beautiful person could be, the greatest wonder that the world has seen . My words are incapable of expressing the love we have and I guess you truly meant it when you said it is beyond both of us.You loved everything with an open heart, and now youve shown me that our love is indeed exponential. Be in peace Sushi. 30 days of losing you but a lifetime of loving you....Eternally connected To infinity and beyond.

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Donald Trump bears very little in common with any actual woman I know. But, oddly, he has a lot in common with the basest, most unfair stereotypes of femininity. He is ruled by feelings rather than facts. He is fickle, gossipy and easily grossed out. He uses florid language, like beautiful and perfect, and says he and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un fell in love. He deals with adversity like a Mean Girl with a burn book, via insults and freeze-outs. For any Neanderthal who has ever feared electing a female president because what if shes too cranky when shes on her period  congratulations. For approximately 1,300 days, you have had a menstruating man in the Oval Office.
There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen: Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Reliance Industries Limited, with its telecom and digital solutions business  Reliance Jio  has proved the latter half of Lenins above observation in these last few weeks. Along with lining up and closing a fund raise round with 14 marquee strategic and financial investors from around the world and a slew of announcements made at the AGM on July 15, the company has positioned itself as a key player on the global stage.

On September 27, 2017, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani said that Data is the new oil. India doesnt need to import it. We have it in super abundance. It is this thinking, focus on carving Reliance Jio as not just a telecom company, but a digital platforms company that provided requisite future readiness and valuation for the company that made it an investors pick, even during the unstable and chaotic COVID-19 pandemic.

The companys strategic direction, plan and execution is complemented by the opportunity of the Indian market that is young, enterprising and ripe for digital technologies adoption and scaling. The fact that no other Indian company has managed to execute and efficiently cater to this countrys consumer demands makes Reliance Industries Jio business an attractive bet for some of the leading global investors.

The companys well-thought-out and executed transition from focus on oil (energy) to digital platforms (telecom and other digital industries) contributed significantly for the group to evolve as the first Indian company to breach $150 billion in market capitalisation.

Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Intel and Qualcomm are leading companies in the world in their domains, and, most of their products and offerings are mutually exclusive and complementary in nature. For Reliance Jio to partner and seek strategic investments from these companies is a significantly advantageous move. For these global technology players too, this partnership provides a partner with the utmost proven capability to cater to the India market.

Google and Facebook have, in the past, independently tried (and succeeded to a fair extent) and connected the unconnected Indian populace to the Internet. Google with its Railway Station WiFi project, Android One and the current AI for Good initiatives have developed India-specific Internet onboarding and scaling programmes for India. Facebook with Internet.org, Free Basics and Express WiFi initiatives has tried the same. Both these companies, and Microsoft, view the Indian Internet consumer and her value to their company with different lens, and for Reliance Jio, this combination could be complementary and collectively exhaustive. Intel and Qualcomm have both strong 5G technology and chipset focus, which could be further beneficial for Jio.

Some of the biggest private equity and financial investment firms, including KKR, Silver Lake, Vista Partners, General Atlantic, Mubadala, etc. that have invested in Reliance Jio provide the requisite credibility and potential investor confidence for when the company is ready to go for public listing. Also, for these big, global PE firms, in the current environment, Reliance Jio is one of the rare, stable investment options with significant potential upside for growth.

In the July 15 AGM, RIL announced, as a part of its Jio business, the development of an indigenous 5G solution. This is an ambitious goal for the company. Strategically, it could lessen the dependence on the current technology leader in the space  Huawei  and this will be in line with the prevalent anti-China sentiment across India, it would bolster the Make in India goal, and develop the much-needed 5G technology skill set and expertise in India.

However, this could also be one of the challenging projects that the company could have undertaken, considering that there is lack of research labs and scarce skill sets and expertise in India for end-to-end 5G solution development from scratch. This is where the strategic partnership with Intel and Qualcomm could prove useful.

Also, it has not been specified as to which specific 5G solution development it would undertake  RAN (Radio Access Network) element, or the RF (Radio Frequency) Chipset, or, a full-fledged 5G mobile device? For each of these, the complementary component, services, testing and manufacturing, and other value chain player ecosystem, is currently missing in India.

Also, for most of the companies working on new, cutting-edge technology solutions, the scale of economies at a global level makes business sense. RIL has announced that once its 5G technology has been proven at a national level, it will be better placed to export the tech to global operators.

Researching, innovating, developing and scaling advanced deep technology solutions can be very challenging and time consuming. We are still awaiting updates on the pan-India blokchain network which was announced at last years AGM. Some of these technology solutions could prove extremely tricky, especially with lack of adequate local talent.

Having said that, RIL, especially for its telecom and digital businesses, has in the past invested in global talent to be based out of India. The company also proved naysayers wrong when it entered a mature mobile telecom market as a challenger, and garnered 100 million subscribers in just six months.

RIL, in recent years, especially in digital technologies and consumer business, has been taking up ambitious, unprecedented bets and successfully delivering. One hopes that the 5G target is also met.

Jayanth Kolla is Partner, Convergence Catalyst. Views are personal.

Please click here to follow our complete coverage of RIL's 43rd AGM.

Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd., which also owns Jio, is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.
The Tamil Nadu government has established 52 service centres across the state to help the students while filling the applications and during the online counselling.

The Tamil Nadu government has released the schedule for the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) 2020. The online registration has already begun.

As per a report by The Times of India, the last for engineering counselling is 16 August. The report mentioned Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister K P Anbalagan saying that the certificate verification, special counselling for differently abled and supplementary counselling will be conducted online this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The engineering rank list will be released on 7 September and general counselling will be held from 17 September to 6 October.

As per a report by The Hindu, candidates can register for counselling by visiting the websites - www.tneaonline.org and www.tndte.gov.in.

The report added that as of now, 465 colleges had registered for counselling but the numbers are expected to increase as colleges have time till 15 August to add seats.

In 2019-20 academic year, 536 colleges with 2,26,385 seats, had participated in counselling. The number of government seats was 1,49,821. A total of 1,08,932 seats had been filled.

Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry would remain the core subjects for deciding the cut-off marks.

The Tamil Nadu government has established 52 service centres across the state to help the students while filling the applications and during the online counselling.

Speaking about conducting the semester exams, the education minister said that the state government would take a call after getting the report from the expert panel.

The 11-member committee under the Higher Education Secretary has been constituted to assess the feasibility of conducting end-semester exams. The education minister said that the committee will consult the Governor/Chancellor, the Hindu report added.

According to a report in Times Now, TNEA is conducted by the Directorate of Technical Education, Tamil Nadu, to offer admissions to candidates in various engineering colleges in the state. The exams are conducted in an online mode.
New Delhi:

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is chairing the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on as his mother and party president Sonia Gandhi is not able to attend the meet due to health reasons.

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Twitter was down almost in many parts of the world for more than 10 minutes. Many users on Monday tweeted that the micro-blogging giant was down.

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Addressing the India-UK Tech Summit on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra laid emphsis on the fact that India and the UK can leverage technological prowess to create new opportunities, while seeking investments in defence, manufacturing and aerospace sectors.

4) Live updates | The great smog of Delhi: 'What have you done till now to curb pollution', NGST asks centre and states

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5) Saif Ali Khan denies sex determination rumors of his, Kareena's unborn child

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Seoul, July 16 : The South Korean Unification Ministry will inspect dozens of government-registered activist groups to look into whether they have been involved in sending anti-North Korea leaflets, an official said here on Thursday.

The move comes as the Ministry has been pushing to revoke the operation permits of two North Korean defector groups for sending leaflets to Pyongyang in defiance of the government's calls against such activity, reports Yonhap News Agency.

"It is part of efforts to strengthen supervision on their operation," the Ministry official told reporters.

"The probe will be conducted first on 25 entities, including 13 groups run by North Korean defectors, from late this month ... It will be expanded to others going forward." He said that the probe will be carried out as some of the activist groups have been involved in sending anti-North Korea leaflets across the border, jeopardizing residents in border areas and heightening cross-border tensions, though he noted that it is one of many areas that will be looked into.

The sending of leaflets across the border by activist groups has emerged as a major source of cross-border tensions since Pyongyang called it a violation of an inter-Korean summit agreement and threatened to take a series of retaliatory steps against South Korea if it did not stop such activity.

North Korea also called South Korea an "enemy" and blew up a joint liaison office in its border town of Kaesong in anger over the leafleting issue last month.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
By Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi, Oliver Hirt and Scott Murdoch

ZURICH/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Credit Suisse <CSGN.S> wants to raise its China securities joint venture stake to 100% and increase its market share after getting the regulatory green light to take a majority holding, the head of its Asia business said.

Switzerland's second-largest bank is also looking to hire more staff and invest in China, the world's second-biggest economy, as its most significant business opportunity in the world, its APAC boss Helman Sitohang told Reuters.

China has gained in relevance for Credit Suisse and other international banks after Beijing fast-tracked the opening of its financial markets to foreigner investors.

After gaining 51% control of its securities joint venture in June and appointing Janice Hu as chairwoman, Credit Suisse aims to take on full ownership from Founder Securities as it seeks to build out its private and investment banking businesses.

Credit Suisse has placed great faith in Hu, a "veteran investment banker" who has been with it for almost two decades, to grow its business in China, where the timing of it gaining full ownership of the venture is in the hands of regulators.

The bank did not disclose the value of the joint venture.

While it does not break down its business by individual markets, Asia-Pacific accounted for roughly one-fifth of its overall pre-tax income in 2019, with Greater China its most important market in the region.

The bank ranks first in M&A revenues in Asia, excluding Japan, with a 12.4% market share for the first half of 2020, and first in investment banking revenues, with a 8.3% share, Dealogic says.

In Asia-Pacific Credit Suisse not only competes with larger Zurich rival UBS <UBSG.S>, but also with other Swiss private banks including Geneva-based Pictet and listed lender Julius Baer <BAER.S> for wealth management business. Meanwhile in investment banking, Morgan Stanley <MS.N> and JPMorgan <JPM.N> are both major competitors, while Chinese investment bank CITIC Securities counts as a key rival in Asia.

Story continues

China is producing the most new billionaires and Credit Suisse last month hired a new head of wealth management for onshore China, Jing Wang, from China Merchants Bank.

This followed two senior appointments this year for prime sales, and Credit Suisse is now looking to fill other key positions for its Chinese business over the next few months. "We will continue to invest across our platforms in China and closely integrate our onshore operations with our businesses in Hong Kong and across the region. There will be more hires, some of which we will announce shortly," Sitohang said.

"It is clearly about tactical hiring: We want to capture opportunities. We know exactly where these are, where we see the potential to improve, and that is what we are focused on," the 54-year-old Singaporean native said from his office in Singapore.

HONG KONG HUB

Hong Kong's future as a global financial centre has been under scrutiny after the mainland Chinese government last month introduced tough new national security laws for the city.

Some analysts suggest investors could shift money to other offshore hubs, like Singapore, to cushion the impact of the growing political and economic uncertainty.

Sitohang reiterated Credit Suisse's commitment to Hong Kong and said it had not registered any outflows.

"Hong Kong has been an important hub for Credit Suisse for decades ... (and) there will be no changes to our presence," Sitohang said, adding that it was an "integral part of our footprint for China overall".

As well as its role in the largest equity capital markets deal in Hong Kong last year with Alibaba's <BABA.N> secondary listing, Sitohang said Credit Suisse did another recently for Netease, <NTES.O> which was about $2.8 billion, as well as "a couple of large bond deals".

Credit Suisse has increased the money it manages in the Asia-Pacific region by around a quarter over the last three years to 220 billion Swiss francs ($233 billion) at the end of 2019 before a drop to 197 billion francs in the first quarter due to the coronavirus crisis.

Although ties to Luckin Coffee -- from whose chairman Credit Suisse is seeking to recoup a more than half-billion dollar loan along with five other banks -- increased the Swiss bank's first quarter provisioning for loan losses, Sitohang is not put off. Credit Suisse would stick by its strategy of acting as a "bank for entrepreneurs", managing both the private wealth of rising business people as well as benefiting from their corporate activities through its investment bank, he said.

($1 = 0.9434 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi and Oliver Hirt in Zurich and Scott Murdoch in Hong Kong; Editing by Alexander Smith)
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 13) The Labor Department will be setting up a one-stop shop to help assist ABS-CBN employees who stand to lose their jobs following the denial of the networks franchise application, Malacanang said Thursday.

In his virtual media briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque citing a recent conversation with Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III  said the agency will put up a center in the capital region to help retrenched and unemployed workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The initiative will include a job referral system, Roque added.

Magkakaroon po siya ng one-stop shop center para sa NCR, at para sa ABS-CBN, para makapag-apply doon ang mga mare-retrench na empleyado ng ABS-CBN, the spokesperson said.

Magkakaroon din siya ng job referral system, baka magkaroon din po ng job fair. So lahat yan ay kinumpirma po ni Sec. Bello," he added.

[Translation: There will be a one-stop shop center for NCR, and for ABS-CBN, so ABS-CBNs retrenched workers can apply. There will also be a job referral system, and there might also be a job fair. This was confirmed by Secretary Bello.]

Roque stressed that the proposed one-stop shop will also be open to all retrenched workers of other sectors.

ABS-CBN on Wednesday said it will let go of some workers by August 31, citing the non-renewal of its license. The media company did not say how many workers will be affected, but noted they will be given separation pay and retirement benefits.

ABS-CBN stopped radio and broadcast operations  the bulk of its business  in early May, but said it could retain its employees for three months, hoping that it would go back on air by then.

Roque, in an interview with CNN Philippines earlier in the day, said affected employees can also avail of the same benefits and support provided by the government to workers displaced by the crisis including the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers or TUPAD program and other livelihood loans.

While it remains off the air, ABS-CBN had said it will continue to deliver news through the limited platforms available to them.
Thiruvananthapuram, July 16 : The democratic youth federation of India (DYFI), the youth wing of the CPI(M), has sought to put union minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan in the dock after the admin attache of the UAE consulate in Thiruvananthapuram left for Dubai.

Rashed Khamis Ali Musaiqri Alshemeli, the acting in charge at the UAE consulate, reportedly left India for Dubai even as suspicions were being raised about his alleged involvement in the smuggling of gold through a diplomatic baggage addressed to the UAE consulate.

Call details of the accused in the gold smuggling case reportedly showed that the admin attache had been in regular contact with them prior to the seizure of the gold by the customs officials. The NIA has been reportedly pressing the centre seeking permission to question him.

The DYFI state secretariat called on the union external affairs ministry to explain why the attache was allowed to leave for Dubai, saying that the diplomats leaving the country when questions were being raised against him in connection with gold smuggling was a grave issue.

Training its guns on V Muraleedharan, the DYFI alleged that the minister of state for external affairs and the BJP leadership gave their tacit approval for the diplomat to leave the country to sabotage the NIA probe into the gold smuggling case.

Muraleedharan had been loath to demand a probe by a central agency. He had also tried to establish that the air cargo consignment from which the customs officials seized the gold was not a diplomatic baggage, the DYFI said.

The admin attache of the UAE consulate abruptly leaving the country has raised doubts about his involvement in the case. The diplomat, however, enjoys immunity under the provisions of the Vienna convention.

A gold smuggling scandal broke out in the state after customs officials seized 30kg of gold on July 5 from an air cargo consignment disguised as a diplomatic baggage addressed to the UAE consulate in Thiruvananthapuram.
Chino, CA (91710)

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Former Prime Minister Zoran Zaev's party scored a tight win in North Macedonia's general elections but fell short of a majority, setting the stage for a struggle to form a coalition government in the European Union aspirant.

The domestic drama plays out against a backdrop of political turmoil in the Balkans. The war-scarred region thought it had put the worst of the coronavirus pandemic behind it, but a second wave of infections has added to the public anger in this restive corner on the EU's southeastern flank.

Zaev's coalition, which includes a small party representing ethnic Albanians, got 36.1% of the votes, followed by the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE with 34.9%, the State Electoral Commission reported Thursday, with 98% of precincts counted. The Democratic Union for Integration, the biggest party representing ethnic Albanians, took its traditional kingmaker role in third with 11.3%.

"We'll build our North Macedonia as a European, modern" country, "an established NATO member and negotiator" with the EU, Zaev told reporters in Skopje.

The former premier's previous government changed the country's name to help resolve a dispute with Greece and clear the way for it to join NATO and the EU after decades of making no progress. The landlocked former part of Yugoslavia became the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's 30th member in March, and the EU published a negotiation framework in July for North Macedonia's accession.

Zaev brought down that administration in January by resigning after initially failing to secure a date to start EU accession talks. It's unclear whether he'll now be able to form a ruling coalition.

VMRO-DPMNE will also be jostling for position. The party, whose former leader fled to Hungary to avoid a two-year jail sentence for abuse of office, has accused Zaev's Social Democrats of focusing on western integration and ignoring domestic problems. That includes criticism that they failed to tackle the coronavirus despite imposing one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe during their pre-election interim cabinet.

The third-placed Democratic Union for Integration has been part of every coalition in the nation of 2 million people for the past 20 years. It has already announced its nominee for an ethnic-Albanian prime minister but Zaev has rejected the candidate.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 03:17:27|Editor: huaxia

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VILNIUS, July 15 (Xinhua) -- A transport company in Lithuania's second largest city Kaunas has become a new coronavirus hotspot with 18 persons diagnosed with COVID-19, according to the Lithuanian Health Ministry on Wednesday.

All the infected arrived in Lithuania from Uzbekistan with the first two cases confirmed a few days ago and the other 16 cases confirmed on Tuesday, said the National Center for Public Health (NVSC) under the ministry.

"About 200 workers are being tested for the infection. The testing results are expected today," said Rolanda Lingiene from NVSC.

According to the official, the situation is under control with NVSC specialists working in the company, in cooperation with Kaunas City Municipality and company representatives.

In addition to the outbreak in Kaunas, seven other new COVID-19 cases were registered in Lithuania on Tuesday, said the Health Ministry.

According to the ministry, Lithuania had registered 1,882 COVID-19 cases by Wednesday morning. To date, 79 people have died of the coronavirus and 1,582 have recovered. Enditem
New Delhi, July 16 : The Supreme Court on Thursday, while hearing a matter in connection with death of a tiger at the Delhi Zoo allegedly due to Covid-19, said the matter is important and this case may lay down the rules for the future.

A plea was filed by animal rights activist Sangeeta Dogra expressing concerns in connection with spread of Covid-19 to animals in zoological parks and also that the Central Zoo Authority failed to notify the Centre of their non-inclusion in the list of "essential services".

Earlier, the petitioner had cited an incident in New York's Bronx Zoo, where a four-year-old Malayan tiger named Nadia contracted the deadly coronavirus from a caretaker, who was asymptomatic at the time. Meanwhile, the death of Kalpana, a white tigress at the Delhi Zoo in April was attributed by the government to acute renal failure and other complications related to old age, and it said that the big cat tested negative for Covid-19.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde said: "This case may lay down the rules for the future. Your matter will be heard." The bench posted the matter for further hearing after four weeks.

During the hearing, Dogra placed the rejoinder before the court, but Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, objected to the language used in it. On this, the Chief Justice, referring to animal activists, said: "These persons are very passionate about wildlife." Mehta responded, "The government is passionate as well. However, the death of the tiger was due to intestinal infection, and not Covid-19." The Chief Justice told the petitioner that the court is dealing with a limited issue, which is the cause of death of the tiger, and asked her not to argue on wider issues. "You say, the tiger died of Covid-19, their report suggests it did not," he said.

Dogra replied that the area where the tiger was found was declared a containment zone. "If the tiger was not Covid-19 positive, then why declare it a containment zone? 24 people who were found around the tiger were put in quarantine," she contended.

The bench noted that the government has assured a committee would examine the issue after the death of the tiger in the US. Dogra, in her plea, had argued that zoo animals are dependent on authorities for food, and allegedly several violations have been committed by the CZA.

The plea cited that the Delhi Zoo had invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act to ensure supplies for their animals, however, no similar information is available for other zoos in the country.
NEW YORK - A gold SUV stopped in the middle of a busy road in Yonkers and backed up.

"It's you!" the driver shouted to a man standing on the lawn of his modest family home.

"It's me!" said the man, who was bald, black and wearing glasses and a gray cloth face mask that would have made him pretty hard to recognize if it weren't for the yard signs next to him broadcasting his name: "Jamaal Bowman. Democrat for U.S. Congress."

"I really want to vote for you!" said the driver.

"Appreciate you, brother," said Bowman, who gently informed the driver that the primary had happened a few days prior, with Bowman getting more than 60 percent of the in-person vote. The 44-year-old middle school principal who'd never run for office before was the prohibitive favorite in the surprise unseating of Rep. Eliot Engel, a 31-year congressman who is chairman of the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Everyone in the car cheered. Like many other races in New York, though, results may not be official until August due to a massive influx of mail-in ballots because of the pandemic.

The 16th Congressional District is majority black and Latino, with large pockets of white suburbs, covering the northern part of the Bronx and the southern part of Westchester County. And it just so happens to adjoin 14th Congressional District in the Bronx, where two years ago then-28-year-old bartender Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pulled off the surprise defeat of Joseph Crowley, the No. 4 Democrat in the House.

With two neighboring white male incumbents overthrown by liberal, first-time politicians of color in two years, the upstart left wing of Democrats seems to be proving AOC's win was not a fluke.

This election cycle, the waves of leftist-rabble-rousing influence have boomed out like an earthquake in concentric circles, from Ocasio-Cortez's district (where she is headed toward re-election despite well-funded primary challengers) to Bowman's, and - more surprising still - deep into the wealthy suburbs of Westchester along the Metro North. There, another black liberal and first-time candidate, 33 year-old attorney Mondaire Jones, won the hotly contested open seat vacated by 83-year-old Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey in the even more suburban 17th Congressional District, which is 60 percent white.

New York also may soon claim the first two openly gay black or Latino members of Congress: Jones and Ritchie Torres, a city council member who is black and Puerto Rican and appears to have won the open seat in the 15th Congressional District in the Bronx. What's more, Bowman, Jones and Torres all grew up in either public or Section 8 housing.

That voters have elevated these voices, in the middle of a pandemic that has disproportionately affected black and brown people and as Black Lives Matter protests have spread across the state, seems to signal that there may be further political changes to come.

As things stand, Bowman has a 25 percentage point lead, but Engel has filed a lawsuit that would allow him to challenge absentee ballots, and he refuses to concede. Bowman doesn't have the official green light to celebrate, but Jones does. On Tuesday, the Associated Press declared him as the winner with a 45 percent lead over his nearest opponent's 16, three weeks after Election Day.

In Yonkers, though, it feels as if Bowman has already won. He's doing Zoom calls with community leaders to push for an eviction moratorium and rent freezes, and reading a proposal Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., wrote for a Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Commission.

"Watch out!" he shouted.

His wife, Melissa, an elementary school teacher, was pulling into the driveway. He hugged his kids, Maya, 6, and Marcel, 10 (his oldest son, Jelani, 19, is off at college in New Jersey). Soon he was carrying Maya's pink bike with training wheels and "LOL" stickers into the house.

"During the race, Melissa was angry with me the whole time, until it was like, 'Yo, you might win.' Then she started getting friendly," said Jamaal. "It was just the stress of the whole race and the fact that I turned her life upside down by running for office."

"Oh, that's your perception?" said Melissa. "I mean, I was worried. There's so much uncertainty." But now? "I'm excited. I'm excited. There's so much he can do. It's limitless."

- - -

"Can I curse?" Bowman said when asked why he started hinting to friends years ago that he wanted to run for Congress. "S--- was f---ed up! I mean, I'm a principal on the Bronx side of the district for 10 years. I've got families losing their homes, parents that have been killed, kids self-mutilating because of mental distress, kids being admitted into mental institutions." Thirty-four children in his district died in the 2017-2018 school year, 17 of them from suicide. "No one's talking about the connection between trauma and poverty and bad policy, in the Bronx, in Yonkers, wherever black and brown people are. That is unacceptable. And it's been like that my entire life."

Bowman was raised by a single mother, a postal worker, in public housing in East Harlem before moving in with grandparents in rent-stabilized housing in the Yorkville section of the Upper East Side. He taught and was a guidance counselor for 10 years, then founded a middle school, Cornerstone Academy for Social Action, in the Bronx, while his house is in Yonkers, a working-class inner suburb that is technically its own city (the fourth-biggest in the state) but feels more like an extension of the Bronx.

Like many black men who grew up like he did, Bowman can cite his first beating by a police officer, an incident he said he spent many years trying not to think about. He was 11 and "was simply horseplaying and giving a little back talk," he's said. "That led to me being thrown up against a wall, thrown to the ground, nightstick to the back, face dragged against the floor, and my mother and I felt like we didn't have any recourse."

It's his personal connection to these issues that makes his win less surprising in the Bronx, one of the city's hardest hit coronavirus hot spots, and the site of lootings and violent clashes with the police during the protests.

The liberal wave leaned so far left this cycle that Rep. Nydia Velazquez in Brooklyn faced a primary challenge from Paperboy Love Prince, a 27-year old rapper whose name appeared exactly like that on the ballot, who prefers "futurist" and "Team Love" to "progressive," who aimed to be the first non-binary member of Congress, and who walked away with a 20 percent of the in-person vote. The wave goes beyond New York, too. In New Jersey, Amy Kennedy - yes, a Kennedy! - won by running as anti-establishment.

Bowman's and Jones's presumptive wins in particular reflect a national trend of changing demographics, said Waleed Shahid, spokesman for the Justice Democrats, the liberal political action committee that formed after Sen. Bernie Sanders's 2016 campaign and backed Bowman and Ocasio-Cortez's current campaigns.

"A lot of people don't know this, but many of the suburbs in Westchester are majority people of color now," Shahid said. "What we're seeing across the country is that working class people of color are being pushed out of cities because of gentrification and the high cost of rent."

Like Ocasio-Cortez, Bowman was recruited by the Justice Democrats, who had identified Engel as vulnerable and the 16th Congressional District as ripe for an overhaul. A fellow educator nominated him as a candidate, and Bowman's campaign benefited from the expertise of two of the staffers who worked on Ocasio-Cortez's winning campaign.

"He had a record of leadership in the district that was really impressive," said Shahid. Not only had he been in education for 20 years, said Shahid, "He'd been an organizer in the fight for public schools and racial and economic justice. So many families knew him. Activists knew him."

And they didn't just know his name. They knew him, had been students of his or had kids in his classes. Bowman kept his job as a principal through all of 2019, resigning only in January. In the last stretch of the campaign, he toured the district in a yellow school bus with a megaphone attached.

Being a principal of a public middle school in the Bronx earned him instant respect, said Luke Hayes, Bowman's campaign manager: "People with kids or teachers are like, 'Yeah, that's a tough age to have to be an educator in.'" As the hosts of Desus & Mero pointed out when Bowman came on their talk show, handling Congress or a press corps would be easy compared with keeping the attention of a roomful of tweens.

Yet as late as May, Bowman's own internal poll from Data for Progress showed him trailing Engel by 30 percentage points. Then the Atlantic's Edward-Isaac Dovere published an article saying that Engel had been sheltering in place in Maryland and hadn't set foot in the Bronx during the entire pandemic. "I'm in both places," Engel replied when Dovere confronted him about being in Maryland while his presence was being touted at events in New York.

Three weeks before the election, days into the protests that erupted after the killing of George Floyd, Engel did show up at a Bronx event calling for peace amid looting. When informed there wasn't time for him to speak, Engel said, twice, into a hot mic: "If I didn't have a primary, I wouldn't care."

A day later, Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Bowman, followed by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

Eleventh-hour endorsements from establishment Democrats, including Sen. Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton, and from members of the Congressional Black Caucus came in for Engel.

"The Clinton endorsement led to our second-biggest fundraising day of the campaign," said Bowman - second only to the hot mic moment day. "So, thanks! It gave us another hundred grand to put toward more advertising."

- - -

If Bowman ran largely on his record as a principal, Mondaire Jones earned his votes more through the hope and generational change he represented. His district is divided by the Hudson River. To the east is Westchester County, which has one of the highest concentrations of wealthy communities in the country. To the west is Rockland County, a nirvana of greenery with pockets of deep poverty, where Jones grew up and now lives.

He was Lowey's first primary challenger since she took her seat in 1988, which may have led to her announcing her retirement in October. Now he'll probably be the first African American or person of color to hold that seat, having triumphed over a formidable seven-person field - including a pharmaceuticals heir who spent $4 million of his own money.

"We need more politicians for whom policy is personal," is one of Jones's frequent mantras. He was raised on food stamps by a single mother. He made it out of a declining public school to Stanford University, Harvard Law, and a stint with the Obama administration. He argued for canceling the student debt that led him to work in corporate law before he wound up at Westchester County's Law Department. He called climate change an existential crisis in river towns where people regularly bail water out of their basements. He was the one candidate advocating for Medicare-for-all during a pandemic when people had lost their health-care coverage along with their jobs, and the one candidate who had criminal justice reform in his platform before George Floyd was killed.

Sitting outside his apartment complex in Nyack, N.Y., Jones said he'd told Bernie Sanders, who endorsed him, that he owed his election to the frustrations young liberals had over the presidential primary.

"I am so grateful to them for channeling that hurt, that pain into down ballot races like mine," he said. At one polling place in a majority-white precinct, Jone's staff members talked to people who were still in line at 11 p.m. "They said, 'My kid is going to kill me if I don't stay in this line and vote for Mondaire Jones,' " Jones said.

Bowman, too, benefited from appealing to younger voters ready for change. Back in Yonkers, he'd switched into a more recognizable face mask. It was his signature in the home stretch of the campaign, with the bright yellow logo of his favorite hip-hop group, the Wu Tang Clan.

It's a conversation starter for anyone his age group.

"They know where I'm coming from without even saying anything," he said. "Hip-hop is the culture that raised me along with my mother."

For him, Wu Tang, who rose out of the projects in Staten Island, aren't just about the music. They're an ethos, an inspiration.

"Hip-hop is a culture that is created by teenagers who were forgotten about," he said, "and because they were forgotten about, they were forced to come together and create something beautiful."

He spent the day driving around thanking supporters: from Janice Simpson at the Caribbean-owned shop Lloyd's Carrot Cake to Melissa Meshulum, an organizer in Riverdale, a predominantly white and Jewish neighborhood home to two of the city's most elite private schools.

Bowman appears to have carried Riverdale despite the Democratic Majority for Israel spending more than $1.3 million backing Engel.

Next, he drove back to Yonkers to meet up with Sangeet Raj and Nubia Earth Martin, a doula and midwife who'd helped organize his first campaign event in June, bringing attention to the maternal mortality rate among black women, which is 12 times higher than white women in New York City.

"To me," said Bowman, "if we have a system that allows black women to die at a disproportionate rate at a time in their lives that is supposed to be the most joyous and celebratory, then we're sick as a society, right?"

The final stop was in a predominantly minority-occupied affordable housing development called Co-op City, where Lorraine Fairley, 63, another educator, had organized many of the residents to vote for Bowman. She'd actually tried to discourage him from running. "Those kids love him. I didn't want him to leave the school!" she said.

With Bowman and Jones, it's hard to separate their hard-fought, shrewdly strategic wins from the momentum gained by being the right candidates for this moment of pandemic and protests. But Jones at least feels like they're imminently easy to separate: "There is this narrative that is actually condescending that, you know, my victory is owed to that fact that we are experiencing racial unrest."

What it comes down to, he said, is "people want to be inspired by their member of Congress and they certainly don't want to be told what we can and cannot do."

In his race he was the only candidate who, as Bowman had said in more colorful language, called for tearing down broken, inequitable systems.

"And," Jones said, "I think that really struck a nerve with a Democratic electorate that understands that the status quo was unacceptable even before Donald Trump was elected."
 Flash

China firmly opposes and strongly condemns the move of the U.S. side of signing the so-called "Hong Kong Autonomy Act" into law, said a statement released on the foreign ministry's website Wednesday.

In disregard of China's serious representations, the United States recently signed into law the so-called "Hong Kong Autonomy Act" passed by its Congress, according to the statement.

The Act maliciously denigrates the national security legislation for Hong Kong, and threatens to impose sanctions on China. It seriously violates international law and the basic norms underpinning international relations. It constitutes gross interference in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs.

"The Chinese government firmly opposes and strongly condemns this move by the United States," said the statement.

The enactment and enforcement of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) is fully consistent with the relevant provisions of the Chinese Constitution and the Basic Law of the Hong Kong SAR.

It provides the institutional and legal safeguards for the sound and sustained implementation of "one country, two systems," and serves to uphold sovereignty, security and development interests of the country as well as the long-term stability and prosperity of Hong Kong. The Law is unanimously supported and endorsed by all the Chinese people including the people in Hong Kong, the statement said.

Noting Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China, the statement said Hong Kong affairs are purely China's internal affairs. No foreign country has the right to interfere. China is firmly resolved to uphold its sovereignty and security, safeguard the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong, and oppose external meddling in Hong Kong affairs. The U.S. attempt to obstruct the implementation of the national security law in Hong Kong will never succeed.

In order to safeguard its legitimate interests, China will make necessary response and sanction the relevant individuals and entities of the United States, said the statement.

"We urge the U.S. side to correct its mistakes, not to enforce the so-called 'Hong Kong Autonomy Act,' and stop interfering in Hong Kong and other internal affairs of China in any way," it said, adding that if the U.S. side insists on going in the wrong direction, China will respond resolutely.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang on Wednesday summoned U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad to lodge stern representations over the so-called "Hong Kong Autonomy Act" and related executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Zheng noted the Act and executive order maliciously denigrate the national security legislation for Hong Kong, remove relevant special treatment for Hong Kong, and threaten to impose sanctions on Chinese entities and individuals. "This is a gross interference in China's internal affairs and a grave violation of international law and basic norms governing international relations. China firmly opposes and strongly condemns this."

"To safeguard its legitimate interests, China will make necessary response to the wrong actions of the United States, including imposing sanctions on relevant U.S. entities and individuals," Zheng said.

Noting Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China, Zheng said China's National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, in accordance with the Chinese Constitution, the Hong Kong Basic Law and relevant decisions of the NPC, enacts the national security legislation for Hong Kong, which is entirely China's internal affair, and no foreign country has the right to make irresponsible remarks or interfere in the matter.

China urges the U.S. side to correct its mistakes, refrain from implementing the so-called "Hong Kong Autonomy Act" and executive order, and stop interfering in China's internal affairs in any way, Zheng said.

"I would like to sternly warn the U.S. side that China will resolutely counterattack any bullying and injustice imposed on China by the United States, and its attempt to block China's development is doomed to failure. We urge the U.S. side to stop its slanders and provocations against China and not to go further down the wrong path," Zheng said.
App stores such as the Google Play Store and Apple App Store are now required by EU law to treat developers more fairly. Thats based on a new set of regulations introduced last year but reportedly going into effect as of July 12.

With the new rules in place, Google, Apple, and other distributors will need to be more transparent. In some cases, the new regulation may also force distributors to reconsider terms found in developer contracts. Involved companies have effectively had a year to put changes in place for compliance. And theyll now face stiff consequences for any compliance failures.

Precisely how this new EU regulation impacts app stores and developers is fairly straightforward. For starters, developers will now receive 30-day advance notice if their apps are going to be removed. That way, developers have time to either address concerns or lodge a complaint about the removal. The sole exception to that, helping protect users, is apps that are malicious, infringe on copyrights, or are illegal.

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Of course, that notice also needs to specify exactly why the app is in danger of being removed too.

The EU regulations go a long way to protect app developers

The terms and conditions set by contracts signed by developers need to be detailed in advance too. Developers need to be given a 15-day notice, to be exact. And thats in addition to requirements that distributors rework contracts for clarity. Those now need to be in plain language thats easy for non-legal-experts to understand.

Finally, app stores operating in the EU also need to be more transparent about pretty much everything. That starts with transparency with regard to whether any apps or developers are receiving preferential treatment. That has to be disclosed by the distributor for all to see. And a similar requirement is now in place for rankings too.

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More specifically, companies like Google and Apple will need to clearly define their ranking algorithms. Those are the methods utilized to define top apps. Further regulation is expected that will remove the need for developers to optimize their listings for ranking in the future as well.

Finally, platforms such as the Google Play Store will now be required to be more transparent on data collection. More succinctly, theyll need to disclose what data they access  both personal and non-personal  as well as what data theyre collecting.

Not all app markets are included here

Now, there are some platforms for apps that will be entirely out of the protections as they stand in current regulation. Thats because the rules only apply to a narrowly defined group of distributors. Namely, those are distributors that act as a middle-man in transactions between customers and developers.

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So the Google Play Store and Apple App Store are included. But Google Play Pass, Apple Arcade, and console-makers will largely be excluded.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted on July 2 to send an amended draft of the EARN IT Acta bill that both attacks free speech and surreptitiously abolishes encrypted electronic communicationsto the Senate floor prior to leaving for the two-week Fourth of July recess.

The Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act of 2020 (EARN IT), which falsely claims to protect children from online sexual abuse, was approved unanimously by twelve Republicans and ten Democrats on the committee.

The modified bipartisan legislation was co-sponsored by Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (Republican of South Carolina) and US Senator Richard Blumenthal (Democrat of Connecticut) and approved after two amendments had been introduced to it.

Lindsey Graham and Pres. Donald Trump (Image Credit: Whitehouse Flickr)

The first of these changes removed the Department of Justice as the government body charged with enforcing the best practices proposed by a national commission for websites, social media platforms, internet service providers and other online services to avoid liability for content posted by users and other third parties that qualifies as online child sexual abuse material.

While the national commission still includes the attorney general, secretary of Homeland Security, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission and 16 others chosen by Congress, compliance with the commissions best practices will be voluntary and the states will be responsible for enforcing them.

The second change concerns the protections granted under what is known as Section 230 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which states, No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider. The original provisions of the EARN IT Act required companies to earn their Section 230 protections. The bill approved by the committee removes entirely the earn it concept and opens tech companies up to criminal or civil charges against them by state governments.

Numerous tech and free speech experts and organizations immediately attacked the new legislation as a bait and switch which, far from improving upon the terms of the original draft presented by Graham and Blumenthal last March, intensifies its assault on free speech and electronic communications free from government surveillance.

Riana Pfefferkorn, associate director of surveillance and cybersecurity at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, wrote that the EARN IT Act uses widespread resentment about Section 230 to stage an attack on encryption. Encryption, particularly end-to-end encryption, is likely to be targeted as being contrary to best practices for preventing [child sexual abuse material], because if a provider cannot see the contents of files on its service due to encryption, it is harder to detect [child sexual abuse material] files.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote on July 2, instead of giving a 19-person federal commission, dominated by law enforcement, the power to regulate the Internet, the bill now effectively gives that power to state legislatures. And instead of requiring that Internet websites and platforms comply with the commissions best practices in order to keep their vital legal protections under Section 230 for hosting user content, it simply blows a hole in those protections.

In a comment on the passage of the redraft through the Senate committee, Graham said, To those who shared the horrors of child sexual abuse on the internet with the Committee, you inspired us to act and you made it impossible for us to look away. The bill is also cosponsored by leading Democratic Senators Dianne Feinstein of California, Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Dick Durbin of Illinois.

A particularly significant role was played by Leahy, who introduced an amendment purportedly to address concerns about how the bill undermines encryption technologies. While Leahys amendment prohibits holding companies liable because they use end-to-end encryption, device encryption, or other encryption services, the bill encourages state lawmakers to look for ways to undermine end-to-end encryption, such as forcing messages to be scanned for content violations on a local device before they get encrypted and sent along to their recipient.

The unanimous support of leading Democrats and Republicans for the reactionary EARN IT legislation indicates that US political establishment is arriving at a consensus for establishing government control of online content and communications. As powerful contradictions intensify within capitalist society along with the expansion of the internet, mobile wireless devices and social mediautilized by a growing movement of the working class and young people from belowthe ruling establishment is moving toward a regime of censorship and unfettered invasion of privacy.

In May, just as mass demonstrations were beginning to unfold across the country after the brutal murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, President Donald Trump issued a threat to close down or strongly regulate the social media platforms by removing their Section 230 protections after Twitter placed fact checking flags on his tweets.

There are also the efforts of the US Justice Department and Attorney General William Barr to pursue a lawsuit against Google for alleged anti-trust violationsincluding an implicit threat to break up the Silicon Valley tech monopolyas well as congressional legislation that will force consumer mobile device manufacturers such as Apple to build law enforcement back-door access into their data encryption products.
YEREVAN, 16 JULY, ARMENPRESS: The international community should clearly understand the terroristic nature and attitudes of Azerbaijani leadership and take concrete actions in order to sober up Azerbaijani aggressive policy which cannot be defined anyhow but war-crimes-oriented and security threat towards civilian population of Armenia, neighbouring states, the region as whole and the globe in general. In the same time it should be stated that ongoing operations carried out by the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia are the only acting and effective guarantee of regional and global security.

The Head of the Press Service of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan threatened with military attack towards the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant, saying At the same time, the Armenian side should not forget that the latest missile systems, which are in service with our army, allow hitting the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant with high precision, which can lead to a huge catastrophe for Armenia.

We would like to express our deepest concerns on the very existence of such statements strictly contradicting the core principles of Geneva Conventions and customary International Humanitarian Law. Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions strictly stipulated that Works or installations containing dangerous forces, namely dams, dykes and nuclear electrical generating stations , shall not be made the object of attack, even where these objects are military objectives, if such attack may cause the release of dangerous forces and consequent severe losses among the civilian population. Other military objectives located at or in the vicinity of these works or installations shall not be made the object of attack if such attack may cause the release of dangerous forces from the works or installations and consequent severe losses among the civilian population (Additional Protocol I, Article 56 (adopted by consensus)).

Practice of the International organizations concerned is also witnessing that such attempts are considered as acts contradicting International Law. In particular, the UN General Assembly in numerous resolutions addressed the issue of any threat to attack and destroy nuclear facilities, stating clearly that it constitutes a violation of the Charter of the United Nations (the UNGA RES 38/9, 10 November 1983, para. 3) The IAEA in several resolutions between 1987 and 1990, the stated that it considered an attack against nuclear installations used for pacific ends to be contrary to international law (IAEA. Res. GC(XXXI)/RES/475, 25 September 1987, preamble; Res. GC(XXIX)/RES/444. 27 September 1985. Para. 2; Res. GC(XXXIV)/RES/533, 21 September 1990, Para. 3)

Despite the fact that Azerbaijan is still not a Party to the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions it is necessary to emphasize the very said provision is also a part of customary International humanitarian law binding Azerbaijan as well as all the other countries. Such statements also contradicts to the Azerbaijani domestic legislation, in particular, the Criminal Code which is prescribing in particular that directing attacks against installations which may cause severe damage to civilian objects or severe losses among the civilian population constitutes a war crime under in international and non-international armed conflicts (Article 116.12, the Criminal Code of Azerbaijani Republic).

It is due to mention that Statute of International Criminal Court considered as a war crimes also: Intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects or widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated (Article 8.2b(iv));

Dr. Vladimir Vardanyan is the Chair of the Standing Committee on the State and Legal Affairs of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia
Want to participate in a short research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and earn a $40 gift card!

In this article we are going to estimate the intrinsic value of Elementis plc (LON:ELM) by taking the forecast future cash flows of the company and discounting them back to today's value. We will take advantage of the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model for this purpose. Don't get put off by the jargon, the math behind it is actually quite straightforward.

Remember though, that there are many ways to estimate a company's value, and a DCF is just one method. For those who are keen learners of equity analysis, the Simply Wall St analysis model here may be something of interest to you.

View our latest analysis for Elementis

What's the estimated valuation?

We're using the 2-stage growth model, which simply means we take in account two stages of company's growth. In the initial period the company may have a higher growth rate and the second stage is usually assumed to have a stable growth rate. To begin with, we have to get estimates of the next ten years of cash flows. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

Generally we assume that a dollar today is more valuable than a dollar in the future, so we discount the value of these future cash flows to their estimated value in today's dollars:

10-year free cash flow (FCF) estimate

2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 Levered FCF ($, Millions) US$59.8m US$72.0m US$67.9m US$65.5m US$64.1m US$63.3m US$63.0m US$63.1m US$63.3m US$63.7m Growth Rate Estimate Source Analyst x5 Analyst x4 Est @ -5.69% Est @ -3.62% Est @ -2.16% Est @ -1.15% Est @ -0.44% Est @ 0.06% Est @ 0.41% Est @ 0.65% Present Value ($, Millions) Discounted @ 12% US$53.6 US$57.9 US$48.9 US$42.3 US$37.1 US$32.9 US$29.3 US$26.3 US$23.7 US$21.4

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = US$373m

Story continues

We now need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all the future cash flows after this ten year period. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a country's GDP growth. In this case we have used the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (1.2%) to estimate future growth. In the same way as with the 10-year 'growth' period, we discount future cash flows to today's value, using a cost of equity of 12%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2030  (1 + g)  (r  g) = US$64m (1 + 1.2%)  (12% 1.2%) = US$624m

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= US$624m ( 1 + 12%)10= US$209m

The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is US$582m. The last step is to then divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. Compared to the current share price of UK0.7, the company appears about fair value at a 15% discount to where the stock price trades currently. The assumptions in any calculation have a big impact on the valuation, so it is better to view this as a rough estimate, not precise down to the last cent.

dcf

Important assumptions

The calculation above is very dependent on two assumptions. The first is the discount rate and the other is the 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 Elementis as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 12%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.493. 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.

Looking Ahead:

Whilst important, the DCF calculation is only one of many factors that you need to assess for a company. DCF models are not the be-all and end-all of investment valuation. Rather it should be seen as a guide to "what assumptions need to be true for this stock to be under/overvalued?" For example, changes in the company's cost of equity or the risk free rate can significantly impact the valuation. For Elementis, there are three further factors you should explore:

Risks: Take risks, for example - Elementis has 2 warning signs we think you should be aware of. Future Earnings: How does ELM's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other Solid Businesses: Low debt, high returns on equity and good past performance are fundamental to a strong business. Why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals to see if there are other companies you may not have considered!

PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every British stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here.

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.



Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
The medical company of the 18th Chinese peacekeeping troops to Lebanon participates in an emergency defense drill, codenamed "hedgehog", on July 14. (Photo by Huang Shifeng)

By Huang Shifeng

BEIRUT, July.16 -- The medical company of the 18th Chinese peacekeeping troops to Lebanon participated in an emergency defense drill, codenamed "hedgehog", organized by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) Sector East on July 14.

On the afternoon of July 14, an alarm sounded over the camp area. Chinese peacekeepers immediately ran to the tactical bunkers following the order of the duty officer.

The inspection and verification teams dispatched by the UNIFIL drill headquarters inspected the two bunkers in the camp area and checked with the personnel composition, weaponry, medical instruments and combat readiness materials.

The emergency response team dispatched by the UNIFIL drill headquarters inspects the work of Chinese medical company during the emergency defense drill on July 14. (Photo by Huang Shifeng)

Such emergency defense drills are conducted on a quarterly basis, which used to be carried out during breaks, with the alert level being red. But this time, it was carried out during work time, and the alert level was black as the highest level. Li Ruzhen, captain of China's 18th peacekeeping medical company to Lebanon, applauded such actual-combat drills which he thought would help test and improve the emergency response capability of the Chinese peacekeepers.
HELSINKI, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Wood is a renewable and strong construction material that stores carbon, yet it accounts only for a very small fraction of global construction. Open Source Wood is a collaboration platform for architects, engineers, students and professionals in wood construction to share their innovations in modular wood construction. Open Source Wood offers innovation, ideas and a library of element and module designs, freely available to everyone. Now, Open Source Wood also offers easy access to structural calculation tools.

The methods and regulations in construction are often very localised, and there is no one tool that can serve all areas and markets. The newest addition to Open Source Wood platform is a "Tools" listing, which has been developed to serve engineers and other professionals seeking help in structural calculations, design or finding the software tools for the task.

The Tools page offers a collection of useful tools suitable for wood construction. Most of the tools are developed by external third parties, and the list also identifies the ones that are compatible with the local National Annexes.

In the launch phase, the site has some basic tools, but it will evolve over time to house more versatile tools, both in function and geographically. Currently the listing includes:

basic calculators for wooden nail, screw and bolt connections

fire safety design tools

design software list with their National Annexes

pre-design span tables for LVL structures

The development of the Open Source Wood platform has been supported by the Wood Building Programme of the Finnish Ministry of the Environment. The aim of the project was to connect the content of Open Source Wood with the software and tools that designers and engineers use daily. The first phase of the project focused on modelling tools and making the first Open Source Wood design objects available to AutoCAD, Revit, ArchiCAD and SketchUp design software. The second phase provides a listing of useful tools for designers to use.

The project is partly funded by:Open Source Wood is continuously looking for new ways to help knowledge-sharing in wood construction. If you have ideas or tools that can help modular wood construction to grow and develop, join the initiative and start sharing at opensourcewood.com.

Visit Tools site at Open Source Wood.

Images: https://databank.metsagroup.com/l/-FScV687DKHS

For more information, please contact:

Viivi Kylama

Marketing Manager, Metsa Wood

tel. +358-40-820-9850

[email protected]

For press information in UK, please contact:

Matt Trace

Director, Defero Communications

tel. 07828663988

[email protected]

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/metsa-wood/r/open-source-wood-gathers-structural-calculation-tools-in-one-place,c3155416

The following files are available for download:

SOURCE Metsa Wood
More than $10.7 billion has been paid out to New Jersey workers claiming unemployment benefits since the coronavirus pandemic began in March, the Department of Labor announced Thursday.

Roughly 38,150 unemployment applications were filed during the week ending July 11, bringing the total to nearly 1.4 million claims filed since mid-March, the state Labor Department also announced.

Those numbers represent a 20% decrease from the previous week, when 47,000 claims were filed due to state worker furloughs and the end of the school year.

The coronavirus pandemic, which pushed Gov. Phil Murphy to order all non-essential businesses to close in March, fueled the skyrocketing unemployment claims as the states economy grinded to a near-halt.

More than $825 million in state and federal income benefits were paid out in the last week, including $2.2 million for the first week of the states extended benefit payments, according to the Department of Labor.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

When the unemployment rate hit double digits, it triggered 20 additional weeks of extended benefits. Before then, workers maxed out at 39 weeks. Now, they are eligible for a total of 59 weeks. (New Jerseys unemployment rate was 16.1% in June. The nationwide unemployment rate is 11.1%.)

In times of economic distress and employment uncertainty, its important to be able to offer an additional 20-week safety net to our residents who remain out of work through no fault of their own, Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo said.

Workers will be automatically enrolled into extended program when their benefits are exhausted, the agency said. They do not need to call an agent or reapply for benefits.

However, gig workers, independent contractors and the self-employed, who were eligible for the 39 weeks of federal benefits, will receive seven additional weeks of benefits from the state, for a total of 46 weeks.

And while new filings have largely slowed in recent weeks as businesses begin reopening and some New Jerseyans return to work, the unprecedented number of claims since March left a backlog in the states unemployment system.

Of the 1.2 million applicants eligible to receive benefits, about 96% have received money, the Labor Department said. But thousands still report they have not received benefits.

Some Republican senators are calling on Murphy to reopen the unemployment offices to deal with the deluge of claims, citing the recent reopening of Motor Vehicle Commissions. But the Labor Department has already said it has no timeline to reopen unemployment offices.

In June, the Labor Department announced it would borrow $1.7 billion from the federal government to replenish the states unemployment fund for August, September and October.

To date, claimants have received more than $3 billion through state unemployment benefits and $7 billion in federal benefits through the CARES Act.

New Jersey workers who are eligible for unemployment may receive 60 percent of their wages, up to $713. Through the end of July, recipients will also receive $600 in additional Pandemic Unemployment Assistance payments from the federal coronavirus stimulus package.

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Sophie Nieto-Munoz may be reached at snietomunoz@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her at @snietomunoz.

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- Sharon Cuneta addressed the bashings her husband, Senator Francis Kiko Pangilinan, receives due to his criticisms of the Duterte administration

- The Megastar has admitted that her family is getting extremely stressed by all of the criticisms he gets on social media

- According to the Megastar, she wants to refrain from talking about politics but she has to stand up for her husband and for what is right

- She also worries for her children who have nothing to do with politics but are getting involved in the bashings

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Sharon Cuneta took to social media to address the bashings her husband, Senator Francis Kiko Pangilinan, receives due to his criticisms of the Duterte administration.

KAMI learned that Sharon has admitted that her family is getting extremely stressed by all of the criticisms he gets on social media.

According to the Megastar, she wants to refrain from talking about politics but she has to stand up for her husband and for what is right.

She also worries for her children who have nothing to do with politics but are getting involved in the bashings.

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So now, my husband naman. I want to refrain from posting about politics na, but sorry po - I have to stand up for what is right - especially if it involves someone I love.

Matagal ko na pinalampas ang mga pamimintas at masasakit na salita laban sa asawa ko, pero hindi na po kaya ng pamilya namin. Lalo na ng mga anak naming wala namang malay at di hiniling na dito sa pamilya namin sila isilang. I wonder wholl be next? Going too far. So sad.

O, Pilipinas naming mahal...ano na ang ginagawa sa iyo...Dear God, You are alive, You see all, You know all. We trust only in YOU. Kalma lang. Nandyan ang Panginoon. At KAMI, NANANALIG SA KANIYA. Bilog ang mundo. At mapalad ang inaapi. God bless us all, Sharon posted on Instagram.

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Sharon Cuneta is one of the most famous and successful showbiz personalities in the country, known by many as The Megastar. She is married to Senator Kiko Pangilinan, the father of social media star Frankie Pangilinan. Sharon also has a daughter named KC Concepcion with her former husband, Gabby Concepcion.

The Megastar has repeatedly made headlines in recent days and weeks due to her social media posts. She defended her daughter Frankie Pangilinan after her physical appearance was bashed by a Duterte supporter.

She also called out a Duterte supporter who threatened to commit a heinous crime against Frankie for voicing out her complaints about the Duterte administration.

Furthermore, Sharon Cuneta shocked a lot of people when she expressed her desire for Vice President Leni Robredo to become the President of the Philippines once Dutertes term ends. She explained that having Robredo as the President might help make Filipinos more decent.

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Source: KAMI.com.gh
Luanda  Angolan health authorities Wednesday in Luanda admitted the country is actually experiencing cases of community spread of the covid-19 in the capital.

According to the minister of State and head of the Security Affairs Office to the Presidency, Pedro Sebastiao, the covid-19 community transmission announcement follows the detection as of late of several cases with unknown links in Luanda after mass testing in various large public concentration places involving 15,139 people.

The authorities said as well 35 new positive cases of covid-19 have been detected in the country in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 576 infections.

With the new cases reported, Angola's covid-19 statistics show 576 positive cases (475 of local transmission), 27 deaths, 124 recoveries and 425 active patients.
China Summons US Ambassador Over Move to Strip Hong Kong of Preferential Trade Status

Sputnik News

18:56 GMT 15.07.2020(updated 19:15 GMT 15.07.2020)

President Trump enacted two Hong Kong-related measures on Tuesday, stripping the city of its preferential trade status and sanctioning Chinese officials responsible for implementing a new national security law in the autonomous city. Beijing immediately blasted the moves, promising a tit-for-tat response.

China formally summoned US Ambassador Terry Branstad Wednesday to express its displeasure with the US move to strip Hong Kong of its special trade status, and to voice its opposition to the Hong Kong Human Autonomy Act drafted by Congress and signed by the US president this week.

In a statement accompanying the summons cited by the People's Daily, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang was said to have urged the US diplomat to convey to Washington the need to "correct the mistake" made through America's "vehement interference" in China's internal affairs.

"We urge the US to change its course immediately, stop defamation and provocation against China, and do not go further and further on the wrong path," the official was quoted as saying.

"The Hong Kong [law] and the executive order were concocted by the US not because it cares about democracy and freedom of Hong Kong people, but as a means to hinder the development of China. Such a scheme will never succeed," Zheng stressed.

The Chinese official also warned that Beijing would not hesitate to sanction US nationals and entities to protect its interests on a tit-for-tat basis. "China has and will continue to take countermeasures to resolutely safeguard the core interests. I want to tell the United States that any bullying and injustice imposed on China by the US will be resolutely countered by China. The United States' attempt to block China's development is doomed to failure," he noted.

The summons comes following a formal Foreign Ministry statement condemning the US's Hong Kong-related decisions, and threatening "countermeasures" if the US didn't correct course immediately.

On Tuesday, President Trump signed the so-called 'Hong Kong Autonomy Act' into law. Among other things, the legislation envisions sanctions against "foreign individuals and entities that materially contribute to China's failure to preserve Hong Kong's autonomy." The same day, Trump also signed an executive order formally ending the US's preferential trade status for Hong Kong over alleged "repressive actions" against the city's residents.

Hong Kong has enjoyed autonomy within the People's Republic of China under the 'One Country, Two Systems' constitutional principal granted to it and Macau after they became Special Administrative Regions in 1997 and 1999, respectively. Recently, the city implemented a new national security law which pro-autonomy critics allege have squashed the city's unique status.

Among the law's provisions is the banning of political groups financed from abroad, and the criminalization of secessionist and subversive sentiments. The law was passed a year after the start of mass anti-government protests in the Asian financial hub related to an extradition law.

Along with the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, the UK, and multiple other countries have expressed concerns over the security law, with Beijing calling on each of these nations to avoid interfering in its internal affairs.

An estimated 1,300 US companies presently operate in Hong Kong, including nearly 300 regional headquarters for Asia operations. Hong Kong officials estimate

that American companies' operations in the city have netted America a trade surplus of nearly $300 billion over the past ten years, helping bridge the gap in the US's massive $350-$400 billion-a-year trade deficit with China as a whole. By itself, the city is the third and fourth largest importer of US wines and beef in the world, respectively. The US, by contrast, is said to account for just 0.1 percent of Hong Kong's manufactured goods exports. This, local officials say, means Washington will face more serious losses than Hong Kong if the special trade status was scrapped.

A Sputnik

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COVID Prison Release: State To Start With Non-Violent Inmates Over Age 30

Prison officials announced July 10 that an estimated 8,000 incarcerated individuals will be eligible for early release by the end of August, in order to stem the COVID-19 outbreak in Californias prison system.

These actions are taken to provide for the health and safety of the incarcerated population and staff, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) Secretary Ralph Diaz said. We aim to implement these decompression measures in a way that aligns with both public health and public safety.

Multiple prisons in California have become COVID-19 hotspots in recent months. According to the CDCR, 2,286 incarcerated people have tested positive for the virus and 31 have died across the states prison system as of July 10.

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CDCR prison population reduction guidelines prioritize the release of incarcerated people who have 365 days or less to serve in their sentences; are not currently serving time for domestic violence or violent crimes; and have no convictions that require them to register as sex offenders. While individuals age 30 and over who meet these criteria are immediately eligible for release, those age 29 or younger will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

We have an unprecedented moment in time to actually augment the work of prison reform and the reduction of the already overcrowded conditions that have persisted, said Joe Paul, Managing Director of the Los Angeles Regional Reentry Partnership and Director of Political and Civic Affairs, City of Refuge Church-L.A.

The announcement follows a July 8 press conference organized by the #StopSanQuentinOutbreak Coalition to amplify concerns of the people incarcerated at San Quentin, the oldest prison in California. Some elected officials attended the press conference, including Senator Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco) and Assemblymembers Marc Levine (D-San Rafael), Ash Kalra (D-San Jose), and Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), as well as family members and friends of people currently incarcerated at San Quentin, which is located north of San Francisco, across the Golden Gate Bridge, in Marin County.

According to the CDCR, San Quentin, which is a mens prison, has had 1,880 positive cases among its incarcerated population and staff as of July 10. In June, Amend at UC San Francisco, an advocacy organization focused on changing negative aspects of correctional culture, and Berkeley Public Health released a memo calling for the state to reduce the prisons population to below 50% of its current capacity.

During a press conference last week, Gov. Newsom acknowledged the problem at San Quentin.

Its a concern, always has been. We have not been shy about leaning in on this over the course of many, many months, said the governor. We still have a lot more work to do and we recognize our responsibility.

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As a longer-term strategy to reduce the states prison population beyond the San Quentin drawdown, Paul said decision makers in Californias criminal justice system should assess the states prison population and identify low-risk or elderly inmates that could successfully do the minimum required time for their conviction and receive adequate rehabilitative support, while incarcerated.

Then they should be released based on good behavior and other suitability conditions for successful reintegration into community, he continued.

California Black Media also spoke with James King, member of the #StopSanQuentinOutbreak Coalition and State Campaigner for the Oakland-based Ella Baker Center for Human Justice.

We [the Coalition] continue to agree with the public health experts who have said that at least a 50% reduction in the incarceration rate is necessary for public health safety, not just for people inside the prison but people outside of prison, the activist said.

But he says getting to the 50 percent goal will not be immediate.

This is less than a 10% reduction, over the course of several months. So its really modest. Its an improvement, but its an incremental one. We need bold decisive action here, King said.

Previously incarcerated at San Quentin, King was released last December. For him, there are other ways the state could assist incarcerated people once they are released.

According to the CDCR, about seventy percent of people consistently have somewhere to go. Also, theres Project Roomkey, in which the state has paid for several hotel rooms, King continued. Our suggestion would be that they be allowed to go there for the first 14 days post-release in order to safely quarantine, and then return to their families.

At the press conference, Assemblymember Levine called for sustained action.

We must sustain our attention here at San Quentin, and at every facility where people are sentenced for time and locked up across the state of California, he said. We need to sustain this attention because unfortunately COVID-19 is not going away. So we cant let our guard down.

Activists say they want the state to base inmate releases on data and best practices learned from past experience.

The science of people aging out of crime, as well as the CDCRs own risk assessments that have identified tens of thousands of people as low risk for recidivism or violence should be the criteria, King said. And we stand by ready to help facilitate and use our resources to facilitate safe reentry.
A historic order of nuns who minister to the elderly poor gained a reprieve from the Supreme Court Wednesday. The Little Sisters of the Poor have been called the world's most tenacious nuns for battling with the past eight years in court to reject government coercion.

Wanting to protect their freedom of conscience, they fought till victory they earned for themselves as well as on the behalf of all other religious non-profits.

A majority of justices upheld a Trump administration rule exempting employers with religious and moral objections from providing contraception in group healthcare plans.

Knowing the importance of the decisions and statements, The Little Sisters controversy dates back to the 2010 passage of the Affordable Health Care Act, (Obamacare), which delegated to the Department of Health and Human Services the task of designing a list of "preventive care" measures that would be required in many employer-provided health plans.

In a 7-2 decision, the majority held that in 2017, the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) created the exemption in a way that squared with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and the exemption was not procedurally defective.

"For over 150 years, the Little Sisters have engaged in faithful service and sacrifice, motivated by a religious calling to surrender all for the sake of their brother," wrote Justice Clarence Thomas. "We hold today that the Departments had the statutory authority to craft that exemption."

The refusal by HHS to address numerous religious objections by sufficiently modifying the mandate prompted dozens of lawsuits involving hundreds of individuals and organizations as plaintiffs, among them Hobby Lobby and the Little Sisters.

Yet when the Trump Administration promised a revamped and expanded religious exemption and provided one in 2018, several blue states objected and sued to block the new rule, leading the Little Sisters to join the fray once again to protect the hard-fought victory they earned for themselves as well as on behalf of all other religious non-profits.
Christians in India are suffering through serious illness, beatings, and murder throughout COVID-19. The Coronavirus has been affecting many believers located in India especially because Hindu is their official religion. Christians in India are enduring deadly violence and threats from their elders. Causing possible expulsion or even death, many believers in India live in serious concern.

According to OpenDoors, Kirti, a young mother in rural India, is one of the Hindu people who found the one, true God among the millions in her country. She turned from her Hindu gods to follow Jesus while attending a church service away from her village. As with many Christians in India, God miraculously healed Kirti from a debilitating disease at a worship service.

As some of the Christians agreed to stop worshiping out of fear, Kirti's family refused to deny Jesus. Because of her bold faith in Jesus, Kirti's village elders continued to beat her and her husband for not listening to them. Frustrated with Kirti's attitude of not denying her new God and returning to the Hindu faith, the elders continue to threaten her and her family.

According to Open Doors, the few Christians gathered to pray and sing quietly as soon a pastor from another village came to lead them.

Knowing there will be consequences, the faith in their hearts was too large, so they eventually started a secret gathering in their house on Sundays.

"But in a small village, it's difficult to keep anything a secret for long. This healing received the attention of the elders, and they brought the young man to a meeting for questioning-similar to the blind man who was healed by Jesus in John 9."

Few days later, the mob came into Kiri's home and searched for her bible as they threatened to kill her if she continued to worship Jesus. The crowd dragged the Christians out of Kirti's house and began beating them violently.

"They were beating us with sticks, kicking and punching us mercilessly," Kirti explained.

The mob eventually found Kirti's Bible, lit it on fire and burned it in front of her. Then they ransacked the house and stole all of her food, rice, wheat, and vegetables, as well as her chickens and goats.

All the while, Kirti kept praying, "Lord, save us if you want to save us!"

The elders later made an announcement through a loudspeaker telling everyone in the village to come for a feast. It was there they cooked Kirti's food and animals and shared it with all the villagers.

They literally ate her livelihood...

"This is what you get for following Jesus," they exclaimed.

While most Christians were injured, Kirti received the worst of it with a broken back, something that still hinders her today. They were all rushed to the hospital where Kirti stayed for over two weeks in recovery.

It was at this moment that Open Doors heard about Kirti and the Christians in her village...

Through partners, Open Doors was able to help them pay the medical bills and provided spiritual care and support for the small number of courageous Christians in her village.

When Kirti and her husband returned to their home, everyone in the village stopped talking to them and refused to let them draw water from the village well.

Accordingly, the believers in the village kept quiet for a while, but slowly a few Christians began stopping by Kirti's home again for prayer. It was a dangerous act of defiance and when the elders heard their beatings and public shaming didn't stop the believers from following Jesus, they were infuriated.

One late night, a group of men carrying ropes surrounded Kirti's home. They knocked on the door, rushed in and grabbed Kirti's husband by force. Kirti tried to stop them.

"Where are you taking my husband?" she screamed

The men ignored her cries, pushed her back in the house and locked her in her own home. The men who took her husband tortured him in unthinkable ways for days. Kirti tried to find him, and when she finally did, he didn't recognize her. He was taken away and murdered. Kirti was only a short distance away and heard his cries. Then the men allowed Kirti and a few other Christians to take him.

However, there were no arrests or prosecutions for her husband's killers.

Once she returned home, the village leaders refused to allow her to bury her husband in the village cemetery. So Kirti took her husband's body to a plot of land outside of the village and buried him there. A few other Christians joined her for a small ceremony.

Throughout the devastating moment, Kirti continued to stay bold and have strong faith in God knowing God will be present. With full tears in her eyes, she requests for prayer, help, and support for her family and the other believers who currently live in India.

As she moved to a safer house, Open Door's partners helped Kirti and her children with food supplies, clothing, blankets, financial support and spiritual care. Her injuries prevent her from working, and she continues to be in great danger.

"[You] helped me financially and because of your help, my kids are attending school," Kirti shares.

Through incredible suffering and loss, Kirti's faith is still unshakeable.

"I have committed everything into the hands of Jesus,"

"When I feel sad, I remember the Word of God. In all my trials, He helps me. I cannot read or write, but I memorize what the pastor teaches me. Because of attacks, many new Christians are leaving the faith, but I'm stable in my faith. Thanks to your care and love, I'm still alive and a follower of Jesus today."

Despite the risk, Kirti has returned to her village to be a light for Christ once again.

Please continue praying for Kirti and other Christians in India who are attacked for following Jesus.
A Sheriff in Florida made an announcement that his deputies are to pay tribute to fallen law enforcement officers across America whenever they die.

After the murders of Texas police officers Ismael Chavez and Edelmiro Garza over the weekend, Sheriff Mike Chitwood of Volusia County, Florida, released a statement on his offices Facebook page in their honor late Sunday.

Effective immediately, when a Law Enforcement Officer is killed in the line of duty anywhere in this great country we will wear our mourning crepes over our badges for five consecutive days, the Sheriff wrote.

All Sheriffs Office installations will fly the American flag at half staff during this mourning period, he added. The Volusia Sheriffs Office Facebook page will pay tribute to our fallen brothers or sisters and their families during this period of remembrance.

Officers Chavez and Garza of McAllen Police Department, Texas, were both killed in what authorities called an ambush shooting while answering a domestic violence call last Saturday.

To honor our fellow Law Enforcement Officers who were assassinated this weekend answering a domestic violence call in Texas, we will begin wearing our mourning crepes commencing tomorrow morning at 7am and conclude Friday, July 17th at 7am.

The Sheriff added, I would ask that you take a moment this week to remember these fallen officers, along with their families, who have made the ultimate sacrifice to keep their communities and our great Nation safe. Please keep them in your prayers.

Volusia County deputies will wear the mourning crepes on their badges through Friday in remembrance of officers Chavez and Garza.

On Wednesday, a public viewing was held for the fallen officers, while the funeral took place on Thursday morning with interment immediately following in Mission, Texas, The Monitor reported.

The services were open to the public, according to city spokesperson Xochitl Mora, though the number of attendees were limited due to virus-containment restrictions.

I think theres a lot of issues that make this mourning extremely difficult for our community in that so many people do want to express their condolences, and their thoughts and prayers and love and support for the families of our fallen officers, Mora said. But obviously we are in a pandemic so that traditional way of being with the family and be close to them is difficult. We do have to maintain that social distancing, even with a venue as large as the McAllen Convention Center.

We would love to hear your stories! You can share them with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.nyc
Starting a career or a family doesnt always mean moving away from your family. In fact, multigenerational households are increasingly common in the U.S., with one in six Americans now living with parents, grandparents or other relatives.

Thats according to advocacy group Generations United, which says the 51.4 million Americans who now live in multigenerational households represents a 10% increase since 2007.

Choosing to merge generations under one roof reflects a number of changes, some cultural and some financial. Millennials have led the movement toward multigenerational households, with the Census finding about one in three people between the ages of 18 to 34 lived with their parents in 2015. While some adults move home to save money such as the case of millennials, many of whom are saddled with student loans  others are drawn by benefits that reach far beyond the financial.

The Kim family at their multigenerational home in Orange County, California.

Buying a home: Youve found a house you like. Now what?

Take Tae and Monnica Kim, who moved into his parents Buena Park, California, home about seven years ago after his parents suggested the idea. Tae Kim says their arrangement was mutually beneficial, with he and his spouse covering the mortgage and other overhead expenses while Taes mother watched their two children. That allowed Tae and Monnica, a nurse, to focus on their careers and save money.

The huge benefit was that both of us were able to continue to commit full time to our careers, says Kim, 39, a finance director who blogs about personal finance and multigenerational living. If we were living off of one income, we wouldn't be able to save as much as we would be able to do right now.

But the benefits go far beyond money, adds Monnica Kim, 35. One of the main benefits of living with my in-laws is to have our children exposed to their grandparents on a daily basis, she notes. They could have actually a lot more quality time together and create a lot of memories.

Grandparents Bok Nam Kim and Yeongsoon Kim take their grandchildren Jonathan and Katherine Kim to the park for a day of kite flying.

The coronavirus pandemic may result in more multigenerational households, even as some families find themselves isolated due to travel restrictions between states and other hurdles. The stresses of the pandemic are already shifting Americans living patterns, with a July report from the Pew Research Center finding that one in five U.S. adults either moved due to the crisis or knows someone who did.

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Below are tips from the Kims about how to create a successful multigenerational household.

Understand the pros and cons before you move in

Discuss the benefits and disadvantages before you make the jump, Monnica Kim says. That means having honest conversations with your spouse as well as the relatives youll be moving in with, she notes.

We have to come to understanding of what are the tradeoffs that we're making in order to make this work, Tae Kim adds. Hey, there are financial benefits. There are benefits that our children are having living with their grandparents.

But, he adds, there are also costs  and not only financial costs. Are we willing to pay that cost of the generational and the cultural differences that we have to navigate every day? Kim notes of living with his parents, who were born in Korea after the Korean War.

Find quality time for your partner

Parents Monnica and Tae Kim decided to move in with Tae's parents before their first child, Jonathan, was born. The move helped them pay off $105,000 in student loans and continue to work full-time.

Living with other generations under one roof means youll need to carve out time for your spouse, Tae Kim adds.

Its rare to find just alone time together, he says. You have to be very intentional about spending quality time, whether you're going out for a walk or you're going out for a meal, and then coordinating that with the grandparents to ensure that your marriage is healthy.

Respect each others boundaries

Physical boundaries can be helpful, with the Kims noting that their bedroom and their kids room is one side of the house, while his parents bedroom is on the opposite side.

That really helps out with having a physical boundary that we can respect each other's privacy, he says.

Lastly, being able to help his parents during the pandemic is a plus, especially because older people face higher risks from COVID-19, Tae Kim adds. The really nice thing is that we can keep an eye on my parents in a way to make sure that they're staying safe, he says.

Contributing: Andrea Kramar

Aimee Picchi is a business journalist whose work appears in publications including USA TODAY, CBS News and Consumer Reports. She spent almost a decade covering tech and media for Bloomberg News.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Multigenerational households on the rise. Prepare for pros and cons
Record numbers of cases and deaths were popping up throughout the country. Texas reported 129 new deaths Thursday, and a third of the more than 3,400 COVID-19 fatalities registered there since the pandemic began were reported in the first two weeks of July alone. Health officials also reported more than 10,000 confirmed new cases for the third straight day.
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The Chinese government on Wednesday handed over the second batch of medical supplies to help Namibia combat the COVID-19 epidemic.

The donation to Namibia's Health Ministry, valued at 4.3 million Namibia dollars (260,000 U.S. dollars), included 5,000 disposable medical protective clothing, 15,000 face masks for medical use, 150,000 surgical masks, 7,000 medical protective goggles, 7,000 disposable surgical gloves, and 3,000 shoe covers.

Namibian Health Minister Kalumbi Shangula thanked China for the donation and for its technical support and capacity-building assistance.

"Obtaining these supplies from the outside market has been very challenging due to travel bans and restrictions worldwide," he said at a ceremony in Windhoek.

Shangula said health workers and other frontline cadres are the most valuable assets in the fight and the technical support, capacity-building, and donations from China are highly appreciated.

Chinese ambassador to Namibia, Zhang Yiming, hopes the donated supplies will play an important role in Namibia's fight against the epidemic at this critical moment.

In April, Namibia received COVID-19 aid from the Chinese government and from the Jack Ma Foundation.

Namibia has so far reported 960 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with two deaths and 31 recoveries.




VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Unisync Corp. (TSX: "UNI") (Unisync") is pleased to announce that C. Scott Shepherd has been appointed to its board of directors.



Born in Chatham, Ontario, Scott has a demonstrated history in working in international trade and business development. He has served on numerous Corporate Boards and Not-For-Profit entities. Skilled in negotiation, business planning and international business, he is known for his customer relationships and teambuilding. Scott is the National Chair of the Canadian Forces Liaison Council (CFLC), working closely with the Canadian Armed Forces and business leaders across Canada to forge better relationships for deployments of the Canadian Reserve Force, with over 170 volunteers and 35 Reserve Force personnel supporting and reporting to him.

Long a supporter of small exporters, Scott was the founder and chief executive of Northstar Trade Finance Inc. which was instrumental in arranging financial support for over C$2.9 billion in exports for small and mid sized Canadian exporters (SMEs) during its 25 year history.

Scott is also the founder and chair of the scholarship foundation for the children of fallen peace officers across Canada. This is funded through the activities of the Memorial Ribbon Society. Past volunteer activities have included being vice-chairman of the Richmond Hospital foundation, honorary President of St. John Ambulance British Columbia, serving on the St. George's and York House School boards and was the Honorary Consul for Uruguay for British Columbia, Alberta and The Yukon until May 2018, when he retired. He also holds the honorary appointment of Trade Counsellor and Advisor for the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Scott is also the past honorary Lt. Colonel. of the British Columbia Regiment, Duke of Connaughts Own. He held this position for 6 years.

Scott is a graduate of the University of Toronto, Dalhousie University and the University of Western Ontario. He is a member of the Institute of Corporate directors (ICD) and has served for 10 years on the federal crown Board of Directors for Ridley Terminals. He also is very involved in supporting the arts and was an active board member on the National Arts Centre Foundation for 9 years, focusing on promoting Aboriginal Performing Arts at the Centre. He is currently Chair of MDS Aero Support Corporation in Ottawa.

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He was a recipient of the Queens Diamond Jubilee Medal for service to Canada.

I am very excited to have the opportunity to work with such a great Canadian Company. From the iconic Canadian Armed Forces combat fatigues, to the Coast Guard, to the commercial clients of well known airlines, the companys products are visibly known to most Canadians. The Board and management are particularly innovative and nimble, and currently expanding to use their fabrication strengths in the marketplace to provide much needed personal protection equipment (PPE) for Canadians and their international clients. I am honoured to be asked to serve at this important time, commented Scott.

We are extremely pleased to welcome someone of Scotts character and business experience to our board of directors, commented Douglas Good, Chairman. My fellow board members and I, as well as our CEO, Matthew Graham, look forward to working with Scott in continuing the future strategic growth of Unisync and improving our share of the managed supply of operational clothing and footwear in the Federal, Provincial/State and Municipal sectors.

For more information on our capabilities, products and services please visit the Unisync website at www.unisyncgroup.com or at our dedicated PPE website www.unisyncmasks.ca to order your protective face coverings and related products.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Douglas F Good, Chairman

Investor relations contact: Douglas F Good 778-370-1725 or Email dgood@unisyncgroup.com

Forward Looking Statements

This news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve known and unknown risk and uncertainties that may cause the Companys actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this news release and are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any such forward-looking statements to reflect any change in its expectations or in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such forward-looking statements may be based, or that may affect the likelihood that actual results will differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.
Photo credit: Getty Images

From Popular Mechanics

This story was originally published in the August 1985 issue of Popular Mechanics. It's been visually updated for the 75th anniversary of the Trinity Nuclear Test that took place on July 16, 1945. This test was the world's first look at the power of the nuclear bomb.



Fierce thunderstorms and unpredictable winds had kept Norbert Deare awake late into the sweltering summer night. He had helped batten down the filling station near Socorro, N.M., the night before, thinking there might even be an overnight flood. About 5:30 the next morning, Deare's worst fears seemed trivial as he was thrown out of bed by an apocalyptic explosion far more frightening than the worst thunder he'd ever heard.

"The state police said it was an accidental explosion at the Army camp," Deare told an interviewer in documents released to Popular Mechanics by the Defense Department under the Federal Freedom of Information Act. "But it seemed more like the end of the world."

That explosion, which took place seconds before 5:30 a.m. on July 16, 1945, was, perhaps, the most significant event of the 20th century.

Yet it was almost a month later before the people who witnessed it, and the rest of the world, learned of its true importance. They had witnessed the explosion of the first atomic bomb.

Despite the fact that hundreds of scientists and thousands of support per sonnel had moved practically overnight into a sparsely populated part of the country, despite the strict security surrounding an enormous canvas-colored device that moved for days along the New Mexico prairie on a train; and, though the first A-bomb blast shook buildings all the way to El Paso, Texas, the War Department managed to keep the bomb a secret.

How they built the bomb is a story that will be told over and over again during this, the 40th anniversary of the atomic era. But how they hid the bomb may be an even more spectacular tale.

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Even today, hundreds of documents relating to the first A-bomb test remain locked away under secret classification. Still unavailable are several documents relating the results of radiation tests following the test blast at what is now the White Sands Missile Range. Also still under wraps are correspondences that might shed light on how much information leaked during the weeks between the test and the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945.

Among the startling facts uncovered in our investigation:

Dozens of documents that had been available to the public but were never used suddenly became classified sometime in the 1970s.

The governor of New Mexico in 1945 was not informed of the nature of the test until after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima the next month.

FBI agents visited the publishers of several major newspapers the day after the test to quash potential stories that might raise questions about the test.

Defense Department officials who have acknowledged that three different stories were prepared to explain the test to the public actually had prepared a half-dozen explanations. Among those not revealed until now was an explanation to cover civilian deaths in the Alamagordo, New Mexico, area. (In the end, the simplest explanation was released since no deaths were involved.)

The security set up around the A-bomb development and test had a very composed and easy appearance, from the front gate to the dozens of labs where the bomb was being built. Beneath the genteel surface, however, stood a hard-as-nails network to protect the secret. Dorothy McKibbin typifies this security network.

''When newcomers arrived, it was my job to make them feel comfortable, get them located and not answer any questions," Mrs. McKibbin told us in a brief interview. In the two years before the first A-bomb was exploded, she was the official greeter at Los Alamos, the northern New Mexico mountain town where the A-bomb was developed. Mrs. McKibbin's job was to greet personnel arriving at the research camp and direct them to their quarters. Anyone arriving without orders was to be directed away by Mrs. McKibbin, now in her eighties.

Keeping a Secret

Photo credit: Historical - Getty Images

To get an idea of how hard it was to keep the secret, consider the speed at which the Los Alamos compound grew. When the Army took over the 54,000acre site in 1942, the local population was under 250, including the faculty and students of the Los Alamos Ranch School. By the time the bomb was ready to be tested, the Los Alamos population hovered around 7,000. Directly or indirectly all worked for the Manhattan Engineering District, an Army unit whose name evolved into The Manhattan Project.

Besides Los Alamos, the district itself also included uranium-processing facilities in Tennessee and Washington state. The two areas combined had fewer than 30,000 residents before the Manhattan Project, but by August 1945, nearly 90,000 people lived and worked around the two facilities.

Under the direction of General Leslie Groves, who headed the Manhattan Project, security gradually came under the control of a special detachment headed by Major John Landsdale. The FBI, which had worked closely with the War Department's Counter Intelligence Corps in the first year of the project, began working directly with Landsdale in 1943, when security became his responsibility. The CIC had poor communications with the FBI, according to newspaper reports written over the past 20 years.

Photo credit: Historical - Getty Images

In addition to sheer numbers, Groves had to contend with scores of expatriate German scientists and with some American scientists who had shown sympathy to the Soviet Union.

Groves was under White House orders to develop the bomb quickly. The Manhattan Project did, in fact, yield a nuclear explosion less than three years after it was organized. To work at such breakneck speed, normal security checks would not be possible. Not only that, but it was impossible to check deeply on scientists who had escaped Nazi Germany. Groves settled on the simplest solution to each security problem, reasoning correctly that the more elaborate the security, the more attention would be drawn to Manhattan Project activities.

Standard security forms were used on new personnel. These would reveal names of friends, associates and organizations to which the applicant belonged. The FBI provided the Manhattan Project security people with backgrounders on all incoming personnel. Jobs were separated as much as possible so that no one person working on the project would know what another person was doing. For the most part, there were no security breakdowns. But the one that got away was explosive.

Photo credit: Los Alamos National Laboratory

German-born and English-educated physicist Carl Fuchs was arrested, after the bomb was developed, for passing secrets to the Russians. Neither court records nor documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act shed light on what Fuchs told the Russians, and he never publicly revealed his activities.

Keeping the press out of the picture was a major headache. Probably because there was a war on, the press was more cooperative than might be expected. Words like "atomic energy" were banned successfully from news stories. If a local Texas newspaper picked up a story that might reveal something about the A-bomb project, it stopped there. A Chicago newspaper, for example, would be barred from reporting the news to its readers.

On the day of the blast at Trinity Test Site in New Mexico, a Chicago resident was traveling through New Mexico by train. He felt the blast and saw the sky light up. At the next stop, according to one published account, he raced to a telephone and called a Chicago newspaper. The traveler thought he had witnessed the fall of a giant meteor. The reporter wrote a brief article and filed it with the city editor.

The next day, when she returned to work, FBI agents were waiting for her in the publisher's office. They explained to her that she should forget the story, and it never appeared.

Explaining the Blast

Photo credit: Getty Images

Any accounts of the blast on July 16 were based on the terse news release finally issued by Los Alamos. It read:

"Several inquiries have been received concerning a heavy explosion which occurred on the Alamogordo Air Base reservation this morning. A remotely located ammunition magazine containing a considerable amount of high explosives and pyrotechnics exploded. There was no loss of life or injury to anyone..."

Photo credit: Eric BRISSAUD - Getty Images

The true story would eventually be told, but only after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. To help provide the public with a credible account, the Manhattan Project allowed New York Times reporter William Laurence to live on the Los Alamos compound in the months leading to the blast. He kept the secret and wrote a celebrated series in the Times after Hiroshima.

In the days before the blast, Jumbo a 180-ton steel container for testing the A-bomb-had to be moved under canvas wraps across the New Mexico desert to the Trinity Test Site. It rode on a specially designed, 200-ton freight car. Even the military policemen riding with the train knew nothing of its contents. They were told that it would be used to store high explosives.

However, the container's unmistakable ballistic shape showed through the canvas, and many legends emerged. The most preposterous had it that the Army was working on a secret submarine in the desert.

How the government hid the A-bomb in New Mexico from even those who lived next door already is an intriguing story. When the remaining documents are released, it may prove even more exciting.

Photo credit: Education Images - Getty Images

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A Russian construction worker speaks on a mobile phone in Portovaya Bay some 106 miles north-west from St. Petersburg, Russia, during a ceremony marking the marking the start of Nord Stream pipeline construction on April 9, 2010. (Dmitry Lovetsky/AP Photo/ file)

US Warns Firms It Stands Ready to Sanction Supporters of Russias New Gas Pipelines

The Trump administration is warning investors in two Russian natural gas pipeline projects that they could face sanctions if the Kremlin uses energy exports as a tool of political influence.

The State Department has updated its public guidance on the Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) to clarify that the Trump administration stands ready to sanction investments or other activities related to a broader scope of Russian energy export pipelines, including Nord Stream 2 and the second line of Turk Stream.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at a press conference on July 15, Its a clear warning to companies aiding and abetting Russias malign influence projects will not be tolerated.

Get out now, or risk the consequences, he warned.

The United States considers the two energy projects key tools used by Russia to exploit and expand European dependence on Russian energy supplies and companies or persons that aid or abet them can be sanctioned, Pompeo said.

These arent commercial projects, he added. They are tools that undermine Ukraine by cutting off gas transiting that critical democracy, a tool that ultimately undermines transatlantic security.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a news conference at the State Department in Washington, on July 15, 2020. (Andrew Harnik/Pool via Reuters)

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline, once completed, will transport natural gas about 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) under the Baltic Sea directly from Russia to Germany without transiting any other country. The gas pipeline is owned by Russian state-run company Gazprom, and is similar to the Nord Stream pipeline thats already in operation and directly connects Germany with Russian gas.

Before the first Nord Stream had been built, Russia exported its gas to European countries including Germany through pipelines transiting Ukraine.

Ukraines energy infrastructure serves as a deterrent to Russian aggression, yet the Kremlin now seeks to undermine Ukraine by making that infrastructure obsolete, Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Frank Fannon said at the press conference.

The possibility to sanction Nord Stream 2 sends a clear signal about this administrations determination to use the tools we have  to support energy security goals, he added.

The United States, which has abundant reserves of natural gas, is trying to increase its exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe. It has also supported efforts by Europe to diversify its imports of LNG from sources other than Russia, including Norway.

The United States supports diversification of energy sources, regardless of where that energy comes from or the type of energy, Fannon said. It supports the Southern Gas Corridor project intended to bring gas from the Caspian region to South, Central, and Western Europe as well as the development of energy sources in the Eastern Mediterranean, he added.

Many countries in Europe are looking for opportunities to diversify their energy sources. Belarus has expanded its crude oil sources beyond Russia. Lithuania has acquired an LNG import vessel, and Poland has built an LNG terminal to bring gas from sources other than Russia, Fannon said. Ukraine, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Italy, and Romania also diversify their energy sources, he added.

A number of European countries share the United States concerns about the impact of Nord Stream 2 on European energy security and the potential for Russian aggression, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Chris Robinson said.

Allseas deep-sea pipe-laying ship Solitaire lays pipes for Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the Baltic Sea on Sept. 13, 2019. (Stine Jacobsen/Reuters)

Nord Stream 2 suspended construction in December 2019 after Swiss-Dutch company Allseas, which specializes in subsea construction, pulled out following sanctions imposed by the United States on the project.

Two Russian-owned pipe-laying vessels may finish the remaining 100 miles (160 kilometers) of the project. Gazprom is financing half of the project worth about 9.5 billion euros ($10.5 billion).

Other partners in Nord Stream 2 are Austrias OMV, the German firms Uniper and Wintershall, Anglo-Dutch energy major Royal Dutch Shell Plc, and Frances Engie.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the sanctions on the two pipelines equates to political pressure, TASS news agency reported. Russia has also said its considering retaliatory measures.

The German government has said it regrets the threat of sanctions and considers them interference in the countrys domestic affairs. However, Chancellor Angela Merkel made it clear last week that Germany isnt considering retaliation against the sanctions.

With the Turk Stream pipeline consisting of two 578-mile (930-kilometer) long lines, Russian gas passes through the Black Sea to Turkey. The sanctions warning applies only to the second Turk Stream line delivering gas to Southern and Southeastern Europe.

The first line of Turk Stream, which is designed exclusively to supply Turkeys domestic natural gas market, isnt subject to sanctions, according to the updated public guidance.

A ship works offshore in the Baltic Sea on the natural gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 from Russia to Germany on Nov. 11, 2018. (Bernd Wuestneck/dpa via AP)

US Lawmakers Aim to Expand Nord Stream 2 Sanctions



Last month, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators led by Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) introduced a bipartisan sanctions bill for entities involved in Nord Stream 2.

The measures, which will only become law after being approved by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump, would expand existing sanctions to include penalties on parties providing underwriting services, insurance or reinsurance, and pipe-laying activities.

We must now continue that effort and ensure that Russia does not surreptitiously extend its malign influence throughout Europe, Shaheen said in a statement. Nord Stream 2 threatens Ukraine, Europes energy independence, and gives Russia an opening to exploit our allies.

There is bipartisan and bicameral consensus that Russias Nord Stream 2 pipeline poses a critical threat to Americas national security and must not be completed, Cruz said in the statement.

He added that as Putin continues to try to circumvent the sanctions already in place, the legislation will clarify that those involved in any way with installing pipeline for the project will face crippling and immediate American sanctions.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
An emerging hydrogel material with the capacity to degrade and spontaneously reform in the gastrointestinal tract could help researchers develop more effective methods for oral drug delivery.

The majority of drugs and nutrients are absorbed into the body in the intestines, but to get there, they have to traverse the stomacha very acidic, harsh environment that can interfere with the active molecules in pharmaceuticals, says Kelly Schultz, an associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering in Lehigh Universitys P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science.

Schultz and fourth-year chemical engineering PhD student Nan Wu are studying covalent adaptable hydrogels (CAHs), which are being designed to release molecules as they lose polymer in the stomach but then re-gel on their own, which protects the molecules and allows them to stay active for targeted delivery in the intestines. The teams microrheology research is featured in an article and inside cover illustration in the current issue of Soft Matter.

To characterize the material and provide insight into its pharmaceutical potential, Wu has repurposed a microfluidic device originally developed in Schultzs lab for research into fabric and home care products to create a GI tract-on-a-chip. The experimental setup allows her to exchange the fluid environment around the gel to mimic the pH environment of all the organs in the GI tract, simulating how the material would react over time if ingested.

Using microrheology, Wu collects microscopy data and measures how much particles within the gel wiggle, with some experiments taking hours and others spanning days, depending on the digestive organ she is replicating. Wu tracks the particles using an algorithm that yields scientifically meaningful information on the properties of the material, which was originally developed by University of Colorado at Boulder professor Kristi S. Anseth.

CAHs exhibit unusual spontaneous re-gelation that is really surprising, Schultz says. Typically, gels wont degrade and then reform without any added stimuli as these do. Weve demonstrated viability of CAHs as means of oral drug and nutrient delivery, and now were starting to work on molecular release studies and adding in other components to make the experiments more complex.

Wu has been investigating these materials over the course of her entire PhD studies, says Schultz. Shes doing amazing work and is committed to understanding every aspect of the research.

Schultzs research lab focuses on the characterization of colloidal and polymeric gel scaffolds and the development of new techniques to characterize these complex systems, which play important roles in fields such as health care and consumer products.

What we do in biomaterials is somewhat unique: There's a lot of work on the cross-linking chemistry and actually developing these materials, and there's a lot of animal research that implants and tests them, but there's not that much work in the middle. A great deal of mystery lies between designing a material and understanding whats going on when it's working. We're trying to find new ways that we can replicate whats going on inside of an animal or a person and collect important measurements to connect the dots and inform further studies.

Research supported in part by National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under award number R15GM119065. Content is solely responsibility of authors and does not necessarily represent official views of NIH.

About Kelly M. Schultz

Kelly M. Schultz is an associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Lehigh University. She earned her BS in chemical engineering from Northeastern University (2006) and PhD in chemical engineering with Professor Eric Furst from the University of Delaware (2011) as a National Science Foundation graduate research fellow. While at Delaware, she was invited to speak in the American Chemical Society Excellence in Graduate Polymers Research Symposium and was selected as the Fraser and Shirley Russell Teaching Fellow. Following her PhD, she was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute postdoctoral research associate at the University of Colorado at Boulder working in the laboratory of Professor Kristi Anseth. As a postdoc, she was invited to participate in the Distinguished Young Scholars Summer Seminar Series at the University of Washington. She joined Lehigh as an assistant professor in 2013 and was a P.C. Rossin Assistant Professor from 2016 to 2018. Schultz was named one of TA Instruments Distinguished Young Rheologists in 2014 and was recognized by the NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program in 2018. She received Lehighs Libsch Early Career Research Award in 2019 and the Excellence in Research Scholarship & Leadership Award from the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Sciences in 2020. Schultz and her research group study emerging hydrogel materials developed for biological applications, such as wound healing and tissue regeneration.

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Cozy Bear, one of the same Russian Advanced Persistent Threat groups involved in the 2015 hack of the Democratic National Committee, has been targeting COVID-19 vaccine development in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, according to a joint advisory released by all three countries.

The advisory, endorsed by the National Security Agency and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said the group is using a mix of spearphishing and recently published public exploits to gain initial access to organizations involved in developing or researching vaccines for the coronavirus before deploying custom malware known as WellMess and WellMail to download and exfiltrate targeted data. The document includes Indicators of Compromise for both pieces of malware.

APT29 is likely to continue to target organisations involved in COVID-19 vaccine research and development, as they seek to answer additional intelligence questions relating to the pandemic, the document states.

The Russian group has been using recently published exploits for a number of technologies, including VPNs made by Pulse Secure, Fortinet and Palo Alto, Zimbra email collaboration tools and Citrix Application Delivery Control and Gateway products. Both NSA and CISA have released warnings in the last two months about the potential exploitation of numerous vulnerabilities in commercial VPN software, particularly as many countries have sent their employees to work from home during the pandemic.

In a statement sent to FCW after publication, Fortinet spokesperson Tiffany Curci said the company could not confirm that the described vulnerabilities were used by APT 29, but it has been strongly urging users to patch since last year.

"In May 2019 Fortinet issued a [Product Security Incident Response Team] advisory regarding an SSL vulnerability that was resolved, and also communicated directly with customers and via a corporate blog post strongly recommending an upgrade," Curci said. "While we cannot confirm that the attack vectors for this group took place via this vulnerability, we are reaching out to customers and strongly urging them to implement the upgrade and mitigations."

Governments and security researchers have been sounding the alarm for months that vaccine organizations are being targeted by hackers, but much of that discussion has been focused on another rival power, China.

The Chinese government has reportedly sponsored attacks against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), hospitals, research laboratories, health care providers, and pharmaceutical companies with the goal of stealing COVID-19 treatment and vaccine research, wrote Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, in a May 13 letter to President Donald Trump. By targeting hospitals and health care providers, these state-sponsored hackers put the lives of Americans who are seeking care at risk.

The widespread targeting of companies and public health organizations over the past six months has caused the NSA to prioritize protecting vaccine research and push more signals intelligence to American medical organizations.

"It wasn't [more than] a few days into March where phone calls were coming in to NSA asking us for our insights and our support to that community, and so we have doubled down and really accelerated and intensified efforts to reach out," Deputy Director George Barnes said in May.

In a July 16 speech in Grand Rapids, Mich., Attorney General Bill Barr said "PRC-linked hackers have targeted American universities and firms in a bid to steal IP related to coronavirus treatments and vaccines, sometimes disrupting the work of our researchers." Leaders in Beijing, he said, are "desperate for a public relations coup, and may hope that it will be able to claim credit for any medical breakthroughs."

However, others have also criticized the desire by some countries to keep such research secret, saying it amounts to hoarding during a deadly pandemic. Some groups have banded together to promote an open-source approach that would share such research among different countries in the hope of speeding up vaccine development.

The ultimate goal for some of these attacks are not always clear, though most believe it illustrates how desperate many countries are to gather intelligence from rivals on a potential vaccine to a pandemic that has caused intense disruption to global economic and social activities. Vaccine development typically takes years, but the Trump administration has attempted to dramatically cut down on that timeline through Operation Warp Speed, an initiative designed to develop 300 million doses of a workable vaccine by January 2021. Earlier this month, the National Institutes of Health announced it had established a network of clinical trials to test a variety of vaccines and antibodies related to the virus.

If successful, such research would be invaluable to other countries that are racing to develop their own response, and most expects believe there will be substantial delays and rationing of any vaccine once it is developed.

COVID-19 is an existential threat to every government in the world, so its no surprise that cyber espionage capabilities are being used to gather intelligence on a cure, said John Hultquist, Senior Director of Analysis at FireEyes Mandiant Threat Intelligence in a statement. The organizations developing vaccines and treatments for the virus are being heavily targeted by Russian, Iranian, and Chinese actors seeking a leg up on their own research. Weve also seen significant COVID-related targeting of governments that began as early as January.

This article was updated with comments from Fortinet.
Research England has awarded two grants, totalling 1.5 million, to support two programmes working to dramatically increase the economic value and social impacts derived from university research, both internationally and in the UK. The funds will be administered by the University of Cambridge.

The grants, from the Research England Development (RED) Fund, support two programmes: TenU and a new Policy Evidence Unit for University Commercialisation and Innovation (UCI).

A leading practitioner group, TenU will share expertise and experience to develop, improve, and disseminate best practice in research commercialisation. UCI will undertake research to create the evidence base for informing research commercialisation policy for government and universities. The two groups will work closely in areas of mutual interest.

TenU brings together the heads of the world's leading technology transfer offices (TTOs) at ten top universities--Cambridge (UK), Columbia (USA), Edinburgh (UK), Imperial College London (UK), Leuven (Belgium), Manchester (UK), MIT (USA), Stanford (USA), Oxford (UK), and University College London (UK)--to share and develop improved approaches to commercialising university research for societal and economic benefit.

Research from these universities has led to many world changing innovations, such as rapid whole genome sequencing (Cambridge), the page rank algorithm technology that became the basis for Google (Stanford), the world's first artificial vaccine against viral hepatitis B (Edinburgh), fibre optics (Imperial), one of the most widely used medications for HIV treatment (Leuven), and programmed T cell therapies (University College London).

As the world works to rebuild its economies in the wake of COVID-19, university TTOs will play a critical role in turning early-stage, research-based innovations into new products and services across many different sectors. In the UK, the Industrial Strategy has identified universities as key drivers of innovation. In the US similar policy is embodied in the Return on Investment (ROI) Initiative, led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the US Department of Commerce.

The second grant will provide 1.2 million to the University of Cambridge to establish a Policy Evidence Unit for University Commercialisation and Innovation (UCI). The new unit will help to drive a step change in universities' contributions to delivering increased R&D and innovation in the UK through these uncertain and turbulent times.

UCI will be developed in partnership with the Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (CSTI) and the National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB). It will create much needed capacity in the UK to support the needs of UK government departments, funding agencies, and universities for better data, evidence, and expert insights, to develop more effective approaches for university commercialisation and innovation.

The needs for better evidence are growing as we move from the immediate Covid-19 pandemic crisis into the longer term economic recovery period, and as the government looks to maximise the value realised from its increasing investments in the research base. Universities need to find new ways of working with businesses, investors and others to open up opportunities for wealth creation, address emerging innovation challenges, and improve productivity. To unlock this potential, governments will have to adapt policies and funding programmes to become key enabling partners in this process.

Working closely with key stakeholders, UCI will be initially focusing on three areas:

* First, developing an evidence base on how the Covid-19 induced economic crisis is affecting universities' abilities to contribute to innovation, and identify possible actions to ensure they are able to play a strategic and active role in the national economic recovery. * Second, improving our understanding of the research-to-innovation commercialisation journeys and examine how policies and university practices could be strengthened to deliver increased value to the UK. * Third, advancing the data and metrics available to better capture the performance of universities in delivering economic and social impacts through their commercialisation activities to facilitate more effective benchmarking and evaluation of performance.

UCI will be hosted by CSTI in the University of Cambridge's Department of Engineering.

David Sweeney, Executive Chair, Research England, said: "In line with the UK Government's R&D Roadmap, Research England as part of UK Research and Innovation needs to demonstrate we are world class at securing economic and social benefits from research. University technology transfer is at the heart of that. Research England funding for TenU will help showcase best practice at the global cutting edge, with the new UCI policy unit providing critical evidence and metrics. We look forward to deepening these international links".

Tony Raven, CEO of Cambridge Enterprise, said: "We welcome this vital support from Research England, which enables us to continue to share, compare, and advance international best practice in university research commercialisation for the benefit of our economies and societies locally, nationally, and globally".

Tomas Ulrichsen, Director of the new Policy Evidence Unit for University Commercialisation and Innovation, said: "I am delighted to bring expertise from CSTI, the University of Cambridge, and NCUB together to establish this important new policy evidence unit. The grant from the Research England Development Fund will enable us to support policymakers, funders, and universities with better and more targeted evidence and expert insight, to consider how to build on and adapt their approaches to university-driven commercialisation and innovation. This will help economies across the UK recover, reconfigure, and thrive through the economic recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic".

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The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav and the Congress have taken a dig at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after the collapse of the Sattarghat bridge also called Ramjanki path on Gandak River in Gopalganj district. The bridge was inaugurated by Chief Minister Kumar on June 16.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav and Bihar Congress chief Madan Mohan Jha attacked the Chief Minister on the issue.

Tejashwi Yadav, who is also the Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, taunted Kumar saying, beware, if someone called it corruption of Nitish Kumar.

He said that Kumar would not utter a word in this matter.

Tejashwi posted a picture and video of the culvert and road on his official Twitter handle, saying, "The bridge was built in 8 years at a cost of Rs 263 crore but it collapsed in just 29 days. Bhishma Pitamah of organized corruption Nitish ji will neither speak a word, nor will he sack the corrupt Minister who claims to give Range Rover experiance through a bicycle ride. There is loot in Bihar everywhere."

In another tweet, he wrote in sarcasm, "Nitish ji inaugurated the Sattar Ghat bridge of Gopalganj constructed at a cost of Rs 263.47 crore in 8 years, on June 16. Just 29 days later this bridge has collapsed. Beware! If someone calls it corruption of Nitish ji? Rs 263 crore is just a gift. His rats drink liquor worth this amount."

A minister in 2017 had blamed rats for making holes in the embankments which led to the collapse of the structure.

The Congress also targeted the Nitish government. Senior Congress leader and former state president of Youth Congress Lallan Kumar said this is the result of corruption of the BJP-JDU government. The investigation of the one scam has not even been completed yet and now this. Such a big scam has surfaced on the Ramjanaki path.

He said now ministers and officials will share the spoils of the loot. He said that crores of rupees are spent every year in the name of repair of roads during floods, which is like a celebrations for leaders and officials of the ruling party.

The Ramjanaki path which was inaugurated just a month ago could not withstand the pressure of Gandak river in Gopalganj district of Bihar and collapsed, creating hindrance to the traffic on this route.

With this, the contact with several districts of North Bihar was lost due to road link snap in Khomhaipur in Baikunthpur block of Gopalganj district.

This road mainly connects Kesariya and Baikunthpur in East Champaran. An amount of about Rs 263 crore was spent in the construction of the bridge, culvert and approach road.
Tink, a Stockholm, Sweden-based open banking platform, Instantor, a Stockholm, Sweden-based provider of credit decision solutions based on open banking technology.

The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

The deal will enable Tink to continue its expansion across Europe and strengthen its product offering. Following the acquisition, Instantors products and services  that are used by more than 150 live customers, including banks and fintechs across 13 European markets  become part of Tink. Founded in 2010 and led by Simon Edstrom, CEO, Instantor provides banks and fintechs with products to enhance credit decisions by extracting insights from consumer bank transactions to verify income and identify risk behaviours to allow for improved assessments of credit risk. Headquartered in Stockholm, the company supports more than 5 million credit decisions annually and had an annual revenue of 4M in 2019.

Led by Daniel Kjellen, CEO, Tink is an open banking platform that enables banks, fintechs and startups to develop data-driven financial services. Through one API, the company allows customers to access aggregated financial data, initiate payments, enrich transactions and build personal finance management tools. Tink connects to more than 2,500 banks that reach over 250 million bank customers across Europe. Founded in 2012, the company has 270 employees serving 14 European markets out of 13 offices.

FinSMEs

16/07/2020
Mark Sutherland, an ecologist with Safe Skies Maryland, described Howard County as a pioneer with its solution to reducing the number of bird deaths annually. Sutherland, who testified at a public hearing and urged the County Council to vote in favor of the legislation, said more than 1 billion birds die every year in the United States and there are 29 percent fewer birds in the United States and Canada than there were 50 years ago.
T he police watchdog has launched an investigation after officers accused a black woman of "jumping on the bandwagon" when they stopped her and her husband.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is investigating the incident involving Ingrid Antoine-Onikoyi, her husband, Falil, and two officers from the Suffolk Police force.

Suffolk Police told the Evening Standard that the matter had been "voluntarily referred" to the IOPC.

"The IOPC have decided they will conduct an independent investigation into the complaint and therefore it would not be appropriate for the force to comment further at this time," a Suffolk Constabulary spokesman said.

A complaint was made after two officers were filmed asking Ms Antoine-Onikoyi, 47, and Falil, 50, for their details after the couple had parked their cars near a relative's home in Ipswich, saying they were making the request "because we can".

In the video, a male officer accuses the couple of looking "suspicious". He says: "At the end of the day, whether it looks funny or not, you were driving a motor vehicle on a road, so therefore I am requiring you to provide proof of drivers (licence)."

Footage of the incident was circulated widely on Twitter (Maja Antoine) / Maja Antoine

Ms Antoine-Oniyoke replies to him: You are kidding us right now. You can see why people get upset.

The female officer later says: You have turned something irate that shouldnt be. You are just jumping on the bandwagon - thats not okay.

She appeared to be referring to anti-racism demonstrations sparked by the killing of George Floyd in the United States.

Ms Antoine-Onikoyi told the officers at the time their behaviour was "disgusting, while her husband accuses them of profiling the pair.

Footage of the exchange was subsequently shared on Twitter by the couple's daughter, Maja Antoine, and has since been viewed more than two million times on the platform.

She said in her tweet: "It's suspicious to walk from your car to your house, while black. The UK is not innocent."

Commenting on the incident, IOPC regional director Sarah Green said it had "raised concerns about public confidence in policing and not least from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities".

"To ensure the police are accountable for their actions it is important we establish all of the circumstances surrounding this incident," she said.

We will be examining the stop, whether the actions of the officers were appropriate and proportionate, followed approved police policies and whether the officers treated the man and his partner differently because of their race.

Speaking to the BBC after receiving news of the IOPC investigation, Ms Antoine said she was "pleased" but pressed for a "proper" probe into the incident.

"What we need is a proper apology," she added.

Suffolk Police issued a public apology over last month's incident shortly after it took place.

The force said in a statement at the time: "Suffolk Constabulary is aware of the video circulating on social media involving two of our officers.

Having looked at the issues raised by a large number of people, particularly regarding certain comments which were made on the video, we would like to apologise for the offence these have caused.

It continued: "The constabulary is very aware of the depth of feeling surrounding the events of the last few weeks and the issue of racism in our society.

We always try to ensure we police all our communities with dignity, respect and fairness. Where those values are not met we will do everything we can to learn from that.

The Standard has contacted the IOPC for comment.
Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

New York  Vietnamese and US firms sought ways to overcome economic difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic during an online trade exchange event on July 15.

Speaking at the event, Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, head of the Vietnam Permanent Mission to the United Nations, said the two countries will surely offer the best conditions for their firms to develop, thus helping to lift bilateral ties to a new height.

Sharing the same view, Minister Counsellor Bui Huy Son, head of the Vietnam Trade Office in the US, said the event will enable US enterprises to learn about the promising Vietnamese market and make it easier for Vietnamese firms to approach the huge US market.

Director of the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) Vu Ba Phu said since the COVID-19 outbreak, the agency has held a number of online trade promotion events, especially in Vietnams traditional and potential markets such as the US, India, Russia and Singapore, drawing hundreds of enterprises.

An The Dung, Director of the Vietrade Office in New York, said achievements in the fight against COVID-19 has made Vietnam a safe destination for investors at the crisis time.

Data from the Ministry of Industry and Trade showed that Vietnam still receives hundreds of transaction letters each day and thousands of enterprises accessed the Vietrade portal to seek opportunities. Two-way trade grew by over 4 percent in the first five months of this year, with US exports to Vietnam up 3 percent.

Lauren Merkel from the Empire State Development, for her part, affirmed that New York authorities, especially Governor Andrew Cuomo, always stay ready to offer all possible support to Vietnamese businesses interested in doing business with New York partners, and vice versa.

Daniel Pint from the US Department of Commerce introduced US firms to participants, as well as their requirements for exports-imports. He added that businesses opportunities with the US are abundant and the US is ready to offer opportunities to qualified and capable partners.

According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, two-way trade between Vietnam and the US has grown by 20 percent on average each year, from 41.28 billion USD in 2015 to 75.72 billion USD in 2019.

Vietnam is now the 16th largest trade partner of the US in the world, while the US is the third biggest trade partner of the Southeast Asian nation.

With a gross domestic product (GDP) average growth rate of nearly 7 percent each year and a 100-million population, Vietnam is expected to become a promising market for US companies in the fields of agriculture, renewable energy, telecommunications, aviation or finance-banking.
President Donald Trump addresses reporters in the Oval Office of the White House after receiving a briefing from law enforcement on "Keeping American Communities Safe: The Takedown of Key MS-13 Criminal Leaders" on July 15, 2020 in Washington. (Anna Moneymaker-Pool/Getty Images)

Trump Intends to Challenge Subpoena for Financial Records, Lawyers Say

President Donald Trump intends to challenge a subpoena for his tax records by criminal prosecutors despite a U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing the pursuit, his lawyers told a judge on July 15.

The presidents lawyers outlined the plans in a letter to a Manhattan federal judge overseeing the dispute over a subpoena issued to Mazars USA, Trumps accounting firm, by District Attorney of New York County Cyrus Vance for tax records relating to Trump and his businesses in connection to a grand jury investigation.

Vance is investigating settlement money allegedly paid to two women during the 2016 presidential campaign: adult film performer Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in connection with the two women.

Trump has been fighting Vances subpoena since September 2019, arguing that he enjoys absolute immunity from state-level criminal process under the Constitution. The district court denied Trumps application for an injunction over the subpoena and dismissed the case in October. The 2nd Circuit also denied the presidents request for relief.

The president may raise further arguments as appropriate including whether the subpoena is too broad or whether it would impede his constitutional duties, Trumps lawyers wrote in a joint filing made with the lower court judge on Wednesday, noting that Trump plans to file a complaint by July 27.

The President intends to raise some or all of these arguments in his forthcoming Second Amended Complaint, they wrote.

Lawyers for Trump argued that the case requires a more thorough factual record be developed by the two parties.

The President should not be required, for example, to litigate the subpoenas breadth or whether it was issued in bad faith without understanding the nature and scope of the investigation and why the District Attorney needs all of the documents he has demanded, they wrote.

Trumps lawyers may also argue that Vance, a Democrat, pursued the subpoena to harass the president or retaliate against his policies.

Vance has denied acting in bad faith and said the motives for a subpoena are not something courts should normally examine.

The federal government, which was also involved in the case, argued that a state grand jury subpoena for personal records of a sitting president should meet a higher standard of need.

But the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 (pdf) on July 9 that Trump does not have broad immunity from criminal probes while in the White House.

President Donald Trump (L) shakes hands with Chief Justice John Roberts (R) in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 28, 2017. (Jim Lo Scalzo  Pool/Getty Images)

No citizen, not even the President, is categorically above the common duty to produce evidence when called upon in a criminal proceeding, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote on July 9.

In our judicial system, the public has a right to every mans evidence, he wrote. Since the earliest days of the Republic, every man has included the President of the United States.

Roberts noted that the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals decision only focused on the absolute immunity and heightened need arguments, and thus sent the case back to the lower courts so that the president may raise further arguments as appropriate.

U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero scheduled a hearing on the matter for July 16 for the parties to provide him with potential areas for further argument (pdf) in light of the Supreme Court ruling.

Janita Kan and Reuters contributed to this report.
The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) has replied it cannot half its channels of broadcasting from six to three on the National Digital Terrestrial Television platform as directed by the Communications Minister, Hon Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful.



In a letter to the National Media Commission (NMC), Director-General of the state broadcaster Prof. Amin Alhassan said all six channels serve specific purposes, therefore, none can be taken off.



Giving a breakdown of their uses, Prof Alhassan said all six channels are dedicated 24-hours channels with specified focus reflecting the mandate of GBC as a State Broadcaster, a Public Service Broadcaster and a Commercial Broadcaster.



He added that in view of this, GBC is unable to respond to the request of the Hon. Minister of Communication, the letter indicated.



The directive from the Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful indicated that the intention to reduce the number of channels GBC currently operates is to ensure there is enough redundancy on the national Digital Terrestrial Television platform which is currently at full capacity.



The letter added that you will, therefore, be required to consolidate your programming in line with this directive, adding please take steps to implement this directive within 60 days of receipt of this letter.



It further stated that after the planned future expansion of capacity on the network, which has been delayed by the pandemic and the uncertainties generated in global supply chains, the GBC will be allocated additional channels.

Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected]









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IF there was ever an example of just how blind the City of Winnipeg is to poverty, its how it treats those without money in the summer. Those who are wealthy or lucky enough to have access to cottages can escape the miserable heat and humidity. Those who arent are stuck.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 16/7/2020 (552 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

IF there was ever an example of just how blind the City of Winnipeg is to poverty, its how it treats those without money in the summer. Those who are wealthy or lucky enough to have access to cottages can escape the miserable heat and humidity. Those who arent are stuck.

Community libraries, which can offer welcome respite from the heat, are closed on the weekends and in the evenings. Some outdoor pools, thankfully, are in operation, but they are becoming too expensive to operate and are being phased out in favour of spray pads and wading pools, which have age restrictions and limited hours.

Simply put, when there are long periods of heat, the city makes no effort to provide cooling stations for those who are homeless or living in the many homes, apartment buildings or housing complexes that do not have air conditioning.

Instead, this city turns its back on those who suffer in the heat without ventilation or air conditioning, leaving it up to organizations such as Main Street Project and Siloam Mission to pick up the slack.

Heat waves  defined as higher-than-average temperatures for extended periods of time  can be dangerous, particularly for the elderly and marginalized people, who may not be able to get relief from oppressively hot temperatures. An increase in prolonged high temperatures will have greater impact on peoples health. At best, they cause a lack of sleep and irritability; at worst they can result in heat stroke and death.

And now, with suggestions that Winnipeg summers are becoming increasingly hotter as a result of global warming, one would hope the city would start to take some lessons from cities like Toronto in understanding that long, uninterrupted hot spells, particularly with high humidity, are just as dangerous as cold spells.

The City of Toronto in 2017 outlined its initiative to provide cooling centres following a board of health decision to reduce vulnerability to extreme heat in the community and in homes. This was in response to the federal governments discussions on a national housing strategy.

Torontos board of health determined that extreme heat is associated with a range of illnesses, including heat stroke and death: "Those most vulnerable to heat include isolated seniors, people with chronic and pre-existing illnesses, children, and people who are marginally housed or homeless. In Toronto  people who live in older apartment buildings may be at particular risk from heat."

The board determined that many of these buildings are not air conditioned and are home to low-income families and newcomers.

The beginning of July ushered in a heat wave for southern Ontario, with Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area seeing temperatures in the high 30s, with humidity pushing the heat index into the 40s. Meteorologists are predicting the GTAs hot sticky weather will stick around for July and August.

In response, the city has opened emergency cooling centres and extended the opening times for swimming pools so people can find an escape.

How does the City of Winnipeg respond when were in for a long stretch of hot, humid weather? Well, it doesnt really do anything. Libraries remain shuttered on the weekends. Pool hours stay the same.

Instead, the embattled organizations that work with the homeless put out the urgent cry for bottled water, and Winnipeggers once again rise to the challenge.

Main Street Projects Cindy Titus said earlier this month that when the last heat wave was at its peak, the organizations new, expanded shelter facility at 190 Disraeli Freeway was allowing people the opportunity to have access to showers and water, which is positive. And in the past, both Siloam Mission and Main Street Project have seen fit to expand their facilities hours of operation to ensure they are open to offer someplace to rest for those who are marginalized.

But the health and well-being of Winnipegs poorly housed and homeless should not be left up to non-profits.

Last week, it was revealed that Manitobas public-health officials have not been tracking the statistics on heat-related deaths. Manitobas chief public health officer, Dr. Brent Roussin, said there is no requirement to report these to health authorities. In this province, where summers are hot and winters are long and cold, deaths as a result of the environment should be tracked.

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Further, the city should be responsible for providing adequate protection in either case, with the use of warming and cooling shelters.

Talk about a clear division between rich and poor: suffering, perhaps even dying, because you cant afford to stay cool or warm in a city that could easily provide access to both kinds of relief.

Shannon Sampert is a retired political scientist who works as a media consultant.

www.mediadiva.ca.

shannon@mediadiva.ca

Twitter: @CdnMediadiva
Kenyas Afro-pop songbird Nadia Mukami on Wednesday premiered her highly-anticipated music video dubbed Tesa featuring Khaligraph Jones and Fena Gitu.

Tesa is Nadia Mukamis 11th studio single and her second track off her upcoming EP, African Popstar the EP.

Produced by Vicky Pon Dis, this feel-good track party anthem sees the highflying trio combine effortlessly to get the groove the on. Tesa visuals, directed by Deska Torres of Platinum Pictures, are shot in a club setting showing Nadia and her crew having a good time.

The video is evidently doing well with over 73K views in just eight hours after its premiere on YouTube. It has also been receiving rave reviews, with some Kenyans calling on President Uhuru Kenyatta to reopen clubs so that they can Tesa.

Singer Muthoni Drummer Queen was among the first to commend the trio for a job well done, saying: Holy shit!! This is super super super dope!! Nadia hii wimbo Ina Tesa! As always Fena be the MVP of Kenyan music. Asanteni wadau. Imeweza mbaya!! ??

Check it out below. Rating 9/10.




By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON, July 16 (Reuters) - The National Defense Authorization Act, which sets policy for the U.S. Defense Department, is one of the only major bills to reliably pass Congress and be signed into law every year.

As lawmakers consider the $740 billion NDAA proposal for 2021, they are bracing for the possibility that President Donald Trump will veto what is usually viewed as a "must-pass" measure, over objections to renaming U.S. military facilities named after Confederate generals.

Here are a few things to watch for when debate begins next week:

SWAN SONG FOR SPENDING?

This year's NDAA could be the swan song for the constant expansion of the military budget, which has soared since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, except when reined in by mandatory spending caps.

Trump, with the help of the Republican-controlled Senate, has made boosting defense spending a top priority, using it to advance projects politically important to the president, including building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, deploying a new type of smaller nuclear bomb and creating a new branch of the military called the Space Force.

If Trump loses to former Vice President Joe Biden in the Nov. 3 election, or if Republicans lose control of the Senate, that could signal reduced spending in the coming years as Democrats look to boost funding for education, healthcare and other programs.

Regardless of the outcome of the Nov. 3 elections, the defense industry, companies including Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Technologies Corp, are expecting lower or flat defense spending in the coming years after a run up in recent years.

HOW WILL THE U.S. CULTURE WARS INFLUENCE THE PROCESS?

The proposed House and Senate defense bills both include language that would rename U.S. military bases named after former leaders of the pro-slavery Confederacy. The proposals have the support of Democrats and many Republicans, as well as leaders of the military, one of the most racially diverse organizations in the United States.

Story continues

Trump has vowed to veto any bill that includes such language. As he campaigns ahead of elections on Nov. 3, Trump has backed the continued display of Confederate symbols and criticized protesters, even downplaying police violence against Black people.

Some Democrats also want the 2021 NDAA to end a program that gives military equipment to police forces and to bar the deployment of troops against civilian protesters.

WHAT ABOUT U.S. TROOPS IN GERMANY?

A rare point of contention arose between Trump and his fellow Republicans in Congress last month when he announced plans to withdraw some 10,000 of the 34,500 U.S. troops in Germany, a major center for American forces since World War Two.

Trump has accused Germany of not pulling its weight as part of the NATO alliance.

Some Republicans and Democrats criticized the plan, saying that the U.S.-German alliance helps to counter the global international influence of Russia and China. Groups of lawmakers from both the Democratic-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate want to include in the NDAA a measure that would bar Trump from lowering troop levels until 180 days after Pentagon leaders certify to Congress that doing so would not harm the interests of the United States or its allies. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle, additional reporting by Mike Stone; editing by Scott Malone and Lisa Shumaker)
A manhunt is under way to find a Sydney man wanted on serious drug charges who failed to appear in a Melbourne court on Wednesday.

Jim Soukoulis, 55, was extradited to Victoria in mid-2017 when he was charged over an alleged plan to import more than 250kg of methamphetamine from California to Australia via light aircraft.

Sydney man Jim Soukoulis. Credit:Australian Federal Police

He was bailed once he arrived in Melbourne and lived in the suburb of South Melbourne. He fled to an unknown location while on bail in November 2019.

On Wednesday, Mr Soukoulis was required to face the Melbourne County Court but did not appear. As well as the alleged plot to import drugs, he is charged with allegedly dealing with more than $1,000,000 that police believe was an instrument of crime.
U.S. Threatens To Expand Sanctions On Nord Stream 2 As Russia Moves To Complete Pipeline

By RFE/RL July 15, 2020

WASHINGTON -- The United States has threatened to sanction any individual or company helping Russia build a controversial natural gas pipeline to Germany as the Kremlin moves to complete the last kilometers of the nearly $11 billion project.

"Get out now -- or risk the consequences," U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said July 15 during a press conference in Washington announcing the new sanction guidelines for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

The State Department essentially removed language that excluded the pipeline from the powerful Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which was passed in 2017.

Unable to use CAATSA, the United States in December passed legislation to sanction any vessel laying underwater pipes for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, forcing Swiss-based Allseas to quit the project with just about 160 kilometers remaining.

The pipeline, which consists of two parallel lines running under the Baltic Sea, is a combined 1,230 kilometers in length.

Russia is now trying to use its own vessels to finish Nord Stream 2 after receiving permission from Denmark earlier this month. The unfinished portion of the pipeline lies in Denmark's economic waters.

However, the Russian ship would still need to use the services of Western companies, such as port facilities and insurance, giving the United States the potential to hamper their efforts.

CAATSA allowed Congress to sanction Russian energy export pipelines but contained guidance put in by Pompeo's predecessor, Rex Tillerson, that grandfathered in Nord Stream 2 and the second leg of TurkStream, which runs under the Black Sea to Turkey.

Pompeo said the State Department is updating the public guidance for CAATSA authorities to include the two Russian-led projects, which he described as "Kremlin tools" to expand European dependence on Russian energy supplies and undermine Ukraine.

Pompeo is set to visit Denmark on July 22 to discuss the pipeline, among other issues.

Nord Stream 2 would pump up to 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Germany annually upon its completion, doubling the European nation's import of Russian gas.

The project enables Moscow to significantly reduce natural gas shipments through Ukraine, which currently earns billions of dollars annually in transit fees.

"They are winding up and laying the ground for the imposition of additional sanctions if Russia attempts to deploy its pipe-laying vessels," said Dan Vajdic, an adviser to Ukraine's state-owned energy firm Naftogaz, which lobbied Washington to impose more sanctions.

The United States is seeking to export more natural gas to Europe while helping Eastern and Central Europe develop the necessary infrastructure to reduce their dependence on Russian oil and gas.

Congress last year approved up to $1 billion in financing for energy infrastructure projects in the region.

James Carafano, a national security and foreign policy fellow at The Heritage Foundation, told a congressional hearing on July 14 that the completion of Nord Stream 2 would destroy the economic rationale for such U.S.-backed projects.

The State Department denied that the threat of new sanctions against Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream are designed to help U.S. exporters of natural gas.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/u-s-threatens-to-expand- sanctions-on-nord-stream-2-as-russia-moves -to-complete-pipeline/30728812.html

Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Linkedin Sultan Anshori (Reuters) Badung, Indonesia  Thu, July 16, 2020 14:21 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666ccf4d 2 National Australian,murder,murder-case,early-release,#Bali Free

An Australian woman sentenced to four years imprisonment over the death of a policeman on the Indonesian island of Bali was given early release on Thursday, and was keen to be reunited with family, her lawyer said.

Sara Connor, 49, was jailed in March 2017 together with British man David Taylor for their roles in the death of a traffic policeman, whose body was found on the popular Kuta beach with neck and head wounds.

Connor was freed 13 months short of her full term due to her good behavior.

The two, who were a couple, were tried separately and Taylor, who is in his mid 30s, received a six-year term.

Wearing a headscarf, Connor did not comment as she left the prison surrounded by guards, who helped her through a scrum of photographers and into a vehicle that took her to an immigration facility.

"I think everybody who will be released will be very happy, especially when she wants to meet the family, but I don't know about the next plan," said Sienny Karmana, Connor's lawyer.

Karmana added that Connor would return to Australia on Friday.

During a trial that attracted significant attention in Indonesia and Australia, the defendants both denied murder and said a fight broke out over Connor's missing purse.

Connor had testified that she saw Taylor beating policeman Wayan Sudarsa, but the judge ruled that she had held the victim down while he was being struck.
James Brooks still remembers the January day that he boarded a plane from Florida to Alaska to take a job as a copyeditor at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

It was 60 degrees and sunny when he left Florida that day. When he arrived in Fairbanks at midnight, it was a freezing 40 degrees below zero.

I didnt know what to expect, said Brooks, a 2006 Virginia Tech graduate.

But he didnt let the chilly weather stop him from soaking up all that Alaska would offer  including winning a Pulitzer Prize 12 years later.

Brooks was a member of a team of reporters and editors at the Anchorage Daily News that received the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in May for a yearlong series called Lawless, a partnership with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism. The series featured an eye-opening investigation into the criminal justice systems failures in communities across Alaska. The work exposed extremely high rates of sexual assault and domestic violence and uncovered some rural communities with no local law enforcement.

Other stories in the series revealed that some Alaska communities hired police officers who had been convicted of felonies, assault, and other criminal offenses. Additional reporting uncovered the failures of the states 40-year-old Village Public Safety Officer program.

Kyle Hopkins was lead reporter for the series, and Brooks, who covers the state government from Juneau, Alaskas capital, contributed with the government angle. Brooks fielded questions to lawmakers and reported on state policing and public safety decisions. The entire newsroom at the Anchorage Daily News, which includes at least 40 journalists, was involved in the project in some way.

As a result of the investigation, Alaska has allocated more money for rural policing. Also, last spring, U.S. Attorney General William Barr declared an emergency for public safety in Alaska and pledged $52 million to help law enforcement in the state by adding officers, new federal prosecutors, and expanding other services.

Brooks said it has been a life highlight for him to have a supporting role in the Lawless team, which earned the newspapers third Pulitzer Prize.

You always think of a Pulitzer Prize as being out of reach and out of touch, he said. This shows me that its not. If I can get involved with a project like this, then its within me to do it myself.
New Kenya Cooperative Creameries (New KCC) has stopped supplying milk to retail chain Tuskys Supermarket over non-payment on deliveries running into millions of shillings.

New KCC cited high debt on the account of the retailer for halting their supplies of all types of milk to Tuskys.

Tuskys has seen some delays in payments to suppliers, attributing it to low business as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, prompting the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) to intervene.

The milk firm stopped the supplies after the company exceeded its credit payment period of 60 days.

New KCC managing director Nixon Sigey said they are in negotiations with the retailer in order to agree on the terms of resumptions in supplies.

"We are at the moment in discussion with the firm to agree the way forward after we stopped supplies of milk to the retailer," said Mr Sigey.

Mr Sigey did not disclose the amount of debt owed to New KCC, but said the milk processor has monthly business worth Sh80 million with the retailer.

New KCC is one of the companies that suffered financial losses after Nakumatt went down with Sh18 billion that was owed to suppliers.

Other suppliers who spoke to the Business Daily said they are cautiously supplying the retailer with their goods because of the delays in payment, which has hurt their financial flow.

"We are still supplying to them (Tuskys) but we have cut down on quantities to avoid huge debts at the end of the day given their slow pace of payment," said a managing director of a flour company, who requested anonymity.

Manufacturers have already requested the government to urgently intervene and oversee the payment of money owed to Tuskys supermarkets' suppliers to avoid a full-blown debt crisis.

The competition watchdog on Monday ordered Tuskys to settle the Sh1.29 billion owed to suppliers by between July 1 and July 16.

Tuskys becomes the first major retailer to face the scrutiny of CAK's Buyer Power Department that was created after Nakumatt Holdings collapsed with Sh30 billion owed to suppliers.
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Largecap stocks which were in focus in 2019 saw profit booking at higher levels in 2020, while the smart money seems to be moving towards the unloved smallcap stocks. The broader market has been in a bear phase since 2018, but with recent price correction, money started moving towards this undervalued space.

Note: The table is for reference and not buy or sell ideas





On a YTD basis, the broader market performed relatively better with around 12 percent and 9 percent respective falls in the mid and small-cap indices in the last six months.

Although, analysts advise caution in the small, mid, and penny stock space, at the same time if investors bet on the right stocks, the probability of it giving more than double-digit return also becomes higher. The problem in lesser researched companies is as much quality as it is corporate governance  particularly in the mid and small-cap segments, Vikaas M Sachdeva, Chief Executive Officer, Emkay Investment Managers Limited told Moneycontrol. If the stock stands by the touchstone of quality, as mentioned above, and corporate governance, they will do well irrespective of market caps. I think there is a lot of money to be made in high quality small and midcaps and these are early days in terms of a rally, he said. There are as many as 78 stocks that have a market-cap of less than Rs 1,000 crore that have more than doubled investors' wealth in the last six months. Stocks that rose 100-1100 percent include names like Opto Circuits, Ruchi Infrastructure, Hathway Bhawani, JMT Auto, Ballarpur Industries, Educomp Solutions, Reliance Communications, and Inter Globe Finance etc. among others.

Note: The table is for reference and not buy or sell ideas
Judo uniforms are made all over the world, but just a handful of suppliers are designated by the sport's international federation. And of those, just one weaves its own materials.

Founded over a century ago, Kusakura in the western Japanese city of Kashiwara, has stuck with the much more laborious and time-consuming process, handling not only weaving, but cutting and sewing.

But its president Masahiko Miura says the additional work is worth it.

"It's very hard to describe, it's not just about machines weaving, there is a soul in it," he told AFP.

"We'll never let go of weaving so long as we make judogis."

The judo uniform, or judogi, comprises a white jacket secured by an obi or belt and white trousers.

At Kusakura, which began as a weaving and sewing company in 1918, the fabrics for the top-of-the-line judogis are woven by decades-old looms with yarn-carrying wooden shuttles that jet across vertical threads.

The venerable machines are part of a long tradition for the firm, but keeping them running is also not easy because the models are no longer produced.

That means Kusakura employees are always on the lookout for spare parts, often scrambling to snatch up pieces if they hear of a textile company closing down.

Production chief Yoshifumi Hayakawa says the fabric woven by the vintage machines stands out, with customers often commenting on its delicate texture.

"We want to keep producing our fabrics with this long tradition for the next 10, 20 or 100 years," he said.

Once the fabric is woven from cotton, it is handchecked by employees looking for stains or other irregularities, then carefully cut and sewn, with adjustments made down to the order of a single millimetre.

The firm, with its S logo signifying Japan's national tree sakura or cherry blossom, produces 150,000 judogi a year.

But just 17,000 are made in Japan using fabric from vintage and modern looms. A tiny handful use fabric woven exclusively on the heritage machines.

These high-end judogi called Dojin, or master, sell for 50,000 yen ($470) a set, while uniforms made in China by the firm range from 10,000 yen to 23,000 yen for more serious competition sets.

The firm has about 30 percent of the judogi market in Japan and exports to around 20 countries, though the coronavirus pandemic has stalled shipments.

At Kusakura's Tokyo showroom, dozens of judogis are hung for customers to try, with samples washed at least three times to show how the fabric will shrink.

Many customers want a tighter fit, leaving opponents less material to grab onto, but the International Judo Federation has strict rules on length, width and other details, said Atsushi Ebisawa, who manages the showroom.

Javier Pallejero, a 32-year-old Spaniard visiting the showroom said his 'sensei' or teacher wears the firm's judogi and he finds the uniform lighter than others.

"I hope that during competition it will help me have this lightness and be able to quickly bring out techniques," he said.

For some employees at Kusakura, judogi production and sales is more than just a job.

Veteran salesman Kazunori Ohira, who has practiced judo since he was 10, still swaps his business suit for a judogi -- made by Kusakura of course -- to teach children judo after work.

He also goes personally to follow up on the sale of judogi to a club at a local high school and watches the children when they participate in tournaments.

"I've been in charge of children here for over 20 years," the 44-year-old told AFP.

"You can't be sure until you see them in matches if you delivered the right size of judogi," he said.

"It's always on my mind... It's my occupational hazard that I have to go and see the matches."

Respect is a key plank of judo, and students are expected to show it for their uniforms, as well as the parents who paid for them, and opponents who help them grow stronger, Ohira explained.

"It's considered ugly to just stride over judogi or an obi laid on the floor," he said.

"In Japan, judo is still more like a 'martial art' than just a sport."
Maharashtra HSC results 2020 announced, Maharashtra class 12 or HSC results have been announced by the Maharashtra board at their official website mahresults.nic.in. Know how to check and other details.

Maharashtra HSC result 2020 has been released by the Maharashtra Board on their official website mahresults.nic.in. Students can now access their results on the website. The passing percentage recorded this year is 90.66 per cent. Maharashtra Education Minister, Varsha Gaikwad shared this information on July 15. This year more than 10 lakh students appeared for Maharashtra HSC exams. Apart from the official website mahresults.nic.in, the result will also be hosted by hscresult.mkcl.org and maharashtraeducation.com.

Check Maharashtra HSC result online:

1. Visit the official website mahresult.nic.in

2. Click the link that reads Maharashtra HSC result 2020

3. Enter your login credentials.

4. Your scores will appear before you.

5. Print/download your result.

The result will have the students name, total score, and subject-wise scores secured.

The board has reportedly decided to send the results to students registered email addresses as well. Also, earlier there were reports that the board will release SSC (class 10) and HSC (class 12) results together on June 10 but the board marked those claims as false.

Also read: HRD ministry issues guidelines for online classes, caps duration to limit screen time

Also read: DU Final Year UG Exams to begin from August 10, DU informs High Court

Maharashtra Board conducted HSC or class 12 exams between February and March. However, the results got delayed as the evaluation process could not be carried out within the due time as Covid-19 pandemic hit India.

For the students who happen to scoreless in the HSC exams, the board will later release details about Class improvement scheme for the students. This year the board didnt hold any press conference due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

Also read: Delhi University Admissions 2020: College cut-offs likely to be higher this year

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One of Indias most impoverished states went into lockdown Thursday, but near-normal traffic on Patnas streets showed the difficulty of corralling over 125 million people.

The lockdown in the northern state bordering Nepal started as India reported more than 600 deaths in the previous 24 hours, and the Red Cross warned the virus was spreading at an alarming rate across south Asia.

Click here for full Covid-19 coverage

With Indias caseload on course to hit one million on Friday or Saturday -- and fatalities approaching 25,000 -- authorities across the country are reimposing restrictions that have only recently been lifted.

Bihar went into a 15-day lockdown at midnight, a day after IT hub Bangalore -- home to 13 million people -- shut down for a week.

All schools, clubs, temples and non-essential businesses were ordered to close in Bihar, but construction and agricultural activity allowed to continue.

And while public transport was shut down, private vehicles are still allowed to operate, and an AFP reporter in the state capital Patna said traffic appeared to be as busy as ever on Thursday morning.

We have not faced such a situation in my life before, it is really a horrible experience, said Radhika Singh, a housewife in her late 40s as she jostled to buy rice and lentils Wednesday before the lockdown started.

A lack of coronavirus discipline forced Goa to announced a three-day shutdown from Thursday evening and a night curfew until August 10.

Chief minister Pramod Sawant said too many people were stepping out to meet people at parties and that there was a low level of awareness and sensitivity.

We have more than 40,000 people fined for not wearing masks, plus there are many who are detained for flouting rules, but they continue to loiter, Sawant told local media.

This only establishes that people only understand the language of the law.

Only God can save us

Bangalore appeared to be coping far better.

Many firms that handle the back-office operations of global corporations were little affected by the re-imposed restrictions having already working from home.

Still, the health minister of Karnataka said Wednesday that only God can save us as the number of cases in the state approached 50,000.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said that the entire region is fast becoming the next epicentre for the coronavirus.

While the worlds attention has been focused on the unfolding crisis in the United States and South America, a concurrent human tragedy is fast emerging in South Asia, the organisation said.

Covid-19 is spreading at an alarming rate in South Asia, home to a quarter of humanity.

While India has reported almost 970,000 cases, the pandemic is also still raging in Pakistan and Bangladesh with almost 260,000 and 195,000 cases respectively.

In total the three countries have recorded more than 1.4 million cases and almost 33,000 deaths, according to official figures that many experts say in reality are much higher.

The IFRC also cited a report from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientists -- yet to be peer-reviewed -- that in six months India could be reporting up to 287,000 cases per day.

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In his presidential proclamation on 22 June, Donald Trump temporarily suspended the issuing of H-1B work visas till the end of the year

Washington: A group of 174 Indian nationals, including seven minors, has filed a lawsuit against the recent presidential proclamation on H-1B that would prevent them from entering the United States or a visa would not be issued to them.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson at the US District Court in the District of Columbia issued summonses on Wednesday to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad F Wolf, along with Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia.

The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court on Tuesday.

"The proclamation 10052's H-1B/H-4 visa ban hurts the United States' economy, separates families and defies the Congress. While the two former points render it unseemly, the latter point renders it unlawful," said the lawsuit filed by lawyer Wasden Banias on behalf of the 174 Indian nationals.

The lawsuit seeks an order declaring the presidential proclamation restriction on issuing new H-1B or H4 visas or admitting new H-1B or H-4 visa holders as unlawful. It also urges the court to compel the Department of State to issue decisions on pending requests for H-1B and H-4 visas.

In his presidential proclamation on 22 June, Trump temporarily suspended issuing of H-1B work visas till the end of the year.

"In the administration of our nation's immigration system, we must remain mindful of the impact of foreign workers on the United States labor market, particularly in the current extraordinary environment of high domestic unemployment and depressed demand for labor," said the proclamation issued by Trump.

In his proclamation, Trump said the overall unemployment rate in the United States nearly quadrupled between February and May of 2020  producing some of the most extreme unemployment ever recorded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

While the May rate of 13.3 percent reflects a marked decline from April, millions of Americans remain out of work.

The proclamation also extends till year-end his previous executive order that had banned issuance of new green cards of lawful permanent residency. Green Card holders, once admitted pursuant to immigrant visas, are granted "open-market" employment authorisation documents, allowing them immediate eligibility to compete for almost any job in any sector of the economy, Trump said.

Forbes, which first reported the lawsuit filed by the Indian nationals, said the complaint points out that the Congress specified the rules under which H-1B visa holders could work in the US and balanced the interests of US workers and employers.

"The complaint seeks to protect H-1B professionals, including those who have passed the labor certification process and possess approved immigrant petitions. Such individuals are waiting for their priority date to obtain permanent residence, a wait that can take many years for Indian nationals," Forbes reported.

Meanwhile, several lawmakers urged Scalia on Tuesday to reverse the work visa ban.

"Throughout this administration, the president has continued to lament the alleged abuses of the immigration system while failing to address the systemic problems that have persisted and allowed businesses and employers to exploit and underpay immigrant workers, guest workers and American workers," the lawmakers wrote.

"This misguided attempt by the president to scapegoat immigrants for policy failures during the pandemic not only serves to hurt immigrants but dismisses the true problem of a broken work visa program that is in desperate need of reform," said the letter, which among others was signed by Congressmen Joaquin Castro, Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus; Bobby Scott, Chair of the Education and Labor Committee; Karen Bass, Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus; Judy Chu, Ra l Grijalva, Vicente Gonzalez, Yvette Clarke and Linda Sanchez.
Shady Grove Fertility (SGF) is proud to support the revisions to Marylands insurance laws that increase access to care for those seeking fertility treatment. Effective January 1, 2021, Marylands infertility insurance law no longer has a marriage requirement, and the 2-year waiting period has been reduced to 1 year of unprotected sexual intercourse or three attempts of artificial insemination in the course of a year.

Shady Grove Fertility (SGF) is proud to support the revisions to Marylands insurance laws that increase access to care for those seeking fertility treatment. Effective January 1, 2021, Marylands infertility insurance law no longer has a marriage requirement, and the 2-year waiting period has been reduced to 1 year of unprotected sexual intercourse or three attempts of artificial insemination in the course of a year.

SGF applauds RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, of whom Shady Grove Fertility is a visionary partner, for their advocacy work. The Governor and the Maryland legislature are updating the states insurance lawwhich was the first infertility insurance law in the country in 1985to cover unmarried patients and more closely align with the guidelines of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM).

Many Marylanders have an advantage over residents of other states when it comes to infertility insurance legislation, known as the Maryland Mandate, as Maryland was the first state in the nation to enact infertility insurance legislation and was the third state that also covers fertility preservation prior to cancer treatment.

Currently, 19 states have passed laws that require health insurance coverage be offered for or actually cover an infertility diagnosis and/or fertility treatment, and ten states have fertility preservation laws for iatrogenic, or medically induced, infertility. Read more about State Fertility Insurance Laws.

Over 90 percent of SGF patients with insurance have coverage for their initial consult, and at least 70 percent have some level of coverage for testing and/or treatment. For those without adequate insurance coverage, SGF offers unique financial programs such as its Shared Risk 100% Refund Program, which guarantees patients take home a baby or receive 100% refund, and income-based Shared Help Program, among other discount programs, that aim to make treatment affordable to all.

To learn more about Marylands family building advocacy efforts, visit RESOLVE.

To learn more or to schedule a virtual physician consultation with an SGF physician, call 1-888-761-1967 or visit ShadyGroveFertility.com.

About Shady Grove Fertility (SGF)

SGF is a leading fertility and IVF center of excellence with more than 85,000 babies born and counting. With 38 locations throughout FL, GA, MD, NY, PA, VA, D.C., and Santiago, Chile, we offer patients virtual physician consults, individualized care, accept most insurance plans, and make treatment affordable through innovative financial options, including treatment guarantees. More physicians refer their patients to SGF than any other center. Call 1-888-761-1967 or visit ShadyGroveFertility.com.


Figures by Office for National Statistics do not include recent slew of job losses caused by the pandemic.

The pace of decline in the United Kingdoms labour market slowed in June, official data have showed, although the figures did not include a recent slew of job losses caused by the coronaviruss hit to the economy.

Early indicators suggested the number of employees on companies payrolls was down by 649,000 between March and June, with the largest falls at the start of the pandemic, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Thursday.

The UK government closed non-essential shops and other businesses to the public on March 23, shortly after ordering the closure of bars, restaurants and cinemas.

The unemployment rate in the UK unexpectedly held at 3.9 percent in the three months to May. A Reuters news agency poll of economists pointed to a rise in the unemployment rate to 4.2 percent.





An ONS official said the unemployment rate had been held down by about half a million people who were away from work because of the pandemic and receiving no pay, but who said they believed they still had a job.

Even so, the number of people in employment in the three months to May fell by the most since 2011, down 126,000, driven mostly by self-employed people, according to the ONS.

Job losses unfortunately appear to be rising, and recent data on the governments furlough scheme suggests that these redundancies are likely to be heavily concentrated among lower-paid workers, said James Smith, a developed markets economist at ING.

Rising unemployment is the main argument against a V-shape economic recovery, Smith added.

There was another sign of the weakness in the labour market in the number of vacancies which fell in the three months to June to the lowest level since the data series began in 2001 at 333,000, 23 percent lower than the previous record low in 2009.

Rishi Sunak, British finance minister, last week announced the latest round of measures worth 30 billion pounds ($37bn) to stem an expected surge in unemployment, including the payment of bonuses to companies which take back furloughed workers.

But since then, a string of companies have announced layoff plans ranging from private security company G4S to retailers Boots and John Lewis.
The EU's top court rejected the United States and Europe's data-sharing agreement on Thursday, July 16. Time reported that the national regulators are trying to protect the privacy of user's data from the risks of the EU-US data transfer agreement may cause.

Also Read: Musk, Gates, Bezos, Others Subjected to Recent Hack that Tricked People to Send Over $100,000 to a Bitcoin Wallet

E.U.s Top Court Invalidates Data-Sharing Agreement With U.S. July 16, 2020 at 05:48AM pic.twitter.com/ysr1O0BQ8L  Marcus Vinicius Magalhaes  | (@MVinicius_BJJ) July 16, 2020

Also Read: Twitter Bitcoin Hack: Here's a Shocking Info That Twitter Tries to Hide

According to Techcrunch's latest report, the EU-US agreement called "Privacy Shield" was struck down after a highly anticipated ruling by Europe's top court was done. However, the invalidation does not mean a sudden halt to all data transfers beyond Europe since there is another legal mechanism that some companies can still use. A new system must still be developed to guarantee that Europeans' data will have the same privacy protection in the United States.

"The Court of Justice invalidates Decision 2016/1250 on the adequacy of the protection provided by the EU-US Data Protection Shield," written in a press release.

The CJEU's finding suggested that Privacy Shield might interfere with the fundamental rights of those individuals whose personal data are transferred to the U.S. since the requirements, law enforcement, and public interest of the third country have primacy. The case started in 2013 after the American government was revealed by a former U.S. National Security Agency contractor, Edward Snowden, to spying on people's data and communications.

The detail was also revealed on how Facebook provided the U.S. agencies with access to Europeans' personal data. A complaint was filed by an Australian activist and law student, Max Schrems, saying that the U.S. should not be allowed to received personal data since the data protection there is not as efficient compared in E.U. A system known as GDPR makes Europe's data privacy rules as one of the toughest.

Some are disappointed with the decision

Europe's decision does not relieve participating companies or other organizations of their obligations with Privacy Shield.

"While the Department of Commerce is deeply disappointed that the court appears to have invalidated the European Commission's adequacy decision underlying the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, we are still studying the decision to fully understand its practical impacts," said the U.S. secretary of commerce, Wilbur Ross.

pic.twitter.com/MlGBYCwO3d An EU court just killed a vital U.S. data-sharing agreement. Some say global trade is at risk https://t.co/jYCArXPh6Z  Andy Vermaut (@AndyVermaut) July 16, 2020

Ross also said that they are still hoping that the negative consequences to the $7.1 trillion transatlantic economic relationships can be lessened because it is important to respective citizens, companies, and governments in the U.S. He also confirmed that the U.S. will still remain in close contact with the European Data Protection Board and European Commission regarding the matter.

It was explained that data flows are also essential to businesses of all sizes in every sector. The report claimed that it is important for companies to transfer data without interruption.

Also Read: [BEWARE] New Android Malware Can Hack 337 Apps to Steal Passwords and Card Data: Here's How BlackRock Undetected

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
By Trend





Since July 12 Armenian armed forces severely violated the ceasefire attempting to seize positions in Tovuz district of the Azerbaijani-Armenian border, the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General's Office said, Trend reports on July 15.

The Azerbaijani positions were shelled using various types of artillery, the message said. Once again demonstrating terrorist and aggressive policy by firing at densely populated settlements, Armenia committed a number of crimes against the civilian population.

On July 14 at 3 pm (local time, GMT+4) due to explosion of a missile fired from a rocket launcher located opposite Bala Jafarli village of Gazakh District, various pieces of the shell scattered on the roofs and plots of houses belonging to residents of Khanliglar village - Salmina Aliyeva, Mahbuba Orujeva, Aziz Shirinov, llham Mehtiyev, Razim Musayev and Kamil Jahanov, the message said. As a consequence of deliberate destruction of properties, substantial damage was done.

Immediate examination of incident scene, collection of evidence, involvement of specialists for determining damage and other investigative actions were provided by prosecution and police authorities, the message said.

Upon the fact a criminal case has been initiated at Gazakh District Prosecutor's Office under Article 186.2.2 (deliberate destruction or damage to someones property, causing substantial damage to the victims  by arson, explosion or in any other generally dangerous way or with grave consequences) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the message said.

Necessary intensive investigative actions are underway, the message said.
Greta Thunberg speaks to the media at the European Parliament in Strasbourg in April. (AP)

Greta Thunberg has demanded European leaders act now on tackling climate change in order to safeguard humanity.

The Swedish activist hit out at EU governments, saying that they needed to treat the warming up of the planet as an emergency.

Arguing for a complete transformation of the entire economic system, the 17-year-old signed an open letter that stated: "We understand and know very well that the world is complicated and that what we are asking for may not be easy.

Greta Thunberg speaks during a 'Youth Strike 4 Climate' protest rally in March. (Getty)

The changes necessary to safeguard humanity may seem very unrealistic.

"But it is much more unrealistic to believe that our society would be able to survive the global heating we're heading for, as well as other disastrous ecological consequences of today's business as usual.

Demands in the letter included an immediate halt to all investments in fossil fuel exploration and extraction, in parallel with a rapid ending of fossil fuel subsidies.

It also called for climate policies to be designed to protect workers and the most vulnerable and reduce economic, racial and gender inequalities, as well as moves to "safeguard and protect" democracy.

The letter was made public the day before a European Council summit where EU countries will try to reach a deal on the bloc's next budget and a recovery package to respond to the economic shock of the coronavirus pandemic.

However, Thunberg argued that conferences wont change a thing unless climate change was treated as an emergency.

Greta Thunberg, right, and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, left, attend the weekly College of Commissioners meeting at EU headquarters in Brussels in March. (AP)

She told Reuters TV: "We need to see it as, above all, an existential crisis.

And as long as it's not being treated as a crisis, we can have as many of these climate change negotiations and talks, conferences as possible. It won't change a thing.

She added: Above all, we are demanding that we need to treat this crisis as a crisis, because if we don't do that, then we won't be able to do anything.

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HOUSTON, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- KBR (NYSE: KBR) has been awarded a contract for its proprietary Plinke Adiabatic Nitrobenzene solutions by Kutch Specialities Pvt Ltd, India.

Under the terms of the contract, KBR will provide basic and detailed engineering design, equipment, and related advisory services to Kutch Specialities Pvt Ltd for its grassroots nitrobenzene project in India.

KBR's proven process, patented equipment design, and material selection ensure plant availability and reliability to produce a high purity nitrobenzene with a focus on high energy efficiency and environmental sustainability. Amongst other products, Nitrobenzene is used for the production of polyurethane foams, rubber chemicals, dyes and pharmaceuticals.

"This contract reinforces KBR's process leadership in purification, concentration and processing of strong inorganic acids," said Doug Kelly, KBR President, Technology Solutions. "We are proud to work with Kutch Specialities Pvt Ltd to achieve its business expansion goals safely, reliably and efficiently."

KBR has more than 70 years of experience in inorganics, including processes and technology solutions for crystallization, evaporation and the concentration and purification of strong inorganic acids.

About KBR, Inc.

KBR is a global provider of differentiated professional services and technologies across the asset and program life cycle within the Government Services and Energy sectors. KBR employs approximately 37,000 people worldwide (including our joint ventures), with customers in more than 80 countries and operations in 40 countries, across three synergistic global businesses:

Government Solutions, serving government customers globally, including capabilities that cover the full life cycle of defense, space, aviation, and other government programs and missions from research and development, through systems engineering, test and evaluation, and program management, to operations, maintenance, and field logistics

Technology Solutions, featuring proprietary technology, equipment, catalysts, digital solutions and related technical services focused on providing sustainable and value-add solutions for a broad base of industrial, ammonia, and specialty chemicals and inorganics customers

Energy Solutions, providing services across the asset life cycle to customers globally, including energy transition and efficiency, onshore and offshore oil and gas, LNG/GTL, refining, petrochemicals, chemicals, and fertilizers

KBR is proud to work with its customers across the globe to provide technology, value-added services, and long-term operations and maintenance services to ensure consistent delivery with predictable results. At KBR, We Deliver.

Visit www.kbr.com

Forward Looking Statement

The statements in this press release that are not historical statements, including statements regarding future financial performance, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the company's control that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the outcome of and the publicity surrounding audits and investigations by domestic and foreign government agencies and legislative bodies; potential adverse proceedings by such agencies and potential adverse results and consequences from such proceedings; the scope and enforceability of the company's indemnities from its former parent; changes in capital spending by the company's customers; the company's ability to obtain contracts from existing and new customers and perform under those contracts; structural changes in the industries in which the company operates; escalating costs associated with and the performance of fixed-fee projects and the company's ability to control its cost under its contracts; claims negotiations and contract disputes with the company's customers; changes in the demand for or price of oil and/or natural gas; protection of intellectual property rights; compliance with environmental laws; changes in government regulations and regulatory requirements; compliance with laws related to income taxes; unsettled political conditions, war and the effects of terrorism; foreign operations and foreign exchange rates and controls; the development and installation of financial systems; increased competition for employees; the ability to successfully complete and integrate acquisitions; and operations of joint ventures, including joint ventures that are not controlled by the company.

KBR's most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, any subsequent Form 10-Qs and 8-Ks, and other U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss some of the important risk factors that KBR has identified that may affect the business, results of operations and financial condition. Except as required by law, KBR undertakes no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason.

SOURCE KBR, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.kbr.com


T he UK will see a mixture of sunny spells and showers over the weekend  but temperature will soar to a balmy 28C.

Forecasters said that a "band of rain" will hover around the north through Friday and Saturday before slowly making its way south through Sunday.

But besides this spout of showers, the UK will see pleasant sunshine, interspersed with some cloudy skies, according to the Met Office.

The mercury will soar to 28C in London over the weekend while the north will see cooler temperatures in the high teens.

UK weather - In pictures 1 /9 UK weather - In pictures Ice covers a pond on a green in Kew, west London, after overnight temperatures in the capital dipped below freezing PA A person looks out as waves crash against rocks at Portland Bill in Dorset PA People look out to sea as waves crash against Chesil beach in Dorset PA Waves crash against Chesil beach in Dorset PA Flooding between Carlisle and Lockerbie from water running off a field onto the rail tracks PA/Network Rail Scotland Waves crash against rocks at Portland Bill in Dorset PA Tourists battle against wind and rain at Pier Head in Liverpoo PA

Met Office spokesman Greg Dewhurst said that conditions will be "changeable" throughout the UK over the next three days.

He said: "Throughout the weekend, a band of rain will cover the north and then slowly move south over the next few days, clearing the south coast on Sunday afternoon.

"We will see sunny spells following in the wake of this rain."

The country will see a mixed bag of sunshine and rain this weekend / PA

Mr Dewhurst added that the heaviest rain over the weekend will hit the western part of Scotland on Friday.

But he said for much of England and Wales it will be a dry day with "plenty of warm sunshine".

Meanwhile, Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England will be overcast with outbreaks of rain, he added.

London will see warm temperatures on Friday / AFP via Getty Images

The south will see temperatures of up to 28C while the north will be cooler with a maximum temperatures of 18C.

Mr Dewhurst said: "On Saturday, the band of rain will slowly move south so that Northern Ireland, Scotland and northern England will see a mixture of sunshine and showers.

"The southeast will see a warm day, hitting 25C while elsewhere will see highs of around 19C again."

On Sunday, the band of rain will push quickly towards southern England in the morning, he said.

But by the afternoon it will have cleared the south coast, leaving a sunny evening behind.

Mr Dewhurst also said that Northern Ireland, Scotland and northern England will see sunny spells and showers on Sunday.

The weekend will end with temperatures of around 23C in the south and 19C in the north, he added.
The federal, provincial and territorial governments have reached a deal on billions of dollars in transfers to continue reopening economies amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 16/7/2020 (551 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau holds a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, July 16, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

The federal, provincial and territorial governments have reached a deal on billions of dollars in transfers to continue reopening economies amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday.

He said the federal government will contribute $19 billion under the "Safe Restart Agreement" to help provinces fund things like child care, contact tracing and personal protective equipment. There is also money to bail out municipal governments that saw soaring expenses and plunging revenues during the pandemic.

Trudeau had promised $14 billion in early June, but several premiers said they needed more money and also resisted some of the conditions the federal Liberals wanted to put on the deal.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford was one who didn't like a federal demand that some of it fund up to 10 days of paid sick leave to discourage workers with precarious employment from going into work ill.

"This funding will support us as we get the economy going over the next six to eight months," Ford said Thursday. "My friends ... it's a great deal for Ontario."

The agreement includes sick leave, fully funded by the federal government.

Manitoba's Brian Pallister said he's pleased with that provision.

"I think it's very important we have a national program, and the prime minister obviously agreed," he said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

"I think the important thing is that, as opposed to some past discussions where premiers were drawn away from supporting other premiers, the premiers stuck together and they stood for what they wanted and largely got it."

British Columbia's John Horgan said his province expects nearly $2 billion in transfers and emphasized the sick-leave program as a key move to make sure nobody feels pressured to go work sick.

Quebec's Francois Legault wanted the money to be transferred without conditions so provinces could use it on whatever they considered most important. He also didn't want the cash distributed purely by population, noting that Quebec had been hit harder by COVID-19 than other provinces.

Thursday, he echoed Pallister in saying that the premiers' sticking together got them a deal they like. He credited Saskatchewan's Scott Moe in convincing all the premiers to hold the line.

"Yes, we wanted the federal government to invest and help get us through the pandemic, but we also wanted the federal government to respect provincial jurisdiction and also give us the flexibility to choose our priorities," Legault said.

For Quebec, spending money on protective equipment from Quebec suppliers is a key example, he said.

Trudeau said the agreement outlines seven priority areas, with some room for the provinces to apply the money to their particular needs over the next six to eight months.

"The provinces agreed to invest in the targeted sectors," Trudeau said. "There are areas like support for vulnerable people where we will expect the provinces to declare publicly what they will do."

At his side, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland added the agreement includes standards in certain areas, such as COVID-19 testing, in exchange for the federal money.

Trudeau said workers can't work if their children don't have safe care, and many can't get to their jobs if they don't have access to safe transit systems.

"Until we find a vaccine, the daily threat of COVID-19 will not disappear," he said.

Municipal governments, which deliver many of those services, have been begging for aid for months, warning their finances are careening toward brick walls. Many city revenue streams dried up during the pandemic, as recreational centres and programs closed, and transit riders stopped using buses and trains.

Toronto has reported that it's facing a $1.35-billion deficit this year. Mayor John Tory said the federal money will help, though how much depends on how the Ontario government allocates it. Transit in Toronto and its suburbs is critical and the systems' finances have been devastated by the pandemic, he said.

Montreal says it has a $500-million shortfall. Halifax expects to be short $85.4 million.

"If cities aren't equipped for a safe restart, people will not be safe," Trudeau said.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities said it's encouraged but wants to see the fine print.

"We're optimistic this agreement will recognize the financial crisis municipalities face in this pandemic," said the federation's president Bill Karsten, a Halifax councillor. That means emergency funding thats clearly identified and gets to municipal front lines fast  so we can keep vital services going strong and prepare to drive Canadas economic recovery."

Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil said in a statement that he welcomes a deal that will bring his province more than $250 million.

"Provinces have borne the full impact of COVID-19 and individuals and businesses across Nova Scotia will feel the impact for months to come," he said. "This funding will help to address those challenges."

He said the funding will help with:

Testing, contact tracing and data management

Health care, including mental health and addictions

Aiding vulnerable populations, including in nursing homes

Personal protective equipment

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Early learning and child care

Municipal budgets, including public transit

Paid sick leave

Missing from the list is public education, which is administered by the provinces. Many provinces are struggling with how to reopen schools safely in the fall, and many parents won't be able to go back to work fully if children aren't physically in class.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 16, 2020.

With files from Amy Smart in Vancouver, Steve Lambert in Winnipeg, Giuseppe Valiante in Montreal and Jordan Press in Ottawa
Patrick Tehan/Special to the Chronicle

Theres a pleasant end-of-the-road escapism vibe in Los Osos and Baywood Park, the sleepy coastal communities that hug the southern end of Morro Bay and are edged by windswept, fog-shrouded natural preserves like Montana de Oro State Park. Today, theres a culinary renaissance afoot, with celebrated restaurants such as the Blue Heron and Nois Thai Take-Out. The 2014 opening of Baker & Brains tasting room added more juice to the scene.

The brand was envisioned in 2009 while Josh Baker and Matt Brain, who met while working at Edna Valley Vineyards, were camping in Yosemite. (Baker still works as a custom crush winemaker, and Brain spent many of the ensuing years as a professor of wine at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Fresno State.) Their initial focus was on Pinot Noir from select sites across the Central Coast, but the vision has expanded to include cool-climate Grenache and Syrah as well as whites like Gruner Veltliner, Albarino, Grenache Blanc and Chardonnay.
New Delhi/Beijing, July 16 : In a diplomatic offensive against Beijing, India on Thursday rejected China's claim over South China Sea, as the talks over the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh remained inconclusive.

Reiterating its position, the government said that South China Sea is a part of global commons and India has an abiding interest in peace and stability in the region.

"We firmly stand for the freedom of navigation and overflight and unimpeded lawful commerce in these international waterways, in accordance with international law, notably UNCLOS," said the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Anurag Srivastava.

Though the government has articulated its position on South China Sea on several occasions, as recently as in May this year, the spokesperson repeated the stand by saying that India's position on the issue has been clear and consistent.

"India also believes that any differences be resolved peacefully by respecting the legal and diplomatic processes and without resorting to threat or use of force," the statement said.

The offensive came at a time when India and China have been engaged in discussions through established diplomatic and military channels to address the situation along the LAC in India-China border areas.

The special representatives of India and China on the boundary question, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval of India and Wang Yi, State Councillor and Minister of Foreign Affairs of China, had a telephone conversation on July 5.

A meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) was held on July 10.

In the two meetings, the two sides agreed on complete disengagement of troops along the LAC and de-escalation from the India-China border areas for full restoration of peace and tranquility in the border areas in accordance with the bilateral agreements and protocols.

The Indian and Chinese senior Commanders held their fourth meeting at Chushul on July 14. "The Commanders reviewed the progress of implementation of the ongoing disengagement process and also discussed further steps to ensure complete disengagement at the earliest," the Ministry of External Affairs said.

The two sides, the government said, remain committed to the objective of complete disengagement and full restoration of peace and tranquility in the India-China border areas. "The two sides will continue their diplomatic and military engagements to achieve these outcomes," the ministry said.

However, the government spokesperson said that "the process of disengagement along the LAC is complex." The disengagement process currently underway in the Western sector, he said, is specifically aimed at addressing faceoff situations and close-up deployments of troops along the LAC.

"It is based on an understanding between senior military Commanders. Both sides have agreed at specific points to re-deploy towards their regular posts on their respective sides of the LAC. These are mutually agreed reciprocal actions to be taken by both sides," he said.

It is an ongoing process, Srivastava said, adding that the mutual re-deployment should not be misrepresented.

"There is absolutely no change with respect to India's position on the LAC. We are fully committed to observing and respecting the LAC. Any unilateral attempts to change the status quo along the LAC are not acceptable," he reiterated.
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has been challenging for everyone. Though restrictions in the U.K. have eased considerably, and the younger royals are back to work, Queen Elizabeth II remains in isolation due to her advanced age.

Though the queen and her husband, Prince Philip, seemingly have everything they could ever want at their disposal, this has been a drastic change for the queen. The sovereign monarch is used to being out and about constantly  something shes done for the better part of seven decades. However, until a vaccine is developed, its safer for her to remain at her country estate.

Though shes been video calling her family and holding virtual meetings with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the queen also has quite a bit of free time on her hands. It seems that shes really gotten into Netflix as a result.

Queen Elizabeth is still in isolation amid the coronavirus pandemic

The queen and Prince Philip are currently in quarantine with 22 staff members at Windsor castle. The staff includes Queen Elizabeths master of the household, her private secretary and his assistants, and other members of her senior staff.

The staff is remaining on the estate for a period of several weeks so they do not risk infection. They wont be seeing their families because no risks can be taken and they cant go in and out, an insider told The Sun. The most important thing is to protect the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh from the virus. If something happened to them it doesnt bear thinking about.

RELATED: Queen Elizabeth Gave a Subtle Shoutout to The Crown During Her Christmas Speech

Queen Elizabeth II adores Netflix

The queen already knows about Netflix. In fact, shes watched Season 1 of The Crown, which is based on her life, in its entirety. She was introduced to the series through her youngest son, Prince Edward, and his wife, Sophie, Countess of Wessex.

According to The Daily Express, She really liked it, although obviously there were some depictions of events that she found too heavily dramatized.

In 2019, during her annual Christmas Day speech, Queen Elizabeth shouted out the series by showcasing a photo of herself and the Apollo 11 crew from 1969. The moon landing and the astronauts visit to Buckingham Palace were some of the main events in Season 3 of the series.

Queen Elizabeth has been obsessed with this Netflix show lately

As much as Queen Elizabeth II appreciates The Crown its not her current quarantine obsession. Apparently the queen has become quite fond of the ITV series, The Durrells which is currently streaming on Netflix.

Set in the 1930s the series follows a British family who moves to Corfu, Greece for a new start. Actor Josh OConnor (who coincidentally also stars in The Crown as Prince Charles) stars on The Durrells discovered that the queen is a major fan. He told Radio Times,
'Unlike the Chinese army that has been largely a peace time force, the Indian Army is a battle hardened force,' explains Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi with Indian Army soldiers in Leh, July 3, 2020. Photograph: Press Information Bureau

One is curious to know what the Chinese were smoking when they took the decision to go all aggressive on several fronts.

All that this has done is provoke a backlash against China for its numerous omissions and commissions on the spread of the coronavirus.

The degree of support India has received (overt and covert) from countries far and near is proof.

The Chinese seriously miscalculated the institutional strength of the American military.

As the US election day nears and the current president starts to look like a lame duck, these institutions will assert themselves even more.

IMAGE: A soldier stands guard beside the Cosco Wellington, a container ship at the China Pakistan Economic Corridor port in Gwadar, Pakistan. Photograph: Caren Firouz/Reuters

Whatever the declared intent and offensive strategy vis a vis Pakistan, India has no interest in taking over that country.

India is a territorial status quo power even in Kashmir and logically has no interest in posing a threat to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor passing through Gilgit-Hunza under Pakistani occupation.

India's aggressive posture against Pakistan is tactical in order to create a deterrence against Pakistani interference in the Kashmir valley.

Irrespective of the vocal posture, no political party in India wants a 'United India' that consists of Pakistan as that will upset the demographic balance and create more headache due to the infusion of extremist Islam.

China should be well aware of this.

Even the threat to Gwadar port posed by Baluch insurgents and possible Indian support is directly related to Pakistani support to Kashmiri militants.

Stop one and the other will also reduce, if not end.

Chinese fears of a threat to the CPEC are imaginary and exaggerated given the difficult terrain in north Kashmir.

Photograph: ANI Photo IMAGE: The general defending Ladakh against the Chinese : Lieutenant General Harinder Singh, General Officer Commanding, 14 Corps, pays tribute at the Leh War Memorial on the occasion of the 72nd Army Day in Leh, January 15, 2020.

Neither is India in a position to pose a threat to the Aksai Chin highway between Sinkiang and Tibet.

India has shown its tacit acceptance of Chinese possession of that part of Aksai Chin.

India's posture in Ladakh is purely defensive.

It is true that China has indeed drawn away some of the reserves from the Pakistan front, but the forces oriented to fight in the plains remain in position.

Unfortunately for Pakistan, that country lacks strategic depth.

Its main cities, population centres and main recruiting areas in Punjab are well within Indian artillery range.

If a joint Sino-Pak military adventure is to take place in Ladakh or the Gilgit sector, the conflict will not remain confined to the mountains, but will surely spread to the plains of Punjab.

The Pakistani coastline is also vulnerable to the much more powerful Indian Navy and will not escape punishment.

The Chinese calculation regarding the economic costs is true for both sides.

While for India the logistics pose a tactical problem, for China, the logistics chain stretches over 2,000 kms to its main miitary bases.

Tibet and Xinjiang are bereft of any local resources and even a pin has to be transported over thousands of kilometres.

In the post pandemic world of slow economic growth, China will also have to pay a heavy cost of deployment on a live border.

IMAGE: Chinese soldiers at a parade to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, at Tiananmen Square, October 1, 2019. Photograph: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

On paper, the Chinese armed forces do look more formidable than Indian.

But in terms of equipment fielded, the technology edge seems to be in India's favour.

Indian tanks and anti-tank missiles are far superior to the Chinese version.

In addition, unlike the Chinese army that has been largely a peace time force, the Indian Army is a battle hardened force.

If history is to be any guide, even in 1962, the outgunned and outnumbered Indian Army gave a good account of itself in Ladakh.

The real rout was in the East, in Arunachal Pradesh.

As a researcher of that conflict, one can vouch for the fact that much of that disaster was due to the command failure of one man, Lieutenant General B M Kaul.

China seems to be miscalculating on the Indian internal scene as well.

In the post-Independence era, Indians have shown that in times of crisis, they stand as one.

The Chinese seem to mistake the 'noise and din' of Indian democracy to be a sign of internal discord.

As to the Kashmir situation, India is well poised to gradually restore statehood and regional autonomy sooner than the Chinese expect.

Devolution of power to the states has been the hallmark of Indian democracy and it is this that has held the diverse country together.

IMAGE: A protest against China in Ahmedabad, June 18, 2020. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters

The world has suffered because of COVID-19.

Most nations rightly blame China for this misfortune.

Instead of being sensitive to these feelings China is aggravating them by its aggressive behaviour.

The world wants to see China get a bloody nose and if India can do it, it has the world's full backing.

If the Chinese read the history of the rise of the great powers they would notice that 'soft power' is one of the major ingredient of their rise.

The 18th and 19th centuries saw British domination of the world.

It was said that the sun never set on the British empire as there was always some part that was in daylight!

Vast swathes of populations including in India accepted British rule willingly and collaborated with them.

The British did have certain sterling qualities and principles.

For instance, as early as 1776 when it was early days of British rule in India, Edmund Burke, the British liberal, lambasted the British empire and its rule in India over people far more civilised than us, as he put it.

Many British colonies retained the language and institutions that the British built even after gaining independence.

The British empire flourished because of notions of the rule of law and individual rights as much as due to their military prowess.

The latter half of the 20th century saw the rise of the US and Soviet Union as the two superpowers.

In their case too, the power of their ideologies, freedom and democracy for one and socialism and rule of the proletariat for the other were key ingredients in their rise.

China as a rising superpower is totally bereft of any element of 'soft power'.

Its notions of the Middle Kingdom and the Han race's superiority has no takers in the world.

Aggression and military power are not enough to reach the status of a world power as Hitler's Germany found to its cost.

Maybe China learns this lesson in the 21st century.

IMAGE: Xi Jinping, centre, flanked by from left, Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the standing committee of the National People's Congress, former Chinese presidents Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, at the opening of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, October 18, 2017. Photograph: Aly Song/Reuters

India and the world must make a clear distinction between an aggressive and dictatorial Communist party of China and the ordinary Chinese people.

The ordinary Chinese people, a full 40% of whom are practicing Buddhists, are hardworking and peace loving.

It is unfair to blame them for the sins of the ruthless party that rules China.

There is certainly an Asian civilisational ethos that is different from the West.

It is this that India and China share.

One had thought that minor disputes over a remote border would not hinder co-operation between the two Asian giants.

China has betrayed this common cause when it went back on the pledge 'We have differences, but will not let them become disputes'.

Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) is a former Chhatrapati Shivaji Chair Fellow at the United Services Institute of India.

Feature Production: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com
Press Release

16 July 2020

Deutsche Hospitality is presenting its new "H Rewards" loyalty programme. The hotel company will be offering a significantly expanded package of benefits to guests of all of its five brands - Steigenberger Hotels & Resorts, MAXX by Steigenberger, Jaz in the City, IntercityHotel and Zleep Hotels. The bonus scheme takes effect immediately. With "H Rewards" both regular guests and new customers will benefit from the first night of their stay.



"H stands for hospitality," said Thomas Willms, CEO, Deutsche Hospitality. "Our aim is to offer our guests the best possible experience at every location for every travel occasion. This loyalty programme represents a new milestone in the European hotel sector. We are rewarding loyalty across all brands within a short period of time and in a more effective way than ever before. This lends even better expression to the high esteem in which we hold our guests. We have been working tirelessly with our shareholder Huazhu over the past few months to develop a programme for our five brands with a view to delivering a completely new experience for customers."



"H Rewards" is a major global loyalty programme that Huazhu is already operating very successfully on the Chinese market. Steigenberger Hotels AG will run "H Rewards" in all markets outside China in future following the development and introduction of the scheme for the Deutsche Hospitality brands.



The new programme provides participants with a wide range of benefits to make any stay at a Deutsche Hospitality hotel even more individual and enjoyable. Exclusive offers and attractive rates will be available to members from the very first stage of the scheme. Progression to higher status levels has also been made particularly easy to achieve. It does not matter whether guests book a stay with Steigenberger Hotels & Resorts, Zleep Hotels or with one of the other hotel brands. They will enjoy additional benefits across all brands as their status grows. These include accommodation and gourmet vouchers, upgrades to the next highest room category, free breakfast and particularly favourable conditions. The attractive rewards offered to members of the scheme will undergo further development on an ongoing basis. The prerequisites for advancement to a higher status level can be fulfilled via hotel stays spread over a number of years. This means that long-standing guests will receive a particular added value. Within each level, members have twelve months to achieve the next higher level.



In the near future, participants from China will also be given the opportunity to use their member benefits in Deutsche Hospitality branded hotels. By the same token, participants from other countries will be able to do the same in China, where Huazhu operates more than 6,000 hotels.



"H Rewards enables us to offer customers a first-class experience via our direct channels," added Christian Saliger, Director CRM & Loyalty, Deutsche Hospitality. "We will be continuing with the further development of our digital touch points during the coming months." "H Rewards" will replace the previous bonus programme "Award World" from July 2020. "We would like to extend our warmest thanks to all Award World members for the loyalty they have shown. They will be given privileged entry to the new scheme. Of course, all points collected can be transferred", Christian Saliger explained.



Further information can be found at www.global.hrewards.com.
Dear Julia, In politics, youre never meant to apologise. Especially publicly. Thats backflipping. And, as you well know, that can come at a political price. In our industry, changing your mind  even if its completely genuine and informed by lived experience or research  isnt the done thing.

But, today, Id like to say sorry. Following the 10th anniversary of your rise to the prime ministership, along with the release this week of Women and Leadership: Real Lives, Real Lessons, the book you have written with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, many important conversations have been reignited.

Chelsey Potter is campaigning for fairer treatment of women in politics. Credit:Ben Searcy

Both inside and outside of the political bubble, most women can vividly recall where they were when you assumed our countrys highest office.

The conversations they had with their daughters. That misty-eyed moment and the sheer enormity of your achievement heralded an exciting new era. Another crucial flag planted for the sisterhood.
Victoria Beckham attends the Portrait Gala 2019 at the National Portrait Gallery. (WireImage)

Victoria Beckham has said she suffered incidences of bullying as a youngster and had few friends at school.

Writing in Vogue Australia, Posh Spice reflected on how she encourages daughter Harper, nine, to speak to children at school who may be struggling to make friends due to her own experiences.

She shared: "When I was at school, I was quite an awkward teenager; I didn't have a huge amount of friends, and looking back I recognise that I was bullied at times.

Read more: Victoria Beckham shows off freckles on Instagram

"I would never want anyone else to feel how I was made to feel. So when Harper started school, I said to her: 'If you're ever in the playground and there's a little girl who is sitting on her own, ask her to play with you, go up and engage with her, because Mummy used to be that little girl.'

Victoria Beckham when she was known as 'Posh Spice' in 1996. (Getty Images)

"I want everyone to know that no one is on their own when Harper is around."

Despite her awkward teenage years, the 46-year-old was only in her early 20s when she was catapulted to worldwide fame as part of the Spice Girls.

At age 25, she married husband David with whom she went to to have four children, Brooklyn, 21, Romeo, 17, Cruz, 15 as well as Harper.

There has been some happy news for the Beckham family recently after Victoria's eldest son Brooklyn announced his engagement to girlfriend Nicola Peltz.

Sharing the couple's engagement photo to Instagram, Victoria wrote: "The MOST exciting news!! We could not be happier that @brooklynbeckham and @nicolaannepeltz are getting married! Wishing you so much love and a lifetime of happiness.

"We all love you both so much x @davidbeckham @romeobeckham @cruzbeckham #HarperSeven."
Libya's tribal figureheads mandated President El-Sisi and Egypt's Armed Forces to intervene to protect the sovereignty of Libya and to take the necessary measures to secure the national security interests of both countries

Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said on Thursday he will request parliament's approval in case of intervention in Libya.

El-Sisi's statement came during his meeting with Libyan tribal chieftains who arrived in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss the crisis in conflict-torn Libya.

"Egypt is capable of changing the military scene in Libya and it has got the strongest army in the Arab world and Africa, he said.

In case Egyptian forces enter Libya, you (the chiefs of tribes) will be on the head of the troops with the Libyan flag, he added.

Egypt's announcement came following the forces of the Government of National Accord (GNA), which are backed by Turkey, carried several attacks against the Libyan National Army (LNA), backed by Egypt, Russia and United Arab Emirates, and announced that its troops will move forward towards establishing control over Sirte and Jufra, which hosts Libya's largest air base.

During the meeting, El-Sisi said that the red lines which he spoke about in his speech at Sidi Barani military base last month were an invitation for peace and an end of the conflict. The Egyptian president stressed during that speech that Sirte and Al-Jufra are red lines for Egyptian national security.

He added that Egypt will not stand still in the face of actions that pose a direct and strong threat not only for the Egyptian and Libyan national security but also for the Arab, regional and international national security.

"The main objective of the Egyptian efforts towards Libya on all levels is to support the free will of the Libyan people to achieve a better future for the country and its future generations," El-Sisi told the Libyan tibes leaders.

El-Sisi stated that Egypt was ready to train Libyan youth in Egyptian military academies so they would be the core of the Libyan army.

He reiterated Cairo's rejection of foreign interventions in Libya which aim to steal Libyan wealth.

The Egyptian president added that since the Cairo Declaration was announced, it was noticed that one of the parties involved did not want to comply with the ceasefire.

Cairo Declaration initiative which based on previous UN Security Council's resolutions and Berlin conference conclusions stipulated a ceasefire should have started 8 June, with an adherence to all international initiatives and Security Council resolutions on the unity and territorial integrity of Libyan lands.

It also stipulates the continuation of talks by the 5+5 Libyan Joint Military Commission in Geneva sponsored by the UN, and obliges all foreign parties to remove all foreign mercenaries nationwide, the dismantling of militias, and the handover of weapons to allow the LNA to cooperate with other security apparatuses to carry out their military duty.

The GNA which controls of most of northwest Libya rejected it.

Libya's tribal figureheads mandated President El-Sisi and Egypt's Armed Forces to intervene to protect the sovereignty of Libya and to take the necessary measures to secure the national security interests of Libya and Egypt and to face the common challenges. The tribal leaders' call is in line with the Libyan parliament's request for Egypt to intervene, a presidential statement read.

The meeting comes days after the eastern-based Libyan parliament called on Egypt to intervene militarily to counter what it called "Turkish occupation.

The meeting was held under the slogan "Egypt and Libya one people, one fate."

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Actor Amit Sadh has revealed that he contemplated suicide at the age of 16 but eventually talked himself out of it. He said that it was a sign of strength to admit to weakness or failure, and a nurturing environment can help troubled people.

In an interview with Bollywood Hungama, Amit opened up about having suicidal thoughts as a teenager and said, I think it takes courage. I think it is a sign of strength when you admit you are wrong, weak or failing. The only thing is, you have to be lucky and blessed to have an environment and people around you who dont kick you in ba**s when you tell them that you are falling.

Amit said that a safe environment needs to be created for people going through emotional turmoil. Thats the change we need to bring in society, each other and ourselves, that when we find situations like this, are we equipped to help those people rather than judging them and actually crucifying them and making life more hell for them, he said.

Amit started his career on television and starred in a number of shows including Kyun Hota Hai Pyarrr, Guns & Roses and Durgesh Nandinii. In 2010, he transitioned to films with Ram Gopal Varmas Phoonk 2.

Also read | Rhea Chakraborty replies to troll who gave her death, rape threats after Sushant Singh Rajputs death: Enough is enough

Recently, Amit was seen playing a police officer in the Amazon Prime Video series Breathe: Into The Shadows. He was tested for Covid-19 after his co-star Abhishek Bachchan tested positive on Saturday. The two had dubbed together at the same studio, days before Abhisheks diagnosis.

Amit tested negative and shared the news on Twitter. Thank you for your prayers and concerns. This is the only time I say happily I am negative. To all people battling this, my prayers and thoughts continue. Love you. Togetherness is the only strength!, he wrote.

Meanwhile, Amit is gearing up for the release of two of his films this month - Tigmanshu Dhulias Yaara and Anu Menons Shakuntala Devi, which will release on Zee5 and Amazon Prime Video, respectively.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

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Iranian protesters have gathered in the streets of Shiraz and Behbahan, chanting slogans against the countrys establishment.

Social-media users on July 16 called for nationwide demonstrations at 7:00 p.m. local time against a court decision to uphold death sentences against three men who participated in protests last year.

Videos shared on social media purportedly showed protesters in Behbahan, in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, and in Shiraz, the capital of southwestern Fars Province, shouting slogans against the death sentences handed to Amir Hossein Moradi, Saeed Tamjidi, and Mohammad Rajabi.

The Reuters news agency quoted witnesses as saying security forces fired tear gas to disperse the demonstrators in Behbahan.

Meanwhile, an increased presence of security forces was reported in the streets of the capital, Tehran, and several other cities.

On July 14, Iran's judiciary said the Supreme Court had upheld the death sentences against Moradi, 25, Tamjidi, 27, and Rajabi, 25, for criminal actions during protests in November sparked by a hike in gasoline prices.

The decision sparked a surge of online protests against the sentences, with the hashtag #Dont_Execute in Persian trending globally on Twitter, being used more than 7 million times.

In a joint statement on July 16, United Nations human rights experts strongly condemned the Supreme Courts decision, and urged the head of Irans judiciary to immediately quash this decision and to grant a prompt and independent judicial review.

They also called for an independent and impartial investigation into the allegations of torture made by Moradi, Tamjidi, and Rajabi, followed by the prosecution of the perpetrators if their claims are founded.

Iran could overturn the death sentences against the three, since a provision in Irans Code of Criminal Procedure authorizes the head of the judiciary to intervene in finalized rulings deemed to be in violation of Islamic law.

Under that provision, judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi could instruct the Supreme Court to issue a new verdict.

The death sentences were originally imposed in February.

Moradi, Tamjidi, and Rajabi have denied the charges and said they were tortured to make confessions, which were later used against them during trials.

From the outset, their arrest and detention and subsequent trial is replete with allegations of denial of their due-process rights, the UN independent experts said.

Their statement reads that international law limits the imposition of the death penalty to the most serious crimes and precludes its imposition if a fair trial has not been granted and if other rights have been violated.

It adds that the imposition of the death penalty on the basis of overbroad national security charges would amount to an egregious violation of Irans human rights obligations.

Iran was rocked by five days of unrest following a hike in gasoline prices in November 2019. The protests were violently suppressed by security forces.

Iranian authorities have still not released reliable information on the numbers of fatalities during the unrest.

A senior Iranian lawmaker said in June that 230 were killed and thousands injured during the protests, while Amnesty International said more than 300 people died in the crackdown.

The case of Moradi, Tamjidi, and Rajabi is not an isolated incident, the UN experts said, adding: There are widespread reports of arbitrary detention of protestors and torture to obtain false confessions. Other individuals have also reportedly been imprisoned and possibly sentenced to death for their participation in the protests.

The experts urged Iran to conduct an independent, impartial, and transparent investigation into the events, prosecute officials involved in human rights violations, and free all those detained for protesting peacefully.

The experts included Javaid Rehman, UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran; Agnes Callamard, special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions; Clement Nyaletsossi Voule, special rapporteur on rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; David Kaye, special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; and Nils Melzer, special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, among others.

With reporting by Reuters
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Johannesburg, South Africa  Thu, July 16, 2020 07:55 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666a5bd8 2 World South-Africa,coronavirus,COVID-19,pandemic,SARS-CoV-2,COVID-19-infection,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus Free

South Africa's coronavirus cases inched over 300,000 on Wednesday, the health ministry said, as the continent's worst-affected country hurtles towards an expected peak of infections.

"We have exceeded the 300,000 mark to reach a cumulative total of 311,049 confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Africa," Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said in a statement.

An additional 107 fatalities were also reported on Wednesday, bringing the total number of deaths up to 4,453.

Over 35 percent of cases were recorded in Gauteng province -- South Africa's financial hub and epicenter of the outbreak, which also accounts for the highest number of deaths.

President Cyril Ramaphosa last week warned that the "coronavirus storm" South Africa faced was "far fiercer and more destructive than any we have known before".

The country is the hardest-hit in Africa, followed by Egypt with just under 85,000 confirmed cases and 4,067 deaths to date.

South Africa's mortality rate has remained low, however, at just under 1.5 percent on Wednesday.

More than half of the country's COVID-19 patients have recovered from the virus.

"We are now facing a real rise in infections," Ramaphosa said earlier on Wednesday, noting growing pressure on "challenged" health facilities.

The president re-imposed a night curfew and a controversial alcohol sales ban on Sunday to ease pressure on hospitals.

Those restrictions had been gradually lifted after a strict seven-week lockdown.

"It gave us an opportunity to prepare, to prepare our health facilities to be able to deal and cope with the rising infections," Ramaphosa assured.

"Now that infections are rising our health facilities... face challenges," he said, adding that alcohol sales had been suspended to limit the number of "people who go to hospital with trauma incidents".
Jeff Hawks Offers to Work with Scientists to Ensure They Get the Grants They Need for Valuable Research

LINCOLN, NE / ACCESSWIRE / July 16, 2020 / Grant writers struggle with submitting and winning grants that can be used to fuel their research. Scientists admit that they don't know where to look for funding. Further, many areas are highly competitive, leading to the need to focus on what makes their proposal unique. Jeff Hawks of Nebraska, a former research assistant professor in mechanical engineering, has focused heavily on robotic technology for the agricultural, medical, and space exploration industries and has won a number of grants.

The grants that Jeff Hawks has won have allowed him to focus more heavily on mechatronic devices and biomechanics. He believes that successful grant applications need to show how the work can be used to improve existing operations and even improve compliance.

Jeff Hawks has begun offering grant consultations so that other scientists can benefit from grants being offered without having to worry about the details. There are many programs, universities, and companies offering to fund research. It can make it easier for people to continue their innovative research methods while getting the necessary money to move forward.

Jeff Hawks finds that it's important to show off the big picture. Many scientists write grant applications to focus on what they're doing. What they fail to do is show how their research will help with the big picture applications. The impact of a grant on a research field is critical.

Throughout the grant consultations, Jeff Hawks focuses on some of the biggest issues. This includes acknowledging that there are timelines. Scientists need to dedicate the time necessary to complete the grant proposals to ensure that they are getting the necessary funding. Further, it is critical to tell a good story with a sound scientific method to analyze results. Many scientists get too involved in the details and, therefore, applications are rejected because the reviewers aren't understanding what is going on.

Story continues

Jeff Hawks also identifies that many ideas are too overambitious. He has received a number of grants because of learning how to narrow his focus. As opposed to simply focusing on robotic technology, he looks at assisting agriculture and farming with the technology. He has also focused on researching biomedical devices, and more specifically semi-autonomous robots used in the military.

When Jeff Hawks works with scientists on their own grants, he looks at simplifying the explanation or application of the scientific method to obtain results. It can make it easier to find specific grants where there is less competition. It can also ensure that reviewers understand the concept and can get on board with the ideas.

Jeff Hawks has begun offering grants consultations as a way to move science forward. With so many grants being offered, he wants to ensure that those with exceptional ideas have the ability to get the funding they need in order to bring new technology into various industries. More specifically, Jeff Hawks wants to work with those specializing in biomechanics.

CONTACT:

Caroline Hunter

Web Presence, LLC

+1 7865519491

SOURCE: Jeff Hawks





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/597649/How-Scientists-Can-Benefit-from-Grant-Consultations-with-Jeff-Hawks




Would-be spa-goers might be reassured to know that even before the pandemic, the industry was one of the most rigorously controlled, by state and local regulations, associations and accrediting bodies, and by self-policing. Just one case of norovirus or foot fungus, much less the novel coronavirus, traced back to a spa could be a death knell for that facility, so spa owners have plenty of incentive to keep their places squeaky clean. The difference now is that spas are taking back-of-the-house cleaning measures to the front of the house, in what Sensei chief executive Kevin Kelly refers to as the theater of protocol.
Turkish diplomat Kemal Uchkun had been stationed in Turkmenistan since January 2018.

On June 27, Uchkun realized his coughing fits that had started two days earlier were probably something serious.

He went to a hospital in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, where he was admitted with respiratory problems and treated for pneumonia.

He never left alive.

According to official records in Turkmenistan, Uchkun died of heart failure after being admitted to hospital with pneumonia in the midst of a sudden wave of deaths that Turkmen officials have attributed to pneumonia.

But one person familiar with the sequence of events leading up to Uchkuns death says the diplomat died from COVID-19.

That source, who requested anonymity over fears of reprisal for speaking out, told RFE/RL that Uchkun might have been saved had Turkmen officials not been so obsessed with clinging to the governments claim that coronavirus does not exist in Turkmenistan.

Uchkun passed away at night on July 7. A plane specially sent from Turkey took his body away for burial back home shortly after.

Negative Test Result

RFE/RLs source wanted to give their account of the events that occurred from the time Uchkun was admitted to the hospital until his death.

According to the source, Uchkun was being treated for pneumonia and doctors at the Ashgabat hospital gave him antibiotics.

The source says Turkmen doctors tested Uchkun for coronavirus on two separate occasions but, both times, said the results were negative.

As the Turkish diplomats condition worsened, he obtained his medical records, including X-rays taken several days apart, and had them sent to several doctors in Turkey to get their opinions.

Those doctors in Turkey included physicians who specialize in treating coronavirus cases.

They believed it was more than 90 percent certain that Uchkun had the coronavirus and recommended Uchkun return to Turkey immediately for treatment.

On his seventh day in the hospital, Uchkun requested emergency evacuation.

But according to RFE/RLs source, Turkmen officials refused to allow a Turkish medical-evacuation plane to fly into Turkmenistan.

To some extent, this is not entirely surprising.

Since early March, Turkmenistan has rerouted all international flights arriving in Turkmenistan to the airport in the eastern city of Turkmenabat, several hundred kilometers to the east of Ashgabat.

The medical-evacuation plane that Turkey wanted to send was naturally requesting landing permission in Ashgabat where Uchkun was hospitalized.

This should not have been a major hurdle. But for some reason, it was.

Permission for the flight into Ashgabat was only granted on July 9, two days after Uchkun died.

From the time Uchkun received the opinions of the Turkish physicians until his death, doctors at the Ashgabat hospital continued to treat him with antibiotics.

Uchkun knew to ask for antiviral therapy. But doctors at the Ashgabat hospital continued treating him with antibiotics, which are ineffective against viral infections because they can't kill viruses.

Turkmen officials insistence that the country has no cases of coronavirus defies reason.

Turkmenistans neighbors -- Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Iran -- have registered tens of thousands of COVID-19 cases.

Unofficial information from inside Turkmenistan suggests the virus is already hitting the population hard.

Turkmen authorities have occasionally introduced measures that other countries have implemented to fight the spread of the coronavirus.

But in Turkmenistan, officials have never admitted that COVID-19 is the reason for the new public health measures.

For example, wearing masks was unofficially prohibited, with police actually removing masks from peoples faces, until July 8, just after a team from the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived and the day after Uchkun died.

Suddenly, wearing masks in public became mandatory in the Central Asian former Soviet republic.

The official reason for the new mask rule was to protect people from dust. But dust blows regularly through Turkmenistan, as most of the country is desert.

When strong winds blow from the northeast, they often carry salt from the dried-up bottom of the desiccated Aral Sea.

There have never previously been calls from authorities for people to wear masks.

WHO Recommendations

That visit by the WHO team was originally scheduled for late April. But Turkmen authorities delayed the teams arrival for more than two months.

At a July 15 press conference, WHO mission chief Catherine Smallwood said the team visited all sites agreed upon in advance with Turkmen authorities.

She said the team had not seen or heard anything that would contradict the Turkmen governments assertion that coronavirus does not exist in the country.

However, Smallwood did recommend that Turkmen authorities act as if COVID-19 was circulating in the country.

She also commented on the reports of increased cases of acute respiratory disease or pneumonia of unknown cause.

She said the WHO recommended that surveillance and testing systems are scaled up, and that samples are sent to WHO reference laboratories for confirmed testing.

Turkmen authorities shut the country off from the rest of the world years ago, making it virtually impossible to independently verify the many claims of success the government continues to make.

Ashgabat has gone to great lengths to preserve their myths.

It is difficult to imagine that any person, particularly a foreign diplomat, would be allowed to die in order to maintain a government's claim that COVID-19 does not exist in the country.

But RFE/RLs source has no doubt that is exactly what happened to Uchkun in Turkmenistan.

RFE/RLs Turkmen Service, known locally as Azatlyk, contributed to this report
The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday gave permission to hire super specialist doctors as visiting professors at Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) in Greater Noida.

Addressing the fourth administrative body meeting of the GIMS, chief secretary Rajendra Kumar Tiwari said that the super specialist doctors will not only ensure qualitative treatment for patients, but will also help train undergraduate and postgraduate students at the hospital. It has also been decided that additional posts of senior resident doctors will be created soon. The government has also agreed to open a trauma centre in the campus of the medical college, he said.

The chief secretary also said that the college administration has been asked to provide best possible treatment to the Covid-19 patients admitted there. We have also approved their demand to open the hospital management department and get accredited from National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) and National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH), he said.

GIMS director Dr. (Brig) Rakesh Gupta said that this decision will be proved a milestone in making GIMS, a world-class medical college.

Tiwari also appreciated the efforts undertaken by the team of doctors and para-medics, in treatment of Covid-19 patients admitted there.

G B Nagar cases

With two more deaths in the district recorded on Thursday, the overall death toll in Gautam Budh Nagar has now gone up to 37. District health officials did not disclose the details of the deceased.

GB Nagar district acting chief medical officer (CMO) Dr. Nepal Singh said that with 143 new cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) reported in the district in the past 24 hours, the overall count has gone up to 3,869 cases.

According to the daily health bulletin released by the state control room, a total of 2,878 Covid-19 positive patients have been cured and discharged, including 67 on Thursday, in the district so far. So far, 37 Covid-19 positive patients have lost their lives in the district. As a result, the district now has 947 active cases, the bulletin stated.

The bulletin said that in the last 24 hours, as many as 29 Covid-19 patients in Uttar Pradesh have lost their lives and their death audit report is awaited.

On the other hand, after declaring fresh list of 339 containment zones on Wednesday evening, including 305 in category-1 (with just one Covid case) and 34 in category-2 (more than one Covid case), the GB Nagar district Thursday issued orders to de-seal 30 (28 category 1 zones and two under category 2) of them.



District magistrate Suhas LY said that the containment zone in urban areas will be a 250 metre radius from the residence of a patient or the entire mohalla (floor in which the patient resides in a society) in case there is a single positive case and radius of 500 metres. If there are more than one positive cases, there will be a buffer zone of 250 metres outside the containment zone. In rural areas the village will be taken as containment zone if there is one case, if there is more than one case the adjoining area of villages will be taken as buffer zone, he said.

While a containment zone imposes strict restrictions on the movement of residence and complete sealing on the entry and exit points, while in buffer zones, movement is not restricted but services, except for essentials, are.

The DM further informed that in case of multi storied residential buildings / societies the same rules will apply with regards to containment zones. If one case in a floor situated in a multi-storey society, that particular floor where active case/ cases have been found shall be designated as containment zone. If cases are found in more than one tower in a society, all such towers where active cases have been found along with all such common facilities like park, gym swimming pool, and banquet hall shall form containment zone, he said.
An international team of researchers led by Baylor College of Medicine and Houston Methodist has discovered a strategy that can potentially address a major challenge to the current treatment for choroidal neovascularization (CNV), an aggressive form of age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the elderly.

Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) has revolutionized the treatment for CNV; however, up to one-fourth of all treated patients are unresponsive to this treatment and about one-third of the responders become resistant to it after repeated administration over time.

Working with a mouse model they developed, the researchers found that combining apolipoprotein A-I binding protein (AIBP) with anti-VEGF overcomes anti-VEGF resistance and effectively suppresses CNV. The findings open the possibility of reducing anti-VEGF resistance in patients in the future. The study appears in the journal Communications Biology.

Addressing resistance to anti-VEGF treatment has been challenging. For instance, developing strategies to overcome the resistance has been limited by a poor understanding of its mechanism and the absence of suitable animal models.

"Various combination therapies have been explored in clinical trials. For example, targeting PDGF (Fovista) or the angiopoietin pathway. However, no major breakthrough has been reported. In fact, a phase III trial combining anti-VEGF and PDGF failed to demonstrate improved efficacy," said co-corresponding author Dr. Yingbin Fu, associate professor and Sarah Campbell Blaffer Endowed Chair of Ophthalmology at Baylor. A new approach to combat anti-VEGF resistance

Fu joined forces with Dr. Longhou Fang, associate professor of cardiovascular sciences at Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center and co-corresponding author of this work.

The inspiration for their study came from previous work suggesting that macrophages may play a role in anti-VEGF resistance and that increased cholesterol accumulation in macrophages may promote CNV. Such cholesterol accumulation also has been associated with the formation of abnormal new blood vessels invading the retina. These vessels leak, which promotes inflammation and rapid photoreceptor (light-detecting cells) damage.

In addition, Fu, Fang and their colleagues, as well as other researchers, had reported that AIBP promotes the removal of cholesterol from endothelial cells and macrophages, two cell types that are involved in the development of CNV.

"Together, these observations suggested the possibility that AIBP might help overcome anti-VEGF resistance and effectively suppress CNV," Fu said.

Developing an animal model to assess new approach to overcome anti-VEGF resistance

To test their hypothesis, the researchers developed a model of anti-VEGF resistance by combining advanced age with laser delivery in mice. As they became older, the mice showed increased resistance to anti-VEGF treatment that correlated with increased intracellular cholesterol accumulation in macrophages.

The researchers tested the effect of AIBP and anti-VEGF in disease progression in this mouse model.

In young mice that were about eight weeks old, both AIBP and anti-VEGF were equally effective in controlling disease progression. In intermediate age mice, which were about eight months old or the equivalent of middle-aged people, macrophages showed increased cholesterol accumulation. In this group, anti-VEGF treatment was less effective when compared with younger mice, but the AIBP treatment was as affective controlling the disease.

The oldest group of mice, which was about 18 months old or the equivalent of senior people, showed highest cholesterol accumulation inside macrophages and were resistant to anti-VEGF treatment. Interestingly, AIBP alone also did not inhibit CNV, but the combination of AIBP with anti-VEGF overcame the anti-VEGF resistance and robustly suppressed laser-induced CNV by 47 percent.

This study also has increased our understanding of the mechanism underlying anti-VEG resistance. The researchers provide strong evidence that the accumulation of cholesterol in old macrophages plays a central role in anti-VEGF resistance because the old mice became responsive to anti-VEGF treatment when macrophages were chemically depleted. Fu, Fang and colleagues propose that the beneficial effect of AIBP is likely due to both its ability to enhance cholesterol removal from macrophages and its anti-inflammatory function. Clinical implications

"Our findings encourage us to test the combination therapy of AIBP and anti-VEGF in clinical trials to determine whether it can help patients with the condition," Fu said. "The projected number of people with age-related macular degeneration is 196 million in 2020 and 288 million in 2040. There is great interest in novel therapies for this devastating condition."

Co-author Dr. James Handa, Chief of the Retina Division at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine said, "Age-related macular degeneration has multiple factors that contribute to its development; therefore, future treatments that target multiple pathways, such as what we describe here, may lead to more effective outcomes."

"As a cardiovascular scientist, my research is centered on cholesterol metabolism and angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels. My team has been collaborating with Dr. Fu for several years in developing AIBP as a potential treatment for age-related macular degeneration," Fang said. "Our studies show that AIBP can be a promising therapy for the treatment of CNV. Compared to the standard anti-VEGF therapy, AIBP targets multiple causes of age-related macular degeneration by correcting the adverse profiles associated with aging. The discovery that the combination therapy can overcome anti-VEGF resistance shows the power of multidisciplinary research."

###

Other contributors to this work include Lingping Zhu, Mackenzie Parker, Nduka Enemchukwu, Megan Shen, Guogang Zhang and Qing Yan. The authors are affiliated with one or more of the following institutions: Baylor College of Medicine; Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center; Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Hunan, China; Rice University; Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Weill Cornell Medical College, New York.

This work was supported by grants from BrightFocus Foundation, Retinal Research Foundation, the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Endowment in Ophthalmology, NIH core grant 2P30EY002520 to Baylor College of Medicine and an unrestricted grant to Baylor's Department of Ophthalmology from Research to Prevent Blindness.
Were not describing a fever dream but Gov. Andrew M. Cuomos new New York Tough poster, which depicts the hardships of the coronavirus pandemic as a mountain that New Yorkers have climbed. A mask rests on the summits peak. Essential workers, and the governors daughters and dog, pull the curve down.

What we did was historic because we did tame the beast, Mr. Cuomo said on Monday as he introduced the retro political poster, his second this year. We did turn the corner. We did plateau that mountain. And then we came down the other side.

The internet immediately began picking apart the artworks oddly specific details. (Again, Boyfriend Cliff? We and others assumed that the young man dangling from its edge was the partner of one of the daughters.)

A day later in The Times, the art critic Jason Farago devoted 1,100 words to the poster, saying, Your average TikTok video displays more careful graphic execution than this.
Americas Racial Reckoning: What you need to know

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He is known for his love of gaming, and previously admitted he missed a call offering him the role of Superman because he was too busy playing World Of Warcraft.

And Henry Cavill drove fans wild with his latest Instagram video which saw him build a gaming PC from scratch to sultry music on Friday.

The Witcher star, 37, could be seen in a blue tank top that showed off his muscular arms and torso as he constructed the computer.

Multi-talented: Henry Cavill drove fans WILD as he built a gaming PC from scratch to sultry music in a hilarious video he shared to Instagram on Friday

He built the computer to the tune of Barry White's You're The First, My Last, My Everything and Can't Get Enough Of Your Love Babe, which left fans reeling.

Henry first showed his progress using a GoPro camera that was attached to a headband so he could show fans the little details that go into putting a PC together.

Then swapping to a camera that filmed him from a further distance, Henry smiled as he used tools to put the parts together until the build was complete.

Muscular: The Witcher star, 37, could be seen in a blue tank top that showed off his muscular arms and torso as he constructed the computer

Sultry music: Henry built the computer to the tune of Barry White's You're The First, My Last, My Everything and Can't Get Enough Of Your Love Babe, which left fans reeling

In an amusing twist, the actor showed off the finished computer which had colourful lighting inside and worked perfectly fine, until he realised he had put one of the components upside down.

Endeavouring to fix his mistake, Henry decided to take the whole thing apart again the next day so that he could the numbered panel would be the right way around.

Joking about the video, he wrote in the caption: 'All The Parts This kind of material isn't for everyone....viewer direction is advised. You may see a lot of parts that you haven't seen before.'

close look: Henry first showed his progress using a GoPro camera that was attached to a headband so he could show fans the little details that go into putting a PC together

Oops: In an amusing twist, the actor showed off the finished computer which worked perfectly fine, until he realised he had put one of the components upside down (left)

Determined: Endeavouring to fix his mistake, Henry decided to take the whole thing apart again the next day so that he could the numbered panel would be the right way around

Fans were besides themselves over the video, and took to Twitter to share their thoughts on the Superman actor's looks and ability to build a computer.

One person wrote: 'Who needs 50 shades of grey when you can watch Henry Cavill build a PC?'

While another joked: 'i watched henry cavill build a gaming pc for 6 minutes. 12/10 great content [sic]'

Another fan added: 'Watching Henry Cavill build his gaming PC was an experience I wasn't emotionally or mentally prepared for. BRB swooning. [sic]'

Gushing: Fans were besides themselves over the video, and took to Twitter to share their thoughts on the Superman actor's looks and ability to build a computer

Henry still has a lot of time to game before he heads back to the set of The Witcher, which resumes filming on August 17 after filming came to a halt because of the coronavirus crisis.

Showrunners took to Twitter last month to reveal the news in the form of a poem by Geralt's bard Jaskier, which said it was time for filming to restart after production stopped earlier this year amid the coronavirus crisis.

The poem read: 'Im dusting off my lute and quill, I have some news, some mead to spill: After all the months weve been apart Its time for production to restart.

'The Witcher and his bard  whos flawless, will reunite on set 17 August.'

Production on The Witcher had begun in February in the UK prior to the lockdown, with some scenes being filmed in Surrey.
A smart city needs all the bells and whistles  the sensors and signals, computers and robotics that its skin-and-bones architecture demands.

But its blood, its human plasma, is the data of our lives.

And should Toronto attempt another smart-city project over the next decade, its the control and distribution of that human data  its governance  that will make or break the venture, experts say.

A smart city at its core is about getting use out of data and limiting harm from that data, says Richard Lachman, director of research development at Ryerson Universitys faculty of communication and design.

Therefore, Lachman says, a successful smart city in the Toronto of 2030 will likely find its roots in the failed Sidewalk Labs project in the Port Lands, which finally fizzled out in May after years of hype.

That Google-backed plan was sunk in large part by its narrow focus on technology  the skin and bones of a smart city  rather than on the data that would course through its chips and circuits, he says.

That fixation on unfettered technology fed by unchecked human data caused many to fear their privacy would be imperilled and to balk at the whole enterprise, Lachman says.

As a result of that  the backlash against Sidewalk and then them pulling out  were able to see much more (what we) need to do first, he says.

We need to figure out what benefits we want and what risks there are and what were willing to do in order to gain extra utility.

While most experts agree the privacy of data is paramount, there is also a strong belief that Torontos future could rest largely on growing a smart city over the next decade and that there is both the untapped real estate and sociological climate here to do so.

At its core, a smart city spreads a net of electronic hardware, algorithms, apps and technologies that allow for the tracking of information and the use of that data to effect  hopefully  positive changes.

Its really about being able to track more information and then make more intelligent decisions about where we deliver services and what kind of services we want to deliver, Lachman says.

The COVID-19 crisis provides an unfortunate but apt example of the dilemma presented in that smart city scenario.

That is the possibility of using cellphone location data to track a persons movements and interactions over a set period time in the event they test positive for the virus.

Six months ago I think all privacy activists, all technology activists would have said, Thats crazy, I dont want all my movements tracked, Lachman says. But because of COVID I can say, I do want that benefit.

The key to a successful smart city, then, is to  transparently and with force of law  lay out what data can be tracked, in which situations, who gets to use it and for how long, Lachman says.

Where marketers can stalk every keystroke or credit card purchase to hawk mattresses or patio furniture on your internet feed, a city has far more weighty concerns to deal with, he says.

As a city we connect with law enforcement, we connect with public health, we connect with immigration status.

So we have to be much more deliberate and say if we want a public health benefit, like contact tracing, then I want to limit where that data goes and not make it available to, say, law enforcement or public school truancy officers, Lachman says.

Data can allow the city to automatically change traffic lights or highway signage to instantly ease traffic flow or to close roads to automobiles and create pedestrian malls and patios.

It can also be instrumental in making long-term decisions about transit routes or bike lane construction.

Its just there can also be other things that we dont want driven by that data, Lachman says.

For example, while using cellphones to track a motorists speed might be permissible and even desirable in determining where to build traffic calming structures, no one would want to see speeding tickets showing up in the mail because of that surveillance, he says.

Indeed, Lachman says, many of the decisions on data dissemination should be made at the individual level in a smart city scenario, with people being able to enter or withdraw from data streams at will.

You may be a person of colour and you dont believe carding has gone away; you might not want to share the same data as some other members of society, Lachman says. Those rights and that reality need to be protected.

While such opt-out options can weaken any data sets predictive power  making intelligent decisions less certain  they are essential to gain a consensus that would allow smart city plans to go forward here, Lachman says.

However the governance of such issues is structured, a smart city should certainly be built here, says the University of Torontos Tamer El-Diraby, who has studied such projects intensely.

El-Diraby, an expert in infrastructure asset management, says smart city growth is inevitable around the world.

And, he says, Toronto would lose its ability to lead the country economically and wade into the urban backwaters globally should it forgo a smart city project.

If it were to get out front, however, it will drag Ontario, it will drag Canada with it, he says.

And more importantly  it will be the shining example of the best way to do this. Its our duty to jump in and make the smart city example.

El-Diraby sees three layers to a smart city, the first and, surprisingly, easiest being the Jetsons-like hardware it would operate.

That includes the internet of things, the  driverless car, the smart bridge, the smart sidewalk and so forth, he says, adding many of these technologies are currently available.

The second layer consists of the ever-improving data streams that will fuel and direct the hardware  data that was rife with errors in the past.

Now we have this (improved) data and now we have the ability to be on the cusp of major breakthroughs with what to do with our data, he says.

And that inherently means we can help the city to be more efficient,  more sustainable and the communities to be more informed.

But the third layer, El-Diraby says, is the most important, though the most uncertain and challenging  one he labels governance and community empowerment.

In this more ephemeral layer, he says, lies the real potential for Toronto to achieve enormous technological and economic advancements through the opportunities  many not yet dreamed of  the smart city will offer as it evolves.

The smart city will open new horizons for new business models, new companies, new industries, he says.

And if we are in a reactive mood to these new developments then we will be missing the post.

A smart city evangelist, El-Diraby uses an example from late-19th-century Britain to illustrate his point.

Then, he says, a cabal of businessmen and economists predicted the growing city of Londons economy would be stuck fast in horse manure in a matter of years, even as the automobile was making its noisy debut.

And eight years later Henry Ford completely removed this fantastic, smart (manure) estimation because a complete new horizon opened, El-Diraby says.

His point is not so much that smart city denialists have their heads stuck in horse manure. Its more that the car also brought with it mammoth yet unforeseeable new industries  such as auto insurance and repair, highway construction, courier services, drive-thrus, motels and long-distance trucking, to name a few.

In the same way, Toronto would miss out on the industries and innovations that smart cities will surely inspire.

If we end up (concentrating) on what the smart cities will look like or how the data is going to be available or not available and neglect this huge opportunity, Canada will be left behind, El-Diraby says.

We need to encourage the community at all various levels to take on this new advantage.

El-Diraby looks to the lowly pothole to illustrate his thinking.

He says a smart city network of driverless cars could detect and report any encountered pothole in a matter of nanoseconds.

But what would they do? They will send a request to the city to fix that pothole, he says.

How long will it take the city to fix that pothole?

The answer, by current standards, is likely many quadrillions of nanoseconds (or about 11 days).

But we could have a new business model for running the streets where they can provide instantaneous service to (the smart-car operator) instead of waiting for the city to do that, El-Diraby says.

We open an industry for street management that never existed before.

Just as governments are traditionally slow with pothole repairs, El-Diraby also worries that they are not nimble enough to be custodians of the data a smart city needs to run full throttle.

When it comes to cities, data is in the hands of government, which is the slowest player of them all, he says.

When it comes to the municipal, city level, the data is not there, it is not reliable and the government does not have a model, a plan, a future where they will not only adapt to the evolution, but will make that evolution.

El-Diraby says data would be better handled by a separate entity that could collect and disseminate it with the same efficiency that banks have to run financial transactions.

Data needs to be instantaneous and agile, if smart city visions like this are to be achieved, El-Diraby says.

If you have this data about my phone, but also you have data about my schedule and also data about the weather but also more data about the current pollution, you can advise me about what to do, he says.

Maybe you can tell me, If you walk today from here to here, then instead of taking a taxi youll be able to take the subway and youll save this money and this much emissions.

More than many other municipalities, Toronto is in a position to build a smart city from the ground up, says Natasha Tusikov, an assistant professor in York Universitys social science department, who has studied the subject extensively.

Many cities embarking on such projects, especially in Europe, are fully built out and will have to retrofit new technologies into densely packed streets and neighbourhoods, Tusikov says.

Toronto is different because it (has) a large swath of former industrial land with really nothing on it, she says, referring to the Port Lands. Land where an entity could start fresh.

Tusikov, however, says a smart Toronto should respond to the needs and desires of its residents, rather than offer the splashy but often superfluous features that Sidewalk Labs was shilling.

The way Sidewalk Labs approached it was to create a sensor-embedded smart city that would collect a lot of data and address issues that maybe people didnt think were priorities, she says.

They started with what they could build or sell, instead of real problems.

And rather than the Sidewalk Labs model  where Google would own all the innovation and toss local industries bit work  a new smart city here could spread the wealth, Tusikov says.

A different vision would be to have a variety of  entities, maybe some non-profit, local or multinational, she says.

And all of the different entities could provide different products and services.

In the vast, built stretches of Toronto, smart city technologies could help solve transit and housing problems, Tusikov says.

But such enduring problems would still require the multi-level political commitment and funding that theyve lacked for decades.

Affordable housing? You cant simply solve that by adding technology, Tusikov says.

Regardless of its eventual configurations, a smart city might find a warmer sociological environment in Toronto than in many other cities, says David Soberman, Canadian National Chair in strategic marketing at U of Ts Rotman School of Management.

Soberman, an expert in big data, agrees that privacy will be of paramount importance in any smart city project.

But Toronto may sit in a sort of Goldilocks zone between a resistance to any intrusions on personal information and an accepted or enforced lack of privacy that exists in other nations.

So were in a middle ground, and when youre in a middle ground it gives you a lot of chance to experiment, Soberman says.

You can experiment with collecting information, you can do tests to see what people will accept. (It) gives us a chance to experiment and learn and to find ways of using this information that people and Canadian will find acceptable.

As well, Soberman says, Canadians have a greater respect for government  a belief that it would protect privacy rights in particular  than people in many other nations.

I think that creates a positive environment. If somethings got the stamp of approval by the government, people are going to feel protected, he says.

In the end, Lachman says the experience of COVID-19 in hard-hit Toronto might well make residents more open to the idea of group tracking and its potential to improve lives.

Were thinking of one another. Were realizing our group decision-making might affect one another, he says.

But that does not diminish the need for intense, expert debate on smart city governance, prior to the first sensor embed.

There absolutely may be an appetite, Lachman says.

What I want to caution is you dont make a decision with a gun to your head.

Read more about:
A Westwood Public Schools employee who was working at Downey Elementary School with students over the summer has tested positive for COVID-19, after initially being told her test was negative.

While she was working at the school when she started to show symptoms on July 3 COVID-19 test and stayed home from work. When the results came back she was told that she was all clear and could return to work.

Her medical provider then called back telling her she'd been misinformed about her results and she was actually positive for the virus.

We share the communitys concern that a staff member in our summer program has tested positive for coronavirus. We want to emphasize that her exposure to students was limited to a three-hour block, during which time she was properly outfitted with PPE, Superintendent Emily J. Parks said in a statement to CBS.

Downey Elementary School and Westwood High School opened for in-person instruction during the districts special education program.

"We want to emphasize that her exposure to students was limited to a three-hour block, during which time she was properly outfitted with PPE," Parks said in the statement.

About 100 students participated in the summer programs at the two schools. According to Westwood Public Schools, the families of students who came into contact with the staff member have been notified.

The scare comes as Rep. Ayanna Pressley took to Twitter over the weekend to lambast Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos over the federal governments plan to reopen schools amid the coronavirus pandemic.

DeVos maintained on Sunday that American schools can reopen safely.

There is nothing in the data that would suggest that kids being back in school is dangerous to them, DeVos said on CNNs State of the Union on Sunday. Kids need to be in school. They need to be learning, they need to be moving ahead. And ... we cannot be paralyzed and not allow that, or not be intent on that happening.

Related Content:
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia has issued a statement on the threats of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan to launch a missile strike at the Metsamor Armenian Nuclear Power Plant. The statement reads as follows:

"The threats voiced by the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan to launch missile attacks at the Armenian Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant indicate the level of desperation and the crisis of mind of the political-military leadership of Azerbaijan.

The actions threatened by the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan are a flagrant violation of the International Humanitarian Law in general and the First Additional Protocol to Geneva Conventions in particular. Such threats are an explicit demonstration of state terrorism and genocidal intent of Azerbaijan.

Moreover, with such statements the leadership of Azerbaijan acts as a menace to all the peoples of the region, including its own people.

We strongly condemn the nuclear threats voiced by Azerbaijan, which demonstrate absolute absence of responsibility and sound judgement from this particular member of the international community.

Azerbaijan must publicly denounce such threats at once."
API, a Trinseo company, announces compliance with GRS standards for recycled content containing material

Applicazioni Plastiche Industriali S.p.A (API), the footwear arm of material solutions provider Trinseo, recently received Global Recycled Standard (GRS) accreditation for three of its thermoplastic elastomers (TPU). These materials all branded APILON 52 ECO are part of the Company's sustainable solutions portfolio and contain varying amounts of recycled content.

The GRS certification provides independent evidence of a material's sustainability claim.

To be certified, a material must contain at least 20% pre-consumer or post-consumer recycled content. API has been working closely with its customer VAMAS for the past five years on a closed-loop initiative to secure scrap material straight from the luxury footwear maker's manufacturing floor and feed it back into virgin material for reprocessing.

This scrap is considered Post Industrial Recycled (PIR) material since it left the original place of production API and was reclaimed from an outside facility VAMAS.

"This is an example of a creative material solution developed together with one of our valued customers to achieve sustainability goals," said Giancarlo Busa, Global Market Leader TPE Footwear. "VAMAS has always been committed to sustainable solutions and this is another way the company can reduce its impact on the environment through material selection."

"In this case, by reclaiming scrap from material originally produced at Trinseo, we know the composition of the product, and can mix it with virgin material while maintaining original performance properties. By having up to 50% recycled content in our APILON 52 ECO grades, we're able to reduce fossil-based raw material consumption by reusing material that would have otherwise been scrapped."

API was audited by ICEA, a non-profit consortium that certifies food and non-food companies in areas of sustainability. ICEA is endorsed by GRS as well as the Textile Exchange, a global non-profit that drives textile industry transformation with a goal of reducing the industry's impact on the world's water, soil, air, and human population.

The audit for GRS traced the material from the time it was produced and compounded at API to the VAMAS production facility where it was reclaimed, separated by color, and reground. Auditors then followed it through the process of being returned to API for reprocessing and finally delivered to VAMAS to be used in new footwear applications.

API is known in the footwear industry for working closely with customers throughout the footwear development process, its custom color capabilities, and its next generation sustainability solutions that include bioplastics as well as recycled content containing materials. Its vision over the next several years is to continue to impact sustainability through a portfolio of innovative materials where a growing percentage of them is considered sustainable because of their composition.

Earlier this month API's parent company Trinseo launched ambitious sustainability goals for the next decade. Read more here.

About API

API is an Italian company specialized in the production of thermoplastic elastomeric compounds and bioplastics. Founded in 1956, API has developed a deep and proven experience based on continuous research into innovative, customized compounds for a wide range of applications. API was acquired by global materials company Trinseo in July 2017. For more information visit www.apiplastic.com.

About Trinseo

Trinseo (NYSE: TSE) is a global materials solutions provider and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders, and synthetic rubber. We are focused on delivering innovative and sustainable solutions to help our customers create products that touch lives every day products that are intrinsic to how we live our lives across a wide range of end-markets, including automotive, consumer electronics, appliances, medical devices, lighting, electrical, carpet, paper and board, building and construction, and tires. Trinseo had approximately $3.8 billion in net sales in 2019, with 17 manufacturing sites around the world, and approximately 2,700 employees. For more information visit www.trinseo.com.

Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain "forward-looking statements" including, without limitation, statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, projections, expectations, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements, which are not statements of historical facts. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words like "expect," "estimate," "will," "may," or expressions of similar meaning. Forward-looking statements reflect management's evaluation of information currently available and are based on the Company's current expectations and assumptions regarding the impact from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Company's business, the economy and other future conditions. Specific factors that could cause future results to differ from those expressed by the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, risks related to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and those discussed in the Company's Annual Report for the year ended December 31, 2019 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), in subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and in other filings and furnishings made by the Company with the SEC from time to time. Other unknown or unpredictable factors could also have material adverse effects on the Company's performance. As a result of these or other factors, the Company's actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date hereof and are not a guarantee of future performance. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as otherwise required by law.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200716005626/en/

Contacts:

Press Contact:

Trinseo Deutschland Anlagengesellschaft mbH

Radu Botoaca

Tel: +49 6196 969 3025

Email: rbotoaca@trinseo.com
The government has said it is open to discussions with the Society of Private Medical and Dental Practitioners over concerns they have raised about the countrys management of COVID-19 cases.

According to President Akufo-Addo's Advisor on Health, Dr. Anthony Nsiah Asare, the appropriate agencies are available to discuss the issues and come to a proper resolution.

The Society for Medical and Dental Practitioners in a statement on Wednesday [July 15] questioned some of the government's decisions in the management of the COVID-19 situation.

Among other things, they lamented the breakdown of safety protocols and an explosion of cases in the country.

The Society said government must urgently accredit or open up more testing centres, prepare oxygen production plants and provide PPE to their members.

But Dr. Nsiah Asare on Eyewitness News said the Society can make their issues known to the Regional Directorate or National Headquarters of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and even the COVID-19 Secretariat to have them addressed.

We are open to having discussions with anybody. If my colleagues, the society of private practitioners have any issues, our offices are open, they should come and sit with us. We will look at it and solve it.

The Regional Directorate is there, the National Headquarters of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) is there and the COVID-19 Secretariat is there as well so I will encourage them to come and meet us. This fight against COVID-19 is a fight for everybody, not any specific person whether private or public so if anyone has a concern they should come so we fight it together, he said.

Data from the Ghana Health Service shows that as at the morning of Thursday, July 16, 2020, the total number of positive cases in Ghana was 25,430 with 21,511 discharge/recoveries and death toll of 139.

Regional breakdown

Greater Accra Region  13,986

Ashanti Region  5,277

Western Region  2,190

Central Region  1,131

Eastern Region  962

Volta Region  441

Upper East Region  282

Northern Region  271

Bono East Region  206

Western North Region  200

Oti Region  138

Bono Region  107

Ahafo Region  103

Upper West Region  70

Savannah Region  57

North East Region  9

---citinewsroom
Programme Manager, UNV, Bangui, Central African Republic

Organization: UNDP - United Nations Development Programme

Country: Central African Republic

City: Bangui, Central African Republic

Office: UNDP Bangui

Grade: P-4

Closing date: Thursday, 30 July 2020

Job ID: 31628

Practice Area - Job Family: Management

Vacancy End Date: (Midnight New York, USA) 30/07/2020

Duty Station: Bangui, Central African Republic

Education & Work Experience: I-Masters Level Degree - 7 year(s) experience

Languages: English, French

Grade: P4

Vacancy Type: FTA International

Posting Type: External

Bureau: United Nations Volunteers

Contract Duration: 1 Year with possibility for extension

Background

The UNV Field Unit is an efficient functioning unit with a primary priority focus on Volunteer Mobilization through partnerships and inter-agency collaboration. The UNV FU in the CAR has two elements with one presence focused on Agency, Funds and Programmes and one fully integrated in the UN peacekeeping mission in CAR (MINUSCA) to provide full administrative and operational support to the serving UN volunteers into the UN Missions functional structure. The UNV Field Unit in MINUSCA is based in Bangui.

Reporting to the Manager, Regional Office, the Programme Manager is responsible for the effective strategic planning, programming, advocacy and overall management of the day to day operations of UNVs programme activity within the context of its programme collaboration with the MINUSCA in Central African Republic.

Duties and Responsibilities

Coordination and provision of administrative, operational and programme support to UN Volunteers

Manage and coordinate the UNV Field Unit and the UNV Support staff to ensure maximum efficiency and output of UNV involvement in UN activities in field locations, including the administrative and corporative backstopping to the UN Volunteers in CAR. In addition, the incumbent is also required to promote gender balance/gender mainstreaming; human-rights based approach and capacity development and transfer of know-how to national staff/counterparts among UN Volunteers;

Conduct regular monitoring visits to the UN Volunteers assigned to locations outside Bangui;

Constantly monitor the security situation in the country, liaising with the Designated Official and the Security Staff and efficiently oversee security / safety of UN Volunteers;

Manage and oversee project and programme budgets for all peacekeeping related to UNV activities in the country. This includes regular financial reporting, preparation of project budget revisions and financial tracking of resources external to UNV/HQ, when applicable;

Manage the efficient documentation of UN Volunteers contributions to give visibility to their results and achievements in support of the Sustainable Development Goals;

Manage efficiently training and capacity building activities in coordination with the UN Missions Training Unit - and the budget provided by UNV Regional Office for the promotion of volunteerism;

Demonstrate leadership in the implementation of the Digital Transformation process that is currently being rolled out within the organization.

Strengthening UNV programme positioning within the UN system in the country

Maintain regular contact and coordinate activities with the UNV Field Unit in UNDP CAR to ensure a coherent and coordinated programmatic positioning of the UNV programme in line with the UNV Strategic Framework, and in the context of the strategic review of MINUSCA;

Develop regular contact with numerous partners at the sub-regional, country and, if required, headquarters level, in order to strengthen existing collaboration and promote/identify new opportunities for UNV in the areas of peacekeeping, peacebuilding, crisis prevention and recovery activities;

Where appropriate, develop and follow up on leads and planning exercises with key partners at the field level, with the view to support UN Volunteers involvement in the thematic focus areas of peace building and peace keeping. This includes regular short and long-term programme analysis, preparation of official correspondence, preparation of programming advisory notes, programme strategy papers, and project documents;

Contribute to the creation of a corporative identity for the UN Volunteers and to the promotion of volunteerism through the UN Volunteers in MINUSCA and across the country, in collaboration with the UNV Field Unit in UNDP CAR.

Support advocacy efforts and visibility of the UNV Programme and promote volunteer activities in the country

Promote the visibility of UNVs contributions to a wide range of audience (within MINUSCA, UN Agencies, DPPO, UNV HQ);

Ensure volunteer participation in public events such as the international celebration days, with particular emphasis on the International Volunteer Day, and MINUSCA/UN corporate events;

Identify, pursue and develop inputs to DPPO, MINUSCA, UNV publications/websites/social media networks;

Prepare working documents for programme development purposes. This includes the preparation of Strategic Country Profiles, MINUSCA-specific case studies, best practices, briefing notes, etc., which capture UNVs activities/contributions in peacekeeping, early recovery and peacebuilding in the country;

Identify, pursue and develop news stories, case studies, and briefs for publication in DPPO, UNDP, UNV and other publications. This involves close consultation with UNV Communications team;

Provide advisory support on UNV programme and mandate to different stakeholders in MINUSCA and in the whole country, in collaboration with the UNV Field Unit in UNDP CAR.

Integration of UNV programme and volunteerism into corporate and country-level strategic (reporting) documents

Develop innovative approaches to demonstrate the added value of volunteerism in specific country focus areas, as it pertains to MINUSCAs mandate;

Participate in UN system wide (esp. MINUSCA) and UNV corporate and country level discussions and planning, including the preparation of Regional Office reports, contributions to UNV regional work plans and routine preparation of briefing and advisory notes.

Managerial functions

Tags capacity development central africa early recovery electoral electoral assistance financial reporting international relations knowledge management official correspondence peacebuilding project management public administration reconciliation results based management social sciences sustainable development sustainable development goals volunteerism

Represent the UNV Programme with UN partners, including senior UN officials, with Government and with civil society and other partners;

Manage the recruitment, performance and career management of the Field Unit personnel to motivate and promote organizational excellence;

Provide guidance to the MINUSCA FU in Bangui;

Manage learning activities, including establishing Unit learning plans and ensure staff supervised meets their development needs while meeting the needs of the Mission.

Competencies

Core Competencies:

Innovation

Ability to make new and useful ideas work

Leadership

Ability to persuade others to follow

People Management

Ability to improve performance and satisfaction

Communication

Ability to listen, adapt, persuade and transform

Delivery

Ability to get things done while exercising good judgement

Functional Competencies:

Sustainable Development

Knowledge of sustainable development concepts, principles and issues and the ability to apply to strategic and/or practical situations, covering the economic, social and environmental dimensions

Peacebuilding and Reconciliation

Ability to support peace processes to facilitate recovery and development

Relationship Management

Ability to engage and foster strategic partnerships with other parties, inter-agency coordination and forge productive working relationships

Results-based Management

Ability to manage programmes and projects with a strategy aimed at improved performance and demonstrable results

Project Management

Ability to plan, organize, motivate, and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals

Knowledge Management

Ability to capture, develop, share and effectively use information and knowledge

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master degree in social sciences, public administration, humanitarian, or international relations/development studies.

Experience:

Minimum 7 years of relevant work experience at the HQ and/or field level, preferably with UNDP/UNV, or in the areas of humanitarian relief, electoral assistance, special operations in UN peace keeping environment and communications;

Work experience as UN Volunteer / Programme Officer in a field location is an asset.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in English and French.

Disclaimer

Note:

Only short-listed applicants will be contacted;

The successful candidate will hold a UNDP letter of appointment;

Applicant information about UNDP rosters

UNDP/UNV reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement. We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP/UNV at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

Workforce diversity

UNDP/UNV is committed to achieving diversity within its workforce, and encourages all qualified applicants, irrespective of gender, nationality, disabilities, sexual orientation, culture, religious and ethnic backgrounds to apply. All applications will be treated in the strictest confidence.

UNDP/UNV does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Scam warning

The United Nations does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process. Should you receive a solicitation for the payment of a fee, please disregard it. Furthermore, please note that emblems, logos, names and addresses are easily copied and reproduced. Therefore, you are advised to apply particular care when submitting personal information on the web.
Conor Counihan has led the tributes to his friend and fellow Aghada clubman Kieran OConnor who sadly passed away on Wednesday after a long illness.

OConnor, 41, died following a three-year battle with cancer, which first emerged when he was diagnosed with a rare bone tumour, Ewings sarcoma.

As the 2010 All-Ireland winner fought a third bout of the disease last year, a Friends of Kieran group was established and raised over 300,000 to help cover medical costs.

Counihan, who was manager for OConnors last four years with Cork, commended the dignity with which OConnor battled cancer.

The test of any fella is when youre in your darkest hour. All-Irelands and things like that pale into insignificance. He just managed himself so well over the last two and a half years. He never stopped being out there. Most of the time you met him, you wouldnt have known there was a whole pile wrong.

We knew he was suffering physical pain never mind anything else but he was just strong for himself, his wife Sinead and his family (children Isabelle, Ava and James).

Counihan remembers OConnor as a ferocious competitor on the field and an unassuming but sociable man off it.

When the kids came along, he put a massive focus on them. Sinead and them, thats what it was all about for him. Hed be fairly laid-back outside sport and great company. As a father and a husband, you couldnt say enough about him.

Kieran O'Connor, Pearse O'Neill, and Michael Shields celebrate Cork's 2007 All-Ireland SFC semi-final win over Meath at Croke Park. Picture: Dan Linehan

He might have got to Cheltenham in November for the craic and there was a few of us involved in an auld horse and he used to get great enjoyment out of that as well. But family was everything for him.

Read More Demand for hurling visor soars ahead of return to action

His family and Sineads family have been massively supportive throughout it all. In the context of the GAA, its sense of community and what it can do, one of the positive things that came out of it was how the whole fundraising element developed. What people did for him, he was blown away by that.

Its Kieran on this occasion but many families get hit by it. People just rallied around him at the time and one of the great learnings in life is when people are down others are invariably there to help them. There were so many people who wouldnt be associated with the GAA who lent their support and that meant an awful lot to him.

Having made his senior Cork debut under Billy Morgan in 2004, OConnor cemented his position in defence the following season. He was a member of the panel that Counihan led to an All-Ireland title 10 years ago. He started both the 2007 and 09 finals as well as claiming three Munster SFC medals, three Division 1 titles and a Division 2 honour.

He would have been a bit of a rogue growing up, smiles Counihan. He was ultra-competitive and crossed the line a bit but thats what made him, as the fella said. He was just good company, very ordinary, very quiet but hed fight his corner when he had to.

He just had speed, that competitive edge thats essential for a good corner-back. Hed be cocky enough when it came to it. He could burst up the field and get the odd score but it was the speed and aggression that stood to him. He had those qualities in abundance and thats what made him,

In the club here, when the going got tough youd put him on one of the other teams good forwards and youd know that was it. The sheer competitiveness he brought every time he went on the field, you knew he would give his all.

OConnor and Pearse ONeill followed Counihan in bringing the Sam Maguire Cup back to the small parish of Aghada and that connection will forever be special.

Kieran O'Connor in action for Aghada in 2013 against Graham Canty of Carbery. Picture: Larry Cummins

You knew their parents growing up and having played yourself and seeing the fellas carry on that tradition that was great to see, says Counihan. They brought huge pride to the club.

Former Down forward Danny Hughes, who faced OConnor and Cork in the 2010 All-Ireland final, posted on Twitter: Sincere condolences to Cork GAA, Aghada GAA, his family, friends and team-mates. His achievements were wonderful and his family should be very proud. Rest in peace.

Ex-Tyrone player Joe McMahon, who would have also lined out against OConnor, tweeted: Very sad news. Thoughts and prayers to the O'Connor family. Rest in peace Kieran.

The Gaelic Players Association posted: Our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Kieran OConnor and all within Aghada and Cork. Ar dheis De go raibh a anam.

Funeral arrangements, which will be impacted by coronavirus restrictions, are expected to be confirmed on Thursday.
Washington

President Donald Trump shook up his campaign staff Wednesday amid sinking poll numbers, replacing campaign manager Brad Parscale with veteran GOP operative Bill Stepien.

Trump and Parscale's relationship had been strained since a Tulsa, Okla., rally last month that drew an unexpectedly low crowd, infuriating the president. Trump has been struggling in his reelection campaign against presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as the country faces health and economic crises during a pandemic that has killed more than 135,000 Americans.

Trump announced the move on Facebook late Wednesday. "I am pleased to announce that Bill Stepien has been promoted to the role of Trump Campaign Manager," he said. "Brad Parscale, who has been with me for a very long time and has led our tremendous digital and data strategies, will remain in that role, while being a Senior Advisor to the campaign."

The shakeup injected familiar turmoil to Trump's 2020 campaign, which had so far largely avoided the regular staff churn that dominated the president's 2016 campaign and his White House. But the staff change was not expected to alter the day-to-day running of the campaign.

Parscale, a political novice, ran Trump's digital advertising in 2016 and was credited with helping bring about his surprise victory that year.

Parscale had been increasingly sidelined in the weeks since the Tulsa rally and as the president's public and private poll numbers have taken a hit.
WESTPORT  The Westport-Weston Health District is urging residents to be cautious in light of possible scammers posing as COVID-19 contact tracers.

The imposters/scammers claimed to work on behalf of the sheriffs office or the local heal department and needed to load contact tracing onto the victims computer, the health district said in a statement. Do not fall victim to these scammers.

Official contact tracers working on behalf of the health district or the state Department of Public Health will never ask to enter a residents home, threaten them with a fine, or ask for personal financial information, it said.

Anyone asking for such information is trying to do harm or steal your identity, money, or both, the health district said. Should such a person come to your home and request entrance, please call the police department immediately.

The health district said residents should never pay a contact tracer, give out their social security number nor financial information. Residents should not share immigration status as legitimate contract tracers do not need and will not ask for this information, it said.

The health district said it is important to note contract tracing is an important component of public health.

If you agree to participate, you may elect to receive daily health assessment reminders via text, email, or phone, the health district said. You will be reminded to do a simple assessment of your symptoms each day.

The information collected will help to slow the spread of the virus in local communities, it said.

It is important to note that all information collected is kept strictly confidential, the health district said. Contacts who are identified will not be given information on cases.

dj.simmons@hearstmediact.com


Korea ramps up efforts to rebuild cultural heritage



By Kwon Mee-yoo



Earlier this month, a rare and intricate mother-of-pearl lacquerware box from the Goryeo Kingdom (918-1392) was returned to Korea from a private collector in Japan.



The return is one of the achievements of the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation (OKCHF), an affiliate of the Cultural Heritage Administration established in 2012 with the aim of discovering and retrieving Korean artifacts from abroad.



The lacquerware box is one of the OKCHF's successes, following the return of a "dallyeong," a wedding robe, from the St. Ottilien Archabbey in Germany in February.



According to the foundation, it had located over 193,000 Korean cultural properties in 21 countries as of April 1. Forty-two percent, or 81,889 artifacts, are in Japan, followed by the U.S. (27.5 percent), China (6.7 percent) Germany (6.3 percent) and the U.K. (4 percent).



"Not all Korean cultural assets overseas are taken out illegally. Some were gifts or exported at the time of production. We try to recover those that have been smuggled out or ones that were looted and purchase those of high historical or artistic value so they can be preserved here in Korea and research can be carried out on them," an official of the OKCHF said.



The foundation uses a variety of methods including purchases, donations, negotiations and legal proceedings.



"The process varies for individual cases. In general, we research the object thoroughly, including its provenance. We also investigate the actual object to appraise its authenticity and value," the official said.



"As not all of the cultural assets overseas are bound to be recovered, we put much effort into determining the appropriateness of the return by consulting experts."



Previously, the foundation mostly purchased artifacts from auctions, but expanded their endeavors to locate those not up for auction. The recently acquired lacquerware box from the private collector is an example.



"To find more Korean cultural properties abroad, we plan to put up a purchase announcement and buy those that we are able to," the official said.



The foundation said it was important to secure a budget to retrieve important cultural assets at the right time. Approximately 5.7 billion won ($4.7 million) has been allocated for the foundation to retrieve properties this year.



"Valuable cultural properties could be pricey and we cannot predict when an important artifact pops up on the market. The government's budget is planned in a yearly manner and we cannot respond flexibly when a valuable artwork or sculpture comes up for sale," the official said. "If private companies which are interested in cultural value were to make donations, it would be a great help."



For those that cannot be returned to Korea, the foundation supports their restoration and preservation so they can be properly acknowledged and used to promote Korean culture.



Park Chi-sun, an expert in art conservation and a cultural heritage professor at Yong In University, collaborates with the foundation in restoring overseas cultural assets.



The conservator tries to restore Korean paintings to their original style, as they have often been altered to reflect Chinese or Japanese styles due to lack of appreciation of Korean art and culture at the time.



"Whether a figure in a painting is wearing Korean hanbok or Japanese kimono could change the whole image. There are only a few people who specialize in Korean culture at overseas museums and institutions, so many Korean artifacts were repaired by other Asian art experts, and they are sometimes distorted during the restoration process," Park said.



"Even in Korea, many cultural assets were altered under Japanese colonial rule, making it difficult to find its original shape. So I spent much time researching the original state of Joseon paintings."



Park pointed out that some Korean cultural properties overseas could promote a prestigious image of Korea where thay are.



Park mentioned the case of the "Yeongsanhoesangdo" (Preaching Sakyamuni Buddha), which was returned from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) to the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism in June. The late Joseon era Buddhist painting, originally housed in the Sinheung Temple in Sokcho, Gangwon Province, was presumed to have been looted by American soldiers right after the 1950-53 Korean War.



Park is the person who restored the painting which had been cut into six pieces. "The LACMA has many Korean artifacts in their collection and wants them to be restored and conserved in the Korean way. That's why they invited me to research and preserve their Korean paintings," Park said.



"Yeongsanhoesangdo is the largest Korean Buddhist painting in the U.S. When I repaired and restored it back in 2010, the LACMA emptied a gallery to make enough room for the preservation process and visitors could see the process. I think it had a great publicity effect both for Korean culture and cultural heritage restoration."



Park said staying overseas could benefit the object and Korea's all important and unrelenting quest for recognition of its very existence, in some cases.



"It could be the sole Korean cultural heritage item the institution might have. It could be properly preserved and researched there and lead to a possible exhibition on Korean culture. However, if it is returned to Korea, it is just one of many and mostly stays in museum storage spaces after one celebratory display upon its return," he noted.



"We are biased toward patriotism regarding the return of Korean cultural heritage items from overseas. If it was stolen or illegally taken out, it should be returned, but if not, it could stay abroad and promote Korean culture there. It is important for the cultural asset to pull its own weight, whether in Korea or not."



Park suggested transferring the ownership of items to Korea with overseas institutions exhibiting them on loan as a solution.



"When exhibiting overseas, it is difficult to take high quality cultural assets out of Korea. If there is a well-preserved Korean artifact abroad, it could draw interest in Korea and its culture," he said.


NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Euro Manganese Inc. (TSX-V / ASX: EMN) (the "Company" or "EMN") is pleased to announce it has increased its previously announced private placement (the "Offering") to 66,202,210 common shares (each a "Share") for aggregate gross proceeds of C$4.04 million (A$4.27 million). As previously announced, net proceeds of the Offering will be used by the Company to further progress its Chvaletice Manganese Project in the Czech Republic (the "Project"), including advancing the feasibility study and Environmental Impact Assessment, and for other general corporate purposes.



Pursuant to the Offering, the Company now intends to issue 11,979,682 Shares and 54,222,528 CHESS Depositary Interests ("CDIs", with each CDI representing one Share), at a price of C$0.061 per Share or A$0.065 per CDI. The Offering will close in two tranches. The first tranche, which closed on July 9, 2020, comprised 5,155,738 Shares and 16,344,262 CDIs. The second tranche will now consist of the issuance of 6,823,944 Shares and 37,878,266 CDIs for aggregate gross proceeds of C$2.73 million, such tranche being subject to shareholder approval under the rules of the Australian Securities Exchange ("ASX") to be sought at a meeting of shareholders to be held by the Company in August 2020.

Fees payable in connection with the Offering remain the same as previously announced. While CDIs issued pursuant to the Offering will be free-trading, the Shares issued will be subject to a four month and one day statutory hold period. The Offering remains subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV").

Securities to be issued under the Offering have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to U.S. Persons absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration. This press release is not an offer or a solicitation of an offer of securities for sale in the United States, nor will there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

About Euro Manganese:

Euro Manganese Inc. is a Canadian mineral resource company focused on the development of the Chvaletice Manganese Project in the Czech Republic. The Project will recycle historic mine tailings that host Europe's largest manganese deposit and result in an environmental remediation of this site. The European Union is emerging as a major electric vehicle manufacturing hub. EMN's goal is to become the preferred supplier of sustainably-produced ultra-high-purity manganese products for the lithium-ion battery industry and for producers of specialty steel, high-technology chemicals and aluminum alloys.

Authorized for release by the CEO of Euro Manganese Inc.

Contact: Euro Manganese Inc. Marco A. Romero Fausto Taddei President & CEO VP Corporate Development & Corporate Secretary +604-681-1010 ext. 101 +604-681-1010 ext. 105

E-mail: info@mn25.ca

Website: www.mn25.ca

Company address:

1500 - 1040 West Georgia Street,

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V6E 4H8

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this news release constitute "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Such statements and information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, the Project, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. Such statements can be identified by the use of words such as "may", "would", "could", "will", "intend", "expect", "believe", "plan", "anticipate", "estimate", "scheduled", "forecast", "predict" and other similar terminology, or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved.

Such forward-looking information or statements relate to future events or future performance about the Company and its business and operations, which include, among other things, statements with respect to the continued development of the Project, statements with respect to the partner selection process, its corporate strategy moving forward, any transactions arising from the process, the completion of the second tranche of Offering, the anticipated closing date of the second tranche of the Offering, receipt of TSXV, ASX and shareholder approvals for the Offering, the holding of the shareholders meeting and the use of proceeds of the Offering.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information or statements. Forward-looking statements and information involve significant risks and uncertainties, should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results and will not necessarily be accurate indicators of whether or not such results will be achieved. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements or information, including, but not limited to, the factors discussed under "Risks Notice" and elsewhere in the Company's MD&A for the year ended September 30, 2019 and its most recent Annual Information Form.

The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Subject to applicable securities laws, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this news release.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange), or the ASX accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
A hacker has put the information of more than 142 million MGM hotel guests up for sale on a cybercrime marketplace. MGM Resorts suffered a data breach in summer 2019, but the breach wasnt reported until February when roughly 10.6 million guests data were available for download on a hacking forum.

According to ZDNet, an MGM spokesperson said most of the data included contact information, such as names, addresses, and emails; birth dates and phone numbers were also included. Financial information, Social Security numbers and IDs were not compromised.

The hacker claims to have obtained the hotels data after they breached Data Viper, a data leak monitoring service operated by Night Lion Security, ZDNet reported. Data Viper advertises itself as a threat actor intelligence research & brand monitoring platform for investigators and law enforcement.

A separate report from KrebsOnSecurity Monday revealed that Data Viper, which provides access to roughly 15 billion usernames, passwords, and other information exposed in more than 8,000 website breaches, had been hacked and its user database posted online. Krebs reported that while some of Data Vipers data is from publicly-disclosed breaches, it also collects private and undisclosed breach data.
European Council President Charles Michel speaks during a news conference in Brussels on July 15, 2020, after a virtual summit with the Indian Prime Minister.(YVES HERMAN / POOL / AFP)

Europe has been thrust into its biggest recession in history and European Council head Michel is seeking the green light to launch a 750-billion-euro recovery fund to help governments weather the crisis.

"Now is the time. A deal is essential," he said Wednesday in a letter to the 27 leaders of the EU member states.

"We will need to find workable solutions and come to an agreement, for the greater benefit of our citizens. Finding agreement will require hard work and political will on the part of all," he added.

This will be the first in-person summit since the pandemic engulfed Europe in March and leaders will also seek approval of the bloc's long-term budget.

Last week Michel unveiled his latest proposal for the 750-billion-euro fund in the hope of winning over the more frugal member states.

The fund would include 500 billion euros of direct grants to the hardest-hit countries, financed by joint borrowing backed by all EU members.

But countries including the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark and Sweden are resisting the plan, saying the money should be advanced as loans with tough conditions attached, such as deep economic reforms to cut debt.

As a sweetener for the so-called "Frugal Four", Michel has proposed revising the EU's seven-year budget down to 1.074 trillion euros ($1.2 trillion), 13 billion euros less than an earlier proposal.

Michel also said last week that countries with long-held rebates on their European contributions would continue to get them, despite a big push to do away with these discounts.

The negotiations at the two-day EU summit promise to be lengthy and difficult. Some are expecting the talks to extend into a third day and perhaps a later summit.
John Adams correctly observed that representative government and trial by jury are the heart and lungs of liberty. A recent op-ed criticized the efforts of the judiciary in resuming the summoning of citizens for jury service, which has been on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic. I personally visited the temporary jury assembly facility at the NRG Arena to see how the district courts are actually conducting proceedings. What I found was an extremely efficient, safe facility and process.

The district courts began work in March on a plan for resuming grand and petit juries. A new facility was needed, since the current Harris County Jury Assembly Plaza remains out of commission from Hurricane Harvey damage. After a thorough investigation, the district courts found an appropriate space for grand jury calls at the NRG Arena. These plans have also been reviewed by Harris County Public Health, Harris County Constable Precinct 1, County Engineering, the Harris County District Clerk and the Harris County Judge, among others.

Right now, the district courts are focusing on jurors for five new grand juries because the extended terms of the pre-COVID-19 grand juries expire soon. Prospective jurors are receiving summons that include information and instructions on how to notify the district clerk of any health or medical concerns. Jurors without such issues receive a second notice, identifying when they are to appear at the NRG Arena. The summons dates and times are staggered, reducing congestion. Upon receipt of that second notice, summoned jurors have a second opportunity to notify the district clerk of any new health or medical concerns.

Jurors arriving at the NRG Arena have their temperatures checked before entering the building. Inside, the security line is clearly delineated with ropes and spacing markers on the floor. Every person entering the building must wear a mask. All rooms and activities at NRG Arena are on the first floor, so there is no need to use an elevator.

Jurors are then directed to a large jury assembly room, where seats are carefully marked. There are at least three seats between jurors and the person to their immediate left or right. The rows in front and behind seated jurors are also empty and roped off.

Jurors are eventually assigned to a smaller voir dire room, which also has many seats between jurors and empty, roped-off rows in front and behind. All jurors are given a new face shield to use and keep afterwards. The court and its staff are spaced apart at distances exceeding 6 feet and also wear face shields and masks. At the end of the day, jurors are discharged one row at a time to reduce congestion.

Cleaning is rigorous. I observed teams of janitors cleaning all areas of the facility. The arena also has many hand sanitizer stations.

Summoned jurors who prefer not to come to NRG Arena are also given the option to participate with Zoom hearings. On the day that I attended, approximately half of the people were qualified through that process.

It is unclear when juries will be assembled for actual criminal or civil jury trials. Under the Texas Supreme Courts most recent order, jury trials are on hold until Sept. 1, unless there is special authorization. The idea suggested in the editorial, that the district courts are off to the races with jury trials, is not accurate.

However, the district courts are likely to resume jury trials at some point during the year, and plans are currently under discussion for how that can be done safely. The district courts are considering ideas such as using face shields and clear plastic partitions, and flipping the court around so that jurors will sit in the gallery where there is more space for distancing. The courts may pick specific courtrooms in easily accessible locations for these trials and use empty courtrooms for jury deliberations, again so that distancing can be observed.

Meanwhile, most district courts are using Zoom technologies for remote hearings and other conferences. Many district courts also have set up YouTube channels where these Zoom proceedings can be observed by the public.

Rather than being condemned, our district court judges and staff deserve appreciation for working hard and creatively to restore our fundamental rights to a jury as quickly and safely as possible.

Kroger is the president of the Houston Bar Association and a partner at Baker Botts L.L.P.
This March photo shows a subject receiving a shot in the first-stage safety study clinical trial of a potential vaccine by Moderna for COVID-19. Read more

Russia is hacking virus vaccine trials, US, UK, Canada say

WASHINGTON (AP)  Western governments accused hackers believed to be part of Russian intelligence of trying to steal valuable private information about a coronavirus vaccine on Thursday, calling out the Kremlin in an unusually detailed public warning to scientists and medical companies.

The alleged culprit is a familiar foe. Intelligence agencies in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada alleged that the hacking group APT29, also known as Cozy Bear and blamed for American election interference four years ago, is attacking academic and pharmaceutical research institutions involved in COVID-19 vaccine development.

It was unclear whether any useful information was stolen. But British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said, "It is completely unacceptable that the Russian Intelligence Services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic."

He accused Moscow of pursuing "selfish interests with reckless behavior."

Sticking to more general language, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, "We worked very closely with our allies to ensure that we would take measures to keep that information safe and we continue do so so."

The allegation that hackers linked to a foreign government are attempting to siphon secret medical research during the pandemic is not entirely new. U.S. officials as recently as Thursday have accused China of virtually identical conduct. But the latest public warning was startling for the detail it provided, attributing the targeting by name to a particular hacking group and specifying the software vulnerabilities the hackers have been exploiting.

Also, Russian cyberattacks strike a particular nerve in the U.S. given the Kremlin's sophisticated campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election.

The coordination of the new warning across continents seemed designed to add heft and gravity to the announcement and to prompt the Western targets of the hackers to protect themselves.

"I think (the governments) have very specific intelligence that they can provide," said John Hultquist, senior director of analysis at Mandiant Threat Intelligence. "The report is full of specific operational information that defenders can use" to protect their networks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, rejected the accusations, saying: "We don't have information about who may have hacked pharmaceutical companies and research centers in Britain."

"We may say one thing: Russia has nothing to do with those attempts," Peskov said, according to the state news agency Tass.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's cybersecurity agency warned in April that cybercriminals and other groups were targeting COVID-19 research, noting at the time that the increase in people teleworking because of the pandemic had created potential avenues for hackers to exploit.

The persistent attacks are seen as an effort to steal intellectual property rather than to disrupt research. Individuals' confidential information is not believed to have been compromised.

The accusations come at a tenuous time for relations between Russia and both the U.S. and U.K. Besides political ill will, especially among Democrats, about the 2016 election interference, the Trump administration is under pressure to confront Russia over intelligence information that Moscow offered bounties to Taliban fighters to attack allied fighters.

The Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, said that "it's clear that Russia's malign cyber operations and other destabilizing activities  from financial and other material support to non-state actors in Afghanistan to poisoning dissidents in democratic countries  have persisted, even when exposed." He urged President Donald Trump to condemn such activities.

Relations between Russia and the U.K. have plummeted since former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a Soviet-made nerve agent in the English city of Salisbury in 2018, though they later recovered. Britain blamed Moscow for the attack, which triggered a round of retaliatory diplomatic expulsions between Russia and Western countries.

More broadly, Thursday's warning announcement speaks to the vulnerability created by the pandemic and the global race for a vaccine.

Profit-motivated criminals have exploited the situation and so have foreign governments "who also have their own urgent demands for information about the pandemic and about things like vaccine research," Tonya Ugoretz, an FBI deputy assistant director, said at a cybersecurity conference last month.

"Some of them are using their cyber capabilities to, for example, attempt to break into the networks of those who are conducting this research as well as into nongovernmental organizations to satisfy their own information needs," Ugoretz said.

The alert did not name the targeted organizations themselves or say how many were affected. But it did say they were in the U.S., U.K. and Canada.

Britain's NCSC said its assessment was shared by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency and the National Security Agency, and by the Canadian Communication Security Establishment.

The vaccine assessment came two years to the day after Trump met with Putin in Helsinki and appeared to side with Moscow over U.S. intelligence agencies about the 2016 election interference. The U.K. statement did not say whether Putin knew about the vaccine research hacking, but British officials believe such intelligence would be highly prized.

A 16-page advisory prepared by Western agencies and made public Thursday accuses the hacking group tied to Russian intelligence services and known colloquially as Cozy Bear of using custom malicious software to target a number of organizations globally. The malware, called WellMess and WellMail, has not previously been associated with the group, the advisory said.

"In recent attacks targeting COVID-19 vaccine research and development, the group conducted basic vulnerability scanning against specific external IP addresses owned by the organizations. The group then deployed public exploits against the vulnerable services identified," the advisory said.

Cozy Bear is one of two hacking groups suspected of separate break-ins of computer networks of the Democratic National Committee before the 2016 U.S. election. Stolen emails were then published by WikiLeaks in what U.S. intelligence authorities say was an effort to aid Trump's campaign over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

A report on Russian election interference by former special counsel Robert Mueller called out another group, Fancy Bear, in the hack-and-leak operation. Cozy Bear, though, operates "quietly gaining access and gathering intelligence," said Hultquist of the Mandiant cybersecurity firm.

"Their job is good, old-fashioned espionage," he said.

Separately, Thursday, Britain accused "Russian actors" of trying to interfere in December's U.K. national election by circulating leaked or stolen documents online. Unlike in the vaccine report, the U.K. did not allege that the Russian government was involved in the political meddling.

Lawless and Kirka reported from London. Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Jonathan Lemire and Ben Fox in Washington contributed.
Contributed photo / Dreamstime

CLINTON  Mark Felner, 31, of Clinton, waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson in Hartford to one count of receipt of child pornography stemming from his interactions with an underage victim in 2015 and 2016, according to a news release from John H. Durham, U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut.

Court documents and statements made in court show that, on multiple occasions in 2015, Felner, 26 at the time, traveled from Connecticut to North Carolina to engage in illegal sexual activity with a 15-year-old girl. In 2015 and 2016, when Felner and the minor victim were not physically together, the victim, at Felners instruction, sent pornographic images of herself through social media messaging services, Durham said.
The court did not overturn a lower courts halt on voters convicted of felonies who had not paid off related fees.

The United States Supreme Court has declined to overturn a temporary halt by a federal court that prevents Florida residents convicted of felonies from voting if they have not paid off all fines and fees related to their case.

Thursdays decision further delays a resolution of the issue, which voting rights advocates say could threaten some voters ability to go to the polls in the November 3 national elections.

The US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit will hold a hearing on the case on August 18, the day of Floridas primary, according to the Washington Post.





Liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan dissented from the Supreme Courts decision not to lift the temporary halt.

This courts order prevents thousands of otherwise eligible voters from participating in Floridas primary election simply because they are poor, Sotomayor wrote, adding that the lower courts decision continues a trend of condoning disenfranchisement.

Pay-to-vote system

Under US law, states, not the federal government, can decide if those convicted of felonies can vote and what stipulations apply to them.

Those convicted of felonies in Florida, except for those convicted of sexual offences and murder, had been granted the right to vote in an amendment to the states constitution passed in 2018.

However, Governor Ron DeSantis, signing into law a bill that instated the amendment, also included a measure that required convicts to pay off all fines and fees related to their case and sentence before they can vote.

Before DeSantis and state officials appealed, federal Judge Robert Hinkle ruled in May that that measure was unconstitutional, saying it created a pay-to-vote system by requiring convicted individuals to pay court fees, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Hinkle also ruled that it was unconstitutional for a person who cannot afford to pay fines or restitution to be prevented from voting.
Higher Education Fair to go ahead

An annual event to help sixth form students learn more about life after school will go ahead thanks to support from local students.

The Higher Education Fair is normally attended by representatives from more than 70 universities and colleges, but this year that is not possible due to border restrictions. Instead, 50 Manx student delegates have volunteered to man the stalls.

Francesca Warren, a former King Williams College student, and Caitlin Allinson formerly of Ramsey Grammar School set up the social media site Manx Uni-Verse to help connect current and prospective students and provide information and peer support.

Caitlin said: It is an opportunity for students to get honest and authentic opinions from our amazing Manx Uni-verse student representatives, which will hopefully help Year 12s finalise their UCAS decisions. We are really grateful to Richard Karran, Gill Kirk, Adrienne Burnett and the Ballakermeen team for being so encouraging in organising this event. Francesca added: We set up Manx Uni-Verse to help year 12 students make the most informed decisions they can about university. Having a physical fair is a fantastic opportunity for everyone looking at going to university, and we could not have done it without the incredible support of the Department for Education, Sport and Culture. Students looking to stay on the Island will also be able to learn about the courses available at University College Isle of Man, as well as local training schemes and work opportunities at at Ballakermeen High School next Thursday. A time slot has been allocated to each secondary school with additional lunch time slot for parents. The fair will be held from 9.30am-1pm in the Sixth Form Centre at Ballakermeen High School.
BOOK OF THE WEEK

Beethoven: A Life in Nine Pieces

by Laura Tunbridge (Viking 16.99, 288 pp)

What would Beethoven have made of the fact that the global celebrations of the 250th anniversary of his birth were kiboshed by a nasty microscopic virus from the East?

Well, judging by this elegant little study, he would have shaken his fist at the injustice of it all  and the lack of some massive and always much-needed royalties  before pouring himself a glass of wine and smiling at the joke of it.

You dont have to be a music scholar to enjoy this brilliant, and pleasingly concise, book. But, if you dont love Beethoven, both the man and his music, when you start, you should by the time you finish.

Its not a conventional biography: Laura Tunbridge, an eminent professor of music at Oxford, has taken nine pieces of music and uses each one to illustrate a key theme of his life  from Heroism (the No 3 Eroica symphony of course), to Liberty (the opera Fidelio), and Spirit (the mighty Missa Solemnis).

Beethoven: A Life in Nine Pieces by Laura Tunbridge, a professor of music at Oxford, sees the author take nine pieces of music and uses each one to illustrate a key theme of Beethoven's (pictured in a portrait) life

Around those themes, she fills in the story of his life, his family and friends, the history of the age, even developments in instrument making. If it means anything, I had to listen to each of the pieces while reading that chapter  its that kind of book.

We think of Beethoven as the grumpy, irascible, romantic genius who, by the time he died, was the most famous composer in the world. And, of course, tragically, heart-breakingly deaf; a man who had to be turned round so he could see the audience applauding wildly at the premiere of the Ode to Joy, the Ninth Symphony.

Irascible yes, and argumentative: shortly after the premiere of the Kreutzer sonata in 1803, written for his friend, the brilliant Afro-European violinist George Bridgetower, the pair went out to celebrate in Vienna with a few drinks. It seems they fell out in a fight over a woman who the composer had his eye on. But they made up, as friends do. And the composer had many friends.

Grumpy? Thats not so certain: hes thought of as permanently scowling because most portraits are based on a famous life mask by a sculptor called Franz Klein, who covered the composers face in oil and then plaster, which when dried would give the mould.

Around those themes, Ms Tunbridge (above is her book) fills in the story of his life, his family and friends, the history of the age, even developments in instrument making

It sounds a ghastly experience and Beethoven had to breathe through straws in his nostrils. No wonder he looks grumpy, as anyone who has had a Covid test would agree.

He loved his coffee, too, never starting a day without making a special mug of his own  carefully counting out 60 coffee beans. It was expensive and the equipment didnt come cheap. Then down to work, and how he needed that coffee.

His output was prodigious and he premiered two symphonies, the Fifth and the Sixth, and the fourth piano concerto in one concert.

Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany, and, at the age of 11, was already a musical prodigy. But it is Vienna, the musical capital of the world and home of Mozart and Haydn, where he really made his name.

As someone once remarked, it was the Austrians great skill to persuade the world that Hitler was German and Beethoven Austrian, rather than the other way round.

So here is Beethoven in his early 20s in Vienna, a vibrant city of palaces and princes, peers and patronage.

A musician couldnt ply his trade without some nobleman supporting him. Beethoven could play the field as well as the next man.

Like any hard-working musician, always  in Prof Tunbridges words  strapped for cash, he knew that his celebrity and genius would embellish the reputation of anyone.

For the young Beethoven, Europe at this time was a swirling mass of revolutionary and radical fervour. The French Revolution was not so long ago, and the Napoleonic wars were sweeping across the continent.

The mystery of the Immortal Beloved, the woman who was the subject of Beethoven's (above) famously passionate and unsent letter, has beguiled the world for nearly 200 years. The letter was discovered only after his death, and its not known when he wrote it

Viennas hospitals were full of injured soldiers from the Austrian and Russian armies. Ms Tunbridge brilliantly explores the relationship between the revolutionary music of the Eroica Symphony (No 3) and the revolutionary flavour of the times.

He was fascinated by Napoleon and saw himself as the musical equivalent, both titans of their age. He was initially determined to dedicate the Eroica to Napoleon but, when the little Frenchman was crowned emperor in 1804, Beethoven declared Now he will trample on all the rights of man... And he tore up the dedication page.

Anyway, as Prof Tunbridge suggests, the real hero of the Eroica was Beethoven himself. In a long letter to his brothers, only discovered after his death, he explains why he might seem malevolent, stubborn or misanthropic. He was losing his hearing. The year was 1802 and its painful to read now: My misfortune is doubly painful to me because I am bound to be misunderstood . . . I must live almost alone like an exile. Only his art kept him going.

He was a bachelor all his life  though very fond of female company finding a wife was tricky: he was always falling for married women, and, says Ms Tunbridge, had to frequent the citys many brothels  so the mystery of the Immortal Beloved, the woman who was the subject of his famously passionate and unsent letter, has beguiled the world for nearly 200 years. The letter was discovered only after his death, and its not known when he wrote it.

It was even the subject of a powerful film, Immortal Beloved, with Gary Oldman (pictured above) as Beethoven

It was even the subject of a powerful film, Immortal Beloved, with Gary Oldman as Beethoven. But who was she? My thoughts rush to you, my Immortal Beloved, now and then joyfully, then again sadly . . . To face life I must live with you or not at all . . . 

And much more in that vein, breathless and overwrought. Prof Tunbridge runs her eye over the field without coming to any conclusion.

The fact that there were so many candidates shows Beethoven was popular in more ways than one. But some puzzles are best left unsolved.

And, in the end, it is the music that encompasses us all, from the surging, enveloping richness of the middle period, to the more spare, thoroughly modern late chamber pieces. It is music that doesnt belong in a court or a palace; its about real life and the real world, whether you are listening in the concert hall or whistling the tunes as you walk.

You dont need to be musical to understand Beethoven, to feel the majesty, the greatness, the universality: whatever you do, wherever you are, you will be stirred by his overwhelming stream of sound.

His last words were typical, expressing disappointment that the wine he had hoped for had only just arrived: Pity, pity, too late. He then fell into a coma for two days before a violent snowstorm erupted. Beethoven briefly opened his eyes, and clenched his fist, defiant to the end.

So, how pleasing it is that, at a time when statues are the preferred currency of angry minorities baying for blood, Beethovens birthplace chose to mark the anniversary this way: in an installation called Ode to Joy, 700 waist-high, brightly coloured statues of the composer were installed around the Beethoven monument in the centre of Bonn.

The man himself would have loved the projects success  not least because there was a huge rush to buy one, and Beethoven was always aware of the need to make a buck.

More importantly, perhaps, as Ms Tunbridge points out at the conclusion of her dazzling book, this Beethoven wasnt scowling: all the statues were smiling.
The founder and CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg speaks during the 56th Munich Security Conference in Munich, southern Germany, on February 15, 2020.

A top European court ruled Thursday that companies moving personal user data from the EU to other jurisdictions will have to provide the same protections given inside the bloc.

The ruling could impact how companies transfer European users' data to the United States and other countries, such as the U.K.

The legal battle started back in 2013, when privacy activist Max Schrems lodged a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Commissioner. He argued that, in light of the Edward Snowden revelations, U.S. law did not offer sufficient protection against surveillance by public authorities.

Schrems raised the complaint against the social network Facebook which, like many other firms, was transferring his and other user data to the States.

It reached the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which in 2015 ruled that the then Safe Harbour Agreement, which allowed European users' data to be moved to the U.S., was not valid and did not adequately protect European citizens.

As a result, companies operating in Europe switched to Standard Contractual Clauses or SCCs, which ensured they could still move data across the Atlantic. In the meantime, the European Union and the United States developed a new agreement, the Privacy Shield framework, to replace the Safe Harbour agreement.

The ECJ ruled Thursday that these SCCs were a valid way to transfer data, but invalidated the use of the Privacy Shield framework.

In practical terms, this means that non-EU countries, or companies looking to move European users' data abroad, will have to ensure an equivalent level of protection to the strict European data laws. This could be a massive burden for multinationals, given they transfer huge sets of data all over the world.

"Regarding the level of protection required in respect of such a transfer, the Court holds that the requirements laid down for such purposes by the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) concerning appropriate safeguards, enforceable rights and effective legal remedies must be interpreted as meaning that data subjects whose personal data are transferred to a third country pursuant to standard data protection clauses must be afforded a level of protection essentially equivalent to that guaranteed within the EU by the GDPR," the court said Thursday.

GDPR regulation, introduced in 2018, has allowed European users to have a stronger say over how companies use their information.
The court ruled 5-4 that much of eastern Oklahoma remains legally Indian Territory for purposes of enforcement of the Major Crimes Act against defendants who are Native American and are accused of committing crimes within that region.

The U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Oklahoma previously released information indicating the federal government also has authority to prosecute defendants, even if they are not enrolled in a tribe, under the General Crimes Act if there is evidence showing the reported victims are Native American. Smith referenced that statute in his dismissal motion and pointed out Okmulgee County is within the Creek Nations boundaries.

Court minutes do not yet show a judge has set a hearing date on Smiths motion, but federal and state authorities have expressed the desire to quickly identify criminal cases that could be impacted by the ruling in McGirts case so they can be transferred to the correct court system if needed.

The U.S. Attorneys Office in Muskogee did not wish to discuss the situation, nor would the agency confirm Wednesday evening whether it was in the process of doing its own work on Halls case.
Sherell Robinson posed for portrait with her two month old daughter Illiyin Robinson, near her home in Philadelphia, Pa. Robinson has been getting treatment for postpartum depression over the past two months. Read more

Pregnancy was not the dreamy nine months that Sherell Robinson had hoped for. Shortly after finding out she was expecting last October, the South Philadelphia woman quit her teaching job because of an underlying heart condition and, by the end of the year, she was getting divorced.

Then the coronavirus pandemic hit, adding a plethora of new worries about a novel virus with unknown effects on pregnancy.

Robinson pushed through the dark moments by focusing on the future she would build for her baby and 11-year-old daughter, starting classes for a new career as a paralegal. When the baby was born May 19, Robinson named her Illiyin, an Arabic reference to the most supreme part of heaven.

But in the weeks that followed, the virus kept raging and with a colicky newborn to care for, Robinson was more anxious than ever about exposure for her family.

I envisioned Id be the savior for my kids and I, get back to work and be able to pick up where we left off  and that is not the case, said Robinson, 33. I feel like Im drowning, trying to hold both of my kids up.

Anxiety and depression before, during and after pregnancy  a range of conditions known as perinatal mood and anxiety disorders  are common, thanks to the long list of physical and emotional changes, plus waves of hormones. The most well-known of these, postpartum depression, affects about 1 in 5 people who give birth and is even more common among Black women  including Robinson. And its on the rise, shooting up 30% between 2015 and 2018, according to a new maternal-health study by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

Thats without a pandemic. Now, maternity-care providers are worried about a surge in perinatal mood disorders sparked by the virus unknown health risks, fear of giving birth in a hospital treating COVID-19 patients, the stress of caring for a newborn without help, and social isolation that has canceled baby showers and kept partners out of prenatal appointments.

 READ MORE: Silenced by fear: New moms worry admitting to postpartum depression could mean losing their children

Its not a world you want to bring a newborn baby into, said Kiera Masterpasqua, a nurse at Lifecycle WomanCare, a birth center in Bryn Mawr.

Maternity care providers are particularly concerned about Black patients, who are already at greater risk of childbirth complications and perinatal mood disorders, and now are disproportionately affected by COVID-19  all largely due to systemic racism in society, and the health-care system specifically.

The pandemic has put this additional stress on people, especially Black women, because we know there are racial disparities around COVID, said Jabina Coleman, a social worker and reproductive psychotherapist in Philadelphia. I cant imagine if women were not being listened to before COVID, with all the additional barriers from COVID, what else is being missed.

Postpartum depression rising

The troubling rise in postpartum depression identified in the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association report can be partly explained by high rates of preexisting health conditions  including mental-health conditions  that put pregnant women at greater risk of developing a perinatal mood disorder, said Ginny Calega, vice president of medical affairs for Independence Blue Cross.

About 85% of births during the study period were among millennials, with an average age of 31, according to the report, which analyzed claims data from 1.4 million births between 2015 and 2018.

Previous reports by the insurer have found that millennials are on average sicker, with higher rates of hypertension, diabetes and behavioral health disorders than older generations at their age.

Whats more, the report found that a third of women in the study group  all covered by private health insurance, suggesting they had higher-than-average family incomes  received less prenatal care than is recommended, which contributed to higher rates of pregnancy and childbirth complications.

The pandemic has made access to care more difficult for some patients who are unable to see their doctor in person or are worried about venturing to a medical office. A quarter of women surveyed by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association reported skipping prenatal appointments after social distancing measures were put in place. And Philadelphia-area providers say they are beginning to see an increase in anxiety and depression among pregnant and postpartum patients.

Masterpasqua, who screens patients showing signs of a mood disorder, said her call list has tripled since March. The birth center has seen an influx of late-pregnancy transfers  women who no longer want to give birth at a hospital  but that only partly explains the increase in patients experiencing these mental-health issues, Masterpasqua believes.

You already feel stuck and isolated as a new mom without the pandemic and now youre not supposed to leave your house unless you absolutely have to  you feel more stuck than you normally would, she said.

 READ MORE: Moms have trouble finding help for postpartum depression, so its finding them

Pandemic adds depression, anxiety triggers

Alyssa Paul Maltby, a 33-year-old special-education teacher, didnt look pregnant when she left work and wont be pregnant when school reopens. She said it feels strange to go through such a major life change in isolation, without sharing the experience with her family, friends and coworkers.

Its almost felt like a secret pregnancy, said Paul Maltby, who lives in Philadelphia with her husband and 2-year-old daughter, Amelia.

Paul Maltby experienced postpartum anxiety after Amelia was born, becoming fixated on whether her daughter was sleeping and gaining enough weight, and ultimately not eating properly herself. She knows this puts her at greater risk of the condition after her son is born in August, and worries about how the pandemic will affect her options for treatment.

One of the hard things now is a lot of those strategies I used after she was born  getting out of the house, going to a breastfeeding group, just being social  Im not going to be able to do that with this baby, she said.

Changes to care have also added stress for expectant parents and may trigger more cases of postpartum depression, said Saleemah McNeil, a psychotherapist and owner of Oshun Family Center in Jenkintown.

A lot of what I see in postpartum clients is a grief and loss process that does not have anything to do with bringing a baby home. Its the loss of the idea and picture of what your birth was planned to look like  for instance, ending up with a C-section when a natural birth was planned, she said.

Most hospitals in the Philadelphia area currently allow only one support person in the delivery room, provided they test negative for COVID-19. That can trigger a sense of loss for women who wanted to hire a doula or expected grandparents to visit. The idea of their partner potentially being turned away due to a positive test is anxiety inducing for many women and having to actually do it can be traumatic. Additionally, research shows women with a support person are less likely to experience complications.

In addition to creating new anxieties, the pandemic has exacerbated common pregnancy worries, such as financial stability, said Jennifer Jones, a therapist with Maternity Care Coalitions MOMobile program, which provides at-home services.

A lot of the referrals during the quarantine have been people who worry about whether theyll have a home to live in, their jobs, being separated from family and friends, Jones said.

Health disparities put Black women at greater risk

Providers are especially concerned about a potential increase in perinatal mood disorders among Black patients.

We know that Black and Brown people are affected more by COVID and a lot of the issues of COVID are the issues of institutionalized racism, such as the effects of unemployment and underemployment, lack of paid sick days, insufficient health insurance and housing insecurity, said Autumn Nelson, a certified nurse midwife at Lifecycle WomanCare in Bryn Mawr.

Systemic racism in health care, including unethical medical experiments, has fueled distrust of health-care providers among many Black patients. The father of modern gynecology, James Marion Sims, pioneered surgical techniques by experimenting on enslaved women without the use of anesthesia, under the false belief that Black people dont feel pain.

To this day, Black women receive less pain medication during birth and are more likely to die during childbirth than white women, research shows.

 READ MORE: Time to talk about an unspoken reason black women are likelier to die in childbirth | Opinion

Ive had white patients who say, Im having chest or leg pain and [the doctors] say, OK, let me write you a script, said Veronica Briggs, a doula based in Cherry Hill. Meanwhile, concerns reported by her Black patients are often dismissed as normal pregnancy aches and pains, she said.

These disparities can create distrust between Black patients and their doctors. Briggs attributes her own case of postpartum depression to feeling unheard by doctors during her two pregnancies.

Briggs became a doula to make sure women of color have access to resources that werent available to her  namely, a health-care provider with shared racial background.

Research shows that patients are more likely to trust a doctor or therapist they believe can relate to their personal experience, yet just 5% of doctors identify as Black or African American, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

That shared experience is more important than ever for women such as Robinson, who said she felt overwhelmed thinking about all the ways she was at risk for the coronavirus: shes Black, has two heart conditions and was pregnant.

Heres one thing that makes you at risk, and another, and another  and theres nothing you can do about it, she said. I was crying so much, I was tired of crying.

Two months after her daughters birth, Robinson said she still struggles with depression and anxiety, but working with a doula and therapist has helped. Shes learned to take one day at a time, let go of harsh self-imposed expectations and, when in doubt, hold tight to her armful of the most supreme part of heaven.
GREENWICH  A group of protesters made a trip to Greenwich on Wednesday for a drive-through rally to condemn an executive whose company until recently manufactured tear gas and other chemical forms of crowd control.

About 50 vehicles and a similar number of protesters affiliated with the Service Employees International Union staged the demonstration on Dairy Lane by honking horns, waving signs and chanting slogans. The protest targeted Warren Kanders, a businessman who recently divested his company of a division that produces tear gas and other chemical agents used by the military and law enforcement. That company, Safariland, also manufactures other equipment for the public safety sector.

Kanders did not return a message left at his Stamford office.

The parade of vehicles in backcountry Greenwich drew protesters from around the state.

SEIU staged an earlier protest in May, stopping at the homes of wealthy Greenwich residents, to highlight what they said are inequities in the health-care system that put working people at risk in the current coronavirus pandemic.

That message was also broadcast Wednesday, along with a criticism of law-enforcement tactics such as tear gas, rubber bullets and metal batons that demonstrators said are used disproportionately against minorities, particularly during the recent protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. Researchers traced the Safariland company products to riot-control measures in Ferguson, Mo., and elsewhere.

Black and brown people are suffering because of these products, said Alicia Strong, a resident of New Britain.

In a theatrical gesture, one woman was dressed in a black robe as the grim reaper and carried a black scythe. Demonstrators left a symbolic bill that they said Kanders owed to the public. The large number of cars assembled at a commuter lot in Stamford before making the drive to the home in backcountry Greenwich.

Kanders issued the following statement in June: Our safety and survivability products have taken two forms, passive defensive protection such as body armor, bomb suits, and safety holsters. This divestiture removes the active component and allows Safariland to focus on passive defensive protection. As we look to the future, Safariland will continue to support public safety professionals in all lines of service as they risk their lives daily to keep the public safe. First responders - including police, fire, EMT, domestic abuse, and drug and addiction intervention counselors - take immeasurable risk each day when they report to work. Safariland will always support them.

Kanders has previously come under criticism for the tear-gas business, and he stepped down from the board of the Whitney Museum in New York City in July 2019 after months of protest. The issue arose after news reports demonstrated that Safarilands tear-gas canisters had been deployed against migrants at the United States-Mexico border and elsewhere during street protests.

A patron of the arts, Kanders has donated substantial sums to the Whitney Museum, as well as Brown University in Rhode Island.

Protesters also targeted his residence in lower Manhattan earlier this year.

Several police units were on the scene of Wednesdays protest. The 15-minute demonstration concluded without any incidents.

The SEIU represents a range of service workers, including custodians, nursing-home workers, prison workers and school bus drivers as well as day-care workers.

Activists in 2017 also ran buses into Greenwich in a protest they called the Lifestyles of the Rich & Shameless tour. The town has often drawn demonstrators and protesters due to its prominent status as a fashionable and wealthy community.

rmarchant@greenwichtime.com
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According to Stratistics MRC, the Global Rail Freight Transport Market is accounted for $294.08 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach $414.96 billion by 2026 growing at a CAGR of 3.9% during the forecast period. Some of the key factors influencing the market growth include increasing demand for in rail freight route in emerging countries. However, high cost in setting up the medium is restraining market growth.



Amongst application, oil and gas segment is expected to grow during the forecast period. The large ability of rail freight wagons to carry goods in bulk make them preferable for the oil and gas sector. Moreover, growth in the consumption and production of primary and secondary energy in emerging countries will also drive the market for the oil and gas industry. By Geography, Asia Pacific is growing in significantly in regions such as India and China due to rising industrialization across the entire country has further increased freight traffic over the last decade.

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Some of the key players profiled in the Rail Freight Transport Market include BNSF Railway, Canadian National Railway , Canadian Pacific Railway, CSX Transportation, DB Cargo, DHL, Geneese and Wyoming Inc., Indian Railways, Japan Freight Railway Company (JR Freight), Norfolk Southern Railway, Russian Railways (RZhD), SNCF, Swiss Federal Railway, Union Pacific Railroad and United Parcel Service (UPS) .



Service Types Covered:

 Services Allied to Transportation

 Transportation



Type of Cargos Covered:

 Non - Containerized

 Liquid Bulk

 Containerized



Types Covered:

 Tank Wagons

 Intermodals

 Freight Cars



Destinations Covered:

 International

 Domestic



Applications Covered:

 Chemical Industry

 Logistic Industry

 Military

 Mining Industry

 Oil and Gas

 Post Service

 Other Applications



Regions Covered:

 North America

o US

o Canada

o Mexico

 Europe

o Germany

o UK

o Italy

o France

o Spain

o Rest of Europe

 Asia Pacific

o Japan

o China

o India

o Australia

o New Zealand

o South Korea

o Rest of Asia Pacific

 South America

o Argentina

o Brazil

o Chile

o Rest of South America

 Middle East & Africa

o Saudi Arabia

o UAE

o Qatar

o South Africa

o Rest of Middle East & Africa



What our report offers:

- Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments

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- Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)

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More Info of Impact Covid19 @ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/covid-19-analysis/12083
A Pennsylvania man who pleaded guilty to charges that he firebombed a child welfare office during a custody dispute has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.

Philip Finn Jr., of Plains, was sentenced after pleading guilty in October to use of fire to commit stalking, federal prosecutors said.

Finn used three Molotov cocktails to firebomb the Children and Youth Services building in Wilkes-Barre in 2017 to harass and intimidate two Children and Youth Employees, according to prosecutors.

Finn also used social media and his cellphone to harass the employees, prosecutors said.

A federal judge ordered Finn to pay $398,756 in restitution for the fire and water damage to the building.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Pennsylvania
Joe Bellino can tell you stories about opioid users and drug abuse.

Stories that can shock you, break your heart and, if you are Bellino, prompt you to take action.

Taking action paid off this month for Bellino, a Republican state representative from Monroe, when a bill he sponsored to tighten how prescriptions are written won overwhelming approval in the State House and Senate and was signed into law by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The measure requires doctors to send prescriptions through a secure computer system to prevent anyone but a doctor from issuing prescriptions.

The law takes effect Nov. 1 and is aimed squarely at the opioid abuse crisis confronting Michigan. A report by the federal Centers for Disease Control said there were 2,033 overdose deaths involving opioids in Michigan in 2017, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Bellino said many opioid abusers use forged prescriptions, which are aimed at being prevented through his plan to reduce the number of prescription errors caused by illegible handwriting and detect inappropriate prescribing of opioids and other medical errors. Studies show that e-prescribing also reduces doctor shopping, the practice of getting narcotic prescriptions from multiple doctors.

For Bellino  who confronted his own alcohol and cocaine addictions three decades ago  the battle against opioid abuse is personal. He said he has sat in enough rehab meetings and counseled enough friends and acquaintances to take the fight to the state Legislature.

This is an opportunity to reduce the heartbreaking number of overdose deaths that result from fraudulent prescriptions, said the two-term legislator whose district includes parts of Flat Rock and Rockwood. The lives of our families, friends and neighbors could be on the line if we do nothing to address opioid abuse in Michigan. Thats a price we cant afford to pay.

Bellino  a swift-talking, third-generation grocer who ran Broadway Market in Monroe for more than 22 years  is quick to cite example of how opioid abuse infected his community.

We had a pill mill pharmacist who was dispensing the stuff, he said.

Then, he adds, there was the time a frantic man came into his grocery and exclaimed that the wind had swept away his prescriptions.

I knew where the wind took things in that area, so I walked him over there, Bellino recalls. We found his prescriptions  for hundreds of OxyContin. I knew we had a problem.

Addressing societys drug problem has been part Bellinos agenda since he was elected to the Legislature in 2016. He tried unsuccessfully to win approval of a bill to require more secure prescription bottles. The bottles that locked were intended to make pill theft, especially by children and teens, more difficult.

One thing you learn in Lansing is that it can be difficult to take on the medical and pharmaceutical industries, Bellino said.

Bellino said lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have sought his opinions on drug policy, mindful of how he overcame addiction three decades ago from his drinkin and druggin days.

I guess I have street cred, Bellino said.

He said he intends to trade on that history and firsthand knowledge to push for additional changes to the how Michigan shapes drug enforcement and related policies.

Next up, he said: Examining and revising the states sentencing guidelines for drug offenders to better distinguish between drug dealers and drug users who did something stupid, but arent career drug criminals.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16

Trend:

Photos published online, allegedly showing Armenia shooting down Azerbaijan's UAV was revealed to be fake, Trend reports on July 16.

The Armenian side posted photos of the allegedly shot down Azerbaijani unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). However as it was revealed, the photos were taken in 2014 in Afghanistan, as is evident from the photo above.

As Head of the press office of Azerbaijans Defense Ministry, Colonel Vagif Dargahli earlier said, all UAVs owned by units of the Azerbaijani army are in service, and none of them were shot down.

The ministry also sked citizens not to trust unchecked information, not to share it and to follow only the officially disseminated information.
New Delhi, July 16 : "A leader is a person who identifies talent and gives people an opportunity to become a mass leader," recalled Congress Spokesperson Ragini Nayak quoting party former Chief Rahul Gandhi from a workshop session after his entrance into politics. She was refuting the claims that young turks were not being given importance and not being promoted in the party.

The remarks came amid the second high profile rebellion in the Congress by senior party leader Sachin Pilot last week against the party's leader Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan.

Following the rebellion by Pilot, many opposition leaders joined the bandwagon to slam the former Congress chief questioning his leadership and accusing him of sidelining the Gen Next leaders in the grand old party.

Speaking to IANS, Nayak, who contested the 2013 Delhi assembly polls unsuccessfully said, "When Rahul Gandhi joined the party he became the in-charge of the frontal organisations. At that time I was the national General Secretary of NSUI. During a workshop he asked the NSUI activists who is a leader, to which many said that a leader is a person who has followers, while someone said that a leader is one who does something new. To this Rahul Gandhi said all this is right, but essentially a leader is a person who gives opportunities to others to become a mass leader," she said.

The Congress leader said that he came into politics with a vision to identify and promote the capabilities of young leaders. "The entire allegation that he did not allowed the young leaders to grow in the party is completely baseless," Nayak said.

Pointing at the Cabinet of the Congress-led UPA government she said, "In the UPA Cabinet, Rahul Gandhi did not take any post, while Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasad, Milind Deora all were there. If he was against promoting the young turks, then he should not have allowed any one of them to be a Minister in the UPA government," she said, adding that she was also given a chance twice to contest the DUSU elections despite the fact that she lost her first election.

Nayak said that after that she was made the chairperson and President of the NSUI, and then the General Secretary of the NSUI. Similarly, she was made a party spokesperson and also made the Foreign Department convenor of the party and was also given the ticket to contest the assembly elections at the age of 30 in 2013. "I was also made star campaigner for the Delhi, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh assembly elections," she said.

Similarly, three-time Congress MP Manickam Tagore, who is also the party's chief whip in the Lok Sabha, told IANS, "I was a General Secretary in Tamil Nadu when Rahul Gandhi was the in-charge for NSUI in 2007. And we were working in the Youth Congress when in 2009 he gave me an opportunity to fight the Lok Sabha elections." Tagore said that there was no recommendation needed for getting the Lok Sabha ticket and it was the work that spoke. "For Rahul Gandhi, whose son you are does not matter. What matters is the hard work for the party," he said.

In a message to the rebels in the party, Tagore said, "Congress ideology and commitment is important for the party rather than personal ambitions." "We are all examples as we were not promoted. Go anywhere whether in Parliament or Assembly, or at state or district level, you will find people promoted by him," he said.

Tagore said that those who are ambitious, they are attached to the positions and going away from the ideology of the party. Pilot had revolted against Gehlot on Saturday after which he was sacked from the post of Deputy Chief Minister and Rajasthan Congress chief. In March this year Scindia joined the BJP that led to the collapse of the Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh.

Indian Youth Congress Vice President for Mumbai, Suraj Thakur said, "I come from a middle class family. No one in my family was attached to politics. But I was made the NSUI State President by Rahul Gandhi in 2010-12 and 2012-15." Recalling the incidents from Rahul Gandhi's visit to Mumbai in 2016 during his padyatra from Bandra to Dharavi, Thakur said, "When I thanked him for holding the padyatra, he hugged me at the airport and made me sit by his side in the VIP lounge at the airport where all the senior leaders of the party were sitting." Rahul Gandhi used to take the review meeting of the NSUI every three months and he used to call the NSUI Presidents by their name to explain the work of the party, Thakur added.

Thakur said the former Congress chief never bothered about the background of the leaders in the party and helped them whenever in need. "It was his vision that Congress is still holding the elections in the Youth Congress and the NSUI to elect its leaders," he added.

(Anand Singh can be contacted at anand.s@ians.in)
Portland tech company Puppet is borrowing $40 million and says it is again contemplating an initial public offering.

Puppet didnt say how it will spend the money or disclose the terms of the debt, other than to indicate the funds come from investment management firm BlackRock.

The Portland company had previously raised at least $128 million in investment, most recently a $42 million round in 2018. Online publication TechCrunch reported that Puppet had borrowed $22 million in 2016.

CEO Yvonne Wassenaar said Puppet chose debt over an investment round given the efficiency of the process and to preserve our current equity structure - which is important as we begin to plan and look towards an eventual IPO.

Puppets technology helps organizations manage large computer systems or data centers. Its among Portlands largest tech employers, with around 450 workers worldwide. Puppet cut its workforce by close to 10% in March, at the outset of the coronavirus outbreak, anticipating a global economic slowdown.

Puppet actively pursued a IPO several years ago but shelved those plans as growth slowed and as the industry shifted to alternative technologies for managing their computing systems.

No Oregon company has held a large IPO since 2004. Portland vacation management rental giant Vacasa appeared close last winter, but that companys business has been severely damaged by the coronavirus. Vacasa chose instead to accept $108 million in private investment in June on undisclosed terms.

Two Clark County companies have held IPOs in recent years, though. Laser manufacturer nLight went public in 2018 and Vancouver marketing data broker ZoomInfo went public last month in a hugely successful debut. ZoomInfo now has a market capitalization of more than $15 billion.

-- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699

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WHEN COVID-19 hit in earnest in mid-March, governments and health-care institutions across Canada scrambled to provide doctors, nurses and other front-line workers with gear to protect them from infection.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 16/7/2020 (552 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

WHEN COVID-19 hit in earnest in mid-March, governments and health-care institutions across Canada scrambled to provide doctors, nurses and other front-line workers with gear to protect them from infection.

But there was little opportunity, in those anxious and chaotic first weeks of the pandemic, to give thought to the other types of injuries being sustained by front-line workers who were required to attend to an onslaught of very sick patients.

First responders have had to make difficult decisions related to life-and-death triage and resource allocation. Some may feel guilty about surviving when others are dying, and many live with fear of becoming infected and infecting their families.

These traumatic events and the resulting feelings, if left unattended, can develop into moral injury, a potentially debilitating condition that challenges a persons sense of right and wrong and causes individuals to question their actions and the actions of others.

This can leave our front-line workers re-experiencing traumatic situations, feeling guilt, and blaming themselves for COVID-19 consequences. Moral injury is also associated with greater substance use, depression and even suicidal ideation.

Now is the time to address this looming crisis in health care. Now is the time to reach out to those on the front lines of the disease to let them know the mental anguish is normal and natural, and that help is available. Its also time to help them realize theyre not alone and that leaders and colleagues in their workplaces are there to support them.

First responders have had to make difficult decisions related to life-and-death triage and resource allocation. Some may feel guilty about surviving when others are dying, and many live with fear of becoming infected and infecting their families.

In the hope of flattening the curve of moral injury, the Centre of Excellence on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Related Mental Health Conditions has teamed up with the Phoenix Australia Centre for Posttraumatic Mental Health to co-develop a guide called "Moral Stress Amongst Healthcare Workers During Covid-19: A Guide to Moral Injury."

It is meant for those who are doing jobs in essential service industries  front-line health-care workers, of course, but also anyone whose employment may make them susceptible to the mental challenges of the pandemic.

The grocery store clerk who must return home to an elderly parent, the receptionist who must tell patients their cancer operations have been postponed, the floor cleaners in the long-term care facilities  all are vulnerable to moral injury.

We call them our "heroes." But many say they do not feel heroic as they enter their workplaces for another difficult day of potential exposure and, in the case of health-care workers, of making decisions about treating a disease no one fully understands with therapies that are not yet proven.

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They must be assured that their fears and anxieties are normal responses to an abnormal situation. They need to have the licence to put up their hands and say they are struggling. They need the space to meaningfully and intentionally process what they are going through.

And I use the present tense in discussing the experiences of front-line health-care workers because, even though there is a lull in the number of new cases in Canada, hospitals are still treating people with the disease and doctors and nurses are still very much in the eye of the storm.

The obligation to protect them falls on those in charge  the supervisors and administrators who may also be suffering moral stresses and dilemmas of their own as a result of sending workers into dangerous situations. Thats why our guide is also for them. It calls for a whole-of-organization approach and open communication.

We know that workers who believe their bosses and co-workers understand their challenges have significantly better outcomes.

The damage is not inevitable. It is not a fait accompli. It can be mitigated. And now is the time for action. Now is the time that hospitals, clinics, and all health care workplaces and employers can step up to the plate to put the organizational initiatives in place to support our workers and prevent the development of moral injury and/or PTSD as a result of their experiences in these unprecedented times.

Patrick Smith is CEO of the Centre of Excellence on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Related Mental Health Conditions.
The Mumbai Police on Thursday warned the people and issued an advisory after several Twitter accounts of eminent personalities including Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Warren Buffet, were hacked in a coordinated cybersecurity attack.

The Maharashtra Cyber Police warned that it is possible that hackers could try to gain access to prominent Indian Twitter profiles in a similar fashion. "The hacked twitter profiles tweeted a cryptocurrency scam. However, it is likely that such an incident can be used for malicious intents like spreading fake news and misinformation," it said in a statement.

"In times of the pandemic, any such hacking incident can cause widespread rumours and lead to chaos. Citizens should be alert and not blindly trust any tweet. Maharashtra Cyber is being vigilant about the possibility of any such incident happening in the Indian cyberspace since several Indian public personalities use Twitter frequently," the statement further said.

"It has asked Twitter to inform us of any such cybersecurity breach incident that might target Indian users and prominent Indian profiles. The Maharashtra Cyber has also asked other social media platforms to be on the lookout for a similar incident, and inform us in case of a cybersecurity breach," added the statement.

Precautions to follow for citizens--1) DO NOT blindly trust content posted on social media platforms. Take your time to determine if the content posted is truthful or fake; 2) DO NOT spread or further circulate any posts that seem like fake news or rumours, or promoting hate speech and any kind of violence; 3) DO NOT fall for cryptocurrency scams that are widespread on social media; 4) Follow good cybersecurity practices like using strong passwords, changing passwords frequently, and using 2-factor authentication; 5) Citizens can also report any security problems in their social media accounts to the support centre of the respective social media platform, and 6) Report any suspicious incident to your nearest police station or on www.cybercritne.govin.

It said that the compromised accounts had posted cryptocurrency scams, and also phishing links. Since the hack, the Twitter support team has taken control of the situation and has managed to restore the accounts to the original owners.

Various prominent handles with millions of followers tweeted a cryptocurrency scam, which asked users to send Bitcoin, and the person tweeting would send back double of the Bitcoin amount to the user. Many twitter users fell prey to the scam. Owing to the scale of the cyberattack, twitter soon disabled some of its features. Normal services were resumed after a couple of hours.

Twitter support has found the cause of the attack to be a social engineering attack. They have revealed that some employees having access to Twitter internal tools have had their accounts compromised, which led to the hackers gaining internal control of the prominent twitter handles.
Photograph: Jeff Chiu/AP

The city of Berkeley is moving forward with a first-of-its kind proposal to replace police with unarmed civilians during traffic stops in an effort to curb racial profiling.

After hours of emotional public testimony, council members in the northern California city approved a reform measure that calls for a committee tasked with police reforms. They include removing the police department from responding to calls involving people experiencing homelessness or mental illness and finding ways to eventually cut the police budget by half. The vote also called for the creation of a separate city department to handle the enforcement of parking and traffic laws.

The plan appears to be a landmark move in a US city and comes as many regions across the country are facing growing calls to defund and dismantle police departments in the wake of George Floyds death.

Numerous studies have shown Black drivers are much more likely to be stopped by police than white people for minor traffic infractions, with sometimes deadly results. Philando Castile, for example, was fatally shot after the 32-year-old was stopped for a broken tail light in 2016 in Minnesota. And Sandra Bland, 28, died in a jail cell three days after being stopped for failing to signal when changing lanes in Texas in 2015.

At the council meeting, after residents shared personal accounts of police violence, Berkeleys mayor, Jesse Arreguin, said he did not expect a new transportation department overnight because conversations will be hard and detailed with complicated logistics to figure out. But he said communities of color in his city feel targeted by police and that needs to change.

Related: George Floyd's family sues Minneapolis over police killing

There may be situations where police do need to intervene, and so we need to look at all that, he said. We need to look at if we do move traffic enforcement out of the police department, what does that relationship look like and how will police officers work in coordination with unarmed traffic enforcement personnel?

Story continues

Some progressive Bay Area activists said the move was a step in the right direction, but did not go far enough. The majority of commenters during a nearly nine-hour meeting that ended in the middle of the night had called for a more radical proposal of immediate defunding of the Berkeley police.

Veena Dubal, a University of California law professor and former Berkeley police review commissioner, noted that traffic enforcement is one of the most common ways that police interact with community members, which can lead to harmful consequences: Black and Brown men are disproportionately pulled over for minor traffic violations, and thats when we see this escalation  That is where you see the violence unfold.

Mohamed Shehk, with the abolitionist group Critical Resistance, said he supported the idea of removing police from traffic enforcement, but said it was vital that the alternative department Berkeley creates does not replicate the same problems: We also need to be dismantling the systems of fines and fees that keep communities that are targeted by these policies in poverty.

Residents speaking at the council meeting made clear that they wanted something much bolder, he added. Weve seen how incrementalism and cosmetic reforms are not substantial enough to reduce or reverse the enormous amounts of damage, violence, harm and racism that policing has inflicted on communities for decades.

It could take months, even years, to create a new department, but police and other law enforcement leaders rebuked the idea.

I think what Berkeley is doing is nuts, said Mark Cronin, a director with the Los Angeles Police Protective League, a union for officers. I think its a big social experiment. I think its going to fail.

The Berkeley police department said it did not comment on council legislation. But police unions for Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Jose issued a statement opposing the proposal.

Arreguin, the mayor, said creating a new department was a phase-two development that was at least a year away and would probably involve making changes to state law.

Agencies contributed reporting




This month marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and Vietnam.

It was a historic step, said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, one that first required us to face the dark legacy of war between our two nations.

In the 1980s, the U.S. and Vietnam worked to overcome the devastation of war through the repatriation of the remains of American soldiers in Vietnam. This led to better ties and the formal re-establishment of relations in 1995. Since then, said Secretary Pompeo, weve built a friendship on common interests, mutual respect, and bold resolve to overcome the past and look toward the future.

The United States has contributed significantly to Vietnams remarkable economic growth. In the past two decades, bilateral trade has grown an incredible 7,000 percent. Indeed, American companies are helping by pouring billions of dollars in investment into the country. Vietnam is now one of the fastest growing economies in South East Asia, lifting millions out of poverty.

The United States and Vietnam have also expanded people-to-people ties, including in the field of education. Nearly 30,000 young Vietnamese citizens are currently studying at universities in the United States.

While in the past, the U.S. and Vietnam were opponents on the battlefield, today, our security relationship is all about cooperation, said Secretary Pompeo. Recently the USS Theodore Roosevelt visited Da Nang, the second U.S. aircraft carrier to visit Vietnam since the end of the war. And, with the lifting of the U.S. arms embargo four years ago, the U.S. and Vietnamese militaries are looking to further increase security cooperation.

Secretary Pompeo noted that there are still challenges in our relationship. But the ability to have honest discussions when we disagree is confirmation of our potential as partners.

In the coming years, the United States and Vietnam must stay focused on the future, stressed Secretary Pompeo, building our cooperation in areas from cybersecurity to education to energy to defense.

As we celebrate 25 years of partnership in 2020, said Secretary Pompeo, let us renew our commitment to a strong and independent Vietnam and a peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific region.
When we listen to consumers voices onlineas we did with this studyits clear they want to make informed choices. They value products that are tested and look online for confirmation in shared experiences that might indicate efficacy. "

A new study from CBD Marketing features insights on CBD-cannabidiol and cannabis-marijuana use based on analyzing millions of online conversations and posts from Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers.

General Findings

Men are talkinga lot. Across all age groups, more men than women contribute to online conversations about cannabis, CBD and related products. Young men are especially chatty.



Overall, men generated 62 percent of conversations vs. 38 percent for women

Young men age 18-34 represent a 70 percent share of the 62 percent above

Twitter and Reddit dominate. They are the top two platforms where consumers share tips, information and pose questions about cannabis, CBD and related products.



Of the 3.6 million total posts analyzed:

o 2.46 million on Twitter

o 637K on Reddit

o 333K on forums

o 152K on blogs

o 18K on review and comment sites

Theres still a big learning curve. Most consumers are still learning about different uses for cannabis and CBD products and are actively sourcing recommendations, opinions and answers online.



Conversations reveal interest in CBD and cannabis for pain, anxiety and depression.

There are still high negative sentiment attributed to cannabis-marijuana related to safety and side effects.

Conversations about CBD have a higher positive sentiment (43 percent positive) vs. conversations about cannabis (28 percent positive).

The oils have it. Oils as a use-consumption method had the most mentionsand the most positive sentiment ratings.



Oils represented 44 percent of total mentions; smoking 22 percent; edibles 20 percent; vaping 10 percent; tinctures 4 percent

Oils and tinctures have the highest positive sentiment; smoking and vaping the highest negatives.

Better to eat and drink itbut work on the taste. Consumers are eager to tryand are overall more positiveabout CBD, hemp and cannabis in food and beverage applications, which are considered more natural and health-promoting forms of consumption than smoking or vaping.



Food and beverage-specific conversations are 80 percent positive or neutral.

Taste continues to be a challenge for CBD-cannabis infused food and beveragesespecially for beverages. I just tried hemp beer and anyone who claims to like this needs to stop pretending.

Generational Insights

Millennials (age 24-39)

Millennials represent 22 percent of the U.S. population and 52 percent of the U.S. adults who use marijuana; 76 percent support marijuana legalization. Importantly, 60 percent indicate social media influences their purchase decisions. Online, Millennials tout the benefits of using cannabis and CBD products for stress, anxiety, and general wellness. Some say they use cannabis products as a replacement for medication. They are also in favor of more regulation to ensure the safety, quality and efficacy of CBD and cannabis products.

I switched my meds to medical marijuana.

Is cannabis part of your self-care routine? Do you use different strains to find balance in energy or emotions?

CBDneeds to be regulated and tested just like any other medication.

So excited to know what Im finally getting at the cannabis dispensary.

I have no control over a steady, precise amount of #CBD. This is the reality of prohibition.

Gen Xers (age 40-55)

Gen X makes up 20 percent of the U.S. population. They account for 30 percent of the cannabis-consuming public in fully legal states and 65 percent support marijuana legalization. A health-literate generation, they are time pressed, often caring for children and aging parents. Gen Xers are divided on the benefits of CBD and cannabis products, with many debating effectiveness as well as potentially harmful side effects. They may also be the most overlooked market for CBD and cannabis products, as media stories tend to focus on Millennials and Baby Boomers.

Gen X here. I use CBD. But the media dont care about us, so.

Its a FACT that cannabis helps fight pain.

I would rather smoke marijuana than take antidepressants or anxiety medication.

We need studies on CBD oil. Yes!

CBD oil is amazing but it doesnt replace most medications. Telling me to drop a prescription and use CBD is stupid advice.

Baby Boomers (age 56-74)

Boomers represent 22 percent of the U.S. population and are one of the fastest-growing cannabis and CBD consuming audience segments. Marijuana usage has increased 75 percent in this cohort from 2015-2018. More than 60 percent support marijuana legalization and they are highly interested in wellness products. Boomers are the least negative of the generational groups when discussing CBD and cannabis and are turning to social media to discover new research and share their positive experiences.

Have you tried CBD cream on your knees? I have had relief.

Have you tried medical marijuana? It helps my back, hip and sciatica pain.

Very good read #cannabis works better than #BigPharma; THC for sleep is safer than a pharmaceutical sleep aid.

Listen and Learn

When we listen to consumers voices onlineas we did with this studyits clear they want to make informed choices. They value products that are tested and look online for confirmation in shared experiences that might indicate efficacy. As this industry rapidly matures and expands, nows the time to learn as much as possible about consumer behaviors and motivations in order to prepare for the growth that is as inevitable as it is exciting. Studies like this one can be a critical tool, Liz Brohan, CBD Marketing's CEO concluded.

According to Brightfield Research, U.S. CBD sales of $23.7 billion are expected by 2023. According to Nielsen, U.S. legal weed-marijuana sales are expected to reach $41 billion by 2025.Download a copy of the complete study, Generational Preferences in CBD/Cannabis Consumption: Insights from Online Conversations.

About Colman Brohan & Davis, Inc. (CBD Marketing): CBD Marketing is a Chicago-based integrated marketing and advertising agency that builds strong connections between brands and the hearts and minds of their customers. Founded in 1988, CBD Marketing serves national and global clients in manufacturing, energy, appliances, building products, education, retail, financial services, food, food ingredients and other industries, including those entering the CBD-cannabis space. Companies and organizations count on the agency to Market Whats Meaningful, building more intimate and profitable relationships in emotional and rational ways.
<! Dr Joy Nunieh entering Governor Nyesom Wikes official car after her rescue. >

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has called on the Inspector General of Police to investigate the circumstances that led to over 50 armed policemen storming the Port Harcourt residence of former Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Dr. Joy Nunieh at 4am on Thursday, in a bid to abduct her. Wike had stormed the house to rescue Nunieh and took her away.

Wike berated those self-styled armed policemen who claimed to be members of the Inspector General Monitoring Unit.

The governor said under a civilised society, the proper thing to do was to invite her to answer to any allegation.

But to storm her residence at such an unholy hour, the governor said, suggested some sinister motive that should not be tolerated.

What has happened today is a disgrace. Who knows what would have happened to her if they had gained access to her main room. I went there personally to see things for myself and rescued her.

She is supposed to testify before the House of Representatives Committee and here we are having armed men wanting to abduct her.

We came out to protect our daughter and we will do so to every Rivers citizen. That is the oath of office I swore to. It doesnt matter the political affiliation. We will not allow anybody to destroy Rivers state.

It is so unfortunate and I cry for this country concerning the ways things are going. They didnt have a warrant of arrest, but would storm somebodys house, in fact, the State Commissioner of Police is not aware.

So, tell me how something will happen in a state and the Commissioner of Police is not aware. They said its the Inspector General Monitoring Unit. So, we have such a Unit taking over the responsibility of crime fighting in a state and the Commissioner of Police is not aware. I can also assume too that the Inspector General of Police is not aware. He should investigate it,  he said.

The governor also called on governors of states that make up the NDDC to ensure that their citizens do not have a hand in the planned abduction of the former Managing Director of NDDC.

If there is any allegation of crime against her, I will not back her, but you cant kill her for no established crime. I dont know whos responsible, but whoever is behind it should not take Rivers state for granted because we will fight back.

From what has happened now, I want to say that Rivers State is fully out. Anybody who is responsible for this attempted abduction of our daughter, should know that enough is enough.

They cant treat her as a common criminal. I am sure that President Muhammadu Buhari is not aware of this. All the Niger Delta States should find out if any of their citizens have a hand in the unfortunate incident and call on such people to leave our daughter alone. She is no longer the Managing Director of NDDC.

The way things are going now, it seems people want to destroy Rivers State and it is unacceptable. Using the police to carry out abduction of citizens should not be encouraged. A similar incident had happened in this state before when they wanted to use the same style to abduct a serving Judge, Wike said.

Related
Rajasthan political crisis: The tussle between Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and rebel Congress leader Sachin Pilot has intensified. On Wednesday, CM Gehlot blatantly accused Pilot of being directly involved in alleged horse-trading with opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to bring down his government in Rajasthan.

Besides, Congress national general secretary and Rajasthan in-charge Avinash Pande said that party's doors were closed for Pilot. Also, senior Congress leader Randeep Surjewala dissuaded Pilot from joining the BJP and urged him to "return home" (join back Congress).

Amid hectic parleys, Pilot told media that he would not join the BJP. "Such speculation is being fuelled to tarnish my image," he said.

Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Thursday also asked Pilot for "ghar wapsi" (re-joining the Congress party). Sibal tweeted, "False rumours spread to malign. Pilot : 'I am not joining BJP' I guess then legislators at a hotel in Manesar is merely a vacation in Haryana's comfort zone under BJP's watchful eye. What about 'ghar wapsi'?".

Congress party sought the disqualification of Pilot and 18 other dissident MLAs from the Rajasthan assembly on Wednesday.

Now, MLAs of the Sachin Pilot camp are planning to file a plea in the Rajasthan High Court challenging the Speaker's disqualification notice. The MLAs owing commitment to Pilot are holed up at the ITC Grand Bharat Hotel in Manesar.

Pilot was sacked on Tuesday as Rajasthan's deputy chief minister and the president of the state unit of the party after he did not attend the Congress Legislature Party meetings. After being sacked, Pilot had tweeted in Hindi on Tuesday, "Truth can be rattled, not defeated".

The current crisis erupted last Friday when the Rajasthan Police sent a notice to Pilot, asking him to record his statement over the alleged bid to bring down the government.

The same notice was sent to the chief minister and some other MLAs, but Pilot's supporters claimed that it was only meant to humiliate him.

The Special Operation Group (SOG) had sent out the notices after tapping a phone conversation between two men, who were allegedly discussing toppling the Gehlot government.

The rivalry between Gehlot and Pilot became prominent during the Rajasthan assembly elections in 2018. Pilot has been upset since the Congress picked Gehlot as Rajasthan CM after the 2018 polls, while his own supporters insisted that he deserved credit for the party's victory as its state unit president.

Also read: Govt needs to put more money in hands of poor, says Abhijit Banerjee

Also read: Twitter accounts of Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk hacked in Bitcoin scam
After years of obstructing Barack Obamas efforts to close Guantanamo Bay when he was president, House Democrats have reversed course and are quietly trying to clear the way for Joe Biden to close the notorious detention facility should he win the presidential election in November.

Notably, Democrats dropped key restrictions on the White Houses authority to close Guantanamo Bay from the fiscal year 2021 defense spending bill despite keeping the language in prior years government funding packages. And Republicans arent letting the restrictions go without a fight.

Theres actually an election coming up, said Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md. There could be a new administration coming in, and on its first day say were closing Guantanamo Bay. And Congress has the opportunity right now to take a position on that.

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., failed to put the restrictions back into this years defense bill in a 24-28 vote. The House Appropriations Committee ultimately advanced the legislation  without the restrictions  in a 30-22 party-line vote Tuesday.

The Diaz-Balart amendment would have blocked a potential Biden administration from closing the US base, located in Cuba. It would also curtail the White Houses ability to transfer detainees out of the facility, which was the Obama administrations preferred tactic in its bid to close the prison in the face of bipartisan opposition.

Why it matters: President Donald Trump has abandoned Obamas practice of transferring detainees out of the prison, but he has not added more detainees despite his 2016 campaign pledge to do so. Conversely, former Vice President Biden told The New York Times last month that he still supports closing Guantanamo Bay.

Throughout the Obama administration, Democrats joined Republicans to pass restrictions hindering the White Houses efforts to close the base. Even progressive stalwarts such as Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., voted against easing the restrictions in 2013.

That changed when Democrats won the House in the 2018 election.

The committee does fund the prison, and we have asked for report language seeking to bring down the extraordinary costs in future years, defense spending panel Chairman Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., said ahead of Tuesdays vote. Each of those 40 individuals at Guantanamo are costing the American taxpayers about $10 million per year.

Most of the prisoners are from the Middle East.

The House Armed Services Committee led the way last year and attempted to drop the restrictions from last years defense authorization bill. But the Republican-held Senate won out and maintained the restrictions in the compromise bill, which Trump signed into law in December.

Whats next: Senate Republicans will likely seek to keep the Guantanamo restrictions in this years defense spending and authorization bills, particularly if Biden wins the election. It remains unclear how hard House Democrats are willing to fight to keep the restrictions out of this years compromise legislation amid the myriad of other partisan flashpoints theyll need to address with the Republican Senate.

Know more: Democrats also advanced significant restrictions on Trumps ability to pursue offensive military action throughout the Middle East as part of the same defense spending bill. Congressional Correspondent Bryant Harris has that story here.
President Moon Jae-in talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during their first inter-Korean summit at the truce village of Panmunjeom, April 27, 2018. / Korea Times file





By Kang Seung-woo







President Moon Jae-in recently shook up his national security team in a bid to double down on his inter-Korean peace initiative, but the ambitious reshuffle may fall short of his expectations, with few gambits to curry favor with North Korea, according to Pyongyang watchers.







Earlier this month, Moon reshaped the team that is filled with so-called pro-North Korea figures such as National Intelligence Service (NIS) director nominee Park Jie-won, a key figure in arranging the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, and former presidential chief of staff Im Jong-seok who has called for independent yet aggressive actions to improve stalled inter-Korean relations.







In addition, Suh Hoon, a former NIS chief who contributed to inter-Korean summits between Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has taken over the top National Security Office job, while Lee In-young, a long-time advocate of engagement with the North, has been nominated for unification minister.







"By filling out the national security lineup with those who have experience reaching out to the North and call for aggressive engagement with the country, the South Korean government is seeking to regain confidence from the Kim regime and revive momentum for dialogue," said Kim Jung, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies.







From left are Park Jie-won, Suh Hoon and Lee In-young / Korea Times file





"However, the North is not likely to immediately respond to the South's engagement efforts given that the South's national security team was not responsible for the current frayed inter-Korean relations."







Park Won-gon, a professor of international politics at Handong Global University, echoed Kim's view.







"The inter-Korean ties have been aggravated by not the South Korean government's poor policy but the North's strategy that pressures the South so it can win something," he said.







"No matter what forward-looking approach the South takes, it is not likely that the North will return to talks."







Park also said structural limitations will also prevent the team from aggressively pursuing new initiatives toward the North.







"As former Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul said, there are multilayered sanctions imposed on the North, so even if Lee takes office, it will not be easy to push ahead with the engagement policy at his disposal," Park said.







"The North wants to immediately resume the Gaeseong Industrial Complex or Mount Geumgang tourism, but it would not be easy even for the new security team to do so."







Also, timing is not on the new national security team's side as the North is anticipated to adopt a wait-and-see attitude until the Nov. 3 U.S. presidential election, which would leave less room for the team to maneuver.







"The North believes inter-Korean relations are subordinate to its ties with the United States, so it is highly likely to wait until the U.S. election. In other words, the new national security team has fewer options to create dialogue momentum with the North," Park said.







Im Jong-seok, left, and Chung Eui-yong / Korea Times file





In addition, how actively the security team pursues Moon's Korean Peninsula peace process depends on who wins the election.







"If President Trump is re-elected, he is expected to continue his top-down style of diplomacy, which will give more room for the security aides to make engagement efforts, but a Joe Biden presidency is likely to restrict their roles," Kim Jung said.







Traditionally, the U.S. Democratic Party has taken issue with the North's human rights situation  a move the totalitarian state denounces as one of hostile actions by the U.S. against the North. In addition, while condemning Trump's summits with the North Korean leader, Biden said in January that he would not meet with the North Korean dictator without preconditions.







Amid the cross-border relations heading toward their lowest ebb under the Moon administration, there was widespread consensus that the President should recruit politicians for his national security team as they were believed to be able to make and push ahead with bold decisions in North Korea policy. The unification minister nominee is an active four-term lawmaker and the nominee for director of intelligence is a veteran politician, although he failed to win his fifth parliamentary term in the general election in April.







However, at the same time, the reshuffle is also raising concerns that they may force a diplomatic breakthrough at all costs, including hurting the relations between the South and the U.S.







In fact, the unification minister nominee hinted at revamping the joint working group if inaugurated. The group is a forum to coordinate issues regarding North Korea, but it is under fire for allegedly hindering Moon's policy toward the North.







"It is a concern that they may push ahead with the engagement policy without fully considering the situation. If so, the bilateral relations between the South and the U.S. may deteriorate," Park said.







"I think the South Korean government wants such a drive, while there are growing calls from the ruling party to use political maneuvers for inter-Korean reconciliation tilting away from the U.S. policy."







On Tuesday, a North Korean propaganda outlet expressed optimism about the South's new national security squad, citing a pro-unification media outlet in the South saying that high hopes are pinned on the new team.







"We have great expectations for Lee In-young and Im Jong-seok in the recent shakeup," Uriminzokkiri quoted Jaju Sibo as saying.







It also cited another article calling on the South to halt combined exercises with the U.S. and get rid of the working group.







Late last month, President Moon voiced an intention to mediate between the North and the U.S.  although the North ruled out the possibility of holding another summit with the U.S. this year.







Believing that North Korea is still waiting for a certain offer from the U.S., Cho Seong-ryoul, a senior advisor of the Institute for National Security Strategy, said the new national security team needs to explore ideas to facilitate the meeting between the two countries whose ties have been icy since the collapse of the Hanoi summit in February 2019  although it is a daunting task.







"Above all, uncertainties loom in the North over how the result of the U.S. presidential election will affect its policy toward the country, so it will be the South Korean government's role to clear up uncertainties," Cho said.







Kim Jung said what the new national security team can do is prevent the current situation from getting worse ahead of the election.







"At this point, however, the Moon administration cannot take initiative as the North has not responded to the South's offers for inter-Korean projects," he said.


A man who drove without insurance and who drove while serving a previous disqualification received a suspended sentence at Portlaoise District Court on Thursday.

Andris Jurevics (44) of 1 Barnhill Road, Durrow was charged with driving with no insurance at Crubeen, Ballyroan on June 18 this year.

Defending Solicitor, Philip Meagher said that Mr Jurevics was a Latvian national who worked as a general operative.

He had a lift arrangement for getting to work during the period of his disqualification

On the date in question his nephew rang him in an emergency and Mr Jurevics responded and went to assist him.

It was a poor decision, noted Mr Meagher.

Judge Staines drew attention to the fact that Mr Jurevics drove whilst disqualified.

What is the point of drink driving convictions and disqualifications if you continue to drive? she queried.

She sentenced him to six months in prison, suspended for one year.

He was disqualified for two years.
The Armenian side is ready to permit the recovery and retrieval of the Azerbaijani killed and injured from the battlefield, said defense ministry spokesperson Shushan Stepanyan.

"In case the Azerbaijani Armed Forces stop the fire and favorable conditions are created, the Armenian side is ready to permit the recovery and retrieval of the Azerbaijani killed and injured from the battlefield," she wrote on her Facebook.
Bloodline: a riveting account of a criminal attorney and his alluring wifes falling out in marriage that provoked a battle of principles and lawsuits. Bloodline is the creation of published author Leilani D. Mcleod, a retired woman entrepreneur, who decided to make Hawaii her permanent home.

Mcleod shares, Ana Lord was one of the most intoxicating, infuriating, and most beautiful woman David had ever met. Ana made David want to live life again. Lately, being a criminal attorney, David had been feeling overwhelmed with work. David did not always play by the rules, and for this reason, he only worked with his personal team. He was a young, handsome, and ambitious attorney and would do anything for success. Now David found himself caught between Anas no-nonsense attitude and his own self. However, David forgot that Ana took her vows seriously; she not only believed in love but also believed in the vows of marriage. Ana found herself in the position of making her marriage work or divorce David. There was a catch now between the new attorneys David hired for his new offices, which would be a lot more work. So he did not make it home most nights. He delegated work to the attorneys, including divorce, litigation, debate, etc. In a dispute between Ana and David, two powerful people, a conspiracy was born, and it would change their lives forever.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Leilani D. Mcleods new book depicts arresting scenes between two remarkable individuals who settle their marriage affairs in court that eventually unveiled scandalous schemes.

Witness how an established criminal attorney faces his wife in a tango of litigation and personal agenda that left them in utter vexation.

View the synopsis of Bloodline on YouTube.

Consumers can purchase Bloodline at traditional brick-and-mortar bookstores or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Bloodline, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
Peter Manfredonia  a University of Connecticut student accused of a string of crimes including two homicides, a home invasion and kidnapping  entered a not guilty plea during a court appearance Wednesday.

Manfredonias defense attorney, Michael Dolan, said after his clients arrest that he would plead not guilty to the charges. He also had Manfredonia placed on suicide and mental health watch while he is held in jail.

During the court appearance on charges of murder, attempted murder, first-degree assault, home invasion, kidnapping and other offenses related to the crimes police say he committed in Willington, Manfredonia opted for a jury trail.

He does wish to waive his probable cause hearing, Dolan said on his clients behalf.

The judge confirmed Manfredonias decision in a series of mandatory questions linked to the hearing to ensure he understood his choice.

During that questioning, Manfredonia mostly responded with yes, your honor and no, your honor.

Manfredonia also told the judge during the questioning that prior to his arrest he, was a senior in college ... I was studying management and engineering for manufacturing.

Dolan confirmed to the judge that waiving the hearing was for strategic reasons.

A probable cause hearing must be held within 60 days of a person being charged.

During the hearing, the state must prove there is probable cause to believe that a murder has been committed and that you committed it, the judge told Manfredonia. He told the judge he understood his decision and still opted to waive the hearing.

Manfredonias next court appearance has been scheduled for Oct. 2.

The charges Manfredonia pleaded not guilty to Wednesday were linked to violence that started in Willington on May 22.

After a six-day manhunt that spanned several states, law enforcement took Manfredonia into custody on May 27 in Hagerstown, Md.

Police say the crime spree began in Willington around 9 a.m. May 22, when Manfredonia took a ride on an ATV from 62-year-old Ted DeMers.

Manfredonia apparently told DeMers his motorcycle broke down, according to the arrest warrant for the Willington crimes said.

Manfredonia allegedly attacked DeMers and a neighbor  80-year-old John Franco  with a sword. DeMers died from his injuries. Franco was critically injured, but was in stable condition by the time Manfredonia was taken into custody.

On the morning of May 24, police received a call from a Willington man who said Manfredonia held him against his will for hours before the Newtown resident stole food, guns and a truck from the man, according to authorities. The man was unharmed.

That truck was found near Osbornedale State Park in Derby around 6:45 a.m. May 24, setting off an extensive search in the area that led law enforcement to a Roosevelt Drive home about a mile from the park. It was the home of Nicholas Eisele, a former Newtown High School classmate of Manfredonia.

Eisele was found shot to death inside the home, police said. Manfredonia fled, taking Eiseles girlfriend with him in the womans Volkswagen Jetta, police said.

The Newtown High School graduate has not been charged with the crimes police say he committed in Derby.

By the afternoon of May 24, New Jersey State Police found Eiseles girlfriend and her car at a rest stop near the Pennsylvania border. Police said Manfredonia was then spotted in nearby East Stroudsburg, Pa.

On May 26, police said Manfredonia had been seen in a convenience store in Chambersburg, Pa. The search extended into Maryland after police learned that Manfredonia took an Uber over the state line.

The next day, various law enforcement officers were at the Pilot Travel Center truck stop in Hagerstown, Md., when Manfredonia was seen walking from a nearby wooded area. He was taken into custody without incident, police said.
Four music venues are facing the prospect of permanent closure across Hull and Manchester, the Music Venue Trust has said.

The organisation, which represents grassroots venues, said in a statement that hundreds of other venues could also be lost across the country unless urgent action is taken to save them.

The Welly and The Polar Bear in Hull have announced that they will close, according to the trust.

Expand Close Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has previously announced a 1.57 billion support package for the arts (Pippa Fowles/10 Downing Street/Crown Copyright/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has previously announced a 1.57 billion support package for the arts (Pippa Fowles/10 Downing Street/Crown Copyright/PA)

Manchesters The Deaf Institute and Gorilla will need to find new operators if the buildings are to continue being used as music venues, it added.

The Music Venue Trust said the future of the venues may be salvageable and urged local authorities to take action and find alternative operators.

We have been warning for months that the situation faced by grassroots music venues was unsustainable and would result in the closure of spaces people love and artists need unless there was concerted, strategic action, the organisation said.

That action now needs to be accelerated to prevent hundreds of other venues from being lost right across the country Music Venue Trust

That action now needs to be accelerated to prevent hundreds of other venues from being lost right across the country.

The Government has previously announced a 1.57 billion support package for the arts, with music venues, theatres, museums, galleries, independent cinemas and heritage sites eligible for emergency grants and loans.

Hull City Council and Greater Manchester Combined Authority have been contacted for comment.
Global Bay leaf Market Outlook

Bay leaf contains vitamin A, vitamin C and folic acid that makes it a nutrient-dense herb. Consumption of bay leaf extract as a health supplement is increasing the demand of bay leaf in all regions by health-conscious consumers. The rapidly growing urbanization and changing lifestyle had shifted the food preference towards healthy eating owing to the health benefits of herbs and spices. Increased use of the bay leaf as an ingredient in food preparation such as sauces and dressings, personal care and many more gives ample opportunity to the manufactures to grow in the market. Bay leaf owing to its medicinal benefits such as antioxidant properties that heal the body is gaining the attention of health-conscious consumers all over the world.

The increasing awareness of advantage has gained the attention of the consumers thus increasing spice consumption. Bay leaf is used as whole, powder form and bay leaf oil. The spice is also gaining popularity due to its use in French and Indian cuisine. Bay leaf is also used in the flavoring of liquor & vinegar. Consumption bay leaf tea had increased due to its nutritional & healing benefits.

Get free sample copy before purchase this report@ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/17182

Increasing adaptation of herbs on a daily basis is driving the bay leaf market

The global bay leaf market is expected to witness growth owing to its various health benefits awareness rising among the consumers. The consumption of herbs and spices is fuelling the demand for bay leaf in the global market. The consumers are increasingly adopting herbal tea consumption pattern which increases the demand for spices such as bay leaf which in turn propelling the bay leaf market. The growth in essential oil demand due to the medicinal benefits is also a factor for driving the bay leaf market. Bay leaf essential oil helps to improve the scalp that supports hair strengthen. The anti-inflammatory property of the bay leaf reduces the chances of arthritis and also the consumption of bay leaf improves insulin function which the reason it is beneficial for diabetics. The increasing use of bay leaf by nutraceutical is also driving the global bay leaf market. Spices are becoming popular globally due to the increasing consumption of exotic cuisines and packed foods.

Global Bay leaf Market  Segmentation

Based on form the global Bay leaf market is segmented as

Whole

Powder

Based on application the global bay leaf market is segmented as

Food and beverages industry

Pharmaceutical

Personal care & Cosmetic

Others

Based on the distribution channel, the global bay leaf market is segmented as

Business to Business (B2B)

Business to Consumers (B2C) Hypermarkets/ Supermarkets Convenience stores Online retail Others



Based on the region the global bay leaf market is segmented as

North America

Latin America

Europe

South Asia

East Asia

Middle East & Africa

Oceania

Global Bay Leaf Market  Key Players

Some of the major key players of the global bay leaf market are Alpina Organic Company, MOUNTAIN ROSE HERBS, Red Stick Spice Co, Frontier Co-op, McCormick & Company, Inc, Pacific Spice Company, Inc. Anatoli Spices, Hoby Agriculture and Forest Product Co. Ltd and others.

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Global Bay leaf Market  Opportunity

Increasing the food and beverage industry around the globe is expected to propel the bay leaf market as well. The Asia Pacific has the largest share owing to the various end-user application. The increasing demand for bay leaf powder and bay leaf essential oil is expected to increase the demand for bay leaf in the global market. Owing to the medicinal benefits of the bay leaf, many supplement manufacturers are providing bay leaf extract capsules which are increasing the demand of bay leaf.

Bay leaf oil is increasing been used as it helps in reducing pigmentation and also cleaning and smoothening skin. The trend of Ayurvedic treatments where essential oils are used is also the major factor for the growing demand of bay leaf.

Impact of COVID-19 on global Bay leaf Market

The outbreak of coronavirus had brought unprecedented challenges for all the sectors of the world. The outbreak of the Coronavirus and the measures taken to slow its spread is affecting every sector. The demand for food products had rapidly grown owing to the lockdown around the world and the panic buying behavior of consumers. The closure of the HORECA sector had affected the food and food ingredient producers. Consumption of staple food has increased whereas high-value products like meat, specialty cheese, wine, and others had decreased. The demand for a bay leaf from the health supplement industry may witness upsurge graphs as most of the pharmaceuticals and packed food manufacturers are operating in many regions of the world, with the permission of local governmental authorities. Bay leaf is mainly supplied to the food industry and pharmaceutical and both these industries are operating posed this pandemic which may upsurge the demand of the bay leaf.
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Linkedin Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 16, 2020 20:42 551 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666dde3f 1 Politics hip-bill,pancasila-ideology-bill,BPIP,mahfud-md,puan-maharani Free

The government submitted its newly proposed bill on the Agency for Pancasila Ideology Education (BPIP) to the House of Representatives on Thursday as both parties sought to end the controversies surrounding the much-criticized Pancasila Ideology Guidelines (HIP) bill.

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD visited the house complex in Central Jakarta on Thursday and met with House of Representatives speaker Puan Maharani, during which they agreed to delay the deliberation of the HIP bill and move forward with the BPIP bill instead.

Mahfud asserted that the BPIP bill was different from the controversial HIP bill, saying that the latter included the Temporary Peoples Consultative Assembly Decree (TAP MPRS) No. 25/1966 on the banning of communism in Indonesia as one of its underlying foundations.

"We also emphasize the Pancasila ideology that we officially use here in Chapter 1, Article 1 and Point 1 of the bill," Mahfud said, before mentioning the five principles of Pancasila.

Mahfud visited the House together with some of the top brass of the government, namely State Secretary Pratikno, Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, Home Minister Tito Karnavian, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly and Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister Tjahjo Kumolo.

"We agree to be as transparent as possible so people can discuss and criticize the [BPIP] bill," Mahfud said.

The BPIP bill arose amid controversies surrounding the deliberation of the HIP bill, which has received backlash from members of the public who questioned the timing of its deliberations as well as some of contentious articles in it.

Read also: :Communist phobia sinks Pancasila bill at House

On Thursday, several Islamic groups, including the 212 Rally Alumni  a group formed from people who participated in the 2016 rally against then-Jakarta governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama who faced prosecution for blasphemy  even hit the street outside the House compound to express their opposition to the HIP bill.

Supported by the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the HIP bill was initially intended to regulate the values of the Pancasila ideology and the functions of the BPIP, the steering committee head of which is the party's chairwoman and former president Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Activists, scholars and various groups have voiced opposition to the bill, with some prominent Islamic organizations in particular questioning the draft bill's failure to include the 1966 TAP MPRS, which they feared could open the door for the reemergence of communist ideology in the country.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) went as far as to deem the contents of the draft bill "secular and atheistic", arguing that it degraded ideology of Pancasila itself.

The government subsequently decided to halt deliberations of the HIP bill.

Puan, who welcomed the ministers with the House deputy speakers on Thursday, said she expected the agreement between the House and the government on the BPIP bill to end all debate among the public about the HIP bill.

"I hope that after this, all the controversies surrounding the HIP bill over the past few weeks will be over and we can work together in harmony to address the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts," the PDI-P politician added.
U.S. President Donald Trump demoted his longtime campaign manager, a move aimed at shoring up his re-election bid as he trails Democratic candidate Joe Biden in opinion polls less than four months before the Nov. 3 vote.



In a Facebook post, Trump said campaign manager Brad Parscale would be replaced by Bill Stepien, who has been the deputy campaign manager. Parscale will shift to a role focused on digital and data strategy, the president said.



A leadership shakeup had long been rumored. Parscale was blamed internally for a botched Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally last month that drew a much smaller crowd than he predicted. A subsequent coronavirus outbreak forced Parscale and other campaign officials who attended to self-quarantine for two weeks, Reuters reported.



A source close to the campaign said Trump has been anxious about the polls and struck at the most visible target he could, adding that Parscale has been a straight-shooter about the presidents challenges.



Stepien, a longtime Republican strategist, is well known to both Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has been playing a more active role in the campaign. Stepien was political director at the White House before moving to the campaign.



In his statement, Trump credited both Parscale and Stepien for their involvement in his 2016 victory in the U.S. presidential election and predicted that he would glide to a second term in office.



This one should be a lot easier as our poll numbers are rising fast, the economy is getting better, vaccines and therapeutics will soon be on the way, and Americans want safe streets and communities, Trump wrote.
India gets second consular access for Kulbhushan Jadhav

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, July 16: Pakistan has provided second consular access to India for Kulbhushan Jadhav.

Not all requests were agreed by Pakistan and the access is likely only for two hours.

Jadhav is in need of legal representation, especially since Pakistan is claiming that he has rejected filing a petition, sources said, adding that because of this, someone has to take up the case on his behalf. But for that, unimpeded access to him remains vital, they concluded.

India exploring legal options in Kulbhushan Jadhav case: MEA

Meanwhile, as the deadline for filing a review plea against Jadhav's death sentence neared, a senior Pakistani Opposition Senator has criticised the government for not tabling in Parliament an ordinance promulgated in May to allow a foreign national to file a petition for the reconsideration of a military court's verdict.

International flights: Bubble travel with US & France, flights to resume from tomorrow|Oneindia News

The issue of the ordinance was raised in the Senate by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Raza Rabbani when a minister was about to present in the upper house the COVID-19 (prevention of hoarding) Ordinance after a delay of almost three months, Dawn newspaper reported on Thursday.

Pakistan enacted an ordinance called the International Court of Justice Review and Reconsideration Ordinance 2020 on May 20 under which a petition for the review of a military court's decision can be made to Islamabad High Court through an application within 60 days of its promulgation.

Jadhav, the 50-year-old retired Indian Navy officer, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of "espionage and terrorism" in April 2017.
Credit: University of Roehampton

The research, a collaboration between the University of Roehampton, the University of Cambridge and several other institutions, combined archeological data with palaeoclimatic reconstructions to show for the first time that climate dramatically impacted the migration of people across Europe, causing a dramatic slowdown between 6,100 BCE and 4,500 BCE.

The research team, including Dr. Lia Betti, Senior Lecturer of the University of Roehampton, assembled a large database of the first arrival dates of Neolithic farmers across the continent and studied the speed of their migration in relation to climatic reconstructions of the time. They also re-analysed ancient DNA data to understand the interaction between early farmers and local hunter-gatherers.

They discovered migration started quickly out of south-eastern Europe, with Neolithic farmers pushing out the existing hunter-gatherer population. This was demonstrated by how little the DNA of the two groups mixed. As they moved north, the climate became less suitable for the crops they had bought with them. Their pace of movement slowed, changing how they interacted with local hunter-gatherers, which can be seen through increased genetic admixture of the two groups.

To test that climate was the key factor causing the slowdown in migration, the team used palaeoclimatic reconstruction to calculate the number of Growing Degree Days (GDD) for the areas that the farmers encountered during their expansion. GDD are commonly used in agriculture as a measure of the heat available in a year for the crops to grow. The expansion slowed down along different migration routes whenever early farmers reached regions where the number of GDD was less than required to support the original crop package. This conclusion was further supported by the fact that the only route that had not slowed down in expansion was along the Mediterranean, suggesting that those who moved along that path could continue to expand rapidly in the favourable warm climate.

Comparing ancient DNA data from local hunter-gatherers and early farmers, the authors also demonstrated that the challenging climatic conditions for farming in Northern Europe led to closer relationships between the two groups and higher admixture. Exchanges of goods and local hunting knowledge may have allowed the first farmers to persist in these regions despite poor crop yields.

This research shows how climate has significantly impacted the migration of people since the beginning of our history. The climatic suitability of places to live and settle played a key role in determining where different human groups could thrive, in turn changing the genetics of entire continents.

Dr. Lia Betti, University of Roehampton, said: "This study required a huge amount of work to sift through hundreds of archaeological articles, books and reports in different languages to build a detailed model of the expansion of farming in Europe. We are very proud that our database will now be available to the scientific community and the public, to facilitate future research. We have also come up with new methods to identify the main routes of past human migrations and to determine if climate had a significant impact, which we hope will allow us to investigate the reasons behind prehistoric waves of migration in other areas of the globe".

Explore further Heightened interaction between neolithic migrants and hunter-gatherers in Western Europe

More information: Lia Betti et al. Climate shaped how Neolithic farmers and European hunter-gatherers interacted after a major slowdown from 6,100 bce to 4,500 bce, Nature Human Behaviour (2020). Journal information: Nature Human Behaviour Lia Betti et al. Climate shaped how Neolithic farmers and European hunter-gatherers interacted after a major slowdown from 6,100 bce to 4,500 bce,(2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-020-0897-7
Tensions are running high during these trying times, and that discord has certainly been reflected in the letters to the editor of this and every other newspaper across the nation.

We have letters from that kid we all knew in high school who failed science three times, explaining how the pandemic is total nonsense and the doctors and nurses are all deep state actors; we have letters pleading not to remove statues of long-dead traitors because otherwise our children wont know their history (tis true, with all the statues removed in post-war Germany, schoolchildren there have absolutely no idea who won or lost World War II); and of course, we have a very heated mayoral race and the myriad letters expressing how a candidate who refuses to fly the Pride Flag under the American flag and welcomes members of the neo-fascist Proud Boys to political fundraisers is the right leader for our city.

All of these are entertaining to be sure, but it will be near impossible for any letter yet unwritten to match the sheer ignorance and absolute absurdity of Rick Oxfords recent bumble-rant ("Just obey the law and don't have a confrontation," July 11).

In summarizing how he has been pulled over no less than 8 times in a year, Oxford writes  and I quote  if youre not driving a stolen car, committing a crime or have warrants, you are not going to have a problem with law enforcement.

Breonna Taylor: shot eight times and killed while asleep in her home.

Botham Jean: shot and killed while eating ice cream on the sofa in his living room.

Philando Castille: shot and killed in front of his girlfriend and four-year-old daughter after notifying officers that he had a legally carried firearm.

Akai Gurley: shot and killed while walking down the stairs of his apartment building.

Stephon Clark: shot eight times (including six in the back) and killed while holding a phone in his grandmothers backyard.

Tamir Rice: shot and killed while playing with a toy gun in a park.

Michael Brown: shot and killed while walking down the street with a friend.

Atatiana Jefferson: shot and killed in her home by police responding to a call that her front door was ajar.

The list goes on and on and on and on

A more accurate version of Mr. Oxfords view should probably read: If youre not sleeping in your bed, leaving your front door open, eating ice cream on your couch, walking down your stairs, playing in a park, or walking with a friend down a street, then you are not going to have a problem with law enforcement.

Let me be clear, this letter is in absolutely no way an indictment or an attack on the Napa Police Department, or any police department that is truly committed to community policing.

On the contrary, I have the utmost faith and confidence in Chief Plummer, Chief Potter before him, and all the policewomen and men in our city and their zeal for community engagement. Working downtown, on multiple occasions I have seen police respond to incidents that I was certain would end in violent confrontation, and each and every time our police de-escalated the situation in a stunningly efficient and professional manner.

But at the same time, we must be exceedingly vigilant of the fact that the realities of our day-to-day lives in fair Napa town are starkly different from those in so many other cities  big and small  across the country. And we should take great care not to commit the all-too-common sin of confirmation bias, as Mr. Oxford has clearly done, in saying, I have never been shot by a police officer while obeying the law, therefore no one has.

Finally, and perhaps most difficultly, many of us (present company included) need to seriously think about the idea of systemic white privilege in our society, how it affects us, and how it affects the way we treat others in our lives. While he certainly did not intend it this way, Mr. Oxfords letter was as an exemplary definition of white privilege as one could hope to find.

And his letter as well as my own both danced around  perhaps even explicitly omitted  the discussion of race and its role in the injustices so many are so passionately protesting against.

It went without saying that each of the eight names listed above belonged to an African-American, but the very fact that went without saying highlights just how immense a problem we must work to overcome.

Chris Hammaker

Napa
The real national symbol of America isn't baseball, hot dogs or a slice of apple pie.

It is the boycott. My countrymen don't get any more "American" -- any more plugged into the true ethos of the land of the free and home of the brave -- than when they're trying to put someone else in the poor house because of an opinion, policy or endorsement they disagree with.

Despite what the racists say, Latinos have always excelled at being Americans. The nation's largest minority knows the history, culture, food and purpose of this magnificent country. And the tribe -- all 59 million of us -- contributes to all of those things every single day. We go along to get along, and we're masters of assimilation.

Even the small fraction who only speak Spanish -- surveys typically put the figure at about 15% -- are destined to lose the language war in the long run to their children who speak English.

That being the case, it's an act of patriotism that Latinos now want to once again try their hands at the American pastime: boycotts.
Just before 10:30 a.m. Sunday, police responded to a report of gunshots coming from a residence in the 9000 block of Breezewood Terrace, the department said on Twitter. The assailant fled when police arrived, and the victim was pronounced dead on the scene, police said.
Three companies in and around Southeast Texas have been fined a combined $300,000 by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for unauthorized releases.

The agency addressed the incidents in a virtual meeting Wednesday morning in Austin, where it also reviewed 45 other cases on the docket.

Enterprise Products Operating LLC, which has facilities in Jefferson and Orange counties, landed the highest fine of regional companies on the agenda, facing more than $210,000 in total fines for violations at its Mont Belvieu plant dating back to 2012.

TCEQ found that from October 2012 to December 2016, the company had multiple unauthorized releases of almost 77,000 pounds of carbon monoxide and lesser amounts of other gases. The agency listed eight violations found in its investigation.

About $63,000 of the penalty will be used in a supplementary project to make energy-efficient upgrades in the Barbers Hill Independent School District.

The Mont Belvieu plant was the scene of a large fire in 2011 that required children at nearby Barbers Hill ISD schools to stay indoors, but no injuries or deaths were initially reported.

Enterprise Products did not provide comment about the fines by press deadline.

OCI Beaumont, a methane and ammonia plant just inside the Nederland city lines, was fined more than $70,000 for violations from March 2017 to the end of 2018.

Along with citing violations that released an estimated 5,000 pounds of nitrogen oxide and lesser amounts of other harmful compounds, TCEQ also penalized the company for not reporting its releases within two weeks of the event and not complying with its emission on concentration.

More than $28,000 of the companys fines will be dedicated to the Lighthouse Program, an initiative managed by the Southeast Texas Regional Planning Commission that provides funds to make energy-efficient upgrades to homes in Port Arthur.

OCI, which is headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands, didnt respond to requests for comment.

Citgo Pipeline Company was fined almost $16,000 for violations at its Sour Lake tank farm in October 2015 that resulted in almost 59,000 pounds of crude oil being spilled and the release of about 2,500 pounds of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) known to cause cancer.

In its docket, TCEQ said the company waived its right to defense against the violations since it didnt comply with reporting policies and the emissions event could have been avoided with better design and/or better operational and maintenance practices.

TCEQ claimed the company didnt report the incident within a day of its occurrence as the law requires, and didnt file a final report until 2019.

The company did not respond to requests for comment by press deadline.

jacob.dick@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/jd_journalism
The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) in collaboration with the Ghana Armed Forces would on Monday July 20th begin strict enforcement of COVID-19 preventive directives at public places.



The stringent enforcement would ensure that everyone within the Central Business District wears a nose mask, while companies and public places must provide veronica buckets, which are basic requirement to prevent the spread of COVID-19.



A team of military officers and metropolitan officials on Thursday embarked on public education to create awareness on the need to wear nose mask before entering the Central Business District from Monday July 20.



An official explained to the Ghana News Agency that all persons who would move around the city of Accra must adhere to the protocols due to the high cases of COVID-19 being recorded.



He said the team would also monitor and ensure that market centres within the Accra Metropolis were kept clean.



The team would arrest persons who violate the laws and lock up shops of traders operating in filthy environments during the inspection.



The monitoring team, assigned by the Government, are resolute to help combat the disease whilst ensuring the safety of the citizens.



Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, some traders at Tema Station said, they would adhere to the protocols and also keep the environment clean to avert any sanctions.



The traders appealed to the Authorities to provide more dustbins, adding that those in charge of waste collection should pick them up on time.

Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State on Tuesday suspended the state coordinator of FADAMA 111, Cletus Nwakpu.

Mr Nwakpu's suspension was announced during a virtual state executive council meeting presided over by the governor who recently tested positive for COVID-19.

Mr Umahi said the sanction followed a report presented by the state Fiscal Responsibility Commission, which indicted Mr Nwakpu of misappropriation of funds and other acts against his oath of office.

He directed the Secretary to the State government, Kenneth Ugbala, to take over the office in an acting capacity.

He also ordered the state Head of Service, Chamberlain Nwele, to discipline Mr Nwakpu as a civil servant through civil service rules.

The governor further gave the Fiscal Responsibility Commission seven days to recover all the monies from Mr Nwakpu.

He charged the Commission to petition the EFCC to take over the matter; and also prosecute Mr Nwakpu if he fails to remit the embezzled funds within the seven days.

The report which was read at the meeting read: "Dr Cletus Nwakpu, directed the opening of an account with the name of Ebonyi State FADAMA Production Cluster with Polaris Bank PLC, formerly called Skye Bank PLC, and the project account has signatories and which money contributed by the farmers as captured in 2007 FADAMA Projects were deposited contrary to the financial regulation guiding the implementation of FADAMA project.

"That Dr Cletus Nwakpu did not release to the farmers the complete Agricultural inputs which they paid for and has failed to refund the payment so made.

"That Dr Cletus Nwakpu directed some parts of FADAMA office to collect about ninety million naira (#90,000,000) being for the beneficiary contribution levy made by the farmers in cash contrary to the requirement that every beneficiary contributes into individual farmers' production group account.

"The total sum of twelve million six hundred and ten thousand only (#12,610,000.00), two million six hundred and ten thousand naira only(#2,610,000.00) paid by farmers for advisory services of the 2017 FADAMA Project was not compiled for the designated purpose.

"That the total sum of thirteen million six hundred and fifty thousand naira only(N13,650,000.00) approved by Dr Cletus Nwakpu for the payment to the two resourced persons for capacity building for the farmers was not actually spent for the purpose and there was no capacity building as claimed.

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"That the regulation and guideline for the procurement of Agricultural inputs, selection of service provider, particularly for advisory service and capacity building for 2017-2019 FADAMA Project/Program were not compiled by Dr Cletus Nwakpu.

"That the sum of ninety-one thousand naira (N91,000) was paid for one unit of rice machine but was neither supplied nor the amount refunded to the farmers.

"That because of the failure of the said coordinating office to comply with the approval regulation and procedures, one hundred and eighty-two million naira (N182,000,000) being 50% beneficial contribution this year and another 90% International Development Agency(ICA) counterpart fund for the advisory service fee for 2017 was not paid to Ebonyi State Government by International Development Agency Fund.

"That Dr Cletus Nwakpu initiated the arrest of Mr Anthony Nwankwo, the Project Accountant on the said day that he (Anthony Nwankwo), was invited by the Fiscal Responsibility Commission to testify to the matter. This arrest followed an earlier arrest of Mr Cyprian Iziogo, the Project Procurement Officer."

Briefing journalists after the virtual meeting, the SSG, Mr Ugbala, said the state will commence distribution of Covid-19 Palliatives on Saturday.

He said that the distribution will be at the political ward level under the supervision of stakeholders in the area.

Mr Ugbala said the palliatives were donated by the federal government, NGOs and good-spirited individuals.
The younger brother of indigenous rapper Olamide, musician and DJ of YBNL, DJ Enimoney has welcomed a baby girl.

The excited new dad shared the news on his instagram page writing;

Ahliamdulilah, its a girl. Anina,



Follow Us on Facebook  @LadunLiadi; Instagram  @LadunLiadi; Twitter  @LadunLiadi; Youtube  @LadunLiadiTV for updates
In case candy lovers are hankering for a taste of the holidays (yes, the ones in winter), M&M's has already created its end-of-the-year flavor.

On Tuesday, M&M's parent company Mars announced a summer social media contest to give folks a taste of the new holiday treat. Which means, as early as August, 10 lucky fans can skip Labor Day, hop over Halloween and enjoy a free bag of red, white and green M&M's. And if Christmas in July wasn't strange enough, the new M&M's flavor doesn't even contain the candy's classic chocolaty center!

M&M's wants folks to savor some sugar cookies without setting foot in their kitchens. (M&M's/Mars)

The Sugar Cookie M&M's have a crispy, cookie-like center and a white chocolate, sugar cookie-flavored shell. A company spokesperson told TODAY Food the ingredients contain cocoa butter but there's no milk or dark chocolate like most of the other M&M's varieties. In 2017, the brand launched two other limited-edition flavors without any milk or dark chocolate: One was a White Pumpkin Pie pack for fall and the other was White Holiday Mint, which one taste-tester affectionally commented, "This tastes like leaving a TGI Fridays."

The new product will officially hit retail stores nationwide in November, but the promotion this summer will go live on the company's social media platforms on Saturday, July 25. Anyone clamoring to rip open a bag of these not-so-chocolaty, cookie-flavored treats can keep their eyes on M&M's Twitter and Instagram and leave a comment with the hashtag #sweepstakes on its post announcing the contest. Five winners will be selected at random from each platform and each receive one 7-ounce bag of the holiday candy by early August.

Related: Milk Duds may just be social media's most polarizing candy.

So far, some folks on Twitter are eager to try the new product  no matter the time of year. (It's worth noting, though, that the Twitter user's account name is "Sleigh Bells & Mistletoe Christmas," so they may be a bit biased.)

Story continues

And some are not-so-enthused about M&M's free from milk or dark chocolate.

White chocolate is not chocolate and is in fact horrible   (@jimmy_tiddow) July 15, 2020

But it'll take a taste of the sugar cookie-flavored candy, of course, to determine the truth.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced final plans to expedite permitting for infrastructure like oil pipelines and road expansions, a move that critics say will sidestep the need for public input, especially from low-income and minority communities.

The proposal to change how the 50-year-old bedrock National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is implemented is part of Trumps broader campaign to curtail environmental regulations to boost industry and fast-track projects that can take years to complete.

Among other things, the final rule says that federal agencies need not factor in the cumulative impacts of a project, which could include its impact on climate change and have significant and long-lasting consequences.

"Today's action is part of my administration's fierce commitment to slashing the web of needless bureaucracy that is holding back our citizens," Trump said in a speech at the UPS Hapeville Airport Hub in Atlanta.

He said one major project that will get an expedited review is the I-75 lane expansion project from Atlanta to Macon, Georgia.

Trump's efforts have often been blocked or slowed down by the courts after lawsuits.

Just last week https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pipelines/end-of-an-era-series-of-u-s-setbacks-bodes-ill-for-big-oil-gas-pipeline-projects-idUSKBN2491M5, a federal judge ordered the Dakota Access pipeline to shut down because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had failed to do an adequate NEPA impact study, and the Supreme Court blocked construction of the Keystone XL line from Canada pending a deeper environmental review.

The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) proposed the changes to NEPA in January, kicking off a public comment period. Officials had called the proposal "the most significant deregulatory proposal" of the Trump administration.

The final rule doesn't differ significantly from the draft proposal, which sets a two-year deadline for environmental impact statements and a one-year deadline for less stringent environmental assessments.

"This change means that reviews of big federal projects will ignore massive problems like climate change, even as some of our most important financial institutions warn of the threat it poses," said Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a member of the Senate environment committee.

Environmental groups also said that watering down NEPA deprives low income and minority communities, often in the shadow of large federal projects, of input.

"As COVID-19 and police brutality ravage Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities, the Trump administrations perversion of the protections under NEPA deal another blow to these same communities," said Christy Goldfuss, senior vice president of the liberal Center for American Progress.

Energy and other industry groups applauded the changes.

"The new rule updates ... regulations by reducing unnecessary paperwork, setting timelines for environmental reviews and reduces frivolous litigation efforts designed to simply stall or delay vital infrastructure projects," said Independent Petroleum Association of America President Barry Russell.

The CEQ received over 1 million comments after the January proposal, many of which opposed the changes and offered evidence that they could have "harmful results," said Caitlin McCoy, a staff attorney for the Harvard Law School Environmental and Energy Law Program.

This could make the rule vulnerable in lawsuits, she said.

"CEQ will need to show that it grappled with these adverse comments and considered all of the important aspects of making these changes, otherwise aspects of the regulations could be ruled arbitrary and capricious," she said.

Environmental organizations have said they plan to sue the administration over its rule on the grounds that it has attempted to rewrite a U.S. law without congressional action.

We have consistently defeated this administrations relentless, vicious dismantling of safeguards for people and the environment, and we will do so again with this final rule, said Susan Jane Brown at the Western Environmental Law Center.
CHICAGO, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the new market research report "Bromine Market by Derivative (Organobromine, Clear Brine Fluids, Hydrogen Bromide), Application (Flame Retardants, Water Treatment & Biocides, Hbr Flow Batteries, Mercury Emission Control, Pta Synthesis), & Region - Global Forecast To 2025", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global Bromine Market size is projected to grow from USD 3.2 billion in 2020 to USD 4.1 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 5.0% from 2020 to 2025.

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The market growth is driven by the increasing demand for bromine in flame retardants, mercury emission control, water treatment, and oil & gas drilling.

The flame retardants segment accounted for the largest share of the bromine market in 2019.

By application, the flame retardants segment accounted for the largest share of the bromine market in 2019. Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are bromine-containing compounds that are added to substances to inhibit or reduce their rate of combustion. BFRs are more widely used than other commercialized chemical flame retardants. Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs), Polybrominated Biphenyl (PBB), and Brominated Cyclo-hydrocarbons are some of the examples of BFRs. The growing demand from electronics and automotive industries (due to stringent fire safety regulations) and the expanding shipbuilding industries are driving the market for flame retardants across the globe.

The organobromine segment accounted for the largest share of the bromine market in 2019.

By derivative, the organobromine segment accounted for the largest share of the bromine market in 2019. Organobromine compounds, such as tetrabromobisphenol-A, hexabromocyclododecane, and bromodiphenyl ethers, are used as flame retardants in many industries, mainly electronics, textile, and plastics. The major applications of organobromine are flame retardants and biocides. Some organobromine derivatives are also used in water treatment applications, such as the cleaning up of pools and spas. They are an important ingredient for making dyes. Organobromines are used as intermediates for preparing pharmaceuticals like nicergoline and brotizolam, and as an anticancer agent pipobroman. Bromoform and dibromodimethylhydantoinorganobromine are used in water treatment applications, to prevent the growth of algae, bacteria, and other microorganisms as well as for the prevention of foul odor in water. The flourishing electronics & telecommunication, textile, plastic, and construction industries are expected to drive the market for organobromine.

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Asia Pacific accounted for the largest share in the global bromine market in 2019

The Asia Pacific region accounted for the largest share of the bromine market in 2019. China, India, Japan, and South Korea are key countries contributing to the increased demand for bromine in this region. Substantial development in infrastructure and growing demand for flame retardants in the automobile, building & construction end-use industries are expected to drive the bromine market in this region.

Israel Chemicals Limited (Israel), Albemarle Corporation (US), LANXESS Corporation (Germany), Tosoh Corporation (Japan), Tata Chemicals Limited (India), Gulf Resources Inc. (China), TETRA Technologies, Inc. (US), Hindustan Salts Limited (India), Honeywell International Inc. (US), and Perekop Bromine (Republic of Crimea) are some of the leading players operating in the bromine market.

Related Reports:

Flame Retardant Market by Type (ATH, Antimony Oxide, Brominated, Chlorinated, Phosphorous), Application (Epoxy, Polyolefins), and End-use Industry (Building & Construction, Electronics & Appliances, Wire & Cables, Automotive)

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/flame-retardant-chemicals-market-686.html

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Lucknow, July 16 : At a time when the Congress is dealing with shockwaves in Rajasthan generated by Sachin Pilot's rebel leading to his dismissal from the party fold as well as Deputy Chief Minister post, the party may see troubles in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh as well.

Jitin Prasada, considered as the face of Youth Congress in Uttar Pradesh, has lent his support and sympathies to Pilot -- a development that could activate alarm buttons in the Congress.

He is seen openly supporting Sachin Pilot over the ongoing events in Rajasthan. He has also tweeted in Pilot's favour.

"Sachin Pilot is not just a person who works with me but also my friend. No one can deny that these days he has worked for the party with full dedication. I hope that this situation will soon improve, I am sad that such a situation has come," he tweeted.

Prasada's tweet has created quite a stir in the political circles of Uttar Pradesh and different meanings are being interpreted.

Just a few days ago, he thanked Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Twitter. This had happened after Priyanka had called Mayawati a spokesperson of the BJP.

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister had said in a tweet that no particular community should be pointed over criminals like Vikas Dubey. On this statement, Jitin Prasada had thanked Mayawati.

Says senior political analyst Ratanamani Lal says: "Prasada gave the first reaction after Vikas Dubey's death in a police encounter when he created the 'Brahmin Consciousness Council'. This is a big message in itself.

"He is looking for some other role too apart from being in Congress. It is not a big deal if he presents himself as a Brahmin face in the future. He is looking for a bigger role than being a Congress leader. Though he was considered to be close to Rahul Gandhi, it was seen that Rahul is not standing behind them," Lal opines.

"He (Rahul) could not stop Jyotiraditya Scindia from going to the BJP. Sachin Pilot had to face humiliation as well. And Jitin Prasada is yet to get any new role... he wants that role so he has 'Brahmin Council'. Through this, he wants to represent the Brahmins. Also, his reaction to Sachin Pilot's rebel in Rajasthan shows that he is not happy with the kind of behaviour he is receiving in Congress." A Congress leader said on the condition of anonymity that Prasada is a "senior person and leader of Brahmins" but he has been sidelined after Priyanka Gandhi's arrival.

He is seeking a big role for himself in the state, but unable to get one.

Senior political analyst PN Dwivedi said: "Jitin Prasada has recently been working with Brahmin faces in Uttar Pradesh for the Congress party's organisation. He is considered very close to Rahul Gandhi. But, for a while, he is marginalised in the Congress party. Though he has not yet raised any open opposition to it, some of his recent reactions have indicated his not being happy with the party."
Buddhist followers crawl under an ancient wooden bed to bring them good luck. The holy bed, which once belonged to King Taksin, is kept at the Wat Arun Ratchawararam temple in Bangkok, Thailand. Footage shows the superstitious devotees scampering under the structure today (July 15). They believe that it will bring them good fortune and health. One woman even combined her trip home from the shops with an afternoon worship and scampered under the bed with her hands full of shopping. The teak wood bed is believed to date back to the 1700s when the King would use it to meditate. It has since been preserved at the historic temple on the Chao Phraya River. Locals are taking the chance to visit the temple while it it quieter than normal due to the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic closing borders to tourists.
Tuan made his statement during his farewell meetings with Czech officials, including President of the Senate Milos Vystrcil, Deputy Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament Vojtech Filip, and Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek. He also had a phone call with Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis.

At these meetings and phone call, the ambassador highlighted the Czech Republics assistance to Vietnams cause of national protection and construction, and thanked the country for its significant support during the process towards the signing of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).

Tuan said the Czech parliament was among the first European law-making bodies to ratify the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA), while the country backed Vietnams candidacy to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.

He also took the occasion to praise the coordination between the two countries at international forums.

The Czech leaders lauded Tuans performance during his tenure, saying he had made great contributions to boosting the bilateral friendship and cooperation across fields.

PM Babis said he will soon arrange a visit to Vietnam at the invitation of Vietnamese PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

According to him, the Czech Republic wants both sides to accelerate the opening of a direct air route between the two capitals Prague and Hanoi for stronger trade and tourism linkages.

In the past time, the two countries had exchanged numerous delegations at all levels in a bid to enhance trade, economy, investment, people-to-people diplomacy, cultural exchange and establishment of twining relations between localities.

The Czech leaders thanked the Vietnamese Government and people for presenting the country face masks and medical equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

They spoke highly of the Vietnamese expatriate community in the Czech Republic, noting that it is a hardworking group with significant contributions to the host country.
Ngozi OkonjoIweala on Thursday expressed gratitude to President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly for nominating and supporting her candidacy for Director-General of the World Trade Organisation( WTO) position.

I want to also thank the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu and the Nigerian ambassadors to Switzerland, WTO as well as the Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva 

Mrs Okonjo-Iweala who stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Geneva, also thanked ECOWAS for endorsing her candidacy as the race for the WTO Director-General position enters the selection phase.

She is vying for the top job alongside candidates from Kenya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia. UK, Moldova, Mexico and the Republic of Korea.

All the candidates are in Geneva to make presentations to the WTO General Council and address the press from July 15  17.

The former finance minister who had previously urged the WTO to elect its Director-General based on merit told NAN that given her resume as a development economist, she was best suited for the job.

People ask me often what best qualifies you for the job- I think the WTO needs leadership, it cannot continue to do what it did before.

If its to stay as one of the premier institutions of the 21st century, it needs strong leadership which is a quality I have.

It needs knowledge of trade which I have for being a development economist which my entire career is built around. It needs someone with political skills and international connections that can reach policymakers in all countries- and I have that owing my 35 years of experience

The job needs someone who listens  and Im a good listener and lastly, someone who is solution-oriented and pragmatic. I have experience in all sectors ranging from the public to private sectors and international civil societies as well as from multilateral organizations.

If you put all these together, you will see Im best qualified for the job, she said.

NAN reports that the second phase of the selection process, in which candidates would make themselves known to members, will end on September 7. Similarly, the third phase, which is the consultation process, would commence the same day.

At the forthcoming consultation, the Chairman of the General Council alongside Chairs of the Dispute Settlement Body and the Trade Policy Review Body would consult with all the WTO members to determine which candidate is best placed to attract consensus support.

Meanwhile, WTOs outgoing Director-General, Roberto Azevedo, would retire in August this year after serving two terms of seven years.

(NAN)
No year since weather records began was as hot and dry as 2018. A first comprehensive analysis of the consequences of this drought and heat event shows that central European forests sustained long-term damage. Even tree species considered drought-resistant, such as beech, pine and silver fir, suffered. The international study was directed by the University of Basel, which is conducting a forest experiment unique in Europe.

Until now, 2003 has been the driest and hottest year since regular weather records began. That record has now been broken. A comparison of climate data from Germany, Austria and Switzerland shows that 2018 was significantly warmer. The average temperature during the vegetation period was 1.2C above the 2003 value and as high as 3.3C above the average of the years from 1961 to 1990.

Part of the analysis, which has now been published, includes measurements taken at the Swiss Canopy Crane II research site in Basel, where extensive physiological investigations were carried out in tree canopies. The goal of these investigations is to better understand how and when trees are affected by a lack of water in order to counter the consequences of climate change through targeted management measures.

When trees die of thirst

Trees lose a lot of water through their surfaces. If the soil also dries out, the tree cannot replace this water, which is shown by the negative suction tension in the wood's vascular tissue. It's true that trees can reduce their water consumption, but if the soil water reservoir is used up, it's ultimately only a matter of time until cell dehydration causes the death of a tree.

Physiological measurements at the Basel research site have shown the researchers that the negative suction tension and water shortage in trees occurred earlier than usual. In particular, this shortage was more severe throughout all of Germany, Austria and Switzerland than ever measured before. Over the course of the summer, severe drought-related stress symptoms therefore appeared in many tree species important to forestry. Leaves wilted, aged and were shed prematurely.

Spruce, pine and beech most heavily affected

The true extent of the summer heatwave became evident in 2019: many trees no longer formed new shoots - they were partially or wholly dead. Others had survived the stress of the drought and heat of the previous year, but were increasingly vulnerable to bark beetle infestation or fungus. Trees with partially dead canopies, which reduced the ability to recover from the damage, were particularly affected.

"Spruce was most heavily affected. But it was a surprise for us that beech, silver fir and pine were also damaged to this extent," says lead researcher Professor Ansgar Kahmen. Beech in particular had until then been classified as the "tree of the future", although its supposed drought resistance has been subject to contentious discussion since the 2003 heatwave.

Future scenarios to combat heat and drought

According to the latest projections, precipitation in Europe will decline by up to a fifth by 2085, and drought and heat events will become more frequent. Redesigning forests is therefore essential. "Mixed woodland is often propagated," explains plant ecologist Kahmen, "and it certainly has many ecological and economic advantages. But whether mixed woodland is also more drought-resistant has not yet been clearly proven. We still need to study which tree species are good in which combinations, including from a forestry perspective. That will take a long time."

Another finding of the study is that it is only possible to record the impacts of extreme climate events on European forests to a limited extent using conventional methods, and thus new analytical approaches are needed. "The damage is obvious. More difficult is precisely quantifying it and drawing the right conclusions for the future," says Kahmen. Earth observation data from satellites could help track tree mortality on a smaller scale. Spatial patterns that contain important ecological and forestry-related information can be derived from such data: which tree species were heavily impacted, when and at which locations, and which survived without damage? "A system like this already exists in some regions in the US, but central Europe still lacks one."

###

Further information

Prof. Dr. Ansgar Kahmen, University of Basel, Department of Environmental Sciences, phone +41 61 207 35 71, email: ansgar.kahmen@unibas.ch
By Praveen Menon

(Reuters) - Rio Tinto said on Thursday it will close its aluminium smelter operation in New Zealand due to high costs and a challenging market, putting over a thousand jobs on the line and dealing a blow to the country's top power producers.

The closure of the New Zealand Aluminium Smelters venture, which is the country's single largest power user, comes amid forecasts of massive job losses and a looming recession in New Zealand, with the economy crippled by tough restrictions to beat the spread of the coronavirus.

It also puts pressure on Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who launched her re-election bid just last week, promising more jobs and financial assistance to businesses.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson said the decision by Rio Tinto, the world's biggest iron ore miner, was "disappointing" and the timing could not be worse.

"Given the challenging economic situation caused by COVID-19 it is disappointing Rio Tinto has chosen to close the smelter at this time, especially given the support New Zealand has shown the company and how profitable they are globally," Robertson said.

New Zealand Aluminium Smelters consumes about 5,000 gigawatt hours of electricity a year, roughly 12% of the country's power. The smelter employs around 1,000 people directly and creates another 1,600 indirect jobs in the Southland region.

Rio has been threatening to shutter the smelter for years as it demanded further subsidies from the government.

The company acknowledged the decision "will have a significant impact on employees, the community and our customers," but did not elaborate.

"Extensive discussions with a wide range of interested parties have failed to secure a power contract that will enable the operation to become both competitive and profitable," Rio Tinto said.

DISAPPOINTED

The smelter is a joint venture, with Rio holding a 79.4% stake and Japan's Sumitomo Chemical Co holding 20.6%. Rio had an underlying loss from it of NZ$46 million ($30.25 million) in 2019.

Story continues

The closure would mean surplus power supply in New Zealand's South Island, which would hurt the power companies but have a positive impact on electricity prices.

Shares of Meridian Energy Ltd, a major supplier of power to the smelter, plunged as much as 18.3% on the Kiwi bourse. Shares of all other energy firms also tumbled.

Local power firms slammed Rio Tinto's decision..

Contact Energy CEO Mike Fuge said all commercial parties had collectively delivered significant cost reductions for electricity to the smelter.

"We're very disappointed to have played our part in delivering these savings for one of the greenest smelters in the world and to have such limited engagement from Rio Tinto," Fuge said in a statement.

($1 = 1.5209 New Zealand dollars)

(Reporting by Praveen Menon; Additional reporting by Rashmi Ashok in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler and Dan Grebler)
A Bharatiya Janata Party ally from Rajasthan on Thursday alleged that former chief minister Vasundhara Raje has been trying to "save" the Ashok Gehlot government in the state.





"Former CM Vasundhara Raje has been trying her best to save the Ashok Gehlot government, which is in a minority. Many MLAs of the Congress were called up by her in this regard," Hanuman Beniwal, a Lok Sabha MP, claimed in a tweet.

There was no immediate reaction from Raje, a senior BJP leader who has been the state's chief minister for two terms.

Beniwal, a former BJP leader and Raje-baiter for a long time, claimed that there is an "internal understanding" between her and incumbent Chief Minister Gehlot.

Raje has maintained silence during the unfolding crisis in the state after rebel Congress leader Sachin Pilot revolted against the government.

Beniwal heads the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party. In Lok Sabha, he has been a vocal supporter of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre.
A lawyer for ousted Lincoln University president Dr. Brenda Allen is seeking an injunction to keep the school's Board of Trustees from firing her. Read more

The ousted president of Lincoln University on Thursday sued its board of trustees, saying they breached her contract and violated state law in a secret vote to not extend her tenure late last week.

Brenda Allen, who had led the Chester County university since 2017, wants an injunction barring the trustees from acting on their vote, and declaring it invalid and a breach of the states open records law. She also seeks damages for humiliation she said she suffered while being denied her rightful position as president of Lincoln University.

The 21-page lawsuit, filed in Chester County Court, accuses the two leaders of the trustees, chair Theresa Braswell and vice chair Dimitrius Hutcherson, of conspiring to deny her a proper and fair evaluation and vote on an extension of her contract.

The clash between the trustees and the president that had been simmering for months but burst into the open in the last few weeks.

After a secret vote Friday night, the board announced that it was moving forward with selecting an interim president to replace Allen, whose three-year contract leading the historically Black university expired June 30.

The lawsuit says Allen contacted Braswell in February and requested an extension of her contract. Braswell said she would be in touch but did not follow up, according to the lawsuit.

It alleges that Braswell later suggested that Allens contract would be considered at a performance evaluation June 29  but that Braswell did not mention the issue during that meeting, and falsely stated that Allen had never requested an extension.

After Allens contract expired, her lawsuit says, Braswell and Hutcherson conspired to make Hutcherson Lincolns de facto president.

Hutcherson  who sent out news releases on behalf of the board after its vote Friday  declined to comment on the lawsuit Thursday.

The Board of Trustees will continue to move forward on behalf of Lincoln University, he said in an email. A special meeting is scheduled for Thursday to select an interim president.

Allens supporters, including students and faculty, had challenged the trustees vote, which occurred during an executive session that lasted more than three hours. More than 250 people waited in a Zoom conference for the board to return. When it did, Braswell announced that trustees had voted by 52% to 48% against negotiating a new contract with Allen. Braswell did not specify the vote breakdown.

In the lawsuit filed by her lawyer, Riley Ross, Allen contends the vote was actually 50/50, with 11 trustees voting for a new contract and 11 against, and five trustees appointed to the board by the commonwealth were not allowed to vote. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro had told the board the day before the meeting that the appointees should be permitted to participate.

In a message circulated among Lincoln alumni, Rosalie Hornbuckle, a former board member, said the board had stacked the vote against Allen, and muted trustees who tried to speak up during the Zoom meeting.

Since taking over at Lincoln in July 2017, Allen had won support from many in the Lincoln community and been credited with boosting student retention and alumni giving. More than 14,000 people signed a petition to keep her as president, and students, faculty, staff and alumni are planning to march Saturday in support of her.

Dr. Allen is devoted to Lincoln University, Ross said. Of the illegal moves to oust her, he said, She is not going to tolerate it.
An MP has been suspended by his party for a year after being arrested on suspicion of attacking his wife.

Welsh nationalist MP Jonathan Edwards accepted a formal caution by police over the domestic assault.

Plaid Cymru's disciplinary panel suspended the Carmarthen East MP from the party for 12 months after ten years in the House of Commons.

Father-of-three Edwards, 44, described it in a personal statement as 'by far the biggest regret of my life'.

Plaid Cymru's disciplinary panel suspended Jonathan Edwards, MP for Carmarthen East, from the party for 12 months after ten years in the House of Commons

His wife Emma Edwards said that she's accepted her husband's apology and considers the matter closed.

Mr Edwards said: 'I am deeply sorry. It is by far the biggest regret of my life.

'I complied fully with the Police and acted with the best interests of my wife and children as my primary motive throughout.

'I have referred myself to an investigation by my party. My priority now is to work with my wife to ensure as stable a future as possible for our family.'

Wife Emma Edwards said: 'I have accepted my husbands apology. Throughout the decade we have been together he has been a loving and caring husband and father. As far as I am concerned the matter is now closed.'

Edwards and his wife Emma, who have three children together, live in a 600,000 detached house in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire.

Edwards, 44, accepted a formal caution by police over the domestic assault

He was seen being taken from the house by three police officers after the early-morning incident on May 20.

A statement issued on behalf of Plaids disciplinary panel said: 'Jonathan Edwards referred himself to the partys disciplinary process and co-operated fully with the investigation.

'Having considered all the evidence, the panel imposed a 12-month suspension from the party. Any lifting of the suspension after 12 months is dependent upon Mr Edwards appearing before the panel to demonstrate that he has undertaken a period of self-reflection and learning to address his actions.

'A caution for common assault is a serious matter and if Mr Edwards fails to abide by the terms of the suspension he will be excluded.'

Mr Edwards said: 'I fully accept the decision of the disciplinary panel.'

Edwards, who acted as Plaid Cymru's Brexit spokesman, was critical of the knock-on effect of Britain's withdrawal from the European Union on the Welsh economy.
Jailed poet and activist Varavara Rao, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, has tested positive for COVID-19, a hospital official said on Thursday.

The 80-year-old, lodged in the Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai under judicial custody, was admitted to the state-run JJ Hospital earlier this week.

Rao is asymptomatic and has general weakness, said Dr Ranjeet Mankeshwar, dean of the JJ Hospital.

The poet-activist's medical report came on Thursday and he was found to be coronavirus positive, he said.

"He has been found positive for COVID-19, but his condition is stable, no symptoms of COVID-19 have been found, he is having general weakness," said Mankeshwar.

"His treatment is going on," he said.

It was a routine swab check that was done on Tuesday after he was admitted to JJ Hospital and claims made by his family members that he is not getting proper medical care were not true, the official maintained.

"We are providing best health facilities to him and by late (Thursday) night he may be shifted to St George Hospital (another state-run hospital) for further treatment," said Mankeshwar.

Rao, who hails from Telangana, was shifted to the government-run hospital in south Mumbai on Monday night after he complained of giddiness and was later admitted to its neurology department.

Rao's family members along with several writers and activists had asked the Maharashtra government to immediately shift him to hospital for treatment, citing his deteriorating health condition.

Nationalist Congress Party leader and minister Jitendra Awhad had also demanded that Rao be shifted to hospital.

Rao's family members on Sunday sought the jail authorities to provide him immediate medical care and claimed that when the veteran activist contacted them last week, he was in a "delirious state and hallucinating".

Rao has been in jail for about 22 months and had earlier approached the special National Investigation Agency court, seeking bail on medical grounds and the prevailing COVID-19 situation.

On Monday, Rao filed two petitions in the Bombay High Court, seeking temporary bail owing to his ill-health and a direction to the jail authorities to produce his medical records and admit him to a state-run or private hospital.

Rao and nine other activists have been arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, which was initially probed by the Pune Police and later transferred to the National Investigation Agency.

The case related to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial.

The police have also claimed the conclave was organised by people with alleged Maoist links.
No fewer than 400 Batch B Corps stream II members of the National Youth Service Corps in NYSC in Borno, were on Thursday discharged after their one-year service.

Nura Umar, the NYSC State Coordinator, who made the disclosure while addressing the corps members during the passing-out ceremony in Maiduguri, said the corps members would receive their discharge certificates simultaneously.

Mr Umar said that the Secretariat held a low key passing-out ceremony to ensure compliance with the COVID-19 protocols for the safety of the corps members and officials.

He said that the corps members were directed to adhere to the strict use of face masks and wash their hands before coming to the secretariat to receive their discharge certificate.

According to him, the corps members have done wonderfully well in the discharge of their primary assignments and Community Development Services (CDS) in the state.

They have been able to prove their mettle in all facets of the service year, excelling in all the nooks and crannies of the state, where they were posted to serve their fatherland, he said.

Mr Umar said that the corps members contributed immensely in the healthcare service delivery and improved the wellbeing of persons affected by insurgency.

He said that the NYSC had offered free medical treatment, conducted tests and provided drugs to over 1,000 Internally Displaced Persons.

Mr Umar said that other activities conducted by the NYSC included sensitisation campaign at the camp to create awareness on safety and preventive measures against the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

According to him, the programme is in line with the directive of the current NYSC Director General, Shuaib Ibrahim, who directed all NYSC state offices to play a leading role in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

This is the reason why we mobilised the Engineering Corps, to produce a standard locally made four in one hand sanitizer machine, which we would soon hand over to the Borno state government as part of our contributions, he said.

In the area of welfare, Mr Umar Commended Borno Governor, Babagana Zulum, for making the safety of the corps members a priority, by providing befitting accommodation and offsetting their outstanding allowances.

He added that the state secretariat was partnering with the security agencies comprising the Police, DSS and army to ensure the safety of the corps members.

We thank God that throughout the service year, we did not record any incident associated with the Boko Haram insurgency, he said.

Mr Umar, therefore, urged the outgoing corps members to be worthy ambassadors of the NYSC scheme and carry the torch of unity and noble service in their future endeavours.

(NAN)
Police Suggest Missing Quebec Father May Be Alive and Seeking Shelter

STAPOLLINAIRE, Que.The father of two young girls found dead over the weekend southwest of Quebec City may be desperate and looking for materials to ensure his survival, Quebec provincial police said Thursday, on the eighth day of their manhunt.

Police said they found evidence Wednesday night Martin Carpentier was in a trailer in the area where police have focused their search since the bodies of Norah and Romy Carpentier, aged 11 and 6, were discovered Saturday.

Carpentier took items from the trailer, suggesting he may visit other barns, sheds, or cottages in the region, police said in a news release.

We are dealing with an individual who is probably desperate and who must be looking for equipment to ensure his survival, Sgt. Audrey-Anne Bilodeau said in a pre-recorded audio message sent to reporters.

Martin Carpentier in a file photo. (Courtesy of Alerte Amber Quebec)

Romy Carpentier (L), and Norah Carpentier (R). (Courtesy of Alerte Amber Quebec)

Police asked residents of Lotbiniere and surrounding areas west of Quebec City to check their cottages, trailers, or buildings for signs of a break-in, such as missing or moved clothing, food, or equipment. Hunters who have set up cameras in the woods are also being asked to check their recordings.

Police are also suggesting worried citizens search in groups or with a police escort and to call 911 with any relevant information.

Sgt. Ann Mathieu, another provincial police spokeswoman, told reporters Thursday theres no evidence to suggest Carpentier poses a danger to the general population.

Its an individual who is currently, if he is still aliveand the elements we have lead us to believe he isis looking to ensure his survival and to hide, she said.

Surete du Quebec officers block the road accessing a search area near Saint-Apollinaire, Que. on July 11, 2020. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press)

Investigators have said the girls and their father were believed to have been in a serious car crash on Highway 20 in the Quebec City suburb of Saint-Apollinaire July 8, but there was nobody inside the vehicle when they arrived on scene.

An Amber Alert was issued last Thursday but cancelled two days later after the bodies were found.

In recent days police have focused their search on a 50-square-kilometer wooded area around Saint-Apollinaire, where items of interest were found on Sunday.

Autopsies were performed on the two girls, but police said they wont reveal the cause of death until Carpentier is found.
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says Canada and the United States have agreed to extend their mutual ban on non-essential travel between the two countries until Aug. 20.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 16/7/2020 (551 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sources say Canada and the United States are likely to agree to extend their mutual ban on non-essential travel between the two countries for another 30 days. Canadian and American flags fly near the Ambassador Bridge at the Canada-USA border crossing in Windsor, Ont. on Saturday, March 21, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Rob Gurdebeke

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says Canada and the United States have agreed to extend their mutual ban on non-essential travel between the two countries until Aug. 20.

"Based on the success of the existing restrictions and close collaboration with Mexico and Canada, (the Department of Homeland Security) will continue to limit non-essential travel at our land ports of entry with Canada and Mexico until Aug. 20," acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf tweeted Thursday.

"Close collaboration with our neighbours has allowed us to respond to COVID-19 in a North American approach and slow the travel-related spread of the virus."

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 Canada-U.S. border has been closed to so-called "discretionary" travel like vacations and shopping trips since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold of the continent in mid-March, an agreement that had been set to expire July 21.

The extension comes with COVID-19 resurgent across the U.S.  cases are on the rise in all 50 states, and southern states like Florida, Arizona and California are facing a fresh crisis with overcrowded hospital wards, refrigerated truck trailers serving as makeshift morgues and another shortage of personal protective medical gear.

The escalating emergency has also exposed a deep divide between Canadians dead-set against reopening the border and U.S. lawmakers in northern border states who continue to press both countries for a blueprint for doing exactly that.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called the extent of the pandemic in the U.S. a "constantly evolving" situation, but won't say whether officials have considered extending the border restrictions beyond the standard 30-day window.

"We're going to keep working closely with our American neighbours to keep people safe on both sides of the border," he said Thursday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 16, 2020.
Surat: Woman police constable Sunita Yadav, who had a confrontation with a minister's son over lockdown violation which led to his arrest here in Gujarat, claimed she has resigned from service. However, a senior police official has denied it.

Prakash Kanani, the son of Gujarat Minister of State for Health Kumar Kanani, and his two friends were arrested on Sunday for allegedly violating the lockdown and night curfew orders in Surat, a COVID-19 hotspot, a senior police official earlier said.

Yadav, who is being hailed on social media for taking action against the minister's son, told news channels on Wednesday that she had put in her papers.

"I have resigned because I did not receive support from my superior officers. I was only doing my duty as a constable. It's the fault of our system that these people (like the minister's son) think they are VVIPs (very very important persons)," she said.

However, a senior police official here denied that she has resigned.

"She has not given her resignation. The inquiry is still on and technically she cannot resign at this juncture," Surat Police Commissioner R B Brahmbhatt said.

Yadav's action had led to the registration of an FIR and arrest of Prakash Kanani and two of his friends for alleged violation of lockdown and curfew norms in Surat city.

The arrests came after a video of a heated exchange between them and Yadav, who pulled up the trio for violation of curfew, surfaced on social media. The trio was later released on bail.

Since the incident, Yadav is being hailed on social media.

While some social media users called her "Lady Singham" (referring to the tough cop in the Hindi film "Singham"), some suggested she contest the 2022 state Assembly polls against Kumar Kanani, who represents Varachha constituency in Surat district.
A staffer passes a COVID-19 self-test kit to a driver at the Hansen Dam Recreation Center test site in Sylmar. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

The next two weeks are shaping up to be critical for California as officials wait to see if the sweeping restrictions imposed in late June and July show any signs of slowing the rapid spread of coronavirus in communities across the state.

This week was marked by a series of grim milestones as California shattered a one-day record for new coronavirus cases  more than 11,000 on Tuesday  as well as rising infection rates and growing numbers of hospitalizations. Because the coronavirus can take weeks to incubate, much of the current surge is still tied to people exposed to the virus in June, as counties rapidly reopened the economy and many returned to old but now dangerous routines such as bar-hopping and attending parties and other social events. Many also returned to workplaces that didnt implement new safety protocols.

The big question now is whether Californians changed their behavior enough in July to reduce infection rates. Officials began raising alarms in the days before the July 4 holiday and over the last few weeks have closed bars, indoor dining, shopping malls, gyms and other retail establishments in many areas.

"It's kind of in everybody's hands right now," said Barbara Ferrer, director of public health for L.A. County. "We don't have a lot of time, though. At some point, you turn that corner where you're actually expecting hospitals to provide way more care than is possible."

On June 28, Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered bars shut in L.A. County and several others, and a day later, Ferrer warned of "alarming increases in cases, positivity rates and hospitalization." By July 1, Newsom ordered indoor restaurant dining and bars closed in 19 counties, affecting 72% of the state's population.

It has been about two weeks since then, but it'll take at least three weeks to learn whether the actions taken that week decisively changed the course of the pandemic, said Dr. Christina Ghaly, director of health services for Los Angeles County. Ghaly said Wednesday that if people got back to safer behavior  staying home as much as possible, avoiding social gatherings, wearing face coverings, keeping physical distance and workplaces following new safety protocols  L.A. County could avoid having hospitals and ICUs overwhelmed.

Story continues

Even more businesses have shut down this week, with Newsom ordering the closure of all bars and indoor dining rooms at restaurants. And in the hardest-hit counties that are home to more than 88% of Californians, he also closed indoor operations of gyms, places of worship, hair salons, nail salons, malls, tattoo parlors, bowling alleys, arcades and offices for nonessential industries.

If one thing is clear, officials across the state said, it's now up to residents and businesses to do their best to slow the spread of disease. The percentage of younger adults getting infected with the coronavirus is growing, and younger adults are now making up a larger share of hospitalized COVID-19 patients, making up nearly 30% of them in L.A. County.

"Birthday parties, the visits with grandparents ... the barbecues: they are contributing to a delay or rollback in reopening of businesses," said Dr. Grant Colfax, San Francisco's public health director.

California on Tuesday recorded its highest number of new cases in a single day, 11,142 infections; Tuesday also marked the second-highest number of deaths in a single day statewide, with 144 deaths tallied, according to the Los Angeles Times' California coronavirus tracker.

On Wednesday, at least another 8,000 new coronavirus cases and more than 125 deaths were reported statewide.

There have been a cumulative total of more than 354,000 confirmed cases and more than 7,300 deaths related to the coronavirus statewide. Of them, more than 143,000 cases and more than 3,900 deaths have occurred among L.A. County residents.

More than 6,700 people with confirmed coronavirus infections were in the hospital statewide Tuesday. That's more than double the daily average in May, when there were about 3,000 people hospitalized statewide with confirmed infections.

In L.A. County, officials estimated that the effective transmission rate of the coronavirus has risen slightly to 1.07, according to data released Wednesday, although the actual number could be anywhere from 0.94 to 1.2. That means officials estimate that on average, every 1 person infected with the virus transmits it to 1.07 other people.

San Francisco on Wednesday reported an even worse transmission rate of about 1.3.

"The virus is not only still out there, it is out there more than ever before," said Colfax, the city's public health director. "If we do not do better, we are looking at major problems by late August and September, with an average peak of 900 hospitalized patients by early October"  a number 10 times as bad as what the city is seeing now.

Colfax said it's "certainly possible" that if conditions do not improve, officials may need to roll back reopening efforts in San Francisco and the greater Bay Area.

With evidence mounting about the disproportionate impact the pandemic is having on Latino and Black communities, L.A. County officials Wednesday announced plans to expand testing where it's most needed.

Officials announced they will open six new testing sites in communities of color  Montebello, South Gate, Azusa, Panorama City, Compton and the Downey-Norwalk area. And they will add capacity at four existing sites in Bellflower, Pomona, El Monte and East Los Angeles.

An astonishing 89% of people testing positive for the coronavirus at a site in Willowbrook, south of Watts, have been Latino, even though 71% of those who were tested identified themselves Latino, said Dr. Erika Flores Uribe, an emergency room physician and the director of language access and inclusion at the county's health services department.

The result is close to that of a study in San Francisco's Mission District, in which 95% of people testing positive for the coronavirus were Latino.

Furthermore, Latino residents are testing positive at a much higher rate than any other racial or ethnic group in Los Angeles County, a trend that has been constant for months, said Ghaly, the L.A. County health services director.

Latino residents are testing positive at a much higher rate than any other racial or ethnic group in Los Angeles County (Los Angeles County Department of Health Services)

The disparity could be reflective of white residents having less risk of being exposed to the coronavirus.

White residents are less likely to live in crowded households or work in essential jobs that require employees to leave home to earn money, Ghaly said. The disparity in the so-called positivity rate could also reflect greater access to and use of testing resources by white residents.

"Sadly, the underlying reasons why communities of color are disproportionately impacted by the worst outcomes of COVID-19 is related to longstanding structural and systemic issues, including social determinants of health that the county is working to address and mitigate in the midst of this pandemic," Ghaly said.

Poverty also increases the risk of testing positive.

Poverty also increases the risk of testing positive. In communities with the highest poverty rates, more than 15% of coronavirus tests had results confirming infection; in the wealthiest neighborhoods, less than 8% of tests came back positive. (Los Angeles County Department of Health Services)

"This reflects, again, the burden that our low income communities face in terms of their exposure to the virus, and also the fact that they were not  and still are not  accessing testing at an appropriate level given their degree of burden," Ghaly said.

To figure out where the county should add testing sites, officials did an analysis to create a map of areas of L.A. County that had the greatest need for more coronavirus testing, based off of factors like the positivity rate, the coronavirus mortality rate, and the rate at which residents are accessing testing services.

The results showed portions of South Los Angeles, Southeast L.A. County, the San Gabriel Valley, the Pomona Valley, the San Fernando Valley and the Antelope Valley needed greater access to testing.
A Chinese boy who fell from a five-storey ledge by accident has survived unscathed thanks to a courageous neighbour.

The two-year-old from eastern China made several spins during his 50ft fall before the heroic saviour caught him bare-handed.

The child had climbed out of his home and ended up on a small platform before losing his grip and dropping from heights, local authorities claimed.

Footage released by local officials in eastern China shows the two-year-old trying to cling onto a ledge for about 10 seconds (left) before losing his grip and plunging at high speed (right)

The boy had allegedly climbed to the platform, which supported an air-conditioning unit, after crawling out of the balcony.

He was said to have resort to act out of desperation after accidentally locking himself in and feeling scared.

An official post said that he was unharmed after being caught by the neighbour, who sustained minor injuries on his arms as a result.

The boy's fall was broken briefly by a plastic awning before he landed in the man's arms safe and sound.

The social media video shows the child making several spins during his 50ft fall before being caught by the saviour with his bare hands last Thursday in Xuyi County, Jiangsu Province

The accident took place last Thursday in the county of Xuyi in Huai'an, Jiangsu Province.

Footage released by the local government on Twitter-like Weibo shows the boy trying to cling onto the ledge for about 10 seconds before being forced to let go due to a lack of strength.

He spun at least 720 degrees in the air during the high-speed fall and hit the awning briefly.

The saviour, who had been following the child's movement closely, then caught him with his bare hands while standing on a stool.

Several other bystanders had put duvets on top of the plastic shelter to protect the boy should he land there.

The child was taken to a hospital and found to have no injuries, according to the propaganda department of Huai'an, which released the video on its social media account.

The child was taken to a hospital and found to have no injuries, according to the propaganda department of Huai'an. The saviour (right) sustained minor injuries on his arms as a result

The brave neighbour, named Li Dehai, told local reporters that the boy had managed to lock his grandmother out of their home.

He said the accident occurred when his grandmother had gone to find a locksmith to open the door.

'The boy was scared [after being trapped on the platform], and his neighbours yelled for help after spotting him,' Mr Li told video news outlet Pear.

Mr Li shouted at the boy telling him not to move while calling the police.

The Good Samaritan said he saved the boy 'out of instinct'.

'We could not see him falling from the building without doing anything,' he told Pear. 'It happened so quickly. I did not have other thoughts at the time but to save him.'

Mr Li said he suffered bruises on his arm as a result and was recovering.
The debate over Speakers' power under the Constitution to entertain pleas seeking disqualification of MLAs has been ignited again amid the political crisis in Rajasthan with the Assembly Speaker entertaining such a plea by the ruling Congress party and issuing notices to 19 lawmakers in the state.

Rajasthan Assembly Speaker C P Joshi has sent disqualification notices to sacked Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and 18 other MLAs on the basis of the complaint made by the party. The dissidents have to reply by Friday.

The apex court, in a plethora of verdicts, has given varying judicial opinions on Speakers' powers ranging from refusing to intervene in the matter to assuming the role of the Speaker itself and going to the extent of disqualifying lawmakers under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution.

The 2011 verdict of the Supreme Court in the Karnataka case may strengthen the case of the 19 MLAs, including Pilot, according to some legal experts.

The top court had set aside the disqualification of 11 Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs, who were opposed to the then Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, by the Speaker. The high court had endorsed their disqualification.

"Merely because these MLAs expressed lack of confidence in Yediyurappa would not mean that the Speaker was empowered to take action against them," a bench headed by the then Chief Justice Altamas Kabir had held.

It had taken note of the assertion of the then 11 MLAs that they were part of the BJP and would support any other leader in the party, and held this rebellion did not require action under 10th schedule (which deals Speaker's power to deal with defection) of the Constitution.

"Rajasthan Speaker's notice to Pilot and others with him is patently illegal and beyond the scope of tenth schedule of the Constitution. They have not joined or expressed a wish to join or support BJP," senior lawyer and Constitutional law expert Rakesh Dwivedi said.

"Protesting against CM and asking for change or pressuring High Command of the Congress to change CM does not amount to leaving the party," he said.

In response to a question whether a political party can issue a legally tenable whip to its MLAs for activities outside the Assembly, the senior lawyer said, "No. Whips are issued for activities in the House.

"Not attending meetings of the Congress legislature party is pressure tactic and an intra-party activity. Speaker has erred and notice is against the Yediyurappa case of Supreme Court."

He said however that the party can take disciplinary action against Pilot.

Dwivedi added there were no media reports that Pilot indulged in any anti-party activities and met leaders of rival political parties to topple the government; rather there have been reports of police probe against the Deputy Chief Minister for offences like sedition.

There have been contrary views as well, holding that the Speaker has ample and wide powers under the 10th schedule to deal with anti-defection activities of the lawmakers.

"Being the head of the House, the Speaker is well within his right to issue the (disqualification) notice," another senior advocate Ajit Sinha said, adding that the action of suspension or disqualification can always be challenged.

"As far as the notice is concerned, the Speaker has the right. Those who have been issued notice can claim that the speaker cannot disqualify for the activities done outside the house, but the issuance of notice at the first place cannot be called illegal," he said.

The apex court and the high courts have been very cautious in intervening with the role of Speaker in the matters of disqualification.

The Constitution gives exclusive jurisdiction to the Speaker to rule on disqualifications for defection.

In the recent Karnataka crisis, the top court had said that 15 rebel Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) MLAs in Karnataka 'ought not' to be compelled to participate in the proceedings of the ongoing session of the state Assembly and an option should be given to them as to whether they wanted to take part or stay out of it.

However, the apex court had also said that the Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar will decide on the resignation of the 15 MLAs within 'such time-frame as considered appropriate by him'.

But, there have also been instances where the top court has assumed the role of the Speaker to itself after taking note of the delay on the part of the Speaker in deciding such pleas.

In a rare move, the Supreme Court had invoked its plenary powers and ordered forthwith removal of BJP lawmaker and Manipur Forest Cabinet Minister T H Shyamkumar, restraining him from entering the Assembly till further orders.

Shyamkumar had won the Assembly polls in 2017 as a Congress candidate but later joined the BJP government. The plea of his disqualification was pending with the Speaker.

Recently, the top court has sought response of the Speaker of Tamil Nadu Assembly on a plea of DMK seeking a direction to "forthwith" decide its pending plea for disqualification of 11 All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam lawmakers who had voted against Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami during the 2017 confidence vote.
Nineties girls like me grew up on The Baby-Sitters Club. We collected every book in the Ann M. Martin hit series like they were rare, mint-condition Beanie Babies. We put our names on bookstore waiting lists in anticipation of the latest adventure. And when we got that call that the newest novel wed reserved was ready for pick up? The dopamine high that social media tries to replicate with its notifications and likes has got nothing on that feeling of pure 90s joy.

It was a simpler time. Long before the invention of the smartphone as a distraction device, we soothed our souls with good old fashioned tales of friendship, mystery and entrepreneurship. The Baby-Sitters Club was a serious, successful, female-run business. Each girl had a very specific job title and role within the club. Their small business had brand loyalty, and they all made good money  always enough to throw the ultimate slumber party replete with all the TGIF musts: pizza, ice cream sundae-makings and snack foods galore!

Related: 3 Priceless Money Lessons for Women Entrepreneurs

Many millennial women who grew up wanting to be a part of The Baby-Sitters Club are now the newest generation of female entrepreneurs. With the July 3 release of the female-led, 2020 version of The Baby-Sitters Club on Netflix, here are three fierce lessons for female entrepreneurs inspired by your favorite babysitters and business leaders:

1. Proudly state your strengths

At their initial meeting of The Baby-Sitters Club, Stacey McGill, who becomes treasurer of the BSC, enthusiastically declares that shes good at math. This is important, not only because girls have typically been socialized to believe they arent as good at math as boys  which is scientifically untrue, yet leads to a marked gender disparity in STEM fields  but also because women are too often taught as young girls to downplay their strengths. Confidence tends to be seen negatively in women, as boasting or arrogance, while it's just expected from men. This is exactly why girls of all ages need role models to look up to  so that the double standard can be eradicated.

Lucia Aniello, executive producer and director of eight of 10 episodes of the first season of The Baby-Sitters Club, says that she grew up identifying with BSC founder and president of Kristy Thomas. During a Q&A following a pre-screening of the series premiere held by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, Aniello emphasized that she doesnt think its a coincidence that she grew up to be a director when her BSC idol literally sat in a directors chair during club meetings. Representation is important. As the institute's tagline states: If she can see it, she can be it.

Related: 3 Powerful Lessons From Women With Ambition

So, fellow female entrepreneurs: Get out your fluorescent highlighters, because this is important. Confidently vocalize your strengths. Dont sell yourself short, and dont let impostor syndrome get the better of you. Get used to saying Im excellent at math, writing, science, marketing." Whatever your talent is, shout it out proudly. Not only will you be inspiring the women and girls around you to confidently promote their talents, but youll also be more likely to be taken seriously as an entrepreneur.

2. Your time is valuable, and you should be paid for it

The members of The Baby-Sitters Club are only available to schedule babysitting appointments Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 5:30 and 6 p.m.

They meet in BSC vice president Claudia Kishis bedroom (in the books, she was the only member of the BSC with her own private landline number) and promptly disband after a 30 minutes for homework and other after-school activities. If clients wanted to make appointments with any of the babysitters, they had to adhere to a strict time schedule.

Even in the modernized, 2020-version of The Baby-Sitters Club  a world where teens are technically reachable 24-7 via text, social media and email  the old-fashioned boundaries of the original novels are kept intact. The Netflix series even retains the charm of the landline, which Claudia purchases from Etsy because its iconic!

Related: What You Can Learn From These 3 Celebrity Women on Using Social Media for Social Good

Grown-up female entrepreneurs can take a lesson from the middle-school entrepreneurs of The Baby-Sitters Club: Your time is valuable.

When youre an entrepreneur or small business owner  particularly when youre just starting out  it can be tempting to work around the clock and to say yes to every project, even when your gut is telling you to say a big fat NO. Without the stability of a regular 9-to-5 job and the certainty of a steady paycheck, it can be hard to hold firm to your limits. This holds particularly true for female entrepreneurs, as women are socialized from a very young age to take on the emotional labor of considering everyones feelings, even at the expense of their own.

In an early scene of The Baby-Sitters Club pilot on Netflix, BSC president Kristy Thomas' mom (played by 90s icon Alicia Silverstone) is stressed because she needs a last-minute babysitter for Kristys younger brother, David Michael. Kristys two older brothers, Sam and Charlie, say no without a second thought.

Kristy, however, hesitates, even though she has plans shes really been looking forward to: A special sleepover at her best friend and fellow BSC member Mary Anne Spiers house. Kristy doesnt want to disappoint her mom, so she takes on the emotional labor of her moms feelings on top of her own. She immediately considers canceling her plans with her BFF, but thankfully, Kristys mom shuts down her daughters vacillation with a very good point: If the boys didnt agonize over saying no, why should Kristy?

Related: 10 Women Entrepreneurs Who Are Shattering the Glass Ceiling

Female entrepreneurs: Take Kristys moms words to heart. Your time is valuable, and you should be paid for it. Emotional labor is taxing, grueling work, and you shouldnt be doing it for free. Dont feel guilty saying no to spec work or rambling, hours-long interviews with potential clients who take advantage by squeezing every good idea they can get out of you for free. Set limits. Be like the members of the BSC: Tell clients they get 30 minutes of your time for free and that every second after is on the clock.

3. Diversity is important

Rachel Shukert, show runner, executive producer and writer of eight out of 10 episodes of the first season of The Baby-Sitters Club, says that the original Baby-Sitters Club books (which were published from 1986 to 2000) were considered inclusive and diverse for the time. Claudia Kishi is Japanese American, and Jessi Ramsey, future junior officer of the BSC, is Black. However, when looking to update the brand for 2020, it was important to make the cast more representative of the world we live in. In the Netflix series, Mary Anne Spier is a mixed-race Black girl and Dawn Schaefer, future alternate officer of the BSC, is Latina.

It was also important to Shukert to include same-sex parents in the fictional town of Stoneybrook, Connecticut. Shukert says I view this as a mindful organic shift two decades forward as opposed to reimagining the series.

Why should entrepreneurs make a point of hiring and working with a diverse group of individuals? From a purely greedy standpoint, diversity is profitable. But from a human standpoint, representation matters.

Malia Baker, who plays Mary Anne Spier, says I was really happy that they made Mary Anne a Black character, because I didn't have many to look up to when I was growing up.

Xochitl Gomez, who plays Dawn Shaefer, feels the same way about her Latina character. She says shes happy to have the opportunity to be a role model for Latina girls because growing up, there werent enough Latina girls in the media for her to emulate.

The amplification of the Black Lives Matter movement, sparked by the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, means that brands are talking about diversity and anti-racism now more than ever. But consumers are smart. They know the difference between performative allyship and actual activism. And theyre willing to cancel business owners and brands that are hashtag inclusive rather than being actually inclusive.

So be actually inclusive. Not just because it will help your brand (60 percent of American consumers want to make purchases from brands that proactively address systemic racism), but because its the right thing to do.

Related: 15 Success Secrets From Female Founders With $1 Billion Companies

Related:

5 Fears All Entrepreneurs Face (and How to Conquer Them)

3 Fierce Lessons in Female Entrepreneurship Inspired by The Baby-Sitters Club

The Courage to Raise an Entrepreneur



Copyright 2020 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
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16 July 2020

(CNN) - Once one of the world's most powerful travel documents, the might of the US passport has shriveled under the cloud of coronavirus, with doors slammed shut across the planet to American travelers.

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With US coronavirus cases recently passing the three million mark, many nations now view America with trepidation. No matter how much they want those tourism dollars, they're unwilling to take the risk of opening their borders.

Even as restrictions ease up in some places, Americans are still on the danger list. Earlier this month, the European Union omitted the United States from its list of 15 countries whose tourists are permitted to visit.

While most US travelers are staying close to home this summer, preferring short-distance car trips to international air travel, some voyagers won't let a global pandemic curb their travel plans.

And there are still a handful of options.

Most of the Caribbean, for example, is open for US tourists. Other countries  including Mexico, Maldives and Turkey  aren't exactly welcoming US travelers with open arms (more like a temperature check and a Covid-19 test), but they are allowing visitors to cross their borders for the first time since coronavirus shut down much of the world.
Family is coming first for this recently separated father-of-four.

And for his 47th birthday on Wednesday, 90210 star Brian Austin Green celebrated by focusing on his three young children with recently estranged wife Megan Fox.

In his latest Instagram post, the hunky actor is seen lighting a colorful cake with candles spelling 'Happy birthday' as the former couple's sons Journey River, three, Bodhi Ransom, six, and Noah Shannon, seven, look on.

Dad first: For his 47th birthday on Wednesday, 90210 star Brian Austin Green celebrated by focusing on his three young children with recently estranged wife Megan Fox

The actor known for playing David Silver on Beverly Hills 90210 captioned the sweet family snap simply, with ':)))'.

The day prior, he posted a topless shot from Malibu, California, in dad mode standing at the grill holding a green stalk of leaves.

'Plant protein :))' he captioned that image cheekily.

Dad bod: The day prior, he posted a topless shot from Malibu, in dad mode standing at the grill holding a green stalk of leaves

The posts come after the actor, who is also father to 18-year-old son Kassius Lijah with ex Vanessa Marcil, confirmed his newest romance  to model Tina Louise, 38.

The pair have been spotted together on numerous occasions in recent weeks, in the relatively short amount of time since Brian's split from wife of ten years Megan.

But on Monday, Louise and Green appeared to validate rumors of a romance between them as they held hands during a lunch date at Sage Vegan Bistro in Agoura Hills.

Tina even commented on Brian's birthday post with his sons, writing 'Awwwww. Beautiful moment. Happy Birthday' along with a yellow heart emoji on her new beau's Instagram.

Rebound romance: The posts come after the actor confirmed his newest romance  to Aussie model Tina Louise

Well wisher: Tina even commented on Brian's birthday post with his sons, writing 'Awwwww. Beautiful moment. Happy Birthday' along with a yellow heart emoji

Ex and the kids: It's been a relatively short amount of time since Brian's split from wife of ten years Megan, who is mother to his sons Journey River, three, Bodhi Ransom, six, and Noah Shannon, seven; seen on Megan's Instagram

On May 18th, Brian emotionally revealed on an episode of his podcast ...With Brian Austin Green that Megan had left him.

And this wasn't the first time the couple had faced relationship trouble.

The Transformers actress, 34, filed for divorce from Brian in 2015 citing irreconcilable differences, but she was back with him and pregnant with Journey the following year.

As for Megan, she has moved on with rapper Machine Gun Kelly, who has already declared on social media that he is 'in love' with her.
Scott Morrison has dismissed calls to pursue a COVID-19 elimination strategy, saying that trying to wipe out coronavirus would cripple the embattled economy.

The prime minister said the strategy would involve a long and harsh lockdown, like the one implemented in New Zealand, that would cost jobs and may not even work.

He said the Victorian outbreak, caused by hotel quarantine breaches, showed there is no guarantee elimination can be achieved when essential workers and returning Australians are entering the country from overseas.

'You can't mortgage off your economy for what would prove to be an illusory goal,' he said.

Scott Morrison (pictured on Thursday) has dismissed calls to pursue an elimination strategy, saying that trying to wipe out coronavirus would cripple the economy

A woman wearing a mask is seen locked in the North Melbourne public housing towers during the enforced coronavirus lockdown (pictured)

'You're talking about hundreds of thousands of more people unemployed for a start and other businesses closing and livelihoods destroyed.'

Nearly one million Australians are now unemployed thanks to the coronavirus shutdown, the highest rate for 22 years.

Mr Morrison said Victoria had the hardest lockdowns but still succumbed to a second wave, showing that the strategy was 'risky'.

'It's a very risky strategy and one that can be very illusory and it's one that the AHPPC and chief medical officers have been consistent on,' he said.

Mr Morrison said New South Wales and Victoria in particular supported the suppression strategy.

'That's the path we are on. If you get to elimination as a result of this, well and good,' he said.

A man and woman wearing a facemask walking along Lygon Street in Melbourne on Wednesday (pictured) as Victoria endured an 11th straight day of triple-digit infections

NSW recorded ten new cases on Thursday including three more people linked to the Crossroads Hotel (pictured) cluster in southwest Sydney

Mr Morrison conceded Australia faces a difficult fight against coronavirus as unemployment continues to climb and the national death toll reaches 113.

The prime minister, who announced a $2.5billion skills program to help young Australians find work, urged people to stay positive.

'Australians are incredibly resilient and even as we go through these difficult times, let's lift our heads and keep looking forward,' he told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.

Two men in their 80s died in Victoria overnight as the state recorded 317 more cases in the past 24 hours - the largest daily increase since the start of the pandemic.

There are 109 people hospitalised in Victoria including 29 in intensive care.

Melbourne is currently on lockdown after a surge in cases (pictured, an empty Flinders Street Station on Thursday)

Mr Morrison said the Victorian outbreak was a big setback to economic recovery, but he was encouraged by what he was hearing out of NSW.

NSW recorded 10 new cases on Thursday including three more people linked to the Crossroads Hotel cluster in southwest Sydney.

Health authorities are gravely concerned about coronavirus outbreaks in nursing homes, while several staff at a children's hospital have also been infected.

Meanwhile, states such as Western Australia remain closed off from the rest of the country as officials seemingly pursue the goal of zero cases of COVID-19.

New Zealand's leader Jacinda Ardern also opted for an elimination strategy, with the country enduring a harsh lockdown.

Jacinda Ardern (pictured on July 8) has opted for an elimination policy to rid New Zealand of coronavirus

But it has since reopened, and has suffered just 22 deaths related to the virus.

Ms Ardern conceded that the country must prepare for further outbreaks, but that elimination remains their strategy.

New Zealand last reported a case of community transmission ten weeks ago.

'No system is 100 per cent foolproof and around the world, we are seeing even the most rigorous measures being tested by the virus,' Ms Ardern told reporters in Wellington in Wednesday.
Storyful

Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko addressed supporters at the airport in Kyiv as he arrived to face treason charges on January 17.We are here not to defend Poroshenko. We are here to defend Ukraine, he told a crowd numbering in the hundreds, according to a translation from Radio Free Europe. We have to unite to show that Ukraine is strong and is able to stand against [Russian President Vladimir] Putins aggression, he said.Prosecutors are alleging that Poroshenko was involved in financing Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine through the sale of coal.Poroshenko tweeted he was returning to Ukraine for the sake of unity and protection from the Kremlins aggression.Twitter user @di__cortez recorded this footage which shows Poroshenko address a crowd upon his arrival at the airport, and the scene outside the court. Credit: @di__cortez via Storyful
OTTAWAPrime Minister Justin Trudeau is earmarking $19 billion to help the provinces and territories with economic reopening and prepare for a second wave of COVID-19.

With Ontario receiving about $7 billion of the federal money, which will also aid struggling municipalities, Premier Doug Ford hailed the rescue package as a great deal.

This funding will support us as we get the economy going over the next six to eight months, Ford told reporters at a Chatham farm he was touring.

During this hour of the greatest need, Canadas premiers stood shoulder-to-shoulder, he said, praising Trudeau and his great friends Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe for the efforts in negotiating the accord.

This historic agreement proves what we can do as a nation when we stand united. This deal will see billions of dollars flow to the provinces to support municipalities, transit systems, health care systems at a time when it is needed most.

While Ford had previously maintained Ontario alone needed $23 billion from Ottawa to recover from the pandemic, he thanked Trudeau for enriching his initial offer of $14 billion.

The prime minister had the final say in this and ... he stepped up. True leadership, the premier said.

Trudeau said the money should help safely restart our economy in the months ahead.

COVID-19 isnt just a health crisis, its an economic crisis, too. So when we talk about the recovery phase its not just about making sure we can detect, control and prevent future outbreaks, he said.

Its also about helping people, businesses and entire communities adjust to our new normal because until we find a vaccine the daily threat of COVID-19 will not disappear.

Acknowledging the hardships faced by Canadas cities, Trudeau said the accord provides municipalities with funding to cover operational costs.

Were also going to give more support to transit specifically, he said.

Cities must remain up and running if our economy is to eventually get back up and running. If cities arent equipped for a safe restart, people will not be safe.

Toronto Mayor John Tory  who Ford said was helpful in bolstering the premiers pitch to Ottawa  said the money is urgently needed.

It will help us with quite a wide range of our problems, said Tory.

But there are strings attached.

Trudeau said the money will be available for provincial programs that fit within seven priorities from the federal government.

Of the $19 billion, $4.5 billion is for national purchasing of personal protective equipment by Ottawa plus $3 billion to support provincial purchasing efforts; $4.28 billion is for COVID-19 testing and contact tracing; $2 billion for municipalities; $1.8 billion for transit that the provinces must match; $1.1 billion for temporary income support for sick leave; $740 million to support vulnerable populations and long-term care; $700 million for health-care capacity plus $500 million for mental health; and $625 million for child care.

We have to make sure that there are enough child-care spaces for (parents) who dont have paid sick leave, said Trudeau, .

Under the agreement, the government said Thursday night that provinces and territories will establish job-protected sick leave, through regulation or legislation, that allows workers to take up to 10 days leave related to COVID-19.

The prime minister said Ottawa was providing money for transit to ensure people can safely make the trip to work as provincial economies reopen.

As part of the deal, operating funding for transit agencies will be split evenly between Ottawa and the provinces.

If we want people to participate in the economy they need to be able to get to work safely. No one should have to turn down a job because they dont want to risk their health during a crowded commute, said Trudeau.

The Canadian Urban Transportation Association has said the countrys transit operators need $400 million a month to keep running.

In Toronto, the city estimates the TTC, which at the height of the pandemic was down to just 15 per cent of its usual ridership, will be facing $700 million in pressure by the end of this year as a result of plunging fare revenue and increased costs.

That makes up the lions share of the $1.35-billion operating shortfall the city of Toronto is projecting this year due to the crisis.

Bill Karsten, president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, said cities are obviously eager to learn the details of the funding plan, which will be made public in the days ahead.

Were optimistic this agreement will recognize the financial crisis municipalities face in this pandemic, said Karsten.

With files from Heather Scoffield, Francine Kopun and Ben Spurr

Robert Benzie is the Stars Queens Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie

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The Wolf Administration Thursday announced it is making $50 million in federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act funding available for hazard pay bonuses for many workers who are punching the clock through the coronavirus pandemic.

The grants - which employers in several specific industry categories will have to apply for through the state Department of Economic and Community Development - would provide the covered workers a $3-per-hour pay boost through the 10-week period running from Aug. 16 through Oct. 24.

The grants, capped at $3 million for any single employer, are in play for any full- or part-time worker at those firms who makes a base wage under $20 per hour. The grants can be paid to no more than 500 full-time equivalent workers at a single location. Applications may be made through July 31, at the DCEDs Web site.

Industries eligible include: Health care, hospitals and social services; nursing homes and other residential care facilities; public transit agencies and ground passenger transportation businesses; food manufacturing and retailing; security firms staffing businesses that stayed open during the governors business closure orders and commercial janitorial services.

The program stands a chance to hit tens of thousand of workers.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data for Pennsylvania shows that the median hourly wage rate for many of the business sectors covered by the grant program are well below the $20-per-hour threshold, including: Health care support, $13.53; Building cleaning and maintenance, $13.60; and Transportation and material movement, $15.61.

We want to make sure that employees who deserve this, who have served on the front lines, who have put themselves at risk and in some cases taken on extra expenses get some kind of recompense for that, Gov. Tom Wolf said. Wolf announced the program at a public appearance at the Linglestown Road Giant store.

The $50 million was actually earmarked in an appropriations bill passed in late May that allocated approximately $2.6 billion of Pennsylvanias $3.9 billion CARES Act allocation. That spending plan passed both the House and Senate with no opposition. Thursdays announcement simply brings the distribution structure to life.

Many retail and distribution firms have already offered pandemic-related bonuses to their workers.

But Wolf argued Thursday many other employers - especially smaller businesses - have not been in a position to offer such bonuses, and he wants their workers to be eligible for this extra compensation too.

Were trying to show our gratitude, Pennsylvania, with money that comes through the CARES Act funding, Wolf said. In addition to all the other things that were doing, heres fifty million dollars were setting aside to make sure that we do something for the employees.

He also argued that the bonuses will help to ensure that these critical functions remain fully staffed.

Democratic lawmakers agreed.

Front-line essential workers are the backbone of our economy, and they have been working in dangerous, sometimes deadly, conditions. They are putting themselves and their families at risk from COVID-19 on a daily basis and their wages should reflect that risk, said Sen. Lindsey Williams (D-Allegheny), ranking Democrat on the Senate Community, Economic and Recreational Development Committee.

Many of these workers didnt sign up for life-threatening work, so Im pleased that the Hazard Pay Grant Program will assist employers in compensating them more fairly for the newfound dangers that they face.

Administration officials noted firms that have given hazard pay bonuses to employees in the past could apply under the program to continue their bonuses through the fall.
The Boston Police Department is mourning the death of one of its beloved K-9s, a dog named Rocky.

Rocky died at seven years old after a brief illness. He had spent six of those years serving as a dual purpose patrol and explosive detection K-9, according to a statement from the department.

His handler and partner noted that Rocky was a great dog who enjoyed working and will be dearly missed, the statement said. Our thoughts go out to this officer during this difficult time.

The K-9 has been involved with a slew of law enforcement investigations, from the 2016 apprehension of a then-20-year-old man wanted for a murder in Taunton to the 2018 arrest of a person suspected of unlawfully entering the bedroom of woman he did not know and disrobing.

In 2017, responding to an armed robbery at a convenience store in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of the city, Rocky was able to track down a loaded handgun the suspect left after fleeing the scene along with other evidence tying him to the crime.

The suspect was positively identified and later arrested, the Boston Police Department noted.
Rwalpindi, July 16 : Visitors have been allowed into Rawalpindi Central Jail after it banned all sorts of visits nearly four months ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The jail administration on Wednesday issued a schedule of the meetings which will be organised under the strict standard operating procedures (SOPs), reports The Express Tribune.

Under the latest rules, only family members will be allowed to meet their loved ones inside the jails.

But, there will be a restriction on inmates meeting with children and the elderly.

Visitor meetings had been banned in March to prevent the virus from spreading amongst the jail population.

The jail authorities have fixed days for meetings by dividing inmates based on the nature of their crimes.

Convicts imprisoned for criminal cases such as fraud, robbery, terrorism, and those sentenced to death can meet their families on Monday.

Inmates convicted or currently under-trial for murder or facing the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) cases, will meet their families on Tuesday.

Inmates indicted in the kidnapping, rape, and terrorism cases can meet their families on Wednesday while on Thursday, families of foreigners and women criminals can visit the Adiala Jail.

Friday has been reserved for families of petty criminals, while Saturday has been allocated for inmates who are 25-years-of-age or lower.
VANCOUVER - The union representing hospitality workers across the country says it fears staff laid off because of COVID-19 may not have a job when the pandemic is over.

The challenges facing workers are unprecedented, with more than 90 per cent of employees in hotels, airports, stadiums, universities and schools out of work since March, said Ian Robb, the Canadian director of Unite Here.

That is why were putting forward three essentials that Canadas hospitality workers need for a fair and safe recovery in our industry, he told a news conference Thursday.

The union representing 300,000 workers says it wants to protect jobs, ensure it is safe for workers to return to their workplaces, and get income support for those who are laid off.

Too few employers are using the federal wage subsidy program to keep workers tied to their jobs, and all levels of government need to do to more to avoid long-term unemployment in the sector, Robb said.

Analysts predict the $102-billion industry may not fully recover until the summer of 2022, leading to uncertainty for tens of thousands of workers and their families, he said.

Were calling on various levels of government to be creative and to work with us, Unite Here, Canada, to avert long-term unemployment, Robb said.

The Canadian Emergency Response Benefit is at the centre of the debate as employers recall workers who are concerned about the effects of the pandemic.

Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said the benefit has created a disincentive to return to work for some staff, especially in industries like hospitality.

The Hotel Association of Canada said the industry is eager to get as many workers back on the job as possible, but most hotels are hanging on by a thread with occupancy levels hovering under 30 per cent as a national average.

The missing link here is access to liquidity. Most hotels do not qualify for the governments loan programs and therefore cant pay the bills during this period, the association said in a statement.

If you cant pay the bills, you cant survive and there will be no jobs to return to.

The association wants the government to address its emergency response programs to give workers an incentive to return to work.

Nia Winston, president of Unite Here in Detroit, said Canadas hospitality industry should heed the experience in the United States in handling unemployment benefits.

In the U.S., unemployment benefits of $600 a week are set to expire at the end of July, which will make it will be nearly impossible for workers to support their families, she said.

I strongly urge you to hear our cautionary tale. So Canada can do it differently. So Canada can get it right, Winston said.

Hotel worker Christie Spiteri said shes worries the pandemic will be used to replace workers for a lower cost.

She echoed Robb, saying too many employers in the hospitality sector are not using the federal wage subsidy program to keep workers on the payroll.

I went from having a really good job with benefits and pension to not knowing what my future holds, and obviously thats really scary for me.

 With files from Anita Balakrishnan

This report by the Canadian Press was first published July 16, 2020.
WOOD RIVER  A new mitigation plan to combat a resurgence of coronavirus cases was announced Wednesday morning by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike.

A continued emphasis on personal efforts, hand-washing, sanitizing and social distancing is being combined with possible state action and more localized mitigation efforts.

This comes as Madison County has seen increased numbers of cases, particularly since breaking the record for case numbers Saturday, tying that on Sunday, then breaking that record again Monday.

This is not political, its just about caring for the community and the people you love, Pritzker said during a press conference Wednesday.

The state is now in phase 4 of the Restore Illinois plan, and while officials have always said a resurgence could move the plan backward, officials said they are looking at more focused responses to more localized outbreaks.

Pritzker said the resurgence plan recognizes the state is in its strongest position to combat the virus since the start of the pandemic. He cited a robust testing operation, expanded contact tracing and other factors.

He also noted that the state has lower hospital and infection rates than many states, including most of the surrounding ones.

More Information COVID-19 by the numbers United States 3,416,428 (135,991 deaths) Illinois - 155,506 (7,218 deaths) Madison County - 1,275 (71 deaths) Jersey County - 48 (1 death) Calhoun County - 2 Greene County - 12 Macoupin County - 75 (3 deaths) Montgomery County - 90 (2 deaths) 89 (1 death) St. Clair County - 2,436 (145 deaths) Clinton County - 256 (17 deaths) Bond County -21 (1 death) Monroe County - 171 (13 deaths) Washington County - 28 Cases by ZIP code 62002 (Alton) - 187 62010 (Bethalto) - 51 62067 (Moro) - 8 62035 (Godfrey) - 78 62012 (Brighton) - 17 62014 (Bunker Hill) - 6 62052 (Jerseyville) - 27 62095 (Wood River) - 29 62084 (Roxana) - 6 62018 (Cottage Hills) - 13 62024 (East Alton) - 19 62025 (Edwardsville) - 176 62034 (Glen Carbon) - 95 62062 (Maryville) - 25 62294 (Troy) - 50 62040 (Granite City/Pontoon Beach) - 257 62234 (Collinsville) - 241 62060 (Madison) - 59 62090 (Venice) - 16 62249 (Highland) - 28 62281 (St. Jacob) - 6 62088 (Staunton) - 9 62069 (Mount Olive) - 12 62056 (Litchfield) - 40 62049 (Hillsboro) - 21 62033 (Gillespie) - 8 62626 (Carlinville) - 14 Sources: Illinois Department of Public Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Madison County Health Department. See More Collapse

Illinois now has the lowest infection rates among all our neighboring states and one of the lowest positivity rates in the country  and its because of the individual actions of millions of our residents, Pritzker said. Opening up our economy does not have to come with a spike in cases.

Other countries have done it successfully, while reducing cases and infection rates, he continued. But that requires vigilance on the part of all of us.

Its imperative that individuals, families, workers and businesses follow the recommendations doctors have given about vital mitigations and that we act quickly if we see any outbreaks and upticks, signs that could lead to a surge of coronavirus infections.

The three-tiered plan includes establishing metrics and mitigations to determine where resurgences are occurring, and how to deal with them effectively, emphasizing action in smaller regions to help focus mitigation efforts, and increased emphasis on COVID-19 testing and tracing.

Madison County will be a part of the Metro East region, which also includes St. Clair, Bond, Clinton, Monroe and Randolph counties.

Calhoun, Greene, Jersey and Macoupin counties will be in the West-Central region.

The original Restore Illinois plan was criticized because many considered the regions to be too large, and not reflect local conditions.

More details about the regions and the plan will be available at www.coronavirus.illinois.gov.

This plan ensures we are looking at all available data to make timely decisions to protect the health of our communities, Ezike said.

By assessing key metrics that indicate both the disease burden, and the capacity of each COVID-19 region to respond, we can then take targeted actions within specific regions to help mitigate the spread of this deadly disease, while keeping as much of our state open as possible.

The issue of whether schools will be able to reopen also was talked about extensively. Ultimately, much of that depends on whether people continue to follow protoc0ls, Ezike said.

Our actions today will determine what school looks like, she said,

She noted those actions will absolutely include masking and social distancing.

Locally, the Madison County Health Department reported a total of 43 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 1,318 cases and 71 deaths. The number of cases is two shy of the record  set Monday.

Statewide there were 1,187 new cases and eight deaths reported.

According to the Illinois Department of Public Health website, there now are 156,693 cases statewide and 7,226 deaths. In the past 24 hours, 38,161 tests have been completed, for a statewide total of 2,079,601.

The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from July 8July 14 is 3.1%. That percentage has been increasing gradually statewide over the past week, but is still far below the peak levels of April and May.

As of late Wednesday, 1,454 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 324 patients were in the ICU and 130 patients were on ventilators.

The Madison County figures include 677 people released, meaning they have completed isolation. A total of 25,356 tests have been completed in the county.

Information by ZIP code shows additional cases in the Godfrey, Brighton, Jerseyville, Cottage Hills, Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, Maryville, Troy, Granite City/Pontoon Beach, Collinsville, Madison, Highland, Staunton and Litchfield areas. New cases also are being reported for the first time in the Roxana (62084) and Bunker Hill (62014) areas for the first time, with six cases each.

The IDPH is releasing case numbers by ZIP code for areas with more than five cases. Numbers are not released in ZIP codes with fewer cases to protect the privacy of patients.

The information is available at the IDPH website www.dph.illinois.gov. Click on the coronavirus banner, then COVID-19 statistics in the drop-down menu on the left side.

Additional cases also have been reported in Jersey, Greene, Macoupin, Montgomery, St. Clair, Clinton, Bond, Monroe and Washington counties. Additional deaths were reported in Montgomery and Clinton counties, while in Bond County both the number of cases and deaths went down by one, to 21 cases and one death.

For the latest information about COVID-19 or coronavirus resources, visit the Madison County Health Department at www.madisonchd.org and Facebook @MadisonCHD. Also visit www.co.madison.il.us and Facebook @MadisonCountyIL for more news and a daily update.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian scolded Kyle Sandilands live on air on Thursday, after the radio host downplayed the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic.

During an interview on The Kyle and Jackie O Show, the 49-year-old shock jock told Ms Berejiklian that he'd heard most COVID-19 cases were 'very mild' and that more people were dying from the flu.

But Ms Berejiklian hit back at this dangerous suggestion, accusing Sandilands of spreading the 'wrong statistics' about the virus, which has so far killed more than 580,000 people worldwide.

'That's not the case': NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian scolded Kyle Sandilands live on air on Thursday, after the radio host downplayed the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic

'I've been reading all these reports and been all over this COVID thing since the start, but I've heard that 99.5 per cent of cases worldwide are very mild and more people died of the flu last year than they are going to die of COVID-19 worldwide,' Sandilands said.

Ms Berejiklian argued: 'Kyle, I don't like it when people give those statistics because it makes people think we can all became complacent and that this isn't a serious disease that can cost thousands of lives here in Australia - and that's not the case.'

She warned that even young, healthy people were vulnerable to the virus.

Claims: During an interview on The Kyle and Jackie O Show, the 49-year-old shock jock told Ms Berejiklian that he'd heard most COVID-19 cases were 'very mild' and that more people were dying from the flu

'The ones more likely getting the disease are the ones in their twenties because they are most likely to socialise and go out and mix with each other,' Ms Berejiklian said.

'What happens then is the vulnerable [people] in their lives can get it and can die. Young people are also not immune from getting it seriously and dying themselves.'

She continued: 'And what you don't often hear about is even people recovering often have lifelong organ damage and lifelong chronic conditions.'

Serious matter: Ms Berejiklian hit back at this dangerous suggestion, accusing Sandilands of spreading the 'wrong statistics' about the virus, which has so far killed more than 580,000 people worldwide

Ms Berejiklian also vowed she would try to avoid a lockdown in Sydney amid fears Victoria's second outbreak is spreading north of the border.

On Wednesday, Victoria recorded 317 new cases of coronavirus, its worst daily figure ever.

Meanwhile, New South Wales has reported 13 new COVID-19 cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday.
More than three in four of the world's super-rich have increased their family wealth despite the global economic downturn resulting from the pandemic, according to a new report.

Of the 121 family offices across 35 countries surveyed by the Swiss bank UBS, 93 of them said they had managed to hit or exceed their financial objectives from January to May this year.

The research comes at a time when charities are warning that hundreds of millions of people around the world could be pushed into poverty due to the effects of Covid-19.

The family offices surveyed by UBS currently have a combined wealth of $142.4bn (113.6bn) and an average portfolio of $1.6bn (1.28bn) each, which they look after for their ultra-high net worth clients.

In a statement released in the report, Josef Stadler, head of UBS' global family office, wrote that the majority of the offices "have performed in line with, or above, targets during one of the most volatile moments in the history of financial markets."

After writing that family offices could "embrace and manage risk like no other investor", Mr Stadler said: "It is missing an opportunity that gives these clients the biggest headache, not making a short-term loss."

The report found that two-thirds of the family offices had traded up to 15 per cent of their portfolios since March.

The UBS study follows reports that many billionaires have increased their wealth during the coronavirus crisis, including Jezz Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon and the world's richest person.

According to Bloomberg, Mr Bezos' wealth has risen by $56.7bn (45.3bn) this year alone, after Amazon shares jumped due to increased demand for the delivery service.

However, coronavirus has brought financial insecurity to many people across the globe, as jobs have been slashed and the value of savings has dwindled.

Earlier in the pandemic, Oxfam cautioned that half a billion people could find themselves in poverty following the economic turmoil caused by the virus.

Jose Maria Vera, interim executive director at Oxfam International, said: "The devastating economic fallout of the pandemic is being felt across the globe. But for poor people in poor countries who are already struggling to survive there are almost no safety nets to stop them falling into poverty."
Ancillary Services for Power Market to Garner a CAGR of ~8% from 2020 to 2030; Projects for Preventing Output Fluctuations for Renewable Energy Plants

Regulators Increasing Focus on Demarcating Energy Trade and System Imbalance for Real-time Electricity Market Opens New Avenue

ALBANY, New York, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ancillary services occupy key role in maintaining the reliability of electricity grids and quality of power in the light of constant fluctuations in distributed power generation. Intermittent renewable energy integration, notably of wind and solar energy, is a key part of evolution of demand for ancillary services for power industry.

In 2019, the global valuation of the ancillary services for power market stood at ~US$ 7 bn in 2019. Clocking a CAGR of ~8%, it is expected to reach worth of ~US$ 16 bn by 2030-end.

Analysts at Transparency Market Research opine that new regulations have come to forefront in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, which will shape the outlook of ancillary services for power market. Streamlining the processes in power bidding and deployment of smart meters will reduce uncertainty in distributed energy resources, affirm the analysts.

Download PDF Brochure - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=42677

Key Findings of Ancillary Services for Power Market

Advancements in internet connectivity in ancillary services platforms help grid operators and service providers tap lucrative opportunities

Of the various services types, the operating reserve segment led the market in 2019

Of the various regions in ancillary services for power market, Europe accounts for the major revenue share; greening of grids offers the impetus for its growth

accounts for the major revenue share; greening of grids offers the impetus for its growth Asia Pacific to rise at promising pace on back of governments' efforts to adopt renewables in overall energy mix

to rise at promising pace on back of governments' efforts to adopt renewables in overall energy mix Modernization of distribution grid help North America market to grow at impressive pace; the U.S. contributed the major share to the regional market in 2019

Explore 112 pages of top-notch research, incisive insights, and detailed country-level projections of Ancillary Services for Power Market (Service Type: Voltage Control & Reactive Power Support, Black Start, Load Following, Operating Reserve, Regulation Service, and Others) - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2020 - 2030 at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/ancillary-services-power-market.htm

Ancillary Services for Power Market: Key Driving Factors and Promising Avenues

Increasing drive for integration of intermittent distributed generation of wind and solar energy is a key trend bolstering the uptake of ancillary services in the power sector in several parts of the world. Managing a variable power reserves reliably has driven the need for ancillary services for the power market. Numerous regulatory trends and macroeconomic factors have propelled the growth of the market.

Changes in regulations in the power sector are becoming prominent in the emerging COVID-19 pandemic in developing and developed nations. For one, India has seen a shift from long-term stakeholder engagement to short-term contracts to overcome problems in energy trade demarcations in real-time electricity markets. This has made ancillary services to gain traction in the power market.



has seen a shift from long-term stakeholder engagement to short-term contracts to overcome problems in energy trade demarcations in real-time electricity markets. This has made ancillary services to gain traction in the power market. Global electrification rate is markedly increasing around the world. In particular, countries in Asia Pacific and low and middle-income economies in Africa have witnessed a rapid rise in access to electricity over the past five years, driving the demand for ancillary services in the power market. Bangladesh , Myanmar , and Kenya have seen striking rise in electrification rate, supported by various government initiatives.

and low and middle-income economies in have witnessed a rapid rise in access to electricity over the past five years, driving the demand for ancillary services in the power market. , , and have seen striking rise in electrification rate, supported by various government initiatives. In developing regions, the governments are committed to promoting the modernization of grid where renewable energy penetration forms the key policy. A case in point is the African Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI). To facilitate this, there has been a remarkable growth in demand in the ancillary services for power market.

View Detailed Table of Contents at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/42677

Ancillary Services for Power Market: Competitive Landscape

The presence of relatively large number of players both at regional and global level has raised the ante for new entrants and incumbents in the ancillary services for power market. Not only is the landscape intensely competitive, there exists a high degree of fragmentation.

Some of the players eyeing high stakes in the ancillary services for power market are PJM Interconnection LLC, Elia System Operator, Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc., General Electric, Transelectrica SA, and Snowy Hydro Limited.

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Ancillary Services for Power Market: Key Impediments for Stakeholders

Ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has spurred stakeholders in electricity market to follow power trading and adopt an hourly demarcation in the ancillary services for power market. Consequently, this has created unique uncertainties in energy trade demarcations for distribution companies.

Further, voltage deviation in distributed energy processes is significant concern for players in ancillary services for power market, which demands a high degree of efficiency in ancillary services. Moreover, renewable energy plants also need to keep a check in output fluctuations, dampening the adoption of renewables in the overall energy mix in some nations.

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Global Ancillary Services for Power Market

Ancillary Services for Power Market, by Service Type

Voltage Control & Reactive Power Support

Black Start

Operating Reserve

Spinning Reserve



Non-spinning Reserve

Load Following

Regulation Service

Others

Ancillary Services for Power Market, by Region

North America

U.S.



Canada

Europe

Germany



U.K.



France



Italy



Russia & CIS

& CIS

Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific

China



India



Japan



ASEAN



Rest of Asia Pacific

Latin America

Brazil



Mexico



Rest of Latin America

Middle East & Africa

GCC Countries



South Africa



Rest of Middle East & Africa

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Micro Combined Heat and Power Market - Rising demand for advanced renewable technologies to reduce carbon presence and to maintain clean energy supply is one of the important factors boosting growth of the global micro combined heat and power market in coming years. Government stringent regulation toward the reduction of tax and subsidiary are some of the factors positively augmenting for the growth of the global micro combined heat and power market in coming years.

Temporary Power Systems Market - Temporary power systems market depend on flywheel energy storage, hydrogen fuel cells, batteries, and generators. Sometimes, the power is lost due to the grid failure, scheduled blackouts, extreme weather, and substation faults. Many emergency power systems are generator based in modern buildings. Generators are generally driven by diesel engines. Small buildings may employ gasoline-driven generators, while large buildings employ gas turbines.

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"We are excited to endorse KanTimes enterprise solution for homecare providers in our State, said John Randone of Visiting Aid.

KanTime, a leader in the post-acute EMR and Electronic Visit Verification industry, signs a strategic partnership with Visiting Aid to leverage their Verification Organization status in the State of New York, as a preferred partner. KanTime continues to expand its footprint in the NY Medicaid market with this partnership.

KanTime is pairing its world-class solutions with Visiting Aid as an authority for VO services to deliver New York agencies with a powerful seamless solution to handle all lines of business within the post-acute market. This means that New York agencies have another option to support their care delivery.

Kristen Duell, KanTimes EVP of Business Development explained, Partnering with Visiting Aid provides our current KanTime customers in NY with a seamless experience, and one where they can rest assured that they are meeting compliance guidelines as outlined by OMIG in New York State. This also gives agencies another option to leverage a solution that covers the entire post-acute market, seamlessly.

KanTimes Enterprise platform supports agencies from the point of referral through intake and into clinical documentation, resulting in seamless billing and quality measures. Our EVV is CURES Act compliant and captures all the required information including type of service performed, the record of the individual receiving the service, date of service provided, location of service delivery, staff providing the service, and the start and end times of the service. Thousands of caregivers utilize the KanTime Mobile application, available online and offline, to easily capture all required EVV information and more such as the geolocation, client signature, tasks performed, and client voice recordings.

John Randone, COO and Founder of Visiting Aid shared, Our role as a Medicaid Service Bureau and approved Verification Organization is to ensure the proper deployment and integration of Electronic Visit Verification services in New York. We are excited to endorse KanTimes enterprise solution for homecare providers in our State.

KanTime will continue to take a leadership role in providing our current customers with alignment in our ever-changing industry, and a big part of that is finding excellent partners like Visiting Aid.

About KanTime:

KanTime Healthcare Software is an American based healthcare technology company that is the fastest-growing post-acute software provider in the nation with over 500,000 patients, 120,000 users, $5.1B in processed claims, and 32M annual visits. We provide cloud-based enterprise software to home health, hospice, pediatric, private duty, and consumer-directed services agencies. KanTime helps agencies improve clinical compliance, increase operations efficiency, and achieve financial success. KanTime works seamlessly on any point of care device be it iOS, Android, or Windows-based, both online and offline. Additionally, KanTime offers robust business intelligence tools that allow upper-level management to drill down into various clinical, financial, and operational KPIs and act accordingly. For more information visit http://www.kantime.com.

About Visiting Aid:

Visiting Aid, LLC is a registered Medicaid Service Bureau and an approved Verification Organization (VO) in New York State. The company provides a cloud based data store for community-based homecare providers to process electronic means of verified services for pre-claim review. This includes but is not limited to contemporaneous telephony verification or contemporaneous electronic data to verify whether a service or item was provided to an eligible Medicaid recipient. The company also offers in house practice management solutions for homecare providers to facilitate daily operations, electronic visit verification (EVV) solutions and integrated institutional billing.

Visiting Aid does not need to be the contracted vendor for EVV services, however the company must ensure the proper deployment and integration of outside EVV vendors in accordance with New York State Social Services Law and the 21st Century CURES Act.


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Baringo Senator Gideon Moi-led Kanu is basking in the glory of a post-election deal with President Uhuru Kenyatta's Jubilee Party, which they said has started bearing fruit.

In the three months since the signing of the deal, West Pokot Senator Samwel Poghisio took over from his Elgeyo-Marakwet counterpart as the Senate Majority Leader while Tiaty MP William Kamket, a dyed-in-the-wool Kanu MP, is set to replace Uasin Gishu Woman Rep Gladys Boss Shollei as chairman of Delegated Legislation Committee in the National Assembly.

And with talks of a Cabinet reshuffle, Kanu has primed itself for a slot in what would be President Kenyatta's legacy-driven 22-person team ahead of the 2022 General Election.

For Senator Moi, Kanu, which held its National Executive Committee meeting last week, hopes to have him in the top line-up in the 2022 succession politics, with eyes on the expanded executive proposed by the BBI report.

TURNED DOWN POST

Mr Moi is said to have turned down the Senate majority leader post "to focus on national politics."

"Kanu is now the party to watch," the party's Secretary-General Nick Salat triumphantly declared Tuesday.

"We are happy that what was agreed upon between us and Jubilee in 2017 has now been put to paper, and what is happening is that what was already agreed is now coming in the limelight, and we know that the existing coalition will continue to benefit us as a party."

The signing of the post-election agreement in May meant that Kanu became the first party to formalise its agreement with Jubilee, shoring up President Kenyatta's numbers in both Houses at a time of an intense public cold war between the Jubilee leader and his deputy William Ruto.

Former Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka's Wiper and former Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto's Chama Cha Mashinani (CCM) last month signed a similar agreement with the ruling party.

GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT

While the pre-election "gentleman's agreement' allowed Kanu to sit in committees and majority side of the House in the National Assembly and the Senate, the post-poll deal meant that the party's MPs and senators--just like those of Wiper and CCM--can sit in a Jubilee Party parliamentary group, which will now be called a coalition.

Kanu has 10 MPs in the National Assembly while Mr Moi, Mr Poghisio and nominated senator Abshiro Halake fly the party's flag in the Senate.

Bigger things

Mr Salat said the party was ready for even bigger things.

"If and when our support is needed, we are ready. If we are needed to serve in any position, we are ready. Our top decision making organ endorsed this kind of arrangement of us working with President Kenyatta when he came to us to ask us for his support," he explained.

The independence party, which celebrated its 60th anniversary in May, now plans to use the new gains made after the signing of the agreement to revive and re-energise itself.

PALE SHADOW

After being ousted from power for the first time in 2002 by President Mwai Kibaki, who had ironically once described fighting Kanu as akin to an impossible task of "attempting to cut a mugumo tree using a razor blade", the party had become a pale shadow of the colossus that bestrode Kenya's politics for 40 years.

"Our path as a party is punctuated by ups and downs, but resilience remains our greatest source of fortitude. In this regard, we recognise that we have a past of mixed fortunes," Mr Moi said in a statement to mark the party's 60 years of existence.

He went on: "...we have also lurked missteps that we acknowledge. Therefore, as we look into our past, we also draw great lessons for the present, both of which will inform our trajectory into the future."

Senator Moi, who was handed over a replica of the baton carried by his father Daniel Moi after his death in February, underscored the party's monumental strides through the attainment of independence --investment in education, girl child empowerment, opening up space for multiparty politics and even "relinquishing power at a time when it was unfashionable to do so."

NEW RELATIONSHIP

As it stands, Kanu now sees the new relationship between President Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga as well as its deal with Jubilee as its ticket to poll success in 2022, with Senator Moi expected to take the first stab at the top job that his father had for a record 24 years, four months and eight days.

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"This 2020 means a lot to us as a party; we are going to do vigorous grassroots sensitisation and Kanu is not an island, we are also looking forward to really taking our rightful place in this country's political landscape," Mr Salat said.

On its 60-year-history, Mr Salat said he was most proud of the fact that "Kanu has tentacles everywhere in Kenya or simply put, Kanu is Kenya."

"The thing I am so proud of to be associated with Kanu is that as it stands, it is the only party that has had representation in every Parliament from the first one to the current. All these other outfits are just come-we-stay. We have been here and we will continue to be here. We have risen from the ashes now, and people are trooping back. Watch this space: This is the unstoppable re-invention of the mother party," Mr Salat said.

"We are focused on re-awakening Kanu as Raymond Moi said, and at the centre of it all will be Gideon Moi, whom we will ask to lead the party to take its rightful position in Kenyan politics as well as re-awaken, re-activate and re-connect with our massive, unmatched grassroots following," he added.
ALTON  Its funny how life can repeat itself, but that seems to be the case when you compare Baxters Distributing Co.s beginnings 75 years ago with its plans for the future, as it prepares to close its physical store.

Bob Baxter and his sister, Janet Hansen, have co-owned and operated the party store since 1992, when their mother, Lorraine, died.

But the history of the lucrative business goes back much further than that.

It was just after World War II, and our dad (and our grandfather) were out of work, Hansen said. All they had then was $300 and me. Their father, Cliff, had previously worked at Shell Oil; their grandfather at the Western Cartridge Company. But in the post-war economy, they found themselves out of a job.

Their grandfather, Adolph Schnell, had previously been in the grocery business, and he came up with the idea of buying drugstore sundries, like aspirin and cough medicine, and selling them to grocery stores (they delivered them from their car), which at that time, were most often, family-owned stores found here and there around the city, which was convenient for walking residents.

Likewise, in the decades following World War II, and for many years after, schools were tucked into neighborhoods, and thats where the next business opportunity came to the Baxters.

I was in kindergarten, and at that time, every school had a social fundraiser at the end of the year, Hansen said. There were ponies and games, and one of the teachers asked Dad if he could find unique toys that they could give the kids for prizes.

That was the seed for what eventually became the store, with the Baxters setting up tables of toys and trinkets in the basement of their home, where the school committees came and shopped.

As word spread and the business grew, the family moved to a retail location on Broadway, then another, and in 1976, to 912 E. Broadway (the old Riley Brothers Chevrolet building), the third and final Broadway location. Cliff Baxter sadly died the following year, but his wife and family kept things going.

Now, the family has decided to close its bricks-and-mortar store, sell the current inventory, and focus on online sales.

With Baxters daughter and son-in-law, Ann and Brandon Fergurson leading the charge for www.baxterspartystore.com, Hansen said it has truly come full circle.

Our parents lived the American dream, and the family business will still continue online, she said.

Officially, Hansen retired about three years ago, but she still helps when needed, and cant help but be drawn to the business that has always been a part of her life.

Same with her brother. You can usually find him there 12-hours-a-day, six-days-a-week. He created many of the items that were used as props for themed-party rentals, as well as signs and promotional materials for the store itself.

At one time, we were doing a lot of work at the (Argosy) casino, decorating the atrium, and we have a lot of things that we made for that, Baxter said.

Hes been working at the store since he returned from the U.S. Army after a 14-month stint in Vietnam. Before that, he was attending Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, pursuing a theater degree and creating props for the theater department.

When I got back from Vietnam, I decided to work at the store, and Ive been here ever since, Baxter said.

In 1980, he and his wife, Jan, started the costume business, and at the beginning, made many of the costumes themselves.

For years, it flourished  people were having masquerade parties, and there was a big call for the costumes, Baxter said. Everything is cyclical.

Now, the 2,100 costumes will be available as part of the sale, ranging from Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, to Sherlock Holmes, various animals, princesses, and everything in-between.

Balloons have also been a booming business that has stayed fairly steady, though different kinds of materials and fillers come and go.

Hansen also attended Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, earning a degree in education. She taught fifth and sixth grades at Irving School for a while, before starting a family of her own.

At one time, creating flower arrangements for weddings was a big part of Baxters business. Hansen recalls after she began having children, she, too, worked from her basement, making wedding bouquets for the store, which gave her the best of both worlds.

Brother and sister recall many years of attending conventions to purchase inventory in Atlanta and Chicago, and distributor shows in St. Louis. Hansen remembers how excited she was when they discovered the newly marketed hot glue gun at a convention, which made it so much easier when assembling flower arrangements, wreaths, hats and crafts.

Her two boys worked summers at the store, and Baxters two sons also spent summers working at the family business. His daughter, Ann Fergurson, has been involved with the store for 26 years, beginning part time, when she was a teenager. Her husband, Brandon, joined the team about 10 years ago, developing the Internet side of the business. The two of them  with their three children, Logan, Hannah and Corey, will carry the flame for the family business, operating the online version from their own basement.

It is amazing that things really have come full circle, Hansen said.

The web site at www.baxterspartystore.com will be available by late summer or early fall, and online sales will begin mainly with paper products like plates, napkins and placemats, available in many colors and themes, party packs that are pre-packaged in various quantities, decorations, centerpieces, wall hangings, and the selections will continue to grow and evolve.

Many reasons led to the decision to close the physical store, including COVID-19 shutdown since March 15  and online competition  but the entire family is excited about the upcoming virtual store.

If you think about it, the Internet contributed to our closing the store, but the internet is also saving the business, Hansen said.

Beginning Monday, July 20, the store will reopen to liquidate the current inventory. Store hours will be 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and most of the contents will start at 60% off the marked price, with the exception of props and rentals, which will not be priced as marked.
A former Tory Cabinet minister has described the removal of the Tory whip from an MP who beat Chris Grayling to the chairmanship of Parliaments intelligence watchdog as utter absurdity.

Dr Julian Lewis secured the role despite widespread expectation that Mr Grayling would receive the backing of the Conservative-dominated Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC).

In a move that caught Westminster by surprise, the Tory leadership then took disciplinary action against Dr Lewis as sources said the MP had acted with the opposition for his own advantage.

Former Tory Cabinet minister and chairman of the ISC, Dominic Grieve, told the BBC: What troubles me about this episode, quite apart from its utter absurdity, and now withrdawing the whip from Julian, who is indeed highly respected, is the mindset it gives about what on earth is going on in Downing Street.

Why did they try to manipulate this process? They shouldnt have done.

The committee can only exist, the committee can only be respected if it is seen to be non-partisan, and independent.

A senior Government source said the removal of the whip was because the MP was working with Labour and other opposition MPs for his own advantage.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson was widely believed to want former transport secretary Mr Grayling to become the chairman of the body which oversees the work of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ.

Julian Lewis was elected as chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee (Chris McAndrew/UK Parliament/PA)

But the committee members voted instead for former defence select committee chairman Dr Lewis.

With the Conservatives enjoying a majority  with five out of nine places on the committee  there had been concern at Westminster that the Tory members would be whipped to support Mr Grayling despite concerns about his expertise.

Former national security adviser Lord Ricketts warned that Mr Grayling  who earned the nickname Failing Grayling during a chequered ministerial career  does not match up to the authority and reputation of former chairs.

Story continues

Yes that puts the ISC into the hands of someone with much wider experience of defence and security. Lets hope he and the Committee will be willing to take the same independent-minded line as their predecessors! https://t.co/ILQrZRMsWK  Peter Ricketts (@LordRickettsP) July 15, 2020

Following Dr Lewiss success, Lord Ricketts said the body was now in the hands of someone with much wider experience of defence and security.

As well as Mr Grayling and Dr Lewis, the members of the ISC are Tory MPs Theresa Villiers, Sir John Hayes and Mark Pritchard, Labour MPs Dame Diana Johnson and Kevan Jones, the Labour peer Admiral Lord West and the SNP MP Stewart Hosie.

Mr Johnson has faced criticism over the delay in appointing the committee which has not met since the last parliament was dissolved in November last year.

The committee has yet to publish its long-awaited report into Russian interference in UK politics after Mr Johnson refused to clear it for release before last years general election.

A committee source told the PA news agency: This was a secret ballot but clearly for him (Mr Grayling) to lose, some Tories decided not to vote for him.

Labours deputy leader Angela Rayner branded the move against Dr Lewis grubby.

Julian Lewis MP has the Tory Whip removed after being elected as Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Select Committee, after beating hapless Chris Grayling. I wonder who in No10 ordered that the long serving Tory MP had the whip removed?  What a grubby shower they are!   Angela Rayner  (@AngelaRayner) July 15, 2020

She tweeted: Julian Lewis MP has the Tory Whip removed after being elected as Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Select Committee, after beating hapless Chris Grayling. I wonder who in No10 ordered that the long serving Tory MP had the whip removed? What a grubby shower they are!

Labour former frontbencher Chris Bryant said: Its a momentous failure of intelligence when a PM takes months to handpick Intelligence and Security Committee members so as to deliver the Chair he wants and they refuse to do his bidding. To then chuck the new chairman out of the party is to lose control/the plot.

SNP defence spokesman Stewart McDonald MP said: This is another total shambles from the Tory government, which has failed to put in place a functioning Intelligence and Security Committee for more than six months since the election.

With his abysmal record of failure as a Tory minister, Chris Grayling is the only man who could lose a rigged election but it is right the committee has elected a chair and it should now get on with the crucial job of ensuring scrutiny and oversight of security matters, after months of delay.

Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said Mr Johnson had appointed yes men to the ISC but true to form, however, failing Grayling has been undone in his bid to be chair.

I hope we now have a committee with real teeth that can hold this Government to account, he added.

That starts by publishing the report into Russian interference of our democracy before the summer recess so MPs can scrutinise it fully.
In an online open letter to parents, guardians and staff on Wednesday, July 15, Katy Independent School District Superintendent Ken Gregorski chided the Texas Education Agency for communicating about schools reopening through media and not directly with school districts.

As reported on July 15 by Aliyya Swaby at the Texas Tribune, TEA officials said school districts can have online-only learning for more than three weeks without losing funding from the state for online learning if local health officials mandate it.

NEED TO KNOW: New Katy ISD webpage offers information on fall semester

Since early spring, the state has been the singular authority regarding the reopening of schools, Gregorski said. Just last week, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) stated that On-campus instruction must be offered for all students who want to attend on campus in order to be eligible to receive funding for remote instruction.

Gregorski went on to say that reports were coming from a number of media outlets that Gov. Greg Abbott would allow for a longer period of virtual-only learning and more leeway at local districts.

To date, the governor, nor TEA, have provided official information to Texas superintendents regarding these media reports, Gregorski wrote.

FOOD ASSISTANCE: Katy ISDs curbside meals for children continue through July

It is unfortunate that important information, that impacts our valued employees and thousands of Katy ISD families, is being communicated through the media instead of to school district leaders  information that would enable us to be in a position to make informed action plans for reopening schools, Gregorski said.

He admitted the past months and weeks have been a difficult time for those in the Katy ISD community and wrote he was grateful for their patience as the district seeks further instruction from the TEA and public health authorities before the district makes any changes to its plans for the fall.

My goal will always be to keep our school community continuously updated as we learn more, he said.

Gregorski stated he hopes to release any plan changes by July 17.

The TEA was not immediately available for comment.

tracy.maness@hcnonline.com
Apartments with over 3 Covid cases to be containment zones for 7 days: Check BBMP's full guidelines

Only God can save us: Karnataka Health Minister amid COVID-19 surge

India

oi-Briti Roy Barman

Bengaluru, July 16: Karnataka Health minister B Sriramulu, on Wednesday said on a note of despair over the surge of cases, "only God can save us".

Sriramulu, who heads the state's Covid-19 task force, appeared to be responding to criticism about the state's handling of the pandemic, saying stopping the spread was "not in anybody's hands".

The southern state's caseload is approaching 50,000 while the number of deaths is past 900.

AP issues new quarantine guidelines for COVID-19; Labels Telangana, Karnataka as 'high-risk'

In a recent time, Karnataka has reported the third-highest spike.

Speaking to reporters in Chitradurga district, his constituency, the minister said, "Only God can save us from Coronavirus and we have to bring in caution on our own."

"Worldwide the number of Corona cases is increasing. All of us should be alert. Cases in the state I am sure one hundred per cent, will only go up in the next two months," he added.

Bihar bridge collapse: Rs 263 crores washed away in 29 days, who is responsible? | Oneindia News

The B S Yediyurappa-led state government has imposed a week-long lockdown in its capital Bengaluru to contain the spread of the virus as the metro city leads the COVID spike in the state.

The state which was earlier lauded for keeping a check on the rise in cases, has recently seen the situation rapidly slip out of its grip.

Bengaluru lockdown: Over 30,000 people leave city; rush at grocery stores and liquor shops

The state has crossed Gujarat in the case of the affected people by the virus.

Karnataka now has over 47,000 cases following more than 900 death. Bengaluru has so far reported 20,969 COVID-19 positive cases of which 15,599 are active.
The director of a private engineering college in Haridwar, five security guards, registrar and a non-teaching staff member have been arrested after security guards of the college allegedly thrashed two Nigerian students who tried to go out for dinner, said police.

The video of the two students, without their shirts and crying in pain oh God, oh God in the back of the car, has gone viral on social media.

Sanjeev Thapliyal, station house officer at Bhagwanpur police station in Haridwar district, said FIR has been registered in the matter of beating up of two Nigerian BTech second year students studying at Roorkee Institute of Technology (RIIT) Bhagwanpur college.

Thapliyal said on the complaint of Nigerian student Francis Koyang, an FIR has been registered against the college director Parag Jain, registrar Munendra Chauhan, five security guards and a non-teaching staff member on Thursday.

The two Nigerian students on Thursday evening, said police, tried to move outside the college premises for dinner but were denied permission. The students said they were bored of the college canteen food and stepped out to eat.

Upon their return, they were confronted by the security guards which led to a verbal duel followed by the students getting beaten up with other security guards also joining in, said police.

One of the two students is now recovering in a hospital.

Meanwhile local students, villagers and National Student Union of India (NSUI) have come out in support of the Nigerian students demanding stern legal action against the private college management and their security guards.

Protests were staged outside the college gate by NSUI and Bhim Army activists condemning the action of the college management and security personnel.

Circle officer Mangalore Abhay Singh said that no one will be allowed to take law into their own hands. He said security has been beefed up in the college area with CCTV footage being monitored as well.

When contacted, the college management information cell personnel said that they will soon release a statement.
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, the leader of the Catholic Church in San Francisco, stood at an empty pedestal in Golden Gate Park last month and said a prayer of exorcism. He was declaring that the toppling of a statue of Junipero Serra, a saint in the Church, was an act of the evil one.

But the fate of San Franciscos Serra statue was not unique. Over the past few weeks, Serra statues have been toppled or removed all over the state, from Sacramento to Los Angeles.

If Serra is literally being pulled off pedestals, it is worth asking how he got up there in the first place.

Just as a Confederate monument means something specific when we know that it was erected in the service of Jim Crow segregation and white supremacy, monuments to Serra bear the traces of their origins.

Beginning in the 1880s, increasing numbers of mostly white, Protestant settlers from the East and Midwest streamed into southern California. Some of these new arrivals  a cadre of boosters and writers  joined forces with Catholic elites and the Catholic hierarchy to celebrate Californias mission past. They preserved and restored mission buildings, raised monuments and wrote mission-themed poetry, fiction and plays.

This was a remarkable moment of Protestant-Catholic collaboration during an era of intense American anti-Catholicism. It was driven in part by a craving for local historical romance, and by a knowledge that such romance would sell. Railroads sold mission tours, promoters held mission events and mission images graced advertisements for citrus fruit, department stores and housing developments. By the 1920s, the missions were a regional myth, and a profitable brand.

California mission promoters also were rewriting the U.S. origin story. They compared the Franciscans to the Puritans and Pilgrims, arguing that they were all co-founding fathers of a continent-spanning nation. Junipero Serra was elevated to the status of national hero.

It was a newly expansive approach to U.S. history, but one with significant blind spots and elisions. It brought together English and Spanish, Atlantic and Pacific, Protestant and Catholic. It also ignored the North American history of interimperial conflict, the diversity of indigenous peoples and polities, and a war of conquest with Mexico.

It was part of an Anglo affection for a putatively disappearing Spanish European past, even as these same Anglos brought about an often violent displacement of actual Spanish-speaking Californians.

Finally, the elevation of Serra was a celebration of white supremacy and empire. Against those who might locate the roots of the nation in an anti-colonial rebellion against the British monarchy, mission promoters and their allies argued that U.S. history emerged out of parallel projects of European conquest and conversion of indigenous people. They cast those projects as noble and heroic  minimizing the suffering and violence they entailed.

The timing of this new myth was important, too. This was an imperial origin story for an avowedly imperial nation.

It captured the popular imagination during an era when the U.S. was consolidating recently conquered territory in the Western states, forcibly acquiring overseas colonies and territories, and remaking itself as an industrial nation of global reach.

Monuments to Serra are artifacts of this rewriting of the U.S. past and purpose. Catholics and Protestants came together in California to celebrate a Catholic missionary as a founding father, but their ability to do so relied on the imperial fantasy of a common white Euro-American Christianizing and civilizing mission.

Today, if we attend only to the history of the saint  and not to the logic of his rise to public prominence  we will leave half our work undone. We will waste an opportunity to wrestle with Californias imperial pasts, and fail to understand the anger many Californians feel about the states numerous monuments to Serra.

Katherine Moran is an associate professor of American Studies at Saint Louis University and the author of The Imperial Church: Catholic Founding Fathers and United States Empire.
Shopify (NYSE:SHOP) has been among the prominent e-commerce companies to inadvertently benefit from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has pushed both merchants and shoppers online. Shopify has already seen its shares more than double year to date. The time could be right for smaller peer BigCommerce to go public, and the company has now publicly filed its S-1 Registration Statement with the SEC, a little less than a month after it reportedly filed confidentially.

Here's what investors need to know about the forthcoming e-commerce play.

A smaller e-commerce platform

BigCommerce, founded in 2009 and based in Austin, Texas, is quite a bit smaller than Shopify but utilizes a similar software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, offering merchant customers a suite of services as part of a subscription. Both companies primarily cater to small and medium-sized business (SMB) customers and pricing is nearly identical across three main tiers that range from around $30 per month to $300 per month.

The filing shows that BigCommerce is looking to raise approximately $100 million through an IPO, although this placeholder figure will likely be updated. The company had previously raised a little over $200 million in private funding rounds, according to Crunchbase. The stock is expected to trade under the ticker symbol "BIGC."

There are approximately 60,000 online storefronts on the platform across 120 countries. Here's an overview of BigCommerce's income statement over the past two years.

Income Statement Metric 2018 2019 Revenue $91.9 million $112.1 million Gross profit $69.9 million $85.1 million Operating loss ($38 million) ($41 million) Net loss ($38.9 million) ($42.6 million) Adjusted EBITDA ($34.1 million) ($35.5 million)

Revenue in the first quarter of 2020 grew 30% to $33.2 million, which translated into an operating loss of $7.5 million. BigCommerce finished Q1 with $33 million in cash and cash equivalents and had $71.7 million in total long-term debt (including the current portion due within the next year). Of that debt, $20 million was borrowed under an existing revolver.

BigCommerce also discloses other key metrics, including annual revenue run rate (ARR), accounts with annual contract value (ACV) of over $2,000, average revenue per account (ARPA), and net revenue retention (NRR).

Metric Q1 2020 ARR $137.1 million Accounts with ACV greater than $2,000 8,988 ARPA for accounts with ACV greater than $2,000 $12,094

NRR for accounts with ACV greater than $2,000 was 106% in 2019. Investors like to see this common SaaS metric above 100%, which indicates that the company is expanding relationships with existing customers.

BigCommerce has two different share classes, Series 1 and Series 2. This isn't one of those scenarios where insiders use a dual-share class structure to secure outsize voting power. On the contrary, Series 1 shares (which are the ones being offered to the public) will get one vote per share, while Series 2 shares get no votes.

The first version of the S-1 still has a lot of blanks to fill in, so prospective investors should keep an eye out for subsequent amended filings for more details in the weeks ahead.
McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) and PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) are two of the most iconic brands in the world. McDonald's operates and franchises over 36,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries, while PepsiCo's beverages and packaged foods are consumed in over 200 countries and territories.

McDonald's and PepsiCo's stocks jumped over 500% and 200%, respectively, over the past 20 years -- easily outpacing the S&P 500's 110% gain. But past performance never guarantees future gains, so let's take a fresh look at both stocks to see which is the better overall buy.

Shared challenges, different solutions

McDonald's and PepsiCo operate different kinds of businesses, but both companies have struggled with a shared problem: More consumers are avoiding traditional fast food chains and sodas in favor of healthier alternatives.

McDonald's faces competition from "fast casual" challengers like Panera and Chipotle, while PepsiCo is struggling with declining soda consumption rates. PepsiCo's Frito Lay and Quaker units also face fierce competition from other packaged food giants, smaller brands, and private label brands.

To address those problems, McDonald's added healthier and regional menu items, replaced its frozen beef with fresh beef, and launched an all-day breakfast. It also renovated its stores, installed digital kiosks which streamlined in-store orders, and expanded is online ordering and delivery options with third-party partners.

PepsiCo expanded its beverage portfolio by developing and acquiring new brands of bottled water, sparkling water, tea, juice, and even hybrid cola-coffee drinks. It also launched healthier versions of its Frito Lay snacks and refreshed its aging Quaker brand for health-conscious consumers.

How fast are McDonald's and PepsiCo growing?

McDonald's and PepsiCo both have a lot of moving parts, but their strengths are largely offsetting their weaknesses.

McDonald's global comparable store sales grew 5.9% in 2019, marking its strongest comps growth in more than a decade. But in the first quarter, its global comps dipped 3.4% as the COVID-19 crisis shut down its restaurants. McDonald's withdrew its full-year guidance, but analysts expect its revenue and earnings to tumble 13% and 21%, respectively, this year.

PepsiCo's organic sales rose 4.5% in 2019, as it leveraged price hikes to offset softer shipments of its drinks and packaged foods. In the first half of 2020, its organic sales grew another 3.3%, as a spike in COVID-19-inspired shopping in the first quarter offset a slowdown in the second quarter -- which was largely attributed to the shutdowns of convenience stores, gas stations, and other smaller brick-and-mortar retailers. PepsiCo also withdrew its full-year guidance, but analysts expect its reported revenue to stay flat as its earnings dip 3%.

McDonald's and PepsiCo are both expected to generate stronger sales and earnings growth next year. However, investors should be wary of those long-term predictions, which could be easily rendered obsolete by a second wave of COVID-19 infections, the escalating U.S.-China trade war, and other unpredictable macro headwinds.

Dividends and valuations

McDonald's and PepsiCo are both Dividend Aristocrats of the S&P 500, having raised their dividends annually for at least 25 straight years.

McDonald's pays a forward dividend yield of 2.7%, while PepsiCo pays a forward yield of 3%. McDonald's suspended its buybacks earlier this year to conserve cash and protect its dividend, but PepsiCo plans to keep buying back additional shares throughout the year.

McDonald's trades at 32 times forward earnings, while PepsiCo has a lower forward P/E of 24. Both valuations are high relative to their earnings growth, but investors are likely willing to pay a premium for their stability, dividends, and resilience during market downturns in this wobbly market.

The winner: PepsiCo

McDonald's and PepsiCo are both safe long-term investments. But if I had to choose one over the other, I'd buy PepsiCo because it's better insulated from the COVID-19 crisis, trades at a lower multiple, pays a higher dividend, and generates enough free cash flow to comfortably cover its buybacks.
The big picture: The researchers aren't turning a blind eye to the potential for abuse, either. Senior author Shyam Gollakota, a University of Washington associate professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, said, we strongly believe that its really important to put things in the public domain so people are aware of the risks and so people can start coming up with solutions to address them.

Researchers from the University of Washington have developed a tiny robotic camera system that is small and light enough to fit on the back of insects like beetles.

The camera can stream live monochrome video to a companion smartphone via Bluetooth at one to five frames per second at a resolution up to 160 x 120 pixels. Thats not exactly much to write home about in this day and age of 4k 60 FPS mobile cameras until you factor in its size and the fact that it weighs just 248 milligrams. Plus, it wouldnt take much to significantly boost the performance of the rig although I suspect striking the sweet spot in terms of power usage is key.

Equally as impressive is the fact that the rig features an arm that can pivot up to 60 degrees to create panoramic images. The camera also works well in low light, using gain to amplify dark images.

Using an onboard accelerometer to trigger image capture, the team was able to achieve up to six hours of usage from a single 10mAh battery.

Researchers said the rig could be useful when studying insects in the field as they walk freely, providing a first-person view of what the creature is seeing as it navigates its environment.

Ali Najafi, a University of Washington doctoral student in electrical and computer engineering and co-load author on the study, said they made sure the beetles could still move properly when carrying the camera system. They were able to navigate freely across gravel, up a slope and even climb trees, Najafi added.

Of course, the limited range of Bluetooth could make free-roaming livestreaming a bit tricky over long distances.

Images courtesy Mark Stone, University of Washington
Iran turned tables, proved America to blame in JCPOA case: Rouhani

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 15 July 2020 11:10 AM

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani says the country maneuvered with political skill following the United States' withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal to prove that "American lawbreakers" are to blame for any shortfalls with regard to the agreement.

Speaking on the fifth anniversary of the conclusion of the Iran deal on Wednesday, Rouhani said Iran diplomatically engaged six world powers to prove that it is a peace-seeking country and that the securitization of its nuclear program long attempted by the US and Israel is baseless.

"Since the beginning [of the diplomatic engagement], an evil triangle of Zionism, reactionism, and hard-liners in America were opposed [to diplomacy with Iran]," the Iranian president said, detailing attempts by the deal's opponents to throw a wrench into the works as it was being negotiated and after its conclusion.

"America's current regime was delusional, and with hard-liners at the helm, it was unable to foresee the consequences of its actions," he said, a reference to the US President Donald Trump administration's unilateral withdrawal from the Iran deal in 2018 with intense lobbying by Israel and Saudi Arabia.

The deal, named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was reached on July 14, 2015 between Iran and a group of countries then known as the P5+1  which included the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany.

In May 2018, Trump unilaterally pulled his country out of the JCPOA and re-imposed the sanctions that had been lifted under the deal. He also imposed secondary sanctions on third parties that sought to do business with Iran, effectively targeting the European parties to the deal.

Verified by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran remained fully compliant with the JCPOA for an entire year, waiting for the co-signatories to honor their commitments and offset the impacts of the US withdrawal.

But, as the European parties continued to renege on their obligations, the Islamic Republic moved to scale down its commitment to the deal in a gradual format and based on the provisions of the deal itself that addressed a party's legal rights in case of non-performance by other parties.

President Rouhani said the US had wanted to elicit a sudden Iranian withdrawal and then blame the deal's failure on Tehran.

"Their objective was for Iran to be recorded in history as the party that broke the deal, meaning that America would do something and then Iran would put the entire JCPOA aside and withdraw from it, and they would say later that it was Iran that left the deal," the Iranian president said.

"Iran's artfulness and adroitness, since 2018, when America trampled on [its] political, moral, and legal obligations, was in not allowing the [American] plot to materialize and proving to the world that the main party to blame is the lawbreakers in America," President Rouhani said.

President Rouhani said the United States' own allies and a large part of the American nation now acknowledge that the US's withdrawal from the Iran deal worked to the disadvantage of the American people and America's friends.

On Tuesday, the European Union (EU) pledged to do everything possible" to preserve the landmark nuclear deal with Iran over the objections of Washington.

"We should not assume that an opportunity will arise again in the future for the international community to address Iran's nuclear program in such a comprehensive manner," he added.

Western countries had formerly accused Iran of pursuing a military nuclear program. Tehran long denied the allegation and ultimately negotiated with the six countries to prove it has a civilian program only. The JCPOA was the culmination of those negotiations.

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The Trump administration is considering a sweeping ban on travel to the United States by members of the Chinese Communist Party and their families, according to people familiar with the proposal, a move that would almost certainly prompt retaliation against Americans seeking to enter or remain in China and exacerbate tensions between the two nations.

The presidential proclamation, still in draft form, could also authorize the U.S. government to revoke the visas of party members and their families who are already in the country, leading to their expulsion. Some proposed language is also aimed at limiting travel to the United States by members of the Peoples Liberation Army and executives at state-owned enterprises, although many of them are likely to also be party members.

Details of the plan, described by four people with knowledge of the discussions, have not yet been finalized, and President Donald Trump might ultimately reject it. While the president and his campaign strategists have been intent on portraying him as tough on China for reelection purposes, Trump has vacillated wildly in both his language and actions on the Chinese government since taking office in 2017. He has criticized China on some issues, particularly trade. But he has also lavished praise on President Xi Jinping, pleaded with Xi to help him win reelection and remained silent or even explicitly approved of the repression in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.

There are practical issues as well. The Chinese Communist Party has 92 million members. Almost 3 million Chinese citizens visited the United States in 2018, although the numbers have plummeted because of the coronavirus pandemic and the current ban on most travellers from China. The U.S. government has no knowledge of party status for a vast majority of them. So trying to immediately identify party members to either prevent their entry or expel those already in the United States would be difficult.

The presidential order would cite the same statute in the Immigration and Nationality Act used in a 2017 travel ban on a number of predominantly Muslim countries that gives the president power to temporarily block travel to the U.S. by foreign nationals who are deemed detrimental to the interests of the United States. The 2017 ban was fought in the courts and expanded this year.

Such a broad ban would be the most provocative action against China by the United States since the start of the trade war between the two countries in 2018. It would further poison U.S.-China relations, even after several years of open clashes over economics, technology and global influence have led some diplomats and analysts to draw comparisons to a new Cold War.

Officials at the White House, State Department and Department of Homeland Security have been involved in the discussion over the ban. Spokesmen for the White House National Security Council and the State Department declined to comment Wednesday, and one for the Department of Homeland Security did not return a request for comment.

Officials at those agencies also continue to debate a variety of formulations for banning Chinese travel to the United States short of barring all party members, such as targeting only the 25 members of the ruling Politburo and their families.

In recent months, top administration officials have tried to draw a distinction between party members and other Chinese, saying the party must be punished for its actions  and its global ambitions must be thwarted. They have loudly denounced what they call the evils of the Chinese Communist Party, pointing to the role of its officials in the cover-up of the initial coronavirus outbreak, the detentions of 1 million or more Muslims in internment camps and the dismantling of civil liberties in Hong Kong.

The Communist Party is both a powerful and mundane part of life in China. While its leaders maintain control of domestic and foreign policy, those on lower rungs do everything from supervising schools to managing neighborhood-level governance. In recent decades, many citizens joined to get a leg up in a wide range of sectors: business, academia and even the arts. Many party members do not conform to official ideology; some are Christians who attend underground churches, for example.

Many Chinese outside the party praise the top leadership but complain about corruption among local officials.

Counting party members as well as their families, the ban could technically bar travel to the United States for as many as 270 million people, according to one internal administration estimate.

The overwhelming majority of CCP members have no involvement or input into Beijings policy-making, so going after the entire party membership is like China sanctioning all Republicans because of frustrations with Trump, said Jude Blanchette, a China scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Such a move would inflame public opinion in China, as this would target nearly 10 per cent of the entire Chinese population and would do so based on blanket assertions of guilt.

Besides the iterations of the 2017 travel ban, the Trump administration has put in place other entry restrictions. This year, during the pandemic, it has banned entry for most citizens of China as well as those from the European Union and some other nations. And last month, it blocked employment visas and extended restrictions on issuance of green cards, moves that would keep as many as 525,000 foreign workers out of the United States for the rest of the year.

The State Department has also announced visa restrictions on various categories of Chinese citizens. These include officials responsible for the mass internment and surveillance of Muslim ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region and journalists working in the United States.

In May, U.S. officials said the government was cancelling the visas of graduate or higher-level students in the United States who had ties to certain Chinese military institutions  the first ban on a category of Chinese students, who make up the largest group of international students in the country.

After Trump signed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act on Tuesday, the State Department was expected to propose names of Chinese officials overseeing repression in Hong Kong for visa and economic sanctions.

And on Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a ban on some employees of Chinese technology companies, including Huawei, that provide material support to regimes engaging in human rights abuses globally.

He added, Telecommunications companies around the world should consider themselves on notice: If they are doing business with Huawei, they are doing business with human rights abusers.

Despite Trumps admiration for Xi, national security officials have tried to push tough policies on China that are designed to counter what they view as dangerous expansionist actions by Chinese leaders and agencies. The pandemic and Beijings recent actions on Hong Kong have helped push relations between the two nations to the lowest point in decades.

At the same time, some of Trumps top economic advisers have promoted a softer approach to China, warning of further damage to the world economy and falling stock markets. Those advisers and allies among American executives are likely to oppose a broad visa ban on Communist Party members, some of whom do business with American corporations.

A broad ban would give the State Department new powers to block top Chinese political and business leaders and their families from entering the United States. (Xis daughter, Xi Mingze, attended Harvard University under a pseudonym several years ago.) It would also allow the department to formalize a process by which U.S. officials could inquire about party status during visa application interviews and on forms. Under the draft proclamation, the Department of Homeland Security would share responsibility for carrying out the ban.

Several Chinese citizens who have travelled to the United States in recent years said they did not recall any question on visa applications asking if they were party members.

Language in the draft proclamation stresses recent egregious behaviour by China, in particular theft of intellectual property by Chinese state actors and so-called exit bans used by security officials to prevent some U.S. citizens from leaving China. This month, the State Department renewed a travel warning saying the Chinese authorities engaged in arbitrary enforcement of local laws for purposes other than maintaining law and order, which could include detention and the use of exit bans.

On Tuesday, the Trump administration reversed course on an order that would have subjected international students to deportation if they did not physically attend classes during the pandemic, after American universities filed a lawsuit.

Still, the administration has stood by its visa actions focused more narrowly on China. The Chinese government has continued with its own harsh visa actions, and even widened them to the nonrenewal of work permits for Western journalists in Hong Kong.

At a speech in Beijing this month, Wang Yi, the foreign minister of China, said the China-U.S. relationship was facing its most severe challenge since the normalization of diplomatic ties in 1979.

Some say that China-U.S. relations will not be able to return to its past, he said. But that should not mean ignoring the history altogether and starting all over again, let alone impractical decoupling. It should mean building on past achievements and keeping pace with the times.

Read more about:
Future Travel Experience (FTE) and the Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) have jointly announced plans to launch FTE APEX Virtual Expo  a first-of-its-kind virtual trade show for the air transport industry, which will take place on December 8 and 9 for 24-hours a day to accommodate all time zones.

This pioneering online event will include a free-to-attend, interactive online exhibition with live product demos, virtual conference sessions with content tailored to the Asia-Pacific, EMEA and Americas regions, and extensive networking capabilities that will enable attendees to network in real-time via messaging and video calls. All of these features will be available on two live show days  December 8 and 9  and delegates will then be able to revisit the exhibition hall and conference sessions for a period of 30 days. The theme of the event is Transforming air transport post-COVID-19.

The virtual exhibition will include Airport and Inflight halls as well as a dedicated Startup Zone. FTE and APEX anticipate that the event will attract 8,000-plus online attendees.

Future Travel Experience Founder and CEO Daniel Coleman said: It is clear that our industry is just not in a position to meet in person in 2020, but FTE and APEX are delighted to stage a ground-breaking, interactive global online air transport industry trade show. FTE APEX Virtual Expo will replace the in-person events that both organisations had planned to stage towards the end of the year."

We are incredibly excited to host this truly dynamic and global virtual event, and we are looking forward to offering much more than straightforward webinars, which have become commonplace in recent months. The industry wants more than that now and FTE APEX Virtual Expo will provide the sector with a large-scale digital trade show that will creatively offer real engagement, networking and business development opportunities for everyone involved.

APEX/IFSA CEO Dr. Joe Leader commented: FTE APEX Virtual Expo will act as a beacon for our industrys recovery and bring global stakeholders together en masse to inspire one another. As we polled our airline and valued supplier members worldwide, we discovered key aspects that will most help our industry. Our stakeholders want to connect and engage to share ideas, propositions, visions and learnings."

This announcement also marks another important milestone in the integration efforts between APEX and FTE. Its a great example of maximising the strengths of both organisations. The entrepreneurial and dynamic nature of FTE enabled us to pivot to a virtual event faster than we thought possible. Our ambition is to deliver a unified approach and increase the value the association provides to the entire air transport industry, both in the air and on the ground.

FTE APEX Virtual Expo has already received a number of messages of support from across the industry, including senior figures from the likes of AirAsia, Pittsburgh International Airport, easyJet, Japan Airlines, Bengaluru International Airport, Port of Seattle and Viva Air Labs. - TradeArabia News Service
The global demand growth of ammonia is expected to remain sluggish between 2020 and 2030 due to a Covid-19 led reduction in economic activities in addition to flattening population growth, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Despite the severity of the impact of the pandemic, the top ammonia producers are likely to march ahead with their upcoming ammonia projects. The top ten countries are expected to contribute a total of 46.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), of which the top four account for more than two thirds of the capacity or 33.2 mtpa. India and Iran lead with 9.2 mtpa and 8.7 mtpa, respectively.

Global ammonia projects currently under the initial stages of development could face startup delays due to increased certainty regarding phasing and completion timelines, but it depends largely on the duration and severity of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Dayanand Kharade, Oil and Gas Analyst at GlobalData, comments: The pandemic has seen mixed reactions from major ammonia producers, with only a few companies announcing capex cuts for the current year, as an immediate and proactive measure. Companies aim to dynamically optimise production and plan their investments in order to maintain long term competitiveness and growth.

Yara International, a Norwegian chemical company whose largest business area is the production of nitrogen fertiliser, remains committed to investments. However, the company has stated that optimisation due to Covid-19 may postpone some spending. Producers continue to evaluate their capital structure to identify further cost-effective investment opportunities.

Most of the global economies had to follow lockdown measures undertaken by the government, leading to a slump in demand in 2020, with disruptions in food chain affecting the fertiliser industry. -- Tradearabia News Service
ORLANDO, Fla., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Introducing Once Upon A Coconut  the first premium coconut water created with a purpose in mind  to give back.

In keeping with that mission, the brand has launched by giving away seats to the very first social distancing drive-in concert with The Chainsmokers in the Hamptons on July 25.

For every case of Once Upon A Coconut sold, we will donate 10% to a charity or not-for-profit selected by our customers each month. Charities and Not-for-Profits we support include: Down Syndrome Foundation of Florida, Wins for Warriors, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, Wishbone, NAACP, Project C.U.R.E., and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Our Premium Coconut Water is a vegan product made with no preservatives or added sugars, Gluten-Free, and Non-GMO. Sparkling Coconut Water with Energy comes with 90mg of caffeine, Vitamin C, is Gluten-Free, Non-GMO, and Vegan. Sparkling Coconut Water with Tequila comes with 7% Blanco tequila, is Non-GMO and contains electrolytes.

"All proceeds from the concert are benefitting numerous charities, which aligns perfectly with our brand mission." says John Chiorando, CEO.

The give back of tickets is being driven through a social media raffle on Once Upon A Coconut's Instagram and Facebook. No purchase is necessary to enter, although additional entries are submitted with each coconut water purchase. Winners will be drawn on Wednesday, July 22nd.

Launching with three initial varieties  Pure Coconut Water, Sparkling Coconut Water + Energy (a first for the category), Sparkling Coconut Water + Tequila (another first), Once Upon A Coconut's mission is to deliver a hydration story with a sense of community and purpose.

By donating 10% of monthly sales to charities selected by its loyal consumers and fans, the brand plans to deliver on that promise. Its goal is to support such charities as The Down Syndrome Foundation of Florida, Wins for Warriors, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Project C.U.R.E., Wishbone, NAACP, and Restaurants Opportunities Centers United.

"It's one thing to introduce a premium coconut water that tastes better than anything you've ever tried before. But it's truly something else to give back to the communities and people that need it most. So, the partners identified charities that we have a special connection to, but also ones that are very relevant to the times we are living in today." says Ray Burbige, Chief Operating Officer at Once Upon A Coconut.

"We saw the need to create a coconut water unlike any other currently on the market," states John Chiorando, CEO. "Once Upon A Coconut was created not just to introduce another coconut water to the world, but to celebrate community and encourage a real dialog around the topics we should be addressing today."

"In addition, Once Upon A Coconut will soon announce some high-profile partnerships and collaborations with artists, athletes and influencers who share like-feelings of community and purpose. We are looking for like-minded individuals who believe now is the time to make a difference in our society," states Burbige.

For more information, visit:

https://giveback.onceuponacoconut.com/chainsmokers

Or follow Once Upon A Coconut on Instagram @OnceUponACoconut

About Once Upon A Coconut:

Once Upon A Coconut, a subsidiary of The Neighborhood Beverage Company, is a premium coconut water that is made with a story. Designed in the US, and packaged in Vietnam, Once Upon A Coconut offers three varieties: Pure Coconut Water (available now), Sparkling Coconut Water + Energy (available now) and Sparkling Coconut Water + Tequila (available end Summer 2020). Refreshingly packed with potassium, nutrients, and electrolytes, Once Upon A Coconut is fat-free, gluten-free, vegan and non-GMO. Available in 11oz. recyclable slim aluminum cans and currently sold online direct-to-consumer.

For press inquiries please reach out to:

Ray Burbige

646.767.6576

[email protected]

SOURCE Once Upon A Coconut
Adani Australia says it is still on track to export the first coal from its Carmichael mine, west of Rockhampton, from 2021.

Excavation equipment arrived this week to begin removing the overburden rock and soil  the natural rock and soil that sits above and around the ore body  around the coal seams at the controversial mine in Queenslands thermal-coal rich Galilee Basin.

Adani Mining Australia chief executive David Boshoff ceremonially begins the removal of rock overburden at the Carmichael thermal coal mine in Queensland's Galilee Basin. Credit:Cameron Laird

Adani Mining Australias new chief executive officer, David Boshoff, said the work to remove the overburden was a significant step in the mines construction schedule.

We are on track to export first coal in 2021, Mr Boshoff said.
The National Covid-19 Fund Board in partnership with the Equity Group Foundation has distributed locally manufactured personal protective equipment (PPE) to Isiolo health workers who are dealing with coronavirus patients.

The consignment of disposable gowns, surgical and respirator masks, among others, is part of the Sh237 million donations to 68 public hospitals across the country.

The equipment is intended to ensure that the frontline workers are not infected with the disease in the line of duty.

Over 400 health workers in various hospitals across the country had been infected with the disease as at July 14, 2020 with 60 per cent of the infections being work-related.

18 MONTHS PROVISIONS

The 68 hospitals that have been identified by the Ministry of Health will receive the provisions for up to 18 months according to Equity Bank's Chief Commercial Officer Polycarp Igathe.

Speaking while handing over the equipment to the Isiolo health team at Isiolo Referral Hospital, Mr Igathe reiterated the bank's commitment to ensuring that health workers have enough PPE supplies. He added that the bank will be mobilising more partners towards the Covid-19 fight.

"We recognise the role of the health workers, who risk their lives for the sake of others, and their safety is paramount especially now that our country [is battling] the deadly disease," said Mr Igathe.

The provisions, he said, will help the frontline workers discharge their roles better and more effectively.

SECOND BATCH OF PPE

He announced that the process of procuring the second batch of the PPE worth Sh400 million that will build a stock to sustainably equip the health workers is underway.

The Equity Group Foundation will, in total, distribute PPE worth Sh1.1 billion from contributions by the bank's Chief Executive Officer James Mwangi's family (Sh300 million), the Equity Bank (Sh300 million) and Sh500 million from the Mastercard Foundation.

Isiolo Governor Mohamed Kuti said his administration has intensified efforts to prevent transmission of the disease by continued mandatory screening of visitors from counties with alarming Covid-19 cases.

"There is need for all of us to join forces in containing the disease. We are, as a county, well prepared to handle the disease and have put in place necessary measures to prevent further transmissions," said County Secretary Ahmed Galgalo who represented Governor Kuti.

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ISOLATION CENTRE

Isiolo Health Chief Officer Ibrahim Alio appealed to the Covid-19 Fund and the Equity Group Foundation to assist the county in setting up infrastructure for the realisation of the 150-bed capacity isolation centre at the hospital.

"We have already been served with a notice to relocate the isolation centre at the KMTC Isiolo campus due to the colleges reopening guidelines and would appreciate if we are assisted in setting up the necessary structures," said Mr Alio.

Mr Igathe said buying the locally made PPE was in line with President Uhuru Kenyatta's Big Four agenda of building local manufacturing capacity.

This is aimed at creating strong manufacturing capacity and guaranteeing a steady supply of the protective gear while also supporting the national economy.

He appealed to Kenyans to take personal responsibility as "the government cannot protect us 100 per cent".

"We all must strictly observe the health protocols and join hands in defeating the disease," he noted.
Dilday, a member of a longtime Long Beach family, died unexpectedly of a heart attack in his sleep at his home Jan. 10, according to his wife, Diane.
Jeopardy host Alex Trebek gave a positive update on his battle with pancreatic cancer.

The legendary television personality - who turns 80 next week - announced the encouraging news via a video message posted on Thursday.

He sported a new goatee as he said: 'I'd also like to take this opportunity to give you a quick health update.

Icon: Jeopardy host Alex Trebek gave a positive update on his battle with pancreatic cancer

'I'm doing well, I've been continuing my treatment, and it is paying off, though it does fatigue me a great deal. My numbers are good, I'm feeling great.'

Things certainly seem to be trending up as Trebek celebrated beating the one-year survival rate for stage 4 pancreatic cancer patients with a heartfelt video shared to his legions of fans back in March.

The famed host admitted that his journey hasn't been easy and he's battled with bouts of 'great depression' through the process.

Positive news: The legendary television personality - who turns 80 next week - announced the encouraging news via a video message posted on Thursday

Trending up: He sported a new goatee as he said: 'I'd also like to take this opportunity to give you a quick health update'

'I'm doing well, I've been continuing my treatment, and it is paying off, though it does fatigue me a great deal. My numbers are good, I'm feeling great': He said

He remained optimistic about reaching two years of recovery, though, with support from his wife and 'soulmate' Jean, in addition to the 'millions of prayers' sent from well-wishers around the world.

'The one year survival rate for stage 4 pancreatic cancer patients is 18 percent,' he said. 'I'm very happy to report I have just reached that marker.'

In March 2019, the longtime host of Jeopardy!, revealed he had stage 4 of the disease, and that the prognosis was 'not very encouraging'.

'I'd be lying if I said the journey had been an easy one,' he admitted. 'There were some good days but a lot of not so good days. I joked with friends that cancer won't kill me, the chemo treatments will.

Impressive: Trebek celebrated beating the one-year survival rate for stage 4 pancreatic cancer patients with a heartfelt video shared to his legions of fans back in March

'I'd be lying if I said the journey had been an easy one,' he admitted. 'There were some good days but a lot of not so good days. I joked with friends that cancer won't kill me, the chemo treatments will'

There were moments of great pain, days when certain bodily functions no longer functioned and sudden, massive attacks of great depression that made me wonder if it really was worth fighting on.'

Trebek did his best to release the challenging feelings surrounding his serious illness and focused on staying positive.

'I brushed that aside quickly because that would have been a massive betrayal, a betrayal of my wife and soulmate Jean who has given her all to help me survive,' he said.

'I brushed that aside quickly because that would have been a massive betrayal, a betrayal of my wife and soulmate Jean who has given her all to help me survive,' he said.

Alex has been married to real estate project manager Jean Currivan since 1990 and the couple has two children together, Matthew and Emily.

In a video posted to the World Pancreatic Cancer Day YouTube page back in November, Trebek talked about the symptoms he dealt with.

Pancreatic cancer is notoriously lethal because its signs are vague, and rarely appear until late stages when the cancer has spread far, making it harder to treat.

Statement: In a video posted to the World Pancreatic Cancer Day YouTube page back in November, Trebek talked about the symptoms he dealt with

'I wished I had known sooner that the persistent stomach pain I experienced prior to my diagnosis was a symptom of pancreatic cancer,' Trebek says in the clip.

'Other common symptoms can include mid-back pain, unexplained weight loss, new onset diabetes and the yellowing of the skin or eyes.'

Trebek says he decided to join forces with the World Pancreatic Cancer Coalition to make the PSA because 'more attention and awareness are needed' to help patients 'fight and survive this disease.'

In the clip, Trebek (left and right) discussed the signs and symptoms of the disease and said he 'wished he had known sooner'. He asked viewers to wear purple in November and spread awareness on social media

He asked viewers 'to join me in this fight' by wearing purple in November and 'spreading the word on social media'.

He ends by saying: ''Together, we can get it done.'

Pancreatic cancer is caused by the abnormal and uncontrolled growth of cells in the pancreas, a large gland in the digestive system.

It typically doesn't show symptoms in the early stages. Sufferers tend to develop signs, such as back pain and jaundice, when it has spread to other organs.

Less than seven percent of patients survive five years, which means pancreatic cancer has one of the worst survival rates of all common cancers.

Trebek revealed he was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer in a video message posted to YouTube in March 2019. Pictured: Trebek holds the award for outstanding game show host at the Daytime Emmy Awards in April 2006
Court of Justice - JULIEN WARNAND/REX

Europe's top court has thrown out a US data-sharing deal which underpinned transatlantic digital trade for more than 5,000 companies,

The ruling, by the EU Court of Justice, saw the "EU-US privacy shield" invalidated due to concerns over the privacy of Europeans, with the court suggesting US surveillance laws were too far-reaching.

This was an unexpected result," said Bridget Treacy, data privacy partner at Hunton Andrews Kurth. "For businesses that transfer personal data from the EU to the US, this represents the worst of all possible outcomes."

The landmark ruling, which cannot be appealed, effectively ends the privileged access companies in the US had to personal data from Europe and puts the country on a similar footing to other nations outside the 27-country bloc.

The ruling will also complicate the transfer of a data outside the EU, and it could require regulators to vet any new transfers due to national security concerns.

"It is likely to have implications for the UKs hopes for a post-Brexit data protection adequacy ruling from the European Commission," added Ms Treacy. "The UK can expect its surveillance laws to be subject to similar scrutiny to those of the US, to assess whether they respect the privacy rights of EU citizens."

Wilbur Ross, US Secretary of Commerce said the department was "deeply disappointed" in the ruling.

"We have been and will remain in close contact with the European Commission and European Data Protection Board on this matter and hope to be able to limit the negative consequences to the $7.1 trillion transatlantic economic relationship that is so vital to our respective citizens, companies, and governments."

The case began after former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed in 2013 that the US government was snooping on people's online data and communications.

Story continues

The revelations included details on how Facebook gave US security agencies access to the personal data of Europeans.

Austrian activist and law student Max Schrems filed a complaint against Facebook, which has its EU base in Ireland, arguing that personal data should not be sent to the US because the data protection is not as strong as in Europe.

Max Schrems - JULIEN WARNAND/EPA

In its ruling it said that "in respect of certain surveillance programmes", EU citizens are not given "actionable rights before the courts against US authorities". US citizens, on the other hand, are given protections.

It also said EU data protection authorities needed to take firmer action when they received complaints over data transfers.

Mr Schrems said: I am very happy about the judgment. At first sight it seems the Court has followed us in all aspects.

"This is a total blow to the Irish DPC and Facebook. It is clear that the US will have to seriously change their surveillance laws, if US companies want to continue to play a role on the EU market.

Facebook said it was carefully considering the ruling.

Eva Nagle, associate general counsel at Facebook, said: We will ensure that our advertisers, customers and partners can continue to enjoy Facebook services while keeping their data safe and secure. We look forward to regulatory guidance in this regard."

Microsoft, meanwhile, said it had previously "provided customers with overlapping protections under both the standard contractual clauses and privacy shield frameworks for data transfers".

"Although todays ruling invalidated the use of Privacy Shield moving forward, the SCCs remain valid. Our commercial customers are already protected under SCCs.

The ruling does not mean all data transfers outside the EU will stop, as the court decided so-called "standard contractual clauses" will still be valid, which is another legal mechanism that can be used by companies.

The ECJ decision does, however, mean the US and EU will need to renegotiate their data privacy deal, and it is also likely to complicate UK-EU negotiations over a treaty that would allow continued data transfers between the UK and EU after the end of the Brexit transition period on December 31.

It will reinforce the European Commission negotiators focus on guarantees and protections around the work of security services in talks over the data adequacy agreement.

This judgment sets a high bar for an adequacy decision, especially when private sector data is processed for national security purposes," said Steve Peers, Professor of EU law at the University of Essex.

Heather Burns, a fellow at policy group Coadec, agreed that the move was a "shot across the bow" for the UK, which is in the process of looking at how it will share data with the EU after Brexit.

Boris Johnson in February said the UK was planning to set up sovereign controls over its data and could diverge away from EU rules.

Ms Burns said: "The Government needs to wake up and listen to the implications of this ruling today. It's a clear legal precedence which says, if you have a system which allows you to work to European protection standards and all that data still flows to a surveillance apparatus, that is a blocker to adequacy."

British and EU negotiators are holding talks in Brussels today before a full round of trade negotiations next week in London.

Brussels has called for a a high level of personal data protection which fully respects the Unions personal data protection rules in the negotiations over the future relationship.

The UK has fully transposed the EUs GDPR into national law but has a controversial track record in mass surveillance programs.

A European Court of Human Rights ruling in 2018 found that the UK had breached human rights protections in its mass surveillance program, afforded legitimacy by the Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA).

RIPA could have to be reformed in order to meet the EUs new standards, which could prove controversial as the UK has insisted on its right to diverge from EU rules after Brexit.
EXTON, Pa., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ricoh USA, Inc. today announced that Fusion Cross-Media, a commercial print provider, has reinvented its business goals to adapt to these difficult times, meeting evolving customer needs while contributing to local charities. After public safety stay-at-home orders began, Fusion moved quickly, leveraging its versatile capabilities to produce lawn signs honoring "healthcare heroes" for their role in the coronavirus response. Fusion donates $2 from each lawn sign order to local food distribution charities.

While Fusion, a second-generation design, marketing and print communications company, was designated an essential business, the vast majority of its customers were not. Fusion Cross-Media wanted to keep producing in order to grow new and strengthen existing relationships with surrounding communities. It needed an entirely new approach.

Eager to support communities with its new direction, Fusion set its sights on lawn signs designed to spread awareness and gratitude. The full-color, double-sided lawn signs were printed, direct to substrate, on Fusion's RICOH Pro TF6250. These signs were customized per community, proclaiming "(Municipality Name) Loves Our Healthcare Heroes" or, in some versions, "(Municipality Name) Loves Our First Responders." The back reads, "Support Your Community Heroes. Wash Hands, Social Distance, Give Blood." Each sign is numbered to help track the spread of the campaign and encourage participation, which has now touched six states.

"At the end of the day, print is all about connection. We see these signs as a great way for the community to connect, showing our shared concern for one another and our gratitude for those on the frontlines," said Zach Schwartz, President, Fusion Cross-Media. "There is so much the RICOH Pro TF6250 can do  and it can do those things extremely fast. There were several ways we could have taken this initiative, but lawn signs are so uniquely community-oriented, we knew that was the way to go. That technological versatility, paired with Ricoh's expert service and support, helped us make this pivot quickly and smoothly."

"Right now, many print providers are re-evaluating their offerings, looking for innovative ways to not only keep work coming in but also to strengthen customer relationships for the future. Fusion Cross-Media's approach is a picture-perfect example," said Heather Poulin, Vice President, Marketing, Commercial and Industrial Printing Group, Ricoh USA, Inc. "Fusion has responded to this crisis quickly, compassionately and intelligently. This is a print provider who understands that putting in the effort to engage communities in a meaningful way isn't just smart business  it's the right thing to do. We at Ricoh are honored to partner with Fusion, and to play some small role in this incredible program."

For more information on Ricoh, visit www.takealookatricohproduction.com or follow along and engage on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter using #LookAtRicoh.

| About Ricoh |

Ricoh is empowering digital workplaces using innovative technologies and services enabling individuals to work smarter. For more than 80 years, Ricoh has been driving innovation and is a leading provider of document management solutions, IT services, communications services, commercial and industrial printing, digital cameras, and industrial systems.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh Group operates in approximately 200 countries and regions. In the financial year ended March 2020, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales of 2,008 billion yen (approx. 18.5 billion USD).

For further information, please visit www.ricoh.com

 2020 Ricoh USA, Inc. All rights reserved. All referenced product names are the trademarks of their respective companies.

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Nguyen Van Xuong, former Vietnamese Ambassador to South Korea

How has the Vietnam-Korea Free Trade Agreement (VKFTA) impacted both countries trade and investment ties since it was signed and took effect in 2015?

The VKFTA has had huge impacts on the trade and investment relation between Vietnam and South Korea. South Korea is now Vietnams second-largest trade partner after China. Vietnam was South Koreas eighth-largest trade partner in 2014, but has become the fourth-largest trade partner since the VKFTA went into effect in December 2015.

Figures from Vietnams General Statistics Office (GSO) showed that two-way trade turnover hit a record $67.1 billion last year, with Vietnam earning $19.8 billion  up 8.3 per cent on-year  from exporting goods to South Korea, and spending $47.3 billion  down 0.6 per cent on-year  importing goods from this market.

In fact, before the VKFTA appeared, investment from South Korea into Vietnam increased strongly because both nations had big demand for their respective goods. South Korea has limited land area but a big population, so its investors find it difficult to cultivate investments in their homeland, while Vietnam proves to be of great potential for them in many sectors.

Moreover, Vietnam and South Korea also share many cultural similarities, making it quite favourable for South Korean financiers to expand their presence in Vietnam.

The VKFTA has served as an additional impetus for South Koreas investment in Vietnam thanks to its removal of barriers and offered tax cuts.

Figures from the GSO also showed that as of June 20, South Korea had registered $68.3 billion in Vietnam in various projects, making itself the biggest foreign investor in Vietnam. We can see South Korean projects in many localities and industrial sectors nationwide. This has and will continue contributing greatly to Vietnams socio-economic development. South Korean investment in Vietnam has demonstrated a spectacular success in the two countries bilateral ties.

However, it is said that since the VKFTA entered into force, Vietnam has annually witnessed a trade deficit with South Korea as many of its investors like Samsung and LG have developed their projects in Vietnam, and then import materials on a large scale from their homeland into Vietnam. What is your view on this?

The trade deficit is a problem that the two nations will have to deal with in the time to come. However, to reach equal trade, it would need lots of time. Now one of the important things is how to improve the quality of projects, boost technology transfer, and better human resources in service of South Korean projects in Vietnam.

To this end, both sides should discuss the projects thoroughly before implementing them. The two governments should be in charge of this job, and what benefits the projects can produce will depend on the calculation of enterprises of both sides, if the projects are joint ventures. This will help improve the quality of products, which will benefit both economies.

Currently, South Korea is the biggest foreign investor in Vietnam. What is your view on the quality of South Korea funding here?

The quality has improved recently. Any ineffective investment will not be able to contribute to development. Samsung has been contributing remarkably to Vietnams socio-economic development and it is a type of high-quality investment.

However, what is also needed from Samsung in Vietnam is that the giant should boost technology transfer in the country. So will other South Korean projects in the time to come. Vietnam is in critical need of high-quality human resources and high technologies.

One of the Vietnamese governments prime targets is to lure high-quality investment, but not all South Korean are of high quality  some have even caused environmental pollution. What should be done to limit such ventures?

It is necessary to strictly supervise the quality of contracts and how the projects are implemented. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has reaffirmed many times that Vietnam does not sacrifice the environment to achieve economic benefits.

By nature, all investment projects are aimed firstly to reap as much benefit as possible, so authorised agencies must boost their supervision over the projects. Any environmental pollution comes from the lack of awareness of violators and lax management of authorised agencies.

South Korea has been implementing its New Southern Policy. How will this policy affect relations between the two countries?

Vietnam is the central co-operation partner of South Koreas New Southern Policy. South Korea has been expanding its investment in so many nations, but investing in Vietnam seems to be more favourable to South Korea investors due to geographical proximity and Vietnams increased improvement in its business climate.
Iran could overturn death sentences issued against three young men who were arrested at anti-establishment protests last November, one of their lawyers has declared.

Wait for the news that the implementation of the sentence has been halted, lawyer Babak Paknia tweeted late on July 15, adding that defense attorneys have been given complete access to prosecutors files in the case.

We have submitted an initial request for the application of Article 477 and after a thorough study [of the case], we will submit another [request]" in an attempt to overturn the death sentences, Paknia said.

Paknia was referring to a provision in Irans Code of Criminal Procedure that authorizes the head of the judiciary to intervene in finalized rulings deemed to be in violation of Islamic law.

This image contains sensitive content which some people may find offensive or disturbing. Click to reveal This image contains sensitive content which some people may find offensive or disturbing - Click to reveal Amnesty International recorded 251 executions in Iran during 2019. (file photo)

Under that provision, hard-line cleric and judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi could instruct the Supreme Court to issue a new verdict.

The lawyers announcement came amid a massive social-media campaign calling for Iran to halt state executions. The online protest has been joined by many Iranians -- including ordinary citizens as well as intellectuals, former politicians, and prominent artists.

Using the Persian-language hashtag #Dont_Execute -- # _ -- the campaign was launched in response to confirmation on July 14 by Irans powerful judiciary that death sentences have been upheld against Amir Hossein Moradi, 25, Saeed Tamjidi, 27, and Mohammad Rajabi, 25.

The three were among many who were arrested in a brutal crackdown against demonstrators who took to the streets in dozens of cities and towns across Iran in November 2019.

Speaking on July 14, judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili appeared to suggest that the death sentences for the three men could still be reviewed.

The enforcement of a sentence has a legal process that must be followed. And it is possible that in this legal process, extraordinary retrials.change the outcome of this and other cases, Esmaili said in remarks published by the judiciary-affiliated Mizanonline.

The social-media campaign appears unprecedented in its scope and the level of participation of Iranians both within and outside Iran.

Participants are taking a united stand against the death penalty by one of the world's top executioners. Amnesty International recorded 251 executions in Iran during 2019, making Iran second to China for state executions.

Many took to Twitter, which is filtered in Iran, and Instagram, the only social-media platform that has not been blocked in the Islamic republic.

The hashtag #Dont_Execute in Persian has trended globally on Twitter, being used more than 7 million times.

Other social-networking platforms also were used to share pictures of the three Iranian men on death row and to call for their executions to be halted.

The protests, sparked by a sudden hike in the price of gasoline, focused on Irans deteriorating economy, rising poverty, and government corruption. But they quickly turned political with chants against the clerical establishment.

Amnesty International has said at least 304 people were killed in the crackdown.

Authorities also imposed a near total shutdown of the Internet for almost a week in an effort to disrupt the free flow of information.

Moradi, Tamjidi, and Rajabi were sentenced to death after being convicted on charges that include taking part in destruction and burning, aimed at confronting the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Rights groups say the three were tortured and forced to confess, a practice routinely used by Iranian authorities against political prisoners and security detainees.

Their death sentences are widely seen as an attempt to create fear in society and prevent further protests as the economy continues to suffer from mismanagement, crippling U.S. sanctions, and the coronavirus pandemic.

"It is clear that these three young men are being used as victims to burn at the stake in order to intimidate the rest of the population and silence protest," Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of the New York-based Center for Human Rights, said on July 13.

Who do you represent? When all Iranians say with one voice: Do not execute, Shiraz city council member Mehdi Hajati said in a July 14 tweet addressing Iranian leaders.

Two-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker Asghar Farhadi; politician Mostafa Tajzadeh, a former interior ministry official; human rights activist Bahareh Hedayat; photojournalist Newsha Tavakolian; poet Garous Abdolmalekian; actress Taraneh Alidousti; and composer Keyvan Saket were among the many who used social media to express their opposition to the execution of Moradi, Tamjidi, and Rajabi.

Nothing shakes and weakens the foundation of the establishment and provokes public revenge and uprising like the shedding of the blood of innocent people, the outspoken Tajzadeh wrote on Twitter.

Authorities have not publicly reacted to the social-media campaign that made the front page of Iranian daily Hamshahri, which is affiliated with the Tehran municipality.

Netblocks, a website that monitors international Internet outages, reported significant disruption to multiple networks in Iran on July 14 as the social-media campaign was unfolding.

It wasnt immediately clear if the disruption was a move by government censors to counter the online dissent.

Tehran has disrupted or attempted to block the Internet on numerous occasions amid sensitive political developments and widespread anti-establishment protests.
Several nonprofit groups are calling for the elimination of school police programs, saying the practice contributes to a school-to-prison pipeline for a disproportionate number of minority students and students with disabilities.

Instead, the money should be invested in counseling and other mental health services, the groups said.

On Wednesday, the groups sent a letter to Nebraska school superintendents asking them to drop the practice.

As long as schools prioritize punishment over treatment and services, at-risk students will be pushed out of schools and onto the path of delinquency, the letter says. This hurts us all. Too many schools are wrongly investing in security systems and hiring police officers rather than spending these scarce resources on counselors, mental health support and other services.

According to the groups, 43 districts have sworn law enforcement officers in their schools.
The nurses Stacey Diamond supervises in Humble ISD never had normal days at work, even before COVID-19 began infecting people in greater Houston and Texas, causing the governor to close all public schools in the state.

Now, the coming school year seems even more unpredictable. All nurses in the district northeast of Texas are taking contact tracing training offered through John Hopkins University and are helping principals map out plans for what to do if someone appears to have the new coronavirus.

Theyre going to be assessing more for illness and requirements for sending people home, Diamond said. And theyre going to be sending people home quicker and not letting them sit in the clinic, so not to expose themselves.

Exposure may be hard to avoid. When campuses reopen in Texas, school nurses will be at the forefront of containing and responding to possible COVID-19 infections in educational settings.

Although the logistics of how students and staff will return remain murky in most districts, health professionals agree school-based nurses likely will have to train teachers to screen students for potential exposure to the virus, teach students and staff the correct ways to use personal protective equipment, provide breathing treatments for anyone who may struggle and isolate students or staff who may have COVID-19.

Some campuses, however, will be without that extra help.

Texas does not require schools to keep nurses on staff, making it among the 30 states that did not mandate the position as of October 2017, according to the Network for Public Health Law. While some local school districts, including Humble and Cypress-Fairbanks ISDs, have opted to staff all their schools with nurses, 37 of Houston ISDs 273 campuses did not have nurses working there each day in 2019-2020, according to district records.

Houston ISD declined an interview request, but issued a statement saying more campuses would have nurses on site to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. Some campuses will share a nurse if there are two schools on the same property or if they have an enrollment of less than 350 students, according to the statement.

A COVID-19 Nurse Team was created to assist with current trends to reduce exposures, HISD officials wrote. Extra PPE has been ordered for the nurses protection during daily encounters with individuals that may be COVID-19 positive.

In schools that do not have nurses, the work of keeping kids healthy often is delegated to teachers and, sometimes, school secretaries, said Laurie Combe, president of the National School Nurse Association and a retired Klein ISD nurse.

Godofredo A. Vasquez/Staff photographer

The Texas Education Agency does not keep data on how many schools or districts lack nurses, and who serves in that role when none are present. Combe is lobbying TEA to begin collecting that information this year.

The risk for the schools in Houston that dont have a school nurse would be the same for any school: Who is interpreting the medical evidence for the staff and helping them to understand how to safely bring students back into the classrooms? Combe said. Infection control is a pretty precise science, and often people dont think of all the little things we need to be concerned with.

Then there are the non-COVID-19 illnesses and health issues. Combe and Diamond said families may have skipped checkups or trips to get required immunizations since much of the country shut down in March.

Many school nurses already were swamped when COVID came around.

Carleen Johnson, health service coordinator at Alief ISD, said at some of the districts larger elementary schools, between 150 and 200 kids shuffle in and out of the campus clinic each day. The high demand is born out of necessity  about 84 percent of the districts students are economically disadvantaged, and Johnson said many are not covered by insurance.

Were going to have to streamline visits. We will have to go to appointments, because after each visit we will have to clean the clinic, Johnson said. And were still looking at things students normally have, there are still going to be stomach aches and sore throats to take care of. But a lot of those symptoms are closely related to COVID.

She said her staff likely will have to refer students to free clinics, like the Memorial Hermann Alief Clinic, which serves Alief ISD high school students free of charge. Even with that additional help, Johnson said the coming school year will look far different for nurses than any in recent memory.

Well be doing 150 percent more just trying to keep everybody safe, Johnson said.

In the Rio Grande Valley, where counties have ordered refrigerated trucks to preserve the remains of COVID-19 victims and the U.S. Army is helping hospitals care for the sick, two school nurses told the Chronicle they rarely got breaks between injured and sick students before the pandemic.

And although the Cameron County Health Authority and Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez ordered schools to postpone bringing students back, and other counties may follow suit, both nurses said they worry about the day students return.

For now, they are work-shopping ideas for how to keep themselves and their school communities on Facebook: What type of masks should we wear? How much can we depend on the state and our districts for PPE when even hospitals are struggling to find the right gear? How can we best isolate sick people without getting sick ourselves?

Well probably have the highest exposure, because well see all the sick kids, one of the nurses said, asking her name and district be withheld because neither she nor her colleague were authorized to speak to the media.

Its just waiting for that first person to get sick, the other said. Where do we go after that? As soon as that starts, thatll be interesting to say the least.

shelby.webb@chron.com
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Linkedin Zoe Tabary (Thomson Reuters Foundation) London, United Kingdom  Thu, July 16, 2020 13:30 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666c5833 2 World housing,land,land-acquisition,housing-sector Free

Almost one billion people around the world fear losing their homes or land within five years, with owners and tenants in Burkina Faso and the Philippines the most concerned, a survey of 140 nations showed on Wednesday.

About one in five adults (19%) worry that their housing, fields or other land could be taken away from them in the near future, hampering their ability to invest or plan, according to the Prindex global property rights index.

"Land and housing insecurity is a huge issue hiding in plain sight," said Malcolm Childress, executive director of the Global Land Alliance, a Washington-based think tank that compiles the index with the British Overseas Development Institute.

"Tenure security is important for individual decision making and has knock-on effects on what people do with their assets, whether they send their kids to school, or invest in better crops," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

A lack of formal documentation and poor implementation of land laws threaten tenure in many countries, experts say, with more than 5 billion people lacking proof of ownership, according to the Lima-based Institute for Liberty and Democracy.

People in the Philippines and Burkina Faso reported the highest levels of concern, with nearly half of respondents (48% and 44%) fearing their homes could be taken away.

That compared with Singapore and Rwanda, which had the lowest rates of concern in the same two regions, with 4% and 8% respectively.

"It's not surprising, given the unrest in both Burkina and the Philippines, that expressed levels of insecurity are rising," said Karol Boudreaux, chief program officer at land rights charity Landesa.

"Violent conflict displaces many people, and those left as well as powerful actors take advantage to seize properties," she said in emailed comments.

The survey, conducted by US polling firm Gallup and launched on Wednesday, is the largest-ever effort documenting how secure people feel about their homes and land at a global level.

Although data collection was completed before the global outbreak of the novel coronavirus, housing insecurity could further increase as the easing of lockdowns in cities may lead to a rise in evictions, Childress said.

"We already have a lot of insecurity globally and the pandemic has thrown a huge shock on top of that," he said. "The United States for example is facing a massive eviction crisis."

Improving land and housing security will require training and awareness campaigns for people to exercise their rights and prove property ownership, and protecting renters from evictions, the report said.

For example, authorities from Colombia to Nepal are using digital evidence such as photographs to establish property claims, in particular for the estimated 70 million people who have been forced from their homes by wars, natural disasters and other events.

Nearly 170,000 people in 140 countries were questioned about ownership or tenure for the index.

Prindex is an initiative of PlaceFund  a venture fund with which the Thomson Reuters Foundation has a partnership on property rights coverage  and the UK's Department for International Development.
Thiruvananthapuram, July 16 : Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday said that the total number of Covid positive cases as on date in Kerala has crossed 10,000, of which 5372 are positive cases.

"The day saw 722 people turn Covid positive and it included 481 local infectees. Thiruvananthapuram district is seeing a huge spike as 339 positive cases are there. The state today has 84 clusters where there are cases, of which 10 are large clusters," said Vijayan.

Vijayan said some people, whose family members turned positive, are facing the people's anger and this should not happen.

"With the numbers increasing, steps have been taken to open 100 bed Covid first line centres in all the local bodies in the state. Likewise small clinics and private hospitals would also play their part when the need arises. Some of these are presently closed," added Vijayan.

He pointed out that since clusters have been identified, containment zones would now be in place and this has proved to be a success.

"Though there are a few different lines of treatment, allopathy treatment would be better and it has been proved also. This does not mean we are against any other branch of medicine. For this, allopathy would be the holistic one," said Vijayan.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Patna, July 16 : The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav and the Congress have taken a dig at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after the collapse of the Sattarghat bridge also called Ramjanki path on Gandak River in Gopalganj district. The bridge was inaugurated by Chief Minister Kumar on June 16.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav and Bihar Congress chief Madan Mohan Jha attacked the Chief Minister on the issue.

Tejashwi Yadav, who is also the Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, taunted Kumar saying, beware, if someone called it corruption of Nitish Kumar.

He said that Kumar would not utter a word in this matter.

Tejashwi posted a picture and video of the culvert and road on his official Twitter handle, saying, "The bridge was built in 8 years at a cost of Rs 263 crore but it collapsed in just 29 days. Bhishma Pitamah of organized corruption Nitish ji will neither speak a word, nor will he sack the corrupt Minister who claims to give Range Rover experiance through a bicycle ride. There is loot in Bihar everywhere." In another tweet, he wrote in sarcasm, "Nitish ji inaugurated the Sattar Ghat bridge of Gopalganj constructed at a cost of Rs 263.47 crore in 8 years, on June 16. Just 29 days later this bridge has collapsed. Beware! If someone calls it corruption of Nitish ji? Rs 263 crore is just a gift. His rats drink liquor worth this amount." A minister in 2017 had blamed rats for making holes in the embankments which led to the collapse of the structure.

The Congress also targeted the Nitish government. Senior Congress leader and former state president of Youth Congress Lallan Kumar said this is the result of corruption of the BJP-JDU government. The investigation of the one scam has not even been completed yet and now this. Such a big scam has surfaced on the Ramjanaki path.

He said now ministers and officials will share the spoils of the loot. He said that crores of rupees are spent every year in the name of repair of roads during floods, which is like a celebrations for leaders and officials of the ruling party.

The Ramjanaki path which was inaugurated just a month ago could not withstand the pressure of Gandak river in Gopalganj district of Bihar and collapsed, creating hindrance to the traffic on this route.

With this, the contact with several districts of North Bihar was lost due to road link snap in Khomhaipur in Baikunthpur block of Gopalganj district.

This road mainly connects Kesariya and Baikunthpur in East Champaran. An amount of about Rs 263 crore was spent in the construction of the bridge, culvert and approach road.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Serial sex offender Philip Brookes wanted to be found by paedophile hunters, beaten up and murdered because he did not think prison was a good enough punishment, a jury was told today.

The 41-year-old said that he knew the '11-year-old girl' he was talking to on a chatline was a actually a man and assumed it was a paedophile hunter.

He decided to wind him up with talk of bestiality in the hope the hunters would come for him.

The jury heard that was exactly what did happen and the group of vigilantes travelled from the north of England overnight to the Isle of Wight where they confronted Brookes, with one of them punching him in the ribs.

Serial sex offender Philip Brookes, pictured, told a court he wanted to be found by paedophile hunters and murdered because he did not think prison was a good enough punishment

The story was told at Winchester Crown Court where Brookes is on trial for paedophile charges - all of which he denies.

Prosecutors told the jury that Brookes had a long list of previous convictions for offences against children and that he had told the police he wanted to be attacked and punished.

The court heard that Brookes, who described himself as a 'carer' for an elderly man, was accosted by a group of paedophile hunters who he said had only targeted him because he had started 'winding them up' online by pretending to speak to children.

He had been surrounded by several men and women from a group calling themselves 'Northwest Hebephile Hunters,' who led him into an alleyway and briefly pinned him against a wall, where one of them punched Brookes in the ribs, the jury heard.

Brookes was accused of being a 'nonce' by the paedophile hunters, who said they had been speaking to him online while pretending to be an 11-year-old girl, prosecutors said.

In video footage shown in court, the group accused Brookes of sending lewd messages and discussing bestiality involving dogs with their fake account, named Sasha.

Speaking in his defence at his trial yesterday, Brookes claimed he had never believed the Sasha account was an underage girl and knew it was an adult paedophile hunter all along.

Brooks had told police in interview: 'I already knew that it was an adult from the start because of the way they were writing the texts.

'Kids would not know all those long words they were using. They even sent me a voice message that sounded like a six-year-old. I just wanted to wind them up.

'They said they were 11 years old but I did not believe them. I was 100 per cent sure it was a male. I just started taking the p***, saying nasty stuff to them, just because I knew it was an adult. I would not have said all of those things to a child.'

The court heard how one of the female paedophile hunters had whispered to make her voice sound like that of a little girl and sent a recording to Brookes, who said that 'Sasha's' profile picture was that of an American teenager whose suicide had been reported in the media.

Brookes, who was caring for a housemate full-time before his arrest on January 3, told police he had wanted to be attacked by the paedophile hunting group in the hope they might murder him.

They had arranged to meet outside a supermarket on East Cowes in the Isle of Wight, where the paedophile hunters, who had travelled overnight to confront Brookes, live-streamed the encounter to Facebook, in a video which received over 200,000 views in 24 hours and was later taken down.

Brookes' home address had been shared online and an unknown vandal had written the word 'nonce' on his property, the jury was told.

The paedophile hunter group arranged to meet Brookes outside a supermarket on the Isle of Wight after he engaged in online chat with them while they posed as an 11-year-old girl

The defendant claimed he had been taking anti-depressants before the incident and had been experiencing suicidal thoughts due to the pressure of caring for an elderly man.

Entering the witness box at Winchester Crown Court, Brookes said: 'I did not want to kill myself because I did not want the person I was caring for to come and find me.

'I was just afraid it would alter his life in some way and he was the only friend I had.

'I knew paedophile hunters hate people like me. I thought they would come down, beat me up or take me somewhere and kill me.

'I knew I was going to meet a man, I did not realise how many of them were going to be there. I thought I was going to get dragged off and put in a van or something.

'They started recording on their phones and giving me verbal abuse. I was a bit gutted when the police turned up because things did not work out how I thought.'

The prosecution revealed Brookes was a convicted paedophile, who had committed eight offences against children since 2012 and had been made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, although added that the defendant had previously admitted all his offences at the first opportunity.

In his police interview, Brookes had said: 'I do not think I have been fully justified because of the stuff that I have done.

'I have been to prison. I do not think I have been properly reprimanded. The punishment I received was nothing.

Brookes told Winchester Crown Court he had had suicidal thoughts but did not want his friend to find his body if he took his own life

'I just wanted the paedophile hunters to come find and hurt me. I know that they are trying to do a good job for those other kids and I am like scum to them.

'It was not about the fact of getting beaten up, I wanted to be getting caught by them.'

However, Brookes denied being sexually attracted to children, stating he was addicted to the thrill of evading capture for downloading images of children and had been paid to upload naked images of a 12-year-old girl, who he sexually assaulted, to the internet.

Hampshire Police had received copies of the chat logs from the paedophile hunters, which was used as the basis of the case against Brookes.

In the video footage of the meeting, which was disclosed to the court by a journalist in court, the paedophile hunters could be heard telling Brookes they would use 'reasonable force' to restrain him if he tried to escape.

Brookes, of Clarence Road, East Cowes, Isle of Wight, denies four charges of attempting to incite a girl under the age of 13 to engage in sexual activity with a child and one count of attempting to have sexual communication with a child.

The trial continues.
China summons US envoy to protest Hong Kong sanctions

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 15 July 2020 11:09 PM

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has summoned the US ambassador to Beijing over its unilateral sanctions against Hong Kong.

US Ambassador Terry Branstad was summoned on Wednesday to receive an official warning from Deputy Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang.

The move came hours after President Donald Trump stripped Hong Kong of preferential trade treatment and authorized sanctions on banks on the pretext of the new national security law in Hong Kong.

"This is gross interference in China's internal affairs and seriously violates international law and basic norms of international relations," the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement.

The statement said in order to safeguard its own legitimate interests, China will take the necessary response to the US' wrong actions, including sanctions against US entities and individuals.

The US ambassador was also told that his country had recently taken "bad actions" on the Chinese regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, and the South China Sea, "further exposing the nature of its hegemony".

"With regard to this, China has and will continue to take countermeasures to resolutely safeguard its core interests. I want to tell the US that any bullying and injustice it imposes on China will be resolutely countered," the statement added.

Trump's move came two weeks after Hong Kong enacted a national security law that criminalizes sedition, secession, and subversion against mainland China and allows Chinese national security institutions to operate in the city for the first time since 1997, when Hong Kong returned from British to Chinese rule.

The US, Britain, and other Western countries have criticized the law and have moved to take action against Beijing and Hong Kong. China, however, insists that Hong Kong is a purely internal Chinese affair.

Relations between the United States and China have hit the lowest level in decades. The two are at loggerheads over a range of issues, including trade, human rights, the South China Sea, arms sales to Taiwan and the coronavirus pandemic.

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Michigan reports 891 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, July 15; highest number in 2 months

Michigan reported 891 more confirmed cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, July 15, its highest number since mid-May when the daily report included a backlog of cases.

The state also reported four new COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday.

Wednesdays number is the highest daily number since 1,191 cases were reported on May 14. However, the May 14 report included a backlog of cases from a commercial lab, state officials said at the time. Excluding that situation, the last time the daily case report was that high was April 29.

In total, Michigan has reported 71,197 confirmed cases and 6,085 deaths linked to COVID-19.

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Health officials recommend looking at seven-day moving averages to evaluate data trends during the pandemic. The state is averaging 526 new cases, and 11 new deaths per day.

As of Wednesday,the states hospital systems were treating 415 coronavirus patients, up from 388 on Monday. There are currently 109 on ventilators, down slightly from 113.

About 72% of in-patient hospital beds were reported occupied in total, which was unchanged from the previous report.

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Michigan already has more coronavirus cases in July than all of June; track the trend in your county

Michigan has reported 6,436 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the first 14 days of July. Thats more than the 6,338 cases reported statewide for all of June.

Its a concerning trend, particularly since the numbers are still coming in for infections linked to July 4 holiday celebrations.

Washtenaw County, for instance, has reported at least 48 confirmed cases linked to a large house party in Saline over the holiday weekend, and a massive July 4 celebration at Torch Lake in northern Michigan has been named as a potential exposure site.

So far, Michigan has had almost 5,200 cases of coronavirus in which the onset of symptoms occurred in the eight days since the holiday weekend, including 1,005 cases in which the onset date was reported as July 10. And those numbers are likely to grow, as more test results come in for people who became ill last week.

By comparison, thats almost triple the caseload reported in the aftermath of the Memorial Day weekend when most of the state was still under a stay-at-home order.

Federal COVID response team headed to Grand Rapids area as new cases rise

A federal COVID-19 response team is being dispatched to West Michigan as the region experiences a growing number of new confirmed cases.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services confirmed that its federal counterpart is dispatching a COVID-19 Response Assistance Field Team to assist local officials. The news comes on the same day Gov. Gretchen Whitmer extended Michigans state of emergency through August 11, citing an increase in new coronavirus cases.

In a statement, Whitmer said a rise in new cases recorded during the last several weeks prove that this virus is still a very real threat in our state. The governor highlighted that daily COVID-19 case counts exceed 20 cases per million in the Detroit, Lansing, Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo regions.

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Michigans June unemployment rate surpassed that of the Great Recession

Michigans unemployment rate fell 6.5 % to 14.8% in June but remains well above pre-pandemic levels and slightly above the unemployment rate reported during the Great Recession in 2009, state officials said in a statement Wednesday, July 15.

While the addition of 464,000 jobs helped bring down the 21.3% May unemployment rate, the total number of Michigan jobs remained 565,000 below February, according to data released by the Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget.

The number of unemployed Michiganders was 50% higher than in June of 2019 and the jobless rate between March and June of this year averaged 19.9 percent, which was likely a record high and certainly the highest among comparable quarterly data back to 1976, the Department of Technology, Management & Budget said.

Gov. Whitmer revises, extends order allowing remote supervision of pharmacist students

Pharmacist students can continue training with remote supervision under an executive order issued by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Tuesday.

Michigan has made incredible progress in slowing the spread of COVID-19, but we are not out of the woods yet. Our pharmacists are on the front lines serving as an integral part of our fight against COVID-19, and we must continue to ensure they have the support they need, Whitmer said in a press release.

By allowing student pharmacies to continue their education and supervision remotely, we can maintain talent in a safe and efficient way.

The order means pharmacy students wont have to delay graduation, according to the press release.

It also scales back other provisions that had waived some aspects of the public health code in order to give pharmacies a greater ability to address the increased demand for their services during the coronaviurs pandemic.

Read the order here.

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Current status of Michigans coronavirus crisis: Is glass half full or half empty?

At a time when states such as Florida, Arizona, Texas and California are each reporting thousands of new coronavirus cases daily and even Ohio and Wisconsin are reporting record numbers, Michigan is looking relatively good.

Michigans seven-day average on Monday, July 13, was 558 cases a day. That compares to 736 for Wisconsin, 1,206 for Ohio, 2,989 for Georgia, 3,196 for Arizona, 8,334 for California, 9,195 for Texas and 10,855 for Florida.

In per-capita COVID-19 cases, Michigan is now below the national average and ranks 28th among the 50 states.

Thats a big change from early April, when Michigan was third in the nation in the highest number of coronavirus cases and people from Ohio to Florida were questioning what Michigan was doing wrong.

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For more statewide data, visit MLives coronavirus data page, here.

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.

More coronavirus coverage on MLive:

Michigan man arrested for allegedly pulling a knife on Meijer employee over mask request

Local Eats: 4 Corners Cafe owner brought to tears by community support amid pandemic

20 Michigan junior colleges moving most fall, winter sports to spring for 2020-21
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former head of the federal Food and Drug Administration who is an adviser to Gov. Ned Lamont, warned Thursday that Connecticut is likely to see another major surge of the coronavirus this fall because its still raging throughout much of the country, even as its spread has slowed down here.

Im very concerned that at some point were going to see a national epidemic, Gottlieb said during Lamonts daily news conference from the State Capitol. This is a virus that wants to infect 50 or 60 percent of the population. Only a small portion of the population at this point has been infected. And as you get into flu season, this is going to spread more widely.

Four months into the pandemic, the United States has not yet shown the ability to contain the virus, he said.

Lamont reported the latest state statistics, with nine new fatalities bringing the total to 4,389 since the first death on March 17. A net loss of one patient brought the total hospitalized statewide to only 66, down from 1,972 on April 22. Lamont said that between July 5 and 11, the largest number of new COVID-19 cases, nearly 120, were among people aged 20 to 29, probably because social distancing rules were ignored.

I think at this point, many of us hoped that the infection level would be much lower, and we would be heading into the fall with much lower levels of infection, said Gottlieb, a state resident whose children attend public schools. But when you have this much of infection around the country, those systems become overwhelmed. I think there is a significant risk that were going to have more wide-spread infections across multiple states, multiple regions.

Gottlieb predicted that since more than 40 states are seeing big increases in infections, its bound to head back to the Northeast. The reality is we have six more months of COVID, Gottlieb said. This is going to be touch and go.

Lamont, who said that the latest sample showed only a one-percent positivity rate in 11,453 COVID tests, said that if 15-to-20 percent of students decided to stay at home for virtual learning in the fall, smaller class sizes might be able to slow the spread. He noted that surveys recently returned from communities including Stonington and Fairfield indicate that as many as one fifth of parents are reticent to send their kids back to school.

Were letting parents make their own decision, Lamont said. Parents are going to be cautious. Some school kids are going to stay at home, and thats going to open up space within the classrooms. Just like many people dont want to go to an indoor restaurant right now, so even though weve got it capped at 50 percent, there are fewer people in there, because it takes a while to catch up.

Lamont has indefinitely suspended Phase 3 reopenings of bars and full indoor seating at restaurants that had been scheduled for this coming weekend.

kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT
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Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Moscow, Russia  Thu, July 16, 2020 11:00 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666ba860 2 World Russia,LGBT,LGBTQ,same-sex-marriage,LGBT-rights,same-sex-partners,legalization,same-sex-relationships,gay-marriage,gay-rights Free

Russian lawmakers late on Tuesday submitted draft legislation that would ban same-sex marriage after voters backed changes to the constitution which define marriage as a union of a man and a woman only.

The changes, championed by President Vladimir Putin, were overwhelmingly approved by voters this month in an exercise that opened the door to Putin staying in power until 2036. Critics said the outcome was falsified, something authorities rejected.

Putin, who has aligned himself with the Russian Orthodox Church and sought to distance Russia from liberal Western values, has said he will not legalize gay marriage as long as he is in the Kremlin.

Enshrining a de facto ban in the constitution means any potential successors would find it hard to legalize same-sex marriage even if they wanted to.

The draft legislation, which is expected to be swiftly approved by the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, explicitly bans gay marriage and outlaws same sex couples adopting children, something they cannot now do in practice anyway.

Elena Mizulina, a senator and one of the authors of the legislation, said the marriage and adoption ban would also extend to transgender people, the Interfax news agency reported.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the legislation was part of what he called a formalization of new laws following the constitutional vote.
The resignation of Bari Weiss is interesting because it is an issue of freedom of press in America  one that points to a curtailing of freedom from a direction not usually accused of being an enemy of free speech and free thought.

The resignation of Bari Weiss, from her role as an editor at The New York Times, has kicked off a mighty kerfuffle around America. The world, which still looks up to that country and its journalistic institutions because the Global Times of China is some way from filling the gap, is looking on with interest and a probable measure of bemusement. After all, there are countries where things are reminiscent of the fictional kingdom of Wadiya from a film called The Dictator in which the dictator wins races by the simple expedient of shooting his competitors. The bearded men  they are always bearded men, except in China and Russia  ruling these kingdoms tend to deal with awkward questions from journalists by having them murdered in embassies. A mere opinion editor resigning over something called a difference of opinion alleging bullying, when all her limbs are still intact and in their rightful places, must seem to them rather strange.

Nonetheless, many things are properly measured only in relation to themselves. China and Saudi Arabia are not yardsticks by which freedom of press in America can be measured, except in jest. The resignation of Bari Weiss is interesting because it is an issue of freedom of press in America  one that points to a curtailing of freedom from a direction not usually accused of being an enemy of free speech and free thought. Weiss is a conservative, and in her resignation letter she has accused her liberal colleagues of constant bullying for what she described as her forays into Wrongthink. She has also mentioned that some of her co-workers insisted she needed to be rooted out if the company was to be truly inclusive.

It seems odd that exclusion of a thoughtful Conservative voice in the NYTs newsroom would be viewed by anyone as necessary for it to be inclusive. However, the woke Liberals, a group to which the most militant social justice warriors tend to belong, are not particularly known for their tolerance of opposing views. It is therefore possible that they would have been keen to see Weiss out. She presents a difficult target for those who thrive on Liberal identity politics; she is a woman and a Jew. It is safe to surmise that a straight white Christian man in her place with the same political views would have been evicted sooner; in the politics of historical revenge, many of the woke see todays white man as fair target for the sins of his ancestors.

Similar ideas have made their way, along with the direct or indirect influence of American and British college educations, to sections of Indian newsrooms too. However, the problems for journalism here are substantially different than those at The New York Times, and this is evident from Weiss resignation letter itself. If a persons ideology is in keeping with the new orthodoxy, they and their work remain unscrutinised. Everyone else lives in fear of the digital thunderdome. Online venom is excused so long as it is directed at the proper targets. Op-eds that would have easily been published just two years ago would now get an editor or a writer in serious trouble, if not fired, Weiss wrote in her resignation.

This sounds very familiar. Many journalists and editors did indeed get into serious trouble, with police cases being slapped on them for the crime of doing journalism, but the attack came in almost every instance from BJP governments. Several reporters and editors have lost their jobs, not for their views on transgenders or gays but because they were not sufficiently laudatory towards the party in power, and the Hindu nationalist Right. As for a real clash of ideas within newsrooms  haha.

Try to picture this: an editorial meeting is in progress. Arnab Goswami, channel head of Republic TV, is sitting silently at the head of the table, smiling a beatific smile as a young reporter energetically pitches a story idea on how terribly the Modi government has messed up the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, or the Chinese ingress into Ladakh, or the economy. Arnab hears her out and finally says good idea, please go ahead. Maybe Im a bit of a cynic, but I reckon the chances of pigs developing wings are higher.

The issue for free and fair journalism here is not a clash of ideologies inside newsrooms. It is that free and fair journalism itself is out of favour, so there is no question of an actual contest of views within newsrooms.

Woke Liberals would presumably not apply for jobs to Republic, Times Now or Swarajya. If they do, they do so with full knowledge of what the job entails, because the output is there for everyone to see. Similarly, in earlier times, The Hindu was known to be a Left-liberal bastion, where a Right-winger would be a misfit. Even the Hindustan Times was strictly centrist; both the jholawala Left and the Hindutva Right were viewed with some suspicion there. That didnt mean there were no Leftists or Right-wingers in its newsrooms. Indeed, several people who worked there, outwardly displaying liberal outlooks, rapidly became Hindutva bigots once the government at the Centre changed.

Not only individuals, entire news organisations in India shift stances depending on the party in power. The shifts flow from the top, and people down the organisational hierarchy fall in line or find themselves side-lined or sacked. Who pays the piper, calls the tuneideology, to the extent that it is invoked, is a mere wrapping for the naked reality that the shifts are determined by considerations of ad revenues, profits, and access to those in power.

Before 2014, Right-wingers in India used to rail against the mainstream media, calling it paid media and journalists presstitutes because they perceived that the media was biased against them. Now they no longer have any problems with bias, because the bias is for them. Practically the entire mainstream media, with a scant few exceptions, has adjusted to become friendly towards the regime in power. This would not be possible if the Indian media was like the American media, where newsrooms of institutions such as The New York Times have remained true to their ideological moorings  perhaps excessively and militantly so, to the extent of bullying the rare dissenting Conservative in the paper, as the case of Bari Weiss shows.

The writer is an author, journalist and former newspaper editor. He tweets as @mrsamratx

 Photo by Lotus Head from FreeImages
It is odd that the Chinese managed to outflank us on such a large swathe of the undefined border areas, from the west to the east, without us getting to know about it or if we did, without us doing anything about it till after the event. In its attempt to define portions of Line of Actual Control by force, it cannot be that the Chinese troops became invisible to Indian surveillance as they surged forward to depth areas. It is remarkable that over twenty years after Pakistanis did the very same thing in nearby Kargil, after an exponential growth of Indian expertise in these areas and tonnes of secret reports to address our security environment, after a multiplicity of agencies set up and assets deployed to make us more secure, after five national security advisers and one Chief of Defence Staff, we should find ourselves in this situation. Surely, sooner or later, some explanation is called for?

The Chinese goal is to remap the areas it is occupying militarily to suit its strategic purposes. What we see now is the thin edge of the wedge. Gone is the ambiguity that swirled around Chinese intentions when it moved into Dokhlam valley. The Chinese military advances will inevitably bring in its wake, concomitant infrastructure developments that will further and irretrievably consolidate its claims. From the Chinese point of view, this task is best done when the infrastructure skew in its favour and it places New Delhi at a very significant disadvantage; despite New Delhis recent and belated feverish and feeblish scramble to improve the infrastructure situation. At a conservative estimate, any army general who has served in those areas will tell you that at least seventy percent of the border areas with China lack meaningful infrastructure to keep Indian soldiers easily and well supplied. That means bridges, tunnels, all-weather roads, airstrips, helipads and other kinds of connectivity that modern armies operate on. Along many stretches of the borders our soldiers routinely go out on patrol for days into the remote inhospitable mountains, with just enough survival ration, and return several kilograms lighter in bodyweight for their ardor while the Chinese flit about like ghosts looking for more places to haunt while slicing salami. In many forward areas, essentials are transported on mule backs and ponies, equipment airdropped in remote locations to keep our soldiers supplied in the wilderness, in areas that we claim to be our territory but have made little attempt to maintain a formidable and deterrent forward presence. So long we have been lulled comprehensively into complacence thinking that the various dud bilateral agreements and smooth talking by glib diplomats alone would maintain the status quo and a reasonably episodic quantum of peace and tranquility along the border areas with China, all the while glossing over the reality.

It is time to grasp the nettle. As a result of the various wars India has fought with Pakistan and China, there are four distinct aspects to the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir. One is the area occupied by Pakistan, the other is the area India administers, portion of the area that was acceded to India, then there is the portion taken in the 62 war by China and administered by China. The fourth is a portion of the Trans-Karakoram range, in the Shaksgam Valley, abutting Siachen that Pakistan ceded to China less than a year after the 62 war with China under a boundary agreement that explicitly states that once India and Pakistan arrive at a settlement on Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan and China would renegotiate their boundary in these areas. This pushed the Chinese control further south. It is also a recorded fact that at various points in the seven rounds of discussions that India has had with Pakistan on the Siachen glacier, Pakistan has sought to involve China. Further, since the eighties, Pakistani maps show a straight line that connects the furthest point NJ9842, on the line of control, to the Karakoram Pass, arguing it is implicit in the 1963 agreement with China. This formulation on NJ9842 was more or less repeated by the then Pakistan Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz during the height of Kargil intrusion, the aim of which was to starve Indian troops of logistical wherewithal by seeking to choke supply routes to Ladakh and Siachen. In the first round of Siachen talks, which ended without a statement being issued in January 1986, Pakistan had also asserted that traditional administrative control over Nubra valley, part of the Siachen mountain conglomeration, saying it was historically a part of Baltistan, administered from Skardu and Khapalu. That joint Chinese-Pakistani quest still is, as some would colourfully term it, a work in progress.

As China explores establishing new, alternate and shorter road routes to warm waters in its quest to bind the region and bend it to its will, the strategic interests of China and Pakistan converge emphatically in more ways than one around the Karakoram ranges and beyond. It should be obvious that given Chinese acquisitory instincts, its fevered territorial imaginings, and Shaolin-type derring-do, what may have been regarded as militarily and road-wise preposterous in eighties may not seem nearly as preposterous now, forty years on. The Karakoram pass, it has been pointed out, is less than thirteen kilometers as the crow flies, from Daulat Beg Oldie bridge that supplies the last village in the sub sector north along the Shyok river. Galwan valley, where the Chinese troops are amassed is in Karakoram range.

No amount of international ganging up against China, or combinations of it, is going to deter China from its strategic goals in its steadfastly undefined border areas with India. New Delhi has no choice but to rapidly, militarily, logistically, operationally scale up its presence in Aksai Chin areas, as well as in other areas where China has red-flagged its intentions. It should maintain a robust, year round, permanent force posture. This is probably the best way to temporarily moderate Chinese behavior, as politicians and diplomats bring up the rear. If we have managed to box the Pakistanis into a no-win situation in Saltoro Ridge, north of Point NJ9842 in the freezing and inhumane Siachen areas, there is no reason why it cant be duplicated with the Chinese. A consistent shoulder-to-shoulder, eye-to-eye deployment will lessen any ambiguity that exists in both sides actual control in these hitherto militarily undefined areas. If it worked in Dokhlam there is no reason to believe it wont in other areas.
Sponsored by a global network of grassroots and non-governmental organizations, this year's Summit takes place at a pivotal moment in the 40-year organized opposition to the current Iranian regime, with unparalleled global attention on the death sentences of Amirhossein Moradi, Saeed Tamjidi, and Mohammad Rajabi all arrested during the Iran protests in November where over 1500 people were killed by suppressive forces.

"This is not an Iranian issue; this is a human rights issue. To be executed for drinking alcohol, expressing one's opinion and other unfounded charges is reprehensible and intolerable. We must join together and stand for a free Iran," Samira Ardalani, from the Iranian Youth Democratic Association.

More than 1,000 prominent dignitaries will participate along with supporters from more than 30,000 zoom locations around the world. Featured speakers include Rudy Giuliani, Joe Lieberman, Bob Torricelli, Michele Alliot-Marie, Giulio Terzi, Dr. Hoda Abdel Nasser, Ingrid Betancourt and Rama Yade among other officials and leading human rights activists.

Through the event which will be held in solidarity with the people of Iran and the nationwide uprisings and in support of Resistance Units inside Iran, affiliated with the main opposition movement the Mojahedin-e-khalq (MEK/PMOI), messages from members of Resistance Units will be shared with the international community.

The livestreaming event is free and open to a global audience at any of the following online locations:

Twitter: @Iran_Policy (English), @NCRIArabic (Arabic), @hambastegi_meli (Farsi)

Facebook: /IranNCR (English); /NCRIArabic (Arabic); /HambastegiMeliIranian (Farsi)

Instagram: pakeshadiirantv (Farsi)

About Free Iran Global Summit 2020

The Free Iran Global Summit is an annual event organized every year by Iran Freedom, an organized grassroots movement to support the organized opposition to Iran's terrorism, fundamentalism, clandestine nuclear program and threats to regional security. Iran Freedom supports all Iranian people working towards a republic for a free, democratic and peaceful Iran. For more information: https://iranfreedom.org/en/free-iran-global-summit/

Contact:

Sarah Rahimi

Iran Freedom

[email protected]

+1 571.281.7167

SOURCE Free Iran Global Summit

Related Links

https://iranfreedom.org


Mr. Trepanier to Help Grow Apifiny's Roxe Settlement, Liquidity, and Trading Solutions for Banks and Digital Asset Exchanges

Apifiny, a leading global liquidity and financial value transfer network, today announced Thomas Trepanier has joined the company to lead the growth of its RoxeTM global settlement and liquidity solutions for banks, central banks and digital asset exchanges. Mr. Trepanier brings over 20 years of experience in financial services and fintech, serving banks, central banks, stock exchanges, central securities depositories, and asset managers. His experience includes key business development and sales roles with Global Accelerated Ventures (GAV), Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT), and Omgeo (a DTCC company), among others.

At GAV, Mr. Trepanier led customers' onboarding of innovative methodologies and technologies. Mr. Trepanier was also the head of payments and securities market infrastructure strategy at SWIFT, where he led the go-to-market strategy in Latin America for the organization's distributed ledger technology (DLT) solution. Prior to SWIFT, Mr. Trepanier was director of Americas relationship management and Latin America sales at Omgeo. At Omgeo, Mr. Trepanier led sales executives and relationship managers in the U.S. and Canada, and successfully launched Omgeo's presence in Latin America.

"Thomas brings a proven track record developing strategic partnerships, go-to-market strategies and growing business by partnering closely with banks, central banks and other leading financial services companies, said Josh Li, Chief Business Officer of Apifiny. "His success in both traditional and digital finance is a powerful combination that will bring tremendous value to our bank and central bank partners and help us execute our vision to accelerate the transfer of financial value anytime, anywhere."

"Apifiny's unique instant settlement and liquidity solutions for banks and central banks are ripe for adoption by the types of financial institutions I've worked with throughout my career," said Thomas Trepanier, director of business development for Roxe at Apifiny. "Roxe is designed for banks to settle global payments, remittances, and fiat and digital assets in seconds while saving costs and streamlining operations to help increase tier 1 deposits and topline sales."

About Apifiny

Apifiny is a global liquidity and financial value transfer network. The company's networks unify disparate global trading and settlement systems and remove barriers of time, geography and currency so that financial value moves with unprecedented speed anywhere in the world. Apifiny empowers banks with new payment rails for lightning-fast cross-border remittances, increasing revenue hidden in fragmented payment gateways across both traditional fiat and digital asset classes. Apifiny also empowers digital asset exchanges and institutional traders by offering deep global liquidity, superior price discovery, normalized market data, tighter spreads, faster settlement, and higher fill rates and capital utilization. Unlike legacy solutions, Apifiny integrates blockchain, high-speed trading, and smart order routing (SOR) technologies to more efficiently connect traditional trading marketplaces, digital asset exchanges and payment systems. Roxe is the company's global settlement network designed to enable instant clearing and settlement of traditional and digital assets, payments and remittances. For more information, visit https://www.apifiny.com/ and https://roxe.io/.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200716005201/en/

Contacts:

Eric Doyle

marketing@apifiny.com

https://www.apifiny.com/
Two local artisans are laughing all the way to the bank after their locally manufactured hospital beds caught the eye of the State.

Mungai Gathogo, 26 and Joseph Muhinja, 35 from Githunguri, Kiambu county, have received a Ksh32 million boost for their business after President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered 500 of their beds to increase capacity in public hospitals.

President Kenyatta on Wednesday dispatched the Presidents Delivery Unit (PDU) to Githunguri to assess the beds and confirm the viability of the order.

I have been sent by His Excellency the President to congratulate the young innovators and to confirm the governments commitment to support local innovations and products by providing a market for our own under the Buy-Kenya-Build-Kenya policy, said PDU Secretary Andrew Wakahiu.

The beds will be subjected to the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) protocols on their suitability for hospital use.

Mr Wakahiu said the government will also enlist the Numeric Machining Complex to help the budding innovators with equipment and to hasten the production.

The artisans have a month and a half to deliver the beds that go for Ksh65,000, which is Ksh20K less than the cheapest available import.

The innovators said government assistance and Uhurus purchase order will boost their production capacity and promised to hire more youth to fulfill the order and meet the growing demand.

They said since their innovation went viral on social media they have sold one bed to a home-care client and employed seven people.
In response to the scores of homebound students, parents, and teachers searching for educational resources to enhance remote learning, KidLit TV has created KidLit At Home, a free online destination that curates video content from childrens book creators across the web in one central location. Since its debut on June 8, KidLit At Home has amassed 10,000 views.

The brainchild of KidLit TV founder Julie Gribblealong with her team of authors, illustrators, parent bloggers, educators, librarians, and illustratorsKidLit At Home is a brand extension of the web-based platform that provides children with content to help foster a greater appreciation of reading. KidLit At Home allows us to expand the reach of kid lit creators by making their videos easier to find and share with a broader audience, she said.

As part of their process, Gribble and her partner Bethany Edwards, founder of the Biracial Bookworms blog, spearhead the groups search for diverse video content. Featured materials range from picture books to young adult reading levels. (A TeenLit TV spin-off, in which all of KidLit TVs YA content will merge with that of new content creators, is slated for next year.) When reviewing potential materials, the staff looks for such qualifications as age appropriateness, presentation (is it entertaining and/or informative?), and video quality (can the author/illustrator be seen or heard clearly?).

Viewers can access KidLit At Home by clicking on the kitty at home icon on KidLit TVs home page; registration is not required. By clicking on a video, users can visit the authors YouTube channel or copy the video link to share it. (A comments section for KidLit At Home has not yet been activated.)

New content is updated each week, as highlighted in a Featured This Week section, while the From Our Friends section is reserved for sponsored playlists from exclusive publisher partnerships. This month, Abrams and Candlewick offer drawing lessons, student-conducted interviews with authors, and other materials in both English and Spanish. We also worked with Abrams on the first episode of [our] Read Out Loud At Home [segment], featuring Mac Barnett reading his picture book, Paolo, Emperor of Rome, Gribble said. Publishers may also submit videos via Google forms for consideration.

Aside from promoting Kid Lit At Home via its social media channels, KidLit TV distributes a bi-weekly newsletter that highlights updated content on the website. In addition to the U.S., we have visitors from all over the world: India, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and South Korea, to name just a few, with more than 200,000 views per month [on KidLit TV], Gribble noted. A partnership to promote KidLit At Home with educators is in the works.
A second employee of the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice has been charged in connection with Monday's escape by two inmates from the Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center in Chesterfield County.

Darren Briggs, 42, of Lawrenceville, was arrested early Wednesday and charged with one felony count of providing a cell phone to a prisoner, state police said. Briggs worked at the Bon Air center. Police did not elaborate on how Briggs' arrest was connected to the escape.

On Tuesday, officers with the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force charged Destiny Harris, 23, of Chesterfield  a justice department employee working at Bon Air  with two counts of aiding with the escape of a juvenile.

State police on Wednesday said the search is continuing for the two inmates who escaped.

Jabar A. Taylor, 20, convicted of two counts of second-degree murder and aggravated malicious assault, and Rashad E. Williams, 18, convicted of malicious wounding and robbery, escaped from the Bon Air center after authorities said they overpowered a security staff member, took his keys which they used to exit the unit, and then escaped through a hole cut in a perimeter security fence. The two got into a vehicle that appeared to be waiting for them, authorities said.

Police believe they have fled the state.

Both were serving lengthy sentences for serious crimes committed in the Fredericksburg area.

According to the Free-Lance Star, Taylor was convicted in Fredericksburg Circuit Court in December 2015 of two counts of second-degree murder, aggravated malicious wounding and criminal solicitation. He was 15 on June 14, 2015, when he stabbed two men to death and seriously injured a third during an altercation that Taylor's older brother started outside the Greenbrier Shopping Center in Fredericksburg. Taylor is serving a 50-year prison sentence.

Williams was convicted of robbery and other charges in Fredericksburg, Stafford and Spotsylvania and received a total of 18 years to serve. Williams was 16 when he and another teen, Nathaniel Haggins, robbed two women and a 7-Eleven at gunpoint in May 2018.

Both Taylor and Williams were scheduled to be transferred to an adult prison when they turn 21. Taylor turns 21 on Aug. 25.

Taylor was in Fredericksburg Circuit Court in May seeking to have his 50-year sentence reduced, the Free-Lance Star reported. Several Bon Air officials who have worked with Taylor over the years, including a teacher, a counselor and a pastor, spoke on his behalf, and it was clear that he had earned the trust of the staff.

They claimed that Taylor had matured into a model inmate and asked a judge to reduce his punishment so that he would only have to serve 10 years in the adult system, the newspaper said.

Grace Bevilacqua, one of Taylor's attorneys, argued that Taylor was clearly remorseful for his actions and had done a great deal to improve himself while at the juvenile correctional center.

"Jabar is not an incorrigible criminal," Bevilacqua told the judge. "Not only will he not pose a risk to the community, he will enrich it."

The judge refused to alter Taylor's sentenced, saying he had already taken Taylor's age into consideration when he originally imposed it.
MANZINI  As COVID-19 statistics surge daily in the hub of the country  Manzini  the regional administrator wants security personnel to raid homesteads to confiscate alcohol.

The RA, Chief Gija, said his office (Regional Rapid Response Team to COVID-19), had requested the authorisation of Cabinet to raid and confiscate alcohol sold in locations and townships. He said this request followed that they had gathered that since the ban of alcohol sales, some liquor shop owners had resorted to partner with shebeen owners to sell alcohol, much against the ban.

Permit

He said they had requested Cabinet to permit them to partner with officers from the operational services support unit (OSSU), which is a division within the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) and officers from the Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force (UEDF). Chief Gija said the need for the security forces was necessitated by the surge in COVID-19 infections as attested to by the Prime Minister, Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini, when announcing the ban of alcohol sale and distribution. We sought permission to search homesteads as alcohol is now sold in townships illegally yet it alters human behaviour, resulting in some of the imbibers acting irresponsibly, Chief Gija said. He said the unfortunate part was that the illegal sale of alcohol did not even benefit the State as there was no tax collected.

Manzini is a distribution centre for the country given its geographic location. It is due to fear of having people who are migrating from Manzini to other regions due to loss of employment that we want the region to be treated differently. He said while the other regions were low on statistics, if the behaviour of the people living within the hub of the country did not change, the country would be in a difficult position as Manzini was a passage to the other regions. We also forwarded to government that the wearing of masks should be compulsory in Manzini, he said. He said the fine for not wearing a mask had been requested to range between E60 and E120 while they also sought legal power to have businesses that did not comply with regulations to be fined and have their licences revoked.
LARAMIE  The University of Wyoming is expecting to have about 1,900 fewer students enroll this fall than were enrolled at the university in fall 2019.

UW had 6,212 undergraduates enroll for fall 2019 and, according to preliminary headcounts, that number is scheduled to drop 18.8% this fall.

The drop in number of graduate students will be even more drastic: With just 1,170 graduate and professional students scheduled to enroll, UWs graduate student count is set for a 38.9% decline.

We called everyone who did not register that we were expecting to be back, UW Vice President for Fi...
LONDON  Jen Reid, the Black Lives Matter protester whose statue was erected in place of a toppled slave trader in Bristol, England, on Wednesday, said just before the unauthorized installation that she did not know whether the citys authorities would let it stand there for a few months or a single day.

It turned out to be the latter.

Workers removed the resin-and-steel statue of Ms. Reid at dawn Thursday, 24 hours after it was put up, bringing a swift curtain down on an act of guerrilla art that attracted widespread attention but did not impress city leaders.

I understand people want expression, but the statue has been put up without permission, the mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, said in a post on Twitter on Wednesday, soon after the figure was installed. Anything put on the plinth outside of the process weve put in place will have to be removed.

The people of Bristol will decide its future, Mr. Rees added of the plinth where the 17th-century slave trader, Edward Colston, once stood before being toppled by protesters last month and thrown into the nearby harbor.
These are the schools that have canceled classes for Jan. 18

Some school districts across the county are virtual today. Others will make up the snow day.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 19:10:26|Editor: huaxia

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JUBA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The UN children's fund (UNICEF) said Thursday it has entered into partnership with 35 local radio stations in South Sudan as part of efforts to combat rampant child marriage in the country.

Mohamed Ag Ayoya, UNICEF representative in South Sudan said the radio stations would produce dramas in English and Arabic, including local languages and broadcast messages to raise community awareness on negative effects of child marriages on girls and societies.

"Every girl married before reaching adult age, is one too much. Child marriage is a serious child right violation, condemned by international and national South Sudanese legislation," Ayoya said in a statement issued in Juba.

He, however, said the practice of child marriage is still deeply embedded in the habits of the communities in South Sudan.

"The radio dramas will help stimulate a debate within the communities and can hopefully contribute to ending the practice of child marriage in the country," said Ayoya.

UNICEF estimates that more than half of all South Sudanese girls were married or in a culturally recognized union before they were 18 years old.

It says one out of three girls had been made pregnant before they were 15 years old, noting that early pregnancies put at risk the health of both the girl and the baby, jeopardizes the girl's education and increases her vulnerability to abuses and exploitation.

Ayoya said that child marriage represents multiple violations of child rights as it exposes girls to gender-based violence, teenage pregnancies and limit girls' opportunities for reaching their full potential.

According to Ayoya, preliminary results of a survey conducted by UNICEF on knowledge, attitudes and practices around child marriage in South Sudan indicate that 40 percent of the respondents agree that even if a girl does not want to marry, she should honor the decisions of her family.

The UN agency said the dramas which will focus attention on the violence, abuse and psychosocial distress girls are exposed to, will steer a dialogue on gender inequalities and patriarchal values in South Sudan which perpetuates child marriages and limit girls' opportunities for reaching their full potential.

Ayoya said the results significantly contribute to gender inequality, noting that UNICEF will make the findings public later this year.

"I call on community influencers at national and state level to join the efforts led by the authorities of South Sudan and to speak up and act against child marriage to promote positive behavioral change for the wellbeing of the children of South Sudan and for the future of the entire country," said Ayoya. Enditem
The United States on Wednesday cleared the way for sanctions on employees of telecom giant Huawei, expanding its pressure campaign on China, which summoned the US ambassador.

Tensions have soared between the world's two largest economies on a growing range of fronts including Beijing's clampdown on Hong Kong, with President Donald Trump on Tuesday ending the financial hub's special trading privileges.

China shows no sign of backing down on Hong Kong, but the Trump administration has rejoiced in growing success at isolating Huawei, with Britain announcing a ban on the leading Chinese company.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the United States would restrict US visas for employees of Huawei and other Chinese firms if they are involved in human rights abuses.

"Telecommunications companies around the world should consider themselves on notice: If they are doing business with Huawei, they are doing business with human rights abusers," Pompeo said.

The United States accuses Huawei of working on the behest of Beijing and says that global security and personal data will be at risk if the company dominates development of the world's fifth-generation internet.

Pompeo said that Huawei was already responsible for rights abuses by letting China snoop on dissidents and abetting Beijing's sweeping surveillance in the western region of Xinjiang, where rights groups say more than one million Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims are incarcerated.

US campaign in Europe

Offering affordable internet in the developing world and moving rapidly on 5G, Huawei has so far largely weathered US prohibitions and pressure -- and reported double-digit revenue growth for the first half of the year.

The European Union has resisted blanket restrictions on Huawei. But British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government agreed Tuesday to a phased ban after US sanctions blocked Huawei's access to US chips.

Pompeo announced that he would visit Britain as well as Denmark starting Monday and raise China.

Story continues

Robert O'Brien, the US national security advisor, brought up Huawei in his own talks with European counterparts in Paris, warning that the company could both spy on government secrets and sweep up vast amounts of personal data.

"Europe is awakening to the threat of China," O'Brien told reporters.

"Imagine how a country like China could interfere with elections if they knew everything about every single person on earth," he said.

Canada in 2018 acted on a US request and arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, who faces extradition on charges of violating US sanctions on Iran.

Huawei rejects the US campaign and has called on Washington to show more evidence to prove the risks purportedly posed by the company.

'Gross interference'

China on Wednesday summoned the US ambassador, Terry Branstad, after Trump signed a law that paved the way for sanctions over the situation in Hong Kong.

"This is gross interference in China's internal affairs and seriously violates international law and basic norms of international relations," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

China also vowed retaliatory measures over Trump's signing of the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which paves the way for sanctions against banks that do business with anyone seen as infringing on the city's autonomy.

US lawmakers overwhelmingly approved the law, hoping that all but provincial Chinese banks will think twice before risking punishment in the world's largest economy.

Trump also signed an executive order that instructed the US government to treat Hong Kong no differently than mainland China on trade.

Beijing has pushed forward a tough security law that has sent a chill through Hong Kong, which was promised separate freedoms before Britain handed back the territory in 1997.

In other recent moves, Pompeo restricted visas for Chinese officials over human rights in Xinjiang and rejected Beijing's sweeping claims in the dispute-rife South China Sea.

Trump has also loudly blamed China for Covid-19, news of which was suppressed when cases first emerged in Wuhan late last year.

Critics at home and abroad accuse Trump of seeking to divert attention in an election year from his response to the crisis in the United States, which has suffered the highest death toll of any country.

(AFP)
Kanye West will make it on the presidential ballot in deep-red Oklahoma as of Wednesday after spending enough money in campaign activity to qualify for the election in November.

Amid confusion over whether the rap star will continue in his bid for the White House, West filled out both Federal Election Commission forms required to run for president and has officially made it onto the ballot in his first state.

The State Election Board in Oklahoma received a notarized document on Wednesday from West's campaign declaring his candidacy for president as an independent.

At the top of the form to run in Oklahoma, it reads in DONDAS PLACE in pen handwriting.

Earlier this week West released a two-minute song honoring his mother Donda West, who died in 2007 at the age of 58. The song was released and posted to Twitter on what would have been her 71 birthday.

DONDA includes portions of West rapping and others of a recording of his mother reciting the lyrics of one of rapper KRS-Ones songs.

Oklahoma also requires a '$35,000 fee to run as an independent candidate,' which the state's election committee confirmed West had completed before the Wednesday deadline.

After spending those funds in an official campaign capacity, West now qualifies to run for president nationally under FEC laws and can make his way onto the ballot in several states.

Kanye West will officially make the presidential ballot in November in Oklahoma after spending the $35,000 fee and meeting the Federal Election Commission requirements to make a run

West filed a document to run for an independent candidate in the deep-red state of Oklahoma, which has 7 Electoral College votes, on Wednesday. At the top of the paperwork he wrote 'DONDA's PLACE' in a tribute to his mother

West released a two-minute song earlier this week in honor of his late mother Donda on the day she would have turned 71. Author Donda West died in 2007 at the age of 58

West also filled out FEC Form 2: Statement of Candidacy on Thursday, which shows he raised or spent more than $5,000 in campaign activity and triggers candidacy status, allowing him to get on the November ballot

West filed out Form 2: Statement of Candidacy with the FEC on Thursday, which shows he has raised or spent more than $5,000 in campaign activity.

Upon turning in that form, West now has official candidacy status under federal campaign finance laws.

The 43-year-old billionaire filled out FEC Form 1: State of Organization, the lesser important of the two forms, on Wednesday, which declared the Kanye 2020 committee will serve as the 'Principal Campaign Committee' with West as its candidate.

The form indicates that he is running as a third party candidate for the BDY Party, which West says stands for the Birthday Party.

The FEC form signals West is serious about running for president in November after announcing on July 4 that he would be seeing the White House four years earlier than he previously said.

'We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States! #2020VISION' West tweeted on Independence Day.

The move to file the forms with the FEC and officially earn his way onto the ballot in Oklahoma comes after reports emerged Tuesday that West decided to end his campaign less than two weeks after announcing he was seeking a run.

A few hundred people are working on the ground for West already, but an election strategist told the Intelligencer on Thursday, just hours before the FEC filing dropped, 'He's out.'

The 43-year-old rapper filled out Form 1: State of Organization on Wednesday, which is the first form required to seek a run for the White House

The documents indicate that West (pictured with wife and pop culture icon Kim Kardashian West) is running for president under the third party 'BDY,' which he says stands for the Birthday Party  even though reports emerged that he was dropping out just two weeks after announcing

Steve Kramer was hired by West to focus on getting the rapper's name on the ballot in Florida and South Carolina.

'I'll let you know what I know once I get all our stuff canceled,' Kramer told the Intelligencer, which is part of New York Magazine.

'We had over 180 people out there today,' Kramer said of the efforts in Florida, and later added: 'I have nothing good or bad to say about Kanye.'

'Everyone has their personal decision about why they make decisions. Running for president has to be one of the hardest things for someone to actually contemplate at that level,' he continued.

Hired campaign staff were reportedly told that West's bid for president is off  but the FEC filing tells a different story.

When DailyMail.com reached out to the email on file with the FEC for West's campaign, the message was unable to be delivered with the error message indicating the 'recipient server is unavailable or busy.'

West announced July 4 that he is running for president in November, but did not fill out or file any FEC paperwork until Wednesday

Oklahoma, which has a population of nearly 4 million people amounting to seven Electoral College votes, is very Republican and went 65.3 per cent for Donald Trump in 2016. Less than 29 per cent voted for Hillary Clinton and nearly 6 per cent went for Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson.

West's FEC filing shows funds for his campaign will go through First Bank of Wyoming  an unsurprising move as the Atlanta native, who lives in California with his pop culture icon wife Kim Kardashian West and their four children, has expressed his desire to move there.

On several occasions West has talked publicly about wanting to move him and his family to Wyoming and is in the process of building a massive mansion, complete with two underground garages, there now.

Immediately following his Independence Day announcement, Kardashian West, reposted his message along with an American Flag emoji  signaling her support.

West's longtime friend and eccentric billionaire and CEO of SpaceX Elon Musk also showed his support on Twitter for the candidacy.

His presidential bid, however, could be doomed before it gets off the ground as the deadline to get on certain states' presidential ballots are approaching or already passed.

Kardashian West issued her support for her husband on Twitter soon after the announcement was posted

West's close friend and billionaire Elon Musk also said the rapper has his 'full support'

The deadline to register to get on the November ballot has already passed in six states  North Carolina, Texas, New York, Maine, New Mexico and Indiana  and the deadline for at least seven others are coming up this month.

Of the 538 Electoral College votes total, West would already be missing out on 102 if he were to successfully make his way onto the ballot in other states.

He would need to move quickly to avoid losing out on 85 more Electoral College votes as the deadline to get on the ballot in Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina and West Virginia are coming up in July.

In December 2016, after Donald Trump won the presidential election, West said he was holding off until 2024 to run for president after previously saying he wanted to run in 2020.

He also, on several occasions, showed his support for Trump, donning a red Make America Great Again hat and meeting with the president in the Oval Office.

More recently, the rap star has said that he no longer supports Trump.
-- Offer price increased from 39.00 to 43.00 per QIAGEN share in cash

-- Minimum acceptance threshold lowered from 75% to 66.67% of outstanding QIAGEN shares

-- QIAGEN Supervisory and Managing Boards reaffirm unanimous recommendation that QIAGEN shareholders tender all of their QIAGEN shares

WALTHAM, Massachusetts and VENLO, The Netherlands, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE: TMO), the world leader in serving science, and QIAGEN N.V. (NYSE: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA), a leading global provider of Sample to Insight molecular diagnostics and sample preparation technologies, today announced that they have entered into an amendment to their acquisition agreement under which Thermo Fisher has commenced a tender offer to acquire all of the ordinary shares of QIAGEN.

The amendment provides for an increase from the original offer price of 39.00 to a new price of 43.00 per QIAGEN share in cash, which represents a premium of approximately 35% to the closing price of QIAGEN's ordinary shares on the Frankfurt Prime Standard on March 2, 2020, the last trading day prior to the announcement of the acquisition agreement and Thermo Fisher's intention to commence the offer. The amendment also provides for a reduction of the minimum acceptance threshold from 75% to 66.67% of QIAGEN's issued and outstanding ordinary share capital at the end of the acceptance period on August 10, 2020, as well as a USD 95 million expense reimbursement to Thermo Fisher if the minimum acceptance threshold is not met.

The members of QIAGEN's Supervisory Board and Managing Board have reaffirmed their unanimous support for the offer and their unanimous recommendation that all QIAGEN shareholders accept and tender all of their QIAGEN shares in the offer prior to the end of the acceptance period, which has now been extended to August 10, 2020. Each of the members of the Supervisory Board and Managing Board has tendered or will tender all of their QIAGEN shares in the offer.

Marc N. Casper, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Thermo Fisher Scientific, said, "Industry dynamics have changed considerably in the past few months, creating tailwinds and headwinds for our businesses. Both of our companies are playing important roles in helping customers to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. After careful consideration, we've decided to increase our offer for QIAGEN to reflect the fair value of the business given the current environment. We remain confident that this transaction will create shareholder value and, importantly, provide meaningful benefits to our customers and society by combining our capabilities to combat infectious diseases and other healthcare issues. We continue to look forward to completing the transaction in the first half of 2021."

"After carefully considering the updated offer by Thermo Fisher, QIAGEN's Supervisory Board and Managing Board both unanimously recommend that shareholders accept this offer given that it reflects the improvements in our business performance and future prospects as a result of the coronavirus pandemic," said Thierry Bernard, chief executive officer of QIAGEN N.V. "The rationale for this strategic step is stronger than ever, especially as the value of molecular testing becomes ever more evident. This combination is designed to enable QIAGEN employees and our portfolio of Sample to Insight solutions to have an even greater impact on society while also delivering significant cash value to our shareholders. We look forward to working closely with Thermo Fisher to successfully complete the transaction."

QIAGEN shareholders who have already effectively accepted the offer by tendering their shares are not required to take further action in order to receive the increased offer price in accordance with the terms of the offer. Thermo Fisher's tender offer statement on Schedule TO, including the offer document that is an exhibit thereto, and QIAGEN's solicitation/recommendation statement on Schedule 14D-9 will be amended to reflect the revised terms of the transaction. The acceptance period is now scheduled to expire at 24:00 hours (Frankfurt am Main local time) / 18:00 hours (New York local time) on August 10, 2020.

Advisors

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC are serving as financial advisors to Thermo Fisher, and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is serving as legal counsel. For QIAGEN, Goldman Sachs International is serving as lead financial advisor and Barclays Bank PLC is serving as financial advisor, while De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek NV, Linklaters LLP and Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo P.C. are serving as legal counsel.

About Thermo Fisher

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE: TMO) 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.

About QIAGEN

QIAGEN N.V., a Netherlands-based holding company, is the leading global provider of Sample to Insight solutions that enable customers to gain valuable molecular insights from samples containing the building blocks of life. Our sample technologies isolate and process DNA, RNA and proteins from blood, tissue and other materials. Assay technologies make these biomolecules visible and ready for analysis. Bioinformatics software and knowledge bases interpret data to report relevant, actionable insights. Automation solutions tie these together in seamless and cost-effective workflows. QIAGEN provides solutions to more than 500,000 customers around the world in Molecular Diagnostics (human healthcare) and Life Sciences (academia, pharma R&D and industrial applications, primarily forensics). As of June 30, 2020, QIAGEN employed approximately 5,200 people in over 35 locations worldwide. Further information can be found at http://www.qiagen.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

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This communication is for informational purposes only and is neither an offer to purchase nor a solicitation of an offer to sell any ordinary shares of QIAGEN or any other securities, nor is it a substitute for the tender offer materials that Thermo Fisher and/or its acquisition subsidiary has filed with the SEC and published in Germany. The terms and conditions of the tender offer are published in, and the offer to purchase ordinary shares of QIAGEN is made only pursuant to, the offer document, the publication of which was permitted by German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt fur Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht), and related offer materials prepared by Thermo Fisher and/or its acquisition subsidiary. The offer document for the tender offer (in German and in English), as amended, containing the detailed terms and conditions of, and other information relating to, the tender offer is, among other things, published on the internet at https://corporate.thermofisher.com/en/offer.html.

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The tender offer materials, including the offer document and the related letter of transmittal and certain other tender offer documents, and the solicitation/recommendation statement and other documents filed with the SEC by Thermo Fisher or QIAGEN, may be obtained free of charge at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov or at QIAGEN's website at www.qiagen.com or by contacting QIAGEN's investor relations department at 240-686-2222 or at Thermo Fisher's website at www.thermofisher.com or by contacting Thermo Fisher's investor relations department at 781-622-1111. In addition, Thermo Fisher's tender offer statement and other documents it files with the SEC are available at https://ir.thermofisher.com/investors. Furthermore, copies of the offer document are available free of charge by contacting D.F. King & Co., Inc., Thermo Fisher's information agent for the tender offer.
US President Donald Trump gestures as he delivers a press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. (AFP)

Washington: The Trump administration has agreed to rescind its July 6 rule, which temporarily bared international students from staying in the United States unless they attend at least one in-person course, a federal district court judge said on Tuesday.

The U-turn by the Trump administration comes following a nationwide outrage against its July 6 order and a series of lawsuits filed by a large number of educational institutions, led by the prestigious Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), seeking a permanent injunctive relief to bar the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from enforcing the federal guidelines barring international students attending colleges and universities offering only online courses from staying in the country.

As many as 17 US states and the District of Columbia, along with top American IT companies such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft, joined MIT and Harvard in the US District Court in Massachusetts against the DHS and the ICE in seeking an injunction to stop the entire rule from going into effect.

"I have been informed by the parties that they have come to a resolution. They will return to the status quo," Judge Allison Burroughs, the federal district judge in Boston, said in a surprise statement at the top of the hearing on the lawsuit.

The announcement comes as a big relief to international students, including those from India. In the 2018-2019 academic year, there were over 10 lakh international students in the US. According to a recent report of the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP), 1,94,556 Indian students were enrolled in various academic institutions in the US in January.

Judge Burroughs said the policy would apply nationwide.

"Both the policy directive and the frequently asked questions would not be enforced anyplace," she said, referring to the agreement between the US government and MIT and Harvard.

Congressman Brad Scneider said this is a great win for international students, colleges and common sense.

"The Administration needs to give us a plan to tackle our public health crisis - it can't be recklessly creating rules one day and rescinding them the next," he said in a tweet.

Last week, more than 136 Congressmen and 30 senators wrote to the Trump administration to rescind its order on international students.

"This is a major victory for the students, organisers and institutions of higher education in the #MA7 and all across the country that stood up and fought back against this racist and xenophobic rule," said Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley.

"Taking online classes shouldn't force international students out of our country," Congressman Mikie Sherrill said in a tweet.

In its July 6 notice, the ICE had said all student visa holders, whose university curricula were only offered online, "must depart the country or take other measures, such as transferring to a school with in-person instruction to remain in lawful status".

"If not, they may face immigration consequences, including but not limited to the initiation of removal proceedings," it had said.

In their lawsuit, the 17 states and the District of Columbia said for many international students, remote learning in the countries and communities they come from would impede their studies or be simply impossible.

The lawsuit alleged that the new rule imposes a significant economic harm by precluding thousands of international students from coming to and residing in the US and finding employment in fields such as science, technology, biotechnology, healthcare, business and finance, and education, and contributing to the overall economy.

In a separate filing, companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft, along with the US Chamber of Commerce and other IT advocacy groups, asserted that the July 6 ICE directive will disrupt their recruiting plans, making it impossible to bring onboard international students that businesses, including the amici, had planned to hire, and disturb the recruiting process on which the firms have relied on to identify and train their future employees.

The July 6 directive will make it impossible for a large number of international students to participate in the CPT and OPT programmes. The US will "nonsensically be sending...these graduates away to work for our global competitors and compete against us...instead of capitalising on the investment in their education here in the US", they said.
Bhopal:

Parvez Alam, a lawyer, who represented eight SIMI activists killed in an encounter on October 31, demanded a high court-monitored inquiry and termed as "mockery" the Madhya Pradesh government's order of judicial probe into the incident.

"It is baffling that the culprit of the encounter, which is the state government, has chosen its own investigator to probe its serious crime," said Parvez Alam, who represented the slain SIMI activists facing terror cases.

Also Read: Bhopal prison break: MP government mulls installation of electric fencing around jails

"This is a sheer mockery of democratic and judicial system. The state government, instead of requesting the MP High Court to order a judicial inquiry into the cold-blooded murder, has itself appointed an investigator, which is against the natural justice," Alam told PTI.

He said that the state government should have moved the MP High Court and waited for it to name a sitting or retired judge to investigate the fake encounter.

"We are going to petition the High Court for a judicial probe. We want the probe to be monitored by the High Court and it (probe panel) should have lawyers of both sidesthe government and the deceased," he added.

Also Read: Jamaat-e-Islami Hind raises questions over Bhopal encounter, demands action against officials

Meanwhile, when asked if he had received any written communication from the government asking him to start judicial inquiry, the retired MP High Court judge S K Pandey said, "I don't have any information (yet)."

The MP Government announced judicial probe by Justice Pandey three days ago after the alleged encounter came under severe criticism. Home Minister Bhupendra Singh had till then maintained that no judicial probe into the encounter was necessary.

Earlier, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had announced a NIA probe into the jail-break during which the fleeing SIMI activists allegedly murdered a head warden.

Also Read: Slain SIMI man's family seeks murder charge against MP home minister, DGP

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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 16, 2020 / Belmont Resources Inc (TSXV:BEA)(Frankfurt:L3L2) ("Belmont"), (or the "Company").

Belmont President & CEO George Sookochoff, recently completed an onsite inspection of the recently acquired Athelstan-Jackpot (A-J) and Come By Chance (CBC) properties. These strategic gold-copper properties are situated in the prolific Phoenix /Greenwood mining camp of southern British Columbia, and in which Belmont has become a serious player in this very active area.

George commented, "I would like to thank Jesse Ritco, son of former CBC owner Ron Ritco, and his son Milo for taking me up onto the CBC property and showing me numerous undocumented former workings comprised of pits, tunnels and adits. I was very excited in seeing more and more showings throughout the property, particularly along NW trending fault zones, as it appears to be evidence of a potential large system beneath. Each of these areas shows strong mineralization and with modern exploration techniques we hope to discover potential gold-copper deposits beneath." (view photo at https://bit.ly/2OtI4NY)



Jesse and Milo Ritco at the Goat Trail workings

Belmont plans to have a geologist on the property shortly to begin mapping, sampling and documenting all the workings and showings on the property. (view photo at https://bit.ly/32orMya)



Rock specimen from Goat Trail workings

While in Grand Forks, B.C. Mr. Sookochoff had the opportunity to meet with local resident and prominent geologist Ms. Linda Caron, M.Sc., P.Eng. Ms. Caron has agreed to provide her services along with her vast knowledge of the area as a consulting geologist for Belmont. Linda has over 30 years of national and international experience in the mining industry. Since 1997, she has worked as a geological consultant on multiple projects for junior mining companies, small-scale producers and majors. Most recently, Linda has acted as Project Manager for several large mineral exploration projects in southern B.C., with a primary focus on gold, including Kinross Gold Corp's Grizzly Greenwood project and Ximen Mining Corp's Brett Gold project.

She has worked extensively in the Boundary district of southern B.C. and northern Washington and is widely recognized for her knowledge of the geology and deposits in the area. Ms. Caron graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1985 with an honors degree in geological engineering and obtained a master's degree in geological sciences from the University of Calgary in 1988.

George commented, "I am thrilled to have Linda coming on, and working with our Belmont team. Linda was the consulting geologist for the former private owners of the A-J property and wrote several 43-101 reports on the property. With her firsthand knowledge of the A-J property I couldn't have found a better geologist to take on the project and unlock its tremendous potential."

Ms. Caron will be overseeing the permitting application process along with the planned IP survey to be followed by a drill program.

Property Purchase Amendment

Further to our news release of November 21, 2019 and Exchange acceptance for filing dated December 19, 2019 regarding the acquisition of the Black Bear reverted crown grant claim from George Nakade; the parties have agreed to amend the terms of cash payment of $25,000. The vendor has agreed to accept 500,000 shares at a deemed price of $0.05 in lieu of the cash payment. The amended terms and shares that may be issuable are subject to a statutory hold period expiring four months and one day from issuance, and are subject to Exchange approval.

All other terms of the Property Acquisition Agreement remain the same.

About Belmont Resources Inc.

Belmont Resources Inc. is a Canadian based resource company traded on the TSX-V under the symbol "BEA". The Company is systematically evaluating and acquiring gold properties in Southern British Columbia and Northern Washington State.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

"George Sookochoff"

George Sookochoff, CEO/President

Ph: 604-683-6648

Email: george@belmontresources.com

Website: www.BelmontResources.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as the term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

This Press Release may contain forward-looking statements that may involve a number of risks and uncertainties, based on assumptions and judgments of management regarding future events or results that may prove to be inaccurate as a result of exploration and other risk factors beyond its control. Forward looking statements in this news release include statements about the possible raising of capital and exploration of our properties. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Companies forward-looking statements and expectations. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, that we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval; that we may not be able to raise funds required, that conditions to closing may not be fulfilled and we may not be able to organize and carry out an exploration program in 2020, and other risks associated with being a mineral exploration and development company. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and, except as required by applicable laws, the Company assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results differed from those projected in the forward-looking statements.

SOURCE: Belmont Resources Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/597739/Belmont-President-CEO-Completes-Greenwood-Properties-Visit-Contracts-Geologist-for-Planned-Summer-Exploration-Amends-Black-Bear-Property-Purchase-Agreement
Azerbaijan showed real aggression that is characteristic of radical Islamist states. This is what Lieutenant-General Norat Ter-Grigoryants told Armenian News-NEWS.am, adding that the tension on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border is the continuation of Turkeys policy.

This is backed by Turkey because even the countrys foreign minister talked about this. Turkey aspires to reinstate the Ottoman Empire, but only the way it wants. This is how they implement their policy. They seized Syrian lands, are fighting in Iraq and Libya, and Armenia is like a bone stuck in their throat. They stole lands from Armenians and killed 1.5 million Armenians, and now they have decided to start from Karabakh, he said.

The Lieutenant-General recalled that Baku has already tried to solve the Karabakh issue by force, but Karabakh has succeeded in crushing the forces of the adversary which exceeded Karabakh in terms of quantity and weapons. However, Ter-Grigoryants stated that the enemy persistently continues to prepare for war by actively rearming its detachments and units.

Touching upon the positions of the Kremlin and the Collective Security Treaty Organization, Ter-Grigoryants clearly expressed his discontent with the behavior of Armenias allies in that military alliance. The army general is certain that in this situation, Armenia needs to take the path that North Korea took, that is, rely on its own forces and strengthen its army and economy.

Ter-Grigoryants had trouble saying whether the escalation can lead to large-scale military operations and war, but he did state that, in essence, the international community hasnt responded to Aliyevs statements that Yerevan is historically a part of Azerbaijan and that Baku will exert all efforts to have its lands returned. Moreover, as the army general stated, the international community even shut an eye on Azerbaijans aggression in 2016.

Now Aliyev became convinced once again that the international community is indifferent towards the situation on the Armenia-Azerbajian border. He became convinced once again that the CSTO isnt preparing to defend Armenia, he said.
The presence of private investment in education will create more effective and diverse services, but it will be impossible to create social justice by selling schools for the gifted to private investors, experts have said.

Nguyen Duc Thanh, a finance expert, has proposed selling the Hanoi-Amsterdam High School for the Gifted and other similar schools to private investors.

The Hanoi-Amsterdam High School for the Gifted





Thanh believes that the existence of these state-funded schools creates injustice in society. He believes that the school-for-the-gifted model would be acceptable if the schools have private investment.

If so, parents would have to pay big money for the high-quality services for their children.

The presence of private investment in education will create more effective and diverse services, but it will be impossible to create social justice by selling schools for the gifted to private investors.

Dr Nguyen Tien Viet, an economist working for a university in the UK, in his article published on VnExpress, said that selling schools for the gifted wont bring social justice.

It would be more effective to provide education at different levels based on their capacity and demand, he said.

It would be a big waste to invest too much in children who dont have demand or capacity in learning or invest too little in the children who have high demand or high capacity in learning.



Private investment in education is a must, because it can mobilize more resources for education.the private sector uses capital more effectively, so the investment will help better satisfy education demand and provide diverse education products.



However, Viet said that the private sector has no incentive to ensure social equity.



Therefore, it is a humorous idea to sell state-owned schools for the gifted to private investors in the name of social justice, he commented.



Prof Nguyen Minh Thuyet, chief editor of the new curriculum for comprehensive education reform, described the proposal of selling the Hanoi-Amsterdam High School for the Gifted to private investors is an extreme idea.



He said that over the last decades, the school has produced a high number of talented students who serve the nations interests, and selling the school is a question that should be considered only when the state cannot continue funding the school.



Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has said that schools for the gifted must not be developed by non-state investors.



Nguyen Xuan Thanh, director of the Secondary Education Department, said at the Q2 press conference that the disadvantaged and the talented, including students at the schools for the gifted, are the two groups that can receive state funds.

Chi Mai

Private schools want to begin teaching before academic year opens Some private schools have complained that it will be a disaster if they cannot begin teaching before the new academic year opening day on September 5.
Quintain, a UK-based property developer, has received planning permission to build 245 new homes in Lucan, county Dublin.

The homes, which are all build-to-sell, are made up of 213 houses, 16 duplexes and 15 apartments.

Construction on the site, which has a gross development value of around 82m, is due to being at the end of the year, with the first homes coming to market in the middle of next year, according to a statement from the group.

The Tandys Lane Village site is close to Quintains Somerton development where the first phase is complete.

Quintain has also reached agreement in principle for the building of a new primary school at Tandys Lane with the Department of Education. The two are targeting a 2023 opening for this new school.

Michael Hynes, joint managing partner of Quintain Ireland, said: We are delighted to be making further progress on our residential pipeline in the Lucan area with this planning approval for Tandys Lane Village.

These 245 homes will form part of a growing community with access to green space and school facilities, and the wider amenities of Lucan on the doorstep with easy access to Dublin city centre.

Elsewhere, Quintain is developing 220 acres in the Adamstown/Lucan area of Dublin, where it plans to build over 4,000 homes and 600,000 sq.ft. of commercial space.

The companys broader land portfolio covers 460 acres of prime assets in Ireland at Adamstown, Clonburris, Portmarnock, and Cherrywood, and when developed will make Quintain the third largest residential developer in the country.
23 AKF Ambassadors from 15 states and D.C. join 'Virtual Fly-in' to urge legislators to support bills important to kidney patients

ROCKVILLE, MD / ACCESSWIRE / July 16, 2020 / Dialysis patients, kidney transplant recipients and kidney donors were among the 23 American Kidney Fund (AKF) Ambassadors who this week participated in a "Virtual Fly-in" to urge their legislators to take action on issues important to kidney patients. The COVID-19 pandemic forced AKF to cancel its annual in-person advocacy day on Capitol Hill, originally scheduled for April.

The AKF Ambassadors-from 15 states and the District of Columbia-met by phone with their U.S. Representatives' and U.S. Senators' offices and asked them to support three important pieces of legislation to help address health disparities and improve the lives of Americans living with kidney disease:

H.R. 6637, Health Equity and Accountability Act (HEAA) of 2020 . This bill aims to address many of the root causes of health disparities in a number of ways, such as improving health care access and quality and enhancing language access and culturally competent care. It contains several provisions that address kidney disease directly.

. This bill aims to address many of the root causes of health disparities in a number of ways, such as improving health care access and quality and enhancing language access and culturally competent care. It contains several provisions that address kidney disease directly. H.R. 6561, Improving Social Determinants of Health Act of 2020 . This bill would create a social determinants of health (SDOH) program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to focus on the social, economic and environmental conditions that affect health and wellbeing and are significant contributors to health disparities.

. This bill would create a social determinants of health (SDOH) program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to focus on the social, economic and environmental conditions that affect health and wellbeing and are significant contributors to health disparities. H.R. 5534 / S. 3353, Comprehensive Immunosuppressive Drug Coverage for Kidney Transplant Patients Act. This legislation would extend Medicare coverage for immunosuppressive drugs-currently at three years for patients under 65-for the life of the transplanted kidney.

AKF has long fought health disparities, which have been brought into sharp focus by the COVID-19 pandemic which, like kidney disease, has a disproportionate impact on communities of color.

Patrick Gee, an AKF Ambassador from North Chesterfield, Virginia, is a Black man living with a kidney transplant and recovering from COVID-19. "Today's AKF Fly-in left me with a feeling of hope and optimism that these three pieces of legislation will change the course of history in the kidney community," he said. "When you can hear and see the humanity in one's reflection over the injustices that kidney patients have endured for decades, you can sense that the atmosphere is ripe for change to occur. The barriers, obstacles, and biases that prevented patients of color from receiving equitable quality of care, treatment, access to affordable health care, and innovative medicines and technologies are soon to be a thing of the past."

Most Americans with end-stage renal disease (ESRD, or kidney failure) who begin dialysis automatically qualify for Medicare regardless of their age. But for patients under 65 who receive a kidney transplant, Medicare eligibility expires after three years-even though they must continue taking immunosuppressive drugs to prevent their body from rejecting their kidney. Patients who cannot find alternative health insurance and cannot afford their immunosuppressive drugs ultimately lose their kidney and must go back on dialysis, which makes them again eligible for Medicare. Recent projections from two different offices within the Department of Health and Human Services show significant Medicare savings if immunosuppressive drug coverage were extended to all Medicare ESRD beneficiaries indefinitely.

When Amelia Rowniewski, from Wallington, New Jersey, was only 3 years old, she received a kidney transplant. At age 6 she took her first trip to Washington, D.C. to be recognized at AKF's annual gala, The Hope Affair, as the Calendar Kids cover artist for the 2013 AKF calendar. Now a 15-year-old about to start high school, she became an AKF Ambassador and participated in the Virtual Fly-in.

"I was excited and humbled to speak on behalf of thousands of patients battling kidney disease," she said. "I hope my voice and that of the other AKF Ambassadors was loud enough to be heard in Washington D.C. It was an unforgettable day and an incredibly important opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of so many kidney patients. I hope my voice helped."

The HEAA bill contains important provisions specifically addressing kidney disease, including increased research into kidney disease in minority populations and inclusion of minority participants in clinical trials; creation of an action plan by the NIH around public health strategies, prevention, diagnosis, disease management, and awareness of kidney disease; requiring the NIH to develop a national action plan to increase access to home dialysis; expanding research into kidney transplant rates in minority populations; studying treatment patterns by insurance type (Medicare, Medicaid, private insurers) in minority populations and examines how these impact access to care; and adding dialysis to the definition of primary care services, which would increase access to care in underserved areas.

"It was important to me to participate in AKF's Virtual Fly-In because we are fighting for issues that directly affect minority communities," said Leigh-Ann Williams, a dialysis patient from Marrero, Louisiana. "As a Black American with a Master's in Public Health, I know firsthand how health disparities influence health equity and lead to disproportionate numbers of chronic disease cases in minority communities. This is why we fight!"

AKF is grateful to its corporate members whose support makes its advocacy work possible: Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Amgen; Ardelyx, Inc.; AstraZeneca; Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc.; Biotechnology Innovation Organization; GSK; Horizon Therapeutics plc; Omeros Corporation; Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc.; PhRMA; Relypsa, Inc.; Sanofi Genzyme; Tricida, Inc.; and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

About Us

The American Kidney Fund (AKF) fights kidney disease on all fronts as the nation's leading kidney nonprofit. AKF works on behalf of the 37 million Americans living with kidney disease, and the millions more at risk, with an unmatched scope of programs that support people wherever they are in their fight against kidney disease - from prevention through transplant. With programs that address early detection, disease management, financial assistance, clinical research, innovation and advocacy, no kidney organization impacts more lives than AKF. AKF is one of the nation's top-rated nonprofits, investing 97 cents of every donated dollar in programs, and holds the highest 4-Star rating from Charity Navigator and the Platinum Seal of Transparency from GuideStar.

For more information, please visit KidneyFund.org, or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Contacts

Alice Andors 11921 Rockville Pike, Suite 300, Rockville, MD 20852 Senior Director of Communications Work: 240-292-7053 Mobile: 703-609-6085 aandors@kidneyfund.org KidneyFund.org



SOURCE: American Kidney Fund

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/597773/American-Kidney-Funds-First-Digital-Advocacy-Day-Supports-Bills-to-Advance-Health-Equity-Reducing-Health-Disparities-and-Extending-Immunosuppressive-Drug-Coverage
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San Francisco, 16 July 2020: The Report Ride Hailing Services Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Offering (E-hailing, Car Sharing, Rental), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2019 - 2025

The global ride hailing services market size is expected to reach USD 82.37 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. It is projected to register a CAGR of 12.8% during the forecast period. Rising need to combat the rushing traffic coupled with pilling road taxes is expected to expand the scope of ride-hailing services. These rides are easily traceable and the contacts of both the passenger and driver are easily accessible. This factor is projected to bode well for the adoption of these services. Low cost of car ownership and growing employment opportunities is expected to open new avenues over the next few years.

In January 2019, TukTuk-Ride launched a new ride hailing service app for ten major cities in India. The consumers have to pay INR 14 per kilometer for cabs and INR 8 per kilometer for bike taxis. The organization is also planning to expand their services by incorporating luxury cars, vintage cars, e-bikes, deliver vehicles, and ambulances in the same service segment. Dallas-based Alto launched its ride hailing service in January 2019, through the funding of USD 14.5 million from companies including Road Ventures and Frog Ventures. The company will expand to more U.S. cities by the end of 2019.

Some of the automotive manufacturers are expected to enter the market to maintain their customer base over the next eight years. For instance, developing economies including China and India are expected to remain some of the favorable destination as a result of urbanization and expansion of middle-income population. Furthermore, other cab hailing services are entering the China ride sharing service market. For instance, in October 2018, SAIC Motor, Geely and Daimler jointly announced plans for new ride hailing services in China. Additionally, BMW initiated its premium service, ReachNow for China in January 2019. The new venture has a crew of drivers to chauffer rides in a fleet of 200 BMW 5 series. The organization plans to include Mercedes-Benz E-Class and Audi A6 in the fleet. The service will cost around USD 3 per kilometer.

In January 2019, Grab Holdings Inc. announced plans for commencing three new ride hailing services under the names, GrabShuttle, GrabCall, and GrabCall in Myanmar. GrabShuttle will be targeted at office workers and university students and GrabCall will allow booking cabs through call center agents. Grab Web Booking allows booking trips through online portals.

Access Research Report of Ride Hailing Services Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/ride-hailing-services-market

Further key findings from the report suggest:

E-hailing offering segment accounted for more than 50% of the market share in terms of revenue in 2018

Car rental offering segment is expected to register the fastest CAGR of 13.8% from 2019 to 2025

North America held a market share exceeding 35% in 2018 and is anticipated to register significant growth over the forecast period

Asia Pacific is expected to witness the fastest CAGR of 13.9% in the ride hailing services market during the forecast period

Browse more reports of this category by Grand View Research at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry/homecare-and-decor

Grand View Research has segmented the global ride hailing services market on the basis of offering and region:

Ride Hailing Services Offering Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2025)

E-hailing

Car Sharing

Rental

Ride Hailing Services Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 -2025)

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Central & South America

Middle East & Africa (MEA)

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T he closest ever photographs captured of the Sun have revealed super-hot flares swirling near the solar surface using imaging technology developed by London scientists.

Taken from about 48 million miles away by the European Space Agency and Nasas British-built Solar Orbiter satellite, pictures and video are the best quality footage of a phenomenon so hot  millions of degrees Celsius - they make the Suns 6,000C gaseous outer plasma look positively cool.

While researchers knew about larger solar flares, it is the first time smaller ones have been captured in such detail and abundance.

Images - later colourised and enhanced by processing software for greater clarity - were captured by two heat-resistant 9.6 megapixel and 4.2MP cameras, at such extreme temperatures that one scientist on the project likened the photographic conditions to throwing your smartphone into a fire.

The probes close pass to get the shots was made on its elliptical orbit between Venus and Mercury, the nearest planets to the Sun, after it spent months travelling through space following its February blast-off from Cape Canaveral in Florida attached to a Nasa Atlas V rocket.

Swirling flares seen in the images, dubbed campfires, are understood to be caused by small changes to the Suns magnetic field.

The mission will help scientists better understand space weather, which can damage satellites and also phone signals, GPS and electricity networks back on Earth.

The solar flares can be seen burning brightly, with Earth for scale on the bottom left / Solar Orbiter/ESA/NASA

Photos and video were taken through a mega-telescope, with instrument electronics built by University College Londons Mullard Space Science Laboratory, which enables cameras to capture such high-resolution shots.

These images, released today after being beamed back to Earth last month, were shot at about 500C behind heat shields as the orbiter calibrates its mission systems.

The "campfire" flares can be seen in the Sun's gaseous outer plasma / Solar Orbiter/ESA/NASA

But despite the vast distance to upload its shots to Earth  200 times our planets distance to the moon  the compressed images took only about 11 minutes to relay through the cosmos using a telemetry link 20 times slower than a terrestrial 3G connection.

The observational spacecraft, solar-powered of course, is due to make another pass of the Sun at a mere 26 million miles away.

Artist's impression of the Solar Orbiter on its mission / PA

Professor Louise Harra, who worked on its imaging system and spectrometer as a co-principal investigator on the mission, told the Standard from the World Radiation Centre in Davos: This is already the closest ever telescope to the Sun, and the orbit its in is very challenging, so it has to be cleverer than normal.

We have to highly compress the data because were so far away.

The images were taken using instrument electronics built by University College London / Solar Orbiter/ESA/NASA

Dr David Long, a solar physics expert at UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory and also an ESA co-principal investigator, said: No images have been taken of the Sun at such a close distance before and the level of detail they provide is impressive.

They show miniature flares across the surface of the Sun, which look like campfires that are millions of times smaller than the solar flares that we see from Earth.
Greg was an asset to FaZe and we wish him the best in his next endeavor, said Mr. Trink, the remaining chief executive of FaZe Clan. When it comes to diversity in gaming there certainly hasnt been enough progress in this crucial area, and we will encourage and support anyone who sets out to address this vital issue. FaZe has moved diversity and inclusion to the forefront of our priorities, specifically through the formation of a Diversity Council earlier this year, unconscious bias trainings for our gamers and employees and an ongoing commitment to diversifying the industry. We welcome anyone who will join us in working toward these incredibly important goals.

To build XSET, Mr. Selkoe is bringing two other members of the FaZe Clan leadership team with him: Wil Eddins, FaZes president of apparel and special projects, and Clinton Sparks, FaZes director of business development, both of whom also emphasized the need for an esports team that prioritizes diversity and social justice.

Were not just going to take on somebody because theyre popular and have big numbers, Mr. Sparks said.

The organization will include three professional esports teams that compete in Call of Duty, Valorant and Fortnite. Mr. Eddins and Mr. Sparks will also play roles in recruiting notable musical artists, brands and celebrities. Mr. Selkoe said he plans to launch an elevated apparel line, too.

We want the XSET logo to be the Nike swoosh of gaming, he said.

The organization has already recruited several high-profile gamers and content creators, including Thwifo, a Valorant player; Cory Bartonologist Barton, a Call of Duty player; the Miami Dolphins linebacker Kyle Van Noy; Minna Stess, a member of the U.S.A. Skateboarding National Team; and the Fortnite streamer AshleyBTW.

Another factor that is meant to set XSET apart is geography; the company will be headquartered in Boston, rather than Los Angeles, where many of its competitors, including OpTic Gaming and 100 Thieves, are building their own rosters of stars.
But the outcome of Thursdays vote has rankled professors and alumni who are now questioning if IWU, which serves fewer than 2,000 students in downstate Bloomington, is reneging on its commitment to the humanities. Enraged graduates have threatened to withhold donations and pleaded for the programs to be spared. And faculty say they were blindsided by some of the process.
Fawzia Syed never planned to create a network to help hungry New Yorkers. The Long Island resident and nonprofit worker, and a friend, Misha Khan, had volunteered with People in Need, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit working with immigrant communities in Coney Island, for the past year. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, they decided to raise money for the organization in mid-March.

But that soon spiraled into requests from more and more organizations delivering food to people in need of help. My family owns restaurants in the city, Indian restaurants, Syed said. So I kind of understand food and buying groceries. So I was like, Why dont we buy in bulk and see how many people we can help?

What has since emerged is LI Helpers, an organized but informal network of volunteers that have delivered meals largely across Queens and Long Island, with goal of supplying primarily undocumented families, single mothers, domestic violence survivors and shelter residents with groceries.

And its just one of dozens of informal volunteer groups that have been set up to help neighbors in need since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. With lockdowns in place, spiking unemployment and widespread coronavirus outbreaks in low-income neighborhoods, many vulnerable New Yorkers were left scrambling for support.

Early on, several mutual aid organizers said the government response for residents suddenly facing hunger and financial insecurity felt lackluster. Its very direct-action oriented, versus having some of this red tape that might exist in some nonprofits or city government, said Thahitun Mariam, a community organizer who founded the Bronx Mutual Aid Network. Where her mutual aid group could give direct grants to undocumented families with no questions asked, New York Citys $20 million program to give cash assistance to undocumented New Yorkers took three months to rollout.

Most have organized along geographic lines, whether borough-wide or in specific neighborhoods. These mutual aid networks became a resource for many in their communities, offering grocery deliveries, help with applying for unemployment benefits and even direct cash assistance.

While that work may seem like straightforward charity, mutual aid volunteers and organizers view it as intrinsically political.Many have been active in protests against systemic racism and police brutality, giving supplies to protesters and calling for the NYPD to be defunded on social media.

Mutual aid groups that have emerged in the pandemic draw inspiration from similar organizing efforts in marginalized communities throughout history. Recent immigrants to the United States often collaborated in similar ways to support one another during the 19th and 20th centuries. The Black Panther Party, for example, has largely been thought about in terms of its political goals supporting Black power and opposing police brutality, but it often paired that work with social services such as offering free breakfast to children in school and sponsoring health clinics.

When New York was particularly hard hit by COVID-19, many mutual aid groups proliferated in New York City and the rest of the state. They formed through Facebook or shared Google documents and other social media platforms to connect people in need with volunteers who could readily help.

But as the outbreak has slowed in New York and people found an easier time accessing unemployment insurance and other government resources, many mutual aid networks have tried to prioritize more explicit advocacy and political education into their efforts.

That became more pronounced after George Floyds death led to protests against police brutality. The Astoria Mutual Aid Network in Queens offered supplies such as water and hand sanitizer to protesters and passed out legal information. Mutual Aid NYC, a citywide mutual aid group that directs volunteers and people in need to more local groups, criticized New York Citys recently passed budget for not sufficiently defunding the police, according to a post in its online newsletter.

For the Bronx Mutual Aid Network, doing more work on rent cancellation will be a priority moving forward. A lot of the approach weve been taking is educating the community while also doing these grocery deliveries, while checking in with people, while picking up medicine for folks, said Thahitun Mariam, a community organizer who founded the network.

The new form of organizing has also presented opportunities for existing left-wing advocacy groups, such as the Democratic Socialists of America, to expand their reach. The Queens DSA chapter launched the Queens DSA Mutual Aid in March, which primarily does grocery and food deliveries. Mutual aid is allowing us to do more political organizing in spaces where weve never really spoken with people before, said Hinde Sahmoud, co-chair of Queens DSA.

Sahmoud said the Queens DSA was looking into possibly incorporating the mutual aid initiative into a full-fledged nonprofit. Its hard to operate for that long without having some kind of relationship to the state, she said, noting that they were still figuring out how to translate the work into a more formalized structure while retaining a less hierarchical organization.

Not all informal structures created to help people through the pandemic are necessarily aligned with the concept of mutual aid. LI Helpers hasnt associated with mutual aid as a term, though it does similar work. Mutual aids are very political and very vocal.  For ourselves, I think thats not the core part of our identity, Syed said, though she noted that she and most of the volunteers personally hold progressive beliefs. And similar to the Queens DSA Mutual Aid, LI Helpers is also looking to a long-term future as a nonprofit.

Several elected officials and political candidates have taken on the mutual aid label to describe charitable efforts that theyve taken on since the COVID-19 outbreak. State Sen. Robert Jacksons office used the term to describe the principles of an initiative connecting district residents to services, volunteer opportunities or organizing to coordinate relief efforts. State Sen. Jessica Ramos referred to food relief efforts she led as mutual aid in conversation with City & State.

But State Sen. Julia Salazar tweeted recently that legislators and political candidates shouldnt label work they do as part of constituent services or campaigning as mutual aid. Lawfully using campaign resources or public funds to provide meals and material support for people is good and we should all keep doing it! she wrote. But thats not mutual aid.
By Express News Service

KOCHI: Expressing concerns over the rising COVID-19 cases, the Kerala High Court on Wednesday banned gatherings including protests, demonstrations, processions till July 31.

The Bench also directed the state government and the state police chief (SPC)to take all preventive measures to ensure that no processions, agitation, gatherings take place violating the guidelines issued by the National Disaster Management Authority. The state government and SPC should ensure that no political parties violate the guidelines and the court order.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice S. Manikumar and Justice Shaji P. Chaly issued the order on a petition seeking to declare that the large scale public gathering in the name of protest or activities by the political parties in the state violating COVID 19 protocol is unconstitutional.

The court observed that the police had to ensure that action was taken against violators of the guidelines as the guidelines remained in force till July 31. The regulation by the State government allowing social gathering, including get-together, procession, dharna, with the permission of the authority concerned and a maximum of 10 participants should pave the way for the guidelines issued under

the National Disaster Management Act, in view of the Constitutional provisions and the overriding effect under section 72 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005.

The SPC had submitted that the as many as 3214 cases had been registered against the violators of the social distancing norms.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 23:07:42|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson on Thursday said the United States is the "biggest human rights violator" in the world and its accusations about Xinjiang-related human rights issues are "the biggest lies of the century."

The comments were made to refute remarks made by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said on Wednesday that the U.S. is going to impose visa restrictions on certain employees of Chinese tech firms that provide material support to regimes engaging in human rights violations and abuses globally. He called China "the stain of the century" in the area of human rights.

"In fact, the United States is the biggest human rights violator in the world, though it refers to the issue of human rights constantly, and its accusations about Xinjiang-related human rights issues are the biggest lies of the century," spokesperson Hua Chunying told a daily press briefing when asked to make comments.

"The relevant U.S. officials should feel ashamed of themselves, and the U.S. media and people should feel sorry for having such officials full of lies."

It is up to the Chinese people, rather than U.S. politicians, to judge China's performance in human rights, Hua said.

The spokesperson said since the founding of the People's Republic of China more than 70 years ago, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, Chinese people have scored remarkable achievements by seeking a development path suited to their own national conditions.

Hua said over the past four decades and more, China has experienced a 25-fold plus increase in its per capita income, lifted 850 million people out of poverty, and contributed more than 70 percent to the global poverty alleviation effort.

At the same time, Hua said China has become the second-largest economy in the world without resorting to wars, colonialism or slavery, the only one among all major countries to do so. For more than a decade in a row, China has contributed more than 30 percent to global GDP growth.

"These are the biggest human rights projects, the best human rights practices, and the biggest contributions to the world human rights endeavor," Hua said, adding these achievements are there for all to see as long as it is viewed without bias.

Pertaining to the human rights situation in the United States, Hua said the U.S. uprooted and killed Indians in the Westward Movement for nearly a century after its founding, noting their population plunged from 5 million to 250,000, only one-twentieth of the original number.

Hua said during more than 240 years of American history since its founding, it has been war-free for only 16 years, adding the wars and military actions waged since 2001 in countries like Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Afghanistan caused more than 800,000 deaths, and tens of millions of civilians were displaced as a result.

In the U.S., ethnic minorities including African Americans find themselves in a tough situation, Hua said. "George Floyd was not the only person suffocated to death because he 'couldn't breathe', as racial discrimination is pervasive in the United States."

In all Western countries, the U.S. suffers from the most serious polarization between the rich and poor, Hua said, adding the bottom 50 percent saw essentially zero net gains in wealth from 1989 to 2018, and the wealth gap has hit a 50-year high.

"I wonder how Pompeo, in the face of these hard facts, has the confidence to talk to China about human rights," said the spokesperson.

"I'd rather suggest he first asks George Floyd and other ethnic minorities about how they see human rights conditions in the United States, and ask those innocent lives tragically lost in Iraq, Libya, and other countries about how they see the U.S. performance on human rights," Hua added. Enditem
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) London  Thu, July 16, 2020 11:09 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666bb4f1 2 Art & Culture Banksy,coronavirus,London,Train,graffiti Free

British street artist Banksy's latest work, tackling the spread of coronavirus, that appeared inside a London Underground train carriage "some days ago" has been removed, according to transport operators.

The graffiti star uploaded a video on social media Tuesday, captioned "If you don't mask - you don't get".

In it, the artist is seen in a boiler suit spray painting stencils of his iconic rats inside a train, with one sneezing blue droplets.

Read also: Italy returns stolen Bataclan Banksy to France

Transport for London later told AFP the work was removed "some days ago" due to the company's strict anti-graffiti policy.

However, the transport operator would welcome Banksy to recreate his message "in a suitable location", it added.

"We appreciate the sentiment of encouraging people to wear face coverings, which the vast majority of customers on our transport network are doing," a TfL spokesman said.

Topics : Banksy coronavirus London Train graffiti
A local councillor will bring a motion before a meeting of Derrys full council next week which opposes the extradition of a man found liable in a civil court for the 1998 Omagh bombing.

Independent Councillor Gary Donnelly, who will table the proposal, says it is not about the individual concerned but a matter of human rights and if it was William Campbell from the Fountain or Shankill then he would still resist it.

A similar motion proved controversial when it was brought before a committee meeting at Omagh and Fermanagh Council by Independent Councillor Bernice Swift.

She proposed writing to the Irish government in support of Irish citizen, Liam Campbell, against his extradition to Lithuania, to protect the fundamental human and civil rights of an Irish citizen against human rights abuse.

It was supported by Sinn Fein, the SDLP and some independent councillors and passed with 23 voting in favour and 14 against.

UUP and DUP councillors said it was deplorable that the motion was passed.

Families of Omagh bomb victims expressed anger and upset afterwards as Campbell is one of four men who have been found liable for the bombing in a civil court.

South East Fermanagh Foundation (SEFF) which represents victims and survivors in the area said families felt betrayed that councillors would give such credence and concern to the human rights of a commander of terrorism.

Following the meeting, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, said the partys councillors would reverse their position when it comes before a full council meeting for ratification.

He said their decision to support the proposal had caused immense hurt to the families of Omagh bomb victims.

Nobody has ever been convicted of the Omagh atrocity in a criminal court.

Thirty-one people, including unborn twins, were killed in the Real IRA bombing of the County Tyrone town in August 1998.

Mr Campbell is wanted in Lithuania on international arms trafficking charges.

Following a judgement in the High Court in Dublin last month, an extradition order was made this week, July 13.

At Mondays hearing he was granted 10 days leave to appeal the order.

Speaking to the Derry News yesterday Cllr Swift said she was extremely disappointed that her proposal was distorted as it was made strictly on humanitarian grounds because Lithuania is notorious for gross human rights violations.

She says that to link the proposal to the Omagh bomb is disgustingly shameful given that she supports all victims families quest for truth and justice.

DISAPPOINTING

Cllr Donnellys motion to be tabled at the July 23 meeting will read as follows: Given concerns over Human Rights breaches.

This council calls on the 26 county administration to do all in its power to reverse its decision to extradite Liam Campbell to Lithuania.

Addressing the fallout from the Omagh meeting, Cllr Donnelly said: Its disappointing that the SDLP seem to have an a la carte attitude to who deserves human rights.

Colum Eastwood ordered his councillors not to support it and that was done in my view for political expedience in order to maintain the soft unionist vote that he requires and its wrong.

Those councillors got it initially and realised that it was about human rights, about the discredited system in Lithuania, a system that has been condemned by the United Nations Committee Against Torture.

There were mass arrests last year including very senior judges and theres a serious issue with a large percentage of the Lithuanian population who distrust the judicial system.

He added: Its also the fact that its gone on twelve years, this is the third extradition attempt.

His brother, Michael, was in prison there where he spent six years.

He was visited by a number of TDs including Maureen OSullivan and Martin Ferris from Sinn Fein and Eamon O Cuiv from Fianna Fail who seen first-hand the conditions he was in.

He was then acquitted after a number of years when the judge said there was no evidence against him.

And Liam Campbell has never set foot in Lithuania.

The whole thing is rotten and needs to be opposed from a human rights point of view.

This is not about Liam Campbell, if this was William Campbell from the Shankill or the Fountain then it should be opposed too.

Commenting on the upcoming motion Colum Eastwood MP said: Councillors made the wrong decision in a committee of Fermanagh and Omagh district Council, they immediately apologised and will vote against the motion when it comes before full council.

Councillors in Derry and Strabane will do the right thing. They will vote against this motion, across the North the SDLP will not aid in any effort to assist this man avoid justice.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Nicole Ducheneaux had it right: As lead counsel on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes case to stop the oil flow of the Dakota Access Pipeline in unceded 1851 Ft. Laramie Treaty territory, she could claim a win when a federal judge recently ordered a shutdown.

At the time, she warned, however, Don't get it twisted, it's not over. There's a big fight yet left. No sooner said than done. On July 10, a pipeline parent company filed a court motion to avoid emptying the line before the Aug. 5 deadline ordered by U.S. District of Columbia Judge James Boasberg.

Lawyers for pipeline parent company Energy Transfer Partners LP appealed to the District of Columbia U.S. Circuit Court for an emergency stay in the consolidated cases of the Standing Rock, Yankton, Oglala, and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes.

A July 14, 2020, order from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals relieves the owners of the Dakota Access Pipeline from having to comply with a shutdown order while an "emergency" request for a stay in the case is being considered.

Counsel for the company led by Texas billionaire Kelcy Warren said the shutdown will produce devastating consequences for the country, state and tribal governments, oil producers, other third parties, and Dakota Access.

Boasberg had found in preparing his July 6 order to empty the pipeline that Dakota Access LLC arguments against shutdown strictly emphasized its own interests and those of the industry, with no evidence the public would be harmed.

The tribes sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for failure to complete an Environmental Impact Statement, or EIS, before permitting a pipeline crossing of the Missouri Rivers Oahe Reservoir just upstream from tribal drinking water intakes.

The seriousness of the Corps deficiencies outweighs the negative effects of halting the oil flow, Boasberg determined after requiring the Corp to undertake the impact statement, which mandates government-to-government consultation between U.S. and tribal officials.

Now Energy Transfer Partners LP posits, Absent a stay pending appeal, the order will incurably and irreparably infringe Dakota Access rights, including losses exceeding $1 billion. A stay is also essential to avoid irreparable injuries to other innocent parties and to the public interest.

It says a shutdown would inflict $7.5 billion in losses on North Dakota companies, employees, and that states budget alone through 2021. Thousands would be unemployed, with serious damage to national security and an already struggling national economy.

It claims, The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is the safest, most environmentally friendly option for bringing to market around 40 percent of North Dakotas, and 4.5 percent of the nations crude oil production.

The non-profit Lakota Peoples Law Project, which took part in the 2016-2017 indigenous-led international grassroots mobilization at Standing Rock in support of the tribes now consolidated lawsuits to halt DAPL construction, saw that the pipeline company was not planning to comply with Boasbergs order and stated:

We know the judge is correct because no pipeline should be built before a complete environmental study has been conducted. And no pipeline should ever cross native land without the prior and informed consent of that lands original inhabitants.

In a huge court victory today, U.S. District Court rules that Trump Administration and Army Corps rushed approval of the Dakota Access Pipeline, and now the pipeline must be shut down within 30 days while a revised environmental impact statement is conducted. pic.twitter.com/YqRByYZ9Cb  Big Fire Law & Policy Group LLP (@bigfirelaw) July 6, 2020

The group urged pipeline fighters to sign a letter of support for the order.

According to Energy Transfer Partners LP, which intervened on behalf of the Corps, no environmental impact statement was needed. Closing DAPL would increase environmental and health risks by shifting some oil to rail transport, which is statistically more likely to result in spills and related incidents, the motion also holds.

Not only that but, Congestion and shipping costs for other rail users, including Midwest farmers, would also increase, it says, claiming, DAPL is among the safest crude oil pipelines in the country.

Contact Talli Nauman at talli.nauman@gmail.com

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YEREVAN, JULY 16, ARMENPRESS. Today early in the morning the Azerbaijani side resumed shelling at the bordering villages of Armenias Tavush province. Aygepar, Nerkin Karmiraghbyur, Chinari, Movses, Tavush villages and Berd town were under the target, Governor of Tavush province Hayk Chobanyan said at a briefing.

During that period more than 10 civilian homes, as well as some infrastructures have been damaged. I specifically want to mention the shelling of a kindergarten in Aygepar, as well as a water pipeline in Tavush-Nerkin Karmiraghbyur part has been damaged, but its restoration works are underway, he said.

The Governor said at the moment there is a relative calm in the bordering villages.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
Poland's main opposition coalition on Thursday challenged the result of an election that returned to power President Andrzej Duda with backing from the populist right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party. The Civic Platform (PO) party, whose candidate Rafal Trzaskowski narrowly lost the July 12 runoff vote, said an appeal had been lodged with the Supreme Court alleging irregularities and accusing TVP public television of bias. "We have asked for the election to be declared invalid," PO leader Borys Budka told reporters. "This election was neither equal nor universal. It was dishonest," Budka said, adding that "the whole apparatus of the state broke the law" by supporting Duda. Duda won 51 percent of the vote against Trzaskowski's 49 percent. The appeal includes complaints about irregularities from 2,000 people, including problems with voter registration, ballot papers not being sent out in time and issues with voting abroad. - 'Anyone can appeal' - Left-wing lawmaker Barbara Nowacka, a member of the Civic Coalition opposition grouping that lodged the appeal, said the vote was "not fair". "One of the reasons why I'm submitting this electoral protest today is so that those in power know that citizens are keeping an eye on them. Because if we were to let this go today, then they would tighten the screws even more during the next election," she said. Elzbieta Witek, head of the Sejm, or lower house of parliament, and a member of the governing PiS party, said: "Anyone can appeal. "These appeals will be examined but I do not think that any kind of appeal can impact the result of the vote." Under the constitution, the Supreme Court has until August 3 to rule whether or not the election was valid. Observers from the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights on Monday said the vote was "tarnished" by biased coverage on public television. "The incumbent's campaign and coverage by the public broadcaster were marked by homophobic, xenophobic and anti-Semitic rhetoric," it said in a statement. During the campaign, Duda railed against "LGBT ideology" and same-sex adoptions and accused his rival of failing to rule out Jewish wartime compensation claims which the government says should be addressed to Germany. Many observers said TVP's coverage was heavily skewed in favour of Duda and the two candidates refused to debate each other -- a first for elections in post-communist Poland. "The political polarisation as well as the lack of impartiality in the public media coverage detracted from a well-run election," said Thomas Boserup, head of ODIHR's Special Election Assessment Mission. "Following a campaign that was lacking in dialogue, it is especially important to emphasise that democracies are based on respect for diversity and the rights of all, not just the majority," he said.
Boris Johnson is on a collision course with his scientists as he prepares to unveil a nine-month plan to get Britain back to near-normal.

In a major intervention tomorrow, the Prime Minister will set out his vision for reviving the economy while living with the menace of coronavirus.

The plan includes a 3 billion fund to make the NHS 'battle-ready for winter' amid fears of a deadly second wave.

In a major intervention tomorrow, the Prime Minister will set out his vision for reviving the economy while living with the menace of coronavirus

Mr Johnson will launch a drive to get millions of office workers back to their desks, including ditching blanket advice to work from home and avoid public transport.

He will also set out an 'aspirational' timetable for lifting social distancing measures, but will say he expects it to be nine months before we can return to a more normal life.

The PM is expected to set a new target of 500,000 tests a day to help tackle any flare-ups of the disease, as reported by The Sun.

And he will unveil plans for 'lightning lockdowns' to halt the virus spread.

Councils are expected to be given powers to shut pubs and cafes without going to Government first.

The rules could even allow town hall bosses to ban weddings and other gatherings at short notice.

A Government health source told the Sun: 'Councils will be able to impose lighting lockdowns where they see fit.'

But the moves follow public and private resistance from his scientific experts.

Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser, yesterday told MPs there was 'absolutely no reason' to drop the advice to work from home, which the PM fears is crippling town and city centre economies.

In addition, Sir Patrick called for social distancing measures to remain, saying the UK was 'still at a time when distancing measures are important'. He also said experts had advised the Government that lockdown should happen about a week before it was imposed  a delay that may have cost thousands of lives.

Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty is also said to be 'very uneasy' about moves to ease social distancing rules. Professor Whitty has previously suggested that the measures, such as advice to remain at least one or two metres apart, will be needed until a vaccine is developed.

The Prime Minister will today acknowledge the threat of a second wave this winter. Sources said he was determined to avoid the fate of several US states which are seeing cases of the virus soar after easing restrictions too fast.

The plan includes a 3 billion fund to make the NHS 'battle-ready for winter' amid fears of a deadly second wave. Above, mass testing in Blackburn, in Lancashire, which is on the brink of a local lockdown

The 3 billion NHS package includes cash for the biggest flu vaccination programme in history, combined with a drive to increase testing capacity dramatically to half a million a day by the end of October.

The measures are designed to reduce the risk of flu and ensure there is enough capacity to test everyone with cold symptoms similar to those of coronavirus.

The NHS will also receive cash to keep open the network of Nightingale hospitals until the end of March and pay private hospitals to provide extra capacity as it prepares to deal with the threat of coronavirus at the same time as dealing with a winter flu outbreak.

Stockpiles of protective equipment such as masks and gowns will also be built up again.

A No 10 spokesman said: 'The PM is clear that now is not the time for complacency, and we must make sure our NHS is battle ready for winter.'

But Mr Johnson is expected to formally drop the official guidance to 'work from home if you can', which has been in place since the lockdown began in March.

It will be replaced by guidance telling employers to work with their staff on managing a gradual return to the workplace where possible.

Millions of office staff have been working from home for months, but ministers are becoming increasingly alarmed at the slow pace of their return as the lockdown has eased. There are fears shops and restaurants in many town and city centres will be forced out of business unless office staff begin to return.

In a shift of emphasis last week, Mr Johnson said people should 'start to go to work now if you can'.

But to the frustration of Tory MPs, the official guidance to work from home has remained, making it harder for employers to persuade staff back to their desks. Senior Tory MP Sir Graham Brady said the Government's 'blanket advice' should be dropped as it 'takes no account of safety'. He added: 'This whole business of mixed messaging is very damaging.

'Many employers have gone to enormous lengths to make their workplaces safe but when they try to persuade staff to come back, the employee can point to government guidance saying they should work from home.'

A Whitehall source confirmed that the official guidance would be 'tidied up' to reflect the PM's back-to-work message.

The measures are designed to reduce the risk of flu and ensure there is enough capacity to test everyone with cold symptoms similar to those of coronavirus

But Sir Patrick told MPs: 'Of the various distancing measures, working from home for many companies remains a perfectly good option because it's easy to do.

'I think a number of companies think it's actually not detrimental to productivity. And in that situation, [there is] absolutely no reason I can see to change it.'

Downing Street declined to comment on Sir Patrick's intervention, but former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said the PM had to over-rule his scientists for the sake of the economy.

Sir Iain said: 'The scientists have got it completely wrong from start to finish. Most of them have never run a business and it is not for them to tell employers how best to manage their staff. There is a desperate need to get people back to work, back into their offices  otherwise our town and city centres will die.'

Downing Street declined to elaborate on the PM's plan for easing social distancing, but Whitehall sources said it would be 'highly conditional' on the virus continuing to recede.
A MESSAGE FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF GAME & FISH

This fishing report, provided by Dustin Berg of Go Unlimited (supporting disabled anglers) and the Department of Game and Fish, has been generated from the best information available from area officers and anglers. Conditions encountered after the report is compiled may differ, as stream, lake and weather conditions alter fish and angler activities.

Get your New Mexico fishing license: Valid April 1 to March 31, 2020-2021 licenses are on sale.

In this weeks report, Berg invites Chevy Wyatt, an avid young angler, to share some fishing tips; and Berg also shares another tasty summer recipe.

Fishing with Chevy Wyatt

There are many great anglers that routinely contribute to the departments weekly fishing report. This week, we are fortunate to share with you some tips and tricks from one of the regulars who has a knack for catching fish in southern New Mexico. Chevy Wyatt and his parents, of Roswell, are an avid fishing family.

Chevy, age 12, loves fishing for just about anything that pulls on his fishing line. He dreams about fishing as many lakes and rivers as possible.

Here are a few of Chevys go-to fishing holes in southern New Mexico, and a few techniques he wants to share with his fellow anglers.

Tips from Chevy:

I pay close attention to the water for activity. Jumping minnows tell me that larger fish are in the area.

My favorite trout bait is salmon peach PowerBait with glitter. I also like to use small spinners for trout.

My favorite catfish bait is chicken breast. It stays on the hook the best, especially when I cast for the stars (long cast).

I pay very close attention to my line once cast. A strong tug is a good bite. Small taps mean the fish might just be playing or investigating my bait. The line going slack means the fish is bringing the bait closer to me.

Fishing for bass, I like to try all types of lures including plastics, spinners and crawdad imitations. Using a Texas rigged Senko worm always does the job for me.

When you release a fish, always make sure to release it away from where you are fishing. You do not want to disturb the other fish that you have yet to catch.

I always make sure my fishing line is in good condition. Ive lost big fish on weathered line.

Always remember to be patient. You will often get a hit when youre least expecting it.

When hooked to a big fish, loosen your drag and tire them out. Never rush a big fish.

Bergs Recipe Follow Up  Trout Salad made into Salmon Salad

Back in June, Marcus McCoy submitted a trout salad recipe for people to try. I could not wait to try the recipe; I found some smoked salmon in the freezer and put it to good use with this recipe.

Heres what I used to make the salmon salad.

2 frozen fillets of smoked salmon

2 whole pickles diced into -inch cubes

3 leaves of lettuce or kale diced into -inch squares

Half of a large tomato diced into -inch cubes

4 tablespoons mayonnaise

Shred salmon and mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Eat salmon salad on crackers or by itself.

Closure Information

The department reminds anglers it is their responsibility to be aware of closures and contact land managers for properties of interest when restrictions are lifted.

Bureau of Land Management (BLM)  blm.gov/new-mexico

U.S. Forest Service (USFS)  fs.usda. gov/about-agency/covid19-updates

New Mexico State Lands  nmstatelands.org/resources/ recreational-access/

New Mexico State Parks  emnrd.state.nm.us/SPD/

New Mexico Open Gate Properties  wildlife.state.nm.us/hunting/maps/ open-gate-program/

New Mexico Wildlife Management Areas  wildlife.state.nm.us/conservation/ state-game-commission-lands/

Consult local government websites for information regarding specific city and town fishing access.
Following the release of the bombshell book written by Donald Trump's niece - Mary Trump - and for her calls for the President to resign, Trump's Art of the Deal co-author has given his perspective on the Trump family in a stunning interview.

Speaking to MNSBC's 'The Beat', Tony Schwartz backed Mary Trump's claims that her uncle is a psychopath and sociopath not fit to lead, saying that the way his father raised him has made him emotionless.

'I feel great kinship with Mary Trump,' Schwartz said in the televised interview. 'Having observed Trump for nearly my entire adult life  that he is indeed a psychopath or a sociopath.

'Its fascinating to see her confirm and deepen many of the observations that Ive made over the last four years and most recently when I wrote about him as "The Psychopath in chief."

Tony Schwartz (far left), pictured in New York in 1987 with SI Newhouse (center left), Donald Trump (center right) and Trump's first wife, Ivana Trump (far right). Schwartz has said that Trump is 'without empathy and without conscience'

'This is a man, as she says, without empathy and without conscience  and that makes him stunningly dangerous,' Schwartz said.

Schwartz went on to discuss Trump's younger years, and the damage done by being raised by his father and Mary Trump's grandfather - Fred Trump - who died in 1999 at the age of 93.

'Youve actually got four generations  at least four generations  of sociopaths in the Trump family,' Schwartz said.

Tony Schwartz's comments came during an interview during an MSNBC looking at Mary Trump's comments following the released of her tell-all book about her uncle's upbringing

'His grandfather, Frederick Trump, owned whorehouses. His father, Fred Trump  Mary Trump makes very clear was a man without conscious or empathy. Trump himself is that way, and now he has hostages in his children who seem to have almost exactly the same qualities  its a generational tragedy.'

When asked what influence Fred Trump had on the 45th President of the United States, Schwartz agreed with Mary Trump that he severely restricted his range of human emotions that were accessible to him.

'Certain feelings were not allowed. Sadness, the impulse to be kind, the impulse to be generous,' Mary Trump said in an interview earlier in the week. 'Those things my grandfather found superfluous or unmanly.'

Pictured: Donald Trump poses for a photograph with his father, Fred Trump, in 1985. Mary Trump has said that Fred Trump stamped out any emotion considered superfluous or unmanly in his son

This, Schwartz said, has been passed down to Trump's three children of his own, specifically highlighting Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump.

'You can see it in the three oldest children  their inability to empathize  the very narrow range of emotions that they show and the inauthenticity you feel - especially from Ivanka,' said Schwartz.

'I dont know if shes been most influenced, all three of them have  but shes certainly been profoundly influenced.'

Pictured: Ivanka Trump, right, applauds as President Donald Trump holds an executive order that he signed during a meeting with the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, June 26. Schwartz believes that Ivanka has been 'profoundly influenced' by Trump's upbringing

Schwartz says that Trump lack of empathy is dangerous to the public, saying that the impact Trumps private life has on him and his children has an 'insidious' impact on the public.

'This is a portrait of trauma and that in itself is an enormous contribution to the public because that experience that those Trump kids have is along a spectrum and nearly all children experience some level of trauma and it is fundamentally ignored in our culture,' he said.

'We dont pay much attention to the internal lives of people and the affect of their early life experiences  and you see the insidious impact for whats going on inside for Donald trump in how he behaves on the outside.'

Mary Trump called on her uncle to resign from office as she breaks her silence after publishing a memoir - 'Too Much and Never Enough' - describing him as a 'sociopath'

Tony Schwartz was Donald Trump's ghost writer when he penned 'The Art of the Deal', released in 1987 - which is part-memoir, part-business advice book

The co-author of Art of the Deal said that he was less surprised with the timing of the release of Mary Trump's new book, and more surprised that she was coming out with the book - and her subsequent comments - at all.

'If I were going to be surprised by anything I would be surprised that she is coming out at all  ever,' said Schwartz. 'No other Trump family member has stepped forward to say one negative word about him.'

On Tuesday, Mary Trump called on her uncle to resign from office as she breaks her silence after publishing a memoir describing him as a 'sociopath'.

Pictured: Trump's family tree. Schwartz has said there are 'at least four generations of sociopaths in the Trump family', including Donald Trump's children

'Resign,' Mary Trump responded when ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos asked her what message she would have for her uncle if she were in the Oval Office.

She said that, after being 'perverted' by the family's deep-seated 'issues,' her uncle was destined to become a man 'utterly incapable of leading this country, and it's dangerous to allow him to do so.'

'I saw firsthand what focusing on the wrong things, elevating the wrong people can do  the collateral damage that can be created by allowing somebody to live their lives without accountability,' she said. 'And it is striking to see that continuing now on a much grander scale.'

The Trump family tried to gag Mary Trump (pictured above) to stop her from talking about her book, but judge Hal Greenwald stopped their attempts

In the interview, Mary Trump also recalled visiting with her uncle in the Oval Office several months after he was inaugurated.

'He already seemed very strained by the pressures... and I just remember thinking, "He seems tired. He seems like this is not what he signed up for,"' she said.

A clip of the interview was published on Tuesday and fully published on Wednesday, and it was the first time people have heard from the author herself about life in the Trump family.

It comes after Judge Hal Greenwald of the New York State Supreme Court stopped the Trump family's attempt to gag Mary Trump from talking about her book - 'Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man' - which was released on Tuesday.

It's already topped Amazon.com's best seller list and the publisher sent out advance copies to several news outlets, including DailyMail.com.
Homes lay in ruin as seen from a U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Air and Marine Operations, Black Hawk during a flyover of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria September 23, 2017. Credit: U.S. Customs and Border Protection/Kris Grogan

Life for the people of Puerto Rico hasn't been the same since Hurricane Maria devastated the island in September 2017.

A recent study by a Florida State University researcher shows it won't be the same for decades to come.

Matt Hauer, an assistant professor of sociology at FSU who specializes in the impact of climate change on societies, said the population of Puerto Rico was expected to decline before Maria.

But after Maria, Hauer's study shows the projected population will now include 200,000 fewer people than previously anticipated by the year 2047. Puerto Rico's current population, according to the U.S. Census, is 3.2 million.

It's not just the 200,000-person deficit that Hauer says is a concern, it's who is included in that number.

"Of those 200,000 people, 85 percent will be working age," Hauer said. "That is a lot fewer people on the island capable of working and that has a significant impact on the overall characteristics of life for everyone on the island."

Hauer's study, recently published in Environmental Research Letters, uses population modeling that accounts for fertility rates, the aging of the population and migration, among other factors.

Maria's impact on Puerto Rico is more evidence to support the claims of many that a failed government response has exacerbated the hurricane's damage, Hauer said.

"You can't disentangle the hurricane from the response," he said. "But we don't have a lot of control over a hurricane; we can control how we respond."

Recent history and a preponderance of climate forecasting data showing the frequency and strength of hurricanes increasing means Puerto Rico's experience is one that people living in high-risk locations should consider.

With that in mind, Hauer said he hopes that Puerto Rico serves as a lesson.

"Long-range projections help us separate our preferred futures from our likely futures," he said. "We have a tendency to pick and choose who we want to send resources to.

We want to live in a fair and equitable society, that's what we strive for. That's one of the reasons Puerto Rico should get more attention; so, the next hurricane doesn't have to be as bad as this one."

Explore further Landslides triggered by Hurricane Maria

More information: Jesse M Keenan et al. Resilience for whom? Demographic change and the redevelopment of the built environment in Puerto Rico, Environmental Research Letters (2020). Journal information: Environmental Research Letters Jesse M Keenan et al. Resilience for whom? Demographic change and the redevelopment of the built environment in Puerto Rico,(2020). DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ab92c2
War of the Roses.

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i read this earlier, but isn't a part of the story missing? how did she use it?

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Yeah this is confusing because it's the first I'm hearing of this even from her detractors. You'd think this would've come out a while back.

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The people article is very vague but I found more details. I'm gonna update the post.

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She adds: 'As I perused the documents, much to my utter shock and dismay, I discovered that Ms Heard had in fact stolen my sexual violence conversation with her and twisted it into her own story to benefit herself.



'This of course caused me extreme distress and outrage that she would dare to attempt to use the most harrowing experience of my life as her own narrative.'



https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8526299/Amber-Heard-stole-rape-survival-story-says-fired-assistant.html?ito=social-twitter_dailymailceleb In her statement, parts of which were read out in court, Ms James revealed that she only received documents related to the High Court libel hearing last month.She adds: 'As I perused the documents, much to my utter shock and dismay, I discovered that Ms Heard had in fact stolen my sexual violence conversation with her and twisted it into her own story to benefit herself.'This of course caused me extreme distress and outrage that she would dare to attempt to use the most harrowing experience of my life as her own narrative.'

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she stole the "conversation"? this is all worded so weirdly

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This still doesn't explain what Amber said or how she twisted it. Weird.

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Ugh both of them are so messy!



I ghosted a childhood friend after I found her online diary and she claimed she was raped by someone famous, but it never happened. I was with her the WHOLE night it supposedly happened. I was so made I just cut her off.

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I know a girl who did the same thing except not by a famous guy, claimed she was assaulted by someone at the time we were watching a movie together. I could never understand why she did that when its so easily disproved

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I know someone who keeps discussing what life is like for her as a Native American and I know for a fact she is not Native American. Part of the reason why we dont talk anymore.

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The other night in the Discord my friends and I share, as part of a massive photo archiving project we're doing (of every picture and video we've ever taken of one another), funny old photos were posted of a guy that is still part of the group, but another guy in the group has problems with. They got into a drunken fistfight at a bachleor party like 5 years ago that Guy #2 won't let go of. He acts like Guy #1 is the worst piece of shit who's ever lived and goes into a rage every time his name is brought up.



When the pictures of Guy #1 were posted, Guy #2 went on this big rant about how Guy #1 is a piece of shit, we shouldn't talk about him ever, he didn't understand how we could be so casual about him, and then dropped the bombshell that Guy #1 raped Guy #2's wife (at some unspecified point in time).



Me and another friend reached out to said wife- also a longtime member of the friend group- to ask about it and she was confused. She said she's never had any sexual contact with Guy #1, consensual or no, and she was going to talk to Guy #2 about it immediately.

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What the actual fuck. Whether it was true or not, it was most definitely not his story to share.

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I've had like, a different thing happen. This girl claimed I was raped by my best friend. I was not. I am a survivor of sexual abuse, but not by him.

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There was an accusation made against another person at a get-together. I was perpetually trying to put the pieces together because they didnt make sense. I was like whatever, you know its not my place to be like hey, that shit doesnt make sense because I saw otherwise. My interpretation might be wrong, whatever.



A long time after, I was talking to my friend one time, and he just randomly starts telling me about an incident that he saw go down between the two people. He was retelling the story just as I had remembered everything going down. He didnt know about the accusations and I just sat there letting him talk. I never told him what the third party had accused the other guy of, and I just sat there eating my food. I did this because I had tried bringing it up before with the accusers friend (which was entirely my bad) and she denounced me of being a liar and that everything the accuser had said was true.

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Holy shit that's psychotic.

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Yikes

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wow, it's almost as if more than one woman has been sexually assaulted!



The coverage for this is fucking nasty, from every outlet. The random, unproven, sensationalist things that Johnny's inner circle are spouting about Amber to distract are getting individual headlines. Meanwhile, Mr Debt has been caught in a ton of lies and clearly beat the shit out of Amber on a regular basis... but hey let's write 20 stories about how Johnny Debt and his cronies said she maybe shit in a bed as a joke....

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It seems like every single member of their staff hated Amber. There has to be truth to her being terrible.

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Or they were "his" staff that he's continued to pay off?



At this point I think it's clear that this was a mutually-abusive relationship that had a lot of issues. But the "Amber is the worst!!!" narrative just isn't logical.

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this particular woman was with Amber before she got with Johnny. I'm pretty sure Amber fired her once she married him

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And that they all sat there and did nothing with horrible shit was happening in that house.

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Both of them appear to be very manipulative and violent.

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oh my god i'm so tired of their dysfunctional abusive drama. it feels like every week there's some ~damning evidence that surfaces against the other one. none of it absolves the other of what they did. they're both awful people. i don't even know what the end goal is at this point, a gigantic settlement ?





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idgi, used it how?

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If I'm reading it right, Amber retold the story with herself as the victim and presented it as her own story.

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jfc i really hope this isn't true.

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The people article is very vague but I found more details. I'm gonna update the post.

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She adds: 'As I perused the documents, much to my utter shock and dismay, I discovered that Ms Heard had in fact stolen my sexual violence conversation with her and twisted it into her own story to benefit herself.



'This of course caused me extreme distress and outrage that she would dare to attempt to use the most harrowing experience of my life as her own narrative.'



https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8526299/Amber-Heard-stole-rape-survival-story-says-fired-assistant.html?ito=social-twitter_dailymailceleb In her statement, parts of which were read out in court, Ms James revealed that she only received documents related to the High Court libel hearing last month.She adds: 'As I perused the documents, much to my utter shock and dismay, I discovered that Ms Heard had in fact stolen my sexual violence conversation with her and twisted it into her own story to benefit herself.'This of course caused me extreme distress and outrage that she would dare to attempt to use the most harrowing experience of my life as her own narrative.'

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Lying about sexual assault is horrible thing that discredits other victims but there is something almost evil about stealing another victim's story and pretending it's your own.



I can't imagine the emotional trauma a victim would go through having their story retold publicly by someone who never experienced it.



That's assuming I read this right and Amber told the story with herself as the victim.



Edited at 2020-07-16 09:55 pm (UTC)

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and I can't imagine the emotional trauma a victim would go though if a bunch of strangers that she wasn't abused when she was

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The article stated she took this women's story and presented it as her own. If that is what actually happened, there isn't an excuse for it.



Even if Amber is a victim herself it doesn't give her the right to do this.

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Wow wtf is even happening

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Johnny Debt and the group of witnesses that he and his legal team have clearly coached are lying / twisting the narrative in an attempt to further victimized the woman he beat the shit out of on a regular basis, and the media and half of ONTD is falling for it

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I dont like depp, I think he is disgusting and worse than heard but if theres any truth to this story than amber heard has issues too and is very wrong to do this and I dont see why its wrong to say that. It doesnt make one team depp for calling her out on this imo, it just means in my case Im team no one

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tbh i agree, it's concerning how quick people here are to believe everything at face value. not that i know better than anyone, but it's disappointing to see comments claiming Amber and JD are equally bad. Amber may not be a perfect victim, but JD is worse imo!



i skimmed the People article and this woman stated: "I am a sexual violence survivor and that's very, very serious to take that stance if you are not one."



so from my limited understanding, Amber's ex-assistant doesn't believe Amber was abused by JD at all? and that's why she's claiming Amber has stolen her story? hmm.

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Im very late to this thread, but I just wanna understand - are you implying this woman is lying about being raped at knifepoint? That shes making this up just to twist the narrative against amber?

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Enough please enough. I've had it! These two were clearly toxic af to each other and all this "oh but he did this!" And "she did that!" Just to negate it after is exhausting and quite frankly disturbing. I hope she finds peace and happiness but for the love of God enough w them and headlines about them.

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A reminded that Johnny is the one suing, Amber would be off living her life without him had he not pursued this case / sued her for defamation in the states.

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Right? I can't with this bullshit. They settled their divorce, she donated the money, and went on with her life. He's the one who can't let this go.

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Didn't she sue him first and this is the second time they're doing this?

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She was Amber's stylist

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I love how you keep bringing up in every post how I thought Dwight didnt deserved to be bullied, like its some great gotcha, and here you are accusing a rape survivor of being paid to lie and saying Johnny deserved to be abused.

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TW: rape and abuse



If anyone wants a clearer explanation:



Amber Heard's stylist testified about being underpaid for working overtime and for the verbal abuse she received, etc. when the judge asked her why she is testifying in this case, she answered:

She was violently raped in Brazil but Amber Heard took her story and applied to her and Johnny Depp's situation to pretend that she was the one who got raped

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Thank you for clearing it up, the wording confused me.

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It confused a lot of people, so I don't get why everyone is all "there's nothing confusing about it" tbh.

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This is very awful.



There is a lot of evidence that both Johnny and Amber are toxic, abusive, and violent with one another. I don't agree with fans of one over the other trying to completely exonerate their fav by focusing only on the accusations against the other. Both of them are pretty damning imo.

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I went to the DailyMail for the first time in forever and it is CLEARLY Team Depp over there and Ive noticed how other outlets seem to lean on his side of things as well.



We know hes a broke bitch so he cant be paying these people off, how is he spinning the narrative in his favor?

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i feel like the trial is not getting a lot of coverage in general besides johnny depp stan twitter



you would think everyone would be all over this, it's not like anything else is happening

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There are only bits and pieces coming out and its astounding and bizarre at the same time.



Like you said, WTF else is happening that this isnt all over the place?! 

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I think it goes to show his current cultural irrelevance. if this was like 10 years ago it would have been the biggest story of the year

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He's the bigger star, and for a ton of Gen X-ers, he was THE guy. It makes sense that people don't want to believe that their matinee idol teen crush is a drunk wife-beater. But at this point there are no winners in this case. Neither of them come out of this clean, and to pretend otherwise is ridiculous.

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well, it's the Daily Fail, they have a tendency to not respect women.

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OKLAHOMA CITY - The Five Tribes and state leaders have reached an agreement aimed at clarifying jurisdiction on criminal and civil matters in the wake of a Supreme Court decision that upended a legal system in operation for more than a century.

The agreement, which will be presented to members of Oklahomas congressional delegation, affirms the Five Tribes jurisdiction in criminal matters over Indians in their respective territories and non-Indians covered by laws such as the Violence Against Women Act.

The states criminal jurisdiction in the area would be affirmed for all offenders throughout the same area except for crimes involving Indians committed on Indian trust or restricted lands.

The agreement, released Thursday, also seeks legal mechanisms to address the hundreds of Indians in state prisons whose convictions may be overturned because of the Supreme Court ruling.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The victim of a disturbing scene caught on camera in Kansas City is speaking out following the attack. The assault was sudden and violent. Chris Nickens was hit over the head, shot and possibly stabbed in his front yard. The attack happened June 25 near 31st Street and Highland Avenue.
Click here to read the full article.

LONDON  There may be a sliver of light at the end of the tunnel, but its going to take a while for Burberry to get there.

Fiscal 2020-21 was supposed to be a year of growth and transformation for the British brand, which is now being forced to retrench, restrategize and swallow the sort of shocking sales declines rarely witnessed by a big luxury brand in such a short space of time.

More from WWD

In the first quarter ended June 27, Burberrys retail sales fell 48.4 percent to 257 million pounds, while comparable store sales were down 45 percent.

As lockdown and quarantine measures eased worldwide, and stores began reopening, those numbers improved, with sales in June falling 20 percent, and a powerful rebound in the key markets of mainland China and South Korea, especially with regard to leather goods sales.

The news drove Burberrys share price down 5.6 percent on Wednesday to close at 14.70 pounds.

A targeted leather goods campaign in those regions drove strong, double-digit, full-price sales growth in the period, and Burberry said both markets are now delivering sales ahead of pre-COVID-19 levels. The campaign featured pop-up stores offering an augmented reality experience, as well as a limited-edition Pocket Bag for Mr Bags WeChat followers.

Sales in mainland China, in particular, grew in the mid-teens in the first quarter, and swelled to 30 percent in June.

Recent months have been unlike any I have experienced at Burberry or, indeed, in my entire career, chief executive officer Marco Gobbetti told shareholders at the virtual  and brisk  annual general meeting late Wednesday morning shortly after the first-quarter results were released.

He added that Burberry has a robust plan in place to navigate the next 12 months, and pointed to the fact that the brand is a fundamentally healthy company, with sales growth in the first nine months of last year tracking ahead of expectations, before COVID-19 hit.

Story continues

Gobbetti added a note of optimism, saying that while markets worldwide will take time to heal, he was encouraged by the bounce back in mainland China and South Korea, where Burberry has seen customers splash their money locally rather than during trips abroad.

The company said it expects the second quarter, which ends in September, to be materially impacted by the pandemic, with tourist flows likely to remain negligible, and store operations continuing to face significant headwinds. Some remain closed and those that are open are operating with reduced trading hours.

Sales in the three months to September are expected to decline by 15 to 20 percent. In the first half, wholesale sales are set to fall 40-50 percent, Burberry said.

During the AGM, Burberry also pointed out that it has been left with 68.3 million pounds worth of additional inventory from current and recent seasons due to the worldwide store closures. By the end of March some 60 percent of Burberrys stores were shut.

Burberry added that second-half performance will largely depend on the actions governments take to control the spread of the virus as economies restart, including their responses to second viral waves, as well as the phasing of store reopenings, an easing of travel restrictions, and the ongoing consumer response.

As a result of the damage, and to pave the way for recovery, Burberry confirmed Wednesday that it is in talks to eliminate 5 percent of its workforce, or 500 jobs, internationally. That number includes 150 office-based roles in the U.K., and Burberry stressed there would be no cuts to manufacturing or shop floor jobs in its home territory.

The reorganization, which also includes office space and retail rationalization, is expected deliver savings of around 35 million pounds in fiscal 2020-21, with annualized savings of 55 million pounds and an associated one-off restructuring charge of 45 million pounds.

Burberry said those savings are in addition to the previously announced 140 million pound cumulative cost saving program.

As part of a wider move to tighten operations and to sharpen the focus on product, agility and efficiency, Burberry is in the process of setting up three new business units: ready-to-wear, accessories and shoes.

Each unit will have dedicated commercial planning, merchandising and product development teams. Previously, those teams had worked across all three categories.

The company said that conditional on the macroeconomic recovery from COVID-19 and luxury industry growth, we will be able to reinvest these savings into consumer-facing activities, such as pop-up stores, visual merchandising, digital activations, events as well as marketing.

Burberry had been quick to reject the British governments furlough payments during lockdown, choosing instead to pay store staff and others who could not work from home out of its own pocket.

After lockdown, company bosses and top board members took pay cuts; merit increases were frozen; Burberry eliminated the dividend payment for the 2019-20 fiscal year, and the company girded its balance sheet and liquidity for the tough months ahead.

In the first quarter, Burberry said it saw progressive, month-on-month improvement in the April to June period, excellent consumer response to new launches, including the fall 2020 collection, the Pride and summer monogram capsules and leather goods exclusives.

With the exception of mainland China and South Korea, sales were down in all other regions.

EMEIA declined around 75 percent, impacted by lockdown measures and a significant reduction in travel. While sales improved in June, they continued to be impacted by a significant headwind due to tourist flows, Burberry said.

The Americas declined by 70 percent impacted by lockdown measures, although Burberry said trends improved significantly into June.

Due to the fact that no one is traveling, Burberry is putting more firepower behind its localization strategy, given that tourists are no longer snapping up check bags, TB monogram scarves and trenchcoats while traveling abroad. During the AGM, Gobbetti said the brand had bespoke plans for each market, and stressed that it can respond quickly in those regions that are recovering the fastest.

We are leaving space for investments as markets recover, he added.

Burberry plans to follow up its successful China campaign with the launch of its first social retail store, developed in partnership with Tencent, which will open in Shenzhen this summer. The experimental store will look to offer experiences that connect luxury customers social and online lives to their physical environments using technology powered by Tencent.

As part of its marketing efforts, the brand will also kick off London Fashion Week in September, with a presentation under British skies. It will take place live, in the great British outdoors, while press and the public will be able to view the event digitally.

The Burberry show will take place on Sept. 17  chief creative officer Riccardo Tiscis lucky number. The designer said he wanted to channel the purity and simplicity of the outdoors and redefine the fashion landscape through new forms of expression.
The number of retailers requiring customers to wear face masks continues to grow in Wyoming, while state officials have voiced support for the practice but have not backed creating such a mandate themselves.

Wednesday, Walmart announced it will will require customers to wear face coverings at all of its namesake and Sams Club stores, making it the largest retailer to introduce such a policy that has otherwise proven difficult to enforce without state and federal requirements.

A number of other national corporations with locations in Wyoming, including Starbucks, Best Buy, Menards, Kohls and Kroger (which owns Smiths Food and Drug), are also requiring face coverings.

Walmart said its policy will go into effect on Monday to allow time to inform customers. Currently, about 65% of its more than 5,000 stores and clubs are located in areas where there is already some form of government mandate on face coverings.

Wyoming, however, has not implemented a mandate, outside of Teton County.

In a news conference Wednesday, Gov. Mark Gordon addressed the increasing trend of businesses requiring masks.

We are seeing private employers  and I congratulate them; this is their prerogative, this is their constitutional right  if they say, No shirt, no shoes, no mask, no service, by god, Im going to respect that, Gordon said. ... I support the rights of private businesses taking (steps) to protect the safety of their employees. And I respect the courage of the employees to go to work, and I think people in Wyoming generally will respect those rights.

Gordon said he was certainly not inclined to do a statewide order but that he would work with counties that wanted to pass those requirements on a local level.

The governor said he found it upsetting that some Wyoming businesses have received pushback for requiring their customers to wear masks.

There have been some obnoxious individuals who have gone in and tried to argue the constitutionality of it, he said. And I think that those people ought to read Federalist No. 10 or Federalist No. 84 and understand really what the damn Constitution said. The Constitution said if its my property and I dont want you coming in without a mask on, by god well fix that. So I think those Republican principles that we count on are ones that ought to be respected.

Multiple retailers require masks

Also on Wednesday, hours after Walmarts announcement, supermarket chain Kroger, based in Cincinnati, and department store Kohls, based in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, followed suit. Kohls policy will go into effect on Monday, while Krogers mask protocol will go into effect July 22.

Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart, Kohls and Kroger join a growing but still small list of retailers to require masks at all of its stores, filling the role of states and the federal government that have failed to issue such mandates on an issue that has been highly politicized by President Donald Trump and many of his ardent supporters. Given Walmarts clout as the largest retailer in the U.S., its decision is expected to push many others to issue similar mandates.

Last week, Starbucks announced that customers who visit its company-owned cafe locations in the U.S. will be required to wear face coverings. The policies at Starbucks and Best Buy went into effect Wednesday.

Only a handful of major retailers, including teen clothing chain American Eagle Outfitters and Apple, has a mask mandate for customers for all of its stores. Costco Wholesale Club was one of the first major retailers to require face coverings for customers at all of its stores. The policy went into effect in early May.

The National Retail Federation, the nations largest retail trade group, said in a statement that it hopes Walmarts move will be a tipping point in this public health debate.

Retailers had been hesitant to issue chain-wide mandates for fear of angering some customers. They also didnt want to have their workers play the role of enforcers of the protocols. It was already hard enough to get some customers to comply even in the states that had the mandates. However, the recent surge of new virus cases  particularly in Florida, California, Texas and Arizona  has left them with no choice, retail experts say.

I think Walmarts decision will give cover to other retailers to require masks, said Michael J. Hicks, an economist at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. I applaud Walmart and others for stepping in.

Bryan Eshelman, a managing director in the retail practice at consultancy AlixPartners, noted that retailers needed to step in to reduce their own health risks and that having a virus case is disruptive.

It is a business risk that they need to manage for the safety of employees and customers, he said.

Eshelman added that he believes making shoppers comply with the mask protocols will be easier now that wearing masks are becoming more of the norm.

Marc Perrone, president of the United Food & Commercial Workers International union, which counts 1.3 members who work in grocery stores, food packaging plants and other locations, says he feels vindicated after pushing food companies and retailers to require customers to wear masks. But he says that stores need to train employees in how to de-escalate situations with shoppers.

Walmart is taking no chances, making sure to have a new strategy in place to enforce the mask protocols. It said Wednesday that it will create the role of health ambassador at its Walmart stores and will station them near the entrance to remind customers without masks of its new requirements. These workers, who will be wearing black polo shirts, will receive special training to help make the process as smooth as possible for customers.

Walmart said that its currently working on different options for customers who dont show up with a face mask.

As for Sams Club, employees at the entrance will follow the same process with its members, politely reminding them of its requirements to wear a face covering when shopping. Complimentary masks will be provided if the member doesnt have one or a member can buy one at the club.

Retailers have been challenged with striking a balance between keeping shoppers safe while making them feel comfortable.

Last week, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, which represents Walmart, Best Buy and other major chains, publicized a letter it sent to state governors to mandate store customers to wear face coverings. It said the hodgepodge of rules around the country have created confusion for shoppers and that has led to conflict between customers and workers trying to enforce store rules.

The National Governors Association said last week that its members are discussing the letter and others like it from different retail groups.

Social media is full of videos capturing clashes between those who are asked to wear masks, and employees who are under orders to make sure people wear them.

About half of U.S. states require masks in public places, according to the RILA. In recent days, Kentucky and Michigan have passed nationwide mandates.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been consistent about recommending people cover their mouth and nose when around others to help reduce the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. But at the beginning of the lockdowns, it had discouraged people who were not sick from buying masks for fear of taking away what was then a limited supply for health care workers.

We know some people have differing opinions on this topic, wrote Dacona Smith, chief operating officer at Walmart U.S. and Lance de la Rosa, chief operating officer at Sams Club in a blog posted Wednesday. We also recognize the role we can play to help protect the health and well-being of the communities we serve by following the evolving guidance of health officials like the CDC.

The Associated Press and staff writer Brandon Foster contributed to this report.
TYSONS, Va., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- At its 85th Annual Meeting last evening, PenFed Credit Union's Chairman of the Board, Ed Cody, reported on record capital, membership growth and community contributions during 2019. PenFed President and CEO, James Schenck, provided an optimistic update on record milestones and growth achieved during the first half of 2020.

"PenFed's 2019 growth allowed us to surpass the major milestones of attaining $26 billion in assets and serving over 2 million members in 2020, and we are well positioned for another strong year," Schenck said. "During the first six months of 2020, our year on year lending is up over 71% and we are ahead of our budgeted earnings numbers. We arranged for contactless real estate closings and funded a record volume of mortgages while keeping up with members' demand for auto loans, credit cards, and refinanced auto and student loans."

In his Chairman's update, Cody reported that PenFed increased net new membership by nearly 9%, ending 2019 with 1.9 million members. In 2019, PenFed's capital grew to a record $2.69 billion and total assets grew by $300 million to $24.8 billion.

With a current net worth ratio of 10.6%, PenFed holds far more in capital than required to qualify for the federal regulatory rating of "Well Capitalized" and PenFed's capital cushion is at an all-time high of $2.75 billion.

In 2019, PenFed made enhancements to PenFed online (www.penfed.org) and the PenFed mobile app, empowering members to complete virtually any transaction anytime, anywhere. PenFed also added new branches in Puerto Rico and New Jersey, streamlined the mortgage application and approval process, expanded its Regional Financial Service Centers and began staffing the newest Service Center in San Antonio, Texas.

PenFed assisted over 5,000 families with mortgages and processed over $1 billion in home equity loans. Members who used the PenFed Real Estate Rewards program saved over $4.9 million when purchasing their homes.

Cody highlighted PenFed's commitment to the diverse communities it serves through donations topping $1.4 million to charities around the country. General John W. "Mick" Nicholson, Jr., President of the PenFed Foundation, provided an update on the PenFed Foundation and its commitment to serving our nation's defenders through:

Raising more than $3 million through our partners to help military families.





through our partners to help military families. Helping over 200 military families achieve home ownership through Dream Makers grants (15 more than the year before).





Supporting more than 1,200 beneficiaries with emergency financial assistance and caregiver support (a 27% increase).





Supporting five veteran-owned businesses with nearly $1 million in planned investments.

This year's annual meeting was the first to be held virtually and was broadcasted to all members who registered.

Cody presented two Chairman's Awards for Employee of the Year. The first went to Associate Vice President of Real Estate & Construction, Eddie Carafa, for his 28 years helping PenFed take perfect care of its members in all of its branches and service centers. The second went to Vice President of Operations Strategy Integration, Nicole LaCamp, for serving employees so they can better serve members.

The Chairman's Director of the Year Award was presented to Sandra "Sam" Patricola for her 15 years of outstanding volunteer service as a member of the Board of Directors and unwavering support as the current Treasurer of the Board of the PenFed Foundation Board of Directors. The first-ever Chairman's Team of the Year Award was presented to the 28-member Pandemic Event Support Team for its continued response to COVID-19 and dedication to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of PenFed employees and members.

"Credit unions are all about people helping people, and PenFed has a diverse community. I am proud of our dedicated volunteers and employees who are incredibly committed to serving our communities," said Cody. "No matter what challenges we face in the coming years, PenFed has the financial strength, focused strategy and dedicated staff to continue providing best-in-class member services and supporting our communities across America and around the world."

About PenFed Credit Union

Established in 1935, Pentagon Federal Credit Union (PenFed) is America's second-largest federal credit union, serving over 2 million members worldwide with over $26 billion in assets. PenFed Credit Union offers market-leading certificates, checking, credit cards, personal loans, mortgages, auto loans, student loans, and a wide range of other financial services with members' interests always in mind. PenFed Credit Union is federally insured by the NCUA and is an Equal Housing Lender. To learn more about PenFed Credit Union, visit PenFed.org , like us on Facebook and follow us @PenFed on Twitter . Interested in working for PenFed? Check us out on LinkedIn . We are proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer.

SOURCE PenFed Credit Union

Related Links

http://www.PenFed.org


The US says it is ready to support countries that believe Chinas territorial claims in the South China Sea are illegal.

The United States says it is ready to support countries that believe Chinas territorial claims in the South China Sea are illegal.

It comes after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the US does not recognise most of Beijings claims in the strategically important region.

It is a decision that has been welcomed by fishermen in the Philippines who are being pushed out of their usual fishing spots by the Chinese navy.

Al Jazeeras Jamela Alindogan reports from Zambales province, the Philippines.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks during a daily briefing following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Manhattan in New York City, New York, July 13, 2020.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday slammed President Donald Trump's coronavirus response, describing the pandemic in the U.S. as a "virus of American division and federal incompetence."

"It will be a double-barreled shotgun of incompetence," Cuomo told reporters during a press briefing in Albany. "You know what virus is worse than Covid? The virus of American division and federal incompetence. That's the virus that's wreaking havoc on this country."

Cuomo pointed to a recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that he said proved one of his longstanding claims: The coronavirus came to New York, which was once the epicenter of the global outbreak, predominantly from Europe and not China.

The report, which studied 544 specimens collected by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene collected in March, found that 6.6% of specimens tested positive for Covid-19.

Using genetic sequencing, the CDC determined most of the Covid-19 positive specimens resembled those circulating in Europe, "suggesting probable introductions of SARS-CoV-2 from Europe, from other U.S. locations, and local introductions from within New York."
The University of Queensland is now officially running on 100 per cent renewable power, with its major solar farm at Warwick coming online.

The 64-megawatt solar farm has already been brought online after two years of development and will be officially opened on Friday, marking a major milestone for the university.

UQ's new solar farm at Warwick is being officially opened on Friday, completely offsetting its power use.

UQ vice-chancellor Peter Hj said the university is now the first in the world to have its entire energy consumption offset by renewable energy.

"As an institution we wanted to look at how you could use renewable energy sources in a more stable fashion," Professor Hj said.
Forty acres of land formerly owned by Wrightbus and now owned by Mid and East Antrim Borough Council has attracted the attention of four major investors.

Chief Executive of the council Anne Donaghy said the interest was "encouraging" and included a "variety of proposals".

She said the parties covered sectors including manufacturing, renewables and education sectors.

At a special council meeting last month, members agreed to accept the sealing of the transfer of the land at Lisnafillan.

Pending the signing of the transfer deed, the council will move to begin the process for expressions of interest in the site.

Mayor Councillor Peter Johnston said: "These lands will be crucial in securing more jobs for our people and the growth of our economy in Mid and East Antrim.

"I am pleased to see the progress which has been made in the transfer process and it is very positive news that we have already shown by a number of potential investors.

"The transformation of the Lisnafillan lands will be a significant and historic boost to Mid and East Antrim's long tradition of creating a sustainable economic future and landscape for all our citizens."

The land at Lisnafillan had been argued over during negotiations between the Wright family and the company's eventual new owner, Bamford Bus Company, last year.

In a compromise shareholder Jeff Wright, whose father Sir William Wright co-founded the company, then agreed for the 40 acres to be transferred to the people of Ballymena through an arrangement with Mid and East Antrim Borough Council.

The land is understood to be worth around 700,000. The transfer had been held up due to negotiations over conditions, including a stipulation that the land would not be used for housing, but must instead be used to further economic development.

Speaking at the time of the initial deal for the sale of Wrightbus out of administration to Bamford Bus Company last year, Jeff Wright said he was gifting 40 acres of "family-owned farmland" to the council as a legacy for the people of Ballymena in recognition of their contribution over 70 years to the service of Wrightbus.

"This legacy gift is a tribute not only to my father, his father before him, and the Wright family members, but most importantly it is a tribute to the generations of workers who helped build a proud manufacturing tradition in Ballymena. It is my true wish to see this legacy used for the purposes of expanding manufacturing and benefiting our local community."

DUP councillor Gregg McKeen, who was involved in discussions over the deal, said Sir William Wright CBE's contribution to the economy would live on through the site.
There are few elected officials that can mobilize people online like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose social media following has given her a big platform to promote progressive issues. This includes a new video in which the Bronx-born lawmaker argues that the time has come for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to support higher taxes on the ultra-wealthy.

Big budget cuts to public schools, health care and local government services are looming. The governor is holding out hope that Congress will approve billions in new aid for the state later this month. Elected officials and activists to his political left, however, say that the state should approve a new tax on capital gains no matter what happens at the federal level.

This would allow the state to help undocumented people, who were ineligible for past federal aid like stimulus checks and expanded unemployment benefits. Cuomo, however, has argued that it makes sense to wait for clarity at the federal level before revealing just how much money the state could raise to fill the multibillion-dollar budget hole caused by the pandemic.

The state Legislature is reconvening later this month and taxes on the wealthy is likely to be a contentious issue between progressive lawmakers and moderate Democrats. It is also just the latest showdown between AOC  who is arguably the most high-profile elected official in the country on the political left  and a three-term governor who has his own ideas about what progressive really means.

Whether its taxing the billionaires, the Green New Deal, or figuring out the best way to manage the pandemic, here are the top issues where Cuomo and Ocasio-Cortez have clashed in the past two years.

Taxing billionaires

Liberal lawmakers and activists have been pushing the state for years to raise taxes on the wealthy. While Cuomo has been open to raising some taxes in the past, he was more adamatent this year that raising taxes was not something to do. Instead, he wants the federal government to provide billions in unrestricted aid for the state. That may or may not happen, so AOC is saying a new tax on capital gains is the way to go in order to shore up the states fiscal situation. I think its huge, said Charles Khan, organizing director for the Strong Economy For All Coalition, an umbrella group favoring tax increases, on AOCs backing of the effort.

Policing

The governor and AOC have also been at odds over policing. This includes Cuomos successful effort to increase the number of police officers patrolling the New York City subway system. Cuomo has also pushed back at Ocasio-Cortezs suggestions that a recent spike in shootings in the city was caused by New Yorkers struggling with their rent. It is factually impossible that somebody committed a crime so they could pay their rent, said Cuomo, who has imposed a moratorium on evictions during the pandemic that largely remains in effect.

Rent relief

Ocasio-Cortez is also among the elected officials calling for the state to cancel rent and offer a relief fund for landlords. The governor has opposed that idea and has favored a less radical approach to helping tenants cover their losses during the pandemic. The freshman lawmaker, however, has cultivated a reputation for challenging the political positions of more moderate lawmakers and was not about to back down just because Cuomo was enjoying a surge in his national popularity. As we know here in New York, we have to fight with Democrats to make sure things get accomplished, Ocasio-Cortez said in April.

Green New Deal

The governor loves to say that he is the one who made a Green New Deal happen in New York state. AOC, however, arguably put the issue on the national agenda as soon as she got to Washington, D.C. Whose approach really represents what a Green New Deal should be? You be the judge 

Cynthia Nixon

Cuomo did not take kindly to the actress 2018 primary challenge. It is safe to say that by endorsing her, AOC got off to a rough start with the governor, even before she got elected to Congress later that year. If you think Cuomo has forgotten about that whole endorsement thing,just keep in mind that Cuomo was still taking swings at Nixon as recently as March 2020.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of Charles Khan.
This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is at risk of suicide please call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, text TALK to 741741 or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.

Tiera Hopkins loved to dance. The fun-loving vibrant teen started dancing at 7 and it was pretty much her life, said her mother, Jenny Morales, 47, a client advocate at an insurance company in Elgin, South Carolina. Five days a week, Tiera practiced. When she wasnt dancing she was hanging out with her tight group of friends or younger brothers. Morales said Tiera was a delight.

She always kept you smiling  she was always smiling, Morales told TODAY. But unfortunately she kept a lot of things to herself. She wasnt very vocal about her feelings.

Tiera always smiled and seemed upbeat and happy. Little did anyone know she was struggling. (Courtesy Jenny Morales)

In 2012, at the age of 16, Tiera died of suicide. Morales grief still feels overwhelming, but she has become an advocate for destigmatizing mental health in teenagers and encouraging parents and teens to talk about mental health.

Watch TODAY All Day! Get the best news, information and inspiration from TODAY, all day long.

It starts with teaching them communication  teaching them how to break that stigma. Its OK to not be OK, Morales said. I want teens not only to speak up for themselves but also to speak up for others.

From vibrant and happy to loss

From the first class, Tiera fell in love with dance.

Its just what she enjoyed  and of course, she was wonderful at it. She was a beautiful, beautiful dancer, Morales said.

Tiera also had a close group of friends that had been inseparable since they met in third grade and she loved being an older sister to her younger brothers.

She was a very caring young lady, Morales said.

Tiera loved dancing and spent about five days a week at the studio practicing. (Courtesy Jenny Morales)

While Tiera was a good student and never got into trouble at school, about a month before her death, her grades slipped. At the time Morales thought her daughter was overwhelmed with new dance classes and high school.

Story continues

We actually had the discussion (that) maybe it is too much for you because your grades are dropping and we cut back on dance, Morales recalled. "She pretty much lost it. She was like, No, no, thats my life. You cant take it away from me.

She later learned from Tieras friends that Tiera confided in them that she was struggling and she told them she had thoughts of suicide. But they did not realize she was being serious. Thats one reason why Morales has become a mental health advocate. She wants parents and teens to be able to talk about mental health and suicide openly.

Its teaching them how to communicate and be a voice for themselves  their friends, she said. If they notice something is not right especially if their friend has been forthright, and actually says, My life is worthless or I have no purpose, or if you just notice a huge or drastic change in your friend, you have to say something.

Jenny Morales wished she would have talked with her daughter, Tiera, more about her mental health. Since Tiera's death by suicide at age 16, Morales has been trying to encourage others to talk with their loved ones about mental health. (Courtesy Jenny Morales)

But Morales hopes that parents will also talk to their children about mental health and suicide, even if it feels scary or difficult.

Its OK to ask directly about thoughts of suicide. Have you thought about taking your life? she said. We need to be listeners  we need to acknowledge what theyre saying and let them know theyre not alone.

Often people feel afraid to discuss suicide because they worry theyll put that idea in someones head. But Dr. Ken Duckworth, the chief medical officer at the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said thats not true.

Mentioning suicide does not activate a new idea within people," he told TODAY. You do not put suicide in someones head.

Duckworth said many survivors of suicide feel guilty that they didnt notice a sign or didnt do something and he wants them to know that a loved ones suicide is not their fault.

Its impossible to know what stressors are on (others), he said.

Since her daughter's death by suicide, Jenny Morales has been on the board of the American Foundation for Suicide Preventions' South Carolina chapter. She wants to prevent others from experiencing the loss she has. (Courtesy Jenny Morales)

Death by suicide has been increasing steadily for every age group since the 1990s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it new stressors that could further increase suicide risk, according to experts at the American Psychological Association. It's important for parents to reach out and discuss mental health and suicide with their children. They also need to know that mental health services are available.

It is valuable for parents to talk about suicide with their teens and to be really candid about it, and maybe even directly ask them how theyre feeling, Duckworth said.

Related: The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number is being shortened to three digits to make it easier to remember and reduce the stigma around mental health.

He also recommends that parents seek mental health counseling and treatment for their children from a mental health professional if they notice a concerning change in their child's behavior or if the child has expressed thoughts about wanting to die or attempt suicide. Duckworth says parents can reach out to the National Suicide Lifeline to get support for themselves and their children as a first step.

After Tieras death, Morales started a scholarship for local high school students awarded based on an essay about how they would advocate for others. She hopes that when people hear about Tiera they understand how essential it is to talk to their loved ones about their mental health.

I want people to understand how important it is to speak up  to be a voice you need help, Morales said. I want parents to start the conversation.
PHOENIX  Attorney General Mark Brnovich is once again pressuring Gov. Doug Ducey to pave the way for executions in Arizona.

In a letter this week, Brnovich told the governor it is clear the federal government is able to get its hands on pentobarbital. What that means is the problem the state has had in the past in getting the drugs  and doing so legally  from a willing supplier no longer exists.

And Brnovich pointed out there are 20 individuals on death row who have exhausted their appeals.

But it is up to the Department of Corrections to actually order the drugs. And that agency is under the control of Ducey.

It has been six years since Arizona carried out an execution, Brnovich told the governor. In fact, he said, some of the crimes for which people have been convicted and are awaiting execution date back to the 1970s and 1980s, specifically citing the 1984 slaying of 8-year-old Vicki Lynne Hoskinson, who disappeared while riding her pink bicycle at Tucsons De Anza Park. Frank Jarvis Atwood, who had previously been released on parole from California, was arrested and convicted.

The time has come for Atwood and others to be held accountable, Brnovich wrote.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY, MI -- The public is invited to a virtual meeting to learn more about the extension of the U.S. 23 Flex Route.

The Michigan Department of Transportation is hosting the meeting from 3 to 4 p.m. Monday, July 27, on Microsoft Teams to discuss the progress of the flex route, which would extend seven miles to the interchange at I-96 and U.S. 23.

U.S. 23 Flex Route to get 7-mile extension to I-96

Participants can ask MDOT staff questions through a chat tool. The meeting can be accessed here with instructions online.

Meeting accommodations can be made for anyone with disabilities and limited English-speaking ability upon request. To make a request, send it at least seven days before the meeting to Orlando T. Curry, 425 W. Ottawa St. Lansing, MI 48909, or by calling 517-241-7462 or emailing CurryO@Michigan.gov.

The current nine-mile flex route is a restricted-use lane on U.S. 23 between M-14 and M-36 between Ann Arbor and Green Oak Township that was installed in 2017 to alleviate traffic during peak hours. The dynamic shoulder, as state officials call it, is open southbound from 6 to 9:30 a.m., and northbound from 3 to 7 p.m.

The extension could require securing $100 million and could take seven years to complete. The state is also looking to improve the M-36 interchange, which could be another $30 million, MDOT officials have said.
Council of Governors chairman Wycliffe Oparanya wants the Sh20 billion equalisation fund domiciled at the National Treasury to be used to cushion poor counties that will lose out on the proposed revenue sharing which favours densely populated regions.

The proposed revenue sharing formula has caused a big division in the Senate, throwing counties deeper into a financial crisis.

Some Sh316.5 billion has been allocated to the counties as equitable shareable revenue in the 2020/21 financial year.

If the Senate adopts the formula, 18 counties -- mainly the less populous and marginalised -- will lose up to Sh17 billion.

Mr Oparanya Wednesday noted that it would be painful for counties to adjust their budgets and advised that the third basis on revenue sharing be passed and equalisation kitty be used to supplement regions which will lose out.

"Counties have already prepared their budgets and it will be difficult to adjust them as this will affect operations," Mr Oparanya, who is also the Kakamega County boss, said in Vihiga County.

He noted that the proposed formula would benefit his county but would impact negatively on Vihiga which risks losing Sh300 million.

"Let us have the equalisation funds used to cushion the counties that will lose out," he said.

He said the first and second basis of revenue sharing formula that were used during the first six years of devolution were to help in coming up with a more agreeable plan but this was yet to be realised.

For his part, Vihiga Governor Wilber Ottichilo said the third basis of revenue sharing would be a "disaster if approved by the Senate".

He suggested that the proposed formula should be deferred for another year to allow room for consultation.

"If okayed, it will affect us in running the government. I plead with the Senate to defer it until next year to allow room for a clear conversation on the matter," he said.

Dr Ottichilo said poor counties would lose out on the equitable share in the proposed plan. On Tuesday, a special sitting of the Senate called to discuss the formula adjourned without debate after Minority Leader James Orengo called for further consultation on the various proposals submitted by lawmakers.

REJECTED PROPOSAL

Senators from the sparsely-populated northern Kenya have rejected the proposal.

Further, three senators -- Johnson Sakaja (Nairobi), Boniface Kabaka (Machakos) and Sam Ongeri (Kisii) -- have opposed the formula even though their counties stand to gain more money.

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The failure by the lawmakers to agree on the formula means that debate on the County Allocation of Revenue Bill, 2020, which had been shelved pending a decision on the formula, will remain in abeyance.

The Bill is the legal instrument that details the horizontal share of the revenue raised nationally but which is allocated to the 47 counties.

It is calculated at not less than 15 per cent of the last audited accounts of the national government as approved by Parliament.

Commission on Revenue Allocation has developed 10 criteria for sharing revenue among the counties through the third basis.

These are health index on which the commission placed 17 per cent weight, agriculture (10 per cent), population (18 per cent), poverty (14 per cent), basic share (20 per cent), land area (eight per cent), rural access (four per cent), urban households (five per cent), fiscal effort (two per cent) and prudence index (two per cent).
BATON ROUGE, La. -- The Louisiana Department of Education today announced it would award nearly $11 million in federal funding to child care providers in a third round of grants to offset the financial impacts of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The funding is intended to support early learning sites that safely remained open or reopened during this unprecedented time. This round of grants will include an additional amount for providers serving children in the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP).

The funding stems from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act. The awards will benefit nearly 700 child care providers statewide who participate in CCAP, and in turn, serve over 46,000 children birth through age 13.

"For many in Louisiana, quality child care is the key factor in returning to work and providing for their family," said State Superintendent of Education Dr. Cade Brumley. "These funds help support those educators who care for our youngest children. Our early childhood centers have been serving our essential workers, who in turn are on the frontlines of our health crisis. It's only right that we are there for them."

The grant awards represent the third round of this particular aid. These grants are available as the state continues forward on its Roadmap to a Resilient Louisiana, the Governor's plan for safely reopening the state.

Though early learning centers were not required to close under Louisiana's stay-at-home order, which went into effect in March, more than 70 percent of providers closed their doors. Those that remained open primarily served the children of workers on the frontlines of the response effort. Seventy percent of providers are now offering services, compared to 30 percent in April.

The latest round of grant funding builds on steps Louisiana has taken to support child care providers. The Department has:

Paid providers based on the enrollment of students receiving a subsidy, not attendance, to help ensure centers made closure decisions based on safety alone;

Issued rapidly-evolving health and safety guidance, including reopening guidance, for child care centers;

Connected child care workers to the important feeding programs run by school systems to ensure the people who care for children did not have to worry about putting food on the table for their own and those they educate;

Enabled essential personnel to go to work with confidence their children are in good hands by opening, and then extending, the CCAP to essential workers across the state;

Released a suite of resources and additional funding opportunities to ensure a strong start for every child in every community; and

Equipped every child care provider with high-demand supplies to ensure a safe and health reopening.

While these efforts have provided much-needed support, more must be done, according to a recent report by the Louisiana Policy Institute for Children. The report shows early care and education providers, some of whom risk permanently closing, need support to reopen, and parents will have even more difficulty affording early care and education due to COVID-19 precautions. It emphasizes critical investments must be made in early care and education for employees to return to work and the Louisiana economy to fully reopen.
NowRx, a Mountain View, Calif.-based technology-enabled pharmacy, completed a $20m Series B funding round.

The round, which brought total funding to $30m, was led through SeedInvest.com, a Regulation A+ crowdfunding platform.

The company intends to use the funds to launch more high-tech micro-fulfilment centers to bring free same-day prescription medication delivery to customers in additional territories and to accelerate the technology roadmap for its proprietary pharmacy management software and logistics technology.

Led by CEO and co-founder Cary Breese, NowRx is a technology-enabled pharmacy, that uses proprietary pharmacy software and last-mile logistics to provide same-day and same-hour delivery of prescription medications. The company creates micro-fulfilment centers with proprietary technology and low overhead to provide free same-day delivery. Its proprietary pharmacy management software technology, QuickFill (v3.5), was built to streamline and simplify prescription fulfillment and delivery while reducing costs and improving customer service. QuickFill was recently certified by Surescripts Health Alliance Network, which unifies electronic health records (EHR) vendors, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), pharmacies, clinicians and health plans and connects it to more than 1.5 million physicians across the U.S. The technology suite includes both a consumer app that provides customers with control over their prescriptions as they are being processed, as well as Wheelz, the driver app that coordinates delivery by NowRxs HIPAA-trained drivers, enables delivery signatures and transactions, and tracks deliveries in real-time through GPS. QuickFill technology also incorporates end-to-end robotic dispensing.

NowRx recently opened one of its high-tech micro-fulfilment facilities in Burlingame, its fourth in California, and has received its pharmacy permit to operate another facility in Arizona.

The company has delivered over 200,000 prescriptions to more than 28,000 customers.

FinSMEs

15/07/2020
Deputy lord mayor Arron Wood has called on Melbourne city councillors to ask the state government to dump its preferred site for a second safe-injecting room.

The Andrews government announced its intention to trial the second injecting room last month and named community health centre cohealth, near the Queen Victoria Market, as its preferred location.

Cr Wood will next week ask Melbourne City Council to write to Mental Health Minister Martin Foley and former police boss Ken Lay, who is leading consultations, urging that the site be dropped from the government's plans because it is "inappropriate and inadequate".

While the deputy lord mayor was overruled on a similar motion last month, lord mayor Sally Capp, who had voted against him, has now seconded his motion listed for next Tuesday.




We're a family of seven living in Georgia where Andrew's working as a professor at GSU. You can read more about us here
Pennridge to vote on one textbook; further review on other one
Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021.
The Montgomery County Historical Commission announced it is taking applications for its 2020-2021 Youth Advisory Board composed of juniors and seniors representing public and private high schools in Montgomery County, including home school high school juniors and seniors.

The goal is to harness the youth power in our Countys communities with a high school youth advisory board. The County Historical Commission believes this is the first such countywide youth organization of its kind in Texas.

The Montgomery County Historical Commission is a duly constituted organization of Montgomery County government composed of citizen members appointed by the County Commissioners who serve for two-year terms. The Commission reports to the County Judge and the Commissioners Court and to the Texas Historical Commission. The Commission works in various fields including archeology, architecture, history, economic development and heritage tourism for the purpose of preserving and promoting the rich history and heritage of Montgomery County  the third oldest county in Texas, created in 1837.

The Youth Advisory Board has its own set of By-Laws along with a Mission Statement:

To provide the youth of Montgomery County opportunities through volunteerism and service to have a positive effect on the preservation and promotion of the history and heritage of Texas and Montgomery County; to discover and circulate information that is important to the historical identity of Montgomery County; and to offer a forum by which youth in Montgomery County can voice their ideas and concerns.

These energetic and creative young people  all personally selected by their school teachers and administrators  will individually and collectively:

 Be a voice for the youth of Montgomery County in our Historical Commissions goals to make history relevant, interesting and fun for all ages

 Promote Historical Commission activities and events, such as the annual spring History Road Rally, historic tombstone cleaning, and similar historical events around Montgomery County

 Generate fresh and fun ideas for projects that serve the Historical Commission and the citizens of Montgomery County

 Increase awareness of educational opportunities for Texas and Montgomery County history

 Be directly engaged in the preservation and promotion of the history of Montgomery County

 Promote the contributions of Montgomery County youth as service volunteers

 Help with the maintenance of the Historical Commission website and other social media that distribute information about Montgomery Countys historical sites and its rich heritage

 Have fun working with other Montgomery County youth along with respected County leaders on projects that preserve and promote the heritage of Montgomery County and the State of Texas.

The Youth Advisory Board (YAB) meets once each month during the months of September through April. In addition, members are invited to participate in county history events and projects that are both fun and educational.

For more information about this Youth Advisory Board organization, please contact Commission member and Board sponsors, Brenda Beaven at brenda.n.beaven@gmail.com; Carolyn Carroll at carroll013@gmail.com or Larry Foerster at foerster@dfcllp.com or 936-537-9070.
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Sunni Dixon is a self-taught footwear designer and founder of Sunni Sunni, an artful brand at once sophisticated, simple and street smart. Originally from Washington, D.C., aka Chocolate City, Dixon draws inspiration from Black culture. This reinforces his need to prevent jeopardizing the environment and those who work and live in it for fashion trends.

Dixon has been designing and posting about footwear since 2012, leading to celebrity custom orders. His e-commerce launched during the pandemic and amid nationwide revolt against police brutality. Consciousness runs deep in everything produced at Sunni Sunni, the owner said. It is not an extension to the brand but part of its DNA.

The brand utilizes an informal product drop model that requires fans to follow and subscribe in order to catch the next product release. A customer favorite is the Lonel Square Toe Mule, a lazy day slip on and kick-off style of shoe retailing for $400 unembellished or $465 with chain.

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Experts have uncovered a link between Brazilian meat plants and the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. As per reports, meat products such as beef and chicken are huge industries in Brazil that are also allegedly aligned with the countrys far-right President who has repeatedly dismissed the threat of the coronavirus. Amid the coronavirus outbreak, meat plants in Brazil have remained open.

Virus clusters found near meat plants

According to reports, other countries like the United States, Canada, Germany and Ireland have also experienced outbreaks of virus clusters near the vicinity of slaughterhouses. In Brazil, the beef sector is worth a whopping $26 billion while the chicken industry is worth $8 billion.

As per reports, meat plants provide the perfect breeding ground for the COVID-19 virus. Rio Grande do Sul is one of the hardest-hit Brazilian states and contains 32 meat plants, a third of all the coronavirus cases is the state, roughly 4,957, can be attributed to the workers from those 32 plants. According to experts, COVID-19 clusters in the northern and southern part of Brazil were built around towns that housed the meat plants, thus, establishing proof of a link between the virus and meat plants.

Read: Dozens Demonstrate Against Bolsonaro In Brazil

Read: Brazil: Reassigning Deforestation Data Official Raises Question Of Political Interference

Reports have indicated that China which is one of the largest importers of meat from Brazil halted the imports from two of Brazils largest meat companies, BRF and JBS. Brazils ministry of agriculture has also ordered the suspension of all exports from the JBS factory in Rio Grande Do Sul.

Brazil has reported 1,926,824 positive coronavirus to date, as per the John Hopkins coronavirus resource centre. The country has a death toll of 74,133. Currently, Brazil is second only to the United States in terms of the number of coronavirus cases. COVID-19 pandemic started in China late last year and has since then infected over 13.4 million people worldwide and the global death toll stands at 580,552.

(Representative Image)(Image Credit Pixabay)

Read: Brazil Sacks Official After Soaring June Deforestation Data

Read: COVID-19: US, Brazil, India And South Africa Report Highest Increase In Infections
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 16, 2020 / Golden Lake Exploration Inc. (CSE:GLM) ("GLM" or the "Company") is pleased to report positive gold and silver values from reconnaissance prospecting and geological mapping by the Company's geological team on its keystone Jewel Ridge gold property located near the town of Eureka, Nevada.

Strong gold and silver values from selective samples returned up to 5.48 grams per tonne (g/t Au) and 324.0 grams per tonne silver (g/t Ag) from the A & E Target, and up to 14.20 g/t Au and 562.0 g/t Ag from the Croesus-Connelly targets. One grab sample was also taken from the adit area at the South Eureka Tunnel target which returned 9.61 g/t Au and 78.9 g/t Ag. This is one of the key targets focused for drilling later this month, directed at Carlin-type, oxide gold mineralization.

"Jewel Ridge continues to deliver strong results. With drilling commencing this month we look forward to building this exciting story." stated Mike England, CEO and President of Golden lake.

Highlights of recent sampling program:

A & E Target - Four rock grab samples have been taken from the newly identified (PR June 23, 2020) A & E Target, located on patented claims, all returning significant gold and silver values, associated with copper, lead, and zinc mineralization representative of a CRD (Carbonate Replacement Deposit) style of mineralization.

Sample # Au ppm Au oz/t Ag ppm Ag oz/t Cu % Pb % Zn % EU-65 1.92 0.056 105.0 3.06 0.58 1.27 1.52 EU-66 4.70 0.137 320.0 9.33 0.76 2.53 1.58 EU-67 2.18 0.064 48.9 1.43 0.40 1.75 2.50 EU-68 5.48 0.160 324.0 9.45 0.30 2.35 0.93

The A & E Target is located approximately 300 meters southwest of the western edge of the South Eureka Tunnel zone (Carlin, oxide gold target) with numerous historic mine dumps and trenches interpreted to be from the "Sterling Mine" operations. (* Note: all samples are grab samples from dumps and old workings and while indicative of the style of mineralization are not be viewed as representative of the overall grade). The A & E target has no known drill holes.

Croesus and Connelly Mine Targets - Five rock grab samples (*) were taken over a 200 by 200 meter area in the vicinity of the historic Croesus and Connelly mine workings. These mines represent the last major underground mining on the Jewel Ridge property directed at CRD gold, silver, and lead deposits from 1917 to 1920. Shafts, dumps, and buildings from these operations exist on the property today. Operations ceased in 1920 when silver crashed to $0.80/ounce in June of that year. Most recent grab samples of dump and old workings returned significant gold and silver values, associated with copper, lead, and zinc mineralization representative of a CRD style of mineralization.

Sample # Au ppm Au oz/t Ag ppm Ag oz/t Cu % Pb % Zn % EU-70 6.27 0.183 562.0 16.39 0.11 5.48 0.97 EU-71 6.73 0.196 200.0 5.83 0.06 1.62 1.00 EU-72 11.85 0.346 48.6 1.42 0.21 8.96 1.17 EU-72A 0.021 0.001 0.35 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 EU-73 14.20 0.414 155.0 4.52 0.07 3.70 0.94

About the Jewel Ridge Property

The Jewel Ridge property is located on the south end of Nevada's prolific Battle Mountain - Eureka trend, along strike and contiguous to Barrick Gold's Archimedes/Ruby Hill gold mine to the north and Timberline Resources' advanced-stage Lookout Mountain project to the south.

The property comprises 96 unpatented lode mining claims and 30 patented claims covering approximately 728 hectares (1,800 acres). The Jewel Ridge property contains several historic small gold mines. The Company's focus is on Carlin-style disseminated gold deposits, the primary focus in the area since the late 1970s.

Nevada Carlin-type gold deposits have a combined endowment of more than 250 million ounces, which are concentrated (85 per cent) in only four trends or camps of deposits: Carlin, Cortez (Battle Mountain-Eureka), Getchell and Jerritt Canyon. The Company cautions that results on adjacent and/or nearby projects are not necessarily indicative of results on the Company's property.

Quality assurance/quality control

Golden Lake is reliant on ALS Labs in Reno, Nev., for its QA/QC protocol as these are preliminary samples and limited in number.

Qualified person

Golden Lake Exploration's disclosure of a technical or scientific nature in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Garry Clark, P.Geo., who serves as a qualified person under the definition of National Instrument 43-101.

About Golden Lake Exploration Inc.

Golden Lake Exploration is a junior public mining exploration company engaged in the business of mineral exploration and the acquisition of mineral property assets. Its objective is to acquire, explore and develop economic precious and base metal properties of merit and to aggressively advance its exploration program on the Jewel Ridge property.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Mike England"

Mike England, CEO & DIRECTOR

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Telephone: 1-604-683-3995

TollFree:1-888-945-4770

Neither the Canadian Stock Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: 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. Investors 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. These forward -looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. All forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and by those made in our filings with SEDAR in Canada (available at WWW.SEDAR.COM).

SOURCE: Golden Lake Exploration Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/597690/Surface-Selective-Sampling-Returns-Additional-Strong-Gold-and-Silver-Values-from-The-Jewel-Ridge-Property-Nevada
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16

By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:

Attention is being paid to the challenges that are being faced right now with the Armenian-Azerbaijani issue, US Ambassador to OSCE James S. Gilmore said in a statement, Trend reports.

The Minsk Group Co-Chairs: Russian Federation, the United States, and France, are active, that they are participating. The United States is speaking here today strictly in our national capacity, not on behalf of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs, from whom we have already heard in one capacity or another.

I want to make it clear that attention is being paid to the challenges that are being faced right now with the Armenian-Azerbaijani issue. Yesterday, there was a press statement issued by the Co-Chairs that welcomed the decrease in hostilities at that time and appealed to both sides to make every effort to continue de-escalation.

The Co-Chairs also urged the sides to refrain from inflammatory rhetoric and any attempts to change the situation on the ground.

I wanted to make all the countries assembled here today aware of the contents of their press release.

In addition, I wish to simply state that yesterday the three Permanent Representatives of France, the United States, and the Russian Federation, along with other members of the Minsk Group, were briefed in our national capacities by the Co-Chairs.

At that time, I, in my individual capacity, stated that it was important for the Co-Chairs to be transparent and active, and to be in a position to aid in mediation and response, if that occasion presented itself in accordance with the Minsk process.

In the past two days, both the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Morgan Ortagus, the Spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, have made statements in which the United States condemned in the strongest terms the violence along the border and urged the sides to stop using force immediately and to strictly adhere to the ceasefire.

The United States is strongly committed to helping the sides achieve a lasting peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and we will remain active in efforts to accomplish that goal, Ambassador Gilmore said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 19:27:45|Editor: huaxia

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-- The USFK is reportedly expanding a scandalous program it claims to be a defense system against biochemical threat;



-- South Korean civic groups and local residents have accused the U.S. military of deploying a germ warfare unit and conducting chemical and biological experiments in the country;

-- The U.S. project is still underway, though the name has been changed from Jupitr to Centaur.





SEOUL, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Worries over the U.S. military's biochemical experiment in South Korea have recently deepened, as the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) is reportedly expanding a scandalous program it claims to be a defense system against biochemical threat.

South Korean civic groups and local residents have accused the U.S. military of deploying a germ warfare unit and conducting chemical and biological experiments in the country, calling for closure of the related facility.

However, the U.S. project is still underway, though the name has been changed from Jupitr to Centaur.





BIOCHEMICAL PROGRAM

The Jupitr program, officially the Joint USFK Portal and Integrated Threat Recognition, a so-called strategic initiative aimed at defending against biological, chemical, and radiological weapons, was made known here in 2015 and believed to have been launched in 2013.

Local weekly magazine Sisa Journal reported that the Jupitr project involved experiment with living toxic samples, citing the "whole system live agent test (WSLAT)" mentioned in the fiscal year 2018 budget estimates of the U.S. Department of Defense.

The Jupitr program's experiment results will be used by the U.S. military through programs such as EMBD, or Enhanced Maritime Biological Detection that the U.S. Navy began in 2017, according to the journal.

As a follow-up project of Jupitr, the Centaur program, or Capabilities to Enable NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) Threat Awareness, Understanding and Response, will be completed by the USFK by the end of this year, South Korean broadcaster JTBC reported, citing experts' analysis.

The Centaur program inevitably entails an experiment in preparation for biochemical warfare, according to JTBC.

Trying to defuse public worries, during a briefing near the U.S. military base in Busan Port Pier 8 in December, the USFK said the Centaur program is an early warning defense system against biological threat rather than a biological experimentation research program.

File photo taken on July 11, 2015 shows citizen groups calling for termination of the biochemical project of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) outside the Osan Air Base, about 60 kilometers south of South Korea's capital Seoul. (NEWSIS/Handout via Xinhua)

However, experts have questioned the USFK's claim that the dead samples of botulinum and other pathogens had been brought in and used with notifications of the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention and the customs department.

"A living germ is used as it grows (when testing). If inactivated with radiation, it cannot be used as a specimen because the DNA is broken. What the U.S. military said (last December) did not make any sense," Woo Hee-jong, a professor at the Seoul National University, was quoted by JTBC as saying.

Meanwhile, JTBC reported that the USFK's biochemical project has been expanding and evolving.

A job ad posted on the website of Battelle Memorial Institute in March showed that it was "currently seeking a Command Post operator" in six locations including Busan, Daegu, Seoul, Dongducheon, Waegwan and Jinhae district in Changwon, where the USFK bases are located.

Previously, the Centaur program had been known to be run only at the USFK base in South Korea's southeast port city of Busan.

As a U.S. nonprofit research institute working with the U.S. military, Battelle has been commissioned to operate Centaur command posts set up by the USFK, according to local newspaper Hankyoreh.





LIVE TOXIC SAMPLES

Inside a three-kilometer radius of Busan Port Pier 8 are some 20 primary and secondary schools, and 30 apartment complexes as well as public institutions and facilities.

The USFK has denied allegations that it is conducting biological tests using hazardous materials such as live agents or toxins, but concern remains about the biochemical experiment with live toxic samples given the USFK's false report in the past.

A probe by the U.S. Department of Defense, released in July 2015, found that a U.S. military lab in Utah had failed to neutralize live anthrax spores and shipped the toxic samples to researchers in 86 laboratories in the United States and seven other countries, including South Korea.

In May 2015, the USFK said in a statement that the anthrax sample experimentation program was conducted at the Osan air base, some 55 km south of Seoul, the first time in the year, Yonhap news agency reported.

Citing the result of a joint investigation conducted by the South Korean and U.S. militaries, Yonhap reported in December 2015 that the USFK's statement proved to be false as it had conducted 15 experiments using dead anthrax samples at the Yongsan Garrison in Seoul from 2009 to 2014.

It was belatedly known that the USFK also brought in specimens of plague bacillus when it brought the dead anthrax samples into South Korea.

File photo taken on June 14, 2015 shows citizen groups calling for termination of the biochemical project of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) in Seoul, South Korea. (NEWSIS/Handout via Xinhua)

PUBLIC OUTRAGE

The controversy over the USFK's experimentation research with live anthrax samples remains as concerns and fears are growing among civic groups and local residents in South Korea, especially in cities where U.S. experiment labs are located.

Sisa Journal reported that worries about South Korea degenerating into a "biochemical test site" for the U.S. military have surged in the country.

Several non-governmental organizations took to the streets to protest the alleged biochemical experiment by the U.S. military in South Korea last year when the USFK held the briefing at Busan Port Pier 8.

The Busan residents' countermeasure committee for expelling U.S. military bacterial weapons laboratory in Pier 8, one of the civic groups, demanded the immediate stop of all USFK experiments relating to the development of bacterial weapons and cancellation of "deceptive" briefings.

Such briefings are "nothing more than an excuse to avoid worsening public opinion," the committee said, calling for the shutdown of the laboratory to protect the lives and safety of citizens.

"The USFK is trying to turn South Korea into a bacteria experiment base as intended by the United States," said Kim Seok-hoon, director of the Nam-gu Countermeasure Committee in Busan, another group of residents protesting against U.S. biochemical experiment. "This is something that can never be tolerated," he said.

(Video reporters: Lu Rui, Tian Ming, Kim Ho-min; Video editor: Liu Yuting)
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Russian police arrested more than 140 people including a prominent Moscow politician and her daughter yesterday during protests over constitutional reforms which will allow Putin to stay in power until 2036.

The OVD-Info monitor group, which tracks arrests at political protests, said 142 people were detained Wednesday evening. Many people including journalists were put in police vehicles, AFP correspondents said from the scene.

An AFP journalist was also briefly detained.

Yulia Galyamina, a prominent Moscow city councillor who has spearheaded a campaign against President Vladimir Putin's controversial changes to the constitution, was among those detained together with her daughter, she said on Facebook.

The constitutional changes could see President Vladimir Putin stay in power for another 16 years.

Police officers detain participants of a protest against the results of July 1 national vote which approved reforms to the Russian constitution, including a reset for President Vladimir Putin's constitutional term limit that allows him to run two more times and remain in power until 2036, in downtown Moscow last night

Police officers detain a protester during a rally to cancel the results of voting on amendments to the Constitution in Pushkin Square in Moscow, Russia last night

Police officers detain a participant of a protest against the results of July 1 national vote which approved reforms to the Russian constitution, including a reset for President Vladimir Putin's constitutional term limit that allows him to run two more times and remain in power until 2036, in downtown Moscow last night

Protesters lie on Petrovka Street in central Moscow during an unauthorised rally following the results of the 2020 Russian constitutional referendum, last night

Police officers detain a protester during a rally to cancel the results of voting on amendments to the Constitution in Moscow, Russia, last night. Earlier this month a group of opposition activists called for a protest against the constitutional reform that allows Russian President Vladimir Putin to stay in power until 2036.

Earlier Wednesday Galyamina and her allies gathered in Moscow's central Pushkin Square despite rainy weather to collect signatures from hundreds of supporters against this month's constitutional reforms, to contest them in court.

'We are lodging a class action lawsuit,' activist Andrei Pivovarov told AFP as he gathered the signatures on the steps of a statue of national poet Alexander Pushkin dominating the square.

'We are collecting signatures from across the country,' he said.

Writing later on Twitter, Galyamina said they had gathered 5,000 signatures. 'This is an excellent result,' she said.

Protesters gather to take part in a protest against amendments to Russia's Constitution in Moscow yesterday

Police officers try to detain a protester as a scuffle breaks out during a rally to cancel the results of voting on amendments to the Constitution in Moscow, Russia, yesterday. Earlier this month a group of opposition activists called for a protest against the constitutional reform that allows Russian President Vladimir Putin to stay in power until 2036

Russian police officers detain a protester during an unauthorized rally following the results of the vote on amendments to the Russian Constitution in the Pushkinskaya square in Moscow, Russia, last night

Security forces take protesters into custody during a demonstration against July 1 constitutional referendum, that could keep Russian President Vladimir Putin remain in power until 2036, in Moscow, Russia last night

Security forces take protesters into custody during a demonstration against July 1 constitutional referendum, that could keep Russian President Vladimir Putin remain in power until 2036, in Moscow, Russia last night

At one point the campaigners had to pause because they quickly ran out of paper, they said.

Some protesters brandished placards, while others chanted 'Russia without Putin' and 'Russia will be free.'

Activist Maria Alyokhina of Pussy Riot fame also turned up, calling the amendments a 'constitutional coup.'

Earlier this month Putin, 67, oversaw a deeply controversial seven-day vote that amended the constitution and now allows him to serve two more six-year terms after his mandate expires in 2024.

Police officers detain a participant of a protest against amendments to Russia's Constitution and the results of a nationwide vote on constitutional reforms, in Moscow, Russia yesterday

Police officers apprehend a protester during demonstrations against amendments to Russia's Constitution and the results of a nationwide vote on constitutional reforms, in Moscow, Russia yesterday

Police officers detain a man during of a protest against amendments to Russia's Constitution and the results of a nationwide vote on constitutional reforms, in Moscow, Russia yesterday

LGBT activists take part in a protest against amendments to Russia's Constitution in Moscow yesterday. The placard reads: 'I don't recognise the authority that keeps me from having a family'

The amendments also included populist measures such as an effective ban on gay marriage.

Leading opposition politician Alexei Navalny has said the poll had set 'a record in faking votes' and the result had 'nothing in common with people's views'.

Many in Pushkin Square said they had turned up to protest the changes championed by Putin who can now potentially stay in the Kremlin until 2036.

'I voted against,' Inna Golovina, a 46-year-old accountant, told AFP. 'People say the results were rigged.'

Pavel Tarasov, a young Moscow city councillor representing the Communist Party, said he would like to leave his signature but the crowd was too big.

'The results of the vote do not suit anyone,' he said.

A participant holds a placard during a protest against amendments to Russia's Constitution and the results of a nationwide vote on constitutional reforms, in Saint Petersburg, Russia yesterday. The placard reads: 'I thought my life is about serving the people, but now I realise it's a damn usurpation of power'

Police officers detain a man with a press badge during a protest against amendments to Russia's Constitution and the results of a nationwide vote on constitutional reforms, in Moscow, Russia yesterday

A participant holds a placard during a protest against amendments to Russia's Constitution and the results of a nationwide vote on constitutional reforms, in Moscow, Russia yesterday. The placard reads: 'I am/We are the Constitution of Russia'

Police officers detain demonstrators at a protest against amendments to Russia's Constitution and the results of a nationwide vote on constitutional reforms, in Moscow, Russia yesterday

A large group of mostly young activists later split off and marched along central Moscow streets before many were roughly detained.

Galyamina was detained in Pushkin Square after the signature-collecting event was over.

Up to a thousand people gathered for a similar event in the second city of Saint Petersburg, an AFP correspondent said.

'The authorities do whatever they want, people's opinion does not interest anybody,' lamented Andrei Stepanov, 50.

'We need to show in some way that we are against this.'

Law enforcement detain a protester during demonstrations against amendments to Russia's Constitution in Moscow, Russia yesterday

People gather near a monument to Russian poet Alexander Pushkin during a protest against amendments to Russia's Constitution and the results of a nationwide vote on constitutional reforms, in Moscow yesterday

Law enforcement officers wearing helmets drag a protester away from the demonstrations against amendments to Russia's Constitution last night. Witnesses at the scene said many of the detained activists were bundled into police vehicles

Anatoly Naidyonov, 38, compared the Russian president to a 'pharaoh who is completely detached from reality'.

'This can all end badly for the country,' he added.

Earlier Wednesday parliament's lower house approved,at a key second reading, controversial legislation that allows elections to be held over three days, in a move the opposition said was aimed at further hollowing out democratic polls.

The amendments allow elections to be held outside polling stations and enable voters to cast ballots in various public spaces.

During the June 25-July 1 plebiscite, makeshift polling stations were set up at unlikely locations including buses, tents and street benches.

The voting process, which was not monitored by proper election observers, was ridiculed on social media.
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Namibia on Wednesday evening opened an exhibition titled "While in Quarantine" at the Namibian Arts Association (NAA) Gallery in Windhoek.

The exhibition showcased art produced during COVID-19 lockdown. It is the first of its kind held in Namibia, and will open until July 30.

The curator at the NAA Marcii Magson said the exhibition is aimed at giving artists a voice through their artworks.

"In an attempt to find symmetry in chaos, the NAA has asked artists and creators to share their works from the period of the nationwide lockdown. It is a group exhibition of the creative mind grappling with chaos," she said.

One of the artists Mukwendje, said many people who attended the exhibition this far were filled with sadness, and new hope for the future. He said they told him that the exhibition has taken them back to a very sad time in their life.

"Many people have painful memories of this period until now, as many of them have lost their jobs. I watched how people stood by one artwork which they could relate to for a long time. We have achieved our vision and this makes me happy," Mukwendje said.

Magson said they decided to host the exhibition because of the positive impact that the industry has on the public. She said artworks have the potential to inspire and motivate during a difficult time.

"2020 held many surprises but none as great as the COVID-19 pandemic that pressed pause to everyday life around the globe. The unthinkable is the new normal and again we look to our artists to lay out the landmarks and reflect on the process," she said.
Amri / Port Sudan / Sinkat / Nierteti  Demonstrators have started new sit-ins yesterday in Amri in Northern State, and Port Sudan and Sinkat in Red Sea state, demanding security, justice, development and services.

The demonstrators at the new sit-in in Amri in Northern State demand an investigation into the killings in April 2006, and compensation for the damage that was caused by the construction of the Merowe Dam. They also demand accountability and an investigation into corruption at the Merowe Dam.

The Nierteti sit-in continued for the 17th day, despite the implementation of several of the demands of the demonstrators, including the dismissal of the locality security committee, the formation of a joint force, and the arrival of a power generator on Monday.

The protesters said they will continue their sit-in until protection of the agricultural season has been guaranteed.

The sit-ins in Kabkabiya in North Darfur and Misterei in West Darfur entered its sixth day, while the sit-ins in East Darfur's Ed Daein, Bahr El Arab, and Yasin now last three days.

On Monday, militiamen broke up the sit-in of Fata Borno, leaving ten dead and 17 wounded.

The sit-in of the residents of Soba El Aradi in Khartoum has entered its second week. The protestors demand electricity and water services.

In eastern Sudan, sit-ins continue in El Gedaref's Hawata and in Kassala for the fourth day. The protest vigils in Port Sudan and Sinkat entered their second day. The demonstrators demand services, asphalt roads and the dismissal of officials.

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Darfur Bar Association

Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok had a meeting with the Darfur Bar Association (DBA) in Khartoum yesterday. They discussed the possibility of organising conferences and workshops at sit-ins in all states of Sudan.

DBA Secretary General El Sadig Ali said the prime minister proposed to develop grassroots conferences and workshops for the demonstrators at the sit-ins. Hamdok will coordinate the government's efforts with the DBA, Ali said.

The attack on the sit-in at Fata Borno camp was discussed as well. Ali: "The prime minister expressed his great concern for the grave violations committed against innocent people, who have the right to peacefully express their opinions at sit-ins. He demands security and the restoration of the Rule of Law."

Ali added that the DBA will start thinking about the formation of preparatory committees to organise the local and national meetings and conferences.

Radio Dabanga's editorial independence means that we can continue to provide factual updates about political developments to Sudanese and international actors, educate people about how to avoid outbreaks of infectious diseases, and provide a window to the world for those in all corners of Sudan. Support Radio Dabanga for as little as 2.50, the equivalent of a cup of coffee.
A young boy and his family members look at the horses of the Fort Worth, Texas, mounted police on the third day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 20, 2016. (Dominick Reuter/AFP via Getty Images)

Voters Reject Defund the Police Efforts in Fort Worth

Voters in Americas 13th largest city signaled opposition to the defund the police movement by approving the continuation of a tax that provides funds to the citys police department.

Just over 64 percent of voters in Fort Worth approved for 10 more years a half-cent sales tax that was set to expire on Sept. 30.

Money garnered through the tax goes to fund various law enforcement efforts, including crime prevention. The programs funded by the tax are referred to as the Fort Worth Crime Control and Prevention District.

The decision on whether or not to keep the tax was included in city elections this week.

Mayor Betsy Price, a Republican, said she was pleased with the vote, saying in a statement, It demonstrates confidence in our City and Police Department.

Price said shes aware of concerns about how the districts board of directors are governing and how the allocated funds are being spent. She plans to ask the city council to discuss governance structure and spending of the money in the coming weeks.

The district was established in 1995 to try to boost law enforcement efforts after high crime rates occurred in the late 1980s, according to the Forth Worth government. Voters approved to continue the tax four times before. The last vote was in 2014. The approval is usually for five years; this time, it was for a decade.

The crime prevention district has played a part in making Fort Worth one of the nations safest large cities, Price said in a statement earlier this year.

A Forth Worth police officer stands in Fort Worth, Texas, in a 2018 file photograph. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The per-capita incidence of major crimes has decreased 63 percent since the district was first created, Fort Worth Police Chief Ed Kraus said in a presentation made to voters before the election, even as the population of the city keeps increasing.

The Fort Worth Police Officers Association, a police union, said that voters rejected the defund the police movement.

Today, the citizens of Fort Worth, Texas have sent a loud and clear message to the nation; in Fort Worth, we support our police, the group said in a statement.

No police department is perfect but the department is a model organization, according to the union.

Activist groups linked to the Black Lives Matter movement tried convincing voters to vote against continuing the district.

Fort Worth spends nearly $1 million per day on policing. More money for police is not okay. Vote AGAINST Prop A! Fort Worth Futures, one of the groups, said in one of a number of similar social media posts this month.

Organizer Pamela Young told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the coalitions opposing the measure did end up winning, by educating voters about how the money from the tax is spent.

Our eyes are open, and we can make sure that changes are made moving forward, she said.

Each of the four previous continuation elections was approved by a majority of more than 75 percent of participating voters.

The vote was originally scheduled for May 2 but was pushed back to July 14 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Citywide

Photo: Amanda L./Yelp

The Bay Area's shelter-in-place order has brought countless events usually held as in-person gatherings online. We're aiming to support local businesses in San Francisco and Oakland by highlighting five of these events each day.

Got a suggestion for an online event based in SF or Oakland? Email our events reporter, Teresa Hammerl.

Here's your San Francisco online event calendar for Thursday, July 16. Put your knowledge to the test during a trivia night, learn what it takes to record in a home studio environment or tune in to a poetry reading.

Film Discussion: Slay the Dragon

Image: Mother Jones/Facebook

Join for a discussion about the impact campaign tied to the documentary, Slay the Dragon, which aims to shine a light on gerrymandering, the practice of redrawing electoral maps to serve a single party.

In Slay the Dragon, hear how a secretive, high-tech gerrymandering initiative which launched 10 years ago threatens to undermine democracy. The documentary follows everyday people as they fight to make their votes matter.

Panelists will include Mother Jones senior reporter Ari Berman, Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, and Angela Lang, executive director of Black Leaders Organizing for Communities. The discussion will be moderated by Carlene Bechen, Fair Maps Organizer for Wisconsin.

When: Thursday, July 16, 12 p.m.

How to join: Via Eventbrite

Price: Free

Recording Concepts

Tune in when recording engineer and producer Heidi Trefethen hosts a class covering the basics of recording vocals, and various other instruments in a home studio environment.

Trefethen will discuss and illustrate signal flow, mic placement, pre-amps and basic mixing technique to get your recordings sounding great while sheltering in place.

When: Thursday, July 16, 6 p.m.

How to join: Via SFJAZZ

Price: $50

After Dark Online: Algorithmic Accountability

Then, learn more about the ways algorithmic decision-making and facial recognition technologies reinforce human bias and racism and dive into the work being done to support algorithmic accountability. Timnit Gebru, a computer scientist and the technical co-lead of the Ethical Artificial Intelligence Team at Google, will join this session hosted by the Exploratorium.

Story continues

Gebru is also an advocate for diversity in technology and the co-founder of Black in AI, a community of black researchers working in artificial intelligence.

When: Thursday, July 16, 7 p.m.

How to join: Via YouTube

Price: Free

Virtual Trivia Night

Image: Rebuilding Together San Francisco/Facebook

Thursday night will also give you a chance to join a trivia night hosted by Rebuilding Together San Francisco, a nonprofit providing home repair and renovation programs for low-income residents.

The hosts will lead teams through five rounds of trivia via Facebook Live. Designate your captain, get your team on the phone, and put your collective knowledge to the test.

When: Thursday, July 16, 7 p.m.

How to join: Via Facebook Live

Price: Free, donations are welcome

Launch for Via Negativa: Poems, with author July Westhale and Katie Tandy

Image: The Booksmith/Facebook

Join Upper Haight bookstore The Booksmith and event space The Bindery as they host a virtual event with Oakland-based author July Westhale, who will read from her new collection of poems, Via Negativa. Reading with her is journalist and playwright, Katie Tandy.

When: Thursday, July 16, 7 p.m.

How to join: Via Facebook Live

Price: Free, donations are welcome
Judicial and law enforcement authorities in Romania, with Eurojust support and the cooperation and assistance of national authorities from several countries, have dismantled an organised criminal network responsible for drug trafficking. 15 people were indicted and almost 2 tons of cocaine, with an estimated value of 600 million, were seized.

15 suspects were indicted earlier this week in Romania for international drug trafficking and the setting up of an organised crime group (OCG).

The OCG members smuggled over 3 tons of cocaine from Brazil to Romania by sea, storing the drugs in Romanian territorial waters with the aim of transporting and distributing them to Western Europe and the Western Balkans. 1.8 tons of cocaine with an estimated value of approximately 600 million were seized by the Romanian authorities. The majority of the remaining drugs were lost by the criminal network during transport by sea.

The Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism - Central Structure initiated the investigation into the OCG and led the operation in Romania. Given the complexity of the case and its international dimension, with members of the criminal network being of various nationalities (Romanian, Lebanese, Brazilian, Spanish, Serbian and Ukrainian) and operating in different parts of the world, the case was referred to Eurojust in May 2019.

In July 2019, a joint investigation team (JIT) was established between Romania and Serbia and benefited from financial and operational support from Eurojust.

The majority of the suspects were active in Romania, where the drugs were brought, and were coordinating the transport of the merchandise to the Western Balkans and other countries in Europe with a criminal cell in Serbia. Some of the suspects fled to Spain after losing an important cargo of the drugs (a ship smuggling approximately 1 ton of cocaine further inland sank in the Danube Delta in Romania). The OCG member in charge of purchasing the drugs from different providers in Latin America and smuggling them from Brazil to Europe was located in Brazil.

In addition to the financial and operational support of the JIT, Eurojust assisted the national authorities with the organisation of a coordination meeting, where team members exchanged crucial information about the case.

Eurojust also facilitated the execution of a Mutual Legal Assistance request to Brazil, relying on the support of the Eurojust contact point in this country. This also enabled the direct exchange between the Romanian authorities and their counterparts in Brazil, carrying out the hearings and other investigative activities promptly.

Furthermore, Eurojust facilitated the execution of multiple European Investigation Orders and Mutual Legal Assistance Requests in Spain, the execution of a European Investigation Order in Bulgaria (which resulted in a transfer of proceedings to Romania) and a Mutual Legal Assistance request in Ukraine.

Europol contributed to the operation by providing analytical support.

Photo  Shutterstock
One man was hospitalized after two York City men walked into a home and started shooting last month, according to court documents.

Temile Kahlique Faison, 18, and Anthony Eugene Faison Jr., 21, are both charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault and illegal possession of firearms, according to online court dockets.

In charging documents filed against both men, York City police reported that officers were called just before 3 a.m. to a home in the 400 block of Park Street on June 12, for a shooting that happened inside the house.

Officers found a man who suffered multiple gunshot wounds in the living room of the home, according to the affidavit. The man was transported to York Hospital and underwent surgery for injuries to his torso and arm, police reported.

At the scene, police found shell casings from .9 mm and .45 mm firearms inside the home, plus an additional .9 mm casing outside.

Witnesses told police two men entered the home and began shooting, before running back outside, according to the affidavit. They were only described as wearing dark clothes.

When police first spoke with the injured man in the hospital, he identified the pair as who he thought shot him, but was still weak and unable to spend long with detectives, police said.

Last week, police were able to speak with the man again to confirm the identification of the shooters by using a photo array. The man was able to identify both suspects at that time, according to the affidavit.

Both men have criminal records that prevent them from legally carrying firearms, police said.

Neither man is currently in custody, but warrants have been issued for their arrest.

Read more on PennLive:
A 25-year-old pregnant woman was fatally wounded in a shooting Thursday afternoon in North Philadelphia, police said.

The shooting happened just before 2:35 p.m. in the 2500 block of West Berks Street. Police transported the woman, who was shot in the right side of her head, to Temple University Hospital. She was pronounced dead at 6:43.

Police reported no arrests, and no other details were immediately available.
Lady Amelia Windsor has been perfecting her hippie chic look during the coronavirus lockdown.

The heiress and model, 24, who is the granddaughter of the Queen's cousin, stepped out of her London residence in Notting Hill in a pair of acid washed jeans, a white blouse with flower motifs and a light purple cardigan.

Amelia, who is 39th in line to the throne, looked relaxed as she took a leisurely stroll around her neighbourhood, while listening to music through her headphones.

Looking ready for the summer, the royal was carrying an oversized straw beach bag she's favoured for recent outings.

Lady Amelia Windsor, 24, was spotted on a stroll around her neighbourhood of Nottin Hill earlier today

Opting for comfort, the model - who has graced the catwalk for D&G - made sure to keep out the chill in a light purple cardigan, and comfortable flag boots.

Two gold necklaces were seen gracing her decolletage just above the necline of her peasant-style blouse.

An oversized orange scrunchie was clasped around her wrist and added a pop of colour to the outfit.

She completed the low-maintenance outfit with a no-fuss hairdo, her blond locks flowing freely around her head.

The royal looked deep in thoughts as she listened to some music on her phone during her leisure stroll

The model seemed deep in thoughts with her headphones in place, strolling quietly in the streets of her London neighbourhood of Notting Hill.

The royal, who graduated with a degree in Italian and French from the University of Edinburgh last year, is the granddaughter of the Duke of Kent.

She is regularly snapped out and about in her local neighbourhood of Notting Hill, where she enjoys a vast-array of hobbies including pottery and ballet classes.

Lady Amelia has a blossoming following of 83,700 followers on Instagram, where she regularly posts snaps from glamorous fashion events, as well as her adventures exploring trendy parts of the capital.

Lady Amelia Windsor showcased her fashion prowess in a very colourful tie-dye dress (pictured) when stepping out in Notting Hill yesterday

Adding a little glitz to her low-key outfit, Lady Amelia (pictured) donned a gold chain as well as a matching necklace, featuring different coloured stones

Despite backlash over Londoners escaping to visit their second homes at the start of the UK's coronavirus-related lockdown, Lady Amelia fled to her parents' home in Cambridge in late March.

She shared a snap of the city dated 23 March, a week after the government advised against all non-essential travel and fears mounted that capital dwellers could be spreading the disease across the country.

Lady Amelia also revealed in April, that she invested in a multi-coloured tie dye face mask while in lockdown, and encouraged her fans to 'support small businesses' during the pandemic.

Posting on her Instagram stories, she wrote that it was an 'opportunity to support small businesses who are also donating to key workers.'

She went on to tag the brand Florence Bridge in her post, writing: 'Beautiful face masks, with 50 per cent going to @fuelourfrontline.'
By Azernews





By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijans Human Rights Commissioner Sabina Aliyeva has said that Armenias shelling of a civilian settlement in border Tovuz region yesterday shows its aggressive policy and also violates article 18 of the Geneva Convention.

During the visit to Tovuz, Aliyev said on July 15 that Armenia shelled a hospital and a civilian settlement in Tovuz region.

"We strongly protest against this and will inform the relevant international organizations as soon as possible, she said.

An Azerbaijani civilian in Tovuz regions Aghdam village, Aziz Azizov, was killed as a result of artillery shelling by the Armenian armed forces on July 14.

It should be noted that article 18 of the Geneva Convention forbids parties to a conflict shoot shells or artillery at hospitals or civilian gatherings.

The cross-border fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan started on July 12 with Armenia's firing artillery at Azerbaijan's positions in the direction of Tovuz region. Five Azerbaijani servicemen, including a major general and colonel, have been killed during the Armenian attack on the border on the night leading to July 14. Moreover, earlier was reported that the attack killed four Azerbaijani servicemen and injured four others. Azerbaijan responded by destroying a stronghold, bombshells, vehicles and servicemen on the territory of the Armenias military unit using artillery, mortars and tanks on the night leading to July 13.
Pubs that do not serve food had been due to reopen on Monday (Brian Lawless/PA)

Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has suggested that pubs that do not serve food may not reopen as planned on August 10.

On Wednesday, the Government delayed moving to phase four of the countrys reopening map, which would have seen pubs that do not serve food reopen on Monday July 20 having been closed since the middle of March.

Mr Varadkar said pubs that do not serve food will not reopen any sooner than August 10, and he added the Government is not saying they will necessarily reopen on that date.

He told the Dail: I have no doubt that the vast majority of publicans are responsible people and want to open their businesses. I want to see them reopen too. But I do need to be clear  what were saying is that pubs and nightclubs will not reopen any sooner than August 10.

Were not saying they will open on August 10  we are saying they will open no sooner than August 10. It will depend on the numbers and how the virus behaves between now and then.

Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has suggested that pubs that don't serve food may not re-open as planned on August 10th.



"We're not saying they will open on the 10th of August - we are saying they will open no sooner than the 10th of August." #COVID19ireland  Aine McMahon (@AineMcMahon) July 16, 2020

Mr Varadkar said the Government has always been upfront that the reopening plan can be changed and decisions can be reversed at any time.

Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae said it is a crazy decision that some pubs that serve food can reopen while others cannot.

Mr Healy-Rae said: We have always said that Irish pubs are very unique. Our country pubs are unique. Theyre catering for smaller groups of people and they know their customers. All they wanted to do is open up in a small way so that local people could come in from the countryside and have a drink.

He suggested regional variances should be taken into account when applying the coronavirus restrictions.

You must remember that theres an awful difference between Dame Lane and Ballinskelligs or Dame Lane and Portmagee  or any part of the county that I represent, he said.

I think you have really missed the picture here. By opening these pubs, you would not have increased the occurrences of the virus.

What is the difference between a person sitting in a public house with a pint of Guinness in one hand and a toasted cheese sandwich in the other hand and a person with a pint of Guinness and no toasted cheese sandwich? Michael Healy-Rae

He questioned the public health basis for allowing pubs that serve food to reopen.

What is the difference between a person sitting in a public house with a pint of Guinness in one hand and a toasted cheese sandwich in the other hand and a person with a pint of Guinness and no toasted cheese sandwich? Could you please explain why it poses a health risk to that person? he added.

I really feel as if it is a crazy decision by the Government.

Sinn Fein TD Pearse Doherty also raised the issue of varying the approach to unlocking coronavirus restrictions in different regions of the country.

He said: I understand that these decisions were not arrived at lightly and I know that public health officials are concerned about the possibility of increased levels of transmission of Covid-19 at this time and we must all be guided by the public health advice in the decisions that we take.

However, I think that we need to acknowledge that this virus is still going to be with us for some time. It is here for the medium term, if not the long term, and we need to act accordingly.
Candidates to lead the World Trade Organization urged members to reach a decision quickly on Wednesday and address what one described as a "deep crisis" as it began the vetting process.

Nominations from eight countries have been submitted, including three women, three African candidates and a former Saudi air force pilot, to replace Brazil's Roberto Azevedo, who will step down a year early at the end of August.

His successor faces an unprecedented set of challenges such as intensifying global trade tensions, rising protectionism as well as a coronavirus-induced dive in global trade.

"This needs to be done as quick as possible," said Jesus Seade, a senior trade official in Mexico, describing the trade watchdog as being in "deep crisis".

Seade also rebuffed a suggestion that a final decision on the next chief should be delayed until after the U.S. presidential election in November.

Under U.S. President Donald Trump, Washington has urged reform of the WTO and blocked appointments to its top court. But Seade said he thought criticism of the Geneva-based organisation was shared across the political spectrum in Washington.

Nigeria's candidate, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, also said she hoped members would make a quick decision, saying the world was at an "uncertain juncture" due to the pandemic.

She also urged Trump or his successor not to leave the WTO and to work with the body on reform.

Egypt's candidate, Hamid Mamdouh, said the top challenge the body was facing was a "fading sense of common purpose" and vowed to "immediately revive the negotiating function of the organisation". He also urged Beijing and Washington to seek to resolve their trade disputes within the multilateral body.

This phase of the race kicks off up to two months of campaigning followed by a final decision by consensus. For a full list of candidates, see here:
Redlining is the discriminatory practice of fencing off areas where banks avoided investing based on community demographics. This unfair practice increased following the Second World War as a large influx of minority veterans and their families sought to purchase homes and were denied, locking them into a vicious cycle of economic exclusion from the American dream. This banking practice also impacted the extension of business loans which are needed to sustain communities where these same veterans lived, worked, and played. This practice affects minority communities to this day.

Many credit unions were formed in these redlined communities to provide loans and financial services long denied by traditional banks. Plus, as member-owned cooperatives, credit unions return profits to members in the community instead of lining the pockets of distant bank shareholders. As a result, many credit unions carry a Low-Income Credit Union (LICU) designation which provides additional tools and resources that help build and sustain these underserved communities.

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) recently approved a technical correction to 12 USC  701.34 (2), which now includes all military members in calculations to establish LICU designation. This change makes sense from a DEI perspective, as many military members earn 80% or less than the median family income for the metropolitan area where they live or national metropolitan area, whichever is greater. As expected, the bank lobby strongly opposes this correction and has threatened to sue to have it removed, therefore, excluding military inclusion in our nations economic recovery effort. I believe the banks are making a mistake. Worse, banks are being hypocritical given their recent efforts in weakening the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) using the same standards of military inclusion.

Here is how:

In October of 2018, I was asked to review a white paper written by a member of the bank lobby seeking my reaction and public support for a banking proposal that sought to broaden definitions in the CRA, specifically 12 C.F.R 25.41(f).

Essentially, the bank proposal argued that bank branches operating on military installations should be presumed to satisfy all 25.41(f) geographic assessment area exemption requirements and that off-base military banks, such as USAA and First Command Bank, should likewise be exempt since they predominantly cater their financial offerings to the military community.

It also recommended that military community include everyone within the arc of a military familys career, which lists all active duty military, inactive Reserve or National Guard, military retirees, veterans, dependents or former dependents. That is quite a list. Plus, underpinning the entire argument, the white paper highlighted the unique financial challenges and low pay for military families. Does any of this sound familiar?

Finally, the proposal recommended that bank regulators should preclude their examiners from requiring banks to identify the Low- and Middle-Income (LMI) military customers since the geographic assessment requirements in 12 C.F.R. 25.41(f) for any military bank would be satisfied. In other words, geographic area requirements no longer apply.

Each of these recommendations was adopted into the Office of Comptroller of the Currencys final rule which becomes effective this October. Yet, there is much debate whether banks will use their newly weakened CRA restrictions to build and sustain disadvantaged communities or return to their prior practices.

I would like to give the bankers the benefit of the doubt. However, now that banks are twisting the same arguments against the credit union industry in an effort to exclude military members, this should alarm anyone who agreed with the banks original arguments. Plus, there are several fictions and assertions in the bankers printed arguments that need to be addressed. Lets set the record straight.

Last summer, ahead of any COVID-19 indications and subsequent economic shutdown, the Defense Credit Union Council was approached by one of its smaller-sized credit unions (<$500 million in assets) seeking to include military members serving overseas. It was proven that many members using an Army Post Office or Fleet Post Office were excluded from the LICU designation calculations. Yet, the existing regulation for LICU designation allowed geographically separated college students using campus mailing addresses to be counted. A disparity was identified.

In asking to include all military, this credit union was joined by many similarly sized credit unions seeking to serve even more of our nations historically disadvantaged communities. To this end, a bi-partisan letter (dated 2 August 2019) from the member credit unions Congressional delegation was written in support of these objectives. DCUC continued to champion this issue in letters, meetings, and industry events well into the Spring of 2020. Altogether, these efforts culminated in the NCUA unanimously approving a technical change to the rule on May 8, 2020.

While the banks weaken protections in the Community Reinvestment Act, this administrative correction will benefit military members by allowing their credit unions to safely acquire more capital through federal grants and remove arbitrary lending caps. These changes allow credit unions to offer better rates on auto, home or even business loans which are tangible benefits that improve the quality of life for all members, especially those who may be financially struggling. This is why credit unions exist. Weakening the CRA does not guarantee the same results since banks use additional revenues to line shareholder pockets instead of reinvesting in the communities in which they are earned.

In fact, broadening LICU eligibility is designed to benefit the communities where our military members retire, obtain employment, and spend their hard-earned dollars. This is why many of our member credit unions, large and small, continue to reinvest in their community. Only a banker would see something nefarious in a financial institution wanting to help these developing communities. And only a banker would argue that size, not community served, should define what a credit union can do for its members. Hopefully the rest of the banking community is better than that. Yet, here we are.

Finally, this change also frees capital to invest in programs and technology that bolster military readiness, teaches military members to manage their finances and save, and protects military families from predatory lenders. Credit unions want their members to progress from savers to prudent borrowers, then from prudent borrowers to home and business owners. It is all part of the credit union difference.

Heres one final point regarding military land leases since it was awkwardly mentioned in the bankers article. Once again, the bank lobby is advocating for a proposed amendment in the FY2021 National Defense Authorization Act that would require the Department of Defense (DoD) to treat for-profit banks as not-for-profit institutions so banks can obtain the same no-cost land leases, as an ultimatum for banks remaining on installations. Yet, there are no restrictions on how banks would use these savings.

If DoD does not grant the bankers wishes, then the legislation would require DoD to charge credit unions the same as banks under the guise of equality. Unless banks can increase their profit margin, they dont care if there are no remaining financial institutions on the installation. Consequently, the military loses either way.

If banks want to be treated like credit unions, they need to start acting like not-for-profit credit unions. Equal treatment needs to focus on structure and ethos, not on increasing the banks profit sustainability. While there are other reasons why the banks proposal makes no sense, the fact remainscredit unions are about serving their members. That includes serving their communities. Regardless of banker attempts to block consumer access to credit unions, the Defense Credit Union Council, its member credit unions, along with the entire credit union industry will always put the needs of our members first.
Authorities on Spains Balearic Islands are pulling the plug on endless drunken nights to the beat of techno music by closing bars and nightclubs in beachfront areas popular with young and international visitors.

To slow the spread of the coronavirus, regional authorities closed all establishments near the beach of Palma de Mallorca and the nearby Magaluf.

The regions tourism minister, Iago Negueruela, said it wants to shake off the region's reputation for no social distancing and no face masks, viral images that have made headlines in Germany and Britain.
No Evidence of Robert Fullers Death Being a Hate Crime

Family attorney, Jamon R. Hicks, updates investigation findings, denounces leaked allegations

Jamon R. Hicks, the attorney representing the family of Robert Fuller, a 24-year-old Black man who was found hanging from a tree in Palmdale, held a press conference in Los Angeles. There has been a lot of speculation about the death of Fuller, and his character being assassinated while he is not here to defend himself.

In response to the rumors circulating on social media, Hicks said, I can confirm that those rumors are false. There is no link or any connection. I can confirm that through our independent investigation and our conversations with the sheriffs department. Hicks mentioned the family was also not aware of any significant issues of mental health illness that they thought would ever lead him to harm himself.

According to Hicks, there is no evidence of Fullers death being a hate crime, only time will tell the truth behind this tragic death. I dont have any evidence that this was a hate crime. There is nothing to indicate any threats, nothing to indicate any foul play. There were no racists sentiments, no symbols, or anything in the area. So we dont have information that suggests it was a hate crime.

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The family and Hicks would like to know what was on Fullers phone the day of his death, but they are not able to get access because there is a password on it. Therefore the results will be delayed. I have always promised that I will give the family all the information, good or bad. To satisfy the family, my goal is to hopefully get access to the content, so that I can give them as much information as possible, Hicks says.

During the investigation, there were leaks that attempted to tarnish the name of Fuller. It raised eyebrows for Hicks and the family because of the language used in the leak. Hicks says, I do have a concern on how the leak came out, trying to make this connection. And the reason I have this concern, is one of the leaks specifically stated that they had information from the sheriffs department about Penal Code, PC 288, which is child molestation, Hicks states.

He also says, That concerns me, that language was used. That someone would say PC 288. Because that is something lawyers would typically reference or law enforcement. It gives me concerns that there may have been an internal leak.

Hicks mentioned the community put pressure on the authorities to conduct a thorough investigation. They already had raised concerns of the racial conflict in that area. Given the political climate that existed at the time, it was best to get answers sooner than later. The community was visibly upset by the hanging. They felt dismissed by the press conference, and the quick judgement by lawmakers, says Hicks.

Ive always maintained that there needs to be a thorough investigation. Im thankful for the community for providing the support and passion necessary to get the investigation done. When Hicks was asked by reporters if he is satisfied by the current investigation he said, Ill leave it there.

The family and Hicks met with investigators for about two hours, and the most critical questions were asked about the rumors circulating. We spent time in the meeting to confirm it was no suicide note found. There was no stool or chair. After his body was found, we wanted to make a statement to put to rest all the rumors.

In the press conference, Hicks discussed that he spoke to the attorney generals office prior to the meeting with the sheriffs department, and they reassured they would oversee the investigation. He states, The sheriffs gave our officers excitement and pleasure that we know their eyes would be on this, and the FBI would simply oversee the investigation. So that does bring me relief.

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It was disturbing to the family that false rumors were circulating shortly after Fuller was found, and to this day, Hicks and the family are bothered by the blatant lies. Hicks said, It does concern me, and bother me, that Robert Fuller wasnt buried and there were all these rumors circulating about him. It has always been extremely frustrating that someone would start a rumor so vile. He continued, That was extremely frustrating for me and still remains an issue for the family. This is a wonderful family and I think its ridiculous that we continue to have these rumors come out knowing they still have to bury their brother.

The family hired their own private investigator, and at this moment the family does not have access to the witnesss name, specifically the person who found the body. When asked by reporters about getting that information, Hicks said, If the sheriff would share that information, we would appreciate it. We would love to share that with our investigator.
Some 460 private school teachers in the Kpando Municipality of the Volta Region have been supported with some assorted food items by an independent parliamentary candidate in the area, Mr. Samuel Kodzosika.

The education sector is one of the COVID-19 hard-hit sectors in the country as schools remained closed for months in an effort to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

Private school teachers who are paid from fees collected from students by proprietors had to live without salaries as no more money is coming from students who are home.

According to Mr. Samuel Kodzosika, more than GHS 30,000.00 has been spent on the relief food items presented to the teachers.

The teachers each received GHS 70.00 package of items comprising a five-kilogram bag of rice, a bottle of cooking oil, two tins of sardines and five sachets of tomato paste.

Ideal Shepherd and Angel Preparatory Schools at Kpando Tsakpe, Lartson, and Angels Preparatory School at Kpando Lowcost and the Missahoe Montessori School at Kpando Gabi are few of the numerous schools that benefited from the benevolence of the parliamentary hopeful.

Some of the visibly exited teachers described the kind gesture by the Independent PC as timely and wonderful, adding that it would go a long way to lessen their woes in this covid-19 era.

Ms. Abigail Nelson, one of the proprietors of the beneficiary schools was full of praise for Mr. Kodzosika, urging him and his team to continue with their good work for the people of the Kpando Municipality.
It has appointed its executive vice president & head finance, Pawan Agrawal as its next CFO, Marico said in a regulatory filing. The board of the company in a meeting held on Thursday has accepted the resignation of Karve, who was associated with Marico from last 20 years. "The Board accepted the resignation of Vivek Karve, Chief Financial Officer, to be effective from the close of business hours on September 10, 2020. "The board appointed Pawan Agrawal as the ...

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Centrica could demand 20,000 staff accept new working conditions or risk losing their jobs.

The British Gas owner has been in talks with unions over the terms of contracts, which include cutting overtime pay.

The utility group  which is led by boss Chris O'Shea, insists the changes would make it more competitive and keep jobs secure in the long term.

Working conditions: British Gas owner Centrica has been in talks with unions over the terms of contracts, which include cutting overtime pay

But unions have slammed the move as a 'fire and rehire' strategy that is a 'smoke screen' for letting go of even more employees than already planned.

Centrica said last month the group would cut 5,000 roles and multiple management layers in a major cost-cutting drive.

Now it has proposed making widespread changes to its terms of employment by giving staff notice they were in line to lose their job  and offering it back to them on the new contracts.

Employees would keep the same base pay and pension. But unions and workers are concerned because the company has also issued legal notices that mean if they don't strike an agreement on the contract, and workers refuse to sign them, it would trigger a fresh wave of redundancies.

The firm insists this is a last resort, but has also made it clear that it must hammer out a deal before the busy winter period.

Centrica  which is led by boss Chris O'Shea (pictured), insists the changes would make it more competitive and keep jobs secure in the long term.

Centrica has around 27,000 employees  about 20,000 of whom are in the UK  and said it has around 80 different contracts with 7,000 variations of terms.

One of the major changes being proposed is to fix overtime pay at the same rate as regular hours. Overtime wages could be as high as double the standard hourly rate, though the precise difference depends on a workers' contract.

Engineers are often asked to work longer hours over winter, including Christmas and New Year. Unions and workers were concerned about the plans  and about how they had been timed during lockdown.

One long-time British Gas engineer told the BBC: 'They are using this as an excuse because they know we can't even have discussions and meetings. This really is a divide-and-conquer moment.'

Unite regional officer Mark Pettifer described the plans as 'deplorable' and said Centrica had been in consultations with unions for two weeks before unveiling the proposals.

Pettifer said: 'It smacks of blackmail: 'If you don't do what we want, we will issue notice of dismissals'.'

Centrica had been struggling long before the pandemic struck.

British Gas has lost more than a million customers in the last two years, with many switching to cheaper 'challenger' energy suppliers.

But the Covid-19 crisis has piled more pressure on the company, with energy demand falling close to record lows during lockdown, as a mixture of warm weather and the mass closure of business and industry outweighed people needing to use more electricity at home.

A Centrica spokesman said the company wanted to 'continue with constructive talks' and the possibility of further redundancies would be an 'option of last resort if it turns out we can't work together to achieve this'.

Shares were up 0.2 per cent yesterday.
DES MOINES, Iowa, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BioSpace Inc., the leader in life sciences news and careers, announced today that they have released the BioSpace 2020 Salary Report.



In the report, life sciences professionals reported an increase in their base salary at an overall growth rate of 4.6%, placing the average salary for the industry at $118,999. Some of the top reasons for an increased salary included:

Merit-based raises (59%)

Internal promotion (14%)

Changed employers (13%)

Despite the overall increase in base salary, on average, men reported receiving 19.3% higher salaries than their female counterparts. This is an increase from BioSpaces 2019 survey when men earned 16.8% higher salaries than women. This statistic is significant given the fact that females make up nearly half (45%) of the life, physical and social sciences industry, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Its encouraging to see the increase in salary across all sectors of the life sciences industry which reflects the increased demand for this talent, shared Joshua Goodwin, CEO of BioSpace. However, employers must do more to address the disparity in compensation by gender.

The gender salary gap fluctuates by industry, discipline and region of the country. The Hotbed regions that reported the highest discrepancies by gender were Pharm Country, BioMidwest and Biotech Bay.

Another trend from this years report was the relation between company size and salary increases. On average, the smaller the company size, the higher the yearly salary increase was for respondents. Overall, respondents who worked for a company with fewer than 50 people saw an average increase of 7.4%. On the other hand, respondents who worked at a company with 1,000+ employees saw an average salary increase of 4.9%.

The Hotbeds with the highest average salary increase compared to 2019 were Biotech Bay and Biotech Beach, both located in California. Here is a glimpse of the Hotbeds that had the highest year/year average salary increase in 2020:

Story continues

Biotech Bay: 5.9%

Biotech Beach: 5.7%

Genetown: 5.5%

BioMidwest: 5.4%

Pharm Country: 4.9%

You can access the entire report here , which includes salary comparisons by Hotbed regions, gender, industries, disciplines, titles and therapeutic areas.

About the Survey

The BioSpace 2020 Salary Survey was conducted to explore life sciences professionals salaries and salary trends. The survey was fielded from March 9, 2020 to March 27, 2020 via a Web-based survey. The 2,190 respondents were asked to provide demographic information about themselves, job titles, compensation and indicate increases or decreases of salary trends.

To see all the insights and statistics from the 2020 BioSpace Salary Report, you can download the report here .

About BioSpace

Since 1985, BioSpace has provided essential insights, opportunities and tools to connect innovative life sciences organizations and talented professionals who advance health and quality of life across the globe. BioSpace continues to be the leading source for careers and news for life sciences professionals in the United States.

This survey was fielded prior to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. The data collected represents salaries early in 2020 and may not represent the current environment due to furloughs, salary cuts and layoffs.

Contact:

Jamie Jones

jamie.jones@biospace.com
Do not forget that in these five years there is also an election year, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said on Thursday reacting to national carrier Air Indias decision to send its staff on leave without pay for two to five years to cut cost because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Reacting to hike in goods and services tax GST on sanitization products, Banerjee said, The BJP party is taking advantage of the pandemic. They have passed so many laws without any consultation. They are doing it to maintain dictatorship. I am so shocked.

Assembly elections in Bengal are due in 2021 and BJP leaders claim that the party will win 200 of the 294 seats. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won 18 of the states 42 seats, marking its best ever performance.

How can Air India send its employees on leave without pay for five years? Dont forget that in these five years there is also the election year. Dont forget, it is very important. I request all state and Central government employees to fight. I also request the Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) trade unions not to surrender, Banerjee said during a press conference at the secretariat on Thursday afternoon.

The Trinamool Congress chief spoke for more than one hour on various issues and sharpened her attack on the BJP-led government at the Centre.

Is a democratic government working under democratic rule? If the credential is lost everything is lost. Everybody is scared. Everybody is ashamed. This is the agony of the people. The government should take care of the people, said Banerjee.

Banerjee also attacked the Centre for allowing more private investment in public sector enterprises such as Coal India and Railways.

There are labour laws for workers. How can you bulldoze all the employees. How can you say they will not be paid for five years in this kind of a situation (pandemic). People want money. From hawkers to marginal farmers, people want cash and there is no cash flow. They (BJP) should be ashamed. How can they snatch jobs from people. How can they allow 100% foreign direct investment?

Even senior economists are asking the government to give money to the people, said Banerjee.

Bengals Left Front chairman Biman Bose also took a swipe at the BJP over the GST hike on sanitisers.

Many ministers in the BJP government are businessmen. Even the Prime Minister says he used to sell tea. That too is a business. They understand business very well, said Bose.

The BJPs Bengal unit leaders did not react to Banerjees statements till late in the night.
TDT | Manama

Shura Council chairman Ali bin Saleh Al Saleh stressed yesterday that the directives of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifapromoting life stability for all citizens, particularly those with limited income and their families will remain a precursor and a beacon for national work. He praised the royal keenness on bringing about national accomplishments and achieving distinction in various fields.

The Shura Council chairman expressed pride in HM the Kings praise of the efforts of the executive and legislative branches to protect the pension funds. He affirmed that the legislature will boost cooperation with the executive branch to achieve sustainability of the funds and enhance their capability to honour their obligations towards the affiliates.

The Shura Council chairman stressed that protecting citizens interests is a top priority. Meanwhile, the Council of Representatives Speaker Fawzia bint Abdulla Zainal affirmed that His Majesty the Kings wise approach is the best path that leads to achieving national goals and expectations, as well as the roadmap for attaining more gains for the nation and taking care of the citizens interests.

The Speaker asserted that HM the Kings directives to step up efforts to increase support for low-income citizens prove the unwavering humanitarian role played by HM King Hamad. The same royal directives constitute an action plan and a roadmap for the Representatives Council to carry on its efforts to take care of the citizens interests and dedicate their work in serving them, the Speaker said.

She pointed out that the legislative branch is keen to continue the democratic process and generate more accomplishments, despite all the circumstances and challenges, in order to reach the desired goals, guided by HM the Kings sound visions and directives.
The Malayalam film industry is going through a tough time with the current spike in COVID-19 positive cases in Kerala. With many promising films to be released, Mollywood is in a dilemma on what has to be done next to control the situation. Well now, AMMA (Association of Malayalam Movie Artist) has decided to cooperate with the producers of the film industry at the time of this pandemic situation by helping them out in compensating their losses.

The association has sent a letter to its members requesting to unite with Kerala Film Producers Association (KFPA) at this tough time. The letter sent to the members of the association read, "Since lockdown can come at any place and at any time, many films shoots that were halted in between have not been started yet.

Considering the loss that was caused, the situation of many people in the industry is worse that we can only guess the economic loss incurred to the producers. They had given a letter mentioning the same regarding this. We have been with them in all difficult times and we remind everyone to extend the support in future as well." Interestingly, it is also written in the letter that AMMA will try to avoid discussing the same with the media.

In the letter, it is also mentioned that the association will only intervene in the movies that have started the shoot before the lockdown. In case of upcoming movies that are announced but haven't yet started rolling the concerned organisations will have to alter regulations after having an understanding with the cast.

For the uninitiated, the KFPA in June had requested AMMA and Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA) to give a thought to reducing the remuneration of actors and technicians of the industry.

Kalyani Priyadarshan's Special Message For Pranav Mohanlal Goes Viral!

RS Vimal's Dharmarajya: A Malayalam Superstar To Play The Lead Role In The Project?
A manufacturer of a high-performing Covid-19 antibody test has still not managed to get it approved by officials for use in England  despite submitting proof months ago that it works better than others on the market.

Derby-based SureScreen Diagnostics first created its rapid antibody test, which tests blood to see whether someone has had Covid-19 already and gives results in just 10 minutes, since March.

Despite repeated attempts to get the test, which looks like a pregnancy test, approved by Public Health England so it could be used in NHS hospitals, the company has still had no success.

But while SureScreen has been waiting, giant pharmaceutical firms from Switzerland and the US have had their tests  which the company claims don't perform as well  approved by PHE and bought in the millions by the Department of Health.

The rapid tests rely on finger-prick blood and are of a type ministers appeared to go cold on after the government wasted in the region of 20million on ones from China that turned out to be no good.

None of the tests  including SureScreen's  have made it through PHE's approval process, with officials focusing instead on lab-based ELISA tests that use blood taken from veins.

Meanwhile the Department of Health has spent millions of pounds on seven different types of lab tests, which most evaluations have shown to be less accurate than SureScreen's test.

David Campbell, director of SureScreen, told MailOnline the company isn't after a major government contract but simply PHE's authorisation to sell its tests, which can be bought privately for 18, to hospitals. In comparison, tests by US company Abbott cost upwards of 45 each online.

His concerns come just weeks after one leading scientist said the Department of Health's approach to getting antibody tests had been 'panic buying not following the science'.

Professor Jon Deeks, from the University of Birmingham, said Public Health England was not acting in a way that ensured that the best tests were available, and had spent millions of pounds on tests that weren't the best on the market.

Surescreen Diagnostics has had a coronavirus antibody test available since March but the Government has not shown any interest in it, director David Campbell said

David Campbell, director of Surescreen, said Public Health England's 'inaction' has deprived hospitals of high quality, fast antibody tests

David Campbell told MailOnline: 'It's a really frustrating situation because we were one of the first people on the market with a test.

'We've sent it to a huge number of laboratories to get independent valuations and they've all said resoundingly the test is working excellently.

'I've sent all the information to [the Department of Health] and they've had it all for over a month.'

Mr Campbell said companies producing tests like his  called point-of-care tests, which are similar to pregnancy tests and take blood from a finger to produce a rapid result  are struggling to get past PHE.

Devices regulator the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) even banned private companies from using fingerprick samples in lab-based tests because they were concerned about accuracy.

And hospitals have told Mr Campbell they were instructed not to buy any type of Covid-19 antibody test that hasn't been approved by PHE, he said.

Scientists working on behalf of the government have been sceptical about the point-of-care tests all along.

A paper published earlier this month by Oxford University experts  some of whom are now developing their own test  said the rapid tests they have seen so far 'do not perform sufficiently well for individual patient applications'.

But Mr Campbell said a pilot trial of his antibody tests in a major hospital in London had been a success.

'They compared 10 different tests and ours came out on top,' he said. 'It's working really accurately and it's helping them with clinical decisions, such as in people who have symptoms but get a negative [swab test].

'In a pilot they used our tests in practice to decide whether to put patients on a Covid ward, which is really important.'

He added: 'The jury's still out on home testing but for the hospital setting we know that it has a clear utility and huge benefit to them.

WHAT IS AN ANTIBODY TEST AND WHAT IS IT USED FOR? Antibody tests are ones which look for signs of past infection in someone's blood. Antibodies are substances produced by the immune system which store memories of how to fight off a specific virus. They can only be created if the body is exposed to the virus by getting infected for real, or through a vaccine or other type of specialist immune therapy. Generally speaking, antibodies produce immunity to a virus because they are redeployed if it enters the body for a second time, defeating the bug faster than it can take hold and cause an illness. An antibody test, which involves analysis of someone's blood sample, has two purposes: to reveal whether an individual has been infected in the past and may therefore be protected against the virus, and to count those people. Knowing you are immune to a virus - although whether people actually develop immunity to Covid-19 is still unknown - can affect how you act in the future. Someone may need to protect themselves less if they know they have been infected, for example, or medical staff may be able to return to work in the knowledge they are not at risk. Counting the numbers of people who have antibodies is the most accurate way of calculating how many people in a population have had the virus already. This can be done on a small sample of the population and the figures scaled up to give a picture of the country as a whole. In turn, this can inform scientists and politicians how devastating a second outbreak might be, and how close the country is to herd immunity - a situation in which so many people have had the virus already that it would not be able to spread quickly a second time. Experts believe that around 60 per cent exposure would be required for herd immunity from Covid-19, but the UK does not appear to be anywhere close to that. Early estimates suggest 17 per cent of Londoners have had the virus, along with five per cent of the rest of the country  about 4.83million people. This means the virus might spread slightly slower in future but the risk of second outbreak and hundreds or thousands more deaths remains very real. Advertisement

'When you use it in companion with a PCR [swab test] it's been proven to increase accuracy. With PCR you're generally getting 70 per cent [of the patients' results correct] but when you're using antibody tests as well you improve that window of detection.'

Antibody tests can help to detect infection if someone has moved beyond the point that it's circulating in someone's body but they are suffering longer-lasting effects. Some antibodies also develop within the first couple of weeks of infection but blood tests are considerably less accurate during that time.

Data from evaluations done of the SureScreen test has suggested it performs better than the lab-based tests that have been bought by the government.

Scientists led by at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in London found it was 97 per cent sensitive, meaning it would miss only three out of 100 positive results.

And it scored 99.5 per cent on the specificity measure, which means it would correctly analyse 995 out of 1,000 people who had never had the coronavirus. The other five would wrongly be told they had had the disease when they hadn't.

Tests made by the companies Roche and Abbott, based in Switzerland and the US, were the first to be approved by PHE and both received multi-million pound deals.

PHE evaluations found that Roche's test was 83.9 per cent accurate and Abbott's was 92.7 per cent at detecting positive results.

Both received 100 per cent accuracy on a specificity measure, meaning neither of them give false negative results - a negative when someone actually has had Covid.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the watchdog for medical devices in the UK, has said tests should be 98 per cent accurate on both measures.

'Nothing is that standard,' Mr Campbell said. 'The tests the Government have bought are around 90 per cent. We've definitely got one of the best on the market.

'I believe that some of the tests done at PHE were quite limited. The MHRA standard was brought in for the Government process which they later said was an aspiration.'

He added: '[Hospitals] have had clear guidance from the Government not to buy anything that isn't approved.

'I can't really understand what's going on.

'We feel a moral obligation to help people in this country.'

Mr Campbell said SureScreen has been selling its tests to officials in France and Belgium where they are widely used.

The UK's policy on antibody tests has become unclear in recent months because scientists aren't sure if people develop any immunity after having had the disease, so don't think there is much benefit in people knowing.

Antibody tests are currently being used on staff in hospitals and carers to see who has and hasn't had the disease, so the employees can be split into groups believed to be more susceptible - those who have never had it - and less susceptible, who have had it before.

They are also being used for population testing to find out how many people across the UK have had Covid-19 already.

Testing samples of the populations suggests that between 5.4 and 6.5 per cent of the population of England has had coronavirus.

But the use of antibody tests for individual patients has become controversial because there is no proof people can't get Covid-19 twice.

If someone receives a positive antibody test result, experts fear, they might think they are immune to the virus and ignore lockdown rules, putting people at risk.

An emerging theory is that people develop temporary immunity, but won't be protected forever.

But Mr Campbell believes the tests are still crucial for public sector workers so they can understand how many staff are catching the illness and potentially evaluate their future risk.

An evaluation by researchers led by Guy's And St Thomas' Hospital in London found that SureScreen's test appeared to perform better than lab-based tests bought by the Government

He said: 'We do still need antibody tests. There is the question of immunity but it's impossible to determine without time.

'You need to have people who have had it a long time ago to essentially infect them again...

WHAT ANTIBODY TESTS HAS PHE LOOKED AT AND WHICH ONES DID IT BUY? Public Health England has published evaluations of seven lab-based Covid-19 antibody tests and these are its results. Sensitivity denotes how many positive results the test would correctly identify in a group of people who have had Covid-19. Specificity denotes how many negative results the test would correctly identify in a group of people who have not had Covid-19. Roche Diagnostics Evaluation published: May 18

Did it buy? 13.46million on May 15

Sensitivity: 83.9%

Specificity: 100% Abbott Laboratories Evaluation: May 18

Did it buy? Yes. Date/cost unknown

Sensitivity: 92.7%

Specificity: 100% Ortho Clinical Diagnostics (1) Evaluation: May 29

Did it buy? Unknown

Sensitivity: 77.4%

Specificity: 99.7% EuroImmun Evaluation: June 18

Did it buy? 1.5m on May 12

Sensitivity: 72%

Specificity: 99% DiaSorin Evaluation: June 18

Did it buy? 300,000 on April 22

Sensitivity: 64%

Specificity: 97.7% Ortho Clinical Diagnostics (2) Evaluation: June 22

Did it buy? Yes. Date/cost unknown

Sensitivity: 85%

Specificity: 99.5% Siemens Evaluation: June 22

Did it buy? Yes. Date/cost unknown

Sensitivity: 86%

Specificity: 100% Advertisement

'All we need is something to say we've [PHE] looked at the data, which they've had for weeks, and it's fine to be used in the NHS. That's all we need.

'We're not looking for a big government order we just want to have the ability to help people in this country and to save lives.

'We've had orders for police, armed forces and NHS cancelled because the test isn't PHE approved.

'Their inaction is barring anyone from the market which ultimately puts public health at risk. In the meantime other countries are flying ahead and they're getting the benefit of them.'

A Government spokesperson said: 'We have carried out more than 1.2 million antibody tests and have the capacity to carry out 120,000 tests every day. We continue to work with industry to identify further tests that are safe and accurate to be used at home, which is vitally important.'

SureScreen's concerns come after the Department of Health was last month accused of 'panic buying' antibody tests from the pharmaceutical company Roche before publicly revealing their accuracy.

Officials spent 13.46million on the blood tests  now being used to tell which NHS staff have already had Covid-19  on May 15, government contracts show.

But Public Health England had not officially evaluated any other companies' tests before officials agreed to buy Roche's, so didn't know how good they were in comparison.

The Roche purchase was 10 days after scientists at PHE's Porton Down laboratory first started looking at the tests but three days before their report was released.

Results of PHE's tests were leaked to the press on May 13 and reports claimed it had achieved 100 per cent accuracy in the evaluations.

But this later turned out to be on only one of two measures and health chiefs actually deemed the test to be 84 per cent sensitive, meaning it could correctly detect past infection in around eight in 10 people.

In later evaluations other tests performed better than Roche's but contracts were not announced for those. Ones made by Abbott Laboratories, which were 94 per cent accurate, were bought in the same week in May for an undisclosed price.

Another made by the German firm Siemens last month achieved 86 per cent sensitivity in PHE's evaluation. These were bought by officials but to no fanfare.

There was a prior understanding between Roche and the Government that its tests - which were the first to be evaluated - would be bought if PHE approved of them, MailOnline understands.

Professor Jon Deeks, a University of Birmingham testing expert who last week published a prestigious 300-page review of Covid-19 antibody testing so far, told MailOnline that PHE appeared to be facing 'pressure' to approve the test. He said the Government was 'panic buying not following the science'.

The days between officials looking at the tests and buying them left no time for independent scientists to check what officials were doing, Professor Deeks said.

And the purchase - which came after Roche was awarded a 21million swab testing contract in March - made it look as though the Swiss firm's tests had be 'pre-selected' by UK officials, Professor Deeks added.

The Department of Health insists the entire process was 'standard practice'.

Professor Deeks, a biostatistician at the University of Birmingham, told MailOnline: 'This is not normal.

'There was no time for any scientific scrutiny of the results, and this was the first time PHE had done an evaluation of a Covid-19 antibody test like this.

'There was certainly no time for independent review of their report or findings.'
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Has Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine lost his way?

Many Ohioans found his Wednesday address a disappointment, which were talking about on This Week in the CLE.

Listen online here.

Editor Chris Quinn hosts Thursdays daily half-hour coronavirus news podcast, with help Thursday from columnist Leila Atassi and me. We answer many of the questions youve sent through our text message platform.

Youve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom account, in which he shares once or twice a day what were thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up for free by sending a text to 216-868-4802.

And youve been offering all sorts of great perspective in our coronavirus alert account, which has 13,000-plus subscribers. You can sign up for free by texting 216-279-7784.

Here are the questions were answering today:

1) How is Cleveland Housing Court balancing the mandate to provide public access to its virtual hearings while protecting people appearing in the court from public shaming? Judge W. Mona Scott thinks unfettered access isnt always in the public interest, since eviction hearings could shame people about living in poverty, their financial hardships and misfortune. So to get a Zoom link to hearings, you have to ask the court for access.

2) Why did Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine give a speech Wednesday night to rally Ohioans to fight it without offering them any specific steps he would take to ramp up the battle? That is a really good question. DeWine didnt make any big announcements, just pleaded with Ohioans to listen to their better angels, take the coronavirus seriously and wear face masks consistently.

3) How is Cleveland City Council resolving the challenges of enforcing a mask mandate to battle the coronavirus? The primary emphasis will be to engage with people and businesses and try to build community cooperation, but police or health officials could cite individuals who refuse to wear masks in public and businesses that dont follow social distancing rules.

4) What is the No. 2 spot in Cleveland for coronavirus mask complaints  The Steelyard Commons Walmart  doing about having so many complaints? Steelyard Commons customers can expect to see an employee called a health ambassador at the entrance who issued reminders to wear masks. The store reduced the number of entrances to one, and added signage about masks.

5) Do we still fear a meat and poultry shortage to result from the coronavirus pandemic in northeast Ohio? Nope. Meat and poultry production in the United States has nearly returned to pre-coronavirus levels, and industry officials and Northeast Ohio grocers are no longer warning of potential shortages, though prices for chicken and hamburger have increased.

Want more? You can find all our past episodes here.

Do you get your podcasts on Spotify. Find us here.

If you use Stitcher, we are here.

RadioPublic is another popular podcast vehicle, and we are here.

On Google Podcasts, we are here.

On PodParadise, find us here.

And on PlayerFM, we are here.
A New York state judge lifted a stay on Monday that had temporarily blocked Donald Trump's niece from publishing a book offering an unflattering look at the U.S. president and his family.

Justice Hal Greenwald of the state Supreme Court in Poughkeepsie, New York, denied the request to stop publication and canceled the temporary restraining order he issued on June 30 against Mary Trump and her publisher, Simon & Schuster, at the request of Robert Trump, the brother of the president.

Simon & Schuster was due to release the book on Tuesday.

Robert Trump said previously that the release of "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man" would violate a confidentiality agreement tied to the estate of his father, Fred Trump Sr., who died in 1999. Mary Trump, a trained psychologist, is Fred Trump's granddaughter.

"Notwithstanding that the Book has been published and distributed in great quantities, to enjoin Mary L. Trump at this juncture would be incorrect and serve no purpose," Greenwald said in his decision.

"It would be moot... To quote United States v. Bolton, 2020, 'By the looks of it the horse is not just out of the barn, it is out of the country,'" he wrote.


The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ordered Azerbaijan to pay 40,000 euros ($45,660) as compensation to prominent human rights activists Leyla Yunus and her husband, Arif Yunus, for violating their basic rights.

In a ruling made public on July 16 , the Strasbourg-based court ordered Baku to pay 20,000 euros ($22,830) to each applicant.

The ECHR ruled that Azerbaijani authorities violated the couple's right to liberty and security, their right to a fair trial, their right to privacy and family life, their right to an effective remedy, their right to the protection of property, and their right to freedom of movement.

Leyla Yunus, 61, and Arif Yunus, 62, were arrested separately in 2014 and convicted of economic crimes in August 2015 after a trial that the couple and international human rights groups denounced as a travesty of justice.

They were released on health grounds in late 2015 and their prison sentences reduced to suspended sentences.

In April 2016. they were allowed to leave the country and have been residing in the Netherlands since then.
What to know about the Russia-linked hackers accused of stealing COVID vaccine data

The Russian hacking group accused on Thursday by the U.K., U.S. and Canada of seeking to steal information on potential COVID-19 vaccines is a familiar name to cybersecurity experts.

APT-29, or Advanced Persistent Threat 29, is better known to many as "Cozy Bear." It's one of two hacking groups cybersecurity researchers have long linked to Russia's intelligence services and which has been accused of playing a prominent role in interfering with U.S. elections in 2016.

Cybersecurity researchers have suggested the group is directed by Russia's domestic intelligence service, the FSB, though more recently they have come to believe its belongs to Russia's foreign intelligence service, the SVR.

Also referred to as "The Dukes," APT-29 is known for trying to steal intelligence from think tanks, political groups and activists. "Cozy Bear" gained notoriety in the U.S. after allegedly helping hack into the Democratic National Committee's computers.

PHOTO: An undated stock photo depicts an unidentified person typing on a computer keyboard. (STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images)

In 2016, the group was accused of breaking into the DNC's servers alongside a second hacking group -- APT-28, aka "Fancy Bear" -- that researchers and U.S. intelligence services have linked to the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency. APT-28 was accused of playing the more significant role, stealing DNC emails and data and then dumping it online to harm the Democratic party. The Department of Justice in 2018 indicted 12 GRU officers over that operation.

"Cozy Bear" by contrast was described by researchers as quieter and more discreet. The two hacking groups duplicating some of each other's efforts suggests they were unaware of each other's operations, the cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike said at the time.

Russia tried to hack coronavirus vaccine research, US, UK and Canada say

In 2018, Dutch media reported that the Netherlands' intelligence service, the AIVD, had successfully managed to break into the computers used by APT29, locating them in a university building close to the Red Square in Moscow. Hackers from the AIVD's Joint Sigint Cyber Unit reportedly had compromised the group since 2014, allowing them to watch in real time as they carried out attacks, including those involving the 2016 U.S. election.

Story continues

The Dutch hackers reportedly even managed to access a CCTV camera overlooking the building, allowing them to identify those inside.

Dutch intelligence shared the information with the FBI and the National Security Agency. The Dutch reportedly concluded APT-29 was most likely linked to the SVR.

In 2017, Norwegian police said "Cozy Bear" targeted several government ministries and the country's left-wing Labour party. The same year, the Dutch government ordered votes in Holland's general election to be counted by hand after Dutch intelligence said the Russian hackers had targeted ministries. The Slovakian cybersecurity firm ESET in October 2019 said it uncovered another years-long campaign by APT-29 that targeted at least three European foreign ministries.

MORE: Prominent Twitter accounts apparently hacked, asking for Bitcoin

APT-29 is known for using spear-phishing campaigns, which attempt to trick email users into clicking on infected links that deliver malware onto that person's machine, which is overtaken by the hackers who can steal data as well as login credentials.

A report into the election hack by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI in December 2016 found that APT-29 had run a spear-fishing campaign in the summer 2015 that included more than 1,000 recipients, including U.S. government targets.

The group's tactics apparently have become more sophisticated in recent years, developing methods designed to trick even some of the most careful targets, researchers have found.

APT-29's target list has been found to coincide with those who would be of interest to Russia's government -- intelligence useful in foreign policy or for targeting critics.

What to know about the Russia-linked hackers accused of stealing COVID vaccine data originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Canon Middle East has announced the launch of first-of-its-kind Aktashif programme in the GCC to encourage youth to Discover Your Passion and create the next generation of storytellers and content creators in the region.



Launched to coincide with World Youth Skills Day on July 15, Aktashif complements the global initiative to empower youth and highlight the significance of their contributions in overcoming economic and social challenges. World Youth Skills Day is a joint initiative by UNESCO-UNEVOC, which aims to recognise the importance of training and upskilling opportunities, as well as work and entrepreneurial prospects.



Aktashif will offer youth in the region the chance to get ahead and face modern-day challenges through relevant training and mentorship. The programme will primarily target 14 to 24-year-olds in the Middle East and provide a focal point for Generation Z to develop their interests, strengthen their creativity and inculcate in them the spirit of entrepreneurship. The community-oriented initiative is designed to equip young people with the tools and techniques to unleash creative careers.



As part of Aktashif, Canon Middle East is launching an annual competition where students can submit their business ideas online until December 2020. The best three entries will be highlighted and receive prizes.



The Grand Prize winner will receive AED15,000 ($4,080) cash prize, AED15,000-worth of Canon products and annual membership of a local entrepreneurship incubator to get their creative business idea off the ground. The ideas can be promoted on Instagram, using hashtag #FreeYourStory and #CanonME



Mai Youssef, Corporate Communications and Marketing Services Director, Canon Middle East and Central and North Africa, said: Aktashif means discover and with this initiative, we are enabling young people in our region to identify their passion and unlock their true potential. This defines a key element of our organisational purpose with nurturing ambitions, being a key pillar of our corporate responsibility programme. With Aktashif, we are directly reaching out to the youth of today  the business leaders of tomorrow.



She added: Canons support for entrepreneurship and incubation extends beyond countries and timelines, it is written into our DNA. We also see Aktashif as an integral piece in addressing the global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, specifically the UNs Sustainable Development Goal 4, which stipulates the importance of quality education and learning opportunities for all.



The programme is designed to boost young adults skills, as research shows most youth are looking to change careers every three years and 60 per cent are not truly engaged in their current jobs and would consider different careers; Aktashif helps sharpen their focus in young people to develop skillsets and career choices that most resonate to them.



Aktashif has four modules (Discover Your Creative Voice, Start Your Creative Journey, Pursue Your Creative Passion, and Unleash your Creative Career). Collectively, these will lead the participants through the process of designing and launching a successful creative business.



The first module challenges participants to find their artistic voices whereas the second and third modules will guide them through the process of developing a business concept and portfolio, and the fourth module will help them to launch their own enterprise and build a website. With digital media being central in engaging the youth in the region, each module will include video episodes, providing insights for content creators and creative entrepreneurs. The aim of each module is to elevate participants to the next level allowing them to discover their ambition and pursue their career.



Aktashif will also feature esteemed mentors from the region, including storyteller Clinton Lubbe, Canons UAE-based ambassador, photographer and film maker, who will guide participants with techniques to master their craft.



Participants looking to develop specific skills in photography and printing can take part in deep dive virtual masterclasses designed specifically for their age group, while those wanting to pursue other interests can explore a range of opportunities.  TradeArabia News Service
If the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has taught us anything, its the resiliency of New Jerseyans. As thousands of people are coming down with the disease, and others are struggling with the economic impact of coronavirus closures  we are also seeing stories of fighting and survival.

Jill Kendrick is one of those survivors. The 56-year-old mom from Mendham thought she was dying when she was first admitted to Morristown Medical Center with the coronavirus several months ago.

She, and the doctors, nurses, and staff at the hospital, fought every day to help her survive. This week, months after she recovered, and returned home, she returned to the hospital to thank the people who got her there.

The feelings, the powerlessness ... also, the care, the response from the people who I never met and would likely never see again  that was humbling too, she said.

Michael Somekh had a similar story. After checking himself into Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston this March, his condition rapidly deteriorated. He spent 55 days on a ventilator, fighting for his life, while his friends, family members, and medical professionals fought alongside him.

He doesnt remember his battle. But those around him will never forget it.

As doctors treated him, family members encouraged him, talked to him on the phone, pleaded with him to hold on.

Like any good fighter, youre not out until youre out, said Dr. Paul Yodice, the chairman of medicine and a critical care doctor at Saint Barnabas.

When he finally left the hospital on May 22, he was surrounded by love, joy, warmth, and hope.

Their stories are why NJ.com launched #TogetherNJ, an initiative meant to highlight all the ways, large and small, New Jerseyans are persevering, inspiring, and showing love to one another.

Have you seen an inspiring story in your community during this troubling time? Tell us about it.

Heres a look at some of this weeks #TogetherNJ stories:

Michael Somekh spent 55 days on a ventilator as doctors fought the ravages of COVID-19. He doesn't remember any of it. His friends and family? They'll never forget.

When the woman stood at the entrance of the emergency department, she was surrounded by doctors, nurses and hospital staff. She was also surrounded by memories, both heartwarming and cutting.

The 18 dresses were donated from the world-famous bridal boutique, Kleinfeld Bridal, where Say Yes to the Dress is filmed.

Now, New Jersey food banks will get an infusion of $20 million in federal taxpayer money to help feed residents as the virus continues to wreak havoc on the economy.

As of Friday, Holy Name Medical Center, in Teaneck, once at the epicenter of New Jerseys coronavirus outbreak, has discharged all of its patients that had COVID-19, a report says.

How do you thank health care workers, EMTs, police officers, and other first responders for their selfless efforts during the coronavirus pandemic?

If you are a florist, you say it with flowers, naturally.

The two journalists hadnt even been with NJ Advance Media for a year when the coronavirus pandemic shuttered the state and forced us to close our newsrooms and work remotely.

A holiday so nice, this New Jerseyan celebrates it twice. But this year, he celebrated with 650 people in need. Listen to our podcast about Summersgiving.

Check out a video to meet the 7-year-old from N.J. who collected food instead of gifts for her birthday this year. Lily Reeves collected 400 pounds for a local food bank.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Staff reporters Steve Politi and Spencer Kent contributed to this report.

Jessica Mazzola may be reached at jmazzola@njadvancemedia.com.
TCN News

Hamtramck City Council of Michigan State in the US has passed a resolution opposing the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in India.

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Becoming the fifth city to pass a resolution against Indias NRC and CAA, the Council has made significant statements in solidarity with its South Asian Community. It said that India was founded as a pluralist and secular republic where members of all nationalities, ethnicities, races and religious faiths are welcome but the BJP party under Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is currently operating under the exclusionary ideology of RSS, which promotes hate and discrimination against Muslims and minorities.

The Council highlighted that in December 2019, Home Minister Amit Shah had used communally charged language in one of his speeches, suggesting he would purge India of infiltrators and termites, implying that CAA is an attempt to use religion as a criterion for Indian citizenship. The Council reminded that many Indians lack documentation relating to birth and residence and such citizenship laws only aim to make citizens stateless. Invoking Part III of Indias constitution that grants its citizens the right to equality and freedom, the Hamtramck City Council called for the protection of Muslims, Dalits, OBCs, Adivasis, poor women, indigenous people and LGBTQ communities who are targeted through the NRC and CAA.

It further resonated that the City Council supports its South Asian community irrespective of religion and caste, as the right to equality and freedom are mandatory to build a democratic republic. Expressing solidarity with Indians, the Council remarked that India and the US have shared a common bond of rule of law and protection of human rights and liberty and therefore the Modi government must immediately revoke the NRC and CAA, failing which, Indias democratic setup and founding principles of the Constitution would be at risk.
While the motive for joining the military by some is to wriggle out of the burden of unemployment, for Tolulope Arotile, it was simply a passion she had fanned from childhood.

All that Tolulope Oluwatoyin Sarah Arotile dreamt of was to join the military and fly an aircraft.

One day  when she was very small  she pointed to one small aircraft parked on a field and said, Dad, one day I am going to fly that aircraft, and I said amen, her father, Akintunde Arotile, recalled in a Punch newspaper interview.

Since that day she did not look back.

Born in 1995, that childhood yearning would become a reality September 22, 2012, after she was admitted into the Nigerian Defence Academy and commissioned five years later.

She made history in October 2019, when she was winged as Nigerias first female combat helicopter pilot in the Nigerian Air Forces 55 years of existence.

At her decoration last October, flanked by the chief of air staff, Sadique Abubakar, an air marshal, and the women affairs minister, Pauline Tallen, she marched to receive her wing with such immaculate finesse that mirrored her passion for the job.

I joined the military simply out of passion for it. Being a military personnel has been a long term ambition for me, she said in an interview shared by the Nigerian Air Force.

The carriage and what they stand for is simply exceptional, she added.

Not that she had no other qualifications to chase other job opportunities as she had a degree in mathematics. But for her, being in the military was all she craved.

Her profile was well scripted in a tribute released by NAF, where she was described as a very intelligent, disciplined, confident and courageous young officer who added value wherever she served.

Short but impactful service

An official release by the Nigerian Air Force says as of October 2019, Tolulope had acquired 460 hours (about 19 days) of flight within 14 months in flying a helicopter.

Those hours of flying were partly spent as a squadron pilot in Operation Gama Aiki in Minna, Niger State, and across the North-central, where she flew her quota of the anti-banditry bombardments to rid the area of terror.

The native of Iffe area of Ijumu LGA of Kogi State and fourth child of her family attended the Air Force Primary (20002005) and Secondary Schools (20062011), Kaduna.

In September 2012, she was admitted into the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, as a member of the 64 regular course, where she finished from in 2017, bagged a degree in mathematics, and was commissioned as a pilot officer.

She was winged as the first ever female combat helicopter pilot in the Nigerian Air Force two years later, having completed pilot training courses at the Starlite International Training Academy, South Africa.

While one of the two pilots is the first female fighter pilot in the 55 years history of the NAF, the second one is the first female combat helicopter pilot, air chief Sadique Abubakar said at the October event.

The second (Tolulope Arotile) graduated from Starlite International Training Academy. They both performed excellently well during their training.

She would later become Nigerias first female combat helicopter pilot to be so winged. The only other woman after her to reach that feat is Chinelo Nwokoye, who was winged May this year.

Nigerias second female helicopter pilot, Flying Officer Chinelo Nwokoye. (Photo Credit: Tolu Ogunlesi)

Ms Arotile held a commercial pilots licence and had also undergone tactical flying training on the Agusta 109 Power Attack Helicopter in Italy.

In February, during an induction in Abuja, she introduced Nigerias newly acquired Agusta 109 Power Attack Helicopter to President Buhari.

February 2020: Flying Officer Tolulope Arotile, Nigerias first female combat helicopter pilot, taking the C-in-C on a tour of new combat helicopters acquired by the Nigerian Air Force @NigAirForce. pic.twitter.com/kpdv0QWCEg  tolu ogunlesi (@toluogunlesi) May 6, 2020

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

How she died

Aged 24, the highflying start to the flying officers young career was halted July 14, 2020, a Tuesday, when, according to the NAF, she was inadvertently hit by the reversing vehicle of an excited former Air Force secondary school classmate while trying to greet her in Kaduna.

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Nigerias first female helicopter pilot, Flying Officer Tolulope Arotile (1995-2020). (PHOTO CREDIT: NAF)

Returning from an operation on bandits in Katsina and on a week break, her father, a retired engineer with Transmission Company of Nigeria, recalled speaking with her at about 1 p.m. on Tuesday.

Just yesterday (Tuesday), at about 1 p.m., I called her. She said she would later go out to make some photocopies and I told her not to stay long and to return home on time, Mr Arotile told Punch.

Around 5.30 p.m., somebody called me and asked if I had called her and I said yes. Then the person told me to call her which I did, but there no response.

So, I called her colleagues. They were all crying on the phone. I asked what happened, but they were just crying. I called one of her bosses who told me she was in the mortuary. I said ha! Somebody I spoke with four hours ago and by 5 p.m. she was in the mortuary.

Mr Arotile said it would be an understatement to say he is not devastated by the loss of his daughter, but he added he is a proud father.

I just thank God that she was able to achieve her dreams as a baby before her death, he said.

Death register of Flying Officer Tolulope Arotile. (PHOTO CREDIT: NAF)

His late daughters commitment, diligence, intelligence and can-do spirit have also launched her into the consciousness of many Nigerians with condolences pouring in.

Her memory will be indelible, and her efforts remembered, President Muhammadu Buhari also said in his condolence message.
Ontario has committed to build the on-again, off-again Highway 6 bypass around the gridlocked village of Morriston.

But be patient, motorists: design work for the bypass is expected to continue into 2022. The timeline for shovels in the ground may also depend on a controversial government proposal to exempt older highway projects from review under the Environmental Assessment Act.

Pleas for a Morriston bypass date back 40 years  and the previous Liberal government once vowed work would begin on the five-kilometre realignment by last year.

The bypass was left in limbo again after the new Tory government decided to review project spending as part of a deficit-busting effort.

Now the essential bypass  along with widening of Highway 401  has the green light once again, said Tory Flamborough-Glanbrook MPP Donna Skelly on Wednesday. It will improve the flow of traffic along this vital economic corridor, ensure the growth of the region and reduce the frustration of drivers and village residents trapped in lengthy traffic jams, she said in a release.

MORRISTON MAP by RosieGrover on Scribd

Morriston residents have long begged for relief from the daily bottleneck of cars in the tiny village, located on Highway 6 between Hamilton and Guelph. The highway, which narrows to two lanes on the edge of Hamilton and Puslinch, has been dubbed the killer highway because of a history of serious collisions.

Hamilton businesses have lobbied hard to improve highway access to the 401 and Guelph, with the local chamber of commerce estimating a bypass for 25,000 daily vehicles could be worth $50 million in economic benefits to the region.

But its not clear when work will begin on a complicated project already pegged to cost $300 million a decade ago.

In response to Spectator questions, Skellys office said most of the land needed has been purchased but design and engineering work is not expected to be done until 2022. (There is also a new construction budget, but that wont be revealed to protect the pending competitive bidding process.)

Timelines to start and finish construction, meanwhile, are still being finalized  and it remains uncertain how much extra environmental study is needed.

Thats because environmental approvals for the bypass happened so long ago that the Environmental Assessment Act requires a formal review. The original EA dates back to the 1990s, with the most recent study update in 2012.

The PC government has now proposed exempting the bypass  along with 30 other highway projects across Ontario  from the required review. All of the projects were studied and approved more than five years ago, but not built.

The proposed exemption allows the province to focus its resources on more significant, complex infrastructure projects with the highest potential for environmental impacts, reads an online notice posted for public comment until Aug. 22.

Environment Hamilton head Lynda Lukasik said she sympathizes with Morriston residents who endure dangerous traffic backlogs and exhaust fumes outside their homes.

But she said she also opposes the governments proposal to cut corners on environmental due diligence in the name of fast-tracking construction. Checks and balances are important, said Lukasik, who argued the province is using the desire for post-pandemic economic recovery as an opportunity to chip away at various environmental regulations.

The default environmental review after five years is supposed to gauge whether site conditions, government policy or ecological preservation requirements for a particular project have changed over time. It also allows the public to review and weigh in on any changes.

The bypass project: Whats involved?

The latest plan will reroute and expand Highway 6 and widen parts of Highway 401. The work includes:

Widening Highway 401 from six to 10 lanes, including lanes for high-occupancy vehicles, between Highway 6 North and Highway 6 South interchanges;

Building two new interchanges and improving existing interchanges;

Building new bridges for rail and car traffic across the realigned Highway 6;
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has married her long term film director partner at an intimate village wedding in Magleby Church, Zealand, a Danish island where the couple share a holiday home.

IMAGE: Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen tied the knot with her long term film director partner intimate village wedding in Magleby Church, Zealand, a Danish island. Photograph: Mette Frederiksen/Instagram

Mette, 42, exchanged vows with Bo Tengberg, 55, after being forced to cancel their wedding three times in a year, initially delaying their 2019 nuptials because of the general election, then earlier this year due to the pandemic, and finally bringing forward their special day from July 18, to attend an European Union Council meeting.

But, on Thursday afternoon an ecstatic Mette took to Instagram to share a picture of the happy couple exiting the church, alongside the caption 'YES' followed by a heart.

The local papers reported that it was a small wedding of 90 people, including the former Danish Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmusen as a guest.

After the 40-minute ceremony, the happy couple posed for pictures before going on to celebrate with guests.

This month Mette confirmed that they were changing their day for the third time to 'take care of Denmark's interests in a Facebook post, though she did not give a date.

'I am really looking forward to marrying this fantastic man,' she wrote in a post alongside a photo of herself and Bo.

'But obviously it can't be that easy, and now there is a council meeting in Brussels called, exactly on that Saturday in July when we had planned to marry,' she wrote.

'But I have to do my work and take care of Denmark's interests. So we have to change plans again.

'Soon we should be able to get married. I'm looking forward to saying yes to Bo (who fortunately is very patient).'
Conversely, even though I had lived there for so long, learned the language and so on, I would never become Chinese. On a practical level, its almost legally impossible to settle down and become a citizen: There is no real equivalent to a green card nor, therefore, a real immigrant culture. And yet it was a place that I had loved from my first visit in 1984 and that I still loved when I left earlier this year.

The yearning to belong works the other way around, too. Many Chinese people went to the United States to study and came to love that country. Many built their lives around settling in America while also being able to jet back to China for family holidays. They started to pay attention to American politics, they put up with discrimination, and one day they realized that their children hadnt just been born in the United States but had grown up there. In some way, they were American, even if they still had Chinese passports.

For all of us, the Covid-19 pandemic has made transcontinental living more difficult. But the real damage is longer term: The worsening of ties between countries means that today people are viewed suspiciously for things that previously were lauded.

Chinese who went to the United States to study  once seen as a great boon to America  are now often treated as saboteurs or spies. The Trump administration has visited petty humiliations and slights upon many foreigners, insisting on calling the new coronavirus the Chinese virus or suspending the work visas of hundreds of thousands of non-Americans in the name of controlling the pandemic.

I cannot excuse Chinas behavior in recent years  the internment camps for Uighurs, the incessant crackdown on free speech, the territorial grabs in the South China Sea  but the Chinese Communist Party has always made its ambitions and methods clear. What it is doing isnt shocking if youve paid attention to the way it obtained power and has held it over the past seven decades.

What has changed are the strategies and tactics that the United States now deploys to deal with China. Starting in the 1970s, a bipartisan policy of engagement was pursued, with the idea that it would help bind China to the international order.

Some critics of China claim that engagement was always a naive dream and, as evidence, point to the fact that China hasnt become more liberal. But most realists knew that democratization was at best a distant objective; the main idea was that pragmatic engagement would be more productive than blind confrontation.
By Brendan J. Lyons | Times Union, Albany

Albany, N.Y.  The head of the New York State Troopers PBA issued a statement Wednesday demanding that state troopers be removed from New York City and cease any law enforcement activities within that jurisdiction.

"We have arrived at this unfortunate decision due to the hastily written so-called police reform legislation recently passed by the New York City Council," said PBA President Thomas H. Mungeer. "This poorly conceived bill, which will be signed into law by Mayor de Blasio today, puts an undue burden upon our troopers; it opens them up to criminal and civil liability for restraining a person during a lawful arrest in a manner that is consistent with their training and is legal throughout the rest of the state. Furthermore, this legislation will prevent troopers from safely and effectively arresting resistant subjects."

According to Mungeer, the new regulations would criminalize methods of restraint, including putting any pressure on a persons chest or back.

He said those techniques are used by law enforcement agencies across the nation "when officers are faced with violently combative subjects."

"I find it extremely troubling that these acts are now defined as criminal in nature, even if they were unintentional and no injury was sustained by the subject," Mungeer said.

State troopers have been assigned to New York City more frequently in recent years, at Gov. Andrew M. Cuomos request, assigned to patrol the citys airports, bridges and tunnels.

Mungeer directed his request to State Police Superintendent Keith Corlett. He also suggested that the state attorney general indemnify state troopers from the New York City law, but it's unclear if that office holds that authority.

New York City and many other municipalities across the country have been changing or debating police use of force techniques in the wake of protests that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. He died after a police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes as Floyd was handcuffed and complaining that he could not breathe. Many protesters have also called on their state and local governments to defund police agencies.
Air passengers have been told they could soon face swab tests for Covid-19 at Irish airports.

Tanaiste Leo Varadkar said it had been proposed to target passengers arriving from countries with higher levels of the virus and randomly test them. The idea is that although it is imperfect, it is seen as an alternative to mandatory quarantine.

He said the testing of incoming passengers had been successfully carried out in other countries.

The logistics are still vague - just how would this work and how effective would it be?

Nasal swab test

If they opt for a nasal swab test, it will involve a long stick with a very soft brush on the end being placed up the passenger's nose. This will collect a sample of secretions.

This can be uncomfortable because cells and fluids must be collected.

Read More

The swab must be taken to a laboratory for analysis. It is unclear if it is planned to set up a lab at the airports or send the specimens to a nearby facility. This underlines the complexity of what is involved if it goes ahead. The passenger would have to wait for several hours for a result.

Missing people who are positive

The testing is not foolproof and, because of the incubation period of the virus, somebody who is positive may be cleared as negative. Ideally people need to be tested twice, with a second test performed about seven days later.

Somebody who is positive but told they are negative runs the risk of unwittingly passing the infection on.

If somebody tests positive, the State will also have to work out if they will offer them specialised accommodation to allow them to safely self-isolate.

Rapid test

Tests which can have a turnaround time of less than an hour are being looked at by some airport authorities. They are less complex than the PCR test and would avoid the need to send a swab to a laboratory. The reliability of the test would need to be confirmed before it was applied here.

Going Awol

People who are returning home or arriving as tourists should self-quarantine for two weeks, but it is not mandatory. It is not being followed by everyone. The Department of Justice said yesterday that until late June, 100pc of passengers arriving here were called by its Border Management Unit (BMU) on behalf of public health officials.

Since the beginning of July, given the increase in passenger numbers, the BMU - on behalf of public health - is making follow-up calls to a proportion of passengers.

The mandatory locator forms they fill out on arrival with their details and destination are selected randomly. Currently, a proportional group - between 10pc-20pc - from every flight is contacted by phone.

Since the introduction on May 28 of the mandatory requirement to complete the form, just three people at Dublin Airport have refused to do so and they have been referred to the Garda National Immigration Bureau.

It said the key to successful enforcement of the forms was to front-load as much of the process as possible, to ensure the forms are completed before passengers arrive in Ireland.

This involves the airlines and ferry companies doing as much as they can to ensure compliance before boarding, reminding passengers about the mandatory nature of the forms during the journey, and the ports and airports providing a further opportunity to complete the forms in as socially distant an environment as possible on arrival. The production of an online version of the Passenger Locator Form is currently being prioritised by the Government.

Figures show that from July 1 to July 13, 52,743 people arrived at Dublin airport.

A sample of 5,042 people was taken; 1,510 of these are excluded for reasons such as being exempt because they were travelling to Northern Ireland.

Officials in the Department made 3,532 calls to passengers who were supposed to be self-quarantining.

Just 1,698 of these were answered - only 48pc.
Mumbai:

Ending its five-session losing run, BSE benchmark Sensex on Monday recouped nearly 185 points on positive global sentiments as chances of Hillary Clinton in the US election brightened following a relief from FBI in personal email server probe.

The US elections and outcome speculation caused nervousness in global markets last week but the news of a reprieve, mere two days ahead of polls, for Clinton from FBI brought cheers for investors as the investigative agency did not find any material evidence for potential criminal charges.

Besides, domestic equities got a major push from covering-up by speculators, who had been creating short positions.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services Ltd, said, Market reacted positively to the outcome of US FBIs clean chit to the Democratic presidential candidate. Investors expressed an interim relief in the midst of escalating worry in the final lap of election battle. Further, short covering on pharma, bank stocks has also supported the rally.

The Sensex opened gap-up at 27,552.27 and hovered between 27,591.15 and 27,398.72 before closing at 27,458.99, showing a gain of 184.84 points, or 0.68 per cent.

The gauge had lost 667.36 points in the previous five sessions. The Nifty after shuttling between 8,535.85 and 8,481.45 ended higher by 63.30 points, or 0.75 per cent, at 8,497.05.

Buying activity was so strong that all the sectoral indices, except capital goods, ended in the green, rising by up to l.94 per cent. Tracking overall trends, broader markets were also in better shape with the small-cap surging 1.19 per cent and the mid-cap index rising 0.59 per cent.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 343.30 crore on Friday, as per provisional data. Globally, in the Asian region, Japans Nikkei moved up 1.61 per cent, Shanghai Composite was higher 0.26 per cent, while Hong Kongs Hang Seng up 0.70 per cent.

European markets also joined Asian markets as Frankfurts DAX climbed 1.71 per cent, while the Paris CAC rose 1.81 per cent in their initial deals. Londons FTSE too surged 1.37 per cent. The US stocks futures too were trading in positive terrain ahead of Mondays market opening.
The dam failures and flooding that swept the greater Midland area is just about 60 days in the past, which happens to be the amount of time most insurance policies require a damage claim to be made.

Specifically, the deadline for making an insurance claim is this Saturday, July 18.

Attorney Ven Johnson said he suggests residents and business owners whose properties were affected by flooding to make a claim no later than Friday.

And, he said residents should file a claim even if they dont think their insurance will cover the damage.

Its still important that they at least try to give their insurance company that notice so that they can make their determination, Johnson said. Because everybody needs to in any situation like this  its called mitigating your damages  you have an obligation to try and make the insurance company pay if they will.

Johnson said this is an important box to check, especially if residents plan to be part of any of the lawsuits that have popped up, including a mass tort spearheaded by Johnsons firm, Johnson Law, PLC, along with Chicago law firm Romanucci & Blandin, LLC.

Though it's too early to know details of the lawsuits, not filing a claim for insurance could affect the outcome of a residents case, Johnson said. Those arguing against the plaintiffs could question how severe the damage was if they didnt make a claim with their insurance.

It is a part of the lawsuit  it will absolutely be brought up by the guilty folks, Johnson said.

He said making a claim also helps flood victims to get organized by putting their damages together as the lawsuits progress.

"I would love for people, obviously, to utilize me and my law firm, but even if they don't they need to protect themselves and do the right thing to take care of their stuff  whether it's with another lawyers, on their own, whatever  it's just the right thing to do," Johnson said.
Technavio has been monitoring the fracking fluid market and it is poised to grow by USD 14.72 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of 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/20200716005612/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled GLOBAL FRACKING FLUID 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. Ashland Global Holdings Inc., Baker Hughes Co., BJ Services LLC, Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LLC, DuPont de Nemours Inc., Halliburton Co., Schlumberger Ltd., Solvay SA, Trican Well Service Ltd., and Weatherford International Plc. 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 oil and gas has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. However, the environmental concerns associated with the hydraulic fracturing process might hamper market growth.

Fracking Fluid Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Fracking Fluid Market is segmented as below:

Application Onshore Offshore



Geography 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=IRTNTR40328

Fracking Fluid 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 fracking fluid market report covers the following areas:

Fracking Fluid Market size

Fracking Fluid Market trends

Fracking Fluid Market industry analysis

This study identifies the increasing applications of IoT as one of the prime reasons driving the fracking fluid market growth during the next few years.

Fracking Fluid Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the fracking fluid market, including some of the vendors such as Ashland Global Holdings Inc., Baker Hughes Co., BJ Services LLC, Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LLC, DuPont de Nemours Inc., Halliburton Co., Schlumberger Ltd., Solvay SA, Trican Well Service Ltd., and Weatherford International Plc. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the Fracking Fluid Market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Fracking Fluid Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist fracking fluid market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the fracking fluid market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the fracking fluid market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of fracking fluid market vendors

Table Of Contents :

PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT

2.1 Preface

2.2 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

Onshore Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Offshore Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by application

PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE

PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

Americas Market size and forecast 2019-2024

APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024

EMEA 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

Advances in fluid end

Rise in adoption of green fracking methods

Increasing applications of IoT

PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Overview

Landscape disruption

Competitive scenario

PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

Ashland Global Holdings, Inc.

Baker Hughes Co.

BJ Services LLC

Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LLC

DuPont de Nemours Inc.

Halliburton Co.

Schlumberger Ltd.

Solvay SA

Trican Well Service Ltd.

Weatherford International Plc

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/20200716005612/en/

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The Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, has said the donation of N100 million for an Islamic university is for a proposed institution sited in the state, not in Jigawa, as reported by some news platforms.

PREMIUM TIMES reported the governors announcement to support the institution which is owned by the Jamaatu Izalatul Bida wa Ikamatul Sunnah (JIBWIS).

A statement issued by the governors spokesperson, Zailani Bappah, indicated that reports that the proposed university is sited in Jigawa as claimed by some online media organisations, was false.

Mr Bappah said it is pertinent to call on the general public to disregard this information as a phantom fabrication from the truth of what actually transpired.

Mr Bappah recalled that JIBWIS paid a courtesy call on the governor on Monday and informed him of the existence of a school they own under construction in Shinkafi town of the state.

Hence, they sought for the support of the state government to complete the school for the benefit of Zamfara people, Mr Bappah said.

Incidentally, one of the cardinal goals of [of Mr Matawalles administration] is to promote education in the state. Hence, the state Government accepted a partnership with the body to ensure the school comes into fruition.

READ ALSO:

He said the state government hopes the institution will transform into a full-pledged university, which will benefit the people of Zamfara State and beyond.

Governor Matawalle therefore, assures the general public that his administration will continue to partner with all well meaning and reputable organisations and institutions for the rapid development of education in the state.
Fatigue Factor for Interstate Firefighters

South Australia withdrew its personnel from the bushfire fight in NSW because it had to ensure its firefighters back home were not too physically and mentally exhausted to battle its own fires, a royal commission has been told.

South Australia sent 2000 firefighters to help NSW and Queensland battle unprecedented bushfires in late 2019, in its biggest ever interstate deployment.

SA Country Fire Service deputy chief officer Andrew Stark said each time there was a deployment, the agency had to balance the interstate needs with its own capability as conditions deteriorated, while managing fatigue.

When we chose to withdraw our support from the deployments to NSW, they were still active fires and many fires continued to break out of those, but we had to make that balance, he told the natural disasters royal commission on Thursday.

We knew that we were going to have significant fires, it was inevitable with the weather conditions we were facing.

We knew that fatigue was going to be an issue.

An independent review into South Australias bushfire season said interstate deployments resulted in organisational demand and had a cumulative impact on the availability of firefighters and key personnel when fires broke out in the state.

It increased the demands on available firefighters and raised concerns about their welfare and fatigue management with some reporting that at times they felt physically and mentally exhausted, said the report, which was released earlier this week.

One volunteer spent only seven nights at his home in five weeks, between interstate deployments and campaigns in South Australia.

The review said the experience was positive for many, who were proud to help their interstate colleagues.

Between 70 and 130 firefighters and incident management personnel were deployed at any one time from late September to late December.

The 2015-16 bushfire season was the last time South Australia sought firefighters from another jurisdiction to assist with its fires.

By Megan Neil in Melbourne
New Delhi : Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will visit Ladakh on Friday to take stock of the country's military preparedness and review the overall situation, government sources said on Wednesday, as India and China move to finalise a framework for a complete disengagement at friction points on their border.

Singh will be accompanied by Chief of Army Staff General M M Naravane and it will be his first visit to Ladakh after the standoff between the armies of India and China on the Line of Actual Control began on May 5.

Singh's trip comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's surprise visit to Ladakh on July 3 during which he also addressed troops and signalled the country's firmness in dealing with the India-China border row.

The sources said Singh will carry out a comprehensive review of the security situation in the region with Gen Naravane, Northern Army Commander Lt Gen Yogesh Kumar Joshi, Commander of the 14 Corps Lt Gen Harinder Singh and other senior army officials.

From Ladakh, the defence minister will travel to Srinagar where he will hold a high-level meeting with senior military officials on Saturday to review the situation along the Line of Control with Pakistan, the sources said.

Singh was originally scheduled to visit Ladakh on July 3 but it was deferred.

Indian and Chinese troops were locked in a bitter standoff in multiple locations in eastern Ladakh for over eight weeks since May 5.

The tension escalated manifold after the violent clashes in Galwan Valley in which 20 Indian Army personnel were killed.

However, following a series of diplomatic and military talks, the two sides began a mutual disengagement process on July 6 and withdrew troops from most of the friction points.

On Tuesday, senior commanders of the the two armies held a fourth round of talks during which the Indian delegation conveyed a "very clear" message to the Chinese army that status quo must ante be restored in eastern Ladakh and China will have to follow all mutually agreed protocols for border management to bring back peace and tranquillity along the LAC, government sources said.

During the course of the intense and complex negotiations that lasted nearly 15 hours, the Indian delegation apprised the Chinese army about the "red lines" and conveyed that the onus was largely on China to improve the overall situation in the region, the sources said.

The key focus of the talks was learnt to be on rolling out the phase two of the disengagement process besides firming up modalities for withdrawal of forces and weapons from the rear bases in a time-bound and verifiable manner, the sources said, adding they were aimed at further de-escalation of the situation at various friction points.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16

By Samir Ali  Trend:

The Armenian armed forces continue to make provocations, Assistant to the Azerbaijani president, Head of the Department of Foreign Policy Affairs of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration Hikmat Hajiyev said.

Hajiyev made the remark at the press-conference in Baku, Trend reports on July 16.

"Azerbaijan's army gives adequate response to the provocations, assistant to the Azerbaijani president added. "Azerbaijans society is united. The lands occupied by Armenia must be liberated. These provocations continue because international organizations do not exert pressure on Armenia."

Hajiyev said that some individuals willing to undermine the solidarity of the Azerbaijani people began to resort to various provocative actions, and these issues will be dealt with.

He also said that Azerbaijani youth chanted the slogans expressing the desire to join the armed forces.

I would like to inform you that the Azerbaijani army has been fully provided with armament and it gives the Armenian armed forces an adequate response, assistant to the Azerbaijani president said. While in Armenia, confidence in the army leaves a lot to be desired, there are serious problems with staffing. Mercenaries serve in Armenian army.

The patriotism of Azerbaijani youth is highly appreciated by the state, Hajiyev said. The Azerbaijani president said that everyone may apply to the State Service for Mobilization and Conscription.

In case of necessity, they will be attracted to the service, assistant to the Azerbaijani president said. We highly appreciate this initiative of the Azerbaijani youth. In case of necessity, these individuals will be drafted into the army."
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says Russian actors circulated leaked trade documents between the UK and the US.

The United Kingdom has accused Russian actors of seeking to disrupt last years general election by circulating leaked trade documents between London and Washington.

The government launched an investigation into the source of the leak after details of talks with the United States on a possible post-Brexit trade deal were published on social media site Reddit.

The main opposition Labour party said the files proved the government would sell out the state-run National Health Service (NHS) to US companies.

Funding for the NHS was a key campaign issue before the December 12 vote.

Labours then-leaderJeremy Corbyn dismissed as a conspiracy theory claims the leak used in his campaign was put online by Russia but did not say where the party obtained them.

But Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on Thursday said the government had concluded after extensive analysis that there was a strong suspicion of a Russian link.

On the basis of extensive analysis, the government has concluded that it is almost certain that Russian actors sought to interfere with the 2019 general election through the online amplification of illicitly acquired and leaked government documents, he said in a written statement to the British Parliament.

Fraught relations

The accusation, although not directly aimed at the Kremlin, is likely to worsen already fraught relations between London and Moscow.

Ties were strained after the UK pointed the finger at Russia for trying to kill double agent Sergei Skripal in the southwest English city of Salisbury in 2018.

A long-awaited report into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit vote, due to be published by parliaments intelligence and security committee in the coming days, could also heighten diplomatic tensions.

Raab said of the leak: Sensitive government documents relating to the UK-US Free Trade Agreement were illicitly acquired before the 2019 general election and disseminated online via the social media platform Reddit.

When these gained no traction, further attempts were made to promote the illicitly acquired material online in the run-up to the general election, he said.

Whilst there is no evidence of a broad spectrum Russian campaign against the general election, any attempt to interfere in our democratic processes is completely unacceptable.

Raab said there was an ongoing criminal investigation, which prevented him from giving further details.

But he promised the UK would call out and respond to malign activity, and backed recent action taken by Berlin against an alleged Russian hack of the German parliament in 2015.

He also supported recent German moves to slap sanctions on Russia because of suggestions a Russian military spy targeted leading politicians, including Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Seoul: The city government of the South Korean capital, Seoul, will launch an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct surrounding late mayor Park Won-soon, who was found dead after one of his secretaries filed a complaint claiming years-long abuse.

City spokesman Hwang In-sik said the investigation committee would also include civic activists and experts, but didnt specify when it would start or how much power it would have.

People mourn mayor Park Won-soon outside City Hall in Seoul, South Korea. Credit:Getty Images

By forming a joint investigation committee of government officials and civic experts, we will ensure fairness and objectiveness of the investigation, Hwang said. We will discuss with womens rights organisations and other groups to determine how the committee will be formed and operated and when it could start.

Hwang lamented what he described as speculative media reports but avoided specific answers when asked about the citys response to the allegations or Parks death, including whether city officials had ignored earlier complaints by the ex-secretary.
OAKLAND, Calif. - Hackers broke into the Twitter accounts of world leaders, celebrities and tech moguls on Wednesday in one of the most high-profile security breaches in recent years, highlighting a major flaw with the service millions of people have come to rely on as an essential communications tool.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 16/7/2020 (551 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FILE - In this Feb. 8, 2018 file photo, the logo for Twitter is displayed above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Twitter says, Tuesday, June 23, 2020, it will give its U.S. employees Election Day off going forward and employees around the world a paid day off to vote in national elections. In addition, if employees don't have enough time to vote outside of working hours in their country, the company says it will compensate them for the time it takes to do so. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

OAKLAND, Calif. - Hackers broke into the Twitter accounts of world leaders, celebrities and tech moguls on Wednesday in one of the most high-profile security breaches in recent years, highlighting a major flaw with the service millions of people have come to rely on as an essential communications tool.

The intent of the hack appeared to be to steal money from unsuspecting cryptocurrency enthusiasts  in particular, by using the compromised high-follower accounts to scam people out of Bitcoin. But it also raises questions about Twitter's ability to secure its service against election interference and misinformation ahead of the U.S. presidential election.

Here are some questions and answers about the breach:

WHAT HAPPENED  AND HOW?

On Wednesday afternoon, the Twitter accounts of famous figures began tweeting similar messages saying they were feeling generous and would double any Bitcoin payments sent to an address in the tweet. Among the individual accounts affected were former President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, tech billionaires like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Tesla CEO Elon Musk and celebrities such as Kanye West and his wife, Kim Kardashian West.

Companies like Apple and Uber, which respectively have 4.6 million and one million followers, were also affected.

Twitter soon locked down many accounts, including those of its verified users with blue check marks next to their names  a group that include many U.S. politicians as well as businesses, celebrities, journalists and news organizations. Twitter called the hack a co-ordinated social engineering attack" by unknown people who targeted Twitter employees with access to the platform's internal systems and tools.

The hackers, Twitter said, used this access to take control of many high-profile accounts and masquerade as their owners.

WHAT IS SOCIAL ENGINEERING?

Essentially, social engineering means taking advantage of human nature. Examples include phishing attacks and other ways people can be tricked into giving out compromising information, malware attacks that get people to download malicious software, and compromising people by offering something in return for information. Twitter did not say how its employees were compromised.

COULD THE ATTACK HAVE BEEN PREVENTED?

Twitter said late Wednesday it has taken significant steps to limit employees access to internal systems and tools while its investigation is ongoing. But this is not the first time Twitter employees have wrecked havoc.

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In 2017, a disgruntled employee deactivated President Donald Trumps account for a few minutes. Last year, U.S. prosecutors charged two former Twitter employees with spying on user data for the government of Saudi Arabia. The incidents raise questions about Twitters internal security systems, and whether the company can trust employees with access to sensitive information.

WHAT DOES THE HACK MEAN FOR THE 2020 ELECTION?

The hack might be a simple demonstration of Twitters weak security controls as the U.S. heads into the 2020 presidential election, a contest in which social media is already playing a hugely influential role.

Among the political figures targeted, the hack mostly appeared to target Democrats or other figures on the left, drawing comparisons to the 2016 campaign. The White House said that President Donald Trump's account was secure and wasn't jeopardized.

U.S. intelligence agencies have established that Russia engaged in co-ordinated attempts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election through social media tampering and various hacks, including targeting the campaigns and major party organizations.

While Twitter, Facebook and other social media companies have since tightened their election security systems and policies, malicious actors trying to intervene have also improved their tactics. In other words, if a Bitcoin scam was so easy to pull off, what will prevent an attack on the U.S. election?
Mobile money transfers in local currencies are currently available to UNFCU members in 14 countries. These include Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Fiji, Ghana, Guatemala, Kenya, Malawi, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Uganda, and Zambia.

"We are dedicated to providing our members with financial peace of mind," said Bill Thomas, Chief Member Operations Officer. "Thunes' network allows UNFCU to connect seamlessly with mobile wallet applications in select countries. We will continue to work with Thunes to expand the network to more countries worldwide."

"We are delighted UNFCU chose Thunes as the network powering their mobile money transfers," said Peter De Caluwe, CEO of Thunes. "We have seen an increased demand for simplified transactions. Since the launch of the service in February, transaction volume has grown 68% on average. Through the expansion of our partnership, we look forward to delivering fast, secure, low cost, and convenient solutions to benefit more members across the world."

About Thunes

Thunes is a B2B cross-border payments network that enables corporates and financial institutions to move funds and provide financial services in emerging markets. Our global platform connects mobile wallet providers, banks, technology companies and money transfer operators in more than 100 countries and 60 currencies. Thunes is headquartered in Singapore with regional offices in London and New York. For more information, visit www.thunes.com .

About United Nations Federal Credit Union (UNFCU)

UNFCU is the member-owned credit union of the United Nations community. UNFCU was founded in 1947 and serves more than 150,000 members across the globe. Learn more at www.unfcu.org .

SOURCE Thunes

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Originally from the Caribbean Island of Bonaire, Ir Sais is known for his viral hit song "Dream Girl," which was created entirely by Ir himself in his native Papiamento language. His song inspired the "Dream Girl TikTok Challenge" and immediately grew in popularity, earning over 4 billion TikTok streams and dominating charts worldwide. Recently, his single was featured in a popular remix with Sony Music Entertainment's Puerto Rican superstar Rauw Alejandro. Since his success with "Dream Girl," Ir Sais has garnered over 300,000 YouTube subscribers and a top position on Spotify's Global Viral chart.

Niels Walboomers, Managing Director of Sony/ATV Music Publishing Benelux, stated, "Sony/ATV is incredibly proud to represent Ir Sais alongside his manager Veikko. Coming from a small Island in the Dutch Caribbean, Bonaire, he has captured fans with his incredible, authentic sound. We are thrilled to join Ir Sais as he makes his native language, Papiamento, heard all over the globe. Papiamento pal Mundo, Ir Sais for the world!"

Manager Veikko Fuhrmann said, "When I discovered Ir Sais and his song "Dream Girl" in a viral playlist in Panama two years ago, he welcomed me into his family and showcased his talents as a songwriter, producer and arranger. He has created his own unique genre with his original sounds and Papiamento language. I'm excited to have Niels and his team at Sony/ATV Benelux join us as we support Ir Sais and his rising career."

Ir Sais said, "I wrote my first song when I was twelve and have been a creator since. Moving from Bonaire to Holland opened my eyes to the business side of the music industry. I'm super excited to join the family of Sony/ATV, the #1 publisher in the world, and I'm excited to collaborate with the world!"

Irgwin Placido Sluis, better known as Ir Sais, began teaching himself music when he was just seven years old and later became a multi-instrumentalist with impressive talent. After moving to the Netherlands in 2009, Ir Sais worked on musical projects with W.S.R Label Mostaman and established his own production studio out of his home. Ir Sais first gained notoriety in 2010 when he launched his first single "Schatje zeg maar" (Baby Just Tell Me), which quickly became popular. Since then, his self-released albums Heat and Deeper and Deeper 2.0 have accumulated more than 100 million streams and views.

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Former police colonel gets 2 years in jail for $270,000 fraud

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

14:26 16/07/2020

MOSCOW, July 16 (RAPSI)  Moscows Izmailovsky District Court has passed a 2-year prison sentence on a former Interior Ministrys colonel Pavel Kurmelev for a 19 million-ruble fraud (about $270,000), the press service of the Moscow Prosecutors Office reports.

According to the court records, Kurmelev acting along with his accomplices took a victims money in the amount of more than 19 million rubles. The criminals told the injured man that the money must be transferred to high-ranking officials of the Ministrys Investigations Department as illegal reward for the closure of a fraud case against a commercial organizations CEO. However, the accomplices were going to spend the money for their own purposes.

Later, they allegedly received $20,000, a part of the demanded amount totaling $1 million, from another victim for the closure of a case too, but Kurmelev was arrested when receiving the money.

The former police official pleaded guilty and his case was considered separately. Investigation into other defendants is ongoing, according to prosecutors.




Two city-county councilors announced they are seeking a new general orders board for Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, which would effectively serve the same function as the current general orders committee.

The difference is the new board would include civilians, whereas the current committee includes two appointments from the chief and one appointment from the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). The committee has final say when it comes to department policy.

Councilors Keith Potts and Crista Carlino, both of whom are Democrats, announced the initiative at a press conference July 16 alongside members of Faith in Indiana.

It is time to put the voice of the public back in public safety, Carlino said.

The citys four-year contract with the FOP is up at the end of this year. Potts said the timing aligns with the citys larger awakening when it comes to racism and police violence. Adding civilians to the board would be one step in helping build more trust between the community and police, he said.

Stuart Mora, chapter president of Unite Here Local 23, which mostly represents food service workers, called it a simple and logical measure to have civilians on a new board.

Today, we are saying the police should not police the police, he said.

The councilors said they dont have all of the details worked out  such as how many civilians they would want on the board  and they plan to present the proposal to the city-county council in August.

Contact staff writer Tyler Fenwick at 317-762-7853. Follow him on Twitter @Ty_Fenwick.

Two city-county councilors, along with members of Faith in Indiana, spoke July 16 at King Park about their goal of creating a new general order board with IMPD that includes civilians. (Photo/Tyler Fenwick)
The City Wall of Xian (Peoples Daily Online/Yuan Meng)

The fortifications of Xian, also known as the Xian City Walls, are some of the oldest, largest and best preserved city walls in China. Built under the rule of the Hongwu Emperor as a military defence system, the wall has been renovated several times since it was built in the 14th century, and encloses an area of about 14 square kilometres. It is situated at the end of the ancient Silk Road, and its history can be traced back to the Sui and Tang dynasties. Today, the Xian City Wall is on the tentative list of UNESCOs World Heritage Site, showcasing the pride and magnificence of Xian, the ancient Chinese capital of 13 dynasties.

Huaqing Palace in the rain. (Peoples Daily Online/Kou Jie)

Located 25km east of Xian, Huaqing Palace, a complex of hot springs and ancient architecture, is famous for being the supposed scene of Tang emperor Xuanzongs romance with his consort Yang Guifei. Renowned poet Bai Juyi depicted the royal couples love stories in his masterpiece Song of Everlasting Regret with these lines: On a cold spring day, he bestowed upon her the honour of bathing with him at the Huaqing poolthis was when she began to receive the emperors advances.

The Terracotta Warriors museum in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province (Peoples Daily Online/Yuan Meng)

Dubbed the worlds eighth ancient wonder, the Terracotta Army is a collection of life-sized sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shihuang, Chinas first emperor. Dating from approximately the late third century BCE, each figure has its own unique features, down to the face and toes. The Terracotta Army includes warriors, chariots and horses, and has more than 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses, and 150 cavalry horses. The figures not only possess unparalleled artistic value, but also demonstrate the integrity and strength of a united China, attracting visitors worldwide who come to admire its magnificence. In September 1987, the Terracotta Army was praised as the Eighth Wonder of the World by the former French President Jacques Chirac. He said: "There were Seven Wonders in the world, and the discovery of the Terracotta Army, we may say, is the eighth miracle of the world.

Summer scenery of Mount Li, a major part of Qinling Mountains. (Peoples Daily Online/Yuan Meng)

In addition to its rich history, Xian also boasts fantastic natural beauty. Surrounded by Qinling Mountains, one of Chinas largest and longest mountain ranges, the mountain areas around Xian are also home to countless rare plants and animals. Ginkgo, one of the oldest species of trees in the world, is native to the area, while Qinling pandas, a sub-species of the giant panda, accounts for around a fifth of the entire wild panda population. In 2009, a UNESCO global geopark was built in Xian, attracting scholars and visitors worldwide who come to admire its abundant geological heritage sites, splendid landscapes, diversity of biological species, as well as its favourable environment and rich historic culture.

Biangbiang noodles, a traditional Xian dish. (Peoples Daily Online/Yuan Meng)

Xian cuisine is best known for its noodles and mutton dishes. Making heavy use of strong and complex flavours, it places an emphasis on savoury and spicy flavours. Some of the dishes have been passed on from generation to generation for centuries, with Biangbiang noodles being one of the most famous and popular. The dish is touted as one of the eight strange wonders of Shaanxi Province, as they are thick and long like a belt, and usually topped with red hot oil pepper. The Chinese character for Biang is one of the most complex Chinese characters in modern usage, and is made up of 58 strokes in its traditional form. Even today, the character is not included in Unicode.

China-Europe Railway Express in Xian. (Peoples Daily Online/Yuan Meng)

Once a significant centre on the ancient Silk Road, Xian retains its international commerce hub status today, now serving as the most important transportation hub of the China-Europe Railway Express in Northwest China. 1,667 Changan freight trains departed from Xian to Europe and Central Asia in the first half of 2020, carrying 1.3 million tons of merchandise, increasing two and 1.9 times year on year respectively. The advanced train network connects Xian with 14 nations, making it Chinas new commercial hub.

Performer in Tang Dynasty costume. (Peoples Daily Online/Yuan Meng)

It is rare to find a city with thousands of years of history coexist with modern life and advanced technologies. Countless recreation parks and cultural centres have been built in the past few decades, and through using advanced technologies, people can now enjoy the ancient capitals former glories, as well as the hustle and bustle of a modern city. In the city centre, a business street featuring ancient architecture and art, as well as traditional cuisine, has sparked an online frenzy.

Film museum of China Western Film Group. (Peoples Daily Online/Kou Jie)

Xian is a prestigious cultural centre in China. One of the four major national film production companies in the country, China Western Film Group, established in 1958, has produced over 300 movies and documentaries, and more than 180 TV series. The companys works have won accolades at multiple international movie festivals, winning more than 70 international awards such as the Golden Bear, with 76 of its movies being introduced to audiences in 36 nations and regions. From Xian, Chinas stories have entered the international arena.

Tang figurines designed by local artists. (Peoples Daily Online/Yuan Meng)

Xian is also a city brimming with creativity and imagination. Thanks to its long history and cultural diversity, it has now become a rising star in the cultural industry. Creative design, games, anime, as well as e-sports have become the new economic pillars of the city. According to a plan recently launched by the municipal government of Xian, the city will invest 13.7 billion yuan (about 1.97 billion U.S. dollars) in 23 cultural tourism programs in 2020.
Nairobi  Hair extensions manufacturer Darling Kenya has launched a new program aimed at supporting Kenya's Sh25 billion hair industry meet the newly published guidelines for business operations.

Last month the Ministry of Industrialization, Trade and Enterprise Development issued a myriad of guidelines for business operations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The hair and beauty industry in Kenya has been negatively impacted by the pandemic. Kenya has over 50,000 salons whose operations have faced a slowdown or closure due to fears of transmission of the virus. Salon professionals work in proximity with their clients thereby fueling the fears during the initial stages of the pandemic.

As an industry-first initiative by any professional beauty brand, the "#SalonTukoSet" program by Darling Kenya will have three pillars - free distribution of hygiene kits and sanitizers; education on safety and hygiene for salon infrastructure and services; and back-to-business support.

Godrej Kenya CEO Rohit Vengurlekar said that the company will provide salon owners with the necessary guidance, resources and updates to ensure safety and well-being of their staff and customers, as per the government protocols.

"Since March, the beauty and personal care industry in particular the salon industry has been greatly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the partial reopening of the economy, we at Darling are committed at empowering and uplifting the salon industry by ensuring they are business-ready with necessary protocols in place. With "#SalonTukoSet" program, we want to ensure that salons experience a smooth transition into the next phase of their business with a greater emphasis on hygiene, which is going to be the new normal, and make this migration easier for them," said Rohit Vengurlekar.

Under the program, Darling Kenya will be donating 100,000 re-usable masks, 20,000 litres of disinfectants, 10,000 litres of liquid hand wash and 3,000 face shields for the well-being of the stylists, all contained in a salon hygiene kit.

In addition, Darling Kenya has partnered with Rentokil Kenya to undertake weekly disinfection of Top hair markets synonymous with hair braiders including Kenyatta, Umoja, Kariobangi, Kahawa West and Ngara Markets.

The #SalonTukoSet program has been made possible through Godrej Kenya and its employee's joint contribution to empower and support hairdressers.

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"To further empower the salons, we have developed appointment scheduling tools that allow stylists to adhere to the new way of doing business post COVID-19. This will ensure they observe the safety and health measures around the salon including the clientele while safeguarding their source of income," said Rohit Vengurlekar.

The guidelines issued are largely anchored on the Ministry of Health and World Health Organization directives and are meant to allow businesses to reopen, while strictly observing social distancing and other containment measures of the disease.

Due to the salon professionals in proximity with their clients, COVID-19 has heavily impacted the salon industry with it leading to a complete halt of operations in some cases.

It is estimated that the industry lost 20 percent - 30 In March 2020, the Kenyan government through the National Treasury announced that it would spend Sh53.7 billion on a stimulus package to support businesses that have been affected by COVID-19.
In 1988, a group of South Fork naturalists formed a membership organization called the South Fork Natural History Society, better known as SOFO. The objective of this organization was to increase public awareness about the past, present, and future of eastern Long Islands natural history and to share their joyful experiences of exploring and learning with others in the community. SOFO used to operate out of a small building referred to as the Nature Clubhouse where children gathered to examine different species, research for school projects, and just hang out. The Clubhouse served as a prototype...
Dowless and some of his workers, meanwhile, have been indicted on election-related charges in state court for activities in the 2016 and 2018 elections. These cases are pending. Dowless also was indicted in April on federal charges of fraudulently receiving Social Security benefits while getting paid for political work.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 22:29:02|Editor: huaxia

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HONG KONG, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The so-called "Hong Kong Autonomy Act" signed into law in the United States to interfere in Hong Kong affairs, China's internal affairs, has drawn strong opposition and condemnation from various sectors in Hong Kong.

Lo Man-tuen, executive director of Hong Kong Association for Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China, said the U.S. action blatantly interfered in China's internal affairs and seriously violated international laws and basic norms of international relations.

Hong Kong lawmaker Regina Ip said the United States deliberately distorted Hong Kong's constitutional status and the central government and the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will carry out countermeasures.

Sze Wing-wai, a permanent honorary president of the Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong, said the United States' revoking of Hong Kong's special trade treatment will not have any tangible impact on Hong Kong's business environment and will only damage the bilateral trade relationship.

Hong Kong's exports to the United States are limited but the United States reaped in an enormous trade surplus in Hong Kong, Sze said.

Ma Ho-man, executive chairman of the Hong Kong Culture Association, said Hong Kong's status and competitiveness comes from its unique advantages and the huge mainland market and is not granted by the United States. The U.S. sanctions will not harm Hong Kong's long-term development.

Tang Fei with the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies said the United States has passed a series of bills to intensify its interference in Hong Kong affairs, China's internal affairs, and intends to turn Hong Kong into a battlefield to contain China's development.

The United States has no right to interfere in the legislation by Chinese central authorities to close the legal loophole in Hong Kong, an inalienable part of China, Chan Man-ki, founding president of the Small and Medium Law Firms Association of Hong Kong, said.

As Hong Kong was plunged into chaos during social unrest and people's lives were seriously disrupted, the national security law meets the common aspiration of Hong Kong residents and is conducive to restoring stability, maintaining a sound business environment and ensuring the continued success of "one country, two systems," Ng Chau-pei, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, said.

Cheung Kwok-kwan, vice chairman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, said the social unrest has been abating and the financial market has continued robust development since the national security law took effect, which proves that the law will only do good to Hong Kong. Enditem
The implementation of the New Decade, New Approach agreement can only succeed with a sea change in working cultures at what is currently a "fragile" Stormont, a Northern Ireland Affairs Committee report has said.

Recent events, such as the political fallout over the funeral of Bobby Storey, have also exposed how at risk the Executive is at being "blown off course", it warned.

The report, published today, also concluded that it is imperative for all parties to "focus on the needs" of the people of Northern Ireland, as well as challenging the Government to set out a long-term plan to mitigate the negative economic impact of the pandemic here.

The deal was set to lead to a transformation in public services and infrastructure improvements, but the 2bn funding package earmarked to meet the commitments of the agreement is widely regarded to fall short of what is needed.

Simon Hoare MP, chair of the NI Affairs Committee, said the agreement should "bring people together to deliver" in order to restore public faith in the Executive.

"Recent events have exposed the fragility of the Executive by showing that it doesn't take a scandal of the magnitude of RHI to blow devolution off course," he said.

"The repercussions of Covid-19 notwithstanding, meeting the commitments enshrined in New Decade, New Approach is the only way to restore trust in the devolution settlement and its ability to deliver for the people of Northern Ireland, who have been ill-served by stagnating public service provision for too long.

"All parties, the Executive, UK Government and Irish Government must work constructively to meet their commitments to forge a better future for Northern Ireland and to nurture healthy devolved governance.

"The UK Government must provide a realistic and long-term financial plan that recognises the challenges imposed by coronavirus."

Mr Hoare stressed, however, that "no amount of money" can make the agreement work without the implementation of a "more productive working culture" at Stormont. "To restore trust, the implementation of New Decade, New Approach will require regular monitoring and review," he added.

The report also insisted that the stability of power-sharing rests on all parties' commitment to "working within the spirit and the letter of the rules" to maintain the devolved institutions.

Meanwhile, it recommends that the Independent Fiscal Council, which is due to be established this summer to oversee the Executive's revenue streams, should operate completely independently, as well as being adequately resourced.

The committee is now urging all parties to focus on the needs of the people of Northern Ireland, who it says, have been "ill-served" by the Executive's collapse.

"There should be no excuses for failure. We cannot sleepwalk into another Executive collapse, because the people of Northern Ireland deserve more," added Mr Hoare.
Manipulating Hong Kong LegCo election won't be allowed: spokesperson

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 08:28, July 15, 2020

BEIJING, July 14 (Xinhua) -- A spokesperson for the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council said Tuesday that it will never allow any illegal manipulation in the Legislative Council (LegCo) election in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).

The spokesperson condemned the so-called "primaries" recently organized by the opposition camp in Hong Kong, saying that such acts have constituted illegal manipulation of the LegCo election and posed a blatant challenge to the HKSAR Basic Law and the national security law for the HKSAR.

The spokesperson expressed resolute support for punishing such illegal acts in accordance with the law.

Hong Kong is scheduled to hold a general election for the seventh-term LegCo in September.

The so-called "primaries" sought to hijack public opinion under the pretext of a "referendum," said the spokesperson, noting that they posed a grave threat to the constitutional order of the HKSAR and harmed the democratic electoral system in Hong Kong.

The so-called "primaries" and "referendum" are not stipulated in the Basic Law or any existing law on an election in Hong Kong, rendering such acts organized by any group or individual illegal, the spokesperson said.

Also, the so-called "primaries" have severely disturbed the election order and may have violated the national security law for the HKSAR, the spokesperson added.

The HKSAR government has received a large number of complaints regarding the so-called "primaries," said the spokesperson, stressing the need for serious investigation and severe punishment in accordance with the law.

The so-called "primaries" are an extension of the turbulence that has lasted more than a year following the proposed ordinance amendments in Hong Kong, the spokesperson said.

Benny Tai Yiu-ting, the major plotter and organizer of the so-called "primaries," was also a key mastermind behind the 2014 illegal "Occupy Central" movement, an advocate of both "Hong Kong independence" and the terrorist suicidal tactic of "burn with us," and a political proxy of foreign and external forces in Hong Kong, the spokesperson said.

Tai and other like-minded people are among the culprits of the chaos which has jeopardized Hong Kong and the wellbeing of its residents, the spokesperson added.

They used "safeguarding Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy" as a disguise to create chaos, attempting to turn Hong Kong into a base for waging a "color revolution" against the country and conducting infiltration and subversive activities, the spokesperson said.

With the national security law for the HKSAR in place, Hong Kong is embracing a turnaround to end the chaos, restore order and bring itself back to the right track, said the spokesperson.

"We sincerely hope that people in Hong Kong can tell right from wrong and resolutely say 'no' to any acts challenging the bottom line of 'one country, two systems' or undermining prosperity and stability in Hong Kong," the spokesperson said.

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Chile welcomes a new baby rhino

into the Buin Zoo family

Location: Santiago

Atanasio is the first

white rhinoceros calf

born in Latin America during lockdown

The 165-pound baby rhino

named after a Catholic saint

arrived on July 5

(SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ZOO DIRECTOR, IGNACIO IDALSOAGA, SAYING:"Up to now there have only been 17 rhino births. We have the privilege of being the only zoo in South America that reproduces rhinos. There are only four rhinos born in captivity in the United States and nine in Europe. It is very difficult to reproduce this kind of species. That is why we are so happy, to be able to contribute to a species which has been decimated in its natural habitat."

The successful birth came at a difficult time

as the zoo struggles with a four-month closure
Iran has announced its intention to provide equipment to Syrias air defences, for the fight against terrorism reports Al-Masdar.

On Tuesday, the Iranian government announced, Tehrans readiness to equip the Syrian air defenses with Iranian equipment, saying that it held talks in this regard, and it will be considered the first decision after signing the latest agreement between the two countries.

The threat of terrorism in Syria is not over yet and it was confirmed during the visit to Damascus by the chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, that Iran is ready to take the decision to strengthen the Syrian air defense system, the Iranian government spokesperson, Ali Rabei, said on Tuesday, according to the ISNA agency.

He stressed that the possibility of the return of terrorism to the region was a major reason for signing a comprehensive agreement for military cooperation with Syria, saying, The war on terrorism has not yet reached its end, and it is possible that terrorism will return to the region because of the support of some countries to this, and for these reasons the military cooperation agreement was signed between Damascus and Tehran.

The Syrian Minister of Defense, Ali Abdullah Ayoub, sign an agreement last week with the Iranian Army Chief of Staff, Mohammad Bagheri, for military cooperation between the two countries.

The agreement provided for, strengthening military and security cooperation in the areas of the armed forces work and continuing coordination, and dealt with the situation in Syria and the necessity of the withdrawal of foreign forces that entered illegally.

This article was 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.
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Linkedin Adrian Wail Akhlas (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 17 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has wiped out around Rp 85 trillion (US$5.87 billion) of Indonesias tourism revenue so far this year, forcing business associations to call on the government to provide a greater stimulus for the virus-battered industry.

The hotel and restaurant industry has lost nearly Rp 70 trillion in revenue as leisure travel has come to a complete halt, while aviation and tour operators have lost Rp 15 trillion in revenue, according to data from the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI).

More than 95 percent of workers in the tourist sector are being furloughed without pay, PHRI chairman Hariyadi Sukamdani told lawmakers during a hearing on Tuesday, adding that 2,000 hotels and 8,000 restaurants closed during the first three months of the outbreak, which started in March in Indonesia.

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Developer Immocap finally unveils plans for a brand new cultural and social centre.

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The existing Istropolis culture and congress centre in Bratislava will be pulled down and replaced by a brand new one. After 2.5-years of preparations, the developer Immocap unveiled its plans for one of the most anticipated developments in Bratislava on July 17.

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Our intention is to turn the now dead and dysfunctional zone at Trnavske Myto into a vital district full of culture, greenery and public spaces, said Martin Sramko, CEO of the development company Immocap during the presentation of their vision of the new cultural and social centre Novy Istropolis on July 16.

The visualisations of the design for the new development show that the architects have incorporated elements of the old Istropolis such as the form of the main facade and the wavy ceiling from the congress hall, as well as some its pieces, for example the flag poles and lamp posts and the fountain, in order that the new venue will still bear traces of the old one.
The Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, says the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) has not been told to close down any of its channels.

According to him, the state broadcaster has been informed by only one of its transmission platforms that it is being allocated only three slots to host its channels.

The Minister in an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show said the decision by the managers of the platform to allocate GBC three slots does not amount to an order to shut down channels especially since GBC still has other platforms it is transmitting all of its six channels on.

I as sector minister have not asked them to shut down any channel. Nobody has asked them to shut down any channel. GBC is currently operating their six channels on their T1 platform and if they decide to add four or five more channels, they can do that.

Currently, GBC is said to be operating the DSTV, GBC T1 and DTT transmission platforms.

TV users who have access to DSTV, GBC T1 and digital television platforms are able to watch all of GBCs six channels on either platform.

According to the Information Minister, the managers of DTT want to reduce redundancy hence its engagement with GBC to come forward and let them know the three of its six channels it would want to maintain the DTT platform.

But Mr. Oppong Nkrumah said the issue as being captured within the media totally misrepresents the conversation that the Communications Ministry, the transmission platform and GBC have had.

Recently, DSTV did an exercise to rationalize some of the Ghanaian channels on the platform. It is a contractual matter between DSTV and the media organization that have their channels on their platform. My understanding is that DTT is doing the same. It has not instructed anybody to shut down their channel.

The Minister said he is disappointed that the Corporation did not engage him as the minister in charge to resolve the issue.

They have not even come to me for a discussion that there are job losses or anything of that nature.

Get around the table and stop this attempt to whip up unions and public sentiments against something that the transmission platform has been engaging them on, she added.

---citinewsroom
Russian hackers are trying to steal COVID-19 vaccine research from the US through cyber attacks against medical organizations and universities, according to security officials.

The 16-page advisory prepared by the US National Security Agency and made public by Britain, the US and Canada accused APT29, also known as Cozy Bear and Dukes, of using custom malicious software to target a number of organizations globally.

Cozy Bear has been identified by Washington as one of two Russian government-linked hacking groups that broke into the Democratic National Committee computer network and stole emails ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

The other group is usually called Fancy Bear. The groups are said to specialize in exploiting known vulnerabilities in software and then rapidly 'weaponizing' them.

Russian hackers (file image) are trying to steal COVID-19 vaccine research from the US through cyber attacks against medical organizations and universities, according to security officials

Authorities did not reveal which pharmaceutical and academic institutions (file image) have been targeted by the hackers

'In recent attacks targeting COVID-19 vaccine research and development, the group conducted basic vulnerability scanning against specific external IP addresses owned by the organizations. The group then deployed public exploits against the vulnerable services identified,' the advisory said.

The malware, called WellMess and WellMail, has not previously been associated with the hacking group, the advisory said.

According to security officials, the hacking group has engaged in an ongoing campaign of 'malicious activity'.

Security chiefs believe the group is 'almost certainly' operating as part of Russian Intelligence Services, with officials confident the Kremlin has given the green light for the activity.

The three nations believe the purpose of the Russian attacks is to steal intellectual property so that Moscow can develop a coronavirus vaccine first or at least at the same time as the US, UK and Canada.

Authorities did not reveal which pharmaceutical and academic institutions have been targeted by the hackers.

But the University of Oxford, which is one of the global leaders in research for a potential vaccine for COVID-19, has previously confirmed it was taking advice from security experts on the issue of cyber attacks linked to coronavirus data.

Anne Neuberger (pictured), the National Security Agency's cybersecurity director, said: 'APT29 has a long history of targeting governmental, diplomatic, think-tank, health care and energy organizations for intelligence gain'

It was unclear whether any information actually was stolen but the center says individuals' confidential information is not believed to have been compromised.

Anne Neuberger, the National Security Agency's cybersecurity director, said: 'The National Security Agency (NSA), along with our partners, remains steadfast in its commitment to protecting national security by collectively issuing this critical cybersecurity advisory as foreign actors continue to take advantage of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

'APT29 has a long history of targeting governmental, diplomatic, think-tank, health care and energy organizations for intelligence gain so we encourage everyone to take this threat seriously and apply the mitigations issued in the advisory.'

The US Department of Homeland Security's cybersecurity agency warned in April that cybercriminals and other groups were targeting COVID-19 research, noting at the time that the increase in people teleworking because of the pandemic had created potential avenues for hackers to exploit.

Vulnerable targets include health care agencies, pharmaceutical companies, academia, medical research organizations, and local governments, security officials have said.

The statement did not say whether Russian President Vladimir Putin knew about the vaccine research hacking, but British officials believe such intelligence would be highly prized. Russian President Vladimir Putin is pictured in Moscow on July 16

The statement did not say whether Russian President Vladimir Putin knew about the vaccine research hacking, but British officials believe such intelligence would be highly prized.

'It is completely unacceptable that the Russian Intelligence Services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic,' Britain's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement.

'While others pursue their selfish interests with reckless behavior, the UK and its allies are getting on with the hard work of finding a vaccine and protecting global health.'

The Russian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

US authorities have for months leveled similar accusations against China.

FBI Director Chris Wray said last week: 'At this very moment, China is working to compromise American health care organizations, pharmaceutical companies, and academic institutions conducting essential COVID-19 research.'
Chinese state media has blasted Australia and accused it of spreading 'fake information' about COVID-19 and denied the virus originated in Wuhan's wet markets.

The Chinese Communist Party-run Xinhua News Agency published a list of 11 'fabricated lies' it claims Australian media and politicians have disseminated about the authoritarian state.

Human rights watchers say Beijing's propaganda machine has been desperately trying to 'rewrite history' after initially trying to cover up the deadly outbreak.

A meat vendor wearing a face mask waits for a customer at a market in Wuhan, on April 2, 2020

Chinese state media has blasted Australia for spreading 'fake information' about COVID-19 and denied the coronavirus outbreak began in Wuhan's wet market. Pictured: Residents in Beijing wear facemasks in the bustling Chinese capital

'Some Australian politicians and media outlets have been fabricating lies on COVID-19 of one kind or another,' the Xinhua article claims.

'They have played a trick of a thief crying "stop thief" to blame China for spreading fake information.

'China is a victim of disinformation, not a disseminator.'

Diplomatic relations between Australia and China have deteriorated significantly during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison angered Beijing back in April when he called for an independent international inquiry into the origins of COVID-19.

China is accused of silencing doctors and media who tried to raise the alarm when the first wave of cases presented to Wuhan hospitals in November 2019.

Li Wenliang, a doctor who tried to warn of 'a new SARS' virus in early December, was arrested by Chinese authorities and forced to sign a confession admitting to 'spreading false rumours'.

He later died of coronavirus in February. But due to public anger inside China, an investigation officially exonerated the 33-year-old.

Li Wenliang is pictured at the Central Hospital of Wuhan in China's Hubei Province hooked up to a respirator suffering from COVID-19

Chinese residents gather to pay their respects to Li Wenliang who is now seen a hero in China after public anger on social media led to his exoneration

'As the crisis of COVID-19 has shifted from being a China problem to a global one, Chinese authorities have switched gears. From the early days of a defensive cover-up and censorship, they have surged into an all-out propaganda offensive,' China expert Natasha Kassam wrote in a paper for the Lowy Institute.

'The message lauds the strength and resolve of China's party-state and deflects scrutiny of the systemic failures and cruel incompetence of the Chinese Communist Party's initial response to COVID-19.

'The propaganda machine in China is known for its ability to rewrite history within the country, through a combination of censorship and repression, and the ensuing days and weeks have seen this success replicated overseas.'

The notion of a transparent investigation into the response of Chinese officials in the early stages of the outbreak was dismissed by the communist party and resulted in a backlash against Australia.

Diplomatic relations between Australia and China have deteriorated significantly during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Pictured: Xi Jinping (left) and Scott Morrison (right)

Chinese state media claims these 11 'fabricated lies' by Australia need a 'reality check' 1. COVID-19 virus originated in China 2. COVID-19 may arise from the wet markets in Chinas central city of Wuhan 3. China did not suspend outbound international flights from Wuhan when the city was put under lockdown, thus causing the spread of the virus to the world 4. Australian media claimed to have secret information that COVID-19 originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology 5. The draft resolution of the World Health Assembly (WHA) is the result of Australia's promotion 6. Chinese companies have snapped up medical protection materials in Australia 7. The Chinese eat bats 8. China has been "infiltrating" Australia to exert its influence 9. Wang Liqiang who absconded to Australia was not a 'Chinese spy' 10. One million Uygurs are in Chinese custody 11. China launched cyber-attacks against Australia Advertisement

Shortly after, Chinese Ambassador Cheng Jingye warned that Chinese consumers might boycott Australian goods like beef and wine if Mr Morrison continued his 'dangerous' rhetoric.

China retaliated in May by introducing an 80.5 percent tariff on Australian barley imports which total about $1.5billion per year.

A further blow came that month when China blacklisted three of Australia's largest beef producers.

Then China's Education Bureau cautioned students not to travel to Australia due to 'racist incidents'.

The bitter diplomatic row reached new heights last month when Mr Morrison announced Australia was under cyber attack from a malicious 'state-actor' targeting banks, transport networks, electricity grids and various other government agencies.

Security experts have pointed the finger squarely at Beijing, with former officials claiming the cyber invasion is payback for Australia's decision to ban Huawei from the national 5G network in 2018.

Australia recently announced it would set aside $270billion for defence spending over the next ten years citing 'strategic competition' in the Asia Pacific as the main reason for the military cash splash.

More than half of $270billion will be spent on improving Australia's air and maritime forces, including buying new AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles from the US (pictured)

Chinese troops marching during a military parade in Tiananmen Square in Beijing to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China

Australian troops Private Samantha Dickins and Private Maddison Hamilton are pictured

Just weeks ago China's new national security laws brought in to crack down on pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong led to the Australian government opening the door for those who want to flee the besieged former British colony.

China responded by slamming Australia for 'interfering' in the country's internal affairs.

Of the 11 allegations levelled against China, seven are related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The article also denies China has been 'infiltrating' Australia to exert its influence.

It claims Wang Liqiang who absconded to Australia was not a Chinese spy.

It refutes accusations that there are one million Uygur muslims detained in Xinjiang Province, despite a mountain of evidence presented to the United Nations by human rights group Amnesty International.

China also denies it was responsible for the unprecedented cyber attack carried out against Australia.
Vote by mail has been gaining popularity across the US in recent years, and calls for its nationwide adoption ahead of the 2020 US election have increased due to the dangers posed by coronavirus.

Some states have allowed general mail-in voting for years. Washington has allowed it since 2005. Most allow a form of mail-in voting called absentee voting, which was implemented in the 19th century to allow soldiers fighting in the US Civil War to cast a vote from wherever the conflict took them.

Today, every state allows some form of mail-in voting. Some place restrictions on absentee voting, like requiring an excuse or medical reason for why an individual cannot physically go to the polls.

How does it work?

Its important to know that states are continually making adjustments to their voting procedures as election day gets closer due to the pandemic. As a result, one of the most important things voters can do is keep informed of their states elections rules by reading their local newspapers or watching their local news broadcasts.

In addition, voters can always reach out to their countys board of elections or equivalent agency to request the latest information regarding voting in their state.

In most states, voting by mail requires a citizen to first ensure they are registered to vote. Learn how to do so here.

Once you have registered, then you can request an absentee ballot.

The specific rules for your states absentee voting is available through your states election office.

Some states send out absentee ballots automatically, and voters can choose whether or not to use them. Other states require voters to go onto their state election offices website and request a ballot. The US government recommends the US Vote Foundation for voters looking for assistance in filling out their absentee ballot.

It is important to remember that every state has its own deadline for when you can request an absentee ballot, which will be listed on its elections office website. Deadlines differ, but many states require that absentee ballots are received at least five days prior to the election, though some are earlier.

Generally when requesting an absentee ballot, voters request which party they would like a ballot for. Once they have received the ballot, they can make their selections and mail the ballot back to the state. Every voter  especially those voting by mail for the first time  should read the instructions carefully and double check their ballot before sending it back. Make sure you have the correct postage on your envelope. The USPS will actually still deliver your ballot if the postage is incorrect, but the agency urges voters not to abuse that kindness.

Is voting by mail safe?

In terms of physical safety for yourself and others, voting by mail is probably the best way to limit spreading or exposing others to coronavirus come election day.

Donald Trump has made it clear he opposes mail in voting, claiming it will lead to increased voter fraud. However, while it may provide an opportunity for fraud, experts say the incidence of stolen ballots is so low as to be statistically insignificant. Voter fraud is rare in the US, they say.

Recommended Barr claims without evidence that voting by mail will lead to fraud

Mr Trump believes that voters should have to provide an excuse for why they need mail-in ballots. He has not provided any evidence to suggest that implementing the requirements would decrease potential fraud.

Amber Reynolds, the chief executive of the National Vote at Home Institute and a former Colorado election official, and Charles Stewart, director of the MIT Election Data and Science Lab, spoke with NPR about the risks of mail in voting as compared to in-person voting.

Expanding voting by mail will be a challenge in most states in 2020. But we reiterate: there is no evidence that mail-balloting results in rampant voter fraud, nor that election officials lack the knowledge about how to protect against abuse, they said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 16:56:05|Editor: huaxia

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NEW YORK, July 16 (Xinhua) -- American Airlines will issue notices to 25,000 employees that they face potential furloughs on Oct. 1, top two executives said in a memo to employees Wednesday.

The federal bailout for the airline industry, which will be lifted on Oct. 1, prohibited layoffs, involuntary furloughs or pay cuts for employees.

The furloughs will include around 10,000 flight attendants and 2,500 pilots.

"We hope to reduce the actual number of furloughs significantly through enhanced leave and early-out programs for represented workgroups, which we are announcing today," the memo said. Enditem
Egyptian president said he could arm Libyan tribes against the internationally recognised GNA.

Libya has condemned the Egyptian president for recent comments suggesting Cairo will not stand idle against threats to national security and could arm Libyan tribes against the internationally recognised government in Tripoli.

During a meeting in Cairo with tribal leaders from the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on Thursday, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said Egypt will not stand idle in the face of any moves that pose a direct threat to the national security not only of Egypt but also that of Libya and the region, according to a presidency statement.

In response, the Government of National Accords (GNA) Foreign Ministry spokesperson criticised the statement as blatant interference in Libyan internal affairs.

El-Sisis talk is a repeat of his previous statements, which is a blatant interference in Libyan affairs, Mohammed al-Qablawi told Al Jazeera, adding that el-Sisis speech was not aimed at peace, as he said, but it is he who is fueling the [Libyan] conflict.

The Egyptian presidents comments came days after the eastern-based Libyan parliament, aligned with renegade commander Khalifa Haftar, gave in-principle support to a threatened Egyptian military intervention in the country.

In June, el-Sisi suggested that Cairo could launch external military missions into Libya, saying any direct intervention in Libya has already become legitimate internationally.

He threatened to send in his army if GNA forces captured Sirte, located more than 800km (500 miles) from the Egyptian border.





The GNA, which has been pushing to take the strategic city from Haftar, denounced Sisis statements as a declaration of war.

Libya, a major oil producer, has been mired in chaos since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

Since 2014, it has been split between rival factions based in Tripoli and in the east, in a sometimes-chaotic war that has drawn in outside powers and a flood of foreign arms and mercenaries.

Haftar is supported by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia, while the GNA is backed by Turkey.

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Haftars eastern-based self-styled Libyan National Army has been on the back foot after Turkish support helped the GNA turn back his 14-month assault on the capital, Tripoli.

In June, Cairo proposed a peace initiative calling for a ceasefire, withdrawal of mercenaries and disbanding militias in the neighbouring country.

The GNA and Ankara dismissed the plan, which el-Sisi unveiled with Haftar at his side.

Earlier this month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned the United Nations Security Council that the conflict in Libya has entered a new phase with foreign interference reaching unprecedented levels.
A federal judge dismissed lawsuits by Grand Princess cruise ship passengers who sued for emotional distress caused by their fear of exposure to COVID-19, saying that allowing their cases to proceed would lead to a flood of trivial suits.

Judge Gary Klausner in Los Angeles said in Tuesdays ruling that allowing passengers to collect damages based on potential COVID-19 exposure without suffering symptoms raised concerns of unlimited liability for restaurants and other businesses.

Debi Chalik, a lawyer for passengers Ronald and Eva Weissberger, said she was disappointed with the ruling and might appeal.

Chalik said fears of COVID-19 lawsuits were overblown because few businesses welcome customers the way Princess did, knowing the virus was potentially present.

If a gym or restaurant is inviting people to come when they know the virus is circulating there, I think you should be able to sue, she said.

Grand Princess operator Carnival Corp. welcomed the decision, which it said was consistent with established precedent.

The cruise industry has been hard hit by the pandemic and Carnival said last week it was planning to resume operations.

In March, officials prevented the Grand Princess from docking in California for days after a coronavirus outbreak before taken the 2,400 passengers into quarantine.

The Weissbergers alleged the cruise line allowed them to board the ship even though passengers who disembarked the same day from a prior cruise had symptoms of COVID-19.

The couple sought more than $1 million for putting their health at risk and causing trauma.

Businesses have asked Congress for protections against lawsuits for allegedly exposing customers to coronavirus, but Christopher Robinette, a professor at Widener University Commonwealth Law School, said this case was a long shot.

Its one of the I was afraid of catching cases. Those are extremely hard to win, he said.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Richard Chang)

Top Photo: In this March 15, 2020, file photo, the Grand Princess cruise ship is shown docked at the Port of Oakland in Oakland, Calif. Nearly 650 crew members of the Grand Princess have completed their 14-day quarantine, ending a month-long period of self-isolation that began when the cruise ship was struck with the coronavirus. The cruise line said the crew members can finally leave their staterooms Saturday, April 4, and roam around the ship as long as they wear personal protective equipment and stay at least six feet from each other. The ship will leave San Francisco Bay and sail out to sea for several days of routine marine operations. Two passengers and a crew member on board the ship have died from COVID-19, while at least 103 have tested positive for the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

Topics Lawsuits COVID-19 Legislation Claims
Irans Foreign Ministry spokesman has reiterated Tehrans readiness to mediate between Azerbaijan and Armenia 'in the wake of deadly border clashes between the two countries,' Tasnim reported.

As soon as clashes erupted between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Irans diplomatic apparatus got active to mediate and soothe this tension as the region cannot afford another conflict, Seyed Abbas Mousavi told reporters on Thursday.

He urged both sides to show restraint and voiced Irans readiness to help bring an end to tensions between the countries.
INDIANAPOLIS  Protesters marched through downtown Indianapolis Wednesday night, again demanding accountability in the fatal officer-involved shooting deaths of two Black men in early May.

The demonstrators, led by Indy10 Black Lives Matter and other groups, demanded that authorities release the autopsy results of 21-year-old Dreasjon Reed and 19-year-old McHale Rose, shot on May 6 and May 7 respectively by officers from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.

Protesters also reiterated their call for charges to be filed against the officers who shot the men.

Indy10 Black Lives Matter member Erika Haskins said refusing to release the autopsies exasperates the families pain and raises more suspicion about police conduct.

They still havent seen the autopsies, no officers have been criminally charged and the chief has not even recommended discipline for any of them, Haskins said.

Zion Smith, 21, also of BLM, said police think that keeping the autopsy secret was keeping more heat from coming on them but its going to create more."

Reed's shooting came at the culmination of a now-viral Facebook Live video in which the 21-year-old recorded himself driving while being pursued by IMPD. Reed abandoned his car and then was chased on foot by an officer.

Protesters marched from the City County Building on Market Street to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department the Downtown District on West Jackson Place calling for justice for Dreasjon Reed and McHale Rose in downtown Indianapolis, Wednesday, July 15, 2020.

Police say the officer first tried to use a stun gun, but it was ineffective, and a confrontation involving the exchange of gunfire between the officer and Reed followed. Reed was fatally shot. No officers were injured.

While police said they recovered a loaded gun near Reed that had been fired at least once, Reed family attorneys denied he pointed or fired a gun.

Reed's mother has since filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Indianapolis and the IMPD for their role in his death. In addition, Marion Superior Court Judge Heather Welch appointed Rosemary Khoury as the special prosecutor in the investigation into Reeds death.

Khoury, in turn, announced that she had requested the criminal investigation be reassigned from IMPD to Indiana State Police.

Story continues

Hours after Reed was shot, IMPD officers were called to investigate a burglary in progress, according to IMPD officials.

When four police officers arrived at the scene, police said, they were shot at by a man standing outside the apartment with a rifle.

Police returned fire and struck the suspect, who was later identified by the Marion County Coroners Office as McHale Rose. No officers were injured.

A summary of the incident from IMPD states officers may have been lured "into an ambush-style attack."

Roses aunt, Tomi Rose, who attended the march and promised to attend several more, said the drawn out investigation is painful.

Every time we tell his story to one person or to a thousand it rips our hearts open, Rose said. We are going to be out here on the streets everyday until we get the justice we need. We are going to keep screaming McHale Roses name until we get the truth, until they give us all the information.

Roses cousin, Kyisha Exford, said the family isnt claiming he was blameless.

We are not saying he was innocent, Im just saying it was overkill, Exford said. I feel like there were so many options. You could pepper spray him, you can send you dogs out.

He was going through some things.

She said she wants to see the autopsy to verify it matches up with the police account of the shooting.

Protesters marched from the City County Building on Market Street to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department the Downtown District on West Jackson Place calling for justice for Dreasjon Reed and McHale Rose in downtown Indianapolis, Wednesday, July 15, 2020.

The Marion County prosecutors office is investigating Roses killing and had no comment Wednesday.

The deaths of Reed and Rose sparked days of protest in Indianapolis both downtown and near the site of Reeds killing. When George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police on May 25, protests here grew as they did in scores of cities across the country.

George Floyd: Family sues city of Minneapolis, Derek Chauvin and 3 former officers

Wednesday, the 150 protesters gathered at the plaza at City Market, noted that their efforts were having an impact, and that they had more to do.

We got the officers' names released, Haskins said. We got the city to review their use of force policy and they are talking about reallocating funding for police to the community. But our work is not even close to done.

The father of McHale Rose, Myron Rose, middle, marches with McHale Rose aunt, Tommi Rose, left, in downtown Indianapolis, Wednesday, July 15, 2020. Protesters marched from the City County Building on Market Street to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department the Downtown District on West Jackson Place calling for justice for Dreasjon Reed and McHale Rose.

Follow the reporter on Twitter @John_Tuohy.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis police shootings: Protests for Dreasjon Reed, Mchale Rose
Obligatory gear on collective transport until now, masks will also become mandatory in shops and other indoor places frequented by the public, Prime Minister Jean Castex said in the Senate

France will make the wearing of face masks compulsory in indoor public spaces from next week, the government said Thursday, as officials noted signs of an uptick in the coronavirus outbreak.

Obligatory gear on collective transport until now, masks will also become mandatory in shops and other indoor places frequented by the public, Prime Minister Jean Castex said in the Senate.

Health Minister Olivier Veran earlier noted "weak signs of a resurgence" in the coronavirus epidemic that has claimed over 30,000 lives in France to date.

"We are witnessing in certain hospitals in Paris weak signs of an epidemic resurgence, which is why I urge the French to remain particularly vigilant, active, against the virus," he told public radio.

In the latest official data, released Wednesday, France had seen 133 new coronavirus patients hospitalised in 24 hours, and 17 new admissions to intensive care.

This was down from a high of 4,281 people hospitalised in one day in April.

Veran said an uptick in hospital admissions and telephone calls to emergency services were indicators, not yet worrying, that require "special attention" to the possibility of an epidemic upturn.

France has all but emerged from a weeks-long countrywide lockdown to contain the COVID-19 epidemic, which placed immense pressure on its hospital system.

While the stay-at-home orders helped flatten the infection curve, it caused what Castex described Thursday as "the most severe recession since the creation of the national accounts".

France's economic contraction for 2020 is predicted to be about 11 percent, he said.

While most businesses in France have reopened, some group activities remain restricted and the government has appealed to its citizens to behave responsibly to prevent a damaging second infection wave.

France, like many other countries, counselled against mask-wearing at the start of the epidemic, urging members of the public to reserve limited masks for healthcare workers.

The country has since embarked on a mass production campaign, and on Tuesday, President Emmanuel Macron said masks should become compulsory in public places with effect from August 1.

The announcement was widely welcomed even though some questioned the need for a two-week delay.

Castex said Thursday that an August 1 start date appeared "late" to many, and announced "the decree will enter into force next week."

Regarding mask-wearing in office buildings, the premier said employers will need to consider "an evolution of health protocols governing the activities concerned."

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India needs a holistic and conducive ecosystem to rebuild its active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing capabilities, as high dependence on a single source can be a cause of concern in emergency-like situations, PwC India said on Thursday.

Dependence on China for APIs has been an ongoing concern for the Indian pharma industry. Around 50 per cent of the critical APIs are being imported and almost all the imports are from China, a study by PwC India noted.

The Chinese API industry has an inherent advantage because of economies of scale and support from the Chinese government in the form of financial incentives, infrastructure and regulatory policies, it added.

High dependence on a single source can have a significant adverse impact in emergency-like situations, the study 'Reviving India's API industry' said.

A favourable financial and regulatory ecosystem and policies are likely to enable the API industry to ensure health security in India by making it self-reliant, it added.

The study recommended that to revive the API industry, in the immediate term there is a need for faster environment clearance, encouraging manufacturing of key APIs/intermediates and fermentation products by providing a fiscal stimulus, accommodative pricing policy under the Drug Price Control Order, 2013 and financial incentives.

For the long term, the government may look at the Chinese model and work on developing clusters for API and fermentation, along with looking at ways to encourage alternative sources, it added. There is also a need for the industryacademia initiatives to improve process technologies, the study recommended.

"High dependence on a single source can have a significant adverse impact in emergency situations like COVID-19. With recent changes in API's prices rising up to 100 per cent, it is time we revive our domestic API industry," PwC India Partner and Leader Health Industries Sujay Shetty said.

While some policy changes may take time, "we need to collectively evaluate and strategize for ways to encourage alternative sources," he added.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 16, 2020 10:55 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666ba02f 1 National DPR,omnibus-bill,labor-union,President-Jokowi Free

Six labor unions have maintained their pledge to join the government in the deliberation of the omnibus bill on job creation, which is expected to be completed in August.

In a joint statement issued on Wednesday, the labor unions; All-Indonesian Workers Confederation Union (KSPSI) led by Yoris Raweyai, Confederation of Indonesian Prosperity Trade Unions (KSBSI), KSarbumusi labor union, National Federation of Trade Unions (KSPN), the Federation of Farming and Plantation Workers (FSP Pertanian and Perkebunan) and the Federation of Timber and Forestry Workers Unions (FSP Kahutindo), said following a meeting with President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, and a subsequent meeting with the coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister, that the group was convinced labor unions could have their interests represented in the deliberation of the omnibus bill on job creation.

"With all the risks involved, we will be consistent in making our demands. We will continue fighting for this with street rallies, publications, political lobbying, negotiations, social dialogue and other efforts," the coalition said in a press statement.

The group will also join the technical tripartite team set up to deliberate the omnibus bill on job creation.

The tripartite team comprises representatives from the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), labor unions and the government.

The group also said that its participation in the deliberation of the omnibus bill on job creation could not be interpreted as its endorsement of the bill but might instead be seen as a channel through which labor unions could sound their objections to proposed provisions in the bill.

The group said the decision from two labor unions to walk away from the deliberation process should be seen as the result of team dynamics and that disagreements and differing opinions were commonplace in the labor union struggle.

The government expects the House of Representatives to finish deliberating the omnibus bill on job creation by late August or early September, Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto said on Tuesday.

The omnibus bill contains 15 chapters and 174 articles laid out in over 1,000 pages. It seeks to revise 79 prevailing laws and more than 1,200 articles considered to be hampering Indonesias efforts to attract investment.

President Joko Jokowi Widodo is pushing the omnibus bills deliberation with the aim of cutting red tape and spurring investment into the country, after failing to attract companies moving out of China in 2019 amid slowing investment growth.
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F-Secure Corporation, Half Year Financial Report, 16 July 2020 at 08.00 EEST

F-Secure Half Year Financial Report 1 January - 30 June 2020

Improved profitability in challenging market environment



Highlights of April-June (Q2)

Revenue remained at previous years level, and was EUR 53.0 million (54.1m)

Revenue from corporate security decreased by 6% to EUR 28.2 million (30.1m)

Revenue from consumer security increased by 3% to EUR 24.8 million (24.0m)

Adjusted EBITDA was EUR 10.2 million (4.8m), 19.3% of revenue (8.9%)

EBIT was EUR 6.0 million (3.3m), 11.4% of revenue (6.1%)

Earnings per share (EPS) was EUR 0.02 (EUR 0.02)

Cash flow from operating activities before financial items and taxes was EUR 11.4 million (6.9m)

F-Secure withdrew its financial outlook for 2020 in April due to COVID-19 related market uncertainties

Highlights of January-June (H1)

Revenue remained at previous years level, and was EUR 107.8 million (107.5m)

Revenue from corporate security remained at previous years level, and was EUR 58.7 million (59.5m)

Revenue from consumer security remained at previous years level, and was EUR 49.2 million (48.0m)

Adjusted EBITDA was EUR 17.4 million (9.8m), 16.2% of revenue (9.1%)

EBIT was 9.6 million (3.9m), 8.9% of revenue (3.6%)

Earnings per share (EPS) was EUR 0.03 (EUR 0.01)

Cash flow from operating activities before financial items and taxes was EUR 21.0 million (6.6m)

F-Secure withdrew its financial outlook for 2020 in April due to COVID-19 related market uncertainties

In 2020 there are no changes to accounting principles impacting comparability to the previous year.

Figures in this report are unaudited. Figures in brackets refer to the corresponding period in the previous year, unless otherwise stated.





CEO SAMU KONTTINEN





During the second quarter F-Secures revenue remained at the previous years level and reached EUR 53.0 million. The global pandemic influenced negatively growth in corporate security, especially the consulting business was severely hit by COVID-19, whereas consumer security showed its resilience and grew by 3% . In these challenging market conditions, we reached an EBITDA margin of 19%.

The company has been working remotely for the whole quarter and I am happy with how well we have managed to handle our operations in these extraordinary times and keep our customers protected 24/7. In Q2 the negative topline impact related to the pandemic was limited to our consulting business and slightly to our MDR business as well, while the latter continued to grow. F-Secures software product businesses for both corporate and consumer markets have only been impacted by the COVID-19 to a limited extent. I was pleased to see us prudently manage costs, along with the exceptionally low sales and marketing activity also helped us to achieve strong profitability. We expect business operations to start normalizing in the coming quarters which will bring costs back to pre-pandemic levels.

Managed Detection and Response (MDR) solutions continued to grow although at a slower pace due to the pandemic impacting new sales. In Q2, we won new customers in several European countries in the fields of engineering, finance, critical infrastructure, and in the public sector. The underlying demand for the managed detection and response solutions remains good, while we expect quarterly variation in new sales to continue.

The endpoint security business continued to grow slightly while orders grew faster than the revenue. The second quarter was characterized by good performance in new sales across several countries. Our cloud-native products in Endpoint Protection (EPP) and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) are increasingly sold as a bundle because customers value a unified management interface. Cloud Protection for Microsoft Office 365 was launched to address email security challenges, which are still the main initial attack vectors in breaches. This is a nice addition to our Cloud Protection for Salesforce solution, which is gaining traction in the market.

Cyber security consulting was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to a significant reduction in revenue from the previous year. We have countered the low utilization rates in impacted countries through means such as furloughs. The pandemic has often blocked access to customer sites and so put projects that require on-site work on hold. New client acquisition faced a significant slowdown as well. On the other hand, threat actors have not decreased their activity during the pandemic, which resulted in several Incident Response assignments. This is a prime example of how the demand for cyber security does not follow economic patterns. Towards the end of the quarter, our sales performance improved, but the pandemic still casts a shadow on the predictability of the business.

In consumer security, the resilient operator channel has mainly been unaffected by the market uncertainties. Direct sales continued to perform well with a solid quarter in ecommerce. I was pleased to see us win three new operator partners, out of which two are in the US and one in Europe. The sales of F-Secure ID PROTECTION progressed well as we secured multiple new operator deals during the quarter and the product was launched in our own e-store in June.

Despite the ongoing global pandemic, the long-term outlook of all F-Secures businesses remains to be attractive as the cyber security market fundaments have not changed.





Financial performance

EUR m 4-6/2020 4-6/2019 Change % 1-6/2020 1-6/2019 Change % 1-12/2019 Revenue 53.0 54.1 -2% 107.8 107.5 0% 217.3 Consumer security 24.8 24.0 3 % 49.2 48.0 2 % 94.8 Corporate security 28.2 30.1 -6% 58.7 59.5 -1% 122.5 Products 18.5 18.0 2% 37.0 35.8 3% 72.5 Consulting 9.7 12.1 -19% 21.6 23.7 -9% 50.0 Cost of revenue -11.6 -12.5 -8% -24.0 -25.1 -4% -50.5 Gross Margin 41.4 41.6 0% 83.8 82.4 2% 166.8 Other operating income 1) 0.8 0.5 55% 1.3 0.7 87% 1.5 Operating expenses 1) -31.9 -37.3 -15% -67.6 -73.3 -8% -145.1 Sales & Marketing -20.1 -26.5 -24% -43.8 -50.6 -13% -99.4 Research & Development -8.7 -7.8 11% -17.5 -16.5 6% -33.2 Administration -3.1 -3.0 4% -6.2 -6.2 0% -12.4 Adjusted EBITDA 2) 10.2 4.8 111% 17.4 9.8 78% 23.2 of revenue, % 19.3% 8.9% 16.2% 9.1% 10.7% Adjustment to operating income 9.1 9.1 12.5 Restructuring 0.4 -4.6 EBITDA 10.2 13.9 -27% 17.8 18.9 -5% 31.1 of revenue, % 19.3% 25.7% 16.6% 17.6% 14.3% Depreciation & amortization -3.3 -3.4 -2% -6.5 -6.7 -3% -13.6 Impairment -6.0 -6.0 PPA amortization -0.8 -1.1 -28% -1.7 -2.3 -26% -4.1 EBIT 6.0 3.3 85% 9.6 3.9 149% 7.2 of revenue, % 11.4% 6.1% 8.9% 3.6% 3.3% Adjusted EBIT 2) 6.9 1.4 402% 10.9 3.1 250% 9.6 of revenue, % 12.9% 2.5% 10.1% 2.9% 4.4% Earnings per share, (EUR) 3) 0.02 0.02 -10% 0.03 0.01 155% 0.02 Deferred revenue 72.3 71.0 2% 73.9 Cash flow from operations before financial items and taxes 11.4 6.9 64% 21.0 6.6 219% 19.0 Cash and financial assets at fair value through P&L 39.8 25.5 56% 25.5 ROI, % 22.5% 11.9% 89% 18.5% 7.7% 139% 7.8% Equity ratio, % 46.3% 44.3% 5% 49.0% Gearing, % 14.3% 30.0% -52% 20.8% Personnel, end of period 1,713 1,710 0% 1,696

Excluding Items Affecting Comparability (IAC) and depreciation and amortization Adjustments are material items outside normal course of business associated with acquisitions, integration, restructuring, gains or losses from sales of businesses and other items affecting comparability. Reconciliation and a breakdown of adjusted costs is in note 5 of the Table Section of this report. Based on the weighted average number of outstanding shares during the period 157,995,583 (1-6/2020).

Events after period-end

No material changes regarding the companys business or financial position have materialized after the end of the quarter.

Webcast

F-Secures CEO Samu Konttinen will present the results in a webcast for analysts and investors starting at 14.00 EEST. The webcast will be held in English and can be accessed at https://f-secure.videosync.fi/2020-07-16-q2-report. Questions are requested in written format in the webcast portal.

The presentation material and the webcast recording will be available on the companys website.

Additional information

This is a summary of F-Secures Half Year Report 2020. The full report is attached to this stock exchange release and it is also available on the company's website.

Financial calendar

During the year 2020, F-Secure Corporation will publish financial information as follows:

Interim report January-September 2020, October 29, 2020



Contact information

Eriikka Soderstrom, CFO, F-Secure

+358 40 6691844

Henri Kiili, Investor Relations and Treasury Director, F-Secure

+358 40 8405450

investor-relations@f-secure.com

Attachment
Texas Governor: No Plans for Statewide COVID-19 Shutdown

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced there will be no plans for another statewide shutdown as COVID-19 cases rise in the state, just days after he warned that another lockdown could be in the cards if people didnt wear masks.

The Republican governor told KPRC on Wednesday that officials are not working on closing down more businesses.

I get this question, it seems like, a thousand times a day. People are panicking thinking Im about to shut down Texas again. The answer is no, Abbott told the Houston-based station.

Authorities believe that the widespread usage of face coverings or masks should slow the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus and reduce the case numbers, he added.

If everyone can adopt the practice of wearing a face mask for the next four weeks, we will be able to get COVID-19 under control, Abbott said.

Earlier this month, the governor mandated that everyone wear masks while in a public setting. The state is still scrambling to contain the surge in cases as Texas recorded nearly 10,800 new cases along with 110 deaths Wednesday.

If we were to shut down for two weeks, as some people are asking, once we open back up you would then see things begin to spread again, Abbott said. Until there are medications to slow the spread of the coronavirus, there is only one thing that can slow the spread and that is by people adopting the use of wearing a face guard of some sort whenever they go out.

Later in the interview with the station, Abbott said that he wants to see children to get back in a classroom as quickly as possible, adding: Its good for them and good for their parents. He said that each school district should use their own discretion.

Under the mandate, mask order violators can be fined up to $250. There are exceptions for people who have a medical condition or disability, who are exercising outdoors, or who are participating in a religious service or voting.

Abbott also gave mayors and county authorities the ability to ban outdoor gatherings of more than 10 people.

Earlier in July, he said he doesnt want to roll back his previous orders to reopen the economy. But last week he moved to reclose bars and limit dine-in capacity in restaurants to 50 percent.

We have the ability to keep businesses open and move our economy forward so that Texans can continue to earn a paycheck, but it requires each of us to do our part to protect one anotherand that means wearing a face-covering in public spaces, Abbott said.

Zachary Stieber and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
TikTok Fined $155,000 For Mishandling User Data in South Korea

By Ding Yi / Jul 16, 2020 04:52 PM / World

Just two weeks after being removed from Indian app stores, ByteDance-owned TikTok took another hit in South Korea, where the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) fined the viral short video app 186 million won ($155,000) for mishandling user data, according to a report by Yonhap News Agency on Wednesday.

The South Korean telecom watchdog said that its decision stemmed from TikToks violation of local telecom laws that ban apps from collecting the data of children under the age of 14 without parental consent, Yonhap reported.

The move marks the latest blow to TikToks efforts to expand its overseas footprint as global concerns about the social media platforms data privacy practices grow.

In an investigation which began in October last year, the KCC found that TikTok illegally gathered some 6,000 pieces of data involving children and failed to inform local users before moving their personal data onto its servers in the U.S. and Singapore, Yonhap added.

As of the end of last year, TikTok had 3.4 million users in South Korea, according to Yonhap, citing data from industry tracker WiseApp. Since its entry into the country in 2017, the app has been popular among teenagers.

The news comes a week after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatened to ban Chinese social media apps including TikTok during an interview with Fox News.

Facing mounting U.S. pressures, TikTok has reportedly expanded its lobbying team to include Michael Hacker, former senior advisor to the House majority whip James Clyburn, D-S.C. and Kim Lipsky, who previously worked as staff director of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

In the past three months, TikToks lobbyists held at least 50 meetings with U.S. congressional staff and lawmakers in an attempt to ensure a more favorable operating environment in the U.S., according to a report by the New York Times.

Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com)

Related: India Asks Banned Chinese Apps 77 Questions Over Content Review and Data Security
Underground wells which were closely linked to the lives of Vietnamese citizens can be found throughout the northern delta, especially in rural areas, with many dug approximately half a century ago still in use today in Hanois Old Quarter.

Over 50 years ago underground wells were typical features of daily life for the residents of Hanoi. They served as ideal locations in which children could bathe, a meeting place for young couples falling in love, and a place for housewives to share gossip.

Several underground wells dug about 50 years ago can be found in the Old Quarter

In difficult times, when refrigerators were unavailable, wells were places for men to chill beer bottles and women to preserve Banh Chung, a local delicacy consisting of a glutinous rice square cake, ahead of the traditional lunar New Year festival.

In a bygone era in the Vietnamese capital, every street featured a small well with a diameter of just over one metre.

In contemporary society, the image of wells acting as a community hub seems to have disappeared in the minds of local people, although they still exist, even in the capitals Old Quarter.

If one ventures deep into lane 86 of Hang Trong street close to Hoan Kiem lake, an old well can be found with a diameter of nearly two meters. Indeed, the well has been used in the past to supply water to people living in the local residential area.

An underground well is still in use in a small lane of Hang Trong street

Nguyen Van Hung, a resident living in the lane, says he does not know exactly how old the well is.

This year I am 70 years old, but I've seen the well there since I was small, Hung confides. From that day until now, I have never seen the well run out of water. It is quite strange that water from this well is cool in summer and warm in winter.

I still remember the days when I was small, children and even young men went out to the well to have a bath. The well at that time served as the common living place of everyone in the area. Since tap water became commonly available, it is no longer used as much. Sometimes when running water is in short supply, the water from the well is still used for daily life. The water is still clean and crystal-clear, without the smell of mud or iron.

With greater development and running water being connected to peoples homes, underground wells have become something of a relic of the past, with the image of the age-old wells gradually fading away in the memories of local people. Furthermore, many underground wells have been covered over to reserve places for modern houses or buildings to take shape.

Such an age-old well is closely linked to Hanoians' daily life

Despite the quick tempo of life in the capital, several age-old underground wells have been preserved in the Old Quarter as a reminder of the past. One of them is situated at the end of Hang Chi lane with the site also serving as a meeting point for Hang Gai and Hang Quat streets.

The well is seen as a great meeting place for local people living in the three streets, who often come to collect water from the well for daily use, despite running water being readily available in their home.

Underground wells remind Hanoians of a bygone era and hard-working times

Moreover, another underground well in Phu Doan lane remains functional despite its age. The wall of the well was mainly constructed from red bricks which have gradually been eroded over time to become smooth and shiny.

The well, about one metre in diameter and more than two metres in depth, hasnt run out of water for years. At present, the water from the well remains crystal-clear so many people often come to use it for their daily life.

Despite the quick tempo of life in the capital, several age-old underground wells have been preserved in the Old Quarter as a reminder of the past

Nguyen Xuan Khoi, a 80-year-old resident of Phu Doan lane, recalls his memory of the well.

I still remember that decades ago people in the residential area lined up to get water from the well for domestic use every afternoon. The water was so clean and clear, because Hanoi was not as badly polluted as it is today, and local people were aware of preserving the well. For us, the well is the place for community activities and a well-maintained source of life, so everyone loves their well.

Ancient wells are therefore closely connected with the daily life of several generations of people living in Hanois Old Quarter. Though all modern houses feature taps with running water, the old wells are still considered typical treasure of the capital, reminding local residents of a bygone era and hard-working times, although the sentiment of community spirit remains. VOV5

How Hanois lotus-scented tea is made Flavoring green tea with lotus scent is a manual process and no chemicals are allowed.
Officials of the six South-west states in Nigeria are considering reopening schools for students who will be writing the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination, an official said on Wednesday.

The resolution was reportedly made on Tuesday at a virtual meeting initiated by the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) in collaboration with the forum of South-west education commissioners, special advisers on education and the state universal basic education board chairmen.

This development is coming a week after the federal government said Nigerian students will not participate in this year's WASSCE due to the coronavirus pandemic. The federal government reiterated its stance on Wednesday.

But a statement signed by the Director-General of DAWN, Seye Oyeleye, said education officials from the region reached the resolution and showed their readiness to hold the examination.

"After careful deliberations, considering peculiarities of each state and options available reached a consensus on the subject matters and are expressed thus: On WAEC examinations; State Commissioners for Education have signified readiness to sit students for the 2019/2020 WAEC examinations.

"At the least, August 3rd, resumption for final year SSS3 students, states should approach the Federal Government at the first instance seeking the postponement of the WAEC exam by at least three weeks from proposed resumption. At the second instance states should directly approach WAEC to seek for an extension of the WAEC Examinations to week commencing August 24.

"All schools, when reopening should have in place incident managers and classroom wardens for every school and every classroom. The designation of the Quality Assurance Department for each state to issue a Safety Compliance Certificate to each school before reopening," DAWN, largely funded by the South-west states, said.

In addition, the officials reportedly asked the examination body to consider the use of Computer-Based Tests and relevant technology to organise the examinations.

None of the six South-west states has confirmed the statement by DAWN.

PREMIUM TIMES made efforts to reach some state governments about the said meeting.

The special adviser to Osun government on education, Jamiu Olawumi, told our correspondent he was not part of the meeting.

He also said he was not speaking on behalf of the commissioner for education, Oladoyin Folorunso, who did not respond to our enquiries.

The Oyo State commissioner for education, Olasunkanmi Olaleye, is also yet to respond at the time of filing this report.
OTTAWAFinance Minister Bill Morneau is facing an ethics investigation over the federal cabinets decision to award a contract worth upwards of $43.5 million to WE Charity.

Morneaus daughter, Grace Acan, works with the charity. Another daughter, Clare Morneau, has appeared at WE Day events and had her book blurbed by charity co-founder Marc Kielburger, although Morneaus office says she was not compensated for her involvement with WE.

Despite the family ties, Morneau participated in a cabinet discussion and decision to award the international charity a $43.5 million contract to administer the Canada Student Service Grant, a $900-million program aimed at compensating students for volunteering during COVID-19.

Morneau has since apologized, and the Liberal government and WE Charity have abandoned the deal.

In response to opposition calls for a probe into Morneaus actions, Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion wrote Thursday that he has opened a conflict of interest investigation.

In (the opposition Conservatives letter), you allege that given Mr. Morneaus family ties with WE Charity and his participation in the decision to have the organization administer the Canada Student Service Grant, Mr. Morneau furthered the private interests of WE Charity ... You also allege that, given Mr. Morneaus family involvement with WE Charity, he had a duty to recuse himself from any discussion or decision relating to the organization, Dions office wrote in a statement.

I have considered your request and am of the view that it satisfies the requirements set out in ... the (Conflict of Interest) Act. I am therefore commencing an examination ... (and) have informed Mr. Morneau accordingly.

Dion has also opened an investigation into Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus participation in the cabinet decision. WE Charity paid Trudeaus mother and brother a total of $282,000 for speaking engagements between 2016 and 2020.
Boris Johnson and his advisor Dominic Cummings, who is accused of being behind the decision to remove the whip from Julian Smith. (AP)

The former Tory MP elected to head up an important security committee has accused Boris Johnson of making an improper request.

Julian Lewis said the prime minister does not have the right to choose who chairs the intelligence and security committee (ISC) after he was picked to do so on Tuesday night.

He has since lost the Tory whip after being elected as chairman, with it having been widely reported that Johnson wanted Chris Grayling for the job.

In a statement to the PA news agency, Lewis said: It was only yesterday afternoon that I received a text asking me to confirm that I would be voting for the prime ministers preferred candidate for the ISC chair.

Dr Julian Lewis has had the Tory whip removed. (PA)

Chris Grayling had been expected to be appointed the chairman of parliaments intelligence watchdog. (PA)

I did not reply as I considered it an improper request. At no earlier stage did I give any undertaking to vote for any particular candidate.

A senior government source said Lewis had had the Conservative whip withdrawn because he had been "working with Labour and other opposition MPs for his own advantage".

However, Lewis said Downing Street had publicly declared it did not have a favoured candidate for the post, despite widespread reports of a whipping operation to get the Tories on the committee to vote for Grayling.

He added: In recent days, the official No 10 spokesman explicitly denied that the government was seeking to 'parachute' a preferred candidate in to the chair, stating that it was a matter for the senior parliamentarians on the committee to decide.

"It is therefore strange to have the whip removed for failing to vote for the government's preferred candidate."

Critics have accused Johnson of running scared after the Tory whip was removed from Lewis, which some say was the decision of Johnsons adviser Dominic Cummings.

Having failed to install a loyalist, PM now running scared of scrutiny. This is an overreaction, likely by Dominic Cummings rather than the Chief Whip. PM must stop interfering and the committee must publish the #RussiaReport now. All MPs must stand firm against No10 power grab. https://t.co/19xPD09CPl  Alistair Carmichael (@amcarmichaelMP) July 15, 2020

Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael tweeted: Having failed to install a loyalist, PM now running scared of scrutiny.

Story continues

This is an overreaction, likely by Dominic Cummings rather than the Chief Whip.

He added: All MPs must stand firm against No10 power grab.

Former Tory cabinet minister and chairman of the ISC, Dominic Grieve, who also had the Tory whip removed in 2019 over his opposition to Brexit, described the move against Lewis as utter absurdity.

Dominic Cummings has been accused of being behind the move to remove the whip from Dr Julian Lewis. (AP)

He told the BBC: What troubles me about this episode, quite apart from its utter absurdity, and now withdrawing the whip from Julian, who is indeed highly respected, is the mindset it gives about what on earth is going on in Downing Street.

Why did they try to manipulate this process? They shouldnt have done.

The committee can only exist, the committee can only be respected if it is seen to be non-partisan, and independent.

Former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind, another ex-ISC chairman, said the prime minister had acted in an "extremely incompetent" manner and that those responsible for advising him should be sacked.

He told BBC Radio 4s Today programme that it is essential that the committee is seen to be independent of government if it is to be able to do its job effectively.

Critics say Boris Johnson is 'running scared' from scrutiny. (AP)

Labour's shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy also criticised the decision, tweeting: "Completely self-defeating act that bears the hallmark of a government so arrogant it really believes it is above scrutiny.

Labours deputy leader Angela Rayner branded the move against Lewis grubby.

She tweeted: Julian Lewis MP has the Tory Whip removed after being elected as Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Select Committee, after beating hapless Chris Grayling. I wonder who in No10 ordered that the long serving Tory MP had the whip removed? What a grubby shower they are!

Completely self-defeating act that bears the hallmark of a Government so arrogant it really believes it is above scrutiny. What is in the Russia report that Johnson doesnt want to see the light of day? https://t.co/GyCR5PlYJ2  Lisa Nandy (@lisanandy) July 15, 2020

Julian Lewis MP has the Tory Whip removed after being elected as Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Select Committee, after beating hapless Chris Grayling. I wonder who in No10 ordered that the long serving Tory MP had the whip removed?  What a grubby shower they are!   Angela Rayner  (@AngelaRayner) July 15, 2020

With the Conservatives enjoying a majority  with five out of nine places on the committee  there had been concern at Westminster that the Tory members would be whipped to support Grayling despite concerns about his expertise.

Unlike previous chairmen, the former transport secretary had little experience of security matters and was dubbed "failing Grayling" for a series of policy blunders during his time in government.

Reacting to Graylings loss, SNP shadow defence secretary, Stewart McDonald, said: With his abysmal record of failure as a Tory minister, Chris Grayling is the only man who could lose a rigged election.

In contrast, Lewis is a former chairman of the Commons defence committee, who has taken a close interest in defence and security issues throughout his time in Parliament.

Johnson has faced criticism over the delay in appointing the committee which has not met since the last parliament was dissolved in November last year.

The committee has yet to publish its long-awaited report into Russian interference in UK politics after Johnson refused to clear it for release before last years general election.

Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK
At least four officers were hurt including the chief of department, and 37 people were arrested after fight.

Several New York City police officers were attacked and injured Wednesday as pro-police and anti-police protesters clashed on the Brooklyn Bridge.

At least four officers were hurt, including Chief of Department Terence Monahan, and 37 people were arrested, police said. Information on charges was not immediately available.

Surveillance video posted on social media by the police department showed a man on the bridges pedestrian walkway rushing towards a group of officers and reaching over a fence to bash their heads with a cane.

Police photos of the aftermath showed a lieutenant with a bloodied face, a detective holding a bandage to his head, and a bicycle officer helping a fellow officer dress a head wound.

Monahan, who last month knelt in a show of solidarity with protesters, sustained injuries to his hand.

Police officers were marching with a pro-police group under a banner that said We Support the NYPD when a fight broke out with anti-police demonstrators [Yuki Iwamura/AP Photo]

He and the other injured officers were marching with a pro-police group led by local clergy when they were met on the bridge by anti-police activists, some of whom have been camping outside City Hall in recent weeks to demand severe cuts to police funding.

Some people in the pro-police group marched with a banner that said, We Support the NYPD. The leader of that group said they were calling for an end to a recent spate of violence, including the shooting death of a 1-year-old boy in Brooklyn.

Wednesdays demonstrations were the latest in a wave of protest activity across the country since George Floyd was killed May 25 by Minneapolis police.

The first few nights of protests in New York City were marred by stealing, unrest and violence inflicted both by and on police officers. Since then, protests have largely been peaceful.
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture on Thursday handed over four Reefer (Refrigerated) Vans to vegetable dealers under the Ghana Commercial Agricultural Project (GCAP) to improve sustainable supply of vegetable produce all year round.



The beneficiaries were: AB Farms, BB Vegies, HMR and Dzifresh Companies.



The vans form part of packages under the Peri-Urban Vegetable Value Chain project of the GCAP to facilitate easy access to market as well as stabilize vegetable prices.



Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Minister of Food and Agriculture, who handed over the vans to the beneficiaries, in Accra, also used the occasion, to commission the new Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) head office complex.



The Office Complex is prefabricated building that contains 45 rooms, a digital library and a conference room.



He said the vans were to support the operations of the vegetable dealers and ultimately help farmers to get their produce to the market on time and to avoid postharvest losses.



Dr Afriyie Akoto said vegetable production alone in other parts of the world was fetching lots of money for countries and that Kenya for instance, earn about three billion dollars annually from vegetables production.



He said Ghana started to learn from the Kenyan experience and sent some peri-urban vegetable farmers to that country to learn and replicate the success story.



He said Ghanas vegetable production programme falls under the third module of the five module of Planting for Food and Jobs project, being implemented in the country to boost food production and to improve livelihoods.



The Minister emphasized governments resolve, to give unprecedented support to farmers so they could produce more food to feed the country and to export.



We are here today to recognize the hard work of these industry and to say that the potential that they have in trying to turn vegetable production into a major source of employment of income and of export earning to this country has been recognized.



Mr Wilson Dankwa, Chief Executive Officer of GIDA, said each of the van had 3.2 tones capacity and expected to help keep the farm produce fresh for a longer time and to meet international requirement, thereby adding value to the produce and increasing the wealth of farmers.



He said the office building on the other hand, would provide the needed working space for staff to give off their best in service.



He said the funding for both facilities was from the World Bank and it took the contractor of the GIDA building, about nine months to complete the office building.



Mr Benjamin Agbesi, CEO of AB Farms, one of recipient of the Reefer Vans, thanked the government and the GIDA for assisting their operations to enable them effectively liaise between the farmers and the market.



Ms Galina Okartei-Akko, Agribusiness Analyst, GCAP, explained that the beneficiaries of the vans were part of the over 500 vegetable farmers and dealers who were being provided with technical expertise, seeds and other equipment and support services to boost vegetable production.



Dr Sheu Salwu, Senior Agriculture Economists and Task Team Leader of the GCAP at the World Bank, said his organisation was ready to partner Ghana to meet her development goals, especially to boost agriculture production and food security.



He explained that an amount of about 2.85 million dollars was being provided by the World Bank to support the GCAP programme, while the Bank through the Japanese Government funded the GIDA building with an amount of six million Ghana cedis.

Source: GNA









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Two men robbed a cooperative bank of 4.16 lakh at gunpoint in Koparkhairane on Thursday. The duo arrived at the bank posing as customers and later held the bank employees hostage.

According to Koparkhairane police, the accused, suspected to be in their early thirties, arrived at the bank, located in Sector 19, on a black motorbike, around 2.20pm. The faces were covered and they were wearing gloves.

The police procured the CCTV footage from the bank and are trying to identify the accused. In the footage, one of the accused is seen holding a firearm.

The men deliberately chose to target the bank around lunch time, as it closes operations for customers after lunch time. The accused pretended to inquire about loans and waited inside after customers left. Once there were fewer people inside, one of the accused pulled out a gun and held the employees hostage. There was also a scuffle between some of the employees and the accused, said an officer from Koparkhairane police station.

Some employees sustained minor injuries in the scuffle. The accused filled the money in their rucksacks and fled on the two-wheeler. The police said they have intensified checking at all entry and exit points towards Thane and Mumbai to nab the accused.

Police suspect that the accused may have conducted a recce of the bank before committing the robbery. A case of robbery has been registered against the unidentified men under sections of Indian Penal Code and Indian Arms Act. The police are recording the statements of the bank staff including the security guard.

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A Tesla Model S is displayed during the London Motor and Tech Show at ExCel on May 16, 2019 in London, England.

Check out the companies making headlines after the bell:

Netflix  Shares of the streaming service plummeted 10% in extended trading after releasing its second-quarter financial results. Netflix reported second-quarter earnings of $1.59 per share on revenues of $6.15 billion. Analysts polled by Refinitiv expected earnings of $1.81 per share on revenues of $6.08 billion. Netflix also announced that Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos will become co-CEO with current CEO Reed Hastings.

Tesla  Tesla's stock fell nearly 2% in extended trading after dropping about 3% during the day. Tesla's vehicle registrations nearly halved in California during the second quarter as the coronavirus hurt production and auto sales, according to a report released earlier Thursday.

J.B. Hunt  Shares of the transportation company climbed 3% after the final bell. J.B. Hunt posted second-quarter earnings of $1.14 per share on revenues of $2.15 billion, beating analysts' expectations. Analysts polled by Refinitiv expected earnings of 80 cents per share on revenues of $2.02 billion.

PPG Industries  PPG Industries' stock jumped 4% in extended trading upon the release of its second-quarter financial results. PPG reported adjusted second-quarter earnings of 99 cents per share on revenues of $3.02 billion. Earnings went above expectations of analysts polled by FactSet, who expected earnings of 70 cents per share on revenues of $2.81 billion. PPG noted one of the strong points for the quarter came from its global architectural coatings businesses, driven by a do-it-yourself demand during the coronavirus.

Norwegian Cruise Lines, Carnival  Shares of cruise lines fell after the market closed and the CDC announced it will ban U.S. cruises through September. Norwegian Cruise Lines and Carnival's stock both fell 1% after hours. The CDC's original order was set to expire July 24 but the agency cited "ongoing" coronavirus outbreaks on ships for its continued ban.

CBL & Associates  The mall owner's stock dropped 2% after the market closed. The move comes after CBL adjusted its forbearance agreement on notes due in 2023 and 2026 after the company missed interest payments on the notes due in June and failed to pay within the 30-day grace period, according to an SEC filing.
East Syracuse, N.Y.  The American Dairy Association North East had another public milk and food distribution Tuesday, this time at Abundant Life Christian Center.

The drive included a distribution of about 4,200 gallons of milk and nearly 32,000 pounds of produce and additional dairy products.

This was part of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (C.F.A.P.), government-funded grants that have been made available to those in need.

The Dairy Association worked with Upstate Niagara Cooperative, Glazier Packing Company, Onondaga County and community partners to make it happen.

Eight-hundred twenty-pound boxes were made available per vehicle, along with two gallons of milk.

In June, more than 16,000 gallons of milk and tens of thousands of pounds of produce, meat and other dairy products were given away in a series of drive-thru distributions open to the public.

The American Dairy Association North East has helped organize numerous distributions since the coronavirus pandemic hit Central New York. Some 325,500 gallons have been given to families in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware since mid-May. You can watch for information about future distributions on their website.

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS

Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources

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Syracuse University reopening: Students to be contact tracers, IDs synced to test results

First Covid-19 vaccine tested in US poised for final testing

Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 18:28:03|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- A childcare campaign aimed at promoting safety and protection of children was launched in Beijing on Thursday.

The event was co-sponsored by 11 departments including the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), Ministry of Civil Affairs and Ministry of Education. ACWF President Shen Yueyue attended the online opening ceremony.

Several activities were initiated to offer care and protection for kids including left-behind children in rural areas whose parents migrate to cities for better job opportunities.

According to the organizers, volunteer services will be rendered both online and offline across the country. Enditem
The Osun State Government has confirmed a new death caused by coronavirus.

The state also announced 37 new cases while four patients were discharged from its treatment centre on Wednesday.

This was made known in a statement by the states health commissoner, Rafiu Isamotu, late Wednesday evening.

According to him, the 37 confirmed cases had history of contact with patients already battling with the disease.

He also disclosed that the four patients discharged have reunited with their families.

Mr Isamotu said with the latest development, the number of confirmed cases in the state, as of July 15, is 318 with 172 active cases.

The state has successfully treated and discharged 138 patients, while eight deaths have so far been recorded in the State.

He appealed to residents to always observe all the precautionary measures laid down against the spread of the virus.

Meanwhile, the government has named the acting Chief Medical Director Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, Peter Olaitan, as the new incident manager of the COVID-19 technical committee.
Gel blasters and other replica firearms will need a reasonable excuse to be carried throughout Queensland after new laws were passed by Parliament.

Changes to the regulation of the popular toys were flagged in February, amid growing concerns from police about their misuse.

Gel blasters are banned in all states except Queensland and South Australia. Credit:Andrew Bown

The replica guns, which are made of plastic and fire small water-soaked gel balls, are banned in all states except Queensland and South Australia.

Police have not suggested such a hardline approach in Queensland, though the The Gel Blaster Association fear stricter regulation would make the items "essentially unobtainable".
Micheal Martin has said he is confident ministers on both sides of the border can work together on Brexit and coronavirus.

During his first visit to Belfast as Taoiseach, Mr Martin met with the First and Deputy First Ministers in Stormont Castle, as well as the leaders of the smaller parties.

Despite renewed tension between the DUP and Sinn Fein over the Bobby Storey funeral, Arlene Foster and Michelle O'Neill appeared together for a picture with Mr Martin on his arrival.

Speaking afterwards, he said the wide-ranging discussions focused on suppressing any spikes in Covid-19 and minimising economic disruption caused by Brexit.

He quickly side-stepped a question on how the First and Deputy First Ministers could reconcile, saying: "I would never attempt to advise others in terms of relationship-building, but I think we had a very good, warm meeting today."

Stressing the need for all-Ireland cooperation, Mr Martin said the Good Friday Agreement would remain "the defining blueprint" in a post-Brexit world.

"Given the enormous change that is taking place, there is a need to do some significant work together in terms of... how we share the island in peace and in harmony," he said.

Expand Close Micheal Martin sitting down with the First and Deputy First Ministers PA / Facebook

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The Taoiseach said he was delighted that the first North-South Ministerial Council in three years will take place at the end of the month following the Stormont deadlock and disruption caused by Covid-19.

The body cooperates on areas such as the environment and waterways.

"Overall, I'm very encouraged by the meetings I've had... a genuine desire on all sides to work together in a pragmatic way to the mutual benefit of all the people of different traditions on this island," he said.

After years of strongly criticising Sinn Fein as Fianna Fail leader, Mr Martin was asked if he would now soften his approach in his new role.

"My views on Sinn Fein are well-known, I've articulated them as a party leader... but as Taoiseach one has to be very conscious of the objective of the country," he said.

He also played down any concerns over the different pace of lockdown on both sides of the border.

"Let's be fair to both administrations, Covid-19 has been suppressed to a significant degree," he said.

"That said, in the Republic over the last week or two we've had an increase in numbers, which the health officials are worried about."

He added: "All of us are very fearful of a second surge in the autumn, we're very anxious to get the schools back and to deal with the non-Covid strand of medicine."

Mrs Foster said she told the Taoiseach she looked forward to a positive dialogue during his tenure "based on mutual respect for both jurisdictions and understanding each other's differences".

Recovering from coronavirus had been the main focus of the meeting, she said, and working to rebuild both economies and protect public health. Mrs O'Neill called on Mr Martin to honour commitments made by the Irish Government in the New Decade, New Approach deal.

"I look forward to working on a north-south basis to ensure those crucial funding and practical commitments are fulfilled as soon as possible," she said.

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Whatsapp Micheal Martin removing his face mask as he prepares to meet party leaders at the Stormont Hotel

She also backed recent calls to increase the use of mandatory face coverings in public.

"The Chief Medical Officer has made it very clear that while perhaps at one stage of this pandemic he was not convinced of the merits of face coverings, we are now in a space where he thinks that is the case.

"We will look at all of that evidence and then make a decision on that, but I think that as more and more people are moving around as we come to the end of the shielding period, there is probably a logical reason as to why face coverings should be a thing that we are all (forced to wear)."

Speaking to the media without Mrs Foster, she explained that they had "moved naturally" away from their joint appearances at the daily Stormont briefings.

Mrs O'Neill echoed the Taoiseach's call for an all-island approach to Covid-19, and said the two governments' chief medical advisers were working closely together.

Although Sinn Fein has now resumed the role of Opposition in the Dail, she promised to cooperate with the Taoiseach in his role as a co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement.

In a statement, she also stressed the importance of the North-South Ministerial Council returning to work after a lengthy absence.

"It is now six months since the restoration of the Executive and I made clear to Micheal that we must see delivery of all the Irish Government's commitments in New Decade, New Approach."
TikTok, the wildly popular social media app known for its viral dance and lip sync clips, has been embraced by millions of students, celebrities and young adults across the United States. But the companys ties to China could cripple its existence. TikTok, which is owned by the China-based ByteDance, has become the latest target in the Trump administrations long simmering security and economic battle with Beijing. It is now desperately trying to convince lawmakers and administration officials that its allegiance lies with the United States, not China. The social media ...
The average rate for a 30-year-fixed mortgage fell below 3 percent last week for the first time, according to the government-sponsored mortgage-finance company Freddie Mac.

The falling rates are making homes more affordable for buyers and spurring a wave of refinancing as homeowners seek to lower monthly payments. Freddie Mac estimates that at current rates, most homeowners with mortgages could save money by refinancing  a financial boon for potentially tens of millions during a recession.

Thats a big deal, said Sam Khater, Freddie Macs chief economist.

Freddie Mac reported the rate for a 30-year loan averaged at 2.98 percent for the week ending July 16, down from 3.81 percent a year earlier. That means a new homeowner buying an average-priced home, which in the Houston area is about $320,000, with 20 percent down would save $117 a month.

Homeowners, who have mortgages with higher rates and paid balances down over time, could save even more.

Chad Helmcamp, president of BWC Lending in Memorial City, said a client of his lowered his interest rate from 4.25 percent to 2.25 percent on a 30-year fixed-rate loan for veterans, saving him $419 dollars a month.

Other clients, he said, are using the savings to pay off higher-interest debt, such as credit cards. About one-third are refinancing into shorter-term loans with raising monthly payments, meaning theyll pay off their homes more quickly and potentially save thousands of dollars in interest.

The average rate on 15-year mortgage, a popular loan for refinancing, was 2.48 percent, according to Freddie Mac.

Financial security

For Brandi Peasley, who bought a home with her husband in May of 2019, the drop in mortgage rates allowed her family to secure a 2.75 percent rate on a 30-year mortgage and save more than $350 a month. They plan to use the savings to pay off their mortgage faster.

The savings also give her family increased financial security, she added.

HOME PRICE SURVEY: How 'pandemic buyers' are keeping the real estate market humming

If something happens to one of our jobs, that gives us a little more wiggle room, she said. We dont have to pay the extra money into our mortgage. So that gives us peace of mind.

Refinancing applications, meanwhile, have soared, more than doubling last week from a year earlier, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday.

Helmcamp said his loans are on track to quadruple to more than 20 this week from his usual five. Todd Jones, president of Paramount Bank Direct, said his applications have increased by five times over the last month.

I tell them, Jones said, Hey. Congratulations. I dont know the last time you bought a stock at the absolute lowest price. But youre getting a mortgage at the absolute lowest price in history.

While low mortgage rates are good for homebuyers and owners, they signal that investors are concerned about the future of the economy. When investors become nervous, they seek safer investments and pour money into government bonds and mortgage debt  much of it backed by Freddie Mac and its sister company Fannie Mae.

Investors are so hungry for security that they are willing to accept lower yields, driving down the interest paid on bonds and mortgages. Actions by the Federal Reserve to support the economy, including cutting short-term rates to near zero and buying government- and mortgage-backed bonds, are also driving down mortgage rates.

PRIME PROPERTY: Get Houston real estate news sent directly to your inbox

We talk about stimulus by the Fed, said Khater, the Freddie Mac economist. Were essentially driving down the carrying costs of a mortgage.

60-day lock

The flood of applications, however, has slowed processing, leading to longer waits to close the loans. While its usually possible to close a new mortgage within 30 days, now processing times have extended beyond a month.

Jones recommended finding a lender who could guarantee at least a 60-day lock on the rates they quote.

You would think you should be able to close a mortgage within 60 days, he said, But everyone has a compelling reason right now to refinance.

Khater said believes rates will continue to drift down in the short term and will recover very modestly with the economy.

Interest rates have been sliding for 40 years, he said. Were saying this cant keep going down forever, right? But the run-up in rates from the late 60s to early 80s was really a unique event. Prior to that, rates were always low.
Over 100 people from the Azerbaijani side took part in attempted sabotage penetration, said Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during the government's meeting on Thursday.

Armenian defense ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan took to her Facebook Thursday morning to share an update on the situation at the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.

According to her, 'around 03:40 at night, positions of the RA Armed Forces noticed enemy movement. Switching to all-around defense Armenian units prevented the enemy's attempt of infiltration.' She added that 'after a hot battle, the enemy was thwarted back suffering losses.'

"Afterwards, at 05:20 the Azerbaijani units started shelling the villages of Aygepar, Movses, using mortars and a D-30 howitzer." "This is the first serious violation of the fragile ceasefire established yesterday at 00:15."

As Armenian PM noted, "the situation is completely under control."

"There are no casualties on our side: neither among the military nor among the civilian population," the PM, in turn, noted.
MADRID (AP)  From the palm-fringed beaches of southern India to the bar-lined streets of a Spanish island and the rolling hills of Ireland, restaurants, pubs and clubs are emerging as front lines in efforts to prevent the re-emergence of the coronavirus.

With Europes summer vacation season kicking into high gear for millions weary of months of lockdown, scenes of drunken British and German tourists on Spains Mallorca island ignoring social distancing rules and reports of American visitors flouting quarantine measures in Ireland are raising fears of a resurgence of infections in countries that have battled for months to flatten the COVID-19 curve.

'Epicenter of the epicenter': Young people partying in Miami Beach despite COVID-19 threat

Germanys foreign minister condemned the rowdy tourists for imperiling hard-won gains in efforts to contain the virus.

We just recently managed to open the borders again in Europe. We cannot risk this by reckless behavior, Heiko Maas told Funke Media Group on Thursday. Otherwise, new measures will be inevitable.

In a move designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus and shake off the regions reputation as a party hub, regional authorities in the Balearic Islands ordered the closure from Thursday of all establishments along Mallorcas Beer St. and Ham St., as the popular party areas near the beach of Palma de Mallorca are known, and on another boulevard in nearby Magaluf.

This week, authorities ordered the closure of bars and nightclubs on the tourist-friendly Spanish islands of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, and Formentera frequented by party crowds in an attempt to prevent a new wave of COVID-19 from striking.

Bar owners reacted angrily to the new restrictions on the islands that have seen, like most regions in Spain, recent small spikes in infections, none of which were traced to visiting tourists or party hotspots. Bars and nightclubs employ some 20,000 people in the region.

They are undertaking drastic measures that are typical of other countries, closing entire streets and curtailing the free exercise of private initiative, Jesus Sanchez, who leads a local business association told The Associated Press. He blamed clandestine parties for some of the images of tourists ignoring virus containment measures.

Story continues

Mallorcas partying tourists were in stark contrast to a solemn commemoration service Thursday morning in Madrid, where relatives of about 100 COVID-19 victims sat, socially distanced, with representatives of health workers and other vital professions and with Spains king and queen to pay tribute to the dead and those fighting the pandemic.

In an emotional speech, Hernando Calleja said he was sharing the pain of the loss of his brother Jose Maria, a well-known journalist and writer in Madrid, with other relatives of anonymous victims.

Lets not forget that the coronavirus was and continues to be a cold, cruel and wrecking executioner, Calleja said at the ceremony at Madrids Royal Palace.

We just recently managed to open the borders again in Europe. We cannot risk this by reckless behavior, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said after seeing reports of partying in various EU countries. Otherwise, new measures will be inevitable.

Another European tourism hotspot, Greece, lifted a ban on flights from Britain on July 15 and on Thursday welcomed the first arrivals with random testing at the airport in Athens.

Alexandros Maziotis, a Greek who lives in the UK, said he wasnt tested.

Im planning to be a bit careful, especially the first week, so I make sure I dont pass something to my parents, he said.

While stringent lockdown measures have slowed the spread of the virus across much of Europe, there are growing signs of second waves of infections, and the pandemic is still gathering pace elsewhere.

Finland is one of the countries to have eased lockdown measures. On Wednesday night, dozens of people queued shoulder-to-shoulder waiting to get into a Helsinki night club.

More than than 13.5 million people have been infected worldwide and over 580,000 have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The true numbers are thought to be far higher for a number of reasons, including limited testing.

Europe isn't the only region with COVD-19 problems stemming from partying. Indias record daily increase of nearly 32,700 cases pushed its total close to 1 million and led authorities to reimpose a three-day lockdown and night curfew in the popular western beach state of Goa, two weeks after it was reopened to tourists.

Indias record daily increase of nearly 32,700 cases pushed its total close to 1 million and led authorities to reimpose a three-day lockdown and night curfew in the popular western beach state of Goa, two weeks after it was reopened to tourists.

The states top elected official, Pramod Sawant, said people there were flouting social distancing rules and not wearing face masks. Nearly 40,000 people have been fined in the past two weeks for not wearing masks.

Even in Japan, which has fewer than 23,000 confirmed cases and about 1,000 deaths, officials are fretting about moves to revitalize the hard-hit tourism industry. Tokyo confirmed a record 286 confirmed infections Thursday.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe acknowledged a need to re-examine a government campaign offering discounts for traveling within Japan that is set to start next week. We are looking at the situation with a high level of nervousness, Abe said.

At the southern tip of Mexicos Baja California peninsula, the laid-back resort city of La Paz closed its beaches once again after having re-opened them in June. Municipal authorities reported that this week, 1,230 people and 673 vehicles were turned back or removed from beaches as part of the closure, after beachgoers largely ignored social distancing and other measures.

In California, organizers canceled the 2021 New Years Day Rose Parade in Pasadena for the first time in 75 years, fearing that even six months from now infections could spread among participants and the hundreds of thousands who line the route.

Americans heading overseas were causing consternation in Ireland, amid fears that some were ignoring the governments requirement that they self-isolate for 14 days after arrival. The Irish Post cited restaurant owners who complained that they had no way of knowing if American visitors had completed the two-week quarantine.

Showing that there can be a way forward, China became the first economy to resume growing since the pandemic began in its central city of Wuhan. It reported an unexpectedly strong 3.2% expansion in the latest quarter after anti-virus lockdowns were lifted and factories and stores reopened. The 6.8% contraction in January-March was the countrys worst downturn since at least the mid-1960s.

The economic news was grim, however, in Britain, where the national statistics office said clear signals are emerging that job losses will skyrocket over coming months to levels not seen since the 1980s.

The office said there were 649,000 fewer people, or 2.2%, on payrolls in June compared to March, when the British government imposed lockdown restrictions.

Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands, and Kurtenbach from Bangkok. Associated Press reporters around the world contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tourists in Europe, US face restrictions as borders reopen, cases jump
Police in the US are testing a new tool to capture criminal suspects: an electric lasso. Despite being presented as a harmless alternative to more violent methods of apprehension, netizens were immediately skeptical.

Washington, DC police have been testing out the controversial electronic lasso, designed to take suspects down without hurting them, NBC reported. The BolaWrap is a handheld device that looks like a Taser and shoots a cord as far as 25 feet that wraps around a person's legs.

Robert Liberati, the Landover Hills town police chief has already ordered one lasso for each of his officers. Youre immobilized temporarily enough, hopefully, that officers can get to you, get you under control and apprehended with as little injury as possible, he said of the devices proposed functionality.

Some on social media noticed something disturbing about the BolaWrap, however. One person pointed out that while its not intended to be painful, every person seen testing [the device] is wearing a protective layer.

"Not intended to be painful," and yet every person seen here "testing" them is wearing a protective layer. Goodbye.  Bry Arlington (@brealitycheck) July 15, 2020

That is likely because there are in fact hooks at the end of its cord that can pierce the skin.

There are however small hooks at the end of the rope that could pierce the skin pic.twitter.com/dgDBlgeiBn  Artistictech (@Artistictech) July 15, 2020

The new police tool comes on the heels of the anti-racism and anti-police brutality movement sweeping the country, which was sparked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of a cop in Minnesota.

Some claimed that the addition of these new weapons to the police arsenal proved that they were missing the point of the protest movement  particularly given the fact that they used a black man in the testing video for the device.

And to make matters worse, let's show a photo of a bunch of white cops trying it out on a black man.  Catherine Ryan Hyde (@cryanhyde) July 15, 2020

One user even felt there was a slave catcher aesthetic to the new tool. Another tweeter said police were not even trying to be anything other than violent, brutal and terrifying.

Nothing about how police departments across the country have responded to criticism since June has indicated that they are even trying to be anything other than violent, brutal and terrifying. https://t.co/WgK0Tljh4S  Saeed Jones (@theferocity) July 15, 2020

A few were happy the new device was being deployed however, with one saying it would lead to more easy arrests.

Some of them are starting to use the Bolawrap. Just watched the video today it shoots out a Kevlar web up to like 25 feet away and restrains them for a easy arrest .  Shaw Ma (@ShawMa6) July 14, 2020

US police already use non-lethal weapons like pepper spray and Tasers to apprehend people  but instances of officers shooting and killing fleeing suspects from behind have sparked international outrage.

Civil rights groups and protesters, including the Black Lives Matter movement, are against the use of the BolaWrap, however, and have insisted that police should be trained in de-escalation rather than given more weapons.

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The epics say, in the great War of Ramayana, a number of rakshasas escaped. They hid in the bowels of the Earth, in the water and in space, and remained dormant for eons. In the 20th century of the Christian era, however, some of them reappeared in different forms to plague the Earth with Wars and illnesses. At the end of his war with Ravana, Rama had asked Hanuman to raise and train a contingent of warriors who would take birth multiple times on Earth, to contain the demons. Aishani and Adheesh are two such warriors, blessed with divine weapons and powers to fight the worlds evils at present times. Read this exciting story to know who finally wins. The good or the evil? The Demons of Jaitraya is the first book of the trilogy of the war between demons and humans.

In this book, educationist Shubira Prasad takes readers through a fantastic thriller that takes off from the point right after the war, in Ramayana is won and Hanuman is entrusted with the task to find and kill the demons that may have gone hiding. The Demons of Jaitraya (Vitasta) by Shubira Prasad is a thriller set in the current times where the earth is seeing gruesome killings and mass illnesses and it's now upon the brave warriors of Hanuman to free it from the clutches of the demons that are back from hibernation.

The book comes amid intense political debate and discussion regarding the origin of Ram and Ayodhya. While India has for decades laid claim to Ram and his birthplace Ayodhya, which is located in Uttar Pradesh, Nepal's Prime Minister KP Oli recently claimed that Ram was in fact Nepali and that Ayodhya is really in Nepal, not in India. To many, the claim seemed just as fantastic as this book's plotline. But is there any truth to such claims? Prasad's book may offer a look into an alternate version of Ramayana. While it may have nothing to do with Ram's Nepali origins, it sure feels like a great time to release a thrilling trilogy of the adventures of Ram and Hanuman, when interest in such topics is at a peak.

Here's an excerpt from the book 'The Demons of Jaitiya':

"The battle was over. Shri Ram was the king of Ayodhya now. The mood was sombre; even the wind hesitated in blowing fast. The trees were quiet; the birds and the sky waited in animated suspense. The hills rolled around them like impatient, angry waves. The dark sky hung low giving a claustrophobic feeling. Hanuman could gauge his masters frame of mind. He knew that his prabhu was upset. He also knew that it was not because of Sita maiya but something totally different which had to do with him. He sat there patiently.

After a while, Shri Ram spoke, Hanuman I know you are upset and rightly so, but they have got away. Though no mission is impossible for you, this is going to be a very long wait and extremely tedious. Very soon the fourth Yug will begin. This will be the Kalyug; it will be a future devoid of any hope; it will be an unprecedented road. Scholars and thinkers will know that goodness is being erased; greed and wealth will become the synonyms for success. Might is right will be cherished. Human beings will become demons along with the real demons who will emerge from their dormancy. Life will

be an unending dystopian nightmare from which there will be no awakening. Despair, corruption, and pollution will be as ubiquitous as air and water. The simple and weak-willed human beings shall be forced by the emerging demons to unwillingly become like them. It will become impossible to segregate human beings from the demons, males as well as females. There will be rakshasas, bhoots, praits, dakinis, shakinis and so many other kinds of demons. We have to counter these in the most forceful manner possible. We have to gather a new set of committed warriors who will impart their training along with their divine weapons to their descendants. Their progeny will have these capabilities along with the scientific developments of their own era. From now itself you will begin the training of warriors to find and destroy the leftover demons. Initially, you will train warriors in the Himalayas, later they can form groups and come down and spread all over the Earth. They, in turn, will train other warriors. You will control everything though from a distance when Kalyug comes.

Yes Prabhu. Hanuman understood immediately though he still hankered after the lost opportunity.

And Hanuman, very soon I shall be going back to Vaikunth; you will stay back till the end of Kalyug to oversee all this and spread the message of Ramayana in your way. There is nobody more qualified than you to be my emissary of Ramayana and the destruction of the rest of the demons.

For a moment Hanuman did not grasp what his prabhu had just conveyed. He understood about the training of warriors and destroying the demons. But when he inferred the full gist of his masters order, he was devastated. His Lord and master was leaving this world without taking him! How could this be possible? Death would be preferable to living without his master. He fell at Shri Rams feet. There was a gasp from Mother Earth and the nature around them. There were mixed feelings. The sadness that Shri Ram would leave them but the reassurance that Hanuman would be there to protect them.

Prabhu, Hanuman sobbed, You cannot leave me here. I am your servant. My life is nothing without you. My very existence is because of you. Prabhu, I implore you, take me with you or dont gostay here on Earth to guide us and love us. All the wrongdoings on Mother Earth will be healed by you. We cannot come to you in Vaikunth, it is forbidden, and yet staying away from you is unsurpassed pain. Your absence will only bring me sorrow, for my heart will be with you in Vaikunth and my mind and body will be here on Earth. How can this be possible Prabhu? Hanuman was heartbroken.

Hanuman you are Chiranjeevi (immortal). You will stay here till the end of time. It will be your duty to protect all the devotees from the demons both inside and outside this world. The cruel and fierce Kalyug is on its way. You will help in establishing Dharma in this Kalyug. You know I cannot stay here, but Ill keep on coming here at predestined times in various avatars to guide the people. But it is my blessing to you to be here on this Earth to spread goodness everywhere, righting the wrongs done to human beings by the demons and by other human beings. In addition, you will also spread

the word of the Ramayana and teach the people about righteousness, honesty, truthfulness, caring and loving. Your trainees will destroy the absconding and the leftover demons.

This was said in a very neutral tone but Hanuman knew that it was a command. He kept his head down. His lords wish was his command.

Bhagwan Ram continued, Hanuman, to maintain the balance of this Earth, good and evil will have to coexist albeit on parallel lines. We have to fight our inner demons as well as demons on the outside. We can reach the highest levels of our efficacy by fighting these demons, whether small or big. We will always be there to guide human beings to be good and get rid of evil. This whole world is Maya or illusion. We have to guide the people of the Earth to open their eyes and see the truth. You have been blessed by Brahmaji with so many boons. You will be immune to weapons, you will be able to change into any form that you desire and you will be able to travel anywhere at any speed. These are just a few of your powers. Who better than you to lead and look after the world?

Hanuman heard his prabhu loud and clear and understood everything. But the despair in his heart was too great. His very life was leaving him till eternity and there were no elixir vitae to solve this problem. It was his prabhus desire.

When will you take me with you Prabhu? he asked in anguish. This was the mighty Hanuman who did not allow even Yam Devta or the God of Death to come near his prabhu, who now had no choice but to adhere to these directives.

At the end of Kalyug, Hanuman, when I shall come in my Kalki avatar. I will bring righteousness and happiness again to this earth. At that time you will leave with me, Bhagwan Ram answered.

Hanuman bowed his head. The decree was announced. The Panchtattwas or the five elements of Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space also bowed down to Gods proclamation and set to work.
In recent weeks, YouTube has censored several podcasts of Tamil-language WSWS articles uploaded to the Tamil WSWS Facebook page via YouTube. The administrators of the Tamil WSWS Facebook page challenged each of these acts of censorship, and each video has been made publicly available again, but after several days delay. Even though YouTubes decision to re-post each video after censoring it makes clear that the Tamil WSWS is not violating YouTubes Community Guidelines, this censorship is continuing.

YouTube has repeatedly sent the following message to the YouTube channel posting podcasts of Tamil-language WSWS articles:

As you may know, our Community Guidelines describe which content we allowand dont allowon YouTube. Your video was flagged to us for review. Upon review, weve determined that it violates our guidelines and weve removed it from YouTube.

The censored podcasts warned of the dangers of a US-led war against China in the region, of mounting police violence or of military rule in the United States or in Sri Lanka. YouTube blocked Tamil versions of these articles for several days after they were flagged by unnamed users:

There should be no mistake about the political significance of censoring these articles. Thousands of workers and youth follow WSWS reports and statements in Tamil via social media. YouTube censorship aims to prevent the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) of Sri Lanka from alerting Tamil-speaking workers in Sri Lanka, India and around the world in a timely fashion of the dangers they face: war, disease and police-state rule in the interests of international finance capital.

Sri Lankas discredited political establishment is organizing an election amid a raging COVID-19 pandemic, mounting rumors of coup plots and threats by top officials to impose military rule, and growing social anger against austerity and police-state rule among working people. President Gotabhaya Rajapakse has installed military officials in top state positions and demanded they be legally immune from prosecution over actions they might take.

While forces in the Sri Lankan military and state align themselves with US war threats against China, the Sri Lankan ruling class is using communal politics to try to divide Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim and other workers. The 1983-2009 Sri Lankan Civil War that erupted amid anger at anti-Tamil discrimination by successive governments in Colombo ended a decade ago. Only this year, the Rajapakse government released Sunil Ratnayake, a former sergeant and war criminal convicted of killing eight Tamil civilians, including three children.

Moreover, such crises are not unique to Sri Lanka, but are unfolding around the worldeven in the United States, the worlds wealthiest and most powerful capitalist country. Workers and youth in Sri Lanka followed the US police murder of George Floyd and the Trump administrations moves to illegally deploy the US military against the population, and Sri Lankan authorities brutally cracked down on protests against the killing. The Sri Lankan military later shot a 24-year-old Tamil man, Thiraviam Ramalingam, in Jaffna.

Sri Lankan military intelligence officials have repeatedly harassed and threatened the SEPs election candidates in the Tamil-majority north of Sri Lanka, which is still under military occupation a decade after the end of the Civil War. They visited the SEPs candidates, illegally demanding their information and trying to intimidate workers and youth who support the SEPs campaign.

Under these circumstances, the dangerous implications of YouTubes anti-democratic decision to censor Tamil WSWS podcasts are virtually self-evident.

They expose the utterly fraudulent arguments the New York Times gave in 2018 to justify US-based Internet firms launching mass censorship of social media in former colonial countries. It claimed that in these countries, freedom of expression online leads to communal violence. Facebook, it wrote in an article largely focused on Sri Lanka, pushes whatever content keeps users on the site longesta potentially damaging practice in countries with weak institutions.

At the time, the Times was simply echoing self-serving arguments the Sri Lankan government used to justify shutting down Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram during mob violence against Muslims. This censorship was not aimed at halting the violence, but at covering up widespread reports that Sri Lankan police and military units were complicit in it. Even government ministers were forced to admit that retired and active Sri Lankan security personnel were involved in watching and helping transport the rioters.

Soon after, Facebook began deleting Tamil WSWS posts and preventing Facebook users from sharing them online.

The censorship of WSWS and SEP (Sri Lanka) material on this basis is reactionary and wholly unjustified. The SEP, the Sri Lankan Trotskyist movement, has an unblemished record for decades of opposing all communal violence and working to unify the struggles of the working class, in Sri Lanka, the Indian Ocean region, and beyond, across all national and ethnic lines. It is the ruling class and the state in Sri Lanka, with which Washington and US social media companies work, that abets communal violence.

Today, as reactionary governments from Sri Lanka to Europe and America try to mobilize heavily-armed riot police and military units against strikes and protests, it is clear that Internet censorship is aimed not at preventing but at imposing police-state rule on workers internationally. The WSWS calls on its readers and supporters to share its material, take up the struggle against Internet censorship, and oppose the threats against SEP candidates in Sri Lanka.
The St. Catharines anti-racism advisory committee is recommending money in the Niagara Regional Police budget be reallocated to a civilian service to deal with mental health, suicide and welfare check calls.

The defunding of the police service, along with outfitting body cameras on officers and providing more crisis intervention training, was among several police reform recommendations presented to St. Catharines city council.

Your residents want to see you move this forward, Saleh Waziruddin, chair of the anti-racism advisory committee, told councillors during their online video meeting Monday.

The citizen committee was asked by city council in June what it thought of body cameras for police and if it had other ideas for police reform.

Waziruddin said the committee heard from residents who gave oral and written delegations on the issue. It also had conversations with Niagara Regional Police and the Canadian Mental Health Association.

Members then came up with a list of recommendations for city council to take to Niagara Region, which oversees the police budget through the police services board. The recommendations fall into 10 categories ranging from de-militarization to hiring practices.

Waziruddin said the defunding recommendation may be unnecessarily controversial.

The committee is suggesting the police chief and board re-assess the financial requirements for adequate policing based on removing welfare checks, mental health and suicide threat calls, as well as foot patrols that are demanded because of perception.

The police would bring the reduced budget to Niagara Region which would shift the eliminated funds to a dispatched civilian service, such as Niagara Emergency Medical Services, to respond to those calls.

Waziruddin said 11 per cent of NRPs 2018 calls were for welfare checks, mental health or suicide threats that he said dont need an armed response.

The fact is even the police services board is saying dont look at the police to solve social problems, fund civilian services instead, he said.

He said residents have a right to say they want those three kinds of calls outside of policing.

Its not really that controversial or strange to have the reallocation of funds. It brings together whats been discussed over the last few years.

The committee also recommended the service implement body cameras for all front-line officers as soon as possible.

Waziruddin said cameras arent being asked for because the committee believes they will reduce disproportionate violence but are an extra tool that can provide footage if an incident does happen.

St. Patricks Coun. Mat Siscoe, who made the original motion at council asking for body cameras, said a conversation needs to happen at the region to try and reform police, recognizing the need for increased funding in other areas of service.

If we want better outcomes for everybody in our community, if we want everybody to feel like a part of the community, it cant simply just be a first resort and a last resort to always send the police to every call, Siscoe said.

City council voted 7-5 to defer sending the recommendations to the Region, as it wants to hear thoughts from the chief of police first. Hell be invited to come to the next council meeting.

The anti-racism committees other recommendations include that the service sell its armoured vehicle and ban the use of tear gas, pepper spray or other chemical agents against protestors or at demonstrations.

It also wants an end to street checks, saying the practice involves racial discrimination.

The committee wants officers to receive more training, including anti-bias or anti-racism training, and wants the service to increase diversity hiring to at least 15 per cent of the recruiting class over three years.

Its also asking that a civilian body be established with oversight and disciplinary powers over police and that more statistics on hate crimes and use of force by race be published for transparency.
Like many people, Amanda Keller sometimes struggles with the reverse camera on her phone.

In a post on Instagram on Thursday, the 58-year-old TV presenter shared a hilarious selfie, admitting she'd been trying to take a photo of a sunset.

The accidental photo is a close-up of the top half of Amanda's head, with just her eyes, forehead and hair visible.

Ready for her close-up: Like many people, Amanda Keller sometimes struggles with the reverse camera on her phone, sharing this accidental selfie on Instagram on Thursday

It appears to have been taken on a windy day, with her short blonde hair standing up on end.

Only a fraction of the sky she was trying to photograph is visible behind her head.

'Set out to capture the sunset in the Blue Mountains. Instead I captured Luna Park,' she captioned the photo.

Relatable: Many of Amanda's followers commented that they could relate, with one person writing, '#boomerselfie'

And many of Amanda's followers commented that they could relate, with one person writing, '#boomerselfie'.

'Nailed it,' joked another fan, while one person commented, 'Kramer hair', referencing the legendary character from '90s sitcom Seinfeld.

In an interview with The Australian back in January, Amanda said she was happy she still had a career, after landing her first media job back in 1983.

Working it: In an interview with The Australian back in January, Amanda said she was happy she still had a career, after landing her first media job back in 1983

'I'm proud to still have [a career]. There have been a lot of highs and lows, and you kind of just get on with it,' she said.

'If shows get axed, you find a side door.'

She added: 'I'd like to think I've come through with relative good humour despite - or maybe because of - jobs being there one day and gone the next.'
A politician who tends to keep his own counsel, Trump has filtered through a string of political advisers during his career and time in the White House. Trump fired Corey Lewandowski, the manager of his first presidential campaign, in June 2016, at a similar point in the election cycle. The person elevated to take Lewandowskis role, Paul Manafort, lasted about two more months before he resigned. He was replaced by Kellyanne Conway, who still advises Trump at the White House.
By the end of the weekend, 11 people had been killed, by the governments count, though the protesters said the toll was higher, and more than 85 people were injured. Ousmane Diallo, a researcher on Francophone West Africa with Amnesty International, said many of those hurt had been shot with live bullets, and he agreed that the official count of the dead could be much too low.

The crackdown was aimed at stopping the demonstrators from being masters of the streets, Mr. Diallo said. They are trying to see if by sheer police repression, they can break down the movement, and show that they are the legitimate authority in Mali.

Critics of the government were especially outraged by the use of a counterterrorism police unit to quell the protests.

In a joint statement released on Monday, the United Nations, the West African regional bloc, Ecowas, the African Union and the European Union condemned the use of lethal force by the police, and called for restraint.

International mediators, led by the former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan, met with Mr. Keita on Wednesday night, according to local journalists, and then met with M5 movement leaders and supporters, including Mahmoud Dicko, a powerful imam who is a driving force behind the protests.
Although the 2020 Presidential General Election is more than four months away, the clock will soon start running on deadlines for city, school district and special district candidates to meet as part of the filing process in Santa Barbara County.
Nigerian government on Wednesday said it would not yet reverse its decision not to reopen schools to allow SS 3 students participate i...





Nigerian government on Wednesday said it would not yet reverse its decision not to reopen schools to allow SS 3 students participate in the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examinations, WASSCE.





There had been outcry and condemnation since the Nigerian government announced that SS 3 students would not take part in this years WASSCE in order to avert the spread of Coronavirus.





Minister of State for Education, Chief Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, after the Virtual Federal Executive Council, FEC meeting on Wednesday said the position remained unchanged.





The minister said the Ministry was still consulting with education stakeholders on what the best position should be, adding the West African Examination Council (WAEC) had also started consultations with West African nations on a possibility of shifting dates





According to him, government was still meeting with parents over the decision of the Ministry, adding that what the Minister said reflected the true position of the Ministry





We are not confident yet that everywhere is safe, the numbers from the NCDC are still alarming and we have put this before parents and all the stakeholders in the the Education ecosystem, we are still meeting with them. In fact, theres a stakeholders meeting convened for Monday, he said.





Nwajiuba said WAEC on its own part was also negotiating with other West African countries to look at possible shift in date.





He said once they were through with that meeting and that hopefully when government was through with the consultation with stakeholders, if there was any change in the Ministrys position, it would be communicated.




The Vatican told bishops around the world on Thursday they should report cases of clergy sex crimes to police even when not legally bound to do so, in its latest effort to compel church leaders to protect minors from predator priests.

The Vatican issued a long-awaited manual for bishops and religious superiors on conducting in-house investigations into allegations of priests who rape and molest minors and vulnerable adults. While the Vatican has had detailed canonical norms in place for two decades, the laws continue to be ignored by some bishops who dismiss allegations by victims in favor of protecting their priests.

While the manual doesnt have the force of a new law, it goes beyond the current Vatican policy about cooperating with law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and police. That policy requires bishops and religious superiors to report allegations of sex crimes with minors only where local laws require it.

The manual says: Even in cases where there is no explicit legal obligation to do so, the ecclesiastical authorities should make a report to the competent civil authorities if this is considered necessary to protect the person involved or other minors from the danger of further criminal acts.

And it says church leaders must comply with legitimate" subpoena requests.

The manual, issued in a half-dozen languages, appears aimed in part at depriving bishops and religious superiors of their frequent excuses not to carry out preliminary investigations into accused priests.

The manual states, for example, that anonymous allegations should not be dismissed outright, as they often are, and that even hearsay and social media posts can constitute the basis on which to launch a preliminary probe.

In addition, the manual says bishops should not ignore allegations just because they fall outside the churchs statute of limitations, since the Vatican can at any time decide to waive the time limit.

The only justification for dismissing an allegation outright, the manual says, is if the bishop determines the manifest impossibility of proceeding, such as if the the priest wasnt physically present when the alleged crimes took place.

The manual also makes clear that the type of crimes that fall under sexual abuse is quite broad and includes not only sexual relations but any physical contact for sexual gratification, including actions bishops frequently dismiss as mere boundary violations." The manual lists exhibitionism, masturbation, pornography production and conversations and/or propositions of a sexual nature that can occur through a variety of means of communication as crimes that must be investigated.

And it warns that bishops can themselves be prosecuted canonically for negligence if they fail to take allegations seriously and investigate them.

The manual was published by the Vatican office that investigates priestly sex crimes, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and was issued in Italian, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese and Polish, with a German edition expected.

Its origins lie in Pope Francis 2019 sex abuse summit, in which the presidents of all the worlds bishops conferences came to the Vatican for a four-day tutorial on abuse. Francis summoned them after he himself botched a notorious case of abuse and cover-up in Chile, and after he realized that many bishops around the world still didnt understand or take seriously the depth of the abuse problem in the church.

On the first day of the summit, Francis issued 21 points of reflection going forward, with the first point a recommendation that the Vatican issue a handbook to help bishops investigate and prosecute sex crimes. While the Vatican has issued a variety of abuse-related documents over the years, the new manual provides a point-by-point instruction on how to conduct investigations, from start to finish.

The No. 2 at the Vatican office responsible, Monsignor Giacomo Morandi, acknowledged that no new norms are being promulgated. The real novelty, however, is that for the first time the procedure is described in an organized way  from the first report of a possible crime to the definitive conclusion of the cause, he told Vatican Media.

The Vatican has long refused to flat-out require bishops to report abuse allegations to police, arguing that such a universal law could lead to unjust treatment of priests in countries where Catholics are a persecuted minority. Survivors and advocates have long blasted the position, arguing that the Vatican could make a universal reporting mandate with certain exceptions if needed.

Anne Barrett Doyle, co-founder of BishopAccountability, an online resource center about abuse, said the manual's non-binding recommendation that bishops should report abuse was incrementally better" than the Vatican's past position.

But she stressed: We're past the point of should.' There is nothing stopping the pope from ordering bishops and religious superiors (to report) all allegations to civil authorities," with exceptions where it's not safe.

And she insisted that real progress would come when the Vatican institutes a true zero tolerance" policy, permanently removing from public ministry any cleric who abuses and any bishop who enables him.

That will be progress. That will be the reform that is needed," she said.
NEW YORK, July 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Wirecard AG (Wirecard or the Company) (OTCMKTS: WCAGY; WRCDF). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at newaction@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980.



The investigation concerns whether Wirecard and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

On June 18, 2020, Wirecard announced that it would delay publication of its annual and consolidated financial statements for 2019, and revealed that about 1.9 billion ($2.1 billion) in cash has gone missing. The Company also warned that loans up to 2 billion could be terminated. Additionally, the Company stated that Ernst & Young was unable to confirm the location of the cash in certain trust accounts and there was evidence that spurious balance confirmations had been provided.

Following the Companys announcement, Wirecards American depositary receipt (ADR) price fell $38.30 per share, or 65.47%, to close at $20.20 per share on June 18, 2020.

Then, on June 23, 2020, multiple news outlets reported that former Wirecard Chief Executive Officer Markus Braun was arrested in Germany on suspicion of having inflated the Companys balance sheet and sales. Wirecards ADR price has fallen over 75% following these revelations.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.
New pathways are being planned to lead students through courses that would combine vocational education and training with subjects taught at school and university.

TAFE NSW managing director Steffen Faurby revealed the plan he is discussing with universities and businessman David Gonski who is conducting a government review into the state's vocational education and training sector.

Steffen Faurby has outlined his vision to commercialise TAFE by promoting it to industry and international students. Credit:Louise Kennerley

"For me it makes the world of sense to put a program in place where we make the pathway for students from high school in and out of vocational education and university as easy as possible," Mr Faurby said.

News of the plan comes as NSW confirms it will match its proportional share of the federal government's $500 million commitment to a new "JobTrainer" scheme to run courses for thousands of workers to equip them with skills needed for the pandemic recovery. The federal plan forecasts the creation of 108,600 training places in NSW that could require about $160 million from the state government, subject to negotiation.
New parents, Alhadi, a refugee from Sudan, and his Somali wife, Umalkeyr, sit cradling their 20-day-old son in a blanket as they wait to see a doctor. The young couple have come to get medical care for baby Ayman, who has a persistent gastric problem.

Libya is still grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic. While some movement restrictions have recently been eased, nighttime and weekend curfews are still in place and much of daily life in the country remains on pause. Only a few stores have re-opened, and most businesses and public buildings are closed. Access to health care remains a challenge for many.

But in the midst of the coronavirus lockdown, a primary healthcare centre in the Gergaresh neighbourhood of Tripoli  serving a catchment area of at least 30,000 people, including high concentrations of refugees and migrants from sub-Saharan Africa  has re-opened, thanks to the support of UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and its partner the International Rescue Committee (IRC).

The centre, which is providing medical and protection services to those in need, is one of just three Primary Health Care Centres (PHCCs) that are currently operating in the whole municipality, an area where an estimated 450,000 people live.

"Everything was closed."

This clinic is close by where we live  it helps, said 19-year-old Alhadi. This is a very good thing to find a place that is close by that would help us to get treatment. Im very happy, especially because everything was closed.

The young father said that travelling out of the house during lockdown to seek emergency medical help at a hospital could be very difficult, as you may be stopped by the authorities at checkpoints.

It was costly, too, he said: journeys required taxis, and even if you arrived at a hospital, there would often be problems gaining admittance since many facilities did not recognize UNHCR registration documents, or wanted up-front payments.

The Gergaresh PHCC was closed by the government when a state of emergency was declared as the first cases of COVID-19 appeared in March. It was an attempt to try to contain the spread of the virus. In the clinic, staff faced shortages of equipment, including PPEs, or personal protective equipment, and lacked training in how to manage and control infectious disease.

When UNHCR and its partner, IRC, offered to step in and provide services through an IRC medical and protection team, while also procuring equipment and offering training for local staff, PHCC manager, Belgasim Shibli, enthusiastically accepted.

"We are open to Libyans, to refugees, to migrants."

There are big health needs in this municipality, he said. When the centre closed, that led to many Libyans seeking treatment in the emergency units in hospitals, which caused overcrowding.

The services provided here have a huge impact on the local population. We are open to Libyans, to refugees, to migrants, Shibli added. We can provide integrated services and facilities to all, regardless of their background.

The Libyan staff working at the centre, who are soon expected to resume their work alongside the IRC team, received several training sessions on infectious disease control and treatment.

UNHCR and IRC jointly procured gloves, face masks, goggles, sanitisers and thermometers and other medical and office equipment. A generator will also be provided, to ensure the facility has constant access to electricity during working hours.

The IRC protection team visits the facility daily to provide psychosocial support for women and girls and case management services, especially for those who are affected by gender-based violence.

Sudanese refugee Alhadi and his Somali wife, Umalkeyr, wait for a doctor to see their newborn son.  UNHCR/Caroline Gluck

The centre has introduced social distancing measures to ensure smaller numbers inside the main waiting room, with others waiting in the shady courtyard outside. Patients are given masks and have their temperatures checked as they enter.

As well as providing health services to refugees and asylum seekers directly at several health care and community centres around the country, in response to the pandemic UNHCR has also stepped up its support for national health systems, providing generators, ambulances, medical tents and prefabricated units used as initial reception and examination rooms for COVID-19 detection.

UNHCRs Assistant Public Health Officer, Dr. Meftah Lahwel, said it was important to be able to provide essential health services to all at a time of the COVID crisis, including reproductive health and mental health services.

The health needs here are huge. We are working in this facility to provide free of charge health care access for all, regardless of their status, Lahwel said. This partnership is one of the steps to provide integrated health services for refugees and asylum seekers in areas where they reside in large populations.

See also: UNHCR steps up emergency assistance in Libya as continued conflict and COVID-19 create more hardship

Libyan patients queuing alongside refugees and migrants in the waiting area were also happy that the centre was back in operation. Halwa, a Libyan mother who had given birth nine days earlier, and had come in for a check-up, said: Everyone has put a lot of effort into reopening this place. It is really helpful for us to come here.

Dr. Wafa Elmati is a member of the IRC team, which includes a gynaecologist, psychiatrist, psychologist, doctor, nurse and pharmacist, as well as protection staff who carry out psychosocial care, recreational activities for children and mental health counselling.

Many cases involve patients with chronic issues such as diabetes and hypertension, requiring ongoing medication, which had been disrupted during the lockdown period. But Elmati said that shed also seen cases of malnutrition, scabies and even tuberculosis.

Im very happy to be working here. Many patients come in feeling very stressed and afraid, but they leave with a smile on their face.
Iranian soldiers take part in the "National Persian Gulf day" in the Strait of Hormuz, on April 30, 2019. ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images

Tanker Off UAE Sought by US Over Iran Sanctions Hijacked

DUBAI, United Arab EmiratesAn oil tanker sought by the United States over allegedly circumventing sanctions on Iran was hijacked on July 5 off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, a seafarers welfare organization said July 15.

Satellite photos showed the vessel in Iranian waters on July 14, and two of its sailors remained in the Iranian capital.

It wasnt immediately clear what happened aboard the Dominica-flagged MT Gulf Sky, though its reported hijacking comes after months of tensions between Iran and the United States.

David Hammond, the CEO of the United Kingdom-based group Human Rights at Sea, said he took a witness statement from the captain of the MT Gulf Sky, confirming the ship had been hijacked.

Hammond said that 26 of the Indian sailors on board had made it back to India, while two remained in Tehran, without elaborating.

We are delighted to hear that the crew are safe and well, which has been our fundamental concern from the outset, Hammond told The Associated Press.

Hammond said that he had no other details on the vessel.

TankerTrackers.com, a website tracking the oil trade at sea, said it saw the vessel in satellite photos on July 14 in Iranian waters off Hormuz Island. Hormuz Island, near the port city of Bandar Abbas, is some 120 miles north of Khorfakkan, a city on the eastern coast of the United Arab Emirates where the vessel had been for months.

An oil tanker sought by the United States was hijacked July 5 off the UAE coast. (AP)

The Emirati government, the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi, and the U.S. Navys Bahrain-based 5th Fleet have not responded to requests for comment. Iranian state media didnt report on the vessel. Irans mission to the United Nations has not responded to a request for comment.

In May, the U.S. Justice Department filed criminal charges against two Iranians, accusing them of trying to launder some $12 million to purchase the tanker, then named the MT Nautica, through a series of front companies. The vessel then took on Iranian oil from Kharg Island to sell abroad, the U.S. government said.

Court documents allege the scheme involved the Quds Force of Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which is its elite expeditionary unit, as well as Irans national oil and tanker companies. The two men charged, one of whom also has an Iraqi passport, remain at large.

Because a U.S. bank froze the funds related to the sale of the vessel, the seller never received payment, the Justice Department said. As a result, the seller instituted a civil action in the UAE to recover the vessel.

That civil action was believed to still be pending, raising questions of how the tanker sailed away from the Emirates after being seized by authorities there.

Data from the MT Gulf Skys Automatic Identification System tracker shows it had been turned off on July 5, according to ship-tracking website MarineTraffic.com. Ships are supposed to keep their AIS trackers on, but Iranian vessels routinely turn theirs off to mask their movements.

Meanwhile, the 28 Indian sailors on board the vessel found themselves stuck on board without pay for months, according to the International Labor Organization. It filed a report saying the vessel and its sailors had been abandoned by its owners since March off Khorfakkan. The ILO didnt respond to a request for comment.

As tensions between Iran and the United States heated up last year, tankers plying the waters of the Mideast became targets, particularly near the crucial Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulfs narrow mouth through which 20 percent of all oil passes. Suspected limpet mine attacks the U.S. blamed on Iran targeted several tankers. Iran denied being involved, though it did seize several tankers.

By Jon Gambrell
ISIS bride Shamima Begum should be allowed to return to the UK to challenge the deprivation of her British citizenship, senior judges have ruled.

The Court of Appeal ruled on Thursday that the only way in which she can have a fair and effective appeal is to be permitted to come into the United Kingdom to pursue her appeal.

The Home Office, which revoked her citizenship last year, hit out at the court ruling as very disappointing and said it would pursue an appeal.

Now 20, Ms Begum was one of three east London schoolgirls who left Britain and travelled to Syria via Turkey to join the terror group in February 2015.



She lived under Islamic State rule for more than three years before she was found, nine months pregnant, at the al-Hol refugee camp in Syria in February last year. She told reporters she didnt regret joining ISIS, but begged to be rescued and brought back to the UK.

Then home secretary Sajid Javid revoked her British citizenship on national security grounds later that month.

Ms Begum, whose three children and ISIS fighter husband all died, is now living at the al-Roj refugee camp in Syria.

She took legal action against the Home Office, claiming the decision was unlawful because it rendered her stateless and exposed her to a real risk of death or inhuman and degrading treatment.

It is said Thursdays ruling opens the door for other ISIS brides and fighters to make similar attempts to return to Britain.

It means the Government must find a way to allow Ms Begum to travel to the UK to appear in court in London despite insisting it would offer no assistance to rescue her from Syria.

Lord Justice Flaux  sitting with Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Singh  said: Fairness and justice must, on the facts of this case, outweigh the national security concerns, so that the leave to enter appeals should be allowed.

The judge found that the national security concerns about her could be addressed and managed if she returns to the United Kingdom.

In its ruling, the court said: If the Security Service and the Director of Public Prosecutions consider that the evidence and public interest tests for a prosecution for terrorist offences are met, she could be arrested and charged upon her arrival in the United Kingdom and remanded in custody pending trial.

Lord Justice Flaux also said: With due respect to SIAC, it is unthinkable that, having concluded that Ms Begum could not take any meaningful part in her appeal so that it could not be fair and effective, she should have to continue with her appeal nonetheless.

He added: It is difficult to conceive of any case where a court or tribunal has said we cannot hold a fair trial, but we are going to go on anyway.

The court also found that if Ms Begum can participate in the her appeal then it will be possible to explore the circumstances of her departure from he UK to join ISIS and whether she travelled to Syria of her own free will.

After the ruling was announced, Ms Begums solicitor, Daniel Furner said: The courts judgment today is an important reminder that fairness and the rule of law remain cornerstones of the British legal system, and that they set the legal limits within which the Home Secretary may act.

Justice cannot be defeated, or indefinitely delayed, because a case is difficult or because national security is engaged. Fundamental rights are not extinguished because a person is abroad, or because the allegations against them are serious.

As important as the reiteration of those centuries old principles was the courts unqualified rejection of the Home Secretarys argument that the impediments to Ms Begums participation in her appeal were of her own making.

As the court said, approaching the case on that basis risks putting the cart before the horse.

Ms Begum has never had a fair opportunity to give her side of the story.

The court itself noted the obvious difference between interviews given to journalists, and instructions provided to a solicitor in court proceedings.

Ms Begum is not afraid of facing British justice, she welcomes it. But the stripping of her citizenship without a chance to clear her name is not justice, it is the opposite.

A spokeswoman for the Home Office, now led by Priti Patel, said after Thursdays ruling was announced: This is a very disappointing decision by the court.

We will now apply for permission to appeal this judgment, and to stay its effects pending any onward appeal.

The governments top priority remains maintaining our national security and keeping the public safe.

The ruling was hailed by civil liberties groups, including Liberty, which intervened in Ms Begums appeal.

Follow Us on Facebook  @LadunLiadi; Instagram  @LadunLiadi; Twitter  @LadunLiadi; Youtube  @LadunLiadiTV for updates
VANCOUVER, July 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Emerald Health Therapeutics, Inc. (Emerald) (TSXV: EMH; OTCQX: EMHTF) has terminated certain related party agreements pertaining to consulting services and a loan facility.

Emerald Health Sciences Inc. ("EHS"), a control person of Emerald, and Emerald entered into an independent contractor agreement on May 1, 2015, as amended from time to time (the Consulting Agreement), and a loan agreement on August 25, 2015, as amended from time to time (the Loan Agreement). EHS and Emerald have agreed to terminate the Consulting Agreement and Loan Agreement effective immediately.

In addition, Emeralds 51%-owned joint venture, Emerald Health Naturals Inc., and Avricore Health Inc. (then named VANC Pharmaceuticals, Inc.) have terminated a supply and distribution agreement that was entered into on April 15, 2018, effective immediately.

We are very pleased with our progress to systematically rationalize, restructure and/or terminate agreements, in order to only focus on initiatives that will provide commercial and financial value to Emerald Health Therapeutics in the future, said Riaz Bandali, President and CEO of Emerald. After the termination of these three agreements, Emerald Health Therapeutics has only one remaining related-party agreement with an Emerald Health Sciences entity. That agreement is focused on enhancing our science-driven product development capabilities by providing access, on an as-needed contractual basis, to scientific expertise on endocannabinoid system modulation. Since science-driven, differentiated, product development is a core capability that we intend to enhance in the future, we have retained access to this lone remaining services agreement.

About Emerald Health Therapeutics

Emerald Health Therapeutics, Inc. is committed to creating new consumer experiences with distinct recreational, medical and wellness-oriented cannabis and non-cannabis products, with an emphasis on life science-based innovation and production excellence. Emeralds three distinct operating assets are designed to uniquely serve the Canadian marketplace and international opportunities. These assets, all in full production, include: its Metro Vancouver, BC-based greenhouse operation (78,000 square feet) capable of producing organic-certified product; Verdelite, its premium craft cannabis production indoor facility in St. Eustache, Quebec (88,000 square feet); and Pure Sunfarms, its 41.3%-owned joint venture in Delta, BC, producing affordably priced quality products (1.1 M square feet). Its Emerald Naturals subsidiary has launched a new natural wellness product category with its non-cannabis endocannabinoid-supporting product line and is expanding distribution across Canada.

Story continues

Please visit www.emeraldhealth.ca for more information or contact:



Jenn Hepburn, Chief Financial Officer

(800) 757 3536 Ext. #5

Emerald Investor Relations

(800) 757 3536 Ext. #5

invest@emeraldhealth.ca

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: Certain statements made in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements and are subject to important risks, uncertainties and assumptions, both general and specific, which give rise to the possibility that actual results or events could differ materially from our expectations expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such statements include: future product research and development; and implementation of strategic initiatives.

We cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will materialize, and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties related to, among other things, changes of law and regulations; changes of government; failure to obtain regulatory approvals or permits; failure to obtain necessary financing; results of production and sale activities; results of scientific research; regulatory changes; changes in prices and costs of inputs; demand for labour; demand for products; failure of counter-parties to perform contractual obligations; as well as the risk factors described in Emeralds annual information form and other regulatory filings. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release represent our expectations as of the date hereof. Forward-looking statements are presented for the purpose of providing information about management's current expectations and plans and allowing investors and others to obtain a better understanding of our anticipated operating environment. Readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. Emerald undertakes no obligations to update or revise such statements to reflect new circumstances or unanticipated events as they occur, unless required by applicable law.
"Access to acute care is based on clinical need and no Victorian will be denied appropriate clinical care when needed," the department said in a statement. "The COVID-19 Aged Care Plan means these care decisions are made on a case-by-case basis and take into account the clinical needs and preference of the resident, and a facilitys capacity to provide the level of care required, workforce and infection control risks. "Depending on the severity of cases and their setting, the decision may be made to provide treatment for the patient in the existing facility. In some cases, relocation into an unfamiliar setting can have negative impacts on the wellbeing of the patient in care, and may result in further risk to the patient. "DHHS works closely with aged care facilities to ensure care of residents is not compromised in any way and appropriate treatment can be provided as required." There have been 27 virus outbreaks in Victorian aged care homes since the start of the pandemic, with growing clusters at facilities in Essendon and Ardeer.

On Thursday all residents from Menarock aged care in Essendon were moved to acute care in hospital after an outbreak among staff and residents reached 31 cases, up two from Wednesday. Estia aged care in Ardeer has 21 cases. Aged care provider groups have written to the state government urging it to transfer all aged care residents who tested positive to hospital to give them the best chance of survival and prevent major outbreaks. Anglicare chief Grant Millard has said if he had his time again he would have sent all COVID-19 positive residents to hospital from the Anglicare-run Newmarch House aged care home in Sydney, where 19 residents died in one of the country's worst outbreaks. "You can't expect hospital-like service from a residential aged care provider," he said in May.

Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said on Thursday that the key strategy health authorities were relying on to keep the virus from aged care homes was screening healthcare workers who entered the homes, rather than removing sick residents. "I don't think moving residents out who are infected is always the control measure that is required," he said. "The primary thing is to never have infection introduced in the first place ... We need to focus on making sure the staff who are turning up positive are excluding themselves at the very first symptom." But Aged Care Guild CEO Nicholas Brown said it was "definitely a concern" that Glendale had not been able to transfer its COVID-19 positive residents to hospital.

"DHHS seems to be stonewalling here," Mr Brown said. "This is an industry-wide issue across a lot of states and territories - the only state with a clear protocol to transfer COVID-positive aged care residents to hospital is South Australia. "My big concern in Victoria is senior Australians in care are not getting the same access to hospital as everybody else." Aged and Community Services Australia CEO Patricia Sparrow said the government was deciding case by case whether to treat a sick person at their nursing home or take them to hospital,

Residents who test positive need to be transferred to hospital  for them to get the best treatment, but also for providers to be able to stop the further infection of residents, she said. Some facilities would find it difficult to stop the spread of infection, she said, and all homes have common dining areas. Loading On Nine's The Today Show on Thursday, host Allison Langdon said she had just heard from Graeme, a resident at Glendale Aged Care, who had lost a friend to COVID-19 and wanted infected residents taken straight to hospital. Asked if he agreed, federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said those medical decisions were being made on the ground.

"So what we've done is made sure that every facility immediately has access to hospital, to removal, to another facility, or to isolation," Mr Hunt told The Today Show. "Those medical decisions are being made on the ground, but this is something that the Prime Minister and myself and Richard Colbeck, the Aged Care Minister, have been incredibly focused on." Richard Lindley, a professor of geriatric medicine at the University of Sydney, said the option of hospital transferral needed to be seriously considered. Nursing home staff dont have the expertise and training in infection control the hospital nursing staff would have, he said. Get our Morning & Evening Edition newsletters The most important news, analysis and insights delivered to your inbox at the start and end of each day. Sign up here.
MINNEAPOLIS, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sun BioPharma, Inc. (OTCQB: SNBP), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing disruptive therapeutics for the treatment of patients with pancreatic cancer, today announced the appointment of Jennifer K. Simpson, Ph.D., as President and Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Simpson was also appointed to the Companys Board of Directors. Dr. Simpson brings more than two decades of public company executive and fundraising experience in oncology drug development and commercialization to Sun BioPharma, most recently having served as CEO of Delcath Systems, Inc. Sun BioPharma co-founder Michael T. Cullen, M.D, MBA, will continue to serve as Executive Chairman of Sun BioPharmas Board of Directors.

Recent interim clinical trial results demonstrated an overall tumor response rate of 62% for Sun BioPharmas compound SBP-101, a significant improvement versus standard therapy for patients with pancreatic cancer, said Dr. Simpson. Im excited to join the team and help the Company realize the full potential of SBP-101 for patients in an area of unmet medical need having this orphan disease.

Dr. Simpsons career spans oncology drug development from early clinical stage through commercialization, and her executive experience and oncology product clinical and commercial expertise will expedite the access of cancer patients to this potential advance in treatment, said Dr. Cullen. I am delighted to be working with her.

Dr. Simpson has more than 25 years of experience across a variety of executive, business operations, marketing and clinical development roles in the biopharmaceutical industry. Prior to her appointment as CEO of Delcath Systems, Dr. Simpson served as its Executive Vice President, and Global Head of Business Operations. Previous to joining Delcath, Dr. Simpson held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility at ImClone Systems, Inc. and Johnson & Johnson Ortho-Biotech. Earlier in her career, she spent over a decade as a hematology/oncology nurse practitioner and educator. Dr. Simpson holds a Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh, an M.S. in Nursing from the University of Rochester, and a B.S. in Nursing from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Sun BioPharma is developing SBP-101 for first-line treatment of patients with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) when administered in combination with gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel. SBP-101 is currently being evaluated at sites in the United States and Australia in the expansion phase of a clinical trial for patients with previously untreated metastatic PDA. For more information, please visit https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03412799.

About SBP-101

SBP-101 is a proprietary polyamine analogue designed to induce polyamine metabolic inhibition (PMI) by exploiting an observed high affinity of the compound for the exocrine pancreas and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. The molecule has shown signals of tumor growth inhibition in clinical studies of US and Australian metastatic pancreatic cancer patients, suggesting complementary activity with an existing FDA-approved chemotherapy regimen. In clinical studies to date, SBP-101 has not shown exacerbation of the typical chemotherapy-related adverse events of bone marrow suppression and peripheral neuropathy. The safety data and PMI profile observed in Sun BioPharmas current clinical trial provides support for continued evaluation of the compound in a randomized clinical trial.

About Sun BioPharma

Sun BioPharma Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing disruptive therapeutics for patients with urgent unmet medical needs. The Companys initial product candidate is SBP-101 for the treatment of patients with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, the most common type of pancreatic cancer. Sun BioPharma Inc. is dedicated to treating patients with pancreatic cancer and fully exploring SBP-101s potential for efficacy in combination with other agents and in treating other types of cancer. SBP-101 was invented by Raymond J. Bergeron, Ph.D., a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Florida. Sun BioPharma has scientific collaborations with pancreatic disease experts at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, the University of Rochester in New York, Scripps MD Anderson Cancer Center in San Diego, California, the University of Florida, the Austin Health Cancer Trials Centre in Melbourne, Australia, the Ashford Cancer Centre in Adelaide, Australia, the Blacktown Cancer and Haemotology Centre in Sydney, Australia and the John Flynn Private Hospital in Tugun, Queensland, Australia. The Companys independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) is Chaired by James Abbruzzese, MD, Professor of Medicine, and Chief, Division of Medical Oncology at Duke University School of Medicine. Professor David Goldstein, FRACP, Senior Staff Specialist at the Prince Henry & Prince of Wales Hospital / Cancer Care Centre in Sydney, Australia is Co-Chair of the DSMB. Further information can be found at: www.sunbiopharma.com. Sun BioPharmas common stock is currently quoted on the OTCQB tier of the over-the-counter markets administered by the OTC Markets Group, Inc. under the symbol SNBP.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as: believes, may, expects, or plans. Examples of forward-looking statements include, among others, statements we make regarding future determinations of the characteristics of SBP-101, and its effectiveness. Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. Instead, they are based only on our current beliefs, expectations, and assumptions regarding the future of our business, future plans and strategies, projections, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control. Our actual results and financial condition may differ materially and adversely from the forward-looking statements. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause our actual results and financial condition to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements include, among others, the following: (i) our ability to obtain additional funding to complete Phase 1 clinical trial; (ii) progress and success of our Phase 1 clinical trial; (iii) the impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic on our ability to complete enrollment in our current clinical trial; (iv) our ability to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of our SBP-101 product candidate (v) our ability to obtain regulatory approvals for our SBP-101 product candidate in the United States, the European Union or other international markets; (vi) the market acceptance and level of future sales of our SBP-101 product candidate; (vii) the cost and delays in product development that may result from changes in regulatory oversight applicable to our SBP-101 product candidate; (viii) the rate of progress in establishing reimbursement arrangements with third-party payors; (ix) the effect of competing technological and market developments; (x) the costs involved in filing and prosecuting patent applications and enforcing or defending patent claims; and (xi) such other factors as discussed in Part I, Item 1A under the caption Risk Factors in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, any additional risks presented in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and our Current Reports on Form 8-K. Any forward-looking statement made by us in this press release is based on information currently available to us and speaks only as of the date on which it is made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement or reasons why actual results would differ from those anticipated in any such forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.





Contact Information:

Investor & Media Contact:

Tammy Groene  Sun BioPharma, Inc.

952 479 1196
Communication Minister in a joint press conference in Yaounde on July 13, 2020 presented the increasing non respect of media ethics in traditional and social media.

Cameroon government through the Minister of Communication, Rene Emmanuel Sadi has called for caution, vigilance, discernment and vigilance in the face of persistent misinformation campaign in the country perpetrated through the traditional media and social media networks. He was speaking in Yaounde on July 13, 2020 in a joint press conference.

Talking about press freedom which he said the Cameroonian citizen fully enjoys, the Minister quoted Article 19 (2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights adopted in New York on 16 December 1966 which stipulated that,  Everyone has the right to freedom of expression ; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kind, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in written or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.  However, paragraph 3 of the same article specifies that the exercise of these freedoms, carries with it special duties and responsibilities. Consequently, they may be subject to certain restrictions which shall, however, be such as are provided by law and are necessary for respect of the rights and reputations of others and for the protection of national security or public order, or of public health or morals. 

Despite the clear definition of press freedom, the Minister said some current events in Cameroon such as government's indefatigable fight against the coronavirus pandemic and efforts to resolve peacefully the security crisis in the North West and South West Regions have brought to the fore blatant media drifts. He said some media organs have indulged in,  a dizzyingly high propagation of untruths, more apparent and inappropriate, with the very often aim to castigate the action of public authorities and to blacken the reputation of leading Cameroonian and foreign figures.  The Minister further noted that the untruths and other information generally fabricated or deliberated biased, are likely to undermine social cohesion and the living together of populations.

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Social Media

The primary mission of the social media, the Minister stated, was that of community dialogue as constructive and as edifying, allowing virtual social interactions without geographical limits. However, welcoming and timely as the advent of the social may be, the use of this medium has become veritably deviant. Social media outlets are even more remarkable in high inclination to disseminate fake news, personal attacks, infringement of privacy, failure to respect the secrecy of the correspondence, whether public or private, unjustified attacks on the lives of others and are generally noted for the violation of the basic rules necessary for a healthy and tolerant society. In the Cameroonian context, Minister Sadi observed, the social media is used for the distortion of facts, mutations of vices into false values, hate speech, personal attack, false allegations and ungrounded assertions are the rule.
By Zhang Xin, Yu Linsheng and Yuan Huayi

Totally about 500 personnel, including 300 airborne members under the PLA Air Force and more than 200 militias, were busy building sub-dikes and setting up cofferdams for irrigation in an orderly manner on both sides of Hongshi Fishing Ground in Honghu, Hubei Province on July 14, 2020.

At this time, a wooden boat passed through waterweed and duckweed, driving directly towards them, with two men sitting on board. The man at the helm was dark-skinned, thin, looks over 60, and next to him was a middle-aged man in his 30s.

"We have bought you some water and mixed congee." As soon as the boat docked, the two began to unload the water and food which had filled the boat onto the river bank.

Guo Weiwei, the Site commander in chief, talked with them, trying to figure out what was happening.

During the conversation, he learned that this is a father and son from Hansha Village in Honghu City. The father was 65 years old, who joined the army in 1976 and was then a sapper in Beijing. After demobilization, he has been farming at home. In recent years, he began to run a fishing pond under contract.

Recently, due to the continuous heavy rains and floods, his fishing pond has suffered devastating losses. It was, however, the military and the militias who rushed to the local area, helped out and retrieved certain losses for them. To express their gratitude and respect, they went to a supermarket in the village at noon that day, bought all the 15 boxes of mineral water and 14 boxes of mixed congee therein, and sent them to the disaster relief troops.

After sending the gifts, the older man looked satisfied. It is learned that because of the epidemic during the first half of the year, the income of his household has dropped sharply, and the money to buy these gifts was part of his own living expenses.

"I do this definitely not to make a show, but to contribute my share of strength as a veteran." The aging veteran said that there had always been the PLA soldiers and militias at the time of crisis. "I used to be a soldier, and now I want to contribute my strength to fighting against floods," added he.

When asked for his name, the older man refused to tell by waving his hands, and urged his son to immediately drive away after unloading the food. Looking after them going far away, the troops saluted as a way of farewell.
The man accused of ordering a hit on a Sydney teenager had a series of ominous tattoos alluding to revenge inked on his body following the 15-year-old's murder.

Abdul Abu-Mahmoud is on trial in the NSW Supreme Court over the death of the 15-year-old who was gunned down as he slept inside his family home in Glenfield on Good Friday in 2017.

Another man, who can only be identified as CC, has pleaded guilty to being the gunman and is due to face court on Friday.

Abu-Mahmoud, 35, has denied ordering or financing the execution-style killing and has pleaded not guilty to a string of charges including murder.

Abdul Abu-Mahmoud (pictured) is on trial over the death of a 15-year-old who was shot in his Sydney home in April, 2017

Prosecutors allege Abu-Mahmoud coordinated the hit as revenge after his nephew Adam Abu-Mahmoud was stabbed to death in a Panania street brawl in July 2016.

Joshua Dillon was charged over Adam Abu-Mahmoud's death, but was ultimately found not guilty by a jury in October last year.

Abu-Mahmoud is accused of ordering that Dillon's brother be killed as retaliation for the death of his 18-year-old nephew.

According to the agreed statement of facts, Abu-Mahmoud acquired several tattoos which alluded to revenge following the teenager's murder.

Among them, he had 'my family is not to be f***** with' and 'if we do nothing than (sic) we are nothing' written on his torso.

Another on his left leg read 'Revenge is a dish best served cold'.

Prior to the teenager's killing, he also had 'eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth and blood for blood' inked on his left arm in Arabic text.

Abu-Mahmoud is accused of ordering that Dillon's brother be killed as retaliation for the death of his 18-year-old nephew Adam (pictured)

During his opening address earlier this week, Abu-Mahmoud's lawyers attempted to point the finger at Bassam Hamzy, the founder of notorious street gang Brothers For Life.

Abu-Mahmoud's lawyer Ertunc Ozen SC told the court that the shooter was a Brothers For Life member and that Hamzy directed all aspects of the gang's operations including killings.

The teenager was shot once in the head after a hooded gunman kicked in the front door of his family's home in Glenfield on April 14, 2017.

His mother this week gave evidence that the killer threatened her with a gun and ordered her back into her bedroom before she heard the shot which killed her son.

CC was released on parole on March 26, just 19 days before he shot the teenager.

The trial before Justice Ian Harrison will continue next week.
Many European countries, starting May, have eased their lockdown restrictions in phases. People find that after months of confinement, they can now go to shops and restaurants. Children can return to school.

Its been very emotional and Im so happy I can get to see my friends and loved ones in person, says Madrid-resident Cristina Dorda.

She recently returned to work. Im supposed to work from office for a week and then work from home for two weeks. I work for a French company and there are strict protocols to enter the office: every time we go inside we must switch face masks and disinfect our hands. We have to keep one seat empty between each other and we even disinfect the toilets, she says.

Life has changed very much, says Rosalia Acampora from Rome in Italy, which was once the epicentre of Europe. The good part is that we appreciate the simplest things like going out to a bar for cappuccino, but of course the fear of getting the virus is still there.

I have asthma, so I spent 51 days in the flat in Barcelona without being able to leave, says British translator Nicole Fenwick who recently moved to Spain. The first day I went outside was on the May 2, when they allowed us to go exercise. Initially, it was highly regulated, with certain hours allotted solely to children and senior citizens. Now, things are returning to normal and on Saturday, Fenwick was able to fly back home to the UK.

A few days before she left Spain, the government made it obligatory to wear masks everywhere outside home, so for her, the change was palpable when she landed in the UK. It was clear to me that the UK doesnt have clue what its doing and there are no strict regulations. While masks were compulsory on the plane, many passengers pulled them down over their chins once they landed in the UK. Authorities did not ensure that masks were worn correctly or at all.

The pandemic is still affecting some regions of Europe. There is strategy called Hammer and Dance, says Dr Leticia Kawano Dourado, a respiratory physician at the Hospital do Coracao in Sao Paulo, Brazil. You alternate between closing down and reopening with a focus on testing and tracing until we get a vaccine.

The strategy, outlined by writer Tomas Pueyo, has drawn a lot attention from experts. During the Hammer, the goal is to get R as close to zero, as fast as possible, to quench the epidemic. But once you move into the Dance, you dont need to do that anymore. You just need your R to stay below 1. He explains, where R means the average number of people each person with a disease goes on to infect.
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TOKYO  Ikuko, the big sister of Tokyos Akasaka geisha district, came to the capital to seek her fortune in 1964, the year Tokyo first hosted the Olympics. But the novel coronavirus pandemic has made her fear for her centuries-old profession as never before.

Though the number of geisha - famed for their witty conversation, beauty and skill at traditional arts - has been falling for years, Ikuko and her colleagues were without work for months due to Japans state of emergency and now operate under awkward social distancing rules.

There were more than 400 geisha in Akasaka when I came, so many I couldnt remember their names. But times changed, Ikuko, now 80, said.

These days, only roughly 20 remain, and there arent enough engagements to take on new apprentices - especially now.

Koiku, who is a geisha, wears a protective face mask to pose for a photograph, before working at a party being hosted by customers, where she will entertain with other geisha, at Asada, a luxury Japanese restaurant, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tokyo, Japan, June 23, 2020. Photo: Reuters

Coronavirus-induced austerity has slashed expense accounts, and many people remain wary of spending hours in the elegant but closed traditional rooms where geisha entertain.

Engagements are down 95 percent, and come with new rules: no pouring drinks for customers or touching them even to shake hands, and sitting two meters apart.

Masks are hard to wear with their elaborate wigs, so they mostly dont.

When you sit close, you can talk with feeling, your passion comes through, Ikuko said, wearing a black silk kimono patterned with irises.

When youre two metres apart, conversation breaks down.

Koiku and Maki, who are geisha, clean Ikuko's living room before they have lunch together at Ikuko's home, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Tokyo, Japan, July 11, 2020. Photo: Reuters

Geisha arent the only Japanese artists in danger.

Performers of jiutamai, an ancient womens dance, as well as makeup artists, wig stylists and kimono dressers, confessed to worry the coronavirus could further imperil their niche professions.

Every single one of my events has been cancelled, said Mitsunaga Kanda, who has spent decades doing elaborate makeup for geisha and dancers.

We touch their skin and their face, all over, and while we dont talk were very close - something were very aware of now, added Kanda, donning a mask and face shield to work on dancer Tokijyo Hanasaki.

A kimono dresser helps Koiku, who is a geisha, put on her kimono as Koiku gets ready at Ikuko's home to work at a party being hosted by customers at a restaurant, where she will be entertaining with other geisha, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tokyo, Japan, June 23, 2020. Photo: Reuters

A fading profession

Though the ancient capital of Kyoto is best known for geisha, Tokyo has six geisha districts of its own.

But discouraged by the rigour of geisha life with its hours of artistic practice, fewer now join.

Akasaka had 120 geisha 30 years ago. Now all of Tokyo has only some 230.

Lessons and kimono are expensive, with pay dependent on popularity.

And some skills, such as the witty conversation that make older geisha like Ikuko especially popular, can only be gained through time.

Our income has been down to zero, Ikuko said.

I have a bit of wherewithal, but its been very hard for the younger ones. The geisha association has helped with rent.

Koiku, Mayu, Maki and Ikuko, who are geisha, have lunch together at Ikuko's home, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tokyo, Japan, July 11, 2020. Photo: Reuters

All geisha, as freelancers, can also apply for 1 million yen in government subsidies, which she believes most did.

I was just full of anxiety, said fellow geisha Mayu, 47.

I went through my photos, sorted my kimonos..

The thought of a second wave is terrifying.

Makeup belonging to Maki, who is a geisha, is laid out as she gets ready at Ikuko's home to work at a party being hosted by customers at a luxury restaurant, where she will be entertaining with other geisha, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tokyo, Japan, June 23, 2020. Photo: Reuters

Still, every effort is being made.

We arrange things in the largest room possible, said Shota Asada, owner of the luxurious restaurant where the geisha entertain.

Anything to keep this culture alive.

Koiku, Maki, Ikuko and Mayu, who are geisha, perform a dance routine for Reuters, before they work at a party being hosted by customers at Asada, a luxury Japanese restaurant, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Tokyo, Japan, June 23, 2020. Photo: Reuters

Change for survival

Michiyo Yukawa, an ex-geisha who owns an Akasaka bar and hosts occasional geisha events, thinks geisha may need to adapt so that more ordinary people can appreciate their charm.

They have a special beauty, she said.

Theyve gone through training other people havent, they spend a lot of money on this - and its made them special. Having this disappear would be sad.

Ikuko fears an extended pandemic could prompt some geisha to quit.

Now is the worst of the worst, she said.

How are we going to get through? Itll take all of our body and soul.

Koiku, who is a geisha, gets ready at Ikuko's home to work at a party being hosted by customers at a luxury restaurant, where she will be entertaining with other geisha, during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tokyo, Japan, June 23, 2020. Photo: Reuters

Maki, Mayu, Ikuko and Koiku, who are geisha, greet Fujima Hideka, a dance master of Japanese traditional dance, after attending a dance class for geisha only, during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tokyo, Japan, July 13, 2020. Photo: Reuters

Mayu, Maki and Koiku, who are all geisha, practice a dance routine during a class for geisha only, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tokyo, Japan, July 13, 2020. Photo: Reuters

Maki, Mayu, Koiku and Ikuko, who are geisha, wear protective face masks as they walk to a restaurant after attending a dance class, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tokyo, Japan. July 13, 2020. Photo: Reuters
Students who appeared in the MSBSHSE Class 12 exam can check their results on the board's official website mahresults.nic.in

HSC Result 2020 Maharashtra DECLARED: The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, or MSBSHSE has declared the results of its Class 12 board exams today (Thursday, 16 July.

Students can check their results on the board's official website mahresults.nic.in.

This year, 90.66 percent of students cleared the Class 12 exams compared to 85.88 in 2019, an overall increase of 4.78 percent.

A total of 14,20,575 students appeared for the Maharashtra board Class 12 exams this year of which 12,81,712 students cleared the exams.

Girls outperformed boys yet again, netting a pass percent of 93.88 compared to 88.04 percent.

The science stream saw 96.93 percent of students clear the Class 12 exam compared to 92.60 percent in 2019 (an increase of 4.33 percent).

The arts stream recorded a pass percentage of 82.63 percent this year compared to 76.45 percent in 2019 (an increase of 6.18 percent).

The commerce stream witnessed a pass percentage of 91.27 percent in 2020 as compared to 88.28 percent in 2019 (an increase of 2.99 percent).

Among districts, Konkan emerged as best-performing with 95.89 percent of students clearing the exams while,Pune came in a close second with 92.50 percent of its students passing. Aurangabad registered the lowest pass percentage (88.18) among all districts.

Follow LIVE updates on Maharashtra HSC Result 2020 here

MSBSHSE chairperson Shakuntala Kale said that the SSC or Class 10 results will be announced by the end of July.

More than 31 lakh candidates have appeared for MSBSHSE HSC and SSC examinations 2020, reported Careers 360.

Once declared, candidates can check their Maharashtra Board Class 10 and Class 12 examination results online at mahahsscboard.maharashtra.gov.in, mahresult.nic.in.

Students will have to enter their Maharashtra Board examination roll number and mother's first name to check their scorecards.

HSC 2020 scores will also be available at Firstpost. Candidates need to enter the log-in details in the widget below:

The result will have student's name, subject-wise marks and total score secured by him/her.

The report mentioned that students can also check their Maharashtra Board SSC and HSC result 2020 via SMS. They will have to go to the message option of their phone, type MH<exam name> <Seat No.> and send it to 57766.

Students need to secure at least 35 percent marks in each subject to clear the Maharashtra SSC and HSC examinations.

The Maharashtra SSC and HSC results this year have been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Careers 360 report mentioned that the Maharashtra board began the evaluation of answer sheets from 6 May.

As on 19 June, around 42 lakh out of approximately 50 lakh answer sheets were evaluated in the Mumbai division.
Two Bronx men were arrested Thursday in connection with an attack on police, who were struck with a rod as protesters marched across the Brooklyn Bridge, leaving four officers injured, including Chief Terence Monahan, according to city officials.

The 25-year-old men, Shaborn Banks and Koran Campbell, were charged with assault on a police officer, a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Banks also faces a charge of criminal possession of a weapon, while Campbell faces three counts of resisting arrest in addition to three counts of assault on a police officer.

Three officers were treated at hospitals Wednesday and released, a New York Police Department spokesman told The Washington Post. In a radio interview Thursday, Monahan said his hand was injured in the incident. One police sergeant's wounds required eight staples, he said, and a bicycle officer had a broken bone in his eye socket.

"I'm OK. Some of my cops aren't in as good a shape as I am - they're still out sick," Monahan told radio station WCBS. "It was a pretty violent fight on the bridge."

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, told reporters on Thursday that he had spoken with Monahan, and he echoed the police chief's sentiments about the incident.

"Peaceful protest is honored in New York City - always has been. There is no acceptable violent protest. Any violent protest will be stopped, and there'll be consequences for anyone involved," de Blasio said. "And anyone, anywhere, whether in protest or anything else, who assaults a police officer, it's unacceptable, and they will suffer the consequences."

On Wednesday, members of a unity march against gun violence walked from Brooklyn toward Manhattan, among thousands of protests against police brutality nationwide since George Floyd died after a Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck on Memorial Day.

But on the bridge separating the New York boroughs, the marchers were met by counterprotesters who said the unity demonstration was too friendly to police, CBS New York reported. Those counterprotesters stepped from the bridge's pedestrian walkway into the street to block car traffic. Dozens of people were arrested, police said.

During one arrest, police came under attack by a man wielding a rod or cane. A 10-second video clip of the attack posted to Twitter by the New York Police Department shows the man, wearing a bandanna and a purple shirt, swinging the rod over a fence that separates the pedestrian walkway from the highway, where the police were making the arrest. The blows appeared to strike the officers on their heads and backs. The footage shows one officer stepping away and clutching his head.

"Such assaults are ALWAYS unacceptable, and should outrage us all," New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said in a tweet Wednesday evening.

The department, which includes 36,000 uniformed officers, also shared images of officers with bloodied heads and faces after the attack.
Active COVID cases constitute a third of India's total tally, recovery rate rises to 63.25 percent

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, July 16: India has 3,31,146 active COVID-19 cases, which is around a third of the country's infection tally that rose to 9.68 lakh on Thursday, the Union Health Ministry said, crediting targeted measures for the steady decline in the active caseload.

"Of the total COVID-19 cases, 63.25 per cent have recovered so far. Simultaneously, there has been a steady dip in the number of active cases, from around 45 per cent in mid-June to around 34.18 per cent as of now," the ministry.

Killer T-cells: Oxford University COVID-19 vaccine hopes rise with strong trial results

A total of 20,783 people have recuperated in the past 24 hours, the highest number of recoveries in a day, taking the total number of recovered cases to 6,12,814. According to the health ministry's data updated at 8 am, the number of recoveries exceeds active cases by 2,81,668.

The ministry said the recovery rate rose to 50 per cent mid-June and thereafter there has been a steady rise in recoveries and a decline in the number of active cases. The country's COVID-19 tally surged to 9,68,876 on Thursday.

International flights: Bubble travel with US & France, flights to resume from tomorrow|Oneindia News

The ministry said the actual caseload of COVID-19 has remained limited and manageable due to proactive containment measures such as house-to-house survey, perimeter control activities, timely contact tracing, aggressive testing and timely diagnosis, and effective clinical management of moderate and severe cases through a well-implemented standard of care protocol increasing their chances of recovery. Hospital infrastructure includes 1,381 Dedicated COVID Hospitals, 3,100 Dedicated COVID Healthcare Centres and 10,367 COVID Care Centres with a total of 46,666 ICU beds.

"Collaborative strategy among the Centre and states has also ensured that the growth of COVID-19 cases in restricted to certain pockets of the country," the ministry said in a statement. Just two states -- Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu -- account for 48.15 per cent of the country's total active caseload. Ten states constitute 84.62 per cent of the total active caseload, it said, adding the Centre continues to handhold these states in matters of containment and effective clinical management.

India not in favour of sitting and crying over corona crisis, will turn it into opportunity: PM

The ministry said that as per the test, trace, treat strategy, the central government is driving enhanced testing initiatives in states and union territories as a result, of which there has been a steady rise in the number of testing labs across the country. The increased testing is in accordance with the ICMR guidelines and has helped in early detection of cases.

The testing includes the RT-PCR which is the golden standard of the COVID-19 testing. This has been augmented with Rapid Antigen Point of Care (POC) testing that gives results within half-hour. "This has resulted in ramped up testing in the containment and buffer zones. This has significantly helped in controlling the spread of the infection," the ministry said.

The ministry said that 3,26,826 samples have been tested for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours. The cumulative number of 1,27,39,490 samples tested so far has translated to a figure of 9231.5 testing per million for India. All registered medical practitioners can now recommend testing. This coupled with the facilitation of widespread testing by states and UTs through the RT-PCR, TrueNat and CBNAAT lab network has contributed to a surge in the number of samples tested, it said.

The testing lab network in the country is further strengthened with 1234 labs in the country; 874 labs in the government sector and 360 private labs. Joint efforts by the Centre, states and Union Territories to increase testing capacity, ramping up health infrastructure, prioritising surveillance in SARI/ILI cases, and ensuring mapping of the aged population and those with comorbidities have led to continuous improvement in recovery rates across India, the ministry added.

India's COVID-19 tally rose to 9,68,876 on Thursday with a record single-day spike of 32,695 cases while the death toll climbed to 24,915 with 606 people succumbing to the disease, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated at 8 am.
Last evening's Cabinet meeting had a lot on its collective mind. Ministers took the advice of the health experts by keeping pubs which are not serving food closed until August 10, they reviewed the European ruling in the Apple case, and they considered the fall-out from the sacking of Barry Cowen.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin had shown his mettle when he went from backing to sacking his agriculture minister in the space of just seven hours on Tuesday. The refusal by the Offaly TD to answer questions in the Dail about the night he was stopped for drink-driving put all of his ministerial colleagues in an impossible situation.

They would have been constantly asked if they felt Mr Cowen had questions to answer. The row would have rumbled on during the investigations into how details of the drink-driving offence became public and the accuracy or otherwise of the Garda version of events that night. The results of both investigations would inevitably cause further controversy and more distraction from the real business of Government.

The midlands has lost a ministerial champion this week - but at least the west has belatedly got one in the promotion to Cabinet of Dara Calleary, who succeeds him in the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine. Geography won over gender in the appointment of the Mayo man.

The Taoiseach will be hoping that his decisive actions will take the heat out of the political row and there are certainly other major developments elsewhere to ponder over. One is the verdict on the Apple case in Europe. The General Court of the European Union ruled that the European Commission (EC) was wrong to declare that Apple had been granted a selective economic advantage in Ireland and, by extension, state aid.

The verdict was welcomed by the Government. The Taoiseach responded by saying that tax certainty had been critical to Ireland's policy of attracting foreign direct investment over 40 years and added that it would be considered by Cabinet later in the evening. The ruling will almost certainly be appealed by the EC, so an end to this saga may not be known for another year or two.

The other issue of huge public concern is the decision to keep pubs which are not serving food closed until August 10. Nightclubs will also remain closed.

Publicans have rightly been complaining about uncertainty, but there are also concerns over the increasing spread of the virus among young people recently. The views of the National Public Health Emergency Team were heeded about not easing Covid-19 restrictions next week. The team was worried in particular at the rise in the number of clusters in private households lately.

Whatever about the pubs, it's clear that the Taoiseach's bigger priority is reopening the country's 4,000 primary and second-level schools and higher education institutions in the autumn.

Other urgent issues on which Government decisions are needed include travel abroad and the July jobs stimulus package.

It's time for the Government to govern.
The family denied vehemently that he had died of Covid-19. We have lived on that street for generations. I can understand why my brothers did it.

In Karachi, I called up a doctor to ask why people were hiding Covid-19 deaths. People dont want to see some dead body and the police arrive at their homes at the same time, I was told.

Another doctor said to me: There is fear and shame and stigma attached to death by Covid, as if you got infected by this virus by doing something immoral or filthy, rather than by touching a door knob.

And what if nobody will come to your loved ones funeral? What if nobody comes to condole? What if people think that because you are related to the deceased you might pass the disease on to them and their children?

Its best to just deny what happened. Werent people dying before this virus anyway? Whats the harm in slightly shifting the cause of death? Even when someone dies of Covid-19 they dont really, really die of Covid-19; they die of the complications caused by Covid-19.

And so you lie and move on. After all, 98 percent of people who get infected do survive.

The longest condolence conversation Ive had was with a close friend of mine whose sister passed away at the beginning of the month. She had been suffering from some unknown illness and was admitted to a private hospital in Lahore.

When her condition worsened, the family was asked to take her to Services Hospital, a major government facility with a designated ward for Covid-19 patients. My friend insisted that his sister had tested negative for the coronavirus, but when they arrived at the hospital a doctor directed them to the Covid section.
As tensions between Libya's two rival governments and their international backers continue to worsen, the eastern Libya-based parliament has authorized Egypt to intervene militarily if the security of either country is threatened. At the same time, the speaker of the eastern parliament is calling for the U.N. to continue its mediation efforts. Recall that in Libya, the confrontation continues between Fayez al Sarrajs Government of National Accord, which controls Tripoli and the west of the country, and the Libyan National Army (LNA) under the command of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, which cooperates with the eastern parliament. Turkey supports GNA, and Egypt - LNA.

In January this year, before the Berlin conference organised to resolve the conflict, the Russian Foreign Ministry invited the main protagonists to Moscow - LNA commander Haftar, GNA head Sarajj and the chairman of the parliament in Tobruk, Aguila Saleh. As Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov explained, then the Libyan National Army believed that it had better positions on the ground and was not ready to sign the corresponding document accepted by Sarajj. Now the LNA, according to our estimates, is ready to sign a document on the immediate cessation of hostilities, but the government in Tripoli does not want to do so, counting on a military solution.

Libya's eastern-based parliament issued a statement late Monday authorizing Egypt - which supports the rival government of Abdallah al Thini in Beida - to intervene militarily if necessary, due to what it called "Turkey's blatant intervention in Libya and breaching of the country's sovereignty", Voice of America writes in the article Libyan Parliament Speaker Calls for Peace Talks, Despite Giving Egypt Green Light to Intervene Militarily. Libyan parliament spokesman Abdallah Bleihaq, on a visit to Cairo Monday, thanked Egypt for helping his country. He said he expressed his gratitude to the Egyptian parliament for its support for Libya's security and stability in all areas, given that the security of both countries are intertwined and that ties between them are longstanding.

Despite the eastern Libyan parliament's authorization of a potential Egyptian military intervention in Libya  in the event either country's security is threatened - parliament speaker Aguila Saleh told Arab media that he has asked the U.N. to continue mediating in the Libya conflict. He said that during his recent visit several days ago to the U.N. in Geneva, he asked deputy U.N. envoy Stephanie Williams to continue efforts to find a solution to the Libyan conflict that suits each side and coincides with previous talks in Cairo and Berlin.

Egyptian General Mahmoud Zaher told Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV he thinks "Turkey is playing a game of nerves with Egypt (in Libya)," and that ultimately, Ankara's goal is to "cause the division of the country." Libyan analyst Aya Burweila, a visiting lecturer on security and terrorism at the Hellenic National Defense College in Greece told VOA she thinks the Libyan parliament's authorization for Egypt to intervene should "make it nearly impossible for Turkey and its Syrian proxies to capture (Libya's strategic) oil crescent." She called the conflict "an existential crisis" for both Egypt and Libya, since "neither can allow Libya to become a failed state," exploited by what she calls Turkish "political and military proxies, which include militant jihadists and organized crime networks."

Paul Sullivan, a professor at the U.S. National Defense University, told VOA, however, that he worries the Libyan parliament's declaration "could lead to a conflict," because "mistakes are made when things are this heated." He also questioned if Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan might not take the warning "as a challenge." Turkey, inspired largely by its energy interests in Libya, has been boosting its role in the Libyan conflict, saying it is doing so in support of the internationally recognized government in Tripoli. Its expanding role is also raising concerns of what analysts say could be the start of a proxy war.
Marrakech 'star' of Charlize Theron's latest film Charm of the Medina, desert and Atlantic in 'The Old Guard'

(ANSAmed) - RABAT, JULY 15 - The city of Marrakech is once again in the spotlight, this time as the protagonist of a new Netflix film. 'The Old Guard', which was released on July 10, is already at the top of the rankings of most popular films on Netflix. Charlize Theron, under the direction of Gina Prince-Bythewood, leads of group of mercenaries with the gift of immortality fighting throughout the centuries for the good to triumph in the film. Marrkech is neither simply the setting nor the backdrop for the film: the city's alleys of the Medina, luxury palaces and magical atmosphere of the Jama El Fnaa square, the 'Pink City' plays something similar to the role of a primadonna. Many of the scenes set in Africa or Afghanistan were in reality shot near Marrakech. The film is a transposition into film of the graphic novel written by Greg Rucka and illustrated by Leandro Fernandez. One of the actors is Luca Martinelli, who recently won the Coppa Volpi at the Venice Film Festival for his role in 'Martin Eden'. Two weeks of work and immense logistics efforts made it possible to make the film in recent months, moving Netflix cameras between Marrakech and the Agafay desert, about 30 kilometres from the city, as well as a bit farther to the Obaki village on the Kir plateau, Tamansourt, and Habril near the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the quaint Kettara and Boukhriss. Tourists will likely try to recreate this route as soon as they are able to return to Morocco. (ANSAmed). (ANSA).




Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-17 00:51:15|Editor: huaxia

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ANKARA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Two police officers from Turkey's special operations forces were killed in an operation conducted by provincial gendarmerie command, the Turkish Interior Ministry said on Thursday.

Two others were also wounded in the operation conducted by provincial gendarmerie command against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Pervari district of southeastern Siirt city.

In the close combat with "terrorists" in Degirmentasi Tepe region of Dogan village, four police special operations personnel were injured on late Wednesday, and they were taken to a military hospital by helicopter, said the ministry in a written statement.

Two heavily wounded officers died at the hospital, said the ministry.

Turkey has long been conducting operations against the PKK targets in the southeastern part of the country.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the EU, has been rebelling against the Turkish government for more than 30 years, which has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people. Enditem
Alexander Davis admits that he can be a glutton for punishment. He staked part of his Ph.D. on finding some of the worlds best-camouflaged fishes in the oceans deepest depths. These animals are so keen on not being found that theyve evolved the ability to absorb more than 99.9 percent of the light that hits their skin.

To locate and study these so-called ultra-black fishes, Mr. Davis, a biologist at Duke University, said he relied largely on the luck of the draw. We basically just drop nets and see what we get, he said. You never know what youre going to pull up.

When he and his colleagues did cash in, they cashed in big. In a paper published Thursday in Current Biology, they report snaring the first documented ultra-black animals in the ocean, and some of the darkest creatures ever found: 16 types of deep-sea fish that are so black, they manifest as permanent silhouettes  light-devouring voids that almost seem to shred the fabric of space-time.
Puerto Rico officially reopened for tourists Wednesday, even as the U.S. commonwealth sees a surge in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations that threatens to undermine its early gains against the pandemic. Incoming passengers are now required to present a recent Covid-19 test or isolate themselves for 14 days. The new rules are designed to protect the islands fragile economy from the virus that is raging on the US mainland. But a series of grim data points suggest local efforts to control the outbreak are failing.

On Wednesday, the Health Department reported hospitalizations due to Covid-19 had hit a high for the second day in a row at 254 patients. The island of 3.2 million is also seeing rising numbers of confirmed and probable cases, with the rolling seven-day total reaching a high of 1,634 on Wednesday.

Alarmed by the surge, Governor Wanda Vazquez has warned that she will shutdown sectors of the economy again if needed.

We will not shy away from measures if they protect the lives of our citizens, she said during a press conference Monday. We will not allow everything that weve achieved to be undone.

Vazquez won early praise from public health officials when she imposed a curfew and shut all non-essential businesses in mid March, among the first US jurisdictions to do so. And while the Federal Aviation Administration rejected her request to shutdown incoming flights, she warned potential tourists that they werent welcome until the pandemic subsided.

Since then, she has allowed the economy to reopen with mandatory face-mask policies and other social-distancing measures in place. But four months into the health crisis, compliance fatigue is setting in. Local media have been full of pictures of crowded bars and beaches where the health protocols are openly flouted.

Still, shes also under pressure to tread cautiously.

Puerto Ricos Chamber of Commerce has warned that a broad new lockdown would be devastating for the bankrupt island that has been stuck in a decade-long recession. Tourism is a small but critical sector in the financially strapped commonwealth, representing about 6.5% of the economy.

Without a doubt, without health there is no economy, Chamber President Juan Carlos Agosto said in a statement. But theres also no doubt that, before any decisions are made that will impact our citizens and our businesses, we have to study and evaluate all the data on health, contagion and the economy.

Puerto Ricos Comeback Was Nigh, But Then the Coronavirus Came

The chamber is asking Vazquez to aim any new regulations at sectors that are showing high infection rates.

Vazquezs handling of the crisis is under a microscope as she faces an Aug. 9 primary challenge from within her New Progressive Party.

Her rival in that race, Pedro Pierluisi, Puerto Ricos former non-voting delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, has praised her for declaring a lockdown early on, but says she has failed at everything else.

Instead of chastising, threatening and blaming others, we should have done contact-tracing on time, produced reliable statistics and provided constructive guidance, he wrote on Twitter earlier this week, so we would have the information to act accordingly.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)

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Merlin, King Arthur, the Lady of the Lake. Yeah, we all know the story.

Or maybe not. Imagine a version in which Merlin is a heavy drinker who has lost his magic; Arthur is a scrounging but ambitious nobody with questionable scruples; and the Lady of the Lake is a teenage fairy with powers she cant control and isnt sure she wants.

In a post-Game of Thrones world, every programmers dream is finding the next big spectacle series  and in the age of Covid, a new binge-worthy show is worth its weight in mystical swords. Thats the magic Netflix is hoping to pull from Cursed, a live-action fantasy series created by Frank Miller and Tom Wheeler that puts the young Lady of the Lake at the center of Arthurian myth.

When the show premieres Friday, it will be the latest stage in a kind of evolving dream project for Miller and Wheeler, which started with their collaboration on the 2019 illustrated young-adult novel on which it is based. Wheeler, a writer and producer perhaps best known for the Puss in Boots (2011) screenplay, was a self-described lifelong Frank Miller fan when the two were introduced several years ago. Miller, a beloved graphic-novel and comic-book artist, had already had his work translated many times to the screen: Daredevil, The Dark Knight Returns and 300, as well as Sin City, the movie versions of which he also helped direct.

But Miller had never tackled Arthur, and he was excited to discover in Wheeler a common love of the medieval legends.
A terrified woman has claimed she saw a ufo hovering near her Brisbane home in the early hours of the morning for five days running.

The resident of Deception Bay in north Brisbane described the UFO as a 'triangular craft' that flashed the peace sign and terrified her cats.

UFO Research Queensland Inc said the humming left the woman 'feeling dizzy, nauseous and had given her a headache'.

She said she saw the object in the sky for five consecutive days in early June between 1am and 3am.

A woman said a large triangular UFO hovered near her home for five nights between 1am and 3am leaving her feeling sick and dizzy. Pictured is a CGI render of a triangular UFO

'She estimated the UFO to be travelling higher than a plane and moving backwards and forwards over the area,' the research group said.

'The first time it was observed for 30 minutes and other occasions it was seen for approximately 15 minutes.'

The woman claimed to have previously seen a similar triangular UFO hovering over Basin Reserve on New Zealand's north island.

'On this occasion there were five witnesses who observed a black triangle with no lights but subtle yellow lighting around the craft which she thought had something to do with the propulsion system,' UFO Research Queensland Inc said.

She said the unidentified aircraft hovered for around 15 minutes before it quickly flew away.

The UFO was said to have visited her home near Deception Bay and hovered at height higher than a normal plane before flying away

While some UFO watchers were sceptical another woman said she saw the same aircraft at Hervey Bay, just three hours north of Deception Bay (pictured)

While many avid UFO watchers were keen to believe the sighting others were more sceptical.

'If I was watching a UFO for five nights for around 30 minutes you bet I would have recorded something,' a woman said.

While another said she had seen the same aircraft hovering around Hervey Bay, three hours north of the woman's sighting, back in March.
South Africa: East London, George and Kimberley airports resume operations

The East London, George and Kimberley domestic airports will resume operations on 21 July 2020, after getting the green light from the Department of Transport.

Following our announcement on 29 June 2020 on the domestic airports permitted to resume operations, I am happy to announce that the following additional airports have met all the requirements and will resume operations on 21 July 2020, announced Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula on Thursday.

The three airports received the go-ahead from the department as government continues to walk the tightrope of preserving human life while gradually resuming economic activity to ensure sustainable livelihoods.

Mbalula announced the reopening of the airports when he gave an update on governments further plans to combat the spread of COVID-19.

Airline capacity

Responding to a question posed on the departments decision to allow airlines to load at full capacity, Transport Director General Alec Moemi said he was informed by international standards and scientific evidence.

We allowed them to operate at 100%. This has been a bit of a sore matter to other modes but we have reasons why we allowed this.

The first is the fact that all airlines that were manufactured after 1980, which form the majority of South Africas airline fleet, are fitted with the high-efficiency particulate arrestance (HEPA) filter.

Depending on which study you read, the HEPA filter is quite efficient. It has efficiency levels of anything between 99.7 to 99.9%, he said.

The HEPA filter, Moemi said, removes dust particles as well as airborne contaminates, which include airborne viruses as well as bacteria.

The filter also pushes a constant downward of air at a metre per second and reduces the risk of contamination. It actually captures the virus in a tiny microfibre in the filter and the carbon fibres that are there.

In addition to the HEPA filter, Moemi said the airline industry as compared to other modes of transport, is better at enforcement in relation to permits and adherence to industry protocols.

They [airlines] also know all passengers and that makes it easy for tracking and tracing should any of the passengers test positive unlike in other modes.

While other modes want to compare themselves with our decision for loading full capacity in airplanes, it has to be balanced against all these considerations, he said.

Operating licences extension

Meanwhile, Mbalula also announced that public transport operating licences and accreditation certificates for tourist services that expired during the lockdown period will be deemed valid for a further period of 90 days.

This is to enable the Provincial Regulatory Entities (PREs) and the National Public Transport Regulator (NPTR) sufficient time to address the backlog and allow affected operators to renew their operating licenses and accreditation certificate for tourist services. - SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2020-07-16. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Convener of civil society organisation, the Mass Action Committee (MAC), Atik Mohammed has called on the Ghana Police Service to arrest any person caught guaranteeing for someone who is not a Ghanaian in the voters' registration exercise.



The EC commenced the registration exercise on Tuesday, June 30, 2020.



According to the EC, the source documents for registering the names of eligible Ghanaians are the Ghana card or passport and in the case of people who don't have any of these identification documents, they are entitled to use guarantors.



However, anyone who is not a citizen of Ghana is not allowed to register his or her name and if caught would face the rigors of the laws.



This notwithstanding, reports indicate that some guarantors have turned their privilege into a lucrative business and vouching for people who are not Ghanaians to register their names at some registration centers across the country.



Wondering why some people have decided to make the EC's work difficult, Atik Mohammed described them "unpatriotic".



"In Ghana, the sense of patriotism is not there because if you're a true patriot, you won't allow someone who isn't a Ghanaian to register nor help a person who shouldn't register to register. But because people don't feel patriotic to the corporation called Ghana, they want to find any means to earn money from this...When we do all these things and at the end of day, in the future, we say there is a problem with the register; who caused it? Is it not us who caused it? So we're trying as a country to rid our register of irregularities but some people have made it their job, their mission, to make sure there are irregularities. It is simply because we lack patriotism as a country,'' he said.



Making his submissions on ''Kokrokoo'' on Peace FM, Atik Mohammed bemoaned the behaviour of such guarantors stressing ''these are people who must be jailed. When we jail them, that enterprise will come to an end''.



He urged the security service to perform their duties without fear or favour by rounding up the perpetrators to serve as a deterrent to others.



''They have to rise above the fear of political vindictiveness or, however you'll describe it, whether persecution. They need to let everybody know they're independent. They have the power to do whatever it is that they're supposed to do'', he said.









Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The government has given permission to the ICMR to test BCG vaccines efficacy in preventing people in the age group of 60 to 95. (Photo- Twitter)

Chennai: The government has given permission to the ICMR to test BCG vaccines efficacy in preventing people in the age group of 60 to 95 getting infected by Coronavirus, Health Minister C Vijayabaskar said on Wednesday.

The tests starts at the National Institute of Research in Tuberculosis that comes under the ICMR, Vijaybaskar said, adding that administering BCG vaccine to elders will reduce the virility of Covid-19 and help avoid hospitalization and death.

Elderly people, diabetics and those who high blood pressure and heart ailments were more vulnerable to Covid-19 and the ECG vaccine could bring down the morbidity and mortality rates among them, an official press release said.

BCG vaccine, which was being administered to children under the National Vaccination Programme in the last 50 years, enhanced the innate immunity in people, it has been found, the release said.
Isaac Windes / Courtesy Lamar University

Lamar University has found that a professor who called on a North Texas boot business to withdraw its sponsorship of the Texas GOP Convention or face a boycott did not violate any Lamar University policies.

Although the professor listed her Lamar University email address as a point of contact, the university has a policy on the incidental use of university information technology and listing the email address does not violate that policy, LU spokesperson Shelly Vitanza said in a statement. As a public educational institution, we are required to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America but are also uniquely positioned to educate individuals to the insensitivity of such remarks.
Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd has had 78 days cut from his 10-year jail term because of time he served waiting for extradition after fleeing the UK to Georgia.

Three appeal judges said the 78 days Shepherd spent in custody awaiting extradition in Georgia should count as part of the jail term he is serving.

Shepherd, 32, was given a six-year sentence after being convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence following the death of Charlotte Brown when his speedboat capsized during a champagne-fuelled date on the River Thames in 2015.

Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd should leave prison sooner than expected as a result of a ruling by Court of Appeal judges. Shephered, 32, was extradited from Georgia after a trial in his absence found him guilty of the manslaughter of Charlotte Brown

Charlotte Brown, 24, was killed after Shepherd's boat capsized on the Thames near Wandsworth Bridge in 2015

Ms Brown, from Clacton, Essex was on her first date with Shepherd after meeting on dating website OkCupid.

Shepherd's trial in July 2018 heard how he had bought the 1980s boat on Gumtree and had tried to impress other women with it.

But his first date with Ms Brown ended in tragedy when the 14ft Fletcher Arrowflyte GTO, which was riddled with defects, hit a log and capsized, throwing them into the river near Wandsworth Bridge.

He later sparked outrage by launching an appeal against the conviction while on the run in Georgia - and he was awarded funds to do so.

After spending ten months on the run, Shepherd was finally extradited and ordered to serve six years with six months consecutive for skipping his bail in April last year.

The web designer then admitted hitting a barman over the head with a vodka bottle in a hotel in Devon and was given four years extra.

Jack Shepherd was jailed for six years for manslaughter by negligence, he was sentenced to a further four years after admitting wounding a barman

Three appeal judges said on Thursday that the time Shepherd spent awaiting extradition should count towards his time served.

He did not attend the five minute hearing as Lord Justice Fulford, sitting with Mr Justice Holgate and Sir Roderick Evans, said: We agree the application should be granted.'

Jurors had heard how Shepherd used the speedboat as part of his 'seduction routine' and he may have taken up to ten women on a boozy cruise.

After meeting online, Shepherd and Ms Brown shared two bottles of wine over dinner at The Oblix restaurant in The Shard.

He invited her back to his Hammersmith houseboat where they had more drinks and then out for a high-speed champagne sightseeing tour in his red speedboat.

The speedboat owned by web designer Jack Shepherd, which crashed in the Thames in 2015

Ms Brown can be heard yelling: 'Oh my God, you're going so fast' as she made a video on their way up to the Houses of Parliament.

But the encounter went horribly wrong when Shepherd decided to hand the wheel to Ms Brown.

The speedboat capsized opposite Plantation Wharf, near Wandsworth Bridge and Shepherd was found clinging to upturned bow of the boat.

Witnesses described hearing him shouting out 'Help me', rather than 'Help us'.

He was unsteady on his feet and still reeked of alcohol after lifeguards hauled him from the river.

Charlotte was found dead or dying when she was pulled out of the icy water after a frantic search.

When the married father-of-one was hauled back from Georgia he appeared at the Old Bailey and admitted skipping bail.

He had two months taken off his sentence for pleading guilty - meaning he was handed just six months, on top of his six year manslaughter sentence.

However, this decision was overturned after his lawyers argued the Old Bailey did not have the proper 'jurisdiction' to convict him on the bail offence.

Last year Charlotte's family started to campaign for a law that brings in tighter controls on buying and driving boats.

Shepherd's trial revealed that anyone can hire a boat for personal use without training or a licence, while it was also not mandatory to wear or carry a life jacket.

Speaking on ITV's Lorraine last October, her mother Roz Wicken: 'If I could take her place in the blink of an eye, I would have done We miss Charlotte so dreadfully.

Her sister, Katie Brown, added: '(Charlotte) was so funny and loving, she was passionate, do anything for her friends and family. Life isn't the same without her.

'But we need to let her legacy live on and make a change, so that hopefully this would be much less likely to happen if those laws were in place.'
London: A schoolgirl who shocked Britain by joining the Islamic State terror group in Syria must be allowed to return to London to appeal the revocation of her citizenship, a court has ruled in a decision with serious ramifications for hardline foreign fighter laws.

The case of Shamima Begum, who along with two school friends travelled to Raqqa to marry terrorists, gripped the United Kingdom when the journey was first revealed in 2015.

Now aged 20, her future has been the subject of a fierce political and legal debate over whether the key member of the so-called "Bethnal Green trio" should be allowed to come home.

From left: Kadiza Sultana, Amira Abase and Shamima Begum left London for Syria in 2015. Credit:Metropolitan Police

The British government stripped Begum's citizenship in 2019, arguing the move was lawful because she had married a Dutch-born IS fighter and her parents were from Bangladesh. Her legal team immediately appealed.
LA PAZ, Bolivia - Bolivia is grappling with two crises: the pandemic and bitter political discord ahead of elections scheduled for September, nearly a year after the chaotic ouster of the former president, Evo Morales.

In a new flare-up in Bolivias power struggle, the government was criticized this week for promoting a group of military officers without approval of the opposition-held legislature, as required by the constitution. The government had accused the opposition of blocking the promotions as a way to punish the military for urging Morales to quit last year after he claimed victory in a flawed vote.

Someone should explain the separation of powers in a democracy to interim President Jeanine Anez, tweeted Jose Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americans division of Human Rights Watch.

The pandemic, meanwhile, has driven Anez, who took power after Morales Nov. 10 resignation, into isolation after she contracted the new coronavirus. She has said she is feeling well. Several Cabinet ministers also tested positive and are in quarantine, though a virtual Cabinet meeting was held Wednesday and officials have said the workings of government will continue.

Bolivia has reported nearly 2,000 confirmed deaths from the COVID-19 disease, though the total number is believed to be much higher. This week, a prominent bishop in La Paz, Monsignor Eugenio Escarpellini, died from the disease after delivering help to the sick in poor neighbourhoods. He was 64 years old.

The pandemic and ensuing restrictions have had a debilitating effect on one of Latin Americas poorest and most politically fragile countries. In the highland city of Cochabamba, there were scenes of bodies lying in the streets and coffins waiting for days in homes to be taken away.

The dispute over the military promotions is particularly acute because Morales, whose Movement Toward Socialism party still controls the legislature, accused the military of staging a coup in order to oust him. The government that replaced him said the promotions were essential for national security.

This is a measure so that the Armed Forces can continue helping in the fight against the pandemic, said Defence Minister Luis Fernando Lopez. Opposition legislator Omar Aguilar denied any attempt to seek revenge against the military, saying the government had not followed proper procedures in ratifying the promotions.

Bolivias military has assisted police in enforcing quarantines and other measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Luis Fernando Camacho, a Bolivian politician who backed protests against Morales in his final weeks in power, said in a letter Monday to the Organization of American States that he was concerned about plans for Sept. 6 elections. He alleged that the fraudulent electoral system presided over by Morales was still intact, and that his supporters cynically want to hold elections at the highest point of the coronavirus pandemic.

Morales is in exile in Argentina and is wanted in Bolivia on sedition and other charges. He and his supporters say their detractors dont want elections in September because they know they will lose.

___

Torchia reported from Mexico City.
The Republican National Committee will move to significantly limit attendance at its nominating convention events in Jacksonville, Fla., next month, party chairwoman Ronna McDaniel wrote in a Thursday letter to members, Politico reports.

What's happening: Only delegates will be able to attend the convention on the first three nights. On the fourth night, when President Trump will give his acceptance speech  which may take place outdoors  delegates will be able to bring a guest, while alternate delegates will also be permitted to attend.

"Adjustments must be made to comply with state and local health guidelines," McDaniel wrote. "I want to make clear that we still intend to host a fantastic convention celebration in Jacksonville."

Florida's coronavirus outbreak has continued to worsen in recent weeks. The state reported 15,299 new coronavirus cases on Sunday  a single-day record for any state

The big picture: The convention was originally slated for Charlotte, N.C., but Republicans moved its main events to Jacksonville after North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) said he would require the convention to be downsized.

The other side: Democrats will hold their convention virtually  for the most part. It'll feature up to 1,000 people in attendance in Milwaukee, Wis., with extensive use of videos and remotes.
Iranian Port Hit By Fire, Latest In String Of Incidents At Military, Civilian Sites

July 15, 2020

Several vessels caught fire on July 15 at Iran's port of Bushehr on the Persian Gulf, local media reported.

The official IRNA news agency published a photo showing black smoke billowing into the air at a shipyard at the southern port as firefighters battled the blaze.

No casualties were reported, according to the semiofficial Tasnim news agency.

Reports said at least seven vessels were damaged in the fire.

The incident appeared to be the latest in a string of fires and explosions at military and civilian sites across Iran in recent weeks.

Two explosions rocked the capital, Tehran, in late June, one near a military site and the other in a health center, the latter killing 19 people.

A fire also broke out at Iran's underground Natanz nuclear facility on July 2, officials said.

Iran's top security body said on July 3 that the cause of the Natanz fire had been determined but would be announced at a later time.

Some Iranian officials said it could have been a cyberattack, and one warned that Tehran would retaliate against any country carrying out such attacks.

In an article in early July, state news agency IRNA addressed what it called the possibility of sabotage by enemies such as Israel and the United States, although it stopped short of accusing either directly.

Israel's defense minister said on July 5 his country was not "necessarily" behind every mysterious incident in Iran.

Based on reporting by AFP, Reuters, and RFE/RL's Radio Farda

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iranian- port-hit-by-fire-latest-in- string-of-incidents-at-military -civilian-sites/30728791.html

Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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By Andy Gardner

A recent Supreme Court decision that ruled about half of the state of Oklahoma is Muscogee Creek reservation land could have an impact on St. Regis Mohawk Tribes land claims, according to the tribes general counsel.

The plai...
"Now she has changed a lot, for the better. In the beginning, her emotions would run high, we slowly approached her by involving her in many prison activities," she said. "Religious activities, painting classes, hairdressing, knitting, any prison activities she would join. Now she has become someone the other prisoners look up to. She has come a long way."

Lili said Connor was excited to be reunited with her family again but also anxious about the media presence outside the jail.

The police officer's widow, Ni Ketut Arsini, said the death of her husband was in the past and life had to go on.

Australian Sara Connor listens to an Indonesian interpreter during her trial in Bali. Credit:AP

"We have accepted the fact that we lost him, that it was his fate for him to be taken from us tragically like that," she said. "For me to be a widow, for my sons to grow up without a father. We need to continue with our lives. We are not forgetting him, he will always be in our memory, but we need to move on."
New South Wales officials reported a further 10 new cases of coronavirus on Thursday, including a young child.

The child was a close contact of a previously known case and among three newly identified cases linked to the Crossroads Hotel cluster, which started on July 3rd in Casula, southwest Sydney.

In total, more than 40 cases have been linked to the venue.

A further four of the new cases were connected to returned travellers in mandatory hotel quarantine, while the sources of three other cases in Sydney's southwest were under investigation.

Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said despite the new cases, Australians should be proud of their efforts in the fight against COVID-19.

Pictured: Some of the areas and venues within Sydney that have been identified as potential coronavirus hotspots. Anyone who has visited these places are urged to get tested

'In reality, Australia has not had many people proportionate to its population infected with COVID because we've been successful in controlling it,' she said.

'At this critical time I just urge all people please just reflect, maintain that social distancing, don't go out with your group of friends if you have the mildest symptoms,' Dr Chant said.

But she did make clear the virus still posed a significant health risk to Australians.

'Can I just stress this is only the beginning,' she said. 'We are no way near through COVID-19. There is a long way to go.'

'Some countries have managed to control it... But until we have a vaccine we are going to be at significant risk.'

The most concerning trend that has been picked up relating to the Crossroads Hotel cluster was the speed in which symptoms developed.

'People have developed the symptoms more towards the one day period than the 14[days],' Dr Chant said.

'It gives you very little time for the contact tracers, because you've got to get your cases diagnosed and then you've got to lock down those contacts.'

In spite of the growing caseload in New South Wales, Premier Gladys Berejiklian was adamant she would not follow the example of Victoria and put the state back into lockdown.

A medical worker takes a swab from a woman at a COVID-19 testing clinic in Picton, southwest Sydney

'We can't keep going into lockdown and that is something we need to avoid at all costs,' she said on KIIS.FM.

Victoria has suffered a triple-digit increase in cases for the past 11 days, including 317 new cases on Thursday; the state's worst daily figure.

There were concerns it may have been carried into New South Wales by multiple Victorians before the border was closed, with one Victorian man having been identified as 'patient zero' of the Crossroads Hotel cluster.

Asked if Sydney would be locked down if it saw the same infection numbers, Ms Berejiklian said: 'We would avoid that happening.'

With around one million Australians reliant on financial support already, the premier was desperate to avoid the economic devastation that further lockdowns would bring.

She also ruled out suburb-by-suburb lockdown as tried in 10 postcodes in north-west Melbourne.

Ms Berejiklian said locking down suburbs where outbreaks began was ineffective because people who may have been infected there travel 'all over Sydney'.

A sign for a pop-up COVID-19 testing clinic is displayed along a main road near the hotel

Medical staff at a pop-up COVID-19 testing clinic, perform tests on drivers

Despite numbers rising in New South Wales and the scope of infections spreading throughout Sydney, federal Health Minister Greg Hunt on Wednesday said the state had still handled the crisis better than in Victoria.

'All community cases in NSW are associated with the Crossroads Hotel,' Mr Hunt said while praising Ms Berejiklian's efforts.

'NSW is holding the line, they're doing incredible work. But we need everyone who was at that Crossroads Hotel to isolate and present themselves for testing.

'NSW is stable and, whilst the numbers remain a concern... the speed and progress of the tracing program and the fact that the community cases have been contained is heartening.'

But the continued high numbers in Victoria were alarming, Mr Hunt said.

'These numbers, as the Victorian Chief Health Officer has said, are stable but they are deeply concerning.

'It is too early to say if it will remain stable,' he said.

In spite of the growing caseload in New South Wales, Premier Gladys Berejiklian is adamant she won't send the state back into lockdown

A female medical staffer wearing biohazard gear tests people for coronavirus at a clinic set up near the Crossroads Hotel

'As Victorians, as Melburnians, we are in the great fight of our lives.'

While the Crossroads Hotel cluster appears the major concern for Sydneysiders at the moment, Ms Berejiklian admitted she was fearful community transmission was happening before the border shut down without being picked up on.

'Our case numbers are relatively low but what we don't know is if there was community spread months ago when people from Sydney and Melbourne were moving in and out.

'Things can get out of control very quickly,' she warned.

The premier said Victorian officials failed to realise community transmission was happening until it was too late.

'They didn't pick it up early enough. People who should have stayed at home didn't know they had to stay at home or didn't stay at home and then that spreads through the community.

The Crossroads Hotel, Casula, on Monday - the epicentre of the latest coronavirus cluster

'We're hoping that hasn't happened here in New South Wales.'

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard told residents not to expect the state to frequently have zero COVID-19 cases as the virus can bubble away under the surface for some time.

'This virus will continue to transmit lowly through the community and from time to time we can fully expect (this),' he told reporters on Wednesday.

NSW Health has also named several venues where confirmed COVID-19 cases spent time including the YMCA at Revesby, Wests Leagues Club at Leumeah, Macarthur Tavern in Campbelltown and Casula Kmart.

The Milky Lane burger joint in Parramatta and the Bavarian Macarthur restaurant in Campbelltown were later added to the list as well as Woolworths in Bowral.
The idea of the cell as a city is a common introduction to biology, conjuring depictions of the cell's organelles as power plants, factories, roads, libraries, warehouses and more. Like a city, these structures require a great deal of resources to build and operate, and when resources are scarce, internal components must be recycled to provide essential building blocks, particularly amino acids, to sustain vital functions.

But how do cells decide what to recycle when they are starving? One prevailing hypothesis suggests that starving cells prefer to recycle ribosomes--cellular protein-production factories rich in important amino acids and nucleotides--through autophagy, a process that degrades proteins in bulk.

However, new research by scientists at Harvard Medical School suggests otherwise. In a study published in Nature in July, they systematically surveyed the entire protein landscape of normal and nutrient-deprived cells to identify which proteins and organelles are degraded by autophagy.

The analyses revealed that, in contrast to expectations, ribosomes are not preferentially recycled through autophagy, but rather a small number of other organelles, particularly parts of the endoplasmic reticulum, are degraded.

The results shed light on how cells respond to nutrient deprivation and on autophagy and protein degradation processes, which are increasingly popular targets for drug development in cancers and other disease conditions, the authors said.

"When cells are starving, they don't haphazardly degrade ribosomes en masse through autophagy. Instead, they appear to have mechanisms to control what they recycle," said senior study author Wade Harper, the Bert and Natalie Vallee Professor of Molecular Pathology and chair of cell biology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS.

"Our findings now allow us to rethink previous assumptions and better understand how cells deal with limited nutrients, a fundamental question in biology," Harper said.

Protein turnover is a constant and universal occurrence inside every cell. To recycle unneeded or misfolded proteins, remove damaged organelles, and carry out other internal housekeeping tasks, cells utilize two primary tools, autophagy and the ubiquitin-proteasome system.

Autophagy, derived from Greek words meaning "self-eating," allows cells to degrade proteins in bulk, as well as larger cellular structures, by engulfing them in bubble-like structures and transporting them to the cell's waste disposal organelle, called the lysosome.

In contrast, the proteasome pathway allows cells to break down individual proteins by tagging them with a marker known as ubiquitin. Ubiquitin-modified proteins are then recognized by the proteasome and degraded.

Surprising discrepancy

Previous studies in yeast have suggested that nutrient-starved cells use autophagy to specifically recycle ribosomes, which are abundant and a reservoir of key amino acids and nucleotides. However, cells have many other mechanisms to regulate ribosome levels, and how they do so when nutrients are low has not been fully understood.

Using a combination of quantitative proteomics and genetic tools, Harper and colleagues investigated protein composition and turnover in cells that were deprived of key nutrients. To probe the role of autophagy, they also focused on cells with genetically or chemically inhibited autophagy systems.

One of the first analyses they carried out revealed that, in starving cells, total ribosomal protein levels decrease only slightly relative to other protein levels. This reduction appeared to be independent of autophagy. Cells that lacked the capacity for autophagy had no obvious defects when nutrient deprived.

"This was a very surprising finding that was at odds with existing hypotheses, and it really led us to consider that something was missing in how we think about autophagy and its role in ribosome degradation," Harper said. "This simple result hides a huge amount of biology that we tried to uncover."

Searching for an explanation for this discrepancy, the team, spearheaded by study co-first authors Heeseon An and Alban Ordureau, research fellows in cell biology at HMS, systematically analyzed the production of new ribosomes and the fate of existing ones in starving cells.

They did so through a variety of complementary techniques, including Ribo-Halo, which allowed them to label different ribosomal components with fluorescent tags. They could apply these tags at different time points and measure how many new ribosomes were being synthesized at the level of a single cell, as well as how many old ribosomes remained after a set amount of time.

When cells were deprived of nutrients, the primary factors that led to lower overall ribosome levels was a reduction in new ribosome synthesis and turnover through non-autophagy dependent pathways, the experiments showed. Both cell volume and the rate of cell division decreased as well, however, which allowed cells to maintain a cellular density of ribosomes.

Global picture

Next, the team examined the patterns of degradation for more than 8,300 proteins throughout the cell during nutrient deprivation. They confirmed that the pattern of ribosome turnover appeared to be independent of autophagy and, instead, matched proteins that are known to be degraded via the ubiquitin-proteasome system.

"With our quantitative proteomics toolbox, we could look simultaneously in an unbiased manner at how thousands of proteins are made and turnover in the cell under different conditions with or without autophagy," Ordureau said. "This allowed us to gain a global picture that wasn't based on inferences drawn from analyses of a limited number of proteins."

The analyses showed that a small number of organelles and proteins were degraded by autophagy in higher amounts than ribosomes, particularly endoplasmic reticulum, which the Harper lab has previously shown is selectively remodeled by autophagy during nutrient stress.

These proteome-wide data may reveal other organelles and proteins that are selectively degraded in response to nutrient stress, the authors said, and the team is pursuing further analyses.

Together, the findings shed light on how starving cells respond to nutrient stress and, in particular, clarify previous assumptions regarding ribosome turnover. Critically, the authors said, the results demonstrate that proteasome-dependent turnover of ribosomes likely contributes to a much greater extent than autophagy during nutrient stress.

This is an important step toward a better, unbiased understanding of autophagy, a widely studied process that is the target of numerous drug discovery efforts.

"Controlling autophagy is being explored in a wide range of contexts such as killing tumor cells by starving them of key nutrients or allowing neurons to remove harmful protein aggregates," An said. "But our understanding of autophagy is incomplete, and many aspects are still unclear."

Only relatively recently have scientists found that starvation-induced autophagy can be selective, she added, and questions such as what organelles are targeted and why, whether autophagy affects only damaged organelles or random ones, and many others remain mostly unanswered.

"We are using the context of starvation to better understand how cells use autophagy, and under what circumstances, to understand this important process better," An said.

###

Additional authors on the study include Maria Korner and Joao Paulo. The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grants R37NS083524, RO1AG011085 and RO1GM095567).

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2446-y.
A final reminder that we are holding a DealBook Debrief call at 11 a.m. Eastern today. Our special guest is Maggie Haberman, a star White House correspondent at The Times, who will discuss the Trump administrations approach to containing the coronavirus, reopening the economy and preparing for the election. She will also take your questions, which you can send to dealbook@nytimes.com. R.S.V.P. here to join the call. (Want this in delivered to your inbox each day? Sign up here.)

If you send $1,000, I will send back $2,000

Twitter got weird yesterday when dozens of prominent users  including Joe Biden, Elon Musk and Bill Gates  urged people to send them Bitcoin. The obvious scam was a brazen hack that highlighted a huge vulnerability at a major tech company.

Twitter determined that several employee accounts were compromised when they were tricked into giving up credentials by a coordinated social engineering hack. (Vice reports, citing sources it says were involved in the attack, that the hackers had help from inside the company.) That allowed someone to post from the high-profile accounts. Twitter restored service at 8:30 p.m. Eastern.

 Tough day for us at Twitter. We all feel terrible this happened, Jack Dorsey, the companys C.E.O., tweeted afterward. At the time of writing, shares in Twitter are down 5 percent in pre-market trading.
Not only does the Trump administration lack a comprehensive plan for addressing the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, it spent much of the past week working to undercut one of the nations most trusted scientists, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Reporters were given opposition research noting times when Fauci was allegedly wrong about the course of the pandemic, and Peter Navarro, a trade adviser to President Donald Trump, published an op-ed in USA Today attacking Fauci personally.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court may not hear the case challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act before the November elections, although its existence is likely to serve as fodder for Democrats up and down the ballot.

And lower courts have been active on the reproductive health front since the high court declined to fully exercise its anti-abortion majority. Federal judges in Tennessee and Georgia blocked abortion bans, while one in Maryland blocked an administration rule requiring insurance companies that sell plans on the Affordable Care Act exchanges to send customers a separate bill for abortion coverage if it is offered.

This weeks panelists are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post and Erin Mershon of Stat News.

Among the takeaways from this weeks podcast:

Despite rosy pronouncements by federal officials that testing efforts in the country are progressing well, many states still report problems getting supplies they need, and delays in getting test results are making contact tracing all but impossible.

The testing problems create major hurdles to opening schools on time, as testing and contact tracing have been prerequisites to open schools safely.

Researchers are complaining that the Trump administrations decision to have hospitals report their coronavirus data to HHS, instead of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, may make it difficult for them to study aspects of the outbreak.

Groups that oppose abortion see efforts by Chief Justice John Roberts to moderate decisions this year as a signal he may not be receptive to their arguments to overturn Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationally. The chance to get one more conservative on the court to replace one of the current liberals could galvanize more support for President Donald Trumps reelection campaign.

On the issue of abortion, House Democrats surprised some people by keeping the Hyde Amendment  which outlaws federal spending for abortions in nearly all cases  in the HHS appropriations bill. That was likely an effort to protect vulnerable Democrats in conservative districts.

Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too:

Julie Rovner: The New Yorkers How Trump Is Helping Tycoons Exploit the Pandemic, by Jane Mayer

Alice Miranda Ollstein: The New York Times Magazines Why Were Losing the Battle With Covid-19, by Jeneen Interlandi

Erin Mershon: The New York Times Bottleneck for U.S. Coronavirus Response: The Fax Machine, by Sarah Kliff and Margot Sanger-Katz

Paige Winfield Cunningham: Politicos Inspector General: Medicare Chief Broke Rules on Her Publicity Contracts, by Dan Diamond and Adam Cancryn

To hear all our podcasts, click here.

And subscribe to What the Health? on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or Pocket Casts.
By Joseph Menn, Katie Paul and Mark Hosenball

(Reuters) - Twitter Inc <TWTR.N> had stepped up its search for a chief information security officer in recent weeks, two people familiar with the effort told Reuters, before the breach of high-profile accounts on Wednesday raised alarms about the platform's security.

The FBI's San Francisco division is leading an inquiry into the Twitter hacking, it said in a statement, as more Washington lawmakers called for an accounting of how it happened.

The law enforcement agency said hackers committed cryptocurrency fraud after they seized control of the Twitter accounts of celebrities and political figures including Joe Biden, Kim Kardashian, Barack Obama and Elon Musk.

A day after the breach, it was not clear if the hackers were able to see private messages sent by account holders, although Twitter said it had no evidence that attackers had been able to access passwords.

The company said in a statement that it was continuing to lock accounts that had changed passwords in the past month, but said "we believe only a small subset of these locked accounts were compromised." Twitter declined to comment on the job search.

In a sign of how much the attack unnerved U.S. lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans showed rare bipartisan agreement that Twitter must better explain how the security lapse happened and what it was doing to prevent future attacks.

"This hack bodes ill for November balloting," U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, said in a statement scolding Twitter for "its repeated security lapses and failure to safeguard accounts."

Echoing a similar sentiment, Representative Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, asked what would happen if Twitter allowed a similar incident to occur on Nov. 2, a day before the U.S. presidential election.

Jordan said he remained locked out of his Twitter account as of Thursday afternoon.

President Donald Trump, a prolific Twitter user, was planning to continue tweeting and his account was not jeopardized during the attack, spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said.

Story continues

The White House had been in "constant contact with Twitter over the last 18 hours" to keep Trump's Twitter feed secure, she said.

Twitter said hackers had targeted employees with access to its internal systems and "used this access to take control of many highly-visible (including verified) accounts."

Other high-profile accounts that were hacked included rapper Kanye West, Amazon.com Inc <AMZN.O> founder Jeff Bezos, investor Warren Buffett, Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O> co-founder Bill Gates, and the corporate accounts for Uber Technologies Inc <UBER.N> and Apple Inc <AAPL.O>.

The company, which has been without a security chief since December, said the hackers conducted a "coordinated social engineering attack" against its employees.

Several security experts researching the case said that they believed the hackers were primarily interested in prestige Twitter accounts with one- or two-digit handles, such as @6.

Such accounts were among the first ones hacked Wednesday, even before the bitcoin requests, and control of handles was advertised in one forum for enthusiasts of accounts active since Twitter's early days.

Access to the employee tool could have spread beyond that group.

In an extraordinary step, Twitter temporarily prevented many verified accounts from publishing messages as it investigated the breach.

The second and third rounds of hijacked accounts tweeted out messages telling users to send bitcoin to a given address in order to get more back. Publicly available blockchain records show the apparent scammers received more than $100,000 worth of cryptocurrency.

As of Thursday, Twitter was continuing to block tweets containing the bitcoin addresses the scammers had used. Facebook Inc <FB.O> appeared to have enabled a similar security feature on its Messenger service temporarily on Wednesday, but did not respond to queries on whether it had also been targeted in the attack.

Twitter's shares fell a little more than 1% on Thursday.

CEO Jack Dorsey said on Wednesday that it was a "tough day" for everyone at Twitter and pledged to share "everything we can when we have a more complete understanding of exactly what happened".

Dorsey's assurances did not assuage Washington's concerns about social media companies, whose policies have come under scrutiny by critics on both the left and the right.

Frank Pallone, a Democrat who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee that oversees a sizeable portion of U.S. tech policy, said the company needed to explain how the hack took place.

The U.S. House Intelligence Committee was in touch with Twitter regarding the hack, according to a committee official who did not wish to be named.

(Reporting by Joseph Menn, Katie Paul and Mark Hosenball; Additional reporting by Ayanti Bera, Aakash Jagadeesh Babu and Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru; Elizabeth Culliford and Paresh Dave in San Francisco; and Raphael Satter, Nandita Bose, David Shepardson, Diane Bartz and Jeff Mason in Washington; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Christopher Cushing)
Grayson Campbell holds a sign calling for the removal of the bronze statue of Confederate John Brown Gordon, seen behind him, while hundreds of protesters shout, Take it down! at the Capitol Building after marching from Olympic Park on June 14 in Atlanta.
L eicester's local lockdown will see "some" restrictions eased from July 24, Matt Hancock has announced as he warned: "There is still a lot to do".

Speaking in the Commons on Thursday, the Health Secretary said that measures will be lifted in some areas like schools but he refused to allow the reopening of pubs.

The city was plunged into a localised lockdown after it saw a spike in cases last month but Mr Hancock said the seven-day infection rate has gone down.

But he also told the Commons that the virus rates in Leicester still remain well above the national average and the average for surrounding areas.

He added: Were now in a position to relax some but not all of the restrictions that were in place.

From July 24 well be removing the restrictions on schools and early years childcare and taking a more targeted approach to the restrictions on non-essential retail.

Matt Hancock making a statement on Leicester in the Commons / PA

He said: The latest data shows that the seven-day infection rate in Leicester is now 119 cases per 100,000 people and the percentage of people testing positive is now at 4.8 per cent.

These are positive indicators, especially in light of the huge increase in testing.

Local lockdown in Leicester during Coronavirus pandemic 1 /41 Local lockdown in Leicester during Coronavirus pandemic Leicester has seen 866 cases in the past two weeks PA A city council worker carries rubbish from a coronavirus testing centre at Spinney Park which will be incinerated Getty Images Leicester could be the site of the UK's first local lockdown PA The Government says it is supporting officials in Leicester in their battle against Covid-19 PA Members of the military set up a walk-in mobile Covid-19 testing centre at Spinney Hill Park in Leicester PA A worker for Leicester City Council disinfects public toilets PA A man cleans the windows of a launderette in Leicester PA A member of military personnel uses a tub to collect used a self-test kit from a member of the public at a COVID-19 drive-through mobile testing unit set up at Evington Leisure Centre in Leicester, AFP via Getty Images Members of the military operate a walk-in mobile Covid-19 testing centre at Spinney Hill Park in Leicester PA People queue at walk-in mobile Covid-19 testing centre at Spinney Hill Park in Leicester PA A man wearing a protective visor crosses the road on mobility scooter in Leicester PA Members of the military operate a walk-in mobile Covid-19 testing centre at Spinney Hill Park in Leicester PA People walk by an electronic billboard displaying a government message AFP via Getty Images Robin Dignall and Maria Demetriou-Clamp disinfect chairs at their hair salon Hair@1RD in Leicester as the city may be the first UK location to be subjected to a local lockdown after a spike in coronavirus cases PA A woman wearing a PPE mask walks past social distance advisory singns in Leicester's North Evington neighbourhood Getty Images People walk by an electronic billboard displaying a government message AFP via Getty Images Soldiers from the Royal Logistics Corp operate a mobile coronavirus (Covid-19) testing site at Evington Leisure Centre Getty Images A youth cycles past a sign telling local residents to "Social Distance" and advising on how to help "Prevent the Spread" of coronavirus, in the North Evington district of Leicester AFP via Getty Images Gallowtree Gate in Leicester after the Health Secretary Matt Hancock imposed a local lockdown following a spike in coronavirus cases in the city. PA A man sits on a bench, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Leicester Reuters A worker disinfects a bin following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Leicester, Reuters A worker disinfects a McDonald's restaurant Reuters A police car on Gallowtree Gate in Leicester PA Shops open their shutters in Leicester after the Health Secretary Matt Hancock imposed a local lockdown following a spike in coronavirus cases in the city PA AFP via Getty Images Reuters PA AFP via Getty Images Getty Images PA PA

He compared the figures to when the lockdown was imposed and the seven-day infection rate was 135 and 10 per cent of tests were positive.

He added: I committed to reviewing the measures in Leicester every two weeks. This morning I chaired a gold meeting of the local action committee to discuss the latest situation and this afternoon I held a further meeting with local leaders, Public Health England, the JBC, the local resilience forum and my clinical advisers.

A deserted Leicester city centre, as the city remains in local lockdown / PA

Mr Hancock also announced a new local power to close non-essential shops in Leicester where necessary, but said restrictions on the hospitality sector will continue.

He said: Restrictions like those for travel and only having social gatherings of up to six people, for example, will remain in force.

And measures introduced on July 4 like reopening the hospitality sector will also not yet apply.

Mr Hancock paid tribute to the people of Leicester and Leicestershire for their perseverance and hard work.

He said: Some say that the local lockdown is unnecessary. I wish this were true, but sadly it remains vital for the health of everyone in Leicester and the rest of the country that these restrictions stay in place.

We will review them again in a fortnight. I hope that this careful easing of restrictions will provide some comfort to people in Leicester and Leicestershire.

And Id say this directly to people of Leicester and of Leicestershire: I pay tribute to you all. Your perseverance and your hard work has brought real and tangible results and youve shown respect for one another."
Oswego, N.Y.  A 31-year-old Mexico resident faces several charges in connection with Wednesdays robbery at the Key Bank branch in the village of Mexico.

David Clark was arraigned today on charges of third-degree robbery and fourth-degree grand larceny, according to Oswego County Sheriffs Lt. Andrew Bucher.

Clark is accused of taking $2,151 from the bank Wednesday after passing a note to a teller demanding money from the drawer. Bucher said Clark did not display a weapon.

Oswego County sheriffs deputies arrested Clark several hours after they were called, just before 3 p..m., and were able to recover $1,588 of the stolen money, Bucher said.

Clark was released on his own recognizance. Deputies were assisted by troopers from the New York State Police and officers from the Oswego Police Department.

Nolan Weidner is a reporter for the Syracuse Post-Standard and syracuse.com. Got a comment or idea for a story? He can be reached via email at nweidner@syracuse.com.
Ethiopia says the swelling of the dam's reservoir is caused by rains flooding the Blue Nile

Ethiopia informed Sudan on Thursday it has not started filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Sudans foreign ministry said in a statement.

Ethiopias charge daffaires in Khartoum told a senior Sudanese foreign ministry official that his country didn't close the dam gates nor retained water inside its reservoir, the statement added.

The Ethiopian official said the swelling of the dam's reservoir is caused by rains flooding the Blue Nile.

Due to the rainy season, water gathered naturally in the dams lake, he was quoted as saying.

The Ethiopian officials remarks came during a meeting with the director of the neighbouring countries department at the Sudanese foreign ministry Babiker Al-Siddiq earlier on Thursday.

He reiterated his country's commitment to ongoing negotiations mediated by the African Union with downstream neighbours Egypt and Sudan.

The Sudanese official also said Khartoum is committed to the AU talks and refuses any unilateral measure, particularly with regard to the safety of operation of the Sudanese Roseires Dam, which is located close to the GERD.

There has been contradictory reports on Wednesday over whether Addis Ababa had started filling the dams reservoir.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Ethiopian State TV quoted the countrys water minister Seleshi Bekele as saying that the country has started to fill the GERDs reservoir. Hours later, however, the minister denied that the filling process has started.

The contradictory statements came amid satellite captured images of the Ethiopian dam showing its swelling reservoir amid other reports that Sudan has recorded a decline in the water level of the Blue Nile coming from Ethiopia.

Ethiopia later denied that it had begun the filling process and the Ethiopian State TV apologised for what it described as a misinterpretation of statements made by the countrys water minister.

Egypt requested an urgent explanation from Addis Ababa concerning the controversy.

Ethiopia has repeatedly said it would start filling the dams reservoir this month, with or without an accord with downstream countries Egypt and Sudan.

Both countries have warned about the consequences of Addis Ababa taking any unilateral action on the project, including beginning the filling process.

The Ethiopian contradiction came two days after the end of the latest round of GERD talks between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan, which were held under the auspices of the African Union and attended by observers from the European Union, the United States and the World Bank.

After 11 days of online talks that started on 3 July 2020, the three countries announced that no agreement was reached concerning the major points of disagreement, despite Sudan and Ethiopia indicating that there was limited progress in the talks.

The three countries presented their final reports on the progress of the talks to President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, the current chairman of the African Union.

Ramaphosa is expected to hold a mini-summit of union officials and heads of member states to discuss the next steps.

Cairo, which relies on the Nile for 95 percent of its fresh water, fears the dam will significantly reduce its share of water, especially during the filling stages through periods of drought and dry years.

Khartoum has said that the safety of its Roseires dam will be directly impacted by the operation of the GERD, which is located around 100km from the Sudanese dam. Ethiopia, on the other hand, says the project is key to its development efforts.

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LANSDALE  Three words have prompted hours of discussion already, and talks look likely to continue for at least another month.

Discussion continued Wednesday night on whether to add the message Black Lives Matter to the Liberty Bell Trail alongside Lansdales borough hall.

Weve heard, The term is divisive. It doesnt happen in Lansdale. But we really believe that this is an important step for us, as a community, with and for the government, to show our community what we stand for, said organizer Sierra Ritchie-Gruver.

We are committed to fighting against racism, and working toward a more equitable community, she said.

Earlier this month resident Anthony Simpson proposed during councils Code committee meeting that Black Lives Matter be painted in yellow lettering on the Liberty Bell Trail, a stretch of newly-constructed walking path running parallel to Railroad Avenue and adjacent to Lansdales municipal building and police station between Broad and Vine Streets.

Weve been, obviously, receiving a lot of email about that  both for and against. Theres been lots of very healthy and passionate dialogue about it on Facebook, said council President Denton Burnell. Were going to continue to listen to you.

Over the subsequent two weeks, the debate has continued online through social media comments, while the organizers have created a new Lansdale Liberty Trail BLM Facebook group and two online petitions, for borough residents and non-residents. Simpson and Ritchie-Gruver told council Wednesday night that the two petitions have roughly 800 signatures total, and showed council a rendering of what theyd like to accomplish.

We wanted to put our thoughts and goals together, and also provide some information that was requested on the specifics, Ritchie-Gruver said.

The one thing that was requested was a video, so we created a virtual presentation using Google Earth to show what the mural would actually look like, she said.

As she spoke, Ritchie-Gruver showed council a simulated video focusing on the stretch of Railroad Avenue in question, with the yellow lettering painted on the trail facing toward borough hall. Rough estimates are that the stretch of the trail is roughly 180 feet long and ten feet wide, each letter would be roughly nine by nine feet, and volunteers would raise the roughly $1,000 to $1,500 estimated for paint and materials, with any extra going to the local NAACP branch.

Our purpose for doing this is to bring Lansdale together, and show our solidarity with our Black community, Ritchie-Gruver said.

We think its important to acknowledge that racism does exist, and is a systemic problem affecting individuals throughout all communities, she said.

Why put the message next to the borough building, where staff and police work and council holds meetings and passes new local laws?

We believe it is a symbolic gesture to, from, and alongside of the borough hall, since this is a location where changes are made in our community, she said.

Group members have also suggested some sort of customized memorial plaque that could clarify the purpose of the message, and indicate that its meant to bring attention to racism and injustice, Ritchie-Gruver told council. So far, volunteers have gathered support both online and in person at protests on July 4, and have contracted the regional Circuit Trails Coalition who have voiced their support.

As far as COVID, well have a sanitizing station, provide gloves and disposable masks for people who need them, and sanitizer wipes for hands and equipment, Ritchie-Gruver said, and each letter will contain quadrants marked at six-foot intervals to ensure safe distancing.

The stretch of Railroad Avenue in question once housed a series of small businesses, including the North Penn Hotel, the Longaker Hotel, a dress shop and a trolley station until all were demolished ahead of an urban renewal project in the 1960s that resulted in the construction of the Century Plaza building at 100 W. Main, according to the Lansdale Historical Society. Railroad Avenue was closed to vehicle traffic in December 2013 when construction began on renovating and expanding the borough hall building, then was rebuilt and reopened in August 2018 to SEPTA and emergency vehicles only, and the trail running parallel to the roadway was completed in October 2019.

After Ritchie-Gruvers presentation, Simpson addressed the question of why he felt the message was better suited for public property than a private business.

I dont see a need to ask a particular business owner to brand their building or business, and single them out as a target to a misunderstood message. Because I think it will be misunderstood, he said.

Mayor Garry Herbert, who had suggested in his Mayoral Musings column that a mural might be more visible than a trail with little traffic, said Wednesday he backs the message but is wary of the method.

I deeply value the message of supporting our Black community, and members of minority communities, he said. However, there are all kinds of legal issues with putting things on public property.

Once you define ground as a public forum, its not so much about the defacing of whatever we put down there, but we would then have to entertain every request, on a content-neutral basis. Meaning, if someone wanted to show up and put any message: a hate-filled message, swastikas, it could be anything, on that same public ground, we actually would have to, by First Amendment law, we would be mandated to allow the message, he said.

Herbert added that he has attended and shown support at all of the local Black Lives Matter protests in and around town in recent weeks, and said those protests, and the activities of the towns human relations commission, were signs of a changing town.

We want to take these steps forward, but we have to do it in a legal way, that makes sense. I deeply appreciate the message, and I really look forward to the conversation to come, he said.

Burnell said he thought the best place for the ongoing conversation would be at council committee meetings on Aug, 5, likely the code enforcement and/or administration and finance committees, which could then recommend approval to full council for Aug. 19. Those meetings are still up in the air as to whether they may be held at the borough building, 1 Vine Street, or online, but Burnell said the location will be well-publicized to residents and the pro-message group.

With COVID raging, and things being rolled back, were not sure yet where were going to be in August. We may be here (online) again, but well make sure you get that info, he said.

Several residents then shared their thoughts, both for and against the project, and gave suggestions and feedback. Resident Gregory Pallante said hes lived in the town for 25 years, and seen plenty of changes in that time.

I believe in my heart: We, as citizens of this town, should commemorate our Black brothers and sisters in our community, with a message of equality, he said.

Resident Carole Farrell said shes not opposed to a message, but questioned whether that was the right one.

I just feel this message has become a singular message. I dont feel that its a unity message. I dont understand why you dont use words like unity, solidarity, inclusive  kind of what you had in your mission statement. I feel there are better words, that show the inclusivity of the borough, she said.

Resident Jean Fritz also said she favored a more inclusive message.

I am opposed to the statement Black Lives Matter instead of using All lives Matter, because if you just say Black lives matter, then you are forgetting about the other minorities, plus all of the white people. And theres a lot of different minorities in Lansdale besides Black people, she said.

Fritz also asked if it was possible to put the message on the ballot for voters to decide via referendum in November. Borough Solicitor Patrick Hitchens said he looked into that specific question, and the answer is no.

Unfortunately, the case law, surprisingly enough, is quite clear: absent a specific statutory prescription authorizing a referendum on a ballot, the board of elections at the county will not accept, and are not legally obligated to, and it would be an error of law for them to put on a ballot, a referendum for something that is not specifically authorized, Hitchens said.

That position has been backed up by the Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs, Hitchens told council, and Lansdales code contains over 30 references to petitions and six or seven references to referendum topics, none of which specifically address the use of borough property.

Typically they relate to tax levies, or sales of specific prototype, or changing the number of council members, things like that. But none of them relate to the use of public property, he said.

Resident Andy Havington suggested one possible alternative: Could a message be posted on banners similar to the Hometown Hero banners honoring veterans along several local streets?

If its possible to put a message up there, the sentiment of what were trying to communicate is going to reach many more people, he said.

No matter where theyre coming from, if theyre in Lansdale, theyre going to see Black Lives Matter, I think its a much more flexible media, and we can change it as we want going forward.

After the public comments ended, Burnell thanked all residents for their feedback and said talks will continue at the committee meetings on Aug. 5 and full council on Aug. 19.

This discussion will obviously continue at our work session, and well take it up further from there, he said.

Lansdales borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on Aug. 5; for more information or meeting agendas and materials visit www.Lansdale.org.
GENESSE COUNTY, MI -- Two Democrats and three Republicans will face off in the Aug. 4 primary election, hoping to make it to the November ballot for the 50th District Michigan House seat. Democratic incumbent Tim Sneller will see competition from Raymond Freiberger, whose wife, Lynee, is running as a Republican. Christina Fitchett-Hickson and Lynn Huckee are also running as Republicans along with Lynee Freiberger. The 50th District House includes the cities of Grand Blanc and Burton, as well as Grand Blanc and Mundy townships. This year, MLive Media Group partnered with the League of Women Voters of Michigan to provide candidate information for readers. Each candidate was asked to outline their stances on a variety of public policy issues. Information on all state and federal races and many of Michigans county and local races will be available at Vote411.org, an online voter guide created by the League of Women Voters. All responses in the voter guide were submitted directly by the candidate and have not been edited by the League of Women Voters, except for a necessary cut if a reply exceeded character limitations. Spelling and grammar were not corrected. Publication of candidate statements and opinions is solely in the interest of public service and should NOT be considered as an endorsement. The League never supports or opposes any candidates or political parties. Here is background information the candidates provided about themselves. Sneller is serving his second term as 50th House District legislator and has a bachelors degree in political science and a secondary teaching certificate from the University of Michigan-Flint. He has also served over 30 years as a legislative aide in the Michigan Legislature and worked at the Flint GM Truck and Assembly Plant. Raymond Freiberger is a retired IRS agent and wrote for the national office of the U.S. Army Intelligence Branch - Vietnam & Germany. He created budgets for the IRS and wrote reports for both the IRS and the army. He earned his BBA from Eastern Michigan University. Lynne Freiberger is self-employed and said she considers herself a businesswoman opposed to a politician. She has over 30 years experience as a successful entrepreneur and business owner, and she attended the American River Community College for business and accounting. She has gone through basic training with the U.S. Army, and she studied German at the University of Maryland. Fitchett-Hickson did not provide biographical information. Hukee did not provide biographical information. The candidates submitted responses to questions posed by the League of Women Voters, which are included in its online voter guide. All responses in the voter guide were submitted directly by the candidate and have not been edited by the League of Women Voters, except for a necessary cut if a reply exceeded character limitations. Spelling and grammar were not corrected. Publication of candidate statements and opinions is solely in the interest of public service and should NOT be considered as an endorsement. The League never supports or opposes any candidates or political parties.

Heres a look at how the candidates responded to questions on some key issues. Fitchett-Hickson and Hukee did not respond to the questions.

What is your position on the role of public funding of education in Michigan? What measures do you support/propose to improve educational outcomes, and accessibility for all Michigan students?

Sneller: As a former teacher, I understand that funding for education is crucial to our students and Michigans future, and I know we need to better support teachers because they are educating our next workforce and community leaders. In order to have a quality education, we need to improve our education policies and invest in public schools to ensure that our students get the best education possible. We need to stop funding for-profit charter schools that are failing to educate our students, hold accountable all schools that receive public funds (including cyber schools), and make college affordable for all students.

Raymond Freiberger: Since my main campaign goal is the improvement of the economic, health, and welfare of Michigans residents, I would have to look at any bill involving this issue as they come up in the house before I would support or not support it.

Lynne Freiberger: Until I have in hand the policies and issues pertaining to this question, I am unable to answer responsibly. Otherwise, I have a For the People, By the People campaign motto.

What policies do you support to increase jobs and help Michigan residents improve their economic positions, in general and given the pandemic?

Sneller: We need to reinstate the prevailing wage and right-to-work laws so we can provide workers a fair wage and help build a stronger community and economy. We also need corporations to pay their fair share and provide more support for small businesses. I also support equal pay for equal work and making college more affordable for all students. Since the pandemic, issues with paid sick leave and affordable, accessible child care have been exposed and policies to address these issues should be considered. By working collaboratively, we can increase economic development, create jobs, and help our businesses grow and succeed.

Raymond Freiberger: Since my main campaign goal is the improvement of the economic, health, and welfare of Michigans residents, I would have to look at any bill involving this issue as they come up in the house before I would support or not support it.

Lynne Freiberger: Until I have in hand the policies and issues pertaining to this question, I am unable to answer responsibly. Otherwise, I have a For the People, By the People campaign motto.

What state policies do you support regarding Michigan elections, voting and campaign funding? Do you support mailing ballots to all eligible voters?

Sneller: I believe that voting should be made easier for Michigan residents and I was happy to see recent ballot proposals pass to do just that, for example no reason absentee voting. Again, I support making it easier for people to vote and that includes mailing applications and ballots to all eligible voters.

Raymond Freiberger: Since my main campaign goal is the improvement of the economic, health, and welfare of Michigans residents, I would have to look at any bill involving this issue as they come up in the house before I would support or not support it.

Lynne Freiberger: Until I have in hand the policies and issues pertaining to this question, I am unable to answer responsibly. Otherwise, I have a For the People, By the People campaign motto.

What actions or policies do you support to protect Michigans water, air and land for current and future generations? What is you position on energy efficiency and renewable energy?

Sneller: Its our duty to protect and maintain the environment to ensure our natural resources stay pristine for future generations to enjoy. We need to strengthen our protections for clean water and air, toughen penalties for corporate polluters, ensure that environmental concerns are heard, and adequately invest in our natural resources. We need more oversight and care for our Great Lakes, and that includes more oversight for Enbridge Pipeline 5. Im proud to say that I co-sponsored legislation with my colleagues to provide greater state oversight for oil and gas pipelines.

Raymond Freiberger: Since my main campaign goal is the improvement of the economic, health, and welfare of Michigans residents, I would have to look at any bill involving this issue as they come up in the house before I would support or not support it.

Lynne Freiberger: Until I have in hand the policies and issues pertaining to this question, I am unable to answer responsibly. Otherwise, I have a For the People, By the People campaign motto.

How would you address the racial, economic, health, education, etc. inequities, including Michigans 20 percent of children and 17 percent of seniors living in poverty?

Sneller: To promote social justice in our state, one major issue we need to focus on is criminal justice reform. I also believe in a womans right to make her own healthcare decisions, equal pay for equal work, and making college more affordable for all students.

Raymond Freiberger: Since my main campaign goal is the improvement of the economic, health, and welfare of Michigans residents, I would have to look at any bill involving this issue as they come up in the house before I would support or not support it.

Lynne Freiberger: Until I have in hand the policies and issues pertaining to this question, I am unable to answer responsibly. Otherwise, I have a For the People, By the People campaign motto.

Do you believe that Michigan has a gun violence problem? If so, what measures would you support to alleviate this problem?

Sneller: I support the Second Amendment and the right of Michiganders to own and maintain firearms, however, I also want to ensure the publics overall protection and adopt and enforce responsible gun laws that are also constitutional. In order to do this we need to have a real discussion about how to keep our children and communities safe. One measure I support to alleviate the gun violence problem is addressing the issue of domestic violence, and prohibiting those aggressors from having weapons.

Raymond Freiberger: Since my main campaign goal is the improvement of the economic, health, and welfare of Michigans residents, I would have to look at any bill involving this issue as they come up in the house before I would support or not support it.

Lynne Freiberger: Until I have in hand the policies and issues pertaining to this question, I am unable to answer responsibly. Otherwise, I have a For the People, By the People campaign motto.

Read More

MLive partners with League of Women Voters for 2020 voter guide

Democrats face off in primary election for 51st state House District seat

Dragons, cats and politics: Meet the Michigan couple running against each other in 2020 election

Cynthia Neeley wins husbands state house seat in Flint

Two Republicans vying for 92nd House seat in Muskegon County
Woman police constable Sunita Yadav, who had a confrontation with a minister's son over lockdown violation which led to his arrest here in Gujarat, claimed she has resigned from service.

However, a senior police official has denied it.

Prakash Kanani, the son of Gujarat Minister of State for Health Kumar Kanani, and his two friends were arrested on Sunday for allegedly violating the lockdown and night curfew orders in Surat, a COVID-19 hotspot, a senior police official earlier said.

Yadav, who is being hailed on social media for taking action against the minister's son, told news channels on Wednesday that she had put in her papers.

"I have resigned because I did not receive support from my superior officers. I was only doing my duty as a constable. It's the fault of our system that these people (like the minister's son) think they are VVIPs (very very important persons)," she said.

However, a senior police official here denied that she has resigned.

"She has not given her resignation. The inquiry is still on and technically she cannot resign at this juncture," Surat Police Commissioner R B Brahmbhatt said.

Yadav's action had led to the registration of a first information report and arrest of Prakash Kanani and two of his friends for alleged violation of lockdown and curfew norms in Surat city.

The arrests came after a video of a heated exchange between them and Yadav, who pulled up the trio for violation of curfew, surfaced on social media. The trio was later released on bail.

Since the incident, Yadav is being hailed on social media.

While some social media users called her 'Lady Singham' (referring to the tough cop in the Hindi film 'Singham'), some suggested she contest the 2022 state Assembly polls against Kumar Kanani, who represents Varachha constituency in Surat district.

'#i_support_sunita_yadav' began to trend on Twitter after the news of the confrontation spread.
New Delhi, Jul 16 (UNI) India on Thursday termed the reports of Iran ending its agreement with New Delhi for two key projects -- the second phase of Chabahar Port and the Chabahar-Zahidan railway project as speculative.

Referring to Chabahar Port, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava while addressing the mediapersons during weekly online briefing said, Despite the difficulties posed by the sanctions situation, there has been significant progress on the Port project. An Indian company has been operating the Port since 2018 and has steadily scaled up the traffic at the Port.

Since December 2018, 82 vessels have been handled there including 52 in the last twelve months alone.

The Port handled 12 lakh tonnes of bulk cargo and 8200 containers, he said.

Proactive measures are currently underway to increase the usage of Chabahar Port, both for Afghanistan and Central Asia, Mr Srivastava said.

As far as Chabahar-Zahidan railway project is concerned, the Indian government had appointed IRCON to assess the feasibility of the project.

In collaboration with Iranian firm CDTIC, IRCON has completed the site inspection and review of the feasibility report.

Detailed discussions were thereafter held on other relevant aspects of the project, which had to take into account the financial challenges that Iran was facing, Mr Srivastava said.

In December 2019, the issues were reviewed in detail at the 19th India-Iran Joint Commission Meeting in Tehran.

The Iranian side was to nominate an authorized entity to finalize outstanding technical and financial issues. This is still awaited, the spokesperson added.

On reports of development of Farzad-B gas field in Iran, Mr Srivastava said that the matter is under discussion.

The spokesperson said ONGC was involved in the discovery stage.

Follow-up bilateral cooperation was however impacted by policy changes on the Iranian side. In January 2020, we were informed that in the immediate future, Iran would develop the field on its own and would like to involve India appropriately at a later stage, he said.

The reports of dropping the partnership with India comes as Iran finalises a sweeping 25-year economic and security partnership with China worth $400 billion.

The partnership would vastly expand Chinese presence in banking, telecommunications, ports, railways and dozens of other projects.

UNI ASH/VT SHK2105
By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Amid coronavirus scare and triple lockdown in some parts of the state, over 1.03 lakh students are appearing for the Kerala Engineering, Architecture Medical (KEAM) entrance examination in 343 centres across the state and Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Dubai, on Thursday.

The exam is being held in the morning and afternoon sessions.

The morning session (Paper I - Physics and Chemistry) will be held from 10 am to 12.30 pm.

Paper II - Mathematics will be held from 2.30 pm and 5 pm. Students applying for the pharmacy course need to appear only for Paper I.

Even though 1.10 lakh candidates had registered for the exam only 1.03 lakh of them downloaded their hall tickets.

Candidates started arriving in the examination hall from 8 am owing to the stringent checks as part of the coronavirus prevention protocol.

Though KSRTC buses including 'bus-on-demand' facility was arranged for the candidates, most of them arrived via private means of transportation.

Triple lockdown has been imposed in critical containment zones in the coastal areas in the state, to stem the intense transmission of the virus.

Poonthura, in Thiruvananthapuram is one such zone, where a special exam centre was arranged for around 60 candidates from the area.

Fool proof arrangements

Authorities made elaborate arrangements for the examination including disinfection of the centres and deployment of around 3,000 volunteers to ensure implementation protocol.

Students will be allowed into examination halls after undergoing thermal screening.

Further, special rooms will be allotted for candidates with symptoms and those who are under observation for coronavirus.

The Commissioner for Entrance Examinations (CEE) has already issued a detailed set of guidelines to be followed by students to prevent the spread of the infection.

Controversy over exam

Meanwhile, conducting these entrance exams in the midst of a spurt in coronavirus has also triggered controversy as opposition parties had earlier urged the government to postpone the exam till the crisis eased.

Union Minister V Muraleedharan had written to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan pointing out that conducting the exam at this juncture would put students under grave risk.

He said the Centre had postponed the NEET exam to September in the wake of the pandemic.

However, Vijayan, who chaired a high level meeting on this, decided to go ahead with it in strict adherence to protocol.

Kerala had conducted the SSLC and Plus Two examinations in a similar scenario in the last week of May.

None of the students who appeared for these exams tested positive for coronavirus.
TCN News

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner (OHCHR) has expressed strong concern at the criminal proceedings and investigations initiated against the four well-known Kashmiri journalists. This was revealed through the letter directed to the Government of India, which was made public by OHCHR recently.

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David Kaye, the UNs Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion, in a detailed letter has expressed concern over the police action against four Kashmiri journalists Naseer Ganai, Gowhar Geelani, Peerzada Ashiq and Masrat Zehra. The letter condemns the alleged harassment meted out to these journalists.

The other UN Special Rapporteurs Leigh Toomey and Mary Lawlor from the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the UN have written to the Human Rights Council President drawing attention to criminalization of four Kashmiri journalists covering Jammu & Kashmir by Indian authorities.

The letter has reported the present legal standings of journalists Naseer Ganai, Masrat Zahra, Peerzada Ashiq and Gowher Geelani, all of whom have extensively covered the atrocities and dense militarization of Kashmir by the Indian forces. Owing to the criminal procedures and legal proceedings against these journalists who were harassed while on-field duties, the Rapporteurs have highlighted that journalism is a necessary service to any society and a free, uncensored and unhindered press constitutes the cornerstones of a democracy.

The letter has detailed legal actions initiated by Indian authorities against the four Kashmiri journalists, stating that such allegations and harassment of reporters reveal a pattern of silencing independent reporting on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir through the threat of criminal sanction. Further, slapping UAPA on the journalists makes up for a broad scope making them easily amenable to abuse, as in these cases.

The Working Group has also attached relevant instruments and laws of international human rights that apply to these four cases, resonating that the Council provide information on the compatibility of the criminal charges against the individuals. It has also demanded that India follow obligations to respect and ensure the freedom from arbitrary arrest or detention of these journalists. The Committee has mandated that the Council provide necessary directions and effective remedies within 60 days so that the investigation of the alleged violations to rights of these journalists can be conducted.

Additionally, the Special Rapporteurs informed that a copy of this allegation letter has been transferred to the Indian Government and once the letter receives recommendations from the President, it could be transmitted through the regular procedure to inquire whether the deprivation of the journalists liberty was arbitrary or not. The Working Group wrote that it has also asked for a separate reply of the Government to this allegation letter as constituted in the regular procedure.
Women wait outside a police station for their detained relatives to be released in western Myanmar's Rakhine state in a file photo.

A family in western Myanmars Rakhine state was ordered to collect the battered body of a 37-year-old man, days after he was detained by the army for suspected ties to the rebel Arakan Army  a victim of what rights workers say is a rising tide of arrests that has swept up hundreds of mostly young men.

Authorities say Soe Myint Tun, detained on July 11 by the army with five other ethnic Rakhine men suspected of links to AA, hanged himself while under interrogation. His family says he was an ordinary villager and that his body shows clear signs of torture. What is not in dispute is that he died in official custody.

Civilian detentions, a controversial Myanmar army practice during decades of wars with ethnic armies, are on the rise in the southern part of Rakhine, which had been relatively untouched by the armed conflict that has ravaged the northern section of the state for 19 months, those familiar with the situation told RFA.

A legal aid group based in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state, counts 95 cases in which soldiers have arrested 308 individuals in Rakhine state for allegedly having connections to or conspiring with the AA. Most are young men in rural areas, often picked up on little evidence.

Lately, there are more cases of arresting civilians merely on suspicions, Myo Myat Hein, program director at the Thazin Legal Aid Group, told RFAs Myanmar Service, adding that all the cases are all being tried in courts.

These cases have increased in the Ann and Kyaukphyu areas, said the attorney, referring to two townships in the southern part of the coastal state. Myo Myat Hein reckons 500 or more Rakhine civilians are on the run to avoid arrest by the army.

Myanmar military spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun told RFA on Wednesday that he did not have a figure for the total number of civilians who have been arrested and changed for allegedly having links to the AA.

The AA seeks autonomy for ethnic Rakhines in the state, a riverine land of 3.2 million people on the Bay of Bengal that is one of Myanmars poorest states. The AA, formed in 2009 with an estimated 8,000 fighters last year, was declared an illegal association and terrorist organization by the government in March.

Soe Myint Tuns detention was among a series of recent arrests of Rakhine civilians in July, revealed to RFA in telephone interviews with relatives of the detained men.

On July 11, soldiers from Myanmar Army Infantry Battalion Nos. 34 and 35 military troops raided Ah Lel Chaung village in Ramree township and arrested six villagers, said community administrator Maung Maung Shwe.

They inspected all the houses in the village and took away the people they wanted for interrogation, he said, adding that the soldiers had a list of the villagers names and national ID card numbers.

They deemed seven villagers suspicious, but only took six of them away and let one teenager go free, Maung Maung Shwe said. He described the men as ordinary farmers, fishermen, and road workers, with no known connections to the AA.

Beaten to death

On Tuesday, three days after the six men were taken away, local police summoned the relatives of Soe Myint Tun to collect his body, claiming that he hung himself while in custody.

We were informed by the Ma-Ei police station through the Ramree township police station that Soe Myint Tun had died, family member Kyaw Hlaing told RFA. They asked the family members of all six detainees to come to the police station.

When we saw his body, it looked like he had been tied up and beaten to death, Kyaw Hlaing said. His face and head were full of bruises and open wounds. It's impossible that he died from hanging. He must have died from torture and beatings.

Other relatives and villagers who saw the body confirmed signs of beating.

Zaw Win, commander of the Ramree township police force told RFA that Soe Myint Tun did not die in that police station, but during an interrogation in next-door Taungup township.

Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun said an autopsy would determine the truth about how Soe Myint Tun died.

The fate of other five men taken from Ah Lel Chaung village on July 11 remains unclear.

Villagers look at an unexploded rocket from fighting between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army in Mrauk-U township, western Myanmar's Rakhine state, March 16, 2019. Credit: AFP Rakhine patriotic songs

In another incident tracked by RFA on July 11, also in southern Rakhine state, Phyo Win Aung, 20, and Tun Myint Soe, 32, were arrested after soldiers entered Saing Chon village in Kyaukphyu township and discovered information on their mobile phones that allegedly linked them to the AA, their relatives said.

Pho Win Aungs mother, Ye Ye Win, said her son was arrested for having records of phone calls to friends who are AA members. He was naive to answer the calls from his friends, she said, but he was not involved with the ethnic armed group.

As far as I know, he doesnt have any connections to any organizations, she told RFA.

They said he had contacted AA members. He is just a young adult and has no consideration for the consequences of answering such phone calls. My son didnt do anything wrong, she said.

Similarly, soldiers arrested two villagers from Kyaukphyus Zin Chaung village on July 7, and their family members have not had any contact with them.

On the same day, Myanmar Army troops arrested two villagers from Lay Taung Chaung in Ramree township, saying they had violated the countrys Counter-Terrorism Law for having Rakhine patriotic songs on their phones, their relatives said.

Myanmar military spokesman Zaw Min Tun rejected the suggestion that soldiers had detained the villagers for having songs on their cell phones.

Maybe they found indisputable evidence on their phones, such as evidence of having connections with the enemy or sending the militarys troops information to AA troops, he said.

Once we found such evidence, we proceeded to interrogate and charge the individuals lawfully, he added. But it is not true that the military arrested the civilians just for having Rakhine patriotic songs on the phone. These accusations are pure propaganda.

The military also announced it had arrested seven villagers from Kyaukphyus Kat Thabyay village on June 6 on suspicion of having connections to the AA and charged them under the Counter-Terrorism Law on July 4.

Arbitrary arrests not good

Zaw Min Tun defended the militarys extended detentions, saying they were necessary because AA troops sometimes disguise themselves as civilians to more easily attack government troops or to detonate landmines.

It is very challenging for us to distinguish between them [civilians and AA soldiers], he said. AA troops in civilian clothes attack us and flee to take shelter in the village.

We might have arrested some people for suspicious activities, but we alone cannot charge them. It is up to the corresponding police station and court, he added.

Khin Maung Latt, a Rakhine lawmaker in Myanmars upper house of parliament who represents Rathedaung in the northern part of the state, said soldiers should allow the family members of those arrested to have access to them.

Making arbitrary arrests is not good, he told RFA. They should keep these detainees in conditions mandated by the law. Their families should be informed. They are not guilty until the court proves them guilty. Their cases should be tried at court.

The military arrests in Rakhine state follow a familiar pattern of arbitrary arrests, detention of ethnic civilians caught up over the years in other Myanmar war zones, including in Kachin and northern Shan states.

Rights groups have called for international action to halt the ill treatment of civilians, which at times includes forced labor and extortion, in various conflict zones to ensure that those responsible for serious crimes are held accountable.

A 2019 report by Amnesty International found that the Myanmar military in northern Shan state subjected civilians to arbitrary detention, often arresting men and boys on the basis of their ethnic identity and a perceived link with one of the many armed groups active in the state.

As is the case in other conflict-affected areas of Myanmar, arrests and detention were often accompanied by torture and other ill-treatment, said the report, based on interviews with nearly 90 people, including witnesses to rights violations, with incidents documented by satellite imagery and photographs.

Soldiers beat, kicked, and punched detainees in order to obtain information about ethnic armed groups, or else to force detainees to confess to being members of such groups, it said.

Appropriate punishment

Zaw Zaw Tun, secretary of the Rakhine Ethnics Congress, said 20 percent of the total 194 civilian deaths that his NGO has tallied during the 19-month conflict occurred while individuals were in military detention.

Their bodies were found with injuries, so these deaths were related to the militarys interrogations, he told RFA.

Aung Myo Min, executive director of the human rights education group Equality Myanmar, said certain mechanisms are needed to probe deaths that occur in military custody.

We need certain mechanisms in place to investigate these deaths when they occur, he said. When it comes to the investigations, the investigators should be able to work independently, and all parties should cooperate with them.

The major shortcoming in the current process is a lack of appropriate punishment for those who are found to have violated the rights of detainees or abused them once the investigations have been completed, Aung Myo Min said.

Because of this weakness, the violators become more aggressive and unafraid of the consequences when arresting and torturing [other] detainees, he said.

Reported by RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
An ice rink featuring a frozen waterfall in Beijings Changping district has become a popular destination among climbing enthusiasts and newcomers to ice sports. Located in the Huyu Natural Scenic Area, the rink consists of a 40-meter-high climbing area. With the approach to the Beijing Winter Olympics, ice and snow activities are attracting fans across the country. The China Tourism Academy estimated that 305 million people will visit such venues nationwide this season

Jan 18, 2022 05:36 PM
By Express News Service

KOCHI: Imports of pepper from Sri Lanka for domestic use have shot up to 717 tonnes in the January to June period, of which nearly 50 per cent or 372 tonnes came in the month of June.

According to data compiled by the Kerala chapter of the Indian Pepper and Spice Traders, Growers, Planters Consortium, in the first six months of 2019 (January-June), imports were 408 tonnes, which means this year there has been a significant growth of 56 per cent in the same period.

The consortium said ever since the bilateral agreement signed between India and Sri Lanka under the SAARC pact, pepper imports from Sri Lanka have been growing at a fast clip. Total imports of pepper under various heads including for domestic use shot up from 14,559 tonnes in 2014-15 to 27557 tonnes in 2018-19, a jump of 89.28 per cent, said Kishor Shamji, coordinator, Indian Pepper and Spice Traders, Growers, Planters Consortium, Kerala, in a letter to D Sathiyan, secretary, Spices Board.

For the first six months of this calendar year, the total imports shot up from 10,836 tonnes to 11,055 tonnes. The rising imports are also the major reason for the fall in domestic pepper prices from Rs 700/kg in 2013 to Rs 300/kg now, Shamji told The New Indian Express.

To protect domestic pepper farmers, the general import duty for the commodity is fixed at a high 70 per cent. However, as per the agreement with Sri Lanka, the pepper coming from the island nation has a concessional duty of only 8 per cent. Shamji said pepper from Vietnam is being routed through Sri Lanka to India to escape the high duty structure. Though a minimum import price of Rs 500/kg is fixed to curb imports from Sri Lanka, Shamji said this has not curbed the dumping of pepper from the neighbouring country.

The farming community is apprehensive as to why the imports are taking place at Rs 500/kg minimum import price and paying 8 per cent import duty as well as social welfare cess of 10 per cent on import duty and 5 per cent GST too, said the letter to the Spices Board.

We suspect a gross violation of the FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act) by importers, said Shamji.
A state man who sold fentanyl to an overdose victim was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison, according to federal authorities.

Edgardo Rivera, also known as Eggy, 28, of Hartford, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kari A. Dooley in Bridgeport to a totoal of 138 months in prison, to be followed by four years of supervised release, for fentanyl distribution and firearm possession offenses, according to federal authorities.

The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administrations New Haven Task Force, U.S. Marshals Service and Southington Police Department.

The case stemmed from a July 17, 2017 incident during which Southington Police Department and emergency medical personnel responded to a Southington residence on a report of an unresponsive male, federal officials said in a release, attributing the information to court documents and statements made in court.

At the residence, medical personnel pronounced a male victim deceased of a suspected drug overdose. Investigators collected bags, which were later found to contain fentanyl, from the scene, the release from the office of Connecticut U.S. Attorney John H. Durham said.

The state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined the victims cause of death to be acute fentanyl toxicity, the release said.

Further, the investigation revealed the victim purchased fentanyl from Rivera the day before the victim died from ingesting the drug, federal officials said in the release.

Then, in May and June 2018, law enforcement conducted controlled purchases of fentanyl and heroin from Rivera, according to federal officials.

Rivera has been held since his arrest on Oct. 5, 2018. on a criminal complaint. Authorities said that att the time of his arrest, Rivera was found in possession of approximately 300 grams of controlled substances containing heroin and fentanyl, a loaded 9mm pistol, and more than $14,000 in cash.

On May 23, 2019, Rivera pleaded guilty on May 23, 2019 to one count of possession with intent to distribute, and distribution of, 40 grams or more of fentanyl, and one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a narcotics trafficking offense, federal authorities said.

Durham noted that federal prisoners are required to serve at least 85 percent of their prison term and are not eligible for parole.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas P. Morabito.
Guest Column Joint Vision Statement Brings New Twists in Thai-US Alliance

Thai army commander Gen. Apirat Kongsompong (right) meets Gen. James C. McConville, chief of staff of the US army, during the signing ceremony for the Strategic Vision Statement between the Royal Thai Army and US army at RTA headquarters in Bangkok on July 10. / Thai army / Facebook

Before General James C. McConville, the chief of staff of the US army, was able to sign the Joint Vision Statement 2020 for the Thai-US Defense Alliance last Friday, he had to go through the stringent COVID-19 measures required under Thai law for foreign visitors.

Photos showing the general getting a nose swab and a body temperature check on arriving at Don Mueang airport went viral on social media. Major Thai-language dailies and the Bangkok Post had a field day publishing these photos.

Ahead of the visit, the Thai army was bombarded with questions from the media as to whether the US guest would be given special privileges on entering Thailand. Thai Army commander General Apirat Kongsompong insisted all visitors to Thailand had to follow the same rules, including Gen. McConville. The widely shared photos were released by the Thai armys Facebook page, Smart Soldier Strong Army, which effectively branded them as exclusive historical photos and put all the rumors to rest.

A few days before the generals visit, US Ambassador Michael George DeSombre was also targeted by local media after being seen not covering his face during a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak. Columnists and political pundits immediately attacked the American envoy, criticizing him for a lack of respect for Thailand. One senior columnist quickly invoked The Ugly American syndrome of yesteryear. However, the US Embassy was quick to clarify that DeSombre had indeed worn a mask during his meeting with Somkid but removed it when he had to speak, as well as at the photo-op. A major faux pas on the part of the Thai media.

These two episodes served as the latest barometer of how delicate Thai-US ties have become. There remains a strong sense of angst among Thais in relation to the US government for what they perceive as unfair treatment in Washington. Its recent criticism of labor standards and treatment of foreign workers in Thailand and the ban on chemical substances are cases in point.

Beyond the media hullabaloo, Gen. McConvilles 40-hour visit was extremely significant for two reasons. It would be Gen. Apirats last major activity as army commander and seal his position as a great believer in the strong Thai-US alliance before his retirement at the end of September. He has shown enthusiasm for strengthening and broadening Thailands security and defense cooperation with the US, covering the whole gamut of a modern security alliance, including military doctrines, modernization, interoperability and joint training. This would be one of his legacies.

For the US, any display of its strong links with allies in the Indo-Pacific region are being highlighted to the maximum with the Nov. 3 presidential election now only 112 days away. President Donald Trump obviously wants to demonstrate that the US has networks of friends in this part of the world.

As such, the signing ceremony of the Strategic Joint Vision Statement 2020 was specifically aimed at energizing and enhancing the bilateral army-to-army relationship and the readiness to deepen the 65-year-old Thai-US alliance and prepare it for the future. Our alliance has a long and productive history and we are now taking on 21st-century challenges together, reiterated Gen. McConville. The joint statement also envisaged the Thai-US defense treaty alliance working together towards stability, prosperity and sustainability in the Indo-Pacific region in support of an inclusive and rules-based international order.

Interestingly, the presence of a top US general amid the pandemic in Bangkok and the joint statement aim to send a strong signal to Americas friends and foes that the Thai-US treaty alliance is alive and kicking, despite decades of neglect due to the lack of common enemies and threats.

Essentially, the Pentagon is eager to reaffirm and reinforce the US security role in the region for fear that its power and influence are diminishing fast under the Trump administration. Despite his criticism of NATO and attempts to trim the number of American troops overseas, Trump has not yet initiated any move that would reduce the US presence in the Indo-Pacific region. On the contrary, he is beefing up the US military presence.

As the US presidential election is approaching, Washington has upped the ante by pressuring allies and friends in this part of the world to support US strategic positions and boost Trumps electability for a second term. According to David Helvey, acting assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, the US should remain focused on deterring aggression by maintaining a ready and capable force, developing innovative operational concepts and investing more to solidify its technological advantages, including those in space and cyberspace.

From now on within the region, it would not be surprising to see a surge in Washingtons calls to defend the rules-based international order. At the virtual ASEAN summit last month, the chairmans statement also placed special emphasis for the first time inclusively on the universally recognized principles of international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

As such, Washington expects Bangkok to be more assertive after the signing of strategic joint vision to display its support for US positions, especially over the situation in the South China Sea. The Mekong region has recently been included in the list and thus become a new US-China battleground. After a decade of low performance under the US-led Lower Mekong Initiative, Washington has finally realized that verbal commitment and goodwill is no longer enough and that more financial and institutional support is needed to achieve any tangible outcomes.

The US is revitalizing its engagement with the Mekong riparian countries by persuading traditional friends to take part in various existing schemes. With increased US interest in the Mekong and Chinas ongoing projects downstream, any issue related to the Mekong region will in the coming weeks and months be politicized to the utmost, especially those pertaining to water management, dam building and environmental impacts. This tendency has already sounded alarm bells within ASEAN.

In fact, the ASEAN chair, Vietnam, is trying to place cooperative efforts in the Mekong into the broader ASEAN framework in the hope that this will reduce tensions among major powers in the region. Moreover, it would also streamline overlapping activities and projects presently being carried out under a dozen bilateral, regional and international frameworks.

One caveat is in order: It is an open secret that Thailand might not see eye to eye with Gen. McConville over 21st-century challenges, in particular their mutual perceptions of external threats. One of the biggest challenges in the next 80 years will clearly be how to cope with the rise of China. Truth be told, Thailand has a different approach and strategic views in engaging with China. Thailand sees China as a comprehensive strategic and development partner underpinning prosperity and peace in the region. The US has made clear that China is an existential threat and a revisionist power.

It remains to be seen how Thai policymakers, especially in the Thai army, will respond to Washingtons squeeze. As a member of the UN, Thailand has no problem backing an inclusive and rules-based international order. The dilemma is  and will be  Thailands views and positions in the context of US-China strategic competition. Deep down, with its non-colonial experience coupled with an independent foreign policy, Thailand believes it can help prevent any major power from dominating the region and becoming a hegemon in the post-COVID-19 world.

This article first appeared in the Bangkok Post.

Kavi Chongkittavorn is a veteran journalist on regional affairs.

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The Trump administration is considering a sweeping ban on travel to the U.S. from members of the Chinese Communist Party and their family members, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

The presidential proclamation is still in its draft form, and President Trump might ultimately reject it, The Times noted, citing unnamed sources.

The reported draft ban may also authorize the U.S. to revoke visas of party members and their families who are already in the country, the Times reported.

The reported draft proposal would pose practical issues, as the Chinese Communist Party has 92 million members and the U.S. government has no knowledge of a party status for a vast majority of the millions of Chinese citizens who visit the U.S., the Times notes.
Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Armenia Hayk Grigoryan has left for Tavush Province to organize investigation of the criminal cases instituted with facts of violation of the ceasefire regime by the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan and gross violation of the requirements of the Geneva Convention and the norms of international humanitarian law and to manage the inspections at the scenes of the incidents, as reported the Investigative Committee of Armenia.

Grigoryan has visited the scenes of the incidents in the city of Berd and the Chinari and Aygepar villages to organize the preliminary investigations under 30 criminal cases instituted by the Investigative Committee and manage the inspections.

Grigoryan conducted inspections at the scenes of the incidents and gave specific assignments to the employees of the 6th Garrison Investigation Division of the General Military Investigation Department and the Regional Investigation Department of Tavush Province.
The Poco M2 Pro will be coming with a new version of software that will not have the banned Chinese apps. Existing users can now uninstall these apps.

Poco M2 Pro, the company's latest smartphone was brought under the radar for multiple controversies soon after its launch; first, there was a flack from disappointed fans for rebadging the Redmi Note 9 Pro as the M2 Pro and later, for shipping the phone with some of the banned Chinese apps preinstalled.

While the company did not break its silence regarding the first concern, the second one was addressed quite proactively. Poco India's GM, C Manmohan, earlier posted an open letter on its Twitter handle stating that user privacy is its topmost priority. He explained that the version of the software was finished before the ban.

Follow up statement on concerns raised, and general updates. We are listening! https://t.co/wzDdhZBR0a pic.twitter.com/DJRJAICbu6  C Manmohan #POCOForIndia (@cmanmohan) July 16, 2020

Following up on his previous statement, C Manmohan, in his latest letter, says POCO is working on the next factory image for the POCO M2 Pro which will not have any of the blocked apps preinstalled. The company has also enabled the uninstallation of banned apps for existing units. The POCO M2 Pro went on sale today for the first time in India.

The statement also mentioned the Cleaner app (Clean Master) issue. Some users have raised a concern around the Clean Master app as it is one of the apps owned by Cheetah Mobile, a developer whose apps are infamous for sending private data.

The Indian government released a list of 59 Chinese apps as they were engaged in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, the security of the state and public order. The move came in the wake of India-China standoff at the LOC. TikTok, Shareit, UC Browser, Xiaomi Mi Community, ES File Explorer, Clash of Kings are among the list of 59 mobile apps banned by the Indian government.
Over 17 lakh students cleared the CBSE Class 10 exams, according to the results declared on Wednesday.

91.46 percent students passed the exams, an increase of 0.36 percent since last year. Girls yet again outshone boys nationally, as well as in the state. On the national level, while girls recorded a 3.17 percent higher pass percentage, in Telangana, girls recorded a pass percentage of 99.51 percent against 98.97 pass percentage for boys.

Yet again Keralas Thiruvananthapuram emerged as the best performing district. Telangana failed to make it to the list, despite schools like Glendale Academy, Meridian, Delhi Public School, Johnson Grammar School, Euro School, among others in the city recording a 100 percent result.

Nationally, the Kendriya Vidyalaya schools have given the best performance with almost all of their students securing a pass percentage of 99.23 percent followed by Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas at 98.66 percent. Due to the prevailing situation, the board has decided to not release any merit lists, for both Class 10 and Class 12 results. The CBSE has awarded marks based on an average of the highest three marks obtained in subjects for which exams were held.

Meanwhile, even though the overall pass percentage has increased this year marginally, the number of students placed in the compartment category has also increased. The number of students who have been placed in the compartment category is 1.5 lakh students, 8.02 percent of those who appeared for the 10th exam this year. As per the boards statement, it has decided to replace the term Fail with Essential Repeat this year in students documents.

The board will decide and announce the schedule for compartment exams after consultation with the central government. The modalities for re-checking and re-valuation will also be notified by the board in due course.

Even as the pass percentage for Class 10 has increased this year across the country, the Telangana state board of intermediate education (TSBIE) is confident they will be able to accommodate admissions in intermediate colleges in the state.

Syed Omar Jaleel, secretary, board of intermediate education, said, Last year we had sanctioned 8.06 lakh seats and the intake was around 5 lakh. This year 5.35 lakh students have passed out. Not all of them will get into intermediate colleges, some may apply to other places like polytechnic colleges, etc. I think we will face no issues in accommodating students despite the high pass percentage.
LONDON  On Monday lunchtime, a steady trickle of people wandered into the gift shop of the National Gallery in the British capital, browsing souvenirs to mark their first visit to a museum since Britain started emerging from lockdown.

Staying socially distanced, visitors glanced around the racks that held National Gallery umbrellas, National Gallery gin and National Gallery pencil cases. But many were quickly drawn to the museums range of face masks.

Theyre really cool, said Jessica Macdonald, a 16-year-old student, as she grabbed one featuring Vincent Van Goghs Sunflowers, on sale for 9.50 pounds, about $12. My mums been trying to find nice ones for ages so we dont have to wear these, she added, pointing at the blue medical mask she was wearing.
The Ukrainian government has issued an order to implement a social charity program for the development of territorial communities in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions located near entry and exit checkpoints, which provides for the installation of small solar power plants (SES).

The program will be funded by the Naftogaz Group, according to the government's website.

"A draft act proposes to make a decision on the implementation by Naftogaz of a social charity program for the installation of small SES," the explanatory note to the government order reads.

According to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, the charity program will help create small solar power plants at schools, hospitals, kindergartens and other social infrastructure facilities in the unoccupied part of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

"We hope the national company Naftogaz will support the government and finance a respective program," he said.

In July this year, the Naftogaz Group commissioned the Andriivka solar power plant in the Balakliia district of the Kharkiv region. This is a pilot project of the New Energy division aimed at analyzing the technical and regulatory mechanisms for the development of renewable energy for the group. The plant's capacity is 0.999 megawatts.

NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine transferred dividends for 2019 to Ukraine's state budget in the amount of UAH 48.125 billion, or 95% of the company's net profit.

op
We are currently witnessing a torrent of calls for schools to return to full-time in-person learning in September. While the Ontario government had initially instructed school boards to prepare for multiple scenarios based on regional case counts, this was deemed unacceptable by many parents.

In response, both the Toronto and Ottawa public school boards, along with many in the media, have called on the province to return all students to full-time schooling in September.

Notably absent from these proposals is the potential impact on teachers. Indeed, the fact that there are school board officials and media commentators who are not going into their own offices for fear of contracting COVID-19 while simultaneously demanding that teachers return to crowded schools reveals a potent mix of hypocrisy and magical thinking.

Well-organized teachers will not allow themselves to be shepherded back to unsafe working environments like has happened to meat packers and agricultural migrant workers.

The claim is made that if children are not physically present in school five days a week, parents will not be able to return to work. While this is a valid concern that disproportionately affects working mothers, it mainly applies to children in elementary school who are not old enough to be home by themselves a few days per week.

Now consider the reality of those elementary schools, where children share books, school supplies, mucus, and saliva. These are also the children that can be least expected to wear masks and socially distance. And while everyone purportedly cares about safety, the reality is that these same parents balked at school boards plans to set aside one day a week for the type of deep cleaning that would be required to make classrooms safe.

Given these unrealistic demands, what is the path forward?

First, should be the recognition that if the public is serious about children returning to schools in September, we should be doing everything to decrease community spread during July and August to as low a level as possible. That means not loosening restrictions or reopening businesses unless absolutely necessary. Are we willing to make that sacrifice? It is telling that, despite steady case counts, Ontario seems to be going in the opposite direction.

Second should be the principle that no one should be punished for not wanting to put themselves or their children at risk by physically returning to schools. We need to recognize that there are many parents who are going to prefer to keep their children at home in September and teachers with legitimate health concerns that do not want to put themselves or members of their households at risk. These children should be matched with those teachers who will be expected to provide a rich, daily, interactive, online learning experience.

For students that will be returning to school, some have floated the idea of expanding learning into community spaces like arenas, auditoriums, university campuses, and even the outdoors itself. Indeed, The New York Times editorial board recently proposed closing streets around schools and holding classes there. While these ideas deserve credit for creativity, they pose innumerable logistical challenges. These proposals are all based on the premise that reopening safely requires limiting the number of students in schools. But that is not the only option.

Instead, we should be working toward a large-scale testing program for all students and staff. According to modelling from Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Romer, frequent (at least once every two weeks) testing of staff and students would be more effective at reducing school-based infections than limiting the number of children in schools.

Combining this with daily temperature checks, hand hygiene measures, and PPE where possible, would reduce the spread even further. And while such a large-scale testing apparatus would be expensive, Romer notes that this is cost should be considered a public investment in our most vulnerable students that suffer the most long-term consequences from not being in school. It would also be a rounding error compared to all the economic benefits it would provide.

If the public is serious about schools reopening in September, exhortations are not enough. We need to demonstrate that we are willing to make the social and monetary sacrifices required to make it happen safely.
The Governing Council of the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) have condemned the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Volta Regional Chairman, Mr. Henry Ametefee over alleged attacked on the Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the school Prof. John Gyapong.

Last month at a press conference by the NDC, the former Volta Region Deputy Minister accused Prof. John Gyapong of using his office to engage in dirty dealings.

In addition, Mr. Henry Ametefee warned the UHAS Vice-Chancellor to be careful and know that he is sitting on a land that belongs to Voltarians.

We have allowed Professor Gyapong to be our Vice-Chancellor because we are very civilized people. If the Akyems do not know that Volta Region believes in civility, then Professor Gyapong must be careful that he is sitting on our land as a vice-chancellor, a University that we built, the NDC Regional Chairman said as quoted by the Daily Guide.

Following a meeting by the Governing Council of UHAS, they have through a statement expressed their disappointment at the utterances of Mr. Henry Ametefee.

"The governing council of UHAS at it's meeting on Friday 10th July 2020, discussed the issue and feels greatly disappointed at these ill-informed comments, personalized attacks against the vice Chancellor with unfortunate ethnocentric and political undertones, a statement from the Council signed by the registrar of the school, Dr. Cynthia Sena Kpeglo has said.

It adds, We wish to reaffirm for the benefits of the Volta Region, the entire country and our International Collaborators, that the vice Chancellor, Professor John Gyapong, under the guidance of the University Council, has been consistent in putting in place a robust, transparent and competitive appointment system and process to ensure that at all times, the most competent and capable officers take up available positions in the University irrespective of which part of Ghana or the world they come from.

Read full press statement below:
Volunteers provide coronavirus testing for any Delaware County resident over the age 18, during a walk in at the Parking Lot Adjacent to Providence Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center on Mercy Fitzgerald Campus in Yeadon. Read more

Joanne N. Borders, a registered nurse, has stared at the coronavirus statistics on her computer screen and hoped the cases in Yeadon, the small borough where she has lived for about three decades, would have finally dropped off.

They have not.

The Delaware County town of fewer than 12,000 people has seen the highest rate of coronavirus cases of any suburban municipality or Philadelphia zip code with at least 10,000 residents, according to an Inquirer analysis as of July 17. It has held that unfortunate distinction since before June 15, when its case rate was 360 cases per 10,000 residents. Thats now up to 388.

Lately, the situation shows tentative signs of improvement. But now, with people across the country growing increasingly impatient with staying at home and wearing masks, those gains could be lost, public-health experts say.

An outsized number of cases in one area frequently means that the community includes numerous nursing homes with many virus-vulnerable residents. High rates also are seen in areas that are mostly low income and minority, as the virus is striking hard at people who are more likely to have underlying health conditions, who cant work at home, may live in closer quarters, and have less access to testing and health care.

Yeadon has both.

The simple reality is that this pandemic has highlighted the gross inequities that exist with medical care for African American communities, Borough Council President LaToya Monroe and Mayor Rohan Hepkins said in a statement to The Inquirer. We continue to provide information and supplies to residents and firmly believe that together we can beat COVID-19 and extinguish the disparate medical care often provided to African American communities.

Yeadon also sits in the only suburban Philadelphia county that does not have its own health department. Early in the pandemic, local officials frustrated at the response of state health officials contracted with the Chester County Health Department, which has helped Yeadon with better access to testing and outreach. Yet unlike other hot spots in the region that got the virus under control weeks ago when the area was still in the most restrictive lockdown status, the crisis persists in Yeadon.

Yes, we are concerned, Chester County Health Director Jeanne Casner, who is overseeing Delaware Countys virus response, said earlier this month in a phone interview. The solutions are not necessarily foolproof, and, honestly, fatigue has set in with our public.

Borders, 65, said she sees that fatigue. She has noticed graduation parties in the borough where young adults arent social distancing and arent wearing masks. She worries about what happens when those teenagers go home to their grandmothers.

When I see that, when I see the rest of the area going green and were still struggling, those are the times I think more education is needed, Borders said. Those are the times I try to send out more emails, or another tip or reach out to people and say, How are you doing? How is your family doing? Are you remembering the precautions?

Yeadon, which borders southwest Philadelphia, is almost 90% Black. More than one in four households earns less than $35,000 a year. And about 30% of working people have health-care jobs  which these days often means direct contact with the virus.

Residents of Yeadons long-term care facilities have been especially vulnerable. ManorCare Health Services-Yeadon and Providence Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center at Mercy Fitzgerald had a combined 175 resident cases, both nursing homes confirmed this week. That is almost 40% of the boroughs 446 cases.

At least 41 Yeadon residents have died of complications from COVID-19 as of July 15, according to Chester Countys health department, though the nursing homes report 46 resident deaths. This discrepancy may be due to Yeadon nursing home residents who died while still maintaining their primary address in another town, a Pennsylvania health department spokesperson said.

Early in the pandemic, health officials could see who was most vulnerable. Yet, in Yeadon, there was no first line of defense.

By mid-April, the peak of Pennsylvanias coronavirus outbreak, Yeadon was already reeling from 15 deaths and more than 100 cases. A few weeks later, the case count nearly tripled and deaths approached three dozen.

When the first wave came and hit us, we didnt have a health department in place, said Monica Taylor, one of three Democrats elected to the County Council last fall, marking the first time in generations that Republicans lost the majority. Taylor and her colleagues Elaine Schafer and Christine Reuther made forming a health department a priority in their successful campaigns. But that will take time.

Taylor says the Chester Health Department has started to come on board and understand our county more.

Initial testing in Delaware County, and across the region, was limited. People could not be tested unless they met certain criteria, such as being elderly, an essential worker, or symptomatic  though its now well-accepted that people without symptoms are spreading the virus. The Delaware County Council recently set up a testing site in Yeadon for residents over age 18 or with preexisting conditions.

Casner hopes this effort, along with more testing next week, will provide a clearer picture of why it has been so difficult to bring down Yeadons numbers. With data from the testing site, officials will know whether Yeadons high numbers could be because so many residents already have been exposed due to living in long-term care, being essential workers, or just living with essential workers.

Thats what the health department found when it conducted similar testing in Chesters hot spots.

For now, there are signs of improvement. In the last week, new cases in Yeadon were up just 1%  slower than Delaware County as a whole. The entire region is seeing a gradual uptick in cases, especially among young adults who may not be following safety practices as diligently as they should.

In general, the county is doing much better, and Yeadon is doing much better than they have been a few months ago, Taylor said. We want to make sure we continue to keep that trend and dont see a backslide.

Borders is also nervous about a backslide. She has warned Father Jordan Casson at St. Michaels Episcopal Church in Yeadon, where she is a junior warden, that reopening the church may be further off than they hoped.

Casson said the church has remained closed, avoiding large gatherings, hugging outside, and singing together, because of Borders warnings.

We have someone saying, Listen, were still in a yellow, red zone, even though the county is green.
President Trump traveled on Wednesday to the new political battleground of Georgia to blast away at one of the nations cornerstone conservation laws, vowing to speed construction projects by limiting legally mandated environmental reviews of highways, pipelines and power plants.

One day earlier, his Democratic presidential rival, Joseph R. Biden Jr., took a different tack, releasing a $2 trillion plan to confront climate change and overhaul the nations infrastructure, claiming he will create millions of jobs by building a clean energy economy.

In that period, the major party candidates for the White House displayed in sharp relief just how far apart they are ideologically on infrastructure and environmental matters of vital importance to many American voters, particularly in critical battleground states, including Pennsylvania and Florida.

Mr. Biden is trying to win over young voters and supporters of his vanquished rival, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, by showing an aggressive awareness of climate change and promising to move urgently to combat it. At the same time he has sought to maintain his promised connection to white, working class voters, especially in the Upper Midwest, who swung to Mr. Trump four years ago and are leery of what they see as threats to their livelihood, especially jobs in the oil and gas industry.
She hasn't been seen on screen for 13 moths since taking a break from the BBC soap last summer.

But it's now been confirmed that Tameka Empson is set to reprise her role as feisty character Kim Fox.

The fan favourite, 43, will return to Albert Square later this year, where she'll be reunited with on-screen sister Denise Fox, played by Diane Parish.

She's back! It's now been confirmed that Tameka Empson is set to reprise her role as feisty character Kim Fox

Confirming the good news on Wednesday's This Morning, soap expert Sharon Marshall told how Tameka will be back 'soon' following her time off.

She said: 'The great news is that Tameka is going to be back filming soon.

'I don't think she's been on the set since last year, and I've really missed the sisterly relationship between Denise and Kim.'

Tameka has played Kim since 2009, with the character's exit storyline saw her offered a new job in Scotland.

Big return: The fan favourite, 43, will return to Albert Square later this year, where she'll be reunited with on-screen sister Denise Fox, played by Diane Parish

Over the years, Kim has been involved in a number of hard-hitting plots including giving birth in the Minute Mart with Phil Mitchell acting as midwife and her husband Vincent Hubbard's mysterious disappearance.

Ahead of Tameka's return to set, she and Diane are set to appear on EastEnders spin-off show Secrets From The Square on Monday.

Speaking of the episode, actress Diane, 50, said: 'I think what fans will get from it is that there are many shades to Denise and Kim. For people who have joined the show late, they'll learn a little bit about why she is the way she is.

'And for people who have been with it over time, theyll be reminded of things they liked or didn't really like about the characters, because both are equally important.

Comeback: Confirming the good news on Wednesday's This Morning, soap expert Sharon Marshall told how Tameka will be back 'soon' following her time off

Fan favourite: Tameka has played Kim since 2009, with the character's exit storyline saw her offered a new job in Scotland

'We're in a soap and you're not supposed to love the characters all the time. That's a huge fallacy that somebody is just loved. In shows that I love, you hate and love characters in equal measure.'

She added: 'I just hope people think Denise has been a great part of the show. I think they'll learn a little bit about my relationship with Tameka, as characters and as friends.

'Sometimes it's nice to get a little peek through the window because I think that we have a very special partnership, we understand each other, have a great respect for each other's work, and respect for our differences, and I think people enjoy getting a little glimpse into what we are like.'

EastEnders: Secrets from the Square continues Monday at 8pm on BBC One.
Stride Funding Secures Additional Capital from Leading EdTech Investors and Partners with CampusDoor Education is the key to economic mobility. Now more than ever students need outcome-driven funding options to de-risk the cost of education, said Tess Michaels, Founder and CEO of Stride Funding.

Education funding startup, Stride Funding Inc., announced that it has raised additional venture funding and has secured additional investment capital for its Income Share Agreement (ISA) Fund. The new round of venture funding was led by New U Venture Partners, anchored by Western Governors University, while the ISA investment capital was committed by multi-billion dollar impact investors. The company also announced an exclusive strategic partnership with CampusDoor, a leading education finance technology provider.

Education is the key to economic mobility. Now more than ever students need outcome-driven funding options to de-risk the cost of education, said Tess Michaels, Founder and CEO of Stride Funding. The recent venture funding demonstrates the confidence that investors have in our missionto help students fulfill their potential through aligned incentives across students, schools, and investors.

Stride was founded in 2018 and began issuing ISAs to students across the higher education landscape in 2019. Despite the volatile macro landscape caused by the current public health crisis, Stride has experienced an uptick in student demand as students seek funding partners committed to their personal success. Michaels added, Since our founding, Stride has invested in students and provided more than just financial supportoffering meaningful educational and career resources to nurture their career journeys.

Stride will use the new funds to accelerate development of the first widely distributed ISA, allowing students to share a percentage of their future income in exchange for education funding over a set number of yearsbetter aligning the cost and value of education. Andre Dre Bennin, Managing Partner of New U Venture Partners said, We are pleased to partner with Stride Funding whose Income Share Agreements expand access to education and generate social and economic benefits for its stakeholders. They embody a mission-driven business with a talented and driven team.

The announcement also marks a milestone for the ISA landscape, as the exclusive partnership between Stride and CampusDoor underscores their collective commitment to creating scalable, outcome-based funding options for students, at a time when traditional lenders are reducing their footprint. CampusDoor is a pioneer in student loan originations and views this partnership as a major step forward. CampusDoor CEO Steve Winnie noted, Stride has been and will continue to be a strong partner for us as we collectively shape the ISA space. We are excited to partner with them to offer students the best funding experience driven by a student-first approach.

Michaels echoed the excitement. We have partnered with CampusDoor to enhance and streamline the student application process, while ensuring the rigor required to originate ISAs in a transparent and compliant manner. CampusDoor is the best-in-class and we look forward to growing the ISA space together.

About Stride

Stride Funding Inc. is a mission-driven company that helps students hit their stride with flexible educational funding. Unlike loans that lock students into rigid repayment structures, Stride offers affordable repayments based on income. Strides executive team bring experience from SoFi, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and IBM. GSV Ventures, Slow Ventures, Sinai Ventures, and Strada Education participated in its last funding round in September 2019.

Learn more at https://www.stridefunding.com

Follow Us:

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About New U Venture Partners (NUVP)

NUVP is a venture fund, anchored by Western Governors University (WGU), formed to catalyze a global initiative to develop the innovation that will redefine a post-secondary education that supports the future of work, improves quality, expands access, and optimizes outcomes for the next century. WGUs mission is to improve quality in education and expand access to educational opportunities for all individuals.

Learn more at https://www.newuventures.com

About CampusDoor

CampusDoor provides innovative student loan solutions, systems, and processing to lenders enabling them to help their customers pay for college and refinance existing education debt. CampusDoor was founded in 1995 to deliver loans to students and their families via web-based application systems. The company pioneered the first on-line private student loan application with a live underwriting and response system and has continued to lead the industry in expertise and technology.

Learn more at https://www.campusdoor.com

Contact:

David Kafafian

VP, Business Development, Stride Funding

david@stridefunding.com

(908) 472-7777
The National Museum of African-American History is a part of the vast Smithsonian Institution, a group of museums and research centers that taxpayers fund. That's why it was especially shocking to learn that the museum is promoting the worst kind of racial claptrap at its website.

The museum's website simultaneously encourages the pernicious notion that there's systemic racism in America, accuses all whites of being racists, and argues that behaviors that are a predicate to American prosperity are inherently white  implying both that blacks lack these laudable behaviors and that blacks are betraying their race if they embrace them.

The deeply offensive, taxpayer-supported web page is entitled "Whiteness: Since white people in America hold most of the political, institutional, and economic power, they receive advantages that nonwhite groups do not." By translating the mixture of simplistic, condescending language and academic gobbledygook found at the page, we see the museum making the following assertions:

America's dominant culture is normalized whiteness, which makes all other races "inferior or abnormal." Because white people are the only "normal" people in America, everyone else is at a disadvantage. Normalized whiteness ensures that all others in America are victims of constant microaggressions that "communicate hostile, derogatory, or harmful messages."

All of the above creates an insurmountable white privilege. No matter how marginalized whites are, they're still white, which is not, and never can be, fair.

After the above introduction, there are bullet points about all the unconsciously held advantages white people have, such as choosing to be with their own race, having people listen to them, or seeing their own white faces on TV as if we were still living in 1955 America. This retrograde fantasy screed is followed by the inevitable video showcasing that arch racial huckster, Robin DiAngelo, who manages to be offensive to both blacks and whites.

Naturally, the web page has an attack on America's history. Several paragraphs assert that white supremacy has been interwoven in America since the first Europeans arrived, resulting in Native American slaughters and slavery. This monomaniacal focus on race ignores everything else about America's unique story and successes and makes America sound uniquely evil rather than acknowledge that America's values about "the other" were entirely consistent with views held around the world, including in Africa and Asia.

And then we get to an amazing and revolting chart entitled "Aspects & Assumptions of Whiteness & White Culture in the United States":

The National Museum of African American History & Culture wants to make you aware of certain signs of whiteness: Individualism, hard work, objectivity, the nuclear family, progress, respect for authority, delayed gratification, more. (via @RpwWilliams)https://t.co/k9X3u4Suas pic.twitter.com/gWYOeEh4vu  Byron York (@ByronYork) July 15, 2020

When you scan through the chart (click on the above images to enlarge them), you'll see values or behaviors  all allegedly tied only to whiteness  that have nothing to do with race but that are closely related to economic success in the modern era:

Self-reliance

The nuclear family

Objection, rational linear thinking

Hard work as the key to success

Respect authority

Plan for future

Delayed gratification

Protect property & entitlements

Intent counts

Be #1

Action orientation

Decision-making

Be polite

Those are just a handful of these bizarre "whiteness" assertions. You'll see that many others are extremely racist against whites.

The chart is instantly ridiculous because it imagines a monolithic white culture. It ignores that, in 21st-century America, there is no dominant WASP culture. American whites include people with ancestry that traces back to England, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Scotland, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, and a hundred other places where people have less melanin than blacks but otherwise have extremely different cultures and values. In their homelands, these people were often bitter enemies, engaged in endless wars. In America, they became a melting pot of races that the museum foolishly describes collectively as "White."

The poster is also insanely racist. It contends that behaviors that, in a sane world, are unanchored to race are instead the unique preserve of whites. According to the poster, blacks don't engage in those behaviors, nor should they, lest they lose their unique culture. Perhaps that assertion would have merit if the actions described were negative, but they're not. Instead, the traits listed above are consistently associated with social and financial success in modern America.

What's funniest about this steaming pile of horse excrement is that it comes from an institution that employees allege is entirely white-run and very racist, or so the Washington Post reported on Wednesday:

A group of former employees and board members of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art have written a letter charging the museum with promoting a culture of racism and saying formal reports about racial bias and attacks have been ignored. In a letter sent last week to Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III, the unidentified individuals say that more than 10 former and current black employees of the museum dedicated to African art and culture have experienced "incidents of racial bias, hostile verbal attacks, retaliation, terminations, microaggressions and degrading comments" that date back at least five years. The museum's staff is predominantly white, with no curators of color, and complaints by black employees about their treatment have been systematically disregarded, according to the letter, first reported by HuffPost.

In sum, when it comes to the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, white leftists are assuring blacks that they are permanent victims. Indeed, says the museum, whatever they do, they should not engage in behaviors that could make them successful. With the nation's premier black-centric museum advancing these ideas, every dead slaver, KKK member, and Jim Crow supporter is smiling in Hell because modern leftists have achieved the ultimate racist dream, which is to keep blacks forever subordinate, marginalized, and impoverished.

Thomas Lifson adds:

Have any of these people at the Smithsonian ever been to Japan? How about South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore? In those nations, most of the values attributed to "whiteness" are more strongly embraced than they are in this country.

This is insanity. Does the Smithsonian follow the practice of Apartheid era South Africa and consider Chinese and japanese people "honorary whites"?

Image: Frank Schulenburg at Wikimedia.

UPDATE: The museum has removed the chart -- but the rest of the nonsense at the museum's "whiteness" page remains unchanged.
Manitobas highest court has upheld an eight-year prison sentence for a man whose neglect contributed to his young daughters death at the hands of her mother.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 16/7/2020 (551 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In a 16-page decision released Thursday, the Manitoba Court of Appeal dismissed Daniel Vernon Williams's conviction appeal, granted him leave to appeal his sentence and then dismissed that as well. Daniel Vernon Williams of Peguis First Nation was convicted of manslaughter following a jury trial in 2018. His 21-month-old daughter, Kierra Elektra Star Williams, died of internal bleeding following an assault by her mother, Vanessa Bushie, on July 14, 2014. (John Woods / Canadian press files)

Manitobas highest court has upheld an eight-year prison sentence for a man whose neglect contributed to his young daughters death at the hands of her mother.

Daniel Vernon Williams of Peguis First Nation was convicted of manslaughter following a jury trial in 2018. His 21-month-old daughter, Kierra Elektra Star Williams, died of internal bleeding following an assault by her mother, Vanessa Bushie, on July 14, 2014.

Bushie pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced in 2017 to life in prison with no chance of parole for 14 years.

In a 16-page decision released Thursday, the Manitoba Court of Appeal dismissed Williamss conviction appeal, granted him leave to appeal his sentence and then dismissed that as well.

Kierra was placed in foster care at birth and returned to her parents at nine months of age. She died just one year later.

Jurors at Williamss trial were told Kierra had been malnourished and physically abused for months before she died. Her injuries included 11 fractured ribs, fractures to her arm and skull and five missing teeth.

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Williams argued on appeal that the sentencing judge did not properly consider his degree of participation or non-participation in Kierras death, given that he did not assault the girl and was not present when the fatal assault occurred. Williams also argued the judge did not give proper weight to his background as an Indigenous person and evidence that he suffered from battered spouse syndrome.

Williams did not testify, but in a police statement provided to court, he said he saw Bushie angrily pick up Kierra by her arm and on another occasion heard Kierras head hit the floor after Bushie changed her diaper in a rough manner.

Williams told police he did nothing to help the child and that he and Bushie decided to isolate her so family members would not report them to social workers. Williams said he and Bushie decided not to seek medical attention for Kierra, fearing they would lose custody of their two other children.

While Williams may not have directly caused Kierras death, he made "deliberate choices" that allowed it to happen, Justice Karen Simonsen wrote on behalf of the appeal court.

Williams "was aware of the childs suffering and knew that she needed medical attention, but nonetheless repeatedly chose to do nothing about it," Simonsen said. "During that time, the child went from a healthy baby to one whose battered and emaciated appearance shocked hospital staff. In all the circumstances I take no issue with the trial judges assessment of the accuseds moral culpability as very high."

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
The Kogi government says it is considering selling some non-performing assets of the state to raise capital for infrastructural develo...





The Kogi government says it is considering selling some non-performing assets of the state to raise capital for infrastructural development.





In a statement on Wednesday, Kingsley Fanwo, commissioner for information and communication, said the government is also considering divesting from business ventures.





He said the government will cede some businesses such as hotels and transportation to the private sector to focus on creating enabling environment for businesses to flourish.





The government, Fanwo added, is evolving a policy to systematically ease herself out of business ventures that are not critical needs of the people and which could be better managed by the private sector.





The present administration is working on a plan to concentrate on infrastructural development and create a conducive environment for businesses to thrive, he said.





Over the years, certain businesses such as Hotel Management and Transportation have been mismanaged by Government. This administration will not follow that path.





The Economic Team of Government has been charged to come up with plan that will gradually cede the major economic play to the private sector while Government concentrates on regulating the economy and also create a conducive environment for economic prosperity.





Businesses like Hotel Management and Transportation and others in that belt, are better managed by the private sector. Government has no more resources to waste on businesses rendering services that are better rendered by private concerns.





Fanwo added that the current realities require the state to reorder our priorities and look into how we can complete our ongoing projects as well as initiate new impact ones.





We are looking at the assets of the State. There are some assets that Government kept spending huge sums to maintain and they are not bringing any income to the State, he said.




Mumbai, July 16 : As many as 90.66 per cent -- 12,81,712 students of the total 14,13,687 -- were declared pass in the HSC examinations conducted by the Maharashtra State Secondary & Higher Secondary Education Board (MSSHSEB), top officials said here on Thursday.

The students wrote the exams in Arts, Commerce, Science and Vocational Education streams across the nine Divisional Boards, said MSSHSEB Chairperson Shakuntala Kale.

Announcing the results, she said that of the total number of candidates, there were 6,35,519 girls and 7,78,168 boys, but the girls outraced the boys with 93.88 per cent passing compared to the boys' passing percentage of 88.04.

Among the nine boards, the Konkan Division grabbed the top honour with 95.89 per cent students passing, followed by Pune Division (92.50), Kolhapur Division (92.42), Amravati Division (92.09), Nagpur (91.65), Latur Division (89.79), Mumbai Division (89.35), Nashik (88.87) and Aurangabad (88.18).

The students in the Science Faculty led with 96.93 per cent passing followed by Commerce Faculty (91.27), Vocational Education (86.07) and Arts Faculty (82.63).

According to MSSHSEB Secretary Ashok Bhosale, compared to last year (2019)'s 85.88 per cent, the performance of students improved by 4.78 per cent to 90.66 per cent passing this year despite the Covid-19 fears and its effects.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Geek out and learn about epic engineering feats in Super Factories, the new series that begins tonight, Wednesday, July 15, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Science. You can also livestream it on FuboTV.

Episode 1, Inside the Tesla Gigafactory, gives viewers a VIP tour of the cutting-edge California plant known for its electric cars and clean energy solutions. Bonus: Get the inside scoop on the companys bold plans to build one of the worlds most advanced cars.

Super Factories explores the new frontier of engineering, venturing inside state-of-the-art facilities that make the worlds smartest, most innovative products at baffling speeds. From mighty machines that produce McLaren supercars to the journey Amazon parcels take before they land on doorsteps around the globe, the new series spotlights the factories that make our world what it is today.

What channel is Science on?

You can find which channel it is on by using the channel finders here: Verizon Fios, AT&T U-verse, Comcast Xfinity, Spectrum/Charter, Optimum/Altice, DIRECTV and Dish.

Where can I watch it if I dont have cable?

You can watch it on FuboTV ($54.99/month), which offers you access to your favorite TV shows, live sports events, and much more. Theres a 7-day free trial when you sign up.
MUMBAI: The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) will declare the much-awaited Maharashtra HSC Class 12 results 2020 at 1 PM on Thursday (July 16). Once declared, the Maharashtra HSC Result 2020 will be available on MSBSHSE's official websites: mahahsscboard.maharashtra.gov.in, mahresult.nic.in

Students who appeared in the Maharashtra HSC Class 12 exam are advised to keep their mobiles, laptops charged to check marks on mahahsscboard.maharashtra.gov.in, mahresult.nic.in

Here's how to check Maharashtra HSC Result 2020 online:

1. Students should first visit the official website: mahahsscboard.maharashtra.gov.in

2. They should click on MSBSHE HSC Result 2020 link on the homepage

3. Now enter your roll number and other details and click on submit

4. You can see your result on your computer/ smartphone

5. Now download your result and take a printout for future reference

The result will show the student's name, subject-wise marks, and total score secured by him/her.

The students can also check their Maharashtra Board SSC and HSC result 2020 via SMS. They just need to opt message option on their phone, and type MH<exam name> <Seat No> and send it to 57766.

A total of 15.05 lakh students appeared for Maharashtra HSC Class 12 exam in 2020, which were conducted before the imposition of the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus COVID-19 in the country. The Maharashtra HSC exams were held from February 18 to March 18. Out of the 15 lakh registered students, 3.39 lakh students are from the Mumbai division alone, which consists of Thane, Raigad and Palghar. A total of 1,919 students with special needs were registered for the MSBSHSE exams.

According to reports, the evaluation of answer sheets of Maharashtra HSC Class 12 exam was started by on May 6 and around 42 lakhs out of approximately 50 lakh answer sheets were reportedly evaluated for the Mumbai division till July 19.

In 2019, Maharashtra SSC and HSC results were declared on June 8, 2019.
Former Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson drove a city vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and lied about the incident that led to his December firing, a city watchdog has concluded.

New details about Johnson's October 17 debacle emerged in a report released by Inspector General Joseph Ferguson on Thursday.

It describes how Johnson drank 'several large servings of rum' with a member of his security detail at Ceres Cafe before he was found slumped behind the wheel of his police car, which had been illegally parked in the middle of an intersection for two hours.

Johnson then made false statements to the public and Mayor Lori Lightfoot, saying he had been out to dinner with friends and that he had ordered an internal investigation of the incident, the report states.

Johnson initially blamed the incident on his failure to take his blood pressure medication and didn't mention alcohol.

That omission resulted 'in a materially inaccurate portrayal of the incident in remarks he made while in uniform and speaking in an official capacity', according to the report. He later acknowledged he had drinks with dinner.

Former Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson (pictured) drove a city vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and lied about the incident that led to his December firing, the city's inspector general concluded in a report released on Thursday

The inspector general's report describes how Johnson drank a 'several large servings of rum' with a member of his security detail at Ceres Cafe before he was found slumped behind the wheel of his police car just after midnight on October 17. Last month Chicago officials released body camera footage from officers who approached the car, which had been illegally parked in the middle of an intersection for two hours

Johnson, who was named superintendent in 2016 and announced his retirement in November, was fired by Lightfoot in December for 'ethical lapses'.

He later admitted a 'lapse of judgement', but said he would let his reputation for integrity earned during more than 30 years as a police officer speak for itself.

The inspector general's report said Johnson drove the security officer - previously identified as 44-year-old Cynthia Donald - from Ceres Care to police headquarters where the officer got into a city vehicle and drove off.

Witnesses revealed last fall that Johnson, who is married, had been seen kissing Donald, who was also married, at the cafe known for its heavy pours.

After dropping Donald off, Johnson also left headquarters and was heading toward his home when he parked illegally at a South Side intersection at 10.39pm.

A witness called 911 to report a man asleep behind the wheel, and officers arrived at about 12.30am to find Johnson sitting in the car that was still running.

Several police officers and fire official checked on Johnson, but no field sobriety test was administered.

Johnson was said to be out drinking with Cynthia Donald (pictured), a member of his security detail, hours before he was found asleep in his vehicle

A supervisor arrived on the scene at 12.43am, and three minutes later Johnson was allowed to drive himself home.

He initially began heading in the opposite direction of his residence, according to dash cam footage recorded by two police cars that were following him and private security cameras along the route.

He eventually changed course toward his home while driving erratically.

In the footage Johnson was seen rolling through a stop sign before making a 'slow, wide right turn into the wrong lane'.

The report said that investigations into the actions of the security staff and officers responding to the scene were pending.

Last month the city released body camera footage which showed Johnson passed out in the driver's seat when an officer approached the car following the 911 call.

The officer was heard asking Johnson: 'Sir, you alright?' and 'You good, you have your ID?' before Johnson flashed his ID through the window.

'You just sitting here or you wanna go home?' the cop asked, to which Johnson replied: 'I'm good.'

'You good, alright sir, you have a good night,' the cop said before turning off his body camera.

The inspector general's report referenced another video in which a Chicago firefighter on the other side of the car was heard asking: 'Hey, what's going on?' and walking away.

It appeared to bolster previous allegations that multiple police employees had engaged in a cover up to protect Johnson.

Body camera footage showed a Chicago cop approaching the driver's side of Johnson's city-owned SUV and asking: 'You just sitting here or you wanna go home?'

Minutes after Johnson showed the officers his ID he was allowed to drive himself home without taking a field sobriety test. Dashcam footage from two squad cars that followed Johnson home showed him driving erratically, rolling through a stop sign and turning into the wrong lane

Ferguson concluded that Johnson not only lied about not being intoxicated, but also lied when he said he had referred the incident to the police internal affairs investigators, which never happened.

The inspector general recommended both that Johnson be fired and that he be placed on the city's do-not-hire list.

He also recommended that Johnson be 'found not in good standing and not issued Illinois Retired Officer Concealed Carry credentials'.

Ferguson's office gave the city until July 28 to respond to the findings in the report. The information released publicly on Thursday was merely a summary provided in a quarterly report on all of the inspector general's recent investigations.

Chicago's Law Department has refused to release the full version of Ferguson's initial report to the media - despite an ordinance passed last fall which allows the release of reports from the inspector general in cases that involve a death or may involve a felony and generate a 'compelling public interest'.

Lightfoot's administration - which supported the ordinance when it was past - has argued that it doesn't apply to Johnson's case because none of his alleged conduct could have been a felony.

DailyMail.com has reached out to Johnson and his attorney Tom Needham for comment about the latest findings.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot slammed Johnson for 'repeatedly lying' during a press conference announcing his firing on December 2 (pictured). The inspector general's report supported her claims, concluding that Johnson made two false statements about the incident

Ferguson will release another report later on about whether the police department takes action against any other officers because of the Johnson incident.

Ald Chris Taliaferro, a former Chicago Police officer who is now chair of the City Council's Committee on Public Safety, responded to the cover-up narrative described in Ferguson's initial report on Thursday, saying that he would wait to pass judgment until the investigation is concluded.

'If the allegations are found to be true - and as of right now, they have not been found to be true - it would be very egregious and certainly worthy of discipline,' Taliaferro told the Chicago Sun-Times.

'If a window was rolled up and [Johnson] presented his ID, the officers may not have smelled alcohol because the windows were rolled up,' he added.

'So, it's important that we opine on the report that's going to be released after the investigation has been completed, rather than to assume that all of the allegations are true at this point. They're not. They're simply allegations.'
Our former first lady will be joining online talk radio with "The Michelle Obama Podcast."

GET OUT THE VOTE: D-Nice, Michelle Obama hold voter-registration party

The Barack and Michelle Obama's production company, Higher Ground, announced this morning that the podcast would be focused on meaningful relationships and conversations. The podcast will be done in conjunction with Spotify.

The podcast "will bring listeners the former first lady's most candid and personal conversations, showing us whats possible when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable, to open up, and to focus on what matters most," according to a Spotify press release.

Obama is expected to talk about everything from the coronavirus outbreak to racism, with hopes to spark those important conversations among loved ones.

"My hope is that this series can be a place to explore meaningful topics together and sort through so many of the questions were all trying to answer in our own lives," Obama stated in the same press release. "Perhaps most of all, I hope this podcast will help listeners open up new conversationsand hard conversationswith the people who matter most to them. Thats how we can build more understanding and empathy for one another."

The episodes, the companies said, will center on "the relationships that shape us, from siblings and close friends to partners, parents, and mentors to our relationship with ourselves and our health."

Guests will include Marian and Craig Robinson, Conan OBrien, Valerie Jarrett, Michele Norris and Dr. Sharon Malone MD.

HOUSTON LOVES THE FIRST LADY: Houstonians turn out for Michelle Obama's 'Becoming' tour

The show is likely to be a hit, considering her memoir sold over 10 million copies in the first five months alone.

The podcast will be available for streaming on July 29, and new episodes will air weekly for nine weeks.

You can listen to a teaser for the pod here.
The U.S. and Saudi Arabia, along with five other Persian Gulf Arab states, announced a coordinated series of sanctions against three money transfer companies plus individuals in Turkey and Syria as well as an Afghan charity. All these people and organizations were part of a network that moved cash around for ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant). All will be monitored and there may be prosecutions.

The U.S. led TFTC (Terrorist Financing Targeting Center) and key members Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE (United Arab Emirates) detected and identified the components of the ISIL financial network and are now cooperating on destroying that network and detecting and going after replacement networks. TFTC has been around since 2017 when it was established as a joint American-Saudi effort to detect and take down terrorist financial networks, especially those used by ISIL and Iran.

There are still a lot of individual Arabs, including some very wealthy ones, who support Islamic terrorism and some even support Iran. But the majority of Gulf Arabs are hostile to ISIL and Iran, and TFTC uses American knowledge and influence over the international banking system, along with the Gulf Arab knowledge and role in local or international Moslem banking systems, to detect and go over ISIL and Iranian cash movements. For a long time the weakness of Western efforts to disrupt financial networks used by Islamic terrorists was their inability to obtain detailed information about this separate Islamic banking system that had been around for centuries and had few links with the current Western dominated international banking system. It was known that billions of dollars a year seemingly disappeared into this ancient Islamic money transfer system and ended up elsewhere, often to finance Islamic terrorist operations. Before TFTC Western investigators could do some damage to the this less formal banking system and came to realize that the center of this system was in the Persian Gulf, where oil-rich Arab states plus non-Arab Iran generated a lot of the cash for both traditional and Islamic banking systems and provided major transfer points between the two. The Arabs are mainly concerned with disrupting Iranian cash movements but everyone can agree on hurting ISIL finances because ISIL is literally at war with all Moslems and non-Moslems.

ISIL got a lot (over $100 million) of cash out of their collapsing Syrian-Iraq Islamic State by 2017. Access to that cash is a major reason why ISIL is still so active. Remove a lot of the cash for a long time and ISIL activity will diminish as well. Currently, most remaining ISIL activity is in rural areas of eastern Syria and northern Iraq. How effective the recent TFTC action is will make itself manifest In Syria and Iraq by the end of the year.

Turkey Shoot

Turkey seems to be at war with everyone, officially or unofficially. The reality is that Turkey has some priorities in this area. Turkey wants to avoid war with Israel yet portrays Israel as an enemy of Islam and tried to ignore the fact that Russia and Israel have long been friends and that relationship continues. Turkey and Russia agree with Israel when it comes to Iran in Syria. Turkey would prefer that Iran go home. Many Iranians and Syrians openly agree with Russia and Turkey on this point. The Iranian government responds with Israeli airstrikes are killing people in Syria. Syrians note that most of the dead are Iranians or mercenaries (Arabs or Afghans) on the Iranian payroll. The Iranian government deliberately keeps as few Iranians as possible in Syrian bases likely to be hit. Iranians getting killed in Syria, even if they are IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps) Iranians, is very unpopular back in Iran.

Syrians just dont like all these Syrians who are working for Iran or Turkey as mercenaries and getting killed by whoever. Similar situation with Russia and Turkey. Both nations keep as few of their own troops in Syria as possible. Russia and Turkey both have the majority of voters back home hostile to their soldiers getting killed in Syria. Russia uses a lot of Russian military contractors; whose deaths are less of an issue in Russia. The Turks, as they have done for centuries, use Arab mercenaries to fight other Arabs. There are lots of Turkish troops in Syria providing support, and ensuring that Turkish mercs do what they are paid for.

Turkey and Syria are also angry at Russia over the poor performance of Russian air defense systems. The Syrians frequently claim to have intercepted Israeli air-launched, often from inside Lebanon or Israel, missiles but the reality is that few of the Israeli missiles fail to hit their targets. Commercial satellite photos are available to determine damage and there is always a lot of it. Iran and Syria complain that the formidable Russian air defense system in Syria is not used to stop the Israelis. The Russians dont want a fight with the Israelis, if only because the Israelis might publicly demonstrate the ineffectiveness of Russian air defense systems. These systems are a major export item for Russia and the Israelis could reduce those export sales with demonstrations of how Israelis get past the Russian air defenses.

Russia and Turkey are actually fighting each other in Libya, where Turkey recently (late 2019) intervened on the side of the UN backed government there. That government is weak and backs Islamic rule, which is why it was about to be eliminated by the Russian backed Libyan government and its more capable army. This force was backed by Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Turkey intervened in return for a signed agreement giving then the right to drill for oil in disputed waters between Libya and Turkey. In Syria Russian airstrikes have killed Turkish troops while the Turks have killed Syrian troops. Turkey, Russia and Iran continue to pretend they are all friends and allies of Syria but the reality is different and becoming more visible and violent.

There are still tensions between Turkey and Russia. For example, Russia has refused to explain why they have been sending daily air patrols along the Turkish border for over a week. The Russian jets stay inside Syria but if those jets are equipped for aerial recon they could be taking detailed photos of any Turkish forces on both sides of the border.

July 15, 2020: In the northwest (Idlib province) Russian airstrikes supported Syrian ground forces attacking Islamic terror groups in Idlib province that were believed responsible for a failed attack on the main Russian Hmeimim airbase, which is not far from Idlib province. Syrian forces used artillery against Islamic terrorist bases identified Russian aerial reconnaissance.

Since February over 7,000 Turkish military vehicles (trucks, tanks and other armored vehicles) have been seen entering Syria. At least 11,000 Turkish troops have also moved into Syria (northern Idlib and adjacent Aleppo province) along with at least as many Syrian Arab mercenaries. These forces are meant to be used against Idlib Islamic terrorists as well as Kurdish forces east of Aleppo province.

July 14, 2020: In the north (Idlib province) a roadside bomb on the M4 highway was used against a joint Russian-Turk patrol. Three Russians and several Turks were wounded. The bomb was apparently planted by Islamic terrorists in half of Idlib province still controlled by Islamic terrorists. Syria controls about half of Idlib and Turkey occupies much of northernmost Idlib. Most of the Islamic terrorists left in Idlib have nowhere they can escape to and most are willing to fight to the death and take as many of their enemies with them.

July 12, 2020: Syria is not getting along with its patrons Russia and Iran. This tension does not express itself violently but there have been confrontations. Iran has been hiring Syrian militiamen by offering higher pay. While Iran is having financial problems, Syria is in even worse shape. Syria still cooperates with Iran. For example, Syria, with Russian help, discovered that three senior intel officers (two generals and a colonel) were selling information to a foreign power (apparently the CIA). Some of this intel was apparently used to track the movements of IRGC general (and Quds Force commander) Qassem Soleimani just before he was killed by an American Hellfire missile attack in January 2020. Soleimani was also in charge of the Iranian military buildup in Syria and Iraq. Iran has declared the death of Soleimani a crime against humanity and is seeking international cooperation to arrest senior American civilian and military personnel involved with killing Soleimani. This allows the Syrians to score some points with the Iranians by agreeing with this effort to avenge Soleimani.

July 11, 2020: In the east (Deir Ezzor province) an airstrike, apparently Israeli, hit a convoy of Iranian mercenaries in Syrian Army uniforms. At least 35 men were killed including two officers. Deir Ezzor is now a key link in a land route from Iran, via Iraq to Lebanon. Deir Ezzor is also where Iran bases most of its mercenaries.

In the west ( Latakia province) Islamic terror groups based in neighboring Idlib province once more tried to carry attacks on the Russian Hmeimim airbase using explosive armed UAVs. The attack failed. This airbase was built by Russia in 2015 near the port city of Latakia, which is 85 kilometers north of the main port of Tartus and 50 kilometers from the Turkish border. Part of the Tartus port has become a long-term foreign base for Russia, along with Hmeimim. As long as the rebels are active in Idlib they will try attacking the Russian bases.

July 10, 2020: Russia and China both vetoed UN efforts to extend aid shipments to Islamic terrorist held Idlib province in northwest Syria via Turkey. Russia, Syria and Iran want the Islamic terror groups in Idlib destroyed. Turkey opposes this because many of those Islamic terrorists as well as civilians seen by Syria as supporters (and subject to punishment or death) will seek asylum in Turkey. Russia is willing to allow aid to come in via Syria but that would enable the Syrians to manipulate aid deliveries to favored factions and make it easier for Syria to shut down all rebel/Islamic terrorist activity in Idlib. Russia already got the Idlib aid coming in via Iraq and Jordan halted. Shutting down the aid via Turkey means air groups have to deal with the Syrian government, which is considered an outlaw operation and guilty of war crimes. Russia believes if it becomes the most useful foreign supporter of the Assad government Russia will have a reliable foothold in the Middle East for a long time. That only happens if Russia can work things out with Turkey and maintain their traditional good relations with Israel.

The UN is not pleased with this Russian strategy and reported that people in refugee camps are dying from a lack of food and medicine. The UN refuses to give detailed data on losses. Syria prefers that pro-rebel civilians leave the country. The Shia Assads are suspicious of any non-Shia Syrian civilians. These potential enemies than prove their loyalty in various ways. For example, in the northeast (Hasaka province) Arab residents of the Kurd dominated province can prove their loyalty to the Assads by staging demonstrations against American patrols or convoys in the areas like Tell Tamer near the Turkish border. In the last week, these civilians have cooperated with Syrian troops to block two American convoys. The U.S. has about a dozen small bases in Hasaka province. There are a growing number of Syrian troops in Hasaka as the Assads negotiate a peace deal with the SDF (Kurdish led rebels) and some autonomy for Syrian Kurds. As usual, the Kurds are not as united as they should be. There have always been factions within the Syrian Kurdish community and now Russia, Syria and the Americans are all trying to sort out which Kurds they can trust the most.

Sporadic fighting continues in southern Idlib where Syrian troops and rebels confront each other. Russian UAVs continually patrol the front line and are occasionally shot down. Russian artillery and airstrikes are used when Syrian forces are trying to advance, or to disrupt another Islamic terrorist effort to launch rockets or armed UAVs at nearby Russian bases near the Mediterranean coast.

July 9, 2020: In the east (Homs province) ISIL forces and Syrian security (army and militia) forces clashed. This fighting produced over a hundred casualties and over 40 dead, most of them Islamic terrorists. ISIL raids continue to threaten traffic on the main road that goes to the Euphrates River Valley and Deir Ezzor province. This is all in the Badia Desert area., which extends into nearby Jordan and is thinly populated by Sunni Arabs who are inclined to tolerate or support ISIL as long as ISIL attacks were directed at military targets and not local civilians. The main job of the security forces is to keep the main road open. This vital route passes through Homs province from the Euphrates to more populated (and pro-government) areas to the west. ISIL has grown weaker in its Badia Desert refuge because of constant clashes with Syrian troops and airstrikes by Russian and Syrian aircraft.

July 8, 2020: Iran signed a deal with Syria to upgrade Syrian air defense capabilities. Iran has not got access to the latest air defense tech and this deal appears to be an effort to test new Iranian air defense gear in Syria and make improvements based on the results. Syria is desperate to obtain air defense capabilities that can stop Israeli airstrikes. Older Russian weapons (S-200 and S-300) are all that Syria has and not very effective at all. Russia refuses to use its S-400 system, used to defend Russian bases in western Syria, for fear of discovering that Israel can defeat the S-400 as well.

July 6, 2020: In the southwest, outside Damascus, an Israeli airstrike destroyed several trucks that were carrying Iranian rockets to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

July 4, 2020: In the east (Deir Ezzor province) near the Iraq border and the Al Bukamal crossing into Iraq, Russian troops took control of a Syrian oilfield by surrounding it with combat vehicles and demanding that the Syrian security force leave. The Syrians did so and the Russians later brought in their own Syrian mercenaries to guard the oilfield.

July 3, 2020: In the east (Deir Ezzor province) American airstrikes hit Iranian mercenary bases near the town of Mayadeen. Most of these bases had been abandoned and those that were still occupied there were some casualties. American airstrikes in this area are usually retaliation for Iranian-sponsored attacks on Americans in Iraq.

July 1, 2020: At the Italian port of Naples police discovered 14 tons of amphetamine pills (captagon) hidden in a cargo container. It was initially assumed the drugs were manufactured by ISIL in Syria. Further investigation showed that ISIL had long since been driven out of the captagon manufacturing business. ISIL had been replaced by the Assad clan, which controlled most of the illegal drug production in Syria for decades before ISIL came along. The seized captagon was worth over a billion dollars at the retail level but the loss of this shipment, unless it had been bought in Syria by a middleman, would cost the Assads several million dollars at least.

June 29, 2020: In the northwest (Idlib province) there are growing incidents of violence between HTS (Hayat Tahrir al Sham) group and smaller Islamic terror groups that refuse to obey. HTS was once an al Qaeda supporter but renounced its al Qaeda connection in 2016. At the time this was seen as a political move to make HTS more acceptable to the Turks. Back then HTS was already a coalition of coalitions and many of the factions still did not trust each other. The major fear is that another faction, or even HTS leadership, has made a better deal with Turkey which, so the story goes, wants to control HTS as a sort of Sunni Hezbollah and use it to drive Shia Iran and its Lebanese Hezbollah out of Syria. Many HTS leaders do have a history of working with the Turks. Russia and Syria have reason to believe the Turks are actually supporting some of the HTS factions in Idlib. The Turks do support moderate Islamic terror groups but refuse to outright admit it. This policy is unpopular with Israel and Western nations as well as Syria, Iran and Russia. Many Turks also oppose any pro-terrorist policy but the current Turkish government is controlled by an Islamic party that favors cooperation with some Islamic terror groups to protect Turks from the more rabid Islamic terrorists. Syria used to play that game and it did not work out well. It rarely does but for many shortsighted politicians, it is still an attractive option. Since 2016 HTS has frequently had to crack down on uncooperative Islamic terrorist factions in Idlib. This is difficult and not completely successful. HTS wants to do this without triggering a major armed resistance. In the last few years, the worst resistance has been a few bombings. This is a favorite tactic for Islamic terror groups who are feuding. That and assassination of each others leaders.

June 28, 2020: In the east (Deir Ezzor province) two airstrikes, apparently Israeli, hit Iranian targets near the Al Bukamal crossing into Iraq. Structures and vehicles were damaged or destroyed and about ten Iranians or Iranian mercenaries. In the aftermath of these two attacks, Iran ordered the remaining troops in the camps bombed to temporarily leave their camps and move to the countryside, dispersed into small groups living in the open.

June 19, 2020: A 57E6 missile, fired from a Russian Pantsir air defense vehicle in Syria, landed largely intact in the Israeli Golan Heights. Syria has over two dozen Pantsir vehicles and says this missile had been fired at an incoming Israeli cruise missile. The 76 kg (167 pound) 57E6 missile is supposed to self-destruct, using its 20 kg warhead, if no target is found. The one that fell in Israel was seen being examined, apparently disarmed, for further examination. Pantsir has been an embarrassing failure in Syria and Libya although Russia revealed a new version of Pantsir at the end of June.

June 12, 2020: Samir al Atrash, a well-known Syrian HTS (local Islamic terrorist alliance) leader was killed in Libya near Sirte while serving with the Turkish Syrian Arab mercenary force. Atrash was apparently leading some kind of reconnaissance operation.

June 11, 2020: In southwest Syria (Damascus) an Israeli airstrike destroyed an Iranian facility, killing four Iranians and three Syrians. Several warehouses and other buildings were destroyed.
Ahram Weekly finds out how one NGO has helped its beneficiaries in the Upper Egyptian Qena governorate survive the challenges of the coronavirus

Throughout the 10 years since its establishment, the Egypt Network for Integrated Development (ENID), a NGO, has had to deal with many challenges in Upper Egypt, the area where it is working.

Tackling poverty, illiteracy, and unemployment, its usual activity, has represented important challenges, but ENID has never before been faced with a challenge like that posed by the Covid-19 coronavirus.

ENID, known as Al-Nidaa, Arabic for the calling, manages three socio-economic programmes focusing on employment generation, with the beneficiaries being women and youth. Among the areas the NGO works in are small-manufacturing, labour-intensive projects.

We decided to focus on handicrafts for women and youth because they are low-cost in terms of capital requirements and they produce traditional cultural products that are threatened with extinction by mechanisation, especially products made for the tourist market, said veteran economist Heba Handoussa, the founder and managing director of the NGO.

However, she said, these products can be subject to swings in demand depending on the tourism season. This year, just as Egypt was seeing the beginning of the first booming tourism season since 2015, the coronavirus emerged to damage the market.

Not only were domestic sales of handicrafts affected by the closure of their main markets in domestic tourist areas and beach resorts, but international orders were put on hold as well. Among those was an order by the British Museum in London for products handcrafted by the NGO beneficiaries.

The museum has been a major importer of different types of handicrafts, not just ancient Egyptian items, but also Coptic and Islamic items like brass lanterns and other arts, Handoussa commented.

The villages where ENID has been working already had clusters making pottery and basketry, so in addition to these the NGO succeeded in introducing 26 new crafts and helped to revive some that were threatened with extinction, such as the Hegaza woodworking started 100 years ago by Jesuits in a village of the same name and carpet-making skills threatened by machine-made rugs.

When the coronavirus pandemic broke out, the NGO had had to halt production because we were worried about the women because they were vulnerable, and we did not want them to get infected and infect each other, Handoussa said.

They started working in small shifts and in highly reduced numbers in the premises where the work is carried out.

ENID implements a one village one product programme of the kind that was popular in Japan when the country was developing in the 1960s. Apart from handicrafts, the NGO has also made leeway in the ready-to-wear garments sector.

Ready-made garments have more outlets in terms of demand, if one does things cleverly and flexibly, Handoussa said, adding that ENID had been able to establish the first ready-made garments factory in all of Upper Egypt.

They had rented from the governorate a big space originally designed for raising poultry. This had three buildings of two floors each, and they reinforced and repurposed the buildings for factory purposes at a cost of LE3.4 million.

One of three buildings now specialises in brass heritage items, with another floor given over to the weaving of klims. Another floor is used for making beaded fabrics for weddings and evening wear, and another is used for making wooden furniture.

With the coronavirus outbreak starting early on in Luxor on the border with Qena, Handoussa said ENID had wanted to do something to help. We were keen to help Upper Egypt, Qena, and the women working there, she said, so they embarked on a project to convert the ready-made garments factory to make surgical masks using international assistance.

ENID now produces 7,000 masks per day and plans to double its capacity when a second production line arrives.

IMPACTS: Funds were raised through the Kemama campaign overseen by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Egypt in partnership with the UNDPs Alternative Finance Lab (AltFinLab) and Neya Foundation.

The masks are sold to the Ministry of Health and other government bodies at a low price. We want this to be a long-term business, and we want to become known for our perfect production of medical masks, Handoussa said.

The ENID mask factory has been licensed by the Ministry of Industry, which has promised that once the coronavirus crisis is over it will help export them to Africa. Our wages are not high, but for the women they mean a lot because they receive a small sum for each mask they make. With production in volume, this all adds up, Handoussa said.

There are around 50 women benefitting from the first production line, with mask production becoming a source of a stable income. There will be demand in Egypt for masks for a significant period of time, and instead of importing them we can make them locally, she said, adding that more than 600 women in 17 villages in Upper Egypt have been trained by ENID and are ready to produce more masks.

When ENID was launched, the governorate of Qena was the second poorest in Egypt after Assiut, but the villages there have come a long way since then.

Handoussa explained that every three years a new poverty map is produced based on Egypts Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES). This lists the 1,000 poorest villages in Egypt, of which 92 per cent are in Upper Egypt, and where more than 50 per cent of the population are below the poverty line.

The latest HIES, produced in 2018, shows that compared to the HIES produced in 2015 poverty has declined in every governorate having significant numbers of villages, despite the fact that rural areas in Egypt are generally much poorer than urban areas.

We were pleasantly surprised that even though poverty levels had increased to 32.5 per cent, there had been an improvement, even though slight at times, in the rural areas of the southern governorates, she said.

That impact has been to a large extent thanks to the governments Takaful conditional cash-transfer programme, which helps the poorest of the poor, she pointed out. The same survey showed that among the villages that had improved the most were the ones in Qena, where poverty had declined in absolute terms by 14.5 per cent in three years.

That was miraculous because Qena has 3.2 million people. So, we know we must have done something right, Handoussa said.

ENID works in 70 villages out of 166 in Qena, and Handoussa believes that its success has been due to the quality of its intervention.

Giving a job opportunity to a woman in Qena is sure to pull an entire household out of poverty because she is adding to the household income. She is spending her income in efficient ways, and she is given information about the importance of education and healthcare for her children, she said.

We give job opportunities not only to the poorest of the poor but also to those who are illiterate, Handoussa said, explaining that ENID insists that its beneficiaries pass the government exam for illiteracy before they are given the opportunity to train for a job.

That has been an incentive, and they have really studied. We do not carry out social interventions for the sake of interventions, but with a view to the economic empowerment of the population, she added.

The beneficiaries also receive awareness-raising sessions on good practices for rearing children, health practices, and even political rights to prepare them for local elections. According to Handoussa, more than 90 per cent of the women have never had a job, whether literate or not.

For ENID, the coronavirus has been an opportunity to show donors the work it has been doing over more than nine years, with a view to its becoming viable as a long-term foundation working in Upper Egypt.

It was originally a programme of the UNDP, and since the UNDP was happy with our work, they extended the programme with us until 2022, Handoussa said, adding that ENID was nonetheless an independent foundation receiving funding from multiple donors.

One of the toughest challenges facing their work has been rural-to-urban migration by young men. We used to go through the costly process of teaching the men in the villages a craft like pottery and copperwork at the hands of masters, but then they would disappear and travel to Cairo to seek jobs in the construction industry, Handoussa said.

That being the case, they decided to focus more on women, except for agriculture, which is considered more of a mans job.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 16 July, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the title: Saved by Masks

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SILVER SPRING, Md. - Former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh used bribery proceeds and stolen government funds to buy a mansion in a suburb of Washington, D.C., U.S. authorities allege in a lawsuit seeking to seize the property.

The west African nations longtime dictator conspired to launder roughly $3.5 million in corruption proceeds through the purchase of a lavish home in Potomac, Maryland, the Justice Department said in a civil forfeiture complaint filed Wednesday.

Jammeh was 29 when he took power in a 1994 military coup. He ruled over Gambia for more than 22 years. He and his wife, Zineb Jammeh, fled into exile in Equatorial Guinea after he lost a December 2016 presidential election to Adama Barrow.

Jammeh acquired at least 281 properties during his time in office and operated more than 100 private bank accounts directly or through companies or foundations in which he has shares or an interest, according to the Justice Departments civil complaint.

Neither Jammeh nor his wife Zineb appear to have family wealth to explain how he acquired these assets, the complaint says.

The couples children attended schools in the Washington area after the family purchased the Potomac mansion in the name of a trust for $3.5 million in 2010, according to the complaint. A petroleum company employee allegedly arranged for roughly $1 million in cash to be deposited into an account for that trust less than one month before the property sale, the complaint says. The unidentified employee opened a bank account in the trusts name one day after the petroleum company received a re-affirmance of its fuel importation monopoly rights in Gambia, the complaint says.

This action demonstrates that the United States will not allow criminals to profit from their crimes and will seek justice for crime victims both here and abroad, U.S. Attorney Robert Hur said in a statement.

Jammeh hasnt been charged with any crimes in the U.S., but the Justice Department complaint notes that a quasi-judicial commission established by the Gambian government recommended criminal charges against the former president.

The commission said Jammeh wasted or stole the equivalent of more than $300 million in U.S. dollars from public accounts. Jammeh also accepted bribes and kickbacks in exchange for granting monopoly rights to businesses over sectors of the Gambian economy, the complaint says.

A March 2019 report by an investigative group called the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project said Jammeh and his associates plundered nearly $1 billion of timber resources and Gambias public funds.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against Jammeh in 2017, saying he has a long history of engaging in serious human rights abuses and corruption.

Jammeh created a terror and assassination squad called the Junglers that answered directly to him, a Treasury Department news release says. Jammeh used the Junglers to threaten, terrorize, interrogate, and kill individuals whom Jammeh assessed to be threats.
Its been five years since award-winning British magician, Steven Frayne aka Dynamo, last worked his magic. Now, fully recovered from a career-threatening illness hes returning to television with a gripping new mini-series, Dynamo: Beyond Belief, premiering in India on HistoryTV18, on 18th July, Saturday at 9 PM.

The bold new show reveals the story of Dynamos illness and recovery with brutal honesty; also featuring stunning moments of magic, created with characteristic effortlessness, as the master illusionist journeys across the globe.

The world-famous magician debuted on television with the series, Dynamo: Magician Impossible, which became a huge international hit, enthralling over 250 million viewers worldwide. In India, the series premiered on HistoryTV18, and since then the channel has been home to Dynamos singular talent and genius.

In his new series, Dynamo takes viewers from the start of his illness, through his time in hospital and lengthy recovery -- when he sketched out over 200 new ideas -- to his return to good health. Over three dramatic one-hour episodes, Dynamo visits extraordinary places around the world, performing incredible feats of magic that leave the people he interacts with, completely spellbound. His understated and disarming style has remained intact, as has his genius. Filmed on anamorphic prime lenses, the series has a stunning, cinematic quality.



The renowned magician is excited to be back and says, I love magic because it lets me create moments of wonder for people. Im thrilled that HistoryTV18 is premiering my new series with my most extreme illusions ever, and I hope that it will mesmerise the audience.

Dynamo: Beyond Belief, premiering on 18th July, Saturday, 9 PM, will take viewers around the globe, to Tokyo, Chiba, Dubai, Moscow, Mexico City, San Miguel De Allende, London, and Los Angeles. In one of the episodes of the series, Dynamo performs a spine-tingling encounter with a Geisha in one of Tokyos royal tea rooms. In another, he makes vodka shots turn to ice in the heart of Moscows underworld. The series, airing every Saturday at 9 PM, also contains some of the most dangerous pieces of magic that the illusionist has ever undertaken. He tries his luck with a terrifying, high-octane reverse drive in a yellow taxi through central Moscow, blindfolded! He also undertakes a breath-taking, underground Tokyo Drift-style car meet in Japan, and tries to stop a souped-up race-car with his bare hands, as a live audience looks on in disbelief. This series rewrites the rule seeing is believing, as nothing else has, ever before.

Dont miss the premiere of Dynamo: Beyond Belief, on Saturday, 18th July, at 9 PM, and the rest of the episodes every Saturday at 9 PM, only on HistoryTV18.
WASHINGTON - Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg left Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore Wednesday where she'd been admitted for treatment of a possible infection.

The court's spokeswoman, Kathy Arberg, said in an emailed statement that Ginsburg "is home and doing well" but provided no other details about the justice's condition.

Ginsburg went to the hospital Tuesday after experiencing fevers and chills. The court said she was given an endoscopic procedure "to clean out a bile duct stent that was placed last August." Ginsburg seems to have recovered quicker than anticipated. The court said Tuesday that she was expected to remain in the hospital for several days.

At 87, Ginsburg is the oldest member of the nation's highest court and the leader of its liberal wing. In recent years, Ginsburg has reached cult-level status among the left.

Since being appointed to the high court by President Bill Clinton in 1993, Ginsburg has had a number of health scares. Last summer, she received treatment for pancreatic cancer that forced her to miss oral arguments for the first time in her career. It was the fourth time she'd been treated for cancer. Earlier this year, she declared herself cancer free.

Ginsburg's health is of great concern to Democrats who fear a scenario in which President Donald Trump fills her seat with a third conservative justice who would tilt the court even further right. In his first term, Trump has already placed two Supreme Court judges, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

Given Ginsburg's age, as well as the ages of Justice Clarence Thomas, 72, and Justice Stephen Breyer, 81, the outcome of the 2020 presidential election could determine the makeup of the Supreme Court for generations.

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The Washington Post's Mark Berman contributed to this report.
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San Francisco, 16 July 2020: The Report Herbal Toothpaste Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Distribution Channel (General Store, Hypermarket & Supermarket, Pharmacy Store, Online Retail), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2019 - 2025

The global herbal toothpaste market size is anticipated to reach USD 2.6 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., expanding at a CAGR of 8.0% over the forecast period. Shifting consumer preference from chemical towards chemical free and natural products owing to growing awareness related to harmful effects of synthetic and chemical products on health is a main factor fueling the demand for herbal toothpaste.

Colgate, one of the leading players in the oral care market, is witnessing high competition from players such as Patanjali Ayurved and Dabur India Limited. Other consumer good companies are also entering the natural product market. In 2015, HUL acquired Indulekha, a herbal product brand, for around INR 300 Crore to foray into the natural product market. In addition, the company has been investing in the market to develop various natural products, including herbal toothpaste, to meet the growing demand for natural product.

Hypermarket and supermarket held a leading share in 2018 and is expected to maintain its lead throughout the forecast period. Modernization of retail stores and setting up of supermarkets across China and India are anticipated to boost the segment growth. For instance, according to studies, there were around 500 supermarkets in 2006 and the number increased to around 8,500 stores in 2016. Increasing number of supermarkets, coupled with growing product visibility at these stores, is a key factor fueling demand for natural toothpaste over the forecast period.

The online retail segment is anticipated to expand at the fastest CAGR of 10.4% over the forecast period. Players including Patanjali and Durbar entered into a partnership with e-commerce giants such as Flipkart and Amazon. For instance, Patanjali Ayurved entered into a partnership with various online retailers including 1mg, Paytm Mall, BigBasket, Grofers, Shopcules, and Netmeds. The companys aim was to make its complete range of consumer goods available online. Such initiatives are expected to fuel demand for herbal toothpaste over the forecast period.

Asia Pacific held a leading share of 90.0% in 2018. EMEA is expected to expand at the fastest CAGR of 9.6% over the forecast period. Shifting consumer preference from chemical to chemical free products is a key factor driving the demand for herbal toothpaste in the region. Increasing product visibility at online retail is expected to fuel demand for natural products, including toothpaste, in the upcoming years.

Some of the key players operating in the market are Patanjali Ayurved, Dabur India Limited, VICCO LABORATORIES, Colgate-Palmolive Company (India) Limited, Amway, Himalaya Wellness, Amorepacific, GlaxoSmithKline plc, leverayush, INC., and Procter & Gamble.

Access Research Report of Herbal Toothpaste Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/herbal-toothpaste-market

Herbal Toothpaste Market Report Highlights

The market in India accounted for 21.0% share of the overall revenue owing to massive awareness campaigns by players such as Patanjali and Dabur

The market in China was valued at USD 778.1 million in 2018

The online retail segment is expected to witness the fastest growth owing to increasing adoption of this distribution channel by various market players

The global herbal toothpaste market is highly competitive in nature owing to presence of top players such as Patanjali Ayurved and Dabur India Limited.

Browse more reports of this category by Grand View Research at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry/beauty-and-personal-care

Grand View Research has segmented the global herbal toothpaste market by distribution channel and region:

Herbal Toothpaste Distribution Channel Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2025)

General Store

Hypermarket & Supermarket

Pharmacy Store

Online Retail

Others

Herbal Toothpaste Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2025)

Americas

EMEA

Asia Pacific

Access Press Release of Herbal Toothpaste Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-herbal-toothpaste-market

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.

For More Information:www.grandviewresearch.com
Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro announced on Wednesday that he tested positive again for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The result was released just a week after he was first diagnosed.

Bolsonaro has downplayed the coronavirus and described it as "a little flu." Now, the Brazilian president tested positive for COVID-19 and said he is taking the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, and an antibiotic, to fight the coronavirus.

Neither of the drugs have been proven to be an effective treatment for COVID-19.

Bolsonaro, who had his second coronavirus test on Tuesday, has been in quarantine nearly a week at his official residence in Brasilia. He said he would continue to work by video conference.

The 65-year-old Brazilian president has been controversial in dealing with the global pandemic. He pushed back against state and city lockdowns and oftentimes roam around the country without wearing a face mask, according to a report published in the U.S. News.

During a telephone interview with him from the news outlet, he said he cannot stand with the routine of staying at home and also shared that he was waiting anxiously to have the clearance to leave the house.

Bolsonaro also said that he is asymptomatic and did not experience any respiratory illness since he first tested for the coronavirus on July 7. The Brazilian president firmly believed that he is in good condition and will resume his normal work once he will test negative in the coming days.

Meanwhile, Bolsonaro said he felt better a day after taking hydroxychloroquine, an unproven medicine for coronavirus.

The drug has been pushed by some other countries as a COVID-19 treatment. However, its effectiveness to treat coronavirus has not been proven yet. In fact, the scientific and medical communities are divided for and against the drug.

The Brazilian president attended the flag ceremony on the grounds of the Presidential Palace on Wednesday. At that time, he wore a face mask and remained his distance with others, who attended the flag ceremony. A different Bolsonaro was seen and not the one, who sidelined the medical experts in handling the coronavirus pandemic.

After downplaying the virus, Brazil is now the second worst-hit country in the world by COVID-19 after the United States.

Since the pandemic began, two health ministers resigned from their posts. Brazil's Ministry of Health is now being led by an active army general through an interim basis who is said to remain in the role for the time being. Appointing an army general under Bolsonaro's time is not new anymore. The Brazilian president was also a former army captain.

In a data obtained from Worldometers, Brazil now has over 1.9 million COVID-19 cases with a death toll of over 75,000.

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A US official took a hardline stance against China's gangster tactics and will actively hinder their claims in the South China Sea. A statement from the State Department was released to confirm this last Tuesday.

David Stillwell from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, mentioned in an online forum if Beijing keeps the Philippines from its rightful Scarborough Shoal or make an outpost. He gave a hint that it will be something China will regret, reported USNI.

He added that four years ago, an international arbitration panel favored the Philippines in ownership of Scarborough Shoals like a rogue state they ignored it he added.

The US draws a hardline

According to the Air Force brigadier general, the US will step it up and not be neutral.

Last Monday, the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Beijing is breaking the law in their maritime claims in the SCS. Only the 12 nautical miles will be acceptable for their occupied islands or coasts. Stillwell added that the US will oppose the overreaching claims of the Communists, cited New York Times.

Freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs) will be the means to defy China's claims that will be done by carrier strike groups and flying over contested territories. This was mentioned as support by Stillwell.

When the state department sent the message to China, the USS Ralph Johnson (DDG-114) did a FONOPs

In the Spratly Islands: illegal claims

The US Navy said that the FONOPs conducted were aimed at China's illegal claim of the Spratly Islands with other places as well. US steps up from recent CSGs training in the South China Sea.

According to the US, China's illegal expansion in the South China Sea is a violation of international law that threatens all nations in the Indo-Pacific. The communist wants to keep resources to themselves not share with the South China Sea littoral nations.

Also read: US Navy Sends Two Carrier Strike Groups as Show of Force Against PLA Naval Exercises

Stillwell added that the US and other nations are keen on making China account for its actions.

China should step back from its claims from legal Philippine territory because the Philippines has a mutual defense treaty with the US. Military action looms if there is an escalation in these places.

He added that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are calling out the communists for bullying and coercion must be resolved without force. The US is telling China to follow or face the consequences.

Adding that the communists cannot just sign and ignore unlawful agreements.

Not complying with the Permanent Court of Arbitration

China not complied with the ruling in the international Permanent Court of Arbitration that ruled in favor of the Philippines. It said that the outcroppings on Scarborough Shoal is not theirs and China was imagining its historical rights or claims.

The Spratly Islands are militarized and a base to coerce and intimidate less capable nations in the SCS, which forces the US to intervene, confirmed DW.

Stillwell calls the moves of Beijing like Great Britain's East India Company in the era of colonialism. The Chinese manipulate and seeks to domineer the globe at every avenue it can, which ties the state to Chinese businesses.

China is actively attacking and preventing other nations from accessing their rightful resources that Beijing is purloining. It took US ships to stop Chinese vessels from menacing oil exploration in Malaysia, which the communists belched at. Any ship gets a warning not to cross 'claimed areas' but the Chinese get ignored most of the time.

The Scarborough Shoal should not be militarized and communists are creating tension that is a dangerous powder keg.

Related topic: Lethal US Navy Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) Prove Their Worth in the Pacific in Repulsing Chinese Navy

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
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The House of Representatives passed a bill on the ratification of a treaty on mutual legal assistance (MLA) with Switzerland in a plenary meeting on Tuesday, in what officials commend as a progressive legal breakthrough against money laundering practices in the country.

Speaking after the plenary, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly said the government would begin the necessary procedures to collect data and track assets in Switzerland that resulted from criminal acts.

Yasonna said the government would put together an asset-tracing team comprising members of the National Polices criminal investigations department (Bareskrim), the Attorney Generals Office, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Foreign Ministry.

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A prominent Egyptian journalist has died of Covid-19, his daughter has said.

Mohamed Monir was arrested last month after appearing on the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera, which is banned by the Egyptian government.

He was charged with joining a terrorist group, spreading false news, and misusing social media, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which said that Monir had died in an isolation ward on Monday after falling ill.

Egypt is ranked 166 out of 180 countries for press freedoms by Reporters Without Borders, which describes the country as one of the worlds biggest jailers of journalists.



The country has reported almost 4,000 deaths and 83,000 coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.

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Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and other high-profile Twitter account holders were the targets of a widespread hack to offer fake bitcoin deals on Wednesday in one of the most pronounced security breaches on a social media site.

Accounts for former president Barack Obama, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, musician Kanye West and both Uber and Apple also posted similar tweets, all instructing people to send cryptocurrency to the same bitcoin address. The tweets were removed throughout the afternoon, shortly after being posted.

There have been hacks of high-profile individual accounts on Twitter before, including Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey last year. But the widespread nature of this attack suggested an unusually broad access to internal controls. While it was unclear how the attacks originated or why they went on for hours, some cybersecurity experts speculated that someone may have gained access to internal Twitter controls that allowed them to take over and post on the accounts.

"This is massive," said cybersecurity expert Rachel Tobac, the CEO of SocialProof Security. "This is most likely the largest attack I've ever seen. We are extremely lucky that these attackers are monetarily motivated and not sowing mass chaos all over the world."

The attack also partially shut down the network. Twitter said in a tweet on Wednesday afternoon that some users weren't able to tweet while it was addressing the incident. Users with the check mark indicating that their accounts were verified by Twitter reported that they weren't able to tweet.

Twitter started letting verified accounts tweet again Wednesday night but warned the "functionality may come and go" as it worked on a fix to the breach. Later the same night, Dorsey tweeted that the company was "diagnosing and will share everything we can when we have a more complete understanding of exactly what happened." He called it a "tough day" at Twitter.

The breach will create major optics challenges for Twitter, and it will make it more challenging moving forward to verify the authenticity of messages on the service, cybersecurity experts warned. That could have wide-reaching implications for politicians, celebrities and brands that use Twitter as an essential channel for communication.

"The problem is that we all rely on Twitter as this public space that is safe and secure, and we know that the tweets that someone like a Joe Biden is sending out are authentic," said Harper Reed, an entrepreneur who served as the 2012 Obama campaign's chief technology officer. "Twitter has proven to us that may not be true."

President Donald Trump is an avid user of the platform, frequently tweeting his views to more than 83 million followers. Trump's Twitter account was taken down for 11 minutes in 2017 by a departing employee for the company. After the incident, Twitter tweeted that it had "implemented safeguards to prevent this from happening again." It declined to share details at the time.

Cybersecurity experts warned that this type of breach, where influential accounts are taken over, could have devastating effects if used for something more dangerous than to take money from unsuspecting users. The consequences could be greater if it involved an account like Trump's or spread misinformation on some type of global security threat.

Disinformation expert Clint Watts compared it to a 2013 incident in which hackers seized control of the Associated Press Twitter account and falsely tweeted that the White House was under attack. That caused a brief plunge in the stock market that quickly corrected once the hoax was exposed.

If U.S. adversaries gained similar control of a politician's accounts on Election Day, they could wreak havoc by spreading misinformation about polling locations or phony rumors about voter fraud, he said.

"Russia's most dangerous play is how do you inflict the maximum amount of chaos on Election Day. They want to further erode confidence in democracy, and this is emblematic of a way they can do that," he said.

The hacks Wednesday differ from another high-profile hack last year against Twitter CEO Dorsey, in which his phone number was hacked and used to send tweets via text message.

Some of the people who were hacked indicated that they had turned on two-factor authentication and were using strong passwords, which typically makes unauthorized account access much more difficult.

SocialProof Security's Tobac said one likely scenario could be that hackers gained access to the back end of Twitter's employee administration panel, which could include access to change account passwords. This could have happened by a hacker stealing an employee's credentials, especially if an employee didn't have secure multifactor authentication turned on.

Early in the afternoon Wednesday on the West Coast, Tesla CEO Musk's account was one of the first to tweet the scam to his nearly 37 million followers.

"Feeling grateful, doubling all payments sent to my BTC address! You send $1,000, I send back $2,000! Only doing this for the next 30 minutes," the now-deleted tweet said.

His account continued to tweet similar posts as they were deleted.

"This is a SCAM, DO NOT participate!" Cameron Winklevoss, a bitcoin investor and co-founder of Gemini, wrote of Musk's tweet.

Gemini's account was hacked earlier in the day, Winklevoss tweeted, despite the account using two-factor authentication for security.

Gates's was one of the next high-profile accounts to tweet. Spokeswoman Bridgitt Arnold confirmed that the tweet was not sent by Gates and said Twitter was working to restore his account.

Meanwhile, Uber's corporate account posted a tweet that read, "Due to Covid-19, we are giving back over $10,000,000 in Bitcoin! All payments sent to our address below will be sent back doubled."

Uber confirmed in a tweet that its account had been hacked.

"Like many others, our @Uber account was hit by a scammer today. The tweet has been deleted and we're working directly with @Twitter to figure out what happened," the company's communication team tweeted.

Then came a tweet from Amazon CEO and Washington Post owner Bezos's account. "I have decided to give back to my community." The tweet said it would be limited to $50 million.

Democratic presidential hopeful Biden was also a target of the hack, his campaign confirmed. His account tweeted out the same bitcoin wallet address.

Twitter spokeswoman Aly Pavela said earlier in the day that the company was investigating the issue. The company said in a tweet it was "taking steps to fix" the security issue and would provide an update.

Representatives for Musk, Bezos and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The bitcoin wallet the tweets pointed to appeared to receive more than $115,000. It's unclear how much of that was driven by the hacked tweets and what may have originated from the scammers.

It's also unclear how much information the hackers were able to cull from the accounts they compromised. If they were able to access the accounts' direct messages they might have stolen information they could leak later to embarrass people or to sow chaos during the 2020 election or another major event, said Theresa Payton, CEO of the cybersecurity company Fortalice Solutions and a former White House technology official.

This is a serious reminder of how important Internet security is, especially leading up to the election, she said. "Today should be a tsunami bell warning for all social media companies," she said.

Twitter has recently become embroiled in political controversy after it in recent weeks labeled five of Trump's tweets with fact checks and warnings for violating its policies. Republican politicians and right-wing pundits renewed accusations of social media censorship against conservatives. Twitter has maintained it is not biased against any group.

The breach is sure to increase scrutiny of Twitter's data security practices in Washington, especially as lawmakers are concerned about attacks on social media before Election Day.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., wrote a letter to Twitter's Dorsey on Wednesday evening, calling on the company to take immediate steps to secure the service and to reach out to the FBI and Department of Justice.

"As you know, millions of your users rely on your service not just to tweet publicly but also to communicate privately through your direct message service," Hawley wrote. "A successful attack on your system's servers represents a threat to all of your users' privacy and data security."
Concerns about healthcare and effects of the coronavirus were the primary topics of discussion Wednesday morning during U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkleys virtual town hall meeting with Benton County residents.

In a wide-ranging, one-hour question-and-answer session, the Oregon senator first turned his attention to the local impact of COVID-19 before he returns to the Senate next week after a recess.

Merkley noted that the number of young people in Benton County affected by coronavirus is surging. Previously, people under age 30 accounted for 20% or fewer of new cases; he said that number is now 75%.

Test results are lagging, sometimes as long as a week.

Thats way too slow to be helpful for an effective strategy of testing and tracing, Merkley said.

Benton Countys unemployment rate has jumped from 3% to 10% during the pandemic.

In some ways thats almost good for the county because over on the coast in Lincoln County were talking 24% unemployment, the senator said. Still an impact on the thousands and thousands of people who have lost their jobs.

Merkley said area health centers have received help in the form of a $146,000 grant through the national telehealth fund.

He said Oregon State University has been forced to cut $124 million from its budget. OSU has received about $15 million to help students attend classes.

Merkley said the fact that five million Americans have lost health care in the last few months shows there isnt a simple, seamless system for all Americans.

He said the Trump Administration is allocating billions of dollars to companies for vaccines, money not provided previously. But, Merkley points out, the administration removed a point of agreement that prevents companies from gouging when a vaccine is approved.

Thats another outrageous example of corporate influence, he said. Theyre going to get billions of dollars of our taxpayer money, your money, to develop the vaccine, to test the vaccine, and then be able to turn around and gouge Americans at any price they want.

Merkley is joining a legislative effort to overturn that.

When asked about the disproportionate impact on Blacks, Latinos and others from the virus, Merkley said hes sought numbers to research discrepancies in health care and urged the federal government to direct money to address disparities.

Im hoping to advance any other ideas folks have for this upcoming bill, trying to really push for us to address communities that have previous challenges in an aggressive and bold fashion, Merkley said.

The discussion turned to school funding.

Merkley said theres a House act that including such funding that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a U.S. Senator from Kentucky, has stalled on for about six weeks. Merkley said thats unacceptable as schools are planning for the coming year.

The same act includes money for state and local governments, healthcare, election protection and virus testing and tracing.

Weve tried to take on the presidents effort to use economic blackmail to force school districts into a certain profile, Merkley said, because essentially its a very difficult decision how your structure a school so to maintain a maximum amount of educational advancement for our children while keeping them safe. This is no place for election politics, and the president is way off base on this.

Along with others, Merkley is fighting efforts to continue channeling resources to the U.S. military and questioning whether funding might be better spent elsewhere.

National security is very important, but are we doing a cost-effective job of that? he asked, noting that one trillion dollars is slated to be used on nuclear weapon redevelopment in the next 20 years.

Merkley is co-sponsoring with Bernie Sanders a bill calling for a 10% reduction in military spending because I do believe that we are sliding backwards as a nation. Our prospects for the future are going to depend less on the size of our military budget than the size of our infrastructure budget and our education budget and cost-effective healthcare system.

Merkley regularly opens his town halls by recognizing those doing important work for communities.

He did that Wednesday by noting Casa Latinos Unidos and inviting Claudia Torres, its executive director, to speak.

Casa Latinos Unidos offers education, housing and legal services to Latinx, as well as leadership training and special events. The group set up an emergency pandemic fund to help families that didnt qualify for unemployment or stimulus checks and havent been able to return to previous employment levels.
A major fire broke out at Shahbad Dairy area of Delhi's Rohini on Wednesday night. At least 26 fire tenders were rushed to the spot after the incident was reported and the firefighting officials managed to control the raging blaze at around 2 AM on Thursday. The fire gutted around 70 shanties but no one got injured in the incident.

According to Fire Department officials, they received a call about the incident at around 11:30 PM and six fire tenders were rushed to the spot. Later, more fire tenders were sent to control the fire . According to reports, the fire started in the garbage near the shanties before it engulfed around 70 shanties within no time.
WASHINGTON, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza announced the appointment of seven senior executives in 2020-to date to administer the Agency's programs and advocate for small businesses.

"I am proud to announce the appointment of these senior executives to play a critical role in managing and realigning the delivery of our products and services to meet the needs of America's entrepreneurs during this extraordinary time," said SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza. "These executives will ensure that small businesses retool and gain a competitive edge in the areas of access to capital, entrepreneurial development, government contracting, and international trade."

Senior Executive Appointments

William Manger, Chief of Staff and Associate Administrator for the Office of Capital Access

Bill Manger serves as SBA's Chief of Staff and the Associate Administrator for the Office of Capital Access. Manger plays a critical role in helping the SBA meet the Administration's emergency capital relief response to small businesses impacted by the Coronavirus (COVID-19). He plays an instrumental role in advancing SBA's long-term goal of expanding small business ownership, particularly among underrepresented communities, including women, African Americans, Latinos, Native American and Alaska Natives, and veterans and military families. As Associate Administrator for the Office of Capital Access, Manger manages a portfolio of over $120 billion in direct and guaranteed loans, nine operation centers, and 560 employees of SBA's Office of Capital Access.

Christopher Gray, Deputy Chief of Staff

As the Deputy Chief of Staff, Chris Gray also assists in leading the SBA and the Administration's emergency capital relief response efforts. Gray's promotion to Deputy Chief of Staff comes after two years of service at the SBA, during which time he held two titles: White House Liaison and Senior Advisor to the Administrator. Gray previously held roles in the Trump Administration, including Senior Associate Director of Intergovernmental Affairs at the White House and Senior Advisor at the Export-Import Bank.

Brittany Biles, General Counsel

Brittany Biles serves as the principal legal advisor to the Administrator and other senior officials. Additionally, she plans, directs, and administers the operations of the Office of General Counsel (OGC) and provides legal and technical direction to SBA's legal staff. As the primary legal advisor for SBA, Biles is responsible for the interpretation and application of the Small Business Act and all related laws and regulations affecting the programs and operations of the SBA. She also oversees OGC as the Office provides legal representation in judicial and administrative proceedings, legal negotiations, and appearances and consultations with other government and non-governmental entities.

Keith Bluestein, Chief Information Officer, Office of the Chief Information Officer

Keith Bluestein works with senior officials to outline the strategic goals and objectives for information technology and electronic government (eGov) programs' use. As CIO, Bluestein will further SBA's efforts to meet the needs of America's small business community, support the President's initiatives and SBA's strategic plan, and boost the Agency's enterprise capabilities to support operations across program offices.

Loretta Greene, Associate Administrator, Office of International Trade

Loretta Greene serves as an advisor to the Administrator on policy for international trade programs and as a key operational contact for all activities in the Office of International Trade. She provides strategic direction and works in cooperation with other federal agencies and public-private sector groups to encourage small business exports and assist small businesses seeking to export their products. Through 21 U.S. Export Assistance Centers, SBA District Offices, and a variety of service-provider partners, Greene will oversee the coordination of SBA's ongoing export initiatives to encourage global expansion for small businesses.

Francis Spampinato, Associate Administrator, Office of Government Contracting and Business Development

Francis Spampinato serves as an advisor to the Administrator in the development of policies, operating procedures, and standards for effective implementation, administration, and promotion of SBA's contracting, business development, HUBZone empowerment, and liaison programs. GCBD programs and services assist small businesses in meeting the requirements to receive government contracts, either as prime contractors or subcontractors. The office also oversees special initiatives, such as the Women's Procurement Program, Veterans Procurement Program, Procurement Awards Program, and the Annual Joint Industry/SBA Procurement Conference. Spampinato will oversee GCBD's integral role in the formulation of federal procurement policies that affect small businesses. In this role, he will further foster an environment for maximum participation by small, disadvantaged, and women-owned businesses in federal government contract awards and large prime subcontract awards.

Sery Kim, Assistant Administrator, Women's Business Ownership for the Office of Entrepreneurial Development

Sery Kim oversees and administers broad, emerging, and critical Women's Business Center (WBC) programs to achieve OWBO and SBA goals and objectives. In this role, she will evaluate the overall effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity of WBC programs and recommend actions to improve Agency operations. She also serves as the principal liaison with non-Federal business, educational, organizational, and community partners to assist in the growth and development of women-owned businesses. As Assistant Administrator for OWBO, Kim will further SBA's efforts to develop cooperative partnerships with federal and private sector groups, generate a greater understanding of the economic importance of women-owned businesses, and boost SBA's ability to provide support.

About the U.S. Small Business Administration

The U.S. Small Business Administration helps power the American dream of business ownership. As the only go-to resource and voice for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start, grow or expand their businesses, or recover from a declared disaster. It delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov.

Contact: [email protected] (202) 205-8520

Follow us on: Twitter , Facebook , Blogs & Instagram

Release Number: 20-57

SOURCE U.S. Small Business Administration

Related Links

http://www.sba.gov


Kirinyaga ward reps on Wednesday shot down the executive's proposed budget dealing a blow to Governor Anne Waiguru.

The MCAs voted to rejected Ms Waiguru's memorandum on the 2020/2021 budget.

In a motion moved by Baragwi ward representative David Mathenge, 25 MCAs voted to shoot down the budget, one supported it and six others were absent.

One MCA abstained from the vote as the nasty political battle between the governor and the ward representatives threatens to grind normal operations of the county to a halt.

The MCAs insisted that the budget presented by the governor was not friendly to the residents.

"We have noted with concerns that the executive has allocated Sh30 million bursary for needy students instead of the Sh140 million we had proposed. Funds for ward development have also been reduced.

"This government has no interests of ordinary residents at heart and we cannot endorse such a budget," Mr Mathenge said.

The assembly's majority leader Kamau Murango accused Ms Waiguru's administration of giving Environment and Gender department a raw deal when allocating funds for development.

"The budget is unacceptable and it should be rejected in totality," said Mr Murango.
As temperatures and humidity levels in the Houston area soar, Fort Bend County Judge KP George encourages residents to take steps to avoid heat-related illnesses.

Getting overheated can result in heat cramps, heat stroke and exhaustion. Adults 55 years and older, children under 5 years old and those with chronic illnesses are considered high risk and asked to remain inside in air conditioning until 8 p.m. each day. George encourages them to stay indoors between 1 and 5 p.m. even when not under a heat advisory because those are the hottest hours.

On HoustonChronicle.com: MD Anderson urges patients to get mammograms despite pandemic

When temperatures are high, we want everyone to stay cool, hydrated and informed. Those who work outside, senior citizens, infants and children as well as people with chronic medical conditions are more susceptible to the heat and should be checked on regularly to ensure their safety, said George in a news release.

For the next few days, we expect temperatures to remain in the mid to upper 90s, and everyone should prepare accordingly, he added.

George and the countys office of homeland security and emergency management suggests taking precautions against the summer elements including:

Drink more water. Drink liquids even when you are not thirsty, but try to avoid caffeinated, alcoholic or sugary drinks as they can lead to losing body fluid.

Exercise or do household outdoor work early in the morning or late in the evening when the temperatures are lower.

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People working outdoors should drink lots of water or electrolyte-replacement drinks if their health care provider approves. Take breaks often in the shade or in air conditioning. If you are unaccustomed to working or exercising in hot environments, start out gradually, increasing exposure over several weeks.

Be a good neighbor, and check on the elderly. Take the step of initiating a FaceTime, Duo or Zoom or window-visit with senior adults to watch for indicators of heat-related illnesses. According to the release, a person that is elderly takes nearly twice as long to get back to core body temperature after being out in very high temperatures, and a personal visit, as opposed to a phone call, will help determine their physical condition.

Choose clothing that is light colored and loose fitting to let perspiration evaporate.

Never leave children, senior citizens or pets unattended in a vehicle because temperatures inside can rapidly heat up and become deadly.

Return to school: Katy ISD superintendent chides TEA for talking to media first

A wide-brimmed hat aids in preventing sunburn and heat-related illness. Also, wear sunscreen to guard against the suns rays and decrease your risks of getting sunburned.

If you dont have air conditioning in your home, take cool baths or showers often.

Electric fans only circulate the air in a room and do not change the temperature, so only use them with air conditioning. Otherwise, your body temperature may increase even though you feel cooler.

Be mindful of heat advisories. A heat emergency is defined by the National Weather Service as when the heat index (a factor of air temperature and humidity) reaches 108 degrees during two or more consecutive days. This heat index poses a health threat for everyone and is acutely perilous for high-risk groups.

tracy.maness@hcnonline.com
TEL AVIV, Israel - Israels prime minister said Thursday he is meeting with senior officials to discuss interim steps to try and contain a coronavirus surge without having the country return to a general lockdown as the number of new cases reaches record levels.

Large demonstrations have erupted in recent days over Benjamin Netanyahus handling of the pandemic. Adding to his troubles, a new economic bailout plan announced by the embattled premier came under tough criticism from some of the governments top economic experts.

Netanyahu garnered widespread praise after Israel appeared to have largely contained its outbreak by late May, following a two-month lockdown. But within weeks of most restrictions being lifted, the number of new cases began to soar, marking a dramatic turnaround for the prime minister.

With over 20% unemployment, the pandemics economic impact is generating domestic unrest and Netanyahus approval rating is plummeting.

Later Thursday, hundreds of protesters gathered outside Netanyahus official residence in Jerusalem to protest against corruption and vent their anger at the economic downtown.

You are out of touch, we are fed up, one poster read. If theres no democracy, people will get 750 shekels (about $200), another one said, mocking the prime ministers relief package.

Netanyahu said he has spoken with his main political rival turned coalition partner, Benny Gantz, along with other officials, to discuss interim steps to prevent a general lockdown in light of the gigantic jump in morbidity to around 1,800 cases and the doubling of the number of severe cases every seven days.

The Health Ministry on Thursday reported 1,898 new cases of the virus. The country has registered more than 44,500 total cases. At least 380 Israelis have died of COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.

The virus causes mild to moderate flu-like symptoms in most patients, who recover within a few weeks. But it is highly contagious and can cause severe illness or death, particularly in older patients and those with underlying health problems.

Netanyahu announced a plan Wednesday to give out hundreds of dollars in economic aid to every Israeli citizen to help the flagging economy as health officials warned the country could be headed toward a second general lockdown.

Whereas the initial virus outbreak was concentrated predominantly in the countrys ultra-Orthodox and Arab communities, whose populations often live in poorer, crowded conditions, the Health Ministry has warned that the disease is now spreading more widely.

Hezi Levi, the ministrys director general, told Army Radio that Netanyahu would be pushing for more stringent movement restrictions, including a possible nationwide lockdown on weekends.

The prime ministers economic stimulus proposal, which still requires government approval, would give single individuals one-time payments of just over $200, and families between $600 and $900, depending on how many children they have.

Netanyahu announced the grant a day after large protests outside his official residence calling for his resignation, and less than a week after thousands of self-employed Israelis staged a massive demonstration in central Tel Aviv. Tuesday nights protest outside Netanyahus residence in Jerusalem spilled over into violence and scores of protesters clashed with police.

Public approval of Netanyahus handling of the crisis has plummeted. A Midgam Research & Consulting poll published by Channel 12 last week found just 46% of respondents approved of Netanyahus job performance, down from 74% in May.

On Thursday, the aid package drew criticism from top economic experts. The head of the central bank, Amir Yaron, said there were better ways to stimulate the economy. The Finance Ministry director, Keren Terner Eyal, said the Netanyahu administration was going ahead with the stimulus despite objections from the Treasury.

The public does not need to receive the stipend, she told Israel Radio. The prime minister and finance minister are the ones who ultimately make the decisions. We implement the decisions of the elected officials.

A government minister from Gantzs Blue and White party said she opposed the stimulus package in its current form. Strategic Affairs Minister Orit Farkash Hacohen told Israels Ynet news she would vote against the proposal unless there are significant changes to the plan.

Throwing six billion shekels ($1.7 billion) on poor and rich alike, at those who need and those who dont, is not an economic plan, its populism, she said.
The UK, the US, and Canada have accused Russia of trying to steal information from researchers developing a vaccine against COVID-19, AP reported.

The three countries said the APT29 hacker group - also known as Cozy Bear and said to be part of the Russian intelligence service - is targeting academic and pharmaceutical research institutions developing COVID-19 vaccines.

The UK's National Cybersecurity Centre has issued this statement, which has been agreed with the US and Canadian authorities.

However, it is unclear if any of the information was actually stolen, but the National Cybersecurity Centre maintains that sensitive information of individuals is not considered compromised.
South Africa: Minister Mchunu speaks on allegations of misconduct

Public Service and Administration Minister Senzo Mchunu has set the record straight on the allegations of misconduct labelled against the Public Service Commissions Director General.

The allegations are with regard to the recruitment process pertaining to the post of Chief Director: Professional Ethics in the Office of the Public Service Commission of the Director General: Office of the Public Service Commission of Dr Dovhani Mamphiswana.

Following the allegations, Minister Mchunu appointed a two-person team to carry out an investigation and to provide a report on the findings of the investigation.

The investigation is at an advanced stage and it is expected that the report will be finalised shortly.

In January 2020, allegations were made against the Director General regarding the recruitment process. The allegations were escalated to the President as the Executive Authority vested with the power to deal with matters pertaining to national Heads of Department.

Due to the serious nature of the allegations, the President delegated the power to investigate the allegations to the Minister for the Public Service and Administration through a President Act No.43 signed 27 February 2020.

Contrary to unfounded accusations by the Democratic Alliance, the President acted swiftly and within the parameters of the law to ensure that the allegations against Dr Mamphiswana are investigated.

It is therefore nonsensical for the Member of Parliament of the Democratic Alliance Dr Leon Schreiber, to suggest that the President has failed to take action on the allegations, Minister Mchunu said.

He said once the investigation authorised by the President is concluded and the report is finalised, the necessary remedial action will be taken by the President with due regard to prevailing prescripts.

Accordingly, the President and the Minister for the Public Service and Administration remain resolute in their endeavour to ensure an ethical and professional public service and are therefore, committed to ensuring that this matter receives serious attention, the Minister said.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2020-07-16. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Yemeni tanker spill would be four times worse than Exxon Valdez, U.N. warns

by Linda Givetash

July 16,2020 | Source: NBC News

Up to 1.1 million barrels of oil could spill into the Red Sea causing a disaster four times worse than the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, the United Nations Security Council heard on Wednesday.



Time is running out to prevent a dilapidated oil tanker stranded near Yemen from causing a "looming environmental, economic and humanitarian catastrophe," United Nations Environment Programme chief, Inger Andersen, warned.



The Yemeni-government owned tanker, FSO Safer, started taking on water in May. If its oil does spill it could cause irreversible damage to the Red Sea's rich biodiversity, including coral reefs and mangroves.



"Cleaning it up afterwards is not a viable option," said U.S. Amb. Kelly Craft.



The damage would also have severe economic implications for at least 1.6 million Yemeni people, said Mark Lowcock, the U.N. humanitarian affairs chief. "Essentially every fishing community along Yemens west coast would see their livelihoods collapse."



Nearly all of those communities at risk already require humanitarian aid because of the years-long war in the Arab world's poorest country, he added.



The conflict, which began in 2014, has seen Iran-aligned Houthi Shiite rebels attempt to topple the internationally-recognized government by taking control of the capital Sanaa. A Saudi-led coalition has been supporting the government in fighting the rebels.



The tanker was built in 1974 and has been regularly inspected by the U.N. But it is moored in territory controlled by the Houthi militia, which has blocked access.



Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned the militia for blocking the U.N. mission.



"The Houthis must grant access before this ticking time bomb explodes," he said during a briefing.



U.N. agencies have been raising the alarm of the risk posed by the tanker for more than a year, Lowcock said Wednesday.



Concerns were heightened in May when a leak sprung in the engine room, creating a risk of explosion. Lowcock said the leak was relatively small and divers were able to patch it up and contain it. However "it is impossible to say how long it might hold," he added.



The U.N. has proposed a plan to repair the damage and enable the oil on board to be salvaged and sold, providing income to local workers, according to the Yemeni government.



Yemen's foreign minister, Mohammed Al-Hadhrami, told the Security Council that the government has accepted the U.N. plan, but said the Houthi militia was not cooperating.



Al-Hadhrami also warned that giving the Houthis access to the government-owned tanker "will not solve the problem, and it will enable them yet again to hijack the issue in the future, when the pressure is lifted."



Lowcock said while the Houthis have rejected the U.N. mission, the Houthi militia last week announced it had changed its position.



However, he cautioned that permissions were promised in August 2019 only to be cancelled by the Houthis the night before deployments.

 NBC

Theme(s): Others.
An approach road for a new bridge connecting Gopalganj to East Champaran in Bihar, opened only last month, was washed away by the Gandak river, which is in spate, leaving the opposition and the ruling dispensation in the state at each other's throats.

Sharing an image of the caved-in portion of the road on his Twitter handle, leader of the opposition Tejashwi Yadav demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who had inaugurated the Sattarghat bridge on June 16.

The bridge, constructed at a cost of over Rs 100 crore and over a period of eight years, is more than a km long.

The state government, however, quickly came out with a clarification that it was not the bridge itself that had collapsed.

The Road Construction Department issued a statement, saying the caved-in portion of the road was situated "two kilometres away from the bridge" and that it was the approach route for an 18-metre-long causeway that leads to the Sattarghat bridge.

"The causeway, too, is intact. The damage to the road is not the result of any defect in construction but due to increased water pressure on the Gopalganj side. The road will be made ready for traffic as soon as the floods subside," the statement said. Nonetheless, images of the damaged pathway had gone viral on social media since the previous day.

The RJD leader shared the image, advertising it as a failure of the government since the chief minister had inaugurated the bridge, connecting Gopalganj to East Champaran.

The ruling JD(U)-BJP combine hit back at the RJD leader.

JD(U) leader and Information and Public Relations Minister Neeraj Kumar, party spokesman Rajiv Ranjan Prasad and BJP spokesman Nikhil Anand came out with strongly worded statements, denouncing the opposition leader for "peddling lies".

"Don't you understand the difference between a bridge and an approach road? Despite being the leader of the opposition, you come up with such irresponsible statements", Neeraj Kumar fumed at Yadav.

As per the state disaster management department, both Gopalganj and East Champaran are among a total of eight flood-affected districts in the state.

A total of 2.18 lakh people across 137 panchayats have been affected by the floods caused by heavy rainfall, upto 45 per cent above normal, in the catchment areas of neighbouring Nepal where rivers like Gandak and Kosi originate.

As of now, 3,676 people residing in badly hit areas have been evacuated. 2,731 put up at relief camps while more than 15,000 people were depending on 29 community kitchens set up for feeding those affected by the calamity.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 16)  The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said two of its generals have tested negative for COVID-19 after being exposed to a positive individual who was present in events they recently attended.

In a statement, the AFP said Chief of Staff and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Felimon Santos, Jr. and AFP Spokesperosn Major General Edgard Arevalo tested negative for the virus following a swab test conducted on July 13.

This is after a staff of Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, who attended the commissioning and blessing of BRP Jose Rizal last July 10 and an event in Jolo, Sulu on July 13, got infected of the virus.

Lorenzana earlier announced that his test yielded a negative result.

Meanwhile, Navy Chief Vice Admiral Giovanni Carlo Bacordo said his test result is expected to be out on Friday.

The AFP said these officials are still completing their 14-day home quarantine. As for the others present during the events, those who had direct contact were also tested, while others are also completing their home quarantine.

In March, it was announced that Santos tested positive for the virus, which came after he presided over the donning of rank for a promoted senior AFP officer who later tested positive of the disease. He then tested negative in April.

Meanwhile, the Philippine National Police confirmed 37 new COVID-19 cases among its ranks, bringing the total of cases to 1,335.

The number of cops who recovered from the viral disease is now at 565, while casualties remain at nine.
BANGALORE, India, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- One of the major factors driving the baby infant formula market is the growing range of organic and balanced infant foods. The high sale of packaged food is due largely to its ease of access.

The global baby infant formula market size is estimated to be USD 24,043 Million in 2018 and is projected to reach USD 45,348 Million by 2025, registering a CAGR of 9.5% from 2018 to 2025.

The Baby Infant Formula Market report provides an in-depth analysis of the current trends, drivers, and dynamics of the global baby infant formula market to elucidate the prevailing opportunities and tap the investment pockets. The report also offers qualitative trends and quantitative analysis of the global market for the period of 2018-2025 to assist stakeholders in understanding the market scenario.

Inquire for Sample: https://reports.valuates.com/request/sample/ALLI-Auto-1R314/Baby_Infant_Formula_Market

TRENDS INFLUENCING THE BABY INFANT FORMULA MARKET SIZE

The infant formula market size is witnessing significant growth due to an increase in the population of baby boomers, increased disposable income of people in developing regions, and increased female participation in the labor force.

Rapid urbanization and middle-class growth have further propelled the Baby Infant Formula Market size.

The market for organic baby products is growing rapidly as there is a change in the lifestyle of people, especially in developed countries. Rapid urbanization around the world has encouraged convenience-oriented lifestyle adoption and is considered a major driving factor for the growth of Baby Infant Formula market size.

However, Strict regulations relating to infant formula products could impede market development.

Baby Infant Formula Market Share Analysis

The prepared food sub-segment is expected to have the largest market share, and it is expected to see strong growth during the forecast period.

The infant milk segment is expected to hold the largest Baby Infant Formula market share during the forecast period. This is because more and more physicians recommend using infant milk as a replacement for breastfeeding since it is a healthy and nutritious choice, along with better convenience.

Based on the region, North America accounted for the largest Infant market share during the forecast period. The growth of the region's market is due to high disposable income, the involvement of major players in the region, and the well-developed pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry.

Europe is the second-largest infant formula market due to its strong production facilities and high baby purchasing capacity.

The Asia Pacific is expected to see the highest level of growth in the coming years. Factors such as the high baby boomer population, increasing disposable income, and a high rate of urbanization contribute to the growth of the market in the Asia Pacific.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/ALLI-Auto-1R314/baby-infant-formula

TOP COMPANIES IN THE BABY INFANT FORMULA MARKET

To improve their foothold in target markets, infant formula manufacturers will continue to focus on a range of strategies such as product growth, mergers, acquisitions, R & D, and innovation. Portfolio expansion is also one of the main strategies embraced by infant formula manufacturers to cater for different market segments.

Inquire For Regional Report: https://reports.valuates.com/request/regional/ALLI-Auto-1R314/Baby_Infant_Formula_Market

BABY INFANT FORMULA KEY MARKET SEGMENTS:

By Type

Infant Milk

Follow-on-Milk

Specialty Baby Milk

Growing-up Milk

By Ingredient

Carbohydrate

Fat

Protein

Minerals

Vitamins

Others.

By Distribution Channel

Hypermarkets

Supermarkets

Pharmacy/Medical Stores

Specialty Stores

Hard Discounter Stores

Others,

By Geography

North America

U.S.

Canada

Mexico

Europe

UK

Germany

France

Italy

Spain

Turkey

Russia

Rest of Europe

Asia-Pacific

China

India

South Korea

Japan

Philippines

Indonesia

Rest of Asia-Pacific

LAMEA

Brazil

Argentina

South Africa

Saudi Arabia

UAE

Rest of LAMEA

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SIMILAR REPORTS

Infant Nutrition Market Report

The global infant nutrition market size was valued at USD 34.2 Billion in 2018 and is estimated to reach USD 61.6 Billion by 2026, with a CAGR of 7.7% from 2019 to 2026.

Over the past few years, global per capita income has seen a healthy growth rate, especially in emerging economies. Increasing urbanization, growing middle-class consumers, and increasing rates of female labor force participation in developing and developed markets have encouraged the adoption of convenience-oriented lifestyles, making nutritious infant products such as baby formula and baby food as the preferred alternative.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/ALLI-Manu-0B18/infant-nutrition

Baby Food Market Report

The baby food market was valued at USD 50.7 Billion in 2014 and is expected to garner USD 72.7 Billion by 2020, registering a CAGR of 6.4% during the forecast period 2015-2020.

Increasing awareness for nutrition increased organized retail marketing, urbanization coupled with a substantial rise in the number of working women, are key factors driving growth in the baby food industry.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/ALLI-Auto-3I42/baby-food-market

Organic Baby Food Market Report

Global Organic Baby Food Market was valued at USD 5,834 Million in 2016 and is projected to reach USD 11,592 Million by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 10.1% from 2017 to 2023.

Key players profiled in the report are Abbott laboratories, Nestle S.A., Hero Group, Amara Organics, Danone, Plum organics, The Hein celestial group, North Castle Partners, LLC. HiPP GmbH & Co. Vertrieb KG and Baby Gourmet Foods Inc.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/ALLI-Auto-4O151/organic-baby-food

Frozen Baby Food Market Report

The key players operating in the frozen baby food market include Danone, Yummy Spoonfuls, Bambinos Baby Food, Mother Hen's Healthy Food, Hain Celestial, Square Foods, Raised Real, Little Foodie Club, Thistle Baby, and Nestle.

The report provides an in-depth analysis of the current trends, drivers, and dynamics of the frozen baby food market to elucidate the prevailing opportunities and tap the investment pockets.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-21G1608/global-frozen-baby-foods

Asia-Pacific Baby Infant Formula Market Report

The Asia-Pacific baby, infant formula market size, was valued at USD 11.4 Billion in 2017 and is estimated to reach USD 26.8 Billion by 2026 with a CAGR of 9.8% from 2019 to 2026.

Growth in the Asian-Pacific baby formula market is driven primarily by increased awareness of baby infant formula such as promoting safe baby growth & development, improving cognitive performance & development, preventing allergies, and improving gastrointestinal health & immunity.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/ALLI-Manu-1M18/asia-pacific-baby-infant-formula

Baby Drinks Market Report

The Global Baby Drinks Market was valued at USD 20,936 Million in 2016 and is expected to garner USD 41,616 Million by 2023, registering a CAGR of 10.4% from 2017 to 2023.

An increase in female professionals powers the demand for baby drinks. In addition, lifestyle shifts, increasing middle-class population, and growth in disposable income in emerging economies such as India, China, Indonesia, among others, have driven market growth.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/ALLI-Auto-1X182/baby-drinks

Canada Baby Food Market Report

The Canada baby food market size was valued at USD 1.3 Billion in 2018 and is projected to reach USD 2.4 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 7.60% from 2019 to 2026.

The key players in the Canadian baby food industry include Nestle S.A., Danone, Plum, PBC, Hain Celestial, Diana Group, Mead Johnson & Company, LLC, Abbott, Loblaws Inc., Parent's Choice Infant Formula, and Kraft Heinz Company.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/ALLI-Manu-1Y17/canada-baby-food

U.S. Baby Food Market Report

The U.S. baby food market size was valued at USD 12.9 Billion in 2018 and is projected to reach USD 17.2 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 3.7% from 2019 to 2026.

The U.S. baby food industry has undergone many changes driven largely by parents' lifestyles and their increased interest in organic food. Several companies have launched safer ingredients and tastier baby foods. Small bowl, Yumi, Nurture Life, Pure Bowl, New Bellies, Smushed Organics, and Cerebelly are a few examples. Manufacturers of Baby Food in the U.S. can see this as a chance to expand the market.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/ALLI-Manu-0U9/us-baby-food

ABOUT US:

Valuates offers in-depth market insights into various industries. Our extensive report repository is constantly updated to meet your changing industry analysis needs.

Our team of market analysts can help you select the best report covering your industry. We understand your niche region-specific requirements and that's why we offer customization of reports. With our customization in place, you can request for any particular information from a report that meets your market analysis needs.

To achieve a consistent view of the market, data is gathered from various primary and secondary sources, at each step, data triangulation methodologies are applied to reduce deviance and find a consistent view of the market. Each sample we share contains detail research methodology employed to generate the report, Please also reach to our sales team to get the complete list of our data sources

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Photo: The Canadian Press

Johnny Depps security chief alleged that Amber Heard physically abused Depp during the couples tempestuous marriage, giving testimony to support Depps libel suit against a British tabloid that accused him of assaulting his former spouse.

Depp is suing News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, and the papers executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an April 2018 article that called him a wife-beater. He strongly denies abusing Heard.

In a written witness statement released as he appeared in court Thursday, security officer Sean Bett said that throughout the course of Mr. Depp and Ms. Heards relationship, Ms. Heard was verbally and physically abusive towards Mr. Depp."

On many occasions, I witnessed her shout at Mr. Depp. I was also told by Mr. Depp on multiple occasions that Ms. Heard had physically abused him, he said.

Bett, a former Los Angeles sheriff's deputy who has worked for Depp for a decade, said he regularly had to remove the Pirates of the Caribbean star from bad situations when Heard was in an abusive mood.

Ms. Heard often behaved in this way when she had been drinking. I learnt quickly to recognize the signs, so that we were able to leave the situation before it escalated further, he said.

Depp, 57, and Heard, 34, met on the set of the 2011 comedy The Rum Diary and married in Los Angeles in February 2015. Heard filed for divorce the following year, and the divorce was finalized in 2017.

The Suns defence relies on 14 allegations made by Heard of violence by Depp between 2013 and 2016, in settings including his private island in the Bahamas, a rented house in Australia and a private jet. He denies them all and claims Heard was the aggressor during their volatile relationship, which he has likened to a crime scene waiting to happen.

In a week and half of testimony, judge Andrew Nicol has heard from Depp  who accused Heard of compiling a dossier of fake claims against him  as well as several employees of Depp and Heard who have backed his version of events.

Heard is due to give her side of the story in evidence later in the trial, which is scheduled to last three weeks.
Boris Johnson has been accused of 'letting down' northern voters who helped him win a majority amid a row over the future of coal.

The last coal mining company in England has urged ministers to make a decision on a new open-cast site after it started laying off staff as its sites cease production.

Banks Mining is due to stop work at its final surface mine at Bradley, County Durham, next month.

Redundancies: Banks Mining, the last coal mining company in England has urged ministers to make a decision on a new open-cast site after it started the process of laying off staff

It has been waiting since April to hear if it can start production at the controversial Highthorn site near picturesque Druridge Bay, Northumberland, which has been opposed by locals.

A planning decision is yet to be announced by Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick.

Normally Banks would operate a surface mine until the coal was extracted, restore the site, then move on to another, but it currently has nowhere else to go.

The firm said British industry still needs more than 5m tons of coal a year, some of it used to make steel and concrete, and this would have to be imported from Russia, which operates less environmentally-friendly mines, with the added carbon cost of transporting it to the UK.

With 250 jobs under threat, Banks managing director Gavin Styles and workers urged the Government to make a decision.

Plant operator Steven White, 57, who has worked for the firm for 41 years, said: 'I am angry more than anything else that there is so much need for this coal and yet the Government seems to be ignoring us.

'I voted for Boris, which makes me even more angry. I think he's letting us down a bit.'

Shop steward Graham Walton, in a message to Mr Jenrick, said: 'Stop messing about, give us our jobs and let us provide the coal that the country needs.'

Production manager David Paterson said: 'It's absolutely gutting, it's unknown of for guys to spend north of 40 years working for the same company.

'That's testament to how Banks treat their employees,' he said. 'They have nowhere to go because of Government indecision.'
Brad Parscale, Trump's campaign manager for his 2020 re-election campaign, is out. Trump announced Parscale's firing after a series of sparsely-attended rallies and a dire national poll that puts him 15 points behind Democratic rival Joe Biden.

Parscale, Trump's longtime "website guy", will be replaced by Bill Stepien. Stepien managed Chris Christie's gubernatorial campaigns and was his chief of staff before being fired for poor "judgment."

The president reportedly lashed out at Parscale in late April after he was presented with flagging poll numbers, even threatening to sue his campaign manager, according to a New York Times report. The Trump administration has grappled with both the economic fallout caused by the ongoing coronavirus, which brought his campaign rallies to a halt in March, and nationwide protests and unrest over the death of George Floyd.

Parcale will stay on as a "senior advisor", according to The Hill:
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Linkedin Mardika Parama (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 16, 2020 13:27 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666c5608 1 Business Indonesia,Japan,Trade,investment Free

The government is seeking to expand access to the Japanese market, reduce tariffs and liberalize the movement of workers in tourism through Indonesia-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (IJEPA) renegotiations.

According to the Trade Ministry's bilateral negotiations director Ni Made Ayu Marthini, the government is focusing on expanding its market access and reviewing Japans Tariff Rate Quotas (TRQ) for Indonesias agricultural products.

In regard to market access, some of our fishery products still have higher tariffs to enter the Japanese market, including canned products. We would also like to secure the fruit market in Japan, and Japan currently implements the TRQ for Indonesias [products], she said during an online webinar held by SSEK Legal Consultant on Tuesday.

Greater market access for Indonesias products would boost trade between the two countries, Made said, as Japan is Indonesias third-largest export destination and second-largest import source.

The total value of trade between Indonesia and Japan reached US$31.56 billion in 2019, a slight decrease from $37.44 billion in 2018, according to Trade Ministry data. Indonesia also posted a trade surplus of around $320 million in 2019.

Under IJEPA, fresh and chilled fishery products from Indonesia, including salmon and trout, are excluded from tariff reduction commitments alongside canned tuna products. Meanwhile, other canned fishery products are subject to further negotiations, according to the IJEPAs Annex 1.

We want 0 percent tariff on [canned fishery] products because we think it will be a win-win situation. Japanese consumers will have the products and there are many Japanese investors who are investing in Indonesia to produce them for the Japanese market, Made said.

Japan also imposed the TRQ policy on Indonesias tropical fruit products such as fresh pineapple and banana, with the latter providing free entry for up to 1,000 metric tons per year for five years, IJEPA Annex 1 shows.

Besides greater market access for export products, Made said the government was also lobbying to include travel workers into an article on the movement of natural persons, which allows entry and temporary stay permits for Indonesians workers in Japan.

As the Japanese government is currently focusing on tourism, Japan needs workers that can provide services to their tourism. We do have trained workers that could cater to that, she said.

IJEPA currently only provides entry and extendable one-year stay permits for skilled medical workers such as nurses and elderly care workers, outside of professional services workers and businesspeople, according to the agreements Annex 10.

Indonesia has sent 622 nurses and 1,494 elderly care workers during the first 10 years of IJEPAs implementation, Trade Ministry data shows.

The ad interim charge daffaires of the Indonesia Embassy in Tokyo, Tri Purnajaya, hopes that IJEPA would boost trade and investment between the two countries. The embassy is currently vying to establish a travel corridor for Japanese businesspeople to travel to Indonesia.

We are currently working with the Japanese government to promote easing travel restrictions, so we could facilitate more business travel between the two sides, he said.

IJEPA was implemented by the two countries in 2008 and was reviewed in 2013 based on Article 151 of the agreement, which mandates a general review in the fifth year since the agreement took effect.

However, IJEPAs general review [GR-IJEPA] negotiation effort was stalled in 2016 due to disagreements over automotive products and steel tariffs. It was then resumed in the following year, with the GR-IJEPA report concluded in 2019.

Topics : Indonesia Japan Trade investment
Take a companys human resources department, for instance. Until now, employee data could be easily transferred between Europe and the U.S., meaning a Seattle firm could readily manage payroll for European employees from the other side of the world. Thats now tricky. But if youre P&G, with more than 30,000 employees in Europe, its likely to make less of a difference than if youre a Texas-based widget-maker with 100 employees that just opened a one-person sales office in Munich. Suddenly you may have to add more back-office jobs in Europe when holding employee and customer data in the region.
New York, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Automated Feeding Systems Market Research Report by Function, by Type, by Integration, by Technology, by Livestock, by Component - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913309/?utm_source=GNW



On the basis of Function, the Automated Feeding Systems Market is studied across Controlling, Filling and Screening, and Mixing.



On the basis of Type, the Automated Feeding Systems Market is studied across Conveyor Feeding Systems, Rail-Guided Feeding Systems, and Self-Propelled Feeding Systems. The Conveyor Feeding Systems further studied across Belt Feeding Systems, Chain Feeding Systems, and Pan Feeding Systems.



On the basis of Integration, the Automated Feeding Systems Market is studied across Integrated Automated Feeding Systems and Non-Integrated Automated Feeding Systems.



On the basis of Technology, the Automated Feeding Systems Market is studied across Guidance and Remote Sensing Technology, RFID Technology, and Robotics and Telemetry.



On the basis of Livestock, the Automated Feeding Systems Market is studied across Poultry, Ruminants, and Swine.



On the basis of Component, the Automated Feeding Systems Market is studied across Hardware, Services, and Software.



On the basis of Geography, the Automated Feeding Systems Market is studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas region is studied across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The Asia-Pacific region is studied across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. The Europe, Middle East & Africa region is studied across France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom.



Company Usability Profiles:

The report deeply explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Automated Feeding Systems Market including Afimilk Ltd, BIG Dutchman, Inc., BouMatic LLC, Dairymaster, DeLaval Inc., Feedall Automation, Fullwood Packo, GEA Group AG, KUHN S.A, Lely Holding, Pellon Group Oy, Trioliet Holding BV, Urban GmbH & Co. KG, VDL Agrotech bv, and WEBER Schraubautomaten GmbH.



FPNV Positioning Matrix:

The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Automated Feeding Systems Market on the basis of Business Strategy (Business Growth, Industry Coverage, Financial Viability, and Channel Support) and Product Satisfaction (Value for Money, Ease of Use, Product Features, and Customer Support) that aids businesses in better decision making and understanding the competitive landscape.



Competitive Strategic Window:

The Competitive Strategic Window analyses the competitive landscape in terms of markets, applications, and geographies. The Competitive Strategic Window helps the vendor define an alignment or fit between their capabilities and opportunities for future growth prospects. During a forecast period, it defines the optimal or favorable fit for the vendors to adopt successive merger and acquisition strategies, geography expansion, research & development, and new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth.



Cumulative Impact of COVID-19:

COVID-19 is an incomparable global public health emergency that has affected almost every industry, so for and, the long-term effects projected to impact the industry growth during the forecast period. Our ongoing research amplifies our research framework to ensure the inclusion of underlaying COVID-19 issues and potential paths forward. The report is delivering insights on COVID-19 considering the changes in consumer behavior and demand, purchasing patterns, re-routing of the supply chain, dynamics of current market forces, and the significant interventions of governments. The updated study provides insights, analysis, estimations, and forecast, considering the COVID-19 impact on the market.



The report provides insights on the following pointers:

1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on sulfuric acid offered by the key players

2. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyzes the markets

3. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new product launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments

4. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players

5. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and new product developments



The report answers questions such as:

1. What is the market size and forecast of the Global Automated Feeding Systems Market?

2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Automated Feeding Systems Market during the forecast period?

3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Automated Feeding Systems Market?

4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Automated Feeding Systems Market?

5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Automated Feeding Systems Market?

6. What are the modes and strategic moves considered suitable for entering the Global Automated Feeding Systems Market?

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913309/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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President Donald Trump on Wednesday vaguely referenced an upcoming announcement on how his administration intends to deal with crime in Democrat-led cities, again citing Chicagos violence as a problem he will tackle.

In a briefing with reporters about his ongoing efforts to deal with the MS-13 gang, Trump said he would have more to say next week with the attorney general, the FBI and others concerning our cities, because the left-wing group of people that are running our cities are not doing the job that theyre supposed to be doing, and its not a very tough job to do if they knew what they were doing.

He later said, Were going to straighten things out in cities where leaders have lost control; he did not offer specifics.

When a reporter asked at the end of the event if he planned to follow through on a recent statement that the federal government might take over cities such as Chicago to deal with crime, Trump didnt answer directly.

But he cited recent issues with protesters in Seattle, Minneapolis and Portland, Oregon, before pointing to violence in Chicago.

We have other cities that are out of control, theyre like war zones, Trump said. And if the city isnt going to straighten it out, if local politicians or in this case, lets say this for political reasons, theyre all Democrats. Theyre liberal left-wing Democrats. And its almost like they think this is going to be this way forever.

Where in Chicago, 68 people were shot and 18 died last week. Were not going to put up with that, he said.

After Trump on Monday again likened Chicago to Afghanistan, Mayor Lori Lightfoot sounded a familiar response during a Tuesday appearance on MSNBC, accusing the president of political posturing. Lightfoot said Trump wont take steps needed to deal with the proliferation of illegal guns, which would really help drive down Chicago violence.

If you go back over many years, President Trump has said a lot of disparaging things about the city of Chicago. He likes to use us as a political punching bag, Lightfoot said. But if the president was really committed to helping us deal with our violence, he would do some easy things. What he would push for is universal background checks, he would push for an assault weapons ban, he would push to make sure that people who are banned from getting on airplanes cant get guns.
HSC Result 2020 Maharashtra Pass Percentage| This year, 90.66 percent of students cleared the Class 12 exams compared to 85.88 in 2019, an overall increase of 4.78 percent.

HSC Result 2020 Maharashtra Pass Percentage| The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) has announced the results of the HSC or Class 12 exams today (Thursday, 16 July) on its official website mahresults.nic.in.

This year, 90.66 percent of students cleared the Class 12 exams compared to 85.88 in 2019, an overall increase of 4.78 percent.

A total of 14,20,575 students appeared for the Maharashtra board Class 12 exams this year of which 12,81,712 students cleared the exams.

Girls outperformed boys yet again, netting a pass percent of 93.88 compared to 88.04 percent.

HSC 2020 scores will also be available at Firstpost. Candidates need to enter the log-in details in the widget below:

Follow LIVE updates on HSC Result 2020 Maharashtra here

The science stream saw 96.93 percent of students clear the Class 12 exam compared to 92.60 percent in 2019 (an increase of 4.33 percent).

The arts stream recorded a pass percentage of 82.63 percent this year compared to 76.45 percent in 2019 (an increase of 6.18 percent).

The commerce stream witnessed a pass percentage of 91.27 percent in 2020 as compared to 88.28 percent in 2019 (an increase of 2.99 percent).

Among districts, Konkan emerged as best-performing with 95.89 percent of students clearing the exams while,Pune came in a close second with 92.50 percent of its students passing. Aurangabad registered the lowest pass percentage (88.18) among all districts.

Follow all LIVE updates on Maharashtra HSC Results 2020 here

In 2019, 85.88 percent students passed the Class 12 examinations. While 90.25 percent of girls had passed, 82.40 percent of boys had cleared the exams. The pass percentage of science students was 95.85 percent, of commerce students was 89.50 percent and of arts students was 78.93 percent.

This year, the Maharashtra HSC results were declared later than the usual schedule, as the evaluation process in the state started late due to the coronavirus pandemic. The checking of answer sheets began on 18 May.

Usually, the Maharashtra board declares the HSC result in the month of May. Last year, the result was declared on 28 May.

The Maharashtra Board HSC examination was held from 18 February to 18 March, 2020.

Follow the steps below to check the Maharashtra HSC results 2020:

Step 1: Visit the official website  mahresult.nic.in

Step 2: On the homepage of the official site, you will find the latest announcement on the HSC results.

Step 3: Click on "HSC Examination Result 2020".

Step 4: You will be redirected to a new page, where you will have to enter details like your roll number and your mother's first name.

Step 5: Click on "view result".

Step 6: You will be able to see your scores now.

Step 7: Save your results and take a print out for future reference.

The MSBSHE conducts the Maharashtra HSC Class 12 exams every year. The board has nine divisions which are located at Pune, Mumbai, Nasik, Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Latur, Amravati and Ratnagiri.
Egypt's 2020/2021 school year will start on Saturday 17 October, the education ministry said in a statement on Thursday, and no decision has yet been taken on if students will return to classrooms full-time.

The decision to start the school year in October instead of the normal September is due to the coronavirus epidemic, Education Minister Tarek Shawki said in the statement.

The form and system of study in the new school year are currently under study and will be announced once finalised.

Schools and universities suspended in-person classes in March in the wake of the pandemic. Most students have remained at home since, with assignments given online, although pupils taking their final high school exams did so in person in June and July.

Officials have been debating possible scenarios for the new school year, including the continuation of learning from home or two days attendance a week in schools.

"We have many proposals on what form school study will take, and we are currently working to reach the right decision that guarantees the continuation of the educational process in the manner that maintains the students' safety and health, especially since the pre-university education system has approximately 22 million students," Shawki said.

We will rely on the use of modern technology in the learning process and will take advantage of the educational platforms launched by the ministry," since the emergence of coronavirus, the minister also said.

The first school term will run from 17 October 2020 to 5 February 2021, with 93 actual school days, the statement said. The second term will be from 20 February to 17 June, with 96 school days.

The mid-year vacation will start on 6 February and end on 18 February.

The thanaweya amma final high school exams will begin on 19 June, while the final exams for technical diplomas will begin on 29 May.

The statement said the announcement about the timings of the new school year was made during a virtual meeting of the High Council of Pre-University Education, headed by Shawki, to discuss decisions on the new school year.

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Even as the privatisation process drags on, national carrier Air India has instituted a scheme whereby employees can opt to take 'leave without pay' ranging from six months up to five years.

Additionally, the airline's management will also have the option to send any employee on leave based on a few criteria.

An Air India staff notice, which was reviewed by IANS, read: "The Board of Directors in its 102nd meeting held on July 7, 2020 has approved a scheme whereby employees can opt to take 'leave without pay' ranging from six months or for two years and the same can be extended up to five years.

"The scheme also authorises the CMD to pass an order on behalf and in the name of the company whereby an employee could be sent on leave for six months or for a period of two years extendable up to five years."

However, this provision can only be exercised depending upon factors such as "suitability, efficiency, competence, quality of performance, health of the employee, instance of non-availability of the employee for duty in the past, as a result of ill health or otherwise and redundancy".

The notice calls upon "department heads at headquarters and regional directors of the region" to assess each individual on the above mentioned factors and identify the cases where option of compulsory leave without pay can be exercised.

"Names of such employees need to be forwarded to the general manager (personnel), headquarters, for obtaining necessary approval of the CMD," the notice said.

As per the notice, regional directors will constitute a committee comprising of "General Manager (Personnel), General Manager (Finance) and concerned Departmental Head" which will identify redundant manpower, who would be told to proceed on compulsory leave without pay.

"The committee would go through the records, based on the above factors and will recommend the individuals whose names will be forwarded to headquarters with due recommendations of 'Regional Director' for obtaining approval of CMD, for compulsory leave,"

"Similarly, at 'Headquarters a Committee comprising of General Manager (lR), General Manager (Finance) and concerned Executive Director or General Manager' of the respective 'Departmental Head' shall be constituted for the said purpose."

Thereafter, the regional directors and 'Headquarters' Departmental Head' would forward the list of identified individuals to 'General Manager (Personnel), Headquarters' on or before August 15, 2020 for obtaining necessary approval of CMD.

Meanwhile, all the unions of Air India will be holding an online meeting to discuss the latest development.

An Air India union leader told IANS: "LWP has to be across the board for all employees and burden has to be shared by all employees. This is not market standards. This is cherry picking by the top management."

According to Air India PIM document, as on November 1, 2019, the airline on a standalone basis (without subsidiaries) had around 14,000 employees, including fixed term contract staff.

The development comes as the Centre has re-initiated the airline's divestment plan with new norms.

Interestingly, this time, it has sweetened the deal by substantially reducing the debt on the airline's account books and offered a 100 per cent stake in the loss-making airline.

The last date for bid submission to acquire Air India has also been extended to August 31.

In January, the Centre had invited expression of interest (EoI) from prospective buyers for Air India and two of its subsidiaries.

Along with Air India and its low-cost subsidiary Air India Express, the flag carrier's 50 per cent stake in ground-handling arm AISATS has also been put on the block.
TikTok's logo is displayed on the screen of an iPhone in Arlington, Virginia, on April 13, 2020. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)

TikTok Fined by South Korea for Collecting Data From Underage Users

Popular video-sharing app TikTok, which settled U.S. government charges over illegal collection of information from its underage users last year, was found to have breached South Korean law with similar privacy violations.

The Korea Communications Commission (KCC), South Koreas telecommunications regulator, announced July 15 that it fined TikTok 186 million won (about $154,000) for violating local telecommunications law by collecting data from users under the age of 14 without parental consent, according to Yonhap News Agency.

About 6,000 pieces of data on the underaged users were illegally collected, the regulator found. Additionally, it said TikTok failed to properly notify its users when it transferred local user data to servers in Singapore and the United States without prior notification.

According to Yonhap, KCC started investigating TikTok in October 2019. In February 2019, TikTok paid a $5.7 million fine to settle U.S. government charges that it had illegally collected personal information from users under 13, in violation of the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

TikTok, known as Douyin in China, was started by the Beijing-based tech firm ByteDance in 2016. Its extremely popular outside of China, with an estimate of more than 800 million monthly active users worldwide. According to Yonhap, there were 3.4 million users in South Korea as of December 2019.

In the United States, TikTok had about 52.5 million unique visitors, as of March, according to U.S. market research company eMarketer, citing data from media analytics firm Comscore.

Despite paying a hefty fine in the United States, TikTok might not have fully complied with its 2019 settlement.

Last week, Reuters reported that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the U.S. Justice Department were reviewing allegations brought up by several U.S. advocacy groups in May that TikTok continued to violate COPPA, citing an unidentified source and a campaign manager with the U.S. advocacy group Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC).

On May 14, CCFC was among a coalition of U.S. child advocacy, consumer, and privacy groups that filed a complaint to FTC alleging TikToks continued violation, including failure to delete underage users personal information that it obtained prior to the settlement.

Many U.S. lawmakers have raised concerns about TikTok in recent months. On May 21, Reps. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) wrote a letter to Zhang Yiming, founder and CEO of ByteDance, asking him to answer 22 questions before June 5.

One of the questions was whether TikTok shared information it collected on Americans with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or any Chinese state-owned entity.

Chinas national intelligence law, which went into effect in 2017, allows Beijing access to all data stored within its national borders.

Also on July 15, Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) led 24 of his Republican colleagues in sending a letter to President Donald Trump, urging the administration to ban TikTok and other social media apps linked to the CCP, citing threats to Americans privacy due to their capability to collect their data, according to a statement from Bucks office.

The letter warned about TikToks existing privacy policy, which states that the company collects information you [users] share with us from third-party social network providers, and technical and behavioral information about your use of the Platform, as well as user information such as IP address and geolocation-related data.

It is clear that the United States should not trust TikTok or any other Chinese-affiliated social media websites or apps to protect Americans data, privacy, or security, the Congress members stated.

They concluded: We urge you to take strong action to stop the CCPs sophisticated espionage campaign against our country and protect our national security.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Trump administration was certainly looking at banning TikTok. On July 15, the White House hinted that the ban could come soon, following comments by Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows.

I dont think theres any self-imposed deadline for action [against TikTok], but I think we are looking at weeks, not months, Meadows told reporters.

TikTok was among 59 mostly Chinese mobile apps banned by the Indian government in June. According to a government press release, these apps engaged in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defense of India, security of state, and public order.
Democratic Congressman Ben Ray Lujan raised more than $1.5 million during the second quarter of the year, the most in a quarter since launching his bid for the U.S. Senate early last year.

His Republican rival, former television meteorologist Mark Ronchetti, also reported his biggest fundraising quarter since entering the race earlier this year, pulling in more than $735,000.

Lujans total is the second highest raised in a quarter by a U.S. Senate candidate in New Mexico during an election year. He has raised more than $1 million in five straight quarters since announcing his bid to replace fellow Democrat Tom Udall, who is stepping down at the end of his term.

The deadline for filing with the Federal Election Commission for the quarter ending June 30 was Wednesday.

Were building a grassroots movement of New Mexicans who know Ben Ray is the right choice to help our state recover during and after COVID-19, expand economic opportunities, increase access to affordable health care and champion our shared values, Lujan campaign manager Travis Brimm said in a news release.

The campaign said more than 89% of donations were $25 or less. The average donation was more than $34 and the average online donation was more than $17. The campaign reported having more than $3.3 million cash on hand as of June 30.

Ronchettis campaign reported having more than $570,000 cash on hand, His campaign has raised $1.38 million since he entered the race.

Im proud of our campaign focusing on New Mexico and humbled by the support that has poured in from across our state, Ronchetti said in a news release. We are running an issue-focused campaign to solve the problems facing communities across New Mexico.

Ronchetti spokesman Jeff Glassburner said 93% of the campaigns donations have come from within the state.

Lujans campaign did not give a breakdown. According to OpenSecrets.org, almost 75% of Lujans donations were from out of state as of mid-May.

Mark is running a grassroots campaign on the issues important to the people of New Mexico, while Ben Rays campaign is funded by out-of-state liberals and continues to rake in special interest D.C. PAC money, Glassburner said.

But according to OpenSecrets, Lujan has also received more money from in-state donors than any other Senate or congressional candidate.

Libertarian candidate Bob Walsh raised almost $3,300 during the quarter, but had no cash on hand, according to his FEC report.
To comply with the terms of its freshly renewed operating licence, MTN Uganda must list a 20% stake on the countrys stock exchange within the next two years.

After two years of negotiations, MTN Uganda finally reached US$100 million agreement for a 12-year renewal of its operating licence. Its previous licence expired in October 2018, and since that point it had been providing services via a temporary licence that it renewed every six months.

TeleGeography reports that the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has also given MTN five years to achieve network coverage for a minimum of 90% of the countrys population.

MTN Uganda has not yet agreed to the requirement on the grounds that listing shares locally may not have the desired effect of increasing local ownership in the operator via stake holdings.

In January, CEO Wim Vanhelleputte argued that the government should drop the requirement and instead allow local investors to acquire stakes in overseas firms via private placements, subject to a vetting process.

Vanhelleputte noted that this would ensure that Ugandans were able to acquire holdings in foreign companies, whereas even if an initial public offer (IPO) imposed a local bidding requirement, overseas investors would still find ways to buy shares via the stock exchange.
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Armed police officers, about 20 of them, on Thursday surrounded the Port Harcourt home of the former interim managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Joy Nunieh.

They (police officers) came here to my home since 4 a.m., they have surrounded everywhere, Ms Nunieh told PREMIUM TIMES, Thursday morning.

I am inside my house, I cant leave for Abuja where I am scheduled to appear today before the House of Representatives Investigative hearing on NDDC, she added.

Ms Nunieh said she has called the police commissioner in Port Harcourt over the development, but the commissioner said her office and her officials were not involved in it.

The embattled former interim MD and the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, recently engaged each other in a war of words over corruption allegations in NDDC.

She said she suspects that Mr Akpabio may have a hand in the police blockade of her private residence.

Mr Akpabio and his aide, Anietie Ekong, declined comments after calls and text messages were placed to their known lines.

Rivers State police spokesperson, Omoni Nnamdi, said he is yet to get that report, so let me not speculate. When informed that the siege had been on since about 4 a.m., he said he will get back to this medium.

Background

Ms Nunieh and Mr Akpabio have been locked in a series of heated exchanges, the most recent being an accusation that Mr Akpabio tried to come up on her after failing to bribe her and convince her to take an oath of secrecy in Abuja.

She claimed that she slapped the minister for sexually assaulting her, a claim for which the minister turned down a request for clarification.

We should not focus on sensationalism and pull-him down syndrome. For me, that (the development of the Niger Delta region) is what should engage our attention.

As a Minister of the Federal Republic, I cannot discuss about an individual. I can discuss issues that will bring development and move the region forward; things that will promote the ideals of the Federal Government, he said.

At the centre of the controversies is the Niger Delta commission, whose mandate to develop the oil-rich region has been sluggish for two decades of existence, largely due to corruption among officials in the agency.

Ms Nunieh acted as the commissions head after the removal of Akwagaga Enyia in October 2019, but she was sacked four months later as the crisis rocking the commission over abuse of funds kept mounting.

PREMIUM TIMES exclusively learnt that Mr Akpabio played a major role in the removal of Ms Nunieh.

President Muhammadu Buhari, in February, named Kemebradikumo Pondei, a professor of medicine, as her replacement. He also ordered a forensic audit on the commissions finances.

Both Houses of the National Assembly have, in the past months, uncovered series of financial infractions in the commissions activities ranging from non-performing contractors to unaccounted funds in the tune of billions of naira.
MOD signs 65 million contract for Protector aircraft

A 65 million contract to build the UK's first three Protector aircraft, the first UK operated system capable of strike missions anywhere in the world, has been signed.

15 July 2020

After a successful development phase Protector is set to enter service by mid-2024, meaning that the Remotely Piloted Air System (RPAS) will deliver a step-change in capability for the RAF.

Protector is the world's first certified RPAS, enabling it to fly in busy, unsegregated airspace, including civilian airspace, thanks to its ground-breaking 'detect and avoid' technology.

The contract was announced by Defence Secretary Ben Wallace at the virtual 2020 Air and Space Power Conference.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said:

The UK is proving once again that we are a world leader in defence technology. Protector will provide the RAF with vast global reach, meeting the UK's defence and security needs for decades to come, and provides another increase to the unmanned inventory for the Armed Forces. This aircraft will upgrade a whole range of lethal capabilities allowing us to control, protect and manage the battlespace from the air for hours on end.

The cutting-edge aircraft, which will replace the current Reaper RPAS force, will be deployed in wide-ranging Intelligence, Surveillance, Targeting and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) operations from its base at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire.

Its ability to fly consistently for up to 40 hours will offer the RAF vastly improved armed intelligence and reconnaissance sorties.

The innovative fleet will also have advanced anti-icing and lightning protection, providing the RAF with unprecedented flexibility to operate in extreme weather conditions.

Protector also comes with enhanced data links and will carry next-generation, low collateral, precision strike weapons  the UK-made Brimstone missile (MBDA) and Paveway IV Laser Guided Bomb (Raytheon UK).

The contract follows a successful development phase by manufacturers General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. which will build the first three Protector aircraft, plus three ground control stations and other associated support equipment.

It also includes an option to build 13 more aircraft and four ground control stations, which will complete the current planned fleet of 16 aircraft, more than doubling the capability currently provided by Reaper.

Sir Simon Bollom, CEO of Defence Equipment and Support, said:

I am delighted to announce that we have got Protector production on contract. The DE&S team have demonstrated their remarkable resilience and overcome considerable challenges to ensure this significant programme remained on track. Their efforts and the collaborative commitment from industry means that the RAF can still look forward to the delivery of the cutting-edge Protector and the step-change in capability that it brings.

Meeting stringent NATO and UK safety certification standards, the aircraft could, if requested, operate in civilian airspace to support civilian agencies in the UK, for example, in search and rescue and disaster response missions.

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Burma Civilian Who Died in Custody in Myanmars Rakhine State Killed Himself, Military Says

The funeral of U Soe Myint Tun.

SITTWE, Rakhine StateOne of six residents of Alel Chaung Village in Rakhine States Yanbye Township detained by Myanmar army troops on Saturday killed himself while being held for interrogation, according to the military.

Alel Chaung Village administrator U Myint Lwin told The Irrawaddy that Yanbye (formerly Ramree) Township Police Station told him to pick up the body of U Soe Myint Tun on Tuesday.

Yanbye Township Police Station phoned me and told me that he killed himself by hanging. So, together with his family members, we brought the body from Ma-Ei Hospital, he said.

Many Rakhine people have expressed doubts about the claim that the 37-year-old man took his own life. His relatives asked in vain for a postmortem examination report from the hospital. His funeral was held on Wednesday.

According to local residents, Myanmar military (or Tatmadaw) troops, including some from Kyaukphyu-based Light Infantry Battalion No. 34, arrived in Alel Chaung Village on Saturday and detained six men, arresting them at their homes or at the farms where they worked, U Myint Lwin said.

[The troops] didnt tell me why they arrested them that day. They only said they had things to ask them, and would release them after interrogation, and that we would be informed, he said.

The soldiers reportedly arrested U Soe Myint Tun while he was working on his farm. Still in detention are U Maung Tun Win, 44; U Zaw Lwin, 35; U Maung Myint Tun, 37; Ko Myet Wun, 25; and Maung Nyein Chan, 20.

All the detainees are farmers, and they are not involved in unlawful activities, local villagers said. Family members of the five other detainees have not been allowed to visit them.

The head of the Yanbye Township Police Force, Police Major Zaw Win, said he did not know about the case, other than being asked by Taungup Police Station to inform U Soe Myint Tuns relatives of his death.

We were not involved in the arrests. And we were not told about it, and we therefore do not know about the case. We just informed [the relatives] because Taungup Police Station asked me to do so, Police Maj. Zaw Win told The Irrawaddy.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Myanmar military-run Tatmadaw True News Information Team said the military kept each of the six detainees in isolation at Ma-Ei Police Station. It said U Soe Myint Tun was found dead at around 6.30 p.m. on Monday, having untied his restraining rope and used it to hang himself.

The military said that according to security personnel, two suspicious men had arrived in Alel Chaung Village on a motorbike via the Minchaung Bridge at around 8 p.m. on June 23. It was confirmed that the two men are members of the Arakan Army (AA), according to the statement. Based on the accounts of the two, the Myanmar military arrested the six from Alel Chaung Village for interrogation, it added.

During the Tatmadaws conflict with the AA in Rakhine State, 18 civilians have died during interrogation by the Myanmar military in Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U, Minbya and Rathedaung townships.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko

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George Floyd Family Sues 4 Minneapolis Officers Charged in His Death

The family of George Floyd filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the city of Minneapolis and the four police officers charged in his death in May, saying that they violated his rights when he was restrained.

This complaint shows what we have said all along, that Mr. Floyd died because the weight of the entire Minneapolis Police Department was on his neck, Floyd family lawyer Ben Crump said in a statement.

Crump alleged that Minneapolis failed to train police officers properly.

The City of Minneapolis has a history of policies, procedures and deliberate indifference that violates the rights of arrestees, particularly Black men, and highlights the need for officer training and discipline, he said, adding, This is an unprecedented case, and with this lawsuit we seek to set a precedent that makes it financially prohibitive for police to wrongfully kill marginalized peopleespecially Black peoplein the future.

City Attorney Erik Nilsson, in response to the lawsuit, said that criminal charges are pending against the four officers.

Its very important that the criminal case proceed without interference, he said.

Floyd died while in police custody after former officer Derek Chauvin was seen kneeling on his neck for about 8 minutes. Floyd, who was handcuffed in the incident, said he couldnt breathe.

Chauvin was charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and manslaughter. The other officers were identified as Tou Thao, Thomas Lane, and J. Alexander Kueng, who were charged with aiding and abetting both second-degree murder, and manslaughter.

Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneels on the neck of George Floyd, a handcuffed man who was pleading that he could not breathe, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 25, 2020. (Darnella Frazier via AP)

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Minnesota.

Floyds death triggered widespread protests, riots, looting, and arson incidents across the United States, with some activists claiming that police departments need to be defunded or even abolished.

The Minneapolis City Council said it supports the move to replace the department, saying it has a history and culture of brutality. A public hearing was planned on the proposal, which requires a change in the Minneapolis city charter and needs to be voted on in November.

Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, previously said he is opposed to abolishing the police.

A police officer stands amid smoke and debris as buildings continue to burn in the aftermath of a night of protests and violence following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

According to The Associated Press, the family lawsuit seeks compensatory and special damages in an amount to be determined by a jury. The complaint also asks for a receiver to be appointed to ensure that the city properly trains and supervises its police officers in the future.

Last year, Minneapolis agreed to pay $20 million to the family of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, an unarmed white woman who was shot by a black officer after she called 911 to report hearing a possible crime happening behind her home. The settlement came three days after the officer, Mohamed Noor, was convicted of murdering her and is believed to be the largest payout ever stemming from police violence in Minnesota.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
New Delhi, July 16 : The Sikh community leaders in Delhi have appealed to its members on Thursday to not fall into traps being set up by a banned pro-Khalistan terror group supporting secessionist activities.

Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) President Manjinder Singh Sirsa urged the community members to keep themselves away from the US-based Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), a pro-Khalistan group's propaganda.

Sirsa told IANS, "This banned group supporting secessionist activities is making attempts to use Delhi Sikh Gurdwara platforms to spread their propaganda. We strongly condemn it." He also said that SFJ through social media platforms are trying to convey that Sikhs in the national capital are supporting their secessionist activities, which is incorrect and false.

"The propaganda is floating on social media that DSGMC is supporting the Referendum 2020 called by Sikhs for Justice which is highly objectionable," he said.

They have allegedly made posters on social media in the name of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee and it is highly objectionable.

"We don't support any such movement. No Sikh community will ever support their secessionist activities," said Sirsa adding that DSGMC is a religious body which has nothing to do with the Referendum 2020 and strongly opposes any such propaganda and movement to defame it.

Earlier this month, the Central government has banned around 40 websites belonging to the Sikh For Justice in India for supporting secessionist activities.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on the recommendation of the Ministry of Home Affairs issued orders under Section 69 A of the Information and Technology Act, 2000, for blocking 40 websites of SFJ.

MeitY is the nodal authority for monitoring cyberspace in India.

In 2019, the Home Ministry had banned the SFJ for its alleged anti-national activities. The SFJ pushed for Sikh Referendum 2020 as part of its separatist agenda.

It openly espouses the cause of Khalistan and in that process challenges the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India.

The group has launched a campaign on the internet called Referendum 2020 that asks people to vote for carving out a sovereign Khalistan out of India. The campaign, according to the police, has been engineered and backed by Pakistan's ISI that has been working for years to revive terrorism in Punjab.
Nuveen Investments, headquartered in Chicago, IL, was founded in 1898 by John Nuveen. The company seeks to provide financial services to its clients by using the multi-boutique structure. It provides these services through an independent team comprising Nuveen Asset Management, Winslow Capital and Symphony.

The company is the number one farmland assets manager in the world and a leader in alternative investments. In its Multi-Asset Solutions, the company had $1 trillion of assets under management as of Mar 31, 2020. Nuveen offers a wide range of asset classes and products ranging from equity and alternative funds to municipal and taxable fixed-income bond funds.

Below we share with you three top-ranked Nuveen mutual funds. Each has earned a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and is expected to outperform peers in the future. Investors can click here to see the complete list of funds.

Nuveen Municipal Total Return Managed Accounts NMTRX aims to offer high current income that is exempted from regular federal income taxes. The fund invests the majority of assets in tax-free municipal bonds. It may also invest about half of its assets in below- investment-grade municipal bonds. NMTRX has three-year annualized returns of 4.6%.

Martin J. Doyle is the fund manager of NMTRX since 2007.

Nuveen Strategic Income Fund Class A FCDDX aims to maximize total return. The fund invests majority of assets in income-producing securities. Its investments include U.S. government securities, residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities, fixed and floating rate loans, preferred securities and municipal securities, etc. FCDDX has three-year annualized returns of 3.9%.

FCDDX has an expense ratio of 0.85% compared with the category average of 1.01%.

Nuveen Missouri Municipal Bond Fund Class A FMOTX aims to offer a high level of current interest income that is exempted from regular federal, Missouri State and, in some cases, Missouri local income taxes and is on par with capital preservation. The fund invests the majority of its assets in investment grade municipal bonds that are rated BBB/Baa or higher at the time of purchase by at least one independent rating agency or judged similarly by the funds adviser. The fund may also invest a smaller portion of its assets in high yield bonds. FMOTX returned 3.7% over the past three years.

Story continues

As of the end of May 2020, FMOTX held 346 issues, with 1.86% of its assets invested in MISSOURI ST DEV FIN BRD SOLID WASTE DISP REV 5.2%.

To view the Zacks Rank and past performance of all Nuveen mutual funds, investors can click here to see the complete list of funds.

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WATERLOO REGION  Public input is sought on how many people sit on Waterloo Region council, including the possibility of increasing to a 24-member council.

The region is required by the province to conduct a council composition review by the end of this year.

However, its never a bad thing to do, said Kris Fletcher, regional clerk.

The four options on the table:

Keep the current 16-member council

One regional councillor per 25,000-30,000 residents for 24

One regional councillor per 30,000 residents for 20

A system of combined urban and rural representatives for 19 members.

Currently, council is composed of the regional chair, seven municipal mayors (required to be on council) and eight regional councillors, two representing Cambridge, four for Kitchener, and two for Waterloo.

Reducing the size is not an option presented, a staff report explains, because the region already has the smallest council compared to the other regions, and has the same or fewer councillors than similar sized single-tier municipalities such as Hamilton and Ottawa.

The fourth option would keep the mayors, then the directly elected councillors would change from representing a single city to at least one township and one city.

Its trying to look at the region somewhat more holistically rather than in existing boundaries, Fletcher said. Right now, the townships are only represented by their mayors.

The council composition reviews were put on hold in early 2019 while the Ontario government did a review of governance in several regional municipalities, including Waterloo Region and its cities and township. That ended with an announcement made in October that no broad changes would be made, and the local reviews were to continue.

Only a public meeting is required, but the region also has an online survey at www.engagewr.ca/regional-council-composition-review, open until Aug. 15.

The preferred option, guided by public input, will be presented to council on Sept. 15 followed by a public meeting on Sept. 30.

Then on Oct. 14 council will decide to stick with the current number or approve a bylaw adopting a change, followed by consent from area municipal councils. Final approval is scheduled for a Nov. 25 council meeting.

The region is eager to get the review underway to comply with legislation, but also to provide time to area municipalities to provide input and pass resolutions in order to implement any changes ahead of the October 2022 municipal election.

Whatever option council wishes to pursue, it must be endorsed by a triple majority. That means it must get a majority of votes on regional council, supportive resolutions from a majority of the area municipality councils, and the municipalities that have passed resolutions must represent a majority of the electors in the region.
It is one of the UK's most beautiful regions, and home to tourist hotspots such as Windermere, Coniston Water and Kendal, which is famous for its mint cake.

But now South Lakeland has another less welcoming claim to fame  as the furloughing capital of Britain.

Official figures show how the area, described by tourist chiefs as the 'economic powerhouse' of the Lake District, has been devastated by the coronavirus crisis and is now on life support from taxpayers.

Drastic hit: The idyllic Lake District area has effectively shut to tourists and many workers have had to live off taxpayers' 'life support'

A report published by HM Revenue & Customs reveals a staggering 40 per cent of workers in South Lakeland have been furloughed  more than any other local authority in the UK.

Many face a precarious future as the Job Retention Scheme which pays their wages is wound down before being closed at the end of October.

South Lakeland's reliance on state support is not because, as some less charitable commentators might suggest, it has become 'addicted to furlough'.

Rather, it is explained by the fact that its economy is dominated by the tourism and hospitality sectors, which are only just emerging from enforced hibernation.

To underline this, at the opposite end of the spectrum is Boston in Lincolnshire, where the main employers are the NHS and agriculture, where workers have been in more demand than ever before during the crisis.

As such a mere 20 per cent of employees in the area have been furloughed.

Tim Farron, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats who is the MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, said local residents 'want to get back to work' but that this is easier said than done.

He pointed to a recent survey that showed that almost seven in ten local businesses, including pubs, restaurants and bed-and-breakfasts, could not fully reopen because of social distancing rules, and that one in ten cannot reopen at all.

South Lakeland's economy is dominated by the tourism and hospitality sectors, which are only just emerging from enforced hibernation

'It's a terrifying situation,' said Farron. 'It's such a seasonal feast or famine industry that we are now effectively facing three winters in a row, enough to kill off many businesses.

'The virus came just as local businesses were gearing up for spring season, and the support ends just when all money dries up anyway and visitors stop coming.

'Firms have found the furloughing scheme immensely valuable. But as it is wound down many just can't afford to keep people on.'

Farron warned the area is facing mass redundancies unless the Chancellor extends the Job Retention Scheme beyond October  something he has repeatedly ruled out  or provides grants for firms in tourism and hospitality.

Farron's concerns will be shared, to varying degrees, by MPs across the country.

In total 9.4m workers have been placed on furlough, with 1.2m firms applying for support at a cost just shy of 28billion so far.

Although very few businesses have escaped unscathed from the coronavirus crisis, the report from HMRC provides a vivid reminder of how some sectors, regions of the county, and age groups, have been affected far more than others.

It reveals that almost nine in ten (87 per cent) of firms in the accommodation and food services sector  restaurants, pubs, hotels, bed-and-breakfasts  have furloughed at least some staff.

The sector also has the highest proportion of workers furloughed, at almost three-quarters (73 per cent).

In contrast, just 7 per cent of workers in finance and insurance have been furloughed, underlining how white collar workers have been able to do their jobs at home.

Women aged 17 were the most likely to be furloughed, at 61 per cent, due to so many working in sectors such as retail and hospitality.

Meanwhile, middle-aged men, many of whom will be in better paying, white collar jobs, were the least likely to be furloughed, at 28 per cent.

But there is one thing that millions of furloughed workers of all ages will have in common, whether they work in finance or on the shop floor.

And that is anxiety about whether they will be able to keep their jobs and get back to work.

With official figures today expected to show a surge in job losses in May, it is already far too late for many.
White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci urged young Americans to not take the coronavirus lightly, saying doing so could propagate the pandemic.

"You have to have responsibility for yourself but also a societal responsibility that you're getting infected is not just you in a vacuum. You're propagating the pandemic," Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in an interview Thursday evening.

The comment by Fauci came as state health officials say more young people are ignoring social distancing measures and contracting the virus at a higher rate. Fauci said the average age of a new Covid-19 patient has dropped by 15 years since the beginning of the pandemic in the U.S.

Vice President Mike Pence warned last month that roughly half of the new cases in the U.S. were people under the age of 35, particularly in Florida and Texas.

Fauci said young people at bars enjoying themselves is "totally understandable." But he warned that young people who are asymptomatic, who never develop symptoms, can also pass the virus on to others.

"I get that," he said Thursday. "I was there at one point in my life. Or see people in crowds and you say well, they think they're not doing anything that's particularly harmful, but they might be."
Harris County became the latest in Texas to adopt an independent administrator model to run elections when the Democratic majority on Commissioners Court voted Tuesday to create the new department.

Court members voted 3-2 along party lines to create an election administrators office, which will assume the voter registration duties of the tax assessor-collector and the election management role of the county clerk.

Tax Assessor-Collector Ann Harris Bennett and former Harris County Clerk Diane Trautman, who are both Democrats, opposed the move. Bennett in a letter to court members said her office successfully was registering voters, and she expressed doubt an independent administrator would be an improvement.

Checks and balances will be lost with elections and voter registration managed by one office only, Bennett wrote. In counties with election administrators, the lack of accountability between voter registrars and election clerks has caused the type of problem that erodes public trust.

Trautman, who was elected in 2018 but resigned in May because of health issues, said such a move should come only after a robust community engagement process next year.

The court plans to hire an elections administrator as soon as next month, though the office would not begin official operations until Nov. 18. County Clerk Chris Hollins, who supports the adoption of the elections administrator model, will remain in charge of the Nov. 3 general election.

Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis said splitting election duties between two county departments is inefficient. He said the system was rooted in racism, noting that Texas tax assessors were assigned voter registration duties in the early 20th century because they also collected a poll tax  a tool used to prevent African-Americans from casting ballots.

In a lot of ways, what we have is a vestige, a relic, of that old Jim Crow era, Ellis said.

County Judge Lina Hidalgo echoed that point, arguing that if the county was designing an elections system from scratch, we wouldnt design this one.

Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle, a Republican, said he opposed the idea because splitting the election duties between two officials allows each to be a check against the other. An appointed elections administrator, he said, is unaccountable to voters.

Though the county clerk and tax assessor-collector do not share my party affiliation, I believe in the principle that the people stand before the population, Cagle said.

Most of the other largest counties in the state, including Bexar, Dallas, Tarrant and El Paso already have switched to elections administrators. Travis County has not.

Antonio Maldonado, a Harris County Democratic Party precinct chair, one of many public speakers at Tuesdays meeting agreed with Cagle that residents should be able to choose who runs their elections.

I dont think youd want the governor to appoint you to your positions, he said to the court. You earned your position by the votes of the people.

Tomaro Bell, president of the MacGregor Park Super Neighborhood Association, said an elections administrator would work to ensure his or her continued employment instead of being loyal to the public.

Sunnyside resident Cynthia Pharms said the switch unfairly takes power from Bennett. She also criticized the court for discussing the item on the same day as the primary runoff election, depriving election judges of the ability to participate.

I truly believe this is underhanded for you all to move and not have the voters and precinct judges input, Pharms said.

Supporters of an election administration office included Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilbert Hinojosa and J. Gerland Hebert, a former Department of Justice official and voting rights expert.

"Having two elected officials run elections in one county, where one is in charge of voter registration and one is in charge of running elections, is far from ideal, Hebert said in a statement. Elected officials often make decisions based on partisanship, and especially when the two officials represent different political parties.

Ellis noted that in recent years, Harris County has fumbled its election duties, which he blamed on officeholders having too many responsibilities. The Harris County Clerks office regularly has struggled to post election results in a timely fashion, and this years March primary was marred by long lines and misallocated voting machines. Two years ago, The tax assessor-collectors office mistakenly placed more than 1,700 voters in suspension and later failed to properly update a voting districts boundaries.

In its vote Tuesday, the court ordered a study of the budget, facilities, equipment, and personnel needed for the elections administrator office, and to seek input from the public. The court will need to vote to approve that final report, which is due within 30 days, before hiring an administrator.

zach.despart@chron.com
FRANKENMUTH, MI  Frankenmuth, normally host to themed events that draw tens of thousands of visitors year-round, has had to clear much of its calendar because of the threat of coronavirus.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, community leaders and event organizers have canceled the July 3 fireworks, a food truck festival, the 2020 Dog Bowl, Balloons Over Bavarian Inn, World Expo of Beer and more because of the public health risk and restrictions on social gatherings and events in mid-Michigan and across the state.

Without a doubt there is no way to describe this year as normal, said Frankenmuth City Manager Bridget Smith.

After initially postponing the 2020 Frankenmuth Dog Bowl, which normally takes place over Memorial Day weekend, until August, event organizers have decided to cancel the event altogether.

We are so doggone sad to say the 2020 Frankenmuth Dog Bowl and Balloons Over Bavarian Inn will no longer take place from August 14 to 16 and August 20 to 23 due to current restrictions from the state of Michigan on events and gatherings, reads a recent post on the Frankenmuth Dog Bowl Facebook page.

Jessica Haynes, marketing and events director for Frankenmuth River Place Shops, said these events cannot take place because of the states current restrictions on group gatherings.

While this is not the outcome we hoped for, we know that all of our great partners and fans trust us to do the right thing to keep them safe, Haynes said. We are already working on the 2021 festival, which will take place from May 28 to 31 over Memorial Day weekend, and staying optimistic that we can once again host the worlds largest Olympic-style festival for dogs next summer.

Haynes said shes hopeful that the outdoor shopping centers remaining 2020 events can take place as scheduled.

Frankenmuth is still Funtown, and we have a lot to offer our guests, from unique businesses and restaurants to exciting experiences like the Bavarian Belle riverboat rides or the new Bavarian Blacksmith Experience located at River Place Shops, she said. We are looking at 2020 as an opportunity to try new things and reinvent what we have previously done to keep on creating enjoyable experiences for our guests.

The 2020 World Expo of Beer, which had been rescheduled to take place Oct. 2 and 3, has also been canceled.

These are unique times and require careful consideration and decision making to ensure we are not putting our patrons, vendors, brewers, Jaycee chapter, or community at risk, reads a recent post on the World Expo of Beer Facebook page.

James Boyd is chair of the 2020 World Expo of Beer and a member of the Frankenmuth Jaycees.

This was actually our postponed event. Our event typically happens in May so we had actually already rescheduled the date for the fall and this is actually the second time we tried to have this event and we decided it just wasnt safe at this time to run it, Boyd said.

Boyd said the committee has been meeting regularly since May and paying close attention to Gov. Gretchen Whitmers executive orders. After careful consideration, they decided to cancel this years festival.

The more and more we looked at things, we just realized that we wouldnt be able to provide the type of experience we would want to go to at a beer festival, he said.

The group felt some push back when they initially decided to postpone the event, but this time around, people really seemed to understand, Boyd said.

The 2021 World Expo of Beer is scheduled to take place May 21 and 22.

One of the things that we think makes Frankenmuth special is that we like to exceed expectations. Thats true from the city perspective I think in terms of providing services as well as for our business community. That includes doing all we can to keep people safe, City Manager Smith said. Canceling these events are huge disruptions to both our business community, the city and our financial position, and so many of our local civic organizations and the groups and causes they serve.

Smith said the city permits but does not sponsor events. Likewise, city officials do not cancel events but offer opinions and assistance when asked by local event organizers who must make these decisions.

When faced with these decisions, we try to keep in mind exceeding those expectations of safety. It is our kids, family members, friends and neighbors who live and work throughout town. We have a duty to do what we can to minimize risk and exposure to our residents, our businesses and our guests, Smith said.

Our special events literally draw tens of thousands of people and even though we have tried to find a way to do so safely, at this point the event organizers have determined the risk is too great. The city, though we wish to get back to normal too, appreciates the hard decisions organizers are making and we know how disappointing it is.

Gov. Whitmer on Tuesday, July 14, extended Michigans state of emergency through Aug. 11. Also on Tuesday, the United States reported a record-setting 67,417 new cases of coronavirus, CNBC reports. As of Wednesday, July 15, the state of Michigan was reporting more than 71,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 6,085 related deaths.

Read more on MLive:

Michigan already has more coronavirus cases in July than all of June; track the trend in your county

Frankenmuth July 9 food truck fest canceled

Hundreds of Christmas lovers return to Bronners in Frankenmuth on reopening day

Bavarian Inn Lodge reopens in Frankenmuth on July 1
The scientists concluded that the vertical transmission of SARS-CoV-2 virus is very unlikely as there is an absence of the required receptors in the placenta and amniotic sac, especially in the third trimester.

Until the baby is born, the mothers body not only takes care of her own body but also provides a protective shield to the baby in the form of the placenta. The placenta serves as the lungs, gut, kidneys and liver to the unborn baby. The amniotic sac is a water-filled cavity which protects the child against microbes that can try to intrude the sac.

Even if the mother gets infected with a blood-borne disease, the cells of the placenta (trophoblast), syncytiotrophoblasts and cytotrophoblasts prevent the baby from getting the disease. However, there are some viruses such as the Rubella virus, herpesvirus, cytomegalovirus and Zika virus which can cross the placenta and infect the fetus. Recently, scientists from the National Institute of Health (NIH), US, stated that they have found the reason why there are only a few cases of fetal transmission of COVID-19 infection throughout the world.

Studying the placental tissues

In the study published in the journal elife on 14 July 2020, the scientists collected the samples of the placenta from two groups of patients after their delivery. The first group included the women who were diagnosed with placenta accreta at 18 weeks of gestation, which is a condition where the placenta attaches itself too deeply into the uterine wall. The other group included 32 patients who had different conditions at the third trimester. The scientists further processed these placental tissues to test their DNA sequence.

Results of the study

It is an established fact that the SARS-CoV-2 virus has an affinity for ACE-2 receptors which are present in different organs. Some studies have also concluded that another enzyme called the Transmembrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2) is equally responsible for the introduction of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the body.

On testing various placental tissues, scientists from the NIH found that in the first trimester of pregnancy there was a minimal presence of ACE-2 receptors in the placenta. However, in the second and third trimester, there were almost no traces of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 in the placenta and amniotic sac.

The scientists concluded that the vertical transmission of SARS-CoV-2 virus is very unlikely as there is an absence of the required receptors in the placenta and amniotic sac, especially in the third trimester.

However, the scientists stated that the fetus could be born with COVID-19 infection if any pathological infection simultaneously affecting the mothers body breaches the placental barrier, thus letting the SARS-CoV-2 virus enter the amniotic cavity.

They further added that the virus can also infect the fetus with the help of proteins which facilitate the entry of the virus. For instance, previous in vitro studies have shown that a protein called Basigin can provide an alternate entry to SARS-CoV-2 in the absence of ACE-2 and TMPRSS2 receptors.

For more information, read our article on COVID-19 infection in infants.

Health articles in Firstpost are written by myUpchar.com, Indias first and biggest resource for verified medical information. At myUpchar, researchers and journalists work with doctors to bring you information on all things health.
The president of the WA Police Union is being investigated after a union board member complained of bullying.

Harry Arnott said the first he knew of the complaint against him to WorkSafe was when he was contacted by the media.

I have been given no detail and I am unaware of any specifics in relation to these claims, he said.

WAToday understands the complaint stems from a disagreement at the union's city office and that the board member alleges Mr Arnott  a serving police officer of almost 30 years  acted in a threatening manner.

I am concerned with the motive of any claim and the integrity of any investigation considering such allegations have been released to the media seemingly at the same time WorkSafe have been notified, Mr Arnott said.
Superstar Brad Pitt recently won his first Oscar for the 2019 film Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. Headlining countless movies since the 1990s, Pitt has been the main topic of tabloids for decades due to his acting as well as his personal life.

Co-parenting six children with ex-wife Angelina Jolie, Pitt talked about the joys of fatherhood after the birth of their twins Vivienne and Knox in 2008.

Brad Pitt | Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Brangelina splits up

Meeting on the set of the 2005 film Mr & Mrs. Smith while Pitt was still married to Friends star Jennifer Aniston, Jolie and the Troy actor soon went public with their off-screen relationship. Throughout their time together, the pair welcomed three children by birth  Shiloh, Vivienne, and Knox, and three by adoption  Maddox, Zahara, (both whom Jolie had adopted prior meeting Pitt) and Pax.

The couple eventually tied the knot in 2014, but went their separate ways in 2016. While Jolie revealed she initiated the split for the for the health of the family, it was rumored that her reasons were partially due to Pitt dealing with a drinking problem.

I am very saddened by this, but what matters most now is the well-being of our kids, he told People at the time, according to Popsugar. I kindly ask the press to give them the space they deserve during this challenging time.



RELATED: Brad Pitt Says People Still Come Up To Me and Yell This Line From an Earlier Film

I love being a father

Pitt has openly expressed his joy of becoming a dad. The Ad Astra star views fatherhood as his top priority.

I feel like the richest man alive since Ive become a father, he told Psychologies magazine in 2014, according to E! Online. Being a father has changed me on so many levels and made me more generous and alive. I see my children as an essential part of my life I love being a father and all the responsibilities that entails.

The Academy Award winner also acknowledged the overwhelming sense of protection he has over his children.

RELATED: Brad Pitt Made A Director Cry When He Dropped Out of This Film

I worry about them all the time, Pitt said of his six kids. Thats the emotional bond and responsibility that sweeps over you when you have a family to look after. I care about them more than I care about myself, which I think is the real definition of love. You see past yourself and become more generous and giving, and wanting only the best for your family.

Brad Pitt chats with Oprah

In 2008, Pitt appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to promote his film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Still married to Jolie at the time, the actor discussed the recent birth of his twins and how some interesting aspects of fatherhood had toughened him up.

First of all Im hard as nails. Im impervious to poo, snot, urine, vomit you cant get me, Pitt told Winfrey. In the beginning it was like oh God  how do they vomit that much And now, its just like, honey come here  do you see that? You need to chew your food Youve got to chew your food or youll make yourself sick.'

Despite the typical bodily functions that parents are subjected to on a daily basis, Pitt revealed the profound significance his children brought into his life.

RELATED: Brad Pitt Reveals the Greatest Compliment Hes Ever Gotten From A Co-Star

Its the greatest thing Ive ever taken on. I cant imagine life without it, Pitt raved of parenting to the talk show icon. It makes everything else perfunctory in a way but also more fun Even the films, I cant help but do a film thinking my kids will see that some day and that may mean something to them. So, it puts an extra importance and yet takes off the importance at the same time.
Press Release

16 July 2020

About 40% of Chinese individuals intend to spend more time browsing social media, 25% for actively posting and 31% will be reading more online reviews/blogs about product/trends prior to this pandemic. But, one of the main barriers of resurgence of the Chinese travelers is the anti-Asian/anti-Chinese racism. With COVID-19 being declared as a 'Chinese virus', racism fears are bound to happen and hence, social media's role will be crucial in battling this negativity for travel resurrection. Engaging on platforms such as TikTok, Weibo and WeChat will act as driving forces to battle anti-Asian/anti-Chinese racism fears, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

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Johanna Bonhill-Smith, Travel and Tourism Analyst at GlobalData, says: "The year 2019 saw Chinese travelers as the world's largest outbound source market and GlobalData's adjusted forecasts see similar levels of recovery in 2021 - 166 million international departures are forecast for 2021 compared to 165 million in 2019."

GlobalData's latest China consumer recovery survey week 2 (24th - 28th June 2020) found that social media activity has increased for Chinese individuals - many are spending the same time on social as prior to the pandemic but a vast number have increased their time.

Photo: GlobalData Plc

WeChat and Weibo are the largest social media platforms within China. Weibo had around 420 million users in March 2020 according to china internet watch, a digital media company on China digital trends. Pre-pandemic, more Chinese millennials were already turning to Weibo for trip planning. The ease of multi-media sharing, livestreaming and community building offered individuals a clear insight into a destination and the activities and experiences available.

Over the recent years, tourism boards across Australia, New Zealand and Fiji have all launched campaigns and partnerships with Sina Travel (Weibo's travel media brand) which supports travel brands through a series of free and paid promotions.

TikTok, the video sharing social networking site, is another platform that has gained greater traction during this pandemic. All three platforms mentioned undoubtedly have more untapped marketing potential for Destination marketing organisations (DMOs) and as global travel restrictions are easing, social media engagement will be critical to reform trust and help lead to travel recovery across the globe.
Portland, Oregon, Police Clear New Autonomous Zone

Police officers in Portland, Oregon, cleared a so-called autonomous zone early on July 15, about 32 hours after a group of demonstrators took over a small area.

Officers helped city workers temporarily close Lownsdale Square Park and Chapman Square Park at about 5 a.m., the Portland Police Bureau said in a statement. People were given 10 minutes to leave and were arrested if they refused to do so.

The parks will remain closed until needed repairs are made and the parks are ready to reopen for all to enjoy. The Police Bureau will assist other City bureaus to facilitate park closure and repair to lawns, bathrooms, benches, and public art, the bureau said in a statement.

The Multnomah County Sheriffs Office, which helped in the operation, added: These parks have been the center of nightly demonstrations and will reopen when the needed repairs are made.

Details on the arrests werent immediately released.

Occupiers infamously set up a similar camp in Seattle last month after police officers abandoned a police precinct. The occupation was tolerated by city officials for weeks before being broken up after several shootings.

Members of Antifa, a far-left anarcho-communist group, were involved in the Seattle and Portland occupations.

Violent demonstrators have gathered nightly to assault buildings and law enforcement officers in Portland since late May, inflicting tens of millions of dollars in damage.

Late July 14, groups used makeshift barricades to stake out portions of the parks, dubbing the space the Chinook Land Autonomous Territory, or CLAT.

After clearing the space with little fanfare, city workers began putting up fencing early on July 16.

Mannequins are seen through shattered glass at an H&M store in downtown Portland, Ore., after violent demonstrations the night before, on July 13, 2020. (Gillian Flaccus/AP Photo)

Two security officers walk in downtown Portland, Ore., on July 13, 2020. (Gillian Flaccus/AP Photo)

Feds, City Clash

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, a Democrat, has repeatedly condemned law enforcements response to the demonstrations, particularly from federal officers.

Mobs have targeted the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse, a federal building, attempting to set fire to the structure and assaulting some of the officers who have emerged to try to protect it. Critics say the use of force by law enforcement, including CS gas, isnt necessary.

Wheeler said this week that he spoke with acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf. Wheeler said his biggest concern is the violence federal officers brought to our streets in recent days, and the life-threatening tactics his agents use.

We do not need or want their help, he added in a series of social media posts. The best thing they can do is stay inside their building, or leave Portland altogether.

The mayor said his plan is to protect our community. Clean up our city. And re-open.

Mark Morgan, the acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protectiona Homeland Security agencysaid on July 16 that the people involved in the mayhem in Portland are criminals.

These are not protesters. When you talk about whats going on in Portland, for example, these are criminals. These are individuals that are planning, organizingwith premeditationto destroy federal property and harm federal officers and agents, he said during an appearance on Fox & Friends.

Morgan suggested that President Donald Trump will take executive action soon on the matter.

I dont want to get ahead of the presidents announcement, but look, the Department of Justice is going to be involved in this, DHS is involved in this, and were really going to take a stand across the board, he said. And were going to do what needs to be done to protect men and women of this country.
Poland's opposition vowed to file protests over what it called large-scale irregularities in the country's presidential election on Sunday.

President Andrzej Duda and his opposition challenger Rafal Trzaskowski both declared victory in the ballot after an exit poll showed the incumbent winning by a razor-thin margin.
Iranian protesters have taken to the streets in Shiraz and Behbahan as security forces increase their presence on the streets of Tehran and several other cities.

Social media users on Thursday called for nationwide protests at 7:00 pm Friday against the impending death penalty for three young men who were arrested during the protests in November 2019. But people came out into the streets Thursday evening.

Reuters quotes eyewitnesses that police fired tear gas into the crowds in Behbahan to disburse the anti-establishment protesters.

Netblocks.org reported internet restrictions in Khuzestan and reports on Twitter say internet has been cut in Behbahan. Iranian authorities disrupt the internet during protests not to allow people to coordinate gatherings and prevent information from being shared.

Protesters in Behbahan chanting against the government on Thursday, July 16

Social media users on Thursday reported that security forces have arrrested Farzaneh Ansarifard, the sister of Farzad Ansarifard who was killed in Behbahan during the November protests.

Protesters in Behbahan chanting against the government on Thursday July 16

Videos from Behbahan, a city in the oil-rich Khuzestan Province and Shiraz, the capital of Fars Province, show protesters on the streets chanting against the execution of Amir-Hossein Moradi, Mohammad Rajabi and Saeed Tamjidi.

The first city where protests broke out was Behbahan and shortly after people took to the streets in Shiraz.

Behbahan was one of the first cities where security forces clashed with protesters in November 2019. At least ten protesters were killed in that city during the November unrest.

Social media users have also reported heavy police presence in several cities including Tehran and Tabriz.

Some social media users have also reported mobile Internet disruptions in Inrancel and Hamrah Avval in Behbahan.

An unprecedented "storm" of tweets to condemn the death penalty for the three young man erupted on Twitter on Tuesday with the hashtag "Stop Executions In Iran" reaching a record of 8 billion views and five million retweets.
It's May 2013 and a tense meeting is taking place in a cramped, airless room in the Department of Foreign Affairs. Days earlier two US Senators, Republican John McCain and Democrat Carl Levin, had shredded the reputation of Ireland and its corporate tax offering at a charged US Senate hearing in Washington.

Their vitriol is aimed at Apple, one of the world's most valuable companies, but Ireland is depicted throughout the hearing as a facilitator of industrial-scale tax avoidance, a 'tax haven' serving the interests of a constellation of stateless or 'ocean companies', of no fixed tax abode.

Senator Levin in particular sculpts the soundbite of the day, accusing Apple of achieving 'the Holy Grail of tax avoidance' and for the first time two obscure Apple companies, AOI and ASI, are name-checked as being part of this holy grail (these two companies later form part of EU Commissioner Vestager's investigation, as do many of the Apple documents the US Senate obtained).

At the meeting, an apprehensive-looking Irish Ambassador dialled in from Washington while civil servants from all over the Government system and senior officials from the IDA piled into the room. The Government system was gearing up, the US hearing was a public relations disaster, the comments could not be allowed stand, the use of the term 'tax haven' was a provocative red line, all assembled agreed, a diplomatic demarche must get underway, a marketing effort must be funded, something must be done and quickly.

But one Department of Finance civil servant couldn't contain himself anymore at the meeting, brushed aside talk of diplomatic rebuttals and pointed a finger at the others, and warned: "I'm telling you this is going to lead to a State aid investigation, just watch''.

By June 12th a letter had arrived from the Commission requesting Ireland to provide information on tax rulings. In particular, the Commission requested information on any rulings granted in favour of Apple, including AOI and ASI.

The highly negative association of Ireland with tax avoidance of that time was a major millstone, making companies nervous about putting jobs here and even more nervous about referring to their investments publicly. But there was no way to fend off the EU questions, although from the start the view in Government circles about what became the Vestager investigation was one of slight bafflement.

While the debate about how much corporations should pay, or what is a 'fair' system is ubiquitous, there was always slight surprise in Dublin that the Apple case was the one on which the Competition Commissioner decided to make her stand - particularly when the contested tax rulings involved were so old.

Apple had been in Cork from 1980 and for a substantial portion of its history was not a hugely profitable company. In addition, the advance pricing arrangement (APA) the company had agreed with the Irish Revenue from 1991 was left in place for fifteen years without revision. While not best practice, there may have been a view that the Commission might view this benignly as a type of legacy issue. That view would prove naive.

But there were other reasons for the surprise.

The issue of companies being Irish registered non-resident (IRNR) - incorporated in Ireland but not resident for tax purposes here - was also very out in the open. Throughout the 1990s Irish media coverage of such companies was extensive and there were Irish government reforms of the area. Financial details for both AOI and ASI were available in the Irish Companies Office and the idea that you could be incorporated in one country but tax resident elsewhere was a long-established principle, at least in British tax law, which Ireland inherited.

As far as Irish tax law was concerned - but not US tax law - as long as certain Apple subsidiaries were not 'managed and controlled' in Ireland, they were not tax resident here. Critics suggested Ireland should have asked: "well if not tax resident here, where then?" But that was never the Revenue Commissioner's approach and all overseas companies knew that and many others - not only Apple - had extensive non-resident companies incorporated here.

In addition, while Ireland has been accused of playing host at times to so-called 'brass plate' companies, Apple had - and has - real substance on the ground in Holyhill, Cork, with thousands of employees. While the company was known to have intellectual property (IP) elsewhere, this issue concerned the so-called 'double Irish' tax structure.

But instead of targeting those structures directly, the Vestager investigation focused on more esoteric territory - the actual methods Apple used to internally allocate profits to its various subsidiaries.

At all times, the EU investigation sought to make it clear the 12.5pc rate used by Ireland to tax company profits was not in question, but seemingly the EU had grown weary at Ireland's perceived arbitraging of the international tax rules.

Ireland and much of the rest of Europe were in the midst of a culture as well as a legal clash. For Ireland inward investment - usually from the US - has over the decades been about jobs, not tax, whereas for Europe its often been about tax, not jobs.

It's worth remembering, for example, that foreign investment in Ireland initially was all about export profits tax relief. At times, the tax on income generated overseas has been set at zero in Ireland. At other times, it's been at 10pc and since the late 1990s its been at 12.5pc. The combination of adopting the British 'managed and controlled' test and the comparatively low rates on the income taxed here, delivered significant jobs benefits for Ireland and secondary spin-offs. But that narrative has attracted a legion of critics, who see it as a race to the bottom and a 'beggar-thy-neighbour' economic model.

As a result, the Government and IDA have been trying to emphasise the broader attributes of Ireland's proposition - based on the so-called 4Ts - talent, technology, track record.. and then yes - tax, although stateless companies and the 'Double Irish' were abolished several years ago.

But to limited results, and the Margrethe Vestager investigation became the most serious threat yet to Ireland's inward investment model - there will be more. While Levin and McCain had heft in the US Senate, Commissioner Vestager has executive power in Brussels.

With European governments desperate for revenue from corporate and individual taxpayers in future due to the Covid crisis, there is no doubt the long drawn-out skirmish with Commissioner Vestager won't be the final threat to the tax components of Ireland's FDI model.

So, there is much wisdom in Ireland changing the conversation around to the other reasons companies come here and the result in the General Court makes that slightly easier.

Emmet Oliver was director of global communications at IDA Ireland from 2012 to 2016.
The Trump administration on Thursday continued its full-throttle effort to portray China as a threat to United States interests, as Attorney General William Barr lambasted the USs reliance on Chinese goods and services, and accused US media and technology giants of collaborating with China.

During an address at the Gerald R Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Barr took aim at Hollywood companies, including Walt Disney Co, as well as Apple, Alphabets Google and Microsoft Corp over their corporate dealings with China.

He also said the US had become overly dependent on Chinese imports of personal protective equipment (PPE) to fight the coronavirus outbreak, including face masks, medical gowns and other protective equipment designed to curb the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

During his speech, Barr further accused hackers linked to the Chinese government of targeting American universities and businesses to steal research related to vaccine development, levelling the allegation against Beijing hours after Western agencies made similar claims against Russia.

The Peoples Republic of China is now engaged in an economic blitzkrieg  an aggressive, orchestrated, whole-of-government (indeed, whole-of-society) campaign to seize the commanding heights of the global economy and to surpass the United States as the worlds pre-eminent superpower, Barr said on Thursday.

With less than four months before US voters go to the polls to elect their next president, members of the Trump administration have been ramping up their anti-China rhetoric.

In recent months, US-China ties have dipped to their lowest ebb in decades, strained over issues ranging from the global coronavirus pandemic and Chinas massive trade surpluses, to Beijings suppression of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, its military buildup in the South China Sea and its treatment of minority Muslims.

All too willing to collaborate

On Thursday, US media giants were swept up in the Trump administrations anti-China campaign.

Corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Apple have shown themselves all too willing to collaborate with the (Chinese Communist Party), Barr said, adding that Hollywood has routinely caved in to pressure and censored their films to appease the Chinese Communist Party.

I suspect Walt Disney would be disheartened to see how the company he founded deals with the foreign dictatorships of our day.

The companies and the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC did not immediately comment. Apple declined a Reuters news agency request for comment.

Barr accused US media and technology first of being too willing to take steps to ease access to the large and lucrative Chinese market.

The Chinese Communist Party thinks in terms of decades and centuries, while we tend to focus on the next quarterly earnings report, Barr said. Americas big tech companies have also allowed themselves to become pawns of Chinese influence.

Barr suggested Apple iPhones wouldnt be sold [in China] if they were impervious to penetration by Chinese authorities. He suggested American tech companies were imposing a double standard.

Barr noted after China imposed a new national security law on Hong Kong, Facebook, Google, Twitter and LinkedIn, announced they would temporarily suspend compliance with governmental requests for user data.

If they stand together, they will provide a worthy example for other American companies in resisting the Chinese Communist Partys corrupt and dictatorial rule.
Burma Myanmar Authorities Bust Illegal Bordertown Casino

Chinese citizens arrested at the casino. / Tatmadaw True News Information Team

Yangon  A joint task force consisting of Myanmars military and security personnel raided an illegal casino at the Myawaddy border in Karen State on Tuesday, arresting four Chinese gamblers and 14 citizens from Myanmar, the military-run Tatmadaw True News Information Team reported on Wednesday.

The owner of the three-story casino in Myawaddy, identified as Saw Shan Lay, is on the run.

The primary responsibility when tackling such crimes rests with law enforcement organizations. They asked for our help. In some cases, armed groups are involved. We cooperate when asked for help or when there is the involvement of armed groups, military spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun told The Irrawaddy.

In Myawaddy, the casinos are mostly run by the Karen Border Guard Force (BGF), which is backed by the military. The BGF was formed in 2010 from a splinter group of the former Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, which is itself a faction of the revolutionary Karen National Union. Its commander Colonel Saw Chit Thu told The Irrawaddy this week that its casinos are currently closed due to COVID-19.

The detainees, gambling equipment and seized cash have been handed over to the Myawaddy police, who opened a case under the Gambling Law.

There are dozens of casinos and gambling dens in the border town and residents say it is difficult to control them because most of them have ties to armed groups.

Myanmars May 2019 Gambling Law legalizes casinos for foreigners while nationals still face up to five years in prison for gambling.

Existing casinos in Myawaddy are not legal because gambling rules have not yet been enacted and only foreigners are allowed to play, said Lower House lawmaker U Sein Bo of Myawaddy Township.

As everyone knows, most of the casino owners are somehow connected with armed groups. There is a need for cooperation among the Tatmadaw, police, general administration department and all the other departments to address the issue. One organization alone will not be able to handle this. There is a need to curb this problem to promote the rule of law, he said.

He said the authorities had instructed departments to make inspections to ensure casinos, gambling dens and hotels do not operate without permission in the town.

The Tatmadaw will cooperate in tackling illegal activities in the town, said Brig-Gen Zaw Min Tun.

Whether the Tatmadaw will take the lead role will depend on the information available. [Some casinos] have ties [to armed groups]. If law enforcement organizations ask for cooperation or if there is a need for coordination, we will help, said the military spokesman.

The governments Central Committee on Prevention, Control and Treatment on COVID-19 has extended restrictions on gatherings and a curfew between 12 am and 4 am until July 31. The measures also apply to Myawaddy.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko

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On July 16, 1999, Camelot suffered yet another loss.

On that day John F. Kennedy Jr., who most remember best from the photo at the 1963 funeral of his father, President John F. Kennedy, died in a plane crash along with his wife and her sister.

Kennedy, and his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, were on their way to Hyannis Port for the wedding of his cousin, Rory Kennedy. The couple planned to drop Carolyns sister, Lauren, in Marthas Vineyard, before heading to the wedding.

JFK Jr. was piloting the single-engine airplane that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.

The trio had left from Essex County Airport in Caldwell, New Jersey. Kennedy had checked in with the control tower, but the plane was reported missing after it failed to arrive on time.

The investigation revealed that the airplane crashed into the ocean nose first. At 2 a.m. the Kennedy family reported to authorities that the plane had not arrived as expected. The search started at 4 a.m.

On July 19, luggage and debris that had washed ashore were found in Marthas Vineyard and debris was found on the ocean floor. On July 21, the bodies were found, still strapped in their seats.

** FILE ** In a file photo John F. Kennedy, Jr. and his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, arrive at the Minskoff Theatre Monday night, April 6, 1998. Almost eight years after John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy , and Lauren Bessette died in a plane crash, federal officials on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2007, released an audio clip of an airport intern and a Federal Aviation Administration dispatcher discussing the missing plane. (AP Photo/Mitch Jacobson)AP

On July 22 their ashes were scattered at sea from the Navy destroyer USS Briscoe just off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.

At his funeral, according to the Associated Press, Sen. Edward Kennedy, JFK Jr.s uncle said, He was a boy who grew into a man with a zest for life and a love of adventure. He was a pied piper who brought us all along.  He had a legacy, and he learned to treasure it. He was part of a legend, and he learned to live with it. We dared to think  that this John Kennedy would live to comb gray hair (borrowed from poet William Butler Yeats). But like his father, he had every gift but length of years.

Kennedy was 3 years old when his father, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas in 1963.

A famous photo shows the toddler saluting his fathers casket on Nov. 25, 1963, outside St. Matthews Cathedral in Washington, D.C. He was with his mother, Jacqueline Kennedy, and his sister, Caroline.

FILE - In this Nov. 25, 1963 file photo, three-year-old John F. Kennedy Jr., salutes his father's casket in Washington, three days after the president was assassinated in Dallas. Widow Jacqueline Kennedy, center, and daughter Caroline Kennedy are accompanied by the late president's brothers Sen. Edward Kennedy, left, and Attorney General Robert Kennedy. A documentary film on John Kennedy Jr.'s life opens Friday, July 22, 2016, in select theaters. It also airs on Spike TV at 9 p.m. EDT on Aug. 1, and a DVD release is set for Aug. 16. (AP Photo, File)AP

The photo was taken by Stan Stearns, a UPI photographer. The funeral was held on JFK Jr.s third birthday.

According to politico.com, JFK Jr. had been practicing the salute for months because his mother wanted him to be able to salute properly when he visited the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery with his father.

JFK Jr. graduated from Brown University and New York University Law School. JFK Jr. was a lawyer and had worked as the New York City assistant district attorney for four years.

In 1988 he was named sexiest man alive by People magazine.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, left, and her son John F. Kennedy Jr., wait to hear a speech by Senator Edward Kennedy at Brown University in Providence, RI, June 6, 1983. John Kennedy is scheduled to graduate from Brown on Monday. (AP Photo/Peter Southwick)AP

In 1995 he launched the political magazine George. The magazine folded in 2001.

In 1996 he married Carolyn Bessette. They lived in a loft apartment in New York Citys TriBeCa neighborhood.

JFK Jr. was 38 when he died.

The USS Grasp, top right, is seen in position during a search and recovery mission off the coast of Gay Head, in Martha's Vineyard, Mass. Wednesday, July 21, 1999 surrounded by other U.S. Coast Guard search boats. The wreckage of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane was located off the coast of Martha's Vineyard with Kennedy's body still aboard. (AP Photo/Matt York)AP

The National Transportation Safety Board investigation declared that Kennedy was a victim of spatial disorientation while descending over water at night. Kennedy did not have an instrument rating, allowing him to fly when visibility is impaired, such as when the weather conditions obscure landmarks.

The family of President John F. Kennedy vacations in this undated photo. From left: Caroline, first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, John Jr. and President Kennedy. (AP Photo)AP

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Decaying oil tanker risks disaster in Yemen UN to send experts to try to prevent environmental catastrophe

(ANSAmed) - ROME, JULY 16 - An environmental disaster is the making sits off the coast of Yemen. The oil tanker FSO SAFER has been left abandoned off the coast of the Yemen port Hodeida with its 1.1 million barrels of crude oil and risks sinking in the Red Sea. The result would be a humanitarian and environmental catastrophe, according to statements made during a UN Security Council meeting. The UN is prepared to send a team of experts to assess the situation. Mark Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said in a briefing Wednesday that Houthi rebels had finally agreed to a UN mission on the oil tanker. The mission, which may take place in the coming weeks, will in the initial phase include a technical assessment and all initial repairs possible. At the end of May, water seeped into the engine room of the oil tanker, increasing the risk of the tanker sinking. ''Water coming uncontrollably into the engine room could destabilize the SAFER and potentially sink the entire structure. That would almost certainly lead to a severe oil spill,'' Lowcock noted, adding that ''the SAFER is carrying 1.1 million barrels of oil. That's about four times as much oil as was discharged in the Exxon Valdez disaster - a spill the world still talks about thirty years later.'' ''Fortunately, the engine room leak was relatively small, and divers from the SAFER corporation were able to contain it. This dangerous work took five days, with divers spending a cumulative 28 hours under water,'' he said, noting however that the repairs were only temporary. In the case of spillage, the coastal communities would be severely affected in Tazz, Hodeida and Hajjah, mainly in areas under the control of Houthi rebels, who are officially called Ansar Allah ''If a spill were to occur in the next two months, experts project that 1.6 million Yemenis would be directly affected. Essentially every fishing community along Yemen's west coast would see their livelihoods collapse and would suffer substantial economic losses. About 90 per cent of people in these communities already need humanitarian assistance,'' he noted. ''Sea currents and seasonal conditions also mean much of the oil would likely remain near Yemen's coast rather than dispersing widely. As a result, again as Inger mentioned, the port in Hudaydah could be forced to close for a period of weeks or even months,'' the UN official said. The country depends on the port for humanitarian aid and imported goods. The Yemeni government and the Houthi authorities officially requested UN assistance in March 2018 but had laid down conditions. Last week, however, ''we received encouraging news. Ansar Allah officials confirmed to the United Nations in writing that they are ready to authorize the UN mission to the SAFER. They have also communicated their intention to issue entry permits for mission personnel,'' he said, cautioning that in ''August 2019, we received similar assurances and, on that basis, deployed the UN team and equipment to Djibouti at significant expense. The Ansar Allah authorities cancelled that mission the night before departure.'' However, he noted, ''it is not too late, and we remain ready to assist. The UN team can deploy within three weeks of receiving all the necessary permits.''. (ANSAmed). (ANSA).




A Dail Business committee meeting descended into "chaos" after the government was accused of stymying democracy.

Sources say the establishment of "essential" Oireachtas Committees is being prevented by the government, which continues to defer major decisions relating to how the committees are set up.

New Chief Whip Jack Chambers, who replaced Mayo TD Dara Calleary on Wednesday, was described by some of those present as having "an attitude problem" when he arrived at the meeting on Thursday morning before "reading the riot act", telling members that the government wanted to defer for another week.

The deferral means essential committees will not be set up before the Dail goes into summer recess next week, and lasts until September.

For the last number of weeks members have been trying to get cooperation from the government on two issues; appointing chairs and how many members a committee will have.

It is understood Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy has proposed that the committees be made up of eight TDs and four Senators, as opposed to the previous makeup of seven TDs.

Ms Murphy has reportedly said the new makeup would be more inclusive, giving every TD the opportunity to be on a committee and give smaller parties a bigger voice in committee.

The committee had prepared to sign off on allocated chairpersons last Thursday, however sources say "at the eleventh hour" they were told it wasn't going ahead, as the government wasn't ready, but were assured that it would happen this week.

Jack Chambers attended the meeting on Thursday and announced the government wanted to defer for another week, after which "chaos" ensued as a row broke out over the government's behaviour.

"The implications now are that the essential committees agreed on, Public Accounts, Budget Oversight, Finance EU Affairs and the Good Friday committees will now not start until after recess," a source said.

These committees have been deemed a matter of priority because of responsibilities around finance and Brexit.

"Jack Chambers said he hasn't had time to look at it, but the government have had weeks to prepare as to what committees they want, there's a list from 1-17, this is basic stuff," a source said.

"We had asked for a compromise to meet on Tuesday, which Chambers also rejected and said we were meeting on Thursday as planned.

"We've had weeks of delay, this is the final straw, they've been stymying us for weeks."

Whether it's by accident or design, if it's an accident, it's a chaotic government who can't decide on basic things.

"If it's by design, then it's clearly anti-democratic to stifle priority committees."

Members say former Government Whip Dara Calleary was "more willing to compromise".

"We felt he was listening, everyone respected Dara for being honorable in his dealings. The culture of the business committee is reasonable, you give a new minister a bit of time, but Chambers showed no willingness to compromise.

"We are deeply frustrated. There is no excuse, its a three-party coalition, they must be talking about what committees they want.

"It's outrageous, the implications of what happened today is that the government has prevented essential committees being established before recess."

It's understood all opposition representatives dissented in the vote.

Jack Chambers has been approached for comment.
San Francisco, Calif.-based Coalition has named Marcin Weryk head of business development.

Weryk will support growth by driving the companys distribution strategy.

Weryk has more than 15 years of insurance industry experience. He was most recently vice president and head of cyber risk for the Western and Southern U.S. at XL Catlin. He has also held cyber and technology underwriting positions at XL Catlin and CNA.

Coalition is a provider of cyber insurance and security that provides companies with cyber and technology insurance coverage in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as coverage across all 10 provinces in Canada.

Topics California
The Malian opposition alliance that demands President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita step down has called off a high-risk protest, a spokesman said Wednesday. Demonstrations had been set for Friday, but the so-called June 5 Movement decided to transform them into memorial services for victims killed in violence last week, the spokesman said. Three days of clashes with the security forces left 11 dead and 158 injured, according to an official tally -- Mali's bloodiest toll from political unrest in years. The news was announced as envoys from Mali's neighbours led by former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan arrived in Bamako to mediate the escalating political crisis. Representatives from the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are trying to bridge apparently irreconcilable differences between Keita and a protest movement that demands his resignation. The June 5 Movement, an alliance of political, social and civil-society leaders gathered around a powerful imam named Mahmoud Dicko, is tapping into deep-seated anger. Malians are worried and frustrated by an eight-year-old jihadist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives, driven hundreds of thousands from their homes and swept into Niger and Burkina Faso. In the latest violence that plagues the north and centre of the country, seven farmers were killed Tuesday by gunmen, the mayor of Sangha in central Mali told AFP. Many Malians are also incensed at perceived government corruption and the outcome of long-delayed parliamentary elections in March and April that handed victory to Keita's party. Tension was high as the opposition had planned a "ceremony of sacrifice and of prayer" for protest victims on Friday, but spokesman Ahmadou N'Dounga Maiga said in a statement that "commemorations" would instead take place in places of worship. Opposition leader Mountaga Tall told reporters Tuesday: "We are convinced that President IBK has neither the intellectual nor the physical capacity to lead the country," referring to Keita by his initials. - Constitutional experts - Mali's international allies remain anxious, however, given the country's poverty, ethnic mix and strategic location at the heart of the Sahel region. In a message issued by its embassy in Bamako, the United States urged all sides to show restraint and "commit to a rejection of any extra-constitutional changes of government". It called on the security forces "to avoid the excessive use of force", and welcomed the arrival of the ECOWAS delegation. Keita's office said the delegation would include constitutional experts. A potential solution being explored is to appoint new judges to the Constitutional Court, a tribunal that is a major target of protest anger. The court tossed out about 30 results from the elections in a decision that handed seats to members of Keita's party. An ECOWAS mission to Mali last month concluded that the court's decision was "at the root of the tension" and called on the government to review the results or stage new elections as soon as possible. It also called for a "consensus government of national union". Keita has made several gestures toward the June 5 Movement, including the dissolution of the Constitutional Court to enable a U-turn on the contested seats. Protesters attended prayers for unrest victims at the Salam Mosque in Bamako led by the influential imam Mahmoud Dicko Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is facing anger over corruption, Mali's worsening jihadist insurgency and the outcome of parliamentary elections
New loyalty programme launches in July 2020

FRANKFURT, Germany, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Deutsche Hospitality is presenting its new "H Rewards" loyalty programme. The hotel company will be offering a significantly expanded package of benefits to guests of all of its five brands  Steigenberger Hotels & Resorts, MAXX by Steigenberger, Jaz in the City, IntercityHotel and Zleep Hotels. The bonus scheme takes effect immediately. With "H Rewards" both regular guests and new customers will benefit from the first night of their stay.

"H stands for hospitality," said Thomas Willms, CEO, Deutsche Hospitality. "Our aim is to offer our guests the best possible experience at every location for every travel occasion. This loyalty programme represents a new milestone in the European hotel sector. We are rewarding loyalty across all brands within a short period of time and in a more effective way than ever before. This lends even better expression to the high esteem in which we hold our guests. We have been working tirelessly with our shareholder Huazhu over the past few months to develop a programme for our five brands with a view to delivering a completely new experience for customers."

"H Rewards" is a major global loyalty programme that Huazhu is already operating very successfully on the Chinese market. Steigenberger Hotels AG will run "H Rewards" in all markets outside China in future following the development and introduction of the scheme for the Deutsche Hospitality brands.

The new programme provides participants with a wide range of benefits to make any stay at a Deutsche Hospitality hotel even more individual and enjoyable. Exclusive offers and attractive rates will be available to members from the very first stage of the scheme. Progression to higher status levels has also been made particularly easy to achieve. It does not matter whether guests book a stay with Steigenberger Hotels & Resorts, Zleep Hotels or with one of the other hotel brands. They will enjoy additional benefits across all brands as their status grows. These include accommodation and gourmet vouchers, upgrades to the next highest room category, free breakfast and particularly favourable conditions. The attractive rewards offered to members of the scheme will undergo further development on an ongoing basis. The prerequisites for advancement to a higher status level can be fulfilled via hotel stays spread over a number of years. This means that long-standing guests will receive a particular added value. Within each level, members have twelve months to achieve the next higher level.

In the near future, participants from China will also be given the opportunity to use their member benefits in Deutsche Hospitality branded hotels. By the same token, participants from other countries will be able to do the same in China, where Huazhu operates more than 6,000 hotels.

"H Rewards enables us to offer customers a first-class experience via our direct channels," added Christian Saliger, Director CRM & Loyalty, Deutsche Hospitality. "We will be continuing with the further development of our digital touch points during the coming months." "H Rewards" will replace the previous bonus programme "Award World" from July 2020. "We would like to extend our warmest thanks to all Award World members for the loyalty they have shown. They will be given privileged entry to the new scheme. Of course, all points collected can be transferred", Christian Saliger explained.

Further information can be found at www.global.hrewards.com.

Current press information is available in our press portal.

Deutsche Hospitality brings together five separate hotel brands under a single umbrella. Steigenberger Hotels & Resorts has 60 hotels housed in historic traditional buildings and lively city residences and also offers health and beauty oases set at the very heart of nature. MAXX by Steigenberger is a new and charismatic concept which places the focus on the essential in accordance with its motto "MAXXimize your stay". Jaz in the City branded hotels reflect metropolitan lifestyle and draw upon the local music and cultural scene. IntercityHotel offers more than 40 upper mid-range urban hotels, all of which are located within easy walking distance of railway stations or airports. And Zleep Hotels  a well-known and successful hotel brand in Scandinavia which offer service and design at a great rate for the many. The portfolio of Deutsche Hospitality currently includes almost 150 hotels on three continents 30 of which are in the pipeline.

Picture is available at AP Images (http://www.apimages.com)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deutschehospitality

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Dehospitality

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC52Xq3Yw8QS9nLY6BKs4Cvw

www.deutschehospitality.com/en

www.steigenberger.com/en www.maxxhotel.com/en

www.jaz-hotel.com/en  www.intercityhotel.com/en www.zleep.com/en/

Press contact

Deutsche Hospitality

Sven Hirschler  Tel: +49-69-66564-422

E-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE Deutsche Hospitality

Related Links

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China and Arab countries have made concerted efforts in the fight against COVID-19. During this process, the China-Arab traditional friendship and strategic partnership have been further deepened, promoting the building of a community with shared future between China and Arab countries.

During Chinas most difficult time in its battle against the coronavirus, the Arab countries and people provided strong support, according to a statement issued at the 53rd session of the Arab health minister council supporting China's anti-epidemic efforts.

Furthermore, Arab countries have donated more than 10 million masks and other urgently needed medical supplies to China, and people in Arab countries have also recorded videos to give encouragement to China and Wuhan, the former epicenter of COVID-19 in China.

China has also done its best to provide support and assistance as the COVID-19 pandemic hits Arab countries hard. China has unreservedly shared its anti-epidemic experience and medical technology with Arab countries, assisted them in purchasing anti-epidemic materials in China, and supported them in resuming work and production in an orderly manner.

Under the current circumstances, it is more important than ever for China and Arab countries to strengthen cooperation, overcome difficulties and move forward hand in hand.

A mask production line of an Egypt-China joint venture has been in operation for several months in Egypt, greatly satisfying local demand. Omar Abdu, head of the production line in Egypt, said that thanks to the help of Chinese equipment and friends, high-quality masks can now be produced to help fight the epidemic in Egypt.

The Huo-Yan Laboratory (or Fire Eye Lab), a full nucleic acid testing lab constructed by Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), allowed COVID-19 testing to be conducted for approximately 30 percent of the population of Saudi Arabia over eight months.

We need to work together to overcome the epidemic. I would like to thank the Chinese government and BGI for the support, said Turki M. A. Almadi, Saudi Ambassador to China.

The joint efforts of China and Arab countries in the fight against the epidemic have proven once again that no matter how the international situation has changed, China and Arab countries have always been great partners of mutual benefit. The anti-epidemic cooperation between the two sides has led to the further deepening of their strategic partnership.
The MV NORD YILAN ship carrying the first shipment of coal from the U.S. arrives in the northern province of Quang Ninh, July 2020. Photo courtesy of Vinacomin.

Vietnam has received its first coal shipment from the U.S., paving the way for further imports amid rising demand to produce electricity.

Over 21,700 tons arrived this month in the northern province of Quang Ninh from California, state-owned coal mining company Vinacomin said in a statement on Wednesday.

The second batch is scheduled to arrive in September, it added.

Vietnams coal imports in the first six months rose 53.8 percent year-on-year to a record high of 31.57 million tonnes, mostly from Australia, Indonesia and Russia, according to Vietnam Customs.

Although the government has been seeking to reduce reliance on coal for power generation, last year 36.1 percent of the countrys power was produced by coal-fired power plants, according to the Vietnam Energy Association.

The country turned from a net coal exporter to an importer five years ago as the number of its coal-fired power plants rose to meet the surging power demand from one of the worlds fastest growing economies. Its GDP growth last year was 7 percent.

Vietnam has been seeking to import more U.S. goods to balance bilateral trade. Its trade surplus with the U.S. last year rose 19 percent year-on-year to $24.46 billion, according to the customs.
Her highly anticipated memoir comes out at the end of September.

But in the meantime, Mariah Carey gave her fans a cute glimpse of herself with daughter Monroe Cannon, nine, on her Instagram on Wednesday.

In the duo of images, the 50-year-old songbird sported adorable ringlets of hair that hung in front of her eyes, as she smiled ear to ear.

Happy diva: Mariah Carey gave her fans a cute glimpse of herself with daughter Monroe Cannon on her Instagram on Wednesday

The Vision Of Love diva is made up for the photo, with a gorgeous peach lip, done up eyes and silver bangles on her wrist.

Mariah wears a black top with an open gold colored collar.

In the second snap, Carey nuzzles with Monroe, who has her mother's smile.

The little girl wears rose-rimmed spectacles, and holds a white stuffed animal in the image.

In the second snap: Carey nuzzles with Monroe, who has her mother's smile

Mariah captioned the post simply, with one heart emoji.

Monroe is twin sister to Moroccan Scott, the children Mariah shares with her ex-husband, recently disgraced media personality Nick Cannon.

This week, Cannon, 39, was let go from Viacom/CBS, where he had a long-running contract, due to anti-semitic remarks he both supported and made on a recent podcast.

As of Wednesday night, the Wild N' Out creator and host tweeted his regrets for the comments, extending 'deepest and most sincere apologies to my Jewish sisters and brothers'.

Family: Monroe is twin sister to Moroccan Scott, the children Mariah shares with her ex-husband, recently disgraced media personality Nick Cannon; seen in 2017

Hot on the presses: Mariah is looking ahead to the impending publication of her tell-all memoir, The Meaning Of Mariah Carey, to hit bookshelves on September 29th

As for Mariah, she's looking ahead to the impending publication of her tell-all memoir, The Meaning Of Mariah Carey, to hit bookshelves on September 29th.

The Emotions hitmaker announced the publication date of the tome on her Instagram last week, with a caption fittingly accented with butterfly emojis.

And the day before that, the Grammy winner shared the back cover of the upcoming autobiography, which features a heartfelt personal note.

The book is well-timed, as it comes in a year marked by much Mariah-mania  in addition to social media campaigns like #justiceforglitter and #justiceforEMC2 helping her previous albums hit no. 1 on the iTunes chart, this year marks the 30 yeah anniversary of the artist's groundbreaking self-titled debut album.

On social media: The Grammy winner shared the back cover of the upcoming autobiography, which features a heartfelt personal note
Just 15 days after being given new tools to assist in setting Pennsylvanias state universities on a more financially sustainable course, State System of Higher Education leaders are putting them to work.

On Thursday, the systems governing board authorized Chancellor Dan Greenstein to begin exploring a financial review of integrating six of its 14 universities into three pairs as part of a strategy that will lead toward a goal of financial stability for all the universities and the system as a whole.

The parameters of that review would include combining a pair of universities to have one leadership team, one faculty and staff, a single array of academic programs, and a unified enrollment management strategy but not closing down either campus.

The initial focus of putting this law into use entails looking at the financial implications of integrating  translate that to mean combining  Slippery Rock University with Edinboro, Lock Haven University with Mansfield, and California University with Clarion.

But Greenstein said its not beyond the bounds of reason that while conducting this initial analysis of pairing up those universities, other forms of association with other universities may emerge as appropriate and effective.

But he also emphasized this exercise is only an information gathering mission with no commitments, although it undoubtedly is showing the public what may be in the cards for those institutions and should become a topic of conversation. Greenstein said the earliest, any integration plan would be implemented the fall of 2022.

This decision to pursue a financial analysis of integrating these six universities into three pairs drew no opposing views from board members.

Board member David Maser said in his view, theres no other path that would lead us to sustainability. Board member Janet Yeomans said she hopes the board will have the courage to go forward with this.

Board member Sam Smith called it the right direction for the system to go. He said the process will allow for any initially approved integration plan to be tweaked so nothing is set in stone at this point. But he added, if we dont enter this discussion in a sincere and meaningful way, were back to one of the other options which is a slow death.

Prior to the passage of Act 50 that Gov. Tom Wolf signed into law on July 1, aggressive changes to the universities would not have been possible without the General Assemblys approval. The law gave State System leaders the authority that opens up newfound possibilities of mergers, consolidations and shared services and provides a three-year timeframe to do it.

But that law also included a requirement that none of the 14 university campuses close. It further puts restrictions on changes that would affect its two largest universities: West Chester University and Indiana University of Pennsylvania. The rest of the system schools include Bloomsburg, Cheyney, East Stroudsburg, Kutztown, Millersville, and Shippensburg.

In presenting this proposal to the board, Greenstein shared his vision of the five paths forward for the system that would address the financial and enrollment problems it faces. They include dissolving the system, closing some universities, or increasing the states investment in the system starting with $270 million and rising in subsequent years, all of which are outside the systems ability to accomplish.

But within its authority, it could continue down the path the institutions are now on that involves cutting programs and positions, relying on shared services and programs with other universities, and hoping enrollment and student housing projects hold up. Or it could begin to explore the possibilities that Act 50 opens up while staying focused on its mission of providing a high-quality, affordable education to Pennsylvania students.

Many of the systems universities are facing enrollment and financial challenges. The systems overall enrollment has declined by 20% over the past decade. Pennsylvania is nearing the brink of a projected decline in high school graduates in the latter half of this decade.

Nine of the 14 system universities project the need to dip into their reserves to keep their doors open within the next three years; two are already operating with financial assistance from the system and its sister universities.

Going down the path the system is on now, Greenstein told PennLive 13 of the 14 universities would have a balanced budget by 2022 but a whole bunch of them would have really thin operating margins. He said four will have bled their reserves to within $10 million; five others within $20 million.

So there you are at the edge of the demographic cliff which starts in 2025 and youve got four universities with $10 million in the bank, he said.

Greenstein said he would expect the financial analysis of the proposed university integrations to be completed by October to present to the board at its quarterly meeting that month. The board would hopefully then decide what further direction it wants to take. An initial integration plan for implementing the recommended changes could be developed over the next six months for board presentation in April.

Act 50 requires a 60-day public comment period to gather input on the recommended changes so Greenstein said at the earliest, the board could be in a position to make a final decision next July.

If we get to that stage, its not beyond the bounds of reason the fall of 2022, student cohort would start at integrated institutions, Greenstein told PennLive in an earlier interview.

In that conversation, Greenstein said he recommended pairing up those six universities because he sees them as presenting a possibility for growth. Further, five of the targeted universities for integration, Slippery Rock being the exception, are among the systems most financially challenged and where the greatest concern exists for their long-term viability.

We cannot just cut our way out of this situation, which potentially could lead to a universitys demise, the chancellor said in the earlier interview.

We want to make sure we continue to operate across the state of Pennsylvania so continuing to operate those institutions that are absolutely critical to the communities is where the greatest challenges lie, Greenstein said. Eventually we have to figure out how to grow so in each of these pairs we think is a real opportunity for growth.

His rationale for recommending those pairings  beyond the geographic proximity of those universities  goes like this.

California and Clarion have significant online capability, he said. So you can imagine ways that could be expanded by leveraging their collective strength. But both would maintain their campuses and offer a traditional residential educational option.

With Lock Haven and Mansfield, Greenstein said they exist in a region which is really hungry for what I would call non-degree educational programs, non-degree course certificate and theres employer groups and associations who are just ready to go. Those institutions have some track record there so theres an opportunity for them to break into that adjacent work while continuing to provide its traditional programming.

As for Edinboro and Slippery Rock, he said the hope is with the combined strength of those two institutions situated near the Pennsylvania-Ohio border, they could be more attractive in that marketplace.

Omitted from the discussion about potential university integrations is the beleaguered Cheyney University, the smallest of the 14 universities that has been coping with financial and enrollment challenges for years. Its financial instability, among other issues at the nations oldest historically black university, nearly cost it its accreditation last year from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, the regional accrediting agency.

Cheyney is on a path, although admittedly tenuous, that has real potential, Greenstein said. It has entered into public-private partnerships with companies that lease campus buildings and use them to pursue commercial enterprises while offering educational opportunities for students through internships.

Further, he said there is some new opportunities opening up for Cheyney with a network of the nations other historically black colleges and universities that could benefit it. So with those two initiatives along with the nearly $4 million in the state budget allocated to its Keystone Honors program that serves high-achieving students, there exists the possibility for Cheyney to sustain itself with its small enrollment, he said.

In crafting his recommendations for some potential university pairings, Greenstein said the goal has been to maintain and expand the high-quality educational opportunities for students across the state while also honoring each institutions local identity and engaging its stakeholders.

Preserving the identities of each of these centuries-old institutions is among the areas that would be studied although the chancellor said he thinks theres a way for two universities to have a single academic structure but still preserve the identity, the brand, the name, can students still get the T-shirt, whats it say on the degree.

Then again, Greenstein added, At the end of the day, its not beyond the bounds of reason that two universities get together and say, Were so cool. Were about to become something different. and decide to change their name.

You dont want to foreclose an opportunity, he said. This is about growth and exciting people and building for the future. Right now the question is very simple. If we bring institutions together are we better off or worse off financially so lets start there.

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.
Would you like to explore McDowell County and see some really amazing trees? Do you love the outdoors and enjoy a challenge?

McDowell County Extension Director Molly Sandfoss invites everyone to take part in a tree scavenger hunt under way now through the end of August.

This challenge is perfect for youth and families.

North Carolina Cooperative Extension-McDowell County Center with the City of Marion Tree Board has located 15 trees in our area that is unique in some way. Follow the directions on the Scavenger Hunt for Trees to find each one. Everyone who completes the quest will have their name entered in a contest to win a prize. You must find at least 10 trees to enter. You can deliver your entries to the County Administration Building, 60 East Court Street, Marion in person or by mail or Molly_Sandfoss@ncsu.edu.

A downloadable instruction sheet and entry form can be found at the extention website: https://mcdowell.ces.ncsu.edu/

Here is how it works:

 Follow the clues on the sheet provided to find each tree. There will be a numbered sign on each tree. Write down the number and add the tree name to your entry form.
Uyghur Exile Groups Seek International Criminal Court Probe of Chinese Officials For 'Genocide'

2020-07-15 -- Two Uyghur exile groups have filed a dossier of evidence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, accusing top Chinese officialsincluding President Xi Jinpingof "genocide" and "crimes against humanity" related to a crackdown on the Muslim ethnic minority group in northwestern China.

The East Turkistan Government-in-Exile (ETGE) and the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement (ETNAM) rights group presented evidence to the ICC last week and called on the court to investigate Chinese officials under its mandate to prosecute cases of genocide and crimes against humanity. East Turkistan is the preferred traditional name Uyghurs use for their homeland.

The ICC, which also hears cases of war crimes, can exercise jurisdiction over crimes referred to it by a state party or by the United Nations Security Council, or can begin a preliminary examination propio motu ("on one's own initiative") into alleged crimessuch as in the case of the ETGE and ETNAM filing. ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, of The Gambia, must receive approval from judges to open a formal investigation after completing her preliminary examination of the evidence and it could take months before she issues a response.

Salih Hudayar, the prime minister of the Washington-based ETGE and founder of the ETNAM, submitted the groups' filing days after German researcher Adrian Zenz published a report documenting a dramatic increase in recent years in the number of forced sterilizations and abortions targeting Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). The report concludes that such measures may amount to a government-led campaign of genocide under United Nations definitions.

"For too long we have been oppressed by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and we have suffered so much that the genocide of our people can be no longer ignored," Hudayar told RFA's Mandarin Service.

"We are hopeful that the prosecutor will see our claim and she will open an investigation," he said.

In addition to including documentation of forced sterilization practices in the XUAR, the London-based legal team representing ETGE and ETNAM submitted evidence of Beijing's policy of mass internment in the region, where up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities are believed to have been held in a vast network of internment camps since April 2017. Rights groups and U.S. officials say the campaign, which increasingly appears to be shifting to a forced labor scheme, constitutes crimes against humanity.

The dossier of evidence and documents includes a list of more than 30 high-ranking Chinese officials who the groups say should be held accountable for abuses in the XUAR, including Xi, Xi's predecessor Hu Jintao, and other top officials in charge of policies in the region, as well as military commanders.

If the ICC decides to move ahead with an investigation, it would mark the first time the court would serve as a venue for a case seeking to hold China accountable for its rights abuses in the XUAR.

Omer Kanat, executive director of the Washington-based Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP), called the filing a worthwhile effort.

"It's a positive thing to try," he told RFA. "The Chinese leaders should be held accountable for their crimes against humanity."

Court jurisdiction

Zenz, a senior fellow in China Studies at the Washington-based Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, also welcomed the move as a new approach, but acknowledged that the court would have difficulty enforcing any decision against Beijing.

"It's just a different strategy," he said. "China will not recognize any ruling by the ICC, but it raises additional international attention and that would mostly have a symbolic effect."

While China accepts that the creation of the ICC was a positive addition to the legal structure of global governance, it has refused to join the court and does not recognize its jurisdiction. Beijing maintains that its policies in the XUAR are preventative in nature, citing the pretext of terrorism and religious extremism, and believes that its policies in the region are purely internal affairs.

Rodney Dixon, the British lawyer who leads the legal team representing the two Uyghur groups, has said that the filing focuses on illegal actions that China has conducted in Cambodia and in Tajikistanboth of which are member states of the ICC. The Chinese government has allegedly dispatched agents to drive Uyghurs out of the two countries through forced deportations and extra-territorial arrests.

"China is not a signed-up member of the ICC ... [and believes it] cannot be investigated for what is happening [in the XUAR]," Dixon said at a recent press conference. "This is a misbelief."

"The fact is that we are now in a position where there is a very clear legal pathway to allow for the ICC to commence its investigations," he said.

Dixon cited the November decision by the ICC to launch a full investigation into allegations of crimes against humanity and persecution over Myanmar's 2017 military crackdown against the majority-Muslim Rohingya ethnic group.

More than 740,000 Rohingya were forced to flee over the border into sprawling camps in Bangladesh during the violence that U.N. investigators have said amounted to genocide and, while Myanmar is not a member of the ICC, the court decided it has jurisdiction over the case because Bangladesh is a member.

Challenging China's narrative

As evidence of abuses in the XUAR continues to mount, Western governments have increasingly called out China for its policies in the region.

Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump's administration leveled sanctions against several top Chinese officials deemed responsible for rights violations in Xinjiang, including regional party secretary Chen Quanguo, under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.

The move, which marked the first time Washington had sanctioned a member of China's powerful Politburo, followed Trump's enactment last month of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 (UHRPA), which passed nearly unanimously through both houses of Congress at the end of May. The legislation highlights arbitrary incarceration, forced labor, and other abuses in the XUAR and provides for sanctions against the Chinese officials who enforce them.

Beijing describes the three-year-old network of camps as voluntary "vocational centers," but reporting by RFA's Uyghur Service and other media outlets shows that detainees are mostly held against their will in cramped and unsanitary conditions, where they are forced to endure inhumane treatment and political indoctrination.

Earlier this month, China's Foreign Ministry issued a long rebuttal to accusations against China's human rights records, dismissing reports of the detention of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities as a rumor.

Adrian Zenz told RFA that Beijing has repeatedly "twisted the facts" about the situation in the XUAR, which he said further shows the need for the international community to work together to address what is happening in the region.

Dixon said the case is now in the hands of ICC Prosecutor Bensouda.

"We are hopeful that the prosecutor will prioritize this case, given the fact that persons are, as we speak, subject to the alleged crimes and torture," he said.

Reported by Jane Tang for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated by Eu Min. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Copyright  1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content July not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use.

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So, now we know: Twitter can be compromised at the highest levels, if that wasnt clear before.

It was an epic hack--not for the money it raked in on al scam, but for the high-profile Twitter accounts it hacked to do it.

The Twitter accounts of everyone from Apple Inc and Elon Musk to Jeff Bezos, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Bill Gates were hacked Wednesday with a bitcoin scam promising to double your money from the American elite to give back to the community.

In a series of messages coming from the verified twitter accounts of Musk, Apple, Obama, Biden, Gates and others, hackers begged for bitcoin using this scam:

And the list goes on 

The scam netted the hackers $59,000 in bitcoin before the slightly savvier Tweetsters caught on, according to Gizmodo. According to the Guardian, the equivalent of over $100,000 in bitcoin was collected.

No one really knows exactly how much money the scam generated because the modus operandi for cyber criminals in a scam of this nature is to prop up the bitcoin wallet in advance to make it appear credible.

According to TechCrunch, the domain registrar used by the hackers took down their website shortly afterwards.

This unprecedented Twitter hack in the social media giants history lasted for just over two hours, with Twitter responding an hour in with a notification that it was aware of the security incident.

How did they do it? Apparently, by breaching the Twitter admin account giving them admin privileges and the power to bypass Twitter account passwords. x

Twitters response following its statement of awareness was to prevent all verified accounts from tweeting for the first time, beginning at 6PM ET, with a message an hour later that it was continuing to limit the ability to Tweet.

In other words, Twitter was at a loss as to how this happened, and the significance is enormous considering that major American foreign policy decisions are undertaken via Twitter these days, and Trump uses the platform--in a love and hate manner--as his primary mouthpiece.

In an understatement later on Wednesday, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted: "Tough day for us at Twitter. We all feel terrible this happened.

Begging for Bitcoin could just as easily have been a Tweet to drink bleach as a coronavirus cure or something to further incite racial violence, among other things.

Dmitri Alperovitch, the co-founder of cyber-security company CrowdStrike, told Reuters: "This appears to be the worst hack of a major social media platform yet."

So far, experts have largely discounted a state-sponsored attack such as from North Korea, Iran, China or Russia. Instead, according to the New York Times, citing an American intelligence official, the hack was more likely perpetrated by an individual. That said, there appears to be no evidence as of yet as to who may have been behind the attack, and the individual guess is largely related to the fact that no political chaos was attempted and the stock markets were not being targeted. In other words, they think it was a pure smash and grab for bitcoin.

By Michael Kern for Safehaven.com

More Top Reads From Safehaven.com:
BERLIN  The first general election in North Macedonia since the country changed its name and resolved a longstanding dispute with neighboring Greece has ended with no clear winner, leaving the countrys future diplomatic trajectory in the balance.

The center-left Social Democrats emerged as the strongest party, taking 36.3 percent of the vote with nearly 90 percent of ballots counted. That leaves the party several seats short of the 61 it needs to form a majority in the 120-seat Parliament, and facing several days of tense coalition talks with smaller parties.

The Social Democrats closest rival, the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE, won about 34.9 percent, meaning that it could still gain power with the support of smaller parties representing the countrys ethnic Albanian minority.



Its still on the precipice, said Petar Arsovski, a political analyst and polling expert based in North Macedonia.

The muddy result reflects the ambivalence many Macedonians feel toward Zoran Zaev, the Social Democrats leader.
Actor Sonam Kapoor has questioned the Central Board for Secondary Educations recent decision to remove chapters based on secularism, nationalism, citizenship, democracy and other topics. Sonam called the move bizarre in an Instagram post.

This is bizarre. Some of the most important topics are being left out. How are young minds supposed to form political opinions?, she wrote. Sonam also shared a news article on the same with her post.

The CBSEs move is to rationalise its syllabus by dropping certain chapters to reduce course load on students in the view of the Covid-19 pandemic. Chapters on secularism, nationalism, federalism, demonetisation, GST, Indias foreign relations with neighbouring countries and citizenship among others, have been dropped. The HRD Ministry maintained that the curriculum has been rationalised while retaining core elements.

Also read: Happy birthday Katrina Kaif: An outsider who became an insider

Other political leaders have also expressed their disappointment at the move. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee appealed to HRD ministry not to curtail important lessons at any cost.

CBSE secretary Anurag Tripathi said addressed the controversy, saying, The reduction of syllabus from classes 9 to 12 has been interpreted differently. Contrary to some of the impressions being created, it is clarified that the rationalization of syllabus up to 30 per cent has been undertaken for nearly 190 subjects for the academic session 2020-21 as a one-time measure only.

Sonam recently flew to London after spending almost three months in India during the coronavirus lockdown. London Im back, the actor wrote, over a video that showed the Thames from above. So beautiful, she added, on footage of the landing. Sonam followed it up with several more videos of herself, unpacking food.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
A "What's Next" banner with Gustavo Dudamel at Walt Disney Concert Hall. (Mark Swed / Los Angeles Times)

Whats Next looms large in the Los Angeles Philharmonics posters for its 2019-20 season. They are still up at Walt Disney Concert Hall, and they can seem more like a question now that the orchestra on Thursday confirmed the inevitable cancellation of concerts for the rest of the year.

Originally, of course, Whats Next was meant as an answer to the question of what could possibly follow the L.A. Phils unprecedented, epic centennial season, which confirmed its position as the worlds most artistically venturesome and socially committed major orchestra. But the COVID-19 pandemic turned out to be the answer no one planned for, L.A. Phil Chief Executive Chad Smith said in a Zoom interview in which he was joined by Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel. They talked about plans they want to be as game-changing as anything else the orchestra has done in recent years.

To the outside world, the L.A. Phil had started to look like it had lost its visionary moxie. While other orchestras immediately began trying to re-create traditional concerts online, the L.A. Phil did very little publicly. Its main effort was a KUSC-FM (91.5) series that began with Dudamel at home and grew to include others in the L.A. Phil family, such as Esa-Pekka Salonen and Yuja Wang.

But Smith and Dudamel said the L.A. Phil was simply being the L.A. Phil, intensely focused on how to use the pandemic to create artistic possibilities.

Whatever we do right now, Dudamel said, has to have an impact not only in the time we are living but also to help us achieve what we can do in the next years. Thats why we were not rushing to do a thousand things, to do this or that. We went to the heart of what transformations we need to make and what we think can work.

What can work, that is, given that the orchestra is projecting a $90-million loss of revenue this year (vastly more than any other orchestra), largely because of the cancellation of the cash-cow Hollywood Bowl summer season, along with the spring and fall seasons in Disney Hall.

Story continues

In the first couple of weeks, my head was underwater just trying to figure out what the financial position of this organization is, and how do we keep the ship afloat," Smith said. But at all those moments, Gustavo kept saying that we cant forget that even at this difficult time, even as were struggling to right the ship, we have to keep music at the center of everything.

First and foremost was YOLA, the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles, for kids who had no access to music education. Dudamel founded it in 2007, just after being named music director. There is no pandemic, there is no crisis big enough where our commitment to YOLA could waver, Smith insisted.

Instruction is carrying on for about 1,000 students online. Construction on the Frank Gehry-designed Beckmen YOLA Center in Inglewood is expected to be completed in December and could begin welcoming up to 2,000 kids early next year if COVID-19 has been contained.

One of the things that has been really beautiful about this, Dudamel said, is that there are kids who played in my first concerts who are now in college and are teachers at YOLA. Now they own the institution, and you cannot imagine the conversations, conversations for hours with the kids, about social justice.

"What we found in the middle of this crazy moment, this difficult but important moment, is leaders. They are leaders who have been transformed by YOLA, and the result goes beyond everything that we expected. We were thinking this was an opportunity for them to have access to art, but what weve gotten are incredibly eloquent leaders who are challenging us with the kinds of music we play and the vision of the L.A. Philharmonic.

To that end, Smith described conversations with Dudamel about how to continue to engage with audiences. "You, Gustavo, said everything needs to be for the widest possible audience. And in the early days of COVID-19, you were like, Lets do a radio show to get people to gather around the radio to re-create that communal experience.

Then you said, We need to focus on TV, because people are watching TV. And if we cant go to the Hollywood Bowl, lets bring the Hollywood Bowl to people in their living rooms."

Beginning Aug. 21 on KCET, "In Concert at the Hollywood Bowl," produced in collaboration with PBS, will consist of six weekly thematic programs revolving around Latin music, dance, Broadway, jazz or classical works. Each program will compile performances from the Bowl's video archives. Dudamel will host.

Dudamel said that despite all his work in media, this is a new challenge. (I'm not a host, but I will be hosting the TV programs.) Yet for him, it's all part of the pandemic opening doors for reinvention.

He notes that his mentor, Jose Antonio Abreu, was a man of crisis," and crisis was a daily matter in Venezuela, where Abreu founded El Sistema, the revolutionary music training program that was the inspiration for YOLA.

"And I will tell you something funny, Dudamel said. If there was not a crisis, he created one, because a crisis forces you to rise to another level. His philosophy was, Lets not worry, and lets try to solve the problems.

So for us, nothing has to stop. You have to re-create yourself, do things you have not done. But you also have to do the things you can do, and that means our musicians have to get back and play where it is safe.

That's the Hollywood Bowl. The stage is more than twice the size of Disney Halls, making social distancing feasible. Its outdoors, making it far safer than a concert hall. Sophisticated miking already has been set up for recording. The most common word for the setting is "iconic." It is the ideal for streaming live performances without an audience.

"But if were going to do streaming, and we are, we have to do it our way, Smith said. This is going to be our biggest experiment, and were going to be throwing a lot of spaghetti at the wall.

Later this month, the L.A. Phil will begin filming performances for a streaming series intended for the phone, the tablet or the computer screen. Dudamel said he wants to invite directors versed in digital media to produce them. And most of all, he said he wants to send a message.

Like the PBS broadcasts, they will be thematic programs, with new and old music, and one of Dudamels priorities is the streaming continuation of the Power to the People! festival he and Hancock were in the midst of when the orchestra shut down in March. The interruption proved especially frustrating for an orchestra that was already addressing the issues of social justice before they came to galvanize the nation after the killing of George Floyd. Both Dudamel and Smith contend that the festival also had a profound effect on the young YOLA musicians.

Filming with the orchestra should begin before Dudamel leaves in August to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic at Salzburg Festival, an alternate classical music universe where such things can happen. Dudamel expects to travel, but you never know.

For Smith, you never know has become a way of life. We are rigorous planners, he said in describing how the L.A. Phil has realized its grand ambitions in the past. We are really good at laying out the vision and executing against that vision, yet this kind of muscle in this moment is not really what is needed. We have to be flexible. We have to be imagining so many multiple futures, so many multiple possibilities for everything we do."

In particular, the orchestra has to be imagining how to cope with its enormous financial loss. For that, Smith has cobbled together a budget that includes pulling $20.6 million from the $350-million endowment (on top of the annual $17 million draw), considerable belt tightening with furloughs and 35% pay reductions for orchestra and staff, and fundraising to the tune of $35 million. That will get the institution through the next season.

Spring concerts are up in the air. If they can be resumed, they surely will be highly reduced in number, limited in size and socially distanced.

In the meantime, though, the orchestra will return to radio with broadcasts of archived concerts, and it will release a wealth of commercial recordings of live concerts, including Dudamels Ives, Schumann and Dvorak symphony cycles. Beyond that, Smith said, the only thing I am certain of is that whatever we imagine were going to be doing in two months is probably not going to happen. Something else will.

There is, though, one other certainty for Smith. If you lose $90 million of revenue, the economic tail of that is long. But for us its not existential.

When I was doing nothing but financially modeling and trying to figure out every possibility, Gustavo said to me, My dear, were going to get through this, and were going to get through this because were the L.A. Phil.





For the record:

10:26 AM, Jul. 16, 2020: An earlier version of this article said Herbie Hancock will cohost the L.A. Phil series on KCET. He will not. The article also misspelled Beckmen YOLA Center as Beckman.


WASHINGTON, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --

WHAT:

On Friday July 17, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights will hold a virtual briefing to evaluate the impacts of COVID-19 on Native Americans. In 2018, the Commission issued Broken Promises: Continuing Federal Funding Shortfall for Native Americans, which addressed the inadequacy of federal funding for Native American programs despite the United States' trust responsibility to promote tribal self-government, support the general wellbeing of Native American people, tribes and villages, and to protect their land and resources. The Commission will hear testimony from experts on how the pandemic has impacted Native American communities with respect to healthcare, housing, and infrastructure components such as access to water and broadband, and whether the federal government is meeting its obligations to Native American people in this current crisis.

WHO:

Introductory Remarks: 10:00 a.m. - 10:10 a.m. EDT

Catherine E. Lhamon , Chair, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights



, Chair, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Panel: 10:10 a.m. - 11:40 a.m. EDT

Geoffrey Blackwell , Chief Strategy Officer, AMERIND Risk Management Corporation

, Chief Strategy Officer, AMERIND Risk Management Corporation

Chief William Smith , Chairman, National Indian Health Board

, Chairman, National Indian Health Board

Chief Lynn Malerba , Secretary, USET Sovereignty Protection Fund

, Secretary, USET Sovereignty Protection Fund

Jonathan Nez , President, Navajo Nation

, President, Navajo Nation

Fawn Sharp , President, National Congress of American Indians

, President, National Congress of American Indians

Francys Crevier , Executive Director, National Council of Urban Indian Health



, Executive Director, National Council of Urban Indian Health Closing Remarks: 11:40 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. EDT

Catherine E. Lhamon , Chair, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

WHEN:

Friday, July 17, 2020 | 10:00 a.m.  11:45 a.m. EDT

WHERE:



Hearing will be livestreamed on the USCCR YouTube Channel here.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is the only independent, bipartisan agency charged with advising the President and Congress on civil rights and reporting annually on federal civil rights enforcement. Our 51 state Advisory Committees offer a broad perspective on civil rights concerns at state and local levels. For information about the Commission, please visit www.usccr.gov and follow us on Twitter and Facebook .

Contact: Zakee Martin

Email: [email protected]

Tel: 202-376-8359

SOURCE U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

Related Links

http://www.usccr.gov


EBRD 55 million loan to finance remaining sections of Corridor Vc motorway in Croatia

Priority infrastructure project to boost European integration

Investment also to promote job creation, targeting youth unemployment

Croatia is taking a major step towards deepening its European integration with the completion of its part of the Pan-European Corridor Vc motorway, thanks to a loan of up to 55 million provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

The Bank is financing a 17.5-km section between Halasica Bridge and the town of Beli Manastir as well as a 5-km motorway section between the town of Beli Manastir and the Hungarian border.

Climate change resilience improvements have been incorporated into the design of these sections to address the risks of the impacts of flooding and extreme rainfall. In addition, work-based learning opportunities for young people will be offered during the construction phase, addressing high unemployment in the region.

The completion of the Croatian part of the motorway towards the Hungarian border will increase regional connectivity, reduce bottlenecks and complement the EBRDs financing of sections of Corridor Vc in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Zdravko Maric, Croatias Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, said: We very much appreciate the EBRDs support for this significant infrastructure project. The EBRD is one of our most important partners in promoting private sector development and sustainable infrastructure investment, which are key preconditions for long-term economic growth. We look forward to the EBRDs further operations in Croatia. Besides the work towards carrying out its mandate, we remain confident that the EBRD will expand and adapt its products, with the aim of overcoming the present adverse economic circumstances.

Corridor Vc is a major international transport link connecting Hungary and eastern Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Adriatic Sea in the vicinity of the port of Ploce. The majority of the 702-km route crosses Bosnia and Herzegovina, but the road will also serve as the shortest connection between eastern and southern Croatia.

The EBRD financing will be complemented by a 52 million loan provided by the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The borrower is the state-owned national motorways company HAC.

Victoria Zinchuk, EBRD Director, Head of Croatia, said: We are very pleased with this agreement, which signifies another milestone towards the completion of this trans-European corridor. It builds on the successful long-term cooperation between HAC and the EBRD and represents a major step towards making European integration happen. It is especially timely in the coronavirus pandemic and demonstrates the EBRDs determination to continue our support for Croatia.

Boris Huzjan, President of the Board of HAC, said: We would like to thank the EBRD for supporting this important project. We appreciate the long-term cooperation that helped to develop the motorways sector in Croatia. The project is a priority for Croatia and of significant importance for the development of the Slavonija and Baranja regions.

To date, the EBRD has invested more than 3.9 billion in Croatia in 218 projects. The Banks activities cover all areas of the economy but are especially strong in the infrastructure, corporate, financial institutions and energy sectors.
Research from homelessness charity Shelter estimates that nearly 230,000 tenants across England have fallen behind with rent payments since the start of the pandemic and are at risk of losing their homes.

The research was based on a poll of 1,058 private tenants carried out by YouGov on behalf of Shelter in England between June 4-11.

Of the 8.7 million tenants who rent their homes from private, council or housing association landlordsincluding three million households with childrenit is estimated there are 442,000 tenants in rent arrears, twice as high as in the same period last year.

174,000 tenants have already been threatened with eviction by their landlords or letting agents.

Houses for rent in Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England

As the pandemic took hold in Britain, the Conservative government imposed a ban on evictions for three months, ending August 23. Following public complaints that this was not enough to protect renters, the courts were forced to suspend possession hearings for 90 days, meaning no evictions could legally complete until this is lifted.

However, landlords were not prevented from still being able to serve eviction notices, with many fearing that when the ban on evictions ends, there will be a surge in eviction cases and homelessness.

To prevent the deadline from ending, emergency legislation would have had to be passed by July 16. Responding to a series of parliamentary questions, Lord Greenhalgh, a minister at the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local government said from August 24 the courts will begin to process possession proceedings cases again. Greenhalgh ruthlessly declared that this would be an important step towards ending the lock down and will protect landlords important right to regain their property.

Many renters are in a vulnerable position under the present court system because they can be evicted automatically when they accrue eight weeks rent arrears, and also face section 21 no fault evictions that give little option in the courts but to evict.

Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 enabled private landlords to give prospective tenants the right only to short-term tenancies of between six and 12 months. Tenants could be asked to vacate tenancies, and the landlord would not have to give a reason why, as long as the correct notice period was serveda no fault eviction.

Prior to the pandemic, the Conservatives pledged to good landlords in their election manifesto last December that we will strengthen your rights of possession. The Independent noted at the time, It is unclear exactly what is intended, but a previous consultation proposed allowing new fixed contracts, of unknown length, rather than simply assured tenancies with no time limit.

They would be introduced by strengthening section 8 of the existing 1988 Housing Act  if section 21 of the same legislation is scrapped, to end no fault evictions carried out with no reason given.

With the ban on evictions being lifted, the 230,000 already in rent arrears could face automatically being evicted from their homes if they are eight weeks behind with their rent. Shelters CEO, Polly Neate, said, We know people have been doing whatever they can to pay their rent and keep their home safe. Despite this, the minute the eviction ban lifts, the 230,000 already behind with their rent could be up for automatic eviction if theyve built up eight weeks worth of arrears.

The Generation Rent organisation believes that 45,000 people are at serious risk of homelessness this autumn. The winding down of the governments furlough schemeahead of its termination at the end of Octoberwill lead to mass unemployment, pushing millions into financial ruin, unable to pay their rent and losing their homes. Around 11 million workers and the self-employed have had 80 percent of their wages paid by the state under the furlough scheme.

Since the imposition of lockdown in March, Shelter have seen an increase in calls for assistance, with a quarter of all calls from private renters worried about losing their homes.

The possibility that thousands of people, after losing their homes, could present themselves as homeless at local authority homelessness departments is a perfect storm. Many local authorities are already overstretched and have little capacity to meet a sudden surge in homelessness presentations.

The last decade saw a substantial growth in the private rented sector across England. Between 2010-11 and 2017-18, the number of private renting households rose from 3.6 to 4.5 millionaccounting for the second largest tenure in England. In 2017-18, of all households in the private rented sector, 35 percent included dependent children.

Recent research from payment technology firm Flatfair and real estate investor Rowan Asset Management points to a significant number of younger people being heavily exposed to falling into financial distress due to this crisis. One in two renters with residential landlords are aged 16-34, and a high proportion of these workers work in retail or the gig economy. Nearly half of all UK retail workers (2.8 million) are aged 16-34, with a quarter aged 2534. Restaurant workers are more likely to be younger, with six in 10 aged 16-34. The impact of the exposure of these workers to job insecurity and a loss or reduction in income puts them at risk of losing accommodation.

Research from the Resolution Foundation found that many young people are earning less than they were before the COVID-19 crisis, with a third of 18-24-year olds (excluding students) being furloughed or losing their jobs. This compares to one in six of prime-age adults.

Franz Doerr, CEO and founder of Flatfair, said, As more firms start to furlough staff and others cease due to the economic impact of the virus, swathes of young renters up and down the country will see incomes plummet and may not be able to pay their rent. Rising rent arrears are likely to mount over the year as a consequence.

Vast numbers of people struggle to pay their rent already. According to an English Housing Survey covering 2018/19, more than one million (28 percent) of private renters find it difficult to pay rent. Nearly two thirds (61 percent) reported having no savings at all. Among social renters, the proportion without savings is even higher at 82 percent. Private renting households, noted Shelter, spent 33 percent of their household income on rent on average and for people aged between 16 and 24, this increased to 47 percent.

The policies of the Johnson Tory government during the pandemicaimed solely at the bailout of big businessis leading to mass unemployment and enormous financial insecurity for millions. There is no sign that even with workers being told to get back to work this will offset the enormous economic damage that has taken place, with many livelihoods threatened by mass job losses reported on a weekly basis.

While the government attempted to stimulate the housing market, with exemptions on having to pay stamp duty on properties up to the value of 500,000, hundreds of thousands face being made homeless.

The response of the Labour Party to the evictions crisis amounted to nothing more than Shadow Housing Secretary Thangam Debbonaire issuing a five-point plan calling for an extension to the ban on evictions to allow further protections to be introduced and for a two-year period for tenants to pay back any arrears accrued during the pandemic.
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Linkedin News Desk (Reuters)  Thu, July 16, 2020 10:40 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666b8ad2 2 Sports marcus-rashford,Manchester-United,Premier-League,soccer,footballer,soccer-league Free

Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford is set to become the youngest recipient of an honorary doctorate from the University of Manchester for his campaign to help needy children, the Premier League club said on Wednesday.

Rashford earned widespread praise after the England forward successfully campaigned for school food vouchers to be provided over the summer holidays in Britain, revealing that he had relied on such support as a boy.

The 22-year-old will join club greats Alex Ferguson and Bobby Charlton in receiving the honorary doctorate, the highest honor the university bestows.

"It's a proud day for myself and my family. When you look at the great names that have been awarded this doctorate in the past, it's humbling," Rashford told United's website.

"We still have a long way to go in the fight to combat child poverty in this country but receiving recognition from your city means we're heading in the right direction... that means a lot."

Rashford had also helped to raise around 20 million pounds ($25.22 million) with charity Fareshare UK to supply meals to struggling families during the COVID-19 pandemic.

United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer told reporters later that he was proud of Rashford and described him as a "great person and human being".

"He cares about others so much more than himself. I'm very proud of him and hopefully he can keep his personality for the rest of his life and be himself," Solskjaer said.
Maintaining access to ART for HIV, diagnosis and treatment for TB and distribution of insecticide-treated nets to prevent malaria could mitigate the broader health impact of the virus.

Scientists have predicted a surge in HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria deaths in low- and middle-income countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but add that this toll can be reduced by prioritising the most critical services, such as timely diagnosis and treatment for these diseases.

According to the modelling study, published in the journal The Lancet Global Health, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) could see HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria deaths increase by as much as 10, 20, and 36 percents respectively over the next five years due to the disruption of health services caused by the pandemic.

However, the researchers, including those from Imperial College London in the UK, said maintaining core services for HIV, TB, and malaria could largely mitigate the broader health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

They explained that these services specifically include maintaining access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV, timely TB diagnosis and treatment, and early resumption of the distribution of long-lasting insecticide-treated nets (LLINs) for preventing mosquito-borne malaria spread.

The scientists also cautioned that their study aimed to quantify the potential scale of the impact of COVID-19 and to guide how it could be minimised, rather than provide precise estimates.

"The COVID-19 pandemic and actions taken in response to it could undo the some of the advances made against major diseases such as HIV, TB, and malaria over the past two decades, compounding the burden caused by the pandemic directly," said study co-author Timothy Hallett from Imperial College London.

"In countries with a high malaria burden and large HIV and TB epidemics, even short-term disruptions could have devastating consequences for the millions of people who depend on programmes to control and treat these diseases," Hallett said.

However, he added that the knock-on impact of the pandemic could be largely avoided by maintaining core services and continuing preventative measures.

Based on the results, the researchers said well managed, long-term suppression measures could avert the most COVID-19 deaths.

But if these interventions are not well managed, they could cause people to stay away from hospitals and clinics and force public health programmes to be cancelled, leading to a large spike in deaths from other major infectious diseases that had been coming under control, the scientists explained.

In the research, Hallett and his team assumed a basic reproductive number R0 -- which is the average number of people each individual with the coronavirus is likely to infect -- as 3 to develop four different policy response scenarios to the pandemic.

These, according to the scientists, are 'no action', 'mitigation' -- which represents a 45 percent reduction in R0 for 6 months using interventions such as physical distancing-- 'suppression-lift' with a 75 percent reduction in R0 for 2 months, or 'suppression' which is a 75 percent reduction in R0 for 1 year.

Then using models simulating the spread of HIV, TB, and malaria they estimated the additional impact on health that could be caused in different settings, either by COVID-19 interventions limiting routine programme activities or due to pandemic overburdening the health system.

The findings, according to the researchers, suggest that the impact of the pandemic varies according to the extent to which interventions against COVID-19 cause long disruptions to activities. They said it also depends on how successfully those measures reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and avoid the health system being overwhelmed.

In the case of HIV, the scientists said the greatest impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is likely from interruption to the supply and administering of ART, which may occur during times of high health system demand.

In the worst-case scenario, assuming no action or suppression-lift, they said countries with high rates of HIV typical in parts of southern Africa may see up to 10 percent more deaths due to HIV over the next five years than would occur without COVID disruptions.

According to the study, this is equivalent to 612 additional HIV deaths per million population in 2020-2024. The researchers suggested that offering individuals receiving ART multi-month prescriptions or home delivery could ensure they can access treatment even in periods of highest health system demand.

For TB, they said the greatest impact could be from reductions in timely diagnosis and treatment of new cases. Based on the model, the scientists said in southern African countries, TB deaths could rise by as much as 20 percent over the next five years compared with when services are functioning normally.

For malaria, the model predicted that in the worst case the COVID-19 pandemic may disrupt planned LLIN distribution, leading to malaria deaths increasing by 36 percent over the next five years.

According to the scientists, this is equivalent to 474 additional malaria deaths per million population in 2020-2024.

"Routine preventative measures must be prioritised, ensuring mosquito net distribution campaigns and prophylactic treatments, such as mass drug distribution and seasonal malaria chemoprevention, are maintained," said Alexandra Hogan from Imperial College London, a co-author of the study.
Moody's Analytics is a Category Leader in a new report from Chartis Research that evaluates leading vendors of insurance risk systems. The report's RiskTech Quadrants for IFRS 17/LDTI compliance cover accounting systems, data management and reporting, and actuarial modeling, with Moody's Analytics earning Category Leader distinction in all three.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200716005034/en/

The report considers the vendors' "Completeness of Offering" and "Market Potential" and assesses them on a range of specific capabilities, many of which highlight Moody's Analytics as "best-in-class."

"We're pleased to earn this recognition from Chartis, which reflects the depth and the breadth of our IFRS 17 offering," said Christophe Burckbuchler, Managing Director at Moody's Analytics. "Many of our customers are well along their IFRS 17 journey while others are just starting. No matter what stage they are in, they trust Moody's Analytics to help with their implementation challenges."

But it is more than our software that differentiates Moody's Analytics and allows us to build long-term relationships with our customers, such as InLife, who took the time to describe their experience working with us. Our expertise and thought leadership further the industry's understanding of IFRS 17-related topics, and are embedded into our "vendor-maintained" solutions, enabling effective implementation and operation.

"We strive to empower our customers to make better business decisions. Helping firms efficiently implement IFRS 17-as well as CECL, IFRS 9, and also LDTI-aligns well with that core mission," continued Mr. Burckbuchler. "This recognition is further confirmation from the industry that we're heading in the right direction and of the important role we play in the insurance risk and finance space."

This distinction adds to our growing list of awards and industry recognition. Earlier this year we won five InsuranceERM Awards including IFRS 17 Solution of the Year.

Learn more about our IFRS 17 solution.

Moody's Analytics, Moody's, and all other names, logos, and icons identifying Moody's Analytics and/or its products and services are trademarks of Moody's Analytics, Inc. or its affiliates. Third-party trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners.

About Moody's Analytics

Moody's Analytics provides financial intelligence and analytical tools to help business leaders make better, faster decisions. Our deep risk expertise, expansive information resources, and innovative application of technology help our clients confidently navigate an evolving marketplace. We are known for our industry-leading and award-winning solutions, made up of research, data, software, and professional services, assembled to deliver a seamless customer experience. We create confidence in thousands of organizations worldwide, with our commitment to excellence, open mindset approach, and focus on meeting customer needs. For more information about Moody's Analytics, visit our website or connect with us on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Moody's Analytics, Inc. is a subsidiary of Moody's Corporation (NYSE: MCO). Moody's Corporation reported revenue of $4.8 billion in 2019, employs approximately 11,300 people worldwide and maintains a presence in 40 countries.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200716005034/en/

Contacts:

JUSTIN BURSZTEIN

Moody's Analytics Communications

001.212.553.1163

justin.bursztein@moodys.com



Moody's Analytics Media Relations



moodysanalytics.com

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A company in Cabo San Lucas introduces their vacation rentals booking services to assist travelers putting together a vacation or corporate activity in this popular Mexican destination

CABO SAN LUCAS, MEXICO / ACCESSWIRE / July 16, 2020 / Cabo Platinum launches their vacation rentals booking services for individuals and groups planning a stay in Cabo San Lucas. With the company's assistance, tourists can easily find not just high-end properties, but also the perfect activities to fulfill their dream vacation in this part of Mexico.

More information can be found at https://caboplatinum.com.

The newly launched services allow travelers to access private homes and luxury condos for rent right in the heart of popular locations in Los Cabos. Aside from Cabo San Lucas, the company also offers villa rentals in San Jose del Cabo, as well as in East Cape and Todos Santos.

The team at Cabo Platinum can recommend an appropriate property for a variety of occasions, including destination weddings, bachelor and bachelorette parties, and simple family beach vacations. They can also provide a rental that is conducive for corporate retreats and team building activities.

Regardless of their requirements, customers can book with confidence knowing that villa specialists and concierge teams will be with them throughout the process. The company's staff have the knowledge and contacts to make expert recommendations tailored to the customers' specific needs.

Cabo Platinum specializes in providing personalized Cabo San Lucas vacation planning services. One way they are able to maintain high service standards is by personally vetting all properties before they are listed, and also inspecting the rentals prior to the guests' arrival to ensure that everything is in order.

While Cabo San Lucas is currently closed due to the pandemic, Cabo Platinum's services remain valuable for travelers who would like to iron out the details of their Mexican vacation ahead of time. Customers may also rest assured that the company will strictly abide by safety protocols when the city reopens for tourists.

Story continues

Interested parties may view Cabo Platinum's curated list of luxury villas and properties at https://caboplatinum.com/search-results.

Alternatively, travelers can go for all-inclusive or activity-specific packages, which they can find at https://caboplatinum.com/packages.

Contact Info:

Name: Mishan Andre

Email: Send Email

Organization: Cabo Platinum

Address: Carr. Transpeninsular Km 3.5, #706 Patio La Luna,, Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur 23454, Mexico

Phone: +1-530-562-4032

Website: https://caboplatinum.com/

SOURCE: Cabo Platinum





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/597695/Cabo-San-Lucas-Villas-Luxury-Vacation-Rentals-Easy-Booking-Services-Launched




The City of Toronto has found more than $500 million in savings as it struggles to cope with the unprecedented financial crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thats the good news.

Heres the bad: the city still faces a massive $1.35-billion hole in its budget this year. And the provinces and Ottawa  ignoring months of increasingly alarming warnings  still havent come to the table with the emergency funding that Toronto and other municipalities across the country so clearly need.

In April, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities called on Ottawa to provide at least $10 billion in emergency aid to cities struggling with pandemic-related costs and revenue losses.

In May, Toronto Mayor John Tory warned of devastating cuts to everything from transit, police and fire services to child-care, long-term care, community centres and libraries if senior governments dont come through with help.

Last week, an alphabet soup of associations of municipal leaders in Ontario  LUMCO, MARCO, AMO and the GTHA Mayors  jointly issued yet another emergency call for financial support.

And this week, the City of Toronto detailed its projected $1.9-billion COVID-19 deficit and how it plans to reduce that staggering number by $513 million. Tory promised an additional report to city council this month outlining the grim strategies we would have to undertake if help doesnt arrive from Ottawa and Queens Park.

That adds up to a lot of emergency calls that have, so far, gone unanswered by Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. It amounts to calling 911 and being left on perpetual hold.

Its not that senior governments dont believe cities need help. Ford has already acknowledged its going to be a big, big ticket.

The problem is that the premiers and Ottawa cant decide among themselves who should pay for what when it comes to municipalities and a host of other challenges brought to the fore by COVID-19  everything from childcare to long-term care.

Id rather make no deal than a bad deal, Ford said on Tuesday. Im fighting for all 444 municipalities. Thats my job as premier to protect them and I want the feds to step up.

Ford said he hopes there will be a deal by the end of this week. Municipal leaders desperately trying to hold their budgets together without slashing vital services and dramatically hiking property taxes can only hope thats the case.

And residents of those 444 Ontario municipalities can only hope Ford is willing to throw provincial funds into the pot, too, because only then is the aid package likely to be substantial enough to cover all they need.

Municipalities are poorly equipped to weather any kind of financial storm, let alone one as severe as COVID-19.

Theyre not allowed to run annual deficits the way provincial and federal governments can, and they have few reserve funds because theyve long been operating with a broken fiscal framework. Their limited revenue sources dont come anywhere close to matching their increasing responsibilities. Thats particularly true in Toronto, Canadas largest city.

Property tax and user fees just dont stretch far enough to cover transit systems and homeless shelters, especially in a time of crisis when costs rise and revenues shrink.

The bottom line is that we need cities  big and small  to survive the pandemic without slashing services people rely on or resorting to massive property tax and fee increases that residents and businesses struggling to get back on their feet cant afford. And the longer cities wait for help, the deeper theyll have to cut to balance their budgets.

Cities drive Canadas economy, and Toronto drives Ontarios economy.

Its time for Trudeau and Ford to remember that  and deliver financial help on a scale big enough to meet the challenge.

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She has been soaking up the Spanish sun in lockdown with her six-month-old daughter Demelza.

And Amy Willerton looked nothing short of sensational as she posed in a plunging bikini in the Balearic Islands on Wednesday.

The beauty queen, 27, showcased her bronzed ample cleavage in the orange swimwear which she paired with layered gold necklaces.

Beach babe: Amy Willerton, 27, showcased her bronzed cleavage in orange swimwear when she posed on a beach in the Balearic Islands for Instagram on Wednesday

Amy wore her sea-salt blonde tresses loose over her shoulders and went without a scrap of makeup as she sunbathed on the Spanish beach.

The model wore a teal scrunchie on her wrist as she shielded her face from the sun and lay her aviators on the sand.

And the first-time mother penned a cryptic caption to her Instagram post which read: 'The secret is to get inspired not jealous'

Hidden meaning? The first-time mother penned a cryptic caption to her Instagram post which read: 'The secret is to get inspired not jealous'

Doting mother: In a candid snap Amy was also seen napping while cradling Demelza, while placing her arm around fiance Daniel Day

In a candid snap posted to Instagram that same day, Amy was seen napping while cradling Demelza with her arm around fiance Daniel Day.

Speaking on her Instagram stories, Amy, who was born on August 18, also revealed how her Leo star sign has stayed the same amid speculation of changing zodiac dates following shifting stars.

With her locks scraped back into a ponytail paired and wearing a blue bikini, Amy said: 'So my whole day has been thrown off today, because, in case anyone didn't hear about it, there's a new zodiac calendar.

New star sign: Amy revealed how her Leo star sign has stayed the same amid speculation of changing zodiac dates

'Yeah - there's a whole new star sign apparently - I have only just found this out.

Cradling her daughter, she added: 'I don't know if I am the only person who didn't know about this but Dan's changed, Demelza's changed and I am the only one that is still a Leo - just too much of a Leo for anything to have shifted for me!'

It comes after Amy outlined her reasons for her re-lactation in July, adding that Demelza 'preferred the bottle' and she had felt 'selfish' for breastfeeding as her family wanted to help with feeding.

Posting on Instagram, Amy discussed why she felt compelled to return to breastfeeding.

Reasons: Amy opened up on why she felt compelled to switch up her baby's feeding, weeks after she announced plans to stop breastfeeding

She wrote: 'Sooo many of are asking why I would want to #relactate after I mentioned it on my stories the other day....

'The answer is because firstly I genuinely miss #breastfeeding and only stopped because Dem preferred a bottle and my family all wanted to feed her so I felt selfish.'

She continued: 'I will try to document but as always as a #firsttimemum I'm always scared to dish out advice before I've really done it as everything is a first.'

Amy announced she was expecting her first child with Daniel back in October, before welcoming Demelza in January.

The family have been isolating in the Spanish city of Valencia after the coronavirus pandemic made it 'unsafe' to travel back to the UK.
There is no perfect way to reopen schools in the middle of a pandemic, but a just-released plan by Houston ISD shows that bringing students back for the new academic year doesnt mean turning a blind eye to the dangers posed by COVID-19.

The plan for the largest school district in Texas, unveiled by Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan on Wednesday, should serve as a model for other districts and state officials.

Under the HISD timeline, the start of the upcoming school year has been pushed back to Sept. 8 and classes for the districts 200,000-plus students would remain online-only for the first six weeks. After that, families have the option of choosing all-virtual learning or face-to-face instruction starting Oct. 19  and they will be allowed to change their minds at the beginning of every six-week grading cycle.

Morever, Lathan stressed that even these plans are subject to further revision as conditions related to the pandemic evolve. New orders by public health officials or Gov. Greg Abbott could also prompt revisions, she told a group of parent-teacher organization leaders.

We salute Lathan and HISD officials for acknowledging the obvious: The surge in coronavirus cases has made it too risky to open schools for on-campus learning in August. They were wise to announce plans for reopening that disregarded the unwise Texas Education Agency guidelines issued July 7, which stated school districts must provide on-campus classes five days a week within three weeks of the day schools reopen for the 2020-21 academic year or risk losing state funding.

Lathan thanked Abbott for his comments on Tuesday signaling that state officials were considering giving districts more flexibility. Abbott indicated TEA Commissioner Mike Morath would be revising the states guidance, but provided no details.

Its time for Abbott and Morath to follow HISDs lead and give local school officials throughout Texas the power to do what is needed to protect their staff and students.

The TEA guidance thus far flies against common sense and good public health. What is right for a small district in a community where COVID-19 cases are low would not be right for Houston, where coronavirus cases and hospitalizations are reaching record levels.

Instead of mandating a one-size-fits-all approach, state education officials must listen to local leaders and teachers unions who are pleading for more autonomy as they plan for the next school year.

The Texas School Alliance and the Texas Urban Council of Superintendents, both of which include HISD, have urged Abbott to allow districts more flexibility, including the ability to offer online-only learning for at least the first six- or nine-week grading period or longer, if health conditions warrant.

There is much else to cheer in HISDs plans. Lathan acknowledged that up to 35 percent of its students live in households with no internet access. Since all students will begin the school year studying at home, that is an urgent barrier to providing the uninterrupted learning she said remains a top goal for the district. She said HISD is trying to close the digital gap by purchasing 35,000 additional laptops or similar devices as well as providing internet service to 6,000 homes through internet hotspots. Thats encouraging.

As is the districts plan to reconfigure classrooms to ensure physical distancing and capping class size to one teacher for every 10 students once in-person learning begins. There are also requirements for daily screenings, face coverings and use of PPE.

The HISD plan is not ideal. Remote learning has its limitations, as demonstrated by this springs abrupt transition to online classes, when Houston-area districts lost contact with thousands of students.

But the districts measured approach to reopening shows that HISD leaders are being guided by science and public health warnings, not politics or public pressure. We hope Abbott and state education officials are paying attention and will give all Texas districts the freedom to do the same.
No capital exodus from HK over new law: SAR official

Global Times

By Dong Feng Source: Global Times Published: 2020/7/15 23:32:28

A senior official with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government Wednesday debunked fear-mongering narratives pushed by some foreign officials and media outlets that the new national security law for the SAR could lead to a capital exodus from the city and even end its status as an international financial center, arguing that the law will boost the city's financial sector.

"There is no question of an exodus of funds from Hong Kong. On the contrary, the financial market remains buoyant," Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, chief secretary for administration of the HKSAR government, said in a written statement sent to the Global Times Wednesday.

Cheung stressed that the new national security legislation "would not affect overseas investors running businesses legally in Hong Kong, nor the city's international connectivity and extensive economic ties with foreign economies."

Following persistent social unrest in the city that started last summer, which, Cheung said, dented Hong Kong's status as a financial center, China's top legislative body, the National People's Congress, approved and enacted the national security law for Hong Kong on June 30, targeting four specific activities that endanger China's national security: secession, subversion of state power, terrorism and collusion with foreigners.

Since the enactment of the law, some Western countries, led by the US government, have mounted what Chinese officials call a smear campaign against the law in gross interference in China's internal affairs.

Some have even pronounced the "end" of Hong Kong as an international financial and commerce hub. The US has also moved to terminate its special trade treatment for Hong Kong.

In the written statement, Cheung said that the law would protect Hong Kong from "relevant threats," help the city maintain political and social stability, and "create a favorable environment in the long run for investment and conducting business."

Cheung pointed out that the Hong Kong stock market remained buoyant since the adoption of the law, the Hong Kong dollar's exchange rate remained stable, and international businesses remain confident in the city.

The Hang Seng Index has gained 4.32 percent since the market close on June 30 and Wednesday's close. The Hong Kong dollar exchange rate has also remained on the strong side of the convertibility zone of HK$7.75 per US dollar since June 30. In what Cheung described as "a vote of confidence," global index provider MSCI has even launched a suite of MSCI indexes in Asia and emerging markets in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since the enactment of the law.

"[The law] will enable Hong Kong to restore its stability as soon as possible and get Hong Kong firmly back on track," Cheung said.

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Read what is in the news today:

Politics

 Vietnam welcomes other countries positions on the East Vietnam Sea issue that are in accordance with international law, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang when asked to respond to U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeos recent statement on the United States stance on maritime claims in the waterway.

Society

 Vietnamese representative agencies in Japan and Japanese authorities collaborated on repatriating 350 Vietnamese citizens stranded by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in the East Asian country on Wednesday.

 Eight experts from Russia have been confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 in Vietnam, bringing the patient tally to 381. They were quarantined upon arrival from Russia, according to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

 Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and acting Minister of Heath Nguyen Thanh Long on Wednesday evening sent special congratulations to a team of around 100 doctors and nurses who carried out a successful operation to separate a pair of conjoined twins in Ho Chi Minh City the same day.

 Lien Minh Group, the developer of a brand new and rather controversial attraction in the Central Highlands city of Da Lat  the Quy Nui-Suoi Ma (Mountain Demon-Ghost Stream) tourist area  has decided to temporarily close the venue for the removal of its criticized demon statues from Thursday.

 The forest ranger department of Cat Tien National Park said on Wednesday that it was coordinating with police in the southern province of Dong Nai to arrest a group of loggers who had killed a 200-kilogram gaur in the park.

Business

 Vu Hong Thanh, head of the lawmaking National Assemblys Committee for Economic Affairs, on Wednesday urged the southern province of Dong Nai to maintain resources for land retrieval, compensation, and resettlement work to implement the Long Thanh megaairport project.

Lifestyle

 The ASEAN Film Week 2020 will be held in Hanoi, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City from July 18 to 26, screening nine movies.

Sports

 FIFA announced on Wednesday the World Cup 2022 will be held from November 21 to December 18 in Qatar.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Speaker Nancy Pelosi is demanding Congress send out a second round of stimulus checks for American taxpayers as negotiations heat up between Democrats and Republicans for a fifth round of federal coronavirus relief.

Earlier this year, Congress approved the Treasury Department to cut $1,200 checks to every American taxpayer, with extra monetary benefits for parents with children under 18.

Another round of the direct payments is so essential, Ms Pelosi told reporters on Thursday, saying it would help individual families struggling to make ends meet and kick-start the economy as a whole.

This is urgent. They need to buy food. These are necessities, the speaker said. And when people use that money for necessities, they inject demand into the economy and create jobs. So it is a stimulus, but it's more than a stimulus  it is a necessity right now.

Ms Pelosi did not place a dollar figure on how much Democrats are insisting each stimulus check be worth.

House Democrats passed a sweeping $3trn coronavirus package in May that would send another round of $1,200 checks to each American and provide an additional $1,200 for each child in a households tax filing, up from $500 for each child from the first round of checks this spring.

That bill has languished in the Senate, with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky dismissing it out of hand as a liberal wish list.

Both chambers of Congress will return to Capitol Hill next week, where the parties will begin negotiations in earnest on direct payments and other key coronavirus relief provisions such as more federal aid for states and localities, liability reforms to shield small businesses and health systems from lawsuits, and election security for increased mail-in voting operations.

We have conversations on individual things, and Republican senators have approached me about individual [things], so they know there's going to be a bill, Ms Pelosi said.

Early hurdles

Ms Pelosi indicated several sticking points have already emerged in preliminary discussions with her GOP counterparts.

Republicans have so far opposed enacting more robust worker protections for employees returning to their jobs amid the pandemic, extending the rent and mortgage payment moratorium, and increasing food stamp benefits, Ms Pelosi said.

But the speaker expressed optimism the parties could quickly reach common ground on some other essential issues with Congress annual August recess looming.

They've supported state and local government [aid], they've supported testing, theyve supported direct payment, theyve supported unemployment benefits, she said of congressional Republicans and the White House.

Ms Pelosi has said she is willing to cancel the House's August recess if lawmakers need more time to negotiate a better deal, which would be a highly unusual move in an election year.

Lawmakers typically use the month away from Washington as a stretch-run opportunity to touch base with constituents and hit the campaign trail hard before Election Day.

Time to 'unpause'

Republicans hit the pause button more than two months ago on further federal aid to combat the Covid-19 crisis as the White House implemented the $2.7trn Congress green ighted across four sweeping bills this spring.

That soaring dollar amount, roughly 13 per cent of GDP, has prompted some concern among Republicans about mounting federal debt.

But White House economic advisers and GOP congressional leaders have increasingly signalled their willingness in recent weeks to engage Democrats on another relief package as the infection rates began increasing again in June, with several states run by Republican governors particularly affected.

"Im predicting we will have one more rescue package, which well begin to debate and discuss next week," Mr McConnell said earlier this week. "I think you could anticipate this coming to a head sometime within the next three weeks, beginning next week."

Donald Trump's top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, has said it has become "increasingly clear" the government will need to spend big again to bolster the US economy and health care system, which are both on the brink of being overwhelmed in many states as hospitalisations from Covid-19 have either stayed constant or increased in recent weeks.

Neither the White House nor Democratic leaders have signalled the two sides have been in serious discussions so far, though both acknowledge a deal ought to be in the offing.

We will try to make it targeted. We will try to incentivize not just work  although work is crucial and going back to work. We want to incentivize investments. We want a pro-growth package, Mr Kudlow said in an interview with Fox Business earlier this week.
India lifted as many as 270 million people out of multidimensional poverty between 2005-6 and 2015-16  the most in a global study of 75 countries  reflecting progress before the coronavirus pandemic hit, a new report released on Thursday reveals.

Based on an index developed at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), the data released by the United Nations Development Programme and the universitys centre suggests that the progress is at risk and that the pandemic is a reminder that stake-holders need to look beyond income to tackle poverty in all its forms.

OPHI director Sabina Alkire, who led the development of the multidimensional poverty index (MPI) in 2010, said: India remains the country that has the largest reduction in number of poor, with over 270 million persons leaving poverty 2005-6 to 2015-16.

However, the report also soberly finds that on average, poverty levels will be set back three to 10 years due to Covid-19, unless action is taken to prevent or swiftly redress the rise of under-nutrition and children leaving school.

Our hope is that this global MPI report will incite action in solidarity with the poor, so that the immediate crisis is not as deep as feared, and that we build back better into a radiant India with permanently less disadvantage and human poverty, she added.

The MPI looks beyond income to include access to safe water, education, electricity, food and six other indicators. The report shows that 65 out of 75 countries studied significantly reduced their multidimensional poverty levels between 2000 and 2019.

In China, 70 million people left multidimensional poverty between 2010 and 2014, while in Bangladesh, the numbers declined by 19 million between 2014 and 2019.

Alkire said: Covid-19 is having a profound impact on the development landscape. But this data  from before the pandemic  is a message of hopeThe MPI  with its information on both the level and composition of poverty  provides the data needed to pinpoint where and how poverty manifests itself.

The report adds that addressing each challenge requires a different approach, many of which need to go beyond improving income, particularly in the light of UNDPs work encouraging societies to take the opportunity to rethink development pathways and build back better.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Prasun Sonwalkar Prasun Sonwalkar was Editor (UK & Europe), Hindustan Times. During more than three decades, he held senior positions on the Desk, besides reporting from Indias north-east and other states, including a decade covering politics from New Delhi. He has been reporting from UK and Europe since 1999. ...view detail
They call themselves therapy influencers, but theyre not licensed health professionals. They re use their social media feeds ostensiby to raise health awareness. They eagerly tell the story of their personal struggles.

These so-called Instagram therapists speak to the therapy generation online. It's a good business for them.

Recently, Santoshi Shetty, an influencer with zero therapy knowledge, offered 'mental health therapy' for which she charged Rs 1,500 from fans. In her now-deleted video, Santoshi wanted to help people overcome difficult phases of life, which she called Flying Cheese.

Santoshi Shetty

In another case, Mumbai-based actor and social media influencer Rytasha Rathore, who has 61.8K followers, set out for a class from Versova. Having spotted a cute stray pup, she invited her into the auto.

Rytasha Rathore

Then, after she was done uploading pictures and videos with the dog, she left the dog in Khar, 8.9 km from her natural habitat. She received flak from her followers. Later, she had to apologise.

Doing more harm than good

Influencers are very popular in beauty, fashion, travel and lifestyle. But can they counsel us on mental health too?

Online influencers solicit patients and adverte products even if they have no qualifiications whatsoever. There are lots of people who practice without having any qualification. Some of them even work at reputed hospitals, or run their own websites. A special national-level government body is required to license therapists, says Dr Nisha Khanna, a celebrity psychologist.

These are just quacks, says actress Sanjjanaa Galrani.

Stop acting like a therapist

Mental health issues are very serious. Doctors/therapists get trained for years to help patients. Santoshi Shetty was absolutely wrong in doing what she did and people did call her out for it. Giving your followers a safe space to just vent in their DMs and then charging them to do so is just on on. Nothing justifies someone charging money unless he or she is a trained professional. Mental health care has to be left to the experts. Influencers can maybe give a word of advice/comfort to a follower but they definitely cannot claim to cure mental health issues, says Akanksha Komirelly, content creator on Instagram and YouTube.
Girma had no choice but to watch from afar as a crowd chanting "This is our place!" set fire to the school he founded more than a decade ago.

Though he has lived his whole life in Shashamene, a fast-growing town in Ethiopia's Oromia region, Girma's parents are not members of the country's largest ethnic group, the Oromo, meaning he is often treated as an outsider.

Had he tried to intervene and save his school from the Oromo youths bent on destroying it, he thinks he may well have been killed.

"If you leave them to do whatever they want, they don't touch you. But if you try and save your place and property, they'll come to you," he said, asking to be identified only by his first name.

The unrest that left Girma's school a charred ruin was kicked off by the murder two weeks ago of Hachalu Hundessa, a pop star beloved by Oromos for giving voice to deep-rooted feelings of political and economic marginalisation.

In the days that followed, between 179 and 239 people -- officials have provided conflicting tallies -- were killed because of inter-ethnic violence or the use of lethal force by police and soldiers against demonstrators.

Yet those numbers fail to capture the full devastation in places like Shashamene, where hundreds of homes, schools, hotels and other businesses owned by non-Oromos were targeted for destruction by mobs.

Similar property damage has been reported in towns across Oromia, which surrounds the capital Addis Ababa.

"Our research so far suggests that the property damage has been worse than in previous bouts of unrest," said Laetitia Bader of Human Rights Watch.

To non-Oromo victims, the damage indicates they may no longer be welcome in places they have long called home.

"With the strategy that they're using, to burn the key places... I don't know if they intend for people to come back," said Almaz Morgan Chapman, who lost her hotel in Shashamene to the violence.

'Oromo Lives Matter'

Shashamene is best known for its large community of Rastafarians, but the town is also one of the busiest trading hubs in Ethiopia's Rift Valley.

That means there was plenty of high-value property to attack.

On a main road into town, businesses have been looted and burnt black, their front windows shattered, their walkways covered in twisted scrap metal.

Sidewalks are lined with torched vehicles, including five soda delivery trucks surrounded by broken bottles.

On the side of a looted insurance company building, someone scrawled the words "OROMO LIVES MATTER".

Yet certain buildings -- a school here, a restaurant there -- remain unscathed, and residents told AFP most of these are owned by Oromos.

Chapman, a native of Trinidad and Tobago who founded her 28-room Lily of the Valley hotel 15 years ago, said a mob set it alight mere hours after Hachalu's death was reported, forcing her to flee the compound while still in her pyjamas.

She noted that a neighbouring hotel owned by an ethnic Amhara was also looted, but a third hotel on the same strip owned by an Oromo went untouched.

"These attacks on property owned by non-Oromos are sadly only the latest bout of intercommunal violence in Ethiopia where political polarisation is often along ethnic lines," said William Davison of International Crisis Group.

Scare Tactics

It is unclear how many people were killed and injured in Shashamene during the violence.

The government has not provided geographic breakdowns of fatality tallies, nor has it said how many deaths were caused by security forces or inter-ethnic violence.

Some Shashamene victims treated in nearby Hawassa were shot by security forces, while others were hurt with "sticks and stones", which are sometimes used in inter-ethnic attacks, said Dr Zinaw Serniso, CEO of Hawassa Referral Hospital.

Whatever the casualty count, relations between ethnic groups are clearly fraying.

At the height of the violence, young men in Shashamene dragged machetes along cobblestone roads, producing a grating sound intended to intimidate non-Oromos, said one resident, who insisted on anonymity for her safety.

With only native Afaan Oromo speakers feeling comfortable going outside, "it took three days before we started to hear Amharic in the street again," the resident said.

Witnesses stressed that many Oromos stood up for their non-Oromo neighbours, trying to prevent their homes and businesses from being destroyed.

One Oromo resident, who also insisted on anonymity, told AFP he took in an ethnic Gurage family who live next door, adding that he was "embarrassed by what happened" in Shashamene.

"It's very sad as an Ethiopian that I'm alive at this time, thinking about ethnicity when we should be focusing on the worst poverty ever," he said.

"We have nothing and we destroy what we have."

Business Is 'Finished'

Such shows of solidarity aside, several non-Oromo business owners said they were considering leaving.

One owner said two of her staff from the Amhara region recently packed up and fled after six years in Shashamene.

The government should prioritise "credible prosecution and redress" to prevent such violence from happening again, HRW's Bader said.

Chapman, the hotel owner, said she would stay in the area to see if the government would compensate her for her losses, but she has no plans to reopen.

"I still love Ethiopia... But as far as doing business, I'm finished. Retired," she said.

"The Oromo retired me."

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UPDATE: Teenager shot as group allegedly played with gun dies

A teenager who was shot while he and several others were playing with a gun Thursday afternoon in West Bexar County died after he was taken to a hospital, deputies said.

Moses Reyes, 16, was pronounced dead at about 2 p.m. at University Hospital, the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office said. The Bexar County sheriff's office said Reyes succumbed to his gunshot wound.

Homicide detectives are investigating the incident. There have been no arrests as of Thursday evening, authorities said.

----

A group of of teenagers playing with a gun ended with a 16-year-old hospitalized in critical condition after he was shot in the torso, according to Bexar County Sheriff's Office said.

When deputies arrived to the residence in the 11000 block of Landis Pond on Thursday, individuals at the scene said the 16-year-old shot himself, Sheriff Javier Salazar said. After some investigation, however, deputies believe he may have been shot by one of the other juveniles and say they know who the shooter was.

The teenager was rushed to the hospital and underwent emergency surgery, but Salazar said there is a "very real possibility that he may not survive" some very serious injuries. Investigators are treating the scene as if it were homicide, the sheriff said.

FIND OUT FIRST: Get San Antonio breaking news directly to your inbox

Deputies are waiting for the juveniles' parents to arrive to begin questioning.

It is unclear who the gun belongs to and how the teenagers got possession of it, but Salazar said there were adults in the home at the time.

"We are praying for this young man to make it, despite this pretty bad injury," Salazar said.

Salazar warned that investigators would be in the area for the rest of the day.

Taylor Pettaway is a breaking news and general assignment reporter for MySA.com | taylor.pettaway@express-news.net | @TaylorPettaway
Looming debt defaults by poor nations could roil the global economy and derail recovery efforts, Oxfam warns.

The worlds poorest countries are on the brink of an unprecedented debt crisis with the likelihood of multibillion-dollar defaults that will cripple the global economy, Oxfam International warned on Wednesday, as it implored Group of 20 (G20) finance ministers to do more to avert an impending catastrophe for hundreds of millions of people.

Oxfam said action from the G20  the worlds wealthiest nations, whose finance ministers are set to meet this weekend  to stem the coronavirus economic calamity falls far short from what is needed.

The worlds poorest countries are paying up to $2.8bn in monthly debt payments while the lives and livelihoods of millions of people are at risk, Jaime Atienza, Oxfam Internationals debt policy lead, told Al Jazeera.

In April, the World Bank and the G20 agreed to endorse the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) to stave off the pandemics impact on the worlds most vulnerable.

Under the initiative, 73 low-income countries became eligible to suspend principal or interest payments on their debts to G20 countries from May 1 through the end of 2020.

So far 41 have applied, potentially saving them up to $9bn in 2020.

But research from Oxfam, Christian Aid and Global Justice Now  titled Passing the Buck on Debt Relief  shows that all 73 countries must still pay up to $2.8bn per month in debt repayments this year.

That amount is double the combined total that Uganda, Malawi and Zambia spend on their annual health budgets.

Money saved on bilateral debt should not have to go straight to other creditors like rich private banks and bondholders, said Chema Vera, Oxfam Internationals interim executive director.

The 73 countries owe at least $11.6bn to private creditors, $13.8bn to multilateral institutions, and $3.77bn to the World Bank.

Taxi vans in Kampala, Uganda, which enforced pandemic restrictions for two months [File: Esther Ruth Mbabazi/Bloomberg]

Oxfam is urging G20 finance ministers to make the DSSI legally binding to cancel all debt payments, including private and multilateral ones through the end of 2022, and also make it include middle-income countries.

Private creditors should not be plundering the poorest countries in a pandemic, Vera said. The United States and United Kingdom, most of all, should urgently pass new laws to stop their private lenders and predatory vulture funds from gouging developing countries and suing them for defaulting on their debts.

The world's poorest countries are paying up to $2.8bn in monthly debt payments while the lives and livelihoods of millions of people are at risk. Jaime Atienza, Oxfam International's debt policy lead

Safeguarding countries from credit rating agencies that threaten to downgrade their status is critical as well, Oxfam says. Countries like Ghana and Kenya, which could save $354m and $802m respectively in bilateral debt repayments, are fearful of joining the initiative for this reason.

Middle-income countries

Some middle-income countries have been excluded from current debt-relief efforts.

Oxfam warns this category of countries faces a dire future with huge fiscal spending, plummeting revenues and no ability to borrow to fill this growing gap.

Argentina, Ecuador and Lebanon have already defaulted on debt payments this year.

Crowds wait to buy bread in Beirut, Lebanon, where officials pledged to stabilise soaring prices [File: Hasan Shaaban/Bloomberg]

Argentina failed to pay some $500m in interest on already delayed bond coupons in May. Ecuador in April reached a deal with bondholders to delay $800m in interest payments through August to free up funds to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

A person wearing a protective mask makes a cross of plants for a Palm Sunday celebration in Quito, Ecuador, which had one of the earliest and worst coronavirus outbreaks in Latin America [File: Johis Alarcon/Bloomberg]

Lebanon, whose public debt is more than 170 percent of its gross domestic product, is grappling with persistent power cuts and soaring food prices.

Oxfam is also urging G20 finance ministers to approve an allocation in International Monetary Fund (IMF) Special Drawing Rights (SDR)  an international reserve asset created by the IMF. More SDRs will give countries in need additional financial resources to deal with the destruction wrought by the pandemic.

Knowing what we do about the global economic crisis  that people are now not just dying from this virus, but from hunger  G20 leaders arguably have a moral obligation to approve a general SDR allocation, Nadia Daar, Oxfam Internationals head of the Washington, DC Office, told Al Jazeera.
A Justice Department official with multiple Alabama ties was appointed Thursday as interim U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, taking over for Jay Town.

Prim Escalona, the principal deputy assistant attorney general in the DOJs Office of Legal Affairs, was appointed by U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr as interim U.S. attorney for the district, which covers Huntsville and Birmingham.

Escalona has had several posts with Alabama elected officials and courts. The University of Alabama Law School graduate, who worked at Birmingham-based law firm Maynard, Cooper & Gale before her DOJ position, worked as a legislative assistant for then-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions. Escalona also served as a clerk for 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge William Pryor and was a deputy solicitor general for Alabama.

I am pleased to appoint Prim F. Escalona as Interim U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama. Prim is a dedicated public servant with extensive legal experience. Prims commitment to preserving the rule of law and dedication to the mission of the Department of Justice will make her an outstanding U.S. Attorney for her home state of Alabama, Barr said in a statement.

Prim is an exceptional lawyer, an excellent manager, and a person of great integrity and the highest ethical standards. Prim has been front and center in our efforts to advance the Departments legislative agenda with Congress, working on issues ranging from child exploitation to violent crime reduction, said Stephen E. Boyd, Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justices Office of Legislative Affairs, and a native of Birmingham, Alabama. Prim played an integral role in the roll out of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the Departments successful anti-crime initiative. PSN is based on building strong working relationships between the Department and the local law enforcement community, and I know Prim will enthusiastically bring that perspective to her work in the Northern District. Prim shares the values of the people of Alabama, and police forces across the state can rest assured that they have a strong ally in their U.S. attorney.

Town stepped down to take a position with a defense contractor.
The Beautillion Militaire Scholarship Program is a 26-session rites of passage program for African American young men in grades 11-12 in Central Indiana public and private schools. The program was started by Jack and Jill of America, Indianapolis Chapter in 1984. Its mission is to further develop the beaus to be critical thinkers, culturally grounded, globally conscientious and purpose driven in productive relationships. The beaus attend cultural activities, build peer relationships and are exposed to multiple career development activities through career mentors from the 100 Black Men and others who share their professional journey. The beaus also build their knowledge and skills about health, religion, dating and relationships, and other topics that prepare them for adulthood. They learn a precision military drill that promotes teamwork and discipline. These experiences culminate with the beaus completing their Man Plan, a guide of how they will create and achieve their personal and professional goals.

The 2020 beaus were awarded more than $300,000 in scholarships.

Y. Jayden McMullen was named Mr. Beautillion Militaire. He is the son of Yves McMullen and Gina Monteiro and a graduating senior from Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School. McMullen will receive a $36,200 scholarship and will major in business administration at Indiana University.

Edreece Redmond II is first runner up.

Bradley Harrington is second runner up.
Ex-journalist Safronov charged with treason to stay detained until fall

 AGN Moskva, Sophia Sandurskaya

16:02 16/07/2020

MOSCOW, July 16 (RAPSI)  Ex-journalist Ivan Safronov charged with treason would stay detained until September as his appeal against detention was dismissed on Thursday, RAPSI reported from the Moscow City Court.

The hearing was held behind closed doors because of secrecy.

Earlier on Thursday, lawyer Ivan Pavlov told RAPSI that information on alleged cooperation between Safronov and Czech intelligence agencies had been fixed by the Russian Foreign Intelligence.

On July 13, he was charged with treason. The defendant pleaded not guilty, according to the lawyer.

Safronov was arrested on July 8. The same day Moscows Lefortovsky District Court detained him until September 6. He is suspected of treason. According to the Roscosmos press service, Safronovs arrest is not connected with his work in the company.

Investigators claim Safronov has transmitted secret military information to the Czech intelligence services which, as it known, are linked to the U.S. security agencies.

The former reporter of Kommersant and Vedomosti newspapers was appointed as advisor of Dmitry Rogozin in May 2020 after a scandal related to the publication of an explosive article about possible resignation of the Federation Council head Valentina Matviyenko.




The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, IFC, a member of the World Bank Group; and the European Union (EU) have today agreed to support the development of the first utility-scale solar power plant in Armenia, which is also the first for the Caucasus.

The 55 MW power plant facility, located in Mets Masrik municipality, Gegharkunik Province, will boost Armenias supply of renewable energy and will help the country reduce its reliance on imported fuels.

The plant is being developed by Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV), part of Abdul Latif Jameel Energy, a global leader in utility-scale renewable energy projects. The company will receive a

US$ 35.4 million debt financing package consisting of two US$ 17.7 million long-term loans, one each from IFC and the EBRD. The project will also receive a 3 million investment grant from the European Union, mobilised by the EBRD. The IFC financing package includes a US$ 8.9 million loan from IFCs own account and a US$ 8.9 million loan from the Finland-IFC Blended Finance for Climate Program.

The Masrik solar plant is expected to generate more than 128 gigawatt-hours of electricity annually at a competitive tariff of 4.19 cents per kilowatt-hour. The electricity will be sold under a power purchase agreement to Electricity Networks of Armenia, a utility responsible for distribution of electricity. The project will displace the release of 40,000 tonnes of carbon emissions annually. Right now, nearly 70 per cent of Armenias electricity generation depends on imported fossil fuels. As the countrys demand for electricity grows, renewables are expected to provide a sustainable and low-cost alternative source of energy and the Masrik plant is designed to set an example for the rest of the Caucasus.

Aida Sitdikova, EBRD Director, Energy Eurasia, Sustainable Infrastructure Group, said: The EBRD is delighted to support this landmark project, which builds on our active policy engagement and investments in the Armenian power sector since 1993. Following the EBRDs financing of electricity networks, private generation and privatisations, we are pleased to provide financing for this first utility-scale solar project, as we are working with authorities on developing further renewable auctions in wind and solar. We are deeply grateful to our partner, the European Union, for co-financing this remarkable project with us.

Armenia has great potential when it comes to the development of renewable energy, in particular solar energy, and the country is a strategic priority for FRV, said Mikel de Irala, Managing Director, Middle East and Africa, FRV. The financial close of our first solar project in the Caucasus region is a milestone for FRV and it allows us to expand our reach and continue leading the utility-scale solar power industry worldwide. In connection with this project, we are extremely proud to contribute to the countrys sustainable economic growth, local generation of wealth and local employment, thus helping to build a more sustainable future.

The Masrik solar energy project will play a fundamental role in Armenia achieving its energy and climate objectives in line with the EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. It also has the potential to provide a range of new jobs, create new industrial opportunities in the region and contribute to economic growth, just as the EU promotes with the new European Green Deal, said Andrea Wiktorin, EU Ambassador, EU Delegation to Armenia.

Cheryl Edleson Hanway, IFCs Regional Senior Manager for Infrastructure and Natural Resources, said: Energy security is critical to business activity, which is why supporting Armenias renewable energy plan is an important part of IFCs mission. The Masrik solar project is an additional milestone in IFCs support of Armenias efforts over the years to attract private sector investment to power generation. It is the first step in the countrys ambitious solar power plans and will serve as an example to be followed by many more projects in the years to come.

The projectwhich includes the development, construction and operation of a 55 MW power plant and a 9 kilometre transmission lineis the first competitively tendered solar-photovoltaic project in Armenia. The World Bank helped the government prepare the project and provided transaction advisory support. The bidding process, backstopped by the Scaling up Renewable Energy Program and the World Bank, was highly competitive.

The Masrik project comes after 15 years of collaboration between the World Bank Group and Armenia that has helped implement sweeping reforms to deliver more efficient power supply to consumers. IFC, the EBRD and the EU have supported Armenias power sector through attracting private investment, bringing in global experience and supporting the newest technologies. The increase in renewable energy capacity represents an important objective under the EBRDs and IFCs country strategies for Armenia.
Anthony Fauci listens to President Donald Trump speak to reporters following a meeting of the coronavirus task force at the White House on April 7.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke out Wednesday against the White House's attempts to discredit him.

"I think if you talk to reasonable people in the White House, they realize that was a major mistake on their part, because it doesn't do anything but reflect poorly on them," Fauci told The Atlantic. "I cannot figure out in my wildest dreams why they would do that."

Fauci said he "can't explain" White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, who wrote a controversial Tuesday op-ed attacking the public health expert.

Over the weekend, anonymous White House aides circulated a list of talking points attacking Fauci for his handling of the coronavirus.

"When the staff lets out something like that and the entire scientific and press community push back on it, it ultimately hurts the president," Fauci said.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke out on Wednesday against the White House's attempts to discredit him and singled out President Donald Trump's trade adviser, Peter Navarro.

Fauci called White House aides' recent efforts to discredit him "a bit bizarre" and said he doesn't know why the president has refused to be briefed by him for several weeks during an interview with The Atlantic.

Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease specialist and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, said a list of his alleged mistakes circulated by anonymous White House aides is "nonsense" and "totally wrong."

"I think if you talk to reasonable people in the White House, they realize that was a major mistake on their part, because it doesn't do anything but reflect poorly on them," he told The Atlantic of the list. "And I don't think that was their intention. I cannot figure out in my wildest dreams why they would want to do that."

Fauci argued the politicization of the pandemic response "distracts from what I hope would be the common effort of getting this thing under control, rather than this back-and-forth distraction, which just doesn't make any sense."

Story continues

He also went on to criticize Navarro, who has repeatedly questioned Fauci's credibility and wrote a controversial Tuesday op-ed in USA Today accusing Fauci of having "been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on."

"When you ask me whether I listen to Dr. Fauci's advice, my answer is: only with skepticism and caution," Navarro wrote.

"I can't explain [him]. He's in a world by himself. So I don't even want to go there," Fauci said of Navarro.

The White House said Wednesday morning that it didn't sign off on Navarro's op-ed and that he violated protocol by publishing it. Trump also criticized his trade adviser, telling reporters that Navarro "made a statement representing himself. He shouldn't be doing that."

The president added that he has "a very good relationship with Dr. Fauci."

Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, also slammed Navarro, telling reporters on Wednesday, "Peter Navarro's statement or op-ed, or whatever you want to classify it as, was an independent action that was a violation of well-established protocols that was not supported overtly or covertly by anybody in the West Wing."

But an anonymous administration official told the LA Times on Wednesday that the president encouraged Navarro to write his op-ed undermining Fauci.

On Wednesday, Fauci was also asked about a meeting he had Monday with Meadows.

He said he told Meadows that circulating the list of talking points "was not particularly a good thing to do" and that ultimately, doing so "hurts the president."

"When the staff lets out something like that and the entire scientific and press community push back on it, it ultimately hurts the president," Fauci told The Atlantic.

The anonymous White House statement accused Fauci of not taking the coronavirus outbreak seriously enough early on and attacked him for releasing inaccurate information about asymptomatic transmission. It also accused him of shifting stances on lockdown measures and giving conflicting advice to the public.

But as The Washington Post and public health experts noted, the White House's list omitted critical portions of Fauci's comments, during which he emphasized that he was drawing conclusions based on the best available information at the time. He also said that the outlook could dramatically shift down the road as more information about the outbreak emerged.

Fauci told The Atlantic that Meadows offered "no apology" for the list and "said that he didn't know about it."

Read the original article on Business Insider
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has withdrawn its orders asking GAIL (India), Power Grid Corporation of India and Oil India to clear adjusted gross revenue (AGR)-related dues.

DoT has withdrawn its demand notices asking state-owned Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL), Oil India and GAIL (India) to clear license fee including interest and penalty for the past financial years.

GAIL received demand notices for 2001-02 to 2018-19 from DoT with AGR dues worth Rs 1.83 lakh crore. The amount stood at Rs 48,489 crore (FY08-FY19) for Oil India. In a revised order last month, DoT had sought Rs 13,613.66 crore from Power Grid on account of license fee for the FYs 2006-07 to 2009-10, interest, penalty and interest on penalty.

Last month, the Supreme Court ordered the DoT to withdraw its demands of payments from public-sector companies such as Power Grid, GAIL (India), Oil India and Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilisers and Chemicals (GNFC) as these companies did not provide telecom services.

Oil India (down 2.14%), GAIL India (down 1.65%) and Power Grid Corporation of India (down 1.47%) declined.

GAIL India processes and distributes natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas. The Government of India held 52.49% stake in the company as on 31 March 2020.

Oil India is a state-owned Navratna under the administrative control of India's Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. As of 31 March 2020, the Government of India held 56.66% stake in the company.

PGCIL has been established by the Government of India (GoI) as the central transmission utility of India. The Government of India held 51.34% stake in the company as on 31 March 2020.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Greenland Ice Sheet holds enough water to raise sea levels nearly 24 feet, and scientists have confirmed that this titanic volume of ice melted at least once in the past million years. Climate change is now causing Greenland to shed ice rapidly, and even a few feet of sea level rise will have grim implications for coastal cities and low-lying islands.

A new project aimed at drilling through the ice to the underlying bedrock promises to reveal the ice sheet's past in unprecedented detail and enable more accurate predictions of how it may add to rising seas in the 21st century.

Scientists from Columbia University, the University at Buffalo, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Pennsylvania State University were awarded a $3 million research grant and $4 million in field operations support from the National Science Foundation for the project, called GreenDrill. This ambitious five-year endeavor aims to uncover the exact extent, timing, and frequency of periods when the Greenland Ice Sheet was much smaller or completely gone.

"With this project, we're entering an entire zone of the Earth that nobody has systematically studied," said Joerg Schaefer, a geochemist at Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and a co-leader of the project. "We'll recover samples from basal ice and sub-ice bedrock comparable to the moon rocks in their rareness and preciousness. They will tell us directly about the past, and therefore the modern and future stability of the Greenland Ice Sheet."

The project has the potential to reinvigorate United States ice-drilling efforts in the Arctic. The last major effort, the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2, ceased in the mid-1990s. GreenDrill is arguably the most novel drilling experiment led by U.S. researchers since then.

The scientists will use the new ice-sheet data to test the hypothesis that northern Greenland is more sensitive to Arctic warming than the southern part. The data will also inform the project's substantial climate and ice sheet modeling component, which aims to develop the next generation of robust and better-calibrated model predictions of Greenland's future melt scenarios.

"The Greenland Ice Sheet might be the canary in the coal mine," said Gisela Winckler, a Lamont geochemist and GreenDrill co-principal investigator. "This project will hopefully help us figure out potential contributions from Greenland to sea level rise, in the past, and in the future."

GreenDrill's extensive multi-year field campaign begins in 2021, stewarded by two Arctic ice sheet stability experts: Jason Briner from the University at Buffalo, who co-leads GreenDrill with Schaefer, and Nicolas Young, a Lamont climate geologist and project co-principal investigator.

Recovering a series of cores at four locations in northern Greenland is the primary goal of these expeditions. Each site consists of a transect that starts at the ice-free edge of the island and moves inland, where the team will bore through hundreds of meters of ice to reach the bedrock below.

From these cores, the scientists seek pieces of Greenland's surface rock for the information they can yield about the ice sheet's past. When bedrock is free of ice, detectable isotopes produced by the interaction of cosmic rays with the nucleus of certain atoms accumulate in the upper layers of the rock after decades of exposure to the open sky. Analyses of these isotopes will show when and how the ice sheet receded.

Rob DeConto, a climate scientist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, will integrate the findings into models that simulate the ice sheets' physical processes and future behavior.

"It's absolutely critical that we know how much ice Greenland lost in the past--and this is still very uncertain," said DeConto. "GreenDrill will help reduce this uncertainty. This knowledge of the past informs us about the ice sheet's overall sensitivity to a warming climate and, hopefully, even how fast the ice sheet might melt in the future."

GreenDrill was born out of a 2016 Nature paper led by Schaefer that provided the first evidence that Greenland once lost most of its ice, making it much more prone to melting than scientists thought.

Schaefer and Winckler began advancing a pilot study in 2017 when they received funding from Columbia's Center for Climate and Life. The award enabled additional data analyses and the opportunity to further develop the project with their collaborators, activities they say were crucial to the success of the NSF proposal.

GreenDrill includes an extensive education and outreach component devoted to encouraging diversity and inclusion in the geosciences. Undergraduate students and early-career scientists will be recruited to participate in the research. In the New York City area, hands-on explorations tied to Next Generation Science Standards and multimedia initiatives will involve middle and high school students in the project.

"Sea level rise is such an intuitive narrative to get people interested in and connected to climate change, particularly in New York City, where the impacts of rising seas are part of living here," said Winckler. "I look forward to taking our research to communities underrepresented in STEM but most vulnerable to impacts from the climate crisis and climate injustice."

The researchers see the project as a vital and exciting first step toward uncovering how ice sheets behave and respond to a warmer world.

"GreenDrill represents a new frontier in geoscience," said Schaefer. "I think it could be developed into a much broader flagship project that attracts scientists from other disciplines and expertise, and eventually covers all of Greenland."

###

The other Lamont scientists involved in GreenDrill are postdoctoral fellow Benjamin Keisling and education coordinator Margie Turrin. Sridhar Anandakrishnan, a glaciologist at Pennsylvania State University co-leads the project.

Contact: Joerg Schaefer schaefer@ldeo.columbia.edu

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory is Columbia University's home for Earth science research. Its scientists develop fundamental knowledge about the origin, evolution and future of the natural world, from the planet's deepest interior to the outer reaches of its atmosphere, on every continent and in every ocean, providing a rational basis for the difficult choices facing humanity. http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu | @LamontEarth

The Earth Institute, Columbia University mobilizes the sciences, education and public policy to achieve a sustainable earth. http://www.earth.columbia.edu.
The presidents agreed on the need to stop all illegal foreign interventions in Libyan lands that use armed militias and terrorist organizations to achieve its goals at the expense of stability in Libya and regional security

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron exchanged point of views on the latest developments in Libya in a phone call late on Wednesday, the Egyptian presidency announced.

El-Sisi highlighted the country's efforts to settle the Libyan crisis in a manner that honours the will of the Libyan people and preserves Libya's resources, unity, territorial integrity and, at the same time, and protects the national security of Egypt on its western geographical front.



Macron also praised Egypt's great efforts to restore security and stability in the war-torn country in light of the Cairo Declaration as an extension to the Berlin path to resolve the Libyan crisis, Presidential Spokesman Bassam Radi said.

The presidents underlined the importance of stopping all illegal foreign interventions in Libyan lands that use armed militias and terrorist organizations to achieve its goals at the expense of stability in Libya and regional security as a whole.

They also agreed to continue joint coordination in the coming period to support efforts aiming at reach a settlement for the crisis, Radi added.

In early June, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA) Khalifa Haftar, and Libya's parliament speaker Aguila Saleh announced a new joint Cairo Declaration, a political initiative aimed at ending the conflict in Libya and obliges all foreign parties to remove all foreign mercenaries nationwide."

Egypt, France and the UAE support the government in Eastern Libya while Turkey and Qatar back the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli.

Turkey has recently transferred thousands of Syrian Jihadis and mercenaries to back the GNA in its confrontation with the LNA.

Earlier this week, Libya's parliament passed a motion authorising Egypt to intervene militarily if needed to safeguard the "national security" of both countries in light of what it termed a Turkish occupation.

On Wednesday, Cairo received a delegation from several Libyan tribes from Benghazi for talks about the current crisis and how to overcome it.

Last month, Egyptian President El-Sisi warned that Cairo has a legitimate right to intervene in the war-torn neighbouring country to restore security and stability after GNA-affiliated forces pushed back Haftars forces in the capital.

El-Sisi said that any intervention in Libya by Egyptian forces would be led by the Libyan tribes, stressing that the Libyan frontline of Sirte and Al-Jufra is a red line for Egyptian national security.

Meanwhile, Macron has accused Turkey of flouting its commitments by ramping up its military presence in Libya and bringing in jihadi fighters from Syria.

NATO is investigating French accusations that Turkey's navy failed last month to respond to an allied call to inspect a vessel this month in the Mediterranean, an incident Paris suspects involved Turkish arms smuggling to Libya

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Linkedin Francesco Guarascio (Reuters) Brussels, Belgium  Thu, July 16, 2020 10:50 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666b9614 2 World EU,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-infection,pandemic,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus Free

The EU's public health body is assessing risks posed by ventilation systems and other settings at workplaces for the transmission of the novel coronavirus through the air, in addition to through droplets, its head said.

The announcement by the European Centre for Disease Prevention (ECDP) could show a commitment tackling the potential spread through fine airborne mists known as aerosols, which the World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledged as a possible danger only last week.

While the virus is believed to spread mainly through contaminated droplets, Europe's ECDC has long warned it might also spread through the air in mists. That could pose extra risk in enclosed spaces, especially with poor ventilation, risks that could rise in winter as people spend more time indoors.

Andrea Ammon, who chairs the ECDC, told Reuters there was still no evidence to show what proportion of cases were spread by aerosols rather than droplets, but "we know both are a possibility".

Last week, the WHO said the virus could spread through aerosols, although it stopped short of saying this had been confirmed. The global health body had come under pressure from scientists, who wrote a letter calling on it to acknowledge the potential for airborne spread.

Ammon said the ECDC was assessing risks in the workplace, which would be heightened by airborne transmission, after several localized outbreaks in plants throughout Europe, with the most serious in a slaughterhouse in Germany in June.

"We are working on a technical report on occupational settings and risk factors for such outbreaks," she said, adding dangers posed by ventilation systems were being assessed.

Many of the social distancing and hygiene guidelines that countries have adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic are based on preventing contact with droplets of saliva or mucous expelled by carriers of the virus when they cough, sneeze or speak. Preventing airborne spread could require other strategies.

Ammon said the ECDC still assumes droplets are the most common vehicle of transmission. She said there was no need at this stage to update the agency's guidance, and reiterated that it was crucial that people continue to respect social distancing rules and wear face masks.
Power cuts have become a frequent feature of life in Lebanon, as seen on a recent night in Beirut

The Maronite Catholic Patriarch of Antioch urges the international community to help Lebanon out of its political and economic crisis.

By Devin Watkins

Lebanon lurched into a political crisis in mid-October 2019. Protesters took to the streets against government plans to tax WhatsApp, a messaging service.

The movement quickly turned into an anti-government protest which led to the resignation of then-Prime Minster Saad Hariri.

But that is just the tip of the iceberg. Lebanon is now in the grips of a crisis that has left millions wondering if they will have enough to eat.

Political gridlock weighs on Lebanese

According to Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, the countrys political crisis prepared the ground for the economic, financial, and social crises.

Speaking to Vatican Radios Giancarlo Lavella, the Maronite Patriarch of Antioch said the political crisis is due in large part to the interference of Hezbollah, a Shia Islamist political party and militant group.

Hezbollah, said Cardinal Rai, sidelines the State, and declares war and peace wherever it chooses. It helped precipitate war in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.

He added that the US, the EU, and other Gulf states are hesitant to help Lebanon out of its grave economic crisis because they refuse to offer any form of help to a government controlled by Hezbollah.

Thats why were paying the price, he said. Lebanese are living with constant hunger.

Listen to our report

Keeping families alive

Cardinal Rai went on to describe the work of the Catholic Church and her institutions in helping people left in want due to the crisis.

We have created a network in Lebanon to help families in need and keep any family from dying of hunger, he said. Half of the Lebanese population lives without the food they need, and many are out of work.

A recent report by the UN World Food Programme said 50 percent of Lebanese citizens  along with 63 percent of Palestinians and 75 percent of Syrians in the country  had expressed doubts they would find enough food over the previous month.

Refugee burden

The war in neighboring Syria has forced many to flee to Lebanon, which has taken in some 1.5 million Syrian refugees since the war erupted in 2011. Add to that around half a million Palestinian refugees and the country is hosting more than 2 million refugees, with a Lebanese population of 4 million.

All of them want to work and live, and it is their right, said Cardinal Rai. But they do so at the burden of the Lebanese people.

Save Lebanon from political situation

He called on the international community to help Lebanon so that refugees might return home and live dignified lives in their home countries.

To them we say, it is not that we dont want you, assured Cardinal Rai, but you have a history, a nation, a civilization. Go and continue your lives as citizens.

He said the refugees continued permanence in Lebanon risks leading them to destroy their own identity and culture.

We need to save Lebanon, concluded Cardinal Rai, and not let it be dragged through this political situation.
President Donald Trump's reelection operation won't operate much differently even though the man at the helm, Campaign Manager Brad Parscale, was demoted, an insider claims  adding that the president is really his own campaign manager.

'The real campaign manager reports to the Oval every day, anyways,' that person told Axios in a report published Thursday morning.

The president announced Wednesday night, as he continues to fall behind Democrat Joe Biden in polls, that he demoted Parscale back to the role he held in 2016 - in charge of the digital operation of the campaign.

While Parscale, a longtime Trump family digital guru, was demoted from his 2020 role as campaign manager, he likely never had to fear he would be outright fired from the campaign  as he engineered the online side and digital infrastructure of Trump's campaign.

His new official role will be to serve as senior adviser for data and digital operations.

Insiders say the president's reelection campaign won't change much after Campaign Manager Brad Parscale's demotion, claiming: 'The real campaign manager reports to the Oval every day, anyways'

Brad Parscale (left) will be replaced by Bill Stepien (right), deputy campaign manager and a veteran Republican political operative, Trump announced on Twitter

Deputy Campaign Manager Bill Stepien, a veteran Republican political operative, will replace Parscale, Trump announced Wednesday evening.

The initial announcement came on Facebook during a brief Twitter outage, and was then posted to the president's favored media platform shortly after.

Trump and Parscale's relationship had been strained since the rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma last month drew a dismal crowd, infuriating the president, who reportedly chewed out his campaign chief over the debacle.

'I am pleased to announce that Bill Stepien has been promoted to the role of Trump Campaign Manager,' Trump tweeted. 'Brad Parscale, who has been with me for a very long time and has led our tremendous digital and data strategies, will remain in that role, while being a Senior Advisor to the campaign.'

'Both were heavily involved in our historic 2016 win, and I look forward to having a big and very important second win together,' the president continued in the Twitter thread.

'This one should be a lot easier as our poll numbers are rising fast, the economy is getting better, vaccines and therapeutics will soon be on the way, and Americans want safe streets and communities!' he wrote.

Trump and Parscale's relationship had been strained since a Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally that drew a dismal crowd last month, infuriating the president

The New York Times first reported the shakeup, saying that Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner confirmed the change.

'Brad and Bill were both unsung heroes of the 2016 campaign and have done a great job building the infrastructure for the president's campaign for the 2020 race. Together they both bring unique strengths,' Kushner told the Times.

Parscale, a political novice, ran Trump's digital advertising in 2016 and was credited with helping bring about his surprise victory.

Stepien has been in politics for years, working for former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and serving as Trump's national field director in 2016.

Trump was reportedly furious at Parscale after a rally in Tulsa on June 20 was sparsely attended, with the upper deck mostly empty after the campaign boasted of ticket requests

A supporter of President Donald Trump shoots a video with his mobile phone from the sparsely filled upper decks of the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma on June 20

Parscale had been increasingly sidelined in the weeks since the Tulsa rally and as the president's public and private poll numbers have taken a hit amid the coronavirus pandemic. Speculation had been rampant about who might be promoted to lead the operation, with names like former Trump strategist Steve Bannon floated.

Parscale is a close ally of Kushner, who wields ultimate control over the campaign. A Florida resident, he had not been a regular presence of late in the campaign's Arlington, Virginia, headquarters, sparking some resentments among staffers.

Rather than parting ways completely, Parscale was retained in part because of the difficulty the campaign would have faced in rebuilding its digital advertising operation so close to the November 3 general election.

While the Republican National Committee owned most of the campaign's data, voter modeling and outreach tools, Parscale ran most of the microtargeted online advertising that Trump aides believed were key in 2016.

Parscale's digital advertising firm was among the campaign's most significant vendors, and some in Trumps orbit have alleged that the former campaign manager was profiting off the presidents reelection.

Parscale has repeatedly denied the claims.

Parscale was retained in part because of the difficulty the campaign would have faced in rebuilding its digital advertising operation so close to the November 3 general election

Trump has been pressed by allies in recent months to expand his political circle and more forcefully define his run against Biden. Last month, Trump announced a promotion for Stepien and returned former communications chief Jason Miller to his campaign, taking away some of Parscale's clout and influence.

The latest shakeup comes the same day Trump was hit with negative polling news across the board Wednesday, with a series of polls showing Joe Biden holding leads in critical states while voters register the dominant view that the country is on the wrong track.

For a Trump campaign struggling to regain its footing by trying to find a way to hold public events amid the pandemic, there was troubling news in states the Democrat is trying to snatch away from the president.

Nationally, Biden led Trump in each of five polls released Wednesday, with margins running as high as 15 points.

Taken together, the five national polls released Wednesday gave Biden a lead of 9.6 percentage points over the incumbent.

In a key battleground where part of the Republican convention will be held, a CNBC poll had Biden up 47 to 46 in North Carolina.

In Florida, where Trump moved his residence from New York and where he plans to accept the party nomination, Biden was up 50 to 43 in a CNBC / Change Research poll. Trump has said he may have to move the convention outdoors in light of the surge in coronavirus infections in the state.

Midwest battlegrounds that Biden hopes to pry from Trump are all leaning his way in the new surveys.

In Pennsylvania, Biden was up 50 to 42, while in both Michigan and Wisconsin, he was leading 48 to 42  all in CNBC / Change Research polls.

Biden was leading Trump in a series of state battlegrounds in polls released Wednesday

Biden is over 50 with a strong lead in the new NBC / Wall Street Journal poll

A Monmouth poll had the spread even bigger in Pennsylvania, with Biden holding a 53 to 40 lead.

Biden's lead was 51 to 45 in Arizona  another key state. Trump carried Arizona by less than 2 percentage points over Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Biden held an 11-point national lead in the latest poll by the respected NBC / Wall Street Journal polling unit.

A stunning 7 in 10 voters said the country is on the 'wrong track.' It had Trump's approval rating underwater, with 42 per cent approval and 56 per cent disapproval.

Only in Texas did Trump hold a lead, with a a 46 to 44 advantage in a GOP-leaning state.
BEIRUT (Reuters) - A U.S. general voiced Washington's backing for Lebanese stability on Wednesday on a visit that triggered a protest by demonstrators including supporters of the Iran-backed Hezbollah against U.S. policies in the country.

General Kenneth McKenzie's visit to Beirut, a big recipient of U.S. military aid, comes after Hezbollah stepped up criticism of U.S. ambassador Dorothy Shea on Tuesday, accusing her of blatant interference in Lebanese affairs.

Lebanon is in throes of an acute financial crisis seen as the biggest threat to its stability since the 1975-90 civil war.

The heavily armed Hezbollah, founded by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in 1982, is classified as a terrorist group by the United States. It is also a major player in Lebanese politics and backs the government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab.

A U.S. embassy statement said McKenzie "reaffirmed the importance of preserving Lebanons security, stability, and sovereignty..."

Several dozen protesters, some waving Hezbollah flags, gathered at Beirut airport in a protest which the group's al-Manar TV said carried several messages against Washington.

These included a rejection of a U.S. embassy plan to hold a memorial for 241 U.S. service personnel killed in 1983 by a bomb attack in Beirut during McKenzie's visit, an al-Manar broadcaster said.

The U.S. embassy statement said McKenzie's one-day visit included "a brief stop at memorials honouring the memory of those who have perished in service to their country".

The United States says Hezbollah carried out the 1983 attack, which was preceded by the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in a speech on Tuesday night, said Shea had intervened in official appointments at the central bank, calling this "colonial" behaviour.

Shea has said the appointments were a matter for Lebanon to decide and she tried her best to convey the importance of credible and internationally respected experts being appointed.

(Reporting by Tom Perry/Laila Bassam, Editing by William Maclean)
School may be out for the summer, but all eyes are turned to the fall semester for the Cheshire Public School District.

Just last week, Superintendent of Schools Jeff Solan outlined what the reopening of schools in late August may in fact look like. The comprehensive plan looks at ways in which students will be able to return to full-time, in-person instruction in the fall  a plan that was influenced by surveys of families conducted over the last several weeks.

But District administrators took things a step further.

Solan and Assistant Superintendent Marlene Silano have been meeting with staff and parents in the form of hour-long Zoom conference meetings in order to gauge the overall feelings of families and teaching staff who had to adjust to remote learning this past spring.

Marlene needs to get a lot of credit for conducting over a dozen or so interviews with our staff. We wanted to learn more about what went well over the remote learning period, and what are their concerns coming back, Solan said, at the June 29 Board of Education meeting. Marlene talked to well over 100 teachers, and then we had 600 parents sign up for that process in the following week. She and I conducted almost 30 different interview sessions with those parents.

One of those parents, Liz DeCiccio, was relatively impressed with Cheshires response to remote learning.

The overall consensus that I got from the meeting I attended was very positive, DeCiccio said. Many parents and I agreed that Cheshire got a head start before everyone else began remote learning, which was impressive. I also felt that there was ample opportunity for check-ins with our students to see how they were adjusting, although I know some parents felt differently depending on the age group their kids were in.

Solan has identified that there are challenges with remote learning, but the District is dedicated to addressing those issues.

One of the biggest issues with COVID right now is that its so fluid, he explained. We think that were really trending well and for the most part Connecticut has been, but then you look around you and see that the rest of the United States is seemingly in a pretty bad way. We hope thats something were not going to encounter again. 

More specifically, Solan has identified that some children are struggling with remote learning and being quarantined.



Being home may not be healthy for some children, and we understand that, he said. We want to address all of the needs of the students, not just their education  (even though) thats very important.

DeCiccio has three children, all whom participated in some form of remote learning at the outset of the pandemic.

It was a little harder for my youngest to adjust versus my older kids, she remarked. They sort of understood that they had to check Google Classroom for their assignments and things, whereas my youngest struggled with trying to figure out how that worked.

According to DeCiccio, most of the parents who were in on her particular meeting praised the Districts decision to provide a majority of households with multiple devices in order to keep students connected and engaged with their learning and each other. The District also provided some families with Wi-Fi extenders if their households did not have the capability.

For the fall, DeCiccio and the rest of her peers are concerned about the long-term effects the pandemic and remote learning may have on their children.

I think the staff did a good job at addressing the social emotional needs of our kids, but I am interested in what that may look like more long term for the fall, she remarked. The mental isolation of the pandemic has really taken a toll on all of us, and I am interested to see how the District will address that in the future.
LAWRENCE -- Just below ground, an ancient and poorly understood relationship plays out between plants and microbes that infuse the soil.

Now, with a three-year, $720,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, researchers from the University of Kansas and the University of Nottingham plan to investigate interactions between plants and the microbes on which they depend. In work that could inform agricultural practices around the world, the team will focus on how the relationship between plants and microbes respond to drought conditions.

"Microbes that live in the soil colonize the roots of the plants, and they can have big effects on plant growth and health," said Maggie Wagner, assistant scientist with the Kansas Biological Survey and assistant professor of ecology & evolutionary biology at KU, who is primary investigator of the new grant. "We're trying to figure out the effect of drought on that interaction. When you have plants that have to tolerate drought and soil microbes that have to tolerate drought -- when those two partners come together, what's the impact?"

Some microbes do require plant hosts, but researchers think the majority of plant-associated microbes also live free in the soil. Yet, plants are never without microbes. So Wagner will sequence the DNA of plants and plant microbes, and also "free living" soil microbiomes at various levels of drought stress. Her aim is to better pinpoint and understand genetic changes in a microbial community triggered by a shortage of water in the soil, as well as illuminate "genetic, physiological and ecological interdependencies" between microbes and plants.

"We're going to actually force these microbes to evolve and adapt to drought in the lab using an experimental evolution set up, then we're going to sequence them before and after the adaptations to figure out which microbial genes are involved in adaptation to drought stress," Wagner said. "Then we're going to take those microbial communities and give them to plants to try to measure what effect the communities have on the plants' structure and metabolic activity and other traits that are important for surviving drought."

While drought places stress on microbial communities in the soil, the KU researcher said sudden downpours can also tax microbes -- conditions she hopes to replicate in her experiments.

"We're planning to give the microbial communities about four months to adapt to their drought treatments, which is many, many microbial generations," Wagner said. "We're going to give the drought-treated microbes water every two weeks. The reason we give them water occasionally is because a lack of water is stressful -- but once they're in dry conditions and there's a sudden rainfall event that introduces a lot of water, it also can be stressful to the microbes. It forces them to regulate their salt content and other things. So, we're hitting them with water limitation and then suddenly rewetting to try to simulate what it's like in nature."

In addition to lab work, Wagner and her team will sample microbes and plants from across the state of Kansas, focusing on microbes' interaction with corn, because corn is such a vital cash crop to the U.S. and the world.

"It's convenient here in Kansas because our state has this natural precipitation gradient from east to west, which allows us to quickly access soil microbial communities that are adapted to various levels of drought," Wagner said. "Part of the DNA sequencing is going to actually be done on-site at the farm and field sites where we're going to be collecting these soil samples. There's new sequencing technology that's portable and can be hooked up to a laptop. We can actually take soil right there on the farm and get our sequences right then and there, which is pretty cool."

Meanwhile, co-primary investigator Gabriel Castrillo of the University of Nottingham will perform scans of the root systems of corn plants and their microbiomes.

"He'll be doing a variety of physiological scanning procedures, including CT scanning and laser ablation tomography," Wagner said. "All of these are going to give us some really in-depth data about what these plants look like when they're grown in microbial communities that are or are not adapted to drought. We're trying to understand when a microbial community in the soil adapts to drought, what are the functional consequences for the plants and the plants' ability to potentially withstand drought as well."

Under the grant at KU, graduate research assistant Ceyda Kural will receive training in the lab and gene sequencing techniques used to analyze the soil microbes. The funds will also support employment for a full-time postdoctoral researcher.

Wagner said she wanted her results to benefit farmers and the agricultural industry as climate change hastens more frequent and severe droughts across the U.S. and the rest of the world.

"We definitely hope that our data will be useful for the folks who are very specifically trying to develop new technologies that could be used in agriculture to mitigate droughts," she said. "Droughts are already a major problem for agriculture, and it's expected to get a lot worse with climate change. Our projects are going to generate a lot of molecular data -- for example, sequence data on both plants' gene expression and microbial gene expression. We'll be able to provide really detailed information about how plants and microbes interact with each other at the molecular level in the context of drought stress."

Additionally, funds from the NSF grant will help enhance a mobile exhibition called "Microbes on the Move," intended to educate the public about the diversity of microorganisms and their importance to ecosystems of all kinds.

"It's a pop-up exhibit from the KU Natural History Museum that has been around for a few years," Wagner said. "It's all about microbes and the microbes in humans in particular, and various activities related to microbial ecology. So, the point of these activities is to introduce members of the public to the idea that microbes are all around us, they do all kinds of things, they're very diverse -- and not all microbes are bad. This museum exhibit is portable so we can reach members of the public who are farther away from museum exhibits like this. We can go into any town and set up in a community center or a public library and reach a lot of people we wouldn't be able to reach otherwise. So, part of this grant is going to be expanding that project, specifically by translating the materials into Spanish. Ceyda is a Spanish speaker, and she'll spearhead this effort to translate the materials, which will allow us to bring the exhibit to communities in southwestern and western Kansas that are predominantly Latino communities."

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A husband who suffocated his wife with a plastic bag before dumping her body in a crawl space in their Minnesota home has pleaded guilty to her murder.

Joshua David Fury, 28, faces 38 years in prison after strangling Maria Pew at the end of April. He had reported her missing on April 30; her body was found two days later in a crawlspace and Fury was charged with second-degree murder.

Police found the preliminary cause of death to be asphyxiation from a plastic bag taped over her head and nose. Fury was arrested and at first gave multiple statements, trying to blame one of her former boyfriends for her death.

But he eventually confessed that he killed Maria by strangling her at their Maple Grove home and putting the plastic bag over her head, police said.

Fury later told police he planned to use duct tape roll he used to wrap her body to hang missing posters for her.

Investigator interviews with Maria's family, friends and mother found that the couple was having marital problems and Fury was 'controlling and possessive'.

Joshua David Fury, 28, faces 38 years in prison after strangling Maria Pew at the end of April. He had reported her missing on Thursday April 30; her body was found two days later in a crawlspace and Fury was charged with second-degree murder

Fury admitted strangling her during an argument about her leaving him. He said he 'placed both hands around her neck and squeezed until he felt a snap', the charges said. Maria was found with trauma to her neck, but it was not broken.

When he found Maria was still breathing he put a plastic bag over her head and nose until she stopped.

He said once she was dead he 'wrapped her arms in duct tape, carried her body to the crawl space, dug a hole, placed her body in the hole, filled it up, covered and chalked plastic over the space then cleaned up the surrounded area and himself before going to work.'

Joshua told authorities it only took two hours to kill her and bury her body.

Investigator interviews with Maria's family, friends and mother found that the couple was having marital problems and Fury was 'controlling and possessive'

Fury eventually confessed that he killed Maria by strangling her at their Maple Grove home

Police were dispatched to the couple's Maple Grove home on the 11000 block of Red Fox Drive after Joshua claimed Maria had vanished and they found her cellphone inside.

A two-day large-scale search was launched with teams on the ground and searching by helicopter.

Police served a search warrant on May 2 at the couple's Maple Grove home where sniffer dogs detected human remains in a crawl space that was no more than four feet tall and had a dirt floor in the basement.

A second search warrant allowed police to dig in the crawl space and her body was found about a day later in the middle of the night after hours of digging.

Police found the preliminary cause of death to be asphyxiation from a plastic bag taped over her head and nose.

Maria's parents, Bill Pew and Lissa Weimelt, said their adoptive daughter's husband was controlling and that the two married after an intense and fast moving relationship.

The heartbroken parents said that they believe the couple staying at their home during the coronavirus outbreak was not safe for their daughter.

Maria's parents, Bill Pew and Lissa Weimelt have started a domestic abuse nonprofit, called 'Maria's Voice', to help victims in their daughter's memory

The grieving mom says adopting Maria was like winning the 'parenting jackpot'

'You know that was not a safe place to be,' her mother Lissa Weimelt says. 'It further isolated her.'

She added: 'The things that I am faulting myself for now. ''Run, my God, run!" Why didn't I say that?'

The grieving mom says adopting Maria was like winning the 'parenting jackpot.' The parents recalled their daughter enjoying an active lifestyle, riding snow mobiles, horses and four-wheelers.

Maria also had been a cheerleader, says her dad, who described her as 'always smiling.'

They have started a domestic abuse nonprofit, called 'Maria's Voice', to help victims in their daughter's memory.
South L.A. Community Patrol Works to Keep Parks and Rec Safe

Crime rate down 8% in selected areas

Today, the future of community protection is being reimagined after countless disparities continue to come to past and throughout the history of public safety. Due to the current policing system being rooted in chattel slavery, the present structure is entangled with racial profiling, extreme use of force on people of color, and a lack of trust or knowledge of the community. The cries for change are showcased in catastrophic moments, such as the city uprisings in 1992 and most recent global protests and rise of awareness of George Floyd; people are demanding public officials, on every level, to redesign public safety.

Los Angeles public officials reimagine public safety; there are a multitude of program services offered to uplift community that goes far beyond the aspect of protection, the South L.A. Community Safety Initiative includes: Healing Circles, which provides mental health resources to South L.A. residents traumatized by gun violence and Youth Entrepreneurial Workshops which provides training sessions for youth seeking to start their own businesses, found within the SLACSI press release.

On Tuesday, July 14, parents and children from all spectrums of the city joined Los Angeles Public Lawmakers at a South L.A. Community Safety Initiative (SLACSI) news conference, to commemorate the second year of the programs vision of public protection. The organization enlists residents to monitor 12 parks in L.A. The results show that there was reduced crime in the selected areas by 8%. The initiative also reduced over policing of South L.A.

Areas of misconception that created a snag in concise protection from the citys police force, stems from the reasons they are called. Over-policing is tethered to overwhelming agendas that do not match the skill sets of law enforcement. Most escalations do not require the restraints or interrogation from the police, in most cases people who are from the neighborhood, who are familiar with those around them, can have a gentle approach to resolving minor confrontation or mental health related incidents.

Led by Council member Marqueece Harris-Dawson, the program has sprouted many opportunities for community engagement and improvement over the span of two years. The one-million-dollar directive was set to prevent gun violence during the summer, where the neighborhood would generally see an increase in hostility and crime. SLACSI continues to nourish the soul of the community with positive reinforcement from public leaders such as Council members Herb Wesson, Harris-Dawson, and Curren Price, piloting the wave of change that starts within the collective.

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Working on the mental health of the neighborhood, SLACSI partnered with the Psychology Applied Research Center at Loyola Marymount University (LMU-PARC) to develop Healing Circles. Clinical Psychologist Dr. Cheryl Grills explained, Living in a society where your life isnt valued, where resources are inadequate for basic need, where the world seems to have forgotten about you and your not sitting at the table, making decisions that will affect your life; the struggle to be is a source of stress.

Grills continued, Just to exist is a source of stress, and the struggle for an empowered existence in society is infused with assumption about your inferiority, about your criminality  is not ok. Dr. Grills addressed how that much weight applied is like stretching a rubber band past its limits, it will snap. The healing circles deal with psychological effects of a failed system among the people.

The definition of the healing circles implies a process that is led by the community, creating ownership. There is intergenerational connection, which is available to all members of the community. The work of healing circles is to have a safe space where everyone can exhale, release, and de-stress with tools that will be additional armor after the meetings.

Harris-Dawson explained the programs ingredients consisted of community members, mental health workers, and the staff of the parks and recreation centers. 10th District Council member, Herb Wesson stated, We, on the City Council, in the midst of demonstrations and protests, we decided that we wanted to reimagine public safety.

The Green shirts are part of the uniform worn by Intervention Workers, to indicate they are a member of the Community Safety Initiative. It represents growth and new beginnings in local parks; residents wear their green shirts with pride and monitor the grounds where the youth can play with no fear of the dangers that may have lurked around the corner.

Interventionist, Quincy Mitchell has been with the Community Safety initiative since it began two years ago, Me and a group of my homeboys and homegirls that grew up in the community, came together to figure out a way that we can bring the crime rate down, Mitchell explained that he was part of the upbringing that could lead to violence and community sabotage.

He formed a group called Advocates for Peace and Urban Unity on Vermont and 84th street. He also wears his green shirt and keeps surveillance around the community. The ingenious system within the community safety initiative staff is made of the people who live in the area. Members are familiar with every nook and cranny of their environment as Lead Interventionist, Leon Gullette explained, We know all the hot spots; our job is to monitor the park, he shared. Gullette continued, We know what we are looking for and we are used to dealing with gangs and stuff like that.

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Another intervention worker, Johnny Ross, Jr. broke down the typical day that is carried out, Right now we are making sure our community members dont come up here and do anything or hassle the kids while theyre in the park trying to enjoy themselves. Ross described his route of walking around the park and remains vigilant in the front entrances to see whos coming in and whos coming out. Our main thing is to seek safety for these young men and young ladies.
Announcement of Periodic Review: Moody's announces completion of a periodic review of ratings of Hamamatsu City

Global Credit Research - 16 Jul 2020

Tokyo, July 16, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has completed a periodic review of the ratings of Hamamatsu City and other ratings that are associated with the same analytical unit. The review was conducted through a portfolio review in which Moody's reassessed the appropriateness of the ratings in the context of the relevant principal methodology(ies), recent developments, and a comparison of the financial and operating profile to similarly rated peers. The review did not involve a rating committee. Since 1 January 2019, Moody's practice has been to issue a press release following each periodic review to announce its completion.

This publication does not announce a credit rating action and is not an indication of whether or not a credit rating action is likely in the near future. Credit ratings and outlook/review status cannot be changed in a portfolio review and hence are not impacted by this announcement. For any credit ratings referenced in this publication, please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for the most updated credit rating action information and rating history.

Key rating considerations are summarized below.

The credit profile of Hamamatsu City is expressed by a baseline credit assessment of a2 and a rating of A1. The city's A1 rating is the same as that of the Government of Japan (A1) reflecting our view that the rating of the central government and those of the regional and local governments (RLGs) in Japan should be the same because of their close links.

The considerable level of oversight and supervision exercised by the central government, as well as the well-established equalization system of transfers through the local allocation tax (LAT) system, ensures that any credit issues at the RLG level are identified and addressed early. We also assess that there is a very high likelihood that the Japanese government would provide immediate assistance in the event of an acute liquidity crisis. Hamamatsu City's rating reflects also its solid fiscal performance, with a high degree of discipline and a lower debt burden compared with other rated Japanese RLGs.

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This document summarizes Moody's view as of the publication date and will not be updated until the next periodic review announcement, which will incorporate material changes in credit circumstances (if any) during the intervening period.

The principal methodology used for this review was Regional and Local Governments (Japanese) published in January 2018. Please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

This announcement applies only to EU rated and EU endorsed ratings. Non EU rated and non EU endorsed ratings may be referenced above to the extent necessary, if they are part of the same analytical unit.

This publication does not announce a credit rating action. For any credit ratings referenced in this publication, please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for the most updated credit rating action information and rating history.

Hiroe Yamamoto Analyst Sub-Sovereign Group Moody's Japan K.K. Atago Green Hills Mori Tower 20fl 2-5-1 Atago, Minato-ku Tokyo 105-6220 Japan JOURNALISTS: 81 3 5408 4110 Client Service: 81 3 5408 4100 Marie Diron MD - Sovereign Risk Sub-Sovereign Group JOURNALISTS: 852 3758 1350 Client Service: 852 3551 3077 Releasing Office: Moody's Japan K.K. Atago Green Hills Mori Tower 20fl 2-5-1 Atago, Minato-ku Tokyo 105-6220 Japan JOURNALISTS: 81 3 5408 4110 Client Service: 81 3 5408 4100

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Mum-of-four Andrea Hackett, who died in a two-vehicle collision near Coalisland on Tuesday, with husband Colin

The grieving husband of a woman killed in a road crash has described her as the "most precious and beautiful person".

Andrea Hackett died after the two-vehicle collision on Ballynakilly Road near Coalisland on Tuesday evening.

Speaking ahead of her funeral, which will take place on Friday, Colin Hackett recalled the love he and his wife shared from the moment they met as teenagers.

Mr Hackett described her as "a happy person, such a kind-hearted and unselfish person".

He said: "The first time I set eyes on Andrea I was 14. I was getting out of my best mate's dad's car on the high street and our eyes met.

"Later it just fell into place and I've never regretted a day of it. I've never loved anyone so much in my life.

"We would always be telling each other that we loved each other every night and every day. Every text message would not end with just one kiss but three kisses.

"Andrea was such a happy person, such a kind-hearted and unselfish person. She was the most precious thing. She was beautiful".

Andrea loved her children so much. She would put her children before anything and did anything for them. We have lost everything Colin Hackett

A family notice described Mrs Hackett as the "darling mother of Nathan, Jordan, Louise and Kyle".

Mr Hackett added: "Andrea loved her children so much. She would put her children before anything and did anything for them. We have lost everything."

Mr Hackett recalled the last time he saw his wife and how happy she was.

He said: "She was as happy as she was ever going to be. She'd spent time getting her one-year-old granddaughter Alina Grace ready for bed.

"Andrea was buzzing, but said that she was going to be late for picking up our daughter Louise. She left the house really happy. The one thing that keeps me strong is that I know Andrea had a good faith. She believed so much and she prayed so much."

Mrs Hackett's funeral cortege will leave her family home at 1.15pm on Friday to arrive at Brackaville Parish Church at 2pm.

Rector Andrew Rawding also paid tribute to Mrs Hackett, saying her life was filled with love.

He said: "This is a most heartbreaking and tragic situation, but above all it is a love story.

"The love shared between two teenage sweethearts who fell in love at first sight and loved each other through life's many challenges.

"The love of a mother for her own children Nathan, Jordan, Louise and Kyle; that unconditional all-giving love of a mother that puts her children above all else.

"The love of a grandmother for her cherished granddaughter Alina Grace, whose first birthday brought Andrea such happiness and joy. And in the context of the Christian faith, it is about a love story where love stronger than death holds Andrea in the arms of eternal love, and the divine love that suffered with humanity on the cross will love this family in and through the darkness of their terrible grief and pain."
Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-25 01:45:12|Editor: huaxia

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RABAT, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Morocco on Wednesday reported 563 new COVID-19 cases, the biggest single-day increase so far in the North African country.

The total tally of infections in the country rose to 10,907, said Hind Ezzine, head of the Department of Epidemic Diseases of the Ministry of Health, in a regular press briefing.

This large number of infections were found mainly in industrial units across Morocco, which were identified as "hotspots" and locked down, according to local press.

The total number of recoveries from COVID-19 in Morocco has increased to 8,468 after 61 new ones were added, while the death toll rose to 216 with two new fatalities in the last 24 hours, Ezzine said.

In addition, 6,430 cases which had contacts with the coronavirus patients are still under medical surveillance, and 17 patients are in intensive care units.

The COVID-19 death rate in Morocco stabilizes at around 2 percent, with the recovery rate at 77.6 percent, the official noted.

China has helped Morocco in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

A batch of medical supplies donated by the government of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region was transported on June 8 to Casablanca-Settat in Morocco.

On May 14, China Development Bank sent a batch of donation, including respirators and medical protective masks, to Morocco to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

China's Guizhou Province has also donated 15,000 surgical gloves, 20,000 medical masks and 2,000 protective suits to help Moroccan medical workers fight the pandemic. Enditem
The United States on Wednesday accused a Russian mercenary group of laying landmines in and around Tripoli and imposed sanctions over its alleged cooperation with Sudan's ousted dictator.

The Pentagon's Africa Command said it had "verified photographic evidence" that the Wagner Group, a private security operation allegedly sponsored by the Russian government, planted mines "indiscriminately" around Tripoli and toward Sirte east of the capital since mid-June.

"The Russian state-sponsored Wagner Group is demonstrating a total disregard for the safety and security of Libyans," Africom operations director Major General Bradford Gering said in a statement.

"The Wagner Group's irresponsible tactics are prolonging conflict and are responsible for the needless suffering and the deaths of innocent civilians. Russia has the power to stop them, just not the will."

The US has repeatedly accused Russia of introducing military weaponry, including at least 14 MIG-29 fighter jets with their Russian markings covered up, into the Libyan conflict, contravening the UN arms embargo.

Russia, mainly through the Wagner group, and the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, have backed the strongman of eastern Libya Khalifa Haftar, in his fight to seize power from the UN-recognized Government of National Accord in Tripoli.

Turkey's military support for the GNA has recently tipped the balance and allowed its forces in June to repel Haftar's 14-month advance on Tripoli and launch a counteroffensive.

- Links seen to US election, Sudan -

The United States says Russia helped Sudan's former military regime suppress pro-democracy protests, like seen here in 2019 outside the army headquarters /  AFP/File

The United States says the Wagner Group functions through support of Yevgeniy Prigozhin, a wealthy financier close to President Vladimir Putin.

The United States has previously accused Prigozhin of funding the Internet Research Agency, a mysterious "troll farm" in St. Petersburg accused of running online manipulation to back then-candidate Donald Trump in the 2016 election.

While Prigozhin is already under US sanctions, the Treasury Department on Wednesday took action against entities in Sudan, Hong Kong and Thailand that it said had allowed the financier to maintain operations.

In Sudan, Prigozhin is accused of running M Invest, which the Treasury Department said was a front for the Wagner Group and was awarded concessions in gold mining by longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir.

It charged that M Invest developed plans for Bashir to suppress protests and carried out social media manipulation to discredit youth-led demonstrators, who started taking to the streets in December 2018 in frustration over economic conditions.

The effort ultimately failed with Bashir toppled in April 2019 after three decades in power and the military ultimately ceding to a transitional authority that involves civilians.

"Yevgeniy Prigozhin and his network are exploiting Sudan's natural resources for personal gain and spreading malign influence around the globe," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

"The United States remains committed to holding him and other bad actors accountable so Sudan and other countries can operate freely," he said.

The United States will freeze any US-based assets of M Invest and other entities and make financial transactions with them a crime.

The Treasury Department said it was also targeting companies in Hong Kong and Thailand that carried out transactions worth more than $7.5 million to benefit Prigozhin.

The funds paid for his private aircraft and activities in Sudan, the Treasury Department said.
Police officers will be replaced by unarmed city workers at traffic stops in a Californian city in a bid to 'limit racial profiling.'

After hours of emotional public testimony and a middle-of-the-night vote by council members in Berkeley, the novel proposal went through.

The council voted for a committee to find ways to eventually cut the Police Department's budget by half and approved an analysis of police calls and spending.

Speaking after Tuesday' night's marathon sitting, Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin said he doesn't expect a new transportation department overnight because conversations will be hard and detailed with complicated logistics to figure out. But he said communities of color in his city feel targeted by police and that needs to change.

A Berkeley police vehicle waits at a stop light near graffiti calling for the defunding of the Berkeley police department on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

'There may be situations where police do need to intervene, and so we need to look at all that,' he said. 'We need to look at if we do move traffic enforcement out of the Police Department, what does that relationship look like and how will police officers work in coordination with unarmed traffic enforcement personnel?'

Its believed the plan to separate traffic enforcement from police is the first of its kind in the U.S. and comes as many cities seek broad public safety reforms, including reducing law enforcement budgets, following the May 25 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. Fans of the proposal cheered its passage even as some called for greater cuts to police.

It could take months, even years, to create a new department, but police and other law enforcement experts rebuked the idea as dangerous, not only for traffic safety but for the people tasked with pulling over drivers, who they say can be dangerous.

'I think what Berkeley is doing is nuts,' said Mark Cronin, a director with the Los Angeles Police Protective League, a union for officers. 'I think its a big social experiment. I think its going to fail and its not going to take long for, unfortunately, traffic collisions, fatalities to increase exponentially.'

A worker makes repairs to the damaged Berkeley police headquarters on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Cronin, a former traffic officer, said cities can't rely on unattended traffic signals or camera lights to catch bad drivers and that people are needed to educate motorists on safe driving. But those people also need backup and the authority to arrest should they encounter a driver who is intoxicated, armed and fleeing a crime, or wanted on other charges.

'Traffic stops are one of the most unpredictable and therefore dangerous duties of law enforcement. There is no such thing as a routine traffic stop and to perform them effectively and safely takes months of police training in and outside of an academy,' said Frank Merenda, a former New York City Police Department captain who is an assistant professor of criminal justice at Marist College.

Philip Stinson, a criminal justice professor at Bowling Green State University, called the idea an 'overly simplistic plan that could have deadly consequences for unarmed traffic enforcement officers.'

Nine U.S. police officers were killed during traffic stops so far this year, according to data compiled by the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund. Six were shot, and three were struck by vehicles.

Numerous studies have shown Black drivers are much more likely to be stopped by police than whites for minor traffic infractions, and the results sometimes can be deadly for the driver.

Philando Castile, for example, was fatally shot after the 32-year-old was stopped for a broken tail light in 2016 in Minnesota. Sandra Bland, 28, died in a jail cell three days after being stopped for failing to signal when changing lanes in Texas in 2015.

The largely affluent and progressive San Francisco suburb of 120,000 has led the country on environmental, cultural and equity issues but still has lopsided traffic stop figures.

A 2018 report by the Center for Policing Equity, a research and advocacy group based in Los Angeles, found that Black and Latino drivers were stopped by Berkeley police at higher rates than whites.

Data analyses by the Stanford Open Policing Project at Stanford University also found that Black and Latino drivers were searched far more often than whites, but the searches turned up fewer drugs, guns and other contraband.

Berkeley police issued a statement Wednesday saying the department would work with the community 'to determine how we can best evolve to accomplish our mission of safeguarding our community.'

Graffiti is seen on the curb in front of Berkeley police headquarters seen on Wednesday.(AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Police unions for Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Jose issued a statement opposing the proposal. The Berkeley police union did not respond to requests for comment this week.

Arreguin, the mayor, said creating a new department is a phase-two development that's at least a year away and would likely involve making changes to state law.

Traffic stops can be dangerous and require extensive training, said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a research organization that promotes best practices in policing. He also recognizes fairness and profiling are issues for law enforcement.

'At the end of the day, policymakers would have to ask themselves if this change accomplished their intended goals,' he said.
3 min

The resignation of Vice President Daniel Kablan Duncan on Monday added another layer of uncertainty to Cote d'Ivoire's political future, as the country kicked off a week of mourning for late Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, the front-runner in looming presidential elections.

Rumours that Vice President Daniel Kablan Duncan wanted to quit were well known in Cote d'Ivoire, nonetheless his resignation on Monday took many by surprise.

The announcement came less than a week after the sudden death of Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly and during a time of shock and mourning for the West African nation.

C'est avec beaucoup d'emotion que j'ai preside, ce mardi, au Palais de la Presidence de la Republique, la Ceremonie d'hommage de la Nation au Premier Ministre Amadou GON COULIBALY, un grand serviteur de l'Etat, un homme loyal et fidele, pour qui j'avais une grande affection. pic.twitter.com/g0XC3c4cNZ

- Alassane Ouattara (@AOuattara_PRCI) July 14, 2020

President Alassane Ouattara presided over a national tribute to the late prime minister on Tuesday, in a ceremony attended by his Senegalese counterpart Macky Sall and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

The day before, Ouattara issued a statement explaining that his vice president was resigning due to "reasons of personal convenience."

Duncan first tendered his resignation in February. The president finally accepted it on Wednesday 8 July, the same day Coulibaly, who had longstanding heart problems, died after a cabinet meeting.

Coulibaly had been Ouattara's preferred successor to run in October's presidential election.

Fallout

Some analysts argue that the vice president's resignation may have been due to a fallout with Ouattara over the candidate selection process.

A constant figure on the Ivorian political scene, holding down roles as foreign minister, prime minister before becoming vice president, Duncan was considered a close ally of the president.

He was originally a member of the Democratic Party of Cote d'Ivoire (PDCI), but stepped down in July 2018 after the PDCI broke away from the ruling Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP).

Duncan remained loyal to Ouattara and stayed with the RHDP.

"His decision to break ranks with the PDCI must have come with conditions and promises, notably linked to the presidential election," Sylvain Nguessan, head of the Strategy Institute of Abidjan, told RFI's sister station France 24.

"The moment Gon Coulibaly was chosen as party candidate instead of Duncan, was perhaps the tipping point that pushed the vice president to take his distance with the RHDP and Alassane Ouattara," Nguessan said.

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Departures

In March, Marcel Amon-Tanoh, Cote d'Ivoire's foreign minister and another party heavy weight also resigned, denouncing the RHDP party's method of selecting Coulibaly as its candidate for the 31 October election.

The successive resignations, coupled with the unexpected death of Coulibaly has further unsettled the ruling party and left it scrambling to find a suitable candidate for the upcoming polls.

Some within Ouattara's RHDP party have pressed the president to rethink his decision about not running for a third term. They say a Ouattara candidacy could help unify the party but the opposition is fiercely against.

Whoever the RHDP frontrunner is, they will face off against former President Henri Konan Bedie, who declared his candidacy last month, while other politicians, including ex-leader Laurent Gbagbo could join the race.

Gbagbo's refusal to concede power to Ouattara in 2010 sparked a brief civil war in which 3,000 people died. The memory of that war is still fresh in people's minds as they gear up for one of the most hotly contested elections in a decade.

The deadline for the RHDP to submit its candidate's name is 31 July.
YEREVAN, JULY 16, ARMENPRESS. The defense ministry of Azerbaijan informs about the death of another serviceman.

ARMENPRESS reports the victim is Nazim Ismayilov Afgan oglu.

Earlier today the Defense Ministry of Armenia released a footage showing how Azerbaijani servicemen were collecting the bodies of their co-servicemen from the neutral zone by the permission of the Armenian side.

Today early in the morning the Azerbaijani side resumed shelling at the bordering villages of Armenias Tavush province. Aygepar, Nerkin Karmiraghbyur, Chinari, Movses, Tavush villages and Berd town were under the target.

An Armenian civilian citizen was wounded by the strike of a combat UAV. Azerbaijan also struck a vehicle on humanitarian mission with a combat UAV.

Editing and Translating by Tigran Sirekanyan
We dont know how long shes going to last.

Those were the words spoken on Thursday morning by Hayley Stakem, a 27-year-old Flemington native who is striving to save the life of her best friend  for the second time.

Jacqueline Jacqui Heid, a 27-year-old Flemington native currently living in Highland Park, underwent a life-saving surgery in 2018 following a major car accident that resulted in five rare vascular compressions, her main condition being Superior Mesenteric Artery Syndrome.

The syndrome, so rare it only affects .013-percent of the population, occurs when the duodenum  the first part of the small intestine  is compressed between the aorta and the Superior Mesenteric Artery, causing immense pain and bloating after meals.

After discovering a German surgeon, Wilhelm Sandmann, who was willing to operate on her, Heid successfully raised the $50,000 needed to cover the operation, travel and other costs through her GoFundMe page.

Two years after this initial procedure, three of Heids compressions have returned in a new formation  and she is once more in need of $50,000 for an immediate surgery to save her life.

Stakem, who attended Hunterdon Central Regional High School with Heid, is helping to finance her current stay in Germany, where she returned in late June in hopes of receiving the operation.

Her mom actually refinanced her house in order to get a loan to send her to Germany ... then COVID happened, Stakem said. She has been paying for Jacquis hospital bills, but now the money is basically depleted and theres nothing left.

Heids main condition continues to be SMAS, the symptoms of which have reduced her weight to 90 pounds over this past year, according to Stakem.

She looks like bones, Stakem said. When the SMA is compressed, it causes high nausea and pain, so she really cant eat anything at all. When she does eat, she throws everything up.

All of the compressions cause extreme pain. Shes had to be on a lot of pain medications. And basically what these compressions do is slow down the blood flow to other parts of her body ... it causes a slow organ failure, she added.

Jacqui Heid in 2017Courtesy  Jacqui Heid

Heids medical condition prohibited her from speaking in an interview with NJ Advance Media, but she has shared her story on a new GoFundMe page launched to raise money for her operation.

At this point, surgery is my only option and without it I will die, Heid, who is aspiring to become an English teacher, wrote. I have gone from a determined and very active young female to a sickly individual who rarely leaves her home unless absolutely necessary.

I want to thank everyone in advance who has taken the time to read my story, share, and support my lifesaving surgery and journey to healing in Germany, she added. Every penny counts, no amount is too little, and even if you are unable to contribute, please share this page with your friends, family, and coworkers.

Looking forward, Stakem said she is trying to be optimistic  while acknowledging the immense difficulty of doing so.

Every time I talk to her now, shes screaming. Shes muting the phone and is like, Oh, I got to throw up, Stakem, who currently lives in Columbus, Ohio, said. Her mom has been messaging me ... and shes terrified, because there is no money right now.

Reflecting upon her relentless commitment to save Heids life, Stakem described her as her sister  while adding that friendship is not a prerequisite for helping someone in need.

Im not going to let somebody suffer, Stakem said. One of the things my dad has told me is, If money is an issue between someones life and death, then it should not be an issue.

Individuals can make a donation that will go towards saving Heids life on her GoFundMe page, or by purchasing cards through Usborne Books & Mores Cards for a Cause. Each box of cards is $30, and half of all proceeds will go towards rescuing Jacqui. Individuals can pay for the cards by venmoing Stakem via her username hstakem, or by paying her through her PayPal account.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Caroline Fassett may be reached at cfassett@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
The Indian government said on Thursday that its officials in Islamabad have met Kulbushan Jadhav after they were assured "unimpeded and unconditional consular access" to the former naval officer, who has been sentenced to death by a Pakistan military court for his alleged involvement in espionage activities in 2016.

Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said: "India has been requesting for an unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional consular access to Kulbushan Jadhav. On the basis of assurances provided, our officials have proceeded for the meeting today."

However, the government said it will assess the situation after the consular officials return and provide a report from Islamabad.

Earlier, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry in a statement said that it provided second consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav at India's request.

First consular access under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR) 1963 was provided by Pakistan on September 2, last year. The mother and wife of Jadhav were allowed to meet him on December 25, 2017.

The Pakistan government on Thursday claimed, "Two consular officers of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad were provided unimpeded and uninterrupted consular access to Commander Jadhav at 3 p.m."

The statement said that Jadhav is in Pakistan's custody following his arrest from Balochistan "in a counter-intelligence operation on March 3, 2016".

The Pakistan Army has alleged that Jadhav is an Indian spy, involved in violent activities in Pakistan. In April 2017, Jadhav was sentenced to death by a military court. However, a month later in 2017, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) stayed the hanging of Jadhav. Last year, the ICJ directed Pakistan to allow consular access and effectively review the death sentence but rejected India's appeal for Jadhav's release.

On Thursday, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said that it remains committed to fully implementing the ICJ's judgment of July 17, 2019. "It is hoped that India will cooperate with the Pakistan court in giving full effect to the said judgement," the statement said.
The Delhi High Court Thursday reserved its order on a plea by a Pinjra tod group member, arrested in relation to communal violence here during the anti-CAA protests, alleging selective leak of certain evidence against her by the police.

Justice Vibhu Bakhru heard the counsel for JNU student Devangana Kalitha, the Pinjra Tod (break the cage) member and the Delhi Police.

The high court, which was hearing the matter through video conferencing, was told by Kalitha's counsel that by selective leak he means selective leak of information to the media and not to selective persons.

"It is selective in the manner in which the information has been leaked to the media. It is causing grave prejudice to me," advocate Adit S Pujari, appearing for Kalitha, clarified and added that he was supplied the copy of the charge sheet only after media leaks.

He claimed that the press note issued by the police on June 2 to the media about the case was even contrary to the media advisory of the police.

The police have told the high court that the press note issued to the media was not a selective leak, as alleged by Kalitha, and it was done to present correct facts before the public.

Additional Solicitor General Aman Lekhi along with advocates Amit Mahajan and Rajat Nair, representing the police, told the court on Wednesday that the nature of the case and allegations levelled against the woman were not revealed by the investigating agency first and it was the members of that group who disclosed the details on social media.

The law officer had submitted that the issuance of press note on June 2 to the media about the case was not to harm Kalitha or tarnish her reputation but to correct the facts, put out by the group members on social media, as accountability of the institution was attached to it.

During Thursday's hearing, on Delhi Police's affidavit starting with the line that the agency issued a press note as the petitioner herself has started media trial, the high court said this is an unacceptable stand and if the police thinks this way, it has to be corrected.

Pujari also contended that in another petition filed by CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat seeking to upload in its website the FIRs lodged in connection with Delhi violence, police has opposed it saying the cases are sensitive and FIRs cannot be put in public domain as this would disclose the names of complainants, witnesses and accused.

However, contrary to this, the police has issued a press note giving details of the case to the media, he said.

The high court had earlier said the police cannot say that since the petitioner wanted a media trial therefore it was putting out information in the media.

It had said that multiple allegations have been made in the affidavit which go beyond the scope of the petition and suggested that it be withdrawn.

Subsequently, Lekhi had said he will not rely upon the affidavit and will confine his arguments to the point of law.

In the affidavit, Delhi Police has said Kalitha herself started a 'media trial' in her favour to gain sympathy and generate public opinion in her favour.

The affidavit was filed in response to her plea alleging that the probe agency was selectively leaking, to the media, certain information regarding allegations against her and the evidence purportedly collected against her.

The high court had earlier issued notice on her plea to Delhi Police seeking its response. It had also passed an interim order restraining it to share any information related to the case with a third party.

Responding to the notice, police said: "The petitioner (Kalitha) herself is guilty of peddling a false social media narrative of state sponsored oppression and subjugation against a particular community which incited the Delhi riots, and after the riots, she is guilty of peddling of a false narrative of a political vendetta, state sponsored pogrom, persecution and malicious prosecution against the said community."

Pinjra Tod group is a collective of women students and alumni of colleges from across Delhi.

Kalitha, who was arrested on May 23, is lodged in Tihar Jail under judicial custody in a case associated with violence in old Delhi''s Daryaganj area during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in December last year.

Three cases have been registered against her in relation to north east Delhi riots.

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.
When is a second stimulus check coming? How much will I get? Answers to both of those questions could come as soon as next week.

Forbes reports Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is expected to introduce legislation when Congress returns from recess on July 20, including a new relief package for Americans affected by the coronavirus pandemic. A second round of direct payments could be included, but the amount youll get may change.

A $3 trillion Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act (HEROES Act), already passed by the Democrat-led House, would again distribute $1,200 per person, via paper checks, direct deposit or debit cards, to help Americans whove lost income due to Covid-19. People with taxable income under $75,000 (or $150,000 for couples filing jointly) would be eligible, similar to the first round, and dependents would also qualify for $1,200 this time, regardless of age.

However, McConnell has reportedly said new stimulus checks might only be available for those who make up to $40,000 a year. By comparison, Americans who earned up to $75,000 each received $1,200 in the first round of stimulus checks under the CARES Act passed in March, which also included $500 for each child under the age of 17.

Bloomberg reports a $40,000 cap isnt likely to happen, and President Donald Trump has voiced support for stimulus checks with larger numbers. Some proposals have included as much as $2,000 per person.

I support actually larger numbers than the Democrats, but its got to be done properly, Trump told Fox Business earlier this month. I want the money getting to people to be larger so they can spend it. I want the money to get there quickly and in a non-complicated fashion.

According to Newsweek, though, the Trump administration is seeking to limit the stimulus package to $1 trillion and Republicans are concerned about the national debt, which has sharply risen from $22 trillion in February 2019 to more than $26 trillion this month.

We shouldnt lightly add more to the national debt, but Im predicting that we will have one more rescue package, which well begin to debate and discuss next week, McConnell said Tuesday during a press conference in Kentucky.

Forbes reports the legislation, which will be the fifth Covid-19 recovery package, also likely wont extend the $600 bonus for unemployment benefits  viewed by many GOP members as a disincentive to return to work  but is expected to include state and local aid, including financial support for schools to potentially reopen in the fall.

When will I get my second stimulus check?

The Senate is back in session from July 20 to Aug. 7, and if both parties agree to a new stimulus package by then Americans could start seeing payments in late August or early fall. Forbes reports some lawmakers have maintained a wait-and-see approach on the economy and jobs reports, suggesting a bill might not be passed before Congress long summer recess  and direct payments may not arrive until after September.

I think weve spent a massive amount of money, not all of it has even been spent yet ... and I think we need to evaluate what weve done before we do anything else, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee) recently said.

The good news is checks would likely be delivered faster this time after millions verified their information on the IRS Get My Payment site. The IRS recently said it has paid all eligible Americans that it had enough information on for checks from the first round, for a total of $267 billion.

The first round of payments took about a month to begin arriving in peoples bank accounts after Trump signed the CARES economic relief package in March.

How much would I get?

Under the current HEROES Act, each American would receive $1,200; married couples would receive $2,400; and parents would receive $1,200 per child, regardless of the dependents age. A family of four would potentially receive $4,800.

You can find out how much you would be eligible for by using the free Omni Calculator tool embedded below. Its also located on their site here.

Second Stimulus Check Calculator - HEROES Act

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SINGAPORE  The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 248 more COVID-19 cases on Thursday (16 July), bringing the total to 47,126, as well as 268 additional recoveries.

Of them, 11  including two Singaporeans  are classified as cases in the community, while four  half of whom are Singaporeans  are imported cases. The remaining 233 are foreign workers residing in dormitories.

Overall, four per cent of the new cases have no established links.

UPDATE: More details on the 11 COVID-19 community cases, 4 imported cases on Thursday in Singapore https://t.co/ffCvpNmeYs pic.twitter.com/mtir2jPjYf  Yahoo Singapore (@YahooSG) July 16, 2020

All of the 11 community cases, except for one, are asymptomatic and were detected through proactive testing, said the ministry. Apart from the two Singaporeans, they consist of five work pass, two work permit and two dependants pass holders.

Five of them are linked to previous cases or clusters. Of these, two  cases 47173 and 47174  had been identified as contacts of previously confirmed cases and had been tested during their quarantine to determine their status.

Another two  cases 47086 and 47088  were swabbed as part of the periodic screening of workers in the construction sector. The fifth linked community case  no. 47181 was identified via the testing of individuals working in frontline COVID-19 operations and is linked to the cluster at Toh Guan Dormitory.

Five of the six unlinked community cases  no. 47085, 47090, 47092, 47093, and 47170  had been detected as a result of the screening of workers in essential services who are living outside dorms.

Epidemiological investigations are ongoing for the remaining case  no. 47204  who was swabbed under the enhanced community testing to test all individuals aged 13 and above who are diagnosed with acute respiratory infection at first presentation to a doctor.

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Epidemiological investigations of the unlinked cases are in progress. In the meantime, all the identified close contacts of the cases have been isolated and placed on quarantine, and will be tested at the start and end of their quarantine period so that we can detect asymptomatic cases, said the MOH.

Serological tests will also be conducted on their household contacts to determine if these cases could have been infected by them, it added.

Amongst the four imported cases, three  no. 47084, 47087, and 47091  are Singapore residents who returned from the USA on 3 July and Azerbaijan on 4 July.

The remaining case  no. 47058  is a work pass holder who is currently employed in Singapore and arrived here from Indonesia on 4 July.

All of them had been placed on 14-day stay-home notice upon arrival in Singapore, and had been tested while serving their notice, the MOH said.

The ministry added that the number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of 16 cases per day in the week before, to an average of 12 per day in the past week.

Similarly, the number of unlinked cases in the community has also decreased, from an average of eight cases per day in the week before, to an average of seven per day in the past week, it said.

As of Tuesday, more than 215,000 foreign workers  or two-thirds of those living in dorms  have been tested and cleared in an ongoing effort, said the ministry. Of Singapores total COVID-19 tally, 44,404  some 94 per cent  are workers living in dorms.

We are on track to clear about 80 per cent of workers staying in the dorms by end-July, and to complete the testing of dorm residents around mid-August, the MOH added on Tuesday.

The ministry also said to expect a higher number of confirmed cases from foreign workers living in dorms over the new few days.

In the next few days, we have a larger population of migrant workers in various purpose-built dorms completing their isolation period and being tested for COVID-19, it added, noting that some of them came from dorms with a higher prevalence of COVID-19 infection.

92% of cases recovered, zero in ICU

With 268 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Thursday, 43,256 cases  some 92 per cent of the total tally  have fully recovered from the infection.

Most of the 146 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while none are in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

A total of 3,697 patients with mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

Apart from 27 patients who have died from COVID-19 complications, 14 others who tested positive for the virus were determined to have died from unrelated causes, including three whose deaths were attributed to a heart attack and another four, whose deaths were attributed to coronary heart disease.

Only cases where the attending doctor or pathologist attributes the primary or underlying cause of death as due to COVID-19 infection will be added to the COVID-19 death count, said the MOH in previous press releases, adding that the method of assessment is consistent with international practices for classifying deaths.

As of 13 July, the ministry has conducted 1,009,532 swab tests, of which 519,911 were done on unique individuals. This translates to around 177,100 swabs conducted per 1 million total population, and about 91,200 unique individuals swabbed per 1 million total population.

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Johnny Depp's security guard today revealed four photographs of the Hollywood actor with injuries after his then-wife Amber Heard allegedly attacked him, to support his sensational libel claim against a newspaper.

Depp, 57, is suing The Sun publisher News Group Newspapers (NGN) and its executive editor at the High Court over an April 2018 article which alleged he was violent towards Heard, 34, during their tumultuous relationship.

Security guard Sean Bett, who has worked for Depp for nine years, said he took three pictures on his mobile phone of the actor in December 2015, adding: 'Mr Depp told me that Miss Heard had slapped him in the face a few times.'

Asked in court by Depp's lawyer David Sherborne what he could see, Mr Bett replied: 'I could see what appears to be redness and what appears to be a 1.5 inch to 2 inch scratch and redness to the right of that scratch.'

Mr Bett also revealed a fourth photograph of an injured Depp in his witness statement released today, claiming that the injury in that picture was caused by Heard following her 30th birthday party in Los Angeles in April 2016.

But NGN's barrister Sasha Wass QC told the court that the photograph was actually taken in March 2015 in the same city on a date when Heard had already admitted she attacked Depp in defence of her sister Whitney.

Heard has previously claimed she and Depp were having an argument when he approached Whitney on a landing between two staircases in their home in Los Angeles - and she feared he might push her, so hit him in the face.

Last week, Ms Wass claimed in court that the couple had an argument in March 2015 because Heard found out he was having an affair with a woman named Rochelle Hathaway, with Depp responding that Heard 'was quite jealous of Rochelle and several other people, so I don't know that she found out I was having an affair'.

It is another bombshell development in the extraordinary case ongoing in London, with the court also told today:

Depp's bodyguard insisted he was not lying over claims that he saw Depp being regularly attacked by Heard;

The security guard, Sean Bett, said he regularly saw Heard throw 'bottles, glass and other objects' at Depp;

Heard was 'verbally and physically abusive' towards Depp throughout their relationship, he also said;

Depp's former partners Vanessa Paradis and Winona Ryder will now not appear to support his libel claim.

Today in court, Mr Bett also insisted that he was not lying over claims that he saw Depp being regularly attacked by Heard but never hit back. When accused of lying by Ms Wass, he said: 'You can call me a liar a hundred times but I'm not lying, I'm telling the truth.'

Security guard Sean Bett, who has worked for Johnny Depp for nine years, said he took three pictures on his mobile phone of the actor in December 2015, adding: 'Mr Depp told me that Miss Heard had slapped him in the face a few times'

Johnny Depp's security guard Sean Bett today revealed a photograph of the actor with a black eye after his then-wife Amber Heard allegedly punched him. He said it was taken on April 2016, but the court heard claim it was actually March 2015

Johnny Depp (left) and Amber Heard (right) wave as they leave the Royal Courts of Justice in London this afternoon. Depp was pictured holding a notebook with the title 'Jittery Scribblings of an Overly Caffeinated Introvert' on a faux vintage cover

Security guard Sean Bett (pictured today), who has worked for Depp and his family for nine years, gave evidence at the court

Mr Bett was shown a photograph of Depp with a facial injury. He initially stated in his statement that this was from an incident in April 2016, when he claimed Heard attacked the Hollywood star after he arrived late for her birthday.

Security guard becomes confused over when photograph of Depp's injuries was taken

It was revealed by Ms Wass that the photograph was in fact from an incident in March 2015 when Heard has admitted to attacking Depp in an attempt to protect her sister Whitney.

Ms Wass said: 'This is a picture from March 2015 in which she (Heard) admits she punched Mr Depp in defence of her sister.'

Turning to Mr Bett, she said: 'This is the only photo of Mr Depp with a visible injury. You are suggesting that this injury is in relation to an incident that took place more than a year later.'

Mr Bett told the court he had been sent the one attached to his statement by Depp's attorney Adam Waldman and that he initially believed it was the one he had taken, but had recently learned it was a different photo from March 2015, after seeing a version with a time and date stamp.

He said: 'He (Mr Waldman) sent me the photograph initially and asked me if I had any recollection of it and I said 'yes, of course'.

He added: 'I do remember taking that photograph, which now I know isn't the photograph that I took but a photograph was taken which was very similar to that photograph.'

Mr Bett explained that he had not kept old mobile phones and had looked for the original photo he took but been unable to find it, and thought perhaps he had taken the photo on Depp's phone on April 21.

A court artist's sketch of Johnny Depp's counsel David Sherborne reading documents at the High Court in London today

Depp leaves the High Court in London with his team this afternoon following the conclusion of the day's proceedings

Johnny Depp (left) and Amber Heard (right) arrive at the Royal Courts of Justice in London today for the libel trial to continue

Depp is assisted into the High Court by his security team this morning for his libel claim against The Sun to continue

Amber Heard (centre) arrives at the High Court today with her girlfriend Bianca Butti (left) and sister Whitney Heard (right)

He said he realised the mistake a few days ago when he saw the time stamp on the photo and told Depp's lawyers.

Ms Wass put it to him that he had attempted to use the wrong photograph to support his evidence of Depp being injured on April 21 and the security guard replied: 'That is not true, because I have taken other photographs of injuries which I have sent to the attorneys.'

Johnny Depp's security guard claims he paid a homeless man $425 cash and three chicken tacos for the return of star's phone after Amber Heard 'slung it from balcony of couple's LA penthouse' Johnny Depp's security guard said he gave a homeless man $425 and three chicken tacos for returning the actor's phone after Amber Heard threw it off a balcony. Starling Jenkins said he spent more than three hours searching for the device after Heard allegedly threw it out of the couple's penthouse home in Los Angeles in 2016. He told the High Court in London today that the search began after he arrived at the property on April 22 that year, and Heard explained to him what had happened. She was using the 'Find My iPhone' app to locate the device, which showed it was somewhere on the streets below the property at The Eastern Columbia Building. Amber Heard (third left) and her sister Whitney (right) are pictured at Coachella in April 2016 Mr Jenkins said he could not find the phone while walking around the streets but then 'asked several homeless people if they had it', and one admitted that he did. He said: 'He returned the phone to me in exchange for the following: $425 cash; three chicken tacos; two bags of chips; two apples; and four bottles of water.' Mr Jenkins said he had been working a security shift at the residence on the night of April 21, 2016 while Heard was celebrating her birthday there with friends. Depp was accused of throwing a bottle of champagne at Heard grabbing her by the hair and shoving her in a heated row at their LA penthouse, which he denies. Mr Jenkins returned the following day to 'escort Amber and her friends to the desert for the Coachella music festival', which takes place at the Empire Polo Club. He added that he did not see any 'marks or bruises' on Heard when he arrived at the home on April 22, despite Heard claiming that Depp attacked her the previous night. Mr Jenkins said he drove an SUV vehicle with the actress's luggage and Heard's dogs to the desert, while Heard drove separately in her Ford Mustang with her friends. He said Heard travelled to the festival with her friend Raquel Pennington, her sister Whitney, assistant Savannah and an unnamed make-up artist. Once in the desert, Mr Jenkins said he then drove them from their hotel, The Parker in Palm Springs, to the festival venue - and shadowed them for security purposes. He said that Heard 'frequently' spoke of her anger that Depp did not attend her birthday party on April 21, but did not make any suggestion of domestic violence. Mr Jenkins added: 'She was hooping it up all weekend, and it was clear that she and her girlfriends spent much of the time at Coachella intoxicated. 'She threw up at least once in the parking lot of The Parker and was clearly dehydrated at the time, and I had to obtain ginger ale and crackers for her.' Advertisement

Heard had no injuries following a row with Depp in their LA penthouse, says bodyguard

Mr Bett also insisted that he did not see Heard with any injuries following a row between Depp and Heard a month later in the Los Angeles penthouse they shared, when it is alleged, he left her with a black eye.

In a statement submitted to court, Mr Bett insisted that he had never seen Depp being 'violent to anyone including Ms Heard.'

He claimed that he regularly saw the Aquaman actress throw 'bottles, glass and other objects' at Depp while also being verbally abusive to him.

In response, maintained Mr Bett, Depp always remained passive and 'always tried to remove himself from the situation.'

He also described Heard as 'polite' when asked by Ms Wass if he had found her to be 'perfectly polite' when he was on his own with her without Depp. He was asked about the 'guard shack' at Depp's home.

Security guard reveals how Depp's home had a 'guard shack' for monitoring CCTV cameras

He told the court: 'The guard shack was an area where the security personnel stayed at his Hollywood address. It had several cameras in there, CCTV cameras, where you could monitor the streets and property.'

Ms Wass put it to Mr Bett: 'You said in your statement that Ms Heard never told you that Mr Depp would hit her.' He replied: 'Correct.'

Ms Wass asked if it came as a 'surprise' to him that she did not confide in him in the circumstances, saying he was Depp's employee. 'There was absolutely no reason whatsoever for Ms Heard to confide in you,' Ms Wass said.

Mr Bett told the court he would sometimes drive Heard home to the Eastern Columbia Buildings from Depp's Sweetzer Avenue property in Los Angeles.

Depp would 'feel bad for' Heard and didn't want her driving home herself while upset

He said Depp would 'feel bad for her' and would say that he didn't want her driving home herself while upset, so Mr Bett would drive her and make sure she got home safely.

The bodyguard said: 'During these times she would be crying, saying how much she loved Mr Depp and she's tired of the arguing, and I would tell her, 'well this has to stop between you two'.'

Ms Wass asked him if he was present during arguments between the couple and he said he was there 'when she would get upset for no apparent reason', adding that it was 'like a tantrum'.

Mr Bett was asked about part of his witness statement in which he said Heard was someone who 'behaved badly' when she had been drinking alcohol, and he confirmed to Ms Wass that he had seen both Heard and Depp drinking on 'many occasions'.

Ms Wass QC asked Mr Bett about Heard's 30th birthday party at the Eastern Columbia Buildings on April 21, 2016 and the security guard confirmed that he drove Depp from there to the Sweetzer Avenue home at some point after the guests had gone.

He then confirmed to Mr Justice Nicol that Depp had ownership or control of a number of penthouses in the Eastern Columbia Buildings, Sweetzer Avenue and a Woodrow Wilson address, which is where his children Lily-Rose and Jack and their mother Paradis live.

Ms Wass asked Mr Bett how long he, Depp's former head of security Jerry Judge and Depp were in the apartment building on May 21 2016, to which Mr Bett said 'between 30 and 40 minutes'.

The barrister then showed Mr Bett CCTV footage of the three of them entering the lift at around 7pm and leaving at around 8.30pm. She said: 'It would appear that your estimate of how long you were there is incorrect.'

Mr Bett replied: 'They are slightly off according to the (footage).'

Ms Wass asked what happened when Mr Bett entered the penthouse and whether 'Ms Heard was sitting on the sofa'. Mr Bett said: 'No, she was standing.'

Ms Wass asked if Ms Heard was crying, to which Mr Bett said: 'She was agitated and upset.' He added: 'I can't remember if I saw tears.'

Heard said she would call police 'if he hits me one more time', court hears

Ms Wass said: 'Ms Heard said to Jerry Judge 'if he hits me one more time I'm going to call the cops'.' Mr Bett confirmed that she said 'words to that effect'.

A woman films Johnny Depp arriving at the High Court in London this morning as legal proceedings in the capital continue

Depp waves to the photographers outside the High Court this morning (left), while his ex-wife Heard also arrives (right)

Ms Wass asked if Mr Bett was certain that he saw 'no injuries to Ms Heard'. Mr Bett replied: 'Correct.'

The 14 times Johnny Depp is accused of attacking Amber Heard 1. Early 2013 Heard says Depp was completely sober until early 2013, and around that time he allegedly hit her for the first time when they were in Los Angeles. She claims Depp later cried and apologised, telling her that he sometimes turns into 'the monster' when he snaps. Depp has 'expressly denied' hitting Heard and said that, around early 2013, he had 'confined himself to drinking wine and using marijuana, having been sober from around December 2011 to August 2012'. 2. March 8, 2013 Heard claims Depp was angry she had hung up a painting by her ex-partner Tasya Van Ree by her bed in her LA home, then tried to set the painting on fire and hit her 'so hard that blood from her lip ended up on the wall'. Depp, however, says he simply asked Heard to move the painting from the bedroom 'as a courtesy' and that she had an 'extreme reaction'. He also says a text he later sent describing the evening as a 'disco bloodbath' was to 'placate Ms Heard' and not an apology for alleged violence. 3. June 2013 Heard and Depp were in Hicksville, US with a group of people including Heard's sister Whitney and Depp's assistant Nathan Holmes. Heard says Depp, who was 'taking drugs', became 'enraged' and 'jealous' when one of her friends touched her, and he then threw glasses at her, ripped her dress and damaged the cabin they were staying in. Depp says he drank and took magic mushrooms, as did Heard and her friends who also took MDMA. He claims Heard's friend touched Heard in an 'extremely sexual manner' and he spoke to her to ask her to stop. 4. May 24, 2014 The pair took a private plan from Boston to LA: Heard says that during the flight Depp, who had been drinking heavily, threw objects at her, pushed a chair at her, slapped her and kicked her in the back before passing out in the toilet. Depp says Heard 'began to harangue him' as he was sketching in a notebook, he then tried to 'playfully tap her on the bottom with his foot', at which Heard took 'great offence' and 'continued to verbally berate' him. 5. August 17, 2014 The couple went to the Bahamas, Depp says to 'cure his dependence on painkillers', although Heard claims he was trying to give up other drugs too. Heard says Depp had 'several manic episodes' and his private doctor had to be flown over to help. She alleges that he slapped, kicked and grabbed by the hair during an attack. Depp alleges Heard stopped a nurse from giving him treatment while he was going through withdrawal. 6. December 17, 2014 Heard says Depp was 'violent towards' her in LA, and later texted calling himself a 'f****** savage' and a 'lunatic'. Depp denies any allegation of violence and says NGN has 'failed to provide any particulars of the alleged violence'. 7. January 25, 2015 While the couple were in Tokyo, Japan, Heard claims Depp shoved and slapped her and grabbed her by the hair, before standing over her and shouting while she was on the floor - which Mr Depp denies. 8. Around March 3-5, 2015 Depp is said to have repeatedly assaulted Heard after an argument over his alleged use of MDMA during a three-day trip to Australia. She says he stayed up all night, taking pills and drinking, and then attacked her again the next morning. Heard says, the following night, Depp pushed her into a table tennis table, tore off her nightgown and attacked her, before smashing a telephone into a wall and severing the top of his middle finger. She also claims he had written messages to her around the house in a mixture of paint and blood from his finger, which Depp admits doing while 'in shock', as well as having 'urinated all over the house in an attempt to write messages', which he denies. Depp says Heard was in 'a prolonged and extreme rage' following an argument over a post-nuptial agreement. He says he then 'broke my sobriety' with several glass of vodka, before Heard threw a bottle at him, severing the top of his finger, and stubbed a cigarette out on his cheek. 9. March 2015 Heard says Depp became 'enraged' when they were in LA with her sister and began destroying things in the house before hitting her 'hard and repeatedly'. She also claims he tried to push her sister down the stairs before hitting Heard again. Depp, however, says Heard was 'berating him in a rage' as he tried to leave, threw a can of Red Bull at him and punched him in the face before he finally left. 10. August 2015 While they were on the Eastern and Oriental Express in south east Asia, Heard alleges Depp 'picked a fight' with her, hit her and pushed her against a wall by the throat, 'causing her to fear for her life' - which is denied by Depp. 11. November 26, 2015 In LA, Depp is alleged to have ripped Heard's shirt and 'threw her around the room', also throwing a wine glass and a 'heavy glass decanter' at her, as well as pushing her over a chair which caused her to bang her head against a wall. Depp says they were in LA for Thanksgiving, but denies any allegation of abuse. 12. December 15, 2015 Heard claims Depp threw a decanter at her in their penthouse in LA, then slapped her and dragged her through the apartment by her hair, allegedly pulling 'large chunks of hair' from Heard's scalp. She says he then followed her upstairs and pushed her to the floor while shouting 'you think you're a f****** tough guy' before headbutting her. Heard says that when she told Depp she wanted to leave him he grabbed her and screamed: 'I f****** will kill you - I'll f****** kill you, you hear me?' Depp, though, says 'Ms Heard fabricated the alleged violence', falsely claiming that 'blonde hair on the floor was her hair'. He also claims that 'the only violence committed on that date was by Ms Heard', who allegedly 'violently attacked' him. 13. April 21, 2016 Heard says Depp arrived at her birthday party at their LA home late, 'drunk and high on drugs' and they had an argument after the guests had left. She claims he threw a bottle of champagne at her and shoved her to the floor several times before leaving a note reading: 'Happy F****** Birthday.' Depp says he arrived at the party around two hours late following a meeting with his new business manager and accountants, and that he was not on drugs but 'shocked from what he had learnt at the meeting about his business affairs'. He claims Heard had been 'drinking heavily' and attacked him while he was reading in bed, punching him in the face four times before he grabbed her arms to stop her. Depp says the next day Heard or one of her friends 'defecated in Mr Depp's and Ms Heard's bed', and that Heard later told the building manager Kevin Murphy that it was 'just a harmless prank' - at which he point he 'then resolved to divorce Ms Heard'. 14. May 21, 2016 Depp arrived at their LA apartment, allegedly 'drunk and high' while Heard was there with friends. Heard said Depp became 'very angry', throwing her phone at her and hitting her in the eye before smashing 'everything he could' with a magnum of champagne. He says he went to the apartment with two security guards to collect his belongings after Heard and her sister 'repeatedly' tried to contact him. Depp claims his two security guards entered the room when they heard Heard shouting, and saw her 'repeatedly screaming, 'stop hitting me, Johnny'' while he was 20 feet away in the kitchen. He also says that two police officers who attended the apartment after the incident 'saw no injuries or bruising or swelling'. 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He added: 'If you are 20 feet away, in my opinion it can be difficult to see a tear on one's face (but) it's clear if there is an injury of any type, you would be able to see.'

Mr Bett said that he would be able to have seen an injury to Heard 'especially with her fair skin'.

Ms Wass suggested to Mr Bett that 'you are lying and that she had visible reddening to her cheek'. Mr Bett replied: 'I'm not a liar, I'm telling the truth.'

Ms Wass asked if Johnny Depp was 'extremely agitated' when he was being 'ushered out of the flat', and Mr Bett said he was. The barrister said: 'Presumably you have seen him like that many times before.' Mr Bett said: 'No.'

Ms Wass said Depp then went to one of the neighbouring penthouses he owned and 'was threatening people, other people (Joshua) Drew and the other woman'.

Mr Bett replied: 'That's not true. Mr Depp told Mr Drew and the said female to get out of this apartment.'

Ms Wass said: 'When Mr Depp left (the penthouse) he had with him a bottle of red wine, do you remember that?' Mr Bett replied: 'I can't confirm if he had wine with him or not.'

Ms Wass suggested Mr Depp 'threw the wine and smashed the wine' outside one of the other apartments. Mr Bett responded: 'There was no smashing of anything.'

'Did you not see wine dribbled along the wall?' Ms Wass asked. 'I didn't,' Mr Bett replied.

Ms Wass then said: 'You knew the police had been called that night, didn't you?' Mr Bett said: 'I did.'

Ms Wass asked: 'How did you find that out?' Mr Bett replied: 'I believe that the estate manager at the time, Kevin Murphy, sent me a text.'

Ms Wass continued: 'The name of the officers who attended, you found out their names, didn't you?' Mr Bett said: 'Not until they had a deposition and it was made public.'

Ms Wass said that Ms Heard would have known the identities of the two police officers who attended, but that 'there was no way the public would have access to the identities'.

She asked: 'Are you able to offer any explanation as to how the identities of the police officers were released to the Depp team in order to enable them to depose those two witnesses?' Mr Bett replied: 'I have no idea how those names were obtained.'

Ms Wass asked: 'It would have to be some sort of inside information at the LAPD?' She added: 'This is, on the face of it, confidential police information, isn't it?' Mr Bett replied: 'No, if there is a court order... departments in California are bound to release it.'

Ms Wass asked: 'You played no part in seeking the identity of those officers?' Mr Bett replied: 'That's correct.'

Ms Wass put it to Mr Bett: 'Your evidence, Mr Bett, is that Mr Depp is not violent and you are not violent.' He replied: 'That's correct.'

Woman claimed she was 'roughed up' by Depp's bodyguards at an Iggy Pop concert

Ms Wass then referred to a 2012 court case about an alleged incident involving Depp's security guards at an Iggy Pop concert.

She read out an LA Times article about the incident in which a woman alleged she was 'roughed up' and forced into handcuffs by Depp's bodyguards.

'It's not factually accurate,' Mr Bett said. Ms Wass asked Mr Bett: 'Did you ever say to this lady that you were a police officer?' 'No,' he replied.

Ms Wass said the woman's pants were removed 'exposing her buttocks'.

At this point, the judge intervened to ask Ms Wass where her line of questioning was going. Mr Depp's barrister David Sherborne said: 'This is ridiculous.'

Ms Wass asked Mr Bett: 'Do you agree that you were involved in violence against a woman?'

Mr Bett replied: 'No, and those statements are incorrect and it was proved through the testimony of witnesses.' Ms Wass said there was a 'confidential settlement' of the case, and Mr Bett said: 'Yes.'

Mr Sherborne asked Mr Bett about the incident at the Iggy Pop concert: 'Was Mr Depp on his own or with his children?' Mr Bett replied: 'His children were present.'

Mr Sherborne continued: 'You (Sean Bett) described how... Mr Depp, at the end of an argument, would still ask you to drive Ms Heard home because he wanted to make sure that she got home safe.'

He added: 'You said that she would be crying sometimes, she would say she was tired of arguing... at any time, did she ever say that Mr Depp had hit her?' Mr Bett replied: 'No.'

He was also asked if Ms Heard ever said Mr Depp was 'violent' or that she was 'afraid of him', and he said 'no' to both. Mr Sherborne asked: 'Did you ever see any injuries, bruises, marks, swelling on her during those conversations you had with her?' 'I didn't,' Mr Bett said.

Mr Sherborne asked Mr Bett about photographs of Mr Depp which Mr Bett said showed injuries on Depp's face. 'Mr Depp told me that Ms Heard had slapped him on the face a few times,' he said.

Mr Sherborne asked the witness: 'It was put to you, Mr Bett, that you're lying for Depp... that's what you came here to do'. Mr Bett replied: 'That's incorrect.'

Security guard talks about 'recurring cycle' in which Heard would 'abuse' Depp

Mr Bett alleged in his written statement that there was a 'recurring cycle' in which Heard would 'abuse' Depp, who would then 'remove himself from the situation'.

Mr Bett said it was a 'very common occurrence' that the actor would call members of his security team to 'take him away from Ms Heard'.

Mr Bett, a former deputy with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, claimed in his witness statement that he saw the couple 'very regularly' during their relationship and 'never saw any cuts, bruises or other injuries on Ms Heard'.

'On the contrary, throughout the course of Mr Depp and Ms Heard's relationship, Ms Heard was verbally and physically abusive towards Mr Depp,' he alleged.

'On many occasions, I witnessed her shout at Mr Depp. I was also told by Mr Depp on multiple occasions that Ms Heard had physically abused him.

'A very common occurrence throughout the relationship would be that Mr Depp would have me, and other members of his security team, take him away from Ms Heard, due to her behaviour. He would then stay somewhere else.

'This happened on so many occasions that it is not possible for me to remember them all in detail. However, I would describe it as a recurring cycle that Ms Heard would abuse Mr Depp, who would then remove himself from the situation.'

Mr Bett also claimed: 'Ms Heard often behaved in this way when she had been drinking. I learnt quickly to recognise the signs, so that we were able to leave the situation before it escalated further.'

In his statement, Mr Bett gave his account of an incident on May 21 2016, in which Depp is alleged to have thrown a phone at Heard and smashed objects at their LA penthouse, which he denies.

Mr Bett said he and another security guard, Jerry Judge, were waiting outside and entered the apartment when they heard shouts from Ms Heard.

His statement said: 'When we entered, we saw Mr Depp standing approximately 20 feet away from Ms Heard, who was standing by the couch.

'As soon as Ms Heard noticed that we had entered the room, she looked very surprised; her demeanour then changed and she pointed at Mr Depp and screamed to us words to the effect of 'If he hits me one more time, I am calling the police'.'

Mr Bett went on to say: 'I have quite good eyesight. I was able to see that Ms Heard was wearing little or no make-up, her skin was quite pale and she had no red marks or evidence of any bruises or abrasions to her face or body.

'I could see Mr Depp was visibly upset at having been accused of hitting Ms Heard. However, he never came closer than 20 feet to her during the time I was able to observe them.

'I did not notice any smashed glass or broken bottles in the apartment at the time.'

Mr Bett claimed he, Depp and Mr Judge agreed that the actor should leave the building 'due to the fact that the situation had escalated and Ms Heard was hysterically shouting at Mr Depp and making allegations about his behaviour'.

Vanessa Paradis and Winona Ryder will now not appear at court to support Depp's libel claim

Meanwhile, it was revealed today Depp's former partners Vanessa Paradis and Winona Ryder will now not appear at the High Court to support his libel claim.

Johnny Depp being taken to hospital with a severed finger, following the incident in Australia in March 2015

Depp, 57, and Heard, 34, met on the set of the 2011 comedy 'The Rum Diary' and married in Los Angeles in February 2015. They are pictured at the film's premiere in London in November 2011

Amber Heard photographed Johnny Depp with ice cream spilled on his legs during a private flight from Boston to Los Angeles in May 2014 before showing it to him the next day and saying: 'Look at what you've become', the court heard earlier this week

Actress Paradis, who was in a relationship with Depp for more than 14 years and had two children with him, had been expected to give evidence in support of the Pirates Of The Caribbean star's case over a videolink today.

'This is NOTHING like the true Johnny': Depp's exes Winona Ryder and Vanessa Paradis blast 'horrific' claims against him in statements released by High Court after he chose not to call them as witnesses Johnny Depp's former partners Vanessa Paradis and Winona Ryder have given staunch statements in defence of the Hollywood actor, labelling 'wife beater' claims against him, 'horrific, distressing and outrageous.' Actress Paradis, who was in a relationship with Depp for more than 14 years and had two children with him, had been expected to give evidence in support of the Pirates Of The Caribbean star's case over a videolink today. But the court was told today that there was no need for her - or his ex-fiancee in the 1990s, actress Ryder - to give evidence because Depp's claim that he has never hit a woman was only tested by the defence regarding Heard. Johnny Depp and his former partner Vanessa Paradis in London on October 17, 2004. Paradis will now no longer appear at the court today via videolink in support of Depp's libel claim against a newspaper over an article that labelled him a 'wife beater' However their bombshell statements were released by the court today, showing both stood faithfully by Depp's side. Winona Ryder said she was 'absolutely shocked, and upset' by the allegations against him. She added in her statement, provided in advance of the trial: 'The idea that he is an incredibly violent person is the farthest thing from the Johnny I knew and loved. 'I cannot wrap my head around these accusations. He was never, never violent towards me. He was never, never abusive at all towards me. He has never been violent or abusive towards anybody I have seen. Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder in Los Angeles in September 1990. Ryder had been due to give evidence via videolink 'I truly and honestly only know him as a really good man - an incredibly loving, extremely caring guy who was so very protective of me and the people that he loves, and I felt so very, very safe with him. 'I do not want to call anyone a liar but from my experience of Johnny, it is impossible to believe that such horrific allegations are true. I find it extremely upsetting, knowing him as I do.' Paradis described the actor as a 'kind, attentive, generous and non-violent person and father.' 'On movie sets the actors, directors and entire crews adore him because he is humble and respectful to everyone, as well as being one of the best actors we've seen,' she added. Advertisement

But the court was told today that there was no need for her - or another ex-partner, actress Ryder - to give evidence because Depp's claim that he has never hit a woman was only tested by the defence regarding Heard.

At an earlier preliminary hearing in the case, part of 47-year-old Paradis's witness statement said: 'I have known Johnny for more than 25 years. We've been partners for 14 years and we raised our two children together.

'Through all these years I've known Johnny to be a kind, attentive, generous, and non-violent person and father.' She added: 'He was never violent or abusive to me.'

This morning, Depp's barrister David Sherborne said the trial timetable had been revised, adding: 'There is no need to reschedule those witnesses (Ryder and Paradis), much as it would have been a pleasure to have them here.'

Witnesses will instead today include Starling Jenkins and Alejandro Romero, who worked at the Eastern Columbia Buildings in LA where Heard and Depp lived.

Heard's former PA accuses her of 'twisting' her own account of a rape for 'her own use'

Yesterday, Heard's former personal assistant accused the actress of 'twisting' her own account of a machete-point rape for 'her own use', in explosive evidence on the seventh day of Depp's libel claim.

Appearing by videolink from Los Angeles yesterday, Kate James claimed Heard, 34, had 'stolen' her story of being 'violently raped' in Brazil almost three decades ago.

In her witness statement, Ms James said she discovered the Aquaman actress had 'stolen my sexual violence conversation with her and twisted it into her own story to benefit herself'.

She added: 'This of course caused me extreme distress and outrage that she would dare to attempt to use the most harrowing experience of my life as her own narrative.'

Ms James said she was giving evidence because she took 'offence' at Heard's actions.

NGN's barrister Sasha Wass QC suggested Ms James had been 'influenced' by Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas actor Depp and his associates and 'encouraged' to give 'vicious evidence' against Heard.

Ms James replied: 'I'm here for my own reasons ... I'm a sexual violence survivor and that's very, very serious to take that stance if you are not one and I am one. That's the reason I'm here, because I take offence.'

Ms James, who worked for Heard between 2012 and 2015, said her former employer would send a 'barrage of drunk text messages between the hours of two and four in the morning ... on an almost daily basis', describing the messages as 'abusive'.

She accused Heard of deleting all the 'abusive' texts after the actress terminated her employment, adding: 'She saved the ones that weren't.'

Heard 'did not care about throwing anyone under the bus', says former PA

In her statement, Ms James said Heard felt she was 'above the law', and claimed she 'did not care about throwing anyone under the bus, if it meant saving her own skin'.

Heard asked her in September 2014 to send a letter the actress had drafted to Homeland Security officials in the US about a woman named Savannah McMillan, who had been hired to work as a set assistant, Ms James claimed.

According to Ms James, Heard said in the letter: 'Savannah McMillan is a personal friend and, to my knowledge, has never worked unlawfully or otherwise in the United States. Or for me.'

Ms James said in her statement that Heard 'knew this to be untrue' and 'Amber was therefore wilfully lying to the US immigration department'.

She also claimed Heard 'deliberately smuggled' two Yorkshire terriers, Pistol and Boo, into Australia illegally in April 2015.

Heard asked Depp's estate manager to ask her PA to 'lie under oath', court hears

The High Court in London earlier heard evidence from Kevin Murphy, Depp's former estate manager, who claimed Heard asked him to contact Ms James and ask her to 'lie under oath' to an Australian court.

Mr Murphy said the actress also 'demanded' he make a false statement about the animals being 'smuggled' into the country, and told him: 'I wouldn't want you to have a problem with your job.'

In October 2015, Heard faced criminal proceedings in Australia for taking the couple's two dogs into the country illegally.

She and Depp later recorded a now infamous video, which was played to the court, apologising for doing so.

A man holding a placard in support of Depp stands outside the High Court in London this morning ahead of the latest hearing

The carnage in a home in Australia after Depp and Heard allegedly had a fight in 2015, which was released yesterday as part of Ben King's evidence. The picture shows an undamaged phone handset, with Mr King insisting ' I did not see any phones which had been broken', despite Heard's claims that he smashed it against a wall and cut off his fingertip while attacking her

Depp is alleged to have trashed a penthouse in Los Angeles, California, which Heard used as a colossal closet

Photographs were issued by Heard's legal team of her with injuries to her face around the time of the alleged attack on December 15, 2015, showing bruising across the bridge of her nose and under her eyes after Depp allegedly headbutted her

Mr Murphy said he lied under oath 'because Amber wielded a lot of power and would have made my life miserable'.

Johnny Depp v The Sun: Key issues in libel trial Hollywood star Johnny Depp's libel claim against The Sun enters its second week on Monday. These are the key issues the trial judge, Mr Justice Nicol, has to determine. - Whether the April 2018 article by the tabloid's executive editor Dan Wootton was defamatory of Depp. Under the Defamation Act 2013, a statement is not defamatory unless its publication causes 'serious harm to the reputation of the claimant'. - The Sun's publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN), is defending the claim and relying on a defence of truth. It is for the publisher to prove that the allegations made in the article are 'substantially true'. - The meaning of the article, which is defined as what it would mean to the 'reasonable reader', will have to be determined by the judge. But NGN's lawyers say the differences between the rival meanings contended by each side are 'not significant' and the outcome of the case will therefore not turn on meaning. - Depp's case is that the article bore the meaning that he was 'guilty, on overwhelming evidence, of serious domestic violence against his then wife, causing significant injury and leading to her fearing for her life, for which he was constrained to pay no less than 5 million to compensate her, and which resulted in him being subjected to a continuing court restraining order; and for that reason is not fit to work in the film industry'. He strenuously denies the allegations and claims he 'has never hit or committed any acts of physical violence against Ms Heard'. - The meaning which NGN will seek to prove is true is that the Claimant beat his wife Amber Heard, causing her to suffer significant injury and on occasion leading her to fearing for her life. They rely on 14 separate allegations of violence and allege more generally that Depp was 'controlling and verbally and physically abusive' towards Ms Heard, particularly when he was under the influence of alcohol and or drugs, throughout their relationship. NGN's lawyers say an important issue for the judge to decide will be what substances Depp was using during the relationship. They contend that he frequently lost control of himself, partly because of his heavy drug and alcohol use, and also that his memory has been impaired by his heavy use of drugs. - If Depp wins his case, the judge will have to decide what level of compensation he should receive for the harm to his reputation and for the 'distress, hurt and humiliation caused'. There is an upper limit on general damages for libel of 300,000 to 325,000. However, if he succeeds, Depp may also be entitled to aggravated damages. The actor is also asking for a final injunction against NGN, who his legal team say 'have retained the article on their website and maintained their allegation to the bitter end'. Advertisement

He also gave evidence about the 'defecation incident', when faeces were found in the couple's bed after Heard's 30th birthday party in April 2016.

Ms Wass read a text from Heard to Mr Murphy in October 2014, when the actress said: 'I'm worried she's got brain damage. She can't seem to predict or control when she uses the bathroom.

'Last night she s**t ON Johnny while he was sleeping, like all over him. Not exaggerating.'

Mr Murphy said in his witness statement that, when he spoke to Depp in April 2016 about the 'defecation incident', the actor was 'sullen and disgusted'.

Ms Wass read two text messages sent by Depp shortly after the incident, saying that in one, he wrote 'my wife left a whopper poop on my bed' and 'then he says 'Amber Turd''.

She said: 'In fact, it appears from those texts that Depp found the subject quite amusing,' to which Mr Murphy said he thought the actor was being 'sarcastic'.

Mr Murphy was asked if Heard had told him the faeces in the bed was a 'harmless prank', and said: 'She certainly did.'

Yesterday morning, Depp's previous estate manager, Ben King, gave evidence that Depp and Heard 'argued like schoolchildren', with explosive rows starting from 'banal beginnings'.

He claimed Heard was the 'antagoniser' in the relationship, often 'goading' and attempting to provoke the actor.

Mr King, who worked for the Hollywood star for three separate periods between 2014 and 2016, said he never saw Depp 'be violent or unkind towards Heard, or indeed towards anyone else'.

In his first witness statement, Mr King said that in March 2015 he was summoned to the house the couple were renting in Australia, where he found a 'significant amount of damage' and discovered the actor's severed fingertip on the floor of the bar area while cleaning up broken glass and debris.

Depp has been accused of subjecting Heard to a 'three-day hostage situation' and trashing the house during the Australia trip, which he denies.

His finger was severed during the stay, which he says was caused by Ms Heard throwing a vodka bottle at him, which she denies.

Yesterday, the court did not have time to hear from actress Ryder, who was engaged to Mr Depp in the 1990s, or Katherine Kendall, an actress and #MeToo advocate who claims she was 'misquoted' in The Sun's article.

Depp is suing NGN and its executive editor Dan Wootton over the publication of an article headlined: 'Gone Potty: How can JK Rowling be 'genuinely happy' casting wife beater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film?'.

His lawyers say the article bore the meaning there was 'overwhelming evidence' Depp assaulted Heard on a number of occasions and left her 'in fear for her life'.

Heard claims that, during an incident in Australia, she was subjected to a 'three-day hostage situation' during which Depp drank to excess and took pills.

NGN is defending the article as true, and says Depp was 'controlling and verbally and physically abusive towards Heard, particularly when he was under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs'.




Health authorities said Thursday that three crewmen on a Russian ship docked in the southeastern port city of Busan have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, fueling concerns over another potential group infection amid a rising number of imported cases in the country.







The virus-infected sailors were on a Russia-flagged fishing vessel that entered Gamcheon Port in Busan last month, according to the city's health authorities. The ship is currently docked at a repair shipyard in the city.







Health authorities said more cases could come from the ship as it carried 29 crew members. Test results on other seafarers, currently isolated on the ship, are expected to be announced soon.







Earlier this week, a Russian sailor aboard a Tuvalu-flagged deep-sea fishing vessel docked at Gamcheon Port tested positive for COVID-19. The other 43 crew members tested negative in virus tests, though they will be checked again during their two-week quarantine that runs through July 28.







The latest cases follow cluster infections tied to Russia-flagged ships last month that put health authorities in Busan on alert, with 19 related cases reported.







Since then, South Korea has been conducting onboard quarantine checks of foreign ships arriving from high-risk countries after assessing the degree of risks.







For Russian ships that need lots of contact with local workers, health authorities said they will conduct virus tests on all crewmembers. (Yonhap)


This article is the fourth in a series exploring the long-term social impacts of COVID-19, written by members of the Trudeau Foundation COVID-19 Impact Committee.

The unprecedented COVID-19 crisis has exposed the multi-dimensional inequalities that structure Canadian society and many other countries around the world. In Canada, the pandemic caused the death of thousands of elderly, Black, and low-income Canadians, and affected large numbers of racialized immigrants, asylum seekers, and temporary foreign farmworkers.

While many Canadian citizens and permanent residents have been able to access government programs to alleviate the socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic, the temporary status of foreign workers and international students has worsened their precarious situations by limiting their access to Canadian relief programs.

The exclusion of temporary foreign workers from government relief programs and COVID-19 death toll among racialized foreign residents shine a negative light on Canadas international reputation as a world leader with respect to immigrant and refugee resettlement.

The arduous COVID-19 context, however, provides Canadians with an opportunity to reflect on what it means to socially, economically and politically include immigrants, refugees, and temporary residents into Canadas immigration-driven economy. Canadian policy-makers and civil society should re-examine how newcomers integrate into this country, which relies on a continual flow of immigrants for its economic stability and growth.

The social, economic, and political inequalities that affect the integration of immigrants, refugees, and temporary residents in Canada require that governments and civil society adopt a pluralistic and intersectional vision to think about immigration in the post-pandemic world.

A pluralistic vision of immigration  based on a plurality of ways of thinking  should combine a top-down approach of immigration policies with bottom-up consultations among resettlement organizations, immigrants and refugees. This vision will allow policy-makers and civil society to consider newcomers social integration into Canada beyond their mere economic benefit to the country. It will allow addressing immigrants and refugees specific concerns about social ties, social risks, stigma, and socioeconomic impacts during the pandemic.

This means that policy-makers should reconsider the exclusion of temporary foreign workers and international students from government relief measures, especially as many of them may have been essential workers during the pandemic.

Policy-makers should reassess the differential or even inhuman treatment of asylum seekers in Quebec, migrant farmworkers in Ontario, and detained undocumented migrants in fighting the spread of the virus. It is critical to rethink the forced confinement of foreigners on agricultural farms in inhuman conditions.

This pluralistic vision will also be important to implement policies to palliate the nonrecognition of foreign credentials and the Canadian experience requirement that have limited newcomers to find employment prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

An intersectional vision of immigration is imperative to understand how the lives, job opportunities and outcomes, as well as the mental and physical health of immigrants and refugees in Canada, are impacted by their sociodemographic characteristics, such as race, income, gender, sexuality, nationality, employment, residential zones, language spoken, political affiliation, among others.

This vision will be vital for civil society to hold federal, provincial, and municipal governments accountable for their promises of post-pandemic change. Indeed, human history has shown us that social transformations do not only stem from the enactment of new laws and public policies, but also from a profound cultural change in civil societys ways of thinking and behaving.

Part of civil societys cultural change requires that Canadians recognize the vital contribution of immigrants, refugees and other temporary residents as some of the heroes of the pandemic and the backbone of the Canadian economy and labour force during this crisis.

Bottom-up consultations with immigrants and refugees will allow policy-makers to address how social, economic, and political inequalities have impacted the lives of permanent and temporary residents in Canada. These consultations will allow Canada to include the lived experience of permanent and temporary residents in its immigration policy.

As immigration is vital to Canada, the country should continue ensuring decent living conditions for its foreign residents who have contributed billions of dollars yearly to this countrys economic growth and stability.
Akintunde Arotile, father of Tolulope, the late first female combat helicopter pilot of the Nigerian Air Force, has narrated how he spok...

Akintunde Arotile, father of Tolulope, the late first female combat helicopter pilot of the Nigerian Air Force, has narrated how he spoke to her a few hours before she died.





Speaking with NAN on Wednesday, Arotile said being devastated is an understatement, recalling how the late Tolulope aspired to have an air service career as a child.





The late NAF officer died in a freak accident at the Kaduna air force base on Tuesday.





A former classmate of hers was said to have unknowingly knocked her down during which she sustained head injuries.

Arotile recalled how he had told his daughter to return home on time when they spoke hours to her demise, not knowing she was never going to be home again.







Sympathisers around the parents of the deceased pilot





Just yesterday, at about 1 pm, I called her because she just came back from an operation against the bandits in Katsina (and) they gave them one week to rest, he said.





So, she was sleeping and told me she was in bed resting. She said she will later go out to make some photocopies and I told her not to be long and to return home on time because she was staying with my first daughter in Kaduna.





Around 5:30 pm, somebody called me and asked if I had called her today and I said yes. Then the person told me to call her which I did, but no response, so I called her colleagues, and they were all crying on phone.





called one of her bosses who told me that she is in the mortuary and I said, this is somebody I spoke with four hours ago and by 5pm she was in the mortuary. I asked what happened, they were just crying. So, Icalled one of her bosses who told me that she is in the mortuary and I said, this is somebody I spoke with four hours ago and by 5pm she was in the mortuary.





He also recalled how his late daughter dreamt about flying an aircraft, saying she had not just been brilliant but wonderful.





One day when she was very small, she pointed to one small aircraft parked on the field and said, dad, one day, I am going to fly that aircraft and I said Amen, he recalled, adding that she started working towards actualising the dream from that day.





The deputy governor signing the condolence register.

Right from day one, she had been very very intelligent. Sometimes, I wonder what type of IQ she had. She also combined intelligence with hard-work. I just thank God that she was able to achieve her dreams as a baby before her death, Arotile said.




Michelle Obama is launching a podcast that will debut this month and include interviews with her family members and big names like late night host Conan O'Brien and top Obama White House adviser Valerie Jarrett.

The former First Lady will lead the 'Michelle Obama Podcast' with Higher Ground, her production company created with husband former President Barack Obama.

The new podcast is focused on meaningful relationships and will include guests like her mother Marian Robinson, her brother Craig Robinson, journalist Michele Norris, and Dr. Sharon Malone, who is married to former Attorney General Eric Holder who served in the Obama administration.

The special series was announced Thursday in conjuction with Spotify and will debut on July 29.

Michelle Obama is launching a podcast focused on meaningful relationships that will debut on July 29

'Hosted by Michelle Obama, the series will bring listeners the former First Lady's most candid and personal conversations, showing us what's possible when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable, to open up, and to focus on what matters most,' the two companies announced in a press release.

Obama said in a statement that shes hopeful the series 'can be a place to explore meaningful topics together and sort through so many of the questions we're all trying to answer in our own lives.'

'Perhaps most of all, I hope this podcast will help listeners open up new conversations -- and hard conversations -- with the people who matter most to them. That's how we can build more understanding and empathy for one another,' she added.

The new podcast is focused on meaningful relationships and will include guests like her mother Marian Robinson, her brother Craig Robinson, and friends like late night host Conan O'Brien

She'll also chat with Obama White House top adviser Valerie Jarrett. The two pictured speaking together during Obama's Becoming book tour stop in Washington on November 17, 2018

She released her best-selling memoir Becoming in 2018

Since leaving the White House in 2017, Obama has pursued various projects including writing and selling her bestselling memoir Becoming.

For the release she launched a whirlwind book tour where she was interviewed by friends Oprah and Sarah Jessica Parker and released a documentary film under the same name.

This is the first podcast to come from a deal between Higher Ground and Spotify, that signed with the music streaming company last year.

'We believe that audiences across the globe will be inspired by these most candid, most human and most personal conversations between First Lady Michelle Obama and her guests,' Spotify Chief Content Officer Dawn Ostroff said in a statement according to The Wrap.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf speaks at a campaign rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Sept. 21, 2018. (Mark Makela/Getty Images)

Pennsylvania Governor Steps Up CCP Virus Restrictions After More Cases Reported

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) announced new restrictions on restaurants, bars, and other gatherings following a rise in COVID-19 cases.

When we hit our peak on April 9, we had nearly 2,000 new cases that day with other days cases hovering around 1,000. Medical experts looking at the trajectory we are on now are projecting that this new surge could soon eclipse the April peak. With our rapid case increases we need to act again now, Wolf, a Democrat, said in a news conference on Wednesday.

The governors new orders include reducing the indoor dining capacity to 25 percent in restaurants, limiting on-premises alcohol sales, limiting outdoor gatherings to 250 people, and limiting indoor gatherings to 25 people. It will also ask businesses to allow people to work from home whenever possible.

The restrictions went into effect at midnight on Thursday.

 New statewide #COVID19 restrictions (effective 7/16/20):  indoor dining: reduced to 25% capacity

 bars: open for sit-down meals at tables, no bar service

 gatherings: <25 people indoor, <250 people outdoor

 telework: mandated (if possible)

: https://t.co/1Y07qMyas9 pic.twitter.com/jU0dENHpej  PA Department of Health (@PAHealthDept) July 15, 2020

This is what we have to do. It may feel like a step backwards, but it isnt. Its just a reminder that we need to get back on the course of mask wearing, social distancing and successfully mitigating COVID-19, Wolf said.

Wolf stressed that since Pennsylvania is at a tipping point, officials dont want the state to become Florida. Florida has seen a large surge in cases in recent weeks.

We dont want to become Texas. We dont want to become Arizona. We have got to act now, he said, referring to other states that have seen high cases of the virus. California is another state that has reported a significant increase in CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus cases in recent days, prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom to implement more restrictions on businesses earlier in the week.

The governor blamed careless actions by bar and restaurant patrons for a surge in cases.

They are annoyingly spreading, or annoyingly picking up, the virus, Wolf told reporters. This carelessness has resulted in pockets of super-spreading.

The state Health Department reported 994 new positive virus cases Wednesday, bringing the total to about 97,000. Twenty-six new deaths have been reported.

Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Rep. Kerry Benninghoff (R-Centre/Mifflin) and other GOP members said the new restrictions will be devastating for the states economy.

Gov. Wolfs decision today will close the doors of some small businesses forever and devastate the livelihoods of so many Pennsylvanians who were just beginning to feel hopeful for the future, Benninghoff wrote in a news release.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 22:05:10|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

LUSAKA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Zambia's health minister on Thursday denied corruption charges leveled against him.

Chitalu Chilufya, the health minister, was arrested last month by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and charged with four counts of possession of property suspected to be proceeds of crime involving monies which he allegedly used to purchase shares in properties in Zambia and Dubai.

The health minister denied the charges when he appeared before magistrate to take plea.

The health minister was supposed to take plea last week but his supporters who thronged the court to offer support disrupted the proceedings, forcing the magistrate to adjourn the case. Enditem
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- With the $28 billion hes raised working from home, Indias richest man wants to step into the breach created by the technology cold war between America and China. The two Silicon Valley tech giants that gave him a third of the money will help put him there.

Its an audacious plan. Politicians in many nations, including the U.S., the U.K. and India, are reluctant to let Huawei Technologies Co., which they accuse of being an instrument of the Chinese state, become embedded in the fast-speed internet networks that will run everything from power stations to autonomous cars.

Ambanis four-year-old Jio Platforms Ltd. has indigenously built its own 5G technology, the tycoon announced at Wednesdays annual general meeting of his flagship Reliance Industries Ltd. After testing it on the 400 million 4G customers he has in India, hell offer it to other markets. The news18.com website, also controlled by Ambani, called the technology a Huawei-killer, and noted that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had praised Jio as a clean network for not using the Chinese firms gear.

While details of Ambanis 5G prowess and the markets he hopes to target are still fuzzy, the planned assault against handset makers is clearer. Alphabet Inc. CEO Sundar Pichai made a virtual appearance at the Reliance AGM and pledged $4.5 billion for a 7.7% stake in Jio and a chance to build an Android operating system. The cheap smartphones running it will migrate 350 million Indians who still use feature phones to mobile internet. But how much customization will Google be comfortable with? If its a lot, the phone may be affordable but tied to Jios apps. Too little, and the pricing may be unattractive. Somewhere in between those extremes, its a threat to Xiaomi Corp. As Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Anthea Lai notes, India accounted for 35% of the Chinese vendors smartphone shipments last year.

One more thing is now evident: WhatsApp, the messaging system of Facebook Inc., which has given Jio $5.7 billion for a near-10% stake, will drive commerce. The blueprint is again Chinese. Whatsapps popularity, and its ability to handle payments in real time, make it a perfect platform for Ambani to build a super-app like Tencent Holdings Ltd.s WeChat, connecting brands with customers.

Story continues

The 300,000 Reliance investors who watched the AGM on JioMeet, Ambanis cloud-conferencing clone of Zoom Video Communications Inc., probably found the sharp pivot away from hydrocarbons a bit too much to take. Ambani dropped enough hints that last years plan to sell 20% of his mainstay oils-to-chemicals business to Saudi Aramco was now unlikely. Given the Covid-19 situation, writing a $15 billion check would be a further strain on Aramcos $75 billion-a-year dividend payout, as my colleague David Fickling has noted. Still, Reliance shares fell 3.8% after Ambani said the unit will be spun off and seek new investors.

Reliance may get saddled with a permanent discount as a holding company of digital, retail and hydrocarbon assets, but the empire could as easily command a premium as Indias undeclared national champion.

Just as Ambani wants to emulate several successful Chinese firms at once, the countrys policy makers want the same thing for the broader economy: make India the worlds factory, by lodging it into the growing chasm between the West and China. But neither the physical infrastructure, nor most of India Inc.s balance sheet, is ready. After the pandemic, everything from a broken financial sector to grossly inadequate worker housing, healthcare and social security will compete for fiscal sops from a government trying to retain its tenuous investment-grade rating.

Reliances capital-raising spree has made it free of net debt. Its willing to run with Prime Minister Narendra Modis buy-Indian agenda. Its grocery business would lift farmer incomes by direct purchasing. Jios cheap cloud services for small businesses would help them digitize. By connecting to JioMart, a virtual store, neighborhood shops could outgrow their limited shelf space, Ambani said. JioMeet could become as a virtual classroom to the country. Reliance also wants to supply cleaner auto fuels to end Indian cities crippling pollution problem.

As India has learned from China, economic policy that aligns itself with the expansion of a few large capitalists is more manageable  and produces faster results  than one that has to play referee to free and open competition. By the time that throws up a winner, Vietnam and Bangladesh might corner the export opportunity that India wants to claim.

Indias competitive landscape would have been broadened had Googles Pichai bought a stake in Jios telecom competitor Vodafone Idea Ltd., a plan it was considering, according to a Financial Times report in May. Although that deal is probably now dead, Pichai might still pitch his own tent separately from Ambanis. So far, hes only decided on the handset partnership with Jio. Theres still plenty left in the $10 billion kitty he set aside for India this week.

Theres also Amazon.com Inc.s Jeff Bezos. It will be surprising if, after committing $5.5 billion to the country, he bows out. As for Ambani, he still has to demonstrate that one company can be Indias answer to everything, from Zoom and Tencent to Huawei and Xiaomi, while also being a large telco like Verizon Communications Inc.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Andy Mukherjee is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies and financial services. He previously was a columnist for Reuters Breakingviews. He has also worked for the Straits Times, ET NOW and Bloomberg News.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 16)  Kabataan Party-list Rep. Sarah Elago was selected as one of the worlds most outstanding politicians representing the youth sector.

The 30-year old lawmaker was among the five young leaders who will receive the One Young World Politician of the Year award at the One Young World 2021 Summit in Munich, Germany on April 23-26 next year.

Malugod na ibinabahagi ng @KabataanPL ang pagkilala na ito sa lahat ng kabataan na nagsusulong ng bagong pulitika ng pag-asa, pagkilos at pagbabago na naglilingkod sa sambayanan nang buong husay at katapatan, said Elago in her Facebook post.

[Translation: Kabataan Party-list welcomes this recognition to all young people who are promoting a new politics of hope, action, and change that serves the people with competence and sincerity.]

Elago is currently on her second term as Kabataan Party-list representative, having been first elected in the position in 2016. She authored 426 bills in the 18th Congress alone.

The HRM graduate from UP Diliman is also an active member of the Makabayan bloc, a coalition of twelve party-list organizations known for its critical stances on national issues.

The Kabataan party-list lawmaker is also the poorest member of the House of Representatives, with a net worth of 85,400 based on her 2018 Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth.

The annual One Young World Politician of the Year award, organized by London-based youth leadership organization One Young World, is given to individuals between 18 to 35 years old who are using their positions to have a positive impact on young people in their communities and countries.

The other winners are Erik Marquardt, 33, of Germany; Joanah Mamombe, 27, of Zimbabwe; Michael Tubbs, 30, of the United States; and Zarifa Ghafari, 28, of Afghanistan.
Society

STORIES WE TELL OURSELVES

by Richard Holloway (Canongate 16.99, 272pp)

How does a child begin to understand the stars, the menace of thunder  or the death of a grandparent? How can any of us explain human cruelty and can anything help us come to terms with suffering?

Who can teach us how to live? Such questions are part of the mysteries we meet the moment we leave our mothers womb and enter a puzzling world. Such mysteries have, since the beginning, inspired stories.

Author Richard Holloway (pictured) is a former Bishop of Edinburgh who became agnostic

In each of his books so far, the prolific thinker Richard Holloway, former Bishop of Edinburgh, has wrestled with the enigma of belief  always painfully honest about his own life and personal quest. This latest is another step towards what he calls (his subtitle): Making Meaning In A Meaningless Universe. And this man of God who became agnostic never said it was easy.

Religions have always attempted to tell us stories to explain who we are, where we came from  and who is in charge. That is, which God (or gods) is running the show.

Holloway was never persuaded by the explanations offered by theologians, because he is uneasy about a compulsion to explain or account for every mystery under the sun. Those who know his work are familiar with his questioning journey away from the Church but, now (as this engaging and uplifting book explains), he is gradually moving back. His honesty is refreshing: So, what kind of confused story am I trying to tell myself these days? I am hoping that by writing this book Ill find out.

He begins by examining stories about the universe  the unimaginable, befuddling vastness of which he illustrates with the help of Bill Bryson, who suggested that if galaxies were frozen peas there would be enough of them to fill the Albert Hall.

That thought is enough to make you want to lie down, but Holloway goes on to set our fragment of stardust (the Earth) within those unfathomable spaces. What price the certainty of religions (and the appalling shouting that can accompany them) in the context of the unknowable?

Yet science tells its stories, too, and Holloway whisks us through evolution, speech, primitive efforts to explain death and many other things, on the way to a vital discussion of what he sums up as humanitys biggest problem, wherever it finds itself. Us.

In his new book Stories We Tell Ourselves (above), he wrestles with the enigma of belief

Which of us, contemplating a world of conflict at home and abroad, could take issue with that gloomy thought?

Holloway is not a pessimistic writer. On the contrary, this personal, scientific and philosophical journey to explore what might be the answers to the worlds biggest questions is both playful and inspiring.

He uses a wealth of literary allusions to help his exploration of how each of us can come to terms with conflicting truths. The trouble is, people shout at each other across divides and so many of our disagreements seem beyond reconciliation.

The richness of this book challenged the short space of a review. Holloway explores Creation myths, the story of the fall, the mystics who have always challenged orthodox religion, the Sixties delusions of counter-culture America, drugs to open up the mind, and how we attempt to deal with what C.S. Lewis called the problem of pain.

At times, he can sound bleak and disillusioned: There would be more wars to come. More repeats. More re-runs. More of the same. Its what we do. What weve always done.

Yet such sad, short sentences cannot contain Holloways natural good humour, his ability to see all sides of the Big Questions, and his bruised optimism.

At the end of his exploration, he approaches the place where he began, many years ago. For, at 86, he has returned to Christianity (without God) because he believes/knows that the message of Jesus can make a difference in world affairs  with its essential story of peace, reconciliation, forgiveness and love.

This former bishop doesnt want to convince people, but simply tells us, This is the story I now try feebly to live by.

Amen to that.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 17:31:42|Editor: huaxia

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SUVA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The Association of Banks in Fiji said on Thursday that there will be more discussions on how banks can help businesses severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic to cushion the problem on the island nation.

According to Fiji Broadcasting Corporation (FBC) on Thursday, the Association continues to encourage those that can, to keep up with payments, because interest will accrue for deferments.

The Association of Banks Ppresident Saud Minam said that there will be an announcement from banks and regulators on how to support customers in need.

He said that many customers that were on reduced hours or were unemployed as a result of COVID-19 are worried.

"I did have a meeting with a lot of our customers and they are all worried. I think we as individuals across, we all should be worried about what's going to happen and how fast we can get out of this. These are the questions that everyone has and I think that's the question we need to answer. The only way to answer it is if we work together."

Suva Retailers Association President Vinay Kumar said that members have been advised to be innovative and find alternatives to get through the pandemic.

"We can not rely on the government to do everything for us. We also have to start thinking out of the ordinary and start doing things which you can see is happening already. There are people opening up stalls and selling from the streets and things like that. These are the things that never happened before."

Without knowing for certain how long COVID-19 will continue to affect the Fijian economy, Minam said it is crucial for the government, public and private sector to work together to overcome this crisis.

The Reserve Bank of Fiji (RBF) said last month that the Fijian economy is anticipated to contract severely this year with sector performances significantly weak due to the implication of COVID-19.

According to a RBF statement, the Fijian central bank Governor Ariff Ali said that recent partial indicators for consumption and investment continue to point to falling aggregate demand while overall labour market conditions have worsened with continuous job losses.

Given the weak economy in Fiji, domestic credit has slowed further and the number of non-performing loans has risen, he said, adding that the financial system continues to be assessed as sound, underpinned by solid capitalization and liquidity ratios.

Commercial banks' cost of funds has generally fallen owing to the high levels of excess liquidity. Enditem
By Tom Arnold

LONDON (Reuters) - Dozens of emerging and frontier markets are likely to face mass protests in the coming months as lockdowns imposed to control the coronavirus pandemic ease and the dire economic impact of the virus hits home, according to new research.

Thirty-seven countries are at risk, mostly concentrated in Africa and Latin America, including Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Venezuela and Peru, said global risk analysis company Verisk Maplecroft.

Congo and Ethiopia, as well as Belarus, Bulgaria and Serbia in Europe, are among countries to have been shaken by protests in recent days as dissatisfaction with governments boils over.

This follows a drop in unrest in emerging and frontier markets in March, according to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), after the widespread introduction of lockdowns.

"The total number of protests in frontier and emerging markets has almost rebounded to pre-pandemic levels," said Verisk Maplecroft Principal Analyst Miha Hribernik.

"With many countries still in lockdown, and the full economic shock of the outbreak yet to be felt, we expect the number of protests to surge over the next 2-3 months."

The International Monetary Fund has forecast growth in emerging markets and developing economies will shrink by 1% in 2020.

Verisk Maplecroft said the outlook was particularly concerning for frontier and emerging markets where the post-pandemic economic picture is bleak.

Nigeria, Iran, Bangladesh, Algeria and Ethiopia face a "perfect storm" of grassroots anger as protests driven by the pandemic's economic fallout aggravate unrest over pre-existing grievances about issues ranging from poverty to food supply, it said.

Our base case from January - that 2020 will see a surge in protests and that the coming decade is set to be a one of unprecedented unrest - still stands, said Hribernik. But in the countries least prepared to bounce back from the pandemic, it now looks like a best-case scenario.

India, Brazil, Russia, South Africa, Indonesia and Turkey face risks that are only slightly less acute and still constitute a significant threat to stability, the report added.

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)
GREENWICH  Officers were called to a bank branch on Greenwich Avenue on a report of fraudulent activity Monday, police said.

Authorities said a 58-year-old woman from New York City was found to be in possession of fake identification and a fraudulent credit card.

The arrest report stated she was attempting to open an account and make a withdrawal from it. She was charged with forgery and payment-card forgery. Bail was set at $25,000.



Officer arrived at North Water Street in the Byram section of town on a report of a tenant dispute Monday afternoon, according to an arrest report.

They found a man with a cut on his head who was the victim of an assault, police said. Both men involved were arrested.

A 37-year-old man, who is a tenant on North Water Street, was charged with assault and disorderly conduct, police said. Bail was set at $250.

A 61-year-old man from Easton was charged with disorderly conduct, police said. He was released without bail.



Police wrapped up a liquor-store theft this week with an arrest, according to the departmental report.

A 34-year-old man from Brooklyn, N.Y., was charged with larceny and conspiracy Wednesday, police said.

Police said he took merchandise from a store in Riverside in May. He turned himself in on an arrest warrant and was later released without bail.



A man accused of passing a fake $100 bill at a local Walgreens store two years ago was arrested and charged with forgery and larceny on Wednesday, police said.

A 34-year-old man from New York City was picked up at the Oneida County Corrrectional Facility in New York and transported to Greenwich. The incident took place in 2018, and an arret warrant was later issued, police said. Bail was set at $50,000.



A 39-year-old man from Stamford was charged with violating a protective order July 9, police said.

Police said he drove to a midcountry residence where he was not allowed. Bail was set at $5,000.



A 51-year-old man from Greenwich, was charged with assault and disorderly conduct July 10 after he became physical with another person, police said. He was released without bail.
Eberhart said he is particularly impressed with what Barrett's Equipment has accomplished in the space, and looks forward to building on the strong foundation created by Joe Barrett. Barrett's has been a pillar of the Sarasota community for over 20 years, winning several dealership awards for providing tractors, earth-moving equipment, trenchers, aerial lifts and other construction equipment on a rental or rent-to-own basis. The company is an authorized dealer for some of the best known names in the industry, including Gehl Excavators & Loaders, Kioti Tractors, Atlas Loaders, JLG Aerial Lifts, and IHI Compact Excavators.

"We're very excited to have Eberhart Capital to take the business to the next level," said Joe Barrett, the founder of Barrett Equipment. "They have the business knowledge and the power to compete in today's aggressive market."

Eberhart is looking forward to working with the company's skilled staff to continue to support the area's commercial construction companies. Jake Strictland, a long-standing Barrett Equipment's employee will serve as the new branch manager, and comes with high praise from his former employer. "Strickland is a dedicated and loyal employee who is very knowledgeable with all aspects of the rental business," Barrett said.

This newest Barrett's acquisition furthers Eberhart Capital's strategy of combining multiple, smaller rental properties under the rental umbrella. Previously, Eberhart Capital acquired equipment rental companies Contractor Sales & Service in Des Moines, Iowa, and The Equipment Source in Naples, Florida. This is Eberhart Capital's 20th acquisition since founding in 2009.

Eberhart Capital, LLC, intends to strengthen all of the companies through increased market share and best practices implemented across the entire portfolio. All three acquisitions align with his firm's strategy of buying successful equipment rental businesses and helping them achieve their full potential by providing scale, capital, and analytics.

About Eberhart Capital, LLC

Eberhart Capital, LLC is a leading private equity firm focusing on building and growing portfolio companies operationally & financially in various business sectors. Managing Director Dan K. Eberhart has completed 19 acquisitions since founding Eberhart Capital. The group's portfolio includes four main divisions: oil & gas, construction, trucking, and industrial, the primary objective is to build an investment portfolio focused on long-term capital appreciation.

About Eberhart Capital, LLC Rental

Eberhart Capital's equipment rental companies located in Florida and Iowa, serving consumer, commercial, and construction markets. Companies include Contractor Sales & Service, LLC (CSS) in Des Moines, Iowa, The Equipment Source, LLC in Naples, Florida, and Barrett Equipment in Englewood, Florida. They provide aerial, earth moving, and small tools that customers can rent or buy. The onsite shops at each location can repair a wide range of equipment.

SOURCE Eberhart Capital, LLC

Related Links

https://www.eberhartcapital.com


Bigg Boss 13 Contestant Himanshi Khurana Gets Herself Tested For COVID-19, Has Been Unwell For Two Days
A High Court judge has expressed his condolences to the family of filmmaker Sophie Toscan du Plantier, whose badly beaten body was found outside her holiday home in Schull nearly 24 years ago, on the second day of Ian Bailey's extradition hearing.

Addressing the court this morning, Mr Justice Paul Burns said that court hearings of any kind are distressing but the "dry nature" of these extradition proceedings should not be taken that anyone has forgotten the tragic nature of Ms du Plantier's death.

Ronan Munro SC, for Mr Bailey, also submitted to the court that it seems the European Arrest Warrants (EAWs) against his client will never stop and very little consideration has been given to the prejudicial effect on him. Counsel asked the judge to "put a stop to" this abuse of process and let him get on with his life.

Mr Bailey is wanted in France to face a 25-year prison sentence for the murder of Ms du Plantier and the three-day extradition hearing commenced yesterday (Wed) in the Irish High Court. It is the third time French authorities are seeking Mr Baileys surrender in relation to the mother-of-one's death in Schull in December 1996.

Expand Close Hearing: Former journalist Ian Bailey arrives at the High Court in Dublin yesterday. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire / Facebook

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Whatsapp Hearing: Former journalist Ian Bailey arrives at the High Court in Dublin yesterday. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

The Englishman (63), with an address at The Prairie, Liscaha, Schull, west Cork, was convicted of the French womans murder in his absence in a Paris court in May 2019. The three-judge Cour dAssises (criminal trial court) in Paris accordingly imposed a 25-year prison sentence on Mr Bailey in his absence. Mr Bailey, who denies any involvement in Ms du Plantier's death, did not attend the French court and had no legal representation in the proceedings, which he has described as a farce.

In a sworn affidavit to the High Court, Mr Bailey said he had nothing to do with the murder of Ms du Plantier. He said that whilst he has not been the subject of criminal court proceedings in Ireland, he has been subject to the criminal process and his standing had suffered greatly in the small rural community where he lives. He tries not to dwell "on being hunted" and writing poetry has had a cathartic effect on him, he said.

Mr Bailey was arrested at the Criminal Courts of Justice Building on foot of a European Arrest Warrant in December 2019. He was remanded on bail after a High Court judge subsequently endorsed the third European Arrest Warrant (EAW) seeking his extradition to France.

At the outset of today's hearing, Mr Justice Burns inquired if there were any members of Ms du Plantier's family in court and a legal representative for the family raised her hand. The judge said the nature of extradition law can seem "cold and dry" and observed that court hearings of any kind are distressing. However, the judge said that these extradition proceedings should not be taken that anyone has forgotten the tragic nature of Ms du Plantier's death.

Mr Justice Burns expressed his condolences to the family of Ms du Plantier but pointed out that the court must deal with the law. Following this, Mr Munro said he shared in acknowledging the tragedy that had happened.

Opposing an application for Mr Bailey's surrender to France for a second day, Mr Munro said it would not have made any difference to his client if the Criminal Law (Extraterritorial Jurisdiction) Act 2019 had applied in the 1990's. The barrister argued that the French authorities lost the entitlement to mount a further attempt to extradite his client in 2017, when the High Court dismissed the second extradition request in respect of Mr Bailey as an abuse of process.

Mr Munro said the second extradition attempt by the French authorities was a "deliberate decision" and a "tactical ploy". "Very little consideration has been given to the prejudicial effect on Mr Bailey which was doomed to fail and it was a direct assault of the decision of the Supreme Court in 2012," continued Mr Munro, adding that the second request was basically saying that the Irish Supreme Court had got it wrong.

The lawyer said that when "the gamble" was taken to issue a second extradition request against Mr Bailey in 2017, which the French authorities had lost, it "forever closed the door" on future extradition requests being issued against him. "That was the turning point and now they have lost the right," he added.

Mr Munro said it seemed that these extradition warrants would never stop. "If Mr Bailey is not treated equally it becomes abusive and that is why we are here to restore equality and eliminate the abuse," he remarked.

In summary, counsel said the abuse of process against his client was only getting worse. "This court should put a stop to it and find it's an abuse of process and let Mr Bailey get on with his life and let the police get on with their job," he concluded.

French authorities previously sought the surrender of Mr Bailey in 2010 but this application was refused by the Supreme Court in 2012, which held that section 44 of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003 prohibited surrender because the alleged offence was committed outside French territory and Irish law did not allow prosecution for the same offence when committed outside its territory by a non-Irish citizen. Mr Bailey is a British citizen.

A second French extradition request in respect of Mr Bailey was dismissed as an abuse of process by the High Court in July 2017. On that occasion, Mr Justice Tony Hunt held that the unique features of the case justified termination of the proceedings. He said the Minister was estopped or halted from obtaining an order for Mr Bailey's surrender in light of the Supreme Court's judgement in 2012 on identical relevant facts.

Mr Bailey and filmmaker Jim Sheridan were present in court for today's hearing.

David Conlan Smyth SC, also for Mr Bailey, will continue to make legal submissions regarding his client's fair trial rights before Mr Justice Burns this afternoon.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-17 01:02:17|Editor: huaxia

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HEFEI, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The Huaihe River Commission of the Ministry of Water Resources issued a blue alert for flooding on Thursday night, as a key hydrological station of the river may see its water exceed the warning level in the coming days.

The 1,000-km-long Huaihe River is one of China's major waterways, running through the east of the country between the Yangtze and Yellow rivers.

At 7 p.m. Thursday, the water level at Wangjiaba Station rose to 26.91 meters, only 0.59 meters below the warning level. The station is forecast to see water exceed the danger line from Thursday to Saturday due to the downpours in Huaihe River.

The commission also activated a Level IV emergency response for flood and drought disaster prevention at 8 p.m. Thursday, and called for the water conservancy departments in provinces along the Huaihe River, including Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu, to make full preparations for the flood control. Enditem
On its Facebook page, the Huntsville location of Johnny Grylls restaurant says, Come on in, everyone welcome.

But owner Mike Heffelfinger is barring his doors to six state and local officials -- including Gov. Kay Ivey, Alabama State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris and Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle -- because they say people in Alabama must wear face masks during the coronavirus pandemic.

Heffelfinger announced Wednesday that the officials are indefinitely banned from entering his location of Johnny Grylls, 6125 University Drive Northwest in Huntsville. In statements posted on the restaurants website and Facebook page, Heffelfinger said:

The following individuals are banned indefinitely from entering Johnny Grylls (Huntsville) restaurant:

Madison County Health Officer Dr. Karen Landers

State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris

Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle

Madison Mayor Paul Finley

Madison County Commission Chair Dale Strong

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey

This ban is in response to draconian health orders issued by the aforementioned individuals requiring most people to wear a mask in Madison County and ultimately all of Alabama. These orders create unnecessary stress, liability, and physical, mental and financial burdens on the restaurant and its employees.

Johnny Grylls, a casual eatery that serves burgers, wings, fried chicken and more, has two locations in Alabama. The one owned by Heffelfinger is listed on Facebook as Johnny Grylls II.

The other location, about 9 miles away in Harvest, is under different ownership and has made it clear that Heffelfingers ban doesnt apply at its restaurant, 2838 Jeff Road Northwest, Suite B. In a Facebook post today, the Harvest restaurant said:

The Johnny Grylls location in Harvest is separately owned and operated from any other. We appreciate our customers reaching out to us. We look forward to serving you some of the best burgers, Phillys, wings, chicken, and ice cream around town, but bring your mask.

Heffelfingers ban of the six officials evidently was spurred by a statewide mask order issued by Ivey on Wednesday. It goes into effect at 5 p.m. today, and will remain in effect until at least July 31.

Iveys order comes as Alabama has seen a spike in the number of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, and supersedes any local regulations. Madison County already had issued a mask order that went into effect on July 7.

Were almost to the point where our hospital ICUs are overwhelmed, Ivey said on Wednesday, noting that 87 percent of state beds in intensive care units were full last week. Folks, the numbers just do not lie.

The statewide mask order carries a penalty of $500 or jail time, but Ivey said the focus will be on education instead of punishment.

Battle, Huntsvilles mayor, and other officials banned by Heffelfinger have made public statements in support of mask orders.

This is a simple math problem, Battle said when the order for Madison County was announced on July 6. Since June 16, the number of positive cases in Madison County has tripled, and the number of hospitalizations has increased 660 percent. We need to take precautionary measures, such as wearing face covers, distancing 6 feet, and handwashing to provide a safe environment for our citizens.

The Alabama Department of Public Healths numbers for today show 60,158 COVID-19 cases in Alabama, an increase of 1,933 overnight. The state has 1,200 COVID deaths, up 17 overnight.

By Thursday afternoon, Heffelfingers Facebook post about the ban had received more than 1,000 shares and about 2,000 comments. Responses have been mixed, with some denouncing his stance and some supporting it. Heres a sampling:

Sharing and hoping that your business suffers. This is life and death literally. Go walk a Covid floor with my medical friends and then see if you want to reconsider this policy. -- Lisa Wienhold

Its called Freedom look it up in the US constitution. He and you have the right to make decisions about yourselves. Millions died fighting for your rights Use Them! -- Wayne Roberts

I loved coming to Johnny Grylls for work lunches with my team, but if youre going to throw a fit over wearing masks, Wendys is just as easy to get to \_()_/ -- Dalton Chancellor

Mike, if you delivered to Tucson, we would be regular customers! I support your stance! -- Ann Riga

While Im impressed with your use of draconian,' Im not sure you really understand the meaning. Or maybe youre just a whiney baby. Luckily for the banned, there are plenty of places willing to take public health seriously. -- Beth Williams

This is not about a virus anymore and these officials have NO right to mandate masks. -- Stephanie Thomason Gwin

Wow, way to disregard the health and safety of others. If your doing this, I wonder how many health violations exist in your kitchen. Thanks for letting us know, Ill never come to your establishment. -- Steven Decker

Ive never been to this restaurant but after seeing this I will visit it at least once a week at least for the remainder of the summer just for the simple fact theyre standing up for themselves and their beliefs and not being sheep. Idc if I agree or dont agree with people or restaurants this is supposed to be a free country so I support anyone who wants to exercise their rights. -- Chris Wray

How sad are you to be so inconsiderate of ppl that are at high risk? I wonder if this pertained to any of your family you might feel differently? Never been to your restaurant and now will never go. Hopefully smart ppl will follow suit. How selfish and inconsiderate of a citizen of Huntsville are you? -- Tina Cothren

Bold strategy for a restaurant, coming out against common sense health measures. Next up, a rant against food temp requirements. -- Sarah Yeldell

Are your employees required to wash their hands or is that also a draconian health order? -- Kip Shepherd

Lol people its the businesses Right to have this opinion, just like its yours to pick up your toys and run to another sandbox... Its funny the first thing out of peoples mouths is We dont agree with you Boycott!!' ... If dont agree with them move on with your life. -- Brian Braswell

We will be coming to eat there! More businesses have to do this or they will have the sheep in mask from now on! -- Shane Lollar

Hey COVID positive people! Heres a place you can go and cough everywhere with full acceptance! Heard the food is mediocre, at best, but with no taste while sick that wont matter! -- Thomas Kent

This is the appropriate response, whether anyone likes it or not. Masks and medical precautions in light of a pandemic are perfectly okay. But the state using its authority to use threat of force to make people do something like wear a mask is wrong. It doesnt matter how necessary it is, the state should never force anyone to do anything, especially on the premise of you MIGHT spread a disease that you MIGHT have. Give them such arbitrary authority and they will misuse it against you. -- David Miller

I love it when companies rage announce their idiotic views so the rest of us know where not to spend our money. What a great rage quit. -- Brittany Berghammer

On todays episode of how to destroy your own business ... -- Matthew Sweat
IKEA is set to launch a vegan version of its much-loved meatballs in a bid to be more sustainable.

The Swedish furniture giant will sell the plant-based treat in its food halls across the UK from 3rd August.

Developed with the purpose to recreate a meatball without the meat, plant balls are made from yellow pea protein, oats, potatoes, onion and apple and, according to the retail giant, have just four per cent of the climate footprint of the original version.

IKEA is set to launch a vegan version of its famous meatballs in a bid to be more sustainable. The Swedish furniture giant will sell the plant-based treat (pictured) in its food halls across the UK from 3rd August

IKEA say the meat-free meal is suitable for meatball lovers, flexitarians, vegetarians and vegans alike and has the same taste as its classic beef and pork dish.

Plant balls will also be available to purchase from Swedish Food Markets to cook and serve at home for 2.75 for a 500g bag from 3rd August.

Shoppers will also be able to pick up a portion of eight from the store's bistro on the same date for 1.50.

IKEA's restaurants will be serving the plant balls in the same way as the traditional meatball dish: with mashed potatoes, lingonberries, and cream sauce for the same price , but customer will have to wait until 26th October for the sit-down dish.

IKEA say the meat-free meal is suitable for meatball lovers, flexitarians, vegetarians and vegans alike and has the same taste as their classic beef and pork dish. Pictured: Ikea in Tottenham, north London

Hege Sbjrnsen, Country Sustainability Manager, IKEA UK and Ireland, told FEMAIL: 'At IKEA, we are committed to having a positive impact on people and the planet.

'In order to reduce the climate footprint of the total IKEA business, including our food business, and make climate friendly, delicious food available for everyone, we are making sure meat alternatives are an easy, desirable and affordable choice.

'With the new plant ball we can now offer meat lovers a great tasting, more sustainable alternative  without compromising on the IKEA meatball experience that is loved by so many.'

Plant balls will also be available to purchase from Swedish Food Markets to cook and serve at home for 2.75 for a 500g bag from 3rd August. In restaurants, customers will be able to enjoy the new plant balls in the same way as the traditional meatball dish: with mashed potatoes, lingonberries, and cream sauce and at the same price of 1.50 for a portion of eight from 26th October

For those looking to enjoy other meat-free options, 50 per cent of the food range in IKEA restaurants is now plant-based or vegetarian.

The shift towards selling less meat is the latest move the furniture giant has taken in sustainability.

IKEA set out its People and Planet Positive strategy in 2018, announcing its ambition to become a fully circular and climate positive business by 2030.

The shop aims to reduce more greenhouse gas emissions than the IKEA value chain emits and ensure all products are made following circular design principles, as well as being made of renewable, recyclable and/or made of recycled materials.
U.S. President Donald Trump said his administration would end a flagship educational exchange program in China and Hong Kong as part of U.S. sanctions against Beijing, but stopped short for now of listing high-ranking officials for asset freezes or visa bans.



In the latest U.S. response to the national security law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing on June 30, Trump earlier this week signed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act providing for sanctions on individuals, organizations,and financial institutions that contribute to China's actions to remove autonomy from Hong Kong.



But while Trump said China should be held accountable for its "aggressive actions against the people of Hong Kong," and ended the city's special economic and trading status, he stopped short of sanctioning any of its leaders, including chief executive Carrie Lam.



Section 3, provision (i) of the Executive Order signed by the president on Tuesday shuts down the Fulbright program of educational exchanges with Hong Kong and Chinese universities.



However, Reuters reported that Trump hadn't ruled out further sanctions on officials under the Act, which allows Washington to impose sanctions and visa restrictions on Chinese officials and financial institutions involved in the imposition of Chinas new national security law in Hong Kong.



Bloomberg had earlier reported that Trump had ruled out additional sanctions on top Chinese officials for now.



Reuters quoted National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot as saying that nothing had been taken off the table, however.



In no way has he taken anything off the table with respect to further sanctions of party officials for actions in Hong Kong or on other issues." Ullyot told the agency. "Any suggestion otherwise by anonymous sources is flat out wrong."



Targets for sanctions being considered



Discussions are continuing in the White House over potential targets for sanctions, and Lam could still be targeted, Reuters reported.



Meanwhile, Xiake Island, a WeChat commentary account belonging to the Communist Party's official Peoples Daily newspaper, reported that Washington was mulling a total entry ban on party members and their families.



The foreign ministry said it couldn't confirm the report.



"If this is true, I think it is very sad," spokeswoman Hua Chunying said. "What sort of impression will this give to the world?"



But a Hong Kong protest surnamed Chu welcomed the U.S. sanctions.



"China is interfering with the freedoms of the Hong Kong people in a serious way," she said. "This evil law restricts freedom and democracy for the people of Hong Kong, turning it from an international city into a province of mainland China."



Shaanxi-based political scholar Pang Dekui said Beijing has deployed the law to destroy the rule of law and the political structure of Hong Kong.



"It has also destroyed the promise that Hong Kong people would rule Hong Kong with a high degree of autonomy," he said. "And the international community has a right to supervise [the implementation of those promises]."



Promises to Hong Kong broken



Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the sanctions had been the result of the ruling Chinese Communist Party's own choices.



"General Secretary Xi Jinping made a choice to violate the Chinese Communist Partys promises to Hong Kong that were made in a U.N.-registered treaty," Pompeo told journalists on Thursday. "He didnt have to do that and he made that choice."



Pompeo said via his Twitter account that the U.S. would be facilitating applications from Hongkongers applying for political asylum in the wake of the current crackdown on protesters and opposition figures under existing public order laws, and also under the draconian national security law.



"We stand with the Hong Kong people," Pompeo wrote.



The vaguely worded new security law threatens anyone criticizing the Chinese or Hong Kong authorities anywhere in the world.



China's feared state security police have now set up a headquarters in the city to implement its ban on actions and speech deemed subversive, pro-independence, or "terrorist" in inclination, although the definitions have already been criticized as impossibly vague by overseas legal experts.



Pro-China lawmakers in Hong Kong on Thursday slammed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act as "brazen interference" in the city's internal affairs.



Pro-China lawmaker Starry Lee said her Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) would fully support any retaliation, as has been threatened by Beijing.



Uncertainty having an impact



While Beijing claims that the international community has wilfully "smeared" the national security law, there were signs that the uncertainty created by the imposition of a Beijing-led national security police force on the city were having an impact.



Deutsche Bank AG announced that its new Asia chief executive officer Alexander von zur Muehlen will be based in Singapore, not Hong Kong, as his predecessor was.



The decision has raised further concerns in the wake of the Hong Kong Autonomy Act over the city's future viability as an Asian financial hub.



Former HSBC Global Markets economist Kelvin Lam said foreign banks and other financial institutions will be trying to analyze the situation as accurately as possible, and that personnel often give the first indication of plans to relocate.



"It's always the employees who leave first, and then the money can follow at the touch of a single button," Lam said. "So we may see a slow retreat of capital from Hong Kong, and maybe the relocation of their trading platforms to Singapore, because there isn't so much investment any more."



"These companies are being put off expanding in Hong Kong because of the instability and uncertainty there ... where the political risks are very high," he said.



Reported by Lu Xi and Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
TRENTON  City police director Sheilah Coleys unauthorized command prevented officers from responding to a reported arson at a downtown liquor store, an attorney says.

The order came during one of the many riots that took place across the country following the death of George Floyd, the Black man killed by Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin.

Attorney George Dougherty, who won a nearly million-dollar payout for former Trenton firefighter Jesse Diaz, has filed a tort claim notice with the city on behalf of Tony Arias, the owner of Tony Liquor.

The tort claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, accused the civilian police director of giving a group of officers a palpably unreasonable stand-down order during the May 31 riot.

Coley was not authorized by law to direct the actions of police officers in the field, and her unauthorized command stopping the officers from responding to the illegal looting of claimants building was a palpably unreasonable exercise of non-existent authority, according to the tort claim.

Big Loss

The order, Dougherty said, had cataclysmic implications for Arias, allowing looters to pillage alcohol and lottery tickets from the store uninterrupted by police.

Arias has estimated the damage to his store at $300,000.

The figure could be higher as the tort claim suggested Arias, who just reopened his store this month, suffered $40,000 a week in lost profits and another $1,750 for two rental units.

In an interview, Dougherty said the TPD director no longer holds the same police powers once vested in her while she worked as a cop in Newark.

He pointed to an appeals court ruling in 2005 that limited the powers of civilian police directors statewide.

In the case, Louis Jordan began participating in law enforcement activities after being appointed police director in Asbury Park.

He carried a firearm, wore a police uniform and apprehended suspects, until the State Division of Criminal Justice sent a letter saying civilian?police directors couldnt engage in law enforcement activities.

The city then adopted an ordinance changing Jordans title to executive officer and conferring upon him all authority and duties of a police officer, then later filing suit against the AGs office to prevent further interference.

The Appellate Division upheld a state court judge ruling that the police director position was civilian in nature and that the City was not statutorily authorized to confer law enforcement powers on the police director.

Dougherty said Coley is bound by the ruling and shouldnt have been giving out orders, leaving those duties to the command staff.

Though he contends Coleys order held no legal weight, officers followed the directive because they feared being brought up on insubordination charges.

The AG took the position that civilian police directors are not entitled to chain of command, of ordering activity, he said. They can do a lot of things administratively. Theyre not police officers. Theyre not even allowed to have the communications radio in their car. The city is not enforcing what is the law regarding the limitations on her powers. They cant say we didnt know that. They have a law department.

To that end, former Trenton cop William Osterman and the Latino Merchant Association of New Jersey filed complaints against Coley with the Mercer County Prosecutors Office after body-camera footage surfaced of her encounter with officers outside City Hall.

Where are you going? Coley asked the officers in the footage. Whats your mission? OK, so can you do anything about a fire? No, right? Can you stop anybody from pouring gas on a building? No, right? So thats not your mission. Thats the fire departments mission. All of this is happening because of tactical error. Lets not put error on top of error, right? So you guys are going to remain staged here. As a matter of fact, one, two, three, four, you go back to headquarters and man the barrier.

A spokeswoman from county top cop Angelo Onofri said the investigation into Coleys actions that day is ongoing.

Coley has repeatedly defended her decision to call off the cops.

The stand-down order dominated much of the conversation at the Latino Symposium, organized by the Guatemalan Civic Association.

During the forum, Coley explained that she didnt want to put her officers in a dangerous situation when they hadnt received proper riot training about dispersing rowdy crowds.

She claimed that at least 100 officers from New Jersey State Police and Bucks County were stationed in downtown Trenton to address the angry mob, which became uproarious shortly after 8 p.m. following two days of peaceful protests over Floyds death.

One resident refused to accept Coleys explanation and demanded she step down as TPD director.

Coley, who was also criticized by ex-cop and South Ward councilman George Muschal, made it clear there was no chance shed resign.

Coleys actions during the May 31 riot wasnt the first time a capital city police director was accused of overstepping his or her authority.

Former TPD director Ernest Parrey Jr. was outed during his tenure for illegally pulling over a vehicle, according to video obtained by The Trentonian.

Parrey couldnt perform police duties including conducting motor vehicle stops, engaging in patrol activities, answering calls for service and stopping or detaining individuals, according to the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police.

Night of Chaos

In the filing, Arias said he called police around 8:46 p.m. upon seeing people looting his store.

The looters hurled a concrete cinder block that shattered the windows, allowing them access to the store. They stole alcohol bottles and bashed and raided the lottery ticket machine, according to the tort claim.

Dougherty cited dispatchers reports in the filing claiming there was no reported fire despite a tenant having seen gasoline thrown on the building.

There was no report of fire, only looters,' the claim said.

Despite that, store security cameras showed firefighters entering the store, hosing it down and flooding the floor ceiling and walls, according to the claim.

A spokesman said the city does not comment on pending litigation.
Identity and access management in 2022 - what will the future look like?

As we enter into 2022, there is still a level of uncertainty in place. Its unclear what the future holds, as companies around the world still contend with the COVID-19 pandemic. Remote working has been encouraged by most organisations and the move to a hybrid working system has become business as usual, for the majority of businesses. Some have reduced their office space or done away with their locations altogether. Following best security practices With all this change in place, there are problems to deal with. According to research, 32.7% of IT admins say they are concerned about employees using unsecured networks to carry out that work. Alongside this, 74% of IT admins thought that remote work makes it harder for employees to follow best security practices. This need to manage security around remote work is no longer temporary. Instead, companies have to build permanent strategies around remote work and security. The coming year will also create a different landscape for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). Here are some key predictions for next year and what to start preparing for in 2022: The reality of SMB spending around security will hit home SMBs had to undertake significant investments to adapt to remote working SMBs had to undertake significant investments to adapt to remote working, especially in comparison to their size. They had to undertake significant digital transformation projects that made it possible to deliver services remotely, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Weve seen a shift in mindset for these companies, which are now more tech-focused in their approach to problem solving. According to our research, 45% of SMBs plan to increase their spending towards IT services in 2022. Around half of all organisations think their IT budgets are adequate for their needs, while 14.5% of those surveyed believe they will need more, to cover all that needs to be done. Identity management spending to support remote work For others, the COVID-19 pandemic led to over-spending, just to get ahead of things and they will spend in 2022, looking at what they should keep and what they can reduce their spending on. Areas like identity management will stay in place, as companies struggle to support remote work and security, without this in place. However, on-premise IT spending will be reduced or cut, as those solutions are not relevant for the new work model. Services that rely on on-premise IT will be cut or replaced. The device will lead the way for security We rely on our phones to work and to communicate. In 2022, they will become central to how we manage access, to all our assets and locations, IT and physical. When employees can use company devices and their own phones for work, security is more difficult. IT teams have to ensure that theyre prepared for this, by making sure that these devices can be trusted. Wide use of digital certificates and strong MFA factors Rather than requiring a separate smart card or fingerprint reader, devices can be used for access using push authentication There are multiple ways that companies can achieve this, for example - By using digital certificates to identify company devices as trusted, an agent, or strong MFA factors, like a FIDO security key or mobile push authentication. Whichever approach you choose, this can prevent unauthorised access to IT assets and applications, and these same devices can be used for authentication into physical locations too. Rather than requiring a separate smart card or fingerprint reader, devices can be used for access using push authentication. Understanding human behaviour Alongside this, it is important to understand human behaviour. Anything that introduces an extra step for authentication can lead to employees taking workarounds. To stop this, it is important to put an employee education process in place, in order to emphasize on the importance of security. The next step is to think about adopting passwordless security, to further reduce friction and increase adoption. Lastly, as devices become the starting point for security and trust, remote device management will be needed too. More companies will need to manage devices remotely, from wiping an asset remotely if it gets lost or stolen, through to de-provisioning users easily and removing their access rights, when they leave the company. Identity will be a layer cake Zero Trust approaches to security Identity management relies on being able to trust that someone is who they say they are. Zero Trust approaches to security can support this effectively, particularly when aligned with least privilege access models. In order to turn theory into practical easy-to-deploy steps, companies need to use contextual access, as part of their identity management strategy. This involves looking at the context that employees will work in and putting together the right management approach for those circumstances. For typical employee behaviour, using two factor authentication might be enough to help them work, without security getting in the way. How enterprises manage, access and store identity data There will also be a shift in how enterprises manage, access, and store that identity data over time For areas where security is more important, additional security policies can be put over the top, to ensure that only the right people have access. A step-up in authentication can be added, based on the sensitivity of resources or risk-based adaptive authentication policies might be needed. There will also be a shift in how enterprises manage, access, and store that identity data over time, so that it aligns more closely with those use cases. Identity management critical to secure assets in 2022 There are bigger conversations taking place around digital identity for citizenship, as more services move online as well. Any moves that take place in this arena will affect how businesses think about their identity management processes too, encouraging them to look at their requirements in more detail. Overall, 2022 will be the year when identity will be critical to how companies keep their assets secure and their employees productive. With employees working remotely and businesses becoming decentralised, identity strategies will have to take the same approach. This will put the emphasis on strong identity management as the starting point for all security planning.
F lorida was meant to be the safe option. In March I fled coronavirus-ridden New York for my childhood home in Boca Raton. How things have changed. New York had its first day with zero deaths since March this week, while cases here in Florida are soaring, and just like when I was a teenager I am contemplating an escape from my suburban town. After all, Im still paying rent on my New York apartment.

I should have seen it coming. When I arrived in Florida, on a plane full of fellow escapers, it didnt seem like anyone knew that there was a global pandemic happening  or if they did, they didnt care. I watched as spring-break revellers boldly declared: If I get corona, I get it. Im not gonna let it stop me from partying. The beaches were packed, restaurants were fully booked and none of the fear felt in New York made its way over.

I was cautious. After months of being sick with asthma last winter, I was scared my weak lungs couldnt handle coronavirus, so I rarely ventured out. I was happy to be there  at least I had space, a pool, and wasnt stuck in my underground studio flat.

FaceTiming a friend in Brooklyn, sirens wouldnt stop. On the NextDoor app, where users post events in their neighbourhood, people in Williamsburg complained that fireworks went off long into the morning. On social media, I saw circles being drawn in my local park to aid social distancing.

Then, it changed. Last Sunday, Florida hit 15,000 new cases in one day. Strangers told me to stay safe. I responded that I was staying inside forever. Florida was no longer Americas viral epicentre  it was the worlds.

Disneyland attracted large numbers of visitors when it reopened / Walt Disney World Resort via Get

Yet Florida didnt seem to know it. Shockingly, Disneyland opened, with long, winding lines. While Disney promised social distancing, videos emerged of long lines of people in Mickey Mouse ears pushed up against each other. The county I live in went viral after one resident called masks the devils law, while another proclaimed: I dont wear a mask for the same reason I dont wear underwear  things gotta breathe.

Florida was no longer Americas viral epicentre  it was the whole worlds

With Floridas governor Ron DeSantis making statements such as Florida is Gods waiting room, New Yorks governor Andrew Cuomo looked more appealing than ever. DeSantis swiftly opened up the state, following Trumps orders. Restaurants were packed. Speakeasies popped up at nightclubs in Miami. People ignored rising cases and took pictures of brunch instead.

Whenever I ventured out I then spent hours stressing about whether I had caught the coronavirus, despite masking up and sanitizing nonstop. I watched my beautician wash her hands like a surgeon and disinfect everything in sight but still worried.

I downloaded a dating app in an attempt to speak to someone who wasnt a member of my family, and was asked to get drinks at a bar immediately. I shuddered thinking about the germs.

As I continue to pay an exorbitant amount of rent for an apartment I havent seen since March (I just know theres something wilting in the refrigerator), Ive been thinking about going back, perhaps wearing a hazmat suit like Naomi Campbell. But my fear is that New York will have another surge. While I dont want to live with my parents forever, Im not eager to get back to Brooklyn and potentially get sick alone or be quarantined with no space. Florida has shown we are dealing with an unpredictable virus and we cant be too careful.
Volunteers provide coronavirus testing for any Delaware County resident over the age 18, during a walk in at the Parking Lot Adjacent to Providence Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center on Mercy Fitzgerald Campus in Yeadon Pa. Thursday, July 9, 2020. Read more

School this year wont be the same. Philadelphias reopening plan allows for just two days of in-person instruction a week, and lots of social distancing. Also, a day after Philly said fans wouldnt be able to attend Eagles games, officials clarified that crowds at home games could be possible in the future.

Dont forget to look up tonight. You could catch a glimpse of the International Space Station.

 Lauren Aguirre (@laurencaguirre, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

Yeadon, a Delaware County town of fewer than 12,000 people, has seen the highest rate of coronavirus cases of any suburban municipality or Philly zip code with at least 10,000 residents. This has been going on since before June 15, and Yeadon sits in the only suburban Philly county that does not have its own health department.

The situation has shown signs of improvement lately, but with people across the country growing impatient with staying at home and wearing masks, public health experts say those gains could be lost.

Philadelphia has announced its plan for reopening schools. The plan includes only two days of in-person instruction a week, social distancing and face masks, and increased sanitation, among other things. But each of Phillys 200-plus schools is still responsible for its own operations plan to execute the guidelines.

Understandably, parents are worried about their childrens health. While parents have the option of 100% virtual schooling to avoid public spaces, some are concerned about educating their children while also having to work. Some are even sending their kids to live in another city.

What you need to know today

Through your eyes | #OurPhilly

This shot brought some calm to my day and I hope it does the same for you. Thanks for sharing, @gritadelphia.

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!

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Opinions

Theres no reward in constantly questioning your place in a community and what role you play; it creates mental turmoil. However, this struggle was unavoidable. Thats because primarily white, outwardly liberal institutions like Haverford have such a long history of talking the talk without living up to it.  writes Rasaaq Shittu, a Black rising sophomore at Haverford College, on what racism looks like at liberal institutions.

A Philly mom in Hong Kong, Tanya Underwood, writes about her familys experience of returning to school after COVID-19.

Youre probably not an expert at assessing the risks of COVID-19, but your doctor can help, writes Jeffrey Millstein, a primary-care physician and medical director for patient experience-regional practices at Penn Medicine.

What were reading

Black at pages have sprung up for universities across the country. What results have they gotten in the Philly area? Billy Penn breaks it down.

This summer, 100 of Phillys hottest blocks are getting super soakers and other toys to help beat the heat. WHYY has more.

LA Pride is leaving West Hollywood after four decades, or since 1979. The event brings hundreds of thousands of people to the city every year, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Your Daily Dose of | We The People

For the first time in her adult life, BL Shirelle has no connections to the court system, after finishing her parole. Shes now the deputy director of Die Jim Crow Records, the first record label for current and formerly incarcerated musicians. Shes also the labels first solo artist.
Turkish military intervention in Libya has catapulted the region to its most dangerous brink in years. While Egypt didnt choose this path, it is obliged to stand firm on it

The UN Security Council held a meeting via videoconference on the situation in Libya on Wednesday, 8 July. The meeting was chaired by the German Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, as Germany has assumed the chair of the Security Council for the month of July.

The meeting convened six months after the Berlin Conference on Libya that was held 19 January and raised hopes, given the strong showing at the conference, the consensus that no military solutions would end the Libyan conflict, and the call for an immediate ceasefire, for the resumption of talks among the Libyan warring parties that would ultimately restore security and stability in war-torn Libya.

Those expectations were dashed by later developments, both military and political.

The same day the Security Council met to discuss the Libyan situation Turkey announced that it would organise largescale naval exercises along Libyan coasts. In the meantime, the secretary general of the United Nations told the Security Council that time was not on its side in Libya, and that foreign intervention in Libya reached unprecedented levels. Moreover, he added that he is preoccupied by military mobilisation taking place near the strategic city of Sirte. He vowed that the United Nations would intensify its contacts with the African Union, the Arab League and other international organisations to support the Libyan people in their quest for a better political and economic future.

The German foreign minister was more pessimistic in his description of the present situation in Libya. He warned that reaching a political solution would not be easy; on the contrary, Libya runs the risk of disintegration and fragmentation. He also warned of a wider regional confrontation.

The French permanent representative shared the worries of Maas as to the dangers of regional escalation, while expressing concerns about the military mobilisation taking place around Sirte and the largest airbase in Libya, Al-Jafra.

The communication office of the Turkish presidency had already announced, on Sunday, 5 July, prior to the Security Council meeting, that both Sirte and Al-Jafra would be the next target for the forces of the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA). After the council meeting, the Turkish government left no doubt as of its future intentions in Libya when it insisted that it would help the Tripoli government in taking control of all Libyan territories; that is, to reach Egyptian-Libyan borders to the east of the existing battle lines.

Last month, while visiting a military base near the Libyan borders, Egypts President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi drew a line in the sand running from Sirte to Al-Jafra that, if breached, would force Egypt to intervene militarily. In fact, the Egyptian army conducted naval and land exercises in the Western Desert near the joint borders with Libya on Wednesday, 8 July.

In light of the foregoing and in the absence of any significant economic and political pressures on Turkey, it seems that a larger regional confrontation involving Egypt and Turkey is not to be ruled out. It would be a war of necessity for Egypt, while it would be considered a war of choice for Turkey, which has been flexing its muscles on three Arab fronts: Syria and Iraq in the north and east, and Libya in the west.

If Turkish military presence in Libya would become, or seem to become permanent, that would be a casus belli for Egypt, that would be supported by other allies from the Arab world and beyond. Turkish military expansionism has raised alarm bells within the European Union and around the Mediterranean. This expansionism should be checked, and the sooner the better. In this respect, it is interesting to note that the US administration announced on Thursday, 9 July, that it would conduct military exercises with Cyprus, an announcement that is intended as an indirect message to Turkey that it has no free hand in the Eastern Mediterranean. Ironically, Turkey, in reaction to the announcement, said these exercises would be destabilising.

While military movements have been discernible on the ground from both camps in Libya, the Russian foreign minister said 8 July that Russia has been engaged in intensive diplomatic discussions with Turkey with the aim of reaching an agreement on the modalities of a Libyan ceasefire. In the meantime, he accused the Tripoli government of refusing a ceasefire, while the opposing camp of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar is willing to sign a ceasefire agreement. It remains to be seen whether the Turks are really genuine about the ceasefire. From all indications, particularly the military build-up taking place right now in the western part of Libya by Turkey, we could never know for sure the true intentions of the Turkish government, whether it seeks a truce and peace or war. However, one thing is sure. Unless defeated on the battlefield, or falling under serious American pressures, Turkey is planning for the long haul in Libya. It would be a very serious security challenge for Egypt to accept the stationing of Turkish troops, with their Syrian rag-tag mercenaries and terrorists, on its western borders.

If the vacuum of power in the Levant and northern Iraq have empowered Turkey to intervene militarily and act with impunity against Syria and Iraq, such a vacuum of power does not exist in North Africa.

If Egypt goes to war, it would be a war of necessity.

*The writer is former assistant foreign minister.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 16 July, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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A loophole in Canadian Citizenship law that prevented some parents from passing on citizenship to their children has been closed to support the needs of modern families.

Canada changes definition of parent for the 21st century A loophole in Canadian Citizenship law that prevented some parents from passing on citizenship to their children has been closed to support the needs of modern families.

Canada changes definition of parent for the 21st century A loophole in Canadian Citizenship law that prevented some parents from passing on citizenship to their children has been closed to support the needs of modern families.

Canada changes definition of parent for the 21st century A loophole in Canadian Citizenship law that prevented some parents from passing on citizenship to their children has been closed to support the needs of modern families. Shelby Thevenot Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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Canadian citizenship law is catching up with the times after Quebec Superior Court ruled that the non-biological, legal children of Canadians can have the same citizenship rights as biological children.

The change applies to children who were born through assisted human reproduction, such as surrogacy arrangements undertaken by Canadian citizens. It means that same-sex couples and couples who have fertility issues who used surrogacy can pass on citizenship rights to their children as long as one legal parent is Canadian. It does not apply to adopted children, who go through a different process to get Canadian citizenship.

Before the Quebec Superior Courts ruling last week, children of parents who used assisted reproduction fell through a loophole in Canadian citizenship law that only granted automatic citizenship to children who were born abroad and biologically connected to one or both of their Canadian parents.

Sponsor your family to come to Canada

This left out parents like Elsje van der Ven and Laurence Caron, who won a long-fought court battle last week to grant citizenship to their son, Benjamin. He was denied citizenship because his Canadian parent, Caron, was not his biological mother, even though she is legally his parent and married to his biological mother, van der Ven. Ironically, Carons biological daughter, Anna, was also born in the Netherlands but she was automatically granted citizenship under the antiquated definition.

The Citizenship Acts new definition of parent now encompasses both biological children of Canadians, and children who were born abroad and have a legal parent-child relationship at birth but no biological link.

Who is eligible for citizenship by descent?

Canadas new definition of parent includes those who have been recognized as their childs legal parent at birth. These Canadian parents can pass down citizenship with or without a genetic link to their children who were born abroad. Canada will recognize them as legal parents if their name appears on:

the childs original birth certificate; or

other relevant birth records (surrogacy contracts, court orders, hospital records, among others).

Parents who are not recognized as the legal parent at birth, but who have a biological connection with their child may need to do a DNA test to support their claim to parenthood.

Children who are born through assisted reproduction who do not have a legal parent at birth, or a biological connection with at least one of their Canadian parents are not eligible for citizenship by descent.

Minors, people under age 18 in Canada, may also file an application for proof of citizenship on their own behalf. However, if the minor is under age 14 a parent should countersign the application. Alternatively, the officer processing the application should advise the childs parent that the application is being made.

Who automatically gets Canadian citizenship?

It is not always clear who automatically gets Canadian citizenship and who has to apply. Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) even offers an Am I Canadian tool to help answer this question.

IRCC says people are likely Canadian citizens if they:

were born in Canada (but not to foreign diplomats);

became a citizen because of changes to the Citizenship Act;

applied for and received Canadian citizenship;

received Canadian citizenship as a minor when a parent or guardian applied on their behalf; or

were born outside Canada and at least one of their biological or legal parents were Canadian citizens.

The addition of legal parents of foreign-born children supports the changing nature of the modern family. The children of LGBTQ2+ couples as well as couples with fertility issues are now on the same playing field as the biological children of Canadians.

Learn more about Canadian family sponsorship

 2020 CIC News All Rights Reserved
Minister appears to be in the dark when quizzed on refugee evictions

PARLIAMENT | Hannah Yeoh (Harapan-Segambut) in Parliament today sought answers on what the government has been doing to manage refugees in Kuala Lumpur after the City Hall barred landlords from renting homes to undocumented migrants.

However, the Women, Family and Community Development Minister Rina Harun appeared to be in the dark on the situation - saying only that there are transit centres available for refugees.

On Sunday, The Malaysian Insight reported that at least 700 Rohingya refugees have lost their dwelling places in Kuala Lumpur last week.

DBKL had ordered landlords not to rent out to undocumented migrants from late May, according to FMT.

Malaysia is not a signatory of the UN refugee convention, leaving refugees in a legal grey area in the country.

Yeoh said the issue of homelessness among refugees in the city centre could become a security issue if the National Security Council and Rina's ministry fail to coordinate with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Rina responded by saying that her ministry had been working with the Home Ministry regarding the refugees, even during the movement control order (MCO).

"On the ministry's side, not just now, but during the MCO, there were several refugees including Rohingyas and others and we have worked together with the Home Ministry.

"On issues involving migrants, we have to take the views and opinions of not just the Home Ministry but also the Foreign Ministry.

"This will be looked at from time to time but what's important is that for children, under the Child Act, we will ensure their safety," Rina said.

Yeoh, who is a former women, family, and community development deputy minister, interjected and said her question was unanswered.

Yeoh: My question hasn't been answered. I want to ask, what is the immediate plan because they (refugees) have already been evicted and this will cause a homelessness problem and the numbers will go up. If we're still discussing but the local council has already decided to evict them-

Story continues

Rina: YB, you said they were going to be evicted? Meaning they haven't been evicted?

Yeoh: Messages have gone viral, NGOs are trying to find places (to house them). They don't know where to go. The government says they can't stay at home, they can't go out which is why-

Rina: We have transit centres for these refugees.

Yeoh: Have you met the UNHCR?

Deputy speaker Rashid Hasnon then ruled that the minister need not give an answer as this was not a debate and that any answers given during oral questions are sufficient.

When contacted, Yeoh reiterated that this could lead to bigger problems if not resolved.

"This will eventually be a security, health and safety issue if not discussed with UNHCR," she told Malaysiakini.
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The Battle of Budapest at the end of the Second World War lasted 50 days.

Soviet and Romanian troops laid siege to the Hungarian capital and the outnumbered Hungarian and German troops within from December 26, 1944, until it surrendered on February 13, 1945. Around 38,000 civilians lost their lives during the fighting.

These remarkable before-and-after pictures show that the city was left in ruins  and then rebuilt into one of the jewels of Eastern Europe. The locations captured in the black-and-white images - courtesy of the Fortepan archive  have been precisely matched in pictures by photographer Amos Chapple, on assignment for www.rferl.org, to reveal how theyve been transformed between 1945 and 2020.

Amos, whos originally from New Zealand but who now lives in Prague, told MailOnline Travel: I love digging through photo archives and Fortepan is one of the best. When I saw the photos of Budapest lying in ruins after the war it just blew my mind  I had no idea. Theres a narrative being sold to young people now that the Western world is broken. I remember shooting these pictures, looking at the grim archive photo on my hand, and up to the glorious modern city of today and just thinking how wrongheaded and - to be blunt - how ungrateful that is. We are incredibly lucky to live on this continent at this time.

He added: For me, the most moving photograph is the shot from the Fishermans Bastion looking out over the city showing the extent of the destruction. Hungarians had fought and murdered alongside the Nazis inside todays Russia, so The Red Army advance was really a wave of vengeance, backed by Allied air power. This was revenge on a massive scale. I think that picture really captures the viciousness of the war in Central Europe.

Scroll down to see the fascinating photographs. Warning  the images contain scenes some may find disturbing.

 Slide me  The 19th-century Szechenyi Chain Bridge over the Danube was blown up by retreating Nazis, then rebuilt and reopened again in 1949. It has featured heavily in modern popular culture - it even appears in Katy Perry's video for hit song Firework

 Slide me  The destroyed Szechenyi Chain Bridge, this time from a broader perspective. The bridge was designed by English engineer William Tierney Clark and today is one of Budapest's most eye-catching sights

 Slide me  This remarkable archive photograph shows a temporary pontoon bridge that stretched across the Danube after the war following the destruction of the city's bridges by Nazi-led forces. Today the city has 14 major bridges

 Slide me  Buda Castle was the last major stronghold of the Nazi and Hungarian troops. Before the Red Army siege, the Nazis landed planes and gliders on nearby roads and in the adjacent park, but this became impossible once the Soviets began hammering the area with artillery fire. The main entrance to the castle was destroyed - and never rebuilt. Today Buda Castle is a Unesco World Heritage Site

 Slide me  The 11th-century Matthias Church, which was heavily damaged during the fighting. Restoration work was eventually completed in 1984

 Slide me  The archive picture shows Red Army soldiers in front of the destroyed Elisabeth Bridge, which spans the narrowest section of the Danube. It was rebuilt, says Amos, by the ruling Communist part between 1961 and 1964 'without flourishes'

 Slide me  Some of the ornamental flourishes at Buda Castle were left in tatters by the war. As Amos's 2020 picture shows, stonemasons have restored them to their former glory

 Slide me  Triumphant Red Army troops march through the centre of Budapest on a spot that today is a major traffic junction

 Slide me  Wrecked residential buildings near Buda Castle. The Battle of Budapest at the end of the Second World War lasted 50 days

 Slide me  Around 38,000 civilians in Budapest lost their lives during the fighting. Hungary had allied itself to Germany and many of its soldiers committed atrocities. Amos said: 'The Red Army advance was really a wave of vengeance'

 Slide me  Amos describes this archive image as 'the most moving' for him because it shows the extent of the destruction

 Slide me  A shop burns as Soviet and Romanian troops surge into the city. Amos said: 'When I saw the photos of Budapest lying in ruins after the war it just blew my mind'

 Slide me  Amos said: 'I remember shooting these pictures, looking at the grim archive photo on my hand, and up to the glorious modern city of today and just thinking how... we are incredibly lucky to live on this continent at this time.' Budapest is formed from Obuda, Buda and Pest

 Slide me  The archive picture here shows a dead German soldier on Kalvin Ter in central Budapest. Today, the scene stands in total contrast

 Slide me  Buda Castle, to the left, along with other seriously damaged buildings. The scene today is utterly majestic

 Slide me  Buda Castle - also known as the Royal Palace - stands in ruins. It was listed as a Heritage Site by Unesco in 1987
CYBERGHANA, an award-winning non-profit organization, with the support of the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAENG) and Lloyds Register Foundation, United Kingdom, are set to launch a skilled development project, NICESTEP, to train hundreds of cybersecurity engineers in Ghana.

NICESTEP is one of the projects under the Engineering X programme, an initiative sponsored globally by the RAENG and Lloyd Register Foundation. The project, which is designed to fulfill United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 4, 5, 8,9, and 10, will see thousands of youths who desire to develop a career in cybersecurity, data science, software engineering, and information technology. Interested students will be required to enroll in at least one unique program module at their ultra-modern cybersecurity engineering labs across the country.

NICESTEP, a project designed to bridge the gap between the fast-technological advancement and the rising cases of cyber fraud, cyberbullying and targeted hacking. Students in the programme will be able to develop cutting edge technologies to help protect highly classified data of corporate organizations in the country.

Cyber related fraud and targeted hacking have become a trend which has robbed institutions of returns running into billions of dollars due to cyberattacks. The Youth unemployment rate in Ghana is very high. It is in the light of these challenges that CYBERGHANA in collaboration with Royal Academy of Engineering (RAENG) and Lloyd Register Foundation, UK, seeks to offer tenable solutions to corporate institutions and industries while grooming youths to equip them with up to date engineering and IT skills to mitigate the high rates of unemployment in the country and to protect critical infrastructure in the country.

The programme will primarily be launched in September 2020 at four Ghanaian technical universities: Institute of Cybersecurity (Accra), Cape Coast Technical University (Central region), Sunyani Technical University (Bono region), and Bolgatanga Technical University (Upper East region). The programme, more importantly, seeks to create a long-term social and economic change for the unemployed youths, who are capable of learning cyber engineering, technology, cybersecurity, and software engineering related skills in Ghana and beyond.

Fortunately, Ghana is fast embracing e-commerce, internet banking, and other online transactions, hence creating vast opportunities for young people to explore this area of computer engineering.

CYBERGHANA invites students and graduates seeking to develop a career in Information Technology to contact them for orientation and subsequently registration to kick-start their dream in cybersecurity engineering and other related disciplines.

CYBERGHANA is a non-profit organization in Ghana which is currently running free and affordable but advanced courses in technology and cybersecurity.

CYBERGHANA seeks to create long-term social and economic change for the unemployed and underprivileged youths who are capable of learning technology, cybersecurity, and software engineering related skills in Ghana and beyond. The programme helps disadvantaged youths and adults to acquire employable skills in cyber-engineering, software engineering, and artificial intelligence.

Location: Mile 7 Achimota

Accra, Ghana 00233

Tel: 020 764 6666 / 020 764 6669

Visit: Website: www.myicia.com
The toll of coronavirus infections and deaths in the United States is moving relentlessly upwards as the Trump administrations response descends into chaos. Trump and other aides are denouncing the top US infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, while the White House effectively prevents the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from carrying out its assigned task of coordinating the fight against the pandemic.

On Wednesday, the US death toll passed 140,000, according to the count maintained by the Worldometer website, and the total number of cases reported reached 3.6 million, meaning that more than one out of every hundred Americans has been infected by the potentially deadly virus.

The one-day total of infections set a new record at 71,670. Over the past seven days, the average one-day total has been more than 62,000, triple the level of one month ago.

President Donald Trump, and Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony S. Fauci at a coronavirus update briefing in April. (Image Credit: Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks)

It will not be long before the United States experiences more new infections in a single day than China suffered throughout the entire months-long crisis that ravaged the city of Wuhan, where the global pandemic began. Soon after that, the US may hit the 100,000 daily infection rate about which Dr. Fauci warned in his Senate testimony last month.

In cities across the southern and southwestern states, scenes that recall the horrors of April in New York City are now taking place, with hospitals in Miami, Orlando, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Phoenix running out of PPE, ICU beds and space to house the dead.

On Tuesday, when there were more than 65,000 new cases across the country, Florida, Texas and California accounted for nearly half. Florida alone had more than 78,000 new cases over the past week, more than most countries have had in the entire course of the pandemic. China, it should be noted, has suffered 83,612 cases of COVID-19 in the eight months since the disease was first discovered in Wuhan.

A front-page analysis in the Washington Post gloomily noted that the soaring global coronavirus toll was being powered by a group of poor countries, and by the United States, more or less suggesting that America resembles a third world country in its efforts to fight the pandemic. The newspaper cited one key fact: Nearly all the countries struggling with a surge share something in common: After weeks or months of trying to suppress the virus, they reopened their economies, only to find that the virus came roaring back.

The newspaper failed to point out, however, that the reopening in the US was not in response to popular demand. It was rather carried out, in the face of deep-seated opposition from workers, at the orders of the financial aristocracy and its political servants in both parties, Democratic as well as Republican.

Some of the most strident advocates of the reopening have themselves contracted coronavirus. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, who hailed the Trump campaign rally held in his state last month at a Tulsa arena, revealed Wednesday that he had tested positive. So did Representative Morgan Griffith of the 9th Congressional District of Virginia, in the Appalachian region, a leader of the ultra-right House Freedom Caucus, who attended a public event in Washington where the participants were generally maskless.

There is a chaotic patchwork, in some cases state by state, in others city by city, of emergency orders, mask mandates and decisions to reopen public schools and other potential flashpoints of a new surge in COVID-19. The Houston Independent School District said it would begin its school year with at least six weeks of online-only instruction, with a plan to review the decision in mid-October. San Francisco announced a similar schedule, while Prince Georges County, Maryland, in the Washington D.C. suburbs, said online-only instruction would continue at least until February 2021.

Two more state governors, Republican Kay Ivey of Alabama and Democrat Steve Bullock of Montana, announced they were dropping their previous opposition and issuing statewide orders requiring anyone out in public to wear a mask. The Republican governors of Georgia and Florida, two of the hardest-hit states, are still refusing to issue orders to wear masks.

Many states are being forced to return to some form of partial lockdown, at least banning indoor service at bars and restaurants, in some cases threatening a fuller closing down of the economy.

At her press briefing on Wednesday afternoon, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer revealed that the states COVID-19 curve had begun to rise again, hitting 891 new cases, the biggest single-day total in two months. Blaming the population for failing to wear masks, Whitmer warned, If Michiganders dont mask up when were going out in public, cases could rise and we could be forced to close down more of our businesses, including auto manufacturing plants that employ thousands of Michigan workers, jobs that our whole economy depends on.

Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the states top health official, said that the resurgence in the coronavirus was driven by younger people, with the highest rate among those aged 2029, followed by those aged 3039. She also noted the spread to new areas of the state not previously significantly affected, including the rural Upper Peninsula and the Grand Rapids area, both of which had their highest infection rates since the pandemic began. Michigan schools are still set to reopen on September 8.

Republican Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio gave a statewide address Tuesday night in which he warned that if no action was taken, Florida and Arizona will be our future. He warned against any relaxation of social distancing and wearing masks, saying in that case, were literally playing a Russian roulette game with our own lives, and our families and our neighbors.

In the Virginia, Maryland and Washington D.C. area, the seven-day moving average of new infections has returned to the level that prevailed before the lockdown of nonessential businesses was loosened at the end of May, passing 1,400 per day, with the biggest increase in the Hampton Roads area, which includes the largest US naval base, as well as the tourist center of Virginia Beach.

Against this backdrop of mounting sickness and death, the White House has been thrown into turmoil by attacks on Dr. Fauci, the longtime head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, by Trump and several aides.

Trump referred disparagingly to Faucis many mistakes in two media interviews last week, and the attack escalated with White House officials releasing a memorandum detailing supposed errors by Fauci and other materials aiming to discredit him. This culminated in a column published Tuesday in USA Today by Peter Navarro, Trumps top trade adviser, under the headline, Anthony Fauci has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on.

The op-ed was an ignorant rant by an official with no public health expertise but plenty of nationalistic spleen directed at China, the country Navarro accuses of deliberately unleashing the virus on the world. Navarro evidently regards Faucis scientific advice as an obstacle to the anti-China campaign.

After a media and political backlash, White House aide Alyssa Farah claimed that the Navarro column had not gone through normal White House clearance processes and is the opinion of Peter alone. Later in the day, Trump disavowed the Navarro column entirely, saying it was a rogue effort and that he did not share Navarros view of Fauci. But Navarro was only repeating, in more compressed and pointed form, exactly what Trump and other White House officials had been saying against Fauci for a week.

Fauci himself, in a media interview Wednesday, stated the obvious about the White House attack on him: It distracts from what I hope would be the common effort of getting this thing under control, rather than this back-and-forth distraction, which just doesnt make any sense.

He continued, Lets stop this nonsense and figure out how can we get our control over this now, and looking forward, how can we make sure that next month we dont have another example of California, Texas, Florida and Arizona, because those are the hot zones now, and Im looking at the map, saying we got to make sure it doesnt happen in other states Lets focus on that.

The White House also reaffirmed the directive issued July 10 for hospitals to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and send information on COVID-19 patients and resources to the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington. The ordera transparent effort to suppress information about the pandemic by centralizing it under the control of the White Housewas roundly criticized by professionals in the public health field.

In a press statement, Dr. Thomas File, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, called data collection a core function of the CDC, which was being undermined by the Trump administration. Placing medical data collection outside of the leadership of public health experts could severely weaken the quality and availability of data, add an additional burden to already overwhelmed hospitals and add a new challenge to the US pandemic response, he said.

According to press reports, hospitals will not actually contact the federal government at all to report COVID-19 information. They will report their data to TeleTracking, a private company in the Pittsburgh area, which was awarded a $10 million no-bid contract to provide HHS with reporting capability.
In a sweeping address Thursday, U.S. Attorney General William Barr blasted American tech giants Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple and Cisco as well as Hollywood for being "all too willing to collaborate with the Chinese Communist Party."

"The People's Republic of China is now engaged in an economic blitzkriegan aggressive, orchestrated, whole-of-government campaign to seize the commanding heights of the global economy and to surpass the United States as the world's preeminent superpower," Barr said during a speech at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum and Library in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

"All too often, for the sake of short-term profits, American companies have succumbed to that influenceeven at the expense of freedom and openness in the United States," he said, calling U.S. technology companies "pawns of Chinese influence."

In his blistering remarks, Barr slammed U.S. tech companies like Cisco for helping the Communist Party build "the Great Firewall of China," what he described as the world's "most sophisticated system for Internet surveillance and censorship."

In an emailed statement to CNBC, Cisco said it "does not supply equipment to China that is customized in any way to facilitate blocking of access or surveillance of users."

"The products we supply to China are the same we provide worldwide, and we comply fully with all export control rules applicable to China including those related to human rights," Cisco added.

Turning to Apple, Barr rebuked the company's decision to transfer a portion of its iCloud data to servers located in China, saying the move would make it easier for the Chinese government to access e-mails, text messages and other user information stored in the cloud. He accused the company of removing the news app Quartz from the app store in China after the Chinese government complained about the coverage of the Hong Kong democracy protests. He also briefly sidestepped his prepared remarks to rip Apple for being uncooperative with U.S. authorities investigating a deadly domestic terrorist case.

The Justice Department had previously asked Apple to help extract data from two iPhones that belonged to the gunman, who was linked to the al-Qaeda terror group.

"For four and a half months we tried to get in without any help from Apple," he said, adding that U.S. authorities were "ultimately able to get in through a fluke that we will not be able to reproduce in the future."

In an emailed statement to CNBC, Apple reiterated its commitment to cybersecurity and its offerings of "strong encryption across our devices and servers."

"Our products help our Chinese customers communicate, learn, express their creativity, and exercise their ingenuity. We believe in the critical importance of an open society in which information flows freely, and are convinced the best way we can continue to promote openness is to remain engaged even where we may disagree with a country's laws," the statement continued.

Google declined to comment on Barr's statements.

The company has not operated search in China since 2010 but was pressured by employees to abandon its plans to launch a new search product in China in 2018. At a hearing that year, CEO Sundar Pichai told Congress that Google had "no plans" at the time to launch such a service.

A Yahoo spokesperson declined to comment and a representative for Microsoft did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
Pompeo Says US Will Impose Sanctions on Some Huawei Employees

Sputnik News

14:08 GMT 15.07.2020(updated 15:36 GMT 15.07.2020)

On Tuesday, the US Secretary of State said that the UK's decision to ban the Huawei 5G network protects transatlantic security.

The US will impose sanctions on some Huawei employees, the country's Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday.

He added that Washington would unveil new visa restrictions on tech companies such as Huawei later in the day.

"The State Department will impose visa restrictions on certain employees of the Chinese technology companies like Huawei that provide material support to regimes engaging in human rights violations and abuses," Pompeo told a news conference.

He also said that he will visit Britain and Denmark next week, shortly after the UK announced its ban on Huawei's participation in developing the country's 5G network.

"I leave on Monday for a quick trip to the United Kingdom and Denmark, and I'm sure that the Chinese Communist Party and its threat to free peoples around the world will be high on top of that agenda," Pompeo told the media.

China's Communist Party will be the "biggest national security challenge" for the second Trump administration, he added.

On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump commented on the UK's decision to ban Huawei's 5G network, saying that the US "convinced many countries...not to use Huawei...because it's a big security risk." UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock dismissed Trump's remarks, stressing that the decision was based on a technical assessment done by the National Cyber Security Centre.

However, commenting on the decision on Wednesday, spokesman for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the reason for the UK's change of heart on Huawei was the impact of the US sanctions which were announced in May.

"Those sanctions were like nothing we had ever seen before, and led to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) changing its assessment," he said.

A Sputnik

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By Online Desk

India on Friday registered its highest-ever COVID-19 daily case tally as country crossed the 10 lakh mark with a whopping spike of 34,956 new patients and 687 deaths.

As per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare data, total positive cases in country stand at 10,03,832 including 3,42,473 active cases, 6,35,757 cured/discharged/migrated and 25,602 deaths.

For the third consecutive day, COVID-19 cases in Andhra Pradesh crossed the 2,000 mark while Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have also reported a high number of cases.

Meanwhile, community transmission has begun in Kerala, with an increasing number of people from Poonthura and Pulluvila testing positive for COVID-19, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Friday.
Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the Minister of Communications, has said the Ministrys request to the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) to cede some of its channels is in the interest of national security.



A letter dated 26th June 2020 to the Director-General of GBC directed the state broadcaster to reduce the number of its channels on the National Digital Terrestrial Television Network (NDTT) from six to three within 60 days.



The letter explained that the directive is to ensure that there is redundancy on the National DTT platform, which is currently at full capacity.



The letter said GTV's channels would be returned when work on the planned expansion of Ghana's DTT network was completed.



However, Mr Sam Nartey George, Minority Spokesperson on Communications, addressing a press conference at the Parliament House in Accra, said the GBC operated under the Ministry of Information and any directive on its activities should come from that Ministry and not the Communications Ministry.



When the digital switch is over, there are going to be a lot of white spaces, which will be additional spectrum for government to use, he said.



Mr George noted that there was no need to reduce the number of channels being operated by the state broadcaster by half.



Moreover, the Management and the Board of GBC have taken issue with the directive compelling them to run to the National Media Commission for redress.



The Minister of Communications, in reaction, said: The fact still remains that the sole multichannel through which broadcasting can be transmitted in this country for now is full to capacity; there is absolutely no redundancy on it, for us as a country it is dangerous to be in this situation.



She said the Government was working on an additional multiplex to provide more capacity and the situation had absolutely nothing to do with spectrum.



It is the multiplex, which has capacity challenges and not spectrum and until such time as we acquire an additional multiplex to provide channels for broadcasting in this country, we have no other means of doing so.



So a responsible Ministry in a responsible Government has to take the only means available to it, at this time to sit with those who have excess capacity on that multiplex to cede some of it for the security of our own state.



Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said the NMC could not compel the Ministry to withdraw the directive.

Source: GNA









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Covid-19 claimed more lives in east Belfast than in any other part of Northern Ireland during the first spike of the deadly virus, it can be revealed.

Official figures have provided a comprehensive breakdown of the Covid-19 death rates, according to each victim's usual postcode up to the end of May.

They have shown that the deaths of 36 residents in parts of east Belfast - including some of the most affluent parts of the city, such as Stormont and Ballyhackamore - were registered by May 29. A further 28 deaths of people living in Castlereagh, Clarawood, Gilnahirk and Knock had been registered by the same date.

All parts of Belfast were badly affected by the virus, according to the figures released by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA).

There were 45 Covid-19 deaths registered in north Belfast, which takes in the likes of Crumlin Road, Ardoyne and New Lodge. A further 30 deaths were registered for people with postcodes in the area including the Shankill Road and Ballygomartin.

There were 33 deaths attributed to the virus in south Belfast, although the figures show that Saintfield Road, Four Winds, Carryduff, Knockbreda and Newtownbreda were worse affected than the Malone Road, Ormeau and Lisburn Road areas.

The figures do not state where the person died or where they contracted the virus.

However, a number of care homes known to have been at the centre of deadly outbreaks have postcodes matching areas where the NISRA figures show there were a large number of deaths.

They have been released as latest Department of Health statistics reveal the death of a hospital patient in Belfast was reported on Friday. No further deaths have been reported. One patient with Covid-19 is receiving treatment in an intensive care unit.

Alliance Party MLA Paula Bradshaw, a member of the Stormont health committee, welcomed the publication of the statistics but called for a full analysis of the data. In particular, Ms Bradshaw said random Covid-19 testing should be carried out in areas that have experienced high death rates.

"What we see here is clear evidence of a bias towards urban areas and, in particular, towards locations with care homes," she said.

"There appears also to be something of a disconnect between where people have died and where people have come forward to be tested. Three issues arise.

"The first question is why this information is not more readily available by postcode, including currently with reference to contact tracing. As increasingly, people have to manage risk themselves, they need to be fully informed.

"The second issue is to ensure that people come forward for testing. We are not using our full testing capacity, indeed there were well under 1,000 individuals tested in the last 24 hours, so I would urge anyone with symptoms to make the call immediately and get tested.

"The third point is that, given our testing capacity is not being fully utilised, surely we should now have wider surveillance testing?

"Should areas like BT4 now have random testing among the entire population, including antibody testing and perhaps compared with other postcode areas, to see what the prevalence of the virus is or has been?

"This information would be vital to improving our understanding of the virus to ensure we can respond more effectively to any future outbreaks."

The Department of Health has been contacted for comment.
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The CEO of Gem Diamonds Limited (LON:GEMD) is Clifford Elphick, and this article examines the executive's compensation against the backdrop of overall company performance. This analysis will also assess whether Gem Diamonds pays its CEO appropriately, considering recent earnings growth and total shareholder returns.

Check out our latest analysis for Gem Diamonds

Comparing Gem Diamonds Limited's CEO Compensation With the industry

According to our data, Gem Diamonds Limited has a market capitalization of UK32m, and paid its CEO total annual compensation worth UK913k over the year to December 2019. That's a notable decrease of 8.3% on last year. In particular, the salary of US$478.7k, makes up a huge portion of the total compensation being paid to the CEO.

For comparison, other companies in the industry with market capitalizations below UK159m, reported a median total CEO compensation of UK165k. Hence, we can conclude that Clifford Elphick is remunerated higher than the industry median.

Component 2019 2018 Proportion (2019) Salary UK479k UK468k 52% Other UK434k UK527k 48% Total Compensation UK913k UK995k 100%

On an industry level, roughly 64% of total compensation represents salary and 36% is other remuneration. Gem Diamonds sets aside a smaller share of compensation for salary, in comparison to the overall industry. If salary is the major component in total compensation, it suggests that the CEO receives a higher fixed proportion of the total compensation, regardless of performance.

Gem Diamonds Limited's Growth

Over the past three years, Gem Diamonds Limited has seen its earnings per share (EPS) grow by 113% per year. It saw its revenue drop 32% over the last year.

Overall this is a positive result for shareholders, showing that the company has improved in recent years. The lack of revenue growth isn't ideal, but it is the bottom line that counts most in business. Moving away from current form for a second, it could be important to check this free visual depiction of what analysts expect for the future.

Story continues

Has Gem Diamonds Limited Been A Good Investment?

With a three year total loss of 72% for the shareholders, Gem Diamonds Limited would certainly have some dissatisfied shareholders. Therefore, it might be upsetting for shareholders if the CEO were paid generously.

In Summary...

As we noted earlier, Gem Diamonds pays its CEO higher than the norm for similar-sized companies belonging to the same industry. However, the earnings per share growth is certainly impressive, but we cannot say the same about the uninspiring shareholder returns (over the last three years). Although we'd stop short of calling it inappropriate, we think Clifford is earning a very handsome sum.

CEO compensation is a crucial aspect to keep your eyes on but investors also need to keep their eyes open for other issues related to business performance. We've identified 3 warning signs for Gem Diamonds that investors should be aware of in a dynamic business environment.

Important note: Gem Diamonds is an exciting stock, but we understand investors may be looking for an unencumbered balance sheet and blockbuster returns. You might find something better in this list of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt.

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.



Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
Vietnam Airlines is seeking an urgent VND12 trillion ($518 million) bailout from the government as the coronavirus continues to hit its revenues.

It is likely to report a loss of VND13 trillion ($561 million) this year, with revenues falling by half from last year to around VND50 trillion ($2.2 billion), CEO Duong Tri Thanh said at a meeting on Monday.

It has stopped all regular international flights since April when it operated only four domestic flights a day on average.

In June the number of passengers rose to 84 percent of the number a year earlier. "Since 1975 there has never been fewer flights in Vietnams skies," he said, referring to the year the Vietnam War ended.

He expected the domestic market to recover to pre-pandemic levels only by the end of 2021, and the international market a year later.

Government advisors said at the meeting that other options to rescue the airline include issuing more shares to existing shareholders or allowing investment by sovereign fund State Capital Investment Corporation.

One of them, Nguyen Dinh Cung, said many other governments have bailed out airlines and Vietnam should do the same.

Thanh said Vietnam Airlines has taken up the issue of funding with All Nippon Airways, which owns a 8.6 percent stake in it, but since the Japanese carrier is also in trouble it cannot provide loans now.

In Vietnam, the aviation industry has been among the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Airlines served 14.6 million passengers in the first six months, down 46 percent year-on-year, according to the General Statistics Office.
The level of outside pressure on the church has diminished during the pandemic, with global attention focused on the virulent coronavirus that has killed hundreds of thousands, and advocate groups have been unable to hold events. But the guidebook was more than a year in the making; some officials had talked about the idea in February 2019, when Pope Francis convened leading bishops from across the world to discuss the churchs clerical abuse crisis.
In a world with many concurrent crises, the Pennsylvania Legislature has returned to Harrisburg during summer recess to pass urgent legislation.

One such bill that is being fast-tracked, HB 196, passed quickly out the Senate State Government Committee. This bill proposes an amendment to the sate constitution to organize the judiciary into representative districts, instead of holding statewide elections.

I bet you didnt know you needed that, did you? Speaking in favor of this bill, Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill bemoaned a statistic that 55% of the judiciary comes from two counties representing 22% of Pennsylvania residents.

Well, if she thinks thats sad, let me tell you a story about our legislature, where one legislative committee chairperson, representing just 0.5% (House) or 2% (Senate) of the population, can kill bills with broad support from Pennsylvanians by refusing to give them a vote.

One such example is legislation to end gerrymandering, which has received wide support across the state, thanks to the efforts of grassroots Fair Districts PA. The powers that be (the leaders of the two chambers combined represent just 2.5% of the states population) have consistently failed to bring this legislation, so desperately needed, to a vote.

It seems that the legislature has its own priorities at the forefront rather than those of their constituents, once again.

Erica Dreabit

Allentown
The team probing the incident examined 808 suspects and 118 witnesses to collect strong evidence against the accused

Palghar: The Maharashtra CID on Wednesday filed a chargesheet in a court here ag ainst 126 accused in the Palghar lynching case in which two monks and their driver were beaten to death by a mob near here exactly three months ago.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) filed the 4,955-page chargesheet in the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) at Dahanu taluka in Palghar district located adjoining Mumbai, the probe agency said.

The team probing the incident examined 808 suspects and 118 witnesses to collect strong evidence against the accused, the CID said in a release.

In all, 154 persons were arrested and 11 juveniles in conflict with law, were detained. None of the accused has been released on bail so far, the release said.

"The chargesheet was filed by Deputy Superintendent of Police (CID) Vijay Pawar, the investigating officer in the case, at the JMFC court in Dahanuagainst126 accused," it said.

Besides sections of the IPC, the accused were charged under relevant provisions of the Disaster Management Act, the EpidemicDiseases Act (since lockdown was in force during the incident), the Maharashtra Police Actand the Maharashtra Damage to Public Property (Prevention) Act, the release said.

They were charged with murder, armed rioting and using criminal force to prevent a public servant from doing is duty, among other offences.

"Since there is adequate evidence against two juveniles in conflict with law, separate proceedings against them are being initiated before the Juvenile Justice Board," it said, adding further investigation was in progress.

The voluminous document is being scrutinised by court officials, a CID official said.

Once the scrutiny is done, charges will be framed against the accused by the court, the official said.

Two monks and their driver were lynched by a mob at Gadchinchale village in the district on April 16 when they were travelling in a car to Surat to attend a funeral amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown, police have said.

The brutal mob attack took place amid rumours that child-lifters were roaming in the area during the lockdown, they have said.

The case was later handed over to the CID for probe.

Noted lawyer Satish Maneshinde has been appointed the Special Public Prosecutor in the case.

The victims were identified by the police as Chikne Maharaj Kalpavrukshagiri (70), Sushil Giri Maharaj (35) and their driver Nilesh Telgade (30).

After the incident caused an uproar, the state government suspended Kasa police station in-charge Anandrao Kale, under whose jurisdiction the crime took place, and some other policemen, including sub-inspectors.

Also, more than 35 police constables and personnel of other ranks were transferred in the wake of the mob attack.

The government had also sent the then Palghar district police chief, Gaurav Singh, on forced leave and replaced him with Dattatraya Shinde.

In all, three FIRs related to murder, armed rioting and other charges were registered in connection with the incident.

The Dahanu court has rejected bail application of 25 accused arrested in the case.
SAGINAW, MI - Officials from Michigans Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, or EGLE, and the Federal Emergency Management Administration, or FEMA, held a webinar Wednesday evening to discuss regulations surrounding flood-related property repairs and renovations.

The deadline to apply for FEMA assistance is Sept. 8, 60 days after President Donald Trump approved a federal disaster declaration for the flooding disaster caused by heavy rains and the collapse of the Edenville Dam on Tuesday, May 19. But anyone affected by the flooding shouldnt wait anywhere near that long, said Dan Shulman, FEMA external affairs specialist for the region.

There is no benefit to waiting til the last minute, Shulman said. There is plenty of money to go around, we have plenty of capacity to serve survivors.

Shulman asked residents to check with their family and friends to make sure theyve applied for assistance. He also suggested checking even if you have provided information to 211 or a local government. Whether through calling, going online or using the FEMA app, you will know youre registered because you will receive a 9 digit number afterwards, he said.

After property inspections, residents can receive funds through direct deposit in 48 hours or less, Shulman said. FEMA has already approved $4.5 million in assistance since Friday when the declaration was approved, with $3.8 already disbursed.

The assistance is not intended to make residents whole, however. The assistance is meant for essential repairs or replacing essential items and systems, as well as temporary housing while making repairs, Shulman said.

Officials from EGLE gave presentations on the permitting and regulations required for certain recovery projects. Brian Rudolph spoke about whats required near inland lakes, streams and wetlands, including dredging and building or repairing seawalls. Joy Brooks, floodplain engineer at EGLEs Bay City District Office, presented on whats required when rebuilding within the 100-year floodplain.

If you have questions that dont get answered tonight, please feel free to give me a call, Rudolph said. Were happy to work with you and try to answer questions as best as we can.

Brooks recommended rebuilding right away, though the process can be quite complicated. Brooks, Rudolph and Shulman all encouraged residents with any questions or concerns to reach out to them or local authorities.

I encourage you to give us a call, Brooks said. Were happy to help you get through that... we have all of our floodplain engineers trying to help.

The presenters included a contact sheet for Rudolph, Brooks, FEMA and local officials as well.

Read more:

President Trump OKs major disaster declaration for mid-Michigan after severe flooding

Federal disaster declared for mid-Michigan flooding: How to get assistance

Saginaw libraries no longer charge overdue fines
TIMMINS, ON, July 15, 2020 /CNW/ - The health and well-being of Canadians are the top priorities of the governments of Canada and Ontario. But the COVID-19 pandemic has affected more than Canadians' personal health. It is having a profound effect on the economy.

That is why governments have been taking decisive action to support families, businesses and communities, and continue to look ahead to see what more can be done.

Strategic investments in modern public transit infrastructure support a healthy environment and play a key role in ensuring Ontarians can get to work and essential services on time, then safely back home at the end of the day.

Today, Terry Sheehan, Member of Parliament for Sault Ste. Marie, on behalf of the Honourable Catherine McKenna, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities; Dave Smith, Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Indigenous Affairs and the Minister of Energy, Northern Development and Mines and Member of Provincial Parliament for Peterborough-Kawartha on behalf of the Honourable Laurie Scott, Ontario's Minister of Infrastructure; and his Worship George Pirie, Mayor of Timmins, announced funding for three public transit projects in Timmins.

The purchase of a new conventional bus and the replacement of standard buses with two paratransit vehicles will improve the transit system's accessibility, upgrade the system's capacity, and enhance the overall quality for public transit riders.

In addition, renovations to Timmins' terminal transit station will modernize the facility and will include fully accessible washrooms. These upgrades will ensure a reliable, barrier-free space for all public transit users.

By upgrading and expanding public transit systems in the city and connecting residents to the essential services they require, residents can get around their communities safely while also protecting the environment.

The Government of Canada is investing over $960,000 in these projects through the Public Transit Infrastructure Stream (PTIS) of the Investing in Canada infrastructure plan. The Government of Ontario is providing more than $806,000 to the projects, while the municipality is contributing more than $645,000.

Quotes

"Investing in integrated and accessible public transit systems is vital for building more inclusive communities. The projects announced today will improve public transit services for all Timmins residents, allowing them to get where they need to go safely and with ease. We are committed to working with our partners to build stronger, more sustainable infrastructure that will serve communities now and far into the future."

Terry Sheehan, Member of Parliament for Sault Ste. Marie, on behalf of the Honourable Catherine McKenna, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities

"I am incredibly proud to represent Minister Scott and Minister Rickford today to acknowledge the Province's collaboration with our federal and municipal partners to announce this important investment in public transit. Today's announcement will significantly improve the public transit experience in Timmins by providing safe, reliable, and most importantly, accessible transportation."

Dave Smith, Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Indigenous Affairs and the Minister of Energy, Northern Development and Mines and Member of Provincial Parliament for Peterborough-Kawartha on behalf of the Honourable Laurie Scott, Ontario's Minister of Infrastructure

"We are extremely pleased with, and grateful for this funding announcement. While the total contribution of $968,000 is allocated to three distinct projects, the common link is creating greater accessibility to those utilizing Timmins Transit. The new buses we'll be able to add to our fleet will provide greater accessibility for all riders, and the terminal renovations will also improve the quality and accessibility of the transit system."

His Worship George Pirie, Mayor of Timmins

Quick facts

Through the Investing in Canada infrastructure plan, the Government of Canada is investing more than $180 billion over 12 years in public transit projects, green infrastructure, social infrastructure, trade and transportation routes, and Canada's rural and northern communities.

infrastructure plan, the Government of is investing more than over 12 years in public transit projects, green infrastructure, social infrastructure, trade and transportation routes, and rural and northern communities. Across Ontario , the Government of Canada has invested more than $2.5 billion in infrastructure under the Investing in Canada infrastructure plan.

, the Government of has invested more than in infrastructure under the Investing in infrastructure plan. $28 .7 billion of this funding is supporting public transit projects, including $5 billion available for investment through the Canada Infrastructure Bank.

.7 billion of this funding is supporting public transit projects, including $5 billion available for investment through the Canada Infrastructure Bank. Across the province, Ontario is investing more than $7.3 billion in public transit infrastructure over 10 years through the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.

is investing more than in public transit infrastructure over 10 years through the Investing in Infrastructure Program. Ontario is investing $10.2 billion under the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program to improve public transit; community, culture and recreation; green, and rural and northern community infrastructure.

Related product

Backgrounder



Canada and Ontario invest in a more accessible Timmins with modern public transit infrastructure



Joint federal, provincial, and municipal funding through the Investing in Canada infrastructure plan will support three public transit projects in Timmins. These investments will support better connected and more sustainable communities.

The Government of Canada is investing over $960,000 in these projects through the Public Transit Infrastructure Stream (PTIS). The Government of Ontario is contributing more than $806,000, while the municipality is contributing more than $645,000.

Project Information:

Project Name Project Details Federal Funding Provincial Funding Municipal / Other Funding Purchase Replacement Bus The replacement of a conventional bus with a newer model to improve the transit system's accessibility and offer riders a better quality service. $277,200 $230,977 $184,823 Purchase New Low Floor Accessible Paratransit Mobility Buses The replacement of existing buses with two paratransit vehicles to meet all accessibility standards and improve the capacity and quality of the public transit system. $140,800 $117,322 $93,878 Terminal Renovations and Improve Customer Accessibility Renovations to the terminal transit station, which include adding fully accessible washrooms, will modernize the building and ensure the amenities are barrier free for all transit users. $550,000 $458,288 $366,713

*The federal and provincial governments are each contributing the maximum share of eligible costs for these projects, which are 40% and 33.33% respectively (for new projects and 50% and 33.33% respectively for rehabilitation projects) per the requirements of the Canada-Ontario Integrated Bilateral Agreement. Contributions from municipalities may include both eligible and ineligible costs. Ineligible costs are expenditures that municipalities have chosen not to request reimbursement for or that cannot be reimbursed (e.g., property purchases, overhead costs).

Associated links

Government of Canada Resources - Coronavirus disease (COVID 19):

www.canada.ca/coronavirus

Government of Ontario Resources  COVID-19:

https://covid-19.ontario.ca/

Investing in Canada Plan Project Map:

http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/map

Federal infrastructure investments in Ontario:

https://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/investments-2002-investissements/on-eng.html

Investing in Canada: Canada's Long-Term Infrastructure Plan:

http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/plan/icp-publication-pic-eng.html

Ontario Builds Project Map:

https://www.ontario.ca/page/building-ontario

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

Web: Infrastructure Canada

SOURCE Infrastructure Canada

For further information: Chantalle Aubertin, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, 613-697-3778, [email protected]; Christine Bujold, Press Secretary, Office of the Honourable Laurie Scott, Ontario's Minister of Infrastructure, 416-454-1782, [email protected]; Sofia Sousa-Dias, Communications Branch, Ontario Ministry of Infrastructure, 437-991-3391, [email protected]; Heather Duhn, Corporate Communications Coordinator, City of Timmins, 705-360-2600, ext. 2212, [email protected]; Media Relations, Infrastructure Canada, 613-960-9251, Toll free: 1-877-250-7154, Email: [email protected]

Related Links

www.infrastructure.gc.ca


Three police officers are charged with manslaughter over the asphyxiation death of a delivery man in January.

Three French police officers have been charged with manslaughter over the asphyxiation death of a delivery man who was pinned to the ground by arresting officers in January.

Cedric Chouviat, 42, died in hospital two days after a heated exchange with police officers who held him down, still wearing his scooter helmet, for about 20 seconds after his arrest near the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Chouviat, of North African origin, said Im suffocating seven times before his body went limp, according to a review by investigators of video footage of the incident.

France has seen demonstrations in recent weeks against alleged police brutality and racism.

The protests were sparked by a report clearing the officers who arrested Adama Traore, a 24-year-old Black man who died in police custody in 2016.

One of the officers had admitted the young man was pinned to the ground with their combined body weight.

The controversy has gained resonance since mass protests erupted in the United States over the killing by police of George Floyd, a Black man who similarly died after being pinned to the ground as he pleaded: I cant breathe.

Chouviats death

Rushed to hospital in a critical condition, Chouviat died of asphyxiation with a fracture of the larynx according to a prosecutors report.

Two of the officers involved in Chouviats his arrest were charged last week, a judicial source told the AFP news agency, and a third on Thursday, according to his lawyer.

A fourth police officer is under investigation but has not been charged.

Chouviats family said on Thursday that a charge of manslaughter was too lenient for the violence and aggressiveness of the police officers as seen in video footage captured by witnesses.

Voluntary blows led to the death of Cedric Chouviat, the family said in a statement. A charge of voluntary violence could carry a higher penalty than manslaughter under French law.

The family has asked that the restraint techniques used on Chouviat  a chokehold and a position where a person is forced face down on the ground while pressure is applied on their torso  be banned.

Former Interior Minister Christophe Castaner announced a ban on the chokehold in June but backtracked after a backlash by police who demonstrated across France.
The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved a $50.72 billion Homeland Security funding bill that includes $12.8 billion for the Coast Guard -- $711 million more than the service's budget request, including additional money to improve Coast Guard housing and upgrade the service's aging technology and communications systems.

The increases over the administration's fiscal 2021 budget request aim to reduce a backlog in shore infrastructure maintenance, according to committee members. They are also designed to help the service modernize its technology, which Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz described in February as "1990s-era hardware, software and analytics."

Read Next: Too Soon to Tell if Bonhomme Richard Can Be Saved After Fire, Navy Says

The bill contains $78 million for cyber, satellite and other communications upgrades -- including $6.5 million to upgrade the service's phone systems -- as well as $26.9 million for command, control, communications, computers, cyber and intelligence systems.

In a speech delivered in February on the state of the Coast Guard, Schultz described a service operating on low bandwidth, telling service members that in the past year 95 vital systems went offline for "several days" due to a single server malfunction.

"Our people will never fail our country, but our technology is failing our people," Schultz said.

At the time, the Coast Guard's information technology equipment and systems were experiencing a $300 million annual budget shortfall.

The bill is designed to cut into that shortfall, as well as a $2 billion maintenance backlog. It includes $312.9 million for shore facilities and aids to navigation, plus an additional $166 million for projects from the Coast Guard's housing, family support, safety and training facilities unfunded priority list.

More than $2 million would go to the Safe Homes Initiative, an effort to ensure that Coast Guard families live in homes that are free of environmental hazards such as mold, rot, pestilence and fire hazards -- the service's response to the housing scandal that erupted in 2018 involving the Department of Defense's privatized housing initiative.

In an investigation following a series of news reports by Reuters, hundreds of military families were found to be living in unsafe and unsanitary conditions that housing officials often dismissed or repaired poorly.

The bill includes an additional $12 million for training and course development and retention and recruitment, and $4.9 million for mental health support and services.

In terms of assets, the bill would fund a second polar security cutter, four fast response cutters and one HC-130J aircraft. And it includes $546 million for the offshore patrol cutter program.

In developing the legislation, the committee decided not to support the administration's request for $11.6 million for "civilian awards spending increases" and rejected the department's proposal to pay for overseas contingency operations (OCO) from its discretionary base budget. Instead, it provides $215 million in OCO funds for the Coast Guard. It also directs the service to develop a report on its role in the administration's Indo-Pacific Strategy.

And it requires the Coast Guard to draft a plan for establishing a Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps at public and private high schools

The bill passed the committee in a 30-22 vote. It will now move to the House for consideration and will have to be reconciled with the Senate's version of the Homeland Security funding bill before it can become law.

"This bill as a whole will strengthen our security and keep Americans safe, while upholding our American values of fairness and respect," House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-New York, said after passage. "Strong investments in modern, effective technologies will improve homeland security missions, from cybersecurity and disaster preparedness to border and maritime security."

-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime.

Related: Coast Guard Officials Have Refused to Testify in Race-Based Academy Discrimination Hearing
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank will be held virtually and in a global pandemic that nation states are grappling to manage against declining economic outcomes.

"I hope that we will all embrace the opportunities presented by the circumstances to individually, and collectively, reset and perhaps discard our old ways in favor of a build back better and greener post COVID-19," Dr. Kevin Kariuki, Vice President of Power, Energy, Climate and Green Growth, says.

He further explains that the current global climate dictates a need for innovation and resilience in development efforts on the continent.

For more on the "Road to the 2020 Annual Meetings: A conversation with VP Kevin Kariuki," click here.
State law prevails in disputes between insurers and an air ambulance service over reimbursements under the Texas workers compensation system, the states highest court recently ruled.

In Texas Mutual Insurance Co., et al, v. PHI Air Medical Inc., the Texas Supreme Court held that the Texas Workers Compensation Act (TWCA) and Division of Workers Compensation Rules, which require reasonable reimbursement to privately owned air ambulance services, are not preempted by federal law.

In the suit, PHI, like other air ambulance services across the country, had argued the federal Airline Deregulation Act (ADA), which contains no reimbursement requirement, preempts state law and therefore insurance carriers were required to pay the full amount of bills charged by air ambulance companies. The ADA, enacted in 1978, deregulated the airline industry, allowing to commercial airlines set competitive rates.

Insurers typically have reimbursed an amount equal to 125% of Medicare reimbursement amount for air ambulance services, according to an analysis of the case written by Robert R. Graves, an Austin-based partner in the law firm Burns Anderson Jury & Brenner L.L.P. The amounts often charged by air ambulance providers are often far above the reimbursement amount allowed under the TWCA, however.

Several other insurance companies had joined Texas Mutual in its lawsuit against PHI. In a statement, Texas Mutual said the Texas Supreme Court in its opinion released on June 26, decided in favor of insurers and state regulators in a dispute that was sparked when privately-owned air ambulances began demanding that workers compensation insurers pay their full billed charges, unrestricted by the law that says payments must be fair and reasonable or by any other constraint.

In the Courts majority opinion, Justice Brett Busby, wrote that the case is about federalism. He said the court looked at whether a federal law deregulating aviation services may override a states authority to require that private insurance companies reimburse the fair and reasonable medical expenses of injured workers and require Texas to mandate reimbursement of more than a fair and reasonable amount for air ambulance services.

In both instances, the Court said no.

Under the ADA, states are not required to provide for payment of air ambulance charges, Busby wrote. But, he said, PHI is trying to use the ADAs preemption clause to have it both ways under state law: PHI relies on Texas law requiring that private insurers reimburse it for air ambulance services to injured workers, yet it argues that the Texas standards governing the amount of that reimbursement are preempted.

A trial court had earlier issued a summary judgment in the case declaring there was no preemption of state law by the ADA but a court of appeals reversed that ruling. The Texas Supreme Court reinstated the portion of the trial courts summary judgment declaring no preemption. It also remanded to the appeals court other issues in the case it did not previously address.

The issue is not limited to Texas. In a media release, Texas Mutual said air ambulances nationwide have claimed that states cannot regulate their rates and must therefore award them whatever payments they demand. Consumers and regulators have become increasingly alarmed at the growing size of these bills.

Air Ambulances Sky-High Charges Leave Reimbursement Gaps, Lawsuits The U.S. air-ambulance fleet has doubled in size in the past 15 years to nearly 900 helicopters making 300,000 flights annually, according to data compiled by Ira Blumen, a professor of emergency medicine and director of University of Chicago Aeromedical Network.

In his analysis, Robert Graves pointed out that PHI could ask Texas high court rehear the case and/or seek review by the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals also is considering similar issues in Air Evac EMS, Inc. v. Sullivan, No 18-50722, Graves wrote.

Other States

North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Jon Godfread has taken a particularly aggressive stance against air ambulance service operators in his state, and has called on the U.S. Senate to tackle the problem of surprise air ambulance bills.

According to the North Dakota Insurance Department, 32 complaints were filed with the department between 2013 and 2017 over uncovered charges for air ambulance services that totaled $1.77 million. Based upon these complaints, each air ambulance ride cost the consumer $55,341 on average, the department said.

In February of this year, Godfread alleged AirMedCare Network was breaking the law by selling air ambulance subscriptions to North Dakotans illegally and issued a cease and desist order against the company. The state in 2017 had banned the practice of selling subscription plans because they have been shown to be predatory, the department said.

In January 2019, the Missouri Department of Insurance published a study of the high cost of air ambulance services in that state. Air ambulances billed Missourians nearly $26 million for services in 2017, leaving patients with $12.4 million in bills after coinsurance, copays and deductibles, for an average cost of around $20,000 per person, the report showed.

The report found that insurance companies cant negotiate prices with many air ambulance services because they are not in-network providers. And the study found many air ambulance companies use collection practices such as placing liens on homes or garnishing wages if patients are unable to pay the bills.

Medicare reimbursement rates for air ambulance services range between $3,368 and $6,404 and Medicaid reimbursements average $2,253. In contrast, private health insurers in Missouri were billed an average of $41,321, of which they paid an average amount of $23,087, according to the report.

Related:

Topics Carriers Texas Workers' Compensation USA Abuse Molestation Aviation
With the $28 billion hes raised working from home, Indias richest man wants to step into the breach created by the technology cold war between America and China. The two Silicon Valley tech giants that gave him a third of the money will help put him there.

Its an audacious plan. Politicians in many nations, including the US, the UK, and India, are reluctant to let Huawei, which they accuse of being an instrument of the Chinese state, become embedded in the fast-speed internet networks that will run everything from power stations to autonomous cars. Ambanis ...
The Hyksos, who ruled during the 15th Dynasty of ancient Egypt, were not foreign invaders, but a group who rose to power from within, according to a study published July 8, 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Chris Stantis of Bournemouth University, UK and colleagues.

The Hyksos were a foreign dynasty that ruled parts of Egypt between approximately 1638-1530 BCE, the first instance of Egypt being ruled by individuals of a foreign origin. The common story is that the Hyksos were invaders from a far-off land, but this idea has been drawn into question. Archaeological evidence does link Hyksos culture with an origin in the Near East, but exactly how they rose to power is unclear.

In this study, Stantis and colleagues collected enamel samples from the teeth of 75 humans buried in the ancient Hyksos capital city of Tell el-Dab'a in the northeast Nile Delta. Comparing ratios of strontium isotopes in the teeth to environmental isotope signatures from Egypt and elsewhere, they assessed the geographic origins of the individuals who lived in the city. They found that a large percentage of the populace were non-locals who immigrated from a wide variety of other places. This pattern was true both before and during the Hyksos dynasty.

This pattern does not match the story of a sudden invasion from a single far-off land, but of a multi-cultural region where one internal group -- the Hyksos -- eventually rose to power after living there for generations. This is the first study to use archaeological chemistry to address the origins of the Hyksos rulers, but the authors note that more investigations and broader chemical techniques will be needed to identify the specific ancestries of the Hyksos and other non-local residents of Egypt.

Stantis adds: "Archaeological chemistry, specifically isotopic analysis, shows us first-generation migration during a time of major cultural transformations in ancient Egypt. Rather than the old scholastic theories of invasion, we see more people, especially women, migrating to Egypt before Hyksos rule, suggesting economic and cultural changes leading to foreign rule rather than violence."
Wells Fargo Commitment Could Potentially Result in Billions for Small Businesses

In April, Wells Fargo announced it would donate gross proceeds from the Paycheck Protection Plan to nonprofits working with small businesses.

This month, the bank has ramped up its efforts by unveiling the details of an approximately $400 million initiative to help small businesses impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The goal is to help keep the doors of small businesses open, retain employees, and rebuild.

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Through Wells Fargos new Open for Business Fund, the company will engage nonprofit organizations to provide capital, technical support, and long-term resiliency programs to small businesses, emphasizing those that are minority-owned businesses.

We realized early on that small businesses were taking the brunt of what was happening with COVID-19 and the economic slowdown that occurred, said Jenny Flores, Wells Fargos head of small business growth philanthropy.

We also noticed that diverse individuals were having a very negative impact, and with the data, it was coming to 41 percent or 450,000 Black-owned businesses closed when COVID hit. That is a disproportionate impact not only to the entrepreneurs but also to the employees they have and the pocketbook, Flores stated.

Through June 30, Wells Fargo funded loans under the PPP for more than 179,000 customers, with an average loan amount of $56,000, totaling $10.1 billion.

Of the loans made, 84 percent of those are for companies with less than ten employees; 60 percent were for amounts of $25,000 or less; and, 90 percent of these applicants had $2 million or less in annual revenue.

Given the federal governments extension of the PPP, Wells Fargo will reopen its PPP loan application process to eligible customers as soon as possible through a link in Business Online Banking, the bank noted in a news release.

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Additionally, the Wells Fargo Open for Business Funds initial grants will allocate $28 million to Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), also known as nonprofit community lenders.

The grants are aimed at empowering Black and African American-owned small businesses, which the National Bureau of Economic Research said are closing at nearly twice the rate of the industry.

Among the first grantees are Expanding Black Business Credit Initiative (EBBC), which will support the launch of a Black Vision Fund to increase the flow of capital to Black-focused CDFIs for transformational work to close the racial wealth gap in African American communities.

The CDFIs will also receive capital for urgent deployment to impacted businesses in the Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and Midwest.

Further, a Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) will provide grants and low-cost capital to more than 2,800 entrepreneurs, focusing on preventing loss in revenue, sustaining employment, and averting vacancies among vulnerable small business owners in urban and rural markets nationwide.

This is an extension of the commitment we had to diverse businesses, Flores noted.

Small businesses need cash to open again, and we are putting $260 million for community development financial pocket lenders that have a track record of reaching diverse communities. We want them to be able to do new loans and to have grant money.

Wells Fargo counts as one of the top PPP lenders in the country and has spent a lot of time understanding various strategies to assist small businesses, Flores declared.

We have key members across the country, and I talk to entrepreneurs directly, she said.

This reflects a very thoughtful approach, one that is based on really putting the customer right at the center, listening to what they need. This has potentially $1 billion of impact in a three-year period, Flores added.

When they get the loans and recycle that and then for every million CDFI loans out to small businesses, they can support 18 businesses and create 31 jobs.

Hence, if you take the $250 million and work through it, its thousands of businesses were impacting in such a positive way. Were really proud of the opportunity we have to collaborate with CDFIs and particularly those who are led by diverse entrepreneurs.
MISSOULA, Mont.

July 15, 2020

Boston

Braxton Norwood

Montana

Kalispell MT

/PRNewswire/ -- Expesicor, a privately held biopharma company focused on preventing, treating, and curing neurological disorders, is excited to announce its collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in. Expesicor and MGH are working to develop a positron emission tomography (PET) imaging agent to objectively diagnose and measure pain. The project is supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health's Helping to End Addiction Long-term (NIH HEAL) Initiative. MGH brings world-leading knowledge and expertise from researchers of varied backgrounds including chemistry, biochemistry, and medical physics."We are excited about this collaboration, particularly its potential to improve the lives of people living with chronic pain," said Dr., CEO of Expesicor. "This project could revolutionize pain management and help combat the opioid crisis."A PET scan is an imaging test that helps reveal how systems in the body are functioning. PET scans use small amounts of radioactive drug to visualize activity within organs. This non-invasive method can sometimes detect disease before other imaging tests. PET scans are commonly used in the diagnosis/monitoring of cancer, heart function, Alzheimer's Disease, and epilepsy.As a clinical-stage company, Expesicor's pipeline includes projects ranging from preclinical to Phase II clinical trials. In addition to PET imaging agents, the company's assets include novel therapeutics and drug screening tools for neurological disorders including epilepsy, traumatic brain injury (TBI), chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and Alzheimer's Disease.The research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R43NS115294. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.Expesicor is a privately held,-based company focused on preventing, treating, and curing neurological disorders. Expesicor's development pipeline includes proprietary therapeutics, imaging probes, and drug screening tools for epilepsy, neurodegenerative disorders, depression, and other brain disorders. For more information, visit expesicor.com.Expesicor IncBox 10205 350 N Meridian Rd, 59901 USAPress@expesicor.comThis release is intended for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon to make any investment decision, as it was prepared without regard to any specific objectives, or financial circumstances. This is not a solicitation to buy or sell any securities. This release is not intended to provide, and should not be relied upon for tax, legal, accounting, or investment advice. The forward-looking statements herein constitute an expression of opinion, which may or may not prove to be accurate.

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/expesicor-announces-collaboration-with-massachusetts-general-hospital-to-develop-novel-imaging-agents-for-pain-management-301094482.html



SOURCE Expesicor




The states top budget writers have proposed closing a small prison near the Oregon coast as lawmakers try to balance a huge budget shortfall created by the COVID-19 pandemic and business shutdowns.

Oregon is on track to be more than $1 billion short in its general fund and lottery budget, assuming the state spends down its reserves but leaves some cushion for the next budget cycle. Thats because the state is collecting billions less in income taxes, lottery revenue and business taxes than economists had expected for the two year budget cycle that ends in June 2021.

Lawmakers are considering shutting the Shutter Creek Correctional Institution this year and later closing Warner Creek Correctional Facility as well. The proposed closures were first reported by Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Budget writers plan to take public testimony on the proposed cuts next week, with daylong virtual hearings planned Wednesday through Friday. Legislative leaders expect to return to Salem for a special session to make the budget adjustments the last week of July or early August.

Lawmakers in both parties and Gov. Kate Brown have said they will prioritize protecting the $9 billion state school fund, the main source of money for Oregons 1,300 public schools. Lawmakers also hope to keep intact money for early learning and statewide initiatives slated to be funded by a new business tax on sales, according to Rep. Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis, a co-chair of the Legislatures budget writing committee.

We think that this next year is going to be extremely critical in terms of providing services for vulnerable Oregonians, Rayfield said. We were leery about making cuts (to those things), which caused us to look at other cuts.

In a 13-page framework, the budget co-chairs  Rayfield, along with state Sens. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward and Betsy Johnson  said they tried to protect essential investments in public education, health care, child welfare, housing, economic development, and other critical areas during this unprecedented public health and economic crisis.

Among those other critical areas, the proposal maintains funding for Oregon State Police troopers and fighting wildfires. It would cancel the launch or expansion of several programs to help senior citizens, low-income families and people needing mental health treatment. And it would delay purchases of new state police vehicles, training for new troopers, scale back Outdoor School and Farm to School grants, limit which students qualify for free community college, cut help for intellectually and developmentally disabled Oregonians and reduce solar rebates.

The cuts do not include any state employee wage freezes or cuts, which lawmakers have pointed out are the purview of the governor. State employees ranging from frontline workers to executives are supposed to receive raises of up to 15% spread across the two-year budget that reached its halfway mark July 1.

While not a final product, the ideas include a mix of nearly $400 million in cuts and administrative savings, pulling another $400 million from a state reserve fund for schools and so-called resource adjustments to close a nearly $1.1 billion budget gap.

The proposed prison closures would be staggered. Shutter Creek, a 300-bed facility in North Bend, would close quickly under the plan. Warner Creek, a 492-bed facility in Lakeview, would close during the budget cycle that runs from 2021-23. The budget document does not specify how much money that would save.

Cuts to agencies within the human services realm represent the largest portion of the budget realignment, with more than $180 million in reduced spending.

More than $80 million of that comes in the form of holding positions vacant, reducing services and supplies spending, restricting travel and actuarial adjustments.

But lawmakers have also proposed eliminating some services at the Oregon State Hospital, which would include laying off 22 non-direct care staff. Details of those changes are not laid out in the framework.

-- The Associated Press and Hillary Borrud of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report.

-- Betsy Hammond; betsyhammond@oregonian.com; @OregonianPol

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
China is facing outbreaks of a debilitating virus in cattle that causes a condition called lumpy skin disease, following an incident on a farm in the eastern province of Zhejiang this week, the agriculture ministry said on Wednesday.

On its website, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said five cases were found during June in the southern provinces of Guangdong and Fujian and the eastern provinces of Jiangxi and Anhui.

The local area has effectively dealt with the epidemic, the ministry said of this weeks incident. It has killed two diseased cattle and disposed of them, and (the farm) has been thoroughly and completely disinfected.

The disease does not affect people and is thought to be spread by flies or mosquitoes, causing nodules to form on the skin, with accompanying symptoms such as much lower milk production, but it is rarely fatal.

Taiwan also reported its first case of the disease this month on Kinmen Island.
Police in South Florida were shocked when a runaway kangaroo was spotted hopping through a residential neighborhood before capturing it and placing it in a police cruiser.

Authorities with the Fort Lauderdale Police Department were in outright disbelief on Thursday morning when 911 calls reported that a kangaroo was on the loose.

'Ive been a police officer for 26 years. Ive had snake calls and python calls, maybe an alligator, but never heard of a kangaroo around here,' officer Robert Norvis, who was part of the capture, told Local 10.

A kangaroo was on the loose in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Thursday morning as video shows it hopping through a residential neighborhood

It took authorities and park rangers just 30 minutes to track down and capture the unlikely marsupial near the 1300 block of NE 2nd Avenue around 9am.

Video shared to social media showed the kangaroo hopping through the city streets as cars whizzed by.

'We just tried to corral it and keep it out of traffic,' explained Norvis, who added 'hes very friendly'.

'We were able to get a rope around his neck and get him in the back of the car.'

Photos shared by Fort Lauderdale police shows one police officer standing near the kangaroo as authorities try to move the animal to safety.

Authorities with the Fort Lauderdale Police Department were initially in disbelief as calls started coming in about the runaway marsupial.

We all needed some happy news this Thursday  

@FLPD411 took the wandering little guy into custody  AKA: The Fort Lauderdale Police Dept Barn #KangarooOnTheLoose #ThankYouFLPD. More @nbc6 pic.twitter.com/dA5KJg0Rwo  Vanessa Morales (@NewsDeskChica) July 16, 2020

Footage taken by Vanessa Morales of NBC 6 shows at least five officers at the scene and the kangaroo with a red leash around its neck.

Two officers then lift the kangaroo and place the furry fugitive into the back of a police cruiser.

Once inside, the kangaroo lounges across the back seat and begins cleaning himself.

The officers later appeared to be coaxing the kangaroo out of the car once they reached a secure location. The kangaroo was 'jailed' in the barn where police horses are kept.

The kangaroo (pictured with a police officer) reportedly belongs to a local resident, but it's unclear what consequences they'll face

The kangaroo was transferred to a holding cell where Fort Lauderdale authorities house police horses (pictured)

In Florida, it is illegal to keep exotic animals, like kangaroos (left), inside local residences

Authorities were initially confused about where the kangaroo came from since the animal is not native to Florida.

Local 10 confirmed that the kangaroo belongs to a local resident, which authorities assumed was the case since it appeared domesticated.

It's illegal to keep pet kangaroos, and other exotic animals, inside residences, but it's not clear what kind of consequences the owner may face.

The decision would be up to the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).

Pictured: The runaway kangaroo with a Fort Lauderdale Parks & Recreation ranger on Thursday

Fort Lauderdale police announced Thursday afternoon that the FWC would take in the kangaroo.

A video shared by authorities shows the kangaroo inside an animal holding cell with grass to eat and play things.

A photo from the Fort Lauderdale Parks & Recreation show the kangaroo with a park ranger in the holding cell.

The Australian Embassy in the United States thanked the Fort Lauderdale police for 'looking out for Skippy!'

The Australia Embassy in the United States thanked the Fort Lauderdale Police Department on Twitter

Several social media users couldn't help but make jokes about the bizarre incident that happened Thursday morning

Cara Paiuk:'Convicted by a kangaroo court for jumping bail, he will now buy his way out with deep pockets'

Some people used this incident in Fort Lauderdale as 'Peak 2020,' in reference to the long list of unexpected things to happen this year

Naturally, social media was eager to crack jokes about the kangaroos day out in Florida.

'POTUS MUST PARDON,' wrote reporter Yashar Ali, sharing a photo of the kangaroo behind the holding cell bars.

Journalist Cara Paiuk responded to Yashir's tweet, saying: 'Convicted by a kangaroo court for jumping bail, he will now buy his way out with deep pockets.'

Some people described a kangaroo being let loose and captured in Florida as 'peak 2020.'

The kangaroo appeared fine and no one was injured in the bizarre incident.
Press Release

July 16, 2020 Dispatch from Crame No. 849:

Sen. Leila M. de Lima on the Pitiful Situation of Medical Frontliners 7/16/20 Our health sector is on the verge of collapse. Not even Presidential mouthpiece Harry Roque can hide the reeking stench of squalor and failure. Just recently, nurses of San Lazaro Hospital (SLH) exposed to the public their pitiful state - how they are treated as robots and not human beings. This is not an isolated case. My office has received information that frontliners of Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center are likewise made to endure sorry conditions. And yet these workers in sweat-soaked PPEs still show up - day in and day out, and holding on despite the fatigue, the lack of adequate government support and absence of prioritization. However, they, who we laud as heroes, are now crying foul. The worst part of it all is the fact that these big hospitals are within an arm's reach of the Department of Health - and yet, the very Department which is to stir this nation to survival, has either numb senses to realize the crisis that is happening within its very backyard, or has actually just opted to turn a blind eye. What does this say about how DOH is dealing with this pandemic? It is simply out of touch! Umaalingasaw na, hindi niyo pa naaamoy. Kung sa sarili niyong bakuran nangyayari ito, ano pang aasahan ng tao sa inyo? It took big private hospitals such as Makati Med and St Luke's - which both issued statements that they have reached their operating capacity - for DOH Usec. Leopoldo Vega to finally admit that our country's critical care capacity has hit "danger zone". But true to this administration's manifest benightedness to the struggles of health workers in government hospitals, Usec. Vega said that they are now preparing government hospitals to adjust the number of beds because "we have to be ready for this because we are in a crisis." Ngayon niyo lang na-realize? So ngayon lang kayo maghahanda? Talaga ba? Preposterously, this statement from DOH was released even after Filipino Nurses United (FNU) revealed how SLH "converted regular wards into COVID wards with no staff to man such." You are turning our frontliners into pawns, in a game where you can so easily desert them. Wala kayong awa! Don't just look at the data. Gumising kayo sa katotohanan. In calculating where we stand in this war against an invisible and lethal virus, you have to consider other factors that are not in black and white coming into play. For instance, what is the sense of a 30% bed capacity for COVID-19 patients when hospital staff are either quitting, being quarantined, are themselves weakened by exhaustion, and worse, dying? Instead of boasting about the number of beds available, why don't you get out from the safety of your offices to the ground, so you can finally see the real picture. How, despite millions in spending, our medical frontliners are purchasing their own PPEs because supplies are simply running out. How, despite Spokesperson Roque's rejoicing when the country "beat" UP's prediction, our medical frontliners are overwhelmed - overworked, underpaid, and simply not given the protection that they deserve. Even before we hit the projected 100k cases by August, our health system is already crumbling. Lauding them, and clapping for them, is not enough. Isalin n'yo sa gawa ang mga pagpupugay n'yo sa kanila. Pakinggan ang mga hinaing nila, pagmasdan ang kalbaryo na araw-araw nilang dinaranas, at tugunan ang mga ito nang kagyat at may bisa. Tama na ang pagpapa-asa. (Access the handwritten copy of Dispatch from Crame No. 849 here: https://issuu.com/senatorleilam.delima/docs/dispatch_849)
Officials are urging residents to maintain working smoke alarms in their homes as they investigate an early Thursday morning fire that appears to have claimed the life of a Montgomery County houses occupant.

A little before 5:30 a.m., neighbors called 911 about a home on fire on the 1300 block of Ashland Drive outside Conroe city limits.

The Needham Fire Department responded and found the one-story house engulfed in fire. As they took out the flames, firefighters discovered a lifeless body, according to the Montgomery County Fire Marshals Office.

The victim is thought to be the homes 50-something male occupant but remains have not been positively identified pending an autopsy. Investigators from Conroe Fire and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives assisted the fire marshals office, according to a statement from the agency.

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Though the home is being declared a total loss, firefighters managed to keep the fire from spreading to nearby homes. Fire crews from The Woodlands, Porter, Caney Creek and South Montgomery County helped at the scene, the fire marshals office added.

No evidence from the fire shows the home had working smoke alarms, the fire marshals office stated.

It is asking residents keep smoke alarms in every living room, bedroom and hallway. Homeowners needing assistance with free smoke alarms or installation should call their local fire station or the fire marshals office at 936-583-8288.

Property renters are also being reminded by the fire marshals office that state law requires landlords install smoke alarms and that tenants need to keep them with working batteries.

jose.gonzalez@chron.com

twitter.com/jrgzztx
Around 45 government school teachers from Ludhiana have a new assignment at hand to receive NRIs at the airports and escort them to the quarantine centre.

The order came from the nodal officer for Covid-19, additional chief administrator, Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) Bhupinder Singh, on Wednesday.

It all began on July 3 when 25 teachers were deputed on the same duty. The teachers have to maintain the record of the NRIs and brief them about the government guidelines that they will spend seven days in quarantine at a Covid-care centre and next seven days in home quarantine if there are no symptoms of the virus.

President of Democratic Teachers Front Hardev Singh said, Teachers are busy with bi-monthly assessment of online tests. Schools are closed but teachers are conducting online classes and have to check the answer sheets online. We are ready to perform any emergency duty but this assignment is unnecessary. The authorities must revoke this order with immediate effect.

Reacting to the move, former Punjab education minister Daljit Singh Cheema tweeted: After distillery and checking of sand mafia, a new order for government school teachers which states that it is the responsibility of the government schoolteacher to receive the NRIs at airport and take them to the quarantine centre. Stay safe master ji (sic.).

Despite repeated attempts, GLADA additional chief administrator Bhupinder Singh couldnt be reached for a comment.

In May, government teachers in Gurdaspur district were deputed at distilleries to keep an eye on the supply in a bid to check liquor smuggling. The order was withdrawn after the authorities faced flak from different quarters. Last month, teachers in Phagwara were asked to accompany police teams to check sand mining during the night hours. That order, too, was withdrawn as there was a hue and cry.

However, teachers deputed on July 3 to receive NRIs are already on the job. Baldev Singh, an ETT, said, For the last 10 days, I am doing this. I am on my way to Mohali airport as a flight from Kuwait is reaching there.

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Vallejo city officials said Wednesday that a key piece of evidence in a high-profile fatal police shooting  the windshield of the police vehicle the officer shot through  was destroyed, and said they have asked the FBI or another agency to take over the criminal investigation of the shooting.

The Chronicle earlier reported that Vallejo police had discarded the windshield and returned into service the unmarked police pickup truck involved in the shooting.

Last week, Vallejo police released body camera footage showing one of its police officers firing from the back seat of the pickup truck, which had just pulled into a Walgreens parking lot after reports of people taking merchandise from the store on June 2. The shooting killed 22-year-old Sean Monterrosa on a night when demonstrations across the Bay Area and beyond were calling for an end to police brutality and killings of Black people and other people of color.

The officer  whose name has not been officially released  fired five rounds through the windshield, one of which struck Monterrosa. The officer was later heard on body cam footage asking other officers, What did he point at us? before saying, Hey, he pointed a gun at us.

Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

Inside Monterrosas sweatshirt was a hammer, which police said the officer mistook for a firearm.

Vallejo city officials are seeking a criminal investigation into the destruction of evidence, said a statement from the city managers office Wednesday night. Officials said the windshield was destroyed and the unmarked vehicle placed back into service without prior consultation with the police chief or city attorneys office.

An employee has been placed on administrative leave while the city retains an outside investigator to conduct the administrative investigation into the destruction of evidence, Vallejo officials said in the statement. The unidentified employee works for the police department, the city confirmed.

City officials said they are asking that the windshields destruction be included as part of a criminal investigation into the shooting, which they have asked the Solano County district attorneys office or Attorney General Xavier Becerras office to conduct.

Additionally, the city is in contact with the FBI. The request is for one of these entities to conduct the criminal investigation, city officials said.

Two days after Monterrosas death, Solano County District Attorney Krishna Abrams requested an independent review, but Becerra declined to have the state Department of Justice get involved. On July 2, Abrams recused her office from reviewing the Monterrosa shooting.

Melissa Nold, one of the attorneys representing Monterrosas family along with John Burris, told The Chronicle Tuesday that after the footage was released last week, she contacted the Vallejo city attorneys office to verify that police preserved the pickup truck for evidence. She said the city attorneys office returned her inquiry and said police repaired the truck and didnt preserve the windshield.

Now Playing: Body camera footage released by Vallejo Police Department shows the June 2, 2020 incident when an officer shot and killed 22-year-old Sean Monterrosa. Video: Vallejo Police Department

You dont have to be an expert, or a police officer, or a crime scene analyst, to know that a bullet-ridden windshield is evidence. So, to have that discarded, it reeks of what either has to be corruption or somebody being completely inept, and I dont know which is worse, Nold told The Chronicle. This is evidence in a homicide case. It should have been preserved in whole, but at the very bare, bare minimum, certainly the windshield itself.

Tony Brass, who served as a prosecutor in the San Francisco district attorneys office for nearly a decade over two stints, in addition to working in the United States attorneys office, said evidence should never be destroyed in any case.

If he were the defense attorney in the Monterrosa case, Brass said, he would want to see the windshield itself, and not just photographs.

This is a crucial piece of evidence that should have been preserved and its chain of custody should have been treated with the utmost care, Brass said. Whatever evidence was part of it is now gone forever if its not located.

Nold said the windshield was especially important evidence because the body camera footage does not show what Monterrosa was doing just prior to the shooting. Police said that a Walgreens security camera that could have captured footage of the shooting was disabled by people taking merchandise from the store.

The windshield, Nold said, is imperative for experts to accurately re-create the shooting. You cant do trajectory analysis on a photo, she said.

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.

Nold said it was disheartening to learn police allowed the windshield to be discarded, because its taken away from the Monterrosa familys ability to put the puzzle pieces together themselves. It robs the family of the ability to do the type of testing necessary to confirm whether what the officer is saying actually happened.

Police Chief Shawny Williams has amended the Police Departments original description of the moments leading up to the shooting.

Williams initially said Monterrosa was on his knees and raising his arms, revealing what appeared to be the butt of a handgun, when the officer fired five rounds through the windshield.

Last week, Williams said Monterrosa was turning towards the officers in a crouching down, half-kneeling position, as if in preparation to shoot.

Williams said a detective at the scene saw Monterrosa move his hands toward his waist area, and grab what appeared to be the butt of a handgun. The chief told The Chronicle that details about what led to the shooting changed because the previous narrative was not accurate.

The windshields disposal comes less than two weeks after Solano County District Attorney Krishna Abrams announced she is recusing her office from reviewing Monterrosas killing by police and the police killing of Willie McCoy, who fell asleep behind the wheel while in the drive-through of a Taco Bell restaurant in February 2019.

Vallejo police officers fired 55 rounds toward him in a matter of seconds after police said McCoy roused from sleep and reached for a gun in his lap.

Chronicle staff writer Otis R. Taylor Jr. contributed to this report.

Lauren Hernandez and Alejandro Serrano are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: lauren.hernandez@sfchronicle.com, alejandro.serrano@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByLHernandez, @serrano_alej
Washington:

The festival of Chhath was celebrated with huge fervor on the banks of the historic Potomac River as more than 600 Indian-Americans gathered here from the suburbs.

The huge numbers made it the largest gathering in the last nine years. Indian-Americans from the area attended the three-day long annual festival organised here on Sunday.

"This was the largest gathering for Chhath Puja," said Kripa Singh, an eminent Indian American community leader in Virginia, who has been solely organising the event for the past nine years now.

This year, people came from as far as Chicago, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey in addition to those from Maryland and Virginia. Last year, around 250 Indian-Americans took part in this festival of Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh.

Recounting how it all began, Singh - who hails from Bihar's capital Patna - said, in 2007 his mother asked his wife Anita to take care of Chhath Puja to keep alive the family tradition of generations.

When he inquired among his friends and other Indian-American community leaders if anyone here performed the Chhath Puja, he found that people did it inside their homes or at the most in a makeshift plastic tub full of water following which the idea of organising the ceremony on the banks of Potomac River in Loudon County struck his mind when he saw concrete boat ramp on a picnic trip with his friends.

He found the place good for performing the rare Puja in the real way with all the traditional and religious rituals. He, then, approached the Loudon County Parks and Recreation Department with the details and sought permission to do the ceremony which was granted.

He said that the Loudon county is enthusiastic about supporting the Indian-Americans in organising this rare festival outside India. Chhath Puja entails worship of Sun God, embodied in cosmic energy, and is observed mainly by people from Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh.

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The Electoral Commission (EC) has called on political parties in the country to be decorous in discharging their responsibilities in the ongoing voters registration exercise.



The countrys election management body made this appeal at its second edition of the Let the Citizen Know press series in Accra on Monday.



Responding to concerns raised over influence by political parties in the registration process, a Deputy Chairman in charge of Corporate Affairs at the Commission, Dr Bossman Eric Asare, urged the media to carry the information to the parties through their platforms.



We expect the media to send the message out there to the parties that, they have to conduct themselves very well, he stated.



On the same issue, the Chairperson of the Commission, Mrs Jean Mensah said that, its staff have received the needed training and have been sanctioned to refrain from such acts.



I am not sure that, our staff will collude with any political party because, they have been given a lot of training and have been empowered to do the right thing, she mentioned.



I have my doubt that they will collude with any political party to register people who are crossing the queues, she emphasised.



The EC chair also said that, the Commission is consistently and regularly engaging with the top hierarchy of the police to improve upon the processes, ensure law and order within our registration centres and to ensure adherence to the safety protocols that we have outlined.



We have the challenge system, therefore, if along the way people are brought in and bussed from other communities to a particular registration centre, those people will be challenged, Mrs Mensah stated.



The committee will sit on it and a decision will be taken as to register them or not, she added



In a related issue, the Commission has urged applicants to assist officials at various registration centres in adhering to safety protocols to ease the spread of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19).



Safety of applicants is foremost in the registration process and the Commission will go to any length to observe the measures outlined by the Ghana Health Service, the Commission said in a statement released on July 11.



To this effect, the EC has charged registration officers to clean the fingerprints scanners and also sanitise the hands of applicants before and after the process.



The Commission as part of anti-COVID-19 protocols instructed officials to sanitise the hands of all applicants before and after every process, the statement had it.



Officials have been directed to also clean the fingerprints scanners with a wet wipe after every use during the intensive training organised for them before the exercise begun, the statement added.



The Commission has, however, indicated that, it had commenced investigations into reports on the parts of some registration officers in failing to follow safety protocols and will sanction culprits appropriately.

Source: The Ghanaian Times









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A vast majority of retail giants and grocery stores refrained had initially from making national mask mandates at the start of the coronavirus pandemic  instead relying on local and state officials to issue guidance.

But now, more chain stores are announcing new rules for customers to follow when shopping in response to differing opinions from government officials across the country.

Walmart announced on Wednesday it would be requiring all customers to wear masks beginning next week as coronavirus cases increase in more than 40 states.

The announcement makes Walmart the largest national retailer to make the decision to require masks.

The company credited a need to be consistent for all customers when deciding to mandate a national mask-wearing policy, as 65 per cent of stores are in areas where state or local officials already require that guidance.

This decision also included Sams Club stores.

To help bring consistency across stores and clubs, we will require all shoppers to wear a face covering starting Monday, 20 July, Walmart US chief operating officer Dacona Smith and Sams Club chief operating officer Lance De La Rosa said in a blog post Wednesday. This will give us time to inform customers and members of the changes, post signage and train associates on the new protocols.

Hours after Walmart made its decision, Kohls and Kroger announced they would also require customers to wear masks in their stores. Both stores, which have thousands of locations across the US, would enforce the policy starting on Monday.

Target and CVS Health then announced on Thursday that masks would be mandated in their stores.

For Target, the policy will start on 1 August and not apply to young children or those with underlying medical conditions that prevent them from wearing masks, similar to what Walmart has proposed. Already about 80 per cent of Target stores require masks to be worn in compliance with local and state guidelines.

The retail chain said it would have employees standing at entrances to remind customers to wear masks, something Walmart would also employ.

CVS mask policy will start on Monday but would not ask employees to enforce the mandate.

To be clear, were not asking our store employees to play the role of enforcer, CVS Chief Operating Officer Jon Roberts said in a news release. What we are asking is that customers help protect themselves and those around them by listening to the experts and heeding the call to wear a face covering.

Retailers like Apple, Costco, and Best Buy already had nationwide mask requirements in their stores prior to the Walmart decision. But the retail giant looked as though it pushed other stores in a similar direction following its Wednesday decision.

Workers serving customers should not have to make a critical decision as to whether they should risk exposure to infection or lose their jobs because a minority of people refuse to wear masks in order to help stop the spread of the deadly coronavirus, the National Retail Federation trade said in a statement.

Shopping in a store is a privilege, not a right, the statement continued. If a customer refuses to adhere to store policies, they are putting employees and other customers at undue risk.

Mixed messaging from local, state, and federal officials has turned mask wearing into a political issue across the country. This comes as coronavirus cases surge, with states seeing record hospitalisations and deaths.

Donald Trump, whos previously been a vocal opponent against wearing a mask, wore one at a public event for the first time this past weekend when touring Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. But then he refused to wear one when visiting Atlanta, Georgia.

Opponents have argued against wearing masks because they think the covering impedes on their rights. But more and more retailers, like Walmart and Target, could sway other businesses to also make nationwide mandates, thus forcing everyone to comply if they want to shop.
Scientists have predicted that the Indias population may peak to about 1.6 billion in 2048, and decline by 32 per cent to around 1.09 billion in 2100, when it is also expected to be the worlds most populous country.

The analysis, published in the journal The Lancet, used data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017, and applied novel models to project future global, regional, and national population for 183 countries, including India, US, China, and Japan, and their mortality, fertility, and migration rates.

According to the researchers, including those from the University of Washington in the US, there may be dramatic declines in working age-populations in countries such as India and China, which they said may hamper economic growth and lead to shifts in global powers.

They said the world could be multipolar at the end of this century, with India, Nigeria, China, and the US the dominant powers. This will truly be a new world, one we should be preparing for today, the scientists noted.

According to the study, the numbers of working-age adults in India is projected to fall from 762 million in 2017 to around 578 million in 2100, compared to that of China where numbers of workers are estimated to decline from 950 million in 2017 to 357 million in 2100.

It said India may be one of the few -- if only -- major power in Asia to protect its working-age population over the century. It is expected to surpass Chinas workforce population in the mid-2020s, rising up the GDP rankings from 7th to 3rd, the scientists noted in a statement to the press.

Commenting on the research, Christopher Murray from the University of Washington, who led the research, said continued global population growth through the century is no longer the most likely trajectory for the worlds population.

This study provides governments of all countries an opportunity to start rethinking their policies on migration, workforces and economic development to address the challenges presented by demographic change, Murray said Citing the studys limitations, the scientists said while they used the best available data, predictions are constrained by the quantity and quality of past data.

They also added that past trends are not always predictive of what will happen in the future, and that some factors not included in the model could change the pace of fertility, mortality, or migration.

According to the scientists the Covid-19 pandemic has affected local and national health systems throughout the world, and caused over half a million deaths.

However, they said the excess deaths due to the pandemic are unlikely to significantly alter longer term forecasting trends of global population.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)

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Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

The Bernallillo County Sheriffs Office says it will comply with recently passed legislation requiring all New Mexico law enforcement agencies to outfit officers with body-worn cameras.

But it wants to do so using smartphones instead of the traditional lapel cameras used by other agencies.

At a news conference Wednesday, Sheriff Manuel Gonzales called body-worn cameras antiquated and obsolete and compared using them to listening to music through a Walkman. He said BCSO is instead meeting with companies to discuss using an application on a cellphone that would activate recording automatically and be easier to transfer video to storage.

I know that there has always been this notion, or at least its been messaged from the media, that Im against body-worn cameras, Gonzales said. Ive always been uncertain about body-worn cameras.  I want to make sure were equipping our deputies with something that is going to be able to have them be able to talk to our other technologies. So for us, what we want to do in terms of introducing technology is we want to introduce a phone.

The bills sponsor, Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, burst out laughing when told of the sheriffs plan.

So Im pleased to see the sheriff is finally willing to adopt one of the tools of modern law enforcement, Cervantes said. We passed a law that requires body-worn cameras, so if he wants to do it by duct-taping iPhones on his officers chests, thats his prerogative, although I think it creates the possibility of becoming a laughingstock.

The Sheriffs Office played a short video showing a deputy wearing a phone clipped onto her shirt that could be activated during interactions with the public. After the news conference, undersheriffs Larry Koren and Sid Covington demonstrated other models in which a phone would sit in a breast pocket or be embedded inside a deputys vest with a window looking out.

They said companies they have talked with have said an app could be activated by voice, or when a deputy un-holsters a weapon or begins to move more quickly. In some cases, a supervisor or dispatcher could activate the phones camera remotely. Although the sheriff said other agencies throughout the United States are using smartphones as cameras, his office did not provide a list.

Koren said that over the years the Sheriffs Office has purchased 173 phones. The department has about 320 deputies.

There is mandate for body cameras, but the demand is for smartphones, he said. And that is where we will get the most bang for our buck. A smartphone can function as a body camera; a body camera cannot function as a smartphone.

Covington pointed to the many challenges and hidden costs in outfitting deputies with body cameras, saying that while traditional lapel cameras are relatively inexpensive, the department would need to figure out a way to store video and hire additional staff to manage it and redact personal information such as social security numbers before theyre released to the public. He said it could take a deputy about an hour to upload video from each shift.

But Gonzales said he doesnt know whether these obstacles would be lessened by using smartphones instead.

Thats why were visiting with the two: to compare, to figure out what those differences are, Gonzales said.

Koren said they are also looking into whether the application would run down battery on the phone and whether the deputys cruisers would need a router to maintain cell service and wireless capacity.

Regardless, youre still going to end up looking at additional cost. Whether its antiquated, traditional looking body-worn cameras or a smartphone, youre going to have some build out costs, he said.

The Bernalillo County Commission has already allocated $1 million in startup funds and $500,000 in recurring funds for body-worn cameras, an amount Gonzales said is insufficient.

The Sheriffs Office said the project will cost more than $8 million.

Chief Public Defender Bennett Baur criticized the sheriff for not getting cameras earlier, especially because BCSO has funding allocated.

There was nothing stopping the sheriff from having that transparency and accountability in place long before the bill was signed, Baur wrote in a statement. Many law enforcement agencies have had cameras for years, and the county even appropriated money for body-worn cameras thats just been sitting there. The purpose of body cameras is to ensure that the public knows how law enforcement officers use their powers in their interactions with the public, and to protect those officers when they use it well. The community, and now the law, are demanding that they get this done.

In response to questions about how long it will take to get smartphones with the necessary applications for all deputies, Gonzales said there was no way it could be done in 90 days.

Absolutely not, I can tell you that, Gonzales said.  I dont anticipate this thing happening in 90 days, but what I will tell you is that we will diligently work on it in good faith. The law is the law. But I dont believe there is any court that will rule that it is a reasonable law in standing up a system like that.

Cervantes warned that if the Sheriffs Office does not comply with the law by the deadline it risks losing its ability to operate as a law enforcement agency. He said any action, from an arrest to a traffic stop, would be dismissed.

Any case in which his law enforcement officers are involved would be thrown out of court, Cervantes said. So they would effectively become a non-existent law enforcement agency. The law is clear that the failure to comply would be deemed what we call in the law a spoliation of evidence.
A man who told a woman at Notting Hill Carnival "Im the devil" before violently attacking her has been jailed.

Jason Thompson, 42, of Tottenham, was sentenced to 14 years behind bars on Thursday, following the incident last year.

The woman was attending the popular west London event for the first time on August 25 when she was approached by a man she didnt know.

The victim, aged in her forties, was talking to some other women on Portobello Road, when the stranger  later identified as Thompson  walked up to her.

He told her Im the devil, before leaning forward, headbutting her and then biting off her top lip.

The victim, bleeding heavily and in shock, was rushed to a nearby hospital where surgeons operated on her face.

She was left with life-changing injuries.

Police issued a photo of the woman's injury in September 2019 / Met Police

Thompson was arrested and charged on September 4 and appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court the following day.

On February 25, he pleaded guilty at Isleworth Crown Court to grievous bodily harm with intent.

In a statement following his sentencing , the victim, said: I would like to say thank you to all the police work on this case, because they have helped me so much with everything.

This has been very difficult for me. I have had to uproot my life from London where I have lived for over ten years and now I am scared to go out on my own and stay at home.

I cannot even go to the supermarket on my own; sometimes I have to say to my 14-year-old niece to come with me.
Zelensky: We're protecting our sovereignty from Russian aggression during six years, Ukraine doing everything for just peace in its understanding

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky emphasizes that for the sixth year Ukraine has been protecting its sovereignty from the aggression of the Russian Federation, and is doing everything for a just peace in its understanding.

"Dear Ukrainians! Today, for the sixth year in a row, we are defending our sovereignty from Russian aggression. We pay a high price for this  the lives of our citizens. Today, the entire civilized world recognizes that Ukraine is doing everything to bring about such a desired peace. A just peace. Peace in our understanding of the word. It's the peace where state sovereignty will prevail in reality, and not on paper," he said on Thursday speaking at the solemn meeting of the Verkhovna Rada on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration on State Sovereignty of Ukraine.

Zelensky pointed out that Ukraine cannot return the dead, but must return all its territories. "To restore faith in truth and justice to demonstrate that what our heroes died for is never useless. I am convinced that we, the Ukrainians, have a chance to achieve this only in one instance - if we all unite. Just like 30 years ago," he said.
Aagosh Chaudhary knows sleep is one of the most valuable assets a college student can have, so when he was abruptly woken up from an afternoon nap by his housemates, he hoped there was a good reason.

There was.
SAN FRANCISCO - Fallout from Twitter's massive security breach intensified Thursday as authorities launched investigations and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle called for more information on a widespread hack of high-profile accounts.

The FBI will lead a federal inquiry into the hack, it said in a statement Thursday. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, directed the state to start a probe of the incident, saying the hack is "deeply troubling," particularly in light of the approaching elections. And lawmakers spoke out, including Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., who said in a statement that the country needs "strong cyber security standards."

The coordinated hack attacked high-profile accounts belonging to Elon Musk, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Jeff Bezos to tweet a fake bitcoin deal. (Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, owns The Washington Post.)

As Twitter took down each hacked tweet Wednesday, more kept popping up in a game of security whack-a-mole. After more than an hour, Twitter shut down tweets from all verified accounts and did not restore them for more than two hours.

Some people reported being locked out of their accounts on Thursday after changing their password, and Twitter said it locked down any accounts that tried to change their passwords in the past 30 days "out of an abundance of caution."

A law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the FBI investigation is ongoing said that the hackers do not seem to have been working for a foreign government and that the breach seemed all about getting money.

"This was not a hack of Biden's campaign," the official said. "Or of Elon Musk. This was all about a fraud scheme and not about trying to turn the political winds in a certain direction."

The official called the attack a "classic intrusion," referring to an employee being compromised.

Cybersecurity experts say it was fortunate that the hackers seemed to be just after money, rather than using the breach for political gain. Twitter is an enormous platform for world leaders and politicians, including President Donald Trump, and media regularly rely on statements made on the site from verified accounts.

The company has not released detailed information on what happened. Late Wednesday, the company said in tweets that the breach was a "coordinated social engineering attack" by people that targeted its employees. The company said the hackers gained access to some internal tools and systems.

Twitter said it had limited access to how many employees had access to the administrative tools and said it would only turn back the compromised accounts to their owners after it was positive they were secured. Company spokesman Trenton Kennedy declined to answer further questions about the hack and the ongoing company investigation.

At least one prominent account has been turned back over to its rightful owner - that of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. The presumed nominee tweeted a reference to the hack Thursday morning, saying, "I don't have Bitcoin, and I'll never ask you to send me any." He then urged people to donate to his campaign.

Musk, Bezos, Gates and Obama had not tweeted between the hack and midday Thursday.

Chief executive Jack Dorsey called it a "tough day at Twitter" in a tweet late Wednesday. He added a blue heart emoji to his tweet to thank employees working to address the breach.

As a result of the breach, the company delayed the launch of an anticipated set of developer tools that add features such as conversation threading and polls.

Reuters first reported the FBI investigation.

Social-engineering attacks refer to hacking attempts in which someone exploits "the human element of security," said cybersecurity expert Rachel Tobac, who is chief executive of SocialProof Security.

That could mean blackmailing or bribing someone to gain access to accounts or even an insider carrying out a hack themselves.

The most common example of a social engineering attack is phishing, or sending a fake email designed to look real to trick someone into turning over account credentials or other information. More-targeted tactics, such as spear-phishing, single out individuals with a goal of taking over their credentials. Once hackers have that access, they can work to change passwords or take other measures to lock the real account owner out.

Twitter has not said what specific kind of social engineering attack compromised its site on Wednesday. The company has fallen victim to attacks from insiders before, including in a case last year when the Justice Department charged two former Twitter employees with spying for Saudi Arabia by accessing company information about dissidents' accounts.

President Donald Trump's account was hacked for 11 minutes in 2017 by a departing Twitter employee.

After that incident, the company tweeted that it had "implemented safeguards to prevent this from happening again."

Trump's account did not appear to be affected during Wednesday's hack.

The Vice tech news outlet Motherboard reported that the hackers paid a Twitter insider to help them take control of the accounts using internal tools, citing unnamed hackers. Twitter's Kennedy declined to comment on the report.

The breach shows how much of cyber security relies on human behavior, security firm Check Point says.

"If anything, Twitter's compromise shows that in today's world of increasing data loss events, organizations have little choice but to take action to protect sensitive data," Check Point wrote in a blog about the breach. "Confidential employee and customer data, legal documents, and intellectual property are being exposed to unwanted parties on a daily basis."

The breach could have had serious ramifications for elections, especially if it happened closer to November, several lawmakers said while calling for inquiries into the hack.

"This type of hack by con artists for financial gain can also be a tool of foreign actors and others to spread disinformation and - as we've witnessed - disrupt our elections," Cuomo wrote in his statement directing New York to investigate.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., tweeted that Dorsey told him nearly two years ago that Twitter was working on encrypting private messaging on the social network. That feature hasn't been released and Wyden called it a "vulnerability." It is unclear whether the hackers could access accounts private messages.

"If hackers gained access to users' DMs, this breach could have a breathtaking impact for years to come," Wyden tweeted.

The FBI urged people not send money to the bitcoin address that was tweeted from the hacked accounts. The bitcoin wallet seems to have been sent the equivalent of nearly $120,000, but its unclear how much came from the scammers themselves.

"At this time, the accounts appear to have been compromised in order to perpetuate cryptocurrency fraud," the FBI said in a statement sent from its San Francisco office. "We advise the public not to fall victim to this scam by sending cryptocurrency or money in relation to this incident."

- - -

The Washington Post's Ellen Nakashima contributed to this report.
Four men suspected of at least nine robberies across San Francisco have been arrested after a months-long investigation, police announced this week.

Police identified the suspects as Christopher Stenschke, 26, and Rayquan Murray, 20, both of San Francisco, and Lafayette Davenport and Levon McGinnis. No ages or residences were given for Davenport and McGinnis.

Police said Wednesday the men will be charged with multiple felony counts of robbery and conspiracy  as well as other felony and misdemeanor charges  connected to robberies dating to Feb. 23.

While arrests have been made, this remains an active and ongoing investigation, police said in a lengthy news release that described the circumstances of each suspects arrest.

On April 23, police responded to a report of a robbery at Ninth Avenue and Clement Street, where they found a victim who had been robbed at gunpoint of a backpack, cash and credit cards. The victim reported being dragged into a black Dodge Challenger by male suspects, but was able to break free before the suspects drove away.

Police determined that the victims credit cards were used shortly after the robbery at a gas station about 6 miles away on San Bruno Avenue. An investigator who reviewed surveillance footage from the gas station said he saw three of the suspects there: Murray, McGinnis and Davenport. All had outstanding arrest warrants for armed robberies dating to late February, police said.

Police said the investigator returned to the gas station on April 27 and reported seeing Davenport and another male, later identified as Stenschke, who was also wanted for a string of violent robberies. The investigator said the men got into a black Mercedes-Benz sedan, so he asked police to stop the vehicle. The car drove away, and a police pursuit ensued from San Francisco and into Oakland, police said.

The chase ended nearly 13 miles away, at Seventh and Magnolia streets in Oakland, where police said the two suspects got out of the car and ran.

Oakland police officers found Stenschke, and San Francisco police arrested him for an outstanding warrant for robbery. Police said they couldnt find Davenport.

While that pursuit was under way, officers in San Francisco responded to an unrelated hit-and-run crash at Goettingen and Woolsey streets. Police said the hit-and-run driver and passengers got out of the vehicle and ran  and that the driver turned out to be McGinnis, and one of the passengers was Murray, both suspects in the robberies.

Authorities said McGinnis eluded police, but Murray was detained.

Meanwhile, officers were still searching for Davenport. Police said they next saw him on May 8, driving on Sunnydale Avenue, and recognized him from a recent Crime Alert.

Officers attempted to conduct a traffic stop, but Davenport eluded the officers in his vehicle and jumped out of the vehicle and fled on foot, San Francisco police said.

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.

Police arrested Davenport less than a quarter mile away, on Santos Street.

Two months later, on July 8, officers responded to a report of a shooting in the 100 block of Kiska Road. The officers identified the victim, who had non-life-threatening injuries, as McGinnis. He had an outstanding warrant and was arrested.

This investigation is an example of our officers and investigators (working) collaboratively, and are tireless in solving violent crimes in our city, police said in the statement.

Anyone with information about the crimes the four are accused of should call the Police Departments 24-hour tip line at 415-575-4444 or submit a tip by texting TIP411 and beginning the text message with SFPD.

Lauren Hernandez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lauren.hernandez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByLHernandez
With the COVID-10 pandemic and its related restrictions on public gatherings still in place and our ongoing priority to ensure the health and safety of our patrons, musicians and staff, we reached the conclusion that it was not possible to move forward with the programs we had originally planned for the fall, said CSOA President Jeff Alexander in a statement.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-15 22:59:52|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- As service centers for first-time borrowers were established in different regions, and banks optimized their financing services, China has strengthened financing support for small businesses.

Commercial banks' services for first-time borrowers will be scored in a performance evaluation system, a new measure to encourage banks to support small and micro enterprises, according to a document released by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) recently.

Evaluating banks' services for first-time borrowers is more meaningful than merely adding leverage on existing borrowers, Zeng Gang, deputy director of the National Institution for Finance and Development, a Chinese finance think tank, said in an interview with the Financial News.

First-time borrowers refer to enterprise clients who do not have loan records in the credit record system of the People's Bank of China (PBOC). To further relieve financing pressure on small businesses hit by COVID-19 and bolster the real economy, many places have made preliminary progress in raising the ratio of first-time borrowers to total small business clients.

In April, a service center for first-time borrowers was established in Beijing, with 22 banks having settled here, helping to reduce financing processes and lower financing costs for enterprises.

Li Mingxiao, director of the CBIRC's Beijing Office, said that banks in Beijing have granted more than 80 billion yuan (about 11.43 billion U.S. dollars) worth of loans to over 34,000 first-time borrowers this year.

Besides Beijing, Chongqing and Gansu have also opened service centers to help small businesses acquire first-time loans. At the service center of Chongqing, firms can enjoy financial services such as policy consulting, loan product introduction, and loan applications.

In east China's Zhejiang Province, the Hangzhou Central Sub-branch of the PBOC has set up a goal to improve the ratio of first-time borrowers to total small business clients to no less than 15 percent by the end of 2020.

Li Junfeng, an official with the CBIRC said in April that small and micro enterprises, as well as individual business owners who had outstanding loans in commercial banks, were over 22 million, accounting for 20 percent of the total in this pool and leaving much room for improvement.

With asymmetric information being one of the obstacles for the expansion of first-time loans, it is key to ensure banks and enterprises can communicate with each other based on financial statements under unified standards, said an official with the CBIRC's Zhejiang Office.

To enhance information services for enterprises, the Hangzhou Central Sub-branch of the PBOC has collected information on key enterprises' financing demands through provincial-level government departments, and relayed it to appropriate financial institutions.

As the Financial News reported, 150 million pieces of information, involving over 2.43 million enterprises, have been collected by the sub-branch.

Noting that wide support has created a more favorable environment for the development of first-time loans, experts say the banking sector should further change their way of thinking to use fintech to enhance risk management capabilities and efficiencies, enabling first-time loans to become more sustainable in business.

The Agricultural Bank of China's Zhejiang branch has explored technologies such as biometric information, e-signatures, and optical character recognition to improve enterprises' online experience. By the end of June, the balance of the bank's online loans reached 135.2 billion yuan.

"Innovation is essential for banks to establish channels to approach more clients and secure risk control," said Zeng, adding that financial institutions can leverage the advantages of internet channels to gradually solve financing challenges faced by small businesses. Enditem
Taoiseach Micheal Martin is under fire from some of his own TDs and councillors as the fallout from his decision to sack Barry Cowen has divided Fianna Fail.

Mr Cowen will move to clear his name in the coming weeks as three separate probes into the drink-driving controversy that led to his sacking from Cabinet are under way.

The former agriculture minister was defiant yesterday, telling supporters that Fianna Fail is bigger than him and "definitely bigger" than Micheal Martin as the Taoiseach faced a backlash from party councillors in Offaly last night. A number of Fianna Fail TDs also privately hit out at the Taoiseach's handling of the matter.

Less than 24 hours after he was dramatically removed from Cabinet, Mr Cowen appeared at the Dail's temporary home in the Convention Centre where Mr Martin came under sustained attack from the Opposition.

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald claimed Mr Martin knew the "full story" about Mr Cowen's drink-driving ban over a week ago but had failed to act sooner. Labour leader Alan Kelly said the controversy raised issues about Mr Martin's judgment.

The Taoiseach sacked the Laois-Offaly TD on Tuesday night after he refused to make a further Dail statement on the events surrounding his drink-driving ban. Mr Cowen has denied suggestions he tried to avoid gardai on his way home from the All-Ireland final four years ago and is attempting to find out how information about his drink-driving offence entered the public domain.

The Data Protection Commissioner is seeking further information from An Garda Siochana after the force formally reported a potential unauthorised disclosure of information from its Pulse system regarding the incident.

The initial inquiries from the data watchdog, along with existing probes by An Garda Siochana and the Garda Ombudsman, mean that three separate State agencies are now examining the matter.

Sources say colleagues of gardai involved in the arrest of Mr Cowen on the night in question were "shocked" at the controversy this week.

It is also understood that the arresting garda has retained his notes from the night of the arrest.

Offaly Fianna Fail councillor Eddie Fitzpatrick said there was "a lot of anger" among members over the decision to sack Mr Cowen from Cabinet, while another councillor, Peter Ormond, who was Mr Cowen's running mate in the last election, said members were "disappointed" with Mr Martin. "Barry has worked hard to become a minister. For it to be taken away so quick, it's such a pity," Mr Ormond said.

One prominent Fianna Fail backbencher privately criticised Mr Martin, saying: "I don't think he handled it well from the get-go."

Another high-profile backbencher said Mr Martin had "p****d off an awful lot of people" with the decision and that TDs believed he had "overstepped the mark".

Mr Martin told the Dail he had "no alternative" but to sack Mr Cowen. He said the "fundamental difference' was that Mr Cowen chose the "legal route" to defend his position, while he [the Taoiseach] believed "the only route was the political route".

A number of TDs rallied behind the Taoiseach's decision. While expressing sympathy for Mr Cowen and his family, they said the controversy had overshadowed the Government's first two weeks in office.

Tipperary TD Jackie Cahill said: "The Taoiseach did what he felt was in the best interests of the stability of the Government but on a personal level it's very hard for Barry Cowen."

Cavan-Monaghan TD Niamh Smyth said it had been very difficult for Mr Cowen "but I also acknowledge the fact it had become a distraction".

Clare TD Cathal Crowe said: "I think whatever people think of the sacking, in one sense it's good that we've moved on."

Cork East TD James O'Connor and James Browne also supported the move.

Minister Thomas Byrne, who was forced to deny online claims that he gave the story to the media, was tight-lipped on Mr Cowen's sacking last night, saying: "We all serve at the pleasure of the Taoiseach."
The City of Kawartha Lakes has a new confirmed COVID-19 case, the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit reported Thursday afternoon.

There are now two active cases in the City of Kawartha Lakes, along with three active cases in Northumberland County, the health unit reported.

The unresolved cases include a woman in her 50s, a woman in her 60s, two men in their 50s and a male whose age was not listed

The jurisdiction has now had 207 cumulative confirmed cases, 172 in the City of Kawartha Lakes, 25 in Northumberland County and 10 in Haliburton County (all 10 in Haliburton have recovered).

There were no institutional outbreaks as of Thursday afternoon.

At the Warkworth Insitution medium-security federal prison 60 kilometres east of Peterborough, 35 inmates were earlier tested for COVID-19 and all 35 tested negative, Correctional Service Canada reported.

Correctional Service Canada also announced Thursday that inmate visits at federal prisons have been gradually reopening across Canada since last week, but no specific timeline for Warkworth Institution was announced.

Visits must be booked 48 hours in advance. Visitors will be screened with a temperature check. Visitors must wash their hands before entry, wear a mask and maintain two-metre physical distancing at all times, Correctional Service Canada announced.

At the Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay, 45 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of May and 13 of those cases were listed Thursday by Public Health Ontario as unresolved.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 00:09:34|Editor: huaxia

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Workers remove the blocks around an Apple store on Fifth Avenue during the Phase one reopening in New York, the United States, June 12, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

The decision effectively canceled an Aug. 2016 European Commission decision.

The EU court ruled that the Commission had wrongly declared that Apple Sales International and Apple Operations Europe had been granted a "selective economic advantage" and, by extension, state aid.

BRUSSELS, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The General Court of the European Union (EU) on Wednesday rescinded an EU order, which had required U.S. technology giant Apple to pay Ireland 13 billion euros (14.9 billion U.S. dollars) in tax arrears.

The decision effectively canceled an Aug. 2016 European Commission decision. The EU court ruled that the Commission had wrongly declared that Apple Sales International (ASI) and Apple Operations Europe (AOE), which were companies incorporated in Ireland but not tax resident there, had been granted a "selective economic advantage" and, by extension, state aid.

The EU General Court's clear-cut decision could now face another appeal at the highest European Court of Justice (ECJ) level.

In her initial reaction, European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager said on Wednesday that the EU executive was studying the judgment and would reflect on the next steps.

In 2016, the EU had accused Ireland of allowing Apple to park revenue earned in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and India and sparing it almost all the taxation due. According to the European Commission, this gave Apple an advantage over other companies, allowing it to avoid Irish taxes between 2003 and 2014. This, it said, constituted illegal "state aid" given by Ireland.

The EU decision was based on two tax rulings, which endorsed the methods used by the ASI and the AOE to determine their chargeable profits in Ireland relating to the trading activities of their respective Irish branches. The January 1991 tax ruling remained in force until 2007, when it was replaced by the 2007 tax ruling. This in turn remained in force until Apple's new business structure was implemented in Ireland in 2014.

A European Union flag is seen in front of the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, July 7, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhang Cheng)

But Apple fought back and succeeded in its EU court case, in which the ruling said that the Commission "did not succeed in showing the requisite legal standard that there was an advantage."

The EU General Court noted that the Commission had incorrectly concluded, in its primary line of reasoning, that the Irish tax authorities had granted the ASI and the AOE an advantage as a result of not having allocated the Apple Group intellectual property licenses and taxing its trading income.

According to the court, the Commission should have shown that that income represented the value of the activities actually carried out by the Irish branches themselves, in view of the activities and functions actually performed by the Irish branches of the ASI and the AOE on the one hand, and the strategic decisions taken and implemented outside of those branches on the other.

Furthermore, the EU General Court ruled that the Commission did not prove that the contested tax rulings were the result of discretion exercised by the Irish tax authorities and that Apple had been granted a selective advantage over its competitors.

Vestager said: "The Commission stands fully behind the objective that all companies should pay their fair share of tax. If member states give certain multinational companies tax advantages not available to their rivals, this harms fair competition in the EU. It also deprives the public purse and citizens of funds for much-needed investments -- the need for which is even more acute during times of crisis.

"The Commission will continue to look at aggressive tax planning measures under EU state aid rules to assess whether they result in illegal state aid," she added. 
KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Olivia Jansen's relatives say they tried to get help for her from the state. Help didn't come soon enough. And now other families say they fear that same system is failing them, too. Dozens marched from the Wyandotte County Courthouse to the Kansas Department for Children and Families in KCK, voicing [...]
DENVER, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- StackHawk, the software-as-a-service startup that empowers software engineers to easily find and fix application security bugs, today announced that Simon Bennetts has joined the team as Distinguished Engineer, Assessment Technologies. Bennetts will primarily focus on the ongoing development of the open source project he founded, the OWASP Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP) web application security scanner, which is the world's most frequently used web application security scanning tool.

StackHawk leverages the ZAP open source for its underlying scanning technology and has focused product development on functionality that serves developer-first security, such as CI/CD security test automation, support for modern development paradigms, and integrations with other developer tools. With a strong background building DevOps and developer tools, the founders of StackHawk saw an opportunity to build an application security product that is truly developer first, and Bennetts' complementary background will further set StackHawk apart with a developer first mindset.

"Since founding ZAP, the vision has always been to deliver application security to developers," Bennetts said. "While the project has been widely adopted by security teams and pen testers, I'm excited to work with a team dedicated to delivering our original vision of AppSec for devs and that also believes in growing the open source community."

When they first met, Bennetts quickly found alignment with StackHawk founders Joni Klippert (CEO), Scott Gerlach (CSO), and Ryan Severns (COO) on the direction application security is headed. There is widespread acceptance of the need for security to shift left, but it is also a known fact that the shift has been slow to take hold. Much of this can be attributed to security tooling and processes that serve an outdated model, with post-deploy security tests and tooling built for enterprise security teams instead of the developers who are closest to the application.

"Simon's work on the ZAP project has both changed the security and open-source worlds for the better. It became clear that we were highly aligned in our mission to bring application security into the hands of developers," says Joni Klippert, CEO and Founder of StackHawk. "Simon joining the StackHawk team provides an exciting opportunity to invest more in the ZAP open source project, while also building capabilities that make it easy for enterprise development teams to streamline AppSec into their CI/CD pipelines."

Bennetts has a strong foundation as a software engineer helping him better understand the obstacles developers face. He started work on ZAP in 2009 because he recognized his own need to have more visibility into the security of the applications he was working on. Since then, ZAP has gained widespread popularity, becoming the world's most popular application security scanner. ZAP, now part of the OWASP Foundation, scans a running version of the application, finding possible security bugs in a process known as Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST). It has become a cornerstone of application security, while still remaining a tool that is primarily used by security teams and external penetration testers.

In teaming up together, StackHawk will continue to invest in the underlying scanner technology with a strong commitment to keeping this open source. Bennetts will lead this charge, contributing the majority of his time to the project he founded. StackHawk will continue to build functionality around the ZAP scanner to make automated security testing simple and accessible for developers and DevOps teams, enabling security to truly shift left.

About StackHawk

StackHawk, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup in Denver, CO, empowers engineers to easily find and fix application security bugs at any stage of software development. With a strong founding team that has deep experience in security and DevOps, and some of the best venture investors in the business, StackHawk is on a mission to put application security into the hands of engineers. Learn more and sign up for an account at www.stackhawk.com .

About OWASP ZAP

OWASP ZAP is a free and open source tool for finding vulnerabilities in web applications. It is the world's most popular free and open source web security tool. Learn more or download the scanner at www.zaproxy.org .

OWASP is a registered trademark of the OWASP Foundation, Inc.

Media Contact:

[email protected]

SOURCE StackHawk

Related Links

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I was on vacation last week and managed to not check email, Slack or my work-related social media channels  not even once. I left my cell phone off for long stretches of time. It felt amazing, until I forced myself back into reality and realized Id missed what felt like 10 news cycles worth of changes in Californias reopening plans.

Who can keep track of this stuff? (The Chronicles handy-dandy Reopening Tracker, thats who.) Within the last week, Napa County rolled back the reopening of indoor tasting rooms and restaurants, and closed bars altogether. Sonoma County followed with similar plans.

Then, just when I was starting to parse apart the different regulations in various Bay Area counties, Gov. Gavin Newsom made things simpler to understand: He announced on Monday that all wineries and restaurants (plus movie theaters, museums and other businesses) throughout the state would have to close for indoor visitation. Bars would have to cease all operations.

The reversals have left many vintners frustrated, and I wrote about some of their reactions in this story that ran in Wednesdays paper. Stephanie Honig of Honig Winery maintained that wineries dont deserve to be punished for the rise in Napa Countys COVID-19 cases. Other vintners worried about the effect of visitors tasting wine  and employees working long hours  in the summer heat, now that wineries will have to hold all their tastings outdoors.

Outside tasting is NOT a viable option for tasting fine wine, winemaker Bill Easton wrote to me in an email from Amador County, where temperatures had neared 100 degrees in the past few days. Meanwhile, Comstock Wines general manager Kelly Comstock Ferris said that shed moved her tastings to a shaded area of the Healdsburg property and had installed misters, to keep people refreshed.

And what did Newsoms decree mean for Bay Area bars? That was a little harder to pin down, and even the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control didnt immediately know how to interpret Newsoms order. By Tuesday afternoon, we had clarity: Bars that can serve food outdoors can remain open, which essentially means they fall under the same rules as restaurants. For most bars in the Bay Area, this new order doesnt actually represent much of a change, since bars that dont serve food hadnt been allowed to reopen anyway.

I checked in with Laura Sanfilippo, one of the owners of Dukes Spirited Cocktails, an excellent cocktail bar in Sonoma County. Since Dukes serves food, it has been open for takeout, including takeout cocktails, since March. Then it reopened for dine-in service on June 8  after rearranging all the furniture to keep everyone nice and distant.

John Storey / Special to the Chronicle 2018

But as of Monday, Dukes can no longer seat people inside, which means its back to takeout only, since the bar doesnt have any outdoor space. Luckily, the takeout prospects look promising: Healdsburg has eased restrictions to allow the consumption of alcohol in the downtown plaza, right where Dukes is located. Its hard to imagine a better product to offer in that setting than a canned cucumber cooler or a peach-yuzu spritz.

Are you exhausted yet? The reversals in our reopening plans, though certainly not unique to California, can feel crushing. Business owners have to reimagine their operations with very little advance notice  and employees of those businesses have it harder still, unable to count on remaining employed from one week to the next.

But worst of all is confronting the dreadful reality that were moving backwards. That weve been premature in declaring some of our incremental victories against the coronavirus. Its easy to feel like the last several months of mask wearing and quarantining were all for naught, even if deep down we know they werent.

Where do we go from here? Who knows. Your move, California.

What Im drinking

Speaking of employees who dont know whether theyll have a job next week: I spoke with a few Bay Area bartenders to see how theyve been coping with quarantine. Their answers were surprising  some of them have found unexpected pleasures in staying home (and all reported that theyre drinking less than usual). Of course, I couldnt resist the chance to ask them for some cocktail recipes, too. I hope youll read the story.

Esther Mobley / The Chronicle

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

What Im reading

 In Wine Country, farmworkers have experienced an alarming rise in coronavirus cases. My colleague Danielle Echeverria looks into the issue and how grapegrowers are responding to it as harvest approaches.

 Victoria James chats with San Franciscos own Tonya Pitts, wine director of One Market restaurant, about her career and how shes fared during the coronavirus shutdown. (Im envious of all the Champagne she has been drinking!)

 The Chronicles Justin Phillips shares a disturbing experience: During a recent trip to Sonoma County for dinner, he was called the n-word. He writes about what that incident exposes about the Bay Areas relationship to the Black Lives Matter movement.

 Matt Kettmann  one of our fabulous Chronicle wine contributors  has a new book on the way, Vines and Vision, that promises to be the definitive work on Santa Barbara County wine. Im excited to read it!

Drinking with Esther is a weekly newsletter from The Chronicles wine critic. Follow along on Twitter: @Esther_Mobley and Instagram: @esthermob
Police in New York City this morning arrested three suspected gang members in connection to a drive-by shooting in The Bronx that killed a young father as he was crossing the street with his seven-year-old daughter.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison on Thursday announced the arrests of Davon Delks, 21, from The Bronx; Laquan Heyward, 25, from Staten Island, and Devon Vines, 27, from The Bronx, for the murder of 29-year-old Anthony Robinson.

All three suspects were taken into custody at 8am on Thursday, less than two weeks after the deadly shooting in The Bronx.

Scroll down for video

The NYPD on Thursday morning arrested Davon Delks, 21, from The Bronx; Laquan Heyward, 25, from Staten Island, and Devon Vines, 27, from The Bronx, for the murder of 29-year-old Anthony Robinson. Police declined to say which suspect is pictured in each mugshot

Robinson, from Brooklyn, was crossing East 170 Street in The Bronx with his seven-year-old daughter on July 5 when he was attacked

Video captured a passenger in a passing car pointing a gun at him and firing four shots

Robinson, a dad-of-three, collapsed to the ground as his daughter ran for her life

Robinson was crossing the street in front of 221 East 170 Street with his daughter, Khole, just before 6pm on July 5 when a car drove up to them.

Surveillance video from the scene captured the harrowing moment someone stuck out a hand holding a gun from the front passenger window and fired four rounds.

Robinson, who police said had many prior arrests, collapsed to the ground on the crosswalk as his daughter ran for cover.

The father was transported to the hospital and died from a gunshot wound to the chest.

So far, police have not said what prompted Robinson's brutal killing in broad daylight.

All three suspects in Robinson's murder are well-known to the Bronx District Attorney's Office, having been indicted in November 2016 on dozens of charges related to multiple shootings, robberies and a $200,000 ATM scam.

According to a contemporaneous press release from the DA, Delks, Heyward and Vines were members of an offshoot of the Bloods street gang called Sev-O.

Police were investigating whether Robinson's death was linked to the fatal shooting of Joel Baba and Eghosa Imafidon in a Bronx apartment just a few hours later.

It was thought the shooting, which also injured a third man, was carried out in retaliation for Robinson's death.

Robinson died from a gunshot wound to the chest. He did not get a chance to meet his youngest child, a baby girl, who was born a few weeks ago

Baba, 22, who went by the nickname 'Jay Gunz,' was a suspected member of the Sev-O gang and had been indicted alongside Delks, Heyward and Vines in 2016.

Baba and another man had been accused of shooting at rival gang members and grazing one person in the had in 2015.

Robinson's girlfriend, Stephanie Quinonez, who is not Khloe's mother but has two children by him, earlier said she was convinced that in his final moments Anthony saved Khloe's life by telling her to run away.

Quinonez told New York Daily News she and Robinson had known each-other growing up and had dated on and off before settling down together in 2016.

Khloe was his daughter from a previous relationship, while Stephanie had her own daughter from another relationship, Maya, who was the same age.

The pair then had two children together, one-year-old son Artemus and three-week-old ALuna, who was born in Florida where Quinonez had moved a short time ago.

She said Robinson was supposed to have left New York already, and that the pair were planning to go to South Carolina to join his parents and start a new life.

But she says he wanted to spend time with Khloe, who was 'crazy' about him, and couldn't tear himself away.

Robinson never met his youngest daughter before he was killed.

Quinonez was overjoyed when she learned of today's arrests, telling Daily News: 'I'm so happy!'
They've been coming by the thousands, packing Tel Aviv's main square, chanting outside the prime minister's residence, and unfurling black flags from bridges spanning Israel's highways. All with a single message: We're fed up with you, Bibi.

Rarely has public dissatisfaction with Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu been so high, as a resurgent coronavirus outbreak, mounting unemployment and the corruption allegations against him come together in a flood of discontent. Polls show his Likud party sinking, and only about 30% of Israelis trust his handling of the health crisis.

The anger is weakening Netanyahu precisely at a time when the optics of appearing strong and admired would serve him best. Next week, with his political survival and a possible jail sentence at stake, his multilayered corruption trial shifts into higher gear, with a possible scheduling of future hearings where he'll take the stand.

The shift in public sentiment came swiftly. Netanyahu initially won high marks both at home and abroad for assertive decisions that kept both virus deaths and infections down. But the reopening of the economy -- done not in the gradual, measured way that was promised, but in a burst of celebration (Go out and "have fun," he said) -- has brought cases shooting up again. New daily infections that had dwindled to single digits in May topped 1,700 this week.

The prime minister was forced to concede in a rare public apology last week that he had erred. The new $26.1 billion (90 billion shekel) economic aid package he announced at the same time did little to mollify protesters who say his fractious coalition government -- formed explicitly to tackle the health emergency -- has managed the crisis ineptly and doesn't understand the public's pain.

On Wednesday evening, he sought to provide further support and quell critics by announcing a plan to send 6 billion shekels worth of grants to all families across the country. "We need to move the economy," Netanyahu said. "This money encourages consumption and it encourages employment. It moves the wheels of the economy faster."

The head of the country's central bank Amir Yaron told army radio Thursday morning that "there are better and more efficient ways to increase demand."

"The government is so disconnected with the economic situation," said Aviad Ben Sadon, a consultant and leader of an independent contractors group. "They think always about themselves. They think, 'What is going to be our salary, my position in the politics.' They're not thinking about us."

Little more than half of the government's initial rescue aid, announced in late March, has been disbursed to needy workers and businesses, a government official told parliament on Monday as the crisis deepens and talk of a possible new lockdown abounds.

There have been more than 44,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, including 380 deaths, in the country of 9 million.

The mounting sense that the government is out of touch has only been fueled by the personal conduct of the premier and several key allies. While businesses were collapsing and unemployment stood at a menacing 21%, Netanyahu was busy pressing parliament to give him a tax refund worth hundreds of thousands of shekels. He parried the consequent uproar by saying the "timing" was off.

A minister without portfolio in his bloated cabinet dismissed claims that some Israelis are going hungry as "bullsh*t." It wasn't lost on critics that the minister doesn't have a clearly defined job.

Netanyahu's health minister, meanwhile, went to a birthday bash for his wife just after announcing impending new restrictions on gatherings.

A poll Sunday night on Channel 13 showed Likud winning just 33 seats in Israel's 120-seat parliament, down from 40 just weeks ago. Another survey by the Israeli Democracy Institute showed 75% of Israelis are dissatisfied with the government's functioning during the crisis.

Yet while Netanyahu's on the ropes -- as he's been before -- the same coronavirus that's hurting him will also preserve his government, at least for now. Neither he nor his coalition partners have anything to gain from going to early elections at this point because they'd either lose seats or maintain their current strength, polls show.

Netanyahu would have no incentive to resign now, either, since he sees an advantage to going to trial as Israel's leader, and not as an ordinary citizen. Hanan Kristal, political commentator for Israel Radio, predicts the crunch time will come in November 2021, when Netanyahu is scheduled to turn over the premiership to Defense Minister Benny Gantz under the power-sharing pact underpinning their government. Many in Israel have suspected the prime minister would find a ruse to bring the government down and call elections rather than honor the agreement.

"In November next year is the rotation, by then we'll see where this all goes," Kristal said.

In the meantime, Israelis are hitting the streets. Demonstrations have included unusually large turnouts outside the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem and protests on bridges demanding that Netanyahu resign over the multiple graft cases against him. About 50 people were arrested on Tuesday night in clashes with police after a raucous rally where some anti-corruption protesters carrying torches attempted to rush the barricades outside Netanyahu's home.

"For Netanyahu, it's starting to look like the perfect storm against him because it's the health care, it's the economy, it's the government," said Mitchell Barak, a pollster and former Netanyahu adviser. "The prime minister is not keyed into what's going on."
During the Spanish Civil War, two factions of the American left sent forces to fight the forces of Franco. The socialists sent the Eugene V. Debs Column. They believed in truth in advertising.

The communists did not. They sent the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

This years election has spawned something called the Lincoln Project, which runs powerful anti-Trump ads on television. It holds itself out as having serious policy differences with Democrats and as opposing President Trump not out of ideological preference, but out of fidelity to the Constitution.

Like the Lincoln Brigade, though not as egregiously, the Lincoln Project is engaging in false advertising. David Harsanyi puts it this way:

If The Lincoln Project was exclusively campaigning against Donald Trump, one might be tempted to believe it wasnt merely an arm of the Democratic Party. If one of its co-founders, John Weaver, hadnt been registered as a foreign agent lobbying for a Russia-owned nuclear-energy company against U.S. sanctions not long ago, one might accept that the group believed the conspiracy theories it spreads. If the group wasnt working against the moderate Republicans senators for the sin of supporting originalist Supreme Court justices, who will transcend the Trump presidency and help preserve the traditional constitutional order, one might believe that its mission was to preserve the system. If you target moderates like Susan Collins and Cory Gardner  politicians who not only parted with Trump on issues but have quite un-Trumpian dispositions  youre not working against Trumpism, youre working against the GOP.

And you shouldnt be calling yourself the Lincoln Project.

Harsanyi continues:

The media can keep calling you Republicans, but if you support Democrats, take Democratic Party positions, make voting for Democrats all the way down the ticket a binary choice and moral imperative, and then take most of your money from big Democratic Party donors, youre a Democrat. Thats fine. You should embrace it. Im not really a fan of making a big deal over a groups funding. Your arguments should stand on their own. I dont care who pays you. But if you advertise your cause as something its not, youre a fraud. And the biggest funders of The Lincoln Project arent distraught Republicans but long-time Democratic Party operatives.

(Emphasis added)

Who are these Democratic Party operatives?

By far the biggest donor has been Stephen Mandel, who gave The Lincoln Project  which, as far as I can tell, produces cheap b-roll-laden ads and takes nearly 90 percent of its budget in operating expenditures  a million dollars. His company Lone Pine Capital, it seems, has given the Democratic Party Senate committee $497,000 this year, $248,500 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign committee, and a bunch of money to other left-wing candidates. During the 2018 cycle, Lone Pine Capital doled out $5,893,300 to Democrats. It gave $1,333,333 to Planned Parenthood. Im confused somewhat by one of the other top names: Arturas Kerelis, who news reports say is actually an Internet grifter named Arturas Rosenbacher. Maybe the donor is a different person. Then again, it would fit. (It looks like his donation was refunded.) Amos Hostetter, who dropped over a million dollars on the Obama Foundation, and David Geffen have been giving money to Democrats decades before Donald Trump ever ran for president or Trumpism existed. As has another top Lincoln Fund donor, Joshua Bekenstein, director of Bain Capital, who gave Democrats $3.5 million in 2018.

(Emphasis added)

If you believe that these donors, or those who take their money, have the best interests of the conservative movement or the Republican Party at heart, then you probably would have believed, as the Communist International wanted the naive to, that the Abraham Lincoln Brigade was fighting for establishing American-style democracy in Spain.
Birmingham police are investigating a possibly life-threatening shooting Wednesday night after a person was shot in the Southtown public housing community.

Police received a call of a person shot around 6:40 p.m. Wednesday on the 2300 block of 9th Court South.

A sergeant at the scene said the victim possibly sustained life-threatening injuries.

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.
The US has more reported coronavirus cases and deaths than any country in the world.

Despite growing case numbers, the population of the country is caught in a tug of war between reopening the economy and protecting at-risk individuals from infection. How did we get here?

Naive confidence in a slow beginning

On 21 Jan., an American man in Washington State tested positive for the novel coronavirus after returning from a trip to Wuhan, China.

The diagnosis made him the first coronavirus patient in the US. It was days before Italy would record its first coronavirus cases, and thoughts of a global pandemic seemed too far-fetched to be taken seriously.

Also read:

The next day, President Trump spoke to CNBC, addressing the growing fears surrounding the virus. We have it under control, he said. Its going to be just fine.

On 3 Feb., with 11 active cases of coronavirus reported in the US, the American Government declared a public health emergency. My administration will take all necessary steps to safeguard our citizens from this threat, Trump said in a State of the Union Address. Over the next week, public fears relaxed as cases seemed to plateau, while states began planning preventative actions.

On 25 Feb., when the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned that the coronavirus was developing into a global pandemic, there were fewer than 60 active cases in the US, and no deaths.

Though the 2011 film Contagion, about a deadly virus from China, had started trending on US streaming services, most Americans continued their normal lives--going to work, going to university, and sending their children to school.

An uncomfortable wake-up call

In late February, a 71-year-old man from California traveled on a cruise ship with Princess Cruises. He reported feeling ill on 21 Feb., when he left the cruise ship for his home in Northern California.

A few days later, he passed away in a hospital after testing positive for coronavirus. At the time of his death, over 60 crew members and passengers from his cruise remained onboard, headed for Hawaii.

Nearly half of those who had been in contact with the deceased man tested positive for the virus, forcing the cruise ship, the Grand Princess, to backtrack to California, where it would float on the coast for two weeks before everyone was sent home. While most passengers were allowed to disembark after a few days, over 1,000 crew members were forced to quarantine from each other onboard until 21 March.

In response to the concentrated outbreak, on 19 March, California became the first state to issue a statewide stay-at-home mandate. By early April, due to similar clusters of outbreaks, the majority of states had followed suit, though the severity of mandate enforcement was left in the hands of local governments.

On 13 March, two days after the WHO declared a national pandemic, President Trump declared a national emergency. Non-US travelers were immediately banned from entering the US, putting a stop to all international tourism. Shortly after, the Trump Administration announced a two-week long slow the spread period, in which citizens were asked to stay home and monitor themselves for symptoms. If everyone makes  these critical changes and sacrifices now, we will rally together as one nation and we will defeat the virus, Trump announced.

Over the month of March, coronavirus cases increased from around 100 cases nationwide to nearly 200,000, with almost 4,000 deaths.

Growing economic fears

In late March, the CARES Act was passed and signed into law by congress and the Trump Administration, allocating $2 trillion in relief to individuals and business owners.

Amidst citizens fears of medical debt from coronavirus treatment, some insurance companies offered to waive testing and treatment fees for eligible patients.

While these solutions offered short-lived relief against growing fears of an economic recession, stay-at-home and work-from-home mandates remained in place, creating an unsteady future outlook.

Also read:

Covid-19 in Europe

In April, over 20 million Americans filed for unemployment. Over the next two months, that number would jump to over 44 million, as local governments extended restrictions through April, and then May.

Some Americans started to grow restless, confined by government restrictions in the so-called Land of the Free. Others maintained that the priority should be protecting high-risk individuals.

By the end of April, there were over 1 million active coronavirus cases in the US and around 60,000 deaths.

A false lead in coronavirus treatment research

Near the end of March, the University of Minnesota started testing an anti-malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, against the coronavirus. After two studies came out in support of the drugs success, it became a cornerstone of a new virus stance for Trump.

In May, he told reporters he was taking the drug, presumably as a preventative measure against the virus. There were no studies to support its use as a preventative drug.

Despite this, many Trump supporters aligned with the President and cited the drug as a reason to reopen the economy.

A wave of protests begins

On 15 April, a wave of protests started in Michigan, after Governor Gretchen Whitmer enforced strict stay-at-home mandates.

Protesters on the Capitol Building lawn held signs reading Set us free, and Stop the fear, end the lockdown.

Michigan was the first of many states to witness anti-lockdown protests. Many of the protesters enacted their first amendment rights without wearing masks and without social distancing.

Demonstrations like that create the need to continue this aggressive stance that we've had to take to save lives, Governor Whitmer said in an interview with NBC. On 1 May, Trump described the anti-lockdown protesters as good people who want their lives back again, safely!

More anti-lockdown protests would be fueled by the online circulation of the 2020 short film Plandemic, which claimed that the coronavirus was an elaborate conspiracy to control and profit off of the American people. Among many dangerous claims, the film suggests wearing masks makes individuals more prone to catching viruses, according to Live Science.

Haircuts and cultural complications

Some anti-lockdown protesters were particularly self-motivated, rallying for hair salons to reopen after weeks without access to professional haircare.

As a result, an internet meme known as Karen began circulating on social media platforms. The meme plays with tropes of entitled, middle-aged white women. In the case of the coronavirus, the Karens, were the people who refused to wear a mask and demanded things go back to normal despite the national risk.

Though this mentality was ridiculed online, it is reflected in the statewide coronavirus laws in Georgia, where masks are not required in public and high-risk individuals are encouraged to stay home for their own protection while other Georgians can enjoy open access to--for example--hair salons.

Following similar logic, corona parties have started popping up across the country. A so-called corona-party is a gathering in which participants willingly expose themselves to an infected individual with the intention of catching the virus to build up antibodies.

While the goal of the corona party phenomenon is herd immunity, in practice, they can have detrimental consequences. On 12 July, a 30-year-old Texas man died after attending a corona party. He had thought the virus was a hoax, but wanted to test his theory.

Unlucky timing for a massive social movement

On 25 May, George Floyd, an African American man, was killed by police in Minnesota. The incident sparked massive protests against racism and police brutality which spanned across the nation. According to the New York Times, up to 26 million protesters participated in various demonstrations across the country, possibly making it the largest social movement in US history.

Also read:

Fears about the virus remained through the protests, with many protesters wearing masks during demonstrations. Many maintained that systemic racism was as detrimental to American society as the coronavirus--a fitting argument, as virus rates in the US are highest among African Americans and other minority groups.

As of 1 July, news outlets reported that the protests had not caused a surge in virus cases, though case numbers have increased among young people since June.

Also read:

Present situation

On 28 May, the US surpassed 100,000 virus deaths, a milestone medical experts warned would only be the beginning if strict measures were not enforced and followed. Nonetheless, in June, many states started lifting virus prevention mandates in an effort to restart the economy.

States are operating within a 3-phase reopening plan, though the rules of each phase are largely decided by state governments.

Currently, the majority of states require that masks are worn in public, businesses operate at a lower capacity than normal, and mass gatherings are banned. Some states, such as California, Texas, and Florida, have backtracked on their reopening plans after seeing a resurgence in cases.

On 4 June, two key studies supporting the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus were retracted after new research surfaced. Not long after, the WHO ended its studies on the drug, citing it as an ineffective treatment for the virus.

As of 15 July, there are 3.5 million active coronavirus cases in the US and over 138,000 deaths.

Ph: Los Angeles, California / USA - May 1, 2020: People in front of Los Angeles City Hall protest the states COVID-19 stay at home orders in a Fully Open California protest. Image by Matt Gush / Shutterstock.com
Agartala/Shillong, July 16 : India and Bangladesh's inland waterways connectivity is part of their heritage and recent steps would further rejuvenate the economy of the region, ministers, diplomats and experts from the two countries said.

Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Riva Ganguly Das said that the India-Bangladesh agreement on the use of Mongla and Chittagong ports and the recent second addendum in the India- Bangladesh protocol route would become a great enabler for the rejuvenation of livelihood and economy of the region.

In her keynote speech in the dialogue on "Indo-Bangladesh Cooperation for Inland Waterways Development", Das said that these mutually beneficial arrangements would further strengthen the integration of the two countries' supply chains and logistics sectors, generate employment and would spur investments in the logistics and services sector of Bangladesh such as finance, transport and insurance.

"Furthermore, Bangladesh would earn revenue as the cargo transit would be through the use of Bangladeshi trucks and through administrative and port fees. The full potential of the multimodal connectivity projects would be realised in Narayanganj, Sirajganj, Mongla, Chilmari and Khulna (all in Bangladesh) enabling them to emerge as new economic hubs in Bangladesh," she added.

Participating in the discussion, organised by the Shillong based think tank and research body "Asian Confluence", Bangladesh Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam said: "When we talk of the 54 transboundary rivers with India, we are talking of an opulent harvest of fusing culture, crafts and trade developed over generations." "Rivers are part of our common heritage which we must cherish for our own nourishment. Credible civil society organisations, academia, entrepreneurs and grassroots organisations should be mobilised to lead to an organic growth bottom up. We reaffirm the importance of harnessing collective strength of all stakeholders who seek to advance the cause of water security. Communities living along rivers should be the key agents in the process," Alam said.

India's NITI Aayog distinguished fellow Ram Gopal Agarwal, Bangladesh's former Senior Shipping Secretary Abdus Sammad, former Governor of Bangladesh Bank and economist Atiur Rahman and other experts while addressing the dialogue, held on late Wednesday evening, also echoed that the inland waterways are a vital part of a larger multimodal connectivity scheme to ensure cost effectiveness.

They said that the northeastern states of India and Bangladesh can benefit greatly from the waterway connectivity as there is immense possibility for growth in the agricultural and farm sectors on both sides.

"Asian Confluence" Executive Director Sabyasachi Dutta said that his organisation has been holding a series of dialogues on the common theme "Asian Confluence Nadi Conversations" to highlight the narrative of a celebration of the common riverine and civilisational heritage of India and Bangladesh.

"NADI Conversations' is planned as a web-based, multi-stakeholder conversation series to celebrate rivers as the pulse and life force of our ecology and civilization. It is so important because rivers shape and influence varied aspects of our existence, including those related to agriculture, livelihood, health, culture, tourism, sustainability, trade and connectivity," said Dutta, who initiated the dialogue.

Meanwhile, increasing the number of new waterways, the "Second Addendum to the Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade" was signed in Dhaka on May 20 by Indian High Commissioner in Bangladesh Riva Ganguly Das and Bangladesh Shipping Ministry Secretary Mohammed Mezbah Uddin Chowdhury.

To boost trade, economic activity and connectivity, India and Bangladesh under the May 20 deal, have added five more "ports of call" on either side and increased the protocol (water) routes from 8 to 10.

There are six "ports of call" each in India and Bangladesh. The new five "ports of call" on the Indian side are Dhulian, Maia, Kolaghat, Sonamura and Jogigopha and on the Bangladesh side Rajshahi, Sultanganj, Chilmari, Daudkandi and Bahadurabad.

Two more extended "ports of call" -- Tribeli (Bandel) and Badarpur in India and Ghorasal and Muktarpur in Bangladesh -- have been added.

(Sujit Chakraborty can be contacted at sujit.c@ians.in)
"It is a pleasure to be representing Grenada in the UAE," said Rose-Ann Benjamin, Grenada's Consul General. "I'd like to thank the Government of the UAE for this opportunity and the warm welcome I have received. My Government is serious and committed to strengthening the relations between the two countries."

Grenada is an English-speaking island in the Eastern Caribbean, with a population of approximately 120,000 and 348 square kilometers in size. It is the world's second largest producer of nutmeg.

Grenada has been a friend of the UAE since its creation, and the recipient of numerous generous grants from the Government of the UAE, including funds aimed at rebuilding Grenada's Parliament building.

Grenada has one of the fastest-growing economies in the region, averaging 5 per cent growth since 2013. The economy is powered mainly by tourism, agriculture, St. George's University School of Medicine, and investment from both local and foreign investors, particularly via the country's respected Citizenship-by-Investment program.

Grenada's Consulate in Dubai aims to bolster the country's Citizenship-by-Investment program, working actively to promote it to potential investors and its many benefits for family members and the peace of mind that comes with convenient global mobility.

For developers, the new consulate will foster ties between the Middle East and Grenada while providing invaluable, quick, and convenient services to Grenada passport-holders not just in Dubai, but in the wider region. The process is fast, efficient, straightforward, and gives visa-free travel to over 130 destinations worldwide including the UK, the EU Schengen States, China, Russia, Brazil, Hong Kong, Singapore. Citizens can take advantage of the US E2 visa, which allows them to live and work in the United States.

The Grenada consulate commends the UAE for its strong support for the development of robust sustainable development goals post-2015. Grenada also applauds the UAE for hosting the Headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency and championing the thrust to renewables in Small Island Development States. Renewable energy is also a priority for the Government of Grenada as the high prices of energy have such negative effects on the economy. Grenada sees the UAE as an important development partner and welcomes the idea of deeper cooperation in areas of mutual interest.

SOURCE Office of the Consul General of Grenada to the UAE
Natural gas imports into Ukraine hit five-year high

14:45, 16.07.20 952

The growth in the shipments is associated with a significant increase in European companies' demand for storage of gas in Ukraine.
Thiruvananthapuram, July 16 : The ongoing probe by Customs and the NIA in the now controversial gold smuggling case, in which even the office of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is allegedly involved, has revealed it was crowd funding -- the main source of funds in gold smuggling.

The Customs on Thursday arrested two more people who have been identified as those behind financing the buying of gold.

The entire money required to buy gold is transferred through hawala to the UAE.

The case which has large scale ramifications across sectors first surfaced when P.S. Sarith, a former employee of the UAE Consulate, here was arrested by the Customs on July 5 when he was facilitating smuggling of 30 kg gold in diplomatic baggage to Thiruvananthapuram from Dubai.

It turned murkier when the name of Swapna Suresh, a former employee of the UAE Consulate, here and employed with the IT Department, surfaced and it turned the full circle when her links with the principal secretary of Vijayan - M. Sivasankar, who is also the State IT secretary, were revealed.

First Swapna was booted out and then Vijayan quickly removed Sivasankar from both the posts, but it was not enough as the Congress and the BJP went full throttle demanding the suspension of Sivasankar and the resignation of Vijayan.

The Centre also stepped in and the NIA was asked to probe the case, even as the Customs is already on it.

A day after NIA was put into service, Swapna and her friend Sandeep were taken into custody from Bengaluru and are presently under judicial custody.

It was after that the probe went into high gear and the Customs have by now completed a nine hour grilling of Sivasankar, while the NIA have got vital leads after questioning Swapna, Sandeep, Sarith and Rameez, all were arrested.

It was the leads, which led to the modus operandi of the operations and according to the Customs, the gold smuggling gangs consist of several layers and include financiers, here - who raise the money to buy gold from the Middle East. Then there is another section who transports it to the various end users - which are the jewellers in the state and the vital clogs are those who coordinate the entire operations with precision.

At the end of the successful operation, everyone involved gets their due share and Customs have now found out this particular gang in the month of June alone has smuggled 70 kg of gold on three different occasions.

Swapna and Sarith are carriers and using their closeness which was built up when the duo worked at the UAE Consulate and her close links with Sivasankar also came as a boon.

According to the Customs, it has got vital evidence, the way Swapna functioned on July 5, the present smuggling attempt, which failed.

Her mobile was located in the tower where the entire operations were carried out from a flat, which is next door to the State Secretariat.

Another casualty attached to Vijayan -- Arun Balachandran, a former IT fellow of Vijayan and now works in the IT department, who though claims he has nothing to do with it, other than arranging a flat on the directions of Sivasankar, has been now removed from his present post.

Now all eyes are on the Customs who is all set to call Sivasankar again, as his mobile phone has already been confiscated and sent for scientific examination.

The NIA is also expected to call in Sivasankar and as and when it happens, all the preliminary links would be established to reign in the fledging gold smuggling racket, but this is the first time, where higher ups directly or indirectly appeared to have a role.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
TORONTO - It had all the trappings of an announcement both noble and innocuous.

To help postsecondary students unable to find summer jobs during Canada's coronavirus outbreak, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled a $670 million program to provide grants to those who volunteered in their communities.

Now the Liberal Party leader, who once promised unprecedented transparency in government, faces accusations of cronyism and self-dealing, his third ethics probe as prime minister and the revival of long-standing questions about his judgment.

Trudeau apologized this week for not recusing himself from the cabinet discussions that led his government to offer the sole-source contract to WE Charity after it emerged that the Toronto-based organization had paid his mother and brother hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees. But it's not clear whether he has succeeded in changing the subject.

The opposition, stung by Trudeau's reelection last year and quieted by his generally well-received performance against the coronavirus, is having a field day. The leader of the separatist Bloc Quebecois has called for him to step aside as prime minister until the ethics inquiry has been completed. Conservatives have wondered aloud whether a criminal probe might be needed.

The Canadian media, meanwhile, is asking how the Liberal leader, who swept into office in 2015 on promises to run a government beyond reproach, continues to walk into ethical controversies. Answers could emerge Thursday with testimony beginning before parliamentary committees.

Whatever the ultimate findings, analysts say, the controversy has already further chipped away at Trudeau's brand and could cost him the political capital he's accrued from his handling of the pandemic - imperiling his effort to recover the parliamentary majority he lost in the October election.

"It's not his first offense," said Christopher Sands, director of the Center for Canadian Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington. "You can't quite dodge that. Your opponents will always bring it up. It will always be part of your story."

Sands added that "bad news does travel" - repeated ethics lapses could sully Trudeau's reputation abroad, too.

The arrangement with WE Charity quickly raised eyebrows. Trudeau's wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, is an "ambassador" and podcast host for the charity; she traveled to London in March for a WE event. (It was during that trip that she is believed to have contracted the novel coronavirus. She has since recovered.)

The prime minister himself has on several occasions attended WE Day, an annual youth empowerment rally.

Trudeau initially defended the contract, which would have paid WE Charity more than $14 million, saying the organization had been recommended by the nonpartisan public service. He said the public service had determined that it was the only group in Canada able to administer the grant program - a claim met with skepticism from some in the charity sector.

Then the National Post published a video from a June conference call in which WE Charity co-founder Marc Kielburger told youth leaders it was the prime minister's office that had "kindly called" and asked whether the group would run it. Kielburger later said he "misspoke."

With controversy swirling, the contract was severed and public servants were told to take over. Canada's independent ethics commissioner launched his probe.

Last week, it was reported that the charity and its for-profit arm had paid Trudeau's mother, Margaret, and his brother Alexandre more than $220,000 for speaking at events from 2016 to 2020, a revelation apparently at odds with a previous WE statement that Trudeau's mother was "never paid an honorarium."

Trudeau apologized Monday for not recusing himself from cabinet discussions on the contract. He said it was "not surprising" that the charity paid his family members, but that he did not know how much they were being paid. He said he should have known.

"I made a mistake in not recusing myself immediately from the discussions, given our family's history, and I'm sincerely sorry," he said.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau, whose family also has ties to the organization, also has apologized. The ethics commissioner is also investigating Morneau's involvement.

WE Charity said Thursday that it was launching a review and restructuring, scaling back activities and canceling future WE Day activities for the foreseeable future.

The controversy is threatening the popularity boost Trudeau has received from his coronavirus handling. Shachi Kurl, executive director of the Angus Reid Institute, said support for the prime minister had slipped five points, to 50%, in data the pollster released this week.

Although Trudeau's base is committed, Kurl said, non-Liberals who might have been giving him"grudging respect" for his coronavirus response are "remembering why they were annoyed with him to begin with."

Canada's ethics watchdog has twice found that Trudeau has broken conflict-of-interest and ethics laws.

The watchdog ruled last year that Trudeau had used his office to "circumvent, undermine and ultimately attempt to discredit" the attorney general when he pressured her to cut an out-of-court deal with SNC-Lavalin, a Montreal-based construction firm facing corruption charges. The scandal left the leader on the ropes for much of 2019. He said he had taken "many lessons" from it but did not apologize.

The ethics commissioner ruled in 2017 that Trudeau had contravened the law when he vacationed at a private Bahamian island owned by the Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of Shiite Ismaili Muslims. The report also found that he should have recused himself from two discussions "during which he had an opportunity to improperly further the private interests" of the Aga Khan's institutions.

Lori Turnbull, a political scientist at Dalhousie University, said the controversy has common threads with the latter incident. Trudeau, the son of former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, grew up on the public stage. He described the Aga Khan as a close family friend - he said he called him "Uncle K."

Trudeau "is a bit of a unique case under the conflict-of-interest regulations, where not everybody would have this kind of brand, this kind of celebrity status and these kinds of connections," Turnbull said. "We're seeing him manage his private life and his responsibility to the public. . . ."

"I think it accounts a little bit for why he has had a few investigations into him," Turnbull added. "But also there's obviously a judgment piece."

Trudeau's judgment was questioned again last year when photos and a video emerged of him dressed in brownface and blackface as a younger man.

Sands, of Johns Hopkins, said the current controversy also raises questions about the advice Trudeau is getting; the ties to WE Charity were well-known. He said it also plays to a stereotype that the Liberal party is permeated with a sense of entitlement.

How damaging it ends up being, Kurl said, will depend on how well the opposition can keep the story in the headlines in the middle of the summer and during the pandemic, particularly as the Conservatives are also focused on a leadership race.

A third ethics investigation "either solidifies [Trudeau's] reputation as being a prime minister who has problems with entitlement and is unethical," she said, "or it solidifies his reputation as a prime minister who really, truly struggles with understanding where the line is on ethics.

"Either way, that's bad news."
The 5G mobile network is yet to make its way to the Indian telecom market. As we wait for the next-generation network, Samsung has announced that it is already working on 6G.

The South Korean tech giant has released a white paper entitled The Next Hyper-Connected Experience for All. outlining the companys vision for 6G communication system. The white paper covers various aspects related to 6G, including technical and societal trends, new services, requirements, candidate technologies and an expected timeline of standardisation.

While 5G commercialisation is still in its initial stage, its never too early to start preparing for 6G because it typically takes around 10 years from the start of research to commercialisation of a new generation of communications technology, Sunghyun Choi, Head of the Advanced Communications Research Centre, said.

Samsung expects that the completion of the 6G standard and its earliest commercialisation date could be as early as 2028, while mass commercialisation may occur around 2030. The company claims that both humans and machines will be the main users of 6G, and will be characterised by the provision of advanced services such as truly immersive extended reality (XR), high-fidelity mobile hologram and digital replica.

The company defines three categories of requirements that have to be met to realise 6G services  performance, architectural and trustworthiness.

Examples of 6G performance requirements are a peak data rate of 1,000 Gbps (gigabits per second) and air latency less than 100 microseconds (s), 50 times the peak data rate and one-tenth the latency of 5G.

The white paper also introduces candidate technologies that could be essential to satisfy the requirements for 6G. These include the use of the terahertz (THz) frequency band, novel antenna technologies to enhance the coverage of high-frequency band signals, advanced duplex technologies, the evolution of network topology, spectrum sharing to increase the efficiency of frequency utilisation and the use of AI in wireless communications.
An African court has directed Tanzania to allow political parties to challenge results of presidential elections in court, local newspaper The Citizen reports.



Tanzania's constitution does not allow courts to inquire or challenge the election of a president once the winner is officially announced by the electoral commission.



The African Court on Human and People's Rights, which is based in the north-eastern city of Arusha, asked Tanzania to take the "necessary constitutional and legislative measures, within a reasonable time" to amend the law.



The case was filed by a Tanzanian citizen, Jebra Kabole, who argued that the provision in his country's laws violated his rights.



Tanzania's general election is due to be held in October.



Both Kenya and Malawi have had presidential elections annulled following successful petitions in court, forcing a rerun in the two cases.

Source: BBC









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Darkly funny, gorgeous, a little bit silly and sweet, The Sunlit Night is based on a 2015 book by Rebecca Dinerstein (now Rebecca Dinerstein Knight). The story follows a New York painter, here played by Jenny Slate, who moves to a picturesque island off the far northern coast of Norway to help a famous artist complete a work in progress: painting the entire interior and exterior of a dilapidated barn in various shades of orange and yellow. Though set in the middle of nowhere, in a trailer the films heroine shares with a baby goat, the story (adapted by Dinerstein Knight herself and directed by German filmmaker David Wnendt) has a smart, urbane sensibility; its halfway between Noah Baumbach and Woody Allen. Mostly, it revolves around Slates Frances as she gets her groove back following some emotional setbacks that open the film: a romantic breakup, the loss of a prestigious art residency and the separation of her artist parents (David Paymer and Jessica Hecht). As the protagonist paints  for herself and for her employer  she develops confidence, along with a closeness with a morose young man named Yasha (Alex Sharpe of How to Talk to Girls at Parties). Yasha, it seems, has contracted the local living history museum (run by a Viking interpreter played by Zach Galifianakis) to give his father a Viking funeral. That is the silly part. The gorgeous part is the scenery, and the sweetness comes  in a small but satisfying portion  when Frances finally learns how to shine, in a place that never gets dark. Unrated. Available July 17 on various streaming platforms. Contains some coarse language, nudity and sensuality. 82 minutes.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 18:16:34|Editor: huaxia

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BRASILIA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian researchers have detected six lineages of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, circulating around the nation, a Brazil's leading research center for diseases has said.

The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation said on its official website Tuesday that the researchers conducted a wide genetic study involving almost 100 samples from patients from all Brazilian regions, which were collected between Feb. 29 and April 28.

Sequencing the full viral genome can help researchers understand how the novel coronavirus disseminates around the country, said Paola Cristina Resende, leader of the study.

"The characterization of viral lineages allows us to understand the type of virus that is circulating in a certain region and to make comparisons with the circulation of lineages between countries and even within the same country," said Resende.

"It is an important step to comprehend how the lineage is behaving and dispersing in each geographical region," Resende added. Enditem
From ex-PS to CM to ministers call records: Kerala Gold Smuggling case gets murkier

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, July 16: As the investigations progress into the Kerala Gold Smuggling case, the trouble for the Kerala government appear to be increasing.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Customs are both probing the exact nature of the role played by M Shivasankar, who was recently removed as principal secretary to the Chief Minister.

Now, the probe is focused around the lengthy calls made by Minister, K T Jaleel to Swapna Suresh, who is the second accused in the case. We are looking into it an NIA source told OneIndia.

Several television channels aired the calls between Jaleel and Swapna. It was said that several calls were made between May and June and the report also added that Jaleell's two personal staff members were also in touch with Swapna.

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Jaleel, however, clarified that he only spoke about official matters as per the directive of the Consul-General. I was told the Ramzan food kits were ready for distribution. I was asked to contact Swapna as per the directions of the Consul-General and the conversation was purely official. I was not aware that she was a consulate staffer, he also clarified.

The NIA is also closely looking at the role allegedly played by Sivasankar. It is alleged that he was in touch with Sarith P S, the first accused in the case. It was also found that he was also in touch with Sandeep Nair, another accused in the case. They met regularly at a flat near the state secretariat, which was taken on rent by Sivasankar.

Swapna and Sarith worked with the UAE Consulate as executive secretary and PRO respectively. However, Swapna lost her job at the consulate after which at the behest of Sivasankar, she was absorbed with an entity under the State IT Department. At that time, Sivasankar was the IT secretary.

As part of the investigation, multiple raids have been carried out. Raids were carried out at the Kerala State IT Infrastructure Limited, which falls under the IT Department. The raid lasted for more than an hour at the KSITL, where key accused Swapna Suresh used to work.

A raid was carried out by the Customs as well at the flat where Sivasankar, used to reside. The Customs suspects that the plan pertaining to the smuggling was hatched in this flat. It may be recalled that the Customs had questioned Sivasankar for nearly 9 hours at the Customs House.

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On Friday, the NIA took over the investigation of the case. The case has been registered under sections 16, 17 and 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, against 04 accused persons including Swapna Prabha Suresh

The case relates to the seizure of 30 kg of 24 carat gold worth Rs.14.82 crores at Trivandrum International Airport

The aforesaid consignment was found camouflaged in diplomatic baggage from UAE that is exempted from inspection as per the Vienna Convention. The said consignment was to be received by Sarith P S who had worked in the UAE Consulate earlier as Public Relations Officer. Initial investigation by Customs Department has revealed that Sarith had received multiple such consignments earlier as well.
Hyderabad: Doctors at Hyderabad's Osmania General Hospital (OGH) have confirmed to Deccan Chronicle that the Telangana state government is indeed under-reporting COVID-19 deaths in the state, aided by a small lag in the testing process.

One senior doctor working at the premier state-run hospital, speaking to Deccan Chronicle on the condition of anonymity, said there were over 20 deaths in the isolation wards of the hospital, housing 100120 patients, during the the 24-hour period straddling Monday and Tuesday. This, according to the doctor, has been the fatality rate among COVID-19 suspects over the past few days.

The Osmania hospital has about 10 wards where patients suspected of being COVID-19 positive are isolated until their test results are received. The word 'suspect' is key in understanding how the numbers are kept low. OGH admits patients who present moderate-to-severe symptoms but have not yet had a COVID-19 test done. If a patient tests positive for COVID-19, he is sent to Gandhi Hospital, a designated COVID-19 facility. Until the test result comes in, suspect patients stay in isolation. The process can take more than two days.

The doctor who spoke to Deccan Chronicle said several of the deaths happened before their test results were received. Of the over 20 deaths earlier this week, only a few of them had received their COVID-19 test result and it was too late to transport them to Gandhi Hospital, he said. I am sure the rest of them were also infected; they had all the symptoms. But then we cannot send them to Gandhi Hospital without a test result.

Shifting the infected patients to Gandhi Hospital is a time-consuming process and can take hours. Also, shifting deceased patients to the mortuary also gets delayed in most cases. A few days ago, a patient referred to OGH by a senior police officer died in the morning but the body was not moved until afternoon. This is how a VIP case was handled. If it were an ordinary citizen, the body would not have been moved for 910 hours, said the doctor.

OGH currently has a shortage of doctors because several of them have tested positive and had to be isolated. To manage the shortage, doctors are divided into 'units', each of which is given isolation duty about once a week. On a typical day, there are two junior doctors monitoring the patients, assisted by a handful of interns and nurses. At night, there is usually just one junior doctor, three or four interns and nurses to look after as many as 100 patients. Doctors in several of these units have tested positive, forcing them to remain off duty.

Some of the patients in the isolation wards disregard the doctors' instructions and and move in and out of the rooms. We keep telling them to stay in the same room or ward. Ideally, there should be a security guard posted outside the wards to ensure compliance. As doctors, we cannot force someone to stay in their bed. We are too few in number to intimidate them, said the doctor.

One junior doctor who tested positive and then recovered said OGH is unable to help many of the 'suspect' patients it gets every day. The Fever Hospital at Nallakunta, which takes in suspects with only mild symptoms, often diverts patients to OGH if their blood oxygen saturation levels are even a bit lower than 95 per cent.

The number of deaths among COVID-19 suspects admitted to OGH can be attributed to the fact that unless the condition of a person gets worse and symptoms get stronger, he or she cannot be admitted. And once admitted, the patient has to wait for a test, and then the results. This consumes precious time that could otherwise be used to save their lives. In theory, if a suspected case hasnt tested positive yet, he has to wait until his condition gets worse for OGH to give him a bed, said the doctor.

Doctors say it is a Catch-22 situation at OGH. If you have a positive test result, you can get admitted straight to Gandhi Hospital or the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS) at Gachi Bowli. In case you show all the symptoms, you have to get admitted into an isolation ward and stay there until you get a positive result.

However, the stay of suspected patients in isolation is very unsafe. Even if the patient does not have COVID-19 but exhibits symptoms mimicking the disease, he might contract the virus while in isolation. Ironically, you are lucky if you have tested for COVID-19 early with mild symptoms. You can them directly go to TIMS or Gandhi. You will not have to wait for many days in isolation wards at OGH, a doctor remarked.
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

An international team of researchers led by Baylor College of Medicine and Houston Methodist has discovered a strategy that can potentially address a major challenge to the current treatment for choroidal neovascularization (CNV), an aggressive form of age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the elderly.

Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) has revolutionized the treatment for CNV; however, up to one-fourth of all treated patients are unresponsive to this treatment and about one-third of the responders become resistant to it after repeated administration over time.

Working with a mouse model they developed, the researchers found that combining apolipoprotein A-I binding protein (AIBP) with anti-VEGF overcomes anti-VEGF resistance and effectively suppresses CNV. The findings open the possibility of reducing anti-VEGF resistance in patients in the future. The study appears in the journal Communications Biology.

Addressing resistance to anti-VEGF treatment has been challenging. For instance, developing strategies to overcome the resistance has been limited by a poor understanding of its mechanism and the absence of suitable animal models.

"Various combination therapies have been explored in clinical trials. For example, targeting PDGF (Fovista) or the angiopoietin pathway. However, no major breakthrough has been reported. In fact, a phase III trial combining anti-VEGF and PDGF failed to demonstrate improved efficacy," said co-corresponding author Dr. Yingbin Fu, associate professor and Sarah Campbell Blaffer Endowed Chair of Ophthalmology at Baylor.

A new approach to combat anti-VEGF resistance

Fu joined forces with Dr. Longhou Fang, associate professor of cardiovascular sciences at Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center and co-corresponding author of this work.

The inspiration for their study came from previous work suggesting that macrophages may play a role in anti-VEGF resistance and that increased cholesterol accumulation in macrophages may promote CNV. Such cholesterol accumulation also has been associated with the formation of abnormal new blood vessels invading the retina. These vessels leak, which promotes inflammation and rapid photoreceptor (light-detecting cells) damage.

In addition, Fu, Fang and their colleagues, as well as other researchers, had reported that AIBP promotes the removal of cholesterol from endothelial cells and macrophages, two cell types that are involved in the development of CNV.

"Together, these observations suggested the possibility that AIBP might help overcome anti-VEGF resistance and effectively suppress CNV," Fu said.

Developing an animal model to assess new approach to overcome anti-VEGF resistance

To test their hypothesis, the researchers developed a model of anti-VEGF resistance by combining advanced age with laser delivery in mice. As they became older, the mice showed increased resistance to anti-VEGF treatment that correlated with increased intracellular cholesterol accumulation in macrophages.

The researchers tested the effect of AIBP and anti-VEGF in disease progression in this mouse model.

In young mice that were about eight weeks old, both AIBP and anti-VEGF were equally effective in controlling disease progression. In intermediate age mice, which were about eight months old or the equivalent of middle-aged people, macrophages showed increased cholesterol accumulation. In this group, anti-VEGF treatment was less effective when compared with younger mice, but the AIBP treatment was as affective controlling the disease.

The oldest group of mice, which was about 18 months old or the equivalent of senior people, showed highest cholesterol accumulation inside macrophages and were resistant to anti-VEGF treatment. Interestingly, AIBP alone also did not inhibit CNV, but the combination of AIBP with anti-VEGF overcame the anti-VEGF resistance and robustly suppressed laser-induced CNV by 47 percent.

This study also has increased our understanding of the mechanism underlying anti-VEG resistance. The researchers provide strong evidence that the accumulation of cholesterol in old macrophages plays a central role in anti-VEGF resistance because the old mice became responsive to anti-VEGF treatment when macrophages were chemically depleted. Fu, Fang and colleagues propose that the beneficial effect of AIBP is likely due to both its ability to enhance cholesterol removal from macrophages and its anti-inflammatory function.

Clinical implications

"Our findings encourage us to test the combination therapy of AIBP and anti-VEGF in clinical trials to determine whether it can help patients with the condition," Fu said. "The projected number of people with age-related macular degeneration is 196 million in 2020 and 288 million in 2040. There is great interest in novel therapies for this devastating condition."

Co-author Dr. James Handa, Chief of the Retina Division at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine said, "Age-related macular degeneration has multiple factors that contribute to its development; therefore, future treatments that target multiple pathways, such as what we describe here, may lead to more effective outcomes."

"As a cardiovascular scientist, my research is centered on cholesterol metabolism and angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels. My team has been collaborating with Dr. Fu for several years in developing AIBP as a potential treatment for age-related macular degeneration," Fang said. "Our studies show that AIBP can be a promising therapy for the treatment of CNV. Compared to the standard anti-VEGF therapy, AIBP targets multiple causes of age-related macular degeneration by correcting the adverse profiles associated with aging. The discovery that the combination therapy can overcome anti-VEGF resistance shows the power of multidisciplinary research."

Explore further St18 is a negative regulator of VEGF

More information: Lingping Zhu et al, Combination of apolipoprotein-A-I/apolipoprotein-A-I binding protein and anti-VEGF treatment overcomes anti-VEGF resistance in choroidal neovascularization in mice, Communications Biology (2020). Journal information: Communications Biology Lingping Zhu et al, Combination of apolipoprotein-A-I/apolipoprotein-A-I binding protein and anti-VEGF treatment overcomes anti-VEGF resistance in choroidal neovascularization in mice,(2020). DOI: 10.1038/s42003-020-1113-z
TCN News

Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind has passed a three-point resolution in their latest National Executive meeting demanding an inquiry into the Delhi riots, stopping arbitrary action against anti CAA protestors and the Eidgahs be opened for Eid.

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The largest Indian Muslim socio-religious organization, Jamiat, organized this video conference to discuss key matters in the light of COVID19 implications to education and economy. Key members from across the country attended the meet where President Maulana Qari Mohammad Usman spoke about CBSE syllabus change, recommendations for Eid Al Azha, false charges on anti-CAA activists, and inquiry into the Delhi riots.

Jamiat has been actively involved in relief work in the aftermath of northeast violence, condemning the vendetta politics of BJP government in harassing student scholars who protested against CAA. It said that student activists and scholars at the forefront of anti CAA agitations are being slapped with false charges of UAPA and the government must immediately withdraw these accusations and conduct a fair investigation to punish the real culprits of the Delhi violence.

The Jamiat national council also disapproved the CBSE in excluding crucial chapters from classes X-XII course on citizenship, nationalism, secularism, federalism and all other aspects fundamental to our constitutional order. It demanded the all these chapters must be included compulsorily.

The main demands of this Executive meet, however, was to initiate an inquiry into Delhi riots, withdraw false charges against student activists and reopening Eidgahs for the upcoming Eid festival.

Its President on behalf of the committee demanded that Muslims should be allowed to offer Eid al Azha (Bakrid) prayers at their local Eidgah and the governments should consider reopening of masjids.

President Maulana Usman stated that sacrificing animals on the occasion of Eid al Azha is sahib-e-nasab (for those who can afford it) under all circumstances and there cannot be any alternative to this practice. He added that simultaneously, Muslims must take care of precautions during the pandemic in ensuring cleanliness and hygiene in their surroundings.
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About 100million barrels of crude oil illegally shipped from Nigeria in 2015, kept in tank farms in Qingdao, Chinas eastern Shandong Province, was secretly sold for $800million, and the money shared by ranking members of the President Mohammadu Buhari cabal, Pointblanknews.com investigations have revealed.

Buharis late Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari, Late Group General Manager, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Maikanti Baru, Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, Minister for Power, Saleh Mamman, as well as the current GMD, NNPC, Mele Kayi were reported to have shared of the $800 million.

Also reported to have participated in the sharing was the now suspended acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, Air Commodore Mohammed Umar Rtd, former Director-General, State Security Services, Mallam Lawal Daura.

Codenamed The China Deal illegal crude oil sale has become a subject of litigation in far-away Mexico following the refusal of the cabal to pay 5% of the value of 48 million barrels to SAMANO, an Americo- Mexican company that discovered the abandoned crude in Qingdao, Zhoushan and Rizhao, both in China.

Sources told Pointblanknews.com that shortly before the 2015 general elections, several vessels of crude left the shores of Nigeria for China. By the time the crude berthed in the Chinese Port in Qingdao, oil buyers backed off after learning of a change of government.

According to Pointblanknews.com source, the crude which had been discharged in several tank farms in the port city of Qingdao, Zhoushan, and Rizhao, were abandoned.

Upon Buharis inauguration, sources in Mexico told Pointblanknews.com, SAMANO approached certain officials of the new administration, alerting them of the Nigerian crude oil abandoned in China.

According to a court paper exclusively obtained by Pointblanknews.com SAMANO, received a letter in August 2016 from Hamman Saleh, now Minister of Power, through his company, Northon Oil and Gas Services, inviting them to Nigeria to meet with Government officials to discuss the matter.

Sources confirmed to Pointblanknews.com that the invitation letter to SAMANO came after the company refused to send details of the found crude via electronic means.

A team from SAMANO, Mexico, led by Messrs. Jose Salazar Tinajero, arrived in Nigeria. He was accompanied by A. Nick Cadena, and Juan Carlos Jaramillo Garcia, and they held a meeting at No 1 Gado Nasko Close, Asokoro, Abuja, the home of Air Commodore Umar, a close ally of President Buhari.

Sources told Pointblanknews.com that after the meeting, and with Buharis approval, Umar and other members of the cabal, including Mele Kyari, then GGM Crude, NNPC, set out to locate the crude oil

Sources said when Umar and Kyari got to China, they connived with others back in Nigeria and agreed to declare that the information was a hoax and that there was no crude oil in any of the tank farms in China.

According to a sworn affidavit, Umar and late Abba Kyari had assured SAMANO of 5 percent of the total value of 48 million barrels of crude oil found. However, to their shock, between October and November 2015, SAMANO officials who had returned to Mexico, received intelligence from China that the crude had been sold.

The affidavit claimed that when SAMANO confronted the Nigerian government about their own share of the sale of the crude, they were rebuffed and some of their officials blackmailed, arrested, and locked up in Nigeria.

The affidavit alleged that the GMD NNPC, Mr. Kyari, had told a SAMANO representative via WhatsApp chat that the late Abba Kyari and Umar had taken advantage of the information they provided and sold-off the crude and that they should forget about the deal, promising to make things up for SAMANO.

A very reliable source told Pointblanknews.com that after the sale, the Nigerian officials shared the proceeds and told President Buhari that the buyers were no longer willing to buy the crude because it had no DNA.

According to the sources, crude oil secretly shipped to China in 2015 was over 100 million barrels. SAMANO was only able to trace 48 million barrels. The cabal was said to have found an additional 52 million barrels stored in other tank farms in China and sold them off.

SAMANOs lawyer, Joaquin Esparza Mendez, told Pointblanknews.com that the Mexican Court could not continue with the matter for lack of jurisdiction. He said the Judge had advised they file the case in Nigeria since the Whistleblowers Act for which they are relying on is domiciled in Nigeria.

Sources informed Pointblanknews.com that officials of SAMANO have no faith in the Nigerian judicial system and are very unlikely to file the case there. Instead, the Mexican company is said to be preparing to file the matter in a court in London once the pandemic is over.

Pointblanknews.com is in possession of documents relating to the crude deal, Vessels used, WhatsApp Chats, and others and will make them public as we continue to dig into the dirty deals.

Attached is the Court Document in Spanish obtained by Pointblanknews.com and translated into English, using Google Translate:



Source: Pointblanknews
(Photo : Priscilla Du Preez / Unsplash) Gokada is a car-hailing app. It also provides transportation via motorcycles.

A tech entrepreneur behind the ride-hailing app Gokada, Fahim Saleh was found dead in a luxury New York apartment. Investigators reported there was a power saw (electric saw) present nearby, according to New York media reports on Tuesday.

Gokada, a Nigeria-based app, provides an on-demand transportation hailing service, and the company is based on Lagos. They also offer motorbike transport services. The first motorbike hailing platform in the African country, Gokada allows customers to request for the ride through the website or with the app that utilizes geo-location. Disclaimer: Sensitive information in the story

The company issued a statement on Twitter on the demise.

Also Read: [VIRAL] This Ancient Talking Mummy is Now the New Internet Sensation! Find Out What He Said

RIP, Fahim. You will be missed by everyone at Gokada and by the entire Nigerian startup community.  Gokada - We do delivery now (@GokadaNG) July 15, 2020

Homicide, the police says

The police and the investigators rushed into the crime scene upon hearing the news, and confirmed the death of Saleh in the New York apartment. They also confirmed that the death was homicide, but offered no further details to the media.

A power saw was seen plugged nearby, with detectives locating the CEO's torso, and discovered his head, limbs, and other body parts stored in plastic bags, the police narrated to New York city's crime departments.

The family of Saleh is grieving the loss of such a wonderful leader. His sister reportedly found the deceased body, dismembered, Tuesday afternoon. Her arrival to the apartment might have stunned the perpetrator who might have allegedly fled the exit, the media report added.

Carlos Nieves from the police department spoke with the reports, saying, "We have a torso, a head that's been removed, arms, and legs. Everything is still on the scene. We don't have a motive."

Founder and CEO

Fahim Saleh is a 33-year-old tech entrepreneur and founder of Gokada, an app that became popular in the Lagos megacity before state officials regulated motorcycle taxis known as "okada," and also in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The app is said to be funded by investments from the Gulf areas and the United States through venture capital funds. The app has one of the largest fleets of these vehicles in the African country. However, there was a moment when the company fell into the hands of regulators in Lagos.

As painful as these last days have been for us, we at Gokada owe it to ourselves and to Fahims memory to act and fulfill his vision for the company and for Nigerian youth.  Gokada - We do delivery now (@GokadaNG) July 15, 2020

Security camera

The police are currently investigating the alleged homicide. They are from time to time referring to security cameras showing Saleh in the apartment elevator with a man wearing a dark suit, gloves, and mask, the reports revealed.

The video also showed the masked man walking after Saleh into the unit, and then the struggle started.

The police spokeswoman declined to issue further statements, except for details on how the police found him unresponsive and unconscious, and after efforts for a possible revival, Saleh was found dead.

Aside from Gokada's statement on Twitter, there were no other statements released as of press time.

Also Read: Job Hiring: Tesla is in Need of 10,500 Employees To Work For Elon Musk's Gigafactory in Berlin

RIP, Fahim. You will be missed by everyone at Gokada and by the entire Nigerian startup community.  Gokada - We do delivery now (@GokadaNG) July 15, 2020

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Bolsonaro Complains That Quarantine Sucks, Then Gets Pecked by an Emu The Daily Beast. But how is the emu feeling? (Actually, not an emu but a rhea, an emu-like bird.)

The US is having a bank-shaped recovery Gillian Tett, FT

Small Lab Makes Big Breakthrough In Nuclear Fusion Tech OilPrice.com. Big if true.

Coronavirus and climate change: How to deal with converging crises Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

#COVID-19

Fatal overdoses climbed to record high in 2019, reversing historic progress Politico

China?

Tokyo raises its alert over COVID-19 cases to highest level 4 Asahi Shimbun

Another Market Outbreak in Bali as 35 Vendors Test Positive Bali Sun

Daily briefing: How Vietnam acheived zero deaths from coronavirus Nature

Genetic drivers of high-rise rice that survives deep floods Nature

Syraqistan

Row over Africas largest dam in danger of escalating, warn scientists Nature

UK/EU

Theres a direct relationship: Brazil meat plants linked to spread of Covid-19 Guardian

New Cold War

Trump Transition

2020

To Secure the Election: Tame the Russian Bear in Cyberspace Council on Foreign Relations. Sure is odd that these national security goons are all about securing the election but never, ever mention hand-marked paper ballots, hand-counted in public. Democrats Will Never Choose Transformative Change  So Give Them No Choice Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report

Big Brother Is Watching You Watch

Failed State

Who are these federal officers sent to Portland to deal with protesters? KGW8 (dk).

Black Injustice Tipping Point

Imperial Collapse Watch

LAffaire Joffrey Epstein

Class Warfare

Supporting the Economy by Supporting Workers (PDF) Statement of William E. Spriggs, Hearing on Capital Markets and Emergency Lending in the COVID-19 Era before the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and Capital Markets (GF). The Four Centrisms Benjamin Studebaker. Interesting, if bleak, schema. Moral Cruelty and the Left Tablet

Dismemberment Killing of Tech C.E.O. Looks Like Professional Job NYT. Froth?

Is it Patch Blues-day for Outlook? Microsofts email client breaks worldwide, leaves everyone stumped The Register. There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today. Admiral David Beatty, at the Battle of Jutland.

Twitter appears to have disabled tweeting by verified users after a massive hack and its causing big problems Business Insider. Lots of dunking:

And:

So blue checks been replaced by cake filled equivalents?  Chris Arnade  (@Chris_arnade) July 15, 2020

This Is The Woman Responsible For Those Eerily Realistic Cakes That Have Been Flooding The Internet Buzzfeed. And so far, I havent seen one single Marie Antoinette joke! Anyhow:

Some how, these are actually all cakes  pic.twitter.com/lOIxhAN1Y9  James (@Surreycricfan) July 14, 2020

Our epistemological crisis continues.

Antidote du Jour (via):

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Many regional and national retailers have been asking customers to wear face coverings to slow the spread of the coronavirus for months, but levels of cooperation and enforcement have been all over the map.

Now some companies are getting serious and doing more than just posting signs at entrances.

St. Louis-based Schnucks supermarkets announced Thursday that all of its stores in five states will require customers to wear masks or other face coverings, not just those in jurisdictions such as Illinois that mandate them.

"It's in the best interest of the safety of our customers and teammates," said company spokesman Paul Simon. "Given the escalating number of positive COVID-19 cases in the regions we serve, we think this is the right move to make."

Schnucks operates nearly 100 stores in Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Iowa and Indiana.

The company has been asking customers at its Illinois stores to wear face coverings for months because of Gov. J.B. Pritzker's directives, Simon said. But now employees will be stationed at store entrances and, when they see customers walking in without face coverings, they will offer complimentary ones for them to put on.

What hasn't changed? Enforcement is tricky.

"We do not want (employees) to get in a physical or verbal altercation," Simon said. "And because of that, we have empowered them to contact local authorities to report any violations at our stores."

Sister companies Walmart and Sam's Clubs announced on Wednesday that they also will require customers to wear face coverings.

Each store will close all of its entrances except one, starting Monday, according to a press release. "Health ambassadors" stationed at the entrance will remind those without face coverings that they should be wearing them.

Other companies that have made similar announcements on mask requirements include Costco and Apple (beginning in May), Dollar Tree (July 8), Starbucks and Best Buy (July 15), Kohl's and CVS (July 20), Kroger (July 22) and Target (Aug. 1).

Goodwill stores in the St. Louis region, including Illinois, have employees stationed at store entrances to keep people from entering without face coverings. Other companies "require" masks but don't ask customers to leave if they take them off while shopping.

The national Starbucks website puts it this way:

"At select locations where a local government mandate is not in place, customers that may not be wearing a facial covering will have various options to order their Starbucks, including ordering at the drive-thru, curbside pickup through the Starbucks app or placing an order for delivery through Starbucks Delivers."

Some retailers have referred to the growing number of states and other jurisdictions that are mandating that people wear face coverings in public as a reason for their decisions to strengthen in-store policies. It's a matter of consistency.

Walmart noted that about 65 percent of Walmart and Sam's Club stores operate in places where face coverings are mandated in public.

"As the number of confirmed cases has spiked in communities across the country recently, so too have the number and types of face covering mandates being implemented," it stated.

10 ways Illinois schools could look different this fall

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Unidentified hackers broke into the Twitter accounts of prominent technology moguls, politicians, celebrities and major companies were hacked on Wednesday night in an apparent effort to promote a Bitcoin scam.

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon; Joe Biden, US democratic presidential aspirant; Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla; Apple; and Uber, are among the victims of suspected bitcoin hackers.

Others include Barack Obama, former US president; Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City; Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder, and US rapper; Kanye West and his wife, Kim Kardashian West.

The scam was done in a series of coordinated tweets with emphasis on giving back through doubling of bitcoins amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The tweets provided details of bitcoin addresses where the transaction is to be made.

Everyone is asking me to give back, and now is the time. You send $1,000, I send you back $2,000, a tweet from Gates account read.

Similar tweets were shared from other accounts, stating that the transactions will be done within 30 minutes.

According to data from the public register of bitcoin transactions, the Bitcoin address tweeted by the hackers has been sent over 843 Bitcoins, worth more than $7.8 million.

It appeared that popular Bitcoin exchange Coinbase has blocked its users from sending money to the address after over 5,314 persons complied with the request.

Many of the hacked accounts have high number of followers. Gates has 51.1 million Twitter followers, Musk has 36.9 million, while Apple has 4.5 million followers.

The apparently fake tweets were all quickly deleted, although The Associated Press was able to capture screenshots of several before they disappeared.

Twitter put out a statement noting that it was aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. The company said it is investigating and working to fix it, and promised an update shortly.

We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly.  Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 15, 2020

In Other News: President Donald Trump had threatened to close down social media platforms after Twitter tagged one of his messages with a fact check warning.
YEREVAN, JULY 16, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian held a meeting today with Ambassador of Belarus Igor Nazaruk who is completing his diplomatic mission in Armenia, the presidential office told Armenpress.

President Sarkissian thanked the Ambassador for his personal contribution to the strengthening of the Armenian-Belarussian ties and the productive work, wishing further success to the diplomat. Armen Sarkissian said the Armenian-Belarussian relations have a great development potential in all spheres and expressed confidence that they will continue expanding and strengthening.

The Ambassador said he is completing his mission, but will stay one of the best friends of Armenia.



Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
Love & Marriage: Huntsville star, Melody Holt, filed for divorce from her husband of 12 years after months of rumors of separation. Fans of the show have encouraged Melody to leave Martell once and for all following his multi-year affair with his reported mistress.

Melody Holt via Twitter

Melody Holt files for divorce from Martell and moved to Atlanta from Huntsville

Fans have speculated that Melody left Martell after years of dealing with the fallout of his infidelity. Melody and Martell have thrown subtle jabs at one another on Instagram. When Martell asked Melody for a divorce, fans continued speculating on their marital state.

Their drama allegedly became so intense Melody left their home in Huntsville for a new life in Georgia with their four children. The two are not currently following each other on social media and Melody has not been wearing her wedding ring. Melody and Martell have also erased all images of one another from their Instagram pages.

When Showbiz spoke with Melody in a July 2020 interview, she would not confirm if shed left Martell, but did hint that their relationship has changed.

Related: Interview: Love & Marriage: Huntsvilles Melody Holt Says No Marital Issues With Martell Will Slow Her Down

Martell and Melody Holt via Twitter

According to the official divorce paperwork obtained by Bossip, Melody filed paperwork in June 2020, citing their official separation date as April 2020. She confirmed in the divorce documents that she has moved to Atlanta and that she and Martell have worked out a parenting plan, including communication from the two states to share equal custody with the children.

Melody is requesting that she nor Martell pay the other child support. She is also requesting they both should share joint physical and legal custody of their kids. She wants a judge to divide their marital assets. As for their home in Huntsville, the Holts have already agreed to sell the home, listing it for $1 million.

The complaint also reveals that Melody listed the reason for her filing, citing an irretrievable breakdown of her marriage with no chance of reconciliation.

This is the first time Melody Holt has filed for separation or divorce from Martel since their marital issues began

The Holts have split several times since Love & Marriage: Huntsville premiered. Melody shared with Showbiz that she moved out of their marital home and into a place of her own for six months after learning of Martells affair.

We never legally separated and I allowed him to come back pretty early. To be honest, he practically moved in with us after just a few months of separation. I let his promises sway me. I would have definitely taken my time, she said.

The Holt family via Twitter

Melody and Martell reconciled and with Martell enrolled in therapy. But, the communication with his mistress continued. Melody learned that Martell was still in contact with his other woman upon discovering that she was pregnant with their fourth child. The couple split again, with Melody focusing on having a safe and healthy pregnancy.

My pregnancy with Malani was an absolute blessing. I say that shes Gods special blessing to me because she became that big ray of sunshine that I needed in the midst of a storm, she said.

The Holts appeared to be on the path to reconciliation again after the birth of their daughter. The former couple introduced their baby girl to fans in an official YouTube video but split shortly after.
(Bloomberg) -- Voice assistants such as Apple Inc.s Siri and Amazon.com Inc.s Alexa are at the center of a sweeping European Union antitrust inquiry into how Silicon Valley uses data to gain a tight grip on growing markets.

EU watchdogs already see signs that tech giants might be restricting access to data or making products that dont work well with those made by other companies, the European Commission said in a statement on Thursday announcing the probe into the so-called internet of things.

Once big companies use their power, they can very, very quickly push markets beyond the tipping point where competition turns into monopoly, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager told reporters in Brussels. If we dont act in good time, there is a serious risk that this will happen again with the internet of things, she said.

Voice assistants are the center of it all, she said. That could be Apples Siri, Googles assistant, Amazons Alexa. A voice assistant changes how you interact with things because users may only be presented with an option instead of the full choice of products theyd get standing in a store, she said.

The Dane cited fitness trackers, where shes separately probing Googles takeover of health-data assistant Fitbit. Thursdays probe will also cover connected fridges, washing machines, smart TVs and lighting.

The EU will seek information from some 400 firms around the world. It plans to publish a preliminary report in spring 2021 and follow up with final conclusions in summer 2022.

We see interoperability is of the essence if this market is to remain open and contestable, Vestager told reporters. Regulators will quiz companies in all of these value chains, both those who make the most assistants, those who make devices, those who make digital services, but also to standard setters who decide what technology becomes an industry norm.

Amazon declined to comment. Alphabet Inc.s Google didnt immediately respond to a request for comments. Apple declined to immediately comment.

Story continues

Amazon shares dropped 2.6%, Alphabet declined 1.4% and Apple fell 1.1% at 10:38 a.m. in New York.

A sector inquiry can gather data from thousands of firms, allowing the EU to pinpoint particular issues and spawn new probes. An investigation into Amazons sales practices emerged from an earlier inquiry into e-commerce. Apples treatment of music-streaming service Spotify Technology SA is already the focus of EU scrutiny.

Digital Ecosystems

Companies favoring their own products or setting tough terms on industry standards might lead to the fast emergence of dominant digital ecosystems and gatekeepers and might present tipping risks, the EU said.

The probe wont cover connected cars, where regulators have been asked to investigate automobile data and weigh in on complaints on technology patent licensing for carmakers.

Amazon, Google and Samsung Electronics Co. in recent years have increasingly rolled out more smart gadgets, from connected thermometers and fridges to smart home assistants, allowing consumers to control a wider portion of their homes by a voice-activated speaker or remote app.

But the products give the tech firms access to valuable data points about consumers at a time when they continue to amass information, drawing scrutiny from regulators who worry that could give them an advantage over their competitors.

Voice Requests

There are also worries that the devices are another way for tech giants to lock out competitors. Digital assistants are typically trained to give a single response to queries. Any voice requests to buy products could bypass competitors by immediately directing purchases to a single shopping website, such as Amazon.

Vestager said earlier Thursday that business-to-business digitalization attracted interest because here we see a potential of the value of that market doubling until 2024. Its an area where Europe holds a lot of assets, a lot of technology, she said in an online event.

The probe comes a day after Vestager suffered a shock court defeat over her order for Apple to pay back a record 13 billion-euros ($14.8 billion) in state aid from Ireland.

She insisted that the setback wont deter regulators from scrutinizing tax deals that may give companies an unfair advantage.

(Updates with Amazon response in eighth paragraph, share prices in ninth paragraph.)

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

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Santa Fe, NM, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- When choosing a 529 college savings plan, investors have options to consider. The Education Plan, New Mexicos 529 plan, offers the following tips:

If you live in a state that has state income tax, most 529 plans selected by residents of that state will be eligible for a tax deduction or tax credit for money invested in the 529 plan. Tax rules vary from state to state. Some 28 states plus the District of Columbia restrict investors to in-state plans only to receive the tax benefit.

Six states offer full tax parity, which allows investors to pick any states 529 plan and still receive a tax deduction from their state of residence. The six states are Arizona, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana and Pennsylvania. Arkansas provides a larger deduction for contributing to the Arkansas 529 plan.

The remaining 16 states offer no state tax deduction or credit for 529 plan contributions, so selecting a 529 plan is state tax neutral for residents of these states.

Given the differences in plan costs and the state income tax benefits available, it is possible to determine how much of the 529 plan costs can be covered by the tax benefit.

Assuming an investment in the plans age-based or year of enrollment portfolios, a 6% annual return and an annual contribution of $2,400, the research shows that only nine states offer a combination of low cost and tax benefits that will cover the cost of the plan for an 18 year period. The Education Plan, New Mexico 529 college savings plan, is one of the nine.

Another choice 529 investors will have to make is when to begin investing. Research finds that tax benefits both federally and on state taxes are typically optimized when 529 investors start saving early and wait to spend the assets until needed for college-related expenses. Most 529 investors dont start until a child is seven years old. Each year that investors delay reduces the capacity for their savings to benefit from compounded investment returns. Even starting one year earlier can significantly increase the ending account balance when the time comes to use the funds for approved expenses.

When 529 plans were introduced in 1996, they were initially created to cover the costs of college. Since that time, the scope has expanded to include federally qualified private K-12 education and education-related expenses for any two-year, four-year or trade school, such as tuition, room and board, books and meal plans. In 2019, an act was passed that allows individuals to take tax-free distributions for student loan repayment and apprenticeship programs from their 529 accounts.

529 investors also have to consider how to invest the money they are contributing to the account. While offerings in investment options vary by state, plans increasingly favor transitions from stocks to bonds through age-based or year of enrollment portfolios. These portfolios start with equity-heavy allocations to maximize investment returns in the earlier years and become more conservative as the time nears to use the funds. Regardless of how a 529 plan is invested, investors will optimize benefits when they start early and stay invested.

Investing in education for a child, another loved one or even yourself is one of the most important investments you can make, said Ted Miller, Executive Director of the Education Trust Board of New Mexico, the organization that sponsors The Education Plan. Our team is available to help investors in New Mexico and around the nation understand the benefits of investing in a 529 plan.

For more information, go to theeducationplan.com or call 1(877) 337-5268.
At least 150 Victorian healthcare workers are infected with COVID-19, an increase of 36 cases in the health sector workforce in just two days.

As new cases of the killer virus soared to 317 on Thursday, the state's highest daily total yet in the pandemic, Premier Daniel Andrews said there were no plans for tougher lockdown restrictions, despite two more lives lost.

The deaths of two men in their 80s brings the states death toll to 29, with 109 patients in hospital, 29 of them now in intensive care.

A woman waits outside a coronavirus testing station at Royal Melbourne Hospital on Thursday. Credit:Jason South

Five people in their 40s are among the intensive-care patients, prompting Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton to warn that COVID-19 was not just a disease of the elderly.
Lanxess, a global specialty chemicals company with a regional office in UAE, said it has reached an agreement with French group Suez, a world leader in sustainable resource management, to sell its entire reverse osmosis (RO) membranes business.

The move is aimed at developing its portfolio and comes as part of its revamp strategy for water treatment technologies business, said the statement from company based in Cologne, Germany.

Lanxess will now focus on the ion exchange resins business and intends to grow here primarily in markets for high-end applications.

Both companies signed an agreement to this effect yesterday (July 15). However, the duo did not disclose further transaction details.

On its key exit, Lanxess Chairman Matthias Zachert said: "The membrane business no longer fits in with our strategic focus on specialty chemicals. We are convinced that under the SUEZ umbrella, the business has the necessary conditions to develop its full growth potential in the future."

Lanxess, he stated, expects the transaction to be completed by the end of 2020.

The membranes, which play an important role in the treatment of brackish and seawater, are manufactured by Lanxess at its site in Bitterfeld, Germany.

With this deal, Suez will now take over this plant and the research facilities with all employees. In 2019, the business generated sales in the low double-digit million euro range.

According to Zachert, Lanxess will further expand its ion exchange resins business. The German company plans to build a new production facility, for which it intends to invest between 80 and 120 million euros in the coming years.

We invest in additional capacities for ion exchange resins in order to be able to meet the growing global demand. At the same time, we want to grow especially in promising market segments, he stated.

The new ion exchange resin plant will have a production capacity of between 20,000 and 30,000 cu m and is scheduled for completion within the next five years.

Lanxess will decide on the exact location shortly. The specialty chemicals company currently manufactures ion exchange resins at its sites in Leverkusen, Germany, Bitterfeld, Germany, and Jhagadia, India.

"With our applications for water filter cartridges, we are already one of the leading manufacturers. We are now additionally focusing on highly specialized applications that are characterized by high demand and strong growth," remarked Bettina Blottko, the head of the Liquid Purification Technologies business unit at Lanxess.

"For example, in the field of biotechnology, in the semiconductor industry or in the selective removal of metals, such as for the battery industry. With our technological diversity, we are ideally positioned for this," she added.-TradeArabia News Service
Credit: Ivan T. - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

As Australia considers how to safely welcome international visitors again, testing wastewater systems on long-haul planes and cruise ships could provide crucial information on detecting the presence of the COVID-19 virus in incoming passengers.

A new paper in the Journal of Travel Medicine reported that testing of aircraft and cruise ship wastewater upon arriving at their destination had detected genetic fragments of the COVID-19 virus, SARS-CoV-2, a step forward in using this test as an additional public health management tool.

Researchers from The University of Queensland (UQ) and Australia's national science agency CSIRO worked with transport companies to test on-board wastewater from lavatories.

Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews said Australian scientists are doing outstanding work and making a difference in the fight against coronavirus.

"Our science and research communities are among our greatest assets in our efforts to not only overcome this pandemic, but also to assist in the economic recovery from COVID-19," Minister Andrews said.

"The ability to test wastewater from planes and cruise ships is another piece of the puzzle as we look to the future of travel and keeping Australians safe."

CSIRO Chief Executive Larry Marshall said rapidly pinpointing hotspots for COVID-19 will help keep all Australians safe as we start to travel again.

"Responding to a pandemic is not just about the race for a vaccine, Australian science is supporting our economic recovery by delivering for partners like Qantas," Dr. Marshall said.

"Our relationship with air travel goes back to the 60s, and today our unique coatings already protect aircraft, so it's great to be trusted to keep Australia flying while helping to stay ahead of any potential new outbreaks."

Paper co-author and Professor Jochen Mueller from UQ's Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences said this tool could help as governments and transport industries develop plans to minimize transmission associated with resuming international travel.

"This could provide additional peace of mind to track and manage infection and play an important role in opening up long-haul flights or cruises resuming," Professor Mueller said.

The test provides an early warning of infection, as the virus sheds in the stools of infected passengers even before they show symptoms.

Lead author and CSIRO researcher Warish Ahmed said the virus fragments in the wastewater were unviable, so not infectious.

"The study indicates that surveillance of wastewater from large transport vessels with their own sanitation systems has potential as a parallel data source to prioritize clinical testing among disembarking passengers," Dr. Ahmed said.

Explore further Australian researchers trace sewage for early warning COVID-19 spread

More information: Warish Ahmed et al. Detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in commercial passenger aircraft and cruise ship wastewater: a surveillance tool for assessing the presence of COVID-19 infected travelers, Journal of Travel Medicine (2020). Warish Ahmed et al. Detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in commercial passenger aircraft and cruise ship wastewater: a surveillance tool for assessing the presence of COVID-19 infected travelers,(2020). DOI: 10.1093/jtm/taaa116
Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, Deputy Chief Minister Y Patton and four ministers placed themselves under quarantine on Thursday after returning from their official visit to Delhi.

All of them tested negative for coronavirus, said Neiba Kronu, minister and government spokesperson on Covid-19.

"As a precautionary measure, I'm on self-quarantine on my return to Nagaland from Delhi. Taking precautions to ensure safety of others and myself. Will continue discharging duties," Rio said in a tweet on Thursday.

CORONAVIRUS SPECIAL COVERAGE ONLY ON DH

The chief minister was accompanied by two ministers during his visit to the national capital.

Deputy Chief Minister Y Patton, who was also in Delhi along with four MLAs including ministers on a different purpose, said they are under institutional quarantine as per the existing Covid-19 standard operating procedure.

The four others who have gone under quarantine are Planning and Coordination Minister Neiba Kronu, Health and Family Welfare Minister S Pangnyu Phom, Public Health Engineering Minister Jacob Zhimomi and Agriculture Minister G Kaito Aye.
When Jessi Miller and her husband, Tony, walk through the veterans memorial at Allendale Community Park, they are reminded of difficult lessons they will eventually need to teach their 17-month-old daughter, Skianna.

Jessi is white and Tony is Black. The newly married couple live in Allendale Township, west of Grand Rapids.
Value investors may want to have a look at the following stocks, as they are trading below the Peter Lynch earnings line, enhancing the likelihood of a value buy.

These stocks have also received positive recommendation ratings from analysts on Wall Street.

Hess Midstream LP

The first stock to consider is Hess Midstream LP (NYSE:HESM), a Houston, Texas-based crude oil and natural gas midstream operator with assets in Texas, North Dakota and Minnesota.





The below chart shows that the stock price ($18.15 per share as of July 15) stands below the Peter Lynch earnings line ($19.05 as of March 28) for a margin of safety of nearly 5%.

The stock price has decreased by almost 12% over the past year through Wednesday for a market capitalization of $327.21 million and a 52-week range of $5.70 to $25.66.

Wall street analysts predict the stock will gain about 9% within a year, as the average target price is $19.80 per share. The stock holds a buy recommendation rating.

GuruFocus has assigned a score of 3 out of 10 to the financial strength of the company and 8 out of 10 to the profitability.

The company's top fund holder is Invesco Ltd. with 0.89% of shares outstanding, followed by KAYNE ANDERSON CAPITAL ADVISORS LP with 0.60% and FMR LLC with 0.40%.

TC Energy Corp

The second stock to consider is TC Energy Corp (NYSE:TRP), a Canadian natural and liquified natural gas and oil midstream operator holding and operating assets in Canada and the U.S.

The below chart illustrates that the share price ($44.51 at close on July 15) is positioned below the Peter Lynch earnings line ($49.20 as of March 28), providing a margin of safety of 9.5%.

The stock price has underperformed during the past year through Wednesday, losing 11.4% for a market capitalization of $41.61 billion and a 52-week range of $32.37 to $57.92.

Wall Street analystes predict the share price will bounce back 18% up to the target price of $52.48, giving the stock an overweight recommendation rating.

Story continues

GuruFocus has assigned a score of 3 out of 10 to the financial strength of the company and 7 out of 10 to the profitability.

The company's top fund holder is ROYAL BANK OF CANADA with 8.68% of shares outstanding, followed by BANK OF MONTREAL /CAN/ with 4.58% and PRICE T ROWE ASSOCIATES INC /MD/ with 4.30%.

TeleSystems PJSC

The third stock to consider is Mobile TeleSystems PJSC (NYSE:MBT), a Russian domestic provider of telecommunication services.

The below chart says that the stock price ($8.97 per share at close on July 15) stands below the Peter Lynch earnings line ($12.90 as of March 28), offering a 30.5% margin of safety.

The stock price has increased by 5.2% over the past year through Wednesday for a market capitalization of $7.95 billion and a 52-week range of $6.20 to $11.

Wall Street has recommended an overweight rating for the stock with an average target price of 724.64 Russian roubles ($10.21), which reflects a 14% rise from Wednesday's closing price.

GuruFocus has assigned a score of 4 out of 10 to the financial strength of the company and 9 out of 10 to the profitability.

With 4.93% of shares outstanding, Jim Simons is the company's top fund holder, followed by BlackRock Inc. with 4.04% and LAZARD ASSET MANAGEMENT LLC with 3.52%.

Disclosure: I have no position in any security mentioned.

Read more here:







Not a Premium Member of GuruFocus? Sign up for a free 7-day trial here.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.






Prime Minister Boris Johnson is being accused by opponents of suppressing a report into Russian interference in British politics that was completed last year by the committee that oversees the U.K. intelligence services. The document was not cleared for publication before the general election in December, and the six -month delay since then in appointing new members to the Intelligence and Security Committee led to allegations that Johnsons government was deliberately stalling.
The United Nations Security Council called for immediate action to prevent an oil tanker holding more than 1.1 million barrels off Yemen from leaking.

The council on Wednesday urged Houthi rebels controlling the Red Sea waters where the ships located to allow a UN team to inspect it. Mark Lowcock, the UNs head of humanitarian aid, said a team could be sent within weeks.

The Yemeni government, which has been battling the Houthis in a civil war since 2015, said Tuesday the oil needed to be offloaded to prevent an environmental crisis and said the rebel group was using the tanker for political blackmail.

The international community has to put an end to this looming disaster, Naser Al-Sharif, Yemens vice minister of transport, said in an interview. This is a time-bomb.

Repairing the decaying tanker, called Safer and moored off Hodiedah province, would cost tens of millions of dollars, according to Abdulwahed Al-Obaly, an independent Yemeni economic researcher. Theres been no maintenance work for five years and its been out of service for 10 years, he said.

The Houthis suggested this week that the UN could assess the ships condition. Lowcock said theyve given similar assurances before, only to backtrack.

In the past, the Houthis have also demanded that the stored oil is sold and the money placed in a central-bank account under their control. The rebels would struggle to sell the crude without UN approval because international buyers are wary of dealing with them, partly because theyre backed by Iran.

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With theaters closed around the country, some companies are making their productions available online. Below, you'll find our weekly update of productions, videos, and other theater-related streaming content from across the US and elsewhere. Some streams are free, while others may charge a fee or request a donation. Either way, you're sure to find something to scratch your theater itch. Theaters may be dark, but the shows go on.

This Weekend



Broadway Barks, founded by Bernadette Peters and the late Mary Tyler Moore, will take place online on Thursday, July 16, at 7:30pm ET. The 22nd annual event, hosted by Peters, will feature adoptable animals presented by celebrities from across the country. To learn more and to donate, visit the Broadway Barks website here.

Bernadette Peters

( Tricia Baron)

* MCC Theater has announced a special benefit reading and discussion with the artists of Peter Hedges's Good as New, starring Julianne Moore and Kaitlyn Dever, directed by the author, to be presented on MCC's YouTube channel on Thursday, July 16, at 7pm ET. Good as New will be accessed via a link sent to ticket buyers before the reading. Tickets for the broadcast start at $5 (limited allocation). Additional tickets will be allocated and available at $15 and $25, on a first-come, first-served basis. To learn more and purchase tickets, click here.





* NY Classical Theatre, New York City's all-free off-Broadway Equity theater company, will bring back the entire original cast of its critically acclaimed production of Oscar Wilde's comic masterpiece The Importance of Being Earnest, for an encore reading on July 16 at 8pm. To learn more and make a free reservation, click here.

* On Friday, July 17, at 9pm ET, PBS's Great Performances will present the Metropolitan Opera's 2019 production of George and Ira Gershwin and DuBose and Dorothy Heyward's Porgy and Bess. Directed by James Robinson and choreographed by Camille A. Brown, the staging features opera stars Eric Owens and Angel Blue in the title roles. Check local listings to watch.





* The We Are Freestyle Love Supreme documentary, originally set to premiere on Hulu on June 5, will arrive on the streaming platform on July 17. To subscribe to Hulu and Disney Plus, click here.





* Shakespeare @ has launched a new audio play series of Richard II. Presented in three weekly episodes, the company is led by Jamie Ballard in the title role, alongside Keith Hamilton Cobb, Ashlie Atkinson, Jonathan Forbes, and more. Episode 3 becomes available on Sunday, June 19. Click here for more information.





Upcoming



* July 20-24 at 7pm the New Group Off Stage and NRDC will stream Facing the Rising Tide, a free digital festival of play readings and conversations about environmental racism, the climate crisis, and hope featuring five plays, each followed by a discussion. The week will also feature an hour-long New Group Now panel entitled Climate Arts Activision, an inspiring conversation on how art and storytelling can help save the world. The series is free and will be streamed on YouTube Live here. Free registration and additional information including climate action resources are available here.

* Transport Group's filmed performance of its world premiere musical Broadbend, Arkansas will be available for video streaming beginning Monday, July 20 for four weeks. An original cast recording will be released by Broadway Records in July. Audiences can view the stream, hosted by Tony Award winner Chuck Cooper, free of charge here. In lieu of a ticket fee, the company encourages contributions be made to the Black Theatre Network.

* Irish Repertory Company will stream Conor McPherson's The Weir in a haunting new production filmed remotely from quarantine and designed for a digital experience July 21-25. Reservations are required, and donations are encouraged. For more information, click here.





* Bedlam will present a live virtual play reading series to raise funds and awareness for the #BlackLivesMatter movement and associated organizations working toward eliminating race-based discrimination. Upcoming readings include Coriolanus by William Shakespeare on Tuesday, July 21; Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw on Tuesday, August 4, and Othello by William Shakespeare on Tuesday, October 13. All proceeds from these readings will go directly to organizations fighting for equity and justice. For a complete list of readings, and for more information on how to donate, click here.

* Bette Davis Ain't for Sissies will stream July 15-September 24. Written and performed by Jessica Sherr, this new 80-minute live streaming version is directed for the small screen by Karen Carpenter. Tickets are $19.50 each and are available here.





* TheatreWorks Silicon Valley will present a free digital reading of Shakespeare in Vegas beginning at 6pm ET July 23-27. Tony winner Karen Ziemba and Tony Award nominee Patrick Page star as a serious New York actor and Vegas impresario who aim to bring the Bard of Avon to the Las Vegas strip. What happens in Vegas? Find out by streaming this witty comedy here.





* On Friday, July 24 at 7pm ET, Black Theatre United (BTU) member, actor, and activist Viola Davis will moderate a virtual Town Hall with Leader Stacey Abrams, Founder of Fair Fight and Fair Count and Dr. Jeanine Abrams McLean, Vice President of Fair Count, in a conversation titled "Our Voices. Our Votes. Our Time. Register for free here. A link to the live streaming event will be sent to you in advance of the event.





* Source Material will present the world premiere of In These Uncertain Times, a digital performance piece devised by the company and directed by artistic director Samantha Shay. It is a new dramaturgy defined by dystopia, and it is a love letter to the art of theater. Performances will take place on Saturday, July 25 at 7pm ET, Sunday, July 26 at 2pm ET, Saturday, August 1 at 7pm ET, and Sunday, August 2 at 2pm ET. For more information about tickets, donations, and the show, click here.





* The Persians by Aeschylus, the oldest Greek drama that has survived in full to the present day, will be broadcast for free on Saturday, July 25. The stream begins at 1pm ET, with the performance starting at 2pm ET. The National Theatre of Greece, with support from the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports, presents the stream as part of this year's the Athens and Epidaurus Festival to commemorate the 25th centennial of the Battle of Salamis. To watch, click here.

* Fleabag's Andrew Scott will star in the world premiere of Three Kings, a new play written for him by Stephen Beresford and created especially for the Old Vic: In Camera series. Directed by Matthew Warchus, Three Kings will be streamed live nightly from the Old Vic stage with the empty auditorium as a backdrop. The five-performance run will take place July 29-August 1. For tickets, click here.

* TheaterMania will stream the 2020 virtual edition of the popular Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS benefit Broadway Bares on Saturday, August 1, at 9:30pm ET. The stream is free, but donations are welcome. Every dollar donated will help those across the country affected by HIV/AIDS, COVID-19, and other critical illnesses receive healthy meals, lifesaving medication, emergency financial assistance, housing, counseling and more. The donations also support and champion organizations focused on social justice and anti-racism. TheaterMania will provide more information about how to watch the stream on our site in the coming weeks.

A scene from a past edition of Broadway Bares.

( Tristan Fuge)





* There will be an online reading of Paul Osborn's On Borrowed Time, directed by Academy and Tony Award winner Joel Grey, as part of the Two River Theater's Two River Rising series. Benefiting the Actors Fund, this special reading features a cast that includes Blair Brown, Michael Cumpsty, Oakes Fegley, Bill Irwin, Bebe Neuwirth, Phillipa Soo, Steven Skybell, and Sam Waterston. Act One of the live reading will take place on Wednesday, August 5 at 7pm ET and Act Two on Thursday, August 6 at 7pm ET.

Streaming Channels

* TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's production of Paul Gordon's Pride and Prejudice: A New Musical is now streaming on Amazon. Filmed and presented by Streaming Musicals, Pride and Prejudice is free to watch for Amazon Prime members. For digital access and more information about streaming Pride and Prejudice, click here.

* Lin-Manuel Miranda's blockbuster musical Hamilton streams on Disney Plus. Winner of 11 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, as well as a Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Grammy Award, Hamilton explores the life of Alexander Hamilton, creator of the United States' financial system and the first Secretary of the Treasury. This filmed version features the original Broadway cast, including Miranda as Hamilton, Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr, Daveed Diggs as Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson, Renee Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler, Christopher Jackson as George Washington, Jonathan Groff as King George, Phillipa Soo as Eliza Hamilton, Jasmine Cephas Jones as Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds, Okieriete Onaodowan as Hercules Mulligan/James Madison, and Anthony Ramos as John Laurens/Philip Hamilton. To find out how to watch, click here.





* PBS has announced the lineup for its new summer Great Performances series, Broadway at Home. She Loves Me, starring Laura Benanti, Zachary Levi, Jane Krakowski, and Gavin Creel on July 24; Moritz von Stuelpnagel's 2017 revival of Noel Coward's Present Laughter, starring Kevin Kline, Kate Burton, Kristine Nielsen, and Cobie Smulders on July 31; the documentary In the Heights: Chasing Broadway Dreams on August 7; Kenny Leon's Shakespeare in the Park production of Much Ado About Nothing, starring Danielle Brooks and Grantham Coleman, airing on August 14; and Bartlett Sher's West End revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I, starring Kelli O'Hara, Ken Watanabe, and Ruthie Ann Miles. Check local listings for times.

* Spike Lee directs a filmed version Antoinette Nwandu's provocative play Pass Over, which tells the story of two young black men (Jon Michael Hill and Julian Parker) dreaming of escape from a racist world. A startling and disturbing riff on Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, Pass Over now streams on Prime Video. Read our critic's review here.

Antoinette Nwandu's Pass Over streams on Prime Video.

( Amazon Studios)

* In Dominique Morisseau's play Pipeline, a public school teacher (Karen Pittman) must face the trauma of her son (Namir Smallwood) as a young black man when an incident threatens to get him expelled from a prep school. Pipeline streams on BroadwayHD. Read our critic's review here.

* Tony and Pulitzer Prize nominee Anna Deavere Smith wrote and stars in Notes From the Field, her solo play in which she probes the lives of students, parents, and teachers caught in the school-to-prison pipeline. The show streams on HBO.

* Kerry Washington, Steven Pasquale, Jeremy Jordan, and Eugene Lee reprise their Broadway roles in American Son, the story of an interracial couple anxiously awaiting word of their son's whereabouts while dealing with a racist cop in a police station. Tony winner Kenny Leon directs. American Son streams on Netflix.

Available for a Limited Time



* Raul Esparza and Samira Wiley star in a live-streamed production of Moliere's Tartuffe, directed by Lucie Tiberghein. The broadcast will be available through Sunday, July 12, on Moliere in the Park's YouTube channel. Viewing is free. Reserve a spot here.

Raul Esparza and Samira Wiley

( David Gordon)





* The Mint Theater Company has announced its Summer Stock Streaming Festival, featuring archival recordings of three past productions. All three productions will be available July 5-19. To learn more, click here.





* The musical The Boy Who Danced on Air, with book and lyrics by Charlie Sohne and music by Tim Rosser, will stream from July 6-19. Tickets cost $15-$35 per household. To purchase and find out more about the show, click here.





* PBS will offer a stream of Anna Deavere Smith's drama Twilight: Los Angeles through August 7. Filmed by Marc Levin in 2001, Smith stars in a solo show that explores the aftermath of the 1992 Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. To watch, click here.

Anna Deavere Smith

(courtesy of PBS)





* Geffen Playhouse has extended The Present, its world-premiere live, virtual, and interactive theatrical experience written and performed by master illusionist, storyteller, and Geffen alum Helder Guimaraes. The show will now run May 7-October 10. A mystery package will be sent to you inside a USPS Priority Mail box before the show, so you must purchase tickets at least seven days in advance. To purchase tickets, click here.

* The world premiere of The Gifts You Gave to the Dark, written by Darren Murphy specifically for digital media in reaction to the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis, premiered on Wednesday, May 27 at 6pm ET and will remain online through October 2020. For more information, click here.

* The Actors Fund and People magazine is streaming the 2015 benefit concert of Bombshell, the musical within the short-lived television drama Smash. Watch it here:





* Tony-winning dancer Scott Wise has launched the new Wise Conversations talk show series, benefiting Fineline Theatre Arts, in New Milford, Connecticut. Future conversations will take place on Saturdays at 4pm and Wednesdays at 7pm. Recommended donation is $10 for students and $20 for adults. For more information, visit Fineline's Facebook page.

* Actor and playwright Eric Ulloa has announced his new podcast, Do You Hear the People Sing?, a theater person's guide to saving democracy. Each episode in this 10-episode limited series will be hosted by Ulloa and released every other week through Election Day. To learn more, click here.

Always Available

* New Victory is proud to announce a content partnership with the WNET Group's Camp TV, a new one-hour public television series that brings the day camp experience to children nationwide. Featuring videos from New Victory Arts Break, the theater's highly successful online series of performing arts curriculum, Camp TV provides ideas for fun activities for kids who can't go to camp this summer. The series will air weekdays beginning July 13 on public television (check local listings). In the New York metro area, Camp TV premieres July 13 at 10am on WLIW21, 11 am on THIRTEEN, and at noon on NJTV. Episodes will also be available to stream here.

* Girl From the North Country has released two new videos featuring the company of the Broadway musical. Filmed during quarantine, "Pressing On" features the entire company of the musical, and "Make You Feel My Love" features stars Jeannette Bayardelle and Austin Scott in a reimagined duet that does not appear in the show.

Watch the videos below:









* La MaMa E.T.C., in partnership with CultureHub, has announced the public launch of LiveLab, a free, open-source performance and video collaboration software built by artists for artists. LiveLab is a new tool that empowers artists and arts presenters to meet, create, rehearse, and ultimately produce multi-location performances from virtually anywhere in the world. For more information, click here.

Alex Newell and the Sounds of Zamar came together for a moving rendition of "I Know Where I've Been," from Hairspray. AIDS Walk New York posted the video on its YouTube channel after postponing its "Live at Home" event "in response to the murder of George Floyd, the systemic racism it reflects, the ongoing police abuses, and in solidarity with Black Lives Matter." Hairspray co-writer Marc Shaiman lent his keyboard to the rousing tribute. Watch Newell and the Sounds of Zamar here:





* Geraldine Inoa's Scraps chronicles how the family and friends of a black teenager shot by a white police officer struggle to cope in the aftermath. The Matrix Theatre Company has made its production available here.

* The global family of Rent paid tribute to the frontline heroes of New York City. Watch their rendition of "No Day But Today" here:





* Theater producer and playwright David Lan has a conversation with longtime artistic collaborator Stephen Daldry celebrating Lan's new memoir, As If By Chance: Journeys, Theatres, Lives. The conversation, a part of BAM's ongoing series of digital programs Love from BAM, can be seen here.





* More than 70 cast members from various international productions of Maury Yeston and Peter Stone's musical Titanic have gathered to record a socially distant version of the ballad "We'll Meet Tomorrow." Watch it below:





* Idina Menzel and Ben Platt perform "A Whole New World" from Disney's Aladdin as part of "The Disney Family Singalong: Volume II." Watch the video below:





* Wicked celebrates first responders on the front lines of the public health crisis with a video featuring stars Lindsay Pearce (Elphaba) and Ginna Claire Mason (Glinda) singing the anthem "For Good."

* Abrons Arts Center has made all of its performance documentation public on its Vimeo page, alongside contact and donation information for the artists whose work you are viewing.

* TriviaMania co-host and Broadway star Ellyn Marie Marsh has teamed up with Patrick Hinds for a brand-new true-crime podcast Obsessed With: Disappeared, which will recap episodes of Investigation Discovery Channel's hit series "Disappeared" in a comedic and witty tone, with perpetrators always the butt of the joke. It will be available May 27.
Here we are heading to Saratoga with its two important Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) preps and only days away from the Haskell Invitational (G1). And we still have the Ellis Park Derby, which is likely to attract several Derby hopefuls based in Kentucky.

After the top three ranked 3-year-olds - Tiz the Law, Honor A. P., and Art Collector - there appears, at least for now, to be a gap to the rest of Derby hopefuls, which could be narrowed if proven stakes horses Authentic, Dr Post or Ny Traffic should run a huge race in the Haskell and give the impression of being a Derby horse.

But there are still openings for new faces to emerge on the scene. Here are several horses who have shown promise to keep an eye on, even though they have yet to make a major impact on the Derby trail.

1. MYSTIC GUIDE - Back in April I ranked the new faces on Derby Dozen and this son of Ghostzapper was ranked No. 2 behind Pneumatic. I am still just as high on him and stated back then: "I believe he will be a major Derby contender by late spring or summer and will be ranked right up with the best once he beats winners." Well, he still hasn't beaten winners, but in his only start since then he ran an excellent second in a 1 1/16-mile Belmont allowance race to Tap it to Win, who turned in one of the most electrifying performances of the meet on an uncontested lead the whole way. This colt has a beautiful stride and a look of class about him. and we will finally get a chance to see where he stands when he faces a field of other promising new faces in the Peter Pan Stakes (G2) July 16.

2. CARACARO - With only two career starts and not having run since Jan. 11, he has a lot to prove and a lot of catching up to do, but he was so impressive breaking his maiden at a mile at Gulfstream Park I pointed him as a potential Derby horse to an owner who was looking to purchase a promising unproven colt. Unfortunately, he got hurt shortly after and we haven't seen him since. The Peter Pan is an ambitious spot for his return after being sidelined for over six months, but even a solid in-the-money performance could propel him into a starting berth in the Runhappy Travers Stakes (G1). He had been training at Gulfstream West (formerly Calder Race Course), and after a bullet half-mile work in :47 3/5 he turned in a pair of solid six-furlong works, including a sharp move in 1:11 3/5. Now at Saratoga, he blew out three furlongs in :38 in the slop for the Peter Pan. We will see how far he has progressed in all this time.

3. SONNEMAN - I had him ranked No. 3 behind Mystic Guide back in April. Yes, he did run in the listed Easy Goer Stakes and his past performance line is going to look odd and unusual, finishing second, beaten 19 3/4 lengths. Ignore that completely. After a bunch of scratches, this stone closer found himself in a match race with a speed horse and had no chance to win, if you know anything about match races. He tried to stay close and make an early move, but once it was turned back the race was over and jockey Jose Ortiz eased him through the stretch. The reason a margin was listed was because in a match race you have to give the winner a margin of victory, as they did with Chris Evert when she beat Miss Musket by 50 lengths in their match race and Man o' War when he won a match race in the Lawrence Realization by 100 lengths. The truth is, Sonneman, a son of Curlin, has a powerful closing kick and he will be trying two turns for the first time in the Haskell, a very ambitious spot over a speed-favoring track against far more accomplished horses. If he is just closing at the end against this field, even finishing fourth, it could set him up beautifully if they want to bring him back in the Travers, or they can train him up to the Derby, which would seem the more likely of the two. I just like the overall appearance he makes, the look of class about him, and feel as if he is crying out for more distance.

4. COUNTRY GRAMMER - This son of Tonalist broke his maiden going 1 1/8 miles in only his second career start and first on dirt. Off that slowly run race he was not ready to keep up with horses like Ete Indien in the Fountain of Youth Stakes, in which Ete Indien wired his field by 8 1/2 lengths. Although fifth, he was beaten only a half-length for second. After a layoff of over three months, he returned and ran a strong third in Tap it to Win's allowance romp, 1 1/2 lengths behind Mystic Guide, in a race run in a blazing 1:39 3/5 for the 1 1/16 miles. That should set him up for a big performance in the Peter Pan for trainer Chad Brown. It is interesting to note that Javier Castellano, who rode him in his last two races, will be aboard Caracaro in the Peter Pan, while he gets Irad Ortiz Jr. Not only is he by a Belmont Stakes winner, he is inbred 3x4 to Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Pleasant Colony and his dam traces to Filly Triple Crown winner Chris Evert.

5. CANDY TYCOON - Another entered in the Peter Pan. I don't know how far he wants to go, but he is coming off a strong second in an allowance race at Oaklawn back in May to Rushie, who came back to finish third in the Santa Anita Derby (G1) and Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G2). Before that he finished second to Ete Indien in the Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2), and although he finished far up the track in the Curlin Florida Derby (G1), he had a horrible trip. He hasn't run in two and a half months, but I like the fact he's been working over the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga and has four works over that track, the last two at five furlongs.

6. MO HAWK - Once trained by Bob Baffert, this son of Uncle Mo, who sold for $925,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, was turned over to Rodolphe Brisset after finishing fourth in the Sunny Slope Stakes at odds of 1-2 and second in an allowance race. Brisset put him in a one-mile allowance race on the grass at Indiana Grand, which he won by 1 1/2 lengths after pressing the pace. If you like the grass back to dirt angle and like his half-mile breeze in :47 4/5 at Keeneland and the switch to Joel Rosario in the Peter Pan Stakes then you might have enough reasons to give him a longshot chance.

7. CHESTERTOWN - Talk about huge sales prices, this New York-bred son of Tapit sold for a whopping $2 million at the OBS 2-year-old sale. He has shown promise, breaking his maiden in state-bred company going a mile in his second start, but was beaten in his first two open-company races as a big favorite in each one, but they were both solid efforts. He didn't have the best of trips when well-beaten in the Louisiana Derby (G2) and didn't run again for nearly three months when he returned to finish second in a state-bred allowance race at Belmont, pressing a fast pace in the mud, again as a big favorite at 6-5. Trainer Steve Asmussen will try blinkers for the Peter Pan and go with his number one rider, Ricardo Santana. So this is another handicapping angle, and we'll see if he can start running to his enormous sales price.

8. JESUS' TEAM - I have no idea what to make of this horse after he jumped up from back-to-back impressive victories for $32,000 and $25,000 claiming tags, respectively, to finish second to Sole Volante, beaten only three-quarters of a length in a classy one-mile allowance race at Gulfstream, finishing ahead of stakes winners Shivaree and Ete Indien, while earning a big 106 Equibase speed figure. He earned a 97 speed figure in his previous race, so perhaps we are looking at much-improved horse, just like Maximum Security last year when he jumped up from a $16,000 claiming tag. Now he moves way up in the Haskell Invitational, where you would think he'll be way overmatched. But nowadays you just never know.

9. ANCIENT WARRIOR - The son of Constitution made an auspicious debut last November at Del Mar when he scored by 4 1/4 lengths in 1:09 3/5. He had to move to Oaklawn Park when his trainer Jerry Hollendorfer was forced to move his stable, and although he didn't win in his three allowance starts there and one start at Churchill Downs, all in sprints, he is listed as a probable in the Haskell Invitational. On the surface he doesn't appear to belong in that race, but Hollendorfer is no dummy when it comes to spotting his horses and there has to be a reason why he will to stretch him out in grade 1 company in a race loaded with top-class speed horses. Whether it is Hollendorfer's decision or not we will see what happens.

Also in the Peter Pan is CELTIC STRIKER, who was the recipient of that match race debacle. He does have stakes experience, but was well beaten in the grade 3 Gotham and Matt Winn Stakes following an allowance victory at Parx. I have no idea what to make of this horse. If you go by stakes accomplishments then you have to give MODERNIST a big chance in the Peter Pan after failing to run a lick in the Belmont Stakes (G1), in which several top horses ran poorly and apparently didn't handle the track. But based on his victory in a division of the Risen Star Stakes (G2) and his third in the Louisiana Derby, despite a wide trip, you would think he will be the likely favorite in the Peter Pan.

Looking ahead to the Haskell, Authentic, Dr Post, and Ny Traffic look to be the standouts..The Ellis Park Derby could provide a classy matchup between Blue Grass winner Art Collector and Sole Volante, who exited the Belmont Stakes (G1) with a sore back, but is doing fine now. If he needs the points to get in the Derby he will run in either the Ellis Park Derby or the Travers. If he doesn't need the points there is a chance he could run in the Saratoga Derby (G1), returning to the grass, which would set him up for an intriguing grass to dirt angle in the Kentucky Derby. But either way, he needs another race. Art Collector will be nominated to the Ellis Park Derby and a decision will be made whether to run one more time or train up to the Derby, which would mean an eight-week layoff. He does have a good foundation under him and has finished first in his last four starts, and he's probably the most versatile of all the Derby hopefuls, having won on the lead, just off the lead, and from seven to eight lengths off the pace.
- Akufo-Addo has come under strong scrutiny after sharing photos of him finally fulfilling the promise of VW getting an assembly plant in Ghana

- Ghanaians did not understand why the president would not promote Kanatanka

- The reactions from Ghanaians on the post of the president is quite interesting to read

Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has come under strong scrutiny after sharing photos of him finally fulfilling the promise of Volkswagen (VW) getting an assembly plant in Ghana.

Ghanaians did not understand why the president would use such a great platform as his to sort of promote a company which is obviously competition to Kantanka Automobile.

Kantanka Automobile has been in operation for years now and Ghanaians believe the president should have given the company the same opportunity.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo Source: UGC

Source: Original

READ ALSO: Industry Minister, Alan Kyerematen, visits Ghanas VW assembly facility (photos)

The reactions from Ghanaians on the post of the president is quite interesting to read.

Paul More said he should use his platform to promote Kantanka Automobile:

Kantanka has been manufacturing cars in this country for some years now, not even a single post from you. Now you are promoting a foreign company for votes.

Abdul Fatawu Muaz said he should use the same effort to promote cars made in Ghana:

So you are happily posting this to campaign with when you could have used that same effort to promote your own country's made cars (Kantanka cars). Ghanaians are wising up oo so you politicians should better start doing something sensible.

Nii Moffatt was surprised about the unemployment rate:

Is this a good reason enough to ban accident cars that employ lots and lots of Ghanaians? Why don't you open up for competition? How many Ghanaians can these companies employ? Besides the JHS leavers who learnt trade or skill in spraying and welding.

Yaw Babifaz said the president preaches virtue but practices vice:

A promise has been fulfilled right, Mr President, you are patronising made in Ghana goods but you don't mean what you said. Instead of putting resources to our own indigenous businesses we are rather helping foreign investors.

Fo D'Satchi also said he didn't promote a Ghanaian brand on his page:

You didnt promote a Ghanaian brand thats been making/assembling cars for decades, but here you are doing cheap politics with this one.

Stunna Boy Smoke called on the president to rather promote Kantanka:

Go and help Kantanka please Mr president. That is our pride. These people will start employing Ghanaians as cleaners and security while they bring their people to enjoy the real benefits.

READ ALSO: It is senseless to say students were sent back to school to register to vote - Oppong Nkrumah

YEN.com.gh earlier reported that the Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan Kyerematen, paid a working visit to the assembly facility of Volkswagen Ghana in the North Industrial Area of Accra.

Under the Ghana Automobile Manufacturing Development Programme, VW became the first global automobile company to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the ministry.

The MoU is with respect to the establishment of a vehicle assembly plant in Ghana.

READ ALSO: Accra girls: 55 persons test positive for COVID-19 after contact tracing of 6 students

"One hour for church and more hours for voter registration doesn't make sense" - Pastor laments:

Got a national or human interest story you think we should know?

Get interactive via our Facebook page.

Source: YEN.com.gh
WASHINGTON - Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., asked the Justice Department on Thursday to investigate the St. Louis city prosecutor overseeing the case against a couple who pointed guns at civil rights demonstrators last month, the latest move in a battle to cast the incident as either justified self-defense or an act of racial animus.

Hawley's letter is the latest attack by Republicans against St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, a liberal prosecutor who has sought to reduce incarceration and low-level marijuana cases and has angered the St. Louis police union with her efforts.

Having one prosecutor investigate another is rare, but Gardner, the city's first black chief prosecutor, is already the subject of a special prosecutor appointed to investigate her handling of the case of former governor Eric Greitens, a Republican who resigned in 2018 while being investigated for an extramarital affair. In response to the actions against her, Gardner filed a civil rights suit this year against the city of St. Louis and the police union, accusing the city of a "racially-motivated conspiracy."

Gardner told The Washington Post on Thursday that is being targeted simply for doing her job as a local prosecutor.

"This is a dog whistle of racist rhetoric and cronyism politics," she said. "Senator Hawley, who believes in the Constitution, is usurping the will of the voters. I thought the Republican Party was all about states' rights and local control. What happened?"

At the center of Hawley's complaint is the case of Mark and Patricia McCloskey, a St. Louis couple who stepped onto their front lawn June 28 and pointed guns at demonstrators who had marched into their gated community toward the mayor's home. No shots were fired. Media outlets in St. Louis have reported that police have applied for criminal warrants charging the McCloskeys with weapons violations, but Gardner has declined to discuss the pending case.

"This is an unacceptable abuse of power and threat to the Second Amendment," Hawley wrote in a letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr. "I urge you to consider a federal civil rights investigation into the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office to determine whether this investigation and impending prosecution violates this family's constitutional right."

Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said, "We have received and are reviewing Senator Hawley's letter."

Gardner said in an interview with The Washington Post on Wednesday that Hawley was one of a number of Missouri Republicans, including Gov. Mike Parson and state Attorney General Eric Schmitt, in addition to President Donald Trump, who "are all using their political platforms to tell a locally elected prosecutor what to do. That is dangerous." Trump called the investigation of the McCloskeys a "disgrace," and Parson said Gardner should be removed from office.

Gardner also has received death threats from across the country after Hawley and others criticized her on Fox News Channel.

"This is a modern-day night ride, and everybody knows it," Gardner said, referring to the actions of the Ku Klux Klan in the 19th and 20th centuries. "And for a president to participate in it, in the larger context of racism and cronyism, is scary."

Hawley's letter said there was "no question under Missouri law that the McCloskeys had the right to own and use their firearms to protect themselves from threatened violence, and that any criminal prosecution for these actions is legally unsound." He said the investigation is "part of a troubling pattern of politically motivated prosecutorial decisions by the St. Louis Circuit Attorney. . . . The Second Amendment is not a second-class right. No family should face the threat of harassment or malicious prosecution for exercising that right."

Michael Wolff, dean emeritus of the St. Louis University law school and former chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court, said Republican politicians are using "the perfect storm" of racial division, gun rights and an upcoming election to distract from larger problems such as the growing coronavirus spread in Missouri and the potential for mass evictions related to economic problems from the pandemic.

He noted that Parson and Gardner are up for reelection this fall.

"This might help Kim Gardner get reelected," Wolff said. "When the president of the United States and the governor of Missouri, neither of whom carry much weight in the city of St. Louis, come in and say you have to get rid of this person, it may help her."

Gardner has felt embattled since she took office in 2017. She set out to restore black residents' trust in a justice system in which black people are disproportionately stopped by St. Louis police, officers openly make racist statements on social media and about two-thirds of officers are white, in a city that is about half African American.

She launched a more aggressive diversion program for low-level offenders, stopped prosecuting small-amount marijuana-possession cases, and created an independent unit in her office to investigate police shootings, rather than allow the police to handle them. The city Board of Aldermen, with the police union's support, killed the initiative. Gardner also created a list of police officers who would no longer be allowed to testify because of prior untruthfulness, a common practice in prosecutors' offices nationwide, further outraging the St. Louis police officers' union.

In 2018, Gardner began investigating reports that then-Gov. Greitens had taken illicit photos of a woman with whom he had been having an extramarital affair. Gardner said the police, FBI and U.S. attorney's office all refused to assist the investigation, so she hired a former FBI agent as an investigator and indicted the governor for invasion of privacy.

When Gardner launched a second investigation into Greitens over campaign finance violations - referred to her by Hawley, the Missouri attorney general at the time - Greitens resigned. But his defense team requested that a special prosecutor be empaneled to investigate Gardner and her investigator, and a civil attorney with close ties to the lead defense attorney was appointed. Police subsequently raided Gardner's office and removed servers and files; the special prosecutor indicted the investigator in a case that is pending.

In January of this year, Gardner fought back with a federal civil rights lawsuit accusing the city, the police union and the special prosecutor of violating the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which eventually became Section 1985 of the Civil Rights Act. The act allows "for federal judicial enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment to curb conspiracies of white citizens who sought to interfere with state authorities' efforts to expand racial justice and equality," according to Gardner's suit.

With the suit pending, Republican officials have taken to the airwaves and social media to criticize Gardner. Parson, the governor, said she should be removed from office, and he said he had contacted Trump for his assistance. State Attorney General Eric Schmitt falsely tweeted that Gardner had released people accused of looting "back onto the streets," though the 36 arrestees were never charged or jailed.

"Senator Hawley's letter is a toxic combination of hypocrisy and gaslighting," said Gardner's attorney Roy Austin, a former top Justice Department official in the Obama administration, "with the clear intent to threaten Circuit Attorney Gardner. As a former state AG, Hawley knows that there is absolutely no federal interest in the discretion that Gardner can exercise in this matter. But the point is not to make a legal argument, but to light a fire under those with a tenuous connection to reality."
A Black New York woman says her white neighbor has been 'racially harassing her' since she moved in two and a half years ago, going so far as to brandish guns, throw feces, and leave dead squirrels in her yard.

For Jennifer McLeggan, a nurse who lives in Valley Stream on Long Island, the harassment has become so bad that she hung a large sign on her front door to explain her predicament to her neighbors.

'The police have said I need to be harmed for them to make an arrest,' she wrote. 'I live in FEAR for my life at home.'

Awful ordeal: Jennifer McLeggan, a nurse who lives in Valley Stream on Long Island, hung a sign from her door detailing the harassment she says she's faced at the hands of her neighbor

Scary: Jennifer, who lives in the house with her baby daughter, said she was told by police that one of them would need to be harmed before cops could do anything about the behavior

Threatening: She has shared videos of her neighbor cleaning guns directly outside her window

Jennifer, who lives in the house with her daughter, Immaculate, told Eyewitness News that she bought the home while she was pregnant a couple of years ago.

'The property was in bad shape,' she said. 'I'm trying my best to make every effort to clean the property. I've done my best to clean the property. I mow the lawn, when there's snow out here I'm shoveling the snow by myself. I'm doing what I can to keep the property clean.'

But she kept noticing dog feces on her lawn and repeatedly got ticket ordinances, so she installed a camera to see what was going on  and that's when she says she discovered what her neighbor was doing.

'I installed a camera here. I caught my neighbor throwing dog feces in front of my property,' she said, noting that she took the video to court and won a judgement against her neighbor.

But Jennifer insists the harassment hasn't stopped, and she recently hung a large sign from her front door to clue her neighbors in to what was going on.

Terrifying: She said the neighbor and his friends regularly walk around the property with guns

Disgusting: In addition to brandishing weapons, she said she has caught her neighbor on camera leaving dead animals and feces in her yard

'My neighbors have been racially harassing me since I purchased my home,' it reads, before going on to list the various accusations - including that the neighbors have left dead animals in her yard, and 'thrown human feces on her property'.

'They are now planting dead squirrels on my property and have told me to go back to wear I came from.

'They have their friends come spit on my property and it was recorded,' she went on. 'A blow torch was taken to my home at 3am. They have said I can be "erased."

'Their friends have also threatened to get rid of me and my cameras. They walk around in the back with guns.'

Jennifer has recordings of their activities, which are being shared on Instagram.

In one, her neighbor is seen walking around with a gun between their properties. He set up a table in the driveway between their homes, with a chair facing Jennifer's window, and sat down to clean his gun there.

'In case something happens to me here, then somebody would know I'm in the house with a baby,' Jennifer said

Finally: Supporters have come to pray with her outside her home, and the local police have finally stationed officers outside for protection

In another image, he appears to be just holding a gun while sitting outside her window.

She also said she has found dead rabbits and human feces left on her lawn.

'In case something happens to me here, then somebody would know I'm in the house with a baby,' Jennifer said. 'If I die in here, at least cops would see the sign.'

More than just police have seen her sign: Since photos of it were shared on social media, Jennifer's story has gone viral.

The attention and support from neighbors has also helped Jennifer get the protection she sought from the local police, who she said had initially told her that she or her daughter would have to be harmed for them to do anything.

Several days ago, the Nassau County 5th Precinct began giving her 24-hour protection while investigating her neighbor.

'Nassau County will not tolerate any resident being harassed or intimidated because of who they are or what they look like,' Nassau County Executive Laura Curran said in a statement.

'We take these allegations seriously, and Nassau County PD is conducting a thorough investigation into the matter.'
Washington, July 16 : Economic activity has picked up in the US, but remains well below the pre-coronavirus pandemic level, the Federal Reserve said.

"Consumer spending picked up as many nonessential businesses were allowed to reopen," the Fed said in its latest Beige Book released on Wednesday.

"Retail sales rose in all districts, led by a rebound in vehicle sales and sustained growth in the food and beverage and home improvement sectors." The Beige Book, published eight times per year, contains economic reports from 12 Federal Reserve districts, each of which is monitored by a regional Federal Reserve Bank, reports Xinhua news agency.

Leisure and hospitality spending improved, but was "far below" year-ago levels, according to the Beige Book.

Most districts reported that manufacturing activity moved up, but from a very low level.

"Outlooks remained highly uncertain, as contacts grappled with how long the COVID-19 pandemic would continue and the magnitude of its economic implications," said the central bank.

Employment increased on net in almost all districts as many businesses reopened or ramped up activity, the Fed said, noting that districts highlighted gains in the retail and leisure and hospitality sectors.

However, payrolls in all districts were well below pre-pandemic levels, and job turnover rates remained high, with contacts across districts reporting new layoffs, according to the report.

"Contacts in nearly every district noted difficulty in bringing back workers because of health and safety concerns, childcare needs, and generous unemployment insurance benefits," the Fed said.

Many contacts who have been retaining workers with help from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) said that going forward, the "strength of demand" would determine whether they can avoid layoffs, the Fed added.

Patrick Harker, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, said at a virtual event on Wednesday that the path of the US economy largely depends on developments involving COVID-19 as the country has failed to control the pandemic.

"A Fed President might like to think otherwise, but there is only so much policymakers can do right now to affect the economy," Harker said.

"Our country's economic performance in a large part depends on what happens with COVID-19."
$142 billion dollars was stolen during the Jonathan presidency, from my exhaustive professional financial analysis, and only $2.5 billion dollars have been recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). This is a paltry 1.6 % of the estimated stolen funds. In Nigerian educational and employment standards, 40 % are pass mark and1.6 % is monumental failure.

After five years of Buhari regime, all the EFCC and Independent Corrupt Persons Commission (ICPC) could recover was 1.6 % or $2.5 billion dollars ie N980 billion naira. Therefore, based on performance index, the sack of Ibrahim Magu as EFCC head is long overdue.

I have written in 2014 and made more additions in 2015 facts outlining how the $142 billion dollars was looted through oil deals, oil bunkering, oil theft, and more. Some of the analysis in the piece

Stolen $142 billion dollars in five years-in the Midst of National Poverty and a follow up Additional Mathematics  where I listed some of the $142 billion dollar leakages to include;

(1) $20 billion dollars missing in 18 months =$1.1 billion monthly x 60 months =$ 66 billion dollars

(2) $ 30 dollars per barrel above budget benchmark of $ 79 dollars not accounted for meant for excess crude account = $27 billion dollars

(3)$5 billion dollars lost annually to oil thieves =$0.41 billion monthly x 60 months=$ 25 billion dollars

(4) $1.5 billion dollars (N263 billion naira) lost to suspicious waiver on petroleum products in 9 months=$0.16 billion monthly x 60 months= $ 9.6billion dollars

(5) Subsidy Scam of 2011=$ 6.8 billion dollars

(6) Swiss-NNPC Oil Scam of 2013=$ 6.8 billion dollars

(7) Malabu Oil Scam of 2011=$1 billion dollars

Total probable missing/ stolen or unremitted Oil funds in 60 months = 142.2 billion dollars.

I restated in another analysis that Diezani Madueke loot alone is over $6 billion dollars.

I do not want to go into the reasons why Magu failed, and though I commended President Buhari for the Magu probe, in the piece titled Magu Probe: Buhari and Unrecovered $142 billion dollars stolen Funds however, the President has provided a weak link in the supervision of persons under him.

If 1.6 % of stolen funds is recovered, using the Nigerian Factor, as the basis of the additional mathematics, it follows that about 8 % of the stolen funds are in the pockets of Buharis appointees.

This is the mathematics; a high profile political thief is caught through audit of embezzling N10 billion naira. The thief settles EFCC and high powered influencers with 10% of the stolen sum, the graft body recovers 2% of the stolen sum into the government coffers, the rest 88% is left for the thief to enjoy. If it is a low profile thief, the remittances to corrupt officials are upped to about 20%, 4% returned to the government and the looter has 76% to him.

Thus a thief caught with $10 billion naira, settles the graft bodies and influencers with N1 billion naira, returns N200million to the government accounts, and keeps N8.8 Billion naira to himself.

Therefore, using the estimate for the high profile thievery, for every billion recovered by the EFCC, the crook settled them with 5 times the amount, and went home with the rest for the future generations.

Therefore, if EFCC recovered only N980billion naira-following the mathematical trend of relooting in Nigeria-N980 billion x 5= N3.9 Trillion naira was used to settle high profile officials either in the office of the President, Vice-President, Attorney General or EFCC . Who collected all the trillions PDP looters gave as bribes to high profile government cronies.

Information at my disposal shows that at some points in time, some persons in the office of the Chief of Staff, Secretary to Government of the Federation, Vice President, Attorney General of the Federation, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and influential Emirs in the North collected various sums of bribes to ensure that the PDP looters go scot free, while remitting pittances, in the form of seized cash, properties, jewelries to the Federal Government.-all these without the knowledge of Buhari.

I want my international friends and partners who have expressed worries over the fate of the graft war in Nigeria to me in private, that my response to Buharis anti-graft war is as listed;

1. $142 billion dollars stolen under Jonathan, $2.5 billion recovered by Buhari = 1.6 percent

2. Relooted funds is five times of recovered funds-$2.5 billion x 5= $11.4 billion dollars or 8 percent

3. Unrecovered Funds is 90.4 % x $142 billion =$128 billion dollars

In conclusion, the anti-graft body recovered a paltry N980 billion naira, High profile government cronies and appointees, together with the anti-graft accomplices relooted N4.9 Trillion naira and left the thieves with N48 Trillion naira to themselves, families, concubines, and political malfeasance. These calculations are at the forex rate of N38 to a dollar.

Therefore, Buhari was either sick, sleeping or snoring while the relooting of recovered funds continued under his slumbering nose. Therefore, the fight against corruption is 1.6% successful.

President Buharis only achievement in the anti-corruption war was the Treasury Single Account TSA which mopped up to N1.3 trillion naira of annually stolen funds through various criminal accounts. I stated in the write-up titled Plot to Oust Buhari: Vultures are Gathering over Murder of CAN Chairman that

All these alliances against Jonathan ended the moment the Buhari presidency introduced the Treasury Single Account, TSA. TSA swallowed up over two thousand government accounts. NNPC alone reportedly had over 100 accounts, FIRS had over 50 accounts while Customs had over 70 through which the national treasury is piped to the private accounts of choice cabals including retired Presidents, retired military officers, traditional rulers, Emirs, top politicians and opinion leaders.

I want my international partners to know that I pretend not to know those who relooted over $11.4 billion dollars, and gave the government a paltry $2.5 billion dollars, and allowed the remaining thieves to keep the remaining loot of $128 billion dollars while borrowing $ 22 billion dollars to solve Nigerias problem.

There is no economic sense in allowing looters to possess $128 billion dollars while begging the world for $ 22 billion dollars loan. There is no sense in using high profile government cronies and traditional rulers to reloot $11.4 billion dollars while seeking for double of the relooted sums as foreign loans.

President Buhari should wake up and fight corruption. He has slept enough, he has snored enough. Failure to do so urgently, the Buhari legacy built upon anti-corruption from his military days will be thrown into shit hole by appointees, friends, cronies and associates. The recovery of $2.5 billion dollars out of $142 billion dollars is a failed war against corruption.

Obinna Akukwe , Columnist, Financial Expert via [email protected],@obinnaakukwe

cc: Secretary General, United Nations

Managing Director, International Monetary Fund

President, World Bank


With the reports about the Sussexes' expenses in the last few months, royal watchers are now curious whether Meghan Markle's net worth is enough to support their family-of-three in Los Angeles.

Meghan Markle's Career Earnings

Before Meghan joined the royal family, she starred in numerous shows that helped increase her net worth each year.

Throughout the years during her successful acting career, she has become super popular for her role in the television show "Suits" -- where she played the role of a paralegal named Rachel Zane.

Per knownetworth.com, the Duchess of Sussex made up to $50,000 per episode on the series. She also earned on films such as "Remember Me" and "The Candidate," where she got paid $187,000 and $171,429, respectively.

Aside from her income as an actress, she also made a pretty penny from her popular blog "The Tig" for years before she shut it down in April 2017. As a lifestyle expert, she was making money via sponsorships and endorsements on social media.

According to Cosmopolitan, she earned an additional $80,000 from using her platform to "tap into the wonderful world of celebrity #SponCon."

As of 2020, multiple outlets reported that the former actress' net worth is estimated to be around $5 million.

However, the question of whether it is enough to cover their lavish lifestyle in Los Angeles remains unanswered until now.

Meghan Markle Net Worth: Is $5 Million Enough?

After Megxit, a spokesperson told PEOPLE that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex want to work hard to be financially independent.

Before their official exit, they reportedly fired their 15-person staff in the U.K.

The royal couple also made a few more appearances, including their speaking engagement at a JPMorgan event in Miami. Prince Harry has also been reported to be working on partnership with Goldman Sachs.

As the pandemic continues to prevent Meghan from pursuing her career in Hollywood again, her net worth is clearly not enough to support their family.

Currently, the Sussexes agreed to cash out $8,600 per day to pay the A-list security team they hired. Aside from the staggering safety and security expenses they need, they still have to settle all their debts after leaving the monarchy.

In fact, Queen Elizabeth II urged them to pay back the multi-million expenses they spent on their home. The royal couple reportedly started paying $21,780 per month for the Frogmore Cottage renovations.

But since they remain unemployed right now and only depend their lives on small-scale engagements, a royal insider claimed that the royal couple are already running out of funds.

"This debt is a blow to their ambitious plan to become freewheeling billionaires in the world," the said source told U.S. tabloid National Enquirer.

Moroever, Meghan reportedly has a lavish lifestyle that she prioritizes despite facing financial problems.

In the past few years, Duchess Meghan sported a $2,000 Stella McCartney dress and a $1,390 Sentaler coat. According to several estimations, she spent more on clothing compared to other royal family members.

Meghan surely has a long list of things she always wants to have. But if the situation continues to cripple her finances, she would need to give up that list to cover her family's needs.

Meghan Markle Effect

For what it's worth, Meghan has the potential to earn more through her influence and social power.

The "Meghan Markle" effect, which Leah Bourne wrote for Glamour, started since the style icon's clothes often sell out as soon as she wears them.

READ MORE: Meghan Markle Instagram: 4 Most Controversial IG Post From The Duke And Duchess Of Sussex
Twenty-seven courts nationwide began receiving candidate nominations for the Senate elections on Saturday. The window for nominations will remain open until 18 July.

According to National Election Authority (NEA) chairman Lasheen Ibrahim, 382 candidates had registered by the end of Sunday.

This is an average number, not so big, not so small, said Ibrahim. Running in the Senate election is costly in terms of campaigning. An individual candidate will be required to cover a wide geographic area over a long period of time.

The two-week campaign period will run from 20 July to 7 August, with 8 August a silent day. The poll will take place on 11 and 12 August, though Egyptians abroad will cast their ballots earlier, between 9 and 11 August.

Sixty-three million Egyptians will be eligible to vote in the Senate election.

The polls will be supervised by 20,500 judges, said Ibrahim, and 163 media organisations, and 13 foreign and Egyptian civil society organisations, will take part in monitoring the vote.

Ashraf Rashad, secretary-general of Mostaqbal Watan (the Future of the Homeland Party), the largest party in the House of Representatives, says the party will field candidates in all of the 100 seats reserved for independents.

Individual Mostaqbal Watan candidates who registered for the poll this week include party leaders Essam Hilal, Giza governorate secretary-general Adel Nasser, political analyst Amr Okasha, former MP Abdu Abu Aysha, former Shura Council member Mahmoud Abu Sidira, and former MP Hassan Al-Aish.

Rashad said that following two rounds of negotiations with 15 political parties, Mostaqbal Watan has also prepared a national unified list that will contest another 100 seats reserved for party lists. The National Unified List includes Free Egyptians, the Wafd, the Congress, the Egyptian Socialist Democratic, the Tagammu, Ghad, Modern Egypt, the National Movement, the Will of the Generation, and the Egyptian Freedom parties.

Mostaqbal Watan is the only party capable of fielding individual and party list candidates across Egypt, said Rashad. We have offices nationwide, and the financial resources to campaign in all districts.

Mostaqbal Watan is a staunch supporter of President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi.

The Mostaqbal Watan-led unified list will include the partys leader, former chairman of the Supreme Constitutional Court Abdel-Wahab Abdel-Razek, Deputy Chairman Hossam El-Khouli, Wafd Party Deputy Chairman Yasser Al-Hodeibi, Wafd Assistant Secretary-General Tarek Al-Tohami, Editor of the Tagammu Partys mouthpiece Al-Ahali Amina Al-Naqash, deputy editor of the independent weekly Al-Osbou Mahmoud Bakri, chairman of the Egyptian Socialist Democratic Party Farid Zahran, economic professor Rasha Al-Mahdi, former chairman of the Social Fund for Development Hani Seif Al-Nasr, Al-Ahram journalist Abu Siri Imam, and chairman of the Syndicate of Engineers Reda Al-Shafie.

The Guardians of the Nation Party has said it will not join the Mostaqbal Watan-led Unified List. We can win a lot of seats without the support of others, says party leader Galal Haridi.

The Republican Peoples Party has also opted to run alone. Topping the list of its candidates is high-profile media mogul and steel tycoon Ahmed Abu Hashima.

The Salafist Nour Party will also field individual and party list candidates. They include Deputy Chairman Al-Sayed Khalifa, secretary-general Mohamed Ibrahim Mansour, party leadership office members Abdallah Badran and Talaat Marzouk.

The Senate will comprise 300 members, one third elected via the individual candidacy system, a third via closed party lists, and a third to be named by the president. The Senate law stipulates that 10 per cent of Senate seats be reserved for female candidates.

Under the law, says Lasheen, 100 independents will be elected in 27 districts. There will be four party list districts, two of which will elect 15 representatives, and the remaining two 35 each. Party lists competing for in the 15-seat districts must include a minimum of three women, and seven women in the 35-seat districts.

Political analyst Amr Hashem Rabie says the final number of Senate candidates is unlikely to be high.

This is due not only to the high costs of campaigning, but because the Senates powers are insignificant when compared to the former Shura Council, which was dissolved in 2013.

The Senate, unlike the Shura Council, will not have control of the national media or political parties. The former Shura Council was authorised to supervise print media and name editors, license political parties, and discuss budget and development plans, none of which applies to the Senate, says Rabie.

The Senate election is Egypts first for a second chamber since the Shura Council was dissolved in 2013. The 2014 constitution did not envisage a second house, though constitutional amendments passed in 2019 made room for the Senate.

A law regulating the second chamber was passed by the House of Representatives on 17 June.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 16 July, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the title: Candidate registration

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Singapore retains top spot as international shipping centre for 7th consecutive year

The Baltic Exchange, in collaboration with Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency, has published the 2020 Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Centre Development (ISCD) Index.

The index, in its seventh edition, provides an independent ranking of the performance of the worlds largest cities that offer port and shipping business services. Based on objective factors including port throughput and infrastructure; depth and breadth of professional maritime support services; as well as the general business environment, the latest report shows: The top 5 international shipping centres remain the same as 2019, although with some movement

Singapore tops the list for the seventh consecutive year followed by London, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Dubai

London and Dubai are the only top 5 international shipping centres outside Asia, with London moving up one spot into second place

Continued rise in Middle East and Mediterranean locations with Dubai retaining fifth place while Athens rose to eighth place Singapore maintained its position as the most important shipping hub in the Asia-Pacific region, ranking first for seven consecutive years with its advantages of geographical location, shipping industry ecosystem and supportive government policies. London, with advantages accruing from providing high-end shipping finance, insurance, and legal services, has climbed back to the second place after dropping to third place in 2018 and 2019. As the biggest port in terms of container throughput, Shanghai has seen a steady improvement in port facilities and shipping service levels, and has ascended to the top three for the first time. Hong Kong fell to fourth place mainly due to a decrease in cargo throughput and a drop in rankings relative to other centres in areas such as ship brokerage, insurance and legal services. Dubai, as the pre-eminent shipping hub in the Middle East, ranked fifth for the third consecutive year. Rotterdam and Hamburg have also retained their positions since 2018, ranking sixth and seventh respectively. Benefiting from an improving business environment, Athens rose to eighth. New York-New Jersey slipped by one place, while Tokyo rose one place, returning to the ranks of the top 10. Baltic Exchange Chief Executive, Mr Mark Jackson said: Whilst this report reflects a pre-COVID 19 world, those locations which continue to build on their strengths, are able to communicate a clear vision for the future and diversify beyond the physical port hub will be the ones who are able to succeed in the future. We call on all the main shipping hubs to continue investing in education, R&D and new services; remain open to global talent and offer an attractive international business environment. Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore Chief Executive, Ms Quah Ley Hoon said: Singapore is deeply honoured to retain the top spot in the 2020 Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Centre Development (ISCD) Index for the seventh year running. This good news comes amidst the COVID-19 gloom. The real test will be how we bounce back in a world shaken by an unprecedented crisis. We will need a global and co-ordinated effort. In this regard, Singapore will continue to rally governments and the global shipping community to work together and emerge stronger. Within Singapore, we stand united with our maritime companies, industry partners and unions, and will strive to maintain our position as a leading International Maritime Centre and a global hub port. President of The China Economic Information Service, a wholly-owned company of the Xinhua News Agency, Mr. Xu Yu Chang, says: The year, the China Economic Information Services and Baltic Exchange collaborated together with great efforts to launch the Index as scheduled amid the challenging situation brought forth by Covid-19. I believe the continued release of the Index will further contribute to the sustainable global economic growth by optimising shipping resources worldwide as well as promoting the scientific development of international shipping centers.




Between April and June, the Asian giants economy grew by 3.2%, recovering from the collapse following pandemic at the beginning of the year. But the data clashes with unemployment figures set at 5.7%. The per capita income of the Chinese also falls. Mounting strikes over non-payment of wages.

Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) - China's gross domestic product is growing again after the collapse due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report issued today. In the second quarter of the year, China's economy grew 3.2% over the same period last year.

As a result of the pandemic crisis, the Asian giant's GDP decreased by 6.8% in the first three months of the year: a veritable collapse, the first economic contraction since the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976.

The government response to the crisis included injecting liquidity into the economic-financial system, cutting taxes and easing access to bank loans. On the back of this, analysts had predicted a recovery of the Chinese economy, however at a more contained rate (+ 2.4%). They also predict continued improvement in the coming months, even if the other economic indicators raise doubts.

Hong Kongs China Labor Bulletin (Clb) notes that the unemployment rate in urban areas remained quite high (5.7%) in June, only slightly improving compared to 5.9% in May. However, the figure does not take into account about 290 million migrant workers, mostly from rural areas, who are struggling to find work.

In the first six months of 2020, the per capita disposable income in the country then decreased by 1.3% on an annual basis (by 2% in urban areas). This is confirmed by the drop in retail sales, which fell 1.8% last month.

The ongoing state of crisis is evidenced by the surge in strikes for the failure to pay wages or arrears. In June, the CLB recorded 89 protests from workers claiming their rights.
Where should Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and their monumental steeds go if and when they are removed from their pedestals in downtown Charlottesville parks?

Should the Lee statue be placed in a museum, or a Civil War battlefield where the history of his life might be made available on site for tourists to gain a fuller understanding of his story?

Virginias new laws allowing localities to dispose of Confederate statues give cities and counties a number of options for what to do with discarded metal monuments.

In Charlottesville, the Lee and Jackson equestrian statues erected during the Jim Crow era of enforced segregation probably are mere months away from figuratively trotting out of town.

Virginias monuments to the Lost Cause heroes of the Confederate States of America are coming down in record numbers this year.

Many of Richmonds Civil War monuments have fallen this month to crowds or been taken down on emergency orders by Mayor Levar Stoney.

State Sen. Creigh Deeds, a Democrat who has represented the Charlottesville area since 2001, favors moving the citys equestrian statues to a Civil War battlefield in Virginia or elsewhere if they are being removed from the parks.

The Gettysburg battlefield has the aura of a cemetery, given that many people died there, and the presence of so much statuary, Deeds said. Perhaps there are battlefields in Virginia, or elsewhere, that would want the statues.

Delegate Sally Hudson, a Charlottesville Democrat serving her first year in the House, sponsored successful legislation allowing the city to decide what to do with its statues, which had been protected from removal by state law until this year.

Hudson declined to suggest a home for the citys statues when they are removed from their park pedestals.

I think the historians, activists, and educators who built the movement that brought us to this decision point should continue steering, she said. They got us here and deserve to write the next chapter.

Her bill creating the option to remove statues was rolled into the legislation that went into effect on July 1. It settled a years-long battle over Charlottesvilles previous decision to clear the generals from the parks, which had been fought over in the courts and in the streets.

All across Virginia, localities are wrestling with the surprisingly common international phenomenon of what to do with the bronze and marble figures of men no longer held in pedestal-high esteem.

Roanoke, Portsmouth, Norfolk and towns across the Old Dominion also are wrestling with what to do with former Confederate heroes.

A former mayor of the Southern Virginia town of Crewe, Greg Eanes, made and then quickly withdrew an offer for his economically hurting locality to welcome a Lee statue and others as a potentially lucrative tourism lure. The offer was withdrawn, he wrote, because Crewe residents feared it will bring controversy, pain and vandalism to the area.

Internationally, unwanted statues meet different fates. Ukraine has yanked down 1,300 statues of Vladimir Lenin the past five years, leaving one up in Odessa transformed into a stunning likeness of Darth Vader.

India offers one viable and legal option to a rude yank. New Delhis Coronation Park, where giant former English monarchs and viceroys sit quietly in stone and metal, is a model graveyard with no truly human remains.

The park filled with discarded statues for the past 55 years offers a glimpse of a possible humane solution to Virginias growing discarded Confederate statue problem. New Orleans took down some Civil War statues several years ago and still hasnt found them a home as they sit privately in storage at a secret location.

India started moving its unwanted statuary reminders of British rule to an old New Delhi park in 1965, which was 28 years after the nation achieved independence from the British Empire and 54 years after English King George V was installed there as Indias ruler.

New Yorker writer and Columbia University journalism school Dean Steve Coll noted 20 days after Charlottesvilles deadly Unite the Right clashes in August of 2017 that a key difference between democracies and dictatorships is that the constructing and revising of public spaces is not a propaganda opportunity for the ruler but a realm of democratic discourse, influenced by popular opinion and competitive electoral politics.

After the shock of Charlottesville, as many American cities, towns, and campuses have taken down statues of Confederate leaders and generals, or debated whether to do so, New Delhis example is perhaps a useful one, Coll wrote.

Indian leaders initially placed signs to describe the historic figures set there in stone and bronze, but some of those markers remain blank and the forgotten statuary figures sit silently in states of slow disrepair, surrounded by trash and rubble.

Coll observed, The original vision for the park, followed by its long neglect, had created an eerie, unintentional beauty; the place feels as mysterious as Stonehenge. New Delhi had not erased its imperial origins; it had collected painful symbols of it and then allowed their potency to dissolve.

The land exists at battlefields across Virginia to take the generals leaving city parks and the metal statues of Confederate soldiers that stand guard in courthouse squares.

The question remains: who wants them and where can they best find final rest? That might not be as sticky as the next question: Who, or what, now belongs on pedestals, or at eye level, as public art?

Bob Gibson is communications director and senior researcher at the University of Virginias Cooper Center for Public Service. The opinions expressed here are his own and not necessarily those of the center.
By Aisha Jabbarova

A serviceman of the Azerbaijani army Nazim Ismayilov has been killed during the combat operations in the direction of Tovuz region on the border with Armenia, the ministrys press service reported on July 16.

The fighting in Tovuz resumed at 05.45 on July 16.

Azerbaijan army units have destroyed about 20 Armenian troops, 1 armored vehicle, 1 radio-electronic combat vehicle, posts and an outpost, the ministry said.

Azerbaijani units are taking retaliatory measures to prevent Armenian troops military activities.

The cross-border fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan started on July 12 with Armenia's firing artillery at Azerbaijan's positions in the direction of Tovuz region on the border.

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The first images from Solar Orbiter, a new Sun-observing mission by ESA and NASA, have revealed omnipresent miniature solar flares, dubbed 'campfires', near the surface of our closest star.

According to the scientists behind the mission, seeing phenomena that were not observable in detail before hints at the enormous potential of Solar Orbiter, which has only just finished its early phase of technical verification known as commissioning.

"These are only the first images and we can already see interesting new phenomena," says Daniel Muller, ESA's Solar Orbiter Project Scientist. "We didn't really expect such great results right from the start. We can also see how our ten scientific instruments complement each other, providing a holistic picture of the Sun and the surrounding environment."

Solar Orbiter, launched on 10 February 2020, carries six remote-sensing instruments, or telescopes, that image the Sun and its surroundings, and fourin situinstruments that monitor the environment around the spacecraft. By comparing the data from both sets of instruments, scientists will get insights into the generation of the solar wind, the stream of charged particles from the Sun that influences the entire Solar System.

The unique aspect of the Solar Orbiter mission is that no other spacecraft has been able to take images of the Sun's surface from a closer distance.

Closest images of the Sun reveal new phenomena

The campfires shown in the first image set were captured by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) from Solar Orbiter's first perihelion, the point in its elliptical orbit closest to the Sun. At that time, the spacecraft was only 77 million km away from the Sun, about half the distance between Earth and the star.

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"The campfires are little relatives of the solar flares that we can observe from Earth, million or billion times smaller," says David Berghmans of the Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB), Principal Investigator of the EUI instrument, which takes high-resolution images of the lower layers of the Sun's atmosphere, known as the solar corona. "The Sun might look quiet at the first glance, but when we look in detail, we can see those miniature flares everywhere we look."

The scientists do not know yet whether the campfires are just tiny versions of big flares, or whether they are driven by different mechanisms. There are, however, already theories that these miniature flares could be contributing to one of the most mysterious phenomena on the Sun, the coronal heating.

Unravelling the Sun's mysteries

"These campfires are totally insignificant each by themselves, but summing up their effect all over the Sun, they might be the dominant contribution to the heating of the solar corona," says Frederic Auchere, of the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS), France, Co-Principal Investigator of EUI.

The solar corona is the outermost layer of the Sun's atmosphere that extends millions of kilometres into outer space. Its temperature is more than a million degrees Celsius, which is orders of magnitude hotter than the surface of the Sun, a 'cool' 5500 C. After many decades of studies, the physical mechanisms that heat the corona are still not fully understood, but identifying them is considered the 'holy grail' of solar physics.

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"It's obviously way too early to tell but we hope that by connecting these observations with measurements from our other instruments that 'feel' the solar wind as it passes the spacecraft, we will eventually be able to answer some of these mysteries," says Yannis Zouganelis, Solar Orbiter Deputy Project Scientist at ESA.

Seeing the far side of the Sun

The Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) is another cutting-edge instrument aboard Solar Orbiter. It makes high-resolution measurements of the magnetic field lines on the surface of the Sun. It is designed to monitor active regions on the Sun, areas with especially strong magnetic fields, which can give birth to solar flares.

During solar flares, the Sun releases bursts of energetic particles that enhance the solar wind that constantly emanates from the star into the surrounding space. When these particles interact with Earth's magnetosphere, they can cause magnetic storms that can disrupt telecommunication networks and power grids on the ground.

"Right now, we are in the part of the 11-year solar cycle when the Sun is very quiet," says Sami Solanki, the director of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Gottingen, Germany, and PHI Principal Investigator. "But because Solar Orbiter is at a different angle to the Sun than Earth, we could actually see one active region that wasn't observable from Earth. That is a first. We have never been able to measure the magnetic field at the back of the Sun."

The magnetograms, showing how the strength of the solar magnetic field varies across the Sun's surface, could be then compared with the measurements from thein situinstruments.

"The PHI instrument is measuring the magnetic field on the surface, we see structures in the Sun's corona with EUI, but we also try to infer the magnetic field lines going out into the interplanetary medium, where Solar Orbiter is," says Jose Carlos del Toro Iniesta, PHI Co-Principal Investigator, of Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Spain.

Catching the solar wind

The four in situ instruments on Solar Orbiter then characterise the magnetic field lines and solar wind as it passes the spacecraft.

Christopher Owen, of University College London Mullard Space Science Laboratory and Principal Investigator of thein situSolar Wind Analyser, adds, "Using this information, we can estimate where on the Sun that particular part of the solar wind was emitted, and then use the full instrument set of the mission to reveal and understand the physical processes operating in the different regions on the Sun which lead to solar wind formation."

"We are all really excited about these first images -- but this is just the beginning," adds Daniel. "Solar Orbiter has started a grand tour of the inner Solar System, and will get much closer to the Sun within less than two years. Ultimately, it will get as close as 42 million km, which is almost a quarter of the distance from Sun to Earth."

"The first data are already demonstrating the power behind a successful collaboration between space agencies and the usefulness of a diverse set of images in unravelling some of the Sun's mysteries," comments Holly Gilbert, Director of the Heliophysics Science Division at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and Solar Orbiter Project Scientist at NASA.

Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA. Nineteen ESA Member States (Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom), as well as NASA, contributed to the science payload and/or the spacecraft. The satellite was built by prime contractor Airbus Defence and Space in the UK.
A Green Line Express train, operated by Pakistan Railways between Islamabad and Karachi, sits at a platform, left, next to a standard economy class train at Rawalpindi railway station in Rawalpind, Pakistan, on Feb. 22, 2018. Photo: Bloomberg

(Bloomberg)  Chinas Belt and Road program has found new life in Pakistan with $11 billion worth of projects signed in the last month, driven by a former lieutenant general who has reinvigorated the infrastructure plan thats been languishing since Prime Minister Imran Khan took office two years ago.

The nations signed deals on June 25 and July 6 for two hydropower generation projects costing $3.9 billion in the disputed Kashmir region, and another to revamp the South Asian nations colonial-era railways for $7.2 billion  the most expensive Chinese project yet in Pakistan.

Khans government appointed Asim Saleem Bajwa last year to run the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Authority, which oversees more than $70 billion in projects from power plants to highways. He also joined Khans cabinet in late April, becoming one of more than a dozen former and current military officials in prominent government roles as the army expands its influence in the country.

The Chinese financing has helped rid Pakistan of an electricity deficit that left exporters unable to meet orders and major cities without electricity for much of the day. Still, the implementation of some investments appeared to stall since Khan came to power, with no new projects announced in 2018 and very few in 2019.

Since Chinese President Xi Jinping launched the initiative in 2013, the World Bank estimates about $575 billion worth of energy plants, railways, roads, ports and other projects have been built or are in the works across the globe.

The reality is that much of CPEC, like the Belt and Road more broadly, has been paralyzed, said Jonathan Hillman, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, referring to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Pakistan is a flagship for Chinas Belt and Road, so the need to show progress is even more important.

In a tweet last month, Bajwa said some detractors had given the false impression that CPEC had been slowed. Not only has the pace of work on projects picked up recently, but a great deal of ground work has been done to launch phase two of the project that also includes special economic zones to lure Chinese manufacturers, agriculture, science, technology and tourism, he wrote.

The prime minister pushed very hard on this, said Abdul Razak Dawood, Khans adviser on commerce and investments said by phone. We feel that we have to get more and more hydro in our energy mix.

A spokesman in Bajwas office said he was not immediately available to comment.

Little progress

Pakistans army is already responsible for securing every single Beijing-funded project scattered across the country, from the mountains near the Chinese border to the desert in Gwadar where the Chinese operate a port. Its role has become even more important following terrorist attacks on three Chinese-related projects in the past year.

There is no doubt that PM Khans arrival slowed the pace of CPEC projects, said Mosharraf Zaidi, a senior fellow at Islamabad-based think tank, Tabadlab, and a former principal advisor to the foreign ministry. The renewed energy and approval we are now seeing is almost entirely likely due to the chairperson having settled in, and being added to Prime Minister Khans cabinet.

Indeed theres deepening concerns over Islamabads ability to service its debts under the program. The Center for Global Development has listed Pakistan among eight nations that face potential debt-sustainability problems because of the initiative. The country must repay China more than double the amount it owes the International Monetary Fund over the next three years, according to an IMF report last year.

For its part, Beijing says its projects in Pakistan had made major progress over the last six years. China firmly supports the development of CPEC and stands ready to work with Pakistan, Chinas Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told a regular press briefing in Beijing on July 7, adding that future cooperation will focus on social development, livelihood, industry and agriculture in addition to infrastructure construction.

Regional conflict

The hydro projects are both based in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, a region at the heart of tensions with arch-rival India. The neighbors have fought three wars  two over Kashmir  and last year a terrorist attack in the Indian-controlled portion led to the most serious military escalation in more than a decade.

The $2.4 billion Kohala hydropower project is being built on the Jhelum River in Muzaffarabad, just 100 kilometers (62 miles) from where both armies exchange gunfire. The Azad Pattan project  which will cost $1.5 billion  is being built on the same river.

China and Pakistan may also be antagonizing India, said Hillman. Both hydro projects are in Kashmir, and the railway is part of a much longer, and still farfetched plan to connect China and Pakistan by rail, also passing through occupied territory, said Hillman.

Several countries have run into trouble with Belt and Road projects or had to rework plans after complaints over corruption, padded contracts, heavy debt loads, environmental damage and a reliance on imported Chinese labor over local hires.

Pakistan renegotiated the project to revamp its British-era legacy railway system. It was initially estimated to cost $8.2 billion but that was reduced to $6.2 billion, according to the nations railways minister. The final amount is higher than the revised cost but still $1 billion less that initial estimate.

All three new projects have been under discussion for some time before this months announcement.

Though these are difficult projects to get across the line compared to low hanging fruits like coal and LNG power projects that were announced at the start of the Chinese financing projects, said Samiullah Tariq, head of research at Pakistan Kuwait Investment Company, China is a critical ally for Pakistan to continue growing.

Contact editor Yang Ge (geyang@caixin.com)
The biggest issue is that we have a lot of aggressive noncompliant people, people that just do not believe that masking is the right thing to do, Migoya said. A lot of the young people are saying, So what if I get it? If I get it, it doesnt mean anything. 
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An online press meet was organized by activists, advocates and community leaders on Tuesday to condemn the misuse of law and order by the Uttar Pradesh government.

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The press briefing discussed abuse of civil rights by the BJP-ruled state governments amid the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), highlighting that democratic agitations against the discriminatory Act was met with brutality, where the authorities violated the very ethos the nation has been founded on. Accusing UP Chief Minister Adityanath to have given the police and right-wing goons free rein and impunity to shoot, destroy properties and torture people for exercising their democratic rights to dissent and protest peacefully, the session made some more notable points.

Prominent personalities like Ravi Nair (Director, South Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre), Obaidullah Khan Azmi (Ex-MP, Uttar Pradesh), Seema Azad (Editor, Dastak Magazine), Sharfuddin Ahmad (National Vice President, Social Democratic Party of India), KK Roy (Allahabad High Court), E.M. Abdul Rahiman (Vice Chairman, Popular Front of India), Rajeev Yadav (General Secretary, Rihai Manch) and A. Mohamed Yusuff (Secretary, National Confederation of Human Rights Organizations) were on the panel of speakers, who drew attention to alarming levels of fabricated cases, extrajudicial killings and harassment of innocents by the government.

The conference highlighted that the government is defaming protestors by calling them as rioters, and that all those who have been vocal against state atrocities have been penalized with brutal oppression. The speakers mentioned Sharjeel Usmani, Muhammed Shahzad, and Dr Kafeel Khan, and several other activists  all of whom are incarcerated on fake charges and are being harassed continuously under UAPA and NSA. It highlighted that Dr Kafeel Khans case is clear evidence of vendetta politics where the BJP government is using all means available to destroy his life.

The press meet pointed that it is ironical that the provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986 and UP Control of Goondas Act, 1970 are invoked against the activists who had democratically fought for their right to live in the country they were born, while the literal goondas, gangsters and anti-social elements are roaming free across the state with impunity. It added that this is, in fact, a strategy of the BJP government under which anyone can be booked by alleging their involvement in rioting cases and their property can be attached, alleging that UP state government, through such anti-democratic and violent measures seeks to eliminate all forms of opposition in the state. The speakers iterated that it is unfortunate that the leading opposition parties in the state are silent on these issues, giving the state government a clean run to implement these measures.

The conference condemned all such autocratic measures by the UP government, demanding a Supreme Court-monitored judicial enquiry be held in the recent extrajudicial execution of some criminals in Kanpur and other places in UP. In its endnote, it also urged all political parties who reject communal politics to come out and voice their protest against these human rights violations in Uttar Pradesh.
New membrane technology developed by a team of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Imperial College London, and ExxonMobil could help reduce carbon emissions and energy intensity associated with refining crude oil. Laboratory testing suggests that this polymer membrane technology could replace some conventional heat-based distillation processes in the future.

Fractionation of crude oil mixtures using heat-based distillation is a large-scale, energy-intensive process that accounts for nearly 1% of the world's energy use: 1,100 terawatt-hours per year (TWh/yr), which is equivalent to the total energy consumed by the state of New York in a year. By substituting the low-energy membranes for certain steps in the distillation process, the new technology might one day allow implementation of a hybrid refining system that could help reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption significantly compared to traditional refining processes.

"Much in our modern lives comes from oil, so the separation of these molecules makes our modern civilization possible," said M.G. Finn, professor and chair of Georgia Tech's School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Finn also holds the James A. Carlos Family Chair for Pediatric Technology. "The scale of the separation required to provide the products we use is incredibly large. This membrane technology could make a significant impact on global energy consumption and the resulting emissions of petroleum processing."

To be reported in the July 17 issue of the journal Science, the paper is believed to be the first report of a synthetic membrane specifically designed for the separation of crude oil and crude-oil fractions. Additional research and development will be needed to advance this technology to industrial scale.

Membrane technology is already widely used in such applications as seawater desalination, but the complexity of petroleum refining has until now limited the use of membranes. To overcome that challenge, the research team developed a novel spirocyclic polymer that was applied to a robust substrate to create membranes able to separate complex hydrocarbon mixtures through the application of pressure rather than heat.

Membranes separate molecules from mixtures according to differences such as size and shape. When molecules are very close in size, that separation becomes more challenging. Using a well-known process for making bonds between nitrogen and carbon atoms, the polymers were constructed by connecting building blocks having a kinked structure to create disordered materials with built-in void spaces.

The team was able to balance a variety of factors to create the right combination of solubility - to enable membranes to be formed by simple and scalable processing - and structural rigidity - to allow some small molecules to pass through more easily than others. Unexpectedly, the researchers found that the materials needed a small amount of structural flexibility to improve size discrimination, as well as the ability to be slightly "sticky" toward certain types of molecules that are found abundantly in crude oil.

After designing the novel polymers and achieving some success with a synthetic gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel fuel mixture, the team decided to try to separate a crude oil sample and discovered that the new membrane was quite effective at recovering gasoline and jet fuel from the complex mixture.

"We were initially trying to fractionate a mixture of molecules that were too similar," said Ben McCool, a senior research associate at ExxonMobil and one of the paper's coauthors. "When we took on a more complex feed, crude oil, we got fractionalization that looked like it could have come from a distillation column, indicating the concept's great potential."

The researchers worked collaboratively, with polymers designed and tested at Georgia Tech, then converted to 200-nanometer-thick films, and incorporated into membrane modules at Imperial using a roll-to-roll process. Samples were then tested at all three organizations, providing multi-lab confirmation of the membrane capabilities.

"We have the foundational experience of bringing organic solvent nanofiltration, a membrane technology becoming widely used in pharmaceuticals and chemicals industries, to market," said Andrew Livingston, professor of chemical engineering at Imperial. "We worked extensively with ExxonMobil and Georgia Tech to demonstrate the scalability potential of this technology to the levels required by the petroleum industry."

The research team created an innovation pipeline that extends from basic research all the way to technology that can be tested in real-world conditions.

"We brought together basic science and chemistry, applied membrane fabrication fundamentals, and engineering analysis of how membranes work," said Ryan Lively, associate professor and John H. Woody faculty fellow in Georgia Tech's School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. "We were able to go from milligram-scale powders all the way to prototype membrane modules in commercial form factors that were challenged with real crude oil - it was fantastic to see this innovation pipeline in action."

ExxonMobil's relationship with Georgia Tech goes back nearly 15 years and has produced innovations in other separation technologies, including a new carbon-based molecular sieve membrane that could dramatically reduce the energy required to separate a class of hydrocarbon molecules known as alkyl aromatics.

"Through collaboration with strong academic institutions like Georgia Tech and Imperial, we are constantly working to develop the lower-emissions energy solutions of the future," said Vijay Swarup, vice president of research and development at ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company.

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In addition to Finn, Livingston, Lively, and McCool, the paper's authors include Kirstie Thompson and Ronita Mathias, Georgia Tech graduate students who are co-first authors; Daeok Kim, Jihoon Kim, Irene Bechis, Andrew Tarzia, and Kim Jelfs of Imperial; and Neel Rangnekar, J.R. Johnson, and Scott Hoy of ExxonMobil.

CITATION: Kirstie Thompson, et al., "N-Aryl Linked Spirocyclic Polymers for Membrane Separations of Complex Hydrocarbon Mixtures" (Science 2020)
Amazon India has made it binding for sellers on its platform to divulge the 'country of origin' on their products by August 10.

In an email to vendors, the e-tailer said that the status will be introduced as a mandatory trait from July 21.

"You will be required to provide information for country of origin mandatorily for all your new and existing listings," Amazon said in an email, as reported by The Economic Times.

The e-tailer's portal for seller information, Amazon Central Station, has been updated with the new rule.

Also Read: Flipkart, Amazon, others seek up to 5 months to put 'country of origin' labels on items

The online marketplace also cautioned sellers that their listings could be suspended if they don't adhere to the diktat. The e-tailer added that the failure to provide the required information "may lead to enforcement action including suppression of your listing".

If the product is being imported from outside the country, Amazon has asked sellers to add contact details of the importer.

The move comes at a time when the Centre is in talks with e-commerce firms to make sure that all merchandise listed on their apps and webportals bear the country of origin tag, as part of the government's strategy to check foreign imports, especially from China.

Amazon's decision pre-empts any future move by the government to set a time frame for sellers as well as e-commerce websites to abide by the country of origin rule.

Also Read: Karnataka govt allows Amazon, Flipkart, others to ship goods amid lockdown

The e-tailer claims it has around 50 million unique product listings on its platform.

The rule will also be applicable to Cloudtail India and Appario Retail, as Amazon has a substantial minority stake in their holding companies, the report added.

Meanwhile, Flipkart has, since 2018, given a choice to sellers to divulge information regarding the country of origin of their product listings, although it has not yet made it obligatory.

Furthermore, Snapdeal reached out to sellers on its platform on June 30 drawing their attention to the prerequisite, but without specifying a target date.
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Linkedin Gisela Swaragita (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 17 2020

Zahra, a 14-year-old junior high school student who hails from the slums of North Jakarta, spoke at a United Nations dialogue about her concerns over child marriage in Indonesia.

I told the panel about a close friend of mine who got married when she was 14, back in 2015. Her husband was also 14 years old. They got married because she got pregnant, Zahra told The Jakarta Post by videoconference on Monday.

Now they are 19, and their [first] child is already 5 years old. They now have three kids, she added.

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A High Court judge has disqualified himself from hearing the murder case of former Kabete MP MP George Muchai.

The MP was killed alongside his three aides in Nairobi in 2015.

Justice James Wakiaga directed the case file to be placed before the presiding judge of the criminal division for re-allocation to another judge for trial and determination.

The judge made the decision after five of the seven suspects charged with the murders claimed he was biased after he dismissed their request for review of bail application and asked him to recuse himself.

But the judge dismissed the recusal application saying there was no evidence that he had exhibited biasness or proper grounds for withdrawal. He said the application was aimed at delaying the determination of the case.

"The applicants' main ground is that they were not granted bail. I find that there is no ground that can support the applicants' appeal for recusal and the application is misplaced with the sole purpose of derailing the path of justice," Justice Wakiaga said.

But, he said due to prevailing circumstances and behaviour of the five accused persons it will not be possible for the court to conduct a meaningful trial against them without the same being excluded from attending their trial against their constitutional right.

When sending the file for allocation to another judge, Justice Wakiaga noted that the five accused persons had walked out of his court on May 30, 2019 during trial immediately he rejected their bond review application.

They also shouted at the court and indicated that they would never be attending any further hearing before the same court.

"Since the said date of the walk out, this court has not been able to conduct any meaningful trial in this matter due to the conduct of the accuse persons, as the record shows," said the judge.

The five had also written a letter of complaint against the Judge to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC). They had also written another letter to the Presiding Judge of the Criminal Division stating that they prefer their matter to be handled by any other Judge except Wakiaga.

In their letter to JSC, the accused persons said were feeling unsafe in being tried by justice Wakiaga and asked the commission to institute a tribunal to investigate him on the basis of incompetence and gross misconduct.

The judge added that the five had also shown remarkable disrespect to the court and made false and unfounded allegations against the character of the court which are defamatory in nature.

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The five are Eric Mungera Isabwa alias Chairman, Raphael Kimani Gachii alias Kim Butcher, Mustafa Kimani Anyoni alias Musto, Stephen Astiva Lipopo alias Chokore and Simon Wambugu Gichamba.

Their two co-accused Jane Wanjiru Kamau alias Shiro and Margaret Njeri Wachiuri were not associated with the recusal application.

The prosecution side led by State Counsel Charles Okeyo had opposed the recusal application on grounds that so far 14 witnesses had testified before the court and only technical witnesses were remaining.

According to the prosecutor, the application was a ploy by the accused persons to delay its completion of the matter hence causing injustice to the victims' family.

Mr Okeyo added that the decision to deny or allow bail is based on the circumstances underlying each case and cannot form a basis for recusal.
Economic decoupling between the United States and China is "not only possible, but is happening", according to John Bolton, the former national security adviser-turned staunch critic of US President Donald Trump.

Referring to decoupling, Bolton, a long-time China hawk who has criticised Trump for going too easy on Beijing, said that people will not "wake up tomorrow and find that it's occurred". Businesses are already looking at incrementally moving their supply chains out of China because they are fed up with the sort of "state espionage that would boggle the mind of a US or European" company, Bolton said.

Bolton's claims are anecdotally true, with large companies such as Apple, Samsung and Nintendo shifting production out of the mainland to enjoy lower-cost manufacturing primarily in Vietnam, but also to avoid trade war tariffs applied by US customs authorities.

A survey of 200 multinational companies released last week, meanwhile, found that 95 per cent of US buyers plan to shift their supplier base away from China. Experts, however, have subsequently warned that such a move is difficult to achieve in the short term.

Financial decoupling, where the United States would cut China or Hong Kong's access to US dollar-settling markets, has also "been raised as a possibility", Bolton said.

The US has also moved to force Chinese companies who do not meet more stringent documentation criteria to delist from US stock markets, while reports have claimed the Trump administration has discussed the "nuclear option" of restricting dollar access.

In a video address to Hong Kong's Foreign Correspondent Club on Wednesday night, Bolton suggested that a Trump victory in November's general election would lead to a reopening of trade talks with China in pursuit of another trade deal, a move strongly discouraged by the former official, who served under every Republican president back to Ronald Reagan.

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"If he wins re-election on November 4, it's entirely possibly he calls his buddy Xi Jinping and says: 'Hey, let's get a back room deal,'" Bolton said. Five years from now, he added, "if you talk about the phase one trade deal, 99 per cent of people will look at you with a blank face and say, 'What was that?'"

Bolton has been an aggressive critic of Trump's policy on China since leaving his post as national security adviser in September last year, a role he held for 17 months.

Bolton has been an aggressive critic of Trump's policy on China since leaving his post as national security adviser in September last year, a role he held for 17 months. Photo: AP alt=Bolton has been an aggressive critic of Trump's policy on China since leaving his post as national security adviser in September last year, a role he held for 17 months. Photo: AP

His book, The Room Where It Happened, raced to the top of the bestsellers' chart when released in June, and was widely serialised in American press. Bolton's claims that Trump praised Chinese President Xi Jinping on the persecution of Uygurs in Xinjiang generated global headlines.

Bolton was speaking less than 24 hours after Trump signed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, opening the door to sanctions on officials from the city and China over the sweeping national security law, and an executive order stripping Hong Kong of its preferential trading status.

The move leaves Hong Kong open to trade war tariffs, which were previously levied on mainland Chinese exports to the United States. It also comes weeks after Washington revoked Hong Kong's export controls exemption license privileges, barring the city from accessing sensitive American technological goods.

Bolton said the United States should open its borders to Hongkongers fleeing the city after the imposition of the national security law, citing Britain's revision of its immigration policy to accommodate Hong Kong nationals. The British government has offered a route to citizenship for holders of British National Overseas passports in Hong Kong.

Defending strict US immigration policy on migrants reaching its southern border from Latin American nations, Bolton said that "just by showing up at the border, doesn't mean you are going to get in".

The Trump administration tried unsuccessfully to block publication of Bolton's book, claiming it contained classified national security information. Photo: AFP alt=The Trump administration tried unsuccessfully to block publication of Bolton's book, claiming it contained classified national security information. Photo: AFP

"I favour greatly immigration and I think what Britain, Canada and others have done in terms of potential political asylum for Hong Kong is something the United States should do, too, so I favour more immigration," Bolton said.

"I think it's what makes America strong " it has historically. That's the big advantage we have over almost every other country in the world."

Canada was the first country to break an extradition treaty with Hong Kong over the national security law last week. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau added that Ottawa is "also looking at additional measures, including around immigration" for Hongkongers.

But Bolton was fiercely critical of what he portrayed as Trump's disinterest in human rights, or anything "that got in the way of the great white whale of the Trump administration, the big trade deal".

In a anecdote alluded to in his book, Bolton confirmed that he had written a statement for the president to release on the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 2019, "but when I gave it to the president, he would not issue it".

Bolton's claims that Trump praised Chinese President Xi Jinping on the persecution of Uygurs in Xinjiang generated global headlines. Photo: EPA-EFE alt=Bolton's claims that Trump praised Chinese President Xi Jinping on the persecution of Uygurs in Xinjiang generated global headlines. Photo: EPA-EFE

Amid rising tensions over US action regarding human rights abuses in Xinjiang, territorial disputes and militarisation in the South China Sea, the Hong Kong situation and friction over the origins of the coronavirus, analysts and officials generally agree that US-China relations are at their lowest point since normalisation in 1979.

But Bolton said that he thought the prospect of a military war between the superpowers was "remote".

"I don't see it in anything like the near term. It'll hopefully give Beijing a chance to back away from some of it's provocative behaviour," said Bolton.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2020 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 04:46:51|Editor: huaxia

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RIYADH, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC countries decided in a meeting on Wednesday to move to the second phase of their agreement to cut oil output by easing restrictions on production.

Entering the second phase, the cuts will be reduced from 9.6 million barrels per day (bpd) to 7.7 million bpd starting August until the end of the year, according to an OPEC statement released after the online meeting.

The meeting, co-chaired by Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud and his Russian counterpart Alexander Novak, highlighted full commitment of all parties to follow the oil cuts deal.

The meeting also required the countries that overproduced in previous months to submit their compensation plans to the OPEC Secretariat by the end of July.

The compensation plans mean that the effective oil cuts will exceed 7.7 million bpd.

OPEC and its allies, an oil group known as OPEC+ led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, agreed in April to slash output by 9.7 million bpd for May and June as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged demand, and decided in June to extend the first phase of oil output cuts until the end of July. Enditem
The chief medical officer has warned that Northern Ireland "could go down the same route as Leicester" with regard to local lockdowns should a second wave of Covid-19 occur here. (Andrew Matthews/PA)

The chief medical officer has warned that Northern Ireland "could go down the same route as Leicester" with regard to local lockdowns should a second wave of Covid-19 occur here.

Michael McBride also said that drive-through flu vaccinations for older people could play a role in this year's innovative winter campaign because the elderly and vulnerable won't be able to attend GP surgeries.

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And the 58-year-old leading medic stressed that instances of alcohol-related illness and mental ill-health connected to the Covid-19 lockdown are likely to significantly increase over the foreseeable future.

His comments came in an interview with the Belfast Telegraph on Wednesday, when there were no new deaths linked to the virus in Northern Ireland, meaning the total number of fatalities here remains at 556.

Another nine positive tests were also recorded, bringing the overall total on July 15 to 5,799.

Dr McBride said he could foresee local lockdowns such as the one imposed in Leicester on June 29 when non-essential shops and schools were forced to close again in the English city after a spike in positive cases.

"If we do the right thing we can impact and reduce the risk of a second wave," he said.

"It is possible that we might see localised geographical outbreaks and in those sorts of scenarios we may need to apply local measures.

"We could do down the same route as Leicester, where people were required not to do certain things. That is possible."

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The Chief Medical Officer admitted that medics here were looking for innovative ways to deal with influenza vaccinations as Northern Ireland prepares for a potential second wave of coronavirus this winter. With the flu season just months away, Dr McBride said "nothing is off the table in terms of the flu vaccine campaign".

He added: "We can't be bringing older, vulnerable people into a GP surgery. We're actively looking at innovative means of administering the vaccine. That could involve outdoor administration or drive-through flu vaccination points".

Dr McBride also voiced concerns that alcohol's harmful role in Northern Ireland society has been exacerbated during the Covid-19 crisis, which he described as "the biggest public health challenge in a generation".

He said he believed the costs associated with misuse of the substance - 900m in economic terms and 250m to the health service in 2016 - would be "significantly more now".

Referring to recent cases of crowds congregating, Mr McBride had some advice for the public going forward.

"I would ask everyone to remember where we were a few months ago," he said.

"Remember how scary a place that was. Remember the daily death toll, the people who were hospitalised, those in intensive care, those who were bereaved. Just remember that and follow the advice."
Just five months after taking office, Tunisian Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh resigned today following pressure from the leading party in his coalition.

Fakhfakh submitted his resignation to President Kais Saied, who now has two weeks to nominate a replacement. The prime minister-designate will then be tasked with forming a new government and getting parliamentary approval within two months.

The former finance minister leaves office amid a tense relationship with the Islamist-inspired Ennahda, the biggest party in Tunisia's parliament. Citing corruption allegations against Fakhfakh, lawmakers from Ennahda and three other political parties today filed a formal no-confidence motion against the premier.

Fakhfakh, who took office in February, is under investigation for alleged conflict of interest. Leaked documents last month indicated he owned shares in private companies that were awarded $15 million worth of public contracts.

He has denied any wrongdoing, and said he would resign if any ethics violations were found.

Fakhfakh was Tunisias eighth prime minister since the 2011 revolution that toppled the longtime dictator, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, and set off the regions Arab Spring uprisings.

The country is once again gripped by anti-government demonstrations, with hundreds of Tunisians taking to the streets over the weekend to protest widespread unemployment. The International Monetary Fund forecasts Tunisias economy will contract by 4.3% this year, its deepest recession since independence in 1956.
Stacey Abrams, who ran for governor of Georgia, and Tom Steyer, who ran for president of the United States, are now trying to run me out of town. Abrams, Steyer, and the leaders of 17 large environmental lobbies recently asked Facebook to ban a research group that I directthe CO2 Coalition, made up of 55 climate scientists and energy economists.

The annual budgets of these lobbies total over half a billion dollars, and Steyer alone is worth $1.6 billion. Their alarmist view of our supposedly impending environmental doom predominates in mainstream media, centering on the impact on the earth of emissions of carbon dioxidea non-polluting, mild warming gas, and an important source of plant and plankton food.

By contrast, the CO2 Coalitions annual budget is half a million dollars. Like all scientists and economists who ask for any proof of the looming apocalypse, we are excluded from mainstream-media discussion. You might wonder: how did the Steyer-Abrams crowd even notice us, let alone conclude that we posed a threat to their enforced consensus, which calls for an end to the affordable, reliable energy that powers over 80 percent of the world?

The answer is found in the work of a Silicon Valley computer entrepreneur named Eric Michelman, who became fabulously wealthy creating a modification of the computer mouse. For more than a decade now, Michelman has devoted his wealth to squelching media debate on climate changea successful dry run for the cancel culture that we see engulfing many other issues today.

In 2016, Michelman was the founding and lead funder of a group called Climate Feedback, whose purpose is to fact-check and label as false any and all deviant thoughts about fossil-fueled climate catastrophe. The group has been certified as an unbiased source on climate issues by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, which was founded by the Tampa Bay Times and operates the left-leaning PolitiFact. At some point, Facebook turned its censorship oversight over to the Poynter Institutes International Fact-Checking Network.

Thats when our organizations problems started.

In September 2019, a false label appeared on Facebook when the Washington Examiner posted an article I had written there with Dr. Patrick Michaels, our senior fellow and a former president of the American Association of State Climatologists. The op-ed described the poor performance of climate models that had projected alarming increases in future temperatures. The false label triggered a wave of censorship from Facebooks algorithms, blocking reposting and advertising.

The detailed, scientifically referenced letter we wrote to Facebook that soon got the label reversed is almost identical in form and argument to responses this summer to similar Climate Feedback censorship written by environmental writer Michael Shellenberger, Dr. Michaels (after a televised appearance on Foxs Life, Liberty, and Levin), and climate statistician Dr. Roger Pielke Jr. All of us agree: Climate Feedback is biased, sloppy, and often just flat wrong. For example, in its fact-checks, the group blatantly contradicts the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes finding that there has been no statistically significant increase in rates of sea-level rise, hurricanes, droughts, and floods during the carbon emissions era that began with the dramatic industrialization after World War II.

Climate Feedback is Michelmans third major attempt at promoting climate alarmism and silencing opposing views. First came the Climate Change Education Project, in 2008, followed by the More than Scientists campaign in 2015. When he set up that campaign, Michelman said:

Its about showing the science is settled. Studies consistently show that 97 percent of scientists agree. We want the public to both hear from them that, yeah, this is settled, but also see scientists for who they are. Theyre our neighbors, our fellow citizens, and community members. Theyre people with kids, and theyre worried about the future. When they say, Im concerned about climate change and I think we need to act on it, you can understand theyre saying it because they have kids just like you do.

Since Michelman had decided that the science was settled in favor of a 97 percent consensus on catastrophe before he even founded Climate Feedback, his group should never have been let into a network of unbiased reviewers. And its performance shows why.

Im all for debating with Climate Feedback. For 15 years as a professor at American University, I invited to my classes on climate statistics and mathematical modeling many of the groups whose leaders signed the recent letter to Facebook calling for us to be banned. But there was no response because the cancel culture doesnt believe in debate. It believes in silencing its opponents by denying them a platform. Well hold on as long as we can. I believe that the truth will outeven against fact-checkers.

Dr. Caleb Rossiter is the executive director of the CO2 Coalition.
New Delhi July 16 : An 84-year-old woman accidently locked herself inside a bed box in her house in Central Delhi's Karol Bagh on Thursday afternoon. Old age and weakness didn't let her come out on her own and she got stuck. Luckily, her granddaughter, who had installed CCTV camera in the room, noticed the accident and immediately informed the police.

"She had noticed through the CCTV camera, which she was monitoring on her mobile, that her grandmother while trying to open the box of a double bed lost control and locked herself inside the box. The police team rushed to the spot on the second floor of the house in Dev Nagar, Karol Bagh," said Sanjay Bhatia, DCP, Central Delhi.

They found that the main door of the flat was locked from inside. Without wasting time, the police arranged hammer and an iron rod and broke open the iron door of the flat. The police found the woman, Sworsh Kohli, inside the box of the bed.

She could not come out of the box due to her old age and weakness. In the meanwhile, the caller, Nancy, and her husband also reached the spot from Alaknanda in South Delhi. The old woman is stable and ok. The family thanked police for prompt action which saved the life of the woman.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 18:51:45|Editor: huaxia

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SEOUL, July 16 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Thursday asked the parliament to legally formalize the agreements reached during the past inter-Korean summits.

"If irreversible progress in inter-Korean relations and peace on the Korean Peninsula can be guaranteed by the National Assembly, it will make the foundation for peace-building on the Korean Peninsula much stronger," Moon said in a speech to address the opening ceremony of the 21st National Assembly.

"Legally formalizing all the outcomes of previous inter-Korean summits and staging the first-ever inter-Korean parliamentary meeting are the fruits of the 21st National Assembly that I really look forward to seeing," he noted.

Moon held his first summit with Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in April 2018 at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom, announcing the Panmunjom Declaration after the summit.

Another meeting between the leaders of the two Koreas was held in September of the year, agreeing to a comprehensive military agreement to stop all hostile acts near the inter-Korean border.

"We must not halt our march towards peace. Dialogue is the only way to build trust between the two Koreas," Moon said.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said a week earlier that the United States was "very hopeful" to continue dialogue with the DPRK at various levels.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and special envoy for DPRK Stephen Biegun said last week in Seoul that Washington was ready for talks with Pyongyang.

Denuclearization talks between Pyongyang and Washington have been stalled since the Hanoi summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump ended with no agreement in February 2019.

"When the two Koreas cooperate in trust, it will benefit both of us. Merely connecting the roads of the two Koreas to link them with the continent will bring enormous economic benefits to the two Koreas as a logistical hub," Moon said.

The two Koreas held a groundbreaking ceremony in December 2018 in the DPRK's border city of Kaesong to modernize and reconnect railways and roads across the inter-Korean border along the eastern and western peninsula, but construction works had yet to start due to international sanctions against Pyongyang.

Tensions escalated on the peninsula as the DPRK demolished the inter-Korean liaison office building in Kaesong last month in protest against anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent across the border by South Korean civic group activists, mostly defectors from the DPRK. Pyongyang has cut off all communication lines with Seoul. Enditem
The case against four social workers charged in connection with the brutal 2013 torture death of 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez has been dropped, as the family's attorney blasts the judge's ruling a 'catastrophic decision'.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge George Lomeli dismissed the charges of child abuse and falsifying records against social workers Stefanie Rodrigez, 35, Patricia Clement, 59, and their respective supervisors, Kevin Bom, 41, and Gregory Merritt, 64, Thursday morning.

Lomeli said he was dropping the charges after being directed to do so by a California appeals court - almost two years after he previously denied a motion to drop them back in September 2018.

Gabriel was murdered by his mother Pearl Fernandez and her boyfriend Isauro Aguirre in May 2013, after suffering a campaign of torture at their hands for many months.

The little boy was forced to eat his own vomit and cat feces, shot with BB guns leaving him with pellets lodged in his lung and groin, beaten with bats and burned with cigarettes before being beaten to death.

His horrifying death shocked the nation and triggered a string of internal investigations within Child Protective Services and charges being brought against the four social workers.

The case against four social workers charged in connection with the brutal 2013 torture death of 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez (pictured) has been dropped, as the family's attorney blasts the judge's ruling a 'catastrophic decision'

The dismissal of the charges was expected after a panel in the 2nd District Court of Appeal directed the lower court to toss them out in January.

'We conclude that the petitioners never had the requisite duty to control the abusers and did not have care or custody of Gabriel,' wrote Justice Francis Rothschild.

'There is, therefore, no probable cause to hold them on charges of violating those laws and the trial court should have granted the motions to dismiss.'

Lomeli, who presided over the murder trial of Fernandez and Aguirre in 2018, pointed to the ruling of the higher court when he dismissed the charges Thursday.

'The motion to dismiss has been granted,' he said in the short socially distanced court hearing.

Brian Claypool, the attorney for Gabriel's family, condemned the outcome as a 'colossal disaster'.

'The California appellate court decided the social workers have immunity from criminal prosecution. That is a catastrophic decision,' he told KTLA.

'It's one of the worst decisions I've ever seen in my life.'

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge George Lomeli dismissed the charges of child abuse and falsifying records against social workers Stefanie Rodrigez, 35, Patricia Clement, 59, and their respective supervisors, Kevin Bom, 41, and Gregory Merritt, 64, in court (pictured) Thursday morning

Brian Claypool, the attorney for Gabriel's family, condemned the outcome as a 'colossal disaster' (above)

The Department of Children and Family Services issued a statement saying it respected the decision and is working to reform the system following the high-profile case.

'We respect the court's decision,' the statement read.

'Over the years, the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services has taken significant steps to mitigate risk and improve our capacity countywide in order to best serve vulnerable children and families and as a department we remain committed to ensuring that reform continues.'

Prosecutors filed the charges against Rodriguez, Clement, Bom and Merritt back in April 2016, almost three years after Gabriel's murder, saying the social workers had a 'legal duty' to protect the victim.

'By minimizing the significance of the physical, mental and emotional injuries that Gabriel suffered, these social workers allowed a vulnerable boy to remain at home and continue to be abused,' District Attorney Jackie Lacey said at the time.

Gabriel's teacher had repeatedly called social workers in the months leading up to his death to say she was concerned he was being beaten at home.

She filed several complaints about the boy coming to school covered in bruises, s cratches and a 'busted lip' and, reported one instance where Gabriel told her his mother shot him in the face with a BB gun.

Gabriel's therapist also called 911 after discovering a suicide note written by the child, but social workers later dismissed the complaint.

Gabriel Fernandez, 8, suffered eight months of torture including being forced to eat his own vomit and cat feces, shot with BB guns, beaten with bats and burned with cigarettes before being beaten to death

Gabriel's mother Pearl Fernandez (right) and her boyfriend Isauro Aguirre (left) during their murder trial

The month of his death, Gabriel told his therapist he was forced to perform oral sex on an older relative - information that was also passed to social services.

The case was repeatedly overlooked by the DCFS until the little boy's death in May 2013 when Aguirre delivered a fatal blow.

Fernandez dialed 911 on May 22 claiming her son had fallen and hit his head on a dresser and stopped breathing.

It later transpired he had been fatally beaten that night because he failed to pick up his toys - but the torture had persisted over a period of eight months.

Paramedics who responded to the call said the abuse Gabriel suffered was unspeakable and nurses and doctors at the hospital said it was some of the worst they had ever seen.

At the time of his death his skull was fractured, his teeth had been knocked out and the inside of his throat was burned. He also had a laceration near his penis.

Gabriel was placed on life support after being declared brain dead at the hospital.

His life support was turned off two days later.

Pearl Fernandez was sentenced in 2018 to life in prison without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to first-degree murder and admitting to a special circumstance allegation of intentional murder by torture.

Aguirre was sentenced to death after being convicted by a jury of first-degree murder with a special circumstance of torture.
Senior Afghan and Iranian diplomats are meeting to work on an agreement leading to comprehensive cooperation between their countries.

Afghan and Iranian Foreign ministry officials are scheduled to hold a joint meeting with their respective economic, transit, and defense-security committees on July 16.

The meetings are part of an effort to revive strained relations following recent incidents in which Iranian security forces allegedly abused and even killed Afghan migrants.

The Afghan Foreign Ministry said the meeting will be attended by the foreign ministries of both countries and will follow up on the results of Afghan Foreign Minister Hanif Atmars visit to Tehran three weeks ago.

During the diplomatic engagement, the two countries agreed on a document for comprehensive cooperation that will be finalized and signed by senior officials during the next three months.

A key aspect of the document states that all Afghan immigrants living in Iran must receive legal residence cards in the country.

This comes after strained relations persisted between the two neighboring countries following the drowning of dozens of Afghan refugees in the Harirud River by Iranian border patrol officers in early May. The Iranian border patrol reportedly beat and drowned Afghan refugees, leaving 12 confirmed dead.

A few weeks later, another incident took place in the central Iranian city of Yazd in which three Afghans died and several others were injured after a car chase with police, Iranian media reported.

The two events have led Afghans to protest in the streets and on social media to denounce Iranian authorities for what they say is abuse and discrimination against the estimated 1 million Afghan migrants and refugees in neighboring Iran.

The signing of the comprehensive cooperation document is vital to prevent the recurrence of such illegal acts on the borders of Iran and Afghanistan.

The Afghan Foreign Ministry has not given full disclosure on the topics that will be discussed in their meeting.
SEATTLE, JULY 16, 2020  Melinda Gates has launched a paper exploring how the COVID-19 pandemic has exploited pre-existing inequalities and drastically impacted womens lives and livelihoods. In the paper, titled The Pandemics Toll on Women and Girls, Melinda makes the case that to recover fully from this pandemic, leaders must respond to the ways that it is affecting men and women differently.

She puts forward a set of specific, practical policy recommendations that governments should consider in their pandemic responseto improve health systems for women and girls, design more inclusive economic policies, gather better data, and prioritize womens leadership.

Writing in the paper, Melinda describes how previous disease outbreaks, including AIDS and Ebola, tend to exploit existing forces of inequality, particularly around gender, systemic racism, and poverty. The broader impacts of this crisis are having a disproportionate impact on women and girls.

In Africa, for example, women account for around 40% of COVID-19 cases. However, African women and girls are disproportionately affected by reduced access to health care services and are at greater risk of gender-based violence. Women make up the majority of workers in the informal sector, which leaves them at greater risk of losing their income.

Describing the impact of stretched health systems on maternal care, the paper notes that in low- and middle-income countries, cutbacks could claim the lives of up to 113,000 women. We know from the past that this threat is real. During the 2014 Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone, the number of mothers and babies who died during or after childbirth was higher than the number of deaths from the Ebola virus.

That is what epidemics do: they not only overwhelm immune systems; they also overwhelm health systems, Melinda writes in the paper. And because the parts of those systems devoted to caring for women are often the most fragile and underfunded, they collapse first and fastest.

The paper calls for leaders to ensure that women and girls are not left behind in the worlds response to COVID-19. It urges policymakers to recognize the opportunity to replace old systems with new and better ones, outlining practical recommendations around health, economics, and decision-making that could help build a more equal and prosperous future.

Recommendations include making maternal and reproductive healthcare an essential service, protecting the contraceptive supply chain, and using the pandemic as an opportunity to integrate womens healthcare. The paper also highlights the importance of designing emergency economic relief programs that reach women who need them the most and ensuring womens voices are included at all levels of decision-making in the response to this crisis.

Melinda concludes, This is how we can emerge from the pandemic in all of its dimensions: by recognizing that women are not just victims of a broken world; they can be architects of a better one.

To read the paper, visit https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/world/2020-07-15/melinda-gates-pandemics-toll-women

Melinda Gates will join Mrs. Graca Machel for a discussion hosted by Africa.com on Thursday July 16th at 5.30pm Abuja/6.30pm Johannesburg/7.30pm Nairobi. Register for the event here: The Impact of COVID-19 on Women and Girls: A Call to Action

About Melinda Gates

Melinda French Gates is a philanthropist, businesswoman, and global advocate for women and girls. As the co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Melinda sets the direction and priorities of the worlds largest philanthropy. She is also the founder of Pivotal Ventures, an investment and incubation company working to drive social progress for women and families in the United States, and the author of the bestselling book The Moment of Lift.

Melinda grew up in Dallas, Texas. She received a bachelors degree in computer science from Duke University and an MBA from Dukes Fuqua School. Melinda spent the first decade of her career developing multimedia products at Microsoft before leaving the company to focus on her family and philanthropic work. She lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband, Bill. They have three children, Jenn, Rory, and Phoebe.
Paris, TX (75460)

Today

Partly cloudy skies in the morning will give way to cloudy skies during the afternoon. Slight chance of a rain shower. Morning high of 59F with temps falling sharply to near 40. WSW winds shifting to NNW at 15 to 25 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. Low 23F. Winds N at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.
VALPARAISO  Nearly six months after taking part in an alleged robbery that resulted in the death of his alleged crime partner, Valparaiso resident John Williams appeared Thursday for an initial hearing on a charge of murder and eight other counts.

Williams, who appeared in court via a teleconference system from the Porter County Jail, spoke little as his rights and charges were read to him by Porter Circuit Court Judge Mary DeBoer.

DeBoer told Williams his case was being transferred to Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Clymer because he already has a pending matter in that courtroom.

A status hearing will be held Friday.

Williams, 27, is accused of holding down and battering a man Jan. 29 at the man's Valparaiso apartment while his friend, Travis Thompson, searched the unit for marijuana and THC wax, police said.

During the encounter, the man being held down grabbed a knife and while targeting Williams, wound up stabbing Thompson, 36, of Valparaiso, according to police.
There is room only for one leader, It is the same culture that has been enacted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the BJP

The various interpretations of the ongoing political drama in Rajasthan have not exhausted themselves.

Many of the political watchers favour the theory of the failed coup on the part of Sachin Pilot, the states former deputy chief minister and PCC president, and that chief minister Ashok Gehlot had saved the day for the Congress because he is supposedly the grassroots man who proved his worth by keeping the flock together, unlike Kamal Nath and Digvijay Singh in Madhya Pradesh and Siddharamaiah and D.K. Shivakumar in Karnataka. It is a very plausible theory.

In these three states, the BJP, where former party chief and Union home minister Amit Shahs manipulative skills are in the forefront, was casting a long shadow.

The BJP and Mr Shah failed to call the shots correctly in Maharashtra, but got it right in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.

In Manipur, Mr Shah had to salvage the sinking ship of a BJP government. The intriguing question is the possible role played by the BJP in rocking the boat of the Ashok Gehlot government.

It should not be forgotten that the Congress and Mr Gehlot got all the members of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to cross over, which was as wily a thing to do as the BJPs attempt to woo a disgruntled Sachin Pilot.

Mr Gehlot, after surviving the Pilot scare, might rightfully point an accusing finger at the BJPs attempts to engineer defections from the Congress, but the BJP is not the real problem behind the Congress Partys woes, not in Rajasthan, not in Madhya Pradesh, and not in Karnataka.

Most political pundits see the episode as the folly of an ambitious leader, Mr Pilot, who had miscalculated his own strength and who had overreached his own abilities as a party man.

But what goes unnoticed is the fact that Mr Gehlot was out to get the suave and relatively young Sachin Pilot because the latter was a thorn in Mr Gehlots side, and Mr Gehlot would have none of it. And Mr Pilot was not willing to play the role of a meek valet to Mr Gehlot.

There was nothing unusual in the clash between the two leaders. That is the stuff of day-to-day politics. The test of Mr Gehlots political maturity would have been in handling the ambitious Mr Pilot without letting him feel threatened by the incumbent CM.

But Indias political culture has changed over the last half century. Indira Gandhi did not want to be bothered by rivals in the ranks after proving herself the indispensable vote-catcher with a mass base. Many Congress leaders without the charisma of Indira Gandhi, however, want to be the undisputed leader in his or her own lair.

There is room only for one leader. It is the same culture that has been enacted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the BJP.

He does not brook any rivalry, and in the process others with the stature of a leader are firmly kept in their place. But if there are no leaders other than the top leader, then the government and the party are poorer for it.

In the Congress system, and the symptoms are evident in the BJP as well, there is not a team of leaders in their own right, who defer to the man or woman elected from among them as equals. There is only the leader, and the rest are mere followers.

Had there been a contest for the leadership immediately after the Aseembly elections in the Congress Legislature Party, and had Mr Gehlot edged out Mr Pilot in a fair contest, then Mr Pilot would have had no opportunity to nurse the grievance that he has been denied what was his due. And after winning the contest, Mr Gehlot could have displayed the goodwill of accommodating Mr Pilot in the Cabinet.

If the clash of wills between the two came in the way of smooth governance, Mr Gehlot could have rightfully dropped Mr Pilot from the Cabinet.

It cannot be the case that if you disagree with the party leader, you are an enemy of the party. It would have been more instructive and enlightening to know what the differences between Mr Gehlot and Mr Pilot were, and it would have been possible for the two to have honourable disagreements without Mr Gehlot and others in the Congress raising the pathetic cry of traitor, who hobnobbed with the enemy against Mr Pilot.

The feudalism that is prevalent in the Congress system is not confined to that party alone. It is the defining characteristic of Indias party politics. There is room only for a single leader, and everyone else will have to take their place below that of the leader on high.

India might be a vibrant mass democracy, but it has not evolved the sophisticated means of creating space for many leaders instead of just one, and the honourable way of settling the issue of the top leader who is first among equals. India lacks the democratic culture to do so.

There is nothing unusual about the clash between Mr Gehlot and Mr Pilot, but what is really wanting is a honourable and decent way of settling the claims of the two leaders.
University of California system names 1st Black president

Dr. Michael Drake was chosen Tuesday to be president of the University of California, the first Black leader in the systems 150-year history.

Drake, a seasoned university administrator, replaces Janet Napolitano in overseeing a sprawling, 280,000-student system dealing with issues of accessibility for Blacks and other minorities, along with slashed budgets and upended campus life because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Drake is a UC-trained physician who served as chancellor of the University of California, Irvine, and also led The Ohio State University before retiring from that job last month.

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The UC Board of Regents unanimously approved Drakes appointment.

Im excited and ready to go, Drake told the board, noting the challenging times amid the pandemic, the threat of climate change, and the yawning wounds of social injustice that we see in so many ways that really tears at the fabric of our lives.

He noted that the UC system is best equipped worldwide to be fully engaged in finding solutions.

Napolitano, whose seven years as president end Aug. 1, said Drakes appointment is one more step in our universitys ongoing effort to ensure that the university reflects the rich diversity of our state. It follows other recent decisions by this board to address issues of inequity and systemic racism in our society.

Napolitano and Drakes references to systemic racism and social injustice echo the topics of mass protests worldwide following the death of George Floyd, a black man, who died in Minnesota after a white officer pressed a knee to his neck.

The first woman to serve as UC president, Napolitano added that: I recognize the significance of these firsts and while I hope that this kind of leadership diversity at our nations universities will soon become commonplace, I am humbled and grateful to have been part of this chapter in UCs history.

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Drake was UC Irvines chancellor from 2005 to 2014, when the university increased the number of applicants for undergraduate admission by more than 90% and added programs in law, public health, pharmaceutical sciences and nursing science.

Drake went on to become president at The Ohio State University. In that position, he worked to increase the numbers of minority and underrepresented students. The university boosted financial aid, and introduced changes to the tuition model.

Im a firm believer in inclusion. It takes all of us to do our best work, Drake said at an afternoon teleconference, adding that it will be a critical part of our moving forward.

Drake said that during his Ohio tenure, the school reversed a 20-year trend of decreasing African American enrollment, with the number of Blacks admitted to the university doubling between 2014 and 2020. The school also dramatically increased retention and graduation rates for all students, Drake said.

He also worked to create minority representation during his years in the UC system. Prior to UC Irvine, he served as vice chancellor for health affairs for the UC system. He earned his medical degree in ophthalmology at UC San Francisco.

Michael is a wise and thoughtful leader, never afraid to do the right thing at the right time, said Kim A. Wilcox, UC Riversides chancellor, who served with Drake on the board of the University Innovation Alliance, a group of 11 public universities working to improve college access for low-income students, first-generation students, and students of color.

Drake takes the helm as the state budget cuts more than $470 million from the UC system, and many campuses have already announced plans for mostly online instruction in the fall.

I am confident that Dr. Drake is the leader we need to guide our world-class higher education system through this time of unprecedented challenge, Gov. Gavin Newsom said.

The announcement also comes as the California State University system is searching for a new leader. President Timothy White announced he would retire in June, but delayed his departure until the fall because of the pandemic.

Napolitano oversaw historic expansions at the 10-campus system and championed immigrant students. When she took the post in 2013, Napolitano seemed an unconventional choice to lead the prestigious public university system. She had no ties to UC and no experience in academic leadership in her career.

Napolitano has been governor of Arizona, secretary of U.S. Homeland Security, a federal prosecutor and a partner in a prominent Phoenix law firm.

During her tenure at UC, Napolitano won praise for helping to boost enrollment to historic numbers and reforming sexual misconduct policies.

However a state audit in 2016 found that Napolitanos office not only amassed millions of dollars in reserve funds that werent disclosed but that top aides also sought to suppress criticism of her office in surveys that were supposed to be confidential and sent directly to the state auditor.

State Auditor Elaine Howles report said there was insufficient evidence to conclude Napolitano knew or approved of any interference. But the investigation and subsequent oversight prompted a rare public rebuke by the UCs governing Board of Regents, and the university adopted measures to improve transparency.

Napolitano has battled a recurrence of breast cancer, but when she announced her resignation last September she said her health was good. She plans to resume teaching at UC Berkeleys Goldman School of Public Policy in the fall of 2021.
Blue and White Chairman Benny Gantz, who is Israel's alternate prime minister and defense minister, hoped that the series of interviews he gave to the country's three main TV stations July 15, from isolation in his home in Rosh HaAyin, would ameliorate his public relations failure  if only partially.

The interviews were prerecorded and supposed to be broadcast on prime-time evening TV, with the goal of creating a buzz. Gantz came prepared with a page of messages to the public and two headlines: One addressed the possibility that Israel would renew a countrywide lockdown, in light of the daily escalation in the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. The second headline involved Gantzs insistence on a two-year budget, as opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who seeks a one-year budget. This last difference of opinion could, in an unlikely scenario, even lead to elections.

But while Gantz was preparing for his important interviews, Netanyahu and Finance Minister Israel Katz were busy putting the finishing touches on another whirlwind economic plan to be presented during a press conference. Netanyahu intended to take over the public agenda that day, just as Gantz was readying himself to do the same.

Over the last few days, Netanyahu has had to deal with a rising wave of protests and demonstrations; he needed an immediate fix to calm down the masses. The previous night, on July 14, a stormy demonstration had taken place opposite Netanyahus house on Jerusalems Balfour Street, which ended with dozens of arrests and a sense of loss of control. Similar to the decision of US President Donald Trump to dispense money to the public at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, Netanyahu decided on an immediate dispensation of grants to all the countrys citizens.

Gantz was updated by Netanyahu and Katz on their intentions to divvy up 6 billion shekels ($1.75 billion), only several hours before the July 15 press conference.

Even though Gantz bears the title of alternate prime minister, Netanyahu and his people did not consult with him or take into consideration Gantzs principled opposition to handing out money without distinguishing between those who truly need help and those who dont. Gantz's approach is the one recommended by the highest levels of the Finance Ministry, headed by the governor of the Bank of Israel.

Netanyahu simply announced his decision to the alternate prime minister. True, the prime minister suggested that Gantz himself take part in the press conference, but even Gantz understood that this would cause him more harm than good, and refused to appear.

The bottom line is that Gantzs interviews were overshadowed by the tremendous noise caused by the live press conference, resulting in hundreds of thousands of citizens glued to their TV screens. Once again, Netanyahu took control of the public agenda and, after several long weeks of COVID-19 hibernation, returned to the front lines. As expected, the Netanyahu-Katz proposal was attacked on all sides and still needs government approval. But it achieved its purpose: There is less talk on the streets about demonstrations and, should Gantz oppose the move, Netanyahu will still emerge as the figure who tried to assist and aid the public.

The event described here is another expression of the severe crisis of confidence between Netanyahu and Gantz  two people who promised the public to resolve the coronavirus crisis. But they have not succeeded in creating a mechanism for working together in harmony and partnership to resolve one of the greatest crises ever known by the State of Israel.

Almost everything becomes the subject of argument and tension between the sides: the budget, Netanyahus war on the legal system, opposing worldviews. To that we add inflated egos and the inflated number of ministers from both sides who are fighting to achieve "relevance"  at each others expense.

Gantz is sure that Netanyahu is preparing the ground for early elections, and has no intentions of vacating the prime ministers office in another year and a half, as agreed in the unity deal between the Likud and the Blue and White parties. In this instance, this is not paranoia but a real possibility. Netanyahu, on his part, hates every moment in this government. He became used to ruling with an iron fist, almost alone without real opposition in the government. But now he has to take into account the opinions of the Blue and White ministers as he manages the crisis, and he encounters obstacles. On July 14, he tried to reclose the countrys swimming pools and gyms, and was blocked by the ministers; the issue made its way to the Knessets COVID-19 committee, which reversed his decision. The pools and gyms were not closed, causing citizens on the street to feel that something is not right about how the country is run.

Netanyahu feels like Gulliver in the land of Lilliput. All kinds of young ministers from Blue and White preach to him in government meetings. He is suffering and, in my opinion, regrets that he did not call for elections when he was riding high in the polls, said a Likud minister to Al-Monitor under condition of anonymity.

On the evening of July 14, on the backdrop of bad publicity regarding the overwhelming spread of the coronavirus, a highly placed Likud member harshly criticized Gantz  and his words were quoted in the media. The Likud member said that the prime minister is furious at Gantz and his party for foiling the steps needed to halt the spread of the infection, and that Blue and White did so for political reasons. Gantz and Blue and White must put an immediate end to the political games they are playing with regard to COVID-19; this behavior puts the lives of Israeli citizens in danger. Since the unity government mandates that all decisions must be made in agreement between the Likud and Blue and White, they [Likud] torpedo all resolutions that are not in line with their populistic considerations, the highly placed contact said, thus adding fuel to the fire.

Gantz had no doubt that the words of the Likud official came straight from Netanyahus office, and he fought back. A short time later, a Blue and White official accused Netanyahu of trying to place the blame for his own failed treatment of the COVID-19 crisis on Gantz  and that the prime minister is not allowing Gantz, as defense minister, to conduct the anti-COVID-19 fight himself. This is not the time for politics or any type of [internal] battle  only battles to rehabilitate the economy, health system and society.  There are those who address these issues, and those who flee taking responsibility for them, the Blue and White official, quoted as an anonymous source, told the press.

As of this morning, efforts were being made by both sides to douse the flames of civil war. Blue and White ministers were interviewed, including Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, who limited himself to low-key criticism of Netanyahus largesse to the nation. Thats what happens when two opposing sides are imprisoned in a nightmare government at the heights of a mega-crisis, and they have nowhere to run.

But the writing on the wall signals another upcoming political altercation, which is expected to erupt very soon. Netanyahu must bring his money-allocation program for approval of the government next week.
The Pound Sterling Australian Dollar (GBP/AUD) exchange rate remained flat on Thursday morning. This left the pairing trading at around AU$1.7950.

The Aussie remained muted against Sterling this morning after data revealed Australias unemployment rate rose. This comes despite employment surging by a record in June as more people looked for work as the economy began to reopen after the coronavirus lockdown.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed employment jumped by 210,800 in June after huge declines in April and May.

However, AUD struggled as the jobless rate hit a 22-year high of 7.4% as the jump in job growth could not offset the number of people looking for work.

The number of those classed as unemployed rose from 69,300 to 992,300 last month. This weighed on the Australian Dollar as this was close to a third more than unemployment statistics during the 2008 global financial crisis.

Economists noted that the unemployment rate would have been well above 11% if it were not for the governments wage subsidy scheme which allowed businesses to keep staff on payrolls despite working zero hours.

The second wave of coronavirus infections in Victoria is also weighing on the employment outlook for Australia, and in a note, UBS economist, George Tharenou wrote:

Looking ahead, we continue to expect weakness in the labour market, with employment to relapse in Q4, and unemployment to increase further to 8%.

Meanwhile, Sterling was left flat today as the latest employment data revealed the slump in the labour market slowed in June.

However, this mornings data did not include the slew of recent job losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The early indicators showed that the number of people on employers payrolls were down by 649,000 in the three months to June. The data also suggests that the largest falls in employment were at the start of the pandemic.

Although, the data showed that Britains unemployment rate held steady at 3.9% in between March and May despite economists expecting the rate to jump to 4.2%.

An official from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) noted the unemployment rate had been helf down by around half a million people who were away from work and receiving no pay due to the crisis, but still believed they had a job.

Sterling also remained under pressure as the labour market showed further signs of weakness as the number of job vacancies fell.

In the three months to June, vacancies fell to the lowest level since the data series began in 2001. This weighed on GBP sentiment as this was around 23% lower than the previous record low hit in 2009.

Pound to Australian Dollar Outlook: Will Consumer Confidence Boost GBP?

Looking ahead to this afternoon, the Pound (GBP) could edge lower against the Australian Dollar (AUD) following a speech from the Bank of Englands (BoE) governor.

If a dovish Governor Andrew Bailey highlights recent weak data from the UK it will send Sterling lower.

However, overnight the Pound could claw back some of these losses following the release of the latest consumer confidence data.

If Julys flash UK confidence rises higher than expected, it will offer GBP some support. This could leave the Pound Australian Dollar (GBP/AUD) exchange rate largely flat.
L to R: Nurse Kim Harrington in Houston, Texas, July 1, 2020, nurse Quinnece Washington in Los Angeles, CA, June 3, 2020, nurse Amanda Hamilton, Los Angeles, CA, June 3, 2020.

Carolyn Cole, Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

On Wednesday, US hospitals stopped directly reporting coronavirus capacity, staffing, and supply-related data to the CDC.

Instead, they now send information directly to the US Department of Health and Human Services, through a newer database, built with several private contractors.

HHS and CDC maintain that they can both still see and share all the same data.

But the information is now hidden from public view.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

On Wednesday, hospitals across the country abruptly stopped telling the US Centers for Disease Control how many beds they have available, and how many are filling up with coronavirus patients.

The Trump administration's Department of Health and Human Services, the arm of the federal government that oversees the CDC, will now keep data in a more secretive, newer database built with private contractors, called HHS Protect, instead of sending such information directly to the CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN).

"No one is taking access or data away from CDC," CDC Director Robert Redfield said on a call with reporters Wednesday, discussing the shift. "Approximately a thousand CDC experts have and will continue to have access to the raw data collected by the HHS Protect."

Related video: 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.

But access to that data for the general public, and anyone who hasn't been security-screened, in person, by HHS employees, has been cut off.

Read more: A secretive government project to track coronavirus data is now at the center of a Trump controversy. Here's what you need to know about HHS Protect.

"Every single individual that accesses HHS Protect is authenticated," HHS Chief Information Officer Jose Arrieta, whose office runs Protect, said on the call Wednesday. "That means a civilian member of the HHS staff actually meets with them, checks their passport and ID, and allows them access to the system."

Story continues

Several of the CDC's public data dashboards, which previously displayed hospital capacity estimates across much of the country, and showed  to anyone with a working internet connection  where the percentage of inpatient hospital beds across the country was dwindling as the coronavirus spreads, and the number of COVID-19 cases rise, are now defunct.

This is what the dashboards looked like on Wednesday night and Thursday morning:

Publicly-available dashboards tracking hospital bed capacity on the CDC's website are now defunct.

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

"Effective July 15, 2020, hospitals will no longer report COVID-19 capacity, staffing, and supply-related data to CDC's NHSN," a CDC press officer told Business Insider in an email. "Thus, NHSN hospital-reported COVID-19 data summaries will no longer be provided."

By Thursday afternoon, the CDC had rewound its dashboards to show the agency's last available data sets from July 14, but the CDC noted that files and maps will "not be updated" by the agency anymore, and that HHS is taking control of US hospitals' COVID-19 reporting.

cdc_no_more_hospital_data

CDC

The CDC and HHS both maintain that the shift will cut down on reporting work for hospitals, make the federal coronavirus surveillance system less clunky, and make it easier for first responders around the country to see, in real time, where coronavirus cases are surging, and better forecast where disease outbreaks may be heading next.

Former CDC insiders are worried the agency's getting sidelined

But former CDC insiders remain concerned.

"It's another example of CDC being sidelined," former acting CDC Director Richard Besser told CNN. "Not only should the data be coming to CDC, but CDC should be talking to the public through the media every day."

HHS is contracting with private companies on the project, including Palantir, a software company cofounded by investor and Trump associate Peter Thiel, and Pittsburgh-based health system software company TeleTracking.

Democratic Senator Patty Murray raised alarm bells about the shift away from the CDC's more public system last month, blasting the HHS for awarding TeleTracking a $10 million, 6-month contract for its work on a "duplicative" system.

"Over 60 percent of the nation's hospitals were reporting daily, through the NHSN COVID-19 module," Murray said in a letter sent to the CDC and HHS on June 3.

"Amid a pandemic that calls for robust data on both COVID-19 and the US response to it, critical data remain out of reach to communities working to mitigate the pandemic and planning their response."

HHS could still, if the agency chose, make the data on Protect publicly available, but it hasn't yet.

"We have the ability to share data with the public via HHS Protect," Arrieta told reporters on Wednesday, adding that the data is currently available to members of the CDC, and to "first responders at the state level."

"We're exploring the best way to make this information available to the public," he said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Defense ministry spokesperson Shushan Stepanyan noted that no Armenian UAF had been shot down.

"The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan published false information about an allegation that an X-55 UAV that belongs to the Armenian Armed Forces, was destroyed on July 16," she wrote on her Facebook.

"No any UAV that belongs to the Armenian Armed Forces has been destroyed, and the image attached to the release does not correspond with reality.

UPDATE  There are no UAVs of that design presently used in the arsenals of the Armenian Armed Forces.

With this, the enemy is trying to somehow downplay its numerous losses- both human and equipment."
Taoiseach Micheal Martin will have to restrict his movements when he is not on official business after returning home this weekend from Brussels to reduce Covid-19 risks.

Acting chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn confirmed that the Taoiseach will not be exempt from a form of quarantine after coming back from the EU Council Summit which takes place tomorrow and Saturday.

Micheal Martin will visit the Belgian city to discuss the EU's funding and budgets . He will be exempt from self quarantine while on essential business when he comes home but outside of that he needs to restrict his movements for two weeks. Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney previously said it is an essential trip for the Taoiseach. Asked about the Taoiseach at todays health briefing Dr Glynn said he will have clear advice around that. The work the Taoiseach will be doing will be essential work and I am sure how he acts will be done in the safest manner. He said essential workers who come into the country when not doing the essential business should be restricting their movements.
Rahul Tiwari, the man who showed courage to stood up against notorious gangster Vikas Dubey, who was killed in an encounter by Uttar Pradesh police on July 10, returned home on Wednesday (July 15). Tiwari talked to media and told the story of Vikas Dubey's terror in Kanpur's Bikru village.

Rahul Tiwari said he was at loggerheads with Vikas Dubey due to his in-laws property and he was returning home on motorcycle on June 27 when Dubey's associates attacked him and took away his motorcycle and money. After this, he went to the police station to file a complaint. On July 1, SO Vinay Tiwari asked told him that he wants to probe the matter and after this he and Tiwari went to the spot where Tiwari was thrashed by Vikas Dubey's henchmen. Tiwari added that he was once again beaten up by Dubey's men in front of SO Tiwari and Dubey's henchmen also threatened SO Tiwari.

Tiwari said that SO Tiwari thought that Dubey's men would kill him and then he took out his janeu (a special thread worn by pandits) and urged Dubey's henchmen to show some mercy to pandits. Then Vikas Dubey took out water of river Ganga and gave it to us, said Tiwari. He added that Dubey also gave the water to SO Tiwari and SO Tiwari then asked Dubey to vow that he will not kill Rahul Tiwari. Tiwari said that he was thrashed by Shivam, Bal Govind, Atul Dubey, Sunil Kumar and Amar Dubey. Tiwari noted that Dubey was a big 'terrorist'.

Tiwari said that after that Dubey asked him some questions and returned his motorcycle. According to Tiwari, he got scared and thought that Dubey will kill him the next day and that's why he went to Captain's home who asked him to visit police station again. Tiwari added that at the police station, the Station Officer registered his complaint and decided to take action against Dubey. The cops went to Dubey's home in Kanpur's Bikru village on the intervening night of July 2 and July 3 and were ambushed and killed by Dubey and his henchmen. A total of 8 cops were martyred by Dubey on that night.

Tiwari said that he was very afraid after the Bikru incident and switched off his mobile phone and went incommunicado. Tiwari added that he went to Captain after the encounter, who arranged a gunner for his security and then he returned to his village.

It is to be noted that Tiwari was missing since the Bikru encounter. Tiwari is the same man who has filed an FIR against Vikas at Chaubeypur police station on June 30.
Some 255 lawmakers voted for the appointment.

The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has appointed Olha Pishchanska as chairperson of the country's Antimonopoly Committee.

Some 255 lawmakers voted for the appointment, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

Read alsoRada approves antimonopoly committee chief's resignation

As UNIAN reported earlier, the Verkhovna Rada on July 3 adopted a resolution to dismiss Yuriy Terentyev from the post of the Antimonopoly Committee's Chairman, which he had held since May 2015.

After the dismissal, his First Deputy Chairperson, Pishchanska, became acting head of the antitrust agency.

A motion to appoint Pishchanska as the Antimonopoly Committee's chairperson was tabled in parliament on July 15.
Blood vessel phyllopods (magenta) touching sensory neurons (green), which also emit phylopods into the blood vessels. These images can be seen thanks to the use of transgenic lines that mark each cell type with fluorescent proteins of different colors. Credit: Universitat Pompeu Fabra - Barcelona

Researchers at Pompeu Fabra University have shown for the first time that blood vessels communicate with neurons in the peripheral nervous system, regulating their proliferation and differentiation. The study is published today in the journal Cell Reports and was conducted using zebrafish as a model. It was led by Berta Alsina, principal investigator of the Morphogenesis and Cell Signaling in Sensory Systems group, and involved Laura Taberner and Aitor Banon.

The researchers, using real-time videos, have discovered that both the neurons and the cells of blood vessels emit dynamic protrusions to be able to 'talk' to each other. These protrusions are called signaling filopodia or cytonemes and they have a receptor or ligand at the tip that allows them to send signals. It was only very recently discovered and it is a highly precise signaling mechanism, both in space and in time.

"It was known that vessel cells and stem cells in the brain communicate but this is the first time it has been witnessed through cytonemes in the peripheral nervous system," Berta Alsina explains. "By using high resolution spatiotemporal visualization techniques in vivo we have seen them in real time and they might also be in the brain," she adds.

This communication allows maintaining some precursors of neurons in quiescence, i.e., dormant, and they constitute a reservoir of stem cells. So, if later on in adulthood an injury occurs, quiescent cells can be activated and replace damaged neurons.

In this time-lapse video is shown the development of a zebrafish embryo for 12 hours in which the blood vessels are marked in magenta and the sensory neurons in green, which allows us to observe the interaction of these two cell types. Credit: Laura Taberner, Pompeu Fabra University.

Laura Taberner, first author of the study, explains that "if all neuronal precursors proliferated and differentiated we would not have this reservoir and there would not be the opportunity for regeneration. In the auditory and vestibular system, which is what we are studying, cases of deafness or vertigo may arise."

The study also concludes that the precursors are initially in a hypoxic environment, i.e., lacking oxygen, which keeps them proliferating. When blood vessels connect to each other during development, oxygen is transported by the blood vessels and the environment becomes normoxic. The researchers have found that oxygen is the second signal of the vessels and in this case, instead of regulating quiescence, oxygen regulates the differentiation of neuronal precursors to neurons.

This study shows that during the development of the peripheral nervous system, the formation of new neurons and the maintenance of stem cells is highly dependent on signals from the blood vessels. Neurons receive signals from all the surrounding cells, which are part of the environment in which they reside and the vessels are part of this niche. "This new knowledge will help understand the connection between hearing loss and cardiovascular diseases, as well as improve protocols for in vitro differentiation of neurons for regenerative therapies," Taberner adds.

Explore further Fewer scars in the central nervous system

More information: Laura Taberner et al, Sensory Neuroblast Quiescence Depends on Vascular Cytoneme Contacts and Sensory Neuronal Differentiation Requires Initiation of Blood Flow, Cell Reports (2020). Journal information: Cell Reports Laura Taberner et al, Sensory Neuroblast Quiescence Depends on Vascular Cytoneme Contacts and Sensory Neuronal Differentiation Requires Initiation of Blood Flow,(2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.107903

Provided by Universitat Pompeu Fabra - Barcelona
Its been sad to see the devolution of Rose City Justice (Future unclear for Rose City Justice, group that drew thousands for protests, July 10). My wife and I participated in multiple Rose City Justice-led marches and found them inspiring, educational, peaceful, safe and well-organized. At a time all of us need to be more cognizant of social inequities and to be inspired to take positive action to become an anti-racist and equitable society aligned with our nations founding values, its unfortunate that our community demonstrated its intolerance for the groups leadership makeup, mission and one leaders past tweets and work history. Darren Goldens past employment as a military policeman should be seen as adding a diverse inside perspective to the groups calls for defunding the police, and his past misogynistic statements can reflect an opportunity for learning and growth.

The marches spurred my wife and I to begin a process of conversation, self-education and a commitment to action, including volunteering to help marginalized people and businesses to succeed in the face of institutional bias. The absence of a core group willing to coordinate activities while engaging local officials has left a void no one else has stepped up to fill. Im not interested in actively supporting groups advocating non-peaceful protests and aggressive confrontation of police, which leaves me lamenting Rose City Justices fall from grace even more as this movement needs to continue to engage and educate the entire community to ensure positive changes will continue.

Roger Jensen, Beaverton
London: Headaches are the most common symptom of coronavirus, with 62 per cent of people who show any symptoms reporting the complaint, research indicates.

A study by Imperial College London also found that loss of taste or smell were each more common than a persistent cough.

A woman wears a protective mask as she has her hair washed in London. Research indicates a headache is the most common symptom of the virus. Credit:Getty Images

However, overall only three in 10 people testing positive for COVID-19 show any symptoms at all.

The finding further illustrates how COVID-19 was able to rampage through the British population before lockdown was ordered towards the end of March.
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Rekha refuses to get Covid test, disallows BMC to sanitize her house



Bollywood actress Rekha has refused to let Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials inside her Mumbai residence, as reported by Pinkvilla. In addition, she also refrained from getting a test done to assess whether she has contracted the virus, after her staff members tested positive.



While the staffers have been shifted to BMCs COVID-19 facility for further treatment, Rekha's outageous behaviour with the authorities has been slammed by a number of people. According to reports, Rekhas manager Farhana contacted the BMC staff when they reached the actress's bungalow.



She then gave them her number and reportedly asked them to call before carrying out any procedures. Later on, when Farhana was called, she reportedly said that Rekha is doing fine and is not willing to get tested for COVID-19 because she had not come in anyones contact.



Read More...


UTOPIA AVENUE by David Mitchell (Sceptre 20, 544 pp)

UTOPIA AVENUE

by David Mitchell (Sceptre 20, 544 pp)

When not producing genre-busting novels that push up against the borders of realism and linear time, David Mitchell has a fondness for good old-fashioned nostalgia.

Utopia Avenue is soaked in the stuff: a paean to a vanished music culture that follows a working-class psychedelic fusion band from the spit and sawdust dives of Soho to the intoxicating lights of New York at the dog end of the Sixties.

Their first album bombs but their second soars and, when the bass player winds up in an Italian jail on trumped-up drug charges, a newspaper campaign is launched to get him home.

While Mitchell stuffs this with period detail, his narrative is ploddingly episodic. A large cast that includes John Lennon and David Bowie doesnt so much add authenticity as compound the nigglingly ersatz quality of the writing.

Mitchell is always a companionable author to spend time with but, as each new novel passes, one cant help but wonder if his best days are behind him.

MISS BENSONS BEETLE by Rachel Joyce (Doubleday 16.99, 400 pp)

MISS BENSONS BEETLE

by Rachel Joyce (Doubleday 16.99, 400 pp)

Rachel Joyce has cornered the market in bittersweet novels about elderly eccentrics that both prick and comfort the reader, like a scratchy woollen blanket.

This Fifties-set latest centres on Margery Benson, an unmarried, middle-aged domestic science teacher who, after a minor work scandal, embarks on a trip halfway round the world in search of the undiscovered golden beetle that has haunted her since childhood.

Her unlikely assistant is young Enid, a semi-literate, bottle-bleach blonde with a heart as large as the Pacific Ocean but who is carrying far more baggage than is apparent from her suitcases.

As the pair somehow make it to a remote mountainside in New Caledonia, Joyce floods her story with plot, including a murder scandal back home, a psychotic stalker and calamitous weather.

While much of the novel takes place in the Southern Hemisphere, its real subject is the emotional devastation of two World Wars on the English. Like the trip, this is a bumpy ride, but worth it.

ANTKIND by Charlie Kaufman (4th Estate 18.99, 720 pp)

ANTKIND

by Charlie Kaufman (4th Estate 18.99, 720 pp)

Charlie Kaufmans cinematic reputation is assured thanks to the likes of Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, but I doubt his debut novel will be remembered so readily.

Its a 700-page-plus torrent of consciousness from B Rosenberger Rosenberg, a failed film critic and cynic who loathes the films of one Charlie Kaufman. A monstrous cultural misfit, who parades his wokeness at every opportunity, B has recently stumbled upon a lost cinematic masterwork that takes three months to watch, and is convinced writing about it will save his career.

But, when he loses the stills in a fire, he embarks on a Pynchonesque journey to salvage his memory of it, dragging a bewildered reader with him. This precis hardly does justice to a narrative peopled by robot Donald Trumps, comedy double-act Abbott and Costello and a weird ant called Calcium.

Kaufmans films are masterpieces of narrative construction, but the seemingly limitless horizons of the novel form seem to have gone to his head.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 15:33:50|Editor: huaxia

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SEOUL, July 16 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in's approval rating fell this week, keeping a downward trend for the eighth consecutive week, a weekly poll showed Thursday.

According to the Realmeter survey, support for Moon declined 4.6 percentage points over the week to 44.1 percent this week.

The negative assessment on Moon's conduct of state affairs went up 5.2 percentage points to 51.7 percent.

Support for Moon's ruling Democratic Party retreated 4.3 percentage points to 35.4 percent this week.

The main conservative opposition United Future Party earned 31.1 percent of support this week, up 1.4 percentage points from the previous week.

It was followed by the minor progressive Justice Party with 5.8 percent, the centrist People's Party with 5.0 percent and the center-left Open Democratic Party with 4.7 percent. Enditem
New details in the harrowing police killing of George Floyd have been revealed after a court unsealed police bodycam footage of the incident.

The new footage, from cameras worn by officers Thomas Lane and Alexander Kueng, showed white officer Derek Chauvins knee on Floyds neck for nine and a half minutes  a minute longer than previously estimated.

Floyd gasped for breath and said 'please' more than 50 times in his interaction with officers, according to MPR News.

At one point in the clip Lane asks multiple times if they should roll Floyd on his side as he pleaded for air. Chauvin is heard saying 'just leave him'.

Nothing in the footage captured by cameras suggests Floyd acted aggressively or threateningly with officers.

A Hennepin County Judge allowed members of the public and journalists to view the video evidence in person on Wednesday but they were not allowed to record it. The judge ruled news organizations cannot publish it.

New bodycam footage from the death of George Floyd was unsealed on Wednesday and shows white cop Derek Chauvin had his knee on his neck for about nine and a half minutes - minute longer than previously estimated

Though at times he did not immediately comply with orders, Floyd was visibly distraught and repeatedly apologized and pleaded with officers.

His death on May 25 in Minneapolis, Minnesota sparked international outrage and led to protests in all 50 states decrying police brutality against black people and systemic racism in the US.

Lane entered two sets of videos as evidence to have charges against him dropped.

The unsealed video shows how officers arrived to the Cup Foods convenience store shortly after 8pm following a report that Floyd may have used a fake $20 bill.

The clip shows Lane approach Floyd and ask to see his hands.

'Put your f**king hands up right now!' Lane says drawing his gun when Floyd didn't immediately comply.

Floyd appears confused in the clip and asks, 'What did we do Mr. Officer?'

He says 'Im sorry' to the officer twice and puts his hands on the steering wheel, reiterating that he wants to comply.

Derek Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao (left to right). A coalition of media outlets is seeking public access to body camera video recorded by the former officers charged in the death of George Floyd

Floyd, a black man who was handcuffed, died May 25 after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, pressed his knee against Floyd's neck for nearly eight minutes as Floyd said he couldn't breathe in Minneapolis, Minnesota

All four officers were fired the day after video of Floyd's death went viral, which set off protests that spread around the world and turned into a national reckoning on race in America

'I got shot the same way, Mr Officer, before,' he said as per NBC.

Floyd is arrested about two minutes after Lane approached the vehicle.

Lane and Kueng try to push him to the back of their squad car, but he resists explaining hes claustrophobic and recently recovered from COVID-19.

'I'm not that kind of guy,' Floyd says as he struggles against the officers. 'I just had COVID, man, I don't want to go back to that.'

He begs the officers not to put him in the back and says hell get in if they let him count to three.

A man on the street is heard telling Floyd, 'You cant win'. He replies, 'Im not trying to win.'

Officers try to push him into the back of the squad car as he yells in distress.

At least twice hes heard saying, 'I cant breathe' and tells officers he'll lie on the ground instead.

The officers get into the squad car on the drivers side and he eventually falls out of the passenger side and goes to the ground near the squads back tire and says 'Thank you'.

The new footage shows the officers making light of the struggle with Floyd (pictured) and seem unconcerned about his condition, despite the father-of-five repeatedly saying he couldn't breathe, desperate pleas from bystanders urging the officers to stop what they were doing and one of the cops vocalizing that he was 'passing out'

When cops failed to get Floyd in the car, Chauvin put his knee on Floyds neck for nine and a half minutes according to time codes.

At one point Lane is asked if hes okay. He said, 'My knee might be a little scratched but Ill survive' as Floyd continued to wheeze under Chauvin's weight.

Prosecutors originally said Chauvin was on Floyds neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. That time frame resulted in thousands of protests observing moments of silence for eight minutes and 46 seconds in solidarity with Floyd.

Kueng checks Floyds pulse after Chauvin pressed his knee into his neck and said he 'cant find one'.

Attorney Ben Crump pictured Wednesday announcing a civil lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and the four officers involved in Floyd's killing on behalf of his family

Chauvin remains on Floyds neck even after he fell unconscious. He didn't move until paramedics came and placed him on a stretcher.

When the ambulance drives away Kueng takes the report from the store owner about the disputed $20 bill.

Only after outraged protests were the four officers involved in Floyds killing arrested.

Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder. The three other officers in involved were Tou Thao, Lane and Kueng and theyve all been charged with aiding and abetting murder.

On Wednesday Floyds family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and the four officers.
MOSCOW -- The Moscow City Court has upheld the two-month pretrial detention of former journalist Ivan Safronov, currently an aide to the chief of Russia's Roskosmos space agency, who is charged with high treason.

One of Safronov's lawyers, Danila Nikiforov, was ordered at the July 16 hearing to leave the courtroom after he refused to sign documents obliging him not to reveal details of the case's materials.

Safronov's other lawyer, Ivan Pavlov, told MBKh Media news that the Federal Security Service for the first time provided him with case materials that contain what investigators called classified information.

Safronov, who has worked since May as an adviser to Roskosmos head Dmitry Rogozin, is a prominent journalist who covered the military-industrial complex for the newspapers Kommersant and Vedomosti.

He was arrested on July 7 amid allegations that he had passed secret information to the Czech Republic in 2017 about Russian arms sales in the Middle East.

Safronov has rejected the accusations and many of his supporters have held pickets in Moscow and other cities demanding his release.

Human rights organizations have issued statements demanding Safronovs release and expressing concerns over an intensifying crackdown on dissent in Russia.

The chairman of the Union of Journalists of Russia, Vladimir Solovyov, said on July 13 that his organization will "continue to closely monitor Safronov's case."

With reporting by MBKh Media
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has not achieved a good outcome in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, the government's chief scientific adviser said on Thursday, adding that he was sure mistakes had been made.

Britain has the highest COVID-19 death toll in Europe, which, including deaths from suspected cases, is nearly 56,000 according to a Reuters tally of official data sources.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered a lockdown on March 23, though a former member of the government's scientific advisory group has said that introducing measures a week earlier could have halved the death toll.

"It's very difficult to know exactly where we stand at the moment. It's clear that the outcome has not been good in the UK ..," Patrick Vallance told lawmakers, adding that some countries had done worse.

"There will be things, decisions made, that will turn out not to have been the right decisions at the time, I'm sure about that as well."

He said the advice to introduce stringent lockdown measures was made when the rate at which the epidemic doubled increased to three days from six or seven days beforehand, but added that such advice could only be given once the data came in.

Heath Secretary Matt Hancock, questioned about Vallance's assertion that scientific advisers had recommended measures be taken earlier, told lawmakers the lockdown had started on March 16, rather than a week later when Johnson told Britons they must stay at home.

"The 16th of March is the day I came to this House and said all unnecessary social contact should cease," he said. "That is precisely when the lockdown was started."

Vallance said there were "pretty strong hints" the new coronavirus was seasonal and could return in future years.

"What we're dealing with now is a suppressed first wave," he said. "I think it's quite probable that we will see this virus coming back in different waves over a number of years."

(Reporting by Alistair Smout and Paul Sandle; editing by Stephen Addison)
July 16 : Katrina Kaif turns 37 today. While its her special day, we took a glimpse of her wardrobe and found that the diva hold a special liking for bodycon dresses. When it comes to sartorial picks, theres nobody who slays in bodycon like the Bharat actress. The fashionista loves to flaunt her curves in body-hugging dresses. Here's a look at all the times she wore bodycon dresses and made a statement.

Katrina wore this orange Dolce & Gabbana bodycon at the Sooryavanshi trailer launch. Crafted with ruched tulle, the midi dress featured a corset-style bodice, which added a feminine element to the look.

Kat donned this sunshine yellow bodycon at the launch of her own beauty brand. The diva looked elegant yet sultry in this off-shoulder number that ended just below her knee. We loved the way she styled with a minimal gold dangling earring.

The Sooryavanshi actor looked gorgeous in this sleeveless multicoloured dress from the Italian brand DSquared2. The vibrant dress accentuated her svelte frame, and she styled it with a pair of sneakers in vibrant hues.

Katrina stole the IIFA show in this crepe black midi dress from the brand Rasario. The spaghetti strap with plunging neckline dress featured a corset-style bodice. The actress completed the stunning look with a pair of matching strappy heels.

In this pink bodycon, the actress proved nobody wears the silhouette like her. Katrina looked sultry in this one-shoulder bodycon dress with a puffy mutton sleeve. The actor knows how to pull off a figure-hugging bodycon number.
The Islamic Republic and China are holding talks on finalizing their 25-year "Cooperation Roadmap" Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif insisted on Tuesday, July 14.

Meanwhile, Zarif claimed that Beijing initially submitted a "draft" of the agreement in March 2020, based on an earlier copy presented by Iran.

The controversial "cooperation road-map" has already triggered a barrage of criticism among Iranians that the Islamic Republic is "selling the country to the Chinese."

Nonetheless, Beijing so far has been silent on the much-debated agreement.

In the meantime, Tabnak, a website close to the Islamic Republic Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has published an eighteen-page text of the draft, which has no details and contains general statements of optimal cooperation between the two countries.

The two sides are negotiating on having the two drafts finalized, Zarif asserted, noting that the document should then be ratified by the responsible bodies of the two countries.

Zarif also said that in a videoconference ten days ago, he told his Chinese counterpart that Iran was prepared for commencing the final negotiations over the issue.

While Zarif is under pressure to present "details" of the controversial "agreement," China has decided to leave the issue shrouded in mystery.

When asked about it by reporters last week, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, suggested blandly, "China and Iran enjoy traditional friendship, and the two sides have been in communication on the development of bilateral relations."

Without any denial or confirmation of the issue, Zhao tacitly noted, Beijing stood ready to work with Tehran to "steadily advance practical cooperation."

Nevertheless, some Iranian analysts abroad have seen "hypocrisy" in the Islamic Republic's courtship of China.

"An Iranian regime whose revolutionary identity is premised on countering U.S. imperialism and Islamophobia is about to ratify its total economic and strategic dependency on a Chinese government that keeps over 1 million Muslims in re-education camps, tweeted a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Karim Sajjadpour.

On the other hand, an award-winning veteran Iranian journalist, Amir Taheri, accused Tehran of "cooking-up" the whole issue.

"Chinese think-tanks with which we are in contact say they are puzzled by Tehran's decision to cook up a 'strategic alliance' document based on a routine end of visit communique dating back to 2016," the London-based journalist tweeted yesterday, July 13.
Red Bull's Dutch driver Max Verstappen drives around the Albert Park circuit during the second Formula One practice session in Melbourne on March 23, 2018, ahead of the Formula One Australian Grand Prix. ( (PAUL CROCK/Getty Images)

US Investors in Australia Still Number One

Investment by US companies in Australia has soared to new heights despite widespread public ignorance of the value of the relationship.

The findings of a new United States Studies Centre report released on July 16 shed light on the depth of capital flows between the two nations.

The value of the investment relationship has risen by $350 billion to reach $1.82 trillion since the University of Sydneys USSC looked at it in 2017.

That is equivalent to about 90 percent of the value of the entire Australian share market.

It is also 10 times larger than Australias bilateral investment relationship with China and is $627 billion more than the UK, the second biggest partner.

More than 26 percent of foreign investment in Australia is from the US, with more than 2000 American companies employing 272,000 workers at an economic value of $71.6 billion.

The report highlights public misconceptions about US flows of investment in Australia.

A YouGov poll for the USSC of 1054 Australians found just 17 percent correctly identified America as the largest source of foreign investment.

More than 70 percent believe China is number one, despite having never overtaken the US.

Accumulated US investment is now $983 billion, while China ranks ninth with investments of $78 billion.

The Trump administrations assertive trade approach is examined, noting Australias exemption from some tariffs.

Australia is exposed to collateral damage from the United States pursuit of bilateral deals, the report says.

Early evidence of the danger for Australia was Chinas imposition of prohibitive anti-dumping duties on its barley exports which were replaced with supplies from the United States under the bilateral trade deal.

The reports strongest message is for Australia to cut its company tax rate to encourage more investment from American firms.

It is important a way is found to tackle the issue of Australias high corporate tax rate.

Matt Coughlan in Canberra
New Delhi, July 16 : The Delhi Minorities Commission on Thursday said that the Delhi Police could have averted the violence in the capital's northeast area in February and saved several lives had they arrested or apprehended BJP leader Kapil Mishra.

The commission's ten-member fact finding committee, headed by Supreme Court Advocate-on-Record M.R. Shamshad, has come out with a report on the riots which had broken out in the national capital.

According to the report, at least 55 people died and property, including homes, shops and 22 places of worship, were destroyed during the riots.

The commission said that the violence started in different pockets "almost immediately" after the short speech of Mishra on February 23 at Maujpur in which he openly called for forcefully removing the protestors at Jafrabad in northeast Delhi.

"He clearly said that he and his supporters will take matters into their own hands, alluding to extra-legal vigilante tactics, in saying: 'But after that we will not listen to the police if roads are not cleared after three days...'," the report stated.

The committee said that Deputy Commissioner of Police, North East district, Ved Prakash Surya, was standing right next to Mishra when he made the incendiary speech.

The report added: "The open admission of 'not listening' to the police and extra-legal tactics should have been seen by the authorities present as inciting violence." Alluding to the alleged speech, the committee said: "At this point, the police failed to apprehend and arrest Kapil Mishra and all those gathered to hear and cheered his speech. This indicates that they failed to take the first and most immediate preventive step needed to avoid violence from arising and protect life and property." Following the speech, mobs fanned out to the local areas, openly carrying various weapons and arms, the report stated, adding that despite this, sufficient action was not taken by the district administration or police to protect life and property.

The commission held the Delhi Police responsible and said that the failure to prevent violence was not due to individual or sporadic breaches but was a pattern of deliberate inaction over several days. "Further, in spite of the serious nature of complaints, the police did not act upon the FIRs filed." The report stated that the perpetrators positioned themselves strategically in the residential areas, adding that it points to no "spontaneity" in the case of a riot.

"The attacks were selectively targeted towards the Muslim population of the area. In some instances, victims were asked to show their ID cards and then targeted on the basis of their faith," it added.

It said that "mobs numbering between 100-1000 people, chanted slogans like 'Jai Shri Ram', 'Har Har Modi', 'Modiji, kaat do in Mullon ko (Modi, cut these Muslims into pieces)', 'Aaj tumhe azadi denge (Today, we will give you freedom)' and attacked Muslim individuals, houses, shops, vehicles, mosques and other property".

The report asserted that Muslim youth pelted stones on the mobs in some places to defend family members in response to the targeted attacks. "Barring one incident, there have not been reports of Muslims being armed with weapons other than stones," the report divulged.

It listed 22 List of mosques, dargahs, madrasas and graveyars which were attacked and vandalised during the riots. Out of the total, 16 were mosques.

The committee said that the police were also complicit and abetted the attacks. "Where police did act, victims state that police stopped their colleagues when they attempted to disperse the crowd." In some cases, they merely stood as onlookers while the mobs engaged in violence. In others, they explicitly gave a go-ahead to the perpetrators to continue with their rampage, the committee report added.

It also pointed at the credibility of the entire investigation process and said that the failure of the police to register the FIRs pertaining to complaints in which the accused are named raises serious doubts.

"Submission of chargesheets without proper investigation into complaints... creates doubts about the impartiality and objectivity of the investigation as well as the overall narrative being put forward by Delhi Police."
Delhi recorded 1,652 fresh Covid-19 cases on Thursday, taking the tally to 1,18,645 while the death toll in the pandemic rose to 3,545, the state health department said.

The national capital recorded 58 casualties in the last 24 hours.

It was for the sixth consecutive day that the number of new cases in Delhi stayed below 2,000. Delhi had reported the highest single-day spike of 3,947 cases on June 23.

The number of active cases on Thursday stood at 17,407, down from 17,807 the previous day.

Delhi has been able to fight back the pandemic and the recovery rate has increased this month compared to June when the government said it feared that it would end up with a tally of over five lakh cases by July 31.

A higher number of testing, increasing the number of beds in hospitals, the wide use of oximeters for Covid-19 patients under home isolation and plasma banks are said to have contributed to Delhi getting a hold on the pandemic.

On Thursday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal held a meeting with all Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs from Delhi to discuss preparations that are under way to fight the pandemic, the chief ministers office (CMO) said.

Kejriwal said that Delhi model of fighting Covid-19 has been possible due to the collective efforts and support from all political parties, MPs and MLAs, according to the CMO.
EDWARDSVILLE  Two advisory referendums were approved to be placed on the Nov. 3 ballot by the Madison County Board at Wednesdays meeting, with one of them being the subject of sometimes heated discussion.

The referendums will join a third county-generated referendum on decreasing the maximum tax rate for the general fund.

One referendum deals with whether retired county employees can double dip and take a second job with the county while receiving a pension. The other asks whether Illinois General Assembly members should receive automatic pay increases.

As advisory, the referendums have no practical or legal ramifications but are designed to advise or send a message from voters.

Wednesdays most controversial resolution referred to double dipping, with voting split along party lines following heated arguments. It was touted as dealing with a long-standing issue in the county, but was a direct response to controversy over the awarding of a $114,000 contract to a company created by recently-retired Madison County Sheriffs Department captain Eric Decker to provide administrative support to the department.

Decker, the commander of administrative services for the department, retired June 19 after 28 years of service. On July 1, his Godfrey-based Decker Analytics firm was hired by the sheriffs department to perform some of the administrative duties that had been part of his former job.

Discussion on the proposal was expected in June by several committees, but the issue was pulled from those agendas. However, the sheriffs department went ahead with approving the contact, which angered some Finance Committee members.

The resolution was introduced by board member Don Moore, R-Troy, who chairs the Finance and Governmental Operations Committee.

This is something thats been talked about for quite a number of years, he said Wednesday. Its sort of an accepted policy, it seems, within the county.

Board member Michael Doc Holliday, D-Alton, opposed the resolution, saying it appeared to be designed to keep people from getting jobs while providing no real impact or legal evidence of help for the county. Board member Chris Hankins, D-Pontoon Beach, questioned the timing of the resolution.

Why do we look at this now? he said, adding he thought it was due to the election. Its kind of funny that were going to bring this up now.

He made similar points in a news release put out by the Madison County Democratic Party.

Board member Mick Madison, R-Bethalto, said the resolution was prompted by the sheriffs department contract, adding that some officials think of neighbors and taxpayers as their personal cash cows.

Board member Mike Parkinson, D-Granite City, discussed administrations hires, specifically Steve Adler. At one time Adler was supposed to be approved for a position with the administration; he later was hired via another route not requiring board approval.

You cant pick and choose whats a pension and whats not, Parkinson said. It is legal. If the legislature wants to change it, theyll do it.

The board voted 15-9 along party lines in favor of the resolution. Several members were absent, and board member Victor Valentine Jr., D-Edwardsville, apparently dropped out of the online meeting.

Moore brought up the issue again under new business, prompting a heated and sometimes personal debate involving Parkinson, Moore, Tom McRae, R-Bethalto, and Madison County Sheriffs Department Chief Deputy Maj. Jeff Connor before Board Chairman Kurt Prenzler shut down the debate.

The second referendum, which questions whether members of the Illinois General Assembly should receive automatic pay increases, went through with very little discussion. Board member Erica Conway-Harriss, R-Glen Carbon, called the idea of increasing legislators salaries absolutely offensive.

It was approved 22-2, with Holliday and Bruce Malone, D-Alton, opposed.
Xiaomi recently dropped a ton of new ecosystem products. The Chinese smartphone maker unveiled two new electric scooters, a gaming monitor, a new smart band, and new TWS earbuds.

Mi Smart Band 5

The new Mi Smart Band 5 arrives with a larger 1.1-inch display. The new smart band supports widgets and a new heart rate monitor that is 50 percent more accurate than on the previous version but lacks an SpO2 sensor. Additionally, the new Mi Band can easily be charged without removing the gadget from its wristband. The band will feature 65 themes for the home screen at launch and will be available in six silicone wrist straps. Battery life on the smart band is rated for 14 days.

The band features jump rope, yoga, and other different exercise modes. It can also be used as a camera remote shutter key to snap selfies. Sleep tracking has also been upgraded to detect REM sleep and can detect your stress levels. Lastly, the Mi Smart Band 5 also has a new female health tracking feature. The Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 5 is priced at EUR 40 (Roughly Rs 3,423), while the company is offering an early bird price of EUR 35 (Roughly Rs 3,000).

Mi Curved Gaming Monitor

Xiaomi also unveiled a 34-inch gaming monitor with a 144Hz refresh rate and a 1440p+ (3,440*1,440 pixel) resolution as well as a 21:9 aspect ratio. Xiaomis new gaming monitor is supported by AMD FreeSync Premium with Low Frame Rate compensation. The panel features an impressive 121 percent sRGB coverage. The displays curvature is 1500R, which is the highest curvature you can get currently. Xiaomis Mi Curved Gaming Monitor is priced at EUR 400 (Roughly Rs 34,320).

Mi TV Stick

The Mi TV Stick can transform any TV into a smart TV. It features an HDMI 2.0 port, which is limited to 1080p resolution. The Mi TV Stick is powered by the Amlogic S905 Y2 chipset with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage. You can stream content with the Stick through Wi-Fi 5 (ac) and hook up controllers through Bluetooth 4.2. The TV Stick comes with a nifty remote with dedicated Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Google Assistant buttons. The Mi TV Stick is priced at EUR 40 (Roughly Rs 3,423).

Mi TWS Earphones

Xiaomis new Mi TWS earbuds feature 14.2mm dynamic drives. The earbuds support AAC audio codec for high-quality sound as well as noise cancellation for calls. The buds feature standard touch controls and smart ear detection. The new Mi TWS earphones offer five hours of battery life and go up to 20 hours when combined with the case, which charges over USB-C. The new Mi TWS Earphones costs EUR 40 (Roughly Rs 3,423), although first buyers will get them at a special EUR 30 (Roughly Rs 2,573) price.

Mi Electric Scooter S1 and Pro 2

The Mi 1S weighs 12.5 kg with a battery rated for a range of 30 km. The scooter has a 250W motor, which can offer a maximum speed of 25 km per hour. The second-gen Mi Pro scooter weighs 14.2 kg and can deliver extended battery life as compared to the regular model. The motor is rated at 300W continuous output, while the top speeds remain the same  25 km/h.

Xiaomi also launched two electric scooters in the form of the Mi Electric Scooter 1S and Mi Electric Scooter Pro 2. The Mi Electric Scooter 1S is priced from EUR 400 (Roughly Rs 34,320), while the Mi Electric Scooter Pro 2 costs EUR 500 (Roughly Rs 42,900).
Bucharest, Romania, 16th July 2020 -- EasyIC Design is proud to be celebrating its 10-year Anniversary in 2020. This engineering consultancy and IP company was founded in Bucharest in 2010 by two engineers and friends, Dragos Vlad and Misu Preda. Their vision was to create a new kind of technical company in Romania.

This vision was formulated from their experiences working abroad for many years in large international companies. During this time, they observed and absorbed the best management practices from working with these companies. Furthermore, they learned the key practices and disciplines to enable engineers of multiple nationalities, backgrounds and physical locations to work successfully together to deliver innovative products. They were determined to bring these lessons-learnt to their new company in Romania.

Now 10 years on, Dragos and Misu have established a successful and growing company where talented engineers collaborate within an open and friendly working environment. EasyIC Design is also a place where engineers are actively supported and guided in their professional development in order to reach their full potential. Moreover, the company culture encourages each engineer to explore their creative space and unleash their full innovative instincts.

"This 10-year anniversary milestone is an important achievement for EasyIC. I can still remember the day we started this journey with just 3 engineers working for one client in the wireless field. said Misu Preda, Today, we have outgrown a number of offices and our engineering teams in Bucharest and Brasov are assisting international clients to achieve their goals in multiple fields such as Artificial Intelligence, Automotive, Internet-of-Things, Consumer and Big Data.

Misu continued People often ask us how we have stayed so motivated during the last 10 years in a fast changing and challenging industry. Our simple answer is client satisfaction  we want to contribute to their success. Furthermore, we are never complacent and know we must continuously improve and develop to meet the high expectations of our clients.

Looking forward to the next 10 years, Dragos Vlad said, With our consultancy work, we collaborate very closely with our clients and are regularly exposed to the productivity challenges they face. Going forward, we plan to leverage this valuable insight to develop innovative solutions for productivity improvement. These solutions will complement our consultancy work and our existing client lead IP products.

The CEO of EasyIC Design, Fearghal Hannaway concluded, We are delighted to be celebrating our 10-year anniversary in EasyIC Design. Romania has a growing reputation in the technical industry for producing high quality engineers. EasyIC Design has been proud to contribute to this reputation over the past 10 years by our successful collaborations with international clients. We now look forward to another exciting 10 years for EasyIC!

Some Congratulations Messages from Partners and Clients of EasyIC Design

Congratulations to our Xilinx Alliance Member, EasyIC Design as it celebrates its 10-year anniversary in 2020. We also wish them the best of luck for the next 10 years!

Nick Ni, Director of Product Marketing & Partner Ecosystem, Xilinx

Many congratulations to EasyIC Design on your 10-year anniversary. It is a pleasure working with you and I look forward to our continued co-operation in the coming years.

Martin OKeeffe, Sr Director Design, Cypress Semiconductor

Congratulations EasyIC on your 10-year anniversary! It has been great working with you over the last few years and we look forward to working with you in the future

Klaus Strohmayer, Digital Design, USound Gmbh

Congratulations to our Connections Verification Partner, EasyIC Design, on its 10-year anniversary in 2020. We look forward to our further cooperation in the coming years!

Pat Dutrow, Marketing Director, EDA Vendor Relations, Cadence

Congratulations to D&R member, EasyIC on its 10-year anniversary! It has been pleasure working with you over those years and we look forward to our continued collaboration!

Gabriele Saucier, Design & Reuse, Design and Reuse

About EasyIC Design:

Founded in 2010, EasyIC Design (www.easyic.com) delivers advanced System-on-Chip solutions to leading semiconductor and systems companies in the Consumer, Automotive, AI/Machine Learning and IoT markets. Its technology expertise spans System Integration, Network-on-Chip, Power Management and System Verification utilising the latest state-of-the-art architectures and methodologies. EasyIC Design has offices in Bucharest & Brasov, Romania and Dublin, Ireland.






WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - JetBlue Airways Corp. (JBLU) and American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL) said that they have entered into partnership to create connectivity for travelers in the Northeast and more choice for customers across their domestic and international networks. American said it will launch international service from New York (JFK) to Tel Aviv (TLV) and to Athens (ATH), and JFK to Rio De Janeiro (GIG) will return as a daily seasonal route in winter 2021, in addition to continuing to serve popular long-haul destinations like London (LHR) and Madrid (MAD). JetBlue will grow in greater New York City, adding flights at LaGuardia (LGA) and Newark (EWR), while also increasing its presence at JFK for seamless connections to American's expanded international network. JetBlue plans to enhance service to strategic markets on the East Coast, West Coast, and in the Southeast, building on JetBlue's recently announced service between EWR and nine markets, including Mint service to Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco or SFO. American intends to launch service between JFK and TLV and will introduce new seasonal service between JFK and ATH next summer. The new nonstop service to TLV and ATH from JFK will be the first long-haul international flights that American has launched from New York in more than four years. American will also operate daily seasonal service to GIG beginning in winter 2021 during the peak summer travel period in Rio de Janeiro. JetBlue and American will begin a new codeshare relationship, giving customers seamless access to more destinations, including international service. The codeshare will introduce JetBlue customers to more than 60 new routes operated by American and will introduce American's customers to more than 130 new routes operated by JetBlue. Codesharing allows customers to book a single itinerary combining flights from both airlines, which will result in a one-stop check-in experience and seamless flight connections from origin to destination. JetBlue and American will offer customers more options on Transcon service from New York to the West Coast. American intends to operate more dual-class regional aircraft featuring first class beginning next year, providing the premium experience customers in the Northeast prefer. JetBlue plans to independently launch and operate transatlantic flights to London in 2021. 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.
Appointment

16 July 2020

A native Texan, Murray brings over three decades of hospitality experience in the local market to his new role as general manager of the Kimpton Pittman Hotel. As general manager, Murray leads day-to-day operations of the hotel and oversees the creation of curated guest experiences suited to the level of hospitality the Kimpton brand is known for. Having begun his career with the Hyatt Hotels Corporation, he has since worked with numerous decorated Dallas establishments including the Fairmont Hotel, Hotel ZaZa, The Adolphus, InterContinental Hotel and Wolfgang Puck Catering. Murray comes to the Kimpton Pittman Hotel from The Joule, where he served as the regional director of sales & marketing for five years.
Coronavirus tests given out to thousands of Britons have been retracted over fears they are not safe, the Government has announced.

The Department of Health has instructed care homes and members of the public to immediately stop using the kits produced by Randox Laboratories.

Health bosses have refused to reveal the number of swab kits affected, or how many Britons used them before they were pulled.

But the Northern Irish firm won a 133million contract to carry out at-home Covid-19 tests and ones administered at drive-through centres and care homes.

Under the deal, the swab kits are posted back to Randox for it to process and see if someone has the virus.

So tests made by the manufacturer likely account for a huge chunk of the 150,000 swabs being carried out every day in Britain.

MailOnline understands safety concerns were raised yesterday when it emerged that one of Randox's suppliers had not provided safety assurance documents.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the House of Commons tonight that physical checks were carried out on the swabs which 'were not up to the standards that we expect.'

He said that care homes, testing centres and Brits who are yet to take their home test would be sent replacement swabs.

Mr Hancock reiterated that retracting the tests was 'a precautionary step' and that there was 'no evidence' the swabs can cause harm.

He also claimed thousands of Britons who have already taken a Randox test should not worry because it does not affect their results.

Coronavirus tests made by Randox Laboratories have been retracted over fears they are not safe, it emerged today

A government statement said: 'As a precautionary measure and while we investigate further, NHS Test and Trace are requesting that all settings pause the use of Randox test kits with immediate effect and until further notice.

'The risk to safety is low and test results from Randox kits are not affected. We will be supporting all testing settings to receive replacement kits as soon as possible.'

One in FIVE Covid-19 patients are still not being contacted by NHS Test and Trace NHS Test and Trace is still failing to find a more than a fifth of patients who test positive for Covid-19  despite launching almost two months ago, shocking data revealed today. Of the 3,579 Covid-19 patients in England referred to the contact tracing programme between July 2 and July 8, just 2,815 were actually tracked down (78.7 per cent). A total of 618 people with the disease could not be reached at all by the tracers  who phone, text and email someone up to 10 times a day to get hold of them. And communication details were not provided for another 146 Covid-19 patients, so their close contacts will have also slipped under the radar. Scientists have warned contact tracing programmes need to catch at least 80 per cent of infections to keep the outbreak under control. It means the Government is still to hit the bare minimum target, despite launching the programme nearly 50 days ago, on May 28. Advertisement

The owner of one care home received an email from the NHS this morning asking them to 'store all of your unused Randox kits in a safe place to ensure that they are not used or mixed with other test kits, and one of our team will be in contact over the next week to confirm next steps', according to the Guardian.

Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health minister, tweeted today: 'Ministers overstated testing figures by 200,000 and now home testing kits don't meet safety standards with use of all Randox test kits paused.

'Test & Trace costs 10billion & increasingly chaotic with private firm after private firm failing to deliver.'

Randox won the second biggest contract for testing in the UK, behind only US-firm Hologic, which secured a 151 million deal.

Randox was awarded the contract by the Department of Health to help make testing kits that the government could use to ramp up its capacity to carry out 100,000 swabs each day back in April.

The Government was criticised for the Randox deal after it came to light that Tory MP Owen Paterson receives a six-figure salary from the firm to act as a consultant.

Randox's tests can produce results in a matter of hours and machines that analyse the swabs can process 54 samples at once.

The Telegraph reports that this is not the first time there have been problems with Randox tests during the UK's fight against Covid-19.

In May, a machine at the firm's lab in County Antrim stopped working and the UK was forced to send tens of thousands of samples to a lab in the US.

But nearly 30,000 of the swabs had to be discarded because they took to long to arrive.

Samples have to be tested within 72 hours of the test being taken, which means that any delay in their processing could leave people with symptoms unsure if they have the virus.

In a statement, Randox said: 'As an immediate precautionary measure we have temporarily suspended distribution of home sample collection kits using one particular batch/supplier of swabs.

'This is a temporary measure and does not apply to our private business which uses a different supplier of swabs.'
Rapid Action Battalion personnel escort Mohammad Shahed, centre - who is accused of distributing fake coronavirus certificates - following his arrest in Dhaka - AFP

A Bangladesh hospital owner accused of issuing thousands of fake negative coronavirus test results to patients at his two clinics was arrested on Wednesday while trying to flee to India in a burqa, police said.

The arrest marked the end of a nine-day manhunt for Mohammad Shahed over allegations of giving fake certificates to patients saying they were virus free without even testing them.

Mr Shahed, 42, was one of more than a dozen people detained by authorities over the past few days in connection with the scam.

Experts warn the false documents have worsened the already dire virus situation in the country of 168 million people by casting doubt about the veracity of certificates issued by clinics.

"He was arrested from the bank of a border river as he was trying to flee to India. He was wearing a burqa," Rapid Action Battalion spokesman Colonel Ashique Billah told AFP.

"His hospitals carried out 10,500 coronavirus tests, out of which 4,200 were genuine and the rest, 6,300 test reports, were given without conducting tests."

Mr Shahed is also accused of charging for the certificates and virus treatments even though he had agreed with the government that his hospitals in the capital Dhaka would provide free care.

A well-known doctor and her husband were also arrested by police and accused of issuing thousands of fake virus certificates at their Dhaka laboratory.

The alleged scams could badly hurt migrant workers seeking to go abroad and whose remittances are key to Bangladesh's economy, said Shakirul Islam of migrant rights group OKUP.

Italy last week suspended flights to Rome from Bangladesh to stem the spate of coronavirus cases within the community.

Several passengers arriving from Dhaka had tested positive for Covid-19.

"Some of the Bangladeshis who were tested positive in Italy were allegedly carrying negative Covid certificates from Bangladesh," Shakirul Islam claimed.

Story continues

"The government must ensure quality of Covid-19 tests in local laboratories for the sake of its overseas job market."

Nearly $19 billion was sent back to Bangladesh by an estimated 12 million migrant workers last year, according to the central bank.

Bangladesh has reported just more than 193,000 infections and 2,457 deaths so far.

But medical experts say the real figures are likely much higher because so little testing has been carried out.

The impoverished country has restarted economic activities after lifting a months-long virus lockdown at the end of May, even as the number of cases continues to rise.
Livingston Parish's youngest students will return to school Aug. 7, but older students will attend school on alternating schedules as the district works to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic.

According to a district reopening plan released late Thursday, Livingston Parish Public Schools plans to align with the state's reopening guidelines. If Louisiana stays in Phase 2 reopening as expected, Livingston Parish students will go back to school for the 2020-21 year in the hybrid model.

Students in pre-K to 2nd grade, as well as students needing special assistance, would attend traditional school five days per week at their home campus.

Reopening rules of Louisiana public schools: BESE votes in face mask, social distancing policies Backed by medical experts and education groups, Louisiana's top school board Tuesday approved minimum safety standards for the reopening of pu

Older students will be on an assigned schedule and get a blend of face-to-face instruction in school and virtual learning.

Students will be divided into either an A or B group and will attend either Monday, Wednesday and every other Friday, or Tuesday, Thursday and every other Friday.

Should the state revert to Phase 1 or advance to Phase 3, Livingston school officials will follow different guidelines similar to those they'd outlined as possibilities in early July.

Like many other districts, Livingston Parish created a committee of leaders to mull over the options and develop plans for how to continue school should the pandemic carry on into the 2020-21 school year.

The plans ranged from full virtual to all students returning to classrooms under social distancing guidelines.

Families and educators preferred the option where kids would be physically in classrooms, officials had said in the early July release.

In-person class possible in the fall? These Baton Rouge-area school districts share their plans Though the future of traditional classrooms remains uncertain in the era of coronavirus, many Baton Rouge-area schools are planning to reopen 

Some of the additional restrictions under the Phase 2 reopening plan are that no more than 25 people, including teachers and staff members, will be allowed in a classroom; students will receive hand sanitizer throughout the day, and temperatures will be checked every day.

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Locker rooms will be closed, and contact sports, band and music will be canceled. Students will pick up lunch in the cafeterias in groups of no larger than 25 students.

Regular attendance will be required in all phases and teachers will maintain attendance records. Students learning remotely will be required to log in to their digital platforms to complete daily assignments.

Our three-phase plan allows our district to be flexible, yet efficient, in adhering to the states guidelines for reopening schools, Superintendent Joe Murphy said in a statement Thursday.

We believe these plans are the most advantageous for all our students. It is our intent to maximize face-to-face instruction as much as possible, while remaining within the mandated guidelines we have been given.

Livingston Parish's announcement comes after the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved the minimum safety standards for reopening public schools.

The BESE standards say all adults and students in grades 3 through 12 must wear a face mask covering "to the greatest extent possible and practical within the local community context".

A BESE board member who lives in Baton Rouge, Belinda Davis, specifically mentioned Livingston Parish in her address about the new guidelines, saying leaders have shown little enthusiasm for the statewide mask order which could create danger for children and adults in Livingston Parish schools.

Livingston Parish announces new virtual program for grades 6-12 LIVINGSTON  Livingston Parish public schools will launch a full-time virtual school this fall for students in grades 6-12, who are well-suite

"My concern is that is giving them an enormous loophole. Is that going to give them an out?" Davis said at Tuesday's BESE meeting. She was worried how Livingston Parish school leaders would interpret the loosely worded mask recommendations.

Livingston Parish Public Schools announced last week it would launch a full-time virtual school this fall for students in grades 6-12 who are well-suited for online instruction or who may find it a better alternative to home school, charter or private school formats.

The district began accepting applications for that school July 7. In a news release on its launch, Assistant Superintendent Jody Purvis said the district had been researching a virtual school option for years, and it's not intended as an alternative COVID-19 guidelines.
The current surge in community transmission of COVID-19 in Victoria has brought renewed discussion of whether Australia should maintain its current "suppression" strategy, or pursue an "elimination" strategy instead.

But what do these terms actually mean, and what are the differences between the two?

In theory

Disease eradication means a global absence of the pathogen (except in laboratories). We achieved this for smallpox in 1980. Diseases suitable for eradication are usually those where humans are the only host, and where there's an effective vaccine or other prevention strategy.

Disease elimination relates to a country or a region, and is usually defined as the absence of ongoing community (endemic) transmission.

Elimination generally sits in the context of a global eradication goal. The World Health Organisation sets a goal for eradication, and countries play their part by first achieving country-wide elimination.

Cases and small outbreaks may still occur once a disease is eliminatedimported through travelbut these don't lead to sustained community transmission.

Finally, disease control refers to deliberate efforts to reduce the number of cases to a locally acceptable level, but community transmission may still occur. Australia's current suppression strategy, though seeking to quash community transmission, can be classified as disease control.

In practice

Elimination and suppression strategies employ the same control measures. For COVID-19, these include:

rapid identification and isolation of cases

timely and comprehensive contact tracing

testing and quarantining of contacts

varying degrees of social distancing (lockdown, banning mass gatherings, keeping 1.5m distance from others)

border controls: restricting entry through travel bans, and quarantine of returning international travellers

face masks to reduce transmission.

The differences between a suppression strategy and an elimination strategy are the strictness, timing, and duration with which these measures are applied, especially travel restrictions.

For example, under a suppression strategy, physical distancing requirements might be lifted while there's still a low level of community transmission. But under an elimination strategy, these measures would remain in place until there's no detectable community transmission.

What's realistic for COVID-19?

First, the prospect of eradicating COVID-19 is likely no longer feasible, even with a vaccine.

People without symptoms may be able to spread COVID-19, which makes it difficult to identify every infectious case (SARS, for example, was only spread by people with symptoms). And if the virus has an animal host, animal reservoirs would also need to be eradicated.

So what about elimination?

For measles, elimination is defined as the absence of endemic measles transmission for more than 12 months. Countries must demonstrate low incidence, high quality surveillance and high population immunity.

Imported cases in unvaccinated returning travellers and occasional small outbreaks continue to occur, but a country will lose its elimination status if community spread lasts longer than one year.

The majority of the Australian population are immune to measles, which lowers the probability of sustained outbreaks. But most Australians remain susceptible to COVID-19.

So future sustained outbreaks, like the current Victorian outbreak, will remain possible until we can vaccinate the populationeven under an elimination strategy.

Like we have with measles, for COVID-19, we need a definition of elimination with specific criteria that can be measured.

Declaring COVID-19 "eliminated" after the absence of community transmission for a few weeks means little during a pandemic, and may lead to complacency in the community. This period should be more like a few months.

Effective suppression can lead to elimination

While the federal government continues to advocate for its suppression strategy, some states have demonstrated absence of community transmission.

International arrivals to these states (and to New Zealand) are comparatively small, and the virus was always going to be more difficult to contain in cities with substantial international arrivals and high population densities, such as Sydney and Melbourne.

To achieve and sustain national elimination of any infectious disease during a pandemic is ambitious. It requires an epidemiologic definition with measurable criteria, significant resources and almost complete closure of international borders.

But maintaining the right for Australian citizens and residents to return to Australia means the borders are never fully closed, whether under a suppression strategy or elimination strategy.

So ultimately, both strategies are susceptible to outbreaks of COVID-19 in the community as long as the pandemic endures.

It will always ebb and flow

An elimination strategy would not necessarily have prevented the current outbreak in Victoria, particularly if social distancing restrictions had already been lifted.

Whether Australia continues with its suppression strategy or opts to switch to a defined elimination strategy, either approach will require continued vigilance. This could include intermittent reinstating of restrictions or targeted containment around hotspots as transmission ebbs and flows.

And whatever name we give to Australia's approach, neither Victoria or New South Wales have accepted any level of community transmission. Both have gone hard to stop community outbreaks that have arisen, and that's a good thing.

But long-term maintenance of periods of elimination are unlikely to be possible until we have a vaccine.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Soprano Jo Su-mi on Wednesday released a new single, "Life is a Miracle," which will benefit coronavirus victims.

The song was composed by composer and tenor Federico Paciotti, while pianist Giovanni Allevi accompanies her.

"I started working on the single after a close friend died far too young of coronavirus," Jo said in a telephone interview on Wednesday.

"While it was difficult to even go out, let alone hire a recording studio, the spirits of the three artists involved gelled marvelously. Even though people speak different languages and come from different cultural backgrounds, all humans share universal feelings of pain, love, sadness, and happiness. Music carries all these emotions."

The record was first released in Italy on July 10. All proceeds from Italy will be donated to the Umberto Veronesi Foundation, which is dedicated to raising funds to fight the virus, and proceeds from Korea will be donated to the Ewha Womans University Medical Center.
How Chinas Propaganda Department Directed Coverup of Virus Outbreak Information, Messaging Around US-China Trade War

The Epoch Times recently obtained internal documents issued by the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) Propaganda Department, revealing how it gives direct instructions to state mouthpieces, such as Xinhua, on how they should cover sensitive issues such as the U.S.-China trade war and the pandemic.

January Propaganda Instructions: Hide the Truth of the Pandemic

The documents, obtained from a trusted source, showed at least 90 instructions were issued by the Chinese regime in January this year.

The first two propaganda instructions were issued on Jan. 2, with one aimed at the CCP virus (COVID-19) and one at the U.S.-China trade war.

The first propaganda directive read: With regard to the pneumonia epidemic of unknown cause in Wuhan, Hubei Province, when it is reported, information released by authoritative departments shall be followed.

At the time, a large number of infections had appeared in Wuhan.

On Dec. 30, 2019, the whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang posted messages on WeChat, a popular social media platform, about seven confirmed cases of a SARS-like pneumonia that appeared connected with the Huanan Seafood Market. The patients at his hospital were being isolated at the ER, he added. The SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) pandemic of 2002 to 2003 infected more than 8,000 people worldwide and killed hundreds.

On Dec. 31, the Wuhan government said during a briefing that there was no evidence of significant human-to-human transmission.

After the propaganda directive was issued on Jan. 2, 2020, Li Wenliang was interrogated and warned by Wuhan police to stop spreading rumors on Jan. 3.

In another set of documents issued on Jan. 4 and 6, the Propaganda Department reiterated the Jan. 2 directive and strictly prohibited any citations or reposts of foreign media reports and any reports [linking the epidemic to] 2003 SARS.

All instructions from the Propaganda Department prior to Jan. 20 focused on prohibiting any epidemic information that was not endorsed by the authorities and keeping a low profile.

On Jan. 20, Chinese leader Xi Jinping gave his first public comments on epidemic prevention and control. Immediately, the Propaganda Department turned around and issued a directive to highly publicize the authorities containment measures.

According to a Jan. 22 directive from the Propaganda Department, journalists were restricted from visiting Wuhan.

Then, a series of instructions were issued after Jan. 26 to strictly forbid reprinting any epidemic reports from foreign media and to publish reports that create a positive image of the Party among the international community.

According to the documents The Epoch Times obtained, there were at least 18 directives on the epidemic issued in January to domestic media by the Propaganda Department.

January Propaganda Instructions: Downplay the ChinaUS Trade War

In the January directives, there were nine instructions issued on the trade war.

On Jan. 2, domestic media were warned not to print any articles on their own regarding the phase one deal that would be signed on Jan. 15.

The CCP and the United States had reached the first stage of negotiations for the trade agreement in December 2019.

Chinas Ministry of Commerce stated at a regular press conference in Beijing on Jan. 9, 2020 that Vice Premier Liu He would lead a delegation to visit Washington from Jan. 13 to 15 to sign the phase one trade deal with the United States. On the same day as the presser, a propaganda directive warned not to print any unauthorized articles. The same directive was issued again the next day.

On the day Liu He signed the agreement, the Propaganda Department issued specific directives to strengthen online censoring and identify and punish any harmful information that suggest [the regime is] surrendering or  destructive information that attacks the [communist] system and mechanisms.

February Propaganda Instructions: Keep Quiet on Global Purchasing of Surgical Masks

The documents showed that there were 89 directives issued in February and 50 of them were relevant to the pandemic.

Among them, three directives issued on Feb. 3, Feb. 5, and Feb. 12 confirmed news reports alleging that the Chinese regime was purchasing and hoarding global medical supplies used to treat COVID-19 patients or prevent the spread of the disease.

On Feb. 3, the directive requested, Do not publicize our mobilizing of global efforts to purchase protective supplies.

On Feb. 5, the same instruction was reiterated. The directive stated clearly, Prevent interference with our overseas procurement.

On Feb. 12, a directive stressed: Do not publicize the mobilization of purchasing global supplies, avoid causing a rebound in the public opinion of relevant countries and causing interference to the overseas procurement work.

The virus spread widely around the world in March.

According to Chinas official customs data, from Jan. 24 to Feb. 29, the country imported 2.46 billion pieces of medical materials, including masks and protective equipment. Among them were 2.02 billion masks from overseas.

On April 6, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said that during the early days of the virus outbreak, when the world was still unaware of the dangers of the virus, China bought up global supplies of surgical masks.

They hid the dangers from the rest of the world even as Chinese citizens were flying around the world seeding the world with the virus, Navarro said on Fox News.

Five directives were issued on Feb. 6 and 7 regarding the death of Li Wenliang, who had contracted COVID-19 from a patient he was treating. The Propaganda Department ordered no reporting on his death, and said media outlets could only reprint the authorized report. It also said the concept of whistleblower was prohibited.

Also, the department issued an order to downplay negative information regarding Chinese citizens living in Russia and Malaysia who were being prevented from returning to their home country. At the time, authorities had strict border control in an effort to prevent imported COVID-19 cases.

More than 50 directives related to the pandemic in February mostly instructed media outlets to censor harmful information regarding the CCP, or to filter out overseas media reports that expose information about Chinas epidemic.

March Propaganda Instructions: Maintain Authoritarian Stability

For the first 10 days in March, there were 46 directives, 34 of them relevant to the pandemic.

A March 1 directive forbade media from reporting on big data analysis of Wuhan residents travel patterns during the initial outbreak.

On March 2, four directives were issued to forbid any reports or comments on Beijings efforts in pandemic containment. These came after an ex-inmate was confirmed as COVID-positive, but was allowed to travel to Beijing on Feb. 22 after being released from prison in Wuhan.

On March 10, Chinese magazine People interviewed a Wuhan doctor, Ai Fen, and published her first-person account. Ai Fen was director of the emergency department at the Central Hospital of Wuhan. She was among the first people to spread information about the mysterious illness that had spread in Wuhan.

On the day the magazine article was published, a directive was issued to demand the removal of the article and all relevant media coverage about Ai.

On March 3, a directive instructed that any reports of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes and mental hospitals should follow authorities reprinted information. No overseas data or NGO report could be used.

On March 5, a directive demanded media outlets to remove reports about a patient who supposedly recovered from

In addition, a number of propaganda instructions in March required the media not to forward, hype up, or publicize the pandemic in Russia and Iran. Russia and Iran are regarded as political allies of the regime.

The CCP Propaganda Department is directly subordinate to Wang Huning, one of the CCPs top officials, and a member of the Partys most powerful decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee.
BRIDGEPORT  After getting a complaint that Brian McAllister, a local man with a history of of crimes involving children, had repeatedly raped a young girl, police waited five years before seeking an arrest warrant.

On Wednesday, McAllisters lawyer argued his client should get a reduced bond because of the delay.

Bridgeport police admit that mistakes were made with the Police Departments Youth Bureau, disbanded in 2018, but have been hard pressed to explain them. In a number of cases, files were simply stuck in draws and forgotten, according to police sources.

Detectives and supervisors of the Special Victims Unit uncovered several cases dating back to 2013 that were a part of the original Youth Bureau files, Police Department Spokesman Scott Appleby previously said. These cases were reviewed, and when necessary re-investigated, and evidence was sent to the state laboratory when appropriate. If probable cause existed to charge, a warrant was applied for.

McAllisters case was one of the lost cases.

In November 2015, the state Department of Children and Families received a complaint by a school counselor of a sex assault of a child and forwarded the complaint to the Police Departments Youth Bureau. In December 2015, a forensic interview was done with the girl at The Center for Family Justice in Bridgeport.

The girl disclosed during that interview that she had been sexually assaulted by Brian McAllister about two to three times a month between 2012 and 2013, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.

Police did not present an application for an arrest warrant for McAllister until Jan. 20, 2020. The now 41-year-old Bridgeport man was charged with first-degree sexual assault of a child, risk of injury to a child and fourth-degree sexual assault.

McAllisters lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Jared Millbrandt, argued Wednesday that there can be no justification for the delay between the time the girl made her complaint and the request by police for a warrant. He urged Superior Court Judge Joan Alexander to significantly reduce his clients $500,000 bond.

But Supervisory Assistant States Attorney C. Robert Satti Jr. objected, pointing out that McAllister has convictions in 1999 and 2009 for risk of injury to children. He did not comment on the delay in the case.

Alexander said given the defendants history and seriousness of the allegation in this case, she was denying the bond reduction request.

Millbrandt declined comment after the hearing.
The City of Pittsburgh has signed onto an amicus brief on a suit before the state Supreme Court that would allow gun industry groups to sue cities with gun safety ordinances, even if the ordinances have not been enforced. Mayor William Peduto and members of Pittsburgh City Council also signed onto a separate amicus brief for the suit joined by other advocacy groups and elected local officials.

A gun industry group sued the city of Harrisburg in 2015 saying the citys decade-old gun safety ordinances were preempted by state law. A Common Pleas Court ruled the group had no legal standing to sue since the plaintiffs had not been cited under the citys laws, but that ruling was overturned by Commonwealth Court last year. The ruling was appealed up to the Supreme Court.

The City of Pittsburgh signed onto an amicus brief last week with the City of Philadelphia. The brief with Philadelphia says in part:

Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are the Commonwealths biggest municipalities. Together, they provide city services, administer justice, and ensure public safety for over 1.8 million Pennsylvanians. Respondents lawsuit imperils all three of these basic municipal functions. The Commonwealth Courts decision below fashions an unworkably lax bar for standing that, if affirmed, promises a flood of baseless lawsuits against a host of lawful municipal measures.

Mayor Peduto and Council members Rev. Ricky Burgess, Bruce Kraus, Corey OConnor and Erika Strassburger signed onto a separate amicus brief with CeaseFirePa and the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, other anti-gun violations organizations, and other Pennsylvania elected local officials.

Copies of the briefs are available at https://bit.ly/3eogkoq and https://bit.ly/38NtoT7.

The City of Pittsburgh approved a series of gun safety measures in 2019 in the wake of the mass shootings at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill. Gun industry groups filed suit against the City, and that case is currently before the Commonwealth Court.
When Caltrain officials said Tuesday that they may have to shut the rail line down after two San Francisco supervisors scuttled a tax measure to save it, transit activists predicted disaster.

Traffic would pile up on Highway 101. More tech workers would rely on corporate shuttles or private cars when their offices reopened. And if the trains kept running with few passengers, Muni and Valley Transportation Authority would be on the hook to fund them.

When we return to normal were going to see highways flooded with cars, an increase in greenhouse gases and a decrease in mental health, said Caltrain board Director Charles Stone, describing the social consequences of so many people stuck in automobiles.

The fight erupted as the Peninsula railroad faced financial ruin, having lost 95% of its riders when COVID-19 engulfed the region in March. Suddenly, the transit system that relied on fares for 70% of its operating costs was losing $9 million a month. These financial wounds came at what should have been a bright moment in Caltrains 157-year history: The railroad is knee-deep in a $2 billion project to swap its diesel locomotives for electric cars, and top staff laid out a long-range vision last year to triple the number of riders it serves, from 65,000 a day to 180,000.

Without a robust rail system, future urban development along El Camino Real and in the South Bay would also be at risk, Stone said. Its unclear what Caltrain ceasing operation would mean for Googles planned megaproject near San Jose Diridon Station, which aims to transform 60 acres into an office campus, a hotel, parks, shops and up to 5,000 homes.

That Grand Boulevard vision that we all want, with increased housing density along the transit lines, needs to have transit in order to work, Stone said. He is also a Belmont city councilman who champions infrastructure to make cities more walkable and bikeable and reverse decades of suburban sprawl on the Peninsula.

So the regions future hangs in the balance as Caltrains board spars over parochial issues of leadership. San Francisco Supervisors Aaron Peskin and Shamann Walton have pushed for months to separate Caltrain from the San Mateo County Transit District, which manages and operates the rail system for a three-county Joint Powers Board. Ultimately, they want San Francisco to have more power.

What began as a conflict about Caltrains governance became an ideological battle when it spilled over to Twitter on Tuesday night.

Transit activists accused the San Francisco supervisors of holding the rail system hostage to make a point about local control and of limiting the citys Transit First credo to apply only within its borders.

But the -cent sales tax measure also drew opposition. Some residents of San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties resent paying for a system that mostly serves upper-income riders. Several people tweeted that the agency should instead raise fares, which range from $3.20 to $15 for a one-way ticket, depending on the distance traveled.

Peskin echoed those sentiments during a Zoom news conference on Wednesday, in which he and Walton doubled down on their decision to reject the sales tax.

Sales taxes are the most regressive form of taxation, the supervisor contended, meaning they hit low-income people harder than wealthier residents. This is a railroad that, while it is an extremely valuable public transportation resource, serves a very affluent clientele.

In an interview later, Peskin pitched an alternate idea: Why not impose a regional tax on the wealthiest people in society who are more likely to use the railroad?

Such arguments rankled Adina Levin, executive director of the grassroots advocacy group Friends of Caltrain.

Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle

This is a circular argument, Levin said. Caltrain does not have stable funding, and so its raised fares. And that means the riders are higher income. She pointed out that a share of the projected $100 million-a-year revenue from the sales tax was supposed to fund discounts for low-income riders.

Levin moved to Menlo Park in 2006 to be close to a Caltrain station. She rides the trains several times a week to get to meetings in San Francisco and the South Bay or connect to BART and go to the East Bay. She had hoped the ballot measure would enable frequent, all-day service for casual trips, so Caltrain could be more than a commuter rail.

If service were shut down, riders who could have zipped up the Peninsula in 30 minutes will instead spend an hour and a half on the bus, Levin warned.

To others, that idea didnt seem too bad. Chad Hedstrom, who lives near the San Francisco station, frowned at the sales tax proposal, and said he favors suspending the trains and substituting buses until Caltrain is fully electrified. Buses are cheaper and make less noise, Hedstrom said, noting that quieter vehicles would improve the quality of life in the Mission Bay neighborhood, where trains blast their horns at all hours of the day.

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.

As advocates gritted their teeth, Walton, who sits on Caltrains board, remained calm. He suggested that fellow board members may be bluffing when they portend a full suspension of service.

I ... dont believe the railroad will go dark if this tax does not make it to the ballot, he said during the news conference Wednesday. Walton said hes had conversations with state leaders about the possibility of a special tax measure in the coming years. Alternatively, Caltrain could generate money by selling, leasing or building housing on land that the agency owns, Walton said. That could take many years, and Caltrain has just two sites that could accommodate bigger developments.

And if it manages to lure riders back by the end of the year, it could be eligible for stimulus funding.

None of those options seemed immediately viable to San Mateo County Supervisor Dave Pine, who chairs the Caltrain Board of Directors. More likely, he said, Caltrains next step will be to ask the transportation agencies in San Francisco and Santa Clara to kick in additional funding for the railroad.

San Francisco, which is suffering its own budget crisis, currently pays $15.6 million a year for Caltrains capital and operating expenses  an obligation that would have gone away if the sales tax had passed.

Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

Yet Peskin said he and his colleagues are evaluating a number of alternatives, including a larger contribution from Muni, a transit system already under strain. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is bracing for $568 million in revenue losses over four years.

That didnt gall the supervisor.

Everything is on the table, he said.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan
Xpert MTB/XDR cartridge enables expanded drug-resistance profiling in less than 90 minutes

Used to empower clinicians to quickly prescribe treatment regimens for multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB), the test could help fill a critical gap that is currently jeopardizing global TB targets

GENEVA and SUNNYVALE, California, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) and Cepheid, Inc, announced today the launch of the new Xpert MTB/XDR* test, which enables expanded drug-resistance tuberculosis (TB) profiling in less than 90 minutes. Xpert MTB/XDR can be used to empower clinicians to quickly prescribe treatment regimens for extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB).

Able to detect TB that is resistant to multiple first- and second-line TB drugs, the test could help fill a critical gap that is currently jeopardizing global TB elimination targets. By contrast, current methods for identifying drug-resistance profiles for XDR-TB are very complex to perform, can take up to 16 weeks to deliver results, and as a result are often completely unavailable to patients.1

XDR-TB is the most complicated form of TB, with the worst outcomes. Mortality has been reported as high as 41% in some cohorts.2 The scientific community has been focused on coordinating innovation to improve both diagnosis and treatment of XDR-TB for years.3,4 The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends rapid molecular testing and detection of drug-resistant TB as an essential condition for the implementation of new treatment regimens.5

"An ordinary TB diagnosis is awful, but XDR-TB is the worst nightmare of every TB doctor and every patient," said Catharina Boehme, CEO of FIND. "Recent treatment advances are already making a huge impact, but for the best chances of survival, patients need to be able to start on treatment as soon as possible - and the only way for that to happen is through rapid diagnosis. By providing test results in just a few hours, the Xpert MTB/XDR test will save lives."

Xpert MTB/XDR leverages Cepheid's new 10-colour technology, which enables the detection of multiple mutations across several genes, from a single sample. Xpert MTB/XDR can detect resistance to isoniazid, ethionamide, fluoroquinolones, amikacin, kanamycin and capreomycin. Access to testing that can reliably identify resistance towards isoniazid as well as to fluoroquinolones and amikacin will help enable clinicians to quickly select the most appropriate MDR-TB treatment for each individual patient.7

"Rapid testing of resistance to isoniazid and fluoroquinolones is a critical step towards ensuring those who are ill with drug-resistant TB, and in particular XDR-TB, can access treatment and care early - in line with the latest WHO guidelines on the treatment of drug-resistant TB," said Tereza Kasaeva, Director of the WHO Global TB Programme. "WHO is looking forward to receiving all relevant data on the GeneXpert MTB/XDR cartridge from Cepheid and partners to rapidly proceed with an evaluation of the new test."

The test runs on Cepheid GeneXpert systems equipped with 10-colour multiplexing modules. GeneXpert 10-colour modules are capable of processing the already widely used Xpert MTB/RIF^ and Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra* tests for diagnosis of TB and rifampicin resistance.

"This test is the first to leverage 10-colour homogeneous detection within the GeneXpert system," said Dr David H Persing, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical and Technology Officer at Cepheid. "In partnership with Dr David Alland and his team at Rutgers University as well as FIND, we have demonstrated the ability to detect a wide array of TB drug resistance mutations directly from clinical specimens with a high level of accuracy comparable with standard testing."

A study conducted by Cepheid showed promising results for the detection of mutations associated with first- and second-line drug resistance, while preliminary data from independent analytical and clinical evaluation studies conducted by FIND indicate that the test's sensitivity (ability to correctly identify drug-resistance) and specificity (ability to correctly identify drug-susceptibility) is comparable with current standard tests (culture-based phenotypic drug-susceptibility testing) and sequencing, and that the test meets the performance characteristics defined by the high-priority target product profiles for new TB diagnostics.6

Data from the FIND evaluations will form part of the dossier now being prepared for WHO review at the end of this year. If the test is recommended for use by WHO, countries could include it in their national policies and accelerate its scale up - particularly in high-burden TB countries such as India and China.

"Reflex testing of MDR-TB patients, to rapidly and accurately diagnose XDR-TB within 2 hours and minimum expertise needed, has the potential to be the cornerstone in the rapid initiation of tailored treatment," said Camilla Rodrigues, Consultant Microbiologist, Chairperson Infection Control Committee, P.D. Hinduja Hospital, Mumbai.

"It is great to have the Xpert MTB/XDR test that can be deployed in the peripheral laboratories and greatly improve access to diagnosis of drug-resistant TB and selection of the most appropriate treatment regimens," said Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership. "We should all work together to ensure that this and any other new TB diagnostics are fast-tracked from development, to WHO recommendation, to scale up and use by countries."

FIND is now working with Cepheid and WHO to support the rollout of the test.

About FIND

FIND is a global non-profit organization that drives innovation in the development and delivery of diagnostics to combat major diseases affecting the world's poorest populations. Our work bridges R&D to access, overcoming scientific barriers to technology development; generating evidence for regulators and policy-makers; addressing market failures; and enabling accelerated uptake and access to diagnostics in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Since 2003, we have been instrumental in the development of 24 new diagnostic tools used in 150 LMICs. Over 50 million FIND-supported products have been provided to our target markets since the start of 2015. A WHO Collaborating Centre, we work with more than 200 academic, industry, governmental, and civil society partners worldwide, on over 70 active projects that cross six priority disease areas. FIND is committed to a future in which diagnostics underpin treatment decisions and provide the foundation for disease surveillance, control and prevention. For more information, please visit www.finddx.org

About Cepheid

Based in Sunnyvale, Calif., Cepheid is a leading molecular diagnostics company that is an operating company within Danaher Corporation's (NYSE: DHR) Diagnostics platform. Cepheid is dedicated to improving healthcare by developing, manufacturing, and marketing accurate yet easy-to-use molecular systems and tests. By automating highly complex and time-consuming manual procedures, the company's solutions deliver a better way for institutions of any size to perform sophisticated molecular diagnostic testing for organisms and genetic-based diseases. Through its strong molecular biology capabilities, the company is focusing on those applications where accurate, rapid, and actionable test results are needed most, such as managing infectious diseases and cancer. For more information, visit http://www.cepheid.com.

Media contacts

FIND: Sarah-Jane Loveday, Head of Communications

+41 (0) 79 431 62 44

media@finddx.org

Cepheid Media Inquiries:

Darwa Peterson

darwa.peterson@cepheid.com



World Health Organization. Drug-resistant TB: XDR-TB FAQ. https://www.who.int/tb/areas-of-work/drug-resistant-tb/xdr-tb-faq/en/ accessed May 2020 World Health Organization. Global tuberculosis report 2019. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/329368/9789241565714-eng.pdf?ua=1 accessed May 2020 FIND press release, 11 October 2017 . https://www.finddx.org/newsroom/find-supports-diagnostic-development-with-hain-cepheid-to-enable-roll-out-of-short-course-therapies-novel-regimens-for-treatment-of-dr-tb/ accessed May 2020 TB Alliance. FDA approves new treatment for highly drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis. https://www.tballiance.org/news/fda-approves-new-treatment-highly-drug-resistant-forms-tuberculosis accessed May 20202020) World Health Organization. Consolidated guidelines on drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment. https://www.who.int/tb/publications/2019/consolidated-guidelines-drug-resistant-TB-treatment/en/ accessed May 2020 WHO. High-priority target product profiles for new tuberculosis diagnostics: report of a consensus meeting. https://www.finddx.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/WHO-2014_High-priority-TPPs-for-new-TB-diagnostics.pdf accessed May 2020 World Health Organization. Consolidated guidelines on drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment. https://www.who.int/tb/publications/2019/consolidated-guidelines-drug-resistant-TB-treatment/en/ accessed May 2020

^ CE-IVD. In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Device. May not be available in all countries

* CE-IVD. In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Device. May not be available in all countries. Not available in the United States

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1215469/XDR.jpg
Rachel Riley has sent out a warning to Twitter trolls after winning the first round of a legal fight with barrister accused of using an anonymous account to harass her.

A High Court judge has ordered barrister Daniel Bennett, who 'admits responsibility' for the now dormant Harry Tuttle account, to disclose tweets which refer to the 34-year-old television presenter.

Mr Justice Saini told a hearing on Wednesday the Harry Tuttle account had been used 'as a medium to attack a number of Jewish people, by harassing and defaming them

Rachel Riley responded to yesterday's ruling by warning trolls: 'anonymity won't protect you'

He said Mr Bennett should also provide tweets to a blogger, David Collier, who has also complained of being defamed and harassed.

The judge said Mr Collier and Ms Riley were Jewish and took 'active positions' against anti-Semitism in the UK over recent years.

He said they used Twitter in order to 'speak out against this phenomenon'.

The judge made the orders on Wednesday after analysing arguments at a recent High Court hearing.

He ruled that Mr Collier and Ms Riley were entitled to know who had used and had access to the Harry Tuttle account between March 2018 and July 2019, when it became dormant.

The judge added Mr Bennett, who is also Jewish, 'admits responsibility' for the account but was 'not willing' to say whether he was the author of the tweets.

Actress Tracy Ann Oberman had also complained that the Harry Tuttle account had been used to defame and harass her.

But the judge did not order Mr Bennett to disclose tweets to her, adding the evidence relating to her was 'substantially weaker'.

Mr Bennett disputes claims made against him and said the three claimants could not show that the 'statements in issue' were 'likely to be defamatory'.

Mr Justice Saini said the 'broad' legal issue raised had been the scope and nature of a judge's powers to 'assist' potential victims of 'civil wrongs', said to have been committed by the operator of the Harry Tuttle account.

Ms Riley has, separately, sued a former aide to Jeremy Corbyn for libel.

She has taken legal action against Laura Murray over a tweet sent shortly after the ex-Labour leader was egged by a Brexit supporter during a visit to Finsbury Park Mosque, in London, in March 2019.

Ms Murray says tweet was not defamatory. A High Court judge has overseen a preliminary hearing.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 22:22:09|Editor: huaxia

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KHARTOUM, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Sudan's Foreign Ministry on Thursday announced that it was officially informed by Ethiopia that news saying that it started filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) were incorrect.

"Ethiopia's foreign ministry notified Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the news that the Ethiopian authorities embarked on filling the GERD were incorrect," the ministry said in a statement.

"The Ethiopian foreign ministry explained that the Ethiopian water and irrigation minister did not make the statements which were attributed to him on Wednesday that the GERD has started filling," it added.

Director of neighboring countries department of Sudan's ministry of foreign affairs Babikir Al-Siddiq Mohamed Al-Amin on Thursday met with Ethiopia's Charge d'Affaires Mekonnen Gossaye in Khartoum, it said.

Al-Amin reiterated Sudan's commitment to the negotiations under the supervision of the African Union (AU) to reach a consensus solution for the interest of the three countries, renewing Sudan's rejection to any unilateral measures, the statement noted.

According to the statement, the Ethiopian diplomat said his country's authorities have not closed the gates of the GERD.

"This is the rainy season and the water naturally gathered in the lake of the dam," Gossaye was quoted in the statement as saying.

He reiterated Ethiopia's commitment to continuing the negotiations under the AU patronage over the GERD issue and to the Declaration of Principles signed by Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia.

Sudan's Irrigation and Water Resources Ministry on Wednesday disclosed a decline in the water levels of the Nile River, which hints closure of the gates of the GERD when Ethiopia's Water and Irrigation Minister Seleshi Bekele reportedly announced that the GERD has started filling.

On Monday, Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia ended the most recent round of talks on the GERD without reaching an agreement on the issue of filling of the dam.

Meanwhile, the three countries sent separate reports to the AU which is expected to call for a mini-summit next week to issue a decision regarding the dam.

Ethiopia started building the GERD in 2011, while Egypt, a downstream Nile Basin country that relies on the river for its fresh water, is concerned that the dam might affect its 55.5-billion-cubic-meter annual share of the water resources. Enditem
Rada with 349 votes extends moratorium on collection on currency mortgage loans until 2022

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has extended the moratorium on the collection of property on foreign currency loans.

According to a correspondent of Interfax-Ukraine bill No. 3640 was supported by 349 MPs.

The head of the committee on finance, tax and customs policy said that the current moratorium will end in October 2020.

Earlier, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) called on MPs not to support the bill of MP from the Servant of the People faction Oleksandr Dubinsky, since this document prohibits banks from settling problem debts of foreign currency borrowers, in particular, 44,000 agreements totaling UAH 29 billion.

The moratorium was introduced for indefinite term in 2014 during the outbreak of the war and the economic crisis, but for six years some foreign currency borrowers have not started servicing loans due to the lack of leverage.

According to the NBU, in October 2019, a new bankruptcy code was launched, providing for a mechanism for restructuring the debt of mortgage borrowers, which will work in full only if the moratorium is lifted.
French English

TORONTO, July 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Ontario government is amending liquor laws to provide consumers with more delivery options and allow boat operators with liquor sales licences to temporarily sell and serve alcohol while their boat is docked. These changes, which come into effect today, are designed to support the recovery of workers and businesses as Ontarios hospitality sector gradually reopens.



Recognizing the continuing need to practice physical distancing, Ontario is amending the Liquor Licence Act (LLA) to allow a licensed liquor delivery service to use contractors. This will give consumers more options for delivery services when purchasing alcohol from Ontario retailers, including the LCBO and The Beer Store. The province is also permanently removing the requirement for these services to obtain a receipt signed by the customer at the time of delivery and removing restrictions that prevented delivery services from delivering to any private space, such as offices.



To continue supporting businesses dealing with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government is also allowing boat operators with a liquor sales licence to sell and serve alcohol while their boat is docked. These operators may also add a new outdoor licensed area adjacent to their docked boat. Although the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) will not require liquor licensed boat operators to apply or pay a fee for these temporary physical extensions, the operators must ensure they have municipal approval and meet all other applicable requirements. These measures will be in place until January 1, 2021 at 3:00 a.m.

The requirements that apply to alcohol sales, service and delivery will continue to apply to licensed boats and liquor delivery services, including checking ID, Smart Serve training and not serving or selling to intoxicated people.

QUOTES

The AGCO remains committed to supporting businesses and workers who have been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak, including those who have helped to build Ontarios vibrant hospitality sector. By allowing more businesses to enter the liquor delivery market, we also hope to offer more convenience and choice for consumers as we all adapt to the current reality.

Jean Major, Registrar and CEO, AGCO

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

MEDIA CONTACT

Raymond Kahnert

Senior Advisor, Communications

media@agco.ca

416-326-3202

ABOUT THE AGCO

The AGCO is responsible for regulating the alcohol, gaming, horse racing and private cannabis retail sectors in Ontario in accordance with the principles of honesty and integrity, and in the public interest.

The AGCO is a regulatory agency with a governing board that reports to the Ministry of the Attorney General. The agency was established on February 23, 1998 under the Alcohol, Cannabis and Gaming Regulation and Public Protection Act, 1996.

Stay informed:

Follow us on Twitter at @Ont_AGCO

Inquiries from News Media

416-326-3202

media@agco.ca

All other inquiries

Submit inquiries or complaints to Customer Service through the iAGCO portal or call 416-326-8700 (1-800-522-2876 toll-free in Ontario).
The House of Representatives has issued a warrant for the arrest of Daniel Pondei, the Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commision (NDDC), over what it described as contempt of the legislature.

The House Committee on Niger Delta had summoned the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NDDC to make presentations at the ongoing investigative hearing into the alleged financial recklessness at the commission.

Mr Pondei, on Thursday, led a walk-out on the House Committee on Niger Delta.

Mr Pondei, who appeared with other management staff of the commission, accused the chairman of the house committee, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, of corruption. He said because of that, his team would not speak before the committee.

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We are not comfortable with the chairman of this committee presiding over a matter he has been accused of, he said.

He asked the committee chairman to recuse himself from the investigation.

There is no point of order here. As long as he is the chairman of this committee, the NDDC will not make any presentation here, he said.

When other lawmakers intervened and told the NDDC team that nobody could decide their modus operandi, the NDDC management staged a walkout.

Earlier in May, a group accused Mr Tunji-Ojo of having benefited from award of contracts at the NDDC.

The lawmaker, however, described the allegations as shameful and baseless.

In a statement, he described a newspaper publication attributed to some inconsequential groups claiming he was awarded a 17 km road contract as smear campaign.

Mr Tunji-Ojo represents Akoko North East/ West Federal Constituency of Ondo State.

ARREST WARRANT

Thursdays invitation of the NDDC leadership was because it was accused of spending N81.5 billion from the coffers of the commission from February to May without due process.

However, rather than address the allegations, on Thursday, the management of the NDDC walked out on the lawmakers.

Irked by the action of the NDDC management, the house spokesperson, Benjamin Kalu, moved a motion, invoking section 89 of the 1999 constitution (as amended), to issue a warrant of arrest.

The motion was seconded and passed at the committee sitting.

This order of arrest is expected to be ignored by the police who have ignored similar ones by the lawmakers in the past.

The committee also passed a vote of confidence on the Chairman of the Committee, Tunji-Ojo, saying his integrity and those of other members of the committee was not in question.

The committee, however, continued with the investigative hearing.

WHY WE WALKED OUT

Addressing journalists after the incident at the National Assembly, Mr Pondei said they were supposed to appear before the committee investigating financial recklessness and malfeasance but that basically, the committee is investigating a missing N40 billion that nobody is talking about.

He said he has absolute respect for the National Assembly and that is why they appeared before the Senate ad-hoc committee to investigate the same issues.

We made our presentation over two days and we will wait for the outcome of that investigation.

However, the committee that was set up in the House of Representatives is being chaired by the Chairman of the NDDC committee who the NDDC severally accused of different things. He cannot be a judge in his own case because we are very sure we will not have a fair hearing.

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Yesterday, for reasons beyond our control, we were not able to appear but the reports that came out had already indicted us. They shaved our heads in our absence.

The fact given by the Account Generals office in the Senate explained that between October 2019 and May 31, 2020, N81.5billion had been spent by the NDDC.

Yesterday, according to what was read out by the Chairman, the amount was spent in four months by the NDDC; this already showed that there is a problem, a preconceived efforts to portray the management of the NDDC in a bad light and we know we wont get justice in this.

He said any day an ad hoc committee without anybody who is being accused by the NDDC is set up, the NDDC will appear.

When we saw that the committee was insistent that the chairman will continue, we had no option rather than to take a leave, we did not disrespect the National Assembly, we asked for permission to leave and we left.
tech2 News Staff

Vivo will launch its Vivo X50 and X50 Pro along with its first-ever TWS Ne earbuds today in India. The two smartphones and Vivo X50 Pro+ already debuted in China last month. Both Vivo X50 and X50 Pro are likely to sport a quad-camera setup at the back and 5G connectivity.

Vivo launch event: How to watch it live

The launch event will begin at 12 pm today. You can head to the company's YouTube page. The webcast link is embedded below.



Vivo X50 expected specifications

Going by the China variant of Vivo X50, the smartphone might sport a 6.56-inch AMOLED screen with 1,080 x 2,376 pixel resolution. In terms of processor, it might come with a Snapdragon 765G chipset and offer 8 GB RAM and up to 256 GB of internal storage. It is expected to come with an in-display fingerprint sensor.

Powerful battery with immersive sound! Only 1 day to go for #vivoTWSNeo. Get ready to be blown away by the music. pic.twitter.com/PrAVOeKUW2  Vivo India (@Vivo_India) July 15, 2020

In the camera department, Vivo X50 is likely to feature a 48 MP primary sensor, a 13 MP telephoto lens and an 8 M wide angle camera and a 5 MP macro camera. On the front, you might see a 32 MP selfie camera.

Vivo X50 is likely to house a 4,200 mAh battery that supports 33W charging tech.

Vivo X50 Pro expected specifications

As per the variant launched in China, Vivo X50 Pro is likely to feature a curved OLED display that comes with a resolution of 1,080 x 2,376 pixels. It is also expected to sport an in-display fingerprint sensor. Vivo X50 Pro is likely to be powered by 765G SoC and might offer up to 8 GB RAM and 256 GB internal storage.

For camera, the smartphone is expected to come with a quad-camera setup that houses a 48 MP Sony IMX598 sensor, a 13 MP portrait lens, an 8 MP telephoto lens and an 8 MP ultra-wide-angle lens. For selfies, it is also expected to sport a 32 MP punch-hole front camera.

In terms of battery, Vivo X50 Pro is expected to be equipped with a 4,315 mAh battery that supports 33W fast charging.

Vivo TWS Neo earbuds expected specifications

Vivo said that the wearable will sport 14.2mm moving coil that has been designed to allow users to make the most out of its flagship DeepX Stereo Sound effects. They are expected to come in black colour option.
LUSAKA, July 16 (Reuters) - Glencore's Zambia subsidiary Mopani Copper Mines on Thursday said the country's mines ministry rejected its proposal to suspend operations due to the coronavirus pandemic and low copper prices.

Mopani said it would initiate an appeal against the Zambia Director of Mines' decision, and will continue mining operations pending the outcome of the appeal process.

Mopani suspended its mines at the start of April, citing the coronavirus pandemic and other problems, but started operating again a month later after the decision sparked a backlash from Zambia's government. "Mopani remains of the belief that the only way to protect the company's value and preserve the option to deliver its growth projects when conditions further improve is to transition the operations to C&M (care and maintenance)," the company said on Thursday.

MCM, which produced 119,000 tonnes of copper in 2018, is 73.1% owned by Glencore, 16.9% by First Quantum Minerals and 10% by Zambia's mining investment arm ZCCM-IH.

(Reporting by Chris Mfula; Writing by Helen Reid; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
Passengers from the safe country list that includes Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Greece, Hong Kong and Thailand would be allowed into Jordan

Jordan said on Thursday it will partially resume commercial flights from August to a limited number of European and Asian countries on an internationally approved safe list.

Government spokesman Amjad Adailah told state-owned Al Mamlaka TV that regular commercial flights from Alia international airport, suspended since March, could begin in the first or second week of August.

Passengers from the safe country list that includes Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Greece, Hong Kong and Thailand would be allowed into Jordan and the list could extend depending on the state of the pandemic, he added.

Gulf countries, where tens of thousands of Jordanians live and work are not on the list so far, Adailah added. Some have seen a surge in coronavirus infections recently.

The kingdom has, since the closure of the airport in March, allowed repatriation flights that brought home over 20,000 stranded citizens in the Gulf, the United States and Europe.

Business lobbies are urging the government to speed up the resumption of flights to help salvage a hard-hit tourism industry that was enjoying an unprecedented boom before the crisis hit.

The government last month lifted remaining restrictions on most activities, including reopening hotels and cafes. Schools remain closed however, and weddings, conferences and festivals not permitted.

Jordan has withstood the COVID-19 pandemic better than most regional neighbours after taking early steps in mid-March to restrict the mobility of its 10 million people, sealing its borders, imposing a state of emergency and a night curfew.

The kingdom has recorded minimal cases in the last few weeks with most infections from people coming from abroad.

The country has recorded 1,201 cases with ten deaths.

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(Natural News) Below is my column in The Hill on the ongoing destruction of memorials and statues. After this column ran, I learned that one of the iconic busts of George Washington University had been toppled on my own campus. I did not learn that from our university, which was conspicuously silent about this destructive act at the very center of our campus. There is something eerily familiar in the scenes of bonfires with police watching passively as public art is destroyed. Such acts are akin to book burning as mobs unilaterally destroyed images that they do not want others to see. There are valid issues to address on the removal of some public art but there is no room or time for debate in the midst of this spreading destruction. Even when there is merit to objections to literally or artistic or historical works, mob action threatens more than the individual work destroyed by such action. The media has largely downplayed this violence, including little comparative coverage of an attack on the Democratic state senator who simply tried to videotape the destruction of a statue to a man who actually gave his life fighting against slavery in the Civil War. As discussed earlier, history has shown that yielding to such mob rule will do little to satiate the demand for unilateral and at times violent action. People of good faith must step forward to demand a return to the rule of law and civility in our ongoing discourse over racism and reform.

(Article republished from JonathanTurley.org)

Here is the column:

The scenes have played out nightly on our television screens. In Portland, a flag was wrapped around the head of a statue of George Washington and burned. As the statue was pulled down, a mob cheered. Across the country, statues of Christopher Columbus, Francis Scott Key, Thomas Jefferson, and Ulysses Grant have been toppled down as the police and the public watch from the edges. We have seen scenes like this through history, including the form of mob expression through book burning.

Alarmingly, this destruction of public art coincides with a crackdown on academics and writers who criticize any aspects of the protests today. We are experiencing one of the greatest threats to free speech in our history and it is coming, not from the government, but from the public. For free speech advocates, there is an eerie candescence in these scenes, flames illuminating faces of utter rage and even ecstasy in destroying public art. Protesters are tearing down history that is no longer acceptable to them. Some of this anger is understandable, even if the destruction is not. There are statues still standing to figures best known for their racist legacies.

Two decades ago, I wrote a column calling for the Georgia legislature to take down its statue of Tom Watson, a white supremacist publisher and politician who fueled racist and antisemitic movements. Watson was best known for his hateful writings, including his opposition to save Leo Frank, a Jewish factory manager accused of raping and murdering a girl. Frank was taken from a jail and lynched by a mob enraged by such writings, including the declaration of Watson that Frank belongs to the Jewish aristocracy, and it was determined by the rich Jews that no aristocrat of their race should die for the death of a working class Gentile.

Yet today there is no room or time for such reasoned discourse, just destruction that often transcends any rationalization of history. Rioters defaced the Lincoln Memorial in Washington and a statue of Abraham Lincoln in London. Besides attacking those monuments to the man who ended slavery, rioters attacked statues of military figures who defeated the Confederacy, like Grant and David Farragut, who refused to follow Tennessee and stayed loyal to the Union. In Boston, rioters defaced the monument to the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, the all black volunteer regiment of the Union Army. In Philadelphia, the statute of abolitionist Matthias Baldwin was attacked, despite his fight for black voting rights and his financial support for the education of black children.

This systematic destruction of public art is now often rationalized as the natural release of anger by those who have been silenced or marginalized. Even rioting and looting has been defended by some as an expression of power. However, a far more extensive movement is unfolding across the country, as people are fired for writing in opposition to these protests. In Vermont, Windsor School principal Tiffany Riley was placed on leave for questioning protest rhetoric on Facebook, where she posted, While I understand the urgency to feel compelled to advocate for black lives, what about our fellow law enforcement? She was denounced on social media as insanely tone deaf and is being forced to retire.

At the University of Chicago, there is an effort to fire Harald Uhlig, who is a professor and senior editor of the prestigious Journal of Political Economy. His offense was questioning the logic of defunding the police and other messaging from the protests. Writers like Paul Krugman of the New York Times denounced him, and he was accused of the unpardonable sin of trivializing the Black Lives Matter movement. Professors across the country are being targeted because they object to aspects of these protests or specific factual claims. Students also face punishment.

Syracuse University student journalists at the Daily Orange have fired a columnist for writing a piece in another publication that questioned the statistical basis for claims of institutional racism in police departments. Adrianna San Marco discussed a study published last year by the National Academy of Sciences that had found no evidence of disparities against Blacks or Hispanics in police shootings. Such a view could be challenged on many levels. Indeed, this once was the type of debate that colleges welcomed. Yet San Marco was accused of reinforcing stereotypes.

The merging of journalism and advocacy is evident in academia, where intellectual pursuit is now viewed as reactionary or dangerous. Many opposed a recent recognition given by the American Association of University Professors to an academic viewed by many as antisemitic. I disagreed with the campaign against the professor as a matter of free speech. However, I was struck by the statement that she transcends the division between scholarship and activism that encumbers traditional university life. That encumbrance was once the distinction between intellectual and political expression. As academics, we once celebrated intellectual pluralism and fiercely defended free speech everywhere.

However, we now increasingly join the mob in demanding the termination or retraining of academics who utter opposing views. In my 30 years of teaching, I never imagined I would see such intolerance and orthodoxy on campuses. Indeed, I have spoken with many professors who are simply appalled by what they are seeing but too scared to speak up. They have seen other academics put on leave or condemned by their fellow faculty members. Two professors are not only under investigation for criticizing the protests but received police protection at home due to death threats. The chilling effect on speech is as intentional as it is successful.

Such cases are mounting across the country as academics and students enforce this new orthodoxy on college campuses. What will be left when objectionable public art and academics are scrubbed from view? The silence that follows may be comforting to those who want to remove images or ideas that cause unease. History has shown, however, that orthodoxy is never satisfied with silence. It demands speech.

Once all the offending statues are down, and all the offending professors are culled, the appetite for collective suppression will become a demand for collective expression. It is a future that is foreshadowed not in loud cries around the bonfires we see every night on the news. It is a future guaranteed by the silence of those watching from the edges.

Read more at: JonathanTurley.org and Censorship.news.
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has again tested positive for coronavirus, CNN Brasil reported on Wednesday, suggesting he has yet to recover from an infection diagnosed announced last week.

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has again tested positive for coronavirus, CNN Brasil reported on Wednesday, suggesting he has yet to recover from an infection diagnosed announced last week.

CNN Brasil reported that Bolsonaro personally told the network of his new positive test result and said he would take another test in a few days. Since catching the virus, the president has said he remains in good health and he would resume his normal work schedule if he tested negative this week.

Bolsonaro first announced his diagnosis on July 7 after dismissing the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, calling it a "little flu" even as Brazil's outbreak became the worst in the world outside the United States.

He played down the country's mounting death toll  now over 74,000, out of nearly 2 million confirmed cases  and said his good physical condition would prevent him from developing serious symptoms if he got ill.

Bolsonaro has also sidelined medical experts in Brazil's handling of the pandemic, pushed back against state and city lockdowns and circulated often in public without a mask, drawing criticism from public health specialists.

(Reporting by Alexandre Caverni and Marcelo Rochabrun; Editing by Christian Plumb and Brad Haynes)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
IF you're thinking of a smart speaker to replace a radio or something to connect up other 'smart' gadgets you have in the house, a smart screen makes a lot of sense. The visual aide makes controlling things like lights or calendars a lot easier.

But in terms of other things you might expect them to do, they're a mixed bag for functionality. Google's new Nest Hub is handy as a fancy bedside alarm clock or a kitchen counter-top radio that plays YouTube videos and reminds you of lists you've made, but it misses out on some things that could make it a compelling home gadget.

Its audio quality is relatively basic and, because it doesn't have a camera, you can't use it for things we really need to stay in touch right now, like video calls.

It also falls victim to the turf wars between tech giants, meaning you can't get services like Netflix or Amazon Prime on it, let alone things like Disney Plus. Indeed, just about the only commonly used third-party service you can get on it is Spotify.

On the other hand, it's very aggressively priced. Here's a 7-inch smart display with a creditably smooth, bright, vivid screen, a working speaker and very decent voice controls for 90. That's at least 20 cheaper than its direct Amazon rival, the Echo Show 8, even if the Echo has undisputedly better audio quality as an actual speaker.

This is probably handiest for someone who already has a couple of other Google smart devices set up - such as a security Nest, for example - or who just wants something cheap and cheerful for a handful of specific purposes, like a radio that also plays YouTube videos. There are actually hundreds of physical devices, from lights to TV controls, that now work with the Google Assistant. Many of these are accessible directly from the Nest Hub (although they're also usually accessible from your phone's 'Home' app, too).

For anyone who already has any Google smart devices set up, it's a fairly seamless process to integrate this one. Switch it on and finish your settings within the Google Home app.

It's a reasonably elegant little screen, too, with fairly thick white bezels. It has ambient lighting control, meaning it adjusts to whatever brightness is in the room.

I think it bears repeating, though, that in terms of audio quality, this is basic. It's fine, but not noticeably any better than Google's small Nest mini or equivalent 50-ish smart speakers. It's certainly not a patch on Amazon's (slightly pricier) Echo Show 8.

So if you plan on using it frequently for Spotify, Google Music or YouTube Music, or for internet radio stations through the likes of TuneIn, there's a low ceiling on quality.

For those new to smart displays, there are also hard walls when it comes to the kind of content you might think of watching on a smart screen. For example, you can't play Netflix on it. Or Amazon Prime Video or Disney Plus or Apple Plus or any other major video services. (American buyers of the Nest Hub can watch some other video selections such as CBS, HBO Now or Starz.)

Arguably the biggest disappointment of the Nest Hub is that it doesn't support some of Google's-own video calling services.

You can't participate in a Google Meet or Hangouts meeting on this device, mainly because it doesn't have a camera. Instead, you have to hope that others are using Google Duo (almost no-one I know uses this regularly) and start a group voice call within that application.

So if this is an important part of what you want in a standalone large screen, the Nest Hub isn't really a substitute for a tablet.

Instead, it's more like a visual radio that can also visually remind you of things like shopping lists and alarms.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16

By Tamilla Mammadova  Trend:

Georgian Adjara region's Prime Minister Tornike Rizhvadze met with US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan, Trend reports via Georgian media.

At the meeting, the parties discussed the investment opportunities in Adjara, as well as planned measures to stimulate the economy and strengthen tourism potential in the area.

During the meeting with the US ambassador, we discussed the existing relations between the US and Georgia, as well as specific programs implemented with US support in Adjara, in various municipalities. In addition, we discussed events that are relevant in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Rizhvadze.

At the meeting, it was noted that Adjara plans to implement various measures to attract tourists in compliance with established safety standards in the context of the coronavirus pandemic.

A very interesting meeting was held with the Chairman of the Government of Adjara. We talked about the difficulties caused by COVID-19 and the ways of economic recovery, as well as about the positive and ambitious plans that we have with regard to Georgia, in particular with regard to Adjara, Degnan said, commenting on the talks with Rizhvadze.

In addition, the parties discussed the results achieved in the field of defense and security between the two countries, as well as emphasized the possibility of further deepening economic relations.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Mila61979356
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The Government's top scientific adviser today dealt a hammer blow to Boris Johnson's hopes of persuading workers to return to their offices as he said there is 'absolutely no reason' to change the current work from home guidance.

Sir Patrick Vallance said the UK is 'still at a time when distancing measures are important' and that working remotely 'remains a perfectly good option'.

He then went even further as he said many companies had found working from home had not been 'detrimental to productivity' and as a result there is no need to move away from the policy.

The Prime Minister is expected to use a Downing Street press conference tomorrow evening to urge more people to physically return to their places of employment and to use public transport to do so.

The Government is increasingly concerned about the impact continued working from home could have on the nation's economic recovery as many city and town centres remain deserted.

But Sir Patrick's comments will increase pressure on the Prime Minister to set out exactly why he believes it is safe and necessary for people to return to something more like normal life.

Meanwhile, Sir Patrick also delivered bombshell interventions on the timing of the UK's lockdown and of the Government's overall performance during the pandemic.

England's chief scientific adviser said lockdown measures should have been introduced a week earlier while the outcome of the pandemic 'has not been good for the UK'.

He also told MPs on the Science and Technology Committee that researchers have been in favour of the wearing of face masks since April as he appeared to make his point by wearing a covering to the meeting before then taking it off.

Sir Patrick Vallance set an example by arriving at today's Science and Technology Committee wearing a face mask and then explaining that it was safe for him to remove it because everyone was at least two metres away from him

Boris Johnson will use a press conference tomorrow afternoon to set out new guidance on working from home and returning to offices

Number of people employed has plunged by 650,000 since coronavirus chaos erupted The number of people employed fell by another 74,000 last month with 2.6million on benefits, it was revealed today. Some 650,000 fewer are on the payroll than before the crisis after another 0.3 per cent reduction between May and June, according to official figures. Vacancies are at a record low and hours have also tumbled, the Office for National Statistics data show. The claimant count has risen by 112.2 per cent, or 1.4million, since March. However, the massive furlough and self-employed support schemes appear to be masking the scale of the issues. Rishi Sunak said the government's response was 'protecting millions of people from unemployment'. A separate survey by the British Chambers of Commerce has found that a third of firms are planning to lay off staff over the next three months. Advertisement

Sir Patrick's appearance at the select committee came as:

The UK announced a further 66 coronavirus deaths, which means the daily average number of fatalities has now dropped to the lowest level since March.

Scotland today recorded one death, ending its seven-day spell without any victims.

Britain's official Covid-19 death toll topped the grim milestone of 45,000 yesterday and now stands at 45,119.

The King's College London's COVID Symptom Tracker app estimated that 2,100 people a re catching the virus in the community every day, up from 1,400 last week.

The number of UK workers on company payrolls fell by 649,000 during lockdown as the pandemic claimed another 74,000 jobs last month, according to new Office for National Statistics data.

ONS data also showed annual growth in regular weekly pay was 4.8 per cent in the public sector in May while in the private sector it was minus 2.6 per cent

Sir Patrick used his appearance in front of the committee this afternoon to deliver a number of interventions which are likely to increase tensions between the Government and its top adviser.

But the timing of his comments on the issue of working from home are likely to cause controversy in Number 10 given the PM is widely expected to rip up the current guidance at a briefing tomorrow.

Below is a breakdown of the key points made by Sir Patrick.

Working From Home

The chairman of the Science and Technology Committee Greg Clark asked Sir Patrick directly if he believed 'people should no longer work from home if they are not vulnerable or living with vulnerable people'.

Sir Patrick replied: 'My view on this, and I think this is a view shared by SAGE, is that we are still at a time when distancing measures are important and of the various distancing measures working from home for many companies remains a perfectly good option because it is easy to do.

'I think a number of companies think it is actually not detrimental to productivity and in that situation absolutely no reason I can see to change it.'

Number 10 is believed to be increasingly concerned about the economic impact of continued working from home.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey told Tory MPs last night that a 'fear' of commuting is 'holding back the recovery' and that shops, restaurants and cafes needed returning customers.

Mr Johnson is expected to tell people tomorrow that it is now safe for more workers to return to their offices. He is also likely to ditch current guidance which suggests people should only use public transport as a last resort.

The economic impact of working from home was raised with Sir Patrick by Mr Clark.

The expert said that it was not for the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) to weigh in on the economics of the coronavirus crisis and that ultimately further reopening the UK economy would be a decision for ministers to weigh up.

However, he warned that the spread of coronavirus is 'dependent on contacts so the more contacts you have at close range the more likely this is to spread'.

He said: 'We haven't been asked specifically to look at that question but it clearly is part of the assessment and that is where the integration of the economic, business and science comes together. I have certainly been involved in those discussions.

'That is exactly what is going on in the Cabinet Office, the Treasury and those things are fed into the decision making process.

'SAGE can't advise on that. The principles of this in a way are quite easy, which is the likelihood of the spread of the virus is dependent on contacts so the more contacts you have at close range the more likely this is to spread and that principle underpins a lot of the advice.

'But then clearly the decision for all the reasons we have talked about including economic impact of this and the impact of that on health need to be integrated in terms of final policy decisions.'

The total number of hours worked in the UK hit a record low in March-May, according to the latest Office for National Statistics data

The Office for Budget Responsility watchdog downside scenario, published yesterday, sees unemployment rising to more than four million next year - with a rate higher than seen in the 1980s

HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE REALLY DIED OF THE CORONAVIRUS IN THE UK? Department of Health: 45,119 Department of Health's latest death count for all settings (as of 9am, July 15) stands at 45,119. The daily data does not represent how many Covid-19 patients died within the last 24 hours  it is only how many fatalities have been reported and registered with the authorities. It also only takes into account patients who tested positive for the virus, as opposed to deaths suspected to be down to the coronavirus. National statistical bodies: 55,216 Data compiled by the statistical bodies of each of the home nations show 55,216 people died of either confirmed or suspected Covid-19 across the UK by the end of May. The Office for National Statistics yesterday confirmed that 50,219 people in England and Wales died with confirmed or suspected Covid-19 by June 19. The number of coronavirus deaths was 824 by the same day in Northern Ireland, according to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA). National Records Scotland  which collects statistics north of the border  said 4,173 people had died across the country by June 22. Their tallies are always 10 days behind the Department of Health (DH) because they wait until as many fatalities as possible for each date have been counted, to avoid having to revise their statistics. Excess deaths: 65,249 The total number of excess deaths has now passed 65,000. Excess deaths are considered to be an accurate measure of the number of people killed by the pandemic because they include a broader spectrum of victims. As well as including people who may have died with Covid-19 without ever being tested, the data also shows how many more people died because their medical treatment was postponed, for example, or who didn't or couldn't get to hospital when they were seriously ill. Data from England and Wales shows there has been an extra 59,324 deaths between March 15 and June 12, as well as 4,924 in Scotland between March 10 and June 22 and 1,001 in Northern Ireland between March 28 and June 26. Advertisement

The Government's Overall Coronavirus Response

Sir Patrick said in March that keeping the UK's coronavirus death toll below 20,000 would be a 'good outcome'.

With the number of deaths now above 45,000, Sir Patrick said it was 'absolutely clear' that the UK's pandemic result 'has not been good'.

The Government has long insisted that all of the decisions it has taken during the crisis have been based on the latest available scientific and health advice.

Sir Patrick told the committee there will be 'many factors' that will have determined how well countries responded to the outbreak.

He said: 'As (chief medical officer Professor) Chris Whitty has said before, it's very difficult to know where we stand at the moment.

'It's clear that the outcome has not been good in the UK, I think you can be absolutely clear about that.

'It is clear you can see a band of countries that have done less well in the temperate zone. Countries that are very well connected internationally, countries that have got population structures of a certain type.

'There are many factors that are going to play in this as we look and say, 'what is it that makes some countries having done worse than others?', and there will be decisions made that will turn out not to have been the right decisions at the time.'

The Timing of the UK's Lockdown

Mr Johnson put the UK into a state of lockdown on March 23.

But Sir Patrick suggested today that the draconian restrictions should have been imposed a week earlier.

The expert said a 'series of steps in the run-up to lockdown' had been taken, starting with the self-isolation of people returning to the UK from China.

He continued: 'When the SAGE sub-group on modelling, SPI-M, saw that the doubling time had gone down to three days - which was in the middle of March - that's when the advice that SAGE issued was the remainder of the measures should be introduced as soon as possible.

'And that advice, I think, was given on the 18th of March or the 16th of March. But that's when those data became available.

'Looking back, you can see the data may have preceded that but the data were not available before that - that knowledge of the three-day doubling rate became evident during that week before.'

UK Vaccine Hopes

Sir Patrick said there could be no assumption there will be a coronavirus vaccine in the immediate future as he dashed growing hopes that people will soon be able to get a jab to remove the threat of infection.

He told the committee the UK had a 'wide range' of vaccine options 'because we don't know which one is going to win' but he added: 'Our assumption is we won't have it and when we get it we will be thrilled.'

Asked about human challenge trials, which involve deliberately exposing people to the virus after giving them the vaccine, he said the method was a 'well-established way' of testing vaccines.

Sir Patrick said: 'What are the two big challenges for this virus? Dose and rescue. So the prerequisites to do human challenge studies are to understand what dose causes a safe infection and can you rescue it if you get it wrong?'

Asked what the current answer to those questions was, he said: 'We don't know the dose and we don't yet know when remdesivir (drug) will rescue the infection.

Mr Johnson is expected to tell people it is now safe for them to return to public transport. Some train operators, like Southern Railway, have already started to change their messaging

TomTom traffic data shows congestion in London is around the same level as this time last week and 10 per cent less than average overall

Figures show a dramatic decrease in traffic within the capital city when lockdown was announced in March, with figures steadily increasing again over June and July

'It is absolutely the right thing to explore, but we are not there yet in terms of having all the answers. We need to make sure we progress safely.'

He added: 'It's important to recognise that the chances of having a totally sterilising vaccine, i.e. one that 100 per cent protects you from this, I think, are low.

'Much more likely that you have a vaccine that reduces the severity of illness and reduces spread a bit. I think that's the more likely outcome on vaccines.'

Testing Regrets

Sir Patrick said it would have been 'absolutely preferable' to have much greater testing capacity earlier in the pandemic.

He also told the committee that one lesson to learn from the pandemic was the 'importance' of data flows.

He said: 'It would have been absolutely preferable to have much greater testing capacity early on.

'But it's not just testing, it's basic information flows around patients in hospitals, around rates of admission, around rates of movement. Those sorts of things are important parts of this as well.'

Face Mask Guidance

Sir Patrick set a public example by arriving to the committee meeting wearing a mask as he explained he didn't know how crowded the meeting room would be. He then took it off once he was satisfied everyone was at least two metres away from him.

People in the UK must wear face masks in all shops from July 24, the Government announced this week, after months of them not being recommended.

Politicians have now admitted they can help to stop the spread of the virus, catching up with what SAGE advisers told them in April, according to Sir Patrick.

He said the advice SAGE (the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) gave in April was 'essentially' ahead of World Health Organization advice and was the information which has informed the newest Government policy.

He told MPs today: 'If you go back, our advice on face masks was in April.

'And we said face masks are of marginal positive value when used in enclosed spaces where crowding may occur and you can't keep two metres' distance, which essentially is the advice that WHO [World Health Organization] have come up with and essentially is the advice that now forms the basis of policy...

'We were rather ahead of [the WHO] in terms of that particular piece of advice. I think there's a danger of confusing operational accountability with scientific advice.'

He explained repeatedly in the meeting that he and SAGE do not have the power to make or influence decisions, only to advise politicians and government ministers.

The chief scientific adviser added: 'It's true that in April and during lockdown the value of face masks was rather minimal because most people aren't going out.

'So it is sensible to think about timing... Timing now as we go into release of measures is a sensible time to start thinking about what other mitigating factors you want to put in place.

'For example, making the workplace completely Covid-secure in the middle of lockdown would have made no difference because nobody was going into workplaces.'

Why Boris's back to work drive is doomed to failure: Half a million people a day used to commute into the City of London but now the Square Mile is a ghost town with top firms planning to bring back just 20% of their workers to the office

Some 518,000 people would commute to the Square Mile on a normal day before the coronavirus devastated Britain's economy - and potentially altered the nation's working habits for good.

The streets of the City of London are still deserted a week after Boris Johnson's call for workers to return to their offices - with ten of the top firms in the Square Mile saying they will only bring back 20 per cent or fewer of their employees.

But even if the social distancing rules were relaxed many doubt London's white collar commuter army will ever return.

While millions of workers have got used to working from home and, as polls show, have no desire to return to the commuting rat-race as we knew it before, their bosses are in no hurry to make them.

Many businesses have been amazed how well working from home has gone and have figured out they could save millions of pounds by making it a permanent part of their business, especially when it can cost up to 60,000 a year to maintain just one work station in London.

Unfortunately that promises to be a disaster for commercial landlords, the staff who secure, clean and maintain the buildings as well as the businesses in the cities that rely on office workers eating, drinking and shopping on the way to and from work and during their lunch-hours.

The lack of commuters is also a disaster for Transport for London, which operates the Underground and buses in the City, and would see a precipitous plunge in revenues if it continues.

Sadiq Khan has already had to secure a 1.6billion bailout for TfL from Boris Johnson's government after the coronavirus lockdown reduced its revenues by 90% and the London Mayor said it was on the brink of going 'bust'

Fares are already set to go up next year, and fewer workers coming in could mean more fare increases or hikes to the congestion charge to make up the shortfall.

Chris Biggs, founder and managing director of Theta Financial Reporting, said the working from home genie had now been let out of the bottle - and could not be put back.

He told the MailOnline: 'I think it's a bit of a watershed moment. From an employee's point of view they might not feel safe going back into the office.

'I have spoken to people from big firms who don't want to go back. I know there are businesses that have said they are not going back until 2021 and I know some that will now have working from home permanently.

'I don't think management thought systems would work as well from home as they have. Now they know it's possible. I know myself when I was commuting in previously it is packed and cramped - who will want to do that without a vaccine?'

Deserted: The Square Mile stands empty on a weekday afternoon with office workers staying away from their desks

Road to nowhere: City of London streets remain empty of commuters and vehicles as travel is down nearly 60 per cent

Leadenhall Market was bustling with visitors during the week pre-coronavirus, but now lies completely empty

Usually-packed commuter belt city Winchester railway station car park lay empty, illustrating how few workers were going in

How many employees are top City firms bringing back to work? Goldman Sachs: 900 out of 5,000 - 18% RBS/ Natwest: 350 out of 3,500 - 10% Amazon: 500 out of 5,000 Baker McKenzie 13 out of 1,000 1.3% JP Morgan  15% Deloitte  20% Standard Chartered  10% KPMG - 5% Deutsche Bank - 10% London Stock Exchange - Handful of staff Advertisement

Richard Lim, chief executive of Retail Economics, said bosses would weigh up whether the supposed productivity boost outweighed the savings which many have enjoyed during the pandemic.

Explaining the mindset of such firms, Mr Lim said: 'We probably don't need the same amount of space as we did, out of necessity we managed to pivot our working way towards something which is much more digital focused and actually, given that rents are so expensive, if we have people coming in on average two-and-a-half days a week and people working from home two-and-a half days a week, we don't need the space and it'll make a significant saving for many companies.'

One employee at a central London firm which has over 200 staff told MailOnline 'the primary concern is that we don't need to be back so why rush?'

Retail business in the City report that their footfall has dropped by up to 95 per cent and construction workers in hard hats still outnumber men in suits by at least 20 to one.

A MailOnline investigation reveals one law firm that usually has 1,000 people working has just 13 staff in and expects that to rise to 250 by September, while top firms including Goldman Sachs, Standard Chartered and Deloitte will not rise above 20 per cent of their headcount.

The figures illustrates the scale of the challenge facing Boris Johnson, who wants city centre office workers to return and start pumping money into Britain's retail and service sectors.

They face an implosion if workers stay at home and do not start spending money in shops, cafes and restaurants - while financial and other businesses face a less serious threat from continued home working.

Today, a separate poll of 7,400 firms by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) found that almost three in ten expect to decrease their workforce before the furlough scheme ends in October. A similar proportion (28 per cent) have already laid off staff since the lockdown began.

The City's power house firms say they want to return to their Square Mile headquarters to work more productively, but lack the space to accommodate their employees while maintaining social distancing.

The lack of City workers is clearly laid out in commuter belt city Winchester in Hampshire,where the 647-space railway car park - usually packed with vehicles - held just 100.

After speaking to businesses and experts in the Square Mile, MailOnline can reveal:

Standard Chartered, Royal Bank of Scotland and Amazon have only brought up to ten per cent of staff back

Huge accountancy firm KPMG have only brought back 5% of their staff, while Deloitte has returned 20%

Goldman Sachs have returned 15 per cent of their staff to work in London, against 35 per cent in Europe

Amazon staff can stay home until October, while one law firm hopes to get 25 per cent back in September

Smaller businesses giving services and goods to office workers say they have lost over 80 per cent of trade

London Stock Exchange is still largely empty and has majority of its usual personnel still working from home

Thousands of City of London bankers still not back in their plush offices as streets and blocks lay desolate

Commuter trends show travel in the City is way down nearly 60 per cent lower than pre-Covid-19 levels

Restaurants - including bearing famous chefs' names - are among food outlets that are still closed

Companies across the country are constrained by a lack of space and can only bring a fraction of their headcount back into the office if they are to keep social distancing between workers.

The knock-on effect is that cafes, pubs and shops that rely on office staff footfall are worried they will be driven out of business.

Even the world-famous London Stock Exchange stands deserted, with only a 'minority' of staff allowed back in.

Companies say they want to follow Government guidance to re-open but have to protect their workers and obey coronavirus social distancing rules.

Everyone wants to come back into the office, almost every business works better when staff are physically together - especially where finance is involved But the truth is, coronavirus social-distancing rules mean it is impossible to achieve.

One Square Mile business worker, who would not be identified for fear of repercussions, told the MailOnline: 'Everyone wants to come back into the office, almost every business works better when staff are physically together - especially where finance is involved

'But the truth is, coronavirus social-distancing rules mean it is impossible to achieve.

'Either the science or government guidance needs to change or the situation will just stay the same.'

The City is the UK's most important financial sector and provides nearly ten per cent of all UK GDP and 11.5 per cent of total tax revenue.

But commuting trends show it is still 56 per cent down in the capital, spelling out just how many people are still staying at home.

At The Regis snack bar, directly opposite the all steel constructed Lloyds Building, business had all but ground to a halt.

Server Malak Ben said: 'At least 80 per cent of the people who come into the shop work at Lloyds.

'Those people who have been coming in have told us they will not open properly until at least September, and even then not fully back to staff until the New Year.

'We would serve 150 people a day and now it is about 15-20'

'Before coronavirus there were five of us working in the shop, and now there are two. We would serve 150 people a day and now it is about 15 to 20. It is not a good situation.'

Alex Wilkins and Lee Bainbridge were hurrying through the market to a meeting with clients.

They work for an office management company that is responsible for 70 buildings in the city and admitted most were now empty or partially used. 'I would say less than a quarter of staff are back at work,' said Mr Wilkins.

Those workers who have returned to their desks say they are separated by plastic screen and always must maintain social distancing.

'It is quite depressing really and not that enjoyable,' said one man named only as James who works for an insurance broker.

'In my section there should be 11 people but there are just the two of us. We have been told there is no rush to get people back in as the work can be carried out at home.

'I like coming to the office, to meet friends and socialise but it has become a boring job.'

The banks of empty offices echoing around the Square Mile give one possible explanation for the sudden drop-off.

Goldman Sach's Plumtree Court base usually has around 5,000 workers in its offices, but only 900 are in - just 20 per cent of capacity.

The story is similar in Standard Chartered's Basinghall Avenue headquarters, which only has ten per cent of staff back.

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon told staff last night: ' We're also making progress in Europe where on the continent, 35 per cent returned; and in the UK, where approximately 15 per cent of our employees are back in office.

'We are taking many new precautions to ensure safety, including through masks and social distancing, and it's certainly not business as usual, but we're making tangible forward progress.

Regis Snack bar's Malik Ben said trade was down 80 per cent and salon owner Zdenka Trutzova said she faces bankruptcy

Rows of empty desks in the Amazon HQ could be clearly seen from the roadside as around 500 were inside the building

Work spaces in the office have been abandoned by staff who have been told they can stay at home to do their jobs

A handful of pedestrians - most of them construction workers - were seen walking round the Square Mile in the City

'As we take these steps, we will continue to keep the health and safety of our people as our top priority.'

And Deloitte's Hill House building - one of six reopened on July 6 - is also running at up to just 20 per cent capacity.

A spokesperson for the audit firm explained: 'The health and safety of our people and clients has remained a priority throughout the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and in developing our return to workplace strategy.

'Deloitte has long been a proponent of agile working and we have had 20,000 people working from home safely and securely since mid-March.

'We opened a small number of offices across the UK. These offices have been made available to improve the health and wellbeing for our people where circumstance means they cannot work from home. All of our open offices comply with government guidelines and social distancing measures in order to provide our people with a safe working environment.'

Deutsche Bank say less than ten per cent will be invited back in, but could split their time between there and home.

And Natwest and RBS's Bishopsgate base which has 3,500 desks has less than ten per cent of staff in.

Even online giant Amazon - a company who has enjoyed high sales during the pandemic - has less than ten per cent staff in its Principal Place building on the border of the City.

At online giant Amazon, all staff who are able to work from home will continue to do so until October 2 when the situation will be reviewed.

A handful of staff entered and left the company's HQ during the lunchtime period but were outnumbered by security guards in the lobby.

Row upon row of empty desks were visible in the glass fronted building on the edge of the city in Spittalfields.

Another firm said it was operating at just five per cent in its office to make sure its staff were safe from coronavirus.

Company that manages 70 buildings says most are empty or partially used

Some companies have been barely able to open their offices at all.

Lawyers Baker Mackenzie, who can fit 1,000 people into their premises, are currently looking to gradually reopen in September.

Joanna Ludlam, partner in the Dispute Resolution team, told the MailOnline: 'Since lockdown we have maintained a skeleton staff in the building.

It's a core team of 13 who come in three days a week to maintain postal, admin and collection requirements.

'To make the building safe for our staff, initially we will only have capacity for around 25 per cent of our people at any one time, so it won't be a return to pre-COVID times just yet.'

Celebrity chef Gino D'Acampo's pasta restaurant was among businesses still closed along with The Tortilla Grill, Brokes Wine bar and The Lamb Tavern.

'I like coming to the office, to meet friends and socialise but it has become a boring job.

A sign in the window of clothing store Oliver Sweeney said they were now permanently shut.

In the deserted Leadenhall market hairdresser Zdenka Trutzova said her salon was on the brink of bankruptcy.

She said she is lucky to see one customer a day at her salon called Daniels.

Amazon's office on the border of the City of London stood nearly empty with staff at home until at least October

Mobility data shows how many people are missing from the City of London even though lockdown has been eased

Official figures showed GDP grew by 1.8 per cent in May, although it is still nearly a quarter lower than before the draconian coronavirus restrictions were imposed. In this chart 100 represents the size of the economy in 2016

'Before all the offices closed I would have between 15-20 customers a day.

'It is a disaster and unless the office workers come back soon I will have to close.

'The rents in the market are so high and I will struggle to pay them. I think Leadenhall Market will be finished.

'It is so sad. I have worked for 10 years to build up the business.'

At a Holland and Barrett health food store they would 300 people a day but now just 60 people pop in.

The scale of the drop off in foot traffic for cafes and restaurants was made clear by staff at a nearby Joe The Juice cafe.

One staff member said before the Covid-19 crisis they would serve 300 people an hour during the lunch period.

Since offices closed they now see less than 30 people a day.

'It is awful, but we have continued to work and rely a lot on deliveries to offices. We talk to customers and they say they will not be coming back until at least September or even later.'

Tailor Tim Howard was one of the few men in a shirt and tie and was tie hurrying to an appointment with a client.

His company Tom James Tailoring makes bespoke suits and he has been keeping appointments with those who have returned to work.

'Obviously it is still very quiet, but I have an appointment today with a client,' he said.

'The people I talk to want to come back to work, but that is up to their bosses.

'Hopefully people will start to come back in the next couple of weeks.'

According to many small business owners around The City, less than ten per cent of office workers have returned.

Commuter city's car park is down over 70 per cent in lockdown as business workers stay away

In Winchester, a commuter belt hub where standard class railway season tickets cost up to 6,372 a year, the station was all but deserted last night.

The 647-space railway car parks, which are full to bursting in normal times as affluent commuters drive in from the picturesque villages nearby, held only about 100 cars.

An annual parking permit costs up to 552. From the start of the lockdown in mid-March, South Western Railway received 36,269 refund requests for season tickets, causing the company losses of hundreds of thousands of pounds as veteran commuters opted to work from home.

Winchester railway station car park was practically empty on a weekday evening, when it would usually be packed

Matthew Hill, 52, and Ian Dickson, 37, were two of the rare commuters using the train station, which serves the City

But the trains are still running, and some workers who have to attend their offices are making use of the services.

'I've been commuting for the last two months and the trains are still empty,' said Ian Dickson, 37, an air traffic controller at Farnborough Airport.

'It is busier than it was, but there's still only two or three people on the carriage with me, so it's easy to observe social distance.

'I go up to Manchester on the weekends to see my family, and those routes are a lot busier. It's really the commuting that has stopped.

'From Monday to Friday, it feels like you're on a ghost train and the stations are deserted, too. Most of the little shops for buying newspapers and things are shuttered.

'On the whole, life feels like it's getting back to normal, but that's not the case on the trains. It's as if commuting is behind the curve compared to the rest of the economy.'

A longtime fan of the Brompton folding bike immortalised by the hit BBC comedy W1A, Mr Dickson said that he was no longer having to use the collapsible function as the trains were so empty.

'There's acres of space,' he said. 'I just wheel my bike on and lean it against the seats. No problem. But it does feel like there's no point in having it. I could just use a normal bike.

'It's been nice in a way,' he added. 'It's quite relaxing to sit and read your book first thing in the morning, with nobody to disturb you. No snoring or arguing, and nobody crammed in around you.'

How many jobs are at risk across the UK? Accenture - 900

Airbus - 1,700

Arcadia - 500

BA - 12,000

Beales - 1,052

Bentley - 1,000

Burger King - 1,600

Casual Dining Group (Bella Italia, Cafe Rouge and Las Iguanas) - 1,900

DHL at Jaguar Land Rover - 2,200

EasyJet - 4,500

Go Outdoors - 2,400

Harrods - 700

Harveys - 240

Links - 350

Mothercare - 2,500

Oasis Warehouse - 1,800

P&O Ferries - 1,100

Pret a Manger - 1,330

Ryanair - 3,000

SSP Group (Upper Crust, Caffe Ritazza) - 5,000

Ted Baker - 160

TM Lewin - 600

Tui - 8,000

Victoria's Secret - 800 at risk Advertisement

Matthew Hill, 52, a management consultant who used to commute to London four days a week but who has been working from home since the beginning of lockdown, agreed  though he said that commuting had become 'a bit creepy'.

'It's a bit boring, to be honest,' he said. 'I just fall asleep. There's nobody to talk to or look at. Sometimes you look around and wonder if you've slipped into a Stephen King story.'

Yesterday was the first time that Mr Hill had braved the trains for work in four months. 'It was not as I'd expected,' he said.

'During lockdown, it's like being stuck in a bubble. It's been really hard to relate to the deaths and carnage that have been taking place elsewhere in the country, and difficult to really feel the economic shock in the service industry, for example.

'I thought that getting back on the trains would bring me more in touch with frontline workers and people who have been suffering this thing in different ways. But there's just nobody about.'

He added: 'At the same time, it does bring it home on another level. The damage this is doing to the companies that rely on commuters, from train firms to shops, is tremendous.

'Nobody really wants to go back to the crowded stations we used to have for quite some time.'

Employment figures nationwide also paint an alarming picture of work in Britain post-coronavirus lockdown.

Figures released today show the number of people with jobs fell by another 74,000 last month with 2.6million on benefits.

Some 650,000 fewer are on the payroll than before the crisis, according to official figures.

Vacancies are at a record low and hours have also tumbled, the Office for National Statistics data show. The claimant count has risen by 112.2 per cent, or 1.4million, since March.

Some 650,000 fewer are on the payroll than before the crisis, according to official figures

A separate survey by the British Chambers of Commerce has also found that a third of firms are planning to lay off staff over the next three months.

Pay has also been hit hard, dropping 0.3 per cent in the three months to May compared to the same period last year. Accounting for inflation, that is equivalent to a 1.3 per cent reduction.

Jonathan Athow, deputy national statistician at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), said: 'As the pandemic took hold, the labour market weakened markedly, but that rate of decline slowed into June, though this is before recent reports of job losses.

'There are now almost two-thirds of a million fewer employees on the payroll than before the lockdown, according to the latest tax data.

'The Labour Force Survey is showing only a small fall in employment, but shows a large number of people who report working no hours and getting no pay.'

He added: 'There are now far more out-of-work people who are not looking for a job than before the pandemic.'
LONDON (AP)  The British government accused Russian actors Thursday of seeking to interfere in the U.K.'s last general election, and a powerful committee of lawmakers confirmed it would publish within days a long-awaited report into previous allegations of interference from Moscow.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a written statement to lawmakers that it is almost certain that the unnamed individuals "sought to interfere" in the December 2019 election by amplifying online illicitly acquired and leaked government documents. Raab also said there was an ongoing criminal investigation into how the documents were obtained.

The documents, relating to U.K.-U.S. trade talks, were used by the then-leader of the main opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, to back up his claims that the Conservative government was preparing to sell off the National Health Service.

The papers were believed to have appeared online some months earlier but gained little traction until picked up by the Labour campaign and highlighted at a news conference in November. After they were revealed, online discussion site Reddit said its own investigation linked their appearance to a previous Russian disinformation campaign.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova slammed Raabs statement as vague and contradictory and called on the U.K. to produce facts supporting the allegations.

On the one hand, there is no proof, on the other, some possible retaliatory measures are mentioned," Zakharova said at her weekly media briefing. "These are mutually exclusive things.

The U.K. also joined the United States and Canada on Thursday in accusing Russia of trying to steal information from researchers seeking a coronavirus vaccine.

Raab's statement on the alleged election interference came as the newly installed Intelligence and Security Committee in Parliament said it would release the report on previous allegations of Russian interference before Parliaments summer break starts next week. The committee has a wide-ranging and largely secretive role overseeing the U.K.'s intelligence and security services.

Story continues

It was unable to publish the report since it was compiled last year after Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson refused to clear it for release ahead of the December election. The report needs government approval before it can be made public.

Johnson has been dogged by questions about the unpublished report for months, especially over what it says about any Russian involvement in the 2016 Brexit campaign, which saw Britain vote to leave the European Union.

The Labour Party has accused the government of failing to publish the report because it would lead to other questions about links between Russia and the Brexit campaign, which was spearheaded by Johnson.

The decision to publish the report came a day after the Intelligence and Security Committee for the current parliamentary term was formed. The committee's first action was to reject the governments preferred candidate to lead it.

The nine-member committee elected lawmaker Julian Lewis as chairman. The job had been expected to go to a former minister, Chris Grayling, who is a loyal supporter of Johnson.

A political storm ensued and Lewis was kicked out of the party's caucus in Parliament. Lewis said the decision to strip him of his Conservative status was strange given that the committee is meant to be outside the influence of government.
Written by ACM

EU Parliament and Happiness, Conviviality, Dynamism ?

News/Viewpoint

By Patrick Bracker

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(NDLR: Viewpoints express their Author's Opinion,

which is Not necessarily Endorsed by "Eurofora")

---------------------

(Translations provided in English, German, Italian, and French,

attached Herewith)



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It is vital that our European elected representatives remain in contact with our fellow European citizens.

Indeed, although Strasbourg is empty of our usual sessions and we feel this emptiness in the city, the European dynamism seems to be suspended in time.

Nothing is taken for granted, neither the seat which is deserved or not *, nor the dynamism which is the fruit of the heart and the will, of the intelligence and of human action, the whole based on values and projects of society, at the service of the citizens, peace, prosperity, health ... even happiness!

It is high time we resumed our usual activities and the rhythms of our activities, apart from the artificial, superficial meetings of teleworking in confined or eight-cambered mode... this is not the purpose of Europe.

The reality, as you well know, is also the field, the meetings, the sharing, and the conviviality. The essential tool of communication must remain a support, a complement to the work, but it must not be the only priority !

We must not allow a vacuum to develop between the institutions and the public. This is also true for the staff of institutions that feel this void.

Let us avoid a vacuum that is too full of distance or remoteness, which could create a gap between the institutions and the citizens, a dimension of widespread misunderstanding.

Yours sincerely,

Patrick Bracker

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Frohlichkeit, Geselligkeit und Dynamik





Es ist von entscheidender Bedeutung, dass unsere europaischen Volksvertreter mit unseren europaischen Mitburgern in Kontakt bleiben.

Obwohl Straburg von unseren ublichen Sitzungen leer ist und wir diese Leere in der Stadt spuren, scheint die europaische Dynamik mit der Zeit aufgehoben zu sein.

Nichts ist selbstverstandlich, weder der Sitz, der verdient oder nicht *, noch die Dynamik, die die Frucht des Herzens und des Willens, der Intelligenz und des menschlichen Handelns ist, das Ganze auf der Grundlage von Werten und Projekten der Gesellschaft, im Dienste der Burger, des Friedens, des Wohlstands, der Gesundheit ... sogar des Glucks!

Es ist hochste Zeit, dass wir die gewohnten Aktivitaten und den Rhythmus unserer Aktivitaten wieder aufnehmen, abgesehen von den kunstlichen, oberflachlichen Treffen der Telearbeit im begrenzten oder geschlossenen Modus ... das ist nicht der Zweck Europas.

Die Realitat ist, wie Sie wissen, auch das Feld, die Treffen, das Teilen, die Geselligkeit. Das wesentliche Instrument der Kommunikation muss eine Unterstutzung, eine Erganzung der Arbeit bleiben, aber es darf nicht die einzige Prioritat sein!

Wir durfen nicht zulassen, dass zwischen den Institutionen und der Offentlichkeit ein Vakuum entsteht. Dies gilt auch fur die Mitarbeiter der Institutionen, die diese Leere spuren.

Vermeiden wir eine Leere, die zu sehr von Distanz oder Abgeschiedenheit gepragt ist, was zu eine Dimension weit verbreiteter Missverstandnisse.

Mit freundlichen Gruen,

Patrick Bracker

--------------------------------------------------------





Felicita, convivialita e dinamismo





E fondamentale che i nostri rappresentanti eletti europei rimangano in contatto con i nostri concittadini europei.

Infatti, anche se Strasburgo e vuota delle nostre solite sessioni e sentiamo questo vuoto nella citta, il dinamismo europeo sembra essere sospeso nel tempo.

Nulla e dato per scontato, ne la sede che si merita o meno *, ne il dinamismo che e frutto del cuore e della volonta, dell'intelligenza e dell'azione umana, il tutto basato su valori e progetti della societa, al servizio dei cittadini, della pace, della prosperita, della salute ... e persino della felicita!

E giunto il momento di riprendere le consuete attivita e i ritmi delle nostre attivita, a parte gli incontri artificiali e superficiali del telelavoro in modalita confinata o chiusa... non e questo lo scopo dell'Europa.

La realta, come ben sapete, e anche il campo, gli incontri, la condivisione, la convivialita. Lo strumento essenziale della comunicazione deve rimanere un supporto, un complemento al lavoro, ma non deve essere l'unica priorita!

Non dobbiamo permettere che si crei un vuoto tra le istituzioni e il pubblico. Questo vale anche per il personale delle istituzioni che sentono questo vuoto.

Evitiamo un vuoto troppo pieno di distanza o di lontananza, che potrebbe portare a una mancanza di fiducia,

una dimensione di diffusa incomprensione.

Sinceramente vostro,

Patrick Bracker

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------





Bonheur, Convivialite et Dynamisme

Il est vital que nos elus europeens restent en contact avec nos concitoyens europeens.

En effet si Strasbourg est bien vide de nos sessions habituelles et l'on ressent ce vide en ville, le dynamisme europeen semble en suspens dans le temps

Rien n'est acquis, ni le siege qui se merite ou pas *, ni le dynamisme qui est le fruit du coeur et de la volonte, de lintelligence et de l'action humaine, le tout fonde sur des valeurs et projets de societe, au service des citoyens, paix, prosperite, sante ... meme du bonheur!

Il serait grand temps de reprendre les activites usuelles et les rythmes de nos activites, hors les reunions artificielles, superficielles du teletravail en mode confine ou huit clos... ce n'est pas la le but de l'Europe.

La realite, comme vous le savez bien c'est aussi le terrain, les rencontres, les partages, la convivialite. L'outil essentiel de la communication doit rester un soutien, une complementarite aux travaux, mais ne pas representer la seule priorite!

Il ne faudrait pas laisser se creuser un vide entre les institutions et les citoyens, cela est vrai aussi pour les personnels des institutions qui ressentent ce vide.

Evitons un vide trop rempli de distance ou d'eloignement, qui pourrait creer une dimension d'incomprehension generalisee.

Bien a vous,

Patrick Bracker
The Education Plan Offers Tips for Selecting the Right Plan

Santa Fe, NM, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- When choosing a 529 college savings plan, investors have options to consider. The Education Plan, New Mexicos 529 plan, offers the following tips:

If you live in a state that has state income tax, most 529 plans selected by residents of that state will be eligible for a tax deduction or tax credit for money invested in the 529 plan. Tax rules vary from state to state. Some 28 states plus the District of Columbia restrict investors to in-state plans only to receive the tax benefit.

Six states offer full tax parity, which allows investors to pick any states 529 plan and still receive a tax deduction from their state of residence. The six states are Arizona, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana and Pennsylvania. Arkansas provides a larger deduction for contributing to the Arkansas 529 plan.

The remaining 16 states offer no state tax deduction or credit for 529 plan contributions, so selecting a 529 plan is state tax neutral for residents of these states.

Given the differences in plan costs and the state income tax benefits available, it is possible to determine how much of the 529 plan costs can be covered by the tax benefit.

Assuming an investment in the plans age-based or year of enrollment portfolios, a 6% annual return and an annual contribution of $2,400, the research shows that only nine states offer a combination of low cost and tax benefits that will cover the cost of the plan for an 18 year period. The Education Plan, New Mexico 529 college savings plan, is one of the nine.

Another choice 529 investors will have to make is when to begin investing. Research finds that tax benefits both federally and on state taxes are typically optimized when 529 investors start saving early and wait to spend the assets until needed for college-related expenses. Most 529 investors dont start until a child is seven years old. Each year that investors delay reduces the capacity for their savings to benefit from compounded investment returns. Even starting one year earlier can significantly increase the ending account balance when the time comes to use the funds for approved expenses.

When 529 plans were introduced in 1996, they were initially created to cover the costs of college. Since that time, the scope has expanded to include federally qualified private K-12 education and education-related expenses for any two-year, four-year or trade school, such as tuition, room and board, books and meal plans. In 2019, an act was passed that allows individuals to take tax-free distributions for student loan repayment and apprenticeship programs from their 529 accounts.

529 investors also have to consider how to invest the money they are contributing to the account. While offerings in investment options vary by state, plans increasingly favor transitions from stocks to bonds through age-based or year of enrollment portfolios. These portfolios start with equity-heavy allocations to maximize investment returns in the earlier years and become more conservative as the time nears to use the funds. Regardless of how a 529 plan is invested, investors will optimize benefits when they start early and stay invested.

Story continues

Investing in education for a child, another loved one or even yourself is one of the most important investments you can make, said Ted Miller, Executive Director of the Education Trust Board of New Mexico, the organization that sponsors The Education Plan. Our team is available to help investors in New Mexico and around the nation understand the benefits of investing in a 529 plan.

For more information, go to theeducationplan.com or call 1(877) 337-5268.

Joanie Griffin

The Education Plan

505-261-4444

jgriffin@sunny505.com


China to 'comprehensively assess' UK's decision to remove Huawei 5G gear by 2027

Global Times

Source: Global Times Published: 2020/7/15 17:30:05

China is seriously concerned about UK government's latest decision to remove Huawei gear from its 5G network rollout by 2027, and will "comprehensively assess" the decision by London, and take "necessary measures" to protect legitimate interests of Chinese companies, China's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

"China strongly opposes" UK's decision, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a regular press conference.

The UK government used "fabricated risks" as an excuse to cooperate with the Trump administration in discriminating against and excluding Chinese firms, blatantly violating market economy principles and free trade rules, Hua said.

The spokeswoman said that the UK decision not only breached relevant commitments made by London, but also severely impacted the foundation of mutual trust in future China-UK cooperation.

Hua said that the UK's decision on removing Huawei's 5G equipment is not an issue of one single company or industry, but it was a highly politicized decision by London, regardless of cost.

She added that the UK decision is an issue that seriously threatens the security of Chinese investments in the UK, and will impact China's confidence in the UK market.

On Tuesday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered Huawei's 5G equipment to be completely removed from the UK's 5G network by the end of 2027, which is considered as a major reversal of position by UK in January this year, when Huawei was permitted to build non-core portions of the country's 5G networks.

Immediately following the announcement by London on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump told the press that he successfully persuaded the UK government to shun Huawei.

"We convinced many countries, many countries, I did this myself for the most part, not to use Huawei, because we think it is an unsafe security risk, it's a big security risk," Trump said.

"That further proves some countries' restricting Huawei are, as a matter of fact, highly politicized maneuvers that have nothing to do with their national security," Hua said. "It also shows the world that it is the US rather than China that has been intimidating, threatening, provoking and bluffing others."



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Once again Abbie Chatfield was sadly left without a man when she failed to receive a rose on Thursday night's episode of Bachelor in Paradise.

But maybe she will have better luck finding Mr. Right on Tinder.

After being banned from the dating app for almost a year, the 25-year-old revealed on Thursday that the company contacted her about reinstalling her account.

Single and ready to mingle! Bachelor in Paradise star Abbie Chatfield has been reinstated by Tinder after she was banned by the dating app for a year

'Hi! We saw your post and we're happy to look into this for you and help out in any way we can,' they wrote.

'Could you please provide the email address associated with your Tinder account, and a member of our Trust & Safety team will be in touch to get more information. Thank you.'

Abbie shared their message to her Instagram story with the a caption reading: 'Success!!!!'

Blocked: Abbie revealed back in June on the Sex Love Magic podcast that the popular dating app had banned her due to inactivity

Back in June, the influencer revealed on the Sex Love Magic podcast that she went on The Bachelor in 2019 because she had been blocked from Tinder due to months of inactivity.

'I haven't had Tinder [in a long time]. My Tinder got blocked so that's why I went on the show,' she said.

'I had been on two Tinder dates ever. One was a one-night stand, successful after a break-up, and one guy I dated for six weeks.'

Why she did it: Abbie went on The Bachelor in 2019 because she had been blocked from Tinder. Pictured: Abbie with 2019 Bachelor Matt Agnew

Abbie went on to reveal the moment she found out that she been blocked from the popular app.

'I was dating a Scottish guy and he moved to Australia and we were living together and it wasn't working so he moved out,' she said.

'The next day me and my roommate downloaded Tinder to see what's happening and it was blocked and I hadn't used the app for seven months and I couldn't get it back.'

After her short-lived time on Bachelor In Paradise fans will no doubt be hoping that she gets her account back and finds The One!
INDIANAPOLIS, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Indianapolis Power & Light Company today announces new planned options to assist customers experiencing financial hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In mid-March, IPL suspended disconnection for nonpayment to provide the reliable electric service customers needed throughout the state's stay-at-home order and beyond. Now, IPL is announcing expanded flexible payment arrangements available to customers to include 3, 6, 9 or 12-month options. In addition, IPL infused $75,000 to its Power of Change fund, which provides one-time grant assistance to eligible customers.

"We care about our customers and the Indianapolis community and recognize the ongoing challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic," said Lisa Krueger, president of the U.S. strategic business unit for The AES Corporation (NYSE: AES), the parent company of IPL. "I encourage all IPL customers to take advantage of our online payment features or call us directly so we can work together to develop a plan that meets their budget."

IPL customers will be emPOWERed with options

All IPL customers with an unpaid, overdue account balance will receive communication from the company over the next few weeks to prepare for standard billing processes and disconnections to resume. In planning for higher than usual call volume and extended wait times, IPL is enhancing its website and automated phone system to allow more customer self-service, including the option to self-enroll into a payment extension. Customers who prefer self-service over the phone can call 317.261.8222 and select option 2 to select their payment extension preference.

IPL customers with online accounts can view their account balance and make a payment today at IPLpower.com. Next week, IPL's website will be enhanced, allowing customers to view their account balance and choose a payment plan. Residential customers will select from 3, 6, 9- or 12-month terms, while business customers can extend their unpaid balance across 3, 6 or 9 months. All credit card and other payment fees are suspended through Aug. 14, and customers with fees added to their bills since March 6 will have those respective amounts credited toward their account balance. IPL recommends customers review their bill statements carefully.

IPL encourages customers to act quickly by using self-service options either by phone or online or to avoid long wait times. In the coming days, IPL customers may receive a proactive, automated call outlining payment options. Customers who are unable to self-serve can call a service specialist who will help them with customized plans. IPL representatives are available at 317.261.8222 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Additional Expanded Assistance Options

Customers evaluating which extended payment option works best for them should first see if they qualify for other assistance programs, such as the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), winter assistance funds extended through July 31 or additional grants from organizations like Indiana 2-1-1 or their township trustee.

IPL's COVID-19 webpage includes a list of resources made available during the pandemic, such as small business loan assistance and more. Business customers may be interested in virtual assessments offered by IPL and its partner, Clear Result, to evaluate current energy usage and implement solutions that deliver lower energy bills over time.

IPL continues its longstanding tradition of community investment during coronavirus

During the COVID-19 pandemic, IPL made significant additional investments across several community organizations whose purposes range from meeting basic needs to fighting systemic racism.

IPL infused its Power of Change pilot program to make available $75,000 to help income-qualified customers with a one-time grant. The funds are designed to assist eligible customers with their electric bill payments when financial challenges occur. We expect the number of requests will exceed the amount of available funds, so IPL encourages customers to apply soon. Visit IPLpower.com/change for more information on how to donate to the fund or seek assistance with utility bills.

pilot program to make available to help income-qualified customers with a one-time grant. The funds are designed to assist eligible customers with their electric bill payments when financial challenges occur. We expect the number of requests will exceed the amount of available funds, so IPL encourages customers to apply soon. Visit IPLpower.com/change for more information on how to donate to the fund or seek assistance with utility bills. IPL donated $50,000 for COVID19 food insecurity relief through Gleaners Food Bank and Second Helpings and continues supporting the volunteer program at Gleaners Food Bank.

for COVID19 food insecurity relief through Gleaners Food Bank and Second Helpings and continues supporting the volunteer program at Gleaners Food Bank. IPL donated $25,000 to Junior Achievement of Central Indiana for BizTown and to support efforts to help provide e-learning resources to educators, students and parents. Our partnership with JobSpark continues for the fourth consecutive year, encouraging and educating Hoosier children on the possibilities of a career in the energy sector.

to Junior Achievement of for BizTown and to support efforts to help provide e-learning resources to educators, students and parents. Our partnership with JobSpark continues for the fourth consecutive year, encouraging and educating Hoosier children on the possibilities of a career in the energy sector. IPL continues to support the Indianapolis community through its Electric Building window lights and Shining A Light on Unity nightly projection on the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument at Monument Circle.

community through its Electric Building window lights and nightly projection on the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument at Monument Circle. IPL offered all-electric vehicles to frontline workers through IPL's sister company, MOTOR.

IPL provided funding to assist residents benefitting from services via the Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership and United Way of Central Indiana's Winter Assistance Fund.

Neighborhood Housing Partnership and United Way of Winter Assistance Fund. IPL will serve as title sponsor of the Indiana Latino Expo's Virtual Series of events this year to support Latino families and customers through education, information and opportunities.

IPL served as a founding contributor to the Central Indiana Community Foundation's Racial Equity Fund, which seeks to support organizations addressing issues of inequality

IPL commissioned a local, African American artist to develop a mural on its plywood that covered broken windows following downtown protests.

About AES and Indianapolis Power & Light Company

The AES Corporation (NYSE: AES) is a Fortune 500 global power company. We provide affordable, sustainable energy to 14 countries through our diverse portfolio of distribution businesses as well as thermal and renewable generation facilities. Our workforce is committed to operational excellence and meeting the world's changing power needs. Our 2019 revenues were $10 billion and we own and manage $34 billion in total assets. To learn more, please visit www.aes.com. Follow AES on Twitter @TheAESCorp.

Indianapolis Power & Light Company (IPL), an AES Company, provides retail electric service to more than 500,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in Indianapolis, as well as portions of other Central Indiana communities surrounding Marion County. During its long history, IPL has supplied its customers with some of the lowest-cost, most reliable power in the country. For more information about the company, please visit www.IPLpower.com or connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

SOURCE Indianapolis Power & Light

Related Links

http://www.IPLpower.com


It has been confirmed that earlier (July 15), Kim Soo Jung, the senior judge at the Seoul Family Court, held the Divorce Mediation via their legal representatives. At 2:00 p.m., the two representatives released a statement, "Ahn Jae Hyun And Ku Hye Sun agreed to adjust the divorce o July 15,2020. The two will walk their separate paths and will support each other's future."

The couple tied the knot last May 16 and met through their drama "Blood." They separated after three years of marriage, and later, Ahn filed a divorce against Ku in 2019. Ku then filed a counterclaim last October of the same year.
The Alamo Conspiracy "Dr. Chip Beck has opened up a vital area of interest and concern,one of which every American citizen should be acutely aware."

History Publishing Company announces the release of "The Alamo Conspiracy," the book that reveals the true story of the origin of Mexican immigration to the United States, why it was initiated and by whom. Author Dr. Chip Beck, retired from the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. State Department brings the story to light, when it happened, the reason it happened, and the actual beneficiaries.

The author, a retired U.S. Government official with academic credentials in international relations, understands well, the motivations and actions of governments. He is a retired Navy Commander having served in Naval Intelligence, a career CIA Clandestine Service Officer, and a former State Department Foreign Affairs Officer who directed the prestigious ACOTA peacekeeper training program in Africa from 2005-2010. He served in, or witnessed, some two dozen wars, revolutions, and civil conflicts on four continents from 1969 through 2013. His military, intelligence, and diplomatic assignments, along with a penchant for personal travel, have taken him to 150 countries and territories on six continents. He came to know Mexico very well.

He also came to know the whys and wherefores of Mexicos deliberate sponsorship of its own citizens immigration to the United States and how it would benefit Mexicos position on the world stage.

This is a story that has not yet been heard on television news shows nor read in political magazines, said Publisher Donagh Bracken,  Dr. Chip Beck has opened up a vital area of interest and concern; one of which every American citizen should be acutely aware. In this political year of critical revelation this story of covert subversion should be in public discourse.

The Alamo Conspiracy has just been released and is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other book websites nationwide. It is available to book stores worldwide through Ingram.
Deluges have so far affected 2 million people; over 300,000 have relocated The flood hitting the middle and lower reaches of the Yangzte River has forced Anhui province to raise its flood response alert to the second highest level on Tuesday, while the flood peak is forecast to come soon. An announcement issued by the provincial flood and drought relief headquarters on Tuesday night requires its five cities along the riverAnqing, Chizhou, Tongling, Wuhu and Maanshanto evacuate all residents from threatened areas. Official information from the provincial government shows that the flooding has so far affected more than 2 million people. Over 300,000 people have relocated. Based on the forecast from the Central Meteorological Center on Wednesday morning, areas including the vast central and southern parts of Anhui will see torrential rains, with rainfall volume expected to reach up to 120 millimeters between 8 am Wednesday and 8 am Thursday. Provincial flood control authorities said major rivers would see flood peaks before the end of Thursday. In the riverside Zongyang county of Tongling city, more than 13,000 residents had been relocated by Tuesday night. Over 1,100 people who have nowhere to go have been provided makeshift shelters in 17 sites, including local schools, according to local officials. Liu Yadong, Party chief of Zongyang, said the county is one of the areas most severely hit by the flood. "A total of 1,020 soldiers from the People's Liberation Army and the Armed Police have arrived at Zongyang for flood relief so far," said Liu on Tuesday night. "Though flooding happens frequently to the riverside areas, this year's situation is far more critical than expected. "Water levels of the Yangzte River and lakes in Zongyang are both very high, which means we cannot drain the water but must wait for the flooding to fade away," said Liu, who patrols the local waters and flood relief sites every night. The troops have helped to consolidate the county town's anti-flood wall, which extends for 2 kilometers, with blocks of sand bags piled up along the wall. He said if the water rises to a certain height, they should also raise the wall. Hundreds of meters from the walla permanent one built with stones and bricksa dike extending for 3.5 kilometers built with sand bags has been finished. The local government workers have been working hard to persuade residents living between the two defense lines to evacuate, while "some people are reluctant to leave, because they don't feel threatened by the water nor want to leave their properties", said Yu Jing, a local community worker. Xu Zhisheng, a senior official from Tietong town, which is located on an islet in the middle of the river, said more than 200 people have been relocated to the Chengguan Primary School and are receiving free meals from the government. "Most of the people are seniors, which brings great challenges to the community workers to take care of them," said Xu, who is also a community worker at the school.


Evidence that the pandemic has increased the need for low-cost transportation options can be seen through the windows of any passing Winnipeg Transit bus, where whats immediately apparent is an unusually large number of empty seats.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/7/2020 (552 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Evidence that the pandemic has increased the need for low-cost transportation options can be seen through the windows of any passing Winnipeg Transit bus, where whats immediately apparent is an unusually large number of empty seats.

Ridership has dropped dramatically, as many virus-wary Winnipeggers now view buses as potential COVID-19 cocoons because passengers are seated closely, breathing the same air and touching the same poles, seats and doors.

Alternatives to bus transport would be greatly appreciated by those reluctant former riders who dont own personal vehicles, perhaps for budget or environmental reasons, but still have to get around town.

A possible alternative might arrive in the form of electric scooters. City administration is currently studying the issue and recommended council ask the province to alter the Highway Traffic Act to allow a trial of e-scooters in Winnipeg. Council and the province would be well advised to approve the proposal, allowing the trial should proceed full speed ahead (or, at least, at the 30 km/h that is top speed for e-scooters).

EDUARDO CONTRERAS/SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE/TNS A large number of rental scooters parked on a sidewalk in San Diego. A recent report recommends the City of Winnipeg ask the provincial government of Manitoba to approve a trial for e-scooters to operate on the city's transportation network.

A novel transportation alternative for Winnipeg, e-scooters are already allowed in dozens of North American cities, including Montreal, Calgary and Edmonton. The experiences of these cities show the advent of e-scooters is not universally welcomed. In fact, for some people, its hate at first sight.

Social media, including the popular Instagram account Scooters Behaving Badly, reveal that many automobile drivers resent sharing road space with the tiny motorized machines that tend to navigate traffic in unfamiliar ways. Some pedestrians also feel e-scooters create danger on sidewalks.

Despite the many who sneer at e-scooters, however, others acknowledge that this new technology has advantages. E-scooters hardly pollute, theyre less expensive than traditional motorized vehicles and they take up far less space on streets in cities where theyre allowed on roadways.

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Calgarys e-scooter pilot project, launched last July, limits e-scooter use to sidewalks, pathways and bike lanes. In Edmonton, authorized e-scooters are allowed on bike lanes, shared paths and streets with speed limits of 50 km/h or less, but not on sidewalks.

Another possible source of irritation involves the ways in which idle e-scooters are left unattended in cities served by scooter-share companies such as Lime or Bird, which make e-scooters available to people who download an app. Customers use GPS technology to find an e-scooter near them, use their app and credit-card information to unlock the vehicle and, after reaching their destination, leave the e-scooter where it can be used by another rider.

Special protocols are required during the pandemic. In Edmonton, the citys 200 scooters are brought to five corrals nightly and sanitized, and there is an advertising campaign urging e-scooter riders to sanitize their hands before and after they use the machines.

Winnipeg city administrators had earlier pondered whether the e-scooters in the trial would be supplied and managed by the city or by a third-party company. Its a wise course to leave the trial to an experienced company that knows how to deal with related issues, such as how to protect against theft and vandalism and what to do with e-scooters once the snow falls.

Would Winnipeggers use e-scooters to a degree that makes them feasible in this city? The answer lies in a trial period that temporarily gives e-scooters the green light.
Nevada lawmakers freed up an estimated extra $58.6 million on Wednesday and took several other small steps in their quest to mitigate expected massive cuts to the state budget.

An amendment dropped late Wednesday in the state Senate to SB3 will pull the entirety of the states Governmental Services Tax (assessed on car registration fees) toward the battered state general fund, which is one of the changes expected to add back $58.6 million to the states $1.2 billion budget shortfall. Gov. Steve Sisolaks original budget proposal called for that tax revenue stream to be split between the general fund and the states highway fund.

And after several sluggish days, members of the Assembly on Wednesday held their first hearing on the bill implementing the bulk of Gov. Steve Sisolaks proposed budget cuts and heard more than an hour of irate testimony from dentists, teachers and other members of the public upset with the states plan to balance the budget through massive spending cuts.

Most of the information on the proposed cuts had been presented during prior presentations during the initial days of the special session. But Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson said he expected the Assembly to vote out the major budget bill sometime Thursday, after drafting and approving an amendment reflecting the Legislatures priorities in changing the proposed cuts.

Beyond giving a tentative timeline of a vote Thursday, Frierson opted not to share many specific changes that legislators were looking to restore, beyond a desire to reverse the proposed 6 percent cut in Medicaid reimbursements and other optional services suggested to be eliminated.

There are tons of things on there that are painful, you know having to pick between Medicaid for seniors, autism services for children, and everything in between, he said. These are really, really tough decisions. I believe that replenishing the cuts in Medicaid are important because it also reflects a return on our investment from the federal government, and so I think that certainly is high on my list and on the list of many of my members.

Frierson said lawmakers were also looking to mitigate or modify cuts to K-12 education and proposed once-a-month state worker furloughs where possible. The speaker also gave a flat no when asked whether lawmakers had given up a push for an increase in taxes to help quell the massive budget cuts, but declined to give specifics on what tax areas the Legislature might consider.

Lawmakers pass bill amended to bring nearly $60 million more to mitigate cuts

Senators voted 19-2 in favor of SB3, a bill that seeks to fill the budget gap with several tried-and-true methods the state used in the past  asking mining companies to prepay taxes, collecting delinquent taxes through an amnesty program and diverting vehicle registration taxes from roads and into the general fund.

But after a hearing over the weekend in which Republicans questioned whether more could be squeezed from those revenue sources, lawmakers approved an amendment to the bill.

The measure now sends 100 percent of vehicle registration fee revenue into the general fund in the current fiscal year, replacing the prior proposal that split GST revenues 50-50 between the general and the highway fund. The change approved Wednesday brings in an additional $47.6 million, meaning the total revenue the bill will now yield above current levels is $71.4 million.

Fiscal analysts confirmed that the highway fund will only take a net hit of about $14 million, because it is receiving $38 million from the federal CARES Act, is cutting spending on a technology project and will be furloughing employees to save about $9 million.

Officials with the Nevada Department of Transportation had testified on the earlier version of the bill, saying that with a reserve fund of $340 million and a generous federal match on road construction projects, the highway fund could absorb the diversion without any road projects getting off track.

Another change from the amendment was a re-estimation of how much would come from a tax amnesty program. The new projection, which recalculated revenue from local school support taxes, now says the amnesty program could bring in $21 million rather than the original $10 million.

And the amendment also changed a plan to have mining companies turn in two years of payments at once. After some Republicans raised concerns about how upending the payment schedule could put local governments that depend on mining in a lurch, the proposal was amended to only require companies pay tax due to the general fund ahead of time. Tax owed to local governments would continue on its original schedule.

The substance of the amended bill attracted opposition only from Sen. Ira Hansen, who argued that mining has become a favorite whipping boy and is being treated differently than other industries. He said the vast majority of operations are small and not very profitable and that singling them out for prepayment could jeopardize their economic future.

He clarified he wasnt speaking on behalf of the mining industry as a whole.

"I think they would rather have me not say one word about it because they understand they have a significant PR problem in the state. And they would rather just pay it and act like they're very delighted to pay it, he said. But the truth is, we've held a gun to their head  when in fact they're one of the best industries Nevada has ever had.

In an Assembly hearing that didnt wrap up until nearly 11 p.m., members voted 30-10 to pass the bill. The vote did not fall on party lines  four Democrats split from their party and voted against it, and seven Republicans voted in favor.

Assemblywomen Robin Titus and Alexis Hansen took to the floor to praise the mining industrys contributions to the state, from shaping its nascent years to making donations in rural communities.

But Democratic Assemblywoman Shannon Bilbray-Axelrod poured cold water on those comments.

"As a third-generation Nevadan ... I think I'm very aware of what mining has or hasn't done for this state ... it's time they pay their share, and honestly this bill doesn't do nearly enough, she said. So thank you for what you have to say about mining, and I'm so happy that they're here in Nevada and rake the earth ... But this is our state, and they do things and it's not right, and you know it. And it's high time they pay. And this isn't the end of it."

The massive budget bill finally gets a hearing

Members of the Assembly finally heard the bill that will be responsible for balancing much of the states budget shortfall. However, the version of the legislation presented Wednesday wasnt yet final, with significant changes expected to still come before the Assembly approves the legislation and forwards it on to the Senate.

GOP Assemblyman Al Kramer, during the question and answer portion of the hearing, asked whether the legislations proposed 6 percent across-the-board cuts to Medicaid were really necessary. Legislative staff said its not yet possible to know whether the federal government will extend federal matching dollars to the states Medicaid program, which would generate an additional $30 million in revenue to the state.

If that happens, the additional funding would be brought before the Legislatures Interim Finance Committee, which could restore certain programs.

The bill also contains a provision that would allow the Department of Health and Human Services to reshuffle funds within its budget as needed, subject to the recommendation of the governor and approval of the Interim Finance Committee.

The bill faced significant criticism in an hour-and-a-half-long public comment session, where members of the public and policy advocates raised a host of concerns, including the legislations cuts to education funding, mental health services and Medicaid.

As proposed, the $1.2 billion in budget cuts would slash several K-12 education programs, including support for Read by 3 early-childhood reading, school supplies for teachers, and other categorical programs that aim to help students with extra needs. The proposed cuts to K-12 programs exceed $166 million, while cuts to the Nevada System of Higher Education are about $110 million.

Several mental health-focused organizations, including the National Alliance on Mental Illnesss Nevada chapter and the Nevada Psychiatric Association, lamented the bills proposed cuts to behavioral health spending. Lawmakers are considering $19.1 million in cuts to public and behavioral health, with the majority coming from the Southern and Northern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services agencies, as well as additional cuts in other areas of the Department and Health and Human Services (DHHS) budget, such as the proposal to eliminate psychosocial rehabilitation coverage from Medicaid.

I would add that when we talk about cuts to the DHHS budget it is easy to see that these cuts directly affect those individuals and families who are dealing with mental health conditions. But I want to be very clear  mental health issues are in every cut, you're looking and considering today, said Robin Reedy, executive director of NAMI Nevada. So when you cut behavioral health funding at DHHS during a pandemic, you're exacerbating cuts being made elsewhere.

The legislation also faced significant opposition from several dentists and dental hygienists who testified in opposition to the proposed elimination of Medicaid coverage of adult dental care and limits on dental services for pregnant women and children. Dental professionals testified that the legislation would exacerbate oral hygiene issues that can lead to more serious medical conditions and end up costing the Medicaid system more money down the road.

Cuts to Medicaid services will enhance the burden on a patient population thats already at a disadvantage in terms of access to care and affordability, said Dr. Tyree Davis, chief dental officer with Nevada Health Centers, a federally qualified health center. By removing adult dental coverage. Some patients will choose to go without care, and may experience other costly systemic health issues as a result.

Dignity Health, which runs three acute-care hospitals in Southern Nevada, also testified against the legislations proposed across-the-board cuts to Medicaid. Hospitals have long advocated for rate increases and argue that a rate decrease would make it hard for them to stay afloat financially while also caring for coronavirus patients during the pandemic.

We have no idea what the next six months will bring, Dignity Health lobbyist Katie Ryan said, and we'll need all the financial help we can get to make sure we can keep our doors open.

Tax Department employees upset with planned layoffs

Ahead of the bill hearing, roughly a dozen state employees at the Department of Taxation wrote in to legislators to protest the planned layoffs for the division.

Under Gov. Sisolaks initial budget plan, the division would keep 33 positions vacant (including 10 in the Marijuana Regulation Division), lay off 23 workers and close its Henderson-based office. Its part of plans by the governors office to limit state worker limits to under 50, while still implementing furloughs and freezes on merit pay to help address the budget shortfall.

But department employees who emailed legislators said they were being unfairly targeted, and that the layoffs or workforce reductions should be shared more evenly across state agencies.

Erica Scott, a revenue officer with the department, said requiring so many layoffs at the agency would gut our already small department and that it would harm the states ability to ensure tax compliance and revenue.

I cannot sit quietly while other massive departments have not a single layoff and are still getting admin paid leave as we speak, she wrote in an email to lawmakers. Taxation was deemed essential and I have been working diligently the entire COVID19 shut down, collecting $1,470/every hour I worked in June 2020. How am I now not considered essential when generating revenue for the state is the exact thing that I do?

Rhonda Gallant, a revenue officer with the department who has worked for the state for the past seven years, said the combined vacant positions and layoffs would result in a roughly 23 percent reduction in staff. She said such a reduction would make it harder for the state to implement a proposed tax amnesty program (as part of SB3) waiving penalties for delinquent taxpayers if they pay their accounts due.

It is difficult for me to see how we could successfully implement that program and generate the revenue expected if we dont have staffing to do our normal workload, Gallant wrote in a letter to lawmakers.

Asked about how the potential layoffs would affect the amnesty program, Department of Taxation Director Melanie Young said the office planned to partner with business agencies to announce the amnesty program, and that many of the applications or work needed to run the program could be accomplished online.

Weve always done more with less, she said.

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Disgruntled minority shareholders have submitted complaints to the Ontario Securities Commission, alleging that a takeover bid favoured by Torstars board and the companys biggest shareholders left money from a higher bid on the table, and that a major shareholder is in a conflict of interest.

The favoured bid, from Toronto entrepreneurs Jordan Bitove and Paul Rivett through their company NordStar, was raised to 74 cents per share Saturday evening. The five families which control Torstars A-class shares, as well as Fairfax Financial  which controls 40 per cent of Torstars B-class shares  both signed hard lock-ups supporting the deal Saturday, preventing them from switching their support to any other offer.

Rivett was a longtime executive of Fairfax before retiring. He subsequently joined forces with Bitove for the bid.

The NordStar bid beat out a rival 72-cent-per-share proposal made through Canadian Modern Media Holdings.

The OSC has received shareholder complaints in relation to the Torstar bid and were unable to comment further. This is to ensure the complaint process is not used to affect the market and to promote fairness towards those who are the subject of a complaint or review, an OSC spokesperson said in an email Wednesday.

A July 21 meeting where shareholders are being asked to vote on NordStars offer is still scheduled to go ahead. The NordStar deal is contingent on getting a majority of votes from A-class shareholders and B-class shareholders, as well as 66 per cent of the votes from both classes added together.

According to legal sources, the OSC has the power to issue a cease-trade order for up to 15 days while it investigates the complaints, potentially stopping or delaying the July 21 meeting.

The proposal from Canadian Modern Media Holdings was submitted by a group which includes Matthew Proud, CEO of Dye & Durham Corp., his brother Tyler Proud, CEO of technology company Avesdo Inc., finance industry veteran Neil Selfe and former Ontario finance minister and Ontario Liberal Party president Greg Sorbara.

After the improved NordStar bid became public Saturday, Selfe told the Star he had been prepared to go as high as 80 cents per share with his offer.

Torstar chairman John Honderich disputed claims that CMMH made a firm superior offer.

There was no 80-cent offer on the table when we made our decision. All we had was an offer for 72 cents and CVRs, Honderich said.

CMMH had been facing a deadline of 5 p.m. this past Monday to make their bid official, but NordStar upped their bid Saturday in a pre-emptive strike.

A letter to OSC director Naizam Kanji from B-class shareholder Pat Collins urged the OSC to investigate the circumstances of the deal.

The offer outlined by Canadian Modern Media at $1.30 represents a significant premium over the $.74 offered by NordStar, wrote Collins, who added that he owns more than 1.1 million shares. Collins is former publisher of the Torstar-owned Hamilton Spectator. The $1.30 price mentioned by Collins includes 80 cents per share in cash, and values the contingent value rights included in the offer at 50 cents per share (the actual value may vary).

Juan Carlos Haas, a minority B-class shareholder based in Germany, said Fairfax Financials votes shouldnt be included in any tally of B-class shares, because Rivett was a long-time executive at Fairfax before joining Bitove as part of the NordStar bid.

Fairfax Financial should be excluded from the vote at the Special Meeting of Shareholders on July 21, because it is a Joint Actor, Haas said in a letter of complaint to the OSC.

In an emailed statement, Rivett said neither he nor Fairfax had done anything wrong.

My partnership with Jordan, and the bid by NordStar, never had and never will have any connection with Fairfax. The Voting Trust made the decision here. Fairfax only entered into an agreement to support the Voting Trusts decision, Rivett said.

In an interview with the Star, Haas, who described himself as a value investor who looks for undervalued assets to buy at a discount, said the A-class shareholders and Fairfax shouldnt have signed hard lock-ups when there was potentially richer deal on the table.

Its unfair. You shouldnt sell other peoples money, said Haas.

Torstar B-class shareholders normally would not have a vote in corporate decisions. But the NordStar bid is subject to approval by a majority of A-class shareholders and a majority of B-class shareholders, in addition to two thirds of all shares added together.
An unnamed F1 team boss thinks the FIA will "find a compromise" to the current dispute about customer cars.

After the second race in Austria, the governing body seized parts of Racing Point's braking system, following an official protest lodged by rival team Renault.

The claim is that the 'pink Mercedes' is a one-for-one copy of Mercedes' 2019 car.

"If Racing Point and Mercedes are allowed to play this game, we will have eight Mercedes, six Ferraris, four Red Bulls and two Renaults on the track next year," Red Bull-Honda's Dr Helmut Marko told Sport1.

However, an unnamed team boss thinks the FIA will find a compromise to the controversy.

"Racing Point will probably only have to change the brakes," he is quoted by f1-insider.com.

"The FIA also agreed a lazy compromise with the Ferrari case so as not to endanger Formula 1 as a whole," he added, referring to the controversial engine legality saga of 2019.

F1 legend Gerhard Berger, meanwhile, thinks customer cars should simply be shown the green light.

"In 2008 they all pointed at us because our Toro Rosso was basically identical to the Red Bull," he said. "At that time that was still allowed.

"It meant it was possible for us even to do the sensational victory with Sebastian Vettel in Monza. Everyone loved it - above all the fans.

"The FIA and Formula 1 should allow cars to be copied again," Berger insisted. "Don't we all want an Alpha Tauri, a Williams or a Racing Point on the podium?

"For the sport, especially in these difficult times, it would be for the best."

(GMM)
A new, modern gas bar will greet motorists travelling Highway 20 west of Williams Lake early next year.

The Tletinqox (Anaham) Government broke ground early Monday afternoon on the $4.5-million facility adjacent from the highway and across the intersection where the current gas bar and store is located.

At approximately 3,000 square feet, the new Esso gas station and grocery store will not only be a remarkable improvement in size but offerings.

As well as a cafe serving Spirit Bear Coffee from Port Coquitlam and dishes possibly from Mr. Bannock based in Vancouver, it will also feature a cardlock, an RV campground and space for an area honouring Chief Anaham in which the community is named after.

Chief Joe Alphonse stresses that we need to be paying tributes to our past leaders and thats exactly what were going to do, said Tletinqox Councillor Ashton Harry.

At one of our meetings he was saying its so important that we pay tribute to all these people that helped us get where we are and we all heard that loud and clear.

Councillor Cecil Grinder helped lead song and prayer after community members, other councillors, friends and neighbours and two members of the Alexis Creek RCMP enjoyed some bannock and coffee served on-site by the founders of Mr. Bannock and Spirit Bear Coffee.

Its awesome to have a group get-together like this, Grinder said, noting they were adhering to physical distancing guidelines amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

For me its important that we get together in a positive way and a good way so we can start things off as a relationship.

Harry was in attendance with her mom Eleanor Cooper, who is also a Tletinqox councillor, and said she remembered Alphonse saying the gas bar was supposed to be built during 2017 when wildfires hit and put the brake on projects that were supposed to commence.

Chief Joe is a major driver of this project and a lot of the projects that we have here. He is always pushing INACs (Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada) buttons and he finally found the right one because now were getting a gas bar, she added. Its so exciting.

Alphonse wanted to attend the ceremony but was unable to as he is currently on sick leave, Grinder noted.

Harry recalled how their current gas bar and store that is in need of dire repair and expansion grew over the years to its current location from a small building that was expanded to trailers.

The 28-week project is designed by Dave Kitazaki of the Xaxlip First Nation who owns and operates DK Architecture of North Vancouver.

Kitazaki had designed the communitys Health Services Sage Building some 12 year ago.

Its going to be a beautiful building, he said, noting it will utilize similar materials of the health centres exterior such as heavy timber and stone.

Inside the building its not going to look like a typical gas station-grocery store. Its going to have a lot of wood elements in it, so its going to be quite nice.

Parke Pacific from Kelowna that has worked with a number of First Nations across Western Canada building gas bars has been selected as contractor for the project.

Ive worked in Williams Lake a couple of times but Ive never been up here and its gorgeous, said Denton Elliot with Parke Pacific of the Chilcotin.

Chris Feeney with Red River Management assisted with putting together the convenience store and cafe store concept, and said it was a long road to get to this point.

We all should be very appreciative of all the hard work of the team members and of chief and council, he said. We put together this project team that really wants to bring everyone together, remember tradition, culture, language and incorporate all of that into this project and were really excited to do that.

The new gas bar and grocery store will be named Chilcotin River Trading and will open some time in January where a totem pole originally destined to be raised in Boitanio Park in Williams Lake, will stand in front of the gas bar to greet guests.

Instead of putting the totem pole somewhere that it wasnt wanted, we put it here and its going to be for us and its going to represent our trials and tribulations as a nation and as a community and the things that weve overcome, Harry said of the totem pole, which was stopped from going into Boitanio Park by the Williams Lake First Nation.

To have it raised here, it was a perfect fit  this is its home and this is where its going to be.

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David Tennant says home schooling his children in lockdown has been a 'challenge'.

The former Doctor Who star, 45, has five children with his actress wife Georgia Moffett.

He told BBC Breakfast: 'We're lucky that we've got space, although we do have quite a lot of children so we have got quite a full house!'

Home struggles: David Tennant says home schooling his children in lockdown has been a 'challenge'

The acclaimed actor admitted: 'Home schooling was challenging.

'Obviously my wife Georgia was ultimately in charge because she's better at organising things than I am.

'But between us we'd wrestle one child into a corner.'

Hands full: The former Doctor Who star, 45, has five children with his actress wife Georgia Moffett

The actor, who is back in a new series of comedy-drama There She Goes, said: 'You very quickly recognise the gaps in your own knowledge.

'It's not, "How do I do long division?"

'It's, "How do they teach long division now because it's all changed?"'

Tennant added: 'I've always respected teachers for what they do, but oh my goodness I'm very glad they exist!'

New challenge: The actor, who is back in a new series of comedy-drama There She Goes, said: 'You very quickly recognise the gaps in your own knowledge'

Last month, David joined forces with fellow Doctors Jodie Whittaker and Matt Smith for the first time as they discussed the iconic role

The trio took part in the reunion for HBO Max, and reminisced together about their experiences on the popular sci-fi show.

Detailing the importance of being in a role that has been played by so many other actors, David admitted the show was 'so precious' to him.

Is there a Doctor in the house? David, Jodie Whittaker, and Matt Smith joined forces for the first time as they reminisced about their time on Doctor Who for HBO Max recently

'There's an expectation of what it will be like and what it actually is I suppose,' he explained. 'Growing up in Britain you're very aware of Doctor Who as it has been ubiquitous in our lives even if it wasn't on TV.

'So when you realise it's your turn you do kind of know what that means in terms of loss of anonymity, and the fact the first line of your obituary has almost certainly been written but I think that's different to knowing what it feels like and carrying that around.

'Its a huge privilege and also feels very precious because people love it so much, and it means so much to people all through their lives, you just want to make sure you don't break it. you want it to be special, precious and exciting for the next generation as it was for the old one.'

Gushing: Detailing the importance of being in a role that has been played by so many other actors, David said: 'Its a huge privilege and also feels very precious because people love it so much'

Hilarious anecdote: Matt then chimed in by saying: 'I once had someone shout across the street, and I hadn't shot a single frame, "don't break Doctor Who!"'

Matt then chimed in by saying: 'I once had someone shout across the street, and I hadn't shot a single frame, "don't break Doctor Who!".'

Sharing a similar story, Jodie admitted: 'When I was announced, and you haven't shot anything have you, I got a girl come up to me in a cafe and I was so excited because I was like "it's my demographic", she was sixteen and said "I really wanted it to be Ben Whishaw.'

Teasing her over the encounter, Matt claimed 'everyone wanted Ben Whishaw' while David joked that 'he would have been really good.'

Teasing: Jodie said she was approached by a girl who said she wanted Ben Whishaw to take the part when she was first cast, and David and Matt joked he would have been ' really good'

Candid: Of her concerns when starting the role, Jodie added: 'The thing I would say to the next person is the pressure of the history of the show is all made up in your own head'

Going on to discuss what it's been like in the role, Jodie went on: 'Because I haven't handed off so Im still in that strange floating space where I own it, Im not kicked out of the club yet.

'The thing I would say to the next person is the pressure of the history of the show is all made up in your own head, on set all the crew who have transitioned onto the show they are kind of excited and with you to bring something new because that is the beauty of this as a role.

'You're not supposed to be recreating what someone did you're supposed to take it. There is a pressure and an actor's monologue for a long time, but when you're in your doctor's clothes and you've got your own friends in it feels in a weird way all that pressure disappears because it's yours to play with.'
In the years that it took the journalist Catherine Belton to research and write Putins People, her voluminous yet elegant account of money and power in the Kremlin, a number of her interview subjects tried various tactics to undermine her work. One of them, a close Putin ally apparently alarmed by her questions about Russian President Vladimir Putins activities as a K.G.B. agent in Dresden in the 1980s, emphatically insisted that any rumored links between the K.G.B. and terrorist organizations had never been proved: And you should not try to do so! he warned.

Another source, defending Putins tenure as the deputy mayor of St. Petersburg, took a cooler approach. Asked about a local politician named Marina Salye who found evidence of corruption in the so-called oil-for-food scheme that Putin oversaw in the early 90s, he didnt bother to deny her findings; he just rejected the very idea that her findings mattered. This all happened, he smugly acknowledged. But this is absolutely normal trading operations. How can you explain this to a menopausal woman like that?

Belton suggests that this is the kind of two-pronged strategy the Kremlin has used to pursue its interests at home and abroad: Deploy threats, disinformation and violence to prevent damaging secrets from getting out, or resort to a chilling cynicism that derides everything as meaningless anyway.

The dauntless Belton, currently an investigative reporter for Reuters who previously served as the Moscow correspondent for the Financial Times, allowed neither approach to deter her, talking to figures with disparate interests on all sides, tracking down documents, following the money. The result is a meticulously assembled portrait of Putins circle, and of the emergence of what she calls K.G.B. capitalism  a form of ruthless wealth accumulation designed to serve the interests of a Russian state that she calls relentless in its reach.
Luxembourg, July 16 : In a major blow to companies transferring data of European Union citizens to the US, Europe's top Court struck down the validity of EU-US Privacy Shield in a ruling on Thursday.

The ruling deprives these companies of one of the flagship data transfer mechanisms.

The European Court of Justice in its ruling said that the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provides that the transfer of such data to a third country may, in principle, take place only if the third country in question ensures an adequate level of data protection.

"The Court of Justice invalidates Decision 2016/1250 on the adequacy of the protection provided by the EU-US Data Protection Shield," said the ruling, suggesting that the protections provided under EU-US Privacy Shield are not enough to safeguard the interest of the EU citizens.

The privacy issue surrounding the case was initially raised by Maximillian Schrems, an Austrian privacy advocate, who has been a Facebook user since 2008.

As in the case of other users residing in the European Union, some or all of Schrems's personal data is transferred by Facebook Ireland to servers belonging to Facebook Inc. that are located in the US, where it undergoes processing.

Schrems claimed that the US does not offer sufficient protection of data transferred to that country.

With the the European Court of Justice now striking down the EU-US Privacy Shield, companies will now have to sign standard contractual clauses, non-negotiable legal contracts drawn up by Europe, the BBC reported.

The court was of the view that these contracts are valid.
Phuket seeks own health rules after COVID scares in Bangkok, Rayong

PHUKET: Following the incidents in Rayong and Bangkok that raised fears of foreigners potentially infected with COVID-19 carriers walking free among the general public, Phuket officials have requested to introduce their own rules to protect the island from any similar incidents.

COVID-19healtheconomicstourism

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Thursday 16 July 2020, 11:42AM

Phuket Vice Governor Pichet Panapong at the meeting at Provincial Hall yesterday (July 15). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Key among the concerns was the impact such an incident would have on further damaging the chances of a recovering Phukets already devastated tourism industry.

The concerns were raised at the meeting of the Phuket Communicable Disease Committee at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday (July 15), chaired by Phuket Vice Governor Pichet Panapong.

At the meeting, Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwansupana shared her concerns such an incident would have, and pointed out that more than 200 students at schools operated by Phuket City Municipality had been removed from classes as their families had moved back to their home provinces as they no longer had work.

I am worried about Phuket facing the same situation that just happened in Rayong and Sukhumvit. If there is a second wave of the pandemic [in Phuket], Phuket will suffer worse, Mayor Somjai said.

I want to ask whether the Phuket Government has better protection measures to handle any such unexpected situations? Will privileged people [sic] be allowed to come to Phuket? she posed.

V/Gov Phichet responded, Every person is concerned and does not want the situation in Rayong to happen here, and the Phuket Government and other officials continue to work on enforcing the measures to control and protect against the pandemic.

For the exemption for privileged people, the Phuket Government is only allowed to follow orders from the CCSA [Center for the COVID-19 Situation Administration in Bangkok], he added.

At this stage, we are waiting for a response to an official request asking whether the Phuket Government can set up our own conditions and regulations for those people or not. However, until then, we must follow the measures set out by the Ministry of Public Health strictly.

Regarding crewmen on boats arriving in Phuket from international waters, V/Gov Pichet said, We allow only Thai crew of cargo ships to disembark in Phuket. They must contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Department of Disease Control before coming to Phuket and be tested and quarantined for 14 days.

That comment followed a misunderstanding that saw a by a public hospital pharmacist reporting a Thai crewmen arriving in Phuket from Indonesia being allowed to disembark in Phuket without observing a 14-day quarantine  a claim that V/Gov Pichet on Tuesday claimed was incorrect.

Since June 1, 190 crewmen have been tested and quarantined. Of those, 100 have been allowed to disembark freely in Phuket, V/Gov Pichet said yesterday.

Phuket had not recorded any new cases of people being infected with COVID-19 for 52 days, he said.
Amid simmering tensions between India and China at Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, Indian Army has said in a statement that India and China have been engaged in discussions through established military and diplomatic channels to address the prevailing situation at the LAC.

The statement adde dthat commanders from Indian Army and Chinese People's Liberation Army held a meeting at Chushul, on Indian side, for the fourth round of talks, on July 14, 2020 to resolve the matter. According to Indian Army, the engagement was consistent with the consensus reached between the Special Representatives of India and China earlier, on July 5, to discuss complete disengagement.

"The Senior Commanders reviewed the progress on implementation of the first phase of disengagement and discussed further steps to ensure complete disengagement.

The two sides remain committed to the objective of complete disengagement. This process is intricate and requires constant verification. They are taking it forward through regular meetings at diplomatic and military level," noted the statement.

Meanwhile, sources claimed that China has refused to back off from Finger 4 area in Pangong Tso and this was made clear by PLA during the 4th round of Corps Commander talks at Chushul. On the other hand, Indian Army is on high alert and has increased the deployment of tanks along East Ladakh border to ward off any threat from the Chinese troops.

Notably, the 14-hour-long fourth round of Corps Commander-level talks between India and China ended on Wednesday but sources said that during the talks China made it clear that it would not back off from Finger 4. Both India and China had reached an agreement to disengage in Galwan Valley, Hotsprings and Gogra and India has been demanding that Chinese troops must disengage from all the areas.

Keeping in mind the activities of Chinese army, Indian Army is on high alert and around 60,000 soldiers have been deployed in East Ladakh to stop the incursion of Chinese soldiers inside Indian territories. India has deployed Bhism tanks, Apache attack helicopters, Sukhoi fighter jets, Chinook and Rudra helicopters near the LAC to keep Chinese troops at bay.
(Photo : pixabay) (Photo : imgur) (Photo : pixabay)

Every website is hosted somewhere. While you select a host, you might think that this decision is of no importance. But, one wrong decision can definitely harm your business. Poor performance and slow pages loading time result in a higher bounce rate and loss of profit.

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Bandwidth is simply the highest data transfer rate of an internet connection, or most importantly, how much data can be sent through a connection at any given time. The more programs on your site mean you need more bandwidth. Downloading content, games, and videos are some of the examples of programs that require a lot of bandwidth.

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Hosting providers are managed and run by experts (we hope) who should be capable of fixing any technical issue. For instance, when your business launches a brand new website, but it loads slowly out of the gate. To resolve the issue, you call up their support center and discuss options to help you optimize its performance, like scaling your images for better loading time.

If you don't have a support center for your website host, it's time to find some other host. Website downtime was cited as of the main reasons that online businesses lose reputation in a recent report by Weave.

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Features to Look When Upgrading a Web Hosting Plan

The features that make the web hosting plan exceptional depends on your goals for growth. But, there are several other aspects you must keep in mind when you decide to update the hosting plan. The following are some of the things you should consider before choosing a web host.

Unlimited growth potential: When you decide to buy a hosting plan that helps you expand your business from visitors to traffic, then use images and videos, look for a plan that offers enough bandwidth and space to build your site.

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Cost-effective scaling method: Always choose a hosting plan that doesn't make you feel like you're being penalized because you're getting more and more popular.

Final Thoughts

To sum up, the ideal web host does everything for you and for your website. If you've been facing any of the issues mentioned above, then switching to a new and better web hosting provider can be the prior solution to all these issues. Updating the web host improves the user experience, enhances security, and adds more value to the SEO rankings.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Bengaluru has been under a lockdown since the 14th of July, a decision the government had to take in the face of rising number of cases in the city.

Follow latest updates on the Covid-19 pandemic here

B Sriramulu, Karnatakas health minister and family welfare minister suggested that only divine intervention could protect the state from the rising number of cases.

Only God can save us, and we have to bring in caution on our own, he said regarding the sudden spike in positive cases.

To handle this spike, the state imposed a week down lockdown across Bengaluru (rural and urban).

Some allege that there is internal disagreement between the government itself - namely between - Sriramulu, the medical education minister K. Sudhakar, and the revenue minister R. Ashoka.

Karnataka was performing better than other states, until its numbers steadily began to rise after the nationwide unlock began. It now has a larger number of cases than Gujarat.

According to Sriramulu, Covid-19 positive cases in the state can be expected to double within the next month.

World over, the cases are doubling indiscriminately. It (virus) does not choose poor, rich, community or religion. There is no class or caste difference. The cases are 100 per cent going to increase In whose hands does this rest? It is only god who can save us, he said.

The government expects the next two months to be the greatest challenge it has faced.
The Scottish Government has dismissed a Westminster promise on post-Brexit powers for Holyrood as a lie.

Scottish Constitution Secretary Mike Russell accused the UK Government of attempting to mislead people  despite Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove promising a power surge to the devolved administrations.

Mr Russell claimed Westminster is attempting one of the most shocking pieces of dishonesty I have seen from a government.

UK ministers have said the return of powers to the UK from Brussels will see the Northern Ireland administration receive responsibility in 157 of the 160 areas, Scotland in 111 and Wales in 70.

But Mr Russell claimed some of the powers being transferred cited by the Conservative administration include areas the Scottish Parliament is already responsible for.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotlands Good Morning Scotland programme, he said: The list of powers that has been issued by the UK Government in its press release  and I havent seen the full document of course yet  but the list of powers is dishonest. It is one of the most shocking pieces of dishonesty I have seen from a government.

What it pertains to say isnt true. It is a mish-mash of the things the Scottish Parliament already has, things it is already decided we wont have because of the frameworks and things that could be automatically overridden by the decision of the UK to take a power away.

Ive got the list here, animal welfare  we actually passed a Bill in the Scottish Parliament on that last month. Food standards  well we set up a food standards body in 2015.

I was a minister for flood risk management 10 years ago when we passed a Bill in 2009. These arent new powers for the Scottish Parliament, that is actually  I am sorry to call it this  a lie.

As the transfer of powers to Holyrood, Cardiff and Stormont could result in different regulatory regimes across the UK, Westminster has drawn up plans for a new internal market to ensure seamless trade between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Story continues

UK officials say Scotch whisky producers could lose access to English barley without the changes (Jane Barlow/PA)

Officials said that without such action, a Welsh lamb producer could end up unable to sell their meat in Scotland, or Scotch whisky makers could lose access to supply from English barley farmers.

UK Business Secretary Alok Sharma said: Without these necessary reforms, the way we trade goods and services between the home nations could be seriously impacted, harming the way we do business within our own borders.

Mr Gove insisted: No promise is being reneged on, a power surge is occurring. Scores of new powers are going to the Scottish Parliament.

No single SNP MP, MSP, councillor or activist can point to a single power currently exercised by the Scottish Parliament which is being taken away.

There is no power grab, theres simply an example of SNP myth-making which this Internal Market Bill finally puts to bed.

But Mr Russell argued the framework arrangements being proposed would take powers away from Holyrood.

There are other things they are trying to take away by framework, things like chemical regulation, he said.

Michael Gove insisted scores of new powers are going to Holyrood (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

What is actually happening here is taking away very significant powers that will have an effect on our daily lives, on food standards, on employment standards, on building standards.

Scottish Secretary Alister Jack, however, said the changes  outlined in a white paper being published on Thursday for a four-week consultation  will ensure seamless trade continues across all parts of the UK when the Brexit transition period ends on December 31.

He insisted: That is more important than ever as we bounce back from the economic shock of coronavirus and begin to grasp new global opportunities outside of the EU.

The UK internal market is Scotlands biggest market, worth 55 billion a year, and a massive 60% of all our exports. Scottish businesses sell more to the rest of the UK than they do the rest of the world put together. It is vital for Scotlands economy and Scottish jobs that we continue to protect that highly integrated domestic market.

Our proposals respect and strengthen devolution. I hope the Scottish Government will work with us as we take this forward for the benefit of businesses and consumers in Scotland.
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Linkedin Colin Packham (Reuters) Sydney, Australia  Thu, July 16, 2020 11:45 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666bf74b 2 World Scott-Morrison,COVID-19,budget,subsidy,wages Free

The Australian government plans to spend A$1.5 billion ($1.1 billion) to substantially extend a program to subsidize the wages of apprentices, its latest support measure for the work force amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The plan unveiled by Prime Minister Scott Morrison's office on Thursday is the first indication of how his government plans to prop up Australia's ailing economy beyond September when a broader A$60 billion wage subsidy package expires.

The government will extend a current program that pays 50 percent of the wages of apprentices employed by small businesses from 80,000 workers to cover 180,000 workers across all industries. The timeframe for the subsidies will also be extended from the current September expiry to March next year.

Separately, the government will spend a further A$500 million to help re-train Australians as unemployment soars because of the coronavirus pandemic. The official unemployment rate is 7 percent, but if people on the wage subsidy scheme are counted, it blows out to around 13 percent.

Morrison has said previously the broader wage subsidy scheme would not be extended, but replaced with industry specific support. Full details are expected to be announced on July 23 when the government gives an economic and fiscal update.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has urged the government to extend its fiscal support, cautioning that the economy will need "considerable" support for some time.

Australia is headed into its first recession in almost three decades because of lockdown measures imposed for months to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Its tourism and education sectors have been particularly hard hit.

Australia has recorded nearly 11,000 cases of COVID-19, including 113 deaths. That remains well below many other countries, but a spike in the number of cases in recent days has worried officials.
Antarctica's "high human impact areas" often overlap with areas important for biodiversity

Humanity's accelerating impact on the vast wilderness of Antarctica extends well beyond scientific stations and eco-tourism along its fringes, both in scope and intensity, scientists warned Wednesday.

By almost any definition, Antarctica is by far the most pristine and least polluted continent on the planet.

It has no towns, agriculture or industry.

Since first arriving on its frozen shores more than 200 years ago, explorers and scientists have crisscrossed the kilometres-thick icesheet that obscures it's true topography.

"We have been nearly everywhere," said Steven Chown, a professor at Monash University in Melbourne and senior author of a study in Nature, the first to systematically map man's environmental footprint on Earth's southernmost landmass.

"But these visits are often brief or to places covered in ice," he told AFP. "The impacts in these areas are very small, negligible."

Even in areas that have seen the construction of research stations and an increasing volume of tourism, the damage is limited to less than half a percent of the continent's territory.

Mineral resource exploitation is prohibited by the 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty.

This doesn't, however, mean no damage has been done, cautioned Chown, who used Big Data techniques to examine 2.7 million records of human activity on the continent over two centuries.

Bring Antarctica's vibrant life forms into the picture, and suddenly man's footprint does not seem so light after all.

By almost any definition, Antarctica is by far the most pristine and least polluted continent on the planet

Scavenging hydrogen

"The areas that have the least human impact don't include some of its most important biodiversity," explained Chown, who is also president of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research.

At the same time, "high human impact areas"sprawling research facilities, tourism"often overlap with areas important for biodiversity," he said.

Of the continent's Important Bird Areas critical for conservation efforts, for example, only 16 percent are safely inside zones that Chown and his colleagues identified at "negligibly impacted areas".

Land-based life is found mostly in a dozen ice-free areas that comprise less half a percent of the continent's surface, about 45,000 square kilometres.

All together, more than 2,000 species have been catalogued, but there are certainly more.

"Biodiversity is the basis for all life," said Chown. "It inspires us to be better people and to have greater appreciation of our place in the worldjust think of albatrosses," he said, alluding to the mythic sea birds that have fascinated poets and explorers for centuries.

French sailor Franck Profitt strokes an albatross which landed for a few minutes on the maxi-trimaran "Groupama 3"

"Antarctic biodiversity helps us understand what life may be like elsewhere in the Universe," said Monash University professor Steven Chown

"Antarctic biodiversity helps us understand what life may be like elsewhere in the Universe," he added. "Microbes can live by scavenging hydrogen gas from the airremarkable!"

Delicately balanced ecosystems means that even apparently minor impactstrampling vegetation, the accidental introduction of non-native species, small-scale constructioncan have cascading effects.

Specially Protected Areas cover less than two percent of Antarctica, but include 44 percent of identified species, including seabirds, plants, lichens and invertebrates, according to earlier research.

Explore further Human 'footprint' on Antarctica measured for first time

 2020 AFP
Your children can read along as they listen to short story writing contest winner, Flying Colours.

This episode, written by Angela Young and read by the star of X-Men Edi Gathegi, will be released on Spotify and Apple Podcasts at 6pm on July 16th, or you can listen here:

And if you enjoy this story, please consider donating 5 to the great work of our friends at GEANCO, who are helping to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and improving lives in Nigeria. You can donate by clicking on the button below the video, or by visiting their website here.

Flying Colours

by Angela Young

African starlings are brightly, brilliantly coloured.

Some of them are glossy violet-black. Some are shiny blue and green. Some are violet and some are yellow. Some even have splashes of red and orange on their bodies.

But on every African starling theres at least one patch of black.

But it wasnt always so. There was a time when starlings were plain black. It was at that time that a terrible thing happened: a day when the starlings thought their eardrums would burst, a day many of them did not survive.

On that day the wind watched the starlings standing in huddles on the ground with their heads hidden under their wings. The wind whistled and whispered, Tell me whats wrong.

Sixteen starlings turned their faces to the wind and said: A terrible shriek is torturing our eardrums.

It wont stop, weve never heard anything like it before. We cant hear ourselves think. Its so loud, we cant even fly.

At that moment a shadow fell across the great plain and the wind whipped round to see a tall black cloud spiralling towards them.

When the cloud blotted out the sun, night arrived in the middle of the day. The shriek was so loud that the starlings could only stare at the place where the sun had been and wonder if this was the end of the world.

But the wind whistled close to the ground and gathered the starlings round as she said, in her lowest gentlest voice, That shriek is the shriek of the locusts. I know because Ive heard it before. But you starlings, and I, are the only ones on earth who can hear it.

Story continues

The shriek came closer and closer as the wind whispered, Because we can hear it, we are the only ones who can do what must be done.

What must be done? said one of the sixteen, in a very small voice.

We must fight them, said the wind. Before they eat everything in their path. Before they destroy our land. Before theres nothing left.

The sixteen starlings shuddered.

Well muster an army, roared the wind as loudly as she could, to make sure the starlings heard her above the shriek.

Were in this together.

The wind gathered the starlings in their thousands and the sixteen led their fellows in huge flocks, while the terrible shriek of the locusts made them think they might explode.

Some flocks ploughed into the enormous swarm from its sides; some flew high on the wind, flattened their wings and nose-dived into the solid shrieking mass while the locusts hunched under their shells and sharpened the spikes on their legs.

But the wind came from all directions and helped the starlings pierce the locusts shells with their sharp beaks, the air was a mass of flying black feathers and falling bodies.

It was a horrible, frightening fight and many times the terrified starlings felt too weak to go on. But the wind whistled and whispered that they were fighting for the life of the earth herself, and the starlings were filled with exceptional courage  a courage theyd never felt before.

They returned again and again to the heart of the sticky-black swarm of locusts, while the wind blew them onwards.

Some starlings were blinded, some were spiked and others bled so much from their rubbed-raw beaks that they fell to the ground. But, whenever she could, the wind carried them far from their battlefields to safety.

Six of the original sixteen starlings were among the wounded: theyd led their flocks into the shrieking swarm until they were so tired they fell to the ground while the battle raged on above them.

But just when the shriek was at its sharpest and the darkness of the swarm was at its deepest  just when the starlings thought they really could not go on  chinks of light began to appear inside the shrieking swarm. The chinks of light warmed the starlings backs, when they blinked up into the beautiful yellow light they gathered what was left of their strength for one final assault.

The wind blew and blew. But, this time, as the starlings ploughed in and nose-dived down, the shrieking swarm scattered.

At the end of that long and terrible day, silence returned to the great, flat, grassy plain in the heart of the heart of Africa, the sun shed a glorious orange light on the starlings victory and the wind carried them home.

When the starlings woke the next morning, the wind ruffled their feathers in honour.

The wind spoke to them all All you starlings who fought the locusts yesterday, all who ploughed in and nose-dived down, all who found their courage and refused to let the shriek defeat them, the wind took a deep breath, you are the bravest of birds. You defended the earth against her enemy. You have won a great victory.

The starlings drank from their little gourds of water as the wind said, The trees and the thorn bushes, the grasses and all your fellow creatures have asked me to thank you for fighting for them.

They know they wouldnt be here this morning, if not for you. Many of your fellow creatures spent the night bringing water from the great red river to show you how grateful they are.

The starlings began to clean their sticky black feathers in their little gourds of water. All that thrives on this earth, the wind said, all your fellow creatures have agreed that the earths highest honour shall be yours. From today, every starling who fought the shrieking swarm will be awarded brilliant flying colours. There is no higher praise nor deeper thanks.

The starlings stopped cleaning their feathers and gasped.Watch the colours come, said the wind. First, comes the red of the earth whose life you have saved.

The starlings saw streaks and rays of red flow towards them in the gentle wind. Some caught it and rubbed it onto their breasts.

Next comes orange, said the wind. The orange of the sun as he set at the end of your victorious day.

Rays of orange rippled through the massed ranks of starlings. Some caught it and ruffled it onto among their feathers; some rubbed it onto their bellies.

Next, said the wind, comes yellow. The yellow of the sun that lights and warms our days, the yellow the shrieking swarm so nearly took away forever.

And here too is green, the green of the grasses and the green of the trees who would not be here this morning, without you.

Yellow and green shimmered on the wind among the starlings. Some caught the yellow and put it on the backs of their heads, some flicked green onto each others wings and all their bodies began to glow with the colours.

As you choose your flying colours, whispered the wind, remember your fellow starlings, the ones who fell yesterday. Leave a black patch somewhere on your bodies for their sakes.

The starlings stood still and silent as they remembered their fellows.

And now comes pale blue for the morning sky, and deep blue for the evening sky: the same skies that would have been lost to us forever, without you. The wind said.

The blues flew towards the starlings. Some made deep blue stripes on their wings; others rubbed pale blue flecks onto their throats.

Now comes violet, said the wind. The violet of the very greatest. The violet of heroes.

When the violet swirled towards the starlings they caught lots of it: they swished it onto their bellies and swung it onto their wings and swirled stripes of violet round their necks.

Finally, said the wind, comes white.

The starlings streaked white onto the tips of their wings and striped it across their breasts.

Wear your flying colours with pride, whistled the wind. Tell anyone who asks you that you earned them in a great battle that saved our world.

The starlings colours shone and shimmered in the sunlight and the wind hummed and thrummed around them, congratulating them on their victory.

And that, as you might already have guessed, is the reason African starlings are brilliantly, brightly coloured. Its why there are glossy violet-black starlings, shiny blue and green starlings, violet and yellow starlings, and starlings with splashes of red and orange on their bodies.

Its also why each and every African starling carries at least one patch of black on his or her body: to remind them of their fellow starlings, the ones who gave their all in the great battle against the shrieking locust swarm.
Dune du Pilat the highest sand dune in Europe located on the coast of southwestern France, has lost nearly four meters of sand at its peak in one year due to heavy winds, according to the Aquitaine Coast Observatory (OCA) this week.

In mid-May scientists measured the dune, which sits between the Atlantic Ocean and a pine forest, which came to 102.5m. It lost almost four meters since 2019, according to OCA, which is in charge of monitoring some 230km of coastline.

"This year, the succession of strong gales during autumn and winter would have contributed to causing a strong migration from the crest of the Dune towards the east, which can reach up to 50m, according to a statement put out by OCA.

This lowered altitude, the most since scientists started measuring the dune in 2009, seems to be due to the sand spreading more into the forest, which has taken place in recent years.

The crest of the dune is very mobile and can move forwards or backwards, according to the wind direction.

Located in the Arcachon Basin in the Gironde department, the dune could encroach on the campsites nearby as well as the road, so scientists will continue to monitor movement.

Sand is also advancing in the other direction, towards the ocean, but the measurements taken in the northern central and southern parts of the 3km long, more than 600m wide dune reveal the differences in each portion.

OCA reports that chronic erosion in the northern sector in ongoing, as the coastline has shrunk by more than five meters, while the central and southern portions are rather stable.

The Dune du Pilat was created millions of years ago when the Pyrenees and Central Massif mountain ranges began to erode, and the nearby rivers transported the sand to the sea. Sand along the coast is transported by the sea and brought up onto the beach, where it blows inland.
The European Union has called the escalation of violence in Donbas a breach of Minsk agreements, Normandy Summit commitments and international humanitarian law.

"The escalation of violence in Donbas, incl. the killing of a Ukrainian medical officer, is a breach of Minsk agreements, Normandy Summit commitments and international humanitarian law. Imperative that all parties respect ceasefire and fully implement their commitments," the EU Delegation to Ukraine posted on Twitter.

In turn, the spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the EU, Nabila Massrali, stated that the killing of Ukrainian servicemen in Donbas is a violation of Russia's obligations under the Minsk agreements and negotiations in the Normandy format.

The EU expects Russia to assume responsibility, use its influence on the armed forces that it backs and fulfil its obligations under the Minsk agreements.

As Ukrinform reported, the invaders killed a Ukrainian military medic in Donbas on July 13.

Ukraine called on OSCE participating states to respond to the killing by Russian occupation forces of the medic, which constitutes a war crime.

ish
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - A divided U.S Supreme Court on Thursday upheld an appellate courts decision to temporarily block hundreds of thousands of Florida felons from voting, making it unlikely that they will be allowed to cast a ballot in the states primary next month  and possibly in Novembers crucial presidential election.

The high courts order came just four days before Mondays deadline to register for the August primary, when voters will choose candidates for Congress, the state Legislature and local races.

The ruling lets stand a stay issued by the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which is reviewing a ruling by a Tallahassee federal district court judge that ordered the state to give felons access to the ballot box under a voter-approved initiative known as Amendment 4.

As is usually customary, the Supreme Court did not explain its reasoning for denying a request from voting rights advocates to lift the stay.

However, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Elena Kagan joined in a written dissent, saying the high courts order prevents thousands of otherwise eligible voters from participating in Floridas primary election simply because they are poor.

Writing for the dissenters, Sotomayor said the order allows the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to disrupt Floridas election process just days before the July 20 voter-registration deadline for the August primary.

She noted that a preliminary injunction had been in place for nearly a year and that a federal district court judge had found Floridas pay-to-vote scheme unconstitutional after an eight-day trial in Tallahassee.

In his ruling in May, District Court Judge Robert Hinkle ordered the state to allow most Florida felons to vote, regardless of any outstanding legal debts. Amendment 4 permanently bars convicted murderers and rapists from voting, regardless of financial debts.

Hinkles ruling said state elections officials couldnt possibly review the hundreds of thousands of voter registration applications that could arrive ahead of the states August primary and the November presidential vote. During earlier court proceedings, he called it an administrative nightmare.

DeSantis appealed Hinkles ruling, and the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in its entirety agreed to hear the governors appeal and to stay the lower court ruling.

The court of appeals has scheduled a hearing on the matter for Aug. 18, the same day as Floridas primary. The deadline to register for that election is July 20, and the deadline to register for the Nov. 3 presidential election is Oct. 5.

Florida officials had argued that all Floridians will be irreparably harmed if the district courts patently erroneous injunction is reinstated, enabling hundreds of thousands of ineligible voters to take part in the upcoming elections, one of which is only a month away.

The case could have broad implications in a state that is expected to play a pivotal role in the presidential race. An estimated 774,000 disenfranchised felons represent a significant bloc of voters, should they be allowed to cast ballots.

This is only a stay while the states appeal is ongoing. Its disappointing because many people wont be able to vote in the primary next month, but were still hopeful that they will be able to do so in November, said Julie Ebenstein, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, which is among the groups representing felons seeking to regain their right to vote.

In 2018, Florida voters overwhelmingly approved Amendment 4, which returned voting rights to most Florida felons who had completed their sentences. But it quickly became unclear who could actually vote after DeSantis signed a Republican-backed bill last year stipulating that, in addition to serving their time, felons would have to pay all unpaid fines and restitution before being eligible to vote.

Voter rights advocates immediately sued the governor and the state.
A day before 19 Congress rebel lawmakers of Rajasthan assembly, including sacked deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, are to submit their replies to notices issued by the state assembly Speaker CP Joshi on the petition by chief whip Mahesh Joshi seeking their disqualification, a legislator has moved Rajasthan high court (HC) against the notices.

Justice Satish Sharma would hear the petition filed by one of the rebel Congress members of the Rajasthan legislative assembly (MLA) PR Meena, said a lawyer.

Also read: Ashok Gehlot vs Sachin Pilot becomes Harish Salve vs Abhishek Singhvi in court

Rajasthan advocate-general MS Singhvi is slated to file a caveat on behalf of Speaker Joshi in the court before the hearing to be held at 3 pm on Thursday.

State transport minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas said, Speaker Joshi is empowered to question the rebel lawmakers.

Everyone needs to follow the partys whip, he told media persons.

Earlier, Speaker Joshi had issued notices to 19 rebel MLAs, including Pilot and the petitioner Meena.

The notices stated disqualification of the 19 MLAs from the Rajasthan assembly under the 10th schedule of the Constitution, which deals with anti-defection.

Also read: Congress ready for a face saver for Pilot, he keeps them on the edge

The notices cited an alleged conspiracy to destabilise the democratically elected Ashok Gehlot government, as the rebel lawmakers skipped the Congress legislative party (CLP) meetings on July 13 and 14.

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The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, has again condemned the conduct of a governor, this time, the governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Fintiri.

Mr Fintiri was alleged to have violated public health protocols on COVID -19 at the Port Harcourt Airport on Tuesday.

FAAN, in a series of tweets on Thursday, said Mr Fintiri allegedly arrived at the Port Harcourt Airport on July 14 with eight others and flagrantly refused to observe the security and public health protocols as directed by the Nigerian government.

1. The Management of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) hereby strongly condemns the conduct of the Governor of Adamawa state Alh Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, who arrived Port Harcourt international Airport aboard aircraft 5N-IZY, at 17:08 hrs on 14th July 2020  Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (@FAAN_Official) July 16, 2020

The governor was said to have refused to have his temperature checked or be sanitized by health officials.

FAAN noted that the governors entourage did exactly as the governor did as the team that came to receive them drove through the barricades up to the terminal building, ignoring traffic and aviation security instructions.

The agency said such acts of irresponsibility displayed by the governor and his entourage endangers the lives of other airport users, adding that it is unacceptable.

FAAN called on airport users, especially VIPs, to adhere to the protocols and procedures on COVID-19 prevention.

The allegation of gross misconduct against Mr Fintiri is coming barely 24 hours after the agency accused a former a Nigerian governor of similar misconduct.

On Wednesday, PREMIUM TIMES reported how the agency condemned the conduct of a former governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari.

Mr Yari was alleged to have violated protocols put in place to arrest the spread of coronavirus in Nigeria.

He was also said to have physically assaulted an officer of the agency when asked to adhere to basic protocols on disinfection of luggage. The incident was said to have taken place at the Aminu Kano International Airport on Saturday.

In a series of tweets on Wednesday, FAAN condemned the alleged act of violations of protocols, describing it as unacceptable and irresponsible.

As of July 15, Nigeria has 34,259 cases of coronavirus, with 760 deaths.

All 36 states and the FCT have recorded at least a case of the disease.
Canned brown bread, like many New England traditions, makes no sense to someone who hasnt witnessed it for at least 20 years. Its like drinking a regular iced coffee in January or saying No suh instead of no way. Its evidence that were all maniacs and yes, you will get yelled at if you question it.

The bread-in-a-can being examined here is specifically B&M Brown Bread. You can find it in both raisin and original varieties next to the baked beans in the supermarket and -- I can not stress this enough -- is not actual bread.

B&M brown bread, like banana bread and muffins, are baked goods who are lying to you about what they are. This is cake. Its not good cake, mind you. Its like a giant bran muffin that comes in a suit of armor. You have to open up both sides of the can and then slide it out to even access it. Once you do, it comes out molded with ribbed lines along the side -- like a glutenous molasses-infused cousin of canned cranberry sauce.

Like Moxie soda or a chow mein sandwich, canned brown bread is a New England tradition that youve either never heard of or have strong feelings about. Usually, it can start family disagreements in about 10 seconds.

Canned brown bread

Seeing as how I had the good fortune of avoiding canned bread for most of my life, I had to go to an expert on the subject -- my dad. Hes not a fan.

We used to have it on Saturdays with franks and beans, he said. Its gross.

However, it seems that there was not a consensus at my dads house growing up. Seeking a second opinion about Grandma OMalleys Saturday brown bread, I asked my dads older brother, Bobby.

Ive been dying to have brown bread and I get overruled every time we go to the grocery store, Uncle Bobby said, while my dad shook his head while listening over speakerphone.

There was one point they agreed on: Its got to be the raisin version, and youve got to heat it up.

So what does it taste like?

There are a few ways to describe brown bread. It tastes dense like banana bread without the banana. Its also reminiscent of bread-y raisin bran without all the raisin and sugar (even in the raisin version). The whole thing is like a big, heavy bran muffin that was transmogrified into a log and stuffed into a can.

The flavors here arent exactly complex. Brown bread is a pretty simple baked concoction of wheat flour, rye flour and molasses. There is a mild amount of sweetness that comes the molasses, giving that bran-adjacent flavor.

The brown bread comes out of the can in a dense tube that peels in sections like a cake taken off an under-oiled pan. That heaviness is really the key feature. It has the texture of thick, slightly dry unsweetened brownie. It is really begging for something to dress is up -- or just a glass of milk.

I tried both the original and raisin versions both toasted and untoasted. The toasted raisin version is definitely the way to go. The raisins are key in providing a little extra sweetness and go a long way in breaking up the otherwise monotonous brick of brown.

The B&M can label provides multiple cooking methods. I went with toasting because the oven directions suggest putting it in at 300 degrees for over 30 minutes. At that point, I might as well just make actual bread.

The label also suggests that you can put it in the microwave. I did not do that because if I saw someone putting breadcake into a microwave, Id assume they were a robot that just learned what food was.

Toasting the brown bread gets a nice little crisp on the edge that works well with butter. Its reminiscent of a grilled muffin in that way. The mild sweetness from the molasses gives this very old-school Irish soda bread vibe thats pretty nice in the right setting.

So is it any good?

Despite my immediate misgivings about consuming breadcake from a can, I have to admit its actually not bad. Its best served with cream cheese, jam or some other more dynamic topping to balance out the flavor. By itself, its perfectly satisfactory -- once you get past the idea that it came from a can.

If youre looking for a heavy, cakey bread that needs flavorful toppings to stand out, then brown bread may be for you.

Honestly, Id eat it again if I had it in front of me. I wouldnt go out of my way to buy it at the store. It feels like the sort of thing that was a treat in a world where everyone didnt have immediate access to actual bread.

The final word

While I wouldnt actually call this stuff real bread, Uncle Bobby did have a story about eating actual canned bread. When he was in the army stationed in Germany in 1972, he used to get leftover C-rations from World War II. Now that was actual canned bread. It was also made in 1945.

And yes, the canned brown bread was better.

Like MassLives Facebook page and Instagram Account for more.

---

I ate it so you dont have to is a regular food column looking at off-beat eats, both good and bad. It runs every other Thursday-ish at noon-ish.

You can send any praise/food suggestions to nomalley@masslive.com. Please send all criticisms and questions about weird things New Englanders do to hadams@masslive.com. Shes from Missouri. Shell love it. You can check out the rest of the series here.

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India and China remain committed to complete disengagement which is an intricate process and requires constant verification, the Indian Army said in a statement on Thursday, two days after senior military commanders from both sides met at Chushul to discuss the road map for reducing tensions along the contested Line of Actual Control (LAC).

The senior commanders reviewed the progress on implementation of the first phase of disengagement and discussed further steps to ensure complete disengagement, army spokesperson Colonel Aman Anand said.

The governments high-powered China Study Group (CSG) on Wednesday reviewed the latest developments in eastern Ladakh, with focus on the next stage of disengagement between the Indian and Chinese armies following the 14-hour meeting between senior military commanders.

The two sides remain committed to the objective of complete disengagement. This process is intricate and requires constant verification. They are taking it forward through regular meetings at diplomatic and military level, Anand said in the statement. He said India and China have been engaged in discussions through established military and diplomatic channels to address the prevailing situation along the LAC.

On the fourth meeting between the senior commanders on July 14, he said the engagement was consistent with the consensus reached between the Special Representatives of India and China on July 5 to discuss complete disengagement.

The CSG, which is the apex policy advisor to the government on China, on Wednesday evaluated the proposals and counter-proposals discussed at the corps commander-level talks before charting out the course for the next round of disengagement that is expected to begin in the Finger Area near Pangong Tso.

The focus of the current round of military talks is to hammer out a consensus on easing tensions between the two armies in the Finger Area and Depsang plains as well as pulling back weapons and equipment from friction points in other sectors.

The involvement of the CSG reflects a synergised approach and response. India is minutely evaluating all aspects of disengagement, which will be a lengthy and laborious process, said Lieutenant General Vinod Bhatia (retd), a former director general of military operations.

A fifth meeting between delegations led by Lieutenant General Harinder Singh, commander of the Leh-based 14 Corps, and Major General Liu Lin, commander of the South Xinjiang military region could take place soon to discuss different aspects of disengagement, officials said.

Even as disengagement and de-escalation is being discussed and monitored in the highest echelons of the government, defence minister Rajnath Singh will visit Ladakh for a security review on July 17. Singh will also visit forward areas in Jammu and Kashmir on July 18. Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane will accompany the minister on the two-day tour.

The military is keeping a strict vigil on the western front to deter Pakistan from fishing in troubled waters and prevent what could turn out to be a two-front conflict, as reported by Hindustan Times on July 2.

The minister will visit Ladakh two weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an unscheduled visit to the sector on July 3. The PM then declared that the era of expansionism is over, sending a strong signal to China about Indias determination to defend its borders.

The July 14 meeting was the fourth round of talks between the corps commander-ranked officers of the two armies who made previous attempts to reduce tensions along the border on June 6, June 22 and June 30.

Negotiations are expected to be far harder this time as the continued presence of the PLA in the Finger Area and the Depsang sector could be the sticking point in the talks.

In Tuesdays talks, the agenda included the step-wise withdrawal of weapons and equipment to mutually agreed distances from all friction areas along the LAC and thinning the military buildup in the region.

The military dialogue will be followed by another meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on border affairs. The military commanders set the time-frame and method of disengagement while the WMCC monitors the process.

The disengagement effort involves rival troops pulling back a specified distance from face-off sites, with further retreat taking place in phases as the plan progresses on a verifiable basis on the ground every 72 hours by both sides.

The military build-up in Indian and Chinese depth areas hasnt thinned, with both sides keeping their guard up. The deployment of thousands of soldiers, fighter jets, helicopters, tanks, artillery guns, missile systems and air defence weapons continues in the region.

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A scathing op-ed article by President Trumps top trade adviser that declared Dr. Anthony S. Fauci wrong about everything caused a fissure at the White House this week, with Trump aides scrambling to disavow the attack on one of the most trusted public figures of the coronavirus crisis.

Now the article, written by Peter Navarro, has generated second thoughts at the newspaper that published it, USA Today.

In a note published Wednesday evening, a day after the article was posted online, Bill Sternberg, the editorial page editor of USA Today, wrote that several of Mr. Navarros attacks on Dr. Fauci were misleading or lacked context. He concluded that the op-ed, which appeared in the papers Wednesday print edition, did not meet USA Todays fact-checking standards.
Organizers of a protest scheduled for July 31st say they are going ahead with the public march despite government concerns that it may cause a spike in COVID-19 cases in Zimbabwe where over 1,000 people who have already tested positive for the disease.

One of the organizers of the protest, Jacob Ngarivhume, leader of the opposition Transform Zimbabwe, told reporters on Thursday that they have informed the police about the planned protest against corruption and other issues.

We have informed the Zimbabwe Republic Police about our intentions on July 31 as per the provisions of MOPA (Maintenance of Peace and Order Act). We are following the law and thats exactly what we have done. We know that there is COVID-19 among us and we are saying corruption is just like COVID-19.

Section 7 of the law stipulates the timelines within which a convener of public meetings, public demonstrations and processions has to give notice to the regulating authority before a proposed date of a public meeting, demonstration or procession.

Section 3 of the Maintenance of Peace and Order Act designates a police officer commanding a certain district as the regulating authority of that district and spells out procedures the conveners of gatherings or demonstrations have to follow when applying to the regulating authority.

Another organizer of the event, Charles Nyoni of Occupy Africa Unity Square, led by Itai Dzamara, who went missing a couple of years ago, said they are ready for the protest.

We have no option because corruption is causing havoc in this country like COVID-19. So, the protest is on and we will do what we can to make it work.

But Zanu PF stalwarts Patrick Chinamasa and Victor Matemadanda have warned protesters that the ruling party will take stern measures against protesters.

Information deputy director, Tafadzwa Mugwadi, also told VOA Studio 7 that we wont allow people to engage in such gatherings when the country is fighting against COVID-19.

He said Zanu PF members will be waiting for the protesters in the streets.

Several people were shot dead in 2018 and 2019 by state security forces during public protest, a move that was condemned by the international community.
Illegal mining case: ED recovers Rs 6cr in cash from CMs relatives during raids in Punjab

SAD starts first of its kind social media initiative to reach out virtually to people in each and every constituency
Prayers from A to Z by Barbara A. Caldwell gets new marketing campaign

ALBANY, Ga., July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In 1 Thessalonians 5:17-19, Paul encourages the Thessalonians to pray without ceasing. He also mentions in several other places in his letters that he is praying without ceasing for different people he had met in his travels.

Prayers from A to Z (published by AuthorHouse in October 2003) by Barbara A. Caldwell shares prayers with the readers in mind, in hopes of touching everyone in some way. Set for a new marketing campaign, this book includes topics that cover the alphabet as well as prayers from a number of Bible characters including Moses, Paul, Silas and even Hannah who gives hope to barren women. Here, Caldwell also shares her own testimonies and praise reports of God's healing and deliverance from manic depression, eye problems, and a brain tumor.

Not only does my book offers prayers, but there is a key Scripture that fits a particular subject which covers the entire alphabet. There are also additional Scripture references included, Caldwell says. The prayers in this book will strengthen, encourage and build the faith of the readers. For more details about the book, please visit https://www.amazon.com/Prayers-Z-Barbara-Caldwell/dp/141077208X

An excerpt from the book:

As Gods Word states in Matthew 21:22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing ye shall receive. Whatever situation comes into your life, continue to hold on to your faith. We must believe whatever we ask God for. If what you ask for is Gods will, you shall receive.

Prayers from A to Z

By Barbara A. Caldwell

Softcover | 6 x 9in | 90 pages | ISBN 9781410772084

E-Book | 90 pages | ISBN 9781410772091

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author

Barbara A. Caldwell is author of several books. She earned an associate degree in biblical studies from Grace Bible College in Morrisville, North Carolina (non-traditional). She is a former student of Virginia Union University, in Richmond, Virginia.

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AuthorHouse, an Author Solutions, Inc. self-publishing imprint, is a leading provider of book publishing, marketing, and bookselling services for authors around the globe and offers the industrys only suite of Hollywood book-to-film services. Committed to providing the highest level of customer service, AuthorHouse assigns each author personal publishing and marketing consultants who provide guidance throughout the process. Headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana, AuthorHouse celebrates over 23 years of service to authors. For more information or to publish a book visit authorhouse.com or call 1-888-519-5121.

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888-519-5121

pressreleases@authorhouse.com


Tokyo is set to report a daily record of over 280 coronavirus cases Thursday, heightening concerns that the latest infection is spreading in the broader community and set to spill beyond the capital.

The number is the most for a single day, Governor Yuriko Koike told reporters, and comes after the city conducted a record number of tests on a single day, with more than 4,000 conducted.

While the initial flare-up in Tokyo came from nightclubs, with increased daily numbers coming from more aggressive testing of bar workers, authorities have expressed concern that more cases are now coming from more everyday locales such as restaurants, bars and workplaces. Only 13 of 165 cases reported in Tokyo on Wednesday were traced to the clubs. Meanwhile, a cluster of 15 infections was reported at a construction site of Taisei Corp. in the city.

The virus is not only spreading more widely across sectors, but across the country. In Osaka, the countrys second-largest economic area, officials reported 61 infections Wednesday, the most since mid-April when the country was under a state of emergency. In the northern island of Hokkaido, a cluster was reported tied to a nightclub in Sapporo that involved more than 10 people. Meanwhile, some of the neighbouring prefectures of Tokyo have urged residents not to travel to the capital after seeing cases spike in recent weeks.

Japan as a whole reported about 450 virus cases on Wednesday, the largest since the height of the pandemic in April, before the state of emergency was lifted. A campaign designed to spur domestic tourism has been decried as liable to spread the virus around Japan, and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the government will address the program after asking experts for their views.

Although officials have called for increased caution, they have so far maintained that there is no need for a broad request to close businesses because the medical system isnt strained and a majority of new cases are young people in their 20s and 30s. The government has struck a harsher tone in recent days though, with Koike saying she may issue business closure requests to a narrow target of shops if needed, and urging residents to avoid businesses that arent following virus prevention guidelines.
Following outcries from students and push-back from colleges around the country, ICEs Student and Exchange Visitor Program announced Tuesday that it would rescind a rule that would force international students to go home if fall courses were held online.

Local students said they were relieved.

It was a breath of fresh air and has likely saved him a lot of hassle and money, said Cameron Flowers, a graduate student at Texas Southern University in Houston. Last weeks announcement, however, felt like a slap in the face to so many international students, he said.

Flowers, originally from Nassau in the Bahamas, was weighing his options when the July 6 announcement came from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

I was going to take a class that wasnt going to contribute anything to my degree, Flowers said.

He was also assessing what being sent home in the middle of the pandemic would mean  a costly process of quitting his job as a graduate assistant at TSU, paying money to break his lease at his apartment, moving all of his belongings and returning to the Bahamas where he hoped to find a job that would support him while taking online courses.

Pablo Martinez, 29, a pianist from Spain pursuing a doctorate in musical arts at University of Houston, said he originally felt blindsided by the original ruling and fearful of how it would affect his academic research.

Leaving your country to study, work and improve your live, its not an easy thing to do. If you do it, its because youre really committed to what you want to do, Martinez said.

This week, after the rule was thrown out, Martinez said he feels calmer, but remains cautious.

Im still keeping my enrollment in face-to-face classes, not only because I think its good for my progress as a student, but in the back of my head, Im still worried about some sort of retaliation (against international students) later, Martinez said. I need to play it safe. In the same way that this announcement was so unexpected, there might be something else coming for us.

Sally Connolly, an associate professor of Contemporary Poetry at University of Houston, was outraged.

Im glad it was rescinded, but it should have never been ... in the first place, said Connolly, who is originally from the United Kingdom and attended Harvard University in 2004 on a student visa.

Connolly, who contacted officials and representatives, urging them to fight against the ruling, called ICEs initial rule a very ill thought-through policy, which showed causal disregard for the well being, welfare and the future of students.

These students are coming to us to get an unparalleled education. The reason theyre coming here is a desire for improvement and betterment, she said.

The ruling also didnt take into consideration travel conditions or students home conditions amid the pandemic, students access to internet in their home country, or the difficulties of transferring to another institution, especially mid-semester, Connolly said. She added that it also disregarded the long and arduous process international students go through to study in the United States, and the contributions they make to the country intellectually, culturally and financially, she said.

International students contributed $45 billion to the U.S. economy in 2018, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The Trump administration and ICE faced lawsuits from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University with more than 200 additional universities backing them. The colleges argued that the policy jeopardized students safety and would force schools to reconsider fall plans they have spent months preparing.

Nearly 60 universities also signed a brief stating the rule would send their plans into disarray with less than a month before some schools start the fall term and would require colleges to choose between opening their campuses regardless of the public health risks, or forcing their international students to leave the country.

In Texas, more than 63,000 international students enrolled in colleges across the state in fall 2019. Texas A&M University had 5,130 international students; University of Texas at Austin, 4,120; and the University of Houston System, 4,454, with a majority of them (3,464) enrolled at UHs flagship campus.

Texas A&M President Michael K. Young said ICEs policy could have had a devastating impact on international students and Texas A&Ms campuses and communities, but likely would not apply to the campus since half of its classes are slated to be in-person this fall.

University of Houston President Renu Khator said on Twitter that the college would work to support students education.

Having been an international student myself, I understand your concerns and anxiety. Our international office will reach out to you and work with you, Khator tweeted.

University of Texas System Chancellor James B. Milliken said officials were awaiting the Department of Homeland Securitys finalized temporary rule on the restrictions for online learning, but were assisting international students with their course schedules and degree planning.

 We expect to be able to fully comply with new regulations and to have a full complement of international students studying across the UT System, he wrote.

Despite the outpouring of support, Connolly and Martinez predict that the reversed ruling will leave many international students with a negative view of how they are perceived or accepted in the United States.

It gives the impression that theres no guarantee that once youre here in a program of study that youre going to complete it, Connolly said.

Martinez said many of his friends in Europe believed he was getting deported for no reason.

I dont think that looks good for the United States as a country that is multicultural. It makes the (administration) look as if they are trying to pursue another agenda that is going to limit options for international people to come here.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

brittany.britto@chron.com
Jailed blogger Le Anh Hung is shown at right, with visiting family members shown in the photo at left.

A Vietnamese blogger held in a psychiatric hospital while awaiting trial for criticizing Vietnams one-party communist state in postings online has been beaten, tied to his bed, and forcibly injected for refusing to take medication for his supposed mental illness, Vietnamese sources say.

Vietnams already low tolerance of dissent has deteriorated sharply this year with a spate of arrests of independent journalists and Facebook personalities, and activists say things are likely to get worse in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party congress in January.

Le Anh Hung, a member of the online Brotherhood of Democracy advocacy group who had blogged for the Voice of America, was arrested in July 2018 on a charge of abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state under Article 331 of Vietnams criminal code.

He was transferred from jail to Hanois Central Mental Hospital No. 1 for observation and treatment in April 2019, and if convicted at trial could serve up to seven years in prison.

Medical staff at the hospital are forcing Le to take medication that he insists he does not need as he is not mentally ill, independent journalist and fellow blogger Nguyen Vu Binh told RFAs Vietnamese Service on July 16.

Therefore he protests, and as a result they beat him and tie him up, and then inject him with the drugs, Nguyen said.

They beat him very cruelly, he said, adding, Early this week, a nurse named An used a metal folding chair to beat him and then fastened him to his bed, injecting him with sedatives that left him unconscious.

Attempts to reach Les mother Tran Thi Niem and hospital authorities rang unanswered on Thursday.

Mental, physical suffering



Tran had called on authorities in June 2019 to release her son from his forced stay in the mental hospital, where she said he was being forced to take medicine and was suffering both mentally and physically.



Le, in his mid-30s, had lost weight and looked ragged, gaunt, and depressed, Tran told RFA following a May 2019 visit to her son in the hospital, adding that he had undergone psychiatric assessments twice between October 2018 and April without his family being informed.



Vietnam, with a population of 92 million people of whom 55 million are estimated to be users of Facebook, 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.

Criminal penalties apply to those who disseminate materials deemed to oppose the government, threaten national security, or promote reactionary ideas, said Human Rights Watch in an annual survey of Vietnams rights conditions in 2019.

Authorities block access to websites, frequently shut blogs, and require internet service providers to remove content or social media accounts deemed politically unacceptable, the New York-based group said.

Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Huy Le. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Kulbhushan Jadhav 'visibly under stress', Pakistan did not give unhindered consular access: India

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, July 16: India on Thursday issued a strong statement saying that the Pakistan officials with intimidating endeavour were present during consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav, who had been arrested by Pakistan on alleged espionage charges and is languishing in jail.

''Pakistan's tactics of obstructive and insincere Consular Access to Indian National Kulbhushan Jadhav. India not given unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional access. Pakistani officials with an intimidating demeanour were present.''

India gets second consular access for Kulbhushan Jadhav

"The consular officers were not given unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional access to Kulbhushan Jadhav by Pakistan," said the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). "On the contrary, Pakistani officials with an intimidating demeanour were present in close proximity of Jadhav and Consular Officers despite the protests of the Indian side."

"It was also evident from a camera that was visible that the conversation with Jadhav was being recorded. He was visibly under stress and indicated that clearly to the Consular Officers. The arrangements did not permit a free conversation between them," it added.

International flights: Bubble travel with US & France, flights to resume from tomorrow|Oneindia News

"India has been requesting for an unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav. On the basis of assurances provided our officials have proceeded for the meeting on Thursday," Spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs Anurag Srivastava said.

India exploring legal options in Kulbhushan Jadhav case: MEA

"The arrangements did not permit a free conversation between them. The consular officers could not engage Jadhav on his legal rights and were prevented from obtaining his written consent for arranging his legal representation," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

In the light of these circumstances, the Indian officials concluded that the consular access being offered by Pakistan was "neither meaningful nor credible". They left the venue after lodging their protest.

"It is clear that Pakistan's approach to this matter continues to be obstructive and insincere. It has not only violated its assurance to the ICJ to fully implement the 2019 judgement, but also failed to act in accordance with its own Ordinance," the government also said.

Earlier, Pakistan said it provided consular access Jadhav. This was the second time Jadhav was allowed to meet Indian officials. The first consular access was given in September 2019.

Earlier in July, Pakistan had announced that it will give second consular access for Jadhav, inviting his father and wife to meet him. India has called for "unimpeded and unconditional" access, unlike what happened last time.

Pak denying India free and unimpeded access to Kulbushan Jadhav: MEA

Jadhav, a retired Indian Navy officer, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and terrorism in April 2017. Weeks later, India approached the ICJ against Pakistan for denial of consular access to Jadhav and challenging the death sentence. The ICJ, then, restrained Pakistan from executing him

In July last year, the Hague-based court ruled that Pakistan must undertake an "effective review and reconsideration" of the conviction and sentence of Jadhav and also to grant consular access to India without further delay
When Oscar nominee Jeff Goldblum flies to England 'in a week and a half' to film Jurassic World: Dominion, he and the crew must adhere to a '109-page list' of safety protocols.

'There are protocols galore. We're going to be very safe, I think,' the Pennsylvania-born 67-year-old explained to ET on Wednesday.

'They gave us 109 pages. They invested all their heart and soul, and a lot of money, into making sure that we're safe. I won't bore you with the details, but we're all going to be quarantined in a kind of a bubble, all the crew and all the cast. And testing and everything...We know it's a risky time, but we feel it's good.'

'There are protocols galore': When Oscar nominee Jeff Goldblum flies to England 'in a week and a half' to film Jurassic World: Dominion, he and the crew must adhere to a '109-page list' of safety protocols

The Pennsylvania-born 67-year-old explained to ET on Wednesday: 'They gave us 109 pages. They invested all their heart and soul, and a lot of money, into making sure that we're safe'

Universal Pictures has reportedly spent $5M for the Pinewood Studios set to have a drive-thru COVID-19 test facility (testing three times a week), walk-thru temperature testing stations, 150 hand sanitizer stations, and an on-site medical facility.

'I'm confident our guidelines will keep us safe,' director Colin Trevorrow told Empire last week.

'The hard part will be constructing a creative environment within all the precautions. Once the cameras roll, we have to forget our world and live in the world of the movie. That may take some practice.'

Universal Pictures blasted The Sun's report that 'several of the crew tested positive on the first day back [July 6]' as 'categorically untrue' to Variety.

The set pictured July 6: Universal Pictures has reportedly spent $5M for the Pinewood Studios set to have a drive-thru COVID-19 test facility (testing three times a week), walk-thru temperature testing stations, 150 hand sanitizer stations, and an on-site medical facility

Director Colin Trevorrow (R) told Empire last week: 'I'm confident our guidelines will keep us safe. The hard part will be constructing a creative environment within all the precautions'

20-week production: Universal Pictures blasted The Sun's report that 'several of the crew tested positive on the first day back [July 6]' as 'categorically untrue'

The Dominion crew already shot some 'sequences with dinosaurs' over four weeks in Canada, but they were forced to halt the 20-week production on March 13 due to the coronavirus.

As of Thursday, there have been reportedly 293K confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United Kingdom leading to over 45K deaths.

Jeff resumes his role as chaotician Dr. Ian Malcolm alongside Jurassic Park alums Laura Dern and Sam Neill as well as Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard in the flick, which hits US theaters June 11 and UK theaters on June 21.

Band's back together! Jeff resumes his role as chaotician Dr. Ian Malcolm alongside Jurassic Park alums Laura Dern (L) and Sam Neill (R) as well as Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard

'Otherwise we wouldn't see Jeff for three and a half months!' Goldblum will bring along his two sons - River, 3; and Charlie, 5 - and his third wife, Emilie Livingston

Goldblum will bring along his two sons - Charlie Ocean, 5; and River Joe, 3 - and his third wife, Emilie Livingston.

'We're going, otherwise we wouldn't see Jeff for three and a half months,' the French-Canadian 37-year-old told ET.

'As a mother, you're thinking, "Well, like, school's starting in the fall, Charlie will be starting kindergarten." But [it's] seeming like everything is going in the direction of remote anyway, and I felt like we would be safer being in just like this small bubble and not having any sort of temptation to get out...Now we'll be with Jeff and we get to support him and we get to spend family time when he's not working.'
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse)  Thu, July 16, 2020 08:06 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666a7823 2 Environment greenpeace,environment,ocean,pollution,ocean-pollution,conservation,marine-conservation Free

NGOs are now offering lovers of the ocean, who would like to do something about the sad spectacle of beaches littered with rubbish and waters polluted by plastic, the opportunity to make a difference by participating in one of the many eco-volunteer programs to preserve oceans and marine species that are underway around the globe.

Summer is the ideal time to take advantage of these schemes, which offer a chance to take a politically committed vacation that can also contribute to a break for the planet.

A recent survey conducted by GlobeScan for the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) of over 20,000 individuals across 23 countries has shown a growing interest in the preservation of ocean environments: in particular, among young people (18-24 years old), who have indicated a willingness to change their consumer habits. For example, 89 percent of that age group indicate their willingness to take action in the future to protect fish and seafood in the ocean habitat.



Plastic pollution, overfishing, oil drilling... Human activity has an increasingly disastrous impact on the world's oceans, which provide 50 percent of our oxygen and feed more than a billion people on the planet, GreenPeace has warned. In response to this state of affairs, the international environmental NGO recently launched an online petition "to protect 30 percent of the world's oceans by 2030", which has already been signed by more than three million people.

Here is roundup of just some of the programs around the world that may be of interest to those of you who are planning a beach vacation this summer and would like to take part in a politically committed initiative to protect marine fauna.

Read also: Road traffic microplastics flooding world's oceans: Study

Collecting waste from beaches and the ocean floor



The Surfrider Foundation, a well-established American non-profit which has been involved in the protection of oceans and coastlines for decades, organizes a variety of initiatives in different countries around the world including schemes that enable tourists to participate in beach-waste collections and dives to remove plastic from the coastal seabed. On the foundation's website, there is an interactive map showing locations and dates for the different initiatives this summer

Fishing for nets in the Mediterranean

Strongly involved in the preservation of oceans and marine species, the American NGO Sea Shepherd, which is active in several countries around the world, offers volunteers an opportunity to participate in different types of initiatives: one that has been very successful in France is the "Mare Nostrum" operation, which involved an extensive series of dives in the Mediterranean Sea to recover abandoned fishing nets, which are a dangerous trap for marine species.

Protecting sea turtles

With the exception of polar regions, sea turtles are present in all oceans of the world. However, their continued existence is now endangered by plastic-waste poisoning and relentless hunting by poachers. The protection of critical sites where turtles lay their eggs is a crucial aspect of the drive to protect these species.

With this in mind, several NGOs have launched operations on the shores of the Pacific and Indian oceans, which enable volunteers to collect turtle eggs, supervise their hatching and feed baby turtles to boost their chances of survival when they are set free in the ocean. Tourists in these areas have an opportunity to donate to these programs and also to release the sea turtles into the ocean. This is notably the case in Kuta on the island of Bali, Indonesia, with an initiative organized by the Bali Sea Turtle Society.

For those who have more time on their hands, it is possible to devote several weeks to programs of this kind, notably in Nicaragua with the non-profit Cybelle Planete or in Mayotte with Sea Shepherd's Operation Nyamba.
By PTI

SURAT: Woman police constable Sunita Yadav, who had a confrontation with a minister's son over lockdown violation which led to his arrest here in Gujarat, claimed she has resigned from service.

However, a senior police official has denied it.

Prakash Kanani, the son of Gujarat Minister of State for Health Kumar Kanani, and his two friends were arrested on Sunday for allegedly violating the lockdown and night curfew orders in Surat, a COVID-19 hotspot, a senior police official earlier said.

Yadav, who is being hailed on social media for taking action against the minister's son, told news channels on Wednesday that she had put in her papers.

"I have resigned because I did not receive support from my superior officers. I was only doing my duty as a constable. It's the fault of our system that these people (like the minister's son) think they are VVIPs (very very important persons)," she said.

However, a senior police official here denied that she has resigned.

"She has not given her resignation. The inquiry is still on and technically she cannot resign at this juncture," Surat Police Commissioner R B Brahmbhatt said.

Yadav's action had led to the registration of an FIR and arrest of Prakash Kanani and two of his friends for alleged violation of lockdown and curfew norms in Surat city.

The arrests came after a video of a heated exchange between them and Yadav, who pulled up the trio for violation of curfew, surfaced on social media.

The trio was later released on bail.

Since the incident, Yadav is being hailed on social media.

While some social media users called her "Lady Singham" (referring to the tough cop in the Hindi film "Singham"), some suggested she contest the 2022 state Assembly polls against Kumar Kanani, who represents Varachha constituency in Surat district.

#i_support_sunita_yadav" began to trend on Twitter after the news of the confrontation spread.
The Defence Headquarters says troops of Exercise Sahel Sanity have killed six bandits and foiled their attempts to rustle livestock in Katsina and Zamfara States between July 13 and July 14.

The Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, John Enenche, in a statement on Wednesday, said the feat was achieved on July 14 following receipt of credible intelligence.

Mr Enenche, an army major-general, said the troops, backed by helicopter gunships of the Air Component of Operation Hadarin Daji, stormed the bandits' enclave at Komani Hills within Rukudawa general area of Zamfara.

He added that the troops overwhelmed the bandits with superior firepower, killing six while others fled with gunshot wounds.

According to him, one GPMG, one AK 47 rifle, one magazine and 34 motorcycles were recovered.

The coordinator further disclosed that the troops had earlier on July 13 responded to a distress call on an attempt by armed bandits to rustle cows at Kasele Village in Batsari area of Katsina State.

He said that when the troops swiftly mobilised to the scene, the bandits fled in disarray and abandoned the rustled animals.

According to him, the gallant troops have maintained a presence in the village and normalcy has been restored.

"The Military High Command congratulates the gallant troops for their dexterity and encourages them to remain resolute and sustain the offensive in the North-West zone of the country," he said. (NAN)
"Our #GoyaGivesGlobal campaign extends our hand to our neighboring countries who are in desperate need of nourishing food and demonstrates Goya's history of giving critical assistance to people who need it the most, not just here in the United States, but around the globe. Venezuela has long suffered from shortages of food and we will do whatever we can to help," said Bob Unanue, President of Goya Foods.

In times of desperate need, Goya has always been at the forefront of disaster and humanitarian relief efforts, providing millions of pounds of food worldwide. In September of 2019, in response to the outcries of starving children and families in Venezuela, Goya committed to a donation of 400,000 pounds of which only 180,000 pounds safely reached the people with the help of non-profits, churches, and charitable organizations located in Venezuela.

"We thank Goya Foods, and its President Bob Unanue for this important humanitarian donation of food to the Venezuelan people. We thank them for their donation last year, we thank them for their donation this year and we look forward to their donation next year. It is a profoundly humane and social demonstration of how the international private sector can actively help to alleviate the pain and suffering of the people of Venezuela. This humanitarian support will be transparently channeled through the protocols that the Interim Government of President Juan Guaido has coordinated with national and international agencies to address the emergency that affects millions of Venezuelan families," said Carlos Vecchio, Ambassador of Venezuela.

Through Goya Gives, a global program committed to promoting the overall well-being of communities through social responsibility, environmental initiatives, and company values, Goya supports each year nearly 300 charitable endeavors, scholarships, and events. Since the start of the pandemic, the company has donated a total of 2.5 million pounds of food and 20,000 protective masks. During Hurricane Maria Goya donated over 1 million pounds of food to the people of Puerto Rico, in addition to the starving people of Venezuela during governmental unrest, to the people of Haiti during the earthquake, and at home during Superstorm Sandy, and Hurricanes Isaac, Harvey, and Irene. Since 1936, giving back is the heart of Goya and has always been a part of the company's DNA.

For further updates on our charitable efforts through Goya Gives, please, visit goya.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter

About Goya Foods

Founded in 1936, Goya Foods, Inc. is America's largest Hispanic-owned food company, and has established itself as the leader in Latin American food and condiments. Goya manufactures, packages, and distributes over 2,500 high-quality food products from Spain, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central, and South America. Goya products have their roots in the culinary traditions of Hispanic communities around the world. The combination of authentic ingredients, robust seasonings, and convenient preparation makes Goya products ideal for every taste and every table. For more information on Goya Foods, please visit www.goya.com.

For more information, contact:

Natalie J. Maniscalco

845.659.6506 / [email protected]

SOURCE Goya Foods, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.goya.com


John Brandt

ROKK Solutions has hired John Brandt as VP of public affairs. Brandt comes to ROKK from the Public Affairs Council, where he was manager of policy communications and corporate responsibility. He previously served as associate director for communications at the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University, and spent eight years as a producer at the Fox News Channel, with a focus on Capitol Hill coverage. John is a well-seasoned and innovative communicator. He has a penchant for being ahead of the curve in how to best reach audiences, which will be invaluable to our clients, said ROKK Solutions partner Rodell Mollineau.

Sophie Cikovsky

Infinite Global has promoted Sophie Cikovsky and Jesse Dungan to vice president. Cikovsky and Dungan are both based in the firms San Francisco office. Cikovsky has been with the firm since 2012, most recently serving as associate vice president. Before that, she was senior client supervisor and U.S. operations manager. She has counseled companies on media relations, internal communications, branding and social media strategies as well as working with clients in the legal industry. Dungan has been at Infinite Global since 2011, serving as associate vice president and director of media strategy. Before coming to the firm, he was a reporter for Daily News Group and the Bay City News Service. He is an account lead for a number of national and global clients, and is a key member on Infinite Globals pro bono accounts. Dungan currently leads a team advising a San Francisco-based organization dedicated to breaking the cycles of homelessness and domestic violence in the city.

Sanjay Hurry

Applied DNA Sciences has appointed Sanjay Hurry executive director of investor relations and corporate communications. Hurry comes to Applied DNA Sciences from LHA Investor Relations (the companys agency of record), where he was vice president. He was previously the owner of NaniVentures IR Consulting. In his new role, Hurry will oversee Applied DNA Sciences outreach with the investment community and report to chairman, president and CEO James A. Hayward. His demonstrated success in building strategic communications programs that support business growth, and deep understanding of Applied DNAs business, will be key to helping us broaden Wall Streets awareness of our proprietary PCR-based linear DNA manufacturing platform, Hayward said.
The Delhi High Court Thursday directed the ICMR and healthcare accreditation body NABL to expedite the process of granting approvals to private labs and hospitals for conducting Rapid Antigen and RTPCR tests in view of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the city which have gone past 1.16 lakh.

A direction was also issued by the high court to the National Centre of Disease Control (NCDC) to place before it by July 27 the preliminary report of the ''sero surveillance'' carried out in the city from June 27 to July 5, during which 21,387 blood samples were collected from the 11 districts in Delhi and tested for presence of antibodies to assess prevalence of COVID-19 infection at community level.

The directions were issued by a bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad after perusing the affidavits filed by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and NCDC in response to its queries on the last date regarding how many labs and private hospitals in Delhi have been allowed to conduct the Rapid Antigen and RTPCR tests as well as the status of the sero survey carried out in the national capital.

ICMR said it has been granting approvals to the private hospitals and labs, to conduct the Rapid Antigen and RTPCR tests, was an ongoing process and it has given one month''s time to them apply for the same after getting accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL).

RT/PCR, short for Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction, is a laboratory technique widely used in the diagnosis of genetic diseases and to measure gene expression in research.

The bench was of the view that the one month time given to the private labs and hospitals was too long as it could lead to complacency and directed ICMR to shorten the window so that the general public is not inconvenienced in finding a lab or hospital for testing during the prevailing pandemic.

The court also directed NABL, represented by central government standing counsel Anurag Ahluwalia, not to drag its feet when it receives applications for accreditation and to immediately carry out the inspections.

"NABL has to hasten the procedure," the court said to Ahluwalia. Regarding the sero surveillance, NCDC in its affidavit said the study was done "to assess the prevalence of infection at the community level and is primarily used for evidence based public health response".

It said that after testing the collected blood samples for antibodies, the "results are then further collated based on epidemiological data and are then analysed for their stratification across different parameters which requires time and expertise".

"The data is further analysed for its validity, variation and confirmation vis-a-vis similar such studies across the world," it said.

NCDC said this exercise has to be done methodically and is a time consuming process and therefore, imposing timelines for declaration of result of these studies "will lead to a compromise in the quality of the analysis and can have a detrimental impact on the evidence-based results so expected to be obtained through such sero survey studies".

It said that once preliminary findings are obtained the same will be made available in the public domain. It told the court that minimum one more week would be required for the preliminary results to be ready and the bench asked it to file the same before the next date of hearing on July 27.

During the hearing, conducted via video conference, the Delhi government informed the court that from June 18 to July 15 it has carried out 2,81,555 Rapid Antigen Detection Tests and of these 19,480 were positive and therefore, they were recommended/ referred to necessary treatment.

Of the remaining 2,62,075 who tested negative, those who were symptomatic -- which numbered 1,365 -- were sent for RTPCR test and of them 243 were found to be positive, Delhi government additional standing counsel Satyakam told the court.

The bench, thereafter, directed Satyakam to file an updated status report by the next date of hearing on July 27. The directions came on the plea by advocate Rakesh Malhotra seeking increasing of the testing numbers in the national capital and getting speedy results.
WASHINGTON - Western governments on Thursday accused hackers believed to be part of Russian intelligence of trying to steal valuable private information about a coronavirus vaccine, calling out the Kremlin in an unusually detailed public warning to scientists and medical companies.

The alleged culprit is a familiar foe. Intelligence agencies in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada say the hacking group APT29, also known as Cozy Bear, is attacking academic and pharmaceutical research institutions involved in COVID-19 vaccine development. The same group was implicated in the hacking of Democratic email accounts during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

It was unclear whether any useful information was stolen. But British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said, It is completely unacceptable that the Russian Intelligence Services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

He accused Moscow of pursuing selfish interests with reckless behaviour.

Sticking to more general language, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, We worked very closely with our allies to ensure that we would take measures to keep that information safe and we continue do so so.

The allegation that hackers linked to a foreign government are attempting to siphon secret research during the pandemic is not entirely new. U.S. officials as recently as Thursday have accused China of similar conduct. But the latest warning was startling for the detail it provided, attributing the targeting by name to a particular hacking group and specifying the software vulnerabilities the hackers have been exploiting.

Also, Russian cyberattacks strike a particular nerve in the U.S. given the Kremlins sophisticated campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election. And the co-ordination of the new warning across continents seemed designed to add heft and gravity to the announcement and to prompt the Western targets of the hackers to protect themselves.

I think (the governments) have very specific intelligence that they can provide, said John Hultquist, senior director of analysis at Mandiant Threat Intelligence. The report is full of specific operational information that defenders can use to protect their networks.

Russian President Vladimir Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, rejected the accusations, saying, We dont have information about who may have hacked pharmaceutical companies and research centres in Britain.

We may say one thing: Russia has nothing to do with those attempts, Peskov said, according to the state news agency Tass.

The accusations come at a tenuous time for relations between Russia and both the U.S. and U.K.

Besides political ill will, especially among Democrats, about the 2016 election interference, the Trump administration is under pressure to confront Russia over intelligence information that Moscow offered bounties to Taliban fighters to attack allied fighters.

The Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, said its clear that Russias malign cyber operations and other destabilizing activities  from financial and other material support to non-state actors in Afghanistan to poisoning dissidents in democratic countries  have persisted, even when exposed. He urged President Donald Trump to condemn such activities.

The vaccine assessment came two years to the day after Trump met with Putin in Helsinki and appeared to side with Moscow over U.S. intelligence agencies about the election interference. The U.K. did not say whether Putin knew about the more recent research hacking, but British officials believe such intelligence would be highly prized.

Relations between Russia and the U.K., meanwhile, have plummeted since former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a Soviet-made nerve agent in the English city of Salisbury in 2018, though they later recovered. Britain blamed Moscow for the attack, which triggered a round of retaliatory diplomatic expulsions between Russia and Western countries.

More broadly, Thursdays announcement speaks to the cybersecurity vulnerability created by the pandemic and the global race for a vaccine.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Securitys cybersecurity agency warned in May that cybercriminals and other groups were targeting COVID-19 research, noting at the time that the increase in people teleworking because of the pandemic had created potential avenues for hackers to exploit.

Profit-motivated criminals have exploited the situation, and so have foreign governments who also have their own urgent demands for information about the pandemic and about things like vaccine research, Tonya Ugoretz, a deputy assistant director in the FBIs cyber division, said at a cybersecurity conference last month.

Some of them are using their cyber capabilities to, for example, attempt to break into the networks of those who are conducting this research as well as into nongovernmental organizations to satisfy their own information needs, Ugoretz said.

The alert did not name the targeted organizations themselves or say how many were affected. But it did say the organizations were in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, and said the goal was to steal information and intellectual property related to vaccine development.

Britains NCSC said its assessment was shared by the National Security Agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and by the Canadian Communication Security Establishment.

A 16-page advisory prepared by Western agencies and made public Thursday accuses Cozy Bear of using custom malicious software to target a number of organizations globally. The malware, called WellMess and WellMail, has not previously been associated with the group, the advisory said.

In recent attacks targeting COVID-19 vaccine research and development, the group conducted basic vulnerability scanning against specific external IP addresses owned by the organizations. The group then deployed public exploits against the vulnerable services identified, the advisory said.

Cozy Bear is one of two hacking groups suspected of separate break-ins of computer networks of the Democratic National Committee before the 2016 U.S. election. Stolen emails were then published by WikiLeaks in what U.S. intelligence authorities say was an effort to aid Trumps campaign over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

A report on Russian election interference by former special counsel Robert Mueller called out another group, Fancy Bear, in the hack-and-leak operation. Cozy Bear, though, operates quietly gaining access and gathering intelligence, said Hultquist of the Mandiant cybersecurity firm.

Their goal, he said, is good old-fashioned espionage.

Separately, Thursday, Britain accused Russian actors of trying to interfere in Decembers U.K. national election by circulating leaked or stolen documents online. Unlike in the vaccine report, the U.K. did not allege that the Russian government was involved in the political meddling.

-

This version corrects in paragraph 17 that DHS cybersecurity warned of dangers in May, not April.

Lawless and Kirka reported from London. Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Jonathan Lemire and Ben Fox in Washington contributed.
A photograph like giving the finger: Asma Assad is right in the center, wrapped in an anorak whose hood covers her hair. To her left appears her husband, Bashar, who does not attract the spotlight. At their side are soldiers who do not look very lively while in the second row stand the children of the couple: Hafez, Zein and Karim. The message is clear: "We are here and we intend to stay." The higher the pressure, the less visible the faults must be.

On June 17, a day before the snapshot was released, the Syrian president's wife was publicly humiliated after being put at the top of the US sanctions list related to the Caesar Act. Asma, according to the Trump Administration, is not just a dictator's wife. She "personally and in many ways participates in the horrors that Syria is witnessing today" and is even considered "one of the most notorious war profiteers" of the country. This is a rather surprising development for someone who stayed on the sidelines for 20 years, trying to find a place within the Assad clan. Asma, who was successively presented by the regime as the European lady, the glamorous woman or even the faithful wife, is now portrayed as a vulture ready to snatch what remains of a country left in shambles after nine years of war. Bad fiction?

We cannot be reminded enough how difficult it is to get close to the truth with regard to the Syrian regime. One by one, the doors slam in your face at only pronouncing her first name: Asma. "One can't say anything," a source, who has known her in different times, replies on WhatsApp. Despite that the regime has been weakened by a destructive war and an unprecedented economic crisis, it continues to inspire terror, far beyond its borders. "It is curiously easier to talk about Bashar than to talk about his wife," said a journalist of Syrian origin. Since her interview with The Times of London in February 2012 when she claimed to stand by her husband's side, she has not really made the headlines anymore. However, her name is today at the heart of a Dynasty-style serial plot: the Rami Makhlouf affair. The Syrian president's billionaire cousin, once responsible for holding the clan's purse strings, has been recently ostracized, and some suspect the hand of the First Lady behind this public disavowal.

"There is nothing to indicate that she has anything directly registered in her name. However, there are several bundles of information showing that she has a growing role in the family, that she seeks to protect her children and that, through them, she wants to strengthen her role," said Jihad Yazigi, editor-in-chief of the economic news site The Syria Report. Makhlouf, who has been stripped of several companies and forced to pay hefty fines, went so far as to challenge Bashar Assad in Facebook videos, playing on sectarian sentiments. The target of the attack is very clear: the pro-Makhlouf accuse the First Lady, from a large Sunnite family, of wanting to contend with the Alawites over their share of the cake. "She firmly believes that the Assad family will remain in power and has done everything to prepare her son Hafez for succession. She exerts a lot of influence over her husband, to the point of pushing him away from his own cousin, because she believes that this money, the family money, must be managed by her or her son. There are billions of dollars outside and she did not want to lose control of it," said Ghassan Ibrahim, a Syrian journalist based in London. Asma, a former business banker, intends to regain control by leveraging her managerial skills. It is no more the time of playing minor roles.





Instagram

The First Lady made her comeback in August 2019. With peroxided blond short hair, Asma Assad appeared on Syrian television to announce that she had conquered her breast cancer, which was detected a year earlier. It was a year of fighting the disease that the regime has turned into a propaganda tool. The president's wife could have gone to Russia for treatment, but she chose to stay in Syria. This meant to restore confidence to supporters by showing that, even if strangled by Western sanctions, the country is able to care for the sick. "In recent years, her image as a modest 'humanitarian' who, despite her fight against cancer, still devotes time to veterans and poor families, has been grossly highlighted by the regime," said Nizar Mohammad, a Syrian analyst based in Canada. Asma becomes an icon for some fervent loyalists who do not hesitate to comment under photos posted on her Instagram account, where she appears smiling but thin, with her bald head covered with a scarf. "Be strong, we need you," one writes. "You have cancer in your heart," an opposition commentator says, reflecting how Asma is reviled by many anti-Assad Syrians. "No one ever imagined for a second that she would take a stand against her husband or leave the country," said Zahi, an Aleppo activist who sought refuge in Turkey. "She assumed her role to the end without blinking."

Asma Akhras, the daughter of a Sunni cardiologist from Homs who lives in London, met Bashar Assad, then a student of ophthalmology in the United Kingdom, in 1992. A romance developed between the two a few years later, but it remained hidden until Hafez Assad's death. The old guard in power is said to have pushed the young Bashar, who became president in 2000, to get engaged with Asma in order to consolidate ties between the two sects. "This alliance with a Sunni was undoubtedly a shock for some Alawites. It has raised growing concern that Bashar, who presented himself as a modernist and a reformer, is opting for change in the country at the expense of his sect," said Nizar Mohammad.

Very quickly, the duo tried to present themselves as a perfect little modern couple so to join the circle of the greats of this world. During a state visit to France in 2002, Asma refused to follow the traditional program and preferred to go to the Paris School of Business Studies or the Bank of France. "She did not want to look like a trophy wife. We were surprised, because we were coming out of 30 years of Hafez Assad, who was an austere person and whose wife never appeared in public," recalled the Franco-Syrian photographer Ammar Abd Rabbo, who rubbed shoulders with the presidential couple. At the time, their discourse tended to break with the father's misoneism, and this was appealing to even the most skeptical.

"They did not say Hafez had done everything at best. They said, 'we are getting back a country where everything has to be done,' implying that 'nothing has been done before' and that is what I wanted to hear," the photographer added. Abroad, the illusion seemed perfect. Western newspapers were fond of this "British-born" Syrian who is proud, smart, beautiful and discreet. "She also took charge of her husband's image by recruiting foreign advisers and developing with their help a discourse aimed at Westerners, giving the presidential couple a westernized image  that is to say, frequentable," said novelist Isabelle Hausser, who lived in Syria between 2006 and 2009. The marketing campaign bore fruit.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

In 2011, Asma Assad was dubbed "desert rose" in a portrait published by the famous Vogue magazine. Less than a year later and while the war was raging, the portrait was removed. "If Asma Assad looks so 'Western'- whatever this word means- it is because, although she is a Sunni Muslim of Syrian origin, she was born in London in 1975," wrote the Italian version of Marie Claire magazine in May 2020.

The Assads master the art of playing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: warm, modern abroad, and reserved, distant at home to continue to inspire fear. "Assad wears expensive suits and talks about secular pluralism when he is abroad, while at home, he emphasizes Syria's 'Islamic' character in cabinet meetings and poses in casual clothes when he visits ordinary Syrians," said Nizar Mohammad.

If the Syrian president is a pure product of the regime, his other half is a character at odds with the former First Lady, Anissa Makhlouf. "She had a certain popularity with the high society. A Damascene once said to me: 'She is our Lady Di,'" said Hausser. For several months, she drove incognito in a 4x4 to discover rural Syria and take the pulse of the country. "No kids in line sing-ing the national anthem or staging as one might imagine in this kind of regime. She saw what was wrong and heard some criticizing or reproaching the regime without knowing who they were talking to," said Abd Rabbo. She was not yet the sophisticated woman acclaimed in maga-zines for her grace and allure. "When we first met, she struck me with her extreme thinness, even suggesting that she might be anorexic. Her hair was long, not very well coiffed, and she was dressed in jeans. She was quite surly," said Hausser.

How to make a place in an environment so sclerotic and which resists any change that could alter an image so meticulously shaped for so many years? "At times, I had the impression that she was naive, or that she was playing naive," said the photographer who followed her on her trips. In the mid-2000s, during an archaeological visit to the site of Apamea near Hama, local journalists who followed the convoy asked the first lady's team what to write. "She told me the story a few days later in her office and said, 'It is crazy; they are journalists, they saw for them-selves what happened and they cannot write.' She seemed really surprised and did not understand that they might be afraid to write something wrong," said Abd Rabbo. It was impossible, however, not to notice, as soon as she settled in Syria, that the regime was ruling the country with an iron fist. The mukhabarat (intelligence services) control everything and spy on her too. "She told me not to use the hotel phone to talk to her. She seemed terrified," said Gaia Servadio, an Italian historian and novelist who worked with her.

Asma reportedly has always had a huge influence on her madly in love husband. But there is only one woman to whom he couldnt say no: his mother, Anissa Makhlouf. "In Damascus, I was told that Asma was having trouble integrating into her in-laws family and at the time, her husband seemed to have taken the side of his mother and sister," said Hausser. In addition to controlling all of her daughter-in-law's moves and decisions, Anissa Makhlouf reportedly demanded to be the First Lady until her death. With the death of the mother-in-law, the daughter-in-law would now take revenge.

How to unravel the true from the false in this whole story, in one of the most opaque regimes in the world? Asma Assad remains an enigma. All those contacted who have worked with her paint a rather positive picture, even when they are known for being hostile to the regime. If her character of glamorous woman and then her political support was instrumentalized by the authorities, was she so comfortable in her role that she ended up appropriating it? Who is Asma Assad? Is she a woman full of good intentions who was crushed and then transformed by the Syrian regime or a lawless opportunist who turned a blind eye to the horrors perpetrated by the authorities when it suited her before bluntly justifying them?

"There was a time, I suppose, when she would have wanted to leave at the very beginning of the war. I know she was contacting friends by phone to discuss the demonstration in Deraa and the army's response," said Servadio. But she did not. On the contrary, she has melted into the mold so much so that she has become the greatest advocate of the Syrian regime. In television interviews, she snaps out the answers - even if undoubtedly everything is prepared in advance - and recites as a good student the conspiracy rhetoric to which she has finally adhered. "If we are strong together, we will overcome this together... I love you..., she wrote to her husband a few years earlier in an email leaked by WikiLeaks. He responded by sending an iTunes link to a song called God gave me to you.





(This special report was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour on the 3rd of July)


Just six months ago, coronavirus didn't yet have a name, but since January, the virus has exploded, circled the globe and sickened nearly 13.5 million people with alarming speed, a new animation demonstrates.

Data visualization designers at Global Stats used data from the World Health Organization's (WHO) Situation Reports to create a timelapse video that shows how cases counts ballooned in various countries across the word.

It also shows how death rates have shifted as the virus has spread and the dynamics of the pandemic have shifted, as well as milestones over time, such as the first known case and when the COVID-190 was declared a pandemic.

Frustration has abounded as scientists and policymakers have scrambled to understand and respond to coronavirus. Global Stats' timelapse lays bare just what a tight race the world has been up against.

Today, only a handful of countries in the world - mostly small island nations like Tonga, Samoa and Micronesia - remain untouched by coronavirus.

But in December, the then-nameless virus was nothing more than a curious cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China.

Health officials in China first reported the outbreak of pneumonia believed to be linked to an open-air seafood and wild game market in Wuhan to the WHO on December 31.

On January 10, China reported the first death that appeared to have been caused by the mysterious virus. There were 59 known cases at the time, according to the Global Stats animation.

Two weeks to the date after the new disease was reported, it made the jump to another country. A woman in her 60s who had not been to the seafood market appeared to be infected with the new virus.

Just two weeks after the new illness was first reported to the WHO, the first case was reported outside China, in Thailand

By January 20, the illness had been identified as a new coronavirus and the US had its first case.

By the end of the month, more than 11,000 people had coronavirus, 244 had died (all in China) and the WHO had declared the outbreak 'a public health emergency of international concern.'

From there, infections exploded. China revealed nearly 15,000 previously unreported cases in mid-February, by which point the virus had claimed the lives of more than 1,300 people in three countries and infected more than 58,000 people.

The vast majority of cases were still in China, but small numbers of cases were beginning to scatter the globe, including in Europe, the US, Canada, Australia, Russia and South Asia, as shown by pinpoint-small grey dots on Global Stats' animated map.

On February 11, the virus was named SARS-CoV-2, a moniker that nods to its close relation to the virus that caused SARS more than a decade earlier. The disease caused by the new virus was dubbed COVID-19.

On February 27, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned: 'We are at a decisive point. My message to each of these countries [with outbreaks] is: This is your window of opportunity to act now.'

By the end of that month, more than 86,000 people had been diagnosed with coronavirus and nearly 3,000 had died, driving the global mortality rate past three percent - a rate more than three times higher than that of the flu.

Up until March 9, US President Trump was still insisting that coronavirus was like the flu, and had killed far fewer people than the flu does annually in the US.

The animation shows how dramatically the coronavirus has spread across the globe with outbreaks in nearly every country and more than 10 million infections by June 28

In March, he revealed that a friend had contracted coronavirus and fallen into a coma. President Trump referred to it as 'vicious.' A week into March, more than 100 countries.

On March 11, WHO DG Dr Tedros declared COVID-19 a pandemic, after weeks of pressure to do so. The virus had spread to more than 125,000 people, and killed more than 4,500.

By the middle of the month, there were more cases of coronavirus outside China than within the country where it had originated, and on March 26, the US officially became the epicenter of the pandemic with more cases than any other nation.

On April 1, the WHO reported that the number of deaths had doubled over the course of just one week.

The deaths of over 2,000 Americans were reported in a single day, April 11, setting a worldwide record.

Death rates topped out in April, at around seven percent globally, and nine percent in Europe.

Global deaths surpassed 200,000 on April 25. Nearly three million people had contracted the virus. A little over a month later, deaths in the US surpassed 100,000 and soon thereafter its death toll became the highest in the world, overtaking the fatalities in the UK.

By June 28, more than 10 million people had been infected and more than 500,000 had died of coronavirus, which continues to inundate many nations, including the US, UK, Brazil, Russia, India and parts of Latin America.
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Linkedin Nina A. Loasana (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 16, 2020 07:25 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666a46e0 1 National Bandung-West-Java,health-agency,secapa-bandung,army-officer-candidate-school Free

The Bandung Health Agency in West Java has said that it encountered difficulty in carrying out contact tracing at the Armys Officer Candidate School (Secapa) cluster in the city.

"Weve only received information about the number [of people who have been infected], but we could not enter the school [to confirm]," agency head Rita said on Tuesday as reported by kompas.com.

In response, army chief spokesman Brig. Gen. Nefra Firdaus told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that he would look into the matter.

West Java recorded the highest spike with 962 new cases on July 9, accounting for most of Indonesias latest all-time high record of 2,657 new cases in a single day.

The national COVID-19 task force spokesperson, Achmad Yurianto, said the spike came after the finding of 1,262 new cases at the army school, 991 of which were students.

Authorities conducted mass PCR testing at the school after two students were diagnosed with COVID-19 as they sought medical attention for seemingly unrelated symptoms.

Rita said there was a high possibility that a lot of the students from the school had visited several places in Bandung before it was discovered as a cluster, so it was important to find out where they had gone.

Read also: West Java to fine residents who do not wear face masks in public

As a preventive measure, she said, the agency had set up checkpoints in seven community units (RW) around the school.

"We check the temperatures of people entering and leaving the areas," Rita said.

Separately, Nefra said on Wednesday that authorities had conducted a second round of PCR testing at the school.

"As of Wednesday, we recorded 27 new cases and 116 recoveries. So in total we only have 1,026 cases, a decrease of 281 [from the previous number], at the school," Nefra said in a statement.

He said the Indonesian Military had cooperated with Airlangga University in Surabaya, East Java and the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) to conduct clinical trials for COVID-19 patients at the school.

"A team of clinical trials for COVID-19 treatment from the three institutions is set to give a combination of multiple drugs and dosages for patients. The said trials will be conducted in accordance with the clinical trial guidelines from the Indonesian Food and Drug Monitoring Agency," Nefra said.
Police officers check for hidden cameras at a public restroom in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, in this May 30, 2018 file photo. Yonhap





By Bahk Eun-ji







The Ministry of Education (MOE) said Tuesday that it has asked 17 regional education offices to conduct a "full-scale" inspection into possible existence of hidden cameras in elementary, middle and highs schools nationwide.







The ministry's move comes after two teachers in Gimhae and Changnyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, were found to have installed hidden cameras in the bathrooms of the schools they worked at.







Initially, the Gyeongsangnamdo Office of Education (GNE), which is in charge of the schools where the teachers worked, decided to conduct thorough inspections of all schools in its jurisdiction this month using specialized detection equipment; but the education ministry decided to expand the scope of the investigation to the whole country considering the seriousness of the issue.







"I offer a sincere apology to the residents, parents of the region and female staff members and teachers at the schools," said Park Jong-hoon, superintendent of the GNE, although he failed to include students in his statement.







A high school teacher in Gimhae, was arrested last week on charges of installing a hidden camera in a female restroom on the first floor of the school building, June 24.







Meanwhile a middle school teacher in Changnyeong was also arrested the same day on charges of installing a camera in a female restroom on the second floor of the school building. When the incidents became known, the Federation of Teachers' Union called on the education authorities to conduct a full investigation into the installation of such illegal cameras at all schools nationwide, saying it was a "vicious crime against young students that cannot be forgiven for any excuse."







The education ministry said the matters have been referred to the law enforcement agencies for criminal investigation.







Education offices will utilize the same detection equipment that was distributed to education offices nationwide in 2018 by police to assist in bathroom inspections for hidden cameras as a part of the then-much-publicized special measures to eliminate illegal filming crimes in school bathrooms.







"Illegal filming in schools must never take place as it breaks the trust of the school community in the country. All educators should join together to prevent the recurrence of such a disgraceful incident," said Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae.


1. He Has Forgiven Your Sin

If you are not careful you can make the mistake of putting quantifiers and qualifiers on Gods forgiveness. You can tell yourself he will forgive me a certain amount of times and only for certain sins. Let me tell you, this is not true. Let me explain.

In Matthew 18, Peter poses a question to Jesus about forgiveness.

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times? (Matthew 18:21).

In those days, rabbis taught that you should forgive a person three times. In Peters question, he felt he was being more than generous because he was offering more than double the amount of forgiveness. However, I am sure he was not expecting Jesus response:

Jesus answered, I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times (Matthew 18:22).

In Jesus reply he was demonstrating a simple principle: forgiveness has no limits. There should be no limits to the amount you forgive someone else. Equally, and possibly more important, is that there are no limits to the amount of times God will forgive you.

The secret to receiving Gods forgiveness is asking for it and sincerely desiring it. If you ask God to forgive you, and you really mean it, he will forgive you. It doesnt matter how many times you have made the same mistake or what you have done. This does not give you a free license to willfully keep sinning with no desire to change, that is a subject for a different article. If you bring sincere repentance to God it will be met with Gods sincere forgiveness. Here is the truth of Gods heart towards forgiveness:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

Come now, let us settle the matter, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool (Isaiah 1:18).

God is not mad at you. He will forgive you  all you have to do is ask.

Photo credit: Getty Images/arkira
WASHINGTON, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Jenner & Block is pleased to announce that a team of six leading lawyers in Native American law and two government relations specialists have joined the firm, significantly expanding the Native American Law Practice's offerings to clients, including adding government relations capabilities. The eight-person team is based in Washington, DC and includes a former US Ambassador, a White House tribal liaison for President Barack Obama, and a former Acting Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs for the Department of the Interior.

The team also has broad and significant experience in international litigation, adding to the firm's existing experience in national security litigation and counseling as well as negotiating with foreign governments and navigating the United Nations and other multilateral institutions.

Ambassador Keith M. Harper, Charles W. Galbraith and Robert C. Harmala join as partners, with Ambassador Harper serving as chair of the Native American Law Practice and Mr. Galbraith as co-chair. Mr. Harmala serves as chair of the Government Relations Practice. Lawrence S. Roberts joins as special counsel, Krystalyn Kinsel and Julian P. SpearChief-Morris join as associates, Craig Williams joins as a senior government relations specialist and Joshua Bertalotto joins as a junior government relations specialist. The partners started with the firm on July 13, with the rest of the team starting later this month. The group includes tribal citizens of the Cherokee Nation, Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana, Blood Tribe (Kainai Nation) of the Blackfoot Confederacy, and two citizens of the Navajo Nation.

The team provides deep experience in Native American law, litigation, and government relations. Chambers USA has ranked members of the team nationally since 2011 as has US News-Best Lawyers in Native American law. When combined with Jenner & Block's existing representation of Native American tribes, including the groundbreaking US Supreme Court victory upholding tribal treaty rights in McGirt v. Oklahoma last week and another on behalf of the Yakama Nation in 2019, the expanded practice offers clients a full range of strategic, legal, and government relations services.

"Our Native American Law Practice has already established its prominence through our work on complex, high-profile cases. Adding these established practitioners builds on our reputation and allows us to immediately expand our offerings to clients," said Thomas J. Perrelli, chair of Jenner & Block. "Their work also aligns with many of our other practices, particularly in expanding the firm's international and energy practices. They are also a great cultural fit and share the firm's values as well as our commitment to racial and social justice."

Ambassador Harper, who is the first Native American to be appointed as a US Ambassador, represented the plaintiff class of 500,000 individual Native Americans and served as class counsel in the landmark Indian trust funds lawsuit, Cobell v. Salazar. Ultimately the case settled for $3.4 billion, which represents the largest settlement of a lawsuit against the United States in history.

The team's lawyers are equipped to provide general counsel services for tribes, which face the same issues as governments and corporations. Their service areas include litigation, investigations, and government relations matters involving sovereign immunity, water rights, taxation, scared sites protection, treaties, reservation land status, tribal governance, gaming, energy, lending, land use and management, energy development, and labor and employment, among other issues.

Lawyers in Jenner & Block's Native American Law Practice have represented tribes in high-stakes matters at all levels of litigation. Last week, a firm team led by Appellate and Supreme Court Practice Chair Ian Heath Gershengorn obtained a critical victory for Indian Country in the US Supreme Court in McGirt v. Oklahoma that holds the federal government to its treaty obligations by recognizing that almost half of Oklahoma remains an Indian reservation, as promised almost 200 years ago in treaties with the Creek Nation. In 2019, Partner Adam G. Unikowsky won another major Supreme Court tribal treaty rights case on behalf of the Yakama Nation in Washington State Department of Licensing v. Cougar Den, Inc. that upheld the tribe's rights under the Yakama Treaty of 1855.

"Jenner & Block's landmark Supreme Court wins upholding tribal treaty rights have been an inspiration throughout Indian Country. These successes, along with the team's outstanding record, its history of government service, and its genuine commitment to social justice, shows why the combination of our practices brings exceptional value to our tribal and other clients," said Mr. Galbraith.

The firm has also achieved several important victories for the Cayuga Nation, including in March when a New York federal judge vindicated its sovereign right to game under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act after a village attempted to enforce an anti-gaming ordinance against the tribe. Partner David W. DeBruin led that effort.

"We built our team from the ground up into one of the country's foremost Native American law practices because we are keenly aware of the unique legal needs tribal governments, businesses, and individuals face and the specialized services they need. This is why we are all excited to join a firm with lawyers and professionals who complement and expand the services we offer our clients," said Ambassador Harper. "We also look forward to being a part of Jenner & Block's recognized culture of excellence, diversity and inclusion, and its deep commitment to pro bono and public service."

Ambassador Harper joins recent hire Ambassador David Pressman. During their respective tenures on the United Nations Human Rights Council and the United Nations Security Council, Ambassadors Harper and Pressman led high-stakes international negotiations on human rights and international peace and security issues for the United States government. The addition of Mr. Harmala, who has international relations experience, and Ambassador Lee S. Wolosky, who joined in February, also mark a significant expansion in the firm's cross-border capabilities. These include litigating national security matters and addressing these matters on behalf of firm clients before the US government, negotiating directly with foreign governments, navigating multilateral institutions, and representing client interests across the globe.

The team's addition also marks the firm's 11th lateral partner hire this year, including energy lawyer Jennifer S. Amerkhail, litigator Douglass A. Mitchell, government contracts lawyer David B. Robbins, litigator Dawn L. Smalls, white collar lawyer Andrew Weissmann, and communications lawyer Zeb Zankel, as well as Ambassadors Pressman and Wolosky.

About the Team

PARTNERS

Ambassador Keith Harper, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, focuses his practice on Native American affairs, litigation, and matters with an international component from the private and public sectors. From 2014 until 2017, he served as the US Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. Throughout his legal career, Ambassador Harper has represented tribes and individual Indians. Drawing on his foreign relations experience, he also represents clients in international litigation and other cross-border matters. He earned his JD from New York University School of Law and a BA in sociology and psychology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Charles Galbraith is a citizen of the Navajo Nation and focuses his practice on litigation and Native American affairs. He served in the Obama White House as associate director of intergovernmental affairs and public engagement. In that role, Mr. Galbraith analyzed, formulated, and coordinated political and policy strategy for President Obama, cabinet members, and Executive Branch agencies on all matters affecting tribal governments and Native American people. Mr. Galbraith earned a JD from Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law and a BA in political science from the University of Chicago.

Rob Harmala focuses his practice on government relations at the federal, state, and local levels. Mr. Harmala's legislative and legal experience spans a diverse array of subject areas, including Native American affairs, intellectual property, international relations, appropriations, tax, the laws of the European Union, transportation, telecommunications, and media and advertising. In addition to his federal representation, Mr. Harmala also provides advocacy services to clients before the California legislature as well as other political entities in California. He earned his JD from the University of Southern California and his AB from the University of California, Berkeley.

SPECIAL COUNSEL

Lawrence Roberts, a citizen of the Oneida Tribe in Wisconsin, draws upon more than 20 years of experience in federal service and Native American law to assist tribes in reaching long-term solutions through the courts, Congress, or the administrative process. Mr. Roberts served in several roles in the Department of the Interior, including as acting assistant secretary for Indian Affairs, as the general counsel of the National Indian Gaming Commission, and began his career as a trial attorney with the US Department of Justice. He earned a JD from the University of Wisconsin Law School and a BA in political science and sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Mr. Roberts' first day with the firm is July 23.

ASSOCIATES

Krystalyn Kinsel is a citizen of the Navajo Nation who focuses her practice on litigation and Native American affairs. She previously worked as a trial attorney in the Attorney General Honors Program of the Natural Resources Section of the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the US Department of Justice. She earned her JD from Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law and her BA in political science and government from the University of Arizona. Ms. Kinsel's first day with the firm is July 20.

Julian SpearChief-Morris is a citizen of the Blood Tribe (Kainai Nation) of the Blackfoot Confederacy and focuses his practice on Native American affairs, litigation, and international issues relating to both the private and public sector. He earned his JD from Harvard Law School and a BA with distinction in urban and regional studies from the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. Mr. SpearChief-Morris' first day with the firm is July 20.

GOVERNMENT RELATIONS SPECIALISTS

Craig Williams, a senior government relations specialist, is a lawyer and member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and advises clients on matters of public policy with a focus on Native American affairs. He previously served as the diversity director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). He earned his JD, with a certificate in Federal Indian Law, from the University of New Mexico School of Law, an MA in Political Science from Jackson State University and a BS from Auburn University. Mr. Williams' first day with the firm is July 20.

Joshua Bertalotto, a junior government relations specialist, is a citizen of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana and has experience in policy, communications and advocacy in public, private and nonprofit institutions. He previously worked on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and earned a BA in sociology and social policy from The Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Bertalotto's first day with the firm is July 20.

ABOUT JENNER & BLOCK'S NATIVE AMERICAN LAW PRACTICE

Jenner & Block has deep experience across a broad range of Native American law issues, in federal courts and in proceedings before the Department of the Interior (Offices of the Solicitor and of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs), the Bureau of Indian Affairs (both national and regional offices) and the National Indian Gaming Commission. In the past two Supreme Court terms, we have won victories for our clients in McGirt v. Oklahoma, Carpenter v. Murphy, and Washington State Dept. of Licensing v. Cougar Den, Inc. We have handled disputes involving gaming issues under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, including federal court litigation, and have represented clients in connection with internal leadership disputes (before the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, the Interior Board of Indian Appeals, the BIA, and both federal and state courts); state taxation and foreclosure actions (including both state taxation of sales of cigarettes and other products and the application of state and local tax and zoning laws on non-trust, Indian-owned land); Indian land-into-trust issues; and a broad range of other Native American law matters.

ABOUT JENNER & BLOCK'S GOVERNMENT RELATIONS PRACTICE

The United States' complex web of government policy-making and regulatory bodies can be a challenging landscape for businesses nationwide, with considerable effects on private and public companies. Engaging with legislators as new laws are developed  at the federal, state, and local levels  empowers companies to be part of important conversations and helps achieve their strategic objectives. Jenner & Block's Government Relations team builds on the firm's long track record of government service, leveraging our legislative, regulatory, and policy-building experience to help clients provide lawmakers with clear, constructive perspectives on the potential impact of new statutes while harmonizing government and business interests. Members of Jenner & Block's Government Relations group  including registered lobbyists  have the relationships to help companies engage productively with lawmakers at all levels of government.

ABOUT JENNER & BLOCK

Jenner & Block LLP is a law firm with global reach, with offices in Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, DC. The firm is known for its prominent and successful litigation practice and experience handling sophisticated and high-profile corporate transactions. Firm clients include Fortune 100 companies, large privately held corporations, financial services institutions, emerging companies, Native American tribes, and venture capital and private equity investors. In 2020, The American Lawyer recognized the firm for the fourth consecutive year as the #1 pro bono firm in the United States, marking the 10th time in 13 years the firm has received this recognition. In 2020, the publication also recognized the firm as the #3 international pro bono firm, and in 2018, named the firm as its first "Pro Bono Champion."

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Before this week, the last federal execution was in 2003. The Justice Department had pushed to resume carrying out federal death sentences since last year, adopting a new lethal-injection protocol and announcing plans to carry out a series of executions. The department has said it needs to carry out lawful sentences, which were sought and won during both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Fighting on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan reportedly resumed early on July 16 after a brief de-escalation in fighting, with the two sides accusing each other of attacking their frontline positions and shelling villages.

The Armenian military claimed to have thwarted a predawn Azerbaijani raid on one of its border posts in the northeastern Tavush district.

After a fierce gunbattle, the enemy was repelled, suffering casualties, Defense Ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanian said, adding that Azerbaijani forces then began shelling two Armenian border villages with mortars and howitzers.

Gunfire is continuing at the moment, Stepanian wrote on Facebook in the morning. Units of the Armenian Armed Forces are neutralizing Azerbaijani provocations.

Stepanian also claimed in a Facebook post on July 16 that Armenian forces had destroyed an Azerbaijani tank and struck artillery and mortar positions that were shelling our settlements and positions.

She posted a short video of plumes of black smoke rising from behind a hill on what appeared to be the Azerbaijani side of the frontier:

Stepanian also said that Armenian Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan had phoned Andrzej Kasprzyk, the head of an OSCE mission monitoring the cease-fire in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, to brief him on the latest escalation.

She said Tonoyan told Kasprzyk that the Azerbaijani side suffered many casualties.

The official added that no Armenian soldiers were killed at the volatile border section as of 9 a.m. local time.

Speaking to RFE/RLs Armenian Service at around the same time, Tavush Governor Hayk Chobanian said that not only the local villages but also the town of Berd came under Azerbaijani artillery fire.

None of their residents was hurt as a result, he said, adding that the shelling caused damage to civilian homes and infrastructure.

Residents are hiding in basements and shelters, said Chobanian. Their life is not at risk.

There is no need for evacuation. I hope that [this situation] wont last long, added the governor.

Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry accused Armenian forces of attacking its frontline troops and shelling Azerbaijani villages in the Tovuz district bordering Tavush. It gave no details.

The renewed fighting in the area broke out after a one-day pause that followed three days of deadly clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces that left at least 15 soldiers dead and prompted serious concern from the international community.

Before the July 16 escalation, the U.S., Russian, and French mediators co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group hailed the lull in the fighting and urged the parties to make every effort to continue de-escalation.

The co-chairs welcomed the confirmation of the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan to hold substantive negotiations on crucial aspects of a Nagorno-Karabakh settlement as soon as possible and emphasized the importance of returning OSCE monitors to the region as soon as circumstances allow, said the statement issued late on July 15.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Armenian and Azerbaijani services and AFP
The FBI has confirmed that its investigating the hack that compromised the accounts of Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Barack Obama, Kanye West and a number of other high-profile Twitter users.

The FBI is investigating the incident involving several Twitter account belonging to high profile individuals that occurred July 15, 2020, the San Francisco Division of the FBI said in a statement. At this time, the accounts appear to have been compromised in order to perpetuate cryptocurrency fraud. We advise the public not to fall victim to this scam by sending cryptocurrency or money in relation to this incident. As this investigation is ongoing, we will not be making further comment at this time.

Reuters had previously reported the FBI would launch an investigation into the hack. Twitter didnt respond to a request for comment on the investigation.

The FBI inquiry is now one of multiple investigations into the incident, which has drawn scrutiny from a number of officials. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo also announced an investigation into the attack. Cuomo said the hack was deeply troubling and raises concerns about the cybersecurity of our communications systems.

Several members of Congress have also signaled their concern. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley sent a pointed letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in the hours immediately after the attack, and a number of House Republicans have said Dorsey should brief Congress on the companys security practices and the events leading up to the hack.

Twitter has so far provided relatively few details about how the hacks occurred. The company has blamed it on a social engineering attack that targeted employees with access to internal tools that could grant account access. The company hasnt directly commented on speculation that an employee may have been paid to aid in the attack. Twitter also said it doesnt believe users passwords were compromised.

Regardless of the hackers methods, that so many influential accounts, including a former president and current presidential candidate, were compromised raises serious question about Twitters security practices. The company has previously dealt with employees using their position to improperly access accounts, including a rogue contractor who temporarily deactivated Donald Trumps account and former employees who were charged with spying for Saudi Arabia.

As many have pointed out, the latest hacks could have been much worse than even those incidents. Hackers with access to some of the most influential accounts and their millions of followers, could have easily done more than try to scam unsuspecting users out of cryptocurrency. And the fact that the attackers had access to these accounts likely means users direct messages were also accessible. If thats the case  Twitter hasnt indicated whether direct messages were impacted  then its possible the hackers could wreak even more havoc than they already have.
The Senate on Wednesday urged the federal government to direct the Ministry of Labour and Employment to set up a committee to review the age limit for job seekers in the country, to allow competent applicants to be employed by the Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government.

The call was sequel to a motion by Ibrahim Gobir (APC, Sokoto East) where he noted that recruitment requirements of MDAs and other private bodies, which set age barriers, "inadvertently excludes and marginalizes skillful and competent prospective applicants from participating in such exercises."

He said due to the high unemployment rate in the country, many graduates spend up to 10 years seeking employment and this puts them in a disadvantaged position by no fault of theirs.

Many individuals resort to falsifying their ages, all in a bid to fall within the required age limit for them to be gainfully employed, he said.

"This development, where a person believes he is unemployable, can lead them to embracing criminal activities and further increase the growing crime rate and insecurity in the country."

In his contribution, Bala Na'Allah reminded the Senate of the federal government's embargo on employment over 13 years ago.

The embargo period, he said, must be factored into the review of age limit by the Ministry of Labour and Productivity for prospective job seekers in the country.

"The period that there have been embargo by the federal government in itself should be considered in the review of age limit. For example, if the age limit is 23, we must now add the 13 or 14 years of embargo on employment to the age already earmarked for employment, so that the age will be plus thirteen, because it is the government on its own that placed the embargo on employment.

"There cannot be justification for you to place embargo on employment, then at the same time expect graduates to remain at the age they were during the period of the embargo.

"I think in the review, that has to be taken into account, and therefore, the age limit can now be raised in addition to the established age. That should be the legal verdict for the review," he said.

In his remark, the Senate president, Ahmad Lawan, urged the Labour ministry to address the issue promptly.

"It is not through a fault of theirs that people are discriminated against. They'll tell you only 30 years limit, meanwhile someone graduated ten years ago.

"This is a very good motion urging the Ministry of Labour and Productivity to swing into action immediately."
By Online Desk

Bollywood actress Rhea Chakraborty on Thursday publicly requested Union Home Minister Amit Shah to initate a CBI probe into the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

Actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead at his home in Mumbai on June 14. The news of his death triggered angry reaction on exisitng nepotism and favoritism in the film industry.

The actress took it on Twitter to make an appeal, "Respected @AmitShah sir ,

Im sushants Singh Rajputs girlfriend Rhea chakraborty,it is now over a month since his sudden demise

I have complete faith in the government, however in the interest of justice , I request you with folded hands to initiate a CBI enquiry..part 1 .."

Respected @AmitShah sir ,

Im sushants Singh Rajputs girlfriend Rhea chakraborty,it is now over a month since his sudden demise

I have complete faith in the government, however in the interest of justice , I request you with folded hands to initiate a CBI enquiry..part 1 ..  Rhea Chakraborty (@Tweet2Rhea) July 16, 2020

In the second tweet she continued, "Part 2.. I request you with folded hands to initiate a CBI enquiry into this matter . I only want to understand what pressures , prompted Sushant to take this step.

Yours sincerely #satyamevajayate @AmitShah sir"

Part 2.. I request you with folded hands to initiate a CBI enquiry into this matter . I only want to understand what pressures , prompted Sushant to take this step.

Yours sincerely #satyamevajayate @AmitShah sir  Rhea Chakraborty (@Tweet2Rhea) July 16, 2020

Earlier in the day, Rhea Chakraborty had requested the cyber crime cell to look into rape and murder threats she has been receiving ever since the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

After Rajput's death, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said the Mumbai Police would also probe the angle of "professional rivalry", which was alleged to be the cause of the suicide.

It is to be noted that, on June 18, Chakraborty was called to Bandra police station to record her statement.

The fans of the late actor demanded probe into the incident with viral hashtags on social media accusing many celebrites for their alleged involvement in sidelining their favourite filmstar.

(With PTI inputs)
Sir,



I often prefer to celebrate people during their lifetime, where they can appreciate the positive things said about them. But in the case of Dr David Wasswa, it is still befitting that I pen down my memories of this fallen giant, who impacted everyone he came across. I am yet to hear someone say something negative about Dr Wasswa. Like many other people, I was not fond of visiting hospitals or clinics (I tend to self-medicate) but knowing that I would be assisted by Dr Wasswa made the hospital visits easier.

Assisted

He actually assisted in the delivery of my last born daughter, the now famous Apple. From the day I informed him I was pregnant, he had some parental advice to give me, without being judgemental of course. Thats how much he genuinely cared for the people who sought his medical opinion and services. Aha, Cassandra, how are you doing today my dear, was normally his opening line each time I went for a visit at his practice. Before he could even ask me why I had come to see him, he made it a point to ensure that I was at ease and relaxed. He would then give me updates about his grandchildren, what he did with them the past weekend, the mischief they got into, etc. Also, he would often remind me that I had a beautiful name (Cassandra). I got to learn that one of his daughters-in-law also had the same name.

Delivery

After the delivery of Apple, he made it a point to always ask me about her. I would bump into him at Pick N Pay or Shoprite Woodlands and the one thing he never omitted to ask was; How is the little one doing (meaning Apple). My response was always the same; Shes fine Doc, how are you doing. Before he could brief me about the latest happenings in his life, he would demand to see Apples picture from my phone. He would then remark about her beauty followed by many questions of what I was feeding her, who was taking care of her and the new things she had started doing.

Admire

Who wouldnt admire such a man who went beyond his call of being a doctor to give free advice about life in general? Who wouldnt want to be associated with such greatness?

I would often ask him when he planned to retire and the response I got was; Ehh Cassandra, do you think Im that old? Then he would crack into a laugh that almost caused the whole room to reverberate due to his loud voice. But that was his genuine self; he laughed, he loved and he cared. We would often talk about him with Dr Ncube (from the Mbabane Clinic) and he would often tell me how closely he worked with Dr Wasswa. Our hearts may be at pains with your departure Doc, but we hold very fond memories of you. Do charm the angels with your voice! Till we meet again.
The Trump administration has begun gathering driver's license data from at least four states as it seeks to count how many undocumented people live in the USA, a top priority for the president as he argues for tougher border controls.

The president said citizenship data is basic information that any country's leaders should have access to. Critics worry Trump and conservative officials would use that data to financially or politically punish liberal states that are home to large numbers of people living in the USA without authorization, particularly California.

National Public Radio first reported the Trump administration's move to collect data from four states: Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina and South Dakota.

Iowa is asking residents returning from outside the state to self-quarantine for 14 days.

Driver's license data  even limited to names, addresses and birthdates  is widely seen as a potential proxy for citizenship or lawful U.S. residence because the federal government's REAL ID driver's license law requires proof that someone is living legally in the USA.

The U.S. Census Bureau leads the effort to acquire the data, which it could cross-reference with federal or privately run databases, such as those used to generate credit reports, to build a more accurate picture of residents. Participation in the data collection by states is voluntary, and using census data to target specific individuals is illegal.

Trump said in an executive order issued July 11, 2019, that getting accurate data concerning the total number of citizens and undocumented immigrants "has nothing to do with enforcing immigration laws against particular individuals. It is important, instead, for making broad policy determinations."

Estimates, based on surveys and data analysis by federal officials and university experts, suggest 11 million to 30 million people have entered the USA illegally, overstayed visas or otherwise violated the nation's borders.

The Iowa Department of Transportation began sharing driver's license data with the Census Bureau in April, a spokeswoman said. The information it shares does not include a person's sex, race or citizenship status. Because only people with permission to live in the USA can get an Iowa driver's license, the data is a de facto list of citizens and documented residents. The spokeswoman said Iowa shared the data because doing so is legal and because the Census Bureau asked for it.

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Trump issued the executive order shortly after the Supreme Court blocked his administration from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census. Though citizenship questions have long been part of the overall census, federal officials stopped asking that specific question on the constitutionally mandated every-10-year count in 1950. After that, they began using surveys and statistical sampling, which officials argued were more accurate.

Trump's executive order instructs federal officials to do a better job sharing citizenship information with each other and estimates the government will be able to determine citizenship status for 90% of the population using a combination of state and federal data. His goal is 100%, he said.

Immigrant rights groups argue that asking any question about citizenship status creates fear within immigrant communities, including people living in the USA legally, and could contribute to an undercount of certain populations.

The accuracy of census data has broad implications for how federal spending is allocated and how states design legislative and congressional districts, said Tom Wolf, a senior counsel at the Brennan Centers Democracy Program. Depressing the number of people who respond could have a decade-long impact on whose voices are heard in Congress. Since California is home to the largest number of people living in the USA without permission, any changes could have wide-ranging effects there.

"The Trump administrations data gathering also threatens to suppress the count, because even though this information cannot be used for things like immigration or criminal law enforcement, mere mention of data gathering like this leads people to fear that theyre at risk," Wolf said. "Crucially, it is patently illegal to use the personal data that the Census Bureau gathers for immigration or law enforcement purposes. If the administration tries to use this data for illegal means, a nationwide network of attorneys is ready to go to court, and the law is clearly on their side."

Dale Ho, director of the American Civil Liberties Unions Voting Rights Project, said the Census Bureau should focus on accurately counting everyone, regardless of their immigration status, a challenge increased by the COVID-19 outbreak. The ACLU urges states to reject requests to share driver's license data with the federal government for any citizenship determinations.

This endeavor appears to be part of a scheme motivated by an unconstitutional discriminatory purpose to dilute the political power of communities of color. In addition, efforts to rely on citizenship data in DMV files have previously been highly unreliable due to poor database protocols and stale citizenship data," he said. "The Census Bureau should drop this latest distraction and instead focus on the important work of ensuring a full and accurate count during this very challenging time in the midst of a pandemic.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump seeks driver's license data from Iowa, SC to check citizenship
Click here to read the full article.

Broken-hearted brides have become increasingly the norm this year, since thousands of weddings have been put on ice due to coronavirus concerns.

As chief executive officer of the Pronovias Group, the bridal powerhouse based in Barcelona, Amandine Ohayon has an insiders view of the pandemic-related ramifications that manufacturers and retailers are dealing with. With 4,000 points-of-sale worldwide, including 60 freestanding stores  seven of which are in the U.S.  Pronovias is forging ahead. The company is not currently considering closing any stores. With 1,000 wholesale partners, Ohayon has insights about both sides of the business.

More from WWD

During an interview, Ohayon spoke of the bridal industrys resilience and some of its innovative solutions for getting married, despite restrictions for large gatherings in many countries. With 2.4 million couples getting married annually in the U.S. alone, there is a lot at stake. The wedding service industry is a $78 billion entity globally across all sectors and employed 1.2 million people last year, according to IBISWorld.

While the stay-at-home mandates silenced many businesses around the globe, Ohayon is convinced that all those weeks of self-quarantine has only made people have greater appreciation for weddings, and reason to come together with family and loved ones again. Although The Knot reported that the average wedding dress cost $1,600 last year, Pronovias has seen the average bride spend more than $2,000 in recent weeks.

While many retailers have been scrambling to reconfigure their stores to ensure social distancing and limited traffic, Pronovias retail experience already had some of those elements. By-appointment shopping is nothing new for the brand and that dovetails into newly installed governmental protocols for retail, Ohayon said. We really want to continue and strive to help the bride find the true dress, she said.

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Unlike many others bridal firms, Pronovias executives have had the support of strong shareholders during the pandemic, the ceo said. They really believe in the future of the business. That will really help us to move forward. We know that it will come back. The question is not when it will come back. It will.

While the COVID-19 situation changes week-by-week, brides are more inclined to postpone their weddings rather than cancel, which Ohayon sees as a great sign. This morning before the virtual presentation of Atelier Pronovias 2021 Premiere collection, the ceo of five proprietary bridal brands will discuss the future of the bridal industry virtually.

WWD: How far out are we looking in terms of the postponements and cancellations of weddings?

Amandine Ohayon: Its true that it has been a difficult time for the bridal market. What is great about our industry in general is that when we are facing crises, we are quite a resilient industry. What were seeing is that about 40 percent of the weddings are being moved to next year. This is actually based on data that we have from 50 stores that we have around the globe. Of course, there are differences based on geographies. For example, in Spain, half of the weddings are being moved to next year. In France, its only 20 percent. Of course, everything is changing all the time. At the beginning of the pandemic, we had heard that 60 percent of the weddings were being moved to next year. But now in Italy, they have authorized weddings of 150 people. So were seeing a lot of the brides getting married this year. And the numbers are falling to 45 percent being postponed.

WWD: How is the easing of stay-at-home restrictions affecting everything?

A.O.: In Europe  where the lockdown was lifted a few weeks ago  people just want to be with their friends and rejoice. Theyre moving the wedding to the right location instead of canceling it. After this moment of lockdown and isolation, there are emotional reasons [for going forward with a wedding]. You know whats important  your friends.

WWD: What percentage of the Pronovias business is in the U.S.? Are you seeing higher rates of postponed weddings?

A.O.: The U.S. represents one-quarter of our turnover across wholesale and retail. Its pretty similar to what were seeing from our stores. In Europe, the wedding season is very concentrated around the summer. In the U.S., there are two bridal weeks  one in April and one in October. In Europe, there is one season. Thats why the U.S. is different from Europe.

WWD: Is the average price of a gown declining as people reevaluate their spending habits?

A.O.: Its early days, since we reopened our stores. The average price of our gown has gone up. Finally, they can choose their dream gowns without looking at the price. They have decided to go ahead with their weddings and they are not so much on a mission about the price. That is what we have seen in France, Italy and Spain. In the U.S., we dont have a clear pattern yet. Also, the girls are going for very traditional, classic, beautiful, pristine gowns. People want to go back to the purer sense of getting married.

WWD: What would the typical bride spend now versus a year ago?

A.O.: It depends on the market. On average, it is over $2,000 in our freestanding stores. Were not talking about a big variation  maybe between five and 10 percent. Even if you decide to not have such a big celebration, the things that will stay (as planned and without scrimping) are the photography and the wedding dress. If you have to cut for budget reasons or due to social distancing, the dress is the one thing you dont want to compromise. Women really want to hold onto their dream dress.

WWD: Is the age of the big blowout wedding over?

A.O.: Weddings have to adapt. This question is true of any gathering. Are we going to go back to restaurants or the cinemas? There is a lot of innovation in the bridal industry. As the leader, we always try to drive that innovation further. We were the first [bridal business] one to come out with a digital showroom, to offer virtual appointments through all our stores worldwide. We try to engage in a very thoughtful way with our brides on social media. Weve started producing a collection of masks, because there are still some brides in certain regions that have to wear masks. We dont want this to compromise her look. We have designed masks that match the lace of the dress and of the veil. She will be able to wear that in situations where she needs to. That is one example across many.

WWD: What are other examples of innovation?

A.O.: Weddings are happening in two phases. People are getting married and then the party will take place later. Wedding planners are offering this formula. The wedding industry has been around for many years and will be around for the years to come. That comes from those talented professionals who are being resourceful. And that is what they have been demonstrating.

WWD: How many of your stores have reopened?

A.O.: The majority of our stores have reopened. The last one was New York, which reopened July 6. Our business is different, because we dont rely on traffic like other fashion companies do. All of our business is by-appointment. There is not a crowded environment in our stores. We want the bride to have a very private and exclusive experience. My wholesale clients are doing that as well. She can be by herself or with loved ones. We never have been a business that relies on a lot of traffic from people passing by your stores. That has enabled us to have a very thoughtful safety protocol.

WWD: It looks as though large gatherings will be discouraged or restricted in most U.S. states for the foreseeable future. How can other bridal companies work around that?

A.O.: They will have to put in place other safety protocols. There are ways to engage in different ways. France was one of the first countries to authorize weddings, after the lockdown. It started with 20 people, then it was 50, and 100 people outdoors. Now it is 200. Things are changing rapidly. My cousin recently attended a beautiful outdoor wedding at a castle in France. I was following her on Insta Stories. The wedding planner had a strong sense of humor. The girls and the boys were wearing masks with funny messages like, Finally, a wedding. They organized a disco dance where guests could not face each other. This guy led the choreography and guests had to stay within their circle and not touch their neighbors. It looked like a lot of fun. We are a very creative industry. People will come up with creative ideas. Im sure.

WWD: Couples are having weddings of 50 on ski mountains where half of the guests hike up and the other half watches the vows be exchanged via Zoom. Will we see more imaginative wedding like that?

A.O.: We will see more of those types of things. Before when you were planning a wedding, you had all these extravagant ideas to entertain the guests. It will have to be done in a different way. Its going to be different but I really believe that it is human nature to want to be happy and to be together.

WWD: Will you continue to work with influencers?

A.O.: We continue to work with influencers who have this positive authenticity. We work closely with Ashley Graham. During the lockdown, she was sharing her struggles [on social media] and how she was trying to breastfeed and had her husband take pictures of her. To me, shes this very authentic person. (Earlier this year Graham unveiled a collaborative collection with Pronovias.

WWD: Have you adopted any strategies from other industries for coping with the pandemic?

A.O.: Some industries reacted very quickly to try to help people. It was quite amazing how LVMH after three days managed to use their fragrance factory to produce some hand sanitizer. They did this so fast. I thought, Wow! Thats super cool. I can tell you because I come from the fragrance business  to do what theyve done with alcohol requires a lot of safety measures.

WWD: How has your experience at LOreal, Armani, YSL and other companies been an advantage during the pandemic?

A.O.: The first rule when you are dealing with a crisis is to maintain safety and calm. The second thing is being very nimble and adaptable. My primary concern is that everyone in the company and in the stores are OKthen we realized fairly quickly that we needed to do a virtual show and then we did virtual appointments. That was organized in one month. From my luxury experience, I learned that whatever happens, you constantly have to show leadership and adaptivity. There were crises before and there will be crises in the future  thats just the way it is.

WWD: Many companies are reevaluating the diversity of their employee base to try to effect change. Have you mapped out a plan?

A.O.: Absolutely, that has been one of my obsessions, since I joined the company [in 2008]. As a family-owned Spanish company, we have a lot of work to do on this front. We have to get better. Our first step was female empowerment. The majority of our clients are female and the company was run by menso promoting women was very important. (Women account for 84 percent of the companys 1,000-plus employees.) Also, there was a taboo in celebrating love in all its forms. Thats why supporting causes like Pride was very important. Im proud of the way that we are on that journey. Im going to be honest  we also need to achieve more racial diversity. In Spain, its a slightly different context but of course we also operate in the U.S. That is something that I am truly passionate about. In fairness, weve been having racially diverse campaigns for many years. I believe that beauty comes in all forms and in all colors. Especially when you are a bride, you are here to celebrate love in all aspects.

WWD: What do you mean it is in a slightly different context in Spain?

A.O.: Ive been living in the U.K. for the past four years and Spanish culture is different. All countries have different cultural identities. What is important is to promote equity in terms of job promotions, and salaries. That is something that I believe in. Inclusivity is not just a question of race, but also gender issues. (Pronovias Group only tracks nationalities and gender and 30 different nationalities are currently represented.)

WWD: Sustainability has been one of the takeaways of the pandemic. Are you addressing that in any way?

A.O.: Absolutely, were working on a project that will be revealed in September in a comprehensive program. In the Atelier collection, we offered a sneak peak of several dresses that are totally sustainableof course, the bridal industry is not known for being sustainable. As the leader, we want to be a game changer. Sustainability requires rethinking how you operate, the way you communicate..its good that we have started on that road, but its a long road ahead. A business that has no sustainability strategy has no future.
Twelve requests by India over the last year for "unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional" access to Kulbhushan Jadhav have not been fulfilled by Pakistan despite being directed to do so by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

In a statement issued on Thursday evening, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said Indian officials were not given "unimpeded access" to Jadhav, denying Pakistan's claims of consular access.

Pakistan earlier in the day claimed it had provided consular access to Jadhav, on death row, days after Islamabad claimed that he has refused to file an appeal in a court here against his conviction by a military court.

"The consular officers were not given unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional access to Kulbhushan Jadhav by Pakistan," said the MEA. "On the contrary, Pakistani officials with an intimidating demeanour were present in close proximity of Jadhav and Consular Officers despite the protests of the Indian side."

"It was also evident from a camera that was visible that the conversation with Jadhav was being recorded. He was visibly under stress and indicated that clearly to the Consular Officers. The arrangements did not permit a free conversation between them," it added.

The MEA statement came after a report sent by Indias Charge de Affaires in Islamabad, Gaurav Ahluwalia, who went to meet Jadhav with another Indian High Commission official on Thursday afternoon. The Pakistani side had assured India of meeting set conditions for the consular access but neither the environment nor the arrangements of the meeting were in accordance with the assurances of Pakistan, said the Indian statement. The Indian officials then lodged a protest and left the venue.

But the two officials were inside the office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) for over two-and-a-half hours. Sources had told CNN-News 18 that it was important to hear from the officials whether the conditions for consular access were met, otherwise it wouldnt be considered as one.

"The Consular Officers could not engage Kulbhushan Jadhav on his legal rights and were prevented from obtaining his written consent for arranging his legal representation," said the MEA. "In the light of these circumstances, the Indian Consular Officers came to the conclusion that the consular access being offered by Pakistan was neither meaningful nor credible. After lodging a protest, they left the venue."

India has been stressing and underlined once again that any conversation with Jadhav had to be conducted in privacy without it being recorded so that neither is there any threat of intimidation nor fear of retribution. Moreover, to prepare defence arguments for Jadhav as part of a free, fair and transparent trial, it was important that he could freely talk to the officials. However, that was not possible.

"It is clear that Pakistans approach to this matter continues to be obstructive and insincere. It has not only violated its assurance to the International Court of Justice to fully implement the 2019 judgement, but also failed to act in accordance with its own Ordinance," added the MEA.

In its press release on Thursday, Pakistan said it provided unimpeded and uninterrupted consular access. This came after last weeks surprise announcement claiming that Jadhav had refused to file a review petition. Pakistan had passed an ordinance in May saying it would comply with the ICJ ruling of 2019. Jadhav's 60 days to file his review petition will end on July 20.

But Indian government sources said they had the option of going back to inform the ICJ that Pakistan was not fulfilling the conditions of the court ruling. In a brazen attempt to scuttle even the inadequate remedy under the Ordinance, Pakistan has obviously coerced Jadhav to forego his rights to seek an implementation of the judgment of the ICJ, Srivastava had said last week.
President Donald Trump has replaced the head of his re-election campaign with his deputy after weeks of bad poll numbers showing him trailing Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, by a widening margin, and continued hammering he has gotten for his handling of the Covid-19 epidemic.

Bill Stepien, the deputy, is the new campaign manager, replacing Brad Parscale, who will stay on as a senior advisor for data and digital operations. Both men are veterans of Trumps 2016 campaign. And more members of that team have been brought back such as Jason Miller, to head strategy, and other changes are expected.

Trump trails Biden by more than 8 points in the RealClearPolitics average of all polls and by more than 9 points in FiveThirtyEights weighted average of polls. In some of the polls released this week, the president is behind the Democrat by double digits  10 points in CNBCs, 15 points in Quinnipiac Universitys and 11 points in NBC/Wall Street Journals.

A polls released Wednesday, just hours before Trump announced the campaign reshuffle, showed 62% of Americans believe the president is hurting efforts to combat the Covid-19 epidemic, and 67% said they dont trust the information he is providing.

Trump is trailing Biden also in the swing states such as Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. And, in possibly the most worrying sign for him was his shrinking lead over Biden in Texas, a deeply conservative state. Trumps lead is down to 0.3 points.

I am pleased to announce that Bill Stepien has been promoted to the role of Trump Campaign Manager, Trump announced in a tweet Wednesday evening. Brad Parscale, who has been with me for a very long time and has led our tremendous digital and data strategies, will remain in that role, while being a Senior Advisor.

Trump did not cite reasons for the switch, but did go on to reveal in another tweet what seemed to be bothering him, with his own spin. He said his win in November will be a lot easier than in 2016 as our poll numbers are rising fast (they are not), the economy is getting better (not yet, though there are signs), vaccines and therapeutics will soon be on the way (thats a moving target).

Parscale had headed the campaign from January 2018. But reports that the president had soured on him began appearing in recent weeks. There were some suggestions he had made a lot of money and that he sought to inject himself into campaign ads and had basically got himself into the presidents bad books.

Parscale was widely blamed for the fiasco in Tulsa, Trump first post-Covid-19 rally, which was expected to signal his return to the campaign trail. The president, who likes to cite audience numbers and size, addressed a venue that was less than half full, and an overflow stage outside had to be pulled down because of poor attendance. Parscale had boasted of an expected turnout of a million people.

A leadership change at the campaign just four months to voting may look ominous, but Trump pulled off a far more consequential overhaul in 2016, and further down the road. He had named Steve Bannon campaign CEO chair and Kellyanne Conway the campaign manager mid-August.
The Sudanese government and a coalition of rebel groups on Thursday entered into a final phase of peace talks, which will centre on the creation of a unified Sudanese army. Mediators described the discussions as the "most important" component of the Sudan peace process, which aims to restore stability to the war-torn regions of Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile. "This is the last chapter and the biggest chapter, the security arrangements in the peace negotiations. If we negotiate the security arrangements very well and in good faith we will have reached a sincere comprehensive peace agreement," said mediator Tutkew Gatluak in Juba, South Sudan. The peace talks, which began in South Sudan in October, aim to end conflicts in three regions where rebels have fought bloody campaigns against marginalisation by Khartoum under ousted president Omar al-Bashir. Hopes of a deal were raised after Sudan's transitional government, led by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, made ending conflict in these areas a priority. Some of the issues already agreed upon include wealth and power-sharing, and autonomy for the Blue Nile and Kordofan regions. Alhadi Idris Yahya, chairman of the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) -- a coalition of nine rebel groups negotiating with the Sudanese government -- said the parties had agreed the SRF would have three seats in the sovereign council, currently running the country. It would also get 25 percent of seats in parliament and the executive branch of government. The parties have also agreed on a timeline of 39 months for a transitional period after the signing of a comprehensive peace agreement. "(...) At the end of the day the main aim of the security arrangements is to have what we call one unified Sudan army. As we speak now we have several armies ... and it is not an ideal situation in one country to have more than an army," said Yayha. A second coalition of rebel groups, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement?North (SPLM-N) from South Kordofan is negotiating separately. They want a secular state or alternatively, self-determination for their region. Peace demand: A demonstrator in Khartoum on July 4 holds up a sign reading 'All of the country is Darfur - #PeaceFirst'
WEDNESDAY, July 15, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- While rashes on the skin have long been tied to COVID-19, doctors in Spain report that rashes on the inside of the mouth are also occurring in some cases.

The rashes are clinically known as enanthem, and it's not surprising that they are showing up with COVID-19, said a U.S. dermatologist unconnected to the new study.

"An enanthem is a rash [small spots] on the mucous membranes," explained Dr. Michele Green, who practices at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "It is very common in patients with viral infections like chickenpox and hand, foot and mouth disease. It is characteristic of many viral rashes to affect mucous membranes."

The new Spanish study was published July 15 in JAMA Dermatology. Researchers led by Dr. Juan Jimenez-Cauhe, of University Hospital Ramon y Cajal in Madrid, examined 21 patients diagnosed in early April with COVID-19 and associated skin rashes.

Of these patients, six patients (29%) had enanthem on the inside of their mouths. The affected patients ranged in age from 40 to 69, the team said, and four of the six were women.

The mouth rash appeared anywhere from two days before the onset of other COVID symptoms to 24 days after, with an average time of about 12 days after onset of symptoms.

In most cases, the enanthem did not appear to be tied to any medicines the patients were taking, further strengthening the notion that it was illness with the new coronavirus causing the reddish spots to appear.

Just how widespread this symptom is with COVID-19 is still unknown, since "owing to safety concerns, many patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 do not have their oral cavity examined," Jimenez-Cauhe's group noted.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the new coronavirus.
Technavio has been monitoring the automotive off-road lighting market and it is poised to grow by USD 3.84 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of almost 7% 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/20200716005331/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Automotive Off-road Lighting 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. C.G. Motorsports Inc., Grote Industries LLC, Guangzhou Teehon Electronics Co. Ltd., Hella GmbH Co. KGaA, KC HiLiTES Inc., Lazer Lamps Ltd., Oracle Lighting, OSRAM Licht AG, Truck-Lite Co. LLC, and Valeo SA 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.

Introduction of electric off-road vehicles has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market.

Automotive Off-road Lighting Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Automotive Off-road Lighting Market is segmented as below:

End-user Aftermarket OEMs

Geography North America Europe APAC 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=IRTNTR44035

Automotive Off-road Lighting 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 off-road lighting market report covers the following areas:

Automotive Off-road Lighting Market size

Automotive Off-road Lighting Market trends

Automotive Off-road Lighting Market analysis

This study identifies innovation in automotive lighting for off-road vehicles as one of the prime reasons driving the automotive off-road lighting market growth during the next few years.

Automotive Off-road Lighting Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of vendors operating in the automotive off-road lighting market, including some of the vendors such as C.G. Motorsports Inc., Grote Industries LLC, Guangzhou Teehon Electronics Co. Ltd., Hella GmbH Co. KGaA, KC HiLiTES Inc., Lazer Lamps Ltd., Oracle Lighting, OSRAM Licht AG, Truck-Lite Co. LLC, and Valeo SA. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the automotive off-road lighting market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Automotive Off-road Lighting Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist automotive off-road lighting market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the automotive off-road lighting market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the automotive off-road lighting market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of automotive off-road lighting 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 End-user

Market segments

Comparison by End-user

Aftermarket Market size and forecast 2019-2024

OEMs Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by End-user

Customer Landscape

Overview

Geographic Landscape

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024

APAC 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

Vendor landscape

Landscape disruption

Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

C.G. Motorsports Inc.

Grote Industries LLC

Guangzhou Teehon Electronics Co. Ltd.

Hella GmbH Co. KGaA

KC HiLiTES Inc.

Lazer Lamps Ltd.

Oracle Lighting

OSRAM Licht AG

Truck-Lite Co. LLC

Valeo SA

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.

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MONTEVIDEO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th July, 2020) The Ecuadorian capital of Quito, which is facing a shortage in hospital beds over the coronavirus pandemic, has overcome the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak, Health MinisterJuan Carlos Zevallos Lopez told Sputnik.

"The situation in Quito is difficult because there is a high demand for [hospital] beds, but I think that the peak has already been overcome ...

The worst is over, but one should be cautious, we are going through a difficult period," the minister said on late Wednesday.

The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11. To date, more than 13.5 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 582,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Ecuador has registered 70,329 COVID-19 cases so far, with 5,158 fatalities.
ALGIERS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th July, 2020) Algeria expects that the upcoming visit of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to Russia will contribute to stronger bilateral cooperation in military, energy and scientific fields, Abdelkader Abdullawi, the head of the Algerian parliament's foreign affairs committee, told Sputnik.

In May, Russian Ambassador to Algeria Igor Belyaev told Sputnik that Tebboune had received an invitation from Moscow to pay an official visit to Russia after the epidemiological situation in both countries returned to normal.

"We hope that [the visit] will contribute to closer cooperation in the military and energy sectors, especially after the new amendments to the law on hydrocarbon resources, as well as in scientific and other ones," Abdallawi said.

Algeria seeks to strengthen the partnership and reach a greater degree of mutual understanding with Russia on international issues, including the situation in Libya, Abdullawi added.

Algiers and Moscow are linked by "long-standing ties, especially after they reached the level of strategic partnership in 2001," Abdullawi said, noting that this cooperation "continues up to the present day."

"I believe that the president's visit to Russia will be successful in many ways," the committee's head added.

Algeria, along with Morocco and Egypt, is currently one of the three leading trading partners of Russia in Africa, with energy being one of the main areas of cooperation.

Russia's Rosneft and Gazprom Neft are implementing joint projects with Algeria's Sonatrach oil and gas company,

In April, Sonatrach also signed a memorandum of understanding with Russia's Zarubezhneft, which paved the way for talks on the exploration, development and production of hydrocarbons in Algeria.
A meeting between Indian officials and Kulbhushan Jadhav on Thursday ended inconclusively, with New Delhi accusing Islamabad of breaching its assurance of providing unimpeded access to the former naval officer sentenced to death in Pakistan for alleged involvement in espionage.

Pakistan provided consular access to Jadhav for only the second time since he was detained in March 2016. But when two Indian consular officials went to meet him, they found Pakistani officials with an intimidating demeanour near Jadhav and a camera being used to record the conversation, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) said.

The Indian officials met Jadhav to discuss filing a review petition in Islamabad high court against his death sentence by the deadline of July 20, and required privacy to talk about the matter.

The consular officers could not engage Jadhav on his legal rights and were prevented from obtaining his written consent for arranging his legal representation, MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said.

In the light of these circumstances, the Indian consular officers came to the conclusion that the consular access being offered by Pakistan was neither meaningful nor credible. After lodging a protest, they left the venue.

Srivastava said India had taken up Pakistans offer of consular access only after receiving an assurance regarding unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional access.

Thursdays developments added another twist to the case of Jadhav, 50, as only four days remain under an ordinance promulgated by the Pakistan government to file a review petition in the Islamabad high court.

Srivastava said India made more than 12 requests for consular access to Jadhav over the past year. This consular access is of utmost importance, as it is the basis for a process of effective review and reconsideration ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in July 2019 of the conviction and sentence of Jadhav by a Pakistani military tribunal, he said.

The Pakistani ordinance, promulgated ostensibly to comply with ICJs order, envisages an Indian consular official filing the review petition. Any conversation between Jadhav and the consular officials must necessarily take place in privacy and without the presence of any Pakistani official or recording by Pakistan, Srivastava said.

It was evident Jadhav had been intimidated repeatedly in the past, including in being made to express his alleged disinclination to seek a review, he added.

Indias latest request for consular access included several conditions  Pakistan was asked to ensure the meeting was held in an atmosphere free from fear of retribution, without the presence of any Pakistani official, and without any video and audio recording.

After extensive discussions, the Pakistan side conveyed that they were ready to organise consular access on July 16. We were assured this consular access would be unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional, Srivastava said.

Regrettably, however, neither the environment nor the arrangements of the meeting were in accordance with the assurances of Pakistan, he added. Jadhav was visibly under stress and indicated this to the Indian officials.

Srivastava described Pakistans approach as obstructive and insincere. He added, It has not only violated its assurance to the ICJ to fully implement the 2019 judgment, but also failed to act in accordance with its own ordinance.

External affairs minister S Jaishanakr apprised Jadhavs family of the developments even as the Indian side reiterated its commitment to ensure his safe return to India.

Consular access to Jadhav was first provided in September 2019, while his mother and wife had been allowed to meet him in December 2017.

Pakistan on Thursday reiterated its accusations that Jadhav was arrested in Balochistan province on March 3, 2016, and had confessed to his involvement in terror activities. India has already dismissed such charges and said he was kidnapped by Pakistani intelligence operatives from Irans Chabahar port, where he was running a business.

ICJ ruled in July 2019 that Pakistan had violated Jadhavs rights under the Vienna Convention, and stayed his execution while calling on Islamabad to take all steps for an effective review and reconsideration of his sentence, including enacting appropriate legislation.

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Kosovar President Hashim Thaci has finished four days of questioning by international war-crimes prosecutors at The Hague.

As he left the court premises late July 16, Thaci called the four days of interviews productive sessions.

It is now up to the prosecutors and the judge to evaluate without bias my testimony. If they do that with an unbiased professional manner and fairness, they will easily come to the conclusion that I committed no crime, Thaci said.

He arrived in The Hague on July 13 and is due back in Kosovo.

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers (SPO) announced on June 24 that Thaci and other prominent Kosovars were the subject of an indictment on suspicion of serious crimes including "nearly 100 murders," enforced disappearances, and torture.

Thaci was a top commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK), which fought a guerrilla war for independence from Serbia in the 1990s.

A pretrial judge in the SPO has yet to decide whether to put Thaci and the others on trial or throw out the case.

Thaci has told Kosovars that, if he is tried, he will immediately resign and face the accusations.

He has also defended his record, saying that he was proud to have fought for an independent Kosovo.

Kosovo, a former province of Serbia, declared independence in 2008 in a move rejected by Belgrade. Five of the EUs 27 countries -- Romania, Cyprus, Greece, Slovakia, and Spain -- also dont recognize Kosovos independence, and statehood remains the biggest stumbling block.

Thacis indictment forced the cancellation of U.S.-sponsored talks scheduled to take place last month at the White House between Kosovar and Serbian leaders.

But the European Union has since breathed new life into long-stalled EU-sponsored talks.



The questioning of Thaci ended the same day Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovar Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti held their first face-to-face talks in 20 months in Brussels aimed at normalizing relations between the two Balkan neighbors.

EU-mediated negotiations between Pristina and Belgrade broke down in 2018 over reports of a proposed land swap and after Kosovo imposed a 100-percent tax on Serbian imports.

Both Kosovo and Serbia, which aspire to join the EU, have been facing mounting pressure from the West to reboot negotiations.




Hewitt is then seen putting his arm around Thompsons neck and wrestling Thompson out of the car as he cries out for help. The action that follows is captured only on audio, but Joshua Erlich, an attorney for Thompson, said his client was taken to the ground and pinned there, and his face was cut up.
Togo has issued an international arrest warrant for Agbeyome Kodjo, the runner-up in February's presidential elections, his lawyer said Thursday, adding that he had gone into hiding in the poor West African nation fearing for his life.

"It is one more act of persecution of Mr Kodjo, which does nothing to shake our determination to shine the truth on this affair," the lawyer, Darius Kokou Atsoo, said on commercial radio.

State prosecutor Essolissam Poyodi, speaking to AFP, confirmed that Kodjo's failure to comply with a judicial summons last Friday had triggered the arrest warrant.

Kodjo, in a message to AFP, reiterated the fear that his life was in danger and said he was in hiding in Togo.

The 65-year-old has been barred from leaving the country since alleging widespread irregularities in the February 22 vote and declaring himself legitimate head of state.

He was jailed for four days in April after a police raid for failing to comply with a series of summonses, for which he invoked health reasons, his lawyers said at the time.

According to official results, the incumbent Faure Gnassingbe won a fourth term with nearly 70 percent of the vote while Kodjo, head of the Patriotic Movement for Democracy and Development (MPDD), won just under 20 percent.

Kodjo, who served as premier under Gnassingbe's father, also called on the armed forces to rise up against the government, according to the prosecutor, who said this threatened public order and state security.

The MPDD late last month demanded the release of 16 of its activists who were jailed on April 21 for "rebellion" and other charges.

Gnassingbe has led the country of eight million people since taking over in 2005 after the death of his father Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled with an iron fist for 38 years.
Thousands View NNPAs First Virtual Convention

The first virtual convention in the 80-year history of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) earned a thumbs-up from partners and sponsors.

The successful events website, vitualnnpa2020.com, generated more than 55,000 pageviews to conference attendees in only two days. Several hundred thousand additional impressions were generated by social media posts and livestreams on Facebook and YouTube.

We share in your excitement and applaud your efforts in successfully executing the first virtual NNPA Annual Convention, Lester Booker, of General Motors Communications, wrote in a congratulatory email to NNPA president and CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr.

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Over the past two days, Ive had the opportunity to view some of the convention and was impressed with its content, execution, and professionalism, Booker continued, noting that GM officials continue to value and appreciate the companys more than 50-year partnership with the Black Press of America.

Several other partners and sponsors joined General Motors, including Pfizer Rare Disease, RAI Services Company, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the NFL, Facebook Journalism Project, AARP, Black Hollywood Education Resource Center (BHERC), Hyundai, Wells Fargo, Molson Coors, Volkswagen, The United States Census, Comcast Universal, Compassion & Choices, API, Ascension, Nissan, and UAW.

The NNPA overall is pleased with the impact, the reach and the engagement across the United States and throughout the world for our first virtual convention, NNPA President and CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., stated.

This represents a tremendous step forward for the Black Press of America. We note that during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Black Press of America has been able to overcome many of the obstacles that the pandemic continues to present. We plan to rebroadcast the virtual NNPA 2020 convention as soon as we conclude some post-production edits and additions.

Chavis added that the NNPA remains most grateful to its corporate sponsors for helping to make the first virtual convention a success.

We intend to let the world know that we appreciate our partners and sponsors and their support, Chavis declared.

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Claudette Perry, the NNPAs executive administrator, stated that shes breathing a sigh of relief that the convention was well-received by so many viewers.

I was very delighted that many of the celebrities whose stories have been conveyed through the Black Press for decades showed their appreciation for our publishers with their congratulatory sentiments on our first virtual convention as well as their recognition of 193 years of the Black Press, Perry said.

To the NNPA in-house production team, I say thank you for all the great content and design you brought to the convention virtual space. You are awesome. I thank also the young people on the technology panel who had great advice for us beyond millennials.

Perry continued:

To our corporate partners and sponsors, I extend my deepest appreciation for their support of our 2020 convention. The NNPA will continue showing its support for each of you, post-convention and throughout the year.

Sparking the interests were several important topics and a host of celebrity guests, including livestream interviews and performances by Deniece Williams, Anthony Hamilton, Carlos Santana, Cindy Blackman Santana, Sandra Salt Denton, Boyz II Mens Shawn Stockman, and journalist Jemele Hill.

The livestreams were amazing with all of the big names that we had it really brought an element that you dont always see at a conference, and it really has helped to shine a spotlight on our publishers, NNPA Chair Karen Carter Richards declared. The shoutouts to the Black Press from people like Magic Johnson, Sen. Kamala Harris, Rep. Maxine Waters, Attorney Joey Jackson, Rev. Jesse Jackson, and the others were simply delightful.

Richards noted that shes grateful to the partners and sponsors of the NNPA, and shes elated that each continues to support the publishers of the Black Press of America.

Thats who Im so happy for today, Richards said.

Our publishers work so hard, and they have fought the good fight for so long, this conference and what NNPA has put together and accomplished with digital has let the world know how vital the Black Press is and always have been.

Following opening remarks by Chavis, Richards, and NNPA Convention Chair Terry Jones, Wells Fargo presented a discussion titled, Navigating Finances through COVID-19, which was followed by a webinar titled, Hope, Misinformation, Fear, Sickness and Death: Physicians Discuss the Impact of COVID-19 on Black Communities.

That physicians webinar included nationally-renown African American physicians Ebony Jade Hilton, Leigh-Ann Webb, Taison Bell, Cameron Webb, and Rochanda Mitchell who all are members of the NNPA Coronavirus Task Force.

Terry Jones emphasized, The Virtual NNPA 2020 Annual Convention was impactful across the nation and throughout the world via print, online and social media. The Black Press retains its relevancy as the trusted voice of Black America.

A webinar about the Black Press of Americas future engagement and empowerment, included Mississippi Link Publisher Jackie Hampton, AFRO Publisher Dr. Frances Draper, Cincinnati Herald Publisher Jan Michele Kearney, Make it Plain host Mark Thompson, and Washington Informer Editor D. Kevin McNeir.

I thought it was time we show the larger scale folks that we do the same kind of work they do, McNeir stated during the webinar.

Ive been with the Black Press for 25 years. I believe we have a story that is unique and significant, and it has not gotten old. We give the Black story, thats who we are.

Day 1 of the conference concluded with the NNPA National Townhall titled, Education and the Future of Black America, From Pre-K to High School and onto College.

The education town hall panel included Dr. Peggy Edwards-Jones, Kathryn Procope, and Dr. Elizabeth Primas, program manager of the NNPA Education Public Awareness Program.

The second day of the convention featured webinars on Technology and Innovation: The Challenges and the Opportunities for the Black Press, that included data scientists Enchanta Jackson and Jamercia Gray, computer scientist Perry Busby, New York Beacon Associate Publisher Ashley Smith, and Westside Gazette Publisher Bobby Henry Sr. The final webinar of the convention was Black Millennial Voices and Visions for Transformation, hosted by Houston Forward Times award winning Associate Editor and BlackPressUSA columnist Jeffrey Boney. The millennial panel included Micha Green, Editor of the Washington, DC AFRO; Lafayette Barnes IV, Editor of The Bridge and Assistant Editor of The Washington Informer; and Franklin Chavis, founder and curator of Black Millennial Voices.

The conference concluded with a star-studded awards ceremony and performances that included a stirring rendition of Youve Got a Friend, by The Temptations, who dedicated their performance to the Black Press, two special songs by Supremes legend Mary Wilson and a pre-recorded performance by Ziggy Marley.

Wilson received the NNPA Lifetime Trailblazer Achievement Award, and Marley received the NNPA Global Icon Award which he dedicated to his legendary parents, Bob and Rita Marley.

Ive received many awards throughout my life, but this one feels special to me, Marley stated in accepting his award. Music is a powerful tool. Human beings have powerful beings. We can achieve whatever we wish to achieve if we are willing to do what it takes to achieve it. Standing up or kneeling down.

Public Enemys Chuck D, Attorney Ben Crump, Hip-Hop Legend MC Lyte and Congresswoman Karen Bass, Chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, were also among those receiving awards.

Receiving the Outstanding Congressional Leadership Award, I am humble. The work that we have done together over the last few years have been so important to us as a nation, but also to me personally, Representative Bass stated. I will take this award and continue to work on behalf of Black America.

Before concluding the night with a special recorded music mix by DJ D-Nice, hip-hop legend, actor, and entrepreneur Ice Cube received the Artist of the 21st Century Award.

Its an amazing honor and would like to thank everyone responsible for getting me this award, Ice Cube stated. This is a very cool honor from the Black Press of America. Ive learned from some of the artist whove come before me that just being an artist and not trying to move the social landscape forward in some way, shape, or form is a waste of opportunity.
Bengaluru, July 16 : Only three per cent of engineer graduates in India get high-quality tech jobs with salary packages of Rs 8-10 lakh and above, according to a report released on Thursday.

The data provided by Scaler -- a platform by edtech start-up InterviewBit, showed that over 80 per cent of these graduates end up pursuing non-technical careers due to lack of available employment opportunities.

To address the gap between skills needed for high-quality technology jobs and work-readiness of graduates, the company has launched a college-companion programme called 'Scaler Edge' - to boost the employability of engineering students.

Additionally, to meet the growing demand for online skilling courses, the company plans to hire 500 more teaching assistants and mentors in this financial year.

"We strongly believe that this offering will provide future techies with a certain edge that will help them land relevant growth roles to further their careers and eventually become the job-creators of 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' in software and technology," Abhimanyu Saxena, Co-Founder, InterviewBit & Scaler Academy said.

According to industry estimates, 15 lakh engineers graduate in India every year out of which only 2.5 lakh students land relevant jobs in technical domains. Out of those roughly 2.2 lakh openings are in software, within which a vast majority (1.8 lakh jobs) are in IT services garnering around only Rs 3-5 lakh per annum (LPA) in remuneration.

To address this discrepancy, a 2-year college-companion programme designed with input from top CTOs and engineers across tech companies, is being launched by Scaler to help students build industry-oriented skill-sets and pursue career tracks of the future.

Estimates further suggest that of the available engineering jobs, only approximately 40,000 jobs (for 3 per cent of 15 lakh engineers) provide an ideal mix of autonomy and learning potential with packages upwards of Rs 8-10 LPA for freshers.

Additionally, of the 3 per cent of graduates that land coveted high paying and high-quality jobs, the majority come from Tier 1 colleges -- implying the lack of good quality opportunities for students from Tier 2 and Tier 3 colleges.

The inequity in available employment opportunities across institutions leads to around 12.5 lakh engineers almost every year who have to reroute options and pursue non-technical opportunities to stay afloat, the company said.

The course also helps students work on functional projects that can be added to their resumes to highlight their capabilities to future employers. "Our offerings are built bearing in mind the need for a strong industry connect which most graduates might not have access to at their current level," said Anshuman Singh, Co-Founder, InterviewBit and Scaler Academy.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
The editor of British Vogue, Edward Enninful, said he was racially profiled after being told by a security guard to "use the loading bay" as he entered the magazine's offices in London.

Enninful, who in 2017 became the first man and the first black editor to take the helm of Britain's most powerful fashion publication, described the incident to his one million followers on Instagram in a post.

Anna Wintour and Edward Enninful attending the Fashion Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in 2019. Credit:Ian West/PA Wire/AP

"Today, I was racially profiled by a security guard whilst entering my workplace. I was instructed to use the loading bay," he wrote on Wednesday. "Just because our timelines and weekends are returning to normal, we cannot let the world return to how it was. Change needs to happen now."

Enninful said that Conde Nast, which owns British Vogue, "moved quickly" to dismiss the security guard. The magazine publisher, which also owns titles such as Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and GQ, has been hit with criticism after widespread Black Lives Matter protests for failures to support diversity in the workplace.
This time last year, Cici Cavanagh was living and working in Ibiza, and playing back-to-back gigs. The Dublin-born DJ is back on the island this year and ready to get to work. The trouble is she's not yet sure where the work will come from or what exactly it will entail.

"While the clubs are shut, I'm just taking the time to be in the countryside," she says. "I've always come to Ibiza for work or a party. Now I feel like I'm finally getting the holiday here that I never had time to have."

The White Isle usually welcomes around three million tourists a year. That number is expected to fall dramatically this year, impacting both the 75pc of the population who get their income from the tourism sector and seasonal workers, like Cici, who travel to Ibiza every summer.

Ibiza 2020 isn't cancelled - despite what some are saying on social media. The island has been open to tourists since June 22, with capacity restrictions in place. Dozens of flights and private jets are arriving each day and hotels, restaurants and bars are open for business.

But it isn't exactly business as usual. Super-clubs like Pacha, Ushuaia and DC10 are unlikely to open this summer and promoters are scrambling to come up with ways to host smaller, sit-down, socially distanced parties for no more than 70 people indoors and 30 outdoors. Locals, meanwhile, are enjoying the slower pace of an island that is usually thronged with techno tourists.

David Beatty, co-founder of Dublin-based music marketing agency Circulate, has been travelling to Ibiza for the last 19 years and working alongside DC10 for the last six years. He's travelling to the island for work later this summer.

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"From speaking to friends who are on the island right now, they say it feels like things are pretty much normal, but just without the clubs," he says.

Dubliner Eoin Smyth, whose production company Game Over runs some of the biggest parties on the island, says promoters are trying to get their heads around the new regulations, the most recent of which forbids residents and tourists from leaving their homes and hotels without wearing a mask.

"That's shaken everyone a little bit," he says, "but the feeling is that the summer is here."

For Trish Whelan, a Kilkenny-born yoga teacher, the next few months will be a welcome reprieve from the frenetic pace of previous seasons.

"I think the island is having its finest moment," she says. "All of the beauty - you can see it. There's fewer people and all the beaches are quieter. There's just a calmer vibe basically. And there's none of that crazy, out-of-it driving going on.

"The changes that are happening in the world are massive as we bring in this new age and, of course, the magical energy of Ibiza is really amplifying, so the feeling is epic here."

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Trish, who runs residential yoga retreats from her beach house in the hills of Portinatx, says a different crowd have been coming to Ibiza over the last few weeks.

"What I'm seeing is that people are coming for longer - the fly into Ibiza, get wrecked for three days and go home people aren't coming because the getting wrecked thing isn't an option. Instead, people are coming for a couple of weeks or a month.

"I think loads more people are going to move to Ibiza," she adds. "People who have been out of their office have found that they can work from home from February to July, so why can't they work from home from July to December?"

Eoin thinks the slower pace will attract more families.

"You have the old rave faithfuls who maybe have young children now who think this is the time to come back. They can go and have a nice dinner and listen to amazing DJs in a different type of setting. They don't have to go until 7am in the clubs.

"Then there are the people who used to come to Ibiza who haven't come for the last few years because maybe it got a bit too VIP or the prices were going out of control.

"The island definitely needed a bit of a reset," he adds, "because things were getting a little crazy."

Eoin's company was forced to cancel almost 120 events, between clubs and smaller residencies in bars and restaurants, this summer. And while he's working hard to pivot his business model (his company has been working with DJ Carl Cox on his popular Cabin Fever live stream series), he's also taking the opportunity to re-evaluate.

"Normally at this time of the year, we're running around like headless chickens with so many different events going on, but it's given us a chance to think is what you're doing solid? Is what you're doing the right thing to do?"

The general consensus among promoters, he says, is they all want to put on parties that work within the 'nueva normalidad' restrictions.

"It's different, but there's a lot of creativity - people who haven't worked together in a while are starting to think outside of the box. We're going back to that 70s and 80s hippie style - and there are more experiential events."

Cici agrees: "It feels like a Summer of Love revival. It's very bohemian. There's less boisterous activity, but the characters are still here. I'm still seeing the familiar faces I've seen on the island over the years."

In many ways, this summer marks a return to the free-spirited, DIY ethos of the Balearic Beat movement that put Ibiza on the map in the 1980s. Instead of crammed dancefloors, throbbing bass and fists in the air, promoters are putting on smaller, seated concerts where music is designed to be listened to rather than danced to (and where bottled water doesn't cost 10 a pop).

The infamous Pikes Hotel describes its 2020 vision as a throwback to a "bucolic Ibiza past, a time when life was more laid-back".

DJ Alfredo, who is recognised as the pioneer of the Balearic Beat movement, will be playing out the sunset on the Hostal La Torre terrace every Monday. David says these smaller events will give local and emerging DJs a chance to make a name for themselves.

"The headline acts for the last while have been getting all the money, so there has been very little room for mid-range artists to get on the line-up and get the fees they deserve."

Eoin says this could lead to some exciting, genre-bending music as DJs and producers, who would normally be touring at this time of year, spend more time than ever in the studio.

"We work with a number of DJs and they're all trying new things - techno artists are now experimenting with jazz. You'll see sub-genres, collaborations and people showing a different side of themselves because we don't know how we'll experience music over the next while."

It's a challenging time for Ibiza as it gets to grips with its nueva normalidad, but there are green shoots too. The island is going back to its roots and getting a chance to heed some of the criticisms - over-tourism, inflated prices, commercialism - that have long been levelled at it. And while residents are certainly feeling the pinch, there's a sense of optimism too.

"The reasons that brought me to Ibiza in the first place - a slower pace of life, being in nature, that kind of island mentality of being kind to each other and looking out for each other - that's all really happening," says Trish.

"And it just feels really glorious."

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Rao, who hails from Telangana, was shifted to the government-run hospital in south Mumbai on Monday night after he complained of giddiness and was later admitted to its neurology department.

Octogenarian jailed poet and activist Varavara Rao has tested positive for coronavirus days after his family publicly expressed concern about his health, urging authorities to not "kill him in the jail."

The 80-year-old activist and Telugu poet has been in jail for the past two years in connection with the Elgar Parishad case. Rao had been in Navi Mumbais Taloja prison where his health had been deteriorating since the end of May. He was moved to Mumbai's JJ Hospital on Monday evening after he complained of giddiness..

"He has shown no symptoms of COVID-19 so far. He has no breathing difficulty and is stable. We will soon shift him to a COVID-19 hospital," , The News Minute quoted Dr Ranjit Mankeshwar, the dean of JJ Hospital as saying.

Mankeshwar said that claims made by his family members that he is not getting proper medical care were not true.

"We are providing best health facilities to him and by late (Thursday) night he may be shifted to St George Hospital (another state-run hospital) for further treatment," said Mankeshwar.

Meanwhile, shocking details regarding his health condition emerged after his family tried to visit him at the JJ Hospital. A letter by Human Rights Defenders Alert claimed that upon visiting Rao, his family members found him lying in an inhumane condition in a pool of urine in a transit ward with no treatment or attendant. "When his nephew tried to change his urine-soaked bed sheets, the family was thrown out by the hospital staff," the letter, as quoted in an article on Newsclick, stated.

Rao's family also claimed that he was hallucinating and spoke about his fathers funeral, an event that took place 75 years ago, an article in Scroll said.

Venugopal said that his co-accused and former academic Vernon Gonsalves took the phone from him and told them that Rao was "unable to walk on his own, unable to go to the loo, to wash himself or to brush his teeth."

Rao had also needed hospitalisation in May when he fell unconscious in jail. However, he was discharged within three days, after which his family had said that he was not provided proper medical treatment, The Indian Express reported.

Rao's lawyers have tried to get him bail several times over the past 22 months, on the grounds of his ill health.

The last petition was filed as late as on Monday when Rao's lawyers approached the Bombay High Court with two pleas, seeking temporary bail owing to his deteriorating health and a direction to the jail authorities to produce his medical records and admit him to a state-run or private hospital. The plea is pending before the high court and is likely to come up on Friday for hearing.

On 26 June, the NIA court rejected his plea on the ground that he has been booked under stringent provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), following which he moved the high court.

Rao and nine other activists have been arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, which was initially probed by the Pune Police and later transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in January this year.

The case related to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial.

The police have also claimed the conclave was organised by people with alleged Maoist links.

With inputs from PTI




SINGAPORE (EDGEPROP) - Home buyers acquired 998 private new homes in Singapore in June, a rise of 104.9% m-o-m, according to URA data.

The rebound in the market, reflecting pent-up demand from the circuit breaker measures, also marks a 21.6% y-o-y rise. The sales are the highest in seven years, since June 2013, which saw 1,806 private homes sold.

The best-selling projects in June were Treasure at Tampines (104 units), Parc Clematis (90 units), and The Florence Residences (89 units).

The rise in Junes sales volume was across all market segments - the Core Central Region (CCR), Rest of Central Region (RCR), and Outside Central Region (OCR), notes Christine Sun, head of research & consultancy at OrangeTee & Tie. In June, new homes sold in the RCR rose 127.5% m-o-m to 430 units, those in OCR increased 90.3 per cent to 489 units, while homes sold in the CCR rose 92.7% to 79 units.

After the reopening of showflats on June 19, there has also been a substantial increase in prices of private homes sold in June, Sun observes. Based on URA data as at July 15, the number of private homes that transacted at $2 million and above rose from 23 units in May to 129 units in June. Meanwhile, 32 private homes were sold at $3 million and above in June, compared to eight in May.





Properties that transacted above $10 million in June included a 2,766 sq ft unit on the fifth floor of Boulevard 88 that changed hands for $10.2 million ($3,680 psf), as well as a unit at 15 Holland Hill, spanning 5,425 sq ft on the 12th floor, that sold for $15 million ($2,765 psf).

As Singapore entered Phase Two of its reopening, foreign buyers gradually returned to the market, highlights Sun. The number of non-landed homes bought by foreign buyers increased in June: 49 non-landed private homes were purchased in June, a steep increase from the 14 units transacted in May, and the seven units sold in April. This is also higher than the 33 units transacted in June 2019.

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Many foreigners have bought properties last month as the growing macro-economic uncertainties have driven more overseas investors to seek shelter for safe-haven assets here, says Sun.

Although showflats were reopened last month, we have observed more foreign buyers purchasing private homes remotely due to the border lockdowns or travel restrictions imposed in many countries, which is a stark contrast to the past where many foreigners would only buy a unit only after visiting a showflat, she says.





The number of non-landed homes purchased by Singapore permanent residents have also increased, to 120 units in June from 56 units in May.

Overall, developers have sold a total of 1,763 private new homes in 2Q2020, bringing new home sales to 3,911 units in 1H2020, a 7% y-o-y decline.

The number of ECs sold in June also increased m-o-m, at 33 units, compared to 23 ECs sold in May.

The only new condo launch in June was Parkwood Residences, which sold one unit at the median price of $1,323 psf.

Although the rebound in sales for June has been encouraging, property consultants believe new home sales will slow as the country enters a recession. The Singapore economy contracted 41.2% q-o-q in the April to June period, according to the Ministry of Trade and Industrys advance estimates on July 14.

Real estate consultants estimate that total new home sales for the whole year would hover between 6,000 and 7,000 units, down from 9,912 transactions in 2019.

Check out the latest listings near Parkwood Residences, 15 Holland Hill, Treasure at Tampines, Parc Clematis, and The Florence Residences

For price trends, recent transactions, other project info, check out these projects' research page: Parkwood Residences, 15 Holland Hill, Treasure at Tampines, Parc Clematis, The Florence Residences

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LONDON  Conde Nast immediately dismissed a security guard who profiled Edward Enninful, the editor in chief of British Vogue, on his way into work at Vogue House in London.

The guard, who was at the front desk, told Enninful to use the loading bay which is located at the back of the building, a block away.

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The guard, who worked for a third-party contractor, was dismissed from the site immediately and placed under investigation by the contractor, according to a Conde Nast spokesperson. The publisher had contracted the third-party security firm during lockdown.

Enninful, who is Black and has made diversity a priority at British Vogue since he arrived in 2017, recounted the incident late Wednesday on his Instagram account.

Today I was racially profiled by a security guard whilst entering my work place. As I entered, I was instructed to use the loading bay, Enninful wrote. He said that while Conde Nast moved quickly to dismiss the guard, it just goes to show that sometimes it doesnt matter what youve achieved in the course of your life: the first thing that some people will judge you on is the color of your skin.

He added that just because work schedules and weekends are returning to normal following the easing of lockdown, we cannot let the world return to how it was: Change needs to happen now.

Britain has seen multiple Black Lives Matter and anti-racism protests in the past month since the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in May.

Enninful, winner of many industry accolades, received an OBE, or Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, for his services to diversify the fashion industry in 2016, shortly before being named the first male, and first Black, editor of Vogue.

Born in Ghana, Enninful moved to London as a child, growing up with his five siblings in Ladbroke Grove. He began in the industry as a model, and later took up the fashion director role at i-D magazine, where he worked for decades. He worked for Italian and American Vogue before becoming creative and fashion director of W Magazine.

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In his three years at British Vogue, he has championed diversity, most recently spotlighting Britains National Health Service workers on the front lines of COVID-19, shooting them in their scrubs with hospital ID tags slung around their necks.

His first cover for British Vogue featured the model and activist Adwoa Aboah, shot by Steven Meisel, and last summer he invited Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, to guest edit the magazines September issue last year, which focused on women change makers.

While working at W Magazine in New York, Enninful directed the video, I Am an Immigrant, which featured fashion industry figures talking about their personal experiences in the wake of Donald Trumps travel ban on Muslim countries.

In 2017, he told WWD that British Vogue had to represent real women, and to be reflective of the society we live in. Diversity is very important for me. I want Vogue to feel like a shop that youre not scared to walk into, one thats quite welcoming.

In that same interview, he talked about growing up an as immigrant in Britain. London welcomed my family, I grew up in Notting Hill in a multicultural society. I lived in two worlds. One was the world of school, Britain, and then Id go home to another one with different colors and smells. My view of the world has always been very open.
India has been a great American partner, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday, noting that he frequently talks with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar on a broad range of issues, including the conflict it had along the border with China. The troops of India and China are locked in an over eight-week standoff in several areas in eastern Ladakh including Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley and Gogra Hot Spring since May 5. The situation deteriorated last month following the Galwan Valley clashes that left 20 Indian Army personnel dead.

"India has been a great partner. They are an important partner of ours. I have a great relationship with my foreign minister counterpart. We talked frequently about a broad range of issues. We talked about the conflict they had along the border with China. We've talked about the risk that emanates from Chinese telecommunication infrastructure there," Pompeo told reporters here. Pompeo also referred to India's decision to ban a number of Chinese apps.

India last month banned 59 Chinese apps, including TikTok and UC Browser, saying they were prejudicial to the sovereignty, integrity and security of the country. "You saw the decision they made to ban some several dozen Chinese software firms from operating inside of their country on the phones of people operating inside of India," he said.

"I think the whole world is coalescing around the challenge that we face and that democracies, that free nations of the world will push back on these challenges together. I'm very confident of that," said the top American diplomat. Responding to a question, Pompeo said that America's behaviour with China has changed due to the change in behaviour of the latter.

"I think it's worth noting the reason for that change is the Chinese Communist Party's behaviour. That's important. I listen to some of the narrative that--that flows out of China, some of the disinformation, and people use language like tit-for-tat. These are to tit for tat exchanges," he said. "This is America standing up for its own people and the world now coming to understand the threat that the Chinese Communist Party is. So, to the extent there's been a change in relationship, it is a direct result of the behaviour of the Chinese Communist Party. And so, when that stops, we'll do that," Pompeo said.

Also read: 174 Indians file lawsuit against Trump administration over H-1B visa ban
Sri Lanka will re-open its schools in a phased manner from Monday after keeping them closed for 115 days due to the lockdown imposed in the country to contain the spread of the coronavirus, the Ministry of Education said on Sunday.

The schools were shut mid-March when Sri Lanka detected its first COVID-19 infection. Ranjith Chandrasekera, the additional secretary to the ministry, said students from Grades 5, 11 and 13 will resume schooling on Monday. There will be extended hours for Grade 13 students with school closing time extended until 3.30 PM from the usual 1.30 PM closure.

In the next phase, students of Grades 12 and 10 will return on July 20. The students of Grades 3,4,6,7,8 and 9 would return on July 27. The final phase would be on August 10 when Grades 1 and 2 would return, the official said. "Parents are strictly advised not to send children to schools if they are having fever, cough and flu, Chandrasekera said.

He said students were not expected to wear face masks when in school but must don them when they travel to school and back. They will also be made to follow strict COVID-19 health guidelines. The school principals have been advised not to conduct term tests or to have students participating in extracurricular activities despite the re-opening of schools. The teachers and non-academic staff had returned to schools last week to prepare for students' return while setting in motion health guidelines.

Sri Lanka ended its COVID-19 lockdown in stages after it was imposed in May. Last month, the Sri Lankan government completely lifted the curfew imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus after no new case of community infection was recorded for nearly two months in the country. Sri Lanka had been under a continuous lockdown since March 20, a week after the first case of the pandemic was reported.

Initially, a nationwide blanket curfew was imposed but it was later eased for about two-thirds of the country and was mostly confined to night time. The island nation recorded over 2,000 COVID-19 positive cases with just 11 deaths. Since April 30, no cases from within the local communities have been reported, according to the health officials. Sri Lanka is set to hold a parliamentary election on August 5 which was also postponed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has proposed to scrap jail terms for breach of Cable TV Networks Regulation Act. The suggestion comes within the framework of a recently announced move to decriminalise minor offences in bylaws across ministries.

The Cable TV Act is a broad directive that largely regulates all aspects of broadcasting and distributing television channels in India with multiple codes. The act comprises a programming and advertising code.

Currently, anyone in violation of the act could face a jail sentence of up to two years for the first offence and up to five years for repeat offenders.

Also Read: TRAI's new framework for cable services: Will watching TV get costlier? All you need to know

As per the new proposal mooted by the I&B ministry, the penalty for violations under the act would be restricted to a classified set of penalties, The Economic Times reported.

These include issuing warnings, advisory, forbidding transmission of offensive programmes, giving the channel a chance to explain, running apology scrolls, and subsequently imposing a ban of up to 30 days on the channel's broadcasting or annulment of its licence basis the offence.

But first and foremost, the earlier provision of prison terms for the key decision-makers in the companies will be entirely rubbed out.

An I&B Ministry official told the news daily that the proposal is part of an "attempt to reform governance in India to make laws more business-friendly, and also aimed at increasing freedom in creating and transmitting content."

Also Read: Govt seeks stakeholders' opinion on decriminalising cheque bounce, lesser economic offences

The Cable TV Act governs not just cable and DTH operators, but television content as well. It can impose penalties on TV channels for unauthorised content broadcast, non-compliance with TRAI norms, illegal circulation, plagiarism, wrong or under-declaration of subscriber numbers.

Following Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's announcement of decriminalisation of violations under the Companies Act in this year's budget, a GoM that met stakeholders had also suggested that all ministries scrap sentences for minor offences, or reduce penal provisions in all statutes, particularly in areas that affect businesses.
Ram temple in Ayodhya to be ready by 2025, open for 'darshan' to devotees by 2023 end

Ram temple construction likely to start next month: Trust chief's spokesperson

India

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Ayodhya, July 16: The construction of the Ram temple here is likely to start next month and the temple trust president has sent an invite to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to grace the occasion of its foundation stone laying ceremony, said Ayodhya seers on Thursday.

A tentative programme for the construction of the temple is likely to be decided in the meeting of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust here on Saturday, they said.

Nepals archaeological department plans excavation in Thori after Oli claims it as real Ayodhya

Trusts president Nritya Gopal Das has sent a letter to the prime minister, inviting him to conduct the Bhumi Pujan of Ram Mandir on the occasion of its foundation laying ceremony, said Mahant Kamal Nayan Das, the official spokesperson of the Trust president.

International flights: Bubble travel with US & France, flights to resume from tomorrow|Oneindia News

There is, however, no clarity as of now on prime ministers presence on the occasion, he said, adding a clearer picture is likely to emerge after the July 18 meeting. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat too is expected to be present during the Bhumi Pujan, he said.

Real Ayodhya in Nepal, Lord Ram not Indian: Oli

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Modis former principal secretary Nripendra Mishra, also the chairman of the construction committee of the temple trust, visited Ayodhya on Thursday along with BSFs former director general K K Sharma, the security adviser of the Ram Janmabhoomi Trust, and met various members of the Ram Temple Trust, set up as per the directions of the apex court.

The meeting was held in the presence of various local authorities at the Circuit House here and attended by trust secretary Champat Rai and members Anil Mishra and Bimlendra Mishra among others. Trust president Mahant Nritya Gopal Das and member Mahant Dinendra Das, who live in Ayodhya itself, however, were not present in the meeting.
A 72-year-old passenger has died on a repatriation flight from the US to Vietnam, foreign ministry announced Thursday.

Vietnamese citizens returning from US arrive Van on International Airport on Thirsday.  Photo courtesy of Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The passenger, whose gender has not been revealed, died shortly following a fall after using the lavatory, according to national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines.

No specific cause of death has been given.

The passenger was aboard the fifth repatriation flight from the US to Vietnam, departing on July 15 from San Francisco International Airport.

According to the national flag carrier Vietnam Airline, the accident happened after the plane had been in the air for more than 13 hours.

After the passenger fell, the crew gave first-aid and asked for help from any doctors on board.

Unfortunately, the passenger died before the plane landed at Van Don International Airport in the northeastern province of Quang Ninh.

The crew reported the accident to relevant agencies and completed required procedures to transfer the passengers body to the funeral house.

Vietnam Airlines has also offered condolences to the passengers family.

Vietnamese authorities, representative agencies and national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines partnered with US authorities to carry nearly 350 Vietnamese citizens home on the flight.

The passengers included children aged below 18, the elderly, pregnant women, the sick, workers whose visas and labour contracts expired, students without residences due to dormitory closures and others.

The passengers were placed under mandatory quarantine in line with the country's regulations on COVID-19 prevention and control.

To date, more than 1,700 Vietnamese citizens in the US have been brought home on five repatriation flights while some 13,000 others still wish to return as the COVID-19 pandemic is witnessing complicated developments.

Similar flights will be conducted in the near future to bring citizens home, taking into account domestic quarantine capacity.  VNS
It hasn't been an easy year for Bachelor star Chelsie McLeod, who split from beau Matt Agnew in December.

And on Wednesday, the 28-year-old's run of bad luck seemed to continue as she popped out to exercise wearing her mask back-to-front in a video she shared to Instagram.

Luckily, the Melbourne-based stunner quickly realised her mistake and was able to laugh at herself.

Whoops! on Wednesday, Bachelor beauty Chelsie McLeod (pictured) popped out in Melbourne to exercise wearing her mask back to front

'Would help if I wore it the right way round,' she captioned a video of her showing her 164,000 followers the mistake.

'Time for an uncontaminated one,' she added.

On Friday, Victorian State Premier Daniel Andrews urged Melbourne residents to wear a mask when leaving their home for essential reasons.

Sense of humour: Luckily the Melbourne-based stunner realised her mistake quick smart and was able to laugh at herself, pointing out the mishap to her 164,000 followers

The city of Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire were be placed back into lockdown for six weeks from last Wednesday following a surge in coronavirus cases.

Meanwhile, Chelsie received further bad news last month.

The blonde stunner revealed that after breaking up with Matt she saw a psychic who told her that she won't meet anyone new for years.

Important lesson: 'Time for an uncontaminated one,' she explained as she changed into a new mask

Oh no! Chelsie McLeod (pictured) split from 2019 Bachelor Matt Agnew last year. Last month, she received bad news from a psychic who told her that she won't meet anyone new for years

'She said I wouldn't meet someone for four years, so that's a bit grim  as in a guy. Ripped my dating life.'

Chelsie went on to say that she had to miss a friend's wedding in Bali and cancel a round the world trip at the end of the year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

But she added that the psychic helpfully told her the lockdowns 'would be over by September'.

Bummer: Chelsie went on to say that she had to miss a friend's wedding in Bali and cancel a round the world trip at the end of the year because of the coronavirus pandemic

The engineer went on to explain that she felt 'grief' when she and Matt, 32, split last year.

'Googling the five stages of grief helped me because I could see the trend,' she said, adding workouts helped.

'Getting out into nature. I love putting all my energy into fitness. Helped me get over things. I took my anger out on weights'.

All over: Matt and Chelsie unexpectedly announced their breakup on November 17, just six weeks after The Bachelor finale had aired on TV

She added: 'Grieve. Let yourself grieve. Cry in bed in you want to. Eat bad food if you want to. Do whatever makes you happy'.

Chelsie also said that her 'amazing friends' surrounded and supported her, with the blonde calling them her 'soul mates'.

She also advised those in a breakup to read Zoe Foster Blake's book Break-Up Boss.

The former Bachelor star concluded: 'Time heals all wounds, I promise you will be fine.'
Having secured an alliance with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte during a state visit to Beijing in 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping underlined it when he visited Manila in 2018, promising a new chapter in the two nations diplomatic ties and vowing to turn the disputed South China Sea into a sea of peace.

In a published message to Filipinos just before his trip, Xi recalled how, more than 600 years ago, Chinese explorer Zheng He made multiple visits to the Manila Bay, Visayas and Sulu areas during his seven overseas voyages seeking friendship and cooperation.

The suggestion was that China had been in contact with the archipelago long before Europeans arrived and named it Las Islas Filipinas after Spains King Felipe II. It was also a way for Xi to bolster Chinas claims in the South China Sea  based on its nine-dash line and long contested by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia.

The problem is that the evidence suggests Zheng never set foot in the future Philippine islands.

All the scholars all over the world are unanimous: Zheng He never visited the Philippines, Antonio Carpio said in an online lecture earlier this month, calling Xis anecdote totally false. The former Philippine Supreme Court justice also presented official Chinese records that debunk Beijings historical maritime rights over the South China Sea  thereby raising new questions about its standing in the region as tensions escalate.





On Monday, the US raised the stakes, saying Beijings claims to offshore resources across most of the disputed seas were completely unlawful. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo added that the world would not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire. In response, Beijing accused Washington of unnecessarily inflaming the situation.

Earlier, the US deployed the warships USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan to assert what it calls its freedom of navigation in the waters. A sailor on one of the ships told Al Jazeera that the operations could last for weeks. China held a large-scale naval exercise in the area from July 1 to 5.

History vs facts on the ground

Historical records may not favour China in the continuing debate on the control of the South China Sea, through which as much as $5.3 trillion in global trade passes annually.

Refuting the Chinese presidents claim, Carpio presented evidence from Chinas own Naval Hydrographic Institute, chronicling Zhengs visit to the then-Cham Kingdom of central Vietnam. A translation mixup of the kingdoms Chinese name incorrectly referred to it later as a Philippine island.

A 2019 Ancient History Encyclopedia article also traced Zhengs expeditions in the early 1400s as far as Arabia and Africa, but nowhere in the story did it mention Zhengs supposed visit to the Philippines.

A map of ancient China dating back to the Tang Dynasty shows that the island of Hainan was the countrys southernmost territory [State Bureau of Cultural Relics of China via the presentation of Philippine Justice Antonio Carpio]

To further disprove Chinas claim of historical rights, Carpio presented several ancient Chinese maps, dating as far back as 900 years ago, to the Song and Tang dynasties. All the maps showed that Chinas southernmost territory was the island of Hainan.

Additionally, the 1947 Constitution of the Republic of China, also identified Hainan as the countrys southernmost part, raising questions over what would later emerge as the nine-dash line claim.

Regardless of the historical evidence, the reality is that China already controls almost all the facts on the ground and now has a real and credible foothold in the South China Sea, said Thomas Benjamin Daniel, senior foreign policy expert at Malaysias Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS Malaysia).

Still, Daniel and other analysts urge China and other stakeholders in the region to abide by the principles and spirit of international law, to keep the peace and avoid situations that would lead down a very dangerous road.

Nine-dash line

For years, China has anchored its South China Sea claims on the nine-dash line, under which it lays claim to almost 90 percent of the disputed waters as far south as the coasts of Malaysian Borneo and Brunei. Images published by China showed the imaginary line almost hugging the shores of neighbouring countries.

Using the controversial line, Beijing has been ramping up activities in the South China Sea, starting with the Paracel Islands in the 1970s and 1980s, the Spratly Islands in the 1990s, and the Scarborough Shoal in the early 2000s.

Chester Cabalza, a security analyst and fellow at the National Defence University in Beijing, said China has been strategic in approaching the South China Sea conundrum. He added that the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has only provided the country even more opportunities to advance its interests.

It seems like China is winning, he told Al Jazeera, noting how it had militarised the disputed waters by developing rocks and atolls into islands in recent years.

ISIS Malaysias Daniel added that China is playing the long game, as it attempts to solidify and normalise its regional maritime position.

An aerial view of the disputed Subi reef shows Chinas construction of maritime and aerial facilities on reclaimed land in 2017 [File: Francis R Malasig/EPA]

The Hague ruling

Beijings approach encountered resistance in 2016 with the landmark ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which declared that Chinas historical rights had no legal basis.

The ruling also said that the rocks and the partly submerged features on which China had built its naval and aerial facilities, were within the 200 nautical-mile (370.4km) Exclusive Economic Zone of the Philippines, as defined by the UN. An EEZ is an area where only the country it belongs to can fish and explore natural resources, although safe passage is granted to foreign vessels.

The court also established the EEZs of Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Vietnam, boosting their positions in relation to China.

Furthermore, the court said Chinas reclaimed areas and artificial islands were not entitled to a 12-nautical-mile (22.2km) territorial sea, because they were not habitable in their original form. As such, freedom of navigation and overflight are allowed in those areas.

China refused to participate in the arbitration case, dismissing the ruling as null and void.





It has also continued to expand its facilities in the South China Sea, including a three-km (1.86-mile) military-grade runway, barracks and radars on Mischief Reef, which is within the Philippine EEZ.

Maritime incidents have also escalated, with a Vietnamese boat being sunk in April, an incident blamed on a Chinese surveillance vessel. All eight fishermen survived. In June 2019, at least 22 Filipino fishermen were left to drown when their fishing boat was rammed under suspicious circumstances by an alleged Chinese militia boat. They were later rescued by Vietnamese fishermen.

On Tuesday, Malaysia revealed that Chinese coastguard and navy ships had encroached into its waters at least 89 times between 2016 and 2019. Earlier this year, there were also reports of a Chinese government survey ship tagging a Malaysian oil-exploration vessel within the Malaysian EEZ.

Cabalza, of the National Defence University in Beijing, described Chinas behaviour as schizophrenic, as it tries to employ both confrontation and cooperation in dealing with its neighbours.

Code of Conduct

As part of its effort to defuse tensions in the region, the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been pressing China for years to reach agreement on the so-called Code of Conduct, which would govern countries behaviour in the South China Sea.

Differences between members  some of whom have no claim to the sea but are close to China  mean there has been little headway made.

Cabalza says the 10-nation bloc must present a more unified voice before it takes on China, which prefers bilateral negotiation, adding that ASEAN nations should not become submissive in negotiating an equitable deal with Beijing.

On June 26, ASEAN leaders held a virtual summit hosted by Vietnam, in which they declared that the 1982 United Nations oceans treaty should be the foundation for sovereign rights and entitlements in the South China Sea. However, the leaders were unable to make significant progress on the Code of Conduct.

As the current chairman of the 10-nation ASEAN bloc, Vietnam has stepped up its pushback against Beijing amid recent incidents of alleged harassment of civilian vessels in the South China Sea [File: Hau Dinh/AP]

Daniel says he is not very optimistic that an agreement can be reached soon to help ease tension.

ASEAN is an association of 10 member states with different national and foreign priorities, that makes decisions based on consensus. Consensus here often means the lowest common denominator.

In the absence of a consensus, the increased presence of the US in the South China Sea could prove a useful counterweight.

Daniel said the marked increase of US freedom of navigation operations and sharper rhetoric, show that Washington wants to remain relevant in the region.

On Wednesday, Pompeo issued another statement saying the US would support countries all across the world who recognise that China has violated their legal territorial claims as well  or maritime claims as well.

Meanwhile, Carpio said the worlds navies should be encouraged to sail through the South China Sea and exercise freedom of navigation  to deliver a message to Beijing that it does not control the area.

He also urged Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Vietnam to help the Philippines in explaining that Chinas claim of historical right is totally false.

We should continue resorting to the rule of law, because we have no other choice, Carpio said.

War is not an option.
Saskatchewan NDP Leader Ryan Meili slammed the governments pandemic plan Monday saying the provincial health authority is withholding the location of those testing positive for COVID-19.

Meili accused the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) and the Ministry of Health of not being clear about where the cases are in the province when releasing information on new COVID-19 numbers. The criticism comes as Montreal Lake Cree Nation faces its first case of coronavirus.

When its marginalized communities, they say more about it versus mainstream communities, Meili said. He said it could be politically motivated as provincial elections are slated for October.

The Health Ministry said there are reasons why it cannot name specific communities or reveal more detailed information when COVID-19 cases are identified.

In communities with low case counts and low populations, revealing the exact location  could identify the person or patient with COVID-19. In other cases, public health may also need to investigate where the case originated, ministry spokesperson Kaitlyn Abel told Canadas National Observer.

In situations where there is an outbreak or where many COVID-19 cases are identified, more exact community information can be shared as this will not identify individuals, Abel said.

Following debates in the legislature Premier Scott Moe said Tuesday that Saskatchewan will restart daily public case updates on weekends.

This past weekend we did have some higher case numbers and it did create some concern, and for that reason, and because we want to be as forthcoming with information as possible  we will be going back to daily reporting of case numbers, he said.

Moe said daily reporting had recently adopted a Monday to Friday schedule because cases were stable and to take some pressure off health staff on the weekends.

In April, Saqib Shahab, Saskatchewans chief medical health officer, said that as long as an infected individual is following health authority guidelines and all their contacts have been traced where they are isnt important.

A case of coronavirus had been assigned to the northern village of Pinehouse based on a P.O. box address when the individual was in Saskatoon. Mayor Mike Natomagan called it very important for people to be aware of the actual location so that the community could know how to respond.

Knowing where that individual is, or which community, is of absolutely no value because all the contacts are accounted for and followed up, Shahab said.

On Wednesday the Health Ministry said that since March it has been regularly updating Saskatchewan residents on COVID-19 and has tried to be as transparent as possible to ensure people are aware of cases across the province.

Meili called on the Saskatchewan government to share location data with stakeholder communities in the province as soon as it becomes available.

Lots of people have changed their behaviour significantly and its going to be hard to change it back. Not sharing the full information makes it harder for people to make those decisions wisely, Meili said.

The Health Ministry said it remains committed to improving reporting to balance privacy and transparency.

We understand the publics desire to have exact case location information shared publicly. However, the Ministry of Health cannot risk identifying individuals or compromising a patients privacy, Abel said.

Meili told Canadas National Observer that the governments approach to handling the pandemic isnt working because it is mostly focused on reopening.

Weve got a government that thinks theyre done. They think theyve fixed this and got it, and they dont realize they have to stay through until the end of the job, Meili said.

The Health Ministry said there is a risk of coming into contact with COVID-19 anywhere in the province.

It is important that all residents behave and act as if it is in their community. By taking proper precautions and doing all we can to keep ourselves and others safe, we will be able to reduce COVID-19 transmission in Saskatchewan, Abel said.

On Friday, Montreal Lake Cree Nation, between Prince Albert and La Ronge, declared two weeks of total lockdown after announcing its first COVID-19 case.

Chief Frank Roberts and nurse manager Amanda Nelson confirmed the test results in a statement Friday.

Well be going into a total lockdown of our community. Thats our orders, Roberts said. People are free to go to their traplines if they want to self-isolate there.

Nelson reminded residents to wear masks and use hand sanitizer when out in public and to follow health authority guidelines.

Do not come to the clinic. Do not come to the store  You might not think its COVID-related if you are sick, however, please call 811 anyway, Nelson said.

Hopefully, we can nip this in the bud and our community will come out of this healthy and stronger.

The Northern Inter-Tribal Health Authoritys (NITHA) medical health officer Dr. Nnamdi Ndubuka issued a precautionary health advisory Friday.

COVID-19 remains a threat to our communities, Ndubuka said, advising northern residents to be vigilant to prevent the spread of the virus as more cases are reported across the province.

As the province continues to reopen, we are encouraging all northern residents to practise public health measures.

Meili said one case in Montreal Lake could lead to more if its not contained.

This virus can spread very quickly. We know that one case is what led to hundreds in the northwest, Meili said.

Locking down the community is probably wise, given the risk for remote communities.

Moe applauded northern communities such as La Loche for dealing with an outbreak in the far north where active cases were down to six on Tuesday. The northern village of La Loche announced that there are no active cases of COVID-19 in the community on Wednesday.

Moe said that after four months of living with the pandemic, the province has dealt effectively with outbreaks, having limited cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

We continue to see local outbreaks that show just how quickly this virus can spread if we let our guard down ... The risk has not gone away, Moe said. We have also shown that we can get these outbreaks under control, if we do the right things.

Montreal Lake is in the northeast part of Saskatchewan which reopened earlier than the northwest due to a lower case count.

Meili said that social distancing is difficult in communities such as Montreal Lake or La Loche and they should be getting special support and special advice.

Increasing numbers over the recent number of days has been quite concerning and should serve as a reminder for each and every one of us that we have to continue with all of the good practices that have worked for us and have been successful thus far, Moe said.

Moe said that success with containing the pandemic in Saskatchewan in no way should change our behaviour from day to day. We have to keep doing the right things each and every day.

Moe said to maintain physical distance, wash hands, control the number of people that you come into close contact with and to stay home if feeling unwell.

The Northern Inter-Tribal Health Authority precautionary health advisory for northern Saskatchewan is available in the Cree language and in the Dene language
An 80-year-old grandmother who was arrested at a climate protest with three other 'knitting nannas' walked out of court a free woman.

Elizabeth Perry was arrested with the three other women  aged 73, 64 and 63  at an Extinction Rebellion protest in October 2019.

The group were knitting scarves that read 'tell the truth' while blocking the entry to Parliament House in Hobart, according to The Mercury.

She pleaded not guilty to failing to comply with the direction of a police officer.

Elizabeth Perry (pictured) was arrested with the three other women  aged 73, 64 and 63  at an Extinction Rebellion protest in October 2019

The magistrate dismissed the charge on Tuesday due to lack of evidence.

'I am in my 80th year and I can assure you it is not just young people who are scared out of their wits about what we have done to the planet,' Ms Perry said outside of court, according to Extinction Rebellion Tasmania.

'Scientists have been warning us for the last 40 years that if we continue to dig fossil fuels out of the ground and burn them, and continue land clearing, we will create a climate catastrophe.

'Conventional forms of protest - letter writing, petitions, phone calls, marches, have not worked. I now believe that to take to the street and engage in non-violent civil disobedient action is the only means I have of making my voice heard.'

Another woman named Jodi Henry was also released after there was no evidence on her charges.

Seven other activists will appear in court on November 18 to fight the charges against them.
MOSCOW: Russia plans to produce 30 million doses of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine domestically this year, with the potential to manufacture a further 170 million abroad, the head of the country`s sovereign wealth fund said.

The first human trial of the vaccine, a month-long test on 38 people, ended this week. Researchers concluded that it is safe for use and induces an immune response, though the strength of that response is yet unclear.

A larger Phase III trial involving several thousand people is expected to begin in August, said Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) head Kirill Dmitriev.

"We believe that based on the current results it will be approved in Russia in August and in some other countries in September..., making it possibly the first vaccine to be approved in the world," he said in an interview.

More than 100 possible vaccines are being developed to try to stop the pandemic. At least two are in final Phase III human trials, according to World Health Organization data - one being developed by China`s Sinopharm and the other by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.

Producers are also grappling with the question of how to massively scale up production to meet global needs.

HERD IMMUNITY

Dmitriev said the Russian Phase III trial will be conducted at home and in two Middle Eastern countries and will begin after a 100-person Phase II trial wraps up on Aug. 3.

Russia was in talks with Saudi Arabia on being a trial site as well as a manufacturing partner, he told a separate news conference.

Moscow`s Gamaleya Institute, which developed the Russian candidate vaccine, is producing doses for clinical trials, while private pharmaceutical firms Alium - part of the Sistema conglomerate- R-Pharm and are handling bottling.

Both are updating their lab set up to be able to take over production within the next couple of months, Dmitriev said.

"There`s a general sense that for so-called herd immunity in Russia you need to vaccinate between 40 million and 50 million people," he said.

"So we believe we will be in good shape producing around 30 million (doses domestically) this year and then we can finalise vaccination next year."

Russia had also struck manufacturing deals with five other countries and could be producing up to 170 million doses abroad this year, Dmitriev said.

He declined to say where or give any details on pricing, but said countries in Latin America, the Middle East and elsewhere had expressed interest in importing the vaccine.

Russia has also reached a deal with drug maker AstraZeneca on its potential COVID-19 vaccine, called AZD1222. "We expect one of our portfolio companies to also be working ...on producing the AstraZeneca vaccine in Russia," Dmitriev said.
Incoming freshmen sought for scholarship program started by Black & Veatch Foundation

Thursday, July 16, 2020 9:30 AM

News, Academics

Pittsburg, KS

Five incoming freshmen to the Electronics Engineering Technology program at Pittsburg State University each will receive a $7,200 scholarship  $3,600 for fall, and $3,600 for spring  funded by the Black & Veatch Foundation.

Scholarship recipients also will be invited to mentorship, learning, and networking opportunities with professionals at Black & Veatch. Applicants must have a minimum GPA of 3.0 and be residents of Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, or Arkansas.

Students will be eligible to renew this scholarship in future years, pending future funding from the Black & Veatch Foundation and provided the students meet other criteria such as completing an internship.

Representatives with the company said the foundation is underwriting the targeted scholarships at Pittsburg State University because of the universitys interest and track record in delivering qualified, aspiring graduates who can support the companys power business needs.

Greg Murray, chair of the Department of Engineering Technology in the College of Technology at PSU, said the college has had a long and successful history with Black & Veatch, to the direct benefit of students.

Black & Veatch has hired several engineering technology and construction students for full-time employment and internships, and employees there serve on multiple advisory boards for the college, he said.

The scholarships, along with program funding, will allow Black & Veatch and PSU to work on curriculum for power transmission systems including substation design and innovative technologies which are increasingly implemented in this space.

Clark Shaver, associate professor in Electronics Engineering Technology, said PSU electronics graduates are in high demand.

Black & Veatch has recognized their value by hiring many graduates and interns for many years, he said. Now, with this scholarship, B&V has gone even further, demonstrating their belief in our graduates. Its awesome for our program to have such a tremendous relationship with such a high caliber company.

Mario Azar, president of Black & Veatchs power business, said the new scholarship program underscores the company's regional commitment to inspiring the next crop of professionals.

Our professionals dream, create, and find new solutions to old problems involving the worlds critical infrastructure, so were thrilled about this opportunity to help open new doors to talent not only for our business but for everyones betterment, Azar said.

To be considered, enroll in Electronics Engineering Technology at PSU at www.pittstate.edu/admission and complete a general scholarship application.

Direct questions to Clark Shaver, associate professor in Electronics Engineering Technology, at 620-235-4357 or cdshaver@pittstate.edu.

Learn more about the Electronics Engineering Technology program at Pitt State: pittstate.edu/eetprogram

About Black & Veatch

Black & Veatch is an employee-owned engineering, procurement, consulting and construction company with a more than 100-year track record of innovation in sustainable infrastructure. Since 1915, we have helped our clients improve the lives of people in over 100 countries by addressing the resilience and reliability of our world's most important infrastructure assets. Our revenues in 2019 were US$3.7 billion. Follow us on www.bv.com and on social media.

About Pittsburg State University

Founded in 1903, Pittsburg State is a comprehensive, fully accredited university that offers more than 200 undergraduate and graduate academic programs. Those programs are contained within four distinct colleges, each of which offer hands-on, interactive education opportunities. With an enrollment of more than 5,000 and events happening year-round, the university is also the economic, social, and cultural hub for Crawford County. Learn more at pittstate.edu
OCEANAGOLD DELIVERS POSITIVE PRELIMINARY ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT RESULTS FOR WAIHI DISTRICT

Posted by Publisher Internet

OceanaGold Corporation (TSX: OGC) (ASX: OGC) (the ?Company?  https://www.commodity-tv.com/play/oceanagold-a-global-mid-sized-gold-producer/ ) is pleased to announce the results the Waihi District Study Preliminary Economic Assessment (?PEA?) for the Waihi District located in New Zealand.

The PEA is being disclosed in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (?NI 43-101?). An NI 43-101 Technical Report of the PEA will be finalised and filed on SEDAR within the next 45 days. Readers are cautioned that the PEA is preliminary in nature. It includes Inferred Mineral Resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as Mineral Reserves, and there is no certainty that the PEA will be realised. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

PEA Results Summary

BASE CASE (@$1,500/oz gold price)

Initial after-tax IRR of 51%

Initial after-tax net present value (?NPV?) at 5% discount rate of US$665 million

Life of Mine (?LOM?) after-tax free cash flow of US$1.1 billion

LOM All-in sustaining costs (?AISC?) of US$627 per ounce

LOM cash costs of US$557 per ounce

Initial mine life to 2036 from multiple sources of mill feed

Total growth capital investment of approximately US$447 million over eight years for four distinct deposits

Increased resource for Martha Open Pit ? now 260,000 gold ounces in the Indicated category and 290,000 ounces in the Inferred category

Michael Holmes, President and CEO of OceanaGold said, ?We are very pleased to share the positive results of the Waihi District Study that represents the initial value creating potential of the district opportunities. The PEA indicates the potential for a robust project with an extended mine life for Waihi to 2036 from Martha Underground, Wharekirauponga Underground (?WKP?), Gladstone open pit and a cutback of the existing Martha open pit.?

?Using our base case assumptions, the significant exploration potential recognised at Martha Underground and WKP, combined with the existing infrastructure and skilled workforce, the results of the study give us confidence to move forward in the Waihi District opportunities and as a result, we will continue advancing each forward. Additionally, we see potential for further significant growth through resource additions particularly at Martha Underground and WKP deposits. Resource expansion has the potential for sustained high levels of annual gold production and mine life extension.?

?Leveraging exploration potential through aggressive drill campaigns has been the key to our success since acquiring the Waihi asset in late 2015. This year, we have over 25,000 metres of exploration drilling planned and underway at Martha Underground where our focus is on resource conversion. At WKP, we have an additional 5,000 metres of drilling underway as we continue to drill the high-grade East Graben vein and related foot-wall and hanging wall structures. We expect to update the WKP resource mid-2021.??

?The critical path for success is expected to be resource consenting of WKP and surface projects including the Martha Open Pit Phase 5 and additional tailings storage capacity. The Company has successfully permitted projects in New Zealand over the past 30 years. Through our understanding of the regulatory regime, strong reputation as a responsible miner, demonstration of 30 years of responsible mining and rehabilitation and support from local communities, we are confident to advance these projects through the permitting phase.?

?The results of the Waihi District Study also show significant socio-economic benefits for the rural communities in the Coromandel region and for New Zealand that can play a critical role in the post-COVID-19 economic recovery. With the potential to extend the mine life out to 2036, we can invest an estimated $1.4 billion in-country while adding 300 new jobs to our existing 700-person countrywide workforce. OceanaGold has operated responsibly for over 30 years and has already delivered significant benefits to New Zealand over that time.?

Overview

The Waihi District on the North Island, New Zealand includes the town of Waihi and surrounding areas and lies approximately 140 kilometres southeast of Auckland. The mining projects included in the PEA for the Waihi district include Martha Underground (?MUG?), Wharekirauponga Underground (?WKP?), Martha Open Pit Phase 5 Cutback (?MOP5?) and Gladstone Open Pit (?Gladstone?) (Figure 1). WKP is located 10 kilometres north of Waihi. The forecast financial and operating metrics reflect the inclusion of the four projects as they progressively contribute to production, commencing with MUG in the second quarter of 2021.

Mineral Resource

Since 2017, the Company has completed nearly 100,000 metres of drilling from surface and underground at Martha and approximately 35,000 metres of drilling at WKP that underpins the existing Indicated and Inferred Resources (no Measured Resource currently exists at MUG or WKP) (Table 1).

The PEA is based upon the resource estimates reported in the Company?s 2019 annual reserve and resource statement (see release March 31, 2020) with optimisation of the mine design resulting in the following modifications to reported resources:

the Martha Phase 4 open pit has been superseded by MOP5, resulting in the merging of the Martha Phase 4 resource into the larger MOP5 open pit resource

the Martha Phase 4 open pit mineral reserve of 77,000 ounces has been declassified for inclusion in the larger open pit mineral resource

the MOP5 design utilises approximately 140,000 ounces from the upper portion of the Martha underground mineral resource resulting in a mineral resource reduction to the latter

a review of cut-off grade applicable to the Gladstone project resulting in an increase in both Indicated and Inferred Resource

In combination with the release of the PEA, the Company is pleased to announce an increase in the resource for the Martha Open Pit which now totals 260,000 ounces of gold in the Indicated category and 290,000 ounces of gold in the Inferred category. Meanwhile, the Indicated Resource at Gladstone has increased to 140,000 ounces of gold (from 100,000 ounces) while the Inferred Resource has increased to 20,000 ounces of gold (from 10,000 ounces). The net result of these changes is an increase of 140,000 and 240,000 ounces of gold in the Indicated and Inferred categories, respectively from the updated December 2019 Resource and Reserve statement.

The Company also notes that the Martha Underground resource used for the purposes of the PEA totals 706,000 gold ounces, approximately half of the reported total Indicated and Inferred ounces pending future studies around the extraction of the remnant Martha and Royal veins in historical mine working areas.

Assumptions such as mine dilution and mining rates have been applied to the reported resources for the purposes of the study.

Project Economics

The base case after-tax financial model yielded an IRR of 51% and an NPV5% of $665 million (Table 2). The spot case scenario assumes gold prices and exchange rates that closer reflects the current operating environment, including a gold price of $1,750 per ounce. At these assumptions, the after-tax financial model resulted in an IRR of 75% and an NPV5% of $917 million. Cash flows have been discounted to January 1, 2020 assuming production commences with Martha Underground in the second quarter of 2021.

Mining and Milling

The PEA assumes an initial 2.2 million ounces of gold produced, after application of metallurgical recoveries averaging 90% over the LOM from the four deposits: MUG, WKP, Gladstone and MOP5.

Average annual gold production is based on the total production expected over the initial mine life and includes the ramp-up period; thus, total gold production from the start of production until depletion of the mineral resources is assumed. Steady-state production assumes average production rates following ramp-up of mining operations. The Company will continue to drill both the Martha and WKP underground deposits with the aim of increasing the size of both resources.

Initial estimated mill feed used in the PEA, including initial grades and mining rates, are listed in Table 4. Mill feed grade reflects dilution factors applied to the resource. The Company expects varying timelines to ramp-up to peak mining rates for the different deposits. Total contained gold in mill feed at MUG reflects only half of the reported resources due to mine planning restrictions that reflect the exclusion of areas that prevents optimal design and requires additional resource and geotechnical drilling.

The PEA assumes underground mining at MUG and WKP and conventional open pit mining at MOP5 and Gladstone. MUG is expected to produce 35,000 to 45,000 gold ounces in 2021 with production beginning in the second quarter utilising modified Avoca and remnant mining methods.

WKP is located 10-kilometres north of the existing Waihi process plant within New Zealand Department of Conservation (?DOC?) land. The PEA assumes underground mining of the WKP deposit utilising a decline from private land with several access locations currently under consideration. The material mined would be transported underground via a decline to a portal then via surface to the existing Waihi process plant. The PEA assumes first production from WKP in 2026 using a modified Avoca mining method.

Open pit mining at Gladstone, beginning in 2024, would provide early mill feed as well as rock for underground mine backfill over the LOM and construction of TSFs. Mining of MOP5, beginning in 2027, assumes an additional cutback to the previously permitted Phase 4 cutback and would require some relocation/replacement of surface infrastructure, acquisition of a mining fleet and pre-stripping of overburden.

The PEA includes the use of the existing Waihi process plant that currently has a throughput capacity of 1.0 to 1.3 million tonnes per annum (?Mtpa?) and assumes modest growth capital investment to increase plant capacity to 1.6 Mtpa. The throughput rate of the plant will be achieved through upgrades to the crushing, milling, and carbon-in-pulp circuits (Figure 3). Options are available with increased capital to further increase the capacity of the plant to accommodate potential expansion of existing resources and production levels over the life of mine.

Preliminary metallurgical test work demonstrates average recoveries of 90% over the LOM from the existing processing circuit. Annual gold production ranges from 35,000 to 45,000 ounces in 2021 to approximately 300,000 gold ounces in 2028 with a significant contribution from WKP along with MUG and MOP5.

Options for future tailings storage facilities (?TSFs?) include two upper lifts on the existing TSFs, the construction of a new (third) TSF, and the potential conversion of Gladstone open pit to a TSF when mining is completed there.

Capital Investment

The total growth capital investment for the Waihi District is estimated to be $447 million spread principally over eight years (Table 5). Growth capital expenditures include MUG development and construction, portal facilities and decline access to WKP, WKP underground development, surface infrastructure related to Gladstone and MOP5, expansion of the process plant, lifts to the existing TSFs and construction of an additional (third) TSF.

Total sustaining capital cost is estimated to be approximately $155 million over the LOM and is inclusive of $49 million estimated for site reclamation and closure costs.

Operating Costs

The life of mine All-in Sustaining Cost is expected to be $627 per ounce while life of mine cash costs is expected to be $557 per ounce including estimated royalties.

Next Steps

The Company is committed to advancing the permitting (consenting) process under New Zealand?s Resource Management Act and progressing technical studies for the Waihi District as outlined in the PEA. The Company expects to complete a feasibility study for MUG in the first quarter of 2021 and complete a prefeasibility study for WKP in the second half of 2021 with the intent to convert existing resources to reserves. The Company also expects to complete a feasibility study for Gladstone, MOP5 and the additional TSF in 2022.

The Company intends to complete the consenting process for all the projects as soon as possible to facilitate the development of the Waihi District, prioritising the development of WKP. The consenting process includes extensive technical, environmental and cultural assessments as well as significant social engagement beyond the initial geological work that established the Mineral Resource. The consenting process is expected to commence in the second half of 2020.

For the remainder of 2020, the Company expects to drill an additional 5,000 metres at WKP on the high-grade East Graben structures. At MUG, the Company has completed approximately 10,000 metres of drilling in the first half of 2020 and expects to complete an additional 15,000 metres of drilling during the remainder of the year with a focus on resource conversion to Indicated category. In addition to the current reported resource at MUG, the Company has an identified exploration target with the potential of 6 to 8 million tonnes grading 4 to 6 g/t Au that represents future opportunity for resource addition.

It is important to note that the exploration target at MUG is exclusive of the reported resource and relates to the portion of the deposit that has not yet been adequately drill tested. This exploration target is based on the assessment of surface and underground drill data collected by the Company in addition to the significant amount of historical and archived geological and mine data from over a century of mining activity at Waihi. The exploration target is conceptual in nature and insufficient exploration has been undertaken in the areas that the exploration target relates to estimate a Mineral Resource. It is uncertain if further exploration will result in the estimation of a Mineral Resource.

Conference Call

The Company will host a conference call / webcast to discuss the positive PEA results for the Waihi District at 7:30 am on Thursday July 16, 2020 (Melbourne, Australian Eastern Standard Time) / 5:30 pm on Wednesday July 15, 2020 (Toronto, Eastern Daylight Time).

Webcast Participants

To register, please copy and paste the link below into your browser:

https://produceredition.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1340758&tp_key=3dddf93ae1

Teleconference Participants (required for those who wish to ask questions)

Local (toll free) dial in numbers are:

Local (toll free) dial in numbers are:

North America: 1 888 390 0546

Australia: 1 800 076 068

United Kingdom: 0 800 652 2435

Switzerland: 0 800 312 635

All other countries (toll): + 1 416 764 8688

Playback of Webcast

If you are unable to attend the call, a recording will be available for viewing on the Company?s website.

The NI 43-101 Technical Report in respect of the PEA will be filed on SEDAR and the Company?s website within 45 days of this announcement.

About OceanaGold

OceanaGold Corporation is a mid-tier, high-margin, multinational gold producer with assets located in the Philippines, New Zealand and the United States. The Company?s assets encompass the Didipio Gold-Copper Mine located on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. On the North Island of New Zealand, the Company operates the high-grade Waihi Gold Mine while on the South Island of New Zealand, the Company operates the largest gold mine in the country at the Macraes Goldfield which is made up of a series of open pit mines and the Frasers underground mine. In the United States, the Company operates the Haile Gold Mine, a top-tier, long-life, high-margin asset located in South Carolina. OceanaGold also has a significant pipeline of organic growth and exploration opportunities in the Americas and Asia-Pacific regions.

OceanaGold has operated sustainably since 1990 with a proven track-record for environmental management and community and social engagement. The Company has a strong social license to operate and works collaboratively with its valued stakeholders to identify and invest in social programs that are designed to build capacity and not dependency.

For 2020, and subject to the cautionary statement below, the Company expects to produce between 360,000 and 380,000 ounces of gold from Haile, Waihi and Macraes combined at a consolidated All-In Sustaining Costs ranging from $1,075 to $1,125 per ounce sold.

Qualified Persons and Technical Information

The PEA is a preliminary technical and economic study of the potential technical and economic viability for a series of four projects located in the Waihi District. The PEA includes Inferred Mineral Resources that are considered too geologically speculative to have economic considerations applied to them in order to be categorized as Mineral Reserves. Further drilling, evaluation and studies are required to provide any assurance of an economic development case. The potential economic outcomes referred to in the PEA are based on 51% Indicated Mineral Resources and 49% Inferred Mineral Resources. There is a low level of geological confidence associated with Inferred Mineral Resources and there is no certainty that further drilling will convert these to Indicated Mineral Resources.

The reader is advised that the PEA is preliminary in nature and is intended to provide only an initial, high-level review of the Waihi District potential, design options and potential economic outcomes. Readers are encouraged to read the Technical Report in its entirety, including all qualifications and assumptions. The PEA Technical Report is intended to be read, and sections should not be read or relied upon out of context. The PEA mine plan and economic model include numerous assumptions and the use of Inferred Resources. Inferred Resources are too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as Mineral Reserves and to be used in an economic analysis except as permitted by NI 43-101 for a PEA level study. There is no guarantee that the PEA mine plan and economic model will be realized, or that Inferred Resources can be converted to Indicated or Measured Resources. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. As such, there is no guarantee the potential project economics described herein will be realised.

The updated Mineral Resources described herein have been verified, reviewed and approved by P. Church. Any information regarding metallurgy or mineral processing has been verified, reviewed and approved by D. Carr. Technical and scientific information related to mine designs and schedules for Waihi have been verified, reviewed and approved by, or are based upon information prepared by or under the supervision of, T. Maton.? Each of the foregoing individuals is a qualified person within the meaning of NI 43-101.

The estimates of Mineral Resources contained in this public release are based on, and fairly represent, information and supporting documentation prepared by the named qualified and competent persons in the form and context in which it appears.

Messrs, Church and Maton are full-time employees of the Company?s subsidiary, OceanaGold (New Zealand) Limited. Mr Carr is a full-time employee of the Company?s subsidiary, OceanaGold Management Pty Limited.

Messrs Carr, Church and Maton are Members and Chartered Professionals with the Australasian Institute of Mining.

Messrs Carr, Church and Maton consent to inclusion in this public release of the matters based on their information in the form and context in which it appears. The estimates of Mineral Resources contained in this public release are based on, and fairly represent, information and supporting documentation prepared by the named qualified and competent persons in the form and context in which it appears.

Cautionary Statement for Public Release

Certain information contained in this public release may be deemed ?forward-looking? within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements and information relate to future performance and reflect the Company?s expectations regarding the generation of free cash flow, achievement of guidance, execution of business strategy, future growth, future production, estimated costs, results of operations, business prospects and opportunities of OceanaGold Corporation and its related subsidiaries. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as \expects\ or \does not expect\, \is expected\, \anticipates\ or \does not anticipate\, \plans\, \estimates\ or \intends\, or stating that certain actions, events or results \may\, \could\, \would\, \might\ or \will\ be taken, occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements.

In particular, all of the results of the PEA for the Waihi District constitute forward-looking statements or information, and include future estimates of internal rates of return, net present value, future production, estimates of cash cost, proposed mining plans and methods, mine life estimates, cash flow forecasts, metal recoveries, estimates of capital and operating costs and the size and timing of phased development of the projects and the Waihi District. Furthermore, the Company has based its assumptions and analysis on certain factors that are inherently uncertain. Uncertainties include: (i) the adequacy of infrastructure; (ii) geological characteristics; (iii) metallurgical characteristics of the mineralization; (iv) the ability to develop adequate processing capacity; (v) the price of gold; (vi) the cost of consumables and mining and processing equipment; (vii) unforeseen technological and engineering problems; (viii) changes in regulations; (ix) the regulation of the mining industry by various governmental agencies; and (x) changes in project scope or design, among others.

Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements and information. They include, among others, the outbreak of an infectious disease, the accuracy of mineral reserve and resource estimates and related assumptions, inherent operating risks and those risk factors identified in the Company?s most recent Annual Information Form prepared and filed with securities regulators which is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com under the Company?s name. There are no assurances the Company can fulfil forward-looking statements and information. Such forward-looking statements and information are only predictions based on current information available to management as of the date that such predictions are made; actual events or results may differ materially as a result of risks facing the Company, some of which are beyond the Company\-\-s control. Although the Company believes that any forward-looking statements and information contained in this press release is based on reasonable assumptions, readers cannot be assured that actual outcomes or results will be consistent with such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information. The Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements and information, whether as a result of new information, events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. The information contained in this release is not investment or financial product advice.

NOT FOR DISSEMINATION OR DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATES AND NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO US NEWSWIRE SERVICES.
Citywide

Technicians enable a wireless connection to the bison paddock in Golden Gate Park. | Photo: Monkeybrains/Twitter

Missing trips to the bison paddock at Golden Gate Park? If you're sheltering at home, you can now observe the massive, herbivorous ungulates on any device.

Thanks to a partnership with local internet service provider Monkeybrains, the paddock is now equipped with two cameras and a wireless connection to broadcast a livestream. Anyone  including those outside of San Francisco  can observe the park's all-female herd of 10 from a special park website.

"The bison paddock is one of the favorite destinations in the park," said SF Rec & Park general manager Phil Ginsburg in a statement. "Now we can open this amazing experience up to animal lovers, regardless of location."

The bison cam is live. | Screenshot: Courtesy of SF Rec & Park

A representative from Monkeybrains said that the company began installing internet transmitters at the paddock in late May. It wasn't easy: maintaining the livestream requires a signal close and robust enough to pass under the park's lush tree canopy.

The small cameras transmitting a color video feed from the paddock are relatively unobtrusive. One is attached to the top of an existing birdhouse on the edge of the bison enclosure.

Five yearling bison joined the herd in March 2020. | Photo: James Watkins

If you haven't been by the paddock in a while, you'll also see some shaggy new faces. As part of Golden Gate Park's sesquicentennial celebration, five yearlings were added to the herd in March.

Rec & Park decided to add the bison cam as part of its work to bring some of April's canceled 150th-birthday celebration to the digital realm.

The bison have been a park feature since 1892, when their enclosure was located on the eastern side of the park. They've lived in the current paddock since 1899. Here's a bit more on their history.
YEREVAN, JULY 16, ARMENPRESS. The threats voiced by the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan to launch missile attacks at the Armenian Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant indicate the level of desperation and the crisis of mind of the political-military leadership of Azerbaijan, ARMENPRESS reports reads the statement issued by the Foreign Ministry of Armenia over the threats of the Azerbaijani defense ministry to strike the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant of Armenia.

''The actions threatened by the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan are a flagrant violation of the International Humanitarian Law in general and the First Additional Protocol to Geneva Conventions in particular. Such threats are an explicit demonstration of state terrorism and genocidal intent of Azerbaijan.

Moreover, with such statements the leadership of Azerbaijan acts as a menace to all the peoples of the region, including its own people.

We strongly condemn the nuclear threats voiced by Azerbaijan, which demonstrate absolute absence of responsibility and sound judgement from this particular member of the international community.

Azerbaijan must publicly denounce such threats at once', reads the statement.
FP Trending

Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) displayed renders for its moon rover designed in collaboration with auto major Toyota in 2019. The rover, which runs on solar power and fuel cell technology, caught the attention of NASA.

The US space agency has now decided to join hands with JAXA for realizing its goal of establishing a permanent human presence on the Moon, reported DailyMail.

Last week, NASA formalized an agreement with JAXA, signing a "Joint Exploration Declaration of Intent." It includes contributions from the Japanese space agency to the Lunar Gateway, and exploration in orbit and the lunar surface.

This not only means NASA will likely leave behind grand plans for inflatable tents and underground bases. JAXA will also share in many of the exiting plans for missions and exploration in the Artemis mission.

The US space agency has been working on the Artemis program with an aim to land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024.

We will collaborate with our commercial and international partners and establish sustainable exploration by the end of the decade. Then, we will use what we learn on and around the Moon to take the next giant leap  sending astronauts to Mars, said NASA.

According to Futurism , JAXA has been working on the moon version of a mobile home with Toyota for over two years. NASA has been keen to have pressurised surface vehicles for longer journeys in the Artemis mission.

Plans for vehicle included room for two people inside, when JAXA made an announcement about it last year. However, it has not made clear if it has made modifications to turn the rover into a habitat.

As per a report in Ars Technica, during a meeting of the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute, NASA engineer Mark Kirasich laid out the agencys plans for lunar surface activities.

"This thing is the coolest element Ive ever seen for people. It's like an RV for the Moon. We are going to try and develop this jointly with JAXA, as a Japanese contribution to our plan," Ars Technica quoted him as saying.

The partnership with JAXA will help defray the high costs of a lunar return, said Clive Neal, a lunar scientist from the University of Notre Dame. NASAs budget is stretched pretty thin, and this helps them afford to do it, he said.
Amy Cooper, who called the police on Christian Cooper on May 25 after he asked her to put a leash on her dog in New York's Central Park. On July 6, she was charged with filing a false report. (Christian Cooper / Associated Press)

Its disturbing that Lorraine Ali chose to perpetuate and further etch in the minds of Americans the idea that Karens are awful people [Why We Fear the Karens, July 12].

Think of all those young kids named Karen who are now being harassed and bullied for simply being named Karen. Ask yourself, How would I feel if my name were used this way?"

Karen Miller



Anaheim Hills

::

Ive just read Ali's commentary on white nationalism and the ugly behavior of the Karens in our world. I agree that their behavior is disgusting and sickening and must be changed. It cannot be tolerated.

Where I disagree is when she takes a shot at Fox News anchors by stating that they promote diversity as the enemy. I wholeheartedly disagree.

I try to read various sources of news and I resent it when journalists promote other legitimate new sources as the enemy. The longer this type of writing goes on, the sooner people will stop reading and watching mainstream news like the L.A. Times.

Jenny Amoroso



Woodside

::

Why is there no Jason meme?

Im an old-time real feminist  back when feminism was multi-racial, multi-age and multi-class. My first civil rights demo was in Chicago in 1960, my first womens rights protest in the the early 70s.

What if this headline had read: The Internet Meme of the Angry Black Woman or The Internet Meme of the Angry American Muslim Woman? Get the picture?

Ali should realize she stands on the shoulders of older feminists and take this criticism to grow  and use her power to wonder in The Times why there is no Jason meme.

Mary Sojourner



Flagstaff, Ariz.

It should be noted that Ali's essay did discuss men "getting a pass": "Several progressives, critics and feminists argue that the internets female archetype of white privilege is in itself sexist, part of an age-old effort to shame women who speak out. Why does the guy standing next to Karen usually get a pass? But dont mistake Karens for Gloria Steinem. Because the real reason most of these videos have catapulted to the top of your search results comes down to one thing: racism."

Story continues

Canceling the cancel culture

Mary McNamara opens her critique of the Harpers letter with a take thats been circulating gleefully on Twitter all week: that those calling to cancel cancel culture are hypocrites.

McNamara misses the point. Her broad definition of cancellation  a catchall for everything from boycotts to hate mail to duels  trivializes whats different about this moment. Conceding that social media allows opinions to form at the speed of WiFi, McNamara neglects to acknowledge which way the consensus is speedily building.

Political incorrectness isnt the new cool; wokeness is.

I often think about how in 1978, the ACLU defended neo-Nazis right to march in Skokie, Ill., recognizing that the 1st Amendment protects all expression  even dumb, angry, vile expression. If the ACLU took this position today, people would cancel their donations.

Alma Cook



Los Angeles

Diversity in theater

Regarding theater critic Charles McNulty's column Awareness Arrives With a Jolt [July 5]: Playwrights of color need to figure out how to get audiences of color to attend their productions. A variety of factors are involved, not the least of which are ticket prices, traffic, etc., but the reality is that the bulk of live nonprofit theater audiences are older white people.

What theaters will finally be compelled to do is develop a younger audience, a large, multicultural demographic to attend live theater.

Angus MacDonald



Culver City

A monumental moment

I appreciated Christopher Knights commentary about the Jefferson Davis monument in Bakersfield [SoCal Racist Plaque Gets the Boot, July 14].

It is worrisome that so many people may not know problematic aspects of our history and how they resonate today. Simply disposing of or hiding monuments misses an opportunity to teach. As George Santayana and Winston Churchill warned, those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

Our Constitution calls for the formation of a more perfect union  something that will come about only if we learn from our mistakes. More articles in The Times about our problematic history would help in our striving for that more perfect union.

Susan Scrivner



Fullerton

Mask persuasion

Regarding Mask Marketing Needs a Flip Quip [July 3] by Mary McNamara: I agree that we need a compelling PSA to promote wearing a mask.

However, we need everyday Californians to create PSAs from the heart on why they wear masks, rather than a pithy professionally crafted campaign  something New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo tapped into when he created a contest for his state.

For the last few weeks, Ive proposed to an array of government officials at the state and local level that California launch a wear a mask ad competition  modeled after New Yorks contest. They all passed on the idea.

Californians will need to wake up to the fact that if we want a bold, honest and inspiring PSA on wearing masks, well need to birth it on our own without the governments help.

I urge my fellow Californians to join me and create such a competition. We should be smart enough to know when to replicate another states good idea. We are certainly innovative enough to put own unique spin on it.

Steven Lutzer



Los Angeles

::

A flip quip regarding mask wearing. I made this up weeks ago: Dont be a maskhole, wear your mask.

Ronni Bedell



Los Angeles

::

I dont quite understand why people refuse to wear masks out in public. They either dont think the novel coronavirus threat is real or they think wearing a mask is a sign of weakness. Maybe mask wearing is not sexy or hip, but all the health experts agree that wearing them helps contain the spread of the virus. Maybe a clever slogan and ad campaigns would help. Im not in advertising, but I am a writer, so how about:

Be a superhero  mask up!

Or: COVID-19 doesnt want you to wear a mask! With animated novel coronavirus critters giggling as they fly through the air and enter people not wearing masks.

People in L.A. who do this type of thing need to step up.

Jeff Rack



Altadena

Music for sickness and health

Mark Swed's beautifully written essay on Beethovens String Quartet No. 15 in A Minor, a.k.a. Opus 132 [An Ailing Beethoven Looks Deeply Within, July 5], inspired me to revisit the piece.

In almost every aspect, Swed was deeply observant and wonderfully insightful, particularly capturing the emotional aspect of Beethoven fighting his infirmities, alternately conquering and being overwhelmed by challenges, and its connection to our time. But theres one piece of musically misleading information that should be noted for aspiring musicians.

My small quibble on Swed's high-quality scribble is that he described the Lydian mode as being all the white keys.

Since the music world defaults to consider the note C as the starting point, or central point, of all scales and modes, this is misleading.

The Lydian mode would be every white key starting from F to an octave above F. Every white key from C to C is the far more mundane and ordinary Ionian mode. The raised 4th signifies Lydian. By the way, this piece has only tiny hints of that mode; it isnt featured at all. Most of the middle section is in the all white key, C to C mode. Thats not Lydian. Its only faintly hinted at, and Lydian contains considerably more harmonic tension than Ionian. Curious why Beethoven named it that. The final A minor section has more of the flat 5th/quasi-Lydian element in it than the molto adagio does, beautiful as it is. The very end hits it more square on.

Use of the pure Lydian mode in Beethovens time was rare or nonexistent. You might have to go back to the time of Italian nobleman and composer Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613) to find abundant use of that mode.

As a lifelong lover of Lydian, I likely got my first exposure from Frank Zappa. The Lydian mode has been prominent in Indian ragas since forever, and its use in popular music has always stuck out to me. In the song Moon River, the note on the word wider is the essence of that mode. In Bali Hi, its the note on the word hi. The song Pretty Ballerina, a haunting, goose bumps-inducing classic, was the first 60s pop song to feature the Lydian mode, as far as Im aware. Lydian has plenty of melodic tension.

In any event, thanks to Swed for inspiring me to delve back into an extraordinary piece of work. Im listening to it with new ears, and its a work of greatness.

Fuzzbee Morse



Los Angeles

Origin story of words and music

Mark Sweds The Genesis of Modern Music [July 8] seems to have been written specifically for me  considering my most listened to Pandora station is Guillaume de Machaut Radio.

I find it fascinating that composers leave the text for the ordinary of the Mass (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei) sacrosanct and unchanged, while setting that text to musical compositions that reflect contemporary rhythms, harmonies and counterpoint.

Thats quite a spectrum, from plainchant to composers Leonard Bernstein, Gyorgy Ligeti and the rock group the Electric Prunes.

From a card-carrying member of the Hildegard von Bingen fan club, thanks for a fascinating article.

Walter Gajewski



Long Beach

Remember 'Cinema Paradiso'

Regarding Randall Roberts' His Scores Set the Tone [July 12]: I was very saddened to hear that my fellow countryman Ennio Morricone had left us, and I read with keen interest this article as I was listening to his music.

While I know that its impossible to summarize all his work in a brief list, I think the score for the 1988 film Cinema Paradiso should have been mentioned.

That soundtrack is pure magic, especially the piece at the very end that highlights so well the intensity of the moment as the main character is reminiscing.

Thank you and ciao, Ennio. Your melodies will never leave us.

Michela Merlo



Los Angeles

True then, true now

The article by Justin Chang and Glenn Whipp about Spike Lees movie Do the Right Thing [This Film Always Feels Timely, July 9] was wonderful and insightful, but the most important part was the three last words, Vote in November.

Jim Plannette



Beverly Hills
Businesses in Delaware County share the need to adapt to changes forced by the onset of the pandemic.

For many, safety has taken a front seat.

For example, Middletown-based Wawa has launched a Wawa Clean Force, a trained sanitizing swat team that specifically cleans to COVID-19 protocols at each store every day.

All associates must wear gloves and masks, and plastic safety guards have been installed at cashier and food service stations.

Delivery options have also been made more readily available through Grubhub, DoorDash and Uber Eats.

We have learned a lot these past several weeks and our stores have had to adjust to new ways of serving customers, said Chris Gheysens, Wawa president and CEO. Whether you are an essential provider, mom or dad, small business owner or concerned community member, we are all in this together. So, as you begin to rebuild your own routines, you may notice we have made a few changes, but that familiar Wawa feeling will always be there  to make you feel comfortable, connected and cared for.

That sentiment was repeated by Swiss Farms President and CEO Christopher Gray.

In outlining their practices such as gloves for associates and frequent hand washing, Gray told the public: We will continue to stay diligent in protecting you and our employees. Together we will demonstrate the strength of the Delaware County community.

Cleanliness was a repeated theme at various businesses including the Drexelbrook, which has been malleable in its pandemic adaptation.

At the facilitys Streetlight Kitchen & Bar, patrons must not only wear masks and use hand sanitizer, they must sign in their names and locations where they can be reached for 14 days in the event they need to be contacted.

Servers wear gloves and masks and tables are constantly sprayed down and tops are disinfected between sittings.

Weve gotten a lot of compliments, said Domenick Savino, CEO & general manager of the Drexelbrook.

He also spoke to how the virus guidelines have impacted the events center and hotel.

You sort of shift your focus a little bit, he said, particularly in a situation where the business cant perform its core competency, in the Drexelbrooks case thats large catered events in rooms that can hold 1,200 people.

Savino said Drexelbrook has adjusted to having 250 or fewer, but that number must also include staff and other personnel at events, such as DJs, band members, photographers and others.

During the week of July 18, they have their first wedding scheduled since many were canceled due to the virus.

Last year, when they booked, they booked with 700 people taking the entire hotel, Savino said.

Now, theyre having 220 guests and have reserved 18 rooms.

The way this really impacts large gatherings, you lose retail right off the top because you cant do what youre capable of, Savino said, adding that supplementation becomes key.

For example, Drexelbrook brought back special occasion online ordering from happy hour packages to special takeout and delivery menus for Easter, Mothers Day and Fathers Day.

We sold out on all three of those events, Savino said.

And, they are actively trying to market toward smaller weddings. People who wanted to have weddings in Philadelphia where venues can no longer accommodate them have turned their eye to places such as Drexelbrook in the suburbs, where the virus numbers are much better.

They also provide catering for those having weddings and functions at home, or for more intimate events of 25 or less as some brides and grooms are going forward with getting married and having a dinner now, moving the larger reception to next year.

Another example is the Delaware County Chamber of Commerces Small Business Award Dinner. This year, it was held virtually instead of at the Drexelbrook. However, the venue offered the same food package as if it had been at the location, selling about 100 meals, compared to the 300 to 400 they would have at the in-person event.

Savino also said partnerships have been important.

With a lot of Philadelphia caterers he considers friends who are unable to access their own facilities, they work out deals to use the Drexelbrook.

Hes also delving into the workspace rental arena, having transformed a ballroom into a conference center.

I have eight spaces here that could be converted very easily into office space, Savino said, adding that Drexelbrook has many places in which small breakout rooms can be made available for rental office space.

He acknowledged that companies will want to bring people back into the office eventually, but that until a vaccine arrives, offices of 300 might only have 50 people returning at a time on a rotating basis.

As far as the hotel, he said, it is running at approximately 40% occupancy.

Its much lower than it should be right now, but were right at where the other hotels are, Savino said. You take what you can get.

 KATHLEEN E. CAREY
Elon Musk is slowly releasing details about his secret brain chip startup Neuralink, but he recently shared the technology could help cure addiction and depression.

The billionaire shared the news on Twitter following a user asking if the implant could re-train part of the brain linked to the ailments.

For sure. This is both great & terrifying, Musk wrote in the response.

Musk has kept a tight lid about the startup, but said he will reveal more about plans next month.

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Elon Musk is slowly releasing details about his secret brain chip startup Neuralink, but he recently shared the technology could help cure addiction and depression. The billionaire shared the news on Twitter following a user asking if the implant could re-train part of the brain linked to the ailments

Neuralink, which was founded in 2016, is designing tiny flexible 'threads' that are ten times thinner than a human hair with the goal of treating brain injuries and trauma.

However, Musk has been careful to share too much about the firm until the tech is ready, but he has answered a few questions on Twitter.

Pranay Pathole, a Twitter user, wrote: Can Neuralink be used to re-train the part of the brain which is responsible for causing addiction or depression?

It'd be great if neuralink can be used for something like curing addiction/depression.

For sure. This is both great & terrifying, Musk wrote in the response. Musk has kept a tight lid about the startup, but said he will reveal more about plans next month

In May, the tech tycoon spoke on Joe Rogan's podcast to discuss the birth of his child, along with how Neuralink is set to have a version of its brain implant ready 'within a year'

Musk who is known to personally respond to his fans shared: For sure. This is both great & terrifying. Everything weve ever sensed or thought has been electrical signals.

The early universe was just a soup of quarks & leptons. How did a very small piece of the Universe start to think of itself as sentient?

In May, the tech tycoon spoke on Joe Rogan's podcast to discuss the birth of his child, along with how Neuralink is set to have a version of its brain implant ready 'within a year.'

Musk explained that the process involves removing a chunk of the skull, robots then insert electrodes into the brain and the device into the hole, with only a small scar left behind.

He also revealed that the technology could develop into a full brain interface in just 25 years, which would enable 'symbiosis' between humans and AI.

Musk explained that the process involves removing a chunk of the skull, robots then insert electrodes into the brain and the device into the hole, with only a small scar left behind

'We're not testing people yet, but I think it won't be too long,' Musk told Rogan. 'We may be able to implant a neural link in less than a year in a person I think.'

The news follows Musk announced in February tweet that the firm, which he co-founded, improved the initial design of the implant.

'Wait until you see the next version vs what was presented last year. It's *awesome*, he wrote.

In the podcast, Musk dished to Rogan about the technology, how it is implanted and what it can do to improve the human body.

In the podcast, Musk dished to Joe Rogan (pictured) about the technology, how it is implanted and what it can do to improve the human body. 'We're not testing people yet, but I think it won't be too long,' Musk said. 'We may be able to implant a neural link in less than a year in a person I think'

Neuralink, which was founded in 2016, is designing tiny flexible 'threads' that are ten times thinner than a human hair and can be inserted directly into the brain

Musk explained that the device is about one inch in diameter, similar to the face of a smart watch, and is implanted by removing a small chunk of the skull.

A small robot connects the thread-like electrodes to certain areas of the brain, stitches up the hole and the only visible remains is a scar left behind from the incision.

'If you got an interface into the motor cortex, and then an implant that's like a microcontroller near muscle groups you can then create a sort of a neural shunt that restores somebody who quadriplegic to full functionality, like they can walk around, be normal  maybe slightly better overtime,' Musk explained.

When asked about the risks involved with placing a foreign object in the body, Musk said there is 'a very low potential risk for rejection.'

'People put in heart monitors and things for epileptic seizures, deep brain simulation, artificial hips and knees that kind of thing,' he said, noting that 'it's well known what is cause for a rejection or not.'

The tech tycoon explained that the device is about one inch in diameter, similar to the face of a smart watch, and is implanted by removing a small chunk of the skull

Along with curing aliments, the chip could change the way human beings interface with each other.

'You wouldn't need to talk,' Musk said, who foresees the technology going further to enable 'symbiosis' between humans and AI.

'I think this is one of the paths to like AI is getting better and better,' Musk said.

'We are kind of left behind, we are just too dumb.'

'So how do you go along for the ride?'

'If you can't beat them join them.'

'We are already a cyborg to some degree,' Musk told Rogan.

Musk explained that the process involves removing a chunk of the skull, robots then insert electrodes into the brain and the device into the hole, with only a small scar left behind

'You got your phone, you got your laptop If you're missing your phone, it feels like missing limb syndrome.'

However, the CEO noted that our data rate to electronics is slow, but combined with a computer and we could communicate just as fast as one.

This would improve the symbiosis between human and machine and Musk said that in 25 years from now, assuming civilization is around, there could be an entire brain interface.

This means all the neurons would be connected to an AI extension of yourself.

'You already have a computer extension of yourself and an online extension when someone dies, it is like an online ghost,' the tech tycoon said.

'It would just be that more of you would be in the cloud instead of your body.'
NEW YORK  Author Joanna Cole, whose Magic School Bus books transported millions of young people on extraordinary and educational adventures, has died aged 75.

Scholastic announced that Cole, a resident of Sioux City, Iowa, died Sunday. The cause was Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.

Joanna Cole had the perfect touch for blending science and story, Scholastic Chairman and CEO Dick Robinson said in a statement Wednesday. Joannas books, packed with equal parts humor and information, made science both easy to understand and fun for the hundreds of millions of children around the world who read her books and watched the award-winning television series."

Image: Author Joanna Cole (Annabelle Helms/Scholastic / AP)

The idea for "The Magic School Bus" came in the mid-1980s. Scholastic senior editorial director Craig Walker was receiving frequent requests from teachers for books about science and thought a combination of storytelling and science would catch on. He brought in Cole, whose humorous work such as the childrens book Cockroaches he had admired, and illustrator Bruce Degen.

I think for Joanna the excitement was always in the idea. What? Why? How?" Degen said in a statement. And with The Magic School Bus it was how to explain it so that it is accurate and in a form that a kid can understand and use. And you can actually joke around while you are learning. She had a rare sense of what could be humorous.

With the ever maddening but inspired Ms. Frizzle leading her students on journeys that explored everything from the solar system to underwater, Magic School Bus books have sold tens of millions of copies and were the basis for a popular animated TV series and a Netflix series.

Plans for a live-action movie, with Elizabeth Banks as Ms. Frizzle  who was based on Cole's middle school science teacher  were announced last month.

After hearing the news of Cole's death, Banks wrote on Twitter that she was "sending love to Joannas family."

"These books have brought so much joy to children for so many years and I am so honored I get to help shine a light on the legendary Ms. Frizzle," she said.

Story continues

A number of young adults also paid tribute to her work on social media.

I was raised to believe that the earth was six thousand years old, wrote one Twitter user. Magic School Bus was my one window on real science, my one hint that maybe that isnt true.

Many shared how Cole's books encouraged an early love of science.

My first book report was in 2nd grade of this exact book. I read one page a day & it took me so long because it was chockfull of stuff to read & my reading level.

Joanna Cole, I learned to read in Spanish first. You fostered my love of all things involving science. Rest well. pic.twitter.com/QYmU3ztDQ3  Dunne (@Trydianth) July 16, 2020

Others wrote how the television series adaptation had helped them feel safe in an often frightening world.

A big part of my childhood was that in kindergarten if we were good we would watch magic school bus every Friday. Joanna Cole, I have very little good memories as the world is a cruel place. Thank you for making it a little bit less . #ripjoannacole   |^^|  (@meowngi20) July 16, 2020

"One last field trip. Thank you for all the adventures years ago," added voice actor Michael A. Zekas.

Before Scholastic senior editorial director Walker's death in 2007, he had encouraged Cole and illustrator Degen to explore more "controversial topics" such as climate change, the author told PBS in a 2019 interview. Cole's final book with Degen, The Magic School Bus Explores Human Evolution, is due to be published later this year.

A lifelong fan of science, Cole was a native of Newark, New Jersey, and a graduate of the City College of New York who worked as a children's librarian and magazine editor before The Magic School Bus."

She is survived by her husband Phil; daughter Rachel Cole and her husband, John Helms; grandchildren, Annabelle and William, and her sister Virginia McBride.
S adiq Khan is facing a backlash against his plans to move City Hall to the East End, the Standard can reveal.

The Mayor has proposed relocating the Greater London Authority to The Crystal, a small exhibition centre in the Royal Docks, by December next year to save 55m over five years.

But the cross-party London Assembly has demanded that other locations be considered  including the possibility of restoring County Hall, the former home of the Greater London Council, as the home of London government.

There are also concerns from GLA staff that relocating City Hall to The Crystal  outside heavily-policed zones in central London - could make it an easier target for terrorists.

Some critics of Mr Khan suspect the London Assembly, the 25-member elected scrutiny body, and its staff, is being shunted east to limit oversight of his activities.

Last week the Standard revealed that Mr Khan planned to have two offices under the plans  one at The Crystal and another at Transport for Londons headquarters at the Palestra building in Southwark, to allow him to retain a base in central London.

The Crystal is owned by the GLA but has space for only 150 to 200 of the GLAs 1,190 staff  meaning most would have to work from home three days a week and desk-share at the Palestra or the nearby London Fire Brigade headquarters.

Susan Hall, leader of the GLA Conservatives, said: There is cross-party opposition [to The Crystal] and some people are very against it, for all sorts of different reasons.

It doesnt wash its face financially. The Mayor has got an 18.6 billion budget that needs to be properly scrutinised. I think its an attempt to stop scrutiny by putting us out of sight, out of mind.

Navin Shah, the Labour chairman of the London Assembly and an architect by profession, said: We still have a long way to go before we can say Yes, this all stacks up or It doesnt stack up.

Its important to think about the profile and status of the GLA. We need to ensure the seat of London government doesnt diminish. However, there a horrendous 500m savings bill the Mayor is having to look at.

County Hall, opposite Parliament on the South Bank of the Thames, was previously home to the London County Council and the GLC, until the GLCs abolition by Margaret Thatcher in 1984. It now houses the London Aquarium and two hotels.

Mr Shah said: We appreciate its in private ownership, and its now more of a leisure complex, with the aquarium and hotels, but we also believe that large areas of the building are vacant.

As its Grade II-listed, there may be public spaces which lend themselves perfectly to our needs, such as the chamber and committee rooms. There are other alternatives. We have said: lets put County Hall in the melting pot as well.

The relocation would save 63m in rent for City Hall but cost an estimated 8 million in relocation costs.

The GLAs chief officer, Mary Harpley, has been asked by the assembly to provide an in-depth analysis of the pros and cons of moving, and to look into County Hall and buildings owned by TfL, such as Pier Walk in North Greenwich, as possible alternatives.

Mr Shah, in a letter on behalf of the assembly to Ms Harpley, said: The current venue has a symbolic status, and it is generally felt that the Greater London Authority should be in/around central London.

There are genuine worries that the GLA, and the Assembly in particular, will see a further diminution in its status.

The Mayoralty may not suffer from this given the nature of the system under which it operates but other parts of the GLA run the risk of further marginalisation, such as school/community groups visits and events in City Hall, which help in so many ways in fostering a positive image of the Authority as a London-wide, national - and indeed international - body.

Does the Mayor accept that these unquantifiable factors will not be achieved elsewhere, particularly outside central London?

Asked when the proposal to move to The Crystal might become financially unviable, Ms Harpley replied: If the landlord were to reduce the rent on City Hall so that one-off costs of relocation were not repaid within three years, then that would merit serious reappraisal of the financial viability of the proposal.

Given the significant level of business rates payable on City Hall, this feels unlikely.
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Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele has collaborated with a wide range of artists during his tenure with the Italian house. And now he is using the G-Timeless automatic timepiece as muse, inviting a number of visual artists from around the world to creative imagery, each using their personal and unique visual languages.

In keeping with Guccis eclecticism, the mix of artists come from a wide range of disciplines  illustrators, painters and digital artists  and most have never worked with the maison previously. The artists include Winnie Chi, Kieron Livingstone, Oh de Laval, Tishk Barzanji, Balfua, David Macho, Andrey Kasay, Margot Ferrick and Cambo.

The melange of images will be unveiled on the Italian brands social media channels.

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New Delhi, July 16 : National carrier Air Indias move to cut employee strength through a new scheme before its sale is snowballing into a major political controversy as MPs from the CPI and the Congress have written to Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, seeking withdrawal of Air Indias new policy on sending employees on 'leave without pay for up to five years.

Binoy Viswam, Rajya Sabha MP and Leader of CPI Parliamentary Party, in a letter to Puri said that the salary for the roughly 20,000 employees of Air India for the month of June 2020 has still not been disbursed.

"As you can imagine, this non-payment of salary is causing great strife in the lives of the employees and requires immediate redressal," he said.

Further, a notification has been issued which states that employees can be sent on leave without pay for a duration of 6 months to 2 years, with the possibility of extending it to up to 5 years.

"It is appalling that such policy decisions are being made by Air India without the slightest care for the wellbeing and lives of its employees. In the name of efficiency, draconian labour practices are being promulgated by Air India and it is completely unacceptable," Viswam said.

The CPI MP has sought the release of salaries and withdrawal of the leave without pay policy.

"I therefore, urge you to use the power of your office to ensure that the salaries for all employees across Air India and all its subsidiaries, including Alliance Air, are paid immediately. The decision of Air India to introduce this policy of leave without pay must be immediately withdrawn. A pro-active step on your part will bring immense relief to these employees and their families," he said.

Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari said in a letter to Puri, "The new compulsory leave scheme is a shocking aberration and reeks of a use and throw policy by the airline, at a time when we as a nation should be celebrating our Covid heroes." "The compulsory leave scheme as I have understood from the circular is an arbitrary unbridled use of power and discretion and borders on unconstitutional use of discretionary powers," he said.

"This kind of compulsory leave scheme, which is actually retrenchment by another name, has been unheard of in any PSU in Independent India," Tewari added.

The Congress leader said that instead of restructuring Air India's top heavy management, the government is hell bent on removing employees. Tewari said while the Prime Minister has asked all employers to take care of the employees during the Covid crisis, "his own Civil Aviation Ministry does not seem to be paying heed to him".
Pro-Democracy Activists in Hong Kong Vow to Keep Fighting China's Draconian New Law

2020-07-15 -- Opposition activists in Hong Kong on Wednesday vowed to keep up the political fight against a draconian security law imposed on the city by the ruling Chinese Communist Party, which they blamed for Washington's revoking of the city's special status.

The group of mostly young activists were among the winners of the democratic primaries that saw more than 600,000 people turn out to vote last weekend in spite of official warnings that it could be in breach of the new law.

Would-be candidate Lester Shum, a former student leader in the 2014 pro-democracy movement, called on the entire pro-democracy camp, including lawmakers and activists, to stand together in this election campaign.

"I hope that the whole democratic camp will unite and meet the expectations of voters," Shum told RFA. "In the fight against totalitarianism, we will fight side-by-side, and stand or fall together."

"Now that the results of [the primaries] are out, we hope that we will be able to put our differences aside," he said.

Many of the candidates who won in the primaries are younger activists, and the group of 16 who spoke to journalists on Wednesday are calling themselves the "pro-protest faction."

But their eventual candidacy in the elections is far from certain. Election officials have already disqualified a number of prominent former protest leaders, saying their political views were in breach of the city's mini-constitution, the Basic Law.

Now, the national security law has provided the government with another set of criteria with which to target opposition activists for disqualification and possible prosecution.

Hong Kong and Chinese officials have issued a string of statements in recent days saying the primaries, the goal of which is to seek candidates to ensure more than 35 seats in September's Legislative Council (LegCo) elections, are illegal.

The Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office (HKMAO) of China's cabinet, the State Council, said the unofficial poll was a "flagrant challenge" to the law, accusing pro-democracy politicians of colluding with foreign forces to overthrow the Hong Kong government.

And there are other, less obvious dangers to life as an opposition activist in Hong Kong.

Pro-democracy campaigner steps down

Prominent pro-democracy politician Au Nok-hin, who served in LegCo before being unseated in a by-election, announced on Wednesday he would be stepping down from the opposition campaign.

Au had been one of the coordinators of the primaries, but said in a statement on Facebook that he has resigned from his duties following the statement from HKMAO.

"I hereby withdraw 35+ primary election duties immediately due to the accusation from the Liaison Office and Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office recently," Au wrote, adding that recent official statements were "creating risk of personal safety."

"Withdrawal is the only choice [I have, if I am to] protect myself and others," he said.

Executive councilor Ronny Tong refused to be drawn on Wednesday when asked about the consequences for those who had taken part in the primaries.

"It is up to the courts to decide whether or not the law has been broken, but at present I can only say that for the time being, there is no real evidence for all elements that [the primaries did indeed] violate the national security law," Tong said.

The most important thing is whether there has been force or coercion or illegal methods used," he said. "Maybe someone campaigning for LegCo on a platform of opposing certain bills doesn't constitute illegal behavior in itself."

But he backed down from his comments later in the day, saying that Hong Kong still enjoys "freedom and the rule of law," and that his opinions couldn't replace a court decision.

'Stop talking nonsense'

Primary winner Fergus Leung, who is among the 16-strong "pro-protest" faction, called on Beijing to make public evidence of the sorts of charges that could be brought against participants in the primaries.

"If the government has any substantial evidence, we hope it will lay it out showing how the organizers, the candidates, or the voting public who took part in the primaries broke the law, and which provisions of those laws," Leung said.

"I call on them either to start enforcing it immediately, or to stop talking nonsense," he said.

Meanwhile, police arrested Democratic Party vice-chairman Lo Kin-hei on Wednesday morning on charges of "unlawful assembly" in relation to the siege of the Polytechnic University (PolyU) on Nov. 18, 2019, government broadcaster RTHK reported.

Lo, who was arrested during a mass arrest of local people more than 500 meters away from the PolyU campus, has been released on bail and will appear in court in August.

The Democratic Party said the arrest was politically motivated and that the charges against him were "groundless," the report said.

Reported by Man Hoi-tsan for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Gao Feng for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Copyright  1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content July not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use.

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BP plans to take full ownership of a central Indiana wind farm, a deal that moves the British energy major closer to its goal of becoming a net zero emissions company by 2050.

BP Wind Energy, the companys wind business, on Thursday said it will acquire the remaining 50 percent interest in Fowler Ridge 1, a wind farm owned in partnership with Dominion Energy. The wind farm, with 162 wind turbines and a generating capacity of 300 megawatts, will increase BPs net wind generation capacity by more than 15 percent to 1,076 megawatts. One megawatt powers about 200 homes during a summer day in Texas.

We are excited to announce this transaction in the context of BPs ambition to become a net zero company, BP Wind Energy CEO Al Vickers said in a statement. This reflects our confidence in renewable energy, and the possibility for further growth in this sector.

BP this year set an ambitious target to become a net zero carbon emitter by 2050. The company plans to shift spending away from its traditional oil and gas business to more low-carbon businesses, such as wind, and plans to use technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at current operations.

GLOBAL WARMING: Major oil and gas companies set carbon emissions goal to address climate change

The move comes as major energy companies globally are addressing investor concerns about climate change and the energy transition toward renewables, and its impact on the oil and gas industry. A group of 12 energy giants on Thursday announced a plan to lower the carbon emissions rate of members combined upstream oil and gas operations that would result in reducing emissions between 36 million and 52 million tonnes per year by 2025. The reduction, the group said, is equivalent to the carbon emissions from energy use in between 4 million and 6 million U.S. homes.

BP Wind Energy operates nine onshore wind farms in six states and holds an ownership interest in a Hawaii wind farm. Together, the wind farms generate enough electricity to power 450,000 homes annually, the company said. BP also owns Onyx InSight, which provides digital and predictive maintenance analytics to the wind industry.

BPs Fowler Ridge 1 acquisition is expected to close this year, pending regulatory approval. The company operates Fowler Ridge 1, 2 and 3 wind farms, which include 355 wind turbines spanning more than 42,000 acres and powering roughly 160,000 homes annually.
By PTI

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's Election Commission on Thursday said it is committed to hold the parliamentary elections on August 5 but would wait until next week to assess the COVID-19 health threat to see if the polls can be held safely.

Election Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya said he must ensure that the election would not contribute to the community spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We have no intention to postpone the election but we have to address the concerns raised by the public health inspectors," Deshapriya said.

He said the delay in gazetting the health guidelines issued on COVID-19 to be practised during the election is a major obstacle in holding the polls.

The guidelines issued in early June still remains to be given legal effect.

The Commission held a meeting on Wednesday and it was decided to re-appeal to the health authorities to gazette the guidelines.

The Election Commission officials will meet next on July 21 to assess the latest situation in the country, which has reported over 2,600 cases.

Deshapriya said the gazette was needed to make the guidelines legally binding "Without giving legal effect to the guidelines the public health inspectors would not be able to enforce the guidelines," he said.

"The health inspectors told us no one pays heed to them in the absence of the gazettee. The delay to issue the gazette impedes our process to hold the election".

The Commission is contemplating a move to have mobile polling booths for those who have been placed under quarantine in order to prevent them from arriving at polling booths on election day.

The election has been twice postponed and the Opposition groups want it to put off until the threat of the pandemic is over.

The government has dismissed it as a "politically-motivated demand by the divided opposition which is facing defeat".

The parliamentary polls were initially to be held on April 25, but had to be postponed due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic which prompted the authorities to announce a nationwide lockdown from March 20.

Later, the election commission shifted the date to June 20. It was again deemed not suitable in view of the raging pandemic.

Finally, August 5 has been selected for the poll process.

Over 16 million voters are to vote to elect a 225-member parliament for a five-year term.
(Natural News) A recent study has shone new light on just how much asymptomatic carriers have spread the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) in America. The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, states that these people may have been responsible for more than half of the coronavirus cases in the United States.

The study comes out just as the country is seeing a jump in the number of new coronavirus cases, with 50,000 being the highest recorded in a single day. This is also the highest rate ever recorded since the pandemic began and double the number of positive tests reported last month.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. has over 12,232,745 cases and 133,241 coronavirus deaths at the time of writing.

The role of asymptomatic carriers in the outbreak in America

Experts have known for some time that asymptomatic carriers  those who dont show any symptoms of COVID-19 infection  greatly contributed to the spread of COVID-19 in America. By early spring, scientists in China had already identified them as one of the main causes of the viruss rapid spread. (Related: Study: Nearly 8 out of 10 coronavirus patients in China caught it from someone with NO symptoms.)

The recent surge in cases in the U.S., however, comes as a number of states move to reopen and has forced scientists to take another look at asymptomatic carriers.

A team of researchers from Yale School of Public Health, the University of Florida and York University in Toronto created models to examine how big a role asymptomatic carriers played in the outbreak in America. They presumed that carriers were more likely to be contagious before they showed any symptoms of the disease.

The teams model also mimicked New York City demographics and assumed that all who were infected isolated themselves immediately and remained in isolation until after they recovered.

The team determined that between 17.9 percent and 30.8 percent of all COVID-19 cases are asymptomatic. Considering the minimum (17.9 percent), they calculated that 51.4 percent of total transmission could be attributed to asymptomatic infections, with carriers who are yet to show symptoms accounting for 48 percent.

But if the maximum 30.8 percent are asymptomatic cases, then 53.6 percent of transmission could be attributed to a combination of asymptomatic and presymptomatic stage infections.

Based on these figures, the researchers concluded that simply isolating people who showed symptoms of COVID-19 would not be enough to put the pandemic under control.

Study comes as states struggle with reopenings

The studys results paint a grim picture for U.S. states who are considering reopening. Even now, some states who have reopened too soon are reversing their decisions in the face of resurgent outbreaks.

In Arizona, Gov. Doug Ducey ordered bars, movie theaters, gyms and water parks to close again, in late June. These places had reopened in mid-May after a closure order had been left to expire.

Meanwhile, in Texas, one of the first states to reopen, Gov. Greg Abbot has issued an order mandating the wearing of masks, reversing a previous one hed made that specifically forbade local officials from issuing their own mask orders. Abbots order came just as the states hospital systems were pushed to the brink, with intensive-care beds in cities like Houston overflowing with patients.

In New Jersey, on the other hand, Gov. Phil Murphy delayed the restart of indoor dining in the state. Murphy attributed this to people refusing to wear masks or follow social distancing.

These efforts, however, may not be enough to stop the spread of the virus, according to the researchers. For the coronavirus to infect no more than one percent of the U.S. population, they estimate that at least 33 percent of asymptomatic cases would need to be identified and isolated. As such, the researchers believe that mass testing, coupled with extensive contact tracing, is the key to fighting COVID-19.

Testing efforts in the U.S. recently suffered a new setback, however, after the accuracy of 4 million testing kits procured by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was questioned. Sources claimed that the test kits, produced by the Florida-based company Fillakit, had been manufactured in unsterile conditions and were therefore contaminated.

FEMA and the Food and Drug Administration have since ordered state health departments to stop using the kits, reducing their ability to conduct testing. Meanwhile, Fillakit has since closed its doors, though its contract with FEMA is still under congressional inquiry.

Meanwhile, with this is happening, the reduced testing capacity is allowing asymptomatic carriers in the U.S. to remain untested, and this, in turn, is enabling COVID-19 to continue spreading.

Sources include:

PNAS.org

Coronavirus.JHU.edu

DailyMail.com

APNews.com
Her husband Gordon has reopened his string of restaurants.

And this week it's Tana Ramsay's turn to get back to work, as she was seen overseeing a refurbishment on her London beauty salon All About The Girl on Tuesday.

The Battersea salon will reopen on Friday after four months of being shut due to coronavirus, and Tana was working hard to make sure everything was spick and span.

Hard at work: Tana Ramsay was seen overseeing a refurbishment on her London beauty salon All About The Girl on Tuesday in time for its reopening on Friday

Dressed down in grey leggings, a black t-shirt and adidas sneakers, Tana was ready to work.

She was spotted making phone calls and hauling packages out of the salon, while a team of painters and decorators got to work on the exterior.

Tana's salon opened in 2012 and offers a wide range of beauty treatments but was forced to close during lockdown.

Earlier this week Tana and her team announced they would be reopening from Friday 17 July, with a limited range of treatments to fit in with the government's ongoing restrictions.

Business calls: Dressed down in grey leggings, a black t-shirt and adidas sneakers, Tana was ready to work as she talk calls outside

While Tana prepares for her business to open its doors again, her husband Gordan is back at work, reopening his restaurants earlier this month, meaning the family are now back in London after spending three months in Cornwall.

In April, Gordon angered locals in Cornwall after relocating during the coronavirus crisis as the Government urged Britons not to travel from hotspots to the countryside.

Gordon, Tana and their five children Megan, 22; twins Holly and Jack, 20; Tilly, 18, and son Oscar, 15 months relocated from London to their 4m Cornwall home during lockdown.

Busy: She was spotted making phone calls and hauling packages out of the salon, while a team of painters and decorators got to work on the exterior of the salon

The Hell's Kitchen star landed in hot water with the local coastguard, who are said to have issued an official warning to him over his apparent flouting of lockdown guidelines.

Sources indicated that Gordon was seen in Rock, Fowey, Port Isaac and Newquay  some distance from his 4 million home in Trebetherick.

The warning is particularly troubling because Ramsay was the face of a 'Stayhome' initiative on YouTube which he had been plugging on his ten-minute cookery shows, filmed in 'isolation' in his Cornwall kitchen.

Salon owner: The Battersea salon will reopen on Friday after four months of being shut due to coronavirus, and Tana was working hard to make sure everything was spick and span

A friend of the family told MailOnline at the time: 'The family see Cornwall as their family home when the kids are back from uni and Gordon back from filming around the world it's where they spend all their family time together.

'They've been spending time there for 10 years and Jack actually lives in the house there full time too. Most of their neighbours are so welcoming and they love being part of the community.

'They've been following the government advice along with the rest of the country since they arrived on March 20th and the campaign against them is hurtful and unnecessary at a time when we should all be coming together and supporting each other.'
(Alliance News) - Budget carrier Lauda is giving up its German hub in Stuttgart and will terminate the contracts of all employees there after a majority of pilots opposed wage reductions, according to a company document obtained by dpa on Thursday.

The loss-making subsidiary of Irish-based Ryanair Holdings PLC plans to close this base after the summer travel season on October 30.

While nearly all co-pilots and flight attendants in Stuttgart had agreed to a new collective labour contract that was drawn up in reaction to the pandemic-related aviation crisis, less than half of the captains gave their approval, the document said.

"Since there are no positions available elsewhere, we will not be able to offer any crew transfers"A to other hubs, Lauda's Vienna-based management said in the paper that was initially made public by Austrian newspaper Der Standard.

AA negotiator for the German labour union Verdi, Sven Bergelin, said Lauda would hopefully reconsider and would enter into talks to save jobs.

"Pilots and cabin crews want to be treated fairly and want to continue their work under acceptable standards,"A he said in a statement.

While Stuttgart is to be shuttered, a majority of pilots, co-pilots and flight attendants have accepted wage cuts in Lauda's other German base in Dusseldorf. Those who did not agree face possible lay-offs, according to Verdi.

Ryanair and Lauda's management had also threatened to lay off all staff in Vienna, but employees there agreed to a new wage deal in early June after Austrian unionists had managed to negotiate better conditions.

source: dpa

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Nirupama Viswanathan By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Ever since her family was evicted from a slum on the Cooum River banks and the government shifted them to the resettlement site at Perumbakkam, N Keerthana had her work cut out for her.

She had just completed her Class 10 exams and their new residence is about 40 kms away from where the family was living. Her parents, who lost their jobs when they moved here, had to rebuild their lives, setting up a small grocery shop within the Slum Clearance Board resettlement premises.

Keerthana's job was mainly cooking -- she would make dinner on weekdays and all three meals on Sundays and other holidays.

Despite all this, she never lost focus on her studies and has now scored 492 out of 600 in her class 12 examinations.

"I had always been a good student so I was sure I would get a good score. I didn't take any tuition, I taught myself," said Keerthana who is a student of a private matriculation school in Thalambur.

Her family was resettled to Perumbakkam after being evicted from Thiruverkadu where her father Nagamuthu handled the accounts of a small company while her mother ran a tailoring shop. Together, they had made close to Rs 40,000 a month.

"When we moved here, they decided to open a shop because both of them were without jobs," she said.

The family now makes around Rs 18,000 a month. Her older brother works as a mechanic in a relative's workshop.

Their shop is right in front of the 9th block of the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) resettlement site where they live.

When her parents began setting up a business for the first time in their lives, Keerthana was tasked with taking care of cooking at home.

"They go to the shop at 5:30 am and come back at 10 pm. So after I return from school, I make dinner before they come. On Sundays, I cook all meals," Keerthana said.

With them, she gets up at 5:30 am to study and then gets dressed for school. In the evenings, she studies until 9 pm after which she takes care of any unwashed utensils left in the sink and prepares to make dinner.

"But they're never at home so I get the whole house to myself. I use this time to study," added Keerthana who wants to become a chartered accountant.
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The economic roller coaster isnt over  and fashion can just hold on as tight as possible.

As horrible as the first phase of the coronavirus crisis was, it was relatively straightforward (and straight down). Almost everybody was forced to shut down and go home, leading a projected contraction of more than 30 percent in second-quarter gross domestic product and an unemployment rate of more than 11 percent.

Even though the initial shock passed, that sinking feeling hasnt gone away. No one knows whats coming next. For retailers and brands, that means adjusting their business models and conserving cash, fingers-crossed they make it to the other side of the open-ended economic crisis.

The coronavirus is the driving force behind the chaos, but its not the only variable. The reactions to the pandemic on the part of federal policy makers, consumers and brands will also factor into just how rough of a ride it is for the rest of the year and into 2021  with most companies of almost every strip pretty much ignoring the rest of 2020 (if they can) and plotting their strategies for next year, when the hope is there will be at least some recovery.

Beyond the case count, which is spiking in the key markets of Texas, Florida and California, the most important factor to watch could be the stimulus package thats still forming in Washington.

So far the federal government has carried the economy with loans to businesses, the Paycheck Protection Program that helped keep workers on the job, expanded unemployment benefits and more. The trillions of dollars have helped prop up the stock market, businesses and spending.

Consumers right now, if anything, are awash in cash because they got the stimulus checks and anyone whos unemployed has gotten extra benefits, so theres a lot of money kicking around right now, said Scott Hoyt, senior director of consumer economics at Moodys Analytics.

But many of the key support programs from Washington are set to expire soon, so lawmakers are expected to pump more money into the system, with the projected size of the next aid package varying widely from $1 trillion to $5 trillion.

Story continues

If were not too far from the worst of it, then you can probably get by on $1.5 trillion or $2 trillion, Hoyt said. If we were to get [hit by the virus] so badly that we had to significantly shut down again, then, who knows? You might well need more than that.

Its hard to see things improving more than very gradually until the virus is materially less of an issue, which means herd immunity, which no one seems to think were very close to, or an effective treatment or a vaccine, Hoyt said. Almost any economic outlook has to be contingent on a very heroic assumption about when you achieve one of those three things.

In the meantime, economists are watching case counts as closely as they watch consumers and factory orders, while Wall Street investors are keyed into Washington in case the lawmakers turn off the spigot.

The economy is going to move with the virus, the stock market is going to move with the government, said Paul Nolte, partner and wealth manager at Kingsview Partners, which has $1.5 billion under management.

This is a health-care issue and no amount of money is going to fix that until we get the virus under control and no one knows when thats going to be, Nolte said.

The reaction to the virus is evolving, with cities and states testing how much they can loosen social distancing restrictions and still keep COVID-19 in check.

I dont think were going back to all the way off to where we where we were in March, where it was a complete shutdown, Nolte said. So from that perspective weve learned something.

Stores that have opened back up might have to close again, but perhaps can continue with curbside pickup, which has become a sudden growth avenue for retail. That trickle of business, along with the booming trade in e-commerce, could help many stores muddle through.

We may be in a very slow, recessionary environment for a while, Nolte said. Depression  we probably avoided that, but I think well have, depending on the state and area, a rolling recession where you have these shutdowns for a month, where you back off of different things.

Rolling recession sounds better than depression, but its still not good and could be accompanied by a new and much more bearish outlook from shoppers if the pandemic starts to feel less like a short-term disruption and more like a long haul.

Consumer confidence tanked with the shutdown this spring, but Erik Lundh, senior economist at The Conference Board, noted that while people were feeling really pessimistic about their immediate circumstances, they were optimistic about the future.

The Conference Boards Consumer Confidence Index stood at 98.1 in June, down from 130.7 in February. But its the light at the end of the tunnel thats maintaining the measure of shopping sentiment, made up of The Present Situation Index, which is down to 86.2 from 165.1 in February, while the Expectations Index is off just mildly, to 106 from 107.8 in February.

But as the virus continues to spread and case numbers go up, consumers who managed to push on thinking things were going to get better soon could buckle.

Its like getting hit once in the face  youre sort of on your feet, and then you get hit again and you go down, said Lundh, noting that resurgence and additional lockdowns could be more damaging to consumer confidence than the initial shutdown.

That supply shock that was initially felt at the beginning of the crisis is going to migrate over to the demand side, he said. Youre going to see a situation where consumption doesnt recover and theres going to be a lack of income, a lack of consumer confidence thats really going to manifest itself in the economy later in the year.

The Conference Board is predicting a double dip in the economy this year that will work out to a 7 percent drop in GDP overall.

That means retailers pinning their hopes on the holiday season could face even a tougher way forward, with consumers becoming more cautious just when they might have splurged.

Already there has been a wave of bankruptcies, including Neiman Marcus Group, J.C. Penney Co. Inc., J. Crew Inc., Brooks Brothers, Lucky Brand and RTW Retailwinds. Any companies holding on hoping for the holidays to save them might just be out of luck if the virus worsens with cooler weather in the fall.

Stronger companies are doing what they can now to stock up on cash and reorient to the new reality while looking for ways to take market share even as the market itself shrinks.

Levi Strauss & Co. said it was cutting 15 percent of its corporate workforce, or 700 positions, creating $100 million in annual savings and helping it to continue to fund the parts of the business that are performing best, such as e-commerce. PVH Corp. is streamlining North American operations, exiting 162 outlet stores in its Heritage Brands Retail business and reducing its office workforce by about 450 positions, or 12 percent.

Both moves acknowledged that times have changed and showed a willingness to keep up with that change, however painful.

Consultant Michael Brown, a partner in Kearneys consumer practice, said companies are going to have to make hard decisions to build a fit for the future organizational structure.

Brown said companies have to learn the lessons of COVID-19, examine how its impacting their businesses and start to eliminate assets that are no longer needed and be ready for the future.

Weve got to figure out, how do we get through the potential implications [the virus] is going to have on the Christmas holiday? he said. In the current situation, executing a holiday in physical stores at the scale and volume that we have in past years is going to be virtually impossible.

That has retailers trying to do it all  navigate an uncertain economy, hold on to cash, appeal to a new consumer mind-set and really become much more digital while nearly every aspect of the industry is dramatically shifting.

This was never going to be a one-size-fits-all across-the-country recovery, said consultant Matthew Katz, managing partner in SSA & Co.s retail and consumer practice. This was always going to be and will continue to be a recovery of stops and starts. Youre dealing not only with employee safety/municipal regulation. Youre also realigning with consumer psyche about, Is it safe to engage? And youre fighting against the new-found e-commerce freedom that many consumers had not yet enjoyed. Instead of four months of store closures, weve experienced seven-years [worth] of digital acceleration.

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Thousands of demonstrators have since the start of the week braved the rain and tear gas from police to demand the sacking of Rosard Malonda.

Police have used tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters in the Democratic Republic of Congo capital Kinshasa following a decision by the National Assembly, dominated by supporters of former president Joseph Kabila to appoint, Rosard Malonda as head of the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI). The Monday, July 13, 2020 rally was called by the main alliance of opposition parties, LAMUKA, whose candidate, Martin Fayulu, was denied victory in the December 2018 elections because of CENI's fraud. In a statement last week, LAMUKA called Malonda an "agent" of Kabila's FCC political alliance, and demanded a financial and operational audit of CENI.

According to reports by Aljazeera, protesters gathered in Boulevard Lumumba, one of the city's main avenues, marching around a vehicle carrying former rebel leader and opposition chief Jean-Pierre Bemba. Police broke up the gathering using tear gas, while men in civilian clothes threw stones at demonstrators escorting Bemba vehicles badly hurting some of them. In the eastern City of Bukavu and the central city of Kananga, security forces also used tear gas to disperse other protests.

Pro-democracy campaigners said Malonda, currently CENI's secretary-general, has played a historic role in rigging elections in favour of Kabila, who was succeeded in January last year by the current President, Felix Tshisekedi. Though calm returned to the capital after the demonstrators were dispersed, some protesters say, they are not only angry with the nomination of the president of CENI, but with the leadership of the President Felix Tshisekedi and the coalition formed with former president Joseph Kabila which has plunged the country into economic and political crisis.

Meanwhile, supporters of President Felix Tshisekedi's party, the Union for Democracy and Progress (UDPS), last Thursday, staged a protest march that led to the death of two protesters in Kinshasa and three in Lubumbashi in the southeast of the country, according to interior ministry figures. Twenty police were injured in Kinshasa, two of them seriously, the ministry said. Though President Tshisekedi is yet to approve Rosard Malonda as CENI chief, he is said to have condemned violence during a cabinet meeting. A third round of protests have been scheduled for July 19 by Catholic and citizens' groups.
(Newser)  Wesley Ira Purkey was pronounced dead by lethal injection Thursday morningAmerica's second execution this week after a 17-year hiatus, the Tribune-Star reports. A 5-4 Supreme Court decision in the wee hours allowed the lethal injection to proceed in Terre Haute, Ind., despite concerns over Purkey's mental competency. Purkey was found guilty of raping and killing 16-year-old Jennifer Long before dismembering and burning her body, and killing an 80-year-old woman with a claw hammer. "I deeply regret the pain and suffering I caused Jennifer's family. I'm deeply sorry," Purkey said before the execution, a spiritual advisor close by. "I deeply regret the pain I've caused to my own daughter, who I love so very much. This sanitized murder really does not serve no purpose whatsoever."

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At that, a Bureau of Prisons official allowed the proceeding to continue, and Purkey lay back with his eyes open. He soon struggled to breathe, but his chest kept rising and falling for a few minutes, until he became still at 8:04am. The execution chamber's shades were closed 15 minutes later. "It's been a long time coming," said the victim's father, William Long, who was there with loved ones. "He needed to take his last breath. He took my daughter's last breath." A US judge who temporarily barred the execution said Purkey suffered from schizophrenia, progressive dementia, and severe mental illness, per CNN. Purkey's attorneys tried to get him a competency hearing right up to the execution, saying "he no longer has a rational understanding of why the government plans to execute him." (Read about the first federal execution this week.)
By Trend

The provocation of Armenia in the direction of Azerbaijans Tovuz district is a disqusting act against Azerbaijan, Assistant to the Azerbaijani president, Head of the Department of Foreign Policy Affairs of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration Hikmat Hajiyev said.

Hajiyev made the remark at the press-conference in Baku, Trend reports on July 16.

The relevant international organizations were informed about this, assistant to the Azerbaijani president added.

"The UN, the Non-Aligned Movement, the OSCE, as well as other international organizations were provided with the necessary information, assistant to the Azerbaijani president added. Turkey immediately reacted. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) also expressed its position. The Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States, 57 OIC member-states, Iran, Saudi Arabia supported us. However, the OSCE Minsk Group must voice a concrete position on the act of Armenias military aggression. Unfortunately, we again receive standard answers."

Armenia is trying to shift responsibility for the committed provocation onto Azerbaijan, Hajiyev added.

However, Armenias intentions were exposed thanks to the timely steps taken by the Azerbaijani president, Hajiyev said. Armenians conceal their losses. The international community is closely monitoring these actions.

There are no problems with staffing the Azerbaijani army, Hajiyev added. Today, the Azerbaijani army uses the highest technologies. But for this purpose, it is extremely important to conduct exercises and courses. Such courses are held at the highest level."

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
In a previous article published in GuruFocus, I looked at the top five pharma companies on EvaluatePharma's list ranked by sales the firms are expected to achieve in 2026. In this piece, we'll go over the next five companies on the list.

Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK)

Estimated 2026 sales: $51.96 billion

2019 sales: $46.2 billion

2019-26 CAGR: 3.48%











The cancer drug Keytruda will bear the heaviest responsibility as Merck moves toward projected sales of nearly $52 billion in 2026. By that time, Keytruda is expected to supplant Humira as the best-selling drug in the world with revenue of more than $24 billion, according to EvaluatePharma. Sales of the blockbuster are set to top more than $14 billion this year.

Merck should be applauded for expanding Keytruda's indications to 17 since it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat melanoma in 2014. Still, company CEO Ken Frazier recognizes Merck needs some big sellers behind Keytruda and is set on diversifying the company's business and filling the pipeline. To allow Merck to increase its focus on new medications, the company announced in the fourth quarter it would spin off its women's health and biosimilars businesses. The future of Merck's cancer drug business looks promising with more than 20 candidates being studied.

Merck is also in the Covid-19 race, partnering with privately held Ridgeback Bio to develop an antiviral against the disease. The company is also working on a vaccine that applies the same technology used to develop its Ebola vaccine. That effort is supported by $38 million from the U.S. government's BARDA and is one of the five vaccine candidates selected by the government's Operation Warp Speed, reported FierceBiotech.

At $79.44, Merck is trading at about the mid-point of its 52-week range as of the writing of this article.

Sanofi (SNY)

Estimated 2026 sales: $49.50 billion

2019 sales: $40.17 billion

2019-26 CAGR: 3.03%

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CEO Paul Hudson has a straightforward strategy to help Sanofi become nearly a $50 billion company by 2026. He wants to do more of what the company does well and less of what it doesn't.

This means Sanofi will put greater R&D resources behind programs in cancer, rare diseases, vaccines and others with high growth potential. Falling by the wayside will be efforts in diabetes and cardiovascular.

The immunology treatment Dupixent will play a key role in the company's makeover. To achieve sales of more than $11 billion in coming years, Sanofi plans to launch the product in new markets and secure expanded indications.

Sanofi achieved a milestone in cancer when its drug Sarclisa became its first wholly owned medication to receive FDA approval in ten years. On the vaccine front, the company is betting big, pumping more than $550 million into a new production facility in France.

Hudson wants the company's drugs to be either the first to market or the best. At Sanofi's recent R&D day, he talked about five promising treatments the company expects to submit for approval between next year and 2023.

Sanofi shares are trading at $53.27, just pennies away from its one-year high as of the writing of this article.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)

Estimated 2026 sales: $47.5 billion

2019 sales: $37.07 billion

2019-26 CAGR: 3.6%







GlaxoSmithKline is projected to be one of the fastest growers on the top 15 list, with revenues advancing at a compound rate of 3.6% to $47.5 billion by 2026. Despite flat overall pharmaceutical sales in 2019, the company's shingles vaccine Shingrix pulled in more than $2.3 billion.

Demand for Shingrix is still rising and Glaxo is looking to have a new manufacturing site online by 2024 to complement its facility in Belgium. That will allow the company to make doses in the tens of millions.

Glaxo has begun a two-year program to spin out its consumer health business into its own company. This will clear the decks for it to concentrate on building a streamlined firm focused on R&D.

e2650f05df3069d9cf9ac7377a4af770.png

Sales of Glaxo respiratory products were up nearly 40% in the first quarter. The company is optimistic about the prospects for its HIV drug cabotegravir, which could reach sales of some $945 million in coming years. In oncology, Glaxo's treatment for ovarian cancer got FDA approval as first-line maintenance therapy. The company has high hopes for the cancer drug belantamab mafodotin, which is under agency review.

Glaxo's stock is trading at about $42 as of the writing of this article; its 52-week high is $48.25.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY)

Estimated 2026 sales: $43.8 billion

2019 sales: $25.17 billion

2019-26 CAGR: 8.23%







Bristol-Myers is expected to grow at a blistering pace of 8.23% compounded during the next six years, riding the success of cancer drug Opdivo and blood thinner Eliquis, supplemented by last year's acquisition of Celgene. The latter added $17 billion to Bristol's top line.

Opdivo is performing even better than expected and is on pace to become the third best-selling drug in the world by 2026, raking in more than $12 billion. That would be a 46% gain from 2019, but it will still be only about half of what the Merck's competitor Keytruda is expected to hit.

Any shortfall in Opdivo sales due to Keytruda should be more than made up by Elquis, sales of which EvaluatePharma expects to reach nearly $12.5 billion by 2026.

On the horizon are two cancer drugs Bristol got in the Celgene deal, both of which the company hopes to get green-lighted by the FDA by the end of the year. Significant contributions to revenue are also expected from a Celgene drug for anemia and another for multiple sclerosis.

More deals may be in the future, as Bristol last March hired Elizabeth Mily as VP of strategy and business development. The former Barclay's executive has engineered $200 billion in mergers and acquisitions.

AstraZeneca (AZN)

Estimated 2026 sales: $41 billion

2019 sales: $23.2 billion

2019-26 CAGR: 8.47%







With sales projected to grow at a compound rate of nearly 8.5%, AstraZeneca will be looking in the rear-view mirror at all the other pharmas listed on the top 15. The company's sales are projected to grow from $23.2 billion to $41 billion by 2026.

What's to account for the revenue boom? Most of it can be attributed to AstraZeneca's powerful lineup of cancer drugs. In the first quarter, demand for the company's biggest seller, Tagrisso for lung cancer, broght in $982 million. Two other cancer medications both beat analysts' estimates, selling a combined $857 million.

Tagrisso can do a lot better if it gets the expanded indication it's shooting for. That would add about 60,000 patients worldwide, which is 25% of the drug's current pool.

FierceBiotech reported that SVB Leerink analyst Andrew Berens wrote to a note to clients that this additional use could propel peak worldwide sales for Tagrisso to about $16 billion.

Astra may have another blockbuster with the heart drug Farxiga. Earlier this year the FDA approved the drug to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death in a type of heart failure patients. The approval expanded Farxiga's potential patient population to six million in the U.S.

AstraZeneca is trading at $58, just short of its one-year high as of the writing of this article.

Disclosure: The author has a position in Bristol-Myers Squibb.

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 16)  Several US lawmakers have expressed a call for the repeal of the newly signed Anti-Terrorism Law, but Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque dismissed this, saying the Philippines is an independent country.

Huwag na kayo manghimasok. Hindi na ho namin kayo colonial masters. Independyenteng bansa na kami, Roque said.

[Translation: Do not intervene. You are no longer our colonial masters. The Philippines is an independent country]

In the Palaces regular briefing Thursday, the spokesperson stressed that the country has long been independent from the US, giving the latter no authority over the country.

Around 45 lawmakers from the United States have urged the Philippine government to repeal the law, believing that it is vulnerable to being "weaponized against people" who will express dissent towards the government.

In an online press briefing Wednesday, Illinois Representative Janice Schakowsky aired her fears, saying that the law will be used against anyone who will protest.

We stand together in calling the Philippine government to repeal the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 that risks further undermining human rights in the Philippines, she said.

On the other hand, Roque emphasized that the country has a working judicial system that can decide on the constitutionality of the controversial law.

President Rodrigo Duterte has signed the anti-terrorism bill into law on July 3, repealing the Human Security Act of 2007, giving more surveillance powers to government forces.

Among its contentious features is a provision allowing suspected terrorists to be arrested without warrant and detained without charges for up to 24 days.
The Indian Army on Thursday morning killed a terrorist in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir after it detected suspicious movement of unidentified persons across the Line of Control (LoC) at Keran Sector. In a statement, the Army said terrorists were trying to infiltrate into India and were intercepted by the troops. A contact was established and the infiltration bid was foiled.

The Army said, Suspicious movement of unidentified persons detected across the LoC at Keran Sector this morning. Terrorists trying to infiltrate were intercepted by our troops, contact was established. Hence an infiltration bid is foiled. 01 terrorist killed, 01 AK recovered."

The sources in security forces said a group of three to four terrorists attempted to infiltrate in Gen Machikmari area of Keran sector in the border district of Kupwara. The group was intercepted and was engaged. A contact was established early morning while operation, one intruder killed and searches are on for others.

An official said, "We have launched a massive manhunt for the terrorists who were part of the group who tried to infiltrate." He added if they are hiding in the Indian side of the LoC they will be eliminated soon.

As per reports the launch pads across the LoC are full with trained armed terrorist of about 250-300 in number and are desperate to infiltrate but maximum of infiltration bids are foiled. However, around 10 terrorists have managed to enter India and are active in north Kashmir. Searches are going on to nab them.
Attorney General Bill Barr on Thursday accused China's Communist Party of committing 'economic blitzkrieg' and went after U.S. tech giants for 'collaborating' with a regime he said is intent on surpassing the U.S.

At a speech in battleground Michigan, Barr went after tech companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft and Yahoo. He said they were 'all too willing to collaborate with the CCP.'

In blistering remarks, he said some U.S. technology companies had become 'pawns of Chinese influence.'

He noted times companies bent to demands of the regime in Beijing to maintain access to the lucrative Chinese market, including Apple removing access to their Quartz news app. He said Hollywood 'regularly censors its own movies to appease the Chinese Communist Party.'

Attorney General Bill Barr on Thursday accused China's Communist Party of committing 'economic blitzkrieg' and called out U.S. companies who do business there

'I suspect Walt Disney would be disheartened to see how the company he founded deals with the foreign dictatorships of our day,' Barr said.

The United States has become overly reliant on Chinese goods and services, including face masks, medical gowns and other protective equipment designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus, Barr said.

He also accused hackers linked to the Chinese government of targeting American universities and businesses to steal research related to vaccine development, leveling the allegation against Beijing hours after Western agencies made similar claims against Russia.

Chinese president Xi Jinping listens during the closing session of the National People's Congress, which included a vote on a new draft security bill for Hong Kong, at the Great Hall of the People on May 28, 2020 in Beijing, China. Barr blasted the Communist Party for its influence on business seeking to do business in China

A crowd of mainly law enforcement officials are spaced two seats apart while listening to U.S. Attorney General William Barr speak at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Mich., Thursday, July 16, 2020

Barr's address at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is part of a full-court press by the Trump administration to denounce China. President Donald Trump is trying to fend off criticism of his handling of the coronavirus and the U.S. economic downturn and to shift the blame back onto Beijing, and assert that he is tougher on China than Democratic rival Joe Biden.

'The Peoples Republic of China is now engaged in an economic blitzkrieg - an aggressive, orchestrated, whole-of-government (indeed, whole-of-society) campaign to seize the commanding heights of the global economy and to surpass the United States as the worlds preeminent superpower,' Barr said.

'The CCP has launched an orchestrated campaign, across all of its many tentacles in Chinese government and society, to exploit the openness of our institutions in order to destroy them,' Barr said.

Barr said the 'ultimate ambition of China's rulers isn't to trade with the United States,' Barr said. 'It is to raid the United States.'

Administration officials in recent weeks have stepped up their rhetoric about China's alleged economic espionage, with a New York Post opinion piece by national security adviser Robert O'Brien and a speech last week in which FBI Director Chris Wray detailed what he said were efforts by China to steal American research and innovation. He said the FBI was opening a counterintelligence investigation related to China about every 10 hours.

Barr's speech amounted to a wide-ranging condemnation of what he said were Beijing's tactics to gain an economic upper hand in the 21st century and to pressure American corporate leaders to promote policies favorable to the Communist government. He warned that American business leaders could run afoul of federal foreign lobbying laws if they do not disclose relationships with Beijing, and that universities that welcome Chinese-funded initiatives could unwittingly lose control of academic research.

Hollywood, too, has fallen influence to Beijing, Barr said, accusing filmmakers of censoring themselves in line with Chinese propaganda.

'Globalization does not always point in the direction of greater freedom. A world marching to the beat of Communist Chinas drums will not be a hospitable one for institutions that depend on free markets, free trade, or the free exchange of ideas,' Barr said.

Trump's own relationship with China has been complicated. He has spoken at times of a productive rapport with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, and former national security adviser John Bolton writes in a new book that Trump asked Xi for help with Trump's reelection bid.
A Lagos Division of the Federal High Court Wednesday dismissed all the 40 counts bordering on alleged N34 billion fraud filed by the Federal Government against Global West Vessel Specialist Limited, a company linked to a former Niger Delta militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo.

Mr Ekpemupolo was charged alongside a former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Patrick Akpolokemi; Kime Engozu; Rex Elem; Gregory Mbonu; and Warredi Enisuoh.

Three other firms - Odimiri Electrical Limited; Boloboere Property and Estate Limited; and Destre Consult Limited - were also defendants in the criminal case filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in 2015.

The ex-militant leader was initially joined as the first defendant in the suit, but his name was removed from the charge sheet after he ignored an order to appear in court, despite the judge issuing an arrest warrant on him.

In his ruling on Wednesday, Mr Buba upheld the defendants' no-case submission, saying the prosecution "failed to establish a prima facie case" against them.

He dismissed the entire charges and set them free.

In the charges, the EFCC had accused the defendants of conspiring among themselves to divert various sums running into over N34bn, belonging to NIMASA to their personal use.

The EFCC said they acted contrary to Section 18 (a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) (Amendment) Act, 2012 and were liable to punishment under Section 15 (3) of the same Act.

The first count of the amended 40 counts read, "That you, Government Ekpemupolo (alias Tompolo), Patrick Akpobolokemi and Global West Vessel Specialist Limited in 2012, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, did conspire amongst yourselves to commit an offence, to wit: conversion of the sum of N601, 516.13 and $1,766,428.62, property of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, knowing that the said sums were proceeds of stealing and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18 (a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) (Amendment) Act, 2012 and punishable under Section 15 (3) of the same Act."

The defendants had, during their arraignment four years ago, all pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 19:17:48|Editor: huaxia

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SEOUL, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Fourteen more U.S. soldiers and their family members tested positive for COVID-19 amid rising concerns about imported cases, the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said Thursday.

The USFK said in a statement that twelve USFK service members and two dependents were confirmed with the virus after arriving in South Korea on July 9-15.

Nine service members and two dependents arrived at Osan Air Base on a U.S. government chartered flight from the United States on July 11-15. The Osan Air Base is located in Pyeongtaek, 70 km south of Seoul.

Three service members arrived at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, from the United States on separate commercial flights on July 9-13.

Among the total, five individuals who were symptomatic displayed "very minor" symptoms such as a headache or runny nose, the USFK noted.

The confirmed patients have been transferred to a designated isolation facility on either Camp Humphreys or Osan Air Base both in Pyeongtaek.

The total number of infections among the USFK-affiliated personnel rose to 88, according to Yonhap news agency.

The USFK reported 11 more confirmed COVID-19 cases on Monday and nine cases on July 10.

It came amid growing concerns about the imported cases. In the latest tally, South Korea reported 61 more COVID-19 cases for the past 24 hours, raising the combined number of infections to 13,612.

Of the new cases, 47 were imported from overseas. It was the highest in 113 days, continuing a double-digit increase for three straight weeks.

"Despite the confirmed cases, USFK remains at a high level of readiness with less than 1 percent of its active duty service members who are currently confirmed positive for COVID-19," the USFK statement added. Enditem
Sachin Pilot and 18 dissident Congress MLAs moved the Rajasthan high court on Wednesday challenging the disqualification notice issued to them by the Speaker of Rajasthan assembly, CP Joshi on July 14.

The ruling Congress has sought their disqualification from the assembly for anti-party activities.

The Speakers notice asked the 19 MLAs to furnish an explanation by Friday on why they should not be disqualified from the assembly for their conduct which the Congress party alleged was detrimental to the interest of the party and showed their intention to quit the party.

What is the basis for Speakers notice?

The Speakers notice was based on the disqualification petition filed by Chief Whip of Congress Party, Mahesh Joshi.

Joshi in his plea had cited the absence of the MLAs from two Congress Legislature Party meetings, held on July 13 and 14, despite specific instructions to attend the same as the main reason which showed the intention of the MLAs to leave the Congress party.

Joshi also cited statements made by the MLAs to the press, their prolonged absence and their allegedly hostile and prejudicial conduct in open against Congress party as grounds that they intended to leave the party.

What are the grounds on which lawmakers can be disqualified for defection?

The Tenth Schedule of the Constitution of India contains provisions relating to disqualification of lawmakers for defection. It provides two grounds to disqualify a lawmaker for defection.

First, voluntarily giving up membership of the political party on whose ticket the lawmaker was elected [para 2(1)(a)].

Second, voting or abstaining from voting in the house contrary to the directions issued by the party, that is violating the party whip in the house [para 2 (1)(b)].

Pilot and other MLAs were served notice for disqualification on the first ground, that is, voluntarily giving up membership of the party.

What does voluntarily give up membership mean?

The Supreme Court had the occasion to deal with the interpretation of these words used in the Tenth Schedule in the 1994 case of Ravi S Naik v. Union of India.

In that case, the court held that the words voluntarily give up membership are not synonymous with resignation and have a wider connotation. A person may voluntarily give up his membership of a political party even though he has not tendered his resignation from the membership of that party. Even in the absence of a formal resignation from membership an inference can be drawn from the conduct of a member that he has voluntarily given up his membership of the political party to which he belongs, the court had held.

Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi had also cited the Ravi Naik case in his disqualification petition filed before the Speaker.

There have been more such judgments since then on this point including Rajendra Singh Rana v. Swami Prasad Maurya and Dr. Mahachandra Prasad Singh v. Chairman, Bihar Legislative Assembly which held that express resignation is not required to prove that a lawmaker has given up the membership of the party and the same can be inferred from the conduct.

Can the Speakers powers to decide on disqualification be interfered with?

The Speaker of the house enjoys vast powers when it comes to deciding on disqualification of members of the house.

The Supreme Court has consistently held that it will not interfere in disqualification matters till the Speaker actually makes a decision. In other words, once the Speaker makes a decision, the court can judicially review the correctness of the same but it cannot interfere before that.

One of the first cases in which this was laid down was in the 1992 judgment in Kihoto Hollohan vs Zachillhu.

In that case, the top court ruled that having regard to the constitutional scheme in the Tenth Schedule, judicial review should not cover any stage prior to the making of a decision by the Speakers/Chairman. No interference would be permissible at an interlocutory stage of the proceedings, the court said.

Exceptions will, however, have to be made in respect of cases where disqualification of suspension is imposed during the pendency of the proceedings and such disqualification or suspension is likely to have grave, immediate and irreversible repercussions and consequence, the court had added.

Recent case of interference with the Speakers exercise of powers

One aspect of the Speakers power to decide the disqualification petitions is that no time limit is prescribed for making such a decision. So when a disqualification petition is filed by an opposition MLA, the Speaker often defers his decision for an inexplicably long period so as to enable the government to continue in office.

In two such recent instances, courts  Supreme Court and Manipur high court - were forced to interfere due to the Speakers delay in deciding the case.

One is the famous case of Manipur Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) minister Thounaojam Shyamkumar who had contested the 2017 elections to the Manipur Assembly on a Congress ticket and, subsequently, joined hands with the BJP after the election results, and was made a minister in the Biren Singh-led BJP government.

Congress leaders filed disqualification petitions before the Speaker Y Khemchand Singh to seek Shyamkumars disqualification on the ground of defection but the Speaker did not take a decision for a very long period. The petitioners then moved Manipur high court which declined relief. An appeal was filed before the Supreme Court which was critical of the undue delay by the Speaker in arriving at a decision. The top court, in a judgment rendered on January 21, asked the Speaker to take a decision on the disqualification petitions within a month.

When the Speaker again refused to take a decision as per the courts order, the Supreme Court resorted to an unprecedented step. In a strongly worded order, the top court restrained Shyamkumar from entering the Manipur Legislative Assembly and also ordered that he shall cease to be a cabinet minister in the state with immediate effect. The Speaker later disqualified Shyamkumar in March.

Close on the heels of this, the Manipur high court in June ordered that 7 former Congress MLAs, who had defected to the BJP along with Shyamkumar in 2017 elections, cannot enter the state legislative assembly till the disqualification petitions filed against them are decided by the Speaker.

But both these were instances of courts interference when the Speaker failed to decide the disqualification petitions filed by opposition MLAs, on time  a scenario which is unlikely in this case where the ruling party whip has filed the plea.

Important grounds raised by Pilot and other MLAs

- Pilot and other MLAs had contended that Speakers notice is based on assumptions and surmises and there is no factual basis to support the apprehensions raised by him in the notice.

- None of the MLAs have either by their express or implied conduct indicated their intention to give up Congress party membership.

- In a democratic setup, voicing disagreement with the policies or decisions taken by the party does not amount to acting against the interests of the party.

- Not attending two Legislature Party meetings will not fall within the scope of defection contemplated in para 2 of the Tenth Schedule.

- Rajasthan Assembly (Disqualification) Rules mandate that the Speaker should give 7 days notice to a member to explain his stance in a disqualification case. The notice issued by the Speaker on July 14 has set a deadline of July 17 to show cause and is, therefore, violative of the rules.

- If somebody is expelled from a political party, such a person cannot be said to have voluntarily given up membership as required under para 2 of Tenth Schedule to attract disqualification for defection. This issue is not yet completely settled and is pending before the Supreme Court in the case of Amar Singh v. Union of India.
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Linkedin Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 16, 2020 17:49 551 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666d908f 1 National omnibus-bill-on-job-creation,SMRC,RUU-cipta-kerja,survey,house-of-representatives,DPR Free

Most Indonesians who are aware of the omnibus bill on job creation want the House of Representatives to pass it, hoping the regulations could increase the number of jobs, a survey by Saiful Mujani Research & Consulting (SMRC) shows.

According to the study, which surveyed 2,215 people from July 8 to 11, 52 percent of the 26 percent of people who said they knew about the bill wanted the House to pass it. Meanwhile, 37 percent of them said they did not support the bill and 11 percent did not answer.

"The majority of people who know about the job creation bill said it would bring benefits to the countrys economy," SMRC research director Deni Irvani said in a statement on Tuesday.

This bill is considered important to increase business certainty, simplify business procedures and generate new jobs."

Deni said the government and the House should raise public awareness on the legislation, explaining that the 26 percent of people knowing about the bill was a small number for such an important matter.

"Seventy-four percent of the respondents still don't know about the bill. Therefore, it is a task for the government and the House to raise public awareness about it, he said.

Read also: Labor groups plan nationwide rallies against jobs bill as deliberation continues

The survey also revealed that opposition to the bill was higher among those with higher education and income as well as those living in cities.

Among those who know about the bill, 42 percent of highly educated people rejected it. Fifty-four percent of the people with income exceeding Rp 4 million (US$274.31) who know about the bill also rejected it. Among those who know the bill, only 49 percent of people living in cities support it.

According to the report, support for the bill was stronger among people of lower socioeconomic status and those living in rural areas.

"Support for the bill is higher among women in rural areas, those of higher age, lower education and lower income, and among blue collar workers and the unemployed.

The deputy chairman of social and political research institute Cakra Wikara Indonesia, Dirga Ardiansa, questioned the survey's objective, saying the SMRC should highlight the 74 percent of the respondents that still don't know the bill.

They are hiding something by highlighting that 52 percent of Indonesians support the bill, while really [only] 26 percent of the people are [even] aware of the bill," he said.

Read also: Guide to omnibus bill on job creation: 1,028 pages in 10 minutes

The survey should not highlight the [aspect of] who support the bill and who doesn't, but the fact that 74 percent of the people still dont know about the bill. The SMRCs survey tries to lead the readers to a certain public opinion. The way it is presented is biased," he added.

The government expects the House to finish deliberating the omnibus bill on job creation by early September, Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto has said.

The omnibus bill includes 80 articles to revise prevailing regulations related to investment and business permits. Several of the articles are expected to improve the ease of doing business.

The bill also contains 19 articles to revise regulations on land acquisition, which has become one of the biggest obstacles for direct investment in Indonesia. Some investment projects have been in limbo for years due to land issues, according to the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM).

The omnibus bill also includes five articles related to employment. However, the government decided to delay deliberation on these articles in response to mounting pressure from labor unions over fears that the articles would lure investment at the expense of workers welfare.
Baghdad:

Suicide bombings killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 30 in two cities north of Baghdad on Sunday, according to officials.

One bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle at the southern entrance to Tikrit, while the other blew up an ambulance in Samarra, the officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but the Islamic State group frequently carries out suicide bombings in Iraq.

Iraqi forces are fighting to retake Mosul from IS, the jihadist groups last major urban stronghold in the country.

IS has launched a series of diversionary attacks since the start of the Mosul operation on October 17 in a bid to draw both attention and forces away from the battle.

The Sunni extremist group overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but Iraqi forces backed by US-led air support have since regained significant ground.

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ATLANTA, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- With record temperatures sweeping the nation, this summer is shaping up to be a scorcher. For those who would rather soak up the sun than search online for a new car, Autotrader has made it simple to find the 10 Hottest Cars of Summer 2020. Based on the most-searched vehicles on Autotrader, if you are someone who wants to enjoy the summer in the latest and greatest new ride, this list is for you.

"This year brought a lot of changes to the automotive industry, but we can always count on consistency with the Hottest Cars for Summer," said Brian Moody, executive editor for Autotrader. "This tried and true list highlights the biggest car trends of the summer. This list is a good place to start if you're looking for a car that's popular among shoppers, and these are some of the top picks because people continue to return to them year after year."

Autotrader's 10 Hottest Cars of Summer 2020*

Ford F-150/250

New or used, the Ford F-Series pickup is popular. It's been the best-selling new vehicle for decades and continues to impress buyers with a wide variety of engine choices, off-road-ready models, budget-friendly basic models and high-end, tech-heavy luxury versions. We're not saying the F-150 is perfect, but it's such a consistent best-seller we can't see how so many people can be wrong.



Jeep Wrangler

If you're looking for a quintessential American vehicle, it's got to be the Jeep Wrangler. The Wrangler's popularity isn't surprising  Americans love to get out and have fun, away from the confines of city life and the Wrangler is just the thing to get them there.



Chevrolet Silverado 1500/2500

Americans love pickups. Also, Chevrolet pickups. Redesigned in 2019, the Silverado is nearly as popular with shoppers as Ford's full-size pickup. The Silverado has typically had a nicer interior and a less utilitarian look outside. The Silverado is also offered in a wide variety of trim levels. Work Truck, Custom, LT, RST, Custom Trail Boss, LTZ, LT Trail Boss and High Country are the current levels  then add bed length, two or four-wheel drive plus regular, double or crew cab and there are plenty of Silverados to pick from.



Ford Mustang

Like the Jeep Wrangler, the Ford Mustang is just one of those purely American cars. It has a history, it's fun, it's affordable and it's popular. You can find a high-mileage Mustang for as little as $2,000 or you can spend $100,000 on a high-performance Shelby GT500. The best compromise is probably a V8 powered GT 2015 or newer with average mileage for its age.



Chevrolet Corvette

The C7 Chevrolet Corvette has turned out to be the swan song of the front-engine Corvette. The arrival of the C8 Corvette could mean some great deals on the previous model. Or, it could mean a lot of C7 owners believe they have some kind of rare instant classic and "won't be tricked" into selling it for a reasonable price. Either way, the C7 is an outstanding send-off to the 'Vette's front-engine layout.



Ram 1500

With each passing model year, the Ram 1500 is becoming increasingly well-known for its plush interior, smooth ride and excellent towing capacity. The current Ram 1500 is the best one yet but even going back a few years will get you a nice truck.



Toyota Tacoma

For years, the Toyota Tacoma has been built in Texas . Maybe that's why the Toyota Tacoma feels as American as the Chevy Silverado or Ford Mustang. The truck can do it all  daily driver, off-road, haul junk, last forever. The new 2020 Toyota Tacoma is a perfectly fine truck.



GMC Sierra

The GMC Sierra has matured to the point where it's tangibly different from the full-size Chevy. Many Sierras have unique features, trim and equipment. Fewer people are looking for a Sierra as compared to an F-150 or Silverado but not by much. One thing we like about the Sierra: It has fewer variations. That makes shopping a little easier. We like the SLE for a capable and affordable full-size truck.



Jeep Grand Cherokee

Our theory is that all the interest in the Jeep Grand Cherokee is fueled by Wrangler research. We imagine these shoppers asking, "How can I have the authenticity of the Wrangler but with more interior space and comfort?" Jeep Grand Cherokee is the answer.



Toyota 4Runner

In a way, the 4Runner is kind of a throw-back to a simpler era. It is an SUV and those are wildly popular, but the 4Runner has been, essentially, the same for many years. Its tough construction is better for deep mud and rugged trails than it is for highway road trips.

*The vehicles are listed in search order by popularity.

Autotrader's Hottest Cars of Summer 2020 list features the most-searched cars, trucks and SUVs on Autotrader's website from January 1, 2020 to July 6, 2020 (ranked by search volume). To learn more about the Hottest Cars of Summer 2020, including photos, vehicle information and available inventory, visit https://www.autotrader.com/best-cars/popular-cars-for-summer.

Extraordinary times demand extraordinary service where online services are more important than ever before. Autotrader is reaching car shoppers in a way that is both safe and convenient by delivering an easy, informational and virtual shopping and buying experience. For more information on Autotrader's Dealer Home Services, visit https://www.autotrader.com/information/dealer-home-services.

Consumers can stay up-to-date on the latest Coronavirus news and advice for car owners and shoppers from Autotrader editors at https://www.autotrader.com/car-news/coronavirus-news-and-advice-car-owners-and-shoppers-281474980000716.

For more information and news from Autotrader, visit press.autotrader.com, follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Autotrader_com (or @Autotrader_com), Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/autotrader_com/ (or @autotrader_com), like our page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/autotrader/, add us on Snapchat (@Autotrader_com), at https://www.linkedin.com/company/autotrader-com, and follow us on LinkedIn.

About Autotrader

Autotrader is the most recognized third-party car listings brand, with the most engaged audience of in-market car shoppers. As the foremost authority on automotive consumer insights and expert in online and mobile marketing, Autotrader makes the car shopping experience easy and fun for today's empowered car shopper looking to find or sell the perfect new, used or Certified Pre-Owned car. Using technology, shopper insights and local market guidance, Autotrader's comprehensive marketing and retailing solutions allow consumers to build their deal online, and guide dealers to personalized digital marketing strategies that grow brand, drive traffic and connect the online and in-store shopping experience. Autotrader is a Cox Automotive brand. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises. For more information, please visit http://press.autotrader.com.

About Cox Automotive

Cox Automotive Inc. makes buying, selling, owning and using cars easier for everyone. The global company's 34,000-plus team members and family of brands, including Autotrader, Clutch Technologies, Dealer.com, Dealertrack, Kelley Blue Book, Manheim, NextGear Capital, VinSolutions, vAuto and Xtime, are passionate about helping millions of car shoppers, 40,000 auto dealer clients across five continents and many others throughout the automotive industry thrive for generations to come. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises Inc., a privately-owned, Atlanta-based company with revenues of $21 billion. coxautoinc.com

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Thiruvananthapuram, July 16 : Principal Secretary to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, M. Sivasankar was on Thursday suspended from service over his role in the gold smuggling case that rocked the state.

A two-member committee headed by the Chief Secretary was asked to look into the allegations against Sivasankar and it had earlier in the day submitted its report to Vijayan.

"The report has been received and it has been found that there was violation of All India Service rules by him and hence he has been suspended from service and a departmental probe will also take place," said Vijayan.

Sivasankar early this week was first removed as secretary and also from the post of IT secretary after news trickled in of his closeness to the now arrested duo of Swapna Suresh and P.S. Sarith.

The gold smuggling case which has large scale ramifications across sectors first surfaced when Sarith, a former employee of the UAE consulate here was arrested by the Customs on July 5 when he was facilitating smuggling of 30 kg of gold in diplomatic baggage to Thiruvananthapuram from Dubai.

It turned murkier when the name of Swapna, a former employee of the UAE consulate here and employed with the IT department, surfaced and it turned the full circle when their links with Sivasankar were revealed.

Since July 5, the Congress and BJP were up in arms demanding sacking of Sivasankar , but Vijayan paid scant heed to that and went on to say that time has not come for such an action.

State Congress chief Mullapally Ramachandran alleged that despite Vijayan's office being the epicentre of corruption and Sivasankar's involvement with the accused, Vijayan was still defending him.

"Even the apex court has ruled that a suspension is not a punishment and despite that Vijayan was shielding him because all know how close they were for the past two decades. This gold smuggling case is not the first, when the Sprinklr issue surfaced, all saw how staunchly Sivasankar was defended. This is because Sivasankar holds the key to numerous secrets of Vijayan," said Ramachandran and added suspending Sivasankar does not mean anything and Vijayan cannot wash his hands off.

State BJP president K. Surendran said by now two key officials close to Vijayan has been booted out - Sivasankar and Arun Balachandran.

"This clearly shows the needle of suspicion is now fully on Vijayan and he should quit and face a probe. IT department comes under Vijayan and in that department numerous people were given plush jobs, violating all norms and the now booted out duo were holding sway engaging in a free for all ," said Surendran.
Deenova reported today that its unrivalled market impulse in 2020 unceasingly expands to Spain, with its first public tender won by Deenova from Bellvitge University Hospital and the Catalan Institute of Health, and separately the company Algalasa for private hospitals throughout Spain.

Jose Luis Temes, M.D., Algalasa's President and former Subsecretary of Health at Spain Ministry of Health, Director of National Health Service in Spain, and Managing Director of multiple Spanish hospitals, including Foundation Jimenez Diaz, Hospital La Paz, and Hospital Queen Sofia, added: "We are very happy and proud to incorporate Deenova solutions to complete our portfolio. In Algalasa we are known experts in providing first class solutions for the automation of medication workflow and medical devices at hospitals and pharmacies. Deenova products have a unique technology and business approach to R.O.I. in the health care market that simultaneously improves patient safety, staff satisfaction, quality and efficiency of the pharmacy processes, utilising a remarkable closed-loop-system process from prescription all the way to bedside administration."

Fulvio Rudello, Deenova Chief Operating Officer, added: "As Deenova's team leader in the design of our next generation mechatronics pharmacy robot, it was crucial to set a very high bar for the industry. Our idea and ambition was to deliver a world-class solution not only for oral solid medications, but to fully automatically handle all the packaging pharmaceutical formats of liquid medications, such as vials, syringes, ampoules, and all other formats of patches sachet, and suppositories. Everyone at Deenova is very proud of leap-frogging other automation and robotic products in the industry".

Bellvitge University Hospital is located in Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona. With its 900+ beds, it is a public tertiary reference center for a community of more than 200.000 inhabitants at the entire southern axis of Catalonia up to the Ebro river, and part of the Catalan Institute of Health. The Bellvitge University Hospital Campus also houses the University of Barcelona, the Catalan Institute of Oncology, and the IDEBELL Research Institute, for more information, refer to https://bellvitgehospital.cat

Deenova is the undisputed leading supplier of combined mechatronics (robotic and automation) solutions for closed loop medications and RFID-based medical devices traceability in the healthcare industry, anytime and anywhere. Deenova's unique, patented, and fully integrated solutions have and will greatly contribute to ease healthcare providers' growing pressures to: simultaneously improve patient safety, reduce therapy errors, minimise waste and controlled substance diversion, contain costs, and diminish the gap between rising patient volume/acuity and scarce medical staff. Deenova guarantees the simplification of all processes related to the management of medications and implantable/disposable medical devices with an expected cost savings range between 15% and 25%. Please visit www.deenova.com for additional information on its market leading solutions.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200716005518/en/

Contacts:

Contacts at Deenova:

Christophe Jaffuel, Carlos Duran Ortega, Elisa Mariotti

e.mariotti@deenova.com, +39 0523 785311
Now is a great time to prepare to celebrate the grape harvest! The smells of the incoming sweet grapes are intense during the harvest! Its so much fun to pick those grapes and see the grape vines before and after those grapes are plucked from the vines.

Harvesting grapes are very memorable as some of you might have experienced during the recent harvest of the Texas Gulf Coast hybrid grapes at Haak Winery, Will Stallion Vineyards, and Bernhardt Winery. That harvest is over, but the grape harvests of the vitis vinifera (aka classic grapes known as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sangiovese, Viognier, and more) will occur starting in mid-August in the Texas Hill Country and last through most of September is coming up. Make plans now to visit Fredericksburg, Comfort, and other Texas Hill Country communities by booking your reservations at one of a limited number of hotels, bed and breakfasts, or at your friends homes.

The smells are simply amazing during the harvest with the sweet bouquet of cherries, apples, pears, peaches, and melons in the air. Those smells are part of the essences of the grapes with those subtle tasty nuances providing the finished wines with lots of substance. Those nuances are natural to the wines with no flavors added! Many of the Hill Country lodgings are available including dog friendly motels like LaQuinta in Fredericksburg. Check out the bed and breakfast lodgings also. For food, do what we do. We bring a cooler of sliced Deli meats, cheeses, and more so we can eat and not pay much attention to what restaurants are open. Likewise, take a corkscrew or two along with acrylic wine glasses to enjoy wines on the go!

Looking for something on a local basis? Check out Bernhardt Winerys Anniversary Party (TENTATIVE due to the pandemic) on Sunday, Aug. 2, starting at 4 pm. There will be a grape stomp in their five-foot diameter grape stomp pit. Be careful since those grapes are slippery and you can fall just like Lucy did in her grape-stomping episode of I Love Lucy. You can place your purple piggys on one of the Bernhardt Winery keepsake T-shirt which sells for $15 per shirt. Make a whole evening of it at Bernhardt Winery by bringing friends, kids, and pets on a leash with your picnic basket of goodies and enjoy a bottle of Bernhardt Wine while enjoying people and the concert featuring Ropin the Wind (a Garth Brooks Tribute). There will be a Lucy-Look-Alike contest with the audience being the judge with winners getting age-appropriate prizes. Afternoon costs ate $16 for those 16 and older while those under 16 are free.

Head to Pleasant Hill Winery for their tentatively scheduled grape stomps the last two weekends in July and the first two weekends in August. Enjoy their wonderful, award-winning wines at Pleasant Hill Winery just of U.S. 290 in Brenham. Also in Brenham is Windy Winery near the Brenham Airport. I had always thought it cool to fly into Brenham Airport to visit Windy Winery. I wonder if there is a correlation between the winerys name and the airport.

Make a weekend of it at Messina Hof Winery in Bryan on Friday evening, July 24, starting with a special T-shirt to use while participating in the moonlit harvest and special dinner at $59.95 plus tax and gratuity. Start you Saturday off at 8 am in the vineyards and enjoy the grape picking of Black Spanish Rose aka Lenoir with grape stomping contests, wine tasting, winery tours, and more. Reservations are a MUST for Friday via www.MessinaHof.com. Enjoy the best of Texas wineries this weekend and next her locally and in the Texas Hill Country later in mid-August through September!

Ron Saikowski may be reached at rsaikowski@comcast.net.
A look at the day ahead from Saikat Chatterjee, Senior FX Correspondent. The views expressed are his own.

So much for a China-led recovery. Data that China's economy returned to growth in the June quarter, expanding by a better-than-expected 3.2% as lockdown measures ended, did little to boost nervous global markets.

World stocks are struggling after climbing to a five-month high, with Asian stocks broadly in the red. U.S. and European stock futures are down and risky currencies including the British pound, Aussie and Kiwi dollar, are weaker.

Beyond China's upbeat gross domestic product numbers, a drop in consumption suggests a bumpy global outlook ahead. Retail sales fell 1.8% year-on-year in June -- the fifth straight month of decline. Chinas largest cinema chain operator, Wanda , said it expects to report a net loss of 1.5 billion to 1.6 billion yuan ($228.60 million) in the first half of 2020, compared with a profit of 524 million yuan in the same period last year.

A surge in virus infection rates is also undermining sentiment and keeping safe-haven 10-year U.S. Treasury yields pinned within sight of a three-month low at 0.62%.

Kristalina Georgieva, managing director at the International Monetary Fund, warned a second major wave of coronavirus infections could trigger more disruptions. Economists at IHS Markitt have raised the probability of a double-dip recession to 20%.

The number of global coronavirus infections has reached 13.5 million and the number of deaths more than 583,000 worldwide, according to a Reuters tally. New infection rates in the U.S. states of Oklahoma and Texas surged by record numbers for a second straight day.

A wide-ranging dispute between the United States and China over the control of advanced technologies and the protection of civil liberties in Hong Kong also weighed on sentiment.

A pivotal period for euro watchers begins with a European Central Bank meeting followed by a European Union summit on Friday and Saturday. The ECB is widely expected to leave policy unchanged on Thursday, but the EU summit could have a significant impact on the euro.

Story continues

The single currency reached a four-month high against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday, but it could see more volatility heading into the summit, which will try to reach agreement on a pandemic rescue fund.

Euro strength suggests investors hope for a compromise close to Germany and France's proposal of a 750 billion-euro fund. A watered-down outcome could push the euro back to the July lows of 1.12 and send Italian bond yields shooting higher.

Elsewhere, quarterly earning reports in Europe are revealing the extent of lockdown damage. France's Alstom reported a 27% slump in first-quarter sales and Richemont's sales nearly halved after the coronavirus disruption. On a brighter note, data on early-stage human trials of a vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University will be published on July 20, The Lancet medical journal said. ($1 = 6.9990 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Editing by Larry King)
Rachida Kouki owes everything to her mother. If Rachida, 36, is now free and married with an eight month old baby, its because during the Revolution in early 2011 when Tunisians were demonstrating in the streets, Saida Kouki went around the sit-ins and protests telling people about the injustice inflicted on her daughter.

In January 2011, when President Ben Ali fled the country with his wife and children, Rachida had been languishing in prison for a year and a half, sentenced to life imprisonment. Her mother was afraid that Rachida would be forgotten in those moments of jubilation and political upheaval. During the demonstrations, she kept calling people to tell them about her daughters tragedy until one day, by chance, she came across a journalist who directed her to the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women (ATFD), a feminist NGO known for its centre supporting victims of violence against women and for its energetic team of women lawyers.

Lawyer Hayet Jazzar, an active member of ATFD, took up the case, visited Rachida in prison, secretly recorded her words and decided to go public. I never thought that the tyranny of the Trabelsi family could extend even to housemaids, says Jazzar.

Obey! We are the ruling family!

On 2 July, before the transitional justice chamber of the Tunis Court of First Instance, Rachida Koukis former bosses were in the dock: Ines Lajri, her sister, brother and mother. Ines Lajris husband is none other than Mohamed-Moncef Trabelsi (on the run since 2011), nephew of Leila Trabelsi Ben Ali, the former First Lady known for her numerous siblings and their grasp on the national wealth. Apart from Ali Seriati, director of National Security in the mid-2000s, all the police officers who participated in the alleged abuses against the former housemaid were absent from the hearing.

On 23 January, Rachida Kouki told the court how she had been kidnapped, raped and tortured by her employers, before being unjustly convicted by the justice system of the time and imprisoned. In an interview with Justice Info, she tells her story.

In 2004, Rachida Kouki, a 20 year-old girl who had been doing all kinds of domestic jobs since the age of 14, was working for a member of parliament in Teboursouk, her native region, about 100 kilometres from the Tunisian capital. Thanks to a local shopkeeper with whom she had become friends, Rachida came across a job offer from an agency, looking for a sleep-in housemaid to work in the home of a foreign family. The salary offered was attractive. She applied for the job. But to her surprise, no foreigners came to welcome her. Instead, she was recruited by Latifa Khlass, the mother of Ines Lajri Trabelsi, her future boss. After some time, this lady gave her to her daughter, Ines Lajri Trabelsi, who was going through a difficult pregnancy.

In my remote village in the northwest of the country, we had no idea about the Trabelsis and their abuses. So in the early days, when my boss yelled at me Obey! We are the ruling family! I didnt understand anything, recalls Rachida Kouki.

Rachida Kouki  Olfa Belhassine

Held captive

The young womans descent into hell began as soon as Leila Trabelsi Ben Alis nephew and his wife discovered that their firstborn, Moncef, was autistic. The mother didnt have time to devote herself to the little one, busy as she was managing the construction site of her new mansion in the Cite les Pins, in La Marsa. I took entire care of him with his grandmother. He became attached to me as if I had given birth to him. A specialist doctor in Paris, whom the [Trabelsi] family consulted, diagnosed the emotional bond between Moncef and me, says Kouki.

It was from that moment, according to Hayet Jazzar, that she was held captive, forbidden to go out or visit her family. The Trabelsi family wanted her night and day at the service of the little boy. Their hold over her was tightened: her mobile phone was confiscated and any communications she was allowed were monitored by the mistress of the house.

I had no privacy. Body searches were daily and I showered with the door ajar. Those were the orders, says Kouki. Her lawyer adds: The Trabelsis were obsessed with the idea that the staff in their service would divulge their family secrets and their shady dealings.

Jail is better than Trabelsi prison

Rachida also recounts how she was humiliated and physically and verbally abused each time she complained about the abuse and overwork. Sleeping only four to five hours a night, exhausted by the housework and the care of the little disabled 3-year-old, Rachida tried in 2008 to escape. But two policemen, sent by the Trabelsi family, intercepted her at the bus station on her way to her village. On the orders of the Trabelsis, the victim was punished by the officers: she was beaten, insulted and threatened to be stripped. Taken back to her employers house, she was violently slapped in front of them by the policemen, who forced her to kiss her mistresss hand.

Rachida Kouki stood up even more vigorously against her oppressors. She was determined to put an end to her slavery. An idea came to her after an incident, a short circuit in one of the rooms of the house that was quickly fixed by the servants. She then tried to cause another accident in order to be freed from her jailers because, she said, the womens prison is better than the Trabelsi jail.

She burned a rug. The fire was quickly put out but she would pay dearly for her desperate act. On 30 April 2009, police officers took Rachida to the Marsa police station, following a complaint from Ines Ajri, who accused her of wanting to set fire to her villa. These two policemen, Nabil Abid and Bilel Beji, tortured her for hours, according to Rachida, by putting her in the roast chicken position and beating her with a stick on her feet. She was then forced to sign the report, without even reading its contents.

Life in jail for burning a rug

I wish the judges of the day had also appeared here to account for their iniquitous and biased judgments under pressure from the government. Let them at least apologize! protests the lawyer.

Not only was the trial expeditive, but the young woman was also found guilty of the short circuit. She was convicted of setting fire to a place of residence. Then came the sentence, read out in a classical Arabic that the victim did not understand: life imprisonment. Forbidden to correspond with her family, it would take more than a year for her parents to find out where she was.

When Hayet Jazzar made contact with the victim in early 2012, she was touched by her story. But her appeal was rejected and all legal avenues exhausted. ATFD sought a presidential amnesty. The new head of state, Moncef Marzouki, granted her amnesty on 24 July 2012. But the association did not stop there. It submitted Koukis case to the Truth and Dignity Commission (IVD), a truth commission set up in the aftermath of the revolution. And it was this commission that, on 14 May 2018, referred the case to the Tunis Chamber of Transitional Justice.

Recommended reading As Tunisia emerges from confinement, what future for its specialized chambers?

Ines Lajri Trabelsi denies everything

Standing before the judges on 2 July, Ines Lajri denied everything described by Rachida Kouki. These are reprisals against the Trabelsi family that we are now suffering since the fall of the former regime, she claimed throughout her questioning. My successive precious pregnancies prevented me from hitting my maid. I had difficulty moving around and didnt have time to take care of girls like her. Rachida is a big liar who must have perfected in prison her art of spinning yarns.

Rachida Kouki was recognized as a victim by the IVD, which at the end of May 2019 granted her 70% compensation for violations of her physical integrity. Even though she is in need today and her baby, suffering from immune deficiency, requires continuous care, she no longer wants to do other peoples housework. I would rather live off small farming and my husbands minimum wage than relive a trauma that I still feel! she exclaims.
Letter to Congress on emergency CTC and EITC

Charlottesville, Virginia, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A Diverse Group of Conservatives Call for Emergency Expansion of EITC and Child Tax Credits for Families

Date: July 16, 2020

Contact: michael@ifstudies.org



(Charlottesville, VA)A diverse group of conservative scholars and leaders have signed a letter asking Congressional leaders to expand the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) because of the economic and family consequences of COVID-19. The letter, which can be viewed on the IFS website, was signed by IFS senior fellow W. Bradford Wilcox, author J.D. Vance, American Enterprise Institute scholars Yuval Levin and Michael Strain, economist Abby McClosky, and Princeton's Robert George, among others.



"In the face of school closures, intermittent reopening, and rampant community spread, now is not the time for pulling back," said Abby McClosky. "Workers and caregivers are facing unprecedented challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, which shows no signs of abating. Targeted support is urgently needed to reward work and help families with caregiving responsibilities."



The letter asks that Congress issue:

a second EITC in the fall that is based on 2019 earnings and that it include a higher threshold for married workers for this payment to avoid a marriage penalty;

an additional, fully-refundable CTC of $2,000 to all American families, andshould this credit be means testedthat the income threshold be set to minimize any marriage penalty in the credit.

"Millions of ordinary families are hurting because of the financial fallout of COVID," said Brad Wilcox, IFS senior fellow and professor of sociology at the University of Virginia. "As we head into the fall, Congress needs to step up to shore up families struggling to care for their children and pay the bills."



Read the full letter and list of signatories here.

Story continues

Michael Toscano

Institute for Family Studies

516-242-6812

michael@ifstudies.org


Newshub | Daniel Rutledge

The first trailer has for Savage, an upcoming film inspired by New Zealand gangs and state-run boys' homes, has just been released.

The story centres around Danny, and according to the film's official log, follows three decades of his life in Aotearoa - the '60s, '70s and '80s - "taking a deeper look at a boy who grows into the brutal enforcer of a gang, to understand how he got there."

Savage is written and directed by Sam Kelly, who has previously covered the topic of at-risk Kiwi youth in his 2011 short film Lambs, which was played at film festivals around the world.

Kelly says researching that brought him into close contact with New Zealand's organised crime underworld, on top of his being exposed to it from an early age.

"I come from Porirua, a place where gang members are a part of the fabric of the community. I had friends who were directly impacted by gang violence," Kelly told Newshub.

"While researching Lambs, I spent time with a Porirua youth gang and then met several former and current Mongrel Mob and Black Power members.

"The stories of their childhood journeys towards becoming gang members I found the most affecting. Many came from abusive homes, were removed and placed in state care where they suffered horrific abuse, and afterwards looked to join other outcasts in a new family unit - a gang."

Kelly said the New Zealand state failed these people and that inspired him to "shine a light on the reality that gangs form not in isolation from society, but as a direct result of it".

Savage opens in New Zealand cinemas on August 27.

Newshub.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam and Communist Party members among those under consideration as possible targets.

US President Donald Trump has not ruled out further sanctions against top Chinese officials, including Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, in response to their handling of the political unrest in the semi-autonomous territory, a White House National Security Council spokesman said.

In no way has he taken anything off the table with respect to further sanctions of party officials for actions in Hong Kong or on other issues. Any suggestion otherwise by anonymous sources is flat out wrong, National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot said on Wednesday.

The Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which Trump signed on Tuesday, allows him to impose sanctions and visa restrictions on Chinese officials and financial institutions involved in the imposition of Chinas new national security law in Hong Kong. He announced the end of preferential treatment of Hong Kong.





Bloomberg reported Trump had ruled out additional sanctions on top Chinese officials to avoid escalating tensions, but a person familiar with the matter told Reuters news agency that White House discussions on potential targets for sanctions were continuing and no final decisions have been made.

Among names being suggested as a possible target for sanctions is Lam, who backed the implementation of the security law, the source said.

The New York Times reported later that the Trump administration was considering a sweeping ban on travel to the United States by members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

In response to Beijings broken promises, President @realDonaldTrump has taken steps to end Hong Kongs preferential treatment and announced the United States will place a special focus on the admission of Hong Kong residents as refugees. We stand with the Hong Kong people.  Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) July 16, 2020

Unreasonable meddling

Ullyot, the national security official, noted that last week the president imposed sanctions against CCP officials for their treatment of minority Uighur Muslims in China.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the legislation Trump signed and an executive order ending Hong Kongs special status under US law were justified.

General Secretary Xi Jinping made a choice to violate the Chinese Communist Partys promises to Hong Kong that were made in UN-registered treaty. He didnt have to do that and he made that choice, Pompeo told reporters.

Pompeo noted on Twitter later on Wednesday that Trump said the US would place a special emphasis on admitting Hong Kong residents as refugees.

We stand with the Hong Kong people, Pompeo said.

As the US reiterated its support for the territorys residents, Chinas top representative office in Hong Kong condemned what it called gross interference, labelling Trumps recent move to end the citys special status as gangster logic and bullying.





The Hong Kong Liaison Office said sanctions would not have a substantial effect on the special administrative region and were more likely to damage the interests of the US.

Unreasonable meddling and shameless threats by the United States are typical gangster logic and bullying behaviour, the statement said.

The national security law imposed by Beijing in Hong Kong punishes what China broadly defines as subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.

Critics of the law fear it will crush the wide-ranging freedoms promised to the former British colony when it was returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Supporters say it will bring stability to the city after a year of sometimes violent anti-government protests.

The Chinese government said it had a sovereign duty and legitimate right to maintain national security in Hong Kong and end the chaos caused by the protests last year.
Covid-19: Tourism update

Tourism professor Simon Hudson revisits, revises travel predictions, discusses new book

As the coronavirus threatens health and upends daily life throughout the world, UofSC Today is turning to our faculty to help us make sense of it all. While no one can predict exactly what will happen in the coming months, our faculty can help us ask the right questions and put important context around emerging events. Simon Hudson, a professor of tourism in the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management and author of the new book COVID-19 and Travel: Impacts, Responses and Outcomes, keeps us up-to date on the pandemics travel sector impact.

When we last reached out, in mid-March, the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. was in its early stages. At the time, you speculated that it would take 6-12 months for travelers to start resurfacing. Were about four months on, and some people are, in fact, traveling domestically. Can we expect that trend to continue, even in the face of a surge in infections?

Yes, I believe so. International travel will take much longer to recover, but there is pent-up demand after lockdown, so if destinations can reassure travelers that they are safe, then they may benefit from domestic tourism. After all, Americans cannot travel to many countries at the moment (including Europe, where they spent $156 billion last year), so for many the only alternative is to travel domestically  or risk getting on a plane and going through the hassle of COVID tests and tight regulations to visit destinations like the Caribbean that are opening up to American tourists.

This crisis has highlighted how the tourism and hospitality sector is particularly vulnerable to uncontrollable events, especially those destinations that were over-dependent on tourism. Tourism professor Simon Hudson

What about vacations cancelled or postponed due to the pandemic? How is the industry responding to the loss of revenue? Also, how would you grade their response, overall, in terms of customer service?

Certainly, for travel companies dealing with cancelations, these have been challenging times. But a pulse survey conducted by J.D. Power during the pandemic found that the travel industry was generally perceived by consumers to have comported itself well in reaction to cancelations. More than half of the travelers surveyed believed that travel suppliers were meeting or exceeding expectations on cancelation policies, and 60% of travelers agreed that hoteliers, cruise lines and airlines had demonstrated concern for the health and safety of the traveling public.

In general, the more often consumers traveled, the better they felt about the industrys response to the crisis. The challenge for some businesses as travelers canceled their plans was that they simply could not afford to give instant refunds. At one point, the boss of Lufthansa Group, for example, issued a plea to passengers to be patient over cash refunds for canceled flights amid the COVID-19 crisis. One phenomenon we have witnessed during the crisis is the acceleration in the use of technology, and AI-technology has assisted the travel sector with processing refunds for cancelations. Software maker Automation Anywhere Inc., for example, created a bot to help airlines tackle the surge in demand for refunds. The first airline to implement the bot was able to process 4,000 requests daily, instead of 500, without requiring any additional employee help.

Youve made the case for advertising during the pandemic, the idea being that companies want to be top of mind when people are once again able to enjoy a vacation. How far out can companies realistically maintain that kind of strategy? And if the pandemic continues well into 2021, what can companies do to remain viable?

"What the crisis has shown is that businesses in the travel sector must be willing to adapt and change their business models in order to survive."  Simon Hudson

I think that it is more than continuing to advertise. One lesson we have learned from this pandemic is that keeping open lines of communication during a crisis  to all stakeholders  is crucial. In my book I profiled a number of organizations that understood the importance of this: Micato Safaris, Marketing Greece, Hotels.com, Auckland Tourism, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, and more. Using a variety of communication tools  from social media to print advertising  these organizations also understood the need to change their tone of message as the crisis unfolded. One excellent example was Zermatt, in Switzerland, whose tourism authority took a creative but relevant approach to keep their destination top of mind by projecting, one by one, the flags of different countries onto the iconic Matterhorn mountain every night during lockdown as a display of solidarity with others. The campaign generated a considerable amount of media worldwide, reaching over 700 million people. If history repeats itself, it is likely that those organizations that remained vocal during the crisis will recover faster than others, having communicated to consumers the image of corporate stability during challenging times, and maintained, or even increased, share of mind. Another tactic that has proved to be successful during the crisis for tourism and hospitality providers has been engaging in philanthropic activities. In one of my case studies, I highlight how hotels all over the world have pivoted during the crisis to lend a helping hand, and I also write about how some accommodation providers joined together under the #MyTravelPledge umbrella to provide free vacations to healthcare workers. A recent article in the Journal of Business Research said that such efforts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) will not go unnoticed by consumers, and will be even more important in the future.

But it is not all about communications. What the crisis has shown is that businesses in the travel sector must be willing to adapt and change their business models in order to survive. I call this COVID-aptability, and it will be a crucial management skill moving forward. Many organizations did pivot successfully during lockdown: restaurants focused on takeout and delivery for income; commercial airlines flew critical medical supplies and other cargo around the world; and hotels supported the pandemic by providing overflow capacity for hospitals, or by offering people a facility to self-isolate and protect their families. However, as travel restrictions ease, organizations will have to consider how they can adapt to the next stage of the pandemic  one characterized by an emphasis on health and safety, technology and a low-touch economy.

In terms of the travel sectors vulnerability and/or resilience, has anything surprised you as we entered what would normally be peak travel season?

This crisis has highlighted how the tourism and hospitality sector is particularly vulnerable to uncontrollable events, especially those destinations that were over-dependent on tourism. For these destinations, the crisis has been a wake-up call, and perhaps these destinations will either recognize the need for a more diversified economy, or invest in their tourism sector to make it more resilient and sustainable. For some tourism destinations, though, this crisis may represent an opportunity. As John F. Kennedy was fond of saying, when written in Chinese, the word crisis is composed of two characters; one represents danger and the other represents opportunity. The restaurant sector, for example, was in trouble long before the pandemic arrived, so this could be a chance to re-evaluate the industrys structural inadequacies and create a more stable business model.

Until there is a vaccine, the virus will influence nearly every sector of travel from transportation, destination and resorts, to the accommodations, attractions, events and restaurants. Tourism professor Simon Hudson

From the travelers perspective, what are some realistic alternatives to boarding a crowded flight or visiting a bustling city? Youve mentioned that virtual reality might help keep people interested in travel, but what types of trips can people safely plan if they actually want to go someplace?

Just as governments may not take the travel industry for granted in the future, travelers themselves are more likely to appreciate their ability to travel. But they may change their travel behavior. The traveler of the future will be more cautious than before, and the public health conditions and hygiene standards of destinations will become a top priority. Travelers will be taking more staycations, more domestic rather than foreign vacations, and some will take fewer vacations. A friend of mine, who had originally planned to travel around Europe for the whole summer with his family, has instead rented a RV, and is visiting many of the National Parks in America. We are going to see a lot more of this type of travel.

In March, you were yourself stuck in a Canadian ski resort but making the best of the situation by enjoying the outdoors. You were also already hard at work on a new book looking at tourism in the age of COVID-19. That book is now out. What can readers expect to learn from the book about the future of travel during the pandemic  short term and long term?

It's hard to summarize the book in a couple paragraphs, but the main reason I wrote it was because it was clear to me that the travel industry  more than any other  was going to be severely impacted by the crisis, both in the short- and long-term. It needed to be documented. What I highlighted in the book was how the pandemic and travel were inextricably linked, how the different sectors of the industry reacted to the crisis, leadership and communication strategies employed by the industry during the crisis, and the social, economic and environmental impacts of the pandemic. As for the future, it will be one driven by technology: we have hotels employing virus-killing robots to do the cleaning; beaches are using drones to monitor social distancing; airports are installing thermal cameras and disinfection tunnels; and attractions are using apps to monitor social distancing.

In the short-term it is all about survival, but most experts would agree that recovery from the COVID-19 crisis will be slow. Until there is a vaccine, the virus will influence nearly every sector of travel from transportation, destination and resorts, to the accommodations, attractions, events and restaurants. I am a big fan of historian, author and world-traveler Yuval Noah Harari, who wrote Sapiens and Homo Deus. At the end of the book, I note that Harari believes historians in a thousand years will look back at the COVID-19 crisis as a mere bump in the road for the human race. However, those of us involved in the travel industry will see this crisis more as a road block. So, this book is intended to provide a few ideas for navigating around this road block, and for being prepared and more resilient when the next one comes along.

Travel forum

The University of South Carolinas School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management is hosting a free online forum to discuss the impacts of COVID-19 on travel and tourism. The forum will begin at 10 a.m. July 27 and will feature South Carolina hospitality and tourism management professor Simon Hudson, whose latest book, COVID-19 and Travel: Impacts, Responses and Outcomes, was published June 30.

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While paracetamol was the most common substance of enquiry for calls to the National Poisons Centre in 2018, new research reveals most New Zealanders have large quantities of the painkiller stockpiled in their homes.

In 2018, the New Zealand National Poisons Centre based at the University of Otago in Dunedin provided assessment and advice for 64,358 enquiries, a number similar to previous years, a new study shows.

Most calls to the Poisons Centre were related to substance exposures involving very young patients with half aged under 5 years. Most reported exposures occurred in the patient's own home and were unintentional and most were advised to self-treat the exposure at home, or that no treatment was needed.

Paracetamol was the most frequently reported substance in all calls to the Poisons Centre and searches of the poisons information database, which is used by healthcare providers in their management of poisoned patients.

University of Otago Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Eeva-Katri Kumpula led the analysis of enquiries made to the Poisons Centre as well as an entirely separate study funded by Oakley Mental Health Research Foundation, investigating stocks of paracetamol stored in New Zealanders' homes.

While the two studies are in no way linked, they were both recently published and Dr Kumpula says the findings are not surprising given the results from both studies.

The survey of 201 homes throughout New Zealand, showed a large majority had paracetamol stocks readily accessible, with most having been obtained with a prescription.

Dr Kumpula says this is not surprising as the co-payment for a prescription of paracetamol is only $5 for up to three month's supply or 360g of paracetamol in total.

Based on the study sample, researchers estimate about a third of New Zealand households have 30g or more of prescribed paracetamol present. Only 27 of the 201 households surveyed had no paracetamol products, highlighting the high prevalence of the medication in homes.

Paracetamol is mostly safe, when used as instructed. It is important that people check with their pharmacist or doctor as to the dosage and frequency of use and when using liquid paracetamol Dr Kumpula recommends using a proper measuring device, not a spoon.

The study highlights the importance of assessing whether and how much paracetamol is truly needed when prescribing and dispensing the medication, she says.

Ensuring people have sufficient access to paracetamol for pain management needs to be balanced with preventing unnecessary accumulation of unused stock in households to minimize inappropriate use such as for intentional self-poisoning. Prescribers and pharmacists need to be aware of the risks of such accumulation and assess the therapeutic needs of their patients." Dr Eeva-Katri Kumpula, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Otago

Public initiatives should be rolled out regularly to encourage people to return unused or expired medicines for pharmacies for safe disposal, the study concludes.

The National Poisons Centre is available 24/7 to assist the public and medical professionals in the management of poisonings. For the public, advice is given on whether further medical care is needed and appropriate first aid measures. For healthcare professionals treating patients in real time, advice from practicing clinical toxicologists is immediately available over the phone and also via the centre's poisons information database.
Authorities on Thursday closed a pair of downtown parks that are hubs for Portland protesters.

About 5 a.m., Portland police announced the closure of Chapman and Lownsdale squares, which sit across Southwest Third Avenue from the Multnomah County Justice Center and federal courthouse. Officers combed through the parks about 10 minutes later, moving people to the north.

Portland police said nine people were arrested and booked into jail. Theyre accused of a combination of trespassing, interfering with a police officer and disorderly conduct charges, according to police.

In one of the arrests, an officer forcefully knocked a person off a bicycle, taking the person to the ground.

WATCH - Portland Police officers knock a protester off of his bicycle and arrest him outside of Lownsdale Square Park near the Federal Courthouse downtown #LiveOnK2 pic.twitter.com/tow0GzeyzW  Dan McCarthy (@DanMcKATU) July 16, 2020

Mark Ross, a spokesperson for Portland Parks and Recreation, said the parks are temporarily shuttered under a section of city code pertaining to emergency park closures.

The City has temporarily closed Chapman and Lownsdale Squares (under City Code Title 20.12.190) to conduct necessary repairs and maintenance, Ross said in a statement. Public restrooms in the parks were closed but have been broken into and vandalized and are no longer functional. The parks grass, benches, public art, and other park amenities have been severely vandalized, and need immediate attention.

Theyll stay closed until the city determines theyre safe and that necessary work has been completed.

Mayor Ted Wheeler will need to approve the closure in writing Thursday, according to the code.

His office said they do not condone or tolerate people using parks as a staging ground to damage public infrastructure, art, and park assets.

Portlands parks belong to everyone, Wheelers office said in a statement. As their stewards we have a responsibility to ensure they are healthy, open and accessible to our community, and that they are safe. Portland Parks & Recreation employees must be able to access amenities and facilities for repair and maintenance to ensure that we can continue to enjoy nature and gather peacefully.

@MultCoSO assisted @PortlandPolice with removing trespassers from Chapman and Lonsdale parks. Both parks are badly damaged and will need extensive restoration. pic.twitter.com/zpn0WOPnZO  Mike Reese (@SheriffReese) July 16, 2020

Protesters have gathered nightly in the area since late May, demonstrating in the wake of the Minnesota police killing of George Floyd, and an encampment cropped up this week across the street from the federal courthouse.

Authorities descended on the encampment Wednesday morning, clearing street blockades and reportedly telling people camped out in Lownsdale Square to leave.

Portland police said the parks are closed to the curb lines that surround them. Workers were putting a fence around Lownsdale Square on Thursday morning.

A small number of demonstrators remained to the north of the park about 8 a.m., and police were still at the scene.

A few dozen protesters were marching around the area early Thursday afternoon. A smaller group gathered in front of Portland City Hall, and other people remained at Fourth Avenue and Salmon Street.

A group of about 10 people later gathered at the corner of Third Avenue and Main Street in support of the police, as well.

The public should use sidewalks across the street from the parks, according to police, and area streets remain open.

-- Jim Ryan; jryan@oregonian.com; 503-221-8005; @Jimryan015

Everton Bailey Jr. and Dave Killen of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report.

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Sophie Powles at the 2012 British Soap Awards. (UK Press via Getty Images)

Former Emmerdale star Sophie Powles has spoken out about the challenges of being an out-of-work actor and said no-one in her profession should be ashamed of having a normal job.

Earlier this year, Powles, who played Holly Barton in the ITV soap, shared an Instagram post in which she talked about the sense of failure she experienced after leaving the soap and moving to London to further her career.

Now home visiting family as lockdown measures have eased, Powles said she spent most of her time in London working at a health food cafe, where she would be spoken to like crap by a customer or asked why I dont just get an acting job.

It felt like defeat. It felt like failure. Eventually I realised the lessons I was learning. To just find happiness in the everyday and the people you have around you. To be grateful for just simply waking up and being healthy.

Powles told Yahoo Celebrity UK that her upbringing made it impossible for her to sit and wait for jobs to come along.

If you are from a working-class family like I am, we have to work, that is the only option, she said. I have always just wanted to act but I have had to work from a young age to support that. I always had a little Saturday job to contribute.

I am very lucky, I have got an amazing mum and dad who worked so hard to take me to my singing, dancing and acting lessons but they cant do that forever.

Powles landed a job on Holby City as a young teenager and her role on Emmerdale in 2009, which she left in 2012. She returned to the soap briefly in 2016, before leaving again the same year.

She moved to London a few years ago to land bigger roles.

Powles said: I was very lucky but its unrealistic to think that anyone could afford to live in London and just wait for auditions.

Whilst in London I wanted to try and do some workshops and networking events and they cost money so I had to have my day job, otherwise I would literally be living in London never leaving my room.

Story continues

She got a job at a health food cafe in central London to keep herself afloat.

When I was in the cafe a few people would recognise me and be like What are you doing here? and Im like, I need a job, I need to pay my rent.

The acting industry is so hit and miss, one minute you could be having the best job and then it finishes and there is no guarantee when your next job is going to be and you just have to accept that and be willing to get your hands dirty and get to work.

Powles said she knows fellow actors who are embarrassed that they have to get a normal job but believes no-one should ever feel embarrassed or ashamed because there are so many actors out there and not a lot of acting opportunities, so of course it makes sense that we have to do other things while we wait.

She said that, over her career, she had done all sorts, from teaching yoga to children, nannying and babysitting, to working in a cafe, being a lifeguard and volunteering at an agency for people with disabilities and special needs.

Coronavirus and the arts

The acting profession has been one of the hardest hit professions during the coronavirus pandemic, with creative professionals livelihoods threatened by prolonged closures due to the virus.

Culture secretary Oliver Dowden has announced a 1.57 billion emergency support package for the arts, including a VAT cut for attractions including theatres, shows and circuses.

These measures have, however, come too late for the Nuffield Southampton Theatres, which went into administration in May, while theatres such as the Manchester Royal Exchange, Birmingham Hippodrome and Theatre Royal Plymouth have all begun redundancy consultations.

The Old Vics artistic director Matthew Warchus warned of a perilous year ahead, and British theatres are yet to find out how the funding will be distributed.

Powles has been involved in a project called the Isolation Ensemble as part of the 2.6 Challenge, an initiative launched to help UK charities to raise money for regional theatres in need.

The Isolation Ensemble is a group of 26 actors who perform 26 short scenes  which they rehearsed together via Zoom, email and on the phone  to create a piece of collaborative online theatre.

The project is raising money for Birmingham Hippodrome, Manchester Royal Exchange, Coventry Belgrade and Wiltshire Creative (Salisbury Playhouse, Salisbury Arts Centre and Salisbury International Arts Festival).

Powles said: Regional theatres provide opportunities for working class actors and working-class creatives. When you are out of work its really important to keep in the loop.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine says the Ohio Liquor Control Commission will hold hearings Aug. 3-7 as part of a statewide effort to pinpoint bars that are not following safety guidelines amid the coronavirus pandemic, particularly those relating to wearing masks and social distancing.

DeWine made the announcement at his Thursday coronavirus press briefing.

Let me just say, most of the bar owners are doing a good job, he said. But we do have bars owners out there who are not doing a good job.

The Ohio Investigative Unit, a division of the Ohio State Highway Patrol that investigates violations of Ohio liquor laws, has been enforcing safety rules in bars and restaurants since DeWine reopened them under his ReStart Ohio plan in May.

He said the OIU will continue to work with the Ohio Department of Health to follow up and continue the work on bars. The hearings are part of that process, and will take place virtually through WebEx, according to Sarah W. Creedon, the executive director of the Ohio Liquor Control Commission.

Creedon confirmed in an email that the hearings all involve violations issued by the Ohio Investigative Unit related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and stem from violations previously issued by the OIU.

According to Ohios Responsible Restart guidelines, restaurants and bars must create space and barriers for social distancing in their floor plans, require most employees to wear masks and regularly wash their hands. Patrons must also be seated while eating and drinking.

DeWine said that outbreaks in some Ohio counties have been traced back to bars. He mentioned Athens County as one of them, saying that an outbreak there has been traced to three bars in downtown Athens.

DeWine has said that the state wants to work cooperatively with bars and restaurants to help them implement the guidelines and operate safely, but that bad actors and repeat offenders could face suspension or revocation of their liquor licenses or criminal charges.

Creedon confirmed that the Ohio Liquor Control Commission could revoke suspensions and also issue fines in response to violations related to COVID-19 regulations.

The Commission has the authority to suspend or revoke a permit, and in most cases has the authority to issue a financial forfeiture in lieu of serving a suspension, Creedon said in an email. The Commission takes its responsibility very seriously and will consider many different factors, including the nature of the violation, the seriousness of the offense, the facts of the case, the permit holders prior record, if any, as well as any other relevant information, including any mitigation evidence presented by the permit holder.
The Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce has come up with a number of ideas to help kickstart the relaunch of the economy.

The Chamber of Commerce cited five strategic pillars upon which the economic relaunch of Luxembourg should rest: an adapted structural framework, investments in the future, innovation, employment support, and an attractive tax system.

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Representatives of the Chamber of Commerce presented the ideas this Wednesday morning. Their set of suggestions is hoped to bring to life an attractive framework within which companies can operate.

Regarding structural adjustments, general director Carlo Thelen suggested to turn the health care sector into a more diverse sector. In his words: "we therefore proposed to envision a medical valley."

In the context of investments in the future, the Chamber of Commerce suggested that Luxembourg should invest an addition 700 million, namely in "mobility, [...], energy, ICT, 5G and all these elements."

The Chamber of Commerce is also in favour of introducing an "innovation voucher" for companies. In other words, small companies can receive a 5,000 voucher for an innovation evaluation. This evaluation analysis the potential for innovation of each company.

Regarding employment, Carlo Thelen proposed that the government reduce social contributions paid by employers by 30% during the next six months. Only ailing companies would benefit from this tax relief measure.

Thelen similarly proposed to reduce the overall tax rate. The Chamber of Commerce also explained that the majority of the hospitality sector (between 55-60%) is pessimistic about the future. Revenue has declined by 72-90% and consumer confidence is dwindling.
Arsenal have reportedly held discussions over a move to sign defender Malang Sarr - but face the prospect of missing out on him as they have not yet made him a contract offer.

The highly-rated 21-year-old is available on a free transfer after his deal with Nice ended this summer and Arsenal are one of several clubs chasing his signature.

According to Goal, Arsenal have made contact with the player's representatives to express their interest but are yet to table a formal offer amid uncertainty over their financial situation.

Arsenal want to sign Malang Sarr but are yet to offer him a deal and face battle for his signature

The France Under-21 international is already in more advanced talks with other clubs with Serie A side Torino making a concerted effort to land their man.

Arsenal have plans to bring in another centre-back in the summer after sending Konstantinos Mavropanos out on loan for another season.

The Greek defender, who has just completed a successful loan spell in Germany, helping Nurnberg avoid relegation from the Budesliga 2, has signed a new deal with Arsenal but will spend next season at Stuttgart, it was announced on Thursday.

Mikel Arteta will have to wait for the campaign to finish before club commit to signing players

Arsenal have welcomed back William Saliba, who spent last season on loan with Saint-Etienne in Ligue 1, but still want to bolster their defensive options ahead of next season.

As well as Sarr, Reims centre-back Axel Disasi, who has recently been linked with Wolves and Southampton, is also on Arsenal's radar.

The Premier League club have however been hit hard financially by the effects of coronavirus and are struggling to make any firm commitments to signing their targets.

Konstantinos Mavropanos (left) is edging closer to leaving the club on loan for next season

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta admitted he was unsure if he would be provided with funds to strengthen his side for next season following their 2-1 victory over champions Liverpool on Wednesday night.

'I don't know,' he told Sky Sports. 'It's a big concern.

'You need it to build a squad. It's not magic. You need to improve with quality players in the squad and you need bigger squads to compete in this competition. There's the challenge.'

Arsenal feel they will have more clarity on how much money will be available once the current campaign is completed and are expected to wait until then before making any decisions on possible new arrivals.
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Linkedin Nina Loasana (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 16, 2020 20:27 551 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666dd617 1 National omnibus-bill-on-job-creation,protest,rally,omnibus-bill,hip-bill,pancasila-ideology-bill,mining-law-revision,house-of-representatives Free

Thousands of people from various labor groups and farmer unions as well as university students staged a rally in front of the House of Representatives complex in Senayan, Central Jakarta, on Thursday to protest the ongoing deliberation of the controversial omnibus bill on job creation as well as the Pancasila Ideology Guidelines (HIP) bill.

The protesters were joined in a coalition named the Labor with the People Movement (GEBRAK), comprising members of the Congress Alliance of Indonesian Labor Unions (KASBI), the Agrarian Reform Consortium (KPA) and the Indonesia Youth Movement (AKMI), among other groups.

KASBI chairwoman Nining Elitos said the protesters demanded lawmakers stop the deliberation of the job creation omnibus bill and prioritize other bills that would ensure the well-being and safety of citizens, such as the sexual violence eradication (RUU PKS) and domestic workers protection bills.

"We also urge the House to revoke the recently-passed Mining Law revision and focus on mitigating the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic across the nation," Nining said on Thursday.

Jakarta Police traffic division chief Sr. Comr. Sambodo Purnomo Yogo said around 3,600 officers were deployed to secure the rally.

"[We] deployed between 3,400 to 3,600 personnel in two shifts to secure the rally as well as manage traffic around the area," he said on Thursday as quoted by tempo.co.

Labor groups, activists and members of the general public have repeatedly criticized the House and the government of trying to push through controversial bills. Opposition to the omnibus bill on job creation has only grown as the country faces mass layoffs because of the economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The draft bill, which seeks to amend 79 prevailing laws and more than 1,200 articles, has been opposed by labor unions, who claimed the bill would undermine labor rights and only benefit employers and corporations.

Read also: Most Indonesians who are aware of job creation bill support it: Survey

Several labor groups withdrew from a Manpower Ministry technical team tasked with discussing the labor section of the omnibus bill after their demands to play a greater role in the bills deliberations were rejected. The technical team also includes representatives of business associations, such as the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) and the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin).

Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto said he hoped lawmakers could finish deliberating the omnibus bill by the end of this month, as he claimed they had finished "half of the [bill's] chapters".

In a 34-page statement, GEBRAK said the bill would hurt workers who were already suffering from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"[Workers] have received no protections or safety nets [during the pandemic], while the government has not strictly punished employers who have violated our rights. This bill only sells Indonesian citizens as cheap labor for investors," the statement read.

A coalition of customary forest communities have also objected to the omnibus bill, claiming it would make it easier for corporations to seize indigenous lands and forests and would cause economic disparities to increase, especially for people who live in forest areas.

On the same day, the Anti-Communist National Alliance (ANAK), comprising members of 174 mass organizations, also staged a protest against the deliberations of the HIP bill.

The bill, supported by the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), aims to regulate the values of the state ideology Pancasila as well as the Agency for Pancasila Ideology Education (BPIP). The party's chairwoman and former president Megawati Sukarnoputri is currently serving as the BPIP steering committee head.

Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI) chairwoman Asfinawati previously expressed concerns that the bill could harm the country's freedom of expression, claiming there was an effort to monopolize the interpretation of the state ideology as stipulated in Article 45 of the bill. She also highlighted that Article 48 of the draft bill allows for positions in the BPIP steering committee to be filled by active military and police personnel.
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We can readily understand why investors are attracted to unprofitable companies. For example, although software-as-a-service business Salesforce.com lost money for years while it grew recurring revenue, if you held shares since 2005, you'd have done very well indeed. Nonetheless, only a fool would ignore the risk that a loss making company burns through its cash too quickly.

Given this risk, we thought we'd take a look at whether IDT Australia (ASX:IDT) shareholders should be worried about its cash burn. For the purpose of this article, we'll define cash burn as the amount of cash the company is spending each year to fund its growth (also called its negative free cash flow). We'll start by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves in order to calculate its cash runway.

See our latest analysis for IDT Australia

Does IDT Australia Have A Long Cash Runway?

You can calculate a company's cash runway by dividing the amount of cash it has by the rate at which it is spending that cash. As at December 2019, IDT Australia had cash of AU$6.7m and such minimal debt that we can ignore it for the purposes of this analysis. In the last year, its cash burn was AU$2.1m. That means it had a cash runway of about 3.2 years as of December 2019. There's no doubt that this is a reassuringly long runway. You can see how its cash balance has changed over time in the image below.

How Well Is IDT Australia Growing?

Some investors might find it troubling that IDT Australia is actually increasing its cash burn, which is up 26% in the last year. Also concerning, operating revenue was actually down by 14% in that time. Taken together, we think these growth metrics are a little worrying. In reality, this article only makes a short study of the company's growth data. You can take a look at how IDT Australia has developed its business over time by checking this visualization of its revenue and earnings history.

Story continues

How Hard Would It Be For IDT Australia To Raise More Cash For Growth?

Even though it seems like IDT Australia is developing its business nicely, we still like to consider how easily it could raise more money to accelerate growth. Issuing new shares, or taking on debt, are the most common ways for a listed company to raise more money for its business. One of the main advantages held by publicly listed companies is that they can sell shares to investors to raise cash and fund growth. By looking at a company's cash burn relative to its market capitalisation, we gain insight on how much shareholders would be diluted if the company needed to raise enough cash to cover another year's cash burn.

IDT Australia's cash burn of AU$2.1m is about 5.7% of its AU$37m 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.

Is IDT Australia's Cash Burn A Worry?

As you can probably tell by now, we're not too worried about IDT Australia's cash burn. For example, we think its cash runway suggests that the company is on a good path. While its falling revenue wasn't great, the other factors mentioned in this article more than make up for weakness on that measure. Based on the factors mentioned in this article, we think its cash burn situation warrants some attention from shareholders, but we don't think they should be worried. Separately, we looked at different risks affecting the company and spotted 2 warning signs for IDT Australia (of which 1 is a bit unpleasant!) you should know about.

Of course IDT Australia may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of companies boasting high return on equity, or this list of stocks that insiders are buying.

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.



Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 16)  The Department of Tourism published on Wednesday the guidelines for the holding of meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions (MICE) in areas under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).

The DOT Administrative Order No. 2020-03 states that MICE suppliers, exhibitors, and venue operators can only use up to 50 percent of the total venue capacity in their events.

Only those living in areas under MGCQ are allowed by DOT to participate in a MICE event.

The Tourism Department also orders MICE organizers to implement strict health and safety protocols in the conduct of their events.

MICE exhibitors should also comply with relevant guidelines of the Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Trade and Industry, and other related government agencies in observing the minimum public health and safety standards.

DOT also clarified in its directive that MICE events are still not allowed in areas under enhanced community quarantine, modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ), and general community quarantine (GCQ).

This means that MICE events are not allowed in Cebu City, placed under MECQ by President Rodrigo Duterte last night until July 31.

GCQ areas like Metro Manila, Laguna, Cavite, Rizal, Mandaue City, Lapu-Lapu City, Ormoc City, Southern Leyte, Zamboanga City, Butuan City, Agusan del Norte, and Basilan are also prohibited from holding MICE events.

Last year, the DOT launched the MICE Roadmap 2030 which targets a 24.4 billion revenue from the convention industry by 2030.
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Linkedin Moch. Fiqih Prawira Adjie and Galih Gumelar (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 16, 2020 22:27 551 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666e0345 1 National novel-baswedan,KPK,Corruption-Eradication-Comission,acid-attack,graft,graft-fight-in-Indonesia,Novel-acid-attack,police,National-Police Free

After more than three years of investigations and legal proceedings, the North Jakarta District Court has found two police officers guilty of attacking senior Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigator Novel Baswedan.

"[The panel of judges hereby] declares the defendants guilty of committing a criminal act of planned persecution, which resulted in serious injuries," presiding judge Djuyamto said in the court on Tuesday night.

The court sentenced the two officers, Brig. Rahmat Kadir Mahulet and Chief Brig. Ronny Bugis, to two years and 18 months imprisonment, respectively.

Rahmat was given a longer sentence as judges deemed that he was the one who prepared and threw a mixture of battery acid and water on Novel. The judges said that Ronny drove Rahmat on a motorcycle for the attack.

Both were found guilty of violating Article 353 of the Criminal Code on persecution causing serious injury or death, which carries a maximum sentence of nine years imprisonment upon conviction.

The sentence was higher than the one year initially demanded by prosecutors. Both Ronny and Rahmat said they accepted the ruling while the prosecutors said they were considering an appeal.

Read also: Far from facts: Novel Baswedan questions burden of proof ahead of Thursday's verdict

The attack, which occurred in 2017, completely blinded Novel in the left eye and left him with 50 percent vision in his right eye.

After the attack, the police were criticized for their sluggish handling of the case as a string of investigations and a fact-finding team formed by then-National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian  who now serves as home minister  was unable to identify the attackers. The police finally managed to arrest both suspects in December 2019, two and a half years after the attack.

Novel previously told the courtroom that he believed the acid attack was related to his work on certain high-profile corruption cases, including a bribery case that implicated former Constitutional Court justice Patrialis Akbar and the e-ID corruption case that involved former House of Representatives speaker Setya Novanto.

The light sentence demands from the prosecutors had sparked public outcry, with many questioning the prosecutors' arguments that the defendants "accidentally" threw the acid into Novel's face. Novel himself called the demands outrageous and urged the court to acquit the defendants because of the trials many perceived irregularities.

Despite the legal proceedings concerns remain that the two policemen are merely scapegoats and activists have demanded the government set up a new investigation team to reveal the mastermind behind the attack.
WASHINGTON  After several days spent weathering attacks from White House officials, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci hit back Wednesday, calling recent efforts to discredit him bizarre and a hindrance to the governments ability to communicate information about the coronavirus pandemic.

I cannot figure out in my wildest dreams why they would want to do that, Fauci said in an interview with The Atlantic published Wednesday, speaking of recent attempts by President Donald Trumps aides to undermine him. I think they realize now that that was not a prudent thing to do, because its only reflecting negatively on them.

It was the latest salvo in a war that has broken out in the middle of a pandemic between Fauci, the governments top infectious disease expert, and a White House that has never evolved beyond the bare-knuckle tactics of the 2016 campaign.

On Wednesday, Peter Navarro, Trumps top trade adviser, published a brazen op-ed article in USA Today describing Fauci as wrong about everything. Over the weekend, another of Trumps top advisers shared a mocking cartoon that portrayed Fauci as a leaky faucet. Other White House officials have targeted Fauci by distributing opposition research-style documents to reporters that detail what they say are his mistakes.

All the while, White House officials  including the president and the press secretary  assert in the face of the evidence that there is no concerted effort to attack Fauci.

Were all on the same team, including Dr. Fauci, Trump told reporters Wednesday as he left the White House for Atlanta. When he was asked about Navarros choice to go around White House channels to publish the op-ed article in USA Today, the president added that Navarro shouldnt be doing that.

Fauci, 79, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a post he has held since 1984, is no stranger to criticism. He oversaw much of the governments response to the AIDS epidemic, weathering criticism from activists like Larry Kramer, who called him a murderer and an incompetent idiot.

Trumps administration presents a different challenge. Because Fauci is a career civil servant, his job is not in jeopardy, and it is unlikely that Trump can completely exile him, given his emergence as the governments most credible voice on the pandemic. He has not briefed Trump in weeks, preferring to work with Dr. Deborah L. Birx, who helps coordinate the administrations coronavirus response, or to send his messages through Vice President Mike Pence.

Without directly criticizing the president  both men have emphasized their personal fondness for each other  Fauci has begun fighting back.

On Monday, he met with Mark Meadows, White House chief of staff, to discuss his ability to speak about the virus on television  his broadcast appearances have been sharply curbed in recent weeks by Meadows and members of the communications staff. And in The Atlantic interview, Fauci complained that the administrations actions had made it difficult for health officials to communicate accurate information.

It distracts from what I hope would be the common effort of getting this thing under control, rather than this back-and-forth distraction, which just doesnt make any sense, Fauci said. Weve got to almost reset this and say, OK, lets stop this nonsense. Weve got to figure out, how can we get our control over this now, and, looking forward, how can we make sure that next month, we dont have another example of California, Texas, Florida and Arizona?

He added, So rather than these games people are playing, lets focus on that.

In the interview, Fauci discussed the op-ed article by Navarro, which had the stark headline, Anthony Fauci Has Been Wrong About Everything I Have Interacted With Him On. In the piece, Navarro presented what White House officials have been saying privately about Fauci and what Trump has said publicly: They like Fauci personally, but he has made mistakes.

Fauci responded with bewilderment. I cant explain Peter Navarro, he said. Hes in a world by himself.

The White House sought to distance itself from the attack by Navarro, but it did not denounce its substance.

The Peter Navarro op-ed didnt go through normal White House clearance processes and is the opinion of Peter alone, Alyssa Farah, White House director for strategic communications, wrote on Twitter, adding that the president values the expertise of the medical professionals advising his Administration.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

White House officials declined to comment when one of the presidents closest advisers, Dan Scavino, posted a mocking cartoon of Fauci to social media.

Tension between Navarro and Fauci has been brewing since the early days of the pandemic this year. In a coronavirus task force meeting that Navarro asked to attend, the two argued over the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine, a drug that Trump has promoted as a cure for the virus.

Navarro, an economist by training, has since defended his credentials when it comes to sparring with Fauci over possible medical treatments.

Doctors disagree about things all the time. My qualifications in terms of looking at the science is that Im a social scientist, Navarro told CNNs John Berman in April. I have a Ph.D. And I understand how to read statistical studies, whether its in medicine, the law, economics or whatever.

Navarro is known to go around official channels to make sure his opinions are aired. In his op-ed article, he wrote that I confronted him with scientific studies providing evidence of safety and efficacy, and he promoted a new study that he said showed a 50% reduction in the mortality rate when the medicine was used. Medical experts have criticized that study, published by the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, as incomplete.

Navarro also wrote that he had warned officials in late January of the threat posed by the coronavirus, while Fauci had fought against the presidents courageous decision to close U.S. borders to travelers from China.

It is true that a memo that Navarro wrote outlining the threat of the virus was the earliest high-level alert known to have circulated inside the West Wing during the early days of the administrations response. It is also true that Fauci was initially skeptical of closing the countrys borders, over concerns such an action could limit the movements of doctors and other health professionals trying to contain the disease. But by the end of January, Fauci and other public health experts were on board with the decision.

Despite the continuing attacks by administration advisers and the attempts to limit his television appearances, Fauci has not stopped other public appearances. On Tuesday, he urged Georgetown University students to trust public health experts over politicians, without criticizing the administration he works for directly.

You can trust respected medical authorities. I believe Im one of them. So, I think you can trust me, Fauci said. I would stick with respected medical authorities who have a track record of telling the truth, who have a track record of giving information and policy and recommendations based on scientific evidence and good data.

He added, Dont get involved in any of the political nonsense, calling it a waste of time.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
The first China + Central Asia (C+C5) foreign ministers meeting was held via video link on July 16, 2020.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Thursday that cooperation between China and Central Asia is based on the common needs of both sides and not against third parties, nor will it affect the bilateral and changeable cooperation that existed in Central Asia.

Wang made the remarks while chairing a China + Central Asia (C+C5) video conference, which was also attended by foreign ministers from five Central Asian countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

"We oppose the political revolution, the zero-sum game and the interference in the internal affairs of the countries of the region under the pretext of human rights," he said.

Wang said Central Asian countries have an important strategic position in today's international arena and they contributed a lasting positive energy for the cause of world peace and development.

He noted that China attaches great importance to the development of strategic partnership with the Central Asian countries, firmly supports all countries to follow the path of development in line with their national conditions, supports each country in safeguarding its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, and supports the development of each country by itself.

Wang called for establishing a traditional Chinese medicine center and cooperating in vaccines R&D, besides ensuring fast access for personnel on both sides, establishing green channels for the transportation of goods to ensure the safety and stability of the supply chain, expanding the scale of cross-border e-commerce, and accelerating the construction of the "Digital Silk Road."

Wang put forward suggestions to build the China-Central Asia health community, establish a mechanism for sharing information on major diseases, and share experience in epidemic prevention.

This is the first time for China and the five Central Asian countries to have such a meeting. The foreign ministers agreed to establish a mechanism and hold the meeting on a regular basis to jointly cope with challenges and seek prosperity.

Upholding multilateralism

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, but the purposes and principles of the UN Charter are being challenged by unilateralism, Wang pointed out.

China and Central Asian countries should uphold multilateralism, defend the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, safeguard the international system with the UN at its core, and oppose bullying tactics and intimidation, Wang stressed, adding that China will strengthen cooperation with Central Asian countries within a multilateral framework and promote international equity and justice as well as the democratization of international relations.

Opposing virus stigma

A joint statement was issued by Wang and the foreign ministers from the five Central Asian countries, saying that the spread of the novel coronavirus poses huge threats and severe challenges to countries around the world.

The foreign ministers agreed in the statement that while responding to the pandemic, there should be no discrimination, stigmatization, racism and xenophobia.

All parties are willing to further strengthen cooperation in the fields of epidemic prevention and control, vaccine research and development, traditional medicine, and carry out close collaboration with international organizations such as the World Health Organization.

Promoting economic recovery

They also agreed to promote the alignment of the Belt and Road Initiative with the development strategies of Central Asian countries, build interconnected partnerships, deepen pragmatic cooperation in various fields, carry out effective investment cooperation, and jointly promote the recovery and development of economy.

It is of great significance for all parties to maintain connectivity to jointly fight the pandemic, restore global economic and trade exchanges, and promote economic recovery in the post-epidemic era, read the statement.
On the surface, the recent protests that have swept across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) surround the potential appointment of Ronsard Malonda as the president of the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI).

But at the root, there is a fierce struggle for political power that dates back more than a decade.

Malonda, the current secretary-general of CENI, was a senior figure involved in running the countrys previous elections in 2006, 2011 and 2018. Critics have accused him of playing a historic role in rigging results in favour of former President Joseph Kabila, who came to power after his father was assassinated in 2001 and stood down last year.

Supporters of the DRCs President Felix Tshisekedi claim that Malondas appointment is part of a plan by Kabila, who continues to wield enormous power through his parliamentary majority, control of the army and several cabinet ministries, to interfere with the countrys next elections in 2023.

We have to see this in the context of Kabila trying to manoeuvre in the background through the parliamentary majority that he currently enjoys, said Phil Clark, professor of international politics at Londons School of Oriental and African Studies. The big picture is the continued fight between Tshisekedi and Kabila, with an eye on 2023. To choose Malonda is to put a Kabila ally absolutely front and centre.

The choice of Malonda to head CENI was approved last week by the Kabila-dominated National Assembly, but has yet to be signed off by Tshisekedi, who took office in January last year in the countrys first peaceful political transition. But the son of the late Etienne Tshisekedi  Kabilas old enemy and a popular opposition stalwart  was elected amid accusations of serious electoral fraud with the help of Kabila, who in turn won a parliamentary majority.

A renewed protest against the nomination of Ronsard Malonda as president of CENI in Kinshasa [Benoit Nyemba/Reuters]

The CENI dispute marks a new peak in tensions for the coalition government, an uneasy alliance between Tshisekedi, Kabila and several smaller parties formed after the December 2018 election, which has shown increasing signs of discord in recent months. The breadth of opposition to it  including supporters of Tshisekedi, the opposition Lamuka coalition, the Lay Coordination Committee of the Congolese Catholic Church, and other civil society groups  reveals how serious those fractures have become.

Weve seen over the past year and a half that there have been tensions in the ruling coalition, said Nelleke van de Walle, deputy project director of Central Africa for the International Crisis Group. Tshisekedi has been forced to cooperate with Kabilas Common Front for Congo (FCC) coalition and they have been in a standoff ever since.

In the first year of his presidency, Tshisekedi struggled to push through policies due to pushback from the FCC, according to van de Walle, including the complicated appointment of the prime minister, which took four months to agree, and frustrated attempts to make changes at the state mining company, Gecamines.

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But Tshisekedis State of the Union address in December 2019, in which he promised 2020 will be the year of action, signalled a more combative tone.

That was the moment when Tshisekedi first began to distance himself from Kabila, said van de Walle.

In January 2020, Tshisekedi told an audience at the UK-Africa Investment Summit in London that he would be willing to dissolve the National Assembly and have new elections, drawing strong criticism from the FCC.

Political tensions were further stoked when in February, General Delphin Kahimbi, head of army intelligence who was charged for involvement in a plot to destabilise Tshisekedi, was found dead. Then last month, Vital Kamerhe, Tshisekedis chief of staff who also ran Kabilas election campaign in 2006, was charged with embezzling more than $50m in public funds, a decision that sent shockwaves through the country.

In recent weeks, the fragile coalition was rocked by counter-movements from Kabilas allies, including judicial reforms aimed at redefining the powers of judges. This led to demonstrations in the capital, Kinshasa, over what was seen as an effort to muzzle the judiciary, prompting the resignation last week of Justice Minister Celestin Tunda, a senior figure in Kabilas FCC.

The goal of these protests is to have the proposals withdrawn, said Stewart Muhindo, an activist for the pro-democracy movement Lucha. Both of the proposed changes to the judiciary and the electoral commission are attacks on democratic freedom. Congolese politics must be changed to reflect the will of the people, because currently it does not.

These events culminated in the protests that saw thousands take to the streets against Malondas selection last Thursday, staged by Tshisekedis own party, the Union for Democracy and Progress (UDPS), and sparked violence that led to the death of two protesters and a policeman in Kinshasa, according to the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office. Three people were also killed in Lubumbashi in the southeast of the country, while police dispersed campaigners in Goma and several smaller towns.

A separate rally on Monday was led by the main alliance of opposition parties, Lamuka, who last week called Malonda an agent of Kabilas FCC, and demanded an audit of CENI.

Thousands supporters of President Tshisekedis party demonstrated last week in protests that security forces cracked down on, killing two protesters in the capital Kinshasa and three in the southeastern city of Lubumbashi [Arsene Mpiana/AFP]

These protests put Tshisekedi in a stronger position to refuse to sign off on Molandas appointment and to demand the National Assembly approve another candidate, said Jordan Anderson, a political risk analyst at IHS Markit. Forcing the National Assembly to change course on the CENI presidency would be a significant demonstration by Tshisekedi of growing power and independence from Kabila.

In addition, the support of the Catholic Church, which has called for weekly Sunday protests in response to Malondas nomination, could raise the prospect of the protests success and prove significant for both their turnout and longevity.

The Catholic Church is the single largest denomination in DRC, and its leadership carries near-unmatched moral weight in society, added Anderson. It demonstrated in early 2018 [after Kabila refused to step down following the end of his electoral term] that it was capable of consistently mobilising large turnout.

However, despite the impressive turnout figures, experts have tempered any suggestion that the protests are likely to succeed, and that Tshisekedi could make a decisive split from Kabila.

In the face of state power those protest movements have often melted away, said Clark.

Even in the context of the last election, when the Catholic Church was getting people on the streets to protest the delays  ultimately Kabila and the security forces still got their way, he added.

Thats the real test at the moment of this protest movement, and the Catholic Churchs role within it  have they learned from the arguably failed past protests of recent years to bring about actual change?
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Linkedin Budi Sutrisno (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 16, 2020 10:04 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666b6141 1 National Kasus-gereja-depok,Kasus-st-herkulanus-depok,pedophilia,sexual-violence,Gereja-Herkulanus,gereja,kekerasan-seksual-di-gereja,sexual-abuse-in-Catholic-Church,sexual-abuse-Catholic-church-Indonesia Free

A recent case of child sexual abuse at a Catholic church in Depok, West Java, sheds light on the flaws and complexity of Indonesias criminal law, which has hampered the victims quest for justice for a crime reportedly committed over a period of 18 years.

Only three of at least 21 altar boys allegedly molested by 42-year-old church caretaker Syahril Parlindungan Marbun since 2002 have filed legal reports, and the Depok Police say they cannot process one of those reports because of a lack of evidence.

Police said they considered that claimant just as a witness rather than a victim in the case because the alleged crime happened 12 years ago, so police could not make a physical forensics report.

Lawyer Azas Tigor Nainggolan said that, while the victims had suffered psychological trauma, mental changes and even drug dependence, most of them were not ready to report the assaults for various reasons.

The victims are ashamed and afraid. Some have moved out of town. The state must accommodate and protect the victims, and it should not create any burden for [the filing of police] reports, Tigor told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Tigor argued that the testimony of the victims alone, which the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) had also gathered through its complaint service at the church, should be sufficient to prove that the accused was guilty.

Even in cases where victims of abuse have the courage and opportunity to report crimes, the difficulty to meet the prevailing requirements often keeps old cases from being processed to a satisfactory extent, so the resolution may not reflect the magnitude of crimes committed.

Under the Criminal Code, which is currently the legal basis for sexual assault cases, the requirements for prosecution, aside from witness statements, include physical evidence, such as sperm marks or torn tissue in the genital area.

Even if that one undergoes a medical examination, we wont find anything. Moreover, it is difficult to find the witnesses, the head of the polices women and child protection (PPA) unit, Second Insp. Elia Herawati, told the Post.

Elia also said that the accused had admitted to harassing only 13 victims. She said the police had deployed a special team for a field investigation to identify more possible victims, but the effort was hampered by incomplete data provided by the church.

We were looking for data on altar children in the church. The church said there was no complete data that included all the names, addresses and so on, and that it had to ask past mentors who kept the childrens names, she said.

The case files have been submitted to the attorney for a document review before court trials. Syahril has been charged with violating the 2014 Child Protection Law, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years of imprisonment.

Law expert Sulistyowati Irianto from the University of Indonesia said there should be a very fundamental paradigm shift, since it was indeed difficult to follow the conventional procedural criminal law system to prove old cases.

If a victim has testified, then thats the proof. [...] Our obstacle now is indeed the political side of it, she said in an online discussion on Monday, while regretting the postponement of the deliberation of the sexual violence eradication bill this year.

The bill, if passed, would forbid law enforcement officials from blaming or degrade victims or to saddle victims with the responsibility of searching for evidence in their own cases. It would also add forms of admissible evidence that provide an opportunity for the victim to meet evidentiary requirements.

Lawyer Rita Serena Kalibonso, who is also a former commissioner of the National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan), argued that sexual assault cases were unique and required specific ways to handle in court.

There is indeed a case expiry time of 20 years in the Criminal Code. But, when many old cases surface, like in Depok, there is no need to make the victim submit the history of medical examinations or the extent of the psychological trauma, she said. Testimonies should suffice, she said.

The head of the Ledalero Catholic philosophy school in East Nusa Tenggara, Otto Gusti Madung, called out St. Herkulanus Church for keeping the cases silent, arguing that an investigation should also be carried out against the authorities of the church.

It is claimed that one of the victims parents had reported the alleged assault to the church in 2014, but the issue was reportedly solved through mediation by the church. The current St. Herkulanus parish priest, Yosef Sirilus Natet, said he did not know whether a report had been made in 2014. He told the Post earlier this month that he would just let the police investigate.

Bogor Diocese judicial vicar Yohanes Driyanto admitted there had been an issue between the altar boys and their mentor, but he said what the parish learned was not sexual violence.

He said that, as far as he knew, the 2014 report was about two altar boys who were about to be dismissed by the suspect and protested against that. Why the suspect had threatened to dismiss the two boys from the altar service was not clear, he said.

However, Yohanes admitted that the Depok case showed a lack of support for victims by the church.
New 'world-leading' helicopter missile tested

Global Times

By Liu Xuanzun Source: Global Times Published: 2020/7/15 18:48:41

China recently test launched a new type of helicopter-based air-to-ground missile, which is at a world-leading level, according to the weapon's developers.

The missile is likely to excel at range, accuracy and power, making it a nightmare for hostile tanks and fortifications, aviation experts said on Wednesday.

An undisclosed type of helicopter conducted the test firing of the missile at a test site in Alxa, North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on June 22, reported China Aviation News, a newspaper affiliated with the state-owned Aviation Industry Corp of China (AVIC), on Tuesday.

The missile accurately hit its target, marking the successful, first test launch of the missile, the report said.

"In the whole world, [the missile] is in a leading position," the report quoted an unidentified test employee as saying.

The report did not reveal the new missile's designation or its capabilities.

Fu Qianshao, a Chinese military aviation expert, told the Global Times on Wednesday that in order to be called "world-leading," the air-to-ground missile must have a very long effective range, an advanced guidance system that enables very high accuracy, and a very powerful warhead that can penetrate a tank's thick armor.

It is not surprising that China's new missiles have become world leaders after seeing the performances of previous missiles like the HJ series, Fu said.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) operates multiple types of attack helicopters, including the Z-10 and Z-19, both of which were recently upgraded.

According to a photo released by PLA's 80th Group Army in February, an upgraded Z-10 featured exhaust openings that face upward instead of outward, which experts said will make it harder to target by infrared sensors.

The Z-19, lighter than the Z-10, saw an extra millimeter-wave fire control radar installed on the top of its rotor at the Fifth China Helicopter Exposition in Tianjin in October 2019. The new radar can give the chopper the capability to search and track targets over long distances in complex weather conditions day and night, and provide accurate targeting data for guided weapon systems.

Among other weapons and equipment, many Z-10 attack helicopters were reportedly mobilized to western China's plateau regions for drills amid border tensions with India.

When equipped with the new missile, the PLA's helicopters will become even deadlier, particularly to enemy tanks, armored vehicles and fortifications, experts said.

China is also building amphibious assault ships that can carry helicopters and extend their capabilities across seas, analysts noted.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16

Trend:

hair of the Delegation to the Parliamentary Partnership Committees of the EU and the countries of the South Caucasus, MEP Marina Kaljurand has made a statement in connection with the recent clashes on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, Trend reports on July 16.

"We are greatly concerned about the renewed escalation of violence in the past days between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which has yet again led to the death of military personnel and a civilian in the Tovuz region, Kaljurand added.

We express our deep condolences to the families of the victims, and call for an immediate halt to these military confrontations, chair of the delegation added.

As repeatedly stated by the European Parliament, we firmly believe that the conflict does not have a military solution, the diplomat said. Instead, it needs a settlement in accordance with international law on the basis of the purposes and principles enshrined in the UN Charter and in the OSCE Helsinki Final Act.

We reiterate our unwavering support to the efforts of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and the 2009 Basic Principles, Kaljurand said.

We call on the authorities of Armenia and Azerbaijan to immediately stop any armed confrontations and respect the ceasefire, to refrain from actions and rhetoric fuelling tensions, to prepare their populations for peace, to step up their meaningful commitment, in good faith, to the negotiation process under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, and to relaunch their bilateral communication in order to defuse tensions and prevent further escalation, reads the statement.

Earlier, Co-chair of the EU-Azerbaijan Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, MP Javanshir Feyziev appealed to the authorized representatives of the European Parliament for the South Caucasus in connection with the Armenian provocation.

The appeal included the detailed information about the act of aggression and the provocation committed by Armenia on the border with Azerbaijan. The document stressed that the Armenian political leadership is fully responsible for the consequences of these actions.

Starting from noon on July 12, units of the armed forces of Armenia, grossly violating the ceasefire in the direction of Azerbaijans Tovuz district along the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border, opened artillery fire at Azerbaijani positions.

Azerbaijan's armed response forced the Armenian army to retreat suffering losses.

Azerbaijani personnel, sergeant of military service Vugar Sadigov and corporal Elshad Mammadov, died while repelling the attack of the Armenian armed forces.

Despite the efforts of the Azerbaijani doctors, severely wounded serviceman of the Azerbaijani army Khayyam Dashdemirov also died.

The tension remained in Tovuz district on the Azerbaijan-Armenia state border on July 12 night.

During the night battles, by using artillery, mortars and tanks, the Azerbaijani armed forces destroyed a stronghold, bombshells, vehicles and servicemen on the territory of the Armenias military unit.

Azerbaijani serviceman, senior lieutenant Rashad Mahmudov was killed during the battles.

The battles continued on the night of July 13. Major General Polad Hashimov, Colonel Ilgar Mirzoyev, Major Namig Ahmadov, Major Anar Novruzov, Ensign Ilgar Zeynalli, Ensign Yashar Babayev and soldier Elchin Mustafazade became martyrs during the battles.
Ah Yoga & Wellness Center in New Milford will offer free community yoga once Saturday a month in the coming months.

Yoga will be held July 11, Aug. 15, Sept. 19 and Oct. 10 from noon to 1 p.m. on the Village Green in town.
Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday condemned the attack on Dalits by policemen in Madhya Pradesh's Guna district, saying "our fight is against this injustice".

The video which went viral on social media showed the police hitting a Dalit man mercilessly with batons and his wife and others trying to save him.

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Rahul Gandhi tweetSharing the video of the assault on Twitter, Gandhi said, "Our fight is against this mindset and injustice".

"The land was reserved for a government model college. Rajkumar Ahirwar (38) and his wife Savitri (35) were working on the land. Gabbu Pardi, who had encroached on the land, had given them work," District Collector S Vishwanathan had said.

When officials asked them to vacate the field, they protested and drank pesticide at the behest of those who had encroached on the land.

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Taking serious view of the incident, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had ordered transfer of the collector and Superintendent of Police.
INDIANAPOLIS, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As violent crime increases daily the political class moves to defund police with equal speed. Yet the politicians moving to reduce police service to voters continue to get police protection. Some even obtained additional taxpayer funded private protection.

That is hypocritical and wrong.

Police Defunder Pledge National Police Association

While some defund the police, advocates want reduction in spending and some want elimination of entire departments, such as the vote taken by the Minneapolis City Council, none have promised response times to 911 calls won't increase. None have promised there will be enough officers left to respond to crimes in progress with sufficient numbers to provide public safety. None have promised to maintain patrols in all neighborhoods not just the jurisdictions with the most campaign donors. So why should they continue to enjoy police protections while working to eliminate them for taxpayers?

That is why we are asking advocates of defunding the police to sign the Police Defunder Pledge.

The Pledge is a written commitment to taxpayers by office holders and candidates to not use taxpayer funded protection or call the police for assistance so as not to selfishly infringe on what public safety resources remain after they have acted to reduce such services.

By signing The Pledge, these officials and candidates demonstrate that they are not hypocrites and will safeguard taxpayers from their use of whatever public safety they leave in place. Pledge signers understand that whatever police services are left should be for the benefit of the taxpayers, not those who chose to reduce those protections.

The petition will be delivered to the Minneapolis City Council and can be signed here https://nationalpolice.org/minneapolis-officials-want-to-defund-police-protection-for-the-public-ask-them-to-give-it-up-for-themselves-first/

The public is encouraged to download The Pledge and forward to officials and candidates who advocate defunding the police. The Pledge can be downloaded here https://nationalpolice.org/dev/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Police-Defunder-Pledge.pdf

The National Police Association is represented in Minnesota by attorney Erick G. Kaardal of Mohrman, Kaardal and Erickson, P.A.

NationalPolice.org is a 501(c)3 nonprofit with a mission of educating supporters of law enforcement in how to help police departments accomplish their goals.

Media Contact

Ed Hutchison

302-469-1765

[email protected]

SOURCE National Police Association

Related Links

https://nationalpolice.org


He was painted a right-on hero this week for creating a statue of the Black Lives Matter protester, Jen Reid.

But has provocative artist Marc Quinn, who once made a bronze statue of supermodel Kate Moss in a compromising yoga position, been hoist by his own petard?

For I can reveal his latest work, A Surge Of Power, which was secretly erected on the Bristol plinth where the statue of slave trader Edward Colston used to stand, has also served to disgruntle a former lover.

Has provocative artist Marc Quinn, who once made a bronze statue of supermodel Kate Moss in a compromising yoga position, been hoist by his own petard?

In an astonishing disclosure, Jenny Bastet claims that he exploited her in the last year of their relationship during which time she was also his muse.

Speaking from personal experience. Marc Quinns medium is exploitation, says Jenny, whose body inspired his 2017 exhibition, Untrimmed, in London.

My body was objectified by Marc. He is an oppressor.

The 31-year-old, pictured with the sculptor, was in a relationship with Marc  one of the trailblazing Young British Artists alongside Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst  for three years, overlapping with the end of his marriage to author Lady Georgia Byng, daughter of the Earl of Strafford.

When Jenny and Marc split in late 2017, friends claimed it was acrimonious. He went on to date another black model, Layla Powell, shortly after.

His latest work, A Surge Of Power, which was secretly erected on the Bristol plinth where the statue of slave trader Edward Colston used to stand, has also served to disgruntle a former lover

Taking to social media, Jenny writes: My page is about to get really uncomfortable for some but the truth is always uncomfortable. You have gone too far, you will not silence me.

Mr Quinn said last night: Jenny and I broke up three years ago. During our relationship I devoted an entire exhibition to sculptures of her.

I worked on them for many months, every day and shared in their success. Its hard to argue a charge of objectification.

I saw them as a celebration of her and our love and am very proud of the work, I am sorry she has come to feel otherwise.

Jenny has been an active participant in the recent Black Lives Matter protests in London, and this month posted a picture of herself standing next to a statue of Nelson Mandela holding an LGBT flag.

Hairdressers may now be back in business, but platinum blonde TV and radio presenter Gaby Roslin tells how she enlisted the help of her husband  publisher David Osman  in lockdown to tend her grown out roots.

I discovered that my husband is a very good hair colourist. My wonderful hairdresser told me which dye to order, so I left my dark and greying roots to him. Im thrilled with the results.

Candles for Camilla

She recently said she loved her lockdown jeans but has since put her gladrags back on to return to royal duties.

The Duchess of Cornwall wore a blue dress by her favourite designer Anna Valentine for a new portrait by royal snapper Chris Jackson to mark her 73rd birthday today.

Duchess of Cornwall wore a blue dress by her favourite designer Anna Valentine for a new portrait by royal snapper Chris Jackson to mark her 73rd birthday

Camilla, who has been married to the Prince of Wales for 15 years, will be spending the day with her family at Ray Mill House, her private Wiltshire home.

She has spoken of how much she has been enjoying seeing her grandchildren after returning from Scotland, where she weathered the pandemic.

Countess reveals real life dramas of Downton

The Countess of Carnarvon, who lives at Highclere Castle where Downton Abbey was filmed, has re-opened her home to visitors this week.

She confesses lockdown has exacted its own personal toll on her as she struggled to keep her business afloat.While she had been living with her husband in the castle and three members of staff, Highcleres 300 rooms have remained empty and most of its 150 retainers were put on furlough.

The Countess of Carnarvon, who lives at Highclere Castle (pictured) where Downton Abbey was filmed, has re-opened her home to visitors this week

I remember just looking and thinking theres zero money come in today, and yet, like every other business, inevitably, outgoings, she says.

There were silly things like a ballcock broke on the water tank, then, of course, you cant get a plumber . . . oh my God . . . Sometimes its felt very lonely and very overwhelming.

Lady Carnarvon revealed in April that she had given up on cleaning the 300 rooms because it was too much. Luckily, Mrs Carson will now be on hand to help out.

Forgetful Ulrika goes off her trolley

Wearing a face mask at the shop is the least of Ulrika Jonssons concerns. The TV star admits she forgot to pay for her groceries on a recent trip to Waitrose.

One of the managers, Brian, comes rushing up to me with a big grin on his face: I need to speak to you. When you were here on Friday, you left without paying! she recalls, having returned to the Oxfordshire branch this week.

TV star Ulrika Jonsson admits she forgot to pay for her groceries on a recent trip to Waitrose

Luckily, the mother of four got off lightly. Oh, how we laughed. Its the bloody staff. I cant stop chatting and get distracted.

Its a good job Im a regular and love them all more than I love my family. At least I had my wallet out . . . so the CCTV says . . .

Just call Maureen Lipman Two Dinners Maureen. For the actress confesses she often eats two meals in one go.

People think Im slim . . . I just have a thin head, small wrists and ankles  the rest is blubber, trust me. My problem is that I eat everything. then I eat it again.

'My favourite restaurant is Le Relais de Venise. They bring out steak, chips and wine and once youve finished, they give it to you all over again.

'I only go twice a year because I know it goes straight from the eyes to the thighs.

Hurrah! Its Aunt Eugenie

Princess Eugenie and her husband, Jack Brooksbank, are hearing the pitter-patter of tiny feet as society re-emerges from lockdown.

Princess Eugenie and her husband, Jack Brooksbank, are hearing the pitter-patter of tiny feet as society re-emerges from lockdown

I can reveal that Jacks younger brother, Tom  best man at their wedding in 2018  has become a father.

The Old Etonian investment manager and his wife, fashion PR Amy Rodgers, are celebrating the birth of Wilfred Stamp Ewing Brooksbank.

Eugenie and Jack are delighted to become an aunt and uncle, says a friend. Theyre looking forward to spending time with the baby.
The Ondo State governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have petitioned the Ondo State Commissioner of Police, Salami Bolaji, over an allegation by a former Secretary to the State Government that the 2016 governorship election was manipulated in favour of the governor.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how Ifedayo Abegunde, the ex-SSG, disclosed that himself and some other powerful individuals helped Mr Akeredolu win the election.

After a backlash from Mr Akeredolu last week, the ex-SSG recanted his statement.

Meanwhile, the governor and his party, on Wednesday, petitioned the police through their Counsel, Femi Emodamori.

They wondered why Mr Abegunde will make such allegations even when the then election results were never disputed by any of the candidates before the Ondo State Election Petition Tribunal.

"It was made simply to scandalize our clients, particularly the Governor, three and half years after the undisputed election, and instructively, after Sunday Ifedayo Abegunde parted ways with the current government of Ondo State."

"Clearly, therefore, the false, scandalous and criminal allegation was actuated by malice. For Hon. Sunday Ifedayo Abegunde (a.k.a Abena) to have publicly declared that he "helped" the Governor to win the 2016 gubernatorial election connotes, or is supposed in law to connote the following:

"That our clients did not genuinely merit the victory ascribed to them by INEC in the said 2016 governorship election.

"That our clients won the said election through underhanded tactics aided and abetted by Hon. Sunday Ifedayo Abegunde and his faceless cohorts.

"That our clients are fraudulent with their claim that they won the said 2016 governorship election.

"That Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN is a person to be investigated for being without integrity, good character and unworthy to occupy the sacred and exalted position of Governor of Ondo State.

"That but for the "help" and or assistance of Hon. Sunday Ifedayo Abegunde, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN would not have been declared by INEC as the duly elected Governor of Ondo State in the 2016 governorship election, which allegation is reckless, wicked, criminal, and has portrayed and put the Governor and his Party (the A.P.C) in Ondo State in particular and Nigeria in general, in public ridicule, odium or scorn.

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"Hon. Sunday Ifedayo Abegunde is therefore presumed to be compos mentis (sane) as at the time of making such public declaration. He must, therefore, be justified or condemned by his own words, which amount to a self-confession of criminality.

"Consequently, we have the instruction of our clients to call on your office to set all the necessary machineries under your control as the Commissioner of Police in motion, to unravel the truth or falsehood in the allegation(s) of Hon. Sunday Ifedayo Abegunde, by conducting a thorough investigation into the allegation in this petition.

"Your expected in-depth investigation of the shocking and viral allegation(s) of Hon. Sunday Ifedayo Abegunde would help to restore the probity, credibility and public confidence in electoral processes in Nigeria, particularly now that the 2020 Governorship election in Ondo State is at hand.

"In the event that your investigation reveals that the allegation(s) are false and maliciously invented simply to scandalize our clients, we demand the immediate prosecution of Hon. Sunday Ifedayo Abegunde for the criminal offence of publication of defamatory matter, in contravention of Section 375 of the same Criminal Code, and punishable with two years imprisonment, as well as any other offence for which he may be found culpable", the petition read.

The APC primary election is expected to hold next Monday and Mr Akeredolu is one of the 12 aspirants of the party.
More than 240 buildings in England are still at least part-covered in flammable cladding similar to that which was wrapped around Grenfell Tower.

Government figures found a total of 246 high-rise buildings still have aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding on them in some capacity, more than three years after the tower block blaze which killed 72 people.

Of those buildings, 142 have not yet had remediation work begin to remove the material which was blamed for the tragic west London tower block fire.

More than 240 buildings in England are still at least part-covered in flammable cladding similar to that which was wrapped around Grenfell Tower (pictured)

According to the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government (MHCLG), work has not yet started on 107 private sector residential buildings, 15 hotels, 10 social sector residential buildings, five student accommodation blocks and another five publicly owned buildings.

Another 104 buildings across England have started remediation but still carry ACM cladding in some way as of June 30, the department said.

The London boroughs of Greenwich and Tower Hamlets and Salford in the north-west all have more than 20 ACM clad buildings yet to be remediated.

While Manchester, as well as Brent, Westminster, Wandsworth and Newham boroughs in the capital all have between 11 and 20 buildings needing work.

Earlier this month, a senior Government official said it was 'unacceptable' that buildings were still covered in the material.

Jeremy Pocklington, permanent secretary at the MHCLG told the Commons Public Accounts Committee that: 'It's clearly unacceptable that unsafe ACM cladding remains on any building three years after the tragedy of Grenfell.'

He added: 'At the heart of the problem, too many building owners have not stepped up to their responsibility to make sure that these buildings are safe for leaseholders and for residents'.

Freeholders and developers are often delaying or refusing to pay to remove the cladding despite the Government insisting that they 'have a legal responsibility to ensure their buildings are safe'.

In the past, cladding was used to improve the appearance of tower blocks and green policies encouraged the use of cladding to improve insulation to make buildings more energy-efficient.

It comes as the UN warned Britain about its failure to strip combustible cladding from high-rise buildings, saying it may be a breach of international law.

The UN is warning Britain may have breached the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights.

It includes the 'right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing'.

Housing should be habitable with 'adequate space and protecting them from cold, damp, heat, rain, wind or other threats to health,' it says.
by Nirmala Carvalho

Hundreds of Dalits live near the Marian shrine in Periyanayagi, in Konankuppam parish. Under quarantine for a long time to contain the coronavirus, many are more afraid of famine than of the virus. Unemployment is causing depression and increasing domestic violence. The Catholic Church and Legio Mariae are helping out respecting peoples dignity.

Mumbai (AsiaNews)  The emergency situation created by COVID-19 has affected the whole world, but here in India, "we thought that our rural parishes would have had more time to prepare, said Fr Devasagayaraj, rector of the Marian shrine in Periyanayagi, Konankuppam (Tamil Nadu).

Built by Italian missionary Fr Constantino Beschi, the shrine attracts thousands of pilgrims from all over India every year. The local parish is home to about 350 families. Of these, 325 are Dalits, explained the clergyman.

At the beginning, people didn't think the virus could reach them so quickly, and when the government announced the lockdown [on 24 March], nobody believed it would last so long.

In the end, The crisis has affected the poor the most, and many are more afraid of famine than of the virus. Traditionally, people depend on daily wages from farm work or move to other States to look for work as labourers, waiters or in shops. Today however, such opportunities are gone.

The local Church has taken action in many ways to provide concrete help, explained Fr Devasagayaraj. On 20 April we opened a community kitchen to provide breakfast to young people under 15 and lunch for local seniors.

Through social media we made an appeal, and many generous friends have helped us through donations. Legio Mariae volunteers cook and hand out the meals. In the beginning we fed more than a hundred people at a time.

The parish also tried to provide some jobs to the neediest so that they could "earn some income and dignity from work. We set up small repairs or maintenance shop at the shrine, obviously after COVID-19 restrictions were relaxed."

Spiritual outreach was provided along practical works. During Lent we celebrated Mass in safety and broadcast it on community social media.

"We celebrated the Via Crucis every Friday, and when we could, we brought the Eucharist to those who wanted it but could not leave home.

We were able to do all this thanks to the teamwork and generosity of our supporters. But, ultimately, we did it thanks to the blessings of the Lord.
Ruochen "Tony" Liao, 28, of Santa Ana was abducted, killed and buried in the Mojave desert. (FBI)

Federal authorities Wednesday charged two men with helping to abduct a Southern California car dealer who was held for $2-million ransom, beaten, killed and buried in the Mojave desert.

Anthony Valladares, 28, and Alexis Ivan Romero Velez, 24, were arrested Tuesday and charged in federal court with kidnapping. An attorney for Valladares declined to comment, and an attorney representing Velez didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

The evening of July 16, 2018, a friend dropped off Ruochen Tony Liao, a Chinese national who sold high-end cars in Southern California, at the San Gabriel Square shopping plaza on Valley Boulevard to meet a man he believed would help him collect a debt, an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit. The friend watched Liao, 28, climb into a dark-colored minivan and drive off. It was the last he  or anyone else  would see of Liao.

In court documents, prosecutors and agents have alleged that two Chinese nationals, Guangyao Yang and Peicheng Shen, orchestrated Liao's abduction, using Valladares as "muscle" and Romero as a driver.

Yang, 26, and Shen, 34, have been charged in Los Angeles with kidnapping and extortion. Both men are currently in Chinese custody. Shen was arrested in January 2019 and began talking to Chinese authorities. FBI Special Agent Alejandra Sanchez described his account in an affidavit filed in federal court.

Shen told the authorities that he and Yang had recruited Valladares, who worked at a UFC gym in Rosemead that the two frequented, by promising him cash and marijuana for his help in abducting Liao.

Valladares had asked if anyone was going to get hurt, Shen said. He told Valladares no. The two bought a Taser at a gun shop, and Valladares purchased an old revolver and six bullets, Shen told Chinese authorities.

If there were problems with the kidnapping attempt, they would blame everything on Valladares, Shen said, according to the affidavit.

The day of the abduction, Shen, Valladares and Romero drove to the San Gabriel Square shopping plaza and parked outside a 99 Ranch Market, Shen told Chinese authorities. Yang was sitting in his Range Rover nearby, he said.

Story continues

Liao got into the minivan and Valladares grabbed him by the neck, shocked him with the Taser and wrapped black packaging tape around his eyes and mouth, Shen told Chinese authorities.

Shen and Yang drove Liao to a house in Corona, where they stashed him in a closet and shocked him with the Taser until the battery died, Shen said, according to the affidavit.

The next day, Liaos father received two photographs on his WeChat messaging application. They were of his son  legs bound, hands tied behind his back, eyes covered with tape, Sanchezs affidavit said. He fielded a call five minutes later.

Father save me, help me, I have been kidnapped, Liao said, according to the affidavit. An unfamiliar voice then came on the line, saying, Your son has made me very poor. I have lost everything and suffered a divorce because of him. I have been looking for Tony for a long time.

The man demanded he pay $2 million to save his sons life. Liaos father was sent wiring instructions for several bank accounts in China and the words, Three hours.

For reasons left unexplained in the affidavit, Liaos family did not pay the ransom.

Shen has admitted kicking Liao and sealing his mouth with tape after the ransom call, the affidavit said. He and Yang realized, at some point, that Liao had stopped breathing.

Shen and Yang drove the body to the desert, he told the authorities. After taking $500 from the dead mans wallet, they buried him there, he said.

Shen asked a contractor to "do a rush job" and replace the carpet in a closet of a house in Corona, the contractor has told the FBI.

Yang left the United States for China and was arrested by the Chengdu Public Security Bureau, FBI Special Agent Cara Sammartino wrote in an affidavit. Chinese investigators searched his phone and found WeChat messages sent to Shen that, among others, read, Tape up the eyes and mouth, Has he been screaming nonstop? and I have been kicking him.

On July 18, the affidavit said, Yang searched on the internet: Time frame for a corpse to decompose in soil.

FBI agents found remains in the Mojave Desert and identified them as Liaos in July 2019, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles.

On Tuesday, after agents served search warrants at his Pasadena home, Valladares acknowledged taking part in Liaos abduction, Sanchezs affidavit said. He thought he would be helping collect a debt from Liao, he told the agents, but he didnt intend for Liao to be killed and he didnt help bury the body.

Romero also spoke with agents voluntarily Tuesday, the affidavit said. Romero told them Valladares had offered him $600 to do an undisclosed job. He needed the cash and he didnt ask specific questions, Romero said.

The day of the abduction, they met a Chinese person Romero didnt know at the UFC gym, Romero said. He drove the two men in a Toyota minivan to the shopping center in San Gabriel. A man got into the minivan, speaking Chinese. It was then, Romero said, that Valladares and Shen started beating and shocking the man with a Taser.

Romero drove to the UFC gym with Liao facedown on the floor of the van, his hands tied and a hood over his head, he told the agents. When they got to the gym, Romero said, he left in his own car.

It wasnt until the agents informed him Tuesday, Romero said, that he knew Liao had died. Although he realized he was taking part in a kidnapping once Liao was assaulted in the van, he never intended for anyone to get killed, he said, according to the affidavit.
A young man was shot dead outside a funeral wake by a gunman wearing a surgical mask who fired at least eight times before being driven away, witnesses told the Standard.

Neighbours said more than 100 well-wishers had gathered for the traditional Caribbean "nine nights" celebration in Harlesden, to honour another young man who died last week. They were seen to flee as gunshots rang out.

Police called to Windrush Road at just after 3am battled to save the victim's life but he was pronounced dead by paramedics at the scene. His death marks the capitals seventh violent killing in just 12 days.

Scotland Yard are in the process of informing the victims family. There have been no arrests.

A witness said: There were three of them in a grey or green Land Rover Discovery. Two jumped out and one started shooting repeatedly with a pistol at the boy.

"There were loads of shots.. eight or more, like they were making sure they finished the job. The shooter was wearing a blue surgical mask which covered his face.

Forensic officers inpecting a burned out Land Rover, about a mile from the murder scene / NIGEL HOWARD

"The two then jumped back in the Discovery and took off. I saw the sparks from the gun and the guy shooting. He just kept on shooting. It was a small-calibre gun from the sound of it, maybe thats why they shot him so many times."

He added: Armed police arrived, they tried to save the boy but he was gone. It was horrible I cant believe what I saw, all in front of people at the wake.

Another witness said: There was a massive nine-nights for a young man who died recently. There was very loud music and hundreds of people at the wake which went into the early hours.

Then I heard gunshots. There was a pause before the last shot. It was no way anything other than gunshots."

On Thursday forensic officers were seen inspecting a burned out Land Rover in St Raphael's estate, about a mile from the scene of the shooting.

A man who went to the wake but left before the shooting said: I was on the way home from work and saw the wake and people I knew. Everyone was chatting and drinking, there were loads of people.

I left before midnight I dont know why it all kicked off. I am in total shock - Im worried it could have been one of my friends who has been killed.

Scotland Yard is concerned violence suppressed during lockdown could now spike after seven homicides in less than two weeks.

Todays killing is the 67th homicide investigation opened by Scotland Yard this year, compared to 84 at this point in 2019.

A neighbour said: We have had enough of this, the level of violence around here since the lockdown eased has been unacceptable. Just what is going on? We are terrified.

NIGEL HOWARD

This morning, a blue police tent was erected at the spot where the man was gunned down, outside a flat where the party was being held.

A large police cordon remained around the scene as detectives scoured for clues.

Anyone with information is asked to call police via 101 quoting reference Cad 895/16Jul or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
The Porsche driver accused of filming and taunting a dying police officer after a horrific crash that killed four officers is hoping to deal away the most serious charges.

Millionaire businessman Richard Pusey, 41, appeared in a Melbourne court on Thursday via videolink where he faces 15 charges.

Sitting in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court hearing was top barrister Dermot Dann, QC, who just yesterday won bail for a woman previously convicted and sentenced to 19 years for murder.

Pusey remains behind bars after he was refused bail when charged with 12 offences relating to a crash on April 22 on Melbourne's Eastern Freeway.

A truck hit four officers who had stopped to drug test Pusey and impound his car after he was pulled over for allegedly speeding

He was hit with a further two charges last month, including behaving in an indecent or offensive manner and committing an act outraging public decency.

Richard Pusey was arrested on April 23, one day after the fatal crash which killed four police officers

Pictured: Emergency services trying to remove a Porsche from the scene the day after a fatal crash on Eastern Highway in Kew

Mr Dann, who was accompanied by two other lawyers, told Magistrate Donna Bakos that his client wished to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.

The court heard the legal process could drag on for years if police pushed ahead with all of the charges currently hanging over Pusey's head.

'Mr Pusey wants to resolve this as quickly as possible and at the first opportunity,' Mr Dann said.

He told the court prosecutors had engaged in 'constructive discussions' that could see Pusey plead guilty to some charges.

'We can't guarantee it,' Mr Dann said. 'But we ask for time to resolve the matter.'

Ms Bakos encouraged the discussions between the two parties.

'One of these charges I've never even seen before,' the experienced magistrate said.

Mr Dann said if unsuccessful, the legal process would likely drag on.

'Some of these charges could play out for years,' he warned.

'We have in mind an appropriate resolution.'

Ms Bakos gave Pusey's legal team a month to sort out a deal otherwise the charges would progress to a contest that will likely end in the County Court of Victoria.

Pusey has been behind bars since April when a truck crashed into four officers after they pulled him over for allegedly driving at 149km/h in his Porsche 911 with cannabis and ice in his system.

The mortgage broker avoided being struck because he'd been urinating off to the side of the road.

He is accused of filming the scene on his mobile phone instead of helping Senior Constable Lynette Taylor as she lay dying. The three male officers were already dead.

Public funerals were held for all four officers after the tragedy, which marked the single greatest loss of police life in Victoria's history.

The mortgage broker (pictured in a court sketch) avoided being struck because he'd been urinating off to the side of the road

Pusey previous 12 charges include driving at a dangerous speed, reckless conduct endangering life, destruction of evidence, perverting the course of justice, failing to remain at the scene after a drug test and failing to render assistance

Pusey's previous 12 charges include driving at a dangerous speed, reckless conduct endangering life, destruction of evidence, perverting the course of justice, failing to remain at the scene after a drug test and failing to render assistance.

At a previous hearingh last month, Magistrate Jo Metcalf labelled Pusey's alleged filming of the graphic crash scene as 'highly intrusive and morally repugnant' but noted it was not illegal.

He is now in protective custody at Melbourne Assessment Prison and is scheduled to reappear in court on August 13.
(Bloomberg) -- California Resources Corp. filed for bankruptcy with a plan to hand ownership to lenders, kicking off what could turn into the next wave of collapses among oil drillers and the businesses that depend on them.

Under a proposal the company negotiated with senior lenders as part of its bankruptcy planning, shareholders will be wiped out and investors holding the companys $1.3 billion, 2017 loan will get 93% of a reorganized California Resources. Lower-ranking creditors will share 7% of the new company if they vote in favor of the proposal. The plan must be approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David R Jones after lower-ranking creditors have a chance to object.

The company joins more than 200 oil explorers that have filed for court protection since 2015, and more may be coming in a matter of weeks. Denbury Resources Inc. and Noble Corp. missed their July debt payments, and Chaparral Energy Inc. asked lenders for more time, setting them on course for a possible default.

With oil prices hovering around $40 a barrel, the industry simply isnt able to support debts taken on when prices were near peak levels. Californias biggest crude producer has been weighed down by massive borrowings since its spinoff from Occidental Petroleum Corp. in late 2014, right at the start of the previous downturn in the crude market.

Low levels of cash and stricter state drilling regulations added to the pressure on California Resources, despite a $320 million investment from Tom Barrack Jr.s Colony Capital Inc. last year.

The company said it owed more than 50,000 creditors about $6.1 billion, according to a Chapter 11 petition filed in federal court in Houston. About $5 billion of those liabilities are funded debt that may be reduced as part of the reorganization.

Creditor Backing

The bankruptcy is designed to reduce debt and other obligations by more than $5 billion, the company said in a statement. The proposed restructuring agreement is backed by about 84% of term-loan lenders who hold debt issued in 2017, and 51% of the companys 2016 lenders. The companys joint venture partner, Ares Management also backs the proposal.

To pay for the restructuring and to keep operating during the bankruptcy, the company will borrow about $1 billion from a group of existing creditors, according to the statement. Part of the money will be used to refinance a 2014 revolving credit facility.

Many investors have shunned producers operating outside of the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico, the most prolific U.S. oil patch. Even before the most recent price crash, American drillers were increasingly struggling to attract capital amid market volatility and growing doubts about their ability to generate returns for investors.

Covid-19

More roadblocks appeared this year as the Covid-19 pandemic prompted widespread lockdowns that decimated global demand, while Saudi Arabia and Russia battled for market share before finally reaching an agreement with other members of the OPEC+ group to cut production. While oil prices have recovered from the extreme lows seen in April, they remain at a level where many American producers are struggling to achieve free cash flow.

California Resources employs about 1,200 people and operates more than half the oil fields in California, company Chief Executive Officer Todd A. Stevens said in a court filing. Nearly half of the companys oil and gas was sold to Phillips 66 Company and Valero Marketing & Supply Co. last year.

One of the companys most important assets is the Elk Hills oil field, which was discovered in 1911 and figured prominently in Teapot Dome bribery scandal involving cabinet members of President Warren G. Harding in the 1920s. The field provides natural gas for a power plant that is a joint venture between California Resources and Ares Management LP. That venture is not in bankruptcy.

California Resources traced its bankruptcy to the debt imposed on it as part of the 2014 spinoff from Occidental. After two rounds of debt restructuring in 2015 and 2016 and regular bond repurchases afterward, the debt was reduced to about $5 billion from a high of $6.7 billion, Stevens said in court papers.

Low oil prices continued to weigh on the company, which started and then canceled a debt exchange earlier this year. The company decided to file bankruptcy to implement the restructuring plan that hands ownership to senior lenders and wipe out shareholders.

The companys bankruptcy law firm will be Sullivan & Cromwell, assisted by Vinson & Elkins. Perella Weinberg Partners will act as investment banker, while Alvarez & Marsal North America will provide restructuring advice.

The case is California Resources Corporation, 20-33568, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Texas, Houston.

2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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Photo from of Portland Water Bureau [enlarge] The water bureau built a pilot plant at its Bull Run headworks site to test treatment methods.





A joint venture of MWH Constructors and Kiewit has been awarded a contract to build an $820 million treatment plant that will process nearly all of Portland's drinking water.





. . .
Henry Chan, CEO and co-founder of ShopBack. (PHOTO: ShopBack)

SINGAPORE  When other businesses scale back, rewards and shopping discovery platform ShopBack is taking the other route: expansion.

In April, deep in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic and its fast-spreading impact on businesses across the region and world, ShopBack acquired Ebates Korea for an undisclosed sum from Japans Rakuten. Ebates was South Koreas largest online cashback platform. The acquisition is key to ShopBacks expansion plans this year.

The homegrown startup had earlier expanded into Vietnam at the end of 2019. Besides these markets, it now operates in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan and Australia as well.

We are always evaluating new opportunities to connect with and serve more consumers, and will continue to keep a lookout for such opportunities in 2020, co-founder and chief executive Henry Chan said in a recent interview with Yahoo Finance Singapore.

Daring.

So, is an initial public offering in the works? Chan merely said that nothing is off the table for us, but for now we want to remain razor focused on creating value for our users and merchants during a time they need it most.

The six-year-old company has raised a total of US$113 million, after closing an extended US$75 million funding round led by Temasek in March. It declined to comment on its financial numbers such as profitability.

The regions Internet economy is expected to triple to US$300 billion by 2025 from last year, according to the e-Conomy report by Google, Temasek and Bain. More than 150 million people in Southeast Asia bought or sold items online last year, compared to some 49 million in 2015.

Relatively new concept

Chan said the companys concept  whereby merchant partners pay ShopBack a commission when a successful sale is made, and the company in turn share the commission with shoppers by giving them back a small percentage of their purchases  was relatively new in this region even though it has been around in countries like the US and UK.

Story continues

The idea for ShopBack was conceived one night during a late night chat with classmate and co-founder Joel Leong, Chan said. They then roped a mutual friend Bryan Chua who is a tech guru and locked themselves up in a hotel room and after a weekend of brainstorming, the trio conceived the prototype.

The venture almost failed to take off when its application for government funding was rejected, said the 35-year-old who left his job as director of strategic partnerships at SP eCommerce, part of the SingPost Group. The founding team eventually managed to secure funding of US$1 million led by Accel-X and East Ventures, and ShopBack was launched in Singapore in September 2014. The company has grown from a team of six to over 500 today.

Currently, ShopBack partners with over 3,000 merchants including Taobao, Expedia, Shopee and Zalora to reward its users with cashback. To date, US$100 million in cashback has been given to over 20 million users.

Yahoo Finance Singapore had a quick-fire catch-up with the 35-year-old father of one.

(PHOTO: ShopBack)

What is the biggest challenge for the company currently?

Our biggest challenge has always been consumer education.

Though the cashback concept has existed for decades in other countries, it is still relatively new in this region. Therefore, there is a lot of work needed to educate and build trust among our users. Before the concept of cashback was popularised in online shopping, it only existed within the credit cards or offline transactions space.

What are some of the common misconceptions about the cashback model and how do you address these concerns?

Consumers are often wary about the idea of being paid to shop online, even though it is completely free-of-charge to create an account and use ShopBack.

It is an uphill task to first capture consumers attention in the crowded online retail scene, and educate them about ShopBacks service and credibility, before we can persuade them to embrace and use the service. However, we believe that it is a universal truth that consumers will always want better value for their purchases.

On the merchant side, one key challenge is the need to shift the marketing mindset of potential merchants, with regard to the allocation of their budgets. Traditionally, brands allocate a fixed budget for their marketing and advertising campaigns, paying upfront for eyeballs or for clicks. With ShopBack, instead of a fixed budget, merchant partners pay for performance  more specifically, they pay only when a sale takes place.

How is ShopBack coping with the coronavirus pandemic?

To ensure that we survive this crisis, we will be extra-focused on optimising the business and rationalising our cost structure to operate more effectively with limited resources. The goal is to keep our expenses as low as possible without significantly slowing business growth.

It is important for businesses to seize opportunities during times of uncertainty. Shoppers are seeking out the best way to cut costs and maximise savings as they shift their spend online. The recession in 2008 taught us that the concept of value becomes extra important to consumers when the economic outlook is grim.

Hence, we will continue to innovate new features and simplify the shopping experience in order to bring value to them during this unprecedented time  and we believe this commitment is what will allow us to emerge from this crisis stronger.

What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs?

I will share the ShopBack core value that I resonate with the most: Cant is not an option.

If you aspire to be an entrepreneur, you need to have the courage to face challenges, and the grit and resourcefulness to overcome them. Look beyond your limitations and have the guts to fail  the difficulties, challenges, and failures that we overcome will become our advantages and strengths.

After all, great meaningful work never comes easy.

Related stories:

Lazada expects another record-breaking performance for 11.11: CEO Pierre Poignant

Lazada says it is e-commerce leader in Southeast Asia with more than 50 million buyers

Shopee to focus on growing market share in Southeast Asia to maintain lead
Mobile carriers should do more to get rid of online marketers



The nation's three mobile carriers and the Korea Association for ICT Promotion (KAIT) will constantly monitor illegally subsidized cellphone sales on the online market. There have been sporadic cases of monitoring specific online channels before. However, this is the first time for the industry to conduct regular oversight by operating a team exclusively responsible for the task.



The surveillance team has a wide variety of targets, ranging from cellphone information sharing sites to internet cafes, communities, messenger services, social networking services and open markets. In other words, all sales activities of cellphones through online channels will be on watch lists. Through these activities, it will collect information on possible violations of the Cellphone Distribution Structure Improvement Act and related guidelines through non-contact consultations with phone vendors.



The new team will not just monitor unlawful sellers but compile statistics concerning "unfair" subsidies by mobile carriers, illegal or irregular sales practices, and the proportions of such illicit sales by each marketing channel, and turn them into a database. All this is aimed to root out illegal or irregular cellphone sales rampant in the online market, and reduce discrimination among users.



Illegal cellphone sales using online channels are nothing new. The unlawful vendors spread marketing information through online communities and SNS, sell off phones quickly, and move out of the sites. Most of these activities are illegal, as they are made at outlets that have not received permission in advance. Nevertheless, the unlawful practice has almost become a marketing pattern whenever a new smartphone model hits the market.



Despite being aware of their illegal nature, a small number of consumers prefer these channels because of the hefty subsidies. However, there are far more examples of ill effects, as not a few consumers suffer losses from fraudulent business practices. The illegal sales channels have flouted the recently amended law to improve cellphone distribution structure. The constant monitoring should, if it has the desired effect, eliminate illegality and irregularity in the mobile phone market. In this regard, the government would do well to provide human and financial resources to support the private sector's efforts.


GLEN ROCK, N.J., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In an effort to drive quality leads during these unprecedented times, MFV Expositions has devised the ultimate solution with the debut of Online Franchise Expo, the world's largest 4-show online virtual event. The two-week event will combine four shows in one and is set to take place October 15-30. This comes after the decision to postpone remaining 2020 live events to 2021 and bring together all industry leaders, resources, and marketing efforts to host the most significant online event in franchising.

For almost 30 years, MFV has brought together top executives and entrepreneurs to live events, creating the center of the franchise industry. While COVID-19 has impacted its traditional live event format for 2020, MFV has released 2021 rescheduled dates as it is eager to welcome franchisors and prospective franchisees back to the showroom floor when it is safe to do so.

Franchise Expo South to be held in Miami February 11-13, 2021

Franchise Expo Nashville to be held May 6-7, 2021

International Franchise Expo to be held in New York City June 17-19, 2021

Franchise Expo West to be held September 30 - Oct 2, 2021

Franchise Expo Houston to be held October 22-23, 2021

"The COVID-19 global pandemic has put many industries in a state of flux," said Robert Cresanti, CEO of the International Franchise Association (IFA). "By postponing all remaining 2020 live events, MFV Expositions is able to focus all marketing efforts into a robust local, regional, national, and international campaign for this one large virtual event. With the success of May's International Franchise Expo Online Event, they now have a blueprint for making this the largest and most impactful online event in the franchising industry."

Coming off the heels of a tremendously successful online version of the International Franchise Expo, MFV is anticipating thousands of attendees to join Online Franchise Expo as franchisors meet and interact with high-quality candidates to help grow their brands. As the only online expo sponsored by the IFA and U.S. Department of Commerce, exhibitors are able to design an online presence with a virtual booth where they can host live meetings before and during the show, distribute collateral, and interact with interested candidates from around the world.

"We are very pleased with the outcome of the first International Franchise Expo Online Event," said Roy Fujita, President & CEO I. Fujita International. "The Rakken brands - Belle Ville, Tonkotsu Kazan Ramen, and Maji Curry - are already negotiating Master Rights for Thailand, Indonesia, and Morocco, in addition to meeting three solid Rakken Ramen franchisee candidates in Los Angeles."

With the strongest database in the franchise industry, Online Franchise Expo has the power to help keep qualified leads in franchisors' pipelines. "Our franchisors have told us how important it is to keep development and the forefront of their strategic plans as the economy rebuilds post-COVID," said Sheila Fischer, Vice President of MVF Expositions. "We're grateful to have the opportunity to host this event via a new platform and provide franchisors the ability to promote their brands and to interact with potential domestic and international franchisees while everyone is safe in their homes. We look forward to the newly signed agreements that result in the coming months as the franchise industry emerges stronger than ever before."

Prospective franchisees will be able to search for entrepreneurial matches across hundreds of leading and emerging franchise brands registered as virtual exhibitors. The expo will also offer similar comprehensive educational programs as its live events, with recorded presentations by franchise industry leaders, downloadable white papers, articles and other materials.

"One thing this pandemic has shined a light on is the value of having the support of a franchisor to provide guidance, resources, and collateral to navigate uncertainty and remain resilient. As unemployment has soared and many re-evaluate personal finances and career paths, we're anticipating a major influx in aspiring entrepreneurs looking for business opportunities that provide a strong support structure  franchising proving to be the logical answer," added Fischer.

Franchisors interested in exhibiting are encouraged to reach out to Sheila Fischer at 201-881-1656 or [email protected] for more information on various booth listing packages.

For more information on the Online Franchise Expo, please visit www.onlinefranchiseexpo.com

About Comexposium MFV

Comexposium is the world's largest producer of franchise expos. Known for its highly successful U.S.-based franchise events and overseas shows, the company offers high-quality face-to-face opportunities for franchisees and franchisors looking to grow the industry. Each franchise expo features franchise concepts from every industry and every investment level. Today, MFV utilizes its global online franchise directory BeTheBoss.com with the latest technology and search metrics to provide a cost-effective way to market franchise businesses.

SOURCE MFV Expositions
In line with the goals of the "Ambition 2021" strategic plan, WALLIX is strengthening its position in the DACH market through initiatives aimed at bolstering its commercial channel. As such, it is supporting the digital transformation of ENGELBERT STRAUSS Group, the leading European manufacturer of work clothing and equipment.



Paris, July 16, 2020 - WALLIX (Euronext - ALLIX), a European software company providing cybersecurity solutions and privileged access management (PAM) expertise, today announces the roll-out of its offers on the DACH market, along with the delivery of WALLIX Bastion to ENGELBERT STRAUSS, the leading European manufacturer of work clothing and equipment.



WALLIX TO ASSIST ENGELBERT STRAUSS WITH INFORMATION SYSTEM SECURITY

In this regard, WALLIX is happy to announce that ENGELBERT STRAUSS Group recently chose WALLIX Bastion to protect its IT infrastructure. Currently deployed across part of the group (future potential of 10 locations and 1,200 people in Europe), WALLIX's PAM solution won over the German group, which is currently digitizing a growing portion of its business, due to its efficiency, user-friendliness and total cost of ownership (TCO) among the most economical on the market. Thanks to its seamless user experience, WALLIX has positioned itself as one of the world leaders in Privileged Access Management services for companies.

"WALLIX Bastion simplifies the work of our teams and makes it more efficient. We are cutting down on administrative tasks in order to focus on value-added operations," explained Benedikt Hild, WALLIX PAM system administrator at ENGELBERT STRAUSS. "With WALLIX Bastion, we have more time to ensure our IT infrastructure is highly protected."



PROVEN ATTRACTIVENESS OF WALLIX SOLUTIONS ON EUROPE'S LARGEST MARKET

Estimated to be worth $158 million in 2020[1], the DACH and Eastern market is the largest in Europe and remains an area that WALLIX seeks to conquer. As part of its "Ambition 2021" strategic plan, the Group strengthened its footprint in this market by expanding its office in Germany (15 employees, 9 more than in 2019). These investments are now paying off, as shown by the resounding success of the 2020 WALLIX Momentum annual convention in Germany: the 11 keynotes attracted more than 800 people, thus fueling business activity in this market.

WALLIX can also count on its network, which currently consists of 11 leading partners (resellers and integrators) such as Infinigate, to support the roll-out of its offers through indirect sales in the DACH market.

The growing success seen in Germany is in line with WALLIX's stated objective to become a leading cybersecurity software developer on the global market and to cover around 80% of this market by 2021.



ABOUT WALLIX

A software company providing cybersecurity solutions, WALLIX Group is the European specialist in privileged account governance. In response to recent regulatory changes and the cybersecurity threats affecting all companies today, WALLIX's solutions help users defend against cyber-attacks, theft and data leaks linked to stolen credentials and abused privileges. It is the first market solution to have been awarded first-level security certification (CSPN) by France's National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI) and thus meet all of the criteria for regulatory compliance. Listed on the Euronext under ALLIX and distributed by a network of more than 170 resellers and trained and accredited integrators, WALLIX accompanies more than 1000 companies in securing their digital future.

More information: www.wallix.com | info@wallix.com

Agence MCC

Martine Camilotti

Tel. +33 (0)6 60 38 20 02 / martine.camilotti@agencemcc.com

ACTUS Finance & Communication

Financial Press Relations

Nicolas Bouchez

Tel. +33 (0)1 53 67 36 74 / nbouchez@actus.fr

[1] Source: Gartner Forecast Snapshot: Privileged Access Management, Worldwide (March 2017)

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STERLING, Va., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Mvix, a leading provider of turnkey digital signage solutions with free software, announces the launch of its Wayfinding-as-a-Service (WaaS) solution. The solution is designed to simplify wayfinding for medium-sized enterprises that need fairly simple yet functional wayfinding in a post-pandemic world.

"Wayfinding can be quite complicated and in-depth, with options like AR, voice-activated search, detour rerouting, turn-by-turn directions, private access, and more," said Mike Kilian, VP of Client Relations at Mvix. "These options are great to have, but they're very expensive and out of reach for medium-sized enterprises."

The Mvix Wayfinding-as-a-Service solution simplifies wayfinding for these enterprises as they're reopening. Organizations with a few buildings and offices still need wayfinding but without the bells and whistles. Their limited budgets make them ideal candidates for WaaS.

The WaaS solution is built on the Mvix cloud-based digital signage software, XhibitSignage. The CMS gives users full control over their messaging to ensure consistency and accuracy.

WaaS incorporates clearly defined managed services deliverables which include:

a set number of content to display on home screens

design of a touch-capable map

floor plan designs

route scheduling

a set number of endpoints

mobile integration

both indoor and outdoor wayfinding support

monthly content updates

Mvix built managed services into the WaaS solution because in-house teams may not have the bandwidth or experience to fully manage a wayfinding system. Services provided by Mvix include strategic direction, proactive content updates, access to a design studio, enterprise tech support, and maintenance to minimize downtimes. This empowers organizations to stay focused on their core business.

The WaaS solution is best suited for medium-sized hospitals, corporate offices, and schools. It supports these organizations' plans for effective reopening and operations during COVID-19. Pricing is affordable and competitive to provide a fast ROI, reinforcing Mvix's dedication to supporting its clients to overcome organizational challenges.

"WaaS was born out of our ongoing initiatives to support healthcare, corporate and education markets," Mike added. "We identified a need for affordable yet effective wayfinding driven by public safety demands. Our team was able to quickly shift speed and package our technology and services into a WaaS solution. This first wave of WaaS is specific to issues brought about by the pandemic and we're working on a growing number of options to be rolled out in 2020 and 2021."

For more information about Mvix Wayfinding-as-a-Service (WaaS), visit www.mvixdigitalsignage.com.

About Mvix

Mvix is a leading provider of turnkey digital signage solutions with free enterprise-grade software. To date, its platform powers over 50,000 active screens for clients including Virginia Tech, NASA, Sodexo, Discovery Channel, Crowne Plaza, and the University of Washington. The use cases include employee communication, wayfinding, emergency messaging, and customer communications.

Learn more about Mvix at www.mvixdigitalsignage.com or call 703.382.1739.

Related Images

mvix-announces-wayfinding-as-a.png

Mvix Announces Wayfinding-as-a-Service (WaaS) Solutions to Address Reopening Challenges

The WaaS solution is designed to simplify wayfinding for medium-sized enterprises that need affordable and simple yet functional wayfinding in a post-pandemic world.

SOURCE Mvix

Related Links

https://mvixdigitalsignage.com


Becerra Restricts Access to LAPD Gang Records

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has revoked access to CalGang records generated by the Los Angeles Police Department, following LAPD Chief Michel Moores decision to permanently withdraw from the program after an internal audit uncovered significant misuse of the gang-tracking database by LAPD personnel, the AGs office said today.

The restriction applies to all statewide users of the CalGang database. The states justice department has issued a bulletin to all law enforcement authorities urging agencies that use CalGangs database to strongly consider measures, including a thorough internal audit, to validate the integrity of their entries into the system.

Becerra is also encouraging the state Legislature to reexamine the CalGang program and consider further reforms.

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The LAPD recently placed a moratorium on the use of the CalGang System, a statewide database used by law enforcement for sharing intelligence regarding potential gang members.

Ive said it before and Ill say it again: CalGang is only as good as the data that is put into it, Becerra said. If a quarter of the programs data is suspect, then the utility of the entire system rightly comes under the microscope. The Legislature tasked DOJ with oversight of the CalGang database and with the development of mechanisms to ensure the systems integrity. Thats why were formally revoking access to the records generated by LAPD. Public safety tools must provide a real benefit to the public and withstand the durability test of constant scrutiny. It should now be obvious to everyone: CalGang must change.

Criminal charges have been filed against three Los Angeles Police Department officers accused of falsifying records that claimed people they had stopped were gang members or gang associates, Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey announced Friday.

Braxton Shaw, 37, Michael Coblentz, 42, and Nicolas Martinez, 36, were charged late Thursday with one count each of conspiracy to obstruct justice and multiple countds of filing a false police report and preparing false documentary evidence, according to the District Attorneys Office.

The three were each released on their own recognizance shortly after their arrests by the LAPDs Internal Affairs Division, jail records show. They are set to be arraigned Oct. 13 at the downtown Los Angeles courthouse.

In a statement posted on Twitter, LAPD Chief Michel Moore said, Public trust is the bedrock of community policing and these allegations shake that foundation. The actions of these few tarnish the badge we all wear. The department is committed to continuing this comprehensive investigation in our effort to restore the confidence of the people we protect and serve.

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The charges stem from a misconduct investigation conducted by the LAPDs Internal Affairs Group and monitored by the Office of the Inspector General, according to the department.

The LAPD noted that one of the defendants  which of the three was not specified  was relieved from duty in January when Moore concluded that the officers actions were a serious violation of department policy.

That officer has been directed to an administrative tribunal for the purpose of removal, according to the LAPD, which said the other two officers have been assigned to home duty.

The LAPD also said there are 21 other officers under investigation over the completion of field interview cards, which are used by officers to interview people while they are on duty. Ten of those officers are assigned to home pending the outcome of the investigation, eight are assigned to administrative duties, five remain in the field and one has retired since the investigation was launched, according to the LAPD.

Shaw, Coblentz and Martinez  who were assigned at the time to the LAPDs Metropolitan Division  allegedly falsified field interview cards and misidentified dozens of people as gang members. Some of the false information contained in the cards was used to wrongfully enter people into a state gang database, prosecutors allege.

In some instances, the three are accused of writing on field interview cards that a person they stopped admitted being a gang member, even though video from body-worn cameras showed that the individual was never asked that question, according to the District Attorneys Office. In other instances, the defendants allegedly wrote on field interview cards that a person interviewed admitted to being a gang member even though the person denied it, according to the District Attorneys Office.

Shaw  who could face up to 31 years and eight months in county jail if convicted as charged  is charged with 43 counts of preparing false documentary evidence involving the field interview cards, along with eight counts of filing a false report and one count of conspiracy.

The overt acts included with the conspiracy charge allege that Shaw falsely documented some people as gang members with gang tattoos and gang monikers and that he falsely documented a fictional person as a gang member on 15 occasions between March 2018 and January 2019.

Coblentz allegedly falsified seven field interview cards. He is charged with seven counts of preparing false documentary evidence, five counts of filing a false report and one count of conspiracy, and could face up to seven years and eight months behind bars if found guilty. Martinez  who allegedly falsified two field interview cards  is charged with two counts each of preparing false documentary evidence and filing a false report and one count of conspiracy, and could face a maximum of four years and four months in jail, according to the District Attorneys Office.

Action was taken quickly to put safeguards in place to ensure this type of behavior does not happen again, an LAPD statement read. These actions included retraining of all Metropolitan personnel on the proper completion of a FI (field interview) card and random audits of officers body-worn video with increased frequency of audits. While we had been using a more stringent criteria in the collection and review of information associated with the California Gang Database, we recently committed to no longer using the database for anything other than removing individuals from it.

The LAPD was investigating alleged misuse of CalGang after it was announced in January that a teenager with no gang affiliations was entered into the system.

Becerra announced in February that his office would audit the departments records and policies on the use of the database.

Right now, LAPDs (CalGang) inputs are under the microscope, and we all have a stake in making sure that we all get this right, Becerra said then. We do not yet have a clear or full picture of what occurred, but we know enough to know that we must act. Any falsification of police records and abuse of the CalGang database is unacceptable. If Californians are falsely included in the database, that could potentially subject them to unwarranted scrutiny.

The CalGang system was overseen by individual police departments until the Legislature passed Assembly Bill 90 in 2017 giving the Attorney Generals Office authority over it.
Special Deal

16 July 2020

The Maldives reopened its borders to international travelers on July 15, 2020, and the Four Seasons new global Lead With Care program and contactless Chat experience offer the ultimate reassurance and care in a new era of travel.

With the health and safety of guests, residents and employees as Four Seasons Resorts Maldives top priority, Lead With Care - enhanced health and safety protocols led by global experts - sees Resort-wide changes from additional employee training to enhanced cleaning with black light inspections; social distancing measures in shared spaces to contact-free engagement through Four Seasons App and Four Seasons Chat, an award-winning experience available in more than 100 languages that extends the company's personalized 24/7 service without the need for face-to-face interaction.

All visitors entering the Maldives from July 15 will be issued a free 30-day tourist visa on arrival following completion of a Health Declaration card and thermal screening. Visitors will not be required to submit any medical test result or enter quarantine unless their screening indicates symptoms of COVID-19. Since June 1, 2020, private jet travelers have been permitted entry to the country and similar provisions remain in place for visitors arriving via this route.

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With its Forbes five-star rating and close proximity by speedboat to Male, Kuda Huraa is gleaming following a recent extensive refurbishment. Shining highlights include al fresco dining Mediterranean-style at Reef Club, exclusive marine-inspired treatments at The Island Spa, and new Deluxe Beach Pavilions with Pool: the ideal place to reconnect with friends and family in total privacy.

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Commenting on the border reopening, Regional Vice President and General Manager Armando Kraenzlin says: "Our islands haven't felt the same without our guests, but in their emptier states one thing has been more apparent than ever before: the need for us to work together to protect not only the health of ourselves and our communities but nature as a whole. Having spearheaded Resort-based marine conservation in the Maldives for 20 years, we now look forward to inspiring our teams and guests with a new era of sustainability-minded operations that prioritise the wellbeing of people and planet."

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 23:32:15|Editor: huaxia

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ULAN BATOR, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Up to 17 out of all 21 provinces of Mongolia are now at risk for the bubonic plague, a senior official of the country's National Center for Zoonotic Diseases (NCZD) said Thursday.

"A total of 137 soums (administrative subdivisions) of 17 provinces in our country are now risk areas of bubonic plague or natural homes of the zoonotic disease. Especially, western provinces such as Bayan-Ulgii, Govi-Altai, Khovd and Uvs have been regarded as high-risk areas of the plague," Bandikhuu Amgalanbayar, deputy director of the NCZD, told Xinhua in an interview.

Bubonic plague is a bacterial disease that is spread by fleas living on wild rodents such as marmots. It can kill an adult in less than 24 hours if not treated in time, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Several cases of bubonic plague are recorded in Mongolia annually.

Since the beginning of this year, six suspected cases of bubonic plague have been reported across the country, three of which had been confirmed by laboratory test results, said Amgalanbayar.

Mongolia's Health Ministry announced earlier this month that two suspected cases of bubonic plague reported in Khovd Province have been confirmed by lab test results.

A 15-year-old boy in Govi-Altai Province died from bubonic plague last week. Another suspected case of bubonic plague has been reported in the same province on Thursday.

Last year, a couple died from bubonic plague in Bayan-Ulgii Province in western Mongolia after eating raw marmot meat.

Although hunting marmots is illegal in Mongolia, many Mongolians continue to ignore the law and regard the rodent as a delicacy, and believe that eating marmots or other wild animals is good for one's health.

There is "no scientific backing" for the belief, Amgalanbayar said, urging citizens not to hunt marmots or eat marmot meat to prevent the spread of bubonic plague.

"Mongolians and people of other nomadic countries have eaten marmots since long ago. But today we have no choice but to stop hunting marmots or eating marmot meat to stay healthy," the director said.

According to the WHO, over 30 new human pathogens have been detected in the last three decades, 75 percent of which have originated in animals.

As part of the prevention of the spread of bubonic plague, immunization against the plague is now being organized in high-risk areas across the country.

"This year, we are planning to vaccinate more than 32,000 people who are at risk of being infected with bubonic plague. Currently, the immunization rate is over 60 percent," Amgalanbayar said.

In addition, Mongolia has been actively cooperating with China, Russia, and Kazakhstan in the fight against zoonotic diseases, said the director.

Particularly, every year the country monitors the activity in natural areas which are prone to bubonic plague in all border areas in cooperation with China and exchanges information on risks, Amgalanbayar added. Enditem
A driver fleeing a Kenosha County Sheriffs Department deputy died after crashing into a semi at Green Bay Road and Highway E.

The driver, a 27-year-old Milwaukee man, was fleeing west on Highway E at about 7:30 a.m. when he ran the light at Green Bay Road, crashing into a southbound semi truck. The man crashed under the semi, shearing off the top half of his Ford Explorer, his vehicle then careening west on E, striking a Kenosha News delivery driver who was turning his Jeep onto E from a gas station. The SUV continued west after striking the Jeep, coming to rest in a ditch.

Debris was spread from Green Bay Road over about 400 feet. A blue fabric tarp was placed over the badly damaged vehicle to cover the mans body.

The driver of the semi was uninjured, and the driver of the Jeep had minor injuries.

Sgt. David Wright stated that investigators later learned the man was on parole. Investigators found a 9mm handgun, cocaine and marijuana in the accident debris, and found a substantial amount of cash. The mans name is not being released pending notification of his family.

Capt. Robert Hallisy said a deputy had stopped the driver on the 4300 block of Highway E for a traffic violation. The man had stopped and the deputy had spoken to him, then went back to his squad car for a records check.

He was cooperative when the deputy spoke to him, Hallisy said.

But as the deputy walked back to the Ford to speak to the man again, he fled.

Hallisey said the deputy was following when the man crashed into the semi.

It was immediately apparent that it was a fatal crash, he said.

The sheriffs department was not yet releasing information about the drivers identity.

Ken Deike, the Kenosha News delivery driver, said he was pulling out of a gas station onto E when he saw the Ford crash into the semi. Still shaken an hour after the crash, Deike said, as the badly damaged vehicle sped toward him, he could see the drivers body hanging out the door.

I couldnt look after that, he said.

The Wisconsin State Patrol had an investigator at the scene.

Both Green Bay Road and E were closed as investigators were at the scene and for the cleanup.

It was the second fatal crash during a chase with law enforcement this year. In April, a driver fleeing Kenosha police was killed in a crash at the intersection of Sheridan Road and 52nd Street.

This article has been updated to include a correction.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 16:42:21|Editor: huaxia

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NEW DELHI, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Six members of a family including two children were killed by two brothers over an old rivalry during a clash in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, police said Thursday.

The gruesome incident took place at Maneri village in Mandla district, about 348 km east of Bhopal, the capital city of Madhya Pradesh.

"Yesterday two brothers attacked a family here with sharp-edged weapons, killing six of them on spot," a police official posted in Mandla said. "The victims include two children aged 8 and 10 years."

The police have arrested both the accused.

"The policemen who went to arrest the accused had to open the fire in self-defence," the police official said. "We are investigating the matter."

Preliminary investigations, however, suggested property dispute a reason behind the murders.

Former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Kamal Nath expressed shock over the killings.

"This gruesome crime is condemnable ... Those responsible for maintaining law and order are only going through the motions of 'reviewing it' behind closed doors," Nath wrote on social media. Enditem
On this day, 30 years ago, the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine.

The documents preamble proclaimed "the supremacy, independence, completeness, and indivisibility of the power of the Republic within its territory and independence and equality in foreign relations." Only the Verkhovna Rada could speak on behalf of the Ukrainian people. The territory of Ukraine within the existing borders was declared inviolable. The exclusive right of the Ukrainian people to own, use, and dispose of the national wealth of Ukraine was also underscored.

The Verkhovna Rada also proclaimed the country's right to have its own armed forces, internal troops, and state security agencies. Ukraine undertook a commitment not to proliferate, produce, or build up nuclear weapons. Ukraine's future foreign policy, as defined by the Declaration, was seen as neutral and its priority was to ensure the national interests of Ukraine.

The Declaration created the basis for republican lawmaking, independent from the USSR legislation. However, the adopted document did not receive the status of a constitutional act. Ukraine remained a part of the USSR, so international organizations and countries did not recognize its state independence. The Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR lacked the authority to withdraw from the Soviet Union, i.e. to declare the independence of the Ukrainian SSR. In accordance with the Constitution of the USSR and the Ukrainian SSR, only the people of the Ukrainian SSR had the right to make such a decision on a referendum. The effective norms of international law also obliged the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR to hold a referendum.

The Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine became the basis of the Act of Declaration of the Independence of Ukraine adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on August 24, 1991. On that day, Ukraine was actually proclaimed an independent democratic state for the second time and finally withdrew from the USSR. The country's independence was supported on the nationwide referendum on December 1, 1991.

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Less than a month ago the world was shocked when the temperature in the Arctic Circle reached a record-breaking 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit. While remarkable in its own right, it was merely the exclamation point on an astonishing, prolonged and widespread heat event across all of the Siberian Arctic.

The extreme and unusual warmth in this region alarmed scientists worldwide, prompting a group of 14 scientists from six countries to collaborate in a study to figure how something this out-of-bounds could occur. On Wednesday, the researchers released their findings in a comprehensive climate attribution study, declaring, "This large-scale prolonged event would have been essentially impossible without climate change."

To put it into perspective, the team found that if, hypothetically, you lived in this region before around 1900, when human-caused climate change began to emerge, a heat event this widespread, prolonged and intense would only occur once every 80,000 years  or about once every 1,000 lifetimes.

Firefighters work to extinguish forest fires near the village of Batagay, Sakha Republic, also called Yakutia, in Russia's Siberia region. Freakishly warm weather and dry conditions across large swathes of Siberia have contributed to a resurgence of wildfires in the summer of 2020. / Credit: RUSSIAN EMERGENCY MINISTRY/AFP via Getty Images

The study determined the likelihood of experiencing a regional heat event of this magnitude today, as compared to 1900, is 600 times greater. And even in today's warmer climate, it would only be expected to happen once every 130 years.

"The findings of this rapid research  that climate change increased the chances of the prolonged heat in Siberia by at least 600 times  are truly staggering," said Andrew Ciavarella, the lead author of the research and senior detection and attribution scientist at the U.K. Meteorological Office.

The study examined the role of human-induced climate change in the likelihood and intensity of two specific events: the persistent warmth across the Siberian region from January to June, and the record temperature of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit set at Verkhoyansk, Siberia, on June 20.

Over the first six months of this year, temperatures across the great expanse of Siberia  an area larger than the entire United States  averaged 10 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. The image below shows the study area (outlined in the rectangular box) and above-average temperatures in the orange-red shading, using degrees Celsius.

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/ Credit: Andrew Ciavarella et al.

To illustrate the unusual persistence of the warmth, the visual below, from Arctic climate expert Zack Labe, shows the departures from average temperatures over Siberia for each month from January to June. The darkest shade of red indicates temperatures of 15 degrees Fahrenheit above normal.

Monthly temperature anomalies over Siberia for the first half of 2020. While the 'warmth' has moved around a bit, the persistence is just so striking...[Data from JRA-55 reanalysis] pic.twitter.com/GfX2egeznE

 Zack Labe (@ZLabe) July 8, 2020

To investigate the climate abnormalities, the research team examined both observational surface temperature records and recreated the climate using dozens of climate computer models.

To measure the effect of climate change, the scientists ran computer simulations to compare the climate as it is today with the climate as it would have been in 1900, when there was much less in the way of heat-trapping greenhouse gases and pollution.

On the question of how likely the 100.4-degree record in the town of Verkhoyansk was to occur in June, the study found it to be around a 1-in-140-year event in our current warmed climate, and several thousand times more likely than it would have been early in the Industrial Revolution, before humans substantially warmed the planet.

On the question of how likely a regional heat event of this year's magnitude is, the study found it to be a 1-in-130-year event in today's warmed climate  600 times more likely than it would have been in 1900.

The study also found that from 1900 to 2020, human impact on the climate made the regional heat event approximately 4 degrees Fahrenheit warmer. And it estimates that in the future, if a similar heat wave were to occur three decades from now, in 2050, the intensity could be around 10 degrees Fahrenheit warmer compared to 1900.

"These results show that we are starting to experience extreme events which would have almost no chance of happening without the human footprint on the climate system," explained Professor Sonia Seneviratne, from ETH Zurich. "We have little time left to stabilize global warming at levels at which climate change would remain within the bounds of the Paris Agreement." The results of the study were so dramatic that even one of its most experienced climate attribution authors, Dr Friederike Otto, deputy director of the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford, was surprised.

"It is by far the strongest change in an individual event I have seen compared to everything else I've studied so far," she said.

As a result of the remarkable heat and dryness, 8,000 square miles of Siberia have ignited in wildfires  significantly more fire coverage than last year up to this point. In June alone, these fires spewed 56 megatons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere  more than the yearly emissions of Switzerland. This leads to a dangerous feedback loop in which the extra carbon in the atmosphere further warms the planet.

The extensive heating is also causing another feedback loop in the Arctic by melting sea ice at a prolific rate. Right now, sea ice extent adjacent to Siberia in the Laptev Sea is not only in record decline, it has metaphorically fallen off a cliff.

The extreme event near Siberia continues to unfold - summer 2020 is already a memorable year in the #Arctic... pic.twitter.com/HbRFoG0LRh

 Zack Labe (@ZLabe) July 14, 2020

Disappearing sea ice results in less sunlight being reflected from the light-colored ice back into space; instead, more heat is absorbed by the Earth's exposed, darker surfaces. As a result, the Arctic is warming three times faster than the global average. This phenomenon is called Arctic Amplification.

These drastic changes drive home the degree to which humans have become a force of nature, warming the climate through the burning of fossil fuels that release heat-trapping greenhouse gases and driving extremes previously unimaginable in our history.

Releasing herds of animals into the Arctic could help fight climate change

"We are now seeing events far outside of what our societies are adapted to," said Otto. "Climate change is here now, it is not only a problem for someone else, somewhere else, but heat waves are threatening lives and livelihoods everywhere."

Although she doesn't feel climate change will wipe out the human race entirely, she warns it will lead to dangerous instability and increasingly compromise the most vulnerable: "It exacerbates inequalities and thus is a multiplier of other threats to our societies, as it is always those who are anyway marginalised that pay the highest price."

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Devices fitted to washing machines can prevent the vast majority of microplastic fibres shed from the laundry reaching the oceans, a study has found.

University of Plymouth researchers compared six devices designed to catch microfibres, ranging from prototypes to commercially available products.

The most successful reduced the amount of fibres released into waste water by almost 80 per cent, the research found.

Scroll down for video

Pictured, some of the microscopic fibres captured by filters during the study into the effectiveness of laundry devices

Dr Imogen Napper, from Plymouth University's International Marine Litter Research Unit, said: 'Fibres from clothing are among the key sources of microplastics, and companies are inventing ways which claim to reduce the amount of fibres which enter wastewater.

'We wanted to see how effective they were both in catching fibres, but also stopping clothes from shedding them in the first place.

'Our results show there is a huge variety between the devices available, with some significantly reducing the number of fibres released.'

Campaigners have called for all washing machines in the UK to be fitted with such filters in the same way as France, which is mandating that microfibre filters must be fitted to all devices by 2025.

But in May, a report produced for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) suggested that fitting filters to washing machines could be less effective than changing fabric designs to reduce fibre loss.

Pictured, Dr Imogen Napper analyses some of the microfibres captured in filters as part of the research

Research funded by the National Geographic Society and Sky Ocean Rescue investigated how effective microfibre devices were. They tested each one by washing three different synthetic fabric types to represent a mixed load (pictured)

Microplastic particles are in drinking water, UN report finds Tiny particles of plastic carrying 'biofilms' that could contain disease causing bacteria and which may already be entering our guts have contaminated drinking water supplies around the world, a landmark UN report has warned. The World Health Organization (WHO) has compiled the most comprehensive review to date of the evidence of microplastics - tiny plastic particles measuring less than five millimetres (0.2 inches). Microplastics have hit headlines over recent years, as they have been detected in marine water, wastewater, fresh water, food, air and drinking-water, both bottled and tap water. Last year, WHO examined the potential human health impacts of exposure to microplastics through drinking-water. The study also outlines areas for future research that could shed light on the scale of the problem and what we can do about it. That includes finding out where most microplastic pollution is, where it is coming from, how it may impact human health and what can be done to stop more of these particles from entering our drinking water. Some of the key findings include the revelation that larger microplastic particles, bigger than 150 micrometres, are likely to be passed out of our bodies without harm. Smaller particles could potentially be absorbed into our organs, however. It also suggests microplastics have the potential to both carry disease-causing bacteria and help bacteria become resistant to antibiotics. Advertisement

Research funded by the National Geographic Society and Sky Ocean Rescue investigated how effective microfibre devices were.

They tested each one by washing three different synthetic fabric types to represent a mixed load.

They used a mesh to capture fibres entering wastewater and measured the mass of particles generated without filters, with three in-drum devices and three external filters.

The most effective device, the XFiltra external filter, reduced the quantity of microfibres being released by 78 per cent.

Xeros, the company that makes this specific feature, is in talks with several manufacturers to fit the filter to the washing machines.

It is believed the filter will add about 30 to the cost of a machine.

A washing bag by Fourth Element was the least effective device in the study, reducing microfibres by 21 per cent, the study found.

Professor Richard Thompson, head of the International Marine Litter Research Unit, said: 'Too often, the quest for fast fashion and market pressures means that appropriate environmental considerations are being sacrificed.

'If we are to achieve widespread and lasting change, it is essential for scientists to provide the independent evidence that demonstrates the scale of the problem as well as any potential solutions.

'Some of the devices we tested can undoubtedly reduce the fibres generated through the laundry process, but perhaps the most overarching change would be to design garments to last longer and shed less fibres in the first place.'

The study has been welcomed by the Marine Conservation Society, which recently launched its own Stop Ocean Threads campaign.

Dr Laura Foster, head of clean seas at the charity, said: 'This independent research shows clearly that washing machine fitted filters are the most effective method of preventing microfibre loss from washing clothes.

'We're urging people to sign our petition which will require the filters, by law, in all washing machines from 2024.

'Having all washing machines fitted with filters will make a huge impact on the volume of microfibres polluting our ocean from every wash.

'The clothes we have will continue to shed fibres now and in the many years to come, which means that we need to have filters fitted as well as improvements from the fashion industry.'
Thursday, July 16th, 2020 (8:20 am) - Score 3,831

South Korean tech giant Samsung has published a new White Paper that sets out its aspiration for a future 6th generation (6G) of mobile broadband technology, which among other things targets internet data speeds of 1Tbps (Terabits per second) and latency times of just 100 microseconds. Good luck with that.

We should start by saying that its somewhat of an industry tradition for the R&D of a new mobile technology to start right as the latest standard (5G) begins its first deployments. We saw it with 3G, we saw it again with 4G and now 5G, but this may surprise some people since 5G can harness an extremely wide range of radio spectrum frequencies and that doesnt leave as much room for practical advancement (the key word there being.. practical).

NOTE: 1Tbps = 1000Gbps (Gigabits per second) and 100 microseconds = 0.1ms (milliseconds).

In that sense Samsungs White Paper  6G The Next Hyper Connected Experience for All  contains a predictable excess of hype about benefits for fields like AI technology, truly immersive extended reality (like virtual reality but with more hype), high-fidelity mobile holograms and digital replicas etc. However, well ignore those because, frankly, this stuff always gets overinflated out of all proportion.

At the end of the day 6G is another evolution of mobile networking technology and, right now, thats really all we need to understand. But before we get into that lets just remind ourselves of what the latest 5G networks hope to achieve, eventually, in terms of data speeds and latency.

Existing 5G Performance Targets * Minimum peak data rate target (shared between many users)

 Downlink 20 Gbit/s

 Uplink 10 Gbit/s * Target data rate for the user experienced in Dense Urban (eMBB) areas:

 Downlink 100 Mbit/s

 Uplink 50 Mbit/s NOTE: The target for rural performance is roughly half this. * Minimum requirements for user latency:

 4 ms for eMBB (Enhanced Mobile Broadband, such as in a normal mobile environment)

 1 ms for URLLC (Ultra-reliable and low-latency communications, such as fixed wireless)

Take note that average 5G download speeds in the UK are already achieving around 138Mbps using just a 40-50MHz slice of the 3.4GHz band (example) and thats before more spectrum is released for the technology to use. Suffice to say that theres plenty of room left in the standard for advancement, much as we saw with 4G before it.

By comparison Samsungs tentative design for 6G technology targets a peak downlink data rate of 1000Gbps (1Tbps), a user experienced data rate of 1Gbps (i.e. what you and I should expect), air latency of less than 100 s (microseconds) and end-to-end (E2E) latency of less than 1ms (with these requirements satisfied, the user experienced latency can be less than 10ms, said Samsung).

In short, 6G technology should be incredibly fast and the idea of making 1Gbps speeds somewhat of a normal expectation for end-users is more than a little attractive. In order to achieve this Samsung proposes all sorts of network efficiency improvements, enhanced use of Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM), new antenna designs, mesh networking, improvements to Duplex technology and the idea of harnessing the Terahertz (THz) bands  these sit in the range of 100GHz to 10THz.

At this point anybody familiar with some of 5Gs plans for the use of much higher frequencies around 23GHz to 100GHz will immediately recognise that age old dilemma with the laws of physics vs economic reality. At present only a few 5G networks have harnessed bands above 23GHz, and usually only in busy areas (shopping markets etc.) or for fixed wireless style links, because such signals are extremely weak and thus dont travel as far.

Put another way, you can get a lot of extra spectrum frequency for achieving massive data speeds by going into those higher frequency bands. However, the use cases diminish because, in return, the signal coverage is very poor without investing in a much denser and more complicated network deployment (very expensive). So far mobile operators, particularly in the UK, have shown little desire to go down that path for wide-scale coverage.

The addition of the Terahertz band is thus not a magic fix for extra mobile performance in the real-world, although many of the other improvements that Samsung propose do have plenty of merit.

Sunghyun Choi, Samsungs Head of the Advanced Communications, said: While 5G commercialization is still in its initial stage, its never too early to start preparing for 6G because it typically takes around 10 years from the start of research to commercialization of a new generation of communications technology. Weve already launched the research and development of 6G technologies by building upon the experience and ability we have accumulated from working on multiple generations of communications technology, including 5G. Going forward, we are committed to leading the standardization of 6G in collaboration with various stakeholders across industry, academia and government fields.

The report predicts that the ITU-R will begin early work to construct a standard for 6G in 2021 and this could be completed as early as 2028, with commercial deployments following by around 2030. All of that seems reasonable.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr speaks during a roundtable discussion on "America's seniors" hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., June 15, 2020. (Reuters/Leah Millis)

Barr Slams Hollywood, Big Tech for Kowtowing to Communist China Over Profits

Attorney General William Barr called out corporate America, including Hollywood and big tech, for kowtowing to the regime in Beijing for the sake of profits, in a speech that highlighted the communist regimes threats to U.S. freedom and prosperity.

Hollywood and U.S. technology companies have allowed themselves to become pawns of Chinese influence, Barr said in a speech given at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum Grand Rapids in Michigan on July 16.

For the sake of short-term profits, American companies have succumbed to [Chinese] influence, even at the expense of freedom and openness in the United States.

His remarks come as the Trump administration sharply escalates its rhetoric and actions against the Chinese regime on a wide range of issues, including human rights, espionage, Hong Kong, and its coverup of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus outbreak.

In the past week alone, Washington has sanctioned CCP officials responsible for rights abuses against ethnic minorities in the region of Xinjiang, formally opposed Beijings territorial claims and aggressive actions in the South China Sea, ended Hong Kongs special privileges with the United States following Beijings imposition of a draconian national security law, and signed into law a bill that sanctions officials involved in suppressing freedoms in Hong Kong and the banks that do business with them.

Film Industrys Self-Censorship

Barr pointed to the hypocrisy behind Hollywoods practice of self-censorship in order to secure access to the worlds largest movie market.

Every year at the Academy Awards, Americans are lectured about how this country falls short of Hollywoods ideals of social justice, he said. But Hollywood now regularly censors its own movies to appease the Chinese Communist Partythe worlds most powerful violator of human rights.

For instance, a scene in the zombie blockbuster World War Z was altered to remove the suggestion that the virus that started the apocalypse originated in China, Barr said.

Meanwhile, the film industry is becoming more reliant on Chinese financing, and some U.S. firms have entered into joint ventures with Chinese studios, paving the way for technology and know-how to be transferred to Beijing, the attorney general warned.

PRC [Peoples Republic of China] may be less interested in cooperating with Hollywood, than co-opting Hollywood, and eventually replacing it with its own homegrown movie productions, Barr said.

Americas tech giants have also aided the regime in building surveillance technology and censored their products in exchange for access to the Chinese market, Barr said.

U.S. tech firm Cisco Systems, for instance, helped Beijing build its vast internet censorship and surveillance apparatus known as the Great Firewall, he said. Others, such as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Apple have shown themselves all too willing to collaborate with the CCP, Barr added.

Apple, he said, has removed several apps from its Chinese app store after pressure from Beijing, and moved some of its iCloud data to servers in China, despite concern that it would expose the data to access by the CCP.

Officials at Google, Apple, Yahoo, and Microsoft didnt immediately respond to requests by The Epoch Times for comment.

Co-opting Business Elite

Barr also warned that U.S. business leaders have become the principal targets of Chinese influence operations in the United States. He said the Justice Department has seen an increasing number of cases involving Chinese officials and their proxies reaching out to executives to get them to take actions favorable to the CCP.

Privately pressuring or courting American corporate leaders to promote policies or U.S. politicians presents a significant threat, Barr said. Because hiding behind American voices allows the Chinese government to elevate its influence and put a friendly face on pro-regime policies.

FBI Director Christopher Wray also recently said the Chinese regime has worked hard to co-opt the people closest to U.S. officials its targeting for influence, such as business people and political donors.

Some of these intermediaries may not even realize theyre being used as pawns, because they, too, have been deceived, Wray said at the time.

Actions by Americas business elite who speak for Chinese companies or Beijing may implicate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, Barr said; the law requires those working on behalf of a foreign government or entity to register with the Justice Department.

Appeasing the PRC may bring short-term rewards, Barr said, in a message directed at U.S. business leaders. But in the end, the PRCs goal is to replace you.

The fundamental character of the regime has never changed, as its ruthless crackdown of Hong Kong demonstrates once again. China is no closer to democracy today than it was in 1989 when tanks confronted pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square.
There are many reasons why you would want to move your business abroad. It may be because you want to explore new business opportunities or just because you have more contacts in that particular country.

Fortunately, the Latin American business industry can be a likely option. But before doing so, be sure to do some research on doing business in Latin America.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, 96 percent of consumers live outside the United States. Emerging countries like Latin America, offer the most opportunities because consumers' needs for goods and services increase.

In addition, some countries in Latin America are part of the largest trade bloc in the world. These countries are Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay.

The strong trade market of these countries was further strengthened after Mexico, Chile, and Peru ratified the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) free-trade agreement. Other members of this partnership are Canada, Australia, Brunei, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Vietnam. Latin America also looks promising when it comes to economic growth.

Forbes said that overall Latin American Gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow by 2.6 percent in 2020. This is mainly because of the strong economies in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina.

Latin America houses diverse cultures and residents, which could mean there is a rich talent pool to choose from. But which industry poses a lot of business opportunities?

Latin America Business Sectors

If ever you decided to take your business in Latin America, here are some industries that might need you and your business's service.

As populations in these countries grow, there is also a growing need for reliable and safe roads and bridges. To be competitive in this industry, a development company would need to use sustainable techniques to be competitive. This is because many Latin Americans want to see more sustainable brands.

With growing international trade, there will also be a need for import and export trade consultants. You could provide advice on how to be in the trade industry properly.

The technology sector of Latin America also creates a possible business opportunity. Technological services needed can range from tourism to banking.

Research also said that there is a need for higher education programs in South American economies "to fill the demand for educated citizens."

Many sectors are needing more certified workers who can work in the growing infrastructure, housing, and manufacturing industries. Another business opportunity in the education sector is conducting an online educational platform company.

If consultancy is your biggest strength, you could do as a sustainability consultant. Many Latin Americans are looking for sustainable companies and brands to support.

Under the sustainability consultant, you can advise on energy efficiency. You could consult with homeowners on how renewable energy sources can be more efficient for their appliances and structures.

World Bank Group ranked Mexico as the highest economy in Latin America and the Carribean region. This was followed by Puerto Rico and Colombia.

Moving Your Business

Taking your business to new horizons would require a lot of efforts and resources. May it be in Latin America or other countries, research your target market well before taking a risk.

Gauge how much you could risk to earn your reward.





Check these out:

Etiquette Tips for Successful Business Trips to Latin America



5 Things You Should Know About Doing Business in Latin America



Why You Should Consider Launching Your Tech Startup In Latin America
From the outside looking in, life in the British royal family appears to be full of glitz and glamour. From the fabulous royal weddings to the breathtaking jewels and stunning wardrobe choices, it appears to be a job filled with perks. However, royal life is not as easy as it might appear to be.

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex spoke candidly about the hardships that she faced as an outsider coming into the royal family. Things got so bad for the American actor that she and Prince Harry eventually made the choice to leave the royal family. The princes late mother, Princess Diana also had similar struggles.

At just 19 when she and Prince Charles wed, the princess struggled a great deal in the royal fold. It also took quite a toll on her self-esteem. However, she is now considered the most beautiful royal of all time.

RELATED: How Princess Diana Tried to Deal With Her Own Suffering

Princess Diana struggled with her self-esteem early on in her marriage

When Princess Diana married Prince Charles in 1981, she had no idea what she was getting herself into. The pair had only met in person 13 times, and the prince was still very obviously still in love with his ex-girlfriend, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.

Her bad marriage, feeling ostracized from the royals, and isolated from her own family led the princess down a path of self-harm. One minute I was a nobody, the next minute I was Princess of Wales, mother, media toy, member of the family, and it was just too much for one person to handle, the princess revealed in Andrew Mortons Diana: Her True Story  In Her Own Words.

The princess would self-harm multiple times, once throwing herself down a flight of stairs while pregnant and even slashing her wrist with a knife. The princess was also bulimic and struggled with her appearance.

It was a symptom of what was going on in my marriage, Diana revealed to BBC. I was crying out for help, but giving the wrong signals, and people were using my bulimia as a coat on a hanger: they decided that was the problem  Diana was unstable.

RELATED: Princess Diana Refused to Keep Her Security After She Divorced Prince Charles

Princess Diana had new-found confidence after her divorce from Prince Charles

By 1992, Prince Charless affair with Camilla was exposed to the public. For her part, the revelation was liberating for the princess. Though their divorce would not be finalized until 1996, Princess Diana found her voice and began living her life the way she wanted to.

I do things differently because I dont go by a rulebook; because I lead from the heart, not the head, she told BBCs, Martin Bashir. And albeit, thats got me into trouble in my work, I understand that. But someones got to out there and love people  and show it.

Following her separation from Prince Charles, she was looking forward to a quieter more carefree life. Over the next few months, I will be seeking a more suitable way of combining a meaningful public role with, hopefully, a more private life, she said in 1993 at a benefit lunch for the Headway National Injuries Association.

RELATED: The Destructive Ways Princess Diana Coped With the Pressure of Being Royal

Princess Diana is being called the most beautiful royal of all time

Despite her struggles, Princess Diana is now being touted as the most beautiful royal of all time. Photos of Princess Diana were used in the Golden Ratio of Beauty Phi. The princess garnered a score of 89% out of 100%.

Queen Rania of Jordan is the most beautiful living royal with a rating of 88.9%. Meanwhile, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge has scores of 87.4% and 86.8% respectively. Diana scored highly for her face shape, the width of her nose, her brow area and her eyebrows. Her lowest scores were for her chin and lips, facial cosmetic surgeon Dr. Julian De Silva explained.

Its interesting that it took the late princess so long to see herself for who she truly was.
ALBANY  Albany County officials said five more people were infected with coronavirus as a result of attending a July 4 street party on Hudson Avenue.

The new cases revealed Thursday increased to 11 the number of people who contracted the virus after attending the block party, which drew about 200 college-aged people.

On Wednesday, the county expressed concern after it received 44 new positive cases, which was the largest daily increase in confirmed infections since May 20.

On Wednesday, the Capital Region had the highest percent of tests that came back positive - 2.1% - of all regions in New York. New York City, in comparison, had 1.3% of people test positive.

But the overall new case count was much lower Thursday, with 13 new cases in Albany County - five of which where from the block party.

In an example of how coronavirus statistics can swing wildly, the region went back to having one of the lowest percent positive rates Thursday at 0.8%. The state rate was slightly more, at 1.06% of all tests done coming back positive.

Still, elected officials across the Capital Region are viewing any uptick in cases with caution. On Thursday, Warren County found a sixth case of someone who appeared to contract coronavirus from a July 4th weekend camping get-together that is believed to have happened in Saratoga County.

Meanwhile, Albany County leaders pleaded with party-goers from the Hudson Avenue celebration to get tested.

"We would like to encourage anyone who was at that party to be tested and contact Albany County Department of Health at 518-447-4640," said Albany County Health Commissioner Dr. Elizabeth Whalen. "Its very important for control of COVID for us to be able to identify and appropriately isolate individuals who test positive as quickly as possible - especially because we know people in that age group are asymptomatic. Knowing youre positive empowers you to make positive decisions."

RELATED: Have you been tested for COVID-19? Tell us about it.

Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan weighed in on Twitter after the Albany County press conference, saying: "Our entire city, county, and region has worked very hard over the last several months to limit the impacts of COVID, however we cannot continue on the trajectory we are on or we will quickly undo that work."

"Mask up or close down (again) - its as simple as that," Sheehan wrote.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Coronavirus has been most prevalent in Albany County among people aged 20-29, a group that often shows no signs of the virus and can easily spread it to others, including sick and elderly people who are particularly vulnerable.

Whalen said officials worry that the party cases will eventually spread to at-risk people, which could lead to increased hospitalizations. During Schenectady County's weekly Facebook live press conference, County Manager Rory Fluman reminded residents that "COVID is a disease of opportunity" as 95% of the 40 people who have died there have been over the age of 70.

'You don't want someone who is quite ill to say you were the contact," Whalen said. "Please think of others."

Albany County also announced four health care workers tested positive for the virus, including two staffers from the county's nursing home, Shaker Place in Colonie.

Overall, cases in nursing home are coming back in the Capital Region after a lull of several weeks. Riverside Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Castleton-on-Hudson has had 34 residents test positive for virus recently, along with 11 staff members. Four other health care workers in Rensselaer County at Living Resources and Evergreen Commons also tested positive Tuesday.
Actor Tejasswi Prakash, who was recently seen on Rohit Shettys Khatron Ke Khiladi Fear Factor, has claimed she is not as childish and silly as she appeared on the reality show.

Speaking with Times of India, Tejasswi said, I was the youngest among everyone there, so I behaved in a particular manner, which probably came across as childish and silly. But Im not that way in real life. My friends are quite surprised and they tell me that people should know how mature you are in real life. Of course, I enjoyed portraying that childlike side of mine, so I have no regrets. Im glad I did Khatron Ke Khiladi. So far people knew me more by my character names, but with Khatron Ke Khiladi, they now know me as Tejasswi.

Asked if shed participate in Salman Khans reality show Bigg Boss, the actor told the daily, Not really. I have been offered Bigg Boss for the quite a few times. I think the first time I got the offer was when I was doing Swaragini. This year too I was offered the show, but right now, I would like to take up a fiction show. You have to do what you are here to do, which is acting. Im primarily an actress. Of course, as they say, never say never. But, if given a choice, a fiction show is what I would like to do right now.

Also read: 17 titles to arrive on Netflix soon, showcase first looks in sizzle reel

Tejasswi had earlier told Hindustan Times that the finale episode for Khatron Ke Khiladi will be shot from July 15. Were told that theyre planning to go on floors tentatively on July 15. I dont have any apprehensions in going back to work because I know the team will take care of our safety, she had said. However, Karan Patel recently said that the shoot will begin July 20.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

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Guwahati, July 16 : In the wake of rising COVID-19 cases, the Assam government would soon launch a mega drive to boost its plasma bank reserves for the treatment of coronavirus positive patients, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Thursday.

Sarma said that the state government would launch a nationwide campaign and would take all out initiatives to encourage the people to voluntarily donate the plasma to save the lives of the people infected by coronavirus." Plasma therapy has been found to be very effective in the US and other countries. If any people staying outside the state and kin to donate plasma, the government would bear their travel and accomodation expenditure.

Displaying their exemplary dedication, some doctors in Assam while doing treatment to the COVID-19 patients, become infected with the virus and after being recovered from the disease, voluntarily donated their plasma to save the lives of the people contaminated by the coronavirus.

"One people by donating their plasma can save the lives of at least two people," the Minister told the media.

Plasma bank started in Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) earlier this month and six centres of the bank are working in the six medical colleges across the state.

A doctor, who was recently recovered from the dreaded disease, first donated his plasma followed by other doctors and some other people.

He said that as part of the state government's aggressive treatment in consultation with premier and prominent health institutions of India including All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi, the doctors in Assam have administered various available therapy and medicines including COVID-19 drug Remdesivir and oxygen therapy.

Sarma said that to tame the rising spike of the COVID-19 cases in Assam's main city of Guwahati, the health authorities have taken steps for conducting three lakh tests in the city and already 1.10 lakh tests were done.

The state government has extended the "total lockdown" in the Kamrup (Metro) district, for one more week till July 19, after the 14-day shutdown ended on Sunday. With a population of 11.20 lakh, the Guwahati city is the district headquarters of the Kamrup (Metro) district and main commercial hub of the northeastern region.

Of the total of Assam's 19,754 COVID-19 positive cases so far, over 8,500 cases found alone in the Kamrup (Metro) district. Assam has 33 districts. Of the 50 deaths due to the corinavirus in Assam so far, 25 deaths took place in the Kamrup (Metro) district.

The Health Minister said that Assam has so far conducted 601,385 tests in 13 laboratories and the testing ratio would be increased to a large extent with the setting up of the six more labs. With the testing of 17,800 samples per million, Assam stands fourth among the major states in the country after Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

In Assam, out of the total 19,754 COVID-19 positive patients so far, 13,554 have recovered and on late Thursday night there were 6,147 active cases.
A federal judge has denied the Dustin Honkens requests to delay his execution (Tim Hynds/Sioux City Journal/AP)

A ruthless Iowa meth kingpin who killed five people, including two young girls, in 1993 in a bid to thwart his prosecution for drug trafficking is to become the third federal inmate to be executed this week.

Dustin Honken, 52, would become the first Iowa defendant to be put to death since 1963 if he is executed as scheduled on Friday.

Iowa abolished the death penalty in 1965 but federal prosecutors sought to execute Honken for killing US Government informants and children.

Expand Close Dustin Honken, pictured in 2005, has had appeals to delay his execution denied (Cliff Jette/The Gazette/AP) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Dustin Honken, pictured in 2005, has had appeals to delay his execution denied (Cliff Jette/The Gazette/AP)

Honken is set to die by lethal injection at the prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he has been on death row since 2005 and two other men have been put to death since Tuesday after a 17-year hiatus in federal executions.

His appeals to delay the execution have so far been denied.

Lori Duncan, her new boyfriend Greg Nicholson and her daughters were kidnapped and killed by Honken and his girlfriend in 1993, seven years before their bodies were found.

Susan Torres, 54, who was Ms Duncans sister-in-law and aunt to 10-year-old Kandi and six-year-old Amber, said of Honken: He does deserve what hes getting. I can tell you that. He deserved it a long time ago.

Ms Torres, of Des Moines, Iowa, plans to attend the execution with other victims relatives.

I am not going to lose any sleep if he is executed Prosecuting judge Mark Bennett

Mark Bennett, the federal judge who oversaw Honkens trial, said he generally opposes the death penalty but if anyone deserves to be executed, it is Honken.

He said Honkens crimes were reprehensible and he had a fair legal process, including talented lawyers who did an outstanding job with virtually nothing to work with.

I am not going to lose any sleep if he is executed, said Mr Bennett, who has since retired from the bench.

Normally I would but the evidence was so overwhelming.

Mr Nicholson, who was one of Honkens dealers, began co-operating with investigators in 1993 after coming under suspicion.

Honken was arrested and indicted for conspiring to manufacture meth after Mr Nicholson secretly recorded him and testified before a grand jury.

The kingpin informed the court he would plead guilty but days before his July 1993 plea hearing, he and his girlfriend, Angela Johnson, went searching for Mr Nicholson.

They found him at the home where he had moved in with Ms Duncan and her daughters.

Greg Nicholson

His partner Lori Duncan

Her 10-year-old daughter Kandi

Six-year-old Amber Duncan

Dealer Terry DeGeus

Honken forced Mr Nicholson, 34, to record a statement declaring him innocent of the drug charges.

Mr Nicholson and the Duncans were taken to a remote area, fatally shot and buried.

Honken withdrew his guilty plea and gave his lawyer the videotape of Mr Nicholson.

As the investigation into Honken continued, his other dealer, 32-year-old Terry DeGeus, disappeared months after Mr Nicholson and the Duncans.

Johnson lured Mr DeGeus, whom she dated before Honken, to a property where the kingpin beat him with a bat and shot him.

Investigators found the bodies of Mr Nicholson and the Duncans in 2000 in a wooded area outside Mason City.

The adults had been bound and gagged and shot multiple times. The girls had each been shot once in the back of the head.

Mr DeGeus body was found a few miles away, his skull fractured.

Honken was convicted of the killings in 2004 in a trial that featured extraordinary security measures, including an anonymous jury.

He was bolted to the floor of the courtroom and forced to wear a stun belt under his clothing to prevent escape attempts.

The jury recommended Honken be put to death for killing the girls and Mr Bennett agreed.

Johnson was convicted in a separate trial and sentenced to death.

Mr Bennett later reduced her punishment to life behind bars, which she is serving at a federal prison in Minnesota.
Brasilia, July 16 : Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro confirmed that he has once again tested positive for the novel coronavirus, roughly a week after he contracted the virus.

"We hope that in the next few days, they will give me a new test and, everything will be fine so that we can return to normal activity," Xinhua news agency quoted the President as saying in a live Facebook broadcast on Wednesday.

Bolsonaro, who repeatedly played down the risks posed by the virus which he termed "a little flu" and asserting that he would not be seriously affected by it, said he would get tested again in a few days.

In a statement, the communication secretariat of the presidency said that Bolsonaro was currently staying at the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia, "and continues to be accompanied by the medical team".

According to the statement, the latest test was carried out on Tuesday morning and the result came out at night.

On July 7, Bolsonaro announced that after developing a fever and general discomfort, he tested positive for COVID-19 at the Brazilian Armed Forces Hospital.

Bolsonaro is 65 years old, making him part of an age group experts consider to be at high risk for developing complications from the disease.

Brazil currently accounts for the second highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the world at 1,966,748 and 75,366, respectively, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

Despite the rising numbers, Bolsonaro has argued that regional lockdowns werehaving a more damaging effect than the virus itself, and accused the media of spreading panic and paranoia.
New Delhi: Deepak Paliwal, a UK citizen of Indian-origin has volunteered for the second phase of human trial for coronavirus vaccine led by the Oxford University.

The 42-year old says that he had always wanted to do something for greater human good and when he came to know that the Phase 2 clinical trials of Corona vaccine developed by Oxford University were taking place, he decided to participate in it.

Deepak, who works as a consultant in a pharma company in London, told Zee Media that despite knowing that the human trials of the vaccine could put his life in danger, he went ahead for the test.

Deepak's mother Shail Kumari told Zee Media, "We came to know about it when Deepak's news came in the media. He might have decided to not share the news with us thinking it might scare us. After the completion of the trails he informed us about it. I am proud of Deepak. "

No vaccine till date has been approved for commercial use to contain the novel coronavirus, but over a dozen vaccines from COVID-19 vaccine candidate are being tested in humans.

On Wednesday (July 15), the Russian defence ministry had announced that it had succeeded in developing a "safe" coronavirus vaccine following clinical trials on a group of volunteers. According to Russian defence ministry, 18 people had participated in the research and were discharged without "serious adverse events, health complaints, complications or side effects".

US-based pharma giant Moderna Inc said on Tuesday that it is planning to start a late stage clinical trial for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate on or around July 27. Moderna is planning to conduct the trial at 87 study locations across the US.

US government researchers said on Tuesday that the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Moderna Inc produced antibodies to the coronavirus in all patients who participated in an initial safety trial,

Indian pharma major Zydus announced on Wednesday that it has started human studies for its COVID-19 vaccine. Zydus is set to include over 1,000 subjects for human trials across multiple clinical study sites in India.
KEY FACTS 2:30 p.m. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal, provincial and territorial governments have reached a deal on billions of dollars in transfers to continue reopening economies amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

11:10 a.m. Canadas ethics commissioner has opened an investigation into Finance Minister Bill Morneau over WE controversy.

9:45 a.m. Russian hackers are targeting Canadian, U.S. and U.K. organizations working on COVID-19 vaccine research and recovery efforts.

The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Thursday. This file is no longer updating. Click here to read the latest coverage. Web links to longer stories if available.

5 p.m. Ontarios regional health units are reporting a total of 39,187 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19, including 2,776 deaths, a jump of 125 reported infections, according to the Stars latest count.

The rate of new infections in Ontario has fallen sharply over the last two months and has continued to fall so far in July. Over the last seven days, the provinces 34 health units have reported an average of 119 new infections per day, well down from a sustained peak of nearly 600 cases per day, seen in late April.

Thursdays total once again included a daily tally from Toronto as the city resumed publishing a daily afternoon case count via the Toronto Public Health Twitter account.

The city saw just 28 new infections Thursday, well below the recent average.

Meanwhile, another six new fatal cases were reported in the last 24 hours, four in Toronto and two in Peel Region. During the worst of the provinces outbreak, the health units reported as many as 94 deaths in a single day.

Earlier, the province reported 107 patients are hospitalized with COVID-19, including 26 in an intensive care unit, of whom 20 are on a ventilator. These numbers are, themselves, near the lowest the Province has reported since first publishing hospitalization data in early April.

The Province says its data is accurate to 4 p.m. the previous day. It cautions its latest count of total deaths, 2,737, may be incomplete or out of date due to delays in the reporting system. In the event of a discrepancy, data reported by (the health units) should be considered the most up to date.

The Stars count includes some patients reported as probable COVID-19 cases. This means they have symptoms and contacts or travel history that indicate they very likely have the disease, but have not yet received a positive lab test.

3:44 p.m. The Toronto Blue Jays have received Provincial government clearance to play home games at Rogers Centre this summer, the Stars Laura Armstrong confirms, but await Federal approval on border crossings of players, staff.

3:04 p.m. Nova Scotias education minister says the province is planning to reopen public schools at normal capacity and with a full curriculum this fall.

However, Zach Churchill said Thursday if theres a resurgence of COVID-19, class capacity will be cut by anywhere from 50 per cent to full school closures.

He said his department consulted the teachers union and experts on childrens health and surveyed 28,000 parents and students before making the decision.

Full details of the return plan are expected next Wednesday.

2:54 p.m. Tesla is trying to assure its 55,000 employees that there hasnt been a big coronavirus outbreak at company facilities worldwide, despite a report by an electric vehicle industry website that over 130 Tesla employees or contractors have tested positive.

In an email to workers Wednesday night, the company said that since January it has had fewer than 10 cases of the virus that causes COVID-19 that were transmitted in the workplace.

But the email from Laurie Shelby, Teslas vice-president of environmental, safety and health, also confirmed reports that Tesla is looking into more than 130 positive tests among employees, including those who contracted the virus outside of Tesla facilities. She said less than 0.25% of employees worldwide have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, which equals just over 137 workers.

Her message came in response to a report by Electrek.co that over 130 Tesla employees or contractors have tested positive, and hundreds more are waiting for test results. The website said it based the report on internal company data.

2:51 p.m. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson issued an order Thursday requiring people to wear face masks in public throughout the state, which has had a surge in coronavirus cases over the past several weeks.

The Republican governor had resisted a statewide mask mandate and opposed issuing a stay-at-home order earlier in the pandemic, but he signed the order requiring masks when social distancing isnt possible in the hopes of slowing the diseases rapid spread in the state. The order takes effect Monday.

2:46 p.m. Quebec Premier Francois Legault says he is optimistic an agreement can be reached to allow Quebecers living near the border with New Brunswick to cross into the Maritime province.

Legault told reporters during a stop today in the Gaspe region of eastern Quebec the two provinces are in talks almost daily, including discussions between him and New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs.

He says he understands the apprehension about welcoming Quebecers in provinces that have not been hit as hard by COVID-19 but notes that Gaspe, which borders New Brunswick to the north, has had few cases.

Legault says he has sensed an openness from the New Brunswick government to create a bubble that would allow Quebecers living near the border to enter New Brunswick for shopping or visits.

Higgs said in a statement Wednesday the province is looking at various options to allow some travel into New Brunswick for those who live close to the border.

Quebecers living across the border have been lobbying for access to Campbellton in northern New Brunswick, where before the pandemic they would often go to shop and receive services.

It is possible we could expand the bubble to include the Gaspe and other regions of Quebec, Higgs said, but any decision will be based on an assessment of public health risks.

2:30 p.m. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal, provincial and territorial governments have reached a deal on billions of dollars in transfers to continue reopening economies amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

He says the federal government will contribute $19 billion to the effort.

The money is to help the lower-tier governments with needs such as funding child care, bailing out cities whose expenses have soared and revenues plunged, increasing contact-tracing capacity, and buying personal protective equipment.

The pandemic is a health crisis, but Trudeau says it has a deep economic dimension.

He says workers cant work if their children dont have safe care, and many cant get to their jobs if they dont have access to safe transit systems.

That means funding needed services better so they dont have to rely on crowding many people into small spaces for their finances to make sense.

Trudeau confirms Canada-U.S. border will remain closed till later in August.

2:28 p.m. Since late May, three months after Brazils first reported case of the coronavirus, it has recorded more than 1,000 daily deaths on average in a gruesome plateau that has yet to tilt downward.

The country hit at least 75,000 confirmed deaths Wednesday and is expected to report 2 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 by Thursday evening.

Even as cases wane somewhat in the biggest and hardest-hit Brazilian cities, the virus is peaking in new locations across the largest country in Latin America.

Experts blame denial of the virus deadly potential by President Jair Bolsonaro and lack of national co-ordination combined with scattershot responses by city and state governments, with some reopening earlier than health experts recommended.

An interim health minister untrained in the field is presiding over pandemic response. Bolsonaro himself is sick with COVID-19 after repeatedly flouting social distance recommendations and undermining local leaders restrictions on activity.

Brazils roughly 7,000 COVID-19 deaths in each of the last seven weeks is equal to several airplanes packed with Brazilians crashing every day, former health minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta told The Associated Press.

2:17 p.m. Peel police have charged a Mississauga man following a hate incident after he was allegedly caught on viral video making a racist tirade against grocery store employees who had asked him to wear a mask.

Police said the incident occurred after the man went to a T&T supermarket near Central Parkway West and Grand Park Drive on July 5.

While there, police said employees asked the man to put on a face covering, which is the stores policy.

In a video of the incident that went viral, a man can be seen becoming agitated. In it, he says he has asthma and yells at an employee to go back to China as the worker repeatedly responds that hes Canadian.

In a news release, police confirmed that John McCash, 48, had turned himself in to police on Thursday.

Read the full story: Police charge Mississauga man after viral video shows racist rant in supermarket mask dispute

2:15 p.m. At least 20 flights travelling through Toronto were found to have passengers with COVID-19, according to reports shared by the federal government.

The flights ran between July 1 and July 9. Twelve of the flights landed in Toronto from cities in the U.S, Ethiopia, Germany, Mexico, Switzerland, and Pakistan, while the other eight were within Canada, and between Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, and Regina.

The cases being shared online are not exhaustive, the federal government warned, and were mainly put together based on reports from provincial, territorial health, and international authorities.

Read the full story, including the list of flights here: 20 Toronto flights in July had cases of COVID-19, federal government says

2 p.m. New York, once the epicenter of the U.S.s coronavirus outbreak, has a message for the rest of America: Wear a mask.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo launched a national ad campaign Thursday to urge Americans to wear face coverings in public to stop the spread of the virus.

The campaign, titled Mask Up America, was co-produced by Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow and features celebrities such as Robert De Niro, Jamie Foxx, Rosie Perez and Ellen Pompeo.

We want to be sure all Americans know what we know here  that it is essential to wear a mask in order to protect one another, Cuomo said in a statement.

1:49 p.m. The top doctor for Ontarios Windsor-Essex region said Thursday progress is being made to bring COVID-19 outbreaks on local farms under control, as Premier Doug Ford toured the hard hit region.

Dr. Wajid Ahmed said approximately 150 workers in the region have active cases of the virus, down from over 300 weeks earlier.

The health unit reported that another 11 agri-food workers tested positive for the virus on Thursday.

I think thats definitely an improvement from where we were, he said. But the challenge is the unique nature of the industry ... and the congregate living setting that we are talking about.

Farms in Windsor-Essex have been hit hard by COVID-19, with five currently in outbreak. Two local workers have died from the illness.

Migrant workers work and live in close quarters, which advocates say makes physical distancing hard and has led to the rapid spread of the virus on farms.

The farm outbreaks delayed the economic reopening in the Windsor-Essex region, particularly in the towns of Leamington and Kingsville, which were the final two communities to reach Stage 2 last week. The region be one of 10 left behind as the rest of the province advances to Stage 3 on Friday.

Ford toured the area Thursday morning, stopping in to get his first haircut in months at a barbershop in Leamington, Ont. He was scheduled to meet with some local politicians and farmers.

1:44 p.m. Spain has recorded 580 coronavirus infections, the highest daily increase in nearly two months.

Some counties and cities are under new restrictions and officials are urging the mandatory use of masks.

The daily infection figure Thursday is up from 390 infections reported the previous day. Spain has currently 158 active outbreaks, according to Spains health emergency co-ordinationcentre director Fernando Simon.

The northeastern powerhouse of Barcelona is where most of Catalonias new 1,300 infections have been identified according to the regions health department.

By Thursday, 12 of Spains 17 autonomous regions had approved mandatory use of masks outdoors and regardless of whether social distancing of 1.5 metres (5 feet) can be maintained.

Since the start of the pandemic, at least 258,000 people have tested positive and 28,416 have died.

1:44 p.m. British authorities say the city of Leicester will remain under local lockdown for at least two more weeks because coronavirus infection rates remain much higher than in the rest of the country.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock says schools and some non-essential shops can open. But restrictions remain on social gatherings, the closure of pubs, cafes and restaurants and a ban on leisure travel.

The city of 330,000 in central England was placed into lockdown two weeks ago when infection rate hit 135 cases per 100,000 people, three times the next-highest part of the country.

Hancock says the rate had fallen to 119 cases per 100,000, but there is still a lot to do and thanked people for their perseverance in staying locked down.

Leicester Mayor Peter Soulsby has urged the government to lift the lockdown for much of Leicester, saying postcode data shows infections are concentrated in inner-city areas or 10% of the city.

1:41 p.m. Israels prime minister said Thursday he is meeting with senior officials to discuss interim steps to try and contain a coronavirus surge without having the country return to a general lockdown as the number of new cases reaches record levels.

Large demonstrations have erupted in recent days over Benjamin Netanyahus handling of the pandemic. Adding to his troubles, a new economic bailout plan announced by the embattled premier came under tough criticism from some of the governments top economic experts.

Netanyahu garnered widespread praise after Israel appeared to have largely contained its outbreak by late May, following a two-month lockdown. But within weeks of most restrictions being lifted, the number of new cases began to soar, marking a dramatic turnaround for the prime minister.

With over 20% unemployment, the pandemics economic impact is generating domestic unrest and Netanyahus approval rating is plummeting.

Later Thursday, hundreds of protesters gathered outside Netanyahus official residence in Jerusalem to protest against corruption and vent their anger at the economic downtown.

1:09 p.m. Quebec Premier Francois Legault said Thursday he is concerned by the rise in COVID-19 infections as the province reported the highest single-day increase in confirmed cases since mid-June.

Legault said the provinces director of public health is analyzing the situation and will make a recommendation soon about whether to close bars and nightclubs following a recent string of outbreaks in the Montreal area linked to those venues.

At this moment, we havent ruled out closing the bars, Legault told reporters in Carleton, Que., in the Gaspesie region.

Quebec reported 142 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday  the largest single-day increase since June 12  and 10 new deaths, nine of which occurred in the past 24 hours. The province has now reported a total of 57,001 COVID-19 cases and 5,646 deaths since the pandemic began.

12:53 p.m. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says Canada and the United States have agreed to extend their mutual ban on non-essential travel between the two countries until Aug. 20.

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf confirmed the news in a tweet earlier today.

The Canada-U.S. border has been closed to so-called discretionary travel like vacations and shopping trips since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold of the continent in mid-March, an agreement that had been set to expire July 21.

The extension comes with COVID-19 resurgent across the U.S.  cases are on the rise in all 50 states, and southern states like Florida, Arizona and California are facing a fresh crisis with overcrowded hospital wards, refrigerated truck trailers serving as makeshift morgues and another shortage of personal protective medical gear.

12:45 p.m. Florida got a nasty one-two punch of coronavirus news on Thursday: The state reported 156 more deaths and 13,965 more COVID-19 cases.

The state has never reported more fatalities on a daily pandemic report before, and theres only been one other day with more infections. Also troubling are reports showing that hospitalizations for the disease are soaring by the hundreds each day.

This dismal accounting came a day after Florida topped 300,000 cases, and continued a trajectory that has South Florida leaders fearful of imposing more restrictions on residents.

Floridas all-time high for cases in a day is 15,300, which happened Sunday.

Almost 4,700 Floridians have died from COVID-19 complications, and half of the deaths occurred in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties, according to the state Department of Health.

12:45 p.m. Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan says the government will extend the large-scale social restrictions for the coronavirus because of an increase in hospitalizations.

It will be very risky if we loosen the first phase of large-scale social restrictions to the second phase, Baswedan said.

Baswedan says the local government is postponing the opening of some public spaces in Jakarta, including movie theatres and other indoor entertainment centres expected to open later this month. Hell wait until the data shows a better trend.

The local government imposed large-scale social restrictions in Indonesias capital city on April 10, lifting some restrictions on June 10.

In Jakarta, there were 713 confirmed deaths and a total of 15,636 cases reported on Thursday. The Indonesian government announced 1,574 new cases in Indonesia, bringing the total to 81,668.

The National Task Force for COVID-19 Mitigation reported 76 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the confirmed total death toll to 3,873.

12:45 p.m. Serbias prime minister says the coronavirus spike was caused by large protests about the governments handling of the crisis.

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic says the increase in COVID-19 cases in the country is a direct consequence of the protest gatherings. However, she provided no numbers for the capital of Belgrade or other Serbian cities where sometimes violent protests erupted more than a week ago.

The protests initially started July 7 when Serbias president announced Belgrade would be placed under a three-day lockdown following a second wave of confirmed coronavirus infections.

The demonstrations continued despite President Aleksandar Vucic suspending his plan to enforce the lockdown. Instead, the government banned gatherings of more than 10 people and required masks indoors.

Brnabic says Serbia has reported 383 new cases and 13 confirmed deaths in the past 24 hours. The national total is more than 19,700 cases and 442 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

12:40 p.m. A finance committee will begin questioning government officials on Thursday about their role in a WE Charity agreement which has caused a political fallout and an ethics investigation into Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus and Finance Minister Bill Morneaus family ties to the group.

The first person to testify about the WE ordeal in front of the parliamentary finance committee will be Bardish Chagger, Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth, with high-ranking public servants expected to follow.

It marks the publics first official look at an inquiry into the agreement the government made with WE, announced several weeks ago, that allowed the charity to administer a $900-million summer student grant program.

Afterward, Trudeau, whose mother and brother received a combined $282,000 in speaking fees from the group between 2016 and 2020 from WE, and Morneau, whose daughter works for the group, apologized for not recusing themselves from discussions around the agreement.

Follow live coverage from the Stars Kieran Leavitt beginning at 3 p.m.

12:25 p.m. Mayors in Atlanta and other Georgia cities deepened their defiance of Gov. Brian Kemp on Thursday, saying they want their requirements for people to wear masks in public to remain in place, even after the Republican governor explicitly forbade cities and counties from mandating face coverings.

Officials in at least 15 Georgia cities and counties, including Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, had ordered masks during the coronavirus pandemic, and many are venting outrage at Kemp swatting down their efforts.

The mayors order remains in effect, as science and data will continue to drive the citys decisions, Michael Smith, a spokesperson for Bottoms, wrote in a text. Masks save lives.

Kemp doesnt disagree, saying he strongly supports mask-wearing to combat the spread of COVID-19 infections. He travelled the state earlier this month to encourage face coverings. But he has maintained for weeks that cities and counties dont have the power to require masks in public places, saying no local order can be more or less restrictive than his statewide mandates.

12:14 p.m. Target has joined a list of the U.S.s largest retailers that will require customers to wear masks as cases of COVID-19 spike.

The policy will go into effect Aug. 1. More than 80% of Targets 1,800 stores already require customers to wear masks due to local and state regulations.

Target said Thursday that it will hand out masks at entrances to those who need them.

The U.S.s largest retailer, Walmart, announced this week that masks would be mandatory in all stores starting Monday.

Starbucks, Best Buy, Kohls and Kroger Co. also have put mandatory face shield rules in place.

11:59 a.m. New York City will ease the burden on working parents by providing 100,000 child care slots for youngsters who will only be in their physical schoolrooms two or three days a week under the citys hybrid back-to-school plan, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday.

De Blasio said that for parents who need to report to their workplaces, the child care will make all the difference in the world. And heres where the can-do spirit of this city comes in.

The Democratic mayor announced earlier this month that under coronavirus-safety protocols, most of the citys 1.1 million public school students will be in their physical classrooms only part of the week when school starts in September. Students will learn remotely the rest of the time under the plan, which is subject to approval by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The plan offers a contrast to districts like Los Angeles and San Diego that have announced that no students will be in classrooms when school starts.

11:50 a.m. An unmasked man pulled a gun on a masked shopper and threatened to kill him during an apparent confrontation over masks at a Florida Walmart store, sheriffs officials said.

The Royal Palm Beach stores security video shows the unmasked man pushing an older man in a wheelchair through the store on Saturday afternoon, the Palm Beach County Sheriffs Office said in a Facebook post. Sheriffs officials said they have identified the man, who is co-operating with detectives. They have not released his name.

The man in the wheelchair pulled a red neckerchief over his mouth in the store.

The video shows a shopper wearing a mask approach the pair and exchange words. Thats when the unmasked man gives the shopper the middle finger before pulling a handgun from his waistband, the sheriffs office said. The unmasked man made a death threat before leaving the store.

In the video, a young girl reaches for the masked mans hand to pull him away. Another person is seen trying to intervene.

The man then pushes the wheelchair to the parking lot and the pair left in a white Chevrolet Equinox SUV, sheriffs officials said.

No one was injured during the dispute, officials said.

Investigators are searching for the gunman. An investigation continues.

11:42 a.m. Police on Thursday arrested at least 11 protesters who tried to block buses from picking up Detroit students, the fourth day of demonstrations against voluntary summer classes during the coronavirus outbreak.

The Detroit school district this week began offering online or in-person instruction to students. Students and teachers must wear masks, and class sizes are smaller to reduce virus risk.

But a group of people has appeared each day to protest the program, saying officials are putting people at risk. A lawsuit has also been filed.

We are out here to prevent the spread of a deadly disease in our schools, to prevent that from spreading from the schools back into the community, said teacher and protester Benjamin Royal.

Eleven people were repeatedly warned before they were arrested for blocking operations at the bus company, police Commander Arnold Williams said.

There were 630 students in classrooms Wednesday and 1,100 more participating online, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said. Most students dont ride buses to get to one of the two dozen schools.

We are staying focused on what matters: serving children and their families and adjusting to the new normal with COVID, Vitti said on Twitter.

11:33 a.m. Quebec is reporting 142 new cases of COVID-19  the largest single-day increase in more than one month.

The province has now reported a total of 57,001 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began.

Public health authorities announced ten more deaths today attributed to the novel coronavirus, nine of which occurred in the past 24 hours while one occurred before July 8, for a total of 5,646.

The rise in cases comes as the province tries to bolster its testing capacity in Montreal after a series of COVID outbreaks at bars in the city.

Authorities last weekend asked anyone who had gone to a Montreal-area bar since July 1 to get tested.

11:26 a.m. Civil liberties activists say granting police access to the personal information of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 violates their rights.

To stop the practice, several groups are asking Ontarios courts to put an end to the information sharing.

They argue the practice violates privacy and equality rights, has no legal basis, and will unfairly target Black, Indigenous and other marginalized groups.

The provincial government passed the emergency order in April.

It allows police and other first responders to get the names, addresses and birth dates of anyone testing positive for the novel coronavirus.

The government has said the measure is needed to protect the front-line workers from COVID-19.

11:22 a.m. Police on Thursday arrested at least 11 protesters who tried to block buses from picking up Detroit students, the fourth day of demonstrations against voluntary summer classes during the coronavirus outbreak.

The Detroit school district this week began offering online or in-person instruction to students. Students and teachers must wear masks, and class sizes are smaller to reduce virus risk.

But a group of people has appeared each day to protest the program, saying officials are putting people at risk. A lawsuit has also been filed.

We are out here to prevent the spread of a deadly disease in our schools, to prevent that from spreading from the schools back into the community, teacher and protester Benjamin Royal said outside a bus yard.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said there were 630 students in classrooms Wednesday and 1,100 more participating online. Most students dont ride buses to get to one of the two dozen schools.

We are staying focused on what matters: serving children and their families and adjusting to the new normal with COVID, Vitti said on Twitter.

11:21 a.m. The Ontario government has extended most COVID-19 emergency orders currently in force under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act until July 29.

(Updated) 11:10 a.m. Finance Minister Bill Morneau is facing an ethics investigation over the federal cabinets decision to award a $19.5-million contract to WE Charity.

Morneaus daughter, Grace Acan, works with the charity. Another daughter, Clare Morneau, has appeared at WE Day events and had her book blurbed by charity co-founder Marc Kielburger, although Morneaus office says she was not compensated for her involvement with WE.

Despite the family ties, Morneau participated in a cabinet discussion and decision to award the international charity a $19.5-million contract to administer the Canada Student Service Grant, a $900-million program aimed at compensating students for volunteering during COVID-19.

Morneau has since apologized, and the Liberal government and WE Charity have abandoned the deal.

Read the full story from the Stars Alex Boutillier: Bill Morneau faces ethics investigation over family ties to WE Charity

(Upated) 11 a.m. On the eve of more businesses being allowed to open in much of Ontario, the province reported 111 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday morning.

There were five more deaths reported overnight.

Locally, 30 of Ontarios 34 public health units are reporting five or fewer cases, with fully 19 of them reporting no new cases, Health Minister Christine Elliott said on Twitter.

Elliott noted the province processed 26,492 tests on Wednesday.

With 141 more resolved, there are 30 fewer active cases in Ontario. The number of hospitalizations, ICU admissions and vented patients have all declined, she said.

Read more from the Stars Robert Benzie: 111 new COVID-19 cases in Ontario on the eve of reopening more of the economy

10:53 a.m. The Art Gallery of Ontario is offering free one year passes to front-line workers in Ontario to thank them for their hard work.

Those eligible have until August 16 to sign up for their membership, and must work in health care, emergency services, grocery stores, sanitation or public transport.

Front-line workers have kept our community moving while most of us remained at home. It is with deep gratitude that we extend this invitation to front-line workers, said Stephan Jost, the CEO of the art gallery, in the announcement.

The restorative power of art should not be underestimated  it can lift our spirits and support our wellbeing. Now more than ever, we are excited to welcome our community back to the gallery to recharge with art.

10:34 a.m. The Dutch government aims to introduce a coronavirus tracking app nationwide on Sept. 1 to help rein in the spread of the virus.

Health Minister Hugo de Jonge says the app will roll out across the country once final security tests are completed and only if the countrys privacy watchdog gives its approval.

De Jonge says the app will help officials get a grip on the virus and prevent infections and the more people who download the app, the better.

Use of the app is voluntary and the government says it doesnt store information about users or their locations. Its intended to bolster efforts by local health authorities to track and isolate people who were in contact with people known to be infected.

10:34 a.m. German officials say local travel bans could be used to curb coronavirus outbreaks, though on a smaller and more targeted scale.

Chancellor Angela Merkels chief of staff Helge Braun said earlier this week the government was considering limiting travel in and out of areas that have a sudden, unexplained surge in COVID-19 cases. Officials in various states objected to the idea of quarantining entire counties. Talks over the past two days led to a more precise solution.

Braun and his counterparts in Germanys 16 states agreed Thursday that travel restrictions could be used if infections rise locally. A statement notes these measures should be imposed in a targeted way and do not have to concern the whole county or the whole city.

10:34 a.m. Central African Republics health minister is blasting the big inequality crisis in coronavirus testing.

Pierre Somse told a World Health Organization briefing we are in a scarcity, a misery of tests. He says his country of more than 4 million people is still waiting for testing supplies ordered via the WHO.

He called for more than just talk about global solidarity in the pandemic, especially for small and fragile states.

He notes rich countries like Britain conduct thousands of tests daily while his country struggles to obtain supplies for a few hundred.

Central African Republic has more than 4,300 confirmed virus cases but the true number is unknown. Somse says, its hiding a major health problem because we cannot have the real situation.

He says without donations of testing materials from the Chinese, we could not have done nothing, nothing at all.

10:34 a.m. Swedish prime minister defended the country not shutting down and less stringent methods for handling the coronavirus pandemic.

Prime Minister Stefan Lofven stressed in an interview with the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet the key issue for the government during the crisis has been securing the functions vital to the Swedish society while we try to limit the infection as much as possible.

It is a matter of protecting life, protecting health, says Lofven, adding his government has worked hard to minimize the impact of the virus while noting there have been problems caring for the elderly.

On Thursday, there were 21 reported virus deaths in the past day. The total confirmed deaths in Sweden stands at 5,593 with 76,877 confirmed cases.

10:34 a.m. Authorities in northern Spain are ordering the culling of more than 90,000 mink from a farm after about 90 animals were positive for the coronavirus in four waves of testing.

The Aragon regional government says it must take the drastic measure of ordering 92,700 mink culled in accordance with national animal health laws.

The farm in Teruel provinces La Puebla de Valverde has been under isolation since May 22 after seven workers tested positive.

The regions chief of agriculture and environment, Joaquin Olona, says there is no evidence of whether the virus was transmitted from the workers to the animals or the other way around.

We are absolutely certain that the virus is present in these animals and community transmission between animals is taking place, Olona said, according to Spanish private news agency Europa Press. He adds the goal of the culling was to avoid risks to public health.

10:34 a.m. Bosnias top intelligence officer and the prime ministers of the Balkan countrys two entities have tested positive for the coronavirus.

The Intelligence-Security Agency says director Osman Mehmedagic has mild symptoms of the disease and self-isolated, along with other agency employees who have been in contact.

The PM of the Bosniak-Croat entity, Fadil Novalic, tested positive and has been hospitalized with pneumonia. Bosnian media reported hes in stable condition. Novalic recently took part in events marking the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica.

The Bosnian Serb PM Radovan Viskovic also has tested positive on the coronavirus.

Bosnia has seen a surge in the cases of the coronavirus, both in the half of the country run by Serbs and the remaining part dominated by Bosniaks and Croats.

More than 250 infections have been confirmed in the past 24 hours in Bosnia.

10:34 a.m. Germanys health minister says a second wave of coronavirus infections in Europe cant be ruled out, but he expects the continent will be prepared.

German Health Minister Jens Spahn says its important to prepare with thorough testing and protective equipment.

Most European Union countries have significantly eased restrictions on public life over recent weeks and outbreaks in several places have caused concern.

Spahn says although the pandemic is largely under control, it is important for us in all of Europe to secure what has been achieved.

He added: I am very sure that a second wave, which certainly isnt ruled out, wont come suddenly. If it does, we would see it coming, if we test and are vigilant and attentive, and my impression is that we are in all 27 (EU) member states.

10:34 a.m. As the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic crashes across Africa, the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the intellectual property from any effective vaccine should be made available for local manufacturing and swifter distribution.

John Nkengasong says Africas 1.3 billion people have all kinds of differences in genetic makeup, so we want to be sure that we are participating fully in vaccine trials.

Africa has more than 644,000 confirmed virus cases, nearly half in South Africa alone.

Concerns are widespread that a successful vaccine will be snapped up by richer countries and Africa will be last in line, an echo of when it took years for affordable HIV drugs to become available.

The Africa CDC chief says the continent has more than 80 potential clinical trial sites with the ability to enrol participants and monitor them carefully. He also warned that we are in for a long, long journey in this pandemic.

10:34 a.m. Confirmed coronavirus cases in Tokyo hit a new daily record with 286.

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike says one reason is increased testing, which numbered more than 4,000 on Thursday. She says 760 people are hospitalized, seven in serious condition, while more than 350 are quarantined at hotels and homes.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe acknowledged a need to reexamine the governments tourism campaign offering discounts for travelling within Japan, set to start next week.

Abe says, We are looking at the situation with a high level of nervousness.

Tourism is among the hardest hit in the massive fallout from the pandemic, causing the worlds third largest economy to tumble into recession.

Japan has nearly 23,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and about 1,000 deaths.

9:45 a.m. Russian hackers are targeting Canadian, U.S. and U.K. organizations working on COVID-19 vaccine research and recovery efforts, a rare joint statement from the three countries cyber defence agencies asserts says.

The Communications Security Establishment says Russias intelligence services are almost certainly behind persistent cyber attacks on Canadian organizations including vaccine research entities involved in COVID-19 response and recovery efforts.

These malicious cyber activities were very likely undertaken to steal information and intellectual property relating to the development and testing of COVID-19 vaccines and serve to hinder response efforts at a time when healthcare experts and medical researchers need every available resource to help fight the pandemic, the statement, released Thursday morning, reads.

Read the full story by the Stars Alex Boutilier

8:35 a.m. As Premier Doug Ford takes a campaign-style tour of southwestern Ontario, the Progressive Conservative government is further loosening the provinces restrictive booze laws.

In a bid to help the pandemic-stricken hospitality sector, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario is now allowing licensed liquor delivery services to contract out work to freelance drivers.

At the same time, the provincial regulator will allow boat operators with liquor licences to sell and serve beer, wine, and spirits while docked.

Before, they were limited to serving during booze cruises on lakes and rivers.

The AGCO remains committed to supporting businesses and workers who have been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak, including those who have helped to build Ontarios vibrant hospitality sector, said the commissions registrar, Jean Major.

By allowing more businesses to enter the liquor delivery market, we also hope to offer more convenience and choice for consumers as we all adapt to the current reality, said Major.

The temporary changes to the Liquor Licensing Act, which are to expire on Jan. 1, will give consumers more delivery options from the LCBO, The Beer Store, and restaurants and bars that are currently allowed to sell booze to go.

Read the full story from the Stars Robert Benzie

7:55 a.m. The European Central Bank has left its monetary stimulus programs unchanged ahead of a key meeting of EU leaders on a recovery plan meant to help the economy bounce back from the coronavirus shutdowns.

The ECB held off providing new measures Thursday after unleashing in recent weeks and months massive doses of monetary stimulus that have helped keep borrowing costs for companies and consumers at roughly pre-virus levels.

One big goal for central banks such as the ECB and the U.S. Federal Reserve is to prevent the public health crisis from creating panic on financial markets that would constrict financing for companies at a time when many are struggling to stay in business due to restrictions on activity or reluctance by consumers to risk infection through face to face interaction.

The next big policy news in Europe will come on Friday, when leaders of the 27 EU countries discuss a proposed recovery fund backed by common borrowing. The ECB has urged governments to help support the economy through their spending policies.

Rancorous disagreement among leaders over how to deliver the aid could affect market interest rates as well as future ECB policy by unsettling markets and leading to higher market borrowing costs for indebted countries such as Italy. But if leaders narrow their differences that could contribute to further market calm. A complete deal is expected later this year.

6:17 a.m.: New French Prime Minister Jean Castex says masks will be mandatory in closed public places as of next week, sooner than Aug. 1 as announced earlier by President Emmanuel Macron.

The change in date comes as the Mayenne area of the Loire region has seen several COVID-19 outbreaks, and authorities have recorded a marginal increase in infections in the Paris region.

Calling the situation in Mayenne problematic, French Health Minister Olivier Veran said he asked the prefect of Mayenne personally to make masks compulsory in closed public places without waiting for the later date.

5:54 a.m.: Israel reached a new daily record of confirmed coronavirus cases, the countrys Health Ministry said Thursday, as a new nationwide lockdown to curb the pandemic appeared imminent.

Adding to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus troubles, a new economic bailout plan announced by the embattled premier came under tough criticism from some of the governments top economic experts.

The growing coronavirus outbreak, coupled with a struggling economy, have marked a dramatic turnaround for Netanyahu. The Israeli leader received widespread praise for moving quickly to contain the coronavirus last spring.

But since lifting a series of restrictions in May, the country has experienced a surge in cases. With unemployment over 20%, the pandemics economic impact is generating domestic unrest and Netanyahus approval rating is plummeting.

5:22 a.m.: Unemployment across the U.K. has held steady during the coronavirus lockdown as a result of a government salary support scheme, but there are clear signals emerging that job losses will skyrocket over coming months to levels not seen since the 1980s.

The Office for National Statistics said Thursday there were 649,000 fewer people, or 2.2%, on payroll in June when compared with March when the lockdown restrictions were imposed.

Thats an indication that the countrys unemployment rate is set to rise during the summer months from the still historically low level of 3.9% recorded in May.

5:18 a.m.: California has reported its second-highest daily total of new coronavirus cases and equalled its second worst day for deaths.

More than 11,000 new cases were recorded by state officials Tuesday, a rise of 3.3 per cent. California also recorded 140 deaths, tying a recent tally for its second-highest daily figure.

The number of tests and the rate of those testing positive also rose. The positivity rate over the past two weeks has now topped 7 per cent, while in hard-hit Los Angeles County with a quarter of Californias population that rate has soared to nearly 10 per cent.

Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Wednesday that Los Angeles County is in an alarming and dangerous phase that could overwhelm intensive care units and prompt sweeping closure orders if not reversed.

5:11 a.m.: Indias virus cases have surged another 32,695, taking the nation closer to 1 million and forcing a new lockdown in the popular western beach state of Goa, two weeks after it reopened to tourists.

The new confirmed cases took the national total to 968,876. The Health Ministry on Wednesday also reported a record number of 606 deaths for a total of 24,915.

The Indian Medical Association said 99 doctors have died and another 1,302 are infected with the coronavirus. It called for shortening of working hours for health workers following safety concerns.

It also said the fatality rate among doctors was 7.6%, much high than the national average of about 2.5%.

5:07 a.m.: Australias coronavirus hot spot  Victoria state  is reporting a record 317 newly confirmed cases in a day.

The tally for Thursday surpassed the states previous high of 288 on July 10. The previous one-day Australian record was 212 cases set March 28 by New South Wales state at the first peak of the pandemic. New South Wales reported only 10 new cases Thursday.

Two men in their 80s died in Victoria in the last 24 hours, bringing the national death toll for the pandemic to 113.

5:05 a.m.: Spain is paying homage to the nations victims of the new coronavirus and workers who put their lives at risk during the worst of the pandemic.

Relatives of around 100 people who died, representatives of medical personnel, police and other essential workers are joining King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, government authorities and officials from the European Union and the World Health Organization in a solemn ceremony at an esplanade in Madrids Royal Palace.

The guests, masked and seated in a socially distanced fashion surrounding a central cauldron, include representatives from a dozen religious organizations and ambassadors. The ceremony is being shown live on television and online.

5 a.m.: Pakistan has reported its lowest number of daily COVID-19 deaths in about a month.

It recorded 40 deaths in the past 24 hours on Thursday, compared to the highest single-day toll of 153 on June 19.

Pakistan has recorded 257,914 confirmed cases, including 2,145 in the past 24 hours, and 5,426 fatalities.

Until weeks ago, Pakistan had witnessed a 20% infection rate as a result of daily testing. It is now less than 10%, but authorities fear another spike if people ignore social distancing during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which will be celebrated on July 31.

4 a.m. Heart researchers say theres a surprising reason Canada has seen higher COVID-19 deaths than many countries with fewer health-care resources  more Canadians live longer with chronic disease, putting them at greater risk of dying from COVID-19.

Research led by Heart & Stroke also found the pandemic has likely postponed thousands of cardiovascular procedures.

Lead author Cindy Yip said the findings underscore the devastating consequences of poor heart health, even if excellent medical care and technology is available.

Quality of care is good to have, but its not enough, said Yip, principal investigator and director of data knowledge management at Heart & Stroke, formerly known as the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

She said Canadians are somewhat vulnerable to pandemics such as COVID-19 because so many have survived other health crises.

Because people are living longer with chronic disease like heart conditions and stroke we need to take actions, and we need them to take care of their health in order to avoid the poor outcome from COVID-19.

The study notes 11.7 per cent of Canadians suffer from cardiovascular disease, including strokes. That puts us in the top third among 63 countries studied  worse than the 11.6 per cent found in the United States, 10 per cent in Russia, 7.6 per cent in South Korea, 4.3 per cent in India and 3.8 per cent in Pakistan.

4 a.m.: The first of multiple parliamentary investigations of the federal governments aborted deal with WE Charity to run a volunteering program begins this afternoon.

The House of Commons finance committee is set to hear from Youth Minister Bardish Chagger and some senior public servants as it probes how WE got a sole-sourced contract to administer the $900-million program.

The Canada Student Service Grant is aimed at students who havent been able to find work this summer, offering up to $5,000 toward education costs in exchange for 500 hours of volunteering.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has admitted he should have recused himself from the decision to award the contract, given his familys links to the group co-founded by brothers Craig and Marc Kielburger.

WE gave up the contract amid the controversy two weeks ago.

Wednesday 10 p.m.: In a Wednesday afternoon press conference, Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie noted that her city recorded only one new case on Tuesday and zero on Wednesday, a first since the lockdown started.

Wednesday 9:45 p.m.: Peel police have issued a summons for a man caught on viral video in a racist tirade against employees at a T&T grocery store in Mississauga following a mask dispute last week.

Police said that on July 5, the suspect went to a supermarket near Central Parkway West and Grand Park Drive. The man wasnt wearing a face covering and was asked by employees to put one on, police said, which is the stores policy.

In a video that went viral, the man became agitated, said he has asthma and yelled at an employee to go back to China while the worker repeatedly responds that hes a Canadian.

Police said in their release that a summons has been issued for 48-year-old John McCash of Mississauga, for the offence of causing a disturbance.

Read the full story from the Stars Ted Fraser.

Click here to read more coverage from Wednesday.
HUMMELS WHARF  No charges will be filed in connection with an accident Friday evening involving a state trooper responding to the shooting outside the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in Snyder County.

That was the information provided Wednesday by Trooper Brent Miller, director of the state police communications office.

Neither Cpl. Justin Caccia nor Thomas Beaver, 66, of Hummels Wharf, was injured in the crash that occurred on Routes 11/15 at Roosevelt Avenue.

This is Millers version of what occurred:

Caccia, operating a marked SUV with emergency lights and siren activated, was northbound on Routes 11/15 when he came upon traffic stopped for a red traffic signal.

Given the necessity to respond rapidly to the report of an active shooter, he crossed into a southbound lane that was clear.

After Caccia cleared that intersection, he attempted to cross back into a northbound lane but his SUV hit Beavers pickup that was proceeding on the green. The pickup was disabled.

The trooper was responding to the parking lot of the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in the Monroe Marketplace shopping plaza where a woman and her date had been shot.

Heather Sue Campbell, 46, of Trevorton, and Matthew T. Bowersox, 52, of Mifflinburg, were killed.

Campbells ex-husband, Christopher T. Fernanders, 55, of the Paxinos area, has been arraigned on first-degree murder and related charges. He was wounded by a bystander.

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British Airways is to scrap its entire fleet of jumbo jets with immediate effect, the Daily Mail can reveal.

The nation's flag carrier is the world's last major operator of the iconic Boeing 747 'Queen of the Skies', which has been in service with the airline since 1971.

It had 31 jumbo jets in use before the coronavirus crisis forced bosses to park the entire fleet at airports across the country.

BA had originally planned to retire them by 2024 and gradually replace them with newer, more fuel-efficient jets such as the 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A350.

Few aeroplanes are as familiar as the 747, and in half a century it has transported 3.5billion passengers and billions of tons of cargo around the planet

May 11, 1983: Charles and Diana step from a jumbo jet at Heathrow Airport following a flight from Miami. They had returned from a 10-day holiday in the Bahamas as guests of Lord and Lady Romsey

No British Airways 747-200s were involved in hull loss while with the airline

Giant has carried half the world Graveyard: BA 747-400s among aircraft stored in the California desert The first Boeing 747 flew in 1969 and a year later the British Overseas Airways Corporation took delivery of the first UK 747. The first commercial BA flight using a 747 was from London to New York on April 14, 1971. Over the years, 747s have flown 3.5billion passengers, equivalent to half of the world's population. The distance covered by the Wright brothers on their first historic flight 120ft  would fit within the 150ft economy section of a jumbo. Boeing has modified around 15 of their 1,500 747s for special purposes  including Air Force One and the US space shuttle carriers, BA was the last operator of Boeing 747 passenger flights at Heathrow. The plane cruises at 565mph. However it's top speed of 650mph means it remains the fastest of all commercial aircraft. 747s are meant to carry 345 passengers, but in 1991 an El Al 747-400 carried 1,088 on a single flight, breaking the world record. It was part of an operation to evacuate Jews from Ethiopia. Advertisement

But plummeting passenger numbers have forced the airline to bring forward its plans.

A leaked BA letter highlights the flagship plane as one which has 'a very special place in the hearts of aviation enthusiasts and of many of us' and insists the plan to retire the fleet early 'has only been taken in response to the crisis we find ourselves in'.

The letter, written in response to growing speculation on social media and aviation websites, admits: 'The whole airline community is reconciling itself to a bleak outlook for passenger demand.

It adds: 'Long haul travel will take years to recover, with the major industry bodies agreeing that we will not see a return to 2019 levels until 2023 at the soonest.'

The colossal, four-engine jets will be broken up and scrapped for parts over the next few months in what will be an ignominious end for the commercial jetliner, which once helped earn BA the title of the 'world's favourite airline'.

The move will lead to fears for the jobs of more than 600 BA pilots who are specifically trained to fly the 747-400.

'It is entirely Covid-related,' a source said tonight.

'We don't see passenger levels returning to normal until 2024 at the earliest and we just cannot foresee a time when we will use that size of aircraft again.

'It is a heart-breaking day for everyone at BA and for the customers it will be awful as well.

'This is one of the most recognisable aircraft after Concorde.

'But this is one of the unfortunate consequences of this unprecedented pandemic.'

The last BA 747 flew on June 2 and was a repatriation flight from Cape Town to Heathrow.

The news comes days after Virgin Atlantic said it would stop using its small fleet of jumbo jets and means no British carrier now operates them.

Few aeroplanes are as familiar as the 747, and in half a century it has transported 3.5billion passengers and billions of tons of cargo around the planet.

Aerial view of a British Airways Boeing 747 landing on Runway 27R at London Heathrow Airport

British Airways Beoing 747 aircraft grounded at Bournemouth International Airport in April

The wreckage of a British Airways Boeing 747-136 at Kuwait City airport, after BA Flight 149 was detained in Kuwait during the Gulf War, 1991

But now it has become a symbolic victim of the crisis facing the aviation industry as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic.

A top speed of just over 650mph makes the jumbo the fastest commercial plane on the planet but it is notoriously inefficient compared with newer aircraft.

Landing a 747 at Heathrow Airport costs more than 13,000, of which nearly 4,000 is in environmental tariffs.

The arrival on the world stage of the giant Boeing 747 in 1969 ushered in a new era of air travel

Landing a 747 at Heathrow Airport costs more than 13,000, of which nearly 4,000 is in environmental tariffs. Pictured is a Boeing 747 in 1978

A top speed of just over 650mph makes the jumbo the fastest commercial plane on the planet but it is notoriously inefficient compared with newer aircraft. Pictured is a Boeing 747 in 1976

BA's first 747-400  the variant most commonly in use today  was delivered in June 1989. It flew until 2018, when it sent to a scrapyard in California.

The airline has operated 57 Boeing 747-400s, meaning that in total it has flown 100 passenger jumbos and one cargo version.

The youngest 747 in the current fleet is 21 years old.

Leaked letter to BA employees Dear colleague With much regret, we are proposing, subject to consultation, the immediate retirement of our Queen of the Skies, the 747-400. We know there is speculation on social media and aviation websites, so we wanted to make our position clear. The whole airline community is reconciling itself to a bleak outlook for passenger demand. Long haul travel will take years to recover, with the major industry bodies agreeing that we will not see a return to 2019 levels until 2023 at the soonest. The bulk of our fleet is large, wide-bodied, long haul aircraft with many premium seats, intended to carry high volumes of customers. The unofficial flagship of our fleet, the 747-400 has a very special place in the hearts of aviation enthusiasts and of many of us. We know how many memories of this extra-special aircraft are shared across the BA family and our proposal to retire the fleet early has only been taken in response to the crisis we find ourselves in.' Advertisement

Aerial view of a British Airways Boeing 747 landing at London Heathrow Airport in 2012

BA's first 747-400  the variant most commonly in use today  was delivered in June 1989. It flew until 2018, when it sent to a scrapyard in California

The arrival at Heathrow Airport of the British Airways Boeing 747 in the retro livery of BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation)
Two more major retail stores have announced they will require customers to wear face masks as the number of coronavirus cases increase across the U.S.

With the recent spike in COVID-19 infections, were joining others in taking the next step and requiring all customers to wear face coverings when entering any of our stores throughout the country, CVS tweeted.

News | With the recent spike in COVID-19 infections, we're joining others in taking the next step and requiring all customers to wear face coverings when entering any of our stores throughout the country effective Monday, July 20. #COVID19  CVS Pharmacy (@cvspharmacy) July 16, 2020

The mandate will begin July 20.

Target also said in a statement that it would start requiring masks in all stores, according to CBS Boston.

This builds on the more than 80% of our stores that already require guests to wear face coverings due to local and state regulations, it said.

This mandate for Target stores begins August 1. Target will provide disposable masks to customers who dont have one, the news station reported.

The news comes after Walmart, Starbucks, Best Buy and Costco made their announcements requiring the same thing.

In Massachusetts, the Baker Administration issued an order back in May requiring masks in public places where people cannot socially distance from others. However, there is not a mandate in all New England states.

Lawmakers are also seeking to mandate masks and a two-week quarantine for out-of-state visitors from COVID-19 hot spots.

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Mumbai: Portion of 5-storey Bhanushali building near Fort area collapses; search operation underway

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Mumbai, July 16: Several persons are feared trapped under debris after a corner portion of an old six- storey building collapsed in south Mumbai's Fort area on Thursday afternoon.

No injuries have been reported so far. The incident took place around 4.43 pm at the Bhanushali building in Fort near Lucky House. Fire services have been pressed into service for rescue operations.

Maharashtra: Rain lashes parts of Mumbai, city records second-highest single-day rainfall since 2015

Besides, several people are stranded in the part of the building which is intact as staircases were blocked, Fire Brigade officials said. Stranded people were being rescued using ladders, they added. The city has been receiving heavy rainfall over the last two days.

International flights: Bubble travel with US & France, flights to resume from tomorrow|Oneindia News

Besides, several people are stranded in the part of the building which is intact as staircases were blocked, Fire Brigade officials said. Stranded people were being rescued using ladders, they added. The city has been receiving heavy rainfall over the last two days.

Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant said,''I have heard that repair work was underway at the building. The families still in the building will be evacuated.''

In June, a portion of a three-storey vacant building collapsed in Khar area of Mumbai. No was injured in the incident that took place at 4:30am but it led to traffic congestion in the area.
Hundreds of people turned out early Wednesday morning at the Tulsa fairgrounds in hopes of securing a spot in front of an unemployment claims agent.

The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission brought the event to the River Spirit Expo to help those who have been unable to navigate the antiquated jobless claims system, which is overwhelmed by COVID-19-related layoffs and furloughs.

I think its going pretty well, Shelley Zumwalt, executive director of the OESC, said about 7 a.m. as an intercom voice boomed out the names and numbers of those due up next to be helped.

Its always a gamble when we put these on because we want to make sure people are safe when they get here, Zumwalt said. Whats the most efficient and time-conscious way to get people in the door and make sure they are not waiting outside or arriving and staying before the call time?

The OESC held a handful of mass, in-person claims processing events in Oklahoma City prior to coming to Tulsa.
Dealing with China is so complex its produced its own lexicon: Engagement. Containment. Confrontation. Constrainment. Even con-gagement.

The word stew reflects the dilemma for governments facing a power that is no longer simply rising. The leadership under Xi Jinping believes China is now strong enough that it can forcefully assert its agenda both at home and abroad because it has reached the point it can withstand whatever penalties come its way.



Xis imposition of a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong despite global outrage, a deadly military skirmish on the border with India and Beijings aggressive pandemic-era diplomacy are only the latest examples of how Western policies have largely failed to shape, slow or stop China.

As the U.S. prioritizes America First and the values-based multilateral architecture weakens, countries are increasingly realizing they need a rethink. Until now, strategies have largely fallen into one of two camps: Keep your fingers crossed that China turns into a better actor by pulling it into the global system of rules and institutions, or try and halt it in its tracks by economic or military pressure.

The open policies toward China from the U.S. and European Union were well intended and mutually beneficial, with hopes that China will join or at least learn to conform to the order of the free world, said Fernando Cheung, a pro-democracy lawmaker in Hong Kong. But with growing economic power and military might, its becoming apparent that Xi thinks the order under the Chinese Communist Party is superior.



While Covid-19 has accelerated the conversation on China, the problem is a lack of agreement of what teaming up should look like  not all like-minded governments are all that like-minded when it comes to dealing with the challenges China poses, said Bates Gill, a professor of Asia-Pacific security studies at Macquarie University in Sydney who has consulted for companies and government agencies.

The fissures President Donald Trump has opened with longstanding U.S. allies also hinder a united approach. The basic building blocks of such a strategy  working multilaterally, respecting allies, and committing to a reliable and predictable set of well-thought-through policies which align ways, means and ends  are not part of this administrations playbook, Gill said.

For much of Trumps term, hes shied away from criticizing China for human rights violations, veering between a trade war and publicly admiring Xi. Now, the U.S. is stepping up its actions from stronger measures against telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co. to requiring Chinese state media in the U.S. to register as foreign agents to imposing sanctions on top Chinese officials.

For China, sticking to its own domestic priorities  for instance, the decision to ram through security legislation in Hong Kong, the emphasis on building self-reliance in high tech industry, and sticking to Chinas own political system regardless of the U.S. attacks -- are themselves the biggest retaliation against the U.S. and the Trump administration, said Shi Yinhong, an adviser to Chinas cabinet and a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing.

Officials from multiple countries say the only solution to dealing with China is to better band together, with or without America. They are starting to do so in new and interesting ways  particularly middle powers like Australia, Canada, India and the U.K., which have long struggled to balance their economic reliance on China with their strategic concerns about its actions.

The U.S. is belatedly attempting to repair some relationships: Diplomats are seeking to rally allies in Asia and elsewhere, according to a senior Trump administration official and two senior western diplomats in China. Part of the clarion call is to reduce economic dependency on China via supply chain disengagement, while cranking up domestic investments in advanced technology and manufacturing.

The Australia, Canada and the U.K. recently released a statement alongside the U.S. condemning Beijings crackdown in Hong Kong. One Western diplomat described a more united approach to China as the new normal. After the border clash with China, Indian officials said they planned to invite Australia to annual naval exercises alongside Japan and the U.S., signaling progress on the on-again, off-again security grouping of nations known as the Quad.

Its not going to be easy. Some China hawks in Trumps inner circle still want to try and force a Soviet-style collapse of the Communist Party, an approach other nations wont support, one U.S. official said.

In a recent meeting with Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell suggested a dedicated dialogue with the U.S. focused solely on China. But an official close to French President Emmanuel Macron warned the EU shouldnt become a mediator between the Washington and Beijing, in part because Europe had its own agenda and proposals.

And from Africa to Southeast Asia, Chinas economic diplomacy  often in regions largely ignored by the Trump administration and U.S. investors  makes ties with Beijing too valuable to throw out.

In some ways, Trumps approach to China has created a vicious cycle. One U.S. official said some fear the countries are stuck in a doom loop of tit-for-tat measures that leave both sides worse off. Theres no longer trusted go-betweens such as ex-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, a former Goldman Sachs chief executive officer.

Some allies are tired of being lectured by U.S. officials on Huawei and feel that multilateral forums have had their agendas taken over by the U.S.-China rivalry, one Western diplomat said. Rather than attempt to alter Chinas overall approach or its internal politics, smaller countries have opted to pursue technical cooperation on issues such as climate change, they said.

A senior European official echoed that view, saying leaders wanted to keep China as a partner on some matters. Another said EU nations see more room for collaboration with China than the U.S. and worry that antagonizing Beijing could see it block progress on peripheral issues, including Afghanistan and Syria.

While recent attempts to cooperate  including a parliamentary alliance of lawmakers in the U.S. and seven other democracies  are important, Trump is unlikely to win continental European hearts as it has for the Five Eyes, said Alicia Garcia Herrero, chief Asia Pacific economist with Natixis SA. Its possible though such an effort would succeed under Joe Biden, Trumps Democratic rival in the November election, she said.

At the same time, large swathes of the world are content with the benefits of Xis Belt and Road Initiative on trade and infrastructure.

I dont think development aid is as much of a priority for African leaders as credit from China that is not tied to certain conditions  whether its rule of law, anti-corruption, transparency, said Adewunmi Emoruwa, the lead strategist for Nigeria-based advisory service firm Gatefield.



While some Chinese projects in the developing world have caused controversy  in places such as Sri Lanka  and concern about high debt levels, many nations, particularly those in Africa, lack the resources or expertise to establish alternate supply chains. China is Africas biggest trading partner, with two-way flows totaling more than $180 billion  almost four times that of America. Chinese investments often come without conditions imposed by Western donors.

Chinas role in global manufacturing and the vested interests of Western allies also makes it difficult for Trump to argue persuasively for a full decoupling from the worlds second-largest economy, said Charles Liu, a former diplomat and founder of Hao Capital, a private equity firm.

The U.S. hasnt prepared itself mentally for the rise of China, so it has been trying to find ways to create problems for China and limit its ascent, said Shen Shishun, senior researcher at the China Institute of International Studies under Chinas Foreign Ministry. The U.S. is creating problems on Chinas doorstep, so of course China will not step away from this.

Bloomberg
State Government issued orders on Wednesday extending the deputation of Anil Kumar Singhal, IAS, who is working as Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams' (TTD) Executive Officer (EO), untill further orders.

Singhal was first deputed to TTD that comes under Public Sector Undertakings (PSU), on a two-year period in May, 2017. His deputation was extended in 2019 for another one-year period. Now, this was his second extension to work in TTD as EO.

Singhal, who is the 25th TTD EO, has earlier worked as the Resident Commissioner in Andhra Pradesh Bhavan in New Delhi till May 2017. He was brought to TTD as the Executive Officer during the regime of the then Telugu Desam government headed by N. Chandrababu Naidu.

It may be recalled that his appointment created an uproar at that time, as he was the first IAS officer from North India to be made TTD EO. However, he continued to manage the TTD affairs for the past three years.
Schools out but more than 8,000 students across Niagara are still spending time this summer furthering their education and catching up to improve their marks.

District School Board of Niagara has 5,980 pupils taking classes virtually, a significant jump from the 2,450 enrolled in 2019.

There are 1,200 elementary DSBN students signed up for courses. Thats a result of the Summer Heat program being cancelled due to COVID-19 and the elementary summer program being modified to include more literacy and numeracy courses. It was expanded, too, to include grades four and five, said spokeswoman Carolyn Loconte.

Secondary and intermediate elementary students (grades seven to 12) is where DSBN is seeing the big increase in enrollment.

Last summer, the public board had 1,250 students registered. This year, it has soared to 4,780.

Loconte said the board attributes the major increase to the Ministry of Educations expectation that Ontario school boards offer more options for students to continue learning this summer.

In response to the impact of COVID-19, the board made it a priority to offer increased learning opportunities and resources for students in all grades, said DSBN education director Warren Hoshizaki.

Many students adapted very quickly to the online learning, which allowed them to easily transition and enrol into summer school. Were pleased to see students engaged and learning during a time when their options for summer have been more limited than usual, he said.

Niagara Catholic District School Board, meanwhile, has 2,304 students studying in July and August, also through online programming  nearly 70 fewer students than last year at the Catholic board.

DSBN has been able to expand its course list, providing more humanities studies, French immersion, English as a second language and a program called Bootcamp Upgrade, a two-week course for students in grades seven to 12 to improve their grades.

The public board has added an addictions and youth counsellor to its summer team, supporting students in grades seven to 12, said Loconte.

The DSBNs virtual summer school programs are being offered to students in kindergarten through Grade 12.

For students in Grade 5 and under, summer school is an excellent opportunity for them to continue learning, stay engaged with school and even make new friends, said Loconte.

For students Grades 6 to 12, it is a way to upgrade their marks and get a head start by earning credits in advance.

For example, students going into Grade 9 are taking summer courses so they can start working on their high school credits now, said Loconte.

This is giving them the advantage of getting ahead, and is also preparing them for their next chapter by giving them a taste of what high school will be like, she said.

At the elementary level, Niagara Catholic has 320 students taking international and Indigenous language courses, 90 taking part in the boards virtual summer learning program, and 57 in special education programs.

For high school students, there are 1,395 in online credit courses, 76 in community co-op placements, and 19 who are upgrading credit courses online, according to a statement from Niagara Catholic.

There are 254 adult students participating in the English as a second language program and 15 adult students signed up for literacy and basic skills.

The largest reach-ahead programs are Grade 10 civics/careers and senior English, said the Catholic board.

Niagara Catholic had hoped to offer students in-person learning this summer, as it normally does, said director of education John Crocco, who will retire at the end of August.

As always, the health and safety of our students and staff is our primary concern. The continued school closure, and no decision as to how they will operate in September, meant we had to limit our summer school options to e-learning courses for this summer, he said.

Although they are not together, our staff are continuing to offer summer school students engaging programs that will allow them to either reach-ahead, refresh skills or work toward a higher grade.
In literature, a red herring is false information that is designed to obfuscate the truth. Red herrings are a favorite plot device of mystery writers such as Walter Mosley (Easy Rawlins), Dame Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple) and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes, Mr. Watson).

In The Da Vinci Code, author Dan Brown offers the red herring of Bishop Aringarosa, whom the narrative suggests is the grand conspirator. (Interestingly, the name Aringarosa is a rough translation of pink herring.) The phrase has a very long and interesting history, but its original meaning refers to a stinking fish.

People often use red herrings  knowingly or unwittingly  while making arguments against people or causes that they dont like. For example, opponents of the Black Lives Matter movement have increasingly employed this tactic. Many of these opponents are now using the S-word (i.e., socialism) and the M-word (i.e., Marxism) to try to discredit BLM. They understand that those concepts are anathema to most Americans  especially those who are white.

Further, in making this charge, its not an accident that critics point to brown countries that have strong socialist leanings, such as Venezuela, rather than to white countries like Britain or Israel  which are Americas staunchest allies. This is notwithstanding the fact that few Americans are even able to define communism or socialism, much less to distinguish between the two. (They dont understand that public schools, post offices, fire departments  and police departments  are all examples of socialist institutions.)

Of course, tagging people and movements as communist or socialist is a time-honored tradition in America. Indeed, the irony is that decidedly anti-democratic ploys  in some ways  are those that are the most decidedly American. The most infamous acolyte of this strategy is the late Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

While influential members within BLM, such as Alicia Garza and Patrisse Cullors, identify as Marxists, the organization that is known officially as the Black Lives Matter Global Network does not describe itself as Marxist (or socialist). Of course, at a certain level, it doesnt matter whether BLM actually is socialist or Marxist; its clear that the organization and most of its adherents are fighting for the dismantling of discrimination that is based on race, sex, gender identity and sexuality. The embracing of liberation ideologies is sufficient for many people to oppose BLM  irrespective of particular political labels.

I would hasten to add that other types of objectionable behavior  personal or professional  has rarely disqualified people from amassing power, wealth or influence in America. (Think Andrew Jackson or Bill Clinton.) This has been true since before the nations founding. Such privilege also explains why millions of people who ostensibly are proud Americans shed real tears as the remnants of the traitorous Confederacy are being dismantled, destroyed or simply displaced. In short, it is acceptable for one to be a scoundrel, as long as one is not perceived as a threat to capitalism.

Still dont believe that socialism is just an excuse to minimize the influence of BLM? Consider the history of Reconstruction. As Ta-Nehisi Coates points out in We Were Eight Years in Power, white Americans fear during this period was not that government run by Blacks would be bad; their fear was that government run by Blacks would be good. (The latter is precisely what actually happened.) Today, BLM is focused on the audacious goal of ensuring that America lives up to the promises that it enshrined in the Constitution  no matter who is in power. There are too many people for whom that goal is unacceptable.

In the end, the real issue (and fear) is not socialism; it is that Black people will increasingly demand full recognition of our humanity. To be sure, BLM is a flawed movement because it is composed of real people. The same can and should be said of all movements, including the 244 years of the American experiment. Still, the vehemence of many who oppose Black Lives Matter amounts to little more than stinking fish.

Larry Smith is a community leader. Contact him at larry@leaf-llc.com.
A chiropractor who practiced in Bethlehem Township pleaded guilty Wednesday to perpetrating a $236,000 healthcare fraud scheme.

According to a news release from the U.S. Attorneys office, 53-year-old Nicholas Bufanio of Hellertown billed insurance companies for $236,000 worth of services he didnt provide. He routinely submitted claims for patients who failed to appear for appointments and submitted claims for days when he was not in the office, the release says.

From November 2017 until December 2018, Bufanio was convalescing at home but submitted bogus claims to health insurers pretending that he was keeping normal office hours and rendering chiropractic treatment, the release says.

Physicians and other medical professionals who fraudulently bill insurance companies are thieves  they steal from both the companies and the honest subscribers, said U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain in the news release.

Bufanio pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of health care fraud before U.S. District Court Judge Joseph F. Leeson, Jr. Hes a doctor of chiropractic medicine and has operated Community Chiropractic, Inc. in Bethlehem Township since at least 2011.

The case was investigated by U.S. Department of Labor-Employee Benefits Security Administration and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney M. Beth Leahy.

Defense attorney Marc Fisher had no comment on behalf of Bufanio.

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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.
Pro-life campaigners on the streets of Belfast have the backing of Ian Paisley

Ian Paisley has revealed that his admires the fact that pro-life Catholics are not "embarrassed" to stand up for their views on the controversial issue.

The DUP MP for North Antrim made the statement in a platform piece for the Catholic Herald publication praising those who practice the faith and share values "identical to my own beliefs".

Mr Paisley explains that his admiration of Catholics stems from the fact they are "unashamed" about the fact the Christian denomination "promotes devotion and values family, children and life" - admitting his comments may raise eyebrows coming from the son of the late Ian Paisley senior.

However, despite public perceptions of his father, Mr Paisley says that his upbringing as the son of a pastor meant that "people of all backgrounds, all faiths and none" were welcomed into the family home.

"Very often, it was a Roman Catholic visitor who wanted a prayer said for them and their situation," he continues.

"As a public representative since 1996 and in Westminster for the past 10 years, I've never got away from the belief that my role is not unlike that of a pastor. Trying to give comfort and help to folk in trouble. And again, it's people from all backgrounds and faiths who come to me. "Everybody's problems are different but their needs for comfort, help, discernment and guidance are all equal."

The MP adds that he has been given a "practical day-to-day" insight into the faith by his Catholic constituents.

Whilst my faith may not require me to light a candle for a bereaved loved one or friend, I wouldn't dismiss lightly that kind of public display or token of concern and thought Ian Paisley

"What strikes me most is that they are unashamed and are never embarrassed about having a faith that promotes devotion and values family, children and life," he insists.

"These values are identical to my own beliefs. Whilst my faith may not require me to light a candle for a bereaved loved one or friend, I wouldn't dismiss lightly that kind of public display or token of concern and thought. Even Christians can sometimes be too stiff-upper-lipped to express emotion."

Describing himself as a "long-time campaigner for the protection of the rights of the unborn", Mr Paisley said it was "without doubt" the strongest support he has received - both publicly and privately - has been from his Catholic constituents.

"They are quite happy to tell me that they disagree with many aspects of my politics," he admits.

"But they say that's easily put aside when they know I'm fighting faithfully on this matter. To hear them say this - either privately in whispers or more publicly - brings a wave of real encouragement and a sense that I am doing the right thing.

Expand Close Pro-life campaigners on the streets of Belfast have the backing of Ian Paisley / Facebook

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Whatsapp Pro-life campaigners on the streets of Belfast have the backing of Ian Paisley

"Just in the last six months, I've received over 800 letters and emails from constituents who are Roman Catholic offering support on this one issue. That cannot be overvalued."

He goes on to say that this is in sharp contrast to those who take the same stance in his own faith.

"As an evangelical Protestant I get tired by the embarrassment some of my faith have in declaring pro-life views," explains Mr Paisley,

"They say to me: 'Yes, Ian, you might think that but you can no longer say it', or 'I agree with you, but we've just got to leave it with the Lord and realise we can't do anything about it'.

"Frankly, that lack of faith appals me. Maybe it's because I was brought up by a man of action that I just won't let go. But I think it's also the fact that my Roman Catholic constituents want a champion, even when the odds are stacked so decisively against us all on this issue."

Stressing that he admires that "loyalty" and "determined spirit", he also singles out anti-abortion campaigner, Bernie Smyth, who heads up Precious Life.

"She very happily signed my Westminster nomination on the basis of my pro-life credentials. I was moved by the fact that she was publicly happy to nail her colours to the mast," said the MP.

"Northern Ireland is a small place. That sort of public declaration doesn't go unnoticed. The local parish priest also wrote to me before the last election.

"He told me he was openly urging anyone who would listen to him to support me because of these credentials. Then, in a practical way, the community put their money where their mouth is, sending me members to join my campaign team to put literature through doors and talk to constituents about the matter.

"That reminded me of why I admire my Roman Catholic friends. I am so grateful to them for sharing the same values about the right to life for the most vulnerable."

The platform piece can be read online at www.catholicherald.co.uk
Outpost

The Myrna Loy

(R)

Grade: A

One by one the American soldiers take their turn calling home on the phone on their base in Afghanistan in October 2009.

Of course, Im missing you.

Well, son, my job is to take care of the bad guys.

Gotta go, Mom.

The men do their best to convince loved ones they are safe and looking forward to coming home. Its all good, is their go-to slogan.

No soldier dares to confess the true dangers. Savvy partners undoubtedly can read through the compassionate spin, but would probably prefer not to press for details.

The truth is that Bravo Troop 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division has been assigned an impossible task. Outpost Keating sits at the lowest point of a valley, surrounded by three mountains in Nuristan province where the Taliban are well camouflaged.

Soldiers know to take control of the high ground. But they are assigned to the lowest point in a deadly amphitheater.

Every day gunfire strafes the base. Bullets bounce off helmets. Bombs explode. Patrols are perilous. We watch two men cross a shaky rope bridge, only to be shot half way across. I flinched.

Within a short time, I was tense and worried for all my new brothers. It seemed clear many would die trying to defend this suicidal fishbowl. But what followed was even more brutal than I expected, and I was shaken as I left the theater.

I have seldom seen a war movie that brought battle home so realistically and intimately  and Ive seen dozens. The opening scene on Omaha Beach in Saving Private Ryan is another of the same power. Director Rod Luries Outpost is claustrophobic and unrelenting.

The Outpost spares no detail to be realistic. Its based on a journalist Jake Tappers detailed 673-page account of the battle of Kamdesh.

The cast includes four surviving members of Bravo Troop, acting alongside Hollywood stars such as Orlando Bloom and Scott Eastwood. Most war movies fabricate some melodramatic moments to embellish the story. No need for that here.

The film ends by listing honors bestowed on one of the most decorated units in the war. The soldiers were awarded two medals of honor, one distinguished service cross and eight silver stars  and a place in military history.

The daily firefights build towards a final assault. An Afghan translator warns them a big attack is coming, but theyve heard that before  and they dont have enough ammunition to outlast the swarms of Taliban.

We may die today, says one soldier to another. It seems truly hopeless.

As the Taliban break through the last line of defense, one American is gunned down, and is lying on an open dirt patch. To rescue him would be suicidal, with Taliban guns trained on that spot. But two soldiers will never leave a fallen colleague.

They hesitate, then nod. Ill cover you, says one, as the other rushes to the body. He throws his friend over his shoulder and staggers toward the medical tent. Coming in.

Ive seen battlefield rescues hundreds of time, many in Alamo films, but I never flinched or shook as much. I was caught up in this battle which never seemed like just a movie. Some of these actors actually nearly died in this battle and came back to share the story and honor their lost friends.

They are not performing a scene  they are reliving hell.

That rescue is only one of countless small moments of heroism by a band of brothers.

They would all have perished in this 13-hour assault, but for last-second air support. By all odds, the men should not have survived as long as they did with 400 Taliban swarming 50 soldiers.

Im a Quaker, spiritually opposed to war. But I have never doubted the courage of those who fight those wars or their sacrifices. Ill bow my head now and again next Memorial Day for these fallen soldiers.

These soldiers did their duty and died with honor, but they should never have been sent on this mission.

The battle reminded me of the battle of Gallipoli in 1915, in which troops are ordered to run bravely into machine gun fire to certain death, mowed down the moment they emerged from the trenches. The officer sees the toll, but orders the next wave to slaughter.

The consummate sadness of such films as Gallipoli and Outpost is that truly good men will die pointless deaths. Dying for a good cause is one thing. A wasted life is quite another.

Their grieving loved ones will think back to those phone calls as last words: Its all good.

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Kavya Narayanan

A worst-case scenario prediction for coronavirus case in India developed by a team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru shows that the country could see the total number of cases rise to over 66 lakh by 30 September this year at the current trend of relaxation to lockdown rules.

The interactive prediction model also accounts for the "best-case" scenario, in which the number of active/ongoing COVID-19 cases starts to fall by mid-September. The best-case model predicts a more conservative estimate of 26 lakh total cases, and 4.5 lakh ongoing cases by 30 September.

The prediction model is a six-dimensional, data-based computational model for epidemics that has been adapted to model the COVID-19 pandemic in India by Professors Sashikumaar Ganesan and Deepak Subramani at the Department of Computational and Data Sciences at IISc Bangalore.

The trend figures, researchers said on their website, are "business as usual" predictions, representing the pandemic evolving in different directions, and considering different degrees of relaxation to lockdown rules. It considers weekly lockdowns, one on Sundays only, and another on Sundays and Wednesdays. The Sundays-only complete lockdown scenario shows 2,40,000 active cases on top of the figures for the Sundays and Wednesdays lockdown as of 30 September.

Apart from the predictive model, researchers have also made observations about how specific measures have affected the COVID-19 infection curve in India, in national and state-specific scenarios. For instance, the recovery rate has increased since 3 May 2020 hand-in-hand with a drop in new infections. This coincided with access to better medical care and the effects of timely quarantine for infected COVID-19 patients.

The researchers claim that the model predicts region-wise and age-wise COVID-19 spread accurately. It also includes predictions of infected people by region, age of infected individuals, number of days since the start of the infection and severity, over time.

The data fed into the model, the researchers said, includes "immunity, pre-medical history, effective treatment, point-to-point movement of infected people (by air, train, etc), interactivity (spread in the community), hygiene and physical distancing".

The model has been pre-published in arXiv and is awaiting peer review. If it survives this test of scrutiny, the model could come in useful to frame policies for effective periodic lockdowns and staggered opening of educational institutions and public facilities. The insights, the team added, could also be useful in planning public health policies like quarantine rules, hospital beds and vaccination/treatment schedules.

A "one or two-day lockdown per week (e.g., Sunday, Sunday & Wednesday etc) with complete compliance [and] adequate social distancing during other days is effective to reduce the spread", they observed. They also outline their finding that contact tracing, quarantine and social distancing are key to contain the spread in the absence of a working vaccine.
A 15-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a security guard at the COVID-19 quarantine center of the Patna Medical College Hospital where she was admitted after being rescued from a railway station, police said on Thursday.

The accused, Mahesh (40), was arrested on Wednesday night after being booked under the POCSO Act and other relevant IPC sections by the Pir Bahore police station, according to Arti Jaiswal, the in-charge of the women's police station.

"The accused is being sent to jail while the victim will be undergoing medical tests on Thursday, as is the norm for all sexual assault survivors," Jaiswal said.

The girl had run away from her home in Nalanda district more than a week ago and reached Barh railway station on the outskirts of Patna to catch a train for Kolkata where her father is a daily wage-earner, police said.

She was spotted by Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel who informed the child helpline. The child helpline personnel, taking note of the girl's tender age and her disturbed frame of mind, convinced her not to undertake the journey and brought her to the hospital's quarantine ward for COVID-19 suspects as a precautionary measure, they said.

On the night of July 8, a few hours after the girl's arrival at the hospital, she was caught hold of by the accused inside the bathroom and allegedly raped. The accused also threatened her with dire consequences if she spilled the beans and, as per the FIR, kept harassing her sexually.

She finally decided to speak up when another girl, carrying a mobile phone, was similarly brought to the hospital by child helpline a couple of days ago. Using the fellow inmate's phone, she narrated her ordeal to the helpline personnel who informed the police.

"Her COVID-19 test report is negative. After her examination, for the sexual assault, by a six-member medical board is over, she will be sent to a shelter home by the child helpline," Jaiswal said.

State women's commission chairperson Dilmani Mishra said, "We are waiting for the medical reports of the girl. We will ensure that justice is done in the matter."
BERLIN - Earlier this year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel had been written off by many as a lame duck. Her coalition and party were beset by infighting, and speculation was rife that she would buckle to pressure to step aside before the end of her final term in 2021.

But a cool-headed and effective response to the coronavirus crisis has pushed Merkel's approval ratings up as high as 86% in Germany. She is in a position of strength and confidence this week as she steers Europe's effort to address what is predicted to be its deepest economic recession on record.

Merkel, who turns 66 on Friday during the European Union's first in-person summit since the start of the pandemic, is "in the midst of her power," said veteran German political scientist Hajo Funke.

Because it is Germany's turn to fill the rotating E.U. presidency, the chancellor is at the helm in both Brussels and Berlin at a crucial time for the 27-member bloc.

"She's now the E.U. Chancellor, so to speak," Funke said. "She wants to have a success story now, an efficient success story, she wants to do things, starting with revitalizing the European Union."

The challenges remain huge, given the potential for a resurgence of the virus and the still emerging economic fallout, as well as unresolved Brexit negotiations and Europe's awkward position in the middle of the intensifying feud between the United States and China.

But it is also an opportunity for Merkel to burnish her legacy.

At this week's summit, E.U. leaders will be negotiating over a proposed $855 billion coronavirus recovery plan, alongside a $1.2 trillion budget for the next seven years.

European Council President Charles Michel is officially tasked with finding a compromise between member states, but any deal will depend on Merkel's long-honed skills as a negotiator, as well as Germany's economic might.

"Expectations are high," said Thomas Heilmann, a parliamentarian with Merkel's Christian Democrats, speaking of efforts to broker a financial agreement. "And if Germany fails to get things done, people will question if Merkel can't do it, who else will do it?"

Although she has been known as the face of European austerity, and although Germany has long resisted tying its financial fortunes to weaker economies in the bloc, Merkel has joined French President Emmanuel Macron in promoting a plan that would collectivize E.U. debt and help the countries hit hardest by the pandemic through a combination of grants and loans.

The plan faces opposition from a handful of countries - the "frugal four" of Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden - who prefer that assistance be offered as loans with strings attached.

Leaders are also fighting over whether aid should be conditional on adherence to democratic principles. Poland and Hungary, earmarked to be among the biggest recipients, have been criticized for rolling back protections for independent courts, a free press and the rule of law.

All 27 member states must agree.

Merkel's reputation as the austerity chancellor has particularly bothered her, according to Stefan Kornelius, who wrote her authorized biography. In the wake of the European debt crisis a decade ago, the German leader was vilified by many in southern Europe for forcing them into austerity.

Still, Kornelius said Merkel would not have made the "historic" U-turn on debt if the situation for the E.U. was not grave.

While many European leaders received an initial bump in approval during the pandemic, but Merkel has continued to grow, according to a recent poll by German channel ZDF.

"The characteristics that distinguish her have come to the fore in the pandemic, which is measured, facts-based, evidence-based, consensus-oriented leadership," said Constanze Stelzenmuller, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Party colleagues say Merkel, who has a doctorate in quantum chemistry, was quick to recognize the seriousness of the impending crisis early this year.

Dorothee Bar, minister of state to the federal chancellor, recalls how in early January Merkel asked Health Minister Jens Spahn to brief other cabinet ministers on what was happening in China and what it might entail for Germany.

By the end of February she'd completely shifted into "crisis mode," Heilmann said.

In mid-March, she spoke to the country in a rare televised address, normally reserved for her annual New Year's remarks.

This is serious, she told Germans: "Take it seriously."

Because she is not one known for spin or hyperbole, the population listened.

"She changed her communication," said Robin Alexander, a journalist with Die Welt newspaper who wrote a book on the chancellor's handling of the refugee crisis. "She is reaching out to the people, and they like it."

Overseeing Germany's coronavirus response has also involved corralling the leaders of the country's 16 states, where the power to impose lockdowns and loosen restrictions lies.

"Germany wouldn't have weathered it so well had she not worked very hard at buying the scenery to get all the minister presidents in line," said Stelzenmuller.

The country's coalition government, which had looked to be on the brink of collapse, has united, a fact Stelzenmuller also credits to Merkel's party's main coalition partner, the Social Democrats, playing a constructive and important role.

Karl Lauterbach, a parliamentarian with the Social Democrats, said that other ministers have not received enough credit for the crisis response, and that a "good amount of luck was involved" in Germany avoiding a more brutal outbreak.

"We were hit by the pandemic at a moment when we were already seeing the horrible images from northern Italy," he said. "There was a very close collaboration between scientists and politicians which I have never seen before in my entire career."

But among Germany's political parties, it's only Merkel's Chrisitian Democrats who have seen a boost during the pandemic. After reeling from a number of stinging local election performances last year - including a humiliating result in Hamburg - the party has climbed 11 points in the polls during the pandemic.

Still, Merkel's legacy remains unsecured; she has no obvious successor. Her favored candidate, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, wilted under the national spotlight and withdrew herself from contention earlier this year.

This week, there was fevered speculation that Merkel would give the nod to a second choice during a trip to Bavaria, where she was received in grand style by state premier Markus Soder. The pair took a horse-and-carriage ride and a boat trip on the lake before photo ops on the steps of an opulent Bavarian palace.

But there was no signal from Merkel of an endorsement.

Analysts suggested that she may be under pressure to support someone from her own party, rather than the Bavarian sister party Soder belongs to. Or perhaps Merkel intended the trip to project unity and power ahead of the summit in Brussels.

Pre-summit negotiations have been thorny enough that diplomats made no promises that a deal will be reached this weekend. Some said another summit this month was inevitable.

But even with rocky talks ahead, some analysts say there is little that can touch Merkel now, and gone are the doubts that she may not make it to the end of her term. "It's probably a first that after 16 years or 15 years, a chancellor has a chance to ride into a glorious sunset and not into a thunderstorm," said Kornelius.

- - -

The Washington Post's Luisa Beck and Fiona Weber-Steinhaus and Michael Birnbaum in Brussels contributed to this report.


Deepika Padukone and Katrina Kaif have never worked together in films. There were reports of the two not being on good terms. But, the two leading ladies shut down the rumour-mongers when Katrina attended Deepika and Ranveer Singhs wedding reception in Mumbai. And soon after their social media banters also made headlines.







Well, today on Katrinas birthday, Deepika took to Instagram to share a sweet post for her wishing her good health and peace of mind always.





Check out the birthday wish below.
CHICAGO, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the new market research report "Compound Semiconductor Market with COVID-19 Impact Analysis by Type (GaN, GaAs, SiC, InP), Product (LED, RF Devices, Power Electronics), Application (Telecommunication, General Lighting, Automotive, Power Supply), and Geography - Global Forecast to 2025", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Compound Semiconductor Market size is expected to grow from USD 32.0 billion in 2020 to USD 43.4 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 6.3%. The increasing use of compound semiconductors in LED applications has fueled the demand for compound semiconductors. The growing demand and implementation of GaN and SiC in the semiconductor industry is expected to play a vital role in the growth of the compound semiconductor market.

Ask for PDF Brochure:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=178858112

The compound semiconductor market includes major Tier I and II players like Nichia, Samsung Electronics, ams, Qorvo, and Skyworks. These players have their manufacturing facilities spread across various countries across Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, and RoW. COVID-19 has impacted their businesses as well. Multiple manufacturing facilities of players have shut down due to COVID-19. We expect that the semiconductor industry would decline significantly globally in 2020 due to COVID-19. This also translates into a snowballing effect on the compound semiconductor market. This could lead to lower research expenditure related to compound semiconductors.

Increasing use of GaN in LED and RF devices is expected to result in the segment occupying majority of the compound semiconductor market share

GaN is estimated to have the largest market share by value. GaN has been increasingly used in LED, semiconductor power devices, and radiofrequency (RF) devices. GaN LEDs are used in applications such as general lighting, consumer devices, commercial, and automotive. GaN is mostly used in LED applications owing to its wide-bandgap properties. LED contributes to the largest share of the GaN market. GaN is used to make white LEDs. Increasing demand for GaN LEDs in various applications, such as general lighting, signage, and automobiles, is expected to drive the growth of the GaN market.

GaN is also finding importance in RF devices as GaN devices have the ability to combine high RF power output over broad bandwidths at high frequencies. As industry shifts towards the adoption of 5G networks for >6GHz, band silicon will not be able to meet various requirements of networks as silicon devices operate well below 3GHz. In the higher frequencies being utilized for 5G, such as 3.5 GHz, GaN is more efficient than LDMOS/Silicon devices. Hence GaN will gain traction for 5G applications, particularly for base station power amplifiers

Telecommunication application segment is estimated to be the largest market

Telecommunication application is estimated to be the largest segment in the compound semiconductor market. 5G is providing a huge opportunity for compound semiconductors for telecom applications. The growth of telecommunication application is mainly driven by increasing demand for RF devices. Rapid advancements in the telecom sector are witnessed by developed and emerging countries across the world. The technological shift from 3G to 4G/LTE and now into 5G has increased the network traffic through mobile devices and resulted in increased network interferences across the communication channels. As industry shifts towards the adoption of 5G, RF content used per smartphones expected to increase, this would drive the growth of the market during the forecast period. To meet all the requirements for 4G and 5G, including saturated and linear efficiency, it is necessary to use a power amplifier manufactured with compound semiconductor technology, which is expected to drive the market growth during the forecast period.

Browse in-depth TOC on "Compound Semiconductor Market"

168  Tables

63  Figures

249  Pages

Inquiry Before Buying:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_BuyingNew.asp?id=178858112

APAC likely to emerge as the largest compound semiconductor market

APAC is estimated to be the largest market for compound semiconductors during the forecast period. The rapid market penetration of GaN and SiC in power devices, where GaN and SiC devices are increasingly replacing silicon counterparts, is predominant across several application segments in APAC. For power devices, the growing number of GaN and SiC power applications creates huge revenue potential in this region. This attracts several industry players to mass-commercialize GaN and SiC power devices for several power applications, which, in turn, are increasing the revenue potential of the compound semiconductor market in this region.

Major players in the compound semiconductor market include Nichia (Japan), Samsung Electronics (South Korea), ams (Austria), Qorvo (US), Skyworks (US), Cree (US), GaN Systems (Canada), Infineon (Germany), Mitsubishi Electric (Japan), NXP (Netherlands), and ON Semiconductor (US).

Related Reports:

RF Semiconductor Market by Device (Filter, Power Amplifier, Switch, Low Noise Amplifier), Frequency Band, Material (GaAs, GaN, Si) Application (Consumer Devices, Automotive, Telecommunication, Aerospace & Defense), and Region - Global Forecast to 2025

Silicon Carbide Market by Device (SiC Discrete Device and Bare Die), Wafer Size (4 Inch, 6 Inch and Above, and 2 Inch), Application (Power Supplies and Inverters and Industrial Motor Drives), Vertical, and Region - Global Forecast to 2025

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Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model  GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve.

MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets.

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OFX Daily Market News





Posted by OFX



AUD  Australian Dollar

The Australian Dollar advanced through trade on Wednesday, breaking resistance at 0.70 US cents following encouraging reports in the race for a COVID19 vaccine. Risk sentiment surged after Moderna reported its early stage clinical trial showed positive results with all participants producing antibodies, while Astrazeneca in partnership with Oxford University are expected to release strong results from its phase three clinical trial before the end of the week. Optimism surrounding a vaccine bolstered demand for commodity led currencies and the AUD stretched to intraday highs at 0.7034 before profit taking saw the rally falter and the AUD ease back toward the all important 0.70 resistance handle.

Having been range bound for much of the past fortnight optimism across currency markets has helped stretch recent topside handles leaving the door open for a possible extend break above 0.70 and run toward 0.71. Risk continues to dominate direction and yesterdays upturn shows the market is putting more stock in positive news than the relentless barrage of negative COVID19 headlines. Investors clung to reports vaccine trials were progressing faster than expected, setting aside the threat caused by the alarming and unchecked spread of COVID19. While we continue to expect moves above 0.70 will be hard won, anything that brings forward the timeline to full economic recovery will help foster a renewed risk on rally and drive the currency higher.

Attentions today turn to domestic labour market data and unemployment rate as a key marker of domestic economic health.

Key Movers

The US Dollar fell to a one month low through trade on Wednesday as hopes for a COVID19 vaccine were buoyed by early stage Clinical trials. Risk appetite surged, dragging equities and commodity currencies higher at the expense of have assets. The Canadian Dollar and Norwegian Kroner outperformed major counterparts while the USD, JPY and CHF all faltered amid the broader risk on move.

Story continues

The Euro advance continued, marking fresh four month highs above 1.1450. Optimism surrounding this weeks EU summit and the proposed recovery fund continue to support the single currency while broader USD weakness helped extend gains. There is a hope leaders will reach an agreement surrounding the 750 billion Euro rescue plan, driving gains and hopes the Euro area will continues its faster than anticipated economic recovery. With expectations Europe will recover at a faster pace than its US counterpart the Euro is primed to push back through March highs at 1.15.

Attentions today remains squarely affixed to changing covid19 news with Astrazeneca and Oxford University expected to release result of its stage 3 clinical vaccine trail before the end of the week with positive results opening the door to an extended risk on run.

Expected Ranges

AUD/USD: 0.6930  0.7080 

AUD/EUR: 0.6080  .6180 

GBP/AUD: 1.7880  1.8020 

AUD/NZD: 1.0580  1.0690 

AUD/CAD: 0.9410  0.9530 





Posted by OFX

The post Vaccine hopes prompt risk on surge pushing AUD through 0.70 US cents appeared first on .
Its bad enough that this baby boomer will never see the world of flying cars he was promised over a bowl of Fruit Loops and The Jetsons on Saturday mornings. But now here we are in 2020, and the best minds of our generation have seen the near-future of American life after the coronavirus or, unbelievably, still coping with it  and it turns out that its Connecticut.

Sprawling suburbs filled with former urban dwellers whove traded their crowded trendy bistros and Broadway shows for green lawns and Netflix. Daily commutes that exist of walking down a hallway for a morning of Zoom meetings or the oxymoron that is called online learning,' punctuated by the occasionally five-mile drive to the parking lot of the closest supermarket. If you squint into the distance, you might see the gleaming, empty office towers of Americas hollowed-out cities.

I always thought the job description for a futurist was someone who conjures up a better world, but the flood of think pieces that began surging in tandem with COVID-19 have largely described our near-future United States as a lonely and depressing dystopian hellscape. Maybe the people who get paid to write these think pieces should think a little harder?

True, we cant go all Republican governor and pretend the coronavirus doesnt exist, or pin all our hopes on vaccine that may be years and not months away; public health and safety must be paramount while the virus is still a threat. What worries me are solutions in the name of safety that may not really make us safer but instead take some of the nations biggest problems that existed before COVID-19 arrived and almost intentionally make them worse.

Before March 2020, the nation was just starting to take seriously the links between an atomized society and growing social isolation, or loneliness, and the surge in so-called deaths of despair among first middle-aged and now increasingly young Americans  not to mention the link between our lack of community bonds and problems like mass shooters or political radicalization.

Before March 2020, one of the rare bright spots of the 21st century was the comeback of U.S. cities, and the walkable neighborhoods and return of mass transit over smoggy traffic jams  which experts rightly saw as critical for getting climate change under control but also had public health benefits such as exercise that people dont think about as much.

I spoke this week with Dr. Anthony Iton, senior vice president for healthy communities at the California Endowment, about his recent co-authored piece in the Atlantic  A Backlash Against Cities Would Be Dangerous. It noted that, among other health benefits, urban residents who fall sick are rushed much more quickly to closer hospitals that are better staffed and have more ICU beds than facilities in sprawling, spread-out exurbs.

Inequity is the problem that exists  not cities, Iton told me, noting that some of the highest U.S. infection rates have been not in urban areas but in rural, disadvantaged communities such as Indigenous reservations in the Southwest or among farm workers. He told me that living or working in crowded conditions  really more a factor of poverty rather than whether ones lives in a city  has proven arguably the biggest factor behind coronavirus outbreaks.

Cities are good for human health because they mitigate against sprawl, and climate change, Iton added. In other words, if we want a better future, Americans are going to have to multi-task  to think about how to promote social distancing and other coronavirus safety measures in the short run, yet not abandon cities in a way that cant be easily undone if and when the virus is tamed.

The short-term trends dont look good. Clearly, some people  generally more affluent professionals who can more easily work from home  have been quick to give up on urban America. Moving companies reported a 74% year-over-year spike in people moving from New York City to leafy, spread-out Connecticut in the months when the pandemic was tearing through the Big Apple. Many of the big tech companies like Google or Facebook  firms that a few years ago were investing heavily in collaborative workspaces  are now telling employees to work from home for the foreseeable future. The Miami Herald is becoming the first major newspaper without a newsroom.

No wonder top economists are like Philadelphias Joel Naroff, in a recent piece for The Inquirer, are predicting big problems for all that downtown commercial real-estate thats arisen in recent years, as well as for mass transit systems like SEPTA and all the scores of ancillary businesses from office cleaning services to lunch trucks that depend on a commuter economy.

 READ MORE: Will a coronavirus mirage of clean air, water inspire climate action  or make things worse? | Will Bunch

Of course, those trends are very bad in and of themselves, but there will be other, deeper impacts. At first blush, working and going to school from home could have positive effects on climate change (and indeed greenhouse-gas pollution did briefly drop by 17% during the hard shut-down phase of spring.) But people moving from walkable cities to car-dependent suburbs, or driving to work in downtown offices because of COVID-19 fears of subways, undercuts that.

Corinne Le Quere, a climate scientist at the University of East Anglia, recently told the New York Times that if cities re-opening the economy when many were fearful of riding buses or subways dont pay attention to this issue, emissions could rebound back to where they were before or even go higher. But the specter of millions more working or attending home from school also threatens to worsen one of Americas worst social problems: Increasing isolation.

A report from the health insurer Cigna found that a whopping 60 % of Americans reported experiencing loneliness  and that was in January, before the coronavirus lockdown which, according to several studies, has increased social isolation much further. And the deeper numbers on loneliness in the United States  where currently more than 35 million people live alone, a record  show the problem affects younger people and men more than most realize.

Its only been recently that Americas begun to pay attention to a steady rise of deaths or despair  suicide, drug overdoses, alcoholism  that have particularly plagued working class men. Some of the biggest drivers of the trend  unemployment, isolation, lack of community  are the things spiraling out of control since COVID-19 came to America.

What else could go wrong? Weve all seen the evidence that loneliness and alienation are a key factor in Americas epidemic of mass shootings. And doctors are worried that a huge spike in the purchase of firearms  which started with the coronavirus lockdowns and increased amid social unrest  could drive suicide rates even higher.

 READ MORE: America needs to talk about the new book that says lacking a college degree might kill you | Will Bunch

There has to be a coming to a middle ground, Dr. Carla Perissinotto, who studies loneliness as a geriatrician at the University of California, San Francisco, told me in a phone interview. By that she means work and life changes that allow social distancing but also encourage human contact, such as staggered schedules so everyones occasionally in an office.

Like me, Perissinotto hopes that as we learn more about the virus  that a short hug with another person, which almost everyone now avoids, is probably a lot safer than seeing a rock band in a crowded bar for two hours  well become more thoughtful about how to work human contact back into our lives. In fact, she wonders whether the COVID-19 experience could help in the long run by forcing some people who were in denial about loneliness to now think about positive change, and also for those who are suddenly isolated in the pandemic to think about life for those who experience it all the time.

Hopefully this has created more awareness, Perissinotto said, and awareness is the first step toward positive change.

Thats exactly right. Its not surprising that the first wave of futurism about life during and immediately after the coronavirus has been heavily focused on self-preservation. But now we need to start thinking bigger  about how to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe but also about how to save American society, which frankly was feeling sick long before the first positive case of COVID.

How can we re-imagine work, school and transportation so that the laudable trend toward walkable, liveable communities where people interact with their neighbors can be continued rather than reversed, with lethal impacts on climate? And how can we keep a safe physical distance, for now, while connecting with more people in the ways that count? Its good news that the crisis has so many people talking and writing about how our lives will be different. Now its time to up our game and start talking about how our lives can be actually better.

 READ MORE: SIGN UP: The Will Bunch Newsletter
Col. Jennifer Pritzker

TAWANI Enterprises is excited to announce that Col. Jennifer Pritzker has been recognized by Crains Chicago Business as a 2020 Notable LGBTQ Executive. This list highlights LGBTQ Executives in Chicagoland who have positively impacted their workplaces and communities.

Crains 2020 Notable LGBTQ Executive list features 56 LGBTQ executives and 10 companies that champion diversity. To qualify for the list, individuals must have made significant contributions to advancing equality within the workplace or in the Chicago area. Recognized executives work in all areas including small businesses and large corporations, arts organizations, and nonprofits.

Its an honor to be featured again in Crains Notable LGBTQ Executives list, says Col. Jennifer Pritzker, TAWANI Enterprises Founder and CEO. Its critical that company leaders across Chicago continue looking for ways to eliminate both conscious and unconscious bias in hiring and employment practices. Its also important to continue supporting LGBTQ research to help the general public better understand these communities.

For nearly three decades, Col. Jennifer Pritzker served in the U.S. Army, U.S. Army Reserve, and the Illinois Army National Guard. A historian, businesswoman, investor, developer, and philanthropist, she founded TAWANI Enterprises in 1994. Through a dynamic portfolio of public-facing brands, TAWANI Enterprises aims not just to grow value for itself, but to create things of value shared and enjoyed by its fellow citizens into the future.

Col. Jennifer Pritzker continues to be an outspoken defender and advocate for LGBTQ causes, recently criticizing the transgender military ban and the HHS rollback on healthcare allowing discrimination against LGBTQ patients. Her opinion pieces have appeared in Vanity Fair, the Washington Post, and the Chicago Sun-Times.

As stated by Crains Chicago business, the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in June 2020 that civil rights law protects gay and transgender employees from discrimination pleases this cohort of Notables and the broader community that advocates equality.

To view the full list of Crains 2020 Notable LGBTQ Executives, please follow this link.

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About TAWANI Enterprises

A visionary umbrella organization with an entrepreneurial outlook, TAWANI Enterprises seeks to make private investments that connect people to the history in their midst and create opportunities for growth and knowledge, while forging stronger, healthier communities. The company represents a diversified portfolio of brands including TAWANI Property Management, TAWANI Property Development, the Pritzker Military Museum & Library, TAWANI Foundation, Pritzker Military Foundation, Master Wings Publishing, and Aurum Trading, a gold coin trading market maker. Properties under the TAWANI Property Management Hospitality division include Lang House Chicago, The Emil Bach House, Mayne Stage and The Lincoln Way Inn, all of which are thoughtfully designed lodging and event spaces. For more information, visit http://www.tawanienterprises.com.


Bill Gates

India's pharmaceutical industry will be able to produce Covid-19 vaccines not just for the country but also for the entire world, according to Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates.

A lot of important things have been done in India and its pharma industry is doing work to help make the coronavirus vaccine building on other great capacities that they have used for other diseases.

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Bill GatesGates said India also faces a huge challenge due to the health crisis because of its urban centres with a lot of population density.

Gates said, "I am excited that the pharmaceutical industry there will be able to produce not just for India but also for the entire world."
In the southern port city Bushehr of Iran, a massive blaze engulfed a shipyard on Wednesday. Seven separate ships were burned down and sent an enormous dark smoke cloud hovering over the city, as seen in videos and media reports.

Continuous fires and explosions

According to The York Times, the fire is the most recent of a string of dozens of flames and explosions that have ravaged across the forests, factories, and military facilities of Iran within the last three months.

The incidents have since been a cause for concern for Iranian citizens, and officials announced that a few of the events were due to sabotages but noted that the majority were caused by weather, accidents, and malfunctioning equipment.

In the city of Lamard on Tuesday, a fire broke out in an aluminum factory found in the Fars province. And the next day, another blaze engulfed a petrochemical plant located in the Khuzestan province.

Two weeks ago, an explosion ravaged and completely decimated the country's top nuclear facility found in Natanz, which housed centrifuges. Rumors have spread that the attack was caused by Israeli sabotage.

Two other power plants had also erupted into chaos when a chemical plant experienced a chlorine gas leak and another where a missile production factory inside a military complex in Tehran burst in an explosion.

Some Iranian officials have privately expressed they suspect some of the incidents were caused by third parties such as the US and Israeli military campaigns going against Iran. However, no official has publicly expressed accusations of any international force regarding the incidents.

Several analysts suspect that various oppositions of the Iranian government, not only the United States and Israel but also domestic groups are taking advantage of the situation to incite chaos within the country.

Also Read: A Look Inside Horrific Hospital Environments in South Africa Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic

Potential sabotage

A Tehran conservative political analyst, Foad Izadi, stated some believe individuals or groups who desire change in the Iranian political scene are attacking the country to see which regime would remain. Izadi said the incidents are showcasing a sense of instability and turmoil within the country.

The fire at the shipyard was reported not to have produced any casualties, as reported by US News.

The Islamic Republic News Agency of Iran wrote an article earlier this month suggesting the possibility of sabotage from the United States and Israeli forces responsible for the string of incidents. Still, it stopped short of directly accusing either country of the events.

A Tehran reformist analyst, Abbas Abdi, said no individual believes a third-party entity did not cause the incidents. The analyst said the objective of the attacks was to instill a sense of doubt that the Iranian government was failing the country.

Due to the frequency of the incidents, Iranian citizens have become accustomed to guessing what the next incident would be or where it would happen, as reported by First Post.

A 63-year-old business owner who asked to remain anonymous said their morning greetings between friends and colleagues would be followed by talks of speculation of the next explosion of fire.

The Iranian government has found it difficult to respond and give a firm detailed analysis of the situation as a clear culprit is not found, nor has any claim to the attacks been credible.

Related Article: Taliban Forces Bomb and Assault Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan Amid Stall Peace Talks with the US

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A long-awaited report on Russian electoral interference will be published within days after an 'improper' bid by Boris Johnson to seize control of Parliament's intelligence watchdog failed.

The cross-party committee Intelligence and Security Committee has announced that the assessment - which Mr Johnson has been accused of delaying - will be released before the Commons starts its summer recess next Wednesday.

New chairman Julian Lewis hit out this morning after he was ejected from the Tory party in revenge for his dramatic outflanking of Chris Grayling, No10's favoured candidate.

In hours of fevered intrigue last night, the maverick MP secured the crucial job overseeing MI5, MI6 and GCHQ with votes from Opposition committee members. But he was then brutally stripped of the Tory whip. One government source said: 'There are consequences for that duplicity.'

In a statement this morning, Mr Lewis pointed out that the PM had no powers to decide the chair.

He said he had received a text message yesterday asking for confirmation he would be voting for Mr Grayling.

'I did not reply as I considered it an improper request,' he said. 'In recent days, the official No10 spokesman explicitly denied that the Government was seeking to ''parachute'' a preferred candidate in to the chair, stating that it was a matter for the senior parliamentarians on the committee to decide.

'It is therefore strange to have the whip removed for failing to vote for the Government's preferred candidate.'

A spokeswoman for the ISC said the Russia report will be released before the Commons goes into recess next Wednesday. 'The Committee has unanimously agreed this morning that it will publish the Report on Russia prepared by its predecessor before the house rises for the summer recess. There will be no further comment,' the spokeswoman said.

Earlier, Conservative former ISC chair Sir Malcolm Rifkind accused the premier of a bungled attempt to try to make the watchdog his 'creature', saying he should sack his advisers.

The wrangling came as No10 chief Dominic Cummings pushes for a major overhaul of defence and security organisation. He has visited MI5 and MI6 twice, and is due to go to a series of other sensitive sites soon.

Mr Grayling had been No10's candidate for the role but a Labour and SNP 'coup' is said to have allowed fellow Tory Julian Lewis to secure the top job instead

The Tory leadership took swift action against Mr Lewis after he worked with the opposition to secure himself the chairmanship of the powerful Intelligence and Security Committee

Former Cabinet minister Chris Grayling pictured in Westminster today after failing to be installed as chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee

Julian Lewis's full statement on the ISC chair intrigue 'Because the ISC (Intelligence and Security Committee) is a special committee, I feel constrained in what I can say. 'However, the following points are relevant: '1) The 2013 Justice and Security Act explicitly removed the right of the Prime Minister to choose the ISC chairman and gave it to the committee members. 'I remember this well, as I served on the committee from 2010 to 2015 and took part of the legislation through the Commons myself on behalf of the committee. There is no other Conservative MP in the House of Commons with any past experience of working on the ISC. '2) It was only yesterday afternoon that I received a text asking me to confirm that I would be voting for the Prime Minister's preferred candidate for the ISC chair. 'I did not reply as I considered it an improper request. At no earlier stage did I give any undertaking to vote for any particular candidate. '3) In recent days, the official No 10 spokesman explicitly denied that the Government was seeking to 'parachute' a preferred candidate in to the chair, stating that it was a matter for the senior parliamentarians on the committee to decide. 'It is therefore strange to have the whip removed for failing to vote for the Government's preferred candidate.' Advertisement

A senior Government source said the removal of the whip was because the MP was 'working with Labour and other opposition MPs for his own advantage'.

It is thought Dr Lewis had only nominated himself for the role yesterday afternoon after it became clear he would have the backing of all four Labour and SNP votes.

With the Conservatives enjoying a majority - holding five out of nine places on the committee - if all had voted for Mr Grayling he would have won despite concerns about his expertise.

But the committee members voted instead for former defence select committee chairman Dr Lewis.

Former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm said the Prime Minister had acted in an 'extremely incompetent' manner and that those responsible for advising him should be sacked.

He said it is essential that the committee is seen to be independent of government if it is to be able to do its job effectively.

'The Prime Minister is the author of his own misfortune. The Prime Minister has no role in the choice of the chairman of the committee. I think the Prime Minister or his advisers have handled this in an extremely incompetent way,' Sir Malcolm told BBC Radio 4's Today programme

'If they had succeeded, that destroys the whole purpose of the Intelligence and Security Committee. It is a unique committee. They are the only people who have access to the highest levels of intelligence.

'They need the confidence of the intelligence agencies and of Parliament. If they are thought to be creatures of government they have no authority to do the job that the law requires them to do.

'The Prime Minister either should have known that or should have been advised of that, and whoever is advising him deserves to be stripped of their responsibility at this very moment.'

Business Secretary Alok Sharma refused to be drawn on the decision to remove the Tory whip from Mr Lewis.

'That is a matter for the whips, that is not something for me,' Mr Sharma told Today. 'The whole point of that committee is to provide oversight, to provide scrutiny, and that will continue.

'With reference to any individuals in the parliamentary party, I can only repeat that that is really a matter for the whips rather for me. I have not been involved in any of these discussions.'

Opposition parties have lined up to condemn the move against Dr Lewis as 'grubby' and 'psychopath politics'.

Labour former frontbencher Chris Bryant said: 'It's a momentous failure of intelligence when a PM takes months to handpick Intelligence and Security Committee members so as to deliver the Chair he wants and they refuse to do his bidding.

'To then chuck the new chairman out of the party is to lose control/the plot.'

Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner branded the move against Dr Lewis 'grubby'. And the SNP's Angus MacNeil commented: 'We are in the world of psychopath politics... This is utterly jawdropping!'

Former national security adviser Lord Ricketts warned that Mr Grayling - who earned the nickname 'Failing Grayling' during a chequered ministerial career - does not 'match up' to the authority and reputation of former chairs.

Following Dr Lewis's success, Lord Ricketts said the body was now in the 'hands of someone with much wider experience of defence and security'.

As well as Mr Grayling and Dr Lewis, the members of the ISC are Tory MPs Theresa Villiers, Sir John Hayes and Mark Pritchard, Labour MPs Dame Diana Johnson and Kevan Jones, the Labour peer Admiral Lord West and the SNP MP Stewart Hosie.

Mr Johnson has faced criticism over the delay in appointing the committee which has not met since the last parliament was dissolved in November last year.

The committee has yet to publish its long-awaited report into Russian interference in UK politics after Mr Johnson refused to clear it for release before last year's general election.

The wrangling came as No10 chief Dominic Cummings (pictured today) pushes for a major overhaul of defence and security organisation. He has visited MI5 and MI6 twice, and is due to go to a series of other sensitive sites soon

A committee source said: 'This was a secret ballot but clearly for him (Mr Grayling) to lose, some Tories decided not to vote for him.'

Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said Mr Johnson had appointed 'yes men' to the ISC but 'true to form, however, failing Grayling has been undone in his bid to be chair'.

What is the Intelligence and Security Committee? The Intelligence and Security Committee was established by the Intelligence Service Act 1994 and its role is to provide parliamentary scrutiny of the security services. It is seen as one of the most privileged and important committees as it has access to chiefs of the UK intelligence services. The group itself is formed of 9 parliamentarians drawn from both the House of Lords and House of Commons. As well as Mr Grayling and Dr Lewis, the members of the ISC are Tory MPs Theresa Villiers, Sir John Hayes and Mark Pritchard, Labour MPs Dame Diana Johnson and Kevan Jones, the Labour peer Admiral Lord West and the SNP MP Stewart Hosie. The specific oversight the committee has is to examine the policy and expenditure of: the Security Service, the Secret Intelligence Service and the Government Communications Headquarters. It reports annually to the Prime Minister, but the reports are often heavily redacted due to the sensitive material within them. Now the group has a chairman in place, Dr Lewis will be under almost immediate pressure to quickly publish a long-awaited report into Russian interference in UK democracy. Advertisement

'I hope we now have a committee with real teeth that can hold this Government to account,' he added.

'That starts by publishing the report into Russian interference of our democracy before the summer recess so MPs can scrutinise it fully.'

Mr Grayling, the former transport secretary, was Downing Street's pick to take charge of the parliamentary body.

Mr Grayling had nominated himself yesterday and was said to not be expecting a challenge.

The former Cabinet minister had been widely expected to win the role after it became clear that he was Number 10's preferred candidate.

A parliamentary source told Sky News: 'Someone lays out a red carpet for you and you manage somehow to trip over it and set it on fire.'

The ISC, which is tasked with scrutinising the work of the UK's intelligence services, has not been convened since December 2019 after it was dissolved for the general election.

It elected its members from across the House of Commons and the Lords earlier this week.

Now that it has a chairman it will be under pressure to quickly publish a long-awaited report into Russian interference in UK democracy.

SNP defence spokesman Stewart McDonald MP said: 'This is another total shambles from the Tory government, which has failed to put in place a functioning Intelligence and Security Committee for more than six months since the election.

'With his abysmal record of failure as a Tory minister, Chris Grayling is the only man who could lose a rigged election but it is right the committee has elected a chair and it should now get on with the crucial job of ensuring scrutiny and oversight of security matters, after months of delay.'

Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said Mr Johnson had appointed 'yes men' to the ISC but 'true to form, however, failing Grayling has been undone in his bid to be chair'.

'I hope we now have a committee with real teeth that can hold this Government to account,' he added.

'That starts by publishing the report into Russian interference of our democracy before the summer recess so MPs can scrutinise it fully.'

It comes as Beijing accused Britain of working with the US to 'discriminate, oppress and exclude' Chinese firms and warned of jeopardised relations after Huawei was banned from the UK's 5G network.

Boris Johnson faced a diplomatic backlash on Wednesday in response to his major U-turn over the Chinese tech giant, a move which Donald Trump claimed credit for.

The Prime Minister ordered telecoms firms to remove Huawei equipment from the 5G network by 2027 in a move costing billions and delaying the deployment of 5G by up to three years.

The ban came after a Government-ordered review found the security of Huawei's equipment could not be guaranteed because of US sanctions.

Who is Dr Julian Lewis? The maverick MP has shocked Westminster tonight after first ambushing Chris Grayling to snag the coveted chairmanship, and has now been booted from the Tory party. Dr Julian Lewis has served as an MP for New Forest East since 1997, but grew up in Swansea and later studied Philosophy and Politics at Balliol College, Oxford. He later specialised in strategic studies and was awarded his doctorate in 1981. In the late 1970s, he joined the Royal Naval Reserve, serving as a Seaman on the Southampton-based minesweeper called HMS Glasserton. He also campaigned against the infiltration of the Labour party by militants in the same decade. His first major foray into politics was as a leading opponent to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. While in Parliament he has continued to pursue the retention the country's strategic nuclear deterrent, called Trident. He later became a Director of Policy Research Associates working with Conservative members of the House of Lords to scrutinise legislation. He was elected to Parliament in May 1997, and has been re-elected ever since. In February 2000, Julian was appointed as one of the three Conservative Members of the Select Committee on Defence and in 2002 he became a Shadow Defence Minister. Dr Lewis is an avid Brexiteer and member of the influential European Research Group (ERG). Interestingly he is one of the few remaining MPs who refuses to use email for correspondence. Instead you have to write a letter to him or phone. Advertisement

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying warned in a briefing that the ban 'will only hurt the UK's own interests', adding: 'This is a big world and the UK is just a small part of it.

'Without any evidence the UK under the pretext of risks which don't exist at all cooperated with the US to discriminate, oppress and exclude Chinese companies in violation of the principle of market economy and free trade. This breaches the UK's promises,' she said.

'The UK has made the wrong decision that undermines severely the Chinese company's interests and the mutual trust between China and the UK.

'This is about China facing a major threat in its investment security in the UK and our confidence whether the UK market can maintain openness, fairness and non-discriminatory ... We have severe concerns on that and we remind all Chinese companies to pay attention to the increasing political and security risks.'

Meanwhile in London, China's ambassador to the UK Liu Xiaoming accused Britain of behaving like a 'junior partner' of the US.

He suggested ministers imposed the ban because they 'had to succumb to pressure' from the 'China hawks and China-bashers'.

Mr Johnson acted on Tuesday after coming under pressure from his own MPs on the Tory backbenches and from Mr Trump's administration as the UK tries to broker a post-Brexit trade deal with the White House.

In a press conference, Mr Trump spoke of having 'convinced many countries' including the UK not to use Huawei.

The US president said: 'I did this myself, for the most part,' adding: 'If they want to do business with us, they can't use it.'

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will fly to the UK for talks next week, expected to cover 5G and China as well as a possible transatlantic trade deal.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock acknowledged the US sanctions played a role in the ban and said trade discussions were also an important consideration, but insisted it was 'a sensible decision'.

'We all know Donald Trump, don't we?' he told Sky News.

'All sorts of people can try to claim credit for the decision, but this was based on a technical assessment by the National Cyber Security Centre about how we can have the highest quality 5G systems in the future.'

Downing Street insisted it was a UK decision in response to the assessment of the sanctions from the US which were 'like nothing we had ever seen before'.

'The US imposed the sanctions, it was then for the NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre) to assess the impact of those sanctions on the security of the UK's 5G network,' the Prime Minister's official spokesman said.

The UK's Government was 'clear eyed' about dealing with China but 'we remain committed to a constructive relationship'.

Huawei, which denies being a security threat, urged ministers to reconsider the move.

Telecoms firms will be banned from next year from purchasing new 5G equipment from Huawei and will have to remove all the Chinese company's kit by 2027.

They are also expected to be ordered to shift away from the purchase of Huawei's equipment for full-fibre broadband networks over a period lasting up to two years.

In January, the firm was given permission to play a limited role in the 5G network.

But Downing Street insiders acknowledged the sanctions imposed by the White House in May were a 'game-changer'.

Ministers ordered a review by the National Cyber Security Centre into Huawei's role in the UK after the sanctions barred Huawei's access to products based on US semiconductor technology.

The NCSC's technical director Ian Levy said products adapted to cope with the restrictions 'are likely to suffer more security and reliability problems because of the massive engineering challenge ahead of them'.

And, he said, it would be 'harder for us to be confident' in their use within the mitigation measures already in place for the 'high risk' firm's equipment.

Meanwhile, GCHQ's protective signals intelligence network is on stand-by to detect and disrupt any attempt by China to mount cyber attacks on the UK in retaliation for the decision.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama will launch an exclusive podcast on Spotify discussing relationships that shape our lives. (Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press)

Former First Lady Michelle Obama will launch a podcast later this month on Spotify examining the relationships that shape our lives.

The program, called the "The Michelle Obama Podcast," will be available on Spotify on July 29. The relationships examined include siblings, close friends, partners, parents, mentors and the connection to one's self.

"My hope is that this series can be a place to explore meaningful topics together and sort through so many of the questions we're all trying to answer in our own lives," Obama said in a statement. "Perhaps most of all, I hope this podcast will help listeners open up new conversations  and hard conversations  with the people who matter the most to them. That's how we can build more understanding and empathy for one another."

The podcast is the first program to come out of a partnership between Spotify and Higher Ground, Michelle and Barack Obama's production company.

The Obamas also have a multiyear deal, signed in 2018, to produce shows and films for Netflix.

Guests on the new podcast include Conan O'Brien and journalist Michele Norris, as well as Michelle Obama's mother, Marian Robinson, and brother, Craig Robinson.

The podcast is available for Spotify's free and paid users. The streaming service, which has more than 286 million monthly users, has been expanding its reach into podcasts as way to gain new customers and increase the amount of time listeners spend on Spotify.

"At Spotify we seek to connect listeners with the world's most authentic and compelling voices," said Dawn Ostroff, chief content and advertising business officer, in a statement. "We believe that audiences across the globe will be inspired by these most candid, most human and most personal conversations between First Lady Michelle Obama and her guests."

The Swedish streaming company has acquired several podcast companies, including the $230-million purchase of New York-based Gimlet Media last year. As more people looked for ways to entertain themselves at home, Spotify saw a record number of podcasts uploaded to its platform in March.
Beauty retailer Mecca has revealed the three best-selling lip balms in-store and online, and the prices start from just $10.

According to the store, with the onset of winter and cooler weather, there have been three products that have been repeatedly flying off the shelves in the past two months - and none of them break the bank.

'These are the most hydrating, nourishing, and soothing lip balms on our shelves (and your desks, bedside tables, bags and pockets) right now,' the store's team said on their website.

So what are the three products you need to invest in and why?

Beauty retailer Mecca has revealed the three best-selling lip balms in-store and online, and the prices start from just $10

1. Mario Badescu Vanilla Lip Wax, $10

The Mario Badescu Vanilla Lip Wax may only set you back $10 (pictured), but it packs a major punch with hydration

The Mario Badescu Vanilla Lip Wax may only set you back $10, but it packs a major punch with hydration.

'A classic throw-in-your-bag product, this vitamin E, jojoba and beeswax lip balm is... the blue jeans of lip balms and a reliable lip soother,' the Mecca team wrote.

The $10 product boasts a 4.4 star rating on the Mecca website, where more than 100 women have attested to its qualities.

'Loved this! And it worked especially well with the eczema on my lips,' one woman wrote.

Another added: 'This is the best lip balm I've ever used. Left my lips very soft.'

The product comes in non-descript Mario Badescu packaging, but delivers on ingredients including jojoba, nourishing vitamin E and beeswax.

The second lip balm on the bestseller list is Kiehl's Lip Balm #1 in Mango , which costs $15 and has been on the bestseller list since the 1960s (pictured in use)

2. Kiehl's Lip Balm #1 in Mango, $15

The lip balm (pictured) features replenishing squalane, aloe vera and vitamin E, which work together to give chapped lips a lease of life

The second lip balm on the bestseller list is Kiehl's Lip Balm #1 in Mango, which costs $15 and has been on the bestseller list since the 1960s.

'Replenishing squalane rises to the occasion alongside aloe vera and vitamin E, working together to give dry, chapped or cracked lips a new lease on life, instantly,' the Mecca team explained.

Like the Mario Badescu, the Kiehl's balm has an impressive 4.4 star rating online, where it has alternatively been described as 'miracle' and a 'godsend'.

'This has become my favourite lip balm!' one woman wrote.

'Firstly it smells amazing, but it actually works in fixing dry chapped lips. My lips have become softer by using this and they aren't reliant on continually topping up. It has definitely become a holy grail for me.'

The most expensive lip balm on the list, the Summer Fridays Lip Butter Balm , $35, is a staple in many a celebrity's beauty bag (pictured in use)

3. Summer Fridays Lip Butter Balm, $35

The vanilla-flavoured vegan lip balm (pictured) is rich in plant-derived butters like shea and murumuru seed, and it has an impressive 4.6 star rating online

The most expensive lip balm on the list, the Summer Fridays Lip Butter Balm, $35, is a staple in many a celebrity's beauty bag.

The vanilla-flavoured vegan lip balm is rich in plant-derived butters like shea and murumuru seed, and it has an impressive 4.6 star rating online.

'I bought this a couple of weeks ago and it is so good,' one woman wrote.

'It gives your lips the moisture punch they need and it gives them a glossy shine. Wear it out for the day or to bed as a lip mask. It's addictive.'

Another described the product as a 'game-changer' for cracked lips.

'I suffer from horrible dry peeling lips in winter and eczema, and this is finally a lip balm that doesn't sting when I use it,' another woman posted.

'After two days, my lips looked normal. Thank you Summer Fridays, you have no idea what this has done to my self confidence in winter.'
The American Booksellers Association kicked off its eighth annual Childrens Institute, and the first ever held online, with hundreds of childrens booksellers in virtual attendance for author discussions, fall book picks, and a keynote by How to Be a Pirate author Isaac Fitzgerald. If there were any doubts about how the transition from hotel rooms to breakout rooms would go, they were quickly dispelled by an opening discussion on Representation in Science Fiction and Fantasy Young Adult and Middle Grade Books that riveted attendees.

In a wide-ranging conversation, authors Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, Dhonielle Clayton, and Tracy Deonn shared their perspective as Black authors with booksellers, describing the enormous hurdles that Black artists continue to face in a publishing industry that is largely white.

Some of us get a golden car when we sell a book... and others of us have flat tires and have to struggle all the way into publishing and across the finish line, said Clayton, who is the author of The Belles and Tiny Pretty Things. Its deeply and fundamentally unfair and thats what Im frustrated by, that the Black imagination is not as valued as others.

The authors described their takes on what Black imagination looks like in science fiction and fantasy, from magic to world-building, and they hailed the success of novels like Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky as a turning point for Black authors. But they cautioned that substantial work remains, singling out persistently racist perceptions that prevent mainstream audiences from discovering books by Black authors.

How can we make clear that Black American fantasy is its own thing but also say that its not niche?, Deonn asked, before describing an instance where she was questioned by a reader who wanted to know if her forthcoming Legendborn (McElderry, Sept.) is, a Black book.

Theres a black girl on the cover, she said. Im an American. I dont even know what that means.

Ultimately the authors called on booksellers for their help in breaking down barriers and mainstreaming their work. In the chat alongside the session, booksellers resoundingly supported the call to action.

I could have listened to them talk all day, Melanie Knight, childrens frontlist buyer for the Bay Area based Books Inc. stores, told PW. I was really happy that they brought up how to market their books. I think so many people get caught up in the fact that its a book with Black characters and think it needs to be pitched differently, when in fact it should be handsold just like you would any other title.

Indies Introduce

This seasons Indies Introduce debuts for middle grade and YA readers that were spotlighted in a Wednesday morning session revealed important developments regarding those writing books for this segment of the marketand about young readers as well. Most of the nine selections were multicultural voices weaving tales laced with magic and characters who revel in their diversity. Several of them draw upon Black girl magic, such as the queer rom-com, You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson (Scholastic Press); and Deonns Legendborn, a modern take on the legend of King Arthur and his knights set in North Carolina.

This years selections also reflect the fluidity of gender identity among young people, with several picks spotlighting queer characters making magic together, including Cattywampus by Ash van Otterloo (Scholastic Press, Aug.), about two young rival witches in Appalachia who put aside their differences to save their town from zombies; and Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas (Swoon Reads, Sept.), about a Mexican-American transgender boy who falls for the ghost he accidentally conjures up from the dead.

It was important for me to write a book where LGBTQIA and Latinx kids could see themselves being powerful heroes, Thomas said. These kids are living in a world where a lot of hate and suffering is zeroed in on them. I wanted them to see themselves being supported and loved for who they are. I wanted to write a fun book with good representation that they could escape into and have a happy ending.

White Allyship

Much of the afternoon was dedicated to a session on White Allyship, where white booksellers were encouraged to discuss ways to improve their support for BIPOC colleagues, employees, customers, and authors. The two-hour workshop included breakout discussions facilitated by Ilsa Govan of Cultures Connecting.

It was really impactful, especially after the Representation session, said one attendee. We were encouraged to honestly examine our past actions. People were supportive. But it is always uncomfortable to have to examine things that we have done that have not supported, or even hurt, others. [I have] lots of things to think about and work on both personally and professionally.

The bookseller also remarked on a substantial gender imbalance at the session. I noticed that out of the 100 attendees, only five were men, they said. Id love to explore why more men didnt sign up. The men who were there acknowledge that it is sometimes uncomfortable to be in these conversations as white men, and were thoughtful in the discussions.

Store Voice and a Storytime Keynote

The final workshop for booksellers was a session on store voice, where five booksellers took questions and offered suggestions for how fellow booksellers can use social media, streamline operations, and interact with customers, authors, and publishers.

Isaac Fitzgerald, former BuzzFeed books editor and now a picture book author, then closed out the day with a 30-minute address thanking booksellers while also treating them to two storybook readings. Fitzgerald began by reading from Maurice Sendaks classic, Where the Wild Things Are, and then walked booksellers through the ways the images in the book grow to fill the page as the story expands. Later, he read from his own book, but interspersed throughout, Fitzgerald described his own upbringing, first in subsidized housing in Boston, before the family moved to rural Massachusetts.

Growing up in poverty, Fitzgerald said his local bookstore was a safe haven where he could read, but was never pressured to buy a book. He thanked booksellers profusely for being places of wonder and escape for readers now, singling out Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis for its role as a safe haven during the first anti-racist protests that followed the killing of George Floyd.

There are a lot of obstacles out there right now. Times are tough with this pandemic. Its hurting everyone and bookstores and booksellers are suffering along with everybody else, but I have been so inspired by everything yall have done over these past months, Fitzgerald said. The work yall do is so, so important. And at its core is putting the right book in the hand of a young reader who so desperately needs it. The heart of it all.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government announced the results of the class 12 state board examination today.

This comes a day after Higher Education Minister KP Anbalagan said that applications were invited for engineering admissions in the state.

Students can check their results on tnresults.nic.in, dge1.tn.nic.in and dge2.tn.nic.in.

A message with the marks will also be sent to the registered mobile number of the students.

According to a data issued by the Directorate of Government Examinations, 92.3 per cent of students have passed.

This year too, girls were ahead of the boys in the pass percentage with 94.80 per cent of them clearing the examination against 89.41 per cent of boys.

Nearly 86 per cent of government school students passed the exam while 98.70 per cent of matriculation school students cleared it.

The data also showed that over 94 per cent of students from government aided schools cleared the exams.

Tiruppur recorded the highest pass percentage of 97.12 in Tamil Nadu, followed by Erode (96.99) and Coimbatore (96.39).

Chennai's pass percentage stood at 87.05 per cent.

The state board exams were conducted between March 3 to 24.

However, the results were delayed owing to the lockdown.

Over 35,000 students did not write the final Class 12 board exam, delaying in publication of results.

However, 718 students who applied for the exam, shall be writing it later this month.

The Tamil Nadu government passed all the candidates of Class 10 since exams could not be conducted during the lockdown.
A 16-year-old Roswell boy has been charged with involuntary manslaughter after police say he accidentally shot and killed his cousin earlier this month.

Ethan Benitez turned himself in to the Roswell Police Department on Thursday afternoon, according to a news release sent out by police spokesman Todd Wildermuth.

According to the release, an arrest warrant had been issued for Benitez on Wednesday, charging him with involuntary manslaughter and unlawful possession of a handgun  in this case being in possession of a gun while under the influence of marijuana and being underage as it relates to the minimum age of 19 at which someone can possess a firearm.

Based on the investigation, Roswell police believe Benitez was high on marijuana when he handled a handgun and it accidentally fired, with the single bullet striking 22-year-old Omar Benitez in the wrist and chest on July 8, according to the release.

There were two other people in the apartment and one of them witnessed the shooting that occurred around 10 p.m., the release reads.

Benitez died about two hours later at a hospital.
Coffee is one of the key staples exported from Vietnam into the ASEAN market each year. Photo: Le Toan

Just over a week ago, the Indonesian Embassy in Hanoi organised a webinar connecting Indonesian businesses with the Vietnamese coal market where the demand for the material is on the rise.

According to Ibnu Hadi, Ambassador of Indonesia to Vietnam, coal export from Indonesia to Vietnam is promising, with the total in 2019 from Indonesia being 15.4 million tonnes worth $868.6 million, up 10.06 per cent on-year.

Despite the aftermath of COVID-19, the export performance in the first five months of 2020 reached $407.7 million, up 3.82 per cent on-year. Vietnams coal demand is expected to total 40.31 million tonnes this year, 70.3 million tonnes by 2025, and 100 million tonnes by 2030, due to the high demand of energy for the thermal power plants.

Many Indonesian businesses are considering Vietnam a lucrative business and investment destination, the ambassador said. They are operating not only in the coal sector, but also in other sectors such as spare car parts, education, property, infrastructure, plastic moulding, consumer products, supplementary foods, agriculture, and processing.

One of the key reasons behind Indonesian businesses rising interest in Vietnam is that the country is strongly improving its investment and business climate, in addition to positive impacts of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) established in late 2015.

Over the past few years, many business delegations from Indonesia have come to Vietnam in search of business and investment opportunities. For example, PT. Asia Mina Sejahtera is seeking Vietnamese partners to co-operate in potential coffee projects.

Were expanding production, and we are looking for more supplies of input materials. Vietnam is our best market, said Pranoto Soenarto, director of PT. Asia Mina Sejahtera.

Expanding ties

According to Vietnams General Statistics Office (GSO), many factors including tax slashes under the regions commitments have helped Vietnam swell its trade and investment co-operation with not only Indonesia but also with many other regional member states.

Statistics from the Ministry of Planning and Investment showed that in the first six months of 2020, Vietnam expanded investments to some regional markets, such as Myanmar ($38.3 million), Laos ($24.7 million), Singapore ($19 million), and Cambodia ($15.7 million).

Meanwhile, as of June 20, total investment from ASEAN member states in Vietnam hit over $90.74 billion, with Singapores investment of over $54.74 billion, Thailand ($12.4 billion), Malaysia ($12.75 billion), Indonesia ($590.6 million), and the Philippines ($265.3 million).

For example, the first six months of 2020 saw Singapore making the largest investment in Vietnam with $4.32 billion registered for 121 newly-licensed projects, and Thailand with 16 newly-licensed projects registered at $134.6 million.

Notably, Singapores Delta Offshore Energy Pte. Ltd was in February licensed by the Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu to implement a $4 billion project to develop a 3.200MW power plant run by liquefied natural gas. The plant will have four turbines of 750MW each and one with a capacity of 200MW, the former to go on stream at the end of 2023 and the latter in 2027.

After cultivating their investments in Vietnam, many of these ASEAN investors have also boosted import goods from their native nations into Vietnam, from which they have also exported goods back to their nations.

Currently, Southeast Asia is now Vietnams fourth-largest export market, after the US, the EU, and China. Vietnams export turnover to the region surged from under $1 billion in 1995 to $18.23 billion in 2015 and $17.45 billion in 2016. However, the figure ascended to $21.7 billion in 2017, $24.7 billion in 2018, and $25.3 billion last year, up 1.9 per cent on-year. In the first half of this year, the figure hit $11.1 billion, down 14.2 per cent on-year.

Meanwhile, Southeast Asia is also Vietnams third-largest import market. The countrys import turnover from other member states totalled $23.8 billion in 2015, $23.7 billion in 2016, $28 billion in 2017, $32 billion in 2018 and $32.1 billion last year. The figure touched $14.2 billion in the first six months of 2020, down 11.9 per cent on-year.

Not only foreign enterprises in Vietnam, but Vietnamese ones have also been boosting their exports to ASEAN markets, said a representative from the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) at a recent meeting between the government and localities. This has been thanks to slashed import tariffs, besides enterprises improved awareness about ASEAN markets.

Key export items by Vietnam to the ASEAN include farm produce like coffee, pepper, and cashews; mobile phones, computers, and other electronics items; steel, machinery, and vehicles; and textiles and garments, and also crude oil.

Nguyen Dang Manh, sales representative from Pouching Garment and Textile JSC, a Vietnam-China joint venture company in the northern province of Hung Yen, told VIR that if his firm directly exports its garments from China to the ASEAN, it would face an average import tax rate of 10-12-10 per cent, but when the firm exports from Vietnam, it can enjoy a far lower import tax rate of 2-3 per cent only, which will be fully removed in 2020.

Last year, the firm exported to Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, with turnover rising 15 per cent on-year. However, the rate was down to -3 per cent in the first half of this year due to the pandemic forcing these markets to halt trade activities. After COVID-19, we may expand to other markets in the region like Thailand and the Philippines, Manh said.

Wide-ranging tax cuts

As one of the key pillars of the ASEAN Community, the AEC aims to create a tariff-free zone on all traded goods and services, while setting a timetable for the removal of non-tariff barriers regionwide.

According to the MoITs Multilateral Trade Policy Department, the ASEAN-6 nations  including the most developed economies of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand - had erased 99 per cent of their import tariff lines in 2010.

Meanwhile, the remaining nations  Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam  already removed 90 per cent of their import tariff lines in 2015. From 2018 to 2020, the remaining tariff lines will be removed by Vietnam for such products as automobiles and their spare parts, steel, motorbikes and bikes and their spare parts, wine, beer, plastics, paper, poultry, eggs, sectioned fruit, rice, processed meat, and sugar.

However, in order to benefit from such tariff reductions, goods must meet many conditions. For example, they have at least 40 per cent of their materials sourced from within ASEAN.

According to the Timber and Forest Product Association of Vietnam (Vifores), Vietnamese wooden product producers are finding it difficult to enter regional markets. In spite of tax cuts, they cannot expand exports to these markets due to their low demand for Vietnamese products. Meanwhile, the firms also import a large volume of materials, such as paint, nails, and chemicals worth millions of US dollars per year from regional member states.

Along with wooden products, many regional markets also have almost the same export goods as Vietnam. Moreover, Vietnam is considered a manufacturing base of many foreign enterprises while its supporting industries remain underdeveloped, so businesses have had to boost imports from overseas markets including Southeast Asia.

Thats why the whole economy in general has still been suffering from a trade deficit with the ASEAN, Vifores vice chairman Nguyen Ton Quyen told VIR.

The GSO reported that the deficit level was $6.3 billion in 2017, $7.3 billion in 2018, $6.8 billion, and $3.1 billion in the first half of this year. Notably, Vietnam has seen a deficit with Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Vietnam is also a net importer of many items indispensable for local production from ASEAN member states, such as petrol, plastics, and components for computers, electronics, machinery, and steel from these nations.

However, according to the GSO, Vietnam imports these items for local production, and then exports finished products to the world, including Southeast Asia. Thus, there should be no big worry about the trade deficit between Vietnam and the ASEAN, and one of the important things now is how to remove barriers facing businesses of Vietnam and other regional nations.

For instance, the Indonesian Embassy to Vietnam said that despite the great potential for Indonesia to boost coal exports into Vietnam, some obstacles remain.

Challenges identified among others are logistic transportation during export, the long process of supply chain from the bidding process up to export, and the compulsory utilisation of national shipping lines and insurance, read a release from the embassy.
Britain, Canada, and the United States have accused Russia of trying to steal COVID-19 vaccine and treatment research from academic and pharmaceutical institutions around the world.

The British National Cybersecurity Center (NCSC) said on July 16 that hacking group APT29, also known as the Dukes or Cozy Bear, has targeted organizations involved in the development of a COVID-19 vaccine in the three countries.

It said the group's attacks were ongoing, highly likely with the intention of stealing information and intellectual property relating to the development and testing of COVID-19 vaccines.

APT29 almost certainly operate as part of [the] Russian Intelligence Services, the NCSC said, adding that the United States and Canada shared its assessment.

Paul Chichester, the NCSCs director of operations, condemned these despicable attacks against those doing vital work to combat the coronavirus pandemic."

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said it was "completely unacceptable" for Russian intelligence services to target work on the coronavirus, adding that Britain will work with its allies to hold perpetrators to account.

"While others pursue their selfish interests with reckless behavior, the UK and its allies are getting on with the hard work of finding a vaccine and protecting global health," Raab said in a statement.

The announcement comes as the British government said that Russian groups almost certainly sought to interfere in Britains general elections last year through illicitly acquired documents.

The documents, regarding British-U.S. trade talks, emerged online.

In a statement, Raab said there was "no evidence of a broad spectrum Russian campaign against the general election" but that "any attempt to interfere in our democratic processes is completely unacceptable."

The accusation comes as a much-delayed report into allegations of wider Russian interference into British democracy, such as during the referendum on remaining in the European Union, is expected next week.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia has nothing to do with any alleged hacker attacks on pharmaceutical companies and research institutes in Britain or allegations of Russian meddling in the countrys elections.

In its advisory, the NCSC said Cozy Bear exploited software flaws to get access to vulnerable computer systems, and used malware to upload and download files from infected machines.

They also tricked individuals into handing over log-in credentials with phishing and spear-phishing attacks.

Britain did not say which organizations were targeted, or whether any information had been stolen.

The United States has identified Cozy Bear as one of the Russian government-linked hacking groups that hacked the Democratic National Committee computer network ahead of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, the BBC, and TASS
The Ontario government announced Tuesday that the Hamilton region will receive more than $700,000 to help put our tourism industry on a path to recovery as the province continues to move forward with its staged reopening.

We have amazing, world-class facilities in every single community in this province that we may have overlooked, said Lisa MacLeod, the provincial minister of heritage, sport, tourism and culture industries. Its time for us to start seeing whats in our own backyards.

Through a partnership between government-funded agencies Destination Canada and Destination Ontario, $350,000 will be recommitted to support the regional tourism associations marketing efforts. Another $376,000 will be allocated to support festivals and events, like the Art Gallery of Hamilton (AGH) film festival and Supercrawl, Hamiltons annual arts and music festival, many of which are pivoting to different formats amid COVID-19.

This funding is part of an effort to encourage homegrown tourism and talent, MacLeod said in a media release.

The announcement was made Tuesday afternoon at the AGH, which is set to reopen Thursday with free admission for the month of July.

Were going to make sure that we bring people from around the province back to this city next year, she said. We want to make sure were in a position to be able to do that, and thats why these investments today are so important.

When the pandemic hit in March, the Hamilton Halton Brant Regional Tourism Association (RTA), which typically markets to Toronto and the U.S., quickly shifted audiences.

Right now its really hyperlocal, executive director Maria Fortunato told The Spectator. The marketing is really encouraging locals to do things locally.

The RTA has launched several campaigns amid the COVID-19 pandemic, including one encouraging southwestern Ontarians to Stay and Play and another, Worth the Wait, for those outside the region.

The funding, which will be invested between now and September 2021, will go toward supporting event providers that have gone virtual, promoting local tourism and education on new protocols, like reservations and time-limits for attractions and activities.

Theres a bit of new habit-building activity, she said. So were helping to also try to educate that in the marketing.

***Correction: This story was updated July 16. The original version of this story incorrectly implied that certain events were cancelled, when they are in fact repositioning themselves to run in accordance with health and safety guidelines.
Students who are graduating talk with job recruiters at a career fair in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, on July 11. [Zheng Zhibo/For China Daily]

BEIJING  China's Education Ministry on Wednesday opened a hotline for students and their parents with inquiries on financial aid at universities.

This will mark the 16th year of the opening of such a hotline by the ministry to serve students and their parents from poor households and ease their worries about financial support for the students newly admitted to higher education institutions.

The routine hotline this year will run from Wednesday through Sept. 18, the longest ever, according to the ministry.

Education authorities and universities across the country are also required to open hotlines to provide information on financial aid.

China's unified college entrance exam was held last week. Those newly enrolled by universities normally start campus life in autumn.

(Source: Xinhua)
The Vatican today released guidelines for bishops on how to handle clerical child abuse claims after Pope Francis called for a 'practical handbook' for cases.

The long-awaited manual for bishops and religious superiors details how to conduct in-house investigations into allegations of priests who rape and molest minors and vulnerable adults.

The manual - which includes a form to be filled out detailing the alleged crime against minors - does not include any new laws but aims to clarify the existing rules on tackling a scandal which has plagued the church for decades.

Its origins lie in a four-day tutorial on abuse held by Pope Francis in 2019 after a botched case of abuse and cover-up in Chile.

The Vatican today released guidelines for bishops on how to handle clerical child abuse claims after Pope Francis (pictured this month) called for a 'practical handbook' for cases

At the time, he called for 'a practical handbook indicating the steps to be taken by authorities at key moments when a case emerges'.

The Vatican has had detailed canonical norms in place for two decades but the laws continue to be ignored by some bishops who dismiss allegations by victims in favour of protecting their priests.

While the manual does not have the force of a new law, it goes beyond the current Vatican policy about co-operating with law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and police.

Current policy requires bishops and religious superiors to report allegations of sex crimes with minors only where local laws requires it.

But the new manual says: 'Even in cases where there is no explicit legal obligation to do so, the ecclesiastical authorities should make a report to the competent civil authorities if this is considered necessary to protect the person involved or other minors from the danger of further criminal acts.'

The manual's origins lie in a four-day tutorial on abuse held by Pope Francis (pictured last week) in 2019 after a botched case of abuse and cover-up in Chile

It adds church leaders must comply with 'legitimate' summons to attend court.

The manual, issued in a half-dozen languages, appears aimed in part at depriving bishops and religious superiors of their frequent excuses not to carry out preliminary investigations into accused priests or co-operate with law enforcement.

It states, for example, that anonymous allegations should not be dismissed outright and that even hearsay and social media posts can constitute the basis on which to launch a preliminary investigation.

In addition, the manual says bishops should not ignore allegations just because they fall outside the Church's statute of limitations, since the Vatican can at any time decide to waive the time limit.

The only justification for dismissing an allegation outright, the manual says, is if the bishop determines the 'manifest impossibility of proceeding', such as if the accuser was not under age 18 at the time or the priest was not physically present when the alleged crimes took place.

French cardinal Philippe Barbarin (pictured) - who covered up child sex abuse by one of his priests - has walked from court after receiving a six-month suspended sentence

It warns bishops can themselves be prosecuted canonically for negligence if they fail to take allegations seriously and investigate them.

The manual was published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and was issued in Italian, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese and Polish, with a German edition expected.

Archbishop Giacomo Morandi told Vatican News: 'The real novelty... is that for the first time the procedure is described in an organised way - from the first report of a possible crime to the definitive conclusion.'

Morandi, the deputy of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) which is responsible for processing clergy sex abuse complaints, said clerical assault of minors was still 'present on all continents'.

Philippe Barbarin (pictured), the Roman Catholic archbishop of Lyon, was convicted of failing to act on historic allegations of abuse of boy scouts in his diocese

'We are still witnessing reports emerge of old cases, sometimes many years later. Certainly, some crimes are also recent,' he said.

Francis summoned all the world's bishops conferences together in 2019 after he botched a notorious case of abuse and cover-up in Chile and after he realised many bishops around the world did not understand or take seriously the depth of the abuse problem in the Church.

On the first day of the summit, Francis issued 21 points of reflection going forward, with the first point a recommendation that the Vatican issue a handbook to help bishops investigate and prosecute sex crimes.

Philippe Barbarin, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Lyon, was convicted of failing to act on historic allegations of abuse of boy scouts in his diocese.

The 69-year-old was the highest-profile cleric to be caught up in the child sex abuse scandal inside the Catholic Church in France.

He submit his resignation to Pope Francis after being found guilty of failing to report allegations of abuse in the 1980s and early 1990s by Reverand Bernard Preynat who went on trial in January.

But Pope Francis turned down his offer to resign and in a statement set by France's Lyon Catholic Church, Barbarin said 'invoking the presumption of innocence, the Holy Father declined to accept this resignation.'

A Vatican spokesman later confirmed Barbarin's statement, saying Pope Francis instead asked Barbarin during their audience to do what he thinks is best for the Lyon archdiocese.

He decided to take time away and asked his deputy to assume leadership of the archdiocese.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 06:23:49|Editor: huaxia

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TUNIS, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The Tunisian government announced on Wednesday that all the six ministers of the Islamist party Ennahda (Renaissance) will be removed from their duties.

This decision came a few hours after Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh submitted his resignation to President Kais Saied.

Fakhfakh will keep his job until a new government is formed, according to a government statement.

A few days ago, Ennahda, the majority party in parliament, decided to break with the government of Fakhfakh.

With 54 parliamentary seats, the Islamist party recently voiced its intention to demand the departure of Fakhfakh's government, citing "suspicion of conflict of interests and abuse of power of Fakhfakh." Enditem
UPDATE: We dont want to become Florida, Gov. Wolf says as he limits restaurant, bar capacity to slow COVID-19 surge

Pennsylvania saw a record setting number of COVID-19 tests conducted in the last day as the state reported 994 new cases on Wednesday.

The new positive tests bring the statewide total to 97,665 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic in March, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Healths daily update. The 26 new deaths reported bring the death toll to 6,957.

Once again, Allegheny County continues to account for a large chunk of the new cases -- 246 -- as the southeast region of the state contends with an outbreak.

Pennsylvanias cases have continued to climb -- the daily average over the last week stands at 788 -- as the state eases into life in the green phase, but it is also ramping up testing significantly.

(Cant see this chart? Click here.)

The health department says an all-time high of almost 28,000 COVID-19 tests were reported to the state in the last day. Over the last week, the states positivity rate stands at 3.8%, below the 5% target for accurately tracking the viruss spread in the community.

Your taxes are due today. Pennsylvania lawmakers are trying to figure out what comes after the green phase. Masks are still required when you leave your house in Pennsylvania. And now Walmart says you have to wear one in all of its stores, no matter the state.

But its not all bad news. You just might be able to see the Eagles play in person this year.

These are your coronavirus updates for July 15, 2020

Coronavirus in Pa.

(Cant see this map? Click here.)

Concerned by the growing number of cases across Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf and state health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine are holding a news conference at 3:30 to discuss mitigation efforts. State officials are trying to tamp down small outbreaks before they become large outbreaks.

Out of the 994 new cases reported Wednesday, 246 were in Pittsburghs Allegheny County and 135 were in Philadelphia. The states reporting of cases in Philly continues to lag behind the state by several thousand cases.

Positive results are from tests that span June 30 through July 14.



More detailed info is available on the countys dashboard at https://t.co/8iZNA5dcpr; please also consider subscribing to Allegheny Alerts for additional breakdowns of daily data at https://t.co/khgD8ghCTd  Allegheny County Health Department (@HealthAllegheny) July 15, 2020

Philadelphia and Allegheny County have imposed restrictions on businesses in their counties due to a recent uptick in COVID-19 cases that they have experienced.

Philly Mayor Jim Kenneys administration said on Wednesday that while fans are prohibited from Lincoln Financial Field under current social distancing rules, that might change come fall, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

From July 8 to July 14, 3.8% of the 139,819 tests performed statewide came back positive. The state continues to see a serious uptick in new cases amongst people 19 to 49, especially among those 24 and younger.

About 17% of new COVID-19 cases in July in the northeast region of the state, which includes the Lehigh Valley, were among 19 to 24-year-olds. It was nearly 6% in April.

Health officials say the spike in Allegheny and its surrounding counties is driven by young people going to bars and people traveling. Its led to a two-week shutdown of bars and indoor dining in the county.

Patients 65 and older still account for the majority of the states hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19.

Nursing-home residents represent about 19% of statewide cases -- a figure thats on the decline -- and 68% of the states 6,957 total deaths. There were 26 new deaths reported today.

Of the 26 deaths added to PA's COVID-19 count today, 7/15:

 1 occurred in April

 2 occurred in May

 0 occurred in June

 23 occurred in July



Right now, we know of 155 deaths that have occurred so far in July.



Full picture yet to come, given reporting lags.



Toll: 6,957 https://t.co/uTIvlIiUo3  sara simon (@sarambsimon) July 15, 2020

The state says 76% of infected Pennsylvanians to-date have recovered, as the majority of people with COVID-19 do.

About 7,284 cases have been in health care workers.

Coronavirus in the Lehigh Valley

Case rates in the Lehigh Valley have remained relatively low over the last month. Lehigh has seen 207 new cases over the last 14 days with 157 in Northampton.

(Cant see this chart? Click here.)

The 39 new Lehigh Valley cases reported Wednesday bring the regions total cases to 8,047. There were three more deaths added bringing the toll to 613.

That breaks down to:

4,465 cases and 330 deaths in Lehigh County, with 15 new cases and one death.

3,582 cases and 283 deaths in Northampton County, with 24 new cases and two deaths.

Northampton has averaged 12 new cases a day over the last seven days, while Lehigh stands at 16.

Northampton County plans to open a new drive-through testing site in Bethlehem Township in a few weeks.

(Cant see the chart? Click here.)

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com.

Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com.
YEREVAN, JULY 16, ARMENPRESS. A resident of Chinari village of Armenias Tavush province has been wounded from the Azerbaijani combat drone strike on July 16, Head of the Crisis Information Center Artsrun Hovhannisyan said.

Today resident of Chinari village Aramayis Hovakimyan has been wounded from the strike of the adversarys combat drone, he said.

Again violating the agreement on cessation of hostilities and fire, Azerbaijan is using attacking UAVs, including in the direction of settlements. We warn that the number of bodies of the Azerbaijani armed forces of the morning can strongly increase, Armenian defense ministers spokesperson Shushan Stepanyan said.

Today early in the morning the Azerbaijani side resumed shelling at the bordering villages of Armenias Tavush province. Aygepar, Nerkin Karmiraghbyur, Chinari, Movses, Tavush villages and Berd town were under the target.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
Renewable energy firm ReNew Power Pvt. Ltd on Thursday said it is in discussions with various states to set up a Rs1,500-2,000 crore facility to make solar cells and modules. The factory will initially have a 2GW manufacturing capacity.

ReNew will manufacture both solar cells and modules at the upcoming facility and endeavour to create a globally competitive manufacturing unit, the company said in a release. Manufacturing will not only help it in backward integration but also provide it a better control over the supply chain for critical components, it added.

This comes weeks after Prime Minister Modi urged Indian industry to be self-reliant and cut import dependence. With over 80% of Indias demand for solar cells and modules imported from China, India plans to impose a basic customs duty on these items from August 1.

ReNew Power is one of the biggest generators of renewable energy in India and the move to start manufacturing of solar modules and cells is a natural progression for us. I firmly believe that atmanirbharta in manufacturing will be key to the next phase of growth in the renewable sector, Sumant Sinha, CMD, ReNew Power, said.
A number of drugs used to treat symptoms of COVID-19 will be available at a lower cost for low-income countries.

Swiss drugmaker Novartis's Sandoz division will not make a profit on 15 generic drugs.

They range from antibiotics and steroids to diarrhea pills.

The medicines will be made available for 79 countries listed by the World Bank as lower or middle income.

Announcing the move on Thursday (July 16), the Basel-based drugmaker plans to maintain the zero-profit program until the pandemic ends or a vaccine or cure is found.

Novartis has not seen supply-chain shortages despite increasing demands for COVID-19 medicines.

But it said the new program is aimed at helping to keep vulnerable healthcare systems in Africa, Asia, South America and European countries Ukraine and Moldova from becoming overloaded.

Novartis's Chief Operating Officer told Reuters that "We shouldn't underestimate the stress that COVID puts particularly on fragile health systems."

The specifics on the drugs' eventual costs, compared to commercial prices weren't released.

But the medicines being offered up have been around for decades and are comparatively cheap to make.
Up to three million jobs and 800,000 small and medium-sized businesses are at risk if companies cannot defer repayment on up to 46billion of Government-guaranteed loans and debt, experts warned today.

Banking lobby group TheCityUK has said recapitalisation of these loans is 'essential' to protect SMEs and businesses will need help tackling debt which could 'hold them back or drag them under'.

Their report calls for the creation of a new student loans-style scheme, where businesses could convert unmanageable loans into means-tested tax liabilities.

Coronavirus loans would likely be paid back over ten years - and payments wouldn't begin until a business could afford it, meaning like many student loans they may never be paid back at all.

Banks want the Treasury and HM Revenue and Customs to run the scheme with the taxpayer swallowing any of the debt not handed back by companies.

The coronavirus crisis has seen businesses borrow 46bn in emergency loans that experts believe should be paid back like a student loans over ten years

Banks in London want the Treasury to guarantee the loans and HMRC to run the scheme

One in three firms are preparing to lay off staff before furlough ends in October, devastating new report claims Almost a third of firms are preparing to lay off staff, according to a devastating report, as Boris Johnson prepares to ditch the working from home guidance and send millions back to the office. The threat of mass lay-offs in the report comes ahead of figures which are today expected to show the biggest fall in employment since the 1980s as the true economic cost of the coronavirus pandemic emerges. There are fears the dire economic situation is being compounded by millions of workers staying at home - in line with official government guidance - meaning newly reopened shops and restaurants are suffering from low footfall. Boris Johnson will use a press conference on Friday to implore Brits to get back to the office and unveil his roadmap for emerging from lockdown to boost the economy and get cash back on the High Street, as reported by The Sun. Currently more than one million firms are claiming taxpayer support through the Job Retention Scheme, which is paying the wages of 9.4million workers. The newly released poll of 7,400 firms by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) found that almost three in ten expect to decrease their workforce before the furlough scheme ends in October. A similar proportion (28 per cent) have already laid off staff since the lockdown began. Advertisement

The Government has guaranteed nearly 43billion-worth of loans to businesses across the country, with the Treasury digging deep to help a faltering economy hit by the coronavirus crisis.

As ministers ordered Britons to stay at home unless they had to shop for food in March, Chancellor Rishi Sunak promised to do 'whatever it takes' to support the companies whose business would be decimated by the decision.

It meant launching three Government-backed loans, the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CBILS), a similar scheme for larger businesses called CLBILS, and the bounce-back loans, which help out some of the smallest companies.

The Treasury is backing more than 80% of the loans - up to 100% - but the guarantees are to the lender rather than the borrower, so companies unable to meet the repayments of their share of the loan would still default.

Repayments are due to begin in March 2021, but TheCityUK warned there was a need to 'act quickly' given furlough schemes and rent deferrals are due to come to an end.

The UK Recovery Corporation, as proposed by the group chaired by HSBC chairman Mark Tucker, would convert the loans into 'new products allowing them to manage their debt in a more sustainable way and achieved without being put into default'.

The proposed Business Repayment Plan, for those using the Bounce Back Loan Scheme or CBILS loans under 250,000, would see the loan balance turned into a tax obligation and repaid through the tax system, much like student loans are repaid now.

Official data fails to show true extent of jobs crisis, says analysis firm Britain's official unemployment figures are masking the 'true scale of joblessness', a think tank warned today. The Office for National Statistics; latest figures say that 34,000 more people were out of work - taking the total to 1.3million. But the Resolution Foundation has said that the 23 per cent drop in average hours worked from the start of lockdown to the end of April is far more telling. Resolution Foundation chief economist Mike Brewer said: 'Britain is in the midst of an unprecedented economic shock that is profoundly affecting millions of people's jobs. 'Unemployment is forecast to hit 4 million for the first time ever. And yet our official data is failing to show the true extent of this jobs crisis.' Advertisement

Larger loans of up to 1 million under the CBILS would be converted into an unsecured loan or preferred share capital.

Sir Adrian Montague, Chairman of TheCityUK's leadership council, said: 'Covid-19 is a 100-year storm which has caused untold economic damage.

'The government's support schemes have been the essential sandbags holding back the flood, protecting businesses and saving jobs.

'However, with tough trading conditions forecast to remain, paying back these loans will be challenging for many SMEs. To secure a strong recovery, action must be taken now to help them sustainably retrench, rebuild and return to growth.'

Omar Ali, chairman of the group's recapitalisation technical working group said 'hundreds of thousands of businesses' could struggle with debt the have built up during the pandemic.

He added: 'Our analysis suggests that some sectors may enter into difficulty as early as autumn this year.

'That is why taking action now is vital if we are to help businesses get back onto a stable footing as we emerge from the pandemic, and will ultimately support the UK's economic recovery and fuel its future return to growth.'

The taxpayer could be saddled with a 34bn bill as thousands of loans handed out under emergency Covid schemes turn sour.

Treasury figures show 46.3bn has now been lent to 1.1m firms, including 31.7bn lent to 1m of the UK's smallest companies through the Bounce Back scheme.

But the UK's budget watchdog has said losses under these taxpayer-backed schemes could hit 33.7bn in the worst-case scenario, as the economic downturn caused by the pandemic bites.

It added that an eye-watering 40pc of Bounce Back borrowers are expected to default. Experts fear that the debt pile will become a millstone, and hold back a UK economic recovery as firms try to rebuild.

The new head of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), Richard Hughes, said: 'The longer the crisis goes on, the more likely it becomes that Government-guaranteed loans become less of a facilitator of the recovery and more of a burden, because firms have built up large stocks of debt which they will struggle to write off. The more that debt is a burden on companies, the less they will invest.'

Chancellor Rishi Sunak, pictured yesterday, is being urged to allow businesses to pay back loans flexibly

The taxpayer could be saddled with a 34bn bill as thousands of loans handed out under emergency Covid schemes turn sour

Speaking to MPs on the Treasury Committee, he said a massive write-off of the toxic debt might be the only way to save the economy from stagnation.

The OBR thinks that by the end of September, six months from when Chancellor Rishi Sunak (pictured) began to launch emergency loans, banks will have lent 76bn across the various programmes.

Of that, 53bn will have been handed to small firms in Bounce Back loans, while the rest to slightly bigger firms under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) and very large companies under the scaled-up CLBILS.

As companies struggle to pay off debt, in the best-case scenario the OBR thinks the taxpayer will be left to foot an 8.6bn bill.

Under its central or most-likely scenario, this rises to 16.9bn.

But the losses spiral to 33.7bn in the worst-case scenario in its fiscal sustainability report.

Most will flow from the Bounce Back scheme, since this is the largest and carries few conditions regarding the viability of the business borrowing the money. The Government has also agreed to bear 100pc of any losses which banks suffer under the Bounce Back scheme when borrowers fail to repay the loans, compared to 80pc under CBILS and CLBILS.

Lobby groups and economists want the Government to adapt the way emergency loans are repaid, to take the pressure off firms and allow them to thrive.

Tej Parikh, chief economist at the Institute of Directors, said: 'Unless we restructure repayments, directors may find it difficult to invest, and this will hold back the economy as a whole. One way the Treasury could ease the load would be by converting loans to a student loan-style system, where firms pay back based on the profits they make.'

Hughes suggested a similar approach. He said repayments could be linked to revenue, and any amount left after a certain period would be written off.

Britain's banks are preparing for up to 50pc of Bounce Back loans to turn sour. Many fear their reputation could be battered if they take a heavy-handed approach to pursuing the loans.
While Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said US President Donald Trump disregarded city rules by not wearing a mask during his visit, the White House has now clarified that he was following the guidelines by US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere told an international media outlet on July 15 that Trump takes the health and safety of the public and the people who are travelling with him for White House operations very seriously.

While giving a statement to an American news network, Deere said that when the preparation for the travel by the US President is being carried out, the White House Operations collaborates with the Physician to Trump and the White House Military Office. This is done to ensure that the plans are incorporated by the current guidelines by CDC guidelines and adhere to the best measures that contain the spread of deadly coronavirus to the greatest extent possible.

The White Houses clarification came after Bottoms, who is also one of the top prospects to Democratic nominee Joe Biden, said that she was not surprised by Trumps decision of not wearing a mask and violate the law in the city of Atlanta. Donald Trump only wore the facemask for the first time during his visit to Walter Reed Medical Center on July 11.

The Atlanta mayor also told the international media outlet that despite Trump not wearing a mask, it was encouraging to see that some people did have regard to what the administration is trying to accomplish with the COVID-19 situation in the city. Bottoms' comments came amid a separate dispute with Republican Governor of Georgia Brian Kemp who argued that her rule of making masks mandatory goes beyond the measures that he is out in place.

Read - White House: Trump Has Not Ruled Out Further Sanctions On Top Chinese Officials

Read - 'China Broke Promise To Great Britain That It'd Keep Hong Kong Free': Trump Signs Order

'Political nonsense'

While administrations have politicised the coronavirus outbreak and the country's response to the crisis amid an indirect row between America's medical professionals and the White House, US top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci has advised the people to refrain from involving in political nonsense and listen to the scientists. He even denoted politicization of COVID-19 pandemic as a waste of time. While the coronavirus infections in the United States have surpassed 3.4 million with over 137,400, Fauci urged people to take the advice of medical authorities who have the track record of delivering the truth based on evidence and data.

Read - Fauci Schools Trump & White House For Discrediting Him; 'bit Bizarre; Stop This Nonsense'

Read - Twitter Hacked But Donald Trump Escapes: Here's Why The US President's Account Got Away
Supporters of the Workers' Party cheering at Hougang Avenue 5 in the early hours of 11 July, 2020, hours after the GE2020 polls have ended. (PHOTO: Don Wong for Yahoo News Singapore)

SINGAPORE  The Workers Party (WP) set about to appeal to younger Singaporean voters during the 2020 General Election (GE) at a time when the size of the demographic group was at its peak, said Ambassador-at-Large Chan Heng Chee on Wednesday (15 July) night.

The ruling Peoples Action Party (PAP) will have to understand this youth peak better in order to win back their votes, she stressed.

Speaking during an online lecture titled Singapore in a Time of Flux: Optimism from the Jaws of Gloom, Prof Chan pointed out that the recently-concluded election saw the biggest population bulge in the age group between 25 and 35. This group would be even larger if Singaporeans aged 20 to 24 were included.

The Workers Party understood this and chose youthful candidates and issues for the Zoomer generation who prefer personal narratives and I feel your pain connectivity, approachability, and authenticity.

This online digital politics is the new retail politics  up close and personal, Prof Chan added, noting that the younger generation echoed the oppositions messages on the need for diverse voices as well as checks and balances in Parliament.

On 10 July, the PAP won 61.24 per cent of the votes cast  a sharp drop from 69.9 per cent in GE2015  in its worst electoral performance since independence in terms of the number of seats lost to the opposition.

The WP will occupy 10 of 93 seats at the next Parliament after winning the newly formed Sengkang GRC, and retaining its strongholds at Aljunied GRC and Hougang SMC. In a historic first, WPs chief Pritam Singh was officially designated as Leader of the Opposition and would be provided with appropriate staff support and resources to perform these duties.

In the GE aftermath, several top ministers have alluded to how younger voters may have contributed to the WPs biggest electoral victory to date.

At a post-GE2020 press conference, Prime Minister and PAP secretary-general Lee Hsien Loong said the GE results show the younger voters clear desire for a diversity of voices in Parliament.

Story continues

Law and Home Affairs Minister and PAP candidate K Shanmugam  who was re-elected as an MP for Nee Soon GRC  said during a walkabout a day following the election that the government has to reconsider its approach in addressing issues of race and religion with the younger generation.

Millennials to continue supporting opposition when older

During her lecture on Wednesday, Prof Chan noted how conventional wisdom states that as people get older they become more conservative. But the view is not borne out by the research into two demographic groups in the US, namely the American millennials  defined as aged 39 to 24  and Gen Xers  aged 55 to 40, she said, citing a Pew Research report.

As these groups age, they retain a distinct and increasingly liberal outlook on many issues, unlike their older counterparts.

So I expect our millennials will continue to support diverse voices and an opposition in Parliament... even as they age. They will have specific personal concerns too as they age, Prof Chan said.

Singapores civil society scene has become more active than ever with the surge in the number of civil society organisations (CSOs) attracting the young, the educated and the idealistic, she observed.

Given this trend, Prof Chan suggested that the government should work closely with CSOs to improve the lives of the vulnerable and others.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that CSOs have a role to play as an early warning system on social issues such as the plight of abused women, the elderly poor and foreign workers even if their feedback is unwelcome, she added.

Prof Chans one-and-a-half-hour lecture was streamed online on the Facebook page of the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), a research centre of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

The last in a series of three lectures as IPS seventh S R Nathan fellow, it was moderated by the NUS Middle East Institute chairman and veteran diplomat Bilahari Kausikan.

A fair political culture, disapproval of POFMA

Several long-standing issues as well as those pertaining to COVID-19 also impacted voters, according to Prof Chan.

For instance, voters disapproved of policies such as the elected presidency and how it was introduced, as well as the controversial Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA), which was invoked on a number of occasions during this years election.

On the pandemic, the issues over the lack of clarity and micromanaging of rules for businesses too played a factor in the votes, said Prof Chan.

The last nine days of the campaign also relied on about messaging, communicating and the online presence and savviness of the parties.

Another observation Prof Chan made was on the emergence of a new Singapore political culture, one arising from a strong desire to see the ruling party play fairer politics when dealing with the opposition.

While the PAP may be seeking a strong mandate, political commentators have asked why it has not been more magnanimous in dealing with its opponents, she noted.

Prof Chan said critics have labelled the ruling partys strong style of governance as paternalistic with an emphasis on a legalistic culture.

But many Singaporeans want to see the city-state evolve into a full-fledged democracy, she added. They want kinder and gentler politics based on fair rules and restraints on gerrymandering.

Gerrymandering is what every country does but you cannot do it too blatantly. I think that has to be changed, Prof Chan said in response to a question from viewers. But to change the GRC system now and make it all SMCs, you're chopping and changing too fast.

At the same time, educated and younger Singaporeans do not want to see political overkill taking root. We seem to be repulsed by the competitive, mean politics of some Western democracies, she added.

The political tools that have worked previously may not be acceptable or as effective going forward, Prof Chan noted. With GE2020, we see a fully re-politicised Singapore.

To deal with the challenges of a post-COVID-19 world, Singapore must make room for alternative views, she added.

The intellectual space must be expanded to give more room for expression and encourage Singaporeans, especially younger ones, to think of bold and innovative ideas.

In such an environment, groupthink should be seriously discouraged, especially in civil service. If our political model needs fixing, it is how to accommodate differences and diverse views in our institutions and our country, said Prof Chan.

Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore

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KALININGRAD, Russia -- A Russian couple that are on trial for high treason for photographs taken at their wedding five years ago that revealed the identity of a security operative when published online are facing a new charge: passing secret information to Latvian intelligence.

Konstantin Antonets and Antonina Zimina were detained in July 2018 in Russia's Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad and went on trial behind closed doors in May this year. The couple maintains they are innocent.

Zimina's father, Konstantin Zimin, told RFE/RL on July 16 that the couple had been additionally charged with travelling to Latvia, where they allegedly passed classified information to a Latvian intelligence operative.

"The former economy minister of the Kaliningrad region, Ninel Salagaeva, who is currently a deputy governor of the [western] Pskov region, testified that Konstantin [Antonets] had worked with some classified documents when he was employed at [the Kaliningrad region's] government and three or four years later, he and Antonina [Zimina] took them out of the country," Zimin said.

The Znak.com news website says the documents related to the new charge might be linked to information about the allocation of finances to the Kaliningrad region to support local residents and businesses.

Zimina's parents told RFE/RL in February that the Federal Security Service (FSB) suspected their daughter and her husband of providing the intelligence agency in the Baltic state of Latvia with information about a Kaliningrad FSB officer.

According to them, among the guests who attended the couples wedding in April 2015 was an FSB counterintelligence officer, Maksim Denisenko, who was their daughter's friend and former university classmate.

At the wedding, Denisenko spoke openly about his employer, offered "assistance if need be," and handed out business cards and posed for photographs with guests, Zimina's parents said.

The parents also told RFE/RL that their daughter's friends from Latvia and Lithuania also attended the wedding.

The daily Kommersant reported in February that some videos and photographs from the wedding were later published on social media, and eventually included in an unspecified Baltic television program, prompting the FSB to open a criminal investigation.

In recent years, the number of cases of alleged high treason has increased dramatically in Russia.

The latest high-profile high treason case involves Ivan Safronov, a journalist and an aide to the Russian Roskosmos space agency chief, Dmitry Rogozin.

Safronov was arrested on July 7 and later charged with passing classified materials to the Czech Republic.
By James Tapsfield, Political Editor for MailOnline

The number of people employed fell by another 74,000 last month with 2.6million on benefits, it was revealed today.

Some 650,000 fewer are on the payroll than before the crisis after another 0.3 per cent reduction between May and June, according to official figures.

Vacancies are at a record low and hours have also tumbled, the Office for National Statistics data show. The claimant count has risen by 112.2 per cent, or 1.4million, since March.

However, the massive furlough and self-employed support schemes appear to be masking the scale of the issues by propping up millions of jobs.

A separate survey by the British Chambers of Commerce has found that a third of firms are planning to lay off staff over the next three months.

It came after Boris Johnson insisted he does not have a 'magic wand' to save jobs, admitting that a wave of redundancies is looming. The OBR warned this week that four million could be on the dole queue next year.

Some 650,000 fewer are on the payroll than before the crisis, according to official figures

The total number of hours worked in the UK hit a record low in March-May, according to the latest figures

The respected NIESR think-tank added projections to the ONS figures, suggesting that annual pay in the private sector is tumbling while in the public sector it is rising

The PM is set to appeal for Britons to return to their offices to rescue deserted town and city centres from disaster tomorrow.

Tories have been demanding that the official government advice - which still urges people to work from home if they can - is changed.

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey warned in a discussion with Conservative MPs last night that the reluctance of people to travel in was a major problem for business.

Meanwhile, guidance on using public transport is set to shift, with trains still only 20 per cent full as people have been told to avoid it where possible.

The ONS said unemployment fell 17,000 between March and May to 1.35million, with the rate unchanged at 3.9 per cent.

Experts said this masked a fall in employment, down 126,000 in the quarter to 32.95 million, with the rate dropping to 76.4 per cent.

With 9.4million people on furlough classed as employed, the true impact is expected to only be shown after the current support scheme ends in October.

Vacancies for April to June were at the lowest level since the figures started being compiled in 2001, at 333,000.

That was 23 per cent lower than the previous record low after the credit crunch in 2009.

Pay has also been hit hard by the crisis, dropping 0.3 per cent in the three months to May compared to the same period last year. Accounting for inflation, that is equivalent to a 1.3 per cent reduction.

Jonathan Athow, deputy national statistician at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), said: 'As the pandemic took hold, the labour market weakened markedly, but that rate of decline slowed into June, though this is before recent reports of job losses.

'There are now almost two-thirds of a million fewer employees on the payroll than before the lockdown, according to the latest tax data.

'The Labour Force Survey is showing only a small fall in employment, but shows a large number of people who report working no hours and getting no pay.'

He added: 'There are now far more out-of-work people who are not looking for a job than before the pandemic.'

The OBR's downside scenario sees unemployment rising to more than four million next year - with a rate higher than seen in the 1980s

Business Secretary Alok Sharma said the situation was going to be 'very, very difficult for lots of people'.

'I think the best thing we can do is continue to open up the economy in a phased manner, a cautious manner, and get businesses up and running again,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds said the unemployment figures underlined the need for continuing Government support to hard-hit sectors.

'Clearly there are some trends that can be discerned - the number of hours worked going down and the amount of economic inactivity going up as well,' she told Today.

'I think this is a very concerning time because we could see that being worsened by changes going ahead with the furlough scheme.

'We do think that for particularly badly affected sectors there does need to be continuing support, otherwise we will see extra waves of people potentially moving into unemployment or economic inactivity.'

In the Commons yesterday, the PM said 'no-one should underestimate the challenges' the UK faces after the government's economic watchdog warned four million people could be on the dole queue by next year.

The OBR said this week that the government faces a gap of at least 60billion in its finances - equivalent to as much as 12p on the basic rate of income tax - as it poured cold water on hopes of a 'V-shaped' bounceback from coronavirus.

It said GDP will fall by up to 14 per cent this year, the worst recession in 300 years, with national debt bigger than the whole economy.

Underlining the scale of the hit, government liabilities could be 710billion more than previously expected by 2023-4. That is equivalent to nearly 11,000 for every man, woman and child in the UK.

If the 'downside' scenario comes to pass the national debt could be roughly 1trillion higher by 2024-25.

Almost a third of UK firms plan to lay off staff over the next three months in a further sign of the coronavirus pandemic's devastating impact on Britain's job market, according to a report.

The British Chambers of Commerce (BBC) quarterly recruitment outlook reveals that 29 per cent of 7,400 firms surveyed expect to axe jobs over the third quarter - a record high for the study.

Boris Johnson insisted yesterday that he does not have a 'magic wand' to save jobs, admitting that a wave of redundancies is looming

The report - compiled in conjunction with Totaljobs - found that 28 per cent of firms polled had already cut roles between April and June.

The study also showed that 41 per cent of large companies and 41% of small and medium-sized firms expect to cut staff over the next quarter, with 18% of micro businesses forecasting workforce reductions.

Recruitment also ground to a halt, with just 25 per cent of firms looking to take on new hires in another grim record for the report.

Nye Cominetti, senior economist at the Resolution Foundation think tank, said the relatively muted effects in the latest ONS figures were not cause for celebration.

'While the initial shock is levelling off, that doesn't mean the jobs market is in recovery.

'The next big test of this crisis - on rising redundancies and unemployment - is still to come as the furlough scheme that has supported over nine million jobs is phased out.'

Samuel Tombs, at Pantheon Macroeconomics, added: 'The unemployment rate will surge over the coming months as people re-engage with the labour market.

'Their chances of finding a new job look slim, given that job vacancies were down 59 per cent year-over-year in June.

'What's more, employment remains likely to fall during the autumn, when firms will have to start to contribute to the wages of workers that remain furloughed.'

Mr Sunak's Plan for Jobs unveiled in last week's summer statement was aimed at heading off soaring unemployment, including a Job Retention Bonus scheme to give 1,000 to firms for each furloughed employee they bring back to work.

He also announced a Kickstart Scheme and an apprenticeship recovery programme to help shore up the jobs market.

But there are fears this will not go far enough.

James Smith, ING developed markets economist, said: 'The gradual unwinding of the job retention scheme over the summer is being seen as a potential catalyst for firms to begin making changes, and the jury is out on how far the new government bonus scheme incentivising firms to bring furloughed workers back will cushion the blow.'

The British Chambers of Commerce separately on Thursday urged the Chancellor to do more to protect jobs, calling for a temporary cut in National Insurance contributions.

Mr Cominetti added: 'The Chancellor should deliver further support in the hardest-hit parts of the labour market to prevent the rise in unemployment being large and long-lasting.'
The first case of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, in the United States was in late January. By mid-March, "social distancing" had entered the public lexicon. People altered their routines and local jurisdictions suggested, urged or required changes meant to slow the disease's spread.

By the end of June, however, public health officials and news outlets were talking about a second wave. In July, many states were pausing or reversing their plans to reopen while, for the second time, hospital systems worried about running out of room.

What could we have done better?

In an "editor's pick" paper published today in the journal Chaos of the American Institute of Physics, Washington University in St. Louis researchers in the lab of Rajan Chakrabarty, associate professor in the Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering, modeled the interplay between the duration and intensity of social distancing.

They found a law of diminishing returns, showing that longer periods of social distancing are not always more successful when it comes to slowing the spread and that any strategy that involves social distancing requires other steps be taken in tandem.

Conventional wisdom was, the more intense and long-term the social distancing, the more you will curb the disease spread. But that is true if you have social distancing implemented with contact tracing, isolation and testing. Without those, you will give rise to a second wave." Rajan Chakrabarty, Associate Professor, Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, McKelvey School of Engineering

Added Payton Beeler, a second year doctoral student in Chakrabarty's lab, who also worked with Pai Liu, a postdoctoral fellow: "What we have found is that if social distancing is the only measure taken, it must be implemented extremely carefully in order for its benefits to be fully realized."

Their susceptible, exposed, infected and recovered (SEIR) dynamics model used data gathered by Johns Hopkins University between March 18 and March 29, a period marked by a rapid surge in COVID-19 cases and the onset of social distancing in most U.S. states.

Calibrating their model using these datasets allowed the authors to analyze unbiased results that had not yet been affected by large-scale distancing in place.

Unique to this project was the use of age stratification; the model included details on how much people of different age groups interact and how that affects the spread of transmission.

No matter what strategy they looked at, one thing was clear, Chakrabarty said: "Had social distancing been implemented earlier, we probably would've done a better job."

"Bending the curve using social distancing alone is analogous to slowing down the front of a raging wildfire without extinguishing the glowing embers."

Researchers found that, over the short-term, more distancing and less hospital demand go hand in hand -; but only up to two weeks. After that, time spent distancing does not benefit hospital demand as much; society would have to increase social distancing time exponentially in order to see a linear decrease in hospital demand.

Thus the diminishing return: Society would see smaller and smaller benefits to hospital demand the longer it spent social distancing.

If social distancing "alone" is to be implemented longer than two weeks, a moderate shut down, say between 50% to 70%, could be more effective for the society than a stricter complete shut down in yielding the largest reduction in medical demands.

Another strategy for flattening the curve involves acting intermittently, alternating between strict social distancing and no distancing to alleviate the strain on hospitals -; as well as some of the other strains on the economy and well-being imposed by longer-term distancing.

According to the model, the most efficient distancing- to no- distancing ratio is 5 to 1; one day of no distancing for every five days at home. Had society acted in this way, hospital burden could have been reduced by 80%, Chakrabarty said. Exceeding this ratio, the model showed a diminishing return.

Critically, the researchers note that social distancing policy as a whole-of-government approach could not be successful without the implementation of wide-spread testing, contact tracing and isolation of those found to be infected.

"And you have to do it aggressively," Chakrabarty said. "If you do not, what you're going to do, the moment you lift social distancing, is give rise to a second wave."

That's because the people who are leaving their homes after distancing themselves are, ostensibly, all susceptible to COVID-19.

"Bending the curve using social distancing alone is analogous to slowing down the front of a raging wildfire without extinguishing the glowing embers," said Chakrabarty, whose other line of research focuses on the impacts of wildfires on climate and health.

"They are waiting to start their own fires once the wind carries them away."

The model cannot inform strategies going forward because it used data collected in March, before any large-scale social distancing was implemented. But Chakrabarty said it may be able to inform our actions if we find ourselves in a similar situation in the future.

"Next time, we must act faster and be more aggressive when it comes to contact tracing and testing and isolation," Chakrabarty said. "Or else this work was for nothing."
Slate is making its essential coronavirus coverage free for all readers. Subscribe to support our journalism.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has officially gone all-in on a magical thinking, laissez-faire response to the coronavirus. The Republican governor was slow to shut down daily life in his state during the early days of the pandemic and then, just weeks later, first in line to open back up despite ominous signs that doing so would result in exactly whats happening nowa spike in cases. On Wednesday, the state reported its second-highest daily total of cases so far. No matteron Wednesday night, Kemp, despite taking steps that acknowledged the state is falling behind in its effort to contain the virus, banned cities and counties in the state from implementing mask requirements of their own. The order strongly encourages mask use, but Kemp has called requiring face coverings in public a bridge too far. Meanwhile, national chains and big-box stores from Walmart to Kroger will require masks to be worn in their stores.

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Kemps order effectively negates more than a dozen local jurisdictions that have gone beyond state regulations to require masks in certain public settings. Last week, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms issued an executive order requiring masks, as has Savannah, Athens, and Augusta.* It is officially official. Governor Kemp does not give a damn about us, Savannahs Democratic mayor, Van Johnson, who issued the states first mask requirement, tweeted. Every man and woman for himself/herself. Ignore the science and survive the best you can. In #Savannah, we will continue to keep the faith and follow the science. Masks will continue to be available!

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Kemps order comes as neighboring Alabama, the Trumpiest state in the union, relented to the reality that things are getting worse, fast, and required face coverings in public spaces. You shouldnt have to be ordered to do what is in your own best interest, and in the best interest of those you know and love, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said Wednesday. I still believe this is going to be a difficult order to enforce. And I always prefer a personal responsibility over a government mandate. Yet, I also know, with all of my heart, that the numbers and the data over the past few weeks are definitely trending in the wrong direction.

More than 20 other states have mask mandates, including California, Maryland, New York and Virginia, the Washington Post notes. Some states, such as Ohio and Texas, require masks only in counties where coronavirus infection rates have hit a high level.

Correction, July 16, 2020: This post originally misspelled Keisha Lance Bottoms last name.

For more of Slates news coverage, subscribe to What Next on Apple Podcasts or listen below.
Honda hopes to be in a good starting position for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday with Red Bull Racing. According to the engine manufacturer of the Milton Keynes based race team a good qualification is essential. However, Honda is aware that it has a tough competitor with Mercedes.

"Although not as tricky as in Monaco, overtaking at the Hungaroring is still difficult, which means grid position are very important," says Tanabe. So the Japanese will have to have the power mode in order to be able to fight with Max Verstappen and Alexander Albon for the pole position on Saturday.

Read more Mercedes has the most powerful engine, Honda is missing twenty hp

It won't be as hot in Hungary as expected, but still Honda has taken sufficient measures to provide the power unit with sufficient cooling. "This is usually one of the hottest races of the season. We got pole position here with Max last year, and we have a good feeling for the track."

Honda wants to maximize engine power

Honda's top man acknowledges that Mercedes is the benchmark and that there is still a gap to close. "In Austria we faced tough competition over two weekends. It was clear that we do not yet match the pace of the team that has dominated this hybrid power era. We are now focusing on our preparation in order to maximise the performance from our PU as a package."
As students across the country demand cancellation of exams, University Grant Commission (UGC) on Thursday said many universities of the country have either conducted the examinations or are in the process of conducting the examinations.

In view of COVID-19, the majority of the universities across the country are going to conduct examinations as per the revised guidelines issued by University Grant Commission (UGC) on July 6. Recently Delhi, Punjab, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Rajasthan opposed UGC guidelines to conduct final year examination.

UGC Secretary Rajnish Jain told ANI that it is necessary to conduct final year examinations as per revised guidelines.Many universities of the country have either conducted the examinations or are in the process of conducting the examinations. UGC has requested all the states to review and conduct the examinations by September 30 at their level. UGC has given three options  online, offline and a blended mode, said Jain.

Response received from the universities with regard to conduct of examination in response to UGC Guidelines as on July 15, 2020, that universities were approached to inform the status of the conduct of the examination. Response received from 640 universities (120 deemed universities, 229 private universities, 40 central universities and 251 state universities). Out of the 640 universities, 454 universities have either conducted the examination or are planning to conduct, UGC said in a statement.

Also Read: Maharashtra HSC Result 2020 Released, check result @ mahresults.nic.in

Also Read: TS CET Exam 2020: Telangana Council postpones CET Exam 2020

As per the UGC statement, 182 have already conducted examination (online/offline), 234 are planning to conduct examination (online/offline/blended mode) in August/September, 38 are planning to conduct the examination as per the directions of the relevant statutory council(s) and 177 universities are yet to decide on the conduct of the examination.

UGC further stated that in the case of 27 private universities, which were established during 2019-20 to till date, the first batch is yet to become eligible for the final examination.

Revised guidelines were issued by the UGC on July 6, 2020, on the conduct of examination in view of COVID-19 pandemic.

Also Read: CBSE Class 10th Board Results announced: Over 1.5 lakh students in compartment category

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By Trend





Armenian armed forces opened fire on the Dondar Gushchu village of Tovuz district in Azerbaijan, Head of the press office of Azerbaijans Defense Ministry, Colonel Vagif Dargahli told Trend on July 16.

He said that as a result of the attacks, artillery shells fell on residential houses and into household areas in the village, causing serious damage.

No casualties among civilians were reported.




TSX: MFI

www.mapleleaffoods.com

TORONTO, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Maple Leaf Foods Inc. will report its financial results for the second quarter 2020 on July 30, 2020. The financial results will be released by CNW newswire service at approximately 6:30 am ET, followed by a conference call at 8:00 am ET.

What: Maple Leaf Foods 2020 Second Quarter Financial Results Conference Call



Who: Michael H. McCain, President and Chief Executive Officer

Geert Verellen, Chief Financial Officer



When: July 30, 2020 at 8:00 am ET



Where: Go to http://www.mapleleaffoods.com/investors/events for webcast link

Live over the Internet -- Simply log on to the above link.

To participate via conference call, please dial 416-764-8650 or 1-888-664-6383. For those unable to participate, playback will be made available an hour after the event at 416-764-8677 or 1-888-390-0541, passcode: 686480#.

If you are unable to participate, the webcast will be archived and available on the Company's website at www.mapleleaffoods.com under the Presentations & Webcasts section.

About Maple Leaf Foods Inc.

Maple Leaf Foods is a producer of food products under leading brands including Maple Leaf, Maple Leaf Prime, Maple Leaf Natural Selections, Schneiders, Schneiders Country Naturals, Mina, Greenfield Natural Meat Co. , Lightlife, Field Roast Grain Meat Co. and Swift. Maple Leaf employs approximately 13,000 people and does business in Canada, the U.S. and Asia. The Company is headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario and its shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (MFI).

[Minimum Requirements to listen to broadcast: Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer 11+, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome and at least a 128Kbps connection to the Internet. If you experience problems listening to the broadcast, send an email to [email protected]]

SOURCE Maple Leaf Foods Inc.

Related Links

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VARDAMAN, Miss., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- BXS Community Fund LLC, a subsidiary of BancorpSouth Bank (NYSE: BXS), donated $65,800 to Catholic Charities Diocese of Jackson to benefit families in Mississippi.

The donation will assist the organization with its efforts to implement its many programs, such as mental health services, housing stability programs, abuse intervention, children's services, migrant services and community assistance. BancorpSouth has a strong history of partnering with community organizations that help its communities thrive.

"Catholic Charities has been an important part of helping those in need in Mississippi for 183 years," said Don McCarver, BancorpSouth president - Houston, Mississippi market. "We're happy to provide this donation that'll support the great work it does across the state."

During its last fiscal year, Catholic Charities served approximately 16,000 Mississippi residents in 65 counties through its locations in Jackson, Natchez and Vardaman, Mississippi.

"On behalf of the advisory board, volunteers and staff of the Vardaman office of Catholic Charities, I thank BancorpSouth for supporting our efforts to continue our mission of being a visible sign of Christ's love in the communities we serve and in the lives of the many children we touch through our Children Enrichment Educational program," said Danna Johnson, director of Catholic Charities' Vardaman office and member of the bank's Community Advisory Council in Calhoun County, Mississippi. "We are grateful for the bank's generosity, trust and commitment to our mission."

For more information about Catholic Charities, visit www.catholiccharitiesjackson.org.

About BancorpSouth Bank

BancorpSouth Bank (NYSE: BXS) is headquartered in Tupelo, Mississippi, with approximately $21 billion in assets. BancorpSouth operates approximately 310 full-service branch locations as well as additional mortgage, insurance, and loan production offices in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas, including an insurance location in Illinois. BancorpSouth is committed to a culture of respect, diversity, and inclusion in both its workplace and communities. To learn more, visit our Community Commitment page at www.bancorpsouth.com; "Like" us on Facebook; follow us on [email protected]; or connect with us through LinkedIn.

About Catholic Charities Diocese of Jackson

The mission of Catholic Charities is to be a visible sign of Christ's love by helping those who are unable to help themselves; the poor and vulnerable, especially children, women, and families. Catholic Charities serves the 65 counties of the Diocese of Jackson with headquarters in Jackson. Learn more at www.catholiccharitiesjackson.org.

SOURCE BancorpSouth Bank

Related Links

http://www.bancorpsouth.com


Senior Lieutenant General and Deputy Minister of Defense Nguyen Chi Vinh presented a three-ton gift of medical supplies to Cuban Ambassador to Vietnam Lianys Torres Rivera on July 16, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Hieu Duy.

Vietnam presented a three-ton gift including testing kits and protective equipment to Cuba on Thursday to assist the country's Covid-19 campaign.

The gift that Deputy Minister of Defense Nguyen Chi Vinh presented to the Cuban Ambassador to Vietnam includes 10,000 sets of coronavirus test kits, 7,000 sets of sample transporters, 100,000 medical masks, 100,000 antibacterial cloth masks, 2,000 protective suits, and 212 boxes of medicine.

Cuban Ambassador Lianys Torres Rivera said the gesture is testament to the friendship of the two peoples. "We have never abandoned each other, especially in the most difficult times," she said.

Rivera said Cuba has been in a difficult situation since the end of the Cuban revolution in 1959. The pandemic hit the country when it is still dealing with the U.S. embargo and sanctions, forcing it to come up with alternate measures to contain the disease and protect its socio-economic status.

Senior Lieutenant General Vinh expressed his appreciation toward Cuba because its Communist Party Politburo quickly responded to all of Vietnam's proposals to collaborate on Covid-19 epidemic prevention and control, considered a top priority.

Cuba had also announced it would donate medicines to Vietnam and send Cuban experts as well as host online conferences to exchange experiences to combat the pandemic.

Vinh said it is a special sentiment as well as political belief that Cuba has for Vietnam, which reflects the spirit of leader Fidel Castro since both "Vietnam and Cuba are willing to donate their blood".

In May, Vietnam's Ministry of Defense agreed to hand over the coronavirus testing kits, a successful result of studies conducted by its Military Medical Academy, to Cuba.

Cuban experts had visited Vietnam to implement a cooperation plan in Covid-19 prevention. Cuba also transferred the technology to produce Interferon alfa-2b medicine, used to treat a number of conditions, including liver damage and hepatitis B, to the Vietnamese Ministry of Defense's Military Medical Department and the Military Medical Academy.

As of Thursday, Vietnam has gone over three months without any community transmission and not a single death since the onset of the epidemic. The country has recorded a total of 381 cases, of whom 25 remain active.

Cuba, on the other hand, has reported a total 2,438 cases and 87 deaths.
And Jesus, looking upon them, said, With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible, Moore quoted from Mark 10:27.

His other verse, Psalms 37:5-6, is the one he leans on the most. Commit your way to the Lord, trust Him and He will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.

Its the verse the Lord gave me through the most difficult time of my life, Moore said.  This was a walk in faith. It made no sense to man. But you know obedience is counted as righteousness. Obedience is greater than any sacrifice you can make. We always try to walk in obedience.

This was a prayerful campaign, it was a grassroots campaign and God has blessed us. We just wanted to run a clean race. We wanted to give God the glory and thats the first thing I wanted to do tonight. Thats what we were instructed to do. At the end of day, Ill tell yall this: There is a God  and were not Him. He can do amazing things.

Moore said he wrote in his journal a few months ago that an improbability is a possibility if you dont let your capabilities get in the way of Gods availability.
National carrier Kenya Airways (KQ) has resumed local flights today.

This comes amid strict measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19, after halting operations for 99 days.

Its subsidiary, Jambojet, is also back to the skies.

The carrier started off with flights to Mombasa and Kisumu that took off Wednesday morning at an event flagged off by Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia.

The Kisumu flight left the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) at 10.30am and landed at 11:20am in the lakeside city with 66 passengers aboard.

The plane to Mombasa's Moi Airport took off at 10am.

CHANGES AT AIRPORTS

However, travelers will have to brace themselves for a markedly different environment at Kenya's airports and aboard aircrafts occasioned by new safety measures.

For instance, passengers will now be required to sanitise their hands several times, starting from the main gate up until the point of boarding the plane.

They will also pass through temperature screening points and be expected to wear face masks at all times.

Sitting and queuing at the airport has also been reconfigured to ensure social distancing, with signs placed at different points for passengers to know where to stand or sit.

CS Macharia said the government will rely on the performance of local flights to see how to go about resuming international flights.

"It is up to the KQ management to ensure it uses this period to grow demand. If the performance of domestic flights will be poor, we may have to reschedule reopening of international flights," Mr Macharia said.

NO MEALS

While on board, passengers were not offered meals as is usually the case, and were only given water.

Suspension of meals while on board is one of the measures in place for resumption of local flights.

KQ Managing Director Allan Kilavuka said the airline already projects that demand will rise, adding that the second flight to Mombasa -- scheduled for Wednesday afternoon -- is fully booked.

Additional reporting by Elizabeth Ojina
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Linkedin Dian Septiari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 16, 2020 09:15 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666b2b0e 1 World US-China-tension,Code-of-Conduct,ASEAN,diplomacy,South-China-Sea,negotiation Free

The United States has called for China and ASEAN member states to be more transparent in their ongoing negotiations on the Code of Conduct (COC) on the South China Sea, following the US latest declaration that Chinas activities in the disputed waters are completely unlawful.

The US waded back into the heated South China Sea debate after almost a year of disengagement from Southeast Asia, punctuated by a snub of the ASEAN summit in November last year that saw a low-level US delegation attend  a diplomatic faux-pas that has inspired similar moves among ASEAN member states.

Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Beijings claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea had no legal grounds, citing the 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling that rejected Chinas historic rights encompassed by the so-called nine-dash line.

Administered under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), of which China is a signatory, the international tribunal made the unprecedented ruling in favor of the Philippines, a claimant in the South China Sea dispute.

Since that ruling, we have said that it is final and legally binding on both parties, China and the Philippines. This announcement goes further, to make clear: The PRC [Peoples Republic of China] has no right to bully Southeast Asian states for their offshore resources, David Stilwell, the top US diplomat for East Asia said in a statement received on Wednesday.

Stilwell laid out some of Beijing's playbook over the South China Sea issue, including in its engagement with ASEAN states, pointing out that there were clear red flags about Beijings intentions by insisting that ASEAN states keep silent on the COC negotiation process.

The COC is a requirement laid out in the Declaration of Conduct (DOC) in the South China Sea adopted by China and ASEAN in 2002, but talks about its enforcement have only intensified in the last few years. China has set a target of completing negotiations by 2021, but the process this year has been delayed over coronavirus concerns.

Press reports have shown why: Behind closed doors, the PRC has pushed ASEAN states to accept limits on core matters of national interest, he said, adding that some of the limits dealt with who ASEAN states can partner with for military exercises and offshore oil and gas work.

Under Vietnams chairmanship, one of Chinas most vocal critics in ASEAN, the bloc has reaffirmed that international law, including UNCLOS, is the basis for determining sovereignty, sovereign rights and legitimate interests over maritime areas.

Stilwell said his countrys interests were clearly at stake in the COC process, and said that it would be unacceptable if it in any way legitimates Beijings reclamation, militarization, or unlawful maritime claims.

We urge greater transparency in the Code of Conduct process to ensure a positive outcome that is fully consistent with the principles enshrined in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, he said.

Chinese Ambassador to ASEAN Deng Xijun, however, insisted that the situation in the South China Sea was basically stable and the COC consultations were proceeding smoothly and speedily, with the second reading of the text already underway.

No external interference can distract or sabotage our efforts. China is coordinating closely with ASEAN countries to pick up where we left off as soon as possible. We will also explore new ways of maritime cooperation to safeguard peace and stability and promote development and prosperity in the South China Sea region, he said in a statement to the press on Wednesday.

On Monday, Pompeo defended not only the Philippines' sovereignty over the Scarborough Reef and the Spratly Islands  both disputed maritime features in the South China Sea  but also other countries who have had clashes with China, such as Vietnam in the Vanguard Bank, Malaysia in the Luconia Shoals, Brunei in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and Indonesia over the Natuna Islands.

Beijing uses intimidation to undermine the sovereign rights of Southeast Asian coastal states in the South China Sea, bully them out of offshore resources, assert unilateral dominion, and replace international law with might makes right, Pompeo said.

China has made sweeping claims over the resource-rich South China Sea, which are contested by Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Taiwan.

In response, China has dismissed the South China Sea arbitration and said the tribunal violated the principle of state consent and exercised its jurisdiction ultra vires.

There are obvious errors in fact-finding and law application in the award. And many countries have questioned this point, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Tuesday, as quoted on the ministry website.

However, according to the Indonesian Foreign Ministrys director general for legal affairs and treaties, Damos Agusman, the ruling does not require any country to consent to it to take effect.

The tribunal ruling is an UNCLOS ruling. It is not contingent on states acceptance, and remains valid even if a disputant rejects it. Its authority is derived from UNCLOS, to which state parties have already consented, he said.

It requires no states political rhetoric but compliance.

Indonesia is not a claimant in the South China Sea dispute, but relies on international law to provide precedents in countries rules of engagement.
Argentinian health officials are scrambling to understand how nearly every crew member of a ship which spent 35 days at sea were found to have contracted coronavirus upon returning to land.

All 61 sailors aboard the trawler, Echizen Maru, tested negative for the virus upon departure from Buenos Aires in late May.

They were then flown to the Ushuaia, a typical jumping-off point for Antarctic voyages nicknamed the end of the world, where they were quarantined in a hotel for two weeks before setting sail.

After weeks at sea, some crew members started to display symptoms typical to Covid-19, and the ship returned to port.

All but four aboard the ship tested positive upon their return, local health authorities in the Tierra del Fuego province said on Monday. Two have been hospitalised in Ushuaia Regional Hospital, one of whom is receiving oxygen.

Now officials are struggling to piece together how the disease reached the isolated ship.

Its hard to establish how this crew was infected, considering that for 35 days, they had no contact with dry land, Alejandra Alfaro, the director of primary health care in Tierra del Fuego, told Agence France-Presse. Supplies were only brought in from the port of Ushuaia.

[The virus] entered somewhere. We have to think that it was human contact or contact with merchandise, products, supplies, Ms Alfaro told local media on Monday.

We know that for 35 days, no one, or any new input, got on the ship. Obviously something happened, perhaps there has been some degree of contagion inside the boat that was not registered.

Ms Alfaro added that the outbreak may have been exacerbated by the fishermens hardiness and acclimatisation to rough conditions, in that they may have spent significant time in discomfort without recognising or acknowledging symptoms.

It is also possible that the two-week quarantine period was insufficient, with several studies having suggested that in rare cases  roughly one in every 100  the incubation period can extend beyond 14 days.

But given the length of time before symptoms were reported onboard, the hospitals head of infectious diseases, Leandro Ballatore, told AFP he believed this is a case that escapes all description in publications, because an incubation period this long has not been described anywhere.

In a statement, the local health minister Judit Di Giglio said that, by Wednesday, officials would have the results of tests, which will allow us to know how many antibodies the patients have to know if the infection has been newer or older.

Argentina has so far identified more than 100,000 cases of coronavirus, with an official death toll nearing 2,000.
President Donald Trump may have lost the one remaining issue advantage he had with voters, with 50% in one new poll released Wednesday saying they trust Joe Biden to do a better job managing the U.S. economy.

The Quinnipiac University poll also gives the former vice president a 52% to 37% lead over Trump, a 15-point margin that's the largest of any independent national poll since last October.

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released later Wednesday showed better news for Trump on the economy - with 54% saying they approved of his stewardship - but still contained troubling signs for his re-election as the president trailed Biden by 11 points overall.

The Quinnipiac poll is the first to show Trump losing the economic argument, and it remains to be seen whether it's an outlier or marks a turning point in public opinion. Until now, Biden led on every other issue of importance to the electorate.

The public support for Trump's economic performance continued even as the U.S. economy cratered when a broad swath of businesses in the country shut down to stop the spread of the coronavirus in March. Millions of Americans lost their jobs and the cuts have continued despite record stimulus measures invoked by the government and U.S. Federal Reserve.

But as the crisis continues into its fifth month, the recovery is showing signs of stalling or contracting as some states like California, Texas and Florida have seen a resurgence in cases and have pulled back their reopenings. American job gains are set to slow sharply or even reverse in July as a result.

Trump's poor economic reviews come even as the stock market continues to make up most of the ground lost in the early days of the pandemic crisis - a yardstick he has frequently touted as workers find their retirement funds recovering.

But those funds are linked to Americans having jobs.

More than 18 million people are claiming unemployment insurance and millions more self-employed or gig workers have sought assistance during the crisis.

And with stimulus benefits for the unemployed expiring by the end of the month, many of them worrying about how to pay bills.

The Trump campaign dismissed any suggestion Biden was gaining an edge with voters on the economy.

"We don't have to guess what the economy under Joe Biden would look like, we all lived through the slowest economic recovery since World War II under the Obama-Biden administration," said Erin Perrine, a Trump campaign spokesperson. "President Trump has built the greatest economy our country has ever seen and will do it again."

The Quinnipiac survey is only one poll and there are more than three months until the Nov. 3 election. Last month, the same survey gave Trump a 5-point advantage on the economy. He's now at a 5-point disadvantage, with 50% saying Biden would do better and 45% Trump.

Trust in Trump's handling of the economy fell most among voters under age 35, white men and independents.

Voters say the economy is the most important issue in the election, followed by the coronavirus and racial inequality.

Biden leads on virus and race issues, too. The poll found voters trust Biden more on the coronavirus, 59% to 35%, and racial inequality, 62% to 30%.

Trump's job approval rating fell to 36%, a six-point drop from June, while 60% disapproved.

"There is no upside, no silver lining, no encouraging trend hidden somewhere in this survey for the president," said Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy.

The NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, however, maintained a positive approval of Trump's management of the economy seen in previous surveys. In fact, the 54% economic job approval rating was the highest Trump has scored in that poll since 2017.

That poll did not ask whether Biden would do a better job, however.

The Quinnipiac poll of 1,273 registered voters was conducted July 9 to 13 with a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points. The NBC/Wall Street Journal surveyed 900 registered voters with a margin of 3.27 points, and ended a day earlier.


Labcon purports to terminate chip supply agreement

Melbourne, July 16, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Bluechiip Limited ( ASX:BCT ) a leader in the development of sample-tracking technology for harsh environments, today announced that key customer Labcon North America has provided notice to Bluechiip purporting to terminate the chip supply agreement it has with Bluechiip. Bluechiip considers that the termination is unlawful.Labcon has also asserted in its correspondence a claim for damages in the region of US$500,000 which Bluechiip categorically refutes.Bluechiip had, at Labcon's request, been negotiating in good faith to reach a mutually acceptable and more flexible position, including possible deferral of contracted minimums in the current environment.Negotiations with Labcon have now ceased and as a result Bluechiip has instructed its lawyers to pursue all rights and remedies available to it under the supply agreement, including, but not limited to, recovery from Labcon of an outstanding balance of US$3.5million which Bluechiip considers is now immediately due and payable.Bluechiip CEO Andrew McLellan said: 'The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on both Bluechiip's and Labcon's abilities to engage customers. We are very disappointed in Labcon's decision not to perform its obligations under our agreement. Bluechiip directors have no alternative but to enforce Bluechiip's rights under the supply agreement to the fullest extent possible.Mr McLellan said Bluechiip will now seek further sales channels, including selling direct to end-customers, and building a stronger portfolio of products. 'In recent months Bluechiip has made significant progress on several fronts, including renewed activity in North America. In May a Bluechiip-enabled system was installed remotely for a customer in Chicago. A key customer trial, which was put on hold from March to June, has recommenced this week. And we are scheduled to install Bluechiip systems into customers for formal evaluation throughout August. Last month we also delivered a new system to China. That these activities happened during varied lock downs across the world is hugely encouraging.'Mr McLellan said Bluechiip continued seeing significant interest among Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) . 'Potential OEM partners have continued to undertake market research and build internal business cases throughout the lock downs. We are heartened by increased activity over the last month,' he said.Internally, Bluechiip is maintaining a focus on R&D, increasing efficiencies in chip production, broadening its product offering with multiple chip configurations and size formats and refining its reader and software platforms. The company is in a strong position financially with over $A7.9M cash in the bank at financial year end and expects to emerge from the current COVID-19 challenges better positioned to improve market penetration.About Bluechiip Limited

Bluechiip Ltd (ASX:BCT) understands that every sample - stem cells, blood, eggs, sperm and other biospecimens - is critical, so our objective is to manage each one with optimal quality in the most efficient way. Bluechiip's advanced management solution is the only one that provides sample temperature with ID in cryogenic environments to. Most importantly, this delivers confidence in every sample.

Bluechiip's unique patented technology is a MEMS-based wireless tracking solution that contains no electronics. It represents a generational change from current tracking methods such as labels (hand-written and pre-printed), barcodes (linear and 2D), and Radio Frequency Identification. Bluechiip tags are either embedded or manufactured into storage products such as vials or bags. Each product can be easily identified, and critical information such as sample temperature, is detected by readers and stored in the Bluechiip software. In addition to functioning in extreme temperatures, the Bluechiip(R) Advanced Sample management solution can survive autoclaving, gamma irradiation sterilization, humidification, centrifuging, cryogenic storage and frosting.

Bluechiip's technology has applications in healthcare, including in cryogenic storage facilities (biobanks and biorepositories), pathology, clinical trials and forensics. Other key markets include cold-chain logistics/supply chain, security/defence, industrial/manufacturing and aerospace/aviation.

Bluechiip: Delivering confidence in every sample.
Technavio has been monitoring the ATV electronics system market and it is poised to grow by USD 117.07 million during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of over 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/20200716005558/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global ATV Electronics 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 fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. Acewell International Co. Ltd., Amphenol Corp., Continental AG, HELLA GmbH Co. KGaA, Hirschmann Automotive GmbH, KSR International Co., Monroe Engineering LLC, Novotechnik Messwertaufnehmer OHG, TE Connectivity Ltd., and ZF Friedrichshafen 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.

Rising demand for ATVs across various applications has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. However, legal limitations associated with the use of off-road vehicles might hamper market growth.

ATV Electronics System Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

ATV Electronics System Market is segmented as below:

Type Lighting System Advanced Electronic Systems Audio System Other Electronic Systems

Geographic Landscape 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=IRTNTR40710

ATV Electronics 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 ATV electronics system market report covers the following areas:

ATV Electronics System Market size

ATV Electronics System Market trends

ATV Electronics System Market industry analysis

This study identifies the emergence of autonomous ATVs as one of the prime reasons driving the ATV electronics system market growth during the next few years.

ATV Electronics System Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the ATV electronics system market, including some of the vendors such as Acewell International Co. Ltd., Amphenol Corp., Continental AG, HELLA GmbH Co. KGaA, Hirschmann Automotive GmbH, KSR International Co., Monroe Engineering LLC, Novotechnik Messwertaufnehmer OHG, TE Connectivity Ltd., and ZF Friedrichshafen AG. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the ATV electronics system market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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ATV Electronics System Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist ATV electronics system market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the ATV electronics system market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the ATV electronics system market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of ATV electronics system market vendors

Table Of Contents:

PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT

Preface

Currency conversion rates for US$

PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE

Market ecosystem

Value chain analysis

Market characteristics

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 TYPE

Market segmentation by type

Comparison by type

Lighting system Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Advance electronic systems Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Audio system Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Other electronic systems Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by type

PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE

PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024

APAC 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

PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK

PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES

Market drivers

Market challenges

PART 11: MARKET TRENDS

Emergence of autonomous ATVs

ATV experience zones

Increase in adoption of advanced electronic systems in off-road vehicles

PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Overview

Landscape disruption

Competitive scenario

PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

Acewell International Co. Ltd.

Amphenol Corp.

Continental AG

HELLA GmbH Co. KGaA

Hirschmann Automotive GmbH

KSR International Co.

Monroe Engineering LLC

Novotechnik Messwertaufnehmer OHG

TE Connectivity Ltd.

ZF Friedrichshafen 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/20200716005558/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/
Immediately after the close of the Ordinary Session, and before President Obed Moses Tallis assented to the Bill, Leader of the Opposition, Ralph Regenvanu, wrote to the President to request that he consider referring the Bill to the Supreme Court for its opinion on its constitutionality. Photo: File
A man has been arrested over the shooting of Eastenders star Gillian Taylforth's ex-fiance.

Dave Fairbairn, 64, was shot in the stomach on Sunday, July 5 after reportedly confronting a group of people.

The suspect, a man in his 40s, is being held on suspicion of attempted murder.

Dave Fairbairn and Gillian Taylforth are pictured together above on November 21, 2015. Dave Fairbairn, 64, was shot in the stomach on Sunday, July 5

The car park of the nearby Toby Carvery had been cordoned off after the shooting, which is said to have taken place in the woodland next to it

He was questioned for several hours before being released on bail until next month, The Sun reported.

The arrest comes as Mr Fairbairn has been discharged from hospital.

Mr Fairbairn, 64, was shot from point blank range in Enfield, North London, but the bullet missed his vital organs.

The ex of former EastEnders star Gillian Taylforth was allegedly shot confronting a group of people while he was on bail over a huge 850,000 cannabis factory.

Mr Fairbairn revealed to a friend that the bullet - which missed his vital organs - fired before he heard 'lots of clicking' during the incident.

Mr Fairbairn was arrested and bailed after police discovered this Cannabis factory in Arrington, Cambridgeshire

The Sun reports that he told a friend: 'All I can remember is this bang, then lots of clicking.

'I think the trigger was being pulled again and again.

'I was lucky some people found me and called the ambulance.'

He had been arrested three months ago over a drugs farm found in Arrington, Cambridgeshire, by police.

He was detained by officers at the time on suspicion of cultivation of cannabis and handling stolen goods.

Ms Taylforth split from fiance Fairbairn after six years together in late 2019 (pictured: The pair together in May 2015)

Two other man aged 32 and 37 attempted to run off when police arrived but were stopped and arrested on suspicion of cultivation as well as immigration offences.

Authorities confirmed to MailOnline all three have now been bailed until later this month.

Mr Fairbairn was shot at close range near a Toby Carvery car park.





On Monday he was stable in hospital following surgery to have the bullet removed, The Sun reported.





Ms Taylforth was said to be in shock following news of the shooting.

She and Mr Fairbairn have remained close despite calling off their wedding in December.



Ms Taylforth split from fiance Fairbairn after six years together in late 2019 after their relationship came under strain following a 'string of disagreements', reports at the time claimed.





The pair were together since 2013 and Ms Taylforth, who is best known for playing Kathy Beale in EastEnders, originally parted ways with Dave two years earlier due to 'fiery rows' between the pair, but later rekindled their romance.





Ms Taylforth's relationship with him was her first following her split from her ex-partner of 23 years Geoff Knights.





She shares two children with Knights, who tragically died of stomach cancer, aged 58, back in 2013.








As tentative signs start to emerge of a revival for the travel industry, our minds are turning to potential holiday destinations for this summer.

With lush beaches, a hot climate and the attractive 16-century walled city of Valletta to explore, Malta has long been a popular travel destination for Britons in need of some vitamin D.

But can British holidaymakers get there? And will we be allowed in?

Heres everything you need to know.

Am I allowed to travel to Malta from the UK?

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) issued a blanket warning against all non-essential international travel in March, but this has now been lifted for 67 destinations as of 4 July.

Malta was on this list, meaning Britons can now visit there without invalidating their travel insurance.

How could I get there?

Recommended Everything you need to know about visiting Greece this summer

Air links with the UK were previously suspended, but are permitted to resume from 15 July.

Several airlines have already started up direct flights into Luqa airport again, such as easyJet, Ryanair and Air Malta.

Return fares are available in August from around 150 with Ryanair at the time of writing.

See the full flight schedule from Malta airport here.

Will they let me in when I arrive?

Yes. As of 15 July, Brits are allowed back into the country, though with some stipulations.

All passengers must have completed a paper copy of both a public health and a passenger locator form, and will have their temperature checked on arrival and departure. Passengers with a high temperature will be required to undergo a swab test.

Will I have to quarantine when I arrive?

Probably not.

Passengers arriving from a list of countries that includes the UK dont have to quarantine or need any special permits, according to the Visit Malta website.

However, the FCO says all arrivals must have their temperature checked and, if its high, take a swab test, with results available within 72 hours.

 What are air bridges and which holiday destinations could be included?

Those who test positive must remain in mandatory quarantine until given clearance and notified accordingly by Public Health Authorities, according to guidance from the Maltese government.

Also, anyone entering Malta who has not spent at least 14 days in the UK (or another country on the safe list) beforehand needs a special permit from Malta Health Authorities and may be obliged self-isolate on arrival.

Can I travel within Malta?

Yes.

Public transport in Malta and Gozo is operating normally, as is the regular ferry service linking Malta to Gozo, plus the boat service to Comino.

Are hotels open?

Yes; hotels and other types of tourist accommodation are permitted to open, provided they comply with protocols instigated by the Malta Tourism Authority in order to keep guests and staff safe.

Those that meet the new hygiene and safety standards are awarded with a special sticker to show they come up to par.

Are restaurants, shops and attractions open?

Museums and tourist attractions, shops, gyms, beaches, swimming pools, restaurants and bars have re-opened with restrictions on the number of customers allowed entry, a requirement to wear a mask and social distancing measures in place.

The best beaches in the world Show all 25 1 /25 The best beaches in the world The best beaches in the world 1. Baia do Sancho, Fernando de Noronha, Brazil The best beaches in the world 2. Grace Bay, Providenciales, Caribbean The best beaches in the world 3. Rabbit Beach, Lampedusa, Italy The best beaches in the world 4. Playa Paraiso Beach, Cayo Largo, Caribbean The best beaches in the world 5. Playa de Ses Illetes, Formentera, Spain The best beaches in the world 6. Anse Lazio, Praslin Island, Seychelles The best beaches in the world 7. White Beach, Boracay, Philippines The best beaches in the world 8. Flamenco Beach, Culebra, Caribbean The best beaches in the world 9. Whitehaven Beach, Whitsunday Island, Australia The best beaches in the world 10. Elafonissi Beach, Elafonissi, Greece The best beaches in the world 11. Camp's Bay Beach, Camps Bay, South Africa The best beaches in the world 12. Radhanagar Beach, Havelock Island, India The best beaches in the world 13. Woolacombe Beach, Devon, UK The best beaches in the world 14. Siesta Key Public Beach, Siesta Key, United States The best beaches in the world 15. West Bay Beach, West Bay, Honduras The best beaches in the world 16. Cayo de Agua, Los Roques National Park, Venezuela The best beaches in the world 17. Playa Manuel Antonio, Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica The best beaches in the world 18. Nai Harn Beach, Rawai, Thailand The best beaches in the world 19. Sharm El Luli, Marsa Alam, Egypt The best beaches in the world 20. Iztuzu Beach, Dalyan, Turkey The best beaches in the world 21. Playa Paraiso, Tulum, Mexico The best beaches in the world 22. Diani Beach, Kenya The best beaches in the world 23. Palm - Eagle Beach, Aruba, Caribbean The best beaches in the world 24. Ngapali Beach, Burma/Myanmar The best beaches in the world 25. Maunganui Beach, Mount Maunganui, New Zealand

What rules are in place?

Passengers on public transport, including the Gozo ferry, must wear face masks. Social distancing of 2 metres is encouraged.

Travellers are also required to weak a mask at all times while in the airport. Exceptions are made for children under six or people with valid medical reasons.

Will I have to quarantine when I come home?

Recommended Everything you need to know about visiting Turkey this summer

Not anymore.

Although the government implemented a blanket two-week quarantine for all inbound arrivals on 8 June, from 10 July this was lifted for certain countries.

Places regarded as low-risk by the Joint Biosecurity Centre  which was set up to coordinate the governments response to the pandemic  are now exempt from mandatory self-isolation.

Malta is one of the 59 destinations that is exempt for travellers entering England, Wales or Northern Ireland, and is also on Scotlands separate list of 57 countries from where arrivals no longer need to quarantine.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-17 00:51:15|Editor: huaxia

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Zimbabwe's Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube delivers the mid-term budget and economic review statement in Harare, Zimbabwe, July 16, 2020. Zimbabwe's economy is projected to shrink by 4.5 percent in 2020 from 3 percent earlier projected due to the negative impact of the COVID-19, Mthuli Ncube said Thursday. (Xinhua/Wanda)

HARARE, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe's economy is projected to shrink by 4.5 percent in 2020 from 3 percent earlier projected due to the negative impact of the COVID-19, Finance and Economic Development Minister Nthuli Ncube said Thursday.

He was presenting the mid-term budget and economic review statement in the parliament.

He said the economy was poised to contract severely had the government not provided a stimulus package of 18.2 billion Zimbabwe dollars (264 million U.S. dollars) to companies in June to cushion them from the harsh effects of the pandemic.

"In the absence of the above stimulus package and assuming prolonged and severe impact of the crisis, the economy would contract severely," he said.

"Therefore, a combination of government and external development support in mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to alleviate deeper contraction of the economy to a projected -4.5 percent GDP growth in 2020, against the initial budget projection of 3 percent growth," the minister said.

However, the economy is anticipated to recover and record GDP growth of about 7.4 percent in 2021 before moderating to around 5 percent thereafter, the minister added.

Out of the 300 million U.S. dollars international funding appeal made by government in April to mitigate the impact of COVID-19, development partners have so far pledged 202.6 million U.S. dollars of which 26 million U.S. dollars has already been disbursed.

Ncube said the pandemic had further worsened the country's economic woes, characterized by climatic shocks in the form of drought and Cyclone Idai, energy challenges and currency volatility.

The drought, in particular, affected agriculture, water and energy sectors, with spill-overs to the rest of the economy while the situation was further aggravated by currency volatilities which led to skyrocketing prices of goods and services.

Ncube said the country's tourism, non-food manufacturing, mining, financial services, transport and distribution and education sectors had been the most severely affected by COVID-19, while sectors including health services, ICT, manufacturing of food stuffs, electricity and water had registered gains.

The minister said the agriculture sector will contract by 0.2 percent in 2020, against the 5 percent originally anticipated due to declining prices and late onset of rainfall.

Maize output for the year, however, increased by 24 percent from 852,000 metric tonnes in 2019 to 1,060,000 tonnes in 2020.

Traditional grains production is estimated at 152,515 metric tonnes in 2020, 103 percent up from 75,209 tonnes produced in 2019.

The mining sector is projected to slow down to -4.1 percent in 2020, weighed down by the COVID-19 pandemic and uncompetitive prices, erratic power supplies and loss of skills.

During the first quarter of 2020, platinum group metals and diamond registered strong performance compared to the same period last year while gold, chrome and nickel performed below expectation, the minister said.

Manufacturing is expected to contract by 10.8 percent in 2020 against 1.9 percent originally projected while tourism will shrink by 7.4 percent due to the impact of COVID-19, the minister said.

The transport and communication sectors, however, are however projected to grow by 3.2 percent in 2020, driven mainly by enhanced communication activities that is offsetting the dampening effect of the transport sub-sector, the minister said.
By Trend

The crushing blow of Azerbaijan's army in response to the provocations of the Armenian side in the Tovuz district direction of the Azerbaijani-Armenian border is display of the high spirit of Azerbaijani people, Head of the Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, MP Tural Ganjaliyev told Trend.

Armenia must realize that the heroic people of Azerbaijan are determined to liberate the occupied territories at any time, and it will be the losing side, he said.

Commenting on the events that have been taking place on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border, the MP noted that the heavy battles showed discipline of the Azerbaijani army, as well as the fact that its high-ranking military officials were in the trenches with the soldiers.

"Deaths of our martyrs will not go unpunished. The Ministry of Defense released videos of military operations and strikes inflicted on the Armenian armed forces. These videos testified to the level of material and technical base and high level of professionalism of our army, he said.

However, the Armenian armed forces were shooting at [Azerbaijani] civilians and settlements, as a result of which resident of the Aghdam village in Tovuz district, 76-year-old civilian Aziz Azizov was killed. Shelling civilians with heavy artillery, killing unarmed people - is a clear display of Armenian fascism," Ganjaliyev noted.

The MP also spoke about the solidarity shown by the Azerbaijani people.

"In most regions of the country, actions were held in support of the army of Azerbaijan. Those who failed to take part in these actions expressed the respect to the army through social networks.

We are proud that every citizen of Azerbaijan, regardless of political views and social status, has shown solidarity with the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, President Ilham Aliyev and our army. A lot of our young citizens, being not limited to holding the actions, went to the village of Aghdam in the Tovuz district, where the fighting took place, as well as to the district departments of the State Service for Mobilization and Conscription for Military Service. They expressed will to participate in the battles. All this speaks of the high fighting spirit of our people," said Ganjaliyev.

He pointed out that the Armenian provocation in Tovuz district once again demonstrated to the whole world the destructive position of Armenia in the light of the peace negotiations on the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.

"Acting as the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh, on July 12, we stated that Armenia is not interested in a peaceful settlement of the conflict. This provocation, made on the state border, shows that Armenia wants to distract attention from the Karabakh conflict and the fact of occupation, creating a new hotbed of conflict," Ganjaliyev stressed.

He also commented on current developments in Armenia.

"Naturally, these days we tried to closely monitor the events taking place in Armenia, respective publications in social networks. The most remarkable moment was that, after being inflicted to Azerbaijani armys crushing retaliatory strikes, high-ranking Armenian military servicemen deserted from the battlefield, and the Armenian military and police failed to do anything about it, he noted.

The second problem most frequently mentioned in the Armenian segment of social networks was over the number of human casualties suffered by the Armenian side in the battles. It was unambiguously noted that Armenia, as always, does not dare to provide exact figures of losses.

The third important issue is the general lack of unity of the people, army and government in Armenia. Amid the events taking place these days on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border, the Pashinyans government being sharply criticized," Ganjaliyev added.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Rights Campaigners: Treason in Russia Can Mean Almost Anything

By Jamie Dettmer July 15, 2020

Treason in Russia can almost mean anything these days, say rights campaigners.

The high-profile arrest last week of former defense reporter Ivan Safronov on a charge of high treason has prompted an international outcry, but his detention is part of a Kremlin-sponsored "spy mania" that's seeing the net being cast far and wide for traitors and spies and entangling not only reporters and academic researchers.

The number of people charged and convicted of treason and espionage has jumped five-fold in Russia since 2011  with a noticeable acceleration after the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. Twelve people were convicted in 2009 compared with 62 last year, according to MediaZona, an opposition website. Of the more than 300 charged for treason or espionage  or for divulging state secrets  since 2011, only one of those accused managed to secure an acquittal.

Russia's FSB intelligence agency is under pressure from President Vladimir Putin to uncover spies, according to political activists and commentators. "Every day, without interruption, brings more searches, detentions, arrests and criminal charges," said Ilya Klishin, an opposition journalist and one of the organizers of the 2011-'12 protests in Moscow against election fraud.

Instilling terror

"Maybe there is no deeper logic behind all of this than the desire to intimidate the population, to instill terror  in the literal sense of the word," he wrote in an opinion article for the English-language Moscow Times newspaper. "It has become a mechanical morning ritual: Wake up and scan the news to learn whom the authorities came for that day."

He said Russian authorities are targeting largely journalists and historians and that "the rest of us could be next."

In fact, several people who would classify themselves as "the rest" have been charged with espionage in a series of bizarre arrests the past few years, including of a newly-married couple who have been in jail for a year.

Antonina Zimina was arrested in 2018, then last year her husband, Moscow-based lawyer Konstantin Antonets. Both are accused of blowing an FSB agent's cover. Antonina's father told Kommersant newspaper that during their 2015 wedding reception the agent, a friend, drank heavily, gossiped about his work and took photos with other guests. The happy couple sent copies of the wedding snaps to friends. These were posted on social media sites with the agent figuring in the photographs.

It is not clear whether the couple were targeted because of their work, but analysts say that is unlikely as Antonina worked as a consultant for a Russian think tank founded by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a Putin loyalist.

Other arrests have included the detention of Oksana Sevastidi, a storekeeper from Sochi, in southern Russia, who was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for sending a text message to a friend in neighboring Georgia about a train she spotted carrying military equipment. Sevastidi served two years in prison before Putin pardoned her amid a public uproar.

'No spy mania in Russia'

Last week, Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, dismissed claims that Moscow is in the grip of spy mania or that the rising treason and espionage arrests are a show of force aimed at intimidating critics. "Compared, for example, with the U.S. and the EU, there is no spy mania in Russia," he said, adding that he was not aware there had been a rise in espionage cases in Russia.

He added, though, that foreign intelligence services are operating aggressively in Russia.

"It is no secret that foreign intelligence services are not slacking off in Russia, they work day and night against Russian officials, and Russian intelligence officers," he said, adding Russian counter-intelligence "is not sitting back either."

Russian journalists were shocked by the arrest of Ivan Safronov, now a communications adviser to Russia's Roscosmos space agency. The thirty-year-old Safronov denies allegations of selling military secrets to the Czech Republic and the United States. For many years he was a highly respected military correspondent for leading Russian newspapers. So far, the authorities have no revealed evidence justifying the treason charge.

Ivan Pavlov, the journalist's lawyer, told independent broadcaster Dozhd that the charges were linked to Safronov's past reporting and not his job at the space agency, which he joined in May. If convicted, Safronov could be sentenced to 20 years in jail. Since his arrest, dozens of journalists have been arrested protesting his detention, most have been released.

"Now Vladimir Putin's been in power for 20 years and he doesn't care what anyone thinks," said one of Safronov's supporters, journalist Grigory Pasko. He told the BBC: "There are no brakes now; no restraints. They can do what they want, how they want and to whomever they want." In 1997, Pasko was accused of treason.

Safronov's lawyer, Pavlov, says there appear to be trends when it comes to the FSB targeting. "A few years ago there was a trend [of going after] scientists, they started taking them in droves. Well now, it's you [journalists]," he told the Meduza, an independent news site.

Echoes of the past

The trends, though, start merging, according to Ilya Klishin. He said the Russian intelligence agencies seem even more emboldened since the amending this month of the Russian constitution allowing Putin to remain in office until 2036. They seem suddenly to have "redoubled their activity" and "things feel different."

For some, the rising treason arrests amount to an echo, albeit a faint one, of the blood-drenched 1930s, when communist dictator Joseph Stalin staged show trials of his enemies or those he perceived as potential threats, cowering an already terrified population. The Moscow show trials also helped to intensify nationalist feeling by making Russians feel their country was beleaguered  under threat not just from ideological foes abroad but from fifth-columnists at home as well.

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UTOPIA AVENUE, by David Mitchell. (Random House, $30.) Mitchell, the British master of formally intricate, elaborately interconnected and often fantastical novels, has long demonstrated a passion for music. That love, deployed with his usual narrative high jinks, is on full display in this story of a London rock bands rise to fame in the Swinging Sixties. An expert historical novel, in the assessment of our reviewer, Daniel Mendelsohn, it takes the form of an earnest Bildungsroman about a ragtag quartet of young Brits who briefly come together to make music and, in the process, find themselves. The choice of subject matter will come as no surprise to Mitchells longtime readers, who throughout his career have had cause to wonder when Mitchell was going to write a novel that put music front and center.

BUTCH CASSIDY: The True Story of an American Outlaw, by Charles Leerhsen. (Simon & Schuster, $28.) Made famous by Paul Newman and Hollywood, Butch Cassidy, as Leerhsen shows, was in real life a smallish cowboy of dubious morals, driven to crime by the harsh financial realities on the open range. Leerhsen, who is the author of biographies of Ty Cobb and the harness horse Dan Patch, amply demonstrates that cowboys are in his corral, Christopher Knowlton writes in his review. He has taken the trouble to read the literature and track down the living descendants of the Wild Bunch in order to get the slippery details as straight as he can. Then he starts his own one-man posse in pursuit of the charismatic outlaw, visiting homesteads and following the historical trail all the way to Bolivia and Argentina.

BIG FRIENDSHIP: How We Keep Each Other Close, by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman. (Simon & Schuster, $26.) Sow and Friedman, the hosts of the popular Call Your Girlfriend podcast, describe intense friendships as one of lifes foundations, neglected at our peril and, likely, our regret. Their book calls on us to stop seeing these relationships as something that we put on hold while we focus on careers, marriages or children. With this book, Sow and Friedman remind us that laziness in tending to friendships is dangerous, Trish Hall writes in her review, and that regardless of the circumstance, whether geography or pandemic, friendships must be nourished, or they will wither.

EMPTY: A Memoir, by Susan Burton. (Random House, $27.) Burtons memoir of anorexia and binge eating is fueled by anger and honesty. This fearsomely intimate story brings perfectionism into tight focus and provides an unforgettable portrait of a different kind of addiction. Theres quiet fury at its center  a nuclear sun that radiates not out at the world, but back at the author herself, Claire Dederer writes in her review. The authors anger gives the book its considerable power, its substantial grace and even, in the end, its meaning.

THE BIGGEST BLUFF: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win, by Maria Konnikova. (Penguin Press, $28.) Konnikova, a writer for The New Yorker with a Ph.D. in psychology, decided to study poker for its interplay between luck and determination. This is an account of her journey, which took her much further into the world of high-stakes gambling than she ever imagined. Part of the books deliciousness is Konnikovas journey from novicedom, starting out in online poker cafes in Hoboken, N.J., and making it all the way to the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, our reviewer, Michael Paterniti, writes. Konnikova is like your smart friend who instantly contextualizes everything by sharing the latest data and sharpest insight, whom you come to quote too often to other friends and family.
PM expected to scrap work from home policy in England  Wales Chief Medic says its still better to work at home

This article is old - Published: Thursday, Jul 16th, 2020

Boris Johnson is expected to scrap the work from home policy in England and give employers the green light to get staff back into offices and workplaces.

The policy was introduced across the UK as parts of lockdown measures introduced in March to stop the spread of coronavirus.

Its reported he will hold a Downing Street press conference on Friday to tell people it is safe to return to the office in August.

Current guidance in Wales is that workers are only allowed to return to the workplace if it is not reasonably practicable for them to work from home.

With lockdown measures easing and more parts of the economy opening up, a large proportion of the population is now back at work.

In the case of our front line key workers, they havent stopped working throughout the crises.

But, there are hundreds of people employed over the border in England who have been working from their homes in Flintshire for the past four months, they now look set to return to workplaces in the next few weeks.

During todays daily press briefing, Chief Medical Officer Dr Frank Atherton was asked what the Welsh Government position will be once Mr Johnson scraps Englands work from home policy.

Dr Atherton said: Our position is that if you can work at home, then its better to work at home and many of us are able to do that.

We recognise of course that thats not possible for everybody and we do expect to see some increase in opening of workplaces.

Shops, for example, are already starting to have and people have to travel for that.

Dr Atherton said: People will need to travel to work, we have to look at both the economic consequences of the pandemic, as well as the health consequences and ministers are very conscious of that.

I think the art of this is that as we reopen the economy, we need to do it in such a way that we dont lead back to square one.

The CMO warned that hospitals must not get back to the situation they were in April when many were overloaded, he said:

The worst thing would be to get back to the exponential growth of viral transmission.

We mustnt forget what a difficult time it was for everybody (at the peak of the crisis) and how close the NHS came to being overloaded, we cant go back, we cant afford to go back to that.

So a cautious opening and movement across the boundaries England, Wales border is perfectly open so it is reasonable for people to travel for work.

You can view the press conference here:
Rizal (CNN Philippines Life)  In the last few months, consumer habits have drastically changed. As the Philippines continues the worlds longest COVID-19 lockdown, its clear that shopping malls  previously a pivotal part of Filipino lives  will continue to suffer from low foot traffic. As a response, many retailers have begun to shift to online operations.

Japanese apparel retailer Uniqlo is the latest brand to open its online shopping platform to Filipinos. The brand launched its online store on July 16, in a virtual press conference hosted by endorser and Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach. Uniqlos wide selection of LifeWear pieces can now be purchased on the Uniqlo website or through their mobile app.

According to Uniqlo Philippines COO Masayoshi Nakamura, the launch of Uniqlos online store is in line with the fast fashion brands mission to provide an outstanding level of service. The launch of UNIQLO Online store stems from the brands commitment to bring LifeWear clothing more accessible to our customers nationwide, Nakamura says.

While consumers can still enjoy shopping at Uniqlos physical stores, the online store includes a number of exclusive features. In the online store, sizing now ranges from XS to 3XL for certain pieces. There is also a click and collect feature, which allows customers to purchase items online and pick them up at the Uniqlo store of their choice. This will allow them to try on items in person and return and exchange them immediately (but trying on clothes also depends on restrictions of the LGU where the store is located).

The pay in store option also lets customers to choose items on the website and pay for it in-store. They can opt to pick up the item upon payment or have it delivered to their preferred address. The app also has a feature that allows customers to scan an items barcode to check product availability online or in other stores.

Delivery is available nationwide, and is free for a minimum purchase of 2,500.

***

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VANCOUVER, BC, July 16, 2020 /CNW/ - HealthSpace Data Sytems Ltd. (the "Company" or "HealthSpace") (CSE: HS) (OTCQB: HDSLF) (Frankfurt: 38H), is pleased to announce it has qualified for trading on the OTCQB Venture Market in the United States operated by the OTC Markets Group Inc. and the Company's common shares commenced trading today on the OTCQB under the symbol "HDSLF." The Company's common shares will continue to trade on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol "HS".

"The posting of our shares on the OTCQB, a well-known U.S. securities trading platform, should provide additional liquidity for HealthSpace by allowing US investors to more easily invest in our common stock," said Silas Garrison, CEO of HealthSpace. "As we continue to expand our presence within the US, the trading of our shares on the OTCQB platform is timely as we anticipate increasing interest in HealthSpace by US investors looking to align with a progressive growth company."

U.S. investors can find current financial disclosure and Real-Time quotes for the Company on www.otcmarkets.com . The Company's listing on the CSE and the trading of its shares on the OTCQB contribute to the genuine North American presence and affords investors preeminent access to trading.

About HealthSpace Data Systems Ltd.

HealthSpace is a government Software as a Service (SaaS) company focused on providing efficiencies to state and local government agencies through its powerful enterprise cloud and mobile platform. Over the last decade, HealthSpace has successfully developed both cloud and mobile applications currently serving over 500 state and local government organizations across North America. HealthSpace's HSCloud Suite platform is one of the only self-serve enterprise SaaS platforms in the government space. HealthSpace is focused on revolutionizing every aspect of the regulatory process within state, provincial and local government; from licensing to inspections, to disease surveillance, to financial management. HealthSpace's platform handles it all. HealthSpace is now entering the FinTech space by developing an online and mobile payment platform that streamlines the intake of government revenue for the agencies it serves. The Company has also expanded its offerings in the realm of communicable disease tracking by creating an automated contact solution which enables public health agencies to broaden the scope and depth of their communicable disease surveillance in an automated fashion.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute forwardlooking information. Forwardlooking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "intend", "should", and similar expressions. Forwardlooking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forwardlooking information. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in this forwardlooking information as a result of regulatory decisions, competitive factors in the industries in which the Company operates, prevailing economic conditions, changes to the Company's strategic growth plans, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. The Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forwardlooking information are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forwardlooking information should not be unduly relied upon. Any forwardlooking information contained in this news release represents the Company's expectations as of the date hereof, and is subject to change after such date. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forwardlooking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities legislation.

SOURCE HealthSpace Data

For further information: Silas Garrison, CEO, (415) 580-2735, [email protected]
The Karu Upper Area Court sitting in Mararaba, Nasarawa, on Thursday refused to dissolve a 10-year-old marriage brought by Deborah Joseph, for lack of care.

The petitioner had urged the court to nullify the marriage between her and her husband, Mr Pious Joseph, on account that he does not care for his family anymore.

She accused her husband of planning to use their first child for a money ritual.

Mrs Joseph also alleged that the husband was always coming home late and drunk.

We have two kids and I have been the one catering for the family. I feed them and pay rent.

I want this court to separate us because there is no love again and he has not paid my dowry, she said.

The respondent denied the petitioners claim, saying that since he married her, he had always provided for them, and that he had never raised his hand on her.

READ ALSO:

Since I lost my job, life has never been the same, he told the court and begged it not to grant her wifes request.

The presiding judge, Ibrahim Shekarau, however, urged the parties to go home and make peace.

Mr Shekarau, therefore, adjourned the matter until August 12, for judgement.

(NAN)
Was the Kerala Gold Smuggling plot hatched in Sivasankars home: Customs raids to ascertain

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, July 16: Multiple raids have been carried out by the investigation agencies in connection with the Kerala Gold Smuggling case.

Raids were carried out at the Kerala State IT Infrastructure Limited, which falls under the IT Department. The raid lasted for more than an hour at the KSITL, where key accused Swapna Suresh used to work.

A raid was carried out by the Customs as well at the flat where M Sivasankar, the former principal secretary to the Kerala Chief Minister used to reside. The Customs suspects that the plan pertaining to the smuggling was hatched in this flat.

It may be recalled that the Customs had questioned Sivasankar for nearly 9 hours at the Customs House.

Also Read:

On Friday, the NIA registered an FIR in the Kerala Gold Smuggling Case.

The case has been registered under sections 16, 17 and 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, against 04 accused persons including Swapna Prabha Suresh

The case relates to the seizure of 30 kg of 24 carat gold worth Rs.14.82 crores at Trivandrum International Airport

The aforesaid consignment was found camouflaged in diplomatic baggage from UAE that is exempted from inspection as per the Vienna Convention. The said consignment was to be received by Sarith P S who had worked in the UAE Consulate earlier as Public Relations Officer. Initial investigation by Customs Department has revealed that Sarith had received multiple such consignments earlier as well.

As the case pertains to smuggling of large quantity of gold into India from offshore locations threatening the economic stability and national security of the country, it amounts to a terrorist act as stated in section 15 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

Bihar bridge collapse: Rs 263 crores washed away in 29 days, who is responsible? | Oneindia News

Further, as the case has national and international linkages and as the initial enquiries have revealed that the proceeds of smuggled gold could be used for financing of terrorism in India, NIA had taken up the investigation of the case.
After being open for 53 years, Darcelle XV Showplace has no plans to close anytime soon.

Well never close, owner Walter Cole, aka Darcelle, said Thursday afternoon.

Coles determination comes after the nightclubs future was said to be uncertain in an article in the Portland Tribune, with Cole stating if business didnt improve he might have to close the club at the end of the year. At 89, Cole is known for being the worlds oldest drag queen. Despite his age, hes told his staff theyre going to continue performing and stay open for another 53 years.

The coronavirus pandemic and protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd brought business to a screeching halt in downtown Portland, Darcelle XV Showplace included. Cole said people were afraid to come downtown anymore due to the state of the streets and buildings after riots and homeless people spreading out around the city.

Cole said the federal pandemic relief loan he received guaranteed the clubs survival, making it possible to pay the staff they have left, which is around 50 people. Before the pandemic, there were 139.

To adhere to social distancing and health guidelines put forth by Gov. Kate Brown, all tables are six feet apart and parties can be no larger than six people. Everyone, including employees, are required to wear masks.

Cole said revenue had been hurt quite a bit by the pandemic and nobody wanting to park downtown, but that wont stop them from staying open.

Were going to scrape by, he said.

Cole said hes hopeful that things will be OK after the pandemic, even if hes not around for the next 53 years of business at the Darcelle XV Showplace. His family helps him with the business, so he knows itll live on once hes gone.

The showplace currently has one show that can be seen Wednesday through Saturday at 8 p.m., and it closes at 10 p.m.

Come on down, forget your problems and have a good time at Darcelle XV Showplace, Cole said.

-- Ty Vinson

tvinson@oregonian.com

503-221-4315; @ty_vinson_

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Instagram is set to launch its TikTok competitor globally in a matter of weeks.

According to a report from NBC News, sources familiar with the matter say the social media giant will roll out the feature, called Reels, to 50 countries across the world.

TechCrunch confirmed that Reels will be available in the US next month.

NBC reports that users will be able to use Reels through a new icon at the bottom of their screen in Instagram.

Instagram's Reels feature will mimic Chinese social media upstart TikTok by allowing users to post video clips with music edited in

Users will then be able to post content created in Reels to Instagram's main feed or Instagram Explore for public accounts.

Reels is what Instagram is calling a 'video remix feature' that allows users to take a 15-second video accompanied by music and then post that clip to their story.

If one doesn't feel like sharing their Reel publicly they can also send them via the platform's direct messaging feature - a key difference between Instagram's duplicate and TikTok's original feature.

The feature is already being tested in Brazil and parrots a posting format that helped popularize TikTok which now rivals mainstays like Instagram and Snapchat in its ability to court younger users.

TikTok will have a competitor in Instagram's Reels which allows users to post short video clips set to music (stock)

Reels was originally thought to be called 'Scenes' which is a feature spotted by Jane Manchun Wong, a reverse-engineering expert who has a knack for spotting nascent or unreleased features.

Social media companies aren't the only ones keeping an eye on TikTok.

In recent months, US lawmakers have called on the intelligence community to assess the app's impact on national security, scrutinizing TikTok's ties with the Chinese government.
Signal Group  digital models of the tanker market

Signal Group builds digital models of the tanker market, based on automatically reading e-mails from traders and brokers, extracting data and compiling it with other data including AIS.

Signal Group, based in Athens and London, is building digital models of the tanker market. It has a tool which can automatically read e-mails from shipping market participants about vessels available, sought or fixed. It extracts the data from the e-mails, and compiles it in a model together with AIS data and company internal data. Putting everything together, it can create a list of vessels which are available to accept a certain cargo, and an estimate of how much the owner would earn from taking it. Shipowners can use this to assess the strength of their position in the market and whether they should hold for a higher rate. The software also makes forecasts of demands for vessels, which can be used to predict whether the freight rate will go up or down. The service can also give useful market information. For example, you can see what impact Libyas stopping oil exports in January 2020 had on the market availability of tankers and the rates. You can track the vessel supply and market rate over a period of time. You can see what impact VLLCs being used for storage had on the daily rates. The service covers VLCCs, Suezmaxes and Aframaxes. It is in beta testing to expand the product for large bulk carriers, from Capesize to Panamaxes. The software is used by brokers, charterers and shipowners. Because each company has access to a different set of information, the model is built individually for each, based only on information they have. So it can build a model based on e-mail lists they are included on, their internal data, and public data, such as AIS reports. The software was originally developed for the companys own use, doing commercial management for a pool of Aframaxes. Today, there are 72 clients paying for the service. A list of clients is online at https://www.signalocean.com/#companies  prominent tanker operators and charterers mentioned include AET, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Delta Tankers, Stolt, Dynacom, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Frontline, Heidmar, Lukoil, Nordic American, Olympic, OMV, Philips66, Prime, Sinopec, Sovcomflot, Teekay, Thenamaris and Trafigura. The company says it recently onboarded another oil major and is in discussion with another (although is unable to mention the names). Reducing e-mail load The first task the software does is automatically reading e-mails, so charterers dont have to read them all. People working in vessel chartering communicate their needs and availabilities by bulk e-mail. The average chartering professional might get 4,000 e-mails per day which is mind boggling, says Dimitris Tsapoulis, chief Operating Officer, Signal Group. For example, consider if a shipowner is contacted by a charterer on Friday evening looking for a vessel. The shipowner needs to consider whether the market rate is going up, because of a decreasing availability of vessels, and so should wait until Monday. Or maybe better to accept the cargo now. If you decide to look carefully through your e-mails to read the relevant ones, then there can be another stream of more e-mails while you have done it, he says. To understand if the market may go up or down, you need to (for example) make a list of all the vessels in the market located nearby, and cross them out when you see that one is fixed elsewhere and no longer in competition for this cargo. By the time that is done, another 150 e-mails have arrived. Chartering managers can find themselves looking at multiple screens and taking multiple phone calls, with charterers seeking urgent vessels for transport or storage. You are trying to make head or tails out of whats happening, he said. The e-mails include fixture reports (reports of vessels contracted for carrying a cargo), position lists (of vessels required) and tonnage lists (of vessels available). These e-mails are often written in a standardised language, developed in the days of Telex and high costs per character sent, which makes it possible to program a computer to read them. For example a few words communicate that a certain vessel is likely to be chartered by someone for a certain trade, loading at a certain date, for a certain cargo, for a certain price, and whether the contract has been signed. The computer aims to convert this standard language into a table of vessels in the market, cargoes looking for vessels, port lists and fixtures. The company claims that its system accuracy at reading these e-mails, detecting and extracting the relevant data, is now over 95 per cent, based on a proportion of e-mail rows containing data which are successfully read. The screen shot shows an example. From a broker e-mail inbox, the computer thinks it has found a certain number of vessel positions, cargoes available, information about fixtures, and line ups  vessels scheduled to arrive at certain berths or terminals. Integrating the data But the real strength of the offering happens when the data is combined with other data to forecast vessel availability. Based on AIS data (available as a feed by license), it can know where all the ships in a certain market (such as Aframaxes) currently are, their destination and their position history. That is not so helpful by itself, but it can be used to build up a more useful picture, when the vessel will be available for another cargo and where it will be at that point. A charterer can find the answers to questions like which Aframax vessels can be in Ceyhan within 10 days, and are available for charter. Ceyhan is a terminal in the Turkish Mediterranean operated by BP, connecting to the BakuTbilisiCeyhan (BTC) pipeline. This list can be further reduced with a mixture of digital and human expertise, such as looking for ships which have been advertised in the market, ships that can wait a day before loading, ships which have a status with the relevant charterers, ships under a certain age. You can see how many ships are on subs, as brokers say, which means that negotiations have been completed, the vessel has been reserved for the fixture, but the final contract or fixture is not completed. For example if you see 8 vessels are on subs today, but there have been 19 over the past few days, you know the market is quieting down, Mr Tsapoulis says. It also tells you that the vessels not fixed or on subs are available for charter. Then you can do further analysis on these vessels still under consideration. You can see how much profit each shipowner would make, based on a Time Charter Equivalent calculation, a shipping industry performance measure, based on a calculation of voyage revenues minus voyage costs, divided by the number of days of the round-trip voyage. Instead of ranking them by the time they arrive in the port, Ive ranked them by who stands to have the biggest margin, he says. You can see a previous voyage and an estimation of how much profit or loss was made. Shipowners can use this to compare their competitors performance, for example they may see that a company is operating an eco ship with higher fuel efficiency and making more money that way. It can assess the merit of the full commercial voyage, including moving the ship from where it finished the previous voyage to where it will collect the next cargo. So clients can get a full understanding of whether a cargo will be profitable to take. You can do all this without reading 1000 e-mails, he says. You can have it all on your phone. Brokers Mr Tsapoulis emphasises that the service is not intended to disintermediate brokers, but to give market participants better tools  in the same way that real estate market players have a range of tools, but still use agents. Brokers are the information lubricants of the market, Mr Tsapoulis says. Brokers are finding this very useful in complementing what they do. It could be a service entirely for brokers, who would then advise shipowners and charterers about opportunities  although it doesnt hurt for all market participants to have this information, he said. Pool management The other part of Signals business called Signal Maritime, is managing a pool of 35 Aframax vessels. It is not a traditional pool, it is a pool that is very much focussed on achieving overperformance on TCE [Time Charter Equivalent earnings], so bringing a new value proposition to owners, he says. The company estimates that vessels in the pool earned an extra $2,000 per day compared to competitors. Shipping companies can place ships in the pool just for a single voyage. It is dramatically different to the average commitment that pools look for, he says. By joining the pool, other owners can gain the value of Signals technology without setting it up on their own systems. Earnings from pool ships can be shared among participants of the pool. Company background Signals software was originally developed in 2014 as an in-house project at tanker operator Thenamaris. It was then spun out of Thenamaris as a standalone company, together with the 10 founding staff members. It was launched at June 2018 in Posidonia. As of April 2020, the company employs 108 people, 60 on technology development, and 48 doing commercial management for a pool of Aframax vessels. The CEO of Signal Maritime, Ioannis Martonis, is a former chartering manager of Thenamaris. Until 2019, the system was limited to VLCCs, Suezmaxes and Aframaxes, but now it has data about the full merchant fleet of 35,000 vessels, including all tankers, dry bulk down to 25,000 tonnes, LNG and LPG vessels, and some expansion into containers. The dry bulk service is having a beta release, covering capes to panamaxes.




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Civil Rights Act was a Democratic idea

In response to Ann Burchs editorial of June 22.

Since todays lesson is one of history, let us revisit the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The term Southern states of the United States typically refers to the group of 15 to 18 states that legalized slavery and fought for the Confederacy during the U.S. Civil War. In June 1964, 10 of 15 of those states had elected President Lyndon B. Johnson, and five of those states were carried by Republican challenger Barry Goldwater.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was first proposed by John Fitzgerald Kennedy and ultimately signed into law by President Johnson in June 1964. Both JFK and LBJ were Democrats.

The House vote on the Senate amended Civil Rights bill was approved by 153 Democrats and 136 Republicans. Nay votes were 91 Democrats and 35 Republicans. The measure passed by a vote of 289-136, with the majority of yes votes (53%) coming from Democrats in the House of Representatives.

In the Senate, 44 Democrats and 27 Republicans voted to end the Senates 60- day-old filibuster and pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It is fair to say the majority of southern states were led by the Democratic party. By todays party ideals, it is also fair to say that in 1964, the southern states were more southern than Democrat.

Today, the majority of those same states are as southern as they are Republican and it is not because the citizens of those states have become progressives.

It is certainly not accurate to state that The GOP got the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed. Again, the Civil Rights Act was proposed by Democrat JFK, passed by a majority of Democrats in Congress and signed into law by a Democratic president, over the opposition of southern state Democrats.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. None of the rights afforded by the Civil Rights Act are dependent on an individuals effort to learn civics or study history. Thats the kind of history one might learn from a soulless statue.

WILLIAM MILLER

Forest

Wear a mask in public

When did breaking the law become acceptable? In the state of Virginia, as in many other states, its the law that everyone wears a face mask in public due to COVID-19, yet every time we go to the store, there are scores of people not wearing one.

It now becomes the responsibility of each store to enforce this law by not letting anyone without a mask enter the store. If all stores enforce this then maybe, just maybe people will get the message. This is not for THEIR protection but everyone elses and again its still THE LAW.

And if these people are seen without a mask on by law enforcement they should be fined! I dont want the lives of my loved ones impacted by selfish, stubborn individuals for no good reason. Yes, its their choice to not wear a mask but they have to know that by doing so they will pay the price not everyone else!

CAROL PILOT

Monroe
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Linkedin Jiraporn Kuhakan (Reuters) Bangkok, Thailand  Thu, July 16, 2020 12:15 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666c1164 2 SE Asia Thailand,motor-show,coronavirus,COVID-19,pandemic,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus Free

Thailand opened its twice-postponed annual auto show to the public on Wednesday in the country's first large-scale event since coronavirus restrictions eased, with nearly all attendees wearing masks and face shields.

Thailand is a major regional car production hub and its previous motor shows booked over a million people in attendance.

Thermal scans were at the entrance to the 41st Bangkok International Motor Show and temperatures were measured as people visited booths, where waiting spots were prepared to ensure physical distancing.

Guests were also required to check-in and out with their cellphones to allow for contact tracing.

"I don't come to the event every year, but I think for the first day of the event amid a pandemic, people are in quite large numbers," said Suriya Thanakorn, 50, who was on the lookout for a new car.

Motor shows around the world have been forced to cancel or delay due to the pandemic.

But Thailand has pressed ahead having gone nearly seven weeks without local transmission of the virus, which has infected just over 3,000 people, most of which have recovered.

Chief organizer Prachin Eamlumnow said eyes will be on how Thailand handles one of the first big global shows since the pandemic started.

"No country can arrange an event on this scale, so the other event organizers will be watching," he said. "We have succeeded in controlling COVID-19."

There are 25 car brands including Nissan and BMW and 22 motorcycle manufacturers on show at booths with specific entry and exit points to prevent crowding.

Ramesh Narasimhan, president of Nissan Thailand, said the stringent measures should be maintained to ensure good attendance throughout the 12-day event.

"It's really important for us to keep it for the entire show, but the first signs are very, very positive, so I'm pretty excited about that," he said.
YEREVAN, JULY 16, ARMENPRESS. President of Frances Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region Laurent Wauquiez issued a statement over the Azerbaijani aggression against Armenia.

Our region has close ties with the Armenian community. In fact, one third of the Armenian community of France lives in Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes. Since 2016 we have put a beginning to very important cooperation works with Armenia. It was in particularly reflected with the unprecedented introduction of memory, so that the children of our high school will know about the reality on the Armenian Genocide. Last October I also visited Armenia aimed at establishing cooperation in economic, tourism and higher education spheres.

Today, the military operations being carried out by Azerbaijan are just a threat for Armenias peace and have already caused a lot of sufferings to the civilian population. I strongly condemn this in case when Armenias borders are internationally recognized. I decisively urge the French authorities to deal with this issue, officially urging Baku to stop its military operations for the sake of historical ally Armenia, the people of which have a full right to peace and security and for the sake of Caucasus which should not sink into violence.

As a reminder I want to state that Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes will also be among the key partners of Armenia and Artsakh. It can rely on our full support in this trial, the statement said.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh resigned following a row with the Islamist Ennahda Party. The move has triggered a political crisis for the country as it contends with the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tunisian Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh resigned from his post on Wednesday, the government confirmed in a statement.

The move came after a political row with the Islamist-inspired Ennahda Party deepened and as momentum grew in parliament to oust the prime minister over alleged conflicts of interest.

In a statement, Fakhfakh's office said he handed in his resignation "to avoid conflicts between institutions in the country" and to "open a new path for him to get out of this crisis."

Tunisian President Kais Saied must now choose a new candidate for prime minister who will be in charge of forming a new government.

Political divisions in parliament mean the task won't be an easy one -- and a failure to form a government could lead to an early election.

Political deadlock

The collapse of Fakhfakh's government comes less than five months after it was formed, and follows months of strained relations with Ennahdha, the largest party in parliament.

The last parliamentary election in October led to a divided parliament where no party garnered more than a quarter of the seats, which complicated efforts to form a stable government.

Fakhfakh, a former finance minister and the leader of a small social democratic party, is also under investigation over shares he owns in private companies that have been given public contracts in recent months. The 47-year-old denies any wrongdoing.

The prime minister's resignation will also likely further delay economic reforms and efforts to combat a recent spike in coronavirus cases in the country after Tunisia successfully brought the first wave under control.

Tunisia was the birthplace of the Arab Spring in 2011 and has been hailed by Western countries for its comparatively successful transition to democracy. Despite democratic reforms since the revolution, the country is still struggling with a stagnating economy that has left many Tunisians frustrated.

(dpa, Reuters, AFP)
Teachers, educators , and parents spoke to the WSWS in opposition to the Johnson governments plan to fully reopen schools in September despite the heightened risks from COVID-19 transmission.

Sam and Jane are two teachers from Yorkshire. Sam, who works in a school in Sheffield, said, Throughout the pandemic the government has been very keen on publishing guidance that does not seem fit for purpose. This has been highlighted in their need to amend guidance sometimes thrice daily, making it hard to keep up and implement. September opening guidance is no different. There is little evidence to suggest science is underpinning or supporting these guidelines, so I oppose the reopening.

Staff feel very scared and uncared about. Some feel their lives and wellbeing are being sacrificed for the economy. Staff have been working hard and creatively to maintain and deliver an inclusive curriculum for all children during lockdown. This has seen most staff work since February without a break. Many feel unsupported, as school staff have regularly been vilified in the press for raising concerns about the health and safety in schools during COVID, even though this was in response to following the governments own health and safety advice.

Children have breakfast at the Little Darling home-based Childcare after nurseries and primary schools partially reopen in England after the COVID-19 lockdown in London, Monday, June 1, 2020. (Photo: AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Many have significant underlying health issues that put them at risk yet are not even going to be given basic PPE [personal protective equipment]. A high percentage of staff are BAME [Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic] and the science around COVID and the risks to BAME groups remains unclear. Proposals such as all children to sit facing forward two metres apart from school adults are undoable in small classrooms with large class sizes.

It is also a big ask for the younger children to keep their distance from staff, and those that work with small children know it is impossible to strictly monitor hygiene. Because of this, children are spreaders. The requirement is going to be that clinically vulnerable staff or those living with clinically vulnerable relatives are going to be in school for six-and-a-half to seven hours a day, with no PPE and with no social distancing. This does not follow other workplace guidelines such as offices, where social distancing/perspex screens, etc., have to be strictly adhered to. The idea of bubbles does little to reassure either. Yes, it keeps a group together in school, but it does not take account of what happens outside of it.

Most of our schools cohort are from the BAME communities. Parents have on the whole been very fearful. When school recently widened its opening beyond the vulnerable and key worker children, there wasnt much uptake, with parents preferring to keep their children at home. A lot of our children live with extended family members, some of them elderly, or with health problems. In September, the choice for parents is removed with parents facing fines of up to 120 if they do not send their children to school. In contrast with the softly, softly approach taken during full lockdown the message will be education is not optional.

Some communities have suffered many bereavements due to COVID and we know some children have high anxieties around this. Many children and families see the school as the hub of the community and without access for such a long period have felt isolated. For our vulnerable groups school represents stability and many have still attended, but the sterile measures in place have made it difficult to reach these children and they have struggled without their friendship groups and the social norms usually found at school.

But staff also want the whole school community to be safe. Despite wanting normality, staff acknowledge that cannot come at a cost. Staff do not think the government is keeping the school community safe and therefore oppose reopening.

The National Education Union supporting the September return is very disappointing. School staff are in a worse position now than they were. The five tests set out by the NEU around school safety have not been met, yet they are not opposing.

I agree with the Socialist Equality Party proposals that schools should not be opened until safe. As the government has shown a disregard for both school staff safety and the school community, I am in favour of the workforce deciding on the terms and conditions in which schools reopen.

Jane has worked in two education authorities across West and South Yorkshire over the past 40 years. Asked about the government plans for September, she said, I feel unsure about it. They are now talking about 30 children in a class. The children want to go back. But this makes the adults uneasy, both staff and parents. In our area there are a lot of COVID-19 hotspots.

I think that a full reopening is unrealistic. There will be a lot of anxious staff. Its been shown that children cant socially distance really. There is a great risk of them transmitting the virus back to their families.

I think the unions should fight for us. They are only in jobs because of us. Everyone wants to go back, but only when its safe. As we go, there is more and more found out about the virus. We should listen to the health experts because the government has got another agenda. Health should come before anything else.

Helen, a teacher from Lincolnshire, said, I am clinically vulnerable, and this is a massive worry for me going back to school. In my school, all year groups are returning as usual with zoning in place for different year groups in bubbles of hundreds of children. Staff are really concerned about their safety. I am really disappointed with the education unions. They are not fighting for our rights.

I agree with what the SEP is proposing: the setting up of rank-and-file safety committees in schools are necessary to support families and working-class communities. We need to be safe.

Lara, a teacher from the East Midlands, said, It feels like were being thrown to the wolves. I am very worried for older members of staff. Rules which we have been told need to apply in public spaces (social distancing, mask wearing) arent being applied in schoolsand this isnt following scientific advice. We are reopening to all students, and staff are very nervous about going back into that environment.

The unions need to do more to protect teachers who, come September, are going to be the most exposed section of society, teaching in cramped classrooms with no protection. I fully agree that there needs to be safety committees set up to support teachers and parents.

Chelsea, a teacher, said, I am concerned its too early, but look forward to seeing the pupils. Im worried for my health and the health of my family. Our school is reopening to all pupils in September with year group bubbles and I am concerned that the safety guidelines are not going to keep people safe.

The unions havent stood up. Im worried that my life and the lives of the students I teach are being put in danger without the government fully thinking of the implications.

Steve, a teacher from Essex, said, Its really worrying, something needs to be done to change this. There are too many children returning at one time. The unions need to be on our side, but they have gone quiet since the government announced their plans for September. I think schools should only be open when safe and should do blended learning and small bubbles until the science shows that it is completely safe to return.

Hayley, a parent from Cambridgeshire, said, I think that schools are doing their best without guidance from the government. The government has been inconsistent and sloppy. I feel that staff should be able to wear masks. Social distancing is hard for children, but it is about managing risks. I feel that schools should revert to online teaching if there is another Covid-19 outbreak. My children's school is fully opening in September and we are expecting staggered start/end times and classes to be kept separate. I think it is fair to expect proper funding of all public services. It is clear this hasnt been happening.

Kez, a teaching assistant from Cambridgeshire, said, Its a complete joke. We all want kids back in school but teachers and TAs [teaching assistants] are not being protected. My school is full steam ahead with reopening.

Were expected to just put up and shut up. Were just cannon fodder. This is a policy about economics, not safety. Closing schools is inconvenient to parents, who struggle to work if their kids are off. It disproportionately affects lower-income families. The staff I have spoken to are nervous, but happy to be teaching the kids again. The parents views I have come across are mixed.

Carol, a primary school teacher, said I was in horror at the governments plans for large bubbles in schools and lack of distancing and masks. It is insane that there will be no social distancing in schools, no personal protection for children or staff, and no school closures if children or staff record positively for COVID-19.

I am disappointed with the NEU. Their refusal to fight despite massive opposition among teachers to the reopening of schools has led to the governments plans going ahead.
[July 16, 2020]

MightyHive Launches Global Data Practice

SAN FRANCISCO, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leading data and digital media consultancy MightyHive today announced the launch of its global data practice to help organizations better understand their customers and make informed decisions across their businesses with machine-learning (ML) technologies that drive the effective and sustainable use of connected first-party data and analytics.



Eighty-seven percent of marketers consider data their organizations most underutilized asset , yet according to Forrester, more than half of marketers still feel overwhelmed by the incoming data. In order to make data-driven marketing a reality, marketers need data experts to guide their strategy while effectively navigating a changing privacy landscape. This includes new regulations and technological changes that affect browser cookies and mobile advertiser IDs. The risks of not using or misusing data can be detrimental to a business, as 52% of Americans have decided not to use a product or service because of privacy concerns .

Data is the vital connective tissue that drives personalization at scale and makes good creative even more powerful, said Sir Martin Sorrell, executive chairperson of S4Capital. As the leading tech-led new age marketing services company, launching the MightyHive data practice is a natural step in our evolution.

MightyHive has already sustained positive results from privacy-first data strategies for international brands like Electrolux, Pandora Jewelry and Mondelez International. A key example of this was MightyHives work in helping Mondelez International create a Media Data Spine, a scaled repository to analyze media data for Mondelez marketing teams across the globe, which has spearheaded advanced personalization-at-scale and closed-loop sales measurement with retailers such as Target.

MightyHive has been instrumental in helping Mondelez lead a digital renaissance in the CPG idustry, said Jon Halvorson, VP global media, digital & data at Mondelez International. The MightyHive data team has been by my side as weve architected advanced data environments and future-proofed our measurement systems.



The MightyHive data practice has achieved certifications for Google, Amazon and Salesforce marketing clouds. MightyHive is the only global company that has both Google Marketing Platform (GMP) and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) certifications with specializations across Cloud Identity and Security Expertise.

The MightyHive data practice, globally helmed by Tyler Pietz, senior vice president, global data , is a natural addition to its media consulting services. MightyHive has been steadily building upon its existing data and analytics expertise, including its deep understanding of ML and artificial intelligence (AI) through strategic mergers and calculated hires. Within the past year, the company has merged with Digodat , ConversionWorks , and MightyHive Korea , which has grown its regional presence in Latin America, Europe, Asia and Australia. The MightyHive data practice is globally available to clients with teams and support available locally and across regions.

In addition to welcoming the merged companies teams, noteworthy recently appointed talent includes Julien Coquet , Sayf Sharif and Toby McAra . The global data practice team has deep competency in analytics, as well as the change-maker mindset required to drive digital transformation and fill the data and analytics services gap.

Data impacts every aspect of the customer experience  not just marketing  but it can still be overwhelming and confusing, said Pete Kim, CEO and co-founder of MightyHive. With the launch of the global data practice, MightyHive helps brands break down data silos within their company to more effectively intertwine data with media and creative for more compelling customer experiences and maximum returns.

To learn more about the MightyHive global data practice, please visit https://mightyhive.com/data-practice/ .

About MightyHive

MightyHive is the leading data and digital media consultancy that helps marketers take control. MightyHive delivers sustained results from the ground up through advisory for business transformation, privacy-first data strategy, and digital media services.

The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with a team of consultants, platform experts, data scientists, and marketing engineers in 19 countries and 24 cities around the world. In 2018, MightyHive merged with S4Capital plc (SFOR.L), a tech-led new age/new era digital advertising and marketing services company established by Sir Martin Sorrell.

Contact

Blast PR for MightyHive

mightyhive@blastpr.com
Like stimulus checks? See 12 other legit ways to get free government money

"Free government money"? Come on, that's a scam, right?

Well yeah, there are scammers who try to steal your personal information and your money with promises of free pots of gold from the government. But there also are many legitimate ways your Uncle Sam can provide you with some cash with no strings attached.

The stimulus checks to help Americans get through the pandemic are an obvious example. But you might also receive money if you're buying your first home, preparing to go to college, needing some help with your monthly bills  or if you're just absent-minded and left behind a savings account somewhere.

Take a look at these completely legit ways you can get free money from the government.

1. Unclaimed tax refunds and other forgotten funds

Love getting a tax refund? It seems many people aren't that enthusiastic about getting money back from the IRS, because $1 billion or more in tax refunds go unclaimed every year.

Americans have three years to file a tax return and claim refund money. When they don't, it goes back into the tax agency's coffers.

There's no penalty for not filing a tax return if you're due a refund, but it's worth your while to file each year just in case Uncle Sam does owe you something. Good tax software will walk you through the process and track down all the deductions that apply to you.

Meanwhile, more than $40 billion is out there for the taking from forgotten bank accounts, life insurance policies, utility deposits and other sources, according to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators. You can see if you've got any long-lost money by checking MissingMoney.com or Unclaimed.org.

2. Missing stimulus checks

Evgenia Parajanian / Shutterstock

Filing your taxes is especially important this year because its an essential step if you want to claim a lost stimulus check.

Two rounds of checks went out last year, totaling $1,200 and $600 for most Americans. If you failed to receive one of these economic impact payments, you can apply for a Recovery Rebate Credit on Form 1040 of your federal tax return.

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Filing your return also will give you a chance to update your info with the IRS so you wont miss any additional stimulus checks that come along. A new $1,400 payment is now in the works.

If you cant wait for the next check to arrive, consider taking a few steps to make your own stimulus check.

3. Unclaimed pension benefits

Remember pensions? They've largely been replaced by 401(k) plans, so today few workers get pensions, which promise guaranteed income in retirement.

That can be a sweet deal, yet many Americans leave their scarce pension benefits on the table. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. says 80,000 people are owed over $300 million in unclaimed pension money.

To see if any of that is yours, you can go on the PBGC's website and use its search engine. You can look under your name or the name of a company where you worked.

And for help managing your retirement money  so you won't lose track of any of it  you might want to turn to one of today's affordable financial planning services that operate online.

4. Down payment assistance

Prostock-studio / Shutterstock

The great American dream of home ownership comes with a great big upfront cost: the down payment. Yes, buyers can get incredibly low mortgage rates today, but scraping together up to 20% of the cost of the house can be a heck of a challenge.

However, it's not hopeless: Federal, state and local government agencies have grant programs to help make the dream come true.

For example, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development's Good Neighbor Next Door program picks up half the price of a home for teachers, law enforcement officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians who commit to live in a community for three years.

The department's website can direct you to homebuyer assistance programs available in your state.

5. Help with utilities

The average U.S. household spends over $4,000 a year  around $337 a month  on utilities, including electricity, heating and phone services, according to the latest census data.

You bet that's a lot of money, and paying the bills to keep everything plugged in and turned on can be a struggle for many families.

The Federal Communications Commission's Lifeline program helps low-income Americans stay connected by providing up to $9.25 monthly discount on phone or broadband internet service.

And, the federal Health Department's Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, offers state-issued grants for heating and air conditioning costs in the home. The department has a map to help you find LIHEAP contacts in your state.

6. Weatherization money

Kuchina / Shutterstock

After you've gone to the trouble of getting the government to help with your energy costs, don't waste money by letting cold seep in during the winter and heat worm its way into your home during the summer.

The federal Weatherization Assistance Program has money available for weatherstripping, insulation and other home efficiency updates to make your home more energy efficient and cut your heating and cooling bills.

Up to 30 million U.S. families qualify for this benefit, which the U.S. Department of Energy says saves households an average of $283 or more every year.

Eligibility is based on income. For example, a family of four can get weatherizing help if their annual income doesn't exceed $52,400.

7. Education assistance

Education is freaking expensive. The average annual tuition and fees in 2021 are around $41,000 at four-year private institutions, according to US News. In-state students pay an average of $11,000 a year at public colleges.

But federal and state grants can make paying for college less painful.

You could get a federal Pell Grant if you're able to show you have "exceptional financial need." For the 2020-2021 academic year, Pell Grants are available for up to $6,345 and since it's a grant, the money doesn't have to be paid back.

You also can try to land a Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant through the financial aid office at your school. Amounts range from $100 and $4,000, based on how needy you are.

The first step toward gathering up a sackful of financial aid is to fill out a FAFSA, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Be warned: It's notoriously complicated and confusing, but if you and your family can hack your way through all of the mumbo jumbo, it can be worth it.

8. Free tax services

EdBockStock / Shutterstock

Tax filing can be a nerve-racking process, and reaching out to an accountant for help can cost you a pile of money.

As we mentioned earlier, good software makes doing your taxes easy and is often completely free.

But if you prefer in-person help, you might be able to get that at no cost through the IRS' Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, or VITA program.

Heres how it works: Retired tax experts volunteer in their communities to help complete tax returns for people who earn $57,000 or less, or who are disabled or not proficient in English.

A related service offers seniors free tax help and more. The IRS says volunteers for its Tax Counseling for the Elderly program bring specific knowledge about pensions and retirement finances unique to older Americans.

9. Social Security

We know exactly what many of you are going to say: Social Security isnt free! It's my money  I paid for it with Social Security taxes my entire working life!"

But Americans often do receive "free money" from Social Security: more back in the form of benefits than they ever put in, according to the Urban Institute.

A 2018 study from the think tank found that a single woman who turned 65 in 2020 after working in low-earning jobs will have paid $132,000 in total Social Security taxes, but will collect $209,000 in lifetime benefits. A married one-earner couple whose breadwinner hit 65 last year after making average money will have paid $294,000 into the system but will get back $529,000. (All dollar amounts are in 2017 dollars.)

And dont worry  youll get your money, because Social Security isnt going broke. That's a common myth.

10. Social Securitys lump-sum death benefit

Eugen Thome / Shutterstock

There are lots of ways to get extra money from Social Security. One of the more obscure ones is a modest one-time death benefit you can receive when you lose a spouse or parent.

What do we mean by "modest"? Todays typical payment is just $255, an amount that was introduced in 1954.

The lump-sum death benefit has been around since 1935, before the program offered survivors benefits for widows, widowers and other dependents. Once those benefits came along, the death payment evolved into money for burial expenses, but it doesnt go very far today. In 2019, the average funeral cost $7,640, according to the National Funeral Directors Association.

Proposals have been made over the years to end or increase the benefit, but theyve all hit  wait for it  dead ends.

11. Compensation when youve been scammed

Have you been ripped off? Maybe when you were urged to send money to collect your prize from a phony sweepstakes, or if you paid for an item you never got from an online store that seemed a little sketchy. (Really, you should have known better.)

The Federal Trade Commission can help you get some money from the scammers.

First, you need to file a complaint with the agency, explaining what happened and how much you lost. If the FTC gets enough complaints, it takes legal action against the company, recovers money and sends checks to customers. Officials say they try to return as much money as possible to each victim.

Recent FTC checks have gone to people who fell for fraudulent business opportunities, and for shoppers who paid for LED lightbulbs that didnt work well.

12. Unemployment benefits

thirawatana phaisalratana / Shutterstock

When you lose your job through no fault of your own  say, because of a global pandemic  the government's got your back. It provides some cash to help you get by, for a time.

Today's unemployment insurance system is overseen by the federal government but run by the states, and some are stingier than others. Benefits can last up to 26 weeks and range from $235 a week (in Mississippi) to $555 (in Massachusetts).

During the first wave of the coronavirus crisis  which saw unemployment soar higher than at any time since the Great Depression  the federal government threw in an additional $600 per week. Those bonus payments ended last July, but under the most recent stimulus package, out-of-work Americans can get an extra $300 a week until March 14.

On top of that, if President Joe Bidens proposed $1.9 trillion rescue plan passes, bonus unemployment payments will increase to $400 per week through the end of September.

13. FHA mortgage refunds

FHA home loans  backed by the Federal Housing Administration  are popular with first-time homebuyers because they allow you to make a low down payment, even if you have a so-so credit score.

The FHA guarantees to pay a portion of the loan if you default, but you agree to take on some of the risk by paying mortgage insurance premiums, or MIP, starting with an upfront premium at closing of 1.75% of the loan amount.

The housing agency has determined that some borrowers are owed refunds of part of their upfront MIP if they didn't default on their loans. You can find out if you have some mortgage money waiting by reading the FHAs refund fact sheet.
The United States must take concrete steps to promote global strategic security, particularly in the field of nuclear weapons, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a press conference here Thursday.

The spokesperson's comments follow media reports of a nuclear accident at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States involving the potential exposure of its employees to plutonium.

The United States was reportedly seeking to rapidly improve the laboratory's nuclear-weapons production capacity, to ensure it can produce 30 nuclear-weapon cores per year by 2030.

In response to a question on the issue, Hua said that, as a country with the world's largest nuclear arsenal, the United States still vigorously promotes the modernization of nuclear weapons and develops new types of nuclear weapons to seek absolute strategic security advantages.

She said the United States has spared no effort to boost its nuclear-weapons capability, which not only undermines global strategic stability but also increases the hidden risks to nuclear security, an issue on which experts from the Union of Concerned Scientists have expressed concern.

The United States should earnestly fulfill its special and primary responsibilities regarding nuclear disarmament, and promote global strategic security through concrete actions, Hua said. Enditem

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Sixty-six percent of U.S. registered voters say it is not appropriate to use "kung flu" and "China virus" when referring to COVID-19, a U.S. poll has found.

The poll, conducted online by U.S. media outlet The Hill and survey research company HarrisX on July 3-4, collected the opinions of 933 registered voters in the United States.

It found that 83 percent of Democratic voters and 66 percent of independents think it is inappropriate to use those terms, while 56 percent of Republican voters think the terms are "appropriate."

It also found that 89 percent of those who disapprove of the current administration deem it is inappropriate to use the terms, while the other 11 percent say they are appropriate.

Reporting the polling result, the Hill cited critics as saying that President Donald Trump's rhetoric "is partly to blame for an uptick in reported crimes against the Asian American community."
Ohangala music encapsulates Luo traditions perfectly with sweet melodies, and acoustic drum beats that Kenyans have learned to appreciate. The traditional Ohangla tune that is now sung by numerous renowned artists consists of more than eight drums being hit with a stick, and a cylindrical shoulder slung drum. The tune has been modernized and transcends tribal borders and is widely accepted by individuals that hardly grasp the message. Lady Maureen was one of the tune's most celebrated artists, with a great career entertaining fans all over the country. She managed to dominate in a predominantly male genre and chose to discard traditional instruments for modern ones.

Image: facebook.com, @Lady Maureen Fans

Source: Facebook

Maureen Achieng, known by her popular stage name, was a great Ohangla artist. Her greatest hits like Jogi Jokuoge, Alemo, Gor Kogallo, Raila Jakom have been played for numerous years, and they do not seem to lose value. She ascended the Ohangla music industry fast and was a sensation among fans all over Kenya that were jamming to her tune in clubs and at home.

Lady Maureen songs are a testament to her impressive talent, a style that she adopted in early 2006 after making a casual visit to Kisumu Social Hall. Do you want to know Lady Maureen latest songs?

Lady Maureen songs

If you have listened to Lady Maureen songs, you will realize they are much more engaging and creatively presented. Her songs are mostly about praising politicians mixed with the conventional Ohangla vibe of drum beats and sweet acoustics that would lift you out of your seat any time.

She was the envy of other flamboyant musicians in the genre, but her fantastic talent allowed her to emerge as the best and produce great songs over the years. Which are the best Lady Maureen Ohangla songs?

1. Raila Jakom

Lady Maureen mostly sang about politicians and who better to feature in one of her most significant hits than the don himself, Raila Odinga. The revered politician who commands crowds and is respected in the Luo community was certainly a big selling point in this tune.

In the song, Lady Maureen talks about Raila's character, success, failure, and immaculateness. As usual, she doesn't disappoint with her vocals. Lady Maureen sings her heart out, singing high praises to one of the most prominent political personalities and influencers in the country. This song is one of the fan-favourites. Many requesting it during her live performances at different places.

2. Safari ya Caanan

"The journey's long, but everyone will reach the final destination." Those are the powerful words in this popular Lady Maureen song, whereby she praises the NASA political team.

The song was quite popular during political campaigns as the message and intent is quite clear. It is just amazing how Lady Maureen packaged her messages in most of her songs while still managing to give listeners great music.

3. Gor Kogalo

If you are looking to download Lady Maureen music videos, you cannot afford to leave this one out. In the song, she uplifts Gor Mahias spirits in support of the team. Whether she was a staunch supporter of the team or not, the song hits home with many fans of the Kenyan Premier League team that evokes great emotion.

In the song, Lady Maureen praises the clubs officials and players for being part of the teams success over the years, winning over 18 Kenya Premier League titles.

READ ALSO: 10 best black indie artists in 2020

4. Jehova Iber

There are probably not many Lady Maureen gospel songs meaning that Jehova Iber is a unique one in her music compilation. Here, with her signature sound, she praises the highest and probably got fans confused a bit. However, since it is Lady Maureen, and having amassed a considerable fan base, the song is a favourite.

5. Wangni Wabiro

How many of Lady Maureen videos have you listened to? Wang'ni Wabiro, one of her biggest tunes and her debut CD is probably on your list. This song and others featured in this collection hit from the day they were released and continue to be a favourite among fans in Kenya. Many even refer to Lady Maureen as the Wangni Wabiro hit composer because the collection was trendy.

She released the CD in 2006 and featured songs like Obama Wuod Alego (Obama son of Alego) that praises the former President of the United States of America.

Other Lady Maureen songs

Are you searching for Lady Maureen videos? She has sung many songs in her career, some popular while others not so much. The following are some of her other songs that people enjoy.

Ayuago Kenya

Piny Onjaore

Oberena

Odhis Chunya

Okoth Lasega

Otieno Ogalo

Asega Taya

Omuya

Alemo

Lady Maureen released about five albums in her music career challenging some of the biggest Ohangla hitmakers like Tony Nyadundo and many others. The majority of her events attracted fans from all walks of life, mostly influential personalities in Kenya that loved listening to her music. Her fifth album launch, according to her was her last and she was considering quitting music in 2022 for an alternative career. Unfortunately, she never made it that far as the famous musician died on July 11, 2020, after a long illness.

READ ALSO:

Wakadinali rap group members and best songs

List of the latest house music hits in 2020

Latest Willy Paul songs in 2020

Source: TUKO.co.ke
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Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra swore in on Wednesday his new ministerial cabinet, appointing 11 new ministers and naming attorney Pedro Cateriano as the new president of the Council of Ministers.

Cateriano previously held the position from 2015 to 2016 during the government of former president Ollanta Humala.

Though most of the previous cabinet members remained, there were also some significant changes.

Mario Lopez was appointed as the new head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Pilar Mazzetti was appointed as the new Minister of Health, replacing Victor Zamora, who had been leading the country's fight against the novel coronavirus.

Shortly after the cabinet was sworn in, Vizcarra met with his new team and called for their maximum efforts to control the pandemic.

"One of the main axes of government action at this stage continues to be the fight against the pandemic. We will do it with greater effort and renewed energy. Our objective is to contain the disease and strengthen the health system," he stated.

The president also asked the ministers to redouble their efforts so that the nation's economy could begin to recover.

"We will deepen measures to accelerate the recovery of the economy and return Peru to the path of growth," he said.
<! Ngige, Somefun, Kemi Nelson >

The Federal Government has set up a Presidential Joint Board Audit Investigation Panel to probe alleged N3.4 billion financial infractions levelled against the suspended Managing Director of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF, Adebayo Somefun and three other directors.

The suspended directors are: Jasper Ikedi-Azuatalam, Executive Director (ED), Finance and Investment; Mrs Olukemi Nelson, ED, Operations and Alhaji Tijani Darazo Sulaiman, ED, Administration.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, set up the panel on Thursday.

The panel is chaired by Ibrahim Khaleel of the Nigeria Labour Congress and Chairman of the Audit Committee of the NSITF board.

The minister was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, William Alo.

Ngige stated that the eight-member committee had three weeks to submit its report.

According to Ngige, the NSITF is a government-owned entity established to address the socio-economic needs of workers by providing compensation to insured employees who suffered from occupational diseases, sustained injuries or disability from accident or even death during or in the course of employment.

He said in order to discharge its mandate, the NSITF Act provided that employers of labour should make financial contributions to the Fund, adding that employers in both the private and public sectors of the formal economy and the NSITF were the statutory custodian of the funds.

The minister pointed out that it had become very worrisome when there were issues surrounding and emanating from the management of these funds entrusted to NSITF, especially when seemingly done in transgression of extant rules, regulations and laws guiding due processes for the management of funds and general conduct/ethics in the public service.

This becomes even more worrisome when preliminary investigations yield alarming results, he said.

In his remark, Khaleel assured that the committee would carry out its duty justly and with the fear of God and that nobody would be cheated, The Punch reports.

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A settlement has been announced between Libre by Nexus Inc. in which it will cease transacting immigration bonds in the California, phase out the use of GPS ankle monitors, and issue credits to clients still in arrears with Libre.

Additionally, the company must provide individual cash credits of $420 to participants not owing any payments and voluntarily submit to oversight and inspection of its business practices by the California Department of Insurance. The total value of the settlement is roughly $5.5 million.

The CDI began an investigation into Libre and their affiliated licensed agents and surety companies following a Request for Assistance filed with the CDI by a relative of a previous Libre client. The investigation revealed that Libre had been transacting immigration bonds throughout California without being licensed by the CDI and targeted the Spanish-speaking community with contracts that were provided in English only.

The CDI says Libre has contracted with over 5,400 participants since 2014.

Faced with the prospect of either detention or freedom, vulnerable immigrants trusted Libre by Nexus to explain contracts available only in English, with hidden and unclear costs, often believing that they were paying for their bond when, in fact, it only covered the GPS tracking device they were forced to wear, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said in a statement. Our action puts an end to Libres misleading business practices and makes amends to those who paid excessive and often unnecessary costs.

With Libre as the only point of contact and directly involved with releasing clients from immigration detention centers, clients contracted with Libre for their services believing it was necessary and related to their immigration bonds. Many clients were under the impression they were paying off their immigration bonds, when they were actually contracting with Libre to pay for program fees unrelated to their bonds, according to the CDI.

Thus, many people were unknowingly indebted to Libre, entirely separate from the debt they owed towards their immigration bonds. Based on such investigative findings, the CDI issued a Cease and Desist Order against Libre on Dec. 11, 2019.

Libre issued a statement in response to the CDI announcement:

Libre by Nexus is delighted that our company has successfully reached an agreement with the California Division of Insurance. Libre by Nexus aggressively defends itself from any accusations of wrongdoing by the division, and we are happy to put this process behind us.

Under the terms of the settlement, Libre will cease and desist soliciting, selling, financing, and referring immigration bonds in California as well as submit to oversight and inspection of its business practices by the CDI.

The company will transition from a GPS device worn on the ankle to an app-based location system by Oct. 31. Terms of the settlement also dictate that Libre must ask all clients whether they prefer contracts to be in English or Spanish and to provide contracts in the language chosen by clients. Libre will also provide cash credits to program participants still in arrears and individual cash credits for those not in arrears, totaling $5.5 million.

Libre recently reached a similar settlement with the Attorney General in Washington state, and is currently under investigation in Virginia and New York.

Topics California
Avengers star Chris Evans has honored a little boy who saved his sister from being ravaged by a charging dog, sending him a sweet video message and vowing to send him a Captain America shield.

Evans - who plays the superhero in Marvels movies - recorded a clip for Bridger Walker after news spread of how the child from Cheyenne, Wyoming put himself in between his sibling and the animal, leading to him getting mauled and needing 90 stitches.

'I read your story, I saw what you did. Im sure youve heard this a bunch of times over the last couple of days, but let me be the first one to tell you, Pal, youre a hero,' he said.

'What you did was so brave and so selfless. Your sister is so lucky to have you as a big brother. Your parents must be so proud of you.'

Footage posted to social media on Wednesday showed Bridger's pleased reaction as the famous face addressed him.

Get this man a shield. https://t.co/nrchaKdoAW  Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) July 16, 2020

Chris Evans left a sweet video message for six-year-old Bridger Walker on Wednesday

The Wyoming boy needed 90 stitches after he was mauled by a dog which had launched an attack on his younger sister (right)

In the video Evans tells Bridger he's sending him 'an authentic Captain America shield because pal, you deserve it'

The clip was made possible after Bridger's aunt, Nicole Walker, contacted the filmmakers with information about the incident that had gone viral on social media.

Filmmaker Brandon Davis called the stunt one of the most fulfilling things they could do as he shared the clip of Bridger wearing an Avengers costume while watching the message with his little sister.

In the video Evans tells Bridger he's sending him 'an authentic Captain America shield because pal, you deserve it'.

'Im gonna track down your address and Im gonna send you an authentic Captain America shield, because pal, you deserve it,' Evans continued. 'Keep being the man you are, we need people like you. Hang in there, I know recovery might be tough. But, based on what Ive seen, theres not much that could slow you down.'

Evans added in a Twitter caption: 'Get this man a shield.'

The line is a reference from Avengers: Infinity War and gained prominence in the trailer when uttered by T'Challah, also known as the Black Panther.

Evans added in a Twitter caption: 'Get this man a shield.' The line is a reference from Avengers: Infinity War and gained prominence in the trailer when uttered by T'Challah, also known as the Black Panther

The surprise message came after Hollywood stars Anne Hathaway and Mark Ruffalo heaped praise on Bridger.

He was bitten several times on the head and face and despite having been attacked, he was able to grab his sister's hand and lead her away from danger, according to an Instagram post from his aunt Nicole Walker.

Ms Walker asked people to share the post as widely as possible so he could get some 'words of encouragement from his favorite heroes.'

Amazingly, Avengers star Ruffalo responded after Hathaway shared Bridger's story and said, 'I know a superhero when I see one.'

She initially wrote in an Instagram post: 'I'm not an Avenger, but I know a superhero when I see one.

'I can only hope I'm half as brave in my life as you are in yours, Bridger.'

Ruffalo then responded to Ms Walker's post and wrote: 'Dear Bridger, I just read about what happened to you and I wanted to reach out to say this

'People who put the wellbeing of others in front of themselves are the most heroic and thoughtful people I know.

'I truly respect and admire your courage and your heart. Real courage isn't dominating people or fighting against people or walking around like a tough guy.

'Real courage is knowing what is right to do and doing it even when it might end up hurting you somehow.'

Hollywood stars Anne Hathaway and Mark Ruffalo have heaped praise on the 'hero' Wyoming boy who needed 90 stitches after he was mauled by a dog which had launched an attack on his younger sister

He was bitten several times on the head and face when he got between the dog and his sister after it started charging at her

Shocking pictures show Bridger's swollen face and and bloodied stitches running up his cheek from his mouth.

Ms Walker said the little boy received around 90 stitches from a 'skilled plastic surgeon' and is now recovering at home.

She also revealed in her post that the little boy said of his selfless act, 'If someone had to die, I thought it should be me.'

'I just finished visiting with Bridger at his home,' the post read.

'His wounds are looking so much better! He's in great spirits, and his awesome personality is intact.

'He can't smile too widely yet, but he was grinning as I read some of your comments to him.'

Remarkably, Ms Walker added that Bridger and his family 'feel no resentment' toward the dog owners.

The aunt said some people who saw the post had asked if there was a GoFundMe page for Bridger.

She instead asked that people donate to military veteran groups and send photos of rocks to Bridger because he loves geology.
In March of 2020, Mass General Brigham implemented a new policy: everyone working at the hospitals would be required to wear a surgical mask. At the time, the concept of universal masking was new and its potential effectiveness unclear. But now, a new study led by investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital and published in JAMA makes it clear: after universal masking was implemented at Mass General Brigham, the rate of COVID-19 infection among health care workers dropped significantly.

"These results support universal masking as part of a multipronged, infection-reduction strategy in health care settings," said corresponding author Deepak L. Bhatt, MD, MPH, FACC, executive director of Interventional Cardiovascular Programs at the Brigham. "While we studied health care workers, the results also apply to other situations in which social distancing is not possible. For those who have been waiting for data before adopting the practice, this paper makes it clear: Masks work."

The study assessed infection rates for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, among Mass General Brigham health care workers before and after a universal masking policy was put in place system-wide. Mass General Brigham includes 12 hospitals, including Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, and 78,000 employees in Massachusetts. Using electronic medical records, Bhatt and colleagues examined data from March 1 to April 30, looking at test results for health care workers who had symptoms of COVID-19 (throughout the study period, anyone with symptoms of COVID-19 could be tested for infection). Of 9,850 health care workers tested over the study period, 1,271 (13 percent) had positive results for SARS-CoV-2.

The team compared rates during the pre-intervention period of March 1 to March 24 to the intervention period of April 11 to April 30 (the team allowed for a transition period from March 25 to April 11 to account for a lag in symptoms). Before the masking policy was implemented, the SARS-CoV-2 positivity rate increased exponentially from 0 percent to 21 percent, with cases doubling every 3.6 days. After the policy was implemented, the positivity rate decreased linearly from 15 percent to 11 percent. Case numbers continued to increase in Massachusetts throughout the study period.

In their paper, the authors outline other interventions in Massachusetts and at Mass General Brigham during the study period that may have confounded their results. They also note that during a pandemic it is likely not feasible to conduct a randomized trial to test whether universal masking alone accounts for the dramatic reversal in the SARS-CoV-2 positive rate.

This is the most direct COVID-19 research data to this point that is based on testing of health care workers pre- and post-implementation of universal masking policies. When our Infection Control leaders announced a universal masking policy early in the pandemic it was a bold move, especially at a time when, like all health systems, we were facing PPE shortages. But the results of this study demonstrate that requiring masks for all hospital staff regardless of role in the organization was critical to protecting our employees." Dean Hashimoto, MD, Chief Medical Officer for Occupational Health Services at Mass General Brigham
The Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish leaders on Wednesday condemned what they called hurtful words and anti-Semitic theories expressed by Nick Cannon, a day after ViacomCBS severed ties with him for the remarks made on a podcast.

And after the TV host and producer wrote a lengthy Facebook post defending himself and criticizing his firing for what the company deemed bigotry and anti-Semitism, prominent members of the U.S. Jewish community said the post fell well short and demanded an apology.

Its not enough to say, Im not a racist, Im not a bigot, said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The statements he made are hurtful, and theyre false.

Cooper said Cannon had reached out to him Wednesday to have a conversation, but he preferred to speak to him only after he issues an apology.

He said Cannon should read and heed the words of Martin Luther King Jr., who "dedicated his life for civil rights for all and a color-blind America. Cooper also would advise him to seek out the guidance of basketball Hall of Famer-turned-writer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who has condemned several sports and entertainment celebrities for anti-Semitic posts.

In the hour-plus episode of Cannon's Class released last month that prompted his firing, Cannon and Richard Professor Griff Griffin, formerly of the rap group Public Enemy, contended that Black people are the true Hebrews and Jews have usurped that identity.

Cannon then argued that lighter-skinned people  Jewish people, white people, Europeans"  are a little less" and have a deficiency that historically caused them to act out of fear and commit acts of violence to survive.

They had to be savages, he said.

When I first heard about the comments Mr. Cannon made, it was very, very disappointing," said Oren Segal, director of the Anti-Defamation Leagues Center on Extremism. "Were in a time where hatred of all kinds is very much apparent. Its in the news every day.

Story continues

Anti-Semitism in particular over the past several years has been something that we've seen in increase , as well as racism and other issues," Segal added. "So when you hear an individual who has a public profile, who has influence over people, make statements that are highly offensive to the Jewish community, the first reaction is disappointment.

Anti-Semitic violent attacks rose worldwide by 18% in 2019 compared with the previous year, according to a report published in April by Tel Aviv Universitys Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary Jewry.

Segal said some members of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement see themselves as the true chosen people, and believe that Blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans are the true descendants of the 12 Tribes of Israel. He noted that not all spew hateful rhetoric, although many adhere to an extreme set of anti-Semitic beliefs.

Bruce D. Haynes, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Davis, who has been studying Black Jews for more than two decades, agreed that the remarks echo the ideas of extreme Black Hebrew Israelites and of Minister Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader who last year referenced Satanic Jews in a speech denying allegations of anti-Semitism. But Haynes took a more nuanced view.

The danger is that those groups get confused with other self-identified Israelites like (Rabbi) Capers Funnye, who has a congregation in Chicago, and who is very much involved with the Ashkenazim Jewish community. So I want to make clear that the term 'Israelites' is a tricky term, he said.

Is it anti-Semitic to say Black people are the real Israelites or the real Jews? Im not sure Id call it anti-Semitism, Haynes said. Its not a good reading of history, but I wouldnt call it anti-Semitism. On the other hand, some of those groups that call Jews impostors certainly cross the line."

Until his firing, Cannon produced Wild n Out, a comedy improv series for VH1, the ViacomCBS-owned cable channel.

In a Facebook post, he said he welcomes being held accountable and takes responsibility for his words, while also accusing the company of trying to silence an outspoken black man and demanding full ownership of the Wild n Out brand.

I do not condone hate speech nor the spread of hateful rhetoric. ... The Black and Jewish communities have both faced enormous hatred, oppression persecution and prejudice for thousands of years and in many ways have and will continue to work together to overcome these obstacles, he wrote.

Cooper said that Cannon should reject Farrakhans hate speech and reduce the long statement to two sentences  a simple apology.

First of all, apologizing to the Jewish community for questioning our identity, Cooper said. Its simply outrageous ... and thats not too much to ask for someone who says that hes not a bigot. ___

Associated Press Television Writer Lynn Elber contributed to this report.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through the Religion News Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

___
Twitter limits certain account functionalities as it battles what analysts say could be worst-ever social media hack.

Con artists on Wednesday apparently hacked into the Twitter accounts of technology moguls, politicians and major companies in an apparent bitcoin scam.

The ruse included bogus tweets from Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and a number of tech billionaires including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The fake tweets offered to send $2,000 for every $1,000 sent to a bitcoin address.

The cause of the breach was not immediately clear, but the scale and the scope of the problem suggested that it was not limited to a single account or service.

This appears to be the worst hack of a major social media platform yet, Dmitri Alperovitch, who co-founded cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, told Reuters news agency.

You may be unable to Tweet or reset your password while we review and address this incident.  Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 15, 2020

Twitter said in an email that it was looking into the matter and would issue a statement shortly.

Were continuing to limit the ability to Tweet, reset your password, and some other account functionalities while we look into this, it tweeted.

Some of the tweets from hacked accounts were swiftly deleted but there appeared to be a struggle for control. In the case of billionaire Musk, for example, one tweet soliciting cryptocurrency was removed, but sometime later another one appeared.

Note the email addresses change. Twitter has no reason to give employees native access to impersonate users.

Accounts are being stolen, auth token generated, and tweeted from. Note how legitimate users still have tokens to delete tweets. Not a clean hit.https://t.co/grlhbkhVhR  SwiftOnSecurity (@SwiftOnSecurity) July 15, 2020

Among the other accounts affected were those of Uber and Apple. Celebrities Kanye West and his wife, Kim Kardashian West, were also hacked.

Data risk

Some experts said it seemed probable that hackers had access to Twitters internal infrastructure.

It is highly likely that the attackers were able to hack into the back end or service layer of the Twitter application, said Michael Borohovski, director of software engineering at security company Synopsys.

If the hackers do have access to the backend of Twitter, or direct database access, there is nothing potentially stopping them from pilfering data in addition to using this tweet-scam as a distraction, he said.

Publicly available blockchain records show that the apparent scammers have already received more than $100,000 worth of cryptocurrency.

Me, the first time someone suggested using Twitter as an official emergency alert system: https://t.co/DyPWm0fm1w pic.twitter.com/aIjsyp8xJ5  Blaine Cook (@blaine) July 15, 2020

Other experts said the incident has raised questions about Twitters cybersecurity.

Its clear the company is not doing enough to protect itself, said Oren Falkowitz, former CEO of Area 1 Security.

Alperovitch, who now chairs the Silverado Policy Accelerator, said that, in a way, the public had dodged a bullet so far.

We are lucky that given the power of sending out tweets from the accounts of many famous people, the only thing that the hackers have done is scammed about $110,000 in bitcoins from about 300 people, he said.
The first police officer on the scene of the alleged horrific murder of a 10-year-old girl on a rural farm last week has taken leave after being severely disturbed by what confronted him at the property.

The young girl was found dead inside a home at Gunnedah, in northern NSW, last Wednesday, before her 14-year-old cousin was arrested at a nearby farmhouse.

She has been charged with murder and remanded in custody.

So disturbing is the manner in which she allegedly killed her cousin that a NSW Local Court magistrate has banned the media from publishing any details.

Daily Mail Australia can reveal the first officer at the scene was a longtime member of the local Gunnedah police and has been granted leave by NSW Police, who are ensuring he receives the necessary support.

A 10-year-old girl was allegedly murdered by her cousin, 14, on a farm in Gunnedah, in NSW, on Wednesday, July 8. The first officer on the scene has been granted leave, so disturbed is he by what he experienced

NSW Police and the Police Association of NSW are supporting the officer, who is a longtime member of the local Gunnedah police (Pictured are officers at the scene last week)

Police Association of NSW president Tony King said the impact of the job on officers' personal welfare is often forgotten about.

'Police officers regularly encounter situations and circumstances that are horrific,' Mr King told Daily Mail Australia.

'Every scene of a fatality, particularly those involving children, is extremely difficult.

'Our officers are human and aren't immune to the impacts of handling difficult cases that no one else in any other other job would ordinarily have to confront, let alone on repeated occasions. It's a hard job.'

It was just before 6.30am on Wednesday, July 8, when the older girl's mother walked into their room to check on them before going out to begin work on the farm.

When she returned just half-an-hour later she found her niece horrifically killed and her own daughter vanished.

Dazed and confused, the alleged teenage killer had walked three kilometres across a wheat field with the sharp weapon allegedly still in her hand.

The young victim had gone to stay with relatives on the farm for the school holidays.

The tragedy has divided the two families, with the victim's father launching a furious rant against his sister-in-law and her husband on Facebook.

After the victim's mother posted on Facebook stating she did not blame her sister or brother-in-law for the tragedy, her husband launched into a furious rant in response.

'You are deadset unf***ing believable,' the man wrote.

The victim's father lashed out at the alleged killer's parents, saying her death was 'preventable'

Forensic police collect evidence from in and around the farmhouse where the alleged murder occurred

Gunnedah, known best for being the hometown of supermodel Miranda Kerr, is about an hour west of Tamworth and 450km from Sydney

In a separate post the victim's father described his daughter's death as 'preventable'.

'All the news reports state good family from Gunnedah,' he wrote.

'This crime was completely preventable.'

His emotional tirades followed a post from his wife on her sister's Facebook page.

In it she urged locals in Gunnedah - which has been rocked by the death - to 'show some compassion' to her relatives, who she said she still has a 'deep, deep love' for.

'I love you a lot, our family will get through this together and work through this day by day together,' the victim's mother wrote.

'My sister and her family are going through immense circumstances and I speak for (my daughter) as her mum, and we feel only deep, deep love.

The 10-year-old girl was visiting her cousins on the remote farm for a school holiday sleepover

The incident shocked the sleepy town of around 10,000 people, known as the 'koala capital of the world'

The teenager did not appear in Tamworth Children's Court (pictured) on Thursday and was refused bail until her next court date on September 16

'If everyone including the Gunnedah community can please show some compassion and kindness to my beautiful sister, her husband and family where the tragedy unfolded that would mean a lot.'

The age of the alleged killer and victim mean they, nor any family members, can be named or identified by Daily Mail Australia.

Just days before the incident, the alleged teenage killer had been suspended from her local high school for throwing scissors at a classmate.

The alleged murder rattled the sleepy country town of around 10,000 people, known best for being the hometown of supermodels Miranda Kerr and Erica Packer.

Police spent days combing the nearby wheat and cotton paddocks for clues as they try to answer the many questions remaining about the incident.

A close neighbour a few paddocks down the road was shocked the little girl he remembered playing in the grass was accused of a heinous crime.

'I used to see her and her sister running around the paddock, playing, or with her parents at cattle market,' he said.

The area is renowned for its wheat and cotton farming, which is among the biggest in Australia

Police and state emergency service volunteers meticulously searched paddocks and fields for what is believed to be the alleged murder weapon

'She was always very polite and happy, I never had any qualms with her. How does this happen?'

The deceased girl is from Orange, a town west of Sydney past the Blue Mountains, and also from a locally prominent family.

Police have refused to give details of the girl's injuries except that that were substantial, and the court has suppressed such information anyway.

A post mortem examination was carried out last week and should provide police with more clues about how the alleged murder unfolded.

The teenager did not appear in court on Thursday and was refused bail until her next court date on September 16.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 16:38:56|Editor: huaxia

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QALA-E-NAW, Afghanistan, July 16 (Xinhua) -- A total of 13 Taliban militants had been killed in west Afghanistan's Badghis province, a local official said Thursday.

The Taliban insurgents launched a multi-pronged offensive on security check points around district headquarters of the Qadis district of the province at 09:00 p.m. Wednesday night, district governor Mohammad Haider Sharifi said.

The security forces, in sharp reaction, began attacking the militants from ground and air, killing "13 rebels on the spot and wounding 16 others" and forcing the insurgents to flee, he said.

The Taliban attempts to overrun Qadis district have been foiled, the official added.

However, the official admitted that two soldiers had been killed, one injured and three others made captive by the militants in the fighting which lasted for three hours.

The Taliban outfit has yet to make comments. Enditem
Doctors in France have described what they said was the first confirmed case of a newborn infected in the womb with COVID-19 by the mother.

The baby boy, born in March, suffered brain swelling and neurological symptoms linked to COVID-19 in adults, but has since recovered, they reported Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

Earlier research had pointed to the likely transmission of the virus from mother to fetus, but the study offers the first solid evidence, said senior author Daniele De Luca, a doctor at Antoine Beclere Hospital near Paris.

"We have shown that the transmission from the mother to the fetus across the placenta is possible during the last weeks of pregnancy," he said.

Last week, researchers in Italy said that data on 31 pregnant women hospitalized with COVID-19 "strongly suggested" that the virus could be passed on to unborn infants.

A JAMA study in March reporting on a similar number of pregnant COVID-19 patients came to a similar conclusion.

But evidence remained circumstantial.

"You need to analyze maternal blood, amniotic fluid, the newborn's blood, the placenta, et cetera," De Luca said by phone.

"Getting all of these samples during a pandemic with emergencies everywhere has not been easy. This is why it has been suspected but never demonstrated."

De Luca and his team pulled together this data for the case of a pregnant woman in her twenties admitted to his hospital in early March.

Because the baby was delivered by caesarean section, all of the potential sources and reservoirs of the virus remained intact.

The concentration of SARS-CoV-2, the technical name given to the virus, was highest in the placenta, the researchers found.

"From there it passed through the umbilical cord to the baby, where it develops," De Luca said. "That is the pathway of transmission."

The baby began to develop severe symptoms 24 hours after birth, including severe rigidity of the body, damage to white matter in the brain, and extreme irritability.

But before doctors could settle on a course of treatment, the symptoms began to recede. Within three weeks, the newborn had almost fully recovered on his own.

Three months later, his mother is without symptoms.

"The bad news is that this actually happened, and can happen," De Luca said. "The good news is that it is rare -- very rare compared to the global population."

Among the thousands of babies born to mothers with COVID-19, no more than one or two percent have tested positive for the virus, and even fewer show serious symptoms, said Marian Knight, a professor of maternal and child population health at the University of Oxford who was not involved in the research.

"The most important message for pregnant women remains to avoid infection through paying attention to hand washing and social distancing measures," she said.

Others said the case study shed light on how the virus passes from mother to child.

"This report adds knowledge to a possible mechanism of transfer to the baby, via the placenta," commented Andrew Shennan, a professor of obstetrics at King's College London.

"But women can remain reassured that pregnancy is not a significant risk factor for them or their babies with COVID-19."
Commercial flights suggested are those connecting Vietnam with the destinations of Guangzhou (China), Seoul (the Republic of Korea), Tokyo (Japan), Taiwan (China), Vientiane (Laos), and Phnom Penh (Cambodia) with one flight per week per destination.

It is estimated that approximately 2,500  3,000 passengers will enter Vietnam from these flights per week.

Domestic airlines will operate one flight per week to the aforementioned destinations and will increase flight frequency after the COVID-19 pandemic is fully under control.

Foreign passengers to Vietnam will need a valid visa and will be quarantined according to the regulations on COVID-19 prevention.

Vietnam halted international flights from April 1 onward due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Several foreign airlines have been allowed to run international flights to Vietnam including flights carrying goods to Vietnam and carrying passengers out of Vietnam.

Meanwhile, flights carrying passengers to Vietnam have been arranged under the supervision of the Foreign Ministry. They have repatriated Vietnamese passengers including the elderly, children, pregnant women, labourers with expired labour contracts as well as facilitating foreign experts coming to Vietnam to work.
The 50-page report was completed last year but its publication was delayed by the general election in December. (AFP)

London: A long-awaited report into alleged Russian interference in the Brexit vote will be published within days, the British parliament's intelligence and security committee (ISC) said Thursday.

The 50-page report was completed last year but its publication was delayed by the general election in December, which caused all parliamentary committees to be disbanded.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week nominated new members to the committee, which oversees the intelligence agencies, and they held their first meeting on Thursday.

"The committee has unanimously agreed this morning that it will publish the report on Russia prepared by its predecessor before the House (of Commons) rises for the summer recess" on the evening of July 22, it said.

The ISC launched the investigation in November 2017 following concerns about attempts by Russia to influence the 2016 US presidential election and fears of meddling in Britain's referendum vote to leave the European Union the same year.

Then prime minister Theresa May had accused Russia of "planting fake stories" to "sow discord in the West and undermine our institutions".

The 2018 poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, southwest England, which London and its Western allies blamed on Moscow, only added to the ISC's concerns.

The report was completed in March last year and cleared by the intelligence agencies in October, but Johnson failed to clear it for publication before the election.

It then had to wait until a new committee was established.

Johnson sparked anger among many MPs for taking so long to nominate the new committee members -- and when he finally did, he faced an immediate revolt.

Downing Street had proposed former minister Chris Grayling to be chairman of the independent cross-party committee.

But in a last-minute manoeuvre, another MP from the governing Conservatives, Julian Lewis, was on Wednesday elected with the support of opposition lawmakers.

Lewis was then expelled from the Conservative parliamentary party for what has been described as a mini-coup.

But he was unrepentant, saying it was "improper" for Johnson to try to impose his own candidate.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: India on Thursday got a second consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav in a year even as Indian officials arrived at the Pakistan foreign office. Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer, has been in Pak custody on charges of espionage.

Earlier, Pakistan had announced that it would give consular access to Jadhav. The move prompted a response from New Delhi which called for unimpeded and unconditional access unlike the previous one in September last year.

In September 2019, India got the first consular access for Jadhav in three years with Indian Deputy High Commissioner (DHC) Gaurav Ahluwalia meeting him in Islamabad for two hours. The Indian diplomat found Jadhav under extreme pressure to parrot a false narrative to bolster Pakistans untenable claims, a

ministry of external affairs release had said.

Earlier this month, Islamabad had said that Jadhav, who had been sentenced to death by a Pakistan military court, had refused to file a review plea and had instead wanted to rely on his mercy petition. New Delhi, reacting to the statement, said that Pakistan had coerced Jadhav to refuse and was doing everything it can to not follow the ICJ ruling in letter and spirit.

India had moved the ICJ in the case which had asked Pakistan to grant consular access to Jadhav, stay his execution, and allow for a review.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After reporting an unexpected expansion in Philadelphia-area manufacturing activity in the previous month, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia released a report on Thursday showing a modest slowdown in the pace of growth in the month of July. The Philly Fed said its diffusion index for current general activity dipped to 24.1 in July after skyrocketing to 27.5 in June, although a positive reading still indicates growth in regional manufacturing activity. Economists had expected the index to pull back to 20.0 percent. 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.
Over the past six years, Vietnam has been moving up the rankings, from number 99 in 2014 to 89 in 2016 and 88 in 2018.

In Southeast Asia, Vietnam ranks 6th behind Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei and the Philippines.

According to the 2020 survey, Vietnam was in the high EDGI group, with a value of 0.6667, higher than the global average of 0.5988.

It is also higher than Asia and Southeast Asias respective EDGI values of 0.6373 and 0.6321.

With regards to component indexes, Vietnam recorded significant improvements in telecoms infrastructure and human capital, jumping up by 31 places and 3 places respectively.

The online service index dropped by 22 positions but Vietnam is still one of the low and lower-middle-income countries to deliver rather well in online service provision.

This is thanks to the governments efforts to increase the number of public services provided via digital means.

Besides the EDGI, a countrys e-government development was also assessed through the e-participation index (EPI), in which Vietnam moved up two positions to number 70 out of 193 countries.

Another aspect examined in the survey was the open government data index (OGDI) where Vietnam was placed in the group of middle OGDI, ranking at number 97.

Vietnam has set a target to make it into the top 70 countries in terms of EDGI as part of the national digital transformation programme towards 2025 with a view to 2030.
Enterprise Ireland has cautioned that 2020 will be very challenging for many Irish exporters due to Covid-19.

The state agency responsible for helping Irish companies export to international markets warns that the first half of 2020 paints a different picture to 2019 and Irish companies trading internationally have been impacted in every market due to the global nature of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Enterprise Ireland said Covid-19 has had a negative impact on order books and international market confidence. New contracts won by Enterprise Ireland-backed companies declined by 12% in the first half of 2020.

The organisation said that approximately 1,000 client companies are impacted by Covid-19 and that there are 300 companies who are very exposed to Covid-19 and also have high levels of exports to the UK. Of these 1,000 companies 75% reported that their exports have been impacted by Covid-19 and more than half saw a negative impact on cashflows.

The agency has warned that the impact on exporters for the latter half of 2020 will be very challenging and that they face the dual challenge of both dealing with the Covid-19 impact on their business and also the impending January 1st Brexit deadline.



Speaking this week, CEO of Enterprise Ireland, Julie Sinnamon said, "Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic weve seen many Irish businesses pivot in response to emerging market needs in areas such as contact tracing, traveller safety and confidence in airports and hygiene transparency in the hospitality sector. Agility and diversification are essential as we seek to trade successfully in a radically changed world."

She added, "The second half of 2020, however, is expected to be one of the most challenging facing Irish businesses in recent history. Not only have many businesses been impacted by a significant reduction in customer demand from markets across the world due to Covid-19, but they are also facing the largest structural change to trading with the UK in over fifty years."

Source: www.businessworld.ie
Caroline Fredriksen gets results with the metal detector. Credit: Arne Anderson Stamnes, NTNU

You can say all kinds of things about cooking pits, but sensational they're not. They're more what experts in the field might call an everyday archaeological discovery, if such a thing exists.

Cooking pits are the ovens of the past. They worked by lighting a fire in a pit that contained rocks. When the fire burned down to a smolder, meat and fish were put into the pit and covered, and the food was slow-cooked by the hot stones.

Cooking pits are one of the most common structures found during archaeological investigations. They are useful, because by taking different samples from them, they can tell us something about when and how an area has been used. But coming across cooking pits doesn't exactly bring on that Indiana Jones big-discovery feeling for an archaeologist. Some archaeologists might even go so far as to say that cooking pits are pretty boring.

That is, until they aren't.

It was the night of 7 August 2018 that Caroline Fredriksen and Arne Anderson Stamnes, both archaeologists at the NTNU University Museum, realized that there was something very special about Lykja, in Sunndal municipality.

Metal-detector users had been submitting objects from the farmland here for several years. This led the county municipal archaeologists to take a closer look at the area. They found both cooking pits and an intact tomb, but hadn't come up with a clear picture of what went on at Lykjaand to what extent. That's what Caroline and Arne were trying to figure out this particular August night.

Running georadar at Lykja, where archaeologists and metal-detector users found a lot of excitement. Credit: Arne Andersson Stamnes, NTNU University Museum

"Rain was forecast for the next day, so we had to run the georadar until 2 a.m. to cover everything before the earth turned to mud," says Fredriksen.

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR), also called georadar, sends electromagnetic signals into the ground, and some of these signals are reflected back when they detect structures below the surface. This is how archaeologists get a kind of X-ray map of what lies two to three meters below the ground.

The degree of image detail depends on the soil. At Lykja, the ground conditions are particularly well suited for such geophysical investigations. Even as the two archaeologists were driving back and forth across the site at 8 km per hour, they could clearly see the remains of long houses and burial tombs appearing on the screen. Not to mention cooking pitshundreds of them.

"We immediately realized that this was something out of the ordinary. In the end, we counted a total of 1154 pits. It's pretty extraordinary!" said Fredriksen.

Buckle from Roman times, found by metal-detector user Steffen Hansen. Credit: Caroline Fredriksen, NTNU University Museum

Ritual gathering place?

The insane number of cooking pits tells us that once upon a time a lot of people gathered at Lykja.

Probably they came here for special occasions, because pit cooking on this scale wasn't anything people would launch into following a regular workday.

The metal-detector findings indicate that the greatest amount of activity in the area took place from Roman to Merovingian times, from approximately year 0 to 750 CE. It is very common to find cooking pits in settlements from this period, but the archaeologists have so far only found the remains of two houses on the site. Then the question becomes: What did people do herebesides cook food?

"It's difficult to say for sure what went on here, but places with such a high concentration of cooking pitsand relatively few settlement tracesare often interpreted to be some form of ritual gathering place," says Fredriksen.

Field Meeting. Alf Harald Dragseth, Steffen Hansen, Bartek Nowakowski, Anders Danielsen, Anders Lippert and Caroline Fredriksen. Credit: Arne Anderson Stamnes, NTNU University Museum

"The name Lykjafrom the Old Norse Leikralso indicates that the site was an important social gathering place, perhaps in combination with trade or ritual activities. This seems likely, especially when viewed in the context of a large burial ground 200 meters southeast of the cooking pit area," Fredriksen says.

She adds that the 2018 investigations did not manage to delineate the whole cooking pit area, so it is probably much larger.

Cooperating with metal-detector users

Private individuals carried out the search of the cooking pit site at Lykja through metal detecting. Experienced metal-detector users from all over the country cooperated with the archaeologists on a systematic search of the entire area following the georadar surveys.

"We have excellent cooperation with the metal-detecting community. They have a lot more expertise than we archaeologists do in how to use metal detectors. For example, they're able to tell what kind of metal they've found just from the sound the metal detector makes. I've learned everything I know about metal detecting from these people," says Fredriksen.

Everything from tweezers and spinning wheels to weights and hacksilver (currency) was found on the cooking pit site. The bulk of the artifacts stemmed from Roman times up to and including the Merovingian period.

"Among other things, we've found buckles from several different periods, which is a typical burial material, as well as hacksilver and production waste," says Fredriksen.

The objects do not give us the full answer to what exactly brought so many people to Lykja, but they do tell us that it was an area packed with human activity over a long period.

What you need to know before you search

You must always have the landowner's permission before searching an area.

You should not search in archaeological and architectural monuments and

sites automatically protected by law.

Searches should be done in the plow zone on cultivated land. Searching outside of cultivated areas is discouraged.

Report any findings to the county municipality and use the Cultural Heritage discovery form (Funnskjema) for metal detection finds.

Stop searching immediately if you think you have discovered an automatically preserved cultural heritage site.

Link to the guidelines (in Norwegian) for metal-detector users.

Funnskjema
India insisted on 'complete disengagement' in all its talks with China on eastern Ladakh row: Govt

We will continue to deal with Chinese PLA in firm, resolute manner: Army chief

CSG reviews progress as positives noticed in India-China military commander talks

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, July 16: The Indian Government's high power China Study Group reviewed for nearly two hours the outcomes of the 14.5 hour long talks held by the military commanders of India and China.

The meeting was attended by External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar, National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval and other senior officials, including those from the security agencies.

There has been consolidated disengagement at Galwan, Gogra and Fingers 4 and 5 of the Pangong Tso.

There has been substantial easing of tensions following the latest meeting, officials familiar with the development told OneIndia. The talks were positive and we expect complete disengagement at Gogra by this weekend, the official also said.

Also Read:

While the disengagement continues, India is closely monitoring the situation and also verifying the withdrawal through both physical and technical means.

The meeting of the military commanders on Tuesday began at 11.30 and went on for almost 14.5 hours. During the meeting both sides discussed de-escalation at Pangong Tso. The two sides extensively discussed vacating the Finger Complex on the northern side of Pangong lake.

The commanders also discussed additional reduction of troops from the Depsang Bulge, which is north of Galwan Valley. The Indian side insisted that the status quo be restored and the Chinese move back to their side of the Line of Actual Control. India also said that the traditional patrolling routes of the Indian Army should not be blocked.

Bihar bridge collapse: Rs 263 crores washed away in 29 days, who is responsible? | Oneindia News

Further the Indian side also insisted on complete restoration of status quo ante in all areas of eastern Ladakh prior to May 5.

Sources say that more such meetings are on the anvil. The future meetings would discuss the road map for the overall restoration process. Both sides would also discuss restoring tranquillity in the region, which has been witnessing tensions off late.
In my previous article on King Midas, we found that the Midas Touch proved to be a cursethe automatic consequence of the hubris of Midas.

King Midas (if you remember the myth) recognizes a prisoner brought before him as Silenus, the stepfather of the disrupter god Dionysus, and Midas not only releases the prisoner, but he also honors him with feasting and drinking. Dionysus, extremely grateful, offers Midas an incredible gift, namely, anything he would like to have. This open-ended offer is immediately abused by Midas, who thus reveals his hubris. Without hesitation, Midas asks for the golden touch.

Everything he touches does indeed become goldeverything. The folly of hubris in the case of Midas is that his request is out of all proportion to the benefit he had delivered to Dionysus. And its also hubristic in its essential nature, since we now have a man with godlike power. Furthermore, the gift itself destabilizes the order of the cosmos, and so life itself. How could it nothis touch turning everything to gold?

We remember that hubris in Greek thinking was the worst sin of all, the equivalent of the Christian notion of the sin of pride. Hubris is when human beings either ignore or deliberately disobey the gods. And when they do, a terrible retribution is as bound to follow as night follows day.

In one sense, Midass hubris is shown in his violation of the god Apollos two maxims: first, not too much, clearly Midas requesting this much gold violates that injunction. And his second is know thyself. This latter injunction is often taken by the contemporary personal development movement as meaning: Discover yourself, become more self-aware, and so grow as a person.

The Greeksand Apollo, the god of music and poetry, truth, healing, the sun and light, and more, howeverdidnt see it that way. For them, knowing yourself meant knowing your place in the scheme of the cosmos: that you were mortal, not a god, and that, therefore, you submitted to their higher powers in all aspects of your life.

This idea is not unique to Greek classical thinking. The ancient Egyptians expressed it thus in their Book of the Dead: All the world which lies below has been set in order and filled in contents by the things which are placed above; for the things below have not the power to set in order the world above. And the Old and New Testaments testify to the same thing, as does the Chinese I-Ching: They [the ancient peoples] put themselves in accord with the Tao and its power and in conformity with this laid down the order of what is right. By thinking through the order of the outer world to the end, and by exploring the law of their nature to the deepest core, they arrived at an understanding of fate. Here, fate is what the gods ordain.

A Universal Witness

There is, then, a virtual universal witness to the concept of walking humbly with God, and to deviate from this path is to bring down punishment. Now in the case of Midas, we saw that Dionysus was pretty lenient in terms of his treatment of him. Midas simply had to wash himself in a particular river and the giftcursewas removed. Probably why the treatment was so lenient had to do with the fact that Midas was a true worshiper of Dionysus and his cohorts. It was perhaps mildly amusing to Dionysus that Midas behaved as he did.

In the Nathaniel Hawthorne version of the Midas myth, Midass daughter turns to a golden statue when he touches her. Illustration by Walter Crane for the 1893 edition of A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys. (Public Domain)

But the thing is, Midas clearly learned nothing from this experience, for the hubris and the folly accompany him to his next, and disastrous, exploit, which is almost as famous as his golden touch.

Here, Midas is to learn that hubris before the god Apollo has much graver consequences.

The Hubris of Midas

That Midas was a devout follower of Dionysus is shown by the fact that when he succeeded to the throne of Phrygia, he promoted the worship of Dionysus. It was onward from this point that Midas witnessed the musical contest between Apollo and, some say Marsyas while others say Pan, but the identity here is not significant. Marsyas was a satyra male attendant of the god Dionysus, often naked, and known to be bestial and boisterous. Pan was the god of shepherds, flocks, and fertility, or the goat-god. Like Dionysus, then, both stand as antagonists in their antinomian and bestial aspects against all that Apollo represents.

Both challenged Apollos musical supremacy, and a contest was arranged in which Tmolus, a river god (sometimes called a mountain god), would be the umpire. Apollo would play his lyre, and Pan (and Marsyas too) would play the pipes. Interestingly, we see that we are talking about the contrast between the carefully controlled plucking of musical notes with mathematical precision versus the coarser charm of an instrument that one roughly blows into.

Apollo in a red cloak, the god of music, gestures to Midas, the king of Phrygia. Midas, with donkeys ears, in The Judgment of Midas, circa 1640, by Jan van den Hoecke. Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection). (Public Domain)

Taking the Pan version of the event, all who heard both musicians unanimously gave the verdict to Apollo: His music mesmerized them all. All, that is, except Midas, who loudly and dissonantly (a good word in this context) declared his preference for Pans playing, claiming the verdict was unfair!

This act of incivility, this aesthetic lapse in taste, this predilection for the grosserthis act of hubris before the godcould not be allowed to go unpunished.

As Ovid put it, Apollo couldnt allow such insensitive ears to preserve their human appearance, and so Midass ears are transformed into asses ears to manifest his stupidity.

The Judgment of Midas,16011602, by Abraham Janssens. (Public Domain)

This is the beginning of the end for Midas, for it is as a direct result of this punishment and his attempts to conceal it that he ends up ordering the death of his own barbera form of judicial murderand subsequently, miserably killing himself by drinking bulls blood (thought to be arsenic). Note the bestial aspect yet again.

Midas and Modern Art

But I think what is important about the story is its relevance for today. It can be summed up in Platos dictum: To love rightly is to love what is orderly and beautiful in an educated and disciplined way. And that is what art (in its widest sense) was and is, at least until the 20th century. But nowalongside the political bestialities of communism and fascismwe have developed a taste for the brutish and the bestial in art too. More exactly, art reflects the falseness of the prevalent ideologies. For, put politely, as Tom Stoppard said, Imagination without skill gives us modern art.

Everywhere we look we find just such art, and nowhere better summed up than by Andy Warhols candid comment: Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art. Wow! Whod have thought that? We are almost back here to Midass golden touchthat surely was art too!

We think of the recent shredding of Banksys Girl with Balloon, which, incredibly, according to art experts, added 50 percent to its value, meaning it was now worth in excess of $2.4 million.

Banksys Girl with Balloon version in South Bank. (CC BY-SA 2.0)

To think like this is entirely Dionysian and represents the gathering forces of chaos and disorder that undermine society and all right order. The opposite of this might be something like what the English artist Stanley Spencer noted: One might never be able to conceive what Heaven is like, but nevertheless the contemplation of it is, I think, the greatest thing of all for the creative artist.

Imagine that! Our contemporary artists, musicians, and poets contemplating heaven as the source for their inspiration? What we are talking about here is the transcendent: some thing bigger than humanity, or mankind, or humanist and secular utopias, some thing whereby we approach the deep truths of human nature and the human predicament.

French philosopher Luc Ferry said, Worth noting especially is that it is through musicthe cosmic art above all others since it relies entirely upon a structure of sounds that must, so to speak, rhyme or accord with one anotherthat the cosmos is saved. This is the high view, the high position, that is represented by Apollo and his art.

Midas represents the corruption of taste, and so of values, which if the myth is to be believedand I believe itsuggests that for all those mini-Midases of today, it wont end well; there are dark consequences for all those abandoning themselves to the Dionysian god. As Midas discovered for himself.

James Sale is an English businessman whose company, Motivational Maps Ltd., operates in 14 countries. He is the author of over 40 books on management and education from major international publishers including Macmillan, Pearson, and Routledge. As a poet, he won the first prize in The Society of Classical Poets 2017 competition and spoke in June 2019 at the groups first symposium held at New Yorks Princeton Club.
A girl was forced to marry two older men - aged 51 and 35 - in under a month before being rescued in Kenya.

Her father, who belongs to the Maasai tribe from Narok County, around 70 miles west of Nairobi, is now being searched for by police.

The girl said her father had 'forcefully' married off both of her older sisters and wanted the same for her after her 51-year-old husband-to-be offered him a dowry of four cows to have her as a second wife.

He decided it was the perfect time for marriage when schools closed due to the coronavirus lockdown, she said.

After refusing the offer, and telling her father she wanted to continue her studies, she was beaten by her male cousins who accused her of dishonouring the family.

'Girls are born so that people can eat. All I want is to get my dowry,' the father reportedly told her.

The girl said her father had 'forcefully' married off both of her older sisters and wanted the same for her after her future 51-year-old husband offered him a dowry of four cows to have her as a second wife in Kenya

She was wed to the older man but escaped two weeks later.

The youngster told the Kenyan Standard newspaper that she was forced to 'elope' with a 35-year-old man who was already married to escape from the older husband.

Her father tracked her down and dragged her back to the man.

A children's rights group learnt of her plight after being tipped off while rescuing another child.

Narok Peace Ambassador Joshua Kaputa, who rescued the youngster and is now her guardian, said the father and the two husbands have since gone into hiding.

He added that poverty and school closures due to coronavirus lockdown are adding to recently observed increases in cases of child marriage.

Narok Peace Ambassador Joshua Kaputa, who rescued the youngster and is now her guardian, said the father and the two husbands have since gone into hiding. 'Some families are hungry and the prospect of receiving two or three cows as dowry is quite tempting,' he said. Pictured: A cow at the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya in June this year

'Some families are hungry and the prospect of receiving two or three cows as dowry is quite tempting,' he told the BBC.

Child marriage is illegal in Kenya, with the age of wedlock set at 18 years old. Each of the male parties in the case could be imprisoned for five years and fined a maximum of one million Keynan shillings (8,000).

Despite laws prohibiting marrying children, 23 per cent of Kenyan girls are still wed before their 18th birthday, with four per cent before they're 15.

Child marriage NGO Girls Not Brides says the driving force behind the crime is split between poverty, poor education, adolescent pregnancy and traditional customs, among other factors.

Young girls tend to be seen as commodities that can be traded.
Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, the Running-mate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for Election 2020, has asked women to work hard to transform their enthusiasm about her nomination into electoral victory.



She also asked less-privileged women not to allow themselves to be intimidated but work harder for the desired recognition by society.



Prof Opoku-Agyemang made the call when some identifiable women groups in the Party paid a courtesy call on her at her residence, in Accra, to congratulate her for being nominated as running-mate of Mr John Mahama.



On a ticket dubbed: John and Jane or J and J the two are working to bring the NDC back into power come the December 7 elections.



The Minority Womens Caucus in Parliament, led by Deputy Minority Chief Whip Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe-Ghansah, and Dr Hannah Bissiw, the National Womens Organiser, called on the running mate to pledge their unflinching support for electoral victory.



Others in the delegation were Regional Women Organisers, NDC female parliamentary candidates and the leadership of a group of head porters, (Kayayei).



All clad in white clothes, signifying victory and success, the women sang in unison and extoled the leadership virtues of Prof Opoku-Agyeman, who was a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast and former Minister of Education.



Women do deliver, Naana will deliver, John and Jane Victory, J and J victory, they sang.



The Vice Presidential Candidate, confident in God and sure of NDCs electoral victory, said: We are leaning on Him to lead us; we know Hell not fail us.



She advised the less privileged women to aspire to greater heights and not to allow the tag of kayayei to be perpetuated on them, explaining that whatever you are doing is as important as any other womans.



She advised women to help their children to reach the top, saying; If you dont get there, make sure your children get there.



The Deputy Minority Chief Whip, Mrs Cudjoe-Ghansah, acknowledged the leadership qualities of Prof Opoku-Agyemang both in private and public life, which she must bring to bear on her journey to the topmost political position of the Party and the nation.



She assured her of the unflinching support of female parliamentarians in her new role.



Dr Hannah Bissiw, for her part, lauded former President Mahama for being conscious of lifting the voice of woman higher.



The choice of a female running mate or vice presidential candidate by the NDC is one that will forever be remembered by the good people of Ghana, Dr Bissiw said, adding that the dawn of a new era has come.



And a woman will also have the opportunity to serve at the highest decision making level of the country.



Dr Bissiw applauded Prof Opoku-Agyemang on her leadership roles, saying that political opponents, threatened by her choice as running mate, are trying to discredit her.



She pledged the support of women to make the running mate succeed.



Mrs Mawuena Trebar, CEO of Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, said the choice of Prof Opoku-Agyeman marked a new beginning in Ghanaian politics.

Source: GNA









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The family of a tech tycoon have begged the NYPD to capture his 'evil' killer after the 33-year-old was dismembered by a hitman in a ninja outfit.

Fahim Saleh's limbs and head were found shorn from his torso by his sister when she arrived at the entrepreneur's $2.2 million apartment on East Houston in Manhattan's Lower East Side on Tuesday.

Detectives believe the professional killer may have fled the gruesome scene, leaving his electric saw behind, when Saleh's sister arrived unexpectedly to check on him that afternoon.

'The headlines talk about a crime we still cannot fathom,' the family said in its statement. 'No words or actions to provide any of us comfort except the capture of the person who exhibited nothing short of evil upon our loved one.'

Fahim Saleh, far left, was born into a middle-class Bengali family in Saudi Arabia. He is pictured here along with his two sisters and his parents. The family eventually settled in New York state

Saleh posted an old photograph of him with his mother on Mother's Day in 2013, writing: 'Thanks for giving me life ammu and a good one at that!'

NYPD officers speak at crime scene at 265 Houston Street, where Fahim Saleh, Co-founder/CEO of Gokada, was found dead at the apartment building in New York City, New York, U.S., July 15, 2020

It continued: 'We need and urge the NYPD and other members of law enforcement to work diligently to get to the bottom of this horrific crime and bring justice for Fahim...

'Fahim is more than what you are reading. He is so much more. His brilliant and innovative mind took everyone who was a part of his world on a journey and he made sure never to leave anyone behind.'

Among Saleh's businesses was a motorbike taxi hailing in Nigeria which had recently encountered financial hardhship, and he had also invested in ride-sharing companies in Colombia.

At the time of his death, he was being sued by a former prison guard turned criminal who was jailed for using his app PrankDial to secretly record and listen to employees' phone calls.

He founded the app in 2015.

The app let Kirk Eady, the former deputy director of Hudson County Correctional Facility, place a call between two employees without them knowing he was behind it, then listen to whatever they said.

He listened to their complaints about him and about their jobs then retaliated against them in the workplace, according to prosecutors.

He was jailed for 15 months and in 2017, sued Saleh for fraud, claiming the app made him think what he was doing was legal.

Saleh's sister arrived at his apartment on East Houston in Manhattan's Lower East Side at 3.30pm on Tuesday and found her brother's remains in plastic bags.

His limbs had been severed and his head had been cut off from his torso.

Fahim Saleh is pictured with his two sisters, Rif Saleh (center) and Ruby Bashir (right). It is not known which of them made the grisly discovery

Detectives outside the building on Wednesday. Police are yet to track down or arrest the killer

All of the apartments in the building have private elevator access. The killer followed Saleh out of his after riding up with him, cops said. Above, a floor plan of his apartment which shows the staircase that the killer likely escaped out of

Saleh's apartment is one of just seven in the exclusive Lower East Side Building. Above, one of the marketing images used to promote the sale. It's unclear if this is his apartment

Police say it was a professional job by a trained killer who rode with him up in the elevator then got out when it opened directly onto Saleh's apartment.

The killer, dressed in a mask, gloves and hat and wearing what police sources described as a 'ninja outfit', had a suitcase with him - presumably to remove his remains when he'd finished the job.

But when Saleh's sister showed up unexpectedly, sources told NBC it appears the killer abandoned the grisly scene, leaving his electronic saw behind.

It was still plugged in when she arrived. He got out through a service exit and remains on the run.

Other sources told The New York Post the sister likely pressed the buzzer for his apartment, which gave the killer warning, and that he fled down the stairs as she made her way up in the elevator when there was no answer on the buzzer.

Saleh would regularly post pictures on social media with him together with his sisters, at least one of whom lived in New York

Police sources say the killing was financially motivated but no other detail has emerged.

According to an unnamed friend, neighbors heard screaming and loud noises but no one called 911.

SALEH'S BUSINESSES KickBack Apps KickBack Apps owns four apps, including Prank Dial, which provides pre-recorded prank calls. Gokada Motorbike taxi hailing app in Lagos which commuters used to get around the busy traffic. The business got a $5.3million injection from Silicon Valley last year and recently had to pivot operations to becoming a courier service. Pathao Based in Bangladesh, started as a ride-sharing app but now lets people buy food delivery and clothes. Valued at $100million Adventure Capital Venture Capital firm focused on developing countries. Among them was Picap, Colombia's first ride-sharing app, which is valued at $15million. Advertisement

Police believe the have surveillance footage of the suspect entering the building on Monday and then using the elevator, getting in with Saleh when he arrived home.

'He was dressed like a ninja, full out, so you can't even see his face.

'He clearly knew what he was doing.

'We think his intent was to get rid of the body parts and go back and clean it up and make it look like nothing happened.

'He left before he finished the job,' the source told The New York Daily News.

Sources told the New York Post that as the pair rode up to the seventh floor apartment together, Saleh appeared puzzled.No sooner had he stepped out of the elevator - which opened directly into his home - the attack began.

He fell to the floor after either likely being shot or stunned, the footage reportedly shows.

Police found that Saleh's legs below the knees and his arms had been removed, with the missing body parts placed into bags.

Surprisingly, there was very little blood.

The New York Times reported that some effort had been made to clear up evidence.

Cops are now trying to work out whether the arrival of the victim's sister interrupted the dismembering of Saleh's body.

Detectives are also looking to see if the killer was able to escape through another exit.

'We have a torso, a head that's been removed, arms, and legs. Everything is still on the scene. We don't have a motive,' NYPD spokesman Sgt. Carlos Nieves said.

Saleh, who was born in Saudi Arabia but grew up in New York in a Bengali family, bought his luxury pad for $2.25 million last year and was clearly proud of his purchase - regularly posting pictures and video on his Instagram.

Friends of Saleh have paid tribute to him saying 'He was extremely smart, ambitious, very kind. Always smiling'

His LinkedIn profile reveals the former website developer was the CEO of a motorbike hailing company in Lagos, Nigeria.

The firm, Gokada, recently faced severe setbacks after being banned earlier this year by the Nigerian government.

It was forced to lay off staff and pivot from being a ride-sharing service to a delivery courier.

The ban came at a difficult moment for Gokada which had just raised $5.3 million in funding from Rise Capital, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, in May 2019.

After the ban was enacted, the firm stopped bringing in money and around 800 bikers working for Gorkada were also immediately laid off.

Saleh was working on new ideas and a new direction for the firm.

On June 2, he tweeted: 'Have a very good feeling about 2020.'

Later Tuesday, police could be seen in the condo's lobby at 265 East Houston Street and speaking with a woman who was in tears and who was believed to be one of Saleh's sisters who had found the body.

'She was really upset. Crying. Shaking,' neighbor Danny Faust said to The Post. 'She was just sitting there but you can tell her legs were shaking. She's nervous. She was crying like, you know, wiping her eyes.'

The apartment building where Saleh lived. His dismembered body was found by his sister on Tuesday at 3.30pm

A crowd of people are seen gathered outside the apartment building in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan

A woman could be seen sitting in the lobby of the building shortly after the police arrived at the scene to investigate

'She was screaming when she first came down,' Faust said.

'Dead body? Okay. But when you hear chopped up and dismembered?

'That's it. That's a sick type of mind for somebody to do that,' he added.

Friends said Fahim Saleh (left and right) was a self-made millionaire who had a passion for gadgets and video games. He also enjoyed bringing tech companies into underdeveloped nations including Nigeria and Indonesia. Pictured (right), his motorcycle company in Nigeria

On Tuesday afternoon friends began showing up to his building. A couple said they believe that Saleh must have been targeted.

'He was extremely smart, ambitious, very kind. Always smiling,' one friend told the Daily News.

The friends said he was a self-made millionaire who had a passion for gadgets and video games.

He also enjoyed bringing tech companies into underdeveloped nations including Nigeria and Indonesia.

He never said he was scared,' another friend recalled. '[He was] always very happy-go-lucky.'

On Tuesday night, tributes were also being made online to Saleh.

'Rest in peace Fahim Saleh. Deepest condolences for his family and friends. The world is becoming inhumane day by day,' wrote Ashiq Rahman, a software engineer living in Toronto.

Friends said he was like the 'Elon Musk of the developing world' because he was so committed to investing in countries to improve them.

He started his businesses from his parent's house in Hopewell Junction, upstate New York.
PONTIAC, Mich. - A suburban Detroit school district said no student should be punished for missed online work during the coronavirus pandemic, two days after a news organization reported that a judge placed a teenager in juvenile detention.

ProPublica reported that the 15-year-old girl has been in Oakland Countys Childrens Village since mid-May for violating probation in a case involving allegations of assault and theft. A judge cited a failure to submit to any schoolwork and getting up for school.

Judge Mary Ellen Brennan said the Groves High School student was a threat to the community based on an assault allegation involving her mother, according to a court document.

The Birmingham school district said its not a party in the case.

From the start of the pandemic, the district sought to hold students harmless given the challenging, virtual learning environment they were thrust in due to no fault of their own, spokeswoman Anne Cron said Thursday. The district maintains that belief today.

The judge told the girl in May that she was sending her to Childrens Village to get treatment and services.

She hasnt fulfilled the expectation with regard to school performance, Brennan said as she sentenced the teen in May, according to ProPublica. I told her she was on thin ice and I told her that I was going to hold her to the letter, to the order, of the probation.

Brennan declined to comment on the case but her husband defended her. Ed Lennon, an attorney, said his wife was concerned about the safety of the girls mother during a statewide stay-at-home order related to COVID-19.

The mother may potentially be subject to more assaults by her daughter if the two had been allowed to continue living together, Lennon said.

A new attorney for the teen, Jonathan Biernat, said he will ask Brennan to release her. David Coulter, the highest-ranking official in Oakland County, said he spoke to the judge about the case.

While there are many more details that she is unable to share with me and the public to protect privacy of the minor and their family, I believe a review of this case within her court or during an appellate process is required, Coulter said.

The ProPublica story was also published by the Detroit Free Press and Bridge, another news organization.

Grace was a high school sophomore at Groves High School in Beverly Hills when she was charged with assault and theft last year. She was placed on probation in mid-April and, among other requirements, was to complete her schoolwork. Grace, who has ADHD and receives special education services, struggled with the transition to online learning and fell behind. Finding the girl had violated probation, an Oakland County judge on May 14 sentenced her to detention.
The lengthy heatwave hitting Siberia that saw a record-breaking high of 100.4 degrees last month would not have happened without climate change, according to an international team of scientists.

The vast Russian province has been baking since January with temperatures more than 9 degrees above average for the first six months of the year, according to the World Meteorological Organization. The hot conditions sparked wildfires that burned more than 2.8 million acres in late June.

An analysis led by the U.K.'s Met office and published Wednesday, found that the prolonged heatwave was made 600 times more likely because of human-caused climate change.

"This study shows again just how much of a game changer climate change is with respect to heatwaves," Friederike Otto, one of the study's co-authors, said in a statement on Thursday.

The World Meteorological Organization said the findings were among the strongest results of studies to date attributing the effects of human-induced climate change on extreme weather events.

The drawn-out hot spell is a very rare event, expected to only occur once every 130 years, even with climate change, the study found. But had it happened in 1900, the heatwave would have been 3.6 degrees cooler than the temperatures seen this year.

By 2050, a similar hot spell could be as much as another 9 degrees warmer than what has been seen now, the report said.

Such high temperatures in the Arctic circle come with many consequences for the environment and communities.

The widespread fires that began in June released about 56 million tonnes of carbon dioxide  a figure that is more than the annual emissions for many countries such as Switzerland and Norway, the World Meteorological Organization said.

Image: Students of the Optimist children's sailing school take part in a training session in the Irkutsk water reservoir. (Alexei Kushnirenko / TASS/Getty Images)

The combination of emissions from the fires and melting of permafrost in the Arctic circle due to the heat will only exacerbate global warming, the organization said.

The heatwave in Siberia has also contributed to making the global average temperature for first five months of 2020 the second-hottest on record, the study found.

Story continues

Heatwaves are also among the deadliest extreme weather events, according to the World Health Organization. A 44-day extreme heat event in Russia in 2010 resulted in 56,000 deaths.

Given the risks to human health, measures need to be taken to mitigate the effects of heatwaves, even in historically cold climates, said Otto, the acting director of the Environmental Change Institute at the U.K.'s University of Oxford.

"As emissions continue to rise we need to think about building resilience to extreme heat all over the world, even in Arctic communities  which would have seemed nonsensical not very long ago," she added.

The findings also have scientists urging for a reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions.

"We are starting to experience extreme events which would have almost no chance of happening without (a) human footprint on the climate system," said Sonia Seneviratne, a climate scientist with the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science of the ETH Zurich.

"We have little time left to stabilize global warming at levels at which climate change would remain within the bounds of the Paris Agreement," she added referring to the 2015 accord which saw 195 countries set their own national targets for reducing or controlling pollution of heat-trapping gases.

President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S., the second-biggest climate polluter and world's largest economy, from the Paris Agreementin May 2017 and kick-started the process last November.

However, the withdrawal process takes a year and wouldn't become official until at least the day after the 2020 presidential election.
With eye on local body polls, TMC to launch new mass outreach programme on March 2

Mamata Banerjee has injuries to her ankle, neck and right shoulder

Suicide not murder says Mamata Banerjee on death of BJP leader

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Kolkata, July 16: West Bengal Chief Minister, in a letter to President Ram Nath Kovind said that the BJP may have distorted facts regarding the death of a BJP leader in West Bengal.

The BJP delegation had met with the President seeking the dismissal of the Mamata Banerjee led TMC government over the incident. She said the case has been handed over to the CID for proper investigation.

A Trinamool Congress delegation led by Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien also called on the President at Rashtrapati Bhavan and apprised him of the details of the case.

BJP deligation meets President Kovind, seeks CBI probe into Bengal MLA's death

In the letter, Banerjee cited the preliminary probe by the state police and the postmortem report to claim Debendra Nath Roy's death "is a case of suspected suicide and does not appear to be a political case as being projected by the BJP".

"I am constrained to invite your kind and personal attention to a particular fact. This is in the context of your meeting with a delegation of BJP who might have apprised you with some distorted fact," the letter said.

"On receipt of postmortem report and on primary investigation West Bengal police has reported that it is a case of suspected suicide and could be related to some local money transfer activities. The note found in a pocket of the deceased also names two persons who are allegedly found to be related to such money transfer activities in the locality," it said.

The chief minister said her government took "all necessary action" immediately after the death of Roy, the MLA from Hemtabad in North Dinajpur district, on Monday for a comprehensive investigation.

Bihar bridge collapse: Rs 263 crores washed away in 29 days, who is responsible? | Oneindia News

"I have already handed over the case to the CID for proper investigation," she wrote.

"I would like to assure that West Bengal is a state where we always respect all political parties, their leaders and workers," the TMC supremo added.

On Tuesday, the state CID had detained one of the two people who were named in the alleged suicide note which was recovered from the shirt pocket of the deceased MLA whose body was found hanging from the ceiling outside a closed shop at a market near his home.

Roy's family and party leaders have alleged it was a "cold-blooded murder by Trinamool Congress".

BJP had called a 12-hour bandh in North Bengal on Tuesday to protest the "political murder" and demand a CBI probe.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 17)  Labor groups filed on Thursday the ninth petition questioning the legality of the controversial Republic Act No. 11479 or the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.

The Federation of Free Workers, Kilusang Mayo Uno, Nagkaisa Labor Coalition, Church Labor Conference, TF Logistics Workers' Union, Workers' Resistance Against Tyranny and for Human Rights, Kilos Na Manggagawa, Trade Union Leaders of the UNI Global Union-Philippine Liaison Council, and Kilusang Artikulo Trese are the latest petitioners to the much-criticized measure that is signed by President Rodrigo Duterte into a law last July 3.

The labor groups emphasized the law poses chilling and destructive effects on workers right to freedom of expression, association, and petition to redress their grievances to the government.

"Their greatest concern is that the unrestrained power given to the executive department by the assailed law would be an instrument to terrorize the ordinary citizens who are not terrorists -- or be used to aggravate the situation of the workers who are already victims of terrorism or terrorist acts," they said in the petition.

They expounded that guaranteed workers rights under the 1987 Philippine Constitution, particularly the workers right to organize, are in serious danger of being further eroded by the new law.

The labor organizations also assailed the laws provision on the creation of the Anti-Terrorism Council, which designates people and groups as terrorists based only upon its own finding of probable cause.

Eight other petitions were filed before the Supreme Court last week challenging the legality of the controversial Anti-Terrorism Law. The petitioners are Rep. Edcel Lagman, the Makabayan bloc, the group of law professor Atty. Howard Calleja, Far Eastern University Institute of Law professors led by Dean Mel Sta. Maria, former government corporate counsel Rudolf Jurado, the group of 1987 Constitution framers Christian Monsod and Felicitas Arroyo, labor rights groups Center for Trade Union and Human Rights and Pro-Labor Legal Assistance Center, and multi-sectoral group Sanlakas.

The Supreme Court recently ordered the consolidation of the petitions and instructed government officials to comment on the petitions.

Duterte signed the law last July 3, amid widespread criticism due to its vague provisions that relax safeguards on human rights and are open to abuse.

Proponents of the law argued that the Human Security Act of 2007 must be repealed and the government now needs more surveillance powers to protect the society from terrorist groups.
P Varavara Rao (81), Telugu poet and social activist, who was lodged at Taloja Jail in Navi Mumbai in connection with the Elgar Parishad case and was admitted to Sir JJ Hospital on Monday (July 13) afternoon after his health condition worsened, tested coronavirus positive (Covid-19) on Thursday, much to the dismay of his family members because they had warned of it earlier this week through a press release.

Dr. Ranjit Mankeshwar, dean of Sir JJ Hospital, confirmed that Rao has contracted SARS-CoV-2, which causes the viral disease.

He is asymptomatic and stable. He will either shifted to GT Hospital or St George Hospital. His oxygen saturation level is above 95%. He will be treated with symptomatic drugs, said Dr. Mankeshwar.

The family in a statement said, The Covid-19 finding highlights the criminal negligence of Maharashtra jail authorities, who have been repeatedly warned about the danger of the viral outbreak in the Taloja Jail, and the fragile condition of the poet-writer. It is a matter of concern, too, that the trial court handling the Bhima Koregaon/Elgar Parishad case turned a deaf ear to pleas for medical bail, despite the poor health condition of Rao and the threat posed by the pandemic.

The statement also alleged that the neglect has led to another accused in the case, Vernon Gonsalves, who looked after Rao in Taloja Jail, at grave risk.

Raos wife Hemlata, his two daughters and nephew Venugopal had met him at Sir JJ hospital on Wednesday and was appalled to see him lying in a pathetic condition such as urine-soaked clothes for hours and with little nursing and treatment were available at the healthcare facility.

They also expressed their apprehension about the move to shift Rao to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)-run St George Hospital, whose healthcare facilities are few and far between.

This is bad news. St Geroge Hospital has a poor healthcare record. Its hardly a place, where Rao stands a chance to recover from the viral infection. The only relief for him is: if the Bombay high court (HC), which is hearing his bail plea on medical grounds on Friday, accedes to his request and orders him to shift to a private superspeciality hospital, the statement added.

Rao had moved the HC appealing against the order of the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court, which had rejected his interim bail application on June 26.

Rao had sought interim bail on the grounds of failing health and susceptibility to Covid-19.

On May 28, Rao was taken to Sir JJ Hospital after he had lost consciousness. Later, he was discharged on June 1.

At that time, the family members had alleged that he was hurriedly discharged in a bid to obstruct his bail plea before the special (NIA) court, a fear that came true on June 26.

The NIA, which had taken over the Elgar Parishad case from Pune Police in February, had opposed the bail plea, as Rao was charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, where there is no provision to grant him temporary bail.

NIA had submitted that the jail authorities could be directed to ensure that Rao was provided proper medical attention, whenever required.

Earlier, on January 1, 2018, violence erupted between Dalits and Marathas near the village of Bhima Koregaon in Pune district, where thousands of Dalits had gathered to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Koregaon.

In that battle, the British Armys Dalit Mahar soldiers had defeated the Brahmin Peshwa rulers of the Maratha empire.

The commemoration took place a day after an event in Pune called the Elgar Parishad was held.

The Pune Police conducted a preliminary probe and claimed that the violence in Bhima Koregaon was the result of speeches made at the Elgar Parishad event.

They alleged that banned Maoist groups organised the event, and a first information report (FIR) was also filed.

In June 2018, the Pune Police arrested five activists and lawyers from Pune, Nagpur, and Delhi  Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, and Shoma Sen  for their alleged links to the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), and also for organising the Elgar Parishad event.

In August 2018, the police arrested four more activists  Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira, Gonsalves, and Rao.

While Gautam Navlakha and Dr. Anand Teltumbde were arrested on April 14 this year, taking the total number of the accused in the case to 11.
Josephine Noka walks with her son Jules, 6, from Ejit island to Majuro during low tide last year. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

As coronavirus cases climb in California and many U.S. states, some Pacific Island nations have safely ridden out the storm.

The Marshall Islands is still COVID-19 free.

"We saw the threat and took action early," said Jack Niedenthal, secretary of Health for the mid-Pacific island nation, describing the island nation's March 3 travel ban, which prevented incoming travelers from across the globe. The Marshallese government had banned travelers from China several weeks earlier.

The safe status of the Marshall Islands contrasts with what Marshallese immigrants are experiencing in the United States. As The Times recently reported, Marshallese have been disproportionately infected with the coronavirus in cities such as Spokane, Wash., and Springdale, Ark., in part because many of them serve as essential workers.

In the South Pacific and Central Pacific, many islands nations, including New Zealand, have so far staved off the worst of COVID-19 by closing their borders early and taking other public health measures.

Across the globe, only six countries are reportedly COVID-19 free. With the exception of North Korea, all of them  Kiribati, Palau, American Samoa, Nauru and Micronesia  are Pacific Island nations that closed their borders to outside travelers.

As of Wednesday, there are nearly 3.5 million coronavirus cases in the United States, more than any other country.

The Marshall Islands' travel ban is still in place  and currently extended through Aug. 5  while the government builds the infrastructure and stockpiles the equipment it will need should the virus invade.

According to Casten Nemra, the Marshall Islands' minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, construction on a new COVID-19 medical isolation center on Majuro  the nation's capital and most populated island  is almost complete.

"Then we can begin bringing back our citizens who have been stranded," he said, noting the nearly 500 Marshallese traveling abroad when the travel ban was announced  including Niedenthal's wife, daughter and grandson, who were visiting family in Portland.

Story continues

When the pandemic spread out of China and Europe earlier this year, the Marshall Islands had already been restricting domestic travel because of a dengue fever outbreak. So the decision to close down early was easy.

"People thought we were out of our minds," said Niedenthal, who leads the nation's healthcare response. "They said travel bans don't work."

But for island nations, he said, they do.

Now the nation is considering restricting outbound travel too.

Niedenthal said the Marshallese are watching "the mass chaos in the U.S." where government officials "have lost control over the disease and dont seem to be doing anything on the federal level to protect its own citizens."

"Given how hard our own citizens have been hammered by this disease in the U.S., it just scares the hell out of us," he said, noting that a decision is likely to be made by July 23, when the next commercial airline flight is scheduled to depart.

The United Airlines "island hopper" is the one commercial airline that flies to the Marshall Islands.

Before the pandemic, it made several inbound and outbound flights per week, as it transported people and cargo between Honolulu and Guam, making stops in the Marshall Islands' Majuro and Kwajalein, as well as Micronesia's Kosrae, Chuuk and Pohnpei.

Now it is making roughly one inbound and one outbound stop per month, said Jonathan Guerin, a United Airlines spokesman.

Although passengers are not allowed to de-board, cargo is off-loaded by a ground crew wearing protective gear. The airline crew and ground crew are never in contact. And the cargo is disinfected and quarantined, said Nemra.

The island nation is also restricting seaports, where the bulk of the nation's commodities are imported.

While scores of large fishing and cargo vessels are generally anchored throughout Majuro's lagoon, Nemra said the atoll now seems nearly empty.

Fishing vessels are required to spend 14 days on the water from their last port of departure before arriving in the Marshall Islands. Cargo ships bringing essentials, such as food and medical supplies, are exempted from the quarantine. However, they must provide health data on crew members for the 21-day period before arrival.

In addition, according to Nemra and Niedenthal, the cargo crew stays below deck and does not interact with the Marshall Islands-based ground crew while unloading.

In recent years, the Marshallese government has been recognized for its leadership on climate change, and now its COVID-19 response is getting international attention.

"It's probably the safest place in the world to be right now," said U.S. Ambassador Roxane Cabral, who was appointed in December and hasn't left the Marshalls since.

But the restrictions haven't come without a cost. According to the U.S. Department of Interior, the Marshall Islands is projected to incur a 6.9% decline in GDP and a loss of 716 jobs.

The United States is providing aid, said Cabral, noting roughly $850,000 earmarked in the CARES act, as well as funding from other U.S. agencies.

She said roughly $130 million in total has gone to the Compact of Free Association nations, which includes the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau.

Cabral and the U.S. military are now working with the Marshallese to bring contractors from the United States to work on Kwajalein, where the military has a base.

Kwajalein "is like a small town," said Cabral, describing the island's workforce of firefighters, port workers, nurses, medics and engineers.

"The staff started to rotate out around the holidays," she said, "and they couldnt come back to fill key roles. It's starting to put the remaining people on the base in serious risk."

Acknowledging the U.S. situation, the Marshallese government worked with U.S. authorities on a protocol requiring personnel to be tested during a 72-hour period before they depart from Honolulu.

Upon arriving in Kwajalein, she or he must remain in quarantine for 21 days and be tested three more times before being released.

As of last week, 37 people had been allowed to return to Kwajalein.
A new lawsuit accuses a prominent Southern Baptist church of failing to prevent child sexual abuses committed by a former staff member, and alleges that another staff member shared sexually explicit photos of his wife with couples whod turned to him for marriage counseling.

The suit marks the second time that Bellevue Baptist Church  a large congregation in the Memphis, Tenn., area pastored by former SBC President Steve Gaines  has been accused of mishandling abuses.

In 2006, Gaines faced calls to resign after he and others admitted they waited months to fire a staff member whod previously confessed to molestations. That incident prompted an internal review that found Bellevue was ill-prepared to handle sexual abuses.

The new lawsuit alleges similar negligence in the churchs supervision of James Hook, a 43-year-old staff member who was convicted of sexual battery in January, months after police found him in a parked car with the suits 15-year-old plaintiff.

Bellevue declined comment Tuesday. In a post on its Facebook page days earlier, the church said Hook was a part-time employee at the time of his arrest and that he resigned two months later, in March 2019.

The lawsuit makes various allegations pertaining to Bellevues knowledge of the former part-time employees actions, the church wrote. Again, we take all allegations seriously. We have filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit and are waiting for the court to rule.

According to the suit, Hook knew the girl, who is using the pseudonym Janet Doe, because hed had an extramarital affair with her mother in 2011. Both were married at the time and later received counseling from one of Bellevues lead pastors.

The suit alleges that the pastor encouraged both couples to stay married because God hates divorce, shared explicit photos of his wife and encouraged the women to do what his wife did to keep their husbands interested in order to maintain their marriages.

The couple eventually ended their counseling sessions and, in 2018, filed for divorce. Hook was by that time a volunteer coordinator at the church, according to the suit.

He eventually gave Janet Doe his cell phone number and began what the suit describes as a pattern of grooming behavior. He would tell her how to wear her hair and what clothes to wear, told Doe she looked just like her mother and began showering her with attention, according to the suit.

Hook also sent Janet Doe sexually explicit photos and videos of her mother taken during the extramarital affair, the lawsuit says.

By April 2019, Hook had on numerous occasions convinced Janet Doe to sneak out of her home in the middle of the night. The two would then go to a park, after which Hook would drop the girl off a mile away from her home in the early morning to avoid detection, according to the suit.

He told police that he was a father figure to Doe after the two were caught together in May 2019, according to the suit.

The suit also alleges Hook would stop by while Janet Doe was volunteering at the church, and that no adult there ever questioned why Hook was taking Doe from the area unaccompanied. This should have raised concerns and red flags to the director, the suit says.

Does suit is the latest in a string of legal actions taken against Southern Baptist churches for recent sexual abuses and alleged cover-ups of them.

The filing also notes the findings of Abuse of Faith, an ongoing Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News series that found hundreds of Southern Baptist church leaders and volunteers have been convicted of sex crimes in the last two decades.

The investigation demonstrated that the Southern Baptist church has gone to great lengths to protect its own, the suit says. It has been the practice of the Southern Baptist church through its pastors and other church officials and agents, to conceal instances of sexual abuse and complaints by victims.

In response to the series, the SBC  a collective of 47,000 churches that make up the nations second-largest faith group  have approved new rules aimed at excising predators from their ranks and punishing those who conceal or mishandle sexual abuses.

robert.downen@chron.com
Samsung Group leader Lee Jae-yong inspects multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCC), which are widely used in IT devices, during his visit to Samsung Electro-Mechanics' Busan factory, Thursday. The group said Lee visited the Busan plant to check the company's future strategy at a time when demand for MLCC is soaring thanks to the rise of electric cars, self-driving cars and 5G network-powered mobile devices. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16

Trend:

Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry warns against possible incoming SMS messages from Armenian side, Trend reports on July 16.

The ministry said that that Armenians are using Azerbaijani and Turkish languages, and they may start sending messages from certain numbers (050 558 28 81, 055 229 84 93 and +90 539 507 06 81) to learn about events happening in Azerbaijan.

"In no way respond to unknown messages," said the ministry.

If your phone has applications such as Snapchat and PicsArt, delete them. Because the Armenians can hack them and steal private photos. Mostly female profiles are hacked, and through the stolen photos their owners are blackmailed, said the statement.

Your phone may receive a message linked from Instagram. Make sure you don't click on any links, which may reveal sensitive information once you do. If you receive such messages, immediately delete them," the warning said.
WASHINGTON - Western governments on Thursday accused hackers believed to be part of Russian intelligence of trying to steal valuable private information about a coronavirus vaccine, calling out the Kremlin in an unusually detailed public warning to scientists and medical companies.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 16/7/2020 (551 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FILE - In this March 16, 2020, file photo, a subject receives a shot in the first-stage safety study clinical trial of a potential vaccine by Moderna for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle. According to results released on Tuesday, July 14, 2020, early-stage testing showed the first COVID-19 vaccine tested in the U.S. revved up peoples immune systems the way scientists had hoped. The vaccine is made by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

WASHINGTON - Western governments on Thursday accused hackers believed to be part of Russian intelligence of trying to steal valuable private information about a coronavirus vaccine, calling out the Kremlin in an unusually detailed public warning to scientists and medical companies.

The alleged culprit is a familiar foe. Intelligence agencies in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada say the hacking group APT29, also known as Cozy Bear, is attacking academic and pharmaceutical research institutions involved in COVID-19 vaccine development. The same group was implicated in the hacking of Democratic email accounts during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

It was unclear whether any useful information was stolen. But British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said, It is completely unacceptable that the Russian Intelligence Services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

He accused Moscow of pursuing selfish interests with reckless behaviour.

Sticking to more general language, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, We worked very closely with our allies to ensure that we would take measures to keep that information safe and we continue do so so."

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a video call with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, June 30, 2020. Shoigu reported to Putin that the Defense Ministry plans to complete clinical tests of a coronavirus vaccine next month. (Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

The allegation that hackers linked to a foreign government are attempting to siphon secret research during the pandemic is not entirely new. U.S. officials as recently as Thursday have accused China of similar conduct. But the latest warning was startling for the detail it provided, attributing the targeting by name to a particular hacking group and specifying the software vulnerabilities the hackers have been exploiting.

Also, Russian cyberattacks strike a particular nerve in the U.S. given the Kremlin's sophisticated campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election. And the co-ordination of the new warning across continents seemed designed to add heft and gravity to the announcement and to prompt the Western targets of the hackers to protect themselves.

I think (the governments) have very specific intelligence that they can provide, said John Hultquist, senior director of analysis at Mandiant Threat Intelligence. The report is full of specific operational information that defenders can use to protect their networks.

Russian President Vladimir Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, rejected the accusations, saying, We dont have information about who may have hacked pharmaceutical companies and research centres in Britain."

We may say one thing: Russia has nothing to do with those attempts, Peskov said, according to the state news agency Tass.

The accusations come at a tenuous time for relations between Russia and both the U.S. and U.K.

Russian President Vladimir Putin leads a cabinet meeting via video conference at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, Thursday, July 16, 2020. (Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Besides political ill will, especially among Democrats, about the 2016 election interference, the Trump administration is under pressure to confront Russia over intelligence information that Moscow offered bounties to Taliban fighters to attack allied fighters.

The Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, said its clear that Russias malign cyber operations and other destabilizing activities  from financial and other material support to non-state actors in Afghanistan to poisoning dissidents in democratic countries  have persisted, even when exposed. He urged President Donald Trump to condemn such activities.

The vaccine assessment came two years to the day after Trump met with Putin in Helsinki and appeared to side with Moscow over U.S. intelligence agencies about the election interference. The U.K. did not say whether Putin knew about the more recent research hacking, but British officials believe such intelligence would be highly prized.

Relations between Russia and the U.K., meanwhile, have plummeted since former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a Soviet-made nerve agent in the English city of Salisbury in 2018, though they later recovered. Britain blamed Moscow for the attack, which triggered a round of retaliatory diplomatic expulsions between Russia and Western countries.

More broadly, Thursday's announcement speaks to the cybersecurity vulnerability created by the pandemic and the global race for a vaccine.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Securitys cybersecurity agency warned in May that cybercriminals and other groups were targeting COVID-19 research, noting at the time that the increase in people teleworking because of the pandemic had created potential avenues for hackers to exploit.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Thursday, July 16, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Profit-motivated criminals have exploited the situation, and so have foreign governments who also have their own urgent demands for information about the pandemic and about things like vaccine research," Tonya Ugoretz, a deputy assistant director in the FBI's cyber division, said at a cybersecurity conference last month.

Some of them are using their cyber capabilities to, for example, attempt to break into the networks of those who are conducting this research as well as into nongovernmental organizations to satisfy their own information needs," Ugoretz said.

The alert did not name the targeted organizations themselves or say how many were affected. But it did say the organizations were in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, and said the goal was to steal information and intellectual property related to vaccine development.

Britains NCSC said its assessment was shared by the National Security Agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and by the Canadian Communication Security Establishment.

A 16-page advisory prepared by Western agencies and made public Thursday accuses Cozy Bear of using custom malicious software to target a number of organizations globally. The malware, called WellMess and WellMail, has not previously been associated with the group, the advisory said.

In recent attacks targeting COVID-19 vaccine research and development, the group conducted basic vulnerability scanning against specific external IP addresses owned by the organizations. The group then deployed public exploits against the vulnerable services identified, the advisory said.

Cozy Bear is one of two hacking groups suspected of separate break-ins of computer networks of the Democratic National Committee before the 2016 U.S. election. Stolen emails were then published by WikiLeaks in what U.S. intelligence authorities say was an effort to aid Trump's campaign over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

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A report on Russian election interference by former special counsel Robert Mueller called out another group, Fancy Bear, in the hack-and-leak operation. Cozy Bear, though, operates "quietly gaining access and gathering intelligence," said Hultquist of the Mandiant cybersecurity firm.

Their goal, he said, is good old-fashioned espionage.

Separately, Thursday, Britain accused Russian actors of trying to interfere in Decembers U.K. national election by circulating leaked or stolen documents online. Unlike in the vaccine report, the U.K. did not allege that the Russian government was involved in the political meddling.

-

This version corrects in paragraph 17 that DHS cybersecurity warned of dangers in May, not April.

Lawless and Kirka reported from London. Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Jonathan Lemire and Ben Fox in Washington contributed.
Lawyers for Russian journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva have filed an appeal against her conviction on charges of justifying terrorism and the fine of nearly $7,000 levied against her.

Defense lawyer Tumas Misakyan told RFE/RL on July 16 that the defense believes the judge did not take into consideration portions of the linguistic analysis that were favorable to their client.

Prokopyeva, a prominent journalist in the western city of Pskov who is a freelance contributor to RFE/RLs Russian Service, was convicted over an article she wrote in November 2018 in which she discussed a bombing outside the Federal Security Service (FSB) offices in the northern city of Arkhangelsk.

In her commentary, Prokopyeva mentioned statements on social media by the suspected bomber, who died in the incident, and suggested that political activism under Russian President Vladimir Putin had been severely restricted, leading some people to despair.

On July 6, a court in Pskov convicted Prokopyeva and ordered her to pay a fine of 500,000 rubles (about $6,950).

Prosecutors had asked the court to sentence Prokopyeva, 30, to six years in prison and to bar her from journalistic activity for four years.

The defense appeal also rejected the judges finding that Prokopyeva partially admitted her guilt by acknowledging that she had written the article in question. Prokopyeva denies the accusations against her.

The appeal argues that the conviction is a violation of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees freedom of expression.

"Svetlanas commentary was an effort to explain a tragedy; the portrayal of her words as 'justifying terrorism' is a deliberate and politically motivated distortion aimed at silencing her critical voice and recalls the worst show trials of one of Russia's darkest periods," acting RFE/RL President Daisy Sindelar said on July 3.

The case against Prokopyeva has been strongly criticized by international human rights and journalism organizations, as well as by the European Union.
The National Institutes of Health has awarded $3.6 million to Rebecca Lynch, PhD, assistant professor of microbiology, immunology, and tropical medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, to investigate HIV-1 resistance to antibody treatments.

Immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies - single antibodies derived from the same parent B-cell - has been successful against autoimmunity and some cancers. Lynch and her team suggest that treatment options with antibodies, especially redesigned molecules based on broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs), should be explored in the context of the virus.

HIV-1 has the ability to rapidly escape antibodies by generating mutations in its variable envelope gene. This creates an urgent need to gain insight into the virus' escape from bNAbs, which neutralize various HIV-1 strains, to aid in more effective combination antibody strategies to be used toward HIV-1 therapy, cure, and prevention.

Antiretroviral treatment is very successful in treating HIV, but it does not cure HIV. We are focused on utilizing antibodies as alternative therapies or in strategies to cure HIV instead of just treating it. With this study we hope to provide more tools to use against HIV." Rebecca Lynch, PhD, assistant professor of microbiology, immunology, and tropical medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences

The team believes that HIV-1 escape from combination bNAbs will be limited when the mutations required to escape all bNAbs exert the maximum replicative fitness cost across diverse viruses, showing that replication cannot easily be restored through compensatory mutations.

Just like antiretrovirals must be taken in combination to be effective against HIV, antibody combinations will need to be used to be effective. To assess the problem of identifying effective combinations, Lynch is collaborating with an interdisciplinary team of researchers from University of California Riverside, University of Cologne, and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

"Through this work we will identify effective combination antibody cocktails that will limit the ability of diverse HIV-1 to escape from antibody pressure," Lynch said.
Amid the ongoing global crisis, Prince Harry is still trying to cope up with his life away from the royal family.

Ever since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle left the Firm and relocated to Los Angeles, the biggest issue they have been facing is no longer the British tabloids but their family's safety and security.

In an interview with Fox News, UK-based royal correspondent Neil Sean revealed that Harry's current life is making him "very sad" since it is way too far from the life he had in the U.K.

"The biggest problem now is security and not just outside security but within the boundaries of calls, Zooms and Skypes," Sean revealed.

A palace insider also told the royal correspondent that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are still worried about how their private chats over Zoom and other platforms could be publicized.

Since the couple needs to think about the security, the situation is reportedly making Prince Harry even more cut off than ever, especially when he needs to keep his conversation with Prince William nothing but formal.

"Harry is [now] living in [a new house] and exposed to all kinds of mishaps security-wise," the insider went on. The source added that since the security is putting their privacy at risk, the formal communications with his brother is only causing the Duke of Sussex to feel down.

Meanwhile, Sean also claimed that the current situation makes it hard for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to check in with Prince Harry.

"Not only that, [but] this security rule extends to the appearances of [William's children] Prince George and Princess Charlotte, whom Harry was really close to before swanning off to the U.S. He misses the fun times he had with them previously even though he has [his son] baby Archie with him too," the royal correspondent continued.

Prince Harry And Meghan Markle Are Facing MORE Serious Security Issues?

Ever since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle relocated to America with their 1-year-old child Archie, the royal couple has been worried due to safety issues.

Currently, the family-of-three is staying at Tyler Perry's mansion in Los Angeles. Despite the gated community they are living in, however, Prince Harry and Meghan has received security threats with drones flying above their home in the past few months.

According to The Daily Beast, Prince Harry and Meghan reported to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) about the drones that flew as low as 20 feet over their L.A. mansion last May.

The outlet added that the royal couple saw the drones on May 9, 19, 20, 21, and 25.

While it remains unknown who the owners of those drones are, they believe that paparazzi photographers operated them -- or worse, they might be potential terrorists.

"They see these drones coming in at them, and they guess that they are being operated by photographers, but they can't just assume that," one of the Sussexes' friends reportedly said. "Meghan received racist death threats at the time of her wedding, so the terror threat is very real for them."

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Police Department previously told Fox News that reports had been made regarding the presence of drones nearby.

As a result, Prince Harry and Meghan made a substantial upgrade and hired an A-list security team that costs them $8,600 per day.

READ MORE: Meghan Markle Instagram: 4 Most Controversial I.G. Post From The Duke And Duchess Of Sussex
To the Editor:

Re Trump Administration to Collect Hospitals Virus Data From Now On (news article, July 15):

Some 138,000 are dead in the United States. More than 3.5 million people have been infected. Millions more could still contract this dangerous virus. And yet, incredibly, the White House is more concerned with curtailing public information than containing the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since the beginning of this crisis, the administration has cast doubt on warnings and guidelines from its experts, sowing public confusion and further hindering our response.

Now, its directing hospitals to divert Covid-19 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and instead send it directly to Washington. It is a decision that will result in opaqueness at best  and political manipulation at worst. Either way, it is public health malfeasance on a massive scale.

The decision will further undermine the ability of experts to conduct research critical to saving lives while simultaneously shielding Americans from knowing the true scale of this ongoing calamity.
Platinum Group Metals (TSX: PTM) said its focus for its Waterberg project in South Africa is running a work program and obtaining the Mining Right for the project.

The company warned yesterday in its 3Q that grant may be delayed.

"The expected grant of a Mining Right may be delayed from previous guidance as a result of the current South African stay at home order and possible future restrictions. Contact with government and regulatory agencies has continued to date," wrote the company.

Last month, Platinum Group Metals announced that <a href="https://www.kitco.com/news/2020-06-16/Impala-will-not-exercise-Waterberg-project-option.html">Impala Platinum will not exercise its option to purchase and earn into a 50.01% interest in the Waterberg Project</a>.

Platinum Group Metals is seeking other options to advance the project now Impala Platinum will not be partnering with Platinum Group Metals.

"Concentrate offtake negotiations with Implats are currently in process. The Company and Waterberg JV Co. have begun a process to assess commercial alternatives for mine development financing and concentrate offtake, subject to Implats' right to match offtake proposals. Several parties are currently in discussions with the Company."
Armenia once again failed 'in presenting our military victory in the international diplomatic sphere so that the world understands that the attacker is Azerbaijan', Hraparak daily reported.

According to it, the belated statement of our Foreign Ministry, in contrast to the statement of Azerbaijan, spoke only about "penetration", and then, for some reason, is senselessly happy that Guatemala is next to Armenia.

"In other words, we have failed diplomatically, although the army is doing a great job, other structures are inoperable," it is noted.

"A number of Western embassies in Armenia, which support Nikol Pashinyan in the issue of domestic political adventures, were not so friendly as to point out the real aggressor," the newspaper wrote. "Pashinyan must draw conclusions."
Undeterred by a campaign to boycott products from China, Vivo India on Thursday announced a Rs 7,500 crore investment plan to increase capacity at its Greater Noida factory to 120 million smartphones per annum, set up a design centre in the country and bump up its local sourcing from 15 to 40 per cent in the next one year.

Vivo is owned by Guangzhou-based BBK Electronics which is also the parent company for other popular smartphone brands in India such as Oppo, Oneplus, Realme and iQoo. Chinese smartphone makers have a vice like grip on India's growing smartphone market with over 80 per cent share between them. In the last few quarters, Vivo has been on a high, growing faster than the market and displacing Samsung as the second largest brand in India behind compatriot Xiaomi.

Chinese companies in India have come under the scanner in the last few months after a skirmish at the East Ladakh border between the armed forces of both countries led to the death of 20 Indian soldiers. The Indian government has since then taken a number of steps to reduce imports from China and also banned 59 Chinese applications in a clear indication that investments from across the border are no longer welcome. Vivo's fresh investment, however, shows they are not overly concerned with the geopolitical scenario.

"We wholeheartedly support our Prime Mnister Narendra Modi's vocal for local programme. All our phones are 100 per cent made in India but we want to take it up further. Our investment of Rs 7500 crore will enhance capacity at the Greater Noida factory from 30 million to 120 million making it one of the biggest smartphone factories in the country," said Nipun Marya, director for brand strategy, Vivo India.

"With this increase in capacity the number of workforce at the factory will increase to 50,000 Indians. Also, we are increasing local sourcing for our phones from the current 15 to 40 percent, that signifies a 200 percent jump in sourcing in the next one year. We will also set up an industrial design centre in India which will ensure that our phones are not only made in India but also designed in India. The first such phone will be rolled out in the market by 2021," he said.

The company also entered the high end segment of smartphones with two new products -- X50 and X50 pro, that are priced at Rs 35,000-38,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively. These are the most expensive phones by the company so far.

Vivo registered a growth of 40 per cent in smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019 that gave it a market-share of 17 per cent. This came on the back of a 76 per cent growth in calendar year 2019.

Also Read: RIL won't dilute its holding in Jio Platforms below 64.44%

Also Read: International air flights to resume soon under 'air bubbles' strategy

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OAKLAND(BCN)

Three environmentally friendly projects slated to provide 462 units of affordable housing in Oakland have won nearly $90 million in state grants, according to an announcement Wednesday from the city's Department of Housing and Community Development.

The funding will come from the California Department of Housing and Community Development and the California Strategic Growth Council, which includes the leaders of several major state agencies.

Mandela Station Transit-Oriented Development in West Oakland has won $29,659,310 for housing, transit and related improvements, and Fruitvale Transit Village IIB at the Fruitvale BART station is to receive $29,966,039.

Better Neighborhoods, Same Neighbors won a multi-year grant of $28.2 million to fund a partnership between the city, multiple community organizations and local residents to build 55 units of affordable housing at 95th Avenue and International Boulevard with a health clinic and to create a trail along the San Leandro Creek.

The Fruitvale and 95th Avenue developments are also funded by voter-approved city Measure KK for affordable housing and by city fees.

"This is a great example of how city resources can leverage state funds to advance critical projects that will have a significant impact on our communities," said Shola Olatoye, Director of Housing & Community Development. "These projects help the fight against displacement and disinvestment in East and West Oakland."

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
WONDER POTIONs action-platformer has new content to test in this limited-time preview version of the next side-scrolling hit from NEOWIZ
Nigerias wordsmith extraordinaire and master of quotable quotes, Professor Wole Soyinka (born Oluwole Akinwande Soyinka on July 13 1934), turned 86 last Monday. Coincidentally Wole Soyinka became the first black Nobel Laureate in literature in 1986 so his birthday this year has a special significance.

Though I have never met Professor Wole Soyinka one-on-one, it is difficult for anyone with even a passing interest in the written word not to have met him through his works  whether as a playwright, essayist, novelist, poet or social critic.

The closest I came to meeting Wole Soyinka was when my publishing firm Adonis & Abbey Publishers was publishing a journal, African Performance Review, for the African Theaters Association (AfTA) between 2007 and 2009. Most of the members of the Association were ardent Soyinka disciples and they regaled me with many stories about the exploits of the famous Nobel Laureate. One of the most memorable exploits I heard about him was a story he supposedly told them about frequent proposals he received from women who wanted him to sire children for them with the hope that they would produce an intellectual genius like him. According to them, Soyinka told them that his response to such offers was: whenever I can, I help.

There was another memorable story about him from his disciples: it was an alleged television interview by a major international TV network (I have forgotten whether they said it was BBC or CNN). According to them, the host had asked him why he never bothered to obtain a PhD despite his brilliance. Soyinka was said to have retorted, But who will mark it?

I would probably have met Professor Soyinka one-on-one if I had acceded to the request by the late Esiaba Irobi to publish a bi-annual journal he wanted to call the Soyinka Journal. Irobi, who died in Germany in May 2010, was a very talented but highly combustible playwright and poet. Like most of the members of AfTA that I interacted with at that time, he was not only an ardent admirer of Soyinka but also regarded him as a literary deity of sorts.

It is never easy as a publisher to manage creative writers (and creative people in general) especially those imbued with an overdose of artistic temperament - as Esiaba was. The truth is that I was afraid of saying no to his proposal about the Soyinka Journal, and also afraid of saying yes to the proposal. I tried to play safe by urging him to expand the scope of the journal so he would not run out of publishable peer-reviewed articles. I urged him to include Chinua Achebe and J.P. Clark- Bedekeremo in it because in Nigerias traditional literary circles Soyinka is seen as the ultimate playwright and political activist, Achebe is regarded as the master novelist while J.P. Clark-Bedekeremo is seen as the doyen of poetry. We were still playing the cat and mouse game when I received the very sad news of his transition.

Back to Wole Soyinka: As a younger man in the secondary school (1975-1980), I was very much attracted to the literary works of non-conformists and activists  the late Obi B Egbuna, Dilibe Onyema, Naiwu Osahon, Dambduzo Marechera, and of course Wole Soyinka, whose book, The Man Died (published in 1972) I could recite the first two or three chapters off the top of my head. I also read his poem The Telephone Conversation (published in 1963) with relish and for years had this mental image of a young mischievous but very confident African in the United Kingdom who could give the middle finger to a White racist landlady and make her look stupid. I have always grimaced each time some lines of the poem came to my mind:

The price seemed reasonable, location indifferent. / The landlady swore she lived off-premises. / Nothing remained but self-confession. /Madam, I warned, I hate a wasted journey, I am African.

When the landlady inquired how dark he was, Soyinkas response was: Facially I am brunette, but, madam, you should see The rest of me/Palm of my hand, soles of my feet Are peroxide blond.

You also see a lot of this sort of mischief in Ake: the Boyhood Years, his dazzling memoir which was published in 1981. It gives a mental picture of a young man versed in pranks and street smartness.

In addition to his very fertile imagination, Soyinka stands out as one public intellectual who was so sure of himself that he rarely flowed with the tide. For instance in disagreeing with the tenets of the Negritude movement, Soyinka famously remarked at a Conference in Berlin in 1964 that A tiger does not proclaim his tigritude, he pounces. The Negritude movement, it should be recalled was born out of the Paris intellectual environment of 1930s and 1940s. It was a product of black writers joining together through the French language to assert their cultural identity and their blackness. Soyinka believed that to have a movement to celebrate that you are black and proud was itself a sign of inferiority complex because a tiger does not go about proclaiming its tigeritude.

In 1967, as the Civil war was about to break out, Soyinka became a one-man diplomatic squad to stop the cascading inferno. He visited Chukwuemeka Ojukwu in Biafra apparently to convince the Biafran leader against the war. But the Gowon regime arrested and jailed him for 22 months on accusation that he was spying for Biafra  among other charges. It was while in prison that he wrote the famous prison diary, The Man Died, where he told us that the man dies in him who keeps silent in the face of tyranny. Earlier in 1965 Soyinka had seized, reportedly at gunpoint, the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service Studio to demand for the cancellation of the Western Nigeria Regional elections, which he felt was rigged and that an illegitimate government was about to be proclaimed.

Probably few Nigerians  dead or alive- have more quotable quotes than Wole Soyinka whom his admirers also called Kongi. Some of his remarkable quotable quotes include:

The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism

See, even despite pious statements to the contrary, much of the industrialized world has not yet come to terms with the recognition of the fallacy of what I call the strong man syndrome.

The novel, for me, was an accident. I really don't consider myself a novelist.

Power is domination, control, and therefore a very selective form of truth which is a lie.

There are different kinds of artists and very often, I'll be very frank with you, I wish I were a different kind.

Well, the first thing is that truth and power for me form an antithesis, an antagonism, which will hardly ever be resolved. I can define in fact; can simplify the history of human society, the evolution of human society, as a contest between power and freedom.

The late Spanish novelist and 1989 Nobel Laureate in Literature Camilo Jose Cela probably had Wole Soyinka in mind when he reportedly declared that a writer should be a denunciation of the time in which he lives. Wole Soyinka has been literally at loggerheads with every Nigerian government - which was why some Nigerians accused him of compromising and reaching accommodation with the Buhari government  until recently. While some attribute the loud absence of his critical voice against the Buhari government to the health challenge he was going through at that time, others point out to his closeness with some of the key players in the government like Rotimi Amaechi as a possible reason while he was restrained in criticizing the Buhari government  until recently.

Whatever may be Soyinkas weaknesses as human, there is no doubt that he has tried to mentor a generation of young writers and that his place in the pantheon of Africas literary greats is very much assured.

I wish him a very happy birthday, and pray that the good Lord will grant him many more happy, fruitful and healthy years ahead.
Child Rights International (CRI) wading into the ongoing saga involving some students contracting the deadly new coronavirus says closing down schools due to fears of Covid-19 should be based on scientific evidence.



The concerns of Child Rights International (CRI) comes after parents, and the teachers Associations in one accord has called on the Akufo-Addo government to close down schools due to the rate at which students are contracting the virus at school.



However, the CRI Executive Director, Bright Appiah in a statement last Wednesday July 15, 2020 indicated that a rush decision will be imprudent since government cannot prove whether children got infected from home or contracted the disease whilst at school.



The Child Rights International, however, has suggested that the Ghana Health Service in their daily data must provide a report on the behaviour of Covid-19 among children at various schools.



Buttressing his point, Mr Appiah will assist to understand the pattern of Covid-19 among the children as to inform policy direction and also know how serious the consequences are on children.



In the interim, the Child Rights International (CRI) Executive Director urged the Ghana Education Service to enhance security and protection services at schools that have recorded cases to ensure the adherence to the safety protocols.

Source: Daniel Adu Darko/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.

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Editor's note: An earlier version of this story was published, and has since been updated with additional context from the Oakland Police Department and a recent meeting of the city's sideshow task force.

Akil Jeffersons love for the V8 engine was born on a hot summer day on 68th and Foothill Boulevard, near the parking lot of the Eastmont Mall. In the 1990s, thats where he and many other underage Black and Latino youths gathered to attend sideshows: suped-up, unsanctioned car demonstrations often performed in front of hundreds of spectators. One by one, drivers from Pittsburgh, Oakland, and Antioch would drift and do donuts and elaborate figure eights, sliding their old-school Firebirds, Camaros and Chevelles with such ease and precision that it was like cutting through butter with a hot knife.

Originated in Oakland in the early 1980s and first immortalized in the 1991 hip-hop track Side Show by rap group 415, the events are considered either dangerous and disruptive or cathartic and celebratory, depending on who you ask. As a former driver, Jefferson sees them as a latter, a view he shares in a course he teaches on the history of sideshows at San Francisco State University.

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Although considered by some to be integral to Oakland culture, the Town has tried to quash them since they first emerged due to deaths and injuries to both participants and spectators, complaints from neighborhood organizations and conflicts with police that have escalated to violence. Sideshows have therefore been deemed illegal in Oakland, with drivers facing $1,000 fines, 90 day prison sentences and impounded vehicles.

The history of sideshows is long and complicated. In 1992, city officials established a no-cruising ordinance, which is meant to prevent low-rider cars from slowing traffic around Lake Merritt. In 1996, this was met with opposition from the Young Comrades (which was founded by director and activist Boots Riley), an organization of mostly Black youths. They protested the ordinance, saying that cops were abusing the law in order to intrude on minorities.

One of the most influential legal incidents happened in the mid-1990s when a driver killed a spectator while being pursued by police, leading to increased law enforcement presence in Oakland's Black neighborhoods. It changed after people were injured. After that, [police] began to criminalize rather than monitor these events, says Jefferson. One night, in an attempt to break up a crowd of 400 spectators by a convenience store, police shot rubber bullets and lobbed smoke bombs.

Jefferson agrees that sideshows are dangerous, both because they involve cars sliding within inches of spectators and also due to controversial policing surrounding the events. Those police tactics often lead to retaliation from the sideshow communities, further complicating their reputation.

In an incident in 2015, cops fatally shot a 39-year-old man, Richard Perkins, on 90th and Bancroft. Perkins, armed with an airsoft gun, turned out to be unaffiliated with the nearby event. That same night, sideshow participants stomped on cop cars' hoods.

In a more recent incident, a police report filed this year described an incident involving a man struck by an aqua-colored Mustang at a sideshow. That same night, more than 25 cars ran red lights and blocked intersections  causing a bus to get stuck at 55th and Foothill Boulevard. It was a way for those who felt disenfranchised to give the world a middle finger back in return, says Jefferson.

In March of this year, a driver allegedly under the influence ran his car into a front porch, killing one and injuring three others, police said. And in April 2019, sideshow spectators allegedly forced a truck driver out of their vehicle by gunpoint. The truck and an AC Transit bus were looted and set ablaze, although the driver left uninjured. Later that night, participants cars were towed and firearms were seized. It was a bad scene. We were taking rocks and bottles and they were shooting fireworks at us. It was just chaos, said Alameda County Sheriffs spokesman Ray Kelly in an article following the incident.

Afterwards, the Oakland Police Department vowed to take a regional approach to halting sideshows by continuing their partnership with the California Highway Patrol, the Alameda County Sheriffs Office, and San Leandro, Hayward, Fremont and Alameda police departments. Drivers, who come from cities as far away as Manteca, Hollister, and Porterville, seem to have chosen Oakland as its designated venue for sideshows  and overwhelm local law enforcement as a result. Officer Pedram Farhang, who focuses solely on sideshow enforcement, says that no more than a third of drivers are from Oakland.

Deputy Chief of Police LeRonne Armstrong says that sideshows pose a danger to Oakland residents. It has a significant impact on public safety in terms of the crowds that it gathers and all of the activity that comes along with those crowds, which has escalated to the point where its frequent that gunshots and firing of weapons typically happens in these groups.

However, in a recent meeting with Oaklands sideshow task force, which includes advocates, police officers, and Oakland residents, Rebecca Warren, Alameda Countys Deputy District Attorney, says that most drivers are charged with misdemeanors. Warren, who individually reviews sideshow cases, says that the majority of individuals who are either arrested or in fact cited dont go to jail. They might spend at most a night in jail, but thats rare.

While most drivers were charged with reckless driving and racing, some drivers evaded the police or committed felony crimes. Warren has a few cases where drivers committed hit-and-runs and caused damage to vehicles, assaulted police officers, and where firearms were recovered either on the person or in the car. So that then does create a danger to the community because some of them...when they start spinning their donuts, they start shooting firearms out the window. Luckily no one was hit, but that is a safety concern, she says.

Additionally, Frank Foster, Alameda Countys public works operations manager, says that sideshows are dangerous for his staff, who unexpectedly run into sideshows during their cleanup efforts. Oftentimes our staff is caught off-guard, and if they drive their vehicles into a crowd...they can find themselves in danger. Also, they can be susceptible to potential bodily harm, he says. After a sideshow, theres typically shattered bottles and debris. Foster also says that after accidents happen, theyll find bumpers and glass, which can cause traffic hazards and pedestrian obstructions.

Similarly, Terry Wiley, who also works on sideshow cases at the Alameda County District Attorneys office, says that sideshows damage city streets, which in turn creates a negative atmosphere for Oakland families. When they come out of their house to go to work in the morning, its a little disheartening to drive down the street and see these tire tracks all over the street, he says. The messaging that it gives to everybody in the neighborhood is that when your kids are out here on their bikes riding around or just walking home from school, that represents danger to the parents.

RELATED: Oakland artists unite in historic city takeover

For years, Oakland has been developing new tactics to stop sideshows, which Armstrong says are difficult to track. In an attempt to disperse them, former Mayor Jerry Brown enacted a law in 2005 that made it illegal to spectate at sideshows. In a press conference following the incident in 2015, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf stated that the city will not tolerate sideshow activities, citing unacceptable levels of destruction and harm.

In the article, nothing was mentioned of Richard Perkins, the man who was fatally shot by all four officers on the scene none of whom had their body cameras turned on at the time of the shooting. And as recent as 2019, Councilmember Noel Gallo endorsed AB 410, a bill which would elevate sideshow participation to a felony crime. According to the bill, which still hasnt passed, participants would include drivers, passengers, pedestrians, and promoters.

Gallo, who represents Fruitvale and watched sideshows in his youth, stands behind his endorsement. He says that about five years ago, he tried to legalize them with sideshow activists and a race promoter, but local and state governments werent interested. Within my council and leadership, people wanted to just stop it altogether, he says over the phone. Had they been successful, sideshows could have legally taken place at the Coliseum parking lot on Friday nights, where spectators would pay a fee to safely view them from bleachers.

That potential legal legitimization of sideshows resonates with drivers like Jefferson. A native to Oakland, he sees sideshows as a cultural expression: an outlet for oppressed Black men to release the tension they feel in their everyday lives. Its awe-inspiring, he says. The feeling of excitement when you hear the car rev 5,000 rpms, and see the cars smoking and going from the side...Its like youre one with the car...And then I get to be part of a machine that gets respect.

Matthew Bilal, a former driver who now lives in Florida, says they were a personal and political expression: a positive way to deal with racial tension, drugs, and economic hardship in 1990s Oakland. We didnt have a voice, He says over the phone. Nobody cared about us. It was our way to feel free and express ourselves, and say f--k you.

A longtime friend of Jefferson, he recalls religiously doing donuts in their orange International Scout, burning up the car all night. Bilal also says that sideshows brought people together. Regardless of what Bay Area city you came from, what your ethnic background was, or what type of car you had, everyone could participate and show out. It didn't matter if [the car] was high-performance, a raggedy car, anything you had, take it to the sideshow...I had many white homies. They come tear up their mamas Corvette or their daddys Lexus, anything! he says, laughing.

Despite previously acknowledging the cultural importance, Gallo now supports law enforcement's attempts to make arrests and confiscate cars. The about-face resulted from a lack of political and venue support, as well as neighborhood complaints. Were talking about safety for sideshow drivers, and the neighborhood, he says. Friends, cousins, family members, and neighbors are involved in this activity, and we just have to look for different ways to entertain ourselves.

However, theres little evidence that elevating sideshow participation to a felony crime will stop drivers. In Jefferson and Bilals day, if a drivers $20,000 car was impounded, they would simply reclaim it and go right back out onto the streets. Theyre not stopping nobody! Bilal says of law enforcement. When you're dealing with people who dont give a f***, you're wasting resources. Thats how it was with us.

Gallo says that when he took office seven years ago, sideshows were much more prevalentbut they dont seem to be abating either. According to the Oakland Police Departments database, from 2013 to 2018 alone, there have still been thousands of incident reports of sideshow activities. And with the help of neighboring counties, plenty of cars are still being seized as part of a long-term investigation on sideshows.

Yakpasua Zazaboi, a sideshow advocate and documentarian who participated in the sideshow task force meeting, argues that sideshows are culturally just as much a part of Oakland as the Raiders and the As  and that they can be handled differently. The sideshow has been with us, and as you see, its not going anywhere. Its our responsibility to find a way to do this thing better, he says. If were still talking about this 20 years later, then we have to recognize that law enforcement cannot possibly be the only thing were gonna do about this.

The reason why hes so involved, he says, is because hes watching out for his teenage son, who he doesnt want to see go to jailand who wanted to do donuts for his 16th birthday. Zazaboi argues that providing a safe venue far away from residential areas is a positive solution, and will meet the demands of Oakland youths who want a safe area to drive in. We have plenty of space in Oakland, lets not fool ourselves, he says. Younger generations dont want to miss out on whats the most exciting thing out here. Lets stop complaining. Lets get to work.

For complex reasons, its likely that sideshows are here to stay. Theres a political, cultural, and tribalistic component because its within us, our souls. The adrenaline when you're present makes you feel unstoppable. For a Black person to feel that? In America? Jefferson says, trailing off.

This thing has a lot to improve on. We cant keep talking about an entire generation like criminals, says Zazaboi. Despite that hes received no callbacks from Port authorities, hes still trying to get in touch with the Port of Oakland and the Oakland Coliseum to present a plan to put on organized, sanctioned sideshowsa social, cultural activity which will continue to get passed down to Oaklands future generations. To this day, Gallo says he can hear sideshow activity within earshot of his home in Fruitvale. And in the streets of West Oakland, late at night, you can hear the distant roar of an engine, like a voice, demanding to be heard.

Ariana Bindman is a freelance writer based in Oakland. Twitter: @ariana.bindman
Following an explosion that hit a joint patrol in Idleb, Russia has hit back, bombing the town of of Ariha in northern Idleb reports Zaman Al-Wasl.

One person was killed and four people wounded in a missile attack by regime forces on northern Idleb province, activists told Zaman Al-Wasl.

The attack, which targeted the town of Ariha, wounded a woman and three children.

Russias warplanes have pounded an array of villages in Idleb province, in retaliation for a roadside bomb that hit a Russian-Turkish military patrol and left three Russian soldiers injured.

The Russian Ministry of Defence said the joint patrol was hit by an improvised explosive device at 8:50am as the soldiers convoy patrolled the M4 highway in the southern part of a de-escalation zone.

Russia and Turkey launched the patrols along the strategic highway in March following a ceasefire agreement aimed at stopping heavy fighting in and around Idleb, the last major bastion for anti-government forces in Syrias war.

Rami Abdel Rahman, the director of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), reported that, numerous explosions were heard as the patrol passed through a village northeast of the town of Ariha.

The blast occurred, despite Turkish forces having thoroughly combed the area 24 hours before the joint patrol set off along the road that separates areas controlled by the rebels from those held by government forces, according to the ceasefire, he said.

No such patrols had yet been able to circulate along the entire length of the road as stipulated in the ceasefire agreement, from the village of Tarbana in the east of Idleb province to the village of Ayn Hawr in the north of Lattakia province, according to the SOHR.

Fighters opposed to the patrols, as well as protests against them, had previously prevented them from advancing, but without them ever being targeted like this, it said.

Russia and Turkey have long supported opposing sides in Syrias war  Moscow is a major backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad while Turkey supports certain rebel groups  but the two countries have closely coordinated in the past and agreed upon several deals to reduce hostilities.

Home to some 3 million people, the Idleb region in northwest Syria is dominated by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an armed group that mainly consists of members of Syrias former al-Qaeda affiliate, and its rebel allies.

A Russian-backed government offensive in northwest Syria displaced nearly a million people between December and March, but thousands have returned since the truce came into force.

After Tuesdays attack, Russian fighter jets launched several air raids on rebel positions in the countryside of Lattakia province, according to SOHR.

This article was 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.
By Trend





Armenian armed forces continue firing at Azerbaijani civilians and their houses, Trend reports on July 16.

The forces shell Azerbaijani villages with large-caliber machine guns and artillery installations.

Ffrom 4:00 am, the villages of Aghdam, Dondar Gushchu, Alibeyli and Hajali in the Azerbaijani Tovuz district have been especially intensively shelled with usage of heavy artillery. The shelling caused significant material damage to residents of the villages.

Azerbaijani Prosecutor Generals Office initiated a criminal case in relation to Armenian armed forces' shelling the settlements in the Azerbaijan's Tovuz district.

As earlier reported, as a result of the shelling, a resident of Aghdam village, Tovuz district, civilian Aziz Azizov died. His daughter, Zarnishan Gozalova told that on July 12, she talked to her father on the phone, and immediately after the talk, the Armenian armed forces shelled the house, killing her 76-year-old father.




Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 16)  While the cruising industry is yet to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, a cruise line that is set to sail again this month is taking extra precautionary measures to bring back the confidence of its travelers.

"The pandemic obviously stopped tourism and the cruises are not spared as well," Dream Cruises President Michael Goh told CNN Philippines' New Day on Thursday.

The Asian cruise line, which claims to be the first one in the world recently allowed to sail again, will restart some of its operations starting July 26, after its services were suspended for months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

According to Goh, they had to implement stricter protocols to ensure that the safety of everyone on board is in accordance with regulations set by authorities.

Dream Cruises will start with itineraries in Taiwan later this month, as the country has recorded relatively low COVID-19 cases compared to other global figures.

"A lot of measures had to be implemented to ensure that when we restart the business, the cruisers and our crew are protected," Goh told CNN Philippines.

From embarkation to disembarkation, passengers' health condition will be checked, social distancing will be implemented, and deep cleaning and sanitization procedures will be done more often.

Passengers will also be reduced to up to 70 percent occupancy to lessen health risks, Goh said.

After the safety of cruises has been questioned and operations were put to a halt, is the industry ready to bounce back from the crisis?

For Goh, people are seeking ways to resume travelling under the "new normal." Cruise companies must adapt and keep lines of communication open with consumers and offer options that will not compromise their safety.

"It's good to know that after many months of lockdown, some are eager to travel again," he noted.

"Cruising has been an important kind of travel for our consumers. Even post-COVID, we are confident that cruising will continue to grow."
Islamabad, July 16 : Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has inaugurated the Diamer Bhasha dam, said to the tallest roller compact concrete dam in the world, with an installed capacity of 4,500-megawatt electricity production at the River Indus in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said an official statement.

The dam, scheduled to be completed by 2028, is 272-metres high, has a 8.1 million acre-feet reservoir and 14 spillway gates, reports Xinhua news agency.

The multipurpose dam will help the country for water storage, flood mitigation, water diversion for irrigation and power generation.

The Diamer Bhasha dam is the country's third-largest dam, after Terbela and Mangla dams, being built at the River Indus.

The Pakistan government signed a contract with a joint venture of Power China and Frontier Works Organization (FWO) for the construction of the dam which will reportedly increase the country's water storage capacity from 30 to 48 days.

Addressing the inauguration ceremony on Wednesday, Khan said that the dam would benefit the country both economically and environmentally especially the local people by creating jobs and supporting their businesses.

He announced that the government would now move towards building more dams on rivers because these would decrease pressure on foreign exchange reserves of the country by not importing furnace oil for power production.

In a separate statement, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information Asim Saleem Bajwa said after the power plant, water reservoir will be added 1.2 million acres for agriculture, produce cheaper, greener hydropower and will create 16,000 jobs by boosting different sectors.
Britain publishes plans on Thursday to keep trade flowing freely between its constituent nations when regulatory powers are reclaimed from the European Union at the end of the year and redistributed to devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland is to be handed more extra powers than Scotland or Wales under the UK Government's plans.

Measures that were previously regulated by the European Union will return to the UK at the end of the year when the transition period expires.

Responsibilities in 160 policy areas - including animal welfare, public procurement rules and environmental regulations - will now go to one or more of the devolved administrations.

The way the Government is handling the return of powers from Brussels has already provoked a row with Nicola Sturgeon's administration in Scotland after it was revealed that Whitehall will assume control of the state aid regime.

The proposed changes - set out in a white paper being published today for consultation - will see Northern Ireland receive responsibility in 157 of the 160 areas, Scotland in 111 and Wales in 70.

As this could lead to different regulatory regimes in the UK the Government has drawn up plans for the "internal market" to ensure seamless trade between the home nations. At the heart of the plans are the principles of mutual recognition - so regulations in one part of the UK are recognised in all the other nations - and non-discrimination, providing a "level playing field" for companies across the UK.

Officials said that without these actions a Welsh lamb producer could end up unable to sell their meat in Scotland, or Scotch Whisky producers could lose access to supply from English barley farmers. Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said: "This plan is vital to protect jobs and livelihoods across all four nations of the UK. Northern Ireland exports more to the rest of the UK than to all of the EU combined - nearly 60% of Northern Ireland's total external trade is with Scotland, Wales and England.

"We will be enshrining in law the UK Government's guarantee that Northern Ireland businesses will benefit from unfettered access to the whole UK market. And we will implement the Northern Ireland Protocol in a way which safeguards the effective working of the UK's internal market.

"Making sure that seamless domestic trade can continue will support our economic recovery, provide certainty for businesses and create more opportunities for investment across Northern Ireland."
If you dont have this money, how are you going to afford PPE? How are you going to have cleaning every day? asked Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. Thats why youre going to see more and more districts, even when they dont have surges, staying with remote learning.
Spc. Enrique Roman-Martinez, third from left, posed with his mother, Maria Martinez, and his niece and nephew for this photo, which was taken last year.

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C.  Griselda Martinez knew something was horribly wrong when she found out that her brother was missing and he didnt have his glasses  he rarely took them off.

Her brother, Spc. Enrique Roman-Martinez, was camping with fellow paratroopers on an island at Cape Lookout National Seashore in North Carolina when they say he disappeared on May 22. Part of his body washed up a week later.

Roman-Martinez, 21, of Chino, California, was a human resource specialist in the 82nd Airborne Divisions Headquarters Company, 37th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team.

Michael Coleman, who served as chaplain for Roman-Martinez, said his heart dropped when he heard the soldier was missing.

My first inclination was, this is not good, this is not something he would do, Coleman said. I felt like I knew early on that something bad had happened to him.

Spc. Enrique Roman-Martinez

Coleman, who retired from the Army in February, said Roman-Martinez was a solid paratrooper. Roman-Martinez had come to Colemans house for dinner and went on a camping trip with Colemans family.

He was like a son to me, Coleman said. My kids thought the world of him.

Now, Coleman is trying to help the soldiers family understand and deal with how the military works.

As chaplains, we take care of soldiers in life and death, he said.

Coleman and the family want to know who killed Roman-Martinez and why. Coleman also thinks a memorial ceremony should be held for the paratrooper.

The Army has offered a $25,000 reward for credible information leading to the apprehension and conviction of whoever killed the soldier.

Army officials have said they arent releasing much information because of the ongoing investigation.

Ten weeks: A timeline of the search for Vanessa Guillen

'My mother and I knew something was wrong'

Martinez said Army officials have not told the family much. She said investigators dont want the family to talk about the inquiry.

Theyve asked us not to say anything that might impede the investigation or keep them from arresting someone, she said.

Story continues

Martinez said investigators are working hard on the case. She said she believes there are people of interest, but so far the investigators dont have enough evidence to charge anyone.

Thats the whole problem, she said.

Spc. Enrique Roman-Martinez holds his nephew in this photo taken a few years ago.

Martinez said she and her mother, Maria, flew to North Carolina as soon as they could after they heard her brother was missing. She said they were discouraged when they saw that the island he was on was small with few trees, and when they heard that his personal belongings were at the campsite.

For them to say he left his glasses was a huge red flag, she said. My mother and I knew something was wrong.

Martinez said she was close with her brother. She said they and their sister had a rough childhood. Their mother worked two jobs and raised them by herself, she said.

Roman-Martinez joined the Army when he was 17, his sister said. He thought it would teach him discipline and responsibility and give him a way to go to college, she said.

We didnt want him to go, she said. He was set on it. He thought it would be good for him.

The paratrooper volunteered two more times and had awards and decorations, including the Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Army Service Ribbon and the Army Parachutist Badge, according to Army officials.

Martinez said the soldiers family is in pain.

My mom doesnt sleep, she said. She stays up all night thinking about what might have happened.

'Someone has to know something'

Martinez said there are inconsistencies in what is known about her brothers death. She said the other soldiers said they saw him last about midnight, but he wouldnt have gone for a walk in the dark and wasnt a good enough swimmer to go into the ocean at night.

A 911 caller said Roman-Martinez might have killed himself, but his sister feels sure that he wouldnt have done that. A coroner ruled the death a homicide, she said.

Martinez said she wants those who know what happened to think about their mothers and their siblings.

Someone has to know something, she said.

Coleman agrees.

I think something happened, something went wrong and it went downhill quickly, he said.

Roman-Martinez was willing to fight for and, if necessary, die for his country, Coleman said.

As a nation, we need to do right by this soldier, he said. Something happened to that kid. I dont know what it is, but the truth has to come out.

Follow Steve DeVane on Twitter: @WriterDeVane

Reopening slowed down: At least half of all states, including California and Michigan, pause reopening or take steps to halt the spread of COVID-19

'Epicenter of the epicenter': Young people partying in Miami Beach despite COVID-19 threat

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Spc. Enrique Roman-Martinez: Family seeks info in death of paratrooper
MARLTON, N.J., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Freedom Mortgage , one of the nation's largest full-service non-bank mortgage companies and a leader in VA and government-insured lending, funded nearly $11.3 billion in mortgage loans during the month of June, a new monthly record for the company. The amount represented over 43,500 in closed loans to borrowers and families nationwide.

According to the company, VA loans for veterans and members of our nation's military comprised the largest share of the company's June volume, followed by FHA loans which helped many borrowers who live in underserved communities.

"We had an incredible month supporting homeownership," said Freedom Mortgage CEO Stanley C. Middleman. "Given the current health crisis, our record performance in June is the most promising achievement in our company's history. I couldn't be more grateful for our employees and the great work they do. We are all very honored to help so many deserving homeowners and homebuyers reach their financing goals."

In addition to its record volume, the company was recently named a 2020 Top Workplace by the Indianapolis Star for the fifth year in a row.

Freedom is also an active supporter of various military and civilian non-profits nationwide, raising money and volunteering thousands of hours to many national and local charities. Through the company's Team Freedom Cares program, the company recently donated $1 million in June to Feeding America, which delivers more than 4 billion meals each year to people facing hunger in communities across the country.

About Freedom Mortgage

Founded in 1990 and headquartered in Marlton, New Jersey, Freedom Mortgage is a non-bank, full-service mortgage company that provides mortgage loans through retail, wholesale, and correspondent channels. One of the nation's largest loan originators and servicers, the company is licensed in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Freedom Mortgage is a leader in VA mortgage lending and one of the mortgage industry's largest philanthropic supporters of the USO and military families. The company is also renowned for its vibrant work environment where its team members can thrive. For more information, please visit FreedomMortgage.com.

CORPORATE CONTACTS:

Audrey Shapiro

Freedom Mortgage Corporation

856-380-9073

[email protected]

PRESS CONTACT:

Henry Drennan

Account Supervisor

Strategic Vantage

(615) 497-8358

[email protected]

SOURCE Freedom Mortgage

Related Links

http://FreedomMortgage.com


County School Board Chairman Joe Wingate announced he has received the support of the Tennessee Realtors Association in his bid for re-election to the District 7 seat.



Mr. Wingate said, I am honored to have received the support of the Tennessee realtors. The realtors have always been a conservative voice of experience within Hamilton County. I want to say thank you to the Tennessee Realtors Association, and what they do for our community, and within our state.

"I believe this support comes from seeing the results that have been gained in the East Brainerd and Apison communities. All schools in District 7 are now reward schools meaning they are in the top 25 percent of schools in Tennessee."
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Forty five percent of counties across the United States are currently battling uncontrollable COVID-19 outbreaks, a data map shows - as the latest models predict the number of deaths will surge by at least 20,000 in the next four weeks.

The data map, compiled by spatial analytics company Esri, shows that an 'epidemic trend', or uncontrollable spread, of coronavirus cases is occurring across the Sun Belt states and parts of the Midwest.

Of the 3,141 counties across the US, 1,415 are currently experiencing an epidemic outbreak and 1,103 are seeing spreading trends, which is an outbreak that could still be controlled if preventative measures are taken, the data shows.

Only a handful of states - including Arizona, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and South Carolina - are only experiencing epidemic or spreading trends.

Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgie, North Carolina and Tennessee are the states where only one or two counties are not currently seeing an uncontrollable spread.

Texas and California - two hot spot states - have a handful of counties that have controlled the spread, according to the data map.

Forty five percent of counties across the United States are currently battling uncontrollable, or 'epidemic' COVID-19 outbreaks, a data map compiled by spatial analytics company Esri shows

Currently, the number of infections across the US has surpassed 3.4 million and more than 137,000 Americans have died from the virus.

The latest modeling projects the number of COVID-19 deaths in the US to increase further - even as one research team suggests the near-universal use of masks could save 40,000 lives between now and November.

The country should hit 151,000 by August 1 and 157,000 by August 8, according to an average of models of 23 US and international research groups.

The figures, which were published by the University of Massachusetts Amherst's Reich lab, are among the forecasts relied on by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A week ago, this average predicted 147,000 deaths on August 1.

California, Florida and Texas, which are the three most populous states in the country, will see 1,000 more deaths over the next four weeks compared to the previous four, according to the model.

Meanwhile, a newly revised model from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation projects the death toll will climb to just above 224,000 by November 1 - up 16,000 from a prior forecast - due to rising infections and hospitalizations in many states.

The latest forecast predicts the death toll could be reduced by 40,000 if nearly all Americans wore masks in public.

The latest modeling projects the number of COVID-19 deaths should hit 151,000 by August 1 and 157,000 by August 8, according to an average of models of 23 US and international research groups

A newly revised model from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation projects the death toll will climb to just above 224,000 by November 1 - up 16,000 from a prior forecast. The model predicts the death toll could be reduced by 40,000 if nearly all Americans wore masks in public

'Use of masks is up, but not as high as it should be. If 95 percent of Americans wore masks each time they left their homes, infection rates would drop, hospitalizations would drop, and forecast deaths would drop,' IHME researchers said.

The IHME's new forecast came after Alabama, Florida and North Carolina on Tuesday reported record daily increases in deaths from COVID-19 - marking grim new milestones of a second wave of infections surging across much of the country.

The new IHME forecast - 224,089 American lives lost by November 1 - was revised upward from the 208,254 deaths projected on July 7.

The IHME's projections have been cited in the past by the White House and are watched closely by public health officials.

It comes as the United States set yet another record for new coronavirus cases after hitting a single-day spike of 67,400 with almost half of those infections coming from Texas, Florida and California.

Daily cases have been spiking in hot spot states in recent weeks and the US is now averaging about 60,000 infections per day.

Forty six states reported more new cases of COVID-19 last week compared to the previous week, according to a Reuters analysis of data from The COVID Tracking Project.

Nationally, new COVID-19 cases have risen every week for six straight weeks. Cases are only falling on a weekly basis in New York, Tennessee, New Jersey and Delaware.

With the virus is spreading quickly in the southern and western states, one of the countrys top public health officials offered conflicting theories about what is driving the outbreak.

Forty six states reported more new cases of COVID-19 last week compared to the previous week, according to a Reuters analysis of data from The COVID Tracking Project

CDC director Robert Redfield says the current spike in COVID-19 infections in the South may have been caused by people from the Northeast traveling there for vacation and not due to states reopening too quickly.

Addressing the alarming surge in coronavirus cases, Redfield said on Tuesday that infections in Sun Belt states 'simultaneously kind of popped' in the second week of June after reopening in various phases.

Redfield compared it to the initial outbreak in the Northeast in March, which he says spread out to various states from epicenter New York.

'We tried to give states guidance on how to reopen safely. I think the guidance we put out was really sound,' he said in an interview with Dr Howard Bauchner of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

'I think if you look critically, few states actually followed that guidance, although I don't think the reopening's actually what's driving the current Southern expansion right now.

'If you look at the South, everything happened around June 12 to June 16. It all simultaneously kind of popped.

'We're of the view that there was something else that was the driver. Maybe the Memorial Day, not weekend, but the Memorial Day week, where a lot of Northerners decided to go South for vacations.'

Redfield said some states in the South didn't take social distancing measures as seriously as other parts of the country when they reopened because they didn't have huge outbreaks.

This allowed the virus to spread rapidly once it was introduced and take hold in southern states, according to Redfield.

'Something happened in mid-June that we're now confronting right now. It's not as simple as saying it was related to the timing of reopening and no reopening,' he said.

Redfield did not provide any data to back up his claim that Northeast vacationers may be partly to blame for the current surge in cases.

CDC officials said that there are various possible explanations and that Redfield was offering just one.

Redfield said that he believes the US could get COVID-19 under control with four to eight weeks if all Americans wear a mask and continue to social distance.
School leaders who gloss over equity issues when planning to reopen schools this fall will not only exacerbate learning losses caused by this springs coronavirus closures, but could worsen the effects of the pandemic in some of the communities already hardest hit.

That is the bottom line for new guidance on school reopening out today from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, the collective formal scientific body of the United States. While the guidance shares recent reopening recomendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics on the importance of social distancing and hygiene in reducing the risk of pandemic outbreaks in opening schools, it stresses that the pandemic has already worsened disadvantages for Black, Latino, and Native American childrenthe three groups with the highest rates of COVID-19 after accounting for demographic age differencesand schools must take these into account when deciding how to prioritize alloting their rapidly shrinking resources.

Because equity is a chief challenge that many school districts face, then it needs to be a chief priority as we think about reopening schools, said Keisha Scarlett, a member of the National Academies committee that developed the guidelines and chief of equity partnerships and engagement for Seattle public schools. The families and communities disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 virus are Black and indigenous and Latinx communities, and it just exacerbates existing disparities. ... School systems should not let there be barriers for these families to be able to participate, whether its schools purchasing masks for students to be able to be in school, helping to support them with technology or resources for the in-person or out-of-school learning that has to happen. But another part about equitable access is also access to decision-making and making sure they have a seat at the tablebecause the families most impacted are the ones who have the most at stake in equitable schools.

While the vast majority of schools used at least some online learning during this springs closures, experts say lack of technological access and support severely limited some students access to instruction, and the National Academies argued that distance learning had not been proven developmentally appropriate for students in K-5. In contrast to many districts rapidly emerging plans for hybrid learning schedules come fall , the National Academies urged schools to prioritize full-time, in-person instruction for all students in K-5, as well as those with disabilities , and other needs that would make distance learning more difficult to access.

The National Academy authors argue there hasnt been enough research to know for certain how likely children are to catch and spread the coronavirus . At least one recent case study has suggested older adolescents can catch the disease from their teachers in close contact, but there have been no U.S. outbreaks studied among schoolchildren, and so long as the COVID-19 pandemic persists, there cannot be 100 percent safety in reopening schools for in-person learning. Given this, school systems and their surrounding communities will have to weigh the risks and uncertainties of reopening for in-person learning against the educational and social risks and challenges associated with continuing to educate and support students using a distanced model.

With evidence and best practices changing so rapidly, the best school leaders can do, the report argues, is to keep close contact with health authorities and work to mitigate health risks as they learn about them, while working to prevent the better-known damage to students academic and social-emotional development. It highlighted Austins system for using community infection risk to inform opening decisions. The framework allows school leaders, parents, teachers, business leaders, or other stakeholders to lay out specific goals and priorities, then weigh them against various levels of infection risk in the community and set protocols to respond to changes in risk. For example, a group may decide that Stage 3 infection rates would trigger instruction for most students moving to remote learning, while students who are severely academically at risk might continue to receive in-person instruction in small, cohorted groups with extra personal protective gear provided.

Costs of Safety

The National Academies had strongand expensivepriorities for districts in mitigating the health risks for students and staff, such as:



Reorganizing classrooms to allow physical distancing, such as by lowering class sizes or teaching in larger spaces like cafeterias or outdoors. The report also highlighted cohorting, in which a teacher and no more than 10 students are kept together and isolated from other groups.

Encourage all students and staff to wear face masks, and provide free surgical masks for all teachers and staffnot neccessarily medical haz-mat equipment, but a step up from homemade, Scarlett said.

Prioritize cleaning, ventilation, and air filtration in school infrastructure and hand-washing stations throughout buildings, including through retrofitting older buildings.

Implementing COVID-19-related safety features, particularly around infrastructure upgrades, could cost some $1.8 million for a single eight-building, 3,200-student district, according to estimates by the School Superintendents Association . Those costs are likely to fall heaviest on the poorest schools and districts, with the oldest buildings, the committee noted.

You scale that up for my school district, which has 104 schools and in 53,000 students, or then even larger school districts that have hundreds of thousands or even a million studentsthat cost just gets to be exponentially greater and greater ... and these costs end up falling on our more under-resourced schools and students, Scarlett said. So these have to be localized and community-based decisions, but ... its really important for funders, our federal and state legislators and the state boards of education, to think about this.

District leaders should consider reopening schools first in the communities hardest hit by the virus, the guidelines recommend. These communities are likely to have students both in need of academic supports but also grief and trauma counseling and other social supports families often rely on schools to provide. And the report found parents who are both low-income and Black or Latino are more likely to hold jobs that do not allow them to telecommute, meaning that even if their students have Internet access, they are less able to provide support during the day, which a separate Tulane Univerity study out earlier this week found was critical to schools ability to successfully provide distance learning this spring.

National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen Garcia agreed with the reports call for more funding and input from teachers and parents. The bottom line is that without a comprehensive plan that includes federal resources to provide for the safety of our students and educators with funding for personal protective equipment, socially distanced instruction, and addressing racial inequity, we could be putting students, their families, and educators in danger, she said on the guidance.

While Eskelsen Garcia seconded the benefits of in-person instruction, she stopped short of endorsing the National Academies push to prioritize returning elementary students to the classroom full-time.

Whether school buildings are open or not this fall, educators have been workingand will continue to workto make sure students have the best possible learning experience and have what they need to succeed. So lets not rush students and educators into classrooms when no one can ensure they are safe yet, she said.

Photo: Teacher Frederique Boisyvon wears a face mask to protect against coronavirus while teaching students, in a school in Chasne sur Illet, western France, on May 14. The National Academies of Science in the U.S. recommend schools provide free surgical-grade face masks for all teachers and staff. Source: David Vincent/AP
American Airlines AAL is scheduled to report second-quarter 2020 results on Jul 23, before the market opens.



Coronavirus impact on the carriers operations is likely to have been greater in the second quarter than in the first, as air travel demand was significantly below year-ago levels in the entire April-June period, while the first-quarter impact was limited mostly to March.



Lets delve deeper.



Factors at Play



American Airlines top line is expected to reflect significant decline in passenger revenues due to coronavirus-induced weak demand for air travel. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter passenger revenues indicates a 91.7% fall from the year-ago reported number. The company expects revenues to have declined 90% year over year for the second quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the same suggests an 88.6% decrease from that reported in the second quarter of 2019.



American Airlines reduced capacity significantly in response to the suppressed demand. For the second quarter, it expects capacity to have reduced approximately 75% year over year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the same hints at a 75.5% decline from the year-ago reported capacity.



With fuel expenses comprising a major chunk of airline expenditures, low fuel prices are expected to aid the bottom line, thus mitigating the loss of revenues to some extent. The consensus mark for average fuel price per gallon (on a consolidated basis, including taxes) implies a 51.4% drop from the second-quarter 2019 reported figure.

American Airlines Group Inc. Price and EPS Surprise

American Airlines Group Inc. Price and EPS Surprise

American Airlines Group Inc. price-eps-surprise | American Airlines Group Inc. Quote





Earnings Whispers



The proven Zacks model predicts an earnings beat for American Airlines in the second quarter of 2020. This is because the combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the chances of an earnings beat. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.



Earnings ESP: American Airlines has an Earnings ESP of +14.24% as the Most Accurate Estimate is pegged at a loss of $5.98 while the Zacks Consensus Estimate is pinned at a loss of $6.97. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.



Zacks Rank: American Airlines carries a Zacks Rank #3.



Highlights of Q1 Earnings



In the last-reported quarter, the company delivered a negative earnings surprise of 22.7% with wider-than-expected loss. Operating revenues declined 19.6% year over year and also fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Results were hurt by coronavirus-led drop in air-travel demand, which caused 20.5% decline in passenger revenues.



Other Stocks to Consider



Investors interested in the broader Transportation sector may also consider United Airlines UAL, Alaska Air Group, Inc. ALK and Air Lease Corporation AL as these stocks too possess the right combination of elements to beat on earnings this reporting cycle.



United Airlines has an Earnings ESP of +20.59% and a Zacks Rank of 3. The company will release second-quarter earnings on Jul 21.



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Zacks Investment Research
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Department of Biotechnology under the Union Ministry of Science and Technology has announced that ZyCoV-D, the plasmid DNA vaccine candidate designed and developed by Zydus, has entered Phase I/II clinical trials. This makes it the first indigenously developed vaccine candidate for COVID-19 to be administered to humans in India.

The adaptive Phase I/II dose escalation, multi-centric study will assess the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of the vaccine. The human dosing of the vaccine marks a key milestone since the launching of the accelerated vaccine development programme for COVID-19 in February 2020.

Dr. Renu Swarup, Secretary, DBT and Chairperson, BIRAC, said, The Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, has partnered with Zydus to address rapid development of an indigenous vaccine for COVID-19 under the National Biopharma Mission. This partnership with Zydus is to serve the countrys need for a vaccine to fight the dreaded pandemic which has put a billion people at risk. Such research endeavours will help the country to develop preventive strategies for future disease outbreaks as well and exemplifies the governments focus on creating an ecosystem that nurtures and encourages new product innovation to make real and measurable changes to issues most relevant to our society.

She also added, This is an important milestone for Atmanirbhar Bharat as Zydus begins human clinical trials for the indigenously developed vaccine. We hope that the vaccine continues to show positive outcomes as it has done so far in the pre-clinical phase where it was found to be safe, immunogenic and well tolerated. This will be a big leap forward for Indian scientific research.

Speaking on the development, Chairman of Zydus Cadila, Mr. Pankaj R. Patel said, This is a very important step in our fight against this pandemic and one that will help the nation combat this healthcare challenge. We are thankful to BIRAC and the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, for their support in our quest to provide a safe and efficacious vaccine to prevent COVID-19.

In the pre-clinical phase, the vaccine candidate was found to elicit a strong immune response in multiple animal species like mice, rats, guinea pigs and rabbits.

The antibodies produced by the vaccine candidate were able to neutralize the wild type virus in virus neutralization assay indicating its protective potential. No safety concerns were observed for the vaccine candidate in repeat dose toxicology studies by both intramuscular and intradermal routes of administration.

In rabbits, up to three times the intended human dose was found to be safe, well tolerated and immunogenic.
CAIRO (Reuters) - Ethiopia has told Sudan that news reports that it had started filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam reservoir on the Blue Nile were incorrect, Sudan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

Ethiopia's charge d'affaires in Khartoum also told a senior Sudanese Foreign Ministry official in a meeting that his country had not closed the dam gates, the statement added.

Ethiopian Water Minister Seleshi Bekele said on Wednesday in televised comments, of which a transcript was given to Reuters by his office, that "the construction of the dam and the filling of the water go hand in hand".

"The filling of the dam doesn't need to wait until the completion of the dam," he added.

However, the Sudanese statement quoted the Ethiopian envoy as saying that the minister "did not make the comments attributed to him yesterday about starting the process of filling the dam".

Addis Ababa is committed to continuing African Union- sponsored talks with Sudan and Egypt over the dam, its envoy was quoted as saying.

Earlier this week talks between the three nations to regulate the flow of water from the dam failed to reach agreement.

Sudan and Egypt both fear the $4 billion hydroelectric dam could lead to water shortages in their own nations.

The project has raised concerns in Egypt that already limited Nile waters will be further restricted. The Blue Nile is a tributary of the Nile from which Egypt gets 90% of its fresh water.

Egypt asked Ethiopia for urgent clarification on whether it had started filling the reservoir, the foreign ministry in Cairo said on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Omar Fahmy; Writing by Mahmoud Mourad; Editing by Alison Williams and Giles Elgood)
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Microscopy Devices Market Share, Trends And Growth Analysis By Type (Optical Microscopes, Electron Microscope, Scanning Probe Microscope (Spm), Others), By Application (Life Science, Material Science, Pathology), By End User (Hospitals & Clinics, Academic & Research Institutes, Diagnostics Centers) - Forecast Till 2022

Market Research Future (MRFR) in recently published study asserts that the global Microscopy Devices Market Size is expected to reach USD ~10.5 Billion in 2022; it has been noted that market is growing at steady pace and is expected to grow at the CAGR of 7.8% during the forecasted period 2016  2022. Surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value & volume, the market is expected to gain prominence over the forecasted period.

Factors substantiating the market growth include the increased funding by the public and private sector for life science research studies and the expansion of the semiconductor industries in most of the emerging nations. Increasing research and development activities initiated by governments, schools, universities and research institutions across the developing regions have fuelled the growth of the market.

Global Microscopy Device Market  Regional Analysis

Globally, Asia-Pacific is the largest market for microscopy devices. The APAC market is expected to grow further registering 7.3% CAGR during 2016-2022. North America market for microscopy devices accounting for the second-largest market globally will grow at 11.5% CAGR during the assessment period.

Microscopy Device Market  Competitive Analysis

The Microscopy Device market is widely expanded and highly competitive with the presence of numerous major and small players operating at the international and regional level around the globe. The market will witness fierce competition due to the expected extensions in product & service and product innovations. Manufacturers operating in the Microscopy Device market strive to develop Device with adept technology with unrivalled design and features.

Get full report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/microscopy-devices-market-2313

Key Players:

FEI, Meiji Techno, Nikon Metrology NV, Woodley Equipment Company Ltd, Radical Scientific Equipments Pvt. Ltd, Bruker, Mauna Kea Technologies SA, Icon Analytical Equipment Pvt. Ltd, Olympus Corporation, NIDEK Inc., Sonix, Inc., Konan Medical USA Inc., Carl Zeiss, and Leica Microsystems are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the Global Microscopy Device Market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.

Industry/ Innovation/ Related News

November 2017  Researchers of Germany and Portugal collaboratively developed the first microscope to concurrently monitor movement and neuron activity in zebrafish larvae without interfering with their behavior. To enable wider use in the research community, the neurobehavioral tracking microscope uses off-the-shelf components and is open source.

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About Market Research Future:

MRFR team has supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components
I'm sure I'm not the only who has noticed, but lately, hand sanitizer has gained a new kind of... odor.

More than once I've used hand sanitizer while picking up take-out or at the grocery store and get a blast of protein powder-y scent that makes me gag. Yesterday I used a one that smelled distinctly like tequila. The unobtrusive scent we could expect from a pump of hand sanitizer seems to be a thing of the past.
Pilot program will enable Irish customers to utilize HPE GreenLake cloud services hosted at Interxion's colocation data centers and will include the option of a free 90-day trial

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) today announced a new cloud experience for the European market, with the launch of HPE GreenLake cloud services hosted by Interxion, a Digital Realty company and provider of colocation services in 13 countries. The new offer brings customers the benefits of a managed cloud experience without the complexity of managing data centers, while maintaining ownership and control of their data and workloads. For the first time, customers will be able to trial these hosted HPE GreenLake cloud services for 90 days at no cost.

While many enterprises find themselves drawn to the public cloud, most have struggled to move the majority of their key applications due to application entanglement, data gravity, security and compliance, and unpredictable costs. With HPE GreenLake cloud services hosted by Interxion, customers can get a consistent operating model with visibility of resource utilization across co-located and public cloud-based workloads, as well as governance across enterprise applications and data, without the need to manage their own data centers. The agreement to launch HPE GreenLake hosted by Interxion leverages the benefits of a cloud-like experience with colocation and connectivity services, enabling enterprises to interconnect with connectivity providers, public clouds and each other.

This announcement follows the launch of HPE GreenLake's new cloud services at HPE Discover Virtual Experience last month, giving customers access to best-in-class cloud services that can be deployed and run via HPE GreenLake Central in the environment of their choice. Initially HPE and Interxion will offer HPE GreenLake cloud services for private cloud with containers or virtual machines, and data center infrastructure. These colocation solutions will be available via HPE and HPE channel partners.

"At Interxion, we've been listening to our customers who have told us that they want to tap into the flexibility and convenience of the cloud, while alleviating the operational burden on IT systems," said Seamus Dunne, Managing Director, Interxion Ireland. "Our agreement to launch HPE GreenLake cloud services hosted in our data centers improves speed and agility by increasing customers' connectivity to public clouds while staying in control of cost, security and compliance without the need to invest in an on-premise data center, as they can deploy HPE GreenLake solutions in Interxion's colocation data centers. Interxion will help businesses safeguard mission-critical data, while also taking into account their security needs and operational reliability. We are very proud to partner with HPE to enhance our offering and provide Irish enterprises with industry-leading added value."

Using HPE GreenLake hosted by Interxion, customers can access other key benefits including:

Eliminate capital investment and the cost of managing on-premise data centers;

Gain direct access to public cloud providers;

Have visibility over usage and spend;

Keep control of data and processes;

Run their workloads in data centers powered by 100% renewable energy to reduce carbon footprint.

"As the cloud gateway to Europe, Ireland is the perfect market to trial this new hosted HPE GreenLake cloud offer," said Maeve Culloty, Managing Director, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Ireland. "By running workloads as a service on dedicated hardware at a colocation data center, customers are getting the best of both worlds: the convenience of cloud and the security and compliance associated with a traditional on-premise infrastructure. We are excited to launch these new offerings with Interxion to offer our customers the critical components necessary for a successful hybrid cloud journey."

The new offer is being piloted with Interxion in Ireland, with the intention to quickly expand to the UK, Germany, France and The Netherlands. HPE GreenLake's flexible as-a-service model and its robust cost, security and compliance analytics tools, allow customers to preserve cash flow, control spend, and prioritize investments. And, using HPE GreenLake Central, customers gain the ability to manage all applications and data, including public cloud instances, from a single dashboard.

About Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is the global edge-to-cloud platform-as-a-service company that helps organizations accelerate outcomes by unlocking value from all of their data, everywhere. Built on decades of reimagining the future and innovating to advance the way we live and work, HPE delivers unique, open and intelligent technology solutions, with a consistent experience across all clouds and edges, to help customers develop new business models, engage in new ways, and increase operational performance. For more information, visit: www.hpe.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200716005074/en/

Contacts:

Alastair McCormick, HPE

alastair.mccormick@hpe.com
Each week, viewers will be transported to a front-row seat with unprecedented access to musical performances and appearances from a star-studded lineup that includes Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic , Rodrigo y Gabriela, Natalia Lafourcade, Los Angeles Azules, La Santa Cecilia, Misty Copeland, Dianne Reeves, Christian McBride, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Kamasi Washington, Herbie Hancock Carlos Santana, Cindy Blackman Santana, Wayne Shorter, Kristin Chenoweth, Audra McDonald, Sutton Foster, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Vin Scully, Carlos Vives, Cafe Tacvba, Pink Martini, Thomas Wilkins, Nile Rodgers & CHIC, Diego El Cigala, John Williams and many more. The Hollywood Bowl summer roster always features a broad variety of artists and genres, showcasing a roster of world-class artists ranging from classical and pop to jazz, rock, and world music. The new series features the return of legendary Hollywood Bowl favorites, as well as acclaimed artists making their Hollywood Bowl debuts while celebrating the music from a diverse array of cultures and communities around the world.

"The LA Phil is an iconic institution and experiencing the summer concert series at the Hollywood Bowl is an unforgettable moment for so many Angelenos. We are excited that this collaboration will help bring arts and culture to millions of viewers at home during a time when it's needed most by our community," said Chief Creative Officer of KCET Juan Devis. "Southern California is home to one of the most important cultural communities in the world, and we have an undeniably important responsibility to share these iconic performances from past years with the community and with audiences nationwide."

President of the Hollywood Bowl and Chief Operating Officer of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association Gail Samuel said, "KCET plays a vital role in the cultural life of Southern Californiathey have been telling our stories for more than 50 years. When the Hollywood Bowl went dark for the first time in its nearly century-long history as a result of the pandemic, we were devastated, as were the thousands of families who have made the Bowl a summertime tradition for generations. With KCET's partnership, we will be able to have a Hollywood Bowl season after allright in the living rooms of music fans here in Southern California and across the country."

Upcoming episodes of IN CONCERT AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL will air as follows (subject to change):

Wed., Aug. 19 at 9 p.m.: "Hecho en Mexico" ("Made in Mexico")

Featuring Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil performing Marquez's El Nereidas de Dimas, Rodrigo y Gabriela with Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil, Natalia Lafourcade with Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil, Los Angeles Azules with YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles), and La Santa Cecilia.

Wed., Aug. 26 at 9 p.m.: "Gustavo and Friends"

Featuring Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil performing excerpts from Swan Lake with Misty Copeland, Pablo Ferrandez, Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil performing a selection from Dvorak's Cello Concerto, Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil performing Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, as well as Gustavo Dudamel, the LA Phil, Amanda Majeski, J'Nai Bridges, Issachah Savage, Ryan Speedo Green and the Los Angeles Master Chorale (LAMC) performing the finale to Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.

Wed., Sept. 2 at 9 p.m.: "Jazz at the Hollywood Bowl"

Featuring Dianne Reeves with Ivan Lins, Christian McBride, Chucho Valdes, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Kamasi Washington and Mega Nova (Herbie Hancock, Carlos Santana and Wayne Shorter).

Wed., Sept. 9 at 9 p.m.: "Musicals and the Movies"

Featuring Kristin Chenoweth with Kevin Stites and the LA Phil, Audra McDonald with Bramwell Tovey and the LA Phil, Sutton Foster with Brian Stokes Mitchell, Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil.

Wed., Sept. 16 at 9 p.m.: "Musica Sin Fronteras" ("Music Without Borders")

Featuring Vin Scully, Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil, Carlos Vives, Cafe Tacvba, and Siudy Garrido Flamenco Dance Theater with the LA Phil and conducted by Paolo Bortolameolli in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Wed., Sept. 23 at 9 p.m.: "Fireworks!"

Featuring Pink Martini, Thomas Wilkins, Nile Rodgers & CHIC, Diego El Cigala, Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil performing a selection from Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, plus John Williams and the LA Phil performing music from Star Wars.

The new series IN CONCERT AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL will be included in a robust Wednesday night of programming for KCET designed to highlight the resilience of the arts community. Under the theme "Create Wednesday," the schedule will also feature popular Arts and Culture programs that have previously aired on KCET and PBS that include KCET's Emmy award-winning Original arts series ARTBOUND and student film showcase FINE CUT as well as America's preeminent performing arts television series from PBS, GREAT PERFORMANCES. The lineup also includes the new local weekly series SOUTHLAND SESSIONS which celebrates the creativity and spirit of Los Angeles' arts and culture communities by featuring a diverse spectrum of content from a variety of prominent voices from around Southern California for up-close, virtual "sessions."

One of the largest natural amphitheaters in the world, with a seating capacity of nearly 18,000, the Hollywood Bowl has been the summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since its official opening in 1922 and plays host to the finest artists from all genres of music, offering something for everyone. In February 2018, the Hollywood Bowl was named Best Major Outdoor Concert Venue for the 14th year in a row at the 29th Annual Pollstar Awards, and in November 2018 was awarded the Top Amphitheater prize at the 2018 Billboard Live Music Awards for the second consecutive year. For millions of music lovers across Southern California, the Hollywood Bowl is synonymous with summer.

For updates, follow @KCET @LAPhil and #InConcertAtTheHollywoodBowl on social media.

ABOUT KCET

On-air, online and in the community, KCET plays a vital role in the cultural and educational enrichment of Southern and Central California. KCET offers a wide range of award-winning local programming as well as the finest public television programs from around the world. Throughout its 54-year history, KCET has won hundreds of major awards for its local and regional news and public affairs programming, its national drama and documentary productions, its quality educational family and children's programs, its outreach and community services and its website, kcet.org. KCET is a donor-supported community institution. For additional information about KCET productions, web-exclusive content, programming schedules and community events, please visit kcet.org. Select original programming from KCET is also available for streaming on Apple TV, YouTube, Amazon and Roku platforms. For more information please visit kcet.org/apps. KCET is a content channel of the Public Media Group of Southern California.

ABOUT The Los Angeles Philharmonic

The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, under the vibrant leadership of Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, presents an inspiring array of live performances  orchestral, pop, rock, country, jazz, blues, Latin, world music, opera, chamber, Baroque, organ and celebrity recitals, theatrical performances, explorations of film music, dance, comedy, groundbreaking multimedia productions and an unmatched commitment to commissioning and performing music from the composers of today  at three of L.A.'s iconic venues, Walt Disney Concert Hall (laphil.com), the Hollywood Bowl (hollywoodbowl.com) and The Ford (theford.com). The LA Phil's season at Walt Disney Concert Hall extends from September to June and at the Hollywood Bowl and the Ford Theatre throughout the summer. With the preeminent Los Angeles Philharmonic at the foundation of its offerings, the LA Phil aims to enrich and transform lives through music, with a robust mix of artistic, education and community programs.

For downloadable artwork, please visit kcet.org/pressroom

kcet.org/bowl and hollywoodbowl.com

Select programming will also be available to stream on PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the free PBS Video App.

PBS station members get extended access to select programming via Passport.

CONTACT FOR KCET: CONTACT FOR LA PHIL: Allison Gray Lisa White [email protected] [email protected] 747-201-5298 213-216-1174

SOURCE KCET
by Vladimir Rozanskij

Dead at the borders for no apparent reason, but the tension in the two countries is very high. In Baku demonstrations and invasion of parliament. Azerbaijani defense minister Ragim Gaziev, arrested for "treason". Armenia tries to involve Russia; Azerbaijian Turkey in an attempt to give a "confessional" color to the war. Russia and Hagia Sophia.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The eternal conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijian has reignited. After attempts to establish peace during the pandemic months, on July 12th, the two sides accused each other of having opened fire in the province of Tovuz, on the border between the two countries.

Since then the tension has been building in the region exploding with the first deaths. On the morning of July 14, the Azerbaijian Ministry of Defense reported the death of a major general and a colonel following an Armenian shooting; agencies report five more victims, including two officers. Armenian armed forces have also admitted the loss of two border soldiers, Major Garush Ambartsumyan and Captain Sosa Elbakyan.

The cause of the new escalation of the conflict is unclear, beyond the historical enmity between Azeris and Armenians: there are no particular provocative events to have detonated an armed confrontation. The border clash does not appear to be connected to the long-standing struggle for the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Apparently, the clashes were generated by the violation of some border line.

But some observers point out military or geo-political causes and believe they see a reflection of the conflict between Russia and Turkey in these clashes.

These hypotheses are generated by the tendency of Armenia to involve Russia in the opposition to Azerbaijian; the latter in turn tries in various ways to involve Turkey in a "religious" war between Christians and Muslims.

In reality, Russia has not even reacted to Erdogan's provocative decision to transform the basilica of Aghia Sofia into a mosque again, declaring itself satisfied with the freedom of access granted to Christians. The Russians also intend to claim ownership of some Orthodox churches in Turkey, which in various ways date back to the initiative of the Russian Orthodox.

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijian, in any case, is not easily resolved despite the apparent superiority of the Azerbaijani forces, whose population is several times that of the Armenian state. Azeris are particularly frustrated by the number of victims: Defense Minister Ragim Gaziev had declared 12, but in fact the victims are slightly less. Yet he was arrested on charges of betraying the interests of the country.

Russia is not indifferent to the conflict in such a strategic ex-Soviet region, on the borders between Europe and Asia; Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has already stated that Russia is ready to organize a mediation between the two contenders. The fear is that the clashes could lead to an escalation according to the "eye for an eye" law.

There were mass demonstrations in defense of the armed forces in the center of Baku, the Azeri capital, on 14 July (see photo). At the cry of "Karabakh is ours!", And "Soldiers, come on!", The crowd tried to invade the parliament building, and the police carried out dozens of arrests. Similar actions have taken place in several cities in Azerbaijian.

According to statements by the Azerbaijian ambassador to Moscow, Aleksandr Aleshkin, the Armenians intend to pose obstacles to his country's foreign policy, which seeks to overcome international isolation, trying to involve the Organization of the collective security treaty between the ex-Soviets countries (ODKB), of which Azerbaijian - unlike Armenia - is not part.

In turn, the Armenians, according to the words of former defense minister Seyran Oganyan, accuse the Azeris of wanting to force peace talks to gain international benefits. Confusion reigns not only at the borders, but also on the information front.
Izabella McPhee delivers paperwork from a distance during coronavirus testing at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in South Los Angeles. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles County is launching six testing locations in hot spot communities where Black and Latino residents have been disproportionately hit by the coronavirus, officials announced Wednesday.

Test sites will be added in Montebello, South Gate, Azusa, Panorama City, Compton and Downey, which together have accounted for more than 10,370 infections.

The county is also expanding testing in four other areas: Bellflower, Pomona, El Monte and East Los Angeles, which have tallied more than 9,300 infections combined.

The additions  part of a $4-million investment from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  will boost testing capacity by more than 65%, health officials said.

The county previously announced plans to expand testing beyond roughly 26,000 each day, as infections and hospitalizations have continued to surge.

More than 143,200 COVID-19 infections have been confirmed in L.A. County and the death toll is nearing 4,000.

The mortality rate and the rate of positive infections have been higher among Black and Latino residents than any other demographic. Of the 3,598 county residents who have died where race and ethnicity has been identified, 45% of the deaths have occurred among Latino residents, 26% among white residents, 16% among Asian residents, 11% among Black residents and less than 1% among Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander residents.

According to hospitalization data from March 1 to July 11, Latino residents have accounted for 72% of those hospitalized, and Black residents have accounted for 5%. Asian residents have accounted for 4%, while white residents have accounted for 2%. The remainder includes people whose race was not identified or whose race was identified as other.

Communities with high levels of poverty are four times as likely to die from the virus when compared to residents in higher income brackets, health officials have said. That statistic is a reflection of various realities, including the effects of long-standing systemic racism and discrimination that has resulted in a lack of access to the resources necessary for good health.

Story continues

In data from the L.A. County Public Health Department published July 9, Black and Latino residents of L.A. County are seen as about twice as likely to die from the coronavirus. (Los Angeles County Department of Public Health)

This data is alarming and requires urgent focus to do more to expand access to testing and address the health equity issues that COVID-19 makes tragically clear every day, said L.A. County Department of Health Services director Dr. Christina Ghaly.

We must remember that testing is only one factor. There are underlying reasons why communities of color are disproportionately impacted by worse outcomes of COVID-19  long-standing structural and systemic issues, including social determinants of health, that the county is working to address and mitigate amidst this pandemic.

That message is one that officials repeated during protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.

When I report each week that we have seen elevated numbers of Black deaths in this county due to COVID-19, I am reporting on the consequences of these long-standing inequities, Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in June.

In police body camera footage minutes before his death, Floyd is heard telling police that he "just had COVID," something the medical examiner's autopsy also revealed.

Expanding communication to reach communities who have been hit by the virus is one of the county's priorities, Dr. Erika Flores Uribe of L.A. County's Department of Health Services said Thursday. Those without internet access can call 211 to find a test site, she said, which includes drive-through and walk-up services.

Uribe also emphasized that anyone can get tested, regardless of residency. "No one is going to report your immigration status."

Part of the county's communication efforts is to help people create isolation and quarantine plans in case they contract the virus, Uribe said. She said she's heard from individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 and have had to isolate inside their cars to remove themselves from families in tight living quarters.

In recent weeks, officials throughout the state and in L.A. County have shifted their messaging on testing. After widespread encouragement for all residents to get tested, officials are now stressing the need for the most vulnerable to be prioritized. Those include people with symptoms and those who've come into contact with a person known to have been exposed to the virus, live in group or institutional settings, or are essential workers.

The shift comes amid a nationwide testing shortage and as demands have outpaced availability.

At this point in this rapidly evolving crisis, it is important to reserve testing for those who have a medical or public health reason for it, the county said in a statement Thursday.

While Los Angeles County currently has enough testing supplies to meet the needs of those who need to be tested, the number of COVID-19 cases are on the rise here and throughout the country. Lets work together to reserve testing for those with a medical or public health need.

Officials have increasingly stressed that a negative test result does not necessarily mean a person is in the clear. If tested too soon after an exposure, a viral load might not be high enough to be detected, which would result in a false negative. And as delays in test results have increased from two to 10 days in some instances, a person could receive a diagnosis that doesn't accurately reflect his or her current health situation.

More than 1 million people have been tested for the virus in L.A. County. The seven-day average for daily positive infections has fluctuated over the past two weeks, but has spiked above 10%. On Thursday, the rate stood at 8.8%, according to Californias Health Department. The states safety threshold is 8% or less.
A man injured in a shooting Wednesday evening in Birminghams Southtown public housing community died early this morning, according to the Jefferson County Coroners Office.

Antonio Jermell Jackson, 23, of Birmingham, was shot in the 2300 block of 9th Court South at 6:37 p.m. Jackson was pronounced dead at UAB Hospital at 12:15 a.m. today.

The homicide is being investigated by the Birmingham Police Department.

Sgt. Rod Mauldin said officers called to the scene found Jackson lying on the floor near the front of the residence with an apparent gunshot wound.

A motive has not been established and no one is in custody.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the B.P.D. Homicide Unit at 205-254-1764 or CrimeStoppers at 205-254-7777.

The Wednesday evening shooting was Birminghams second deadly shooting in less than 24 hours.

Bernice Taylor, 64, was fatally struck by a stray bullet around midnight Wednesday as she stood in her kitchen in the 1400 block of 24th Street North.
Thats where Apple, on the whole, differs from the other two. For Amazon and Google, their robohelpers are a gateway to a bunch of other services: ordering shopping, food, transport and so on. Whats more, if you dont opt out, they hoover up data to help build a picture of your interests and behavior and serve you ads. Thats one reason why both firms are happy for other makers of smart speakers to embed Alexa or Google Assistant into their devices: Theyre more interested in the recurring revenue opportunity presented by owning the vocal interaction with the customer than they are in a slice of the hardware sales.
SEATTLE, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- PitchBook, the premier data provider for the private and public equity markets, today released its Q2 2020 European Private Equity Breakdown, which found European private equity (PE) deals and fundraising sharply declined through the first half of the year. As the COVID-19 crisis unfolded, lenders concentrated on existing loans, sellers tabled exit plans amid the volatility and most GPs either paused or outright cancelled transactions as portfolio triage took precedent. Deal count and value plunged to the lowest quarterly figures since Q3 2013 and Q4 2016, with the UK & Ireland recording the largest year-over-year decline in deal volume. Exit value in Q2 saw an uptick from Q2 2019, propelled by the largest European IPO in nearly a decade, but is still on track to set a six-year low for annual exit value. On the whole, we expect exit activity to remain tepid through the second half of 2020. Capital raised in Q2 was subdued, with a new annual low expected for fund counts. LPs evaluating the denominator effect, liquidity schedules and allocation targets substantially contributed to the lackluster fundraising amounts, while less experienced GPs paused on launching new funds amid the volatility. That being said, LPs recognize 2020 vintages have the potential to produce top-tier metrics in this no-interest-rate environment, due to lower multiples, less competition and an expanded opportunity set. As a result, brand-name European managers will grow their LP wallet share during the downturn.

"With the virus more contained in Europe compared to other regions and the continent reopening, we believe deal activity will gradually pick up in the coming quarters as managers seek to deploy their record 237.2 billion in dry powder aggressively but wisely," said Dominick Mondesir, EMEA Private Capital Analyst at PitchBook. "We anticipate more established managers will find opportunities to invest in discounted assets that are cyclically but not secularly under pressure."

To download the report and underlying data, click here.

Investment Activity

European PE deal activity slowed considerably in Q2 2020 to 79.8 billion across 650 deals, a year-over-year decline of 18.7% and 31.5%, respectively.

Median deal size fell to 25.0 million in the first half of the year after record highs in 2019, driven by a lack of activity in the upper end of the market. Only two transactions sized between 1 billion and 2.5 billion closed in Q2, collectively worth 3.3 billion.

Bolt-ons as a percentage of buyout volume stand at 61.2% through H1 2020 and are apace for a record year. The largest bolt-on in Q2 2020 was Italy -based Dedalus' 975.0 million acquisition of Afga-Gevaert healthcare information technology business.

-based Dedalus' 975.0 million acquisition of Afga-Gevaert healthcare information technology business. Although PE deal volume declined across every European region, the UK & Ireland attributed the largest drop at 62.3%. Both the severity and length of the region's COVID-19 outbreak and a no-deal Brexit contributed to sponsors' hesitancy to invest.

Exits

Exit value in the first half of the year puts 2020 on pace for its lowest annual total in six years. However, the 55.2 billion worth of liquidity events in Q2 2020  largely propelled by JDE Peets' outsized IPO  represented a 4.9% increase over the same quarter last year.

In Europe's largest IPO listing since 2011, JDE Peets' raised 2.3 billion at a pre-money valuation of 14.9 billion. This offering in part pushed the year's median IPO size to 722.6 million, up from 186 million in 2019.

largest IPO listing since 2011, JDE Peets' raised 2.3 billion at a pre-money valuation of 14.9 billion. This offering in part pushed the year's median IPO size to 722.6 million, up from 186 million in 2019. The number of exits closed in Q2 declined 44.6% from 2019. Of the 122 exits, only five were over 1.0 billion compared to 10 this time last year.

The lower end of the market (exits sized between 25 million-100 million) was disproportionately affected by the pandemic, with exit volume falling nearly 90% year-over-year.

Fundraising

European PE fundraising has been extremely subdued through the first half of the year, with only 19.6 billion raised across 38 vehicles  on pace to hit a new annual fund count low.

No funds closed above 2.5 billion in H1 2020, which significantly contributed to the lackluster fundraising total, as LPs reviewed portfolios and evaluated the denominator effect, liquidity schedules, and allocation targets. COVID-19 has disproportionately affected the fundraising trail for first-time GPs, spinout GPs, and those without a solid track record.

With a number of European brand-name mega-funds in the market, we anticipate capital raised will increase considerably in the coming quarters. While not included in our Q2 datasets, CVC Capital Partners recently closed on 21.3 billion in Europe's largest-ever buyout fund.

largest-ever buyout fund. At the halfway point in 2020, buyout funds have dominated the fundraising market, accounting for an 81.2% share with 15.9 billion in capital raised. Growth equity funds have also been gaining considerable traction, contributing around 20% of the year's total commitments.

Additional coverage in this report includes:

Introduction

Overview

Deals by size and sector

Spotlight: France & Benelux

& Benelux Exits

Fundraising

Download the full report here.

About PitchBook

PitchBook is a financial data and software company that provides transparency into the capital markets to help professionals discover and execute opportunities with confidence and efficiency. PitchBook collects and analyzes detailed data on the entire venture capital, private equity and M&A landscapeincluding public and private companies, investors, funds, investments, exits and people. The company's data and analysis are available through the PitchBook Platform, industry news and in-depth reports. Founded in 2007, PitchBook has offices in Seattle, San Francisco, New York and London and serves more than 45,000 professionals around the world. In 2016, Morningstar acquired PitchBook, which now operates as an independent subsidiary.

SOURCE PitchBook

Related Links

https://pitchbook.com/


As Eppie Ordaz, a grape grower in Sonoma County, readies his vineyard for the late August harvest season, he is stocking masks and gloves for employees, planning empty rows to allow workers to keep their distance, and putting extra disinfectants and sanitation stations into place. The changes are new, but having to change isnt, he says.

Every harvest there are some crazy changes, adjustments and events, so I think we are pretty well prepared for anything, he said. Theres always something Mother Nature is going to throw at us, and COVID is another Mother Nature curveball, I guess.

But a big part of the problem isnt easy to fix. Coronavirus cases among farmworkers have been rising, with outbreaks tied to low-income, multifamily housing, rather than fields. The Bay Area's crushing costs mean farmworkers have few housing options that they can afford, and closer quarters make them more vulnerable to the virus.

Ordaz, like many growers, worries that this could make his efforts meaningless.

Napa and Solano counties have been added to the states monitoring list for a spike in cases among farmworkers tied to crowded housing facilities, according to the California Department of Public Health.

Napa County tested 70% of the 180 residents in its three farmworker housing centers, said Public Health Officer Dr. Karen Relucio. She told the Napa Valley Register that the county had seen 30 positive test results as of July 7. Each center, funded by a self-imposed growers tax and praised as a solution to the lack of affordable housing for workers, houses 60 people in 30 bedrooms with two beds each. Relucio did not respond to a request for comment.

Solano Countys farmworker cases totaled many dozens over one to two weeks, according to the state. Solano County Public Health Officer Bela Matyas told the Register that there have been at least 60 cases among people working in Wine Country. Solano officials did not respond to requests for comment.

Many farmworkers who dont live in housing centers still tend to pack lots of people into one home to make living more affordable, Ordaz said.

Sonoma County was added to the state monitoring list amid rising case rates among the Latino community due to exposure of essential workers, household clusters, increasing workplace and community transmission with the states reopening, and large social gatherings, according to the state.

Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle

In Sonoma County, 65% of positive cases are in the Latino community, a county official said at a July 9 Board of Supervisors meeting. Almost 20% of people in the Latino community who tested positive worked in agriculture, more than any other employment sector.

However, Sonoma County Health Director Sundari Mase said that workplace transmissions account for less than 10% of cases, and most are tied to family and community spread.

Many growers in the region like Ordaz feel confident in their ability to keep workers safe. The months between the onset of the pandemic and the beginning of harvest have educated them on how the virus spreads and given them time to buy enough masks, gloves and disinfectants for their employees.

Many say that a vineyard is the ideal place to be physically distant. Long Meadow Ranch in Napa County put up a sign showing that workers should stay three vines apart, a distance of 8 feet. Some growers plan to run two shifts instead of one, having fewer workers in the vineyard at once. Growers are having daily discussions with their crews about the latest public health updates and safety measures.

Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle

We feel so good about employees coming to work and getting information, said Jennifer Putnam, executive director of the Napa Valley Grapegrowers Association. So I think the safest place to be right now is in the vineyard.

Farmers and county officials both point to the kinds of housing centers where cases have been cropping up as one of their biggest worries. Health experts have said the risk of infection is higher indoors than outdoors.

Farmworker centers here in Napa, like all congregate living environments, are at higher risk because of the density of people coming and going and living together, Putnam said.

Ana Lugo, founder of Equity First Consulting, stressed that it was imperative that government officials and agricultural employers address the structural issues that cause crowded living conditions in the first place  low wages and high living costs.

We do not place the responsibility on the people with less power and privilege to be the ones to fix the issue, she said. You have the private sector  individual employers  and then you have the government, and so it is really on both of those groups to figure out how to work together and leverage resources to be able to address some of those issues.

Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle

Ordaz agreed that much of the problem is systemic, and he doesnt see the problem letting up any time soon, especially with outrageous Bay Area housing costs that lead to not only crowded housing, but crowded carpools.

When youre on the vineyard, its pretty easy to scatter employees around, he said. What is often overlooked is the fact that no matter what we do, most of the workforce carpools to work, and thats common among all agricultural workers.

Philip Martin, a professor of agricultural and resource economics at UC Davis, said that because labor markets for farmworkers have been tight in recent years, vineyard work in Wine Country pays relatively well compared to similar work in the Central Valley. Because of this, many workers tend to commute, often in family groups, from areas that have more affordable housing.

Theres high housing costs in Napa, theres no two ways about it, he said. A lot of people cant afford to live there, and so you get a lot of commuting in.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

But farming experts say the solution isnt as simple as raising wages. Daniel Sumner, director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center, said higher wages raises the cost of production, but many consumers do not want to see higher food costs as a result.

Every farmer would like to pay more if they could, but they havent figured out a way to stay in business doing that, he said.

Lugo of Equity First Consulting said the Latino community also lacks information about what to do when they are sick, and some are hesitant to be tested.

Many people didnt want to get tested because they were afraid that if they got tested, they were going to be forced to isolate. And if you isolate, you cant go to work. So then how do you make money for your family? she said. Its all interconnected.

Farmers and government officials are increasing outreach to workers, which they hope will alleviate some of the fear around the virus.

In Sonoma County, officials have created a Latino community health working group, which Lugo said is focusing on sharing information on the virus in a way that fits with farmworker culture.

The state recommended that Napa and Solano counties also focus on education as a means of preventing the spread of the virus.

The Napa Valley Farmworker Foundation created a coronavirus task force at the end of June. The group focuses on outreach to farmworker communities to bridge the information gap among the government, employers and working communities.

Putnam, who is also head of the foundation, has been working on producing resources for farmworkers since early in the pandemic.

Weve really been thinking outside the box, she said. How do you reach that community at a deeper level?

One way is through churches, where they distribute informational pamphlets and free masks. The group has also partnered with the St. Helena Hospital Foundation to fund mobile testing for its members vineyard and office workforces.

Ordaz, whose father emigrated from Mexico and got his start working on vineyards, thinks talking about the labor behind the food system is imperative to helping improve the lives of farmworkers. He and his family also want to do their part in helping make the wine industry more sustainable.

One of the dreams is to build some low-income housing for farmworkers, he said.

Danielle Echeverria is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: danielle.echeverria@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DanielleEchev
Siana is only 16, but she's copped the worst of nearly every disaster dished out in NSW in the past year. During the drought it "became normal to see dead stock in the paddocks" and orphaned calves lowing on the family's property 60 kilometres south of Inverell in northern NSW.

Her family of nine narrowly avoided evacuation when bushfires struck their property. With six younger siblings vying for attention and poor internet on the farm, COVID-19 also affected the year 11 student's schoolwork. With the children stuck at home and her mother working longer hours off-farm to help her father keep the property going, Siana is dreading another lockdown.

It's rare anyone asks NSW's 2.5 million young people what they need to survive these disasters. Now, a survey of 1400 children and teenagers, plus more than two dozen focus groups with them, has found many feel invisible and forgotten during a disaster.

The research by NSW's Office of the Advocate for Children and Young People found 40 per cent of young people were either directly impacted or knew someone affected by a disaster, including flood, blackouts and COVID-19.
New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday (July 16) recorded 493 fresh COVID-19 cases with 16 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the number of coronavirus cases to 11666 with 211 fatalities in J&K. The fresh cases also include 40 prisoners, eight doctors, besides 18 policemen.

Srinagar witnessed the highest number of cases- 153, followed by Baramulla 44, Kulgam 47, Shopian 3, Anantnag 72, Kupwara 10, Pulwama 41, Budgam 42, Bandipora 18, Ganderbal 6, Jammu 15, Udhampur 1, Ramban 6, Rajouri 3, Samba 24, Poonch 1, Doda 4 and Kishtwar 3.

Kashmir is badly hit by the COVID-19 infection and the fatality rate is witnessing a sharp rise, according to Health officials said.

110 COVID deaths have been recorded in this month only, taking the total death toll to 211. Till June 30, 101 patients died of the deadly coronavirus in Jammu and Kashmir. Of these 110 deaths, 104 are from Kashmir while 6 patients belonged to the Jammu region.

The number of COVID positive cases are also increasing in Jammu and Kashmir, mostly in Kashmir. For the last five days, the positive cases in Kashmir are above 150-200.

As the situation in Kashmir is getting worst, the administration is forced to reimpose the lockdown again in Srinagar and many other parts of the valley. Srinagar, the worst-hit district where every day more than 100 people are tested positive, is put under strict restrictions.

Doctors told Zee Media, rising number of fatalities due to coronavirus and a sharp rise in positive cases is a matter of serious concern.

The administration had appealed people to follow the SOPs strictly and every person must wear masks. At many places, the district and police officials are seen with masks and one who found without a mask is offered a mask.

An official said that they are doing their best to educate people but ultimately it would depend on an individual to take care to save himself as well as others.
OPEC may have to play its market-rebalancing act longer than initially intended as it is afraid that a second coronavirus wave would slow oil demand recovery, Reuters reported on Thursday, quoting internal OPEC research it had seen.

Should a second COVID-19 wave hit, countries may return to lockdown, derailing the oil demand recovery and stockpile drawdowns and prolonging the inventory glut, according to the research OPEC had prepared for yesterdays meeting of an OPEC+ panel which recommended relaxing the record 9.7-million-bpd cuts as of August 1.

New lockdowns could result in oil demand dropping by 11 million bpd this year and increase inventories, which have just started to decline as demand began to pick up in June, according to the research seen by Reuters.

It should be noted in this scenario that the overall stock build reaches an unprecedented high of 1.218 billion barrels in 2020, OPEC said in the internal estimate.

OPEC looks at the five-year average of oil inventories in OECD countries as one of the metrics to gauge the success of its supply-fixing policies. If a second wave forces new lockdowns, this metric is at risk.

Analysts have already started to warn that a second wave of surging coronavirus cases could send oil prices into tailspin, which would further hit OPEC+ producers as it would cripple  again  their oil revenues. Related: New Tech Puts Lithium Batteries Back In The Energy Storage Race

Despite the fear of a second wave, OPEC+ will be easing the record 9.7-million-bpd production cuts as of August as demand has started to recover, Saudi Arabias Energy Minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, said on Wednesday at the meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC).

The Committee observed that there were encouraging signs of improvement as economies around the world open up. While there could be localized or partial lockdowns re-imposed in some places, the recovery signs are clear, both in physical and futures markets, OPEC said, noting the highest-ever compliance of the OPEC+ group since it started managing supply to the market in 2017.

The JMMC noted that, moving to the next phase of the agreement, the extra supply resulting from the scheduled easing of the production adjustment will be consumed as demand recovers.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
LOS ANGELES, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Gemini Rosemont Development, a New York City-based division of Gemini Rosemont Commercial Real Estate that specializes in developing premier residential and office properties, has acquired 38 Second Avenue in New York City's East Village. The property was purchased from LaSalle New York City, Inc., for $14.5 million.

The four-story former administrative building occupies the 3,263 square foot lot and is the third of three contiguous parcels acquired by the firm this year for future development. Gemini Rosemont closed on 42-44 Second Avenue and 46-48 Second Avenue in March 2020 for $40 million.

The site is located on the western edge of the East Village, with close proximity to the Bowery, NoHo, Astor Place, Little Italy and the Lower East Side.

"When developing a project, acquiring the corner site is often the key to efficient project design." said Paul Gerwin, executive vice president of the Development division. "The addition of the corner lot gives us more flexibility and creativity and increases the project value due to its exposure on two streets, Second Avenue and East Second Street."

The total lot area of the assembled site is 14,075 square feet according to city records. The combined development site can accommodate an as-of-right buildable area of 75,908 square feet and up to 101,210 square feet of residential area under New York City's Inclusionary Housing Program. Development plans are not yet available.

Scott Schubiner, Gemini Rosemont's acquisitions and development officer, led the off-market acquisition which closed on July 15, 2020.

"The acquisition of 38 Second Avenue completes a strategic assemblage pieced together from multiple sellers over a two-year period," said Schubiner. "Through persistence and patience, we now control nearly the entire blockfront representing 235 feet of wraparound frontage between East Second and East Third Streets."

The 38-48 Second Avenue location is the third development project underway in New York City by Gemini Rosemont's Development division.

"This acquisition confirms our commitment of investing in New York City for the long term," said Ian Brownlow, Gemini Rosemont Commercial Real Estate's chief executive officer. "New York is incredibly resilient and will remain one of the most desirable places to live and work. We are actively seeking opportunities that meet our criteria to continue to grow our company's ground up development capabilities."

About Gemini Rosemont Development

Gemini Rosemont Development specializes in developing premier residential and office properties.

The company's current projects include a 44-unit luxury residential building at 101 W. 14th Street in the Union Square neighborhood of Manhattan, a development site at 171 North First Street in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood acquired in March 2020 and the newly purchased three-parcel assemblage in the East Village.

About Gemini Rosemont

Gemini Rosemont, a vertically integrated real estate investment management company, has a portfolio of approximately eight million square feet comprised of 56 buildings in 13 U.S. states valued over $1.5 billion.

Since its inception, Gemini Rosemont and its affiliates and predecessor entities have sponsored 170 investment vehicles, deployed approximately $1.2 billion of equity to purchase in excess of $3 billion of assets, and has acquired and/or managed approximately 34 million square feet of commercial real estate.

Founded in 1992, the company is headquartered in Los Angeles and has offices in Dallas and New York. For more information, please visit GeminiRosemont.com.

SOURCE Gemini Rosemont Commercial Real Estate
Washington (AFP) - The US Navy on Wednesday deployed a warship off the coast of Venezuela to challenge what it called Caracas' "excessive maritime claim in international waters."

It was the second time in three weeks that the US Navy has carried out such a "freedom of navigation" operation, a move that Venezuela previously called a "provocation."

"Today, the US Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Pinckney (DDG 91) challenged Venezuela's excessive maritime claim in international waters during a successful freedom of navigation operation in the Caribbean Sea," US Southern Command said in a statement.

On June 23, the Navy carried out a similar exercise, deploying the guided-missile destroyer USS Nitze off the Venezuelan coast.

The US Navy said the warship was operating in international waters, more than 12 miles off the coast, in compliance with international law.

"The illegitimate Maduro regime improperly claims excessive controls over those international waters, which extend three miles beyond the 12-mile territorial sea, a claim that is inconsistent with international law," US Southern Command said.

The USS Pinckney, together with other Navy and Coast Guard vessels, were in the Caribbean conducting counter-narcotics operations, it said.

"We will exercise our lawful right to freely navigate international waters without acquiescing to unlawful claims," said Navy Admiral Craig Faller, Commander of US Southern Command.

Washington does not recognize President Nicolas Maduro as Venezuela's legitimate leader, backing instead National Assembly speaker Juan Guaido, as do dozens of other countries.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 05:11:21|Editor: huaxia

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PRAGUE, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The Czech Ministry of Health will launch a subsidy program for COVID-19 research by the end of August, Health Minister Adam Vojtech announced on Wednesday at a conference on science's role in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I consider health research to be crucial," Vojtech said on Twitter.

He added that science is not only long-term research, but also an action-based approach to problem solving. "The proof is the past months when the scientific community has significantly helped in coping with the COVID-crisis," he said.

Last year, the Ministry of Health invested over 1.7 billion Czech crowns (73.17 million U.S. dollars) towards medical research. This year, Vojtech has asked the Research, Development and Innovation Council to provide an additional 100 million crowns (4.3 million U.S. dollars).

The money would be used to fund short-term projects related to COVID-19, including projects related to speeding up the diagnostic process for the virus, cell and molecular biology and also immunology and virology research. Enditem
Social media is awash with tributes to Naya Rivera, the Glee actress and singer who died of accidental drowning while swimming with her son in a Californian lake.

A few years ago, such a strong outpouring of emotion from fans would have been tempered by at least a little grief policing.

People would have opined that the relationship was one-sided and the reaction was overblown and disproportionate.

There was a time, not so long ago, when strong emotional reactions to a celebrity's death were considered mawkish. Since 2016, however, a shift of sorts has occurred.

The deaths of celebrity supernovas like David Bowie, Prince and Muhammed Ali softened even the hardest of hearts. Suddenly, there was no shame in admitting that you were weeping along to 'Space Oddity' or "in bits" after learning that The Greatest was on a life support machine.

We're beginning to accept that people can go through all the same stages of grief, from denial to acceptance, when a celebrity dies. In fact, we can probably all reference a celebrity death that affected us deeply and, if challenged, venture a perfectly legitimate reason why.

For the most part, we attribute our pain to a deep connection with their work, despite a tenuous connection with the actual person. Maybe their acting made a lasting impression on you or one of their albums was the soundtrack to a pivotal moment in your life.

Maybe it felt like they went out to bat for you. Bowie and Prince encouraged entire generations to let their freak flag fly. Naya Rivera played a lesbian character in Glee and is remembered as a powerful ally to the LGBTQ+ community.

Of course, sometimes we feel a connection that goes beyond their work. Mothers everywhere are grieving Naya's death because they identify with the maternal protective instincts that helped her bring her son to safety before she drowned.

Others feel a particular sense of sadness - or confrontation of their own mortality - when a celebrity in a similar age bracket dies. I cried while watching the Amy Winehouse set shown as part of the recent Glastonbury Experience, but it would be remiss of me not to mention that we were born in the same year.

The death of a celebrity can also create an outlet for delayed or repressed grief. Grief isn't a linear process and a celebrity's death can help create space to feel emotions that might not have been felt.

In other cases, the death of a celebrity can give communities an outlet to grieve, full stop. Some of the most overt displays of public mourning - Princess Diana, Jill Dando, Jade Goody - have taken place in Britain, where stoicism and Churchillism is part of the national identity.

They don't do wakes in the UK. Funerals take place one or two weeks after a person dies, creating a chasm between the initial outpouring of emotion and the aftermath.

Considered from this point of view, it's hardly surprising they convene en masse for candlelit vigils - it's a rare opportunity to share grief in its rawest form.

Public mourning gives us an outlet to share our collective grief, that much is inarguable, but perhaps it also gives us an opportunity to deal with unacknowledged grief during times of political and economic uncertainty.

Examples abound, but none more dramatic than the 1885 funeral procession of Victor Hugo in Paris, which brought two million people to the streets.

The turnout was testament to the impact that the writer had on people's lives, but perhaps it also demonstrated a need for collective mourning after the devastation of the Franco-Prussian War and the economic crisis that followed.

It's just a theory - and a far-fetched one at that - but it's a theory I found myself returning to when I saw the outpouring of grief for Rivera.

The actress was a much-loved star, taken well before her time, but let's not forget that we're in the midst of a traumatic world event and many of us are consciously, or unconsciously, seeking outlets to deal with our unexpressed grief.

This isn't to undermine the impact that she had on people's lives or to disenfranchise the grief that her fans are feeling.

If it looks like grief and it feels like grief, it's probably grief. But sometimes it's worth asking who, or what, it is that you're actually grieving.
Montreal, Quebec--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2020) - Manganese X Energy Corp. (TSXV: MN) (FSE: 9SC2) (TRADEGATE: 9SC2) (OTC Pink: SNCGF) ("Manganese X" or the "Company") Montreal, Quebec, Canada, is pleased to announce that it has completed an updated National Instrument ("NI") 43-101 Technical Report for its 100% owned Woodstock Battery Hill Manganese Property located in New Brunswick. The updated Technical Report, dated June 30, 2020, includes exploration work carried out since 2016. A copy of the Report is available on the Company's website and on SEDAR (link to the report: https://www.sedar.com/DisplayCompanyDocuments.do?lang=EN&issuerNo=00026880)

The Technical Report states that Battery Hill is a property of merit and notes the following significant advancements:

Metallurgical and Purification testing on the Battery Hill mineralization has successfully demonstrated techniques capable of producing high purity MnSO4 to 99.95%, with low contaminants, a level potentially sufficient for the use as a component in the production of EV and storage battery manufacturing.

Diamond drilling has been completed over a 1.8 kilometer strike length of the prospective manganese occurrence trend. Most holes intercepted significant grades and widths of manganese mineralization such as 10.75% Mn over 52.6 meters (core length) in SF-16-05, 12.96% Mn over 32.85 meters (core length) in SF-16-08 and 9.39% Mn over 74.0 meters in SF-17-18.

The Technical Report recommends continued metallurgical testing to focus on flowsheet development to combine the steps identified thus far into a complete process that is efficient and cost effective. Additional diamond drilling is recommended to better delineate the mineralization and to bring it to an inferred resource category. The drilling should be focused primarily on the Moody Hill sector which has the highest grades and thicknesses of near surface Mn mineralization; as well as the largest amount of metallurgically preferred types of mineralization.

Story continues

The Company intends to commence a diamond drill program, focusing on the Moody Hill sector as recommended this fall; as well as an environmental baseline study as the project advances during 2020 - 2021. As announced on June 23, 2020, Phase Two metallurgical bulk testing with Kemetco Research Inc ("Kemetco") is underway and the results are encouraging as we continue to advance the development of a workable extraction process and flow sheet.

Upon successful completion of the programs recommended in the NI-43-101Technical Report, work will be initiated towards the completion of a Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA").

Martin Kepman, CEO of Manganese X commented, "We are accelerating our efforts at capitalizing on our manganese asset. We have already validated the ore purity and acceptability for the EV space as well as the stored energy segment. Manganese is one of the leading battery metals amid the current renewable energy revolution."

Roger Dahn, B.Sc., P.Geo (New Brunswick), Manganese X Energy's Vice President of Exploration, is designated as the Qualified Person in compliance with National Instrument 43-101 with respect to this release and has reviewed the contents for accuracy. The technical information contained in this news release has also been reviewed and approved by Perry MacKinnon, P.Geo., the author of the Technical Report, dated June 30, 2020 and who is a Qualified Person regarding Manganese X Energy's Woodstock manganese property located in New Brunswick.

Please follow us on Twitter

https://twitter.com/XManganese?s=08

Please follow us on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/Manganese-X-Energy-Corp-102953664741689/

Manganese's X mission is to acquire and advance high potential manganese mining prospects located in North America with the intent of supplying value added materials to the lithium ion battery and other alternative energy industries. In addition our company is striving to achieve new methodologies emanating from environmentally and geographically ethical and friendly green/zero emissions technologies, while processing manganese at a lower competitive cost. For more information visit the website at www.manganesexenergycorp.com.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of

MANGANESE X ENERGY CORP.

Martin Kepman

CEO and Director

Email: martin@kepman.com

Tel: 1-514-802-1814

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release contains "forward-looking information" including statements with respect to the future exploration performance of the Company. This forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements of the Company, expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks, as well as others, are disclosed within the Company's filing on SEDAR, which investors are encouraged to review prior to any transaction involving the securities of the Company. Forward-looking information contained herein is provided as of the date of this news release and the Company disclaims any obligation, other than as required by law, to update any forward-looking information for any reason. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate and the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking information. We seek safe harbor.

NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE US OR THROUGH US NEWSWIRE SERVICES

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/59884
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 16, 2020 18:13 551 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666daa54 4 City accident,collision,traffic-accident,East-Jakarta,driver,road-accident,jatinegara Free

Two people have died and another was injured after a car hit a motorcycle and a person pushing a motorcycle on Jl. DI Panjaitan in East Jakarta on Wednesday evening.

The police said the driver of the car was "tired and sleepy".

East Jakarta Police traffic unit chief Adj. Comr. Agus Suparyanto said the police were not able to question the driver as she was still in shock.

"The driver suffered no injuries, but she experienced trauma from the accident. I heard that she was probably tired from too much work because she had to prepare a presentation for today," Agus said on Thursday, as quoted by kompas.com.

Read also: This years Idul Fitri traffic accidents fall by 31 percent

Witnesses said the car struck a motorcycle being ridden by Dadan Sujana and Dony Sanjaya on the Jatinegara overpass. They died on the scene.

After the initial collision the car then struck Novan Bawono, who was pushing his motorcycle on the side of the road. He suffered severe wounds and a broken right hand.

Novan was rushed to Premier Jatinegara Hospital to receive treatment. Meanwhile, the bodies of the victims were taken to the National Police Hospital in Kramat Jati to undergo an autopsy. (vny)
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold prices eased on Thursday and the U.S. dollar climbed as investors reacted to weak Chinese retail sales data and shifted focus toward rising tensions between Washington and Beijing. Surging coronavirus cases in the U.S. and a European summit due this weekend also remained on investors' radar. Spot gold slid 0.25 percent to $1,805.82 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures were down 0.35 percent at $1,807.30. China today reported better-than-expected growth figures, but a worse-than-expected drop in retail sales in June suggested consumers are still reticent about spending. U.S.-China tensions intensified after a senior U.S. official likened China's state enterprises to Britain's colonizing East India Company. A day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo branded most of Beijing's claims in the sea illegal, U.S. Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, David R Stilwell, told a Washington think-tank that oil major CNOOC and other firms were serving as 'battering rams' to intimidate other nations. In another development, a White House National Security Council spokesman said that President Donald Trump has not ruled out further sanctions on top Chinese officials for actions in Hong Kong or on other issues. The clarification came after Bloomberg reported earlier that Trump had ruled out additional sanctions on top officials for now to avoid escalating tensions. Huawei said today the U.S. visa restrictions on its employees over the human rights abuses committed by the Chinese Communist Party in the Xinjian region of northwest China were 'an unfair and arbitrary action'. Looking ahead, the focus is on the European Central Bank's meeting later in the day, with economists expecting no new measures. 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.
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The COVID-19 pandemic began at different times in different regions, which puts various countries at different levels of risk for new cases. These cases could come from outside (imported cases) or as a result of local contacts or even community spread.

Now, a new study published in July 2020 on the preprint server medRxiv* shows that the latter is likely to cause 90% or more of local epidemics and that stringent bans on international travelers are therefore unlikely to affect the course of the local outbreak significantly.

Various countries all over the world have put travel restrictions in place, closing off national and international boundaries. These measures also include mandatory quarantine or self-isolation for travelers from outside the country. The usefulness of these measures can be assessed only by combining the travel data by country with the estimated prevalence and incidence, which will allow a prediction of the risk of importing the disease as compared to the risk of local spread within a country.

The Cost of International Travel Bans

Travel restrictions have a high cost as they affect global mobility required for trade, tourism, education, and labor force recruitment. Already, COVID-19 is estimated to have already cost up to about 3% of the worlds gross domestic product (GDP), according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in the area of tourism alone.

Socially, too, restricting travel prevents family and friend interactions, opportunities for international education, and career advancement steps. Thus, the challenge is to keep the area of travel restriction as reasonably free as possible, unless the cost is so high as to surpass any reasonable chance of net benefit. This will also help conform to the International Health Regulations (2005) guidelines that these bans shall not be more restrictive of international traffic and not more invasive or intrusive to persons than reasonably available alternatives that would achieve the appropriate level of health protection.

The Limitations of International Bans

When the destination is reasonably free of the disease and the country of origin has a high prevalence, travel restrictions are helpful, as when Wuhan, and China in general, placed bans on travel outside its geographical boundaries. At a point when local outbreaks are large and can sustain local transmission, such measures become less effective.

This is seen with the restrictions placed on travelers from Europe to the U.S. in the second week of March 2020. Since the U.S. had already developed numerous foci of infection, mostly from European travelers, by then, a travel ban was likely to be useless in preventing the spread of the virus.

Percentage reduction in passenger numbers required for countries in scenario B where imported cases account for more than 1% of local incidence to bring that proportion below 1%. Countries are grouped by United Nations Region (Oc. is Oceania)

The Study: Assessing Traveler Contribution to Local Outbreak

The current study used these combined measures, including the number of airline travelers and the number of daily flights, the adjusted prevalence, and incidence of disease, in 142 countries. The researchers then found the risk of importation concerning local transmission. The aim was to provide a tool to help guide policies on travel restriction  helping to apply them where they are useful and avoiding them where they make little impact.

Whereas travel restrictions first applied to countries that had high early numbers of cases, notably China, Iran, and Italy, their scope was expanded later to include many more countries of origin. In fact, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), every country had some form of travel ban by April 20, 2020  which amounts to the most extensive travel restrictions in history, the researchers say.

No Travel Restrictions, No Reduction in Travel Volume

When there is no expected change in travel patterns in 2020 relative to 2019, without travel restrictions, the researchers predict that imported cases would contribute to less than a tenth of local cases, in 103 of 142 countries. In 48 countries, imported cases would account for less than 1% of total cases.

Using data from the OpenSky dataset, the researchers revised the expected number of international travelers downwards by about 70% in 2010 compared to 2019. They also considered the situation in which flight occupancies decline to 75% and 50% of the 2019 situation.

When a reduction in international travel is factored in because of self-imposed isolation or preventive quarantine, in the absence of travel restrictions, they find little change in the risk of case importation. The imported cases will account for less than 10% of the total in 109-123 countries, and less than 1% in 61-88 countries. The upper and lower limits on the number of countries are due to the two different assumptions made about the volume of reduction in travel, at 25% and 50% of 2019 levels, respectively.

This is best seen with countries that have 10% or less of new cases originating with imported cases, such as China and Thailand, as well as Australia. In Europe and Latin America, the contribution of imported cases is below 1% of the local incidence.

In this scenario, several countries that have more than 1% of their local incidence caused by international imports would need to block the majority of their international visitors to reduce the imported cases to below 1% of local cases. A few need to reduce the number of arrivals by only 25% or so, blocking only travelers from countries with the highest prevalence.

Implications

Many countries like South Korea, Australia, and Italy passed the first wave epidemic peak, and some have very low current levels of new cases. In most of the countries studied, the number of imported cases would be so small as to make little difference in the overall local outbreak.

Some countries, however, would require travel restrictions. These include those which have moderate outbreaks, as in the American continents, and also typically send and receive a large number of travelers to and from countries with high COVID-19 prevalence. If there are no travel restrictions in place, this could lead to the imported cases strengthening the moderate local outbreak.

A third case involves those countries which have brought their local epidemics under control. In such cases, as with New Zealand, the predicted number of importations would be higher than the local incidence, and could thus trigger a second wave local epidemic. Here, almost all international travel would have to be banned.

Those countries which most need international travel bans are those that have both good international travel connections and very low local COVID-19 incidence.

Despite the apparent limitations of the study, such as overlooking road and rail traffic, and not considering the impact of international departures, as well as not factoring in the likelihood that infected people are less likely to travel for many reasons than uninfected people, the study shows most countries do not require strict travel restrictions.

The researchers conclude, Our results suggest that in May 2020, travel restrictions may have done little in most countries to change the course of local epidemics, and may not be justified given the high economic and social costs required to prevent the arrival of travelers representing less than 10% (or in many cases, less than 1%) of new cases.  They hope that policymakers will be equipped to make better decisions about which restrictions to put in place based on the methods they present.

*Important Notice

medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
I look forward to leading the district, moving us forward on this path of equity and excellence in all of our schools, Gauthier said at the meeting. Weve done a lot of work to get to today. Im very confident in where were going to go. Were going forward, no matter whats in our way  pandemic or not.
When President Trump holds official taxpayer-funded events outside Washington, his audiences are treated to campaign-style speeches and rock music playlists drawn from his political rallies. His appearances at the White House, most recently a rambling Rose Garden news conference, are increasingly devoid of policy and filled with attacks on the radical left and the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

And on Tuesday, Mr. Trumps eldest daughter and senior adviser, Ivanka Trump, a White House employee, posted a photograph online celebrating Goya Foods, whose chief executive had recently praised her father, in what government ethics experts called a clear violation of federal law. The president followed up on Wednesday with his own photograph, featuring the companys products arrayed on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.

Mr. Trump and his advisers have long tested  and often crossed  the boundaries between the official and the political. The Office of Special Counsel, an independent government watchdog agency, has found 13 Trump officials in violation of the Hatch Act, the 1939 law limiting the political activities of government employees, according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW. Staff members with the watchdog group said they could recall only two such instances under President Barack Obama.

But with the general election in November little more than 100 days away, the coronavirus quashing Mr. Trumps raucous rallies, and the White House lacking a clear policy agenda, the Trump administration seems almost entirely unconstrained by traditional divisions between politics and governance.
Oprah Winfrey is well-known for her charitable work. Back in April, she donated $10 million to coronavirus relief efforts and now the queen of all talk show hosts is back at it again.

The Oprah Winfrey Charitable Foundation (OWCF) has officially donated $3 million to COVID-19 relief efforts in South Los Angeles, California.

The recipient of the TV moguls generous donation is South LA Forward, a newly created coalition bringing together three Los Angeles based organizations SoLa I Can Foundation, SEE-LA and the Watts Healthcare Corporation.

Oprah Winfrey has denied helping Harry and Meghan build their new roles / Getty Images

South LA Forward was established to provide 200 tons of fresh food to feed 80,000 Angelenos, as well as giving 200 scholarships to those who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic and expanding COVID-19 testing and primary care for South LA residents.

SoLa has been working to deliver food weekly to LAs most vulnerable residents. According to their website, their partnership with the Food Bank of Southern California has helped [them] reach over 300 households, roughly 500 residents, and delivered over 3,000 pounds of food.

As I continue to seek out ways to support underserved communities, I was struck by the unique multi-layered approach to effect real change to the systematic barriers of access to healthy food, quality health care and educational opportunities, Winfrey said in a statement.

Gratitude: Oprah Winfrey famously writes a list of five things shes thankful for every day / Getty Images

Sherri Francois, the executive director of the SoLa Impacts I Can Foundation shared, We were incredibly honored to be selected by the Oprah Winfrey Charitable Foundation, along with SEE-LA and Watts Healthcare.

Francois continued, We believe addressing economic inequality and racial injustice requires a multi-pronged approach, and are thrilled that Ms. Winfrey has taken such a holistic approach in addressing these issues.
TDT | Manama

The Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industrys technology committee held a webinar themed Leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Your E-Commerce Business, which deliberated about the definition of AI, its applications particularly with regards to E-commerce platforms, and its benefits to business owners.

Speaking at the webinar was Infiniteware CEO Ameen Altajer, who stressed on the privileges of using AI applications to business owners, particularly in classifying and analysing data, personalising content according to users preferences, eliciting consumers feedback on goods and services, inventory taking, planning, and others.

He also highlighted that AI applications can replace routine tasks and enhance efficiency and allow access to live data, hence contribute to making effective marketing and strategic decisions. Altajer reinstated the importance of adopting AI applications and keeping abreast of technological advancement. He also mentioned some of setbacks of using AI applications, chief among which is the need for huge data to set up a new application, and ethical obstacles with regard to exploiting users data.
The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday said it fined businessman Dean Vagnozzi and his financial firm, A Better Financial Plan, roughly $500,000 for securities violations, and ordered him to cease certain investment activities.

Vagnozzi, 51, established a series of investment funds named Pillar 1 through 8 to sell a portfolio of life insurance policies  also known as life settlements. From April 2013 through August 2017, Vagnozzi sold five funds, none of which was registered with the SEC, the agency said.

As part of the settlement, Vagnozzi did not admit wrongdoing and is suspended from acting as a broker for 12 months. His lawyer, John Pauciulo, did not respond to requests for comment by email and phone.

A Better Financial Plan is Vagnozzis company based in King of Prussia. Vagnozzi is president and sole owner, and raised more than $32 million for the Pillar Funds from 339 investors, with individuals averaging an investment of $97,233, the SEC said.

About 46% of investors were nonaccredited, meaning they didnt meet certain net worth requirements, the SEC found. The agencys order did not indicate whether investors lost money.

Vagnozzi encouraged the public to invest like the big boys, and touted A Better Financial Plan as a way to buy life settlements, claiming they are the highest yielding, safe investments in the market, the SEC said.

One of Vagnozzis principal marketing techniques was to broadcast radio advertisements on Philadelphia stations. He promoted double-digit returns without the volatility of Wall Street, and invited listeners to call a toll-free number to learn about an extremely secure investment that guys like Warren Buffet and other institutional investors have been using for decades, the SEC order said.

He also hosted free dinner seminars to prospect for new clients, videotaped at least two, and posted them online for public viewing on his Vimeo channel.

In an April 2013 video, titled Flemings Steakhouse Presentation, Vagnozzi stated that he paid for dinners because a bunch of you are going to become clients. He then described life settlements as an asset class and a private placement opportunity where the money is all pooled together and invested across several policies.

In fact, Vagnozzi wasnt selling life settlement policies, but rather, limited partnership interests in the Pillar Funds which, in turn, acquired fractionalized interests in life settlement policies, whole life settlement policies, or some combination of both, the SEC said.

Vagnozzi resides in Collegeville and is currently licensed with the Pennsylvania Insurance Department as an insurance producer. He was fined in 2019  a state-record $490,000  to settle accusations by the state securities agency that he was selling some investments without a license.

This is the largest settlement with an individual in department history, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities said at the time.

From May 2018 through September 2018, Vagnozzi also worked as an unregistered broker-dealer and earned transaction-based fees by raising funds for a separate entity, Fallcatcher Inc., the SEC said. Fallcatcher purportedly sold biometric devices and software to track patients receiving treatment for substance addiction.

Vagnozzi negotiated a flat fee of $500,000, so long as Vagnozzi raised at least $4 million from his investors, and also received 7.5% of shares in Fallcatcher, the SEC said. Vagnozzi ultimately raised more than $4.9 million dollars for Fallcatcher, the agency found.

This month, Vagnozzi returned the Fallcatcher shares to that company, as part of the SEC settlement.
STERLING HEIGHTS, MI  Amazon plans to hire hundreds and open a last-mile delivery station in Sterling Heights by September.

The 576,000-square-foot station, where packages will be prepared for final delivery, is expected speed up Amazon deliveries to the Metro Detroit area, according to the a news release from the city of Sterling Heights. It will be in the Liberty Park Commerce Center.

Sterling Heights represents a significant customer base for Amazon, which certainly influenced their decision to select our city as the site for this delivery station, Sterling Heights Mayor Michael Taylor said. But the skilled workforce we enjoy here was also a major contributing factor.

Amazon is expected to begin recruiting hundreds of fulltime employees for the new facility in August.

The station will also require independent delivery contractors who will work through Amazon Flex. For more information, visit logistics.amazon.com and http://flex.amazon.com.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  A suicide truck bomber targeted a police district headquarters in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province on Wednesday, killing three officers, a local official said. Three other police officers, including a district police chief, were killed in a roadside bombing in eastern Ghazni province.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for both attacks.

In the Kandahar attack, the suicide bomber struck in the district of Shah Wali Kot, according to Bahir Ahmadi, the provincial governor's spokesman. The explosion also wounded 14 people, both policemen and civilians.

Ahmadi said the guards at the district headquarters realized the truck was suspicious and opened fire before it could reach the building. But the shooting set off the explosives' load, triggering a huge blast that caused the casualties and damaged several nearby buildings as well as the district headquarters, which also houses the office of the police chief and the district administrative department.

In the roadside bombing in Ghazni, Wahidullah Jamazada, the provincial governor's spokesman, said Habibullah, the police chief of Dayak district, was killed along with his two bodyguards. Habibullah, who like many Afghans used only one name, was inspecting checkpoints early in the morning when the attack happened, Jamazada said.

Separately, the Defense Ministry said Afghan soldiers repelled Taliban attacks on Tuesday on army checkpoints in the district of Khogyani in eastern Nangarhar province. The statement said at least 20 Taliban insurgents were killed, including their group leader.

The Taliban did not claim responsibility for the Nangarhar attack or issue any statements about it. Both the Taliban and the Islamic State group are active in eastern Afghanistan, especially in Nangarhar. Afghanistan has seen a recent spike in violence, with most attacks claimed by the local IS affiliate.

The Taliban and the Afghan forces have been trading blame over the recent surge in attacks across the country  even as peace efforts press on to try and bring about the start of a direct peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

Story continues

The Taliban accuse government forces of targeting them in their homes, their families bearing the brunt of those anti-Taliban operations. Kabul, meanwhile, accuses the Taliban of stepping up attacks against both civilians and the security forces.

The violence has been a key obstacle to any negotiations between the Taliban and the Kabul government  talks that were envisaged by the U.S.-Taliban deal signed in late February to end 19 years of war in Afghanistan.

The deal also called for the Afghan government to free 5,000 Taliban prisoners in exchange for the Taliban releasing 1,000 government and military personnel they hold captive. So far, the government has freed 4,015 imprisoned insurgents while the Taliban have freed 669, according to data by the Afghan government.
The Government is considering extending the wage subsidy scheme until next April as one of a number of measures aimed at rebooting the economy.

The scheme would also be extended to people who are currently unemployed and seasonal workers under plans still being discussed by ministers. However, the State's contribution to the scheme will be reduced to ensure it can be extended into the new year.

The proposal is central to the Government's much anticipated July Stimulus Package, which will contain a raft of measures aimed at creating employment.

Extending and expanding the wage subsidy scheme is seen as a crucial element of the package, which will be announced next week.

The extension of the scheme will give peace of mind to thousands of employers who relied on the Government support to keep staff employed throughout the pandemic.

Under the current scheme, the Government will pay up to 85pc of an employee's wage if they are earning less than 412 a week.

It will pay 75pc for anyone earning between 500 and 586 per week.

The percentage paid by the State is expected to be reduced when the Government unveils a reformed version of the scheme.

A powerful Cabinet sub-committee met yesterday to discuss a range of proposals put forward by ministers.

The committee is made up of Taoiseach Micheal Martin, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe, and Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath.

Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys also attended as significant decisions are due to be made on the pandemic unemployment payment.

The stimulus package will also have a major focus on expanding the number of apprentices available to seek work which is being worked on by Higher Education Minister Simon Harris. Climate Change Minister Eamon Ryan is developing a retrofitting scheme which will provide employment and assist the Government in reaching carbon emission targets.

Cabinet ministers were asked to provide the sub-committee with ideas by Monday and they were discussed last night ahead of the publication of the plan early next week.

Mr Varadkar has indicated there may be changes to VAT to support small businesses and encourage people to spend money.

The Enterprise Minister will also be expanding State funding for employers affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party will today unveil their alternative stimulus package.

Labour will call for all core welfare rates to be increased by 10 a week and for the standard rate of VAT to be reduced from 23pc to 21pc.

They are also proposing the introduction of a short-time working scheme that would eventually replace the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme.

Labour's finance spokesperson Ged Nash said the fall-out from the coronavirus pandemic required "strong Government action to help hundreds of thousands of people get back to work".

"The Government's July Stimulus Package and the subsequent National Economic Plan and Budget 2021 will be crucial to set out a new direction for our economy," he said.

"They will show how committed the Government really is to creating decent jobs and maintaining people's living standards," he added.
LOUISVILLE, Ky.  The chants continued even as the zip ties closed on the wrists of the protester. His hands cuffed behind his back, he shouted through his Breonna Taylor emblazoned mask: Say her name!

The seated crowd of protesters, sometimes raising a fist and sometimes linking arm-in-arm as they awaited their imminent arrests for trespassing on Attorney General Daniel Camerons property on Tuesday evening, chanted back, Breonna Taylor!

The man's voice faded as he was escorted away by an officer, but the chants carried on. They continued the next day, too, as a group of supporters cheered protesters after they were released from the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections.

Since the protests began 49 days ago, 435 individuals have been arrested, according to Louisville Metro Police Department. Those arrests have been a defining element of the demonstrations that have crisscrossed the city.

Protesters have been arrested for inciting a riot during repeated clashes with police downtown, for disorderly conduct and obstructing a highway during a Black Lives Matter Louisville-organized protest blocking the Second Street Bridge last month, and for trespassing at Cameron's home Tuesday during a protest organized by the national group Until Freedom.

Fact check: Debunking 7 widely shared rumors in the Breonna Taylor police shooting

The arrests, however, have not slowed protests, and instead have played a constant role in the Breonna Taylor movement.

The 87 arrested on Tuesday  and charged with felonies for intimidating a participant in the legal process  were the latest example of protesters being unfazed by punishment from a justice system they dont endorse.

Getting arrested and engaging in civil disobedience sends a message that were willing to escalate, and were willing to risk more, said Linda Sarsour, co-founder of Until Freedom and one of the 87 arrested on Tuesday.

Protesters for Breonna Taylor are arrested after sitting on the lawn at the home of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron's Tuesday afternoon.

'I love getting locked up ... for standing up for whats right.'

Story continues

There have been daily, organic marches each day for the past seven weeks, and Sarsour and Until Freedom previously visited Kentucky for a rally in Frankfort in late June.

But being arrested can have a more profound impact.

What a direct action does is it takes us to a direct target. It was very clear that we were going to Attorney General Daniel Camerons house because he has influence and power over our demand, Sarsour said. We had a singular demand: Arrest and charge the cops involved in the murder of Breonna Taylor.

Some of the 87 arrested Tuesday were celebrities and athletes, and some came from out of town. However, others, such as Sidney Williams, were Louisville residents who volunteered to be arrested for a cause they believe in. Williams said he was detained for 17 hours and spent the night on a concrete floor.

What if the Breonna Taylor officers arent charged? Embers could spark a 'powder keg'

The value of an arrest is, when people like me who have everyday 9-to-5 jobs and who are working in communities and serving and things of that nature, decide to risk getting arrested, thats when I feel like were showing people in power that we mean business, Williams said.

Chris Wells, a leader at the daily Jefferson Square Park marches, was arrested on June 17 after protesters blocked traffic in downtown Louisville. Hes quit his jobs and put his life on hold for the protests, and to him, the arrest is almost a badge of honor.

I love getting locked up, he said. You know why? Because it was for standing up for whats right. I didnt get locked up for selling drugs, I didnt get locked up for killing no one, I didnt get locked up for doing anything wrong. I got locked up for standing up for whats right.

Wells was tackled by police as he was arrested, which he said was unfair. He also took issue with his time in jail, when he said he asked for medical help but was not given any.

It felt like I was in hell, Wells said.

A sequence of a man being arrested by Louisville Metro police officers for refusing to leave Jefferson Street during a morning of protests. June 17, 2020

Carmen Jones, a Black woman arrested June 15, said after being detained at 8 p.m., she was released at 4:30 a.m. She said she was treated differently than several white women who were arrested alongside her.

The police singled me out. I was the only one to be searched. I was the only one to be patted down. I was the only one whose belongings were went through, she said.

Still, Jones said she would be willing to get arrested again, and thats a belief embodied in one protester chant: We have nothing to lose but our chains.

Reece Chenault, a labor organizer and community activist, was among the 43 arrested on the Second Street Bridge on June 29. He said he was in jail for 12 hours, during which he slept on a concrete floor, aggravating his rotator cuff.

Some brothers with some ingenuity built a chessboard out of a blanket, he said of passing the time in the cell, using bits of sandwiches as chess pieces.

After protesters are released, there are systems and groups in place to provide food and emotional support  Its really stressful and really scary for a lot of people, Chenault said  and protesters are also often paired with legal aid.

Lawyers step up for protesters in trouble

David Mour, an attorney who has attended the protests since nearly the beginning, represents several of the protesters who have been arrested; he said that several forces  attorney associations, bail groups, etc.  will work together to provide each arrested protester with an attorney. The hope is that none will be assigned a public defender.

There are a lot of lawyers theyre signing up to help out, so theyll get representation, Mour said.

He said that many of the charges protesters face are exaggerated, such as a woman who was charged with assaulting a police officer after throwing water at an officer earlier this month during a standoff near Jefferson Square Park.

Tonight, as protesters attempted to stop @LMPD from towing a car, a woman threw water at one officer.



The officer quickly grabbed her, pushed her to the ground and arrested her.



People in the crowd say the officer says she threw a punch. Heres the video. pic.twitter.com/fMCjxM4qXY  Bailey Loosemore (@bloosemore) July 8, 2020

Most of these charges, this is just my opinion, its disorderly conduct, inciting rioting, failure to disperse, I dont think they can make any of those charges, he said.

Protesters are also often provided with other support after being released, including rides.

Most times after people get arrested, theyre ready to go home and just be in their bed, said Black Lives Matter Louisville organizer Talesha Wilson.

They dont long remain there, though.

'Ill gladly go back to jail until you arrest the cops that killed Breonna Taylor'

Protest leaders repeatedly said on Tuesday that they would return to Camerons house again, and on Wednesday, Sarsour said local activists, as well as Until Freedom, would continue with similar actions. She called Tuesday an initial escalation to test the waters and that it would not be her last time in Louisville.

She took issue with the charges against her and the others arrested but said it wouldnt dampen the movements energy.

We did absolutely trespass; we cant deny that charge, she said of the misdemeanor. "But we are being charged with a felony as an intimidation tactic by the LMPD in hopes that they believe we will never do this ever again because of that charge. We are not intimidated.

Protesters were released from jail after being arrested the day before for trespassing on the property of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron on July 15, 2020.

Louisville Metro Police spokeswoman Jessie Halladay said the felony charge stemmed from the belief that the protesters were using "force or a threat" directed toward a participant in the legal process, of which Cameron is.

"Prior to arriving at the home, it was stated the intent of the protest was to 'escalate' their actions, which in the past has indicated violent or destructive behavior. At one point on livestream, protesters are heard saying they will burn it down if they dont get what they want," Halladay said in a statement.

Some protesters chanted "If we don't get it, burn it down," a variant of the typical, "If we don't get it, shut it down," as they gathered at Ballard High School on Tuesday, before protesters knew they would be marching to Cameron's home. Only Until Freedom leadership knew their destination at that time.

Protesters also appeared to chant "burn it down" while in Cameron's front yard, although saying "burn it down" is a semi-common, general phrase from protesters.

As protesters emerged from detainment on Wednesday, they led chants and hugged one another. Williams walked out with his arms high above his head, before receiving some food and his phone from supporters.

Everyone needs to start putting their bodies on the line, if they can, he said of being arrested, because they will detain us for 17 hours instead of arresting the cops that killed Breonna Taylor. Ill gladly go back to jail until you arrest the cops that killed Breonna Taylor.

Follow reporter Hayes Gardner on Twitter: @HayesGardner

24 hours in a COVID-19 hot spot leaves no walk of life unscathed: This is what it's like

In 2018, they vandalized a Frederick Douglass statue: Now they'll help install a new one

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Breonna Taylor protesters: Arrests show that 'we mean business'
TRENTON, MI -- Police say a skull found in a fire pit of a Trenton home is now being investigated as a homicide case, according to WXYZ Detroit. The skull and other bones were found earlier this month by the new homeowner, who recently bought the house.

The previous owner of the house, Mark Eberly, was killed earlier this year in a shootout with police in Tennessee. Trenton Police say the person whose skull was found died from a gunshot to the head and they believe they know who the person is.

However, it may take several weeks before the identity can be confirmed. Police believe they can identify the person through dental records.

Eberly lived in the home with his parents for many years before they passed away. After they died, he lived at the home for another three years and had a woman living with him for some time. He moved away from the home a few months ago, according to neighbors.

Read more:

Thursday, July 16: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan

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Pharmacists will be able to give out Covid-19 jabs to speed up a nation-wide roll out, Matt Hancock has revealed.

The Health Secretary claimed pharmacists in Britain would play a 'massive role' when Number 10 has a coronavirus vaccination programme.

High street pharmacies are already able to give out jabs for the flu, chickenpox, HPV, and meningitis, as well as injections needed for overseas travel.

It comes amid hopes a vaccine will be ready by autumn, with two separate trials of experimental jabs in the UK and US announcing positive results yesterday.

Teams from Oxford University and the American pharmaceutical company Moderna both say injected volunteers are showing signs of immunity.

Each group has been working on separate jabs for months to try to protect millions of people from catching the coronavirus in future.

Mr Hancock claimed a 'best case scenario' would be a vaccine being made available later this year, although conceded one was more likely to be ready until 2021.

Matt Hancock has said pharmacists will be able to give out Covid-19 jabs to speed up a nationwide roll out, amid hopes a vaccine will soon be ready

Speaking on ITV's Peston last night, Mr Hancock said the government was working closely with teams across the world to drive the search for a vaccine.

He said: 'We're all working towards the best case scenario, we're all giving AstraZeneca and the team at Oxford, and the Imperial vaccine, every possible support.

'We're working with the other potential vaccines around the world, in America, and Germany, and the Netherlands.

'We're working with them to ensure that if they come off first, that we'll get access to them here.

'But this is an inexact science and it's at risk.'

WHAT ARE THE LEADING COVID-19 VACCINE CANDIDATES? University of Oxford Clinical teams at the Oxford University's Jenner Institute and Oxford Vaccine Group began developing the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine in January, now named AZD1222, after a manufacturing partnership with pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca was secured. Human trials started on April 23 and they are now in the final phase. Lead of the project Professor Sarah Gilbert told The Times she is '80 per cent' confident of its success. Imperial College London Professor Robin Shattock is leading a team working to produce a vaccine at Imperial College. Fifteen volunteers have already been given the trial vaccines and testing is expected to ramp up to include as many as 200-300 new participants in the coming weeks. A second trial, involving 6,000 people, will come later. But Professor Shattock said the vaccine won't be available until at least 2021, even if everything goes according to plan. If the jab works, the team want to make it as cheap as possible so the entire British population could be vaccinated for the 'really good value' of just under 200million. Moderna Massachusetts-based Moderna was the first US company to start human trials of its potential Covid-19 vaccine, known as mRNA-1273, on March 16. The jab has proven to trigger an immune response in all 45 injected volunteers, according to a study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine on July 14. Moderna's shot showed early promise in its phase 2 human tests last month. The company reported that it triggered antibody production on par with that seen in recovered coronavirus patients. CanSino Chinese vaccine Ad5-nCoV, made by CanSino, was the very first shot to enter clinical trials earlier this year and is a leading candidate. A trial of 108 healthy volunteers in China showed it safely triggered an immune response in participants. Results published May 22 in The Lancet showed most of the people dosed with the vaccine had immune responses, although their levels of antibodies thought to neutralize the virus were relatively low. Researchers saw a stronger ramp-up of other immune compounds, called T-cells, that might also help fight the infection off. Pfizer Pfizer and BioNTech have been working on a number of potential Covid-19 vaccines under the 'BNT162 program'. It reported positive preliminary results from the ongoing Phase I/II clinical trial of one called BNT162b1 on July 1. Data is available for the trial of BNT162b1 on 24 volunteers. The results showed that it was well tolerated and produced dose dependent immunity. Dr Kathrin Jansen, Pfizer's head of vaccine research and development, said the vaccine 'is able to produce neutralizing antibody responses in humans at or above the levels observed' in Covid-19 survivors. Pfizer received fast track designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for two of their four potential Covid-19 vaccines this month. Johnson & Johnson The drug giant started work on the vaccine in January, two months before Covid-19 was labelled a global pandemic. A vaccine trial spearheaded by Johnson and Johnson will start recruiting people in September, with clinical data available by the end of the year. An 'emergency use' batch of the vaccine is anticipated to be authorised as early as 2021, which would likely be prioritised for vulnerable people. Advertisement

He said the most clinically vulnerable, the oldest, and healthcare workers would be the first to get the vaccine  which in a 'best case scenario would be sometime this year' but 'more likely next year'.

He said: 'We'll use all the assets we've got available to get it into people. In fact, I am expanding who can legally vaccinate to make sure not just GPs, but also technicians, nurses and pharmacists.

'Pharmacists have got a massive role to play in this.'

Nurses and pharmacists can already administer certain vaccinations without a prescription from a doctor.

They are accessible to lots of people, both because of their location and opening hours, which helps with the challenge of getting the vaccine rolled out quickly.

Pharmacists are actively involved in the supply chain of vaccines, so that they can work out the right distribution to areas where they are needed most.

Their involvement with vaccination programmes also help to free up time for GPs and nurses at surgeries.

But the potential arrival of vaccine in September could clash with the flu vaccination programme  which is expected to be ramped up this autumn.

The Government is currently considering expanding the free flu jab list to include those in their 50s to avoid a severe flu season together with a second Covid-19 wave.

There have already been concerns about the logistics of getting potentially 10million extra doses out.

With optimum flu vaccination dosing time between October and November, it is not clear how services would operate if a Covid-19 vaccine is proven to work this autumn.

Oxford scientists have already said they are '80 per cent' confident they can have their jab  called AZD1222  available by September.

And drug giant AstraZeneca has said it is on track to produce millions of the AZD1222 jab by September if it is proven to work.

Some of the first results were revealed yesterday, after Phase 1 trials started in April, and gave promising signs a vaccine is on the horizon.

People being given the Oxford vaccine have been developing antibodies and white blood cells called T cells which will help their bodies fight off the virus if they get infected, it is reported.

While early research focused on antibodies, scientists are increasingly turning to a type of immunity called T cell immunity  which is controlled by white blood cells  which has shown signs of promise.

One source on the Oxford project told ITV News: 'An important point to keep in mind is that there are two dimensions to the immune response: antibodies and T-cells.

'Everybody is focused on antibodies but there is a growing body of evidence suggesting that the T-cells response is important in the defence against coronavirus.'

The combination of the two responses is 'double protection' which 'will hopefully keep people safe', a researcher told the Daily Telegraph.

David Carpenter, chairman of the Berkshire Research Ethics Committee, which approved the Oxford trial and continues to work with scientists on amendments, told the paper that the team were 'absolutely on track'.

He added: 'Nobody can put final dates ... things might go wrong but the reality is that by working with a big pharma company, that vaccine could be fairly widely available around September and that is the sort of target they are working on.'

It came as Moderna, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said reported its own vaccine has passed these early milestones and now plans to move on to bigger trials.

In the first phase of its trials, 45 participants all successfully developed antibodies.

Scientists said the apparent side effects were a 'small price to pay' for protection against Covid-19.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the US government's top infectious disease expert, said: 'No matter how you slice this, this is good news.'

The vaccines work by tricking the body into thinking it's infected with Covid-19 and causing it to produce immune substances that have the ability to destroy it.

It comes as a group of 100 leading experts urge for healthy people to be purposely infected with the coronavirus to speed up the development of a vaccine.

Controversial 'challenge trials' could rapidly accelerate studies on experimental jabs which are struggling to recruit volunteers because of falling Covid-19 infection rates, the group, that includes Nobel Prize-winning scientists, says.

They have written an open letter to the US National Institutes of Health saying the benefits of bringing a vaccine to the masses outweighs the risk to trialists' health.

Challenge trials are commonly deployed by scientists trying to develop a vaccine and have been used in malaria, typhoid and flu.

But, unlike those illnesses, there is only one scientifically proven treatment for Covid-19, so there is little to stop the participants falling seriously ill.

There are 23 experimental vaccines in clinical trials around the world.

Scientists behind the two frontrunners  Oxford University and US pharma company Moderna  have warned they might not have results until next year because not enough people are getting infected in the community.
While the quest for developing vaccines for Covid-19 is on at pandemic speed, there has been widespread speculation that vaccines may come out in the market soon. However, scientists such as the UKs chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, and his US counterpart, Anthony Fauci, keep repeating that it wont happen before 12 to 18 months.

Also, in late February, the World Health Organization said that it wasnt expecting a vaccine in less than 18 months. So the confusion continues. Certainly, a drug cannot be manufactured and prescribed as soon as a potential ...
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Several central Ohio counties are seeing increases in coronavirus infections that appear to be linked to people traveling from other states, Gov. Mike DeWine said.

Delaware and Union counties, just north of Columbus, have each reported COVID-19 infections that officials believe to be the result of travel outside Ohio, DeWine said during Thursdays coronavirus briefing. Those who tested positive had recently traveled to Arizona, Florida and North Carolina.

Local [Delaware County] officials also note a number of travelers who have contracted the virus, they think, while in Florida, and coming back from Florida, DeWine said.

Southern U.S. states have seen coronavirus infections skyrocket recently. Florida reported more than 15,000 new cases in a single day on Sunday, and reported its highest 24-hour total of 156 deaths on Thursday. Arizona and Texas are also among the states seeing a surge of hospitalizations and ICU admissions over the last few weeks.

Delaware County, which has 174,000 residents, has reported 233 cases over the last two weeks. Thats more than the entire country of Ireland, with a population of 4.9 million, has reported over the same time period, DeWine said.

Union County has seen daily case averages quadruple over the last three weeks, DeWine said. He attributed the spike to travel outside of Ohio, as well as to adjacent counties.

Union County has experienced new cases due to travel outside Ohio, including to Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, as well as routine travel to and from neighboring counties, DeWine said.

Both counties were added Thursday to Ohios list of those at red-alert for the virus. In red-alert counties, including Cuyahoga County, residents must wear face masks in public spaces to help limit the spread of the virus. Roughly 60 percent of Ohio residents will be required to wear face masks by Friday evening because they live in red-alert counties, DeWine said.

Ohio reported 1,290 new coronavirus cases and 28 more deaths on Thursday, and has seen infections rise over the last few weeks. DeWine held a news conference Wednesday to urge Ohio residents to take immediate action to slow the rising number of infections across the state.
New Delhi, July 16 : The police have arrested a BSF constable for the murder of a woman constable of Delhi Police in South West Delhi's Palam Village.

The accused, Naresh, is a serving constable in BSF and was in a relationship with the woman. On Wednesday afternoon, the body of the woman constable was found from her house in Palam Village where she was staying alone.

"On primary observation, strangulation mark was found on the neck of the deceased. During enquiry, the identity of the woman was established as Preeti Beniwal, a resident of Rewari district in Haryana, who was working with the Delhi Police," said DCP South West, Devender Arya.

The scene of the crime was inspected and photographed. During the inspection, the mobile phone of the girl was also found missing from the room.

During local inquiry, it came to light that the deceased was staying with a man for the past few days, who had left. As per the primary inquiry, needle of suspicion pointed towards the man who was staying with the deceased. All available CCTV footage was thoroughly scanned. As per the scanning of the CCTV footage and technical analysis, the identity of the accused was established as Naresh, a resident of Behror in Rajasthan's Alwar district.

Later, the accused was arrested from Dwarka area while he was going to meet his advocate.

"During sustained interrogation, he disclosed that he was in a relationship with the deceased but for the past few days he suspected her of infidelity. On this issue a scuffle broke out between them during which he lost his temper and strangulated her to death," said the officer.
The online Wall Street Journal opinion section has a feature called "Future View," where the opinions of college students are aired on the issues of the day. The subject Wednesday was "cancel culture." The WSJ presented five responses from college students, and the results were most concerning.

Two of the five students rightly and roundly condemned cancel culture as poisoning modern discourse, enabling hostility rather than understanding, and fostering Orwellian behaviors such as employing physical force to shut down events in the name of free speech.

The other three responses, however, defended cancel culture. One student explained it thus: "Opinions are one thing. It's entirely different to use abusive or threatening language that expresses prejudice on the basis of race, sex, gender or religion." Apparently, the irony of this statement was lost on the student who expressed it, for cancel culture is itself abusive and threatening to those who are canceled and others of like mind and serves only to expose the prejudice of the canceler. Just ask the New York Times and Philadelphia Inquirer editors who recently lost their jobs by expressing widely held, almost innocuous viewpoints.

A second response in favor of cancel culture compares it to exile, banishment, and shunning, or the natural functioning of social norms. Again, the young author misses the point entirely, for the concern with cancel culture is, first, that it destroys lives for the most common of everyday sentiments, such as expressing support for a diversity of viewpoints or mentioning that "Buildings Matter Too" to rioters, and, second, the opinions of the cancelers are usually leftist sentiments held by a few but that are amplified by the social media feeding frenzy. That is not the equivalent of a government punishing someone, for example, for breaking laws such as spying or treason, after legal procedures such as Miranda rights, presumption of innocence, due process, legal representation, trial by jury of peers, etc. have occurred that could lead to exile or banishment.

A third response was somewhat more nuanced, arguing that those whose lives have been canceled should be afforded a path to redemption and forgiveness. But this again misses the point, for to whom should the offender apologize, and for what offense? It seems this young person is arguing that adults must grovel before college students like her in order not to be canceled...and why? Because the young are somehow imbued with the wisdom of the ages? These are the same college children who spit on the Great Books and the Bible, which truly do contain great wisdom...if one takes but a moment to seek it out.

It is also worth noting that the two responses condemning cancel culture as intolerant (and doing it rather well) were submitted by male college students, while the three responses defending intolerant cancel culture were written by female students. For more on this point, feel free to review the unfortunate "woke white woman" disorder that is covered in detail elsewhere, and that appears, sadly, to be increasing its prevalence on campus.

Graphic credit: Pixabay.
RTHK: Trump not ruling out more sanctions against China'

President Donald Trump has not ruled out further sanctions on top Chinese officials that could come in addition to actions taken this week to punish China for its handling of Hong Kong, a White House National Security Council spokesman has said.

The Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which Trump signed on Tuesday, allows him to impose sanctions and visa restrictions on Chinese officials and financial institutions involved in the imposition of China's new national security law in Hong Kong.

Bloomberg reported Trump had ruled out additional sanctions on top Chinese officials for now to avoid escalating tensions.

But National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot noted Trump last week issued sanctions against Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials for their treatment of minority Uighur Muslims.

"In no way has he taken anything off the table with respect to further sanctions of party officials for actions in Hong Kong or on other issues. Any suggestion otherwise by anonymous sources is flat out wrong," Ullyot said.

White House discussions are ongoing about potential targets for sanctions and no final decisions have been made, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Among names being pushed is Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, who has backed implementation of the security law, the source said.

The New York Times later reported that the Trump administration was considering a sweeping ban on travel to the United States by CCP members.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the legislation Trump signed and an executive order ending Hong Kong's special status under US law were justified.

"General Secretary Xi Jinping made a choice to violate the Chinese Communist Partys promises to Hong Kong that were made in UN-registered treaty. He didnt have to do that and he made that choice, Pompeo told reporters.

Pompeo noted on Twitter later that Trump said the United States would "place a special emphasis" on admitting Hong Kong residents as refugees.

"We stand with the Hong Kong people," Pompeo said. (Reuters)

This story has been published on: 2020-07-16. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Taking umbrage at TikTok's surveillance of consumer content to advance the foreign policy agendas of the Chinese Communist Party ( CCP), a group of 25 US Congressmen and Congresswomen encouraged President Donald Trump to "consider urgent steps to safeguard the privacy and welfare of the American people."

Expressing concern over TikToks censorship of user content to advance the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) foreign policy aims, a set of 25 US Congressmen and Congresswomen have urged President Donald Trump to take decisive action to protect the American peoples privacy and safety.

In a letter to the US President, dated July 15, they also pointed out that India took the extraordinary step of banning several Chinese affiliated mobile apps including TikTok due to national security concerns. However, the CCPs systemic campaign to collect and illicitly transmit user data for the Chinese governments purposes is not unique to Indian consumers, the letter said.

It is clear that the United States should not trust TikTok or any other Chinese-affiliated social media websites or apps to protect Americans data, privacy, or security. As such, we urge you to take strong action to stop the CCPs sophisticated espionage campaign against our country and protect our national security, the letter read.

Clarification: This letter was signed by a set of 25 US Congressmen and Congresswomen. https://t.co/d2xpGcxWwR  ANI (@ANI) July 16, 2020

Also Read: China vows to retaliate as US ends preferential treatment

They also said that they support Trump administrations effort to restrict TikTok and other social media sites linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from accessing the US markets.

These popular apps data collection practices, coupled with Chinas onerous cybersecurity laws requiring all companies operating in China, including TikToks parent company, ByteDance, to share user data with CCP authorities, present a very real threat to U.S. national security. As such, we urge your administration to take decisive action to protect the American peoples privacy and safety, they said in the letter.

They also pointed out that TikToks privacy policy for US residents is upfront about the vast quantity of user data it collects and shares with the CCP. Furthermore, TikToks censorship of user content to advance the CCPs foreign policy aims is deeply concerning. Leaked documents detail instructions to ban videos on the app that mention Tiananmen Square, Tibetan independence, or banned religious groups, the letter said.

Moreover, an Australian Strategic Policy Institute report recently found that ByteDance works closely with the Chinese government to enable human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims by disseminating the CCPs state propaganda. ByteDance is also required under Chinese law to provide seats on the companys board of directors to CCP officials, further cementing the authoritarian governments role in setting these policies, it added.

India had recently banned 59 Chinese mobile applications including the widely-used social media platforms such as TikTok, WeChat, and Helo within view of the threat to the nations sovereignty and security.

The majority of the apps banned in the June 29 order were red-flagged by intelligence agencies over concerns that they were collecting user data and possibly also sending them outside.

Also Read: China questions India on app ban

For all the latest World News, download NewsX App
Illustrative photo. (Source: VNA)

Singapore  Vietnams effective containment of COVID-19 should allow it to make a quicker rebound than most other economies in the region and its GDP growth can be around 2.3 percent this year, Sian Fenner, an economist from Oxford Economics wrote in a July 14 report.

With an expected recovery in the second half of the year, Fenner forecast the countrys GDP to grow 2.3 percent in 2020, slowing from 7.02 percent last year, followed by 8 percent growth in 2021.

But the country remains vulnerable to external developments, particularly those affecting trade, tourism, and FDI, she added.

"Whilst encouraging, we remain cautious in our outlook for momentum, following the initial bounce-back post lockdowns. Indeed, part of the recent rebound in retail sales reflects the release of pent-up demand," said the report.

FDI is expected to pick up in the second half, with Vietnam's labour dynamics and geographical proximity to China ensuring that it remains an attractive destination for investment, particularly in manufacturing.

However, ongoing restrictions on international travel will continue to hinder tourism, with government efforts to promote domestic travel still unlikely to offset the fall in international travel.

And with exports accounting for over 80 percent of Vietnam's GDP, the pace of recovery will rely on global trade momentum.

One key downside risk is a second wave of the coronavirus and renewed global lockdowns. Under this scenario, Vietnam may only achieve 1.5 percent growth this year.
The Maharashtra Criminal Investigation Department's (CID) chargesheet in the Palghar lynching case in which two monks and their driver were beaten to death by a mob three months ago, says that the incident was a fallout of rumours that child-lifting gangs were operating in the area whose members posed as seers or uniformed personnel like policemen, an official said.

The CID on Wednesday filed the chargesheets, one running into 4,955 pages and another of 5,921 pages, in the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) at Dahanu taluka in Palghar district located adjoining Mumbai.

Two monks and their driver were lynched by the mob at Gadchinchale village in the district on April 16 when they were travelling in a car to Surat (Gujarat) to attend a funeral amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

"According to the chargesheet, a few days before the incident of lynching, rumours had spread in Gadchinchle village and the surrounding area about the child lifting gangs in operation," the official said on Thursday.

"This has come to light during the investigation and any other angle for the lynching of sadhus has been ruled out," he said.

According to the official, the CID also collected cyber evidence, including messages and posts about child-lifting gangs that were circulated on social media platforms in the area.

"These messages and posts said that the members of these gangs can come to the village by posing themselves as sadhus, doctors, officials of police, forest or other departments, wearing uniforms," he said.

Three different offences have been registered in connection with the case at Kasa police station in Palghar.

The investigation was transferred to the state CID on April 21.

In all, 154 people were arrested and 11 juveniles detained in connection with the incident. None of the accused has been released on bail so far, the official said.

A team led by Special IGP (West) CID, Pravin Salunke, carried out the investigation during the coronavirus-triggered lockdown.

"It was the most challenging time of the pandemic and the investigation in the case was difficult as scores of people had to be called in for questioning," a senior official, who was part of the probe, said.

The teams had to camp in the area to collect intelligence, nab the accused and undertake searches or seizures in the area, he said.

Besides sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the accused were charged under relevant provisions of the Disaster Management Act, the Epidemic Diseases Act (since lockdown was in force during the incident), the Maharashtra Police Act and the Maharashtra Damage to Public Property (Prevention) Act, the release said.

They were charged with murder, armed rioting and using criminal force to prevent a public servant from doing is duty, among other offences.

The voluminous chargesheet is being scrutinised by court officials, a CID official said.

Once the scrutiny is done, charges will be framed against the accused by the court, the official said.

The CID ream examined 808 suspects and 118 witnesses to collect strong evidence against the accused, he said.

"Although two different chargesheets have been filed in two separate offences, in the due course of time, the investigators are likely to merge the cases and the chargesheets with the permissions of higher courts for smooth investigation," the official said.

The victims of the lynching incident were identified by the police as Chikne Maharaj Kalpavrukshagiri, 70, Sushil Giri Maharaj, 35, and their driver Nilesh Telgade, 30.

After the incident caused an uproar, the state government suspended Kasa police station in-charge Anandrao Kale, under whose jurisdiction the crime took place, and some other policemen, including sub-inspectors.

Besides, over 35 police constables and personnel of other ranks were transferred in the wake of the mob attack.

Unfortunate that some parties tried to give it 'political colour': Maha HM

The Maharashtra CID's chargesheet in the Palghar mob lynching case has concluded that the incident took place following a rumour about child-lifting, state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said on Thursday.

He said it was unfortunate that some parties had tried to give 'political colour' to the incident and made efforts to divide people on communal lines after the incident.

Deshmukh, however, did not name any party or individual.

Deshmukh in a video message said, "The CID filed chargesheet in the court yesterday. They (the CID) have concluded that the incident was triggered by a rumour that children were being lifted in that area."

"At the time of the incident, some political parties unfortunately tried to give it a political colour. Some tried to create communal divide on Hindu-Muslim, Hindu-Christian lines," he alleged.

The minister said the CID probed 808 people and arrested 154 of them in connection with the incident.
The Yezidi community of Armenia condemns the provocative actions of Azerbaijan, ruling My Step bloc MP Rustam Bakoyan said at the parliament on Thursday.

According to the MP, the provocative military actions of Azerbaijan of recent days are receiving a worthy adequate response from the Armenian side.

The Yezidi community of Armenia condemns these provocative actions initiated by Azerbaijan, and dozens of Yezidis living in Armenia have submitted applications and are ready to head to the border, he noted.

Bakoyan called on Yezidis all over the world to actively cooperate with the Armenian diaspora to give a clear diplomatic response to Azerbaijan's provocative actions.
Rent freezes and eviction bans introduced as an emergency response to the outbreak of the coronavirus are set to be extended.

The measures had been due to expire on Monday however it is understood the housing minister Darragh O'Brien will bring a memo extending the regulations until later in the year.

The Minister for Housing has not yet revealed how long the eviction ban and rent freeze will be extended for.

Earlier today, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar said the eviction ban will not expire next week but that the policy "cant be forever."

Mr Varadkar said: "The temporary ban on evictions wont end on Monday. But as the Deputy will appreciate, the legal advice around this is very strong.

"It can only be temporary and cant be forever  for reasons that are well-rehearsed.

"A medium-term solution is going to be needed as well as a temporary extension to the ban."

Meanwhile, the Minister for Finance, Pascal Donohue has described the government's future decision on the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme as one of the important actions to be taken in the last two years.

The Dublin TD's comments come as the government considers extending the scheme beyond October as part of the July stimulus package.

Minister Pascal Donohoe said hundreds of thousands of people are benefiting from the scheme at the moment.

The Minister for Finance said: "One of the biggest decisions we will have to make is in the future of the wage subsidy scheme.

"That wage subsidy scheme which was introduced only a number of weeks ago,

"Is now keeping 405,000 people either in the job they're in or else maintaining all or most of their income."

The Finance Minister also insisted he will not participate in, or make decisions, that will lead to the return of the troika to Ireland.

Mr Donohue said: "If I look at the decisions we have made and the kind of decisions I believe this government will make,

"I am absolutely certain that the return of the troika, those kind of very dark days between 2008-2012 will not return again to Ireland."

The government is currently preparing a stimulus package, to be announced next week, to support businesses in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The campaigns of three opposition figures involved in Belaruss upcoming presidential election have issued a joint statement on cooperation in the controversial poll.

The campaigns of Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, former Belgazprombank head Viktar Babaryka, and prominent businessman Valer Tsapkala on June 16 announced a joint program comprising five points.

The program includes urging Belarusians to vote in the August 9 election, a call for the release of all political and economic prisoners and new trials for each of them, a pledge to hold an honest repeat election after August 9, and a pledge to cooperate on a program to combat electoral fraud and to monitor the presidential poll.

On July 14, the Central Election Commission registered five candidates for the presidential poll, including Tsikhanouskaya and incumbent President Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

Babaryka, who was viewed as a potential rival to Lukashenka, was denied registration and subsequently jailed on suspicion of money laundering, bribery, and tax evasion. He denies the charges and says they are politically motivated. The government took over Belgazprombank on June 15.

Amnesty International has proclaimed Babaryka and his son, Eduard, who was arrested with his father on June 18, to be prisoners of conscience.

Tsapkalas attempt to register was foiled after election officials disqualified at least 38,000 of the signatures he had submitted in support of his candidacy.

After the registrations were announced, a wave of protests rocked the country and hundreds of people have been detained.

Lukashenka, who has ruled the country since 1994, is currently serving his fifth term as president. Belarus abolished presidential term limits in 2004.

The 65-year-old Belarusian leader on July 15 rejected Western criticism of the governments violent dispersal of the demonstrations and the disqualification of candidates.

We dont want anyone to tell us how to live, he said during a meeting in the eastern city of Vitsebsk.
Project Mumbai, a 20-month-old non-profit organisation that has worked on various social initiatives during the Covid-19 pandemic, is one of 50 organisations in the world selected by the United Nations (UN) SDG Action Campaign for a special award.

The UN SDG Action Campaign is an initiative established by the UN Secretary-General to bring people together from every part of the world, to act on sustainable development goals (SDG). Through its annual Action Awards, the UN SDG Action Campaign has recognised the most impactful initiatives undertaken and implemented in communities around the world to improve peoples lives amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Of the three recipients from India, Project Mumbai is the only one from the western region. Over the last 100 days, the organisation has launched three mental health helplines; built a network of volunteers to provide groceries and medicines to senior citizens and people with disabilities living alone, and contributed over 2 lakh personal protective equipment (PPE) kits to doctors and frontline workers. It also provided cooked meals to 45 lakh citizens  homeless and migrants across Mumbai  and grocery kits to over 20,000 families.

This recognition by the United Nations honours the spirit of every individual who has contributed to our fight against Covid-19, said Shishir Joshi, founder of Project Mumbai.

Marina Ponti, global director, UN SDG Action Campaign, said, In the midst of the global health crisis, we see strong examples of solidarity among people everywhere. We congratulate Project Mumbai for their solidarity and determination to improve others lives, inspire resilience, and lift hopes in the face of this crisis.
EBRD providing 150 million loan to WDP in Romania

Funds to support WDPs green growth plans and enhance the countrys logistic infrastructure

New training programmes to promote youth inclusion

The industrial real estate sector in Romania will receive a boost thanks to an agreement signed today between the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Warehouses De Pauw (WDP).

The EBRD will provide WDP with a 150 million senior unsecured loan to support the companys portfolio expansion in the country.

WDP is planning new development projects at important logistics hubs, enhancing Romanias infrastructure and creating jobs in a modern and healthy working environment.

The company develops and invests in logistics property such as warehouses and light industrial space. Its existing international property portfolio amounts to around 5 million m and is spread over around 250 sites at prime logistics locations for storage and distribution in Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany and Romania.

The EBRD financing will contribute to the implementation of a sustainability management framework, comprising international building certifications and the introduction of other green measures that go beyond WDPs current practices. These include, among others, an upgrade of the energy and water efficiency performance requirements and the rollout of an energy management system across the entire Romanian portfolio.

The loan will also support the introduction of two replicable and high-quality training programmes for young people; a new pilot accredited dual education programme for students in technical universities; as well as an internship programme aimed to facilitate school-to-work transition.

During the coronavirus crisis, these initiatives have become even more important in order to preserve human capital and ensure that youth are not left behind.

Vlaho Kojakovic, EBRD Director, Property and Tourism, said: Supporting the development of green industrial real estate is a priority in the EBRDs Property and Tourism strategy for 2020-24. With this sizeable investment, the EBRD will be contributing to the increase of high-quality, sustainable industrial real estate stock in Romania while also collaborating with WDP on the promotion of local economic inclusion.

Jeroen Biermans, General Manager WDP Romania, added: We are confident that the development of high-quality logistics infrastructure promotes sustainability across the entire supply chain, therefore supporting the real economy in Romania. We wish to thank the EBRD for their participation in this exciting journey.

The EBRD is a major investor in Romania. To date, the Bank has invested 8.8 billion in the countrys economy through 449 projects.
My friend Zeke had a habit of running up his credit cards to the point he could cover the payments only with more credit.

Five years after a big night out, hed still be paying off the bar bill.

Phil Murphy has never met Zeke. But maybe I should introduce the two. He could tell the governor where that sort of behavior leads.

Bankruptcy, thats where. Zeke did it twice.

Or perhaps the governor should have a discussion about debt with a prior governor.

Thats Christie Whitman. Way back in 1997, the Republican governor decided she didnt want to make any tough choices going into a year in which she sought re-election.

But she had a problem. There was a big installment due on the state pension funds. She could have raised taxes or cut pensions. But either would cost votes.

So Whitman just put the bill on the credit card. She bonded for $2.9 billion.

Youd think those bonds would be paid off by now.

Youd be wrong.

We still owe $2 billion on those bonds, state Senator Steve Oroho told me.

Not only that, but Whitman committed us to a repayment schedule that has the state paying off the debt at the rate of half a billion dollars a year until 2029.

Were gonna pay $10 billion more to pay off that $2 billion, the Sussex County Republican said.

Thats what happens when you borrow money to balance your budget. And it looks like its going to happen again today.

Both houses of the Democratic-controlled Legislature are scheduled to send to the Democratic governor a bill that would permit him to borrow as much as $9.9 billion.

As Whitman did, he could use that money to avoid making tough choices when he goes up for re-election next year. Also up for re-election are all 120 members of the Legislature.

The Democrats theory, if I may presume to deduce it, is that they can authorize the borrowing in mid-summer, when the voters arent paying attention. Then theyll have lots of swag to hand out next year, when the voters are paying attention.

I cant fault their logic politically. But it makes no sense financially.

New Jersey is already at the top of those lists of states unfunded liabilities. We should be finding ways to reduce debt, not increase it.

The Murphy administration argues that borrowing is unavoidable because the coronavirus crisis reduced revenues to the point that we have no choice.

Oroho disagrees. The senator, who is a financial planner in real life, argues that we still dont know how badly the crisis will affect this years revenues.

The final income tax payments for the 2019 calendar year were not due until July 15, which was Wednesday.

The income tax is based on a year in which the markets did extremely well before the pandemic even hit, he said. As for the sales tax, that has been better than expected.

Then theres the prospect of more federal aid. Democratic senators such as our own Bob Menendez have been pushing for $500 billion to help state and local governments. They may not get that much, but the Republicans appear to be open to some sort of new aid package.

Meanwhile the governor has until Aug. 25 to submit his proposed budget for Fiscal 2021. So whats the rush?

Maybe theyre rushing this because they want to borrow as much money as they can, and once people know the real numbers theyre not gonna have a case, said Oroho.

Whatever the reason, the state Republican Party has committed to challenging any such borrowing on constitutional grounds.

The case in question is titled Lance v. McGreevey. The Lance in question is Leonard Lance, who was the Legislatures leading anti-debt crusader until he ascended to a Congressional seat from which he is now retired.

In that 2004 case, the state Supreme Court decided that bonding to balance the budget violated the Appropriations Clause of the state Constitution.

The purpose of that constitutional provision is to prevent paying this years bill on the backs of our children, said Lance, who in 1997 broke ranks with fellow Republicans to oppose Whitmans bonding.

Lance said he recognizes the strain the current crisis is imposing on the states finances but hopes the court wont grant an exception. If the case against the bonding makes it to the state Supreme Court, he said, I have concerns the Supreme Court will permit this and the exception will swallow the rule.

But theres no need for an exception. With their comfortable majorities in both houses, the Democrats can propose any combination of tax hikes and/or cutbacks they desire.

One thing they cant do is pass the bill to my kids.

Theyre already moved out of state.
Amid the border tension with China, India on Thursday asserted that any unilateral attempt to change the status quo along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh is not acceptable. Addressing a press conference, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said that India and China remain committed to complete disengagement, adding that both sides will redeploy to posts at the LAC.

A statement said, "The disengagement process currently underway in the western sector is specifically aimed at addressing face-off situations and close-up deployments of troops along the LAC. It is based on an understanding between the senior military commanders. Both sides have agreed at specific points to re-deploy towards their regular posts on their respective sides of the LAC."

It also said, "These are mutually agreed reciprocal actions to be taken by both sides. And as I have already conveyed, it is an ongoing process. This mutual re-deployment should not be misrepresented. There is absolutely no change with respect to Indias position on the Line of Actual Control. We are fully committed to observing and respecting the LAC. Any unilateral attempts to change the status quo along the LAC are not acceptable."

India and China have been engaged in discussions through established diplomatic and military channels to address the situation along the LAC in India-China border areas, added the MEA.

"As you are aware, the Special Representatives (SRs) of India and China on the boundary question--National Security Advisor of India (NSA) Ajit Doval and Minister of Foreign Affairs of China Wang Yi had a telephone conversation on July 5. A meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) was also held on July 10," the MEA stated.

"In these meetings, the two sides have agreed on complete disengagement of the troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and de-escalation from India-China border areas for full restoration of peace and tranquillity in the border areas in accordance with bilateral agreements and protocols," further said the MEA.

"In this context, the Indian and Chinese Senior Commanders held their fourth meeting at Chushul on July 14. The Commanders reviewed the progress of implementation of the ongoing disengagement process and also discussed further steps to ensure complete disengagement at the earliest," also said the MEA.

"The two sides remain committed to the objective of complete disengagement and full restoration of peace and tranquillity in the India-China border areas. The two sides will continue their diplomatic and military engagements to achieve these outcomes. The process of disengagement along the LAC is complex and therefore, unsubstantiated and inaccurate reports need to be avoided," further said the MEA.
Enthusing about genetically modified crops and dismissing the effects of climate change and veganism couldnt be further away from the green views of Prince Charles.

But these are the very forthright opinions of his sister, Princess Anne.

Giving a rare interview to mark her 70th birthday next month, the Queens fiercely independent daughter jokes that her conversations with her elder brother are by necessity short due to their wildly differing opinions.

Charles has openly lobbied against genetically modified crops, but Anne counters: It has been an enormous advantage in many parts of the world to use GM wisely for very specific environments.

Asked if she and Charles have conversations about farming, Anne quips: Yes... occasionally, but rather short.

It makes it much more likely to be able to grow what you need.

I have to remind people that rapeseed oil was only made non-toxic to humans by the Canadians after the Second World War by genetically modifying the plant.

Its [ironically] quite popular with all those people who dont like GM.

Asked if she and Charles have conversations about farming, she quips: Yes... occasionally, but rather short.

'I don't go down the climate change route'

The princess was speaking to Australian Womens Weekly magazine via a video call from Gatcombe Park, the 500-acre Gloucestershire estate and farm where she has spent lockdown.

Princes William and Harry as well as Charles have linked last years devastating Australian bushfires to climate change, but Anne said: I dont even go down the climate change route.

I think the way people manage ground is part of the discussion... Climate changes all the time. It has done so throughout the globes history, so theres nothing new under the sun.

The princess was speaking to Australian Womens Weekly magazine (pictured: The New Zealand edition) via a video call from Gatcombe Park, the 500-acre Gloucestershire estate and farm where she has spent lockdown

The Queens fiercely independent daughter Anne (left) jokes that her conversations with her elder brother Charles (right) are by necessity short due to their wildly differing opinions

'Somehow, weve got to learn that our kind of life is changing. Weve got to remember to respect whats out there and how to live with it.

Talking with admiration of Australias indigenous population, she said: Theyve got a lot more knowledge and I suspect their ability to pass on the relevant knowledge is better than us.

First Nations people have a much better understanding of what the dangers are, and fire would have been a massive danger throughout their existence.

'They know Australia a lot better than anybody else. I suspect they existed in quite a lot of climate changes already.

Anne on veganism: 'You can't have a world without lifestock'

Anne is featured on the Australian cover of Women's Weekly, as well as the edition in New Zealand

Anne was also forthright over veganism, saying: You cant have a world without livestock. They are a necessary and very constructive part of our expectation to feed ourselves.

'Perhaps my biggest irritation is single-issue groups... We need livestock as part of the genuine mix that keeps land healthy.

Annes children Peter and Zara, and their families live on neighbouring Aston Farm.

She says her grandchildren  both Zaras girls Mia, six, and Lena, two, and Peter Phillipss daughters, Savannah, nine, and Isla, eight  all ride.

They do occasionally come over, she says. It gives them a change of scenery and a bit more water to play in.

I think on the whole youre very lucky if you can have children growing up on farms.

They have more time to themselves; theres an expectation that they will actually go out and enjoy themselves on their own. You dont watch them every minute of the day. That is quite important.

Anne turned down titles for her children when they were born, as Prince Harry and Meghan have done with son, Archie

She says she wouldnt live anywhere but the country, saying: Ive never been a city girl. There was never a question of living in London. It was not a world for me. Above, her Gatcombe Park home in Gloucestershire

You also get to understand that if you have livestock and animals, that is part of the deal, you look after them. Theyre not just a radish! If you want one, you have to look after it.

So ponies, dogs, whatever... thats all part of the deal... You have to try to get the message across that you have to work hard to keep a place like this.

She is not sure whether she will pass Gatcombe on to them, however, admitting her old house is expensive to run.

'My children have done incredibly well'

Anne turned down titles for her children when they were born, as Prince Harry and Meghan have done with son, Archie.

She described having a title as a 'very mixed blessing'. But she said her children had done 'incredibly well'.

Zara won silver in the team event at the London 2012 Olympics and was presented her medal by her mother

Daughter Zara, married to former England rugby star Mike Tindall, followed in her mother's footsteps to compete in the Olympic games in equestrian.

Anne was the first British royal to compete in the Olympics, when she too competed in equestrian at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal - she also won gold in the 1971 European Eventing Championships and two silver medals in 1975.

Zara meanwhile won silver in the team event at London 2012 and was presented her medal by her mother.

Her son Peter toured South Africa with the Scottish rugby team and now runs a sports entertainment agency.

She says she wouldnt live anywhere but the country, saying: Ive never been a city girl. There was never a question of living in London. It was not a world for me.

Anne says she has embraced the farming life for close to five decades now, and for the past 27 years has been joined in her passion by her second husband, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, focusing on rare-breed cattle, sheep, pigs, horses  with the pigs allowed to roam in their woodland.

However she said that she had not originally intended to take up farming.

She said that when she was given the estate as a gift from the Queen after her marrying first husband Captain Mark Phillips, that it had 'more land than we intended getting'.

Anne added that she still rides her horses every day and described her racehorse called Cloud Formation as 'the nicest, best-behaved horse I've had in years'.
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.

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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.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 17:17:30|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on July 16, 2020 shows broken glasses of a building at the site of a rocket attack in Ghazni city, Afghanistan. Five persons, all civilians, were injured Thursday as four rockets hit Ghazni city, the capital of eastern Ghazni province, amid Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani's visit to the city, confirmed an army statement released here. (Photo by Rohullah/Xinhua)

GHAZNI, Afghanistan, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Five persons, all civilians, were injured Thursday as four rockets hit Ghazni city, the capital of eastern Ghazni province, amid Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani's visit to the city, confirmed an army statement released here.

"Five civilians were injured after four rockets fired by Taliban insurgents slammed into Ghazni city," the statement said.

The attack, according to locals, took place amid the president's visit to the city to inspect the situation of the restive province.

Ghazni province with Ghazni city as its capital 125 km south of Kabul has been the scene of Taliban-led insurgency over the past couple of months as the armed outfit has been attempting to overrun the troubled province.
She embarked on her modelling career at the age of 16, after she was spotted by a talent scout while attending Reading Festival 20 years ago.

And Alexa Chung, 36, proved she has always had a flair for fashion on Wednesday, when she shared a snap of herself posing in stylish summer garb as a young girl.

The image, which was uploaded to Instagram, showed the British star looking adorable in a purple floral collared dress, teamed with a wide-brimmed hat.

Stylish: Alexa Chung, 36, proved she has always had a flair for fashion on Wednesday, when she shared a snap of herself posing in stylish summer garb as a young girl

Complementing her mid-sleeved gown with a pair of light grey half leggings, the budding star wore her honey brown locks in curls, which peeked from under her hat.

Captioning the snap, Alexa acknowledged her ensemble as she wrote: 'Child me fully nailed my summer wardrobe 2020.'

The star's Instagram post comes weeks after it was confirmed that her show, Next In Fashion, has been cancelled after just one season on Netfix.

Rise to fame: Alexa embarked on her modelling career at the age of 16, after she was spotted by a talent scout while attending Reading Festival 20 years ago. Pictured in Janaury

Designer Tan France, 37, spoke with Variety about the streaming platform's decision not to move forward with the show  co-hosted by model and presenter Alexa  saying he was proud to be a part of it.

Revealing the news, he explained: 'We're not doing a second a season. This is a one-season show, we don't know what will happen in the future.

'But it was honestly one of the proudest things I've ever worked on. I love the show and Alexa so much,' he gushed.

While he had teased the possibility of the show returning, Tan said of his future plans: 'My focus is definitely on Queer Eye and moving forward with that.'

Curtain call: It was recently announced that Alexa's show Next In Fashion has been cancelled after one season on Netfli, as co-host Tan France gushed about how proud he was of it

The fashion competition show saw a group of innovative designers go head-to-head to become the next big name in the industry, and win a $250,000 cash prize and the chance to debut their collection with Net-a-Porter.

South Korean designer Minju Kim was crowned the winner of the first season, after beating 17 hopefuls for the top spot.

Prior to her appearance on the show, Minju won the H&M Design Award and also designed clothing for K-Pop girl group Red Velvet and for megastars BTS.

Her collection has debuted with Net-a-Porter, and she recently admitted to the brand that being a part of the show made her realise she is 'capable of anything'.

Competition: The show saw a group of innovative designers go head-to-head to become the next big name in the industry, win $250,000, and debut their collection with Net-a-Porter
Technavio has been monitoring the feed acidulants market and it is poised to grow by 826.41 mn during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of 5% 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/20200716005417/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Feed Acidulants 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. Anpario Plc, BASF SE, BIOMIN Holding GmbH, Corbion NV, Impextraco NV, Kemin Industries Inc., Kemira Oyj, Novus International Inc., Tate Lyle Plc, and Yara International ASA 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.

The rise in disease outbreaks in livestock has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. However, the increasing demand for plant-based proteins will challenge the market growth.

Feed Acidulants Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Feed Acidulants Market is segmented as below:

Type Poultry Ruminant Swine Aquaculture Others

Geographic Landscape 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=IRTNTR40711

Feed Acidulants 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 feed acidulants market report covers the following areas:

Feed Acidulants Market size

Feed Acidulants Market trends

Feed Acidulants Market industry analysis

This study identifies the adoption of new technologies as one of the prime reasons driving the feed acidulants market growth during the next few years.

Feed Acidulants Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the feed acidulants market, including some of the vendors such as Anpario Plc, BASF SE, BIOMIN Holding GmbH, Corbion NV, Impextraco NV, Kemin Industries Inc., Kemira Oyj, Novus International Inc., Tate Lyle Plc, and Yara International ASA. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the feed acidulants market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Feed Acidulants Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist feed acidulants market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the feed acidulants market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the feed acidulants market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of feed acidulants market vendors

Table Of Contents :

PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT

Preface

Currency conversion rates for US$

PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE

Market ecosystem

Market characteristics

Market segmentation analysis

Value Chain Analysis

PART 04: MARKET SIZING

Market definition

Market sizing 2019

Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market Outlook

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: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE

PART 07: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024

North America 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

PART 08: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY ANIMAL TYPE

Market segmentation by animal type

Comparison by animal type

Poultry Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Ruminant Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Swine Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Aquaculture Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Others Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by animal type

PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK

PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES

Market drivers

Market challenges

PART 11: MARKET TRENDS

Adoption of new technologies

Increasing investments and focus on expanding production capabilities

Increasing demand for natural feed additives

PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Overview

Landscape disruption

Competitive scenario

PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

Anpario Plc

BASF SE

BIOMIN Holding GmbH

Corbion NV

Impextraco NV

Kemin Industries Inc.

Kemira Oyj

Novus International Inc.

Tate Lyle Plc

Yara International ASA

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/20200716005417/en/

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Some dog breeds have higher risk of developing certain cancers and joint disorders if neutered or spayed within their first year of life. Until now, studies had only assessed that risk in a few breeds.

A new, 10-year study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, examined 35 dog breeds and found vulnerability from neutering varies greatly depending on the breed. The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science.

"There is a huge disparity among different breeds," said lead author Benjamin Hart, distinguished professor emeritus at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Hart said there is no "one size fits all" when it comes to health risks and the age at which a dog is neutered.

"Some breeds developed problems, others didn't. Some may have developed joint disorders but not cancer or the other way around."

Researchers analyzed 15 years of data from thousands of dogs examined each year at the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital to try to understand whether neutering, the age of neutering, or differences in sex when neutered affect certain cancers and joint disorders across breeds.

The joint disorders examined include hip dysplasia, cranial cruciate ligament tears and elbow dysplasia. Cancers examined include lymphoma; hemangiosarcoma, or cancer of the blood vessel walls; mast cell tumors; and osteosarcoma, or bone cancer.

In most breeds examined, the risk of developing problems was not affected by age of neutering.

Breed differences by size and sex

Researchers found that vulnerability to joint disorders was related to body size.

The smaller breeds don't have these problems, while a majority of the larger breeds tend to have joint disorders." Lynette Hart, Study Co-Author and Professor, Veterinary Medicine, University of California-Davis

One of the surprising exceptions to this was among the two giant breeds -- great Danes and Irish wolfhounds -- which showed no increased risk to joint disorders when neutered at any age.

Researchers also found the occurrence of cancers in smaller dogs was low, whether neutered or kept intact. In two breeds of smaller dogs, the Boston terrier and the shih tzu, there was a significant increase in cancers with neutering.

Another important finding was that the sex of the dog sometimes made a difference in health risks when neutered. Female Boston terriers neutered at the standard six months of age, for example, had no increased risk of joint disorders or cancers compared with intact dogs, but male Boston terriers neutered before a year of age had significantly increased risks.

Previous studies have found that neutering or spaying female golden retrievers at any age increases the risk of one or more of the cancers from 5 percent to up to 15 percent.

Discuss choices with veterinarians

Dog owners in the United States are overwhelmingly choosing to neuter their dogs, in large part to prevent pet overpopulation, euthanasia or reduce shelter intake. In the U.S., surgical neutering is usually carried out by six months of age.

This study suggests that dog owners should carefully consider when and if they should have their dog neutered.

"We think it's the decision of the pet owner, in consultation with their veterinarian, not society's expectations that should dictate when to neuter," said Benjamin Hart. "This is a paradigm shift for the most commonly performed operation in veterinary practice."

The study lays out guidelines for pet owners and veterinarians for each of 35 breeds to assist in making a neutering decision.
By Jiraporn Kuhakan BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand opened its twice-postponed annual auto show to the public on Wednesday in the country's first large-scale event since coronavirus restrictions eased, with nearly all attendees wearing masks and face shields. Thailand is a major regional car production hub and its previous motor shows booked over a million people in attendance. Thermal scans were at the entrance to the 41st Bangkok International Motor Show and temperatures were measured as people visited booths, where waiting spots were prepared to ensure physical distancing

By Jiraporn Kuhakan

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand opened its twice-postponed annual auto show to the public on Wednesday in the country's first large-scale event since coronavirus restrictions eased, with nearly all attendees wearing masks and face shields.

Thailand is a major regional car production hub and its previous motor shows booked over a million people in attendance.

Thermal scans were at the entrance to the 41st Bangkok International Motor Show and temperatures were measured as people visited booths, where waiting spots were prepared to ensure physical distancing.

Guests were also required to check-in and out with their cellphones to allow for contact tracing.

"I don't come to the event every year, but I think for the first day of the event amid a pandemic, people are in quite large numbers," said Suriya Thanakorn, 50, who was on the lookout for a new car.

Motor shows around the world have been forced to cancel or delay due to the pandemic.

But Thailand has pressed ahead having gone nearly seven weeks without local transmission of the virus, which has infected just over 3,000 people, most of which have recovered.

Chief organiser Prachin Eamlumnow said eyes will be on how Thailand handles one of the first big global shows since the pandemic started.

"No country can arrange an event on this scale, so the other event organizers will be watching," he said. "We have succeeded in controlling COVID-19."

There are 25 car brands including Nissan and BMW and 22 motorcycle manufacturers on show at booths with specific entry and exit points to prevent crowding.

Ramesh Narasimhan, president of Nissan Thailand, said the stringent measures should be maintained to ensure good attendance throughout the 12-day event.

"It's really important for us to keep it for the entire show, but the first signs are very, very positive, so I'm pretty excited about that," he said.

(Writing by Chayut Setboonsarng; Editing by Martin Petty)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
When they found out Bill was retiring, they approached me about running it, said Jeff Ukrop, who was already serving on the Ukrops Threads board. I thought to myself that if I am ever going to make a change back into the family business, this was a really unique opportunity. Maybe now is the time to do it.

The business was started as Ukrops Dress Express in 1993 to provide uniforms for the grocery chains employees. The uniform company was spun off from the grocery business in 1998 and expanded its focus. The name changed in 2017.

Today, Ukrops Threads provides custom-branded uniforms and corporate apparel for supermarkets, convenience store chains, theme parks, quick-serve restaurants and other businesses. It supplies the uniforms to more than 1,500 locations for more than 1 million employees.

Since Ukrops Threads was created, the business has been managed by nonfamily members. John Carrico was president and CEO from its early days until Biedenharn took over a couple of years ago.

It is a family business but there is a level of independence from the family in terms of day-to-day operations. From that regard, [the CEO job] was appealing, Jeff Ukrop said.
PITTSBURGH, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- WESCO International, Inc. (NYSE: WCC) will hold its second quarter 2020 earnings conference call on Thursday, August 13, at 10:00 a.m. ET. Dial-in details are below. The live audio webcast and presentation slides of the earnings call will be accessible via WESCO's Investor Relations website, www.wesco.investorroom.com. The link to the webcast replays will be posted in the Events and Webcasts section of WESCO's Investor Relations website.

WESCO completed the merger of Anixter International on June 22. The timing of the second quarter earnings call was adjusted to provide additional time to prepare the financial statements and complete the purchase price allocation of the business combination.

Second Quarter 2020 Earnings Call Dial-In Access Live Access Replay Access US Participant Dial-in: 1-877-443-5356

International Participant Dial-in: 1-412-902-6614

Canada Participant Dial-in: 1-855-669-9657

Confirmation Code: Ask for the "WESCO" conference call US Replay: 1-877-344-7529

International Replay: 1-412-317-0088

Canada Replay: 1-855-669-9658

Replay available: From 2:00 p.m. ET on August 13 to 9:00 a.m. ET on August 20 Confirmation Code: 10146027

About WESCO

WESCO International, Inc. (NYSE: WCC), a publicly traded FORTUNE 500 company headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a leading provider of business-to-business distribution, logistics services and supply chain solutions. Pro forma 2019 annual sales were over $17 billion, including Anixter International which it acquired in June 2020. WESCO offers a best-in-class product and services portfolio of Electrical and Electronic Solutions, Communications and Security Solutions, and Utility and Broadband Solutions. The company employs over 18,000 people, maintains relationships with over 30,000 suppliers, and serves more than 150,000 customers worldwide. With nearly 1.5 million products, end-to-end supply chain services, and leading digital capabilities, WESCO provides innovative solutions to meet current customer needs across commercial and industrial businesses, contractors, government agencies, institutions, telecommunications providers, and utilities. WESCO operates nearly 800 branch and warehouse locations in over 50 countries, providing a local presence for customers and a global network to serve multi-location businesses and multi-national corporations.

http://www.wesco.com

SOURCE WESCO International, Inc.

Related Links

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A rescue dog who dived into an estuary was reunited with her delighted owners four days later - after she appeared miles away on the opposite bank.

Colin Wyper was distraught after his pet Heidi vanished into the river Dee in Scotland on Friday, when she was spooked by nearby children on bicycles.

The dog had bolted two miles from Kirkcudbright to Mutehill before jumping into the estuary and swimming away on a strong ebb tide.

Her disappearance sparked a two-hour search by the Kirkcudbright lifeboat, with family and volunteers continuing a hunt along the coast over the weekend.

Searches drew a blank and Mr Wyper, 63, feared Heidi had been lost at sea.

But on Monday, the dog owner was delighted when she was spotted on farmland at Ross Bay - four miles across the Dee Estuary.

Colin Wyper was distraught after his pet Heidi vanished into the river Dee in Scotland on Friday, when she was spooked by nearby children on bicycles. Pictured: Mr Wyper and Heidi

Mr Wyper said he is 'over the moon' Heidi has been found, as he feared she had 'probably drowned' after a lengthy disappearance.

Obviously [daughter] Emma, myself and all of us are over the moon,' he said.

'Our whole family has been involved and were out eight hours on Saturday and again on Sunday. Other folk were out looking and there was even one guy with a drone.

'We had 550 shares on Facebook but after two full days' searching we gave up and thought she had probably drowned.

'I'd just like to say a massive thanks to everybody for their concern, help and advice in looking for Heidi.'

Four-year-old Heidi was found by rescue charity Save a Mastin in a Spanish 'kill shelter', a death row for strays, before she was adopted by the Wypers in Scotland.

Her traumatic early life the dog very nervous, which left to her terrified reaction when confronted by young boys on pushbikes last Friday.

The dog (pictured with Mr Wyper and his daughter Emma) had bolted two miles from Kirkcudbright to Mutehill before jumping into the estuary and swimming away on a strong ebb tide

Her disappearance sparked a two-hour search by the Kirkcudbright lifeboat, with family and volunteers continuing a hunt along the coast over the weekend

Pictured: The distance Heidi travelled after disappearing into the Dee in Scotland

'Heidi was a stray dog in Malaga in Spain,' said Mr Wyper. 'She has been very timid since we brought her here.

'She got a real fright from some young lads on pushbikes. I never got her on the lead in time and she just took off.

'Myself and another guy went in the water but Heidi just kept on swimming out to sea. Somebody called the lifeboat and they spent two hours looking for her up and down the shore.

'She swam four miles from where she went in to where she was found.'

After making land, Heidi was soon in trouble again and was spotted chasing sheep.

Mr Wyper's daughter Emma immediately phoned the farmer to plead for Heidi's life.

'The farmer has a sign up saying stray dogs will be shot,' said Mr Wyper. 'But my daughter knows the farmer and phoned to say please don't shoot her.

'One sheep had died from fright and I'm paying for the loss... There were no marks on the sheep - only where the crows have been at her.'
MALAYSIA, July 16, 2020 - (ACN Newswire) - Business infrastructure software vendor Software AG honoured Infomina Sdn Bhd as "Best New Partner" at its 2020 Asia Pacific Japan Partner Awards. In 2019, Infomina partnered with Software AG to drive the successful implementation of webMethods, an integration and API management solution, which combines essential capabilities critical for digital businesses.According to Ernst and Young, Asia Pacific is foreseen to become the most advanced region for digital transformation in two years, with 87% of Asia Pacific companies expected to advance on their transformation journeys, given the region's commitment to innovation, investment in technology including artificial intelligence and cloud, and a customer-centric focus.At the heart of accelerating digital transformation for clients, webMethods is teeming with new and state-of-the-art capabilities. The focus is to help organisations overcome obstacles around modernisation, strategically positioning the business for future hardwire growth across Asia.Established over a decade ago, Infomina provides consultation, application development, system and infrastructure support, as well as managed services to webMethods clients. Armed with a credible and robust go-to-market strategy, ably supported by a skilful team, Infomina helps clients build competitive advantage by guiding them to make sound and informed decisions in their digital transformation journey.Mr Yee Chee Meng, Managing Director, Infomina said, "At Infomina, we strive to deliver leading-edge technology solutions to our customers that provide the most impactful business value. Beyond establishing a strong footprint in Malaysia as a starting point in our collaboration with Software AG, we are excited to expand and grow this partnership across Asia."The first collaborative effort between Software AG and Infomina resulted in a successful win for both parties in less than five months of engaging in an opportunity for a local automotive client. The element of trust and combined subject matter expertise strongly created and swiftly accelerated the deal to closure.Mr Yee continued, "The team is thrilled to win this award. Infomina's quest in this partnership is to develop and grow local talent to deliver the best-of-breed software technology and service support team to customers."Amidst the sea of integration solution providers today, Software AG and Infomina both take pride in understanding different market dynamics and clients' needs to propose a value-added solution that aligns with business demands. Coupled with Infomina's strong relationships with key customers, this partnership will entail high quality delivery in the identified market."A proven track record of successful use cases and customer satisfaction, Infomina has demonstrated a strong understanding and sound business acumen in the identified market segment, and is a trusted advisor to influence both business and IT stakeholders. This is a strategic and win-win partnership between Infomina and Software AG to penetrate, grow and expand market share," said Anneliese Schulz, President, APJ, Software AG.About Software AGWe reimagine integration, spark business transformation and enable fast innovation on the Internet of Things so you can pioneer differentiating business models. We give you the freedom to connect and integrate any technology - from app to edge. We help you free data from silos so it's shareable, usable and powerful - enabling you to make the best decisions and unlock entirely new possibilities for growth. Learn more about Software AG and Freedom as a Service at www.softwareag.com.About InfominaEstablished in 2007, Infomina is one of leading ICT solution providers, our focus encompasses the Six pillars of core enabler: Build, Manage, Accelerate, Secure, Support and Mainframe Specialization. With over 10 years of industry experience, we strive to deliver the leading technology solution for our customers and provide the most impactful business value.Source: Software AGCopyright 2020 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.
The state Education Department on Thursday released its much-anticipated guidance to school districts on how to reopen amid the Covid-19 pandemic come September, but even before educators had a chance to peruse the lengthy document, one question stood out:

Will it be enough?

Coming into Thursday, school districts were looking for as many specifics as possible to answer myriad questions about how they would pull off reopening schools with all the proper health and safety guidelines while facing a deadline for submitting their own plans to the state just two weeks from now.

I think they were thoughtful in their approach, its clear their priorities are the same as our priorities," Hamburg Superintendent Michael Cornell said. When we have in-person instruction it needs to be done safely.

As with any document, especially one that has the reach and impact of this document, there will be different interpretations and the need for clarification, Cornell said.

The Education Department's 144-page report lays out what local educators should keep in mind as they plan the reopening, whether it is in-person classes, remote learning or a hybrid combination of the two.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Gov. Andrew Cuomo has finally gone too far in boasting about New Yorks response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Even CNN, home to Cuomos newsman brother, Chris Cuomo, could no longer let the govs braggadocio stand without pushback.

All it took was a poster.

Youve heard of the poster by now, Cuomos self-designed paean to himself, done in the vintage style of a 19th century political placard. The kind of poster that William Jennings Bryan, P.T. Barnum or Buffalo Bill Cody might have graced.

Under the heading Love Wins, the poster shows the states journey up the mountain of COVID-19, and its descent down the other side after 111 Days of Hell.

The poster lampoons President Donald Trump, while Cuomo and his aides are mythologized with the slogan New York State Leads Again.

Cuomo has often boasted about how New York tamed the beast of coronavirus. Hes talked about how we followed the science and did it right, while other (red) states followed the politics and re-opened too soon.

And Cuomo has been vindicated, to a point, by the rise in coronavirus cases seen in Florida, Texas and Arizona. Oh, and California, which is a big blue state. Strangely, we dont hear about the Golden States travails nearly as much as we do the Sunshine States.

But you know what New York State really leads in? Coronavirus deaths, with more than 32,000 (even if the state officially recognizes 25,003 confirmed deaths).

Either way, few countries have numbers like that. And no state comes close. New Jersey is the only one even in the neighborhood, with over 15,000.

Cuomo has endlessly told us to follow the facts. Those are the facts. Not opinion. Not politics.

CNNs Jake Tapper slammed the governor this week, noting that Cuomos poster had no illustration of those tens of thousands of lives lost here during the pandemic.

Nor was there any representation of how the state ordered nursing homes to accept recovering COVID-19 patients from hospitals, forbidding the nursing homes from even asking if the patients had tested positive for the virus.

That move cost lives, even if the whitewash Department of Health report issued the other day said that nursing home admissions from hospitals were not a driver of nursing home infections or fatalities.

Au contraire.

They really need to own the fact that they made a mistake, that it was never right to send COVID patients into nursing homes and that people died because of it, Dr. Michael Wasserman, president of the California Association of Long Term Care Medicine, told the Associated Press.

But the Health Department had the temerity to blame nursing home workers for spreading the virus, when its just as likely that the workers were infected by sick patients.

So much for honoring the heroic, front-line health-care workers who put themselves at risk to battle coronavirus.

Cuomo has done good things during the pandemic. His daily briefings were for a long time the best place to get information on the pandemic. He ramped up testing statewide, including building the citys first drive-through testing facility, in Ocean Breeze. The state opened a hospital facility in the South Beach Psychiatric Center as well when the city gave Staten Island the back of its hand.

But those press briefings that were once must-see TV have turned into tired, repetitive harangues, with Cuomo ranting at Trump and red-state lawmakers. The governor seems convinced that if he shouts his version of history loudly enough and often enough, people will have to believe it.

But no amount of huffing and puffing, and no hagiographic, propaganda artwork, can change the fact that tens of thousands of dead New Yorkers are nothing to pat yourself on the back about.
KBTX-TV reported that in June, Texas A&M senior Isaih Martin alerted the university police when he allegedly discovered handwritten messages reading All lives matter and You dont belong here, along with a third listing the N-word, on his vehicle, which he had parked at an apartment complex on the schools property.

Martin posted a photo of the notes to a Twitter account that has since been made private. According to KBTX, the university responded to his post, asking him to report the incident.

For them to tell me I dont belong here, when I have earned my spot like everybody else here, and am working to get a degree like everyone else is, that was just kind of hurtful because if anything I deserve to be here just as much as anybody else, Martin commented at the time.

Acts of racism are irreconcilable with the values we uphold here at Texas A&M University. Those who promote hate, discrimination and disrespect are not welcomed at this institution. We are tired of bigoted members of our community marring the experiences of students of color, Texas A&M President Michael K. Young said in a statement following the incident.

He also announced that the university would offer a $1,200 reward to anyone who could provide information to identify the person responsible for the act.

Let me be clear: Incidents like the one yesterday have no place at Texas A&M. Anyone who believes that hate is acceptable is not wanted at Texas A&M.

Texas A&M police reported Thursday that, based on surveillance video footage , Martin likely placed the notes on his car himself. Footage taken from nearby cameras shows that passers-by may have come close to Martins car, but were only near the vehicle for a few seconds.

The police report, obtained by KBTX, reads that Martin was seen moving around his vehicle, with two different "white specks" held in the area of his chest. The footage also showed him stepping back and onto the sidewalk in front of his vehicle, most likely taking photos and videos. He then approaches his vehicle again on the passenger side and remains there for a few moments. He is then seen walking around the front of his vehicle. Martin then enters the drivers door and drives away a few moments later. The total time spent at his vehicle is 1 minute, 15 seconds.

No one besides Martin had sufficient time to place the notes on his car, the police concluded.

Martin told KBTX over the phone a few days ago that he would no longer be continuing the investigation with the police. He has made his Twitter account private, and he claims innocence, saying one of the people who passed by his car was responsible for the act.

Police have closed the case, as the county attorneys office deemed that leaving the notes fell under First Amendment speech protections and did not constitute a crime. Neither would the incident be considered a false report, since the event reported was not a crime.

As a public university, Texas A&M is limited by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) on providing specific student information and therefore will be unable to provide additional details, the school said following the closure of the case.
DALLAS, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC ("Oncor") plans to release its second quarter 2020 results on August 5, prior to Sempra Energy's (NYSE: SRE) second quarter 2020 conference call. Oncor's earnings release will be available on Oncor's website, oncor.com.

Sempra Energy will conduct a conference call at 12 p.m. ET, August 5 that will include discussion of Oncor's second quarter operational and financial results. Investors, media, analysts and the public may listen to a live webcast of the conference call on Sempra Energy's website, sempra.com, by clicking on the appropriate audio link. Prior to the conference call, an accompanying slide presentation will be posted on Sempra Energy's website.

For those unable to participate in the live webcast, a replay of Sempra Energy's call will be available a few hours after its conclusion on Sempra Energy's website or by dialing (888) 203-1112 and entering passcode 3865285.

Oncor's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2020 will be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after Sempra Energy's conference call and, once filed, will also be available at oncor.com.

Headquartered in Dallas, Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC is a regulated electricity distribution and transmission business that uses superior asset management skills to provide reliable electricity delivery to consumers. Oncor (together with its subsidiaries) operates the largest distribution and transmission system in Texas, delivering power to more than 3.7 million homes and businesses and operating more than 139,000 miles of transmission and distribution lines in Texas. While Oncor is owned by two investors (indirect majority owner, Sempra Energy, and minority owner, Texas Transmission Investment LLC), Oncor is managed by its Board of Directors, which is comprised of a majority of disinterested directors.

SOURCE Oncor Electric Delivery Company, LLC

Related Links

https://www.oncor.com


The U.S. Departments of State, Treasury, Commerce, and Homeland Security have issued a business advisory cautioning U.S. companies about the reputational, economic, and legal risks of supply chain links to entities that engage in human rights abuses, including forced labor in Xinjiang and elsewhere in China.

Since April 2017, the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) has ramped up its campaign of systematic repression of Uighurs and members of other Muslim minority groups that includes widespread arbitrary detention, coercive population control, and forced labor. Targeted against ethnic and religious minorities, Chinas use of forced labor is no longer confined to the Xinjiang region but is increasingly taking place across the country, warned Secretary Pompeo.

The advisory warns U.S. businesses about three main types of supply chain exposure to entities engaged in human rights abuses. The first is assisting in developing surveillance tools for the PRC government in Xinjiang. The second is relying on labor or goods sourced in Xinjiang, or from companies elsewhere in China that may be implicated in forced labor in their supply chains.

The final most common supply chain exposure to entities engaged in human rights abuses comes in the form of aiding in the construction of internment camps used for the detention of Uighurs and members of other minority groups and/or the construction of manufacturing facilities that are near forced labor camps.

In a letter to U.S. business leaders, Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Keith Krach, urged corporate responsibility. Today this means refusing to participate in human rights violations and deals that, in the words of Secretary of State Pompeo, tighten a regimes grip of repression.

Under Secretary Krach called on the board of directors for each American company that does business in China to conduct a detailed analysis of the supply chain to reveal who their company is buying from and who it is selling to.

I am confident, wrote Under Secretary Krach, that [the American] business community will reject any involvement or association with the oppression in Xinjiang  first, because it is the right thing to do, and second, because of the significant legal and business risks involved.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2020) - NetCents Technology Inc. (CSE: NC) (FSE: 26N) (OTCQB: NTTCF) ("NetCents" or the "Company"), a cryptocurrency payments technologies Company, is pleased to announce the addition of Jannis Flachsmann to the Advisory Board.

Mr. Flachsmann is a Senior Attorney at GHM Partners AG focusing on Legal, Tax, and Fiduciary Matters. Previously, he was an attorney at the firms of Weidmann Rudolf & Partner and Lichtsteiner Rechtsanwaelte. Mr. Flachmann also worked at the Civil Court of the Canton of Zug, Switzerland. Notable about his experience is that he has lived and worked in Zug, Switzerland, for almost his entire career. Zug is a highly respected hub for legal and technology matters relating to the growing cryptocurrency industry. Mr. Flachsmann has been admitted to the bar in Switzerland, and obtained his Masters of Law (LL.M.) degree from Fordham University in New York.

"I have been watching the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry mature for the last few years, but I think that 90% of the growth is still to come," stated Mr. Flachsmann. "I am very excited to bring my unique experience, legal skillset, and connections to NetCents."

"Mr. Flachsmann will bring a unique dimension to our advisory board and add immensely to our capabilities to react to a very dynamic landscape," stated Clayton Moore, Founder and CEO of NetCents Technology. "The taxation considerations of cryptocurrency are extremely complicated. Having someone as well versed as Mr. Flachsmann will give us a strategic edge in winning the large international corporate customers we are now soliciting."

NetCents continues the buildout of its European presence, including specific resources dedicated to servicing European customers from an operational, banking, and sales perspective. "Europeans are more focused on having financial capabilities that aren't tied directly to government agencies. They are more open to the cryptocurrency products we are building, so we are going to capitalize on that momentum," added Mr. Moore.

Story continues

The Company is looking forward to sharing developments with investors regarding its European efforts. In addition, NetCents has engaged FXCT Media Inc. ("FXCT") for investor relation services. FXCT has been paid a fee of US$190,000 for a term of twelve months. FXCT is a digital marketing agency specializing in online investor awareness for publicly traded companies. FXCT reaches a broad range of investors and institutions through highly targeted placement on financial media platforms.

About NetCents

NetCents Technology Inc, the transactional hub for all cryptocurrency payments, equips forward-thinking businesses with the technology to seamlessly integrate cryptocurrency processing into their payment model without taking on the risk or volatility of the crypto market. NetCents Technology is registered as a Money Services Business (MSB) with FINTRAC.

For more information, please visit the corporate website at www.net-cents.com or contact Investor Relations: investor@net-cents.com.

To keep up on the latest - make sure to join the telegram channel http://t.me/NetCents

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

NetCents Technology Inc.

"Clayton Moore"

Clayton Moore, CEO, Founder and Director

NetCents Technology Inc.

1000 - 1021 West Hastings Street

Vancouver, BC, V6E 0C3

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include regulatory actions, market prices, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates, and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/59910
Listen to Outbreak Alabama: Stories from a Pandemic, above.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey issued a statewide mask order, stating a face covering must be worn in public when in close contact with other people. Learn more about the order.

It carries a penalty of $500 or jail time. The order goes into effect today at 5 p.m. and will remain in effect until at least July 31. And as Alabama has seen a sharp increase in the number of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, the order supersedes any local regulations.

CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield has said that if everyone would wear a mask right now, he estimates that in about two months or so, we could drive this epidemic to the ground.

As of Wednesday, Alabama had 58,225 confirmed cases, with 1,183 confirmed deaths, up 47 from Tuesday, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health. And as of yesterday, Alabama had 1,353 coronavirus hospitalizations, the highest it has reported.

We spoke to two people regarding the new mask order, including someone who supports it, as many do while case and death numbers continue to spike in Alabama. But there are people who oppose the order, and wearing masks in public.

One is Jonathan Hunt, a 36-year-old man from Shelby County, who chooses not to wear a mask, citing a lack of evidence that wearing a mask will prevent him from catching COVID-19. He also talks about any mask order infringing on his civil liberties and why may not even wear one in spite of Iveys announcement.

We also spoke to Robyn Hammontree (the spouse of my colleague John Hammontree), who works as an instructional designer at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Robyn describes herself as a person who is at higher risk during the pandemic and frequently urges people to take necessary precautions to slow the spread, including wearing masks to protect vulnerable people. Shes very anxious about the virus, so much so that she hasnt gone out in public during the pandemic, with very few exceptions.

More from Outbreak Alabama:

COVID-19s psychological toll

Setting the wrong records

What its like to have coronavirus

Its not about you

The death rate

Its on us, yall

The unemployment crisis

Trending the wrong direction

Do we even want a football season?

Where is God right now?

Are you ready for concerts again?

CNNs Kaitlan Collins on covering COVID-19 and Trump

Protesting during a pandemic

Cases are surging in Tuscaloosa

Nick Saban steps it up

Whats next for schools?

The spike in Montgomery

Astonishing disparities in the rural South

Where is the nursing home data?

Is it a mistake to reopen now?

Whiter Thomas on staying creative during the pandemic

Our successes and failures so far

The return of retail

A barbers dilemma

Is it really time to reopen Alabama?

A coronavirus survivors message to the rest of us

Ivey not ready to reopen just yet

Crime in the age of coronavirus

What role do our churches play?

The absence of sports

Learning from a distance

Walt Maddox on leading Tuscaloosa through coronavirus

Social distancing, or not

Coronavirus early impact on musicians

Alabama restaurants
Traveling down Highway 41A from Sewanee is the little town of Cowan which is seven miles from the domain of the University of the South and is six miles from the county seat of Winchester in Franklin County, Tennessee. Nestled at the foot of the Cumberland Mountains, Cowan is a village that exists because of the railroad. Since 1849, when construction began on boring a railroad tunnel through the mountain two miles northeast of the town, the railroad has been an integral part of Cowan.

The Cumberland Mountain Tunnel was finished in 1852 before the railroad actually made it to Cowan from Nashville. In the 1840s a group of investors organized what would be the first railroad in Tennessee linking Nashville and Chattanooga. It was originally called the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad. Later when the railroad expanded to Memphis and St. Louis, it was popularly known as the NC&StL Railroad.

In the 1850s engineers decided to dig a tunnel through the Cumberland Mountain because it costs a lot more to lay track over or through mountains than it does to lay track on flat land. The actual construction began in 1847. The digging of the 2,200-foot tunnel was the most difficult part of the project. The work was done mostly by either Irish immigrants or slaves leased to the railroad. The conditions were hard with the work being performed all day and the workers sleeping in makeshift shelters or on the ground. Three continuous shifts were employed to complete the project. All the work was done by hand and many workers died doing the tunnel project.

The railroad was completed in May 1851 and it was considered an important date in the development of the State of Tennessee. Cowan was not the only town to come into existence as a result of the railroad being built. Decherd, Tullahoma and Stevenson, Alabama all owe their existence to the railroad. During the Civil War the Union Army followed the Nashville and Chattanooga southeast through Murfreesboro from Nashville to Bridgeport and Stevenson, Alabama and then into Chattanooga.

The railroad line also led to the development of coal mining in Tracy City and other parts of Grundy County and the Sewanee area as well as the creation of the University of the South in 1858. A wooden frame depot was built in 1904 and that building is where the museum houses its collection. With decline of railroad passenger service, the NC&StL merged with the Louisville and Nashville (L&N) and would eventually become part of the CSX Railway system.

Also present at Cowan was an engine and car repair facility in support of the steam-powered pusher engines that hauled trains up and over the Cumberland Mountain because of the steep grade and sharp curves. Prior to the demise of passenger trains in the 1960s, the pusher (or helper) engines would be attached by coupling on to the front whereas freight trains were pushed from the rear.

The train station sat vacant for decades but was saved by a campaign by the citizens of Cowan not to tear it down. As a result the station has been turned into the Cowan Railroad Museum and the many railroad worker families in the community donated many items that relate to the historical existence of the railroad such as history books, model trains and antique maps. The museum grounds feature a Porter-type steam locomotive, a diesel-electric switch locomotive, boxcar, flat car and a rare NC&StL caboose.

One of the other local attractions that existed until December 31, 2019 was the old railroad hotel that was operated for many years. Hopefully a new owner will reopen the Franklin-Pearson Hotel across the tracks as it was Franklin Countys oldest hotel facility. In 2008, the Cowan Depot received a face-lift with an old bandstand being converted into a train watching platform and in 2011 the station was painted in green and yellow colors.

A Fall Heritage Festival is held every year and this year is tentatively scheduled for September 18-20, 2020. The museum is located at 108 Front Street, Cowan, and is normally open May through October on Thursday-Saturday 10 a.m.-4 p.m. (CST) and on Sunday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. (CST). Other times can be arranged by appointment and information can be obtained at (931) 967-3078. Admission prices are $2.00/adult; $1.00/child with $5.00 per family. Members of the military get in free.

Take a step back in history to visit a railroad town!

* * *

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
Hopes for coronavirus vaccine raised amid reports Oxford jab could give double protection

Hopes for a successful coronavirus vaccine have been raised after scientists in Oxford reported trials showing positive early results.

Researchers believe they have made a breakthrough after discovering the jab could provide "double protection" against the virus, it has been reported.

The phase 1 trial in healthy adult volunteers showed the vaccine generated an immune response, with blood samples indicating it stimulated the body to produce both antibodies and "killer T-cells.

David Carpenter, chairman of the Berkshire Research Ethics Committee, which approved the Oxford trial and continues to work with scientists on amendments, said the team were "absolutely on track.

Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk Twitter accounts hacked in apparent major cryptocurrency scam

The Twitter accounts of Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk were among those hacked in what appeared to be a major cryptocurrency scam.

Official social media platforms for Kanye West, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Apple and Uber were also targeted.

Twitter said it was a "co-ordinated" attack targeting its employees "with access to internal systems and tools".

Police body-cam footage offers devastating account of George Floyds fatal arrest in Minneapolis

Newly available body-camera video from two Minneapolis police officers involved in George Floyd's arrest shows him pleading with officers in the minutes before his death.

Mr Floyd tells officers he is "not a bad guy" as they try to wrestle him into a squad car. A few minutes later he lays face down on the street and the cameras record his fading voice as he eventually goes motionless.

A district judge declined to allow the video's publication but allowed news outlets to view the footage , which show the clearest picture yet of Mr Floyd's last moments in Minneapolis on May 25.

Almost a third of UK firms plan to axe jobs in next three months, report warns

Nearly a third of UK firms plan to lay off staff over the next three months as the coronavirus pandemic's devastating impact on Britain's job market continues, according to a report.

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) quarterly recruitment outlook revealed that 29 per cent of 7,400 firms surveyed expect to axe jobs over the third quarter. This is a record high for the study.

The report - compiled in conjunction with Totaljobs - found that 28 per cent of firms polled had already cut roles between April and June.

It also showed that 41 per cent of large companies and 41 per cent of small and medium-sized firms expect to cut staff over the next quarter, with 18 per cent of micro businesses forecasting workforce reductions.

Kanye West secures Oklahoma presidential election ballot spot

Kanye West has qualified to appear on the presidential ballot in Oklahoma, securing a spot on the final day before the deadline passed.

The rapper and fashion designer filed the necessary paperwork yesterday, the state's election board said.

It means he could appear on the ballot in at least one state during November's US election.

He would be up against President Donald Trump and the Democratic Party challenger Joe Biden.

On this day...

622: The traditional starting day of the Islamic Era, when a persecuted Muhammad fled from Mecca to Medina.

1918: The last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, was murdered by the Bolsheviks along with his entire family in the cellar of a house in Ekaterinburg.

1935: The world's first parking meters went into service in Oklahoma, devised by newspaper editor Carlton Magee.

1945: The first atomic bomb was detonated at an airbase in the desert of New Mexico.

1965: The seven-mile Mont Blanc road tunnel was opened, linking France with Italy.

1970: The first state of emergency in Britain since 1926 was called by Prime Minister Edward Heath as dockers went on strike.
A smart phone with the icons for the social networking apps WeChat and others seen on the screen on June 29 2018 in Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

Tencent has launched tools to help merchants build virtual shops on its wildly popular WeChat messaging service in China, pitting itself against the country's major online shopping giants Alibaba and JD.com.

Businesses and merchants will be allowed to sign up for a test of the e-commerce product, known as WeChat Minishop.

WeChat is China's most popular messaging app with over a billion users. It is a key part of life in the world's second-largest economy.

WeChat is often dubbed a "super-app" because consumers can purchase flights and use payments, all within the app.

Tencent has had so-called e-commerce "mini-programs" or apps within its WeChat messaging service for a while.

But this new tool will allow a vendor to create an e-commerce mini-program inside WeChat using Tencent's tool instead of relying on expensive developers. It won't be a centralized system like JD.com or Alibaba's Taobao, but it could help Tencent draw away smaller businesses away from these platforms.
President Donald Trump told CBS News this week that, I know people that like the Confederate flag and theyre not thinking about slavery. He also called it an expression of free speech. Doesnt the president realize that it commemorates the biggest act of treason ever perpetrated against the United States of America? Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederate States of America, had this to say: ... the great truth [is] that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition.

And what about the Ohio House Republicans who voted down a proposed ban on Confederate memorabilia at county fairs. Ohio was not part of the Confederacy but, by their actions, the Ohio GOP and President Trump are showing their true colors.

Robert Rudoff,

North Ridgeville
The Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas has lived along the South Texas Rio Grande delta for centuries. Fossil fuel companies are planning three projects that would trample on our sacred burial grounds and degrade the environment, but state law restricts our tribe from protecting the lands we have inhabited since time immemorial. The law largely prevents us from exercising our constitutional right to protest by imposing the threat of draconian fines and incarceration for acts of civil disobedience. We recently held a virtual tribunal to compile a detailed record of the harms posed by these projects.

The message from state policymakers is clear: Its okay to break the law to open a hair salon during a pandemic, but if the rights of communities of color are violated, critics should stay in the shadows.

Fossil fuel companies have long desecrated sacred land and disregarded environmental protections. The three projects  Texas LNG, the Rio Grande LNG and Annova LNG, all natural gas export terminals to be built in Brownsville  are just a few of the latest attacks from fossil fuel companies on our communities.

One of the terminals  Texas LNG  would run through the Garcia Pasture  a sacred area to our tribe with honored burial sites and artifacts. The National Park Service noted that the site is one of the premier prehistoric archaeological sites in Cameron County. The pasture is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Our ancestors are buried there.

All three projects would also create significant environmental harms. They would threaten local wildlife, significantly degrade air quality during construction and increase greenhouse gas emissions, among other impacts. When the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission  the federal agency in charge of evaluating such projects  approved the plans, one of its members, Richard Glick, slammed the decision and stated that the assessment was not the product of reasoned decision-making. He lamented that the environmental impact assessments did not adequately consider the greenhouse gases that would be released. Local residents and environmental groups have also filed lawsuits against the projects citing potential pollution and danger to wildlife.

Despite all of this, the projects are chugging along. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality issued the project its air permit  meaning state regulators have deemed the project plan consistent with air quality regulations. That further clears the way for the project to move along.

Our tribe has been denied a voice in this fight. Even though we are truly indigenous to this part of Texas, our pleas are often ignored because we are not recognized at the federal level. Holding signs while standing on the sidewalk will not save our sacred lands. For our voices to be heard, for our constitutional right to free speech to be meaningful, our state must respect our right to protect our lands through bringing public attention to the human rights violations were facing. While all such acts come with risk, the consequences should not put this important tradition of seeking redress out of reach.

In June 2019, Texas lawmakers passed a bill imposing hefty fines on people who try to block or interrupt so-called critical infrastructure. People who attempt to block a pipeline construction site could be convicted of a felony and thrown in jail for two years and slapped with a $10,000 fine. Even entering a facility and intending to disrupt operations is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine. Unsurprisingly, major fossil fuel companies spearheaded the charge to get this law on the books.

Lets be clear: These laws are a corporate ploy to oppress and penalize those whose communities are at risk of being invaded and colonized by hazardous projects. Export terminals are simply not critical infrastructure; true critical infrastructure is the water, land, fire and one another. And the work of our tribe is not protesting, interruption, blocking, or civil disobedience. Its protecting the land weve nurtured for centuries.

Across the country, fossil fuel companies are able to leverage their immense influence and money to trample the rights of indigenous groups. We mustnt allow this to continue to happen. Were fighting the gentrification of the human soul. Like other communities in the U.S., tribes deserve the right to self-determination, self-preservation, and to stay in their communities without fear of land desecration or environmental damage.

Juan Macias is the Tribal chairman of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas. Christa Mancias is the secretary of the Tribe.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 18:46:35|Editor: huaxia

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WELLINGTON, July 16 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon has launched the "Racism is No Joke" campaign to raise awareness of racism against Chinese and other Asian New Zealanders.

"Since COVID-19, we've seen an increase in racism against Chinese and other Asian New Zealanders ... This campaign will address online racism that often manifests itself in anti-Asian memes and jokes," Foon said in a statement on Thursday.

"These are completely unacceptable, and I know that most New Zealanders don't find them funny either. We want to raise awareness of the impact this racism is having on Chinese and Asian communities and encourage people to stop sharing Asian 'jokes'," Foon said.

A total of 95 complaints were received by New Zealand's Human Rights Commission from Asian people between September 2019 and June 30, 2020. Of these, 53 were COVID-19 related and 42 were not, according to the commission.

A three-fold increase has been seen in the number of race-related complaints received from Asian people by the Asian Family Services since February 2020, the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in New Zealand.

The "Racism is No Joke" campaign includes a series of short videos featuring comedian, Filipino New Zealander James Roque, discussing racist jokes, and why they are not OK. The videos are being released from on the Facebook page.

The campaign also sets up a community focused Facebook and WeChat group to share resources about racism with members of Asian communities, and to offer a forum for sharing experiences.

Minister for Ethnic Communities Jenny Salesa said there was no shortage of negative content about people of Chinese and Asian descent online.

"Jokes lead to name calling which can lead to open hostility toward Asian people -- this is not OK. Racism is No Joke pushes back against Asian or Chinese 'jokes', and says clearly that they belong in the past," said Salesa.

The minister said some people have acted as though racism against Chinese and Asian people can be justified because of COVID-19.

"We ask people not to share racist or xenophobic content or be racist towards anyone because of COVID-19. Ethnic diversity benefits all of us and singling out specific groups of people and treating them poorly is hurtful and offensive," she said. Enditem
Azerbaijan threatened on Thursday to launch missile attacks on Armenias Metsamor nuclear plant amid continuing deadly clashes on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

The Armenian side must not forget that state-of-the-art missile systems of our army allow us to strike the Metsamor nuclear plant with precision, which could lead to a great catastrophe for Armenia, said Vagif Dargahli, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry spokesman.

According to Azerbaijani news agencies, Dargahli responded to what he described as Armenian threats to attack a large reservoir in central Azerbaijan.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry condemned Dargahlis remarks as a manifestation of state terrorism that "reflects Azerbaijans genocidal intentions.

With such statements, Azerbaijans leadership poses a threat to all peoples of the region, including its own people, it said in a statement.

An Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman, Artsrun Hovannisian, also condemned Baku's threat, saying that it amounts to a concrete crime. I am very glad that our officials, politicians and diplomats are raising this issue with relevant [international] bodies, he told journalists.

Hovannisian suggested that the threat came in response to statements made by various private individuals in Armenia. There have been no official statements by Armenian military authorities about hitting such civilian, strategic or non-strategic facilities [of Azerbaijan,] he stressed.

The Soviet-built nuclear plant located 35 kilometers west of Yerevan generates roughly 40 percent of Armenias electricity. Bakus threat to destroy it came hours after fierce fighting resumed on a volatile section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

At least 16 soldiers from both sides have been killed and dozens of others wounded there since Sunday. The two sides blame each other for the worst escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict since 2016.
The Black Lives Matter movement has exposed one of the most pernicious ideas in modern American culture: "critical race theory." This is a purely leftist idea that contends that white supremacy is so interwoven into America's judicial and economic fabric that it can be excised only by having whites abase themselves completely and withdraw themselves entirely from America's public and private institutions.

Critical race theory has no room for individuality, cultural change, or human adaptability. Instead, in a world defined by critical race theory  with its now endlessly repeated claim of "systemic racism"  America is caught in a time warp, where it is doomed to replay its racial sins for eternity. One of the people who caught on to this fact was Ryan Bomberger, who is partly black. He gave ten reasons for rejecting BLM, one of which is that the movement functions as a religion without redemption:

There is no goal of forgiveness or reconciliation. None. It's never mentioned on their sites. You can't talk about the sins of the past and expect to move forward if there is no intention of forgiveness. I'm tired of the deeply prejudiced oppressed/oppressor critical race theory paradigm. It's not Gospel-centered. This should, immediately, be a deal-breaker for Christians.

Despite the dead-end nature of critical race theory, including the fact that it precludes change, hucksters have made a good living getting corporations to hire them to lecture white employees on how awful they are. Currently, Robin DiAngelo is the leftist's darling for telling white people that they are irredeemably racist. The City of Seattle also hired a team of race-hustlers to tell white employees how racist they are. Regarding that last point, most people just said something along the lines of "What can you expect from a Democrat-run city?"

However, we also have a Democrat-run Deep State in Washington, D.C., and we should care about that. The Treasury Department has shelled out taxpayer money to hire Howard Ross ("he/him/his"). Ross, who is white, is a race-hustler who's already extracted $5 million from the federal government so he can tell employees that whites are racist. Ross's shtick also advances the insulting notion that blacks are trembling, broken, fragile little flowers. It's disgusting.

Christopher F. Rufo has become the go-to guy when employees want to get the word out about the racist attacks to which they're being subject, so he was the one who broke this story. This is a long Twitter narrative, but you need to read every word. Doing so will help you understand how your money is being used to elevate racial disharmony and to advance a weird black supremacy, one based upon the horrific notion that blacks are supreme because they're weak and victimized:

The training is called "Difficult Conversations about Race" and calls on white employees at Treasury, Federal Reserve, FDIC, CFPB, and NCUA to pledge "allyship amid the George Floyd Tragedy."



The goal is explicit: to convert "everyone in the federal government" to "antiracism." pic.twitter.com/BT0PUydLYz  Christopher F. Rufo (@realchrisrufo) July 15, 2020

Next, the trainers recommend "White managers" create "safe spaces" for "listening sessions," where black employees can explain "what it means to be Black" and be "seen in their pain."



White employees must not "fill the silence with [their] own thoughts and feelings." pic.twitter.com/zp7YVOryP8  Christopher F. Rufo (@realchrisrufo) July 15, 2020

Employees are then asked to think obsessively about race throughout their daily lives: What is the racial mix of your ten closest friends? What percentage of the day are you able to be with people of your own race? How much of your day are you speaking about racism? pic.twitter.com/Ej9eaA0jM7  Christopher F. Rufo (@realchrisrufo) July 15, 2020

What if a white employee disagrees?



They will be told that "white silence has been one of the most powerful detractors from real progress in social justice" and that whites must "sit in the discomfort" of their own internalized racism and white supremacy. pic.twitter.com/ugmxYFVOUC  Christopher F. Rufo (@realchrisrufo) July 15, 2020

So who is teaching the course?



This man, Howard J. Ross, who has billed the federal government $5 million for diversity trainings over the past 15 years on topics including "white supremacy," "white privilege," and "white fragility. pic.twitter.com/J4T8swE8ok  Christopher F. Rufo (@realchrisrufo) July 15, 2020

Let's be clear: Ross is a taxpayer-funded charlatan. He has packaged racialist pseudoscience and "used his privilege" to secure massive federal "diversity and inclusion" contracts.



In the language of his own discourse, he is monetizing black pain to make personal profit. pic.twitter.com/ANlo1fSa9S  Christopher F. Rufo (@realchrisrufo) July 15, 2020

This will not end in the workplace.



At the end of the session, the trainers tell employees to "talk to your children about race," because children become racist "around 3 years old."



Ultimately, this is "only the beginning of a lifelong education about anti-Black racism." pic.twitter.com/mB4YOmgdSy  Christopher F. Rufo (@realchrisrufo) July 15, 2020

P.S. Want to help expose the dangers of the new racial orthodoxy? Consider pledging $5 or $10 a month so I can continue this research in the coming months.https://t.co/JvpLBZVHNr  Christopher F. Rufo (@realchrisrufo) July 15, 2020

Let me be absolutely clear. I utterly and completely reject critical race theory and the idea of systemic racism. It's not because I'm white. It's because I'm a student of history. I understand that every group that has come to America (including many of the original settlers) has been subject to varying degrees of discrimination. Blacks, sadly and embarrassingly, were subject to extraordinary degrees of discrimination over obscenely extended periods of time.

BUT...

Blacks, like all other people (because we are brothers and sisters behind our different skin colors), are adaptable. They showed strength when faced with discrimination and began to make the same strides as every other group when that discrimination ended. What ruined them was the welfare culture, which made an evil deal with them: sacrifice the fathers in your community, and the government will give an endless trickle of money.

Those blacks who did not embrace that welfare culture (most notably recent immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean) have thrived. This shows that the problem isn't systemic racism; it's the Devil's bargain too many American blacks made with the Democrat party. Break the Democrat party, and blacks with deep roots in America can finally take advantage of the opportunities available in the least systemically racist country in the world.

Images: Twitter screen grab.
Virginia County Ends ICE Cooperation Agreement After Handing Over Nearly 10,000 Illegal Aliens

Before Prince William County, Virginia, recently refused to renew its cooperation agreement with federal immigration authorities, the county had helped provide U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with close to 10,000 illegal and criminal aliens for deportation proceedings since 2007, according to an immigration watchdog group.

With the agreement gone and the countylocated near the nations capitalbecoming increasingly Democrat-blue and hostile to federal immigration law enforcement, illegal aliens in the county are likely to be freed from custody instead of handed over to ICE for legal processing. The countys jail board voted June 17 to let the contract with ICE expire.

ICE says its so-called 287(g) program enhances the safety and security of communities by creating partnerships with state and local law enforcement agencies to identify and remove aliens who are amenable to removal from the United States.

Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act authorizes the Director of ICE to enter into agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies, that permit designated officers to perform limited immigration law enforcement functions. Agreements under section 287(g) require the local law enforcement officers to receive appropriate training and to function under the supervision of ICE officers.

Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), which is the litigation arm of Federation of Americans for Immigration Reform (FAIR), criticized the county for letting the agreement lapse.

For the county to let its 287(g) program expire shows a shocking level of irresponsibility to its residents, Wilcox said in a statement.

The fact that nearly 10,000 illegal aliens, many of whom were charged with violent crimes, were removed was a good thing. Now, there could be untold aliens facing murder, rape, and drunk driving charges in that community who otherwise would be processed for deportation. When county residents are victimized by these aliens, the Jail Board will have a lot to answer for.

About 100 local residents rallied outside the Prince William County Government Center in May in an effort to save the 287(g) agreement, according to local media. But jail board officials were unmoved, questioning the effectiveness of the program.

After obtaining documents from the county, IRLI discovered that the county had handed over 9,537 illegal and criminal aliens to ICE since 2007.

The 9,537 figure was dramatically higher than previously disclosed statistics. Before the IRLI report, it was public knowledge that since 2017, the 287(g) cooperation agreement had led to the transfer of 2,639 county inmates to ICE custody after completing their time in jail.

More than half, or 1,612, reportedly did time for driving under the influence. Sixty-five inmates had been charged with murder, and 277 had been accused of sexual assault, The Washington Post previously reported.

The county reportedly signed the contract that allowed local jail officials to verify the immigration status of inmates in 2007, when the jail board was dominated by tough-on-crime Republicans. But since then the board, and the jurisdiction it represents, has become less Republican.

Self-described community organizer Elizabeth R. Guzman, a Democrat who is a member of the jail board and who represents part of the county in the Virginia House of Delegates, has said she became involved in politics in an effort to repeal the countys 287(g) agreement.

Were trying to change here in Prince William County, after we were labeled so long as criminals, The Washington Post quoted her saying last month.

Guzman said the agreement generated fear in the immigrant community after some of its members were arrested for minor traffic infractions and later removed from the United States. This made illegal aliens more reluctant to cooperate with local police, she said.

Guzman didnt immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment on the IRLI report.

The Prince William-Manassas Regional Adult Detention Center was only one of two law enforcement agencies in Virginia to sign a 287(g) agreement with ICE. The only law enforcement agency in the state that currently has such an agreement with ICE is the sheriffs office in Culpeper County.

Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins beat a class-action lawsuit brought by an illegal alien who claimed Jenkins violated his constitutional rights by detaining him at the request of ICE. The action was thrown out by a federal judge in August 2019, as The Epoch Times previously reported.

I am pleased that this lawsuit seeking preferential treatment for criminal illegal aliens within our justice system has been dismissed, Jenkins said at the time.
President Moon Jae-in delivers a speech to mark the opening of the 21st National Assembly, Thursday. Yonhap



President pledges all-out efforts to fight property speculation



By Do Je-hae



President Moon Jae-in has stressed the importance of cooperation between the ruling and opposition blocs in order to overcome socio-economic challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and to carry out other state affairs smoothly.



He made the request at the National Assembly during a speech to mark the official opening of the 21st Assembly, Thursday, while emphasizing its role in state affairs and underlining his resolve to push for new growth initiatives in the post-coronavirus world.



Moon initially planned to give the speech earlier last month, but it was delayed due to the parties' rivalry over contentious issues, such as the appointment of the heads of the Assembly's standing committees. The new Assembly, elected through the April general election, was inaugurated May 30 and it has taken 48 days for the official opening ceremony to take place  the longest delay since 1987.



"The 21st National Assembly must end its politics of confrontation and hostility and open an era of cooperation," Moon said. "Cooperation is all the more urgent during the current global crisis and upheaval. The Assembly is urged to respond to the people's desire for bipartisan cooperation in overcoming the national crisis, and actively engage in policy competition.









"Furthermore, the 21st National Assembly has been entrusted with a mission to create a world-leading country. I urge the Assembly to take a leading role in accomplishing national unity which is essential to this historic task," Moon added.



A big part of the speech was devoted to underlining his resolve to overcome the economic crisis with his "Korean New Deal," which will create new jobs and raise the competitiveness of the digital sector through an investment of 160 trillion won ($130 billion) by 2025.





President Moon arrives at the National Assembly, Thursday. Yonhap
Astronomers studying galaxy evolution have long struggled to understand what causes star formation to shut down in massive galaxies. Although many theories have been proposed to explain this process, known as "quenching," there is still no consensus on a satisfactory model.

Now, an international team led by Sandra Faber, professor emerita of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz, has proposed a new model that successfully explains a wide range of observations about galaxy structure, supermassive black holes, and the quenching of star formation. The researchers presented their findings in a paper published July 1 in the Astrophysical Journal.

The model supports one of the leading ideas about quenching which attributes it to black hole "feedback," the energy released into a galaxy and its surroundings from a central supermassive black hole as matter falls into the black hole and feeds its growth. This energetic feedback heats, ejects, or otherwise disrupts the galaxy's gas supply, preventing the infall of gas from the galaxy's halo to feed star formation.

"The idea is that in star-forming galaxies, the central black hole is like a parasite that ultimately grows and kills the host," Faber explained. "That's been said before, but we haven't had clear rules to say when a black hole is big enough to shut down star formation in its host galaxy, and now we have quantitative rules that actually work to explain our observations."

The basic idea involves the relationship between the mass of the stars in a galaxy (stellar mass), how spread out those stars are (the galaxy's radius), and the mass of the central black hole. For star-forming galaxies with a given stellar mass, the density of stars in the center of the galaxy correlates with the radius of the galaxy so that galaxies with bigger radii have lower central stellar densities. Assuming that the mass of the central black hole scales with the central stellar density, star-forming galaxies with larger radii (at a given stellar mass) will have lower black-hole masses.

What that means, Faber explained, is that larger galaxies (those with larger radii for a given stellar mass) have to evolve further and build up a higher stellar mass before their central black holes can grow large enough to quench star formation. Thus, small-radius galaxies quench at lower masses than large-radius galaxies.

"That is the new insight, that if galaxies with large radii have smaller black holes at a given stellar mass, and if black hole feedback is important for quenching, then large-radius galaxies have to evolve further," she said. "If you put together all these assumptions, amazingly, you can reproduce a large number of observed trends in the structural properties of galaxies."

This explains, for example, why more massive quenched galaxies have higher central stellar densities, larger radii, and larger central black holes.

Based on this model, the researchers concluded that quenching begins when the total energy emitted from the black hole is approximately four times the gravitational binding energy of the gas in the galactic halo. The binding energy refers to the gravitational force that holds the gas within the halo of dark matter enveloping the galaxy. Quenching is complete when the total energy emitted from the black hole is twenty times the binding energy of the gas in the galactic halo.

Faber emphasized that the model does not yet explain in detail the physical mechanisms involved in the quenching of star formation. "The key physical processes that this simple theory evokes are not yet understood," she said. "The virtue of this, though, is that having simple rules for each step in the process challenges theorists to come up with physical mechanisms that explain each step."

Astronomers are accustomed to thinking in terms of diagrams that plot the relations between different properties of galaxies and show how they change over time. These diagrams reveal the dramatic differences in structure between star-forming and quenched galaxies and the sharp boundaries between them. Because star formation emits a lot of light at the blue end of the color spectrum, astronomers refer to "blue" star-forming galaxies, "red" quiescent galaxies, and the "green valley" as the transition between them. Which stage a galaxy is in is revealed by its star formation rate.

One of the study's conclusions is that the growth rate of black holes must change as galaxies evolve from one stage to the next. The observational evidence suggests that most of the black hole growth occurs in the green valley when galaxies are beginning to quench.

"The black hole seems to be unleashed just as star formation slows down," Faber said. "This was a revelation, because it explains why black hole masses in star-forming galaxies follow one scaling law, while black holes in quenched galaxies follow another scaling law. That makes sense if black hole mass grows rapidly while in the green valley."

Faber and her collaborators have been discussing these issues for many years. Since 2010, Faber has co-led a major Hubble Space Telescope galaxy survey program (CANDELS, the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey), which produced the data used in this study. In analyzing the CANDELS data, she has worked closely with a team led by Joel Primack, UCSC professor emeritus of physics, which developed the Bolshoi cosmological simulation of the evolution of the dark matter halos in which galaxies form. These halos provide the scaffolding on which the theory builds the early star-forming phase of galaxy evolution before quenching.

The central ideas in the paper emerged from analyses of CANDELS data and first struck Faber about four years ago. "It suddenly leaped out at me, and I realized if we put all these things together--if galaxies had a simple trajectory in radius versus mass, and if black hole energy needs to overcome halo binding energy--it can explain all these slanted boundaries in the structural diagrams of galaxies," she said.

At the time, Faber was making frequent trips to China, where she has been involved in research collaborations and other activities. She was a visiting professor at Shanghai Normal University, where she met first author Zhu Chen. Chen came to UC Santa Cruz in 2017 as a visiting researcher and began working with Faber to develop these ideas about galaxy quenching.

"She is mathematically very good, better than me, and she did all of the calculations for this paper," Faber said.

Faber also credited her longtime collaborator David Koo, UCSC professor emeritus of astronomy and astrophysics, for first focusing attention on the central densities of galaxies as a key to the growth of central black holes.

Among the puzzles explained by this new model is a striking difference between our Milky Way galaxy and its very similar neighbor Andromeda. "The Milky Way and Andromeda have almost the same stellar mass, but Andromeda's black hole is almost 50 times bigger than the Milky Way's," Faber said. "The idea that black holes grow a lot in the green valley goes a long way toward explaining this mystery. The Milky Way is just entering the green valley and its black hole is still small, whereas Andromeda is just exiting so its black hole has grown much bigger, and it is also more quenched than the Milky Way."

###

In addition to Faber, Chen, Koo, and Primack, the coauthors of the paper include researchers at some two dozen institutions in seven countries. This work was funded by grants from NASA and the National Science Foundation.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The New York City Department of Education (DOE) will host virtual citywide information sessions for students and families before the start of the new school year, and the first one will be held Thursday.

The first session -- which will be held to answer any questions or concerns families may have -- is scheduled for Thursday, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

You can register here, select your preferred language, and submit a question.

Additional sessions are scheduled for: Tuesday, July 28; Wednesday, Aug. 12; and Thursday, Aug. 27.

Schools will also be hosting parent meetings to ensure families receive critical information and updates throughout the summer. The DOE will be convening community and advocate round-table meetings, briefings with elected officials and Community Education Council (CEC) leaders, and more.

*** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK ***

For the start of the 2020-2021 school year, New York City parents will have the option to allow their children to attend school remotely full-time, but if they choose to send their kids back to the classroom, students will only be allowed to return for in-person learning two or three days of the week -- working remotely the rest of the week.

Under the current plan, classes will be held in cafeterias, auditoriums, gymnasiums and in enclosed outdoor spaces -- and students and teachers will be required to wear face coverings while following strict social distancing rules.

The DOE will supply schools with cleaning supplies and personal protective equipment, like face coverings, and schools will be deep-cleaned every evening using an electrostatic disinfectant.

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The global ADAS sensors market is poised to record a double-digit growth from 2020-2030, according to Future Market Insights' recent publication.

The advent of automation has brought about paradigm shifts in driving technologies since the recent past. The advent of autonomous driving has laid firm ground for the introduction of advanced driver assistance systems, or ADAS. However, the market is still in a niche stage, registering modest revenues ranging from US$ 5 Bn- US$ 8 Bn as compared to other automotive systems.

The prevention of vehicular road accidents is a top priority for all the countries. Every year, a substantial amount of lives are lost due to road accidents. Against this backdrop, the adoption of ADAS sensors has become a top priority. As these systems acquire more popularity, the market shall soon become mainstream.

"The ADAS sensors market shall witness major collaborations between OEMs and semi-conductor companies to design sensors for parking systems, adaptive cruise control and emergency braking," opines an FMI analyst.

For more insights into the market, request a Sample of this Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-11865

Key Takeaways from FMI's ADAS Sensors Market Report

Passenger cars shall find maximum usage of ADAS sensors due to the need for reducing accident fatalities

Radar-based collision avoidance systems shall gain maximum traction in semi-autonomous vehicles

Global ADAS systems market shall expand at an impressive 14% CAGR from 2020-2030

North America to witness maximum adoption of ADAS sensors, Asia-Pacific to follow close behind

ADAS Sensors Market- Key Trends

Thermal imaging sensors have boded well for the ADAS sensors market, helping reduce night-time fatalities to a significant extent

Emphasis on de-icing mechanisms to promote high accuracy for all-weather conditions are being investigated, providing traction to the ADAS sensors market

Opportunities in ADAS hardware abound for prominent market players, thereby uplifting market growth prospects

ADAS Sensors Market: Region-wise Analysis

Asia-Pacific shall be the largest revenue generator, with China spearheading demand for park sensors and adaptive cruise control

Japan & South Korea shall enjoy heightened revenues, attributed to the involvement of major automotive companies such as Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz and GM

Europe is witnessing heightened ADAS sensors usage for blind spot detection and reduce fatalities

The United States is an investment hotbed for OEMs and component manufacturers

ADAS Sensors Market- Competitive Landscape

The ADAS sensors market are resorting to innovations by virtue of doling out new products based on detection, depth perception, high performance and stereo vision. A major challenge posed to ADAS sensors manufacturers is the problem of communication between two different devices. Market players such as Diamler are availing the services of research and academic institutions to address data fusion challenges between non-image and image data.

Developments in the short-wave infrared imaging sensors (SWIR) are also on the cards. To this end, Porsche has collaborated with Israel-based TriEye to improve ADAS sensors in the former's autonomous vehicle segment. For this project, the automotive giant contributed US$ 2 million as capital investment.

ADAS Sensors Market Taxonomy:

Product Type

Blind Spot Detection

Night Vision Sensors

Light Sensors

Parking Sensors

Cruise Control

Vehicle Type

Passenger Cars Compact Midsize Luxury SUVs

Commercial Vehicles

Heavy Commercial Vehicles

Sales Channel

Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM)

Original Equipment Spares (OES)

Independent Aftermarket (IAM)

Region/Country

North America

U.S

Canada

Latin America

Brazil

Mexico

Rest of LATAM

Europe

EU-5

BENELUX

Russia

Rest of Europe

South Asia & Pacific

India

Thailand

Indonesia

Malaysia

Oceania

Rest of South Asia

East Asia

China

Japan

South Korea

MEA

South Africa

Turkey

Northern Africa

Rest of MEA

Request for covid19 Impact Analysis @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/covid19/rep-gb-11865

Find More Valuable Insights on ADAS Sensors Market:

FMI in its new market research study, offers an unbiased analysis of the ADAS sensors market which comprises global industry analysis for 20152019 and opportunity assessment for the 20202030. The report offers complete analysis on global ADAS sensors market through four different categories  By Product Type, By Vehicle Type, By Sales Channel and region. The global ADAS sensors market study provides information of pricing by different life cycle analysis, product life cycle, key market trends and technologies which are being implemented in the production of the ADAS sensors market and product adoption in various end use industries.
Organizations That Invest in Data-to-Insights Capabilities Benefit from Better Decisions And Improved Outcomes, Including 17% Increase in Revenue

PHILADELPHIA, July 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In a release issued under the same headline earlier today by Qlik Technologies, Inc. please note that throughout the release certain percentages were incorrectly stated and should be corrected to 17%. An error in the research findings was discovered, and we are reissuing the release to ensure the public has the most accurate data. The corrected release follows:

Qlik  today announced a global study that shows organizations that strategically invest in creating data-to-insights capabilities through modern data and analytics pipelines are seeing significant bottom line impact. The global IDC survey, sponsored by Qlik, of 1,200 business leaders* shows that companies with a higher ability to identify, gather, transform, and analyze data to glean insights benefited from higher quality decision making and better business outcomes, including improved operational efficiencies, increased revenue and increased profits.



Organizations are inundated with data, and many are struggling to maximize the value of that data since its flowing through unintegrated and leaky data pipelines. The research shows a direct relationship between creating stronger data-to-insights capabilities through data pipeline investments  ones that successfully deploy data management and analytics solutions to close pipeline gaps  to decision making that drives business outcomes.

86% of organizations in the top half of those surveyed with the best data analytics pipelines also get the highest decision-making scores

67% of organizations in the top half of those surveyed with the highest decision-making scores had the highest business outcomes scores

Even in these challenging economic times, CEOs at major enterprises are continuing to invest in their data pipelines to close the gaps and enable their organizations with more high quality and valuable data for decisions, said Dan Vesset, Group Vice President, Analytics and Information Management at IDC. These leaders are increasing their enterprise intelligence quotient by automating the data preparation cycle through technology, giving employees the vital tools and time needed to analyze data for impactful insights that create real business value.

Story continues

Companies in the survey with the highest demonstrable data-to-insights capabilities, resulting in strong data pipelines that drive better decisions, see significant bottom line impact.

76% said operational efficiency improved by an average of 17%

75% said revenue increased by an average of 17%

74% said profit increased by an average of 17%

The challenges to deploying data pipelines that drive better decisions and business outcomes are significant. Organizations are dealing with complex and varied data types and sources, which can leak through data and analytics pipeline gaps. Of those surveyed, over 60% experienced significant challenges in assessing the value of data and identifying valuable data sources, often due to a lack of a data catalog. And over 42% surveyed identified assuring data correctness as a main challenge when processing or transforming data for analysis.

So even as organizations invest in techniques like machine learning and AI to enhance insight generation and analysis, its clear that the success of these investments is highly dependent on having an agile, automated and agnostic data pipeline that closes the gaps by working across any cloud, system and data source in real-time. Only by closing these gaps to eliminate data leaks can organizations transform their data pipelines to provide continuous and reliable enterprise-ready data that drives action and outcomes.

Organizations must close the gaps in their leaky data pipelines to consistently transform their data into ongoing and real business value, said James Fisher, Chief Product Officer at Qlik. Our unique end-to-end approach to data integration and analytics gives organizations the ability to improve their data-to-insights capabilities at the speed of business for greater responsiveness and better outcomes.

Qliks data integration and data analytics platforms, together with its data literacy as a service offering, deliver the industrys only end-to-end approach to Active Intelligence. Unlike traditional BI, Active Intelligence realizes the potential in data pipelines by bringing together data at rest with data in motion for continuous intelligence derived from real-time, up-to-date information, and is specifically designed to take or trigger immediate actions. This eliminates data leaks by closing the gaps from relevant to actionable data (Qlik Data Integration), actionable data to actionable insights (Qlik Analytics) and from investment to value (Data Literacy as a Service).

*Source: IDC InfoBrief, Sponsored by Qlik, Transformative Data Through Leadership Survey, Doc# US46445920, June 16, 2020.

About Qlik

Qliks vision is a data-literate world, one where everyone can use data to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. Only Qlik offers end-to-end, real-time data integration and analytics solutions that help organizations access and transform all their data into value. Qlik helps companies lead with data to see more deeply into customer behavior, reinvent business processes, discover new revenue streams, and balance risk and reward. Qlik does business in more than 100 countries and serves over 50,000 customers around the world.

Methodology:

In February and March of 2020, IDC conducted a survey of IT and LOB respondents responsible for data management and analytics within their organizations.

A Web-based survey was sent to 1,200 organizations in in 11 countries around the globe: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Singapore, U.K., and U.S.

Respondents were director, vice president, and C-level decision makers.

Respondents represented organizations of varying sizes. All respondent companies had at least 1,000 employees globally.

Respondent companies represented a variety of industries including education, finance, government, healthcare, manufacturing, retail/wholesale, transportation, communication, and utilities.

 2020 QlikTech International AB. All rights reserved. All company and/or product names may be trade names, trademarks and/or registered trademarks of the respective owners with which they are associated.

Media Contact:

Derek Lyons

derek.lyons@qlik.com

617-658-5310




Gender advocate and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Melinda Gates, has called on leaders and policymakers to ensure that women and girls are not left behind in the global response to COVID-19.

According to a statement made available to PREMIUM TIMES, she made the call in a paper she released titled The Pandemics Toll on Women and Girls, where she explored how the COVID-19 pandemic has exploited pre-existing inequalities and drastically impacted womens lives and livelihoods.

To recover fully from this pandemic, she said, leaders must respond to the ways that it is affecting men and women differently.

This is as she lists practical policy recommendations that governments should consider in their pandemic response  to improve health systems for women and girls, design more inclusive economic policies, gather better data, and prioritise womens leadership.

Ms Gates described how previous disease outbreaks, including AIDS and Ebola, tended to exploit existing forces of inequality, particularly around gender, systemic racism, and poverty. The broader impacts of these crises, she noted, are having a disproportionate impact on women and girls.

In Africa, for example, women account for around 40 per cent of COVID-19 cases. However, African women and girls are disproportionately affected by reduced access to health care services and are at greater risk of gender-based violence.

Women make up the majority of workers in the informal sector, which leaves them at greater risk of losing their income.

Describing the impact of stretched health systems on maternal care, she noted that in low and middle-income countries, cutbacks could claim the lives of up to 113,000 women.

We know from the past that this threat is real. During the 2014 Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone, the number of mothers and babies who died during or after childbirth was higher than the number of deaths from the Ebola virus.

That is what epidemics do: they not only overwhelm immune systems; they also overwhelm health system. And because the parts of those systems devoted to caring for women are often the most fragile and underfunded, they collapse first and fastest.

She, therefore, urged policymakers to recognise the opportunity to replace old systems with new and better ones, outlining practical recommendations around health, economics, and decision-making that could help build a more equal and prosperous future.

Her recommendations include making maternal and reproductive healthcare an essential service, protecting the contraceptive supply chain, and using the pandemic as an opportunity to integrate womens healthcare.

The paper also highlights the importance of designing emergency economic relief programmes that reach women who need them the most and ensuring womens voices are included at all levels of decision-making in the response to this crisis.

This is how we can emerge from the pandemic in all of its dimensions: by recognising that women are not just victims of a broken world; they can be architects of a better one, Ms Gates concluded.
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The Election Commission on Thursday said it has decided not to notify the law ministrys amendment to the Representation of People Act, 1951, that would have allowed those over the age of 65 to use postal ballots in the upcoming Bihar assembly elections and by-elections due in the near future, in a move welcomed by political parties.

The law ministry, on the recommendation of the Commission, had decided to allow people over 65 to vote remotely in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The provision was supposed to be an enabling one.

Five key opposition parties wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora to reconsider the move which some of them said would unduly benefit the ruling Janata Dal (United), or JDU-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) alliance in Bihar.

The Bihar assembly lapses in November this year and Arora had told Hindustan Times in an interview on June 27 that as of now, the elections will be held when they are due. It will be the first assembly election since the pandemic began. According to EC officials, there are also nearly 50 by-elections that the Commission is gearing up to conduct.

The Commission has cited the field situation and logistics of operationalization as the rationale behind its decision to not allow postal ballots.

Before every election, we have our field officers evaluate the practical situation on the ground, a poll body official said on condition of anonymity. Their assessment suggests that it may not be feasible to have postal ballots.

The EC official added that the Commission had listened to and evaluated the representations made by the political parties, but that wasnt the reason behind the decision.

We heard all of them and their various objections to the postal ballot. The decision, though, has not been taken on the grounds that they made, the official said.

The official added that the amendment to the RP Act would still hold. If we want to use it, we can notify it ahead of the election. That is how it was done in Delhi and Jharkhand.

The facility of optional postal ballots to electors who are above 80 years of age, persons with disabilities , voters engaged in essential services and voters who are Covid-19 positive or are suspected to be carrying the virus and quarantine (home/institutional) will be extended in these elections.

Among the dissenting political parties were Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Trinamool Congress (TMC), Communist Party of India (CPI)and Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI (M).

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury was among the first to raise concerns about postal ballots favouring the ruling party. This was followed by a representation by the Congress that said that the step would violate the secrecy of the vote. TMC, CPI and RJD also wrote to the Commission stating that no political parties had been consulted before the decision was taken.

The Commission, in a detailed reply to Yechury mentioned that Bihars chief electoral officer had held consultations with various political parties.

Yechury said that while they may not have notified the use of amendment for the polls, the change in the RP Act has already been made. It is the constitutional mandate of the Commission to provide a level playing field, said Yechury. They have decreed the amendment, the EC can use it. All parties should have been consulted before the amendment was made. That has not been done.

Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Modi was among the first to welcome the ECs decision to drop the idea of postal ballots, as did the opposition parties.

Postal ballots could have been misused by parties like the RJD and Congress, Modi told Hindustan Times. RJD in any case has a culture of looting votes. Moreover, there would have been logistical issues. The EC would have to amass enough manpower to collect postal ballots from nearly 30,000 people in every constituency.

According to Modi, nearly 10% of Bihars population is above 65. There are over 70 million voters in Bihar.

There were concerns raised about the secrecy of postal ballot and also the safety of voters. The decision was hasty and without due application of mind. We welcome todays decision of the EC and hope appropriate measures will be taken to safeguard the health of voters, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said.

According to Derek OBrien, Trinamools Parliamentary party leader in the Rajya Sabha, the decision was an undemocratic one.

Trinamool had written to the Commission giving compelling reasons why they were ill-advised to be pushed into taking a decision that was completely illegal, undemocratic and was arrived at without consulting any political parties. So that is that, OBrien said. West Bengal is scheduled to go to the polls in the first half of 2021.

RJD spokesperson Manoj Jha also stressed that by not notifying the amendment, a free and fair election would be ensured in the state.

We are glad that the EC has decided to not notify the amendment. Any change whatsoever in the peoples representation act should only be done by engaging through wider consultations. The commission should always remember that the idea of free and fair election as well as ensuring level playing field is not simply rhetoric, RJD spokesperson Manoj Jha said.
DANBURY  Five local cafe owners were charged with violating public health emergency orders after allegedly ignoring prior warnings from police.

While the Danbury Police Department is not actively seeking out violations of the governors COVID-19-related restrictions, one of our greatest functions is public safety and maintaining the peace, Detective Lt. Mark Williams said.

However, he said, after receiving specific citizen complaints or discovering blatant violations while responding to calls for service, we will take enforcement action.

Enforcement action in this regard generally begins with formal warnings and can escalate to an arrest when faced with repeated disregard of COVID-19 restrictions, Williams said.

Genia Alvarez-Rodriguez, 45, and Manuel Honorato Andrade, 44  owners of La Canchita Restaurant & Bar on Delay Street  were arrested around 1 a.m. July 4, for allegedly violating a public health safety order.

Williams said La Canchita had multiple violations, and the two owners were arrested after receiving one prior warning.

Segundo Velasquez, owner of the Red House Bar & Cafe on Keeler Street, and Juan Carlos Villa, owner of Fajitas and Margaritas on Main Street were arrested July 4, for having multiple violations at their establishments, Williams said.

Velasquez, 47, received one warning prior to arrest, while 35-year-old Villa had been warned two times  on June 20 and June 28  according to police.

The fifth person charged with violating a public health emergency order that weekend was Erika Fajardo-Sumba, owner of La Costenita Bar & Restaurant on Ives Street.

Not only was the establishment cited for multiple violations, police said, but the 34-year-old owner was arrested on the same charge both July 4 and July 5.

The July 4 arrests occurred when officers went downtown to make sure bars and restaurants were in compliance with Executive Order No. 7MM, according to police reports.

Among the violations observed by police included employees not wearing face masks while walking around, tables that werent six feet apart, food not being served and patrons ordering drinks at bar areas that had no partitions.

Fajardo-Sumbas second arrest, on July 5, occurred after officers responded to a report of a fight at La Costenita at 1:13 a.m. July 5, and found the same violations observed the night before, according to a police report.

A public health emergency order violation comes with a penalty of up to $1,000 in fines, one year of imprisonment, or both for each offense, according to state law.

All five cafe owners were released on promises to appear in court July 16. Their arraignments were later postponed to Aug. 27, according to court records.

Enforcement

Since Lamont started issuing executive orders to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Danbury Police Departments enforcement approach of first asking for compliance and issuing warnings has not changed.

Our process is to first visit and have a conversation with the manager and/or owner and give an informal warning, Mayor Mark Boughton said.

Sometimes people say, OK, no problem, some dont know what the regulations are, and some people just dont want to (comply), he said.

Without naming any specific bars or owners, Boughton said during the City Councils July 7 meeting that the recently charged bar owners had been previously warned but refused to comply.

Unfortunately, when it gets that serious, you have to escalate the enforcement, he told City Council members.

The citys Health and Human Services Department has been inspecting outdoor dining patios, hair and nail salons, body care facilities, and indoor dining at food service establishments since they were allowed to reopen, said Kara Prunty, acting director of the department.

She said the department has worked with businesses to correct any issues with compliance.

Weve been trying to take an educational approach, Prunty told the City Council. We go back, we try and show and teach what we should be doing, and then we follow up with periodic inspections to go along and make sure theyre following what they should be doing.

Boughton said that should be the first step before an arrest.

The first line of defense is always to work with the business owner, he said. Educate them if they dont know and give them a warning.
WASHINGTON  Members of the U.S. House of Representatives have expressed concern over democratic backsliding in Eastern Europe as it discusses ways to improve frayed ties with transatlantic allies during the coronavirus pandemic.

Representatives Bill Keating (Democrat-Massachusetts) and Dina Titus (Democrat-Nevada) told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on July 14 that leaders in former communist nations, including Poland and Hungary, have used the pandemic to consolidate power.

We have seen human rights abuses. We have seen journalists attacked. We have seen a lot of this in Eastern Europe, and I am afraid we are going to be dealing with the impacts of democratic backsliding that has taken place during this virus for many years to come, Titus told the hearing.

Titus also said she was particularly concerned about Ukraine reversing its reform agenda.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who won in a landslide last year on a promise to fight corruption and attract foreign investment, fired his pro-reform government in March after six months. The central bank chief also stepped down this month after complaining of political pressure.

Rachel Ellehuus, a former official dealing with NATO policy at the Defense Department, told the subcommittee that Brussels could encourage democracy and the rule of law in its Eastern neighbors by tying EU stability funding to progress on those issues.

Addressing concerns over Ukraine, Ellehuus said the United States could coordinate with Poland, the Baltics, and other nations to invest a significant amount of money there.

Ukraines economy has struggled since 2014 following the forceful annexation of the Crimean Peninsula by Russia and the outbreak of war in its eastern provinces between government forces and Kremlin-backed separatists. The unrest has caused investment, both domestic and foreign, to whither.

James Carafano, a national security and foreign policy fellow at The Heritage Foundation, told the hearing that U.S. investments in energy infrastructure in Central and Eastern Europe could not only give regional economic growth a boost but also enhance energy security in the face of Russian aggression.

The United States and the EU are promoting energy infrastructure in Central and Eastern Europe that runs north to south to diversify supply options.

That is potentially a new engine of economic activity that is really going to benefit all of Europe, Carafano said of the infrastructure projects, adding that private companies are ready to invest.

The United States last year passed a bill that sets aside $1 billion in funding to support energy infrastructure projects in Central and Eastern Europe.

However, Carafano said the launch of Russias Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany would destroy the economic rationale for some of those projects under discussion.

Congress is now considering more sanctions against Nord Stream 2, which would double gas exports to Germany, to halt its completion. Russia is trying to finish the project, which is more than 90 percent built.

Keating said the House will discuss appropriation bills next week with strong investments on the international front in many areas, though he did not give more details.

The National Defense Authorization Act submitted to the House includes a provision to turn a Soviet-era air base in central Romania into a regional hub for the U.S. Air Force.

The experts said the coronavirus has weighed on already strained U.S.-EU relations. They called for more transatlantic cooperation on finding a cure for the virus as well as developing integrated supply chains for medical equipment that helps reduce their mutual dependence on China.

The United States and the EU have disagreed over a host of issues in recent years, including NATO funding, trade, climate change, and policy toward Iran.

The disagreements have intensified under President Donald Trump.

The pandemic, rather than enhancing cooperation, has exposed just how bad relations have gotten, Karen Donfried, president of the German Marshall Fund and a former National Security Council official, told the hearing.
By Steven Scheer

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu got a lukewarm reception on Thursday from his main coalition partner and the head of the central bank to a plan to grant money to all Israelis to kickstart the economy during the coronavirus crisis.

Netanyahu announced the 6 billion shekel ($1.75 billion)package on Wednesday, amid public anger over his handling of a pandemic in which contagion has surged and promised state aid to businesses has been slow to arrive.

The payments of 750 shekels for individuals and up to 3,000 shekels to families, Netanyahu said, would boost consumer spending and employment. The plan still requires cabinet approval.

Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi of the centrist Blue and White party that has partnered with Netanyahu's Likud in the government, said the money should instead be targeted at the poorest citizens.

In an interview with Army Radio, Yaron said it was very important to help "but even more important to aid those in need. There are more effective ways to help increase demand," he said, adding that more cash could be given to the unemployed.

Yaron had supported a previous 100 billion shekel stimulus package and a second one announced last week, even though they are expected to drive this year's budget deficit up to 13% of gross domestic product.

The economy is set to contract 6% in 2020. Unemployment soared to 27% after a partial lockdown in March but is now running at 21% as people have come back from furlough.

Ashkenazi said on Army Radio that while he was not opposed to grants for Israelis hit by economic hardship, Blue and White would try to amend Netanyahu's plan so that the money would go "to those who are hurting and not to those who don't need it".

Netanyahu said doing so would be too time-consuming.

Polls show less than 30% of the public trusts Netanyahu's handling of the crisis. Thousands took part in anti-Netanyahu rallies last week.

Israel, with a population of around nine million, has reported more than 44,000 coronavirus cases and 377 deaths.

(Reporting by Steven Scheer; Additional reporting by Jeffrey Heller)
California has cancelled its 2021 New Year's Day Rose Parade for the first time in 75 years as COVID-19 cases continue to spike across the state and Los Angeles officials warn that the city is in a 'dangerous place'.

The 2021 Tournament of Roses Parade is an annual spectacle held each New Year's Day since 1891 in Pasadena, California.

The Rose Parade, an internationally televised procession of flower-bedecked floats, marching bands and equestrian teams, has only been canceled three other times in its history - during World War II in 1942, 1943 and 1945.

'With reluctance and tremendous disappointment, the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association announces that, in accordance with Governor (Gavin) Newsom's Phase IV re-opening schedule, and after thoughtful consideration of the restrictions and guidelines in place as a result of COVID-19, we are unable to host the 2021 Rose Parade,' the association said in a statement.

While the 132nd edition of the parade itself was still five months away, preparation for the event typically begins in March.

According to David Eads, the CEO and executive director of the Tournament of Roses, participating bands, which are usually selected 18 months in advance, havent been able to do fundraising due to the coronavirus restrictions.

Hospitalizations and rates of positive COVID-19 tests also rose on Tuesday and health officers voiced concern that intensive care units could be overwhelmed in some places unless the infection rate is reduced.

California has recorded 347,634 confirmed cases of COVID-19, resulting in 7,227 deaths.

California has cancelled its 2021 New Year's Day Rose Parade for the first time in 75 years as COVID-19 cases continue to spike across the state

While the 132nd edition of the parade itself (participating band pictured January 1, 2020) was still five months away, preparation for the event typically begins in March

The situation is in 'an alarming and dangerous phase' in the Los Angeles area, Barbara Ferrer, public health director for the nation's largest county, said Wednesday.

Her comment came two days after Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti warned that the city was 'on the verge' of returning to shutting down all but essential businesses.

San Francisco has also said that it would retain its ban on indoor restaurant dining and businesses such as nail and hair salons that require close contact with customers.

The moves were a troubling indication that authorities don't expect an early end to the COVID-19 surge after managing to slower the infection spread earlier this year.

California reported 11,126 additional confirmed cases of the virus between Monday and Tuesday and 140 deaths, the second-highest one-day totals.

The largest uptick, by far, was in Los Angeles County, which has a quarter of the state's population. It has had well over half of California's nearly 7,200 COVID-19 deaths.

Los Angeles County on Wednesday reported more than 2,700 new COVID-19 cases and said nearly 2,200 people were hospitalized, with 26 per cent in intensive care.

Multi-day averages for newly confirmed cases and hospitalizations were at their highest rates since the pandemic was declared, the Department of Public Health said.

California has recorded 347,634 confirmed cases of COVID-19. California reported 11,126 additional confirmed cases of the virus between Monday and Tuesday

There have been at least 7,227 deaths in California with 140 deaths increase reported as of July 14 (depicted above)

The situation is in 'an alarming and dangerous phase' in the LA area, Barbara Ferrer, public health director for the nation's largest county, said Wednesday. LA County reported more than 2,700 new COVID-19 cases and said nearly 2,200 people were hospitalized (depicted above)

Multi-day averages for newly confirmed cases and hospitalizations were at their highest rates since the pandemic was declared, the Department of Public Health said

Health officials believe much of the recent surge is coming from transmissions among social circles and families and friends gathering for summertime activities.

While the elderly and infirm are most vulnerable, younger people - those between 18 and 40 - now are accounting for an increasingly large percentage of cases.

'I implore you to turn down that invitation to hang out with a group of friends,' Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis said. 'In person gatherings are simply not worth the risk.'

In San Diego County, the Del Mar racetrack canceled races for the upcoming weekend after 15 jockeys tested positive for the virus.

Meanwhile, in Northern California, San Francisco said it would continue to delay the reopening of many businesses because of a surge of infections in the city, where the positive case rate per 100,000 has increased to nearly 8 per cent.

The goal is to keep it at around 2 per cent, said Dr Grant Colfax, director of public health.

Even with the recent increase, San Francisco's population of nearly 900,000 people has fared remarkably well during the pandemic, with a total of around 4,700 cases and 50 deaths.

Health officials believe much of the recent surge is coming from transmissions among social circles and families and friends gathering for summertime activities. Medical professionals are seen at a testing site in Los Angeles

While the elderly and infirm are most vulnerable, younger people - those between 18 and 40 (San Francisco residents pictured at a park)- now are accounting for an increasingly large percentage of cases

The city has maintained some of the most stringent measures in the state since a shelter-in-place order in the San Francisco Bay Area began March 17.

Unlike nearly every other county, it never reopened indoor dining, hair and nail salons, barbershops, museums, gyms, and other businesses considered high-risk for transmission of the virus.

Meanwhile, San Francisco and Sacramento became the latest major school districts to announce that classes would resume in the fall without on-site instruction.

Los Angeles, San Diego and Oakland are among other districts with similar plans.

It's not just California's major urban areas that are seeing big increases in cases. In San Joaquin County on the northern edge of the state's Central Valley agricultural region, ICUs are operating at 121 per cent.

San Joaquin County officials called in a federal medical assistance team of 20 physicians, nurses and respiratory therapists to help as medical centers add more beds.
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Linkedin Dzulfiqar Fathur Rahman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 17 2020

The logistics disruption due to social restrictions to contain COVID-19 has affected the food distribution to many regions in Indonesia, particularly the eastern parts, Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo said.

The pandemic restriction led to a decline in the number of ships delivering food to eastern Indonesia to six ships per month from 48 ships per month in normal times, according to the minister.



Many do not know that ships going to the eastern part of the country, including Papua, that normally can amount to 48 ships a month, now can only be six ships monthly, Syahrul said in a virtual briefing on Monday.

Truck drivers who have delivered food or picked up food from the countrys hard-hit areas also have to be in quarantine for two weeks, adding to the prolonged food distribution across the country, Syahrul added.

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WASHINGTON  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a divisive speech on Thursday calling for the United States to ground its human rights policy more prominently in religious liberty and property rights.

Mr. Pompeos speech, at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, came as he announced the release of a report created by a panel he commissioned last year to suggest how American human rights policy could better reflect the nations founding principles.

Its important for every American, and for every American diplomat, to recognize how our founders understood unalienable rights, Mr. Pompeo said. Foremost among these rights are property rights and religious liberty.

Human rights scholars have criticized Mr. Pompeos panel since its inception, noting it was filled with conservatives who were intent on promoting views against abortion and marriage equality. Critics also warned that it sidestepped the State Departments internal bureau responsible for promoting human rights abroad.
According to reports from the British media, the Royal Navys brand new 3 billion aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth will be deployed to the South China Sea to take part in military drills with the US Navy and Japan Maritime Self Defense Forces.

According to reports from the British media, the Royal Navys brand new 3 billion aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth will be deployed to the South China Sea to take part in military drills with the US Navy and Japan Maritime Self Defense Forces.

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The HMS Queen Elizabeth is expected to conduct military drills with the United States and Japan. (Picture source: DANIEL SHEPHERD/MOD/PA)

The HMS Queen Elizabeth will set sail next year according to new plans from military chiefs.

HMS Queen Elizabeth expected to visit the Far East during grand maiden voyage. The 3billion aircraft carrier will reportedly carry out joint military exercises. It comes amid growing political tension between the government and Beijing Ministry of Defence says no decision has yet been taken on carrier's deployment

The aircraft carrier is set to be accompanied by a fleet of warships, including two Type 45 destroyers and two frigates. HMS Queen Elizabeth will also be deployed with two squadrons of F-35B Lightning II jets, likely to be from the RAF and the US Marine Corps.

Type 45 Destroyer. (Picture source: Save the Royal Navy)

Plans have also been drawn up to send sister ship, HMS Prince of Wales, to the region when it finishes training. The aircraft carrier is said to be around 18 months behind HMS Queen Elizabeth in terms of battle readiness.

The Times revealed that the deployment is meant to counter an increasingly aggressive China.
Media doyenne Deborah Hutton has revealed why she never had children of her own.

Despite wanting to start a family, the 58-year-old says the timing was never right.

'I definitely wanted children,' Deborah told this month's issue of The Australian Women's Weekly.

Decision: Deborah Hutton, 58, has revealed why she never had children - and the reason she refused to start a family with late celebrity agent Harry M. Miller

The former model had the opportunity to have children with celebrity agent Harry M. Miller, with whom she was in a long-term relationship in the 1980s.

'I didn't want to be part of the dynasty, because that would have been his fourth wife and he would have had his sixth child. He was loving, but he was a father at a distance until they got old enough so he could have conversation,' she said.

Harry died in 2018 at the age of 84, after being diagnosed with vascular dementia years earlier.

'I didn't want to be part of the dynasty': The ex-model said she had turned down an opportunity to start a family with celebrity agent Harry M. Miller because he already had five children

'I saw what my mother went through. Too bloody hard!' Deborah refused to have children on her own, as she'd watched her own mother struggle as a single parent

'He was an amazing man. It's hard when you've spent over a decade with someone and it was such an incredible time in my life. I learnt a lot from him and I often hear his voice in my head,' she said.

Deborah herself came from a family of divorce, and lived with her mother from an early age while her two brothers went to live with their father.

She added: 'I was never going to have kids on my own. I saw what my mother went through. Too bloody hard!'

Brave story: Elsewhere in the interview, she spoke about her recent surgery to remove two cancers from her face, and also urged others to get their skin checked regularly

Elsewhere in the interview, she spoke about her recent surgery to remove two cancers from her face, and also urged others to get their skin checked regularly.

Deborah has been a household name in Australia for more than 40 years, having worked as a model and a media executive.

She graced the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine at the age of 16, was the face of Qantas for 12 years and was the editor of The Australian Women's Weekly.
A driver narrowly avoided a head-on crash when they pulled into a turn lane to go left - before changing their mind and heading straight towards a car waiting to turn right from the opposite direction.

Dashcam footage shows the erratic driver then swerving further into the wrong side of the road to avoid the collision at traffic lights in Palestine, Texas, on Sunday night.

A shocked woman can we heard exclaiming: 'What in the world?' as they witness the black car's dangerous progress from a car behind.

A driver drives on the wrong side of the road after they accidentally pulled out into a turning lane a traffic lights in Palestine, Texas, at 5.31pm on Sunday

The driver in a black car pulls out into the turning lane and brakes as the car in front of it slows to take a turn

In the video, filmed at 5.31pm, the driver with the dash cam slows down as they approach a set of traffic lights behind a white pick-up truck.

Ahead of them, a driver in a black car pulls into the turning lane as if to take a left.

But, as the lights change, the black car does not turn and instead continues to head straight ahead.

Realising at the last minute that there is a car directly in front of them, waiting to turn right from the opposite direction, the driver of the black car swerves even further onto the wrong side of the road.

When the lights change the black car to the left continues driving straight ahead without turning before it drifts further into the wrong side of the road to avoid a black Mercedes in the turn lane ahead

The driver then returns to the right side of the road as a woman in the car behind exclaims: 'What in the world?'

He avoids a collision and then scoots back over to the correct side of the road, in front of the astonished filmer's car.

The video taker said: 'Dashcam video I recorded on my Roav S1 Dashcam on July 12, 2020.

'A car in front of me uses the turn lane in a unique way and manages to get away with it.'
Fans from Minnesota and beyond will be able to watch the action three times a day on the Princess Kay Facebook page and ask questions of the princess and the finalists, who will sit patiently  for six to eight hours  as their likenesses are carved in cold butter.
Update: A Gwinnett County Superior Court judge dismissed the request for emergency injunction as part of a lawsuit against Landmark Hospital on July 16. The lawsuit has not been dismissed entirely. The original story is below.

A Georgia Department of Community Health investigation of Landmark Hospital of Athens found the hospital is in compliance with state health guidelines for nursing services and infection prevention and control.

The investigation, conducted from June 24-30, was prompted by a lawsuit filed by four anonymous nurses on June 17. The suit alleges that Landmark tested patients for COVID-19 improperly and falsified the test results. It asked for court intervention to stop the hospital from receiving new patients or transferring any patients to other hospitals.

The investigation for the DCH was conducted with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a federal agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. According to the investigation results, the surveyors found Landmark wasnt violating any health standards.

Landmark filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on June 29. There is an emergency hearing scheduled for Thursday about the motion to dismiss the suit.

Correction: A judge dismissed the request for an emergency injunction, not the entire lawsuit as a previous version of this article stated. The Red & Black regrets this error and it has been corrected.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were today told to 'cut the cr*p' and stop lecturing people on green issues as it was claimed their carbon footprint could be up to 26 times higher than the average Briton.

The new analysis came after the couple were spotted in Los Angeles getting into a gas-guzzling SUV dubbed 'as far from environmentally-friendly as you can get' because it only does 14 miles per gallon.

But a study by former MP Norman Baker claims that this is the tip of the iceberg because of their regular flights, sometimes by private jet in the past year, and the heat and power needed for their 24,500sq ft eight-bed LA mansion.

Mr Baker claims the Sussexes create 215 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year - compared with the UK average of 8.3 tonnes for the average Briton - meaning almost 11,000 trees would need to be planted annually to offset their CO2 emissions.

He told The Sun: 'The only thing green about Prince Harry are his wellies. The self-appointed eco-warrior, who likes to lecture everybody else on climate change, is in the top one per cent of people on the planet for carbon emissions. He should cut the carbon and, if not, at least cut the cr*p'.

According to his research, the couple:

Enjoyed 53 international flights in the year to January 2020 - 18 were in private jets producing up to 20 times more CO2 than commercial flights;

Their Cadillac SUV runs on 14 miles per gallon compared to average new UK car at 48mpg

They have to power and heat an 24,500sq ft eight-bedroom mansion in LA - the UK average home has three bedrooms and is 914sq ft;

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are pictured in Beverly Hills on July 10 getting into a gas-guzzling SUV which has been dubbed 'as far from environmentally-friendly as you can get'

The luxury Cadillac Escalade normally comes with a gas-guzzling six-litre engine and marked another sustainability gaffe for the couple, who have previously been slammed for preaching about saving the planet, and then flying around the world by private jet.

Earlier in 2020 they were slammed for crossing the Atlantic multiple times to complete royal duties after moving to Canada.

Meghan cradles her son Archie as they get off a private jet at Nice Airport in France last August

Each passenger on a commercial return flight to Vancouver from London creates an average of 9.1 tonnes of C02 - on a private jet this rises 49 tonnes of C02 per passenger.

The average Briton or American be responsible for 18 tonnes of C02 in an entire year.

The absolute minimum they will have created from their five flights before lockdown was 45 tonnes.

Harry and Meghan have been accused of double standards by encouraging people to cut their carbon footprint to save the planet - while regularly using private jets themselves.

Harry at Nice Airport last August during a trip to France where they stayed with Sir Elton John

The couple claim they pay to carbon offset their journeys and said their of use non-commercial planes was to 'keep his family safe'.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their three children unwittingly added fuel to the fire when days later they took a FlyBe commercial plane soon after Harry and Meghan's jet-setting around Europe.

The couple came under scrutiny in 2019 for their use of private jets when they travelled together. The trips were privately funded by the couple.

They also visited family friend Sir Elton John's holiday home, but the musician revealed he had paid for the cost of the flight himself and donated to a carbon- offsetting charity.

Harry and Meghan attend the Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey on March 9

Scientists recommend everyone should only be responsible for producing 1.97 tonnes of carbon per year if we want to reverse climate change by 2050.

The royal couple faced widespread criticism after using four private jets in the space of just 11 days last summer.

The journeys came soon after Harry told Meghan's edition of British Vogue that they only want to have two children as a way of reducing their carbon footprint.

When he appeared at an event in Amsterdam soon after the private jet debacle, he refused to apologise for his private flights to Italy, France and Spain, saying: 'I spend 99 per cent of my life travelling the world by commercial.'

Meghan, Prince Harry and one-year-old Archie have been staying at Hollywood tycoon Tyler Perry's mega-mansion since March. The huge property is pictured on May 7

He claimed his decision to use non-commercial planes was to 'keep his family safe'.

The Duke also insisted he 'offsets 99 per cent' of his carbon footprint.

Accounts reveal that the royal family's carbon footprint from official travel nearly doubled in 2018, to 3,344 tonnes of CO2.

In the aftermath of Meghan and Harry's private jet furore, the Queen advertised for a new director of royal travel to ensure 'efficient' and 'effective' flights.
Accused of raping six minor girls in Bhopal in the past few years, a 68-year-old man was arrested from a hotel in Jammu and Kashmirs Srinagar on Wednesday. He was arrested with the help of J&K Police, said Irshad Wali, deputy inspector general of police (DIG), Bhopal.

The accused, living in Shahpura locality in Bhopal, was a state government accredited journalist and was allotted a government bungalow. Five of the six girls lodged FIR against the man who had been absconding since Sunday.

The five teenagers were spotted in an intoxicated state by a police patrol team in Ratibad area of Bhopal in the wee hours of Sunday. During counselling by Childline, the girls narrated their ordeal and said the accused repeatedly raped them in the past few years. Later on Monday, one more minor girl came forward and registered a case of rape against him, said the police.

The state government later cancelled the accreditation of the accused and also the allotment of bungalow to him, according to additional director at Directorate of Public Relations (DPR) Mangla Prasad Mishra.

A joint team of district administration, Bhopal municipal corporation (BMC) and police razed a marriage hall and a three-storey apartment owned by the man in the city. The buildings were allegedly built by him illegally on government land, according to administrative authorities.

The man faces three FIRs lodged at Shahpura, Koh-e-Fiza and Shyamla Hills police stations under sections 366 (a) (procuration of minor girls), 376 (2) (n) (repeated rape), 120 b (criminal conspiracy) and sections 5/6 and 14 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, Wildlife Protection Act and under relevant sections of SC/ST (Prevention of atrocities) Act, said the DIG of police.

Police got the information that accused, who owns properties in Dubai, is trying to leave India. Acting on a tip-off, a team of Bhopal Police left for Delhi via train on Tuesday night and reached Srinagar from Delhi by a flight on Wednesday. They arrested him from a hotel. The police team will return to Bhopal on Thursday, said Wali.

The police also raided the flat where he took the girls and raped them. The police said that the flats walls had obscene pictures of women. The police also said that they have also found stuff related to child pornography. At least 100 Indian made foreign liquor bottles were also seized from the flat, said Sai Krishna Thota, Superintendent of Police, Bhopal (South).

As of now, four people, including two women who worked as his aides and lured and shifted the girls from one place to another, have been arrested, the police said.

The man, who runs a small vernacular newspaper, owns luxurious cars. Police also found papers of illegally encroached government land at 12 different places worth crores of rupees, as per an official who is a part of the investigation team.
The opioid overdose crisis has painfully ravaged communities across Canada for years. The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated this protracted crisis by reducing or shuttering much-needed harm reduction services. Tens of thousands of people have already lost their lives.

Yet even in the face of such crises, the government has still not abolished the long-failed effort to stamp out drug use through criminal penalties, which has wasted public funds while fuelling needless suffering, disease, and death.

But after decades of pressure for change, things are changing  and political leaders need to act decisively.

Last week, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) called for an end to the criminalization of simple drug possession (i.e. possession for personal use). Police chiefs across the country now agree that the evidence suggests  decriminalization for simple possession as an effective way to reduce the public health and public safety harms associated with substance use. The report affirms that a compelling case has been made for transformative change to Canadas current approach to drug possession.

The experiences of people who use drugs  those whose lives, health, and safety have been most egregiously harmed by criminalization  offer perhaps the most compelling case for ending the war on drugs, which is really a war on people, who are often the most marginalized and disproportionately Black and Indigenous.

Add to this the overwhelming scientific evidence of the many harms arising from the criminalization of simple possession, the long-standing recommendations from many public health and harm reduction experts, the unanimous recommendation of UN agencies, and now the agreement of police chiefs across the country.

This overwhelming support should be more than enough for policy-makers to take action. Now. Without further delay.

We have seen during the time of COVID-19 that policy can be deployed well and quickly to address of a public health crisis. The current federal government repeatedly says that it will be guided by science and evidence, and by respect for Charter rights. And weve heard a lot from all levels of government lately that, in responding to COVID-19, they will be guided by public health advice from experts.

But somehow, when it comes to drugs, the repeated public health advice to decriminalize simple possession has been ignored.

Simply put, criminalization kills. Decriminalization of simple drug possession is an important tool that must be deployed if we want to end the overdose crisis.

So what needs to be done?

Parliament must amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to repeal the criminal prohibition on simple possession of drugs, full stop. A majority of parties represented in the House of Commons support decriminalization. A bill already introduced in Parliament (Bill C-235) would do this; it should proceed without delay.

But legislative changes take time, and urgent action is needed today. Fortunately, the solution is simple: Canadas Minister of Health can effectively decriminalize simple drug possession by granting a nationwide exemption under section 56 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

Its truly that easy and could easily be that quick. Its a signature, from one minister, requiring no further consensus than what the evidence, experts, and now law enforcement have already provided. Theres no need for more study, more committees, more delay.

Already, 160 civil society organizations across Canada have asked the Health Minister to do just this, most recently in a joint letter delivered six weeks ago.

While politicians dither, people  family members, friends, colleagues, community members, loved ones  are dying in record numbers.

Enough is enough. Decriminalize now.
Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam on Thursday asked whether speaking against the Shiv Sena was an "anti-party activity" and sought to know if the Mumbai unit of the grand old party had merged into the saffron party.

Taking to Twitter, Nirupam tagged a news report to say that Mumbai Congress leaders had complained to the party high command about his anti-party activities.

"As per this report, Mumbai Congress leaders have demanded action against me. Because, I wanted a probe into Shiv Sena leaders' land scam...Is speaking against Shivsena an anti-party activity? Is Mumbai Congress merged into Shivsena?" he wrote on Twitter.

The former MP also tweeted a government advertisement on employment generation programme of the MVA government that carries photographs of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Labour Minister Dilip Walse Patil, Skill Development Minister Nawab Malik and Industries Minister Subhash Desai.

"Hope you have heard that Congress is part of the Maharashtra government. But where is Congress in the government advertisement to provide jobs? I want to tell the Congress leaders who have fallen in love with the Shiv Sena, instead of prostrating before the Shiv Sena, fight it, otherwise the Congress will be finished," he said.
By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Campaign donations are flooding into the coffers of Democrats running for the U.S. Senate, but some Republican incumbents looking to protect their Senate majority hold a powerful cash advantage over their challengers as the election battle enters its final months.

Early second-quarter campaign filings with the Federal Election Commission showed a surge in donations for Democratic challengers trying to flip Republican-held Senate seats in at least 10 states seen as potentially in play as President Donald Trump's poll numbers decline.

The filing deadline was due to expire shortly before midnight on Wednesday and several prominent Republican incumbents had not yet reported their totals for the three months ended June 30.

While the Nov. 3 election is still 3-1/2 months away, the flood of campaign contributions shows Democrats benefiting from voter discontent over Trump's responses to the coronavirus pandemic and race relations, among other issues, analysts say.

"The intensity of the opposition to Donald Trump has motivated a lot of people to donate to Democrats for the first time, or more than they have before," said Republican strategist Alex Conant.

Republicans currently hold a four-seat majority in the 100-seat Senate. With Democrats controlling the House of Representatives, Republican control of the Senate has been crucial in buttressing Trump's presidency including keeping him in power after his February impeachment trial.

But superior fundraising does not guarantee Democratic challengers success on Election Day against Republican incumbents who have had longer to build up their financial firepower.

Democrats would need a net gain of four Republican-held seats to take control of the chamber if Trump wins re-election - or three if Democratic candidate Joe Biden defeats him. Democrats are widely expected to lose one seat - Senator Doug Jones of Alabama.

FEC documents filed on Wednesday showed that Iowa Democrat Theresa Greenfield, who is running against Republican Senator Joni Ernst, nearly tripled her quarterly fundraising total to $6 million from $2.3 million earlier this year. Although she out-raised Ernst's $3.6 million, Greenfield ended up with only $5.7 million in cash on hand, behind Ernst's $9.1 million.

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Likewise with Jon Ossoff, the Georgia Democrat running against Republican Senator David Perdue. Ossoff's $3.9 million in quarterly donations surpassed Perdue's $2.2 million. But the challenger was still behind in cash, with only $2.5 million on hand, versus Perdue's $10.7 million.

In other races, Republicans had smaller cash advantages over Democrats or were at least competitive.

Kentucky Democrat Amy McGrath outraised Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell once more, bringing in $17.4 million in the second quarter versus his $12.2 million. But the top Senate Republican edged her out in cash, $16.7 million to $16.2 million.

Democrat Steve Bullock, the Montana governor who is running to unseat Republican Senator Steve Daines, more than doubled his first-quarter fundraising performance by raising $7.8 million in the second, while Daines raised $5 million. Bullock also came out on top in cash with $7.6 million, against the Republican's $7.1 million.

Twenty-three Republican incumbents are seeking re-election to new six-year terms, compared with 12 Democratic incumbents. Polls show Senate Republican incumbents running slightly behind their Democratic challengers in half a dozen states: Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Maine, Montana and North Carolina.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Scott Malone, Peter Cooney and Leslie Adler)
EDWARDSVILLE  Multiple statements related to the Ninian Edwards statue and the plaza in which it stands were submitted by citizens to city council prior its meeting last week.

Out of 11 emails and one voicemail submitted, not all of the statements were read aloud during the public comment portion of the meeting on July 7. Four of the 11 emails were read during the meeting and all 12 submissions fell on the side of the tearing down the statue of the former political figure and slave owner and renaming the plaza in which it stands at the corner of St. Louis and W. Vandalia streets as well as relocating the statue to a local museum. Since last month, the movement has seemingly lost steam after meetings with city leadership and at least one historian.

Two individuals also offered their opinions in person at city council. Both stated they were against the removal of the statue.

Let us not be swayed by a few names on a petition. If you want to know how all 26,000 Edwardsville residents feel, put it on a November ballot and let all of us decide, lifelong resident and former alderman Richard Rezabek said.

Resident Kieth King said Edwards was governor before Illinois was a state and those for the removal should look at their own history.

Theyre teaching people the history of something that they never knew anything about until this was brought up, King said.

The email correspondents consisted of city residents, including assistant professor at the Department of Sociology at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Dr. Corey Stevens.

As an educator at SIUE, I believe that we should be having conversations about Ninian Edwards and his problematic legacy as an advocate for slavery and the genocidal removal of Native Americans, Stevens wrote. However, because of his role in perpetuating slavery and killing native people, I do not believe he deserves a place of honor in the center of our town. Its important that Edwardsville takes ownership of our problematic history and agrees to move forward towards a more just and equitable future for all our citizens.

I am asking you to relocate the Ninian Edwards statue from its current location downtown to an appropriate educational setting and to rename the plaza, Ezra Temko said in the single voicemail received.

In addition to the 12 comments received by Edwardsville City Clerk Emily Bates, a proposal submitted by retired city administrator and former police chief Ben Dickman was shared with five of the seven aldermen. Dickman was part of the team that led the statue project in 2006 and 2007.

Personally, I favor removing all statues of confederate leaders and placing them in a museum, Dickmann wrote in his proposal. According to Dickmann, his proposal suggesting the removal of the statue was not discussed during the meeting.

As for the emails, Bates said the process is routine as many of the emails shared not only the same message but also similar points of view.

I picked ones that had some variety from one to the next, Bates said.

Bates said the seven alderpeople were given the information and minutes after the meeting and were able to view the same material just before the meeting.

Alongside Dickmann, retired parks and recreation director Bob Pfeiffer was involved in the statue project as well as the 2007 city council. Former mayor Gary Niebur also spearheaded the project. Pfeiffer declined to comment further.

According to Intelligencer records, the project was initiated by the city to bring different art aspects to the downtown area.

The city purchased the property through an anonymous donation through the Greater Edwardsville Area Community Foundation (GEACF) and paid for the improvements to the ground from a grant from the state of Illinois secured by State Representative Jay Hoffman, a September 2008 Intelligencer article states.

While Dickmann proposed the removal of the statue, he also noted that he understands the historical aspect. It is for that reason he also suggested if the council does not want to remove the statue then a plaque or marker should be placed to tell the whole history of Edwards. He said statues are used as a reference, not worship.

Since the statue was not on the agenda, no action was taken but some ideas were discussed.

The retired police chief also believes that the process of correcting any wrongs does not stop with the statue.

Removing and destroying statues means nothing if we fail to ensure a better life for the overall black community of our nation, Dickmann told an Intelligencer reporter. He said he supports better police training and has made contact with those it affects.

Altering priorities in police budgets is clearly worthy of discussion, Dickmann said. While the budget discussion is needed, he said it is a slippery slope.

And, while more funds need to be directed to help our disadvantaged populations, generally defunding the police to find those funds for softer and badly needed programs is simply stupid.
The Supreme Court clearly got it right when it ruled that the Electoral College can keep working the way it has worked for the last 200 years.

The justices did not address the much bigger problem  which is the existence of the Electoral College itself.

In a unanimous opinion written by Justice Elena Kagan, the court agreed that states may replace and even punish faithless electors, the curious term we use for the direct electors of the president who cast their ballots for a candidate other than their partys nominee.

According to the Constitutions plain language, each state appoints its electors in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct. That power, Kagan wrote, includes power to condition his appointment  that is, to say what the elector must do for the appointment to take effect.

This is the system cobbled together at the last minute at the 1787 constitutional convention to address the needs of a country vastly different from ours. It is rotting American democracy from the inside out.

The rot spreads in two ways. First, by potentially awarding the presidency to the candidate who earns fewer votes among the people as a whole  which violates the fundamental premise of majority rule. (Before it vaulted him into the White House, Donald Trump saw how corrosive this feature was: The Electoral College is a disaster for a democracy, he tweeted on election night 2012, when he believed that his candidate, Mitt Romney, would defeat President Barack Obama in the popular vote and yet lose the election.)

Second, by violating the constitutional mandate of one person, one vote. In the presidential election, the value of your vote depends on where you live. If you live in one of the half dozen or so battleground states, it matters hugely. If you happen to live in a safe state, as a vast majority of Americans do, its effectively irrelevant.

Why do we use this bizarre, anti-democratic method to choose the one leader whose job is to represent all Americans equally?

Please dont say its because were a republic, not a democracy. We are a republic and a democracy. The terms both refer to a system of government in which the people elect leaders to act on their behalf. However we choose to elect the president, by a system of electors or through a national popular vote, were still electing him or her to represent us and act for us.

And dont say its because the Electoral College protects us from being dominated by the big cities like New York and Los Angeles. That argument, the most popular anti-popular-vote one currently in circulation, relies on distortions of both history and statistics. There were no big cities as we think of them when the Constitution was adopted. Its true that some framers were concerned about protecting the power of small states in the presidential election, but their solution was not the Electoral College as most of us think of it today; it was an obscure provision for a backup election that hasnt been triggered in almost two centuries.

A more historically accurate explanation for the Electoral College is that some of the Constitutions framers worried that most voters  who rarely ventured far from home and had no easy way of getting information quickly  couldnt know enough about national candidates to make an informed decision.

Thats one reason the framers settled on a system of electors: men who would be, in the words of Alexander Hamilton, most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation.

In short, Americans expect their electors to obey what the voters want. Micheal Baca, a Hamilton Elector and a plaintiff in one of the two cases the Supreme Court decided on Monday, admitted as much. If it wasnt me, I would feel uneasy, he told me. Im not someone with the requisite knowledge to make choices of this magnitude for other people.

The Supreme Courts ruling forces us to face the fact that there is no remaining rationale for the Electoral College. What remains is a system that serves no purpose other than to erase the votes of 100 million Americans every four years, making them bystanders to the most consequential election of all.

Kagan ended her opinion by invoking the Constitutions preamble: here, We the People rule. Except that we dont always.

A more accurate formulation would be, We the People of the Battleground States rule. And that, alas, is a problem that the Supreme Court cant solve.

Jesse Wegman is a columnist for the New York Times.
(Getty Images)

The federal government has reached an agreement with the provinces and territories for more than $19 billion in transfers as part of the safe restart agreement.

As part of this agreement, weve outlined seven priority areas on which to focus our efforts, like increasing testing and contact tracing, securing more personal protective equipment, and more support for the most vulnerable, including for seniors in long-term care facilities and nursing homes, said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a news conference.

The Prime Minister said the money is intended to address the needs of provinces and territories over the next 6 to 8 months. The funds need to be used for the priority areas and cant be shifted around. Trudeau added that there will be required transparency around how the money is spent.

Ottawa previously pledged $14 billion, but a number of premiers said it wasnt enough.

Trudeau says COVID-19 is an economic crisis as well as a health crisis.

So when we talk about the recovery phase, its not just about making sure we can detect, control, and prevent future outbreaks, said Trudeau.

Its also about helping people, businesses, and entire communities adjust to our new normal, because until we find a vaccine, the daily threat of COVID-19 will not disappear.

Municipalities will get assistance too. Toronto mayor John Tory says his city faces a $1.35 billion budget shortfall. Along with funding for operational costs, transit is a key priority.

If we want people to participate in the economy, they need to be able to get to work safely, said Trudeau.

No one should have to turn down a job because they dont want to risk their health during their commute.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford called the agreement desperately needed COVID-19 relief funding. The provinces share is approximately $7 billion dollars.

This is good, this is great actually, not even good, this is a great deal for Canada and its a great deal for Ontario.

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Trudeau also said the border with the U.S. will be closed until August 21.

Jessy Bains is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow him on Twitter @jessysbains.

Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android.
I hadnt planned on camping my way across the United States with my husband and two young sons, but last month, my family pitched a tent from Houston to Minnesota and back. The trek, which our 7-year-old took to calling the trip of a lifetime, was born not out of wanderlust but necessity.

My husband, Shawn, and I had been holed up in our East End home with our two sons, a first grader and a toddler. The only family trip on the books was our weekly drive to pick up our Plant It Forward farm share in Montrose. Then in late May, Shawns best friend, Nick, died at home in Minnesota. Shawn had to go say goodbye. Sending my grieving husband to drive for days alone didnt feel right. Suddenly, we faced a dilemma: In the summer of COVID-19, when travel mainstays such as airplanes and hotels feel precarious, how could we safely get from Houston to a suburb just south of Minneapolis?

We decided to camp. The Texas Medical Association recently released an infographic ranking the COVID-19-associated risk levels of common activities. Camping falls in the lowest-risk category alongside daily rituals such as opening mail and pumping gasoline -- the latter of which wed also need to do quite a bit in order to drive 2,500 miles.

More Information If you go Setting up a camper profile on Hipcamp is free. Campsites typically range from $15 to $80 per night; hipcamp.com. See More Collapse

Plotting our course just a few days before our departure, I discovered Hipcamp. Like Airbnb for campers, glampers and RVers, Hipcamp allows travelers to book stays on private land. All Hipcamp sites must be on at least 2 acres, and though tent camping is a common offering, rentable dwellings range from yurts to treehouses to cabins. Pictures of the grounds, a list of amenities, instructions and reviews accompany every listing. Most sites cost between $15 and $30 per night. Some campsites have toilets and showers, but many -- including half of our stays -- dont.

Hipcamp includes sites at state and national parks, but it was the private land connection that piqued our interest. Public parks -- when theyre open -- have much larger camper capacities than private acreage. We wanted sparsely populated open air, not tightly packed campgrounds. Hipcamp founder and CEO Alyssa Ravasio unveiled the platform in 2013 as a one-stop listing for campsites at public parks across the country. Early feedback from app users was positive, with one caveat that was beyond Hipcamps control: Parks were always booked. There werent enough places to go.

Im sure living in Texas, its intuitive to look to private land as a place for outdoor recreation, but for a lot of us, that was a new concept, says Ravasio, who lives in San Francisco, where Hipcamp is based.

Hipcamp began reaching out to private landowners, creating an extensive network of rural getaways, many of which would otherwise be unknown and off-limits to the general public.

As weve begun to partner with everyone from ranchers to farmers to nature preserves, its expanded the impact that Hipcamp can have, Ravasio says. Now, its not just about getting outside. Its also about learning about animal sanctuaries, organic farming and how ranching can be done in a way thats restorative to the soil.

The 2019 North American Camping Report released by Kampgrounds of America estimates that 78.8 million American households camped in 2018, a high that capped off five consecutive years of growth. Though the pandemic first threatened to reverse that trend, recent studies about the relative safety and overall health benefits of being outdoors during COVID-19s reign have helped fuel an uptick in camping once again. After sweeping cancellations in March and April, Hipcamp has seen about three times as many campers during June and July 2020 as the same time last year. The company also introduced Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-informed COVID-19 protocols designed to keep both hosts and campers safe.

On our trip, we avoided parks and other public spaces, opting instead to camp at small farms, wineries and an animal sanctuary. Everywhere we stayed, people were far outnumbered by fireflies and on one occasion, potbellied pigs.

Mark Newman, who owns 99 Bottles Winery in Garner, Iowa, and was one of our Hipcamp hosts, says hes had about four times as many campers this summer as he has had in previous years. When my family and I stayed at 99 Bottles, we saw all seven of Marks official campsites, each secluded and nestled in hilly farmland. He says he enjoys providing city dwellers a rural escape -- pandemic or not.

These days, most people live in a cacophony of noise that comes from engines, tires and airplanes, he says. My wife and I like hearing the birds.

Though Mark greets plenty of weekend campers, especially from neighboring Minnesota, he estimates that half of his visitors these days arent vacationing.

I often see two people, traveling light, with a tent. One or both of them is working from their computer, and theyre leaving the East Coast -- usually New York City, he says. Theyre headed to Portland or Salt Lake City or Omaha, never planning to go back to New York again.

Stories that are different than ours but also the same: trips of necessity, mined for silver linings and solid ground. On our way to bury our friend, we held 10-day-old goats, tasted pinot noir made just yards from our tent, caught bass on a fly rod and stared at stars until we couldnt keep our eyes open.

When I asked him what advice hed give to families considering a similar adventure with young kids, Shawn didnt hesitate: Drive during naptime, he said. And buy good gear -- especially bug spray.

Shawns friend Nick -- a brilliant geologist and grill master -- loved camping, and he was good at it. Our first night outside, as our 18-month-old slept in the tent and our oldest son chased grasshoppers by a rock-bottom pond, Shawn and I sipped wine from coffee mugs by a fire. There was no turning back. We grinned at our audacity, toasted Nick and thanked him for a cool front in June.

Elisabeth Carroll Parks is a writer in Houston. Email: travel@chron.com.
After heavy rains throughout the country are in South Asia strokes under water. In the East of India had to be housed due to the Flooding of millions of residents in shelters, said local authorities on Thursday. Thousands of villages are flooded, dozens of people came in the floods. India is the only country that has to suffer the consequences of a strong monsoon to. In Bangladesh, around a third of the country is to be flooded. Also from the neighbouring countries Burma, Nepal, and Bhutan to the Floods were reported.

Till Fahnders

Political correspondent for Southeast Asia.

F. A. Z. Twitter

The annual monsoon is a well known weather phenomenon, according to which agriculture is built in the Region. For several years, but increasingly to extremely heavy rainfall with sometimes devastating consequences. As a result, around 600 people arrived in the Region, according to the United Nations in the past year.

the Situation is Complicated by the fact that South Asia is currently struggling with a sharp increase in infections with the Coronavirus to. So the Indian state authorities in the northeast to create Assam, the difficulty of, in the shelters, the spacing rules for the containment of the pandemic is to be observed.

Updated Date: 16 July 2020, 15:20
A Nigerian Professor, Charles Egbu has been appointed the Vice-Chancellor of Leeds Trinity University.

The Anambra-born professor who will be assuming his new role on November 1, 2020, will be taking over from Margaret A House, the outgoing VC who had held the office for seven years.

Egbu who expressed excitement over his new appointment, said;

I am honoured to be joining Leeds Trinity; a University whose values and ethos around widening participation, offering a personalised approach and encouraging all students to achieve their best, align with my own. The University has an impressive track record in learning, teaching and employability, and I am looking forward to building on the strong foundations established under the leadership of Professor House. I have already been impressed by the sense of community at Leeds Trinity and I am looking forward to engaging with students, colleagues and alumni as we shape the future strategy of the institution. I am also looking forward to returning to Leeds; the city in which I spent much of my early academic life.

The Nigerian Professor has 25 years experience in higher education and was formerly the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education and Experience at the University of East London. He was also the Dean of the School of Built Environment and Architecture at London South Bank University and Head of the School of Built Environment at the University of Salford.

He held academic posts at University College London, Glasgow Caledonian University and Leeds Beckett University (formerly Leeds Metropolitan).

Egbu who has also written 12 books and contributed to more than 350 publications in various international journals and conferences with focus on project management, construction management and sustainable development, is a member of various external bodies including the Advance HE Pro Vice-Chancellor Network and QAA Panel of Experts.
Rhea Chakraborty Raises Her Voice Against Cyber Bullying

The actress shared a screenshot of the message that she received on Instagram, in which the user threatened to get her raped and killed.

The Actress Hits Back At The Troll With A Powerful Post

Rhea wrote, "I was called a gold digger ..I kept quiet. I was called a murderer ....I kept quiet. I was slut shamed ....I kept quiet. But how does my silence give you the right to tell me that you will get me RAPED and MURDERED if I don't die by suicide @mannu_raaut? (sic)."

Rhea Requested The Cyber Cell To Take Necessary Action Against The Online Harasser

"Do you realize the seriousness of what you have said? These are crimes, and by law no one, I repeat NO ONE should be subjected to this kind of toxicity and harassment. I request @cyber_crime_helpline @cybercrimeindia to please take necessary action. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH," the actress wrote in her post.

Rhea Chakraborty Was Recently Trolled For Her Emotional Post On Sushant's One-Month Death Anniversary

On Tuesday, Rhea had shared a lengthy post on her Instagram page, in which she had paid a heartfelt tribute to the late actor.

She had written in her post, "Still struggling to face my emotions.. an irreparable numbness in my heart. You are the one who made me believe in love, the power of it. You taught me how a simple mathematical equation can decipher the meaning of life and I promise you that I learnt from you every day. I will never come to terms with you not being here anymore. I know you're in a much more peaceful place now. The moon, the stars, the galaxies would've welcomed "the greatest physicist "with open arms. Full of empathy and joy, you could lighten up a shooting star - now, you are one . I will wait for you my shooting star and make a wish to bring you back to me."

She had further added, "You were everything a beautiful person could be, the greatest wonder that the world has seen . My words are incapable of expressing the love we have and I guess you truly meant it when you said it is beyond both of us. You loved everything with an open heart, and now you've shown me that our love is indeed exponential. Be in peace Sushi. 30 days of losing you but a lifetime of loving you.... Eternally connected. To infinity and beyond."

Rhea's emotional post didn't go down well with a section of netizens, who brutally trolled her on social media for the same.
The chairperson of Delhi Minorities Commission (DMC)s fact-finding report on communal violence in North East Delhi has slammed the police for allegedly engaging in direct violence, including physical assault and abuse, for being either mute spectators or, in some cases, even alleged participants in the violence, and for its failure to prevent violence, which it said, was not due to individual or sporadic breaches, but was a pattern of deliberate inaction over several days.

The report also slammed the chargesheets filed by Delhi police for being biased in nature, for its shoddy investigation, in the course of which it allegedly ignored incendiary speeches made by BJP leaders like Kapil Mishra.

Non-registration of FIRs or delayed action on complaints naming the accused of riots, loot, arson and murder has led to no investigation in many crucial cases. Cases like the shooting from Mohan Nursing Home, instigating and inflammatory statements of Shri Kapil Mishra, have not been registered despite High Courts observation, the chairperson of the DMC fact-finding committee, MR Shamshad, said in his introductory remarks.

He said, Partisanship and bias on the part of the police and government have led to the abject failure of duty and of the law and order machinery in the Capital of India. Investigations have purposefully been misdirected to change the narrative of the cause of the violence that erupted in the North-East district of Delhi.

Shamshad alleged collusion between the administration and police in triggering a large-scale violence with the objective of crushing the peaceful protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

He said, The same discriminatory bias and hate became the reason for the minorities to take a lead in the protests against the discriminatory CAA. The protests were legitimate and peaceful. Seemingly, to crush the protests, with support of the Administration and Police, a retaliatory plan of pro-CAA protesters was worked out to trigger violence at a large scale which led to loss of lives and damage to hundreds of properties owned mainly by the Muslim religious minority.

The fact-finding report also criticised the chargesheets filed by the Delhi Police. Crucial aspects of the entire chain of events are missing from most of the chargesheets that have been filed till date. The fact-finding report goes on to state 

In most cases, chargesheets have been filed by police first against Muslim accused and the entire narrative has been changed to one of violence on both sides rather than a pogrom that was in fact carried out. This is a serious issue of changing public perception by attributing the riots to CAA protestors in general and Muslims, in particular. This reflects injustice and partisan bias in the system which is neither good for a democratic system nor for our nation as whole.

The report attempts to point out flaws in the sequence of events as claimed by Delhi Police that led up to the communal riots in which over 50 people lost their lives.

Almost all the North East Delhi violence-related cases that Police are investigating are based on the premise that riots were planned by anti-CAA protesters to coincide with the US President Donald Trumps visit to India in the third week of February. The first reference to the forthcoming Trump visit was published in India on 13 January while the alleged meeting of the conspirators is claimed by police to have been held on 8 January 2020, it said.

The report also highlighted testimonies of several women from the Chand Bagh area, one of the worst-affected areas by communal violence, who described how they were attacked by the police Police forces attacked women at the protest site, and later did not provide any help or support when the mob attacked the protesters in the same area. These physical attacks on women were carried out by male police officers. Several women suffered grievous injuries.

According to the testimony of a Muslim woman who was pregnant at the time of violence, she received 35 stitches after being hit by the police at the Chand Bagh protest site.

Police started attacking the protesters who were at Chand Bagh and they brutally beat up a few men who were also present at the protest siteWomen also stated that it was the police who started the violence at Chand Bagh. The protesters were peacefully sitting there, and it was after the police attacked that the mob also gathered. In that tumult, several women were injured, the report said.

The report also carried a detailed testimony of a woman who claimed to have been "witness to the police dragging a 12-13-year-old girl". She alleged the policemen flashed their genitals towards the women.

The eyewitness added that she tried to protect the child who was being dragged away "but failed as she was hit on the head by a stone and she subsequently fainted.

When she regained consciousness, she saw that there were many injured women around. The crowd of the rioters continuously kept abusing them. She recounts that it was then that the police pulled their pants down and pointed their genitals towards the women stating that they wanted freedom and they were there to give them freedom and that this was their freedom."

Delhi Police Additional PRO Anil Mittal said, "We have not received any report from the Delhi Minorities Commission so far".

He said a majority of the cases were registered on the complaint of people from the minority community. "Delhi Police maintains that all cases are being investigated in a fair and professional manner," said Mittal.

Mittal added the Delhi Police has rather encouraged people to come forward and lodge their complaints. Wide advertisements were also issued in newspapers in this regard, he said.

The police officer said three Special Investigation Teams were also formed to investigate the cases of murder."A special court and special prosecutor have also been appointed to look into the cases," he said. Besides, a claim commissioner has also been appointed look into damage estimate and recovery, he said.

(With inputs from PTI)
Albany

Citing a continued public health risk from the coronavirus, the Sept. 9-10 bar exams in New York have been canceled, according to an advisory Thursday from the state Court of Appeals.

The Board of Law Examiners made the decision after considering current conditions and focusing on the health and safety of participants. Because the pandemic presents a persistent threat in a many states, an in-person exam is not yet a safe or practical option in New York, the statement says.

The September date was a postponement of the late July exam date.

A working group, to be chaired by retired Court of Appeals Judge Howard A. Levine, will be studying the future of the state bar exam. As its first priority, it will evaluate the emergency remote testing option to be offered by the National Conference of Bar Examiners in early October and try to reach a recommendation by early August.

This important work will explore innovative methods of adapting our professional licensure process in a responsible manner as we emerge from the most acute stages of this crisis, the advisory says.

A previously announced program has been designed to provide temporary authorization for qualified law graduates to engage in the supervised practice of law.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

In 2019, during the February and July dates, 14,200 state bar exams were taken, with a 59 percent pass rate.

The New York State Bar Association will review the decision and make recommendations on how best to proceed, association President Scott M. Karson said.

The class of 2020 has been dealt a difficult hand and many graduates are experiencing stress and strain over the uncertainty surrounding the bar exam, a grim job market, and staggering student debt, he said in a statement. NYSBA will expeditiously examine the alternatives, taking into account the interests of consumers of legal services as well as the law school graduates seeking admission to the New York bar.
EVERY tech manufacturer now has its own brand of wireless, in-ear 'buds'. Increasingly, it's getting more difficult for each brand to introduce something different. Active noise-cancelling? Done. Sweat resistant? Plenty of options. But Google's edge has always been rooted in the software. So for its new Pixel Buds 2, there's a combination of virtual intelligence and audio power that's genuinely impressive.

Arguably the most notable element is its real-time translation. Say "Hey Google, help me to speak Spanish" and, as long as you have an Android 6 phone, it will start translating what you say into Spanish.

This isn't a brand new feature, but it's the first time it's been integrated so seamlessly into a pair of wireless in-ear headphones. The new Buds 2 also does a good job of adjusting the noise depending on where you are. While it doesn't have active noise cancellation on board, it does still interpret what you're listening to, to improve your own audio experience.

But the biggest plus to the Buds 2 is the audio quality. I'm slightly taken back by just how good they are at the thing you're really buying them for.

They sport 12mm dynamic speaker drivers, but I'm not sure that this is what's doing it. It may just be good engineering on the physical rubber tips and Buds themselves. In my ears, which often don't play well with in-ear headphones, they sit neatly and don't budge.

Once you twist them in properly, the audio quality is simply superb (relative to umpteen other in-ear headphones I've tried over the last year).

The bass is comparatively rich and warm with voices completely clear. The only quirky thing that some people might experience is an odd airlocked feeling within the ear, given that the rubber tips seal it up so completely.

The Pixel Buds 2 are very easy to set up: the minute you take them out their case, they're ready to pair. I did it with both an iPhone and Android phone and experienced zero problems.

Like almost all such buds headphones, they come in a pill-style recharging case which gives them at least three or four hours of battery life per Buds charge, up to around 20 hours before you need to charge the case (via USB-C). That white case is elegantly designed and, I found, is relatively scuff-proof.

Call quality is also good and it has no problem picking up your voice clearly.

Lastly, the Buds are somewhat rain and sweat resistant, although you wouldn't want to be out for a while in a deluge.

Overall, these are well worth buying and will provide serious competition for both Apple's AirPods and AirPods Pro.
A sex assault convict was sentenced Wednesday to 71 years to life in prison in the death of a Nebraska college student whose body has never been found since she vanished in 2010.

Loved ones of Tyler Thomas hugged and cried after 38-year-old Joshua Keadle was sentenced for second-degree murder in the killing after a jury had found him guilty in February.

But on Wednesday in court, Keadle - who did not testify at his trial - maintained that he is innocent and told the court he feels guilty seeing Thomas' grandmother cry.

'I'm sorry for the choices I made. I feel responsible for Tyler not being here. (But) I did not kill Tyler Thomas,' Keadle told the 10 family members present.

Joshua Keadle was sentenced to 71 years for second-degree murder on Wednesday

He was convicted to 35 years to life in February for the murder of Tyler Thomas (pictured) who disappeared in December 2010

Keadle initially told investigators he was not with Thomas on the night she disappeared. He later changed his story and claimed he left her at a Missouri River boat ramp before she vanished

'I'm sorry, I know that's not good enough. You are the last person I see every night before I go to sleep. I did not kill Tyler and I'm sorry for that.'

The sentencing hearing was delayed because of COVID-19 concerns but on Wednesday Thomas' loved ones got some justice.

'We haven't been able to heal, we can't really mourn, we don't have a body to bury. We don't have that closure.... we don't have that,' Thomas' mother LaTanya said, KMTV reports.

'I still don't know where she [Tyler] is. I always hoped during all of this that we would find out where she is and what he did to her. It's gonna be a start of our healing, I think more than what we expected to be because we've been holding our breath for a long time.'

Thomas was 19 when she disappeared in December 2010 after the Omaha student left a party near Peru State College in southeastern Nebraska, where Keadle also was a student, the Omaha World-Herald reported.

Keadle initially told investigators he was not with Thomas on the night she disappeared.

Keadle was arrested in 2016. He had been a person of interest in the disappearance and by then was serving time in prison for the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl in 2008 in Fremont

Keadle told the family in court: 'I'm sorry, I know that's not good enough. You are the last person I see every night before I go to sleep. I did not kill Tyler and I'm sorry for that'

The victim's father (left) said before the sentencing on Wednesday in a Nebraska court that Keadle 'does not deserve any leniency for what he has done'. 'We no longer smile just because we're happy,' Thomas' younger brother, Dillon, said

Loved ones of Thomas hugged and cried after the sentence was read

'We haven't been able to heal, we can't really mourn, we don't have a body to bury. We don't have that closure.... we don't have that,' Thomas' mother LaTanya said on Wednesday

Later, he changed his story, saying that he had offered to give Thomas a ride to Omaha in exchange for a sex act.

But he said she later reneged on the arrangement, and after an argument broke out, he left her behind at a Missouri River boat ramp near campus.

During a search of the boat launch, a deputy said he saw tire tracks matching Keadle's SUV, and what appeared to be drag marks leading to the river bank.

Earlier that year, an 18-year-old student told authorities that he took her to the same boat launch and threatened to push her in the Missouri River if she didn't have sex with him.

Keadle was charged with several felonies in that case, but the charges were eventually dropped.

Weeks before Thomas' disappearance, Keadle was accused of sexually harassing two female students in a co-ed dorm.

In 2013, the state issued a death certificate for Thomas.

A jury found Keadle liable in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Thomas' family and ordered him to pay $2.6billion.

It's unlikely Thomas' family will ever collect on the award, because Keadle doesn't have the assets to pay it.

Thomas (pictured left and right) was the captain of the college's dance team

Keadle said he had offered to give Thomas a ride to Omaha in exchange for a sex act. He said she later reneged on the arrangement, and after an argument broke out, he left her behind at a Missouri River boat ramp near campus

He joined the search effort back in 2010 but didn't look anywhere near where he said he had abandoned her. 'You did nothing to make sure she got home safely,' the judge told Keadle on Wednesday. 'Instead you chose to protect yourself'

With no body, the case went cold. But in 2016, the Nebraska attorney general's office took a new look at the case at the urging of Thomas' family when the newly-elected General Doug Peterson took over.

That led to the arrest of Keadle, who had been a person of interest in the disappearance and by then was serving time in prison for the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl in 2008 in Fremont, while Keadle was a college student there.

That conviction was partially used as a basis for the sentencing request from the state prosecutor.

Gage County District Judge Rick Schreiner noted on Wednesday that Keadle has been selfish in his actions since Thomas disappeared.

He joined the search effort but didn't look anywhere near where he said he had abandoned her.

'You did nothing to make sure she got home safely,' the judge told Keadle. 'Instead you chose to protect yourself.'

Keadle will be eligible for parole in 35 years when he's 73 years old.

Kevin Semans, Thomas' father, made a statement before the sentence was read.

'It is hard to talk about Tyler with anyone, because it brings up emotions that I just can't handle,' he said of his daughter, who was captain of the college's dance team. 'Joshua took so much more than Tyler's life, he took a part of all of our lives.

'Part of us died when she died. Joshua Keadle does not deserve any leniency for what he has done. Not a shred.'

He said the last 10 years have felt like 'eternity'.

'We no longer smile just because we're happy,' Thomas' younger brother, Dillon, said. 'We no longer laugh so hard our sides hurt or our eyes drip tears.

'She was my best friend so my view on people has changed.'
Amid heightened tensions over verbal spat related to South China Sea maritime claims, China said it was going to impose unspecified sanctions on defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. after the US approved a $620 million deal to supply missiles and armament to Taiwan. "China firmly opposes US arms sales to Taiwan," Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a press conference.

We will impose sanctions on the main contractor of this arms sale, Lockheed Martin, Lijian stressed, without specifying more details of the embargo.

While the United States has been the leading supplier of military weapons such as surface-to-air Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missiles to Taiwan, which is approved to upgrade at an estimated cost of $620 million only last week, China warned the US to cut military ties with Taiwan and not aggravate bilateral relations in a statement.

China decides to sanction Lockheed Martin, the main contractor of the recent US arms sales to Taiwan, as an essential measure to safeguard national interests. pic.twitter.com/kCLogSFqjh  Lijian Zhao  (@zlj517) July 14, 2020

While Lockheed made 9.7 percent of its revenue from arms supply in the Asia-Pacific region, the US manufacturer has a strict policy on business with strategic rivals like China. However, in an attack on the US, Chinas Foreign affairs spokesperson threatened the US to stop selling arms and having military ties with Taiwan to avoid further damage to bilateral relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, in a press conference.

The PRC has no legal grounds to impose its will on the region and claim resources off the coasts of Southeast Asian states.  Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) July 13, 2020

Read: US: 2 Charged In Deadly California Kidnapping Of China Citizen

Read: US: Esper Order Aims To Expand Diversity, Skirts Major Decisions

As China announced that it was taking the necessary measure to impose sanctions on the prime contractor Lockheed Martin to prevent military arms sale in Taiwan, Zhao said the decision safeguards our national interests. Earlier, China attacked the US, saying, that it was 'inciting confrontation' after it called the US a troublemaker "and condemned Mike Pompeos statements that Chinas occupation in the South China Sea was unlawful.

"Government decides" military sales to foreign nations

A Lockheed Martin spokesperson reportedly said that the Foreign Military Sales were government-to-government transactions and the company worked closely with the US government on military sales to international customers. Therefore, the spokesperson said, the discussions about sales to foreign governments were presided by the US government. Chinas announcements come after US slapped sanctions on Chinese Communist Bash (CCP) leaders accused of undermining Hong Kongs autonomy in view of recent national security law bills and Chinese tech company Huawei.

Read: China: US Xinjiang Warning bad For The Whole World

Read: China Confirms Progress In disengagement Along LAC After 4th Corps-Commander Level Talks

(Images: AP/Twitter/ Lockheed Martin Corp)
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The Plastic Packaging market size is anticipated to reach USD 416.2 billion by 2026. In 2017, the bottles segment dominated the global market, in terms of revenue. Asia-Pacific is expected to be the leading contributor to the global market revenue during the forecast period. A significant increase in disposable income, changing lifestyles, and improving living standards have increased the demand for food products, consumer electronics, and retail products among others, which supports the market growth.

Initiatives by market players to offer innovative products in the market, communicate brand values, and create brand differentiation also drive the market growth. Other driving factors include growing middle class population, and increasing penetration of e-commerce platforms. The significant growth in e-commerce and rising consumer demand for consumer goods has resulted in growth in packaging segments such as protective packaging, flexible pouches and innovative bottles. Increasing demand from developing nations, and technological advancements are factors expected to provide numerous growth opportunities to the market players during the forecast period.

Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/plastic-packaging-market/request-for-sample

Large brands are focusing on personalized and customized plastic packaging to create an impact on consumers and enhance brand awareness. Packaging enables companies to differentiate brands and offer personalization. Packaging can provide links to information about the product, both enhancing the product and providing details about its provenance. Plastic packaging enables enhancing of brand power for global brands and offers an effective method to compete with private label and emerging local players. Growth in digitalization offers consumers access to vast and detailed information. Communicating brand values effectively and enabling product differentiation is a major factor driving the growth of the plastic packaging industry.

Asia-Pacific generated the highest revenue in the plastic packaging market in 2018, and is expected to lead the global market throughout the forecast period. The increasing population in the region coupled with growing disposable income has increased the sale of food and beverages, apparel, and consumer goods, driving the market growth. Consumers in the region are increasingly opting for packaging that is easy to use and convenient to transport. Smaller, lighter and easily disposable packaging is being used to make consumption-on-the-go easier. The growing healthcare, retail, and pharmaceutical industries in countries such as China, Japan, and India support the market growth.

Browse for full research summary: https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/plastic-packaging-market

The well-known companies profiled in the report include Mondi Group, Berry Plastics Corporation, Sonoco Products Company, Amcor Limited, DS Smith plc, Bemis Company, Inc., NatureWorks LLC, Consolidated Container Company, Reynolds Group Holdings Limited, and Alpla Werke Alwin Lehner GmbH & Co. KG. These companies launch new products and collaborate with other players in the global plastic packaging industry to innovate and launch new products to meet the increasing needs and requirements of consumers.

Plastic Packaging Market Size and Forecast, 2018-2026 by Type Rigid Plastic Packaging Flexible Plastic Packaging

Plastic Packaging Market Size and Forecast, 2018-2026 by Product Bags Cans Bottles Pouches Others

Plastic Packaging Market Size and Forecast, 2018-2026 by End-User Food and Beverage Healthcare Pharmaceutical Retail Personal and Home Care Others

Plastic Packaging Market Size and Forecast, 2018-2026 by Region North America U.S. Canada Europe Germany UK France Italy Spain Belgium Russia Netherlands Rest of Europe Asia-Pacific China India Japan Korea Singapore Malaysia Indonesia Thailand Philippines Rest of Asia-Pacific Latin America Brazil Mexico Argentina Rest of LATAM Middle East & Africa UAE Saudi Arabia South Africa Rest of MEA



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As atrocious police action in Madhya Pradesh made national headlines, Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government in the state swung into action sacking the district collector and Superintendent of Police Guna on Thursday while a police probe was ordered into the matter on Wednesday.

Days after a Dalit family was beaten up by cops in MP's Guna district, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief and former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Mayawati hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state over the issue and asked for strict action against those responsible.

A farm belonging the the Dalit family was also destroyed by the district administration with the help of a JCB machine.

Condemning the incident, the BSP chief on Thursday took to Twitter and said, "To force a couple to attempt suicide by destroying the crops from the JCB machine in the name of encroachment by the Guna Police and Administration of Madhya Pradesh is highly condemnable. The nationwide condemnation of this incident is natural. Government should take strict action."

"On one hand, BJP and their government are going GaGa over rehabilitation of Dalits, while on the other hand, the incidents of their desolation are as common as they used to be under the rule of the Congress Party, so what is the difference between the two governments? Especially Dalits must also think about this," she added.

1.                                      -  -            Mayawati (@Mayawati) July 16, 2020

The Congress also slammed the use of force on the couple and demanded action against those responsible for the incident. Sharing a video of the incident, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said, "Our fight is against this mentality and injustice."

The video of police mercilessly beating the farmer and women members of his family went viral in no time and on Wednesday the incident hogged wide space on social media sending jitters to Madhya Pradesh state capital and Home minister Dr Narottam Mishra set up a probe panel of senior police officers by evening regretting the incident.

Earlier PCC chief and Former MP CM Kamal Nath also hit out at the state government over the incident. Re-tweeting about the incident, Nath said "This inhuman act has exposed the autocracy of Shivraj government, this fight is beginning of the end of Shivraj rule."

Any land encroachment could be resolved through legal process and bashing the farmer and his family including kids isnt justified. "Was it done just because they are farmers and poor," asked Nath. Will they display such courage to free government land from musclemen, he added.

MP Congress too tweeted about the matter saying it took place in Jyotiraditya Scindias region and was a display of Shivrajs ego. "Farmer beaten up, womans clothes were torn so a saddened farmer consumes poison," it said.

Former Guna MP Jyotiraditya Scindia too had called the incident highly unfortunate.

Well over a lakh messages were tweeted on Wednesday with the subject 'Shivraj_Singh_Istifa do'on Wednesday.

Home minister Dr Narottam Mishra who issued orders for removing collector S Viswanathan and Superintend of Police Tarun Nayak on Thursday, hit back at Congress party saying during Kamal Nath government police-administration used to see prepaid transfers. "When two kids were abducted in Satna, they returned only after their death," added Mishra.

The incident took place on Tuesday when the couple was removed from a plot of government land allotted for a college in Guna city. When officials asked them to vacate the field, they consumed pesticide in protest, a senior official said on Wednesday.

However, their condition was now stable, he said, adding that the police were compelled to use force against them as they resisted the eviction. A video that went viral on social media showed the police beating the man with batons severely while his wife and others were trying to save him.

Taking cognizance of the matter, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan ordered immediate removal of Collector and SP of Guna and directed a high-level inquiry into the incident.

"The (farm) land was reserved for a government model college. Rajkumar Ahirwar (38) and his wife Savitri (35) were working on the land. Gabbu Pardi, who had encroached on the land, had given them work," said district collector S Vishwanathan.

When officials asked them to vacate the field, they protested and drank pesticide at the behest of those who had encroached on the land, he claimed.

The two also refused to go to hospital so the police had to use force to take them to the hospital, added the collector.

(With inputs from Vikas Trivedi in Bhopal and Vikas Dixit in Guna)
Stutts remarked, "I will bring my voice, perspective and insights as a seasoned black female executive to the table, and help solidify Slones leadership and commitment to diversity and inclusion, both within the company and within the candidate pools that we deliver to our client partners.

Mary Stutts, has been named to the Advisory Board of Slone Partners, it was announced today. Stutts is a renowned C-level global branding and growth expert who has provided strategic counsel in the biotechnology, healthcare, technology, and media industries at Fortune 200 companies including Genentech, Bayer, Bristol Myers Squibb, Kaiser Permanente, UnitedHealth Group, and Comcast NBCUniversal. Mary Stutts is currently the Senior Vice President, Corporate Relations at Sumitovant Biopharma.

Growing up as a foster child from the age of five, Stutts in 2004 founded The Center for Excellence in Life (TCEL), a 501c3 organization focused on developing women and underrepresented youth aspiring to leadership positions. She later served as Chief Inclusion, Diversity & Health Equity Officer at Stanford Health Care (SHC), where she worked directly with the SHC Board of Directors and executive committee to build and curate an Inclusive Leadership Program for Stanfords leaders.

Stutts joins Vijay Aggarwal, Ph.D., Bijan Salehizadeh, M.D., Mara G. Aspinall, and Kyle Wilson as members of the Advisory Board of Slone Partners.

Mary Stutts brings many years of life sciences business leadership experience and perspectives to our firm at a time when we are renewing its commitment to diversity and inclusion, said Slone Partners President Tara Kochis-Stach. I believe that Mary will help shape the future of Slone Partners as we continue to grow and improve the level of service that we provide to our client partners and candidates.

Stutts remarked, I am honored and delighted to become a member of the Advisory Board of Slone Partners as I am a firm believer in the companys mission and its people. In my role, I will bring my voice, perspective and insights as a seasoned black female executive to the table, and help solidify Slones leadership and commitment to diversity and inclusion, both within the company and within the candidate pools that we deliver to our client partners.

Stutts is a highly-respected corporate advisor, author, and speaker on the dynamics of women and men in leadership, developing a personal brand, mastering entrepreneurship, and the imperative for women leaders to add value in growing corporations. Her current book, The Missing Mentor: Women Advising Women on Power, Progress and Priorities, is regularly listed among the top sellers on the topic of women in leadership. Named one of Savoy Magazines 2019 Most Influential Women in Corporate America, Stutts earned a B.A. in Communications Management from the University of Louisiana, a Masters Degree in Health Administration from the University of Southern California, and completed the Executive Program on Organization and Strategy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

ABOUT SLONE PARTNERS

Slone Partners delivers the leaders who build amazing scientific healthcare organizations  People Are Our Science. Since 2000, Slone Partners specializes in delivering world-class C-suite leadership, executive, and upper management talent to the most promising and established life sciences, biotechnology, diagnostics, precision medicine, CRO, and laboratory services companies. With coast-to-coast presence in the most active healthcare industry hubs of Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Austin, Research Triangle Park NC, and Washington DC, Slone Partners uniquely and precisely provides an array of executive search and advisory services to innovative scientific healthcare companies. To learn more about Slone Partners value proposition and processes, visit http://www.slonepartners.com or call 888.784.3422.
Options traders are rolling out the red carpet for Netflix as it gears up to report earnings after the bell on Thursday.

The trades come as no surprise, considering how much the streaming giant has benefited from the stay-at-home trade.

Netflix has surged nearly 60% this year, breaking out to unprecedented new highs during the coronavirus pandemic as traders bet that more eyes than ever before are on what Netflix has to offer, both as a streaming platform and as a stock.

"[Netflix] has averaged [a move of] about 4.4% over the last eight quarters, but right now it's implying a move of about $50 one way or the other. That's 10% of the current stock price," Optimize Advisors CIO Michael Khouw said Wednesday on "Fast Money."

Wednesday's activity was decidedly on the bullish side of that 10% implied move in either direction. Calls out-traded puts by 3 to 1, and the most active contract of the day pointed toward another big breakout to new highs.

"Some of the call action I was looking at were next week's 520-calls," said Khouw, "Those were trading for about $30. It looks like options traders may be targeting that $550 high we saw last week coming out of earnings."

Those calls expire on July 24, and break even right around the $550 on the underlying stock. That's nearly 7% from where Netflix was trading Thursday morning. That level would be slightly higher than Netflix's all-time closing high of $548.73, but buyers of these calls are likely targeting an even larger breakout.

Netflix was trading about 1.5% lower in Thursday's session at $515.67.

Disclaimer
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIGG Digital Assets Inc. ("BIGG" or the "Company")(CSE: BIGG; OTCQB: BBKCF; WKN: A2PS9W), owner of Blockchain Intelligence Group (BIG), a leading developer of Blockchain technology search, risk-scoring and data analytics solutions, is the first to announce routing of funds from yesterdays Twitter hack to known exchanges.



Some of the funds fraudulently obtained yesterday as part of a Twitter scam and hack involving several high profile Twitter accounts, including those of Elon Musk, Barack Obama, Justin Sun, Binance, Coinbase and more, have seemingly been transferred to an address possibly linked to the hack, split and then sent to a few different Know Your Customer (KYC) regulated exchanges.

Funds (approximately USD$13K~) were noted as having gone to the Luno Exchange in the UK, while a smaller amount was traced to an exchange in India.

Other splits of the pilfered Bitcoin (BTC) included an original amount valued at USD$7,007 that was divided almost equally between two other wallets.

A third transaction comprised a nominal amount of BTC valued at USD$9.99 that moved through an address possibly held by Binance.

(Transaction ID: ca8a6ac971b25d34598b4c241e51b80982f11229bccd6b9fd24a96bc41062986)

Remaining funds from the splits are currently being held in addresses 37jiyhZ1xe8pQn8zfQg55x4cmKPUHfSrV4, 3JkFd23hsNqTACyaPL7EtNTegY6s23voA4 and bc1qy53m65dz7c472dtrgs2snp724asvpcnf6pwy8m.

To see the flow of BTC/funds tracked by our QLUE service please visit: https://lnkd.in/ekQYM_p

OXT Research appears to confirm the findings above in an article featured on Coindesk.

Although the denominations are small, these represent a trail that could be used to track, trace and unmask the identity of the hackers. On several occasions, BIG has witnessed that the smallest of BTC amounts sent to an address can be a point of failure for hackers. In this instance, it appears that the hackers may have made a fatal error in hiding their trail.

Blockchain Intelligence Group has been in communication with the FBI regarding this case and our investigation results.

On behalf of the Board,

Lance Morginn

President / Director

lance@blockchaingroup.io

T:+1.778.819.8702

About BIGG Digital Assets Inc.

BIGG Digital Assets Inc. (BIGG) believes the future of crypto is a safe, compliant, and regulated environment. BIGG invests in products and companies to support this vision. BIGG owns two operating companies: Blockchain Intelligence Group (blockchaingroup.io) and Netcoins (netcoins.ca).

Blockchain Intelligence Group (BIG) has developed a Blockchain-agnostic search and analytics engine, QLUE, enabling Law Enforcement, RegTech, Regulators and Government Agencies to visually track, trace and monitor cryptocurrency transactions at a forensic level. Our commercial product, BitRank Verified, offers a risk score for cryptocurrencies, enabling RegTech, banks, ATMs, exchanges, and retailers to meet traditional regulatory/compliance requirements.

Netcoins develops brokerage and exchange software to make the purchase and sale of cryptocurrency easily accessible to the mass consumer and investor with a focus on compliance and safety. Netcoins utilizes BitRank Verified software at the heart of its platform and enables crypto transactions via retail locations globally, a self-serve crypto brokerage portal and an Over-The-Counter (OTC) trading desk.

BIGG Investor Relations

Anthony Zelen

anthony@blockchaingroup.io

778-388-5258

For more information and to register to BIGGs mailing list, please visit our website at https://www.biggdigitalassets.com . Or visit SEDAR at www.sedar.com .

Forward-Looking Statements:

Certain statements in this release are forward-looking statements, which include completion of the search technology software and other matters. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such information can generally be identified by the use of forwarding-looking wording such as may, expect, estimate, anticipate, intend, believe and continue or the negative thereof or similar variations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties, both general and specific that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, estimates, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not occur. These assumptions, risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the state of the economy in general and capital markets in particular, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of BIGG. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking information because BIGG can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from BIGGs expectations include, consumer sentiment towards BIGGs products and Blockchain technology generally, technology failures, competition, and failure of counterparties to perform their contractual obligations.

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, BIGG disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additionally, BIGG undertakes no obligation to comment on the expectations of, or statements made by, third parties in respect of the matters discussed above.

The CSE does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this Press Release.
EWE, Fortum, Enterprise Holdings, AGL, Nysno, Tronder Energie form collaborative European coalition to foster innovation towards a sustainable energy future

Energy Impact Partners (EIP), the global investment platform leading the transition to a sustainable energy future, has announced the formation of a European Coalition to advance new technologies and tackle climate change. EIP works closely with its investors -- more than 25 of the largest, most innovative, and environmentally conscious energy and industrial companies as well as climate-investors -- to develop cutting-edge solutions across four continents through a unique collaborative model. The EIP network collaborates by sharing insights, investing in innovative and transformative businesses, and then amplifying entrepreneurs' growth through dedicated partnerships.

"Our proven model is based on collaboration, learning, and sharing -- and it can only thrive with the right partners. We are thrilled to see some of the most innovative European players and AGL, the leading utility in Australia, join our mission as founding members."

Matthias Dill, CEO Managing Director Europe for Energy Impact Partners

"Energy Impact Partners' unique set up with strong focus in collaboration, partnerships and creating valuable insights is an efficient way to strengthen Fortum's presence in global energy innovation ecosystem. As a partner, Fortum will gain early access to new business models and solutions in both European and US markets. The aim is to be in the frontlines in finding, piloting and scaling the innovations with potential to change the energy sector as we know it."

Arun Aggarwal, SVP of Fortum's Business Technology unit

The newly formed European Coalition complements EIP's proven North American model with investors from four continents and provide unparalleled insights for its partners and global market access for its portfolio. The coalition encompasses over 25 industrials with revenues exceeding the combined sales of Amazon, Facebook and Google and access to more than 200 million households.

"We look forward to learning, collaborating and defining the energy landscape of the future. Innovation is a global business and by collaborating we can tackle future challenges more effectively."

Urban Keussen, CTO of EWE and Chairman of the European Coalition

"To halt climate change, we need to make an impact now. By bringing together industry, capital and visionaries we have the best chance to succeed. We look forward to working with EIP in Norway and beyond."

Siri Kalvig, CEO of Nysno Climate Investments and Chair of EIP's ESG Committee

"Climate related technologies are progressing at an impressive pace, both in Europe and globally. By partnering with EIP we get the chance to both contribute to the development and learn from the achievements of other interesting companies. The investment strengthens our position towards new energy related markets and ideas and helps us stay in the forefront in terms of smarter and more climate friendly energy solutions."

Stale Gjersvold, CEO at TrnderEnergi

"AGL is happy to extend our valued partnership with EIP. We have been impressed with the EIP model and we're confident it will be successful in the European markets."

Simon Moorfield, Executive General Manager at AGL

About Energy Impact Partners

Energy Impact Partners (EIP) is a global investment platform leading the transition to a sustainable energy future. EIP brings together entrepreneurs and the world's most forward-looking energy and industrial companies to advance innovation. With over $1.5 billion in assets under management, EIP invests globally across venture, growth, credit and infrastructure and has a team of more than 45 professionals based in its offices in New York, San Francisco, Palm Beach, London, Cologne and soon Oslo. For more information on EIP, please visit www.energyimpactpartners.com. EIP's network has over 25 partners including Southern Company, Xcel Energy, Fortis, Duke Energy, Tennessee Valley Authority Asset Retirement Trust, Emera, APS, NYSNO, TronderEnergi, EWE, Enterprise Holdings, Fortum, Evergy, OG&E, Ameren, TC Energy, Alliant Energy, Avista, National Grid, PTT, TEPCO, AGL, 1898&co and MGE.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200716005643/en/

Contacts:

EU Press

Antonella Scimemi

Burlington

antonella@burlington.cc

+44 (0)7530 815 018

U.S. Press

Tori McDonnell

Silverline Communications

tori@teamsilverline.com

01-703-338-2362
Barnaby Joyce has slammed Johnny Depp and Amber Heard and called them 'dodgy' after it was alleged the pair knew it was illegal to bring their dogs into Australia.

In October 2015, Ms Heard faced criminal proceedings for taking the couple's two Yorkshire Terriers, Pistol and Boo, into Australia illegally on a trip from America.

The former Hollywood couple recorded a now infamous video in 2016 apologising for doing so.

The couple repeatedly denied that they knew anything about Australia's strict laws, but a former staff speaking at a defamation case heard in London claimed that was a lie.

Barnaby Joyce (pictured) has slammed Johnny Depp and Amber Heard and called them 'dodgy' after it was alleged the pair knew it was illegal to bring their dogs into Australia

The British High Court was told by a former employee of Depp that Ms Heard was 'repeatedly' told it was illegal to take her two dogs to Australia but did so anyway.

Former Nationals leader Mr Joyce unleashed on the couple and has now renewed calls for them to be investigated in regards to the incident.

'I always knew they were dodgy,' he told news.com.au.

'Gee, didn't I get it wrong about Johnny - not.'

The former deputy prime minister said he was not at all surprised by the new allegations and called Depp and Ms Heard a pair of 'smart arses'.

'Just treating the whole thing as a joke. They had no regard for the law as they had no regard for biosecurity laws,' Mr Joyce said.

Ms Heard took the dogs to Australia when she went to visit Depp, who was filming Pirates of the Caribbean at the time.

After news of the dogs being in Australia became public, Depp and Ms Heard were given 72 hours to send Pistol and Boo back to the US, with officials warning that the dogs would otherwise be euthanised.

A photograph of Amber Heard's pet Yorkshire Terriers Pistol and Boo (pictured), which has been referred to as an exhibit in the hearing of Johnny Depp's libel case

In April 2016 in an Australian court, Ms Heard received a $1,000 fine and a one-month good behaviour bond after pleading guilty to one count of falsifying border protection documents when entering the country with the dogs.

Australian prosecutors dropped more serious charges of illegal animal importation which could have resulted in the actress being imprisoned for ten years.

Kevin Murphy, who worked for Depp for nearly eight years, claimed Ms Heard 'demanded' he make a false statement about the animals being 'smuggled' into the country.

He also claimed in a written witness statement that the actress asked him to contact her former assistant, Kate James, and ask her to 'lie under oath' to Gold Coast Magistrates court.

Mr Murphy claimed Ms Heard threatened that his job was under threat if he did not make a statement exonerating her of blame for taking the dogs to Australia in May 2015 and putting it down to errors committed by him and Ms James.

Mr Murphy, who worked as an estate manager for the Hollywood actor until 2016, claimed that on October 11 and 12, 2015, Ms Heard asked him to contact Ms James and 'ask Ms James to lie under oath to the Australian court prosecuting Ms Heard'.

Johnny Depp (left, outside the High Court this Wednesday) is suing The Sun's publisher over an article which alleged he was violent towards Amber Heard (right, at the court)

Depp and Heard were given 72 hours to send Pistol and Boo (pictured) back to the US, with officials warning that the dogs would otherwise be euthanised

He said: 'Specifically, Ms Heard wanted Ms James to give a false statement that Ms Heard was unaware that it would be illegal for her to bring her dogs into Australia.

'Ms Heard was aware that this was illegal, because I had informed her repeatedly by email, telephone and in person.'

Mr Murphy alleged he had told Ms Heard he was 'uncomfortable' with giving a false statement to the court and that 'he would not ask Ms James to do so'.

In his written statement, Mr Murphy also said that shortly after this, Ms Heard 'demanded verbally that I myself make a false witness statement regarding the dogs' illegal entrance into Australia'.

He said: 'I expressed that I was extremely uncomfortable with doing so, to which Ms Heard responded with words to the effect of: 'Well I want your help on this ... I wouldn't want you to have a problem with your job'.

'Ms Heard's threatening language made me feel anxious and uneasy.

'As stated above, I had instructed Ms Heard on a number of occasions by email, telephone and in person that she could not take the dogs to Australia because the relevant paperwork and permits were not complete and the required ten-day quarantine arrangements had not been put in place.'

Mr Murphy claimed he told Ms Heard the penalties for taking animals into Australia without following the correct procedures 'could be severe'.
MINERVA - Family filled Rob and Mary Irene Lee's small cabin in the Adirondacks on July 3, catching up and trading jokes. It was ordinary on the surface, but anticipation mixed with the humidity in the air. Every time a car turned into the driveway, everyones eyes turned to the driver. They were waiting on a sister they were meeting for the first time.

Rob Lee is a decorated Army veteran who fathered four children.

Or so he thought, before science opened a door he never knew existed.

Kim Remzi was born in Vietnam and emigrated to the United states when she was three months old with her Vietnamese mother and Filipino father. Or the man she knew as her father; Both of her parents knew she wasnt her fathers biological child, Remzi says, but she didnt discover the truth until she took a DNA test late last year.

For 48 years I thought of myself as Vietnamese and Filipino. When my results came in, I saw Asian, then I scrolled down and it said 49.6% European. At first, I was shocked, obviously. I had to process that, Remzi says.

****

Rob Lee, now 76 and living in Minerva, joined the Army in 1965 when he was 22. Hed done a couple years of college at Florida State, and says he was more interested in drinking beer and chasing girls than going to class. When he dropped out, he knew he could be drafted, so he enlisted in the Army and was quickly sent to officer candidate school. He was patriotic, Lee says, a Goldwater conservative, anti-Communist and pro-military. A member of an artillery unit, he sought to join the Armys Special Forces.

I knew I was probably going to get sent to Vietnam and I wanted to be in the very best unit with the best trained people. I was adventurous, I wanted to jump out of planes, I wanted to be part of the special ops, Lee says.

In 1969, Lee had to leave his young wife behind to ship out to Vietnam. He was assigned to the southern border of Vietnam and Cambodia, near the Vietnamese city of Can Tho, where the mission was to keep the North Vietnamese Army from infiltrating the south. Lee led operations on the ground and from the air, spending months at a time in the jungle. He remembers one night with his men in a cave, when a young sergeant said his wife was due to have their first child any day. The next day, the sergeant was shot by a sniper and died in Lees arms.

I came back to camp to a Dear John letter from my wife, Lee said. It was somewhat shocking, but it was a miserable marriage. I felt liberated.

Out on the town that night in July 1970, Lee met a waitress in a restaurant, the woman who would become Remzi's mother. He doesnt remember the details. He never knew he fathered a child that night.

Back home, Lee and his wife reconciled and had four children together. Lees political outlook changed. He resented the Army for mishandling Vietnam, a war he now feels was built on lies and greed. But he loved being in the military and made it a career, retiring as a lieutenant colonel in 1991.

****

Kim Remzi says she knows very little about her mothers life in Vietnam. She never talked about it, and declined through her daughter, to comment for this story.

When Remzis family moved to the United States, her mother left a child in Vietnam. Remzi has a sister who is three years older, also the child of an American soldier. She was raised by her grandmother, Remzi said.

Once in the United States, Remzis parents had two more children. Remzi says she and her siblings look alike, and her father never treated her differently from her brother and sister. But her parents had an unhappy marriage and divorced when Remzi was 12. Her mother worked as a waitress on the Army base where they lived. A few years later, Remzis sister died after an asthma attack. Remzi moved out of her mothers house when she was 17 and had her first child when she was 19. Her father stopped talking to her and they have been estranged ever since.

Last winter, Remzi and her co-workers at the aircraft supply company where she works found a sale on kits from 23&Me. The company analyzes DNA to identify potential health risks and ancestry. Stories of family reunions have percolated throughout the U.S. since Ancestry.com and then 23&Me became widely available. Adoptees, blocked by the law in many states from seeing their original birth records, traced their biological connections through DNA.

Remzis results arrived between Thanksgiving and Christmas. In addition to the shock about her ethnicity, Remzi saw she had a half-brother, and also a close match with a woman who turned out to be her biological niece. She requested through the 23&Me website to contact the brother. She also had questions for her mother, 69, who lives with her in Springfield, Va.

She waited until after the holidays, and for a moment when she and her mom would be alone in the car, on their way to run an errand.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

Watching her mothers face in the rearview mirror, Remzi told her about the test results.

Im not mad, she said. But I want to know, did my biological father know about me? And did my father know I wasnt his?

At first, Remzis mother denied it, and called the test a waste of money. Eventually, she acknowledged it was true, but would not add any details.

It was all too long ago, she said, too far in the past to talk about. No, the biological father didnt know, Remzis mother said  she had no way to contact him. Yes, Remzis father knew.

****

It was Rob Lees son, Brian, who showed up in Remzis results as her half brother. He was the only one of the family, aside from one of Lees grandchildren, who sent DNA to 23&Me. Later, Rob and Mary Irene Lee logged their DNA with the company as well, causing Remzi's family tree to grow again.

When Brian broke the news to his father, he was stunned. But the Lee family says the shock quickly turned to joy. Robbie Lee, Brian's older brother, joked Remzi is lucky she found herself in a cool family.

"We're a very loving, close family," Robbie Lee says.

There was grief, too.

I lost my wonderful daughter, Maggie, 10 years ago to cancer, and I felt like I found another daughter, Rob Lee said.

In February, Lee and Remzi met for the first time while Lee was at the Washington, D.C., airport on a layover. They sat down to eat and Remzi said she was so nervous she only ate one French fry.

We started talking like we knew each other forever, Remzi said. They posed for a photo in the airport, which Remzi then printed and framed to give Lee at the reunion, along with a picture of herself and her three daughters.

Lee wishes he remembered more, or he could've known Remzi sooner, but so much good has come from the lost night all those years ago, he said.
Watertown, NY (13601)

Today

Snow showers in the morning will give way to a mixture of rain and snow in the afternoon. Some sleet may mix in. High 37F. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of precip 70%. Snow accumulations less than one inch..

Tonight

Cloudy skies. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Low 3F. Winds WNW at 15 to 25 mph.
Huawei blasts UK ban decision 'disappointing, politicized'

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 15 July 2020 2:26 AM

Chinese technology giant Huawei has censured as "disappointing and politicized" a decision by the UK to ban the company's 5G network equipment.

On Tuesday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered Huawei equipment to be completely purged from Britain's 5G network by the end of 2027.

The Chinese telecoms giant's UK spokesman Ed Brewster said London had reacted to pressure from Washington rather than security concerns.

The Huawei official blasted the move as "disappointing," saying, "Regrettably, our future in the UK has become politicized, this is about US trade policy, not security."

China's ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming also denounced the decision as "disappointing and wrong," saying, "It has become questionable whether the UK can provide an open, fair and non-discriminatory business environment for companies from other countries."

The ban comes nearly two weeks after London described Huawei as a potentially hostile state vendor. Beijing has warned to retaliate, threatening to open a new front in the China-UK rift.

US hails British ban on China's Huawei

Meanwhile, the United States praised Britain's decision on Tuesday to order the phased removal of Huawei from its 5G network.

"We welcome news that the United Kingdom plans to ban Huawei from future 5G networks and phase out untrusted Huawei equipment from existing networks," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.

"We will continue to work with our British friends on fostering a secure and vibrant 5G ecosystem, which is critical to transatlantic security and prosperity," he said.

Huawei  considered the world leader in superfast 5G equipment and the world's number two smartphone producer  has been under relentless pressure from Washington, which has lobbied allies worldwide to avoid the company's telecom gear over security concerns, in the shadow of a wider US-China trade conflict.

Washington has repeatedly accused the Chinese tech giant of a "decades-long" effort to steal trade secrets from American companies. Huawei has time and again denied the accusations.

US President Donald Trump's administration has blacklisted Huawei to block the company from getting any US telecom equipment contracts and prevent the transfer of American technology to the Chinese firm.

Washington accuses Huawei of providing Beijing with a way to spy on communications from the countries that use its products and services.

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The closest-ever images taken of the sun have revealed mini solar flares called campfires dotted across its surface.

The images were captured last month by the Solar Orbiter, a European Space Agency (ESA) probe designed and built in the UK. Scientists say the pictures could shed light on the mysterious process that means the outer layer of the star is so much hotter than the layers below.

The spacecraft came within 47 million miles of the suns surface and passed between the orbits of Venus and Mercury.

David Berghmans from the Royal Observatory of Belgium said: When the first images came the first thought was this is not possible, they cannot be that good, it was really much better than what we dared to hope for.

One of the closest images ever taken of the sun. (BEIS via PA)

Solar flares are sudden flashes of high-energy radiation from the suns surface, which can cause radio and magnetic disturbances on the Earth.

Dr Caroline Harper, head of space science at the UK Space Agency, said that scientists were excited by the presence of campfires that are millions of times smaller than the solar flares.

She said: We do not really know what they (the campfires) are doing but there is speculation that they might play a role in coronal heating, a mysterious process whereby the outer layer of the sun, known as the corona, is much hotter (around 300 times) than the layers below.

Artist impression of the Solar Orbiter in front of the sun. (BEIS via PA)

These campfires may be contributing to that in a way we do not know yet.

The mystery of why the Suns corona is so hot has been a mystery for years.

ESA's Solar Orbiter project scientist Daniel Muller: The Suns corona is a little counter-intuitive because you would think if you had a body that was relatively cool at the centre it would be even cooler the further you go away but on the contrary, we have a hot core, a relatively cool surface of just about 5,500 degrees surrounded by a super hot atmosphere of more than a million degrees.

The operation was a joint venture between the ESA and NASA.

Image captured by the Solar Orbiter when it came within 47 million miles of the sun's surface. (BEIS via PA)

In mid-June, Solar Orbiter made its first close pass of the Sun following its Feb 9 launch, turning on all 10 of its instruments together for the first time, NASA said in a statement on its website.

Story continues

After launching on 9 February, Solar Orbiter made its first close pass of the sun in mid-June, despite the team facing setbacks due to the coronavirus pandemic.

As the spacecraft entered a critical stage of the mission in March, the ESA was forced to close operation centres that had vital measuring equipment and send staff home as the continent went into lockdown.

Jose Luis Pellon Bailon, Solar Orbiter Deputy Spacecraft Operations Manager at ESA said the whole team were worried for the mission when the lockdown began.

Bailon said we had to stop the commission for almost 10 days and replan everything, but he added, it was challenging but we made it work.

Image captured by The Solar Orbiter when it came within 47 million miles of the sun's surface. (BEIS via PA)

The images will be the closest images of the sun ever captured. "We have never taken pictures of the Sun from a closer distance than this," Muller said.

"There have been higher resolution close-ups, e.g. taken by the four-meter Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii earlier this year. But from Earth, with the atmosphere between the telescope and the sun, you can only see a small part of the solar spectrum that you can see from space."

Read more:

Space rocket test centre to be launched in Fife

Astronaut warns of millions of asteroids that could hit Earth

Rare comet seen over Stonehenge

Scientists now hope to find out more by monitoring the temperatures of these campfires using an instrument on the spacecraft known as Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment, or SPICE.

The Solar Orbiter will also help scientists piece together the Suns atmospheric layers and analyse the solar wind, the stream of highly energetic particles emitted by the star.

Artist impression of The Solar Orbiter getting close to the Sun. (BEIS via PA)

They hope to be able to eventually make predictions on space weather much like we already do so on Earth.

Severe solar activity has the potential to damage satellites in orbit and disrupt the infrastructure on Earth that mobile phones, transport, GPS signals and the electricity networks rely on.

Image captured by The Solar Orbiter, a European Space Agency probe designed and built in the UK. (BEIS via PA)

Dr Harper added: The science will allow us to start improving our operational capability to predict the space weather, just like you predict the weather here on Earth.

The spacecraft will make a close approach to the Sun every five months, and at its closest will only be 26 million miles away, closer than the planet Mercury.

One of the closest images ever taken of the Sun, which was taken in mid-June. The Solar Orbiter captured the images during a close pass between the orbits of Venus and Mercury. (BEIS via PA)

It will use the gravitational force of Venus and Earth to adjust its trajectory, before getting into operational orbit in November 2021.

The images revealed today were taken more than twice the distance away from the final destination of the spacecraft.

When the spacecraft is in place it will begin to move towards the Suns poles, an area never seen by scientists before.

Sami Solanki, director of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, said: There will be a lot new of things to learn from the solar poles, one of the things that excites me the most is we know the magnetic field is responsible for all the activity the sun produces but we dont know how the magnetic field itself is produced.

But we do know that the poles play in a key role there.

The Solar Orbiter was constructed by Airbus in Stevenage and blasted off from Nasas Cape Canaveral site in Florida on February 10.

The Solar Orbiter images revealed miniature solar flares, which have been dubbed "campfires", dotted across the Sun's surface. (BEIS via PA)

It has been designed to withstand the scorching heat from the Sun that will hit one side, while maintaining freezing temperatures on the other side of the spacecraft as the orbit keeps it in shadow.

Dr Harper said: It is really quite exciting to be involved (in the mission).

We have leading roles on four of the 10 scientific instruments on board the Solar Orbiter.

For me, it showcases the UKs world-leading role in solar physics research and its capabilities in the industrial space sector.
The hyenas will go back to laughing and the ostriches can finally pull their heads up from the sand after the Oakland Zoo got the green light Wednesday to reopen its gates to the public.

The zoo, closed since March 17, plans to admit visitors on a reservation-only basis beginning July 27, after the Alameda County Board of Supervisors applied for and received a state variance that gave the zoo permission from state health officials to reopen.

This is a great day for us, said Dr. Joel Parrott, the zoos president and CEO. This gives us a chance to survive.

Two weeks ago, the zoo said the financial strain of its 121-day closure meant that it would have to shut down permanently unless it could reopen. Zoo administrators said the facility was forced to lay off staff and cut salaries and animals were being fed through a reserve fund that was nearly gone.

Only zoo members will be admitted July 27 and 28. Customers must buy $24 tickets online and arrive at their appointed times. The general public may begin returning July 29. Zoo visitors will be capped at 2,500 per day  about a third of what the zoo used to draw on its busiest days.

Other large zoos in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego have reopened on an appointment-only basis. The San Francisco Zoo opened its gates Wednesday and, according to its website, the timed tickets are largely sold out through the weekend  except to customers willing to buy a ticket that is good only for the last hour of the day.

Paul Chinn/The Chronicle

The 700 animals at the Oakland Zoo have clearly been feeling the strain from the absence of human onlookers, Parrott said.

It was especially hard on the gibbons, he said. They always pay attention and look around to whoever is walking by on the pathways. And the grizzly bears like to look at people, too. They always come over.

Parrott praised county officials for their dedication to public safety and also for recognizing the zoos plight.

I admire them for protecting us, but we did get caught in the pinch, he said.

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.

Its too soon to say how many zoo employees will be recalled to work, Parrott said. That will depend largely on how the public responds to the reopening.

With the limited attendance, we have to see how the revenues come in  and whether the public is reluctant to come, Parrott said.

The zoo has installed dozens of hand santizer stations and will perform additional cleanings throughout the grounds. The aerial gondola to the new California Trail section will be open only to groups in the same family, Parrott said. Zoo restaurants will be open for outdoor dining only and all indoor exhibits and amusement rides will be closed. And all zoo visitors older than 2 must be masked.

Returning visitors will be able to make the acquaintance of such new Oakland Zoo residents as Kijiji the giraffe, Aluna the baboon and seven newborn buffalo as yet unchristened.

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ SteveRubeS
The Ashok Gehlot versus Sachin Pilot fight will now shift to the courtroom. Hindustan Times has learnt that while Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Congress Rajya Sabha member, will appear for the Rajasthan chief minister, former solicitor general Harish Salve will appear for Pilot.

Hindustan Times had reported how Pilot first reached out to Singhvi but found out how Ashok Gehlot had already hired him for the job. Salve was NDA governments top law officer from 1999 to 2002 and is currently based out of London, from where he fought Indias case against Pakistan in the Kulbushan Jadhav matter.

We had to challenge it in court and thats why we are waiting for the Rajasthan high court to hear us soon, said a leader from Sachin Pilots camp, on condition of anonymity. Over the last 24 hours, there have been mixed signals from both sides - from Pilots appointees in local bodies being cancelled to public statements saying that the door for his return was still open. Since his removal as deputy chief minister on Tuesday, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has been in touch with Pilot while Rahul Gandhis brief to his emissary KC Venugopal was to try to hold Pilot back.

We dont understand the duplicity of this. On one hand they say the door is open but on the other hand, the chief minister holds a press conference and says such things about his English language and the way he looks, said the Sachin aide quoted above.

For his part, chief minister Gehlot has alleged that Pilots supporters were paid Rs 20 crore by the BJP. To this, Pilots loyalist and former BSP legislator Murari Lal Meena has responded by saying that the CM should also come clean about the money they were paid to come over to the Congress.

But it isnt just Gehlot. Congress leader Kapil Sibal, who had earlier expressed concern about horses bolting from the Congress stables, today sounded critical of Pilot. He tweeted: False rumours spread to malign Pilot: I am not joining BJP. I guess then legislators at a hotel in Manesar is merely a vacation in Haryanas comfort zone under BJPs watchful eye What about ghar wapsi?

He never detached himself, said the Pilot loyalist. Is it wrong to have grievances against the chief minister and point out what he was doing wrong? The legislators are in the Manesar hotel at their own cost because they will be arrested in Jaipur. Pilot has not held anyone hostage, they are paying their own hotel bills and some are staying at homes in Faridabad.
Reliance Industries (RIL) share price declined in early trade on July 16, a day after the company's 43rd Annual General Meeting.

In the previous session, share price has ended 3.7 percent lower after hitting a fresh record high of Rs 1,948.75 during the day.

The company chairman Mukesh Ambani in AGM said that it will approach NCLT with a proposal to spin-off their O2C business into a separate subsidiary.

RIL has been approached by strategic investors in petrochemicals biz. The deal with Saudi Aramco has not progressed as per original timelines, but remains committed to deal with Saudi Aramco, he said.

Google will invest Rs 33,737 crore for a 7.7 percent stake in Jio Platforms, becoming the latest A-list investor in the digital unit of the company.

Ambani said that Jio is ready with a world-class 5G solution. Field deployment can happen next year.

This 5G product will be available for trials as soon as the spectrum is available. Jio Platforms will be positioned for 5G solution to other telecom operators, he added.

The oil-telecom-to-retail major recently crossed Rs 12 lakh crore in market capitalisation becoming the first listed Indian entity to achieve the feat.

Also Read - RIL AGM 2020: Reliance Industries likely to be a $400 billion company in three years, analysts say

BofA Sec | Rating: Buy | Target: Rs 1,940

Jio is going to have access to 500 million mobile users, 20 million households & 10 millio SMEs over the time and it also has Indias biggest physical retail stores. The downside risk is negative cash flow for many years on diversification in telecom, reported CNBC-TV18.

CLSA | Rating: Buy | Target: Rs 1,754

Google invests USD 4.5 billion in Jio, while stake sale in retail is in the coming quarters. The online extension of retail business is progressing well.

The stake sale in retail to strategic or financial investors may happen over the coming quarters. However, approvals for spin-off of petchem & refining business may be in place by early-2021.

It should pave the way for the closure of the deal with Aramco, reported CNBC-TV18.

Morgan Stanley

The stake sale of 7.7% in Jio Platforms to Google implies USD 61 billion enterprise value. Also it plans to include global partners & investors in Reliance Retail. However, there was no mention on Telecom InvIT monetization, reported CNBC-TV18.

Kotak Institutional Equities | Rating: Buy | Target: Raises to Rs 2,150 from Rs 1,750

The companys foray in digital commerce business is going to be next big driver. Company being at forefront of consumer-facing digital ecosystem opportunity in India. Its retail business can double revenue to over USD 26 billion from core segments in 4 years, reported CNBC-TV18.

At 09:25 hrs Reliance Industries was quoting at Rs 1,842.95, down Rs 2.65, or 0.14 percent on the BSE.

Follow all of our coverage on RILs 43rd annual general meeting here.

(Disclosure: Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments which published moneycontrol.com)
RICHMOND, Va., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Dominion Energy (NYSE: D) is launching a $35 million initiative in support of African American and underrepresented minority students. This six-year program will support historically black colleges and universities in Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina and South Carolina. Additionally, as part of the initiative, a $10 million scholarship fund will be created to support African American and underrepresented minority students across the company's service territory.

Said Thomas F. Farrell, II, the company's chairman, president and chief executive officer:

"We all know there are no actions or words that will immediately heal the hurt caused by 400 years of institutional racism. But since early June, we have seen signs of change and growth. Our country is moving forward. We are moving forward, too. This initiative is a recognition of the important role played by these institutions in African American advancement and the importance of education as an equalizer in society. These institutions have been foundational in the struggle to improve the lives of African Americans and in the fight for social justice. We are pleased and humbled to build on our company's nearly 40-year history of supporting historically black colleges and universities."

Additional details about the institutions to be supported and the new Dominion Energy Educational Equity scholarship fund will be provided in the coming days.

The initiative builds on nearly four decades of support for higher education equity, including volunteer efforts and financial contributions provided to historically black colleges and universities in our service territory.

This new program is in addition to a recent $5 million commitment made by Dominion Energy and the company's charitable foundation to support social justice, community reconciliation and rebuilding.

About Dominion Energy

More than 7 million customers in 20 states energize their homes and businesses with electricity or natural gas from Dominion Energy (NYSE: D), headquartered in Richmond, Va. The company is committed to sustainable, reliable, affordable and safe energy and is one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy with more than $100 billion of assets providing electric generation, transmission and distribution, as well as natural gas storage, transmission, distribution and import/export services. The company is committed to achieving net zero carbon dioxide and methane emissions from its power generation and gas infrastructure operations by 2050. Please visit DominionEnergy.com to learn more.

SOURCE Dominion Energy

Related Links

http://www.dominionenergy.com


SAN FRANCISCO, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Nextdoor announced Sell for Good, a new product giving neighbors the ability to support local nonprofits, including animal shelters, PTAs, food pantries, and more, by simply buying and selling items on Nextdoor's For Sale & Free. In partnership with PayPal Giving Fund, Sell for Good offers a secure, free, and easy way for Nextdoor members to revitalize their neighborhoods by giving back to local causes. PayPal Giving Fund helps people support their favorite charities online by receiving donations through partner organizations like Nextdoor, and making grants to donors' recommended charities.

Since the beginning of COVID-19, conversations on Nextdoor related to donating increased 7x. Now, with Sell for Good, neighbors can turn those conversations into actions and help their local communities rebuild during the pandemic.

"The neighborhood is the unit of change," said Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar. "As our lives have become increasingly hyper local, our neighbors and the neighborhood have become central to our daily lives. During COVID-19, we saw neighbors around the world raise their hands to help, and we continue to see on Nextdoor that neighbors want to do more. Now, with Sell for Good, neighbors have an effortless way to support the essential services of nonprofits and create lasting impact in their neighborhoods."

When listing items on For Sale & Free, sellers will now have the option to donate proceeds to benefit a nonprofit of their choice with PayPal Giving Fund. Buyers can then purchase items marked with the Sell for Good emblem letting them know that their money is going to a community cause.

"We are excited to be working with Nextdoor to provide a seamless way for neighbors to support their favorite causes, together helping charities raise mission-critical funds and providing new ways for people to make giving a part of everyday life," said Franz Paasche, SVP, Corporate Affairs, at PayPal.

For the first time nonprofits can instantly reach verified neighbors through Nextdoor to gain support for their mission, which they need now more than ever. A recent survey from the Nonprofit Finance Fund conducted during COVID-19 found that 50% of nonprofits have experienced reduced donations, and 60% of nonprofits report facing long-term financial instability. For example, Dress For Success, a global nonprofit dedicated to the economic advancement of women around the world that has overhauled its programming structure to a virtual operating model, will now be able to fundraise via Sell for Good to ensure continued operations and connect with their network on a hyper-local level.

"During this time of crisis, where women have been affected at disproportionate rates, Dress For Success' mission, programs and services are more critical than ever to our clients who face significant challenges with employment, financial stability and mental health," said Joi Gordon, CEO of Dress For Success. "Nextdoor's Sell for Good initiative offers a way for neighbors to help us continue to meet the needs of our clients through virtual programs and services, even if they aren't in a financial position to offer monetary donations."

In addition to Dress For Success, Nextdoor is partnering with nonprofits around the country including A Better Chicago, LA Voice, New York Cares, Operation HOPE, Spark, The Hidden Genius Project, and ViBe Theater Experience. Nonprofits interested in learning more can visit nextdoor.com/nonprofit. Sell for Good is free to use and available for all Nextdoor members in the United States at nextdoor.com/good or by visiting the For Sale & Free section in your Nextdoor app.

About Nextdoor, Inc.

Nextdoor is the neighborhood hub for trusted connections and the exchange of helpful information, goods, and services. We believe that by bringing neighbors together, we can cultivate a kinder world where everyone has a neighborhood they can rely on.

Building connections in the real world is a universal human need. That truth, and the reality that neighborhoods are one of the most important and useful communities in our lives, have been a guiding principle for Nextdoor since the beginning. Today, neighbors rely on Nextdoor in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, and Canada, with many more to come.

Nextdoor is a privately-held company based in San Francisco with backing from prominent investors including Benchmark, Shasta Ventures, Greylock Partners, Kleiner Perkins, Riverwood Capital, Bond, Axel Springer, Comcast Ventures, and others. For additional information and images: nextdoor.com/newsroom.

SOURCE Nextdoor, Inc.
By PTI

GUWAHATI: The community transmission of coronavirus in Guwahati city, with over 8,000 positive cases so far, was likely to return to a normal level by the end of August, Assam Health and Family Welfare Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Thursday.

The situation in the state capital, which falls under Kamrup Metropolitan district and is under complete lockdown since June 28, is still critical and more testing was required to bring it under control, the minister said.

After 3,293 people tested positive in 12 days since June 24, Sarma had on July 5 indicated that community transmission had begun in the city.

"We will have to conduct more than three lakh tests in Guwahati city alone as testing and tracking was the sure way to control the situation," he told a press conference.

So far 1.10 lakh people have been tested in the city in 31 Covid Screening Centres and it was decided to intensify the process by setting up 60 more such centres, Sarma said.

The lockdown in the city is not giving the desired result as a large number of people from the police and para- military forces, jails and other places are testing positive, the minister said.

He said that the decision regarding extension of the lockdown scheduled to end on July 19 will be taken by the government soon.

Testing will be conducted on owners and employees of all shops, business and commercial establishments, government employees and also in private organizations, Sarma said.

The minister said that there is a misconception that the government is not allowing home quarantine of patients which is not true.

The health department, with great reluctance, decided to allow home quarantine to non-symptomatic COVID-19 patients only if they sign an undertaking agreeing to certain conditions and not burdening the public health care system, he said.

Patients will be allowed home quarantine if they can ensure that their neighbours have no objection, there are no elderly members in the family, they have a private physician checking on them every three hours, have a pulse oximeter at home and are able to come in personal vehicle to a hospital, in case their condition deteriorates, he said.

Besides, the entire residence of the patient will be converted to a containment zone.

The exemption of the system of institutional and hotel quarantine in Kamrup Metropolitan district given to air passengers will be now applicable to train and road passengers whose residence is in the district, the minister said.

He also said that a collective decision has been taken by the doctors of all the medical colleges and hospitals in the state that an aggressive course of treatment will be given to COVID patients who are in the moderate level so that they do not reach the critical stage.

The first line of treatment will be oxygen therapy while the second stage is medication that includes steroids, anti-virals and two new medicines that have come to the country recently, he said.

Sarma said that 45 patients who were in ICU have recovered "which is indeed remarkable as very few patients in other states recover from the ICU", he said.

There are 53 patients in the ICU at present in the state.

Sarma said that there are reports that some private hospitals have refused to treat people due to absence of COVID test results as many of them do not have RT-PCR testing facilities.

They have been advised to make arrangements for Rapid Antigen Detection tests which is a confirmatory test for COVID-19 positive tests, he said.

All private sector clinical establishments have been also directed to immediately instal a TrueNat system to further validate the Rapid Antigen Detection tests, prior to starting treatment, the minister said.
When the Delhi government on Saturday announced cancellation of exams for state universities, including Netaji Subhas University of Technology (NSUT), the order brought relief only to a section of students studying on the campus.

The reason: the university functioned as an institute under Delhi University till 2018.

This essentially means that exams were only cancelled for first-year students who were admitted to the state university after 2018. The rest  the second, third, and fourth year students  who were admitted under Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (NSIT) will be evaluated on the basis of DU and University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines.

Officials confirmed that students admitted before and during 2018-19 academic session will be under Delhi University. The rest, who were admitted in 2019-20 academic session, will appear for their first-year assessments this year, are under the states higher education department.

So, while NSUT is conducting time-bound home assignments for its 1500 first-year students, NSIT is slated to start discussion-based online evaluation for final-year students on July 22. DUs Faculty of Technology is responsible for conducting NSIT exams for the approximately 800 final-year students.

Sachin Maheshwari, dean at DUs Faculty of Technology, said, The decision to evaluate final-year students was taken unanimously in a joint course committee meeting of all the departments of engineering courses. A panel of examiners will be conducting an online interaction with final-year students over video calls, or phone calls to evaluate them. The decision was taken while keeping the interest of students in mind while following UGC guidelines and existing infrastructure.

Supporting the move for final-year exams, Archit Sahni, a final-year undergraduate student at NSIT, said, Most students of our batch just want their degrees. Many of us who have their offer letters will not be able to join for work if we dont have our final year degrees.

Maheshwari explained that the decision was taken after consulting students, most of who were in favour of taking exams in this mode instead of pen and paper exam. Those facing internet issues on the day of the exams can also contact the committee set up by the institute requesting evaluation at another date.

For second and third year students, which are under DU, students are likely to be promoted on the basis of past performance and continuous assessments which have already been conducted throughout the semester. DUs dean (Exams) Vinay Gupta said the varsitys Faculty of Technology and NSUT officials have discussed details on the mode of evaluation and will announce it by Friday.

While NSUT had already started the process of conducting time-bound home assignments from its first year students from July 10, following deputy chief ministers announcement of cancellation of exams and the call for progressive modes of evaluation, the varsity increased the time-limit of the exam from 2.5 hours to a day.

Sujata Sengar, Dean Academics at NSUT, said, Since our end-semester exams are not taking place due to the Covid-situation, evaluations are being done on the 50-mark internal component which will be used for 100% weightage. In addition to home assignments, students will also be marked on attendance, assessments and classroom quizzes that were conducted before and during the lockdown.

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TERRE HAUTE, Ind.  The United States on Thursday carried out its second federal execution in three days following a hiatus of nearly two decades, killing by lethal injection a Kansas man whose lawyers contended he had dementia and was unfit to be executed.

Wesley Ira Purkey was put to death at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was sentenced to be executed for kidnapping and killing a 16-year-old girl, Jennifer Long, before dismembering, burning and dumping her body in a septic pond. He also was convicted in a state court in Kansas of using a claw hammer to kill an 80-year-old woman who had polio.

After Purkey was strapped to a gurney inside the execution chamber, a prison official removed a mask from his face and asked if he wanted to make a final statement.

He leaned his head up slightly from the gurney and said: I deeply regret the pain and suffering I caused to Jennifers family. I am deeply sorry.

He also expressed remorse for his own adult daughters suffering from his actions. I deeply regret the pain I caused to my daughter, who I love so very much, he said.

His last words were: This sanitized murder really does not serve no purpose whatsoever. Thank you.

As the lethal chemical was injected, Purkey took several deep breaths and blinked repeatedly, laying his head back down on the gurney. His time of death was 8:19 a.m. EDT.

Jennifers father, William Long, and her stepmother were there. Long said delays since the 2003 trial were excruciating and he was glad it was over.

He said he hoped Purkey rots in hell.

We took care of today what we needed to take care of, Long said. It has been a long time coming. He needed to take his last breath; he took my daughters last breath. And theres some resolve. There is no closure, and there never will be because I wont get my daughter back.

The Supreme Court cleared the way for the execution to take place just hours before, ruling in a 5-4 decision. The four liberal justices dissented, as they had for the first case earlier this week.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that proceeding with Purkeys execution now, despite the grave questions and factual findings regarding his mental competency, casts a shroud of constitutional doubt over the most irrevocable of injuries. She was joined by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan.

The Supreme Court also lifted a hold placed on other executions set for Friday and next month. Dustin Honken, a drug kingpin from Iowa convicted of killing five people in a scheme to silence former dealers, is to be put to death at the prison on Friday.

While Purkeys final words were lucid and contrite, his lawyers say his mental health had seriously deteriorated to the point he didnt have the stamina for long visits with his legal team and often forgot key facts and dates.

Purkeys was the federal governments second execution after a 17-year hiatus as the Trump administration pressed for a resumption. Daniel Lewis Lee was put to death Tuesday after his eleventh-hour legal bids failed. Both executions were delayed as legal wrangling continued late into the night and into the next morning.

The Justice Department has been questioned for holding the executions in the middle of the worsening coronavirus pandemic, prompting lawsuits over fears those who would travel to the prison could become infected. The decision to resume executions after nearly two decades was also criticized as a dangerously political move in an election year, forcing an issue that is not high on the list of American priorities considering the 11% unemployment rate and the pandemic.

A Justice Department spokeswoman on Thursday said a just punishment had been carried out.

After many years of litigation following the death of his victims, in which he lived and was afforded every due process of law under our Constitution, Purkey has finally faced justice, spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said.

Purkeys lawyers had argued his condition had deteriorated so severely that he didnt understand why he was being executed. They said he was repeatedly sexually assaulted as a child and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other mental health conditions.

The issue of Purkeys mental health arose in the run-up to his trial and when, after the verdict, jurors had to decide whether he should be put to death in the killing of Jennifer in Kansas City, Missouri. Prosecutors said he raped and stabbed her. He was separately convicted and sentenced to life in the beating death of 80-year-old Mary Ruth Bales, of Kansas City, Kansas.

Purkey had a long history of childhood trauma, was sexually abused by family members and a Catholic priest and was beaten by other family members, said Liz Vartkessian, a mitigation specialist who worked with Purkeys legal team and visited him dozens of times in the last five years.

His case is replete with instances where he has expressed a deep remorse, she said in an interview earlier this month.

___

Gresko reported from Arlington, Virginia. Associated Press writers Colleen Long in Washington and Michael Tarm in Chicago contributed to this report.
The idea is that by transforming prostheses into accessories, expressive versions can help users make positive statements about themselves.

By Anna Vlachaki

Amputation can have a devastating effect on a persons body image and sense of self. The use of prosthetic limbs may help, but when it comes to their appearance, options are often limited.

The choice, if there is one, usually comes down to either a prosthesis with a realistic appearance that helps users hide the limb loss, or a mechanical version which offers greater functionality, but is more easily noticeable.

To address this gap between function and appearance, some companies and designers) are now working on expressive prostheses. These are prosthetic limbs where the design focuses on the appearance, with the aim of highlighting the users identity.

The idea is that by transforming prostheses into accessories, expressive versions can help users make positive statements about themselves. They may also be able to question notions of normalcy about the human body, and help eliminate stigmatisation.

A recent research project explored the effects of a co-design approach between prosthetic makers and users in developing personalised covers. The project reported that amputees found involvement in the design process a positive experience, and the benefits extended beyond an expression of identity, supporting confidence and a potential to create a positive image of disability.

Another study looked into preferences towards prosthetic limbs with a realistic or non-realistic appearance. It found that prostheses with a high level of human likeness were considered by non-users to be more attractive than those with a more mechanical appearance.

But the reverse was true for the prosthetic users themselves, who preferred prostheses with robotic designs, perhaps because of their greater functionality.

This is where expressive prostheses can come in. Researchers have also argued that such prostheses could help to alter societys attitudes towards prosthetic users, where notions of disability and impairment can have negative connotations.

We know culture plays a major role in peoples attitudes towards disability. Specifically, research shows that in individualistic societies like the US and the UK, where people tend to value personal identity and individual goals, attitudes towards disabilities are less stigmatised than in collectivist societies like China and Greece, where the emphasis is on maintaining group harmony.

Talking points

My own study aimed to explore the effects of the appearance of prostheses in different cultures. To do this, I spoke to users in the UK as an individualistic culture, and in Greece as a collectivist one.

All participants stated that expressive prostheses were more attractive than conventional ones, and improved their self-confidence. They also mentioned that expressive prostheses were useful as conversation starters with non-users, providing an opportunity to discuss limb loss with other people.

James, for example, a 56-year-old British man who uses two lower replacement limbs, said that an expressive version allows the user to make a statement and would be a good talking point.

A common experience of a certain awkwardness around approaching people with limb loss also emerged. Margaret, a 19-year-old Greek woman who has an upper limb prosthetic said: I think (expressive prostheses) might help people who are more open minded feel more comfortable to open themselves to others who present a difference.

Sebastian, a 47-year-old British lower limb prosthetic user, pointed out that the use of expressive prostheses had a fundamental difference on peoples reactions towards him and his prosthesis. He said they had the potential to provoke a more positive response compared to other types of prosthetic.

The interviews also highlighted the importance of culture on the formation of peoples attitudes. Two of the Greek participants for example, suggested that expressive prostheses may actually increase stigmatisation as they may be perceived as being used by people with limb loss to draw attention to themselves.

One thing my research demonstrates is the need to take culture into account during the design of prostheses (and other medical products, such as wheelchairs or hearing aids) to avoid increased stigmatisation.

But it also provides evidence of the largely positive effects of expressive prostheses on users self-confidence and how they are treated in society. The next step, I hope, is that great design  and talented designers  will be more widely valued in the manufacture of medical products, for everyones benefit.

Anna Vlachaki, PhD Candidate in Design, Loughborough University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Britain's coronavirus outbreak may be growing following a spike in the number of people with symptoms over the past week, data suggests.

King's College London's COVID Symptom Tracker app estimates 2,100 people are catching the virus in the community every day  up from 1,400 last week.

The increase is too small to say definitively that the outbreak is growing once again because other, more official estimates put the daily new cases between 1,700 and 3,300 with downward trends.

But the scientists confirmed the epidemic had 'definitely levelled off' and claimed cases are only dropping in the Midlands, which contains Leicester - the city still in the UK's first local lockdown.

KCL experts, working with health tech company ZOE, collected data on symptoms and test results from four million UK citizens between June 28 and July 11. It is one of several surveillance projects tracking the spread of the disease in Britain.

The vast majority of the new cases  1,843  are appearing in England, along with 185 per day in Wales and 75 in Scotland. No estimates were made for Northern Ireland.

Data shows the virus is spreading most widely in the North East of England and Yorkshire, which is still experiencing 401 daily cases.

The second worst-hit region is the Midlands, where there are still 363 new daily cases, many of which would have been in Leicester, which has had to roll back its easing of lockdown because of rising infections.

In the North West, 321 people are catching the virus every day. Some extra restrictions came into force in the Lancashire authorities of Blackburn with Darwen and Pendle yesterday because cases are creeping up again.

Professor Tim Spector, an epidemiologist at KCL and lead researcher behind the app, said it was clear 'the virus is not going away any time soon' and that his team were monitoring he situation closely.

The data adds to concerns that pubs reopening and lockdown rules loosening on 'Super Saturday' earlier this month could cause a spike in infections.

King's College London 's COVID Symptom Tracker app estimates that 2,100 people are catching the virus in the community every day, up from 1,200 last week. For comparison, daily infections were above 11,000 last month

He said: 'After months of seeing the number of Covid-19 cases falling in the UK, we are now seeing those numbers bottom out.

'We arent surprised to see this happening given the easing of lockdown and more and more people working and socialising.

'The team is keeping a very close eye on the data in order to allow us to spot any potential new hotspots and pick up regions with a significant increase.

'The virus is not going away any time so it is really important that people are adhering to the public health messages around social distancing, washing hands, and wearing masks.'

Cases per month: Data shows the virus is spreading most widely in the North East of England and Yorkshire, the Midlands and the North West

Professor Spector said he was pleased that the Government U-turned on face masks and was now making them compulsory in shops and supermarkets.

He said the face coverings were clearly 'important in stopping an increase in the transmission of the virus'

The team running the mobile app 'Covid-19 Symptom Tracker' have been collecting data from people self-reporting symptoms and test results for months.

Data in this week's update was taken from four million people's self-reports on their own health, and the results of on 14,429 swab tests taken by app users.

People are asked to log on regularly to report whether they have any signs of illness or whether they feel healthy.

WHICH REGIONS ARE SEEING THE MOST DAILY COVID-19 CASES? The COVID Symptom Tracker app data has estimated the total number of new coronavirus cases each day in Britain to be 2,103, as on June 20. This is how the daily cases break down in its estimate: England 1,843

Wales 185

Scotland 75 And for England specifically: South East 231

London 288

Midlands 363

East of England 144

South West 187

North East and Yorkshire 401

North West 321 Advertisement

They are asked to get tested if they have symptoms that may be linked to Covid-19, and to report the results of the test.

Because of this, the app cannot reliably track the number of people who are catching the virus but not developing symptoms, which may be thousands more.

The estimate does not include Northern Ireland or care homes, where the virus is still thought to be spreading, meaning the true rate could be much higher.

Scientists behind the app also estimate that 26,020 people in the UK currently have symptomatic coronavirus.

Many patients show no signs of infection whatsoever and are hard to track, so this figure could also be much higher.

This is a significantly higher estimate than the one made by the Office for National Statistics, which last week predicted just 14,000 people - one in 3,900 - would be infected at any one time.

That data, based on eight positive results from tests on 25,662 people, suggested 0.03 per cent of the population of the whole country were infected. It was down from 0.04 per cent last week and 0.09 per cent a week before.

The Midlands is still experiencing the highest number of symptomatic patients, with 5,270 currently suffering from the virus, according to the King's College project.

The North East and Yorkshire recorded 4,403, while in the North West there are thought to be 3,201 patients with symptoms.

It comes after the Lancashire borough of Blackburn with Darwen reintroduced some restrictions yesterday following a spike in cases.

For the next month, only two people from the same family will be allowed to visit another household indoors in the Lancashire authority and everyone must wear face masks in any enclosed public space. This differs from the national guidance, which says two households of any size can meet inside.

People are also being urged not to hug anyone from outside their own household and to get regularly tested at new mobile centres as part of the measures to avoid a Leicester-style lockdown, which council bosses say is a 'very real' threat.

Mass testing began at the weekend after 114 people caught the virus in the last two weeks.

Latest Public Health England (PHE) data shows Blackburn with Darwen has 47 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 population in the last week  second only to Leicester's rate of 101.3.

Dominic Harrison, the authority's director of public health, said 85 per cent of the 114 new cases were people from South Asian backgrounds. That's despite the South Asian community only accounting for 30 per cent of the council's 150,000 population.

Many other areas of England which have the current highest infection rates of Covid-19, such as Pendle, Bradford, Rochdale and Oldham, also have large South Asian communities.

Public Health England, which develops another regular estimate for daily infections, using deaths and cases data reported to it from hospitals and test centres, this week estimated that there were 3,300 new infections per day.

The forecasting report estimated a possible range of 1,900 - 5,700 daily cases.

This was a rise from the team's estimate on July 1, when it was 2,900, which may be due to the loosening of lockdown restrictions or localised outbreaks like the one in Leicester.

The Department of Health's testing programme has detected an average of 584 new cases per day over the past seven days, with 538 people diagnosed yesterday.

The PHE estimate of new cases is falling - it was 5,300 last week, later adjusted to 3,600 - but remains higher than estimates from the ONS and the ongoing project by King's College London.
SAN DIEGO (July 12, 2020) A fire continues to be fought into the evening on board the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) at Naval Base San Diego, July 12. On the morning of July 12, a fire was called away aboard the ship while it was moored pier side at Naval Base San Diego. Base and shipboard firefighters responded to the fire. Bonhomme Richard is going through a maintenance availability, which began in 2018. (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Austin Haist)

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Korean War hero Gen. Paik Sun-yup was laid to rest on Wednesday at the National Cemetery in Daejeon, about 140 km south of Seoul. He died on Friday at the age of 100. Paik's life epitomized South Korea's complicated struggle for freedom and prosperity. He led a ragtag army of just 8,000 South Korean soldiers and miraculously fended off an offensive by 20,000 North Korean troops when the allied forces were cornered in a small enclave in the southeast during the Korean War. Lt. Gen. Song Young-keun of the Army Reserves said in his eulogy, "If we had been defeated then, [South Korea] today would not exist and we would not be here." That is no exaggeration. A look at the oppressed North Koreans living under the tyranny of the Kim dynasty is a daily reminder of the blessings Gen. Paik helped forge by risking his life.

But President Moon Jae-in refused to attend the funeral. Cheong Wa Dae and the ruling Minjoo Party could not even bring themselves to issue a simple statement honoring Paik and did not send any representative to the funeral. They are too wrapped up in their narrow view of South Korea's history. It is unhelpful to pass off Paik, a fanatical anti-Communist who as a young man was a Japanese army lieutenant in the puppet state of Manchukuo and later held senior positions under South Korean strongmen, as merely a traitor to democracy and Japanese sympathizer. He also played a vital role in modernizing the South Korean Army.

It fell to the U.S. to fill the empty space created by Cheong Wa Dae and the rest of the government. The White House and State Department issued condolences of Paik's death, while former and incumbent commanders of U.S. Forces Korea voiced their respect and gratitude to the late general. How could this happen? The task Paik had made his own remains the same today -- to protect South Korea. Some young South Koreans did what the government failed to do and set up a memorial altar in Seoul, where tens of thousands of people paid their last respects to the old war horse in the streaming rain. It offers some consolation to see that there are still people with common sense and decency left in this country.


While Governor Tom Wolf has extended protections for homeowners and renters from foreclosure or eviction through August 31, eligible residents of Allegheny County and the City of Pittsburgh should be aware they can apply for rental assistance if needed.

Allegheny County has the CARES Rent Relief Program (C-RRP) and the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh has the Housing Stabilization Program (HSP) hosted by the Housing Opportunity Fund.

C-RRP offers up to six months of rent assistance to December 30, 2020. HSP offers up to $3,000 for rent, mortgage, legal and utility assistance.

Renters and landlords in Allegheny County may be eligible for rental assistance and limited utility assistance through the countys CARES Rent Relief Program which opened for applications on Monday. Created by the state in May by Act 24, the Rent Relief Program is administered by the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA) and managed locally by the county.

Allegheny County is projected to receive an allocation of $22.5 million based upon a population-weighted formula, eligible application volume, and expenditures. The state funding provides up renters with up to $750 a month per household for a maximum of six months of assistance or $4,500.

The county is also providing additional funding to supplement the program, providing an additional $750 a month in rent for a maximum of six months, and $200 a month for a maximum of six months for renters electric, gas, internet, late fees, and court costs.

Renters must have a household income at or below the area median income:

Household Gross

Size Income

1 $58,100

2 $66,400

3 $74,700

4 $83,000

5 $89,700

6 $93,300

7 $103,000

8 $109,600

Additionally, renters must document at least a 30% reduction in income since March 1, 2020 due to COVID-19 or must have become unemployed (as verified by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry) since March 1, 2020 due to COVID-19.

The program is also open to landlords who have lost rental income because a renter has experienced job loss or a reduction of income as a result of COVID-19. Landlords must agree to forego any additional rent or fees owed and generally agree to participate in the program, must agree to not pursue eviction action 60 days after assistance provided, must attest that property meets housing quality standards, and must attest to being fully paid on real estate taxes.

Allegheny County Economic Development and the Human Services Department are partnering together with community providers to manage the program. ACTION Housing is serving as the intake and eligibility provider for the program. Staff will answer questions about the program, receive applications and work with the tenant to determine eligibility. The Urban League, Community Human Services, and Auberle are serving as rental assistance providers to help with case management and other needs of program participants.

For more information or to apply, visit https://COVIDRentRelief.AlleghenyCounty.us. Questions can also be directed via email to AHICaresRRP@actionhousing.org or via phone to 412-248-0021. In the first four days of the program, 377 applications had been submitted. Applications will be accepted through September 30, 2020.

The Allegheny County Rent Relief Program is first-come, first served based on the date of the completed application package.

Those seeking assistance may find more information about URA programs at https://www.ura.org/pages/housing-opportunity-fund-programs. Pennsylvania residents may also seek help here from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency at https://www.phfa.org/pacares/.
Actor Richa Chadha has blogged about the nepotism debate, which was reignited after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. The actor died by suicide on June 14, and Richa wrote that instead of discussing mental health, nepotism became the primary talking point.

It is being said that the industry seems to be divided between insiders and outsiders? In my opinion the Hindi film industry and its entire eco-system is only divided between kind and unkind people, she wrote.

Richa said that as an outsider, she feels, that the industry operates like a food chain. In the brief time that I have spent here as the first person of my lineage, my assessment is that the industry operates like a food chain. People are scoundrels when they know they can get away with it. Those who are anguished today have themselves been cruel to their subordinates, she wrote.

Also read: Swara Bhaskers message to audiences: Compare box office of Sushant Singh Rajputs Sonchiriya, Karan Johars Student of the Year

Richa wrote that acting can be a deeply isolating profession where personal life is invariably affected by public life. She continued, There are insiders who can be kind and generous, and outsiders who are punitive egomaniacs. In the nascent phase of my career, I was often cut to size by outsiders. It took me all my strength to recover from various forms of subtle sabotage. But this is not about me. The tragic part is that everyone here has experienced a version of this.

Also Watch l Richa Chadha Reveals What Shes Like In Real Life And Things She Loves About Delhi

She wrote that the idea of nepotism makes her laugh out loud. I dont hate star kids, she added. Why are we expected to? If someones father is a star, they are born into that household the same as we are to our folks. Are you ashamed of your parents... This is a hateful and nonsense argument. I am a self-made person in this business. Will you tell my children to be ashamed of my struggle to reach where I have, for instance?

Recalling a story from about a decade ago, involving Sushant, she continued, Sushant and I started out by workshopping together in a theatre group. I was sharing a 700 sq ft apartment in Andheri West with a friend from Delhi. Sushant would pick me up on his bike and we would head to the rehearsal, for which I was grateful. I wasnt poor or broke. But I cant say money was not a consideration when I had to head out to do an ad audition for a skin brand. I would worry about my make up melting in the auto rickshaw before I even arrived. This was would NEVER happen with a star-kid, and if it does, they will be lauded for being humble enough to take the rickshaw in the first place. But I dont resent their privilege.

She wrote that the thing with privilege is, it is invisible to those who have it. We cannot have a sincere discussion about equality before confronting entitlement. And it will not happen by blaming the privileged for a mans death or calling for actresses to be raped.

Also read: Richa Chaddha slams troll who asked her why shes silent about Sushant Singh Rajput: Youre a disgrace to his memory

Expressing disappointment at the hateful messages that have been sent to Sushants friends, she continued, I am surprised by our collective lack of dismay or shock at how low we have stooped in our discourse. The social media timelines of the deceased actors friends and girlfriend are littered with filth! Who are these fans? I checked out a few profiles online. The same gutter mouths that abused Sushant when he took a stand on the Padmavat issue are now abusing his loved ones for not being there for him.

She noted that several filmmakers who shared condolence messages a month ago are the same people who have run down movies of their peers pre-release, have replaced actresses who refused to sleep with them at the last minute and several have in fact repeatedly forecasted iska kuch nahi hoga.

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In May-June 2020, Central Asia experienced several border incidents between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan; Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan; Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. These incidents revealed once again, on the one hand, the local populations transboundary lifestyle and on the other, the artificial character of the borders that separate independent states from each other. Similar incidents have recurred in the region with a certain frequency since gaining independence; however, none of them escalated into larger and dangerous conflicts since resolutions came quickly and were based on unique integrative arrangements.

BACKGROUND: While Central Asian countries are experiencing hardship in the wake of the global COVID-19pandemic, they recently faced a new test of their regional capacity to manage problems and conflicts due to new incidents in their border areas, three of which deserve special attention.

First, the dam at the Sardoba water reservoir, which is located in Uzbekistans Syrdarya province bordering Southern Kazakhstan, was destroyed during a strong gale on May 1 and the water flow caused flooding in both Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. This tragedy claimed victims and created great economic damage to both countries. Four people died, one disappeared, and many houses were destroyed. Rumors spread from Kazakh governmental agencies that the country would send the bill to Uzbekistan. However, this never happened and the two states resolved the problem in a peaceful and friendly way.

Second, in March, May and June, three incidents took place on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border. The events involved small armed skirmishes over portions of disputed land. From time to time, local village populations and border guards encounter each other on such lands, triggering irritation and clashes. However, local and central authorities from each side immediately interfered to settle the conflict.

Third, in the Sokh border area between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, a small clash occurred between local Kyrgyz and Uzbek communities over the small spring Chashma. Sokh is an exclave in Kyrgyzstan belonging to Uzbekistan. An 80-km-long road controlled by the Kyrgyz side connects Sokh with the Uzbek mainland, which is a source of resentmentamong of Sokh residents. The Sokh event was not simply a border issue but also highlighted the problem of enclaves,which is a legacy of the artificial partition of Central Asia into the five Soviet republics in the early 20th century.

IMPLICATIONS: Sporadic border incidents at several border areas between the Central Asian states have given rise to the argument that the region is conflict-prone and susceptible to border disputes. This seeming new round of such incidents could have strengthened this vision. However, the record of past and recent cases point out that they should be regarded in a different perspective.

Above all, none of these incidents escalated into dangerous and deadly conflicts or escalated outside the immediate problem zone. In fact, they lasted only a few days and were resolved peacefully. Although new flashes of border tensions and incidents remain a definite probability, there are also objective limits to their potential intensity and consequences.

In the wake of the Sardoba tragedy on the Uzbek-Kazakh border, Uzbekistans central and local provincial authorities immediately mobilized political, economic, diplomatic, financial and humanitarian resources to take all necessary measures in order to cope with the consequences of that tragedy. Despite rumors about a possible MFA note from Nur-Sultan to Tashkent, both states officially referred to the Treaty On strategic partnership (of 2013) and the Treaty On Eternal Friendship (of 1997) to effectively arrange communications. That was a very illustrative case of friendly and cooperative bilateral crisis management.

The situation giving rise to the Sokh incident on the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border, albeit seemingly more complicated and explosive, is in fact quite simple and easily solvable. On one hand, the conflict stems from the specific enclave status of Uzbekistans Sokh district located on Kyrgyzstans territory. This relatively unique case creates problems for local residents of the enclave related to their need for direct access to Uzbekistans mainland. Access only requires (re)opening the 80 km-long road that is blocked by the Kyrgyz side, allegedly because Kyrgyzstan is a member of the EAEU, but Uzbekistan is not.

This time, Uzbek authorities undertook unprecedented communication with the local population in Sokh: UzbekistansPrime Minister visited the district and promised local residents to resolve the problem together with the Kyrgyz side.Similarly to the Sardoba case, Kyrgyz politicians made provocative statements, arguing that Kyrgyz will not give an inch of their land to Uzbeks, and that because Sokh is overpopulated Uzbekistan should relocate its residents to the mainland. These provocative and shortsighted statements contrasted with President Jeenbekovs official statement confirming the friendly and brotherly relationship with Uzbekistan and a readiness to resolve the problem peacefully for the sake of future generations.

Like in the previous two cases, during the skirmishes on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border, political statements from the two states as well as from outside the region distorted the real state of the problem. Some low ranking hawks from both sides exchanged heated rhetoric, while Moscow offered mediation to resolve the border incident. However, both Bishkek and Dushanbe rejected this offer. It should be recalled that the First President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, explicitly resisted any form of mediation by third powers in solving regional problems. This time, Kyrgyzstans andTajikistans respective leaders, Jeenbekov and Rakhmon, confirmed the same stance.

Border incidents like these recur with a certain frequency between Central Asian countries and highlight four important features of border problems in the region. First, incidents are limited in scale and dynamics and have only specific local/provincial, not nationwide, significance. Second, they are quickly addressed by local and central authorities of the states involved in order to keep the situation controlled. Third, although resentment and mutual accusations always appear among political groups and at the grass-root level, the highest political levels always manifest good will and do not express territorial claims. Fourth, whenever border incidents occur between Central Asian countries, Russia offers mediation, thereby causing perceptions or suspicions about its geopolitical intentions in the region.

The recent recurrence of border issues in Central Asia once again showed that these borders are arbitrarily drawn. Despite peaceful attitudes on the part of the central governments, local border area population painfully experience this problem, which requires innovative integrative solutions.

CONCLUSIONS: Border incidents sporadically occur in Central Asia like small earthquakes. The conflicting sides are usually engaged in disputes over water reservoirs, lands, pastures, illegal border crossings as well as ethnic discords. Such disputes are usually accompanied with measures such as road blocking, local hassles, skirmishes between border guards and nationalistic statements.

However, those who point to the seemingly fragile peace at the border areas often overlook that, first, most of the borderline segments are already delimited and only tiny segments still await completion. Second, all incidents were resolved quite quickly and never escalated. Third, there is explicit political will on the part of all Central Asian states to complete the border delimitation process successfully in accordance with the interests of these states. Conflicts have never required mediation from a third actor  particularly a great power. The conflicting sides have always been able to manage the crises on their own and quite efficiently.

Therefore, the task of overcoming the remnants of mistrust regarding border delimitation should be guided by the letter and spirit of the Treaties on Strategic Partnership, which are tested in such situations. The joint statement of the second Consultative Meeting of Central Asian presidents has a provision that says Central Asian states should jointly resolve actual regional problems [that is, on their own] by means of negotiations and consultations on the basis of consensus, equality and mutual respect. From this perspective, the upcoming third Consultative Meeting should build on the previous ones; it will once again be an occasion to express a good will approach to all regional issues, especially border issues, based on novel integrative arrangements.

AUTHOR'S BIO:

Dr. Farkhod Tolipov holds a PhD in Political Science and is Director of the Research Institution Knowledge Caravan, Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Image Source president.uz accessed on 7/16/20
A final year student at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has allegedly killed a taxi driver, his close friend, over GHC1,200.



The student, Emmanuel Awuah, who is reading Geological Engineering at the University, allegedly killed Thomas Kwame Danso, 24, in order to sell the car to get back his GHC1,200, owed him by the deceased.



Awuah, 23, has provisionally, been charged with murder, and would be put before the Mampongteng court tomorrow.



His accomplice, yet to be identified, is on the run, and being sought for by the police.



Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Emmanuel AnnorArhin, TafoPankrono Divisional Police Commander, confirmed the incident to the Ghanaian Times here, saying it happened on July 12, 2020 between AtwimaGyankobaa and Hwediem at a teak plantation, near Nyinahini, in the AtwimaMponua district of Ashanti.



According to the Police, the owner of the taxi, Daniel Owusu, reported to the police station at Pankrono of his missing driver.



The Police, upon further investigations, apprehended Awuah who was in possession of the taxi, GE 1436-17, in the teak plantation.



Quoting Awuah, the Police claimed he told his accomplice of how the deceased had refused to give him his GHC1,200.



He said the two succeeded in luring the driver to the scene of crime where they strangled him to death with the hope of selling the car.



ACP Arhin indicated that when the police got to the scene, the head of the deceased was almost decomposed, adding the body had been conveyed to the mortuary of the Komfo-Anokye Teaching Hospital.

Source: The Ghanaian Times









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A limited edition motorbike, commissioned to commemorate Northern Ireland racing legend Joey Dunlop's victories, is to be auctioned off alongside a lifetime collection of motorcycles and racing equipment.

The sale of the extensive collection of the late George Miller, the renowned Ardstraw-based motorcycle expert and enthusiast, takes place later this month.

It will be conducted by Mid-Ulster Auctions on behalf of the family.

Accumulated over the past 40 years, the collection of more than 300 lots comes to market directly from the popular biker's former business, George Miller Motorcycles, which was established in the late 1970s in the Tyrone village.

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The catalogue will go under the hammer in a timed online auction taking place from Monday July 27 to Friday, July 31.

Headlining the sale is a Joey Dunlop commemorative Honda SP-1, commissioned by Honda dealer Tippetts Motors of Surbiton, Surrey, in the early 2000s to commemorate the racing legend's record number of Isle of Man TT victories.

The limited edition bike, which has only three miles on the clock, is number nine of only 26 produced.

At the Isle of Man TT meeting in 2000, Dunlop won the Formula 1 TT, the Ultra Lightweight TT (125cc) and the Lightweight TT (250cc), securing his third career hat-trick and setting a record 26 wins - an achievement that remains undefeated over two decades later. This year marked the 20th anniversary of Joey Dunlop's death. He tragically lost his life in a racing accident at Tallinn, Estonia, on July 2 2000.

Another featured lot in the sale is a limited edition 1981 Triumph Bonneville, one of only 125 UK models produced. Dubbed the Royal Wedding edition, it was launched to commemorate the wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles.

Other Triumph motorcycles include two 500cc Daytona models and a Speed Twin.

The motorcycle which coined the term 'superbike', the Honda CB750F, will also go under the hammer.

Other models to be auctioned include a BSA A7 500cc twin, an Ariel NH350 Red Hunter, a 1951 Matchless G80 500cc, a Hercules W-2000, and Ehrlich 250 GP.

MUA director Noel Lennon is expecting plenty of interest in the collection.

"We're delighted to be working on behalf of the Miller family to manage the sale of this outstanding collection," he said.

"George's passion for all things motorcycles is renowned and that shows in the variety of bikes he acquired that carry with them important historical links, from the origins of the 'superbike' to rare and limited edition models.

"George Miller Motorcycles in Ardstraw attracted enthusiasts from the motorcycle community right across Northern Ireland and even further afield.

"We believe there will be great interest in the collection when it comes to auction." As well as motorcycles, a large selection of equipment, gear, parts, and other memorabilia will be auctioned.

Viewing for the George Miller Motorcycles auction is by appointment only in line with social distancing guidelines.

For more information about MUA or the George Miller Motorcycles auction, visit midulsterauctions.com or call 028 7946 9564.
GERMAN newspaper Berliner Morgenpost published a lengthy article about the countries which have become the new coronavirus hotspots. They also pointed out that the Balkans are the latest problem, specifically Serbia and Croatia. They state that the World Health Organization is also warning about that.

Vucic is also being mentioned

Serbia was highlighted as the largest new coronavirus hotspot in Europe thanks to "politicians who allowed mass gatherings," which resulted in Greece banning the entry into the country for Serbia's citizens.

It was pointed out that "the non-conservative politics of the president of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic led to the Belgrade riots." Another hotspot mentioned was North Macedonia.

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>> Austrian newspaper: Croatia is walking on the razors edge in coronavirus pandemic

Croatia fought off the epidemic, but then the number of coronavirus cases started to increase rapidly

When it comes to Croatia, it was stated that "since June 25, the number of coronavirus cases had been increasing rapidly," and before that, it was considered that the epidemic was over.

They stated that the turning point was the spread of the virus in the Djakovo monastery. Still, the coronavirus hotspots are mostly in Zagreb and the east of Croatia with no hotspots on the Adriatic coast.

"Vacation regions such as Istria and Dalmatia are less affected," the German newspaper stated.
Four held in Gujarat, days after 6 workers died due to inhalation of chemical fumes leaked from tanker

COVID-19: Four-member Central team to visit Gujarat on Friday

India

pti-PTI

Ahmedabad, July 16: A four-member team of the central government will be on a visit to Gujarat on Friday to review the coronavirus situation in the state and to provide necessary guidance.

This expert team comprises AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleria, NITI Aayog member Vinod Paul, Director General of ICMR Dr Balram Bhargav and Additional Secretary in the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Arti Ahuja.

The team will first visit Surat on Friday morning and hold a review meeting with the local officials, including collector and municipal commissioner, a release issued by the Gujarat government on Thursday said.

Gujarat woman cop who took on ministers son says she has resigned

After a field visit in some parts of Surat, the team would arrive at Ahmedabad in the afternoon to review the steps taken by the administration to contain the spread of the virus, it said. The team would also hold a meeting with Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in the evening, the release said, adding that the team would leave on July 18 morning.

International flights: Bubble travel with US & France, flights to resume from tomorrow|Oneindia News

With 919 new coronavirus cases, Gujarat's tally breached the 45,000-mark on Thursday, while the death of 10 patients across the state took the toll to 2,091, the health department said. Ahmedabad's case count has reached 23,780, the highest in the state, while Surat is at the second spot with 9,451 cases.
Even if there is a make-shift or temporary hospital where you have availed treatment for coronavirus (COVID-19), the insurance company has to pay expenses under health policies.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) said in a circular on July 16 to all general and health insurers that they must recognise claims incurred at that government-recognised temporary hospitals for novel coronavirus, or COVID-19. This is because of the rise in number of COVID-19 cases in India, said IRDAI.

These guidelines are crucial because there have been complaints about some insurers not recognising hospitalisation treatment availed by COVID-19 patients at make-shift hospitals. This is because as per standard insurance definition these temporary units are generally recognised during claims settlement.

According to data from the health ministry, India had total of 9,68,876 confirmed coronavirus cases as of 8 am on July 16. Here a total of 3,31,146 cases are active and there have been 24,915 deaths so far.

Cities like Mumbai and Delhi that have been worst hit by COVID-19 have set up make-shift hospitals to deal with the virus outbreak.

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

IRDAI said any make-shift or temporary hospital permitted by central or state government will be regarded as a hospital or network provider.

The regulator said where a COVID-19 positive policyholder is admitted into any such make-shift or temporary hospital on the advice of a medical practitioner, the treatment costs shall be settled by insurers.

In cases where any network provider has set up any such make-shift hospital, insurers have to offer cashless facility to policyholders. These guidelines will come into force with immediate effect.

In the recent past, IRDAI has issued guidelines in order to expedite claims settlements for COVID-19 patients.

On July 14, IRDAI had said that all hospitals must provide cashless facility to their network insurers' customers for treatment of COVID-19 in these medical establishments.

The regulator has also brought out a standard Corona Kavach plan that offers standard treatment for hospitalisation and treatment of coronavirus.

Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here
Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Wednesday night, where she shared her grandmother's story about being able to vote for the first time, and why her grandmother didn't want to. "She had watched her children be arrested and attacked during the civil rights movement," explained Abrams. She added, "Her husband had served in two wars on behalf of the United States and was never allowed to vote. She had been, you know, assailed herself and she just didn't trust that the right to vote was real. My grandfather kept urging her from the front room to come and vote, because that was during the time when people used to dress up to go and vote, and it was the first time Black people in Mississippi would have had a chance to vote in a presidential election in modern times. And she just didn't want to go." Abrams said her grandmother told her this story because she wanted her to understand "it wasn't just the fear. Not just fear of the guns and the hoses and the dogs, it was fear of the power. For something to be denied for so long, it was hard to believe it was real. And where my grandfather was excited about it, she was just filled with trepidation and shame, that she didn't want to risk it. Just in case this time it was also a lie." Back in June, the primary elections in Georgia were plagued by problems including broken machines, long lines, and hours-long waits in the heat, which has created more discussions regarding the threat of voter suppression this November. Fallon stated, "It's unbelievable when you hear those stories and it's, you know, here we are today and there's voter suppression still today. I mean we saw this happen in Georgia. It was insane. People were waiting outside during a pandemic. And you go, what the heck is going on. How do we stop this?" Abrams responded saying "the first thing is that if you want to dismantle a system, you got to understand it." Ultimately, Abrams explained that, while voter suppression was different during her grandmother's time, it's still very prevalent today. "The age of, you know, guns and dogs and hoses being the barrier to voting is gone. Today it's labyrinthine administrative rules," stated Abrams. Abrams concluded, "It's designed to look like a user error. It's designed to look, like, just bureaucracy, and it's designed to make you doubt that you didn't make the mistake. That's what is so insidious about it. We no longer treat voter suppression as the responsibility of those who are in charge of elections, we blame each other instead of blaming the system and blaming the people responsible for making the system so hard."

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Video Transcript

[WHOOSH]

STACEY ADAMS: It was the first time black people in Mississippi would have had a chance to vote in a presidential election in modern times. And she just didn't want to go.

KYLIE MAR: Former Georgia Gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams appeared on the Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon Wednesday night where she shared her grandmother's story about being able to vote for the first time and why she didn't want to.

STACEY ADAMS: And where my grandfather was excited about it, she was just filled with trepidation and shame that she didn't want to risk it just in case this time it was also a lie.

- Back in June, the primary elections in Georgia were plagued by problems including broken machines, long lines, and hours long waits in the heat, which has created more discussions regarding the threat of voter suppression this November. And while Abrams explained how voter suppression was different during her grandmother's time--

STACEY ADAMS: Not just fear of the guns and the hoses and the dogs, it was fear of the power. For something to be denied for so long, it was hard to believe it was real.

KYLIE MAR: She also pointed out how prevalent voter suppression is today.

STACEY ADAMS: The age of guns and dogs and hoses being the barrier to voting is gone. Today it's labyrinthine administrative rules. It's designed to look like user error. It's designed to look like just bureaucracy. And it's designed to make you doubt that you didn't make the mistake.

[WHOOSH]
The CPI(M) has alleged that the gold smuggling case in Kerala is being used by the BJP and the Congress-led UDF to destabilise the LDF government in the state and the issue is being used to target Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

IAS officer M Sivasankar, sacked principal secretary of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, was earlier summoned by the Customs as part of the ongoing investigation into the gold smuggling case where gold, weighing over 30 kg and valued at around Rs 15 crore, was seized.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has been entrusted with the probe into the case by the Centre.

"The gold smuggling case in Kerala is being used by the Congress-led UDF and the BJP to tarnish the image of the LDF government and (is) a joint effort to destabilise the government headed by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan," said the latest editorial of the CPI(M) mouthpiece People's Democracy published on Wednesday.

The Congress and the UDF have demanded the resignation of the chief minister and have launched a "struggle" to achieve the same. The BJP is also conducting protests with the same demand. The UDF had announced that it will move a no-confidence motion against the government in the assembly.

The editorial says that smuggling of gold into Kerala from the Gulf countries has been a regular occurrence over the years and that there was a spurt in gold smuggling after the COVID-19 pandemic, when flights resumed and there was an increase in chartered flights to the state.

Around Rs 100 crore worth of gold was seized by the Customs authorities in Kerala's three airports in the past six months, the editorial said.

But the contraband gold sought to be smuggled in through Thiruvananthapuram airport on June 30 was significant for the method adopted and the size of the consignment it was through diplomatic baggage and weighed 30 kilograms, it said.

"The state police is not the investigating authority nor has it the power to file cases in such matters. It falls in the jurisdiction of the Customs Department which is under the Centre. The state police can only have an ancillary role," it said.

It said that as soon as the ramifications of the case became known, the chief minister wrote to the prime minister asking for an effective investigation by any of the central agencies concerned, so that the whole chain of the smuggling operation from its source and the end beneficiaries can be found out and brought to book.

"The gold smuggling case is, thus, being used to make an all-out effort to target the chief minister and the LDF government. In doing so, the Congress leadership is even ignoring the fact that one of the accused, Sandeep Nair, has links with the BJP. It is more intent on seeking to harness the Modi government in its fight against the LDF government.

"The Congress knows very well that the BJP government is misusing the central agencies for its political purposes and hopes that they will do so in this case too," it said.

The editorial also alleged that the Congress party is proving its political and ideological bankruptcy in Kerala by adopting a disruptive stance over the issue.

"It has no qualms whatsoever in ganging up with the BJP to target the Left. It is also a sad commentary on the state of the party as a whole as the recent events in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan show.

"The BJP is going all-out to destabilise Congress state governments using money power and other unscrupulous methods. But the Congress party riven by factions and power hungry leaders is facilitating the BJP's nefarious designs.
Investments in AI, machine learning and network capacity have helped Comcast meet unprecedented internet demands during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a recent interview, the company explained that its suite of AI and machine learning tools provides visibility of its entire network, enabling Comcast to quickly add capacity and troubleshoot issues before performance is impacted.

Comcast recently told VentureBeat that its network traffic rose 32 percent in March at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. It also experienced a 36-percent increase in mobile data use over Wi-Fi on Xfinity mobile during that time. The company's network is accessible to more than 59 million homes in the U.S. through 800,000 miles of cable.

With COVID-19, we obviously saw a massive surge in the network, and looking back in retrospect the network was highly reliable, said Jan Hofmeyr, chief network officer at the Comcast Technology Center in Philadelphia. We were able to respond quickly as we saw the spike in traffic. We were able to add capacity without having to take the network down. It was designed for that.

The company credits its Comcast Octave software with managing the increased traffic and complexities. Developed internally by Comcast engineers, the AI platform checks more than 4,000 telemetry data points on more than 50 million modems throughout the network every 20 minutes. The software looks for variables like power levels, external network noise and other issues that can negatively impact performance.

Octave detects when modems aren't using all the available bandwidth as efficiently as possible, then automatically adjusts them. This enables increases in speed, efficiency and overall network capacity. The company also used machine learning to put the data collected from this process into algorithmic solutions. This helps Comcast predict where interference may disrupt networks or trouble points may appear.

The AI solution had only been rolled out to part of Comcast's network at the onset of the pandemic. The company then put together a team of dedicated engineers to speed up the deployment process and make use of the technology throughout its network. Comcast said customers enjoyed a nearly 36-percent increase in capacity as a result of its efforts.

We have to turn the knobs so that we optimize delivery to your house, which would not be the same as the delivery to my home, said Elad Nafshi, senior vice president for next-generation access networks at Comcast Xfinity. We provide you with much more reliable service by detecting the patterns that lead up to breakage and then have the network self-heal based on those patterns. Were making that completely transparent to the customer. The network can self-heal autonomously in a self-feedback loop. Its a seamless platform for the customer.

Octave is used in tandem with Comcast's Smart Network Platform, also developed in-house. The suite of software tools automates core network functions, which cuts down on the number of outages and shortens their duration. The network is also more secure and has built-in redundancies, enabling it to hold up to issues like an accidental cutting of a fiber-optic cable.

Comcast also uses the NetIQ machine learning tool to continuously scan its core network, collecting thousands of measurements per hour. This enables the company to instantly see outages and reduce the time it takes to remediate them.

The use of AI and machine learning to improve network performance extends well beyond service providers. Enterprises are increasingly adopting AI for network performance management and optimization as well as a host of other uses. To learn more about the role of AI in the enterprise network and beyond, TMC is hosting a Future of Work Expo from June 22-25, 2021 at the Miami Beach Convention Center. The event will examine how AI and supercomputing are changing the workforce and the global information economy as we know it, with applications in the data center, contact center, customer service, sales and marketing and more.

Edited by Maurice Nagle
New Haven, Conn. -- Yale pharmacology professor Barbara Ehrlich and her team have uncovered a mechanism driving a rare, lethal disease called Wolfram Syndrome and also a potential treatment. Their findings appear in the July 6 edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Wolfram Syndrome -- a progressive degenerative disease that affects about one in 500,000 people worldwide -- is characterized by the onset of diabetes in childhood, and, in teen years, psychiatric symptoms, loss of vision, deafness, and incontinence. Most patients die in their 30s. There are no treatments.

The new study confirms that calcium inside the body's cells play a key role, and proposes a potential treatment involving two existing drugs.

Specifically, Ehrlich's team confirmed that when the protein Wolframin is lost in cells in the pancreas -- the organ that produces insulin, which regulates blood sugar -- "calcium signaling goes awry," Ehrlich said. This, the team found, results in reduced cell viability and lower insulin secretion, which, in turn, triggers the debilitating symptoms of the disease.

The researchers tested a number of compounds for their effectiveness in restoring calcium signaling and improving cell functions, and found two drugs that worked -- ibudilast and a calpain inhibitor. Ibudilast has been approved for nearly 20 years to treat asthma in South Korea and Japan. It is now being tested in a number of clinical trials in the U.S., including for possible treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and, in a trial underway at Yale, for COVID-19.

Some 99% of the body's calcium can be found in the bones and teeth. The other 1% -- found in solution inside cells and bodily fluids -- supports a variety of critical biological functions, said Ehrlich. It is this latter form of calcium that her lab has scrutinized in relation to Wolfram Syndrome. This fluid-based calcium is necessary for muscle contraction, nerve function, and insulin secretion, she said.

"Calcium is a signaling molecule," Ehrlich said. "It will signal, for instance, when insulin should be secreted."

Calcium signaling, in turn, is regulated by calcium-binding proteins, including neuronal calcium sensor-1 (NCS-1), a protein Ehrlich's lab has studied for the past 20 years. When a research group from Europe proposed that NCS-1 was involved in Wolfram Syndrome pathology, Ehrlich started investigating the disease.

"The first step was to better understand what the protein Wolframin does," said Tom T. Fischer, a medical student from Germany working in Ehrlich's lab. "In our cell model that is lacking Wolframin, we measured intracellular calcium and found that calcium signaling as well as calcium-dependent cell functions, particularly insulin secretion and cell viability, were disrupted."

They then tested a number of drug compounds and found that ibudilast and the calpain inhibitor restored intracellular calcium and cell functions, Fischer said.

With support from the Blavantik Fund for Innovation at Yale, Ehrlich's team will begin a mouse study within the next six months to further confirm the effectiveness of the drugs in correcting calcium signaling and preventing the progression of Wolfram Syndrome. If the results of the animal study show promise, the researchers said, they could move quickly into human trials.

Although Wolfram Syndrome is a rare disease caused by genetic mutations in a single gene, it is tied to a number of other diseases that could be viable targets for this treatment, including diabetes and bipolar disorder, the researchers said.

"Some people with bipolar disorder also have mutations in Wolframin," Ehrlich said. "This might be one of the first genetically identified mood disorders -- and we will definitely be exploring this more."

###

The Yale research team collaborated with Dr. Fumihiko Urano at Washington University, a leading clinical expert on Wolfram Syndrome who maintains an international registry and provided the models needed for the study. Recent Yale graduate Lien D. Nguyen '20 Ph.D., postgraduate associate Alfredo Arroyo '19 B.S., and Damien Abreu '10 B.S. also contributed to the research.
An Ohio mother and her four-year-old daughter were found fatally shot inside their home in suburban Cleveland, in what police are calling a murder-suicide.

The bodies were found at around 2pm on Saturday in a bedroom at a home in the 3900 block of Delmore Road in Cleveland Heights.

A preliminary investigation has indicated that the woman, identified by the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiners Office as Noelle Cotton, shot her daughter, Savannah Noelle Cotton, before turning the gun on herself.

It did not appear that anyone else was in the home when the shooting occurred.

Noelle Cotton and her four-year-old daughter, Savannah, were found shot dead inside their home on Delmore Road in Cleveland Heights, Ohio (pictured), on Saturday

Authorities have not released an official cause and manner of death, reported WOIO. Preliminary autopsy results are still pending.

A woman who identified herself as a neighbor of Cotton's, whose children often played with Savannah, wrote in a comment on Facebook that the mom-of-one seemed very loving and called her daughter 'sugar.'

The neighbor went on to say that she had never witnessed Cotton yell at her toddler, even though she said Savannah was 'hard headed.'

'She never showed stress or any frustration,' the acquaintance wrote of Cotton.

In a follow-up comment, the neighbor recalled a conversation in which she said Cotton told her she was planning to move soon

'Then I was telling her about a lot of resources to help but she never seem stressed,' the recounted. 'She showed that baby a lot of love she was very calm and loving to her.. I cant seem to see what happened what made her do this.'

Cotton's Facebook page has been dormant since April. Her final post included information about food distribution for low-income families in Cleveland.
YEREVAN, JULY 16, ARMENPRESS. Armenias foreign ministry issued a statement today over the resumption of military operations of Azerbaijan towards Tavush province, the MFA told Armenpress.

The statement says:

On July 16, early in the morning, the combat groups of the armed forces of Azerbaijan resumed military operations on the state border of the Republic of Armenia in the vicinity of Aygepar and Movses villages with the use of mortars and heavy artillery. Having received a proportionate response from the Armed Forces of Armenia, the forces of Azerbaijan were repelled with losses. With no gain in the battlefield, the Azerbaijani military units began shelling the villages of Movses and Aygepar deliberately targeting the civilian infrastructures and the population.

It should be stressed that this aggression came as a treacherous violation of an arrangement on cessation of hostilities reached earlier and following the July 15 statement by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs on the establishment of relative calm on the border.

As a result of its short-sighted policy, the military-political leadership of Azerbaijan is at an impasse and now is resorting to perilous, ill-conceived steps for which it will bear responsibility also before its own people.

The Foreign Minister is in constant contact with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship. In the present situation the efforts aimed at unconditional, complete restoration, preservation and strengthening of the ceasefire are imperative.
Men who watch a lot of porn are at increased risk of developing erectile dysfunction when having sex with a partner, a new study shows.

The blame is being pointed at easy access to adult films which are desensitising men so they are not aroused when engaging in intercourse themselves.

A study assessed porn habits of men in Denmark and Belgium and compared this with their sexual habits.

It found more than a third of men (35 per cent) are more stimulated by watching other people have sex on a screen than they are having it themselves.

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Men who watch a lot of porn are at increased risk of developing erectile dysfunction when having sex with a partner, a new study shows (stock)

Researchers asked 3,267 over-16s in Belgium and Denmark to answer 118 questions about masturbation, frequency of porn watching and sexual activity.

Lead author Professor Gunter de Win said: 'There was a highly significant relationship between time spent watching porn and increasing difficulty with erectile function with a partner.'

The questionnaire also discovered that 90 per cent of men skip through to the most erotic parts of an adult movie when indulging in some alone time.

However, the frequency of bouts of self love is on the rise, they found.

Of the men quizzed, the average amount of weekly porn watched was around 70 minutes, with most engaging in individual bouts of between five and 15 minutes.

A study assessed porn habits of men in Denmark and Belgium and compared this with their sexual habits. It found more than a third of men (35 per cent) are more stimulated by watching other people have sex on a screen than they are having it themselves (stock)

Professor de Win does point out that some people watch less and some 'much, much more'. than others.

One-in-forty-five respondents (2.2 per cent) watched more than seven hours a week, for example.

'There is no doubt that porn conditions the way we view sex, he adds. 'Only 65 per cent of men felt sex with a partner was more exciting than watching porn.

'In addition, 20 per cent felt they needed to watch more extreme porn to get the same level of arousal as previously.

'We believe the erectile dysfunction problems associated with porn stem from this lack of arousal.'

The study presented at an European Association of Urology virtual congress found almost one-in-four (23 per cent) of under-35s had some level of erectile dysfunction.

The researchers say this figure was higher than they had anticipated.

A separate 2016 study found that for under-40s the average amount of men struggling with erectile dysfunction is around 14 per cent.

Professor de Win, of the University of Antwerp, Belgium, said: 'This figure was higher than we expected.'

Pornography has been increasingly available via the internet since around 2007 - leading to a rapid uptake in use.

Google and Facebook are tracking users as they watch PORN Google and Facebook like to watch, it seems, with the tech firms tracking visitors to 74 per cent and 10 per cent of porn websites, respectively, experts have found. US researchers from Microsoft and the universities of Pennsylvania and Carnegie Mellon scanned 22,484 adult-themed site to find where they were sending user data. Their analysis revealed that 93 per cent of these pornography websites send data on to an average of seven domains owned by third-party companies. Researchers also found that only 17 per cent of the adult sites they scanned had any form of encryption  leaving user data on the rest vulnerable to leaking. Advertisement

But there is little information on how it might affect erectile function, said Professor de Win.

His research focused on men who had had sex within the previous four weeks, enabling them to relate porn's effect.

Professor de Win said: 'The work was designed to unpick any relationship between porn and erectile dysfunction, and given the large sample size we can be pretty confident about the findings.

'Our next step is to identify which factors lead to erectile dysfunction, and to conduct a similar study on the effects of porn on women.

'In the meantime, we believe that doctors dealing with erectile dysfunction should also be asking about watching pornography.'

Professor Maarten Albersen, of the University of Leuven, Belgium, who was not involved in the study, said porn may lead to impaired erectile function or sexual satisfaction or confidence during partner-sex.

He added: 'As Professor De Win says, the running hypothesis is the type of porn watched may come more explicit over time and partner-sex may not lead to the same level of arousal as the pornographic material does.

'The study contributes to an ongoing debate on the topic; experts have highlighted porn may have both positive and negative effects, and could for example be used as an aid in the treatment of sexual dysfunctions, so this is a controversial area and the last words have not been said on this topic.'
Chiesi Group reports 1,992.81 million in revenue, around 6,000 employees, an 11% reduction in CO 2 emissions and more than a fourfold increase in renewable energy consumption.

The report, which is based on the approach of renowned U.S. economist and essayist Jeffrey Sachs, includes Chiesis environmental, social and economic performance.

The four cornerstones of the document are Processes, Products and Patients, Global Value Chain and Corporate Citizenship.

CARY, N.C., July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Chiesi USA, the U.S. affiliate of Chiesi Farmaceutici, an international research-focused healthcare Group (Chiesi Group), today announced the publication of the Groups 2019 Report. This official document, drafted with the help of Nativa, illustrates what the Group has done to achieve its objective of incorporating sustainability within its daily business model as a certified B Corp and Benefit Company alongside its financial and strategic results. The report is available online on the Groups website www.chiesi.com , please click here .

Looking at the data for 2019, Chiesis overall revenues totaled 1,992.81 million, 1,376.4 million of which were generated in Europe, 340.3 million in the Emerging Countries and 273.1 million in the U.S. The Groups revenues last year were up on the previous year by 12.7%. EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Taxes) increased from 362.7 million in 2018 to 424.7 million in 2019 (21.3% in 2019 compared to 20.5% in 2018). The respiratory portfolio remains the top therapeutic area with revenues totalling 1,213.5 million in 2019.

The number of people employed worldwide by Chiesi in 2019 reached around 6,000, of which more than 50% are women. A total of 65% employees are aged between 30 and 50. The company reduced Scope 1 & 2 CO 2 emissions (Scope 1  Direct Emissions, Scope 2  Indirect market-based emissions from electricity purchased and used) by 11% compared to 2018 and achieved a 4.5 fold increase in the use of renewable energy at its plants and offices. This positive trend furthers the Groups objective of becoming Carbon Neutral by the end of 2035.

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2019 went beyond expectations and enabled the company to reach a turnover of almost 2 billion, confirms Ugo Di Francesco, CEO of the Chiesi Group. This performance represents an important milestone in the growth of the Group, which made significant progress in 2019 when affiliates were set up in Australia and New Zealand, and the Global Rare Diseases Business Unit located in Parma and Boston (Massachusetts, USA) was created. These are just a few of the achievements made along with the many challenges the company is still facing this year, a year which has forced us to deal with the global health emergency yet has also demonstrated the incredible stamina and ability to react of the 6,000 people making up the company. I would like to take this opportunity to once again thank everyone at Chiesi.

Transparency is a key issue for Chiesi, particularly with regard to representing and conveying its impact on society and the environment. This is why the company has decided to create a single report covering financial issues as well as social and environmental matters, generating added value by providing a complete and transparent explanation of the impact its own business model has on society and the environment.

The report is inspired by an analysis proposed by well-known American economist and essayist Jeffrey Sachs, with four dimensions to provide a comprehensive overview of the way the business aligns with the United Nations 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG): products, processes, global value chain and corporate citizenship1.

This moment in history has emphasised just how essential the resilience and sustainability of business models are for our future, which is why it is fundamental that businesses implement practical measures to demonstrate and manage their impact to ensure truly sustainable development. The social and environmental crisis mankind is currently facing requires an unprecedented collective effort, states Maria Paola Chiesi, Shared Value & Sustainability Group Head. It isnt enough that companies, a key driving force fundamental for economic systems to evolve, declare they intend to direct their actions towards the SDGs. They need to be completely incorporated into the company strategy, in order to act as a force for good for both society and the biosphere. When this happens, reporting transforms from a formal practice into an evolutionary tool.

This analysis of the Chiesi business thus provides an account of company processes, the Global Value Chain, Corporate Citizenship and commitment to patients in the Groups four therapeutic areas: respiratory, neonatology, rare diseases and special care. In doing so, it meets the standards of the Global Reporting Initiative, a nonprofit organization set up to support companies when reporting on sustainable performance, integrating the objectives of the Impact Report, the document which Chiesi is required to publish each year as a Benefit Company that includes the score awarded to the company as a certified B Corp. The information is presented in a way that highlights the challenges to be tackled and overcome without simply enhancing the value of the results achieved.

About Chiesi USA

Chiesi USA, Inc., headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on commercialization of products for the hospital and target office-based specialties. The Company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of family-owned Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A, a global R&D-focused pharmaceutical company based in Parma, Italy. In the United States, the Company delivers therapies and enhances care for patients in the areas of acute cardiology, neonatology and cystic fibrosis. Recognized as a Certified B Corporation, Chiesi is dedicated to improving the health and well-being of its communities through its employee-led corporate social responsibility program, Chiesi in the Community. Innovation, collaboration and impact are the cornerstones of the Chiesi culture. For more information, visit www.chiesiusa.com.

About Chiesi Group

Based in Parma, Italy, Chiesi Farmaceutici is an international research-oriented group with 85 years experience in the pharmaceutical sector and operates in 29 countries. The Group researches, develops and markets innovative drugs for respiratory treatment, Special Care medicine and rare diseases. The Groups Research and Development Centre is based in Parma, Italy, and forms part of four other important R&D groups in France, the USA, the UK and Sweden to promote its own pre-clinical, clinical and registration programmes. The Group employs around 6,000 people. Chiesi is a Certified B Corporation. For more information, please visit www.chiesi.com .

Contacts:

Media: FleishmanHillard, Elizabeth Comtois, (919) 334-3786, elizabeth.comtois@fleishman.com

Chiesi USA: Michael Wasyluk, (919) 678-6611, michael.wasyluk@chiesi.com

Chiesi Group:

Valentina Biagini, Senior Group Communication Manager, Tel +39 348 7693 623, v.biagini@chiesi.com

Alessio Pappagallo, Group Communication Manager, Tel: +39 339 5897483, a.pappagallo@chiesi.com

1 Columbia Center on Sustainable Development,  Aligning corporations with the sustainable development goals   Summary of Conference procedures, November 2019.

PDF available: http://ml.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/9f3f8e06-fdfb-4a16-b11c-e1c460657572

PP-G-0445 V1.0








SALT LAKE CITY, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A $4.5 million gift from the Huntsman family will fund an expansion of a unique program at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah (U of U) that brings specialty cancer care directly to patients in their homes. With this major gift, HCI's Huntsman at Home TM will expand to rural Utah, including Carbon, Emery, and Grand Counties. The goal is to provide cancer care for patients who live far from HCI in Salt Lake City by partnering with patients and their caregivers, communities, and medical teams to deliver many aspects of cancer care in a patient's own home as an alternative to hospital visits at a medical center or emergency department.

The rural expansion announcement follows the first evaluation of Huntsman at Home, reported last month at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting. Selected as a major presentation at the international meeting where the latest findings in cancer care are shared, HCI scientists detailed an analysis that showed Huntsman at Home patients had improved outcomes and reduced medical costs compared to a control group of cancer patients who did not participate in Huntsman at Home.

Huntsman at Home launched in 2018 and is currently exclusive to patients living within a 20-mile radius of HCI's flagship hospital on the campus of the U of U. Today's gift announcement allows Huntsman at Home to dramatically expand its reach. Huntsman at Home services range from symptom management to acute medical, post-surgical, and end-of-life care. The Huntsman at Home team includes HCI nurse practitioners and oncologists. It is operated in partnership with Community Nursing Services (CNS), a home health and hospice agency. Working with CNS staff, the team provides registered nurses, nursing aids, social workers, and physical therapist. All aspects of care are done in consultation with the patient's medical oncologist at HCI.

"Cancer patients and their family caregivers are often thrust into a challenging environment of managing complicated treatments, symptoms, and more," said John Ward, MD , HCI physician-in-chief and professor of internal medicine at the U of U. "We are grateful for the opportunity to determine how we can better serve our rural communities by bringing the Huntsman touch to patients in their own homes."

The expansion is possible thanks to the major gift from the Huntsman family via the Huntsman Foundation. "Our family foundation has decided to add this support in addition to our previous commitments. This is a program designed to combine home care with the latest care and research from Huntsman Cancer Institute," said Peter R. Huntsman, CEO of Huntsman Foundation and Chairman and CEO of Huntsman Cancer Foundation . "In treating certain cases of cancer, this should allow care to be more personalized to the needs of the patient."

The gift from the Huntsman Foundation and support from other donors is critical to drive this initiative forward. "This type of sophisticated cancer home care is not fully covered by insurance plans. We are hopeful this expansion to rural patient homes, as well as the early promising results of the Salt Lake City Huntsman at Home project, will provide compelling evidence for the need for insurance plans to cover this type of care for cancer patients," said Kathleen Mooney, PhD , HCI cancer population scientist and distinguished professor of nursing at the U of U. Mooney leads research evaluation efforts for Huntsman at Home.

Carbon, Emery, and Grand counties were selected for the Huntsman at Home expansion project following input from HCI and CNS clinicians, evaluation of Utah's cancer burden, and conversations with community organizations and elected officials in these areas. Project leaders anticipate this rural expansion will provide valuable insights that will complement the ongoing work to evaluate the impact of this program in our urban Salt Lake City setting. Huntsman at Home is expected to be implemented in the three counties by the end of 2020.The addition of these counties will add 9,500 square miles to the service area of Huntsman at Home.

"Huntsman Cancer Institute is committed to ensuring that we bring the exceptional care of our National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center to people where they live," said Mary Beckerle, PhD , HCI CEO. "Huntsman at Home does just that."

Huntsman at Home is funded by HCI and Huntsman Cancer Foundation. The evaluation of Huntsman at Home is supported by the Cambia Foundation. The rural expansion is supported by the Huntsman Foundation and the Rita & Alex Hillman Foundation.

Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah is the official cancer center of Utah. The cancer campus includes a state-of-the-art cancer specialty hospital as well as two buildings dedicated to cancer research. HCI treats patients with all forms of cancer and is recognized among the best cancer hospitals in the country by U.S. News and World Report. As the only National Cancer Institute (NCI)-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in the Mountain West, HCI serves the largest geographic region in the country, drawing patients from Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. More genes for inherited cancers have been discovered at HCI than at any other cancer center in the world, including genes responsible for hereditary breast, ovarian, colon, head, and neck cancers, along with melanoma. HCI manages the Utah Population Database, the largest genetic database in the world, with information on more than 11 million people linked to genealogies, health records, and vital statistics. HCI was founded by Jon M. and Karen Huntsman .

Media Contacts: Ashlee Bright

Director, Communications and Public Affairs

[email protected]

Phone: 8015851954



Provided by Newswise, online resource for knowledge-based news at www.newswise.com

SOURCE Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah
Seven Turkish security forces died when their plane crashed in eastern Turkey today.

The personnel died when their reconnaissance plane crashed into a mountain in the Van province, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported Thursday.

The plane was conducting a surveillance mission in the Van and Hakkari provinces, according to Anadolu. What exactly the forces were observing is not clear.

Van province borders Iran. It is predominately Kurdish with Turkish and Azerbaijani populations as well. There was an attack by the Kurdistan Workers Party there in June. Migrants from Iran often cross into Turkey in Van on their way to Europe.

There have been several deadly incidents involving refugees in Van recently. Dozens of bodies were discovered this month. Some had their belongings removed from them and others were missing limbs, according to photos seen by Al-Monitor. In late June, a boat carrying migrants sank in Lake Van, also killing dozens of people on board.
In the past few weeks, Oakland A1 Laundromat owner Nesanet Tamirue has had to be extraordinarily careful about coins. Shes put up a sign asking patrons not to take quarters unless theyre for the laundry machines.

It hasnt always worked. Sometimes the people who walk in dont care  or they feel they have no other choice, clandestinely withdrawing more than $10 in coins before hurrying out. At any other time, it might have been OK. Now, its not.

Thats because during the coronavirus pandemic, the flow of coins in the Bay Area has clogged up, banks and business owners say  reflecting a nationwide shortage thats significantly affecting a number of businesses, including coin-operated laundries, convenience stores and banks.

Over the past few months, as the regular flow of consumers have opted to stay home or avoid physical cash, the typical circulation of money has become dysfunctional.

The U.S. Mint, the manufacturer of the nations coins, has had to accelerate its production to push fresh batches into the system. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve, which distributes coins, has been strategically allocating its coin reserve to cope with the stunted circulation.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

The result has been that banks are getting less and are forced to ration out what they have. That has left a large swath of business owners, who rely on coins to make daily transactions, at a loss for how they can continue operations.

The impact on many essential businesses in the Bay Area has been significant.

Ibrahim Bharucha, owner of Cow Hollow Laundromat and Dry Cleaners, said hes had to turn an employee into a live coin changer to keep patrons from taking too much from the machines and avoid running out of quarters.

The last time he went to the bank, he said, he was told he could only get one roll  two, if he owned a business. The teller told him the bank was receiving only $500 worth of quarters every week, when it usually orders $2,000.

Some people want more quarters and I say, Im sorry, Bharucha, who has owned his laundry since 1991, said. Its a serious situation for a laundromat because you cant do business without coins.

Even as many small businesses have switched to mobile payment options, laundries are still largely a coin-operated industry. In fact, 89% of the nations self-serve laundries still take coins as payment, while 60% rely solely on coins to operate, said Brian Wallace, president and CEO of Coin Laundry Association, a group of more than 2,000 laundry owners, commercial equipment distributors and other professions in the industry.

To cope with the shortage, some of the associations members have tried out various solutions: in-store signs encouraging customers to bring change from home, initiatives to get people to bring in their dusty piggy banks for cash and even money exchanges between, say, a lucky laundry owner in Cleveland who has more quarters than she needs and one in Columbus, Ohio, who hasnt been as lucky. The association facilitates such transactions via an online forum.

Were doing our best with this but at the end of the day, if we cant make change, we cant make money, Wallace said.

Annie Vainshtein

Bank branches are having to come up with strategic ways to ration coins.

We have a lot of unhappy customers, said Hector Guerrero, manager of the Citibank at 6100 Geary Blvd. in San Francisco. But mostly business customers are the ones who have been hit the worst.

Guerrero says his branch recently has had about $100 in quarters available. The branch usually has upward of $500 in quarters a week to dole out to its customers. Since the shortage, hes seen the reserve go down to $30.

Guerrero said he at a loss for what to do. But every day requires some patchwork of a strategy.

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.

I give $20 to each of my tellers, and they distribute them in the way they can do, he said.

Just a few minutes before he picked up the phone to talk about the coin shortage, Adnan Alameri, manager at a 7-Eleven on Sutter Street, said a customer had walked out because Alameri couldnt provide him with exact change. He told the customer he could buy something else, and even tried to give him a discount, but he lost the sale.

Alameri said its a scene thats happened more than once since the coin shortage hit his store. He said he was given $10  one roll  in quarters the last time he visited the bank.

He usually goes through eight a day.

On June 23, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that the U.S. was a little far behind on coins but that he believed the shortage would be solved, according to the New York Times. The Federal Reserves rationing plan  which began on June 15  was meant to be a temporary measure.

The U.S. Mint did not respond to requests for comment. In an emailed statement to the New York Times, Mint spokesman Michael White said that coin shipments are ramping up  and that the agency will ship 1.35 billion coins every month for the rest of 2020, up from a typical 1 billion per month.

The San Francisco Mint, which sits atop a hill at Buchanan Street and Duboce Avenue, is one of six U.S. Mint facilities. It made circulation coins until 1974, but currently produces only commemorative coins and medals. San Franciscos regular circulation coins are manufactured at the Denver and Philadelphia mints.

The historic U.S. Mint building at Fifth and Mission streets in San Francisco has been retired as a money-making plant for more than 80 years.

Annie Vainshtein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: avainshtein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @annievain
Former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan landed in Bamako on Wednesday to lead mediation efforts to find a solution to the crisis in Mali. The country has been hit by ongoing protests calling for the resignation of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, with recent demonstrations marred by violence and a crackdown by security forces.

Jonathan met with President Keita on Wednesday evening for talks, according to Bamako correspondent Serge Daniel. The former Nigerian president was appointed head of a mediation team acting on behalf of Ecowas, the West African regional bloc.

Premium Times newspaper reported Jonathan had support from Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, providing an aircraft and other logistics needed to make the assignment successful.

A Gulfstream 550 jet, belonging to the Nigerian authorities, took off from Abuja, Nigeria, stopped in Niamey, Niger and then touched down at Modibo Keita airport in Bamako on Wednesday evening, RFI understands.

Jonathan had been selected as envoy in consultation with Nigers President Mahamadou Issoufou, the Nigerian press reported. Experts in constitutional law from Benin, Togo and Cote dIvoire are also expected to be involved in mediation, reported correspondent Daniel.

Im not sure what Goodluck Jonathan can really contribute to this, Nigeria has struggled to play a diplomatic role in crisis situations in Mali since the coup in 2012, said Andrew Lebovich, an expert on Mali at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).

The former Nigerian president peacefully handed over power to Buhari in 2015 following his defeat in the elections. Since then he has led several electoral observation missions for the African Union.

Crackdown by security forces

More protests are expected on Friday, with the opposition calling for Friday prayers to pay homage to the victims of the violence and crackdown on protesters.

Eleven people were killed and 124 injured, according to official figures, following four days of violence in the Malian capital that began on Friday with protests by the M5-RFP group, an opposition coalition of politicians, civil society and religious leaders.

Story continues

Demonstrations since 5 June have urged Keita to step down over problems with insecurity, government corruption and economic hardship.

It emerged that the authorities deployed the Antiterrorist Special Forces (FORSAT) in response to the demonstrations. Some protesters had erected roadblocks and attacked public buildings.

In response, FORSAT used live ammunition against protesters, according to several witnesses and human rights groups, RFI service Afrique reported. The appearance of hooded men, heavily armed, in unmarked vehicles shocked many Bamako residents.

Calls for an investigation

The deployment of FORSAT drew a response by the office of the prime minister, with a letter shared on social media, signed by the director of the office for Boubou Cisse, ordering an investigation.

The letter was addressed to the minister of security and civil protection, instructing the official to carry out an investigation determining the reasons for deploying FORSAT and asking who gave the antiterrorist squad the green light to be deployed.

But the letter was addressed to a ministerial post that is currently vacant, raising the question of who would carry out such an investigation.

Theres a growing recognition including from parties that are normally more closely affiliated with the government that they have to have a serious, credible investigation into the killings, said analyst Lebovich.

The extent of the violence last weekend definitely struck a chord among the Malian political elite and of course among the citizenry as a whole, the ECFR expert added.

Compromise?

A joint statement from the Ecowas bloc, African Union, EU and UN on Sunday expressed concern about the recent violence, encouraging the government in Bamako to pursue dialogue.

Resignation is the watchword here - weve come to believe today that Mr Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has neither the physical capacity, nor the intellectual capacity to manage the country, opposition leader Mountaga Tall told reporters, according to the AFP news agency.

Concessions from the government, such as dissolving the countrys constitutional court, have so far been judged to be insufficient by the M5-RFP opposition.

Im not sure theres really a concession that the government can make that would actually satisfy people, particularly after the violence last weekend, said Lebovich. Publicly, it's going to be very hard to get the opposition to actually accept any real compromise.
The investment is participated by JS Corporation (KRX: 194370), a KOSPI-listed global exporter of luxury handbags, as well as companies with solid financial stability such as Seoul Investment Partners, Quantum Venture Korea, Shinhan Capital, Wonik Investment Partners, and Devsisters Ventures. Rather than a conditional investment commitment to the selection of franchises, the investment and payment were executed in advance, believing in the growth potential of DRX.

The companies that participated in the investment have decided to invest due to DRX's strong global fandom, the systematic big-data based player discovery system, and its potential for unrivaled growth. In particular, the fact that the company is building and strengthening its own business model before the launch of the franchise seems to have also played a significant role.

With this investment, DRX is fully prepared financially for the launch of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) franchises. This will make DRX as one of the LCK teams with most cashable assets. The investment will be used in various fields such as improving infrastructure and welfare facilities for players, creating global content and marketing.

It is also notable that Bae Yong-joon, aka "Yonsama" who won the Korean Hwa-Gwan Order of Culture Merit in recognition of his contribution to the spread of the Korean Wave, joined as a DRX shareholder. Bae Yong-joon is a celebrity from the early stage of the Korean Wave celebrity boom, and he will serve as an advisor to DRX's strategy to strengthen its global branding.

In addition to this investment of USD 10M, DRX announced that ATU Partners and its parent company Kibo Steel will invest an additional USD 12.5M in the future. ATU Partners is a general partner (GP) who exclusively oversees investment and operation of private equity funds, ATU eSports Growth Fund No.1, the largest shareholder of DRX.

Kibo Steel is a family company of DRX's Chairman and ATU Partners CEO Park Jung-moo, and is a steel manufacturing and distribution company that celebrates its 21st anniversary. As of the end of last year, the company has solid financial stability of USD 420M in revenue and USD 182M in total assets, and is a prestigious company that won the Presidential Award and the National Tax Service Commissioner Award.

With this massive investment attraction, the financial soundness of DRX has become even more robust as ATU Partners and Kibo Steel have pledged to continue to invest. DRX is realizing its specific plans to become a 'top global esports company' with a healthy business structure and super-fandom brand.

DRX's CEO Choi Sang-in said, "I sincerely thank all the investors. They believed in DRX's value and its growth potential and executed investment and payment in advance before the franchise is finalized. I hope this investment will help not only DRX but also the entire LCK to continue its significant growth."

DRX Introduction

DRX is an esports management organization and runs a professional League of Legends (LOL) team. It has a strong global fandom, which helped DRX reach 270k average viewers in this spring season and 3rd place in global viewership across all global LOL teams. DRX has developed a proprietary method of quantitative and qualitative metrics analysis upon which builds a structured team training system. Since it also has a deep roster with one leading team along 3 academy teams and a continuous stream of great talent, DRX anticipates a better future to come. Just like the team slogan "Enjoy Challenge", DRX makes savoring challenges its motto.

For More Information

DRX Corporation

I Won, Jong Bae I PR Manager I [email protected]

SOURCE DRX
Actor Rhea Chakraborty posted messages on Twitter and Instagram asking for the aid of Home Minister Amit Shah in launching a CBI probe into the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. The actor died by suicide on June 14, at the age of 34. In the messages, Rhea identified herself as Sushants girlfriend.

Respected @AmitShah sir, Im sushants Singh Rajputs girlfriend Rhea chakraborty,it is now over a month since his sudden demise. I have complete faith in the government, however in the interest of justice , I request you with folded hands to initiate a CBI enquiry, the tweet posted by Rheas account read. I request you with folded hands to initiate a CBI enquiry into this matter . I only want to understand what pressures , prompted Sushant to take this step. Yours sincerely #satyamevajayate @AmitShah sir, the message continued.

Earlier in the day, Rhea had shared a screengrab of a rape threat shed received, and asked for the police to investigate. Rhea posted the image on Instagram, a day after breaking her silence on Sushants death. I was called a gold digger ..I kept quiet. I was called a murderer ....I kept quiet. I was slut shamed ....I kept quiet. But how does my silence give you the right to tell me that you will get me RAPED and MURDERED if I dont commit suicide @mannu_raaut ? she wrote in her caption.

Also read: Rhea Chakraborty replies to troll who gave her death, rape threats after Sushant Singh Rajputs death: Enough is enough

In the wake of the actors suicide, a massive online campaign fuelled by conspiracy theories has been demanding a CBI investigation into the matter. Several notable Bollywood personalities, accused in the court of public opinion for allegedly ostracising Sushant, have also been targeted.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 21:43:53|Editor: huaxia

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ISLAMABAD, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Special Assistant to Pakistani Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Usman Dar said Thursday that Pakistan has become a permanent member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Youth Council.

"Pakistani youth will now be able to represent their country at the SCO Youth Council meetings and its exchange programs," Dar said in a video message on Twitter, adding that the Pakistani youth will also take part in the skill development programs of the SCO Youth Council.

Pakistan has been able to get the permanent membership of the council due to all-out efforts made by the central government over the last two years, and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's personal interest and initiatives for the youth, the official added.

He said Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs played a vital role in achieving this important membership.

Experts in the country believe that the membership will give Pakistani youth access to the international opportunities and empower them socially and economically. The council will also assist young members to find employment and business opportunities in various sectors across the world, they said. Enditem
LAFAYETTE, La.  United States Attorney David C. Joseph announced that Jeremy Rubin, 32, of Lafayette, Louisiana, pled guilty today before U.S. District Judge Robert R. Summerhays, to possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon.

On August 19, 2018, Lafayette Police Department officers responded to a domestic disturbance call. When they arrived on the scene, officers made contact with Rubins girlfriend who explained that Rubin had threatened her, then directed her into a bedroom, placed a handgun to her head and stated that she did not deserve to live. Rubin denied having a firearm, but the victim advised the officers that Rubin had secured the firearm inside a case in his vehicle. A search warrant was granted for the vehicle and a Hi-Point C9 9mm firearm and six bullets were recovered from a case bearing Rubins name. A check through NCIC revealed that the firearm had been reported stolen.

Rubin has a prior 2008 felony robbery conviction. As a result of his prior felony conviction, Rubin is prohibited by federal law from possessing firearms or ammunition.

At sentencing, Rubin faces up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine, as well as forfeiture of the firearm and ammunition related to this offense.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and Lafayette Police Department conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jamilla A. Bynog is prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of the Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) initiative. PSN is a program that has been historically successful in bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make neighborhoods safer for everyone. PSN plays a major role in the Department of Justices violent crime reduction strategy. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. To learn more about Project Safe Neighborhoods, go to www.justice.gov/psn.
Amber Heard's former personal assistant claimed Wednesday that she told the model-actor about a violent sexual assault she had endured, only for Heard to twist" the story for her own use. Kate James gave dramatic testimony at Johnny Depp's libel trial against a British tabloid newspaper that accused the actor of abusing ex-wife Heard during their relationship.

Depp is suing News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, and the papers executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an April 2018 article that called him a wife-beater. He strongly denies abusing Heard.

Also read: Johnny Depp says Amber Heard punched him on the night he found out hed lost $650 million

James, who worked for Heard between 2012 and 2015, gave evidence in support of Depp, and said she had told Heard that she was raped at machete-point in Brazil about 25 years ago.

She said she was shocked to learn that in a witness statement, Heard misrepresented and exploited the incident. She referred directly to a violent rape that occurred to me 26 years ago and she twisted it into her own story and she used it for her own use," James said by video link from Los Angeles. I am a sexual violence survivor and thats very, very serious to take that stance if you are not one," she added.

Also read: Johnny Depps former estate manager says Amber Heard forced him to lie under oath, threatened his job

Heard is due to give evidence in the case later this week. Heard, 34, has made 14 allegations of violence by 57-year-old Depp between 2013 and 2016, in settings including his private island in the Bahamas, a rented house in Australia and a private jet. He denies them all.

Depp and Heard give wildly differing accounts of their volatile relationship, which began after they met on the set of the 2011 comedy The Rum Diary. They married in Los Angeles in February 2015. Heard filed for divorce the following year, and the divorce was finalized in 2017.

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Louis Vuitton's pop-up store at Shinsegae Department Store in Gangnam, southern Seoul. / Courtesy of Shinsegae Department Store



Local department stores pay for luxury brands' interior when opening boutique inside



By Kim Jae-heun



French luxury brands Chanel and Louis Vuitton stand accused of abusing their brand power against local department stores.



According to an industry source, both Chanel and Louis Vuitton have been forcing department store franchises here to bear the cost of "decorating" their boutiques when they open them inside the stores.



"In most cases, Chanel and Louis Vuitton don't pay for the interiors of their boutiques. If they are generous, the expense may come down to 80:20. You rarely see department stores and luxury brands pay 50:50," the source said



"If you say this is a rule of capitalism, nothing can be said about it. Chanel and Louis Vuitton have an advantage over department stores here. Whether or not the two brands open boutiques in the store directly affects sales. So they have to do whatever to please the two luxury brands."



Chanel Korea said through its PR agency Synergy Hill & Knowlton that it would check the facts, but then made no further comment.



Five years ago, when Hyundai Department Store opened a branch in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Louis Vuitton opened an outlet there allegedly under the condition that Hyundai would not charge it rent for two years.



Louis Vuitton Korea declined to comment.



Hyundai Department Store also said it could not comment on the issue as it is related to specific details of its contract with Louis Vuitton.



There also appears to be "a battle of pride" raging between Chanel and Louis Vuitton here too.



It seems Chanel won't open a boutique in a department store if Louis Vuitton has not opened one there first.



"This is a really funny situation. There are department stores with both Chanel and Louis Vuitton boutiques, and those with the latter brand alone. But when you try to find a department store with only a Chanel store, there are none," the source said.



"Louis Vuitton makes much more money here, but Chanel just believes it is better than Louis Vuitton, no matter what."



It is unclear if it is Chanel and Louis Vuitton's policy, but they rarely open a boutique at a department store that has just opened.



The two luxury brands wait to see which other brands open boutiques first to check if business there is lucrative or not.



"There is an unseen hierarchy between luxury brands here and I am pretty sure it applies on the global scene too. Hermes is No. 1, followed by Chanel and then Louis Vuitton," the source said.


X50 series flagship smartphones will become available for sale over the coming three months in major EMEA and APAC markets, including India, Indonesia, and more. The launch marks a milestone for vivo's global presence as X50 and X50 Pro are the first X series devices to be launched globally.

"X50 series is a professional photography flagship smartphone for consumers to record and share the best moments of their lives in a simple way," said Spark Ni, Senior Vice President of vivo. "With stable shooting capabilities, outstanding lenses and sensors, and an overall advanced camera system, the X50 series flagship devices allow users to capture life stories with professional quality. These are the first X series devices to be launched globally and we are excited to share the best of our innovative technology and design concepts with people around the world."

Today, consumers pursue textured and high-quality lifestyles. While keeping up with the latest social and technology trends, they love to capture and share life moments with friends. With deep insights on consumer needs, X50 series devices are crafted to provide a professional photography experience to users.

With cutting-edge stabilization, night mode, zoom, and portrait technologies, X50 series smartphones enable users to capture stable and high-quality images and videos in a wide range of scenarios, making every shot a masterpiece. The design of vivo's X50 series draws from natural elements and futuristic aesthetics, aiming to complement the active lifestyles of consumers. With professional photography capabilities, stunning design, and smooth performance, X50 series pushes the boundaries of high-end flagship smartphones.

Mobile Photography, Redefined

To reduce shaking, the main camera of X50 Pro is equipped with an industry-leading Gimbal Camera System, allowing users to take clear photos and videos while in motion, even at night. Modelled after a full-size professional gimbal, X50 Pro's built-in miniature gimbal module moves in the opposite direction of shaking motions, providing increased stability for the main camera. This system also widens the rotation angle and anti-shake area compared to popular stabilization methods, resulting in super clear images. The Gimbal Radar, an on-screen animated ball that reflects the gimbal's movement, lets users know when the frame is stable. vivo's motion-deblur algorithm, customized sensors, and continuous focus tracking further enhance image and video clarity.

X50 series consists of true photography flagship smartphones. X50 Pro has a versatile camera setup with one 32MP front camera and four cameras on the rear (48MP Main, 8MP Super Wide-Angle, 13MP Professional Portrait, and 8MP 5x Telescopic). X50 Pro's 5x Telescopic lens also supports 60x Hyper Zoom, leading to photos of breathtaking detail.

X50 and X50 Pro feature Super Night Mode and Astro Mode, which together enable users to capture stunning photographs of both city and country scenes at night, while 120 Super Wide-Angle (108 after distortion correction) and Super Macro functions help create professional-quality photos in a wide range of scenarios. vivo's Portrait Mode, powered by a 4-layer masking algorithm, allows users to separate the subject from the background and apply separate effects for a more refined result.

Sleek Performance and Design

In addition to its professional photography capabilities, the X50 series delivers overall flagship performance. The series supports 5G connectivity depending on local market conditions, allowing users to stay online with super fast speeds and low latency. Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G processor, X50 Pro provides fast computing speed and smooth multitasking capabilities. The series features a high screen refresh rate of 90Hz, displaying crisp images, movies, and games without smears or blurs.

Reflecting vivo's design-driven innovation, X50 series smartphones are built with flexible screens, which are slimmer, lighter, and more durable than traditional screens. X50 is one of the slimmest 5G phones ever. HDR 10+ technology delivers a bright and vivid display, and AG Matte Glass offers a soft and delicate touch. The Gimbal Camera System is also designed in the shape of an eye, serving as a unique design element on the rear of X50 Pro.

The X50 series' color palette aims to provide positive messaging and serve as a channel for users' personal expression. X50 Pro comes in "Alpha Grey", which represents the silver blue in the deep sky, while X50 comes in "Glaze Black", with a signature gradient effect, or the fluid and light "Frost Blue".

vivo TWS Earphone Neo Complement the X50 Series with Ultimate Audio

vivo is also launching the TWS Earphone Neo. Built to provide a high-quality audio experience that meets the needs of everyday music lovers, the wireless TWS Earphone Neo have a customized 14.2mm Moving-Coil Unit, delivering a more powerful and full-bodied sound, as well as a bio-fiber composite diaphragm to enhance audio details.

Designed with the needs of consumers in mind, TWS Earphone Neo also feature AI Noise Cancelling for clearer phone calls and several voice-activated smart controls. The earphones are powered by Qualcomm's 4th-Generation TWS platform, the QCC3046, which offers low latency, high precision, and a stable listening experience, as well as the latest Bluetooth 5.2 technology with a maximum range of 10m. TWS Neo's advanced features, along with its classic design and compact body, are a realization of vivo's investments in Internet of Things devices. Like the X50 series, TWS Earphone Neo showcase vivo's commitment to building design-centric devices that improve consumers' lives.

About vivo

vivo is a leading, product-driven, global technology company, with its core business focusing on smart devices and intelligent services. vivo is committed to connecting users around the globe, through design of exciting and innovative smartphones and companion devices, as well as services which integrate technology and design thinking in unique and creative ways. Following the company core values, which include innovation, consumer orientation and benfen*, vivo has implemented a sustainable development strategy, with the vision of becoming a leading, long-lasting, world-class enterprise.

With headquarters in China, supported by a network of 9 R&D centers in Shenzhen, Dongguan, Nanjing, Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Taipei, Tokyo and San Diego, vivo is focusing on the development of state-of-the-art consumer technologies, including 5G, artificial intelligence, industrial design, photography and other up-and-coming technologies. vivo has also set-up five production hubs (including brand authorized manufacturing center), across China, South- and Southeast Asia, manufacturing over 200 million smartphones each year. As of 2019, vivo has branched out its sales network across more than 30 countries and regions, and is loved by more than 350 million users worldwide.

*"Benfen" is a term describing the attitude on doing the right things and doing things right  which is the ideal description of vivo's mission to build technology for good.

Please stay informed of vivo's news at https://www.vivo.com/en/about-vivo/news

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1215512/X50_series_devices_crafted_provide_a_professional_photography_experience_users.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1215513/X50_Pro_equipped_industry_leading_Gimbal_Camera_System.jpg

SOURCE Vivo
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump shake hands ahead of their summit in Singapore in this June 12, 2018, photo. / AP-Yonhap



By Kang Seung-woo



Despite North Korea's rejection of another summit with the United States, the Donald Trump administration has been floating the idea ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November.



However, doubting its sincerity, diplomatic experts say it is a U.S. ploy to preserve the status quo and prevent the isolated state from interfering in the vote.



U.S. State Secretary Mike Pompeo did not rule out the possibility of a summit between U.S. President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ahead of the election.



"I think that's unlikely," he said at the Economic Club of New York, Wednesday. "But in the event that it was appropriate  we thought we could make material progress and the best way to do that was to put President Trump with Chairman Kim to do it  I'm confident that the North Koreans and President Trump would find that in our best interests."



His remarks came less than 10 days after Trump told a media interview that he was open to another meeting with Kim, July 7.



However, Pyongyang has made it clear that it is not interested in any such event. The North Korean regime is highly anticipated to adopt a wait-and-see attitude until November.



"Trump and Pompeo intend to keep possible North Korean interference in the election at bay. To this end, the U.S. will pursue dialogue with the North because the latter does not usually take provocative actions while in talks," said Park Won-gon, a professor of international politics at Handong Global University.



"Their remarks are not reliable. According to the tell-all book by Trump's former National Security Adviser John Bolton, Trump and Pompeo do not seem to take North Korea issues seriously."



Leif-Eric Easley, an associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University, said, "Although three Trump-Kim meetings so far have not produced denuclearization or sanctions relief, both sides continue to claim leader-to-leader relations as a source of accomplishment and leverage."



He added, "Trump wants to keep at least the status quo ahead of the November election and is willing to meet Kim again if North Korea's economic stress brings it back to the negotiating table offering concrete steps toward denuclearization."



Trump and Kim have had three meetings  in Singapore in June 2018, in Vietnam in February 2019 and at the inter-Korean Joint Security Area in June 2019.



U.S. Naval War College professor Terence Roehrig said Trump's pursuit of another summit may be his gambit to turn things around ahead of the election.



"The Trump administration has many serious domestic issues to contend with, and the logistics of pulling off a face-to-face summit with the dangers of COVID-19 would be very daunting," Roehrig said.



"President Trump is clearly very personally invested in this process and it would be a distraction from the challenges his administration faces at home as well as a high-profile media event."


ATLANTA, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Georgia School of Orthodontics (GSO) announced that it will provide four additional Atlanta-based children with complimentary orthodontic care through its Gift of a Smile program. GSO established the Gift of a Smile program in 2016 to celebrate the grand opening of its Atlanta clinic. Since its inception, the program has provided free orthodontic care to thirteen (13) children in the metro Atlanta area, as part of the School's pledge to provide $100,000 in complimentary orthodontic care to children who need braces but cannot otherwise afford it.

Dacula resident and 2020 high school graduate Sierra Henson is all smiles, and a former recipient of Gift of a Smile complimentary orthodontic treatment from Georgia School of Orthodontics. Go to www.bracestoday.com/gift to nominate someone to receive a Gift of a Smile. Nomination deadline is August 31, 2020. Damian Soler is a previous Gift of a Smile recipient of complimentary orthodontic treatment from Georgia School of Orthodontics. Go to www.bracestoday.com/gift to nominate someone to receive a Gift of a Smile. Nomination deadline is August 31, 2020.

To nominate a child go to bracestoday.com/gift to submit. Nominations can be made through August 31, 2020. Winners will be selected September 16.

Past recipients are grateful for the impact the program has had on their children's lives. "It's almost like night and day," said LaTresha McGowan, who raises Gift of a Smile recipient Solomon and his brother Philip with her sister, Rashuana McGowan. "Solomon used to mumble and hide his mouth behind his hand. He smiles all the time now, actively participates in family events, and seeks out new friends and new experiences."

For Decatur resident Oli Soler, a dental receptionist and mother of Gift of a Smile recipient Damian Soler, 16, it has been a wonderful journey. "Seeing his smile change and his confidence grow has been a blessing. The staff and doctors at GSO are amazing and we are so thankful for this incredible gift."

To see how braces can dramatically impact a child's life, Lawrenceville's Savien Cox and his mom Clarissa share their story on YouTube at: https://bit.ly/31OmFXx

GSO's Gift of a Smile is just one part of its mission to provide increased access to the highest quality orthodontic care at a lower cost than private practice orthodontics. GSO also has the Purple Heart Smiles program, which provides free orthodontic care to the children of Purple Heart recipients. To date, GSO has provided over twenty-four (24) children of Purple Heart recipients with complimentary care. Both programs combined have provided more than $125,000 in complimentary orthodontic care to Atlanta's deserving children.

"Increasing the access to orthodontic care is a core part of our mission here at the Georgia School of Orthodontics. We are honored to provide these deserving children with free orthodontic care. We hope that we can in some small way alleviate the financial burden and stress that COVID-19 has caused local families," said Dr. Randy Kluender, President of the GSO Board of Trustees.

For more information on the School's Gift of a Smile program, and to determine your child's eligibility please visit www.BracesToday.com/Gift . For more information about GSO, visit GSOrthodontics.org. To schedule a complimentary consultation, visit bracestoday.com or call 770.351.7737.

Media Contact:

Lesley Gamwell

Rountree Group

404.309.6915c/770.645.4545o

[email protected]

SOURCE Georgia School of Orthodontics

Related Links

http://www.bracestoday.com


Asheville, N.C.  The city of Asheville, North Carolina, is taking steps toward reparations for Black residents.

Fox Carolina reports the Asheville City Council unanimously passed a resolution, 7-0, Tuesday night supporting reparations for Black people who live in the North Carolina city. According to CNN, Asheville is 83% white and 12% Black.

The resolution includes a formal apology for the role Asheville played in slavery, segregation and discriminatory practices, but does not mandate direct cash payments to descendants of slave. The city said it would instead make investments in areas where Black residents face disparities, forming policy and programs that will establish the creation of generational wealth and address reparations due in the Black community.

The resolution, titled Supporting Community Reparations for Black Asheville, also called on the state and the federal government to initiate policy-making and provide funding for reparations at the state and national levels.

Anything we do, in my mind, has to outlive the emotions of this present moment, Councilman Keith Young said. Anything less than systemic change is just feel-good politics in the moment.

According to CNN, community members at the city council meeting offered mixed reactions. Most residents reportedly voiced their support, while at least one woman argued that the citys Black police chief, city manager and council members are an indication that Blacks can succeed in Asheville. So, to dump this all on us white folk  I think is offensive.

Fox Carolina reports most of the public comments came after the vote.

The full resolution, which can be read here, includes nine steps for the city of Asheville to take:

(1) apologizes and makes amends for its participation in and sanctioning of the Enslavement of Black People;

(2) apologizes and makes amends for its enforcement of segregation and its accompanying discriminatory practices;

(3) apologizes and makes amends for carrying out an urban renewal program that destroyed multiple, successful black communities;

(4) calls on other organizations and institutions in Asheville that have advanced and benefited from racial inequity to join the city in its apologies and invites them to address racism within their own structures and programs and to work with the city to more comprehensively address systemic racism;

(5) calls on the State of North Carolina and the federal government to initiate policy-making and provide funding for reparations at the state and national levels;

(6) directs the City Manager to establish a process within the next year to develop short, medium and long term recommendations to specifically address the creation of generational wealth and to boost economic mobility and opportunity in the black community;

(7) fully supports its equity department, staff and its work, and encourages the city manager to utilize their talents when forming policy and programs that will establish the creation of generational wealth and address reparations due in the black community as mentioned above;

(8) seeks to establish within the next year, a new commission empowered to make short, medium and long term recommendations that will make significant progress toward repairing the damage caused by public and private systemic Racism. Other local government community organizations may also be invited to have representation on the Commission. The task of the Community Reparations Commission is to issue a report in a timely manner for consideration by the City and other participating community groups for incorporation into their respective short and long term priorities and plans. Accountability for achieving equity will be enforced in the appropriate offices. The report and the resulting budgetary and programmatic priorities may include but not be limited to increasing minority home ownership and access to other affordable housing, increasing minority business ownership and career opportunities, strategies to grow equity and generational wealth, closing the gaps in health care, education, employment and pay, neighborhood safety and fairness within criminal justice;

(9) calls on the city manager to give, at minimum, a bi-annual update to the city council on the progress of work performed pursuant to this resolution.
CNN's Chris Cuomo slammed Donald Trump Wednesday, accusing the US president of using a photo op of himself posing with Goya food products to divert attention away from an op-ed criticizing Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Trump rebuked trade advisor Peter Navarro for his comments in the scathing piece that ran in USA Today trashing the nation's leading infectious disease expert over his work on the president's coronavirus task force.

Navarro accuses Fauci of being 'wrong about everything I have interacted with him on', among other comments that critics saw as an attempt to discredit the epidemiologist's warnings about new surges in COVID-19 infection rates across the nation.

The president responded to what in the administration considered a rogue move by saying Navarro had made a 'statement representing himself,' and that he shouldn't be doing that.

Fauci hit back in an interview Wednesday, calling attacks the against him 'bizarre.'

'Ultimately, it hurts the president to do that,' Fauci told the Atlantic. Cuomo went a step further to suggest Trump's rebuke of Navarro was disingenuous after the Goya food image appeared on Instagram.

"On your dime, in the middle of a pandemic, they're selling beans!" says @ChrisCuomo, outraged over Pres. Trump's "magic beans" photo.



"Are you kidding me? Seriously. Seriously... what good reason?" pic.twitter.com/zih858VuBB  Cuomo Prime Time (@CuomoPrimeTime) July 16, 2020

CNN's Chris Cuomo slammed Donald Trump Wednesday, accusing the US president of using a photo op of himself posing with Goya food products to divert attention away from an op-ed criticizing Dr. Anthony Fauci

Trjmp is pictured in the image alongside a bag of Goya beans other food products from the Spanish food label

'You tell me how a president in the middle of a pandemic has got time for this bull s**t. Are you kidding me?' an outraged Cuomo said on his Wednesday night broadcast, showing a picture of Trump giving two thumbs up as he posed with a bag of Goya beans and other products from the Spanish food label.

'On your dime, in the middle of a pandemic, they're selling beans!' Cuomo had also said.

The products were displayed on the Resolute Desk in the Oval office, a detail that seemed to set off Cuomo even more.

'This is what he's resolute about?' Cuomo quipped, also noting that the president's daughter Ivanka drew fire for posing with a can of Goya black beans in a similar photo posted on social media Tuesday.

The tweet that night, written in both English and Spanish, read 'If it's Goya, it's got to be good', which is the brand's familiar slogan.

The president's daughter made the post after Goya CEO Robert Unanue appeared at a Hispanic leaders event last week at the White House with Trump, whom he praised repeatedly, saying 'we're all truly blessed' to have him as president.

Almost immediately afterward, #BoycottGoya, #GoyaFoods and #Goyaway began trending on social media platforms.

The president's daughter Ivanka drew fire for posing with a can of Goya black beans in a similar photo op posted on social media on Tuesday (pictured)

Several big names weighed in on the debate, citing Trump's history of derogatory comments and harsh policies toward Hispanics, most notably, the administration's policy of separating immigrant families at the US-Mexico border.

Critics also pounced on Ivanka's posting and questions were raised as to whether there should be an ethics probe into the first daughter's actions, because she officially serves as an advisor to the president.

Ethics laws prohibits government employees from promoting private companies and their products.

The president's daughter made the post after Goya CEO Robert Unanue (far left) appeared at a Hispanic leaders event last week at the White House with Trump, whom he praised repeatedly, saying 'we're all truly blessed' to have him as president

'An employee shall not use or permit the use of his Government position or title or any authority associated with his public office to endorse any product, service or enterprise,' the law reads.

The White House argued Ivanka Trump 'has every right to express her personal support' for the company.

'Only the media and the cancel culture movement would criticize Ivanka for showing her personal support for a company that has been unfairly mocked, boycotted and ridiculed for supporting this administration - one that has consistently fought for and delivered for the Hispanic community. Ivanka is proud of this strong, Hispanic-owned business with deep roots in the U.S. and has every right to express her personal support,' said spokesperson Carolina Hurley.
The US, UK and Canada have accused Russia of trying to steal coronavirus vaccine research as the pandemic surges across the world, with Brazil surpassing two million confirmed cases and the US notching a new daily record. The virus has killed more than 588,000 people, infected more than 13.7 million and crippled the global economy since emerging late last year, and world hopes have turned to a vaccine to end the onslaught. In the latest positive sign, British media reported Thursday that an Oxford University trial had shown its prototype vaccine generated an immune response against COVID-19. But hours later, the UK's National Cyber Security Centre said a hacking group called APT29 had targeted British labs conducting vaccine research to "steal valuable intellectual property." The agency said it was "almost certain (95%+) that APT29 are part of the Russian Intelligence Services" and its targeting of researchers was "highly likely (80-90%)" to "collect information on COVID-19 vaccine research." The US, UK and Canada all accused Russia in a joint security advisory. Moscow denied any involvement, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying: "Russia has nothing to do with these attempts." The dispute came as ever-growing tolls in Brazil and the United States, the world's two worst-hit countries, underscored the need for a vaccine. Both passed bleak mileposts Thursday, with Brazil soaring past its two millionth infection and the US adding more than 68,000 cases in 24 hours, a new daily record. - 'Horrible experience' - Experts say the true case load in Brazil, home to some 209 million people, could be understated by as much as a factor of ten, and fatalities -- officially over 76,000 -- as much as twofold. Like the US, Latin America's largest economy is led by a populist leader, Jair Bolsonaro, who has downplayed the virus and railed against restrictions. Bolsonaro was himself diagnosed positive a week ago. But despite the grim figures his country remains behind the United States, which has recorded by far the most deaths and infections in the pandemic, with 138,301 deaths out of a total 3,560,364 cases. Florida is the country's new epicenter, and is shaping up as a key battleground in a partisan-tinged national fight over reopening schools in the fall. US President Donald Trump is pushing for schools to open, pinning his re-election hopes on declaring victory over the virus and jumpstarting the economy. Thursday also illustrated the partisan divide in the US over face masks. Colorado governor Jared Polis issued a statewide order requiring anyone over the age of 10 to wear a mask in indoor public spaces. But Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Democratic mayor of Atlanta, Georgia who recently tested positive for COVID-19, was sued over her citywide mask mandate -- by her state's governor, Republican Brian Kemp. "3104 Georgians have died and I and my family are amongst the 106k who have tested positive for COVID-19. Meanwhile, I have been sued by @GovKemp for a mask mandate," she tweeted Thursday. "A better use of tax payer money would be to expand testing and contact tracing." - South Asia new epicenter? - While the virus runs rampant across the Americas, the Red Cross warned that South Asia is fast becoming the next global epicenter. India will hit one million cases soon, and the 125 million people in impoverished Bihar state, which borders Nepal, started a new 15-day lockdown on Thursday. "We have not faced such a situation in my life before, it is really a horrible experience," housewife Radhika Singh said in Patna, capital of Bihar. Governments in many other countries have been forced to reimpose restrictions as COVID-19 refuses to fade, including Spain, which has locked down a northeastern area as it fights more than 120 active outbreaks. Spain honored its more than 28,000 virus dead on Thursday at a solemn state ceremony attended by bereaved families and top EU and World Health Organization figures. EU leaders are gearing up for their first in-person meeting in five months on Friday, where they will discuss a post-virus economic rescue plan. Officials have drawn up proposals for a huge stimulus package, but a determined band of northern capitals -- led by the Netherlands -- are holding out against doling out cash to their southern neighbours without strict conditions attached. Friday's talks are expected to run into the weekend. Few are confident of a breakthrough. In north Africa, Algeria is planning a law to protect health workers after an increase in "physical and verbal attacks" since the country's outbreak began, as it registered another record number of daily cases. On Monday, the director of a hospital around 125 kilometers (78 miles) southeast of the capital jumped out of a window to escape the angry family of a patient suspected to have died from the COVID-19 disease. burs-to/st
Pruning scissors in hand, Syrian pistachio farmer Fadi al-Mahmoud inspected his orchard, hoping for his first harvest after years of war, as nearby army de-miners swept the ground for buried explosives. "I will be fine as long as my orchard is fine," said the 40-year-old, who returned to his village of Maan in the north of battle-scarred Hama province only months ago, after years of displacement. The region, long a centre of Syria's famed pistachio production, was controlled for years by jihadists and rebels, but it fell to President Bashar al-Assad's government forces early this year. After the violence subsided, many farmers like Mahmoud returned, hoping this season would mark the revival of what was once a leading industry, its produce beloved across the Middle East. "The pistachio tree is the lung that allows the villages of the Hama countryside to breathe," Mahmoud told AFP during a break from pruning the trees with shears and a small saw. Parting the green leaves, he examined the pistachios, looking for the purple hue on their greenish cream-coloured outer casing that indicates they are ready to be picked. Syria was once a top exporter of the green nut that is widely used in sweets and sprinkled on ice cream across the Middle East. The country produced up to 80,000 tonnes a year before the start of the conflict in 2011, mostly for export to Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan and Europe. In 2013, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Syria was still the world's fourth largest pistachio producer after Iran, the United States and Turkey. - Death in the soil - But years of bitter fighting blocked access to Syria's best pistachio regions in Hama, Aleppo and Idlib provinces, leading production to plunge by more than half during the war, according to the agriculture ministry. Of more than 70,000 hectares (170,000 acres) of farm land alloted for pistachio growing in the northwest, a quarter has been damaged by war, said Hassan Ibrahim, director of the ministry's pistachio department. Mahmoud said that on his farm, "some tree branches had withered, and there were trenches and landmines scattered all around". "I hope I can start to make up for the losses during the war," he said. He explained that pistachio orchards "require a lot of care". "They must be ploughed four times a year and sprayed with pesticides twice annually or more." Although the battles have died down, danger still lurks in the soil in the form of anti-personnel mines and other unexploded ordnance left behind by rebels and jihadists. The authorities "have sent teams to sweep the area," Ibrahim told AFP. Outside the village, where the skeleton of a charred vehicle sits in an arid field, Syrian army de-miners swept the rust-brown earth with metal detectors for remnants of war. A loud blast echoed across the land as they detonated a landmine. Another local pistachio farmer, Ibrahim Ibrahim, recalled harvests before the war. "We used to pluck tonnes from our trees every year and distribute them in local markets or export them," said the 55-year-old. The nuts "make up our main source of income". "This is the first year that farmers re-enter their lands without fear," he said. "I hope... this year we will see production rise to pre-war levels." A pistachio farmer tends to a tree at a pistachio orchard in the village of Maan, north of Hama in Syria A landmine is remotely detonated in a field at a pistachio orchard in the village of Maan Pistachio farmers hope the reduced violence will help revive cultivation of what was once one of Syria's top exports Syrian army soldiers use detectors to find and clear landmines and other unexploded ordnance in a pistachio orchard north of Hama
WASHINGTON -- The Republican Party will hold a scaled-back convention in Jacksonville, Fla., next month that includes a mix of outdoor and indoor venues, according to a letter sent to delegates.

The Thursday letter from Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, obtained by The Washington Post, said admittance will be limited to only regular delegates for the first three days of the convention - or about 2,500 people. For the final day, when the president attends, delegates will get a guest, and alternate delegates can also attend - or 6,000 to 7,000 people.

In the letter, McDaniel says the changes are to comply with Florida rules after the party moved most of the convention from North Carolina.

"When we made these changes, we had hoped to be able to plan a traditional convention celebration to which we are all accustomed. However, adjustments must be made to comply with state and local health guidelines," she said.

McDaniel said in the letter that officials are likely to use both outdoor and indoor spaces in Florida, though officials say final decisions have not been made on where the speeches will occur.

"We plan to utilize a number of indoor and outdoor venues in this multi-block radius of Jacksonville, including the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena, TIAA Bank Field, Daily's Place Amphitheater, 121 Financial Ballpark, and several others," the letter says.

It also says attendees will be offered coronavirus testing, though specifics are not included.

"We plan to implement a variety of health protocols in order to ensure a safe event. This plan includes but is not limited to on-site temperature checks, available PPE, aggressive sanitizing protocols, and available COVID-19 testing," McDaniel wrote.

Cases have surged in Florida in recent weeks, and some local officials are considering additional shutdowns to try to stem the spread of the virus.

McDaniel and Trump have been determined to hold an in-person convention, and some of the president's advisers see it as crucial to gaining momentum in the polls as he trails Joe Biden, the former vice president and presumptive Democratic nominee.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 13:40:41|Editor: huaxia

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NUR-SULTAN, July 16 (Xinhua) -- A plane carrying humanitarian aid from the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived at the Almaty International Airport on Wednesday, the Kazakh health ministry announced.

The cargo, which is worth 2.7 million U.S. dollars, includes 53 tons of respiratory and surgical masks, face shields, protective gowns and goggles.

The personal protective equipment will be delivered to health workers in Kazakhstan.

"Health workers play a primary role in the fight against COVID-19 and must be provided with the necessary means to protect themselves and their patients," said Caroline Clarinval, head of the WHO Country Office in Kazakhstan.

The WHO official pledged that the organization will continue to provide expertise and medical supplies to help Kazakhstan fight COVID-19.

Kazakhstan has registered 65,188 confirmed cases, with 375 deaths and 38,008 recoveries as of Thursday. Enditem
Olympic champion Dame Valerie Adams has been given her own Barbie doll. Toy company Mattel created the doll to honour 'trail-blazing women'. Valerie is the second NZ woman to be given the honour.

Valerie spoke to the Herald about the process of getting the Barbie created...

"I'm six foot four [1.9m], I'm a big Pacific Island woman. Never in my mind would I have thought something like this would be possible," she said.

"To have them choose me was surprising but also very exciting it's an amazing campaign and I'm really honoured to be a part of it."
HPs most luxurious 17-inch laptop does 4K at a lower price than some rivals, but dont expect big performance to match.

The HP Envy 17t is another reminder that big laptops are back, and not just for gaming. Apple now sells a 16-inch MacBook Pro, forever replacing the 15-inch models in its lineup. Dell has come out with a new XPS 17 for the first time since 2011. Even LGs Gram laptop line includes a shockingly light 17-inch version.

The Envy 17t isnt a new productHPs been selling it for yearsbut the surge in similar models partly stems from advancements in display technology that allow for larger screens in smaller bodies. Its also an acknowledgement of the workhorse role into which PCs have comfortably settled. Even in a world of big-screen phones, increasingly capable tablets, and ever-lighter ultraportable notebooks, jumbo laptops still fill a unique role for getting things done.

Thats certainly true of the Envy 17t. Just be aware that outfitting yourself with a 4K display this large comes with some big downsides, especially if you dont want to spend more for better performance.

This review is part of our ongoing roundup of the best laptops. Go there for information on competing products and how we tested them.

HP Envy 17t: Tech specs

Our HP Envy 17t review unit carries a list price of $1,590 from HP.com and has the following specs:

Display: 17-inch, 38402160 IPS non-touch display

17-inch, 38402160 IPS non-touch display CPU: Intel Core i7-1065G7 CPU

Intel Core i7-1065G7 CPU Memory: 16 GB DDR4-3200 RAM

16 GB DDR4-3200 RAM GPU: Nvidia GeForce MX330 GPU with 2 GB VRAM

Nvidia GeForce MX330 GPU with 2 GB VRAM Storage: 512 GB PCIe NVMe solid state drive

512 GB PCIe NVMe solid state drive Left-side ports: USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 sleep-and-charge port, HDMI, headphone jack, USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 port

USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 sleep-and-charge port, HDMI, headphone jack, USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 port Right-side ports: Two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, SD card slot

Two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, SD card slot Webcam: 720p, with software-based privacy shutter

720p, with software-based privacy shutter Networking: Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 support

Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 support Dimensions: 15.71 x 10.2 x 0.76 inches

15.71 x 10.2 x 0.76 inches Weight: 6.02 pounds (6.88 pounds with power brick)

HPs website has some additional configurations, ranging in price from $1,050 to $1,980. An Intel Core i5-1035G1 CPU is available, and you can upgrade the MX330 graphics card to 4GB of VRAM. Memory is configurable down to 8GB or up to 32GB, and you can opt for either a 1TB SSD or a combo 256GB SSD with a 1TB hard drive. You can also get a 1080p display, with or without a touchscreen, but theres no option for 4K with a touch panel.

Jared Newman / IDG The HP Envy 17ts port selection includes the rare full-sized SD card slot.

Despite the size, this isnt a laptop for serious gaming or heavy-duty media production. The GeForce MX330 graphics card exists mainly to support the 4K display, while the Intel Ice Lake CPU matches what youll find in high-end ultrathin laptops, such as Lenovos C940 Yoga 14 or HPs Spectre x360 13t. If you need a real powerhouse, seek out a laptop with Intels H-Series processors and better discrete GPUs, such as Dells new XPS 17 or Lenovos C940 Yoga 15.

The port selection is pretty nice, though. HP takes advantage of the extra space that a 17-inch screen affords to provide a full-sized SD card slota rarity on laptops these daysand an HDMI port that can output 4K at 60 frames per second to compatible monitors or televisions. One might only nitpick the lack of Thunderbolt 3 or a faster USB-C port, as the one on board has a maximum 10Gbps transfer speed.

One other notable perk: The Envy 17t has room for a hard disk drive, though youll have to pry off the laptops rubber feet and deal with some hex screws to access the internals.

Design and display

Like other laptops in the Envy lineup, HPs Envy 17t comes in a light-gray aluminum chassis, with sharp-edged sides and a slightly raised palm rest. It also has the same the diamond-shaped pattern on its Bang & Olufsen speaker grille, which, combined with HPs extra-large keycap lettering, gives the Envy 17t a sharp, distinct appearance.

But unlike other Envy laptops, the Envy 17t is extremely heavy and bulky, weighing over six pounds without a charger. The bezels arounds its display, while narrow, arent as slim as those of Dells new XPS 17. This laptop is meant for sitting on your desk, not for toting arounda point reinforced by the drop-hinge that props up the laptops body when its folded open. On a flat surface, this design improves airflow and makes typing comfier, but on your lap the two rubber stoppers would dig into your legs.

Jared Newman / IDG The HP Envy 17ts drop hinge is great for desks, but not so nice for laps.

Still, the 4K display itself looks great, and perhaps because of the MX330 GPU inside, the Envy 17t exhibited none of the choppy animations or janky scrolling that plague some 4K laptops with integrated graphics. While the screen doesnt support Dolby Vision HDR, we measured a peak brightness of 387 nits, which is admirable for a laptop of this size.

Keyboard and trackpad

Heres one unambiguous advantage of a 17-inch laptop: The keyboard makes no major sacrifices in size, and it easily fits in a number pad. The keys are on the bouncy side, but not at all wobblyputting pressure on just the corner of any key causes the whole thing to depress. The keyboard also affords plenty of travel and gives off a slightly satisfying click. Theres hardly any flex in the laptops body when typed on. The only notable omission is a right Control keyHP put its fingerprint reader where the key would normally bebut its a stellar keyboard overall.

Jared Newman / IDG Plenty of room for a number pad here, though a fingerprint reader sits where right Control would normally be.

The trackpad falls much shorter of perfection. While its more spacious than what youd find on smaller laptops, and is still somewhat clickable at the very top edge, the responsiveness could be smootherfinger movements sometimes felt jerky rather than fluid. On the upside, the Envy 17t does support Microsofts Precision Touchpad drivers, so it supports standard Windows 10 multitouch gestures and doesnt have any accuracy issues, as weve experienced on some previous HP laptops.

Audio, webcam, security

HP continues to partner with Danish audio brand Bang & Olufsen on its high-end laptop speakers, and the results are predictably decent. While the sound system doesnt match the vocal warmth or rich bass tones of Lenovos C940 Yoga 14still the gold standard among high-end Windows PCsthey do get almost as loud, and offer a brightness that you dont usually find on laptops.

Meanwhile, HP continues not to partner with any notable camera brands on its webcam, which offers 720p imagery comparable to that of most other notebooks. HP does include a privacy shutter that covers the lens, but its operated through software via a function row key, so you cant flip the shutter when the computer is off.

Jared Newman / IDG The HP Envy 17t uses a function row key (left) to close the camera shutter (right).

The fingerprint reader is also a bit of a letdown. Occupying a slot on the keyboard, its larger than the pinky-nail-sized readers on many other laptops, and I had issues getting it to work reliably. Even after re-registering my finger, unlocking the laptop usually took a few tries with slightly different finger positions.

Performance

The HP Envy 17t certainly looks like a beefy workhorse laptop, but benchmarks reveal the truth: Except in the graphics department, the Envy 17t performs similarly to smaller laptops that weigh half as muchnot surprising given the Intel Core i7-1065G7 CPU inside. But its battery life is far worse.

HPs software compounds the matter, with a function-row key bringing up a few Thermal Profiles that can tweak system temperatures by throttling the CPU up or down. Our benchmark graphs are based on the default HP Recommended profile, which strikes a balance between performance and temperature. Choosing the Performance setting led to higher scores in some tests, which Ill note in the text.

Jared Newman / IDG The Envy 17ts performance varies depending on which Thermal Profile you pick.

Lets start with PCMark 8, which measures performance while simulating a variety of office tasks. We dont have a lot of 17-inch laptops to compare with, so weve mixed some 15-inch laptops into our charts, along with a 13-inch laptop with the same CPU.

Any PCMark score over 2,000 is acceptable. The Envy 17ts score of 3132 is good, though on the lower end of its cohort. It even falls behind last years version of the LG Gram 17, which weighs only three pounds. (We have not reviewed the latest Gram with a 10th-generation Intel processor.)

Melissa Riofrio/IDG Among Core i7 CPUs, PCMark scores are more similar than they are different.

Similar results emerged in Cinebench, which tests the CPU with a quick burst of heavy performance demands. The Envy 17ts single-threaded score of 188 is solid, but its multi-threaded score of 579 is well behind a wide range of other laptops. Switching on HPs Performance mode bumped the score to 684, which is still on the lower end.

Melissa Riofrio/IDG At default thermal profile settings, the HP Envy 17ts multi-thread Cinebench scores falter, though single-threaded performance is fine.

Switching between HPs thermal profiles yielded the most dramatic results in our HandBrake benchmark, which tests a heavy workload over time by encoding a large video profile. Out of the box, the Envy 17t finished the job in a dismal 71 minutes, matching the kind of heavily-throttled performance youd see in a much smaller laptop such as the Envy 13. Turning on HPs Performance mode resulted in a much higher score of 3,146 seconds, or 52 minutes, but its still no comparison against a laptop with Intels 10th-generation H-Series CPUs, such as the Dell XPS 15 in our chart.

Melissa Riofrio/IDG These Handbrake scores dont look good, but switching to the Envy 17ts Performance setting would put it ahead of most of the laptops here.

Graphics performance is a bright spot: The Envy 17ts MX330 GPUs Sky Diver score of 10,401 squarely beats laptops with integrated graphics. While ostensibly not a gaming laptop, it can squeeze out 60 frames per second at 1080p with medium graphics settings in some 3D games, including Fortnite and Deep Rock Galactic.

Melissa Riofrio/IDG Nvidias MX330 GPU helps make the HP Envy 17t passable for 3D gaming (but not at 4K resolution, of course)

The real letdown here is battery life. The HP Envy 17ts 55Whr battery is tiny for a laptop of this size, and its no match for a 17-inch display at 4K resolution. While looping a video file offline at roughly 255 nits brightness, the Envy 17t lasted only 7 hours and 11 minutes. HPs own Spectre x360 15t from 2019 lasted 45 percent longer in the same test, probably in part because its battery capacity is 36 percent larger.

Melissa Riofrio/IDG Small battery, plus large 4K display, equals bad battery life.

All of this puts the HP Envy 17t in an unusual position. At $1,590 as reviewed, it is more affordable than Dells XPS 17, which costs $2,000 with comparable display resolution, memory, and storage. It undercuts Apples MacBook Pro by about $800.

But those are also more powerful machines with H-Series Intel processors, supporting the kinds of heavy workloads you might want to accomplish on such a large screen. If you dont need all that computing muscle, the HP Envy 17t might have some appeal, but only if youre unwilling to bend on the notion of a 4K, 17-inch screen.

With a bit more flexibility, the options open up. LGs Gram 17 is an intriguing alternative with similar performance and much better battery life at half the weight. It has a lower-resolution 25601600 panel, but chances are you wont notice the difference. Smaller laptops like HPs Spectre x350 15t are worth considering as well, especially if you can connect a 4K monitor.

With the Envy 17t, youre sacrificing a lot of portability just for the sake of that screen. While 17-inch laptops are making a comeback, an extremely heavy laptop without heavy-duty performance to match is a niche within a niche.
The Ganga Nahar police station at Roorkee in Uttarakhands Haridwar district has been sealed and all 50 personnel has been put under self-quarantine as a preventive measure after a female sub-inspector (S-I) tested coronavirus disease (Covid-19) positive, officials said.

The female S-I had returned from Muzaffarnagar district in western Uttar Pradesh (UP) last week and later tested Covid-19 positive.

All 50 self-quarantined police personnels swab samples are being collected for Covid-19 test.

State healthcare workers are busy sanitising the police station and hoardings have been put up for the public, urging them to approach Ramnagar police post for complaints or any related work.

Ramnagar police post has been converted into a makeshift police station in a bid to ensure smooth functioning of law and order in Roorkee.

Additional personnel from Bhagwanpur and Jhabreda police stations have been deployed at the makeshift Ramnagar police station.

Civil Lines police station personnel is carrying out night patrolling in the area under Ganga Nahar police stations jurisdiction, while the day-time responsibility has been given to Jhabreda police station authorities.

D Senthyl Aboodai Krishan Prakash, senior superintendent of police (SSP), Haridwar, said due precautions and safety measures are being adhered to all police stations and check posts in the district after the female S-I tested Covid-19 positive.

Ramnagar police post will function as temporary Ganga Nahar police station until the test reports of 50 self-quarantined police personnel are made available. It is being ensured that routine police station work as well as patrolling in the area is carried out on a normal basis, said SK Singh, SP (Rural), Haridwar.

C Ravi Shankar, district magistrate, Haridwar, has directed health officials to conduct rapid tests every Friday of frontline workers, who are battling the pandemic in light of a spike in the Covid-19 positive cases in the district.
Makoko hotspot with associated sawmill industrial waste. Courtesy Author

Lagos lagoon is the largest of four lagoon systems off the Gulf of Guinea. Several rivers and waterways empty into it, and it plays an important role in the West African coastal ecosystem as well as the Nigerian economy.

Several aquatic organisms in the lagoon are commercially important species, providing food and income for surrounding communities and beyond. The fish caught here represent more than half of Nigeria's fisheries production of nearly 800,000 metric tons. This unique brackish water environment also plays significant roles in ecosystem stability and as a breeding ground for aquatic species.

Unfortunately, the lagoon receives enormous amounts of largely untreated industrial and other wastes. Lagos State accounts for most of the country's industries and is home to an estimated 20 million people.

The Ogun, Osun, Ona and Yewa rivers empty large volumes of water from inland and coastal cities. This water is generally polluted by industrial, domestic and agricultural activities. The lagoon also receives a large quantity of pollutants from manufacturing and municipal activities in the greater Lagos metropolis. They include organic and inorganic pollutants which produce potential health risks for fish, shrimps and crabsand people who eat them.

We conducted a study to evaluate the effects of these pollutants on fish food and the environmental health of the Lagos lagoon. We aimed to provide environmental health management authorities with scientific data for effective protection of marine ecosystems and human health. We used a novel method for analyzing sediment samples, to understand how the different pollutants distribute within the lagoon ecosystem and affect the organisms that live there.

We found that the complex combination of pollutants in Lagos lagoon interferes with fish and mammal biologyespecially their endocrine systemsand is potentially harmful to humans.

How we tested the effect of pollutants

The growth and industrialisation of big cities such as Lagos contribute many pollutants to water and land ecosystems. A number of pollution hotspots have also been identified in the area, including the city of Ikorodu, the slum area of Makoko and Idumota market. Plastic products, used tires and car parts are some of the waste items that end up in the Lagos lagoon, through inappropriate waste disposal methods, dumping, and industrial and agricultural activities.

The end-station for these pollutants is the bottom of the lagoon. The sediments store pollutants and release them during heavy rainfall, winds and underwater turbulence. Bottom-dwelling organisms, particularly invertebrates, also stir up sediments during feeding and interactions between predators and prey, returning contaminants to the water.

In our study we tested three of the ways in which contaminants are released into the water in nature. This gave us a better understanding of how contaminants affect organisms in water.

The first method was elutriation, a process which simulates the natural process of mixing bottom soil and water, for example when boats disturb the water. In this process, pollutants are re-suspended in the water.

The second was polar extraction, which isolates pollutants that can dissolve in water and remain there in high concentrations.

The third was non-polar extraction. This method was used to evaluate the effects of pollutants that are transferred from sediment to organisms when they feed on particles of the bottom soil. Snails, earthworms, crabs and some fish can take in pollutants this way.

The different extraction methods produce results that are comparable to what happens in the natural environment. They allowed us to learn more about the complex interactions between water and bottom soil pollutants. We could also learn about the effects of pollutants on aquatic organisms, including the threat to their growth and reproduction.

We then exposed fish cells and rat cells to the pollutants extracted from the lagoon bottom soil.

Using animal cells (fish and rat) is a new way to avoid using live animals for research. It resolves the ethical dilemma associated with animal use in research and provides a deeper understanding of several biological processes. The molecular analysis of these cells can give an early warning of damage to animal and environmental health. Steps can then be taken to reduce harm.

What we found

Our assessment of contaminant loads at various parts of Lagos lagoon revealed a wide range of priority pollutants. These are pollutants with significant toxic potential for wildlife and humans. They include heavy metals such as mercury and cadmium, as well as organic compounds PCBs, phenols, PAHs and organotins. Some of these contaminants are known endocrine disrupting chemicals. They also induce enzyme systems that may alter the pollutant into a less harmful chemical and eliminate it from the body.

We reported that they produce hormonal imbalances with disruptive effects on the endocrine and chemical transformation systems of fish, crabs, shrimps and crocodiles. Such effects may lead to changes in reproductive organ development and result in gender confusion or the intersex condition. Documented effects on wildlife populations include reductions in fish species.

Our findings showed that exposing cells to low concentrations of the pollutants extracted from Lagos lagoon sediments not only killed the cells, but also activated the enzymes that metabolize these pollutants. Ultimately, this reduces the ability of the cell to break down pollutants properly, with further consequences for growth and reproduction.

Pollutants from industrial and domestic sources in the Lagos lagoon represent a cocktail of environmental contaminants. They are capable of interfering with the growth and reproduction of fish and mammals that depend on the stability of the lagoon ecosystem.

These findings imply that there are potential risks for harmful effects on human health. The pollutants are potentially transferred to humans from aquatic food resources. They become more concentrated along the food chain. Given that the hormone systems of vertebrates are similar, pollutants that affect fish will potentially affect humans in similar or comparable ways.

This indicates possible negative health consequences for people who depend on the lagoon as a food source.

The heavy pollutant load may also be contributing to the observed decrease in fish catches at the lagoon in recent times. This effect may arise from the inability of enough fish eggs and young fish to develop into adults. Or it could be from damage to food and nursery habitats for young fish.

What needs to happen

Until now, a lack of scientific information about pollution in the lagoon has made it difficult for regulatory bodies to develop and enforce water and food safety regulations. The information provided by our studies could contribute to developing protocols for treating industrial effluents. This is also in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14, on the protection of life under water.

We recommend that regulatory agencies develop and adopt a Nigerian version of REACh (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals), the European Union Regulation 1907/2006/EC regarding chemicals. They should also do more to enforce the legal protection of natural habitats.

Government and industrial facilities should work together to find ways to reduce pollution before effluents reach the lagoon.

Explore further Tons of dead fish wash up in Rio de Janeiro lagoon

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
A study supported by the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation and published today in JAMA Network Open provides the first evidence that rotigotine, a drug that acts on dopamine transmission in the brain, improves cognitive function in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease.

While rotigotine did not show a significant effect on memory functions, the drug improved frontal lobe executive function and patients' ability to perform activities of daily living. The randomized clinical trial, Effects of Dopaminergic Therapy in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease (DOPAD), was led by Giacomo Koch, M.D., Ph.D., a neurologist at the Santa Lucia Foundation in Rome, in collaboration with Alessandro Martorana, M.D. of the University of Tor Vergata in Rome.

Patients treated with rotigotine in this study had some practical improvements that are very important for people with Alzheimer's. Rotigotine improved executive function, which helps patients with key cognitive tasks, such as reasoning, judgment, working memory, and orientation. It also improved their ability to complete routine daily activities like shopping, planning, and even bathing, toileting and feeding themselves, which means preserving their independence longer and reducing the burden on caregivers." Howard Fillit, M.D., ADDF's Founding Executive Director and Chief Science Officer

Current treatments for Alzheimer's act on the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, but research has suggested that dopamine also plays a key role in the disease. Investigators focused on changes in the frontal lobe because dopamine modulates activity in this section of the brain. The improvements patients experienced in frontal-lobe controlled cognitive functions corresponded with a lab test showing that rotigotine enhanced dopaminergic pathways reaching this section of the brain. Investigators used novel biomarker tests--a combination of transcranial magnetic stimulation and electroencephalography recordings--to understand how rotigotine affects brain connectivity and function.

"This study is an important step forward in showing that Alzheimer's disease patients may benefit from the combinations of drugs that enhance brain functions by interacting with different neurotransmitter systems," said lead investigator Dr. Koch. "Moreover, it could open novel therapeutic options focused on dopaminergic transmission to treat patients early, when the cognitive functions related to frontal lobe activity and daily life abilities are only mildly impaired, to delay the onset of full-blown Alzheimer's disease dementia." Dr. Koch and his co-authors say further studies are needed to determine the potential role of rotigotine in treating Alzheimer's.

"The ADDF has a long history of supporting trials like this that repurpose existing drugs because it can speed up our ability to find new treatments for Alzheimer's," said Dr. Fillit. He explained that this is because the safety and toxicity of existing drugs (rotigotine is used to treat Parkinson's disease and restless leg syndrome) are already well studied, leading to quicker approval times. "At the ADDF we focus on funding trials that target novel pathways implicated in Alzheimer's disease, beyond beta-amyloid and tau, because Alzheimer's is a complex disease caused by multiple factors. Among these, addressing abnormalities in dopaminergic pathways holds great promise."
The opening credits of "Psych 2: Lassie Comes Home," which debuts Wednesday, will feature a name both new and familiar to Hollywood: James Roday Rodriguez.

The actor, who went by James Roday as the star of the long-running series "Psych," announced his decision to reclaim his birth name in an interview with TVLine. Rodriguez, 44, grew up in San Antonio and graduated from Taft High School.

As a freshman at New York University, he auditioned for the role in "Primal Fear." The casting director told him, "You're so great, but I don't think I can call you back because your last name is Rodriguez. But I can call you back for this four-line role of a gang member."

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio actor James Roday returning with new Psych movie on NBCs streaming service Peacock

The role he had auditioned for went to Edward Norton, an unknown actor at the time who was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance.

Three years later, Rodriguez was told to consider changing his name in order to land a role in a DreamWorks pilot. He recalled that his father, "a proud Mexican-American man," gave him permission, so he changed his name to one he pulled out of a play he was reading at the time.

"I've been Roday ever since. And 20 years later, I realize I essentially perpetuated an institutionalized element of whats broken about this industry, which is, of course, a microcosm of the world we are living in," Rodriguez said.

"I can't excuse the decision because of youth or naivete or ambition. The bottom line is, I sold out my heritage in about 15 seconds to have a shot at being an actor."

Now, amid a nationwide racial justice movement, the actor has decided to go by his legal name, James Roday Rodriguez. He had replaced his given middle name, David, with Roday on his driver's license and passport.

"Its long overdue. I'm a little bummed out that my grandparents are not alive to see it. But my dad is. And I think it will mean something to him. That, in and of itself, is reason enough for me," he said.

Rodriguez noted that he wants to be "the best, most honest ally and amplifier" he can be for his community and friends of color.

"The last thing I would ever want in a million years is for anyone to feel like I'm co-opting a movement to point a light at myself. But the truth is, its a deeply personal decision that I am doing for me," he said.
Michelle Obamas first podcast will launch on Spotify later this month.

Hosted by the former First Lady, The Michelle Obama Podcast debuts on the music streaming service on 29 July.

The first season will feature guests including Obama's mother and brother, Conan OBrien, Valerie Jarrett and Michele Norris.

The podcast is produced in collaboration with the Obama familys production company Higher Ground, having signed a deal with Spotify in 2019 to develop, produce and lend their voices to shows for the platform.

The show will be exclusively available on Spotify, with Joe Rogan and Kim Kardashian West having also recently signed similar deals with the network.

Speaking about the podcast, Obama said: My hope is that this series can be a place to explore meaningful topics together and sort through so many of the questions were all trying to answer in our own lives.

Perhaps most of all, I hope this podcast will help listeners open up new conversations  and hard conversations  with the people who matter most to them. Thats how we can build more understanding and empathy for one another.
Gov. Kay Ivey has established Alabamas first statewide commission on entrepreneurship and innovation.

The Alabama Innovation Commission, known as Innovate Alabama, will serve as a platform for innovators to engage policymakers, exchange ideas and identify policies that promote innovation in the state.

I look forward to collaborating with our states leading innovators to develop a long-term strategy to create a more resilient, inclusive and robust economy, Ivey said. Alabama has always had a rich tradition of developing technologies to move our state forward. Now more than ever, we must capitalize on future opportunities by engaging our states trailblazers to discuss new ideas and policies that support entrepreneurship, economic development and jobs.

Rep. Bill Poole, R-Tuscaloosa, will serve as chair of the commission and Sen. Greg Reed, R-Jasper, will serve as vicechair.

The commission is charged with examining policies to increase entrepreneurship, spur innovation and enhance technology accelerators, in addition to addressing challenges and red tape that startup companies often face. The group will also present a comprehensive innovation policy agenda to the Office of the Governor and the Alabama Legislature.

Advisory council formed

The commission will include a six-member advisory council made up of people with Alabama ties. Alabama Power Executive Vice President Zeke Smith will serve as president of the advisory council. Alabama native, former secretary of state of the United States and incoming director of Stanford Universitys Hoover Institution, Dr. Condoleezza Rice, will also serve on the advisory council.

Alabama is home to me, and I am honored to serve on the advisory council for the Alabama Innovation Commission, Dr. Rice said. While our country currently faces many challenges, this is an opportunity to create forward-thinking ideas and policies that will inspire the next generation of innovators. By focusing on knowledge-based skills and education, technology growth and entrepreneurship, we unlock the potential for future success across the state.

The commission will meet virtually Aug. 13.

Committee members

State Rep. Bill Poole, R-Tuscaloosa

State Sen. Greg Reed, R-Jasper

Scott Adams, Executive Vice President and Chief Digital & Innovation Officer, Protective Life Corp.

Greg Barker  President, Economic Development Partnership of Alabama.

Lindsay Rane Carter  Associate General Counsel, Great Southern Wood Preserving

Rick Clementz  General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Mercedes-Benz US International, Inc.

Rep. Jeremy Gray, R-Opelika

Miller Girvin, CEO, Alabama Capital Network Miller

Abe Harper, CEO, Harper Technologies

Shegun Otulana, Founder, TheraNest

Peggy Sammon  CEO, GeneCapture, Inc.

State Sen. Malika Sanders-Fortier, D-Selma

Arndt Siepmann, Deputy Director of Economic Development, City of Auburn

Charisse Stokes, Executive Director, TechMGM

Neill Wright  President, Bronze Valley

Advisory Council Members:

Zeke Smith, Executive Vice President, Alabama Power (President)

Greg Canfield  Secretary, Alabama Department of Commerce

Chris Moody  Partner, Foundry Group

Bill Smith  Founder, Smith Ventures

Jared Weinstein  General Partner, Thrive Capital
The letters do not answer the greatest mystery about Kerr's action  why did he do it? Kerr was a Labor man, appointed by Whitlam. He must have known the election which he required Fraser to supervise would go badly for Labor. If he left the resolution of the crisis to the politicians, they would have sorted it out. Was it Kerr's pride in his position that caused him to act, without telling anyone? John Miller, Coogee Illustration: Matt Golding Credit: I don't understand why the 1975 dismissal is characterised as a constitutional crisis. The appointment of Malcolm Fraser as PM was on the condition that he would hold new elections. The election was held on December 13, 1975, so an unelected caretaker government was in power for just 32 days. On that occasion, as on so many others, the electorate did not "maintain its rage". John Roseth, Mosman As a republican, I cannot support the on-going criticism of Kerr and the monarchy. If we were all so appalled by the dismissal of Whitlam, why didn't we vote him back in? Instead, the public voted for Fraser with a massive majority. Democracy was served. Clive Hughes, Freshwater The most disturbing fact about Kerr's correspondence is what was not said. He was never reminded of his duty to maintain dialogue with the country's elected leader and its attorney-general, which amounted to tacit acceptance of his skulduggery with the opposition leader. Tom Orren, Wamberal Heights

People who don't understand the system cry out for change that could leave us in a much worse position. I'd rather have the Queen as head of state than someone like Donald Trump. William Lloyd, Denistone I can't wait for Sir John Kerr the musical. Ingrid Haydon, Long Jetty Once limitations on meeting sizes are lifted, could I suggest that all of the dismissal whingers and the Kiwis still whining about the underarm incident get together for a weekend and complain to each other until they're over it. I recently emotionally let go of Balmain's disgraceful cheating against Souths in the 1969 grand final and I really feel better for it. Matt Petersen, Randwick JobTrainer, ignoring TAFE, will fail It is unfathomable that the federal government can announce the new $500 million JobTrainer scheme and neglect to mention TAFE, the exemplar public provider of vocational education and training ("$2b skills fund to fight off recession", July 16). If this scheme is to feed taxpayers' money to disreputable, for profit, private providers, it will be certain to fail both the students and the community. Mark Berg, Caringbah South

There is not much information about who will be providing the training in JobTrainer. Will it be TAFE, which needs to be expanded and revitalised after the decimation of the last decade, or back to the dodgy brothers vocational providers who ripped off students and taxpayers? Deb McPherson, Gerringong Uni cuts start to bite The shameful and inexplicable federal government policy of excluding universities from the JobKeeper program is seriously starting to bite ("UNSW to cut 493 staff and merge faculties under COVID-19 response plan", July 16). The nearly 500 jobs lost at the University of NSW come on top of the previous sacking of all casual and sessional staff, which many would argue form the backbone of much of the teaching within the university. Even the United States has not cut the heart out of the tertiary education sector during the pandemic. It is not a huge mind stretch to understand that universities provide vision, leadership, guidance and even prosperity as the country works toward recovery. This government lacks all wisdom and imagination. Josie McSkimming, Coogee Clean trains, no commuters To all those edgy commuters out there, I have used the trains just twice since March ("Long journey back for edgy commuters", July 16). Both times, the trains have been absolutely spotless so apart from the lack of commuters it has been a pleasure to sit in such a clean environment. Today's trip included a young man who came through the carriages and cleaned all hand-rails. Great work Transport NSW; it is a credit to your cleaners. Wendy Cousins, Balgownie

Camellia hopes wilt Decisions relating to Parramatta should not be made by those with little or no connection to the area ("Desperate plea for extra metro station", July 15). No station for Camellia  it will take too long to get to the CBD. I do not advocate this but if all that is required was speed, cut out Strathfield, Burwood, Five Dock, the Bays Precinct and Pyrmont. The idea of a transport system is to serve the people living and working in the area. With no Rydalmere station, at least the students at Western Sydney University could walk from Camellia  it is no further than from Redfern to Sydney. Parramatta has been plagued by decisions made by the state government. Finbar O'Donoghue, Telopea There are times when our state government completely baffles me and this is one of those times. The lord mayor of Parramatta wants an extra station to be built at Camellia, as he believes that it will be a significant industrial and residential growth centre in the future. The government, via Transport Minister Andrew Constance, says that it will not be built "because of contamination and flooding challenges". As far as I can tell, there are two inconsistencies with that excuse: firstly, there is already a heavy rail station at Camellia and secondly, flooding challenges don't seem to bother them when it comes to a heavily commercialised poor imitation of a Powerhouse museum. Why does this government continue to treat us all as complete fools? Brian Pymont, Frenchs Forest States of conceit Tory voters in the UK are ripping up face masks and party membership cards ("Push to extend mask rules", July 16). US President Donald Trump largely refuses to wear a face mask. He is trying to show Americans that he is "tough", and believes his own rhetoric on the COVID-19 pandemic.

Illustration: Matt Golding Credit: Many Republicans slavishly follow Trump's example. Some Republicans believe that the pandemic is a hoax. Many Australians also think that wearing a face mask is an imposition and a denial of their personal liberty. What is it about conservative voters worldwide? How can they deny reality? Apparently, it is one law for them, and another for the rest. For them, their rights are more important than other people's rights to avoid infection and death. Geoff Black, Caves Beach Has anyone tried turning the United States off, and then back on again? Ian McNeilly, Darlinghurst Trauma trigger The effects on the brain and mental health of people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder worsens as they relive and have nightmares about their experience (Letters, July 16). Future traumatic events or depicted events can compound their PTSD, often leading to suicide. Wasting money making the war memorial bigger to house more memories of horrific events, will be detrimental not only for our servicemen and women but for our emergency personnel and anyone who has suffered or witnessed traumatic events. Nearly $500 million would be better spent on research and treatment of PTSD. Preventing its devastating effects and suicides is critical. Rob Wansbrough, West Pennant Hills

Setting the a-gender I note that, with the recent leadership change in the New Zealand opposition, that country now has, for the second time in its history, females serving as prime minister, governor-general, leader of the opposition and chief justice, at the same time ("NZ Opposition Leader announces shock resignation", smh.com.au, July 16). Whereas here, I don't think we've ever had a female leader of the opposition, and the others only once  and then not at the same time. Once again, our neighbours across the ditch show us how it should be done. Jim Catt, Currimundi (QLD) Exchange of views On the contrary, I believe everyone is entitled to an opinion, if they have facts and evidence to back up that opinion (Letters, July 16). And as for automatically respecting the opinion of others; if someone opines that it is OK to drive a car with unsecured infants as passengers, definitely no respect from me. Graham Fazio, Old Bar When it comes to the issue of free speech I have always lived by the motto that everyone is entitled to my opinion. Phil Peak, Dubbo

Name and shame Oh dear! I guess it was inevitable that my name eventually joined the list (Letters, July 16). The cause of cringeworthy embarrassment over the years when viewing some of those soapies. Cheryl Wilson, Crows Nest I empathise with all the Sharons, Karens and Cheryls of the world, but try living with Jane. If I had a dollar for every reference I've ever heard to plain or Tarzan, I'd be a wealthy woman. But as the bard says, and as we all know, "a rose by any other name ...". Jane Dargaville, Camperdown Rob may not be regarded as sexy these days but I am forever grateful my mother didn't go for her first choice of Ricky. I could never have lived with the assonance. Robert Hickey, Green Point At the moment I wouldn't mind being a Karen, Sharon, Joan or a Jan. Ghislaine Williams, Kirrawee
Shares of Twitter Inc dropped more than 4% in pre-market trading on Thursday, a day after hackers gained access to the social media company's internal systems to hijack accounts of several politicians, billionaires, celebrities and companies.

Hackers infiltrated the twitter handles of U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden, reality TV star Kim Kardashian, former U.S. President Barack Obama and billionaire Elon Musk to solicit digital currency - raising major concerns about security on the widely-used platform.

The hack "certainly doesn't help," Joe Wittine, Edgewater Research analyst, told Reuters in an email. It will pose more of a "reputational risk", versus "material near-term risk to advertising revenues."

Twitter said hackers targeted employees with access to its internal systems and "used this access to take control of many highly-visible (including verified) accounts and Tweet on their behalf."

In an extraordinary step, Twitter temporarily prevented many verified accounts from publishing messages as it investigated the breach.

Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey said in a tweet on Wednesday that it was a "tough day" for everyone at Twitter and pledged to share "everything we can when we have a more complete understanding of exactly what happened."

Other high profile accounts that were hacked included rapper Kanye West, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, investor Warren Buffett, Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates, and the corporate accounts for Uber and Apple Inc. Several accounts of cryptocurrency-focused organizations were also hijacked.

Publicly available blockchain records show that the apparent scammers received more than $100,000 worth of cryptocurrency. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie
While details of Ambanis 5G prowess and the markets he hopes to target are still fuzzy, the planned assault against handset makers is clearer. Alphabet Inc. CEO Sundar Pichai made a virtual appearance at the Reliance AGM and pledged $4.5 billion for a 7.7% stake in Jio and a chance to build an Android operating system. The cheap smartphones running it will migrate 350 million Indians who still use feature phones to mobile internet. But how much customization will Google be comfortable with? If its a lot, the phone may be affordable but tied to Jios apps. Too little, and the pricing may be unattractive. Somewhere in between those extremes, its a threat to Xiaomi Corp. As Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Anthea Lai notes, India accounted for 35% of the Chinese vendors smartphone shipments last year.
A heatwave in Siberia that saw temperature records tumble as the region sweltered in 38-degree Celsius highs was "almost impossible" without the influence of manmade climate change, leading scientists said. An international team of researchers found that the record-breaking warm period was more than 2C hotter than it would have been if humans had not warmed the planet through decades of greenhouse gas emissions. The five hottest years in history have occurred in the last five years and there's a better-than-even chance that 2020 will be the hottest ever recorded. Earth's poles are warming faster than the rest of the planet, and temperatures in Siberia -- home to much of the world's carbon-rich permafrost -- were more than 5C hotter than average between January and June. One town, Verkhoyansk, recorded a temperature of 38C (100.4 Fahrenheit) -- smashing previous records. Andrew Ciavarella, senior detection and attribution scientist at Britain's Met Office, described the findings released Wednesday as "staggering". "This is further evidence of the extreme temperatures we can expect to see more frequently around the world in a warming climate," he said. The impact of climate change on extreme weather events such as super storms and droughts is now well-established, but until fairly recently scientists have been unable to definitively link an individual event to global warming. As part of a growing area of climate research known as attribution science, the team ran computer simulations of temperatures with the climate as it is today -- around 1C hotter than the pre-Industrial era baseline. They then compared this to a model generating temperatures over Siberia this year without human influence -- that is, without the additional manmade 1C. They found that the prolonged heat would happen less than once every 80,000 years without human induced climate change. This makes the heatwave "almost impossible in a climate that had not been warmed by greenhouse gas emissions", the team said, adding that carbon pollution had made the extreme event at least 600 times more likely to occur. - 'Important for everyone' - The team behind the calculations stressed that the Siberian heatwave was a problem for the entire globe. Some 1.15 million hectares of forest going up in flames released millions of tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. At the same time, the wildfires and sustained heatwaves accelerated the region's permafrost melt. This caused an oil tank built on frozen soil to collapse in May, leading to one of the region's worst-ever oil spills. Russia's aerial forest protection service, the agency that specialises in forest fires, said Wednesday that more than 5,000 people are working on 197 fires across Russia in an area of over 40,000 hectares, including eight in nature reserves. "Such a prolonged heat wave is important, not only for its influence on people, but also from a scientific point of view," said Olga Zolina, from Russia's P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanography. "The arctic is very, very important generally for forming of weather and circulation. So such high temperatures are really important for the whole globe." While the research was compiled rapidly and has not yet been subjected to peer-review, authors said it produced "among the strongest results of any attribution study conducted to date." - 'No chance' - The 2015 Paris climate deal commits nations to capping temperature rises to "well-below" 2C (3.6 degrees Farenheit) above pre-industrial levels and to strive for a 1.5C limit if at all possible. With just 1C of warming so far, Earth is already buffeted by record-breaking droughts, wild fires and super storms made more potent by rising sea levels. To keep in line with the 1.5C target, the United Nations says global emissions must fall by 7.6 percent every year this decade. Sonia Seneviratne, from ETH Zurich's Department of Environmental Systems Science, said the research showed the heatwave was an example of "extreme events which would have almost no chance of happening" without manmade emissions.




Haiti - COVID-19 : Donation of $60M to help the most vulnerable sectors





The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a non-repayable aid (donation) of US $ 60 million to support the most vulnerable sectors of Haiti facing the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.



The aid will be managed by the Economic and Social Assistance Fund (FAES), an autonomous body reporting to the Ministry of Finance, which is responsible for the implementation of social assistance programs in Haiti.



"The main objective is to provide rapid and large-scale protection to the most neglected social sectors, including cash transfers," said Nicola Magri, IDB Project Team Leader.



IDB assistance has three components :



The first focuses on support for protection through the current school canteen program, which enables 100,000 students to receive meals. The intervention will plan with attention to nutrition, so that meals are as nutritious as possible. To do this, they serve daily servings of fresh fruits and vegetables in addition to protein.



The second component focuses on supporting the protection of the vulnerable population who do not have access to transfer programs and who work in the informal sector. The initiative will finance cash and in-kind transfers to 124,000 vulnerable households.



The third component will provide support for the protection of the vulnerable population who are not eligible for transfer programs and who work in the formal sector. These funds will help finance temporary wage subsidies for textile workers to support minimum income and consumption levels during the plant closings necessary to cope with the pandemic.



In addition to this donation of 60 million, the IDB reallocated 10 million funds intended for the water and sanitation, education, tourism and education sectors to concentrate them in the fight against Covid-19 effects.



These reallocated funds will be used to provide solutions for hand washing and access to water in critical areas, to support the radio and tele-schools, distribute food to families of students, support payment to teachers, rescue small players in the tourism sector and acquire adequate equipment to deal with the pandemic.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















F ormer Tory Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind has torn into Boris Johnson after he kicked an MP out of the Conservative parliamentary party over a committee row.

Conservative MP Julian Lewis was booted out of the parliamentary party last night after he beat former Transport Secretary Chris Grayling to become chair of the powerful Intelligence and Security Committee.

The news stunned Westminster as Mr Grayling was widely expected to get the role after being handpicked by Mr Johnson.

However, concerns were raised that the body's impartiality could be undermined and MPs backed Mr Lewis.

Julian Lewis was voted in despite the Prime Minister's backing Chris Grayling / PA

Sir Malcolm, a former chair of the committee, told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: The Prime Minister is the author of his own misfortune.

The act of Parliament is quite clear the Prime Minister has no role in the choice of the chairman of the committee

Once the committee has been appointed it is for the committee itself to decide its chairman.

"The idea of using the Whips to try and force Conservative members to vote for a particular candidate goes totally against the way the committee under statue has operated since it began.

Its never been a partisan committee, I think the Prime Minister has handled this  or his advisers whoever is dealing with it  in an extremely incompetent way.

A Conservative source said Dr Lewis had worked with Lib Dems, Labour and others for his own advantage, adding: "There are consequences for duplicity.

Sir Malcolm said the idea that what Mr Lewis had done was somehow improper was ridiculous.

Former Transport Secretary Chris Grayling was expected to get the role / PA

He said Dr Lewis was "infinitely more suitable" for the post than any of the other potential candidates and added: What I most object to, was the attempt of Prime Minister and the Government or whoever, Dominic Cummings, whoever is involved in these things I dont know, to try to control the way the intelligence committee operates by choosing for its chairman and putting pressure on MPs to make him chairman.

"If they had succeeded, that destroys the whole purpose of the Intelligence and Security Committee. It is a unique committee. They are the only people who have access to the highest levels of intelligence.

"They need the confidence of the intelligence agencies and of Parliament. If they are thought to be creatures of government they have no authority to do the job that the law requires them to do.

"The Prime Minister either should have known that or should have been advised of that, and whoever is advising him deserves to be stripped of their responsibility at this very moment."

A senior government source said the removal of the whip was because the MP was "working with Labour and other opposition MPs for his own advantage".

One of the first jobs of the newly formed committee will be to publish its long-awaited report into Russian interference in UK politics.

Cabinet minister Alok Sharma avoided commenting on the move / PA

This morning Business Secretary Alok Sharma refused to be drawn on the decision to remove the Tory whip from Dr Lewis, saying: "That is a matter for the whips, that is not something for me."

He added: "The whole point of that committee is to provide oversight, to provide scrutiny, and that will continue. With reference to any individuals in the parliamentary party, I can only repeat that that is really a matter for the whips rather for me. I have not been involved in any of these discussions."
Another top Democrat, Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, told reporters in Hoboken that if the administration did not reverse itself and put the C.D.C. back in charge, we will look at withholding funding until the administration changes course.

The switch in reporting exposed deep flaws in the way the government collects health data, and the C.D.C. has been no stranger to criticism. Congress has long been asking the agency to modernize its data collection, and passed laws in 2006, 2013 and 2019 requiring a system that could collect data in near-real time.

The C.D.C. has yet to establish such a system, which would spare hospital employees from having to enter data manually. But the TeleTracking system also requires manual entry, said Dr. Lissy Hu, the chief executive of CarePort Health, a technology firm. She said the new arrangement made little sense.

This whole thing is bizarre, she said. The White House is saying collecting real-time information is problematic, and I agree with that. But with TeleTracking, its still going to be manual entry, so how is that better than the current manual entry system?

TeleTrackings core business is helping hospitals manage bed space. But the Department of Health and Human Services had a bed-tracking system, called HAvBED, that was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. That system is no longer in use because states viewed the requirement to report bed space as burdensome and federal officials realized the data was static, lagging and thus of little use, said Dr. Dan Hanfling, an expert in emergency preparedness and a vice president at In-Q-Tel, a strategic investment firm.

This issue is not just about H.H.S. versus C.D.C.  it is that we have outdated data collection systems that arent automated, are burdensome on health care providers, and dont give you real-time situational awareness, Dr. Hanfling said.
Ukraine's hryvnia strengthens to UAH 27.12 to U.S. dollar on July 16

13:20, 16.07.20 1400

The official forex rate against the euro for Thursday is fixed at UAH 31.03 per euro.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy

The Andhra Pradesh government has on July 15 decided constituted a high-level committee, headed by the Chief Secretary, to study the modalities for carving out new districts in the state.

The state Council of Ministers, chaired by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, met in state capital Amaravati, where they approved a proposal in this regard and asked the committee to submit its report as early as possible, Minister for Information and Public Relations Perni Venkataramaiah (Nani) said.

The new districts were intended to ensure ease of administration and accessibility to people, he said.

"The committee will study various aspects related to the formation of new districts and reduce (establishment) expenditure. Optimum utilisation of human resources and infrastructure will be the guiding principles in the formation of new districts," the Minister told a press conference after the Cabinet meeting.

According to the plan, the state will have 25 districts once the reorganisation is done.

However, there has been opposition within the YSRC to the formation of new districts with a Lok Sabha constituency as the base.

The Srikakulam leaders, including Assembly Speaker Tammineni Seetaram, voiced their opposition to the splitting of their district as it would lose three important Assembly segments. They wanted the government to work out an alternative plan so that the existing geography of Srikakulam district is not disturbed even after the reorganisation.

Similarly, there is opposition over making Araku a new district as the existing Lok Sabha constituency is spread over four districts. There are several other parliamentary constituencies that are spread over two districts, division of which could become a ticklish issue.

"We have discussed these issues in the Cabinet and decided to form a high-level committee of officials to amicably carry out the reorganisation exercise.

The Chief Minister wanted the new plans to be ready by March 31 next year," a minister said.
Infiniti Research is a premier provider of market and customer intelligence solutions. Having 15+ years of experience with in-depth, accurate, and reliable research, our strategic approaches and solutions provide our clients with a competitive edge. Our teams offer expertise in 50+ industries across the globe, and ensure consistency of our research. Our solutions and recommendations are built on a strong foundation of actionable intelligence. Contact Us for more information.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200716005392/en/

Market Entry Strategies to Support a Healthcare Company to Enter a New Market (Graphic: Business Wire)

"Recent studies show that more than half of the healthcare companies have failed while trying to enter a new market. With this, it is becoming imperative for healthcare companies to formulate efficient market entry strategies to make their expansion smoother," says a healthcare industry expert at Infiniti Research. For more insights into our solutions portfolio, request more information.

Business Challenge:

The client is a healthcare company based out of Central United Kingdom. The client decided to expand their business to Germany and Belgium due to the saturation of the UK Healthcare Market. The client sought to analyze the opportunities and challenges that were present in the healthcare markets of these regions. They also wanted to understand the size of the market and potential for growth, while also identifying appropriate and beneficial business partners, and the most efficient way to enter the market. Infiniti's research experts leveraged market entry strategies to provide the client with these solutions, as well as to evaluate market entry barriers, and establish a strong foothold in the market.

Our Approach:

Infiniti's market entry strategies followed a detailed approach towards the client's market expansion. This approach employed by our research experts consisted of:

A three-phased approach that included a thorough assessment of the market landscape, competitors' market share, and the regulatory environment.

Estimating market potential and identifying the right business partner to support their operations in the new region.

Understanding the market entry modes used by major players in the healthcare industry and identifying suitable pathways for entering the new market.

Business Outcome:

Infiniti's research experts leveraged our market entry strategies and assisted the client in efficiently entering the new market. With the appropriate business partners, and sufficient support for business operations, the client was able to successfully establish an identity in the German healthcare market. Additionally, with appropriate regulatory approvals, and a strategy that accounted for all potential challenges and risks, the client was able to establish a strong foothold in the new market. Within a year, the client had exceeded their revenue expectations and achieved millions of dollars in savings, as well.

Infiniti's research experts are equipped with the expertise and skill set to provide effective and strategic, actionable market entry strategies to healthcare industry clients. Request a free proposal for comprehensive market-specific insights.

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

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She's the pint-sized Bunnings worker who has made it to the final five on Big Brother.

But behind her bubbly facade, Sarah McDougal holds a fierce determination to take home the $250,000 prize money - after spending her childhood living in poverty.

The 19-year-old retail assistant told WHO magazine that growing up in a housing commission area made her resolve never to return.

Heartbreak: Big Brother star Sarah McDougal (pictured) has revealed how her childhood spent living in poverty made her determined to win the $250,000 prize

'I thought one week had been a bad week but we didnt know if the next week our electricity would be cut off or our water you could tell you were different to other kids and it was hard,' Sarah said of her younger years.

'I've seen how life can be, from the lowest of the lows, and I dont want to go back there ever again,' she added.

Once the series is over, Sarah hopes to use her new profile to inspire other children raised in adversity to realise they can succeed and 'make the most' of life.

Hard years: Sarah (pictured with her mother) grew up in a housing commission area and her family sometimes couldn't afford to pay their bills. 'I thought one week had been a bad week but we didnt know if the next week our electricity would be cut off or our water,' she said

'So they know that no matter how you were raised or what cards you were given in life, you can still make a life for yourself,' she said.

Meanwhile, Sarah has returned to her day job since filming wrapped on Big Brother.

The housemate was spotted by a fan last week working behind the register at a Bunnings Warehouse in Melbourne.

Back to work! Meanwhile, Sarah has returned to her day job since filming wrapped on Big Brother. The housemate was spotted by a fan last week working behind the register at a Bunnings Warehouse in Melbourne

She was dressed in the classic green and red Bunnings uniform and had her hair pulled back, but was nonetheless recognisable from her stint on TV.

It comes after Sarah revealed the heartbreaking reason why she wants to win the $250,000 prize money.

Speaking to TV Week last Monday, the student said she hopes to pay off the debt from her late father James' funeral.

Personal reasons: It comes after Sarah revealed the heartbreaking reason why she wants to win the $250,000 prize money

'He was 59 and pretty sick with emphysema, but doctors didn't realise how bad it was, so dad pushed me to go on my first trip overseas to do volunteer work in Indonesia last July,' she said.

'He passed away really suddenly and I got the call to come home as soon as possible.

'It was heartbreaking and all the financial repercussions came down on us kids, so we got in quite a bit of debt,' she added.

Tragic: The 19-year-old said she hopes to win the show to pay off the debt from her late father James' funeral. Pictured: Sarah and her late father

'He passed away really suddenly': She told TV Week last Monday her dad 'was 59 and pretty sick with emphysema, but doctors didn't realise how bad it was'

'It would mean so much to me to be able to pay it off. It would change my family's lives.'

Sarah, who is the youngest of seven children, went on to call her father the 'smartest person I've ever met' and said he inspired her to become a better person.

She also spoke about her family's financial struggles, admitting she got her first job as a dog walker at the age of 12 to help her parents pay the bills.
NASA and the European Space Agency released the first-ever closest snaps of the Sun from it's ESA/NASA's Solar Orbiter as it returns the first data.

The Solar Orbiter launched on February 9, 2020, is an international collaboration between the ESA and NASA to study the closest star, that is the Sun. The orbiter completed its first close pass of the sun in mid-June.

"These unprecedented pictures of the Sun are the closest we have ever obtained," said Holly Gilbert, NASA project scientist for the mission at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

According to a NASA release,these amazing images will further help scientists to piece together the Suns atmospheric layers, "which is important for understanding how it drives space weather near the Earth and throughout the solar system".

Stating that the space agencies didn't expect such an excellent result so soon, scientists said that "Solar Orbiter is off to an excellent start".

JUST IN: Scientists from #NASA and ESA just released the closest pictures ever taken of the Sun   from the Solar Orbiter pic.twitter.com/ZgI9xxCPkO latest in space (@latestinspace) July 16, 2020

However, scientists said that getting to this point was never an easy task as the novel coronavirus forced the mission control at the European Space Operations Center, or ESOC, in Darmstadt, Germany to close down completely for more than a week.

"The pandemic required us to perform critical operations remotely  the first time we have ever done that," said Russell Howard, principal investigator for one of Solar Orbiters imagers.

But the team adapted, even readying for an unexpected encounter with comet ATLASs ion and dust tails on June 1 and 6, respectively.

As per the NASA report, when the orbiter flew within 48 million miles of the Sun, all 10 instruments flicked on, and Solar Orbiter snapped the closest pictures of the Sun to date.

Solar Orbiter carries six imaging instruments, each of which studies a different aspect of the Sun. Normally, the first images from a spacecraft confirm the instruments are working; scientists dont expect new discoveries from them. But the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager, or EUI, on Solar Orbiter returned data hinting at solar features never observed in such detail.

Principal investigator David Berghmans, an astrophysicist at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Brussels, points out what he calls "campfires" dotting the Sun in EUIs images.

However, scientists opine that its not yet clear what these campfires are or how they correspond to solar brightenings, as observed by other spacecraft.

They can possible be mini-explosions known as nanoflares, which are tiny, ubiquitous sparks theorized to help heat the Suns outer atmosphere, or corona and is 300 times hotter than the solar surface.

In a bid to know more about the campfires' temperature, scientists are awaiting the next set of data from the orbiter.

"The images produced such a perfect zodiacal light pattern, so clean. That gives us a lot of confidence that we will be able to see solar wind structures when we get closer to the Sun," said a NASA scientist.

(With inputs from ANI)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16

Trend:

Information of the the Armenian defense ministrys spokesman Shushan Stepanyan that allegedly the Armenian armed forces have taken out an Azerbaijani tank isn't true, Head of the press office of Azerbaijans Defense Ministry, Colonel Vagif Dargahli told Trend on July 16.

"This is false information. All the tanks of the Azerbaijani army are in service. The armored vehicles of the Azerbaijani armed forces are not on the front line. Azerbaijani tanks are beyond the reach of the Armenian armed forces' weapons."
>>> PM applauds 70-year tradition of Vietnams youth volunteer force

The event, co-hosted by the Vietnam Youth Volunteers Association, the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union and Tay Ninh Provincial Youth Union, was aimed at resounding the glorious tradition of the force over the past seven decades.

At the meeting, the Central Committee of Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union presented 10 gratitude houses and 20 savings books to local former youth volunteers to pay tribute to their contributions in defending the Fatherland in the past wars.

On the afternoon of the same day, the delegates offered incense to commemorate the fallen youth volunteers who rest in peace at the Doi 82 Martyrs Cemetery in Tan Bien District. They also visited families of typical former youth volunteers and attended the ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of several gratitude houses for local former youth volunteers.

On the same day, similar meetings were also held in the northern province of Thai Binh and the northern port city of Hai Phong to celebrate the 70th founding anniversary of Vietnams youth volunteer force. Outstanding former youth volunteers were also honoured and presented with gifts at the events.
A flurry of meetings and intense lobbying by Wiper Party Ward reps yesterday culminated in the last-minute decision to withdraw the impeachment motion against Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu.

The motion, which was supposed to be tabled on the floor of the county assembly today, was called off after the mover, Mr Peter Kilonzo (the majority leader), failed to garner the requisite two-thirds majority of 36 votes.

Wiper reps spent several hours holed up in meetings, where each was tasked with "sweet-talking" their colleagues from the side backing Ms Ngilu to convince them into supporting the impeachment.

The Nation established that at stake were six crucial votes required to guarantee the success of the botched motion in the assembly.

With hours remaining to the D-Day, the focus was who between Ms Ngilu and former Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka's Wiper would command enough numbers to either pass or defeat the motion.

STAND WITH NGILU

When it became apparent that about 25 Assembly members had firmly decided to stand with Ms Ngilu, including some from Wiper, a decision was reached that the motion be withdrawn by failing to gazette it as required in law.

This conclusion by Wiper ward reps was reached to avoid the embarrassment of losing the impeachment motion, because initially the majority leader had announced that more than 40 reps were supporting him.

Mr Kilonzo told a hurriedly convened press conference that he had notified Assembly Speaker George Ndotto of his decision to drop the motion from today's order paper due to "unavoidable circumstances".

'NOT PICKING CALLS'

Revealing the frustration of his efforts to raise the required numbers, he claimed that some of the reps who had signed up to support the impeachment motion had since changed their minds and were not even picking his calls.

Wiper enjoys a majority of 30 elected and nominated MCAs in the 54-member assembly, but two members - Mr Kasee Musya (Kisasi ward) and Mr James Musyoka (Kiomo Kyethani ward) -- broke ranks with their party and announced they would oppose the motion.

With 28 members remaining, the mover was supposed to convince eight reps from other parties to garner the requisite two-thirds majority of 36 votes to see the motion sail through.

On the other hand, Ms Ngilu's party has 12 members but it enjoys the support of ward reps from smaller political parties and independents.

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Two hours later, the Speaker dispatched a letter to the governor communicating that the motion had been dropped and hence cancelling the summons he had earlier issued.

"This is to inform you that due to unavoidable circumstances, the mover has called off the tabling of the motion, which was scheduled for Wednesday (today)," Mr Ndotto's letter read in part.

The Speaker said the assembly will invite Ms Ngilu in good time and in line with the county assembly standing orders once the mover gives his intention to table the said motion.

ANGRY REACTIONS

Mr Ndotto's letter drew angry reactions from the Executive, with the governor protesting that the Speaker had no powers to withdraw the motion.

Through her lawyers Martin Oloo and Morris Kimuli, Ms Ngilu accused the Speaker of violating the law to shield the mover of the motion from facing her team at the assembly.

She said the procedure on the removal of a governor is guided by Article 8 of the Constitution and Section 33 of the County Government Act, and an impeachment motion cannot be withdrawn by a letter from the Speaker.

"The law says the motion should proceed for debate if it garners a third of members in support, therefore the Speaker doesn't have the discretion to amend the constitutional provisions guiding the impeachment process and cannot purport to withdraw the motion," Mr Oloo said.

In a terse letter to the Speaker, the governor said the mover should proceed to table the motion to have the matter settled on the floor of the assembly to avoid polarising the county further.
NEW YORK, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- 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.





Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05932748/?utm_source=PRN





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.



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.



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.



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.



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05932748/?utm_source=PRN



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ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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Contact tracing is a new phrase for many Americans, but not for governments. In non-pandemic times, it is a complex but essential process to monitor and control any infectious disease  and one that can be managed by a small number of trained health care experts doing the work by phone. These experts identify anyone who has tested positive for a communicable disease, verify where theyve been and to whom they might have spread germs, then reach out to those at-risk contacts to encourage them to quarantine or seek medical care for their own symptoms  all the time respecting the privacy of the people they contact.

Contact tracing has been credited as a major driver of stopping SARS in 2004, and there is little doubt that it will prove equally as critical for the current COVID-19 pandemic, where asymptomatic transmission has been a significant cause of infection. But the extraordinary demands of COVID-19 also mean that the current manual approach is no longer feasible. To keep up with the sheer numbers of infections and to protect all at-risk citizens, governments must rapidly scale and expand their processes. To do that, contact tracing must become digital while still protecting the privacy of citizens.

Weve been working closely with a number of state and local governments as they work to keep their citizens safe by modernizing the contact tracing process. Heres what weve learned are critical elements for a digital contact tracing system that works:

Technology must be at the heart of the solution: Today, contact tracing is a numbers game: The more people that opt-in and participate, the more lives will be saved. Houston, which is battling one of the fiercest outbreaks in the country among its 2.3 million residents, quickly realized the impact of switching from a manual to a tech-driven process based on the sheer numbers it could reach. Within the first week of deployment, more than 2,000 queries went out to individuals who had potentially been exposed, saving the human contact tracers hundreds of hours of outreach and interviews. The city also added 2,000 additional contacts that human contact tracers had not been able to connect with after weeks of trying.

With manual processes, if youre trying to reach out to hundreds of people each day, youre not going to get to all of them, said Mohammad Anjum Taj, a senior IT project manager for the Houston Health Department. So if you think people have been exposed, and if you're reaching out to them two weeks later, or a week later, then it's already too late.

The process must be purpose-built for the community: While the philosophy of contact tracing will remain the same across geographies, an effective program must consider the skills and resources of its organization. The health department in Michigans Ottawa County (which has a population of nearly 300,000) knew the number of people who tested positive for COVID-19 would grow exponentially  and yet, the nurses charged with calling high-risk contacts still had their normal jobs to do. So they built out a system that automated patient engagement.

Instead of calling each potentially infected person every day, close contacts of a COVID-19 patient receive a daily text or email from the health department for 14 days asking them to share their current health status and any developing symptoms. If they dont respond for three days or mention theyve been experiencing symptoms for at least two days, the system triggers an action for one of the nurses to follow up.

On the first day the system was live, 31 people responded. That saved five hours of staff time. Within a few weeks about 370 people were responding per day, and by the end of May alone, cases and their close contacts had reported their daily health status about 5,000 times, saving over 800 hours of staff time.

The solution must recognize and respond to citizen concerns: Ultimately, contact tracing only works with individual participation, so any digitized process must account for the concerns and conveniences of the public:

It must be easy to use : An effective contact tracing program should use technology to strip out every layer of friction that could stymie participation. This includes offering a variety of contact methods to meet citizens where they are  via email, text or phone call  and making the question form brief and straightforward.

: An effective contact tracing program should use technology to strip out every layer of friction that could stymie participation. This includes offering a variety of contact methods to meet citizens where they are  via email, text or phone call  and making the question form brief and straightforward. It must be accessible to all citizens : A digitized and automated approach can help local governments overcome language and literacy barriers that could block effective tracing. Individuals who prefer a language other than English should be automatically assigned a human contact tracer for assessment. The initial outreach should also allow contacts to verify the information that was submitted about them. If its correct, they should stay in the automated system, but if anything is off, a human contact tracer should correct their record.

: A digitized and automated approach can help local governments overcome language and literacy barriers that could block effective tracing. Individuals who prefer a language other than English should be automatically assigned a human contact tracer for assessment. The initial outreach should also allow contacts to verify the information that was submitted about them. If its correct, they should stay in the automated system, but if anything is off, a human contact tracer should correct their record. It must consider privacy concerns: Because the contact tracing process manages confidential health data, people must understand that their privacy is being respected. Coupling an automated, opt-in form with a governments standard privacy practices can help achieve this. In Houston, people can share locations they have visited and individuals with whom they have come into contact in a simple, opt-in form  sharing only the information they choose. The solution helps the city notify impacted individuals and instructs them on next steps so they can take the appropriate safety measures while maintaining individual confidentiality.

The U.S. is still in the thick of the battle against COVID-19, and the coming weeks are sure to be critical to defining our success at slowing and managing infections. Contact tracing will be one of the most critical weapons in a communitys arsenal, so the faster governments deploy digitally driven systems, the sooner theyll understand the full impact of the spread -- and will be able to go on the offensive against the virus to protect their citizens.

The process wont look the same in every community, but the most effective contact tracing systems will be digital and automated, and protect peoples privacy.
Prasanta Mazumdar By

Express News Service

GUWAHATI: People donating plasma to Covid-19 patients in Assam may get preferential treatment in job interviews and government facilities in the future, states Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Thursday.

Appealing to people, who recovered from Covid-19, to donate plasma, Sarma said the observations in the US and India were that plasma therapy has no negative impact and 90% of patients recover if plasma could be given in a moderate state of a patients illness.

The plasma donors will get a certificate. We will consider giving preferences to them in interviews, government schemes, etc in the future. Supposing two persons got equal marks in an interview. If one is a plasma donor, two extra marks will, probably, be added to his tally. Similarly, a plasma donor, who is a beneficiary of PMAY but his name is down there on the list, we will take his name upward, Sarma told journalists.

Stating that the government will issue a notification towards this effect, he said the society would acknowledge the contributions of such people considering that one plasma could save two lives. He said only those people, who had Covid-19 symptoms and were in intensive treatment, could donate plasma.

We have taken a massive initiative for plasma. The Covid-19 recovered people can contact us and save humanity. Hospitals in several states are yet to have a plasma bank. The plasma of the Covid-19 recovered people there will go in waste. So, we will campaign beyond Assam and appeal to people to donate their plasma, the Minister said.

He said people from outside Assam willing to donate plasma would be provided with state guest facilities. The Assam government will bear the costs of their air travel, both ways. The government believes people would come forward, Sarma said.

So far, a few people, including a doctor from Karnataka who is a post-graduate student at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital, donated their plasma.

Assam has 19,754 Covid-19 positive cases including 48 deaths. The death rate is .24 which is the lowest in the country. Altogether 12,888 people have recovered. The recovery rate is 65.24% which is the fourth highest after Delhi, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu. On both these counts, the figures of the other states in the Northeast were not calculated.
"If you're not [confident] then please feel free to continue to use the police operations centre (POC) and the operational commanders who are in the POC to get advice and guidance, but again we need to ensure that we don't see additional spreads of the virus through bad behaviour," Mr Fuller said. Loading The message represents a stark difference to directives given to officers at the height of lockdown measures earlier this year, who were told to exercise discretion where appropriate. "Police are expected to educate, assist and protect the public," one of a number of internal directives obtained by the Herald said. Police were also encouraged to seek legal advice before taking action. In Thursday's video Mr Fuller said: "We've taken a pragmatic approach but a fair approach to businesses, understanding that everyone's under enormous pressure, but I think it is time that we start to issue tickets over using discretion."

NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said it was worrying to discover three cases of local transmission with no known source. Loading "Obviously we are concerned when we find cases that can't be linked back [to outbreaks] because it does indicate that we've missed a chain," she said. "We will be re-interviewing cases and trying to ascertain any contact points and updating the community about additional actions." Dr Chant said several people in the Casula pub outbreak were "potentially quite infectious", after revealing on Wednesday cases in the cluster were becoming infectious within one day of contracting the coronavirus.

Infectious disease experts from the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee have looked at the case, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Michael Kidd said, who believe it was "unusual but not improbable". "We think it's unlikely that the strain has changed," Professor Kidd said. While symptoms usually develop within five to seven days of infection, Professor Kidd said cases of people becoming infectious shortly after being infected were likely to happen as more people in Australia contract the virus. Ten of the confirmed cases in NSW on Thursday were in the official reporting period of the 24 hours to 8pm Wednesday, and included four people in hotel quarantine, the three mystery cases and three cases linked to the Casula cluster.

Hurricane's Grill at Brighton Le Sands has been closed for deep cleaning. Credit:Peter Rae Five other cases were confirmed after that period, including four more linked to the cluster. Those cases included a teenage girl who attended Hurricane's Grill in Brighton Le Sands on July 11 between 6pm and 8pm with another previously identified COVID-19 case who was infectious at that time. That venue was closed on Thursday for deep cleaning. Another case was a man in his 30s who had been to Casula's Planet Fitness gym. He is the third person to be infected at that venue, after a man contracted the virus at the Crossroads Hotel attended the gym. Planet Fitness was deep cleaned on July 12 but remains closed. The remaining case was in a Victorian who flew into Ballina on July 12 on Jetstar flight JQ 466. Dr Chant said the person wore a mask during the flight and was screened at Ballina airport, but later developed symptoms.

The outbreak has also affected the courts. Jury trials in NSW will not resume in the Albury and Campbelltown District Courts on July 27, as planned, owing to the increase in community transmission in these areas. While labelling the scale of Victoria's second wave a "big setback", Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he was impressed by the speed at which contact tracers in NSW were tracking down cases related to the cluster at Crossroads. "That demonstrates in NSW how effectively the states can respond to this," he said on Thursday. "Hopefully we will see that situation continue to improve as well." But Dr Chant said this was a critical time for COVID-19 in NSW, urging people not to socialise if they had even the mildest symptoms. She reminded the community that family and friends were the people most likely to infect you.

"We have the impression that the people we're associating with day in, day out, are safe and we might let down our guard," she said. "Don't have the perception that you're safe in that environment."

Loading NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard warned young people not to become complacent about the threat of coronavirus as they are often the least ill but "can be the most infectious". "[There was] a young bloke who had one of the highest infection levels we've ever seen. His viral load was capable of spreading to anyone near him," Mr Hazzard told 2GB. "The health tracers tell me young people get out and about in the evening, and they go to lots of places. If you're sick, for heavens' sake stay home. You're putting everybody at risk. "We really need young people to wake up, they can be extremely deadly to their elderly relatives."
Courtesy photo/Chamber of Commerce

The Plainview Chamber of Commerce selects businesses from different industries for its Business of the Month recognitions. Wendys is the latest business to be recognized. Chamber representatives visited the location to present a certificate of acknowledgement for the honor. The Plainview location has been open for five years under new management. Its lobby is currently open at 50 percent capacity. Pictured: Manager Benji Foster and District Manager Muhammad Saqib and their team.

Photo and info provided by the Plainview Chamber of Commerce
Toronto police have arrested the 37-year-old man who was the focus of a Canada-wide warrant last week.

In a press release Wednesday night, police said that officers located and arrested Kevin Magoffin on July 9 for breaching conditions of his statutory release.

Hes been returned to the Toronto South Detention Centre, police say.

Magoffin is currently serving a four-year and six-month sentence for 13 counts of robbery, two counts of assault with intent to commit robbery and three counts of assault and theft under $5,000.
Bikini model Natasha Oakley and her heir boyfriend Theo Chambers got back together earlier this year after a brief split.

And the pair looked closer than ever while enjoying a break at Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsundays this week.

The swimwear queen, 30, was a picture of happiness with Theo as the couple enjoyed the laidback luxury of sailing at the picturesque location.

When's the wedding? Bikini model Natasha Oakley, 30, looked loved-up with Theo Chambers as the couple enjoyed a luxurious getaway together to Whitehaven beach. Both pictured

In a series of intimate photos she shared on Instagram, it was clear the pair are crazy in love with him suggestively gripping her around the waist.

The couple lovingly embraced while standing on the deck of the boat, with Tash adding a love heart emoji while writing 'Theo'.

Another photo saw the bikini clad model dipped back by her beau while the sun was setting behind her on the water.

Theo is the son of Chambers Cellar founder Steven Chambers.

Romantic: The couple lovingly embraced while standing on the deck of the boat, with Tash adding a love heart emoji while writing 'Theo'

Loving: Another photo saw the bikini clad model dipped back by her beau Theo while the sun was setting behind her on the water

The couple no doubt thought it was the perfect time for a getaway as it was Natasha's 30th birthday this week.

Tash first sparked rumours she and former flame Theo were back together when they were pictured at the Australian Open in Melbourne earlier this year.

The Monday swimwear founder, who previously said their split was due to 'lifestyle differences', looked decidedly cosy as she wrapped her arm around Theo by the media wall.

Cards close to her chest! While Natasha posed with Theo on the red carpet, she opted go solo while uploading pictures on her own Instagram account at the Australian Open

Theo also looked content as he gently slid his arm around Natasha's waist at the high-profile event.

Natasha confirmed her split from Theo in November last year, telling The Daily Telegraph: 'We broke up, [but] we're still really good friends.'

She added: 'I do travel a lot and have a very different lifestyle. We had an amazing relationship but these things happen in life.'

The pair had started dating in late 2018 and confirmed their romance on New Year's Eve that year.
The first human case of the plague in Colorado since 2015 was confirmed by the state's Department of Public Health earlier this summer.

The person caught the plague after exposure to infected squirrels as local health officials urge caution and warn residents that its not uncommon for the disease to be present in the state at this time of year.

The resident from southwest Colorado had septicemic plague, which is in the blood and cannot be spread to other people.

The person recovered and no other cases were identified.

The first human case of the plague in Colorado since 2015 was confirmed earlier this summer after the person was exposed to squirrels who were infected. The person has recovered

Colorado Department of Public Health has issued a warning for residents to use caution

'Plague has been present in Colorado since at least the 1940s, and cases in wild rodents in Colorado are reported most years,' Dr Jenifer House, Colorado's public health veterinarian, said in a statement.

'While we see most plague activity during the summer, the disease can be found in rodents year-round and sometimes spills over into other wildlife species as well as domestic cats and dogs.'

There have been 21 human cases of the plague in Colorado since 2005 but this is the first in the past five years. Eight of these cases were in 2014, the worse year for human cases in the past 15 years.

The majority of the cases were in those aged between 25 and 64 although there were three cases in children under 14. Sixty percent of the cases were found in women.

There have been 558 cases of the plague found in animals in Colorado since 2005. The largest number of cases was found in rodents.

There were zero cases of plague reported in the state in 2018 but it grew to four cases again last year.

The department issued a health warning earlier this week after a squirrel tested positive for the bubonic plague in Jefferson County in what is being described as 'an increase of reported plague activity'.

There have been 558 cases of the plague in animals in Colorado since 2015

A map from the Colorado Department of Public Health reveals the location of cases in animals since 2005. The most cases have been seen in rodents in the past 15 years

The sick squirrel was found in the city of Morrison, southwest of Denver, but cases have also been found this year in animals in limited access areas of Adams and Broomfield counties.

'Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, and can be contracted by humans and household animals if proper precautions are not taken,' Jefferson County Public Health said.

The health officials reassure that so long as proper precautions are taken, the risk of getting plague is 'extremely low.'

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is reporting there has been an increased amount of plague activity in the state having already been found in Broomfield, northwest of Denver.

Jefferson County Public Health, pictured above, confirmed a case of the bubonic plague in a squirrel this week as the state experiences 'an increase of reported plague activity'

Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which is carried by fleas and transmitted between animals. The picture above is a 3D illustration of the bacterium

What is the plague? Bubonic plague is the most common form of plague and is spread by the bite from an infected flea. The infection spreads to immune glands called lymph nodes, causing them to become swollen and painful and may progress to open sores. Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, and can be contracted by humans and household animals if proper precautions are not taken. Human-to-human transmission of bubonic plague is rare and is usually caught from animals. Humans may be infected with plague through bites from infected fleas, by the cough from an infected animal or by direct contact (e.g., through a bite) with blood or tissues of infected animals. Symptoms of plague may include sudden onset of high fever, chills, headache, nausea and extreme pain and swelling of lymph nodes, occurring within two to seven days after exposure. Plague can be effectively treated with antibiotics when diagnosed early. Septicemic plague is an infection of the blood and is also most commonly spread by bites from infected fleas or handling an infected animal. It can occur as the first symptom of plague, or may develop from untreated bubonic plague. Symptoms are similar to the bubonic plague but skin and other tissues may also turn black and die, especially on fingers, toes, and the nose. Advertisement

Humans are able to be infected with plague by getting flea bites or from being coughed on by an infected animal.

The bubonic plague is a bacterial disease spread by fleas living on wild rodents. It kills in less than 24 hours if not treated promptly.

Cats in particular are susceptible to the plague and may die if not treated promptly with antibiotics.

Cats similarly can also contract the plague from flea bites, or that of rodents.

Dogs are less susceptible to contracting the plague but they are able to pick up fleas which could be carrying the disease.

Symptoms of plague are known to include a fever, chills, headache, nausea and extreme pain and swelling of lymph nodes, occurring within two to seven days after being exposed.

There are no publicly available vaccines to prevent plague in people but, if caught early, it can be successfully treated with antibiotics in both people and pets.

Jefferson County Public Health recommends the following precautions to protect against plague:

Eliminate all sources of food, shelter and access for wild animals around the home.

Do not feed wild animals.

Maintain a litter and trash-free yard to reduce wild animal habitats.

People and pets should avoid contact with sick or dead wild animals and rodents.

Use precaution when handling sick pets.

Have sick pets examined by a veterinarian.

Consult with your veterinarian about flea and tick control for your pets.

Keep pets from roaming freely outside the home where they may prey on wild animals and bring the disease home with them.

Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it was 'carefully' monitoring a case of bubonic plague in China after being notified by the authorities in Beijing.

A WHO official claimed the situation was being 'well managed' by China and not considered to represent a high risk.

An illustration from 1656: A plague doctor in protective clothing. The beak mask held spices thought to purify air, the wand was used to avoid touching patients

Two other cases were confirmed in Khovd province in neighboring Mongolia at the end of June involving brothers who had eaten marmot meat, China's state news agency Xinhua said.

Bubonic plague is one of the most devastating diseases in history, having killed around 100 million people in the 14th century.

'Bubonic plague has been with us and is always with us, for centuries,' WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told reporters at a virtual briefing.

'We are looking at the case numbers in China. It's being well managed.

'At the moment, we are not considering it high-risk but we're watching it, monitoring it carefully.'
Twitter is investigating a massive hack in which high-profile users from Elon Musk to Joe Biden had their accounts hijacked by scammers, who the social network believes targeted its employees to gain access to internal systems. Posts trying to dupe people into sending hackers the virtual currency Bitcoin were tweeted by the official accounts of Apple, Uber, Kanye West, Bill Gates, Barack Obama and many others on Wednesday. "We detected what we believe to be a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools," Twitter said. "They used this access to take control of many highly-visible... accounts," the company said, adding that it was investigating "what other malicious activity they may have conducted or information they may have accessed." The fraudulent posts, which were largely deleted, said people had 30 minutes to send $1,000 in the cryptocurrency, promising they would receive twice as much in return. A total of 12.58 bitcoins -- worth almost $116,000 -- were sent to email addresses mentioned in the tweets, according to the site Blockchain.com, which monitors crypto transactions. "Tough day for us at Twitter," chief executive Jack Dorsey said in a tweet. "We all feel terrible this happened. We're diagnosing and will share everything we can when we have a more complete understanding of exactly what happened." - Blue checkmarks - Twitter said it had locked down the affected accounts and removed the tweets posted by the hackers. "Most accounts should be able to Tweet again," the Twitter support team said in an evening update, having earlier temporarily disabled all posts from verified accounts with an official blue checkmark. But the firm told users that it "may take further actions and will update you if we do." US President Donald Trump's account, which has more than 83 million followers, was not among those targeted, but many specialist Bitcoin firms were. "All major crypto Twitter accounts have been compromised," Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange, said in a tweet on Wednesday. "This is a SCAM, DO NOT participate!" he warned. Vice reported that a Twitter insider was responsible, citing leaked screenshots and two anonymous sources apparently behind the hack, one of whom told the media outlet they had paid the employee. US Senator Josh Hawley tweeted a letter to Dorsey expressing concern over privacy for the San Francisco-based company's millions of users worldwide. "I am concerned that this event may represent not merely a coordinated set of separate hacking incidents but rather a successful attack on the security of Twitter itself," he said. BitTorrent chief executive Justin Sun was offering a $1 million reward for bringing the Twitter hackers to justice, reports said. -'Giving back'- The tweet that appeared on Tesla founder Musk's Twitter feed said: "Happy Wednesday! I am giving back Bitcoin to all of my followers. I am doubling all payments sent to the Bitcoin address below. You send 0.1 BTC, I send 0.2 BTC back!" It added that the offer was "only going on for 30 minutes." The fake messages that appeared on other famous accounts made similar promises of instant riches. One version of the scam invited people to click on a link at which they would be exploited. The BBC reported that a website address in some of the duplicitous tweets had been registered under the name "Anthony Elias", which appeared to be a play on the words "An alias". Twitter has been targeted by hackers in the past. In March 2017, the accounts of Amnesty International, the French economics ministry and the BBC's North America service were broken into by hackers believed to have been loyal to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Last August, a series of insulting or racist messages were posted on the personal account of Twitter founder Dorsey without his knowledge. Twitter has said it is "investigating and taking steps" to fix the problem L-R, top to bottom: Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, SpaceX founder Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos
Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the latest updates as of 16.07.2020:

The aggravation at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border has affected the population.

A resident of Chinari village of Armenia's Tavush province Aramayis Hovakimyan was wounded after being struck by the Azerbaijani unmanned combat aerial vehicle, ex-spokesperson of the Armenian defense ministry wrote on his Facebook.

According to the health ministry spokesperson Alina Nikoghosyan, the wounded resident of Chinari in critical but stable condition.

In the meantime, the Office of the Human Rights Defender has shared photos of civilian settlements of the Tavush province targeted from shelling by the Azerbaijani side. All the information will be sent to international organizations, as well as to the relevant state and public human rights organizations in Armenia.

Armenian emergency situations ministry has also reported that its vehicle has been damaged during the shootings at the Tavush province.

The Armenian Unified Information Center has also released photos of the building of a kindergarten in the Aygepar village of Tavush Province bombarded last night.

The photos show the recently repaired kindergarten a week before and now.

Armenian defense ministry spokesperson Shushan Stepanyan noted that "Azerbaijan, again, violating the agreement to hold the fire and stop military operations, employs combat UAVs, including in the direction of civilian settlements."

According to her, "the number of dead bodies of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces from this morning is likely to drastically increase."

The spokesperson also noted that "in case the Azerbaijani Armed Forces stop the fire and favorable conditions are created, the Armenian side is ready to permit the recovery and retrieval of the Azerbaijani killed and injured from the battlefield."

Later this evening, she has shared a video of the Azerbaijani side evacuating the bodies of their servicemen.

A representative of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan has stood out with a statement, threatening to strike the Armenian nuclear power plant with a missile.

The Armenian side must not forget that the armament of the Azerbaijani army includes state-of-the-art missile systems that allow to strike the Nuclear Power Plant in Metsamor with high precision, which will lead to a great disaster for Armenia, defense ministry spokesperson Vagif Dargyakhli noted, as reported Azerbaijani presses.

Moreover, the defense ministry official didnt pay attention to the fact that a strike against the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant will cause damage to not only Armenia, but also the whole region, and first and foremost Turkey and Azerbaijan.

The military-political leadership of Azerbaijan is at an impasse, the Armenian MFA said in a statement.

"As a result of its short-sighted policy, the military-political leadership of Azerbaijan is at an impasse and now is resorting to perilous, ill-conceived steps for which it will bear responsibility also before its own people," the statement said. "The Foreign Minister is in constant contact with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship. In the present situation the efforts aimed at unconditional, complete restoration, preservation and strengthening of the ceasefire are imperative."

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order on the appointment of Jeyhun Bayramov as the Foreign Minister, AzerTAc reported.

Rumors on the resignation of Elmar Mammadyarov have been floating around for a long time especially following numerous reports on his family's property abroad.
Agradezco la confianza del presidente @MartinVizcarraC y del presidente del Consejo de Ministros, @PCaterianoB. Es un periodo de la historia del Peru y del mundo en el que la economia debe estar, mas que nunca, al servicio del bien comun.
A team of McMaster University researchers have developed a tool that can pinpoint the exact source of a COVID-19 infection using the genetic fingerprint of the virus.

The tool  more like a supercomputer-machine hybrid  generates millions of raw data points from coronavirus patients that are processed into genetic sequences within a matter of minutes.

It sounds like a mathematical headache, and it can be. But its also what infectious disease experts consider the next step to ensuring Canada exits a looming second wave of COVID-19 relatively unscathed.

Think of it as extremely high-resolution contact tracing, said Andrew McArthur, an associate professor at McMaster specializing in infectious diseases and superbugs.

McArthur and his team of researchers have been able to track how the virus transmits from one person to another and whether it mutates and develops over time  a key indicator of a vaccines viability.

And it comes at a pressing period. The economy reopening has placed greater stress on public health units to understand how infections spread and where they originate.

When you look at the genetic level of the virus, you get more than just the positive result, McArthur said. You can work out the actual patterns of transmission in the community and keep an eye on the virus to make sure it isnt evolving.

By mid-fall, McArthur and his team hope to have sequenced the genomes of 37,000-plus coronavirus cases in Ontario. He said it will help public health officials curb future cases and halt outbreaks before they reach declarable status.

The Spectator spoke with McArthur about his recent work, what we know and dont know about COVID-19, and where were at with a vaccine.

Question: It seems remarkable scientists can tell where a person contracted COVID-19 using just their (genetic) fingerprint. How is that possible?

McArthur: Over time, organisms change their genetic clothes slightly.

If youre looking at a viral outbreak in a hospital, as it spreads around the patients and staff, it actually changes enough that each infection has a fingerprint.

This means we can tell the difference between an outbreak at a long-term care facility versus cases floating around in the community.

Q: But if fingerprints generate millions of data points, how can we be sure a case originates from one specific place and not another? And why is that important?

M: If two people with the virus have the same fingerprint, that probably means they cross-infected each other.

Consider we have a declared outbreak at a hospital ward. Theres two possibilities.

One, an infected staff or patient came in and everyone cross infected themselves. Two, everyone goes home, gets separate infections and then all show up to work.

With this tool, we get enough information to be able to tell the difference.

Q: How can we know whether the virus came from overseas if its detected in Canada?

M: We depend on every country to sequence the genome. There is a large global database where you can say, Well, this fingerprint has really been seen in the Netherlands, this one in Australia.

Take Barbados. A lot Canadians go there, but so do a lot of British and American and French. You can do the tracing to say, Well, Canadians came back and they were positive, but the fingerprint suggests it was originally from France.

So, it was a French tourist bringing it to the island and Canadians bringing it back. That allows Canada, Barbados and France to figure out what went wrong and make those changes. We have to collaborate internationally to make this work.

Q: What do we know about COVID-19?

M: What we do know, definitively, is that this virus evolves very slowly. You look across the globe, the province, Hamilton  the cases look very similar. And thats a good thing. That makes the likelihood of finding a drug or a vaccine even higher.

From the Ontario perspective, by looking back and sequencing all these genomes of positive cases, were going to figure out how the virus got into the province, how it moved around, and how much of it was cross-border with Quebec or America or flights in and out of (airports).

Q: What dont we know about COVID-19?

M: What we dont know is, if we make a vaccine, whether it will induce a really robust response like a flu vaccine.

If it generates a weak immune response, its possible that you have to have boosters on regular basis. We dont know enough about how it works with the immune system.

We also dont know exactly how it spreads. The molecular tracing allows us to start tracing those fine details.

Q: Vaccines  where are we at?

M: There are multiple trials going and the results are mixed on how strong the immune response is.

But because our work and the work of others show how the virus changes, at least one of these vaccines is going to be workable.
Kiran has also been conferred with the prestigious IMC Ladies Wing Woman of the Year Award 20192020

The net worth of Kiran Mazumdar Shaw in 2020 is $420 crore. But that is not the only reason why the executive chairperson of Biocon evokes admiration amongst her contemporaries.

Kiran has also been conferred with the prestigious IMC Ladies Wing Woman of the Year Award 20192020.

Vanita Bhandari, the president of the organisation, pays her tribute by saying, Ms Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is a shining light who has broken the glass ceiling and paved a successful path in the fields of science and chemistry. Her vision, talent, dedication and philanthropic initiatives motivate us to aspire high.

Excerpts from the conversation with Ms Shaw:

Now that Biocons original drug Itolizumab has finally got the much-needed approval, what is your current state of mind?

It is a truly innovative, original drug, which is made in India. We have not copied any other drug. I dont think anybody has picked this important factor, which is what makes it disappointing.

It is life-saving. This is not a small feat. When the disease gets to a serious stage, nothing can help you except drugs like ours. Itolizumab regulates all cytokines in that pathway.

This is a first drug from India that will stand on its own. Why cant people be proud of a drug made in India? We believed in this drug for the last 20 years. So, its a fantastic feeling now.

COVID-19 is a serious disease and people have still not understood the gravity of the disease

Many Indian companies are rushing to claim they can make the vaccine available by September/ October, when experts say its not possible till next year. Your comments?

You can make a vaccine by this period, but the question is if you can deliver a well-validated vaccine. It is like the Russians claiming they have developed the vaccine, which is fine as anyone can make a vaccine.

Today, if Astra Zeneca develops the vaccine, they also have to evaluate it. You have to do this to check whether there is a possibility of being re-infected by the virus.

Secondly, even if you have responded positively to the vaccine, you need to know for how long you are going to be protected. Realistically, you could get a vaccine by the end of this year, but it is vital to check the safety and reliability factor before even I would use it.

The ongoing pandemic has changed everyones life. What has your learning been from this situation?

It is definitely something to worry about; it is a serious disease and people have still not understood the gravity of the disease.

But it is not necessary that you are going to die. The people who have to worry about COVID-19 are the vulnerable population. I should be worried; I am over 60 but since I dont have co-morbidities, I am not worried so much about myself, but I have to remain safe as my mom is almost 90 and my husband is 70 and they are both cancer survivors.

You are very vocal with your views on social media and otherwise. Are you not worried about anti reactions?

If you are honest and if you have no mal-intent and there is no agenda, nothing will happen. If I have political aspirations, then maybe it will have an impact.

You put a succession plan in place several years back. At a time when the nepotism debate is ongoing, what made you opt for such a radical (at that time) decision?

I dont agree with this nepotism debate because if a person is good you must give an opportunity to him/her but you should not give it just because they are your family.

For instance, Azim Premjis son Rishad is a capable youngster who understands the business at Wipro though they have an outside guy at the helm. My niece  a brilliant cancer immunologist, PhD, MBA from Stanford, Masters from MIT  worked at Third Rock Ventures in the US.

I told her to do something for Biocon. I started a small biotech company in Boston and have asked her to run it. But she is the kind of person who has earned it. As far as Biocon biologics is concerned, I dont think she can run this.

This is a very professional business and so it is helmed by professionals.

You have a strong, admirable relationship with your husband. What is the secret?

I just think it is your commitment to anything. First, you have to make a judgement call about the person and then obviously you will have some differences and arguments, all of which happen in a marriage.

But at the same time, it is a commitment you made. For me, my husband has played a very important role in my life. He has really supported me in a fantastic way.

Not many husbands would be happy to support their wives to be at the front. He has always taken the backseat. He always tells me, It is your business... you have to run it and I will support you but you need to lead it. Thats a fantastic quality. We have respect for each other.

You are a fiercely loyal friend who has stood by Vijay Mallya through all the tough times.

I am just a good, loyal friend, and there are lots of people who are good friends too. In fact, I would often point out to Vijay to see how many of all his fair-weather friends would be with him when the chips are down. I was right. He agrees with me now. I was the only one who would caution him then, but he would never listen to me.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Ibadan on Wednesday set aside the Oyo State High Court judgment restraining the governor and or government from dissolving local government councils in the state.

Justice Haruna Tsammani, who delivered the judgment, said the sacked local government chairmen failed to show verifiable facts of the plan by the Oyo State governor to dissolve the councils.

Tsammani said the case initiated was based on mere speculations and conjectures.

Bashorun Bosun Ajuwon had instituted the case on behalf of the Oyo State chapter of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON).



The Governor Seyi Makinde-led government and the embattled council bosses had been at loggerheads over the control of the local governments and local council development areas.

The judgment elicited jubilation, as the Court of Appeal premises, which was filled by supporters of the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), erupted in songs of victory.

The court, after considering the evidence and submissions of both legal teams, upheld the validity of the decision of the Oyo State Government to dissolve the sacked ALGON.

But the sacked council bosses have rejected the Appeal Court judgment, vowing to take the matter to the Supreme Court.

The chairmen, under the aegis of ALGON, spoke through its Chairman, Prince Ayodeji Abass-Aleshinloye, in a statement.

He said the judgment had shown that the course of justice was not served, adding that the association would proceed to the Supreme Court for proper redress and judicial interpretation.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 15:42:33|Editor: huaxia

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KIEV, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine's foreign trade turnover amounted to 47.2 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of 2020, down by 9.5 percent year-on-year, the State Customs Service of Ukraine reported Wednesday.

In the first half of 2020, Ukraine's exports fell by 6 percent to 23 billion dollars, while imports dropped by 12 percent to 24.3 billion dollars, according to the report.

In the first six months of 2020, China was Ukraine's largest trading partner, the report showed, mentioning that the majority of goods imported to Ukraine are from China, Germany and Russia. Enditem
The now-shuttered Homestead detention center for migrant children in Miami-Dade had four child sex-abuse claims that resulted in the firing of one employee and the resignation of two others, according to newly released documents.

The information about the claims of sex abuse, which took place in the 18 months between January 2017 and July 2018, is in a 17-page report sent to U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powells office in mid-May, a year after she had filed an inquiry with the federal Administration for Children and Families about the center.

It offers a glimpse of how employees caring for migrant kids at Homestead were not vetted for prior child abuse records and how allegations were reported and handled.

In the report by ACF, the federal agency that oversees the detention and care of migrant minors, officials acknowledged that the facility did not conduct child-abuse and child-neglect background checks for employees hired to care for the immigrant teens at Homestead  a protocol thats mandated in the state of Florida for anybody working with children.

The governments reasoning for waiving the requirements of searching Floridas database that confirms if a person is responsible for causing abuse or neglect to a child was that both ACF and Caliburn, the private company contracted to operate the detention center, were unable to run child abuse and neglect checks on Homestead employees due to restrictions in the applicable Florida statutes and regulations.

Though the government and Caliburn do conduct criminal background checks during the hiring process, its still unclear what Florida statutes and regulations restricted Homestead from conducting the abuse checks, which would bring to light allegations or investigations that often dont make it into the criminal justice system.

Asked for clarification, ACF spokesperson Lydia Holt declined to comment, calling the inquiry irrelevant because the center is not currently open and hasnt been for about a year. Caliburn did not respond to emails requesting more information.

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The Homestead facility  which was abruptly shut down in August 2019 after the Miami Herald reported that the center didnt have a hurricane plan in place  supervised as many as 1,200 kids at a time, making it the nations largest center for unaccompanied migrant children. The federal government defines unaccompanied migrant children as minors who enter the U.S. without a biological mother or father.

Inside the Homestead shelter for unaccompanied minors.

Mucarsel-Powell described the answers to her 50 questions as evasive and incomplete, yet still manage to present an environment with allegations of staff-on-child sexual abuse and where staff members are not vetted for prior child abuse records.

Its a loophole for child abuse, Mucarsel-Powell said Wednesday. They made a conscious decision to not conduct abuse background checks on employees. This matters, whether its open or closed. Every single day it matters. Not just here in Florida, but across America, where kids are still in detention facilities today. 

According to the report, One allegation of sexual abuse resulted in a staff members termination. In that incident, a youth discharged from Homestead ICF reported having romantic feelings for a Homestead staff member and kept in contact with them through social media. The staff member traveled to the state where the youth was living after being released from [our] care. Although local [Child Protective Services] chose not to investigate, the staff member was fired, the agency wrote.

It continued: Of the other three allegations that occurred at Homestead in this time period, two staff members resigned and the other staff member was never identified in the allegation report. The report offered no details about the staffers who resigned.

SKIRTING REGULATIONS

Last year, ACF officials told the Herald that they had the right not to comply with local and state regulations because the detention center sits on federal land and because its considered a federal emergency influx center.

On Wednesday, DaMonica Smith, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Children & Families, which would normally license group child placement facilities like Homestead, said that DCF has no jurisdiction over this federal facility because it sits on federal land. Therefore DCF does not license the shelter. If DCF had jurisdiction to license the facility, all staff would be required to complete abuse checks as outlined in state statute 39.202.

Smith added that if the migrant shelter were to sit on land that wasnt owned by the federal government, it would be required to meet the licensing standards as a child-placing agency, which includes vetting employees for prior child abuse or neglect histories.

According to the ACF report, the four allegations of staff-on-child sexual abuse at the Homestead center were reported to the Department of Justice and DCF, and three of the four allegations were also reported to Miami-Dade Police.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement, ACFs program that presides over the care of migrant children under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is not an investigative entity, the report said, noting that the investigative entities that received reports for those four allegations determined they would not investigate in three of the four incidents and did not find the allegations to be substantiated in the fourth incident.

Homestead shelter for unaccompanied minors.

But DCF data obtained by the Herald shows that no reports were filed with the state agency between January 2017 and July 2018. Miami-Dade Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

ACF has told the Herald that ORR reviews every report of sexual abuse submitted by care providers. In the ACF report, the agency said that Caliburn reports allegations of sexual abuse to ORR, child protective services, the state licensing agency, HHS Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Department of Justices FBI.

But that part about state law is only partly true, according to DCF, which has repeatedly told the Herald the agency isnt allowed to investigate any allegations or enter the property.

Last year, Miami-Dade Police told the Herald that if by chance Miami-Dade police get called to the center on a call of sex abuse, they are turned away by security.

Usually if we get a call for sex assault or something its because a staffer didnt know the protocol, a police spokesman said. If we end up there we immediately get turned away.

Its unclear what state licensing agency Caliburn would report to if they arent licensed by the state.

Citing what it calls a slew of human-rights violations, Amnesty International, a global human-rights organization, published a 41-page report last July calling on the facilities to shut down after touring the Homestead center.

Because of its designation as a temporary influx care facility and its location on federal land, Homestead is permitted to operate without state licensing and to provide lower standards of care than is required of state-licensed, permanent ORR shelters, the Amnesty report says. This temporary influx designation enables Homestead to evade U.S. legal requirements for unaccompanied children that apply to permanent ORR shelters.

The detention center in Homestead has been shut down since August 2019.

Homestead first opened as an emergency influx facility in 2016 under former president Barack Obama as the number of incoming migrants at the border first soared.

The detention center shut down and reopened in March 2018 with the same emergency designation before closing again in August 2019.

The countless protests and media coverage of the Homestead facility  which technically is located in unincorporated Miami-Dade, not the City of Homestead  led Homestead officials to reach out to Mucarsel-Powell and her staff about possibly changing the facilitys name.

Including Homestead in the name of the detention center gives the false impression that it is located within the City of Homestead and that the city has control over the facility, which is simply not the case, said City of Homestead spokesman Zackery Good.

Thats when Mucarsel-Powell took the request to D.C. and succeeded in getting the name changed. Its new name: the Biscayne Influx Care Facility, which sits a few blocks away from Biscayne Drive.

It was a scar on our community, she said. So many people were outraged because it gave the wrong perception of who we are. We always suspected that the children were being exposed to unsafe conditions at the facility, and now we know what we feared, which is why Im calling on its permanent shutdown.

Though the center currently remains closed on warm status, federal officials can reopen it at any time. Sources at the Department of Homeland Security with knowledge of the facilitys operations told the Herald that only time will tell. Conversations are actively happening.
Taiwan on Thursday warned China could use the sweeping national security law it imposed on Hong Kong for "hostage diplomacy", urging democratic countries to unite against Beijing's "autocratic" expansion. The Hong Kong security law has rattled nearby self-ruled Taiwan, which China regards as its own territory and has vowed to one day seize, by force if necessary. A provision within the law claims global jurisdiction and allows China to prosecute especially serious cases instead of semi-autonomous Hong Kong's independent judiciary. The law would enable Beijing to carry out "hostage diplomacy", Chen Ming-tong, head of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), Taiwan's top China policy body, told reporters. "The national security law for Hong Kong has seriously invaded democracy and human rights to impact regional security and unnerve the international community." The law says national security offences can be prosecuted even if they take place outside Hong Kong or China and are committed by foreigners. That has raised fears that Beijing critics could face prosecution and extradition to China if they travel to or transit through Hong Kong. Chen urged democratic countries to "stand united in order to effectively counter China's expansion in an autocratic nature". Canada accused China of "hostage diplomacy" after two of its citizens were detained soon after Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Vancouver on a US extradition request. The two men have since been hit with spy charges. Taiwan's government now fears something similar could happen with the Hong Kong law. Beijing has taken an especially hardline towards Taiwan ever since the 2016 election of President Tsai Ing-wen because she regards the island as a de facto sovereign nation and not part of "one China". Taiwanese critics of Beijing have been increasingly turned away by Hong Kong authorities in recent years. Tsai, who has been critical of Beijing's clampdown against Hong Kong protesters, has warned of "countermeasures" should the new security law cause any "damage" to Taiwan. Taipei has a trade and cultural office in Hong Kong handling unofficial ties. But it has been devoid of a chief since mid-2018 as Hong Kong has yet to issue a visa amid worsening ties between Taipei and Beijing, as well as Taiwan's support for the city's pro-democracy movement. Over the years, China has used national security laws to prosecute Taiwanese nationals on the mainland. Chen Ming-tong, chairman of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, has warned that China could use the new Hong Kong security law for 'hostage diplomacy'
(Newser)  Fly dangerously close to the sun, and what do you see? "Campfires." That's what scientists have dubbed the small solar flares seen in new NASA photosthe closest ever taken of the sun's surface, the Guardian reports. "The campfires are little relatives of the solar flares that we can observe from Earth, million or billion times smaller," says David Berghmans, a top scientist leading the Solar Orbiter mission that snapped the photos from 48 million miles away. "The sun might look quiet at the first glance, but when we look in detail, we can see those miniature flares everywhere we look." The newly observed flares might also help explain why the sun's atmosphere burns so hot while its surface is relatively coola question that's been haunting solar physicists.

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The outer layer of the sun's atmospherecalled the coronais burning at 2 million degrees Fahrenheit while the surface is merely 9,900 degrees, perhaps because the "campfires" are heating up the atmosphere, per the Atlantic. "A few of them together do not create a lot of heat or energy," says Holly Gilbert, a NASA solar physicist. "If you combine them all together, it's possible that that is contributing to the coronal heating." The smaller flares also fit a hypothesis that magnetic interactions would trigger such "nanoflares" near the sun's surface. Next up for the Solar Orbiter: snapping shots of the sun's still-uncharted north and south poles when it reaches a good angle next year. Even better: The mission is slated to orbit the sun 22 times over a 10-year period, the New York Times reports. (You can also see 10 years of the sun in one hour.)
Ibrahim Magu, suspended acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has described the allegations levelled ag...

Ibrahim Magu, suspended acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has described the allegations levelled against him as nonsense.





Speaking with The Nation hours after he was released from police custody, Magu said he was shocked when he read the allegations designed to tarnish his image.





He was arrested last week and whisked to the presidential villa in Abuja, where he appeared before a panel President Muhammadu Buhari set up to probe the EFCC under him.





The panel is headed by Ayo Salami, retired president of the appeal court.





They are nonsense. They are mere trump up allegations to tarnish my image and that of the EFCC. I did not steal or divert or convert funds to private use. I read the allegations and I was shocked, Magu was quoted to have said.





What I have gone through is a case of dog eats dog but I see it as one of those risks of the job we must not give up in any way.





Magu, who vowed to fight corruption till the end, thanked those who stood by him when he was in detention.





He asked Nigerians not to give up on the fight against corruption, saying: Corruption kills a nation faster than any other thing.





I thank Nigerians for their support, they should not be discouraged. I am happy to be back, I believe the war against corruption is winnable, he said.





Whether I am EFCC Chairman or not, the anti-corruption war must continue.





Magus travails followed a memo by Malami accusing him of grave malfeasance. He was alleged to have mishandled the recovered loot and sold seized assets to his associates.





A slew of allegations has come to the fore since his arrest. He was alleged to have purchased a property in Dubai, United Arab Emirate using a pastor as a conduit.





He was also alleged to have laundered over N500 billion through a bureau-de-change in Kaduna.





Magu earlier denied the allegations through his lawyers.





Mohammaded Umar, former director of operations at the EFCC, has taken charge of the commission in acting capacity.
The ruling comes against a backdrop of tense discussions to find an international solution to the core issue: the way that multinationals, not least the US West Coast technology giants, are able to shift profits to low-tax jurisdictions such as Ireland.

Back in 2016, the Commission said Ireland's lenient approach to taxing Apple between 2003 and 2014 constituted illegal state aid. On Wednesday, the General Court decided the competition authority failed to demonstrate that Apple benefited from an unfair advantage. The Commission is likely to appeal the ruling, but if the higher European Court of Justice proceeds to absolve Apple and Ireland of any misdeeds, then it would seem to underscore the problems within the system.

The European General Court's ruling late on Wednesday in favour of Apple and Ireland and against the European Commission, which had been trying to force the tech giant to pay the island nation that much in back taxes, is a reminder that the global tax regime is not fit for purpose.

There's clearly something wrong when a government rejects the opportunity to levy 13 billion ($21 billion) in corporate taxes and an international court says it is right to do so.

After years of wrangling, the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development proposed a shake-up last year. Countries would have the right to tax a share of the profits that were generated on their soil, even if the companies had no physical presence there. The goal is to ensure that more taxes are paid where an iPhone is sold or a Facebook ad is seen, rather than elsewhere.

Lamentably, the US threw the plans into disarray in June by backing out of the talks. As long as Donald Trump is president, further progress seems unlikely.

The lack of an international consensus has meant that countries including the UK, France, Italy and Spain have ploughed ahead with unilateral policies on digital taxation. For all of the problems with such an approach, it may accentuate the urgent need for an international consensus.

It's actually in companies' interest for there to be a universal tax regime. Otherwise, they risk being taxed twice on the same income: on the revenue abroad, and on the profit in the country where they are domiciled, for instance.

The current lack of consensus leaves gaping loopholes. Apple had long argued that its overseas revenue, much of which was funnelled through Ireland, would be taxed as soon as it was repatriated to the US. But only after US tax reform went into law in 2017 did it become certain that Apple would indeed ever repatriate that income. Otherwise, it would stay sitting in offshore accounts, largely untaxed. The commission tried to use current OECD rules in its case against Apple; Wednesday's court decision said it failed to apply those rules correctly.
R&D Program Utilized Lexaria's Patented DehydraTECHTM Technology for Oral Nicotine Delivery

Conclusion of Phase I allows for additional phased private financings up to a further US$11 million from Altria

KELOWNA, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 16, 2020 / Lexaria Bioscience Corp. (OTCQX:LXRP) (CSE:LXX) (the "Company" or "Lexaria"), a global innovator in drug delivery platforms, announces that Phase I of the research and development program of oral forms of nicotine delivery utilizing Lexaria's patented DehydraTECHTM technology with Altria Ventures Inc. ("Altria") has concluded.

The Phase I research and development program was initiated to evaluate reduced health risks relative to combusted tobacco of a preliminary DehydraTECHTM oral nicotine formulation that Lexaria had previously announced findings with in 2018. The following main findings were determined about the early-stage DehydraTECHTM formulation:

It demonstrated acceptable chemical and microbiological stability;

It was well tolerated in a 7-day, repeat-dose acute toxicology study in rats with no test article-related effects on survival, macroscopic findings, or organ weights and no test article-related histopathological tissue findings;

It created no issues with throat burn and irritation in oral pouch and chew formats at standard commercial doses upon small scale sensory analysis in humans; and

It demonstrated formation of a unique mixture of nanoparticles without formation of a covalently linked, new molecular entity construct upon molecular characterization by Canada's National Research Council (NRC); and is, therefore, not believed to be preclusive of Premarket Tobacco Product Application ("PMTA") applicability in this respect.

Lexaria has been advised that Altria is exercising its right to activate the "First Warrant Tranche Trigger"(as such term is defined in the Warrant and Option Agreement dated as of January 15, 2019 among Lexaria, its majority owned subsidiary Lexaria Nicotine LLC and Altria) indicating that Phase I of the research and development program has come to a close. As a result, Altria now has 90 days, or until 11:59 pm on October 8, 2020 to exercise its First Warrant Tranche by way of a further staged payment to Lexaria Nicotine as per the agreements among the parties. This payment would enable Altria to retain its current exclusivity in the US market for Lexaria's DehydraTECHTM for purposes of oral nicotine delivery.

Regardless of whether Altria exercises the First Warrant Tranche, Altria maintains its existing minority equity stake and board representation in Lexaria Nicotine LLC. Altria additionally retains a non-exclusive license to use DehydraTECHTM worldwide outside of the US and has agreed to an earlier-defined royalty payment schedule to Lexaria in the event it decides to utilize the technology commercially.

"The findings from this Phase I research and development program deliver many valuable insights about our DehydraTECHTM technology," said Chris Bunka, Chief Executive Officer of Lexaria. "We are pleased to have concluded the Phase I scientific program and we thank the joint researchers at both Altria and the NRC for their collaboration together with our own scientists."

Lexaria continues to showcase its advanced technology to other tobacco, nicotine and pharmaceutical companies and is currently in discussions with two other companies that are each one of the world's ten largest tobacco firms. Lexaria believes the suitability of DehydraTECHTM to successfully deliver nicotine through oral methods has been enhanced due to the extensive scientific rigour it was subjected to during the 2019 R&D program and is highly positive regarding its commercial future.

About Lexaria

Lexaria Bioscience Corp's. (OTCQX: LXRP) proprietary drug delivery technology, DehydraTECH, improves the way active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) enter the bloodstream by promoting healthier ingestion methods and increasing the effectiveness of fat-soluble active molecules, thereby lowering overall dosing. The Company's technology can be applied to many different ingestible product formats, including foods, beverages, oral suspensions, tablets, and capsules. DehydraTECH increases bio-absorption by up to 5-10x, reduces time of onset from 1 - 2 hours to 10 - 20 minutes, and masks unwanted tastes for orally administered bioactive molecules, including anti-virals, cannabinoids, vitamins, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), nicotine, and other molecules. Lexaria has licensed DehydraTECH to multiple companies including a world-leading tobacco producer for the development of smokeless, oral-based nicotine products and for use in industries that produce cannabinoid beverages, edibles, and oral products. Lexaria operates a licensed in-house research laboratory and holds a robust intellectual property portfolio with 16 patents granted and over 60 patents pending worldwide. For more information, please visit www.lexariabioscience.com.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This release includes forward-looking statements. Statements as such term is defined under applicable securities laws. These statements may be identified by words such as "anticipate," "if," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "could," "should," "will," and other similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements by the company relating to the conclusions reached from the company's Phase 1 study and the ultimate suitability of DehydraTECH to deliver nicotine through oral methods. Such forward-looking statements are estimates reflecting the Company's best judgment based upon current information and involve a number of risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that the Company will actually achieve the plans, intentions, or expectations disclosed in these forward-looking statements. As such, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those estimated by the Company include, but are not limited to, government regulation and regulatory approvals, managing and maintaining growth, the effect of adverse publicity, litigation, competition, scientific discovery, the patent application and approval process, the inherent uncertainties in the initiation, ongoing assessment and completion of preclinical and clinical studies, whether interim results from a clinical study will be predictive of the final results of the study or the results of future studies, the risk that trials and studies may be delayed and may not have satisfactory outcomes, potential adverse effects arising from the testing or use of products utilizing the DehydraTECH technology, the Company's ability to maintain existing collaborations and realize the benefits thereof, and other factors which may be identified from time to time in the Company's public announcements and periodic filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on EDGAR. There is no assurance that existing capital is sufficient for the Company's needs or that it will be able to raise additional capital. There is no assurance the Company will be capable of developing, marketing, licensing, or selling edible products containing any active ingredient. There is no assurance that any planned corporate activity, scientific research or study, business venture, letter of intent, technology licensing pursuit, patent application or allowance, consumer study, or any initiative will be pursued, or if pursued, will be successful. There is no assurance that any of Lexaria's postulated uses, benefits, or advantages for the patented and patent-pending technology will in fact be realized in any manner or in any part. No statement herein has been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Lexaria-associated products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Any forward-looking statements contained in this release speak only as of the date hereof, and the Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained herein, whether as a result of any new information, future events, changed circumstances or otherwise, except as otherwise required by law.

The CSE has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

INVESTOR CONTACT:

ir@lexariabioscience.com

Phone: 866-221-3341

SOURCE: Lexaria Bioscience Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/597606/Altria-and-Lexaria-Conclude-Phase-I-Research-and-Development-Program
Engine power is an issue at Haas this year, boss Gunther Steiner has admitted.

With team owner Gene Haas yet to decide whether to keep racing, Haas boss Steiner admitted to Ekstra Bladet newspaper that the 2020 car "is in the slower half of the field".

"First I would like to see how we do on tracks like in Hungary, where there are not many long straights and where engine power doesn't matter so much," he said.

It is widely believed that Ferrari's power unit for 2020 has been badly affected by the engine legality saga of 2019 and subsequent highly controversial FIA agreement.

Ahead of the third race of the coronavirus-affected season in Hungary, Steiner said: "We are hoping we look better, but we really do not know.

"In the Barcelona testing, we were faster compared to the competition than we were in Austria," he added.

"We will have to do the race in Hungary before we know how we stand. But it will not be an easy year for us."

As for the reports that Haas might offer a cockpit to Ferrari refugee Sebastian Vettel for 2021, Steiner answered: "At the moment he is probably checking what his opportunities are.

"But I have no idea of his thoughts. He has not contacted me and I have not contacted him. We have so much work to do at the moment with this pandemic that the drivers can wait until later in the year," he added.

(GMM)
By Ayya Lmahamad

Some 555 citizens were fined during the past 24 hours across the country for violating the strict quarantine regime, the main traffic police department under the Ministry of Interior reported on July 16.

All 555 were fined according to Article 211.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences. Of them 489 were drivers who failed to follow the quarantine regime requirements and 66 were citizens not using facial masks in the public transport.

In the meantime, 530 cars, which had sought to leave these territories were stopped, and returned back during the reporting period.

Earlier, it was reported that 34,312 citizens were fined in the period of June 21 and July 14 for violating the quarantine regime, 635 drivers were fined during June 14-16 lockdown, while 2,524 drivers were fined during June 6-7 lockdown.

Azerbaijan first introduced quarantine regime on March 24, and on June 18 decision was taken to extend special quarantine regime until August 1.

On July 2, Cabinet of Ministers announced decision to prolong a strict quarantine regime till July 20.

The new lockdown imposed on July 5-20 in capital Baku, as well as in Jalilabad, Ganja, Lankaran, Masalli, Sumgayit, Yevlakh cities and Absheron district, and Goranboy, Goygol, Mingachevir, Barda, Khachmaz, Samukh, Siyazan and Sheki regions.

Under the lockdown rule, citizens are allowed to leave their place of residence only after obtaining SMS permissions.

Baku metro will be suspended from July 4 midnight till July 20, and the entire public transport will not operate on weekends in cities and districts in which the special quarantine regime has been toughened

Moreover, operation of shopping centers, restaurants, cafes, beauty salons, as well as museums, exhibition halls, sport and beaches was also suspended until July 20. Azerbaijan mandated wearing face masks on May 31.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Description

GIS  16 July 2020: The minister of National Infrastructure and Community Development, M. Mahendranuth Sharma Hurreeram, effected a site visit, today, at Morcellement La Vallee, Le Cornue, St Croix with regards to the emergency drain project in the same region. He was accompanied by the Minister of Energy and Public utilities, Mr Joe Lesjongard.

The project comprises the construction of a drain network at Boulle Auguste Ludovic Street and Morc Happy Valley, and Le Cornue, Ste Croix. To the tune of some Rs 140 million, the works consist of the construction of some 4 km of reinforced concrete drains of width varying from 500 mm to 2900 mm and road reinstatement. The contract has been awarded to Sotravic Limitee on 22 June 2020. Works are scheduled to start by end of July 2020 and will be completed by end of December 2021.

In a statement, Minister Hurreeram recalled that presently, the region of Ste Croix faces a serious problem of water accumulation and flooding during heavy rainfall. Residential developments have blocked the passage of natural water courses causing rain water from the slopes of the mountain to flow into residential areas, he said.

The Minister expressed satisfaction as regards the drain works to be carried out and stressed that Government has as priority the welfare and safety of citizens. Furthermore, he appealed to the inhabitants of the region to demonstrate understanding and patience as major works will be undertaken.

He lauded the setting up of the Land Drainage Authority (LDA) which, he pointed out, forms part of the Morcellement Board and hence, all developments that will be carried out will need to get the approval from the LDA first. This measure, he stated, will prevent residential developments from causing obstruction to drainage systems.

Speaking about the Land Drainage Master Plan, which consists of strategies to reduce anthropogenic effects on the vulnerability to heavy rain and flood incidences, he underlined that it is fundamental to maintaining safety in the country as well as coming up with sustainable solutions to mitigate the risk of flooding in the future.
India has demanded that Pakistan agree to give Kulbhushan Jadhav unconditional access.Pakistan earlier had said he had declined to file a plea for review. India f reverted that he was pressured to do so. India had declared last Thursday that it has been exploring all legal remedies in the case of Indian citizen Kulbushan Jadhav, who is on death penalty in Pakistan.

India has asked Pakistan to give unconditional access to Kulbhushan Jadhav, sources told ANI on Thursday.

Earlier Pakistan had claimed that he had refused to file a review plea. India said that he had been coerced into doing that. India had last Thursday said it is assessing all legal options in the case related to Indian national Kulbushan Jadhav, who is on death row in Pakistan and assured that it is committed to protecting the life of Indian nationals.

Pakistan had earlier claimed that Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer, has refused to initiate review petition of his sentence and conviction.

We had pointed out how Pakistans claim that Kulbushan Jadhav has refused to initiate a review petition, is a continuation of the farce playing out for the last 4 years. We are assessing our legal options and we remain committed to protecting the life of our Indian nationals, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Anurag Srivastava had said during a media briefing.

India had also dismissed Pakistans claims that Jadhav has refused to file an appeal in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against his conviction and stated that the Indian national was coerced by Islamabad to forego his rights to seek implementation of the judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

India sought unimpeded access to Jadhav to discuss his remedies under the Ordinance that allowed the High Court to review the sentence awarded by Pakistans military court.

Pakistans claim that Jadhav, who is incarcerated in Pakistans custody, has refused to initiate review petition is a continuation of the farce that has been in play for the last four years. Jadhav has been sentenced to execution through a farcical trial. He remains under custody of Pakistans military. He has clearly been coerced to refuse to file a review in his case, Srivastava had said in the statement.

Jadhav was purportedly arrested from Balochistan by Pakistani security forces on March 3, 2016, after he allegedly entered the country from Iran as claimed by Islamabad. India has rejected Pakistans allegations about Jadhavs involvement in spying and subversive activities and said he was kidnapped from the Iranian port of Chabahar where he was running a business.

Srivastava had said: Since 2017, when Military Court carried out a farcical trial, Pakistan has refused to hand over any relevant document, including FIR, evidence, court order, etc in the case to India. Clearly, Pakistan is attempting to create a mirage of compliance with the ICJ judgment.

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Fond words and accolades are rolling in for Steven Wakefield, who retired last week from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center after 20 years of bridge-building between vaccine researchers and underserved communities in Seattle and around the globe.

As external relations director for the HIV Vaccine Trials Network, Wakefield traveled to 32 nations to develop ties between the Hutch-headquartered operator of clinical trials and the communities where volunteers roll up their sleeves to test potential vaccines to stop HIV/AIDS.

What I can do at the age of 67 is not what I could have done as a younger man, he said. My cardiologist has become my interior decorator: My first week of retirement I will get rid of either my sofa or my La-Z-Boy and replace it with an indoor bike.

It is a change of pace earned from a lifetime of activism.

He has been, for me, a moral compass, a wise adviser and a close friend, said former Fred Hutch president and director Dr. Larry Corey, who cofounded the HVTN. When the organization received funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 2000, Wakefield was a key initial hire.

His values, his voice and his intellect just dont permeate our culture  he created the DNA of our organization. No one has had more of an impact on how we operate.

A lifetime of activism

Wakefield, who long ago dropped Steven and prefers to be known by the single name Wakefield, had been an activist since he was an 8-year-old member of the Rev. Jesse Jacksons Operation Breadbasket, which later became Operation PUSH, in Chicago.

As a young man he began volunteering in a storefront clinic that provided testing and treatment for gay men with sexually transmitted diseases, and showing that penchant for leadership, he became chair of its board of directors. When HIV emerged a mortal threat to his community, he helped to secure one of the first publicly funded AIDS research grants.

By the time Corey began setting up HVTN as the worlds largest publicly funded collaborative for development of HIV vaccines, Wakefield had already co-founded AVAC, a New York-based global advocacy group for HIV vaccine research. (Wakefield only recently retired from AVACs board of directors.)



He had been working in South Africa, helping epidemiologists develop volunteer community advisory boards, before returning to Chicago and learning about Coreys newly funded HVTN. Soon he began shaping its outreach and communications programs, forging critical ties between vaccine researchers and the people from hard-hit communities they needed to recruit from for clinical trials.

As Corey told Fred Hutch News Services Mary Engel (on the occasion of Wakefield being named a grand marshal of the 2018 Seattle Pride Parade), He understands science, he asks hard questions and pushes back when anything doesnt seem right or principled.

Renowned HIV researcher Dr. Glenda Gray, leader of the South African Medical Research Council and co-principal investigator for HVTN, said Wakefield helped to expand clinical trial capacity in her country through his skill in working with both scientists and community advocates.

His vision and passion for Africa resulted in a vibrant and highly successful program. He rejected the concept of Afro-pessimism and helped promote the growth of science in Africa. For that I will always be grateful, she said.

Wakefields retirement is a bittersweet moment for those who have worked closely with him. Kimberly Louis, outreach manager for the Seattle Vaccine Trials Unit, part of HVTNs web of clinical trials sites for vaccines for HIV (and now COVID-19), called Wakefield the godfather of the community work for the network.

He taught me that outreach was a conversation. Before you can make an ask of recruitment to a vaccine trial, there has to be education. There has to be reciprocity. You cant go into communities asking them to support us without giving them something back, she said.

Dr. Michele Andrasik, senior staff scientist in the Hutchs Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, said Wakefield was always making connections, opening doors and ensuring that those doors stay open.

Dr. George Counts, a retired University of Washington professor of medicine, said working with Wakefield in South Africa and Botswana were among the most memorable moments of his career.

He has extraordinary people skills, said Counts. He earned the respect of scientists at the highest level of government, academia and industry.
Shareholder rights law firm Robbins LLP reminds investors that a purchaser of Endo International Plc (NYSE: ENDP) filed a class action complaint against the Company for alleged violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 between August 8, 2017 and June 10, 2020. Endo manufactures and sells generic and branded pharmaceuticals in the U.S. and internally, including both generic and branded opioid products.

If you suffered a loss as a result of Endo's misconduct, click here.

Endo International Plc (ENDP) Under Investigation by New York Department of Financial Services (DFS)

According to the complaint, on June 10, 2020, the New York Department of Financial Services ("DFS") announced that it had filed charges against the Company and its subsidiaries in connection with the opioid crisis. DFS claims that Endo "[k]nowingly furthered a false narrative to legitimize opioids as appropriate for broad treatment of pain by downplaying their long-known addictive nature and risks"; "[m]isrepresented the safety and efficacy of opioids, without legitimate scientific substantiation"; and "[d]eployed a large sales force to target healthcare providers directly with these misrepresentations." On this news, Endo's stock price fell over 14% to close at $3.85. The stock has yet to recover.

Endo International Plc (ENDP) Shareholders Have Legal Options

Contact us to learn more:

Leo Kandinov

(800) 350-6003

LKandinov@robbinsllp.com

Shareholder Information Form

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View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200716005980/en/

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Robbins LLP

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LKandinov@robbinsllp.com

(619) 525-3990 or Toll Free (800) 350-6003

www.robbinsllp.com
GENEVA and SUNNYVALE, Calif., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) and Cepheid, Inc, announced today the launch of the new Xpert  MTB/XDR* test, which enables expanded drug-resistance tuberculosis (TB) profiling in less than 90 minutes. Xpert MTB/XDR can be used to empower clinicians to quickly prescribe treatment regimens for extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB).

Able to detect TB that is resistant to multiple first- and second-line TB drugs, the test could help fill a critical gap that is currently jeopardizing global TB elimination targets. By contrast, current methods for identifying drug-resistance profiles for XDR-TB are very complex to perform, can take up to 16 weeks to deliver results, and as a result are often completely unavailable to patients.1

XDR-TB is the most complicated form of TB, with the worst outcomes. Mortality has been reported as high as 41% in some cohorts.2 The scientific community has been focused on coordinating innovation to improve both diagnosis and treatment of XDR-TB for years.3,4 The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends rapid molecular testing and detection of drug-resistant TB as an essential condition for the implementation of new treatment regimens.5

"An ordinary TB diagnosis is awful, but XDR-TB is the worst nightmare of every TB doctor and every patient," said Catharina Boehme, CEO of FIND. "Recent treatment advances are already making a huge impact, but for the best chances of survival, patients need to be able to start on treatment as soon as possible  and the only way for that to happen is through rapid diagnosis. By providing test results in just a few hours, the Xpert MTB/XDR test will save lives."

Xpert MTB/XDR leverages Cepheid's new 10-colour technology, which enables the detection of multiple mutations across several genes, from a single sample. Xpert MTB/XDR can detect resistance to isoniazid, ethionamide, fluoroquinolones, amikacin, kanamycin and capreomycin. Access to testing that can reliably identify resistance towards isoniazid as well as to fluoroquinolones and amikacin will help enable clinicians to quickly select the most appropriate MDR-TB treatment for each individual patient.7

"Rapid testing of resistance to isoniazid and fluoroquinolones is a critical step towards ensuring those who are ill with drug-resistant TB, and in particular XDR-TB, can access treatment and care early  in line with the latest WHO guidelines on the treatment of drug-resistant TB," said Tereza Kasaeva, Director of the WHO Global TB Programme. "WHO is looking forward to receiving all relevant data on the GeneXpert MTB/XDR cartridge from Cepheid and partners to rapidly proceed with an evaluation of the new test."

The test runs on Cepheid GeneXpert systems equipped with 10-colour multiplexing modules. GeneXpert 10-colour modules are capable of processing the already widely used Xpert MTB/RIF^ and Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra* tests for diagnosis of TB and rifampicin resistance.

"This test is the first to leverage 10-colour homogeneous detection within the GeneXpert system," said Dr David H Persing, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical and Technology Officer at Cepheid. "In partnership with Dr David Alland and his team at Rutgers University as well as FIND, we have demonstrated the ability to detect a wide array of TB drug resistance mutations directly from clinical specimens with a high level of accuracy comparable with standard testing."

A study conducted by Cepheid showed promising results for the detection of mutations associated with first- and second-line drug resistance, while preliminary data from independent analytical and clinical evaluation studies conducted by FIND indicate that the test's sensitivity (ability to correctly identify drug-resistance) and specificity (ability to correctly identify drug-susceptibility) is comparable with current standard tests (culture-based phenotypic drug-susceptibility testing) and sequencing, and that the test meets the performance characteristics defined by the high-priority target product profiles for new TB diagnostics.6

Data from the FIND evaluations will form part of the dossier now being prepared for WHO review at the end of this year. If the test is recommended for use by WHO, countries could include it in their national policies and accelerate its scale up  particularly in high-burden TB countries such as India and China.

"Reflex testing of MDR-TB patients, to rapidly and accurately diagnose XDR-TB within 2 hours and minimum expertise needed, has the potential to be the cornerstone in the rapid initiation of tailored treatment," said Camilla Rodrigues, Consultant Microbiologist, Chairperson Infection Control Committee, P.D. Hinduja Hospital, Mumbai.

"It is great to have the Xpert MTB/XDR test that can be deployed in the peripheral laboratories and greatly improve access to diagnosis of drug-resistant TB and selection of the most appropriate treatment regimens," said Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership. "We should all work together to ensure that this and any other new TB diagnostics are fast-tracked from development, to WHO recommendation, to scale up and use by countries."

FIND is now working with Cepheid and WHO to support the rollout of the test.

About FIND

FIND is a global non-profit organization that drives innovation in the development and delivery of diagnostics to combat major diseases affecting the world's poorest populations. Our work bridges R&D to access, overcoming scientific barriers to technology development; generating evidence for regulators and policy-makers; addressing market failures; and enabling accelerated uptake and access to diagnostics in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Since 2003, we have been instrumental in the development of 24 new diagnostic tools used in 150 LMICs. Over 50 million FIND-supported products have been provided to our target markets since the start of 2015. A WHO Collaborating Centre, we work with more than 200 academic, industry, governmental, and civil society partners worldwide, on over 70 active projects that cross six priority disease areas. FIND is committed to a future in which diagnostics underpin treatment decisions and provide the foundation for disease surveillance, control and prevention. For more information, please visit www.finddx.org

About Cepheid

Based in Sunnyvale, Calif., Cepheid is a leading molecular diagnostics company that is an operating company within Danaher Corporation's (NYSE: DHR) Diagnostics platform. Cepheid is dedicated to improving healthcare by developing, manufacturing, and marketing accurate yet easy-to-use molecular systems and tests. By automating highly complex and time-consuming manual procedures, the company's solutions deliver a better way for institutions of any size to perform sophisticated molecular diagnostic testing for organisms and genetic-based diseases. Through its strong molecular biology capabilities, the company is focusing on those applications where accurate, rapid, and actionable test results are needed most, such as managing infectious diseases and cancer. For more information, visit http://www.cepheid.com.

Media contacts

FIND: Sarah-Jane Loveday, Head of Communications

+41 (0) 79 431 62 44

[email protected]

Cepheid Media Inquiries:

Darwa Peterson

[email protected]



World Health Organization. Drug-resistant TB: XDR-TB FAQ. https://www.who.int/tb/areas-of-work/drug-resistant-tb/xdr-tb-faq/en/ accessed May 2020 World Health Organization. Global tuberculosis report 2019. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/329368/9789241565714-eng.pdf?ua=1 accessed May 2020 FIND press release, 11 October 2017 . https://www.finddx.org/newsroom/find-supports-diagnostic-development-with-hain-cepheid-to-enable-roll-out-of-short-course-therapies-novel-regimens-for-treatment-of-dr-tb/ accessed May 2020 TB Alliance. FDA approves new treatment for highly drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis. https://www.tballiance.org/news/fda-approves-new-treatment-highly-drug-resistant-forms-tuberculosis accessed May 20202020) World Health Organization. Consolidated guidelines on drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment. https://www.who.int/tb/publications/2019/consolidated-guidelines-drug-resistant-TB-treatment/en/ accessed May 2020 WHO. High-priority target product profiles for new tuberculosis diagnostics: report of a consensus meeting. https://www.finddx.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/WHO-2014_High-priority-TPPs-for-new-TB-diagnostics.pdf accessed May 2020 World Health Organization. Consolidated guidelines on drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment. https://www.who.int/tb/publications/2019/consolidated-guidelines-drug-resistant-TB-treatment/en/ accessed May 2020

^ CE-IVD. In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Device. May not be available in all countries

* CE-IVD. In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Device. May not be available in all countries. Not available in the United States

SOURCE Cepheid; FIND (Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics)

Related Links

http://www.cepheid.com


Masks on Wednesday moved ever closer to becoming a new national reality in Americas pandemic-scarred life, with businesses, states and health experts preaching their promise as the countrys last line of defense against a fast-growing viral threat.

Alabamas governor, who leads one of the countrys most conservative states, on Wednesday said people would be obligated to wear masks when leaving the house. The worlds largest retailer and a staple of rural communities nationwide, Walmart Inc., issued the same requirement for shoppers in its stores. A powerful trade group quickly embraced the choice, raising the prospect that other major chains will soon follow.

The moves came only hours after Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, declared that coronavirus outbreaks  now raging across much of the country  could be under control within one or two months if the public adopts widespread mask use. (Washington Post)

Featured stories

COVID-19 power shift: Experts have deep worries about hospital data sent to Washington (NBC News)

After attacks from Trump aides, Fauci says lets stop this nonsense and focus on virus (New York Times)

Over 224,000 COVID-19 deaths forecast in U.S. by November 1, says University of Washingtons IHME (Reuters)

Philadelphia public schools will have a hybrid start this fall, joining other districts reconsidering opening plans (CNN)

Florida reported 100% positive COVID-19 tests from some labs. Thats wrong, hospital system says (USA Today)

National news

Bodycam video shows officer pulled gun on George Floyd at the start (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)

George Floyds family sues city of Minneapolis, Derek Chauvin and 3 former officers (USA Today)

Trump demotes campaign manager Brad Parscale in major shake-up amid sagging polling numbers (ABC News)

Biden opens up 11-point national lead over Trump in NBC News/WSJ poll (NBC News)

Trump to press battle over tax returns after Supreme Court defeat, lawyers say (Washington Post)

First MS-13 member indicted on terrorism-related charges by Justice Department (CBS News)

Prosecutor investigating couple who pointed guns at protesters says Trump, governor came after her (USA Today)

Trump weakens environmental law to speed up permits for pipelines and other infrastructure (CNBC)

Supreme Court lifts stay for second federal execution this week (The Hill)

Twitter says hacking of high-profile Twitter accounts was a coordinated social engineering attack (CBS News)

Las Vegas man accused of goading homeless man into deadly stunt is arrested (NBC News)

World news

U.S. considers travel ban on millions of China Communist party members (The Guardian)

Hong Kong: China vows to retaliate after Trump ends special economic status (BBC)

Huawei security chief: UK ban is not related to U.S. claims of security risks (CNN)

Huge protests rock several countries as coronavirus ignites rage against governments (CNN)

As Canada nears zero COVID-19 deaths, officials fear reopening spike, U.S. risk (Reuters)

Japan extremely concerned as 136 COVID cases reported on U.S. bases (CBS News)

Coronavirus: Ireland puts brakes on easing lockdown amid real concern (BBC)

India IT hub, other towns reimpose lockdown amid COVID-19 surge (Al Jazeera)

Arctic heat wave essentially impossible without human-caused climate change, study finds (CBS News)
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Neiman Marcus Groups recent steps in Texas bankruptcy court to execute its reorganization plan have drawn scrutiny.

The U.S. Trustee in the case flagged concerns this week with the retailers plan to award as much as nearly $10 million in bonuses to a group of company executives, including chief executive officer Geoffroy van Raemdonck; chief merchant officer Svetlana Todorovich, and chief operating officer Chris Sim. The proposed so-called key employee incentive plan seeks to award a maximum of up to $6 million to van Raemdonck alone.

Such executive bonus plans in bankruptcies are a common feature of the proceedings. Companies goal in these cases, regardless of the act of seeking multimillion-dollar bonuses for executives as rank-and-file employees face losing their jobs, is to show the court that such bonuses are essential to helping the company meet its bankruptcy milestones or other performance metrics targets.

Neiman Marcus entered into bankruptcy in May with the goal of having a Chapter 11 plan approved within four months.

The U.S. Trustee in the case, whose job in part is to protect the interest of creditors, said in a court filing Tuesday the company has to show that the request is justified by the facts and circumstances of these cases. Earlier court documents filed in the case show that in the year leading up to the companys bankruptcy filing, van Raemdonck had already earned more than $8 million in salary and bonuses.

As the COVID-19 pandemic began in the U.S. in March and April, Neiman Marcus furloughed roughly 11,282 full- and part-time employees. Those employees are being brought back in phases as the company reopens its stores, a company representative said on Thursday.

To date nearly all of our stores have reopened in some capacity whether it be for customer traffic or private appointments, the representative said.

A hearing on the issue of its executive bonus plan is scheduled to take place on Friday.

Story continues

The attention to its planned payments to executives comes at a time when the retailer faces another key hearing next week on a disclosure statement for its Chapter 11 plan. The purpose of a disclosure statement is essentially to assure the court that when creditors are asked to vote on a plan of reorganization, they have adequate information to do so.

Creditors in the Neimans case have certainly voiced their concerns. In particular, the conflict over Neimans handling of the online retailer Mytheresa before the bankruptcy still looms over the plan. Even before the bankruptcy, the transaction involving the Mytheresa web site was the subject of litigation by some creditors characterizing it as the transfer of an asset worth $1 billion for no consideration, allegedly to keep it from creditors.

The issue has continued to vex creditors during the bankruptcy, which fundamentally deals with the question of how a companys bankruptcy estate can meet its obligations to creditors.

Unsecured creditors, including vendors, typically stand to recover a mere fraction of what they are owed. One way that these creditors can maximize what they receive in the process is by pursuing lawsuits for recoveries.

A company in bankruptcy may assist such recovery efforts, as it has a fiduciary duty to maximize the value of the estate for the benefit of all of their creditors. To this end, a Chapter 11 plan approved by a court would involve creating some kind of liquidation trust or litigation trust that would be overseen by a trustee helping creditors to pursue recoveries.

In the Neiman Marcus bankruptcy, unsecured creditors have been eyeing possible lawsuits related to the Mytheresa transfer as one potential source of recoveries. Such suits could be targeted against Neimans leveraged buyout sponsor, the private equity fund Ares Management.

The dispute over Neimans Chapter 11 plan, which will be a subject of a hearing scheduled for Tuesday, has involved concerns raised by creditors about how a plan by the retailer would prevent them from pursuing suits related to the Mytheresa transfer, and essentially block off a path to recoveries.

Amid these concerns, the court allowed the unsecured creditors committee, which has been investigating the circumstances around the Mytheresa transfer, to file its own disclosure statement related to a Chapter 11 plan. The committees goal in general is to ensure that creditors are able to pursue recoveries for their claims.

In its objection filed this month, the unsecured creditors committee argued that the creditors shouldnt support Neimans reorganization plan because of what it views as a valuable asset  ability to pursue litigation over Mytheresa  that it says Neimans plan doesnt factor into the calculation of recoveries for creditors.

Tuesdays hearing on the disclosure statement could go one of a few ways. The judge may approve or decline to approve the statement, or only agree to approve it if is modified with additional information for creditors.

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Facebook could soon launch its most serious bid to challenge TikTok. The company plans to launch Reels, the TikTok-like feature that lives inside of Instagram, globally in the coming weeks, according to NBC News.

Instagram began testing the feature in Brazil last year, and has been refining the experience since. Now, NBC News reports that not only will Reels expand to users in the U.S, UK and about 50 other countries, but that it will add the feature directly to Instagrams home screen. Users will be able to access Reels through a new icon at the bottom of their screen in Instagram and post Reels to Instagram's main feed or Instagram Explore for public accounts, NBC reports.

That Instagram would try to make Reels such a central part of its app underscores just how seriously its taking its challenge to TikTok. Its also a strategy that has proved incredibly successful in the past. Facebook spent years attempting to copy Snapchat before it landed on its most successful tactic: simply cloning the feature inside of Instagram. If the company can emulate even some of that success with Reels, especially at a time when TikTok is under a tremendous amount of scrutiny over its ties to China, Facebook could, once again. come out ahead.
Hearst Connecticut Media file photo

MIDDLETOWN  A 60-year-old city man was arrested and charged with shoplifting $353 worth of shrimp from a local grocery store on the Fourth of July.

Police were called to Stop & Shop on East Main Street at about 9:30 a.m. July 4 about a man, later identified as Herbert King of Labella Circle, who allegedly took numerous bags of shellfish twice that morning without paying for them.
RESTON, Va., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ORock Technologies, Inc., a hybrid cloud and IaaS solutions provider, today announced it has achieved compliance with U.S.-EU Privacy Shield, a data protection framework created by the U.S. Department of Commerce, European Union, and Swiss government.

The EU-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield framework provides companies on both sides of the Atlantic with a mechanism to comply with data protection requirements when transferring personal data from the European Union and Switzerland to the U.S. in support of transatlantic commerce. The Privacy Shield framework replaced the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor framework in 2016.

Data privacy law is chiefly created and enforced according to sovereignty rules, with the country or region where the data is collected representing the entity that governs the data's use. Examples of these sovereign privacy laws include a jumble of U.S. regulations and the more-uniform European Union GDPR law. The Privacy Shield framework provides sound guiding principles toward staying compliant with these disparate data privacy requirements, particularly how personal data is captured, used, and shared across different geographies.

ORock built its secure cloud storage platform (ORockCloud) to address the stringent security and compliance requirements of government agencies and highly regulated commercial businesses. In addition to Privacy Shield and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), ORockCloud complies with government security standards from the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), Department of Defense, and Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). ORock's commercial certifications include HIPAA, HITECH, PCI DSS.

"ORock places tremendous emphasis on the privacy, security and protection of customer data both in the U.S. and around the world," said Gregory Hrncir, co-founder and CEO of ORock. "Privacy Shield certification represents our commitment to customers and other individuals in keeping their personal information secure and in conformity with privacy laws."

Review ORock's complete list of security and compliance standards.

About ORock Technologies

ORock Technologies delivers hybrid cloud and IaaS solutions designed for secure, compliant data operations. ORock helps commercial organizations and government agencies protect their most sensitive data, control costs, and minimize vendor lock-in while enabling a range of IT modernization, application hosting, migration, and edge computing initiatives. ORock's private fiber optic backbone network and enterprise-grade open source cloud feature the latest HPE Gen10 secure hardware and a flat-rate OPEX billing model with no data egress fees. They support hybrid, private, and multicloud capabilities while providing superior security, performance, predictability, and control.

Learn more about ORock.

Contact:

Dean Lombardo

Content Manager

ORock Technologies, Inc.

571-386-0201

[email protected]

SOURCE ORock Technologies, Inc.

Related Links

http://orocktech.com


During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, venturing outside in New York felt like preparing for battle. Germs were invisible bullets from which we tried to shield ourselves using masks and distancing. Staying home was of course the safest course of action, but for some, going out to see a doctor was crucial to their wellbeing.

Cancer doesnt stop for COVID, said Dr. Mara Weinstein, assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Dr. Weinstein told Engadget that she is still seeing patients every day in upstate New York. People had to come in for lumpectomies, biopsies or to receive treatment for painful, bleeding rashes. Prior to the pandemic, the clinic would see about 10 to 15 patients a day. Though that number has dropped to maybe two to four during the crisis, according to Dr. Weinstein, surgeons there are still seeing patients daily.

For them, telehealth served as a means to assess patients concerns. After pausing all in-person appointments save for essential cancer treatments, the clinic began fielding questions by phone. Additionally, the staff would ask people to send pictures of skin abnormalities. Soon, they graduated to Zoom for real-time consultations, reserving in-person visits for those who needed more attention. That required stringent procedures to keep everyone safe. You kind of have to work as if everyone is positive until proven otherwise, Dr. Weinstein said.

With people understandably not wanting to leave their homes, telemedicine has surged as a way for patients to seek medical advice without stepping outside. Telehealth had already been seeing growing demand, and many in the healthcare industry tell Engadget that if there's a silver lining in the coronavirus pandemic, its that it significantly accelerated that trend.

The rise of telemedicine has drawn the interest of tech giants like Microsoft, Alphabet and Lenovo, along with a slew of startups. Earlier this year, Microsoft announced a new industry cloud platform for the healthcare sector, while Lenovo this month launched a virtual care kit that chronically ill patients can use to track their vitals. Zocdoc added video conferencing support back in May, while Verily, a subsidiary of Alphabet, launched a COVID-19 screening website in April.

Against the backdrop of a global pandemic, regulators have also had to adapt to the crisis. Since March, the FDA has loosened its rules around the use of certain medical devices like blood glucose monitors to complement virtual visits, and has generally made it easier to see a doctor or veterinarian from home. The US government also expanded Medicare coverage for telehealth nationwide. When Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act in March, it provided $200 million in funding to the FCC for a COVID-19 telehealth program that is helping eligible healthcare providers pay for telecommunications and information services, along with devices they need to provide connected care.

Those policy changes and that flexibility with Medicare [have] been integral, allowing for the huge acceleration and use of telehealth across the industry, according to former chair of the American Medical Association (AMA) Board of Trustees Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld. But its not yet clear which, if any, of these changes will be lasting. It's really hard to understand what the future holds for telemedicine once the pandemic is over, Dr. Ehrenfeld told Engadget.

Last month, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee held a hearing to examine if these changes should be modified. Committee chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) said in his opening remarks, The expansion of covered telehealth services should be made permanent," while representatives from the medical community also gave testimonies in favor. But aside from a bill published on the day of the hearing about amending the Public Health Service Act with respect to telehealth for emergency response, no formal legislation has been drawn up. Meanwhile, since it opened submissions in April, the FCC has distributed all $200 million of the CARES Act funding to 539 applicants in 47 states, Washington D.C. and Guam.

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Childrens Hospital was one of the recipients of this money, and chief of pediatric transplantation Dr. George Mazariegos told Engadget that it has been instrumental in enabling his team to offer better care to patients. The hospital was able to provide the parents of an infant organ recipient with a tablet that not only contained aftercare resources, but also came with cellular data, a mic and camera for remote follow-ups. There was no cost to the family, he added.

Maskot via Getty Images

According to the data analysis firm CB Insights, telehealth technology was estimated to be a $43 billion industry in 2019, while the AMA expects that figure to hit $250 billion after COVID-19. Thats just a slice of the $3.6 trillion that the US spent on healthcare in 2018, according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Even prior to the pandemic, the industry was growing by an impressive amount, with the AMA noting that insurance claims filed for telehealth rose 53 percent between 2016 and 2017. Still, there was a huge jump in the last few months alone.

Those operating in the telehealth industry believe that the rise in adoption will help Americas healthcare system overall. Zocdoc founder and CEO Oliver Kharraz told Engadget that telehealth visits can reduce unnecessary trips to urgent care, which are generally more expensive than seeing a doctor. He also argues this would unburden the system and reduce waiting times for those who need immediate attention. Virtual visits also limit the spread of infections inside facilities, too, he added.

Perhaps the most obvious benefit of telehealth is that it could simply make it easier to see a doctor. There are plenty of inconveniences and obstacles alike that can become excuses for not seeking a doctor, like having to travel or not being able to take time off from work. When it comes to scheduling annual physical exams or checking on milder conditions, lots of people drop out from the hassle of it all, Kharraz said.

Executives from other telehealth businesses agree. Zachariah Reitano, CEO and co-founder of the digital health startup Ro, said, If all [telehealth] ever did was eliminate unnecessary in-person visits, then it saves lives. He believes theres another benefit in making it easier to talk to doctors. I think what you'll see is what people have in their minds as warranting a doctor's visit will come down, he explained. He hopes that if people develop friendlier relationships with their medical providers, theyll learn to open up and discuss symptoms earlier, which could mean catching diseases sooner, and, eventually, lead to lower healthcare costs across the system.

Ro

Another benefit the pandemic brought about, Reitano pointed out, was New York state removing some restrictions in March, allowing physicians in good standing from other states to remotely help patients in New York. During the worst of the pandemic, the area was hit so hard that there was a serious shortage of medical practitioners to administer to non-COVID-19 patients. Telehealth allowed those in need to still see doctors, sometimes from other states, without having to leave their homes.

People with chronic conditions like diabetes are among those who could most benefit from telehealth, especially when they also have access to devices like thermometers, Bluetooth scales, blood pressure cuffs and glucose monitors. The FDA in April approved the use of at-home monitors like the Abbott Freestyle Libre and Dexcoms G6 in hospitals, meaning nurses no longer have to visit diabetic patients multiple times a day to prick their fingers for a blood test, each time donning fresh protective gear.

Cynthia Fisher, founder of PatientRightsAdvocate.org, agrees telehealth has benefits for those staying home or patients with chronic conditions, but she cautions that some providers have been gaming telemedicine as a revenue producer. Fisher says a major hospital system in Boston billed a woman $110 each for calls they made to her in the guise of outpatient follow-ups.

In documents provided to Engadget, there were charges for what the bill called two Outpatient Clinic visit -- Hospital on April 3rd and April 9th of this year. According to Fisher, the woman had made a phone call to her primary care doctor at that hospital to see if she should get tested for COVID-19, which prompted the subsequent follow-up calls from the hospital. Though theres little data on how common practices like this are, Fisher claims its fairly widespread. So many patients come to us and tell us about being egregiously charged, price gouged, she said.

Thats far from the only issue the medical community is raising. Dr. Mahmoud Kazemi, chief medical officer of diabetes care at Abbott, pointed to an obvious obstacle: Accessibility, accessibility, accessibility.

Whether its the cost of devices, sluggish internet speeds, insurance program restrictions or a lack of coverage in rural areas and schools, there can be many hindrances to using telehealth services. It's really hard if you don't have broadband, or a way to do video to have the kind of virtual care that you might have in a different part of the country, Dr. Ehrenfeld said. He appreciates that the authorities and insurance companies decided to cover audio-only interactions, since many people dont have access to the infrastructure required for video visits. But there is more to be done. Making sure that we expand and improve broadband service is a piece of the policy puzzle, he added.

Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images via Getty Images

Indeed, the challenges of rural access to doctors is something FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has experienced first-hand. Pai grew up in rural Kansas, where his parents were physicians. He said during Axios The future of telehealth event this week: I very visibly remember my parents leaving early in the morning to go to a distant town to try to provide care because there wasn't a specialist who might live in those neighboring towns that were even smaller than ours.

When it comes to caring for children with life-threatening diseases, parents in rural parts of the country also need access to good healthcare. Dr. Mazariegos said 80 percent of his pediatric hospitals patients come from outside Pittsburgh, with many making the trip from rural areas of Alabama, Missouri, Texas and Kentucky.

Pai added during his interview with Axios on Tuesday that he sees telehealth as a means to bring more access to underserved parts of the country. Weve made it a priority, he said. Coming down the pike on October 29th, we're starting a $20 billion rural digital opportunity fund to get high-quality broadband up to 6 million locations in rural America. He also pointed to 5G investment and spectrum access for smaller carriers to extend wireless access to unserved parts of the country as some plans the FCC has. For the first time in 22 years, we increased the budget for a rural health care program that provides broadband connectivity to hospitals across the country, he added, saying the fund is now up to more than $600 million compared to the $400 million its been capped at since 1997.

The problem with accessibility isnt just about broadband coverage, though. Other resources like time and availability can also be hard to come by, especially for those juggling full-time jobs with parenthood. Some schools offer telehealth programs that allow children to see a doctor without waiting for their parents to pick them up and bring them to one. According to a report published in October 2019 in Global Pediatric Health, Over 1 million students in over 1,800 public schools have access to a school-based health center using telehealth, which represents 2 percent of students and nearly 2 percent of public schools in the United States. The report also notes that these schools are primarily in rural communities and sponsored by hospitals. For families without access to such school programs, it can be hard to take time off for childcare and their own health.

Lenovo

There are also some potentially helpful devices, but they might be too costly. Wireless sensors could track diabetes patients and other recent post operative patients in real time, according to Pai, so that they didn't have to wait for things to become emergencies. These types of devices are one of the things we're looking to subsidize as well, he added.

With the tablets they were able to finance through the FCCs COVID-19 fund, Dr. Mazariegos says his team was able to do follow up care and keep the care and continuity for patients and their families just as if they were here with us. And, he added, it was important to his team that they were able to provide these services at low or no cost to patients, with or without WiFi connectivity.

Accessibility is a major issue that can cause healthcare disparities to be exacerbated by telehealth. We know about the racial inequity that exists in healthcare and COVID has shined a light on that, Dr. Ehrenfeld said. We don't want access to telemedicine to make the problem even worse."

Part of the issue around cost of services in general comes down to an opaque billing system. Fishers organization has been advocating for price transparency in healthcare for years. We have seen so many patients pay egregious bills that have come after the fact that were totally unexpected, she said. Carberry Campbell said she returned from her teaching job in Spain with COVID-19 symptoms and went to AdventHealth for tests in Deland, FL. She was shocked to receive four bills for a total of $6,545 despite not being admitted to the hospital.

Dr. Ehrenfeld agrees. Patients need better information about anticipated out of pocket costs, he said. Its still not entirely clear how insurance providers cover all the different forms of telemedicine -- would you have to pay for every text you send to your doctor and how much will it cost to have a voice call versus a video conference? Whether theyll continue to cover telehealth also remains uncertain. It is concerning to us that some insurance companies are now putting an end date on their expansion of coverage for telehealth services, he added.

Zach Gibson via Getty Images

Reitano believes insurance companies currently hold too much power, and that more of it should be handed over to the patients and providers. He argues that if patients had the power to fully decide which doctors they were able to see or what clinics they wanted to visit, the overall quality of services would improve. The reason that doesn't exist now is because the person paying doesn't care, and the patient, the person who does care isn't paying, he said. Unfortunately, for better or worse, the people and businesses follow the money. While we do spend money out of our pockets on premiums and copays, by and large the insurance companies still decide where our dollars go. A majority of Americans are also reliant on employment-based insurance for healthcare finances, which whittles down the available choices for consumers even further.

More digital health startups have emerged in the past few years offering healthcare to the uninsured, while digital pharmacies like Ro and Nurx continue to push down the prices of some medications. But by and large, Americas healthcare infrastructure is still heavily reliant on insurance providers, and they continue to make crucial decisions on where the money goes.

Telehealth could make it easier to see a doctor and alleviate burdens on the system overall, but without the right policies we risk alienating people who dont have access to technology. The hype over telemedicine is not unwarranted, but we do need to have a solid plan for how we best support these services going forward, Dr. Ehrenfeld said. The time to plan for that future is now.
The Kerala police have sent a report to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and asked it to investigate the terror angle in all major gold smuggling cases in the state, two officials aware of the matter said.

The Kerala police suspect that some smugglers and hawala operators have terror links, one of the two officials told HT. Hawala transactions worth over Rs 1,000 crore annually on an average, have been taking place in the state, he added.

The request comes as the NIA took charge of the probe of the seizure of 30 kg of 24-carat gold from Thiruvananthapuram airport on July 5. An attempt was made to smuggle the gold through diplomatic baggage, which according to the Vienna Convention, is not checked by Customs officials.

Since NIA is investigating the Thiruvananthapuram gold smuggling case under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), it might want to look at other cases and their link, a Kerala police officer told HT over the phone, requesting anonymity. We have given a report to the Centre and NIA on our cases. More reports are being prepared on similar activities.

On July 10, the NIA filed a First Information Report (FIR) against four persons: P Sarith Kumar, who was arrested by Customs officials on July 5, and three others, Swapna Suresh, Sandip Nair and Fazil Fareed, an alleged smuggler from Ernakulum but based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and charged them under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). On July 15, it added one more name to the FIR, an alleged gold smuggler named KT Ramees.

A team arrested Suresh and Nair who have been sent to judicial custody till July 21. They are currently being interrogated by the investigation agency.

The NIA has also approached Interpol for a blue notice against Fareed. A blue notice is issued for additional information about a persons identity, location, or activities in relation to a crime.

The agency found that Fareed forged the UAE seal and emblem to ensure diplomatic protection for the baggage.

On Wednesday, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayans former principal secretary M Sivasankar was grilled in connection with the smuggling case.

NIA last week said gold smuggling into India from offshore locations threatens the countrys economic stability, national security and amounts to terrorism as per UAPAs Section 15. In a statement, it added the fresh smuggling case has national and international linkages. NIA cited its initial probe and added it has revealed that the proceeds of smuggled gold could be used for financing terrorism in India.

Apart from NIA and Customs, Research and Analysis Wing and Intelligence Bureau are also coordinating with the agencies to unearth the gold smuggling and hawala networks in Kerala, a second official said in Delhi.

The Customs department has arrested 12 people in relation to gold smuggling and detained four since this case came to light.
The Lok Janshakti Party on Thursday joined the opposition in attacking the Bihar government over the collapse of a road in floods, saying it raises questions on the claim of "zero corruption" and demands action against the "guilty".

The state government has insisted that it is an approach road to a new bridge connecting Gopalganj to East Champaran which has been washed away, and not the bridge itself as alleged by opposition leaders like Rashtriya Janata Dal's Tejashwi Yadav.

In a tweet, LJP president Chirag Paswan targeted the Bihar government headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

"Part of a bridge built at the cost of Rs 264 crore has collapsed today. Any work done with public money should be carried out maintaining quality standards. Incidents like this raise questions in the public eye over zero corruption. The LJP demands a high-level probe to punish the guilty quickly," he said.

His tweet is seen as yet another instance of Paswan criticising Kumar's government in which the BJP is a partner.

Though the LJP is a Bharatiya Janata Party ally, it is not part of the Bihar government led by Janata Dal (United) chief Kumar.

Sharing an image of the caved-in portion of the road on his Twitter handle, leader of the opposition Tejashwi Yadav demanded the resignation of Kumar, who had inaugurated the Sattarghat bridge on June 16.

The Bihar government, however, quickly came out with a clarification that it was not the bridge itself that had collapsed.

The state's Road Construction Department issued a statement, saying the caved-in portion of the road was situated "two kilometres away from the bridge" and that it was the approach route for an 18-metre-long causeway that leads to the Sattarghat bridge.

Incidentally, the department is a part of the ministerial portfolio of senior BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav in the state government.

While Paswan has been taking swipes at Kumar, he has mostly refrained from targeting the BJP.
No new COVID-19 cases reported on July 16 morning

No new COVID-19 infections were recorded in Vietnam on July 16 morning, making the 91st day in a row without any transmissions in the community, according to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

Vietnamese citizens return home from the UK

The total number of infections still stood at 381, including 241 imported cases who were quarantined upon their arrival.

There are currently 10,123 people under quarantine nationwide, including 81 at hospitals, 9,634 at concentrated quarantine facilities and 408 at home.

A total of 353 patients have recovered fully. Among the remaining patients, three have tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 once and two negative at least twice.

Three more COVID-19 patients recover, total hits 358

Three more Vietnamese patients with COVID-19 have made a full recovery and were released from the treatment facility at the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases on Thursday morning.

The recovered patients have lifted the countrys total cases being given the all-clear to 358, making up nearly 94 per cent of total COVID-19 patients in Viet Nam.

They are all Vietnamese citizens, including Patient 349, who returned home from Europe on June 6 and two others, Patient 368 and Patient 369, who returned home from Bangladesh on July 6.

Patient 349, female, 12, residing in Bac Tu Liem District, Ha Noi, was admitted to the hospital on June 19. She had two tests and both came back negative for SARS-CoV-2. At present, the patient is in a stable condition.

Patient 367 is a 26-year-old man, living in ong Hoa Town, Phu Yen Province. Patient 368 is a 36-year-old woman, living in Binh Tan District, HCM City. They all were admitted to the hospital on July 5. The two patients passed two tests and all tests were negative for SARS-CoV-2.

The two patients currently have no cough, no fever and no breathing difficulties, well ventilated lungs and are in a stable condition.

They will continue to be isolated and monitored at the hospital for the next 14 days.

As of Thursday morning, Viet Nam reported no COVID-19 community transmission cases over the past 91 days. The country confirmed total 381 COVID-19 cases and no fatalities have been reported.

350 Vietnamese citizens fly home from Japan

Vietnamese authorities, representative agencies and national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines partnered with Japanese authorities to carry 350 Vietnamese citizens home on July 15.

The passengers included children aged below 18, the elderly, pregnant women, the sick, workers whose visas and labour contracts expired, students without residences due to dormitory closure and other especially disadvantaged cases.

The airline implemented security, safety and quarantine measures during the flight.

After landing at Noi Bai international airport, the passengers were put under quarantine in line with regulations.

In accordance with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucs directions, similar flights will be conducted in the near future to bring citizens home, taking into account domestic quarantine capacity.

Vietnam records eight new imported COVID-19 cases

Vietnam reported eight new imported COVID-19 cases on July 15, said the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

The eight new imported cases are foreign experts flying to Vietnam from Russia on July 11. They have been quarantined in the southern province of Ba Ria  Vung Tau since their arrival, posing no risk of infection for the community.

The new cases brought the total number of COVID-19 infections in Vietnam to 381, including 241 imported cases.

As of July 15, Vietnam has gone through 90 straight days without any COVID-19 infections in community.

According to the committee's treatment subcommittee, one more patient was announced to fully recover on July 15, lifting the total of cured patients to 353. No fatalities have been recorded.

There are currently 12,337 people under quarantine nationwide, including 79 at hospitals, 11,855 at concentrated quarantine establishments and 403 at home.

Among the remaining patients, three have tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 once and two negative at least twice.

COVID-19: 350 Vietnamese citizens safely repatriated from Japan



National flag carrier Vietnam Airlines on July 15 successfully brought home another 350 Vietnamese citizens stranded in Japan due to the impact of the COVIDF-19 pandemic.

The majority of passengers onboard the repatriation flight were minors under 18, elderly people, pregnant women, sick people, guest workers with expired visas and labour contracts, students who had completed their academic year but were unable to stay due to expired visas or the closure of their campus, and other cases in specially difficult circumstances.

The Vietnamese Embassy in Japan dispatched officials to the airport to assist citizens with all necessary measures before they boarded the flight.

Vietnam Airlines strictly implemented security, safety and epidemiology measures during the flight, in order to protect the passengers health and prevent the possible spread of the virus.

After landing at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi capital, all the passengers and crew members underwent medical check-ups and were transferred to quarantine facilities according to regulations on COVID-19 prevention and control.

Under the Prime Ministers instructions, Vietnamese agencies, Vietnamese representative agencies abroad and domestic airlines will continue to conduct flights to bring overseas Vietnamese citizens back to Vietnam.

Vietnam to evacuate over 100 COVID-19 workers from Equatorial Guinea



The Ministry of Health said on July 15 it is well prepared to receive 219 Vietnamese guest workers, including 116 people with COVID-19, to be repatriated from the Republic of Equatorial Guinea.

All the to-be-repatriated citizens are working at Sendje hydropower plant in Equatorial Guinea under labour contracts between Duglas Alliance Ltd of the UK and three Vietnamese companies, Tan Dai Loi, CMVIETNAM and LILAMA 10.

As many as 116 out of the workers had tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus and another one worker had tested positive but turned negative the other day. Two infected workers had to be transferred to the recovery room and put on oxygen masks.

The Ministry of Health said its Medical Examination and Treatment Department has had a working session with national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines to drawn up an evacuation plan.

A special flight is in the pipeline to evacuate the workers and the repatriation flight is scheduled to take off in at least 10 days due to difficulty in registration procedures.

The ministry said it will dispatch a contingent of doctors and orderlies to Equatorial Guinea to assist the guest workers on the repatriation flight.

At a recent Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc requested relevant agencies to conduct a special flight to evacuate the guest workers from Equatorial Guinea.

Me Linh Point donates 20 thermal cameras to help fight Covid-19

Me Linh Point Ltd., a joint venture between brewer Sabeco Group and Frasers Property Vietnam, on Tuesday donated 20 thermal cameras worth more than VN1 billion (US$43,300) to the Viet Nam Fatherland Front Committees HCM City chapter to support the countrys efforts against COVID-19.

The committee said the cameras would be donated to crowded places like hospitals and medical centres, TV stations, museums, and university dormitories.

Thermal cameras use infrared technology to scan body temperature accurately and without contact, and can cover a larger distance compared to hand-held thermometers.

People working on the frontline, like medical professionals and volunteers, and government organisations, as well as visitors, will benefit from the installation of these thermal cameras.

Lim Hua Tiong, general director of Me Linh Point and CEO of Frasers Property Vietnam, said: We are grateful to the frontline heroes for their tireless dedication and great sacrifices to keep the community safe. We recognise there is an ongoing need for health and safety technologies. We hope this support will help in the countrys ongoing efforts to fight the pandemic.

Ministry of Health presents 200,000 face masks to Lao counterpart

The Vietnamese Ministry of Health presented 200,000 medical face masks to its Lao counterpart on July 15 to support the country in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking at the hand-over ceremony, Acting Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long highlighted the special relationship between the two countries, saying the two governments have coordinated closely in the fight against the disease.

Vietnam highly valued the efforts of the Lao Government and people in preventing and controlling the pandemic, he said, adding that the two sides are considering when to resume activities in all respects.

The minister said it is necessary to establish a regular information channel between the two sides, with technical and equipment assistance, to cope with the pandemic as well as other diseases, adding that the two ministries should coordinate closer in the time to come.

For his part, Lao Ambassador to Vietnam Sengphet Houngboungnuang thanked the Ministry of Health for its meaningful gifts and spoke of the support provided by the Vietnamese Government and people to his country.

He congratulated Vietnam on its achievements in responding to the disease, saying that the Government and people of Laos are still carefully working towards controlling the outbreak.

Indonesia promotes support for people affected by COVID-19

Indonesian President Joko Widodo on July 15 directly presented cash assistance to small and micro-sized enterprises, business households, freelance workers, and street vendors affected by the COVID-19 pandemic to help them overcome the difficult time.

According to Widodo, about 12 million businesses and individuals whose income have been cut by 50 percent due to the impacts of the disease, were supported under the programme with each of them receiving 2.4 million rupiah (175 USD).

Before the pandemic broke out, the income of freelance labourers and small traders could reach 500,00-800,000 rupiah a day. However, their income is now reduced to only 200,000 rupiah.

Widodo said he hoped the support can be used effectively, helping small and micro-sized enterprises increase business efficiency when the disease is under control.

Supporting small and micro-sized businesses, and freelance workers has actually become one of the President's priorities amid the pandemic.

Earlier, at the Cabinet meeting in June 2020, Widodo asked relevant ministries to immediately deploy support packages for small and micro-sized businesses so that they would not be discouraged and try their best to recover their business and production.

In its national economic recovery programme, the Indonesian government prepared a fund of 6,600 billion rupiah to prevent the pandemic and respond to its impacts on the national economy.

VNS/VNA/VOV/VNN
WASHINGTON, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) has revised the definition of pain for the first time since 1979, the result of a years-long process that the association hopes will lead to new ways of assessing pain. The revised definition was published today in the association's official journal, PAIN, along with the associated commentary by President Lars Arendt-Nielsen and Immediate Past President, Judith Turner.

Key links:

"IASP and the Task Force that wrote the revised definition and notes did so to better convey the nuances and the complexity of pain and hoped that it would lead to improved assessment and management of those with pain," said Srinivasa N. Raja, MD, Chair of the IASP Task Force and Director of Pain Research, Professor of Anesthesiology & Critical Care Medicine, Professor of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

"Pain is not merely a sensation, or limited to signals that travel through the nervous system as a result of tissue damage," he said. "With a better understanding of an individual's pain experience, we may be able to, through an interdisciplinary approach, add a variety of therapies to personalize their treatment of pain," he added.

The revised definition is "An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage," and is expanded upon by the addition of six key Notes and the etymology of the word pain for further valuable context:

Pain is always a personal experience that is influenced to varying degrees by biological, psychological, and social factors.

Pain and nociception are different phenomena. Pain cannot be inferred solely from activity in sensory neurons.

Through their life experiences, individuals learn the concept of pain.

A person's report of an experience as pain should be respected.

Although pain usually serves an adaptive role, it may have adverse effects on function and social and psychological well-being.

Verbal description is only one of several behaviors to express pain; inability to communicate does not negate the possibility that a human or a nonhuman animal experiences pain.

Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French peine (pain, suffering), from Latin poena (penalty, punishment), in turn from Greek poine (payment, penalty, recompense).

A central change in the revised definition, compared to the 1979 version, is replacing terminology that relied upon a person's ability to describe the experience to qualify as pain. The old definition read: "An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage." This wording was interpreted as excluding infants, elderly people, and others  even animals -- who could not verbally articulate their pain, said Dr. Jeffrey Mogil, Director of the Alan Edwards Center for Research on Pain, McGill University and member of the Task Force.

The six points that comprise the Notes to the revised definition are a key modification.

"They emphasize the three intertwined dimensions of the experience of pain- biological, psychological, and social, and the personal learned nature of that experience," said Dr. Milton Cohen, St. Vincent's Clinical School, UNSW Medicine, Sydney, and member of the Task Force. The notes highlight that pain may have adverse effects on function and social and psychological well-being. One result of that distinction may be that the standard way a person describes pain  using a scale of 0-10  may be updated to include whether a person's pain interferes with work, maintaining healthy relationships, daily living, and other psychological and social measures, said Dr. Bonnie Stevens, Lawrence S Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Toronto, and member of the Task Force.

The 1979 IASP definition of pain has become accepted globally by health care professionals and researchers in the pain field, and has been adopted by several professional, governmental, and nongovernmental organizations, including the World Health Organization, according to today's article in PAIN.

Although subsequent revisions and updates have been made to the list of associated pain terms over the years, the IASP definition of pain itself has remained unchanged until now. In recent years, leaders in the field have voiced that advances in the understanding of pain in its broadest sense warrant a formal reevaluation of the definition.

"We included the etymology of the word pain because it frames our entire reference point; this English word stems from a Greek root meaning penalty or punishment," said Task Force Member Dr. Dan Carr, Program in Public Health and Community Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA. "Other words in daily use by the ancient Greeks emphasized pain's location or the distress it may cause. We would do well to return to thinking about pain as having multiple dimensions, so that we can assess and treat it more holistically."

"The revised definition was a true collaborative effort, written by a multi-national, multidisciplinary task force that received input from numerous stakeholders, including persons in pain and their caregivers," said Dr. Raja. Members of the task force were:

Chair: Srinivasa Raja , MD, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine , Baltimore, MD , United States

, MD, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, , , Dan Carr , MD, Program in Public Health and Community Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine , Boston, MA , United States

MD, Program in Public Health and Community Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, , , Milton Cohen , MD, St Vincent's Clinical School, UNSW Medicine, Sydney , New South Wales, Australia

, MD, Clinical School, UNSW Medicine, , Nanna Finnerup , MD, Department of Clinical Medicine, Danish Pain Research Center, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark , Department of Neurology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark

, MD, Department of Clinical Medicine, Danish Pain Research Center, University, , Department of Neurology, Aarhus University Hospital, Herta Flor , PhD, Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Psychology, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim , Germany

, PhD, Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Psychology, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University, , Stephen Gibson , PhD, Caulfield Pain Management and Research Centre, University of Melbourne , Melbourne, Australia

, PhD, Caulfield Pain Management and Research Centre, , Francis Keefe , PhD, Duke Pain Prevention and Treatment Research Program, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC , United States

, PhD, Duke Pain Prevention and Treatment Research Program, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, , Jeffrey Mogil , PhD, Departments of Psychology and Anesthesia, McGill University , Montreal, QC , Canada

, PhD, Departments of Psychology and Anesthesia, , , Matthias Ringkamp , MD, PhD, Department of Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine , Baltimore, MD , United States

, MD, PhD, Department of Neurosurgery, , , Kathleen Sluka , PT, PhD, Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, University of Iowa , Iowa City, IA , United States

, PT, PhD, Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, , , Xue Jun Song , MD, PhD, SUSTech Center for Pain Medicine, Southern University of Science and Technology School of Medicine, Shenzhen , Guangdong, China

, MD, PhD, SUSTech Center for Pain Medicine, of Science and Technology School of Medicine, , Bonnie Stevens , RN, PhD, Lawrence S Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Toronto , Toronto, ON , Canada

, RN, PhD, S Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry, , , Mark D. Sullivan , MD, PhD, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle , WA, United States

, MD, PhD, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, , WA, Takahiro Ushida , MD, PhD, Multidisciplinary Pain Center, Aichi Medical University, Nagakute, Japan

About IASP

The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) works to support research, education, clinical treatment, and better patient outcomes for all pain conditions with the goal of improving pain relief worldwide.

With more than 7,000 members representing 125 countries, 96 national chapters, and 24 Special Interest Groups (SIGs), IASP fosters the exchange of ideas and education to advance the field of pain science. Membership is open to all professionals involved in research, diagnosis, or treatment of pain.

SOURCE International Association for the Study of Pain

Related Links

https://www.iasp-pain.org


The leading US expert on infectious diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, predicted on Wednesday the country will meet its goal of a coronavirus vaccine by year's end and was unmoved by the prospect that China would get there first.

While there are no guarantees, "I feel good about the projected timetable," Fauci told Reuters in an interview.

His comments follow promising early stage data for the Moderna Inc's coronavirus vaccine, released on Tuesday, that was developed by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which Fauci directs.

Many experts see a safe and effective vaccine as the only way out of the pandemic that has infected millions and killed more than 575,000 people worldwide.

Fauci said Moderna's results were especially promising because the vaccine appeared to offer the type of protection seen in a natural infection.

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

In vaccine development, "one of the things that you hope for is that your vaccine induces a response that's comparable to a natural infection, because theoretically, the best vaccine you could possibly ever get is a natural infection."

Moderna's candidate, which is set to enter the last stage of testing on July 27, is just one of more than a hundred vaccines in development globally, but only one of a few contenders that have earned millions of dollars in backing from Operation Warp Speed, the White House program that aims to deliver more than 300 million doses of a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine by January.

Fauci, who has become a popular and trusted figure during the coronavirus outbreak, came under criticism from President Donald Trump and some of his Republican allies as Fauci cautioned against reopening the US economy too soon.

Asked how he copes with the attacks on his character and allegiance to the president, Fauci told Reuters, "I don't let it bother me. What we're doing with vaccines, what we're doing with therapeutics, what we're doing with clinical trials is the real substance," Fauci said.

VACCINE RACE

As US states have begun to reopen businesses and coronavirus infections have soared, some White House officials have pointed fingers at China, where the virus first emerged late last year.

Fauci was unmoved by the prospect that China could cross the finish line first. Although he said he hopes China succeeds, he does not think they will win the vaccine race, at least not by much.

"I think everybody's sort of on the same track." If they do get there, he said, "They're not going to get it particularly sooner than we get it. That's for sure."

Ultimately, he hopes multiple successful candidates prevail. "I don't worry about anybody getting there first."

Even if a vaccine succeeds in provoking an immune response, Fauci said it is still not clear how long that protection will last.

"These are questions that don't have answers right now, because we're only six months into the outbreak." He said it may take a year before that immunity question is answered.

A recent Reuters poll found that a quarter of Americans are hesitant about taking a vaccine, voicing concern that the record pace of development could compromise safety. Fauci said he is aware of such concerns.

"It's understandable, but unjustified," he said. "We're not compromising safety; we're not compromising scientific integrity."

Fauci said the normal development process of waiting for a vaccine to be proven effective before manufacturing begins wastes precious time.

"If the vaccine doesn't work, the only thing you've lost is money."

Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here
The second wave of COVID-19 has thrown up a minefield for federal government and ACT health officials to navigate. While most federal MPs are free to travel to Canberra unencumbered, its a different story for their Victorian counterparts.

Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Federal Cities Minister Alan Tudge scored an exemption to attend Canberra last Friday, along with a lengthy list of instructions on how to stay COVID-free. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Health Minister Greg Hunt have no doubt been handed the same.

But theres less certainty for those further down the pecking order, including Labors Victorian team. Will the MPs have to self-isolate for 14 days before being allowed to attend Parliament? Or will they have to take a COVID test to prove theyre fit to travel?

All of these questions were discussed during a tense phone hook-up last week of Labors Victorian Right faction. Things got testy, apparently.
Arraignment Postponed for Two Defendants in Pop Smokes Killing

Arraignment was postponed today to Aug. 24 for two young men charged with killing rapper Pop Smoke during a robbery at a Hollywood Hills home nearly five months ago.

Corey Walker, 19, and Keandre Rodgers, 18, are charged with capital murder in connection with the Feb. 19 killing of the 20-year-old New York-based rapper, whose real name was Bashar Jackson.

The murder charge includes the special circumstance allegation that the murder was committed during the commission of a robbery and burglary.

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Prosecutors will decide later whether to pursue the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole for the defendants, who are also facing gang and gun allegations.

Two boys aged 15 and 17 were charged with murder and robbery in juvenile court in connection with the same crime, according to the District Attorneys Office. Their names were withheld because they are minors.

Officers went to 2033 Hercules Drive in the Hollywood Hills about 4 a.m. on Feb. 19 in response to a 911 call and found the mortally injured rapper, who was pronounced dead at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Los Angeles police said last week, when making five arrests in the case, that investigators believed the men and boys entered Jacksons short-term rental home and shot and robbed him inside. Investigators believe the suspects are members of a Los Angeles street gang, according to police.

Walker, Rodgers and Jaquan Murphy, 21, were arrested Thursday and held in lieu of $1 million bail each.

Online jail records show that Murphy remains in custody on an unrelated case.

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LAPD Capt. Steve Lurie said the 911 call that brought police to the Hercules Drive address came from someone on the East Coast who stated a friend of theirs home was being broken into by multiple suspects, and that one of them was armed with a handgun.

When officers arrived there approximately six minutes later, they discovered a victim inside the house had been shot, Lurie said. They called the fire department, who arrived and transported that victim to Cedars-Sinai, where he was pronounced dead.

The suspects were wearing masks and were last seen running from the home and possibly getting into a nearby vehicle.

Officers detained several people who were inside the house, according to Lurie, but all of those folks were released.  No one was arrested at the scene.

According to various media reports, the up-and-coming New York rapper posted photos earlier Feb. 19 or late Feb. 18 from a party at the home, even revealing the address. According to TMZ, one of the photos showed a person holding a large sum of money.

Investigators believe at least some of the suspects are also involved in the killing of 18-year-old Kamryn Stone in the Rose Bowl parking lot in Pasadena Sept. 14, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Property records indicate the home where the shooting occurred is owned by Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave  who appears on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and is a daughter of musician John Mellencamp  and her husband, Edwin Arroyave.

Pop Smoke released an album in July 2019, and one of the songs, Welcome to the Party, was considered by many the song of the summer. Nicki Minaj did a remix of the song a few months later.

The rapper also collaborated with Travis Scott on a song called Gatti.
A creepy cafe owner who forced a 16-year-old waitress to expose herself and offered her $200 to have sex with him has been jailed.

Miguel Dantas De Sa, 28, was sentenced to two and a half years' jail on Thursday for the assault on the young waitress at a cafe in Adelaide on November 12, 2016.

De Sa previously begged the court not to jail him as it could see his whole family deported with their visas dependent on the 'good character' clause of his own.

During the sentencing, Judge Liesl Chapman told the District Court the punishment needed to send a message to other potential predators, according The Advertiser.

'You sexually exploited the imbalance of power between yourself and your employee she did the brave and right thing and went to the police,' she said.

Miguel Dantas De Sa, 28, was sentenced to two and a half years' jail for indecently assaulting a 16-year-old waitress

Judge Chapman said De Sa had shown no remorse for his crimes and the sentence would allow his victim to heal.

'She has been able to process her experience and realise, quite properly, that you are entirely to blame for what happened.

De Sa denied the claims to police but was found guilty of two counts of indecent assault toward the waitress and communicating with her to procure sexual activity.

The court heard previously how De Sa cornered the young girl in a locked cool room with him before he asked her if she would have sex with him for $200.

When the teenager insisted she needed to get back to work he looped his fingers in her underwear and forced her to pull down her pants.

After messaging his employee to reconsider his offer she turned him down only for him to later ask what size underwear she wore.

The victim previous told the court she felt overwhelmed with guilt and disgust over the incident.

Judge Chapman said De Sa had shown no remorse for his crimes and the sentence would allow his victim to heal

Without the backing of De Sa's visa, the temporary visa of his mother, father and sister would be left without their sponsor and could be deported to Portugal.

Judge Chapman said she understood the situation was fragile but but determined that public safety came first.

'A strong message must be sent to the community that behaviour like this will be met with strong penalty,' she said.

De Sa was ordered to serve at least 13 months of his jail sentence and has already applied for bail.
The federal government was ready to provide upwards of $43.5 million to WE Charity for administering a summer grant program for students, a parliamentary committee heard Thursday.

That figure is more than double the $19.5 million that the government said it had agreed to pay WE Charity to run the program in a deal that was scrapped after questions were raised about the involvement of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose family members have been paid to attend WE events.

The higher figure was revealed to the finance committee by Diversity and Inclusion and Youth Minister Bardish Chagger while Opposition MPs inquired about the agreement.

And Thursdays hearing was just the beginning. Earlier in the day, the scandal deepened for the Liberals when federal ethics commissioner Mario Dion announced he would be investigating the involvement of Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

And in the days and weeks ahead, several parliamentary committees will hold further hearings into a scandal that has so far forced apologies from Trudeau and Morneau.

But on Thursday it was Chagger in the spotlight, defending the governments decision and catching the committee members off guard when she revealed the higher payout. Chagger told the committee that $19.5 million was pledged for the first slate of students, a further $10.5 million was available for additional uptake in the program, and the deal paid a further $13.5 million should a second slate of volunteers come into the program.

In addition to Chagger, the 12-member, all-party committee heard from public servants who were responsible for setting up the program and described how at the height of the pandemic in April the public service was stretched paper thin, scrambling to manage the COVID-19 emergency and setup the summer student program.

A window into the days around the programs announcement was detailed by Rachel Wernick, an assistant deputy minister in the department of employment and social development, who had recommended WE to Chagger as the organization best suited to administer the student program.

Answering questions from NDP MP Charlie Angus, Wernick said that on April 19, several days before the governments public announcement about the summer student grant, she contacted WE for advice on the program. Wernick said that she knew that the Liberals planned to announce a student program within days.

Wernick said that she had conversations with other top bureaucrats and volunteered to reach out to WE.

Before April 19, she said WE had a separate social entrepreneurship proposal circulating with ministers and while she did not elaborate she offered to provide details of the proposal in writing.

It wasnt a proposal to run the summer student grant program, but it was eventually adapted to do so, she told the committee.

Then, on April 22, the government announced the program and Wernick said the focus shifted to how to best implement it.

WE had reached out to her department on the same day the government announced the program with a detailed proposal to run it, and Wernick called it the best available option.

It was a crisis, said Wernick, in response to a question from Rheal Eloi Fortin, a Bloc Quebecois MP, about if they approached other organizations to run the program. She noted that April was the peak of the pandemic and that the public service was working around the clock.

Her department considered using the public service to administer the program, but it was stretched to far because of the pandemic, she said.

Fortin asked Wernick if she knew that Trudeaus wife was an ambassador with WE when she made the recommendation.

While Wernick acknowledged that she knew at the time adding that the onus is on the public office holders to uphold the (ethics) guidelines.

Wernick said she didnt know about the speaking fees paid by WE to Trudeaus mother and brother  a combined $282,000 between 2016 and 2020.

Trudeau and Morneau both took part in a cabinet decision to approve the deal and the program would have seen $900 million in grant money distributed by WE to student volunteers.

Still, Opposition MPs on the committee were perplexed with how alarm bells werent going off around the cabinet table given the prime ministers family connections to the group.

We acknowledge that this process was not perfect, said Chagger, who was the first witness called by the committee.

Chagger was asked about the potential for a conflict of interest given Trudeaus wife is an ambassador with WE, but the minister said the she hadnt raised those concerns with the prime ministers office.

You failed, balked Angus. It happened on your watch.

Trudeau and Morneau have been asked to testify at committees as well. The prime minister has said he would consider it.

Also announced Thursday was a widening in scope for Ethics Commissioner Mario Dions probe which will also consider any potential ethical violations by Morneau.
In a rare public rebuke of the nations largest retail pharmacy chain, state regulators in Oklahoma cited and fined CVS for conditions found at four of its pharmacies, including inadequate staffing and errors made in filling prescriptions.

While the fine of $125,000 on Wednesday was small for CVS Health  it paid its chief executive $36.5 million in total compensation last year and is the countrys fifth-largest company  the move validated concerns raised at multiple drugstore chains across the country by pharmacists and technicians who say understaffed workplaces are putting the public at risk.

CVS also agreed to distribute a memo to its pharmacists in the state, highlighting a law that requires them to take action if working conditions in their pharmacies could lead to problems safely filling prescriptions. The memo is to make clear that they are not to face retaliation for documenting and reporting such issues.

In a statement, a CVS spokesman said the company agreed to the terms to avoid the time and expense of a protracted hearing process and to foster a positive working relationship with the Oklahoma State Board of Pharmacy. The spokesman said the action did not constitute an admission of guilt by the company on all counts.
(Photo : Luke Duce/Youtube) Screenshot from DEADMANS RAW FOOTAGE!! 15TH JULY (Photo : Luke Duce/Youtube) Screenshot from DEADMANS RAW FOOTAGE!! 15TH JULY

A group of surfers was washed by huge waves on Wednesday, July 15, at a Sydney break as Tasman Low hits the east coast of Australia, bringing damaging winds and massive swell.

In a YouTube video posted by Sydney-based photographer Luke Duce, surfers rode huge ocean swells on their boards at Deadman's Reef at the south of Manly Beach in Sydney.

"It didn't really look like Sydney," Duce told Daily Mail Australia adding that these swells are far different from what they usually see. He also commended the surfers who were "super brave" to take on some of the biggest waves he has seen in Sydney.

Huge waves slammed into the shallow rock ledge just meters away from the rocky shoreline where a massive crowd gathered on the cliff to watch the surfers do their death-defying stunts.

Duce also noted that while at least 15 broken surfboards left surfers paddling to the coast, they were "cheering each other on and making sure everyone was always safe."

One of the surfers was Surfaid CEO Doug Lees told Coastalwatch that it was the 'best day I have ever seen there." He explained that hardly anyone surfed in Manly, so seeing "34 guys in the line-up and most of them charging" is rare.

Meanwhile, Avalon Beach filmmaker Spencer Frost said he felt "stoked to see everyone pushing it" through wild surfing waves, which he has been wanting to shoot for years.

Tasman low hit Sydney and brought wild surfing swells

According to Duce, the swells are "super hectic" that sent a "vibe on the cliff" where people were whistling and cheering for the surfers.

This erratic condition is due to a large low-pressure system called the "Tasman Low." Aside from wild surfing conditions, the huge waves caused significant erosion along the coast.

A hazardous surf warning remains in place from Byron Bay to Eden along with the New South Wales (NSW) Coast until Friday, July 17 as the Tasman Low continues to make a dramatic exit with huge swells and damaging winds in the east coast.

Surfers at Deadmans Reef, Manly, Australia. The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe weather warning for Sydney and large parts of coastal New South Wales, with damaging winds and surf expected across the state. pic.twitter.com/P0eSYOvsHB  BBC Weather (@bbcweather) July 15, 2020

The Bureau of Meteorology website shows a deep low-pressure system over the central Tasman Sea. This brings stormy winds and huge waves along the NSW coast. However, the conditions are expected to ease over the weekend as the system moves towards New Zealand.

This means chilly weather can be expected over the weekend with strong winds, large waves, and heavy showers across eastern NSW. The NSW police marine area command urged people to stay out of the water as they witnessed 11.6 meter-waves in Sydney.They also advised those who plan to do boating, rock fishing, swimming, and surfing reassess the situation. While the swell will begin to ease by the weekend, beachgoers are advised to remain cautious of the waves.

 Hazardous Surf #Warning for powerful swell continuing along #GoldCoast, #SunshineCoast & #FraserIsland Coasts, due to this low pressure system over the Tasman Sea. Details at https://t.co/FBmpsInT9o follow @lifesavingqld for beach closures and #swimbetweentheflags. pic.twitter.com/xeLqriMadW  Bureau of Meteorology, Queensland (@BOM_Qld) July 16, 2020

Similarly, another surf warning is in place until July 17 for Fraser Island Coast, Sunshine Coast Waters, and Gold Coast Waters. Beach safety and rescue authority Surf Live Saving Queensland advised people to avoid the waters and walking in surf-exposed zones.

Read also: WATCH: Naya Rivera's 'If I Die Young' With 'Sink Me in the River' Line Leaves People in Tears

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Helicopters from the 101st Airborne Division Combat Aviation Brigade, from Fort Campbell in Kentucky, began arriving in La Rochelle, France, July 7, 2020.

US Army/Staff Sgt. Benjamin Northcutt

Even with an ongoing pandemic, US troops are still arriving in Europe for training with partners and allies, including at the port of La Rochelle in France earlier this month.

The US Army hasn't really used that port since the 1960s, and its return is a part of an ongoing effort by the US and NATO to improve their ability to get around Europe.

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The coronavirus upended US military operations around the world, but it was perhaps most disruptive for the US Army in Europe, which had to halt preparations for its largest exercise in decades.

But the pandemic hasn't stopped everything. This month, elements of the Army's 101st Airborne Division arrived at the port of La Rochelle in France for a nine-month rotation with Operation Atlantic Resolve, which was started to enhance training with European allies after the Russian seizure of Crimea and intervention in Ukraine in 2014.

"This is the first time a US Army operation of this scale has been conducted in La Rochelle since the 1960s," the Army's 598th Transportation Brigade said in a July 12 Facebook post.

The 101st Combat Aviation Brigade's "arrival and movement through France represents an opportunity for US and French logisticians to build relationships and enhance interoperability," the brigade said. "Operation Mousquetaire ('Musketeer'), the French portion of the logistical movement, is a demonstration of the strong, existing partnership between the US and French militaries."

101st Airborne Division Combat Aviation Brigade helicopters at La Rochelle, France, July 7, 2020.

US Army/Staff Sgt. Benjamin Northcutt

Ports like Bremerhaven in Germany, close to barracks and training grounds in that country and to its east, have long been hubs for arriving US forces, but a search for variety has led the US military to ports from which it's been absent  such as Antwerp in Belgium and Vlissingen in the Netherlands.

"One of our primary objectives is to improve military mobility across Europe by expanding the number of viable ports available in times of crisis, so we exercise our use of them with Atlantic Resolve rotations," a US Army Europe spokesperson said in an email Thursday.

Story continues

"In the last two years, we've utilized ports in France, Greece, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania and Romania for Atlantic Resolve and other exercises," the spokesperson added.

Ports are one part of the effort to improve that mobility, which has also seen US troops practice new transport methods. NATO and the European Union have also worked individually and jointly on issues such as transportation infrastructure and regulations on cross-border travel.

"The one thing that I always say every time I come and meet with allies in Europe is: logistics  whether it be investments in infrastructure, whether it be rail or roads," Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told the press on Wednesday during a trip to Poland. "Their ability to flow capability is everything, so that's a conversation I have publicly and privately at every opportunity."

'Coronavirus threw things off a little bit'

Soldiers from the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade arrive at Albrecht Duerer Airport Nuernberg in Germany to support of Atlantic Resolve, June 22, 2020.

US Army/Sgt. Alleea Oliver

Atlantic Resolve rotations are generally planned about a year in advance, the US Army Europe spokesperson said. European countries have in recent weeks relaxed restrictions related to the pandemic, but there are still precautions for arriving US troops.

"We consider COVID mitigation measures for everything we do at US Army Europe," the spokesperson said.

Some 250 soldiers from the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade  the sixth brigade-sized aviation rotation for Atlantic Resolve  arrived in Europe in late June, two weeks before their rotation officially started.

"The soldiers quarantined for two weeks in Grafenwoehr, Germany, before they were able to travel to France and Greece to pick up their helicopters and equipment," the spokesperson said. "We continue to work closely with our host nations to ensure our policies and response plans align."

101st Combat Aviation Brigade soldiers on a bus at Albrecht Duerer Airport Nuernberg in Germany, June 22, 2020.

US Army/Sgt. Alleea Oliver

Camp Kasserine, where the soldiers were quarantined, was divided into four areas with tents and amenities like laundry, showers, and hot food. The soldiers were separated in small groups, and each had 72 square feet of personal space and access to physical fitness resources.

"Coronavirus threw things off a little bit, but we were able to adapt and overcome," Army Maj. Jay Berger, executive officer of the aviation brigade, said in a release. "[We] were practicing social distancing  and proper sanitation while we were conducting our train-up to come here. We had to get a little more creative with some of our key training events, but overall we maintained our readiness and timeline to deploy."

The aviation unit is deploying for its rotation with roughly 2,000 personnel, 50 UH-60 and HH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, four CH-47 Chinook helicopters, 25 AH-64 Apache helicopters, and more than 1,800 wheeled vehicles and pieces of equipment. This week, the helicopters are scheduled to fly to training areas in Germany, Poland and Latvia.

The official transition for the Atlantic Resolve aviation rotation will be on July 17, when the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade from the Army's 3rd Infantry Division transfers authority to the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade.

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MIAMI, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As the number of coronavirus cases spike across Florida, with officials confirming nearly 14,000 new cases on Thursday, Miami Beach officials say they've distributed a large portion of the 100,000 NIOSH-certified N95 respirator masks, donated by TBG Tech Co., to first responders and essential workers. In addition, several hundred masks were delivered to some of the most vulnerable populations in the city, including senior centers and those in the homeless community.

Miami Beach Fire Department receives donation of 100,000 NIOSH-certified N95 respirator masks from TBG Tech Co. and BYD

On Friday, TBG Tech Co., a local business specializing in supply and logistics of personal protective equipment (PPE), announced the donation of 100,000 NIOSH-certified N95 respirator masks to the front-line health care workers of the City of Miami Beach. The company also launched a new social responsibility campaign to encourage all people to wear masks in public places called "Wear.One".

The masks are manufactured by BYD (Build Your Dreams), which is the world's largest maker of N95 respirators. BYD has the capacity to build 50 million high-quality masks per day and manufactures a variety, including single-use Adult Surgical Masks, KN-95s and NIOSH-approved N95s, as well as highly efficient hand sanitizers. TBG Tech Co. is an authorized vendor of BYD global care products in North and South America.

The masks arrived at Miami Beach Fire Station 2 on Friday during a critical time when many cities are experiencing renewed shortages of lifesaving PPE. The N95 soft, vertical flat-fold masks are certified by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, and meet all current U.S. regulatory requirements.

"We're very grateful for TBG Tech's donation, which couldn't have arrived at a more critical time for us," Miami Beach Fire Department Chief Virgil Fernandez said. "These masks will allow our firefighters to safely respond to COVID-19 calls and prevent us from taking the virus home."

Miami Beach City Commissioner Michael Gongora was at the fire station when the masks arrived. "Thank you to the TBG Tech Co. team who generously made a donation of 100,000 NIOSH-approved N95 masks to assist the Miami Beach community in battling the COVID-19 outbreak," he said. Since Friday, Gongora says several hundred respirator masks have also been distributed to local senior centers and the homeless community. "These communities are among the most vulnerable to COVID-19, and we're incredibly grateful to TBG Tech that we can provide them with protective PPE," he said.

This donation is personal for the local Miami Beach company. Jay Floe of TBG Tech Co. said, "We need to protect our families; we need to protect our neighbors. It's our duty to show compassion to our community, and it starts by putting on a mask." Floe continued, "We want to bring awareness of the importance of using the correct masks and that when you wear one, you become something bigger than yourself. COVID-19 has reminded us, that we are one, we fight as one and that there is integrity in doing something for others and true strength comes from empowering others. That's the unifying idea that inspires 'Wear.One'."

Joe Cooke, Director of Operations for TBG Tech Co., attended Friday's donation event. "We are so thankful for the ability to provide a quality product to the people who are protecting the public," Cooke said. "Our brave and heroic first responders have always been there for us; it feels so good to be able to give something back to them. We owe them so much for all they do; we are just trying to set a good example that the fight against COVID-19 starts with you and me."

TGB Tech Co. and BYD share its profound appreciation for all doctors, nurses, and first responders as well as their families who serve and protect our communities. We cherish the opportunity to provide safe, reliable PPE to the men and women who have dedicated their lives to keeping others safe during this crisis.

Press Contact:

Katelyn Petroka

[email protected]

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100,000 N95 Masks Donated to Miami Beach Fire Dept.

Miami Beach Fire Department receives donation of 100,000 NIOSH-certified N95 respirator masks from TBG Tech Co. and BYD

SOURCE TBG Tech Co.
I emailed my symptoms to a friend of mine who had suffered through the virus and recovered. Realizing I was probably overreacting, I told him I figured I had maybe a 40 percent chance of being infected; after all, I wasnt coughing or spiking a fever. My friend, who had become something of an amateur expert on covid-19, told me, instantly, the way friends do, that he believed I was wrong. Its probably more like 70 percent, he said. He wasnt kidding. He advised me to try to buy a pulse oximeter, if I could find one. It is a medical device that tells you how much oxygen is in your blood. You use this to determine when it is time to go to the hospital, put yourself in the hands of qualified professionals, and expire.
(Photo : Twitter  @raff_nasir)

In a year where almost everything seems plausible, the internet seems to have become enamored by a fish with human lips and teeth.

For its remarkably human-like head, a tropical fish, infamous for its sharp teeth and ill-temper, is going viral. This month, pictures of the triggerfish were posted on Twitter with the user joking, "her lips are hotter than mine."

The issue? Oh, in addition to some troubling advances made online towards the creature - the fish doesn't exist. At least not, as in the tweet below, with a collection of pearly whites.

ALSO READ: [Fact Check] This Viral Photo of 'Human-Sized' Bat is Real: Guess Where It Can Be Found

Bizarre-looking fish

This odd photo could be traced back on July 2 from a tweet by @raff_nasir. But on Wednesday, the weird story was addressed by The Mirror with a piece titled "Bizarre fish pictured with eerily human-like teeth caught by angler in Malaysia."

The Mirror wrote that the photo "is indeed an actual toothy fish." Subsequent studies also commented on the fish, claiming it "might be a true, live triggerfish inhabiting tropical seas around the globe."

People were also quick to guess what the fish was. Still, local media newspaper The Rakyat Post described it as a triggerfish popular in waters around Malaysia.

Talking to social media, one person wrote: "Evolution is really a fascinating process."

What's a triggerfish? Do they really have human teeth?

Triggerfish, found mainly in tropical and subtropical reefs, are often brightly colored and live in tropical and subtropical waters.

Approximately 40 species of triggerfish are known for being highly territorial. According to National Geographic, male triggerfishes are known to be territorial and aggressive, charging on intruders and even using their teeth to battle crabs and sea urchins.

The Picasso and titan triggerfish are known to protect their eggs and nests viciously against intruders, including scuba divers and snorkellers. Both triggerfish have mouths and teeth small but mighty, built to smash shells.

"The ocean triggerfish on the Great Barrier Reef attacks divers who approach its nest," says David Booth, a marine ecologist at the University of Technology, Sydney. "Their very strong teeth can remove a finger!"

The tiny Picasso triggerfish pose little danger to humans. Titan triggerfish, which can grow up to 75 cm in length, can cause severe problems for divers because of its size and powerful teeth. After altercations with triggerfish, some divers left the water wholly ruined with their fins.

The pictures of the above triggerfish have caused some funny reactions on social media, with Twitter users bewildered by how much they looked like humans.

ALSO READ: [VIRAL] Scientists Named New Species Discovered on Twitter, Named After the Social Media Platform

Triggerfish are true plump-lipped fish too. For this way, the picture is altered a bit, but it's the teeth that netizens should not be worried about. Triggerfish have a very odd collection of teeth - but they're not our chompers like anything. Look for example, at the skeleton of a triggerfish. Her teeth are frightening, and they're also known to create a few problems for divers.

"Their teeth are large but not human-like, so yes the pictures do look fake!" notes Booth.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
William Shatner said he'd cast Chris Pine to play him in a biopic.

The 89-year-old actor was asked who he would pick to play him in a film about his life and career and chose Pine, the 39-year-old actor who has played the role of Captain James T. Kirk in three of J.J. Abrams Star Trek films set in the show's Kelvin timeline.

'I dont know. [Chris] Pine?' the Montreal native told the fan site Trek Report in a remote appearance for GalaxyCon. 'Why doesnt he play me? A good looking, talented guy.'

The latest: William Shatner, 89, was asked who he would pick to play him in a film about his life and career and chose Chris Pine, the 39-year-old actor who has played the role of Captain James T. Kirk in three of J.J. Abrams Star Trek films set in the show's Kelvin timeline

He initially said, 'I want to play myself - I dont wanna die!'

The Star Trek actor, who played Captain James T. Kirk on the famed TV series from 1966-1969, chat with moderator Patty Hawkins in the segment, where he fielded questions from fans for an hour.

Shatner also discussed the prospects of redoing portions of 1989's Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, which he directed but did not get to complete the way he wanted to amid a lack of funding.

'It certainly could use an ending,' Shatner said. 'That might be interesting to do. But, not to refurbish the whole film.'

Iconic: The Star Trek actor (pictured with Nichelle Nichols and the late Leonard Nimoy) played Captain James T. Kirk on the famed TV series from 1966-1969

Reboot: Zachary Quinto (L) and Pine revived the roles for director J.J. Abrams

In the chat, Shatner said he was waiting for the pandemic to conclude so he could visit with his family and return to work on assorted projects he had prior to the shutdown.

In early March, he told the site Metro UK that he would only play Captain Kirk if the material 'made reasonable sense'

'I wouldnt do a series. If the role was written properly and it wasnt a cameo or gratuitous; being there just to show my face, I wouldnt do that,' he said.
Ambulances parked in a queue in front of the Greater Chennai Corporation as number of COVID- 19 cases surge in the city. PTI photo

The State government, with a view to offsetting the economic loss caused by the lockdown, should take steps to enhance the peoples buying power by ensuring that they had more cash at hand.

This is the first of the seven pieces of advice for immediate action that the Leader of the Opposition M K Stalin has offered to the government after holding a discussion, through video conference, with medical, economic and business experts.

Urging the government to at least take his advice seriously now, Stalin, in a statement on Monday, reiterated his demand for payment of Rs 5000 to every family as the second advice.

Allowing movement of goods and people with regulations during the lockdown, the state and central governments paying MSMEs their dues, increasing the annual working days under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act to 250 days, increasing the investment expenditure in health and such essential services and restructuring the GST with the State recusing itself from it now are the other advice he had for the government.

The two long-term advice he had were building a common income generating infrastructure that will ensure basic financial security to people, not just at times of crisis but at all times, and an universal medical insurance scheme that services offered by the private hospitals were also available to the poor.

Both the measures would have all citizens a comprehensive social security and help solve problems arising in a future crisis, Stalin said.
VATICAN CITY  The Vatican told bishops around the world on Thursday they should report cases of clergy sex crimes to police even when not legally bound to do so, in its latest effort to compel church leaders to protect minors from predator priests.

The Vatican issued a long-awaited manual for bishops and religious superiors on conducting in-house investigations into allegations of priests who rape and molest minors and vulnerable adults. While the Vatican has had detailed canonical norms in place for two decades, the laws continue to be ignored by some bishops, particularly in the developing world and even Catholic strongholds like Poland.

While the manual doesn't have the force of a new law, it goes beyond the current Vatican policy about cooperating with law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and police. That policy requires bishops and religious superiors to report allegations of sex crimes with minors only where local laws require it.

The manual says: "Even in cases where there is no explicit legal obligation to do so, the ecclesiastical authorities should make a report to the competent civil authorities if this is considered necessary to protect the person involved or other minors from the danger of further criminal acts."

And it says church leaders must comply with "legitimate" subpoena requests.

The manual, issued in a half-dozen languages, appears aimed in part at depriving bishops and religious superiors of their frequent excuses not to carry out preliminary investigations into accused priests.

The manual states, for example, that anonymous allegations should not be dismissed outright, as they often are, and that even hearsay and social media posts can constitute the basis on which to launch a preliminary probe.

In addition, the manual says bishops should not ignore allegations just because they fall outside the church's statute of limitations, since the Vatican can at any time decide to waive the time limit.

The only justification for dismissing an allegation outright, the manual says, is if the bishop determines the "manifest impossibility of proceeding," such as if the the priest wasn't physically present when the alleged crimes took place.

The manual also makes clear that the type of crimes that fall under sexual abuse is "quite broad" and includes not only sexual relations but any physical contact for sexual gratification, including actions bishops frequently dismiss as mere "boundary violations." The manual lists exhibitionism, masturbation, pornography production and "conversations and/or propositions of a sexual nature" that can occur through a variety of means of communication as crimes that must be investigated.

And it warns that bishops can themselves be prosecuted canonically for negligence if they fail to take allegations seriously and investigate them.

The manual was published by the Vatican office that investigates priestly sex crimes, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and was issued in Italian, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish and German.

Its origins lie in Pope Francis' 2019 sex abuse summit, in which the presidents of all the world's bishops conferences came to the Vatican for a four-day tutorial on preventing abuse. Francis summoned them after he himself botched a notorious case of abuse and cover-up in Chile, and after he realized that many bishops around the world still didn't understand or take seriously the depth of the abuse problem in the church.

On the first day of the summit, Francis issued 21 points of reflection going forward, with the first point a recommendation that the Vatican issue a handbook to help bishops investigate and prosecute sex crimes. While the Vatican has issued a variety of abuse-related documents over the years, the new manual provides a point-by-point instruction on how to conduct investigations, from start to finish.

The Vatican has long refused to flat-out require bishops to report abuse allegations to police, arguing that such a universal law could lead to unjust treatment of priests in countries where Catholics are a persecuted minority. Survivors and advocates have long blasted the position, arguing that the Vatican could make a universal reporting mandate with certain exceptions if needed.

Anne Barrett Doyle, co-founder of BishopAccountability, an online resource center about abuse, said the manual's non-binding recommendation that bishops should report abuse was "incrementally better" than the Vatican's past position.

But she stressed: "We're past the point of 'should.' There is nothing stopping the pope from ordering bishops and religious superiors (to report) all allegations to civil authorities," with exceptions where it's not safe.

And she insisted that real progress would come when the Vatican institutes a true "zero tolerance" policy, permanently removing from public ministry any cleric who abuses and any bishop who enables him.

"That will be progress. That will be the reform that is needed," she said.

SNAP, the main victims' advocacy group in the U.S., said the issue should be taken out of the hands of the church altogether.

"Rather than hope that church officials will listen to Pope Francis' new suggestion, attorneys general in every single state should be launching independent investigations into clergy abuse, using subpoena power and grand jury to force the truth into the public square and ensure that children are protected from abusers and that enablers are removed from positions of power," the group said in a statement.
Hours after Indian consular officers met Kulbhushan Jadhav, India on Thursday slammed Pakistan as the "environment nor the arrangements of the meeting were in accordance with the assurances given by Pakistan". The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated that it was evident from a camera, that was visible, that the conversation with Jadhav was being recorded. The MEA added that Jadhav himself was visibly under stress and indicated that clearly to the consular officers.

"The Consular Officers were not given unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional access to Jadhav. On the contrary, Pakistani officials with an intimidating demeanour were present in close proximity of Jadhav and consular officers despite the protests of the Indian side," stated the MEA.

The MEA that the arrangements didn't permit a free conversation between them. "The Consular Officers could not engage Jadhav on his legal rights and were prevented from obtaining his written consent for arranging his legal representation.



In the light of these circumstances, the Indian consular officers came to the conclusion that the consular access being offered by Pakistan was neither meaningful nor credible," added the MEA.

The MEA added that the consular officers left the venue after lodging a protest. "It is clear that Pakistans approach to this matter continues to be obstructive and insincere. It has not only violated its assurance to the ICJ to fully implement the 2019 judgement, but also failed to act in accordance with its own ordinance," stated the MEA.

"External Affairs Minister has apprised the family of Jadhav of these developments. We reiterate our commitment to ensure the safe return of Jadhav to India and will decide on a future course of action in the light of the events today," added the MEA.

"Over the past year, India has requested Pakistan more than twelve times to provide unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav, who remains incarcerated in Pakistani custody since 2016. This consular access is of utmost importance, as it is the basis for a process of effective review and reconsideration ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in July 2019 of the conviction and sentence of Jadhav by a Pakistani military tribunal," read the statement.

"In May 2020, Pakistan passed an Ordinance, ostensibly to comply with the order of the International Court of Justice. It inter-alia envisaged the Consular Officer of the High Commission of India filing a petition before a High Court for the relevant review and reconsideration. In that context, the contacts and conversations between the Consular Officer and Jadhav assume great importance," it said.

It also said, "Any conversation between them must necessarily take place in privacy and without the presence of any Pakistani official or recording by Pakistan. It is only then that Shri Jadhav can speak freely without any concerns of reprisal as he remains in Pakistani custody after the meeting. It is already evident that Shri Jadhav has been intimidated repeatedly in the past, including in being made to express his alleged disinclination to seek a review."

"India recently requested the Pakistani side for an unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional consular access to be provided on July 13. Pakistan was asked to ensure that the meeting is held in an atmosphere free from fear of retribution and without the presence of any Pakistani official in the vicinity of Jadhav and the Indian consular officials. Pakistan was also requested to not record (video and audio) the meeting.



After extensive discussions, the Pakistan side conveyed that they were ready to organize consular access on July 16. We were assured that this consular access would be unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional. On the basis of this assurance by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, two Consular Officers of the High Commission proceeded to the meeting with Jadhav," added the statement.
The Morgan County states attorney has filed child pornography charges against a Roodhouse man accused in June of sexual assault.

Christopher D. Hunnicutt, 20, of 321 Rawlings St., Roodhouse, was booked into the Morgan County jail in June on a sexual assault charge.

Though he will not be prosecuted on the sexual assault charge, Hunnicutt now is facing charges of possession of child pornography and solicitation of child pornography.

According to the charging documents, Hunnicutt knowingly solicited a child whom the defendant knew to be under the age of 18, to appear in a photograph or other similar reproduction or depiction which would show (the child) depicted or portrayed in a pose, posture or setting involving a lewd exhibition.

States Attorney Gray Noll said the charges are a result of an investigation by Jacksonville Police Department.

The investigation included the serving of multiple search warrants and, after the initial filing of charges, a warrant was issued for his arrest, Noll said.

Hunnicutt was arrested in Greene County in June 2019 on charges of criminal sexual abuse of a minor, aggravated criminal sexual assault of a minor and sexual grooming of a minor. Charging documents report that Hunnicutt was accused of sexually abusing a minor in June 2018 and the grooming charge stems from incidents that took place in January and February 2019.

He pleaded guilty in October to a charge of criminal sexual abuse and a Sept. 15 review has been set for the other charges.

Hunnicutt is being held on a $75,000 bond and is scheduled for a first appearance in court today.

The charge of solicitation of child pornography is a Class 1 felony, which carries a penalty of four to 15 years in the department of corrections. The charge of possession of pornography is a Class 3 felony and could carry a penalty of two to five years in the department of corrections.
Rhode Islands capital city is looking at providing reparations to residents of African and Native American heritage, Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza announced Wednesday.

The Democratic mayor signed an executive order creating a Truth-Telling, Reconciliation and Municipal Reparations Process that would examine the feasibility of providing reparations, which are typically direct cash payments to individuals.

Elorza said its the first step in accepting the citys role in the countrys fraught racial history, including Black slavery and mistreatment of Native Americans.

Were putting a marker on the ground and committing to elevating this conversation and using the levers at our disposal to correct the wrongs of the past, he said.

Eloza said two other cities in the country have taken similar steps to provide reparations, but haven't gone as far as what he is pushing Providence to do.

Evanston, Illinois, created a reparations fund last year that draws from tax revenue from recreational marijuana sales. Officials in nearby Chicago have also been debating the issue, and countries including South Africa and Canada and colleges including Georgetown University have some form of reparations initiatives.

Elorza said Providence's monthslong effort will include accurately telling the history of slavery, Jim Crow segregation and structural racism in Providence. It will also involve recognizing that in some way at the city level, and then taking steps to address its ongoing impacts.

He stressed the question of what kind of reparations the city could ultimately provide residents is premature.

How much, what form, how long are all legitimate questions, but questions for another day, Elorza said. Its important to go step-by-step through this.

But at least one Black city leader said she was skeptical of the efforts, which have been backed by other prominent Black Rhode Islanders, including Keith Stokes, the former head of the state Economic Development Corporation.

When we utter the word reparations, Im thinking of a remedy so thoughtful, holistic and valuable as to make a dent in the debt owed to my community, Councilwoman Mary Kay Harris said in a lengthy statement ahead of Elorzas announcement. 2020 is definitely not the year to overpromise and underdeliver. My people have been through enough.

The city of roughly 180,000 residents, a majority of whom are persons of color, has been taking other steps to reconcile its past in the wake of the national reckoning on race spurred by the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

Last month, Elorza ordered the removal of the word plantations from the states formal name  the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations  in all official city documents.

Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo followed up with a similar edict for state documents.
A former showband performer arrested for swinging a crutch and shouting abuse at staff at a homeless centre had a "colourful career" before he fell on hard times.

Pat Carey (69), who used "highly abusive language" in the drink-fuelled episode, had been the bass player in a band for a number of years before alcoholism got the better of him, a court heard.

Judge Bryan Smyth fined him 100 for public order offences.

Carey, with an address at Sundial House, James Street, Dublin, pleaded guilty to threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour and failing to comply with garda directions.

A garda sergeant said the incident happened at 8am last June 7 when gardai were called to Sundial House.

The accused was acting in a threatening manner towards staff members and using "highly abusive language".

He had a crutch in his poss- ession and was swinging it around. He had taken alcohol at the time.

Inhibitions

His behaviour continued after gardai arrived and they arrested and charged him.

Carey had 10 previous convictions.

The accused had property in a locker in the premises and he was being denied access to it on the morning in question, his solicitor Philip Hannon said.

He was remonstrating with staff and his inhibitions were lowered by the use of alcohol.

Carey had two adult children from whom he was estranged, Mr Hannon said.

Alcoholism had got the better of him, he had been in recovery but had then "fallen off the wagon".

He accepted he was not in a position to offer "any guarantees" in this regard.

The accused did voluntary work taking calls for a city centre-based organisation.

Carey was in receipt of a pension and was prepared to make a charity donation to avoid conviction, Mr Hannon said.

Judge Smyth remarked, however, that the accused had 10 previous convictions, one of which was handed down last year.

He fined the accused on one charge and took the other into consideration.
By Ayya Lmahamad

One of Azerbaijans main foreign policy principles is to build relations with all countries based on mutual respect and trust, President Ilham Aliyev said on July 16 in the speech where he also called on Azerbaijans diplomatic missions abroad to work harder to defend the countrys national interests.

The president made the remarks while receiving the newly-appointed Foreign Affairs Minister Jeyhun Bayramov via a videoconference on July 16. Bayramov was appointed the Minister of Foreign Affairs by a presidential decree on July 15 and will replace Elmar Mammadyarov.

Our relations with neighboring countries are a priority for us. The course of life and events show that this is the right policy. The policy of the neighboring countries towards Azerbaijan is also very positive. We have built this policy on the principles of friendship and good neighborhood. Thus, we have no problems with any neighboring country, of course, except Armenia. The problems of the past have been solved. In some cases some communities of some countries want to artificially create some problems. But it also has no effect, the president said.

We live in the region, we are neighbors, and this neighborhood will last forever, the president said.

The president stated the spheres of work where Foreign Minister should focus his attention, including developing relations with the neighboring countries, Turkic speaking countries, the European Union, the Unites States, the United Kingdom, as countrys strategic investor, as well as Non-Aligned Movement, among others.

Aliyev added that Azerbaijan is a worthy member of the international community. Respect for us is growing worldwide. This is evidenced by the support provided to Azerbaijan by the international community at different times. Our role in the world is growing, it is impossible to implement any project in the region without participation of our country, ensuring its interests.

Furthermore, the president stated that it is necessary to improve the situation in the Foreign Affairs Ministry system, and the coordination between different departments of the ministry, including senior staff, should be ensured at the necessary level.

Moreover, Aliyev emphasized that work done in countrys foreign missions should be seriously analyzed, as countrys foreign representatives and diplomats must fully ensure the interest of the country.

In some cases, people working in our representations are indifferent to their work; passive, unable to adequately protect and ensure the interest of our country. They are unable or unwilling to convey the truth of our country to the public. They cannot or do not want to respond to slanderous statements against Azerbaijan, he added.

President stated that although most of the countrys diplomats working abroad meet high expectations, they should be in close contact with Azerbaijani communities living and working abroad. They must promote coordination of diaspora organizations, so that both diaspora organizations and embassies ensure Azerbaijans interests and convey the realities of Azerbaijan.

Moreover, he stressed that they should be in close contacts with foreign media, as unfortunately there are some cases of misinformation, intentionally fabricated, groundless rumors about Azerbaijan.

Intentionally fabricated, groundless rumors about our country are not refuted if I do not interfere. Either they dont want to do it, or they get other instructions. It is not a secret today that an ugly campaign is organized and coordinated against Azerbaijan, the president stressed.

But do our diplomatic missions abroad pay attention to this question? I can say noIn some cases they do not defend Azerbaijans interests in the countries where they operate, but they do defend the interest of those countries to represent themselves to high ranking officials of those countries, he added.

Some diplomats have betrayed the state, betrayed and do not hide it. They are controlled by the intelligence services of the countries where they live, Aliyev said.

He stated that today, the vast majority of those who are conducting an ugly campaign against Azerbaijan, and presenting themselves as Azerbaijanis, receive money and instruction from the countries they live in.

This is evidence of the hypocrisy of these countries. ()This is a purposeful policy, and in fact the purpose of it to shake the national values that the Azerbaijani people have been protecting for centuries. Our diplomats should act against it. It is impossible to work on the principle do not touch me, and I will not touch you. Unfortunately, that principle has recently played a key role in our Foreign Ministry, he said.

Aliyev stressed that the diplomacy of the country should be offensive and national interest should be fully protected.

Touching upon an issue of Armenian- Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and recent tensions happening on Azerbaijani-Armenian state border, the president stressed that as a result of measures taken in recent years, all international organizations have expressed their position on this issues, and adopted similar resolutions on territorial integrity, sovereignty and inviolability of Azerbaijans borders.

He stressed that as for the settlement of the conflict, Azerbaijan will not change it position, stating that Nagorno-Karabakh is Azerbaijans historical land, and the territorial integrity of the country should be restored.

Today Armenia is destroying the negotiation process, and everyone sees it. It is enough to pay attention to the statements of the Armenian leadership. Their military leadership is trying to threaten us. It wants to threaten us with the occupation of new lands. But I think that the lesson taught them these days will not be forgotten for a long time. Azerbaijan will restore its territorial integrity. There is a limit to the patience of the Azerbaijani people. Therefore, negotiations should be conducted on the essence, he stressed.

In turn, Jeyhun Bayramov expressed his gratitude to president for this appointment and assured that he will ensure that all the tasks and strategic interests of the country are implemented in right matter.




YEREVAN, JULY 16, ARMENPRESS. Russia will do everything possible to reduce the existing tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Deputy foreign minister Andrey Rudenko said in an interview to TASS.

I can only assure that we will do everything possible and will show the best qualities of the Russian diplomacy in order to settle not only the current conflict in the border, but also the relations between our brotherly countries  Armenia and Azerbaijan. Russia has such opportunities, we have used them for many times. I am confident that our opportunities will be used, the deputy FM said.

The Azerbaijani armed forces launched an attack on an Armenian military base located in Tavush province since July 12, using artillery, mortars and UAVs. In addition, the Azerbaijani side also shelled the town of Chinari in the province with mortars, damaging civilian homes. On July 14 the Azerbaijani armed forces continued targeting the civilian infrastructures of the Armenian town of Berd, using an attacking drone.

Overnight July 16, at around 03:40, the units of the Armenian Armed Forces have noticed movement of the Azerbaijani side. Switching to all-round defense, the Armenian Armed Forces prevented the sabotage infiltration attempt of the Azerbaijani side. After a hot battle the adversary was pushed back suffering losses. Thereafter, at 05:20, the Azerbaijani forces started shelling Aygepar and Movses villages of Tavush province, firing mortars and D-30 howitzer.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
Computer scientists from Aston University, Birmingham, have launched an app that uses novel artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to combat trolling and bullying online

Computer scientists from Aston University, Birmingham, have launched an app that uses novel artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to combat trolling and bullying online.

The downloadable app, Bullstop, is the only anti-cyberbullying app that integrates directly to social media platforms to protect users from bullies and trolls messaging them directly.

It was developed by Semiu Salawu, a doctoral researcher in the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences and was initially designed with teenagers aged 13 upwards in mind.

The app was designed collaboratively with young people to improve its chance of adoption amongst the main target audience. It is, however, also useful for adults who regularly use social media tools like Twitter and are often subjected to trolling and abuse. High profile examples of internet trolling are frequent enough to show us that this kind of abuse is prevalent on social media.

Since the outbreak of Covid-19 and the start of lockdown, young people and adults have moved their lives further online, with screen time usage increasing dramatically and reports of cyberbullying on the increase. In April, the UK Government issued new online safety guidance for parents, urging them to follow the advice to keep children safe online during lockdown.

Comparitech.com surveyed over 1000 parents globally and found that between 2018 and 2020, one-fifth of all bullying occurred through social media and apps, with a further 11% occuring via text messages. Reports of cyberbullying increased by around 70% at the start of lockdown according to data from Israeli startup company, L1ght in Digital Trends, leaving younger people especially exposed to online harms.

Bullstop is unique in that it monitors a user's social media profile and scans for offensive incoming messages, to ensure the user is not subject to incoming abuse, as well as offensive outgoing messages, to ensure the user is not using inappropriate language and to provide a means of self-reflection. This works via an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm which is designed to understand written language: it analyses messages and flags offensive content, such as instances of cyberbullying, abusive, insulting or threatening language, pornography and spam.

Offensive messages can be immediately deleted from the user's inbox. A copy of deleted messages are, however, retained should the user wish to review them. The app can also automatically block contacts who continuously send offensive messages. Bullstop is highly configurable, allowing the user to determine how comprehensively the app removes inappropriate messages.

PhD student Semiu Salawu who designed Bullstop said: "This application differs from other apps because the use of artificial intelligence to detect cyberbullying is unique in itself. Other anti-cyberbullying apps, in comparison, use keywords to detect instances of bullying, inappropriate or threatening language.

"The detection AI has been trained on over 60,000 tweets to recognise not only abusive and offensive language but also the use of subtle means such as sarcasm and exclusion to bully, which are otherwise difficult to detect using keywords.

"It uses a distributed cloud-based architecture that makes it possible for 'classifiers' to be swapped in and out. Therefore, as better artificial intelligence algorithms become available, they can be easily integrated to improve the app."

Bullstop currently supports Twitter with support for text messages planned in the next stage of the roll out. It is hoped that, with continued usage of the app and good results, other social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram will come on board, allowing their users to benefit from the application.

Semiu added: "Twitter has been very supportive of research efforts such as this in allowing apps like BullStop to securely integrate with their platform and this has been key in completing the research. We hope that other social media platforms will follow suit."

The app is currently in the beta testing stage which means the researchers invite users of the app to provide them with feedback to allow them to make improvements. It has already been tested by a number of young people and professionals including teachers, police officers and psychologists.

A user aged 11 said: "I like that when I want to message people, it can check it for me because as much as I don't want to be hurt, I don't want to hurt people either. Also, if people don't want to get in trouble for sending something, they can use the app to tell them if what they are sending is bad."

A user aged 16 said: "I like that you can make contacts trusted or blocked and that it can automatically block people if they are being offensive."

A psychiatrist who reviewed the app said: "It has a 'stop and think' section, which for any child who does not directly want to bully or does not have the intention of bullying, is very positive. Also I don't think any child would install an app if they know it allows their parents access, so the decision not to include parental monitoring in the app is the right one".

A spokesperson for the West Midlands Police cybercrime unit said: "My initial impression was very good. As a user, or even as perhaps a guardian, I can go through the tour of the app and understand very quickly what the application is trying to achieve. I think the fact it does not have a parents' or companion app should be used a selling point. If someone is being bullied online, I would definitely recommend this app to them and if this tool is publicly available, then I could see it would be something the police could recommend as a safeguarding tool."

A local general practitioner (GP) who tested the app added: "Now that I know BullStop will be available I can recommend it, because it's putting the advice we give out to patients and their parents into effect. For example we would advise they block offensive contacts and review connection requests. Having something like this gives a young person some measure of control back."

Bullstop is available for free and can now be downloaded on GooglePlay.

###
As the number of COVID-19 cases in Pennsylvania continues to rise, many faculty members at the 14 state-owned universities do not believe in-person classes this fall can be offered safely.

Initial findings from a survey conducted last week found more than 70% of faculty who teach at a university in the State System of Higher Education felt uneasy about having students return to campus in the fall and many would prefer classes be held remotely. The Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties - the faculty union - conducted the survey.

The take home message is faculty dont feel safe. That part is really distressing because you think if nothing else, you should feel safe in your place of work, said APSCUF President Jamie Martin. The other thing is its clear they want to teach. They just dont want to get sick.

Jamie Martin, president of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, said faculty at the 14 universities in Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education "want to teach. They just dont want to get sick. Photo provided by Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties

Just 12% of the respondents said they want to return to in-person teaching in the upcoming semester. If it were up to the faculty, 60% favored continuing with remote instruction. A quarter of them favored some type of hybrid approach that involved a mix of face-to-face and remote instruction.

Whats more, she said over 40% of faculty reported having some type of underlying medical condition that the Centers for Disease Control have identified as putting them at increased risk for severe illness if they contract the coronavirus. And among them, about half say they live with or care for somebody else who also is considered a high risk.

The survey was sent out to 4,800 faculty union members. It drew 3,200 responses  a 66% response rate  from faculty from all 14 universities in the State System, including a representative sample from each campus that was reflective of their varying sizes, Martin said.

To date, just two of the schools in the State System  West Chester University and as of Tuesday, East Stroudsburg University  have made the decision to continue offering instruction entirely remote this fall. All 14 system universities went to remote instruction in mid-March and continued it through the summer due to concerns about the global pandemic and keeping their campus community safe.

Other universities in the State System include Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, and Slippery Rock. Some universities, such as Millersville, Shippensburg, Bloomsburg and Indiana, plan a mix of face-to-face instruction and remote classes.

Martin said she is happy to see some university presidents making the bold decision to avoid face-to-face instruction a while longer.

It really seems as though they are following the facts and listening to what the science is telling us and made that decision based on the data, she said. We want our members to feel safe. If its the case of each university examining those things and making decisions based on the facts and the science, then we truly believe well see situations similar to West Chester or have universities bringing back the number of students they think they can bring back safely whatever that may look like.

The faculty survey also found that nearly all of the faculty who responded  more than 90%  do not believe students will appropriately social distance outside of classrooms. Martin said that is not a criticism of students but just a reflection of faculty understanding that the social experience of campus life is as important to students as the classroom experience.

Further, state Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levines alerts about the uptick in the number of COVID-19 cases among 19-24 year olds, particularly in the southwestern and southeastern corners of the state.

When I look at the State System data, over 90% of students attending the 14 universities are of that traditional age, Martin said. The faculty believes the students are going to behave the same way as the young people in Allegheny County or other counties where we are seeing this increase.

That finding is similar to one that came out of a survey that Purdue University recently conducted to gauge its faculty, staff and graduate students concerns about returning to in-person instruction in the fall. The APSCUF survey was modeled after Purdues with some additional questions added, Martin said.

Of the more than 7,000 responses the Purdue survey received, 53% felt unsafe about returning to campus for in-person fall classes, according to an Inside Higher Ed story. It went on to say 92% of its respondents lacked confidence that students there would socially distance outside the classroom setting.

Martin said the responses received from State System faculty members indicated a willingness to get a flu shot this year, take their temperature, and self-quarantine if they came into contact with someone who tested positive.

But she said the survey found many of them are not confident about their universities ability to acquire sufficient hand sanitizer, mask or control traffic flow in classroom buildings. The initial findings also made clear that many respondents also have concerns about their university or community health care system having sufficient testing and contact tracing capability.

If we dont have contact tracing and a faculty member would have a student in a classroom that would have a positive test, were not even certain the faculty member would be given that information. And if there is a lack of adequate testing and a lack of contact tracing then it wouldnt even be possible, Martin said.

Given those concerns, the stress levels that faculty reported in the survey that they are experiencing are not surprising. Nearly 90% of faculty surveyed shared they are feeling much more or more stress or anxiety about returning to campus, compared with the same time last year.

Other concerns that arose from the survey relate to the rural areas where many of the 14 university campuses are located and their lack of a nearby hospital or one that would not be overwhelmed if an outbreak on campus were to occur. Some also raised a concern about their universitys unwillingness to offer flexible work options for those who worry about bringing home the virus to loved ones who are at high-risk of severe illness if they contract the virus.

So the option for that faculty member is to go into that classroom and teach and be able to pay your bills and make ends meet or decide are you going to take family and medical leave, which is unpaid, Martin said. So why should we ask anybody to make that choice?

Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education Chancellor Daniel Greenstein, shown here when he met with PennLive's editorial board meeting in November, said his concern about fall semester plans to keep people safe extend to "about 115,000 people in particular, not just 5,000 faculty. November 26, 2019. Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com

State System Chancellor Dan Greenstein said he understands the facultys concerns about their well-being but his concern extends to an even broader universe - including those employees who dont have the option of working remotely and students who demonstrably struggle in remote forms of instruction.

He added there also is an equity issue at play here that cannot be ignored.

Our students who struggle the most and the faculty and the staff who suffer the most if our students dont come back are less well paid and less white than our faculty, Greenstein said.

He understands the facultys concerns about a higher stress level. The chancellor said they arent the only ones losing sleep these days.

I have concern for our leadership and their staff who have been working flat out since the stay at home order was issued on March 13 on some of the most challenging issues some of us have ever, ever, ever, couldnt even imagine having to face, he said.

But at the same time, we have a mission and at least the way I will define it is to ensure students that we serve still have opportunities to pursue college education which demonstrably according to the data is still the most reliable pathway into and beyond the middle class. ... So I have a lot of concerns for about 115,000 people in particular, not just 5,000 faculty.

Martin intends to address the systems governing board when it meets on Thursday to share the preliminary results of the survey. She said she intends to make the point that the meeting is happening four months to the day when she was last at her desk at Indiana University of Pennsylvanias campus and the state had a total of 76 COVID-19 cases. At that time, the decision was made systemwide to go to remote instruction.

Now, Martin said, we are approaching 100,000 cases in Pennsylvania. Were approaching 7,000 deaths. So if in March we had 76 cases and it wasnt a good idea to bring our students back and we thought we needed to keep them safe and healthy by keeping them not being able to congregate, how are we now talking about bringing all these students back for face to face when we have 100,000 cases?

Its a disconnect. It just doesnt make sense to me and I know it doesnt make sense to our members, she said. Faculty want to know whats the number. How many students have to get sick or faculty or staff would have to get sick before they would say thats enough?

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.
When the term nostalgia was coined in 1688, it took the form of a diagnosis. As Edmonton writer David Berry explains early in his impressive first book, On Nostalgia, the word itself contains two words from the ancient Greek  nostos roughly means home  while algos means pain. It was used to describe homesickness felt by Swiss expatriates, chiefly mercenaries, one of Switzerlands prime exports at the time.

While the connotations of the term have shifted over time, the sentiment  and the sensation  will be familiar to virtually everyone today: nostalgia has, at its root, a sense of yearning, for the past, for fondly remembered events, for a sense of home.

With explorations of advertising, art, writing, mass media and politics, Berry demonstrates the current centrality of nostalgia to all aspects of our life, how something so personal has become a cultural and political force.

And for something so familiar, nostalgia is actually strikingly complex. As Berry writes, nostalgia has an air of total irreconcilability. This is the feeling the word describes, of course: a fundamentally impossible yearning, a longing to go back even as we are driven ceaselessly forward, pushed further away from our desire even as we sit contemplating it.

Its that irreconcilability, that impossibility, that gives nostalgia its melancholy tang: we might be yearning for home, but we know we cant, as Thomas Wolfe wrote, go home again.

On Nostalgia is a powerful, thought-provoking work of philosophy and closely-argued systemic analysis. While the book is slim, Berrys writing is thick, complex and layered, but leavened with a sly wit. I will confess to laughing out loud at points, as when Berry describes Ovids Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto as having a not entirely undeserved reputation as whiny emo garbage, or when he summarizes the terrors of nostalgia during the nineteenth century, when Russian physicians recommended burying alive anyone who started showing symptoms, to stop the spread of the disease.

(For the record, its likely not that weve become more nostalgic, but that we are surrounded by more nostalgia triggers. Plus, we dont have to worry about being buried alive when that song you love comes up on a Spotify playlist.)

While it might seem like a fairly straightforward subject, On Nostalgia is a surprisingly significant work, a rigorous unpacking of a term and an experience which we have long taken for granted.
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Linkedin Joe Stenson (Agence France-Presse) Dublin, Ireland  Thu, July 16, 2020 07:35 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666a4a5a 2 World Ireland,coronavirus,coronavirus-restrictions,COVID-19,COVID-19-lockdown,COVID-19-lockdown-easing,SARS-CoV-2,pandemic,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus Free

Ireland will delay the end of its coronavirus lockdown, slowing down its accelerated plan to return to normal because of a surge in new cases, prime minister Micheal Martin said Wednesday.

Under an accelerated version of the government's original plan to leave lockdown, Ireland had been set to enter the fourth and final stage of restrictions relaxing on Monday.

The most significant move would have seen all pubs and bars allowed to start trading.

But Martin said the reproductive rate of the virus -- the number of fresh infections a single case passes on -- "has now risen above one" and the priority now was to reduce it.

"By doing so, we will give ourselves the best chance possible to fully reopen our schools in late August," he added.

The government will also formulate regulations with enforcement and penalty capabilities to mandate the wearing of facemasks in shops, he said, announcing the cabinet's decision to keep current measures in place until August 10.

Some pubs have already been allowed to open in the republic.

As Ireland raised the tempo of its plan to end lockdown last month those of its 7,000 pubs serving food were allowed to open on June 29.

It is the remaining drinking-only establishments which have now been dealt a three-week delay.

The Vintners Federation of Ireland -- which represents pubs outside the greater Dublin area -- said it knew of 3,500 yet to reopen.

Meanwhile, restrictions limiting gatherings to 50 people indoors and 200 outdoors will also be extended.

"Given the risk of the spread of infection associated with social gatherings, as well as the evidence of outbreaks from bars and pubs in other countries... hotel bars, nightclubs and casinos will remain closed," Martin added.

The announcements represent a significant scaling back of the government's ambition to reopen the nation ahead of schedule.

They also introduce a fresh note of caution in the republic in the face of a feared "second wave" of infections.

Ireland has seen 1,748 deaths in the coronavirus outbreak, according to Wednesday department of health figures.

There have been several days where no deaths have been registered but as the country began reopening, the number of infections has risen.

Public health officials have expressed particularly concern about new cases among younger people.

"There is evidence that unrestricted house parties have led to a rise in recent outbreaks of the virus," said Martin.

"We need to refocus the message for our young people about the positive role they can play in preventing the further spread of the virus."
KYODO NEWS - Jul 16, 2020 - 22:26 | All, Coronavirus, Japan

The government plans to begin a contentious travel initiative next week as planned, despite a resurgence in new coronavirus cases, by excluding hardest-hit Tokyo from the campaign, the tourism minister said Thursday.

Trips by residents of Tokyo and journeys to and from the capital will be ineligible for the government's subsidy program, which will begin on Wednesday in a bid to spur domestic travel, tourism minister Kazuyoshi Akaba told reporters.

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"We will commence the campaign, as we ask both the lodging industry and travelers to take measures to prevent the spread of the virus" in the remaining 46 prefectures, Akaba told reporters.

The government planned to subsidize accommodation and transport fees nationwide under the Go To Travel Campaign to help rejuvenate the virus-stricken economy by sparking tourism.

But it has faced increasing calls for a review of the program, due to growing concern that the travel promotion campaign could add to a resurgence of virus infections in Japan.

The number of new coronavirus infections in Japan rose by 454, the largest since a state of emergency was lifted in late May, to 22,982 on Wednesday, the day when Tokyo raised its infection alert to the highest level.

As Tokyo remains the hardest-hit area with its virus cases accounting for about a third of the nationwide tally, the capital reported a single-day record of 286 new cases Thursday to 8,640.

The same day, more than 600 new coronavirus cases across the country were reported for the first time since April 11, bringing the total to around 23,500, excluding some 700 from the Diamond Princess, the cruise ship that was quarantined in Yokohama in February.

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike has called on residents to avoid nonessential travel to other prefectures.

"The government needs to explain (its decision) to the public, including Tokyo residents," she told reporters.

The campaign was initially slated to begin in August before Japan's Obon holidays around the middle of the month. But it was brought forward to start ahead of a four-day long weekend from July 23.

The government plans to initially provide discounts worth 35 percent of a tourist's total costs with a further 15 percent covered by coupons to be issued after September for food, shopping and other travel activities.

It remains to be seen how effective Tokyo's exclusion from the campaign will be as a step to prevent the spread of the virus, given some travelers could stay in the outskirts of Tokyo while making day trips into the city.

Opposition parties and local governments had urged the central government to delay the initiative or start it with limited areas, while some regions are reeling from recent torrential rain.

Yukio Edano, who heads the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, said it is not the right time to promote tourism.

"We need to stop and rethink it," he said.

More than half, or 26, of Japan's 47 prefectures believe the campaign should initially be restricted to certain areas, a Kyodo News survey showed Thursday.

"The success in containing the virus that regional areas worked so hard for could be undone in a flash," Ehime Gov. Tokihiro Nakamura said.

Shimane Gov. Tatsuya Maruyama said he was also opposed to the nationwide travel promotion. The numbers of new infections remain relatively low in Ehime and Shimane, with 82 and 25 cases as of Wednesday.
House Committee Looks at Mortgage Servicer Response to Pandemic

The House Financial Service Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing on Thursday entitled, "Protecting Homeowners During the Pandemic: Oversight of Mortgage Servicers' Implementation of the CARES Act." Scheduled witnesses were Alys Cohen, staff attorney, National Consumer Law Center; Marcia Griffin, Founder and President, HomeFree-USA; Donnell Williams, President, National Association of Real Estate Brokers; and Ed DeMarco, President, Housing Policy Council and former acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

The subcommittee's memorandum lays out some of the issues the hearing is designed to air concerning the servicer industry's response to the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. Cares was enacted on March 27, 2020, in part to provide protections for homeowners facing economic hardships due to the pandemic.

As of the mid-June, nearly 33 million people claimed unemployment benefits compared to 1.6 million a year earlier, and at the end of May 7.76 percent of mortgages were a month or more past due. While the protections in the CARES Act do not cover all residential mortgages in the United States, federally backed mortgages represent about 70 percent of outstanding single-family mortgages and increase opportunities for homeownership among low- and moderate- income borrowers. As of June 28, 8.39 percent of all mortgages in mortgage servicers' portfolios, were in forbearance.

The memorandum says that there has been at times inconsistent and potentially confusing guidance provided to those who must administer to protections afforded by the act which include an initial forbearance period of up to 180 days with a possible extension to one year and a moratorium on foreclosures. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have issued different guidance about the forbearance duration and there has been other guidance provided by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors.

A review of servicers websites conducted by the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Office of Inspector General found many with no consumer information about the CARES Act and others with inconsistent or incorrect guidance. There is also concern that the requirement that servicers continue to advance principle and interest payments to investors and pay property taxes and insurance premiums for homeowners in forbearance will provide serious liquidity issues for servicers.

Each of the witnesses provided transcripts of their prepared testimony. Highlights are summarized below.

Cohen said she was appearing on behalf of a dozen or more consumer groups as well as the National Consumer Law Center. She called the forbearance provisions of the CARES Act "an important first step in preserving homeownership and helping struggling homeowners but called for additional action

Renewed efforts to protect and expand Black and Latinx homeownership, as rates of Black and Latinx homeownership had not yet recovered from the Great Recession when the pandemic began.

Collection of loan-level borrower, loan performance, and loss mitigation data on at least a quarterly basis, with public reporting.

Expansion of CARES Act protections to prevent avoidable foreclosures, mitigate the impact of foreclosures that do occur, and limit spillover effects from the housing market to neighborhoods and the broader economy. These protections should include: standardized forbearance options for all mortgage loans, timely and accurate information to borrowers about loss mitigation options; affordable repayment options; a moratorium on negative credit reporting; targeted support for the hardest-hit communities; and measures to prevent neighborhood blight.

Increased federal oversight, improved regulations, and future reforms in the mortgage servicing industry. This would include amending CFPB's one-sided relaxation of the mortgage servicing rules, clarifying and improving FHA loss mitigation policies; and revising FHFA programs to prevent avoidable foreclosures and support the origination market; She also suggested addressing needed mortgage servicing reform to better align servicer incentives with those of borrowers and investors.

Williams said the pandemic has had a crushing and devastating effect on black homeowners because of mass unemployment. Roughly 24 percent of them reported some difficulty in making their June mortgage payments and there is a 13-percentage point gap between white and Black homeowners in their rates of forbearance.

He urged Congress to take action to ensure that their actions and those of the government to maintain homeownership are equitable.

Funds should be allocated specifically to the preservation of Black homeownership.

Assistance should be provided to borrowers not covered by the CARES Act.

Servicers must be required to notify borrowers of their rights to apply for forbearance and provide toll-free phone lines staffed with knowledgeable personnel to assist with the process.

The federal government is allocating resources to build public awareness around the health risks associated with the pandemic. Similar efforts should go toward informing borrowers of their rights.

Griffin said three months after passage of the CARES Act, the housing counselors her organization represents are still hearing of serious problems with servicers. They include:

Notwithstanding HUD and FHFA declarations to the contrary, consumers say they are being pressured to pay their arrearages in a lump sum. In extreme cases servicers have demanded that unemployment support be used to pay it.

When calling to request a discussion about payment forbearance options, consumers report that servicer scripts start with a lump sum payment at the end of the forbearance period and/or that taking advantage of a forbearance could prevent them refinancing their loan in the future. This sometimes scares the consumer away from taking advantage of CARES Act relief.

Counselors have had veterans who were denied forbearance of VA loans, consumers who claim that they have been denied forbearances for what they thought was a federally-backed loan, but was actually a portfolio loan and have seen challenges for homeowners who have recently gone through a loan modification or were delinquent heading into COVID-related furloughs.

Much of counselor assistance to date has been assisting borrowers who were improperly denied forbearance, and only approved with the intervention of a housing counselor. More and specific guidance around recently impaired loans should be provided.

Some consumers feel as though they are in limbo. After requesting forbearance, they have not been notified that their request for received or granted. This lack of communication may be partially responsible for the high (but recently declining) number of borrowers who have requested forbearances, but nonetheless paid their loan in April and May. There is also widespread confusion about the length of the payment forbearance that was granted.

The DeMarco organization's membership includes mortgage servicers and he said that industry is quite different from the one he encountered while administering the FHFA during the housing crisis. Its capacity and commitment to serve customers and the tools available to provide near-term relief and long-term solutions is far greater than it was twelve years ago. The challenges facing homeowners are different as well.

In the Great Recession, delinquency rates took six years to grow from the low point to the peak. With the pandemic rates have gone from record lows to a 9 percent forbearance rate in less than two months. In response, servicers:

Shifted virtually all their operations out of call centers and office buildings to kitchens and family rooms.

Trained their staffs remotely and modified technology to manage the enormous inflow of borrower inquiries.

Set up automated on-line tools - in some cases in just a few days - for borrowers to educate themselves and request payment relief using efficient and streamlined processes.

Offered homeowners forbearance options before the passage of the CARES Act.

Extended forbearance to homeowners that do not have federally backed mortgages.

Executed against an evolving series of program and regulatory announcements from FHA, VA, USDA, Ginnie Mae, the GSEs, FHFA, and the CFPB.

By late May, just two months since enactment of the CARES Act, nearly 4.8 million households were on a forbearance plan. This happened because servicers, both bank and nonbank, are better prepared and nimbler today than they were in the past crisis.

He added that 9.6 percent of non-federally backed mortgages were also in forbearance by the end of May. "This is a clear indication that bank portfolio lenders and other investors have also responded voluntarily, without a federal directive, providing borrower payment relief at an even greater rate than we see for GSE loans," he said.

DeMarco cautioned that there are many challenges remaining in the effort to quickly assist families facing disruptions to their financial circumstances. The two biggest are (1) the unknown duration of the pandemic and the consequent economic disruptions and (2) the transition from short-term payment relief to permanent solutions, which must be tailored to affected households. Prompt and effective borrower - servicer communication, combined with stability in program rules, will be key to successful resolution.
Liberal Bardish Chagger responds to a question during Question Period in the House of Commons, Tuesday, February 26, 2019 in Ottawa. The first of multiple parliamentary investigations of the federal government's aborted deal with WE Charity to run a volunteering program begins this afternoon. The House of Commons finance committee is set to hear from Youth Minister Chagger and some senior public servants as it probes how WE got a sole-sourced contract to administer the $900-million program.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
A 55-year-old man lost his battle to Covid-19 while 57 others tested positive for the virus in Ludhiana on Thursday.

The deceased is a resident of Jagirpur village. He was undergoing treatment at the Government Rajindra Hospital in Patiala, where he breathed his last.

Among the fresh cases are three cops and two healthcare workers. One cop, aged 35, is deployed at the police control room while the other two, aged 30 and 55, are deployed at Moti Nagar and Mullapur Dakha police stations respectively.

The health department has started tracing their contacts.

1,100 SAMPLES SENT FOR TESTING

Civil surgeon Dr Rajesh Bagga said the district now has 488 active cases. Its cumulative total has now reached

1,626 while the death toll stands at 40. He said as many as 1,100 samples were sent for testing on Thursday. Till date, as many as 47,149 samples have been sent for testing.
BOISE  Last month, the Idaho Humane Society and Boise Police Department asked for the publics help in identifying a man believed to be getting animals from Craiglist and posting photos and videos on social media after he maimed or killed them. On Tuesday, the FBI arrested a suspect in the case.

But it wasnt a man, and the alleged culprit was never in Idaho.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it had arrested 19-year-old Krystal Scott, of Kokomo, Indiana, on two felony charges of making and distributing animal crush videos. Animal crushing is a form of abuse that has sometimes been filmed and posted online as pornography for individuals with a crushing fetish. Its a federal crime.

According to the news release, Scott began posting images and videos over various social media platforms, that depicted Scott torturing and graphically killing cats and dogs by hanging, skinning and other means beginning in early May and continuing to July 8.

The videos caught the attention of concerned citizens who began their own investigation into Scotts identity, using clues from the videos, as well as other publicly available data. Those individuals contacted the Boise Police Department and Idaho Humane Society when they believed they had identified the perpetrator to be in the Treasure Valley.

The Boise Police Department classified Scotts posts as animal crush videos and contacted the FBI. Boise police, the Ada County Sheriffs Office and the FBI were able to track the videos to Scott in Kokomo.

Though the details of the case ended up being quite different from the initial information that sparked the investigation, one aspect appears to have been accurate: Officials said they believe Scott obtained the animals she allegedly tortured by responding to online ads from individuals who were seeking to give away their unwanted pets for adoption.

Scott posted images of dead and dismembered animals on Instagram and TikTok up until July 8, officials said. The next day, a federal judge approved a search warrant, which the FBI executed on Tuesday.

During the search, the FBI recovered numerous animal parts and skulls that were consistent with the size of cats and dogs, the news release said. Agents also discovered approximately three live dogs, 12 live cats and several lizards.

The FBI also recovered the phone used to create and post the crush videos, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Scott had previously been investigated in May and June by the Kokomo Police Department for animal cruelty complaints, but the department was unable to find cause to bring charges.

The Boise Police Department is thankful to have played a role in the investigation into this disturbing crime, said Boise Police Department Deputy Chief Ron Winegar in the news release. We had concerned people from all over the world contact us about the terrible images they were seeing on social media. Our officers and detectives worked hard to investigate leads here in Boise and partnered with the FBI as the investigation grew and moved out of state.

Scott could face up to seven years in prison if convicted.

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Twitter users with verified accounts started to be able to send tweets again at around 8:30 pm EDT, after the company had silenced some of its highest-profile users in response to an hours-long security incident.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Twitter users with verified accounts started to be able to send tweets again at around 8:30 pm EDT, after the company had silenced some of its highest-profile users in response to an hours-long security incident.

Twitter had limited some users' ability to tweet, reset passwords and use other unspecified "account functions" after many of the platform's top accounts were hacked and used to solicit digital currency.

(Reporting by Katie Paul; Editing by Sandra Maler)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Indian Army planners find themselves contemplating the possibility of more Chinese intrusions along the contested 3,488-km border.

That could lead to the army having to man a 'hardened LAC' round the year, like the LoC with Pakistan, reports Ajai Shukla.

IMAGE: Indian Army vehicles move towards Ladakh. Photograph: PTI Photo.

Details of the mutual troop disengagement in the contested Galwan River Valley, which senior government sources have shared with this correspondent, illustrate that the Line of Actual Control -- the de facto border -- has been effectively shifted by a kilometre into India.

The terms of disengagement, negotiated on June 30, regard the LAC as running through the so-called Y-Nallah Junction.

This is 1 km inside India, when compared with the LAC's historical alignment next to Patrolling Point 14 (PP-14).

The area in which PP-14 is located -- and which the Indian Army has patrolled for decades -- now effectively falls inside China's 'buffer zone'.

The disengagement plan, drawn up by 14 Corps Commander Lieutenant General Harinder Singh, and China's South Xinjiang Military Region Commander Major General Liu Lin, provides for a buffer zone of 3 km on both the Indian and Chinese sides of the LAC.

The plan permits each country to maintain two 'tent posts' in its buffer zone.

The forward tent post will be located 1.4 km from the Y-Junction.

Their second tent post will be 1.6 km further behind the forward post, ie, 3 km from the Y-Junction.

Each country is permitted to maintain 30 soldiers in its forward tent post and another 50 in its rear tent post.

A tent post, as its name suggests, is an encampment that has only temporary structures.

Permanent structures would allow India to stake a claim over the Galwan Valley.

By restricting the Indian presence to tent camps, China can continue with its new claim over the entire Galwan River Valley, which it has voiced several times in the past two months.

Army sources point out that by measuring all distances from the Y-Junction, rather than from the traditional LAC alignment west of PP-14, the Y-Junction has been effectively regarded as the LAC point.

It is learnt that this was done on the insistence of Chinese military negotiators.

New Delhi continues to insist that the LAC runs along the line of PP-14, but has undermined its own claim by agreeing to locate its forward tent post 2.4 km from what it claims is the LAC, while allowing the Chinese forward tent post to be just 400 metres from our claimed LAC.

For now, neither country is permitted to send patrols ahead of their forward tent post. That means the Indian Army, which earlier sent patrols all the way up the Galwan River Valley to PP-14, will have to maintain a distance of 2.4 km from PP-14.

In contrast, Chinese patrols can come up to 400 metres from PP-14.

Meanwhile, no agreement has been reached for the Chinese to disengage or pull back from confrontation points south of Galwan at PP-15 and thw Hot Spring area, where large numbers of Indian and Chinese soldiers continue their face-off.

Near PP-15, where the Chinese have built a road extending 3 km into Indian-claimed territory, more than 1,000 Chinese troops are eyeball-to-eyeball with an equal number of Indian soldiers.

In the Hot Spring area, the Chinese have not built a road, but over 1,500 Chinese troops have intruded 2 to 3 km into Indian territory at the Gogra Heights (PP-17A) and are being blocked by a matching Indian deployment.

Nor is there any agreement on disengagement in the Pangong Tso sector.

Here, Chinese troops have crossed the existing LAC that ran along a mountain spur called Finger 8 and intruded 8 km into Indian-claimed territory up to a spur called Finger 4.

Indian troops have traditionally patrolled up to Finger 8, but are now being blocked by the Chinese intruders at Finger 4. It is understood the Chinese are refusing to withdraw to Finger 8 unless India withdraws to Finger 2.

Indian Army planners find themselves contemplating the possibility of more Chinese intrusions along the contested 3,488-km border.

That could lead to the army having to man a 'hardened LAC' round the year, like the Line of Control with Pakistan.

Besides the heavy cost of setting up this border infrastructure, the Indian Army, which already spends three quarters of its budget on salaries and pensions, could find itself requiring even more manpower.

Army planners also worry that a heated LAC, with an additional commitment of troops and equipment, would erode India's conventional first-strike deterrent against Pakistan.
A Massachusetts professor is arguing for the creation of a federal agency, akin to the U.S. Food and Drug administration, to regulate the controversial use of facial recognition technology, a piece of software that continues to be lambasted for its potential civil liberties violations and racial biases.

The proposal was put forward by University of Massachusetts Amherst computer science Professor Erik Learned-Miller during a livestreamed discussion Wednesday about the hotly debated software, its ramifications and even its possible positive uses.

Despite the technologys controversies and criticisms, facial recognition remains largely unregulated at the state and national levels.

A growing number of communities across the country, including several in Massachusetts, have taken it upon themselves to pass municipal restrictions on the use of the software in the absence of more sweeping legislation.

But many advocates, politicians and researchers do not think going town by town or city by city regulating the software is enough. The technology is moving far more quickly than policymakers can act and is sometimes being used in the shadows without the publics knowledge, they have argued.

Individual measures implemented by towns or cities are not sufficient in guaranteeing the consistent protection of peoples rights, Learned-Miller said in a statement earlier this summer.

We should seriously be thinking about a new federal office to regulate face recognition, because there are so many complexities and so many issues that it entails, the UMass professor said during Wednesdays online discussion. We need a coordinated effort to do this.

Learned-Millers question-and-answer session comes as citizens across the country continue to speak out strongly against systemic racism, calling for an end to police brutality and demanding a demilitarization of American law enforcement agencies.

Facial recognition technology has not been exempt from such discussions, and Massachusetts has been at the forefront of debates on the software.

Seven communities throughout the state have either outright or temporarily banned the municipal use of the technology, with Boston becoming the second-biggest U.S. city to restrict the software. San Francisco was the first and largest community in the country to ban the technology, doing so in May 2019.

The roughly hourlong event Wednesday was part of the UMass College of Information and Computer Sciences series of webinars called Technology and Social Justice. Each discussion focuses on a different technology whose impact on society is significant in both visible and invisible ways.

The rapid adoption of new softwares and the quick pace of innovation amplify the positive and negative impacts of computer science research, Laura Haas, the dean of the college, pointed out.

As computer scientists, we must grapple with research challenges while critically accessing the potential for misuse, hidden bias, lack of transparency and unintended consequences of our technical innovations, she said.

University of Massachusetts Amherst computer science Professor Erik Learned-Miller, during a livestreamed discussion, called for an independent federal agency to regulate the use of facial recognition technology, a controversial piece of software criticized for its potential to violate citizens' privacies and for its racial biases. (Jackson Cote/MassLive via Zoom)

An award-winning expert on the form of biometric surveillance, Learned-Miller cowrote a report titled Facial Recognition Technologies in the Wild: A Call for a Federal Office that provides actionable recommendations for overseeing the use of the software.

The project, funded by a grant from the MacArthur Foundation, was coauthored by computer scientist Vicente Ordonez of the University of Virginia, Jamie Morgenstern of the University of Washington and Joy Buolamwini, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher and founder of the Algorithmic Justice League.

Buolamwinis work has been central to the dialogue on facial recognition, and she even testified in favor of a statewide moratorium on the softwares use in Massachusetts in October.

In 2018, the researcher conducted a study called the Gender Shades project that put the softwares racial bias problems on full display.

She ran more than 1,200 faces through recognition programs offered by Face++, IBM and Microsoft and found the technology frequently misidentified women of color.

Her and Learned-Millers paper talks about everything that could go wrong with the software and urges officials to adopt a federal office to manage the technology, according to the UMass professor.

There are a slew of issues that plague facial recognition, from its potential to breach peoples privacies to its track record of racial profiling, Learned-Miller noted.

During Wednesdays online discussion, the computer science instructor brought up the recent case of Robert Williams, a Black man living in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, who was wrongfully identified by the software and taken into custody for a crime he did not commit, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts.

Williams case, advocates and experts like Learned-Miller have pointed out, is a prime example of the real-world consequences of facial recognition technology.

He was arrested in front of his family and detained for 30 hours, Learned-Miller said of Williams. Also, he was humiliated and intimidated, and his kids went through trauma.

Learned-Miller added, These are really serious problems, and we want to try to figure out how we can avoid these things.

The professors report, according to a statement, specifically calls for a governmental model, inspired by some of the FDAs offices that regulate medical devices and pharmaceuticals, that would categorize facial recognition technologies by degrees of risk and issue corresponding restrictions.

The FDA provides a model or precedent of centralized regulation for managing complex technologies with major societal implications, the statement said. Such an independent agency would encourage addressing the facial recognition technologies ecosystem as a whole.

Fielding a question from MassLive on Wednesday about how technology companies that sell facial recognition software would be monitored, Learned-Miller answered, The way it would work is just the way the FDA works.

Lets say youre a medical device company and you want to make a new implantable pacemaker, then what you do is you show the design of the pacemaker to the FDA, he said. The design, the tests, the engineering practices, the quality-control procedure results, you submit 1,000 pages of stuff to them that says, Look, we really know what were doing.' "

Such products also have to go through clinical trials, where they are tried out on volunteers, and the companies that create the devices have to argue they are safe and effective as well.

I would like to see all those same kinds of ideas implemented so that a company that wants to get into the business has to provide this level of support, the UMass professor said of the facial recognition technology industry.

Aside from its potential dangers, facial recognition technology offers some positive applications, Learned-Miller noted during the discussion.

It could be used to diagnose certain medical conditions, unlock personal computer devices and even find minors who have disappeared or been abducted, he claimed.

Its currently used that way by the FBI and has been responsible for helping to find a large number of missing and abused children, the professor said.

The software, Learned-Miller emphasized, has beneficial applications that should not be thrown away.

That raises the follow-up question, Can we find a way to allow the reasonable applications while regulating the dangerous ones?,' " he said.

At one point during the online discussion, Learned-Miller was asked by fellow facial recognition technology expert Buolamwini what approaches the UMass professor would recommend for addressing the harmful aspects of the software in the absence of an FDA-style federal office.

Noting that Buolamwinis question was nuanced, Learned-Miller answered that a temporary ban on certain facial recognition technologies would be a pretty reasonable option right now.

However, such restrictions would outlaw certain uses of the software that people believe to be benign, like sorting through photographs on a personal computer.

Id like to be able to move as quickly as we can towards allowing the low-risk applications and holding off on the high-risk applications, Learned-Miller said, which means I would support a temporary ban on applications deemed to be high-risk.

The @umasscs professor points out the tech remains largely unregulated at the federal level. Reemphasizing the main point of the paper he co-authored, Learned-Miller says there should be an independent government agency to monitor the software's use. pic.twitter.com/LvuWdivLID  Jackson Cote (@jackson_k_cote) July 15, 2020

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Discovery Health CEO Ryan Noach said they will make sure all Discovery members get a bed if they need one, even if they have to move people around the country.

South Africa now has 311,049 confirmed COVID-19 cases, and this figure is increasing by more than 10,000 new cases per day.

The rapid rise in COVID-19 cases has raised concerns that the country will run out of hospital beds to treat patients who need care.

Jack Bloom, the DAs Shadow Health MEC in Gauteng, has warned that the province is facing a shortage of hospital beds.

According to Bloom, Gauteng potentially faces a shortage of 6,878 critical care beds and 1,788 ICU nurses when COVID-19 cases hit an expected peak in late August or early September.

The situation with general beds is even worse. Whereas 25,000 general beds will be needed at peak period, only 6,803 general beds are currently available, a gap of 18,000 beds, said Bloom.

A Times Live report echoed Blooms concerns, saying Gauteng may need more than 50,000 beds by September while there are only 8,300 beds in the province.

A member of the ministerial advisory committee (MAC) added that no-one knows the true availability of hospital beds.

In the midst of this crisis, the government is still negotiating tenders for field hospitals, the MAC member said.

Ventilator shortage

Investec said that even under the optimistic scenario modelled by the SA COVID-19 Modelling Consortium (SACMC), the country will struggle to meet the demand for hospital beds.

Projections on this scenario predict a need for between 20,000 and 35,000 ICU beds between June and November, Investec said.

But with just 3,300 ICU beds available in total across the country, even the best-case scenario would overwhelm South Africas intensive care units.

Ramping up hospital capacity must also address the sectors ability to treat the respiratory complications associated with the virus.

Generally, each ICU bed requires a ventilator. With the government projecting a need for at least 20,000 ICU beds between June and November, a severe shortage of ventilators seems inevitable, Investec said.

Figures presented to parliament by his department suggest that the country has 3,216 ventilators  17,000 fewer than its estimated we will need at the peak of the virus.

The National Ventilator Project, a Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) initiative, aims to locally produce a minimum of 10,000 ventilators by the end of June to help close the gap, but production has not yet begun.

Discovery Health promises beds for its members

Amidst the rising COVID-19 numbers and concerns about hospital space, Discovery Health has assured its members they will get a hospital bed if they need one.

Noach told Business Day they will make it their business to make sure all Discovery members get a bed if they need one.

He added that Discoverys plans include moving people around the country if this is what is needed.

The Discovery Health CEO explained they will move non-COVID-19 patients to free up ICU beds for COVID-19 patients.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize says SA will have enough beds

Contrary to the concerns raised about a shortage of beds, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said South Africa has enough hospital beds for COVID-19 patients.

We have added 27,800 beds which have been put into the system right across the country and we believe that these beds are important, he said.

What we are now doing is to make sure that they are not just there but also have access to oxygen piping and with that, we think our field beds are going to make the difference.

The health minister added they will also erect marquees and alternative building technology wards to fast track the provision of hospital beds.

He said Gauteng is currently sourcing about 1,300 nurses, some of whom have started at various hospitals. The province is also working with nursing agencies to meet the demand.

Discovery Health explains

Noach told MyBroadband they are doing everything to ensure comprehensive support for all their members affected by COVID-19.

This start with home-based care and early identification of high-risk patients to reduce their risk of admission.

In regions where the capacity of hospital beds  particularly ICU beds  comes under strain, we will do everything in our power to ensure that members who require a bed will get one, including if necessary transporting members to available beds, where safe and appropriate, he said.

This would of course be in the context of the practical limits and available resources of the countrys healthcare infrastructure, which is beyond our control.
Switzerlands insurance industry is against tightening the countrys immigration rules, a move that will be put to voters this year, Swiss Re Chief Executive Christian Mumenthaler told Handelszeitung newspaper.

Mumenthaler is the latest business figure to lobby against the proposals, which could end freedom of movement between Switzerland and the European Union and wreck relations between Bern and Brussels if accepted.

The Swiss Trade Association has also spoken out against the referendum, launched by the right wing Swiss Peoples Party, saying it could lead to dire shortages of skilled workers and problems for companies.

The limitation initiative goes against everything we stand for, Mumenthaler said in the interview to be published on Thursday, saying reinsurance worked best when risks were shared globally and experts from around the world could be employed in Zurich.

We are strictly against this initiative, he said, adding that this view was shared across the Swiss insurance industry.

If approved, the end of free movement could harm Switzerlands delicate relationship with the European Union, the countrys biggest trading partner.

(Reporting by John Revill)

Topics Carriers Swiss Re
Columbus Park in downtown San Antonio could soon be Piazza Italia Park.

After hearing from more 50 residents at a virtual hearing Thursday, a special park-naming committee voted in favor of renaming the park and forwarded its recommendation to the City Council, which has the final say.

This is an amazing time in our city, said District 1 Councilman Roberto C. Trevino during the teleconference hearing. This is another great story about how different sides came together to resolve something in a peaceful, amazing way that we can set as an example for the nation for many years to come.

Trevino said the proposed name would honor the heritage and culture of the citys Italian community. The councilman submitted the idea in June. The park is in his district.

Related: San Antonio councilman wants Columbus Park renamed, statue removed

Renaming the park follows the citys removal of the Christopher Columbus statue from the plaza July 1. While Columbus was widely recognized as a visionary Italian explorer for centuries, in recent years he has been seen as a violent colonizer who brutalized and exploited indigenous Americans.

Trevino has been working with San Antonios Christopher Columbus Society to rethink the plaza. The society agreed to take back the statue, which it donated to the city in 1957, and supports renaming the park in honor of the immigrants who settled in the area in the 1800s and became a vital part of San Antonios history and culture.

Matthew Guido, a second-generation Italian American born in San Antonio, said the Italian community has a responsibility to the Christopher Columbus Italian Hall, Church of San Francesco di Paola and Piazza Di Colombo founded by their ancestors.

That is why we as the board decided to be proactive and take the statue down. he said. We recognize the social landscape and we want to respect what is happening rather than fight it.

Comments at the hearing were submitted by email, voice message or hand delivered to the Parks and Recreation Department Directors Office.

Fifty-eight responses were submitted on the controversial topic; 36 were in favor of the proposed new name; 22 opposed the change.

Instead of going forward, we are going backward, one man wrote in opposition of the move.

An anonymous person called the change a shame, saying, You cant erase whats in the past and if you do, were doomed to repeat it.

Related: San Antonios downtown Christopher Columbus statue comes down

Several people suggested other names for the park, including Alamo Park, South Texas Park, Wu Han Virus Park and Yanaguana Park, referring to the name the indigenous people who lived in the area before it became San Antonio gave to the San Antonio River. One person suggested the park be renamed for a defender of the Alamo.

Vincent T. Davis is a reporter in the Greater San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Vincent, become a subscriber. vtdavis@express-news.net | Twitter: @vincentdavis
According to a recently released report by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), the 15-year-long global effort to improve the lives of people everywhere through the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 was already off track by the end of 2019.

In only a short period of time, the COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed an unprecedented period of crisis, causing further disruption to the SDGs progress, with the worlds poorest and most vulnerable affected the most, including children, older persons, persons with disabilities, migrants and refugees. An estimated 71 million people are expected to be pushed back into extreme poverty in 2020, the first rise in global poverty since 1998.

The international community is concerned about food crises, the risk of humanitarian disasters and rising poverty, which makes the gray picture of the global fight against poverty even gloomier. Long-running conflicts in Syria, Yemen, terrorist violence in Africa's Sahel or the worst economic crisis in decades in Latin America are pushing many people into a terrible humanitarian tragedy.

According to the World Food Programme (WFP), nearly 10 million people in Yemen are suffering from severe food shortages, which is making the humanitarian situation worsen at an alarming rate. Warning signs of famine already exist in the nation as over 20 million Yemenis are food insecure.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that at least 3.5 million people are projected to fall into crisis or emergency food insecurity in Somalia between June and September. The humanitarian crisis in this African nation is mainly due to the consequences of climate change, conflict, and widespread poverty.

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing 40 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean to face serious food shortages. The WFP has urged governments in the region and international humanitarian organisations to take immediate action to prevent the crisis from turning into a pandemic of hunger.

Meanwhile, about 24 million people in Africa's Sahel, of which more than half are children, need support and protection to merely survive this year. Food insecurity and malnutrition in the region are expected to skyrocket, with more than 12 million people facing severe famine, the highest figure in the last decade.

At a recent teleconference, the Group of Seven finance ministers called for full implementation of a G20 freeze on debt service payments by all official bilateral creditors. G20 members and the Paris Club of official creditors in April offered a freeze on debt service payments to the 73 poorest countries up until year-end in order to free up an estimated US$12 billion in funds to fight the outbreak. But the implementation of the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) has proven challenging, and the unexpectedly deep downturn in the global economy has prompted calls for extension and expansion of the moratorium. So far, 41 countries have applied for relief under the DSSI.

Food crises, humanitarian issues and the fight against poverty have been mentioned many times by the UN and international organisations since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The WFP, meanwhile, warned of immediate difficulties in aid operations around the globe as most of its logistics humanitarian flights are at risk of failure in July due to a lack of funding. Lack of finance and the current alarming poverty situation are affecting joint efforts to implement the SDG and are posing numerous challenges in the fight against poverty and hunger.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 22:08:36|Editor: huaxia

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Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein speaks during a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq, July 16, 2020. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Thursday arrived in Iraqi capital Baghdad for an official visit where he confirmed his country's support to Iraq in its war against Islamic State (IS) group. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood)

BAGHDAD, July 16 (Xinhua) -- French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Thursday arrived in Iraqi capital Baghdad for an official visit where he confirmed his country's support to Iraq in its war against Islamic State (IS) group.

Le Drian was received by his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein and is scheduled to meet with Iraqi top officials, including Iraqi President Barham Salih and Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi to discuss bilateral relations and cooperation between the two countries.

In a joint press conference with Hussein, Le Drian said, "Our visit to Iraq aimed at supporting the Iraqi government to face the challenges, including supporting the security forces in the fighting against IS, and we won't relent in front of our common enemy."

He said that "there are disturbing signs of the return of IS group in Iraq, and we should not relent it."

Le Drian expressed his country's support for the operations carried out by the Iraqi forces against the extremist IS group to protect Iraq's sovereignty and its democratic system.

Le Drian also said that Iraq's sovereignty is important and confirmed that his country is looking forward to seeing Iraq "restoring its pioneering role to create balance for the Middle East."

As for the coronavirus pandemic, Le Drian told reporters that France is supporting Iraq in facing the disease.

For his part, Hussein said that Le Drian's visit "comes at an important circumstance and amid many challenges, and is aimed at showing support to Iraq and to strengthen French-Iraqi relations."

"We have discussed a range of issues, including economic relations, the role of French companies in the reconstruction process, as well as bilateral military and security relations," Hussein told the press conference.

In October 2019, Le Drian also visited Baghdad and held meetings with Iraqi top officials, discussing bilateral cooperation and means to end the threat of IS militants.

France is part of a U.S.-led international coalition tasked with helping the Iraqi security forces in the fight against the IS militants by carrying out airstrikes against their positions in Iraq and Syria as well as providing military equipment and training to Iraqi forces.
Qantas Offers More Rewards to Encourage Travel

As domestic travel kicks off again Qantas has offered a number of travel rewards and bonuses giving Australians an extra push to book their next holiday while bolstering the tourism sector amid the CCP virus pandemic.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said the changes were good news for members and for tourism.

Australia is home to world-class destinations and Qantas is making it easier for frequent flyers to visit them, Joyce said in a statement on July 14.

The most noteworthy change includes giving frequent flyer members bonus credits to help retain their current status, which they may otherwise have lost from not flying for extended periods.

Were helping our most loyal flyers maintain their travel benefits by giving them extra Status Credits in recognition of their long-term loyalty, Joyce said.

There will also be extra flexibility in booking flights until Oct. 31, 2020, such as fees being waived on changes and cancellations.

Qantas said it will increase seat availability by up to 50 percent for the rest of the year. The focus will be on the most popular destinations including Cairns, Sunshine Coast, Sydney, Queenstown, and Auckland.

However, the latter two will not be possible until the completion of the New Zealand-Australia travel bubble, which has been delayed due to the recent outbreaks in Victoria of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus.

Qantas Loyalty CEO Olivia Wirth said Qantas Frequent Flyer is one of the most attractive loyalty programs in the world because its always evolving and innovating to meet the needs of its 13 million members.

The majority of points are earned on the ground, such as through in-store and online shopping and purchasing petrol.

Weve been listening to our Frequent Flyers closely over the last few months about how they feel about travel, where they want to go and how they want to use their points, Wirth said.

What emerged was that despite whats going on around the world, the notion of the dream trip is well and truly alive, theyre just looking a little closer to home, she said.

Qantas found that frequent flyers intention to travel remained high at 90 percent.

Thats why were continuing to invest in making our members travel dreams a reality with more choice, better value, and greater flexibility, Wirth said.

All Qantas international planes are currently grounded, and no international flights are listed until March 2021.
K Jayakumar By

The country is passing through stressful times of unprecedented intensity that could have unexpected ramifications. The economic scene was dismal even before the spread of the pandemic, with a falling GDP and rising unemployment. We have now realised that an indefinite lockdown neither retards the spread of the virus nor guarantees social well-being. In spite of the lockdown, India is now third on the list of nations with most Covid infections. The real human dimensions of the pandemic and lockdown are yet to be fully gauged.

With a view to fast-tracking economic recovery, several states have gone ahead with amendments to labour laws to suit the convenience of the investor. Inconvenient (but justified) regulations are being diluted to make matters easier for the entrepreneur. High-decibel voices are already demanding more such reforms. Economic growth is imperative, but the national mood that justifies throwing all caution to the wind and pursuing growth at any cost will have far more dangerous consequences than slower growth.

Embedded as it is in the climate of self-reliance and an undeclared trade war with China, trends of accelerated economic development and investment promotion are clearly foreboding. Ensuring ease of doing business should not sound the death knell for the necessary checks and balances in a system.

This misplaced enthusiasm, among other collateral damages, has the potential to create a dangerous tolerance towards corruption, one of the most cancerous maladies of our polity and society. Strangely, corruption, though ubiquitous across the country, is the least discussed malady in political and administrative circles. But that complacency will prove to be quite costly as the nation embarks on the path of a new self-reliant economic miracle.

The historic situation impels the civil society to up their antenna and fight this pathogen that is more virulent than the novel coronavirus. Firstly, we have to overcome the narrow legal definition of corruption. By defining corruption in technically guarded terminology, a large chunk of real and major corruption gets excluded. Broadly, corruption exists in three categories. The first is bureaucratic corruption, which is what vigilance mechanisms and anti-corruption agencies normally target. More than 90% of cases being investigated belong to this category, where individual functionaries have violated rules or misused authority to amass wealth or gain other coveted favours.

The impact or deterrent value of this category of cases in tackling corruption is minimal. The second category is policy corruption. It is not the same as political corruption, though both share an unholy nexus. This is the playground of powerful corporate and business interests. In the pretext of economic growth, they influence the government to change policies, relax controls and do away with regulation. Extraordinary times like this offer an effective context (or pretext) to unscrew the nuts and bolts of supervision and the rigour of rules.

All the inexplicable haste with which labour laws have been mutilated and environment regulations diluted are nothing but typical cases of policy corruption. That also explains the abrupt manner in which these far-reaching changes were introduced. Nothing is discussed in state Assemblies or Parliament. Nor is it considered important enough to take the legislature into confidence. This kind of executive overreach is a clear symptom of policy corruption. By taking the ordinance route, the executive presents a fait accompli to the legislature. Bureaucratic corruption and political corruption thrive in such an atmosphere that emits unmistakable signals of entrenched policy corruption.

These two kinds of corruption are not possible without the more serious corruption that provides the comforting medium for the virus (of corruption) to merrily multiply. And that is moral corruption. It has permeated our society and polity at all levels. Barring individual exemptions, moral depravity is the norm. In fact, moral corruption is the mother of all corruptions and therefore, our silence about it is lethal. Though moral corruption has countless manifestations, the unmistakable sign is the chasm between image and intent; the gap between rhetoric and response. Once civil society is aware of this gap, words will ring hollow.

Motives contrary to pronouncements will be read even in carefully (or cleverly) worded messages. Any amount of rhetoric, histrionics or genuflection cannot win moral legitimacy unless it is backed by genuine intent. At every level, this lack of moral legitimacy impedes the collective but suppressed wish of a people to redeem the society, polity and administration from the netherworld of corruption. Gandhiji was never tired of highlighting the value of high standards of moral probity in public life. For him, the leader should have no possession of his own. Political life was akin to sanyas for the Mahatma. Though that will be too unreal an ideal in our times, the nation cannot regain its soul unless we value moral integrity as pivotal.

If we compromise on these threatening manifestations of corruption, the post-Covid India, in its eagerness to scale new heights of economic development, will resemble a battleground: scarred by economic exploitation, wounded by ravenous ecological plunder and infested with moral depravity. On the other hand, this crisis could also be converted into a historic moment for moral cleansing, corruption-free administration and transparent policymaking. Such an India, free of the virus of corruption, will be far more sustainable and truly powerful, than a steroid-driven nation pursuing growth at any cost.

K JAYAKUMAR

Ex-Kerala Chief Secretary, ex-VC, Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam Varsity

(k.jayakumar123@gmail.com)
The Abbi Agency Acquires Digital Firm Based in London We have been working on projects with the Made by Chance team for more than four years, and we are thrilled to add to the firms top-tier talent as we continue to expand our digital services, said Bryan Allison, Chief Marketing Officer at The Abbi Agency.

The Abbi Agency, an integrated marketing agency headquartered in Reno, Nev., has acquired Made by Chance, an experienced digital firm that provides website and app development, digital design, branding, marketing and an array of videography, illustration and animation services.

Based in London, Made by Chance services clients throughout Europe and other global markets, adding depth to the agency's international presence in the digital marketing sector.

We have been working on projects with the Made by Chance team for more than four years, and we are thrilled to add to the firms top-tier talent as we continue to expand our digital services, said Bryan Allison, Chief Marketing Officer at The Abbi Agency. By combining superior web and app development work with our growing use of innovative, world-class digital media buying, weve built a unique end-to-end solution for our clients that is responsive, trackable and constantly optimized.

The agencys digital team started with a small in-house team. As demand grew, the agency started working with Made by Chance to handle overflow work and more complex projects that required advanced technical skills.

The relationship between the two agencies took off and Made by Chance soon became The Abbi Agencys exclusive execution partner. In January 2020, The Abbi Agencys Director of Digital Experience, Caroline Sexton, began negotiations to acquire the company after it became apparent an acquisition would be the best path for both businesses to grow and succeed. Now, both teams have merged and are working under Sextons direction and The Abbi Agency brand umbrella.

With each agency working in different time zones, digital products reach the market at an expedited rate while maintaining a high level of quality. Made by Chances work will benefit from The Abbi Agencys long-established client relationships, as well as the firms award-winning expertise in integrated brand strategy, content development, earned and paid media, social media and organic search.

The Abbi Agency values being an expert in its field and has grown uniquely over the years by only moving into new sectors once theres a base of personnel with the specific skills needed to fully accommodate client's needs from an integrated approach.

Today, the integrated digital expertise of The Abbi Agency is delivering results for clients ranging from governmental agencies such as Visit Henderson, Denver-based NINE dot ARTS and local hospitality leaders such as Edgewood Tahoe Resort, and upcoming projects for the Nevada Department of Wildlife, and industry leader, KP Aviation.

The Abbi Agency now provides services from offices in Reno, Las Vegas, New York City and London.

About The Abbi Agency:

The Abbi Agency is an integrated creative, digital and public relations agency with offices in

Reno, Las Vegas, New York City and London. The agency has executed award-winning integrated marketing campaigns for clients including North Lake Tahoe, SendCutSend and Travel Nevada. The agency works extensively in the travel and tourism industry, while also growing robust technology, economic development and public affairs divisions of the company. Learn more at theabbiagency.com.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS

India imports 800-900 tonnes of gold annually, another 200-250 tonnes are smuggled

Illegal gold goes to legitimate trade channels and the mafia has global network

Carriers get about Rs 1 lakh for each trip, besides accommodation and training

About 20 percent of the gold traded globally is illegally mined, mainly from Africa

Investigations into gold smuggling by former key officials in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) consulate in Thiruvananthapuram have found involvement of top officials and politicians in Kerala - unearthing an unholy nexus of local politicians, officials and gold traders in the state with international gold mafia.

Sources familiar with the developments say India is fast becoming one of the largest gold smuggling hubs in the world.

Why?

India imports 800-900 tonnes of gold annually. Imports in 2019-20 were worth $ 28.2 billion, 14.23% less than the $32.91 billion imported in 2018-19. The World Gold Council (WGC), which tracks wholesale gold trade, had forecasted gold consumption in India in 2020 to be around 700-800 tonnes, compared with 690.4 tonnes last year. The 10-year average consumption is 843 tonnes.

Various agencies estimate that over 200-250 tonnes of gold is smuggled into India every year and that represents about one-fourth of the gold consumed in India, the largest jewellery manufacturing hub in the world. India is also the second-largest consumer of gold in the world after China.

Also read: Kerala gold smuggling case: Customs officials question former senior IAS officer for over 9 hours

A November 2019 report of Impact, a Canada-based NGO, on 'How India Became One of the World's Largest Gold Smuggling Hubs' says illegal export of gold from the Great Lakes region of Africa to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), from where most of the gold is smuggled into India, grew from some five tonnes per year in 2007 to more than 22 tonnes per year by 2012. This illicit trade represented over $1 billion in value and at least $20 million in lost tax revenue to governments.

As an alternative to paper currency, gold is often favoured by criminals for money laundering and illicit trade. It is a high-value, easy-to-transport mineral, making it vulnerable to smuggling and an ideal target for armed groups. The illicit gold trade has been tied to armed groups in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Venezuela, Colombia, who use the proceeds to fund their illegal activities, says the report. About 20 percent of the gold traded globally is illegally mined by artisans and small scale miners, mainly from these African countries.

Illicit gold, after entering India, is absorbed into the legal market with ease, and is re-exported as jewellery, say sources. For every 5 kg of gold that comes in to India, almost 1 kg goes back out as jewellery.

According to Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), Hong Kong, UAE, and the United States account for over 80 percent of the country's total exports of gems and jewellery. Payments for smuggled gold are done through the hawala route. At least 40 percent of raw materials used by organised retail chains are from re-cycled jewellery and the rest is sourced through official channels, say sources. Kerala has at least half a dozen organised retail chains with numerous showrooms in India and abroad.

Sources say the smuggled gold in Kerala goes mainly into the hands of small scale jewellers in northern Kerala, who make ornaments, which eventually reaches legalised trade channels. Koduvally, a small town near Calicut has nearly 100 jewellers within one square kilometre, and most of them deal with illicit or black gold. Gold 'hallmarking' was made mandatory in India last year, but still 40 percent of the gold traded lack hallmark, say trade sources.

Tax anomalies

As part of the 'Made in India' policy, the Union Government with a view to boost domestic gold refining, had imposed an 8 per cent import tax in 2013 on 'dore' or unrefined gold, when compared to 10 per cent for refined bullion. This was reduced slightly later, but still the margins for refined gold processors are very less. Almost all the legal channels, like the 22 nationalised banks led by Bank of India, Bank of Nova Scotia or ICICI Bank and the licensed importers like MMTC-PAMP, the Handicraft and Handlooms Export Corporation and the Diamond India, prefer to source only refined gold.

If that is the case with the raw material, high import duty is the major reason for smuggling. Import duty on gold was increased from 10 to 12.5 percent in the 2018-19 budget. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has not heeded to the demands of the industry to reduce it to 4 percent. In August 2013, the then UPA government had introduced a '80:20' rule, which allowed traders to import gold only after exporting 20 percent of the previous imports. The NDA government abolished it in 2014.

In 2018, some of the Middle East countries imposed 5 per cent duty on gold, which is much lower than the 12.5 percent in India. This means gold is cheaper by upto 15 percent in a place like Dubai as compared to Mumbai or Kochi. Gold bar purchases are exempted from any duties and gold jewellery purchases have a flat 5 per cent duty in the UAE. Further, tourists visiting to the UAE and buying gold can claim a VAT refund at any airport in the UAE.

Even after paying Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000 as fees for the carriers, who are trained to carry it concealed in the body or luggage, smugglers and buyers get handsome profits. Sources say numerous youths from northern Kerala are frequent flyers to Dubai, and they get accommodation, training and get all luxuries for choosing the life of a carrier. Many carriers are experts to hold melted gold filled in condoms and inserted into rectum for 4-5 hours. If the smuggling is less than a kilogram and when caught, punishment is nominal, and the mafia pays for the bail and handles court proceedings.

Politics, Power and Network

It requires immense support and an extensive network to smuggle gold, say experts, citing the Kerala case. The Customs department grilled M. Sivasankar IAS, the former Kerala IT Secretary and Principal Secretary to the Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for over nine hours. He was released on Wednesday early morning and is likely to be further investigated, especially for helping the smugglers get a rented flat, the customs has clarified.

A close confidant of the Kerala CM and expelled last week following the allegations, the bureaucrat is alleged to have done illegal favours to his friend Swapna Suresh, a former secretary to the UAE Consular General in Thiruvananthapuram and the second accused in the case.

She is also alleged to have illegally secured a consultant managerial post in the Space Park project of the Kerala IT department, recruited through an agency appointed by the Pricewaterhouse Coopers, a consultant to the State IT department for many developmental projects in Kerala.

P.S. Sarith, a former PRO in the UAE consulate and Swapna are the first and second accused in the case relating to the smuggling of 30 kg of gold worth nearly Rs 15 crore from Dubai early this month using the 'diplomatic baggage' addressed to the UAE consulate in Thiruvananthapuram.

So far, four people have been arrested by the Customs department. The National Investigating Agency (NIA) is also investigating the case, as the Union Home department suspects the smuggled gold is also channeled to fund anti-India activities. Both Sarath and Swapna have already confessed to smuggling more than 100 kilograms in the past few months through the same channel, bypassing checking at the Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi airports.

Many politicians are alleged to have pressurised the Customs officials to release the consignment without checking. Telephone call details of Swapna and Suresh also reveal nearly 14 conversations since June 5 with the Kerala's education minister KT Jaleel. He denies any wrong doings, but has confessed he knows Swapna for nearly four years. Investigations are on in full swing, and the NIA has approached Interpol seeking a "blue notice" against one Faisal Fareed, a Dubai-based businessman and a key accused in the smuggling racket.

Also read: BT Buzz: What Padmanabha temple verdict means for 'religious' battles with government

Smuggling continues unabated

Even while the issue was snowballing in Kerala for the past ten days, the Customs had arrested many gold smugglers at the Kochi, Karipur and Kannur airports. On June 22, the Customs Intelligence at the Kannur airport caught four people, who came in a chartered flight from UAE, for trying to smuggle out three kilograms of gold. Within ten days of resuming international flight operations to Kerala after the lockdown, the Customs had seized over 9 kilograms of gold and registered 9 cases between June 15-23.

According to the data of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), some of the major gold seizures in 2020 were 6.9 kg gold at Coimbatore, 18.26 kg of imported gold at Delhi and Bolpur railway stations, 4.4 gold seizure at the Guwahati airport, 4.5 kg at Jaipur airport, 5 kg at Mangalore air cargo, 7.2 kg imported gold at Delhi railway station, 12.6 kg at Chennai airport, 2.8 kg and another 3.35 kg at Kochi airport in March. In 2018-19, 166.961 kg of gold worth Rs 52.46 crore was seized from the Kochi airport alone, in comparison to 81.69 kg of gold worth Rs 23.69 crore seized in 2017-18. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence has observed increased incidents of smuggling from new countries like China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, other than the old smuggling hubs like Nepal, Dubai, Sharjah and other Middle East countries.

Also read: BT Buzz: How to counter coronavirus caseload? India's premier biology research centre has some answers
Abbie Chatfield was feeling vindicated on Thursday after receiving a wave of public sympathy following her early departure from Bachelor in Paradise.

And while on a night out with friends in Sydney, the 25-year-old responded to the outpouring of support by sharing a video to Instagram in which she addressed her arch nemesis on the show, Cassandra Mamone.

She acknowledged the backlash against Cassandra, and implied that it was justified because of how she'd treated her and other women during filming last year.

Hitting back: Abbie Chatfield (pictured) called out Cassandra Mamone as the real villain of Bachelor in Paradise on Thursday, following her elimination at the first Rose Ceremony

Before being sent home at the first Rose Ceremony, Abbie had locked horns with the jewellery designer over their shared affection for Ciarran Stott.

But some fans noticed an undercurrent of 'slut-shaming' in the way Cassandra and her friend Mary Viturino spoke about Abbie upon learning she had spent the night with the Englishman after the dinner party.

In her video, Abbie reminded her followers that it wasn't the first time Cassandra had made snide comments about her.

Statement: While on a night out with friends in Sydney, Abbie shared a video to Instagram addressing her arch nemesis on the show, Cassandra Mamone. She acknowledged the backlash against Cassandra, and implied that it was justified because how she'd treated her

She claimed that Cassandra, 34, had been among the women who ganged up on her in the Bachelor mansion last year.

Abbie explained that Cassandra had made a catty remark after she'd told suitor Matt Agnew what fellow contestant Monique Morley had said about him behind his back.

She began: 'Just a reminder that when Cass was on The Bachelor with me, off camera, after the Monique thing, all the girls were really mean to me [and] she said to me that "every action has a reaction". And this is my reaction so... I'm not going to say I agree with the negative press, but I also don't disagree.'

Rival: Before being sent home at the first Rose Ceremony, Abbie had locked horns with jewellery designer Cassandra (pictured) over their shared affection for Ciarran Stott

Cassandra hasn't just faced backlash for her snide remarks about sexually confident Abbie, as she also ruffled feathers on Thursday for dismissing new arrival Jessica Brody as a 'stripper'.

As Jessica entered the Fijian resort in a revealing dress, Cassandra gave her co-star Janey Birks a quick briefing in the pool.

'Is she from your season? Tell me everything,' asked Janey, to which Cassandra replied: 'She's the tattooed girl who's a stripper.'

Bad reputation: In her video, Abbie reminded her followers that it wasn't the first time Cassandra had made snide comments about her

Jessica previously worked as a barmaid at Melbourne's Centrefold Lounge, which is described as 'Australia's number one strip club'.

Many viewers blasted Cassandra for shaming Jessica, and also accused her of hypocrisy and double standards.

They pointed out that she was trying to romance Ciarran, who himself is heavily tattooed and once worked as a stripper in Darwin.

Controversy: Cassandra hasn't just faced backlash for her snide remarks about sexually confident Abbie, as she also ruffled feathers on Thursday for dismissing new arrival Jessica Brody (pictured) as a 'stripper'

Mean girls: As Jessica entered the Fijian resort in a revealing dress, Cassandra gave her co-star Janey Birks a quick briefing in the pool. 'Is she from your season? Tell me everything,' asked Janey, to which Cassandra replied: 'She's the tattooed girl who's a stripper'

One angry fan tweeted: 'Cass! Why does your introduction about Jess include "she's a stripper"? That is so rude and degrading. You're insulting so many women, all at once.'

Another wrote: 'So Jess being a former stripper is unacceptable to Cass, but Ciarran being a former stripper, admitted cheater and player is totally fine with her? Okay, sis, keep clowning.'

Referencing another nasty comment Cassandra had made about Jess, a third viewer tweeted: 'Cass calling Jess a "bit of a b***h" after saying she will happily go after her friend's ex [Ciarran] even though her friend won't be happy... Hypocrisy.'

A fourth wrote: 'Wow, it's almost like Cass just hates confident women. Girl, keep the misogyny internalised, please.'

'That is so rude and degrading': Many viewers blasted Cassandra for shaming Jessica, and also accused her of hypocrisy and double standards

Double standards: Viewers pointed out that Cassandra was trying to romance Ciarran Stott (pictured), who himself is heavily tattooed and once worked as a stripper in Darwin

It comes after Abbie's army of fans flocked to Twitter to defend her on Bachelor in Paradise, after she was portrayed as a villainous temptress on The Bachelor last year.

'Hey guys, so we agree no slut-shaming Abbie this series, because shes a gorgeous, funny woman whos confident and thats not a bad thing?' one supporter tweeted.

During Wednesday's premiere, both Cassandra and Mary had said that Abbie 'gets what she wants' and even suggested she would 'put her boobs out' in her pursuit of Ciarran.

But one Twitter user pointed out that 'Abbie generally gets what she wants' was a particularly bold statement given that she was brutally rejected by Matt Agnew on The Bachelor.

Remember this? It comes after Abbie's army of fans flocked to Twitter to defend her on Bachelor in Paradise, after she was portrayed as a villainous temptress on The Bachelor last year. Pictured during a memorable single date with Matt Agnew on The Bachelor

'The other girls STILL go so hard on slut-shaming Abbie': Fans were not happy with how the other women appeared to be shaming Abbie for 'owning her sexuality'

Another tweeted: 'The way the other girls STILL go so hard on slut-shaming Abbie as if it doesn't require two people to make out? Where was this energy for Matt and where is it now for Ciarran?'

A third fan added: 'Somebody tell Mary that hating on Abbie is so last year.'

Abbie was sent home on Thursday's episode after she failed to receive a rose at the Rose Ceremony, despite being promised one from Jamie Doran.

Following her early exit, she was flooded with support on Twitter from fans who vowed to boycott the show because she was the 'only interesting' contestant.

Bachelor in Paradise continues Tuesday from 7:30pm on Channel 10
YEREVAN, JULY 16, ARMENPRESS. 48-year-old resident of Chinari village of Armenias Tavush province, who has been wounded from the Azerbaijani combat drone strike on July 16, is in serious but stable condition, Armenias healthcare ministry said.

The ministry informed that everything is being done to properly organize the medical care in the province.

Today early in the morning the Azerbaijani side resumed shelling at the bordering villages of Armenias Tavush province. Aygepar, Nerkin Karmiraghbyur, Chinari, Movses, Tavush villages and Berd town were under the target.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
London, July 16 : UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson that there will be an independent inquiry into the country's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the inquiry will only take place once the pandemic was over, Xinhua news agency quoted Johnson as saying during the Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday.

The Prime Minister added that this was not the right moment to devote time to an official inquiry while the virus is still being fought.

"But of course we will seek to learn the lessons and there will be an independent inquiry." Asked about whether the government was properly prepared for a second wave of pandemic by the opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, Johnson insisted the government will do absolutely everything in its power to prevent a second spike.

With 144,000 people already agreeing to self-isolate, the Prime Minister said the test-and-trace system is "as good as or better than anywhere else in the world".

"Seventy or 80 per cent of contacts are found," he added.

"Of course we will seek to learn the lessons of this pandemic in the future and certainly we will have an independent inquiry into what happened." Meanwhile, Downing Street was unable to give any further details about the nature of the inquiry when pressed on whether it will be judge-led or when it will begin, saying that the remit would be set out "in due course", the BBC reported.

The development comes as the UK has reported a total of 293,469 COVID-19 cases so far, with 45,138 deaths.
David Kaiser, a scion of the Rockefeller family who steered one of its philanthropies into a pitched confrontation with the company that provided the familys prodigious wealth, died on Wednesday at a family home on Mount Desert Island, Maine. He was 50.

The cause was glioblastoma multiforme, a cancer of the brain, his wife, Rosemary Corbett, said.

As president of the Rockefeller Family Fund, and as an official of Just Detention International, a group dedicated to fighting sexual abuse in prisons, Mr. Kaiser pursued twin passions: combating climate change and reforming the criminal justice system.

His climate work took one of the familys most prominent charitable organizations in a highly unusual direction for any philanthropy: scrappiness. It was all the more unusual for a great-great-grandson of John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil, to confront Exxon Mobil, a successor company to the Rockefeller oil monopoly.

Mr. Kaisers actions, with the support of his family, upended the generally polite world of philanthropy, the journalist and climate change activist Bill McKibben said in an interview. Its hard enough to get anyone to take on powerful interests, but when theyre the powerful interest from which your family derived its wealth, thats really brave, Mr. McKibben said, adding, I cant think of anything like it in history.
New Delhi, July 16 : As Twitter went through the worst-ever cyber attack on any social media platforms on Thursday, at least 367 users transferred around $1,20,000 (over Rs 90 lakh) to hackers in Bitcoins before the Twitter teams swung into action to stop the cryptocurrency scam that hit several top-notch public profiles.

According to the cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, the major scam flags the fact that we are living in the era when even people with computer skills might be lured into a scammers trap and even the most secure accounts can be hacked.

"In our estimates, within just two hours, at least 367 users have transferred around $1,20,000 in total to attackers. Neither a website/software is entirely immune to bugs nor is the human factor immune to mistakes. Therefore, any native platforms might be compromised," Dmitry Bestuzhev, Cybersecurity expert at Kaspersky, told IANS.

Twitter admitted it was a "coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools".

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has also apologized.

"Tough day for us at Twitter. We all feel terrible this happened," Dorsey tweeted after the accounts of major public figures including US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Apple and Uber were simultaneously hacked by attackers to spread a cryptocurrency scam.

Arjun Vijay, Co-Founder and COO of Giottus Cryptocurrency Exchange, said such scams have happened in the past but never at this scale.

"It was a well-coordinated attack where multiple accounts got hacked at the same time, with the same tweets directing users to the same scam site," he said in a statement.

"The hacker had complete access to Twitter. He could post anything from any of the official accounts. But he chose to seek Bitcoins through false promises. People should be more careful," Vijay warned.

Paul Ducklin, Principal Research Scientist at cybersecurity firm Sophos said that if Musk, Gates, Apple, Biden or any well-known person or company wanted to hand out huge amounts of money on a whim, they wouldn't demand that you hand them money first.

"That's not a gift, it's a trick, and it's an obvious sign that the person's account has been hacked. If in doubt, leave it out!" he said.

Cryptocurrency transactions don't have the legal protections that you get with banks or payment card companies.

"There is no fraud reporting service or transaction cancellation in the world of cryptocurrency. Sending someone cryptocoins is like handing over banknotes to in an envelope - if they go to a crook, you will never see them again. If in doubt, don't send it out!" he added.

Some high-level employees at Twitter were targeted by Social Engineering campaigns to gain access to high profile accounts.

"If purely digital companies like Twitter can be breached through social engineering attacks, then other organizations and individuals are not safe either. Cybersecurity is everybody's responsibility and employees can be an organisation's best defence," Himanshu Dubey, Director, Quick Heal Security Labs, told IANS.
Kanye West to Appear on Oklahoma Presidential Election Ballot

Rapper Kanye West has qualified to appear on the ballot in Oklahoma as a presidential candidate, coming a day after one of his advisers said that he is out of the 2020 race.

West filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on July 15, suggesting that he will try to run.

West listed his party as BDY, or possibly Birthday party. His custodian of records and treasurer is Andre Bodiford, while his bank or depository is the First Bank of Wyoming in Cody, Wyoming. West also listed his address in Cody.

On that day, a public affairs officer for the Oklahoma Board of Elections told New York magazine that a representative for West registered him in Oklahoma. He also paid $35,000 to get on the ballot. An Oklahoma Board of Elections spokeswoman, Misha Mohr, confirmed the development to The Associated Press.

A copy of the statement was uploaded to Oklahomas elections website.

West was one of three independent presidential candidates to pay the filing fee prior to the deadline, Mohr said. The others were concert pianist Jade Simmons and cryptocurrency entrepreneur Brock Pierce.

West has missed the deadline to qualify for the ballot in several states, and its unclear if hes willing or able to try to collect enough signatures required to qualify in others.

Then-President-elect Donald Trump and Kanye West stand together in the lobby at Trump Tower in New York City on Dec.13, 2016. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

West, who is married to reality television star Kim Kardashian West, initially announced his candidacy on July 4. Days later, he told Forbes magazine that he, who once praised President Donald Trump and said the two share dragon energy, was taking the red hat offa reference to Trumps trademark red Make America Great Again cap.

On July 15, an adviser to the rapper, Steve Kramer, told New York magazine that hes out of the presidential race.

We had overwhelming support to get him on the ballot, he said of attempts to get West on ballots in Florida and South Carolina. I have nothing good or bad to say about Kanye. Everyone has their personal decision about why they make decisions. Running for president has to be one of the hardest things for someone to actually contemplate at that level, Kramer said.

West says hes pro-life, pro-prayer in schools, and anti-death penalty, adding that he will run as an independent. He mentioned in the interview that it may be called the Birthday Party.

Trump brushed off Wests presidential aspirations in an interview last week.

He is always going to be for us, and his wife is going to be for us, Trump said of West on Fox News.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Long Branch resident admitted Tuesday that he shot and killed a 45-year-old man who was sitting with his ex-girlfriend in a city restaurant two years ago. He also admitted to opening fire on her too, authorities said.

Miguel Camara, 42, pleaded guilty to murder, attempted murder, and endangering the welfare of a child for the 2018 shooting at the Bom DMais restaurant, a Brazilian-style pizzeria on Broadway.

He killed Marco Moreira, 45, attempted to kill Fernanda Silva and and endangered Silvas 5-year-old daughter, who was 5 feet away, the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office announced Wednesday.

Under the terms of a plea agreement with the office, Camara faces 45 years in state prison when he is sentenced, which is scheduled for Sept. 11, prosecutors said.

Long Branch Police Officer George Samol was flagged down by a motorist on Broadway on Aug. 21, 2018 around 3:15 p.m. who told him there was a fight inside the restaurant and a shot had been fired through the front window, according to a statement from the office.

Samol entered the eatery and saw Fernanda Silva and her 18-year-old son wrestling with a gun-carrying Camara, the office said.

The officer pulled his gun out and ordered Camara to drop his weapon, but Silvaa son was able to gain control over it, authorities said.

Camara then immediately turned to Samol and grabbed the officers gun, but the officer was able to wrestle it away from him as his backup arrived at the restaurant, the office said.

As he was being arrested, police found Moreira lying dead on the floor of the pizzeria. He was pronounced dead a short time later, police said.

An investigation by prosecutors office detectives and the Long Branch Police revealed that Camara entered the restaurant and walked over to the the table where his Silva, her two children and Moreira were seated. He threw a court document on the table and pulled out a handgun, which he pointed at Moreiras head several times before shooting him, the office said.

The struggle between Silva, her son and Camara then started and resulted in him pointing his gun at his ex and firing twice, but missing, authorities said.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.

Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: In all, 58 small-sized private hospitals shut temporarily or permanently in Bengaluru after Covid-19 struck the city, revealed members of the Private Hospitals and Nursing Association (PHANA), on Wednesday.PHANA president Dr R Ravindra said that many hospitals run by single doctors had to shut because of the pandemic-triggered financial crisis. Private hospitals have to follow 19 norms specified by the government and it is difficult to adhere to all of them. We have requested the government to reduce the number of norms, he added.

Also, around 50% of nurses and paramedical staff, and 30% of doctors have quit their jobs, worried about the high risk involved in treating Covid patients. Human resource is a big problem for both big and small private hospitals. If we get the required staff, we can function. But doctors are not willing to work, though we offer them insurance and incentives. Even the offer to double the salaries has not convinced them. We have asked the government to provide us with manpower, and they can send us postgraduate and final year students, whom we can train, said Dr Prasanna HM, President-Elect, PHANA.

Right now, 384 PHANA member hospitals, which are 50-100 bed facilities, have 4,500 beds, and the order to reserve 50 per cent of beds for Covid patients is posing a big challenge. We have brought it to the governments notice, Dr Prasanna said.On patients being denied treatment at private hospitals, the members said, Initially, we were not geared up to take Covid patients, but now we are. Suspected patients turn up at our hospitals and there are no isolation facilities. We are now sorting this out, Dr Ravindra said.

While Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar claimed that private hospitals have 15,500 beds, PHANA said they had only 10,500. Some of the hospitals are also ophthalmology, kidney care and cancer centres, which cannot admit Covid patients. Right now, only 8,500 beds can be considered, they said.

Dr Sudhakar said, The government has offered good price slabs to private hospitals. We have taken only 50% of beds, unlike in Mumbai, where private hospitals had to dedicate 80% of beds for Covid patients.
Taiwan conducted a major live-fire military exercise on Thursday with its air, sea and land forces, President Tsai Ing-wen said, showing the island's determination to defend itself.

The drills, dubbed "Han Kuang," are Taiwan's main annual military exercises. But this year they came as China has stepped up its military and navy activity around the island, which it views as sovereign territory.

"The Han Kuang exercises are a major annual event for the armed forces, evaluating the development of combat abilities," Tsai told troops. The drills began Monday and conclude on Friday.

"Even more, it lets the world see our determination and efforts to defend the country's territory."

Beijing dismissed the military exercises and said that China's territorial integrity was "rock solid and indestructible," and that reunification with the mainland was an "irreversible trend" that could not be stopped, Hua Chunying, ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson, said Thursday.

China's state-owned Global Times newspaper also called the activity a "meaningless show" and an obvious attempt to prepare againstChina's People's Liberation Army.

Beijing considers Taiwan part of "one China" and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. Taiwan, while democratic and self-governing, has long been claimed by China.

In May, during China's annual National People's Congress, Premier Li Keqiang omitted the word "peaceful" from China's regular language of reunification with Taiwan, which some analysts took as a sign of China's growing assertiveness to forcefully reunite Taiwan with the mainland.

The reunification remains a priority for Beijing, said Veerle Nouwens, a research fellow in the Asia-Pacific region at the Royal United Services Institute, a defense think tank.

"China has continued to exercise at sea and in the air in the South China Sea and around Taiwan," Nouwens said. "This is not particularly new but takes place in a wider context of increasing Chinese assertiveness on its borders and in the surrounding region."

Story continues

About 8,000 personnel took part in drills, held on a coastal strip near Taichung in central Taiwan. Although Taiwan's military is well trained and equipped with mostly U.S.-made hardware, China has huge numerical superiority.

Tsai, who won re-election by a landslide in January after pledging to take a tough stance on China, has made military modernization a priority. Taiwan unveiled its largest defense spending increase in more than a decade last year.

"Early in her new term as president, Tsai needs to be in the business ... of continuing her fairly aggressive stance on China," Ian Inkster, a professor at the London-based Centre of Taiwan Studies, said.

"Priorities do seem to be with retaining the Chinese provocative position. So, opportunities will be taken when they offer themselves," he said.

Image: Two domestically-made armoured vehicles launch smoke grenades during the annual Han Kuang military drills in Taichung, Taiwan (Sam Yeh / AFP - Getty Images)

Taiwan is a recurring flashpoint in the U.S.-China relationship, with Beijing routinely denouncing Washington's support for the island, amid what China perceives as increased U.S. activity in the region.

This week, Beijing announced sanctions on Lockheed Martin, the U.S. weapons maker that was involved in the latest U.S. arms sale to Taiwan. China was making the move "to safeguard the country's interests," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said, without giving further details.

Zhao also called on the U.S. to stop selling weapons to Taiwan to "avoid further harming Sino-U.S. ties and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait."

The U.S., like most countries, has no official diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but Washington is bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday urged China to reconsider the sanctions, saying that Lockheed Martin was "an American company, conducting business that was consistent with American foreign policy."

"I regret that the Chinese Communist Party chose to make that threat against Lockheed Martin," Pompeo said. "I hope they'll reconsider that and not follow through."

Reuters contributed to this report.
This formulation innovation simply delivers more effective and faster-acting effects that will continue to clearly differentiate the MUV Products line from others

Alternative Medical Enterprises, LLC has been awarded patents for the United States and European Union for its Medical Cannabis Encapsulation Technology and Trademark on EnCaps. EnCaps Products are an expanding product line at the 23 MUV Medical Cannabis Dispensaries in Florida and at the flagship Arizona dispensary in Phoenix.

Patents are extremely difficult to earn in the cannabis industry, said Mike Smullen, Chairman and CEO of AltMed Entreprises. These patents validate our ongoing investment in research and development while also establishing intellectual properties that can be protected. It also further bolsters our award winning MUV Medical Cannabis brand which has become synonymous with quality and consistency.

MUV EnCaps technology is available in a growing number of MUV products and formulations including MUV Transdermal Patches (THC, CBD and 1:1 ratio), Tinctures (THC, CBD and 1:1), Transdermal gels (THC, CBD and 1:1) as well as Capsules (THC, CBD and 1:1). The same patented formulation is also part of the newly launched MUV Health over the counter hemp-derived CBD product line cbdbymuv.com.

EnCaps products are for patients who prioritize a smoke-free delivery method that is both long-lasting and fast-acting. The MUV EnCaps process makes cannabinoids water-soluble and therefore more readily absorbed within the body. This dramatically improves both onset time and overall bioavailability, creating a more effective product.

Brief Summary of the patent protected and trademarked EnCaps technology:



The term encapsulation refers to a small sphere which contains THC, CBD, and terpenes that are enveloped within the interior

Creates better absorption of transdermal and tincture formulations

Provides faster and long-lasting relief for patients

These techniques have been widely used in the pharmaceutical industry to improve the efficiency and efficacy of products, said Todd Beckwith, AltMed Director of Corporate Affairs. This formulation innovation simply delivers more effective and faster-acting effects that will continue to clearly differentiate the MUV Products line from others.

About AltMed Enterprises - Alternative Medical Enterprises, LLC, headquartered in Sarasota, FL and doing business as AltMed Enterprises, is a fully integrated medical cannabis company that brings compassion, community engagement and pharmaceutical industry precision to the development, production and dispensing of medical cannabinoids.

About MUV - The MUV brand of cannabis infused products was launched in Arizona in 2016 and quickly gained international attention and recognition. In its first six months alone, MUV received four best of Arizona medical cannabis awards, including two first prizes for its proprietary Ethanol extractions that are the basis of all MUV products.

Forward-Looking Statements - To the extent any statements made in this press release contain information that is not historical, these statements are forward-looking in nature and merely express our beliefs, expectations or opinions. For example, words such as may, should, estimates, predicts, continues, believes, anticipates, plans, expects, intends, potential, strategy and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on current expectations or estimates and involve a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to these differences include, but are not limited to, the following: (i) our ability to implement our business strategy of distributing high quality cannabis products where permissible under applicable law; (ii) availability and cost of additional capital; (iii) our ability to attract, retain and motivate qualified employees and management; (iv) the impact of federal, state or local government regulations; (v) competition in the cannabis industry; (vi) our ability to generate revenues; and (vii) litigation in connection with our business. All forward-looking statements included in this press release and attributable to us or any person acting on our behalf are qualified by this cautionary statement. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and, except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, regardless of whether new information becomes available, future developments occur or otherwise.
But a May 15 edict from the U.S. Department of Commerce banning the use of American technology to make chips for Huawei has forced the Taiwanese company to stop taking orders from its Chinese client. Given that Huawei is the companys second-largest customer behind Apple Inc., the move was widely expected to deliver a body blow to TSMC, especially in orders for its latest manufacturing technology.
NCUA headquarters

For credit unions making plans for medium to long-term growth, the discussion often comes down to what charter gives them the most flexibility to grow? For instance, if they are a community charter, will they have more opportunities to expand under the states laws or do they have enough flexibility under NCUAs more stringent regulations? If the credit union doesnt want to become a community charter, will it have the ability to take in enough groups to expand their membership footprint?

In June, NCUA issued an important legal opinion letter for those credit unions considering using the multiple SEG approach. When this letter is read in conjunction with NCUAs updated field of membership regulations it means that federal credit unions have much more expansion flexibility than they had just months ago.

When a multiple SEG credit union is seeking to add a new group to its membership, one of the most basic things the credit union must demonstrate is that the group is within reasonable proximity to the credit unions service area. But what is reasonable proximity and is there a specific geographic limit restraining the acquisition of new groups? In a legal opinion letter by NCUAs Office of General Counsel, the answer is:
As we mark the 75th anniversary of the atomic bomb, we may be headed into a new arms race with Russia and China following President Donald Trump's plans to resume nuclear testing. According to a Washington Post report, the Trump administration has been holding discussions on carrying out nuclear test explosions for the first time since 1992.

This news alarmed presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, who stated, "The possibility that the Trump administration may resume nuclear explosive weapons testing in Nevada is as reckless as it is dangerous."

It's vital that we remember our responsibility as the first nation to test a nuclear weapon to lead the world in controlling and ultimately eliminating them. In fact, this idea has been embedded in nuclear policy since the beginning.

There was a real fear that Nazi Germany would develop an atomic bomb first, and the Manhattan Project began a race during the war to make sure that did not happen. There was also increasing alarm about the potential of a postwar world with nuclear weapons in the hands of many, recognizing the inevitability of this dangerous technology eventually reaching the Soviet Union and others. Secretary of War Henry Stimson warned President Harry Truman about the danger of other nations and even rogue groups developing an atomic bomb. They knew they could not keep the knowledge of how to build the bomb a secret forever.

Thanks to the successful secret research efforts of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his team of scientists at the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico, the Army detonated the first atomic bomb, code name Trinity, on July 16, 1945.

Just weeks later, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 to end World War II in the Pacific. Some cautioned against using the atomic bombs at all during the war, and following the war, these warnings again emerged to shape nuclear policy. In 1946, after studying the effect of the atomic bomb, the U.S. Strategic Bombing survey stated: "As the developer and exploiter of this ominous weapon, our nation has a responsibility, which no American should shirk, to lead in establishing and implementing the international guarantees and controls which will prevent its future use."

And so, while the United States expanded its nuclear arsenal, it also crafted strategies for controlling and preventing its use. President Dwight Eisenhower made nuclear arms control a priority with his 1953 Atoms for Peace speech, which argued for diverting nuclear power to peaceful purposes. Eisenhower's Open Skies proposal for mutual aerial inspection and a nuclear test ban treaty started diplomatic outreach with the Soviet Union.

Signifying its bipartisan nature, President John F. Kennedy picked up Eisenhower's push for a test ban when he entered office in 1961.

The shock of the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, which brought the United States and the U.S.S.R. to the brink of nuclear war, further increased the urgency for diplomacy. A hotline between the United States and the Soviets was set up to improve communications to prevent nuclear war.

Kennedy, one year after the Cuban missile crisis, achieved a Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the Soviet Union banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, underwater and space. Underground nuclear tests continued. The landmark treaty was pivotal for reducing tensions and showing it was possible for the Cold War rivals to negotiate successfully. There was the realization that a continuing arms race posed both massive dangers and costs that could not be sustained.

In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson achieved the Non-Proliferation Treaty which committed the United States and other nuclear powers to eventually disarm. While U.S. policy during the 1970s was primarily aimed at nuclear arms limitations and confidence-building measures to reduce the threat, under President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, negotiators were able to turn toward actual arms reductions.

Beginning in 1985, Reagan held summit meetings with his Soviet counterpart, Mikhail Gorbachev, and these led to breakthrough treaties including the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces pact eliminating short- and medium-range nuclear missiles. Reagan's famous "trust but verify" line came about as verification was essential to make sure treaty commitments were being honored. Getting the Soviets to agree to inspections of their nuclear facilities was a huge diplomatic achievement.

When George H.W. Bush took office, he carried over Reagan's momentum and secured the original START Treaty reducing U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear warheads. President Bill Clinton worked toward getting the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty signed. His successor, George W. Bush, achieved a treaty with Russia reducing strategic nuclear warheads.

President Barack Obama, like Reagan, stated his desire for a nuclear weapons-free world and achieved the New START accord with Russia, further reducing both nations' arsenals. Obama also achieved an agreement with Iran to prevent them from developing a nuclear weapon.

But while for over 60 years presidents in both parties worked to reduce nuclear weapons and the likelihood of their use, Trump has begun unraveling these efforts. Trump has withdrawn the United States from arms treaties including the landmark INF agreement and the Iran nuclear deal. Additionally, he has failed to extend the New START accord, which expires early next year.

If it expires without renewal or a replacement, then we will have no treaty in place controlling the two largest nuclear arsenals. There will be no trust, no verification. Today, there are about 14,000 nuclear weapons worldwide according the Arms Control Association, most of them held by the United States and Russia. We constantly live with the fear of more nations, perhaps even terrorists, acquiring these weapons of mass destruction.

Yet Trump continues to reject nuclear diplomacy including the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which bans all nuclear test explosions. Trump has also gone forward with expensive nuke modernization plans that will further drain America's precious resources, forcing billions of dollars each year to go toward nuclear weapons.

All nations share the burden of nukes and every country would benefit from diverting resources from nukes toward feeding the hungry, fighting disease and climate change.

But this demands American leadership on the issue. As Eisenhower said about disarmament in 1955, "It would ease the fears of war in the anxious hearts of people everywhere. It would lighten the burdens upon the backs of the people. It would make it possible for every nation, great and small, developed and less developed, to advance the standards of living of its people, to attain better food, and clothing, and shelter, more of education and larger enjoyment of life."

The first atomic bomb changed our world in July 1945. It was the ultimate weapon, a product of World War II and a trigger for the Cold War nuclear arms race to follow.

But as we remember this moment in history, we cannot lose sight of the dangerous consequences nuclear weapons continue to have on the world today. We must not become complacent about this threat after so many years and just casually accept their existence. Seventy-five years after Trinity, banning nuclear testing and working toward eliminating nukes is the only sensible path forward. Nuclear weapons must become part of our history only, not a threat to our future.

---

Lambers is the author of "Nuclear Weapons, The Road to Peace, and Ending World Hunger." His writings have been published by USA Today, History News Network, Baltimore Sun and Spectrum, the official magazine of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization.
Amit Shah, Asaduddin Owaisi spar in Lok Sabha over NIA Amendment Bill after AIMIM chief interrupts Satyapal Singhs speech Lok Sabha Monday witnessed a spat between Home Minister Amit Shah and AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi, with the BJP chief asserting that he is not frightening anyone but cannot help when someone has fear in their minds
The country's first fully indigenously developed vaccine against pneumonia has got approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), the Union health ministry said on Wednesday. With the help of Special Expert Committee (SEC) for vaccines, the drug regulator reviewed the phase I, II and III clinical trial data submitted by Pune-based firm Serum Institute of India and then granted the market approval for Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Conjugate Vaccine.

The vaccine is administered in an intramuscular manner. The ministry said the vaccine will be used for active immunisation against invasive disease and pneumonia caused by 'Streptococcus pneumonia' among infants.

The Serum Institute of India first obtained the approval of the DCGI to conduct Phase I, II and III clinical trials of the vaccine in India. These trials have since been concluded within the country. The company also conducted the clinical trials in Gambia. Thereafter, the company applied for approval and permission to manufacture the vaccine.

The Special Expert Committee (SEC) recommended for grant of permission of market authorization to the said vaccine. On July 14, Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd was granted permission to manufacture domestically developed first Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Conjugate Vaccine, the ministry said.

"This is the first indigenously developed vaccine in the field of pneumonia," it said. Earlier, the demand of such vaccine was substantially met by licensed importers in the country since the manufacturers were all vaccine companies based outside India, the ministry added.
Juries would be drawn from a larger pool of Californians under a bill proposed by state legislators eager to add more people of color and low-income residents to the courtroom panels that decide criminal cases and lawsuits.

The state now draws jurors largely from residents who are registered to vote or have a drivers license or identification card from the Department of Motor Vehicles. Reform advocates say that too often, that results in panels overstocked with white jurors who are relatively well-off.

SB592 by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, seeks to expand the pool by also drawing jurors from among everyone who files income tax returns.

Supporters of the bill say people of color and poorer residents are less likely to register to vote or drive a car.

That excludes big swathes of our community and it results in juries that are less diverse and less representative, Wiener said during a Zoom news conference Wednesday. If you dont have a jury of your peers, a jury that is truly a cross-section of our diverse communities, then it is very hard for someone accused of a crime to get a fair trial.

He said the states tax-filing database includes a much broader universe of people, including those who claim the earned-income tax credit, an assistance program for low-income filers.

The bill is one of several criminal-justice reform measures that legislators have proposed since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody and the subsequent national protests over officer brutality and systemic racism.

Advocates of criminal-justice reform say Californians, particularly African Americans, are often denied their constitutional right to a trial by a jury of peers because their cases are decided by unrepresentative juries. Wieners bill is sponsored by the California Public Defenders Association and several reform advocacy groups.

Oscar Bobrow, president of the California Public Defenders Association and Solano Countys chief deputy public defender, said he has watched disproportionately white juries decide the fate of minority defendants over a 35-year career.

I have sat next to client after client, in trial after trial where the jury wasnt representative, Bobrow said. They need to be able to see people who look like them.

State Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, proposed similar legislation last year that failed. She said California must fix a system where jurors are typically wealthier and whiter than most of the people who they are sitting there to judge.

Wieners office doesnt have an estimate of how many Californians would be added as potential jurors under the bill, but a spokeswoman said it would be significant.

Wiener said the measure has no formal opposition. But lawmakers are under a tight timeline to consider it because theyre scheduled to adjourn for the year Aug. 31, and theyre on recess now because of the coronavirus pandemic.

If the bill passes, California would join a growing number of states that use tax rolls to summon jurors. Nineteen states have adopted the practice, according to the National Center for State Courts.

Wiener has campaigned against unrepresentative jury pools for years. In 2017, he unsuccessfully carried a bill that sought to require jury commissioners to collect demographic data on all prospective jurors to expose inequities.

Wiener said SB592 is one of several bills he expects to introduce to address racism in the justice system.

In so many respects the system is poorly designed, it is failing and it is one more example of the structural racism in this country, he said.

Dustin Gardiner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dustin.gardiner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dustingardiner
Public investment is expected to be one of the major driving forces for economic development in the second half of the year. Securities investors have been advised to buy building-material manufacturing shares.

Economists have pointed out that public investment has become a major engine for economic growth as other driving forces have been weakened because of Covid-19.





VNDirect Securities cited a report as showing that the disbursement of public investment in the first six months of the year increased by 19.2 percent compared with the same period last year, reaching VND154.4 trillion, or 33.1 percent of the yearly disbursement plan.



On June 19, the National Assembly approved the change of the investment form of the three component projects belonging to the North-South Expressway project. The three projects will be executed under the mode of public investment instead of PPP (private public partnership) as initially planned.

On June 19, the National Assembly approved the change of the investment form of the three component projects belonging to the North-South Expressway project. The three projects will be executed under the mode of public investment instead of PPP (private public partnership) as initially planned.

The component projects, namely the Mai Son  Highway No 45, Vinh Hao  Phan Thiet and Phan Thiet  Dau Giay, are expected to kick off in Q3.

VNDirect Securities believes that the building material production industry will be the center of public investment news in the second half of 2020.



In one basic scenario, VNDirect estimates that 25 percent of public investment capital would be disbursed for the My Thuan  Can Tho Highway and six component projects of the North-South Expressway project, including the three mentioned, in 2020.



It is estimated that VND6.4 trillion worth of asphalt, VND5.5 trillion worth of structural steel and VND2.7 trillion worth of cement would be needed this year for construction of the projects.



To fully implement the projects, the total expenditures on asphalt, structural steel and cement would be VND25.7 trillion, VND22 trillion and VND11 trillion.



VNDirect Securities has advised investors to invest in shares of construction and building material companies, including Hoa Phat Group (HPG, HCM City Stock Exchange  HOSE) and Petrolimex Petrochemical Corporation JSC (PLC, Hanoi Stock Exchange - HNX).



HPG is one of the good shares because Hoa Phat has been maintaining a high growth. The sales of structural steel of Hoa Phat increased by 8.7 percent in the first five months of the year.



More than 1.2 million tons of steel were sold during that time, which helped the companys market share rise to 30.8 percent from 26.1 percent in 2019.



The sales of ingot steel was a highlight, with 643, 000 tons sold in the first five months (Hoa Phat did not sell the product the same period last year). More than 596,000 tons of ingot steel were exported, mostly to China (53 percent), the worlds leading steel exporter.

Thanh Lich

Real estate firms with the largest capitalization value in stock market There are many listed real estate firms with capitalization value of up to trillions or hundreds of trillions of dong.
India said that he had been coerced into doing that. India had last Thursday said it was assessing all legal options in the case related to Indian national Kulbushan Jadhav, who is on death row in Pakistan and assured that it was committed to protecting the life of Indian nationals. Pakistan had earlier claimed that Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer, has refused to initiate review petition of his ...

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Noelia Barrabes. Credit: Vienna University of Technology

Nanometer-sized gold particles consisting of only a few atoms can be used as catalysts for important chemical reactions. Noelia Barrabes from the Institute of Materials Chemistry at TU Wien has been researching new methods of adapting and precisely controlling such tiny gold clusters for years. Now she has been awarded an Elise-Richter scholarship.

With this scholarship, she will now use gold clusters to solve a particularly difficult chemical problem: Some molecules exist in two different configurations, one being the mirror image of the other, with right and left side reversed. Normally, it is extremely difficult to produce only one of these two variants. Specially treated gold clusters are now supposed to help.

Perfect control over gold particles

It is well known that gold can be used as a catalyst to initiate important chemical reactions. Gold can be used particularly efficiently as a catalyst if it is fixed in the form of tiny particles on a surface, as recently demonstrated in the journal ACS Catalysis. The size of the gold clusters plays an important role here. "Normally you have to deal with gold clusters of different sizes, which have different properties," explains Noelia Barrabes. "In our case it's different: we have developed methods to perfectly control the size of the gold clusters. All clusters consist of exactly the same number of atoms."

Different molecules can attach to these gold clusters. They are called ligands. "These ligands have a very decisive influence on the chemical behaviour of the gold clusters," says Noelia Barrabes. "We therefore had to develop methods to control the ligands precisely." For example, the gold clusters can first be produced in a liquid environment, then fixed on a solid surface, and finally their ligands can be exchanged. This technique was recently published in the journal Nanoscale and was also featured on the back cover of the magazine.

The molecule and its mirror image

As Noelia Barrabes recently demonstrated, this opens up a particularly interesting possibility: one can use so-called "chiral ligands", which also exist in image and mirror image variants.

"If you synthesize a molecule of which there is also a mirror-image version, you usually create both variants at the same time," explains Prof. Gunther Rupprechter, head of the Institute of Materials Chemistry. "After all, both molecules consist of exactly the same atoms and have the same basic structure."

As part of her Elise-Richter grant, Noelia Barrabes now wants to show that it is possible to selectively produce only one of the two variants using special ligands on the gold clusters. The special focus is on doing this with gold clusters fixed to a surfacea procedure that up until now has hardly been studied or used, but which would have great advantages over conventional methods if successfully implemented.

Especially for medical applications, the difference between a molecule and its mirror image can play an important role: "We know that our body reacts very differently to certain molecules than to the mirrored versions. In extreme cases, one version can heal and the other can cause illness," explains Noelia Barrabes.

Explore further Clusters of gold atoms form peculiar pyramidal shape

More information: Stephan Pollitt et al. The Dynamic Structure of Au38(SR)24 Nanoclusters Supported on CeO2 upon Pretreatment and CO Oxidation, ACS Catalysis (2020). Stephan Pollitt et al. The Dynamic Structure of Au38(SR)24 Nanoclusters Supported on CeO2 upon Pretreatment and CO Oxidation,(2020). DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.0c01621 Vera Truttmann et al. Ligand engineering of immobilized nanoclusters on surfaces: ligand exchange reactions with supported Au11(PPh3)7Br3, Nanoscale (2020). DOI: 10.1039/C9NR10353H Journal information: ACS Catalysis , Nanoscale
We need more politicians for whom policy is personal, is one of Joness frequent mantras. He was raised on food stamps by a single mother. He made it out of a declining public school to Stanford University, Harvard Law, and a stint with the Obama administration. He argued for canceling the student debt that led him to work in corporate law before he wound up at Westchester Countys Law Department. He called climate change an existential crisis in river towns where people regularly bail water out of their basements. He was the one candidate advocating for Medicare-for-all during a pandemic when people had lost their health-care coverage along with their jobs, and the one candidate who had criminal justice reform in his platform before George Floyd was killed.
Outgoing SRC President, Benjamin Ansah

16.07.2020 LISTEN

The Management of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) has notified the outgoing Students Representative Council (SRC) of the school to cancel an election that had been organized to select a new President even though students are on holiday.

A letter dated July 3, 2020 and addressed to the outgoing SRC President, Benjamin Ansah, warned that attempt to elect a new President at time when GIMPA's school calendar shows that it is on vacation makes the election illegal and his actions prosecutable.

It is in the light that all activities of the SRC must be carried out within the rules and policies of the Institute. Thus, where the academic calendar as revised indicated that the 2019/2020 second semester ended on the 22nd of June, 2020, the SRC cannot purport to be holding any activity including elections after this period. The validity of any activity undertaken outside the academic calendar has legal implications. The SRC constitution foresees such a situation and has made ample provision for the handing over of the affairs of the SRC to an interim management committee, the letter signed by Julius Atikpui, Secretary of the GIMPA stated.

While the letter does not make a direct reference to an attempt by the outgoing GIMPA President to sell the Presidency, it is all over campus that the embattled president Ansah, by the hurried election was trying to pass on the Presidency for Ghc50,000.

According to multiple sources, the person to whom the GIMPA Presidency was alleged being sold is one Kenneth Koomson. Earlier, Benjamin Ansah had allegedly aimed to sell the Presidency to the former SRC Public Relations Officer, Prince Owusu-Agyapong, who resigned to contest, however, the price was too steep for Mr. Agyapong, hence the bid falling to Koomson, who had the cash power.

As a free and fair election was likely not to end in favor of the outgoing President's anointed one, Benjamin Ansah therefore timed the election to come off at a time that students would be on holidays.

Allegedly, a handful of students who were in the know of the plan to pass the GIMPA SRC Presidency to Koomson, threatened to cause his arrest if he goes ahead. The SRC's Electoral Commissioner, Eddie Cudjoe, who was allegedly also in the conspiracy, stayed behind to oversee the sham election.

However, the school's Management was informed by people who knew about the deal, and it stepped in with the letter even after the EC Chairman had illegally concluded aptitude tests for the candidate.

According to the allegations, the move to sell GIMPA's Presidency to Koomson by Benjamin Ansah, follows a practice at the Institute where a corrupt few juggle the Presidency among themselves like an heirloom.

Benjamin Ansah himself is said to have become GIMPA President this way, by allegedly paying for it from his predecessor, Joseph Osei Mensah, who knows the corners of the institute due to his duties as a cleaner. Mr. Mensah, is said to have similarly organized a dubious election where only a few of the students voted to create the calculated succession.

Mr. Kwasi Asare, a student of the school has detailed the plot in an open letter to GIMPA students that has gone viral on social media.

Benjamin Ansah's phone has been off and so the media could not reach him to speak to the allegations.

Meanwhile, Benjamin Ansah have been evicted from the accommodation he occupies on campus, and, information indicates that he is lodging with a friend at Nungua.

Below is a letter from the school administration to Mr. Benjamin Ansah:
L ondons members clubs have been welcoming back their well-heeled guests. Annabels in Mayfair opened on July 4, with on-site medical teams and hygiene ambassadors. There are thermal imaging cameras, items checked into the cloakrooms are cleaned with an electro-static gun, but valet parking is no longer available.

Soho House, which has sites around London, has also opened. Members have been given vouchers to buy food and drink to thank them, but they have to book visits using an app.

During lockdown the AllBright womens club started a digital site, offering career advice from women around the world. Debbie Wosskow, co-founder, told us she was delighted to offer members a safe hub away from home.

Paul van Zyl, co-founder of The Conduit in Mayfair, told The Londoner there was a desire to return: Outdoor terraces are booking up like crazy.

Robin Birley opened 5 Hertford Street at the start of the month. He spent lockdown hanging pictures in the club to keep my sanity. Birley has offered a free meal to members to say thanks for continuing to pay fees  but only if they ask. The very rich may find asking a tad vulgar. Canny.

--

/ Getty Images

Blue Peters Konnie Huq tells us shes learned new lockdown skills while helping husband Charlie Brooker film Screenwipe. First, I had to follow an online tutorial and cut his hair as it was so bushy. Then we had to build the set in the front room. Next it was the autocue and powdering his nose. It was fun but a bit Fawlty Towers productions.

--

Corrie actress Sherrie Hewson is missing the beauty parlour. Where do those long hairs which appear on your chin come from? she writes in Yours magazine. I have nightmares Im going to wake up with a full beard. I had a dream that I had a moustache and met the gorgeous Tom Selleck. My moustache was bigger than his. Same Sherrie, same.

--

SW1A

Amy Hart

Yvette Cooper has a new reality TV fan (otherthan Strictly star husband Ed Balls, of course). Popular Love Island contestant Amy Hart watched Cooper grill Home Secretary Priti Patel in her role as chair of the home affairs select committee, and was impressed, tweeting: She should have beat Jeremy Corbyn, fact. Shes not wrong.

--

Kevan Jones / Getty Images

Last nights ambush on Chris Grayling, which saw Julian Lewis win the chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee but lose the Conservative whip, was plotted and executed by Labours Kevan Jones. Jones, MP for North Durham, has a fearsome reputation and harangued Liam Fox out as defence secretary. A Labour source told us, Thank God hes on our side.

--

Ace mask from Serena, and Nicola gives us her new barnet formula

How to adapt to a crisis: tennis player Serena Williams modelled the face masks she is selling as part of her fashion line Ace. Also wearing a particularly fetching mask was Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who shared this photo with her hairdresser Julie, calling it the sweetest reunion of all. The ultimate Barnett Formula. Meanwhile, actor Michael Sheen toured west London with his partner Anna Lundberg, and model Gigi Hadid showed off her blossoming baby bump for the first time on Instagram, while talking her followers through an art book. She is expecting with ex-One Direction singer Zayn Malik.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Algernon Pharmaceuticals Inc. (CSE: AGN) (FRANKFURT: AGW) (OTCQB: AGNPF) (the Company or Algernon) a clinical stage pharmaceutical development company, is pleased to announce that it has completed its clinical trial agreement with Westchester Research Center at Westchester General Hospital in Miami, Florida, for its multinational Phase 2b/3 human study of NP-120 (Ifenprodil) for COVID-19. The principal investigator is Dr. Aimee Gonzalez, MD. Ifenprodil is an NMDA receptor antagonist specifically targeting the NMDA-type subunit 2B.



The Company is planning to conduct a site initiation visit at Westchester General Hospital during the week of July 20, 2020 and enrolment of patients in the study can begin shortly thereafter.

The Company is in final contractual negotiations with 4 additional U.S. clinical sites. The Company has already received ethics approval from a central institutional review board for all of the U.S. study sites. The Company is also in the final stages of completing contractual negotiations and receiving ethics approval in Australia, Romania and the Philippines.

Of the 5 U.S. research institutions we have been working with, two are located in Florida where they have recently had a significant number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, said Christopher J. Moreau CEO of Algernon Pharmaceuticals. We look forward to working with Dr. Gonzalez and appreciate her work in helping to get the trial started at Westchester General as soon as possible.

Background

The Company announced on March 06, 2020 that it was going to explore Ifenprodil as a possible treatment for COVID-19 when it discovered an independent research study that showed the drug was active in an animal model for H5N1, the worlds most lethal avian flu, with an approximately 60% mortality rate in humans. In the study, Ifenprodil reduced mortality by 40% and reduced acute lung injury and inflammation in the lung tissue.

Story continues

Coupled with the Companys own animal data showing Ifenprodils reduction of lung fibrosis in two separate studies, the Company is investigating Ifenprodil to determine if it can reduce the severity and duration of a COVID infection.

Phase 2b/3 Study Protocol Summary

The Companys multinational Phase 2b/3 human trial for COVID-19 is entitled, "A Randomized Open Label Phase 2b/3 Study of the Safety and Efficacy of NP-120 (Ifenprodil) for the Treatment of Hospitalized Patients with Confirmed COVID-19 Disease."

The trial will begin as a Phase 2b study of an aggregate of 150 patients. With positive preliminary data, the clinical trial will move directly into a Phase 3 trial. The data will determine the number of expected patients needed to reach statistical significance in the Phase 3 trial.

Patients will be randomized in a one-to-one manner and will either be treated using an existing standard of care, or standard of care plus Ifenprodil 60 mg (taken as one 20 mg tablet three-times daily) for one arm or standard of care plus Ifenprodil 120 mg (taken as two 20 mg tablets three-times daily) for two weeks.

Over the testing period, doctors will observe whether there is an improvement in a number of secondary endpoints, including mortality, blood oxygen levels, time spent in intensive care and time to mechanical ventilation.

Trial Start Date

Enrollment of the 1st patient for the Phase 2b/3 study is expected before the end of July 2020. It is difficult to assess at this time what the enrollment rate for the study will be across all countries and all sites selected. After the study begins, the Company will make an assessment of the enrollment rate and will provide an update to the market on a projected completion date as well as when the data will be expected.

About NP-120 (Ifenprodil)

NP-120 (Ifenprodil) is an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist specifically targeting the NMDA-type subunit 2B (Glu2NB). Ifenprodil prevents glutamate signalling. The NMDA receptor is found on many tissues including lung cells, T-cells, and neutrophils.

The Company believes NP-120 can reduce the infiltration of neutrophils and T-cells into the lungs where they can release glutamate and cytokines respectively. The latter can result in the highly problematic cytokine storm that contributes to the loss of lung function and ultimately death as has been reported in COVID-19 infected patients.

About Algernon Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Algernon is a drug re-purposing company that investigates safe, already approved drugs for new disease applications, moving them efficiently and safely into new human trials, developing new formulations and seeking new regulatory approvals in global markets. Algernon specifically investigates compounds that have never been approved in the U.S. or Europe to avoid off label prescription writing.

Algernon has filed new intellectual property rights globally for NP-120 (Ifenprodil) for the treatment of respiratory diseases and is working to develop a proprietary injectable and slow release formulation.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Christopher J. Moreau

CEO

Algernon Pharmaceuticals Inc.

604.398.4175 ext 701

info@algernonpharmaceuticals.com

investors@algernonpharmaceuticals.com

www.algernonpharmaceuticals.com .

The CSE does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. The Canadian Securities Exchange has not in any way passed upon the merits of the proposed transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

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 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 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 Companys expectations include the failure to satisfy the conditions of the relevant securities exchange(s) 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 as expressly required by applicable law.
Russia, Wagner Group complicating Libyan ceasefire efforts

Verified photographic evidence shows indiscriminately placed booby-traps and minefields around the outskirts of Tripoli down to Sirte since mid-June.

By U.S. Africa Command Public Affairs , United States Africa Command Stuttgart, Germany Jul 15, 2020

U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has clear evidence that Russian employed, state-sponsored Wagner Group laid landmines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in and around Tripoli, further violating the United Nations arms embargo and endangering the lives of innocent Libyans.

Verified photographic evidence shows indiscriminately placed booby-traps and minefields around the outskirts of Tripoli down to Sirte since mid-June. These weapons are assessed to have been introduced into Libya by the Wagner Group.

"The Russian-state sponsored Wagner Group is demonstrating a total disregard for the safety and security of Libyans," said U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Bradford Gering, director of operations, U.S. Africa Command. "The Wagner Group's irresponsible tactics are prolonging conflict and are responsible for the needless suffering and the deaths of innocent civilians. Russia has the power to stop them, just not the will."

In late May, AFRICOM reported that at least 14 Mig-29s had been flown from Russia to Syria, where their Russian markings were painted over to camouflage their Russian origin. The aircraft were then flown into Libya, a violation of the United Nations arms embargo. AFRICOM assesses that the warplanes were being actively flown in Libyan airspace, further complicating the conflict in Libya and elevating the risk of miscalculation.

Russia's introduction of landmines, booby traps, attack aircraft, and their continued support of the 2,000-person strong Wagner Group in Libya changes the nature of the current conflict and intensifies the potential risk to non-combatants.

"Our intelligence reflects continued and unhelpful involvement by Russia and the Wagner Group," said Rear Admiral Heidi Berg, AFRICOM's director of intelligence. "Imagery and intelligence assessments show how Russia continues to interfere in Libyan affairs. Wagner Group's reckless use of landmines and booby-traps are harming innocent civilians."

Russia's use of PMCs in Libya is just part of a long history of using these non-state actors as tools of power projection. Russian-sponsored PMCs are active in sixteen countries across Africa.

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07/16/2020

Photo (c) Arnoldo Robert - Getty Images JetBlue and American Airlines are joining forces in a mutually beneficial partnership designed to offer seamless connectivity for travelers in the Northeastern U.S. and more choices for fliers across their complementary domestic and international networks.

You can add one more benefit to that for the companies -- taking a huge bite out of Delta and Uniteds business. Quantifiably, this marriage gives the airlines a 23 percent share of the market, nearly six points ahead of Delta and 10 points ahead of United.

What travelers will see

If all goes according to plan, travelers will be treated to three major benefits from the new partnership, including:

New and expanded routes: In the new scenario, American will launch international service from New Yorks JFK airport to Tel Aviv, Athens, and Rio De Janeiro on top of their current routes to London and Madrid. Meanwhile, JetBlue will take care of the other two New York airports, LaGuardia and Newark, and focus on East Coast, West Coast, and Southeast routes.With its fingers crossed, American Airlines said that once the COVID-19 pandemic ends, the partnership will be a boost for the company by virtue of adding new long-haul markets in Europe, Africa, India, and South America.

More destination choices and loyalty benefits: JetBlue and American will operate interdependent codeshare flights, giving travelers a greater array of schedules, competitive fares, and nonstop access to more destinations. The deal is particularly good for JetBlue, giving the airline connectivity to more U.S. destinations, a broad global network, and an improved frequent flyer proposition. American will complement JetBlues improved and expanded service with new international routes. For travelers who are looking for perks, the airlines promise loyalty members that they will enjoy new benefits and that the airlines are exploring additional premium experiences to offer customers.

Seamless experience: As you can imagine, interlacing the systems of two airlines could become a can of worms for consumers. American and JetBlue say theyre aware of that pitfall and will be doing all they can to create a seamless experience, including the ability to book a single itinerary on either website, convenient connections, and an improved on-the-ground experience.

This is an incredible opportunity for both of our airlines, said American Airlines President Robert Isom. American has a strong history in the Northeast, and were proud to partner with JetBlue as the latest chapter in that long history. Together, we can offer customers an industry-leading product in New York and Boston with more flights and more seats to more cities.
YEREVAN, Armenia - Fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces flared up again Thursday on the South Caucasus nations shared border, with both sides blaming the other for the attacks that extended the worst outbreak of hostilities between the two countries in years.

In a statement that reflected the potential for the conflicts escalation, Azerbaijan warned it could strike Armenias nuclear power plant if the Armenian forces launched an attack on a strategic water reservoir in Azerbaijan.

The Armenian side mustnt forget that the state-of-the-art missile systems our army has are capable of launching a precision strike on the Metsamor nuclear power plant, and that would be a huge tragedy for Armenia, Azerbaijani Defence Ministry spokesman Vagif Dargyakhly said in a statement.

The Soviet-built nuclear power plant is located close to Armenias border with Turkey, a close ally of Azerbaijan.

Armenian military spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan said Armenia had brought the Azerbaijani statement to the attention of its international partners and expects them to strongly condemn it. He noted that Armenian officials have never made threats to strike civilian facilities in Azerbaijan.

The two neighbours have been locked in conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan that has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a war there ended in 1994. International efforts to settle the conflict have stalled, and clashes have been frequent.

The latest outbreak of fighting in the northern section of the border began Sunday and so far has left at least 17 people dead. Azerbaijan said it lost 12 service members and one civilian, and Armenia said four of its troops were killed and 20 others were wounded.

Both sides also reported that dozens of enemy troops were killed, but the competing claims couldnt be independently verified.

The current outburst of fighting appears to be the most serious spike in hostilities since 2016 when scores were killed in four days of fighting.

After a lull in fighting on Wednesday, the conflict resumed with new vigour on Thursday. Armenias Defence Ministry said Azerbaijani forces launched a cross-border attack targeting its military positions early Thursday and were rebuffed.

Ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan said the Armenian military allowed Azerbaijan to collect the bodies of its soldiers killed during the raid, adding that Azerbaijani troops already had evacuated more than 10 bodies.

Stepanyan also asserted that the Azerbaijani military shelled several villages in Tavush province with heavy artillery.

Azerbaijans Defence Ministry dismissed the Armenian statement as a disinformation.

It said the Armenian military attacked Azerbaijani forces on Thursday morning, shelling several settlements with large-calibre weapons.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev fired his foreign minister Thursday, accusing him of failing to duly defend the nations interests amid the conflict.

Aliyev also lashed out at nationalist demonstrators who tried to break into the parliament building in the Azerbaijani capital earlier this week while demanding tougher action against Armenia. Seven police officers were injured during the incident.

He accused the leaders of the opposition Popular Front of Azerbaijan of inciting riots to destabilize Azerbaijani during the renewed fighting with Armenia and warned they could face criminal charges.

The United States and Russia, which co-chair the Minsk group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe that has tried to negotiate a settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, condemned the violence and called for restraint.

Turkey, which has close ethnic and cultural ties with Azerbaijan, has voiced strong support to Baku in the conflict. On Thursday, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar met with Azerbaijans deputy defence minister and air force commander, Ramiz Tahirov, in Ankara and condemned the vile attack on Azerbaijans Tovuz district.

They (Armenians) will be crushed and drown in this plot they have created and they will definitively pay for what they did, Akar said after the meeting. We will continue to stand with our Azerbaijani brothers in the face of such attacks, as we have always done.

___

Daria Litvinova and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed to this report.
PARIS, July 16 (Reuters) - Authorities ordered people to start wearing face masks in parts of the northwestern French region of Mayenne on Thursday after a rise of coronavirus infections there.

The Mayenne prefecture said masks would be compulsory in its main city Laval as well as five other municipalities - Bonchamp-les-Laval, Change, LHuisserie, Louverne and Saint-Berthevin.

"In Mayenne, the situation is problematic today", French health minister Olivier Veran told France Inter radio.

The announcement came ahead of a nationwide order making masks compulsory in all enclosed public spaces across France from Aug. 1.

Up to now, France has required people to wear face coverings on public transport and in public spaces where social distancing is not possible, but has not mandated the wearing of masks in shops.

(Reporting by Claude Chendjou; Writing by Matthieu Protard; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
Publishing veteran Megan Dobson returns to HarperCollins Christian Publishing to lead Zonderkidz as v-p and publisher, reporting to Laura Minchew, senior v-p of the childrens and gift group, the company announced Wednesday. The HCCP childrens division, which includes Zonderkidz and Tommy Nelson, is the largest faith-based childrens book imprint.

I am thrilled to have Megan join us in the role of Zonderkidz publisher, Minchew said in a statement. She has a passion for childrens books and will bring creativity and business acumen to the role. Megans experience in leading successful teams in both publishing and sales, and her extensive knowledge of HCCP, make her a perfect fit.

Dobson said it was an amazing privilege to join the Zonderkidz team in producing inspirational books that speak messages of hope, truth, and love to children and their families. She added: "I am excited to lead this team into the future while continuing our mission to inspire the world.

Dobson leaves behind a seven-month stint with RBmedia as publisher for ChristianAudio to rejoin HCCP, where she held key sales and publishing roles for nine years. Most recently, as associate publisher for the W imprint with Thomas Nelson, she edited works from authors including Lindsay Teague Moreno (Boss Up), Jess Ekstrom (Chasing the Bright Side), and Lisa Whittle (Jesus Over Everything), according a release from Zondervan.

Dobsons charge at Zonderkidz publisher includes driving operations, leading the financial side, acquiring new titles, and maximizing a rich backlist, including such childrens brands as The Jesus Storybook Bible and The Beginners Bible. She will be based in HCCPs Grand Rapids, Mich., office, where the Zonderkidz program is predominantly located, according to a company statement.
The World Health Organization raised the alarm Thursday about a growing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and warned of an imminent shortage of funds to fight the deadly disease.

The organization said that 56 cases have been reported in Equator Province, which is greater than the total number of cases recorded in the provinces last outbreak in 2018.

Efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic have complicated the response to the Ebola outbreak, according to Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the W.H.O.s regional director for Africa.

We must not let Covid-19 distract us from tackling other pressing health threats, Dr. Moeti said. The current Ebola outbreak is running into headwinds because cases are scattered across remote areas in dense rain forests.
NORTH HAVEN  A New Haven man was arrested and charged Wednesday after he allegedly fought with an officer and bit a bystander at Home Depot, according to North Haven police.

Hommy Lugo, 43, is charged with assault of a police officer, third-degree assault, interfering with an officer, criminal attempt to commit sixth-degree larceny, breach of peace and motor vehicle-related offenses, police said in a Facebook post.

Officers had responded to Home Depot on Universal Drive at approximately 2:15 p.m. for a report that a driver involved in a motor vehicle crash had parked there, officials said.

The first officer to arrive found an individual inside the store who matched the description provided by a witness, police said.

Upon approaching the suspect to detain him for further investigation, he pulled away from the officer and then actively fought with the officer, at one point placing him in a headlock, which our officer was quickly able to break free from, police alleged.

The suspect then attempted to flee the store, although the officer was able to grab the suspect from behind and prevent him from leaving, police said in the post. The officer took the suspect to the ground and was attempting to hold him until backup arrived, when several bystanders assisted the officer, who was still struggling with the suspect. During this time the suspect bit the arm of one of the bystanders assisting the officer.

Lugo was arrested and held in lieu of $100,000 bail, police said. His case did not appear in state online records as of Thursday afternoon.

In the Facebook post, police offered their gratitude to the people who helped the officer.

We would like to thank the bystanders who assisted our officer in controlling the suspect. This speaks volumes about the North Haven Community, police said.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
Azerbaijan, once again violating the agreement on a ceasefire and hostilities, is using combat UAVs, including in the direction of settlements, Armenian defense ministry spokesperson Shushan Stepanyan wrote on her Facebook.

"Azerbaijan, again, violating the agreement to hold the fire and stop military operations, employs combat UAVs, including in the direction of civilian settlements.

We WARN, that the number of dead bodies of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces from this morning is likely to drastically increase," she noted.
Ed and Jessica Hayter's Cool Muscle ($4.20) were much the best in Grand River Raceway's Wednesday (July 15) featured $11,500 Preferred 2-3 Handicap Trot, leading for the entirety of a 1:56 mile.

The six-year-old Muscle Mass gelding had no trouble clearing Its Huw You Know (Ed Hensley) on the first turn, and he travelled uncontested through a :58.3 first half before being engaged by Kameran Hanover (Doug McNair) early in the second circuit. After being nudged to three-quarters in 1:27, Cool Muscle scooted away on the far turn under minimal encouragement from Scott Coulter.

Cool Muscle quickly opened up a three-length lead nearing the eighth pole, and he extended his winning margin to a handy 3-1/2 lengths. Kameran Hanover finished an isolated second, and Whiskey Tax (Scott Young) knifed through at the pegs to narrowly claim third.

The featured tally was Cool Muscle's second in four tries this season  all at Grand River  and the 12th of his career. His 1:56 mile equalled the track record for older trotting geldings, tying Stormont Lancelot's previously held mark.

A pair of Ontario Prospect Series events for rookie pacing fillies took place on the undercard.

In the $7,000 first division, Carnival Heart ($7.20) dominated in her career debut, parrying a stout challenge up the backstretch from 3-4 favourite Allmylovin Hanover before powering to a 9-1/4-length win in 1:57.4. J.B. Renaud drove the daughter of Big Jim and Yankeelicious for Julie Walker, Dr. Terry Fried and Darlene Carr.

Also debuting, Century Havana ($3.00) prevailed as the twos-on favourite in the $7,100 second split, rating soft sectionals of 1:00.3 and 1:31.1 before staving off a two-pronged challenge from Reinspired and Prettyinclined to win by a diminishing half length in 2:00. Doug McNair drove the Control The Moment-Mowet Blue Chip filly for trainer Jim Ritchie and owner Paul Ritchie.

To view Wednesday's complete results, click the following link: Wednesday Results  Grand River Raceway.
One of the senior-most IAS officers in the state and former secretary to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, M Shivashankar, was suspended from service pending inquiry on Thursday.

The move comes in the backdrop of his questioning by the customs department in the 30kg gold smuggling case that has created a furore in the state. Shivashnakr allegedly had close links with two of the main accused in the case -- Swapna Suresh and Sarith Kumar.

The suspension was announced by CM Pinarayi Vijayan at a press meet in Thiruvananthapuram. Sivasankar was removed as the principal secretary to the chief minister and IT secretary after reports of his alleged links with the accused in the case emerged.

A high-level panel headed by Chief Secretary Dr Vishwas Mehta had been directed by the government to look into the allegations and submit thereport in three days.

The report was submitted to the government this evening following which the action was taken. The committee had found that Sivasankar had violated All India Service Rules, Vijayan said, adding departmental level inquiry was on.

The government action comes two day after customs officials had grilled Sivasankar for nearly nine hours in connection with the case.

The opposition Congress and BJP on Wednesday had stepped up their attack on the Left front government and demanded his suspension.

(With inputs from PTI)
Russian hackers are trying to steal research on COVID-19 vaccines, according to intelligence services in the US, UK and Canada, The National Security Agency (NSA) said a group that has been linked to Russian intelligence has targeted health care organizations in the three countries.

The group  which is known as APT29, Cozy Bear or The Dukes  is using malware and spear-phishing attacks, according to a joint advisory from the NSA, the Department of Homeland Securitys Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the UKs National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) and Canadas Communications Security Establishment. The latter two also published guidance to help health care organizations beef up their systems defenses.

It is completely unacceptable that the Russian Intelligence Services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic, Dominic Raab, the UKs foreign secretary, said in a statement. While others pursue their selfish interests with reckless behavior, the UK and its allies are getting on with the hard work of finding a vaccine and protecting global health.

If the name Cozy Bear sounds familiar, thats perhaps because the group was previously linked to a successful phishing attack on Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta in 2016. Those hackers have also been accused of targeting the Democratic National Committee, thinktanks, law enforcement and other organizations.

Russia isnt the only country said to be complicit in attacks on health care organizations and pharmaceutical firms. In April, the US accused Chinese hackers of trying to steal vaccine research. It emerged last month that similar attacks had taken place against the UK's National Health Service. At the time, the countrys GCHQ security and intelligence agency reportedly suspected that China was involved.
$1 million global grand prize to be awarded this winter

As part of its first-ever virtual challenge, Ingram Micro Cloud announced Alsid (Paris, France), apoQlar (Hamburg, Germany) and Balbix (San Jose, California) as the global finalists for the company's 2020 Comet Competition, a worldwide search for the most innovative business-to-business (B2B) software startup.

This year's competition saw over 4,000 applicants from over 20 countries, vying for the opportunity to showcase their innovations that can revolutionize the cloud ecosystem. The Comet Competition plays an integral role in Ingram Micro Cloud's mission to accelerate innovation and empower today's problem solvers in conquering tomorrow's biggest business challenges.

The solutions offered by the finalists have been deemed transformational by the Ingram Micro Cloud team, each demonstrating great potential to drive future cloud success for reseller partners within the Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace. These finalists advance to the final round of competition judging, where they will compete for the $1 million global grand prize to be awarded later this year.

"The Comet Competition is a dream opportunity for us, and we're proud to have reached the finals," said Emmanuel Gras, co-founder and CEO, Alsid. "Being part of Ingram Micro Cloud ecosystem enables us to quickly scale globally to deliver our cloud-native technology to enterprises of all sizes."

"Participating in the Comet Competition provided us with local and international exposure," said Sirko Pelzl, CEO, apoQlar. "A great advantage of the Ingram Micro Cloud ecosystem is the company's worldwide sales and service support for our customers."

"The Comet Competition has given us amazing visibility and increased awareness," said Chris Griffith, VP of business development and alliances, Balbix. "Ingram Micro Cloud allows us to quickly and cost-effectively reach thousands of cloud-ready partners, something we couldn't easily do on our own."

"These three finalists truly represent the best of the best in go-to-market innovation," said Michael Kenney, vice president of strategy and corporate development, Ingram Micro Cloud. "As industry leaders, we at Ingram Micro Cloud are thrilled to be part of their story."

Kenney will be speaking with Jeffrey Ma, general manager of Microsoft for Startups, during the Microsoft Inspire virtual partner event on how the Microsoft startup ecosystem can drive profitability for partners. The digital session will take place on Thursday, July 23, from 5:15-5:45 a.m. PDT.

The Comet Competition is supported in part by Microsoft as part of a partnership between Microsoft's Microsoft for Startups group and Ingram Micro Cloud.

About Alsid

Alsid was founded in 2016 by Luc Delsalle and Emmanuel Gras. They decided to start a company while they were security experts and colleagues working for Government entity ANSSI, the French National Cybersecurity Agency that ensures the security of French critical infrastructures. Alsid was born out of their extensive experience in mitigating and remediating the threats that targeted large companies, and more specifically Active Directory, which was vulnerable to attacks.

About apoQlar

apoQlar develops a medical software based on mixed reality and artificial intelligence, which supports physicians during surgeries and preparations, patient education, telesurgery, holoportation in order to make processes in hospitals safer and faster.

About Balbix

Balbix is the world's first cybersecurity platform to leverage specialized AI to provide real-time visibility into an organization's breach risk. The Balbix system predicts where and how breaches are likely to happen, prescribes prioritized mitigating actions, and enables workflows to address the underlying security issues. By using Balbix, CISOs and CIOs transform their organization's cybersecurity posture, reducing cyber risk by 95% or more, while making security teams 10 times more efficient. Balbix counts many Global 1000 companies among its rapidly growing customer base and was named a "Cool Vendor" by Gartner in 2018. For more information, visit www.balbix.com.

About Ingram Micro Cloud

Ingram Micro Cloud brings together innovators and problems solvers to help the world accomplish more. It facilitates and manages the cloud's complex digital value chain-all powered by CloudBlue technology. Ingram Micro Cloud operates in 64 countries with over 55,000 reseller partners, and its Cloud Marketplace serves 6.5 million seats, offering more than 120 cloud solutions. With unmatched global reach, easy access to automated go-to-market and integration tools, deep technical expertise, and a curated selection of scalable SaaS and IaaS solutions, Ingram Micro Cloud helps vendors, resellers and managed service providers by offering More as a Service. Detailed information is available at www.IngramMicroCloud.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200716005928/en/

Contacts:

Global Media Contact:

David Yang

Ingram Micro Cloud

714-382-3357

david.yang@ingrammicro.com
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo downplayed the possibility of another summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un before the US presidential election, saying Trump would only want to engage if there were real prospects of progress.

Pompeos comments during a forum in Washington on Wednesday followed repeated North Korean statements insisting it would no longer gift Trump high-profile meetings he could boast as foreign policy achievements when its not being substantially rewarded in return.

The North Koreans have given mixed signals, but the truth is President Trump only wants to engage in a summit if we believe theres a sufficient likelihood that we can make real progress in achieving the outcomes that were set forth in Singapore, Pompeo said during the event hosted by The Hill, referring to the first Trump-Kim summit in June 2018.

You need to have a willing partner, and the North Koreans have chosen at this point in time not to engage in a way that can lead to a potential solution. We hope theyll change their mind.

Trump and Kim have met three times since embarking on high-stakes nuclear diplomacy in 2018, beginning with their meeting in Singapore where they issued vague vows for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula without describing when and how it would occur.

But negotiations have faltered since their second summit in February 2019, where the Americans rejected North Korean demands for major sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of its nuclear capability.

Some analysts believe North Korea will avoid serious talks with the Americans for now before attempting an eventual return to negotiations after the US election in November. They say North Korea likely doesnt want to make any major commitments or concessions when there is a chance US leadership could change.

But others say another Trump-Kim meeting wouldnt be impossible. Trump could opt for something dramatic to improve his sliding poll numbers while Kim could see a window of opportunity closing with a Trump presidency and attempt a quick exchange between reversible denuclearization steps and hard-to-reverse sanctions relief.

In a statement last week, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of the North Korean leader, said she doesnt expect another summit with the United States this year, insisting that such a meeting would be unpractical for the North.

But she also said you never know, saying that a meeting would depend on the determination of the two leaders, and called for major concessions from Washington to keep alive the nuclear diplomacy.

The prolonged stalemate in nuclear talks have raised doubts on whether Kim Jong Un would ever agree to fully relinquish the nukes he likely sees as his strongest guarantee of survival. Some experts see him as trying to shape the diplomacy as an arms reduction negotiation between nuclear states rather than talks that would culminate in a surrender of his nuclear program.
Beijing Denounces US 'Hong Kong Autonomy Act', Vows to Retaliate With Sanctions

Sputnik News

02:01 GMT 15.07.2020(updated 02:59 GMT 15.07.2020)

Earlier on Tuesday, Trump signed legislation to suspend US preferential treatment for Hong Kong and envisaged sanctions against Chinese officials responsible for the implementation of the new Hong Kong national security law.

Beijing has voiced its strong opposition to the Hong Kong Autonomy Act signed earlier by US President Donald Trump and has expressed its intention to respond with sanctions against relevant US officials, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry of China.

"The US law maliciously decries the Hong Kong National Security Act, it includes threats to impose sanctions on China, gravely violates international law and basic rules of international relations, is a gross interference in Hong Kong's and China's internal affairs. The Chinese government strongly condemns this," the ministry said in a statement.

According to the statement, Beijing calls on the United States "to fix its mistakes and to not enact the so-called Hong Kong Autonomy Act, to stop any interference in China's internal affairs, including in Hong Kong's". However, if the United States stands its ground, China will take countermeasures.

The statement stressed that US attempts to hinder the implementation of the new security law are "doomed to failure", vowing to counter any foreign meddling by the US in Hong Kong's affairs.

"Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China, Hong Kong's affairs are exclusively internal affairs of China, no foreign country has the right to intervene. China is unwavering in its determination and will to protect national sovereignty and security, to ensure the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong, as well as to resist the external forces' intervention in Hong Kong's internal affairs," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

The statement responded to recently signed US legislation that ends Washington's preferential status for Hong Kong and punishes China for "repressive actions" towards the residents of the city.

The so-called 'Hong Kong Autonomy Act' envisages sanctions against "foreign individuals and entities that materially contribute to China's failure to preserve Hong Kong's autonomy".

Beijing has, however, repeatedly stressed that the new Hong Kong national security law was imposed to fight what China characterized as subversive and terrorist actions in the city and does not undermine the liberties of its residents.

A Sputnik

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The Tribune reported in April that Madigan, who has not been accused of wrongdoing, paid nearly $462,000 in legal fees during the first three months of this year alone. Then came a report from the Better Government Association that former Senate President John Cullerton, right before he left office in January, transferred $92,000 in Senate campaign money to two senators facing indictments for alleged corruption, Sen. Tom Cullerton, D-Villa Park, a distant cousin, and former Sen. Martin Sandoval, D-Chicago. Both Tom Cullerton and Sandoval then made payments to their attorneys, the BGA reported. Sandoval has admitted he took bribes. Tom Cullerton has pleaded not guilty.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 11:17:04|Editor: huaxia

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LONDON, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Britain is retreating from a "major global player" as it bows to U.S. pressure to ban Chinese technology company Huawei's involvement in the country's 5G networks, a British expert has said.

"On the Huawei question ... I think that Britain is retreating from the notion of itself as a major global player," British scholar and political commentator Martin Jacques told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The British government announced Tuesday that buying new Huawei 5G equipment will be banned after Dec. 31, 2020, and all Huawei equipment will be removed from the country's 5G networks by the end of 2027.

"We turn our back on Huawei, one of the world's most innovative and important companies, and its 5G technology that is crucial to our future," said the scholar, adding that Britain "rips out all its technology in an extraordinary act of national self-harm."

Jacques, senior fellow at the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge, believes Britain has been in the process of "withdrawing from the world."

"The most graphic example of this is, of course, pulling out of the European Union (EU)," he added.

NO FUTURE WITHOUT CHINA

"We left the EU, our biggest trading partner," Jacques said, and now Britain shows growing estrangement from China, the second largest economy in the world.

"The UK has no future without China," he said, noting that China is the crucial player in the global economy and "that will be true on a far greater scale in future."

The scholar also pointed out that China has been responsible for about one third of global economic growth for years.

He recalled the "Golden Era" relationship between Britain and China which has been promoted by the former British government led by David Cameron as prime minister and George Osborne as chancellor of the exchequer since 2015.

"Osborne, in particular, understood the importance of China, understood the rise of China and respected China," he said, "so Britain did something remarkable in this period."

BOWING TO U.S. PRESSURE

Looking at the current situation, Jacques believes Britain's Huawei policy is under the pressure of the United States.

He argued that the United States believes China is a threat to American hegemony in the world, and therefore it needs to be stopped.

"A trade war, the attack on Huawei, the attack on Chinese innovation, accusations of cheating and all the rest of it," he said, "I think that the COVID-19 (pandemic), they thought, was a great opportunity to attack China and to accuse it of all these things."

"In reality, of course, it completely backfired," the expert said.

He explained that while China handles the COVID-19 pandemic "very well," some western countries' performance on it has been "dreadful."

"The most scandalous example is what's happening in America. They've absolutely failed to control it," he added.

"It's been quite a disgraceful episode, in my view, in the criticisms of China (on COVID-19 pandemic)," Jacques said. Enditem
Fashion labels have raised eyebrows by reviving a provocative style of jeans with gaping rips slashed beneath each cheek to expose a generous glimpse of the wearer's backside.

'Peekaboo' pants, first worn by Kylie Jenner in August 2016, have a classic high-waisted silhouette from the front - but the rear tells a very different story.

The 'cheeky' tailoring sees designers ladders, slash vertical and horizontal slits and huge chunks from the area around the back pockets of the trousers.

Catwalk megastars and in-demand influencers are fans, with Victoria's Secret models Bella Hadid and Stella Maxwell and fitness queen Tammy Hembrow all rocking 'booty-baring' designs over the past four years.

Australian online store White Fox Boutique today restocked its best-selling $89.95 (AUD) 'What Goes Around' boyfriend jeans, torn with a slit under the right side of the derriere.

Scroll down for video

British influencer Jess Hunt wears the newly restocked 'What Goes Around' jeans from Australian label White Fox Boutique, slashed beneath the right back pocket

Where it all began: Kylie Jenner wears the 'booty baring' jeans that spawned the trend in August 2016

'Peekaboo' pants first hit headlines in August 2016 when a then 18-year-old Kylie Jenner posted a series of Instagram photos wearing dark-wash jeans that exposed much of her behind.

'If fashion is a game of who can wear the least, [Jenner] has already won', online magazine Elite Daily printed at the time.

The cosmetics mogul carried a $3,500 Gucci bag in the photos but did not specify what brand her eye-popping jeans were from.

Like all 'KarJenner' endorsements, Kylie's jeans spawned dozens of YouTube tutorials on fashioning rear end rips at home and countless copycat designs from fast fashion labels.

American fashion lovers pose in 'peekaboo pants' in an Instagram photo uploaded on July 12, 2020

The jeans have a classic high-waisted silhouette from the front (left) but tell a different story from behind (right) with strategic rips around the bottom

Poll Would you wear 'peekaboo pants'? Yes No Would you wear 'peekaboo pants'? Yes 23 votes

No 80 votes Now share your opinion





PrettyLittleThing piggybacked on Kylie's post in 2018 by releasing $72 (AUD) 'Bum Rip Skinny Jeans' in black and blue denim.

The pants, slashed with gaping rips across the bottom of the backside, quickly sold out in almost every size.

They have since been replaced with the more refined 'Bum Rip Mum Jeans', currently reduced to $49 (AUD), which come with a smaller slit lower down the back of the leg.

Similar styles are now available from some of Australia's top denim brands, with Ksubi, Revice and One Teaspoon - the New South Wales label beloved by Beyonce - all selling different takes on the trend.

And it's not the first piece of scandalous clothing that's been resurrected this year.



Too much skin? PrettyLittleThing's $72 (AUD) 'Bum Rip Skinny Jeans' in black (left) and blue denim (right) which flew out of stock after launching in 2018

A Revice denim customer wears the design with a white strap top and chunky white trainers

Why fashion insiders swear by tailoring their jeans Most women take blazers, suits and dresses to be tailored without a second thought, but denim is not usually awarded the same treatment. But fashion icons and Hollywood legends have been tailoring their jeans for years to achieve the perfect fit Back in 2014, Kim Kardashian West famously paid stylist Los Angeles Cornelius Clay the princely sum of $5,960 AUD a day to alter her denim whenever she needed. Thankfully, tailoring for mere mortals is decidedly more affordable, with a basic hem turn-up costing around $15 AUD and more dramatic structural changes to the legs or waistline running up to $100 AUD. Here's what you should remember before buying or tailoring jeans. 1. Tailors are not miracle workers It's important to remember that tailors are not miracle workers. They can fix a lot when it comes to jeans, but not everything. The rise - where the waistband sits on your body - the hips and the crotch are three notoriously difficult areas for a tailor to alter, something you should keep in mind when you're shopping for your next pair. Changing the length of the fabric and slimming the legs of the jeans are both easily done. 2. Wash denim inside out in cold water Before taking denim to a tailor, was the fabric inside out a few times in cold water and leave it to air dry. This prevents your jeans from shrinking in the future after you've gone to the trouble and expense of having them tailored. 3. Bring shoes to the alteration Particularly if you want to shorten your jeans. Wear the shoes you plan to wear most with the jeans to help the tailor mark the right length to alter. Source: StyleCaster Advertisement

In May, shoppers slammed the comeback of tiny bikinis held together with clear plastic straps, branding the swimwear 'uncomfortable', impractical and 'insane'.

The style, first worn by Kylie's eldest half-sister Kourtney Kardashian in 2018 and recently revived by US clothing label Fashion Nova, involves small pieces of spandex stitched with transparent string, which creates the illusion of wearing nothing but strategic patches over the breasts and crotch.

Models and influencers are fans of the eye-popping trend, with Australian fitness sensation Tammy Hembrow and British reality star Chloe Ferry both posing in neon green designs during isolation in April.

But despite that celebrity endorsement, consumers aren't impressed, with one woman demanding to know how the fabric says in place to protect modesty under an Instagram photo of a model wearing the style.

Would you dare to bare? Canadian fitness model Amanda Elise Lee wears the $61 'Clear Skies' plastic strap bikini from Fashion Nova on March 4, 2020

Peas in a pod: Australian fitness queen Tammy Hembrow (left) wears a lime green plastic strap bikini at her home on the Gold Coast in Queensland on April 6, 2020 and British reality star Chloe Ferry (right) poses in a PVC clear strap bikini in isolation on April 11, 2020

Others said it looked 'flimsy' and 'uncomfortable' on photos shared to Fashion Nova's official account.

'What's the point in even wearing that?' one person asked.

'Super super cute but I would rip this in two seconds,' said another.

For Australians brave enough, clear strap bikinis are now available to order from Meshki, Fashion Nova, PrettyLittleThing, Missguided and OhPolly.
Loews Kansas City Hotel reveals dining, bar concepts - Kansas City Business Journal Loews Kansas City Hotel revealed the details Wednesday for its bar and restaurant concepts, including Bar Stilwell, which "takes bar food to a new level." Located on the first floor, Bar Stilwell gives patrons coveted views of Kansas City with floor-to-ceiling windows and access to an outdoor patio with fire pits.

The link tease is good enough but after the jump subscribers can learn about tasty new dishes that tourists can enjoy amid sketchy coronavirus travels . . . Checkit:
Jeffrey Epstein's 'madam' Ghislaine Maxwell is secretly married, US prosecutors revealed yesterday, and an acquaintance of hers has speculated that she may have tied the knot secretly to 'protect' her $10 million fortune.

Maxwell, who is accused of enabling Epstein's sex trafficking of minor girls and facing Federal charges in Manhattan, has refused to name her mystery spouse, US prosecutors have said.

According to The Times, the acquaintance believes Maxwell secretly married to 'to protect the money she had'.

Maxwell is believed to be worth around $10 million and living off an $80,000-a-year trust fund set up by her father - Robert Maxwell.

The source also said when they last met two years ago, Maxwell looked different to how she normally did.

'She had grey hair. She was actually plump which normally shes not,' the source told the newspaper. 'I asked her where she was living and she wouldnt tell me. She said, "A little bit of everywhere."'

Jeffrey Epstein's 'madam' Ghislaine Maxwell is secretly married but refuses to say who to, US prosecutors have said as she is denied bail

Last summer, DailyMail.com previously tracked down Maxwell living in Manchester-by-the-Sea at a home owned by her tech CEO lover Scott Borgerson. It is unclear if the man who toured the New Hampshire home with Maxwell was Borgerson (pictured right last summer in Boston with Ghislaine's dog)

Prior to the revelation in court, there had been no previous suggestions that she had been married, with the attention focused on her romantic relationship with Epstein in the mid-1990s, when the alleged grooming is said to have taken place.

Last summer, however, DailyMail.com tracked down Maxwell in Manchester-by-the-Sea, living at a $2 million home owned by her tech CEO lover Scott Borgerson.

A former friend of the British socialite said yesterday that 'No one knew she was married', but confirmed that she had been in a relationship with Borgerson for a while. 'I dont know of any other guy who she has actually seen,' the friend said according to The Times.

Another of Maxwell's associates added that it would come as a huge surprise if Maxwell was married, The Telegraph reported, saying 'She never told anyone she was married. We always thought she would remain single.'

The shock disclosure that Maxwell is married came as dead billionaire Epstein's ex-girlfriend pleaded not guilty via video link to charges related to his sex trafficking ring on Tuesday.

Ghislaine Maxwell cried as she was denied bail on Tuesday and learned she must stay locked up until her trial next summer, as Jeffrey Epstein's accused madam pleaded not guilty to the sex trafficking charges brought against her

Maxwell is accused of grooming girls as young as 14 for Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 1997, a period when she was his girlfriend. She faces up to 35 years in prison if found guilty of the charges, as prosecutors successfully argued that along with her three passports, connections to some of the world's most powerful people and her own fortune of more than $10 million - Maxwell had every incentive to try and flee

Maxwell is currently in custody in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn (pictured) where she is wearing paper clothes to ensure she doesn't kill herself

Ghislaine Maxwell's $1M hideaway was protected by ex-British soldier recruited by one of her brothers Ghislaine Maxwell was guarded by former members of the British army while on the run from police, a New York court was told. The wealthy socialite, 58, was said to have had the bodyguards at the New Hampshire property where she was arrested by the FBI two weeks ago. Papers filed for the case say a security guard at the mansion told investigators one of her brothers had hired the highly-trained personnel. One guard had her credit card to go and buy her supplies so she did not have to leave the house. Maxwell's brothers Ian, 64, and Kevin, 61, (pictured left and right) refused to answer questions about who paid for the protection detail. They are closer to her than older sibling Philip, 71, who has avoided the spotlight for many years Maxwell's brothers Kevin, 61, and Ian, 64, yesterday refused to answer questions about who paid for the protection detail, according to The Times. They are closer to her than older sibling Philip, 71, who has avoided the spotlight for many years. Kevin and Ian have many contacts in the security world after setting up a think tank in 2018 called Combating Jihadist Terrorism and Extremism. It features Ian on its website as a director and publicly available Companies House data show feature its most recent accounts, which show liabilities of some 116,514. The New York court papers on Maxwell's case stated of her arrest: 'The FBI spoke with the security guard, who informed the agents that the defendant's brother had hired a security company staffed with former members of the British military to guard the defendant in rotations. Advertisement

Maxwell's marriage was disclosed by US Attorney Alison Moe, one of three prosecutors on the case, at the detention hearing.

She spoke about the lack of transparency in Maxwell's filings and asked who would co-sign her bond if she was given bail, saying Maxwell 'makes no mention whatsoever about the financial circumstances or assets of her spouse whose identity she declined to provide to Pretrial Services.'

Moe said: 'In addition to failing to describe in any way the absence of proposed cosigners of a bond, the defendant also makes no mention whatsoever about the financial circumstances or assets of her spouse whose identity she declined to provide to Pretrial Services. There's no information about who will be co-signing this bond or their assets, and no details whatsoever.'

She did not say who she believed Maxwell's spouse was or give any indication as to how long they had been married.

A source told ABC News disclosure of the marriage was intended to show the judge Maxwell has not been that forthcoming about her circumstances and finances.

The only other mention made of Maxwell being married is when Moe revealed the socialite had toured her $1 million hideaway in Bradford, New Hampshire with an unknown man in November 2019.

Moe said a real estate agent described the pair as a couple, giving their names as Scott and Janet or Jen Marshall.

There is a discrepancy in Maxwell's alias, as Moe referred to the alias as both Jen and Janet during the hearing.

The real estate agent said she only realized later that the woman was Maxwell.

Moe said: 'The real estate agent told the FBI agent the buyers for the house introduced themselves as Scott and Janet Marshall. Both had British accents.

'Scott Marshall told her he was retired from the British military and was currently working on a book. Janet Marshall described herself as a journalist.'

It is unclear if the man who toured the New Hampshire home with Maxwell was Scott Borgerson, whose shipping technology firm, Cargometrics, was valued at more than $100 million in 2016, according to the Financial Times.

Borgerson is believed to have met Maxwell six years ago through speaking engagements connected to ocean preservation.

They both were pictured speaking at the Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavik in 2014.

On the morning Maxwell was arrested, her lawyer Mark Cohen said his client was in her pajamas, 'with one security guard.... two people in the house.'

Prosecutor Moe added: 'She is good at living under an assumed identity. There really can be no question that she can live in hiding.'

Records also revealed Maxwell's $1 million was purchased by a company that reportedly has ties to Borgerson.

The buyer is listed as Granite Reality LLC - a mysterious corporation that was set up just weeks prior the purchase.

The Sun reports that Granite Reality LLC is managed by Boston lawyer, Jeffrey W. Roberts, who is also the registered agent of a second company, Hopely Yealton.

Curiously, the publication reports that the manager of Hopely Yealton is Borgerson.

Prosecutor Allison Moe said when Maxwell bought her $1 million Bradford, New Hampshire home (pictured), she toured the home back in November of 2019 using the alias of Janet Marshall and claimed to the real estate agent that she worked as a journalist

During the two hour and 20 minute hearing at Manhattan's Federal Court, Maxwell appeared via video from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. She was wearing a dark brown prison issue top and her dark hair was far longer than in the past - she reportedly has not had a haircut in a year - and was swept behind her head in a bun

The 58-year-old wiped tears away and hung her head as she learned her fate, wearing a prison-issued brown top and with her normally short hair now long and swept back into a bun, appearing via video link.

Judge Alison Nathan denied Maxwell's proposal of a $5 million bond co-signed by two of her sisters and backed up by more than $3.75 million in property in the UK.

Maxwell's legal team had argued she would be confined to a 'luxury hotel' in the New York area, surrender all her travel documents and be subject to GPS monitoring.

But Judge Nathan ruled the British socialite was a significant flight risk, citing her 'substantial international' ties and 'extraordinary financial resources', setting an anticipated trial date for July 12, 2021.

Maxwell is accused of grooming girls as young as 14 for Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 1997, a period when she was his girlfriend.

She faces up to 35 years in prison if found guilty of the charges, as prosecutors successfully argued that along with her three passports, connections to some of the world's most powerful people and her own fortune of more than $10million - Maxwell had every incentive to try and flee.

Maxwell will now return to the fortress-like Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn where she has been given paper clothes to ensure she doesn't kill herself.

Maxwell is being closely watched as the Department of Justice wants to ensure she does not kill herself like Epstein, who hanged himself last August while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

It wasn't until Judge Nathan began reading her decision that Maxwell finally broke down. She began moving uneasily in her chair as the judge said the evidence against her was 'strong'. When Judge Nathan said a 'combination of factors' showed she had the 'motive and opportunity' to flee before her trial, Maxwell wiped a tear away

Victim Annie Farmer (pictured) also spoke at the hearing, detailing how she met Maxwell when she was 16 years old. Farmer has previously gone on record with her claims against Maxwell

During the two hour and 20 minute hearing at Manhattan's Federal Court, Maxwell appeared via video from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

The small room she was in had white walls, a white bed, a window with frosted glass and a door at the back.

She was wearing a dark brown prison issued top and her dark hair was far longer than in the past - she reportedly has not had a haircut in a year - and was swept behind her head in a bun.

At the start of the hearing, Maxwell rested her elbows on a table in front of the camera and put her head on her hands.

She appeared nervous and pensive and kept looking from side to side, as she leaned into the camera.

Maxwell briefly spoke and only to confirm she could hear the judge and to enter her plea by saying: 'Not guilty, your honor'.

Her demeanor changed when prosecutor Alison Moe began outlining the allegations against her, sitting back in her chair and bowing her head when Moe accused her of 'sexual abuse of minors'.

With every allegation, Maxwell either scratched her face or moved her hair, but was emotionless as victim impact statements were read aloud.

It wasn't until Judge Nathan started reading her decision that Maxwell finally broke down. She began moving uneasily in her chair as the judge said the evidence against her was 'strong'.

MAXWELL'S LEGAL TEAM: Pictured l-r: Jeffrey S. Pagliuca,Christian R Everdell, Laura A. Menninger and Mark Cohen. In their filings to the court Maxwell's lawyers had argued that she is at increased risk of catching the coronavirus whilst in prison. They claim that the restrictions on access to her lawyers caused by the pandemic would mean it was impossible for her to get a fair trial

Also on the case is (l-r) Alex Rossmiller, Alison Moe and Maurene Comey, James Comey's daughter

Pictured: Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Audrey Strauss speaks during a news conference to announce charges against Ghislaine Maxwell

When Judge Nathan said a 'combination of factors' showed she had the 'motive and opportunity' to flee before her trial, Maxwell wiped a tear away.

The second tear fell as the judge said Maxwell was 'sophisticated at hiding her financial resources'.

For the rest of the decision, Maxwell rested her head in her hands as she had done at the start of the hearing.

Maxwell sat though prosecutors detailing how she was 'skilled at living in hiding' and as two victims argued she was a flight risk, with one writing: 'Without Ghislaine, Jeffrey couldn't have done what he did. She is a predator and a monster.'

Prosecutors argued against Maxwell being granted bail, citing that due to holding both French and British passports, she has the ability to 'live beyond the reach of extradition indefinitely'.

Moe also read out a victim impact statement from a woman identified as Jane Doe, who also made the case that Maxwell was a flight risk.

The victim said she knew Maxwell for 10 years and the socialite intended to 'deliver' her to Epstein, all the while knowing the 'heinous dehumanization that awaited me'.

The woman claimed Maxwell 'was in charge' and 'egged' Epstein on.

She described Maxwell as 'sociopathic' and said she would 'have done anything to get what she wanted - to satisfy Jeffrey Epstein'.

The victim added that 'if [Maxwell] is out, I need to be protected', citing a phone call she received in the middle of the night threatening her two-year-old child.

Annie Farmer also spoke at the hearing, detailing how she met Maxwell when she was 16 years old. Farmer has previously gone on record with her claims against Maxwell.

She said Maxwell 'has never shown any remorse [and] tormented her survivors... She has associates across the globe, some of great means.'

Maxwell's mugshot has not been released by the federal authorities and the hearing offered the first chance to see her in at least a year. Maxwell's whereabouts had largely been unknown since Epstein's arrest last July. Although DailyMail.com tracked her down to the New England coast last summer, she vanished again, later popping up in a photo at an In-N-Out in Los Angeles

Maxwell was romantically involved with Jeffrey Epstein from around 1992, but then became his 'right-hand woman', managing his property empire and, it is alleged, his trafficking of minors

Maxwell's attorney Mark Cohen tried to argue his client was not a flight risk, claiming she has community ties and is 'part of a very large and close family'.

He said: 'Our client is not Jeffrey Epstein, and she has been the target of endless media spin', leading prosecutor Moe to later shoot back: 'These are the facts. It is not dirt, it is not spin, it is evidence to the court.'

Cohen claimed Maxwell had received numerous threats and denied she had refused to open her front door to the FBI when they raided her home on July 2.

He claimed her front door was unlocked, the windows were open and she had 'surrendered' to the agents.

Addressing reports that Maxwell had wrapped her mobile phone in tin foil, which prosecutors called a 'seemingly misguided effort to evade detection' by law enforcement, Cohen claimed her phone had been hacked and she had to preserve the phone as evidence.

Cohen went above the issue of Maxwell being a flight risk to complain that the charges against her are from 25 years ago, calling the indictment 'an effort to dance around' the controversial non-prosecution sweetheart deal Epstein and his associates received in Florida in 2007.

With her bail now denied, Maxwell will return to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Journalists had started lining up outside the federal court in downtown Manhattan at 6am to get a seat inside the courtroom.

They were allowed in at 11.45am and had to stand 6ft apart while they waited to ensure social distancing.

The hearing took place in the jury assembly room which normally has space for hundreds of people but had a dramatically reduced capacity of just 60 due to the coronavirus.

A dial-in phone line allowed 1,000 more people to listen in - the capacity was increased from 500 due to world-wide interest.

Inside the room there were two projector screens, which showed the proceedings live.

All parties, including the judge, appeared remotely and no one was physically in court.

Maxwell's lawyer was visible at all times in a box on the screen. Maxwell had her own box, the judge had one and the prosecutors had another.

Maxwell's mugshot has not been released by the federal authorities and the hearing offered the first chance to see her in at least a year.

Maxwell's whereabouts had largely been unknown since Epstein's arrest last July.

Although DailyMail.com tracked her down to the New England coast last summer, she vanished again, later popping up in a photo at an In-N-Out in Los Angeles.

The FBI managed to finally trace her down in the quiet and rural town of Bradford, New Hampshire earlier this month, where she had been living since December.



Officials said her conduct during the 8.30am raid at the property called 'Tuckedaway' was 'troubling'.

They wrote that when the FBI arrived they were confronted by a locked gate which they forced their way through.

The filing said: 'As the agents approached the front door to the main house, they announced themselves as FBI agents and directed the defendant to open the door.

'Through a window, the agents saw the defendant ignore the direction to open the door and, instead, try to flee to another room in the house, quickly shutting a door behind her. Agents were ultimately forced to breach the door in order to enter the house to arrest the defendant, who was found in an interior room in the house.

'Moreover, as the agents conducted a security sweep of the house, they also noticed a cell phone wrapped in tin foil on top of a desk, a seemingly misguided effort to evade detection, not by the press or public, which of course would have no ability to trace her phone or intercept her communications, but by law enforcement'.

After Maxwell, the daughter of late newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell, was arrested the FBI spoke to a security guard who worked on the property who said that her brother had hired him from a company staffed with former British military soldiers.

The filing states: 'The guard informed the FBI that the defendant had not left the property during his time working there, and that instead, the guard was sent to make purchases for the property using the credit card. As these facts make plain, there should be no question that the defendant is skilled at living in hiding'.

In their filings to the court Maxwell's lawyers had argued that she is at increased risk of catching the coronavirus whilst in prison. So far there have only been five cases and no deaths at the prison.

They claim that the restrictions on access to her lawyers caused by the pandemic would mean it was impossible for her to get a fair trial.

The prosecutors said that in fact the prison had made substantial efforts to accommodate her and keep her safe.

New York prosecutors said in a filing Monday this was evidence that Maxwell was 'skilled at living in hiding' and should be denied bail

Her bail request (pictured) was filed in the US District Court in Manhattan and claims she was not 'hiding' from authorities, is not a flight risk and is at risk of contracting COVID-19 if she continues to be held in the Brooklyn jail

The case against her is 'strong' and multiple victims have provided 'detailed, credible evidence of the defendant's criminal conduct' - with more women coming forward in the past week.

The victims have made clear they want Maxwell remanded in custody and say they were 'directly abused as a result of Ghislaine Maxwell's actions'.

The document states: 'While that conduct did take place a number of years ago, it is unsurprising that the victims have been unable to forget the defendant's predatory conduct after all this time, as traumatic childhood experiences often leave indelible marks.

'The recollections of the victims bear striking resemblances that corroborate each other and provide compelling proof of the defendant's active participation in a disturbing scheme to groom and sexually abuse minor girls'.

The prosecutors said that it was 'curious' that Maxwell claimed to have access to millions of dollars had not offered 'a single dime' as collateral for her bond.

They claimed that Maxwell's finances were 'completely opaque' and she had not even indicated which properties she would use for her bond.

Some of the co-signers are 'themselves so wealthy that it would be no financial burden whatsoever' if they lost their $5 million by Maxwell skipping bail, the document states.

Epstein's victims have long demanded Maxwell's arrest and lawyers for them say that a slew of new accusers have come forward since she was apprehended.

Prosecutors will likely be looking to do a plea deal with Maxwell to lighten some of the six charges against her, two of which are perjury for allegedly lying during depositions.

They will be questioning her about powerful men in Epstein's orbit including Bill Clinton with whom she flew on Epstein's private jet, called the 'Lolita Express', on a tour of Africa in 2002.

Maxwell was also good friends with Prince Andrew and one of Epstein's victims, Virginia Roberts, claims she was loaned out to the Duke three times for sex when she was 17.
Joaquin Phoenix as Joker (Warner Bros.)

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has published its annual statement which reveals the film classifications that prompted the most public complaints. The BBFC is responsible for making decisions on age ratings for film, TV and online content.

Todd Phillips Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix in the title role, was the most complained-about rating of last year having been classified a 15 for strong bloody violence and language.

The board received 20 complaints about the age rating for the DC Comics adaptation, objecting to its classification which meant it was suitable for anyone aged 15 and over.

Several stated that we should have classified the film 18 because of violence and the films tone, the report reveals. A small number felt that the film should be banned.

Read more: Joker coming to Sky Cinema in August

In justifying the rating the BBFC says: there are scenes of strong violence in the film that include stabbings and shootings, with accompanying bloody injury detail. They do not, however, dwell on the infliction of pain or injury in a manner that requires an 18.

Joaquin Phoenix in Todd Phillips' Joker. (Warner Bros.)

The independent body submits the report to the Secretary of State annually and in the latest edition, under the accountability section, it reveals it received 149 complaints covering 70 films which is says is fewer than half the number of complaints received in 2018.

Elsewhere on the list, the animated kids film The Queens Corgi  rated PG  received five complaints about sexual references and animal cruelty.

Read more: Dark Knight actor brands Joker nasty

While there is mild comic innuendo in the film, it occurs in a comic context and is acceptable at PG, the BBFC explains. While we operate strict policies around the inclusion of real animal cruelty in films, no animals were harmed in the making of the film.

The Queens Corgi caused complaints from filmgoers for being inappropriate for kids when it was released in July, 2019. It features a scene in which President Donald Trump (voiced by Jon Culshaw) makes a joke about grabbing some puppy, seemingly in reference to the infamous recording of Trump in 2005, telling television host Billy Bush: When youre a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the p***y.

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The other ratings that received the most complaints were:

The Favourite (15) - 12 complaints for its use of language, sex references and sex.

John Wick: Chapter Three - Parabellum (15) - Nine complaints over the violence in the film.

Alita: Battle Angel (12A) - Five complained about the violence and infrequent strong language.

Fighting With My Family (12A)/Holmes and Watson (12A) - Five complaints each focusing on language and sex references, which BBFC defends as being infrequent innuendo.

Bumblebee (PG) - Four complaints regarding language and violence.

Shazam! (12A) - Four complaints regarding bad language and scenes of horror.

Read the full BBFC report here.
By Carolina Mandl and Marcela Ayres

SAO PAULO/BRASILIA (Reuters) - Allowing millions of Brazilian users of Facebook's WhatsApp to send money as easily as texts seemed a golden opportunity for the world's largest social media company.

The ubiquitous messaging service was finally entering the financial services arena with a payment service in Latin America's largest economy, after years of questions over how Facebook would make money from it.

The June launch, years in the planning, was meant to be the pilot for a potential global rollout - but eight days after going live, the central bank pulled the plug on it.

The shock decision underscores the challenge for Facebook in trying to win over financial regulators and the complexities facing watchdogs in assessing the risks of letting tech giants, with their vast network of users, loose in their world.

In Brazil, it also raises questions about the communications around the launch. WhatsApp executives and central bank officials had held at least three meetings in the previous 21 months, including two in the week running up to the launch.

In the first time he has spoken in detail about the decision, Central Bank President Roberto Campos Neto told Reuters the regulator had not determined how to deal with the proposed payment model - a new phenomenon in Brazil, which has no card money transfer service operated via an app.

"Prior to the launch, there was a meeting in which WhatsApp kind of explained its plan, but the central bank was taken by surprise with the launch on June 15," he said in an interview.

The regulator - which said it never received a formal launch request - suspended the service, Facebook Pay, on June 23.

Campos Neto and other officials said concerns centered on competition, data privacy - they have not provided details - and ongoing deliberations over whether WhatsApp required a license as a company offering or arranging payment services.

WhatsApp told Reuters it had answered central bank questions and provided the launch schedule during the final meetings.

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"We spoke openly about our plans to bring WhatsApp payments to Brazil," it said. The company added it was deeply concerned about users' privacy, financial details were stored on a secured network and it had data security contracts with all partners.

WhatsApp said it did not want to become a financial services company. Financial institutions in Brazil are subject to capital reserve requirements and strict regulations.

As a way around this, and within existing rules, WhatsApp sought to use Visa Inc and Mastercard Inc, which already had central bank licenses, to carry out the money transfers.

"WhatsApp contacted us roughly two years ago to build a payments solution to bring convenience for their users and also because it did not want to become a financial institution," Visa's Brazil chief Fernando Teles said.

(GRAPHIC - Bumper payments market: https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/editorcharts/xlbvgozjwvq/index.html)

'IN A PHASE OF ADJUSTING'

WhatsApp said the service used payments networks from Visa and Mastercard, which are regulated companies in Brazil.

However Campos Neto said a money-transfer service provided by a tech platform had never existed in Brazil, the central bank had not yet decided whether WhatsApp itself needed a license.

"It's worth remembering that big tech isn't in the payments space in a big part of the world," he told Reuters on July 8. "So we're still in a phase of adjusting our regulations."

It is not the first time Facebook appears to have misread the regulatory runes as it seeks to enter the data-rich world of finance. A year ago, it unveiled plans for the Libra cryptocurrency, only to be met with a backlash from central banks.

In Brazilian payments, the prize is large, with a burgeoning market that saw 1.8 trillion reais ($336.86 billion) in card transactions last year. See GRAPHIC: https://tmsnrt.rs/2NTMSvG

In the initial stages of its service, WhatsApp was also looking to make use of a provision in payments regulation allowing companies to start services without a license until they reached 500 million reais or 25 million transactions over a 12-month period, according to a source close to the company.

This, again, is within the rules. However the provision, Campos Neto said, was aimed at encouraging small businesses to enter the market as opposed to a big tech network like WhatsApp with 120 million Brazilian users.

"WhatsApp tried to take advantage of this rule, saying, 'We're going to start with very low volumes because once we're in the system, it will be tough to take us out'," he said, describing the company as using "this volume gimmick".

The central bank changed this provision on June 23 to allow it to suspend companies covered by it.

Three meetings were held between WhatsApp and the central bank about the payment service, according to public central bank records: in October 2018, plus this year on June 9 and 12 - with one of those final talks attended by Campos Neto and WhatsApp Chief Operating Officer Matthew Idema.

WhatsApp said it also presented the central bank with its partnership model in 2019, although Reuters could not independently verify that meeting and the central bank declined to comment on meetings or dates.

Visa and Mastercard told Reuters they did not notify the central bank they planned to perform transfers for WhatsApp because they thought they already had the required licenses.

"There was no specific rule about messaging services in payments in Brazil, so we did it (the partnership) complying with existing rules," said Joao Pedro Paro, president of Mastercard for Latin America Southern Cone.

FACEBOOK'S GLOBAL AMBITIONS

The setback is the latest blow to Facebook's global payments ambitions, key to boosting revenue in the developing markets that account for most of its user growth and realizing CEO Mark Zuckerberg's vision to stitch together the infrastructure underlying Facebook's apps, which also include Instagram.

WhatsApp has been trying to launch payments since 2018 in India, its biggest market, but remains stuck in beta testing.

The Brazilian service would not charge individual users, but merchants would pay a fee per transaction.

One competition concern, according to a source close to the central bank, centers on WhatsApp's planned use of Cielo SA as its payments processor - or acquirer - for cards like Visa and Mastercard. Cielo already has a dominant market share of 40% in Brazil.

"I also must see the platform is open, which means that if more acquirers want to be in the platform, they are free to participate," said Campos Neto, though he did not mention Cielo.

WhatsApp, which has signed a deal with Cielo, said it did not have an exclusivity arrangement. Cielo declined to comment, but earlier told an antitrust watchdog there was no exclusivity.

In a further twist, the central bank is itself planning to roll out a fast-payment system in November, Pix, which uses consumers' checking accounts, a different terrain from Facebook Pay. WhatsApp has said it is open to integrating its service with Pix, which could offer one way to help break the deadlock.

The future remains uncertain, however.

Since Facebook Pay was suspended, central bank officials have met executives from WhatsApp, Mastercard and Visa in an attempt to find a way through.

Visa and Mastercard both delivered new business plans to the regulator last week in which WhatsApp formally appears as the originator of payments to be processed by the two other firms.

"WhatsApp did not, and still does not, need to request a license to work with our partners," WhatsApp said. "If a change were to require WhatsApp to obtain a license, we would do so."

($1 = 5.3435 reais)

(Reporting by Carolina Mandl in Sao Paulo and Marcela Ayres in Brasilia; Additional reporting by Isabel Versiani in Brasilia and Katie Paul in San Francisco; Editing by Christian Plumb and Pravin Char)
And I spoke with Josefina Romero, 27, who said she was recently followed by a sheriffs deputy for seven miles on her way home from her restaurant job until he finally pulled her over for not stopping at a stop sign. She said she stopped properly at the sign and then pulled out her perfectly legal Maryland drivers license. I have my papers, she said. Again, driving while Latina.
Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site.

Is Google tracking you as you move around the internet, even if you've opted out of data collection?

A lawsuit filed in California is making that claim. The issues are complicated, but one thing seems clear: The suit highlights the sprawling nature of Google's business, and how hard it is for consumers to understand all the ways the company can collect and use their personal data.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Jose, Calif., on behalf of two consumers, but it asks for class action status that could allow many more plaintiffs to join the suit.

If you've got a Google account, you can use a privacy setting called Web & App Activity to tell the company not to collect and use information it gathers from your searches, web browsing, and other sources. The setting was added in 2019.

What the lawsuit alleges is that the setting doesn't stop all data collection, in particular when data is collected from mobile apps.

It reads, in part, "Google...intercepts, tracks, collects and sells consumer mobile app browsing history and activity data regardless of what safeguards or 'privacy settings' consumers undertake to protect their privacy."

"Google promises privacy, but values voyeurism," says Jesse Panuccio, a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner, the law firm that filed the suit. "These consumers are suing to hold Google to their promise. (The same firm filed another lawsuit last month claiming that Google violated federal wiretapping and privacy laws by collecting consumer data when people were using Incognito mode in Google's Chrome browser.)

Experts have documented that certain information does go to Google when you use any of hundreds of thousands of mobile apps, even if you opt out of data collection through your Google account. What's not so clear, privacy and technology experts say, is whether this particular form of data collection violates the company's promises to its users.

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Google didn't respond to requests for an interview by the time of publication.

There's No Avoiding Google

"At its heart, Google is a marketing platform," says Serge Egelman, chief technical officer for AppCensus, a firm that analyzes technology for privacy and security, and a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley.

Besides being the world's biggest search engine, Google is central to the online economy. It collects data on users that's used for targeted advertising. It also takes orders for ads, decides where to place them on webpages and apps, and helps companies determine how people use their websites and apps.

One of the tools Google provides to more than a million apps is called Firebase. It can help developers perform tasks such as counting how many people use an app and monitoring what they do with it, along with some other functions. (Consumer Reports uses Firebase in its own mobile apps.)

That's the data that the lawsuit alleges flows to Google, in conflict with the company's statements to consumers that they can stop Google's data collection.

"Google collects data about you in a ton of different ways, often for its own direct benefit, but sometimes on behalf of others," says Justin Brookman, director of privacy and technology policy at Consumer Reports.

According to Brookman, if the data is only being used to help developers monitor their own apps, it's probably "a stretch" to say that Google is violating its obligations to consumers. "Google crunching data for someone else isn't the same thing as Google using that data to target ads," he says.

However, Brookman adds, "It is pretty confusing for an ordinary person to understand who has their data."

Everyone who goes online shouldn't be expected to understand and control all the ways their information might be used, he says. Instead, "the law should put substantive limitations on how companies can process and share consumer data."

Egelman of AppCensus is more skeptical about how Google might use the data collected through Firebase. He says some of the information could be employed for marketing. Developers can change software settings to instruct Google not to use the data generated by their apps. However, according to Egelman the settings are rarely changed. "Far less than 10 percent of the time," he says.

"From a consumer's standpoint, it's nearly impossible to figure what the data is going to eventually be used for," Egelman says. "But the default assumption should be that it's being collected for marketing purposes unless there's clear and conspicuous evidence to the contrary."

How to Change Your Google Settings

The lawsuit doesn't allege that Google continues to collect your search history and other consumer data if you use the company's Web & App Activity settings.

Among other data, Google says the setting controls whether the company can record "Searches and other things you do on Google products and services, like Maps and Play," "Sites and apps that partner with Google to show ads," and "Sites and apps that use Google services, including data that apps share with Google."

To use it, sign in on any Google website (such as Gmail), and then click the icon in the top right > Manage your Google Account > Manage your data & personalization.

If Web & App Activity is on, click on it. Then, on the next screen, click the toggle, and hit Pause to opt out of data collection.

According to the company, this could make Google services "less personalized," and it will disable certain useful features within products, including Maps and Google Assistant.

Consumer Reports also has instructions on how to use other Google privacy settings, from an auto-delete feature to location history.





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Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Copyright  2020, Consumer Reports, Inc.
Indiaspora announced its list of 58 prominent Indian American business leaders, at a virtual press briefing July 8 morning. The briefing also featured several of the CEOs on the list. From left to right, first row: Ravi Saligram, president and CEO, Newell Brands; Nandini Ramani, COO, Outcome Health. Middle row, from L to R: Bob Patel, CEO, LyondellBassell Industries; MR Rangaswami, founder, Indiaspora; Niraj Shah, co-founder, co-chairman, CEO, Wayfair. Bottom row from L to R: Nandini Ramani, COO, Outcome Health; Raj Gupta, chairman, Avantor, and chairman, Aptiv. (photo courtesy of Indiaspora)
When former President Olusegun Obasanjo established the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2003, it was in response to the pressure from the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF). FATF listed Nigeria as one of the countries with global anti-money laundry deficiencies. Back home, Nigerias fight against corruption was never void of controversy mostly because some people viewed EFCC as a tool in the hands of the government to prosecute political opponents. The reputation of EFCC is currently on a vicious downward spiral aggravated by the removal of the past heads of the Commission under controversial circumstances.

During the reign of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the pioneer Chairman of the EFCC, who served between 2003 and 2007, Nigeria scored some points in the fight against corruption. EFCC recorded high profile convictions most notably the arrest and conviction of the former Inspector-General of Police, Tafa Balogun, former Governor of Bayelsa, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and former Governor of Delta State, James Ibori. The popular slogan under the Ribadu led EFCC was, the fear of Nuhu Ribadu is the beginning of wisdom. Few weeks before the end of then President Olusegun Obasanjos tenure, he reappointed Ribadu as Chairman of the EFCC and promoted him to the position of Assistant Inspector General of Police. About eight months into his reappointment, the travails of Mallam Ribadu began.

First, it was a public disagreement with the then Attorney-General of the Federation, Michael Aondoakaa who accused EFCC of usurping the role of his office. Then the Inspector-General of Police, Mike Okiro ordered that Ribadu be temporarily removed from his position as EFCC chairman to attend the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) for a mandatory one-year course. While Ribadu was at NIPSS, the Nigerian Police Service Commission (PSC) demoted him from Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) to Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) and dismissed him from the Nigerian Police force. On December 27 2007, 15 days after EFCC arrested James Ibori, President Umaru Musa YarAdua sacked Ribadu as the Chairman of EFCC.

As if the circumstances that surrounded Ribadus removal were not controversial enough, there were allegations that James Ibori, who was arrested by Ribadu, played a major role in the appointment of Ribadus successor, Farida Waziri as EFCC Chairman. Those allegations deepened when the Waziri led EFCC gave questionable clearance letters to Governors that were under investigation by the Commission including Ibori. Furthermore, critics alleged that EFCCs anti-corruption war under Waziri from 2008 to 2011 grew timid and lethargic in comparison with Ribadus tenure. Even though she was able to score one of the commissions landmark prosecution that led to the former National Deputy Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bode George serving a two-and-a-half year sentence, like Ribadu, Waziri also had a fallout with the Attorney-General, Mohammed Bello Adoke over EFCCs prosecution of cases.

In addition to the various controversies and allegations of corruption surrounding Mrs. Waziri, under her tenure, EFCC did not get the required co-operation from international donors and partners. In one widely reported instance where the international community did not hide their distrust for Waziri, former American Ambassador to Nigeria, Robin Sanders threatened to walk out of a meeting with then Foreign Affairs Minister, Ojo Madueke, if Mrs. Waziri attended the meeting. The Minister walked Waziri out of the meeting and subsequently, President Jonathan removed Waziri from her position as the EFCC Chairman on 23 November 2011. Although she alleged in her book: Farida Waziri, One Step Ahead that one of the reasons she was sacked was because she refused to back down on some oil racketeers, former President Goodluck Jonathan said her removal from office has a lot to do with reasons relating to Nigerias interest and global standing.

On the same day President Jonathan removed Waziri from office, he announced the appointment of Ibrahim Lamorde as Acting Chairman of the EFCC. Waziri and Lamorde have a history given that they both served at the Special Fraud Unit (SFU) of the Nigerian Police Force and Lamorde was the Director of operations during Waziris tenure as EFCC Chairman. More so, Lamorde first took over from Ribadu in acting capacity before he handed over to Waziri when President Jonathan appointed her as the substantive Chairman. Lamordes leadership of EFCC left a great deal to be desired. Unlike his predecessors, EFCC recorded no major conviction under Lamorde. Instead, the EFCC battled to protect its image and that of Lamorde following a petition by George Uboh, who accused the EFCC boss of diverting N1 trillion worth of recovered loot. In response to the several allegations against EFCC, the Federal Government through the Ministry of Justice directed that Lamorde should proceed on terminal leave ahead of the formal expiration of his tenure in February of the following year. He was thereafter, investigated over allegation of money diversion. On 9 November 2015, President Buhari sacked Ibrahim Lamorde and appointed Ibrahim Magu as the Acting Chairman of the EFCC.

Now, barely few years into his tenure, Magu also is currently under investigation for alleged re-looting of recovered funds. He also is being grilled following allegations raised against him by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minster of Justice, Abubukar Malami. In addition, twice in late 2016 and March 2017, the Senate rejected Magus nomination following repeated State Security Services reports that Magu failed the integrity test and will eventually be a liability to the anti-corruption fight. The unfolding allegations against Magu seem to justify the decision of 8th Assembly to reject Magu. Eventually, the presidential probe panel headed by retired President of the Court of Appeal, Ayo Salami invited Magu over allegations bordering on corruption and financial misconduct. After 10 days in police detention, on July 7 2020, President Buhari suspended Ibrahim Magu from office.

This suspension follows a trajectory reminiscent of the exits of the previous chairs of the commission. In 2016, former President Olusegun Obasanjo likened the activities of EFCC to taking a step forward and further steps backward. The weighty allegations against the suspended EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Magu have again raised a dust of uncertainty about the future of the anti-corruption fight in Nigeria.
An explosion of coronavirus cases at 39 Melbourne care homes threatens to put hundreds of lives at risk.

On Thursday, 45 residents and 79 staff across seven aged care facilities tested positive to the virus overnight.

The figures are included in Victoria recording 317 new COVID-19 cases for the day - its worst daily figure.

New COVID-19 cases have been detected at 39 nursing homes in Victoria the past two weeks, including at Essendon's Menarock Life (pictured), where a resident has died

The state's death toll stands at 113 after two men in their 80s died overnight.

There are 109 people in hospital, including 29 fighting for their lives.

Of the new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, 28 are connected to known outbreaks and 289 are being investigated.

Victoria has 160 outbreaks ongoing, including in offices, aged care homes and schools.

There are 157 cases now linked to Al-Taqwa College and six cases linked to HWL Ebsworth lawyers in Melbourne.

In the past two weeks, 39 nursing homes in Victoria have been detected with coronavirus cases.

Where are the cases? Al-Taqwa College: 157 cases HWL Ebsworth lawyers: 6 cases Somerville retail service: 37 cases Menarock aged care facility: 31 cases St Basil's homes for the aged: 5 cases Glendale aged care: 23 cases Estia health aged care: 21 cases JBS abattoir: 29 cases Advertisement

In an interview with 3AW, Aged Care Federal Minister Richad Colbeck warned COVID-19 deaths in aged care facilities would continue.

A Glendale Aged Care resident in Werribee has already succumbed to the virus, along with another at Menarock Life aged care in Essendon.

'With 45 residents, who are old, frail, probably have other co-morbidities, there's some very, very sad news coming,' Mr Colbeck told Neil Mitchell.

'It's going to be really tragic for families.

'Unfortunately there will be more and I'm aware of a number who are palliating at the moment'.

Mr Colbeck's comments come as Premier Daniel Andrews told Melburnians to follow the lockdown rules if they want to avoid a hard lockdown.

'It's well too early for us to be moving to a whole new stage,' he said.

'If you want to make that less likely, if you want to get out of these sort of restrictions as fast as as possible, then we all have to play our part.'

Victoria Police issued $107,000 in fines in the past 24 hours, many to people who were at illegal parties. Gatherings of more than two are banned in Melbourne.

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the numbers may get worse.

'We not have hit our peak,' he said.

'Unfortunately there will be more and I'm aware of a number who are palliating at the moment', Aged Care Federal Minister Richad Colbeck said in an interview with 3AW
The coronavirus is invisible, but seemingly everywhere, requires close contact to spread, but reached around the globe faster than any pandemic in history.

What is this enemy?

Seven months after the first patients were hospitalized in China battling infection doctors had never seen before, the worlds scientists and citizens have reached an unsettling crossroads.

Countless hours of treatment and research, trial and error now make it possible to take the much closer measure of the new coronavirus and the lethal disease it has unleashed. But to take advantage of that intelligence, we must confront our persistent vulnerability: The virus leaves no choice.

Its like were in a battle with something that we cant see, that we dont know, and we dont know where its coming from, said Vivian Castro, a nurse supervisor at St. Josephs Medical Center in Yonkers, just north of New York City, which struggled with its caseload this spring.

Castro had treated scores of infected patients before she, too, was hospitalized for the virus in April, then spent two weeks in-home quarantine. As soon as she returned to the emergency room for her first shift, she rushed to comfort yet another casualty  a man swallowing the few words he could muster between gasps for air.

It just came back, that fear, she said. I just wanted to tell him not to give up.

The coronavirus is invisible, but seemingly everywhere. It requires close contact to spread, but it has reached around the globe faster than any pandemic in history.

COVID-19 was not even on the worlds radar in November. But it has caused economic upheaval echoing the Great Depression while claiming more than 580,000 lives. In the US alone, the virus has already killed more Americans than died fighting in World War I.

Even those figures dont capture the pandemics full sweep. Nine of every 10 students worldwide shut out of their schools at one point. More than seven million flights grounded. Countless moments of celebration and sorrow  weddings and graduations, baby showers and funerals  put off, reconfigured or abandoned because of worries about safety.

In short, the coronavirus has rescripted nearly every moment of daily life. And fighting it  whether by searching for a vaccine or seeking to protect the family  takes knowing the enemy. Its the essential first step in what could be an extended quest for some version of normalcy.

Theres light at the end of the tunnel, but its a very, very long tunnel, said Dr Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University. Theres a lot we dont know. But I think its absolutely certain were going to be adapting to a new way of life. Thats the reality.

___

The new coronavirus is roughly 1,000 times narrower than a human hair. But scrutinized through an electron scope, it is clear this enemy is well-armed.

Coronaviruses, including the newest one, are named for the spikes that cover their outer surfaces like a crown, or corona in Latin. Using those club-shaped spikes, the virus latches on to the outer wall of a human cell, invades it and replicates, creating viruses to hijack more cells.

Find a way to block or bind the spikes and you can stop the virus.

Once inside a human cell, the virus RNA, or genetic code, commandeers its machinery, providing instructions to make thousands of virus copies.

But the coronavirus has a weakness: an outer membrane that can be destroyed by ordinary soap. That neutralizes the virus, which is why health experts emphasize the need to wash hands.

Like organisms, viruses evolve, searching for traits that will ensure survival, said Charles Marshall, a professor of palaeontology at the University of California and self-described deep time evolutionary biologist.

Coronaviruses fit into the standard evolutionary paradigm extremely well, which is if youve had some innovation, you get into some new environment ... you get into a human and you do well, youre going to proliferate, Marshall said.

There are hundreds of coronaviruses, but just seven known to infect people. Four are responsible for some common colds. But in 2002, a virus called SARS, for the severe acute respiratory syndrome, spread from China to sicken about 8,000 people worldwide, killing more than 700. Another coronavirus called Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome, or MERS  identified in 2012  spread to humans through camels.

The new coronavirus, though, has captivated scientists attention unlike any in decades.

When researcher Thomas Friedrich logged on to his computer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison after a meeting in January, he found colleagues had been frantically posting messages to one another about the new virus.

People were getting increasingly excited and beginning to brainstorm ideas, said Friedrich, who has spent years studying other infectious diseases.

Now, much of Friedrichs lab is focused on the coronavirus, studying its spread in Wisconsin, and collaborating with scientists around the world examining the diseases behaviour in monkeys.

Even early on it was clear this virus posed a major threat, he said. Human immune systems had never encountered it. And unlike Zika, whose spread can be controlled by targeting mosquitoes, or AIDS, which most often requires sexual contact, the new virus is readily transmitted through droplets in the air.

It had all the hallmarks, to me, of a potential pandemic, Friedrich said. Basically, everyone in the world is susceptible.

___

The new virus has breached borders and claimed victims with stealth and speed that makes it difficult to track.

Scientists are fairly certain the disease originated in bats, which harbour many coronaviruses. To get to humans, it may have been passed through another animal, possibly consumed for meat. By late January, when Chinese authorities walled off the city of Wuhan, where the disease was first diagnosed, it was too late to stop the spread.

The most severe pandemic in recent history, the Spanish flu of 1918, was spread by infected soldiers dispatched to fight World War I. But aboard ships, it took weeks for the troops and the disease to cross oceans.

Now, with more than 100,000 commercial flights a day ferrying tourists, business travellers and students around the globe, the new virus spread rapidly and virtually invisibly, said medical historian Mark Honigsbaum, author of The Pandemic Century: One Hundred Years of Panic, Hysteria and Hubris.

By the time we woke up to the outbreak in Italy, it had been there for weeks if not months, he said.

Soon after the first case in Wuhan, Chinese tourists with the virus travelled to France. But doctors there reported recently that a fishmonger contracted the disease even earlier than that, from an unknown source. On January 21, the first confirmed US case was reported in Washington state, in a man who had travelled to Asia.

Its one person coming in from China and we have it under control. Its going to be just fine, President Donald Trump said at the time. Ten days later, he blocked entry to most travelers from China.

But genetic analysis of samples taken from New York patients showed most of the virus present arrived from Europe instead and took root in February  well before anyone thought about quarantining after a trip to Madrid, London or Paris.

___

Since February, when Dr Daniel Griffin began treating patients suspected of having COVID-19, hes cared for more than 1,000 people with the disease, first noted for attacking the lungs. But the infection certainly does not stop there.

I am actually shocked, said Griffin, a specialist in infectious diseases at New Yorks Columbia University Medical Center. This virus seems to leave nothing untouched.

Scientists are getting a handle on the many ways the disease affects the body, but its a scramble.

The lungs are, indeed, ground zero. Many patients find themselves gasping for breath, unable to say more than a word or two.

Even after five days in the hospital, Vivian Castro, the nurse who became infected, said she returned home struggling for air.

I climbed two flights of stairs to my room and I felt like I was going to die, she said.

The reason why becomes clear in autopsies of those who have died, some with lungs that weigh far more than usual. Under a microscope, evidence of the virus destruction is even more striking.

When Dr. Sanjay Mukhopadhyay examined autopsy samples from a 77-year-old Oklahoma man, he noted changes to the microscopic sacs in the patients lungs. In a healthy lung, oxygen passes through the thin walls of those sacs into the bloodstream. But in the Oklahoma patient, the virus had turned the sac walls so thick with debris that oxygen was blocked.

The thickened walls were everywhere, preventing the lungs from sustaining the rest of the body, said Mukhopadhyay, of Ohios Cleveland Clinic.

Autopsies reveal what the virus is actually doing inside patients bodies, said Dr Desiree Marshall, a pathologist at the University of Washington who recently examined the heart of a Seattle man who died from the disease.

Each autopsy has the chance to tell us something new, she said. And those insights from the bodies of the dead could lead to more effective treatment of the living.

The coronavirus, though, keeps raising fresh questions. It left the hearts of two men in their 40s, recently treated by Griffin, flaccid and unable to pump enough blood. Some younger people have arrived in emergency rooms suffering strokes caused by blood clotting, another calling card.

Kidneys and livers fail in some patients and blood clots put limbs at risk of amputation. Some patients hallucinate or have trouble maintaining balance. Some get a treatable paralysis in arms or legs. Many have diarrhoea, but often dont mention it until Griffin asks.

Their explanation? Thats the least of my problems when I cant breathe.

Initially, doctors often put patients on ventilators if their blood oxygen levels dropped. But death rates were so high they now try other strategies first, like turning patients on their stomachs, which can help them breathe. The truth is that hospital workers are learning as they go, sometimes painfully.

Every patient that I see, I think that couldve been me, said Dr. Stuart Moser, a cardiologist hospitalized in New York in March after he was infected. He recalls fearing that he might be put on a ventilator and wondering if hed ever see his family again. Now, back at work, he said much of what he and his colleagues have learned about the virus myriad effects enables them only to treat patients symptoms.

Its difficult because they have so many problems and there are so many patients, Moser said, and you just want to do the right thing  give people the best chance to get better.

____

In recent weeks, researchers have recruited 3,000 patients from around the world in a bid to solve a puzzling anomaly. Why does the coronavirus ravage some previously healthy patients, while leaving others relatively unscathed?

The project, called the COVID Human Genetic Effort, focuses on each persons unique genetic makeup to seek explanations for why some got sick while others stay healthy. Its one of several projects looking for genetic causes of susceptibility, including recent work by other labs suggesting a link between blood type and risk of serious illness.

Step one is understanding and step two is fixing. There is no other way, said one of the projects leaders, Jean-Laurent Casanova, of The Rockefeller University in New York. He is paid by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which also helps fund The Associated Press Health and Science Department.

His project focuses on people 50 or younger who had no health problems before the coronavirus put them in intensive care. But the question of why the disease affects people so differently has broader implications.

Its not clear, for example, why the disease has had such a limited impact on children, compared to other age groups. People older than 65 are well over 100 times more likely to be hospitalized for the virus than people under 18. But so far, theres no explanation why.

Do children resist infection for some reason? Or is it that, even when infected, they are less likely to develop symptoms? If so, what does that mean about their chances for passing the infection along to others, like their grandparents?

These arent just academic questions. Answers will help in assessing the risks of reopening schools. And they could eventually lead to ways to help make older people resistant to the disease.

In largely sparing children, the pandemic virus echoes the bugs that caused SARS and MERS, said Dr Sonja Rasmussen, a professor of paediatrics and epidemiology at the University of Florida.

Scientists wonder if children might have some key difference in their cells, such as fewer of the specialized proteins that the coronavirus latch onto. Or maybe their immune systems react differently than in adults.

While the virus has mostly bypassed children, researchers have recently been troubled by a serious, albeit uncommon, condition in some young patients, that can cause inflammation in hearts, kidneys, lungs and other organs. Most patients recover, but the potential for long-term damage remains uncertain.

This is what happens with a new virus, Rasmussen said. Theres a lot we dont know about it. Were on that steep learning curve.

___

With states and countries reopening in the face of an ongoing pandemic, its even more crucial to find solutions. At least the last few months have spotlighted the most critical questions.

Can people who have been infected with the disease get it again?

Dr Anthony Fauci, the US governments top infectious disease expert, has said that having the disease once should confer some degree of immunity. But its not clear how much or for how long, or what levels or types of antibodies people must have to protect them against future illness.

If some people harbour the virus without symptoms, how can we block transmission?

The reality is that many infected people will never feel symptoms or get sick. That means temperature checks and other strategies based on symptoms wont be enough to stop it. Instead, many experts believe, widespread testing is needed to find silent carriers, isolate them until they are no longer contagious, and track down those they may have infected. Masks and distancing can help prevent infection and slow the spread of the virus.

Will researchers find medicines that can be used to treat the disease?

Hundreds of studies are underway, testing existing medicines and experimental ones. So far, only one  a common steroid called dexamethasone  has been shown to increase survival. An antiviral medicine, remdesivir, has been shown to shorten recovery time. Two others  the malaria drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine  have not proven safe or effective for treating COVID-19 in large-scale trials, but some studies are still testing them to see if they might help prevent infection or illness.

How long will it take to find a vaccine?

Scientists in more than 150 labs around the world are pursuing a vaccine and nearly two dozen candidates are in various stages of testing. But theres no guarantee any will pan out. Finding out if any offer true protection will require testing thousands of people in places where the virus is spreading widely. Some huge studies are expected to begin this month.

Its almost the Manhattan Project of today, where an enormous amount of resources are being devoted to this, said Rene Najera, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University and the editor of a vaccine history website run by The College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

In the US, the goal is to have 300 million doses of potential vaccines by January. But any that fail tests will have to be thrown out. The World Health Organization has called for equitable sharing of any eventual vaccine between rich and poor countries, but how that will happen is far from clear.

Its also uncertain how useful any vaccine will be if a sizable number of people, their scepticism fed by misinformation, refuse to be inoculated.

Even an effective vaccine will not address the likelihood that, given a large number of coronaviruses and increasing contact between people and the animals harbouring them, the world is very likely to face other pandemics, said Honigsbaum, the medical historian.

That means uncertainty will linger as a hallmark of the new normal.

The knowledge gained about the coronavirus could prove invaluable in defusing that doubt and, eventually, in defeating the enemy. The real uncertainty, Redlener said, is whether people will use the lessons learned to protect themselves from the virus  or downplay the threat at their peril.
Going by this rebuttal in the Daily Post edition of July 15, 2020 ( https://dailypost.ng/2020/07/15/nddc-akpabio-opens-up-on-sexual-harassment-allegation-by-joy-nunieh/?fbclid=IwAR0Ctf5Sd75BrgQDu8fD8GJc6wxnPINgr81VHdEgYWmvR98-orp9lcwcVaI ), the sexual harrassment affair between the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs Senator Godswill Akpabio (ex-Governor of Akwa-Ibom State) and his ex-subordinate and former interim Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Gbene Joy Nunieh, has evolved or devolved depending on your viewpoint, into a case of 'he said, she said.'

Only God knows who between the two is telling the truth.

For sure, someone or even both are lying.

In the final analysis, the sexual harassment affair is irrelevant and academic since the alleged victim insists she exacted a slapdash revenge, on the spot.

What is relevant to Nigerians is that the purported War against Corruption by the Buhari Administration has been exposed as a purely propaganda effort, a ruse, a scam and a sham.

The great takeaway is that corruption is as endemic now, probably even more so, than it was when President Muhammadu Buhari took over the reins of power.

Which leads us to the final conclusion that President Buhari has failed in all ramifications particular, including his flagship agenda of fighting corruption.

Recall that President Buhari once admonished Nigerians that if we don't kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria.

The truth is that corruption in Nigeria under President Buhari has not only killed, it has successfully buried Nigeria, under a mountain of debt, arising from his reckless borrowing and unparalleled administrative illiteracy.

His alleged war against corruption was waged solely and exclusively against his political and tribal enemies and purely for his selfish, political, and tribal benefit.

His signature RUGA settlements for Fulani herdsmen and Fulani bandit-terrorists is a case in point.

There are ample indications that State Governors were being blackmailed using the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to sign-off on RUGA, or else.

What stopped many of the corrupt State Governors from taking the plunge and signing-off their state patrimonies for RUGA in exchange of their individual political ambitions or freedom from potential EFCC prosecution, was the overwhelming rejection of the scheme by non-Fulani Nigerians.

It is fitting that for purely presidential succession political reasons, the boss of the EFCC Ibrahim Magu is now on the receiving end of his own medicine, with his alleged mind-boggling sins exposed for the whole world to see.

Who will forget so quickly how Barrister Olisa Metuh of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen, former Chief Justice of Nigeria, and many others, were harangued, humiliated or hounded out of office on charges which in hindsight look relatively minor compared to the alleged infractions Nigerians are being regaled with presently.

The greatest tragedy in the whole debacle is that diehard non-Fulani, Buhari supporters a.k.a. Nigeria's 'prisoners of ego,' have been so deluded, so jazzed up, and so blindfolded by their egos that they cannot read the handwriting on the wall and recant their support, even though the font is getting larger and larger with each passing day.

Believe me, this is just the tip of the iceberg of malfeasance going on right now. The rest will be revealed almost in its entirety, one way or the other.

We wait and watch.

Anthony Chuka Konwea, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, MNSE, FNIStructE, MNICE.
Acknowledged as one of the African continents leading hospitality investment experts, Wayne Troughton of HTI Consulting shared unique insights in the firms first Virtual Hotel Club held in early July, a dynamic and informal Pan-African digital platform that saw 295 registrations across 15 countries.

Data was gathered from a survey that covered 14 regional and international operators active in the African hotel space (41 hotel brands and 219 projects currently under development). These included the likes of Hilton Worldwide, Marriot International, Radisson Hotel Group and Accor Hotels, amongst others.

Development sentiment largely positive

According to Troughton, whilst the African hospitality industry is facing unprecedented challenges and obstacles in light of the global pandemic, he noted that development sentiment remains optimistic amongst the majority (57%) of hotel owners as reported by operators on the continent.

Despite closures and significant performance declines, long-term investment fundamentals for the Sub-Saharan region remain positive despite significant short to mid-term challenges currently impacting the sector, he said.

Of a total 219 hotel projects currently In Sub Saharan African pipeline a large proportion (68%) of these projects are proceeding as planned, with only 18% currently on hold for a limited period, and 13% on hold indefinitely. he stated.

Concerns amongst hotel owners are, of course, still apparent and, for several, a wait and see approach relates to factors such as uncertainty around travel ban lifts in various markets, how to restore guest confidence, and the impact of Covid-19 on hotel valuations. However, the optimism displayed by many owners generally relates to understanding of the sector and adoption of a longer-term outlook, he explained.

Outlook geared to opening doors

Despite the current environment, construction related businesses in several countries resumed activity as early as possible after lockdowns eased, commented Troughton.

Encouragingly, this has resulted in 21 projects (representing 2946 hotel rooms in 15 African countries) still expected to open in 2020, with 52% of projects expecting short-term delays of 3 - 6 months, he said. Longer-term delays (9 - 12mths or 12mth+) are typically being seen on those projects that were in earlier (or planning) phases of development, he stated.

These delays can generally be attributed to uncertainty around how long travel lockdowns will continue. However, around 30% of projects under construction dont expect COVID-19 to cause any delays to their ongoing development, he said.

Hotel owners are clearly taking a long-term investment outlook and are expecting COVID-19 to be largely neutralised prior to their hotels opening. This relates particularly to those in the early stages of planning.

The development pipeline remains healthy

Of the overall Sub Saharan Africa Development pipeline, there are 219 branded hotels (representing 33 698 hotel rooms) across 38 markets.

East Africa remains the region with the strongest hotel pipeline, followed by West and then Southern Africa. East Africa has 88 branded hotels currently in the pipeline, West Africa sees 84 branded hotels in its pipeline with Southern Africa sitting on 47 hotels, stated Troughton.

Of the 21 hotels total projects expected to open doors in 2020, East Africa (40% of total supply), will see 1,134 rooms come on board, with the top cities being Antananarivo (22%), Dar es Salaam (20%) and Addis Ababa (20%).

West Africa (47% of total supply) sees 719 rooms planned to enter in 2020 across major cities including Accra (28%), Bamako (28%) and Cape Verde (24%).

Southern Africa (23% of total development pipeline) sees 963 rooms planned to enter in 2020, with South Africa - Johannesburg (71%) and Durban (21%) - seeing the predominance of activity, followed by Zambia.

Over the past three months HTI Consulting has engaged in numerous discussions with hotel owners who, Troughton states, have navigated different cycles during COVID-19 from survival (as hotels closed) to cost containment, defining hygiene safety protocols, staffing plans and ultimately, reopening strategies.

As several economies slowly start to open, so too have many hospitality businesses who are remaining positive and committed to the industry and demonstrating the determination necessary to overcoming current adversities.

Doing the deals

Despite pressured economic environments and tough decisions, many hotel operators have, been able to successfully conclude and sign deals with owners during the lockdown period. A total of 15 new hotel deals were concluded by 7 operators in 8 countries, from the period March - June, stated Troughton.

Feedback indicates these deals were close to fruition prior to the COVID crisis, with owners showing strong sentiment to continue with the projects. Further feedback from operators indicates these deals were also typically signed in primary African cities such as Abidjan, Accra, Lagos and Durban that boasted strong and diverse hospitality markets prior to the crisis. These locations are also likely to recover at a quicker rate than secondary nodes, believes Troughton.

Select operators who indicated that no deals were signed during this period pointed out that opportunities remain rife and that new enquiries are continuing to come through, he said,

It is anticipated that a lag will occur, with new owners typically being more cautious and awaiting to see how recovery unfolds, he said. Concerns have also been raised by owners around access to finance going forward as well as the willingness of the banks and financial institutions to fund hospitality projects at this point in time, he continued.

Whilst we havent seen any distressed sales at this point, with banks largely keeping hotels afloat, this may well change depending on the timeframes were looking at to a return to new normal as well as the potential resurgence of the virus in certain areas. The next 2  3 months will prove to be crucial, as many hospitality businesses do not have plans in place to ensure sustainability post this period.

Opportunity sees operators doing it differently

In several instances, feedback from large operators indicates a distinct shift towards conversions over greenfield development going forward, with a more flexible approach to the renovations and PIP costs.

Some operators are viewing this time as an opportunity to finalise forward planning during lockdown, said Troughton In several instances they have been able to take advantage of government support during this period in order to ensure they are able to streamline and accelerate internal approval processes, create more flexibility around brand stance, enhance their ability to pitch their products correctly to the local market and offer greater value and affordable experiences along with analysing fee structures over a select period.

Whilst lockdowns have placed many hospitality businesses and investors in a stalemate position over the past few months, weve noticed a positive change over the past few weeks as more as more hospitality businesses resume activities and we see a significant uptick in the commissioning of hospitality advisory assignments, noted Troughton.

Future Outlook

It is reasonable to assume that a more cautious approach will be taken by hotel owners and investors in evaluating their investment strategy, he said.

Independent hotel owners may indeed find it more difficult than the larger international brands to weather this current scenario. This too because branded hotels, and their new highly publicised hygiene protocols, may make for a more secure market and therefore allow them to see a more effective bounce-back and recovery.

Additionally those markets that are strongest in the area of domestic business travel (and then domestic leisure) should be amongst the first to recover. Indeed, focusing on the local market is what helped Asia recover from the SARS epidemic in the early 2000s.

For those owners and operators taking the the time to understand the changing markets we are facing, and willing to adapt to drive new demand, the medium to long-term outlook remains good, stressed Troughton. At HTI Consulting we continue to believe in the tourism potential in the region and strongly encourage further support from governments and brand managers to allow owners to minimise further losses and support recovery,

Despite current challenges and the overall uncertainty that trouble us all, there will be better times ahead and the travel market will eventually emerge stronger and more resilient. As governments slowly roll back travel restrictions and prepare to reopen society, the future winners are those that build a future based on a strong risk mitigation approach and display flexibility and innovation, he concluded.

Wayne Troughton is Founder & CEO of HTI Consulting, a specialist tourism, hospitality and leisure consulting company focusing on Africa and the Middle East and with offices in Cape Town and Mauritius.

Wayne has worked in the hospitality, leisure and tourism industries for over 30 years.

He has held positions in 5-star hotels in the UK and SA, and later as an Associate Director at Grant Thornton.

Launching HTI Consulting in 2003, Wayne has worked on more than 450 assignments in 45 countries, on the African continent. He has consulted for IFC and World Bank on investment climate issues and tourism programs in Africa.

He has extensive Operator Selection, Management Contract and Franchise Contract Negotiation experience and has been instrumental in negotiating some of the most complex hotel management contracts on the continent. Wayne has also brokered some key hotel deals including the sale of the Four Points Sheraton in Lagos, Nigeria and the sale of an asset in Cape Town that will be developed into a five star luxury, internationally branded hotel.
A public meeting in Utah about a mask policy for schoolchildren was abruptly adjourned when people without masks packed the room.

"This is the exact opposite of what we need to be doing," Utah County Commissioner Tanner Ainge said from the dais of the meeting room in Provo, drawing boos from the audience. "Were supposed to be physically distancing, wearing masks."

Speaking over loud objections from the audience, Ainge continued, "This gathering violates current health recommendations."

His motion to adjourn was then approved on a 2-to-1 vote, with a commissioner who had organized the meeting dissenting.

Many of the approximately 100 people in the audience stayed, however, with the two other commissioners besides Ainge remaining to hear their concerns about a mandate from Utah Gov. Gary Herbert requiring that all K-12 students wear masks in school, NBC affiliate KSL in Salt Lake City reported.

Residents without masks attend a meeting about masks in Utah County, Utah, on July 15, 2020. (Utah County Government via YouTube)

We are perpetuating a lie, one woman who said she has five grandchildren said. COVID is a hoax. Its a lie. Its a political stunt," The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

A mother suggested that masks cut down on a persons oxygen, and a father said COVID-19 is no different than the flu, according to the Tribune.

Another parent of two children, ages 10 and 3, said she is concerned that wearing a mask would teach her older child to fear the world and that both of her kids would not learn proper socialization if their faces were covered, the Tribune reported.

Its going to rewire their brains, the mother said. Im especially not going to send my son back to have his mind broken.

The commission meeting had been called to consider a letter asking the state to allow exemptions to the mandate for students, a proposal that Ainge has announced he opposes.

The gathering was held as cases of the coronavirus are climbing in Utah, with more than 30,000 cases recorded and 230 deaths, according to an NBC News tally.

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Many at the meeting, in addition to not wearing masks, also ignored taped Xs on the floor intended to serve as guides for social distancing, KSL reported.

A rally prior to the meeting drew about 150 people and included remarks by the commissioner who voted against adjournment, Bill Lee, the Tribune reported. It also featured comments by mask opponents.

Coronavirus is manmade. Its a weaponized virus, said Denna Robertson, one of the rallys organizers, according to KSL.

If Im infected with COVID, its because Ive not been taking care of my immune system. You know how your immune system gets strong? Its by being in the dirt and getting exposed to bacteria and viruses, Robertson said.

Protesters held signs that read Dont smother the children and Let kids be kids.

Some counterprotesters also showed up, with at least one holding a sign saying, Wearing a mask is an act of compassion, according to the KSL report.
Houston's landscape of eye-popping murals changes by the hour. Seasoned and novice artists alike are continuously combing city streets for their next new project to add to the colorful metropolis that the Bayou City has become.

Thanks to a new project from local civic arts firm UP Art Studio, finding the latest and greatest murals no longer requires a daylong hunt in Houston's heat. The studio recently released the Houston Mural Map, an online street guide that offers details on where to find more than 500 murals and 250 "Mini Murals" across Houston. (UP Art Studio runs the Mini Murals project that gives those ugly traffic signal control cabinets found at Houston intersections an artistic facelift.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 04:15:02|Editor: huaxia

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CAIRO, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Egypt reported on Wednesday 913 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total cases registered in the country since mid-February to 84,843, said the health ministry.

It is the seventh consecutive day for Egypt's daily COVID-19 infections to be below 1,000 since May 28, with a record 1,774 infections seen on June 19.

Meanwhile, 59 patients died from the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, raising the death toll to 4,067, while 591 others were cured and discharged from hospitals, increasing total recoveries to 26,135, Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said in a statement.

"According to the recommendations of the World Health Organization issued on May 27, the disappearance of symptoms for 10 days is considered an indication of the patient's recovery from the coronavirus," he noted.

Egypt announced its first confirmed COVID-19 case on Feb. 14 and the first death from the highly infectious virus on March 8.

The North African country resumed international flights on July 1 after more than three months of suspension, amid a coexistence plan to maintain anti-coronavirus precautionary measures while resuming economic activities.

The government has recently lifted a partial nighttime curfew it has been imposing since late March, and reopened restaurants, cafes, theaters and cinemas, as well as hotels, museums and archeological sites for tourists, all with limited capacity.

Egypt and China have been joining hands in fighting the pandemic through exchanging medical aid and expertise.

In early February, Egypt provided aid to China to help with its fight against COVID-19 and China later sent three batches of medical aid to Egypt, the latest of which was in mid-May.

"So far, Chinese medical experts have held eight video conferences with Egyptian counterparts over COVID-19," Chinese Ambassador to Egypt Liao Liqiang said earlier this month. Enditem
ATLANTA  After turning 18 in May, Jeanna Renee Triplicata had three items on her bucket list. She wanted a nose ring. A small tattoo to honor her beloved grandfather. And she wanted to skydive.

"Jeanna wasn't scared a bit," her father, Joey Triplicata, said Monday. "She had wanted to do this, for whatever reason."

Her goal was to scratch off every item on the list before the start of her freshman year at the University of North Georgia in August. On Sunday, Jeanna decided to tackle one of them. She and her grandmother planned to skydive.

Jeanna's parents, younger brother and sister and a family friend went along to watch. Her grandmother landed in view of the family. But something went horribly wrong with Jeanna's parachute, and both she and her instructor landed in an Upson County, Georgia, field and were killed.

"It was the worst day of our lives," Triplicata told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "It doesn't even seem real. We're going to miss her every day for the rest of our lives."

Off in the distance, he said the family saw a parachute spinning out of control. They weren't certain it was Jeanna, and they didn't see the landing.

Some Skydive Atlanta employees told the family they would go get Jeanna. But when they returned to the family without the teenager, Triplicata said he decided to drive to the field himself.

"We weren't thinking the worst at that point," he said.

But they were soon greeted by a deputy with a heartbreaking message.

"It doesn't look good," Triplicata heard him say.

Later, Upson County Sheriff Dan Kilgore gave the family the news. Jeanna hadn't survived. Her instructor, Nick Esposito, 35, had also been killed.

Deputies were called to the field near the Thomaston-Upson County Airport around 12:45 p.m., Kilgore said.

Esposito, an experienced skydiver, was conducting a tandem jump with Triplicata, and the two were attached to a parachute rig, according to Kilgore.

"Upon exiting the aircraft, the primary parachute failed to open properly and went into a spin," he said in an emailed statement. "The emergency parachute did not deploy until extremely low altitude and did not fully open."

On Monday, Skydive Atlanta said the company is working with local investigators and the FAA to determine what happened.

"Our community is devastated for both our team member and the student and their respective families," Skydive Atlanta owner Trey Holladay said in an emailed statement. "We are all stunned and truly at a loss for words as we are a close-knit family. We have spoken with the next of kin and all are asking for privacy while we process and grieve."

Triplicata was a recent graduate of Northgate High School in Newnan near Atlanta, where she was a member of the color guard for four years. She had a job she enjoyed at a local pizzeria, and later this week, Jeanna planned to get her nose pierced with her best friend.

During a visit to the University of North Georgia, Jeanna fell in love with the campus. She had already been in touch with her roommates and planned to study education, her father said.

"She was just starting her life," Triplicata said. "She was going to be a great teacher, I don't have any doubt about that. Parents can't take all the credit or all the blame for how their child does in life. But I'm extremely proud to be Jeanna's father. My children have been my life's greatest achievement up to this point."

In addition to her parents and grandmother, Jeanna is survived by a 15-year-old brother, 9-year-old sister and numerous other relatives and friends. A GoFundMe page was created to assist the family.

"While there is nothing that we can do to bring back this sweet soul nor replace her spirit, we are all speechless and looking for a way to support the Triplicata family," the fundraiser organizer posted.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is conducting the autopsies. Funeral arrangements were pending.

A videographer also made the jump with Jeanna and Esposito but was not injured, Triplicata said. When the investigation is completed, Triplicata will be able to see the video of his daughter's final few moments.

"I'm hoping and praying that she was just having the time of her life," he said.
ANNAPOLIS, Md.  Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Thursday sharply criticized President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which he described as a series of missed opportunities, unheeded warnings and failed leadership.

In an essay for The Washington Post titled "Fighting Alone," Hogan said, "with nowhere else to turn," he was forced to rely on his wife, Yumi, who was born and raised in South Korea, to arrange for the purchase of 500,000 test kits.

"This should not have been necessary," Hogan wrote.

"Id watched as the president downplayed the outbreaks severity and as the White House failed to issue public warnings, draw up a 50-state strategy, or dispatch medical gear or lifesaving ventilators from the national stockpile to American hospitals," said Hogan, the Republican chairman of the National Governors Association.

'That's just not true': GOP Gov. Hogan contradicts Trump claim that testing problems are fixed

"Eventually, it was clear that waiting around for the president to run the nations response was hopeless; if we delayed any longer, wed be condemning more of our citizens to suffering and death. So every governor went their own way, which is how the United States ended up with such a patchwork response.

"Governors were being told that we were on our own. It was sink or swim. And if I didnt do something dramatic, we simply would not come close to having enough tests in Maryland," he said.

But combating a pandemic was something that required a federal response, Hogan said.

"An undertaking as large as a national testing program required Washingtons help. We expected something more than constant heckling from the man who was supposed to be our leader," he said.

'He didn't understand': Trump slams Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, outspoken critic on testing

Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters during a White House news briefing on Thursday that Hogan was engaging in "revisionist history" and that his comments stood in "stark contrast" to some of his previous statements thanking Trump.

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But it was not the first time Hogan, a Trump critic who considered challenging him in the Republican primary, has publicly criticized the president on the pandemic.

When Trump in April tweeted a call to "LIBERATE!" states from coronavirus lockdown measures, Hogan said the president's comment was not "not helpful." And after Trump speculated publicly that putting bleach inside the human body might prevent infection, Hogan chastised him for spreading "misinformation."

However, Hogan's magazine-length piece is notable for the details it gives of Trump's behind-the-scenes dealings with governors.

Hogan said that as Trump was posting "cheerful or sarcastic comments and tweets, minimizing the outbreaks severity and the need for Americans to do much of anything," governors gathered February in Washington for an annual meeting.

There, public health experts, including Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield, were able to "convince almost all the governors that this epidemic was going to be worse than most people realized."

"It was jarring, the huge contrast between the experts warnings and the presidents public dismissals. Werent these the people the White House was consulting about the virus?" wrote Hogan.

A 'bungled' response

He lamented the lost opportunities to contain the coronavirus in the early weeks of the outbreak.

"So many nationwide actions could have been taken in those early days but werent. While other countries were racing ahead with well-coordinated testing regimes, the Trump administration bungled the effort," Hogan said, citing the CDC's trouble developing an accurate test.

"Meanwhile, instead of listening to his own public health experts, the president was talking and tweeting like a man more concerned about boosting the stock market or his reelection plans."

During their retreat, the governors held a dinner with the president. Hogan said Trump delivered "one of his unscripted rally speeches that seemed to go on at least an hour too long." He did not remember Trump mentioning the outbreak, but he did recall that the president "talked about how much he respected President Xi Jinping of China; how much he liked playing golf with his buddy Shinzo, Prime Minister Abe of Japan; how well he got along with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un."

Hogan to Trump: Stop coronavirus 'misinformation,' saying whatever 'pops in your head'

'I could only shake my head'

Hogan said Trump followed with a "jarring" denouncement of South Koreans, whom he said were "terrible people." He complained "they don't pay us" for protecting them, Hogan said.

"Yumi was sitting there as the president hurled insults at her birthplace. I could tell she was hurt and upset. I know she wanted to walk out. But she sat there politely and silently," Hogan said.

The White House did not immediately comment on Hogan's claims.

The essay is an adapted excerpt from Hogan's upcoming book, "Still Standing: Surviving Cancer, Riots, a Global Pandemic, and the Toxic Politics That Divide America."

Hogan described how Trump was "all over the place" as he dealt with the crisis, making false claims that anyone could get a test "even as my fellow governors were desperately pleading for help on testing." He said Trump "shifted from boasting to blame," faulting the Obama administration one moment and claiming the problem of testing had been solved the next.

"As Trump was making these comments, I was requesting his approval to conduct joint testing at the National Institutes of Health," Hogan said. He said that when he called NIH, Director Francis Collins told him he was glad he called because he was about to see if Hogan could ask Johns Hopkins University to help him conduct testing since NIH did not have enough.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan speaks at a news conference on April 24, 2020, in Annapolis, Md.

'There wasn't much else to say'

"I could only shake my head at that. The federal government  a much bigger and better-funded institution, with tens of thousands of scientists and physicians in the civil service  wanted my help!" wrote Hogan.

Hogan recounted the process of negotiating the purchase of the tests from South Korea and the "bureaucratic red tape."

After acquiring the tests, Hogan said he expected "a congratulatory word from the president."

"Trump always had a taste for bold gestures  but, apparently, only for bold gestures he could claim," Hogan said. When asked about Hogan's acquisition of the testing kits from overseas, Trump told reporters the Maryland governor "needed to get a little knowledge" and said Hogan simply should have called Vice President Mike Pence, who heads the White House coronavirus task force.

Hogan said that when he spoke to Pence on the phone shortly after that, he joked that he wished he had known he could have just called him because it would have "saved a heck of a lot of effort."

Hogan said Pence chuckled, "but there wasn't much else to say."

Hogan: Republican governor of Maryland says he has 'no idea why' Trump blasted him at briefing

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Gov. Larry Hogan says Trump left governors to fight alone on pandemic
Rating Action: Moody's assigns rating to notes issued by Stonehenge Capital Fund Nevada III, LLC

Global Credit Research - 15 Jul 2020

New York, July 15, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service, ("Moody's") has assigned a rating to one class of notes issued by Stonehenge Capital Fund Nevada III, LLC (the "Issuer"):

U.S.$53,426,000.00 Series 2020B-1 Senior Structured Notes due 2026, Assigned Aa2

RATINGS RATIONALE

The Series 2020B-1 Senior Structured Notes (the "Notes") promise to pay interest and principal, as provided by the notes' governing documents. Our analysis is based on a guaranty agreement (the "Guaranty") provided by U.S. Bank National Association (Aa2(cr)). Under the Guaranty, U.S. Bank National Association undertakes to make payments directly to the agent on behalf of the noteholders covering all required interest and principal payments due by the Issuer under the note purchase agreement owed, but not paid, net of any obligations that noteholders may have to the issuer. The Issuer is required to pay the principal of and interest on the Notes subject to all of the covenants, agreements and conditions contained in the note purchase agreement, the services agreement and each other document relating to the transactions contemplated by the note purchase agreement.

The Issuer is a Delaware limited liability company, the majority beneficial owner of which is SCF I, LLC.

Methodology Underlying the Rating Action:

The principal methodology used in this rating was "Rating Transactions Based on the Credit Substitution Approach: Letter of Credit-backed, Insured and Guaranteed Debts" published in May 2017 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1068154. Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

Factors that would lead to an upgrade or downgrade of the rating:

The rating on the notes is based on the Guaranty provided by U.S. Bank National Association. Accordingly, the Notes' rating will be sensitive to any change in the rating of U.S. Bank National Association as well as any termination of the Guaranty.

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REGULATORY DISCLOSURES

For further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and sensitivity analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and Sensitivity to Assumptions in the disclosure form. Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions can be found at: https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_79004.

Moody's did not use any stress scenario simulations in its analysis.

For ratings issued on a program, series, category/class of debt or security this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series, category/class of debt, security or pursuant to a program for which the ratings are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the credit rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular credit rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt, in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would have affected the rating. For further information please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.

For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit support from the primary entity(ies) of this credit rating action, and whose ratings may change as a result of this credit rating action, the associated regulatory disclosures will be those of the guarantor entity. Exceptions to this approach exist for the following disclosures, if applicable to jurisdiction: Ancillary Services, Disclosure to rated entity, Disclosure from rated entity.

The rating has been disclosed to the rated entity or its designated agent (s) and issued with no amendment resulting from that disclosure.

This rating is solicited. Please refer to Moody's Policy for Designating and Assigning Unsolicited Credit Ratings available on its website www.moodys.com.

Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating review.

Moody's general principles for assessing environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in our credit analysis can be found at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1133569.

The Global Scale Credit Rating on this Credit Rating Announcement was issued by one of Moody's affiliates outside the EU and is endorsed by Moody's Deutschland GmbH, An der Welle 5, Frankfurt am Main 60322, Germany, in accordance with Art.4 paragraph 3 of the Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 on Credit Rating Agencies. Further information on the EU endorsement status and on the Moody's office that issued the credit rating is available on www.moodys.com.

Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued the rating.

Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.

Mimi Eng Vice President - Senior Analyst Structured Finance Group Moody's Investors Service, Inc. 250 Greenwich Street New York, NY 10007 U.S.A. JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653 Algis Remeza Associate Managing Director Structured Finance Group JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653 Releasing Office: Moody's Investors Service, Inc. 250 Greenwich Street New York, NY 10007 U.S.A. JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653

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The world is upsetting these days. And its easy to angrily scroll through Facebook or panic-read the news until youre a bundle of anxiety. Ive done it.

My colleague Brian X. Chen offered advice in his latest personal technology column for breaking out of doomscrolling. He talked with me about his personal quest to change his digital habits by adding more structure to his day and making time for hugs. HUGS!

Shira: Fess up. Do you doomscroll?

Brian: Yeah. It was getting dire. One day I stayed in bed reading the news, feeling angry and hopeless. In the afternoon, one of my dogs pulled the covers off me. (Shes a very intelligent Labrador retriever.) Thats when I thought that I had a problem, and one that others probably shared.

Did any expert recommendation surprise you?

Two health experts suggested that we schedule times for everything  even 15-minute walks. It was a revelation.
BRUSSELS - After four months of virtual diplomacy hampered by mute-button troubles, spotty Internet connections and long-distance misunderstandings, European leaders plan to gather here Friday for their first in-person summit since the coronavirus pandemic shut everything down.

They will be taking elaborate precautions to reduce the risk.

The 27 country leaders and four top European Union officials will meet not around their ordinary ring-shaped table but in a vast hall designed to seat 330. The room, at the European Council building, will use only filtered fresh air that will not be recycled. It will be cleaned at every break, as will door handles and translation headsets. The leaders will not have to wear face coverings during their discussions but must mask up as they come and go.

Outside, a doctor will be standing by in case anyone starts to feel ill. The country delegations - the assistants and advisers who mill about while the government leaders meet - have been downsized from the typical 19 people each to six.

European diplomats, and the E.U.'s 446 million citizens, will cross their fingers and hope their leaders stay safe.

"Around the table, can you guarantee there's not a superspreader?" rhetorically asked one diplomat - who used a swear word when imagining the worst-case scenario of all of Europe's leaders getting sick at once. But the diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive planning, observed that most heads of government are frequently tested for the coronavirus, reducing the chance any of them would show up with it in their systems.

For all the complications, there's relief that Europe has gotten its coronavirus outbreak under control to the extent where it's possible to consider meeting in-person. Just as videoconferencing has turned out to be a frustrating substitute for bricks-and-mortar schooling, so too has it proved a serious setback to diplomacy.

"If you need to get compromise, if you need a solution, then it is almost impossible to do it by digital diplomacy," said Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics, who marveled during a trip to Brussels earlier this week - his first venture outside of the Baltics since March - at how shut down Belgium felt compared to his own relatively coronavirus-free nation. "You need to meet, you need to be able to gather like-minded people. We've lost four months."

The challenge has been especially difficult for the E.U., a freewheeling agglomeration of 27 independent nations that under ordinary circumstances come together in Brussels - sometimes as often as several times a week - to coordinate issues as lofty as nuclear diplomacy and as fine-grained as cellphone charges.

Diplomats say their work has been hindered without the ability to easily step aside to whisper out possible compromises.

"The problem with Zoom is that it reduces the essence of what we're doing to only the meeting," said a Brussels-based E.U. diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about the process. "Diplomacy is like an iceberg. There's so much work being done underneath the surface."

The diplomat blamed some of the early E.U. pandemic missteps, such as Germany and France's short-lived ban on exporting masks and hospital gowns to their neighbors, on the absence of in-person discussions. Brexit negotiations, which have also been mostly virtual, are struggling to make progress since both sides need to make painful compromises that would be politically toxic if leaked publicly before being finalized.

"The whole machine stalled" during the pandemic, the diplomat said.

Europe's leaders last gathered on Feb. 21. The ambassadors each E.U. country posts to Brussels continued meeting in person. But they aren't empowered to make the truly thorny decisions that can lead to the success or failure of politicians back home, so their meetings couldn't make up for their bosses' absence.

Video calls between leaders and ministers ran into problems. Initially, simultaneous translation wasn't available, slowing down communication. Frozen screens and other technical glitches could plague a single meeting as many as 15 times, one diplomat said. Children and pets sometimes wandered across the screen when lower-level diplomats were doing meetings from home. And it turns out that senior policymakers are just as prone as the rest of us to forget to unmute their microphones - or, more embarrassingly, forget to turn them off.

Among other challenges, Latvia's Rinkevics said, it has been far harder to guarantee the confidentiality of conversations that take place virtually. For example, one discussion about E.U. relations with a non-E.U. country was supposed to be confined to foreign ministers alone. It leaked almost in real time to policymakers from that country, he said.

"If you want to have a truly candid exchange, in-person is better," he said.

The leaders meeting Friday and Saturday will haggle over a potential pot of $2 trillion, a combination of their coronavirus economic rescue plan and the ordinary E.U. budget that sets up winners and losers for the next seven years. It turns out that it is nearly impossible to reach a deal through videoconferencing.

The first in-person meeting of E.U. foreign ministers on Monday served as something of a test run. The agenda did not lend itself to easy compromise: Policy toward Turkey and China and Hong Kong was being discussed, topics on which E.U. members have big differences.

"It's a good thing that we could consider all of them personally," said E.U. foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, 73, who wore his blue medical mask for some of the five-hour discussion.

Meeting in-person "helps a lot to discuss," Borrell said.

Still, six of the 27 foreign ministers did not show up, with some stymied by the inconvenience of traveling across a continent where many flight connections have evaporated. Of the ministers who did, many seemed uncomfortable as they chatted, masked, ahead of the meeting. For most, it was their first foreign travel since the beginning of the pandemic, and they appeared to be struggling to bridge old habits to new necessities.

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zakharieva fanned her thick black cloth face mask with her hand. Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez traced a smile over her blue medical mask. Croatian Foreign Minister Gordon Grlic Radman wore a mask in his country's red-and-white checkerboard motif. Once the proceedings were underway, the masks came off.

Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde, who has the misfortune of representing the most-infected member of the E.U., relative to population, appeared to be happy to get out of Stockholm.

Belgium recommends, but doesn't require, quarantines for travelers from Sweden. "Essential travel" - which presumably includes a meeting of foreign ministers - is allowed.

"It's very, very nice to be able to meet my colleagues in person again," Linde said.

- - -

The Washington Post's Quentin Aries contributed to this report.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 19:32:12|Editor: huaxia

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BRUSSELS, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The European Court of Justice on Thursday struck down a data sharing arrangement between the European Union (EU) and the United States, arguing that it has failed to offer enough privacy protection for Europeans against U.S. surveillance.

"The Court of Justice invalidates Decision 2016/1250 on the adequacy of the protection provided by the EU-U.S. Data Protection Shield," the EU's top court said in a press release.

The court found that in the current arrangement of data transfer, "the requirements of U.S. national security, public interest and law enforcement have primacy, thus condoning interference with the fundamental rights of persons whose data are transferred to that third country."

After whistleblowing from U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who revealed in 2013 that the U.S. government was spying on online data including European data from Facebook users, Maximillian Schrems, an Austrian activist, sought to stop data transfer from Ireland, where Facebook's EU operations are legally headquartered, to the United States.

Schrems argued that "the law and practices in the United States do not offer sufficient protection against access by the public authorities to the data transferred to that country," according to the court's decision on Thursday, and his case ultimately landed in the EU's top court based in Luxembourg.

The EU law provides that the transfer of data to a third country may, in principle, take place only if the third country in question ensures an adequate level of data protection.

On July 12, 2016, the European Commission adopted the adequacy decision on the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, and the Privacy Shield framework became operational in August the same year. Enditem
High-flying financier Amanda Staveley has been branded a publicity seeker as her High Court case against Barclays was dismissed as a 'fantasy'.

The 47-year-old,who once dated Prince Andrew, is suing the British bank for 1.6billion on claims she was edged out of a lucrative deal at the height of the financial crisis.

Barclays turned to investors in Qatar and Abu Dhabi in 2008 to raise more than 7billion and maintain its independence from the UK government and state ownership.

High-flying financier Amanda Staveley is suing Barclays for 1.6bn on claims she was edged out of a lucrative deal at the height of the financial crisis

Staveley, who was representing Abu Dhabi, claimed Barclays offered her firm PCP the 'same deal' as other investors only to instead funnel an extra 346million in secret fees to Qatar.

But David Forbes, a former adviser to Abu Dhabi who worked for its sovereign wealth fund IPIC, said Staveley used the deal to promote herself, and that she was out of her depth as she did not understand financial language.

In a witness statement, Forbes said: 'I recall Ms Staveley caused irritation by repeatedly seeking media publicity for herself.'

In November she caused 'further irritation' by taking steps 'designed to make her role appear more prominent than it actually was', according to court filings.

Forbes added: 'I understand the claimant's case to be that PCP was in control (so to speak) of the Barclays investment. This is, in my view, fantasy.'

He went on: 'The more time that we spent with Ms Staveley the more we began to build up a picture of her as someone who would confidently make assertions which proved to lack any real foundation or which she would later contradict without realising.

'My colleagues and I were also getting fed up with Ms Staveley making promises and not delivering.'

The case has revealed the deeply personal feuds between the City's best-known names, and the enormous salaries they commanded for their work.

This week Barclays top deal maker Roger Jenkins, who earned 167million over four years making him Britain's best-paid banker, apologised for calling Staveley a 'dolly bird' and a 'tart'.

Another banker, Stephen Jones, resigned as boss of lobby group UK Finance last month over 'deeply unpleasant and personal' comments made about Staveley in 2008.

Yesterday, Forbes told the court that his initial impression had been that Staveley was 'very likeable, charming and friendly'. But he said it became apparent she had a 'very limited knowledge of financial instruments and transactions, or how to analyse them'.

Staveley, who in recent months has been involved in a deal which could see a Saudi consortium take control of Newcastle United FC, was also accused of making a dishonest attempt to extract 11million payment from IPIC for costs she had not incurred.

When the deal was signed, PCP was paid 30million, which Forbes considered 'extraordinarily generous given her actual contribution'.

PCP claims that if it were not for the alleged deceit it could have collected between 400million and 1.6billion.

Mr Forbess evidence contradicts evidence given by Ali Jassim, former adviser to IPIC chairman Sheikh Mansour, who owns Manchester City football club.

In his witness statement he said that Sheikh Mansour knew Ms Staveley and held her in very high regard. The case continues.
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Linkedin Dan Williams (Reuters) Jerusalem  Thu, July 16, 2020 11:55 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666c00e0 2 World Israel,Israel-annexation,coronavirus,COVID-19,coronavirus-effect,COVID-19-infection,pandemic,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus Free

A coronavirus resurgence in Israel and divisions within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government have sidelined its plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, officials said.

Although the conservative Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz, his centrist coalition partner, agreed the government could begin moving on annexation as of July 1, there has been "close to zero" cabinet-level discussion on the issue, one senior minister told Reuters.

And with no agreement with Washington yet on the modalities of the move under a peace proposal announced by President Donald Trump, any step soon to extend Israeli sovereignty to Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley in the West Bank seems unlikely.

The Palestinians have rejected the Trump plan. European and Arab powers have warned of diplomatic blowback if Israel unilaterally annexes land Palestinians seek for a state.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, is preoccupied with new coronavirus transmissions that aides said could necessitate renewed lockdowns. Unemployment has hit a record 21% and anti-government protests have turned increasingly violent.

A poll by the non-partisan Israel Democracy Institute on Tuesday found only 29.5% of the public trust Netanyahu's handling of the crisis.

There has been open opposition from Gantz's Blue and White party, which makes it hard to persuade Washington that any annexations would enjoy sweeping Israeli support.

"It's a matter of right plan, wrong time," a senior Blue and White minister said. "We are in the middle of the biggest crisis Israel has seen in decades...and it would be irresponsible and insensitive to tend to anything else at the moment."

Gantz has predicted the crisis could last until late 2021.

Another official, who requested anonymity, said more than a week had passed since Israeli delegates last spoke to US envoys on annexation under the Trump blueprint, which envisages Israeli sovereignty over up to 30% of West Bank land.

Asked for comment, Netanyahu's office said it had "no updates at this time".

Several ministers from Netanyahu's Likud party want the move implemented now. Some privately voice concern that Trump's attention will drift as the November presidential election approaches, and that presumptive Democratic candidate Joe Biden has come out against annexation.
Karpowership South Africa spokesperson Patrick ODriscall say they can supply enough electricity to stop most load-shedding  and do it at a lower cost than Eskom.

Karpowership South Africa is a subsidiary of Karadeniz Holding and is a registered company with local BEE partners and registered offices in the country.

It has responded to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energys 2019 Request for Information (RFI) to procure power from independent producers.

Speaking to Biznews, ODriscall said Karpowership could deliver between 700MW and 800MW immediately.

I would then have the capability to incrementally increase that up to 2,000 plus megawatts over the following six months, he said.

He said they can provide power to South Africa at R1.70 per kilowatt-hour, which is much less than the open-cycle gas turbines that Eskom is running.

ODriscall highlighted that their offering is not only a short-term solution during desperate times, like South Africa is currently experiencing.

Ive got contracts that range from three years, five years, ten years to fifteen plus years. So, it can be used in various durations, he said.

How it will work

ODriscall explained that they purchase second-hand cargo carrier ships and convert them into floating power ships.

When a country is in need of additional electricity  like South Africa  they sail these powerships to the area and park them at a suitable location.

The power is generated on the ship which has a grid substation which evacuates the power at the allocated voltage.

A power line is then taken from the ship to a transmission tower and the transmission towers are integrated into the grid, he said.

He highlighted that most of South Africas large power plants are on the waterfront anyway, which means they have power lines running up and down the country.

We just connect to them. It could be in numerous locations. South African coastline is very large. It could be in Richards Bay, it could be a Coega, it could be in Saldanha, or it could be in Durban, he said.

Interview with Patrick ODriscall

Photos of powerships
SAN FRANCISCO, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ProBalance, Inc. today formally announced the go-live of the Be WellStay Well Network that enables wellness businesses to easily offer live and on-demand classes to their clientele. The network supports Pilates and yoga studios, fitness studios, and other wellness practices looking to build new revenue channels during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Logo of Be Well Stay Well Network that enables wellness businesses to easily offer live and on-demand classes to their clientele. The network supports Pilates and yoga studios, gyms, and other fitness practices.

The Be WellStay Well Network is a collaborative effort across independent wellness businesses to deliver popular real-time, at-home fitness. Dr. Ada Wells DPT, President of ProBalance, Inc. and the driving force behind Be WellStay Well, states, "During difficult times like this is when we can all come together, survive, and thrive as wellness practitioners. By simply becoming an affiliate and offering Be WellStay Well programming to existing clientele, wellness businesses will generate revenue that they would not have generated otherwise."

Dr. Wells also said that a significant benefit of becoming a member of the Be WellStay Well Network is the level of promotion that wellness businesses can receive. After guided support and a robust quality review, network affiliates can produce their own classes on the Be Well-Stay Well Network, bringing their talent to a worldwide audience of subscribers. As Dr. Wells states, "What really drives Be WellStay Well is our ability to promote leading wellness providers to a worldwide audience and to have our subscribers benefit from the highest quality classes possible without the need to purchase at-home equipment." Dr. Wells added that Be Well-Stay Well is currently offering bonus classes for subscribers who do have equipment at home, including props and equipment sold by Balanced Body, such as classes specifically for Pilates reformers and the Oov.

Classes are delivered live daily and include a library of on-demand options. As popularity for Be WellStay Well continues to grow, the vision is for live classes to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week as wellness businesses are onboarded from around the world.

Wellness practitioners and businesses looking to generate more revenue and achieve greater visibility, at no cost, can sign up at www.bewellstaywell.net/affiliate to become a network member and to get started today.

Individuals looking to maintain and improve their wellness can subscribe for a low monthly fee with no contract required. Additional discounts can be obtained by signing up for an annual membership, which many Be WellStay Well subscribers have selected. Subscribers can learn more and sign up at www.bewellstaywell.net.

About ProBalance, Inc.

Headquartered in Alameda, California, ProBalance, Inc. manages the Be WellStay Well network, mentors wellness businesses, provides Pilates teacher training, and delivers ProBalance Physical Therapy and Pilates services to their clientele at the ProBalance studio.

To learn more about the ProBalance studio located in Alameda, CA, and their related Pilates and Physical Therapy services, visit www.probalancept.com.

Media Contact:

Nancy Bonnell

Phone: 1.510.523.1900

Email: [email protected]

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- Senate President Vicente Tito Sotto III shared his thoughts regarding the recent statement of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III

- Sotto quipped that Duque might mean that the COVID-19 curve in the country has fattened

- He pointed out that many people gained weight during the community quarantine in the Philippines

- As of posting time, there are now 58,850 confirmed cases of COVID-19 recorded by the Department of Health

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Senate President Vicente Tito Sotto III has aired his thoughts regarding the recent statement of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.

KAMI learned that the Senate President addressed the announcement of Duque that the COVID-19 curve in the Philippines already flattened.

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Source: UGC

In a Facebook post by Inquirer, Sotto jokingly hits back to Duque about the current situation of the COVID-19 curve in the country.

Baka fatten the curve ang ibig niyang sabihin. Daming tumaba, he said.

As reported by GMA News Online (authored by Llanesca Panti), Duque took back his statement that the curve of COVID-19 cases in the country already flattened.

He explained that he got confused by the question. Duque clarified that the country was able to bend or start the curve of the cases.

Paumanhin po sa confusion na resulta ng aking earlier statement, nalito lang po ako sa tanong. Iyong longer case doubling time which is eight days, ibig sabihin po nito, nailiko na, nasimulan na nating nailiko o naikurba na natin ang epidemic curve nung imposition ng ECQ noong March, he said.

Now, we are seeing an increase in cases dahil sa expanded testing and community transmission as we allow more movement of people, dahil nagluwag na po tayo ng restrictions, he added.

PAY ATTENTION: Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news!

As of July 15, the Department of Health (DOH) recorded a total of 58,850 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country. There are also 36,260 active cases.

Earlier, several lawmakers aired their thoughts regarding the statement of Duque. Among the senators who reacted were Sonny Angara, Migz Zubiri, Kiko Pangilinan, and Risa Hontiveros.

A month ago, Duque also claimed that the country was on its second wave already. However, he took it back and apologized for the confusion.

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!

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Metaari's 2019 Edtech Investment Whitepaper Cover "China could overtake the US again in terms of total investments for the first time since 2017," adds Adkins. "$3.90 billion was invested in 77 Chinese edtech companies in the first half of 2020. In the US, $3.67 billion went to 113 learning technology companies in the first half.

"The investment activity in the first half of 2020 could be an anomaly considering that huge unprecedented funding that went to just a few edtechs," comments Sam S. Adkins, Chief Researcher at Metaari (formerly Ambient Insight). "A breathtaking $1 billion went to China's Yuanfudao in March 2020. This is the first time in the industry's history that a company has reached the $1 billion threshold. In June 2020, an equally impressive $750 million went to China's Zuoyebang who claims to be the largest online education provider in the world with over 800 million users and 50 million daily active users (DAU)." Both of these companies are online tutoring firms.

In the first half of 2020, 26 companies garnered over $100 million in funding and 438 obtained over a million dollars in investment. In the full year of 2019, 44 companies obtained $100 million or more in investment and 679 obtained one million dollars or more.

"Investment patterns are inherently unpredictable," says Adkins. "The patterns produce a quantitative 'rear-view mirror' perspective, but they are not reliable leading indicators. Investments have spiked every year since 2015 reaching an unprecedented $18.6 billion in 2019. To put this in perspective, investments in 2018 and 2019 combined far outstripped the total investments made to all edtech companies combined for the entire twenty-year period between 1998 and 2017."

Metaari principals have been tracking the global learning technology investment patterns since 1998 when they were employed in the Advanced Knowledge Engineering Group at Microsoft. They launched the world's first global online learning business, the Microsoft Online Institute (MOLI).

Since at least 2016, investors have aggressively shifted their interest away from companies selling legacy products like eLearning to next-generation companies developing Cognitive Learning, AI-based Learning, Mixed Reality Learning (AR-based Learning and VR-based Learning), Mobile Learning, Location-based Learning (Location Intelligence), Game-based Learning, and even Educational Bots (both physical and virtual).

"In the first half of 2020, an impressive $2.96 billion went to 112 startups developing learning technology using artificial intelligence (AI)," reports Adkins. "Just over $1.14 billion went to 38 Mixed Reality (AR and VR) Learning companies in the first half. In sharp contrast, a mere $92.5 million went to just five eLearning companies in the first half of 2020. Clearly, investors are now attracted to advanced learning technologies instead of legacy learning products."

Metaari has published their annual edtech investment patterns whitepaper since 2004. The most recent is the "The 2019 Global Learning Technology Investment Patterns: Another Record Shattering Year" published in January 2020. The free whitepaper has 87 pages, 12 tables, and 13 charts.

To obtain the free whitepaper, email your request to: research@metaari.com

"China could overtake the US again in terms of total investments for the first time since 2017," adds Adkins. "$3.90 billion was invested in 77 Chinese edtech companies in the first half of 2020. In the US, $3.67 billion went to 113 learning technology companies in the first half. Just over $1.41 billion went to 96 companies in India in the first half with 21% ($290 million in two rounds) of that going to the Indian online education juggernaut BYJU'S. $2.62 billion went to 229 other edtech companies across the globe. Investment in edtech was strong in the UK in the first half. Over $635.8 million was invested in 81 UK learning tech companies in the first half."

Investment patterns can surface "customer-facing" trends if funding shifts to companies that serve specific buying segments. Only $213.3 million was invested in companies serving the higher education and tertiary segments in the first half of 2020, although $815.8 million went to companies serving the PreK-12 segments across the globe. This is relatively impressive considering that PreK-12 companies garnered a total of $855.3 million for the entire year of 2019.

Investors are now mainly focusing on corporate (B2B) and consumer (B2C) edtech companies. These companies combined garnered $10.5 billion in funding in the first half of 2020. The massive funding going to consumer-facing learning companies in the last few years is what Metaari calls "retail education", with startups bypassing the traditional academic delivery channels.

About Metaari

Metaari (formerly Ambient Insight) is an ethics-based quantitative market research firm that identifies revenue opportunities for advanced learning technology suppliers. We track the learning technology markets in 126 countries. We have the most complete view of the international learning technology market in the industry. Metaari focusses solely on advanced learning technology research on products that utilize psychometrics, neuroscience, location intelligence, game mechanics, robotics, cognitive computing, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and augmented reality.
The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has raised alarm over the increasing rate of mobile money fraud in financial institutions, particularly, banks in the country.



According to the Central Bank, swindlers have targeted banks, using dubious ways, including pretending to be staff of telecommunication companies (Telcos) to execute their fraudulent agenda.



The BoG has disclosed that, its monthly and fraud incident report submitted by financial institutions over the last quarter has showed a persistent increase in the number of institutions falling victims to mobile money fraud in the country.



Explaining how the crime is committed, the Head of Financial Stability Department at the BoG, Dr Joseph France, said that, typically, bank staff (tellers in most cases) receive a call from someone holding him or herself as an employee of one of the Telcos or the caller claims to be calling from the institutions head office.



The caller then informs the bank staff that he or she has been authorised to train staff on the reversal process on the mobile money, he stated.



As part of the process, the staff will be asked to enter certain codes on the mobile platform, and the codes entered lead to debiting of the banks mobile wallet, Dr France further explained.



To this effect, the BoG has said that, it would embark on creating awareness on the situation.



Per its mandate, the Bank of Ghana intends to raise awareness among institutions to this particular fraud to help minimise its occurrence, the BoG said in a statement.



In addition, the Central Bank has issued out directives to all financial institutions to be mindful of a new mobile money fraud type, which some institutions have already fallen victim to.



The institution advised banks to ensure that all staff are made aware of the new deceptive scheme and advised that, banks should have at least two people handling all mobile money transactions at a branch.



The designated officials shall be at the management level at the branch/agency typically Branch Manager of Operations. The designated MoMo staff must not take instructions directly from the Telcos representatives.



BoG also urged that any communication between representatives of Telcos and bank staffs should be approved first by the Telcos head office.



Banks and other financial intuitions have been to improve upon its fraud intervention measures to also continue to promptly share incidences of fraud to the BoG.

Source: The Ghanaian Times









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 13:30:25|Editor: huaxia

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ULAN BATOR, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia reported no new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, with the national tally remaining at 261, according to the country's National Center for Communicable Disease (NCCD) on Thursday.

Meanwhile, two more patients have recovered from the disease, taking the total recoveries to 209, the NCCD's head Dulmaa Nyamkhuu said at a daily news conference.

"A total of 120 people are now under treatment and medical observation at the NCCD. We are now testing around 430 people who returned home from abroad on chartered flights yesterday," said Nyamkhuu.

All the 261 confirmed cases in the country are imported ones, mostly from Russia, according to the center.

No local transmissions or deaths have been reported in the country so far since the first case was detected on March 10. Enditem
In a standard, 20-page comic book there are about a hundred images. For Chris Claremont, whose 17-year run writing The Uncanny X-Men transformed comic-books forever, its the space between those images, or panels, that matters most.

"Because that's when the reader's imagination can kick in," Claremont says. "They can make the movie in their head. They can say, 'Where does the character go? What are they doing? What's their attitude? What takes place in the pause?' So suddenly we're dealing with something that's right in front of you, but interactive at the same time. To me, that's cool."

For anyone who grew up reading comic books, there's nothing cooler than talking with Chris Claremont. When he took over on "Uncanny X-Men" the title was languishing. His writing, with its progressive inclusive themes, female characters that shattered industry stereotypes. and daring arcs later to be transformed into billion-dollar box-office movie hits, took mutants to the masses.

Of course, Claremont's work extends beyond "X-Men" heroes like Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Mystique and Kitty Pryde. He's written stratospheric characters like Batman and Superman, written best-selling fantasy and sci-fi novels (including his George Lucas collabo, "Shadow Star."

On a recent afternoon, Claremont, who resides in New York state, was at the summer home he shares with his wife when reached for a phone interview. In conversation, Claremont was upbeat, articulate and kind. He speaks with a mix of theatre flair and youthful wonder.

Legendary comic book writer Chris Claremont. (Courtesy photo)

Chris, we often hear actors say it's more fun to play a bad guy and more difficult to play a good guy character. Is that true for a comic book writer too? Is it more fun for you to write villains than heroes?

Well, it can be more interesting than writing a hero certainly, especially in traditional comic books heroes are very, for want of a better phrase, two-dimensional. People would always ask me who do I prefer writing more Charles Xavier or Magneto and I'd say well actually Magneto, because Charlie is basically perfect. All one can do with him is diminish him. Whereas with Magneto especially because of his origin, he is a scarred embittered man striving for a goal, on level the goal is safeguarding people who are like him, mutants, but the other part is to become the decent man he tried to be after leaving the camps. When he had wife, when he had a child, when he wanted to lead a normal life and that was stolen from him. And that left scars he could never escape.

So in the same way for me Wolverine is a much more interesting character, because I created the duality within him. Half of him is a monster like Sabertooth, who just want to go around having a good time and killing and maiming and just being totally self-indulgent where the other half of him because of his upbringing along the way h strives to be the epitome of a samurai, where the structure of his life is perfect, where he's a decent honorable man where he does not yield to the darker side of his nature, it's all controlled. There are two extremes which is how he goes. But he's trying to figure out which one will allow him to live happily ever after. And from a characterization point of view, it's a case of one step forward, however many steps side to side and in the worst case two steps back So there's always a striving, whereas heroes tend to be taken for granted.

Wolverine has as anti-hero edge I would think makes him really fun to write.

Yeah, right up Hugh Jackman's alley, damn it!

So many your stories made into big time movies seen by a bazillion people. What's a sweet or surreal, specific moment from seeing one of your stories on a big screen that really hit you?

Actually it's a classic moment from the first film. Where you've got Hugh Jackman and Anna Paquin in his truck, driving through the back end of Canada, just before they get ambushed by the bad guys. She's seen what he can do and looks at his right hand and she says, "Does it hurt?" Meaning the claws. And Hugh Jackman looks at his hand, he looks out the window and he just says, "Every time."

And I remember at the premiere when I saw that, the next thing I knew I was leaping to my feet and going, "Yes!" Because, my dialogue, my sense of Wolverine, my moment, not quite the way it's on the screen, but for me that's the key thing. And that's what hardly anyone does in writing the character in comics and to a certain extent in the film. Just because he has claws doesn't mean the nerves are severed. Every time he pops them out, it hurts.

And for me as a writer, the one regret for me, the original story that was pitched to Lauren Shuler Donner that she wanted to make, she wanted to make the original mini-series that Frank Miller and I did, that's what she wanted to do as her Wolverine movie. And the problem is what ended up onscreen was maybe two-thirds of our story but the third act is a total confusion let us say, traditional very normal.

You want to keep the audience sitting on the edge of their seat, whether you're reading a comic book or you're watching a movie. Otherwise what's the point of paying your 11 bucks to get in the door and eating your popcorn?

When you go to these comic-book cons, like the one here in Huntsville, Alabama, fans are glad to see you, tell you what your work means to them. What do you enjoy most about a con experience? Is it seeing kids dressed up as these characters you brought to life, seeing some colleagues ?

It's a little bit of all of that. Seeing colleagues is great, especially these days. But a writer, I'm sitting in my office with a computer in front of me. I don't go out the door. If I go out the door, I walk around the block five times and get my steps in. But we don't interact very often with people. And especially with our audience.

So in going to a convention it's my chance to interact with, to meet the people who buy the books. It's like Hey I'm here, you're here let's talk. The thing I've been discovering lately, in San Diego, at New York or any convention I'm into people who are in their third generation of reading my stuff. It's like, "Oh yeah my grandad was reading this." And I'm like, huh, never saw that one coming.

As a writer that's an extraordinary realization. It's like, holy cow, people read this stuff? People pass it onto their kids and now their grandkids? And yeah one has to indulge in a moment of I guess of solipsistic ego, but oh my God as a writer that's so cool. That's standing onstage at the end of "Hamilton" and having the audience stand up there and applaud the living daylights.

It doesn't happen with writers that often. All you do is interact with your editor who gives you mothing but grief and feel happy you can deposit the check and then you move on to the next project.

And so actually meeting the audience, interacting with the audience  And OK in Huntsville, I confess driving by a Saturn V (at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center) is the coolest thing.

Yeah, we like that Saturn V rocket here. When I was a kid your Dark Phoenix saga was being released and I really gravitated to your version of X-Men, those characters and themes. I'd even pretend to be these characters. When you were a kid, who were some comic-book characters you pretended to be?

The problem was the comics I grew up with are English. "Dan Dare," "Sky Pilot of the Space Ways." But to be honest in terms of growing up I didn't really fantasize about being any character other than writing down ideas, characters I wanted to create. Yeah, I loved reading "Modesty Blaise," I loved reading James Bond. But it was I wanted to be these characters it was what would be a cool story to write about them and then I would come up with I thought would be a cool character and have them interact with them.

Kids say, "What do you love doing"" and I say, "Well I love acting." I've always loved acting. It's a passion. They say, "Do you love writing?" And I say, "Nope," and they say, "Huh?" For me writing, do I love it? No, but it's essential to who I am.

I walk around with a notebook and if I get an idea, I scribble a note and sometimes it just stays in that notebook untouched. Other times, it Huh, this could be a fun idea.

The Wolverine arc that Frank Miller and I did that got turned into "Wolverine 2" (2013 film "The Wolverine") began because I wanted to work with Frank but we were on a traffic jam on I-5. On the right hand side is Camp Pendleton and on the left hand side is San Onofre Nuclear Plant. And I'm going, what fool builds a nuclear plant on the pacific coast in an earthquake zone?

But then I started pitching this idea to Frank. We're sitting there for two hours and by the time it's done we had the "Wolverine" (1982 Marvel comic book miniseries), then it was just a matter of writing it. That's what's cool. The only thing I really wish is I knew how to draw then I could have all the fun.

At any point in your career did you try to draw a comic book as well as write, to be able to control the story and the look?

Have you ever seen Dirty Harry (a 1971 Clint Eastwood action movie)?

Yes.

There's a phrase, "A man has to know his limitations." I've learned that the hard way.

Most interesting thing about your process with Frank Miller, how you two put the limited "Wolverine" series together?

The amusing thing was for issue one I sent him one of my standard plots which was 20 pages for a 22 page book because I'm writing everything. Who? What the characters look like, how they feel, dialogue that I may or may not use. It's just huge.

One artist once was like, Oh my God, look at all this stuff. How am I ever going to draw it? And a friend of mine also an artist, Walter Simonson, said, Actually if you read it there are only five images. The rest is all stuff Claremont wants for himself. So you find the five images, you draw the five images and youre off to the races. And he did that.

Well with Frank with each issue, because what I'm writing not simply the action, it's textural what goes with it, by the time we got to the fourth issue, none of that was necessary. I knew how Frank thought. He knew how I thought. We talked for 20 minutes on the phone and I wrote a half a page of notes and that was the fourth issue.

The joke was, he would leave all this room in the panels because my reputation is, I write a lot of copy, and I would be looking at the art and thinking I don't need to say anything. It's all there. What am I going to do? Have Wolverine say, "He's swinging his fist at me! Argh!" That would be ridiculous. Shut up and let the visuals tell the story, which is what I did, and it was the most fun ever.

What's the biggest pushback you ever got? Was it maybe when you were doing the Dark Phoenix saga?

Killing Jean (Grey, the "X-Men" character). I mean this was in the old days when you actually had to mail letter and write them on paper  We got about 200 letters. I got death threats - Frank and I were comparing notes, my death threats for Phoenix, his death threats for Elektra (The "Daredevil" character). Yeah. Fortunately, they weren't serious or capable so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

For me, it accomplished what I think every book of fiction needs to accomplish, which is it creates that moment for the reader where you can pick a book and open the first page and realize I can't take any of this for granted. As we said on more covers that I care to think about, if we can kill Jean, we can kill anyone.

That way we can have the audience sit a little closer to the edge of their seat and wonder, could we do this to Iceman could we do this to Rogue? That's what you need, that element of suspense. Because the one challenge every commercial comic has in the United States is because these characters are all owned by Marvel/Disney, what corporation is going to kill a potentially valuable asset?

What are you writing these days? Saw a photo on your Instagram of you plinking away on a keyboard.

[Laughs] Trying to finish a novel. I'm still under contract with Marvel so I'm doing projects for them. Everybody's been sort of up the spout for the last sixth months because of COVID - but why you name a virus after a beer I don't know? - and everything's just getting on track now. The first half of the newest version of (1982 "X-Men" graphic novel) "God Loves Man Kills" has just been published, which is one of the things I'm looking forward to hearing the reactions from in Huntsville, at the convention. That will be interesting and fun.

For me, the heartbreak of that story is after the better part of four decades, it's still horrifyingly relevant. The thing of it is too many people find it easier to jump to conclusions, to hate rather than take a step back and maybe find a way people can live, work and prosper together. The whole point of, at least my run on "X-Men" was being a mutant made everyone else feel uncomfortable. It scared them.

To me that's what all this about. It's not about heroes fighting villains, it's not about crossing universes, although that's a lot of fun, it's about finding a way to fit in. To look at someone and not see them in terms of their label. Well you're this color or that color. This religion or that religion. You're heterosexual or homosexual or multi-sexual. You're a person. Start from that and fit the other stuff around the edges and see how that works. For me, that's what "X-Men" has always been about. Kids trying to fit into a society that isn't sure it wants them but they've got nowhere else to go so they've got to find a way to make it work.

You mentioned Hugh Jackman earlier. He's done such a great job with Wolverine in the movies. How much did he pick your brain as he was sinking his teeth into that character?

I have to say none. I mean the interaction was he read the stories, or a chunk of them. He found a way to make Wolverine work in terms of the screenplay or in terms of his vision of the character. That's all one can ask of any actor. I have no real problem with that.

The things for me I found extraordinary was throughout the seven or eight or nine film in the X-Men canon is they all work. Lauren is a gifted producer. She can cast like nobody's business. The fact the Hugh Jackman was the second choice to play the role, you say, wow she knew what she was doing.

The first choice to play Wolverine was  ?

Dougray Scott. They were filming "Mission Impossible 2" and Tom Cruise called everybody back for reshoots for the motorcycle chase and he broke his ankle in a stunt moment. He asked Fox if they could shoot around him until it got better and Fox being tactful said Nope, you're out.

They figured this to be a cheap superhero movie - they found it embarrassing to do superheroes in the first place. And their experience with it on the "Blade" movies and "The Punisher," they were 50 million bucks here or there, chump change.

Patrick Stewart was the only money person in the case because of the work he'd done as Picard. But when you actually look at the cast, it's really good. And the punchline of the joke is between the moment they started shooting and the moment the film came out, Ian McKellen was off in New Zealand filming this little fantasy, "Lord of the Rings." Hugh Jackman was the hottest thing since sliced bread. Hale Berry had just won the Oscar. They suddenly had a money cast. Oh and in the first weekend the movie made a 100 million bucks. Which nobody expected from superheroes and certainly not from the "X-Men."

So one could argue that the "X-Men" opened the door for "Spider-Man" like three years later which opened the door for "Iron Man". And once "Iron Man" hit the deck, look at the next 10 years. So as usual, it all the mutants' fault by they get no respect for it. And yes, I am partisan.

With the pandemic shutting down theaters and big budget movies, this is going to be the first summer without superhero movies in a long time. If there's any good that can come out of it, do you think it's fans go back to the source material to get their superhero fix? Or a take a beat between all these blockbusters so superhero movies don't feel so played out?

It's a yin and yang sort of thing. Eventually we well be able to see these things. I'd like to see "Black Widow." I'd like to see "Wonder Woman." The thing I wonder about and I'm sure Kevin Feige (Marvel Studios president) is wondering the same thing is how do you top "End Game" (2019 Avengers film)? The thing about "Avengers," the whole Marvel pantheon, no one was looking. And with the next set of films, everyone's going to be looking and it will be interesting to see how that all works.

See the fundamental thing about comics is all I need to do a Star Wars is an artist like Dave Cochran and then give us a bunch of pages and a deadline and we're off in running. Yes, George Lucas can do the same thing. It will just take three years and oh yes $160,000,000. We can do that with 20 pages and a pencil. That is the gift of comics. We can tell a story that can grab you, take you somewhere you've never seen, put you in a position you've never imagined, have you on the edge of your seat and wondering what the heck's going to come next and having to wait 30 days to see the next issue. If that isn't a gift, if that isn't adventure for the readers, I don't know what it. Then you can still it in back your back pocket and have it to read whenever you want.

You mentioned "Hamilton" (the hit musical) earlier, seeing that in person. Is that narrative work that blew you away recently?

I think probably "Hamilton" was it.

Who is the ultimate comic book villain?

If I was in a smart aleck mood, I'd probably say my editor, but only if he reject my concept. Doctor Doom is fun to play with. Darkseid (the misspelling in intentional) is fun to play with. But the trick here isn't to figure out are they or aren't they, it's why are you a villain and then it's simply a matter of perspective. The word I end up preferring is adversary because villains end up being much more two-dimensional, and two-dimensional isn't as much fun. You've got to find a way to make that villain cool. It's not cool from the point of view of he's the scariest person ever. Is there a tweak to them that maybe nudges your perception in a different direction and makes you think, "Huh, I might have misinterpreted this person all along."

When you're writing, do you listen to music or write in silence? And if you do listen to music what kind?

Mostly soundtracks because words are too distracting. Used to be my go to people were John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, people like that. Stuff I find interesting but don't have to listen to. What usually happens is when I'm really writing its background noise and I can turn it off in my head.

If you were going to be known by one issue of one comic, which would it be? This is what I do.

"God Loves Man Kills." Because from the start the premise of the graphic novel was if you only have one X-Men to read but wanted to know every concept of what these characters are all about, this is it.

Do you always write linearly? Or do you sometimes start with a pivotal scene, an ending, a problem? Or always the opening scene?

Yes. All of it. It's like everything else, when one is a write an image pops into one's head. Is it a beginning, is it the end, is it the middle? I don't know. I look at it and figure out where does this go, how do I get there, what happens next, how much fun can we have

Chris Claremont will appear at the Huntsville Comic and Pop Culture Expo, July 18-19. More info at hsvexpo.com. For more info on Claremont, visit chrisclaremont.com and instagram.com/chrisclearmountain.

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The denouement in the desert storm that hit Rajasthan earlier this week may depend on Congress high commands ability to chart a role for Sachin Pilot as Ashok Gehlot ups the ante to squeeze the rebel leader out of state politics.

Having got the upper hand thus far, Gehlot was unusually harsh and aggressive on Pilot on Wednesday even as there were reports of Congress leadership in Delhi attempting to reach out to Pilot camping in Gurgaon with his MLAs.

Gehlot ended his long winding diatribe against Pilot with a golden quote: Sone ki chhuri pet mein khane ki liye nahin hoti (You never use a golden knife to cut your own stomach). Without naming Pilot, Rajasthan CM accused his former deputy of conspiring to destabilise the government.

Pilot has already been stripped of the dual charge of deputy CM and Pradesh Congress president. A new PCC chief has been appointed. All other key organisational heads seen to be Pilot loyalists have been replaced to plug possibility of status quo ante in the organisation.

A repproachment now can be struck through a return in the state government or by an appointment as AICC office bearer.

Pilot seems to have responded positively from feelers from the Congress as papers quoted him that he was not joining the BJP; and the "BJP link was a bid to align me in the eyes of the Gandhis".

Gehlots strident and aggressive stand on Wednesday is being seen as an attempt by the Rajasthan CM to narrow down possibilities of Pilots rehabilitation  in state politics at least.

Central observers sent to Jaipur on multiple occasions have tried to send feelers to the rebel group and its leader to take the first step towards detante by publicly reiterating their loyalty to the party.

On the other hand, the chief whip of the party in state assembly, Mahesh Joshi, moved speaker CP Joshi for the disqualification of the rebel MLAs. Message to the Pilot camp is clear: return or risk losing your membership of the house. Tactically, this serves twin purpose  any depletion in rebel ranks weakens their ability to bargain a return and a reduction in the house strength brings down the majority mark in the house.

Pilots ability to bargain in this stand-off has also been debilitated by BJPs stoic in-difference to the standoff.

Congress high command on the contrary is said to be making efforts to keep a window ajar for Pilots return. This could also be seen as part of the attempt to dispel notions which surfaced during Jyotiraditya Scindias exit when a section in the party felt the leadership did not do enough to retain talent in the party.
By Trend





A worthy response from the Azerbaijani army to the Armenian armed forces caused panic in the Armenian army, Trend reports on July 15.

The servicemen began to leave their positions in the Armenian army. The video footage disseminated on social networks testifies that the Armenian servicemen leave the trenches.

It shows that Armenian armed forces are forced to retreat. The Armenian leadership attracted police officers to prevent the desertion of the servicemen.

Despite the pleas from the police officers to return to their positions, the servicemen stubbornly refused, saying that they do not want to die.

Apparently, the powerful retaliatory strikes of the Azerbaijani army instilled fear on the Armenian military personnel.

The widespread video footage proves that Armenian soldiers are fleeing and as a result, the conflicts arise between them and the police officers.
Boris Johnson must delay the completion of Brexit by 12 months to avoid a disastrous no deal, a report commissioned by Tony Blair says today.

The study, by a former government Brexit official, says it is now too late to strike an agreement with the EU, with the cliff-edge looming at the end of the December  and the talks deadlocked.

Instead, the prime minister is urged to recognise that the responsible thing to do  with all of Europe facing a deep recession  is to agree a standstill implementation period for up to one year.

This would not require Mr Johnson to go back on his rejection of an extension to the transition period, because it would genuinely implement a permanent trade deal, agreed in-principle.

Anton Spisak, the reports author, argued there is a landing zone for a sensible compromise between the two sides, but warned: It is very narrow.

It is only possible if both sides show willingness to move away from principled stances and be realistic about what can be achieved by the end of this year. The alternative is a disastrous no deal.

The report comes as the UK and EU launch another round of talks, but with little apparent hope of the breakthrough needed this month, if a deal is to be reached in time.

The two sides remain far apart on the UKs demands to break free of EU rules and the remit of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), while securing a tariff-free and quota-free agreement for goods.

The other flashpoints are fishing rights and future police and judicial cooperation, with a UK expectation of sharing data outside of ECJ control.

Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Show all 66 1 /66 Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A message projected onto the White Cliffs of Dover Sky News/AFP via Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Big Ben, shows the hands at eleven o'clock at night AFP via Getty Images Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Nigel Farage speaks to pro-Brexit supporters PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-Brexit demonstrators celebrate on Parliament Square REUTERS Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU The Union flag is taken down outside the European Parliament in Brussels PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU campaigners outside the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A pro-Brexit supporter jumps on an EU flag in Parliament Square PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU EU Council staff removed the Union Jack-British flag from the European Council in Brussels, Belgium EPA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to 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goodbye to EU Pro-EU protesters hold placards in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU French newspapers PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald with a Border Communities Against Brexit poster before its unveiling in Carrickcarnon on the Irish border PA Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU National growers organisation British Apples & Pears has renamed a British apple to EOS, the Greek goddess of dawn, to commemorate Brexit day AP Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Pro-EU protesters hold placards in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Britain's departure from the European Union was set in law on January 29, amid emotional scenes, as the bloc's parliament voted to ratify the divorce papers. After half a century of membership and three years of tense withdrawal talks, the UK will leave the EU at midnight Brussels time (23.00 GMT) on January 31 Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man poses with paintings on Parliament Square Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU People sporting Union Flags gather in Parliament Square Getty Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A man walks with a St. George's flag at Westminster bridge on Brexit day Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU A British bulldog toy and other souvenirs at a souvenir store Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU British pro-brexit Members of the European Parliament leave the EU Parliament for the last time Reuters Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU Jonathan Bullock waves the Union Jack as he leaves the European Parliament EPA

The study, published by the Tony Blair Institute, concludes agreement is possible with compromise in each area, by:

* The UK agreeing to a system of sanctions if it were breach commitments to prevent it undercutting the EU  enforced by independent domestic regulators.

* On state aid, the UK maintaining an effective domestic anti-subsidy regime, based on a set of common objectives agreed with the EU.

* On environment and labour standards, both sides agreeing to uphold existing protections, with the UK committing to enforcement through independent bodies.

* On governance, an overarching institutional framework could bridge the divide between the EUs push for a single agreement and the UKs wish for multiple separate deals.

Calling for the implementation period, the report states: Such a standstill period wouldnt be an automatic extension of the transition period, which the UK government has already rejected.

Rather, it would be an actual implementation period  legally contained within the future treaty  allowing both sides to complete the technical negotiations, ratify the deal, and implement it, without rushing through a quick and poor agreement and risking far bigger ratification and legal problems down the line.

Failing to agree to such a time-limited standstill period when the UK and European economies are facing a deep recession following the Covid-19 pandemic would be a grave mistake.
The much-bandied 'breach of trust' by the Chinese is a matter of fact, but a wholly insufficient explanation for the situation that unfolded in the Galwan Valley

Questions of intelligence and deciphering hostile intent haunted the establishment in the aftermath of Kargil, and are doing so yet again in the recent India-China border clashes. Reports suggest that the first sighting of troop movement on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control came in mid-April, almost two weeks before Chinese and Indian soldiers came to blows. However, this intel never reached the Indian Army.

After Kargil, introspective studies had pointed to the rather dismal record of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), Intelligence Bureau (IB), Army Intelligence, diplomatic sources and the political wherewithal in 'reading' the brewing signs, genesis and the possible implications of Pakistani machinations. It had taken nomadic shepherds to give the first warning of a possible Pakistani intrusion, which then got recognised as a major initiative of the Pakistani Army to interdict the strategic Srinagar-Leh road, internationalise Kashmir, galvanise the mood of Kashmiri militants and also pander to the turf war between the politicos and the military establishment in Pakistan.

It was the heroics of the junior command and ranks of the armed forces, and especially of the Indian infantry units who defied militaristic ratios and mountain warfare logic to win the seemingly impossible. The national euphoria following the victory in Kargil unfortunately drowned the crucial and unmistakable failure of the intelligence collection, assimilation and dissemination to the concerned stakeholders. National sentiment and the political necessities of that time did not warrant such an embarrassing acknowledgement and the overall defiance-of-odds made possible by the steel of the military forces, saved the day for the intelligence framework.

There was undeniably a broader context of the geopolitical angularity to the Pakistani handiwork, and to that extent it was also a failure of preempting and comprehending the Pakistani instinct, by our diplomats and the political classes. Today yet again, similar questions linger about the efficacy of the intelligence inputs in the run-up to the clashes in the Galwan Valley.

That there are clear contradictions in the stated timelines of intelligence-sharing pertaining to the Chinese 'build-up' between the intelligence setup and army authorities themselves, tells a dismal story of misalignment.

There are broadly three possible intelligence concern scenarios. First, that there was no substantial or actionable intelligence input at all - highly improbable, given the advancements of tech-enabled satellite images that are available to all, including to the military intelligence that has its own mechanisms. Second, that there was adequate actionable information shared and there was no commensurate reaction to the same  absolutely impossible, given the dynamics and functioning of the military apparatus. Third and perhaps most plausible, there was sketchy and delayed information (which is usually the case) that allowed the situation to drift towards disadvantageous positions and the subsequent clearances to take remedial action was challenged by politico-bureaucratic interventions and constraints.

The clarity on what really transpired may never be known and will remain a matter of conjecture as the establishment of the day may never allow the details of the same to come out, not just from the convenient standpoint of 'security concerns', but to hush up the inconveniences of the accompanying politico-bureaucratic-intelligence bungling. It is this standard spin-doctoring that manifested in the post-1962 analysis (the fate of the Henderson Brooks-Bhagat report is a case in point) or in the more recent Kargil war. Clearly, some things went terribly amiss this time too and no amount of chronological glossing can stitch the narrative, as seamlessly, as is sought. There are contradictions by the political and institutional leaderships that are on record.

Importantly, the much-bandied 'breach of trust' by the Chinese is a matter of fact, but a wholly insufficient justification for the subsequent situation. The ostensible diversion of Chinese troops from a training exercise to the actual standoff sites, the carrying of crude and blunt weapons, or the infrastructure construction activity cannot be wished away to simply a 'breach of trust'  Doka La happened just a few years ago and the dominant impulse and strategic calculus of the Chinese ought to have been known.

On the Indian side, the usual summer practice of bringing brigades from the reserve division for exercises in the region  something that could have matched the Chinese buildup right at the start  did not take place owing to the coronavirus pandemic. And the subsequently buildup was rushed through. The Chinese moved as they always do, latching on to any tactical 'opening'. The initial Indian reactions to the Chinese moves as a 'routine happening', 'we should not read too much into it' or that they were not part of a 'bigger plan' are worrisome.

As in the Kargil situation where it was not just a tactical, operational or the usual cat-and-mouse move on the border, but a more substantial play of sovereign aspirations, the recent Indo-China breakdown needs to be understood in the same contextual sophistry that entails strategic clarity, thought and action from the Chinese playbook. Just as Doka La was not just about disputed borders with Bhutan, but about sending a certain message to Thimphu and New Delhi, the Galwan standoff is a chapter from the same book  one that should have been read fully.

The failure of 'intelligence' in question is not just from the institutional resources or the dissemination framework of the recently empowered National Security Advisor's Office, but about the overall lack of strategic culture (stripped of the political brouhaha) and appreciation of enemy 'ways' that needs to accounted for in the overall governance conscience and planning, including in the security realm.

It is this typical gap between political words and on-ground actions that has resulted in China taking over the sensitive project from India to construct the arterial railway line from Chabahar Port in Iran, owing to delays in the funding of the project from the Indian side. The thunder of India's strategic move in Iran could yet again have been compromised by Chinese swiftness, though now deliberately underplayed, by the Indian establishment. This too is part of a 'intelligence' concern and lack of strategic-culture that besets the Indian security framework  which rides more on jingoism and political passions, as opposed to cold strategic calls.

Nations act and react according to their topical and strategic urgencies that need to be consistently accounted for and attributing the failure to do so on account of any ostensible 'breach of trust', is simply naive and unacceptable, at best.

The author is a retired lieutenant-general and former military secretary to presidents KR Narayanan and APJ Abdul Kalam. Views expressed are personal
GLEN CARBON  A top 10 retailer may retroactively owe the village as much $200,000 in sales tax revenue due to a distribution error that saw it sending funds to another Illinois municipality for most of a year.

This was one of the bigger takeaways from Mondays finance and administration meeting. Finance Director Scott Borror walked the committee through multiple, related items about the epidemics effect on village finances and an ordinance to amend the 2020 budget, which started Jan. 1. The committee unanimously passed the ordinance.

Another main point is there will be no changes to sales tax when it comes to general fund revenues, Borror said. The July sales tax distribution number that reflects retail activity in April, the first full month of coronavirus restrictions, was down 9.3 percent or $29,400, compared to April 2019. When factored in with the misallocation issue, the pandemic accounts for a $22,000 drop, Borror estimates.

Bottom line is, if these numbers are close to being accurate, which I fully believe they are, Aprils retail sales would have been a $20,000 decrease from April 2019, which is not as bad as lot of us initially feared when this began in the early spring and certainly justifies why I suggest not adjusting our sales tax figure, he said.

A projected cash flow worksheet from May to October shows the villages expense and revenues for June were within $3,400 of each other, with expenses slightly higher.

The month of June is typically when we start to receive property tax receipts, Borror said. Were right where we typically are for this time of year, especially with the pandemic.

The village has 7.6-months reserve of cash and investments for operating expenditures, just below the eight-month minimum set by the board of trustees. Projections show expenses surpassing revenues until October.

Through July 3, the village has spent more than $22,000 on pandemic supplies since March 20, including disinfectant sprays and wipes, soaps, gloves, masks and related supplies. These expenses were absorbed within the initial budget but must be monitored during the second half of the year, he wrote.

One bright spot is building permits, which are doing better than anticipated. He said $20,000 has been added to that annual projection.

Under general fund expenses, there are amendments to removed multiple job positions that were proposed but not filled: public works seasonal employees ($67,450); a new parks laborer ($35,000); and a change from part-time to full-time for the museum coordinator ($42,000).

Village Administrator Jamie Bowden added that these positions will be discussed and re-visited in September or October for next years budget.

Under new business, the $200,000 misallocation error was discussed.

Several months ago, we started tracking a major retailer in town whose sales tax distributions were not being received by the village, Borror began. This is a Top 10 retailer. Unfortunately, I cannot name this business because the source of this report that we get this information from is bound by confidentiality.

Early in June, we reached an internal auditor within the company. Within a couple of days, [they] acknowledged that due to their internal errors, they had been misallocating [the money] to another municipality somewhere in the state. We dont know where and theres a good chance we wont find out who it is.

He said he followed up with them last week and the company filed amended returns with the state department of revenue.

At some point, we can expect a large sum of money retroactively given to us, Borror said. He said the total is to be determined but it could be as high as $200,000. At our best estimate, this was an issue going on for about eight months. I have heard through seminars and other things over the years, that the department of revenue will only go back six months to retroactively make us whole.

Borror said this explains why they have noted a month-to-month downward trend on sales tax data.

With the re-opening of village hall, utility payments can once again be made in person. Borror said that late notices will be reinstated this month.

In July, we are beginning to send out late notices on utility accounts once again, he said. Were not charging penalties, we are not enforcing cut-offs but we are taking that second step to reinforce the message that you are late on these. By the fall, you will be expected to be caught up on your utility payments.

Reach reporter Charles Bolinger at (618) 659-5735
Factories that have been built on forest land in Bien Hoa Town of Dong Nai Province. Photo by VnExpress/Phuoc Tuan.

Inspectors have identified 41 factories built on 72 ha of land allocated for forest cultivation in Dong Nai Province ten years ago.

The factories all belong to Phuoc Tan Industrial Park (IP) in Bien Hoa Town of Dong Nai that borders Ho Chi Minh City.

The violation was uncovered following two years of comprehensive IP inspection, provincial authorities stated Wednesday.

The 72 ha of forest land in Phuoc Tan Ward of Bien Hoa Town have yet to be designated as land for commercial and service purposes, though a series of companies had erected 45 factories and workshops here starting 2010.

Of the facilities, four had illegally adjusted their land use purposes, while the rest had ignored legal procedures in their entirety.

Inspectors also reported 34 violations of environmental law, 22 illegal electricity usage and 37 breaches of fire safety.

The provincial People's Committee holds authorities of Bien Hoa Town and Phuoc Tan Ward, as well as authorities of Long Thanh District, the former state of Bien Hoa, responsible for the illegal activity.

Further investigations are undergoing.
Comedian Mr. Ibu has claimed that coronavirus is a scam in Nigeria.

The actor told The Nation he does not believe that Covid-19 exists in Nigeria nor does he care about its existence.

Nigeria, we are not supposed to be involved in this Covid-19, I see no reason why we should be involved. Only Nigerians in Diaspora will have to partake in this devilish programme.

We at home are oblivious, we are not supposed to be involved in any ceremony in trying to pretend or in trying to avoid. My brother, Covid-19 or 20 is not here, I don't care.

Why would China give us sickness and America embellish the technicality and then sell it to the world and people now begin to die when they know it's killing. Thank God we have hot weather, the thing even fears us.

Speaking further, the actor said, I no dey fear anything I dey wear cloth waka on my own. Nothing dey here, nobody don die for this whole area, if you go another area nobody don die, go to stadium nobody don die. Let's be sorry for ourselves.

I'm telling everybody not just the government this, say only what you know do not exaggerate it. Na we dey take our mouth call sickness by Im own, sickness dey pass on its own but na we dey call am for Nigeria. You won't see Covid-19 because it's not here.

On the rising numbers of cases of Covid-19 in Nigeria and activities of the NCDC, Mr. Ibu said, You know anybody?

Have you ever attended any burial and they say na this thing kill am? Have you ever gone to the hospital them say this person na Covid dey hold am? have you ever seen a family them say somebody na Covid na em kill am yesterday for family wey you know? You cannot, dem say dem say na em me and you dey hear. Even the sickness dey fear us.

Are they not human beings, let them bring a picture of at least one person killed by Covid-19 and we find the family of such a person.

Covid whatever is not in Nigeria, we have hot weather here, the disease is scared of us just as we are scared of it so it can't come here.
Prices of residential properties in eight major cities of India have seen a major decline in the first half of the year, with eight metro cities reporting 10-year low in housing units sales, a Knight Frank India report said. "After two years of steady demand, the home sales in top eight cities of India declined by a significant 54% YoY to a decadal low of 59,538 units during H1 2020 with sales mostly concentrated in the first quarter of calendar year," the report said.

These cities -- Mumbai, National Capital Region (NCR), Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Ahmedabad -- also saw sales and new launches decline 84 per cent and 90 per cent, respectively, during the April-June period amid the coronavirus pandemic. "NCR, Chennai and Hyderabad had near-zero sales during this period, while developers were forced to postpone launches across markets due to labour unavailability and the well-anticipated drop in demand," the report said.

Not just residential but office real estate market has also seen a similar trend, the report suggests. Office demand and sale was negligible in the quarter ending June; overall transactions and project completions fell 79 per cent year-on-year and office vacancy in these metros is near four-year high.

In H1 2020, office transactions declined by 37% YoY to 1.6 mnsq m, the lowest in the last 10 years. New completions were lower by 27% YoY to 1.6 mnsq m. Despite the low volume of transaction and supply, the weighted average rental for the eight cities reported a growth of 4% YoY in H1 2020 to Rs 896/sq m/month, the report said, adding that information technology dominated with 43% of the overall sector-wise transactions in the Indian office market.

Shishir Baijal, Chairman and Managing Director at Knight Frank India, says the recovery in the residential markets is not visible in the near future. The office markets' revival will depend on the coronavirus situation. "With the economic uncertainties creating significant headwinds, we expect the office space take up to remain cautious. Most occupiers are expected to hesitate in committing to expansion in the current market scenario and may delay their leasing decisions for later. Occupiers are also devising the best formula for office occupancy for their near - term future to accommodate the impact of COVID - 19 and lockdown such as social distancing, restriction in movement etc. For the office market, it will be a wait and watch till a more permanent solution to this pandemic is found," Baijal said.

With the coronavirus cases rising every day and companies choosing to allow work from home for most of their employees, many companies are saving cost by letting go of the leased spaces. This has also resulted in a major fall of around 8.8 per cent in rentals and aggregate combined vacancy levels have risen by 14.1 per cent in H1 2020.

Also read: India's ranking in JLL's Global Realty Transparency Index improves to 34th spot
Roger Stone is an infamously execrable force in American politics. Perhaps his only saving grace is that hes not a hypocrite about it.

Stone is a proud dirty trickster. The GOP kept him on a leash lest his amorality be too closely associated with the Republican brand. Part of his code is that the best defense against legitimate criticism is to shoot the messenger: Admit nothing, deny everything, launch counterattack.

As a proud cynic, if not an outright sybaritic nihilist, Stone would probably find the very notion of legitimate criticism foolish. Nothing is on the level, he says. Whats right is whatever you can get away with. Its better to be infamous than never famous at all. (These bits of wisdom are laid out in Stones Rules, which reads like Maos Little Red Book of Trumpism.)

I suspect that one reason Stone has a cult following on the right and among many in the media  a fan club that long predates his status as a Donald Trump loyalist  is his willingness to own his political amorality in unapologetic sound bite form, thus immunizing himself from conventional charges of hypocrisy. When you turn deceit and dishonor into guiding principles, the only way you can be a hypocrite is if you fail to go low enough.

But Stones hypocrisy exemption isnt transferable. His defenders, and defenders of President Trumps Friday night commutation of Stones prison sentence for seven felony counts of perjury, obstruction of Congress and witness tampering, wont escape judgment for their two-faced behavior.

The three main commutation defenses, all offered with Stonian shamelessness, are: (1) The president has the power to do it; (2) it was warranted because Stones conviction was part of the Russia hoax; and (3) other presidents used their pardon and commutation power corruptly, too.

The first defense is true as far as it goes, though its a straw man given that few dispute it. It also leaves out James Madisons famous example of a noncriminal but impeachable act: If the President be connected, in any suspicious manner, with any person he shelters from justice, Congress would be within its rights to impeach him for it.

Second, whatever you think of the Russia investigation, Stone is guilty of the crimes he was tried for. Indeed, those crimes should enrage those who tout the presidents total exoneration. If Stone believed Trump to be wholly innocent and that the Russia collusion claim was a hoax, why not fully cooperate with investigators to clear the air? Moreover, why would Attorney General William Barr  vilified by the left and lionized by the right for being a Trump loyalist  oppose Stones commutation and defend his prosecution as righteous?

The third and most popular defense is the one that reeks of hypocrisy.

A common talking point is that Bill Clinton abused his pardon power, too. (Of course, Trumps defenders dont say too because that would concede that Trump is abusing his power.) Clinton pardoned his own brother. He pardoned billionaire fugitive and Clinton fundraiser Marc Rich.

The right was furious about these pardons. The GOP-controlled Senate held angry hearings on the Rich pardon. Liberals denounced it, too. Jimmy Carter was outraged by the Rich pardon. New York Sen. Chuck Schumer couldnt think of a single justification for (it).

You can argue, as many of us did at the time, that liberal outrage over Clintons pardon of Rich was a convenient way to criticize the president when the criticism didnt matter anymore. But at least liberals called the inexcusable inexcusable.

A few on the right  including two GOP senators, Mitt Romney and Pat Toomey  have stepped up. But the majority seem not just willing but thrilled to excuse the inexcusable  admitting nothing, denying everything and launching counterattacks. Indeed, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said he wants to grill special counsel Robert Mueller because Mueller penned an op-ed defending the Stone prosecution.

Congratulations, Roger Stone: You won. Its your party now.

Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch.

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As a result, we informed our team members that their furloughs could be converted to a permanent layoff in the coming weeks or months, he said, adding that the notice does not necessarily mean that all those team members will be laid off.
New research out of the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) utilizes digital image analysis technology to shed light on some of the challenges children face when representing their imaginations through the medium of paint. The research also offers concrete insight into the development of children's psyches, and importantly, offers suggestions for educators to improve children's cognitive, spatial, and artistic abilities.

Painting is a recreational and creative activity enjoyed by children across the world. However, children's paintings also serve as crucial artifacts of their perceptions, as they contain the sum of what children see as "essential." The spatial relationships between objects in paintings represent painters' experiences and technical prowess, and tend to indicate shortcomings of either. These are often perceived by viewers of paintings, but until now, detailed evaluation and analysis of children's art has been subjective, relying on the trained eye of an artist or critic.

JAIST researchers Lan Yu and Yukari Nagai have developed and tested a digital analysis process by which children's paintings can be digitized, categorized, and then thoroughly analyzed. Content, scale, patterns, details, and the relationships between objects in the paintings are objectively quantified and calculated.

Trends identified among the subjects sampled, 182 girls and 234 boys in the Republic of China, indicate that children who have not received instruction display poor abilities to recognize and emulate spatial relationships. The younger the painter, the less likely that he or she will have developed these cognitive abilities. Lack of detail and inability to imitate objects is identified as common to children's painting. Statistical analysis of the boys and girls in this study indicated that they have different attitudes toward painting; girls preferred participating in painting more than boys did. It was also apparent that girls were more able to accurately imitate real objects when representing them in their paintings.

This research has implications in art education, suggesting that art teachers focus on several key elements which are useful to the cognitive development of young painters. Guiding children to paint objects outside could enhance their awareness of their natural environments. Focusing instruction on object size, and the ability to recognize and control it, could remedy this crucial deficit in children's paintings. Specifically training students to imitate objects could show significant results in the overall quality of children's paintings. And finally, instruction in composition and creative methods is correlated to increasing the enjoyment and reducing children's perception of difficulty toward painting as a creative process.

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By Ernest Scheyder

(Reuters) - U.S. rare earths miner MP Materials will go public in a $1.47 billion deal by merging with a private-equity backed blank-check company, underscoring Wall Street's rising interest in efforts to boost production of the strategic minerals.

The listing on the New York Stock Exchange would be the first for a U.S. rare earths company since Molycorp went public a decade ago. Molycorp filed for bankruptcy in 2015 and MP Materials bought California's Mountain Pass mine and other Molycorp assets in 2017.

The deal, announced on Wednesday, comes as President Donald Trump pushes to resume domestic production and processing of rare earths, a group of 17 minerals used to build weapons and electronics. China is the world's largest producer of these minerals and has threatened to stop their export to the United States.

Reviving domestic rare earths production has become a priority in Washington as relations with China have become increasingly frayed and U.S. lawmakers warn of the dangers of relying on a competitor for critical defense components.

Hedge funds JHL Capital Group and QVT Financial will fold their ownership of MP into the special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Fortress Value Acquisition Corp <FVAC_u.N>, shares of which gained 9.7% on Wednesday. Fortress is controlled by Japan's SoftBank Group Corp <9984.T>.

SPACs have been behind some recent high-profile public listings, including electric car maker Fisker, which announced its plans earlier this week.

MP will net about $489 million from the deal and a separate stock offering for several private investors, including venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya and the hedge fund Slate Path Capital, which is a major shareholder in Barrick Gold Corp <ABX.TO>, the world's second-largest gold producer.

MP plans to use the funds to upgrade outdated and mothballed Molycorp-era processing equipment in California.

MP had planned to process 5,000 tonnes per year of the two most common rare earth metals by the end of 2020, though the goal is now by 2022, the company said on Wednesday.

MP is by far the most advanced player in the U.S. rare earths industry, given no rival project has even broken ground. But the company has to ship more than 50,000 tonnes of concentrated rare earths per year to China for final processing because its California equipment is not operational. Chinese customers account for all of MP's $100 million in annual revenue.

Story continues

Jim Litinsky, MP's co-chairman, will become chief executive of the new company, which will trade under the stock ticker "MP." Retired U.S. General Richard Myers, who chaired the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the George W. Bush presidency, will join the company's board.

It was not immediately clear if China's Shenghe Resources Holding Co Ltd <600392.SS>, which owns 9.9% of MP, would participate in the Fortress deal, though the conversion likely will give Shenghe an equity holding in the newly formed public company. Shenghe did not respond to a request for comment. MP declined to comment.

Reuters reported earlier this year that Shenghe's stake in MP had prompted concern from scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Critical Materials Institute, the focal point of the U.S. government's rare earths research and a facility that typically works closely with private industry.

The U.S. Department of Defense awarded funding in late April to MP for a facility to process heavy rare earths, a less-common type of the specialized minerals.

But that decision was put on hold a few days later pending "further research," according to a Pentagon document seen by Reuters.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
Economic Trends in the U.S. Northeast Forest Industry Most Northeast sawmills  although not all  have been operating close to a "normal capacity" for the spring and mud season. Inventory of logs and sawn lumber has grown to record levels, which could be a sign of tough times ahead. By Eric Kingsley, Vice President & Partner of Innovative Natural Resource Solutions Editor's note: This article was posted on Forest2Market's blog. July 15, 2020 - Biomass, pulpwood and sawlogs make up almost all of the wood harvested in the Northeast. Each is important to the sustainability of the region's forest industry, but due to the current state of the economy are facing a handful of economic challenges as well as a few opportunities. Timber and Lumber Housing starts, a reliable indicator of market health, enjoyed a sustainable climb after the housing-led recession. The US housing starts surge of the last five years was met with a dramatic collapse when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. With that said, lumber prices have held reasonably steady. This is due to mills in the southeast, pacific northwest and Canada electing to reduce capacity and therefore limit supply to reflect the decrease in demand. In addition, the forest industry was largely deemed essential across the US throughout the pandemic, and in many places building has continued. Even with the drop in housing starts and home sales slowing nationally, home repair and remodeling has increased significantly. Home centers like Lowe's and Home Depot have reported record demand. Most of that demand is from small quantity purchases, but these "little sales" add up. Operation of Sawmills Most Northeast mills  although not all  have been operating close to a "normal capacity" for the spring and mud season. Inventory of logs and sawn lumber has grown to record levels, which could be a sign of tough times ahead. Adding to this surplus may be the stall in building permits across the Northeast, as towns and cities have been operating at reduced capacity due to COVID-19. A bright spot for hardwood mills is that export markets have recovered somewhat as workers return to manufacturing businesses in places like Asia. Through the spring and to the present, log prices have softened partly from normal spring and mud season conditions and partly from pandemic effects. Overall, the summer will tell us more about the solid wood market. Mill Residuals Anyone that purchases a cylinder (log) and sells a rectangle (board) needs a market for everything that's not in that rectangle. The softwood sawmills' markets for this residue have shrunk, and this is a dangerous sign for a healthy industry. The restart of Old Town, Maine's mill has been some welcome news, but has been offset by the Jay, Maine explosion that decimated the Androscoggin Mill's pulp processing capacity. Cross-laminated Timber Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is a market that has lots of unrealized potential in the Northeast. These large-scale, prefabricated panels can be used for construction and are favorable due to their solid engineering and strong design while also being light weight. While there is promise for this resource and market, ground has not yet been broken on a CLT manufacturing facility in the region. Given its high potential, future plants - if built in the region - are likely to use spruce/fir lumber. Long term, this could also provide a market for hemlock and potentially white pine, as promising research out of UMass-Amherst suggests. Energy from Biomass In short, for the foreseeable future, it appears that biomass electricity will not be viable without public support. This conclusion comes from a combination of the cost to pay staff and facility operations, the fuel per megawatt-hour to run these facilities, and more. Renewable Energy Certificates are available for some facilities and, for those that qualify, may be a key piece of their operations. However, once offshore wind and other lower-cost renewables establish a foothold in the region, the biomass electricity industry will largely be uneconomical. In addition to wood being used for electricity, its energy can also be used for heat. There are a number of biomass heating projects, which have traditionally competed very well in the Northeast and rural areas that rely on oil for heating. However, the return of low oil prices may spell limited near-term growth for wood heat. These facilities have been bolstered by the existence of Thermal Renewable Energy Certificates (T-RECs) in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and soon Maine for wood heating which can provide significant money to support these operations. Pulp and Paper The health of pulp and paper is very mill-specific. The product mix of these mills has shown to be critical during COVID-19 due to: Tissue, paper towels and wipes in very high demand

Some specialties (personal protective equipment, medical uses, etc.) are very strong

Increased packaging demand as large distribution companies like Amazon, UPS and FedEx report increased use of their delivery services

A drop in demand for printing and writing paper due to closure of schools and offices and halted brochure use from lack of traveling consumers Reentry brings uncertainty for the use of paper How will companies integrate work-from-home be integrated into companies and what does that mean for paper demand?

Will reliance on online shopping and grocery delivery become the norm?

What market shifts will be temporary, and which ones structural? What we do know is the current recession is bigger than anyone expected, and the economic reopening has many unanswered questions. Ultimately, the solution relies on millions of individual decisions to lead what the "new normal" looks like. The actions of the Northeast's high-density populations in cities and suburbs will be the key to getting the economy back on its feet. Emerging industries An emerging industry is a new wood-based insulation facility under construction in Madison, Maine. This plant expects to begin commercial production in 2021 and will use softwood chips to create home wood fiber insulation for the residential and light commercial construction market. Companies have been looking to across the Northeast for new opportunities in biofuels, biochemicals, cross-laminated timber, Nano-cellulose and more. Furthermore, an effort in Maine and similar cooperative project New Hampshire, Vermont and New York are looking to recruit new wood-use facilities. Final thoughts on the Northeast Forest Industry For better or worse, the forest industry is accustomed to boom-and-bust cycles and is experienced in handling them. Northeast markets are incredibly well-positioned compared to other parts of the country and the forest resources and supply infrastructure is incomparable to other regions. In addition, the region's consumers live in close proximity to Northeast timber markets. This time presents an opportunity for the forest industry to develop new technology and test product innovation that can attract new markets while maintaining traditional markets. Forest2Market provides pricing data, supply chain expertise and strategic consulting services to participants in the global wood and fiber supply chain. The Forest2Market's unique databases contain more than 400 million rows of transaction data; they are the foundation for all analytics available in the firm's business intelligence platform, SilvaStat360, as well as client resource studies and consulting engagements. To learn more, visit www.forest2market.com . SOURCE: Forest2Market
Wits Surgery Skills Centre trains specialists for Africa

In August 2017 the first ever temporal bone surgical skills workshop took place at Wits University.

The temporal bone is a thick, hard bone that forms part of the side and base of the skull. It protects nerves and structures in the ear that control hearing and balance.

This training was unique not only because of its specialist nature and that it was the first workshop of its kind on the African continent to be offered free of charge, but because it pioneered the establishment of the Wits Surgical Skills Training Centre to meet the critical need for surgical training across disciplines.

That first workshop, run by the Universitys Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) Department galvanized the momentum and fundraising necessary to produce a state-of-the-art training facility that is now available to the Wits community.

The Centre teaches surgery skills across disciplines including cardiothoracic; ENT; general surgery; gynaecology; maxillofacial; neurosurgery; ophthalmology; orthopaedics; plastic surgery; and urology. .

The ENT department has been at the forefront of establishing the Wits Surgical Skills Training Centre and we hope to incorporate our existing temporal bone laboratory into the Centre, says Dr Shivesh Maharaj, Academic Head of the ENT Department at Wits.

Since pioneering the temporal bone surgical training in 2017, the Wits ENT department has run workshops annually. The workshops and courses assist in training ENT surgeons to improve their clinical and surgical skills.

Maharaj in June 2020 published in the journal, European Archives of Otorhinolaryngology, on the topic of The nasal tent: an adjuvant for performing endoscopic endonasal surgery in the Covid era and beyond. Publication in high-impact journals is testament to the excellence of the training delivered in the Centre.

In South Africa there is a critical shortage of expert medical specialists including surgeons. The country loses medical experts annually due to the absence of highly specialized facilities, infrastructure, and the superior academic training programmes required for training these specialists.

The loss of these skills results in the loss of services in the private and public sectors. Failure to train and retain these specialists in South Africa compromises future training and the delivery of public healthcare. The Centre works to replenish these skills and thus provide essential services in both sectors, says Adjunct Professor Damon Bizos who leads the Centre and who is Head of Surgical Gastroenterology at Wits.

Bizos has a passion for skills training and was previously Head of the World Gastroenterology Organisation Train-the-Trainers Programme.

The Centre aims to provide interdisciplinary training for surgeons, nurses and other allied health practitioners at all levels. The basic and intermediate courses help inculcate basic surgical competence and skills development, whilst advanced courses ensure that experienced practitioners remain at the forefront of advances in the field. It offers access to in-house training as well as industry-sponsored surgical training courses and symposia. Train-the-trainer programmes and research into skills training are integral to the Centre.

The R10-million state-of-art laboratory boasts a large wet lab with eight stations, a lecture room for 35 participants, lead-lined walls to accommodate imaging, availability of laparoscopic towers and endoscopy for upper endoscopy and colonoscopy, full audiovisual and video-conferencing facilities, and access to cadavers to enable surgical and anatomical training on an actual body  considered the gold standard of surgical training. A fundraising initiative is underway to further enhance the surgical and IT infrastructure of this 21st Century facility.

The Wits community across disciplines is encouraged to take advantage of the quality training, sophisticated facilities and opportunities for networking and collaboration that the Centre presents.

About the Faculty of Health Sciences at Wits University

The future of healthcare in South Africa is dependent on the ability of academic institutions to provide quality training for doctors at both the graduate and at the specialist and sub-specialist levels in sufficient numbers to meet the needs of the nation. Wits Universitys Faculty of Health Sciences makes a significant contribution and impact to the provision of high quality and affordable healthcare in South Africa and across the continent.

Through the public health system and the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre (WDGMC), the Faculty trains more doctors, surgeons, specialists and sub-specialists than any other university in southern Africa. The Wits Faculty of Health Sciences is a community of exceptional teachers, innovative researchers, clinicians and students, striving to prepare tomorrows leaders.

The 2019 Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities placed the Faculty 70th in public health and 68th in clinical medicine in the world. The 2019 Times Higher Education World Ranking placed Wits 83rd in the clinical, preclinical and health subjects.These rankings are testament to the global impact of the Facultys exceptional academics and researchers. This is a testament to the global impact of our exceptional academics and researchers.
With all Victorian AFL teams to base themselves in Queensland to salvage the 2020 season, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk believes the northern state deserves the sport's grand final.

Ms Palaszczuk hopes Queensland will at least be considered as the potential host for the AFL grand final this year, as a reward for the state "doing the heavy-lifting" for the sport during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Look, Queensland is happy to help out and I'm quite sure Victoria would have done exactly the same for us if we were in the same position," the Queensland Premier told ABC News 24.

"When I was speaking with [AFL chief executive] Gill [McLachlan] yesterday, that was my number one concern - to ensure the competition could go ahead - and I know that Queenslanders will come out and embrace this season.
Britain, the United States and Canada on Thursday risked worsening fraught diplomatic ties with Russia by accusing Moscow-linked hackers of targeting labs in their countries conducting coronavirus vaccine research. The three governments pointed the finger at the Kremlin, saying that a hacking group called APT29 was "almost certainly" linked to Russian intelligence. In a separate claim, London said "Russian actors" sought to disrupt last year's UK general election by circulating leaked trade documents between Britain and the United States. Both accusations came even before the publication in the coming days of a long-awaited British parliamentary report into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit vote. Russia quickly rejected the accusations as "groundless". The United Kingdoms National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and Canadas Communications Security Establishment (CSE) said Thursday that APT29 was "a cyber espionage group, almost certainly part of the Russian intelligence services," adding their the assessment was endorsed by their US counterpart. "Throughout 2020, APT29 has targeted various organisations involved in COVID-19 vaccine development in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, highly likely with the intention of stealing information and intellectual property relating to the development and testing of COVID-19 vaccines," it said. The group was "likely to continue to target organisations involved in COVID-19 vaccine research and development, as they seek to answer additional intelligence questions relating to the pandemic". In a separate statement, the US National Security Agency repeated the accusations and said that APT29 "uses a variety of tools and techniques to predominantly target governmental, diplomatic, think-tank, healthcare and energy targets for intelligence gain". Russia and Britain have been at loggerheads since Moscow was accused of trying to kill double agent Sergei Skripal with a powerful military-grade nerve agent in 2018. The attack in Salisbury, southwest England, came 12 years after the radiation poisoning of former spy Alexander Litvinenko in London. Again, Russia denied involvement. - 'Completely unacceptable' - Britain is one of a number of countries conducting human vaccine trials for COVID-19. One, at the University of Oxford, showed potential positive results, media reports said on Thursday. But the National Cyber Security Centre, part of Britain's GCHQ electronic eavesdropping agency, said labs were among those targeted "to steal valuable intellectual property". NCSC director of operations Paul Chichester said known targets included UK, US and Canadian vaccine research and development organisations using techniques including malware. APT29 -- also known as "The Dukes" or "Cozy Bear" -- had also tried to hack government, diplomatic, think-tank and energy groups, it added. Nearly 600,000 people have died and more than 13.5 million infected in the coronavirus outbreak this year. Britain's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said that targeting those working to find a vaccine was "completely unacceptable". "While others pursue their selfish interests with reckless behaviour, the UK and its allies are getting on with the hard work of finding a vaccine and protecting global health," he added. - Election meddling - Earlier, the government said there were strong suspicions of a Russian link to the leak of classified documents about a possible post-Brexit trade deal with the United States. An investigation was launched after files were published on the social media site Reddit and were later picked up by the main opposition Labour party. The party used them in its campaign for the December 12 election, claiming they proved Prime Minister Boris Johnson would "sell-out" the state-run health sector to US President Donald Trump. Health funding was a key campaign issue, and Johnson was repeatedly forced to deny the claim. Labour's then leader Jeremy Corbyn dismissed claims the leak was put online by Russia as a "conspiracy theory". Raab stopped short of accusing Moscow of direct involvement. But he said it was "almost certain... that Russian actors" were involved by putting the leaked documents online. Johnson and his ruling Conservative party won a huge majority in the election, allowing him to push through his Brexit deal to take Britain out of the European Union. Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee launched a probe into suspicions of Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit vote after concerns sparked by claims of meddling in the US presidential election won by Trump. It completed the report last year but publication was delayed first by the election, and then Johnson's failure to nominate new members to the committee. This finally happened last week and members had their first meeting on Thursday, where they agreed to publish the Russia report before next Wednesday.
The security guard who refused to let Vogue editor Edward Enninful into his own office was a temp covering for the normal, older doorman who was shielding from Covid-19, MailOnline can reveal.

Enninful was refused entry to Vogue House in Mayfair by the guard who not only failed to recognise him, but then told him to use the tradesmen's entrance at the back of the building.

The doorman was swiftly sacked and an investigation has been launched by his employer.

A source at the media company said the guard was not the person who regularly manned the front revolving door and may not have known he was offending one of Britain's highest profile journalists.

The normal security official is 60 years old and had been working less due to worries over the coronavirus, the source said. He had been replaced by a temp employed by a 'third party'.

Vogue editor Edward Enninful (pictured at Somerset House in November 2016) has revealed that he was a victim of 'racial profiling' at his own office

Enninful wrote on social media yesterday: 'Today I was racially profiled by a security guard whilst entering my work place'

Officials at Conde Nast are now studying historic CCTV tapes to establish whether the temporary worker had ever come across Enninful before.

The magazine's offices have been largely closed during the pandemic with almost all staff working remotely.

Enninful turned up to work at Vogue's offices in Hanover Square yesterday only to be advised to enter via a loading bay at the back of the building in Mason's Arms Mews.

The 48-year-old was described as 'very upset' at the way he was treated.

He wrote on social media: 'Today I was racially profiled by a security guard whilst entering my work place.

Vogue House in London's Mayfair is pictured today, one day after Enniful was refused entry

Enninful was told to enter via a loading bay at the back of the building in Mason's Arms Mews

'As I entered, I was instructed to use the loading bay. Just because our timelines and weekends are returning to normal, we cannot let the world return to how it was. Change needs to happen now.

'Conde Nast moved quickly to dismiss the security guard, but it just goes to show that sometimes it doesn't matter what you have achieved in the course of your life: The first thing that some people will judge you on is the colour of your skin.'

Supermodel Naomi Campbell, a Vogue covergirl, demanded: 'When will this change? Been happening in UK for so long  so sorry you had to go through that.'

Today an official sat behind a desk behind the revolving door which was locked and only came to the front to direct couriers to the side entrance.

Enninful, 48, who was born in Ghana but grew up in West London, became the first non-white person to be appointed editor of Vogue in 2017.

Enninful was described as 'very upset' at the way he was treated at Vogue House (file image)

After succeeding the long-serving Alexandra Shulman, he reportedly told friends that his priority was to 'get rid of the posh girls'.

His arrival at the magazine prompted a mass exodus of staff, including baronet's daughter and deputy editor Emily Sheffield, who is Samantha Cameron's sister.

Famous friends were shocked by his experience with the security guard.

Supermodel Naomi Campbell demanded: 'When will this change? Been happening in UK for so long  so sorry you had to go through that.'

Actress Gemma Chan commented: 'There's so much more to do. Sorry this happened to you.'

Television presenter Trisha Goddard told him: 'I was once mistaken for the tea lady, but this is mad.'

A Conde Nast spokesman said:  It is understood the security guard, who works for a third party contractor, was dismissed from the site immediately and placed under investigation by their employer.
Lahore:

Jammat-ud-Dawah chief and Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed has threatened India with a surgical strike by Kashmiri militants in Jammu and Kashmir that will long be remembered.



(Prime Minister Narendra) Modi had done what he had to. Now it is the turn of Mujahideen to carry out a surgical strike in Kashmir, Saeed threatened while addressing a rally yesterday in Mirpur, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.



The surgical strike Mujahideen are going to carry out will long be remembered. Such a strike will not be like that of Indias one which is not even acknowledged by the world, Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, said in an aggressive tone amid chants of jihad...jihad by his supporters.

ALSO READ | JuD chief Hafiz Saeed slams Pak government for giving a cool response to India over Kashmir issue



Saeed, the founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba who carries a USD 10-million bounty on his head, last week criticised the Nawaz Sharif government for giving a cool response to India over alleged atrocities in Kashmir, saying people in the Valley need Pakistans full practical support.

ALSO READ | 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed finds easy villain in India for Pak's political turmoil



Soon after Indias surgical strikes Saeed had warned the Modi government to get ready to face a surgical strike from the Pakistan army. He was criticised here for issuing the statement on behalf of the army.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
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Ouachita Baptist Universitys Department of Biological Sciences virtually hosted 45 faculty members from 38 colleges and universities last month in its fourth annual AR-CURE Synthetic Biology Workshop, an academic initiative to train institutions to incorporate semester-long research in undergraduate classrooms. The Arkansas-Course Embedded Undergraduate Research Experience (AR-CURE) teaches faculty participants the importance of course-based research and shares how to conduct Ouachitas Synthetic Biology project at their institutions or to use it as a model to create their own.

Since its creation in 2015, Ouachitas AR-CURE Synthetic Biology Workshop has been attended by 100 faculty members from states around the country, and more than 500 students at 11 institutions have reported participating in a course-based research project that was created at Ouachita. With a growing movement in science education to include more research in the undergraduate classroom, AR-CURE offers professional development to science faculty, with preference given to those from resource-limited and minority-serving institutions, at no cost to them.

Ouachita is gaining a national reputation as a model for science education through the continued development of the CURE curriculum, said Dr. Nathan Reyna, assistant professor of biology and director of AR-CURE.

Traditional science labs are a series of weekly, observation-type lab experiences, often referred to as Cookbook Labs, Reyna said in a previous interview. We want to create labs that are true semester-long research experiences.  The AR-CURE project gives faculty a model they can use to modify how they approach teaching science.

Research develops significant skills in students, including confidence, perseverance and communication skills, said Dr. Ruth Plymale, co-director of AR-CURE, associate professor of biology and holder of the J.D. Patterson Chair of Biology at Ouachita. Offering research through AR-CURE and other course-based experiences allows all students to participate and gives the option for a student to participate in many projects, providing multiple opportunities for professional scientific development.

Created by Reyna and Plymale in 2015, AR-CURE uses curriculum from Reynas semester-long Genetics Laboratory course in which Ouachita students successfully build and analyze synthetic genes.

Drs. Reyna and Plymale have kept our biology program at the forefront of innovation  it is obvious when you have so many faculty from institutions all across the country attending the workshops, said Dr. Tim Knight, dean of the Patterson School of Natural Sciences and professor of biology.

Due to COVID-19, Reyna and Plymale adapted the 2020 workshop from an on-campus teaching lab to pre-recorded material followed by virtual meetings and discussions with participating faculty.

One of the sessions toward the end of the workshop each year is the what if I dont have session  a time for faculty to collaboratively brainstorm how they can offer a synthetic biology laboratory like AR-CURE if they are lacking a piece of equipment, Plymale said. Because of the current virtual environment, this years session shifted away from physical equipment and focused on the importance of scientific thought processes in course-based research.

We left this session with a renewed enthusiasm for science as a process to approach any type of problem, she added.

Initially, we were concerned about going to the virtual format, Reyna said. However, we quickly realized this was one of our most successful years!

This project would not be possible without supportive colleagues, administration and funding sources, he added. The workshop's success was a group effort.

The 2020 workshop, as in previous years, also was co-led by Ouachita students, who were assigned as group leaders of faculty break-out groups. Student leaders included Emme Edmondson, a senior biology and chemistry double major from Benton, Ark.; Nick Gerber, a senior biology major from Arkadelphia, Ark.; Tim Spiva, a junior biomedical sciences major from Malvern, Ark.; and Julianne Weaver, a senior biology major from Benton, Ark.

It was terrific to see Ouachita students give faculty advice on how to conduct class-based research projects, Reyna said.

The initiative is funded by the National Science Foundations (NSF) Arkansas Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (AR-EPSCoR) and also has received funding from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission (AEDC).

For more information about Ouachitas AR-CURE Synthetic Biology Workshop or the Department of Biological Sciences, contact Dr. Nathan Reyna at reynan@obu.edu or (870) 245-5240.
MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI  A rapidly rising increase in young people infected with the coronavirus has tempered the Muskegon County health directors optimism about cases waning in older adults.

The number of people under age 30 infected with COVID-19 increased by more than 22 percent in the past week, moving from 191 cases a week ago to 234 reported Thursday, July 16.

Mostly its due to increased socialization and relaxed safety precautions, said Kathy Moore, Muskegon Countys public health director.

She said the much larger number of cases in young people could be attributed to July Fourth parties and social gatherings.

The positive cases include four among young people under age 21 who attended a beach party in Norton Shores over the July Fourth weekend.

In comparison, cases among older adults rose at a much slower pace over the past week. There have been four new cases among those in their 30s, a 3 percent increase; 18 among those in their 40s and 50s, a 7 percent increase; and nine in those 60 and older, a 3 percent increase.

Most of the younger people with positive COVID-19 tests are asymptomatic, Moore said. Nevertheless, the health department is monitoring their close contacts.

However, Moore said shes concerned about the potential for them spreading the virus beyond their household members.

If I had one major concern, its for that (younger) age group and the potential for spreading because they are employed in places that serve a lot of people, she said.

Overall, the county has had 938 cases, a 9 percent increase from the 860 confirmed cases a week ago. There have been 54 deaths, an increase of two since a week earlier, according to state figures.

Statewide, there were 71,197 confirmed cases on Wednesday, July 15, compared to 67,2387 a week earlier, a less than 6 percent increase, state figures show.

The virus is still out there, but the severity of the cases has waned, Moore said.

Mercy Health had five people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Muskegon on Thursday, July 16, said Angela Klinske, public relations director for Mercy Health. She declined to say how many are in intensive care.

The rise in case among young people is particularly concerning to Moore as she works with school officials in devising reopening plans. She said adults are most important in helping young people understand the importance of vigilance with safety measures  including how they model their own behavior to their children.

Weve gone from governmental regulation to individual responsibility, Moore said. For the younger age group, its up to the families to help everyone to stay in compliance.

Im very concerned for the schools and the school systems and the challenges around keeping the masks on those kids, and keeping them socially distanced.

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

Also on MLive:

Several teens at Fourth of July beach party in Norton Shores test positive for coronavirus

5 reasons why summer parties are spiking coronavirus numbers when protests didnt

Thursday, July 16: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan
Sushant Singh Rajput (File image: PTI)

Actor Rhea Chakraborty on July 16 took to social media demanding a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the death of her boyfriend Sushant Singh Rajput, who had died by hanging on June 14.



Part 2.. I request you with folded hands to initiate a CBI enquiry into this matter . I only want to understand what pressures , prompted Sushant to take this step.

Yours sincerely #satyamevajayate @AmitShah sir

 Rhea Chakraborty (@Tweet2Rhea) July 16, 2020

"Im Sushants Singh Rajputs girlfriend Rhea chakraborty, it is now over a month since his sudden demise. I have complete faith in the government, however in the interest of justice, I request you with folded hands to initiate a CBI enquiry into this matter. I only want to understand what pressures prompted Sushant to take this step. Yours sincerely (sic)," Chakraborty wrote while tagging the Twitter and Instagram handles of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Sushant, 34, was found dead in his Bandra apartment on June 14, leaving people in the film industry and audiences beyond shocked.

Earlier in the day, Chakraborty had shared a post on Instagram, pointing out that she has been receiving death and rape threats on social media in the aftermath of Sushant's death.

Chakraborty has already been questioned in Sushant's death case, which is being investigated by Mumbai Police.
Photo: The Canadian Press

The federal, provincial and territorial governments have reached a deal on billions of dollars in transfers to continue reopening economies amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday.

He said the federal government will contribute $19 billion under the "Safe Restart Agreement" to help provinces fund things like child care, contact tracing and personal protective equipment. There is also money to bail out municipal governments that saw soaring expenses and plunging revenues during the pandemic.

Trudeau had promised $14 billion in early June, but several premiers said they needed more money and also resisted some of the conditions the federal Liberals wanted to put on the deal.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford was one who didn't like a federal demand that some of it fund up to 10 days of paid sick leave to discourage workers with precarious employment from going into work ill.

The agreement includes sick leave, fully funded by the federal government.

Manitoba's Brian Pallister said he's pleased with that provision.

"I think it's very important we have a national program, and the prime minister obviously agreed," he said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

"I think the important thing is that, as opposed to some past discussions where premiers were drawn away from supporting other premiers, the premiers stuck together and they stood for what they wanted and largely got it."

British Columbia's John Horgan said his province expects nearly $2 billion in transfers and emphasized the sick-leave program as a key move to make sure nobody feels pressured to go work sick.

Quebec's Francois Legault wanted the money to be transferred without conditions so provinces could use it on whatever they considered most important. He also didn't want the cash distributed purely by population, noting that Quebec had been hit harder by COVID-19 than other provinces.

Trudeau said the agreement outlines seven priority areas, with some flexibility for the provinces to apply the money to their particular needs over the next six to eight months.

"The provinces agreed to invest in the targeted sectors," Trudeau said. "There are areas like support for vulnerable people where we will expect the provinces to declare publicly what they will do."

At his side, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland added the agreement includes standards in certain areas, such as COVID-19 testing, in exchange for the federal money.

Trudeau said workers can't work if their children don't have safe care, and many can't get to their jobs if they don't have access to safe transit systems.

"Until we find a vaccine, the daily threat of COVID-19 will not disappear," he said.

Municipal governments, which deliver many of those services, have been begging for aid for months, warning their finances are careening toward brick walls. Many city revenue streams dried up during the pandemic, as recreational centres and programs closed, and transit riders stopped using buses and trains.

Toronto has reported that it's facing a $1.35-billion deficit this year. Montreal says it has a $500-million shortfall. Halifax expects to be short $85.4 million.

"If cities aren't equipped for a safe restart, people will not be safe," Trudeau said.
Plans to convert the former Haskell School along Sixth Avenue in Troy to apartments are on hold after a fire last month.

Dillon Nash owner of ST8 Realty and Development, bought the property in May, and hoped to build 20 affordable apartments, following the removal of asbestos and a complete renovation. But on June 20, the roof caught fire after neighbors reported fireworks going off next to the old school. The fire and water damage further eroded the structure.

Now, Nash said, the companies he's asked to do the asbestos removal won't enter the building until the roof is rebuilt, but the state Department of Labor won't allow any work to proceed unless the asbestos is removed. Nash said he was left with two companies willing to do the work - one doubled the price after the fire; and the other recommended demolition.

"Tearing it down isn't my first or fifth option," Nash said.

Prior to the fire, Nash expected construction to begin in the fall. The building was a school from the time it was built in 1894 until 1975. It has beautiful architectural details, arched windows, decorative brick work and stone carvings around the entrance. But inside, even before the fire, the sky was visible from the main floor because much of the roof was gone. Renovation plans include installation of an elevator, a security system, solar panels, off-street parking for 28 vehicles, and new landscaping.

Nash said he will ask the labor department to allow for roof repair before the asbestos is removed, and he is also applying to the state Department of Environmental Conservation for financial assistance.

Expansion at Saratoga Springs subdivision

The Beechwood Organization announced Tuesday that 53 new homes will be built at Oak Ridge, a subdivision between Meadow Brook and Dyer Switch Road, near Fish Creek.

Beechwood, led by father and son Michael and Steven Dubb, bought the remaining lots in the subdivision. Pre-construction prices for single-family and estate homes on one-acre lots are $850,000 to $2 million plus.

The new section will include three design styles. The "Carriage" option for lots up to one-third of an acre, will be 2,200 to 3,200 square feet and have large front porches and rear garage entry. The "Woods" and "Ridge" options are for the one-acre lots and will have 3,000 to 6,000 square feet of living space.

Beechwood was founded in 1985 and has completed more than 65 communities and 7,500 houses in New York. Leader Michael Dubb is a thoroughbred owner who has been coming to Saratoga since he was a teenager. His company built a day care center at Belmont Park in 2001 as a donation and is at work on a similar facility on the Saratoga backstretch.
Derry features several times in a new World War 2 movie starring Tom Hanks.

Greyhound tells the story of a US Navy Commander on his first war-time assignment in command of a group of vessels defending a merchant ship convoy crossing the Atlantic.

The convoy's destination is Liverpool, a city which also played a key role in the war.

The film was released this week on Apple TV and Derry gets a number of mentions in it.

This is being seen as recognition of the importance of Derry to the allied forces during the war.

Its importance increased massively after the US entered the conflict.

As Derry was the first major port in Europe for ships travelling from America, it was seen as a vital location.

Thousands of US soldiers were based in Derry during the war, living in several camps built in the city.

During World War 2, Germany deployed a large number of submarines into the Atlantic to disrupt convoys of supply ships travelling between the US and Britain.

Although the US convoys were protected by shore-based military aircraft when sailing near the shore, most of the voyage was in the Mid-Atlantic area, known as 'the Black Pit' beyond the range of Allied air support, where the only protection for the convoy were the assigned naval escorts.

In Greyhound, Tom Hanks's character, Commander Ernest Krause, is in charge of the operation to escort a convoy of 37 Allied ships headed to Liverpool.

The film's focus alternates between the combat between the escorts and U-boats.

Greyhound was initially scheduled to be released in cinemas in June but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The distribution rights were then sold to Apple TV which released the film digitally last weekend.
Description

GIS  16 July 2020: A half-day training for trainers on Covid-19 organised by the Ministry of Health and Wellness in collaboration with other stakeholders kicked-off, this morning, at Heen Foh Hall, in Port Louis. The Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Kailesh Jagutpal, and other personalities were present at the opening ceremony.

This training session, targeting some 350 participants, aims at enabling trainers and the different stakeholders who work directly with the general public to acquire additional information and training on Covid-19 so as to sensitise and inform the public in a more efficient manner regarding the coronavirus. Furthermore, its objective is also to ensure that every Mauritian is ready for the reopening of our borders, for which modalities are still being worked out, so as to avoid a second surge of the virus in the country.

The training session will comprise four main topics, namely: Overview of Coronavirus in Mauritius and Challenges ahead; Control Measures and Prevention of Coronavirus; Transmission of Coronavirus; and the role of officers in the Prevention Programme and Social Mobilisation.

In his address, Dr Jagutpal highlighted that, as the lockdown has been lifted in Mauritius, participants are meeting representatives of Non-Governmental Organisations, Health Centres, Community Centres, and schools so as to disseminate information about the virus more efficiently and attending to queries from members of the public. He pointed out that, since the coronavirus is still present around the world and is constantly evolving, it is imperative that up-to-date information is made available to the population so that everyone takes necessary precautions, and to prevent the spread of fake news.

Furthermore, the Health and Wellness Minister recalled that since January 2020, Government has already started taking necessary precautions so as to mitigate the spread of the virus in the country and to acquire necessary equipment. A National Committee, chaired by the Prime Minister, met every day for more than three months so as to take appropriate measures to ensure the well-being of the population in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic in Mauritius, he added.
Journalists organizations in Assam have requested Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal to intervene in a matter related to arrest of a journalist allegedly for his reporting about cattle smuggling.

Rajiv Sharma, a journalist belonging to a local TV channel and based in lower Assams Dhubri, was arrested by the police early Thursday on charges of extortion, outraging the modesty of a woman, criminal intimidation etc. following a complaint filed by divisional forest officer Biswajit Roy.

Reports quoting Sharma said that he was falsely implicated in an extortion case for his continuous reporting on cases of cattle smuggling by criminal syndicates in Dhubri district which borders Bangladesh.

The journalists father, Sudhin Sharma, suffered a heart attack at his residence in Gauripur near Dhubri after the arrest and later died.

Terming the arrest as unfortunate, the Guwahati Press Club has asked CM Sonowal, who handles the home portfolio, to intervene in the matter and ensure that Sharma is not unnecessarily harassed in the name of investigation.

The Journalists Forum of Assam also expressed shock at the arrest and demanded unconditional release of the scribe.

Sharma was granted interim bail for three days by a court on Thursday and performed his fathers last rites in Gauripur.
Home minister Anil Deshmukh on Thursday said that the criminal investigation departments (CID) investigation into the April 16 Palghar mob lynching case revealed that the incident occurred owing to social media posts on child-lifters being in the prowl in the area. He said that though a political party tried to give the incident a religious colour, the investigation cleared the air.

The charge sheet filed by CID clearly states that the killings of the two sadhus and their driver by a mob were triggered by the rumours. There was no religious angle to it, Deshmukh said.

The home minister informed that the CID registered statements of 808 people and arrested 154 accused and that the further course of action will be decided by the court.

On April 16, two sadhus and their driver were dragged out of their vehicle outside Gadhchinchale village, located about 110 kilometres from Palghar, and beaten to death by a mob.
- Karen Davila expressed her heartbreak online over the unfortunate news involving Ces Drilon

- Drilon announced that she has lost her job on ABS-CBN after the network was refused a franchise renewal by the Congress

- Davila tweeted that she is heartbroken over what happened and that it was an honor to work with Drilon

- According to Davila, Drilon is a news icon and said that she will stand with the Kapamilya network until the end

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Photo from Ces Drilon's Instagram

Source: Instagram

Karen Davila took to social media to express her heartbreak over the unfortunate news involving Ces Drilon.

Drilon announced that she has lost her job on ABS-CBN after the network was refused a franchise renewal by the Congress.

The veteran journalist was heading ABS-CBNs lifestyle ecosystem and serving as the executive editor of the ANC-X website before she lost her job.

Davila tweeted that she is heartbroken over what happened and that it was an honor to work with Drilon.

She also called Drilon a news icon and said that she will stand with the Kapamilya network until the end.

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This is heartbreaking @cesdrilon. Its been an honor to be alongside you in Bandila.

You are an ABSCBN news icon and inspiration. I am preparing my heart as well for the worst and will stand by ABSCBN til the end, Davila tweeted.

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The ABS-CBN shutdown is one of the most controversial issues in the Philippines these days. Supporters of the network claim that the ABS-CBN is being unfairly targeted for political reasons.

Many famous stars have expressed their reaction to the closure of the Kapamilya network. Angel Locsin admitted to getting emotional over the decision against the network.

Anne Curtis also admitted to getting heartbroken over what happened to ABS-CBN. As for Vice Ganda, he walked out during the opening segment of Its Showtime since he could not contain his emotions.

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
The Democratic National Committee's virtual convention next month will mark a major test for whether Internet-based voting can be done safely and securely.

The DNC, which is moving its convention online because of the coronavirus pandemic, released a plan Friday for delegates to vote by email for the Democratic presidential nominee and planks in the party's platform.

Internet voting presents far fewer risks in this case than it would during a regular election because delegates' ballots are not secret. That means they can verify that their votes were not altered, either by hackers or technological snafus, and can correct any errors after the fact. There's also no drama about the outcome of the most important vote because former vice president Joe Biden has practically secured the Democratic nomination.

But it still presents numerous opportunities for hackers from Russia and elsewhere to disrupt the voting process, sow confusion about results or use disinformation operations to spread conspiracy theories or gin up hostilities between rival camps supporting Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

And any disruption is likely to spark painful memories of 2016, when information Russia hacked and leaked from the DNC helped wreak havoc on Hillary Clinton's campaign.

That means the DNC must be hyperprepared to knock back any allegations of digital interference or rapidly respond to attacks even as it runs a convention unlike any in history.

"Even if they're making a prudent decision for public health, this still remains a rich environment for bad actors," Edward Perez, global director of technology development at OSET Institute, a nonprofit election technology organization, told me. "No one should lose sight of the fact that a purely electronic return of ballots is very high risk. The DNC needs to wear both hats at the same time: public health and cyber defense."

The party passed a resolution in May allowing smaller subcommittees to handle in advance some of the more complex votes that usually take place on the convention floor. The remaining votes, including nominating the party's candidate for president, will go to all convention delegates on a single ballot delivered by email. They'll have between Aug. 3 and Aug. 15 to fill out that ballot and forward it by email to state party officials. The convention begins Aug. 17.

Those emailed ballots will include the delegate's name and another unique identifier such as a bar code that connects the delegate with his or her vote, the party said in an email to delegates.

"The State Parties will be responsible for collecting all ballots from convention delegates as they would if we were conducting votes in person at the convention," the letter states. "At the conclusion of voting, each state delegation chair will submit a tally sheet to the Secretary's Office that formally records the number of votes cast on each item of convention business."

Delegates will receive email updates when their votes are tallied by state party officials and will be able to reach out to those officials to ensure that their votes were recorded correctly, a DNC official told me. Delegates will also have the option of voting by phone or conventional mail if they object to email voting or lack Internet access, the official said.

Biden's and Sanders's campaigns hosted webinars this weekend outlining the email-voting system for their delegates.

"We want delegates to play their critical role without risk to their personal or the public health," said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about cybersecurity planning. "We know who all the delegates are. And because the votes are public, we feel confident that we could swiftly fix any problems that arise."

The party is also taking measures to ensure that other elements of the convention are not disrupted by hackers such as speeches by Biden and top party officials. That includes buying services from cybersecurity companies and "deploy[ing] redundant and diverse connections and pathways for the programming and infrastructure that supports the programming," the official said.

When several states piloted voting on mobile apps this year, it sparked so much concern that the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the Election Assistance Commission sent states a guidance memo detailing the risks. The memo warned that returning ballots using the Internet poses "significant security risks," including that hackers could change large numbers of votes, block votes from being recorded or undermine ballot secrecy.

Those risks are significantly mitigated when officials are not trying to both send a vote over the Internet and keep the voter's identity secret. But they're not eliminated.

"The stakes are obviously a lot lower in a party convention setting than a general election context where online voting could be hacked to change the results," Alex Halderman, a University of Michigan election security expert, said. "But what's at stake here is the legitimacy of the process and for that reason security is still very important."

For example, hackers could prevent a state from forwarding votes to the DNC by locking up its computers with ransomware or overwhelming its networks with Internet traffic. They could also change large numbers of votes by hacking into delegates' personal computers and mobile devices. That would probably be caught, but not before it publicly embarrassed the party.

"I'm less concerned about this instance of remote voting because they won't be anonymous," Duncan Buell, a University of South Carolina election security expert, said. "But [the DNC] should contract with a really good security firm. They should have backups on top of backups and delegates should be checking their votes were cast the way they expected."

The committee should also be as transparent as possible, Perez said, so there's less room for Russia or another hostile nation to spread phony rumors that votes are not being counted accurately or to otherwise spark fights between delegate factions.

"Just like the DNC attack in 2016, this creates an opportunity for bad actors to cast doubts on results and further divide us as a nation," he said.

- - -

The Washington Post's Tonya Riley contributed to this report.
Wilson was not only an avowed racist, but also an architect of a sanctions regime that continues to kill to this day.

A Nobel Peace prize holder usually remembered for his idealism, Woodrow Wilson, president of the US from 1913 to 1921, supported segregationist policies at home and played a key role in defeating a Japanese proposal to write the principle of racial equality into the Covenant of the League of Nations. His views on race stemmed from a deeper belief in white supremacy as a guarantee of peace, order and stability.

Already in 2015, the Black Justice League, an activist student organisation, occupied the office of the Princeton Universitys president, demanding that the Ivy League institution recognise Wilsons racist legacy and remove his name from all university premises. Princeton refused to budge, citing Wilsons important contribution to the university.

In the wake of George Floyds murder and the massive anti-racist mobilisations that followed, the university recently announced that it will remove Wilsons name from its School of Public and International Affairs. That battle was finally won.

Modern sanctions

Another battle, however, awaits to be fought. Less known is that President Wilson was also one of the architects of modern sanctions, packaging them as peaceful alternatives to war. Upon returning from the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, he addressed an Indianapolis crowd with enthusiasm about the new system of sanctions that would guarantee peace. Without recourse to armed force, he said, the League of Nations would be able to Apply this economic, peaceful, silent, deadly [and] terrible remedy. It does not cost a life outside the nation boycotted but it brings a pressure upon the nation which, in my judgment, no modern nation could resist.

There always was a degree of irony in Wilsons juxtaposition of peace and death. Be that as it may, history would soon prove him wrong. Not only did sanctions fail when applied to powerful states or did little to avert the second world war, but over the last three decades, their increased popularity, itself the product of their allegedly peaceful character, has cost an unprecedented number of lives. Half a million children are said to have died as a result of UN sanctions against Iraq in the 1990s, and more than 40,000 civilians due to US sanctions against Venezuela today.

More generally, sanctions do not only isolate their target but frequently set the clock back on industrial, socio-economic and political progress with disastrous effects on the social fabric and the prospects of long-term reconstruction. Israels longstanding siege on Gaza is a case in point.

Transnational civil society campaigns have consistently rejected efforts to cast sanctions as peaceful, and have mobilised the language of war and violence to call for their abolition: sanctions do kill, and in the context of a global pandemic, the effects of the lack of adequate medical supplies can be a death sentence and are unlikely to stop at the national border.

Imperial legacies

Wilsons legacy, however, should also prompt us to ask to what extent was the concept of peaceful sanctions tied to the racist colonial order of the 19th and early 20th centuries? And how is the current proliferation of sanctions linked to the persistence and deepening of racialised imperial structures in the present?

Peaceful sanctions adopted outside a formal state of war, from so-called pacific blockades to embargoes, became a routine practice among colonial powers in the 19th century. These sanctions were not limited to the enforcement of international obligations or the pursuit of foreign policy objectives but were also adopted to collect debt, enforce private contracts and secure compensation for injury to their nationals. All served the same cause: to advance imperial ambitions without assuming the risks and responsibilities of war. With the establishment of the League of Nations, multilateral sanctions became part of an international arsenal used to effectively preserve the colonial status quo.

The imperial chain was not broken with the foundation of the United Nations. The Security Councils power to impose sanctions in response to threats to peace was seen as a mechanism for policing weaker states. After decades of inactivity during the Cold War, it would be deployed to restore order in post-colonial societies, particularly in Africa, and to punish states defying the values and norms of the new world order, such as North Korea.

In todays globalised capitalist system characterised by market dependency, unequal structures of production and exchange, and the dominance of the US dollar, sanctions have also proven a strategy of choice for the US and its allies.

The link between Wilsons legacy of peaceful sanctions and his legacy of racism and imperialism are, therefore, difficult to ignore. One needs only to take a look at the cartography of sanctions to see clear parallels with the geography of the colonial era.

If his legacy has anything to teach us, it is that calls for the abolition of sanctions should not only be tied to a humanitarian agenda concerned with minimising human suffering, but to a decolonising project which understands the inhumanity of sanctions as a constitutive feature and symptom of imperial ordering.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / July 16, 2020 / You probably know Andy Ta Kong as the Chief Operations Officer of Project Wifi. We know that he is a hard-working entrepreneur but how exactly did he get there?

Kong was very young when he started working and came from the small community of Danville, Virginia. He loved keeping busy and helping out his family when he could.

Kong started working when he was only nine. He worked with his family at their family-owned restaurant and nail salons.

As others his age played sports, he never really got that same opportunity as he was caught in a pattern of going to school and then working when he wasn't learning.

His parents weren't fluent in English and so Kong was an asset in the business as he had stronger skills in this language.

After school and on weekends he would go to his father's restaurant to help out and would alternate between that and his mother's nail salons. Not only did he do the labor work, but he was also involved in creating online ads. This was his first experience with learning how to make money online and would later inspire him to create businesses of his own as an adult. All of these skills and work ethic that he had learned at such a young age would help build him into the man that he is today.

Kong started selling on Amazon with the FBA Private Label business model. He later worked with Kyle Buckner, owner of designskinz.com. Shortly after that, he joined the team and was given the COO position and gained exposure to e-commerce and branding in 11th grade.

As his career evolved, Kong learned about Amazon Dropshipping from a kid he found on Instagram. This kid inspired him and showed him the possibilities that his future could hold. He just had to give it a try.

When his Amazon store got suspended, he viewed this experience as a life lesson and learned from his mistakes. Later on, he created Project WiFi, an Amazon management company with his partners, Marcello Cantu, Paul Parker, and Mohammed Shakaoat. This Project has proven to be a huge success amongst Amazon sellers.

Story continues

Kong says, "The biggest challenge when starting a business is getting someone to believe in you." His parents always baffled him about focusing on school and their retail business. He understands how a lot of people are afraid of new things, and it's okay for them to be afraid.

He wants to encourage you to believe in yourself, even when no one else does. He says that if you stop at any minor inconvenience or roadblock along the way, you will never succeed. He pushed through and did things for himself even when his loved ones discouraged it. If he hadn't pushed forward with it, he wouldn't be as happy and financially secure as he is today.

Kong plans to continue to build up his business which currently has over 55 clients who each make thousands and thousands of dollars each month. He and his team plan on building an empire while encouraging others to do the same.

For more on Kong, you can find him on Instagram by clicking here

Kiley Almy

Kiley@nextwavemktg.com

Next Wave Marketing

SOURCE: Andy Kong





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China strongly opposes claim from US business advisory on Xinjiang supply chain

Global Times

Source: Global Times Published: 2020/7/15 11:57:15

China has strongly refuted and condemned a statement from the US' Xinjiang Supply Chain Business Advisory, saying the statement is a lie aimed at suppressing Chinese business under the name of human rights and that it will disrupt the global supply chain.

The Xinjiang Supply Chain Business Advisory's claim that there are forced labor and human rights abuses in businesses in Xinjiang is a "crude" lie and not worth refuting, said Hua Chunying, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Tuesday.

The statement, published on July 1 by the US Department of State, Department of the Treasury, Department of Commerce and Department of Homeland Security, claimed there are entities in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region engaged in large-scale human rights abuses, including arbitrary mass detention, physical and psychological abuse and forced labor against China's ethnic minorities.

The advisory said businesses with potential supply chain exposure to such engagement in Xinjiang should be aware of the reputational, economic and legal risks that poses.

"The core issue in Xinjiang is not human rights as the US claims, but anti-terrorism and anti-secessionism," the spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on Tuesday. "China is strongly opposed the US' interference in China's internal politics and to the US' attack on Chinese business under the name of human rights."

MOFCOM also strongly refuted the statement, noting that the US' actions will hinder normal business cooperation and disrupt the global supply chain. The ministry warned that China will take necessary measures to defend the rights of Chinese businesses.

Some of the US' false accusations related to Xinjiang are the biggest lies of the century, Hua said on Tuesday. Over the past four decades, the Uygur population in Xinjiang has more than doubled to 11.68 million, and the total number of mosques is now more than 10 times the number in the US, according to Hua.

"We sincerely hope that US politicians care about the severe race issue in their own country, and make efforts to protect the human rights of their own ethnic minorities," Hua said.

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Linkedin (Reuters) Sydney, Australia  Thu, July 16, 2020 11:15 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666bc555 2 World Scott-Morrison,South-China-Sea,China,Australia,US,Mike-Pompeo Free

Australia will continue to advocate "very strongly" for the freedom of navigation through the South China sea, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday.

"Australia will continue to adopt a very consistent position," Morrison told a media briefing in Canberra when asked if the country backed the position of the United States on the South China Sea.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday the United States would support countries that believed China has violated their maritime claims in the South China Sea, but stressed doing so in multilateral and legal forums.

The US waded back into the heated South China Sea debate after almost a year of disengagement from Southeast Asia, punctuated by a snub of the ASEAN summit in November last year that saw a low-level US delegation attend  a diplomatic faux-pas that has inspired similar moves among ASEAN member states.

Administered under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), of which China is a signatory, the international tribunal made the unprecedented ruling in favor of the Philippines, a claimant in the South China Sea dispute.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 21:54:11|Editor: huaxia

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KABUL, July 16 (Xinhua) -- More than 100 fighters with majority of them militants have been killed over the past 24 hours as the Taliban group has intensified activities in the country, officials said Thursday.

In the latest violent offensive, the armed group stormed security checkpoints in Dawlat Abad district of the northern Balkh province Thursday afternoon but fled away after leaving 14 bodies behind, army spokesman in the northern region Mohammad Hanif Rezai said.

According to Rezai, the militants launched a massive offensive on security checkpoints in parts of Dawlat Abad district at 02:00 p.m. local time but the government forces backed by military planes retaliated, forcing the militants to retreat after leaving 14 bodies behind and over a dozen injured.

Sporadic fighting has been continuing as government forces have been chasing the insurgents, the official said.

Taliban militants launched similar attacks on security checkpoints in the restive Dawlat Abad district early on Thursday and left 16 dead including eight security personnel.

The Taliban outfit, according to security officials, have stepped up activities over the past couple of months amid ongoing peace efforts to facilitate an intra-Afghan dialogue agreed in the U.S.-Taliban peace deal inked in February in Doha.

A total of 13 militants were killed and the Taliban attempt on late Wednesday to overrun Qadis district in the western Badghis province have been foiled, district governor Mohammad Haider Sharifi said Thursday.

According to army statements, 27 militants were killed and 16 others injured in Miwand district of the southern Kandahar province on Wednesday, while five others eliminated in the neighboring Helmand on the same day Wednesday.

A total of 27 insurgents have been killed in the troubled Sari Pul, Herat, Wardak and Paktika provinces over the past 24 hours, the defense ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

Taliban militants, according to Afghan observers, would do their best to gain more grounds ahead of expected peace talks with the Afghan government, as a 6,000-prisoner exchange involving 5,000 Taliban detainees and 1,000 Afghan forces was put up as a precondition.

The Afghan government has already released some 4,200 Taliban prisoners, while the Taliban has reportedly set free some 700 security personnel.

"No doubt, the Taliban would intensify operations to gain more ground and speak from a strong position in the expected talks with the government," political observer Nazari Pariani told Xinhua. Enditem
Anthology

Dear NHS: 100 Stories to Say Thank You

by Adam Kay (Trapeze 16.99, 416 pp)

The hours are terrible, the pay is terrible, the conditions are terrible; youre underappreciated, unsupported, disrespected and frequently physically endangered. But theres no better job in the world.

Thats how doctor-turned-comedy writer Adam Kay described working for the NHS in his bestselling 2017 memoir This Is Going To Hurt.

British presenter Sue Perkins (pictured) has contributed to doctor-turned-comedy writer Adam Kay's new book

To help raise money for the 1.5 million heroes still working for the NHS today, Kay (whose TV writing credits include Crims, Mrs Browns Boys and Mitchell And Webb) has compiled more than 100 stories in which celebrities pay tribute to those who go above and beyond the call of duty every day.

At least 3 per copy goes to NHS Charities Together and 15p to The Lullaby Trust (a charity raising awareness of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).

The stellar cast of contributors includes Sir Paul McCartney, Joanna Lumley, Stephen Fry, Dawn French, Sir Trevor McDonald, Sir Michael Palin, Ricky Gervais, Sir David Jason and Dame Emma Thompson.

Ranging from minor embarrassing incidents to heartbreaking diagnoses, their brushes with the NHS reflect those of the general population.

The collection begins with a shocking story from chat-show host Graham Norton. He recalls being stabbed walking home from a party in London when a man crossed the road just ahead of him.

Suddenly he turned and seemed to be brandishing something. A bat, a bar? I wasnt sure, says Norton, who turned to flee and ran straight into the mans accomplice.

I heard a strange, hollow banging sound, like somebody hitting a large plastic pipe. It was only after I realised it was the sound of my skull being beaten.

After I handed over my empty wallet, they made me lie on the ground as they emptied my rucksack.

After the muggers left, Norton felt an odd sensation as he got up. His T-shirt was sticking to the pavement. It was covered in blood. He lifted the top to discover a hole in my chest. Even in my drunken state, I knew this was serious.

At St Charles Hospital in Ladbroke Grove, London, doctors told Norton that he had lost more than half his blood. Today, he thanks the NHS for saving his life and restoring his confidence.

My two-week stay hadnt made me more fearful about life, he says. It had made me feel safer. When I was a boy learning to ride a two-wheeler, I had been frightened and excited, but I knew that right by my side was my father waiting to catch me if I fell. That is living in the UK with the NHS. They are always there to catch us.

Adam (above) has compiled more than 100 stories in which celebrities pay tribute to the NHS

Several contributors are very funny. Comedians Miranda Hart and Lee Mack meditate on the awkwardness of exposing their private parts to medics who recognise them from the television. Documentarian Louis Theroux regrets not wearing smarter underwear over a swollen testicle.

Presenter Sue Perkins takes the prize for the most bizarre injury. In 2018, she was up a ladder, cleaning her house, stark naked. I dont like to smear a newly scrubbed pane of glass with a cuff or sleeve and mess up my endeavours.

Stretching up to reach the top of a window, she overbalanced and came crashing off the ladder, down the stairs and on to her Hoover. Once Id hit the Hoover and the flex flew into the air, the attachment found its way into that most dark and secretive of human corners.

Perkins remembers that the nice man at Londons Royal Free Hospital enjoyed her story so much he brought in all his colleagues to hear it over and over again.

Comedian Jo Brand offers darker laughs about her experiences working as a mental health nurse between 1978-1988. On one occasion, she recalls arriving at A&E to find a recently arrived police cadet holding down a protesting wild-eyed woman in her 60s.

Having been called to the ward and witnessed this woman shouting and waving, he immediately and efficiently got her down on the floor and lay across her. All great, except this woman was the senior sister.
The National Youth Organizer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Lawyer Henry Nana Boakye (Nana B ) has challenged the NDC to give account on the youth focused policies and programs they (NDC) implemented in their 8 years in government and the impact such policies, if any, had in the lives of the Ghanaian Youth.

Speaking at a Press Conference dubbed The Youth Must Know Series, Nana B asserted that the NPP Youth is giving the National Youth wing and the Communications Outfit of the NDC a one week ultimatum to tell the Ghanaian Youth, specific Youth-focused policies and programs that they implemented in their 8years administration and the impact it had in the lives of the youth of Ghana.

The policies of President Akufo-Addo and Vice President Bawumia that have had far reaching benefits to the youth are over hundred. But for strategic reasons, I will list 60 of them:

1. One District One Factory: over 58 factories out of the 181 under the 1D1F initiative have been completed and operationalized

2. NABCO: 100,000 young persons have been employed

3. Youth Employment Agency (YEA) has employed over 70,000 young people

4. YEA's Job Center platform, Region Flagship Projects and the Artisan Directory has enabled thousands of young people across the country to secure sustainable jobs in the short to medium term.

5. Financial Support to one thousand athletes - a monthly stipends of Ghc500.00 to be paid to 1,000 athletes for a period of six (6) months.

6. Recruitment of 8,872 Teachers

7. Recruitment of 1,445 Non-Teaching Staff

8. Recruitment of 7,700 youth under Educational Support Programme under GES and YEA

9. Recruitment of 54,000 Nurses

10. Recruitment of 18,000 Other Health Workers

11. Recruitment of 1,174 Environmental Health Officers/ Assistants:

12. Recruitment of 2,700 Extension Officers

13. Recruitment of over 12,000 Security Personnel

14. Investment and Jobs under Ghana Automotive Development Policy - Volkswagen has commenced assembling cars in Ghana, Toyota, Nissan, Renault, Hyundai, Sinotruck and Suzuki to start very soon.

15. Hundred and five thousand three hundred and fifty (105,350) Job Creation in Cocoa

16. Eighty-Three Thousand (83.000) youth employed By Forestry Commission

17. Twelve thousand (12,000) start-ups and small business trained, 3,000 provided with funding to expand their businesses in order to create jobs under the Presidential Business Support Programme

18. Presidential Pitch: 40 young persons given financial support, 460 jobs created.

19. Equipping the Youth with Entrepreneurial Skills under NEIP - NEIP has trained 45,000 youth in Agricbusines, ICT, Trade and Commerce

20. Funding of Young Entrepreneurs under NEIP: A total of 9,350 businesses have been funded within 3 years

21. Campus Business Pitch Programme: building the entrepreneurship culture among students with the intention of catching them young to contribute meaningfully to the Ghana Beyond Aid Agenda.

22. Rural Enterprise Programme (REP): A total of 3,833 new rural businesses were established whilst 4,727 direct jobs were created.

23. Green Business Initiative: 75 Greenhouses (Domes), 1,500 young graduates engaged.

24. Jobs under Incubation and Support Programme at Accra Digital Center: 150 start-ups supported, additional 200 ancillary jobs created.



25. Technology Transfer, Research and Product Development Programme (TTRPDP)

26. Technical and Vocational Skills Training - trained 11,662 persons in various vocational trades.

27. Jobs under Labour Department 2,250 persons in gainful employment

28. 1,438 Jobs under National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI)

29. Planting for Food and Jobs - 1.9 million people including the Ghanaian Youth have benefited from this program.

30. Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD) - The programme aims to promote the export of tree crops including cashew, coffee, coconut, oil palm, mango, rubber and sheanut to increase export
O rlando Bloom said my heart is already broken as he begged for information about his and fiancee Katy Perrys beloved dog Mighty, who has gone missing.

The actor revealed the poodle went missing near the couples home in Montecito, California.

Mighty is chipped and his collar has a number to call, Bloom said, as he offered a reward for the dogs safe return.

The Pirates Of The Caribbean star asked fans to only send REAL INFO.

Alongside pictures of the dog, Bloom wrote on Instagram: MIGHTY IS MISSING in Montecito California, he is chipped and his collar has a number to call  if you take him to your local vet or shelter or police station he can be traced back to me for a reward.

"Please only send REAL INFO my heart is already broken so please dont add insult to injury.

Bloom, 43, and Perry, 35, also own another poodle called Nugget. The dogs make frequent appearances on the stars social media accounts.

The couples famous friends sent their best wishes in the comments section of Blooms post.

Danish supermodel Helena Christensen said: Oh Im so so sorry, I cant imagine the pain youre going through. Mighty must and will be found!!

Bloom and Perry are currently expecting their first child together.

The pop star announced her pregnancy back in March by revealing her bump in the music video for her single Daisies.

Bloom is already father to a son, nine-year-old Finn, from his former relationship with Miranda Kerr.

Additional reporting by Press Association
In brief: After six years, the General Court of the European Union sided with Apple in a case where the European Commission accused the company of abusing Ireland's permissive tax system. The Commission will likely appeal this ruling in the EU's supreme court in the coming months.

Apple recently won an appeal over a tax bill of $15 billion (13 billion) that was ordered to pay back to Ireland. Back in 2014, the European Commission started looking into Ireland's tax system and found that tech giants like Apple had been abusing it to pay lower rates and get additional tax breaks and benefits that aren't available in many other countries. In 2016, the EU's antitrust enforcer told Ireland to recoup the illegal subsidies given to the Cupertino company between 2003 and 2014, when the country began reforming its tax system.

In 2016, Apple caved in and handed Ireland $16.7 billion (the original amount plus interest), and both entities appealed the decision in the EU's General Court, who has concluded "the Commission was wrong to declare that ASI (Apple Sales International) and AOE (Apple Operations Europe) had been granted a selective economic advantage and, by extension, State aid."

The new ruling represents a massive blow to Margrethe Vestager, as this was seen as her crown achievement as antitrust commissioner, earning her the reputation of the "tax lady" that was going to punish American tech giants. Vestager, who is now in charge of EU digital policy, said the European Commission "will carefully study the judgment and reflect on possible next steps."

As for Apple, the company applauded the General Court's ruling and noted that it "has paid more than $100 billion in corporate income taxes around the world in the last decade and tens of billions more in other taxes."

The Cupertino company also believes this case was "not about how much tax we pay, but where we are required to pay it." Countries like France and Italy have been working to introduce a new digital services tax, which has led the Trump administration to vow 100 percent tariffs on imported products from those countries.

The OECD is scrambling to rewrite international tax rules by the end of this year to make it harder for tech giants to practice tax avoidance and to force them into paying their fair share in every country they operate in. Earlier this year, Apple CEO Tim Cook affirmed his support for the efforts.
Popular fast-food chain Chick-fil-A is adding two more restaurants in New Jersey, and each will open later this summer, a spokeswoman told NJ Advance Media.

The new locations will be in Old Bridge at 770 Texas Rd. and in South Plainfield at 4801 Stelton Rd.

Official opening dates have not yet been announced.

Last month, Chick-fil-A opened a spot on Route 22 in Watchung. The chain also is planning restaurants in Barrington, Edison, Linden and North Brunswick.

There are currently 45 locations in New Jersey, according to the restaurants website.

Most Chick-fil-A spots remained open throughout the coronavirus pandemic, but indoor dining areas are temporarily closed. Drive-thru, curbside pick-up and delivery services are currently available.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 22:11:31|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The United States must take concrete steps to promote global strategic security, particularly in the field of nuclear weapons, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a press conference here Thursday.

The spokesperson's comments follow media reports of a nuclear accident at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States involving the potential exposure of its employees to plutonium. The United States was reportedly seeking to rapidly improve the laboratory's nuclear-weapons production capacity, to ensure it can produce 30 nuclear-weapon cores per year by 2030.

In response to a question on the issue, Hua said that, as a country with the world's largest nuclear arsenal, the United States still vigorously promotes the modernization of nuclear weapons and develops new types of nuclear weapons to seek absolute strategic security advantages.

She said the United States has spared no effort to boost its nuclear-weapons capability, which not only undermines global strategic stability but also increases the hidden risks to nuclear security, an issue on which experts from the Union of Concerned Scientists have expressed concern.

The United States should earnestly fulfill its special and primary responsibilities regarding nuclear disarmament, and promote global strategic security through concrete actions, Hua said. Enditem
Townstone is dedicated to helping each and every consumer obtain the dream of homeownership, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or gender. While most other small lenders work primarily off of referrals from real estate brokerages and agents, Townstone advertised directly to the public and provided free information in its radio program, because it wanted to help consumers, Bopp said in a statement.
COVID-19 has put new stresses on millions of already-overwhelmed Americans who are struggling to balance their careers and jobs with the day to day demands of care. We're encouraged to see new data and research on how COVID-19 impacts family caregivers."

Torchlight, a leading provider of employee-caregiver support solutions, today released its client data review of the most pressing family and caregiving concerns of U.S. employees since the onset of COVID-19. The study analyzed the responses of a sampling of Torchlights users from March 15, 2020 through May 31, 2020 and found that American families are reporting a steep increase in depression, eating disorders, and legal, financial and estate planning concerns of their elderly family members. The study also revealed a nearly 100-fold increase in elder care scams, and a sharp uptick in mental health and ADHD diagnoses of their children.

The time period of the data capture coincides with the early stay-at-home orders in March through the re-opening of some businesses that occurred by the end of May. The findings were compared against the same employee data during the prior period from January 1, 2020 to March 14, 2020. Currently, more than 1.8 million employees across all industries in the United States have access to Torchlight through their employer-sponsored benefit program.

Shortly before the pandemic hit, the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) and AARP released their Caregiving in the US 2020 report which affirmed that more than 20% of all Americans are family caregivers and 23% of caregivers cited worsening health due to caregiving responsibilities. Prior to the pandemic, a growing number of Americans were already challenged with family caregiving responsibilities and their own deteriorating health.

COVID-19 has put new stresses on millions of already-overwhelmed Americans who are struggling to balance their careers and jobs with the day to day demands of care, said C. Grace Whiting, JD, President and Chief Executive Officer, National Alliance for Caregiving. We're encouraged to see new data and research on how COVID-19 impacts family caregivers. This type of data can help inform what solutions may best equip families in a post-coronavirus world."

Key findings from Torchlights client data since the onset of COVID-19:

 13.1% increase in anxiety and depression diagnoses across elder care recipients

 25.6% increase in eating and nutrition concerns among elder caregivers

 95.5% increase in elder scam concerns among caregivers

 33.6% increase in concerns about creating/updating legal documents for elders

 25.6% increase in financial and estate planning concerns among elder caregivers

 17.9% increase in child mental health diagnoses

 12.6% increase in ADHD diagnoses

 16.1% increase in employee concerns about their children's screen time (including social media use)

The company has also released its Caregiving in the Next Normal Toolkit which is designed for organizations, businesses, individuals, parents, and caregivers in need of assistance and information during the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic. Available for download today, the kit contains nearly two dozen guides and tools, including articles, podcasts and webinars for eldercare and parent/child resources.

Torchlights intelligent platform uniquely allows us to gain real-time access to the leading indicators of caregiver trends, said Adam Goldberg, CEO of Torchlight. With that first-of-its-kind capability, we feel an enormous responsibility to lead the charge in bringing visibility about the evolving needs of caregivers to employers, health plans, healthcare providers, and other partnering organizations.

About Torchlight

At Torchlight, we believe that caring is everyones business and caring is good business. We are the only complete caregiver support solution for employers and member organizations. We offer solutions informed by data and, thus, are built for better results. Our approach includes a user-friendly digital platform and a team of expert advisors. No matter the age, stage or concern, Torchlights decision-support tools, caregiving knowledge base, and human expertise combine to reduce stress and enhance outcomes for both families and their sponsoring organizations more cost-effectively than call center or concierge-only solutions. Because getting caregivers the right resources, in the right ways, right from the beginning should be business as usual. Learn more at http://www.torchlight.care, or email press@torchlight.care.
One of the proudest moments of her career to date, Greene said, was being recognized in 2013 by Zars Media with the International Women in Sales Award for Insurance, an opportunity which earned her the right to be personally mentored by Dame Inga Beale who, at the time, was the newly appointed Lloyds of London CEO. Shadowing Beale and learning from her was a fantastic opportunity and it was a real privilege to see the changes she implemented happening essentially overnight.

Its been an incredible ride for me, she said. Certainly being a female in this industry hasnt always been the easiest thing. But its also worked to my benefit in that Ive never lost my femininity. Ive always maintained that and navigated the boys clubs in a very practical way where my boundaries were very well carved out. Ive never been afraid to speak up. And I think the industry is ripe for females coming up and that were celebrating them finally.

Greene, who recently joined the global advisory board of Insurance Businesss Women in Insurance Network, is a familiar face when it comes to championing the need for increased diversity and inclusion in the insurance space. Promoting this and highlighting the need for deeply ethical behavior within the sector as a whole is something that she is passionate about and that she always strives to live out within her own professional life.

One of the highlights of her day, she said, is mentoring the younger staff at Hub International who are new to the industry, and mentorship has perhaps never been more important than it is right now. The pandemic has created unchartered territory across the global economy and for many young people looking to enter the workplace, the question of where they will work is a worrying one. While insurance is often not easy, it is somewhat recession-proof.

Where I come from as a mentor is that I am safe and non-judgmental, and I set clear goals and parameters. I think having a safe place where you can work, and where you can share is especially important right now, she said. And being in a very male-dominated industry it has not always been the case that mental health [care] or empathetic listening has been practised. It has very much been this is the way its going to be, as this is how weve done it. And Ive always been the opposite of that I think that, as great and useful as technology is, empathetic listening in whatever transaction youre doing in the insurance industry, is so important.
A pastor in Tanner is speaking out after losing not one but three of his churchs members to the novel coronavirus.

Pastor Jason Greene of Tanner United Methodist Church said the pandemic became "very, very real" as members learned two women had died after being diagnosed with COVID-19, with one woman's husband considered a "probable" death from the disease.

"They had deep, deep roots in that community, and I think their deaths ... I think it just took the community and church by surprise," Greene said.

The married couple passed within days of each other, after the wife tested positive for COVID-19 but before the husband did, he said. The third member was diagnosed a short time before her death and lived at a local long-term health facility, but other churchgoers stayed in touch with the woman and her family.

Greene said he spoke with the woman's daughter after her death. Due to health restrictions, the woman's children had to dress in full personal protective gear and agree to quarantine for two weeks after the visit just so they could see their mother one last time before she died.

"The daughter said to see the suffering was unfathomable, because she'd never experienced that in her life," Greene said. "She knew her mom was suffering, in pain, and she knew it wouldn't be an easy death. I think she felt a sense of relief mixed with deep sadness when her mom passed."

He said news of the three has "had a strong impact on the community and in the church." They had discussed resuming weekly indoor services, but after the spike in cases and the latest news within the church, Greene said Tanner UMC will continue with drive-in and virtual services instead.

"It's just too dangerous," Greene said. "The numbers are going up, and it's hitting close to home. Now we all know people who have died from this."

As of Tuesday, there had been a total four confirmed deaths and one probable death in Limestone County, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health. ADPH also reported a new cumulative confirmed case total of 691 in Limestone County since March, with 190 of those cases reported in the last eight days.

"I want life to be as normal as anybody, I don't enjoy this, but I don't think people took this very seriously, and now that we have begun to reopen and people are going to the beach and traveling, we're seeing a spike," Greene said. "This is real. It's not make-believe. There's no way this could be the hoax some think it is."

Two other members in the church  a Huntsville police officer and a health care worker, each in their 20s  have also been diagnosed, according to Greene. They were due to be married this summer but have had to postpone their wedding, among other things, because of the virus and pandemic.

"I love them almost like younger siblings, and it just  it's very painful," Greene said. "It's painful for everybody there in the church, because everyone has some deep bond or love or emotional attachment to all of these people.

"On Thursday morning, a family is going to bury their grandmother and grandfather, together. It's going to be very lonely, it's going to be a sad service, and a lifetime of friends that made memories won't be able to be there. That's horrible."

On social media, Greene encouraged everyone to be part of the solution and to be careful during the pandemic.

"There's no sadness like losing a loved one to a horrible disease like COVID-19," he wrote. "... This is real ... and it is deadly."



2020 The News Courier (Athens, Ala.)

Visit The News Courier (Athens, Ala.) at enewscourier.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
And the fact that these girls were absolutely darling, and they take it very seriously and theyll tell you anything about the dairy industry, she added. Its a big part of whats wonderful about the State Fair.

The Minnesota dairy industry has been naming a princess since 1954, and her head has been sculpted out of butter since 1965, when the tradition began as a way to highlight the states position as a top butter producer.

For the last 48 years, one woman, Linda Christensen, has made the butter sculptures, becoming something of a State Fair celebrity. But Ms. Christensen, who lives in California, will not be able to travel to Minnesota to sculpt this year because of the pandemic, she said.

She plans instead to join the event from her webcam at home while her apprentice, Gerry Kulzer, an artist and teacher from Litchfield, Minn., takes up the tools of the trade.

It was just a streak of luck that hell be able to pick up the butter knife this year; he is an excellent sculptor, said Ms. Christensen, who acknowledged she was sad she would not be able to resume her work.

Its such a central part of my year, she said. I plan for it. I look forward to it. It kind of makes up part of who I am, and its a loss not to be able to go.

Mr. Kulzer, who typically sculpts with water-based clay fired in a kiln, has been working with Ms. Christensen for the past two years to learn the fine art of carving butter in a refrigerated booth cooled to 38 degrees.
A joint report published by researchers at the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) and ALONE examines issues of loneliness and social isolation in older adults. The report offers fresh insight into the experiences of those over 70 who were advised to 'cocoon' as part of public health measures to curtail the spread of the COVID-19 virus. New data from ALONE which documents increased feelings of loneliness, anxiety and isolation in older adults throughout the pandemic, is compared with experiences of loneliness and isolation in older adults before the COVID-19 outbreak.

Previous research into this area has shown that strong social ties may protect people from emotional distress, cognitive decline, and physical disability, while loneliness and social isolation can cause harm to physical and psychological wellbeing. Both loneliness and social isolation have been strongly associated with poorer quality of life and other measures of well-being.

The TILDA study offers unique insights into the health, habits and experiences of older adults living in Ireland through its longitudinal research, examining a variety of key areas that affect older adults such as physical and mental health as well as economic and social factors. Research from TILDA highlights the prevalence of loneliness and social isolation in its nationally representative survey of participants which gives clear insight into the experiences of older people.

What does TILDA's research show prior to the pandemic?

Over 70% of TILDA participants reported that they never or rarely feel lonely; less than 25% feel lonely some of the time while just 5% reported feeling lonely often.

Of those living alone, 31% are rarely lonely, 32% sometimes lonely and 37% often lonely.

Of those living with others, 49% are least lonely, 30% sometimes and 21% often lonely.

Researchers point out that most older adults are not often lonely and appear quite resilient, while data from ALONE's helpline suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on older people.

The rise of loneliness in a pandemic

Measures introduced to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus, including physical distancing, and self-isolation particularly affected those over 70 who were 'cocooning'; disrupting daily routines and social interactions with friends and family. Following the outbreak of the virus, ALONE's Support and Telephone Befriending service continued remotely with volunteers calling and sending regular texts to older people with health and well-being tips and practical supports. Almost 500 smartphones were distributed to older adults with limited means of social interaction. Following an increase in calls for support, ALONE established a dedicated phoneline to provide help and services to vulnerable older adults who may have needed them. Report data from ALONE highlights increased feelings of loneliness and isolation amongst older people during the COVID-19 pandemic.

What does ALONE's research show?

The ALONE national support line has received 26,174 calls during the period: March 9th to July 5th, 2020.

55% of callers were from the over 70s, the cohort advised to 'cocoon'.

75% of callers to the helpline were living alone.

There has been an increase in callers who are putting off medical treatment or examination, including after falls.

ALONE has seen a rise in callers reporting negative emotions, including suicidal ideation during the pandemic.

Callers have most often requested support for their physical health, befriending, and emotional and mental health needs.

The data highlights that public health measures such as social distancing and cocooning to curb the spread of the virus has increased levels of loneliness and social isolation in older people. This may have a negative effect on the well-being of older adults and suggests that public policies should be developed to ensure that these issues are addressed. Researchers suspect that current physical distancing and social isolation measures will be most keenly felt by those who rely on community or church-based social participation and engagement.

A future research project led by TILDA in collaboration with ALONE will investigate and document the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and general well-being of older adults.

This collaborative report between ALONE and TILDA offers a unique perspective into how older adults have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. TILDA research shows that most older adults are not often lonely and highlights the resilience of older adults as they adapt to an ever-changing world. The world has witnessed how older adults have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. ALONE's research provides front- line evidence that shows the true toll public health measures have had on older people with increased feelings of loneliness, anxiety and isolation. The impact of the pandemic is now being studied in the TILDA cohort and will be reported later this year. This will more precisely inform the impact of COVID-19 on loneliness and social isolation, and areas for policy intervention.'' Professor Rose Anne Kenny, Principal Investigator of TILDA

Sean Moynihan, Chief Executive Officer of ALONE said:

''ALONE's coordinated National Response to the COVID-19 pandemic allowed us to respond with immediacy to the concerns newly emerging, and existing issues being elevated from older people. We worked to keep all our services operative through adaptation of their structures. The presence of this virus in society has further solidified existing issues while further alienating some older people, as we have seen extensive increases in loneliness through the isolation experienced from cocooning. We established a loneliness taskforce to ensure we were putting provisions in place to safeguard older people, presently, and into the future. Society needs to understand that loneliness can happen to anyone and can damage both your physical and mental health. It is distressing and we want to work towards breaking down this stigma. As Ireland's ageing population continues to develop, we must remember that there are several thousands of older people behind every percentage."
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-17 01:04:50|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday urged robust COVID-19 mitigation measures in humanitarian hotspots across the Sub-Saharan African region to avert mass fatalities.

Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said that communities displaced by violence and natural calamities in the continent require special attention given their vulnerability to the pandemic.

"COVID-19 has exacerbated existing humanitarian challenges, particularly with regards to access to health services in many countries in the region," Moeti said in a statement.

The Sub-Saharan African region hosts more than 26 percent of the world's refugees and about 19 million internally displaced people who fled their homes due to conflict.

"During this global crisis, these are among the most vulnerable people in the world to the COVID-19 pandemic," said Moeti, adding that lockdowns and curfews have slowed down delivery of emergency aid to Africa's humanitarian hotspots.

She urged greater investments in COVID-19 testing and case management for victims of long-running conflicts in Africa.

"If we do not step up health services, including testing, tracing, isolation and care for people already living in precarious settings and displacement camps, COVID-19 could spark untold tragedy," said Moeti.

WHO in conjunction with relief agencies has developed protocols for implementation in the camps for displaced persons to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The protocols are rooted for enhanced testing, isolation, hand and respiratory hygiene alongside physical distancing to mitigate against the spread of the virus in crowded refugee camps.

Moeti said that humanitarian agencies have supported community involvement in surveillance and infection control activities in the camps for displaced people in Ethiopia.

She said that in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, laboratories are being equipped in the camps for displaced persons to boost COVID-9 diagnosis.

Moeti said that this week's launch of an updated United Nations Global Humanitarian Response Plan will boost COVID-19 response in refugee camps across Africa through improved access to clean water, food and nutritional support. Enditem
Will Kenosha County mandate mask use?

The county issued the following statement Thursday from the Kenosha County Office of the Corporation Counsel:

In the wake of similar actions in Dane County and the City of Milwaukee, some individuals have asked whether Kenosha County would consider adopting an order requiring people to wear face coverings while in public as a safeguard against the spread of COVID-19.

At this time, Kenosha County does not have the authority to enforce such an order, and, as such, there is not presently an active effort to do so.

Whats different about the situations in Dane County and the City of Milwaukee?

Kenosha County, like many other counties had its authority to mandate and enforce such actions significantly called into question by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in its May 13 decision striking down the states Safer-At-Home Order.

The Dane County Board subsequently adopted an ordinance, providing a mechanism for enforcement of such public health orders, enabling the enactment of that countys recent mask order.

In the City of Milwaukee, the Common Council earlier this week approved an ordinance requiring the wearing of masks in public spaces as long as the citys COVID-19 health order remains in place.

Where does this sort of action stand in Kenosha County?

Barring legislative action on the county or municipal levels, there will remain no mechanism in place to enforce a mask order.

The Wisconsin Counties Association, which advises Kenosha County and other local municipalities, has a work group that is currently trying to develop ordinance language that would be enforceable and in accordance with state law.

Without a consensus on a path forward and absent state legislative action, a mask mandate in Kenosha County would likely be unenforceable.

Positive cases of COVID-19 stood at 1,878 Thursday in Kenosha County, up 24 from the previous day. Total deaths are 48.

County Executive Jim Kreuser said, While Kenosha County does not have a mask order in effect, I strongly encourage people to wear one when in public places where social distancing is difficult to maintain. Its a small price to pay to help slow the spread of this virus in our community.

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To date, the total number of coronavirus disease infections have crossed 12 million mark and caused the death of more than half million people worldwide. In spite of global efforts, there is no definitive treatment for the disease despite the multiple claims that have created controversy in the past few months.

Antiviral therapy, chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine alone or in combination with Azithromycin, Convalescent Plasma therapy have been tried for treatment of Covid-19 but no trial has been able to show a reduction of the viral load and/or symptoms. Preventing infection is still the best available medicine in view of no standard treatment or vaccine.

Looking at the infectivity and severity of Covid-19, Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy), Government of India suggested measures that includes the use of homoeopathic medicine Arsenic Album 30C, Ayurveda preparations such as Kadha (Ginger, curcumin, cloves, honey, fennel seeds, cumin seeds) and lukewarm water as an immunity booster.

Preliminary data from researchers at the University of Oxford have reported a 35% reduction in death of patients receiving mechanical ventilation. Results which have given us all much needed reason to celebrate. Multiple vaccine trials are ongoing and are currently our best hope for the management/eradication of the virus.

Patanjali, an Ayurvedic drugs manufacturer in India launched Coronil, an Ayurvedic drug to treat Covid-19 on June 23. The launch was based on their placebo controlled clinical trial results on 95 Covid-19 positive patients aged between 15-59 years, out of which 69 per cent were cured within three days, and 100 percent within seven days.

The results also claimed to reduce hsCRP and IL-6 levels in the treatment group and showed weaker IL-6 response, which would indicate a lesser chance of a cytokine storm, a complication which has had such devastating outcomes for patients.

Coronil is made of the extracts of pure Giloy, Tulsi and Ashwagandha. It is in fact a similar composition to Kadha, which is recommended to use as an immune booster by Government authorities.

Given the intense global interest in all reported treatments of Covid-19, Coronil inevitably started trending on Twitter straight after Patanjali held a media launch of the product as a Covid-19 cure.

The medical community immediately raised flags of concern over the veracity of the companys claims. Questions focused on the patient selections for the trials, which may have biased outcomes in the treatment group.

Wishing to avoid another false start in the search for a cure, the Ministry of AYUSH quickly asked the manufactures to furnish details of the study and banned the advertising or publicizing such claims until the issue could be duly examined.

Sadly this new claim of treating Covid-19 with an Ayurvedic drug has raised many hopes but the manufacturers have been unable to provide substantive answers on the composition of the drug, sample size, patient selection, study design, place of study, drug dosing, result validation, prior approval to conduct trial and ethical clearances.

Such promising results have naturally caused a media sensation in India, but without the supporting evidence that these steps have been followed it is another false dawn for Corona patients. When taking in the bigger picture, it is a sad fact that Ayurveda medicine will be viewed from a Western perspective with immediately skeptical eyes. Clinical trials conducted in this space have a duty to follow standard protocols, otherwise complementary and alternative medicine will be potentially irreversibly damaged and harm the rich history of Ayurveda and reputation of this science of Indian Origin.

This pandemic has united the world irrespective of caste, creed and religion and reminded us of the importance of collaborations. If the claim regarding Coronil for treatment of COVID-19 is not found to be correct after verification, this will be a big blow to the credibility of scientific research in India especially Ayurvedic research.

(With inputs from Deepak Saini and Karen Watts)
Pottawattamie County reported seven new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday.

Around 3 p.m., coronavirus.iowa.gov listed 849 positive cases, up from 842 roughly 24 hours before. There have been 11,445 tests in the county, for a positive rate of 7.4%. There have been 13 deaths, and the county lists 681 recoveries.

COVID-19 cases in southwest Iowa

Crawford and Cass Counties each listed one fewer case than reported at last check of the numbers by the Nonpareil. Iowa Department of Public Health and other public health officials have said numbers are sometimes corrected if test reports are duplicated. The state COVID-19 website updates frequently throughout the day.

Heres a look at numbers in southwest Iowa, based on data from the counties and the state website:

Pottawattamie County  849 cases, 681 recoveries, 11,445 tests, 7.4% of those tested have come back positive, 13 deaths

Mills County  53 cases, 32 recoveries, 2,161 tests, 2.5%

Harrison County  63 cases, 48 recoveries, 1,230 tests, 5.1%

Cass County  29 cases, 24 recoveries, 995 tests, 2.9%

Shelby County  121 cases, 113 recoveries, 1,218 tests, 9.9%

Montgomery County  16 cases, 10 recoveries, 911 tests, 1.8%, two deaths

Monona County  78 cases, 62 recoveries, 990 tests, 7.9%

Crawford County  680 cases, 641 recoveries, 3,163 tests, 21.5%, three deaths

Page County  22 cases, 20 recoveries, 1,349 tests, 1.6%

Fremont County  11 cases, six recoveries, 471 tests, 2.3%

In Regional Medical Coordination Center region four  which includes Pottawattamie, Mills, Harrison, Cass, Crawford, Shelby, Fremont, Montgomery, Page, Adams, Audubon and Taylor Counties  there were seven patients hospitalized with COVID-19, with four in intensive care, as of Wednesday afternoon.

The region has 195 inpatient beds available, 28 intensive care beds available and 63 ventilators available. There are two hospitalized COVID-19 patients on a ventilator.

Information about COVID-19

Symptoms in people who have been exposed to coronavirus can include fever, cough and shortness of breath, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health.

The symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as long as 14 days after exposure. Most people experience mild or moderate symptoms that clear up in two to three weeks.

Older adults and people with existing health problems are among those particularly susceptible to more severe illness, including pneumonia.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend the use of masks when out in public.

Make sure it covers the mouth and nose. Face shields are an option as well, as they cover the eyes.

COVID-19 testing is available in Pottawattamie County via two TestIowa locations:

 All Care Health Center, 902 S. Sixth St. and

 Western Historic Trails Center, 3434 Richard Downing Ave.

To get tested, residents must complete the online assessment at testiowa.com to schedule an appointment.

For those struggling with mental health during the pandemic, yourlifeiowa.org has several resources, including a hotline at 855-581-8111 and a text-friendly line at 855-895-8398.

The University of Nebraska Medical Center has a COVID-19 screening app  1-Check COVID.

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.
Teachers have begun drafting or updating their last wills and testaments as they prepare to return to work in a Florida school district.

Andrea Clark, a teachers union representative in the St. Johns County School District about 30 miles south of Jacksonville, said teachers have expressed their worries over exposure to the coronavirus as schools prepare to open on August 10.

'They are so concerned about returning to school that they are updating their wills or making their wills,' Clark said.

Florida has mandated that schools reopen in August, after they were shuttered due to lockdowns aimed at containing the pandemic. Teachers across the state have protested the reopening plan, asking for virtual instruction to continue until the number of cases, now more than 300,000, declines.

Andrea Clark, a teachers union representative in the St. Johns County School District about 30 miles south of Jacksonville, said teachers have expressed their worries to her over exposure to the coronavirus

Clark said teachers 'are so concerned about returning to school that they are updating their wills or making their wills'. Teachers (pictured) across Florida have expressed worries after the state required reopening schools in August

Teachers in Brevard County are pictured holding signs demanding that teaching continues virtually until the number of cases of the coronavirus begins to decline

'Some teachers have underlying health concerns where they feel fairly certain that if they caught COVID-19, it would be a bad outcome, possibly fatal,' Clark, a representative of St. Johns Education Association, told First Coast News.

Clark, who is also a fifth grade teacher in the district and has two children attending the schools, said she stopped counting how many teachers were concerned after hearing from almost a dozen of them.

St. Johns County Superintendent Tim Forson, aware of the concerns, told the First Coast News that teachers felt they were on the 'frontlines.'

'I can't deny that. I understand that thought and concern' said Forson.

'My commitment to them is this: I am going to do everything in my power, put everything I can in place to minimize or eliminate risks.'

Forsan said the August 10 reopening could be delayed, after the local school board asked for more time to prepare as a recent spike in cases hit the state.

St. Johns County Superintendent Tim Forson, aware of teachers' concerns said some felt they were on the 'frontlines.' 'I can't deny that. I understand that thought and concern' said Forson, pictured during a TV news interview

'In March, there were hundreds of cases in the state of Florida and we closed the schools. Now there are thousands a day, I think the other day that was over 15,000 in one day,' School Board member Patrick Canan said during a schools meeting earlier this week,' New4Jax reported.

The St. Johns County district has provided four options for the return, which either has students learning from brick and mortar buildings, or virtually from home.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in Florida has now risen to more than 300,000, adding 10,181 on Tuesday alone after a spike in the outbreak across the state. The statewide death toll has reached 4,626.

Florida's rolling seven-day average for deaths has increased to 92 per day, triple the 31 posted a month ago.

As of Tuesday, Florida had the second highest death rate in the United States - slightly behind Texas.

When the coronavirus was ravaging New York three months ago, it recorded 799 deaths on April 9 and a top seven-day average of 763 deaths on April 14.

The surge in cases and deaths came as Miami's Jackson Health System reported a staggering 226 percent increase in COVID-19 patients in the last month.

Florida added 10,181 confirmed cases to its tally on Tuesday with the total number of infections now at 301,810 since the outbreak began there March 1

The state confirmed an additional 112 deaths, which is the third time in the last seven days its eclipsed 100 and brings the statewide death toll to 4,626

Carlos Migoya, the president and CEO of Jackson Health System, told CNN's New Day that they had 129 patients on June 14 and it had spiked to 420 by Tuesday.

Migoya said the recent curfews and closures of bars and restaurants would help hospitals cope with the surge but said people across the state hadn't been wearing masks and properly social distancing since initially reopening in May.

'The biggest issue is that we have a lot of aggressive non-compliant people, people that just do not believe that masking is the right thing to do,' he said.

Clark said she personally will not be sending her two children, who attend the district, back to school when it reopens.

'My children will not be going back to brick and mortar,' she said. 'My mother-in-law is elderly. She drops off the kids at school and picks them up. She is high risk.'




Gonesse, July 16th 2020

MANUTAN GROUP

2019/2020 Q3 Turnover

Turnover showed good resilience in a context of global activity slowdown

 thousands Turnover at the end of June 2020 Turnover at the end of June 2019 Q3 2020 Q3 2019 Q2 2020 Q2 2019 Q1 2020 Q1 2019 Turnover

like-for-like 542 405 562 843 178 598 190 484 172 522 179 748 191 286 192 612 Contribution of acquired companies* 18 293 0 5 860 0 6 696 0 5 737 0 Total turnover 560 698 562 843 184 458 190 484 179 218 179 748 197 023 192 612

* Acquisition of Kruizinga finalised in June 2019

During Q3 2019/2020, the Manutan Group's business was down -3.2% (-5.4% at constant exchange rates and days, and on a like-for-like basis) , impacted by the slowdown in the Local Authorities division, which was heavily hit by the closure of schools in France for almost the entire quarter.

This underperformance was offset by the growth of the Enterprises division (+6.1% in gross variation, and +2.8% at constant exchange rates and days, and on a like-for-like basis).

As a result, the activity of the Manutan Group remains stable and stands at -0.4% cumulative (-3.6% at constant exchange rates and days, and on a like-for-like basis) at the end of the third quarter 2019/2020 compared to the same period of the 2019/2020 financial year. Turnover stood at  560.7 million at June 30, 2020 against  562.8 million at June 30, 2019.

In terms of its operational areas, the Group's situation is as follows:

 thousands Turnover at the end of June 2020 Turnover at the end of June 2019 Q3 2020 Q3 2019 Q2 2020 Q2 2019 Q1 2020 Q1 2019 Enterprises 448 503 433 933 147 466 139 039 152 078 150 229 148 959 144 665 South 216 478 207 410 75 285 65 805 69 506 71 546 71 687 70 059 Centre 107 754 92 602 33 448 29 012 38 693 32 713 35 613 30 877 West 78 500 85 033 24 583 28 713 27 065 29 611 26 852 26 709 North 26 995 31 019 8 897 9 664 9 104 10 488 8 995 10 867 Est 18 776 17 870 5 253 5 846 7 710 5 871 5 812 6 153 Local Authorities 112 196 128 911 36 992 51 445 27 140 29 519 48 064 47 947 South 112 196 128 911 36 992 51 445 27 140 29 519 48 064 47 947 TOTAL 560 698 562 843 184 458 190 484 179 218 179 748 197 023 192 612





Story continues

At constant exchange rates and days, and on a like-for-like basis 1st quarter 2nd quarter 3rd quarter 4th quarter Financial Year Enterprises -0.6% -5.0% 2.8% -1.0% South 3.6% -4.1% 13.8% 4.2% Centre -2.7% -3.7% -3.2% -3.1% West -3.7% -12.9% -12.2% -9.7% North -14.3% -11.8% -5.0% -10.5% Est -1.1% 30.0% -4.5% 7.9% Local Authorities 2.8% -9.5% -27.4% -12.5% South 2.8% -9.5% -27.4% -12.5% TOTAL 0.2% -5.7% -5.4% -3.6%

Activity is down in all the Group's operational areas due to the impact of the business slowdown resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, except for the South Enterprises area, which has been sustained by the growth registered in Italy and France.

The Group's priorities remain focused on adjusting and developing its product and service offer to better meet the new needs of its customers while ensuring the safety of its employees and partners. All the warehouses have remained and remain operational and keep also applying all the instructions and the protective measures recommended by the health authorities.

The Group would like to thank again all its employees for the commitment that they have shown during this tough times.

Due to the uncertainties surrounding the current global crisis, it is hard to estimate how the Group's results for the 2019/2020 financial year will be affected, but Manutan is going the extra mile to minimise the repercussions while continuing to prepare for the future and draw strength from its ever solid key attributes.

*********************

About the Manutan Group

Manutan, a family-run group founded in 1966, is a European leader in BtoB e-commerce, specializing in the distribution of equipment for businesses and local authorities.

Offering one of the most extensive range of high-quality products and services in Europe, the Group satisfies all its customers' needs and delivers support and guidance in streamlining their indirect purchases.

With 26 subsidiaries across 17 European countries, the Group employs over 2,200 people and generated revenue of 774 million in 2018/19. Manutan France received the Best Workplaces distinction in 2020.

Manutan International is listed on Euronext Paris  Compartment B - ISIN: FR0000032302-MAN.

www.manutan.com

Next publication : Q4 2019/2020 Turnover :

October 15th 2020 (after market closure)

Attachment
PHOENIX  Arizona renters dreading the expiration of a coronavirus-related moratorium on evictions will get a reprieve, Gov. Doug Ducey said Thursday.

The governor announced that the ban on residential evictions would be extended to Oct. 31 and said there would be more funding for housing assistance programs for both renters and homeowners.

Arizonas 120-day order was due to end July 22. It was supposed to ensure people wouldnt lose their homes if they got COVID-19 or lost their jobs during pandemic restrictions. But advocates argued its too early to end the ban because most of the government money set aside to help pay rents and mortgages still hasnt been doled out.

To stave off eviction, tenants will have to show proof that they were affected by the pandemic or took steps to contain the spread of the virus. Starting Aug. 21, they will also have to show they have applied for rental assistance.

The news comes as the daily number of newly confirmed coronavirus cases in Arizona held steady for a second day, state health officials reported.

Ducey said the possible flattening of the curve should be viewed with caution.

There will be no victory laps, he said. What we can take from here is knowledge of what a difference we can make in the COVID-19 pandemic in our state, in our country for the foreseeable future.

Arizona tallied another 3,259 confirmed cases, only two more cases than reported the previous day and below record days where the count reached almost 5,000. The latest number of additional deaths came out to 58. The number of hospitalizations, ICU bed occupancy and ventilator use for COVID-19 patients also changed little. Hospital capacity statewide was reported to be around 89%.

In total, Arizona has seen more than 134,600 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 2,492 related deaths. However, the number of cases could be far higher because many people have not been tested, and some can be infected without feeling sick.

Ducey again avoided pressure to impose more aggressive regulations to control the spread of the virus, such as a statewide mask mandate or fully closing restaurants. He has allowed mayors and county leaders to mandate masks, but he has declined to issue a statewide order. He has capped indoor restaurant dining at half the capacity allowed by the fire marshal  a limitation many restaurants had already self-imposed.

Ducey said hes ignoring criticism from those who say he is restricting their freedoms and from those who say hes not doing enough.

It wont be very popular, but I know in my heart its the right thing to do, he said.

In other developments:

 The Maricopa County Medical Examiners Office, which has already received four large portable storage coolers to handle future surges of coronavirus cases, has ordered another 10 coolers, which are expected to arrive by the end of next week.

The agencys regular morgue storage was 63% full Thursday. Officials say none of the portable coolers  described as wheel-less storage containers with refrigeration units  have yet to be put into operation. With the 14 coolers, the county will be able to handle another 293 bodies.

Marcy Flanagan, executive director of the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, said many funeral homes in the county are at maximum capacity and unable to accept additional bodies.

While about 100 of the countys 1,311 deaths have been handled by the medical examiners office, the agency is still seeing an annual surge in heat-related deaths and an increase in the overall number of deaths, which officials have been unable to explain, officials said.

Robert Rowley, director of the Maricopa County Emergency Management Department, said the county has been planning for the possibility to accept bodies in case hospitals run out of storage space, adding though that such an arrangement isnt currently needed.

If there is a hiccup anywhere along in the process, we are planning on what we can do to fill in those gaps and make sure everything is taken care of, Rowley said.

Ducey said he would wait till next week to give an update on schools reopening. Schools are expected to start in some capacity by Aug. 17.

Teachers and school staff across the state have called for delays until the number of COVID-19 cases decreases. The governor has been in continuing discussions with State Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman and school leaders.

 Individual professors at the University of Arizona will decide whether to teach their fall classes in person, remotely or in a hybrid fashion, university President Robert Robbins said Thursday. Many faculty members have health concerns for themselves or others in their families, he added. The fall semester begins Aug. 24.

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.

___

This story has been changed to correct that the eviction ban, which Gov. Doug Ducey said was due to end July 25, actually was due to end July 22.

___

Associated Press reporters Jacques Billeaud, and Paul Davenport contributed.
HILLSDALE, MI - Although shes still in the dark about what Saturdays commencement ceremony might look like, Hillsdale College graduating senior Claire Calvert said she trusts college officials will protect students and those in attendance.

I think its very important, especially for seniors, to feel that kind of recognition, Calvert said. Hillsdale is a very rigorous school and for most of our time here, we are not really able to celebrate this great gift we have of going to college and being able to learn these wonderful things. I think its really necessary to have that kind of closure before going out into the real world.

Local health officials disagree and have raised concerns over the rescheduled Hillsdale College graduation ceremony on July 18 thats expected to bring 2,600 people to the city of 8,000 residents.

The college announced at noon Thursday, July 16, it would go ahead with the ceremony with the requirement of masks, noting it would provide masks for those who do not have one. All commencement attendees will be screened for COVID-19 symptoms and their temperatures checked, officials said.

Seating for the outdoor ceremony has been pre-set to maintain a physical distance of six feet from others, college officials said. The event is closed to the public.

In a news release, the college describes its commencement ceremony as an expressive activity protected by the First Amendment.

Since 1856, the college has exercised those rights by holding annual commencement exercisesincluding during the Civil War, World War I, the 1918 Pandemic, the Great Depression, and World War II, college officials said in the release. Despite the trauma of those times, which have been particularly severe on this campus, Hillsdale College has stood by the ceremony as the culminating meaning of the work of the college and as indispensable to its mission.

Branch-Hillsdale-St. Joseph Community Health Agency Health Officer Rebecca Burns informed health department team members in an email obtained by The Ann Arbor News/MLive that the college had reached out to the department on July 14 to inform it of the plans to have the ceremony.

In the email, Burns stressed the event is not endorsed by the health department and that she would not state in any way that it is acceptable to have it during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I have no words for how disappointing it is to me that the college would put the Hillsdale community at such risk, Burns said in the email.

Burns said the college informed her of its plan and what it has done to mitigate risks and that it had informed Gov. Gretchen Whitmers office about the ceremony.

Whitmer does not direct particular enforcement actions and has not done so in the case with Hillsdale, Zack Pohl, communications director for the governors office, said. But, he noted the governors concern for

such a potentially large gathering.

She of course is gravely concerned whenever people disregard her executive orders, especially as case counts escalate in the state and we are witnessing a nationwide surge in cases, Pohl said in an email. Theres no excuse for not taking the health of our fellow Michiganders seriously.

The ceremony, originally set for May 9, was rescheduled due to the coronavirus outbreak.

At that time, the college informed graduating seniors they would be invited back for a celebratory weekend starting July 16. Seniors returning for the ceremony were offered a travel stipend of up to $500, Hillsdale College spokeswoman Emily Stack Davis said.

In an email to students on July 10, Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn said he was proud that over 90 percent of the class of 2020 was scheduled to attend Saturdays ceremony.

Be assured that we will hold commencement even if it must happen when the graduates are old enough to bring their grandchildren to the ceremony, Arnn said. We have held commencement every year for 167 years in war and in peace. It is the culmination of our mutual efforts and is essential to their completion.

This week, Calvert said she and her fellow classmates had received only a select few details about the ceremony.

Things are still not completely set in stone, just because of the restrictions that Michigan has and all the precautions you have to take, Calvert said. Right now, we do have a day and time set, but that could easily be shut down.

Calvert said Arnn told students if there were more complications with putting on the ceremony, it would be congratulating students in groups of 100 to adhere to the governors executive orders.

I fully believe we will be safe in this environment, Calvert said. If people didnt want to come out this way and if they really believed there was some danger in it, there wouldnt be so many students coming out this way.

I trust Dr. Arnns judgment in what he has been planning for this weekend. I want to be able to finish off my senior year with this and be able to say goodbye to my friends, who I didnt get to see beforehand.

Beyond approving traffic control orders for the ceremony several months ago, Hillsdale Mayor Adam Stockford said there has been a small level of communication with the college regarding the ceremony. He said he is confident the college will take the precautions necessary to keep everyone safe.

I think they held (the ceremony) through the Civil War and World War II - its a tradition, Stockford said. I dont feel like its any of my business. Theyre a private institution, were the city government. Ive never been in the habit of policing (residents') health, to that degree.

In April, Hillsdale County reported the most COVID-19 deaths in Michigan counties with less than 50,000 residents, a direct result of an outbreak at the countys medical care facility, where seven of the countys 11 coronavirus-related deaths at the time had occurred.

To date, the county has had 198 confirmed coronavirus cases, with 28 deaths.

Michigan reported 891 more confirmed cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, July 15, its highest number since mid-May when the daily report included a backlog of cases.

READ MORE:

Michigan reports 891 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, July 15; highest number in 2 months

Hillsdale College moves graduation ceremonies to July

The death toll in Hillsdale County is unusually high. Heres why.
By Mark Hosenball

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday said it was stepping up a crackdown on the international criminal gang MS-13 and would seek the death penalty against an alleged New York gang leader facing murder charges.

The department also said it was bringing terrorism-related charges against a MS-13 member for the first time, as well as charges against alleged leaders of gang cells known as the "Hollywood Locos" and "Los Angeles Program."

The Trump administration's Justice Department has vowed to "go to war against MS-13," also known as Mara Salvatrucha, which started in the 1980s as a Salvadoran street gang in Los Angeles.

The department said prosecutors moved to seek the death penalty against Alexi Saenz, who is accused of leading a branch of MS-13 in New York's Long Island suburbs nicknamed "Blasty," who is accused of committing seven murders between 2016 and 2017, including the killings of two high school students who were murdered with a machete and baseball bat.

Saenz's alleged victims included two teenage girls. His lawyer, David Ruhnke, was not immediately available for comment.

In an indictment unsealed on Tuesday, federal prosecutors in Alexandria, Virginia, charged alleged MS-13 leader Armando Eliu Melgar Diaz with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, as well as drug trafficking and racketeering.

The Justice Department said this was the first time an MS-13 member has been charged with terrorism-related offenses. Court records indicate a warrant was been issued for Diaz' arrest in May.

In another indictment unsealed on Tuesday in Nevada, prosecutors said 13 MS-13 members were charged with various offenses, including operating a continuing criminal enterprise, narcotics distribution and weapons charges.

Trump has previously linked the fight against the gang with his campaign against illegal immigration. Critics of the administration's tactics argue that the crackdown has also unlawfully detained immigrant teens accused of gang affiliation.

(Reporting By Mark Hosenball; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
Hotel heiress-turned-designer Nicky Hilton Rothschild and her four-year-old daughter Lily Grace were spotted holding roses together in Beverly Hills on Wednesday.

The 36-year-old socialite then joined her parents Kathy and Richard to dine al fresco at Italian restaurant E Baldi.

None of the privileged family wore masks or face coverings, which California Governor Gavin Newsom made mandatory for all public outings on June 18.

Summer bloom: Hotel heiress-turned-designer Nicky Hilton Rothschild and her four-year-old daughter Lily Grace were spotted holding roses together in Beverly Hills on Wednesday

Reunited! The 36-year-old socialite then joined her parents Kathy and Richard to dine al fresco at Italian restaurant E Baldi

As of Thursday, there have been over 143K confirmed COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles County, which has lead to 3,943 deaths - according to Johns Hopkins University.

On Monday, Hilton and her famous sister Paris celebrated Lily's belated (July 8) fourth birthday with a Trolls-themed backyard bash.

Nicky (born Nicholai) and her second husband James Rothschild are also parents to two-year-old daughter Teddy Marilyn.

Last Friday, the native New Yorker and the 35-year-old financier - who began their romance back in 2011 - celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary.

Unprotected: None of the privileged family wore masks or face coverings, which California Governor Gavin Newsom made mandatory for all public outings on June 18

Sister love: On Monday, Hilton and her famous sister Paris (2-R) celebrated Lily's belated (July 8) fourth birthday with a Trolls-themed backyard bash

Sibling celebration: Nicky (born Nicholai) and her second husband James Rothschild are also parents to two-year-old daughter Teddy Marilyn (L)

Lots to celebrate! Last Friday, the native New Yorker and the 35-year-old financier - who began their romance back in 2011 - rang in their fifth wedding anniversary (pictured June 17)

Hilton has been busy promoting the SS/20 collection of flat shoes with French Sole.

'I live in ballet flats. I wear them every single day whether it's going to drop the kids off at school or running to a meeting. I love a chic flat, and I feel like this collection was long overdue because I live in them. I love them,' Nicky told NBC 7 San Diego on July 2.

'Actually, as strange and odd and weird as this time has been, I have made the ideal shoes for this time. All of my girlfriends are like, "I have been living in your shoes, because you don't want to wear slippers and feel, like, so slumpy." They're like, "I put on my loafers or ballet flats so I don't feel such a slob and try and get it together."'

Year-old collaboration: Hilton has been busy promoting the SS/20 collection of flat shoes with French Sole (posted June 25)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called on President Trump Thursday to exercise "the full power" of the Defense Production Act to meet coronavirus equipment needs and accused him of engaging in a "massive dereliction of duty" by ignoring science during the pandemic.

What she's saying: "I yearn for other Republican presidents," Pelosi said at a press conference. "While we may have disagreed on many points, at least we had a shared commitment to the governance of our country."

The big picture: Congress is prepping for a bitter battle over the next coronavirus stimulus package, which comes amid a surge in infections in 37 states over the past week. The $600-per-week supplemental unemployment insurance (UI) benefit included in the March CARES Act is set to expire at the end of July.

Pelosi, who has already led the passage of House Democrats' $3 trillion stimulus bill, said that she is in favor of extending the $600 UI benefit, but added, "The whole package will depend on what we do also through direct payments, which are so essential."

Pelosi did not say whether she has been in contact with anyone in the Trump administration for negotiations. President Trump said earlier this month that he supports another round of direct payments, but signaled that he and other Republicans would not support the extension of UI benefits.

Recess schedules in the House and Senate leave the chambers in need of striking a deal between July 2031. However, Pelosi said earlier this week that the House would "absolutely" skip August recess to reach a deal.

The bottom line: "Because we are Americans, we're going to beat this. But we have to beat it scientifically, and in order to do that, you have to believe in science, and you have to believe in governance," Pelosi said.

Go deeper: More than 32 million Americans are receiving unemployment benefits
Seoul, July 16 : South Korean prosecutors have launched a probe into Kim Yo-jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister, and the Pyongyang's military chief on charges of blowing up an inter-Korean liaison office last month, officials said here on Thursday.

The unprecedented and symbolic probe into Kim Yo-jong, who serves as the first vice department director of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Committee, and Army Gen. Pak Jong-chon, chief of the General Staff of the North Korean army, came after a South Korean lawyer filed a criminal complaint against them over the Kaesong office demolition, reports Yonhap News Agency.

North Korea destroyed the inter-Korean liaison office in its border city of Kaesong on June 16 apparently in anger over propaganda leaflets criticizing Kim Jong-un, following Kim Yo-jong's warning of such a demolition in a statement issued on June 13.

Seoul-based lawyer Lee Kyung-jae filed the complaint with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office on July 8.

The Seoul prosecution plans to review Lee's complaint before deciding whether to apply charges against Kim Yo-jong and Pak, the officials said.

It is virtually impossible for Seoul prosecutors to punish the North Korean officials, Yonhap quoted legal experts as saying here.

Even if the North Koreans were found guilty in a local court, there is no way to execute the verdict, they added.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Army investigators have accused a veteran and his wife of defrauding the military of $11million as officials seize more than 20 vehicles and money from 10 bank accounts.

Officials said they obtained warrants last month to confiscate the funds and property of Kevin Pelayo and Cristine Fredericks and to collect evidence of the alleged fraud during their search of the home of the retired sergeant and his wife, according to recently unsealed federal court records.

In an affidavit seeking to search the couple's home in Killeen, a city near Fort Hood about 150 miles southwest of Dallas, investigators described how the couple allegedly used a transportation reimbursement program for federal employees to swindle the Army out of $2.3million to $11.3million.

Investigators told the court there was probable cause to believe the couple committed crimes including wire fraud, identity theft and money laundering. But there is no record that either of them has been criminally charged.

During the search of the couple's Killeen home, investigators seized documents, computer hard drives, cellphones and more than 100 designer items such as purses, jewelry and clothing, mostly from Chanel, according to a handwritten list of what was collected.

It also lists 23 cars, trucks, SUVs and other vehicles, and a box containing 64 license plates from 'various states'.

Army investigators have accused veteran, Kevin Pelayo and his wife Cristine Fredericks, of defrauding the military of $11M as officials seize 23 vehicles and money from 10 bank accounts

The affidavit, which was filed in court before the raid and unsealed last week, suggests that investigators felt that they had to move quickly.

On March 24, investigators say they watched the couple load vehicles onto trailers and a flatbed truck. They were driven to the parking lot of used car company in Austin.

Pelayo declined to comment during a brief phone call Wednesday and did not respond to a subsequent message asking for his attorneys names.

'I think it's still an ongoing investigation,' he said. 'I can't really say anything about it. I have to talk to my lawyers.'

After arriving at Fort Hood in 2010, Pelayo set up a van company to give employees rides to and from the base under a federal program that subsidizes government workers using mass transit in an effort to reduce traffic and pollution.

He told the Fort Hood Sentinel that he was first drawn to the initiative by the chance to save on gas.

The Sentinel, an official publication overseen by Army commanders, touted the van pool's growth in stories and quoted staff who said it saved them time and money. In 2013, one rider said: 'It works perfectly, like a well-greased wheel.'

Military investigators allege that it turned into a highly lucrative fraud.

As a platoon sergeant, Pelayo had access to the personnel records of soldiers under his command, and Fredericks had worked for Army human resources, according to the affidavit.

Investigators said Pelayo used this access to sign soldiers up for the mass transportation subsidy without their knowledge and then routed the payments to his business' bank accounts.

The alleged fraud occurred under Pelayo's van company that he set up shortly after arriving at Fort Hood (soldiers pictured at the base) in 2010, The company gave employees rides to and from the base under a federal program that subsidizes government workers using mass transit

Starting around 2014, according to the affidavit, Pelayo registered soldiers around the country for subsidies of $255 or $265 a month.

Several enrolled soldiers said they had never ridden in the van pool and investigators found that many were not even at Fort Hood.

This scheme allegedly continued for years, even while Pelayo was stationed in South Korea before his retirement last August.

In some months, the affidavit states, the subsidies gave the couple an income of more than $200,000.

Pelayo and Fredericks moved the money into an array of bank accounts, investigators wrote in the court filing, saying they own more than 20 properties in Texas, New York, Washington and Hawaii.

Pelayo also allegedly transferred money to an unidentified person in the Philippines.

A spokesman for the Army Criminal Investigations Division and one for the US Attorney's Office of the Western District of Texas said they do not confirm nor comment on investigations unless charges are brought publicly.

A Fort Hood spokesman declined to answer questions, saying he'd defer to those agencies' statements.
A group of British travellers have arrived in Greece wearing face masks as coronavirus flight restrictions are lifted two weeks after Spain welcomed its first Britons.

A Tui flight departed from Gatwick yesterday to Rhodes, while people were pictured arriving at Spata, east of Athens, this afternoon.

The group included families and couple travellers, all wearing face masks to protect themselves and others from the virus.

The long-awaited arrivals come at the end of an additional two-week ban on travel to Greece from the UK.

Tui, who managed the first flights, is also planning holidays to the islands of Corfu, Crete and Kos, the Independent reported today.

Among the quarantine measures faced by arrivals are random testing and enhanced security measures to locate travellers while in the country.

Tourists from the United Kingdom arrive at Athens International Airport after pandemic-related restrictions were lifted by Greece, at Spata, east of Athens today

Tourists from the United Kingdom arrive at Athens International Airport after pandemic-related restrictions were lifted by Greece, at Spata, east of Athens on July 16, 2020

Alexandros Maziotis, a Greek who lives in the UK, said he wasn't tested today.

'I'm planning to be a bit careful, especially the first week, so I make sure I don't pass something to my parents,' he said.

Before departure, travellers must apply for a Passenger Locator Form (PLF), which provides Athens with detailed information about the tourist and their plans for their stay.

'Detailed information on their point of departure, the duration of previous stays in other countries, and the address of their stay while in Greece,' the PLF guidelines read.

'In case of multiple stays, they are required to provide the address for the first 24 hours at least.'

'Travellers will receive the PLF with their unique Quick Response (QR) code on the day of their scheduled arrival in Greece,' it adds.

Tourists from the United Kingdom arrive at Athens International Airport after pandemic-related restrictions were lifted by Greece, at Spata, east of Athens today

At the end of last month, Athens extended its prohibition on UK flights to the country from July 1 until yesterday.

It cited the UK's high rate of coronavirus cases as one of the factors, with Sweden also being blocked for the same reason.

Greece has previously flip-flopped over allowing UK tourists back in, at one point asking the UK for a deal.

The state-run Amna news agency reported in June that prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told a tourism industry meeting in Athens today: 'The whole opening procedure is dynamic and the data will be continuously evaluated.'
After being shut for over 100 days, the citys lone abattoirthe Ghazipur slaughterhouseis likely to reopen in a week. The move comes after the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) agreed to the demand of a two-year extension by the company that manages the facility. EDMC on Wednesday issued an order granting two years extension to the company and asked them to restart the facility. The slaughterhouse was closed on March 26 at the start of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, affecting the principal supply line of meat to the Capital.

Officials said the slaughterhouse could not be reopened even after the lockdown was lifted because of the stalemate regarding the agreement of management between EDMC and Frigorifico Allanathe company managing the facility.

While poultry slaughter is allowed in several places in the city, goats, lambs and buffaloes can only be butchered at the slaughterhouse close to the Uttar Pradesh border. It supplied around 400,000 kg of meat daily to Delhi until the lockdown.

The meat supply in the city has been disrupted ever since the slaughterhouse suspended its operations. Traders were forced to get their supply from Uttar Pradesh and Haryana instead, leading to a sharp increase in mutton prices. Before the lockdown, mutton was sold for around 500 per kg; the price has now increased to 1,000 per kg in Delhi.

Nirmal Jain, the mayor of EDMC, confirmed the slaughterhouse would become operational in around a week as they have provided a two-year extension to the firm. We have been getting requests to reopen the slaughterhouse as people have been procuring meat at high prices. With the festival of Bakr-Eid around the corner, the demand is expected to rise further. So we have issued an order to provide a two-year extension to the existing company to run the slaughterhouse. In the meantime, we will also float global bids for a 10-year lease to run the slaughterhouse. We have asked the firm to reopen the slaughterhouse soon. It may take around a week as they will have to arrange labour and sanitise the premises, Jain said.

According to civic officials, the contract of the company had ended in August last year and was extended twice till May this year. The civic body, in the meantime, had sent out fresh bids, which failed. As the lockdown started being lifted in a phased manner, EDMC asked the concessionaire to restart the facility and gave it an extension of another six months, but the company declined the request and demanded at least two years more. Now the civic body has agreed to the demand. We are hoping that the slaughterhouse will reopen next week, a senior EDMC official said.

Fauzan Alavi, the director of Frigorifico Allana, said, We wanted the stalemate to end and the slaughterhouse to reopen. We are yet to get any official communication in connection with the two-year extension to the company.

Built in 2009, the Ghazipur slaughterhouse is spread across 25 acres near NH-24. It is an automated facility where around 1,000 butchers and supervisors work, and has the capacity for 10,000 animals to be slaughtered in three shifts daily.

The opposition in EDMC, however, questioned the move and said that such a long-term extension should have been given only after approval from the House. EDMC has given a two-year extension to the company running the slaughterhouse without getting it passed from the House and the standing committee. The ruling BJP should have first discussed and passed this proposal in the House. The move reeks of corruption, the leader of opposition in EDMC Manoj Kumar Tyagi said.

Responding to the allegation, EDMC mayor Jain said that the allegations were baseless and the step was taken as an emergency move as the slaughterhouse had been closed for over three months and the survival of its workers was at stake. It is a public welfare decision and an emergency move. The people of the city have been suffering from meat shortage and over 1000 employees, who work at the slaughterhouse, are struggling for survival. We cannot keep the facility shut for eternity; we had to end the stalemate. Thats why we decided to reopen the facility, Jain said.
By Trend





The Armenian armed forces continue to shell Azerbaijani civilians and settlements, Trend reports on July 15.

The Armenian armed forces once again opened fire on Dondar Gushchu village of Azerbaijans Tovuz district.

Along with the villagers, Azerbaijani MPs Arzu Naghiyev, Ganira Pashayeva, their assistants, as well as media representatives witnessed another gross violation of the ceasefire by the Armenian side.

None of residents, journalists and MPs, who were on that territory, were seriously injured.

Earlier, the Armenian armed forces opened fire at Dondar Gushchu village of Azerbaijans Tovuz district by using D-30 howitzer.

Starting from noon on July 12, units of the armed forces of Armenia, grossly violating the ceasefire in the direction of Azerbaijans Tovuz district along the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border, opened artillery fire at Azerbaijani positions.

Azerbaijan's armed response forced the Armenian army to retreat, suffering losses.

Azerbaijani personnel, sergeant of military service Vugar Sadigov and corporal Elshad Mammadov, died while repelling the attack of the Armenian armed forces.

Despite the efforts of the Azerbaijani doctors, severely wounded serviceman of the Azerbaijani army Khayyam Dashdemirov also died.

The tension remained in Tovuz district on the Azerbaijan-Armenia state border on July 12 night.

During the night battles, by using artillery, mortars and tanks, the Azerbaijani armed forces destroyed a stronghold, bombshells, vehicles and servicemen on the territory of the Armenias military unit.

Azerbaijani serviceman, senior lieutenant Rashad Mahmudov was killed during the battles.
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, July 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- President Hernandez reacted to the irregularities found during process for purchasing seven mobile hospitals for attending the pandemic emergency in Honduras, a case that is currently under investigation of the corresponding authorities. "We will not allow anyone to mess around with the health and wellbeing of the people. I am being loud and clear: to all public officials or businesses that pretend to take advantage of the emergency by abusing this tragedy, my government will not tolerate such acts and we will make sure that if it happens, justice will be served at a court of law," emphasized the President of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez.

Mobile hospitals became an option for many countries since they come fully equipped with components that were scarce in the international market, such as clinics, laboratories, intensive care rooms and respirators, and protective gear for front-liners, among others. However, the supplier for Honduras case did not comply with the delivery due date and there are doubts about the documentation presented by the provider company. As a consequence, President Hernandez has requested to the Prosecutor General Office to open an investigation to get to the bottom of the matter to defend and protect the interest of Honduran people.

"It doesn't matter if it is a national or a foreign company, either they deliver what was paid for or we are going to go to the last consequences to recover legally the money that was paid for the mobile hospitals," stated the President.

He recalled that the government approved a series of provisions and regulations to face COVID-19 in the national territory. "Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have made enormous efforts to acquire medicines and medical supplies to fight the disease, in the middle of a complex situation in which the richest countries have faster and easier access to get supplies in a market full of speculations and conflicts among companies that want to become suppliers of the needed good and services," President Hernandez said. "We warned that we aren't going to tolerate mismanagement in the face of the crisis, and everyone is accountable before the law for their own actions, we all have to be accountable for every penny, this applies not only to nationals but to foreigners as well."

President Hernandez reiterated once again his commitment to fight corruption and impunity, so transparency prevails.

To guarantee transparency in procurement processes, from the beginning of the health crisis the government invited non-governmental organizations such as Transparency International, National Convergence Forum (FONAC) and FOPRIDEH, to contribute as observers of all the different processes with the purpose of maintaining a sound effective system of national and international oversight.



Last April, the President of Honduras was forceful when he publicly stated that, in the urgency to obtain medicine and medical supplies to face the pandemic, accountability and transparency are mandatory and a top priority.

For more information go to: https://presidencia.gob.hn/index.php/sala-de-prensa

SOURCE The Government of the Republic of Honduras
By Trend

hair of the Delegation to the Parliamentary Partnership Committees of the EU and the countries of the South Caucasus, MEP Marina Kaljurand has made a statement in connection with the recent clashes on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, Trend reports on July 16.

"We are greatly concerned about the renewed escalation of violence in the past days between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which has yet again led to the death of military personnel and a civilian in the Tovuz region, Kaljurand added.

We express our deep condolences to the families of the victims, and call for an immediate halt to these military confrontations, chair of the delegation added.

As repeatedly stated by the European Parliament, we firmly believe that the conflict does not have a military solution, the diplomat said. Instead, it needs a settlement in accordance with international law on the basis of the purposes and principles enshrined in the UN Charter and in the OSCE Helsinki Final Act.

We reiterate our unwavering support to the efforts of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and the 2009 Basic Principles, Kaljurand said.

We call on the authorities of Armenia and Azerbaijan to immediately stop any armed confrontations and respect the ceasefire, to refrain from actions and rhetoric fuelling tensions, to prepare their populations for peace, to step up their meaningful commitment, in good faith, to the negotiation process under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, and to relaunch their bilateral communication in order to defuse tensions and prevent further escalation, reads the statement.

Earlier, Co-chair of the EU-Azerbaijan Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, MP Javanshir Feyziev appealed to the authorized representatives of the European Parliament for the South Caucasus in connection with the Armenian provocation.

The appeal included the detailed information about the act of aggression and the provocation committed by Armenia on the border with Azerbaijan. The document stressed that the Armenian political leadership is fully responsible for the consequences of these actions.

Starting from noon on July 12, units of the armed forces of Armenia, grossly violating the ceasefire in the direction of Azerbaijans Tovuz district along the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border, opened artillery fire at Azerbaijani positions.

Azerbaijan's armed response forced the Armenian army to retreat suffering losses.

Azerbaijani personnel, sergeant of military service Vugar Sadigov and corporal Elshad Mammadov, died while repelling the attack of the Armenian armed forces.

Despite the efforts of the Azerbaijani doctors, severely wounded serviceman of the Azerbaijani army Khayyam Dashdemirov also died.

The tension remained in Tovuz district on the Azerbaijan-Armenia state border on July 12 night.

During the night battles, by using artillery, mortars and tanks, the Azerbaijani armed forces destroyed a stronghold, bombshells, vehicles and servicemen on the territory of the Armenias military unit.

Azerbaijani serviceman, senior lieutenant Rashad Mahmudov was killed during the battles.

The battles continued on the night of July 13. Major General Polad Hashimov, Colonel Ilgar Mirzoyev, Major Namig Ahmadov, Major Anar Novruzov, Ensign Ilgar Zeynalli, Ensign Yashar Babayev and soldier Elchin Mustafazade became martyrs during the battles.

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The first WHO-enlisted global clinical Phase III trial of Sinopharm CNBGs inactivated vaccine to combat Covid-19 has started in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, it was announced at a vortual press conference today.

The trial is the result of a cooperation partnership between Abu Dhabi-based G42 Healthcare, currently at the forefront of the battle against Covid-19 in the UAE, and Sinopharm CNBG, the worlds sixth largest vaccine manufacturer, ranked 169th on the Fortune Global 500 list of 2018.

Meanwhile, Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Hamed, Chairman of the Department of Health, Abu Dhabi, was the first individual in the world to commence the trial of a Phase III inactivated vaccine for Covid-19. The departments Acting Undersecretary, Dr Jamal Al Kaabi was the second volunteer to trial the vaccine showcasing the commitment of the UAE Government and the Health Authorities to find a cure for humanitys biggest challenge of the 21st Century, said a statement.

The trials are being operated by health practitioners from Abu Dhabi Health Services (SEHA) who are providing facilities at five of their sites in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain in addition to a mobile clinic to ensure the trials are readily accessible to volunteers participating in the programme.

Over the past few months, G42 Healthcare has established a massive throughput laboratory to speed up the detection of the disease; manufactured essential PPE; conducted research into new vaccines and drug therapies and used its advanced AI capabilities to map and predict trends in the outbreak, virus mutations and help combat the disease.

The UAE was the preferred choice for the cooperation partnership to conduct the Phase III trials for the inactive vaccine as the nation is home to over 200 nationalities, allowing for robust research across multiple ethnicities and increasing its feasibility for global application on the success of the trials.

The UAE Health Authorities have recently issued a permit for up to 15,000 volunteers to take part in the trials. G42 Healthcare and SEHA are working towards achieving a minimum of 5,000 participants in the first stage of the programme to ensure the robustness of the results.

Today's clinical trial commencement is the start of a series of national initiatives to both foster population health and to enhance the UAE's medical research and development capabilities, including the local capacity to manufacture the vaccine.

Trial formally began in the presence of the Chinese Ambassador to the UAE, Ni Jian; senior health department officials and G42 Healthcare and Sinopharm CNBG representatives. The first group of volunteers including UAE nationals and expatriates received the vaccine at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City today.

The clinical trials are being conducted under the strict guidance and supervision of the Department of Health Abu Dhabi and SEHA  the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company. The trials follow all international guidelines stipulated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States Food & Drug Authority (USFDA).

The study, if successful, will be approved and accredited by the Ethics Committee for Scientific Research in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Commenting on the start of the programme, UAE Principle Investigator Sheikh Khalifa Medical City CMO and Chairperson of the National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee Dr Nawal Ahmed Alkaabi, said: Our participation in this trial enables us to make a major contribution in the global fight to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a matter of national pride that we are able to help facilitate the trial process that could have a worldwide impact and help people around the world to benefit from research and  if successful  the manufacture of a vaccine to fight back against this disease.

The phase III clinical trial follows the success of the phase I and phase II trials conducted by Sinopharm in China, which resulted in 100% of the volunteers generating antibodies after two doses in 28 days. The phase III trials will be open to individual volunteers aged between 18 and 60 living in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain and will last for three to six months, with the volunteers required to be available for follow ups during this time.

A key factor for Covid-19 vaccine is the urgency around global implementation. Computing power, data processing and diagnostic analysis are G42 Healthcares global competitive advantage to support the successful delivery of the worlds first phase III trials of inactivated vaccine.

G42 Healthcare CEO Ashish Koshy said: We are enormously proud that Sinopharm CNBG has partnered G42 Healthcare in this groundbreaking phase III clinical trial in the UAE. Using our AI solutions, super-computer, advanced diagnostics solutions for COVID-19, G42 Healthcare is uniquely postured to conduct these trials. G42 Healthcare will be responsible for running clinical operations for this trial. We will be leveraging our groups technical and our own business capabilities to: compute, correlate and provide fast and synthesized insights by deploying multiple AI models on the data generated during the trials to accelerate the much awaiting results. G42 Healthcare will be mobilizing the logistical management of the trials taking in learnings from its proven capabilities in CRO management, clinical sites initiations and other E2E programme management activities.

Jingjin Zhu, President, Biological products, Sinopharm CNBG, added: The United Arab Emirates is a nation of innovation and tolerance, that is home to individuals from every part of the world and ethnic background. We will work closely with our partner to complete this clinical trial successfully, and make this vaccine available to the people in need worldwide. With the full support of local authorities, cutting-edge technologies provided by our partner G42 Healthcare, and high-quality services and supports from the medical and clinical entities, we will jointly contribute to the battle against Covid-19 worldwide."

Now that the trials have officially commenced, G42 Healthcare and the UAE Health Authorities will shortly launch a public awareness campaign to encourage UAE residents to participate in this critical to humanity clinical trial programme, the statement said. - TradeArabia News Service
Mumbai, July 16 : Actress Swara Bhasker will essay the role of a stand-up comic in the upcoming series "Bhaag Beanie Bhaag", which she describes as a story of a girl finding a place for herself amidst a chaos.

"I'm excited about 'Bhaag Beanie Bhaag'. The series revolves around Beanie, who has always done what's asked of her -- until she decides to run from her very comfortable life and pursue a career in stand-up comedy," Swara said.

"As she navigates the demands of everyone, from her concerned parents to her proposal-popping boyfriend, this is Beanie's journey to carve out the life she wants for herself amidst the chaos," she added.

Recently, Swara was seen in "Rasbhari", which narrates a love story set in Meerut. Swara plays the role of a stern English teacher who is the object of attraction for Nand (Ayushmaan Saxena).
Prince Andrew's official website has been quietly taken down, with visitors now automatically redirected to the Royal Family's main site.

The Duke of York's Twitter and Instagram accounts remain active, however no posts have been shared since he stepped back from his public duties in November 2019.

Anyone trying to access thedukeofyork.org is now taken to the 60-year-old duke's section on the main royal.uk page, which features the statement Andrew released regarding his association with the paedophile.

Earlier this month Andrew's friend and Jeffrey Epstein's ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested over her links to the dead billionaire.

Prince Andrew's official website has been quietly taken down, with visitors now automatically redirected to the Royal Family's main site

Anyone trying to access thedukeofyork.org is now taken to the 60-year-old' Duke's section on the main royal.uk page (pictured), which features the statement Andrew released regarding his association with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein in November 2019

Yesterday Prince Andrew was seen looking relaxed and happy hours after Maxwell cried in the dock when a judge denied bail, ruling she must remain in jail for at least a year pending her trial on sex trafficking charges.

The court heard she is secretly married but her mystery spouse was not named. Maxwell pleaded not guilty via video link.

The Duke of York was spotted laughing uproariously with his bodyguard as he drove out of the gates of Windsor Castle, where he has been keeping a low profile at his lodge in the grounds of his mother the Queen's estate.

Earlier this week Donald Trump's Attorney General insisted that his prosecutors 'definitely' want to speak to the royal about his friendship with Epstein and his alleged madam.

Earlier this month Andrew's friend and Jeffrey Epstein's ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell (pictured with the prince at Royal Ascot in 2000) was arrested over her links to the dead billionaire

Maxwell, left, was last seen at an In-N-Out Burger in August. She is now in custody in Brooklyn. Epstein killed himself in jail last August. Some believe he was murdered

Prince Andrew is involved in a war of words with the US authorities over whether he will assist their inquiries into the sex crimes of his friend Epstein, who hanged himself in a New York jail cell last summer.

Last week the US Attorney General Bill Barr said that Andrew must speak to the FBI and his team 'definitely' want to interview him.

He said: 'The department wants to talk to Prince Andrew. That's why the Southern District has been making efforts to communicate with him. We've made it clear that we'd like to communicate with him'.

A source close to Prince Andrew previously told DailyMail.com that he was 'bewildered' by the ongoing claims that he wasn't cooperating, and says his team tried to reach prosecutors several times.

Prince Andrew (pictured during his BBC Newsnight interview last year) is under increasing pressure to give evidence to the FBI about Jeffrey Epstein - lawyer for some of the victims, Gloria Allred, says Andrew wants an invitation 'on a silver platter'

According to reports, Maxwell, the daughter of disgraced late British newspaper tycoon Robert, introduced Prince Andrew to Epstein.

One of Epstein's victims, Virginia Roberts, claims she was forced to have sex with the Duke of York on three occasions  allegations emphatically denied by the Queen's second son.

After the hearing, Miss Roberts said she was 'thrilled', adding: 'Without Ghislaine, Jeffrey Epstein would not have been able to fulfil his sick desires.

Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts, aged 17 at Ghislaine Maxwell's townhouse in London and the Duke of York is in a war of words with the US authorities and the royal insists he is willing to speak to them about Jeffrey Epstein

'Ghislaine preyed on me when I was a child. The rest of her life should be spent behind bars.'

Prince Andrew has seen his legal team 'ghosted' by US prosecutors as they claim to have made repeated offers of help in the Jeffrey Epstein case  including in the last 10 days.

Sources close to the Duke of York's legal team say they have contacted Department of Justice representatives in the US on a number of occasions since they were first contacted at the beginning of the year.

In February the duke's name was removed from the website of his Dragon's Den-style project Pitch@Palace, which brokers deals between tech start-ups and wealthy investors, after the organisation moved its base from Buckingham Palace to a new office.

Prince Andrew's final Twitter and Instagram posts include the statement he released in November 2019 regarding his association with the late sex offender.

Prince Andrew's final Twitter and Instagram posts include the statement he released in November 2019 regarding his association with the late sex offender

It reads: 'It has become clear to me over the last few days that the circumstances relating to my former association with Jeffrey Epstein has become a major disruption to my family's work and the valuable work going on in the many organisations and charities that I am proud to support.

'Therefore, I have asked Her Majesty if I may step back from public duties for the foreseeable future, and she has given her permission.

'I continue to unequivocally regret my ill-judged association with Jeffrey Epstein. His suicide has left many unanswered questions, particularly for his victims, and I deeply sympathise with everyone who has been affected and wants some form of closure.

'I can only hope that, in time, they will be able to rebuild their lives. Of course, I am willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required.'
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Linkedin Tim Kelly (Reuters) Tokyo, Japan  Thu, July 16, 2020 10:10 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666b6b16 2 Science & Tech Japan,Telexistence,retail,retail-automation,technology,robot Free

In August, a robot vaguely resembling a kangaroo will begin stacking sandwiches, drinks and ready meals on shelves at a Japanese convenience store in a test its maker, Telexistence, hopes will help trigger a wave of retail automation.

Following that trial, store operator FamilyMart says it plans to use robot workers at 20 stores around Tokyo by 2022. At first, people will operate them remotely - until the machines' artificial intelligence (AI) can learn to mimic human movements. Rival convenience store chain Lawson is deploying its first robot in September, according to Telexistence.

"It advances the scope and scale of human existence," the robot maker's chief executive, Jin Tomioka, said as he explained how its technology lets people sense and experience places other than where they are.

The idea, dubbed telexistence, was first proposed by the start up's co-founder, University of Tokyo professor Susumu Tachi, four decades ago.

Their company has received funding from technology investment company Softbank Group and cell phone service operator KDDI in Japan, with overseas investors including European passenger aircraft maker Airbus SE. It dubbed its robot the Model T, a nod to the Ford Motor car that began the era of mass motoring a century ago.

Its quirky design is meant to help shoppers feel at ease because people can feel uncomfortable around robots that look too human.

Escaping factories

Robots are still a rare sight in public. Although they can outperform humans in manufacturing plants built around them, they struggle with simple tasks in more unpredictable urban settings.

Solving that performance problem could help businesses in industrialised nations, particularly those in rapidly ageing Japan, cope with fewer workers. Firms hit by the coronavirus outbreak may also need to operate with fewer people.

Since the outbreak started, hotels, restaurants and even gas and oil companies have contacted Telexistence, Tomioka said.

"It's difficult to tell now what impact robots might have in restaurants - it could mean fewer people, but it could also create new jobs," said Niki Harada, an official at Japan's Restaurant Workers Union.

Using human operators with virtual reality goggles and motion-sensor controls to train its machines slashes the cost of retail robotics compared with complex programming that can cost 10 times more than as the hardware and take months to complete, Telexistence says.

Although FamilyMart will still need humans to control its robots, operators can be anywhere and include people who would not normally work in stores, said Tomohiro Kano, a general manager in charge of franchise development.

"There are about 1.6 million people in Japan, who for various reasons are not active in the workforce," he said.

Future telexistence robots could also be used in hospitals so doctors could perform operations from remote locations, predicted Professor Takeo Kanade, an AI and robotics scientist at Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, who joined Telexistence in February as an adviser.

It might take another 20 years before robots can work in people's homes, however, he said.

"In order for robots to be really usable at home we really have to be able to communicate. The fundamental thing that is lacking is knowing how humans behave."
But even with rocky talks ahead, some analysts say that there is little that can touch Merkel now, and gone are the doubts that she may not make it to the end of her term. It's probably a first that after 16 years or 15 years, a chancellor has a chance to ride into a glorious sunset and not into a thunderstorm, Kornelius said.
At-Risk Mental Health for Students Simulation technology is unique in that it can tailor content to individual students... and give them a safe space to practice difficult conversations." - Dr. Victor Schwartz, Chief Medical Officer, The Jed Foundation

As colleges and universities prepare to meet the mental health needs of studentswho may or may not be on campus in the fall due to COVID-19many are looking to virtual solutions. Kognito, a health simulation company, announced updates to its evidence-based virtual simulation At-Risk Mental Health for Students as a flexible online mental health training to help colleges improve students ability to succeed in 2020 and beyond.

The new 40-minute At-Risk simulation emphasizes building skills that promote positive coping, help-seeking, positive self-concept, and growth mindset. Students engage with virtual students to recognize signs of distress in themselves and peers, and practice effective communication techniques to give peers support. Colleges can add their own custom resources into the simulation to expand student knowledge of mental health support outside of the counseling center, through programming like wellness programs, peer support groups, and academic counseling.

Since its launch in 2010, over 300,000 students across over 300 institutions have used the original At-Risk for University Students simulation. During this time, numerous studies have shown the effectiveness of this simulation to increase conversations and help-seeking behaviors in students, including a recent randomized control trial conducted by Fordham University published in the Journal of the American Association of Suicidology. Universities often pair the simulation with its faculty counterpart, At-Risk for Faculty & Staff, which trains campus employees to talk with students about mental health and heightens awareness of their gatekeeping role within a community of care.

Updates to At-Risk are based on how higher educations response to student mental health has evolved over the past decade. Students face more stress, anxiety, and depression than ever before, accounting for an average 30-40% increase in counseling center utilization from 2009 to 2015, while enrollment grew by only 5%. Meanwhile, students are entering college lacking coping and resiliency skills compared to classes before them.

Dr. Victor Schwartz, Chief Medical Officer at The Jed Foundation (JED), was one of the subject matter experts who partnered with Kognito to help develop the At-Risk simulations updates. Dr. Schwartz was joined by counseling and student services leaders involved in the development process to ensure that the updated content reflected the current needs of college students.

Weve seen the mental health needs of the college student change and evolve, says Dr. Schwartz. We know peer support on campus is a critical resource, since two-thirds of college students who are feeling suicidal will tell a friend first. Simulation technology is unique in that it can tailor content to individual students based on their existing knowledge, and give them a safe space to practice difficult conversations. Getting that confidence through a simulation like At-Risk is going to connect more students and support early intervention.

This evolution of At-Risk reflects the current needs of todays college student. While there are many unknowns about the future, we know that there will be an essential need for students to learn about mental health, support, and resiliency, says Dr. Glenn Albright, Kognito Co-Founder and Director of Research. Analyzing the changes weve seen in student attitudes and behavior from data collected over ten years, plus in pairing subject matter expertise with cutting edge simulation technology, were confident that At-Risk Mental Health for Students will continue to make an impact on many lives through conversation and connection.

As institutions continue to navigate this period of uncertainty, many are looking to At-Risk Mental Health for Students given its online accessibility for remote students and effective format that quickly builds essential skills around mental health and peer-to-peer support. More information on At-Risk Mental Health for Students is available on Kognitos website.

About Kognito

Kognito is a health simulation company whose evidence-based simulations harness the power of role-play conversations with virtual humans to improve social, emotional, and physical health. Learn more at kognito.com.
By Trend

A sitting of NATO-Georgia Commission, co-chaired by Georgian Foreign Minister Davit Zalkaliani and Deputy Secretary General of NATO Mircea Geoana, was held in Brussels, Belgium, Trend reports via Georgian media.

Georgian foreign minister reported that the Commission has commended the reforms carried out by Georgia in process of Euro-Atlantic integration, Georgias engagement in global security processes, strengthening of democracy and election systems reform in the country, and effective measures in the struggle against COVID-19 pandemic.

NATO allies reiterated their support to Georgia on its path of NATO integration and expressed the expectations that Georgia would hold democratic and high-standard parliamentary elections in autumn.

Relations between NATO and Georgia date back to 1992 when Georgia joined the North-Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC). The latter was replaced by the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) in 1997 as a forum for discussions between NATO and partners.

In 1994, Georgia joined the NATO Partnership for Peace (PfP) program and since 1996, the country has been actively participating in training and exercises within the program.

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South Mountain Creamery, a family-owned business in Maryland that specializes in home delivery, has purchased the former Trickling Springs dairy and plans to reboot the once-popular brand after it abruptly collapsed last year amid state and federal charges of securities fraud.

South Mountain's owners closed on the deal Wednesday. They paid about $2 million for the Trickling Springs plant and store in Chambersburg, Pa., as well as the defunct creamery's trucks, trailers, warehouse and intellectual property, South Mountain co-owner Tony Brusco said. The judge and trustee involved in Trickling Springs' Chapter 7 bankruptcy case signed off on the sale, he said.

Once the Trickling Springs plant is serviced and licensed again, it will start producing milk for the retail market, Brusco told The Washington Post. At least at first, the revived brand will focus on bottled organic milk, including chocolate milk, whole, 2%, skim and cream. Two farmers who used to sell organic milk to Trickling Springs have agreed to partner with the rejuvenated company, Brusco said.

"Trickling Springs had a very strong brand, and they were known for organic milk, which is something we currently don't offer," says Brusco, who owns South Mountain with his wife, Abby, as well as his brother-in-law Ben Sowers and his wife, Kate. The family hopes to have Trickling Springs milk back in retail stores by September. While retailers have not committed to buying the milk yet, several are interested, Brusco said, including Mom's Organic Market.

After Trickling Springs shuttered last fall, South Mountain hired a handful of its former employees. The company expects to add another 25 to 30 employees to staff up for the relaunch of Trickling Springs, Brusco said. South Mountain also plans to use the recipes it purchased to roll out some of Trickling Springs' beloved ice creams, but under the South Mountain brand. It even may eventually bring back Trickling Springs' organic butter, Brusco said.

"Obviously, we're trying to ease into this so we don't overpromise and underdeliver," he added.

South Mountain wants to avoid the alleged overexpansion that, in part, led to Trickling Springs' demise, Brusco said. In January, the Pennsylvania Banking and Securities Commission ordered the four former owners of Trickling Springs, including de facto financial officer Philip Riehl, to pay nearly $4.4 million in fines for violations of the Pennsylvania Securities Act of 1972 and other regulations. The men were also permanently barred from the securities business, following an investigation into their practice of financing the creamery with money from their Mennonite community without telling investors that Trickling Springs was basically insolvent.

In February, Riehl pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraud charges in what federal prosecutors called one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in Pennsylvania history, which "targeted members of the Mennonite and Amish religious communities in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, of which the defendant is a member." Prosecutors said the scheme swallowed up nearly $60 million in investor cash. Riehl is expected to be sentenced soon.

All four former owners were excommunicated from their Mennonite churches over their dealings with Trickling Springs.

"At the end of the day, we're doing this because we have a very strong passion for local food, and we want to connect that to our community," said Brusco.

"I'm not limiting us on size, but we'll never be that corporate structure. That's not what I'm after," he added. "I"m not trying to be the Amazon of this type of business."
Regulatory News:

Ontex Group NV (BSE:ONTEX), a leading international provider of personal hygiene solutions, with expertise in baby care, feminine care and adult care, will release its H1 2020 results at 7:00 am CET/6:00 am UK on Thursday, July 30, 2020. The press release and presentation will be available on the Company's website: http://www.ontexglobal.com/financial-reports.

Management will host a conference call for investors and analysts on Thursday, July 30, 2020 at 9:00 am CET/8:00 am UK. A replay of the conference call will be available for one week afterwards.

Dial-in information

Please dial in 5-10 minutes before the scheduled start time to register your attendance. Dial-in numbers for the call are as follows:

Belgium +32 (0)2 404 0659

France +33 (0)1 70 72 25 50

Germany +49 (0)69 2222 25574

United Kingdom +44 (0)330 336 9125

United States +1 323-794-2094

Confirmation code 2201510

Replay numbers

Belgium +32 (0)2 620 0568

France +33 (0)1 70 48 00 94

Germany +49 (0)69 2000 1800

United Kingdom +44 (0)207 660 0134

United States +1 719-457-0820

Confirmation code 2201510

About Ontex

Ontex is a leading international provider of personal hygiene solutions, with expertise in baby care, feminine care and adult care. Ontex's innovative products are distributed in more than 110 countries through Ontex brands such as BBTips, BioBaby, Pompom, Bigfral, Canbebe, Canped, ID and Serenity, as well as leading retailer brands.

Employing some 10,000 passionate people all over the world, Ontex has a presence in 21 countries, with its headquarters in Aalst, Belgium. Ontex is listed on Euronext Brussels and is part of the Bel Mid. To keep up with the latest news, visit www.ontex.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200716005725/en/

Contacts:

PRESS ENQUIRIES

Gaelle Vilatte

+32 53 333 708

gaelle.vilatte@ontexglobal.com

INVESTOR ENQUIRIES

Philip Ludwig

+32 53 333 730

investorrelations@ontexglobal.com
President Muhammadu Buhari has condoled with the Nigeria Airforce Force (NAF), Kogi State Government and the family of a helicopter fighter pilot, Tolulope Arotile, over her demise.

In a statement released by Mr Buhari's Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, on Wednesday, he said her stay on earth impacted greatly on the nation, especially in peace and security.

Premium Times earlier reported the death of Ms Arotile, who died on Tuesday, according to NAF, as a result of head injuries sustained from a road accident at its base in Kaduna.

NAF winged Ms Arotile as the first female helicopter fighter (combatant) pilot last year.

According to the statement, Mr Buhari commended Ms Arotile's bravery in the field to protect the country from the onslaught of bandits and terrorists, assuring that her memory will be indelible, and her efforts remembered.

He commiserated with the Nigerian Air Force, airmen, airwomen and all friends of the deceased, recalling her skills in manoeuvring combat helicopters, which he had physically witnessed with pride.

Condolence pours in

Also, the Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Sadique Abubakar, expressed sadness over the death of Ms Arotile.

In a statement released by Mr Abubakar on Wednesday, he said,

"She was a very intelligent, disciplined, confident & courageous young officer who added value wherever she served. As a squadron pilot in Operation GAMA AIKI in Minna, Niger State, she flew her quota of anti-banditry combat missions to ensure a safer, more secured Nigeria.

"I recall meeting her at the Minna Airport, while on operational visit, after one of such missions & seeing her eagerness to contribute towards the restoration of lasting peace to the affected areas. Her death is a huge loss to @NigAirForce family & indeed the entire Nation.

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"On behalf officers, airmen, airwomen & civilian staff of @NigAirForce, I once more condole with the family of late Flying Officer Arotile over this irreparable loss & sincerely pray that the Almighty God grants her soul eternal rest."

Also, a former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has commiserated with the family of Ms Arotile.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Mr Saraki said, "I woke up to read the very sad news of the unfortunate passing away of Flying Officer Tolulope Arotile - Nigeria's first female combat helicopter pilot.

"Flying Officer Arotile dedicated her life to the service of her nation and in so doing became a role model for millions of Nigerians on breaking glass ceilings. She will be missed.

"I commiserate with @NigAirForce, her family and friends. I pray the Almighty gives them the strength to bear this loss", he added.

A leader of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, also commiserated with the family of Ms Arotile.

In a statement released on Wednesday, he said, "My sincere condolences to the family, friends and Nigerian Air Force colleagues of Flying Officer, Tolulope Arotile.

"Ms. Arotile was a trailblazer in every sense and her sudden passing is a tragic and painful loss for all patriotic Nigerians. May her virtuous soul rest peacefully in the bosom of Allah."
The Akwa Ibom Government has ordered striking health professionals in the state under the umbrella of Joint Health Workers Union (JOHESU) to resume work immediately or risk being relieved of their jobs.

This is contained in a statement signed by the Commissioner for Information, Charles Udoh, on Wednesday.

Mr Udoh said the strike embarked upon by JOHESU was ill-conceived and politically motivated.

He said the demand by JOHESU for payment of 50 per cent of basic salaries as hazard allowance in the prevailing harsh economic climate was unreasonable.

The commissioner said the action of the striking health workers in spite of concerted efforts by the government to provide the best of working conditions was unnecessary.

He said the government had made payment of all due salaries and allowances, adding that the state was one of the best paying states in the health sector.

"The efforts of the state government in this regard have continued to receive widespread commendations from various healthcare stakeholders in the country.

"Against this backdrop, government is constrained to state that it is unreasonable and also unlawful for healthcare professionals to embark on any form of strike action during period of Coronavirus pandemic.

"Therefore, full compliments of related healthcare professionals are expected at their duty posts unfailingly, as required by the terms and conditions of their employment.

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"Any staff member not found on duty will be considered to be no longer interested in the job and will be relieved of such duty with immediate effect.

"The relevant health authorities have been mandated to conduct head count," Udoh said.

Mr Udoh said the government had made adequate arrangements to ensure that those interested in performing their lawful duties were allowed to do so without disruption or molestation of any sort.

"Anyone found obstructing or disrupting healthcare operations anywhere in the state, under the pretext of an industrial action, will be apprehended and prosecuted.

"It is criminal for anyone to obstruct health care workers from performing their legitimate duties in this period of emergency

"Government is aware that the ill-conceived industrial action and blatant act of sabotage by JOHESU is sponsored by political detractors with an underlying intent to vandalise healthcare facilities in the state," he said.

He added that security agencies in the state had been fully briefed to ensure the continued protection of lives and property, using all legal means.

The commissioner enjoined Akwa Ibom residents to continue to cooperate with the government in the fight to curtail the surge of Coronavirus pandemic in the state.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the JOHESU on July 14, embarked on an indefinite strike to press for higher wages.

The union's demands include the implementation of 80 per cent of the National Consolidated Health Salary Structure as paid by the federal government and 50 per cent basic salary as hazard allowance. (NAN)
NEW YORK (AP)  On the same day Walmart announced that it will require customers to wear face coverings at all of its namesake and Sam's Club stores, supermarket chain Kroger Co. said it would follow suit.

Kroger is the parent company of Colorado-based King Soopers and City Market grocery stores. The mask mandate at Kroger stores goes into effect July 22.

Walmart is the largest retailer to introduce such a policy that has otherwise proven difficult to enforce without state and federal requirements.

The company said Wednesday that the policy will go into effect on Monday to allow time to inform customers. Currently, about 65% of its more than 5,000 stores and clubs are located in areas where there is already some form of government mandate on face coverings.

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The latest coronavirus news in Colorado: Blog for Wednesday, July 15

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Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart joins a growing but still small list of retailers to require masks at all of its stores, filling the role of states and the federal government that have failed to issue such mandates on an issue that has been highly politicized by President Donald Trump and many of his ardent supporters.

Given Walmarts clout as the largest retailer in the U.S., its decision is expected to push others to issue similar mandates.

We are taking this extra step now because we recognize additional precautions are needed to protect our country, Kroger said in a statement.

Last week, Starbucks announced that customers who visit its company-owned cafe locations in the U.S. will be required to wear face coverings. The policies at Starbucks and Best Buy went into effect Wednesday.

Only a handful of major retailers, including teen clothing chain American Eagle Outfitters and Apple, has a mask mandate for customers for all of its stores. Costco Wholesale Club was one of the first major retailers to require face coverings for customers at all of its stores. The policy went into effect in early May.

The National Retail Federation, the nation's largest retail trade group, said in a statement that it hopes Walmart's move will be a tipping point in this public health debate.

Retailers had been hesitant to issue chain-wide mandates for fear of angering some customers. They also didn't want to have their workers play the role of enforcers of the protocols. It was already hard enough to get some customers to comply even in the states that had the mandates. However, the recent surge of new virus cases - particularly in Florida, California, Texas and Arizona - has left them with no choice, retail experts say.

I think Walmart's decision will give cover to other retailers to require masks," said Michael J. Hicks, an economist at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. I applaud Walmart and others for stepping in."

Bryan Eshelman, a managing director in the retail practice at consultancy AlixPartners, noted that retailers needed to step in to reduce their own health risks and that having a virus case is disruptive.

It is a business risk that they need to manage for the safety of employees and customers," he said.

Eshelman added that he believes making shoppers comply with the mask protocols will be easier now that wearing masks are becoming more of the norm.

Still, Walmart is taking no chances, making sure to have a new strategy in place to enforce the mask protocols. It said Wednesday that it will create the role of health ambassador at its Walmart stores and will station them near the entrance to remind customers without masks of its new requirements. These workers, who will be wearing black polo shirts, will receive special training to help make the process as smooth as possible for customers."

Walmart said that it's currently working on different options for customers who don't show up with a face mask.

As for Sam's Club, employees at the entrance will follow the same process with its members, politely reminding them of its requirements to wear a face covering when shopping. Complimentary masks will be provided if the member doesn't have one or a member can buy one at the club.

Retailers have been challenged with striking a balance between keeping shoppers safe while making them feel comfortable.

Last week, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, which represents Walmart, Best Buy and other major chains, publicized a letter it sent to state governors to mandate store customers to wear face coverings. It said the hodgepodge of rules around the country have created confusion for shoppers and that has led to conflict between customers and workers trying to enforce store rules.

The National Governors Association said last week that its members are discussing the letter and others like it from different retail groups.

Social media is full of videos capturing clashes between those who are asked to wear masks, and employees who are under orders to make sure people wear them.

About half of U.S. states require masks in public places, according to the RILA. In recent days, Kentucky and Michigan have passed nationwide mandates.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been consistent about recommending people cover their mouth and nose when around others to help reduce the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. But at the beginning of the lockdowns, it had discouraged people who were not sick from buying masks for fear of taking away what was then a limited supply for health care workers.

We know some people have differing opinions on this topic, wrote Dacona Smith, chief operating officer at Walmart U.S. and Lance de la Rosa, chief operating officer at Sam's Club in a blog posted Wednesday. We also recognize the role we can play to help protect the health and well-being of the communities we serve by following the evolving guidance of health officials like the CDC.



AP Retail Writer Joseph Pisani in New York contributed to this report.



Follow Anne DInnocenzio: http://twitter.com/ADInnocenzio
A Florida insurance man was fired from his job after ignoring a Costco rule to wear a mask, then launching into a disturbing, intimidating, profanity-laced tirade at a customer who filmed him after he was taken to task. Daniel Maples claimed a mask makes him feel claustrophobic.

At the time of the incident, though, Maples was wearing a shirt with a U.S. map that read Running the World Since 1776. Not only does that show a poor knowledge of history, it implies a point of view hindering progress in the national coronavirus fight: that wearing a mask is the mark of sissies and that true, red-blooded and patriotic Americans wont do it.

What a lot of baloney. Nothing is more patriotic than contributing to the common good. Americans have done it with rationing in World War II, fuel economy at various times, and actions as simple as picking up our trash in a park.

Responsible health experts say masks are important to the COVID-19 fight. Nobody likes it, but politicizing it to pretend that a bare face is the sign of true American independence is only hiding the selfishness and egotism behind it.

Political pandering is encouraging it. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has rescinded mask-wearing orders by local officials, despite his states COVID-19 surge and Kemps own statement strongly encouraging mask use.

Some Texas sheriffs are refusing to enforce Gov. Greg Abbotts mask mandate. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown met personally with state police who refused to wear them - and to her credit, said she convinced them of the importance of setting an example.

Florida is a coronavirus disaster, but Gov. Ron DeSantis ignores pleas from local officials to order masks. The notion of true patriotic citizenship - accepting conditions we dont like, but which are designed for American societys common good  is too often replaced by the sunshine patriotism of people who cheer when we send men and women into combat, but arent willing to wear a mask at a grocery store.

A mask is a small sacrifice, if its a sacrifice at all. Defining a bare face as a patriotic statement not only puts the public at risk, it cheapens what true patriotism really is.

Those who think theyre proving something worthwhile, and the politicians enabling them, should give that some serious thought and then put on a mask  if not for themselves, for America.
Five companies connected to Yevgeny Prigozhin, as well as three individuals were sanctioned.

The United States has imposed fresh sanctions on the interests of an influential Russian businessman close to President Vladimir Putin.

The State Department announced on July 15 that it sanctioned five companies connected to Yevgeny Prigozhin, as well as three individuals, in the latest bid to stop the financier's "destabilizing global activity," Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported.

Read alsoAmazon.com, Inc. fined for work in Russia-occupied Crimea

The companies are located in Sudan, Hong Kong, and Thailand, the statement said.

"Prigozhin relies on a network of front companies and facilitators" in an attempt to evade sanctions, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. "Prigozhin's global malign activities are well-documented, as demonstrated by his designation under multiple U.S. sanctions authorities."

The United States has already imposed sanctions on Prigozhin as well as his previously known companies, including the Internet Research Agency and the Vagner Group, a Russian military contractor force active in Libya, Syria, and Africa.

The Internet Research Agency engaged in online media influence operations during the 2016 U.S. presidential election as part of Russia's attempt to influence the vote.

The State Department said in the July 15 statement that it had sanctioned M Invest and Meroe Gold. Prigozhin uses the two companies as cover for Vagner's operations in Sudan. It also sanctioned the companies' leaders, Andrei Mandel and Mikhail Potemkin.

"Prigozhin's role in Sudan highlights the interplay between Russia's paramilitary operations, support for preserving authoritarian regimes, such as that of former Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, and exploitation of natural resources," the statement said.

Hong Kong and Thailand-based front companies Shine Dragon Group Limited, Shen Yang Jing Cheng Machinery Imp. & Exp. Co, and Zhe Jiang Jiayi Small Commodities Trade Company Limited were also sanctioned for helping Prigozhin's business interests.

The State Department said the companies "facilitated more than 100 transactions exceeding US$7.5 million" during 2018 and 2019 that were sent in the interest of Prigozhin.

The United States also sanctioned Igor Lavrenkov, who oversaw the Asian businesses.
After being moved from Taloja jail to Mumbai's JJ Hospital, 81-year-old poet, and Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, revolutionary Telugu poet and activist Varavara Rao has tested positive for coronavirus.

Rao had been moved to the hospital earlier in the week after his family went public with details about his ill health in prison. On Monday, Rao had approached the Bombay High Court seeking temporary bail owing to his deteriorating medical condition and the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic.

Rao's family had also released a press release in which they outlined the poet's ailing condition, asking authorities to not "kill Varvara Rao in jail".

Concerns regarding the Telugu "Rebel Poet" grew following the two cases of coronavirus that had been reported from Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai.

Rao, another activist Anand Teltumbde and eight other activists were arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist link case, which was initially probed by the Pune police and later transferred to the National Investigation Agency in January. The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which, the police claimed, triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial located on the outskirts of the western Maharashtra city.

Rao has been in prison for 22 months and has repeatedly been denied bail despite his deteriorating health.

The news was met with dismay on social media. Many wondered why the elderly and revered poet and activist had not been given timely bail despite several efforts, especially amid an unprecedented health pandemic.

This is the thing we all most feared. 81-year-old poet #VaravaraRao tests positive for Covid-19. Please move him to a super speciality and ensure his speedy and complete recovery. All tears and prayers at this point. https://t.co/A2hJX7MYtr meena kandasamy ||    (@meenakandasamy) July 16, 2020

Whom is the state fighting, a pandemic or people having their own opinions and a vision different from the majoritarian politics? #varvararao hoping for a speedy recovery! pic.twitter.com/psAszSq2sO Sucharitaa (@Sucharitaseng) July 16, 2020

#Varvararao tests COVID-19!#Fascism is murdering people & opposition voices, through unemployment & starvation, forcing farmers & youths to suicide, fake encounters, state sponsored violence & mob lynching, imprisonment & no medical facilities, political use of UAPA/NSA/ESMA! K K (@kk0000000000) July 16, 2020

An open letter written by the rights group Human Rights Defender - India (founded by activist Henri Tiphagne) that surfaced on social media claims that Rao was found in a "pool of urine" by his family which consists of his wife and three daughters. He had not been given any medical attention and was found in a deplorable state by his family.

Heres the full letter pic.twitter.com/UjKsI781gg Article 14 (@Article14live) July 16, 2020

Rao has now been shifted to St George Hospital in Mumbai, as per a report in The News Minute, for further treatment. However, as per a report in Scroll, those familiar with the situation are concerned about the quality of treatment Rao may receive in the state-run St George's.

Who is Vervara Rao?

Rao is a revered Telugu poet, scholar and activist who is also the leader of the Revolutionary Writers Association (RWA). He is one of the most renowned names in Telugu poetry and has written nearly 15 collections of poems. Rao and 10 other activists were arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist link case which, authorities believe, led to the Bhima Koregaon massacre. Rao, who was arrested along with ten others in the Elgar Parishad case, was first put under house arrest from August 2019 to November 2018. After that, he was lodged in the Pune's Yarwada jail till February 2019. He has been in the Taloja prison along with the other male accused in the case including Gonsalves, Gautam Navlakha, Arun Ferreira and others after the case was transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) by the Centre in January this year.

READ: Who is Varavara Rao and Why is He in Jail?

Why is he in prison?

On December 31, 2017, Rao and all the others co-accused in the case were present in Bhima Koregaon, a small village in Pune, Maharashtra, to speak at Elgar Parishad conclave. The conclave came at a time when the area, which has a deep history of Dalit nationalist pride and rivalry with upper-caste Pehswas, was simmering after the statue of remains of a Maratha leader were found to be desecrated.

On January 1, on the 200th-anniversary celebration marking the Bhima Koregaon battle in which British troops consisting of Dalit soldiers emerged victorious over the upper-caste Peshwa troops, violence broke out between the largely Dalit crowds that had gathered to celebrate the victory and alleged saffron groups allegedly disrupted the event. At least one person was killed in the violence and several others injured. In the course of the year, Maharashtra police launched a nation-wide crackdown on activists and professors who spoke at the conclave, claiming that inflammatory speeches made at the conclave caused violence.
russia covid vaccine hack

Russia has been accused by Downing St of launching a despicable operation to steal Britains coronavirus vaccine secrets in a state-sponsored cyber attack.

Both Oxford University and Imperial College London, the two British teams trying to develop a vaccine, are understood to have been targeted, with security sources refusing to say whether any of the attempts to steal information had been successful.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said it had the highest level of confidence the Kremlin was behind the ongoing attack, which was also verified by the US and Canada.

The announcement came hours after Russia announced its intention to produce 200million doses of an experimental vaccine this year, fueling suspicions that it could have been successful in stealing information from one of the laboratories across the world that were targeted.

The NCSC said the hack was part of an ongoing campaign of malicious activity that began in around February or March when coronavirus became an international pandemic.

Intelligence sources said knowledge of the attacks is at the highest levels in Russia, directly implicating President Vladimir Putin in the plot.

The news ramped up tensions with Russia, which has already been accused of previous state-sponsored cyber attacks, including an attack on the UK energy grid on the day of the 2017 general election.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman said: The attacks which are taking place against scientists and others doing vital work to combat coronavirus are despicable.

Working with our allies, we will call out those who seek to do us harm in cyber space and hold them to account. The Russian Embassy in London fired a warning shot across Number 10s bows by saying it would respond appropriately to any unfriendly British actions against Russia.

The NCSC named the hackers as a group called APT-29, better known by the nicknames Cozy Bear and The Dukes, which have previously been behind attacks on the Pentagon and the Democratic Party in the US.

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It said for the first time that the group was part of the Russian intelligence service. The graphic below shows how the hacking could work.

Separately, Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, said Russian actors had also tried to interfere with the 2019 general election by repeatedly promoting online a leaked document that was touted by Jeremy Corbyn at a press conference days before the poll.

The Telegraph first linked the online amplification of the US-UK trade talks document to the Kremlin in December, and on Thursday Mr Corbyn was described as a useful idiot for Russia by an international think-tank.

The global race to develop a coronavirus vaccine not only promises a coup for the country that gets there first, but could also prove highly lucrative, making it a race Russia would dearly like to win.

On Wednesday researchers at Oxford University said they had made a breakthrough in their attempt to develop a vaccine, which they suggested could be ready as early as October, seemingly putting Britain ahead of the rest of the world.

Then on Thursday morning Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russias sovereign wealth fund, announced that the Russian vaccine would be approved in August making it possibly the first vaccine to be approved in the world.

Within hours the NCSC had released details of Russias attempts to breach the security of the UK vaccination programme, which used a technique known as spear phishing to send personalised emails to staff in the labs which appeared to be from a trusted source but which in fact contained so-called malware designed to infiltrate computer servers.

Mr Raab described the attacks as completely unacceptable but has so far stopped short of summoning the Russian ambassador to the Foreign Office.

Security sources said they were not aware of any data being stolen from UK labs by the cybercriminals, but could not categorically rule it out. They said the attacks were highly targeted on individuals, and there had been not huge numbers of hacking attempts.

News of the cyber attack was released in a joint statement by the UK, US and Canadian intelligence services.

They said APT-29 - short for Advanced Persistent Threats - was waging a campaign of malicious activity [which] is ongoing, predominantly against government, diplomatic, think-tank, healthcare and energy targets to steal valuable intellectual property.

The NCSC said it had the highest level of confidence in attribution.

As long ago as May the NCSC - part of GCHQ - warned that international cybercriminals were targeting healthcare bodies around the world involved in the coronavirus response.

In Thursday's report, the NCSC, Americas National Security Agency and Canadas Communications Security Establishment said that: Throughout 2020, APT-29 has targeted various organisations involved in Covid-19 vaccine development in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, highly likely with the intention of stealing information and intellectual property relating to the development and testing of Covid-19 vaccines.

It said the group was weaponising vulnerabilities in the computer systems of labs, using custom malware known as WellMess and WellMail to target the organisations.

Paul Chichester, the NCSC Director of Operations, said protecting the health sector had now become the agencys top priority.

Whitehall sources said the investigation into Russian hacking involved cyber teams from GCHQ, MI5, MI6, and NCSC.

Sources said there was no evidence of Russian hackers travelling to the UK to carry out the attacks. "This has been done from Russia," said the source, "This is classic Russian modus operandi, an attempt to steal our intellectual property."

Mr Raab said it was "almost certain" Russian "actors" were involved in promoting "stolen" Government documents relating to trade talks with the US which appeared on the internet site Reddit last year.

The documents were cited by then Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as proof the Conservatives were preparing to open up the NHS to US pharmaceutical companies.

Mr Raab said: "On the basis of extensive analysis, the Government has concluded that it is almost certain that Russian actors sought to interfere in the 2019 general election through the online amplification of illicitly acquired and leaked Government documents."

Mr Raab's statement came as the newly formed parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee announced it would release a long-awaited report into Russian interference in UK politics before Parliament breaks next week for the summer.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman dismissed as "nonsense" suggestions that the information on Russian cyberattacks had been published ahead of that report in order for the Government to appear tough on Russia.

Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissed Mr Raabs claims as "ambiguous" and "confusing".

She said: At this juncture it is premature to make any statements on our behalf, but let me say this: this statement is so ambiguous and so confusing that it is unclear what they are trying to say.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: We have no information on who could have hacked pharmaceutical companies and research centres in Britain. We can only say this: Russia has nothing to do with these attempts."

Mr Dmitriev said: "This whole story, I think, is an attempt to tarnish the reputation of the Russian vaccine by some of the people who are scared of its success, because the Russian vaccine potentially could visit first to the market. And it potentially could be the most effective vaccine out there."

Mr Corbyn on Thursday night said the claims were an attempt to divert attention from the threat to the NHS and the Tory party links to Russian oligarchs expected to be revealed in the longburied parliamentary Russia report.
A McDonald's worker was violently punched and kicked by an angry customer who refused to wear a mask.

The horrific attack took place at McDonalds in Tuen Mun in Hong Kong around 3am on Tuesday.

Footage shared to social media shows 29-year-old manager Lu Nan asking Zhang She, 27, to wear a mask before he allegedly became aggressive.

Manager Lu Nan asking Zhang She (black shirt), 27, to wear a mask before he allegedly became aggressive

Mr She is seen allegedly throwing punches at Mr Nan who had asked him to wear a face mask

The attacker then shoves the cash register and mutters a few words as a woman attempts to hold him back.

Mr She then storms behind the counter and allegedly throws multiple punches at Mr Nan who attempts to dodge the punches.

The altercation becomes even more violent with the Mr She allegedly shoves the manager onto the floor and aggressively kicks him.

A second video shows Mr Nan back on his feet and protected by another man who is wearing a mask.

The pair exchange a few words and the attacker once again attempts to lunge at the manager before storming off and leaving in a van.

Mr Nan was taken to Tuen Mun Hospital where he was treated for his injuries.

Local police identified the van and arrested Mr She for criminal damage and common assault. Investigations are still underway.

A Hong Kong McDonalds spokesman told Apple Daily that they are cooperating with police and have requested all customers to wear masks.

The altercation becomes even more violent with the Mr She (black shirt) shoves the manager onto the floor and aggressively kicks him
In these uncertain times, parents know one thing for sure: Kids returning to school this fall will not be heading back to business as usual. School life may feature some awesome updates (outdoor classrooms and later start times!) as well as more challenging new rules (so much hand-washing). Even our youngest students will need to quickly adapt to their new normal. So how can we help?



For one thing, loading up our post-lockdown learners with fresh school supplies will only ease their adjustment. And thats more than just an excuse to shop: Mental health experts recommend transitional objects to help kids (and even adults) manage separation anxiety. Luckily, stocking up for school has never been easieror saferthanks to Walmart. You can find your local teachers supply list on Walmart.com here. Plug in your schools zip code school name and voilayour students supply list will appear. Opt for curbside pickup* or home delivery. And use their mobile app to shop from anywhereincluding the pillow fort or bathroom youve been hiding in (we get it). Here, four tips and 20 items to help your kiddos feel confident and cool.

*$35 Minimum. Restrictions apply.

Gear Up for the New State of Play

School playgrounds and gyms may be off limits. Climbing equipment, contact sportsand even tagverboten. Students will need new ways to connect and let loose. Heres where kid-safe tech comes in. As some quarantined families have already found, digital libraries, Zoom dance classes, and YouTube art tutorials with a social component have become a lifeline. An excess of downtime may extend to school as well: Staggered schedules and standing around in socially-distanced lines waiting for temperature checks or hand-washing stations may mean kids are stuck playing the waiting game. Socially conscious coloring books, technicolor crayons, reading tablets and smart watches can help to keep those little hands busy. So whether analog or cutting edge, kids entertainment optionsand our old rules about screen timehave evolved to meet the moment.

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Shop Now:

iTech Jr. Kids Smartwatch for Boys ($26.88)

Lenovo Smart Tab M8 with Google Assistant ($99.00)

Cra-Z-Art 24 Count School Quality Crayons ($0.25)

Pen + Gear Pencil Pouch, Mermaid Tail ($3.97)

Crayola Colors of the World Coloring Book ($1.00)

Organize Your Distance Learning Station

Many U.S school districts are planning for hybrid scenarios this fall. To keep class sizes small and safe, this means students will come to school only part of the time. The rest of their learning will be done online. Most districts will also offer the option to do distance learning exclusively if families have health concerns. A USA TODAY/Ipsos poll found that 6 in 10 K-12 parents are likely to pursue at-home learning options rather than in-person school.



So what does this mean for youAKA your kids new teacher/coach/therapist/sibling smackdown mediator? First, the good news: Kids dont require tons of bells and whistles when it comes to their tech. Access to their online classrooms, printers for worksheets and internet (with parental controls firmly in place) should suffice. But we do have to get on board with their digital citizenship. As the past few months have shown us, access to a computer for school is no longer a nice to have, as Penny Schwinn, Tennessees education commissioner, told the New York Times. For many, it is a necessity for a free and appropriate public education. Experts add that a quiet, distraction-free home study space is key to student success. Simple steps, like designating a different color folder and notebook for each study subject, can work wonders to help kids stay organized.

Shop Now:

Samsung 11.6 Chromebook 3 ($99.00)

HP DeskJet 2636 Wireless All-in-One Color Inkjet Printer ($39.00)

onn. Bluetooth On-Ear Headphones ($14.88)

Pen + Gear 2 Pocket Poly Folders ($0.50)

Five Star 1 Subject College Ruled Notebook ($2.47)

Gather Deskside Dining Essentials

According to guidance from the CDC, small groups of kids (or pods) will spend the entire day together with one teacher. Theyll likely eat all snacks and meals at their desk. (Pro-tip? Throw hand sanitizer and wipes into a pencil pouch and teach kids how to disinfect their desks before eating.) That means no more long cafeteria lines on pizza day, no water fountains and absolutely NO trading treats. To that end, all lunch bags, food and drink containers should be clearly labeled with kids names. (For what its worth, we gave up on sew- or iron-on labels years ago and just take a Sharpie to everything.) And because parental sanity is a precious, finite resource, all items must be machine washable.

Shop Now:

Pen + Gear Fine Permanent Marker ($1.00)

Pen + Gear Shark Pencil Pouch ($4.97)

ZIPIT Unicorn Pouch ($9.99)

JoJo Siwa Hey JoJo 5 Piece Backpack Set ($16.98)

Minecraft 5 Piece Backpack Set ($16.98)

Find Chill Looks for Open-Air Classrooms

Experts agree that theres no better classroom than the great outdoors. Just ask pre-pandemic proponents of forest schools and doctors who prescribe forest bathing for kids with mental health challenges. We do know the virus is less transmittable outside, writes New Rochelle, New York pediatrician Dr. Sara Kopple. We can even create a more robust nature curriculum using outdoor classrooms in park spaces. I think we can save the virtual learning for winter when, theoretically, infection rates may rise. But I would love to see us taking advantage of this time before it slips away. If schools remain open in winter, presuming there are no outbreaks in your area, they will be encouraged to open classroom windows and doors to promote ventilation. The one thing we know for sure? Whether kids are learning in-person or via Zoom, theyre going to want to be dressed for the part. For open-air classrooms, rely on comfy layers like trendy shackets and neon Birkenstock-inspired sandals. For remote learning, go for cozier options like relaxed joggers and must-have hoodies. No matter what, your kids are about to put the cool in school.

Shop Now:

Wonder Nation Girls Fashion Jegging Jeans ($9.94)

Wonder Nation Boys Long Sleeve Denim Jacket ($18.98)

Wonder Nation Boys Jogger Pants ($11.84)

Wonder Nation Basic Footbed Buckle Sandals ($6.88)

And1 Boys' Youth Blindside Athletic Sneakers ($17.87)
Schleitheimia (left) and Plateosaurus (above right). Credit: University of Utrecht, Author provided

Dinosaurs were the dominant group of animals on Earth for over 150 million years. Long-necked, plant-eating sauropods such as Brontosaurus, Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus are probably among the most famous dinosaurs, in part thanks to their huge size and strange body shape (consisting of a long neck, long tail, round body and columnar limbs). Some of the largest sauropods measured up to 37 metres long.

But less well known is that they descended from much smaller, two-legged, omnivorous or plant-eating creatures called sauropodomorphs. My colleagues and I recently identified a new dinosaur species that represents the oldest known evolutionary step between early sauropodomorphs and sauropods, from about 225 million years ago.

The sauropodomorphs were among the first dinosaurs to exist during the late Triassic period, from about 230 million years ago. During this time, dinosaurs weren't yet the dominant group of animals on Earth and had to share the world with, among others, crocodile-like reptiles called phytosaurs and mammal-like reptiles, such as Morganucodon.

Towards the end of the Triassic and in the earliest Jurassic, environmental changes led to the evolution of larger, more immediate predecessors of sauropods. These dinosaurs were larger, had longer necks, ate only plants and, more importantly, walked on all fours due to their size. These transitional species include Pulanesaura from around 190 million years ago in what is now South Africa, and Leonerasaurus from a similar time in what is now South America.

Our new dinosaur, which we have named Schleitheimia, falls into this category. Some of its bones were first found in Switzerland as early as 1915. Others had been found in Hallau, near Zurich, in the 1940s, and others from the same geological layer had been discovered in Schleitheim, also near Zurich, in the 1950s. But for years, these fossils were thought to belong to an earlier, sauropodomorph species.

In 1986, palaeontologist Peter Galton identified this set of fossilised dinosaur remains, kept at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, as belonging to a common sauropodomorph known as Plateosaurus. Plateosaurus had quite a long neck, but did not walk on all fours all the time.

However, when Munich palaeontologist Oliver Rauhut examined the bones more recently, he noticed odd features on them, which made it impossible for them to belong to Plateosaurus. So in 2015, he and I visited the Zurich Palaeontological Museum and examined the bones thoroughly. We discovered several sauropod-like adaptations on the dorsal vertebrae (backbones), the femur (leg bone) and the pelvic or hip area.

Schleitheimias bones. Credit: University of Utrecht

All these adaptations suggest the dinosaur was heavier and mainly walked on all fours, so it couldn't be a Plateosaurus. It had to be something else, and indeed, it turned out to be something new.

We ran a phylogenetic analysis, which compares anatomical traits between different animals and calculates how many evolutionary steps are necessary to make them related to one another. This suggested our new dinosaur, Schleitheimia, was actually an intermediate type between sauropodomorphs such as Plateosaurus and true sauropods such as Brontosaurus.

Oldest transitional species

This makes Schleitheimia special in two ways. First, it is a lot older than the other known transitional types of dinosaur between sauropodomorphs and sauropods. And second, it is the first transitional form known from Europe.

What is even more interesting, is that some of the Schleitheimia fossils were found in the same quarry as an actual Plateosaurus. This means that both the ancestral sauropodomorphs and the transitional forms shared the same habitat for a time. Eventually, however, the true sauropods took over the environment.

Perhaps their size and longer necks helped them forage for food, we aren't sure. But what we do know is that by the early Jurassic period, around 170 million years ago, sauropods were already living around the world from China to Argentina. Schleitheimia provides one more piece of the puzzle as to what happened in the sauropods' very early history on Earth.

The next steps here will be to look at other material from roughly the same age from Switzerland. The original, historic pit where Schleitheimia was found, has been reopened to see whether there is more material.

We want to know if there were more intermediate sauropodiforms around, such as Schleitheimia, or just more sauropodomorphs? And how did the early sauropods diversify and spread out in the early Jurassic? The fact that we can still find new dinosaur species, even in historical museum collections, gives us hope of answering these questions.

Explore further New species of early dinosaur described from South Africa

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Serum Institute conducted a three-phase clinical trial of the vaccine in India along with trials in the West African nation of The Gambia.

The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has given its nod of approval for India's first indigenously developed vaccine against pneumonia. The vaccine has been developed and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.

The Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Conjugate Vaccine (PPSV23) offers protection against 23 types of pneumonia-causing bacteria, which cause a range of infections including meningitis, bacteremia, pneumonia and blood infections.

Serum Institute conducted Phase I, Phase II and Phase III clinical trials of the Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Conjugate Vaccine in India and was successful. They also undertook clinical trials in the West African nation of The Gambia, reported PIB.

The first phase of the trial was conducted in 2013 in India with 34 young adults and the second phase was conducted among 114 toddlers aged between 12-15 months, according to The Print. The third phase of the clinical trials for the vaccine was conducted on 448 infants between the age of six to eight weeks old and was completed in October 2019 as per the governments clinical trial registry.

According to a report by The Hindu, around 2,250 infants were part of the trial in the Gambia and the vaccine has been pre-qualified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in December 2019.

After the clinical trial data was reviewed by the Office of the DCGI along with a Special Expert Committee (SEC) for vaccines, the vaccine was given approval for marketing. Serum Institue's application for permission to manufacture the vaccine in India was also granted.

"Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd, Pune has been granted permission to manufacture domestically developed first Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Conjugate Vaccine...the first indigenously developed vaccine in the field of pneumonia. Earlier the demand of such vaccine was substantially met by licensed importers in the country since the manufacturers were all vaccine companies based outside India," read a release from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The vaccine is used to immunize against infectious diseases and pneumonia caused by Streptococcus pneumonia in infants and is administered in an intramuscular injection, according to the release. The Hindu report also quotes Dr Rajeev Dhere, Executive Director of Serum Institute who said that the price of the vaccine will be lower than those that already exist in the Indian market. We expect to sell 100 million doses each year within the next three years. Of this, 40-50 million doses per year will be in India alone. The private market for the vaccine will be minuscule compared with the public market, he added.

According to GAVI.org, Serum Institue's vaccine has become the third supplier of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV) under the pneumococcal Advance Market Commitment (AMC), and the first developing country vaccine manufacturer to access the global PCV market. Serum will also provide 10 million doses each year to Gavi countries at only US$ 2.00 a dose, less than 1.5 percent of the public price in high-income countries.

Pneumococcal (pneumonia-causing) bacteria can spread from person to person via direct contact with respiratory secretions like saliva and mucus, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The bacteria can be carried in a person's nose and throat and spread to a healthy person without any symptoms of sickness presented in carriers.

People over 65 years, those who smoke cigarettes, and others who suffer from health conditions like chronic lung disease or diabetes are more affected by the disease and need to be vaccinated. Pneumonia also affects people with sicknesses that can lower the bodys resistance to infection, or those with weakened immune systems.

According to Path.org, pneumonia is the number one killer among children before their fifth birthdays worldwide. It claims more than 9,00,000 lives each year. The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) has estimated that in India pneumonia cases among under-five-year-old children is 0.37 episodes per year which result in 43 million new cases.

With inputs from wires
(Newser)  Looks like Florida felons won't be voting in the 2020 primary election after alland might not cast ballots in November, either. The Supreme Court decided by a 6-3 vote Thursday not to review a decision by a federal appeals court that blocks hundreds of thousands of state felons from voting, the Washington Post reports. Three liberal justices dissented, with Sonia Sotomayor arguing that this "prevents thousands of otherwise eligible voters from participating in Floridas primary election simply because they are poor." But the order must be pleasing Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose lawyers said Tuesday that "all Floridians will be irreparably harmed" if "hundreds of thousands of ineligible voters [are allowed] to take part in the upcoming elections," per NBC Miami.

story continues below

The reenfranchisement of Florida felons has been a hot issue since more than 65% of voters approved Amendment 4 in 2018, allowing most felons to voteexcept those convicted of felony sexual offenses or murder. About 85,000 felons have registered since, but DeSantis signed a law in 2019 mandating that felons pay restitution, fees, and fines before voting. A US district judge ruled against the law, calling it "an administrative nightmare" and a "pay-to-vote system," but the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit blocked the judge and slated a hearing for Aug. 18the day of Florida's primary. The issue could prove key in the perrennial swing state, which has roughly 775,000 felons who have done their prison time, per USA Today. (Read more voting stories.)
At least 20 flights travelling through Toronto were found to have passengers with COVID-19, according to reports shared by the federal government.

The flights ran between July 1 and July 9.

Twelve of the flights landed in Toronto from cities in the U.S, Ethiopia, Germany, Mexico, Switzerland, and Pakistan, while the other eight were within Canada, and between Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, and Regina.

The international flights affected included:

Flight AA5700 on July 2, which departed from Charlotte, North Carolina. The rows impacted are 12 to 18.

Flight AC911 on July 3, which departed from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The rows impacted are 20 to 24.

Flight PK0781 on July 3, which departed from Islamabad, Pakistan. Its not known which rows are impacted.

Flight AC1231 on July 5, which departed from Cancun, Mexico. Its not known which rows are impacted.

Flight PIA783 on July 5, which departed from Lahore, Pakistan. Its not known which rows are impacted.

Flight AM616 on July 5, which departed from Mexico City, Mexico. The rows impacted are 9 to 19.

Flight ET500 on July 6, which departed from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Its not known which rows are impacted.

Flight AA2942 on July 6, which departed from Charlotte, North Carolina. The rows impacted are 12 to 18.

Flight AA1638 on July 7, which departed from Charlotte, North Carolina. The rows impacted are 17 to 23.

Flight AC873 on July 7, which departed from Frankfurt, Germany. Its not known which rows are impacted.

Flight UA4958 on July 9, which departed from Washington, United States. The rows impacted are 7 to 11.

Flight AC879 on July 9, which departed from Zurich, Switzerland. The rows impacted are 23 to 27.

The domestic flights affected included:

Flight AC425 on July 1, which departed from Montreal, and arrived in Toronto. The rows impacted are 22 to 26.

Flight AC425 on July 2, which departed from Montreal, and arrived in Toronto. The rows impacted are142 to 18.

Flight WS669 on July 3, which departed from Toronto, and arrived in Calgary. Its not known which rows are impacted.

Flight AC0407 on July 4, which departed from Montreal, and arrived in Toronto. The rows impacted are 18 to 24.

Flight AC7947 on July 4, which departed from Toronto, and arrived in Regina. The rows impacted are 14 to 20.

Flight AC422 on July 5, which departed from Toronto, and arrived in Montreal. Its not known which rows are impacted.

Flight AC428 on July 5, which departed from Toronto, and arrived in Montreal. Its not known which rows are impacted.

Flight AC169 on July 7, which departed Toronto, and arrived in Edmonton. the rows impacted are 10 to 66.

The list of cases shared online is not exhaustive, the federal government warned, and was mainly put together based on reports from provincial, territorial health, and international authorities.

Both Air Canada and WestJet removed social-distancing measures on their planes on July 1, allowing passengers to purchase seats directly next to others.

Before that, middle seats were blocked off.

In April, Transport Canada said proper social-distancing on planes would be key to limiting spread of the virus in a guide issued to the aviation industry.

What Air Canada and WestJet are doing is very irresponsible, said Gabor Lukacs, president of the advocacy group Air Passenger Rights.

Those airlines are putting their own profits, their bottom line, ahead of passengers health and the entire Canadian economy.

If we see a second wave prematurely, were not only going to harm the individual passengers, and their relatives, and the elderly people in their community, but a new shutdown is going to effect everybody in Canada.

Lukacs cited a recent study out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that estimated the risks associated with letting people sit directly next to each other on planes, and found placing passengers directly next to each other can almost double the likelihood of contracting the virus.

The estimates were based on the assumption each passenger is wearing a mask.

When asked previously to respond to criticisms over the policy, the two airlines emphasized that other safety measures will help protect against the spread of the virus.

The blocked middle seat was introduced at the beginning of the pandemic before the myriad of safety measures were put in place and mandated on board, WestJet said in a statement to the Canadian Press earlier this month.

Seat distancing was never intended to be in place permanently or throughout the pandemic.

Air Canada also provided a similar statement to the Canadian Press for the July 7, 2020 story.

While we would all like a single measure that reduces risk, we are left to use a combination of approaches to mitigate risk as far as practical, a spokesperson for the airline told CP.

Seventy-two per cent of Canadians surveyed said they dont feel comfortable flying now that the airlines have removed social-distancing measures, according to a recent poll conducted by Leger and the Association of Canadian Studies.

Passengers who booked flights prior to the change in policy and who dont feel comfortable flying without social-distancing measures are within their rights to demands refunds, Lukacs said.

Editors note  July 18, 2020: This article was edited from a previous version to clarify that statements provided by Air Canada were made to the Canadian Press for a July 7, 2020 article. The article was also edited to remove additional comments from Gabor Lukacs as well as correct the spelling of his surname.

With files from The Canadian Press

Miriam Lafontaine is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star's radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @mirilafontaine

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Leicester will find out today if it is coming out of lockdown after two weeks as its 'angry and frustrated' mayor blasts the 'blanket political' restrictions placed on the whole city.

Sir Peter Soulsby said he expected to hear from Health Secretary Matt Hancock this afternoon on whether restrictions will be lifted for the city.

It follows the Mayor saying inner-city areas of Leicester with high levels of deprivation are the 'most significantly' affected by coronavirus and keeping the remaining 90 per cent of the city under lockdown is no longer justified.

Leicester became the first place in the country to have tight measures re-imposed on June 30 following a rise in coronavirus infections.

Leicester Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby, pictured, said he expected to hear from Health Secretary Matt Hancock this afternoon on whether restrictions will be lifted for the city

Speaking on Sky News this morning, Sir Peter criticised what he described as the Government's 'blanket political-led lockdown' of the whole of the city, and said he was angry and frustrated.

Asked when he expected to learn if the local lockdown has been lifted, he said: 'The Secretary of State is due to make an announcement this afternoon.

'I expect to hear when the rest of the city, and indeed the rest of the country hears - because frankly we have not been involved in any of the decision-making about this.

'We have been told what the political decisions will be, and we will be told again what the political decision will be - whether or not we come out of it.'

Speaking on what he hoped Mr Hancock would say, Sir Peter went on: 'I hope he'll recognise that as a result of what we are already doing here in the city, we are dramatically driving down the transmission of the virus.

'Now that we do know where we need to be focusing our attention, I hope that he will allow us and trust us at a local level to work with the people of the city - and to recognise that the other 90 per cent of the city that has been locked down, along with the area that is of concern, should be allowed to go free with the rest of the country.'

Asked what his reaction would be if the Government announced a further two-week lockdown, the city's mayor said: 'I think if we are told that, there are going to be an awful lot of Leicester people who are very angry indeed.

'It was quite clear that it was a political decision taken without the advice of Public Health England to take us into this lockdown in the first place. It'll be a political decision to let us out and the sooner that political decision is taken, the better.'

He added: 'Some streets have no issue at all and in other streets nearby you've got a major issue, and we needed to know that at the time so we could intervene with pinpoint accuracy.

'Further advice needs to be given, support needs to be given, and we needed to know where that advice and support was needed.'

A woman wearing a face mask walks along a street of closed shops in Leicester. Sir Peter said Mr Hancock is due to make an announcement on the lockdown on Thursday afternoon

Leicester was ordered into a further two weeks of lockdown on June 30 after levels of infection spiked in parts of the city

His comments come as the Government is preparing to decided on whether to make changes to Leicester's lockdown after examining the latest coronavirus data.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said last night a decision will be made over the next 24 hours but the infection rate in Leicester was still 'a lot higher than elsewhere'.

Sir Peter said Government data had 'finally' told city officials which areas of Leicester were worst affected by coronavirus.

He told BBC Radio Leicester: 'If only we'd had this information in advance, we'd have been able to do what they're now doing in Blackburn, which is actually working closely with the communities and avoiding having to be locked down.

'I very much regret the fact that the Government didn't trust us with this data earlier but I think now we've got it, we are the ones well-placed here in the city to make sure that we use it effectively.'

Sir Peter said on Wednesday that only 10 per cent of the city was showing higher transmission rates and branded the local lockdown as 'unnecessary and unjustified'.

Sir Peter said: 'Data highlights only 10 per cent of #Leicester showing higher transmission rates - should have had this information weeks ago to focus efforts'

A view of an empty street in Leicester on July 4, following a local lockdown imposed amid the coronavirus outbreak in the city

In a report Sir Peter posted on social media, he said that new neighbourhood data showed the areas most affected by the virus were those with high levels of deprivation in the inner city.

Sir Peter said this meant it was no longer possible to justify the rest of the Greater Leicester area remaining in lockdown.

WHICH AREAS OF ENGLAND HAVE THE HIGHEST INFECTION RATES CURRENTLY? Leicester Blackburn with Darwen Bradford Herefordshire Rochdale Peterborough Luton Kirklees Calderdale Wakefield Oldham Bolton Rotherham Manchester Sheffield Northampton Salford Leicestershire Stoke-on-Trent Lancashire 101.3 47.0 36.5 36.4 30.5 27.4 24.3 23.7 20.0 19.1 16.6 15.1 14.7 13.3 12.9 12.7 12.6 10.9 10.2 9.8 Figures relate to the number of new coronavirus cases diagnosed for every 100,000 people living in each local authority between July 6 and 12. Advertisement

He added: 'Together with other local authority leaders throughout England, we have been asking for some weeks for neighbourhood data about the coronavirus testing in our areas. We have now received the first set of that data.

'This clearly shows that the areas most significantly affected by the virus are those with high levels of deprivation in the inner city.

'Given what this data shows, it is no longer possible to justify the continuation of the 'lockdown' across the remaining 90 per cent of the Greater Leicester area.'

Sir Peter tweeted: 'Data highlights only 10 per cent of #Leicester showing higher transmission rates - should have had this information weeks ago to focus efforts.

The most recent data from Public Health England (PHE) shows that the number of new cases of coronavirus per 100,000 population in Leicester has dropped from 127.2 in the seven days to July 5 to 104.4 in the seven days to July 12.

It was 143.6 in the seven days to June 28, just before the local lockdown was imposed.

Second on the list is Pendle in Lancashire where the rate has gone up from 14.2 to 74.4, and where 68 new cases have been recorded in the seven days to July 12.

Asked about when the Leicester lockdown would end, Mr Hancock told ITV's Peston on Wednesday evening: 'The formal decision will be taken over the next 24 hours.

'Tomorrow I will be speaking to the leadership of Leicester and having meetings on this. The infection rate has come down in Leicester.

'It's still a lot higher than elsewhere. And, so, I don't want to prejudge a decision tomorrow.'

Mr Hancock told MPs earlier in the week that a public announcement would be made 'as soon as is reasonably possible'.

Meanwhile, the council of Blackburn with Darwen in Lancashire has limited visits to one household and two members from a separate household, over fears a local lockdown like that of Leicester is becoming a 'real possibility'.

Residents in Blackburn, Darwen and Pendle have also been asked to wear face masks inside to prevent a local lockdown, as infections spread amongst those living in crowded housing environments.

Cases in Blackburn with Darwen have soared from around 20 per 100,000 population to a rate of 47 since June 24

Customers wearing face masks socially distance as they queue to enter a NatWest bank in Blackburn yesterday

A mobile testing centre at Witton Park High School in Blackburn with Darwen. Residents are being encouraged to get tested even if they don't have symptoms

Latest Public Health England (PHE) data shows Blackburn with Darwen (shown) has 47 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 population in the last week  second only to Leicester's rate of 101.3

What rules have Blackburn with Darwen Council put in place? These are the rules which Blackburn with Darwen Council has announced: A limit of 2 people from the same household allowed to visit another household.

Please wear face coverings in all enclosed public spaces.

Avoid hugging or shaking hands with anyone outside of your immediate family.

Small shops - we will be stepping up our Public Protection advice to ensure that guidelines around face coverings, social distancing, good hygiene and increased ventilation is being followed.

Get tested - even if you dont have symptoms this will help with case finding. Advertisement

Director of Public Health Prof Dominic Harrison said: 'These steps will help and we are appealing to everyone in Blackburn with Darwen to follow them to protect themselves and their loved ones.

'If we don't, a local lockdown, like in Leicester, becomes a very real possibility.'

He added: 'We know that they are in mainly south-Asian areas, and they are in areas with high number of terraced houses with high numbers of occupants in the house, so four or more, five or more people in the household.'

Figures showed 85 per cent of new Covid-19 infections in Blackburn with Darwen are among its South Asian population, a local health chief revealed yesterday.

People are also being urged not to hug anyone from outside their own household and to get regularly tested at new mobile centres as part of the measures to avoid a Leicester-style lockdown, which council bosses say is a 'very real' threat.

Mass testing began at the weekend after 114 people caught the virus in the last two weeks.

Latest Public Health England (PHE) data shows Blackburn with Darwen has 47 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 population in the last week  second only to Leicester's rate of 101.3.

Dominic Harrison, the authority's director of public health, said 85 per cent of the 114 new cases were people from South Asian backgrounds, despite the South Asian community only accounting for 30 per cent of the council's 150,000 population.

MailOnline has contacted the Department of Health and Social Care for comment.
Home cooks can make bakery-style biscuits in their own kitchens by following an amateur chef's remarkably simple recipe for s'mores cookies.

Olivia Nash shared photos of the biscuits stuffed with marshmallows and white and dark chocolate in a cookery group on Facebook on Tuesday.

The baker from Dublin, Ireland, told members how to make their own by mixing 100 grams of brown sugar with 125 grams of unsalted butter, 225 grams of self-raising flour, 200 grams of chocolate, one egg and a tablespoon of vanilla extract.

Chocolate squares and marshmallow are then sandwiched between the dough which is baked for 10 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

Photos of the cookies have been reposted on social media pages worldwide where people are hailing them as 'heavenly' and marvelling at the simplicity of the recipe.

Scroll down for video

Irish baker Olivia Nash's s'mores cookies, made from sugar, butter, self-raising flour, chocolate, marshmallows and a single egg

The cookies (pictured) are a new take on s'mores, a sweet treat popular in the US made from toasted marshmallow and a layer of chocolate sandwiched between two digestive biscuits

'Are they as good as they look and as easy to bake as it reads?!' one woman asked.

A second said she saved the recipe for the next time she can find marshmallows in the supermarket, while a third declared: 'Oh my Jesus lord, I need these.'

Others said the cookies were the best thing posted online this year.

Ms Nash's recipe is the latest dessert inspired by s'mores, a sweet treat popular in the US made from toasted marshmallow and a layer of chocolate sandwiched between two digestive biscuits, that's caught attention on social media.

People hailed the cookies as 'heavenly' and marvelled at the simplicity of the recipe

Dublin baker Olivia Nash (pictured), who created the recipe for the indulgent treats

How to make s'mores cookies Ingredients 100g dark sugar 125g unsalted butter 1 egg 225g of self-raising flour 200g chocolate (milk, white and dark) 1.5 tbsp vanilla extract  tbsp salt 6 squares of chocolate 6 marshmallows Method (Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius) 1. Mix butter and sugar until smooth, then add eggs, vanilla and salt and beat again. 2. Add chocolate chips and flour, and mix until the batter forms a thick dough. 3. Flatten the dough and place a piece of chocolate on top, then a marshmallow and another piece of dough. Roll the stack into a ball. 4. Place the cookie balls into the fridge for 20 minutes to firm before baking. 5. Oven bake for 10 to 12 minutes until golden brown. Source: Being Olivia Nash via Instagram Advertisement

'Instagram famous' baker Eloise Head in June shared a tutorial for s'mores pastry, made with ready-made shortcrust pastry ($5.50), 500g of milk chocolate ($9), 40 marshmallows ($7), two tablespoons of cinnamon and a teaspoon of sugar.

Her recipe has been by liked over 82,000 times with people branding it 'stupidly delicious' and their idea of 'food heaven'.

To start, Ms Head unrolls the pastry out and folds the edges inwards, creating a lip to stop the toppings sliding off in the oven.

Then she 'blind bakes' the pastry at 180 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes, which involves pre-cooking a pastry or biscuit base alone without a filling to strengthen it and prevent breakages when batter is poured on top.

London baker Eloise Head's s'mores pastry, filled with milk chocolate and marshmallow

Next she sprinkles cinnamon and sugar over the top, spreading it evenly with the back of a spoon.

She lays blocks of chocolate flat on the pastry and a layer of marshmallows on top, taking care to cover every inch of the base.

Finally, she returns the finished pastry to the oven for another 10 minutes and removes once the marshmallow looks gooey and golden brown.

Followers have been raving about the quick and easy recipe, with one man calling Ms Head a 'next level quarantine baker'.

The talented dessert maker built a following of 604,000 followers during lockdown when an extraordinary baking craze swept the world.

Ms Head told Daily Mail Australia in May that she was 'very proud to help people keep occupied' at a time when strict social distancing laws confined millions to their homes.
Poundland is to trial an online delivery service and refurbish a raft of high street stores as part of the 'biggest transformation in its history'.

The discount chain said that customers will see refreshed stores and extended choice as a result of the multimillion-pound investment plan.

The transformation plan will also see it pilot a poundland.co.uk home delivery service early next year from its new distribution site in Cannock.

The company said the exact details of the online service are still being worked out but that details will be made public as soon as they are available.

Poundland have announced plans to invest millions into their high street stores and will trial an online delivery service next year to boost economy after the impacts of coronavirus

Poundland said the revamp of stores will see it develop larger 'destination' sites where it will offer the fullest range of products including food, homeware, health and beauty and clothing.

It said it will also split its store estate into 'convenience' stores for customers to quickly purchase products and 'core' stores which will offer a wider variety of products on high streets.

The transformation plan, dubbed Project Diamond, will also see it open new stores in the UK and Ireland.

The company has announced they will be bringing branches to new towns such as Ingoldmells in Lincolnshire and expand in existing towns such as Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham.

Poundland will also accelerate the roll-out of chilled and frozen food to 60 stores by September, with plans to extend this to more sites later in the year.

About 28 Poundland stores already offer chilled and frozen food products, including in Gateshead, Leeds and Blackburn but the company are continuing to expand this service with stores in Greenwich Retail Park and Uxbridge high street due for upgrades this week.

The company will also open six more Pep&Co fashion concessions within Poundland stores, bringing the clothing brand to 310 locations.

These stores will open at branches in Sutton Coldfield Princess Alice Retail Park, Kings Lynn Retail Park, Peterborough Retail Park, Peterborough Hereward Cross centre and Cortonwood shopping park in Barnsley

An additional branch will be launched in August by Shirley Parkgate shopping centre near Solihull.

The chain said it's also looking to introduce a clearer pricing structure, with items varying from 1 to 5.

Three new stores in Ireland, known as Dealz, will also open on Thursday in Rathfarnham, Buncrana and Clonakilty.

Barry Williams, Poundland managing director, said: 'We're stepping up to support high streets after the impact of the coronavirus by being customer-focused, people-led and tech-enabled.

'This is the biggest transformation in our history as we look to secure our future for another 30 years.'
YEREVAN, JULY 16, ARMENPRESS. Two lawmakers of the parliament of the Netherlands Martijn van Helvert and Joel Voordewind have sent a joint letter to the Dutch foreign minister, requesting clarification over the process of responding to the numerous alarms of the Armenian side regarding the escalation of the situation in the Karabakh conflict zone, as well as on other issues.

The letter addressed to the Dutch FM also requests clarification over the holding of military drills by Azerbaijan with violations of the OSCE commitments, Turkeys unconstructive role supporting the use of force.

Martijn van Helvert said on Facebook that they have asked questions in the letter about the violence between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The lawmaker said the Armenian Embassy has warned the Netherlands and the European Union that everything is becoming uncontrollable. What can we do to prevent the new war in the outskirts of Europe? he asked.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
Abigail Disney, whose grandfather was Walt Disney Company's co-founder Roy Disney, said she is in full support of permanently taxing wealthy people more because "we need this revenue in the United States, badly."

During a CNBC interview, Disney said wealthy people, including herself, are contributing less than they should be "so it's time for us to cough up a little bit more."

Disney is one of 98 rich people worldwide who recently signed the "Millionaires for Humanity" letter, calling for governments to tax them higher in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.

"As COVID-19 strikes the world, millionaires like us have a critical role to play in healing our world," the letter reads. "No, we are not the ones caring for the sick in intensive care wards. We are not driving the ambulances that will bring the ill to hospitals. We are not restocking grocery store shelves or delivering food door to door. But we do have money, lots of it. Money that is desperately needed now and will continue to be needed in the years ahead, as our world recovers from this crisis."

According to the letter, the right and only choice to making sure no individual goes without in the aftermath of COVID-19 is to "Tax us. Tax us. Tax us," the letter reads.

COVID-19 UPDATES: Rural Texas hospitals running short on beds, ventilators and drugs

In response to people who may be against higher taxes and feel as though Disney should only speak for herself and not worry about what others are doing, the filmmaker said the issue is much bigger than her. "If the world is terribly polluted, I'm not going to fix it by going in front of my house and picking up all the trash off the sidewalk. That's not the problem. The problem is systemic. We need to make this a more fair system that doesn't so much to favor the wealthy."

Disney added that there are people in the country who are so rich, a 40 percent tax rate would not affect them. They probably wouldn't even recognize the money was gone.

Another situation Disney is speaking out about is the reopening of Disney Parks. In an interview with YahooFinance, the heiress said she is confused on why parks are reopening while the state of Florida is currently seeing a massive spike in cases (and quite frankly, I agree with her).

The filmmaker said she doesn't have a say in the company and she's not sure what numbers officials are looking at it, but it's "so it's strange to me that they would step into the situation by opening up this massive enterprise in which people fly from everywhere around the world to go."

Adding data to Disney's statement, the Miami Herald reported Thursday that Floridas Department of Health confirmed 13,965 new cases of COVID-19, which is the second highest single-day total since the pandemic began in March.
The Government's official count of coronavirus deaths is too high and fewer than 40 people are actually dying per day now, two top statisticians have claimed.

Department of Health officials yesterday 85 more Britons had died, along with 138 on Tuesday, and its daily average for the past week has been 75.

But Oxford University experts say these numbers are too high and give a confusing picture about the true state of the UK's Covid-19 outbreak.

The way officials lump historical deaths onto random days  and include fatalities that happened weeks or even months ago  give a misleading picture.

Dr Jason Oke and Professor Carl Heneghan said figures from Public Health England  which are published each day by the Department of Health  contained 'inaccuracies' and could cause confusion.

Deaths are still falling, the professors said, even if at a slower rate than they were earlier in the crisis.

The Government has pointed out in the past that it counts deaths on the date that the paperwork is completed, not when the person actually died, which can make day-by-day figures inaccurate. Numbers are particularly low at the weekends and on bank holidays.

Dr Oke and Professor Heneghan said the Government should make it clearer when people actually died so that when there are one-day spikes  the 138 deaths announced on Tuesday, for example  it doesn't look like the outbreak is getting worse.

Data shows that the trend of deaths charted by when they actually happened (dotted blue line), not when the paperwork was finished, is significantly lower than the number of deaths being announced by the Department of Health (red line)

Dr Jason Oke and Professor Carl Heneghan, from the University of Oxford, said death figures published by Public Health England contained 'inaccuracies' and could cause confusion.

Writing in a blog Dr Oke and Professor Heneghan said: 'What has become apparent in recent weeks is the growing disparity between the numbers released by ONS [Office for National Statistics] and those reported by Public Health England which are widely disseminated in the media.'

They said PHE's figures 'vary substantially from day to day' and explained: 'This variation is most likely due to the appearance of "historic" deaths that have occurred weeks before, but for some reason unknown to us, get reported in batches on particular days.

'To counter this variation, a moving average smooths the trend, but even this is at odds with the ONS data...

'We can surmise that the total number of deaths in all settings is approximately 40 per day, much closer to the ONS numbers.'

To explain their calculations Dr Oke and Professor Heneghan, from the university's Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, compared death tolls recorded by Public Health England (PHE) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

PHE counts only deaths in people who tested positive for Covid-19, which means it is thought to have missed out thousands of people at the start of the epidemic.

The ONS, meanwhile, counts anyone who has the disease mentioned on their death certificate, whether they were tested or not.

Dr Oke and Professor Heneghan said even PHE's moving average, which is intended to smooth out dips and spikes around the weekends, is too high.

It was 103 for June 30, they pointed out, but the ONS counted 101 deaths (by actual date of death) on June 30 and July 1 combined  making the two-day average 51.

They said: 'The PHE figures average has been consistently higher than ONS for some time.'

The official daily death counts announced to the public have 'inaccuracies' and don't actually reflect the present day, statisticians say

ONS data shows that significantly more people have died than the Department of Health has counted. This is thought to be largely because it only counted people who tested positive but wouldn't let care home residents have tests during the peak of the outbreak

The pair also pointed out the death counts from NHS England, which are accurate around three days after the date in question, are too low to match PHE.

According to the ONS, hospital fatalities now make up around 60 per cent of all deaths that happen on any given day.

On June 30, NHS England recorded 27 fatalities. If this was 60 per cent of all deaths that happened on that day the total number would be 45.

But the Department of Health, using PHE's data, announced 115 more deaths on that day.

Professor Heneghan and Dr Oke acknowledged that the official death counts are constantly backdating deaths so do not reflect the day they're announced, but suggest that historic fatalities are being spread out.

'Because of the inaccuracies in PHE data we recommend using ONS data and the NHS England data to understand the trends in deaths over time,' they wrote.

'To reduce confusion we require all deaths reported by PHE to include when they occurred as opposed to the day of reporting.'

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: 'We have been completely up front about how this information is being presented, and it is misleading to suggest that there are discrepancies or inaccuracies in the data.

'These data sources are all subject to time lags in reporting, and DHSC and PHE have been clear that figures reported at weekends are sometimes lower for that reason.'
Editor's note: This is an opinion piece written by United States Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim.

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines)  The waters of the South China Sea are home to a dizzying array of marine resources, ranging from vast oil and gas reserves deep beneath the surface to the complex and beautiful ecosystems capable of supporting international seafood markets and unraveling scientific mysteries. This is the patrimony of Southeast Asian nations, the lifeblood of their coastal communities, and the livelihood of millions of their citizens. The United States stands alongside the Philippines and other Southeast Asian partners to uphold a rules-based order that ensures sovereign, sustainable, and productive access to the South China Sea and its resources.

At last months ASEAN Summit, ASEAN leaders reaffirmed the importance of maintaining the South China Sea as a sea of peace, stability, and prosperity. To strengthen our support for sovereignty and freedom of the seas, this week, the United States announced an important change in U.S. policy regarding maritime claims in the South China Sea.

As US Secretary of State Pompeo explained, the United States rejects any Peoples Republic of China (PRC) maritime claims within the Philippines Exclusive Economic Zone or continental shelf, and claims in waters beyond 12 nautical miles from the islands in the Spratlys. Beijings harassment of Philippine fisheries and offshore energy development within those areas is unlawful, as are any unilateral PRC actions to exploit those resources. Under the 2016 Arbitral Tribunal Award, which is final and legally binding, the Philippines enjoys sovereign rights and jurisdiction with respect to the natural resources in its EEZ. As Secretary of Foreign Affairs Locsin remarked this weekend on the anniversary of the ruling, The arbitral tribunals award of July 12, 2016 represents a victory, not just for the Philippines, but for the entire community of consistently law-abiding nations.

READ: PH arbitral win on West Philippine Sea non-negotiable, as country marks 4th year of Hague ruling  DFA chief

Why is this important? Here in the Philippines, the West Philippine Sea epitomizes the rich marine diversity of this country. In its waters, scientists have discovered hundreds of species of fish, coral, seagrass, and other marine life existing in interdependent systems that teach us about the planets complexity, fragility, and resilience. These habitats not only provide the fish that fill Filipino fishing vessels (and Filipino plates), they also serve as spawning grounds for schools that populate seas throughout Southeast Asia. Philippine scientists believe some of the species unique to these waters may also hold the key to biomedical breakthroughs, while climate researchers can study ecosystem changes to measure human impact on the environment.

Marine conservation begins with securing territorial integrity; when any nation uses coercion, subversion, disinformation, and other underhanded tactics to further its position in the South China Sea, it denies our friends and partners the right to build a sustainable future. ASEAN leaders expressed concern over activities and serious incidents in the South China Sea which have eroded trust and confidence, increased tensions, and may undermine peace, security and stability in the region.

The United States remains committed to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, and will continue to defend the right of freedom of navigation in international waters and airways. Earlier this month, the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group conducted dual-carrier operations with the Ronald Reagan and Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carriers, demonstrating US' commitment to mutual defense agreements and promoting peace and prosperity throughout the Indo-Pacific. The United States supports Philippine Coast Guard capacity to defend its waters by supplying expert training and new equipment.

Since the 1990s, the United States has supported Philippine marine and biodiversity conservation efforts. Our 1.3 billion five-year Fish Right project works alongside Philippine partners to strengthen the sustainable use of critical coastal and marine resources to benefit more than 2 million people. When the COVID-19 pandemic further threatened marine livelihoods, Fish Right helped develop Fish Tiangge, an online marketplace connecting buyers and 6,000 fisherfolk in three of the Philippines most important areas for marine biodiversity. American companies are also contributing, with Bloomberg Philanthropies global development alliance promoting marine conservation and sustainable fishing in more than 150,000 hectares of biologically significant waters.

US scientists and innovators are eager to join their Philippine colleagues in researching these waters to build a sustainable maritime framework  one that protects the West Philippine Seas rich and irreplaceable biodiversity while ensuring new generations benefit from its bounty and wonder. Through the recently ratified US-Philippines Science and Technology Agreement, together we are building new pathways to increased scientific collaboration in the West Philippine Sea and beyond. Youth play a central role in achieving long-term marine sustainability. We have partnered with alumni from the U.S. Young South East Asia Leadership Initiative exchange program for Sea and Earth Advocates camps to train young conservation leaders and sponsored programs like the Haquathon Summit, where thirty-five teams developed tech-based solutions to save the seas.

Through these activities and our commitment to a free and open rules-based order that upholds the sovereign rights of all states regardless of size, power, and military capabilities, the United States will continue to support our Philippine friends, partners, and allies in conserving the rich marine biodiversity that make this island nation so special.
An Army doctor later wrote about Trinity: A few people were probably overexposed, but they couldnt prove it and we couldnt prove it. So we just assumed we got away with it.

It has been 75 years and the American government still refuses to admit that the detonation of the gadget, as the Trinity bomb was called, was a nuclear disaster.

Aboveground nuclear testing was halted in 1963. Underground testing, which is comparably safer but still terrifying, was stopped in 1992. But today the Trump administration is floating the idea of resuming such testing  despite the fact that America is, after more than 1,000 tests, already the most nuclear-bombed country in the world.

We maintain and will maintain the ability to conduct nuclear tests if we see any reason to do so, whatever that reason may be, President Trumps nuclear negotiator said last month.

Mr. Trump campaigned in 2016 saying he wanted to be unpredictable with nuclear weapons. He went on to antagonize North Korea in 2017 by tweeting, My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. According to Axios he suggested multiple times the use of nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes from hitting the United States. He withdrew from many arms agreements, including the Iran nuclear deal, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and the Open Skies Treaty. And he raised the budget of the National Nuclear Security Administration by more than 50 percent.

Whats next? An explosive nuclear test can be orchestrated in as little as six months. And with a president whose lust for nuclear weapons is as evident as his lust for showmanship, that should terrify all of us. Resumed explosive testing, even underground, will undoubtedly encourage other nations to follow suit.

Any explosive nuclear test is an escalation toward global annihilation.

Congress is now so concerned that Democrats in the House have proposed a bill that would prohibit Energy Department funds from being used for nuclear weapons testing, while the Senate has moved to make any nuclear testing require a joint resolution. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada said, The decision to conduct an explosive nuclear test should not be made without congressional approval and should never be made by a president hoping to gain political points.
Sarah Arison, Chair of the Board of Trustees, said, "National YoungArts Foundation provides tomorrow's artists with the support they need today. For almost forty years we have empowered young people to pursue a life in the arts so they can achieve their potential, including their ability as artists to impact society. As our nation faces extraordinary challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic, economic crisis, and the ongoing impact of systemic racism, we are aware of how keenly the world needs what artists can provide, today and tomorrow. For this reason, as we look ahead to 2021, we are expanding our network of support to better serve past, present and future YoungArts award winners and are strengthening our commitment to build a just, diverse and inclusive artistic ecosystem."

Jean Shin (1990 YoungArts Winner in Visual Arts & U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts) said, "I strongly encourage all aspiring performing, visual and literary artists to apply to YoungArts. Since 1990, YoungArts has been a part of my artistic community. They have supported and amplified my work throughout the decades and it is an honor to remain connected to the organization and its illustrious award winners as an ongoing mentor to the program."

HOW TO APPLY

The YoungArts award competition is open to artists (1) between the ages of 1518 or in high school grades 1012 (as of December 1, 2020) (2) that are United States citizens or permanent residents and (3) that demonstrate excellence in Classical Music, Dance, Design Arts, Film, Jazz, Photography, Theater, Visual Arts, Voice or Writing.

YoungArts is proactively making it easier for artists to apply. The YoungArts application, as well as the process for requesting a fee waiver, has been simplified. Audition and portfolio requirements have been updated to accommodate young artists working from home or the virtual classroom.

The applications deadline is October 16, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. ET.



For application inquiries please call (305) 377-1140 or email [email protected] .



DESIGNATIONS & AWARDS

YoungArts awards are given in three categories: Finalist, Honorable Mention and Merit. YoungArts award winners and will have the chance to learn from notable artists and mentors such as Debbie Allen, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Frank Gehry, Wynton Marsalis, Salman Rushdie and Mickalene Thomas through an expanded program of online and in person programming. Award winners will also become eligible for additional exclusive creative and professional development support throughout their careers.

Finalists who are high school seniors are further eligible for nomination to the White House Commission on U.S. Presidential Scholars.



Award winners join a distinguished group of leading artists including Daniel Arsham, Terence Blanchard, Camille A. Brown, Viola Davis, Allegra Goodman, Josh Groban, Judith Hill, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Andrew Rannells, Desmond Richardson and Hunter Schafer.

ABOUT NATIONAL YOUNGARTS FOUNDATION

For more information, visit youngarts.org, facebook.com/youngartsfoundation, instagram.com/youngarts or twitter.com/youngarts.

Media Contacts:

Heike Dempster, National YoungArts Foundation

[email protected] / 305.377.1140



Sara Ory, Polskin Arts

[email protected] / 212.593.5815

SOURCE National YoungArts Foundation

Related Links

http://www.youngarts.org


CALGARY, Alberta, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pan Orient Energy Corp. (Pan Orient or the Company) (POE  TSXV) reports an update on Thailand drilling.



THAILAND

Concession L53 Onshore (Pan Orient Energy (Siam) Ltd., in which Pan Orient has 50.01% ownership)

The second phase of the 2020 drilling program commenced in late June with the L53-BB1 exploration well, drilled from a surface location approximately 1.9 kilometers north (subsurface total depth location 1.1 kilometers north) of the L53-DD oilfield. After experiencing drilling difficulties at a measured depth (MD) of 1,475 meters, the well was plugged back and sidetracked (L53-BB1ST1) from a depth of 430 meters MD. Upon reaching a total depth of 1,529 meters MD (1,090 meters true vertical depth), L53-BB1ST1 encountered an estimated combined 10.55 meters of possible oil pay as interpreted in the SH1/AA, AA2 and BB sandstones based on wireline logs, oil and gas shows while drilling and analog to nearby wells. Testing will be required to confirm this interpretation and is expected to commence upon 90 day test approval by the Government of Thailand oil and gas regulator. No reserves of any classification had been attributed to any of the sands encountered by the L53-BB1ST1 exploration well in the most recent third party reserves report as at December 31, 2019.

The drilling rig is currently rigging down and moving to the L53-DD drilling pad where an intended water disposal well (L53-DD8) will be drilled, which is expected to encounter shallow untested sands before penetrating the main sandstone reservoirs in the vicinity of their inferred oil water contacts substantially down dip from the crest of the structure. The final classification of the well (producing or water disposal) will be determined after the completion of drilling and wireline logging.

A third exploration well that was originally planned as part of the current drilling phase, L53AC-E, has been deferred until late 2020 and will likely be drilled as part of a program that includes an appraisal well at the L53-DD oilfield. The exact timing and nature of this drilling program will be dependent on oil prices and the global COVID-19 pandemic situation.

Story continues

Lastly, the L53-AA2 exploration well, representing a potential new pool discovery drilled in February 2020, has received 90 day production test approval and is planned to commence testing in late July 2020.

COVID-19 Coronavirus

The operations in Thailand of Pan Orient Energy (Siam) Ltd. (POS) have been affected by the worldwide COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The Thailand government imposed a state of emergency in late March, giving it wide-ranging powers to address the crisis. Social distancing and personal hygiene were strongly encouraged, and many businesses closed. An overnight curfew was imposed in early April and the government issued a travel ban on all foreigners entering Thailand. These measures have been effective. New confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Thailand peaked at the end of March and early April, followed a week or so later by a peak in deaths. Overall, the infection and death rate has been much lower in Thailand than in most western nations.

Prudent measures have been taken by POS to help protect the health and safety of staff, which are of paramount importance. POS was fortunate to have completed the first phase of the 2020 Thailand drilling program before the real effects of the pandemic were felt. The second phase of the drilling program commenced in late June.

POS and Pan Orient are well-positioned to withstand these unprecedented events. The Company is optimistic about a slow return to normal operations and less volatile market conditions but the outlook for world oil prices remains challenging.

Pan Orient is a Calgary, Alberta based oil and gas exploration and production company with operations currently located onshore Thailand and in Western Canada.

This news release contains forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is generally identifiable by the terminology used, such as forecast, "expect", "believe", "estimate, "should", "anticipate" and "potential" or other similar wording. Forward-looking information in this news release includes references, express or implied, to drilling plans in Thailand, regulatory approvals, estimates of reserves and information on future production and well production tests. By their very nature, the forward-looking statements contained in this news release require Pan Orient and its management to make assumptions that may not materialize or that may not be accurate. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors, which could cause actual results, expectations, achievements or performance to differ materially, including without limitation: changes in project schedules, regulatory changes and delays, operating and reservoir performance, the results of exploration and development drilling and related activities, supply, demand and resulting prices for oil and gas, the impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus, other technical and economic factors or revisions and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of Pan Orient. Although Pan Orient believes that the expectations reflected in its forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurances that the expectations of any forward-looking statements will prove to be correct.

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:

Pan Orient Energy Corp.

Jeff Chisholm, President and CEO (located in Bangkok, Thailand)

Email: jeff@panorient.ca

- or -

Bill Ostlund, Vice President Finance and CFO

Telephone: (403) 294-1770, Extension 233
Suspected mules abandoned several bundles of marijuana near the Laredo Regional Food Bank on 2802 Anna Ave., according to the U.S. Border Patrol.

Late Tuesday, agents responded to a report of several individuals crossing the Rio Grande in west Laredo. With air support from Air and Marine Operations, agents located six bundles that were abandoned near the Laredo Regional Food Bank.
Muhammad Mustapha constructed the car himself

Muhammad Mustapha, a Nigerian has been hailed on social media after using local materials to construct a vehicle.

Mustapha, who is from Gombe state, drove the vehicle around for residents and passersby to see and appreciate his invention.

Northeast Reporters took to its Facebook page to share photos of the vehicle.

Nigerians on social media have commended Mustapha while wishing him well.
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2020) - Minnova Corp. (TSXV: MCI) (OTC: AGRDF), ("Minnova" or the "Company"), announces that further to its press release of June 19, 2020, the Company is pleased to announce the closing of a non-brokered private placement of flow-through units (each, a "FT Unit") through the issuance of 4,275,000 FT Units at a price of $0.20 per FT Unit for gross proceeds of $855,000 (the "Offering").

Each FT Unit consists of one common share of the Company issued on a flow-through basis (each, a "FT Common Share") and one-half of a common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "FT Warrant"). Each FT Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one common share in the capital of the Company (each, a "Common Share") at an exercise price of $0.25 for until July 16, 2022 (the "FT Warrant Term"), provided, however, that should the closing price at which the Common Shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") (or any such other stock exchange in Canada as the Common Shares may trade at the applicable time) exceed $0.375 for 20 consecutive trading days at any time following the date that is four months and one day after the date of issuance, the Company may accelerate the FT Warrant Term such that the FT Warrants shall expire on the date which is 30 business days following the date a press release is issued by the Company announcing the reduced warrant terms. The FT Common Shares will qualify as "flow-through shares" within the meaning of subsection 66(15) of the Income Tax Act (Canada) and will be used by the Company to incur eligible "Canadian exploration expenses" on the Company's mineral properties that will qualify as "flow-through mining expenditures" (as defined in the Income Tax Act (Canada)).

In connection with the Offering, the Company paid certain eligible persons (each, a "Finder"): (i) a cash commission in the aggregate of $34,250, being equal to 7% of the gross proceeds of the Offering for the purchasers introduced to the Company by such Finder; and (ii) an aggregate of 274,000 broker warrants (each, a "Broker Warrant"). Each Broker Warrant is exercisable into Common Shares at a price of $0.25 per Common Share upon the same terms as the FT Warrants. The Closing of the Offering is subject to certain conditions including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary approvals including the final approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

In addition, the Company is pleased to announce that it engaged Canaccord Genuity Corp. ("Canaccord Genuity") as financial advisor to the Company in connection with the Offering. In connection with their services provided, Canaccord Genuity received a cash commission in the amount of $10,000 and was issued 200,000 Broker Warrants.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons as defined under applicable securities laws unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

About Minnova Corp.

Minnova Corp. is an emerging Canadian gold producer focused on re-starting the PL Gold Mine and expanding gold resources on its PL and Nokomis gold deposits. The Company has completed a Positive Feasibility Study in support of re-starting the PL Mine at an average annual production rate of 46,493 ounces over a minimum 5 year mine life. The resource remains open to expansion and future surface exploration work programs will target resource expansion. The PL Gold Mine has a relatively short pre-production timeline forecast at 15 months, benefits from a valid underground mining permit (Environment Act 1207E), an existing processing plant, over 7,000 meters of developed underground ramp to -135 metres depth, is fully road accessible and close to existing mining infrastructure in the prolific Flin Flon - Snow Lake Greenstone Belt of Central Manitoba.

For more information please contact:

Minnova Corp.

Gorden Glenn

President & Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please contact Investor Relations at 647-985-2785 or info@minnovacorp.ca

Visit our website at www.minnovacorp.ca

Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, information regarding the Company including management's assessment of future plans and operations, that may involve risks associated with mining exploration and development, volatility of prices, currency fluctuations, imprecision of resource estimates, environmental and permitting risks, access to labour and services, competition from other companies and ability to access sufficient capital. As a consequence, actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. Although Minnova has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Minnova does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

NOT FOR DISSEMINATION INTO THE UNITED STATES

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/59945
Fox News priest Jonathan Morris is engaged to be married, DailyMail.com can reveal.

The Fox News religion contributor and former New York pastor proposed to ABC News producer Kaitlyn Folmer, 37, last month and are expected to wed at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.

This comes a year after Morris, 47, announced he was leaving the Catholic priesthood because he regretted 'not being able to marry and have a family.'

He asked Pope Francis to relieve him from his duties, saying his decision wasn't 'due to any existing relationships,' which the Vatican has now granted him, freeing him to marry in the church.

Morris told DailyMail.com of how he met his fiancee and his excitement to finally be married.

'Last year, after much discernment, I left the priesthood, and expressed very publicly then, that I was doing so with the hope of love, marriage, and family,' Morris said.

Former priest Jonathan Morris, 47, proposed to ABC News producer Kaitlyn Folmer, 37, last month, DailyMail.com can reveal

'I just can't wait to marry Kaitlyn and be with her for the rest of my life. I will continue to express my faith in God and my love for the Church in this new chapter of my life,' Morris tells DailyMail.com

The couple are expected to wed at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan. Their engagement comes one year after he gave up priesthood because he regretted 'not being able to marry and have a family'

'Soon after, Kaitlyn and I went to lunch. One month later, we went to dinner. Every day since, we have seen each other or spoken by phone.

'In November of last year Pope Francis gave me the final dispensation from my vows and encouraged me to live my faith publicly as a lay person.

'He's such a nice man, and Kaitlyn is quite the lady,' a source tells DailyMail.com

'I see all of this - including my 17 years as a priest - as an amazing blessing from God. I just can't wait to marry Kaitlyn and be with her for the rest of my life. I will continue to express my faith in God and my love for the Church in this new chapter of my life.'

A Fox News source tells DailyMail.com that the engagement has been the 'talk of the town.'

'Just over a year ago he announced he was leaving the priesthood and now he is engaged to be married,' they said.

'He's such a nice man, and Kaitlyn is quite the lady.'

An ABC News source told DailyMail.com: 'It's nice to see them so happy. Everyone is excited for Kaitlyn.'

Folmer, an NYU grad, is a Lebanon, Pennsylvania, native who has worked for Good Morning America and is now part of ABC's investigative team.

In May 2019 Morris said he made up his mind to leave priesthood following a sabbatical, which gave him time to think.

In a statement, he said: 'Taking this step is something I have considered often and at length in years past and discussed with my spiritual guides.

'While I have loved and thrived in so many aspects of my ministry, deep in my interior I have struggled for years with my vocation and with the commitments that the Catholic priesthood demands, especially not being able to marry and have a family.'

In a statement from May 2019, Morris announced he was stepping down from priesthood. He said he regretted not being able to marry and have a family

The former Catholic priest is best known for his role with Fox News as the network's religion contributor. This comes one year after he gave up priesthood because he regretted 'not being able to marry and have a family'

Morris, originally from Cleveland, Ohio, was ordained in 2002 and left the Legion of Christ theological school in Rome in 2009, three years after the Vatican suspended its founder, Father Macial Marciel, who was found guilty of various forms of sexual abuse and misconduct as well as abuse of power.

Morris then joined the Archdiocese of New York with the support of Cardinal Timothy Dolan and in 2013 served as a chaplain at Columbia University with Corpus Christi Church in Manhattan.

In 2015 Morris became the pastor of The Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the Bronx until his departure last year.

He has appeared on several TV networks and has been a regular contributor for Fox News.

Morris was a theological adviser to Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ and appeared as Frank Sheeran's priest in Martin Scorsese's 2019 film The Irishman starring Robert DeNiro.

An ABC News source told DailyMail.com: 'It's nice to see them so happy. Everyone is excited for Kaitlyn.'

Along with being a Fox News contributor, Morris was a theological adviser to Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion of the Christ and appeared as Frank Sheeran's priest in Martin Scorsese's 2019 film The Irishman starring Robert DeNiro

Morris also served as the program director for The Catholic Channel, a project of the Archdiocese of New York, on the Sirius XM radio network for three years, Crux reported.

And now he's moved on to having his own consulting firm Morris & Larson Advisors, with James Larson, also a former priest.

Morris said that his decision to leave priesthood should not 'take away anything from the many heroic men and women who are living out their religious vocations with admirable fidelity and fulfillment.'

He added: 'I will always be in the pews ready to support you, because my faith in God and love for my Church is stronger than ever. I look forward to serving in new ways alongside of you.'
Armenian defense ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan took to her Facebook to share an update on the situation at the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.

According to her, 'around 03:40 at night, positions of the RA Armed Forces noticed enemy movement. Switching to all-around defense Armenian units prevented the enemy's attempt of infiltration.'

She added that 'after a hot battle, the enemy was thwarted back suffering losses.'

"Afterwards, at 05:20 the Azerbaijani units started shelling the villages of Aygepar, Movses, using mortars and a D-30 howitzer. The fire still continues," she said.

"Armenian Armed Forces units are neutralizing provocations of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces. This is the first serious violation of the fragile ceasefire established yesterday at 00:15."
Washington: A group of 24 influential Republican Congressmen urged US President Donald Trump on Wednesday to ban TikTok and other Chinese mobile applications, stating that India has taken the extraordinary step of banning 60 Chinese-affiliated apps due to national security concerns.

Writing to support the administration's efforts to restrict TikTok and other social media platforms linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from accessing US markets, the lawmakers, in a letter to Trump, alleged that these popular apps' data collection practices, coupled with China's onerous cybersecurity laws requiring all companies operating in China, including TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, to share user data with CCP authorities, present a very real threat to US national security.

"As such, we urge your administration to take decisive action to protect the American people's privacy and safety," the lawmakers wrote to Trump.

"In June, India took the extraordinary step of banning 60 Chinese-affiliated mobile apps, including TikTok, due to national security concerns. However, the CCP's systemic campaign to collect and illicitly transmit user data for the Chinese government's purposes is not unique to Indian consumers," the lawmakers, led by Congressman Ken Buck, said in the letter.

In fact, Chinese authorities currently enjoy relatively unrestricted access to US consumer and government data through the country's advanced data mining policies.

As evidence, TikTok's privacy policy for US residents is upfront about the vast quantity of user data it collects and shares with the CCP, the lawmakers said.

"We automatically collect certain information from you when you use the platform, including internet or other network activity information such as your IP address, geolocation-related data..., unique device identifiers, browser and search history (including content you have viewed on the platform), and cookies," the privacy policy says.

Additionally, the company's privacy policy notes that it "also collects information you share with (TikTok) from third-party social network providers and technical and behavioural information about your use of the platform". As US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently stated, Americans should only use this app "if you want your private information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party", the lawmakers pointed out.

Furthermore, TikTok's censorship of user content to advance the CCP's foreign policy aims is deeply concerning, they wrote. Leaked documents detail instructions to ban videos on the app that mention Tiananmen Square, Tibetan independence, or banned religious groups, the lawmakers added.

Moreover, an Australian Strategic Policy Institute report recently found that ByteDance works closely with the Chinese government to enable human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims by disseminating the CCP's state propaganda.

The company is also required under Chinese laws to provide seats on its board of directors to CCP officials, further cementing the authoritarian government's role in setting these policies, the letter said.

"It is clear that the United States should not trust TikTok or any other Chinese-affiliated social media websites or apps to protect Americans' data, privacy or security. As such, we urge you to take strong action to stop the CCP's sophisticated espionage campaign against our country and protect our national security," the Congressmen said.

A bill in the Senate introduced by Senator Josh Hawley seeks to prohibit certain individuals from downloading or using TikTok on any device issued by the United States or a government corporation.
CASPER  If Wyoming plans to double down on minerals to save its future, then trona  one of the Equality States most critical natural resources  is probably its safest bet.

Worldwide, Wyoming stands as one of the worlds richest stores of the mineral, whose natural byproduct  soda ash  is a key ingredient in everything from the baking soda in your kitchen to the glass facades of the worlds skyscrapers. The fate of the mineral is also closely tied to the worlds GDP and, with strong domestic demand, it remains a reliable source of revenue for Wyoming regardless of the...
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-17 00:29:33|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- China firmly opposes the British government's latest decision to ban Chinese companies from the building of 5G networks, said a spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce on Thursday.

The discriminatory practice goes against the free trade principles that the British government has always advocated, the ministry's spokesperson Gao Feng told a press conference.

It severely breaches World Trade Organization rules, undermines Chinese investors' confidence in Britain, affects the economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, damages Britain's credibility, and undermines its status in the international trade system, Gao added.

Concerning Britain's action, which violates free trade principles, China is evaluating the incident, Gao said. He added that the country will take necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies.

Gao urged Britain to adopt concrete measures to correct its wrong decisions with the big picture in mind.

He also called on Britain to take a long-term perspective to provide an open, fair, and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese companies investing in Britain, as well as maintain the sound development momentum of economic and trade ties between the two countries. Enditem
Yucatan governor reinstates mobility, water and alcohol restrictions as Covid cases increase

Merida, Yucatan  This is the last call to Yucatecans to take seriously a pandemic that has caused the death of people in Yucatan, Mexico and the world, said the Governor of Yucatan, Mauricio Vila Dosal after announcing new restrictions to prevent further coronavirus infections.

We need people to apply prevention measures without exception and restrict social life, he added during a live message. Vila Dosal affirmed that the current situation is delicate given the lethality of Covid-19.

He stressed that with the conversion of the Yucatan Convention Center as an emerging hospital like the one in Valladolid, all spaces are utilized. It will no longer be possible to enable more beds. Medical staff are working at full capacity, he added.

During his broadcast, the Yucatan governor stated that he has seen a relaxation in health and hygiene protocols among locals, saying many have confused the restoration of the economy with the restoration of social life.

If at this time social life is not reduced to the maximum, we will be forced to close non-essential businesses and return to quarantine in our homes, he warned before announcing new restrictions that began immediately.

Vila Dosal said that mobility restrictions, carried out by the Ministry of Public Security (SSP), will prevent road traffic from 10:30 p.m. until 5: 00 a.m., while in the coastal municipalities, the mobility restriction will begin at 9:00 p.m.

He announced other restrictions include all all non-essential businesses be closed no later than 6:00 p.m. and that they must remain closed Saturdays and Sundays. Restaurants will close at 10:00 p.m. at the latest Monday to Friday and that Saturdays and Sundays, they will only be able to operate home service, take-away or online.

Yucatan man stocks up on alcohol in anticipation of reinstatement of dry law

As of Thursday, all marinas will be shut, he said adding that he has ordered the return of all recreational boats to shore and that the use of any motorized water vehicle, except those for fishing, will be prohibited. As part of the restrictions, the governor announced the reinstatement of the Dry Law throughout the state.

The state of Yucatan has recorded 6,215 positive Covid-19 cases and 582 deaths.
The National Chairman of the Peoples National Convention (PNC), Mr Bernard Mornah, will appear before the Supreme Court on July 21, 2020, to answer charges for contempt of court filed against him by the Attorney-General.



The case was scheduled for Tuesday, July 14, but the court could not sit.



Mr Mornah was said to have urged Ghanaians at a press conference to disobey the order of the Supreme Court of June 25, which gave the Electoral Commission (EC) the green light to compile a fresh electoral roll without the existing voter identification (ID) card.



At the press conference, the respondent said, to get your voter ID card, if it is the only identification document you can find and march in your numbers to registration numbers and in multitudes to the registration centres to demand the restoration of your citizenship and your inalienable right bestowed on you by virtue of your birth and by courtesy of the 1992 Constitution.



The Attorney-General found his utterances completely at variance with the explicit orders of the court upholding the constitutionality of Constitutional Instrument (CI 26) which stated that the Ghana Card and passport were the only two eligible documents that would be accepted in the ongoing nationwide voter registration exercise.



In the application for an order of committal for contempt of court, Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame, a Deputy Attorney-General is urging the apex court to punish the respondent as his conduct was a calculated attempt to bring the authority of the court into disrepute.



It said the respondent accused the Supreme Court of denying Ghanaians of their right to citizenship and their inalienable rights, thereby courting contempt and disaffection for the court.



That the willful conduct of Mr Mornah was clearly intended to subvert the judgement of the court and same was out of disrespect for the courts authority under the 1992 Constitution.



On June 25, the Supreme Court unanimously dismissed a consolidated writ filed by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and one Mark Takyi Banson, a Ghanaian citizen.



The court further made consequential orders to the effect that the decision of the court affects similar action which is pending or yet to be filed in any court.



The EC had stated that it would compile a new voter register for the presidential and parliamentary elections because the existing register was incurably defective for the purpose.



But the NDC, the biggest opposition political party in Ghana insisted that the exclusion of existing voter ID card as a form of identification to obtain a new voter ID card was unconstitutional.

Source: The Ghanaian Times









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

The 81-year-old Hyderabad-based poet and activist Varavara Rao, an accused in the Elgar Parishad case, has tested positive for COVID-19.

Rao was admitted to the Sir JJ hospital on July 13 after his health deteriorated in jail and following repeated pleas from his family and was shifted to St. George's around 8:30 PM Thursday evening.

The veteran is suffering from neurological problems, sources at St. George's told TNIE. His ECG and X-Ray showed no abnormalities, the source added.

A routine swab test done on July 14 confirmed he was COVID-19 positive on July 16 evening.

"Mr Rao will be shifted to St George's hospital for further treatment. In Sir JJ hospital, the patients are not given COVID treatment. Therefore, he will be shifted to St George's hospital, a doctor from Sir JJ hospital had said.

Susan Abraham, lawyer for Rao, was scathing in her condemnation of the treatment meted out to her client.

"The COVID finding highlights the criminal negligence of the state jail authorities, who have been repeatedly warned about the danger of COVID in the Taloja Jail, and the fragile condition of the Hyderabad-based poet-writer. It is a matter of concern too that the trial court handling the Bhima Koregaon/Elgar Parishad case turned a deaf ear to pleas for medical bail despite the poor health condition of VV Rao and the danger of COVID," she said.

ALSO READ | State trying to kill Varavara Rao in jail, he needs immediate hospitalisation, say family

She also spoke of how the jail authorities had, after growing protests about the neglect of Varavara Rao, put another Bhima Koregaon accused, Vernon Gonsalves, to look after Rao in jail "thus putting Veron too at grave risk".

Abraham said the possible shifting of Rao to St George's hospital, which has a poor healthcare record, will be bad news.

"It may hardly be the place where VV Rao has a chance to recover. The only way VV stands a good chance is if the Bombay High Court, hearing the matter on Friday, gives him medical bail, and he is shifted to a decent private specialty hospital," she insisted.

Abraham further revealed that Varavara Rao's wife, Hemlata, his two daughters and nephew Venugopal, had met him in hospital on Wednesday. "They found him in a pathetic condition with the patient having to lie in urine-soaked clothes for hours, and with very little nursing aid available at the hospital," she said.

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday had demanded to shift the activist to a super speciality hospital at the earliest.

"The condition of Shri Varavara Rao as described by his family is a matter of grave concern. It is beyond belief that the State, the police and the prison authorities can behave in such an inhuman manner under the watch of the NHRC," Chidambaram said on Twitter.

"Shri Varavara Rao should be released immediately and admitted to a super speciality hospital that will treat him properly," he demanded.
PORTLAND, Ind., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Quarries and mines are two of the most dangerous workplaces in the world. More people are killed or injured in the mining industry than any other. Globally, official statistics show that 15,000 miners are killed each year, although the real figure is likely to be many more.

Mobile equipment and machinery are a huge contributing factor to the dangers faced by those in the mining and quarrying industries. The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) revealed that despite a 2% decrease in the number of workplace fatalities between its 27 member companies in 2018 compared to 2017, fatalities caused by mobile mining equipment and machinery was still the single highest cause of deaths across the sector.

As a result, the ICMM is exploring the use of creating safer vehicles through the provision of collision avoidance technology as part of its Innovation for Cleaner, Safer Vehicles (ICSV) program. Working with its members and equipment suppliers, the hope is to make collision avoidance technology available to mining companies by 2025.

The use of vehicle safety systems has proved to be extremely effective in reducing accidents and preventing fatalities. Corey Heniser, a vehicle safety expert at Brigade Electronics INC - a global leader in vehicle safety devices - said:

"Our safety solutions mean that worker safety can be improved with simple additions to vehicles. From camera monitor systems and warning alarms, to blind spot technology, collisions could be vastly reduced if drivers are equipped proficiently."

Blind spot technology

Blind spots are one of the main causes of collisions involving deaths and injuries. Driver visibility, particularly on large machinery, can be limited due to various factors. These include lack of direct vision through front and side windows, lack of rear vision, operator position, bulkheads, vehicle size, and type. Alongside this, wearing hearing protection reduces site workers' ability to clearly hear approaching vehicles, and poor visibility due to adverse weather and dusty worksites, increase the potential for accidents.

Depending on the vehicle type and use, there are multiple technology solutions that can be fitted to enhance safety. For example, vehicle-mounted 360-degree cameras, such as Brigade's award-winning Backeye360, provide operators with a birds-eye view around their vehicle at all times, which they can monitor via an in-cab display. Extremely wide-angle lenses on the systems' cameras provide a comprehensive view of the area surrounding the vehicle that even large mirrors cannot match, completely eliminating blind spots.

Meanwhile, radar obstacle detection, which utilizes continuous-wave radar technology, can detect moving or stationary objects around the vehicle delivering an audible and visible alert to vehicle operators, allowing them to act accordingly. Heavy duty and able to operate even in high or low temperatures, radar obstacle detection is also waterproof and smoke resistant, and can be easily heard in noisy environments making it ideal for mining and quarrying.

Back up and warning alarms are also vital devices to warn ground workers that a vehicle is maneuvering. Multi-frequency smart alarms, using white sound technology, are highly directional, meaning that in adverse conditions, for example if rain is pounding down, the warning decibel level will be increased.

Davesmen, a company which supports mines throughout India, has been supplying and fitting Brigade's range of vehicle safety solutions to heavy earth moving machines.

In 2017, there were more than 1,000 recorded fatalities at Indian coal operations alone. The extreme number of accidents in India led to an introduction of tighter laws and, in July 2019, the Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill was passed.

Shamit Dave, Managing Director of Davesmen, said:

"Brigade's products have been received well by the mining market. We have had excellent feedback on the Backeye360 system, especially when it's coupled with Backsense radars. Drivers like that they can see the blind spots surrounding the entire vehicle, which reduces the stress of driving in the mines as well as helping to prevent vehicle damage and repairs."

As awareness grows for these safety solutions, it is hoped that this will provide a major boost for the growth of the industry. Shamit added:

"The future is filled with optimism. Vehicle safety has become a major part of this sector."

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1214953/Brigade_Electronics.jpg
Hopes of lasting Covid-19 immunity were raised today after scientists found SARS patients still have crucial disease-fighting cells.

SARS  another type of coronavirus very similar to the one that causes Covid-19 was behind an epidemic that predominantly struck Asia in 2003. No cases have been identified for 15 years.

But some infected during the outbreak still have key white T cells, suggesting they would be protected from ever getting re-infected.

The research, by scientists in Singapore, offers hope the same may be true for SARS-CoV-2  the name of the coronavirus behind the pandemic.

With some viruses, such as chickenpox, protection is life-long and it not possible to become sick again. But others, like the common cold, protection is short lived.

Experts are still baffled as to how long immunity against Covid-19 lasts for because it has only been around since December 2019. Antibody studies have suggested it may only offer short-lived immunity, like other coronaviruses.

But T cells  which can't be detected by the 'have you had it' antibody tests  made in response to the infection may offer a form of immunity that lasts several times longer.

Other scientific studies have shown people who have had a common cold in the past two years have T cells that show 'cross-reactive protection' against Covid-19.

Singaporean researchers have found patients who had SARS have immunity for up to 17 years. It offers hope the same could be true for the closely related coronavirus which is causing the current global pandemic, called SARS-2. Pictured, an illustration of a coronavirus being attacked by immune cells

The study led by Duke-NUS Medical School, in Singapore, published in the scientific journal Nature yesterday, involved 23 SARS patients.

They collected blood samples and tested whether they still harboured any immune cells that were effective against SARS.

All patients had T cells, which suggest they are an important part of fighting off this infection.

T cells are a type of white blood cell that are a key component of the immune system and help fight off disease.

WHAT ARE T CELLS? When the body is invaded by bacteria, a virus, such as SARS-CoV-2, or parasites, an immune alarm goes off, setting off a chain reaction of cellular activity in the immune system. T lymphocytes (T cells) are white blood cells that are a major part of the immune system. They are part of the adaptive immune system, which is considered the more specialised response. They use past interactions to remember foreign threats and how to attack them. The adaptive immune system kicks in after the innate immune system, which is the immediate response to a virus, or 'first line of defense'. There are several different types of T cells, some of which their functions are not understood. Killer T cells directly kill cells that have already been infected by a foreign invader, while helper T cells stimulate other parts of the immune response - such as B cells. B cells are also part of the adaptive immune system. They help make antibodies which are specific to each pathogen. Antibodies are able to block the novel coronavirus by attaching to it and marking it for destruction by other immune cells. Advertisement

'Killer T cells' fight off a pathogen, while 'helper T cells' signal for action in other parts of the immune system when they see a cell has been invaded.

Investigations showed all patients 'still possess long-lasting memory T cells' reactive to the virus.

The findings 'support the notion that Covid-19 patients will develop long-term T cell immunity,' the researchers wrote.

This could be significant for vaccine research because it helps scientists understand how long a vaccine would protect a person before before another booster shot is needed.

In further experiments, the scientists mixed blood samples with fragments of SARS-CoV-2 to see what happened.

The cells showed 'robust' reactivity against SARS-2 in all patients by latching on to them.

To explore the subject of immunity further, 37 volunteers who had never been infected with either SARS-1 or SARS-2 were recruited.

They wanted to see if infection with other human coronaviruses that have been around for centuries offered some kind of protection against Covid-19.

The researchers found 'remarkable' levels of T cells able to latch on to the Covid-19 virus in 50 per cent (19) of the participants.

'Surprisingly, we also frequently detected SARS-CoV-2 specific T cells in individuals with no history of SARS, Covid-19 or contact with SARS/Covid-19 patients,' the authors wrote.

They believe these T cells may exist due to previous infection with another coronavirus  of which there are seven that can infect humans.

It couldn't be ruled out that the T cells could come from other animal coronaviruses  mainly thought to originate in bats  rather than human coronaviruses.

Lead researcher Dr Antonio Bertoletti told The Telegraph these T cells may be more common in Asia than the rest of the world.

He did not divulge why, but he may have been referring to the fact zoonotic diseases  those that jump from animals to humans  have emerged more frequently in Asia.

It could explain why the continent has been relatively unscathed compared to Europe and the US during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The team said strong immunity towards closely-related viruses could reduce susceptibility or severe disease in relation to SARS-2.



But it is not known for sure that these T cells would protect someone if they were exposed to Covid-19.

Either way, the researchers said this 'pre-existing' protection should be considered on a population scale, because it could mean less people are at risk of getting sick with Covid-19 than thought.

Scientists at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in California have also previously said it is 'tempting to speculate' that having had a cold could offer some form of immunity.

They found blood samples from people donated in 2015-2018 contained T cells that recognised SARS-Cov-2 and responded to it, publishing their findings in the journal Cell.

Researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in California analysed blood samples from recovered COVID-19 patients (left) and frozen blood samples from people two years ago. They found both had T cells that recognise SARS-CoV-2 and some that are able to kill it

T cells have become an increasingly discussed topic during the Covid-19 pandemic, once overshadowed by the interest in antibodies.

T cells are part of adaptive immunity, the first line of defence against a foreign substance. On the other hand, antibodies, triggered into action by B cells, don't start helping until a few days later.

They may not be needed if T cells and other parts of the immune system have already wiped the virus out.

For that reason, some people may not have antibodies against Covid-19 in their blood despite being infected with the coronavirus in the past, scientists say.

The Singaporean team said their previous research discovered antibodies for SARS-1 were undetectable after two or three years.

Therefore, antibody testing would suggest they could be infected again, when actually they are protected by T cells.

In terms of SARS-2, Professor Karol Sikora, an advisor to the World Health Organisation, previously told MailOnline he believes only 10 per cent of people who are infected with the coronavirus develop antibodies.

The Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital, in Sweden, recently showed that many people with mild or asymptomatic Covid-19 demonstrate T-cell immunity to the disease and do not test positive for antibodies.

The research would suggest that immunity among the population is higher than antibody testing reveals.

Some parts of the immune response remain a complete mystery to scientists and are unable to measure.
Apple bringing 5G to their iPhone 12 lineup is apparently coming for real. Rumors have it that the tech giant should reveal about the more advanced phone by September. Some rumors are even hinting Apple will allow users to choose between 4G and a more expensive 5G version. Whether this rumor is true or not, a Youtuber behind the channel Max Tech pointed out an interesting question that every iPhone user should ask: "Do I really need 5G?"

The Youtuber went on to discuss the real-world benefits he noticed using a 5G phone compared to a 4G iPhone. He also talked about what other people think of 5G and, ultimately, how much it should affect consumers' buying decision. He also explained the difference between There's sub six 5G and millimeter-wave (mmWave) 5G that everyone should understand prior to shifting to 5G phones. More importantly, the Youtuber who even switched to the Galaxy S20 ultra a couple of months ago so that he could give it a proper review, gave insights into the success of two popular smartphone brands that have recently switched to 5G.

Below are some of the interesting points Max Tech has raised:

Samsung Galaxy S20

Ever since they launched the S20 lineup, it's been rumored that sales of Samsung's S20 phones were way down compared to last year's Galaxy S10, in which shipments were dropping by 32.6 percent. While the drop coud be blamed partly on the pandemic since the entire smartphone industry went down, Max Tech pointed that one thing is for certain: the addition of 5G made the S20 line very expensive at a thousand dollars for the entry-level model.

Android Authority ran a poll asking people why they didn't upgrade to the S20, and about 71 of the people said that it was just too expensive, and then the other 11 said that they don't need 5G. "That basically means that the addition of 5G just wasn't worth the extra price for all of those people." he said.

And to further prove the point, it's been rumored that Samsung is exercising caution on the Note 20 parts to try to keep the price down. There was even a mention that this was specifically for the Galaxy Note 20 5G model since 5G makes it much more expensive.

READ ALSO: Apple and Samsung to Exclude a Charger for New Devices? Here's Why It Is a Good Decision

One Plus 8 Pro

Now the OnePlus 8 Pro had a ton of hype, thanks to the exciting leaks and the success of the previous OnePlus 7 Pro. But there were a lot of people that were disappointed by the high price

About a week before launch, 9to5Google made a poll asking users how much would they be willing to spend on the OnePlus 8 pro, and almost half of them said 700. The price turned out to be from 900 to a thousand dollars, which only about 10 said that they are willing to pay, according to the poll. And of course, the high price was mostly attributed to the addition of 5G.

The point that the Youtuber is trying to make is that 5G is causing phones to get much more expensive than people expect.

There are now rumors pointing to the iPhone 12 being priced at least $50 more expensive than the iPhone 11 prices despite not having ear pods or a charger in the box.

Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max

So now, the question is, if Apple does give you the choice of getting a 5G model, should you pay the extra price?

"I've been using apple's iPhone 11 Pro max for almost a full year now, which obviously uses 4G. So, I'm going to give you guys my experience of this iPhone compared to the Galaxy S20 ultra, which is the most expensive mainstream 5G phone. I currently use T-mobile here in Spokane, Washington and 4G has mostly worked fine for me for everything, from web browsing to using apps," the youtuber said.

He went on adding that he noticed a couple of issues with connectivity. The main issue so far, he said, is occasional hiccups when he was trying to stream Youtube videos.

"There's also the fact that I start to lose service going further away from the city and sometimes in certain dead zones of the city. Other than that, the only other issue is that reception isn't that great when I'm inside of larger buildings like my church, for example," he said.

5G Experience

As for his experience with 5G, since he has T-mobile, he doesn't have access to the ultra-fast mmWave 5G in his city, just the sub-6 5G. That's because right now, there are only a small amount of cities that actually have millimeter 5G towers.

To get great speeds, he said that you actually have to be very close to those towers. That's because it works using a very specific part of the radio frequency spectrum between 24 gigahertz and 100 gigahertz, which have a very short wavelength. This basically allows more bandwidth or data to be transferred.

But the issue, he noted, is that it doesn't travel very far and it doesn't penetrate walls well at all, and this is also a type of 5G which is the most controversial with many people concerned about the health impacts of the shortwave radio frequency

Sub-6 5G Experience

Now sub-6 5G, on the other hand, has a lot more in common with 4G than it does with mmWave 5G, he explained

For example, the youtuber said that the T-mobile was able to upgrade its cell towers to sub six relatively quickly and easily all across the United States. According to him, since it uses a much longer wavelength, mmWave 5G requires a lot more work and a fiber optic internet connection, which is why it's taking so long to implement it.

"So, even though the Galaxy S20 ultra supports both sub six and millimeter wave, I only have access to T-mobile sub six here in Spokane. So here was my experience with it. It wasn't fantasti," he said.

"There were a few spots where I typically had just one bar, and data was pretty much unusable, and in those cases, the S20 ultra with sub-6 5G would give me two bars at times, maybe even three, and it would work just fine. Browsing the web was super snappy, and it could consistently playback Youtube videos at 1440p with no buffering or hiccups."

On top of that, the youtuber said that in areas with a good signal, his data speeds were about double the speed testing it at the same location at the same time just pulling the sim from one and putting it into the other and during congestion. That's up to six times faster as can be shown below:

According to him, after the S20 ultra, most people probably won't get much use out of that mmWave 5G for at least a couple of years. So if you're thinking about buying the Pro model iPhone 12 just for that reason, it probably doesn't make sense, he said. He added that sub six 5G is definitely worth it since it gives you better reception overall, faster speeds and it allowes you to stream Youtube without a hiccup, even at 1440p.

READ ALSO: iPhone Crash: Here's How to Fix it (With 5 Easy Steps)

Bottomline

"In my opinion, I still think Apple needs to add 5G to all of the phones this year. I don't think it makes sense to have multiple versions of the phones at different price points. Now they could wait another year, but then they will be really way behind the competition," the youtuber said.

So, as long as Apple can keep the price of their phones the same, he advised that they should switch to 5G and be done with it. Luckily most rumors are pointing to the price staying very close, and that's probably because Apple will likely no longer be shipping ear pods and even a charger in the box, which in my opinion is a worthwhile trade-off.

"Realistically even if we don't need 5G this year, most iPhone users keep their phones for three years or more now, so it would be really nice to have it be future proof. if so we could end up with another iPhone 6s situation where it is so good that it becomes the standard long term for a lot of people," he added.

Watch the whole video below:

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The biggest thing to keep in mind is Russias not alone, said John Hultquist, director of intelligence analysis for the cybersecurity firm FireEye. Weve seen Iranian and Chinese actors targeting pharmaceutical companies and research organizations involved in the covid-19 response. This is an existential threat to almost every government on Earth and we can expect that tremendous resources have been diverted from other tasks to focus on this virus.
Kylie Jenner is one hot momma!

The famous member of the Kardashian-Jenner clan has been making a lot of headlines over the past few months amid the coronavirus pandemic. While not all of it are good -- such as her controversial billionaire status that has been widely discussed until today -- a lot more have been positive.

The Kyle Cosmetics founder has shown how great a mother she is to her daughter Stormi, whom she happily co-parents with baby daddy Travis Scott.

However, what have been a real head-turner for the business mogul were her smoking hot instagram posts showing her in a bikini. Throughout the past four months since COVID-19 hit the U.S., Kylie has established herself as the quarantine bikini queen.

With that said, we take a look at the five sexiest Kylie Jenner bikinis during the quarantine period. Surely, not even a virus and lockdown protocols can stop the hot mom of one from showing her hard-earned figure on Instagram.

Sizzling Bikini Video For Kylie Skin Line

First off is her uber-seductive IG post wearing a black tiny bikini with a slow-mo video of her spritzing herself with sunscreen products from her Kylie Skin line.

Although it seems like a lowkey marketing ad, the beauty mogul looked so stunning in a timeless bikini as she showed off her bronze skin and famous curves, while lounging by the pool.

Bikini Face Off With Big Sis Kim Kardashian

After Kim K shared her post-workout look wearing a leopard-print two-piece, Kylie soaked up the sun as she wore a fluorescent green swimsuit with a sporty scoop neck top and a flattering high cut bikini bottoms.

The beauty mogul flaunted her ample cleavage and toned abs while putting her famous hourglass figure on full display.

Unreleased Campaign Video For Kylie Skin

Another risque Instagram post of the youngest member of the Kar-Jen clan was her unreleased campaign for the Kylie Skin product.

Posted last May, the mother-of-one wore a nude-colored bandeau top and high-cut underwear as she sizzled in the never-before-seen clip.

In the slow-mo video, Kylie was seen caressing her glowing skin and slighting gazing at the camera.

The video gained more than 30 million views and nearly 55, 000 comments from her fans.

Platinum Blonde Kylie

Last month, the 22-year-old reality star proved that she can rock any hairstyle as she debuted her platinum blonde locks.

And since Kylie likes to make it "extra," she indulged in a photo session wearing a see-through Gucci bralette and smokey eye make-up to complement her ala-Gwen Stefani blonde hair.

"Too good had to do a double-take," she captioned the post.

Hollywood Glam Look In Corset

The beauty mogul has never shied away from embracing her sexuality and flaunting her famous curves.

With that said, Kylie took to Instagram as she modeled a pink bustier corset with lace floral details that looked super feminine.

What makes the photo interesting is that she looked like an old Hollywood actress from the 50s, with her long hair in light brown color and glam makeup.

READ MORE: Hollywood Cancer: 3 Celebrities Unfairly Victimized By The Cancel Culture
President Paul Biya and the outgoing Ambassador of the United States of America to Cameroon, Peter Henry Barlerin on July 14, 2020 discussed ways of fostering the partnership.

Cameroon and the United States of America have long standing bilateral friendly cooperation ties in several domains with the security and health domains featuring prominently. President Paul Biya and the outgoing Ambassador of the United States of America to Cameroon, Peter Henry Barlerin used the Unity Palace farewell discussions on Tuesday, July 14, 2020 to explore ways of deepening the relations.

In earlier farewell meetings, the Ambassador has been exalting the excellent relations. During his audience with the Minister of External Relations, Lejeune Mbella Mbella on July 9, 2020, Peter Henry Barlerin said they reviewed the excellent relations the two countries have been having for the past years. He singled out cooperation in the health domain. He said the United States of America has been assisting Cameroon tackle HIV/AIDS, Malaria and now the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic which is affecting Cameroon as well as the United States of America. The US government also funded the construction of the FCFA 2 billion Public Health Emergency Centre in Yaounde that was inaugurated in 2018. The Centre coordinates all kinds of risks and has come to increase Cameroon's ability to detect and respond to public health emergencies as well as provide health assistance.

The partnership between Cameroon and the USA in security and military domain continuous to grow. Worthy of note is the assistance of the US to Cameroon to achieve mutual goals in maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea and countering violent extremism in the Northern part of Cameroon. For instance, in the heart of the war against the Boko Haram terrorist sect in the Far North Region, the US government sent 300 troops based in Garoua to train and assist Cameroon's military in the war. Information from the US Embassy in Yaounde indicates that cooperation between the two countries is also remarkable in the maritime sector, especially in the security of the Gulf of Guinea. This year 2020, the US is playing a leading role in the G7+ Friends of the Gulf Guinea. The mission of the Group is to coordinate support of international partners for maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea as agreed in the Yaounde summit of 2013. On a strictly bilateral level, the US in 2016 funded the creation of six Maritime Operation Centres in Limbe, Douala and Kribi that enable operations at the sea. In 2017, the US provided Defender Class rigid hull boats to the military for maritime patrol.
I agree the WE fiasco is strike three for Justin Trudeau; Im not sure I agree on what were strikes one and two. My colleagues think it was the Aga Khan getaway freebie and the Wilson-Raybould melee, as called by the federal ethics ump. I think WE fits better with his loopy India trip and the blackface.

If so, it helps explain the absence of a national gag reflex. Theres a goofy, oblivious quality that seems more like the real Justin than the plodding wannabe adult who gives robotic COVID-19 briefings while handling the economic challenge impressively, and working effectively with right wing provincial preems not naturally disposed to interventionist, high-spending government.

Then suddenly its, Hey guys, wheres the party? Can I come? Will there be costumes? As he did, mocking Trump, at the G7. He says in his book, he learned that everything his dad hated about politics  schmoozing, socializing  he loved. Action, reaction  nest-ce pas? If you watch him waving and beaming at those stupid WE Day cheerathons, I for one see: India.

Here I must pause and do one of those pompous full disclosures. In 1996, 13-year-old Craig Kielburger from Thornhill suddenly became famous, a bit like Greta Thunberg, for globe-trotting to free child slaves. Ken Whyte, neo-con editor of Conrad Blacks Saturday Night magazine, commissioned a classic hit on the kid as a politically obnoxious brat. In my Globe column at the time, I argued back saying even if hes obnoxious, hes 13 and, yknow. I think I got a grateful note from the dad and no further contact.

Fourteen years later, through no deliberate intent, I found myself at a WE Day rally at the ACC. Its the kind of headless event where you cant possibly figure out why it exists. There are thousands of kids, bused in by school boards, spotlights, giant screens, music (Nikki Yanovsky, I think). Inspirational speakers (well-paid, it turns out). All hosted by Craig and his brother Marc.

They say vacuous things like Whats up, WE Day? And Everyone is joining the WE movement because they realize that together we can make the world better. They call WE Day rallies the Super Bowl of doing good. Theyre older now and starting to look like the aging, superannuated youth leaders in the last days of the Soviet-led communist youth movement. They smile too much, are too ingratiating, too intent on sounding sincere to actually be it. Theyre like the adult hosts on TVO Kids shows. Many kids leave early.

It is, in short, the sort of pointless, airheaded fiesta that Justin Trudeau seems unable to resist. Maybe he, and they, feel they missed out on aspects of their youth and want to recoup. I could identify with that.

Some of what they sponsor seems palatable: helping dig wells in poor villages, that kids can then, as Chris Selley says, put on their college applications. Theyre retrenching now and have cancelled WE Days for the foreseeable future. They seem a bit like the Liberal Party: people who want to do good but with no noticeable inconvenience or lowering the fun quotient.

OK, back to ethics. Its easy to deal with in high abstraction. Up there, theres little to say beyond what Kant (The only unquestionably good thing is the will to do good) or Bentham (The greatest good of the greatest number) formulated. But on specific cases its like the law. Every judge will explain why the facts necessitated only one choice; then they all disagree what that is.

So in this case, my judgment is: Justin had a clear conflict of interest but it amounts more to an embarrassment than an outrage. He got nothing personally and his mom got about $12,000 per speech, quite modest compared to the big talkers.

The shame isnt that he was out to serve himself, its that he missed a chance to help some kids whore already having the worst summer of their lives because he wanted to go outside and play with his buds. Hes not evil but he can be a real putz. Its the failure to help those kids that hes most guilty of and at least, to his limited credit, he acknowledged his failure, yet again.
They have become add- icted to Twitter, that most toxic of social media platforms, and seem to care more about their tweets going viral than telling the truth.

No, that isnt a description of irresponsible, smartphone-obsessed teenagers.

It is an indictment of senior BBC journalists, delivered in explosive fashion to a parliamentary committee this week by none other than the Corporations own director of editorial policy and standards, David Jordan.

It was a very satisfying, if utterly jaw-dropping, moment for those of us who have been warning for years about the pernicious impact of Aunties recent displays of bias.

In no uncertain words, Mr Jordan told the Lords Communications and Digital Committee that BBC journalists have been guilty of egregious violations of social media guidelines that undermine its reputation for impartiality and objectivity.

It is an indictment of senior BBC journalists, delivered in explosive fashion to a parliamentary committee this week by none other than the Corporations own director of editorial policy and standards, David Jordan

Groupthink

He even sought to assure the committee that his news staff are not all Left-leaning Guardian-readers  though I look forward to seeing how the Beebs dedicated team of fact checkers try to prove that contentious claim.

Of course, those of us who live in the real world dont need to be told that BBC staff have often adopted a form of Left-liberal groupthink.

For years weve watched in appalled horror as BBC journalists addiction to Twitter has widened the gap between the Corporation and licence-payers it is supposed to serve.

Mr Jordan admitted that the BBC had issues with tracking the rise of Euroscepticism and tracking the growth of concern about immigration.

In other words, the BBCs ingrained pro-EU prejudices had blinded it to the rise of popular support for Brexit and for taking back control of Britains borders.

Unforgivable it may be, but that in itself hardly surprising.

By seeking validation on Twitter, BBC staffers confine themselves to an echo chamber where their minority worldview is reflected and reinforced

After all, this is what happens when reporters and newsreaders become more interested in promoting their own political leanings and agendas and increasing their online followers than unearthing facts.

By seeking validation on Twitter, BBC staffers confine themselves to an echo chamber where their minority worldview is reflected and reinforced.

According to its warped narrative, Leave was bound to lose the EU referendum, Hillary Clinton was a shoo-in for U.S. President and Boris risked being thrashed by Corbyn in the 2019 election.

With such an unrivalled gift for misreading public opinion, its clear that many of its journalists simply dont understand who their audience is.

By seeking validation on Twitter, BBC staffers confine themselves to an echo chamber where their minority worldview is reflected and reinforced (file photo)

How else can we explain senior journalists flagrant disregard for BBC guidelines on impartiality on social media?

Those rules dictate that news staff must not state or reveal publicly how they vote or express views on politics or any controversial subject.

Somebody must have forgotten to tell the household names who regularly tweet and retweet anti-Tory and anti-Brexit posts.

One prime offender is BBC2 Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis (latest published salary: 260,000-plus), who has amassed almost 400,000 Twitter followers.

Only two months ago, Maitlis succeeded in making headlines herself, when she opened an episode of the news programme with an extraordinary editorial rant over Tory advisor Dominic Cummingss ill-advised trip to Durham during lockdown.

Maitlis declared that Dominic Cummings broke the rules, the country can see that and its shocked the Government cannot.

Thousands of complaints later, the BBC conceded that the programme had not met its standards of due impartiality and that Maitliss monologue belonged more on the op-ed page in a newspaper than an impartial broad- cast programme.

Yet nobody familiar with Maitliss track record on Twitter was shocked by her outburst.

In the run-up to last years General Election she retweeted posts criticising Boris and the nasty party Conservatives.

Before the election Edwards liked a message from the GMB union stating: Vote Labour for the National Health Service

Days before the election, Maitlis even tweeted a personal warning to her followers: Dont underestimate the similarities between G.B.Done [Get Brexit Done] and M.A.G.A. [Make America Great Again]  they each work if they are consistently repeated and chanted  but never explained.

It was a clear expression of contempt for voters supposedly stupid enough to be duped by Boris or Donald Trump.

Joining Ms Maitlis in the dock is BBC News at Ten presenter Huw Edwards, (salary: 490,000-plus), with around 100,000 Twitter followers.

Before the election Edwards liked a message from the GMB union stating: Vote Labour for the National Health Service.

He also liked a comment criticising Boris Johnsons plan for Brexit.

Of course, the BBC is not the only news organisation whose worldview is dictated by Twitter.

Only this week, American columnist Bari Weiss resigned from the New York Times with a devastating open letter that warned how Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times. But Twitter has become its ultimate editor.

Respected

It was an excoriating criticism of a respected newspaper of record  by one of its own staff.

But any newspaper ultimately must have the editorial independence to say whatever it believes. It is up to the readers whether or not they choose to buy it.

The BBC, however, is not a newspaper. It is a public broadcaster, paid for by us whether we like it or not.

It is supposed to exist to promote honesty and the truth, not peddle prejudice. Little wonder there is now a Defund the BBC Campaign, condemning its output as woke propaganda.

Neil is by far the BBCs most respected and feared forensic interviewer. But his failure to denounce Brexit and his role at the Spectator magazine make him not one of us

Following the Corporations announcement yesterday that it plans to cut 520 jobs from its news operations, I doubt that its Left-liberal stars have much to worry about.

On the other hand, it was hardly surprising that another Twitter-friendly newsman, Andrew Neil (salary unknown), has had his weekly politics show cancelled.

Neil is by far the BBCs most respected and feared forensic interviewer. But his failure to denounce Brexit and his role at the Spectator magazine make him not one of us.

The BBCs toxic pandering to the Twitterati is a symptom of a far greater problem at Broadcasting House  that it is no longer the voice of the British people, but of the metropolitan Remainer middle-classes.

Hostile

Its prejudices infect all of its output, from the news to Countryfile, which recently announced that Britains green and pleasant countryside is in fact a hostile white environment.

BBC comedy panel shows have become more like one-note propaganda broadcasts, and woke stars are indulged and promoted regardless of what they say elsewhere.

And let us not forget that last week, the BBC had the gall to announce plans to charge the over-75s it seems to scorn, 157.50 a year for their TV licence (file photo)

Only last week, actress Maxine Peake starred in its reprisal of Alan Bennetts Talking Heads, a fortnight after spewing an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, while Miriam Margolyes is due to return with her travel series, shortly after announcing on Channel 4s The Last Leg that she wanted the Prime Minister to die of coronavirus.

And let us not forget that last week, the BBC had the gall to announce plans to charge the over-75s it seems to scorn, 157.50 a year for their TV licence.

In 1949, in his dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell painted a terrifying portrait of a state machine dedicated to parroting the party line that was based on the authors own wartime experience of working at the BBC.

Over 70 years later, it appears the Corporation has morphed into its own woke version of Big Brothers Ministry of Truth  where the meaning of impartiality is all but lost.
WASHINGTON  The Supreme Court refused Thursday to let Florida felons who completed their sentences vote in a primary without first paying fees, fines and restitution, as the state requires.

Voting rights groups challenged the requirement as unconstitutional, given that state voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 giving hundreds of thousands of felons the right to vote. The requirement will remain in effect while the case is heard next month by a federal appeals court.

The unsigned order was opposed by liberal Associate Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan. Sotomayor said it "prevents thousands of otherwise eligible voters from participating in Floridas primary election simply because they are poor."

"Under this scheme, nearly a million otherwise-eligible citizens cannot vote unless they pay money," Sotomayor said, calling it a "voter paywall."

More: Year of surprise Supreme Court rulings shows influence of Chief Justice John Roberts

The dispute over the voting rights of Florida's felons could be crucial in this fall's elections because of its perennial status as a swing state. There are about 775,000 felons in the state who have completed their prison sentences, including about 85,000 who registered to vote.

Most states restore felons' right to vote after their sentences, along with time on parole or probation, are complete. Many states impose additional requirements. Florida is among 11 states with the most restrictive rules, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 allowing felons to vote after their sentences are complete. The initiative won 64% approval.

The state Legislature passed, and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed, a law requiring that felons first pay all fees, fines and restitution owed as part of the process.

That restriction was challenged by voting rights groups, and in May, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle struck it down as a "pay-to-vote system." This month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit blocked Hinkle's ruling and scheduled a hearing for Aug. 18  the date of the state primary. The registration deadline to vote is next Monday.

Story continues

Nubian Roberts from Florida Rights Restoration Coalition talks with Taunya Tyson, right, as she registered to vote in Jacksonville, Fla., last year. Tyson lost her right to vote after a felony sentence for driving with a suspended license in 2011.

Voting rights groups told the Supreme Court that Florida's system amounts to a "poll tax" that violates the 24th Amendment to the Constitution.

"This is a deeply disappointing decision, said Paul Smith, vice president of the Campaign Legal Center, which led the opposition to Florida's rule. "Floridas voters spoke loud and clear when nearly two-thirds of them supported rights restoration at the ballot box in 2018."

In legal papers, the voting rights groups said most felons "cannot afford to pay what they owe." Even those who can, they said, usually can't figure out what they owe years after their convictions.

The state responded that a felon's inability to pay means the sentence has not been completed; therefore, voting rights should not be restored.

"The state may insist on that requirement even if the felon cannot afford to pay the financial terms of his sentence," Charles Cooper, a lawyer for the state, argued.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court temporarily blocks felons from voting in Florida
The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, on Thursday said the alleged breach of airport protocol by some dignitaries will be investigated.

Mr Sirika at the bi-weekly Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing said individuals without immunity found guilty are likely to be imprisoned for not less than two months.

According to Mr Sirika, the former governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, the governor of Adamawa state, Ahmadu Fintiri, and the publisher of Thisday newspaper, Nduka Obaigbena, were alleged to have flouted airport protocols.

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) had condemned the conduct of Messrs Yari and Fintiri in a series of tweets posted on Wednesday and Thursday on its official Twitter handle, @FAAN_Official.

Mr Fintiri allegedly refused to have his temperature checked and sanitised by health officials at the Port Harcourt International airport.

Mr Yari was alleged to have breached protocols at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport last week when he restricted an officer from the environment department from disinfecting his luggage.

Mr Obaigbena was also alleged to have flouted protocols at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.

Investigations

Mr Sirika said the ministry has swung into prompt investigations and if found true, the identified persons will be punished as stipulated by the regulations of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

The ministry has received lots of inquiries regarding some unruly passengers.

Those are being investigated and if found true, we will do the needful and if found untrue, we will definitely apologise to these individuals, he said.

I will like to go through the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority regulations. There is a definition of an unruly passenger. There are unruly passengers and we have a protocol to deal with them.

Governor of Adamawa State, Umaru Fintiri (Photo Credit: channelstv)

READ ALSO:

In part 17 (97) i: any passenger who becomes unruly at the airport terminal building or onboard a particular aircraft commits an offence. So, first, it is an offence. Part 17(97) ii further defines unruly and I will just choose two out of the many definitions. Fighting or other disorderly conduct on board of an aircraft or in the terminal building which means in the vicinity of an airport or inside an aircraft.

Abdulaziz Yari Former Governor of Zamfara State

Unruly behavior also means disobedience of lawful instructions issued by the aircraft commander which is the captain, or flight crew, cabin crew, cabin attendants, check-in staff, screening staff or any lawful staff on lawful duty at the airport.

So, if you refuse their instructions, you have become an unruly passenger and an unruly passenger according to table 29(51) requires the punishment of criminal referral for imprisonment for not less than two months, he said.

He urged VIPs to conduct themselves in the manner they want to be identified.
ANN ARBOR, MI -- The University of Michigan announced Wednesday that anyone on campus must wear a face covering over their mouth and nose.

The policy went into effect July 15 and applies to all locations on the Ann Arbor, Dearborn, Flint and Michigan Medicine campuses, according to a university news release. Masks or face coverings must be worn indoors, outdoors and on UM transportation, the release states.

Its difficult to maintain distance from groups while outdoors on a busy university campus, the policy states, and wearing a mask outside will help slow the spread of the virus.

It is the shared responsibility of the entire UM community to protect not only their health but the health of those who are most vulnerable for serious illness and death from COVID-19, the policy reads.

Many kinds of face coverings are acceptable, including homemade masks, scarves, bandanas and handkerchiefs, according to the policy. However, face coverings that seal tightly are preferred to ones that fit loosely.

Face shields should not be worn as a substitute for cloth face coverings, but the policy states they can be worn in addition to face coverings when close contact with other people is expected.

There are some exceptions to the policy. Areas where a face covering is not required include:

Indoors in a single-enclosed private office with the door closed or an assigned residence hall room/suite or apartment

Eating or drinking but still maintaining social distance (at least six feet of physical separation between people)

Alone in a private motor vehicle or utility vehicle used for university business

A child younger than age 2 or someone who is unable to remove a face covering without assistance

Those required to wear assigned respiratory protection for job tasks they are performing

Those granted a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act. More information can be found through UMs Office for Institutional Equity

Those engaged in physical activities or recreation in a distanced manner

Those involved in an activity, including certain types of instruction, where wearing a face covering may be infeasible or present a safety hazard provided that a risk assessment is performed and reviewed by UM Environment, Health and Safety

Those communicating with someone who is hearing impaired or otherwise disabled and where the ability to see the mouth is essential to communication. In such circumstances, alternatives such as clear face coverings and other accommodations also will be explored

Those giving a speech for broadcast or an audience while maintaining a physical distance of at least six feet from others (very limited applicability)

Those receiving a service for which temporary removal of the face covering is necessary to perform the service.

More information on the policy can be found on the FAQ pages for students and faculty and staff.

UM announced in June it would welcome students back to campus for a public-health-informed fall semester, which includes a blend of in-person and remote classes, an adjusted academic calendar and an emphasis on public health measures.

University of Michigan will offer in-person classes for fall semester

The universitys plan for an in-person semester relies on every member of the community following basic public health strategies, including social distancing, washing hands frequently and wearing face coverings, UM President Mark Schlissel said in June.

We will protect our students, faculty and staff with a broad array of research-based public health measures and tools, Schlissel said.

READ MORE:

600 University of Michigan students create 89 proposals to keep students safe from COVID-19 this fall

International students uncertain about fall semester even after reversed ICE order

New apartments near University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor set to open soon

Late University of Michigan athletic doctor was coldest, meanest psychopath Ive ever met, female survivor says
Meredith Moore knew June was not the ideal month to move to Houston  the oppressive heat, the mosquitoes and the possibility of hurricanes.

But when she Googled best suburbs in Texas from the tiny one-bedroom apartment she shared with her husband on Manhattans Upper East Side and started perusing homes in The Woodlands and Sugar Land, she shrugged it off and called the moving van.

I was shocked at the amount of house you could get for the money, said Moore, a 30-year-old New York native who arrived in Houston with her husband Brendan, 34, in the first week of June.

Expat New Yorkers may find Houston housing prices alluring, but locals have been watching a slow, steady rise. Prices were up more than 3 percent last year as more homes sold. Sales figures have since plummeted with the pandemic, and the Moores, who had never been to Houston or its suburbs before moving here, are part of a group of buyers cushioning the blow to the local housing market.

While many of those braving open houses and negotiating purchase contracts are motivated by ultra-low mortgage rates or the need for more space for a growing family, a new type of house hunter is emerging: the pandemic buyer.

Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

STILL GOING: Home prices rose in April despite record unemployment

These are individuals whose priorities around where and how they live have shifted as a result of the coronavirus. Some who had been looking at older homes are now shopping only for new ones. Others, feeling cramped after working from their bedrooms or kitchen tables for many months, are looking for bigger houses. Longtime renters are suddenly in the market, too, as they seek to escape dense apartment living.

These new buying patterns reveal some of the viruss unexpected consequences on the real estate market. They reflect consumers fears of COVID-19 and their hopes of being able to safely ride out the pandemic and perhaps emerge from it with a more comfortable lifestyle.

The Moores, for example, had been planning to move to Austin, but after being stuck in their 600-square-foot New York apartment during the COVID-19 lockdown  sometimes not stepping foot outside for two-week stretches  they decided to look for a suburb in a lower-cost-of-living area with open spaces, big yards and more affordable housing. Theyre renting in The Woodlands and plan to start house hunting there in January.

Home values in The Woodlands and many neighborhoods close to downtown have seen healthy increases in recent years among a persistently low supply of properties for sale Across Greater Houston, , annual price appreciation across the greater Houston area has ranged between 3 percent and 5 percent.

Last year, the median price of a single-family home was $245,000, up 3.2 percent from 2018, according to an analysis of home sales and prices collected by the Houston Association of Realtors for the Houston Chronicle. The figures were based on 86,205 single-family home sales handled through the associations Multiple Listing Service, up from 83,509 in 2018. It was the fourth consecutive record-breaking year for Houston real estate.

Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

HOUSTON HOUSING: Coming Sunday in the Houston Chronicle and houstonchronicle.com: The 2020 Home Price Survey

This year will be different. Home sales are already off 4.3 percent year-to-date and a collapse in oil prices has led to layoffs at some of the areas biggest companies, likely leading to more softening in the housing market later this year.

Still, real estate in Houston has shown resilience in previous downturns. Despite the economic and pandemic clouds that hang over the region, houses are selling  some in days and after bidding wars. Some experts attribute the activity to pent-up demand from March and April when people were staying home.

Economist Ralph McLaughlin said the broader housing market is holding up throughout the pandemic because of low mortgage rates, federal stimulus and government protections that have helped people who have lost jobs stay in their homes. National mortgage application activity, too, has risen above last years levels.

Texas and Houston tend to not deviate that much from the national average, said McLaughlin, chief economist of Haus Inc., a San Francisco-based real estate investment startup. Houston is an oil town by historic standards, but its evolved to be a more dynamic area than in the past.

Low inventory is supporting local home prices. Sellers with newer or renovated homes and those whose properties are priced slightly below market rate are seeing multiple offers.

In June, real estate agent Anna Lee Trinidad was meeting a buyer at an open house in Ashcreek, a neighborhood in northwest Houston, when she saw something that stopped her in her tracks: a line of cars. She thought someone must have been having a party but the traffic was for the open house.

I had to park three blocks away, said Trinidad, an agent with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Tiffany Curry & Co. Ive never seen anything like it.

Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

PRIME PROPERTY: Get Houston real estate news sent directly to your inbox

The three-bedroom house, built in the mid-1980s, was just over 1,400 square feet. It had recently been remodeled and was priced at $159,000. At that amount, the house was bound to have brought bids from investors, many of whom pay cash, edging out other buyers.

We made an offer but it was just not something we would have gotten, Trinidad said. We didnt get a call back.

Anything priced at less than $250,000, Trinidad said, doesnt last on the market. She expects that to be the case for the rest of the summer. Builders arent building enough affordably priced homes and homeowners who would normally sell to move up are staying put because of the pandemic and the recession.

Tiffany Curry, owner of the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices franchise, works with companies relocating employees to the Houston area. But with air travel limited, out-of-town buyers dont always have the opportunity to shop in person.

Weve seen quite a few people buying homes sight unseen, which is very different for us, Curry said.

Shes also noticed some young couples who live in three-story townhomes seeking to move because of all the stairs.

Theyve basically been in their homes during COVID and theyre realizing, This is not for us, especially if we have to be here all the time.

The Moores were able to move to Texas because their jobs had flexibility. Brendan, who works for a worldwide consulting firm, was able to get a transfer to the Houston market. Meredith, who works for a technology company, was told she could work remotely until the end of the year.

From what theyve seen so far, the couple is excited about the possibility they can buy an older house that needs a little work, and maybe has a pool, for less than $375,0000.

For now, theyre renting an 1,100-square-foot apartment with two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a balcony in a complex along a The Woodlands Waterway. The rent is $2,181 per month. They paid $3,395 in New York.

nancy.sarnoff@chron.com

twitter.com/nsarnoff
TORONTO, July 3, 2020 /CNW/ - Guyana Goldfields Inc. (TSX: GUY) ("Guyana Goldfields") announced today that it has mailed its management information circular ("Circular") and related materials (together with the Circular, the "Meeting Materials") in connection with the annual and special meeting of shareholders (the "Meeting") to be held on July 27, 2020. The purpose of the Meeting will be to vote on, among other things, an immediate value realisation transaction with Zijin Mining Group Co., Ltd. ("Zijin") that will provide shareholders with a significant premium for their Guyana Goldfields shares. The Meeting Materials have been filed under Guyana Goldfield's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Guyana Goldfields encourages shareholders to read the Meeting Materials in detail. To ensure representation at the Meeting, shareholders should carefully follow the voting instructions provided in the Meeting Materials. For registered shareholders, the deadline for the receipt of proxies is 10:30 a.m. (Toronto time) on July 23, 2020. Beneficial shareholders should contact the intermediary through which they hold their shares to determine their cut-off time for voting.

Shareholders are encouraged to visit www.guygold.com where the circular, voting instructions and other information relating to the transaction with Zijin have been posted.

The Arrangement Agreement

Guyana Goldfields and Zijin entered into a binding arrangement agreement (the "Agreement") pursuant to which Zijin will, through a wholly-owned subsidiary, acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Guyana Goldfields (other than shares already held by Zijin) in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately C$323 million. Under the terms of the Agreement, Guyana Goldfields shareholders will receive C$1.85 for each Guyana Goldfields share held.

Benefits to Guyana Goldfields Shareholders

The consideration represents a 427% premium to the volume weighted average price of the Guyana Goldfields shares on the TSX for the 20 trading days ended April 24, 2020

As an all-cash offer, the proposed arrangement provides certainty of value and immediate liquidity

Zijin's strong balance sheet and access to capital provides the funding needed for the transaction (no financing condition) and for the development of the next phase of the Aurora mine

Additional details with respect to the potential benefits and risks of the Arrangement are described in the Circular.

The Meeting

In light of the ongoing concerns regarding the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), one of Guyana Goldfields' primary considerations is to protect the health of its employees, shareholders and the communities in which it operates, and to ensure compliance with local laws and orders restricting the size of public gatherings. Accordingly, the Meeting will be held in a virtual-only format conducted by a live audio webcast. Guyana Goldfields shareholders, regardless of geographic location, will have an equal opportunity to participate in the meeting and ask questions. For the details as to how to access and vote at the Meeting, please see the Circular. In particular, beneficial shareholders must take certain additional steps in order to vote and ask questions at the Meeting.

YOUR VOTE IS IMPORTANT. VOTE TODAY.

Recommendation of the Board of Directors

After consulting with its financial and legal advisors and following careful consideration, the Board of Directors has unanimously recommended that Guyana Goldfields shareholders should vote FOR each of the special resolution approving the proposed arrangement with Zijin and the special resolution approving the reduction in the stated capital of the Guyana Goldfields shares in order to satisfy certain requirements under the Canada Business Corporations Act in respect of the proposed arrangement.

Shareholder Questions and Assistance

Shareholders who have questions regarding the Meeting should contact Guyana Goldfields' strategic shareholder and communications advisor and proxy solicitation agent, Kingsdale Advisors, at 1-800-775-1986, or collect call outside North America at +1-416-867-2272, or by e-mail at [email protected].

Advisors and Counsel

RBC Capital Markets is acting as financial advisor, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP is acting as legal advisor and Kingsdale Advisors is acting as a strategic shareholder and communications advisor and proxy solicitation agent for Guyana Goldfields.

Credit Suisse is acting as financial advisor to Zijin and Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP is acting as Zijin's legal advisor.

About Guyana Goldfields Inc.

Guyana Goldfields is a Canadian based gold producer primarily focused on the exploration, development and operation of gold deposits in Guyana, South America.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (together, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, statements and information with respect to the Meeting date, the cut-off time for voting by proxy or through an intermediary and the Guyana Goldfields' plans regarding the Aurora mine. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and are based on various assumptions.

Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, events or achievements of Guyana Goldfields to be materially different from any future results, performance, events or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others: a delay in the Meeting date, capital and operating costs varying significantly from estimates; unforeseen operational issues and other difficulties in the execution of mine plans; delays in the development of projects; general business, economic, competitive, political, health and social uncertainties; political instability and Government action; as well as those factors discussed in Guyana Goldfields' public documents filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Although Guyana Goldfields has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this news release and Guyana Goldfields disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results, except as may be required by applicable securities laws. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.

SOURCE Guyana Goldfields Inc.

For further information: Investor Questions: Annie Sismanian, Vice President, Corporate Finance & Investor Relations, Phone: 416-933-5495, E-mail: [email protected], Website: www.guygold.com; Media Contact: Ian Robertson, President, Canada, Kingsdale Advisors, Direct: +1 416-867-2333, Cell: +1 647-621-2646, E-mail: [email protected]

Related Links

http://www.guygold.com/


A father 'took his own life' just days after his seven-year-old son died with an undiagnosed brain tumour that was initially mistaken for a case of coronavirus, the boy's mother has revealed.

Corey Bartlett had seemed like any other fit and healthy child until he fell ill with a high temperature, collapsed on the bathroom floor and died as he was being flown by air ambulance to hospital on June 24.

A post-mortem revealed there was a mass pressing on his brain but more tests are needed to explain his death.

His 43-year-old mother Abby Bartlett, of Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, was then contacted by police three days later and hear that her ex - Corey's father Michael Bartlett, 46 - had been found dead.

She is now desperately trying to rebuild her life for the sake of her son Ryan, 11, who had found his younger brother collapsed on the bathroom floor after falling ill.

Corey's mother said the post-mortem showed the seven-year-old, who did not suffer headaches or any other symptoms, had an undiagnosed brain tumour.

He had fallen ill with a temperature and sore throat four days before his death, and medical staff thought Corey may have had coronavirus but he tested negative, Ms Bartlett said.

Abby Bartlett, 43, is pictured with her son Corey. A post-mortem revealed there was a mass pressing on his brain but more tests are needed to explain his death

M Bartlett was dealt another blow when the police rang to say her ex - Corey's father Michael Bartlett, 46 - had been found dead on June 27

Ms Bartlett told the Stoke Sentinel: 'It was a ticking time bomb. It was totally unexpected.

'It was such a shock to find out as Corey was such a healthy fit young boy. He was a really active child. He had his appendix out but that's the only time he'd been ill.

'The only difference recently was that his behaviour had become more challenging. I'd taken him to the paediatrician as he'd been lashing out but they said he was fine. They just shrugged it off. One minute he would be OK but then the next he would lash out and swear.

'When you asked him what was wrong he would say ''I don't know, mummy''. He was definitely stressed about it.'

Ms Bartlett added that she wanted to 'get to the bottom' of what happened, and it is not yet known whether the tumour was malignant or benign.

Samples will need to be taken, meaning it could take another five to six weeks before the child can be buried.

'I have a lot of unanswered questions,' said Ms Bartlett, who had recently moved from her native Wiltshire to Stoke-on-Trent.

Her sons were due to join her in the next few weeks when the double tragedy struck.

Ms Bartlett has now launched a GoFundMe page to raise money to give Corey the send-off he deserves. More than 800 has been pledged so far.

Corey (pictured with his father) had fallen ill with a temperature and sore throat four days before his death, and medical staff thought he may have had coronavirus but he tested negative, Ms Bartlett said

Paying tribute to Corey, Ms Bartlett added: 'He was like any other normal seven-year-old who would tear around the place on his scooter. He loved motorbikes'

Ms Bartlett said: 'It was a ticking time bomb. It was totally unexpected. It was such a shock to find out as Corey was such a healthy fit young boy. He was a really active child'

On the page, she writes: 'My son Corey sadly passed away the 24th June 2020. He was only 7 years old and my baby boy.

'Things are still so very raw, but I would like Corey to have an amazing send off to be with his daddy

'Any help would be incredibly valuable as I would love to have flowers also in shape of a motorbike that was a big favourite of his.'

Ms Bartlett said that Corey used to tear around the place on his scooter and had fallen in love with motorbikes.

The grieving mother added that Corey's father dying three days later was a 'huge shock' - and Mr Bartlett had emailed saying he wanted to be with Corey.

Corey's older brother Ryan is now 'in pieces' and does not know how to process what has happened, his mother said.

Ms Bartlett said she has to keep going for his sake.

She added that she would not wish this fate on her worst enemy, revealing that her mother, who had MS, also passed away in September after she choked on Turkish Delight while on holiday in Turkey.

Ms Bartlett says she now wants a joint funeral for Corey and his father, who both loved each other.

She wants to raise enough money for a motorcycle drive-by tribute because her son loved them so much but never had the chance to ride one - with any leftover money going to the air ambulance.
Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation on Thursday warned residents of Goregaon, Mumbai, about the dangers posed by the increased water level in drains in the city due to the heavy rainfall.

In a notice, the corporation cautioned the residents of Goregaon suburb saying that they should take extra care of children, the visually impaired and disabled persons. The corporation added in the notice that it should not be held responsible if mishaps occur due to the rise in water level.


The European Unions top court ruled Thursday that an agreement that allows thousands of companies  from tech giants to small financial firms  to transfer data to the United States is invalid because the American government can snoop on people's data.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 16/7/2020 (552 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FILE - In this Aug. 11, 2019, file photo an iPhone displays the apps for Facebook and Messenger in New Orleans. The European Unions top court ruled Thursday, July 16, 2020 that an agreement that allows big tech companies to transfer data to the United States is invalid, and that national regulators need to take tougher action to protect the privacy of users' data. It will no longer simply be assumed that tech companies like Facebook will adequately protect the privacy of its European users' data when it sends it to the U.S. Rather, the EU and U.S. will likely have to find a new agreement that guarantees that Europeans' data is afforded the same privacy protection in the U.S. as it is in the EU, which has some of the toughest standards in the world. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

The European Unions top court ruled Thursday that an agreement that allows thousands of companies  from tech giants to small financial firms  to transfer data to the United States is invalid because the American government can snoop on people's data.

The ruling to invalidate Privacy Shield will likely complicate business for around 5,000 companies, and it could require regulators to vet any new data transfers to make sure Europeans' personal information remains protected according to the EU's stringent standards.

It will no longer simply be assumed that tech companies like Facebook will adequately protect the privacy of its European users' data when it sends it to the U.S. Rather, the EU and U.S. will likely have to find a new agreement that guarantees that Europeans' data is afforded the same privacy protection in the U.S. as it is in the EU.

Privacy activists hailed the court ruling as a major victory, while business groups worried about the potential to disrupt commerce, depending on how the ruling is implemented. Companies like Facebook routinely move such data among their servers around the world and the practice underpins billions of dollars in business.

It is clear that the U.S. will have to seriously change their surveillance laws, if U.S. companies want to continue to play a major role on the EU market, said Max Schrems, an Austrian activist whose complaints about the handling of his Facebook data triggered the ruling after years of legal procedures.

He first filed a complaint in 2013, after former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the American government was snooping on peoples online data and communications. The revelations included detail on how Facebook gave U.S. security agencies access to the personal data of Europeans.

FILE - In this Oct. 5, 2015 file photo, a man walks by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. The European Unions top court ruled Thursday, July 16, 2020 that an agreement that allows big tech companies to transfer data to the United States is invalid, and that national regulators need to take tougher action to protect the privacy of users' data. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)

Though the legal case was triggered by concerns over Facebook in particular, it could have far-reaching implications not only for tech companies but also businesses in sectors like finance and the auto industry.

Things like emails or hotel reservations between the U.S. and Europe would not be affected because there is no way to conduct that business without data crossing the border. But in other cases, such as with Facebook, for example, messages between Europeans would have to stay in Europe, which can be complicated and require their platform to be split up, Schrems said.

Companies use legal mechanisms called standard contractual clauses that force businesses to abide by EU privacy standards when transferring messages, photos and other information. The clauses  which are stock terms and conditions  are used to ensure the EU rules are maintained when data leaves the bloc.

The Court of Justice of the EU ruled Thursday that those clauses are still valid in principle. However, it declared invalid the Privacy Shield agreement between the U.S. and EU on data transfers over concerns that the U.S. can demand access to consumer data for national security reasons.

It said that in cases where there are concerns about data privacy, EU regulators should vet, and if needed block, the transfer of data. That raises the prospect that EU regulators will block Facebook, for example, from transferring any more European data to the U.S.

The European Commission said it was studying the ruling and stressed that a system is needed to allow data transfers while also protecting privacy. It said it was in touch with its counterparts in the U.S. on how to proceed.

I see it as an opportunity to engage in solutions that reflect the values that we share as democratic societies, European Commission Vice-President Vera Jourova said.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said the U.S. was deeply disappointed by the ruling and we hope to be able to limit the negative consequences to the $7.1 trillion trans-Atlantic economic relationship.

Experts said the full impact on businesses will largely depend on how authorities respond.

EU regulators will need to adopt a pragmatic approach to enforcement, allowing businesses a period of grace in which to implement alternative arrangements, said Bridget Treacy, data privacy partner at Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP in London.

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Government surveillance of personal data is something the U.S. in its turn accuses China of doing through tech companies like Huawei. And it highlights the growing importance of data as the basis of modern business and politics.

Data drives much of the worlds largest companies, like Facebook, Google, Alibaba and Amazon, and is also prized for national security to prevent extremist attacks, for example. Mining large sets of peoples data has also become crucial to winning elections, such as the use of Facebook data for Donald Trumps presidential victory in 2016.

Alexandre Roure, a senior manager at Computer & Communications Industry Association, said the decision creates legal uncertainty for the thousands of large and small companies on both sides of the Atlantic that rely on Privacy Shield for their daily commercial data transfers.

"We trust that EU and U.S. decision-makers will swiftly develop a sustainable solution, in line with EU law, to ensure the continuation of data flows which underpins the trans-Atlantic economy.

___

Philipp-Moritz Jenne in Vienna contributed to this report.
Businesses, including the Dome, hairdressers and a newsagent, have become so frustrated with the council's inaction they banded together last year to form the Reconnect Jull Street action group. Together they hired one of the states most high-profile public relations firms, GRA Partners, to lobby for the street. On Wednesday, they ramped up their efforts for change with an online petition, which has received nearly 100 signatures. Mr Hill said fights were a regular occurrence in the mall. He had seen stabbings and even public defecation and without some drastic help said more businesses would fail. Jull Street Mall business owners at the launch of the one way street petition.

Previous efforts made to clean up the mall, including security patrols and hosting more events, hadnt helped in the long-term. It is just that constant thing we put up with day in day out and weve got no help, Mr Hill said. There is no investment in this mall, we have one of the fastest-growing suburbs in WA and Australia. On paper, everything says to a business, invest in Armadale. The minute you step into Armadale you walk out going, no chance. Efforts to get new tenants in to bring more customers into the mall and push the anti-social behaviour out have not worked either.

Michael Facey works for one of the malls biggest landlords, who shut down their bar and bistro just two years after spending $1 million on a refurbishment. Mr Facey said attempts to lure national and international brands came to nothing because they preferred to be on streets with car accessibility. In one instance a prospective new tenant was being shown around the mall by a property manager when a stranger jumped on her back and tried to ride her around like a horse. It should be a thriving precinct. There is potential there for restaurants and everything, he said. If people dont want to walk through the mall and cant access it and are afraid to walk through it then we have what we have now, and that is a ghost town.

It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. People say were not going to go out because there is nothing on offer, well there is nothing on offer because they wont go out. He told of one instance when a prospective new tenant was being shown around the mall by a property manager when a stranger jumped on her back and tried to ride her around like a horse. Cost estimates vary greatly between the Reconnect Jull Street group  which believes a one-way street would cost under $400,000  and the City of Armadale, which argues it would come to more than $1 million, when the cost of moving utilities and trees was considered. Armadale Mayor Ruth Butterfield and chief executive Joanne Abbiss both said a one-way street wouldnt be the quick fix the businesses wanted, and consultant reports said the economic benefits wouldnt be reaped for at least 10 years.

Council to unveil ambitious plan - a tree top walk through the city centre Ms Butterfield vehemently denied the city had been ignoring the businesses and said next week it would reveal an ambitious plan that would get people, and investment, back into the Armadale CBD. We are not dragging our feet, we are not thinking at too-high a level, we are being extremely practical and were trying to include the whole city because it is the whole city that is suffering, she said. Just letting cars going down the mall - and this is what our consultants said to us - is not a silver bullet. The CBD plan includes a tree top walk that will wind through the entire city centre, including the mall, and would include rooftop parks, zip lines from shopping centres and an Aboriginal cultural centre.
Economists emphasize the importance of avoiding bad outcomes. The whole multibillion-dollar insurance industry is predicated on risk aversion. If there were another planet we could all move to, that would be one thing. But there isnt. So that means we have to be cautious. And caution is especially warranted once we realize how bad things could get. Damages can increase disproportionally with increased carbon concentrations, and when those bad outcomes occur, our ability to weather the storm (metaphorically and literally) will be greatly diminished.

A fourth related concern is that those like Lomborg and Nordhaus who dont believe we should take forceful action today discount the value of the environmental impacts of climate change on future generations. How do we trade off costs today with benefits in the future? The Trump administration, for instance, has been using a 7 percent discount rate  which means that we shouldnt spend more than 3 cents today to avoid a dollar of damage to our children in 50 years. This is ethically indefensible and economically nonsensical. But theyre the kinds of numbers spewed out by the models Lomborg loves, the same kinds of models that say we should blithely accept a 3.5 or 4 degree Celsius increase in global warming.

Bjorn Lomborg has long insisted that there is a consensus  what he calls the Copenhagen Consensus  around his do-nothing agenda, which he claims to be the reasonable scientific approach. Consider the mission of his Copenhagen Consensus Center, which says its focus is on cost-effective solutions to the worlds biggest challenges.  Our analyses take into account not just the economic, but also health, social and environmental benefits. Who could object? He assembles expert panels to review the issue, to reach a consensus on what should be done, carefully weighing costs and benefits. Again, who could object? But when one looks at the list of experts, one sees the conservative bias  all distinguished economists, but most with a particular bent, and not including any of the true experts in climate science who might have raised an objection.

Anyone not familiar with the literature might think from his frequent quoting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that the panel, representing the scientific consensus, is on board with his ideas. Nothing could be further from the truth. In 2018 the I.P.C.C. put out a report explaining how much worse a 2 degree Celsius rise in temperature would be than a 1.5 degree Celsius rise. It takes only a little care in reading beneath the surface of the plodding scientific prose to realize how worried these scientists are. Understandably so: We have not seen these levels of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere since the Pliocene Epoch about three million years ago, when the polar ice caps were much smaller and global sea levels were 10 to 20 meters higher than today. (Full disclosure: I was a lead author of the I.P.C.C.s Second Assessment.)

Lomborg is correct that climate change is not the only problem the world faces. But he poses a false choice, because it is possible to walk and chew gum at the same time. As the advocates of the Green New Deal point out, investments that reduce climate change can usher in a new era of prosperity; as our commission emphasized, the green transition can promote economic growth  correctly measured.
The coronavirus pandemic hasn't halted the Green River Farmers Market.

The market started last week and will continue each Wednesday from 4-7 p.m., through Sept. 9.

Jennie Melvin, the city's Main Street/Urban Renewal Agency administrator, said the market will observe social distancing recommendations and will offer hand sanitizer produced by a Wyoming company at the Main Street booth.

Overall, Melvin said she was happy with the first market's turnout, saying the attendance was similar to last year's peak attendance figures, attracting 300-400 people.

"People didn't seem to shy away because...
Poet and writer Varavara Rao, accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon case, tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday, confirmed Dr Ranjit Mankeshwar, dean of JJ hospital in Mumbai.

Rao, who was shifted to the hospital after he complained of giddiness, has been keeping unwell for a while.

The family members of Rao, 81, had expressed concern about his worsening health condition. Raos wife Hemalatha and daughters Sahaja, Anala and Pavana said while speaking to reporters they were worried about his deteriorating health, as was evident from the phone call they had received on Saturday.

Raos co-prisoner also told the family that the poet-writer needed immediate medical care for not only physical but also neurological issues.

In April, around 40 prominent writers wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting Raos release in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

He was first arrested by the Pune Police in August 2018, but was released after a court order. He was rearrested in November 2018. Initially lodged in the Yeravada Jail in Pune, he was later moved to the Mumbai prison.
More than 1 million worth of assets have been recovered by the UKs National Crime Agency (NCA) following a civil recovery investigation into a Nigerian fraudster and his Indian-origin British partner, who led extravagant lifestyles despite their combined declared annual income never exceeding 49,000.

Ayodele Oluseye Odewale (also known as Ayodele Balogun), 42, and his partner of 21 years Sara Bharat Yadav, 40, have been ordered by the high court this week to hand over 1,011,431 to the NCA under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

The NCA said it recovered 797,431 from their bank accounts; three Patek Philippe watches valued at 199,000; and a private car registration plate worth 15,000. Odewale has been convicted of dishonesty offences between 1998 and 2016, making millions from his scams.

Investigators said he typically targeted people living in wealthy areas, researching their details through public records and fraudulently applying for credit cards in their names, which he used to withdraw cash.

According to NCA, Odewale is also believed to have impersonated some of his victims in phone calls to their banks, ordered and intercepted replacement debit cards, which he then used to purchase high value items such as watches.

These watches were then traded and sold with the proceeds being laundered through bank accounts belonging to Odewale and Yadav.

NCA investigators found that the couple had hundreds of thousands of pounds passing through their bank accounts annually, despite Odewale not having had any legitimate employment earnings since his release from prison in 2005, and far in excess of Yadavs salary as an operations manager at Imperial College.

Yadav and Odewale also bought properties in London and Liverpool. The properties were subsequently sold in what the NCA believed was an attempt to launder the proceeds of Odewales criminal activities.

The NCA said the couple also sent their three children to a private school which costs 37,000 per year, besides enjoying frequent luxury holidays in India, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Cape Verde and Turkey.

Yadav, who remained in the UK when Odewale left for Nigeria, was found by the high court judge Mrs Justice McGowan to have knowingly benefited from assets gained through unlawful conduct. The judge stated that Yadav dishonestly chose to turn a blind eye to the illegitimacy of those funds and enjoyed the luxuries it provided.

Andy Lewis, head of Asset Denial at the NCA, said: Odewale and Yadav had extravagant lifestyles funded from stealing the identities of honest, law abiding citizens. We have recovered their assets so they see no benefit from their unlawful activity.

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Linkedin Joan Faus (Reuters) Barcelona, Spain  Thu, July 16, 2020 14:45 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666cfb50 2 World Spain,Barcelona,coronavirus,COVID-19,coronavirus-restrictions,COVID-19-infection,pandemic,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus Free

Barcelona may bring back some restrictions on daily life after the number of coronavirus cases tripled in a week, its mayor said on Wednesday, as around 160,000 people in another part of Catalonia went back under lockdown to stem a new surge in cases.

Just weeks after a nationwide lockdown was lifted and life returned largely to normal as infection rates dropped, Spain's second-most populous region reported on Tuesday three deaths and 938 new coronavirus cases.

Some 63% of those new cases were detected in Barcelona and its surroundings, stirring fears the regional capital and popular tourist destination might again become an epicenter of the virus.

"What worries us the most would be to lose control of infections," Mayor Ada Colau told Ser Catalunya radio.

She cited informal gatherings without proper protection as the main cause. There are 29 coronavirus outbreaks in Spain's second largest city, officials said.

"We are not talking about total confinement as in previous months, but I think some measures have to be taken more widely," Colau said. She did not say what activities might be restricted, adding this would be discussed in the next two days.

The wearing of masks indoors and outdoors in public is already mandatory in Catalonia.

Regional tensions

Tourism-dependent Spain, one of Europe's hardest-hit countries with more than 28,000 deaths from the pandemic, emerged from a strict national lockdown on June 21. Since then, more than 170 clusters have sprung up, prompting regional authorities to impose a patchwork of local restrictions, confusing locals and angering businesses.

Tensions have been particularly high in Catalonia.

The wealthy northeastern region of 7.5 million people is seeing the biggest number of new cases and its acrimonious push for independence in recent years has kept relations strained between its separatist leaders and the central government in Madrid.

Just as a judge approved, after an initial rejection, the regional government's stay-at-home order for some 160,000 residents of the Lleida area, about 180 km (110 miles) west of Barcelona, tensions rose over how to handle an increase in cases in Barcelona suburb L'Hospitalet, home to around 260,000 people.

Another judge struck down overnight a restriction on gatherings of more than 10 people in three L'Hospitalet neighborhoods, but the Catalan government said it would appeal against the ruling and urged people to stay home.

While Catalonia is the first region to reimpose a lockdown, parts of Galicia in the northwest have been sealed off to visitors, a Basque town imposed a curfew to tackle their own outbreaks, and in the southern Andalusia region, authorities made masks compulsory even on the beach or at swimming pools.

"It is mandatory to wear a mask where it involves any type of movement other than being in the water or on the corresponding sunbathing area," said lifeguard Aida Escolante, who oversees a pool in the town of Cueva del Becerro.

A survey by CIS pollster showed on Wednesday found that more than 62% of Spaniards were in favor of stricter measures to combat outbreaks when needed.
Mumbai, July 16 : On Thursday, shortly after Sushant Singh Rajput's girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty tweeted about his death, the hashtag #SSRCaseIsNotSuicide started to trend on Twitter.

Rhea Chakraborty tweeted tagging Home Minister Amit Shah, requesting him to initiate a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the actor's death. Even though, Rhea has not mentioned the word "suicide" in her tweet, she has written, "I only want to understand what pressures, prompted Sushant to take this step." "Respected @AmitShah sir, I'm sushants Singh Rajputs girlfriend Rhea chakraborty,it is now over a month since his sudden demise. I have complete faith in the government, however in the interest of justice, I request you with folded hands to initiate a CBI enquiry.." "I request you with folded hands to initiate a CBI enquiry into this matter. I only want to understand what pressures, prompted Sushant to take this step. Yours sincerely #satyamevajayate @AmitShah sir," wrote Rhea, in two separate tweets on her verified account.

Soon after this, the hashtag #SSRCaseIsNotSuicide started to trend on Twitter, with netizens declaring the actor did not commit suicide.

"Ok so Miss rhea call herself Sushant's Sir girlfriend? But my question is why we will believe you that you are his GF ! Aapko toh yeh suicide lag raha hai, Mumbai police ko suicide lag raha hai, Bollywood ko suicide lag raha hai (You think this is suicide, even Mumbai Police and Bollywood feels it is suicide)! #SSRCaseIsNotSuicide We want justice !!" tweeted a user.

"Even in his interviews, Sushant life motives and aim were clearly positive...Even knowing he is loosing projects bcz of nepotism in bollywood, he was sure that he will not leave his passion i.e. Acting. Stop fooling people that he committed suicide #SSRCaseIsNotSuicide," tweeted another user.

"We want CBI for Sushant murder case #SSRCaseIsNotSuicide," wrote a user.

Sushant was found hanging at his residence on June 14. The postmortem report stated that the actor committed suicide. The case is still being investigated by Mumbai Police.

Since last month, several politicians, celebrities and fans have demanded a CBI enquiry into Sushant's death.

Latest updates on Sushant Singh Rajput Death Mystery

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
A five-year-old boy has allegedly been gang raped by a group of children - all aged under 13 - on a remote beach in an Aboriginal community in Far North Queensland.

The attack unfolded at Napranum, on the north-west coast of Cape York in Queensland on July 1, police allege.

The four boys accused of the rape have been taken into custody, while the 800-strong community has banned them from returning to the town, The Australian reported.

The alleged attack was so violent the five-year-old required emergency medical treatment and was airlifted to Cairns Hospital, some 800km away.

The four boys accused of the July 1 attack, which allegedly occurred on the north-west coast of Cape York at a remote beach in Napranum (pictured), have been taken into custody

Community members said the disturbing allegations have torn several families apart and reopened wounds from a shocking sex crime that happened 15 years earlier.

'There are big arguments about how this happened,' one local said.

'It is creating big problems in the town. It is not the first time something like this has happened.'

The neighbouring community of Aurukun, about 40km south of Napranum, was at the centre of nationwide outrage in 2006 when a 10-year-old girl was gang raped by nine men aged between 13 and 25.

The young girl was born to an alcoholic mother and suffered from a mild intellectual disability.

Although the men all pleaded guilty to a litany of sexual offences, the judge spared them jail time and said the victim 'probably agreed' to have sex with them.

She ruled the men were also victims themselves after growing up deprived and subjected to physical and sexual abuse at the hands of others in their community.

No convictions were recorded in the horrifying case, sparking fury across Australia.

The alleged gang rape of a five-year-old boy has reopened wounds from a shocking sex crime 15 years earlier in nearby Aurukun

Then Prime Minster Kevin Rudd expressed his anger at the court's decision at the time.

'I'm disgusted and appalled by the reports that I've seen in today's newspapers on this case,' Mr Rudd said.

'My attitude of violence towards women and children, including sexual violence towards women and children, is one of zero tolerance.'



Due to the young age of the alleged offenders in Napranum, police can use their discretion to determine how they proceed with prosecution.

Ten is the age an offender can be found guilty of a crime, but if a child under 13 commits an offence police can issue a caution.

Sources said the injuries inflicted upon the alleged victim were so horrific he had to be airlifted to Cairns Hospital (pictured) for emergency medical treatment

Another option is restorative justice - a tactic commonly used in Indigenous communities - which normally involves extensive counselling, a mediated meeting with the victim's family and an apology to the victim.

The alleged Napranum gang rape is the latest of a series of horrifying cases in remote Aboriginal communities.

A 27-year-old man was sentenced to 13 years in prison in March for raping a two-year-old girl in Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory while her mother was sleeping in a crime that shocked Australia.

The toddler suffered severe internal injuries in the 2018 attack and had to be flown to an Adelaide hospital where she underwent a blood transfusion.

Remote Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory where the horrific child rape of a two-year-old occurred in 2018

Such incidents have raised concerns about child safety in remote Indigenous communities.

In 2016, a Griffith University study headed by Professor Stephen Smallbone examined the prevalence of sexual abuse in Indigenous North Queensland communities.

It found sex crimes in Aurukun were occurring at a rate 6.6 times higher than the rest of Queensland, with the average age of victims just 14.

The report also revealed that sexually transmitted diseases were spreading at an alarming rate.

Syphilis infections were detected to be 56 times above the state average.

The report found 29 children younger than 10 had contracted the sexually transmitted disease.
Mumbai, July 16 : Sushant Singh Rajput's "girlfriend" Rhea Chakraborty has requested Home Minister Amit Shah for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) enquiry into the late actors death.

Rhea took to Instagram on Thursday afternoon to introduce herself to the Home Minister as the late actor's "girlfriend" while demanding a CBI investigation. Sushant was found hanging at his residence on June 14 and postmortem report has stated he committed suicide.

"Respected @amitshahofficial sir, I'm Sushant Singh Rajput's girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, it is now over a month since his sudden demise. I have complete faith in the government, however in the interest of justice, I request you with folded hands to initiate a CBI enquiry into this matter. I only want to understand what pressures prompted Sushant to take this step. Yours sincerely, Rhea Chakraborty #satyamevajayate," the actress wrote on her verified Instagram account.

Ever since the 34-year-old actor passed away last month, several politicians, celebrities and fans have been voicing a demand for a CBI enquiry into the case, currently being investigated by Mumbai Police.

Meanwhile, Pappu Yadav, an ex-MP from Sushant's home state Bihar has shared an acknowledgement of the letter that he sent to the Home Minister demanding a CBI inquiry into Sushant's death.

Yadav recently shared a copy of the letter he has received from Home Minister Amit Shah on his verified Twitter account. The acknowledgement letter states that Yadav's letter is being forwarded to the concerned ministry.

Latest updates on Sushant Singh Rajput Death Mystery

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Alvin Mojica, a leader of the Worcester Chapter Latin Kings gang, pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of cocaine in federal court on Wedesday, according to prosecutors.

Mojica, aka King Humble, was arrested and charged with in December 2019, when he was the leader of the Worcester-based chapter of the Latin Kings, U.S. Attorney Andrew Lellings office said in a statement.

Prosecutors said Mojica admitted to selling roughly 14 grams of cocaine to a cooperating witness in May of 2019. The interaction was captured by audio/video. Mojica is the third defendant to plead guilty in this case.

As alleged in court documents, the gang uses drug distribution to generate revenue, and engages in violence against witnesses and rival gangs to further its influence and to protect its turf, prosecutors said. The Latin Kings adhere to a national manifesto, employ an internal judiciary and use a sophisticated system of communication to maintain the hierarchy of the organization.

Sentencing for Mojica is scheduled to take place on October 28.
In 20-page vademecum, Vatican urges bishops to report cases of sexual abuse of minors by priests to civil authorities.

The Vatican has released guidelines for bishops and other senior church officials on how to deal with clerical child sex abuse claims after Pope Francis called for the procedures to be laid out step-by-step.

The new 20-page vademecum, or manual, which includes a form to be filled out detailing the alleged crime against minors, does not include any new laws but aims to clarify the existing rules on tackling a scandal which has plagued the church for decades, it said

The Vatican said this was Version 1.0, which could be updated if and when necessary.

It contains some of the clearest language on reporting sexual abuse ever in a Vatican document.

Previous Vatican documents required clerics to report any cases of abuse to church superiors but said they should follow local law on whether they are obliged to report alleged sexual abuse to civil authorities.

Even in cases where there is no explicit legal obligation to do so, the ecclesiastical authorities should make a report to the competent civil authorities if this is considered necessary to protect the person involved or other minors from the danger of further criminal acts, the handbook says.

While the provision does not have the full force of church law and gives bishops some discretion, the language appeared to be a significant step in response to demands by victims groups.

Pope Francis held a special summit on the thorny topic in February 2019 [Alessandra Tarantino/AP Photo]

The real novelty  is that for the first time the procedure is described in an organised way  from the first report of a possible crime to the definitive conclusion, Archbishop Giacomo Morandi said in an interview with Vatican News.

Morandi, the deputy of the Vaticans Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), which is responsible for processing clergy sex abuse complaints, said clerical assault of minors was still present on all continents.

We are still witnessing reports emerge of old cases, sometimes many years later. Certainly, some crimes are also recent, he said.

The Argentinian pope, who has made the fight against sexual abuse and its cover up in the Roman Catholic Church one of the priorities of his pontificate, held a special summit on the thorny topic in February 2019.

At the time, he called for a practical handbook indicating the steps to be taken by authorities at key moments when a case emerges.

The popes efforts to combat silence surrounding paedophilia in the church include the passing of a landmark measure last year to oblige those who know about sex abuse to report it to their superiors.

But a top expert in the churchs battle against sex abuse warned in June the coronavirus pandemic had increased the risks to minors as the worlds priorities shift.


Completion of Tranche 2 Placement

Ballarat, July 16, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Further to its ASX announcement of 28 May 2020, White Rock Minerals Ltd ( ASX:WRM ) (White Rock) is pleased to announce the successful completion of the second tranche of the placement (Tranche 2 Placement) of fully paid ordinary shares (Shares) to various institutional and sophisticated investors which raised approximately $4.44 million (before costs).A total of 1,479,750,000 Shares have been issued under the Tranche 2 Placement at an issue price of $0.003 (0.3 cents) per Share. The Shares issued under the Tranche 2 Placement will rank equally with existing shares.The proceeds will be applied towards White Rock's exploration program at its Red Mountain project in Alaska, in particular in relation to exploration activities at the recently discovered Last Chance gold stream sediment anomaly1 and for working capital purposes.White Rock's MD & CEO Matt Gill said: "This injection of funds enables White Rock to conduct a full season of exploration activities at Last Chance in 2020. The Board is very appreciative of the strong support shown from our current shareholders, and welcomes the interest and support being shown from the new investors joining the White Rock journey through this Equity Raising."White Rock has also today issued:- 100,000,000 shares to Canaccord Genuity (Australia) Limited as approved by Shareholders at the Company's General Meeting on 9 July 2020;- 12,500,000 WMRO listed Options to Martin Place Securities Pty Ltd as approved by Shareholders at the Company's General Meeting on 9 July 2020;- 100,000 shares pursuant to WRMAAA unlisted Options exercised; and- 222,223 shares pursuant to WRMO listed Options exercised.About White Rock Minerals Ltd

White Rock Minerals Ltd (ASX:WRM) (OTCMKTS:WRMCF) is a diversified explorer and near-stage producer, headquartered in Ballarat, Victoria. The Company's flagship exploration project is Red Mountain in central Alaska. At Red Mountain, there are already two high grade zinc - silver - gold - lead VMS deposits, with an Inferred Mineral Resource of 9.1 million tonnes @ 609g/t AgEq / 13% ZnEq. The Company is also exploring its recently discovered large intrusion related gold anomaly at Last Chance, also located in the Tintina gold belt of Alaska, home to multi-million gold ounce deposits like Pogo, Fort Knox and the Donlin Project. The Company also has the Mt Carrington project, located near Drake, in Northern NSW, which is a near-production precious metals asset with a resource of 341,000 ounces of gold and 23.2 million ounces of silver on an approved mining lease, and with a Gold First PFS and JORC Reserve.
Multi-banking solutions are our core competency, and continuing recognition for multi-banking excellence provides additional validation of our leadership within this space.  Andreas Lutz, CEO, Fides Treasury Services

Fides Treasury Services Ltd., the global leader in multi-bank connectivity and communications, has been named the Best Performing Multi-Banking Solutions Provider for 2020 by The European.

The European recognizes organizations and individuals that stand out from the crowd and are moving their industries forward. Governance, innovation and know-how, and quality of service are all major considerations for the publications annual Global Business Awards, which celebrate achievement, innovation and excellence.

It is an honor to receive this prestigious award from The European, said Fides CEO Andreas Lutz. Multi-banking solutions are our core competency, and continuing recognition for multi-banking excellence provides additional validation of our leadership within this space.

Within the past year, Fides has been continuously working to enhance its multi-banking and transaction communications solutions for corporate treasury. In this time where secure remote access to banks and treasury management systems has become a necessity for business continuity, the company has seen a significant increase in adoption of the Fides Multibanking Suite. The Multibanking Suite includes the companys flagship products, Fides ARS and Fides EFT, made accessible through a central web portal.

ABOUT FIDES

Fides is the global leader in multi-bank connectivity and transaction communications, enabling corporates to connect to any bank, in any region, through any channel. With Fides, you can reach further, and connect faster. Our solutions deliver critical multi-bank account statement, payment workflow and reporting capabilities for treasury and finance teams, helping more than 3,500 clients communicate with over 13,000 banks and payment providers across 200 countries. Whether you are using a TMS, ERP, the Fides Multibanking Suite, or any combination, Fides is the only connectivity platform you need.

Press Contact: Please email marketing@fides.ch for all press inquiries


Resorts World Sentosa, one of Singapores biggest private sector employers, said on Wednesday it was laying off staff to cut costs as the coronavirus pandemic batters the city-states tourism industry.

The company, owned by Genting Singapore Ltd, did not disclose how many jobs will be lost, but the local Straits Times newspaper said the cuts were significant.

A spokesperson for Resorts World Sentosa said the firm had over 7,000 full-time employees at the end of 2019, but declined to comment on its current employment level. The Genting Singapore website says RWS is one of Singapores largest employers.

ALSO READ: Singapore finds staycations cant fill $20 billion tourism gap

Resorts World Sentosas facilities, spread over 49 hectares, encompass a hotel, a casino and a Universal Studios theme park among other attractions.

We have made the difficult decision to implement a one-off workforce rationalisation, it said in a statement.

A handful of staff trudging past mostly quiet restaurants outside the entrance to the casino on Wednesday afternoon told Reuters they had been called in to meet with the human resources department.

Singapores economy plunged into recession in the second quarter, shrinking a record 41% from the previous quarter, data showed on Tuesday, putting it on track for its deepest slump ever.

The tourism industry, which contributes about 4% to the economy, has been one of the worst affected sectors due to travel restrictions and a lockdown that lasted more than two months to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Across the causeway, casino operator Genting Malaysia was cutting 3,000 jobs, or about 15% of its workforce, media reported last month. Genting Malaysia did not respond to a request for comment.

Genting Singapore and Genting Malaysia are part of Malaysian conglomerate Genting Berhad.

Covid-19 pandemics impact on the tourism industry is unprecedented, immediate, and immense, Singapores National Trades Union Congress said in a statement on the job cuts.

It added that it was working with Resorts World Sentosa on compensation terms, and would help affected employees with training and finding new jobs.

Just last year the company announced it would invest about S$4.5 billion ($3.2 billion) to expand its tourist attractions in the city-state.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)

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The EU reiterates its full support for all efforts to establish the truth.

The European Union has called on the Russian Federation to accept its responsibility for the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Russia-occupied Donbas in July 2014.

"On 17 July, we commemorate the sixth anniversary of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, when 298 people of 17 different nationalities lost their lives. The European Union continues to feel deep sympathy for all those who lost their loved ones," High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission Josep Borrell said on July 16 in a declaration on behalf of the EU on the sixth anniversary of the downing.

Read alsoDutch government brings MH17 case against Russia before ECHR

The European Union says it reiterates its full support for all efforts to establish the truth, achieving justice for the 298 victims of the downing of Flight MH17 and their next of kin and holding those responsible to account, in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2166.

"Recalling its previous statements, the European Union takes note of all steps that have been taken in this regard and expects Russia to accept its responsibility and to fully cooperate with efforts to establish accountability," the declaration said.

UNIAN memo. Malaysia Airlines' MH17 Boeing 777 heading from Amsterdam for Kuala Lumpur was shot down on July 17, 2014, over Russia-occupied territory in Donetsk region. All 298 people on board who were citizens of 10 countries were killed in the crash. The majority of the victims, 196, were citizens of the Netherlands. The Dutch Safety Board October 13, 2015, issued a report on the causes of the accident. It was revealed that the plane had been shot down by a Buk anti-aircraft missile system.

The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) in its report published on September 28, 2016, confirmed that the plane had been downed by a Russian-made Buk brought to Ukraine from Russia.

On June 19, 2019, JIT investigators accused four Russia-controlled military intelligence officers of involvement in a missile attack that shot down MH17. The first four suspects in the MH17 case are Russian terrorist Igor Girkin (AKA "Strelkov"), who in the summer of 2014 was the so-called "Minister of Defense of the Donetsk People's Republic" ("DPR"); Russian General Sergei Dubinsky (nom de guerre "Khmuryi"), who led the "DPR intelligence;" Oleg Pulatov (nom de guerre "Gyurza"), who in 2014 headed of "the 2nd division of the GRU of the DPR;" as well as Leonid Kharchenko (nom de guerre "Krot"), who was a leader of the "reconnaissance battalion" of Russia-led forces.

The MH17 trial process began on March 9, 2020.
An aura of desperation seems to be sliding into a maelstrom of self destruction in the Trump White House. How else can one explain the strategy of attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations top infectious-disease expert and by all accounts the most trusted source for Americans on a historic pandemic? It began in the most cowardly way, with the White House anonymously providing the Washington Post and then other media outlets a list of mistakes that Fauci had made during the coronavirus crisis. It was not only unseemly, it was an absurd display of hubris considering how recklessly off base President Trump has been throughout.

Dont listen to the president folks. Wear a mask, dont drink the Lysol and dont expect the virus to miraculously disappear when the weather warmed in spring. Or did you miss the fact that the most serious outbreaks today are in sticky-hot Florida and the outdoor oven known as Arizona? Our editorial

Peter Navarro, a White House trade adviser, stepped up the anti-Fauci campagin Wednesday with an opinion piece in USA Today titled, Anthony Fauci has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on.

As the outrage built, the White House backed off the Fauci bashing, insisting the Navarro piece had not been cleared and was strictly his own opinion. Trump weighed in: Were all on the same team, including Dr. Fauci.

At least the heat worked in eradicating this political contagion.

Jack Ohman / Sacramento Bee

What else were saying in editorials

Back to abnormalcy: While sheltering in place had constrained Californias outbreak, officials did not wait for a sustained decline in the rate of new infections. They leaped ahead of their own targets for testing and tracing, the key to containing new outbreaks once activities resume. Our editorial

Back to school? Whats clear from this blurry picture is that schools will need more funding and guidance from federal and state officials, not inconsistent messages and fiscal ultimatums, to restore one of our most essential services. Our editorial

Back to society: Roger Stone, convicted by a jury of seven felonies, should have been checking in to federal prison this week. That Stone remains free is a measure of the contempt the president he protected holds for the principle of rule of law. Our editorial

Guest opinions

Crisis in California prisons: It is encouraging that state officials are finally paying attention to advocates and activists statewide, who for months have been publicly warning authorities that, without decisive action, state prisons could become mass graves. But the governors release of 8,000 inmates doesnt go far enough, a UC Hastings law professor argues.

Gregory Favre: One of the most esteemed editors in the newspaper industry reflects on the Mississippi flag coming down in his hometown of Bay St. Louis. Finally, that symbol of inequality, of racism, of hate and hurt, has been buried in the graveyard of shame.

In case you missed it

One brave voice: My Sunday column was on Lenny Mendonca, a remarkably successful leader in business and public policy, who has gone public with his challenge of dealing with anxiety and depression. The reaction to his disclosure has been overwhelming and positive in de-stigmatizing mental health issues that afflict one in three Americans. His forthright account may well save lives.

Letter of the Week

Irene Kiebert of El Cerrito offered this thoughtful assessment of the controversies over monuments to flawed figures of American history:

About iconoclasm: Since all humans are, and always have been, and ever will be, flawed, maybe we should erect statues to principles and ideals, rather than to actual people. Personally, Id love to see any statue of a misogynist, predator or abuser knocked down, which would leave very few statues standing, Id wager.

But I dont know anyone, including myself, who has absolutely always lived up to their own ideals, or who can be sure they will be judged kindly in the future as mores change. So from now on lets steer clear of putting any undoubtedly flawed person on a pedestal.

Monuments to diversity, justice, generosity, hope, peace, kindness, liberty, courage, etc., could still have human figures. And the Statue of Liberty will remain.

And please check out our other letters of the day responding to this and other matters. You can send us a letter via this form.

Where to follow us

We have a Twitter channel, Opinion Central (@sfc_opinions). Please add it to your stream. Youll catch our editorials and opinion pieces, as well as our drive-by comments on assorted subjects in the news. Follow me on Twitter: @JohnDiazChron

Just a reminder

The Chronicles editorials represent the collective judgment of our Editorial Board, which includes the publisher as well as the writers and editors from the opinion team. Our editors and reporters on the news side are not involved in those decisions (including election endorsements). They are charged with reporting fairly and objectively without regard to our editorial positions. It is one of the core values here at Fifth and Mission streets.

Opinion Central is a thrice-weekly newsletter from John Diaz, The Chronicles editorial page editor, and the rest of the Editorial Board. Follow along on Twitter: @sfc_opinions
HSC Result 2020 Maharashtra DECLARED |If the official website is unresponsive, students can get their score on their mobile phone via SMS and through websites like examresults.net and indiaresults.com.

HSC Result 2020 Maharashtra DECLARED| The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) has declared the results of the Class 12 examinations today (Thursday, 16 July). Students can now check their scores on the official website mahresults.nic.in.

Follow LIVE updates on Maharashtra HSC Result 2020 here

However, it is possible that the official website may be slow or unresponsive due to heavy traffic. In that situation, students can get their score on their mobile phone via SMS or via visiting third-party websites like examresults.net and indiaresults.com.

HSC 2020 scores will also be available at Firstpost. Candidates need to enter the log-in details in the widget below:

Follow LIVE updates on HSC Result 2020 Maharashtra here

The previous year's exam saw an overall pass percentage of 85.88 percent. Girls scored better than boys, registering a pass percentage of 90.25 percent against 82.40 percent by boys. In terms of divisions, Konkan secured the top position, with 93.30 percent of its students passing.

The MSBSHE conducts the Maharashtra HSC Class 12 exams every year. The board has nine divisions which are located at Pune, Mumbai, Nasik, Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Latur, Amravati and Ratnagiri.

Steps to check Maharashtra Class 10th result 2019 on examresults.net:

Step 1: Log on to examresults.net

Step 2: Click on Maharashtra in the list of the states or access the link directly here.

Step 3: Look for the link which says Maharashtra HSC exam.

Step 4: Click on the link and fill in all the details to get your Maharashtra HSC Examination 2019 result

Steps to check Maharashtra HSC result on indiaresults.com:

Step 1: Visit the website indiaresults.com

Step 2: Click on Maharashtra in the list of the states or type the URL maharashtra.indiaresults.com on your browser and press Enter.

Step 3: Search for the link that says "Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education" with "HSC Examination Result 2019" written under it.

Step 4: Click on the link. It will take you to a new page. Fill in all the details to get your results.



Steps to check Maharashtra HSC results 2020 result via SMS

To check their result via SMS, students are required to send an SMS in the format "MHHSC<space><Seat Number>" to 57766. The result will be delivered on their phone in the form of an SMS.

Steps to check the Maharashtra HSC results 2020 on official website



Step 1: Visit the official website  mahresult.nic.in

Step 2: On the homepage, you will find the latest announcement of the HSC results.

Step 3: Click on "HSC Examination Result 2020".

Step 4: You will be redirected to a new page, where you will have to enter details like your roll number, etc.

Step 5: Click on "view result".

Step 6: Save your results and take a print out for future reference.
iWorld | OTT

ZEE5's HiPi gears up for India's 1 billion video consumers Evolution is the key to sustain in a transforming ecosystem; India's leading entertainment network Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) is following that route. While it has been charting its growth in the online ecosystem with over-the-top platform ZEE5. Read More...

iWorld | OTT

Netflix adds 10.1 mn subscribers in Q2; warns of slow Q3 growth It's not a surprise that Netflix has added 10.1 million paid subscribers in the second quarter of 2020. With the massive shelter-at-home mandate brought in by the Covid2019 pandemic leading to another phase of digital acceleration, the streaming services have emerged as beneficiaries. Read More...

iWorld | OTT

Netflix content king Ted Sarandos named co-CEO The brain behind the content strategy of the undisputed king in streaming service has additional responsibility now. Netflix has named its chief content officer Ted Sarandos as co-CEO of the company. Read More...

Television | TV Channels

Zee Entertainment revives content brand 'Zindagi' on ZEE5 ZEE Entertainment is bringing back its content brand Zindagi on its digital entertainment platform ZEE5. This will include premium content with a global appeal. Read More...
MasterChef fans were up in arms last month after discovering that MasterChef: Back to Win star Callum Hann had already won the All-Stars season in 2012.

And the Adelaide-based chef, 31, addressed the controversy on Wednesday, telling HuffPost Australia that it was only a 'mini season'.

Callum had starred in the spin-off alongside Poh Ling Yeow, Julie Goodwin, Chris Badenoch and Hayden Quinn.

Setting the record straight: MasterChef's Callum Hann has broken his silence on winning the All-Stars season in 2012 - after fans said it was 'unfair' he was allowed on Back to Win

He said: 'It was like a mini season, a season put between two regular seasons that wasn't shown at the normal time [but] a bit later in the year.'

Callum explained there also wasn't a cash prize at the end of MasterChef: All-Stars.

The All-Stars season was played for charity, unlike a regular season in which the winner takes home $250,000.

Big win: Callum explained there wasn't a cash prize at the end of MasterChef: All-Stars. He also downplayed it as a 'mini season... put between two regular seasons'

Out of the race: It comes after Callum was eliminated from MasterChef: Back to Win on Tuesday, following a pressure test against Laura Sharrad (left)

'I won the prize which was awesome and the money went to the Cancer Council, which was really awesome as well,' he said.

It comes after Callum was eliminated from MasterChef: Back to Win on Tuesday, following a pressure test against Laura Sharrad.

The three chefs going into the finale are Laura, Emelia Jackson and Reynold Poernomo.

Last month, angry viewers claimed it was 'unfair' that Callum was competing in the new season after having previously won All-Stars.

Ineligible? Last month, angry viewers claimed it was 'unfair' that Callum was competing in the new season after having previously won All-Stars

Second place: Callum first starred on season two of MasterChef in 2010, placing runner-up behind winner Adam Liaw

'Callum is ineligible for MasterChef this year. He has already won an all-stars season [with] that snow egg. There I said it,' one viewer tweeted.

'I assume Callum's name is on the trophy since he won all-stars in 2012,' another added.

Callum first starred on season two of MasterChef in 2010, placing runner-up behind winner Adam Liaw.

Aside from running a successful cooking school in Adelaide, he is happily married to wife Crystal Jagger, with whom he shares a daughter named Elle.
The Republic of South Korea has shined internationally in its response to the coronavirus outbreak. They have received ample praise for their aggressive response to the virus; but there have also been accusations of human rights and religious freedom violations.

The first case of coronavirus in the country was discovered on January 20, 2020. This is the same as for the US.

As of this writing, Korea has had 13,417 cases and 289 deaths. In comparison, the United States has had 3.29 million cases with 137,000 deaths. In other words, the US has 474 times the deaths and 245 times the cases as Korea.

The South Korean leadership learned from the past, adjusting laws after the 2015 MERS outbreak. They took the outbreak seriously, and the message was consistent between scientists and politicians. In other words, people followed instructions to wear masks and isolate. They had widespread contact tracing, and they opened dedicated testing and treatment centers.

For these reasons, Korea has served as a sample for the world. However, their response has been questioned by several analysts. Not in regards to technologies used, but with respect to human rights and religious freedom.

The event that put South Korea on the map was an outbreak in the city of Daegu. Though the first case had appeared on January 20th, the government was reluctant to close its borders to China at the time. Korea did eventually take the outbreak seriously, as mentioned above, but not until several weeks later.

As a result, the virus continued to make its way around, infecting a member of the Shincheonji church, where the virus spread in mid-February to over 4,000 other congregants. Immediately, the government aggressively traced and tested over 200,000 members.

Since that time, the group has stopped all gatherings and offered to contribute financially to the efforts to stop the virus. The 4000+ members who recovered from the virus offered to donate plasma to support vaccine and therapeutics research.

With the spirit of the Korean people to work together as weve seen these last few months, there is a promising future of reforming and addressing the inequalities to make a more equitable Korea. But that change will require the voices of the people and the action of their government. Read more about solving South Korea's systemic inequality issue.

# # #

ABOUT THE PERSECUTED:

The Persecuted is a news source dedicated to the factual research and analysis of human rights violations. For more information, visit https://thepersecuted.org/.
Along the Texas coast outside Corpus Christi, Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales surveyed the sandy Gulf of Mexico beaches packed with swimmers and sunbathers, just the way they are every summer. Then she went back to her office to order another morgue truck.

Officials across Texas are rushing to mobilize overflow mortuary space as communities brace for a surge in coronavirus deaths following Fourth of July festivities. Already, July has had a succession of record-setting days in terms of new cases, deaths and the number of people hospitalized with Covid-19 as the pandemic takes hold in the state.

"Why won't people see what's happening?" Canales said of vacationers thronging the beaches. "It's nothing but summer fun. They can't see the stress and strain that our community is under. The danger isn't real to them."

July's heat and sun aren't providing the respite many had hoped for when the pandemic arrived in the U.S. in the cooler, cloudier days of early spring. Then, it created pile-ups of bodies in New York City that required ranks of mortuary trailers. Now, while Northeastern states that were hit hard early are curbing the virus, the South and Southwest are contending with explosive outbreaks after relaxing controls. Renewed efforts such as mask mandates haven't yet made a dent.

On Wednesday, Texas continued to set records, with almost 11,000 new cases and 110 deaths. Fatalities so far total 3,432, contributing to a national tally of almost 137,000.

For months, a bad day in the state was anything over 30 deaths. But in the past week, they jumped and Governor Greg Abbott -- who prevented cities and counties from moving aggressively to counter the disease -- is warning the worst is yet to come.

U.S. Army medics are being deployed to two counties along the Texas-Mexico border to assist hospitals overrun with new virus cases. And hospitals and local governments are requesting refrigerated trucks and trailers outfitted with racks designed for storing the dead. Some are turning to private companies.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has dispatched 22 morgue trucks to Texas, said Deputy Press Secretary Janet Montesi. None have been requested by Florida or Arizona, where similar outbreaks are underway.

The first eight units arrived in Texas in April. Nobody needed them then, so they stayed parked, one at the Nueces County fairgrounds. Canales, the top elected executive official, briefly considered charging the state rent for storing it.

For three months, only three people in the county of about 365,000 died of Covid-19. "Then, last week, an onslaught," she said. As of Tuesday, 58 people had died. Adding to the strain: Nueces's morgue facilities are used by 17 other counties. By the time deaths jumped in Nueces County, its FEMA morgue truck had been sent to another community along the border that needed it more. Hilary Watt, executive director of the Coastal Bend Regional Advisory Council, has been responsible for dispatching the trucks along Texas' southern coast and border with Mexico. She's sending one back to Nueces County, and is stationing three more in the Rio Grande Valley.

"We're trying to get them staged now for what we think is coming," Watt said. Hospitals and funeral homes along the border are already overwhelmed with cases and deaths. Gulf Coast communities "are only a week or two behind," she said.

Travis County, home to the state capital, Austin, recently requested an additional refrigeration truck, but is trying to buy one on its own rather than go through FEMA, said Hector Nieto, a spokesman.

Cameron County, which encompasses the south Texas cities of Brownsville and Harlingen, acquired a mobile morgue about two weeks ago -- though it hasn't been needed yet, said Melissa Elizardi, the county's public information officer.

"As you can imagine, because we've seen the spike in hospitalizations, we're anticipating that there will be a spike in deaths in the next week to two weeks," Harlingen Mayor Chris Boswell said. The Veteran Affairs' Texas Valley Coastal Bend Health Care System, which serves a large stretch of south Texas, has also procured a mobile morgue that can hold 20 bodies, said Hugo Martinez, a spokesman.

"God willing, we won't have to put it to use," he said.

HCA Healthcare has deployed mobile refrigeration units across its community hospital system, according to Sean Burnett, a spokesman for the Gulf Coast division. So far, it's had to use a unit only briefly in northwest Houston.

"Community hospitals are not designed for mass casualty or large volumes," Burnett said. "Houston and the Gulf Coast are facing a severe surge right now. Based on patient volume and the expectation of volume, we want to make sure everyone is prepared."

After seeing images of bodies packed into trailers -- some not refrigerated -- in New York City during the height of its outbreak, mortuary supply company Mopec designed a rack system that can retrofit trailers to store remains. It stepped up production of body bags and cooling pads, a device born of the opioid epidemic to provide short-term storage in unrefrigerated areas."We quickly found as we got into the height of Covid that everyone needed everything now," said Jeff Pemberton, a spokesman.

Acela Truck, which builds a wide array of trucks for industry, was tapped by the U.S. government to create a line of mobile morgues -- a contract they just fulfilled, said Sales Director Louise Rainone. Now the company is considering building a fleet so that they're ready for immediate delivery when needed. In larger urban areas like Houston, refrigerated trailers are a common contingency in catastrophes, said Vanessa Astros, a spokeswoman for St. Luke's Health. Its hospital in Houston has had such a truck since March as a precaution.

Such luxuries are less common in smaller cities. When deaths spiked in Nueces County after the FEMA morgue truck had been relocated, Canales had to find another option. By chance, Houston had donated an old refrigerated trailer to the county a year ago when it was needed to store bodies from a mass-fatality accident.

Canales had that trailer repaired and updated, but it held just nine bodies -- not enough. The judge was preparing to fix up another old morgue trailer she'd located when news arrived Wednesday that another FEMA unit should arrive July 18.

"These trucks represent death," the judge said. "I'm personally shaken and affected by it. But my job is to plan for the worst. Nobody will forgive you if you're not ready."
'"The end" depends on two things.'

'Either you develop a vaccine which is effective or if you have a drug, you can terminate this infection very quickly.'

'Otherwise, you have to depend on herd immunity.'

'I think it should happen earlier. Far earlier, than we can imagine or achieve 'herd immunity'.'

IMAGE: Bengaluru, July 15, 2020. Photograph: Shailendra Bhojak/PTI Photo

Dr Raman Gangakhedkar, former deputy director, Indian Council of Medical Research and the face of the central government's medical team combating coronavirusm retired on June 30.

The soft-spoken doctor will continue his association with ICMR as the Dr C G Pandit National Chair in Pune.

The narrative of India's mammoth efforts to combat the pandemic and its medical management will be difficult to write without the ICMR's top brass's real-time experiences.

Dr Gangakhedkar was a member of ICMR's crisis management team.

"The lockdown taught everybody in the shortest possible time to how to stop a respiratory infection," Dr Gangakhedkar tells Senior Rediff.com Contributor Sheela Bhatt. The second of a multi-part interview:

IMAGE: Bengaluru, July 15, 2020. Photograph: Shailendra Bhojak/PTI Photo

By all yardsticks one can say that the lockdown didn't flatten the curve.

How can you say lockdown has helped?

I said, the moment you lift the lockdown, you should expect that the numbers are going to increase because this is a disease spread by droplets which is not only highly transmissible, its driver is mobility of people.

If I am infected and going to be mobile, then I'm going to transmit infection to others.

So a surge in infections is natural and expected.

You should never compare a few Western countries with India.

Sweden never implemented lockdown, and they are struggling now.

Please don't compare such small countries with India even if you were to talk in terms of Andaman and Nicobar or Goa in terms of population size with them and to add to it the vulnerability related to mobility in and out of the states...

I think the lockdown was a success because far beyond my expectations people followed lockdown rigorously.

See, India isn't China. We should not compare us with China.

If you can implement everything, like what China did using military and coercive measures, outcomes may have been similar.

Ours is a vibrant democracy.

But even if you look at what is happening in China now, despite the very strong lockdown, now the cases are also occurring albeit in small numbers.

I think we as a country actually ensured a delay in the onset of this outbreak.

The way it is occurring rapidly now is far better despite the fact that our vulnerabilities are the highest in terms of population size, huge mobility including that in metropolitan cities and high burden of chronic morbidities.

Just think of Mumbai where the number of people going in the locals with minimum possible physical distance. You would have a huge proportion ending up carrying the virus if there was no lockdown.

We have been able to avert a major disaster for quite sometime. It slowed down the transmission dynamics to a larger extent. However, we still have a long way to go.

See, at so many places things are happening well enough, and at a few places there are serious issues.

But you can't say nothing has been achieved by lockdown.

IMAGE: Ranchi, July 14, 2020. Photograph: ANI Photo

Are you, really, claiming success of the strategy to combat Covid?

Success should ideally be assessed only at the end of the outbreak.

We have slowed down the outbreak to a larger extent.

Lockdown was a new experience for all of us.

The lockdown is like a curfew being ordered across the country.

And the people's expectation was, I have done so much, so many days of lockdown, I am suffering, now at least when it is lifted there should be no new cases.

Just imagine, for a country where the proportion of people who have not been taught or understand basic human biology, leave apart the disease dynamics is so high...

Try and ask them where the ovary is in a woman body or an important organ like kidney. You will be astonished to see that very few will be able to tell it easily.

We have not done adequately in terms of education in science and the basics in health to everybody. Our health literacy is low.

It was the lockdown that taught everybody in the shortest possible time as to how to stop a respiratory infection.

The concept of viruses and how the respiratory viruses or bacteria spread is known to many now.

The ministry also could bring out a promulgation to ban spitting...

You imagine if you were to start a training programme to prevent and control COVID-19 and how many years it would take people to understand the only available non-pharmacologic intervention for adopting them.

If you would try to plead with everybody that please use masks, it would have taken ages to convince people but now almost all are using it.

IMAGE: Relatives wait to video chat with a COVID-19 positive patient at a hospital in New Delhi, July 15, 2020. Photograph: Kamal Kishore/PTI Photo

When will COVID-19 end?

When you say 'end', you are assuming the current backdrop that there will be no vaccine, no drug.

Now the issue could be it would end when eventually most of the people acquire this infection a concept described as 'herd immunity'.

This is despite the fact that we don't know how long will this immunity that comes with the infection will last.

We don't know enough about protective immunity after infection because this is only a six- month-old infection that we are continuing to learn...

The world's scientists are putting in their brains in such a short period of time over COVID-19 alone.

In these circumstances, do I think there will be no vaccine, no drug that will come out in the near future?

I am not a pessimistic individual.

I don't think it would appropriate to assume that all of them will fail in finding out any new, effective, intervention.

And everything will rest with God.

It is only six months into the infection and we have almost a hundred groups researching vaccines.

There are some which are going in Phase II human trials.

India has two vaccines that are going to go into phase I/II human trials soon.

Additionally, many scientists are working on new chemical entities or drugs.

So 'the end' depends on two things. Either you develop a vaccine which is effective or if you have a drug, you can terminate this infection very quickly otherwise you have to depend on herd immunity as a concept.

It is a defeatist attitude to say that I would wait for herd immunity to take place and only then will I declare it as ended.

I think it should happen earlier. Far earlier than we can imagine or achieve 'herd immunity'.

Only time will tell...

IMAGE: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal interacts with a donor at the launch of a plasma bank at the COVID-19 dedicated Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan Hospital in New Delhi, July 14, 2020. Photograph: PTI Photo

ICMR has recommended hydroxychloroquine.

There are antivirals, plasma therapy etc... Which is more effective and successful?

I think HCQ will be out of vogue in a short period of time.

I come from an HIV background.

There, I remember untested 'magical' remedies allopathic or AYUSH ones were the first things that people tried in different ways.

But when you start using some untested remedies and you want to withdraw them, you must have either adequate evidence to say this doesn't work, or you should have some agent or some medicine which is known to work better than this.

Only then you can keep on shifting your position.

And this is what is precisely happening now.

ICMR gave permission to use in an emergency, Remdesivir.

Even if it is helpful in reducing hospitalisation by four days, the data on efficacy is yet to be available.

The Drug Controller General of India has allowed it for Emergency Use Authorisation in the absence of any effective medicine...

With respect to hydroxychloroquine we did a case control study to find out whether it can perhaps prevent the infection.

The studies assessing efficacy of HCQ as a treatment modality found it to be toxic and not efficacious.

I continue to believe that quality supportive care continues to be the better bet which includes high flow nasal oxygen, ventilator etc as and when required.

The data on the Russian drug Avifavir (Favipiravir) is yet to come into the public domain.

Russia has given only a news item which that they tweaked the original Japanese molecule to some unknown extent.

Their Favipiravir is different than that is described from Japan, if we believe the news report.

But they haven't informed what they have done, what is its organic structure or how it has to be produced...

There was one clinical trial conducted by one of our Indian manufacturers. The results of which are yet to be made public.

Maybe at the end of one year, we would have a different kind of discussion where you might say how successful science was.

Feature Production: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com
Allowing millions of Brazilian users of Facebook's WhatsApp to send money as easily as texts seemed a golden opportunity for the world's largest social media company.

The ubiquitous messaging service was finally entering the financial services arena with a payment service in Latin America's largest economy, after years of questions over how Facebook would make money from it.

The June launch, years in the planning, was meant to be the pilot for a potential global rollout - but eight days after going live, the central bank pulled the plug on it.

The shock decision underscores the challenge for Facebook in trying to win over financial regulators and the complexities facing watchdogs in assessing the risks of letting tech giants, with their vast network of users, loose in their world.

In Brazil, it also raises questions about the communications around the launch. WhatsApp executives and central bank officials had held at least three meetings in the previous 21 months, including two in the week running up to the launch.

In the first time he has spoken in detail about the decision, Central Bank President Roberto Campos Neto told Reuters the regulator had not determined how to deal with the proposed payment model - a new phenomenon in Brazil, which has no card money transfer service operated via an app.

"Prior to the launch, there was a meeting in which WhatsApp kind of explained its plan, but the central bank was taken by surprise with the launch on June 15," he said in an interview.

The regulator - which said it never received a formal launch request - suspended the service, Facebook Pay, on June 23.

Campos Neto and other officials said concerns centered on competition, data privacy - they have not provided details - and ongoing deliberations over whether WhatsApp required a license as a company offering or arranging payment services.

WhatsApp told Reuters it had answered central bank questions and provided the launch schedule during the final meetings.

"We spoke openly about our plans to bring WhatsApp payments to Brazil," it said. The company added it was deeply concerned about users' privacy, financial details were stored on a secured network and it had data security contracts with all partners.

WhatsApp said it did not want to become a financial services company. Financial institutions in Brazil are subject to capital reserve requirements and strict regulations.

As a way around this, and within existing rules, WhatsApp sought to use Visa Inc and Mastercard Inc, which already had central bank licenses, to carry out the money transfers.

"WhatsApp contacted us roughly two years ago to build a payments solution to bring convenience for their users and also because it did not want to become a financial institution," Visa's Brazil chief Fernando Teles said.

'IN A PHASE OF ADJUSTING'

WhatsApp said the service used payments networks from Visa and Mastercard, which are regulated companies in Brazil.

However Campos Neto said a money-transfer service provided by a tech platform had never existed in Brazil, the central bank had not yet decided whether WhatsApp itself needed a license.

"It's worth remembering that big tech isn't in the payments space in a big part of the world," he told Reuters on July 8. "So we're still in a phase of adjusting our regulations."

It is not the first time Facebook appears to have misread the regulatory runes as it seeks to enter the data-rich world of finance. A year ago, it unveiled plans for the Libra cryptocurrency, only to be met with a backlash from central banks.

In Brazilian payments, the prize is large, with a burgeoning market that saw 1.8 trillion reais ($336.86 billion) in card transactions last year.

In the initial stages of its service, WhatsApp was also looking to make use of a provision in payments regulation allowing companies to start services without a license until they reached 500 million reais or 25 million transactions over a 12-month period, according to a source close to the company.

This, again, is within the rules. However the provision, Campos Neto said, was aimed at encouraging small businesses to enter the market as opposed to a big tech network like WhatsApp with 120 million Brazilian users.

"WhatsApp tried to take advantage of this rule, saying, 'We're going to start with very low volumes because once we're in the system, it will be tough to take us out'," he said, describing the company as using "this volume gimmick".

The central bank changed this provision on June 23 to allow it to suspend companies covered by it.

Three meetings were held between WhatsApp and the central bank about the payment service, according to public central bank records: in October 2018, plus this year on June 9 and 12 - with one of those final talks attended by Campos Neto and WhatsApp Chief Operating Officer Matthew Idema.

WhatsApp said it also presented the central bank with its partnership model in 2019, although Reuters could not independently verify that meeting and the central bank declined to comment on meetings or dates.

Visa and Mastercard told Reuters they did not notify the central bank they planned to perform transfers for WhatsApp because they thought they already had the required licenses.

"There was no specific rule about messaging services in payments in Brazil, so we did it (the partnership) complying with existing rules," said Joao Pedro Paro, president of Mastercard for Latin America Southern Cone.

FACEBOOK'S GLOBAL AMBITIONS

The setback is the latest blow to Facebook's global payments ambitions, key to boosting revenue in the developing markets that account for most of its user growth and realizing CEO Mark Zuckerberg's vision to stitch together the infrastructure underlying Facebook's apps, which also include Instagram.

WhatsApp has been trying to launch payments since 2018 in India, its biggest market, but remains stuck in beta testing.

The Brazilian service would not charge individual users, but merchants would pay a fee per transaction.

One competition concern, according to a source close to the central bank, centers on WhatsApp's planned use of Cielo SA as its payments processor - or acquirer - for cards like Visa and Mastercard. Cielo already has a dominant market share of 40 percent in Brazil.

"I also must see the platform is open, which means that if more acquirers want to be in the platform, they are free to participate," said Campos Neto, though he did not mention Cielo.

WhatsApp, which has signed a deal with Cielo, said it did not have an exclusivity arrangement. Cielo declined to comment, but earlier told an antitrust watchdog there was no exclusivity.

In a further twist, the central bank is itself planning to roll out a fast-payment system in November, Pix, which uses consumers' checking accounts, a different terrain from Facebook Pay. WhatsApp has said it is open to integrating its service with Pix, which could offer one way to help break the deadlock.

The future remains uncertain, however.

Since Facebook Pay was suspended, central bank officials have met executives from WhatsApp, Mastercard and Visa in an attempt to find a way through.

Visa and Mastercard both delivered new business plans to the regulator last week in which WhatsApp formally appears as the originator of payments to be processed by the two other firms.

"WhatsApp did not, and still does not, need to request a license to work with our partners," WhatsApp said. "If a change were to require WhatsApp to obtain a license, we would do so."
"Tough day for us at Twitter. We all feel terrible this happened," Twitter chief Jack Dorsey tweeted hours after accounts of Microsoft's Bill Gates and Tesla's Elon Musk appeared to have been hacked, or fallen prey to a cryptocurrency scam.

Contrary to early reports, Bill Gates and Elon Musk's accounts weren't the only ones to have been compromised. High-profile accounts including that of Barack Obama, Jeff Bezos, Joe Biden, Kim Kardashian West, Warren Buffet, Apple, Uber, Mike Bloomberg among others too posted similar message promoting the scam, indicating they were hacked too.

In the scam, tweets were posted on behalf of Gates and Musk that stated a Bitcoin wallet address along with the promise of sending back double the amount of BTC if a user sends a certain amount to the designated wallet first. The scam appeared to happen in two rounds, wherein the scammers posted similar Bitcoin-scamming tweets for the second time from both Gates and Musks accounts after their first tweets were deleted.

Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Kanye West, Elon Musk, Wiz Khalifa, Apple, Uber and Jeff Bezos all hacked and tweets have been put out from these accounts for people to send money to a Bitcoin address and $113,000 has been sent so far, wow! #Hacked pic.twitter.com/gdGzuMNYZc  Benue Breed  (@oyimzy) July 15, 2020

Also Read: Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Obama's Twitter Hacked in Cryptocurrency Scam, Netizens Think It's 'Money Heist'

Once the dust settled, Twitter users were quickly reminded of the account of US President Donald Trump. With the accounts of former US President Obama being compromised as was Democratic presidential candidate Biden, Trump somehow seemed to have escaped unscathed from the hackers. But did he? Once Twitter became aware of the incident, the microblogging website limited the functionality of verified accounts for a brief moment.

We also limited functionality for a much larger group of accounts, like all verified accounts (even those with no evidence of being compromised), while we continue to fully investigate this.  Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 16, 2020

Netizens, who have, over the years, seen Trump's rather regular meltdowns on the website were happy with the fact that the entire fiasco kept the US President away from his account, even if it meant a few hours.

During the pandemic alone, Trump has found himself in hot waters, whether it was his own admission to popping unsafe hydroxychloroquine pills or his reluctance to wearing a mask in public or when he called the coronavirus a 'Kung Flu' virus.

Relieved that the US President couldn't put a tweet out during the hack, Twitterati rejoiced the moment by taking shots at Trump.

Donald Trump not being able to tweet for four hours is the safest we have been as a nation in three years. #VERIFIED #bluecheck pic.twitter.com/H1IVlfcPmn  Colleen McNamara  (@cmcubfan) July 16, 2020

The upside of the Blue Checks being unable to tweet? No tweets from Donald Trump.  Buck Nekked  (@ShamuriJack) July 16, 2020

As a result of Twitter getting hacked and being locked down, Donald Trump can't tweet right now.  Bill Palmer (@BillPalmer) July 15, 2020

So if @realDonaldTrump can't tweet, that means he's not president anymore right? Why didn't we think of that before? #twitterhacked  Sandi Bachom (@sandibachom) July 15, 2020

I enjoyed the part where Trump couldnt tweet.  SomeDude2112 (@JustSomeGuy2112) July 16, 2020

kinda a lowkey huge day in btc history, and world history the day trump couldn't tweet.   (@fodasynthesis) July 15, 2020

I wish Trump couldn't tweet for longer than a few hours. Should've been permanent.  no malarkey (@ursopacos) July 16, 2020

Bad news... I couldnt tweet for a bit. Good news... Neither could @realDonaldTrump! Lifes full of tough choices...innit? - Ursula The Sea Witch  Greg Baldwin (@GregBaldwinIroh) July 16, 2020

Meanwhile, hours after the attack, Twitter chief Jack tweeted: "Were diagnosing and will share everything we can when we have a more complete understanding of exactly what happened."

You can follow Twitter Support's updates here.
Dealing with China is so complex it's produced its own lexicon: Engagement. Containment. Confrontation. Constrainment. Even "con-gagement."

The word stew reflects the dilemma for governments facing a power that is no longer simply "rising." The leadership under Xi Jinping believes China is now strong enough that it can forcefully assert its agenda both at home and abroad because it has reached the point it can withstand whatever penalties come its way.

Xi's imposition of a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong despite global outrage, a deadly military skirmish on the border with India and Beijing's aggressive pandemic-era diplomacy are only the latest examples of how Western policies have largely failed to shape, slow or stop China.

As the U.S. prioritizes "America First" and the values-based multilateral architecture weakens, countries are increasingly realizing they need a rethink. Until now, strategies have largely fallen into one of two camps: Keep your fingers crossed that China turns into a better actor by pulling it into the global system of rules and institutions, or try to halt it in its tracks by economic or military pressure.

"The open policies toward China from the U.S. and European Union were well intended and mutually beneficial, with hopes that China will join or at least learn to conform to the order of the free world," said Fernando Cheung, a pro-democracy lawmaker in Hong Kong. "But with growing economic power and military might, it's becoming apparent that Xi thinks the order under the Chinese Communist Party is superior."

While covid-19 has accelerated the conversation on China, "the problem is a lack of agreement of what teaming up should look like - not all like-minded governments are all that like-minded when it comes to dealing with the challenges China poses," said Bates Gill, a professor of Asia-Pacific security studies at Macquarie University in Sydney who has consulted for companies and government agencies.

The fissures President Donald Trump has opened with long-standing U.S. allies also hinder a united approach. "The basic building blocks of such a strategy - working multilaterally, respecting allies, and committing to a reliable and predictable set of well-thought-through policies which align ways, means and ends - are not part of this administration's playbook," Gill said.

For much of Trump's term, he's shied away from criticizing China for human rights violations, veering between a trade war and publicly admiring Xi. Now, the U.S. is stepping up its actions from stronger measures against telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co. to requiring Chinese state media in the U.S. to register as foreign agents to imposing sanctions on top Chinese officials.

"For China, sticking to its own domestic priorities - for instance, the decision to ram through security legislation in Hong Kong, the emphasis on building self-reliance in high tech industry, and sticking to China's own political system regardless of the U.S. attacks -- are themselves the biggest retaliation against the U.S. and the Trump administration," said Shi Yinhong, an adviser to China's cabinet and a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing.

Officials from multiple countries say the only solution to dealing with China is to better band together, with or without America. They are starting to do so in new and interesting ways - particularly middle powers like Australia, Canada, India and the U.K., which have long struggled to balance their economic reliance on China with their strategic concerns about its actions.

The U.S. is belatedly attempting to repair some relationships: Diplomats are seeking to rally allies in Asia and elsewhere, according to a senior Trump administration official and two senior western diplomats in China. Part of the clarion call is to reduce economic dependency on China via supply chain disengagement, while cranking up domestic investments in advanced technology and manufacturing.

The Australia, Canada and the U.K. recently released a statement alongside the U.S. condemning Beijing's crackdown in Hong Kong. One Western diplomat described a more united approach to China as the "new normal." After the border clash with China, Indian officials said they planned to invite Australia to annual naval exercises alongside Japan and the U.S., signaling progress on the on-again, off-again security grouping of nations known as the Quad.

It's not going to be easy. Some China hawks in Trump's inner circle still want to try to force a Soviet-style collapse of the Communist Party, an approach other nations won't support, one U.S. official said.

In a recent meeting with Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell suggested a dedicated dialogue with the U.S. focused solely on China. But an official close to French President Emmanuel Macron warned the EU shouldn't become a mediator between the Washington and Beijing, in part because Europe had its own agenda and proposals.

And from Africa to Southeast Asia, China's economic diplomacy - often in regions largely ignored by the Trump administration and U.S. investors - makes ties with Beijing too valuable to throw out.

In some ways, Trump's approach to China has created a vicious cycle. One U.S. official said some fear the countries are stuck in a doom loop of tit-for-tat measures that leave both sides worse off. There's no longer trusted go-betweens such as ex-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, a former Goldman Sachs chief executive officer.

Some allies are tired of being lectured by U.S. officials on Huawei and feel that multilateral forums have had their agendas taken over by the U.S.-China rivalry, one Western diplomat said. Rather than attempt to alter China's overall approach or its internal politics, smaller countries have opted to pursue technical cooperation on issues such as climate change, they said.

A senior European official echoed that view, saying leaders wanted to keep China as a partner on some matters. Another said EU nations see more room for collaboration with China than the U.S. and worry that antagonizing Beijing could see it block progress on peripheral issues, including Afghanistan and Syria.

While recent attempts to cooperate - including a parliamentary alliance of lawmakers in the U.S. and seven other democracies - are important, Trump is unlikely to "win continental European hearts as it has for the Five Eyes," said Alicia Garcia Herrero, chief Asia Pacific economist with Natixis SA. It's possible though such an effort would succeed under Joe Biden, Trump's Democratic rival in the November election, she said.

At the same time, large swaths of the world are content with the benefits of Xi's Belt and Road Initiative on trade and infrastructure.

"I don't think development aid is as much of a priority for African leaders as credit from China that is not tied to certain conditions - whether it's rule of law, anti-corruption, transparency," said Adewunmi Emoruwa, the lead strategist for Nigeria-based advisory service firm Gatefield.

While some Chinese projects in the developing world have caused controversy - in places such as Sri Lanka - and concern about high debt levels, many nations, particularly those in Africa, lack the resources or expertise to establish alternate supply chains. China is Africa's biggest trading partner, with two-way flows totaling more than $180 billion - almost four times that of America. Chinese investments often come without conditions imposed by Western donors.

China's role in global manufacturing and the vested interests of Western allies also makes it difficult for Trump to argue persuasively for a full decoupling from the world's second-largest economy, said Charles Liu, a former diplomat and founder of Hao Capital, a private equity firm.

"The U.S. hasn't prepared itself mentally for the rise of China, so it has been trying to find ways to create problems for China and limit its ascent," said Shen Shishun, senior researcher at the China Institute of International Studies under China's Foreign Ministry. "The U.S. is creating problems on China's doorstep, so of course China will not step away from this."
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 11:06:37|Editor: huaxia

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Abdel-Hamid Mamdouh of Egypt, a candidate for the new head of the World Trade Organization (WTO), attends a press conference at the WTO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, July 15, 2020. With the selection process for the new head of WTO entering the second phase, three of the candidates presented themselves with members at a special General Council meeting on Wednesday. They each had one hour and a half to make their candidacy presentations and take questions from the membership. (Photo by Li Ye/Xinhua)

GENEVA, July 15 (Xinhua) -- With the selection process for the new head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) entering the second phase, three of the candidates presented themselves with members at a special General Council meeting on Wednesday.

They each had one hour and a half to make their candidacy presentations and take questions from the membership.

The first presenter, former WTO Deputy Director-General Jesus Seade Kuri of Mexico, said the global trade body needs a chief with vision, leadership and political capacity.

"It is of the essence that the Director-General has a solid command of the arcane world of the WTO and trade negotiations; that he or she be aware and be sensitive to the reasons behind certain balances in the texts, and in command of the alternatives that may have been formulated or could be explored," he noted.

Seade has an extensive experience with working with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The Mexican candidate was also chief negotiator of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria said she believes the world needs more than ever a "reinvigorated" WTO, pledging that if selected, she would prioritize delivering a successful ministerial meeting with good outcomes on fisheries, agriculture and other sectors.

"I would also prioritize updating the rulebook, unlocking the dispute settlement system, working on transparency and notification, enhancing the work of regular bodies, and strengthen the Secretariat," said the candidate, an economist who twice served as Nigeria's finance minister and briefly acted as foreign minister, and had a 25-year career at the World Bank, including as a managing director.

In his presentation, Abdel-Hamid Mamdouh of Egypt, who is former director of the Trade in Services and Investment Division of the WTO, and contributed to the drafting of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), stressed that the negotiating function breakdown is causing huge difficulties for the WTO as the dispute settlement function gained more strength than the other two "legs" over the past 25 years.

"Reforming the WTO is ... not about restructuring departments or reallocating resources across different projects or different country programs. This is about reforming the treaty, and the treaty is that enforceable contract between governments, and the only way reform can take place is through negotiations," he said.

According to the agenda, the special session of the General Council will last until July 17. Over the next two days, the rest five candidates, respectively nominated by Moldova, the Republic of Korea, Kenya, Saudi Arabia and Britain will conduct the presentation.

The second phase of the selection process in which the candidates "make themselves known to members" will end on Sept. 7, and then the General Council chairperson will consult with all WTO members before making the final decision.

Due to the unexpected announcement in mid-May that the incumbent WTO chief Roberto Azevedo will resign on Aug. 31, a year before his term expires, the WTO had to start the selection process for his successor on June 8. Enditem
TOKYO, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Human Academy Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Tokyo's Shinjuku district), a subsidiary of Human Holdings Co., Ltd. covering the educational field of the brand's business, will be offering another series of free webinars for non-natives studying Japanese and considering moving up to higher education or employment in Japan. The seminars, like those offered in June, are designed to provide essential information and support for them to keep up with studying Japanese.

(Logo: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/img/202007141976-O1-XqtTRMfg)



(Photo1: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M105275/202007141976/_prw_PI2fl_G7CBCLCK.jpg)

(Photo2: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M105275/202007141976/_prw_PI3fl_cp2G5XWn.jpg)

Learn more about the free webinars on the company's Peatix page:

https://hajl-japanese.peatix.com/view

1. Mon., July 27, 2020, 5:00 p.m. JST

"5 Ways to Find Your Job in Japan"

https://hajl-event09.peatix.com/

2. Tue., July 28, 2020, 5:00 p.m. JST

"How to become fluent in foreign language within the comfort of your home"

https://hajl-event10.peatix.com/

3. Wed., July 29, 2020, 11:00 a.m. JST

"The 5 most common challenges that English speakers face when learning Japanese (and how to overcome)"

https://hajl-event11.peatix.com/

The company plans to continue this in the future.

- How to join: Access the Peatix page and select the event students would like to join. Each event has its unique page where they can sign up for it.

- Participation fee: Free of charge

- Targeted for: Non-natives, who are considering going to school or finding employment in Japan.

Other lessons are also available.

Free trial: New Online Japanese Lesson

"Human Online Nihongo"

Would you like a FREE preview? Take a trial lesson on the NEW Online Lesson Platform (Human Online Nihongo).

https://hajl.athuman.com/e/lp/group/

Human Academy staff will contact you after receiving your booking.

About Human Academy Japanese-Language School

Official website: https://hajl.athuman.com/e/

Since its establishment in Osaka in 1987 as a Japanese-language institution for non-natives, the school has supported international students aiming to enroll in higher education institutions such as Japanese universities, graduate schools, and vocational schools for over 30 years, bringing the number of students helped so far to 16,000 (the same number of graduates as of March 2020). In addition, the institution has been providing company training to improve Japanese communication, such as understanding business etiquette, corporate culture, attitudes to work, etc. for local companies to retain non-Japanese employees who are increasingly becoming an important work force due to globalization. In both fields, the school has been highly evaluated by its customers.

Official websites:

Human Holdings Co., Ltd.: https://www.athuman.com/en/

Human Academy Co., Ltd.: https://manabu.athuman.com/

Address: 7-5-25, Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0023, Japan

SOURCE Human Academy Co., Ltd.

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 16)  The son of late strongman Ferdinand Marcos denied seeking the services of political data-analysis firm Cambridge Analytica to rebrand the family's image, his spokesperson said on Thursday.

The spokesman of former Senator and ex-vice presidential candidate Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. slammed Rappler's interview with former Cambridge Analytica director-turned-whistleblower Brittany Kaiser.

"(The news story is) patently fake, false, and misleading," Vic Rodriguez said in a statement.

In an interview with Rappler CEO Maria Ressa on Wednesday, Kaiser talked about the ties of the embattled British firm with then-candidates of the 2016 national elections in the Philippines  specifically mentioning the name of Bongbong Marcos, who lost to Vice President Leni Robredo by just 263,473 votes.

"So we had a request straight from Bongbong Marcos to do a family rebranding... As you call it, historical revisionism, that's exactly what it is. But it's done in a data-driven and scientific way," Kaiser was quoted as saying.

Kaiser, who worked for the controversial data company which conducts online "behavioral microtargeting" since 2014, said there was a debate in the firm about taking on the job offer from the Marcoses. She said some staff did not want to delve into it, but former CEO Alexander Nix saw it as a "massive financial opportunity" and asked the employees to write a proposal.

"An instance where the history of a family and an individual is important for the public to know, then this type of work is extremely dangerous," she added.

She did not mention if the deal between Cambridge Analytica and Marcos materialized.

With the allegations published in the interview and Rappler's site, Rodriguez said it is looking into filing charges against the embattled news outfit.

"BBM is consulting with his legal team and will be exploring the legal options to fight this injustice. The filing of libel charges is on the table," he said.

The Marcos family has been facing accusations of historical revisionism. Bongbong previously called for a revision of educational textbooks that depict "political propaganda" against his father's over 20-years regime.

The family has been hounded by human rights violations surrounding former President Marcos' rule. The government released funds until December 2019 from the recovered Marcos ill-gotten wealth to human rights victims during Martial Law. Aside from this, the family is accused of plundering billions of dollars from government coffers, including through dummy foundations in Swiss bank accounts.

Cambridge Analytica was hired by Donald Trump's campaign during the 2016 US election, but denied it misused Facebook data from over 50 million profiles for the campaign.

The campaign team of then-presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte was photographed with Nix more than a year before the national elections. But Kaiser said she has "no full confirmation" if the camp of President Rodrigo Duterte availed of their services.

RELATED: Duterte denies campaign deals with Cambridge Analytica

The company closed operations in 2018 in the course of the Facebook data scandal.
Wyndridge Farm is doing more than reopening to the public Friday.

The York County venue and one of the states biggest producers on the wine/cider side will show off a revamped building and outdoors area, the centerpiece of its 77-acre farm. Reopening day hours are 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

The restaurant, farm store, bathrooms and patio have been renovated and four fire pits were added on the lawn outside the building, located 885 S. Pleasant Avenue. Its a short drive from downtown Dallastown.

Kaitlyn Norman, the marketing coordinator, said the focus of the work was to optimize the use of the space to allow for more and different types of events. Its already a popular spot for weddings and other events in addition to serving lunch and dinner at the restaurant. The property includes a five-bedroom with a fully equipped Chefs kitchen that provides an overnight destination for guests.

Reopening Day will be highlighted by lawn games for all to enjoy and live music from Two Pints Shy from 5 to 8 p.m.

Norman said the pandemic and the forced closure of businesses helped to accelerate the renovation process. During this time, it also allowed us optimize the use of our outdoor spaces and formulate a plan to enable guests to feel safe coming to The Farm for a meal or for an event, she said. Not having guests on the property certainly helped speed the process.

At the same time, she added, they revised the menu to create a more casual family atmosphere, not just the place for special occasions.

Wyndridge is well-known for its lines of cider and beer; in fact, it was ranked second among top Pennsylvania producers of wine/cider in 2018. In addition, its now making a new fruit-fermented beverage called Wyndridge Vines. Norman said that its not a wine and its not a cider, but if they had a baby you would get Wyndridge Vines. That product supplements the list of Wyndridge craft beers and ciders, which are easy to spot by the Crafty name and the Farms scarf-wearing fox on the label.

Scott Topel is the head cidermaker and has been with Wyndridge Farm since it opened. Irena Wise is the head brewer. A Detroit native, she started there in 2019 after taking the previous year off to become a Certified Master Brewer.

You can find more information at this link on the grand reopening, which will be held within the COVID-19 guidelines of the governor and state Department of Health.

For those with a calendar in front of them, a cornhole tournament is scheduled for Aug. 23 at Wyndridge Farm. It will run from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

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New tropical lines heat up sales for winery on Marylands Eastern Shore

North Carolina winery friends, neighbors roll out 4th vintage of their red blend collaboration

Atomic Dog owner excited about what were going to do as restaurant, production areas near completion

East Coast wineries planted a mix of vines this spring, from Chardonnay to Petit Verdot

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.
A new full-length trailer for Locklan 'Locky' Gilbert's season of The Bachelor has been released.

In the clip shared to the Channel 10 dating show's Instagram on Wednesday, the hunk is seen suited and booted as he meets a bevvy of beauties for the first time.

Ready for his biggest adventure yet, the former Survivor star, 27, nervously admits that despite having his 'heart broken' in the past, he's ready to 'meet the woman of his dreams' and 'get down on one knee'.

Bring on the women! The new full-length trailer for Locklan 'Locky' Gilbert's season of The Bachelor has been released

In the first part of the clip, Locky enjoys the luxuries of the Bachelor mansion in Sydney ahead of the women's arrival.

Several shots show Locky during his usual everyday routine, as he cooks up a meal in the kitchen before going shirtless to hop into the waterfall shower.

Discussing his thoughts to the camera, he admits: 'Being in love is the best feeling in the world. It takes your breath away.

'But I've definitely had my heart broken. Love is the scariest thing in the world!'

Preview: In the clip shared to the Channel 10 dating show's Instagram on Wednesday evening, the hunk, 27, is seen suited and booted as he meets a bevvy of beauties for the first time

Biggest adventure yet: The former Survivor star nervously admits that despite having his 'heart broken' in the past, he's ready to 'meet the woman of his dreams' and 'get down on one knee'

Flying solo... for now: In the first part of the clip, Locky enjoys the luxuries of the Bachelor mansion in Sydney ahead of the women's arrival

Domestic: Several shots show Locky during his usual everyday routine, as he cooks up a meal in the kitchen before going shirtless to hop into the waterfall shower

Further clips show his wild adrenaline-junkie side, as he explains: 'I've done a lot of crazy things in my life - jumping off mountains, jumping off buildings, scuba-diving through a shipwreck.

'But being The Bachelor is the craziest thing I've ever done!'

After getting dressed in a slick three-piece navy suit, Locky prepares to meet the women, and worriedly whispers to himself: 'Please like me!'

Luckily for him, the ladies seem smitten from the get-go.

Locky can't believe his luck as he meets the gaggle of girls, telling one brunette: 'I just got lost in your eyes there.'

Settling down: Further clips show his wild adrenaline-junkie side, as he explains: 'I've done a lot of crazy things in my life. But being The Bachelor is the craziest thing I've ever done!'

Smitten: Locky can't believe his luck as he meets the gaggle of ladies, telling one brunette: 'I just got lost in your eyes there'

Mutual feelings: Luckily for him, the women seem smitten from the get-go

Ready: In a final shot, the tattooed reality star reiterates: 'I'm here to find love. I'd love to get down on one knee at the end. I'm the kind of guy that will do it!'

In a final shot, the tattooed reality star reiterates: 'I'm here to find love. I'd love to get down on one knee at the end. I'm the kind of guy that will do it!'

Audiences have been waiting with bated breath for the new season, which will no doubt look different after being hit by COVID-19 restrictions.

Channel 10 has been coy about promoting the new series, and it largely remains a mystery as to how social distancing has been handled.

Endemol Shine was forced to suspend on-site production of The Bachelor in March due to the escalating COVID-19 pandemic.

The unknown: Audiences have been waiting with bated breath for the new season, which will no doubt look different after being hit by COVID-19 restrictions

Mysterious: Channel 10 has been coy about promoting the new series, and it largely remains a mystery as to how social distancing has been handled

Taking a break: Endemol Shine was forced to suspend on-site production of The Bachelor in March due to the escalating COVID-19 pandemic

Switching things up: Locky - who first rose to fame as a contestant on Australian Survivor in 2017 - and his stunning contestants went on several virtual dates via Zoom during lockdown

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph last week, a spokesperson for Endemol said a COVID production manager had been hired on set.

'Warner Bros. has also assigned a dedicated production COVID manager to ensure all protocols are up to date and adhered to,' they told the publication.

Locky - who first rose to fame as a contestant on Australian Survivor in 2017 - and his stunning contestants went on several virtual dates via Zoom during lockdown.

Channel 10 is yet to announce an airdate for The Bachelor
US Slaps Sanctions on Three Russian Nationals and Five Companies

Sputnik News

18:31 GMT 15.07.2020(updated 19:16 GMT 15.07.2020)

Last year, the US Treasury accused Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin of being involved in meddling with US elections in 2016.

The US has imposed sanctions on three Russian nationals and five companies linked to Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Department of the Treasury said.

According to the department's statement, Russian nationals Igor Lavrenkov, Andrey Mandel and Mikhail Potepkin, have been sanctioned for their alleged involvement in the armed conflict in the Donbass and for their alleged meddling in US elections.

The companies that were sanctioned are: "M Invest" and Meroe Gold Co.Ltd, Shen Yang Jing Cheng Machinery Imp&Exp. Co. Limited, Shine Dragon Group Limited and Zhe Jiang Jiayi Small Commodities Trade Company Limited.

Last year, the US claimed that Prigozhin's company Concord had funded an internet troll factory that had promoted Trump during the 2016 presidential election. The charges were filed by special counsel Robert Mueller following his investigation into Russian meddling, but were dropped in March. The US said that the prosecution risked exposing investigative sources and methods.

Prigozhin denied the allegations, saying that he had been "wrongfully persecuted" by US prosecutors. He also said that he would sue the US for $50 billion in damages.

A Sputnik

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- Long-term asthma control medications will dominate growth in the market

- Availability of cost effective treatments is a notable factor leading to higher demand over the forecast period

- Increase in incidence of respiratory illnesses - result of exacerbating risk factors such as air pollution - is contributing to growth in the market

ALBANY, New York, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Asthma is a major healthcare challenge in almost every country, notwithstanding the level of development, driving demand for effective treatments. This is set to propel the asthma treatment market on an upward growth curve. Numerous growth factors are helping it chart a sturdy trajectory. However, it is primarily driven by increase in number of asthma patients worldwide.

Transparency market Research opines, "The global asthma treatment market is set to witness a sluggish compound annual growth rate of about 2% over the forecast period of 2019 to 2027, owing to a slew of positive trends and drivers marking the landscape. These will drive the market worth from about USD 25 billion in 2018 to approximately USD 30.5 billion by 2027."

Download a PDF Brochure of Report - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=73640

Key Findings of Global Asthma Treatment Market Study:

On the basis of treatment type, the segment for long-term asthma control medications will hold massive sway over market share

On the basis of distribution channels, the segment for retail pharmacies will account for a major share of the market

Region-wise, North America will dominate the global asthma treatment market landscape over the forecast period

For a detailed analysis of global asthma treatment market by treatment type, route of administration, and distribution channel, visit TOC https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/73640

Key Drivers of Growth in Global Asthma Treatment Market:

Increase in number of asthma patients is a major growth factor in the global asthma treatment market. However, Transparency Research Market notes that this is only one of the many growth factors identified in the market. A glimpse into the trends and drivers, which are keeping the market buoyant, is provided below:

A higher adoption of combination therapies is being noted in the market landscape and this is paving way for higher growth

Novel drugs that line the landscape are contributing to increase in demand in the market in a major way

In 2016, 339 million people suffered from asthma and as risk factors continue to aggravate, the number is set to grow further

Increase in air pollution is one of the strongest risk factors, propelling the market forward; lifestyle choices such as heavy smoking is also contributing to market growth

Purchase the Asthma Treatment Market Report - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/checkout.php?rep_id=73640<ype=S

Regional Analysis of Global Asthma Treatment Market:

Asia Pacific (APAC) is anticipated to grow at an impressive CAGR from 2019 to 2027, North America to hold substantial market share over the stated period

(APAC) is anticipated to grow at an impressive CAGR from 2019 to 2027, to hold substantial market share over the stated period Growing demand for combination therapy and presence of large number of distinguished companies will contribute to North American dominance over the period

APAC has a large pool of asthma patients in the region; growing awareness regarding advanced treatments and increase in disposable incomes are responsible for growth

Analyze global asthma treatment market growth in 30+ countries including US, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Russia, Poland, Benelux, Nordic, China, Japan, India, and South Korea. Request a sample of the study https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=73640

Competitive Landscape of Global Asthma Treatment Market:

Transparency Market Research has comprehensively profiled key market players in its report. Some of these include Mylan N.V., AstraZeneca plc, Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., and GlaxoSmithKline plc. Merck & Co., Inc., Novartis AG, Sanofi, Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, among others. Information on players includes business strategies and financials, recent developments and product portfolio.

The global asthma treatment market has been segmented as follows:

Asthma Treatment Market by Treatment Type

Long-term Asthma Control Medications

Combination Inhalers



Inhaled Corticosteroids



Long-acting Beta Agonists



Leukotriene Modifiers



Theophylline



Others (Reslizumab, Benralizumab, etc.)

Quick-relief (rescue) Medications

Short-acting Beta Agonists



Ipratropium (Atrovent)



Oral & Intravenous Corticosteroids

Asthma Treatment Market by Route of Administration

Inhaled

Oral

Intravenous

Subcutaneous

Asthma Treatment Market by Distribution Channel

Retail Pharmacies

Hospital Pharmacies

Online Pharmacies

Asthma Treatment Market by Region

North America

U.S.



Canada

Europe

Germany



U.K.



France



Italy



Spain



Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific

China



India



Japan



Australia & New Zealand

&

Rest of Asia Pacific

Latin America

Brazil



Mexico



Rest of Latin America

Middle East & Africa

& GCC



South Africa



Israel



Rest of Middle East & Africa

Explore Transparency Market Research's award-winning coverage of the global Healthcare industry:

Asthma Spacers Market: Asthma Spacers Market was valued at US$ 1,330.56 Mn in 2017. It is expected to expand at a CAGR of 3.7% from 2018 to 2026, the global market is anticipated to be driven by technological advancements and increase in use of spacers with metered dose inhalers for the management of asthma

Pulmonary Drugs Market: The global pulmonary drugs market has been the key area of focus and the most crucial market for the healthcare industry in the last couple of years. However, the market is expected to witness a significant decline over the forecast period with a -6.3% CAGR from 2016 to 2024. The market is anticipated to fall to US$28,082.1 mn from a valuation of US$48,039.7 mn in 2015

Pediatric Asthma Treatment Market: The global pediatric asthma treatment market is driven by an increase in the incidence of asthma, rise in allergy cases, availability of advanced inhaler devices and innovative biological drugs, and growing pollution levels. Also, increase in awareness about the diagnosis of asthma and improving health care facilities are likely to drive the market.

Gain access to Market Ngage, an AI-powered, real-time business intelligence that goes beyond the archaic research solutions to solve the complex strategy challenges that organizations face today. With over 15,000+ global and country-wise reports across 50,000+ application areas, Market Ngage is your tool for research on-the-go. From tracking new investment avenues to keeping a track of your competitor's moves, Market Ngage provides you with all the essential information to up your strategic game. Power your business with Market Ngage's actionable insights and remove the guesswork in making colossal decisions.

About Us

Transparency Market Research is a next-generation market intelligence provider, offering fact-based solutions to business leaders, consultants, and strategy professionals.

Our reports are single-point solutions for businesses to grow, evolve, and mature. Our real-time data collection methods along with ability to track more than one million high growth niche products are aligned with your aims. The detailed and proprietary statistical models used by our analysts offer insights for making right decision in the shortest span of time. For organizations that require specific but comprehensive information we offer customized solutions through adhoc reports. These requests are delivered with the perfect combination of right sense of fact-oriented problem solving methodologies and leveraging existing data repositories.

TMR believes that unison of solutions for clients-specific problems with right methodology of research is the key to help enterprises reach right decision."

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One of journalisms biggest jobs, maybe the biggest, is just plain remembering. Too much is going on all the time for people to even begin to take it in coherently. If journalists dont contextualize events, if they dont trace out the relevant trajectories, the picture of the world they paint remains chaotic, patternless.

And this is how MSNBC operates, continually failing to remember. The network has the memory of a goldfish. If an anchor talks about what happened four years ago, shell be congratulated for the depth of her coverage.

A few days ago, Rachel Maddow invited Nicolle Wallace on her show to condemn Donald Trumps eleventh-hour commutation of his friend Roger Stones prison sentence. Stone, Trumps former adviser, was convicted in February of having lied to a congressional committee. Stone had been scheduled to report to prison this week; hed be there now, had Trump not intervened.

When the Stone news broke, Maddow said that Nicolle Wallace was the person I wanted to call and talk to about it immediately. She introduced Wallace as a veteran of the George W. Bush White House, and said, Nicolle, I miss you, at which Wallace beamed.

The camera-friendly rapport between the two anchors, one somewhat liberal and the other a nonpracticing Republican, displays exactly the sort of chummily neutral, both-sides respectability the network aims to project. In this way, MSNBC is more of a twin than an alternative to Fox News; both networks strive (albeit with limited success, on the part of Fox) to project a fair and balanced image, with tame presenters from the other side appearing on each.

In the case of MSNBC, the friendly both-sides facade masks the unpleasant fact that viewers arent given the context they need in order to understand, for example, the Stone case, or the Trump administrations more general sabotage of the rule of law. Because these things arent new.

Sign up for CJR 's daily email

We should remember their names forever, Wallace said of the officials who enabled Trump. They are all accomplices in the corruption of one of the most sacred presidential powers.

Excellent advice, but it presents a paradox when the awkward truth of history is included. Wallace was communications director for the George W. Bush White House; the administration she served tortured and killed with impunity, thus corrupting a number of the most sacred presidential powers. It insisted that the president should operate and be treated as a king. It prepared the way for Trump.

In 2014, as a guest on MSNBC, Wallace justified the gruesome and brutal treatment and even murder of detaineesmany of whom had never been convicted of any crimeas necessary to prevent imminent attacks. Whatever we had to do, she said. For her, the ends justified the means: I dont care what we did.

Old-guard Republicans like Mitt Romneywho called the Stone pardon unprecedented, historic corruption on Twitterthe Republican strategists of the Lincoln Project, and Nicolle Wallace have made a great show of denouncing the corruption of Donald Trump.

But nobody on Maddows show the night of Wallaces appearance, right or left, saw fit to mention former secretary of defense Caspar Weinberger, who was pardoned by George H.W. Bush. Bush, too, was accused of serious crimes, just like Trump is. Weinberger had been scheduled to stand trial in connection with his role in the Iran-Contra affair, in which arms were sold illegally to Iran and the proceeds shifted to the guerrilla war in Nicaraguaflouting an explicit congressional prohibition against sending military aid to the Contras.

Funding the Contras was an illegal and unconstitutional power grab on the part of the executive branch. And so Weinberger was in a position to drop the dime on Bush Sr., as well as on their former boss, Ronald Reagan. Which would explain why Bush pardoned Weinberger and five others in December of 1992, just a few days before he left office. And also why Trumps corruption is not at all unprecedented, and why any former Republican discussing the Stone pardon shouldnt be permitted to get away with saying so.

Wallace, a popular right-leaning anchor on the left cable news station, is herself a beneficiary of the amnesia she is railing against. We should remember her name, too; journalists should have a memory as long as the relevant history requires. All politiciansand all punditsshould be called to account for their role, and their partys role, in creating the world were now living in.

Its either that, or we can look forward, eventually, to seeing analyst Kayleigh McEnany explaining tomorrows news to us (but not yesterdays) in the eternal goldfish bowl of MSNBC.

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Maria Bustillos is the founding editor of Popula, an alternative news and culture magazine. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Harpers, and The Guardian.
Due to the price and demand crash in the second quarter, Canadas oil production slumped to 4.4 million barrels per day (bpd) in May  the lowest output since the middle of 2016 when wildfires crippled oil sands production, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Thursday.

In the first half of 2020, oil producers in Canada cut their production by 20 percent compared to the average 5.5 million bpd oil production in 2019 because of low demand for fuel in North America and low oil prices that had Canadian producers curtail output.

Canadas production of petroleum and other liquids averaged 5.6 million bpd in March, but after the oil price collapse  which saw the price of Western Canadian Select (WCS) slump into single digits in April  production in April dropped by 700,000 bpd to 4.9 million bpd. This decline was steeper than the monthly drop in 2016 when wildfires reduced Canadian production by 640,000 bpd in May 2016, due to shutdowns at some oil sands operations.

After the decline in April 2020, Canadas oil production continued to drop in Mayby another 560,000 bpd to 4.4 million bpd, the lowest production since mid-2016, the EIA has estimated.

In June, some producers brought part of their production back online as demand for oil products began to rise in Canada and its main energy export outlet, the United States. Overall, Canadas oil production slightly rose in June from the lows in May, according to the EIA.

The curtailments in Canada were larger than the production cuts at some OPEC countries which are bound by the OPEC+ pact to reduce output in a bid to draw down the high inventory levels around the world. Among non-OPEC producers, Canadas production declines were the third largest after Russia and the United States, the EIA said.

Canada and the U.S. are not part of the OPEC+ agreement.

EIA currently sees Canadas oil production averaging 5.1 million bpd this year and 5.5 million bpd next year.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
AKRON, Ohio -- The Ohio & Erie Canalway Association announced Thursday a round of grants totaling $603,830 for 16 Northeast Ohio organizations to support trail preservation, restoration and other improvements.

Projects include restoring the James A. Garfield Memorial at Lake View Cemetery, improving the Boston Mills Historic District at Cuyahoga Valley National Park and developing the Summit Lake Trail.

All projects that will receive grant money are in the Ohio & Erie Canalway National Heritage Area, which extends 110 miles from Cleveland to New Philadelphia and spans Cuyahoga, Summit, Stark and Tuscarawas counties.

The Ohio & Erie Canalway Association awarded this round of grants through its competitive Strategic Initiative Program.

Here are the projects that will receive funding:

Throughout the Ohio & Erie Canalway: The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad will receive $21,780 for upgrades.

Cuyahoga County:

The Western Reserve Historical Society will receive $50,000 for a women & politics exhibit.

The Historic Gateway Neighborhood will receive $15,000 for its Take a Hike 2021 season.

Tremont West Development will receive $15,000 for the Tremont Towpath Integration Plan.

The Lake View Cemetery Foundation will receive $30,000 for restoration of the James A. Garfield Memorial.

Canalway Partners will receive $15,000 for CLEVELAND History Days 2020.

LAND Studio Inc. is expected to receive $40,000 for Forum Pavilion. This grant is pending.

Summit County:

Summit Metro Parks will receive $50,000 for the Freedom Trail Trailhead.

The Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park will receive $50,000 for improvements to the Boston Mills Historic District public space.

The City of Akron will receive $75,000 for Phase 1 Design of the Rubber City Heritage Trail.

The Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition will receive $75,000 for the Summit Lake Trail.

The Downtown Cuyahoga Falls Partnership will receive $4,400 for the Cuyahoga River and Downtown Cuyahoga Falls History Trail.

Summit Countys Development Finance Authority will receive $75,000 for the Akron Civic Theatre renovation.

Stark County:

Massillon Area Greenways, Inc. will receive $2,650 for updates to the Navarre historical walking tour.

The City of Canal Fulton will receive $45,000 for repairs to the Historic Canal Footbridge.

Tuscarawas County:

The City of New Philadelphia will receive $40,000 for Southside Community Park.

Ohio & Erie Canalway Association is a regional extension of its two founding organizations - Canalways Partners, representing Cuyahoga County, and the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition, representing Summit, Stark and Tuscarawas.

We are extremely grateful to Congress and members of our Ohio delegation for their continued strong support for the Ohio & Erie Canalway National Heritage Area, Towpath Trail and connector trails, said Dan Rice, president and CEO of Ohio and Erie Canalway Coalition and co-executive director of Ohio and Erie Canalway Association. Working together, we are creating a legacy for future generations.
Nath had to resign as chief minister in March after the Congress govt lost majority with the exit of 22 MLAs who joined BJP with Jyotiraditya Scindia.

Indore: Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath is set to become the Leader of Opposition (LoP) when the monsoon session of the state Assembly begins from 20 July.

"We have sent a letter to the Assembly secretariat stating that our leader in the House is going to be Nath," said Congress spokesperson Bhupendra Gupta on Thursday.

Nath was elected as leader of the Congress Legislative Party after the 2018 elections when the party came to power in the state, Gupta said.

Nath had to resign as chief minister in March this year after the Congress government lost majority with the exit of 22 MLAs who joined the BJP along with senior leader Jyotiraditya Scindia.

With 91 MLAs, the Congress would be the main Opposition party in the House. Assembly principal secretary AP Singh said he had learnt about the letter sent by the Congress.

"I have not received it yet. It might be with our Dak (postal) section right now," he added.
(CNN)  Throughout his time in office, US President Donald Trump has blown hot and cold on China.

Early in his tenure, he visited Beijing, where he schmoozed with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in the Forbidden City, and praised the "very good chemistry" the two men shared. The following year, however, Trump launched a trade war against China, while simultaneously holding out for an historic deal between the two countries.

That deal is still outstanding, and seems unlikely to be achieved before the end of Trump's term, especially as relations between Washington and Beijing have plummeted over issues such as the coronavirus, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang. Trump's cabinet is packed with China hawks, and his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has become a figure of loathing in the Chinese media.

And yet parsing a coherent strategy on China from the White House can be tough. Even as he signed into law a bill stripping Hong Kong of its special trading status this week, Trump reportedly shied away from imposing sanctions against officials responsible for cracking down on the territory, according to Bloomberg, and he has not exercised his full powers under the act.

This appears to be a pattern for Trump. According to his former national security adviser, John Bolton, at the same time as Washington was ramping up criticism of Beijing's human rights abuses in Xinjiang, the President was telling Xi that he agreed with his policies in the region. Sources previously told CNN that last year Trump promised Xi silence on pro-democracy protests Hong Kong during trade talk negotiations, for fear that criticizing China's stance would scupper any potential deal.

Throughout the trade war, Trump has frequently promised to secure an "unprecedented" deal that would open China up to American companies and rebalance the relationship in a way that benefits US farmers and workers. In signing phase one of that deal -- which has now stalled -- he described it as "righting the wrongs of the past and delivering a future of economic justice and security for American workers, farmers, and families."

Tough on China

On Tuesday, Trump signed into law the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, a bipartisan bill passed with overwhelming support in both houses of Congress that strips the city of its special trading status with the US, on the grounds that a new security law imposed by Beijing means Hong Kong is no longer sufficiently autonomous from China to justify special treatment.

Trump used his speech announcing the move to hammer Beijing, saying that "no administration has been tougher on China than this administration."

"We imposed historic tariffs. We stood up to China's intellectual property theft, at a level that nobody has ever come close. We confronted untrustworthy Chinese technology and telecom providers," he said. "We convinced many countries -- many countries -- and I did this myself, for the most part, not to use Huawei because we think it's an unsafe security risk. It's a big security risk. I talked many countries out of using it. If they want to do business with us, they can't use it."

He also -- before laying into Democratic rival Joe Biden -- blamed China for "concealing the (corona)virus and unleashing it upon the world."

So far, so tough. According to Bloomberg, however, Trump has pushed back on plans to sanction top Hong Kong or Chinese officials, for fear of further damaging relations with Beijing. A spokesman for the National Security Council denied that any was "off the table," and the President could still move to impose the penalties at any time.

The New York Times also reported this week that a draft administrative order had been drawn up targeting all 92 million members of the Chinese Communist Party. The order, which has not been made public and could be rejected by Trump, would aim to block Party members from traveling to the US, though it is unclear how practical or workable this would be.

While the Trump administration has taken general actions which hurt Hong Kong and China, some of this is expected to blow back on the US, which also relies on strong ties with both markets. Targeting officials meanwhile could focus the economic pain and inconvenience on individuals actually responsible for policy on Hong Kong.

At the same, however, it is likely to spark a retaliation from China. Already in response to the Xinjiang sanctions, Beijing moved to sanction US lawmakers, including Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, though what exact measures are to be taken have yet to be revealed.

Trade above all else

In announcing the Hong Kong law, Trump said that "one of the very big reasons ... that I got elected in the first place" was "trade and things related to trade."

He hit Biden for supporting China's entry into the World Trade Organization, which Trump said was "one of the greatest geopolitical and economic disasters in world history."

And while the ongoing trade war is -- by most measures -- exacerbating the economic pain of the coronavirus pandemic, Trump said that "our farmers are doing very well because we made really great trade deals."

"The China deal -- they're buying a lot," he said. "They are buying a lot. Yeah, we'll say that: They're buying a lot. A lot of people ask, 'How are they doing on the trade deal?' They're buying a lot."

Trump's reelection bid has focused in part on his ability to be tough on China, especially over the coronavirus, hitting Biden for his alleged ties or sympathy to Beijing. But that strategy does not seem to be paying off, with a recent poll showing the Democratic candidate with a 15-point lead over the President.

In his own words, Trump was elected because of his stance on trade. With even the slightest glimmer of hope for a trade deal still remaining, this might make him shy away from taking the hard line on China some of his advisers want, even as relations with Beijing seem to be at an unsalvageable point.

Bolton, in his book, wrote that "Trump's conversations with Xi reflected not only the incoherence in his trade policy but also the confluence in Trump's mind of his own political interests and US national interests."

Were Trump able somehow to salvage an "unprecedented" trade deal with China, boosting the economy as he headed into the election, that could significantly change the eventual outcome.

"Trump commingled the personal and the national not just on trade questions but across the whole field of national security," he said. "I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my White House tenure that wasn't driven by re-election calculations."

This story was first published on CNN.com, "US-China relations are at an all time low, but Trump still seems unsure how to handle Beijing."
Toby Antony By

Express News Service

KOCHI: The Customs probe into the gold smuggling through the diplomatic channel has identified jewellers in Kozhikode and Malappuram who had bought around 150kg of the yellow metal brought illegally from the UAE. While the NIA claims that the smuggled gold was directed primarily to fund terrorist activities, the Customs probe shows jewellers in North Kerala were the end buyers. The Customs on Wednesday raided several jewellery shops in Malappuram and Kozhikode districts.

We have clear evidence for the involvement of at least four jewellers who had bought the gold. We carried searches in the shops. The people running them will be arrested. Whether these jewellers and agents have any links with any banned organisations will be probed by NIA. We are close to the end buyers of the gold smuggled through the Thiruvananthapuram airport in baggages addressed to a diplomat in the UAE Consulate, a source said.

According to Customs officials, it was KT Rameez of Malappuram and Sandeep Nair of Thiruvananthapuram who had cornered the major share of the profit. The entire operations were planned by the duo. Sandeep, who came to know of the close connection of Swapna Suresh and Sarith P S with UAE diplomats, had recruited them for the illegal activity. Both of them resigned from the UAE Consulate on the directions of Sandeep to carry out smuggling. The duo was close to diplomats and confident of using the latters diplomatic immunity for smuggling, an official said.

The smuggling racket operated in two groups, Rameez being the central point. Rameez, Sandeep, Swapna and Sarith knew each other. Sandeep, Swapna and Sarith did not know the buyers and financiers like Muvattupuzha native Jalaal A M, Malappuram natives Mohammed Shafi and Hamjad Ali. Jalaal arranged the fund from financiers and handed it to Rameez. Rameez would send the money to the network in the UAE through hawala channels. The gold was procured and handed over to Faisal Fareed who would send it via the diplomatic baggage. Swapnas role was to ensure the gold passed through the airport safely and Sarith would pick it up from the airport and hand it to Sandeep. The gold then went to Jalaal via Rameez. It was Jalaal who supplied the gold to jewellers. The profit was distributed among financiers and people like Sarith and Swapna who facilitated the smuggling, the official said.

The Customs took a Malappuram native, suspected to be a financier, into custody. On Wednesday, it produced Jalaal, 38, of Anikkad, Muvattupuzha, Shafi, 37, of Ikkarappady, Malappuram, and Hamjad, 51, of Kondotty, Malappuram, in the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (Economic Offence) Court here which remanded them in judicial custody. The trios arrest was recorded late in the night on Tuesday.

The Customs also produced first accused Sarith in court on completion of his custody period. The agency filed a petition for the custody of Swapna and Sandeep on completion of their NIA custody on July 21.

Sandeeps bag checked

The NIA on Wednesday opened the bag, seized from Sandeep Nair, in front of NIA Court judge P Krishnakumar. The bag was seized when Sandeep was apprehended from Bengaluru on Saturday. Sources said several documents and diaries were recovered from the bag, which was examined from 4pm to 7pm. Other procedures continued till 9pm. The NIA had on Monday sought permission to open the bag in the courts presence, claiming it contained documents that could shed light on the identities of other members of the smuggling network. The NIA on Wednesday also recorded the arrest of Sarith P S and will file a plea seeking his custody on Thursday.
By Express News Service

LUCKNOW: With no let-up in the number of fresh Covid-19 cases in the National Capital Region, a 400-bed dedicated hospital is expected to become functional in Sector 39 of Noida by the end of the month while a new testing laboratory will be set up in Ghaziabad.

Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Amit Mohan Prasad said on Wednesday that the facility was being constructed jointly by Tata Project Limited and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with the state government also pitching in to give momentum to the project.

Prasad said so far 154 beds with oxygen facilities were ready in the general ward. With 24 beds in intensive care units and seven in the emergency ward, besides six ventilators, this hospital would soon be a boon for Covid-19 patients in the district. The hospital will care for moderate Covid cases.

While the district authorities were asked to provide all help to the hospital, the process of identifying well-trained staff and expert doctors for the hospital was also on.

I hope by the end of July this hospital will be fully operational, Prasad said.

Later, during a review meeting with the district administration and health department officials, he also directed the health officials to take up surveillance and ensure immediate tracking of Covid-19 patients.

Giving figures of the 10-day door- to-door special screening drive of Noida, the officer claimed that as many as 10,41,346 houses were tracked during the special surveillance drive that ended on Sunday.

As the campaign was launched with the intent to identify vulnerable people, including those with comorbid medical conditions like cancer, renal disease, diabetes, TB, liver ailments, elderly, pregnant women and children below 10 years of age, samples of around 35,000 people were taken in Noida. Of the 35,000 samples, only 825 had tested Covid-19 positive.

The district has 2,894 beds ready against its identified strength of 5,574 beds.Prasad also said Uttar Pradesh had become the third highest sample testing state after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Having tested 12,77, 241 samples so far, the UP health authorities had ramped up the number by testing over 45,000 samples on a single day during the last 24 hours.

Sharing the details, he said while the state took four months to test the initial 6 lakh samples, the second 6 lakh samples were tested in just 20 days.

Only Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are ahead of us now in daily sample testing. We hope to be at number two position very soon by taking our single day sample testing figure to 50,000, he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-15 23:40:30|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- China is strongly opposed to the British government's decision to ban Huawei's involvement in 5G networks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Wednesday.

Hua made the remarks in response to a request for comment in a press briefing. The British government announced on Tuesday that purchase of new Huawei 5G equipment will be banned after Dec. 31, 2020, and all Huawei equipment will be removed from the country's 5G networks by the end of 2027.

Britain, in collaboration with the United States, discriminates against and excludes Chinese enterprises without any solid evidence of risks, Hua said.

The decision, which blatantly violates principles of market economy and free trade rules, as well as relevant commitments made by Britain, will seriously damage the legitimate interests of Chinese enterprises and the foundation of mutual trust in China-UK cooperation, said the spokesperson.

It is not a matter of an enterprise or an industry, rather, it is a matter of the UK's politicization of commercial and technological issues, Hua said, adding that the decision severely threatens the security of China's investment in Britain and raises concerns over whether China can maintain confidence in the openness, fairness, and non-discrimination of the British market.

With grave concern about the matter, China will make comprehensive and serious assessments, and take all necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate and lawful rights and interests of Chinese enterprises, she stressed. Enditem
ADDISON, Texas, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Authentix, the authority in authentication solutions, shares positive results of continued client partnerships for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Through a long standing commitment to expand resources beyond standard business operations, Authentix has taken lead from its government partners to help deliver a lasting, positive impact on the lives of thousands in many communities in Africa.

According to Authentix's CEO, Kevin McKenna, "As we continue to focus on CSR initiatives, our approach centers around listening, learning, and planning in close collaboration with leaders of important government agencies such as the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Finance, Energy Regulation Board, and countless others who seek to improve environmental and socioeconomic conditions for their citizens." Below highlights some of the collaborative programs completed.

Zambia: Clean Water & Sanitation in Petauke

The Zambian government recognized the lack of access to clean and safe water for many in drought stricken rural regions. Through a partnership with the Zambia Energy Regulation Board (ERB), Authentix supported the rehabilitation of 30 water boreholes and the drilling of six new boreholes and pumping equipment in the Petauke district within the Eastern Province of Zambia. Improved outcomes for local citizens included:

Over 30,000 people with access to clean and safe drinking water.

Reduced the number of non-communicable diseases in the district.

Increased school class attendance as children now have nearby access to water sources.

Improved sanitation facilities at two schools serving thousands of students.

In this ongoing partnership with the ERB, Authentix is continuing the spirit of CSR in 2020 by working with a consortium of partners rehabilitating more than 200 additional water boreholes in the Petauke district. This project will help vastly improve access to clean and safe drinking water for over 80,000 people in the area.

Ghana: New Technology Laboratory in Kongo Senior Secondary School

The Ghana National Petroleum Authority (NPA) expressed a need to help the Kongo Senior Secondary School, the only high school in the area with over 2,200 students. Authentix collaborated with the NPA to provide the secondary school with 21 new, fully networked computers with Internet access and also enabled the installation of a reference library.

In collaboration with government clients on multiple continents, Authentix has helped make a significant social impact by addressing local needs in health, education, and the environment and will continue to focus available resources for these important CSR projects.

About Authentix

As the authority in authentication solutions, Authentix thrives in supply chain complexity. Authentix provides advanced authentication solutions for governments, central banks and commercial companies, ensuring local economies grow, banknote security remains intact and commercial products have robust market opportunities. The Authentix partnership approach and proven sector expertise inspires proactive innovation, helping customers mitigate risks to promote revenue growth and gain competitive advantage. Headquartered in Addison, Texas USA, Authentix, Inc. has offices in North America, Europe, Middle East, and Africa serving clients worldwide. Authentix is a registered trademark of Authentix, Inc. For more information, visit https://www.authentix.com.

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China Says UK's Ban on Huawei is About 'Politicisation of Commercial Issues' Not 'National Security'

Sputnik News

07:26 GMT 15.07.2020(updated 08:56 GMT 15.07.2020)

The United States has been pressuring its NATO partners for some time to abstain from buying 5G tech from Huawei amid concerns that the company could engage in espionage, something the company denies. The UK announced at the start of the year that it will allow Huawei to participate in its 5G rollout, but soon backtracked on its earlier decision.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Wednesday that Britain's decision to ban Huawei from national 5G rollout was about the "politicisation of commercial and technological issues" and not "national security", as quoted by Reuters.

The Foreign Ministry representative also added that China strongly opposed the UK's move in relation to Huawei, and assured that the country will take all necessary measures to protect its interests.

Earlier Reuters reported that China's Foreign Ministry said that US President Trump's comments on tech giant Huawei confirmed the fact that the latest ban on the company was not about "national security" but rather "political manipulation".

Donald Trump said on Tuesday night in relation to Boris Johnson's recent crusade on Huawei: "We convinced many countries, many countries - and I did this myself for the most part - not to use Huawei because we think it's an unsafe security risk, it's a big security risk."

British Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden announced on 14 July that the United Kingdom will ban the purchase of 5G infrastructure from the Chinese tech giant starting from the end of 2020, arguing that the decision was about "the long-term security of our telecoms".

Trump praised the UK's "U-turn" on Huawei, however, his comments were later criticised by the UK's Health Secretary Matt Hancock as "claiming credit" for London's assesment of risks associated with the company.

"We all know Donald Trump, don't we? But I think this is a sensible decision," Hancock said on Wednesday morning.

"All sorts of people can try to claim credit for the decision but this was based on a technical assessment by the National Cyber Security Centre about how we can have the highest quality 5G systems in the future," he then clarified.

The UK's decision was met with dissapointment by the Chinese ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming:

"Disappointing and wrong decision by the UK on Huawei. It has become questionable whether the UK can provide an open, fair and non-discriminatory business environment for companies from other countries", the ambassador wrote on Twitter.

Ed Brewster, a spokesperson for Huawei UK, sent a similar vibe with his statement regarding Boris Johnson government's move:

"This disappointing decision is bad news for anyone in the UK with a mobile phone. It threatens to move Britain into the digital slow lane, push up bills and deepen the digital divide," he said.

"Regrettably our future in the UK has become politicized, this is about US trade policy and not security," he said, similarly to what has now been argued by the Foreign Ministry. "Over the past 20 years, Huawei has focused on building a better connected UK. As a responsible business, we will continue to support our customers as we have always done."

At the start of this year, the UK government permitted Huawei to take part in the build-up of its national fifth-generation-technology infrastructure, despite strong pressure from the Trump administration to renounce these plans. The United States insisted that the decision would compromise the country's security and intelligence-sharing between the members of the Five Eyes alliance, which also includes Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The US had already banned Huawei last year from working with American businesses, cautioning that the company could conduct espionage on behalf of Beijing, a claim that has been denied by the company and the Chinese government.

The UK is now expected to stop using Huawei tech in its 5G networks by 31 December and remove all the existing equipment by 2027.

A Sputnik

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While the Sino-Indian de-escalation at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh is still, as external affairs minister S. Jaishankar said, a work in progress, China as a factor in India-Iran relations became more manifest by two developments.

One, the New York Times published a leaked draft of a Sino-Iran sweeping economic and security partnership, encompassing $400 billion in Chinese investment over next 25 years.

Two, reports that Iran was dropping India in the development of the Chabahar-Zahedan rail project, a showpiece of Afghanistan-Iran-India trilateral cooperation.

China had earlier too ramped up its Iranian presence whenever India, Japan and the European Union reduced their engagement after 2006s UN sanctions over Irans nuclear programme. But the scale and timing of the current foray is significant.

Former President Barack Obama changed Americas Iran policy from confrontation to calibrated engagement, realising the fight against ISIS in Syria-Iraq was unwinnable without Iran. This even involved Washington endorsing the P5+Germany 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

Unsurprisingly, the India-Iran agreement on Chabahar port, strategically located outside the Persian Gulf, was signed in May 2016 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Iran. This included the construction of the Chabahar-Zahedan railway line for improving connectivity with Afghanistan and Central Asia.

In May 2018, US President Donald Trump abandoned the nuclear deal with Iran, called the Joint Comprehensive Programme of Action (JCPOA), imposing comprehensive sanctions to build maximum pressure. India always implemented the UN-mandated sanctions against Iran but avoided unilateral ones by the United States.

Mr Modis wooing of President Trump and his unwillingness to upset a truculent leader led to quietly adopting the US-mandated trade and investment boycott of Iran.

Concomitantly, India also strategically engaged Saudi Arabia and the UAE, both US allies. Mr Modis personalised diplomacy targeted Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, despite the latters unsavoury image.

Tehran would have noted this. Indias abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir in August 2019, and the reshaping of J&K, also riled Iran.

On August 21, 2019 Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tweeted: Were concerned about Muslims situation in #Kashmir. We have good relations with India, but we expect the Indian government to adopt a just policy. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani separately said: Muslims of Kashmir must be able to use their legal rights and interests to be able to live in peace. Thus, geopolitics and the BJPs domestic political agenda converged to blight India-Iran ties.

The New York Times reports that the new and comprehensive cooperation agreement between Iran and China was on offer since the 2016 Iran visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Iran was still unsure about US policy under a new President. The Trump presidency chose total confrontation with Iran, believing Iran would buckle. Former American NSA John Bolton, in The Room Where It Happened, recounts Mr Trumps emotional vacillations and his Iran policy.

In mid-2019 Mr Trump half-heartedly backed Japanese PM Shinzo Abes proposal, before the G-7 summit in Japan, to play peacemaker between the US and Iran. Mr Bolton writes that Mr Abes idea was acceptable only if they make the deal, meaning not a concession now, but only after Iran had given up nuclear weapons.

Mr Abe failed as he went empty-handed asking Iran to accept a new nuclear deal and curtailment of its regional influence. Mr Abe recounted to Mr Trump that Khamenei took notes as Abe spoke but (finally) said he had no response.

Which came via a tweet, even before Mr Abe boarded his plane, that Khamenei recognised the goodwill and seriousness of Mr Abe but did not consider Mr Trump as a person deserving to exchange messages with. Mr Trump privately called Khameneis remark nasty and tweeted in response that a fresh deal with Iran was impossible as they are not ready, and neither are we.

Thus, with the Iranian economy under duress, Iran saw a comprehensive engagement with China for investment, trade and defence cooperation as its only lifeline. Although Iran greatly values strategic independence, necessity overpowered caution. Iranian foreign minister Javed Zarif was in China last October to finalise the agreement.

However, the Covid pandemic in China and later in Iran this year delayed its conclusion. It lists nearly 100 projects, proposes three free trade zones in Maku in northwest Iran, Abadan in the southeast close to Shatt al-Arab and on Qeshm island, which would challenge GCC dominance of trade and manufacturing in the Gulf.

Of concern to India should be the proposed port at Jask, westward of Chabahar and next to the Strait of Hormuz, through which transit not only oil but the US Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain.

Thus, with existing control of Gwadar, its likely presence in Chabahar and now perhaps exclusive use of Jask, China presents maritime challenge to the United States and India in the Indian Ocean.

Chinas continental influence now straddles from Himalayas to the Gulf. But the agreement may face domestic hurdles as it requires approval of Irans Parliament, dominated by radical factions. Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called it a suspicious deal.

The leak of the 18-page document may be a deliberate Iranian ploy to warn the US and Europeans to rethink their policy of maximum pressure without any incentives and relief.

For China, this ambitious gambit supplements its Belt and Road Initiative and flows from its post-Covid aggressiveness in Hong Kong, South and East China Seas, and the Himalayas.

The US has retaliated by sending two aircraft carrier groups through Chinese-claimed waters in the South China Sea, rejecting Chinese maritime claims as bogus. Japan has pushed back around Senkaku Islands and India, caught unawares, has belatedly mirrored the Chinese buildup at the Ladakh LAC.

Although Iran says India can join the Chabahar railway project later, calculating perhaps that after the November US presidential elections, a more pragmatic leadership may emerge. It needs an India acting independently as a counterweight to China.

Meanwhile, a series of explosions ripping through Irans nuclear facility at Natanz and defence installations near Teheran indicates some new US-Israel cyber or kinetic action to hobble Irans nuclear programme.

But after the Ladakh standoff, a neo-Cold War alignment of China-Russia-Iran against the US and its friends and allies is emerging. India must think strategically without refracting Indian foreign policy through the prism of domestic politics.

Otherwise, the Chinese containment of India in South Asia and now through a wider arc that includes Afghanistan and the Gulf will only exacerbate.
A District Court at Mamponteng in the Kwabre East Municipality of the Ashanti Region has remanded into police custody the main suspect over the killing of an Uber driver.

The 23-year old, Emmanuel Awuah, has been charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

Although his plea was not taken on his first appearance in court on Thursday, 16th July 2020, he earlier confessed to killing the deceased driver after he was arrested by police at Tafo-Pankrono.

Police say the deceased, Thomas Danso who owed the suspect an amount of GHS 1,200 was unable to repay after he was approached by the suspect on several occasions to settle his debt.

The development angered the suspect who allegedly arranged with his accomplice and told the driver he was engaging his services to Nhyinahin.

The nearly decomposed body of the driver was later found in a thick forest around Nhyinahin and his vehicle was later spotted with friends of the suspect after the owner of the vehicle had lodged a complaint with the police at Tafo-Pankrono over the matter.

The accused after allegedly committing the act with his accomplice who is currently at large took off the registration number plate of the vehicle and attempted to change its chassis number.

Prosecutors prayed the court to issue a bench warrant for the arrest of the accused person's accomplice to aid police in their investigations.

Prosecutors also asked for some time from the court to enable them to forward the docket to the Attorney General's office for advice.

The court presided over by His Worship Thomas Boadi Soyori remanded the accused person into police custody to re-appear on 3rd August 2020.

---citinewsroom
We have a situation here where there is a unique stub on every ballot  if the voter tears that off, then we cannot count that ballot, she said. So one of the things were going to be doing is making it explicit on our ballots that they should not do that.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 18:56:33|Editor: huaxia

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TOKYO, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks closed lower Thursday as investors took profits amid concerns the market may be overheating and due to rising domestic and overseas COVID-19 cases, but solid Chinese growth data helped trim losses.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average lost 175.14 points, or 0.76 percent, from Wednesday to close the day at 22,770.36.

The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, dropped 10.45 points, or 0.66 percent, to finish at 1,579.06.

Profit-taking was pervasive in early trade, local brokers said, following the Nikkei's rise the previous day, with a comparatively firm yen against the U.S. dollar weighing on exporters and encouraging selling.

Equity strategists said there was an air of caution about the possibility of the market overheating and amid an absence of positive cues ahead, as the market's rise would likely remain capped due to the pandemic, profits were ripe for taking, they said.

"There was a high degree of caution over the overheated market among investors," Shingo Ide, chief equity strategist at the NLI Research Institute, was quoted as saying.

Losses extended in later trade on concerns over rising coronavirus cases at home and abroad hampering the global recovery from the pandemic, analysts also said.

Tokyo's COVID-19 cases hitting a record 286 on Thursday as indicated would be the case by Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike during trading hours, spooked investors, traders here said, amid concerns over the virus' continued resurgence here leading to the the possibility of business and social restrictions being reissued.

"As COVID-19 cases continue to rise at home and abroad, investors are now having doubts about whether economic recovery will actually happen as expected by the market," Shuji Hosoi, senior market strategist at Daiwa Securities in Tokyo, was quoted as saying.

Those doubts aside, official data showing China's economy rebounded in the second quarter helped trim losses and raised hopes that other major economies could also follow China's recovery from the pandemic.

By the close of play, pharmaceutical, electric power and gas, and information and communication issues comprised those that declined the most.

Semiconductor issues lost ground, with Tokyo Electron dropping 2.5 percent, while Screen Holdings fell 4.2 percent. Advantest Corp., meanwhile, ended the day 2.7 percent lower.

The yen's appreciation against the U.S. dollar sent exporter issues lower, with TDK losing 1.6 percent, while NEC dropped 1.4 percent. Fujitsu, for its part, retreated 2.2 percent by the close.

Bucking the downward trend, Nissan Motor accelerated 6.1 percent, after unveiling its Ariya electric sport utility vehicle (EV) a day earlier. Ariya, which features autonomous driving technology, is Nissan's first new EV rollout in around 10 years.

Issues that fell outpaced those that rose by 1,387 to 721 on the First Section, while 63 ended the day unchanged.

On the main section on Thursday, 1.475 billion shares changed hands, rising from Wednesday's volume of 1.245 billion shares.

The turnover on the penultimate trading day of the week came to 2.459 trillion yen (22.954 billion U.S. dollars). Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 07:51:22|Editor: huaxia

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Traders work in the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., Nov. 7, 2013. Social network giant Twitter Inc. began trading under the symbol "TWTR" on the New York Stock Exchange and closed at 44.9 dollars on Thursday. (Xinhua/Wang Lei)

The attackers had fully taken over the victims' accounts, and also changed the email address associated with the account to make it harder for the real user to regain access.



SAN FRANCISCO, July 15 (Xinhua) -- A number of high-profile Twitter accounts were simultaneously hacked on Wednesday by attackers to spread a cryptocurrency scam, according to a report by Tech Crunch.

Twitter has responded to the incident in the afternoon. "We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly," Twitter Support said in a tweet, adding that users may be unable to tweet or reset passwords while they review and address the incident.

The scammer's website was quickly pulled offline. Kristaps Ronka, chief executive of Namesilo, the domain registrar used by the scammers, told Tech Crunch that the company suspended the domain "on the first report" it received.

The accounts being hacked included technology company @Apple, ride-hailing company @Uber, Democratic presidential candidate @joebiden, Former president @BarackObama, Amazon co-founder @jeffbezos, Tesla and SpaceX founder @elonmusk, Microsoft founder @billgates, and legendary investor @WarrenBuffet. Some of the accounts were quickly back under their owners' control and the tweets sent out when those accounts were compromised were quickly deleted, the report said.

According to the report by Tech Crunch, security researchers found that the attackers had fully taken over the victims' accounts, and also changed the email address associated with the account to make it harder for the real user to regain access.

Tech Crunch said in the report that these kinds of scams are common. Scammers take over high-profile Twitter accounts using breached or leaked passwords and post messages that encourage users to post their cryptocurrency funds to a particular address under the guise that they'll double their "investment." 
New Delhi: Markets pared nearly all gains but ended marginally higher on Wednesday. BSE IT, teck, FMCG, healthcare, metal and auto indices ended up to 4.89 per cent higher, while telecom, energy, oil and gas and realty indices lost up to 3.63 percent.

Sensex closed 18.75 points or 0.05 percent higher at 36,051.81 while the NSE Nifty finished 10.85 points or 0.10 percent higher at 10,618.20.

Here are stocks in focus on July 15, 2020

Infosys

The country's second-largest IT services major Infosys on Wednesday reported a 12.4 per cent rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 4,272 crore for June 2020 quarter. The company had posted a net profit (before minority interest) of Rs 3,802 crore in the year-ago period, Infosys said in a BSE filing.

L&T Infotech

Larsen & Toubro's Infotech arm LTI on Wednesday posted a 17.06 per cent growth in its June quarter net profit at Rs 416.4 crore but acknowledged that it is a challenging time for the industry at present.

When compared to the previous quarter, the profit declined 2.59 per cent as conditions became tough.

Banking stocks

Appreciating the decision of Indian banks to raise fresh capital, S&P Global Ratings on Tuesday said the move will provide stability to the institutions during these rocky times and help them withstand the economic slump amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Indian banks that have expressed an intention to raise equity include ICICI Bank (Rs 15,000 crore), Axis Bank (Rs 15,000 crore), Yes Bank (Rs 15,000 crore), State Bank of India (Rs 20,000 crore), Bank of Baroda (Rs 9,000 crore), and Punjab National Bank (Rs 7,000 crore), said S&P.

Sugar companies

A group of ministers, headed by Home Minister Amit Shah, on Wednesday recommended increasing the minimum selling price (MSP) of sugar by Rs 2 to 33 per kg to ensure mills clear the pending cane arrears of around Rs 20,000 crore at the earliest, news report said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 16:51:58|Editor: huaxia

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MANILA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine government on Thursday hit back at the American lawmakers for interfering in its internal affairs, saying the Philippines is no longer a colony of the United States.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque made the statement in a televised briefing in reacting to the recent move of the 50 American lawmakers who sent a letter to Philippine embassy in the United States urging the Philippine government to scrap the anti-terror law that Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte signed on July 3.

Roque reminded the U.S. lawmakers that the Philippines is an independent country that has long ceased to be a colony of the Americans.

"Stop interfering with the Philippine affairs, you are no longer our colonial masters," Roque said.

Roque reminded the Americans of the atrocities they committed against the Filipinos during the American occupation, including the killing of innocent civilians in Eastern Samar in central Philippines in 1901.

"To the congressmen who signed it, we have a working judicial system and we can rely on our judicial system to rule on the constitutionality of the anti-terror law," Roque said.

On July 3, Duterte signed into bill a new anti-terror law that strengthens the country's efforts to combat domestic terrorism. The law will take effect on July 18. Enditem
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Defence Minister Rajnath to visit Ladakh on Friday to assess military preparedness

India

oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P

New Delhi, July 16: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will on Friday visit Ladakh to review military preparedness and take stock of the developments along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), people aware of the developments said on Wednesday.

The Union Defence Minister will be accompanied by Chief of Army Staff General MM Naravane during Rajnath Singh's first visit to Ladakh after the stand-off between the Indian and Chinese armies began in May.

CSG reviews progress as positives noticed in India-China military commander talks

According to reports, the government's high-powered China Study Group (CSG) on Wednesday reviewed the latest developments in eastern Ladakh, with focus on the next stage of disengagement between the Indian and Chinese armies following a 14-hour meeting between senior military commanders.

Meanwhile, it is also said that the Defence Minister will visit forward areas in Jammu and Kashmir on July 18. Naravane will accompany the minister.

Discussed India-China border clash with Jaishankar, we speak 'frequently: Pompeo

Bihar bridge collapse: Rs 263 crores washed away in 29 days, who is responsible? | Oneindia News

However, the military is keeping a strict vigil on the western front to deter Pakistan and prevent what could turn out to be a two-front conflict.

It can be seen that the minister will be in Ladakh two weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an unscheduled visit to the sector on July 3. PM Modi then declared that the "era of expansionism" is over, sending a strong signal to China about India's determination to defend its borders.
The government is threatening to look into the activities of all North Korean defector groups registered with the Unification Ministry, according to sources on Wednesday.

The measure comes after it filed a police complaint against two defector groups and took steps to revoke their charitable status for sending propaganda flyers across the border. The North Korean regime flew into a rage over the flyering campaign and blew up the inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong.

One of the two is Fighters for a Free North Korea led by Park Sang-hak, the most prominent leaflet campaigner. The government accuses it of "inciting cross-border tensions" and violating security laws.

A source said that the ministry recently notified registered defector groups that it will visit them next month to inspect if they are operating according to their stated purposes.

The ministry claimed this is an "across-the-board inspection of all registered organizations," which number over 400.

Defectors were dumbfounded. Seo Jae-pyong, the director of an activist group in Seoul, said, "This the first time that I've ever heard of such an inspection since I began working here 11 years ago."

If their charitable status is revoked, activists will have difficulty collecting donations because that will make them unable to open bank accounts in the name of their organizations and provide tax benefits for their donors.

"We could understand it if it was a regular audit. But they've never done this before," another activist said. "It seems that they're attempting to cut off all sources of funding for defector groups that float leaflets across the border."

A ministry official admitted that this is not a regular audit but claimed defector groups "aren't the only targets."
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 16)  President Rodrigo Duterte will not let the Ayala and Manny Pangilinan business groups off the hook unless they return the "rightful amount" of money to their water concession consumers.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque revealed on Thursday that the criminal charges against the two companies that run Maynilad and Manila Water were ready to be filed before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Duterte can be recalled to have publicly apologized to the two corporations after they donated big amounts of money for the countrys COVID-19 response.

READ: Duterte apologizes to Ayala, Manny Pangilinan

According to Roque, Pangilinan donated 6.5 billion, while the Ayala Group contributed around  9.5 billion.

However, Roque was quick to say that the two companies wont go off the hook just because of their big donations.

Sabi pa rin ng presidente, kinakailangan amendahan ang water concession agreement. Kinakailangan ibalik ang dapat ibalik sa taong bayan.

[Translation: The president said that they still need to amend the water concession agreement. Return what needs to be returned to the people.]

The Ayala Group declined to comment on the spokespersons statement, while the MVP Group did not respond when CNN Philippines reached out to the two firms separately.

Duterte berated the two companies in the past for its onerous agreements with the government, and threatened to file plunder and other criminal charges against the two.

READ: Duterte unlikely to sue water firms after apology to Ayala, Pangilinan business groups  Roque
SYDNEY and BLUE BELL, Pa., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS) today announced that Foregenix, a leading cybersecurity company, has joined the Unisys Security Global Channel Partner Program to offer the Unisys Stealth suite of security solutions and services for Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific.

Stealth provides organizations "Always On" security by establishing a software-defined perimeter that creates a Zero Trust environment. Stealth reduces attack surfaces by creating dynamic, identity-driven microsegments called Communities of Interest, separating trusted systems, users and data from the untrusted. Encryption between endpoints cloaks assets from unauthorized users, while Dynamic Isolation capabilities quickly isolate devices or users at the first sign of compromise.

Stealth was recently recertified by the U.S. National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP), recognized by governments in 31 countries worldwide including Australia and New Zealand, to protect critical data in national security systems.

Rick Mayhew, vice president and general manager, Unisys Asia Pacific, said, "With their expertise in cybersecurity risk and governance, Foregenix sees the need to reduce organizations' reliance on traditional VPN's and firewalls as they fail to secure and scale at levels needed for today's business model. Adding Unisys Stealth to their arsenal, Foregenix will enable their customers to achieve compliance while reducing cost and complexity."

Foregenix Asia Pacific Managing Director Raymond Simpson said, "Companies may look to network segmentation when trying to minimize scope and risk, in meeting certain compliance regimes. However, most companies we consult for have great challenges with network segmentation, due to the significant cost, time and effort that goes into such changes. We encourage any organization that is trying to leverage micro-segmentation technology to minimize their compliance scope and increase security to seriously look at Stealth."

For more information about Unisys Stealth, please visit https://www.unisys.com/stealth.

About Foregenix

Foregenix is a leading independent cyber security company with a focus on keeping the world's payment systems secure. With a decade of experience in the Payment Card Industry (PCI), it helps merchants, payment processors, banks and other operators to ensure they are securing their environments effectively while complying with industry security standards. Foregenix works with clients in the Fintech, retail, e-commerce, hospitality, travel and insurance sectors, as well as banks and governments globally. Its specialists are drawn from backgrounds including law enforcement, counterterrorism and digital security. For more information go to www.foregenix.com.

About Unisys

Unisys is a global information technology company that builds high-performance, security-centric solutions for the most digitally demanding businesses and governments. Unisys offerings include security software and services; digital transformation and workplace services; industry applications and services; and innovative software operating environments for high-intensity enterprise computing. For more information on how Unisys builds better outcomes securely for its clients across the government, financial services and commercial markets, visit www.unisys.com.

Follow Unisys on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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Unisys and other Unisys products and services mentioned herein, as well as their respective logos, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Unisys Corporation. Any other brand or product referenced herein is acknowledged to be a trademark or registered trademark of its respective holder.



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A Bangladesh hospital owner accused of issuing thousands of fake negative coronavirus test results to patients at his two clinics was arrested Wednesday while trying to flee to India in a burqa, police said. The arrest marked the end of a nine-day manhunt for Mohammad Shahed over allegations of giving fake certificates to patients saying they were virus-free without even testing them. Shahed, 42, was one of more than a dozen people detained by authorities over the past few days in connection with the scam. Experts warn the false documents has worsened the already dire virus situation in the country of 168 million people by casting doubt about the veracity of certificates issued by clinics. "He was arrested from the bank of a border river as he was trying to flee to India. He was wearing a burqa," Rapid Action Battalion spokesman Colonel Ashique Billah told AFP. "His hospitals carried out 10,500 coronavirus tests, out of which 4,200 were genuine and the rest, 6,300 test reports, were given without conducting tests." Shahed is also accused of charging for the certificates and virus treatments even though he had agreed with the government that his hospitals in the capital Dhaka would provide free care. A well-known doctor and her husband were also arrested by police and accused of issuing thousands of fake virus certificates at their Dhaka laboratory. The alleged scams could badly hurt migrant workers seeking to go abroad and whose remittances are key to Bangladesh's economy, said Shakirul Islam of migrant rights group OKUP. Italy last week suspended flights to Rome from Bangladesh to stem the spate of coronavirus cases within the community. Several passengers arriving from Dhaka had tested positive for COVID-19. "Some of the Bangladeshis who were tested positive in Italy were allegedly carrying negative COVID certificates from Bangladesh," Islam claimed. "The government must ensure quality of COVID-19 tests in local laboratories for the sake of its overseas job market." Nearly $19 billion was sent back to Bangladesh by an estimated 12 million migrant workers last year, according to the central bank. Bangladesh has reported just over 193,000 infections and 2,457 deaths so far. But medical experts say the real figures are likely much higher because so little testing has been carried out. The impoverished country has restarted economic activities after lifting a months-long virus lockdown at the end of May, even as the number of cases continues to rise.
Jordan will open its international airport next month, according to the state-run news agency. It is the latest sign the Hashemite Kingdom is opening back up amid its success fighting COVID-19.

Jordans Minister of State for Media Affairs Amjad Adaileh told Al-Mamlaka today that Queen Alia International Airport in Amman will resume international flights in the first or second week of August.

The airport will accept flights from countries where the virus risk is relatively low, such as Germany, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Thailand. Jordanians will continue to be repatriated and there will be health-related restrictions in place one the airport opens, including possible health checks for arriving passengers, said Adaileh.

The Jordanian government wants to reopen the country for tourism as revenues from the sector have plummeted during the pandemic. Jordan received a Safe Travels stamp from the World Travel and Tourism Council this month.

The news of the airports reopening follows the lifting of other restrictions. In June, the government allowed domestic tourism to resume with the reopening of hotels and restaurants among other measures.

Jordan has been hailed for its success in fighting the coronavirus. The country has only registered around 1,200 cases  far fewer than its neighbors in Israel, Iraq and the Gulf. However, some Jordanians are critical of the economic impacts of the restrictions the government imposed.

Many countries in the Middle East closed their airports to most flights amid the crisis, but several have since reopened. Lebanon and Sudan both reopened their airports for international passenger flights in July.
The Ministry of Industry and Trades (MOIT) report on industrial production and trade activities in H1 showed that Vietnams great achievements in containing the epidemic were highly appreciated by the international community.

The Ministry of Industry and Trades (MOIT) report on industrial production and trade activities in the first six months of the year showed that Vietnams great achievements in containing the epidemic were highly appreciated by the international community.

This is expected to help Vietnam attract more foreign investments. especially when multi-national groups are considering leaving China to disperse risks.



Theres much information about the worlds technology groups planning to relocate their production bases to Vietnam, the report said. LG has relocated its production line from South Korea to Hai Phong City."



Nikkei reported that Apple plans to make 3-4 million AirPods in Vietnam in Q2, or nearly 1/3 of total AirPods output. Foxconn has set up a factory in Bac Giang. Panasonic Vietnam plans to begin manufacturing refrigerators and washing machines from September.



Regarding the manufacturing of electronics, computers and optical products, MOIT said though it was difficult to import components and accessories from China in the first months of the year because of Covid-19, the electronic industry still obtained great achievements in both industrial production index and export turnover.

As Samsungs global turnover and output are expected to decrease because of the epidemic, Samsung Vietnam predicted that its export turnover would fall to $45.5 billion in 2020 from $51.38 billion in 2019.

As Samsungs global turnover and output are expected to decrease because of the epidemic, Samsung Vietnam predicted that its export turnover would fall to $45.5 billion in 2020 from $51.38 billion in 2019.



After experiencing dark days, many industries have begun recovering.



The textile and garment industry in the first six months of the year faced problmd because the supply chain was disrupted when COVID-19 broke out in China, while partners cut orders and asked for delivery delays. Orders were mostly cut or delayed in May and June.



However, analysts believe that the industry will recover in Q2. The US, South Korea, Japan and Europe have loosened social distancing and consumer demand has been increasing again. Many Vietnamese companies have begun exporting products under contracts signed before.



In principle, garment exports increase most sharply in the last months of year as demand for garment products increases during Christmas and New Year holidays.



The footwear industry has suffered from both the lack of input materials as imports were interrupted, and it did not receive orders from importers. As a result, export turnover in H1 decreased by 6.7 percent compared with the same period last year.

With the EVFTA taking effect, footwear export turnover is expected to increase again in Q3 and Q4.



MOIT reported that import and export turnover in H1 decreased by 2.1 percent compared with H1 2019 to $238.39 billion.

Luong Bang

What Vietnam needs to do to attract quality FDI after Covid-19 Speeding up infrastructure development and improving ease of doing business and vocational training are among things Vietnam can do to make itself more attractive to foreign investors post-Covid-19, according to VinaCapital.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A 23-year-old man with a criminal record and previous ties to a crew on the North Shore was arrested Tuesday in connection with a recent shooting in West Brighton.

Charleston Forkpa, of Park Hill Avenue in Clifton, was charged with assault, attempted assault, criminal use of a firearm, criminal possession of a firearm and reckless endangerment, according to a written statement from the NYPD.

Police responded just after 3 a.m. Monday to a report of a 36-year-old man shot in both legs, a police spokeswoman said.

The victim was transported to a local hospital in stable condition. A law enforcement source said Wednesday the victim has a home address in New Brighton.

Police previously said Forkpa was affiliated with OTA (Only the Africans), a crew of young people in the Park Hill and Stapleton sections of Staten Island, not technically labeled a gang by authorities but tied to multiple past incidents of violence and feuds with other neighborhoods.

Police and anti-violence groups for years have kept tabs on crews laying claim to different sections of the North Shore, including New Brighton, Mariners Harbor and West Brighton.

In 2015, Forkpa was charged in connection with a shots fired report in New Brighton after detectives found him moments later with a loaded .22 caliber handgun on the rear passenger floor of his vehicle near the intersection of Jersey Street and Hendricks Avenue, according to Advance records.

Forkpa also was arrested in 2015 in connection with what authorities deemed a gang-related beating and stabbing of a man. The following year, he was sentenced to five years in prison for his role in those incidents.

Four other shootings on the boroughs North Shore since June 21 remain unsolved, police said Wednesday. Victims in those shootings were all young men, ranging in ages from 24 to 36.

District Attorney Michael E. McMahon, numerous Staten Island elected officials, anti-violence community leaders and Assistant Chief Kenneth Corey, the NYPDs borough commander, issued a joint statement Tuesday taking a stand against a recent surge in citywide gun violence the group called terrible and disconcerting.

Citywide, the number of shootings are up considerably compared to the same time in 2019. Overall, violent crimes are occurring on an average pace when compared to yearly totals over the past decade.
GOP Senator Josh Hawley accused a St. Louis prosecutor of 'targeting' the couple who brandished an AR-15 at Black Lives Matter protesters marching past their mansion, and asked the Justice Department to open an investigation.

In a letter to Attorney General William Barr, Hawley asked that a federal civil rights investigation be launched into the conduct of St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner over her investigation into Mark and Patricia McCloskey.

Hawley claimed that Gardner, a Democrat, 'has abused her power in seizing the McCloskey's guns, investigating the family, and pursuing a possible indictment of the McCloskeys.'

GOP Senator Josh Hawley (left) on Thursday claimed an investigation led by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner into the McCloskey family was an 'abuse of power'

Patricia and Mark McCloskey (left to right) made headlines in June after brandishing firearms at Black Lives Matter protesters marching past their St. Louis mansion

In June, Mark and Patricia stood outside their luxurious St.Louis mansion while brandishing firearms at peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters who were marching through the private neighborhood.

The demonstrators were initially unconcerned with the couple and were marching to the home of St Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson.

The couple, claiming to fear for their lives, stood on their front patio with Mark holding an AR-15 rifle and Patricia pointing a handgun at civilians.

Footage of the incident was shared to social media prompting swift backlash with authorities raiding the couple's home in search of weapons and an investigation was opened by Gardner.

It's reported that an indictment for Mark and Patricia is believed to be imminent.

After footage of the incident hit social media, an investigation was opened into the McCloskey's and an indictment is reportedly imminent

Local police previously said the lawyer couple would not face charges, but local Republican leaders have called on President Trump to intervene as Gardner's office continues to investigate the matter.

According to Hawley, Gardner's actions violate the Second Amendment and there is 'no question' that the couple has the right to bear arms.

Missouri Gun Laws According to the Gun Law Scorecard by Giffords Law Center, Missouri was given a 'F' grade and is ranked number 46 on gun law strength. In Missouri, residents are allowed 'open carry' laws and are not required to do the following: Register firearms

Obtain a purchase permit for rifles, shotguns or handguns

Obtain owner licensing for possession of a rifle, shotgun or handgun

Must notify officers of firearm possession

A permit for vehicle carry The 'Castle Doctrine' in Missouri states that if a person in under attack or fears for their life, they have the right to use force as protection. The Castle Doctrine can be used when civilians reasonably believe that physical force is necessary to defend themselves from an oncoming attack. Or to prevent a individual from stealing, tampering or causing property damage. Sources: The NRA Institute for Legislative Action, Guns to Carry and FindLaw Advertisement

'There is no question under Missouri law that the McCloskeys had the right to own and use their firearms to protect themselves from threatened violence, and that any criminal prosecution for these actions is legally unsound,' wrote Hawley.

'The only possible motivation for the investigation, then, is a politically motivated attempt to punish this family for exercising their Second Amendment rights.

'The Second Amendment is not a second-class right. No family should face the threat of harassment or malicious prosecution for exercising that right.

'The Department of Justice must ensure that all Americans' rights are protected from this kind of abuse of power.'

Hawley doubled down on his stance Thursday morning where he once again called Garnder's investigation an 'abuse of power.'

The sentiment was echoed by GOP Missouri Governor Mike Parson, who said during a news briefing that the McCloskey's had 'every right to protect their property.'

Parson defended the couple saying they were legally allowed to brandish their arms under the states 'castle doctrine', Missouris 'stand-your-ground' law that allows property owners to use force against intruders if property owners fear imminent harm.

He revealed he spoke with Trump before the briefing and the president 'doesn't like what he sees and the way these people are being treated.'

He added that Barr 'was represented on the call' and he believes both will 'take a look' at the McCloskey case.

'The president said that he would do everything he could within his powers to help with this situation and he would be taking action to do that,' Parson said.

During an interview with conservative news website Townhall, Trump declared that any attempt to prosecute the couple would be a 'disgrace.'

'When you look at St. Louis, where two people, they came out. They were going to be beat up badly if they were lucky. If they were lucky. They were going to be beat up badly and the house was going to be totally ransacked and probably burned down like they tried to burn down churches,' Trump said.

'And these people were standing there, never used it and they were legal, the weapons. And now I understand somebody local, they want to prosecute these people. It's a disgrace,' he added.

Gov. Parson said he spoke with Trump just before his press conference Tuesday and the president 'doesnt like what he sees and the way these people are being treated'

Trump said charges against the McCloskeys would be a 'disgrace' in an interview on Tuesday

Since nationwide protests against police brutality and racism in May, Trump has unequivocally sided with law enforcement and done little to hide his displeasure with the Black Lives Matter movement.

But Gardner's office has denounced the allegations and she claimed that Hawley was, in fact, targeting her in his latest move.

On Wednesday, Gardner shared a Washington Post article that highlighted the apparent attack.

'She has received racist attacks and death threats that have worsened as President Trump has thrown his support behind the couple,' the caption read.

In one incident, a note was reportedly left on Gardner's car that read 'I hope you hang from a tree.'

Kim Gardner shared a tweet on Wednesday claimed that she was being targeted by President Trump and Gov. Parson

In another, she reportedly received an email that read: 'It is YOU who are the racist, unfairly targeting white McCloskeys for exercising their 2nd Amendment rights while your people stormed their property. U really need to be run out of town you black b****!

A Twitter account for the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office called the allegations made by Hawley 'baseless.'

'Baseless. Our office will continue to investigate this matter, and will not be bullied by a sitting U.S. Senator or anyone else,' the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office wrote on Twitter.

In a statement on Tuesday, Gardner leveled a harsh response to both Parson's and Trump.

The St. Louis Circuit Attorney Office called the allegations hurled by Hawley 'baseless' and refused to be 'bullied by a sitting U.S. Senator or anyone else'

Gardner released a statement on Tuesday leveled at President Trump and Gov. Parson's for attempting to intervene in her investigation

Gardner (pictured): 'It is unbelievable the Governor of the state of Missouri would seek advice from one of the most divisive leaders in our generation to overpower the discretion of a locally elected prosecutor'

'Today, both the Governor and Donald Trump came after me for doing my job and investigating a case,' wrote Gardner.

'While they continue to play politics with the handling of this matter, spreading misinformation and distorting the truth, I refuse to do so.'

Gardner added that she is reviewing all available facts and that the law will be applied to the McCloskey's - regardless of who's intervening.

'It is unbelievable the Governor of the state of Missouri would seek advice from one of the most divisive leaders in our generation to overpower the discretion of a locally elected prosecutor,' wrote Gardner.

Pictured: Patricia and Mark McCloskey standing in front of their mansion with firearms as Black Lives Matter protesters walk through the private neighborhood

Protesters pictured gathered in front of Mark and Patricia McCloskey's home on July 3

'It is also incredible that at a time when our nation is dealing with a rapidly spreading deadly virus and our State reported a record number of new infections, they are launching these dog-whistle attacks against me. They should be focused on their jobs, & I'll focus on mine.'

But it's unclear how Trump would intervene in the investigation given the federal government has no jurisdiction and could become a legal matter based on the assistance.

The incident began on June 28 Black Lives Matter protesters walked down the McCloskey's street in search of Mayor Krewson's home.

They demanded Krewson resign after she released the names and addresses of residents who had suggested defunding the police department.

The McCloskey's claimed demonstrators broke their gate. While the protesters admitted to trespassing on the private street, they've denied breaking any property.

The family's attorney claimed there is no basis for criminal charges, but authorities still seized the gun's pointed at protesters.

Authorities took the AR-15 that had been held by Mark, but the handgun was in the possession of their attorney. Those arms were reportedly legally owned.

Pictured: Patricia McCloskey holding a handgun at Black Lives Matter protesters when they walked through the neighborhood on June 28

The handgun was in the attorney's possession as evidence to prove it was inoperable when Patricia aimed it at protesters 'in defense of themselves and their home at [the] time of the march,' reports Fox News.

'They want to indict methey're trying to socially intimidate us but we did nothing wrong. We're not going to be intimidated and we're not going to back down,' Mark McCloskey said on Hannity Tuesday night.

He believes that the second night of protests in front of his home, Trump sent in people to 'defend' his neighborhood.

'I think we got help from the very top. That night, we had cooperation, I think, from the federal government, from the state government, the local police department. That night everybody stood up like champs but it came from the top down,' he added.

He maintains that he and his wife did nothing wrong in the incident.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel joined nearly half the countrys attorney generals in suing Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos for easing regulations on for-profit schools accused of defrauding students.

DeVos department replaced an Obama-administration regulation from 2016 that aimed to provide relief to students who secured federal loans to pay for for-profit insitutions such as ITT Technical Institute or Art Institute of Michigan. The secretarys new model from 2019 provides relief from federal loans based on how much students earn after they graduate from school.

The new model benefits predatory for-profit schools, Nessel argues. The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California demands a repeal of DeVos new regulations and argues that it violates the Administrative Procedure Act.

At a time when the Department of Education should want to make every effort to ensure student borrowers are protected as they seek an education, my colleagues and I are left with no other choice but to take Betsy DeVos to court, said Nessel in a statement. We are calling on the Department of Education to do right by student borrowers who get robbed by for-profit institutions, rather than to make it more difficult for them to seek relief by rolling back the protections already in place. We have seen thousands of Michiganders fall victim to the misconduct of for-profit institutions. That is reason alone to join in this fight.

This is the second Michigan lawsuit against DeVos this month. The previous one focused on reallocating funds to primarily private schools.

Michigan sues U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos over school coronavirus funds

Under current regulations, student borrowers have to prove in their application for relief that their earnings are lower than the median for that program at all comparable schools, according to the Department of Education. If thats the case, the department will consider the student to have suffered harm and will provide partial or full relief.

Nessels office has pursued enforcement actions against ITT Technical Institute, Art Institute of Michigan and Career Education Corp., the attorney general said in a news release.

DeVos argued in December 2019 that taxpayers should not bear the brunt of providing students with relief, saying that the 2016 regulations allowed for more false claims.

Despite the mess we inherited from the previous administration, we committed from day one to getting this right for students and taxpayers, DeVos said in December 2019. We cannot tolerate fraud in higher education, nor can we tolerate furiously giving away taxpayer money to those who have submitted a false claim or arent eligible for relief. This new methodology treats students fairly and ensures that taxpayers who did not go to college or who faithfully paid off their student loans do not shoulder student loan costs for those who didnt suffer harm.

The 2016 regulations, Nessel argues, protected taxpayers by holding predatory schools accountable for misconduct.

The regulations also ensured that financially troubled schools provide financial protection to the government to ensure that, if they fail, taxpayers would not be left holding the bag, according to the release.

The lawsuit alleges violations of the Administrative Protection Act, claiming the repeal of the 2016 regulations was arbitrary and capricious and that it created a process that makes it practically impossible for students to qualify for borrower defense relief.

Nessel joined the attorney generals of California, Massachusetts, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin in the court filing.

You can read a copy of the complaint here.

Read more at MLive:

Michigan liquor regulators order hearing with Harpers owners following coronavirus outbreak

I just need a little more time: Unemployed workers hope lawmakers find way to replace expiring $600 benefit

Michigan trying to ward off coronavirus second wave that could shutter schools and businesses
Food takeaway. Photo: City Pantry

The takeaway industry could generate an extra 81,000 ($102,000) in 2020 or 36,390 ($46,000) per month due to the COVID-19 pandemic, research suggests.

A survey of UK restaurants by delivery service City Pantry found nearly a fifth (19%) have started offering takeaway services during the pandemic, and 98% of all businesses are planning to continue offering takeout food once lockdown is eased.

Despite an initial slump in online orders at the start of lockdown, takeaway services have proved vital to restaurants who were forced to close following government guidelines and who have sought alternative revenue streams in order to stay afloat.

READ MORE: Aldi UK doubles size of home delivery trial with Deliveroo

Although most respondents are hopeful the takeaway industry will continue growing post-lockdown, 44.4% of restaurants have struggled with a drop in sales during lockdown. Some restaurants also reported difficulties with setting up a takeaway service from scratch.

As well as the projected growth of the takeaway industry, many restaurants consider a sense of community to be a crucial factor in future operations, as businesses are 28% more likely to reopen as soon as possible if theyve not felt supported by locals during lockdown.

The analysis also found that staff absence could have a negative impact on motivation and belonging, as 81% of businesses that reported feeling a lack of a sense of community had furloughed staff.

READ MORE: Europe's Just Eat Takeaway to buy Grubhub for $7.3 billion

Ben Carter, managing director at City Pantry, said: As Brits start to experience cooking fatigue following months of their food options being limited and the stress of shopping in-store at the moment, its no surprise the takeaway industry is soaring during lockdown.

As providers juggle staff absences and an increase in orders, we urge communities to rally behind local restaurants and shops to help as many businesses make it to the other side of the pandemic as intact as possible.

Other key concerns shared by restaurants during the pandemic include staff absences, PPE shortages, competing with big-name brands, and issues with suppliers.
People get arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge after about a dozen Black Lives Matter protesters briefly shut down the bridge in New York City, on July 15, 2020. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

Dozens of Protesters Arrested, 3 NYPD Officers Injured Following Clashes on Brooklyn Bridge

At least three NYPD officers sustained serious non-life-threatening injuries after Stop the Violence marchers were met by counter-protesters as they marched across the Brooklyn Bridge.

The demonstrations started peacefully Wednesday morning as the large group marched toward the Brooklyn Bridge, where tensions started after about a dozen Black Lives Matter activists countered the march and briefly shut down the bridge, police said.

The clashes between pro-police and anti-police protesters ended with 37 people being arrested and several officers, including Chief of Department Terence Monahan, were left with injuries, ABC7 reported.

Three officers violently attacked by protesters crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. The officers sustained serious injuries, the NYPD wrote on Twitter, adding a video of the attack.

Three officers violently attacked by protesters crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. The officers sustained serious injuries. This is not peaceful protest, this will not be tolerated. pic.twitter.com/cYuDX8G7ku  NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) July 15, 2020

In the video, NYPD officers appear to be attempting an arrest on someone when a man rushes toward the officers and hits them several times with a large object that appears to be a walking cane.

This is not peaceful protest, this will not be tolerated, the department said. Monahan, who is the highest-ranking member of the department and joined the Stop the Violence march, is seen on one of the pictures with a bloodied face.

The NYPD released pictures of the officers that were injured following the clashes.

These are the injuries our officers sustained. pic.twitter.com/KI9wQKywHH  NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) July 15, 2020

The police chief reportedly broke his finger after he was punched during the clashes with counter-protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge, former NYPD Detective Rob ODonnell wrote on Twitter.

If the highest ranking member of the NYPD who has a 36,000 member Police Force at his side can be assaulted in broad daylight, where do you think you the average NYC Citizen stands if targeted by criminals? ODonnell wrote in another post.

The other two officers who were injured in the altercation were taken to a hospital to get stitches, police said. The charges against the 37 people who were taken into custody are still pending.

People get arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge after about a dozen Black Lives Matter protesters briefly shut down the bridge in New York City, on July 15, 2020. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

NYPD stand on the Brooklyn Bridge as Black Lives Matter protests on July 15, 2020, in New York. (Yuki Iwamura/AP Photo)

A Black Lives Matter activist who joined the counter-protest told CBS New York the Stop the Violence marches are too supportive of the police.

The Stop the Violence march was initiated due to the sharp rise in gun violence across the city in recent months and many former NYPD officers, religious demonstrators, and supporters joined the march.

We are fed up and tired of seeing a 1-year-old shot, a 12-year-old paralyzed, the leader of the march and president of the United Clergy Coalition, Bishop Gerald Seabrooks, told the station. No, we need the police. What were saying is we dont want police brutality.

A pro-police demonstrator told ABC7 the march was organized because we support the police and we need their help because this city is becoming a war zone.

From NTD News
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 22:54:28|Editor: huaxia

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DALIAN, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Yun Guangzhong, a former senior official of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, stood trial on Thursday at the Intermediate People's Court of Dalian in northeast China's Liaoning Province for taking bribes.

Prosecutors accused Yun of taking advantage of his various positions, including vice chairman of the Inner Mongolia regional government, Communist Party chief of Hohhot City, to seek benefits for implicated companies and individuals in business operations and job promotions between 2005 and 2018.

In return, he accepted money and gifts worth 94.32 million yuan (about 13.48 million U.S. dollars), according to the prosecutors.

During the court trial, prosecutors presented evidence, and the defendant and his lawyers cross-examined the evidence. Both sides gave their own full accounts.

In his final statement, Yun pleaded guilty and expressed remorse.

The trial was open to the public and was attended by legislators, political advisors, and members of the public.

The sentence will be announced at a later date. Enditem
Twenty-five years ago, I and some friends from school piled into a faded blue Ford Sierra. We cranked the Beastie Boys' Ill Communication as high as it would go and we drove off into rural Ireland, looking for Johnny Depp.

Depp had come to Ireland to make Divine Rapture, a gentle, 1950s-set comedy with Marlon Brando and Debra Winger about a woman who comes back from the dead and brings with her a season of miracles. They were filming in Ballycotton, a fishing village in East Cork that looked out over a picturesque island where a lonely lighthouse stood.

There was much excitement in the locality. Even in East Cork, Ballycotton felt out of the way. But now Hollywood was knocking; paparazzi were staking out Brando; Depp and his girlfriend, Kate Moss, had been sighted nearby. Ballycotton was on front pages everywhere.

Fifteen miles away, in my home town of Midleton, a pal caught wind that Depp was living inconspicuously five minutes down the road. The rumour was he was propping up the bar in Castlemartyr, where he was going by "Johnny O'Connor". You may wonder how Depp could get away with this, but if you saw the inside of a Castlemartyr pub in 1995, you'd understand. Depp could have entered dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow or Hunter S Thompson and the old men quietly sipping their Beamish wouldn't have given him a second thought.

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Unfortunately, wherever Depp was drinking, he soon made himself scarce. We searched the village high and low - it took about 10 minutes - but never had our "here's Johnny" moment. This would soon come to feel like foreshadowing. Within the fortnight, Brando, Winger, John Hurt and the entirety of Divine Rapture would likewise disappear without a trace.

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After just two weeks of filming that July, the production ran out of money. The Los Angeles financiers who had promised to foot the $12m budget failed to make good on their commitment. A few days later, the circus had left town and locals were referring, rather darkly, to "Divine Rupture". A headstone was later erected on the main street: it reads "Divine Rapture, born July 10, 1995, died July 23, 1995, RIP".

Brando, who'd dyed his hair bright red in order to play a small-town Irish priest, and was being paid $1m a week, was the only one to see any money. All Depp got was a two-week holiday in Castlemartyr (where, in a surreal postscript, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian would honeymoon 19 years later). Only 20 minutes of footage was shot.

The biggest losers of all, however, were the people of Ballycotton, for whom the opportunity of a lifetime had gone up in holy smoke. As Hollywood exited stage left, bills were left unpaid. Many local businesses struggled for years to clear the debts. What should have been a moment of grace instead became another dark hour for a village which, as the regional lifeboat station, had seen its share of tragedies across the decades.

"It was just two weeks, but we never thought it would come to an end," says Peter O'Shea, a Ballycotton historian whose books include Well Here I Am In Ballycotton: A History Through Postcards. He was 18 when the Hollywood jamboree rolled in.

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"It was absolutely mad. I remember one day a busload of hairdressers were driven in. It was like trying to fit a city into a small village. After it all ended, it took a few years for Ballycotton to come back. A lot of the hotels and businesses took a knock. It wasn't talked about for a couple of years."

"You have only to look at the effect of the Star Wars series when Skellig Michael in Kerry was used as part of the story," says Tony Harpur, another East Cork historian. "Ballycotton, and its surrounding area, would certainly have been highlighted by Divine Rapture had the film been completed."

The idea for Divine Rapture had come to Los Angeles screenwriter Glenda Ganis when she read a 1977 LA Times article about a villager in Sicily who had "come back to life". In fact, the woman had suffered catalepsy - "a medical condition characterised by a trance or seizure with a loss of sensation and consciousness accompanied by rigidity of the body".

It was suggested to London-based producer Barry Navidi that he change the setting from Sicily to Ireland. This would allow him take advantage of generous tax breaks introduced by the then Arts Minister Michael D Higgins, the man who lured Mel Gibson's Braveheart to Kildare. To paraphrase BallyBrando, Brendan Byrne's 2009 documentary about the fiasco: if Navidi supplied the Blarney, Ireland would bring the pot of gold.

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The final piece of the puzzle - the only piece of the puzzle, really - clicked into place shortly afterwards when Navidi got talking to an individual who turned out to be Brando's lawyer. "Marlon loves Ireland," the producer was told. "He's waited a lifetime to visit the Ireland of his dreams."

Bankrolling the project was a mysterious production company, CineFin, which had pledged to deposit $12m into an escrow account. (Later, when the promised fee failed to manifest, Winger's agent in LA went to the escrow deposit company to collect her money. The address was an empty car park.)

The hope had been that Divine Rapture would do for Ballycotton what David Lean and Ryan's Daughter (1970) had done for Dingle in Kerry. In reality, though, the film would have become a Shamrock orgy in the later vein of Waking Ned (1999), or the toe-curling Amy Adams 'comedy' Leap Year (2010).

One of the few scenes actually filmed has Brando's priest starring agog as mackerel rain down. In the first take, locals recall, Brando was wide-eyed and open-mouthed - only for a mackerel to dive straight into his mouth.

"We used to sit on a wall watching them act. Some of the younger actors would need 20 takes or so," says Peter O'Shea.

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"The director would be telling them what to do. Then Brando would get out of his Mercedes. He wouldn't do a rehearsal. The director wouldn't say a word. Brando would say his lines, get back in his car and away he went.

"He truly was the person running the show. We were always talking in the background, and the crew would have to tell us to shut up. When Brando came along, nobody had to tell us to be quiet. He had that presence."

The true miracle may have been that Brando was there in the first place. Six weeks before production was due to begin, his 25-year-old daughter Cheyenne had died by suicide. But he put his grief behind him and travelled to East Cork. He stayed at Shanagarry House, a late Georgian manor standing on nine acres.

But because of paparazzi, Brando couldn't leave the house, which he lamented, as he was keen to have a moment with locals. The rest of the crew, however, mingled freely. O'Shea remembers house parties with Hurt and Ball. But Depp was rarely seen around Ballycotton. He preferred instead to live it up in Cork City.

"At the time, Marlon Brando probably wasn't such a big star for a young person," says O'Shea. "He hadn't been in a big film for a while. But Johnny Depp drew the crowds. Crowd and crowds, whenever he stepped out."

Wherever Depp was stepping out on the night, we went looking for him, but he proved elusive. I should say at this point that when I checked my notes with my friends, their recollections were different.

One has it that Depp was actually drinking in a pub in Midleton, but had left by the time we got there. Another recalls us tracking down the house at which he was staying and, consulting an old phone book, locating a number. Obviously we rang it. A man with a weird accent answered. It wasn't Depp. Unless it was Depp, and he was putting on a voice. It's not unthinkable, is it?

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Woodsboro Bank congratulates Barb Garst on her upcoming retirement. Ms. Garst has been at the Bank for over 35 years. Through her time at the Bank, she has worked primarily in the branch channel and currently manages the Banks Main Office in Woodsboro, Maryland. Ms. Garst will be officially retiring in December of this year.

Its not often that someone can say theyve worked somewhere for 35 years, but Barb has done just that and has shown a true commitment to her clients over those years. We are happy for Barb as she is starting to end this chapter of her life and start a new chapter that will allow her more time with her husband, children and grandchildren, said Steve Heine, President and CEO of Woodsboro.

Woodsboro Bank is pleased to announce that Yvonne Reeder has joined our team as Vice President and Branch Manager. Ms. Reeder will lead the Banks Main Branch located at 5 N. Main Street in Woodsboro, Maryland.

Ms. Reeder has over 36 years in the financial services industry with focus in the branch network. Through her career she has built strong client relationships by offering an experience with banking and financing solutions to best serve her clients needs. Most recently, Ms. Reeder was the Branch Manager of FCB Banks branch location in Walkersville.

It is with great excitement that we welcome Yvonne to our team. Her dedication to clients fits right in line with our culture, vision and mission, said Steve Heine, President and CEO of Woodsboro Bank.

Ms. Reeder lives in Woodsboro with her husband and is a proud mother of two adult children. She is a 2003 graduate of Maryland Banking School and a 2015 graduate of Leadership Frederick County.
Iran reported on Monday more than 200 new coronavirus fatalities that took the overall toll in the Middle Easts deadliest outbreak beyond 13,000.

Unfortunately, in the past 24 hours, we have lost 203 of our compatriots due to the COVID-19 disease, said health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari.

Based on this figure, the total number of victims has reached 13,032, she told a televised news conference.

Lari said another 2,349 people had tested positive for the virus, raising the overall figure in the countrys outbreak to 259,652.

Iran has been struggling to contain the virus since announcing its first cases in February  two deaths in the Shiite holy city of Qom.

The Islamic republic has refrained from enforcing full lockdowns to stop the pandemics spread.

Official figures have shown an upward trajectory in new confirmed cases since early May, when Iran hit a near two-month low in daily recorded infections.

The Iranian government made the wearing of masks compulsory in closed public spaces from July 4, including on public transport.

State television, whose presenters now wear masks, said on Monday that police in Tehran were stopping commuters without masks from entering the subway.

Authorities in Qom tightened controls in banks and administrative offices to ensure the implementation of health protocols, including mask-wearing, Tasnim news agency reported on Monday.

The health ministry spokeswoman called on everyone to keep a physical distance from others, to wash their hands and to use masks.

The more time you spend in an overcrowded environment, the more likely you are to contract the disease, Lari said.

Iran closed schools, cancelled public events and banned movement between its 31 provinces in March, but progressively lifted restrictions from April to try to reopen its sanctions-hit economy.

The economy is suffering under the pressures of the health crisis.

The countrys currency, the rial, has hit new lows against the US dollar in recent weeks, mostly over border closures and a halt in non-oil exports, according to analysts.

SOURCE> AFP
A NYPD police offer wears a Blue Line mask indicating support for law enforcement at the scene of a shooting in Brooklyn, N.Y., on June 25, 2020. (Lloyd Mitchell/Reuters)

2 Bronx Men Charged After Counter-Protesters Disrupt Peaceful Unity March in Brooklyn

NYPD officials said two Bronx men were arrested after anti-police activists disrupted a peaceful march and attacked police officers in Brooklyn.

Shayborn Banks, 25, was arrested and charged with assaulting a lieutenant, the department said, along with Quran Campbell, 25, who was charged with assaulting three officers, CBS NY reported.

NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan was among the officers who were injured, the NYPD said.

The incident took place Wednesday as alleged Black Lives Matter protesters attempted to disrupt a march that included Christian, Muslim, and Jewish faith leaders, who were joined by police unions, law enforcement, Black Veterans for Social Justice, and others. They were calling for a stop to violence in New York City, which has seen a spike in shootings and assaults in recent weeks, according to local reports.

A Black Lives Matter protester, Jonathan Lykes, claimed to CBS NY that police were targeting their side, alleging that police set us up intentionally to be arrested.

Three officers violently attacked by protesters crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. The officers sustained serious injuries. This is not peaceful protest, this will not be tolerated. pic.twitter.com/cYuDX8G7ku  NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) July 15, 2020

Authorities said that the anti-police counter-protesters left at least eight NYPD officers injured during the clashes, according to Newsday. The anti-police demonstrators are also accused of smashing a window of a government building nearby during the fracas.

The NYPD posted a video of the incident, writing that officers were violently attacked by protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge, saying some sustained serious injuries.

Three of our officers were brutally attacked by protesters today. These are the conditions your officers have to operate in every day while they continue to protect your neighborhoods. Such assaults are ALWAYS unacceptable, and should outrage us all, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea added in a Twitter statement.

WANTED for ASSAULT on NYPD Officers. On July 15 at approximately 10:10 AM, on the Brooklyn Bridge while attempting to make an arrest an unidentified individual struck multiple police offices with a cane. Have any info? Call/DM @NYPDTips at 800-577-TIPS. All call are anonymous pic.twitter.com/cA6AKfg07B  NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) July 16, 2020

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a Thursday news conference that attacks on police officers wouldnt be tolerated.

Theres no situation in which it is acceptable to attack a police officer. Period, De Blasio said, adding that he spoke to Monahan following the incident. Heres what is the reality: anyone who does that will suffer the consequences.

The Democrat mayor elaborated: Weve said this now for months, Ive said it very clearly: peaceful protest is honored in New York City, always has been. There is no acceptable violent protest. Any violent protest will be stopped and therell be consequences for anyone involved and anyone.
The initial data also suggest that the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine is safe with no major side effects, it is understood, although further work will be needed. The team is also evaluating the level of dose needed to produce an effective response. Stocks soared on Wednesday after reports that positive news on the Oxford vaccine would be released next week. Shares in AstraZeneca jumped 5.2 per cent. David Carpenter, chair of the Berkshire Research Ethics Committee, which approved the Oxford trial and continues to work with scientists on amendments, said the team were "absolutely on track". "They can strengthen findings by targeting people in hospitals, healthcare professionals, where the spread is [more] likely to happen. Nobody can put final dates... things might go wrong but the reality is that by working with a big pharma company, that vaccine could be fairly widely available around September and that is the sort of target they are working on." The T-cell discovery is likely to be important because scientists increasingly believe that any successful vaccine will need to trigger the production of both antibodies and T-cells, which directly attack human cells that have already become infected with viruses.

Loading Earlier this year a similar vaccine against MERS invented by the same Oxford team was found to elicit high levels of T-cells, but only triggered neutralising antibodies in 44 per cent of volunteers. If the COVID vaccine can be proven in further trials to elicit a similarly strong T-cell response, the team hopes it may not need to trigger high levels of antibodies to provide meaningful protection. A number of other vaccine candidates across the world have also produced T-cell responses, but only in smaller-scale studies. Others including a major project in China are thought to be unlikely to produce T-cells when tested on humans. This week the US biotech company, Moderna, published data from a Phase 1 trial involving 45 people showing that its RNA vaccine triggered both neutralising antibodies and T-cells. The findings come amid increasing gloom over the longevity of COVID-19 antibodies. Earlier this week, a King's College London study found that people who recovered from COVID-19 appeared to lose their antibodies within months.

Loading But in a study published in Nature today, researchers found that T-cells from the SARS outbreak had lasted for 17 years. Duke University scientists in Singapore found T-cells were still circulating in potent quantities from patients who were infected in 2003. It is not known for sure if the same will be true for COVID-19, and whether the T-cells will protect against reinfection, but the lead researcher described the discovery as "potentially very significant for a vaccine". The researchers also found "remarkable" levels of T-cells able to latch on to the COVID-19 virus within people who had never been infected with the disease. They believe these may have been triggered by the common cold and other animal coronaviruses - mainly originating in bats - and that the primed cells may also offer protection against the new virus. Professor Antonio Bertoletti, who led the research in Singapore, said this may explain why so few patients in Singapore and south-east Asia have had really severe infections. He said that while these T-cells will be more common in Asia, they will be present around the world. It suggests a significant proportion of all populations will have a degree of natural immunity to COVID-19. Clinical trials of the Oxford vaccine involving more than 8000 participants are almost complete. The focus has now moved to Brazil and South Africa, and scientists hope to gather sufficient cases within around a month.

Vaccine trials: What the latest research means for our defence against the virus Q. Does it work? A. The clinical trials have, so far, been successful. Researchers have shown that antibodies produced against sections of a genetic material - called "spike proteins" and usually found on the surface of the coronavirus after infection - are able to kill the virus when tested in the laboratory. They want the human body to recognise and develop antibodies to the protein that would stop the virus from entering human cells. Trials suggest that not only is this happening but also that the body is developing a crucial T-cell response as well, which is deemed vital in the defence against COVID-19. Sign up to our Coronavirus Update newsletter Get our Coronavirus Update newsletter for the day's crucial developments. Sign up to The Sydney Morning Herald's newsletter here and The Age's here.
Despite the big hit to several businesses, the company boosted its sales and earnings guidance for 2020. The update was based entirely on a positive shift in the companys expectations for its devices. J&J believes that the worst is past for that business and the pandemic. Procedures are coming back, executives said on its Thursday earnings call, and they think that any second wave is unlikely to be as bad because of better preparation and knowledge. The company acknowledged a still-high level of uncertainty and some concern about U.S. case growth. If unemployment rises and insurance coverage falls, its business could suffer. But its holding on to optimism for now.
Hyderabad: The committee for the defence and release of Dr GN Saibaba urged the Maharashtra government to release him in view of Covid-19 outbreak in Nagpur prison where he is lodged and the already precarious state of his health. Reportedly many of the jail inmates and police personnel deployed in the jail have been infected with COVID-19.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, G. Ramadevudu, Saibabas younger brother, who lives in Hyderabad said, In view of Covid-19 crisis, I have applied for parole for the second time on June 16. We havent received any reply from the jail authorities. My brother Saibaba who was an ex-Delhi university professor is 90% physically challenged and has remained incarcerated in the Nagpur central jails and a cell (solitary confinement) since his conviction on March 7, 2017.

Compounding the situation, Ramadevudu added is the fact that their 74-year-old mother has been diagnosed with high grade non-Hodgkinson lymphoma cancer in part of the immune system called the lymphatic system. It limits the bodys ability to fight infection. Saibaba himself suffer from heart and kidney issues and recently he was diagnosed with gallstones and surgery was recommended. However, as there is no one to take care of him, he was couldnt undergo the surgery. Considering all this, Ramadevudu urged the jail authorities for parole.

When he recently spoke to us, Saibaba complained of severe pains in body parts like shoulders and hands. One of the prisoners near his cell tested positive for Covid-19. The disease has reached very close to me, Saibaba is reported to have said, and that it was only a matter of time since it reaches his cell as he is highly vulnerable due to existing co-morbidities. My brother Saibaba (53) is wheelchair-bound. If infected with Covid-19, he cannot recover and survive on his own, said Ramadevudu.



The first time Ramadevudu applied for parole, the Nagpur jail authorities rejected the application "based on the 'false' report by Telangana state police claiming that my residence in Jawaharnagar and nearby areas MoulaAli are in containment zones. But, actually, they are not. However, now the definition of containment has been changed, we have applied for parole for the second time and its almost a month now but we are yet to hear from the jail authorities."



Outraged at this inhumane treatment of a sick, disabled man, Prof. G. Haragopal, chairman of the committee for the defence and release of Dr. G. N. Saibaba said "In view of the precarious health condition of Dr. G. N. Saibaba, we appeal to the Maharashtra state government and the central government to release him by granting him bail or parole immediately so that he can avail appropriate medical treatment either in Hyderabad or Delhi where his family members are living,"
T wo men have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a young man was shot dead outside a funeral wake in north west London.

Neighbours said more than 100 well-wishers had gathered for the traditional Caribbean "nine nights" celebration in Harlesden, to honour another young man who died last week. They were seen to flee as gunshots rang out.

Police were called to Windrush Road at just after 3am and battled to save the 27-year-old life but he was pronounced dead by paramedics at the scene.

His death marks the capitals seventh violent killing in just 12 days.

Forensics on the scene / PA

A 19-year-old and a 24-year-old man were arrested on Thursday. They are currently in police custody.

The Met Police said a metallic grey Land Rover Discovery was found burnt out in the area of the St Raphaels Estate, Brent.

A Land Rover Discovery was found burnt out near the scene / NIGEL HOWARD

Officers have reason to believe it may be connected with the incident, they added.

A witness at the scene told the Standard: There were three of them in a grey or green Land Rover Discovery. Two jumped out and one started shooting repeatedly with a pistol at the boy.

"There were loads of shots.. eight or more, like they were making sure they finished the job. The shooter was wearing a blue surgical mask which covered his face.

Residents have expressed their distress over the incident / PA

"The two then jumped back in the Discovery and took off. I saw the sparks from the gun and the guy shooting. He just kept on shooting. It was a small-calibre gun from the sound of it, maybe thats why they shot him so many times."

He added: Armed police arrived, they tried to save the boy but he was gone. It was horrible I cant believe what I saw, all in front of people at the wake.

Police are continuing to investigate the shocking attack / PA

Another witness said: There was a massive nine-nights for a young man who died recently. There was very loud music and hundreds of people at the wake which went into the early hours.

Then I heard gunshots. There was a pause before the last shot. It was no way anything other than gunshots."

The burnt out car was found nearby / NIGEL HOWARD

A man who went to the wake but left before the shooting said: I was on the way home from work and saw the wake and people I knew. Everyone was chatting and drinking, there were loads of people.

I left before midnight I dont know why it all kicked off. I am in total shock - Im worried it could have been one of my friends who has been killed.

Detective Chief Inspector Simon Stancombe, who leads the investigation, said: We know that a number of shots were fired and, despite it being in the early hours of the morning, several people were out in the street and would have seen what happened.

A man has died and his loved ones will now face terrible grief. The person responsible for this killing does not deserve protection and anyone who has information should come forward and speak to us.

I am appealing to anyone with phone footage of the incident, or in the moments before and after, to come forward. You could be holding vital clues and, by sending it to us, you can help keep our communities safer.

I have got a dedicated team who will be trawling through CCTV for evidence and making sure no stone is left unturned as we try and track whoever took this young mans life.

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 0208 358 0200 quoting reference Cad 895/16Jul or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
A second horse died at Los Alamitos Race Track since it was put on probation because of an increase in fatalities. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

A second horse has died at Los Alamitos Race Course since the track was placed on 10 days probation by the California Horse Racing Board because of a marked increase in fatalities. It was the fourth racing death this month in only five programs. There have been 10 horses which have died either racing or training since May 26 and 22 since the meeting began on Dec. 27.

Alltime Favorite, a 2-year-old quarter-horse gelding, was injured either at the end or immediately after a 350-yard race Friday. He was not euthanized until Monday after efforts to save him failed. Tacy pulled up with injuries during a race Sunday and later euthanized.

Alltime Favorite was a third-time starter after winning his first two races. He was competing in trials for the Governors Cup Futurity for California-bred horses. He finished fifth in the eight-horse race when it was determined he was injured and taken by van off the course.

The CHRB called an emergency meeting last Friday to address the rise in deaths. Vice-chairman Oscar Gonzales suggested putting a pause on racing this past weekend but instead the Board put the track on probation.

The track has submitted a draft of a plan to address the fatalities to the CHRB, and it was provided to The Times after a request.

Among the ideas the track said it would implement:

Adding one qualified veterinarian to observe morning workouts.

The addition of a pre-race screening panel similar, but not identical, to those used on thoroughbreds during day racing. The panel will be made up of the entry steward, racing secretary and a track or CHRB veterinarian. The racing secretary is an employee of the track.

There will be a post-race internal incident assessment, which will include track consultant Dennis Moore and veterinarians, which will be separate from the CHRB investigation.

There will several pre-race medication and eligibility rules to ensure that a horse is completely fit. If a track or CHRB veterinarian determines a horse needs diagnostic imaging, it will be done and paid for by the owner or trainer.

The CHRB will have a meeting on Thursday but Los Alamitos is not on the agenda. It instead will be discussed at a special meeting Monday.
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Egypt has demanded to know whether Ethiopia is deliberately filling its 3bn dam amid claims that water flow in the Blue Nile has dropped by 90million cubic metres a day.

The 500ft-high Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam spans 6,000ft across the Blue Nile river - which supplies Egypt, Ethiopia's downstream neighbour, with 90 per cent of its fresh water.

Pictures taken on July 12 showed water backing up behind the hydroelectric development, prompting questions over whether or not Ethiopia has closed the dam's gates.

The irrigation ministry of neighbouring Sudan said on Wednesday that water levels at its al-Dayem station on the Blue Nile showed a decline of 90 million cubic meters per day, which 'confirms the closure of the dam's gates', they claimed.

They subsequently appeared to take aim at Ethiopia by blasting 'any unilateral actions taken by any party'.

Ethiopia's water minister Seleshi Bekele admitted on Wednesday that the reservoir behind the damn is filling and that the water level has increased from 1,720 feet (525 metres) to 1,837 feet (560 metres).

'The construction of the dam and the filling of the water go hand in hand. The filling of the dam doesn't need to wait until the completion of the dam,' he said.

The comments by Seleshi did not address whether Ethiopia had closed the gates of the dam although a foreign ministry spokesman said 'their understanding' is that the gates have not been shut. The area has also seen recent heavy rainfall.

Seleshi had earlier said in a tweet that the filling of the reservoir was due to the rainfall, which he claimed had 'exceeded outflow and created natural pooling.'

Ahmed Hafez, a spokesman for Egypt's foreign ministry, said Cairo has asked for an 'official clarification' from Ethiopia to the minister's comments.

A satellite image taken on July 12 shows the river backing up behind the dam. Ethiopia had threatened to start filling the dam this month, potentially sparking a show-down with Egypt, though experts believe they have not done so yet

The 500ft-high Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam spans 6,000ft across the Blue Nile river - which supplies Egypt, Ethiopia's downstream neighbour, with 90 per cent of its fresh water

The 500ft-high Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam spans 6,000ft across the Blue Nile river - which supplies Egypt, Ethiopia's downstream neighbour, with 90 per cent of its fresh water

On Tuesday, talks between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan to regulate the flow of water from the dam failed to reach agreement.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Secretary General Antonio Guterres had urged the three countries to seize the opportunity in the coming days to bridge remaining differences and reach a mutually beneficial agreement for their peoples.

The hydroelectric dam, when finished, will have an installed capacity of 6,450 megawatts - more than doubling Ethiopia's existing capacity - and is the centrepiece of the country's bid to become Africa's biggest power exporter.

The dam is being built about 15 km (9 miles) from the border with Sudan. Sudan and Egypt have sought a legally binding agreement before the dam is filled.

Sudan's Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources said it was prompted to investigate after satellite images appeared to show the reservoir filling.

'It was evident from the flow meters in the al-Deim border station with Ethiopia that there is a retreat in the water levels, equivalent to 90 million cubic meters per day, confirming the closure of the gates of the Renaissance Dam,' it said in a statement.

But William Davison, an analyst for International Crisis Group, said satellite images likely showed a 'natural backing up of water behind the dam.'

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has threatened to start filling the lake behind the dam this month, come what may. Egypt said that would be an 'existential threat', and it may resort to force to stop it.

The July 12 satellite picture is in contrast to an image taken on June 26 which shows the Blue Nile flowing freely through the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and the surrounding hydroelectric plant

Ethiopia has been building a 500ft-high, 6,000ft-wide dam across the Blue Nile river - the main source of the Egyptian Nile - for the last nine years. Pictured is a satellite image take in July last year showing the dam at the top of the frame, with the river backed up behind it

Addis Ababa had threatened to start filling the lake behind the dam in July this year, a move which Egypt called an 'existential threat' and hinted it could go to war over. Pictured is a satellite image take in July this year, showing the the dam has started filling - though Ethiopia protest innocence, saying seasonal rains are to blame

The row which is now threatening to boil over began simmering in 2011, with Egypt in turmoil amid the Arab Spring protests which forced Hosni Mubarak from power and created a leadership vacuum at the top of society.

With Cairo effectively blinded, Ethiopia's then-Prime Minister Meles Zenawi launched a five-year Growth and Transformation plan, with the dam at its heart.

His country, once among Africa's poorest, was emerging from the end of a decade of unprecedented growth - poverty had fallen, illiteracy rates were down, life expectancy had increased by a decade.

But the nation was still being held back, most notably by a lack of electricity - with 65 per cent of the country not connected to the grid.

The dam would change all of that, providing enough power not just for the citizens of Ethiopia, but a surplus which could be exported to its neighbours, generating profit and providing opportunities for the whole region.

Laying the first brick himself, Zenawi vowed the project would be finished 'whatever the cost'. He died the following year.

The actual cost of the project is thought to be 3billion, but its financing is murky. Unusually, Ethiopia chose not to apply for international loans to bankroll it, instead turning to its own citizens and private loans.

The central bank, major businesses and everyday citizens were pressured - some say forced - into buying bonds that funded the project, with Ethiopian citizens living overseas saying they also faced pressure to buy in.

While China is not officially invested in the project, Ethiopia is a major recipient of Chinese loans - receiving the second-highest total of any African country at 2.6billion, according to the China-Africa Research Initiative.

Almost all of the loans were paid after construction on the dam had started.

Construction began in 2011 while Egypt was in the midst of the Arab Spring, leaving Cario temporarily blind to the happenings upriver. The country now says, had it been aware, the project would never have got started

Egypt has demanded that Ethiopia sign up to legally-binding guarantees to keep water flowing through the dam during droughts to keep the country from suffering, but Addis Ababa has refused (pictured, the dam in May this year)

Chinese firms have also been heavily involved in construction, with multi-million pound contracts awarded to companies specialising in hydroelectric dams.

Claims of corruption have dogged the project, amid rumours surrounding the sudden death of manager Semegnew Bekele in 2018.

Bekele had been due to give a news conference explaining delays to the project, with conspiracy theorists suggesting that he would lift the lid on corrupt activities of those involved.

Shortly before the conference took place he was found shot dead in his car with the engine running. Police ruled the death a suicide, saying he sent phone messages to his loved ones beforehand.

Meanwhile Egypt says that, had it been aware of the project, it would never have been allowed to get off the ground.

The Blue Nile, which begins in Ethiopia, is the Egyptian Nile's main source of water, providing about 80 per cent of its capacity. The Nile, in turn, provides about 90 per cent of Egypt's fresh water, and is already running short.

Egypt has long been aware of the threat of a dam being built up-river, with President Anwar Sadat threatening to go to war over any such project as far back as the 1970s.

More recent protests from Cairo set off four years of negotiations which have since suckered in UN and US mediators, but which have so-far failed to produce tangible results.

The sticking point is a colonial-era treaty signed in 1929 which Ethiopia had no part in. It guarantees Egypt almost exclusive rights over the waters of the Nile.

Cairo says the treaty should form the basis of a legally-binding agreement guaranteeing it access to a minimum amount of water, and says the deal must be in place before the dam can be used.

The government fears that filling the dam - a process which will take years and create a lake larger than London - will cause severe shortages, especially in drought years.

Ethiopia, meanwhile, refuses to recognise the 1929 treaty and says Cairo's expectations are 'unrealistic'.

They say they are willing to space out the lake-filling from the two years that they were initially planning to seven years, to ensure the river keeps flowing.

But ministers have balked at the idea of legally-enforced minimums, saying they will hinder the country's development.

Ethiopia chose not to fund the project through international loans, instead relying on government bonds that citizens, major companies and the state bank were heavily pressured into buying, along with private loans

Though China is not officially funding the project, multi-million pound construction contracts have been awarded to Chinese companies, and the country is also a major lender to Ethiopia - contributing 2.6million in loans, the majority made after construction of the dam started

The latest round of talks, which concluded this week, also ended without agreement.

'Unchanged and additional and excessive demands of Egypt and Sudan prohibited the conclusion of this round of negotiation by an agreement,' said Ethiopia's Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy said.

Meanwhile their Egyptian counterparts said all three countries would submit a report on the talks to mediator Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African president and African Union president, who is preparing a new mini summit.

Sudanese Irrigation Minister Yasser Abbas said the parties were 'keen to find a solution' but technical and legal disagreements persist over its filling and operation.

Analysts who examined satellite images of the dam filling agreed that it is likely due to seasonal rains, with William Davison of the International Crisis Group saying it is not clear whether Ethiopia yet has the capacity to fill the dam.

While experts are agreed that filling the dam risks pushing the region into conflict, Kevin Wheeler of Oxford University believes the tipping point is still a way off.

River levels in the region are currently high, meaning the debates are largely sabre-rattling over changing power dynamics, he believes.

However, he added that 'if there were a drought over the next several years' then things could start to deteriorate.

Ethiopia hopes the dam will allow the country to keep growing following a decade of increased prosperity between 2000 and 2011, by making it Africa's largest energy exporter

Construction workers are pictured on the site of the dam in December last year, as a diplomatic row over the future of the project rumbled on - with neither Ethiopia nor Egypt willing to give ground
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

While the health risks associated with diabetesincluding heart attacks and strokesare well established, these risks could be present well before someone is even diagnosed with the condition, according to new research by The George Institute for Global Health published in the British Medical Journal.

The study found that prediabetes, defined by having higher than normal blood glucose levels but not enough to be classified as having diabetes, is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and death.

Lead author Professor Yuli Huang, Honorary Fellow, Food Policy, at The George Institute for Global Health says the study showed there was a significant opportunity to prevent CVD by identifying and treating people earlier.

"The prevalence of prediabetes and diabetes is rising rapidly in epidemic proportions, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Early detection and proper treatment can have enormous benefits, but left unaddressed, the life-long complications and health impacts can be devastating," he said.

Researchers from The George Institute and Shunde Hospital, Southern Medical University, China analyzed 129 studies involving over 10 million peoplethe majority being from Europe, Asia and North Americawho had prediabetes with and without existing CVD.

They looked at whether prediabetes was linked to higher rates of death and cardiovascular disease in people with and without a history of CVD and whether the criteria used to define prediabetes made a difference.

They found that compared with people who had normal blood glucose levels, those with prediabetes according to American Diabetes Association or World Health Organization criteria were at increased risk of CVD and more likely to die from any cause. Different definitions of prediabetes were associated with a similar outlook in patients who already had a history of CVD.

Professor Huang explained that prediabetes was controversial, and the term has been much debated.

"Some argue that describing people as having prediabetes creates more problems than benefits in terms of prevention and treatment and would put an unsustainable burden on health-care systems," he said.

"But considering the high prevalence of prediabetes, as well as its strong link to health risks seen in our study, successful intervention in this large population could have a major public health impact."

The prevalence of prediabetes is increasing worldwide. It is estimated that more than 470 million people will have prediabetes by 2030 and according to an American Diabetes Association up to 70 percent of these will go on to develop diabetes.

"What is especially concerning is the many millions of people who are unaware they have either condition and don't act early enough," says Professor Huang.

"Early detection and proper treatment can have enormous benefits, but left unaddressed, the life-long complications and health impacts can be devastating," he says.

The researchers hope the results of this study will turn prediabetes from a controversial term into a useful trigger for preventive care that will help address an escalating global health burden.

Explore further Bone health declining in U.S. adults with and without prediabetes

More information: Xiaoyan Cai et al. Association between prediabetes and risk of all cause mortality and cardiovascular disease: updated meta-analysis, BMJ (2020). Journal information: British Medical Journal (BMJ) Xiaoyan Cai et al. Association between prediabetes and risk of all cause mortality and cardiovascular disease: updated meta-analysis,(2020). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.m2297
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 21:23:08|Editor: huaxia

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BAKU, July 16 (Xinhua) -- President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has dismissed the nation's foreign minister over neglect of duty, according to the presidential order published Thursday on the president's official website.

At a special virtual meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers on Wednesday, Aliyev strongly criticized Elmar Mammadyarov, who had served as foreign minister since 2004, for not being in his office when the military clashes erupted on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, according to local reports.

In another presidential order, Aliyev appointed Education Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, who has served on the post since 2018, to take Mammadyarov's place. Enditem
A few months before the expiration of the Provisional Agreement on appointing new bishops, lay people, priests and bishops wonder about the effects it has had on the life of Christian communities in China. The Vatican is hoping to renew the agreement; China is likely to do the same if for no other reason than to use it against the US. The non-ideological question about religious freedom remains.

Rome (AsiaNews)  The Provisional Agreement signed by the Vatican and the People's Republic of China two years ago is set to expire on 21 September. At the time, "optimists" praised this agreement as "historic" and believed that a Copernican revolution would occur in the life of the Church in China. Even today, the "enthusiasts by default", very few in fact and always the same people, are pushing for a renewal of the deal. Some people linked in some way to the Vatican have been pushing for this.

So far China has said nothing. We must assume that its approval to continue the agreement is almost certain, if only to embarrass the United States. In fact, the Provisional Agreement, which deals with the appointment of new Chinese bishops, a matter that touches the Church and religious freedom, has been caught in the US-China row and what people think depends on who they believe should be the future superpower that will dominate the world.

To avoid an ideological approach, AsiaNews has surveyed bishops, priests and lay people in China, asking them to say how life has changed in their communities and how they have lived their faith since the famous Agreement. We plan to publish their testimonials as they arrive to our office.

Today, we present two lay people: Shanghai John and Maria, from northern China. The former expresses embarrassment at seeing the Chinese flag on Christian buildings. This is now compulsory, as is hanging President Xi Jinpings picture. The latter describes how communities are monitored, noting that religious education for people under 18 is banned in violation of the Chinese constitution.

Both reveal the painful issue of religious freedom in China. Unfortunately, among diplomats and enthusiasts by default", even in the Vatican, there is little talk of religious freedom in China, perhaps because Trump made it part of his election campaign. But before being an ideological tool, religious freedom is an important element in the social doctrine of the Church. (B.C.)

I am just a layperson, so the Sino-Vatican agreement does not really affect me. My life of faith has not changed much. Of course, I heard some negative stories from elsewhere. For myself, apart from my personal religious life, when I saw the national flag hanging outside the church for the first time, I was still a little shocked.

There is nothing wrong with hanging the national flag. But in order to assert the slogan "love the country, love the Church" (Ai guo, ai jiao is the slogan of the Patriotic Association, and is also used by the government-recognised Council of Chinese Bishops), would it not be better to also show at the same time the flag of faith, for example that of the Vatican or that of the parish, ?

Every now and then I go on a pilgrimage abroad and see that in some countries the national flag of that country and that of the Vatican are displayed in churches. I love my country and I love my Church. If in the future I could see the national flag and that of the Vatican or the parish flying together, I think that would be a very nice thing.

Shanghai John

A few years ago, when crosses in Zhejiang were removed, I had already felt that a crisis was approaching and that sooner or later this land would be swept by it. Starting in 2018, parishes in Henan province began to live in anxiety. By hook or by crook, their goal [the authorities] was to make us obedient to their words.

We have made several compromises, accepted every request however difficult, devised solutions and continued to compromise, not knowing when we would have crossed our limit of faith. The external walls of the church are covered with many rules about Chinese culture and church administration; the flag flies on the bell tower, next to the cross, as if to replace the light of the cross. Churches have just reopened after the pandemic.

[Government officials] have already come many times on Sunday, on the pretext of monitoring COVID-19, imposing many limitations, saying that minors cannot enter the church, that registrations of the faithful admitted to the church are not complete, that spacing lines must be drawn on the floor, that spacing signs must be hung, etc., all this with repeated threats of closure.

As for the Agreement, I want to believe that the Pope wants to fight for us, to guarantee us a little more room. But all this does not stop them (government officials) from seeking to control everything. I don't know if the situation would have been worse without the agreement. Perhaps it would have. But one thing is certain: With the Agreement, the situation has not improved. I never thought that the Pope or any other Church person could understand and take on the burden we have to endure, but I am sure that with the prayers of the whole Church, Jesus Christ will save us.

Maria, northern China
Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) today announced that Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS), the leading independent proxy advisory firm, has recommended that shareholders vote for all 12 of Toshibas highly-qualified director nominees at the Companys Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders for the 181st Fiscal Period, to be held on July 31, 2020.

As ISS stated in its independent report1: our analysis and engagement with the company suggest that the recently reconstituted board is appropriately focused on the key issues impacting Toshiba. As such, additional change at the board level does not appear necessary.

Toshiba's Board of Directors stated, We are pleased ISS has recommended that Toshiba shareholders vote for all of our highly-qualified and experienced Directors. ISS support further validates the progress that we made last year to refresh our Board with shareholder input and our strong belief that Toshibas slate of directors has the right mix of skills, experiences and new perspectives to provide independent oversight of the continued execution of our transformational Toshiba Next Plan (TNP). Through the TNP, we expect to deliver sustainable long-term growth and value to all of our shareholders. We encourage all of our shareholders to vote for our director nominees at our upcoming Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders.

In making its recommendation, ISS noted:

The company is appointing a new independent chairman, and seven of the other 9 independent directors have only been at the company for one year; the two remaining independent directors have tenures of two and four years, respectively. [] The current directors generally appear to have relevant and diverse credentials.

[] the company seems to have taken appropriate actions in recent years, and the boards overhaul last year suggests it will maintain the course. [] the board  particularly the recently elected foreign directors  appear to be appropriately focused in their oversight.

It is also worth noting that while 3D Investment is seeking to replace two directors, Effissimo is proposing to add three nominees to the 12-member slate nominated by the company. Such an increase raises questions as to whether a 15-member board could become less effective as different factions compete over disparate priorities.



The Board unanimously recommends that Toshiba shareholders to vote FOR director candidates 1-12 and AGAINST candidates 13-17, as listed in our Convocation Notice.

Institutional investors and those shareholders holding shares through a custodian or intermediary should directly contact their custodian or voting platform provider for proxy voting instructions. Please be mindful that custodial vote deadlines may be very much earlier than the market deadline of 17:15 JST on 30 July 2020. Shareholders are encouraged to submit their proxy votes online through the electronic voting platform ProxyEdge operated by ICJ, Inc., if they have applied in advance to do so. Please refer to the Convocation Notice for further guidance, which can be found at https://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/ir/en/stock/meeting.htm.

1 Permission to quote from the ISS report was neither sought nor obtained.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200716005533/en/
The federal, provincial and territorial governments have reached a deal on billions of dollars in transfers to continue reopening economies amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday.

He said the federal government will contribute $19 billion under the Safe Restart Agreement to help provinces fund things like child care, contact tracing and personal protective equipment. There is also money to bail out municipal governments that saw soaring expenses and plunging revenues during the pandemic.

Trudeau had promised $14 billion in early June, but several premiers said they needed more money and also resisted some of the conditions the federal Liberals wanted to put on the deal.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford was one who didnt like a federal demand that some of it fund up to 10 days of paid sick leave to discourage workers with precarious employment from going into work ill.

This funding will support us as we get the economy going over the next six to eight months, Ford said Thursday. My friends ... its a great deal for Ontario.

The agreement includes sick leave, fully funded by the federal government.

Manitobas Brian Pallister said hes pleased with that provision.

I think its very important we have a national program, and the prime minister obviously agreed, he said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

I think the important thing is that, as opposed to some past discussions where premiers were drawn away from supporting other premiers, the premiers stuck together and they stood for what they wanted and largely got it.

British Columbias John Horgan said his province expects nearly $2 billion in transfers and emphasized the sick-leave program as a key move to make sure nobody feels pressured to go work sick.

Quebecs Francois Legault wanted the money to be transferred without conditions so provinces could use it on whatever they considered most important. He also didnt want the cash distributed purely by population, noting that Quebec had been hit harder by COVID-19 than other provinces.

Thursday, he echoed Pallister in saying that the premiers sticking together got them a deal they like. He credited Saskatchewans Scott Moe in convincing all the premiers to hold the line.

Yes, we wanted the federal government to invest and help get us through the pandemic, but we also wanted the federal government to respect provincial jurisdiction and also give us the flexibility to choose our priorities, Legault said.

For Quebec, spending money on protective equipment from Quebec suppliers is a key example, he said.

Trudeau said the agreement outlines seven priority areas, with some room for the provinces to apply the money to their particular needs over the next six to eight months.

The provinces agreed to invest in the targeted sectors, Trudeau said. There are areas like support for vulnerable people where we will expect the provinces to declare publicly what they will do.

At his side, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland added the agreement includes standards in certain areas, such as COVID-19 testing, in exchange for the federal money.

Trudeau said workers cant work if their children dont have safe care, and many cant get to their jobs if they dont have access to safe transit systems.

Until we find a vaccine, the daily threat of COVID-19 will not disappear, he said.

Municipal governments, which deliver many of those services, have been begging for aid for months, warning their finances are careening toward brick walls. Many city revenue streams dried up during the pandemic, as recreational centres and programs closed, and transit riders stopped using buses and trains.

Toronto has reported that its facing a $1.35-billion deficit this year. Mayor John Tory said the federal money will help, though how much depends on how the Ontario government allocates it. Transit in Toronto and its suburbs is critical and the systems finances have been devastated by the pandemic, he said.

Montreal says it has a $500-million shortfall. Halifax expects to be short $85.4 million.

If cities arent equipped for a safe restart, people will not be safe, Trudeau said.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities said its encouraged but wants to see the fine print.

Were optimistic this agreement will recognize the financial crisis municipalities face in this pandemic, said the federations president Bill Karsten, a Halifax councillor. That means emergency funding thats clearly identified and gets to municipal front lines fast  so we can keep vital services going strong and prepare to drive Canadas economic recovery.

Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil said in a statement that he welcomes a deal that will bring his province more than $250 million.

Provinces have borne the full impact of COVID-19 and individuals and businesses across Nova Scotia will feel the impact for months to come, he said. This funding will help to address those challenges.

He said the funding will help with:

Testing, contact tracing and data management

Health care, including mental health and addictions

Aiding vulnerable populations, including in nursing homes

Personal protective equipment

Early learning and child care

Municipal budgets, including public transit

Paid sick leave

Missing from the list is public education, which is administered by the provinces. Many provinces are struggling with how to reopen schools safely in the fall, and many parents wont be able to go back to work fully if children arent physically in class.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 16, 2020.

With files from Amy Smart in Vancouver, Steve Lambert in Winnipeg, Giuseppe Valiante in Montreal and Jordan Press in Ottawa
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 16, 2020 08:48 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666ab4ff 1 National bomb-threat,South-Sulawesi,McDonalds,McDonalds-Indonesia,police,bomb-scare,COVID-19,coronavirus,Italy Free

Police arrested a 35-year-old man identified only as MH after he threatened to blow up a McDonald's restaurant on Jl. AP Pettarani in Panakkukang district, Makassar, South Sulawesi.

South Sulawesi Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Ibrahim Tompo said the suspect went into the store on Monday evening.

He then told a member of staff at the restaurant that he would bomb the place.

"He shouted in the store, saying that Italy was behind the COVID-19 pandemic and McDonald's was an Italian brand, so he intended to bomb it," Ibrahim said on Wednesday, as quoted by kompas.com.

Read also: Countering terrorism during the COVID-19 pandemic

After causing panic among customers and staff, he left the restaurant and rode away on a motorcycle.

The police managed to arrest MH after reviewing CCTV footage of the restaurant. Investigators identified him immediately, as the suspect did not wear anything to cover his face during the incident.

MH, who is a resident of Masamba district in Luwu regency, was arrested at a mosque on Jl. Urip Sumoharjo in the provincial capital of Makassar.

Ibrahim added that MH told police during an interrogation that he threatened to blow up the restaurant because he "hates foreign brands." (nal)
As Florida has become the new COVID-19 hotspot, federal prisons in South Florida are feeling the brunt of COVID-19.

Union officials at Federal Correctional Complex Coleman and Federal Correctional Institution Miami sounded the alarm on just how bad the conditions are inside the facilities.

Kareen Troitino, the FCI Miami corrections officer union president, told ABC News that the virus was spread by one employee to inmates at the facility and, within a day, Troitino said that cases at the facility went from one to four.

A few days later, Troitino said there was an enormous spike in three of the units at the facility.

Inmates complaining of extreme fatigue. Cold like symptoms. Strange headaches, they've never experienced a very strong, vomiting, diarrhea, but no one is showing a fever, and the administration decided to do a 21-day lockdown, he said.

According to the Bureau of Prisons, 91 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19 at FCI Miami.

MORE: Correctional officers who supervised Jeffrey Epstein on night of suicide indicted

A communal open area of FCI Miami was also infected but, according to Troitino, the leadership at FCI Miami did not tell staff for a full 24 hours.

So staff who went in there to do the counts and do the rounds and do shakedowns. They got infected, he said.

Out of 60 inmates in that one area, 55 inmates tested positive.

Troitino said that if inmates dont show a fever, the federal bureau of prisons will not give them a COVID-19 test.

Know that the majority of institution inmates are showing, I mean hundreds of them are displaying symptoms but they don't have a fever, he explained.

The Bureau of Prisons said all inmates at FCI Miami are following BOP protocol.

"While in general population, any inmate displaying symptoms for COVID-19 will be tested and placed in isolation. A contact investigation will be conducted to identify any potential exposures and may include widespread testing as clinically indicated," a spokesperson for the BOP said. "Effective June 19, 2020, all inmates in BOP facilities entering or departing a BOP facility are required to participate in a test in/out enhanced screening and quarantine/isolation process. All inmates entering an institution will be tested for COVID-19 upon arrival."

Story continues

The spokesperson added that inmates are placed in quarantine for 14 days prior to full entry into the facility and "are managed per CDC guidelines."

PHOTO: The entrance to the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., is seen Wednesday, July 15, 2020. Wesley Ira Purkey, convicted of a gruesome 1998 kidnapping and killing, is scheduled to be executed Wednesday evening at the prison. (Michael Conroy/AP)

He said staffing is low and most are working 16-hour shifts and, in a rare move, management has even stepped in to cover some of the facility.

An internal memo obtained by ABC News dated July 14, 2020, shows that an entire unit at Federal Detention Center Miami, a pre-trial jail not affiliated with FCI Miami, was quarantined because there were three positive cases in one wing of the facility.

Joe Rojas, the Council of Prisons Southeast Regional Vice President told ABC News the situation at Federal Correctional Institution Coleman, 60 miles north of Tampa is dire.

According to a complaint filed with the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General, which was obtained by ABC News, staff at FCI Coleman allege that certain staff members have still to report to work while COVID-19 tests are pending and the staff, they say, came in contact with a COVID-19 positive staff member.

The union points to a May 2020 memo which states that staff who come into contact with a COVID-19 positive staff member have to quarantine for 14 days.

MORE: Lawmakers worry about COVID-19 spread after Bureau of Prisons officers deployed to protests

Rojas explained that it is reckless for anyone to tell someone to stay at work despite coming into contact with the staffer.

The Bureau of Prisons told ABC News in a statement that FCI Coleman is not requiring any staff with pending COVID-19 test results to come to work.

Everybody sees this and everybody knows friends that have died or have been in the ICU. So there's a panic going on because of this and you can't have people who have tested positive walking around the institution, he continued.

Troitino says that the pandemic amplifies the problems inside the Bureau of Prisons.

The public needs to understand that the Federal Bureau of Prisons, for many years, has had many deficiencies that have been ignored because nobody really cares about inmates. However, these are people's families. And the pandemic has amplified all of our deficiencies of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, whether it's staffing, whether it's the poor health care, food, we're getting complaints from our [Special Housing Unit], this last week because there were numerous disturbances because they're undernourished.

Union officials warn of 'dire' situations at South Florida federal prisons originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
New Delhi: Asteroid 2020ND, that Space Agency NASA has described as 'potentially hazardous asteroid' will fly past the Earth on July 24.

Measuring 130 m-280 m in diameter, the Asteroid 2020ND is bigger than London Eye. Travelling at a speed of 13.5 kilometres per second or 48,000 kilometres per hour, the asteroid will come within just 0.034 astronomical units (AU) of the earth on July 24.

NASA says, "Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are currently defined based on parameters that measure the asteroids potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth. Specifically, all asteroids with a minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID) of 0.05 au or less and an absolute magnitude (H) of 22.0 or less are considered PHAs."

Five other asteroids will fly by towards the end of July 2020--these include the 2002 BF25 on July 21, the 2020 ND on July 24, 2020 MX3 on July 29 as well as the 2018 PY7 and the 2007 RF1 on July 31.

The space agency can study the near Earth object (NEO), due to its close distance/proximity. Near-Earth objects (NEOs) are asteroids and comets that orbit the Sun, but their orbits bring them into Earth's neighbourhood - within 30 million miles of Earth's orbit.

Asteroids are small, rocky objects that orbit the sun. They are left over from the formation of our solar system. Although they orbit the sun like planets, but they are much smaller than planets. Most of the Asteroids live in the main asteroid belta region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. About 4.6 billion years ago our solar system began when a big cloud of gas and dust collapsed. During this, most of the material fell to the center of the cloud and formed the sun. Some of the condensing dust in the cloud became planets. The objects in the asteroid belt never had the chance to be incorporated into planets. They are leftovers from that time long ago when planets formed.
Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, who are the most admired people in America?

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PHOENIX, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Advisor Group, the nation's largest network of independent wealth management firms, and Triad Advisors today announced the successful recruitment of Tribe Financial Group to Triad Hybrid Solutions, a platform that delivers an Registered Investment Adviser-style experience to independent advisor businesses that do not want the administrative and regulatory costs of having their own RIA firm. The successful recruitment reinforces Triad's longstanding industry position as the leading destination for independent hybrid advisor businesses, while underscoring the enhanced value Triad offers to financial advisors with the scale and resources of its parent company, Advisor Group.

Based in Lake Oswego and Bend, Ore., Tribe Financial Group is an independent wealth management practice, encompassing two financial professionals and $100 million in total client assets. Tribe Financial Group works with clients spanning the gamut of age, net worth and geography, seeking clients with whom they can build long-term relationships based on trust and mutual respect. Co-founded in 2013 by Managing Partners Mary Dill and Kyle Sullivan, Tribe Financial Group specializes in financial planning, asset management, estate planning, tax planning, legacy planning and business consulting.

Triad CEO and President Jeff Rosenthal said, "Tribe Financial Group is a perfect fit with Triad's advisor community and culture. From the outset, we have been extremely impressed with Tribe Financial Group co-founders Mary Dill and Kyle Sullivan, who have shown tremendous dedication to building their business through the delivery of an exceptional client service experience. Their team is entrepreneurial, focused and hard-working, with enormous potential for growth. We are proud to welcome Tribe Financial Group to our Triad Hybrid Solutions platform."

Ms. Dill and Mr. Sullivan, in a joint statement about their affiliation with Triad, said, "At Tribe Financial Group we have seen strong growth in both fee and commission sides of our business since our founding, and it only made sense to partner with Triad, a firm that was built from the ground up, decades ago, to support the needs of hybrid advisor businesses just like ours. Triad's platforms and technology lead the industry, and the resources and tools they can offer through their Advisor Group parent company are very exciting to us. But the true attraction for us was the Triad sense of community and culture. Just as we enjoy working with clients with whom our culture fits, we are thrilled to be working side-by-side with a home office team that understands us and knows how to help us reach our full potential."

Jamie Price, CEO and President of Advisor Group, said, "We congratulate Triad Advisors on welcoming Tribe Financial Group to their platform, and the broader Advisor Group community. Bringing aboard Tribe Financial Group reflects what we are trying to accomplish every day in true partnership with the financial professionals that affiliate with our wealth management firms. Financial professionals bring to the table their dedication, work ethic and expertise, and we supplement it with industry-leading platforms, technology and services, in order to nurture their professional growth and success. We're thrilled to serve the team at Tribe Financial Group, and to be in their corner."

About Triad Advisors

Triad Advisors is part of Advisor Group, one of the nation's largest networks of independent financial professionals. Headquartered in Atlanta, Triad is a national broker-dealer as well as a multi-custodial registered investment adviser firm that was an early pioneer and continued leader in the hybrid registered investment adviser marketplace. The company has more than 600 financial providers on its platform and provides a comprehensive set of products, trading and technology systems, as well as customized wealth management strategies. For more information, please visit www.triad-advisors.com.

About Advisor Group

Advisor Group, Inc. is the nation's largest network of independent wealth management firms, serving approximately 11,300 financial professionals and overseeing over $450 billion in client assets. The firm is mission-driven to support the strategic role that financial professionals can play in the lives of their clients. Securities and investment advisory services are offered through Advisor Group, Inc. subsidiaries, FSC Securities Corporation, KMS Financial Services, Inc., Royal Alliance Associates, Inc., SagePoint Financial, Inc., Triad Advisors, LLC, and Woodbury Financial Services, Inc., broker-dealers, registered investment advisers, and members of FINRA and SIPC. Securities services are offered through Investacorp, Inc., Securities America, Inc., and Securities Service Network, broker-dealers and members of FINRA and SIPC. Advisory services are offered through Arbor Point Advisors, LLC, Investacorp Advisory Services, Inc., Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management, Inc., Securities America Advisor, Inc., SSN Advisory, Inc., and Triad Hybrid Solutions, LLC, registered investment advisers. Advisor Group, Inc. is a holding company. Advisor Group, Inc. is separately owned and other entities and/or marketing names, products or services referenced here are independent of Advisor Group, Inc. Cultivating a spirit of entrepreneurship and independence, Advisor Group champions the enduring value of financial professionals and is committed to being in their corner every step of the way. For more information visit https://www.advisorgroup.com.

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A nuclear submarine like the one that almost collided with a Stena Superfast ferry

A ferry sailing out of Belfast almost collided with a nuclear submarine partly because the Royal Navy vessel's commanding officers under-estimated the speed of the Stena Superfast VII.

Safety decisions taken on the sub were based on inaccurate information, an investigation has found.

The two vessels came within 50-100 metres of each other in the incident on November 6, 2018, a Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) report found.

Crew on the Stena Superfast VII ferry, which was travelling from Belfast to Cairnryan, "took immediate action to avoid collision" after spotting the submarine's periscope nearby.

Ferry passengers and the crew on both vessels were placed "in immediate danger" the report found.

The nuclear-powered submarine, based at Faslane, was patrolling an area south of the ferry route when it came close to the Stena vessel, which had 215 passengers and 67 crew on board.

The report said: "This incident happened because the submarine's control room team overestimated the ferry's range and underestimated its speed.

"This combination meant that the submarine's commanding officer and its officer of the watch made safety-critical decisions that might have appeared rational to them at the time but were actually based on inaccurate information."

The report found that when the submarine's control room team initially detected Stena Superfast VII visually, they estimated it to be at a range of 9,000-10,000 yards. At a speed of 21 knots, Stena Superfast VII would cover 6,000 yards in eight minutes and 34 seconds, which was an estimate of the time available for the submarine's officer of the watch (OOW) to take avoiding action. However, the report found the OOW had estimated the ferry's speed as 15 knots, so would have "incorrectly calculated" it would take the ferry 12 minutes to travel 6,000 yards and "almost certainly assessed that there was significantly more time to take avoiding action than was actually the case".

Following the incident, the master of the ferry notified the coastguard, saying the submarine's periscope had passed down the starboard side of the vessel at a range of 50-100 metres.

The report said: "During safety training in the North Channel, the command team of a submerged submarine did not take sufficient action to prevent the ferry, Stena Superfast VII, passing inside its go-deep range. This was an unsafe event and placed the ferry's passengers and crew, as well as the submarine and its crew, in immediate danger."

It said the ferry's OOW showed "great presence of mind and strong conviction" in altering course to port to avoid a collision, and warned that "without this alteration, there was a serious risk of collision".

Andrew Moll, chief inspector at the MAIB, said: "I have today recommended that the Royal Navy undertakes an independent review of the actions that have been taken in order to ensure that the risk of similar collisions has been reduced to as low as possible."

A Royal Navy spokesman said: "Ensuring safety at sea is a top priority for the Royal Navy, which is why we welcome this report and have already taken action to tighten our training and procedures." The Royal Navy said there were no nuclear safety issues during the incident.
Census 2020 Hard to Count Map Adds New Features

Pew Experts Compile Resources for Federal Efforts to Close the Digital Divide

National Civic Volunteer Award Spotlights Community Heroes

The California State Library has built and launched a new grants portal that gives users a centralized location to find state grant and loan opportunities.Dubbed the California Grants Portal , the platform currently features more than 100 grants that total more than $17 billion in potential funding. The platform for the new portal is also an intuitive one that allows users to search by applicant type, grant category and timeframe for application deadlines.The categories of grants on the portal include environment and water; disadvantaged communities; education; health and human services; housing, community, and economic development; libraries, parks, recreation and arts; disaster prevention and relief; and science, technology and research and development.There is also a feed on the page that lists recently added grants, as well as a statistical tracker. For example, that tracker currently notes that 50 grants were added in the past week, there are 111 current grant opportunities, and $17.6 billion available in total funding.In the press release announcing the creation of the portal this week, developers noted that it was built with input from both grantseekers and state agencies. This research spanned 14 months and included collecting input from more than 1,000 grantseekers and 120 state staffers. The creation of the portal was spurred by legislative action in California, specifically the Grant Information Act of 2018 (Stats. 2018, Ch. 318; Asm Limon, AB 2252) , which required the creation of a centralized location for grant info by the state library before July of this year.The Census 2020 Hard to Count Map  a comprehensive statistical asset used by government and community groups working to complete the Census  has announced a host of new features, including a new birds-eye view of response rates, as well as response rates by state legislative districts.These new additions, according to a release announcing them, are aimed at visualizing the trajectory of self-response rates by county or city with dynamic trendlines, and an animated county-level nationwide map. The point of this is to help those involved with the Census to more easily visualize how counties and cities are doing when it comes to getting out the count.Some of the new data visualizations are color-coded, with different shades for counties corresponding to the ways in which residents were informed and encouraged to fill out the Census. These visualizations can also be highlighted in a way that shows response rates day-by-day. This map is perhaps the most prominent and widely used civic tech project related to the 2020 U.S. Census, which will determine federal funding and political representation for communities across the country over the next 10 years. It was created within the City University of New Yorks Graduate Center and is free for Census stakeholders to use. Other recent updates for the map have included dynamic new metrics to track response rates at various levels, as well as new map search features for the locations of area Census offices.Experts with Pew Charitable Trusts have compiled a series of research products related to helping actors at the state level specifically bridge the nations digital divide.Noting that the coronavirus pandemic has unveiled the crucial importance of broadband, Pew shared a list of five related resources via email this week, which are especially relevant given that policymakers across the country  on both sides of the aisle  now recognize that expanding Internet access in a way that makes it accessible to all people is vital. It needs to be done in order to expand telehealth, connect students to online classrooms, enable teleworking and distribute information about pandemic relief from programs at all levels of government.The resources shared by Pew in the service of this are ones the group has been rolling out in recent months. There is a letter urging federal leaders to support state progress in the area, an interactive tool to view actions at the state level, an analysis of who in America is not online, a report on how states are expanding broadband and a fact sheet related to state-level broadband programs.Finally, local gov officials in small communities are being asked to nominate civic volunteers or groups for a new program called the Small Town America Civic Volunteer Award The award is exactly as the title implies  a way to honor folks who volunteer in small American towns  and the plan is for it to recognize 100 entries to shine a spotlight on the growing need for local engagement in critical civic roles.Examples of potential recipients include a volunteer fire chief in a rural community, a team of citizens in a small southern community who attract private investments to a downtown corridor in decline and a town official who works to lead an effort to elevate safety capabilities in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.The top three nominees for the new award will receive cash prizes of $10,000, $7,500 and $5,000 for their respective communities. All of the 100 entries will also get a new CivicCMS community website at no charge with a component that includes a volunteer module aimed at helping with future recruitment.
A mum-of-one who has gone nearly blind from a rare disease is appealing for help to save what is left of her sight.

Hotel porter Heidi Kennedy (35), from Laois, was driving home to visit her parents in 2011 when everything suddenly went black and she had to pull in to the side of the road.

She was rushed to the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital in Dublin, where it was found she was bleeding into the back of her eyes, causing the loss of vision.

Her condition continued to deteriorate, and in 2012 she was referred to specialist Professor Dara Kilmartin, who found a massive clot in her left eye caused by all the haemorrhages.

The only option to save it was to undergo a seven-hour operation, with only a 50/50 chance it would work.

Surgeons deemed it a huge success at the time, but Heidi had to spend nine months in a "face doughnut" to get the eye back into position.

It was a long road to recovery, which she said was "extremely tough" but she had some "incredible support".

"After the nine months I was brought back to the hospital for the review and I had got devastating news that nobody wants to hear. I was diagnosed with a very rare eye disease," Heidi said.

"This disease involves the growing of vessels into the eyes, and when too many grow they burst and bleed and cause massive haemorrhages.

Cure

"I got injections every four weeks into my eyes, whether it was the left or right, to try and stop the bleeds but nothing worked long-term."

Despite undergoing tests, Heidi, who has only 10pc vision, has been told there is no known cure for her disease, which is so rare it has no name.

She said life is becoming a "real struggle", and having to postpone her wedding that was planned for the end of this month was a huge setback.

"When I look at my loved ones - my parents, my two-year-old son, my fiance Michael, all I can see is blackness on their faces and they look very different to me," she said.

Even looking at a TV screen or a smartphone is difficult as her eyes have become so sensitive to light.

"Going outside is a struggle as the light hurts my eyes and causes them to nearly fully close, even with the help of sunglasses. I'm in dire pain the whole time," Heidi said.

"With this disease, I don't know when I'm going to become blind and I don't know when I will never see my loved ones ever again."

Her only hope of saving her sight is to go abroad, and she is looking at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London and the Vista Private Clinic in Spain.

However, the treatment will cost thousands of euro.

Heidi said that time is also of the essence, given the degenerative nature of her condition.

Her fiance Michael Smyth and dad Patrick have set up an online fundraiser to try to help.

Donations can be made at gofundme.com/f/save-and-bring-back-my-sight
The former Managing Director of the Interim Committee of the Niger-Delta Development Commission, Joy Nunieh has thanked the Rivers state...

The former Managing Director of the Interim Committee of the Niger-Delta Development Commission, Joy Nunieh has thanked the Rivers state Governor, Nyesom Wike for coming to save her from an attempted arrest by security operatives.





Governor Wike had moved Nunieh out of her residence at Herbert Macaulay Street, Old GRA, Port Harcourt, to Government House Port Harcourt.





Speaking to newsmen on telephone, Nunieh said she was surprised at the invasion of her home by Police officers, who came without an arrest warrant.





The former MD of NDDC, therefore, thanked Governor Wike for living up to his promise of protecting her.





Senator Magnus Abe called me after a while that the CP in Rivers did not really know about it and that the CP was going to reach me. The CP did reach me and said he was not aware of what was going on.





The CP asked that I send him my address and which I did and then I saw the cars come in. So, I asked if that was the CP, and they said no. Fortunately, I was just wise enough. I stayed by the door, and they wanted to drag me, so I just banged the door, so they cant come in.





So, I now left the front door to call my governor to tell my governor that this is what has happened, and he said no, I should not go anywhere that he was on his way. They kept trying to pull down the door and then I asked them for a warrant of arrest and I said I cant go anywhere without a warrant of arrest.





I needed to see the warrant. We are not in a Banana Republic. So, as they were still trying, my Governor came and sent them out that why would they come to arrest a woman like an armed robber that they should leave the compound.





The Governor then said I should enter the car with him. So, I am now with my Governor in Government House, Port Harcourt.





I really want to thank the Governor. I really dont know what to say but my Governor is a man. He is a man. He didnt just say it that nothing should happen to me, he came to my rescue. I want to say thank you to my Governor, Nunieh said.





Sources say Joy Nunieh is being invited for questioning by the Police, an information yet to be confirmed by the Rivers state Police Command.





The Minister of Niger-Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio and Nunieh have been embroiled in war of words over allegations of corruption in the NDDC.




I believe India is a stock pickers paradise  one has to be nimble-footed with a flexible approach to investing & willing to have a diversified portfolio, Ashish Chugh, Director, Hidden Gems Advisory told Moneycontrol, said in an interview with Moneycontrols Kshitij Anand.

Edited excerpts:

A) Yes, the markets have indeed seen a sharp run-up in the last 2 months. I think the market may take a breather, and consolidate. The numbers for the next 2 quarters for most companies are not going to be good, a fact well known.

I think some of this is already factored in, but I believe it is not fully factored in the stock prices. We may actually see a decline in many stocks when the numbers actually come in.

Such times can actually provide opportunities to deploy cash.

I feel we are in some kind of a trading market currently, where there is stock & sector rotation. The stocks are currently playing a catch-up rally.

This kind of market provides an opportunity for portfolio rejig  getting rid of the duds, and junk & align the portfolio to long-term opportunities.

The number of stocks in single-digit PE multiples, and with dividend yields between 5 to 10% is one of the highest I have seen in many years.

Q) India has seen a new breed of Robinhood Traders with huge growth in Demat & Broking accounts. How do you look at this trend?

A) The number of new broking and Demat accounts opened in the last two months has indeed surprised many. It is indeed good to see increased retail participation in equities since India is a hugely under-penetrated market.

However, what worries me is the reason many of such investors have chosen to invest/trade in stocks - the nationwide lockdown, and people not having anything better to do at home.

Many investors are first time investors & early success leads to complacency. Thats the worry. One must understand the fact that the stock market is not an easy place to make money.

You may get lucky once or twice but not all the time. Markets may be volatile at times and money made quickly can go away more swiftly.

Many of these investors are merely chasing stock prices without much understanding of company fundamentals & valuations, which can end in pain. Many may end up losing money & gaining experience if they are not careful with their money.

The ideal thing for a new investor would be to go through a Mutual Fund or professional money manager while keep a small amount to venture directly and learn the nuances of the market.

Q) Which themes or stocks look good for investment?

A) I have always followed a bottoms-up approach to investing in stocks  however, would avoid talking about specific stocks here.

I believe India is a stock pickers paradise  one has to be nimble-footed with a flexible approach to investing & willing to have a diversified portfolio.

The selection of sectors & stocks is a very personalised thing, and should be aligned to ones own DNA aka  Temperament as well as Risk Appetite.

I think small-cap as space looks to be best placed where one can find growth opportunities at reasonable valuations.

There was a deep correction in small caps from January 2018 onwards and COVID-19, lockdown, and the damage it did to businesses led to a further correction in the valuations of most companies & small caps was not an exception.

I would broadly look at the following themes for investment:-

PSUs:

There are lots of PSUs, some being monopolies that are available at single digit PEs & dividend yields between 5 to 10%. Some of these companies fall into the Non-Discretionary category & many not get impacted much.

They are available below Book Value, much below their IPO price & near multi-year lows. However, from the valuations at which they are available, they are definitely not the flavour of the markets. Some of these provide good investment opportunities.

Rural Themes:

Rural markets are the ones that are less impacted due to lockdown & the initiatives of the government to increase farm incomes have led to revival of demand.

Some sector which could benefit are two-wheelers (look for ancillaries in this space), Building material, Asbestos Sheet, Fertilizers, Agrochemicals, Farm Machinery & Consumer Durables.

The effort should be to look out for reasonably priced growth companies & some of these may be worth considering post Q1 numbers.

Defence:

This is a space that offers exciting opportunities & our allocation to the sector could be significantly higher given the geopolitical factors. The obvious names are some of the PSUs which have staged a smart rally of late.

However, there are many smaller ancillaries having their own niches in the space. Some of these could provide good opportunities

China Import Replacement Theme:

Atmanirbhar Bharat may see the resurgence of industries where the majority of products used to come from China. We may see discouragement to imports & some entry barriers in those product segments.

Some spaces where India is equally competitive are small Batteries, Building materials/ Ceramic & Vitrified Times, Electricals.

Knowledge-Based companies where India has an Advantage due to Intellectual Capital 

Software & Pharma could be sectors that are less impacted due to lockdown because of COVID. There would be lots of opportunities here but one needs to know his company well, be mindful of valuations & momentum in some of the stocks since most of the pharma stocks have seen a major run-up in the last 2 months.

Though long term potential is good, buy on declines would be a better idea since not all of them make drugs for treating COVID & June quarter numbers may cause a correction in many.

Debt Restructuring/ NCLT Cases:

The IBC Amendment Ordinance 2020 which was introduced for default after lockdown declaration has come as a breather for many companies that were facing difficult times.

Many of such companies may be able to negotiate with the banks and restructure their loans. Some of them can multiply wealth.

However, deep research capabilities would be needed in such cases since many would be high risk bets and can potentially be write-offs.

: The views and investment tips expressed by experts on Moneycontrol.com are their own and not those of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Members of the Ohio Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, a group that manages the grounds of the Statehouse, gave a preliminary approval Thursday for a monument that will honor those who fought for womens right to vote.

The boards preliminary approval will allow the Womens Suffrage Centennial Commission to begin raising funds for the commemoration, and figure out a design concept and find an artist. If it is successful, the board will give final approval in five years.

There are no statues of women on the grounds of Ohio Capitol Square -- although a womans face is depicted in an angel for a Civil War monument. In fact, few state capitols have outdoor monuments dedicated to real women.

The actual location of the womens suffrage monument will be decided at a later time. The centennial commission wants the memorial on the outside for more visibility. But a Statehouse architect suggested two other locations inside the building, and the South Plaza outside as a third option.

Members of the centennial commission said theyll fight to locate the piece outside.

The board also preliminarily adopted a policy for the removal of monuments.

In Ohio, as across the country, debates over whether to remove monuments of Christopher Columbus over whether they celebrate someone who is now associated by some with American Indian genocide have been widespread. The Christopher Columbus Discovery Monument on Capitol Square is among those that groups would like to remove. The City of Columbus announced last month it would remove a Columbus statue outside city hall.

The preliminary policy, which will be formally adopted at the groups next meeting, mirrors the policy for which to erect a monument. The groups would have to raise money to get rid of a statue, and the process would take five years.

Weve had a process in place to erect statues and it seems reasonable to me that... there needs to be a time of reflection, and that time of reflection will give the board an opportunity -- or future boards an opportunity -- to reflect and research statues coming up and statues going down, said Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, who chairs the board.

Other coverage:

Gov. Mike DeWine is not committing to attend Republican National Convention

Ohio coronavirus cases up 1,290: Thursday update

Gov. Mike DeWine implores Ohioans to take immediate action to slow coronavirus, but gives no mandates
The Senate, on Wednesday, approved N168.8 billion budget for the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) for the 2020 fiscal year.

The upper chamber also approved a one-off N100bn special purpose intervention fund for the agency's key capital projects.

Specifically, the fund is to assist the FIRS complete its head office project within 12 months; six training schools; 30 prototype tax operations offices; purpose-built facilities for efficient taxation of upstream petroleum industry and ICT infrastructure to identify and track digital transactions.

The approval followed the consideration of the report of the Senate Committee on Finance as presented by its Chairman, Solomon Olamilekan Adeola.

Sen Adeola said N1.56tn was projected as oil revenue and N4.502tn from non-nil revenue, totalling N6tn.

The senate, while adopting the recommendations of the committee, charged the service to digitise all processes in the administration of tax to cope with the rapidly increasing online economic activities without physical presence.

The committee also recommended that the FIRS (Establishment) Act and other tax laws should be amended to make it possible for the service to modernise its operations with relevant technology.

It also recommended that the budget of FIRS for any financial year must be approved by the senate by the end of October of the preceding year "to ensure strict compliance with the January to December financial year."
Announcement of Periodic Review: Moody's announces completion of a periodic review of ratings of Shizuoka Prefecture

Global Credit Research - 16 Jul 2020

Tokyo, July 16, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has completed a periodic review of the ratings of Shizuoka Prefecture and other ratings that are associated with the same analytical unit. The review was conducted through a portfolio review in which Moody's reassessed the appropriateness of the ratings in the context of the relevant principal methodology(ies), recent developments, and a comparison of the financial and operating profile to similarly rated peers. The review did not involve a rating committee. Since 1 January 2019, Moody's practice has been to issue a press release following each periodic review to announce its completion.

This publication does not announce a credit rating action and is not an indication of whether or not a credit rating action is likely in the near future. Credit ratings and outlook/review status cannot be changed in a portfolio review and hence are not impacted by this announcement. For any credit ratings referenced in this publication, please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for the most updated credit rating action information and rating history.

Key rating considerations are summarized below.

The credit profile of Shizuoka Prefecture is expressed by a baseline credit assessment of a2 and a rating of A1. The prefecture's A1 rating is the same as that of the Government of Japan (A1) reflecting our view that the rating of the central government and those of the regional and local governments (RLGs) in Japan should be the same because of their close links.

The considerable level of oversight and supervision exercised by the central government, as well as the well-established equalization system of transfers through the local allocation tax (LAT) system, ensures that any credit issues at the RLG level are identified and addressed early. We also assess that there is a very high likelihood that the Japanese government would provide immediate assistance in the event of an acute liquidity crisis. Shizuoka Prefecture's rating also reflects its strong regional economy, favorable operating margin and debt structure, and its higher debt levels in particular because of a rise in rinzai-sai debt.

Story continues

This document summarizes Moody's view as of the publication date and will not be updated until the next periodic review announcement, which will incorporate material changes in credit circumstances (if any) during the intervening period.

The principal methodology used for this review was Regional and Local Governments (Japanese) published in January 2018. Please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

This announcement applies only to EU rated and EU endorsed ratings. Non EU rated and non EU endorsed ratings may be referenced above to the extent necessary, if they are part of the same analytical unit.

This publication does not announce a credit rating action. For any credit ratings referenced in this publication, please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for the most updated credit rating action information and rating history.

Hiroe Yamamoto Analyst Sub-Sovereign Group Moody's Japan K.K. Atago Green Hills Mori Tower 20fl 2-5-1 Atago, Minato-ku Tokyo 105-6220 Japan JOURNALISTS: 81 3 5408 4110 Client Service: 81 3 5408 4100 Marie Diron MD - Sovereign Risk Sub-Sovereign Group JOURNALISTS: 852 3758 1350 Client Service: 852 3551 3077 Releasing Office: Moody's Japan K.K. Atago Green Hills Mori Tower 20fl 2-5-1 Atago, Minato-ku Tokyo 105-6220 Japan JOURNALISTS: 81 3 5408 4110 Client Service: 81 3 5408 4100

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Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The Libyan Foreign Ministry of the Government of National Accord (GNA) has made an official request to the President of the United Nations Security Council to hold a session this month of the sanctions committee and the group of experts on Libya
Bridging the energy access gap

Renewable energy represents the most competitive and secure solution to fuel Africas socio-economic transformation and ensure electricity access to all African households and businesses, but investments remain well behind the required levels. Despite its enormous potential in terms of resources, Africa counts for only 2% of global renewable energy capacity additions in the last decade . Universal electricity access requires an increase of $120bn investments per year up to 2040 (IEA, 2019); however, classic public financing channels would not be able to mobilise such capital. Private investors are called to play a more prominent role in supporting the development of Africas electricity infrastructure and deploy resources to scale up renewable energy deployment as required.Accelerating the energy transformation can help African countries respond to Covid-19, while allowing the continent to meet its medium and long-term objectives of a decarbonised, just and prosperous future Francesco La Camera, director-general of International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), said at the launch of RES4Africas 2020 yearly flagship publication, Scaling up Africas renewable power Africa has the cost-effective potential to generate 170GW of power from renewables this decade. By creating a streamlined, attractive policy and regulatory environment for investment we can place the energy transformation at the heart of Africas recovery, delivering jobs, growth and sustainable development to all corners of the continent," he said.The report thoroughly analyses the role of fit-for-purpose, effective de-risking strategies to strengthen the attractiveness of Africas markets for renewable investors and enable the development of bankable pipelines of renewable energy projects. With this purpose in mind, RES4Africa launched the renewAfrica Initiative, a proposal for a new European, private-led de-risking programme dedicated to supporting the development of renewables in Africa. Now backed by more than 25 organisations, renewAfrica promotes the creation of a comprehensive, one-stop-shop de-risking programme that will offer end-to-end support to partner countries and investors to speed up private sector involvement and support the build-up of greater numbers of bankable RE projects across Africa.Against a background of limited fiscal space, particularly in the case of African economies, the role of the private sector becomes a matter of priority for governments, particularly to support African countries achieve sustainable economic growth, in a globalised world that is increasingly threatened by climate extremes and other global uncertainties," said Vera Songwe, under-secretary general of the United Nations and executive secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (Uneca).The success of the renewAfrica Initiative would support electricity to emerge as the best source of final-use energy in Africa and the most competitive solution to electrify its economy in a sustainable and cost-efficient manner. Harnessing this renewable energy revolution is a key prerequisite for Africa to take on tomorrows challenges," said Francesco Starace, CEO of the Enel Group and chairman of the Enel Foundation.Africa and Europe are not only close neighbours but also, most importantly, partners in the process of transformation towards a sustainable economy fair and inclusive for all. For this reason, the renewAfrica Initiative has turned to the European Union to lead the implementation of the holistic programme to promote the development of renewable energy in Africa. Now is the time to accelerate the adoption of such an innovative programme, Africa can no longer wait," said Antonio Cammisecra, CEO of Enel Green Power and president of RES4Africa Foundation.Through this publication we aim to kick-off a conversation on the need to bridge the energy access gap in Africa and transition to renewable energy, exhorting all to take concerted action in a decade that urgently calls for it. Africas energy pathway can be different, and RES4Africa Foundation with renewAfrica invites you to join their work-in-progress and take part in making the change," said Roberto Vigotti, secretary general of the RES4Africa Foundation.
ATLANTA - Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is suing Atlantas mayor and city council to block the city from enforcing its mandate to wear a mask in public and other rules related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kemp and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, in a suit filed in state court late Thursday in Atlanta, argue that Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has overstepped her authority and must obey Kemps executive orders under state law.

Governor Kemp must be allowed, as the chief executive of this state, to manage the public health emergency without Mayor Bottoms issuing void and unenforceable orders which only serve to confuse the public, the lawsuit states.

Kemp on Wednesday clarified his executive orders to expressly block Atlanta and at least 14 other local governments across the state from requiring people to wear face coverings.

Kemps order was met with defiance Thursday by Bottoms and some other mayors, who said they would continue enforcing the order. The lawsuit forces that showdown, resolving an ambiguous situation with Kemp denying local governments could order masks, but local governments arguing it was within their power.

Bottoms said Thursday during a video news conference that the citys order is still in effect.

As of today, 3,104 Georgians have died and I and my family are amongst the 106,000 who have tested positive for COVID-19, Bottoms said in a statement after the lawsuit was filed. A better use of taxpayer money would be to expand testing and contact tracing. If being sued by the state is what it takes to save lives in Atlanta, then we will see them in court.

The state asks a judge to overturn Bottoms orders that are more restrictive than Kemps, block her from issuing any more such orders, instruct the City Council not to ratify Bottoms actions or adopt any ordinances inconsistent with Kemp, to force Bottoms not to make any public statements claiming she has authority that exceeds Kemps, and to require city officials to enforce all provisions of Kemps existing orders.

In filing the lawsuit, Kemp combined a previous dispute with Bottoms over policing in the city with coronavirus control. He said he was suing to protect business owners and employees in the same way he called out the National Guard last week to protect state office buildings and the governors mansion after an 8-year-old girl was fatally shot July 4 by armed men at a site where a white Atlanta police officer shot and killed a Black man who had grabbed a stun gun and ran.

The shooting of Rayshard Brooks prompted unrest, including the burning of the fast food restaurant at the site, and complaints that armed people were blocking traffic with no police intervention. The city struggled at times to provide officers after many called in sick when a prosecutor, over Bottoms objection, criminally charged the officers involved.

Kemp also alleged in his lawsuit that Bottoms has forbidden police from enforcing Kemps earlier orders against gatherings of more than 50 people.

Officials in at least 15 Georgia cities and counties had ordered masks during the coronavirus pandemic, and many were angry at Kemp for swatting down their efforts.

How can we take care of our local needs when our state ties our hands behind our back and then says Ignore the advice of experts? Savannah Mayor Van Johnson asked in a news conference.

Bottoms last week made statements that people had to return to sheltering at home and forcing restaurants to return to only offering takeout and delivery. Kemp quickly swatted those claims down, and Bottoms on Thursday described them as guidelines. But Kemps lawsuit says the court should set Bottoms straight on those statements as well, and forbid her from making more claims about her power to reporters.

Kemp says he strongly supports mask-wearing to combat the spread of COVID-19 infections. He travelled the state this month to encourage face coverings. But he has maintained for weeks that cities and counties cant require masks in public places, saying local actions cant be more or less restrictive than his statewide orders.

Wednesday, in an otherwise routine renewal of rules governing business operations and ordering medically vulnerably people to stay home, Kemp made that prohibition explicit. He also said local governments could not order masks on their own property, which would include Atlantas massive airport.

Although national health officials have called on people to use masks, President Donald Trumps administration has not issued any nationwide guidance. Twenty-six states and the District of Columbia now require masks.

Kemps stance  not only shying away from a statewide order but trying to bar local governments from instituting their own  leaves him standing virtually alone. In the South, Republican governors in Tennessee, South Carolina and Florida have resisted statewide mandates but allow local jurisdictions to implement them. Republican governors in Alabama, Arkansas and Texas and Democrats in Kentucky, Louisiana and North Carolina have issued statewide mask requirements.

Thursdays numbers showed more than 2,800 people hospitalized statewide with the COVID-19 respiratory illness, the highest on record. The state reported that 84% of hospitals critical beds were filled.

Georgia overall had more than 131,000 confirmed infections and more than 3,100 deaths overall as of Thursday.

Some business groups are supporting Kemp. Georgia Restaurant Association CEO Karen Bremer said Thursday that a statewide mandate isnt appropriate considering Georgias size and diversity. But she also said local rules would be confusing and businesses should make their own decisions about requiring customers to wear masks.

For businesses to grapple with 535 different municipal ordinances and 159 different county ordinances is madness, Bremer said. Having one set of guidelines is very important.

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The story corrects the name and title of the leader of the Georgia Restaurant Association. She is CEO Karen Bremer, not executive director Kelly Bremer.

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Nadler reported from Marietta, Georgia. Associated Press writer Haleluya Hadero contributed to this report.

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Follow AP coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.
Todays opening-day card at Saratoga Race Course, like many other cards that include graded stakes at the unique 2020 meet, is different from last years.

The Schuylerville Stakes, the traditional opening-day feature, is still in its familiar spot.

This year, however, it shares top billing with the Peter Pan, which has been moved from its long-time position at Belmont as a prep for the Belmont Stakes. Here at Saratoga, the Peter Pan is an official Kentucky Derby qualifying race, with 85 points (50-20-10-5) to be distributed among the first four finishers.

The nine-furlong Peter Pan (G3) is one of three Derby preps scheduled over an eight-day period from July 11 to July 18. This puts the $100,000 race in direct competition with the $600,000 Blue Grass (won last Saturday by Art Collector) and the $1 million Haskell Invitational next Saturday. The Peter Pan is at a disadvantage on two counts: its lower grade and its relatively small purse. Largely because it is worth 50 qualifying points to the winner, though  almost certainly enough to lock in a spot in the Derby starting gate on Sept. 5  the Peter Pan has attracted a modest but decent-sized field of nine.

Modernist, winner of a division of the Risen Star Stakes on Feb. 15, is the only graded-stakes winner in the field. The Uncle Mo colt followed that effort with a non-threatening third in the Louisiana Derby and a distant seventh in Tiz the Laws Belmont. Nevertheless, with the 50 points from his Risen Star win, Modernist should have no trouble making the Derby field regardless of where he finishes today.

In a wide-open Peter Pan field, a couple of lightly raced horses could be given a long look. Godolphins Mystic Guide, who is out of five-time G1 winner Music Note, broke his maiden by five lengths going 1 1/16 miles on March 21. Run back against winners at the same distance on June 4, Mystic Guide was unable to reel in Tap It to Win but closed with good energy. Caracaro was a six-length winner of a one-mile Gulfstream maiden special back on Jan. 11 but has not raced since.

Because the Schuylerville is run so early on the 2-year-old stakes calendar, few of its starters tend to have much of a racing history. Todays field of eight, all maiden winners, has made only nine total starts. The race does have an apparent standout, however, in Beautiful Memories. The daughter of Hard Spun, out of a great-granddaughter of champion Beautiful Pleasure, broke her maiden by 10 lengths going five furlongs at Churchill Downs on May 25. A pair of recent bullet works are another reason why Beautiful Memories is 6-5 on the morning line.

Hopeful Princess, another open-lengths maiden winner at Churchill, is next at 2-1.

Keeneland results

The award for the most exciting race at Keeneland over the weekend goes to War of Will in the Makers Mark Mile. The War Front colt, making just his second start on turf in 20 months, prevailed by a nose in a thrilling three-horse finish over favored Raging Bull and 24-1 longshot Parlor.

The Keeneland race that has drawn the most attention, however, was the powerful performance by Art Collector in the Blue Grass. The son of Bernardinis three-length victory has earned him inclusion on many short lists of serious Derby contenders. Swiss Skydiver, vying to become the first filly to win the Blue Grass, was a gallant second.
The hallmark event of the annual Pennsylvania Society weekend that draws several thousands of the states political movers and shakers to New York City during the holiday season is cancelled this year due to COVID-19 concerns.

It is believed to be the first time the century-old Societys annual dinner has not been held and one of the few years when the Societys Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement will not be awarded.

.Canceling the annual dinner was not an easy decision, but it was the only decision, said the Societys President Edward Sheehan, Jr. So much remains in doubt regarding the severity of the COVID-19 virus this fall and winter. Our leadership council simply was not comfortable putting our members and their guests at risk. By announcing now, we provide attendees with time to adjust their holiday plans.

The 2020 Society dinner had been scheduled for Saturday, December 5, at the New York Hilton Midtown. That pricey affair is traditionally the culmination of most of the soirees, packed receptions, fund-raisers and seminars that are held across Manhattan over a long weekend of political gossiping and relationship building.

The highlight of the dinner is often the awarding of the Gold Medal to a Pennsylvanian whose actions have benefited the commonwealth. Among its recipients over the years are such Pennsylvania greats as Arnold Palmer, Charles Schwab, James Michener, Andrew Carnegie, and General Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Pennsylvania Society contributes to a Pennsylvania charity chosen by that years Gold Medal recipient.

But with no recipient this year, Sheehan said the Pennsylvania Society will focus on a salute to the states frontline workers who have sacrificed much during an unprecedented health crisis for their fellow Pennsylvanians. The Pennsylvania Society is all about celebrating service to the commonwealth we all love, and so we can think of no better focus this year than celebrating these selfless men and women.

Dont think for a minute, though, that this years cancellation spells the end of Society weekend in the Big Apple.

We very much look forward to returning to New York in December 2021 and resuming the presentation of our Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement, Sheehan said.

The event for more than a decade has had its detractors who have called for it to be moved to a location in Pennsylvania but attendees say having it in-state wouldnt be the same.

Granted, it might save them a bundle of money but they would miss out on the magical atmosphere that Manhattan has to offer at Christmastime and on seeing people they often see at the Capitol in a social setting.

Beyond that, Society-goers say it would break the tradition that the well-to-do Pennsylvanians living in New York City started in 1899 when they gathered to discuss events in their home state and decided to make it an annual affair.

Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.

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My contacts in the US tell me that there is a significant amount of office space coming on the "grey market", where tenants decide to relinquish some or all of their accommodation, following a reappraisal of their business needs, in light of the pandemic. I don't expect a huge amount of that for offices here, but many companies will be reconsidering how much space they may need in the 'new normal'. So, what are a tenants options, where they don't need all their space?

If you're certain you won't need a particular office, shop or industrial unit in the foreseeable future, do consult an estate agent for advice. In today's market, it's unlikely that any modern lease will command a premium, or "key money", but you should make sure. "Key money" can arise for shops in good positions, and perhaps with "goodwill attached", or for restaurants, or for premises where the rent you are paying is below the market rent. Your unit may be particularly valuable to one of your neighbours. Also, your agent should know if a developer is assembling a site around you. Long shots, but worth checking.

If your lease has no value, your next step is probably to offer to surrender it back to the landlord, to whom it may be of value. If the landlord has no interest, the permanent solution is to assign your leasehold interest to another party. This process requires the consent of the landlord, which he cannot "unreasonably withhold". However, problems frequently arise with this, where your proposed replacement tenant may not be perceived to be as financially strong as you are, which then reduces the value of the landlords' investment.

Despite providing the standard references for the proposed assignee, ie three years' solid accounts, a bank reference and a previous landlords reference, if the landlord wants to block the deal, he will refuse consent. Then, the tenant's option is to sue the landlord for being "unreasonable". The practical problem is that the legal process will take many months and very few potential tenants will wait for the outcome of that, when there are other simpler options available.

It is much more difficult for a landlord to refuse consent to a sub-letting. In this case, you remain as the tenant, fulfilling all the tenants' obligations, but you are also a landlord to your tenant. It's not ideal, but it's usually the quickest way to reduce overheads. Sub-letting part of your premises is another option. That is probably prohibited under your lease but many landlords will be amenable to this, particularly if the proposed new tenant is strong and might be a likely occupier for more of the building in the future.

Where you are sub-letting, the landlords' main concerns will be that you do not grant a lease with a longer term than your own, or that the sub-tenants do not acquire rights after five years in possession, thus allowing them to claim a new long-term lease directly from him. If you are sub-dividing a premises, you need to consider planning permission and building control issues. You probably won't need planning permission, but problems arise when partitions interfere with escape routes under the building's fire safety certificate.

There are options for reducing your overheads and always seek expert advice. Many landlords will be flexible, and never proceed without their consent, as that creates new problems.
Europes anti-migrant stance resulted in the deaths of thousands trying to flee persecution and conflict, analysts say.

Violence, human-rights abuses, disappearances and deaths  that is how the situation on the Mediterranean is being described as with migrants and refugees, who flee Libya hoping to reach Europe, losing their lives at sea.

Since 2014, more than 20,000 migrants and refugees have died at sea while trying to reach Europe from Africa.

The reality is far worse than what the figure suggests, officials and analysts have warned, as the bodies of those who do not survive are not always recovered, identified and counted.

The Central Mediterranean route is described by the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR as the most dangerous migration route in the world  one in six people who departs the shores of North Africa dies.

The journey  after years of suffering and torture in the country of origin, during travel and in Libya  starts with leaving in the middle of the night, often on overcrowded, unseaworthy boats without food and water. Questionable life jackets for the treacherous conditions are only for those who can afford them.

Unaccompanied minors, pregnant women and men with gunshot wounds are all crouched up on the crammed and fragile boats they embark in, knowing fully well they might not set foot on land ever again.

In life, when you see youve lost everything, youre not afraid of anything any more, a migrant from the Central African Republic told Al Jazeera. You dont see the waves. You just see a boat. And thats your chance to get your freedom again.

In addition to the casualty figures are the ones forcibly returned, especially to Libya, described as hell by those who survived the ordeal on their transit.

Since February 2017, at least 36,000 people have been intercepted by the Libyan coastguard and returned to the North African country, UN figures show.

An Associated Press investigation revealed the European Union sent more than 327.9 million euros ($373.8m) to Libya, largely channelled through UN agencies.

The EU has also reportedly spent more than 90 million euros ($100m) in funding and training the Libyan coastguard to stop the crossings.

But with the continued use of the route, and the rising numbers of the disappeared and forcibly returned, are European politicians and decision-makers taking a racist and discriminatory approach that is adding to the human tragedy at sea?

Unfortunately, European politicians and the public appear to have grown weary with the refugee issue, and are no longer moved by images of people in distress and dying at sea, Jeff Crisp, a research fellow at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, told Al Jazeera.

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Despite all of the publicity gained by the Black Lives Matter movement, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that people who are crossing the Mediterranean are of little concern because they are poor, African and politically insignificant, added Crisp, a former head of policy, development and education at UNHCR.

Maurice Stierl, member of AlarmPhone, an activist network alerting authorities of a boat in distress in the Mediterranean, said that while the rights of people of colour are systematically violated in the Mediterranean and hundreds continue to drown as a consequence, European politicians and policymakers declare their solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement as if they were not directly implicated in these rights violations and deaths at sea.

These migrants flee poverty, conflict, war, forced labour, female genital mutilation, corrupt governments and personal threats. Migrants told Al Jazeera that having a shot at a better and safer life is what drives them away from home and on this perilous journey, hoping to reach Europe.

According to Crisp, in addition to the UN Security Council and the different factions in Libya, the EU has also played a major part in this tragic situation [deaths] by withdrawing its own search-and-rescue activities, making it increasingly difficult for NGO rescue ships to operate in the Mediterranean, and by supporting the Libyan Coastguard to intercept and return people who are trying to escape from Libya by boat.

While the EU has, over the years, withdrawn its military rescue vessels from the route, the increased anti-migrant stance and policies adopted by the politicians have also resulted in disappearances and abuses.

Humanitarian vessels have repeatedly been blocked from docking or disembarking in Italy and Malta, or there is a delay that leads to increased stress on board the vessels, including suicide attempts.

Italys former interior minister Matteo Salvini threatened to jail the crews of NGO-operated rescue ships. The countrys current Minister of Foreign Affairs Luigi Di Maio called the ships the taxi of the sea.

The populist and the nationalist parties success was based on them talking about the invasion of migrants and raising suspicion over the role the NGOs played, Annalisa Camilli, an Italian journalist, told Al Jazeera.

The maritime borders became publicised and quickly used as propaganda, becoming a field of political conflict with the humanitarian dimension quickly disappearing, added Camilli, who is also author of La legge del mare, a book about rescues in the Mediterranean.





For Nicholas Romaniuk, search and rescue coordinator for SOS Mediterranee on board rescue vessel Ocean Viking, there is no effort on the EUs part to save lives out here.

It seems theres complete disregard for human life and people dying in the Mediterranean. Weve been recovering bodies of men, women and children over the last four years and seen things get worse, Romaniuk told Al Jazeera.

In 2018, Italy closed its ports to NGO vessels, managing to convince the public that the rescuers were collaborating with traffickers. That was because nobody seemed to care about people dying at sea and the migrants were completely dehumanised, said Camilli.

Stierl added how European coastguards pushed boats back and attacked them  or left boats unassisted and left the people to die.

Even now, the ones that make it to Europe  either on the boats they leave North Africa on or after being rescued by NGO vessels  may never be accepted even as they disembark on a European port.

For some, it took just a few weeks to reach European shores after leaving home. For others, it has taken more than five years  away from home, family, with just a little bit of money and hope.

More than 5,000 migrants were forcibly repatriated by Italy in 2019.

For those who are returned, the violence, torture and extortion they endured on their journey were for nothing. Some will try the same journey again, hoping luck favours them and they do not end up becoming a statistic.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16

Trend:

Intensive fighting is observed in the direction of Azerbaijans Tovuz district on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border beginning from 05:45 (GMT+4) July 16, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense told Trend.

As a result of precision strikes during the currently ongoing battles, the Azerbaijani armed forces killed up to 20 Armenian soldiers, destroyed one armored vehicle, one electronic warfare equipment, combat posts and strongholds.

During the battle, serviceman of the extended military service of the Azerbaijani army, private Nazim Ismayilov died, said the report.

The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense extends condolences to the family of the deceased.

The Azerbaijani armed forces are taking retaliatory measures to suppress the Armenian armed forces combat activity.

Starting from noon on July 12, units of the armed forces of Armenia, grossly violating the ceasefire in the direction of Azerbaijans Tovuz district along the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border, opened artillery fire at Azerbaijani positions.

Azerbaijan's armed response forced the Armenian army to retreat suffering losses.

Azerbaijani personnel, sergeant of military service Vugar Sadigov and corporal Elshad Mammadov, died while repelling the attack of the Armenian armed forces.

Despite the efforts of the Azerbaijani doctors, severely wounded serviceman of the Azerbaijani army Khayyam Dashdemirov also died.

The tension remained in Tovuz district on the Azerbaijan-Armenia state border on July 12 night.

During the night battles, by using artillery, mortars and tanks, the Azerbaijani armed forces destroyed a stronghold, bombshells, vehicles and servicemen on the territory of the Armenias military unit.

Azerbaijani serviceman, senior lieutenant Rashad Mahmudov was killed during the battles.

The battles continued on the night of July 13. Major General Polad Hashimov, Colonel Ilgar Mirzoyev, Major Namig Ahmadov, Major Anar Novruzov, Ensign Ilgar Zeynalli, Ensign Yashar Babayev and soldier Elchin Mustafazade became martyrs during the battles.
WASHINGTON  Mail deliveries could be delayed by a day or more under cost-cutting efforts being imposed by the new postmaster general. The plan eliminates overtime for hundreds of thousands of postal workers and says employees must adopt a different mindset to ensure the Postal Services survival during the coronavirus pandemic.

Late trips will no longer be authorized. If postal distribution centers are running late, they will keep the mail for the next day, Postal Service leaders say in a document obtained by the Associated Press. One aspect of these changes that may be difficult for employees is that  temporarily  we may see mail left behind or mail on the workroom floor or docks, another document says.

The changes come a month after Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major donor to President Donald Trump, took over the mail service. In a memo titled PMG Expectations and Plan, the agency said the changes are aimed at making the USPS fundamentally solvent which we are not at this time.

The memo cites deep revenue losses from a decadelong decline in mail deliveries that has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic and says an overdue operational pivot is needed to ensure the agencys health and stability.

Postal Service officials, bracing for steep losses from the nationwide shutdown caused by the virus, have warned they will run out of money by the end of September without help from Congress. The service reported a $4.5 billion loss for the quarter ending in March, before the full effects of the shutdown sank in.

Single-piece, first-class mail volume fell 15 to 20% week to week in April and May, agency leaders told Congress. Losses will increase by more than $22 billion over the next 18 months, they said.

Bills approved by the Democratic-controlled House would set aside $25 billion to keep the mail flowing, but they remain stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate. Congress has approved a $10 billion line of credit for the Postal Service, but it remains unused amid restrictions imposed by the Trump administration.

A spokesperson said Wednesday that the agency is developing a business plan to ensure it will be financially stable and continue to provide reliable, affordable and secure delivery of mail and packages. While the plan is not yet finalized, it will certainly include new and creative ways for us to fulfill our mission, and we will focus immediately on efficiency and items that we can control, spokesperson Dave Partenheimer said.

The memo cites U.S. Steel as an example that the Postal Service is far from untouchable. In 1975, the steel giant was the largest company in the world, the memo states. They are gone. In fact, U.S. Steel remains a leading steel producer, with more than 27,000 employees as of earlier this year.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put the Postal Service in a double crisis, said Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, which represents more than 200,000 postal workers and retirees.

As many as 12,000 postal workers have fallen ill, with at least 64 fatalities, and the economic contraction has caused a dramatic drop in letter and other flat mail volumes. A spike in package deliveries that has buoyed the agency during the pandemic is likely to be temporary, Dimondstein said, adding that the outbreak has sharply increased expenses for personal protective equipment, deep cleaning of facilities and temporary workers to replace postal workers who get sick.

Postal workers are tremendously dedicated to the mission of getting the mail out, Dimondstein said, but the new policies could cause delays that will further drive down revenues.

Its the customer who will suffer if the mail slows down, he said.

Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell of New Jersey denounced the proposal to delay mail delivery, saying it would be a stunning act of sabotage against our postal service.

Trump and his cronies are openly seeking to destroy the post office during the worst public health crisis in a century, Pascrell said. With states increasingly relying on voting by mail to continue elections during the pandemic, destabilizing the Postal Service not only threatens the economy and the jobs of 600,000 workers, but is also a direct attack on American democracy itself, Pascrell said.

For most Americans, mail deliveries to homes or post boxes are their only routine contact with the federal government. Its a service they seem to appreciate: The agency consistently earns favorability marks that top 90%.

Esther Haynes, of Philadelphia, said she and her family get clothes, jewelry, perfume, food and more delivered by mail. If its a day late, two days late, Ill be looking for it, she said Wednesday. Id be concerned.

Haynes, 53, shares a home with her sister, her son and a family friend. Haynes likes to shop  which means shes been busy ordering things online during the pandemic. Everybody wants their mail on time, she said.
Northrook, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/16/2020 -- The report "Aramid Honeycomb Core Materials Market in the Transportation Industry by Type (Nomex, Others), Aramid Type (Meta, Para), Application (Interior, Exterior), Transportation Type (Airways, Railways, Waterways, Roadways) and Region - Global Forecast to 2025", The global aramid honeycomb core materials market size in the transportation industry is projected to grow from USD 210 million in 2020 to USD 338 million by 2025, at a CAGR of 10.0% during the forecast period. The market is growing due to the increase in the demand for high-performance materials, with properties such as low weight, high strength-to-weight ratio, good tensile strength, and electrical conductivity.



Download PDF Brochure @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=129593005



Nomex comprises a major share of the aramid honeycomb core materials market in the transportation industry

The transportation industry has embraced Nomex honeycomb core for more than 30 years owing to its excellent strength-to-weight ratio, cost-effective benefits such as energy savings and payload increase. The stiff and thin Nomex sheet structures are used to make strong yet lightweight honeycomb sandwich composite panels. These panels are used in aircraft parts such as flooring panels, interior walls, storage bins, exterior control surfaces, engine nacelles, helicopter blades, and tail booms. Nomex honeycomb composites are also used in the construction of boats to help provide buoyancy that enhances speed. The COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in the disruption in the supply chain, resulting in reduced demand for Nomex from the transportation industry.



Meta-aramid honeycomb core materials accounted for the largest share in the global aramid honeycomb core materials market in the transportation industry in terms of value and volume.

Meta-aramid honeycomb core materials are highly resistant to temperature, chemical degradation, and abrasion. It is usually manufactured by wet spinning, resulting in a semi-crystalline fiber. These materials can withstand tensile stress during exposure to flames and temperatures up to 7520F. Thus, the meta-aramid honeycomb core materials are used in aircraft galleys, flooring, partitions, aircraft leading and trailing edges, missile wings, radomes, antennas, military shelters, fuel tanks, helicopter rotor blades, rail panels, racing car bodies, and navy bulkhead joiner panels. With the outbreak of COVID-19, there is a reduced demand for aramid honeycomb core materials in the transportation industry. This has forced the meta-aramid honeycomb core materials manufacturers to operate at partial or zero capacities.



Exterior application accounted for the largest share in the global aramid honeycomb core materials market in the transportation industry in terms of value and volume.

Exterior structures of aircraft built with aramid honeycomb core materials include landing gears, leading and trailing edges, engine nacelles, undercarriage, fuselage, and wings. The aramid honeycomb core materials are also used in exterior applications of the marine industry, such as boat hulls, stateroom for boats, deck, cargo lining, shells, hatches, and navy bulkhead joiner panels. They are also used in car bodies, chassis, truck, and train panels. The reduced demand for composites from the transportation industry due to COVID-19 has resulted in a decline in the need for aramid honeycomb core materials for exterior application, particularly in the aerospace industry.



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Airways to account for the largest share, in terms of value, in the global aramid honeycomb core materials market in the transportation industry during the forecast period.

Aramid honeycomb cores are extensively used as sandwich structures in interior and exterior applications of aircraft. The low weight, combined with high tensile strength of aramid honeycomb core, increases the fuel efficiency, reduces maintenance costs, and allows OEMs to comply with the stringent environment regulations stipulated in Europe and North America. The aramid honeycomb core is primarily used in commercial and military aircraft. The major exterior applications include engine nacelles, landing gears, rotor blades, leading and trailing edges, and wings. The interior applications include flooring, lavatories, and cabin panels.



The outbreak of COVID-19 has resulted in the suspension of manufacturing plants of major aircraft manufacturers, resulting in decreased deliveries of aircraft. Also, technical issues related to Boeing737 MAX and end of the A380 program by 2021, is expected to reduce the demand for aramid honeycomb core materials in the transportation industry in Europe and North America.



North America is expected to account for the largest share in the aramid honeycomb core materials market in the transportation industry during the forecast period.

North America accounted for the largest share owing to the high demand for aramid honeycomb core materials in commercial aircraft, such as 787, 777X, and 737 MAX. These aircraft use a significant amount of composites and aramid honeycomb core materials for their airframe structures, engine nacelles, and landing gears. Besides this, there is a high demand for aramid honeycomb core materials in waterways from cruise ships and power boats.



Airways and waterways in North America are both affected by the COVID-19, resulting in a decrease in the number of aircraft deliveries and ship orders in the region.



The key players in the market include Hexcel Corporation (US), Euro-Composites S.A. (Luxembourg), The Gill Corporation (US), Plascore, Inc. (US), Argosy International, Inc. (US), Showa Aircraft Company Ltd. (Japan), Tasuns Composites Co. Ltd. (China), and Schutz Composite GmbH (Germany). These companies are involved in adopting various inorganic and organic strategies to increase their foothold in the aramid honeycomb core materials market in the transportation industry.



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ALBANY  A high-ranking member of the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision has been placed on leave as State Police investigate a sexual assault allegation made against him for an incident at the agency's training academy in Albany.

A spokesman for DOCCS would only confirm that Capt. Jeremiah F. Brooks, 42, an acting colonel, was recently assigned to the training facility on New Scotland Avenue and has been placed on administrative leave from his $102,093-a-year position. Brooks has ties to the Plattsburgh area and previously worked at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora.

The State Police on Thursday declined comment beyond confirming they have a pending investigation.

State Police investigators were at the training academy early Wednesday and had searched Brooks' vehicle, according to sources briefed on the investigation.

The investigation is examining an allegation that a 28-year-old woman who Brooks met through an online dating app was raped by Brooks in his dorm room at the facility. The alleged attack took place on the first night they were together, according to sources briefed on the investigation.

State Police investigators obtained a search warrant to search Brooks' dorm room, seize his mobile phone and also search his vehicle, which was parked at the facility on Wednesday. Brooks consented to be interviewed by the investigators this week.

Gregory D. LaDuke, a criminal defense attorney in Lake Placid who represents Brooks, said his client denies the woman's allegation, contends their sexual encounter was consensual and that State Police investigators told Brooks when they questioned him on Wednesday that they lacked probable cause to file any charges.

"They have been investigating Jeremiah for a month now," LaDuke said. "They said 'we don't have enough ... even a likelihood that he committed a crime.' ... If they could have arrested him they would have."

The woman did not immediately report the alleged incident but had sought unsuccessfully to obtain an order of protection against Brooks in Family Court, according to a person familiar with the case.

LaDuke said the fact a Family Court judge did not find enough evidence to issue an order of protection is very telling.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

3 1 of 3 Paul Buckowski/Times Union Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Karlin, Rick Show More Show Less 3 of 3





"Doing this now to a really good cop, and Jeremiah is a good cop, an honest man, is very disturbing," he said. "It was thoroughly consensual. ... These guys have been after him for a month. He went there voluntarily."

The State Police did not respond to LaDuke's request for access to copies of the search warrants and affidavits in support of those warrants that would have been reviewed by a judge before they were approved.

The academy is on the outskirts of Albany and is used for in-service training and to certify recruits who staff prison facilities across the state. It has the capacity to house about 125 people on the small campus. The former seminary is undergoing a $40 million, 38-acre expansion, including a three-story residence, classroom building and a new gym.

Brooks' role at the academy included assisting in administering the Correction Officer Recruit Training Program and the Correctional Emergency Response Team, officials said.
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
Killeen, TX (76540)

Today

Sunshine and clouds mixed. High near 75F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph, becoming NNW and increasing to 15 to 25 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies with gusty winds. Low 27F. Winds N at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to surge in the Greater Houston region, local communities continue to cope with virus and see additional staff test positive. Officials in the small cities of Shenandoah and Oak Ridge North on Thursday confirmed new positive cases of several staff members from each city.

In Oak Ridge North, City Manager Heather Neeley said a total of three staff tested positive for the coronavirus but most have returned to work.

We have had three members of our staff test positive. All have quarantined for two weeks and returned to work after a negative doctors note, Neeley said in an email. We are still awaiting one employee and they should be back on Monday July 20,2020.

MORE FROM JEFF FORWARD: Oak Ridge North cancels 4th of July parade after COVID-19 positive test

The city on the east side of Interstate 45 across from The Woodlands has a population of about 3,000 and employs only 40 people, 17 of whom are in the police department. To enhance safety and protect residents health, city officials canceled the July Fourth parade because of concerns about the virus.

In Shenandoah, where a police officer had tested positive for the coronavirus in June, one additional staff member has tested positive for the virus, said city Administrator Kathie Reyer.

The police officer who was out previously returned to work a couple of weeks ago, Reyer said in an email. We have another police officer who tested positive and has been at home for over a week. Fortunately that's all.

ROAD TO RECOVERY: Shenandoah police officer recovering from COVID-19

Officials in both cities have implemented enhanced cleaning measures and have increased disinfecting of all common touch areas.

The coronavirus has also hit The Woodlands Fire Department, with numerous firefighters testing positive for COVID-19 over the past six weeks and dozens quarantining over several weeks before returning to work.

jeff.forward@chron.com
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The Vietnamese Ministry of Health is outlining a plan to soon bring home 116 Vietnamese workers from Equatorial Guinea who are sickened by novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

The ministry announced on Thursday morning that it had had an urgent meeting with related agencies to discuss options for the repatriation.

One of the proposed solutions is to fly home all 219 Vietnamese workers and managers, including 116 people diagnosed with COVID-19, on August 3.

The 219 Vietnamese citizens, who are between 19 and 68 years old, have been contracted to work at the Sendje hydropower plant project in Equatorial Guineas Litoral province.

Test results released on July 1 showed that 116 of them were positive for COVID-19.

Of the 116 patients, two serious cases currently require oxygen support.

The Vietnamese health ministry said it has anticipated that there might be more people in the aforementioned group infected with COVID-19, while some patients may have recovered before the planned repatriation flight on August 3.

The ministry affirmed that it is closely monitoring their situation to provide necessary support.

Vietnam has gone about three months without a community infection of the respiratory disease, with the national tally standing at 381 cases as of Thursday.

Among the total, 356 have been cleared of the virus, with no deaths.

The countrys sickest COVID-19 patient, a 43-year-old man from the UK, was discharged from the hospital and repatriated on Saturday last week.

On Wednesday, an additional 350 Vietnamese citizens were brought home safely from Japan thanks to the coordination between Vietnamese authorities, representative agencies, national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines, and Japanese authorities.

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Reliance Jio in partnership with Google is working on a low-cost Android smartphone that may even support 5G. Here is how the partnership could impact a largely overlooked segment.

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani at the companys annual general meeting announced Google is the latest investor in its Jio Platforms. Apart from the investment, Ambani also announced another partnership with Google that could potentially disrupt the entry-level smartphone segment.

Taking clues from the massive success of JioPhone, Ambani promised Google and Reliance Jio will work together on a smartphone that will be available for a fraction of its current cost.

Ambani revealed that the company had sold over 100 million units of JioPhones since its release.

there are many featurephone users who are waiting to upgrade to a conventional SMARTPHONE if only it were somehow more affordable. So, we have decided to address this challenge head-on. We believe we can design entry-level 4G or even 5G SMARTPHONE for a fraction of its current cost. But, to power such a value engineered smartphone, we also need an equally value-engineered smartphone operating system...and such an operating system must be designed with India in mind, he said.

JioPhones success

There is no doubting that JioPhone has been a huge success. Riding on the popularity of low-cost 4G data plans from Jio, the feature phone came with many firsts for the segment  4G connectivity, access to Jio apps, and free voice calls for the lower tier of users.

JioPhone, running on KaiOS, later went on to add popular applications such as WhatsApp. Google also brought in support for its popular apps including Google Assistant.

JioPhone became a formidable alternative to many users who were on data-less feature phones as well as those who could not afford a quality smartphone. Even now, a good quality entry-level phone costs around 5,000- 7,000. None of the existing OEMs has shown a keen interest in fixing this gap.

India Feature Phone Market Share Q1 2020 (Counterpoint)

Googles focus on low-end phones

Google has a fair bit of experience in optimising its software and app ecosystem for the low-end segment. The company already has an Android Go platform budget smartphones. Apps such as Google Maps, Google Search and many more are available in an optimised format for the platform.

In a post titled Bringing internet access to millions more Indians with Jio, Sundar Pichai said, We want to work with Jio and other leaders in the local ecosystem to ensure that smartphonestogether with the apps and services in the Play Storeare within reach for many more Indians across the country. And we believe the pace of Indian innovation means that the experiences we create for India can ultimately be expanded to the rest of the world. 

What will happen next

Reliance has already confirmed that it has readied the 5G network. The Google-Jio co-developed low-cost smartphone could help the company boost the adoption of the 5G network. It will also help several feature phone users to finally upgrade a well-optimised smartphone.

According to Parv Sharma, an analyst at Counterpoint Research, the move will help accelerate a large scale 4G to 5G migration in India. It will also mark the sunset of 2G and 3G networks in India.

It can deploy 5G as soon as auction in India due to IP based LTE only network. Also, [it can become an] exporter of 5G solution and managed services. [It] can play a big role in the absence of Huawei, he added.

Cheaper @Android 5G smartphone to move featurep phone user base in India with @google

This will be huge risk for small OEM playing in entry level segment

A large scale 4G to 5G migration in India and 2G/3G sunset will be accelerated#RILAGM  Parv sharma (@Parv_S) July 15, 2020

He also cautioned that Jios entry could pose a serious threat to small OEMs in the entry-level segment.

If executed well, Reliance will also cement its position as a serious technology player.

Jio has outlined a detailed, comprehensive, and real tech/digital tech/digital blueprint for India. With this it will be in a span of 3-5 years ba e impacting billion lives directly who will be empowered red through latest digital technologies. We all have been talking about India having immense potential in digital, RIL through Jio is walking the talk, Faisal Kawoosa, founder and chief analyst at techARC told Hindustan Times.

Many times, it becomes difficult for companies to keep with both sides of the market. Jio with 5G stack development and 2G Mukt Bharat plans is showing that a holistic view of the market where it is thinking of both the sides of the market, he added.
opinion

Akpa Francis, a public affairs commentator revisits the current succession controversy in Enugu State ahead of 2023 and questions the zoning arrangement that excludes people of old Awgu division

In my previous write up with the title, "The Deceitful Zoning Propaganda in Enugu State", I tried to show how Greater Awgu (cultural zone) people comprising Awgu, Aninri and Oji River local government areas of Enugu have been reduced to the political weeping child of the state. This is due to the worst form of political marginalization foisted on the people before, during and after the creation of Enugu state.

Expectedly, the write up attracted mixed reactions. In that write up, many pertinent questions were raised challenging proponents of zoning in the state to provide evidence as to when and who sat together to draw the agreement on zoning (written or unwritten).

While many hailed the logicality of the argument, some people with opposing views made feeble attempts to counter the argument even as they were lacking in facts and failed woefully to provide answers to the basic questions raised. Their best attempt was to say that zoning was conventional and that it has come to stay! We shall return to that later.

In this second intervention, I basically want to present further historical evidence to buttress the point that 2023, by reason of equity, justice and fairness, Ndi Awgu, whether by "cultural zone" or old divisional structure (or even affirmation), should be supported to produce the next governor of Enugu state. Power can still shift to Nkanu cultural zone (still part of old Udi division) afterwards. By so doing, equity is still served.

The old Awgu Division was created by the British colonial authorities in 1919 and later gave birth to Oji River Local Government during the nationwide Local Government Reform of 1976 while Aninri LGA was later carved out of Awgu in 1996.

From the introduction of a Federal Constitution in Nigeria in 1954 until the end of the Nigerian Civil war in 1970, our dear Enugu State of today that was officially created in August 27, 1991, made up of three old administrative Divisions: The old Awgu Division, old Nsukka and old Udi Division, the old Udi Division covers both Agbaja and Nkanu clans.

This unique and constitutional position of the three defunct divisions in Enugu State has long been recognized by successive Governments pre and post independence.

In the 1957-1959, the cabinet of Eastern Region led by the then Premier of Eastern Region, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, historically, three (3 ) Ministers were selected to represent the three divisions that were to later constitute Enugu State.

The Ministers; Chief. Basil Okwu from Achi (Old Awgu Division) then Minister for Information.

Chief John Nwodo from Ukehe (Old Nsukka Division) then Minister for Commerce.

Chief. Elias Aneke Chime from Udi town (Old Udi Division) then Minister for Welfare.

Also under the post-independence government of Eastern Region led by Dr. Michael Okpara as then Premier of Eastern Region (1960-1963), we had:

Chief. BC Okwu (Old Awgu Division) as Minister for Health.

Chief. JU Nwodo (Old Nsukka Division) as Minister for Local Government.

Chief. EA Chime (Old Udi Division) as then Provincial Commissioner, Enugu.

The above is equity and fairness.

What then happened later?

Governorship;

Verifiably, the old Udi Division has produced the following elected Governors of Enugu State, they are:

Chief. Sen Jim Ifeanyichukwu Nwobodo from Amechi Awkunanaw (old Udi Division): Governor, old Anambra State, 1979-1983.

Chief. Christian Chukwuma Onoh from Ngwo (Old Udi Division): Governor old Anambra State, October 1983 till December, 1983.

Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani from Agbani Nkanu, (old Udi Division): Governor Enugu State, 1999-2007.

HE. Barr Sullivan Iheanacho Chime from Udi town, (old Udi Division): Governor Enugu State,2007-2015.

Old Nsukka Division has also produced the following elected Governors of Enugu State, this includes:

Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo from Ukehe, (old Nsukka Division): First elected Governor of Enugu State, 1992- 1993.

HE. Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Lawrence Ugwuanyi from Oba Nsukka (old Nsukka Division): current Governor of Enugu State, 2015-2023, God's willing.

Then old Awgu Division???

Note, all these governors both past and present, became Governors based on the wish of God cum relationship and interest and not based on "Zoning" as has been deceitfully planted in the minds of Ndi Enugu State.

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It is therefore logical and equitable that old Awgu Division (or Greater Awgu cultural zone) should be given the chance to produce the next Governor of Enugu State come 2023.

For the sake of equity, justice and fairness we call on our Udi/Nkanu old Division and Nsukka old Division brethren to support Ndi Awgu come 2023 in the interest of equity and fairness provided we present an electable and acceptable candidate.

On the argument that zoning is a conventional practice, may I remind such school of thought that zoning is dynamic and expediential in nature. It is not cast in stone. Many would rather prefer to use the term 'power shift', which to me is more democratic and just.

In the same vein, the people of old Awgu division are saying that while still maintaining equity and justice (and even if by affirmative action), and without jettisoning power shift, they should be supported to start the fresh power rotation (in line with power shift) and based on political expediency, since they have never tasted the governorship position before. After them, power can still rotate to Enugu East (old Udi division/Nkanu cultural zone).
The New York Times says it is relocating its Asian digital news operation from Hong Kong to Seoul, citing concerns over the new national security law imposed on the city by China.

In a staff memo on Tuesday, the executives and editors responsible for the newspaper's international operations said the new law "has created a lot of uncertainty about what the new rules will mean to our operation and journalism."

The newspaper said it will move its digital news operation, which makes up roughly one-third of its Hong Kong staff, to the Korean capital over the course of the next year, while their correspondents will remain in Hong Kong to cover the city and region. The company's print production team for the International New York Times, its European and Asian edition, will remain in Hong Kong.
Putin and Merkel Say There is 'No Point' in Sanctions Pressure Against Iran  Kremlin

Sputnik News

13:49 GMT 15.07.2020(updated 19:12 GMT 15.07.2020)

On Wednesday, Russian president Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had a phone conversation, during which they discussed various issues, including resolving the conflict in Ukraine and efforts to maintain the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in relation to Iran's nuclear program.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said during their joint phone call on 15 July that there is "no point" in sanctions' pressure against Iran, according to the Kremlin.

"When discussing Iran, the Russian president emphasised that putting pressure on Tehran with sanctions was pointless, the effort to preserve the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Iranian Nuclear Program, as approved by UN Security Council resolution 2231 was needed", the Kremlin's press office said.

According to the press office, the two politicians discussed "a number of pressing issues" with regards to bilateral ties, including the coronavirus response.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement, known to many simply as the Iran Nuclear Deal, was signed by Iran, Russia, the United States, China, France, Britain, Germany and the European Union, on 14 July 2015. Under the deal, Iran was required to suspend its nuclear programme and cut uranium reserves in exchange for a lifting of sanctions against the country and the ending of the UN arms embargo.

However, the Trump administration unilaterally broke the agreement in May 2018, reintroducing sanctions against Tehran. Initially, Iran urged other signatories to the deal to preserve the JCPOA and said that it would start scrapping some of its commitments if they failed to do so.

Tehran started fulfilling its promise from May 2019 onwards, saying that it would step back from its obligations under the deal each 60 days in the absence of protection from US sanctions. In November 2019, the country doubled the number of centrifuges in its operation and continued enriching uranium to 5%.

Meanwhile, the UK, France and Germany, often referred to as E3, introduced the INSTEX trade mechanism to help facilitate Iran-EU trade despite American sanctions. However, Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, repeatedly criticised their European partners for failing to adequately confront economic pressures from the US. "E3 must stop public face-saving & muster the courage to state publicly what they admit privately", Zarif urged in June.

Minsk Agreements

During the phone call, Putin and Merkel also discussed the implementation of the 2014 Minsk agreement which was set to resolve the military confrontation in eastern Ukraine. Putin emphasised during the conversation that it was "counterproductive" of Kiev "to distort the content of the Minsk agreements".

"It was stressed that Kiev's policy on partial implementation of its commitments under this documents leads the talks into a dead end", the Kremlin's press service said. It added that both politicians negatively assessed recent statements by Ukraine calling for a review of the Minsk agreements.

The Minsk Agreements are a series of measures that were initially signed in 2014 by representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and backed by the Normandy Format which includes Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France. Their aim is to bring an end to the military actions in eastern Ukraine which have been ongoing since 2014.

A Sputnik

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TUD's BIOTEC and its PharmAI spin-off analyze active substances that could cure COVID-19

The Biotechnology Center (BIOTEC) of TU Dresden with its bioinformatics group and the spin-off PharmAI GmbH participate in such a competition - the so-called JEDI Grand Challenge. Until tomorrow, proposals for active substances that have the potential to stop the activity and reproduction of the virus can be submitted. The Dresden team led by Prof. Michael Schroeder (BIOTEC) and Dr. Joachim Haupt (PharmAI) used proprietary screening algorithms to screen several drug libraries containing five million substances for candidates against Covid-19. They submitted three promising protein targets to The Joint European Disruptive Initiative (JEDI).

"For more than ten years, we have been developing new screening algorithms for protein structures at BIOTEC. We are looking for hidden information of protein molecules, e.g. remotely similar binding sites across evolutionary unrelated target proteins, where active compounds can dock to like a puzzle. In this way, we aim to identify new therapeutic applications for known substances, using approved drugs for new or other diseases. We are pleased that our DiscoveryEngine has also been successful with Covid-19 and that we can now make good drug candidates available to the global scientific community via the competition - following the spirit of Open Science. Through the collective knowledge of virologists, molecular biologists and bioinformatics scientists, high-throughput screening and artificial intelligence, we help from Dresden to ensure that curative drug cocktails with few side effects are found quickly," explains Prof. Michael Schroeder.

The DiscoveryEngine developed at BIOTEC is a virtual screening software that has been optimised over the years and which, depending on the target, e.g. cancer, identifies those molecules that have suitable structures to act against the disease. The DiscoveryEngine was the basis for the spin-off of PharmAI from BIOTEC. "With that, we enable a broad clinical and economic use of our method. And the competition, in which we are involved as BIOTEC partners, is a great opportunity to show our potential," says Dr. Joachim Haupt, CEO of PharmAI and former postdoc at BIOTEC. "The DiscoveryEngine is fast and accurate. In just one week we have screened five million small molecules. Conventional computer-based methods would take about ten years of computation time to complete the task at a rate of only one minute per substance. Our hit rate was also significantly higher than with conventional screening methods. This speed and targeting are exactly what is required in the fight against Covid-19."

"We are very pleased to have received the submission of TU Dresden and PharmAI. It is part of a tremendous response we got from over 100 international teams. In autumn, after experimental validation, we will know which of the predicted drugs may bring us a step closer towards combatting the virus", says Prof. Thomas M. Hermans, Program Manager at JEDI.

In stages two and three of the JEDI Grand Challenge, the collective knowledge of the participating international virologists will be used to analyse the promising substances submitted and to quickly identify protein compounds from them that can completely eliminate the virus. By using high-throughput virus testing, new drug combinations with minimal toxicity and virtually no side effects are to be found, which will then be rapidly tested in clinical trials and could soon cure Covid-19 patients. Prof. Michael Schroeder: "Then, the search for the needle in the haystack would have been successful in record time. We are eagerly awaiting the results."

###

Media inquiries:

Prof. Michael Schroeder

Tel.: +49 351 463-40062

Email: michael.schroeder@tu-dresden.de

The Biotechnology Center (BIOTEC) was founded in 2000 as a central scientific unit of TU Dresden with the goal of combining modern approaches in molecular and cell biology with the traditionally strong engineering in Dresden. Since 2016, the BIOTEC is part of the central scientific unit "Center for Molecular and Cellular Bioengineering" (CMCB) of the TU Dresden. The BIOTEC is fostering developments in research and teaching within the Molecular Bioengineering research field and combines approaches in cell biology, biophysics and bioinformatics. It plays a central role within TU Dresden's Research Priority Area "Health Sciences, Biomedicine and Bioengineering".

http://www. tu-dresden. de/ biotec

http://www. tu-dresden. de/ cmcb

This story has been published on: 2020-07-16. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Brigitte Nielsen marked her 57th birthday on Wednesday with a cosy family dinner in California.

The Red Sonja actress arrived at CinqueTerre West Osteria in Pacific Palisades with her two-year-old daughter Frida and husband Mattia Dessi, 41.

The star dressed down in pink sweats for her celebratory night, sweetly matching her little girl's tracksuit.

Sweet: Brigitte Nielsen marked her 57th birthday on Wednesday with a family dinner, walking with her two-year-old daughter Frida to CinqueTerre West Osteria in Pacific Palisades

Brigitte dressed for comfort in her Karl Lagerfeld sweats teamed with white sandals and a pink face mask.

Little Frida matched perfectly with her mini tracksuit and sandals as she held onto her mother's hand for the stroll to the restaurant.

Earlier in the day Brigitte thanked her family and fans for 'making my B-day so special' as she shared photos of herself blowing out candles on her cake and surrounded by beautiful flowers.

It's been a time of celebration for the star who marked Frida's second birthday three weeks ago.

Happy Birthday! The star dressed down in pink sweats for her celebratory night, sweetly matching her little girl's tracksuit

The Cobra actress was able to gave birth to her daughter at the advanced age of 54 thanks to her foresight to have her eggs frozen when she was 40.

'If you dont want to use [donor] eggs, you have to preserve your own eggs at a reasonable age for there to be a possibility,' she explained to People shortly after welcoming little Frida.

She also spoke to The Guardian in February of last year about having a child in middle age.

Celebrating: Earlier in the day Brigitte thanked her family and fans for 'making my B-day so special' as she shared photos

Make a wish: The actress shared a shot of herself blowing out candles on her pretty cake

'I was always like: I want to do it until there are no more embryos left,' said Nielsen. 'Somebody has to win the lottery.'

But she said it certainly wasn't easy. 'You're on a lot of medication. It is very expensive. Hormones will do different things to different women... you always think you're going to get pregnant, but most of the time, the phone call comes and it's: I'm sorry.

'It is devastating,' she added. The partner you're with has to be onboard as much as you, unless you're a woman who wants to have a baby on your own. You have to stay realistic and, if you're older, the odds are against you.'

She's also mother to Julian Winding, 36, Killian Marcus Nielsen, 30, Aaron Nielsen, 27, and Raoul Ayrton Meyer Jr, 24.
LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / July 16, 2020 / World High Life Plc (AQSE:LIFE)(OTCQB:WRHLF) announces that World High Life wholly owned subsidiary, Love Hemp, has developed and launched a new brand to market, Buzz Leaf, which is targeted to a younger demographic (ages 21-34) in order to grow market share.

Love Hemp's new product development strategy is central to the company's growth plan, building on the strength of the Love Hemp branded product range, the focus is to develop brands to engage new consumers, increasing overall market share.

Buzz Leaf products have been developed and designed to connect with a younger demographic, giving the brand more freedom on the types of product categories it includes, from vapes to full spectrum CBD oils and enhancement products, for example benefit led products such as a hangover remedy, and cognition and libido enhancers.

The new Buzz Leaf CBD range of products includes the release of four broad spectrum CBD infused e-liquids with added terpenes and will be available exclusively at www.cbdoilsuk.com.

The e-liquids feature exotic flavours including Horny Mango & Pineapple Express, Blue Mist & Blue Dream, Tigers Blood & Watermelon OG and Lykos & Grandaddy Purple. The CBD infused e-liquids are priced at 24.99 for 30ml and contain 500mg of CBD.

Whilst all flavours are expected to be popular with both new and existing CBD vapers, clear winners are Horny Mango & Pineapple Express as well as Blue Mist & Blue Dream. The e-liquids are a welcome new addition to the CBDOilsUK range of products, appealing to a diverse audience, whilst building on the already successful range of Love Hemp e-liquids the online retailer stocks.

"With consumers demanding more high quality products at reasonable prices, our goal is to not only deliver strong margins for Buzz Leaf, but also provide competitively priced, high quality product options for a wider range of consumers - we really want to have something for everyone," says Tony Calamita, CEO at Love Hemp.

In addition to the launch of the four broad spectrum CBD infused e-liquids with added terpenes, Buzz Leaf is planning to launch a full range of CBD products including capsules and oils. For further information on Buzz Leaf, visit www.cbdoilsuk.com.

The Directors of the Company accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement.

For further information please contact:

David Stadnyk

Founder & CEO

North America: 1 (236) 521-7211

North America toll-free: 1 (888) 616-WRHLF (9745)

+44 (0) 7926 397 675

info@worldhighlife.uk AQSE Corporate Adviser

Mark Anwyl/Allie Feuerlein

Peterhouse Capital Limited

+44 (0) 20 7469 0930

ma@peterhousecap.com

af@peterhousecap.com Financial PR

Camilla Horsfall/Megan Ray

Blytheweigh

+44 (0) 20 7138 3224

Camilla.horsfall@blytheweigh.com

Megan.Ray@blytheweigh.com



For more information on World High Life please visit: www.worldhighlife.uk

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014. Upon the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Information

We seek safe harbour. Some statements contained in this news release are "forward looking information" within the meaning of securities laws. Forward looking information include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the use of proceeds of the non-brokered private placement and payment of the debt settlements. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes" or variations of such words and phrases (including negative or grammatical variations) or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative connotation thereof. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking information is inherently uncertain and involves risks, assumptions and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting the Company will be those anticipated by management. The forward-looking information contained in this press release constitutes management's current estimates, as of the date of this press release, with respect to the matters covered thereby. We expect that these estimates will change as new information is received. We do not undertake to update any estimate at any particular time or in response to any particular event, except as required by law.

SOURCE: World High Life Plc

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/597692/Love-Hemp-Launches-New-Consumer-Brand-Buzz-Leaf-Targeted-at-Younger-Demographic-to-Grow-Market-Share
By PTI

WASHINGTON: A group of 174 Indian nationals, including seven minors, has filed a lawsuit against the recent presidential proclamation on H-1B that would prevent them from entering the United States or a visa would not be issued to them.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson at the US District Court in the District of Columbia issued summonses on Wednesday to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad F Wolf, along with Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia.

The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court on Tuesday.

"The proclamation 10052's H-1B/H-4 visa ban hurts the United States' economy, separates families and defies the Congress. While the two former points render it unseemly, the latter point renders it unlawful," said the lawsuit filed by lawyer Wasden Banias on behalf of the 174 Indian nationals.

The lawsuit seeks an order declaring the presidential proclamation restriction on issuing new H-1B or H4 visas or admitting new H-1B or H-4 visa holders as unlawful.

It also urges the court to compel the Department of State to issue decisions on pending requests for H-1B and H-4 visas.

In his presidential proclamation on June 22, Trump temporarily suspended issuing of H-1B work visas till the end of the year.

"In the administration of our nation's immigration system, we must remain mindful of the impact of foreign workers on the United States labor market, particularly in the current extraordinary environment of high domestic unemployment and depressed demand for labor," said the proclamation issued by Trump.

In his proclamation, Trump said the overall unemployment rate in the United States nearly quadrupled between February and May of 2020 -- producing some of the most extreme unemployment ever recorded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

While the May rate of 13.3 per cent reflects a marked decline from April, millions of Americans remain out of work.

The proclamation also extends till year-end his previous executive order that had banned issuance of new green cards of lawful permanent residency.

Green Card holders, once admitted pursuant to immigrant visas, are granted "open-market" employment authorisation documents, allowing them immediate eligibility to compete for almost any job in any sector of the economy, Trump said.

Forbes, which first reported the lawsuit filed by the Indian nationals, said the complaint points out that the Congress specified the rules under which H-1B visa holders could work in the US and balanced the interests of US workers and employers.

"The complaint seeks to protect H-1B professionals, including those who have passed the labor certification process and possess approved immigrant petitions. Such individuals are waiting for their priority date to obtain permanent residence, a wait that can take many years for Indian nationals," Forbes reported.

Meanwhile, several lawmakers urged Scalia on Tuesday to reverse the work visa ban.

"Throughout this administration, the president has continued to lament the alleged abuses of the immigration system while failing to address the systemic problems that have persisted and allowed businesses and employers to exploit and underpay immigrant workers, guest workers and American workers," the lawmakers wrote.

"This misguided attempt by the president to scapegoat immigrants for policy failures during the pandemic not only serves to hurt immigrants, but dismisses the true problem of a broken work visa program that is in desperate need of reform," said the letter, which among others was signed by Congressmen Joaquin Castro, Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus; Bobby Scott, Chair of the Education and Labor Committee; Karen Bass, Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus; Judy Chu, Raul Grijalva, Vicente Gonzalez, Yvette Clarke and Linda Sanchez.
Minister Jordan highlights importance of growing Canadas ocean economy

July 16,2020 | Source: Government of Canada

Canadas three oceans are an integral part of our national identity. They provide beauty and enjoyment to our citizens, serve as a refuge and ecosystem to millions of life forms and support a thriving ocean economy accounting for approximately $31.65 billion annually in GDP. From Pacific reefs that are over 9,000 years old, to important feeding grounds for fish stocks in the Atlantic, to critical habitats for beluga whales in the Arctic, Canada is taking action to protect our oceans and the life they sustain. The Government of Canada recognizes that, as our economy starts to open up, it will be more important than ever to chart a course to grow Canadas Blue Economy.



The Minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard, the Honourable Bernadette Jordan, speaking at the Vancouver Board of Trade today, outlined the Governments path forward to achieve healthy, sustainable oceans and economic prosperity here in Canada and around the world. This includes reaching our target of protecting 25% of our oceans by 2025, working toward 30% by 2030, and developing a national Blue Economy Strategy to ensure Canada is positioned to take advantage of new opportunities.



The Government of Canada exceeded its 10 % marine conservation target ahead of the United Nations 2020 deadline, reaching 13.81 % in 2019. Minister Jordan spoke about the Governments ongoing work to reach its next protections target, including a Pacific Area of Interest for marine protection off the coast of Vancouver Island.



At the same time as the Government has increased ocean protections, the Blue Economy has continued to grow, employing approximately 300, 000 Canadians currently across various industries. The Minister underscored the importance of creating a Blue Economy Strategy that will guide the Government of Canadas actions and investments to grow Canadas ocean economy.



Minister Jordan made clear that environmental protection must therefore continue to go hand-in-hand with economic growth. To that end, she announced that Fisheries and Oceans will be accepting new applications for funding from July 15 to September 15, 2020 for the British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund (BCSRIF). Funding is open to Indigenous communities, industry associations, environmental non-governmental organizations, commercial enterprises, and academic institutions. Investments through this program will help recover salmon habitat, benefit commercial and recreational fishing and aquaculture, as well as support science and research initiatives. Pacific wild salmon are integral to British Columbias economy and cultural heritage, and restoring their populations is a shared, top priority.



Today, the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard, the Honourable Bernadette Jordan, and the BC Minister of Agriculture, the Honourable Lana Popham, announced funding for eight projects under the British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund (BCSRIF). More than $10 million in funding will support research and monitoring activities, infrastructure upgrades to community hatcheries, and the development of strategies to enhance the sustainability of Pacific fisheries.

 PHILIPPINE CANADIAN INQUIRER

Theme(s): Others.
Photograph: Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Images

Twitter suffered a major security breach on Wednesday that saw hackers take control of the accounts of major public figures and corporations, including Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Apple.

The company confirmed the breach Wednesday evening, more than six hours after the hack began, and attributed it to a coordinated social engineering attack on its own employees that enabled the hackers to access internal systems and tools. Twitter said it was looking into what other malicious activity they may have conducted or information they may have accessed in addition to using the compromised accounts to send tweets.

The hack unfolded over the course of several hours, and in the course of halting it, Twitter stopped all verified accounts from tweeting at all  an unprecedented measure. The company had restored most accounts by Wednesday evening, but warned that it may take further actions. The company said that it had also locked the compromised accounts and taken steps to limit access to internal systems and tools while it continues its investigation.

The compromised accounts, which count tens of millions of followers, sent a series of tweets proposing a classic bitcoin scam: followers were told that if they transferred cryptocurrency to a specific bitcoin wallet, they would receive double the money in return.

Other compromised accounts include those of Kanye West, Michael Bloomberg, Uber, and a number of cryptocurrency exchanges or organizations.

The messages included the address of a bitcoin wallet whose balance grew rapidly to more than 11 BTC (more than $100,000) as the scam spread. Tweets with similar messages were repeatedly deleted and re-posted by some of the compromised accounts over the course of Wednesday afternoon.

While the motives and source of the attack are not yet known, the coordinated hijacking of the verified communications streams of world leaders, celebrities and major corporate accounts was a frightening prospect. Twitter has become a de facto wire service for the world and is used for official communications by governments during emergencies; a hack on the scale of Wednesdays attack could have been more disruptive or even dangerous.

Story continues

The amount of damage this could cause is very high, said Douglas Schmidt, a computer science professor at Vanderbilt University. These people could hold information gleaned from the hack for ransom in the future.

Twitter issued its first statement approximately 90 minutes after scam messages began being sent out by Musks and Gates accounts, as the attack was ongoing.

We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter, the company said on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly.

The company subsequently warned that some users would be unable to tweet or change their passwords as it worked to address the issue. Verified users, whose accounts feature a blue checkmark to denote that Twitter has confirmed their identities, were blocked from tweeting for about an hour.

Twitters stock price tumbled more than 3% in after hours trading.

Tough day for us at Twitter, chief executive Jack Dorsey tweeted on Wednesday evening. Were diagnosing and will share everything we can when we have a more complete understanding of exactly what happened.

It is not entirely uncommon for high-profile figures to suffer Twitter hacks. Dorsey himself was the victim of a Sim swap attack in 2019.

But Twitters description of the attack suggests a much more serious breach of the companys internal systems, carried out by tricking or otherwise persuading an employee to provide access. It is not the first time Twitter has faced an insider threat. In 2017, a customer support employee briefly deleted Donald Trumps account. And in 2019, two former employees were charged with spying after they allegedly accessed thousands of users account information and provided it to the government of Saudi Arabia.

Schmidt said that the attacks could be related to the fact that Twitter, like much of the rest of the tech industry, has transitioned to remote work during the coronavirus pandemic.

The likelihood of attacks like this increase when people are working remotely it is much easier for bad actors to impersonate someone through an email and gain access to their accounts, said Schmidt. Assuming this wasnt someone inside Twitter trying to take revenge, it appears to be a spear phishing attack  someone who has access to admin privileges that can override two-factor authentication and strong passwords fell victim to a hack.
Syracuse, N.Y.  Italian-Americans and others bent on saving the statue of Christopher Columbus in downtown Syracuse issued a call for support today, saying they prefer to focus on the history of the statue itself rather than the controversial explorer it depicts.

More than 100 people gathered in Columbus Circle to cheer speakers including former state Sen. John DeFrancisco and former County Executive Nick Pirro. They denounced mounting calls to remove the statue because of Columbus historical association with slavery and the decimation of indigenous people.

DeFrancisco, in a brief interview after the event, said the Columbus statue should not be seen as a celebration of any wrongs the explorer may or may not have committed (DeFrancisco said he wasnt sure). The statue was paid for mostly by local Italian immigrants as a tribute to their heritage and to give thanks to America, he said.

That was in 1934. Not 1492. Got it? Not 1492,' said DeFrancisco, who wore an Italian flag face mask.

Whatever Columbus may or may not have done in 1492, other than discover America, the fact of the matter is that this statue was put up not at the time that these events allegedly were happening,' he said.

Pirro also emphasized the history of the monument itself, saying it was a celebration of immigrants. He said two Onondaga chiefs attended the unveiling ceremony, implying that the statue has been a source of unity, not division. He said removing the statue would only divide the community.

You dont build yourself up by tearing somebody else down,' he said. If you keep looking backward, you never go forward.'

But protesters in Syracuse and elsewhere have demanded that statues honoring Columbus be removed. Besides establishing ties between Europe and America, Columbus also engaged in the slavery and exploitation of indigenous people, historians say.

Columbus represents white supremacy, genocide and the near extermination of the American Indian, Bob Searing, curator of history at the Onondaga Historical Association, has said. He was not a good guy, even by the standards of his day. These are inarguable facts.

Former state Sen. John DeFrancisco, left, chats with a supporter of the Christopher Columbus statue in downtown Syracuse during a rally Thursday, July 16.

Several cities, including Buffalo, have decided to remove Columbus statues from public spaces. In other cities, including Baltimore, mobs of protestors have torn the statues down.

Mayor Ben Walsh has named a committee to make recommendations for the future of Columbus Circle, including whether the statue should stay or go. Pirro and lawyer Michael Vavonese, who also spoke at todays rally, are on the 23-member commission. Outspoken opponents of the statue are also on it, Pirro said.

Mark Nicotra, Onondaga Countys deputy commissioner of parks, acted as emcee for the rally. Nicotra, who is also president of the Columbus Monument Corp., urged the crowd to sign an online petition supporting preservation of the statue.

Demonstrators gather at Columbus Circle to support keeping the statue up, Thursday July 15 2020. There had been protest suggesting it should come down . Dennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.com

This is an important rallying of support, really in support of our Italian heritage,' Nicotra told the crowd. Thats what is threatened.'

Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon did not immediately respond to a question about whether he has a position on the statue.

The Columbus Monument Corp., a nonprofit that organizes Columbus Day celebrations, launched the petition to counteract similar efforts from those opposed to the statue. An online petition asking Walsh to remove the statue has more than 16,000 signatures.

Walsh has said that Columbus Circle must change, whether or not the statue remains. He envisions a multicultural heritage site. Pirro said supporters of the statue welcome additional facilities, as long as Columbus stays.

Tim Knauss is a public affairs reporter for syracuse.com/The Post-Standard. Contact him anytime: email | Twitter | | 315-470-3023
Rishi Sunak has been ridiculed online for wearing a face mask that acts like a 'jet' to spread coronavirus.

The Chancellor posted an image of himself wearing a grey mask fitted with a valve carrying a Pret a Manger bag, telling his followers he was 'making the most' of the coffee chain's price cut.

But a top Oxford University professor and ex-Tory MP Rory Stewart both criticised Mr Sunak for wearing the wrong type of covering.

Professor Trisha Greenhalgh, a firm believer that masks help to cut transmission of the coronavirus, tweeted: 'Not that one Rishi. One without a valve. Way to go.' In response to another Twitter user saying it was better than wearing nothing at all, she said his valve was worse because it 'makes the exhalation into a jet'.

Mr Stewart, a former Conservative leader candidate, said a 'little guidance maybe needed' and warned the point of masks is to protect others.

It comes as it was revealed today that the government has updated its advice to say face coverings are now recommended in all enclosed spaces  despite ministers claiming office workers would not need to cover-up, nor would people in pubs or restaurants.

The guidance  issued by the Cabinet Office  was updated alongside details of the new law, which will make it mandatory for everyone in England to wear a covering in shops and supermarkets from July 24.

But Number 10's policy has been engulfed in chaos, with Michael Gove sparking a furore at the weekend by publicly making clear he did not think they should be required by law.

And yesterday Downing Street claimed masks are not necessary in takeaway food outlets  just hours after Health Secretary Matt Hancock suggested the opposite.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak posted a picture of himself yesterday wearing a covering while getting a takeaway from Pret

Professor Trisha Greenhalgh, of Oxford University, tweeted: 'Not that one Rishi. One without a valve. Way to go.' In response to another Twitter user saying it was better than wearing nothing at all, she said his valve was worse because it 'makes the exhalation into a jet'.

Rory Stewart, a former Conservative leader candidate, said a 'little guidance maybe needed' and warned the point of masks is to protect others

WHAT IS WRONG WITH MASKS THAT HAVE A VALVE IN? Masks containing one-way valves are usually used in construction, allowing labourers to breathe in filtered air that doesn't contain dust. But the coverings  banned in some parts of the US, according to Forbes  do not filter exhaled air. Because of this, doctors say they aren't appropriate for medical settings because they offer very little protection for others around them. The valve doesn't prevent the wearer from spreading the virus. In comparison, cloth masks are intended to trap droplets released when the wearer talks, coughs or sneezes. And Professor Trisha Greenhalgh, of Oxford University, claimed the valve 'makes the exhalation into a jet'. Advertisement

The Times reported today that the Cabinet Office has quietly updated its advice on masks, saying: 'You are also strongly encouraged to wear a face covering in other enclosed public spaces where social distancing may be difficult and where you come into contact with people you do not normally meet.'

But Mr Hancock claimed there are no plans to make masks compulsory for office workers, telling the BBC it was 'something we've looked at and rejected'.

The Health Secretary  who in April said the science had been 'clear from the start' that masks were useless  warned coverings would be mandatory in shops for the 'foreseeable future'.

The Times reports that the guidance, which also advises people not to place their worn masks on tables in restaurants, is likely to apply to museums and galleries  but not pubs or eateries.

It comes after Sadiq Khan yesterday accused the government of 'risking the health of the public' to spare Mr Gove's blushes.

Mr Gove  who dismissed the idea of making face coverings compulsory in shops at the weekend, saying it was best to 'trust' the public to make a personal decision  was widely criticised for emerging without one from a Pret in London on Tuesday.

This was despite cabinet colleagues Liz Truss and Mr Sunak being pictured wearing one.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson was also seen wearing a mask earlier this week, hinting at the blanket rule for all on the high street.

Mr Hancock insisted yesterday morning that coverings will be required in venues like Pret when people buy things to go.

He suggested that the crucial point was that people needed to wear masks if they were not receiving table service, and confusingly claimed that ordering at the bar is not permitted at pubs  despite official guidance saying it is.

However, within hours Downing Street added to the bafflement by indicating that cafes and eateries will not be included in the law, as the system will only apply in 'shops and supermarkets' in England.

The response sparked anger from Mayor of London Mr Khan, who tweeted: 'This is frankly ridiculous. The virus doesn't know if you're in a take-away or a supermarket.

'The government is risking the health of the public to cover the back of a Cabinet Minister. Please wear a face covering in all shops and takeaways.'

Mr Gove finally fell into line yesterday by wearing an NHS-branded face covering in Whitehall.

Michael Gove finally fell into line by wearing a mask in Westminster yesterday - after being pictured going into Pret on Tuesday with his face bare

Amid the confusion, Mr Hancock gave a stark message that the edict on face coverings was not going to be lifted any time soon.

'People will have to wear masks in shops and on public transport and in the NHS for the foreseeable future,' he said.

Meanwhile, official guidance published by the government overnight has raised fresh doubts about how it can be policed.

Despite the threat of 100 fines, the document says people can have a 'legitimate' excuse for not wearing a face covering if it causes them 'distress'.

Amid growing disquiet at Labour's refusal to take a position on a host of key issues, Sir Keir Starmer ignored the issue of masks entirely at PMQs.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, wearing a face mask, boards an ambulance to talk with a paramedic during a visit to the headquarters of the London Ambulance Service NHS Trust on Monday

Mr Hancock suggested pubs were table service only, but in fact ordering drinks at the bar is permitted where it is 'unavoidable'

What are the rules on face masks? The face mask rules vary across the UK. In Scotland they are mandatory on public transport, and they became required in shops from last Friday. In England, they have been required on public transport since last month. Anyone who fails to use one can be refused passage or hit with a 100 fine. From July 24, face coverings will also be mandatory in shops and supermarkets in England. Outlets 'will be expected to encourage compliance with the law' and can refuse entry. The government's guidance says: 'In both cases, if necessary, the police have the powers to enforce these measures, including through issuing a fine of 100.' Matt Hancock suggested this morning that cafes such as Pret will be covered by the rule when they are acting 'as shops', for example selling takeaway coffee. However, those sitting down to eat in the same venue will not be required to wear face masks. The advice adds: 'You are also strongly encouraged to wear a face covering in other enclosed public spaces where social distancing may be difficult and where you come into contact with people you do not normally meet.' Advertisement

Doctors slam Downing Street for using a graphic of a man wearing a mask with a valve that's 'useless' at protecting others in a video to explain rules about face coverings in shops

Doctors have called out the government for its new messaging regarding face coverings after it shared a video featuring a graphic of a man wearing a mask with a valve.

Number 10 on Tuesday shared a tweet explaining that face masks will become compulsory in shops in England from July 24 in an attempt to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Following Health Secretary Matt Hancock's announcement, the official Downing Street Twitter account shared a clip which told how wearing a face covering means you're 'protecting others'.

Doctors have called out the government for its new messaging regarding face coverings after it shared a video featuring a graphic of a man wearing a mask with a valve

Julia Simons, the medical student representative of the Doctors' Association UK who has worked on the frontline of the pandemic during her final year studying, spotted the blunder

Doctors Nisreen Alwan and Dr Bharat Pankhania also explained the reasoning behind not wearing a mask with a valve in response to the government's video

Numerous Twitter users waded in on the debate, all criticising the video for promoting masks with valves which don't protect others

An additional video has since been shared by Downing Street featuring a woman wearing a mask without a valve. The new video, shared earlier this morning, also states that exemptions to the face covering rule include young children, people with breathing difficulties and people living with a disability

Health Secretary Matt Hancock struggled to explain the new system coming into force from July 24 amid warnings from police that it will be completely unenforceable

Do face coverings help reduce coronavirus transmission? Initially many authorities, including the World Health Organization (WHO), suggested face coverings were not effective in preventing the spread of Covid-19 but are now recommending wearing them in indoor spaces. So, has the science evolved on face coverings? A report recently published by the Royal Society suggests that even basic homemade face coverings can reduce transmission if enough people wear them. Dr Julian Tang, who is an associate professor of respiratory sciences at the University of Leicester, said wearing face coverings in public places could keep the R value below 1 by creating an 'artificial herd immunity'. But Dr Simon Clarke, an associate professor of cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said that while face coverings may reduce the spread of cough droplets, robust epidemiological evidence on their benefits is still lacking. Are there any benefits to wearing them? Experts say the risk of coronavirus transmission appears to be higher in poorly ventilated indoor spaces and wearing face coverings in small shops or enclosed shopping centres could help reduce the spread. In addition, there is also increased evidence which suggests that many people with the virus who do not have symptoms can still be contagious. What does this mean for those looking to go back to the office? Experts say wearing face coverings could provide an added line of defence amid growing evidence of airborne transmission of coronavirus. Dr Tang said: 'If half the people in the office wear a mask, it would increase artificial herd immunity to around 25%, which can reduce transmission overall within the office, just by reducing the number of people who are susceptible.' Are there downsides to face coverings? There are many indoor spaces, such as pubs and restaurants, where the use of face coverings may not be possible. Some experts have also shared concerns that wearing face coverings may give the wearer a false sense of security, although Prof Neal said there is 'no evidence to suggest that is the case'. Are some face coverings better than others? The WHO advises a three-layer face covering in the community - the outer layer should be water resistant, the inner should be water absorbent and the mid-layer acts as a filter. The Government has said coverings can be made from scarves, bandanas or other fabric items, as long as they cover the mouth and nose. But scientists at the Leverhulme Centre say some coverings are not as effective as others, with loosely woven fabrics, such as scarves, shown to be the least effective. Advertisement

But dozens of users, including several doctors, pointed out that the type of mask pictured doesn't stop the wearer from spreading Covid-19.

Masks containing valves are usually used in construction and aren't appropriate for medical settings because, although they filter the air used by the person wearing it, they offer very little protection for others around them.

Julia Simons, the medical student representative of the Doctors' Association UK who has worked on the frontline of the pandemic during her final year of studies, spotted the blunder.

She tweeted: 'Please do wear a cloth face covering. Don't wear a face mask with a valve. The valves mean your face mask is no use for protecting others.

'How can the government video not get this right? Continuous dither, delay and disaster.'

Dr Nisreen Alwan, an epidemiologist, consultant in public health and an associate professor at Southampton University also criticised the video, tweeting: 'The graphic is wrong.

'Don't use a mask with a valve because it pushes air out and doesn't protect others. Use any cloth face covering over mouth and nose.'

Dr Bharat Pankhania, a senior clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter Medical School with over 20 years experience in communicable disease control and infectious disease management, added: 'Just don't use masks with a valve.

'It propels expired breath forcefully and this, as in Bernoulli's principle, it will travel with greater velocity a lot further. It is not fit for purpose.'

The video remains on the government's Twitter account, where it's had over 153,500 views, however an additional one has now been shared featuring a woman wearing a mask without a valve.

The new video, shared earlier this morning, also states that exemptions to the face covering rule include young children, people with breathing difficulties and people living with a disability.

Masks with valves have been banned in parts of the US, including Florida and California.

Marisa Glucoft, director of infection prevention Children's Hospital Los Angeles, previously said: 'When you wear a mask with a valve, people around you are not protected because the valve lets all of your breath into the air.

'From that perspective, its almost like youre not wearing a mask at all.'

The San Francisco Department of Public Health also tweeted in May that masks with valves are 'NOT safe' and 'may actually propel your germs further'.

The government's face mask rules descended further into confusion today as Matt Hancock insisted they must be worn to get takeaway coffee but not in pubs.

The Health Secretary also denied speculation that Boris Johnson wants to make masks compulsory in offices as part of a drive to convince workers to return.

Meanwhile, official guidance published by the government overnight has raised fresh doubts about how it can be policed.

Despite the threat of 100 fines, the document says people can have a 'legitimate' excuse for not wearing a face covering if it causes them 'distress'.

The Police Federation, representing rank-and-file officers, has said it is 'unrealistic and unfair' to expect them to patrol the aisles looking for people breaking the coronavirus regulations.
GLENS FALLS  With lawmakers on both sides of the aisle offering support, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer believes there will be an extension of the federal Paycheck Protection Program to help businesses keep employees on the payroll during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This has bi-partisan support, Schumer said of the proposed extension through the end of the year.

Right now, however, the PPP programs first round is still active. Businesses that didnt get, or apply, for money during its start in April still have until August 8 to apply for a loan from the federal Small Business Administration.

Administered through local banks, the PPP is designed to help businesses keep employees on the payroll, even as business slows due to the pandemic.

Local business owners on Thursday said the program was a life-saver, especially following the March shut-down of many businesses as COVID-19 spread through parts of New York.

It helped us keep our staff, said Todd Feigenbaum, who hosted Schumer Thursday at Feigenbaum Cleaners in Glens Falls.

His $130,000 loan helped him retain all of his 22 employees here and at branches in Queensbury, Wilton and Saratoga Springs.

Business at his stores fell 80 percent during the initial shutdown, although it has since crept up to about 50 percent of normal.

More for you Federal paycheck program goes to all kinds of organizations

Joining Feigenbaum were Susan Ungerman and Jonathan Phillips, who operate Ungerman Electric and Phillips Hardware respectively in Albany County.

This PPP saved our business, said Ungerman, whose firm focuses on residential customers.

She said her business dropped off when people were afraid to let service technicians such as electricians inside their homes.

With $521 billion loaned nationally so far, the PPP effort was designed to counter that trend, but as the pandemic shows no signs of fading nationally, there is pressure for a second round.

Schumer noted that the program has already been modified. The deadline was originally earlier, but it was extended and the federal government made it easier to apply. There is still approximately $130 billion available.

Initially, recipients had to use 75 percent toward payroll in order for their loans to be forgiven by the government. That was later changed to 60 percent in order to let business operators meet other obligations such as rent.

Schumer wants the second round, dubbed P4 to allow for businesses to get up to 250 percent of monthly payroll costs, up to a maximum of $2 million.

A focus also would be on small businesses and non-profits with fewer than 100 employees, self-employed borrowers, and rural and historically underserved communities.

The second round wouldnt go to publicly funded companies.

Banks that help carry out the program would get a $2,500 fee to keep them from cherry picking large borrowers.



The New York Democrat acknowledged that some of the initial funding went to some well-funded companies. The Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog organization, issued a report Wednesday that at least 1,322 companies backed by private equity investors received PPP loans worth up to an estimated $3.4 billion.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Schumer said he wants to install watchdogs for a second round of loans to prevent that from happening again.

Moreover, he wants to claw back some money from businesses that didnt need it, especially large companies.

We are now having our oversight board do an audit and we are going to ask those big companies that didnt need it to return it, said Schumer.

The hedge funds, the fat cats that got it, we are trying to get that back, he added.

He did say he was OK with some of the money going to organizations like Off Track Betting parlors and churches since they all provide jobs for people.

Besides seeking government help, businesses have also changed the way they operate during the pandemic.

Feigenbaum, for instance, turned his dry cleaning store into an operation that requires minimal contact between customers and employees.

Customers now put their clothing items in bags themselves and the clothes sit untouched for 24 hours, which reduces the chance they will transmit any coronavirus or other microbes.

And when customers get their clothes back, they check themselves out on the other side of a plexiglass panel that is between them and workers.

Its touchless, he said of the process.

rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTU
WASHINGTON  The Trump administration has made it more difficult to become a U.S. citizen as it has focused on more strictly vetting applicants, resulting in significantly longer wait times and a deepening naturalization backlog  but so far little evidence of widespread fraud  according to a new report.

The administration is taking nearly twice as long as past administrations to process citizenship naturalization applications, leaving tens of thousands of would-be citizens in limbo in Texas just months before many had hoped to vote for the first time in Novembers elections. Theres no clear end in sight, either, as the coronavirus and a looming budget crisis at the agency overseeing naturalization have essentially ground the process to a halt.

The new report by the Migration Policy Institute and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, a nonprofit group focused on expanding immigrants rights, says the problem is systemic. The administration says it is simply applying longstanding requirements.

EVERY SINGLE DAY, I GET DISAPPOINTED: COVID shutdown, budget crisis leave 74,000-plus Texas immigrants unlikely to vote in 2020

Under the Trump administrations stricter scrutiny of naturalization claims, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is asking applicants to provide more supporting documents than before  going so far in some cases as to ask for proof theyve paid off 15-year old traffic tickets, researchers found.

Federal officials are also asking more leading questions in citizenship interviews, which may be aimed at finding reasons for denials, the report says. And they are making the English and civics tests harder than ever. In some cases, applicants have been asked to define terms such as communist, terrorism, and genocide.

The end result has not been more denials  the administration is still approving about 90 percent of applications  but rather a deepening backlog of cases and spiraling wait times. In Texas, wait times have skyrocketed to 12.5 months on the low end and as long as 36 months, according to the USCIS website. That wait time was about 12 to 18 months in Houston and 7 to 15 months in San Antonio late last year.

In addition to the new requirements detailed in the report, the Trump administration has also proposed raising fees to apply for citizenship from $725 to $1,170 for most applicants, while eliminating existing waivers offered to immigrants who cant afford to pay  something roughly a third of those eligible for citizenship rely on.

USCIS spokeswoman Jessica Collins said the report paints longstanding requirements for naturalization candidates required by law, like demonstration of English language skills, basic civics knowledge, and proof of good moral character, as obstacles.

Collins said the administration inherited a backlog of nearly 700,000 naturalization cases from the Obama administration and is completing more citizenship applications, more efficiently and effectively. The U.S. government naturalized 833,000 new citizens in fiscal year 2019  an 11-year high.

Ensuring that candidates for citizenship are well-vetted and meet all statutory and regulatory requirements for naturalization is a standard on which USCIS cannot and will not waver, Collins said. We remain vigilant and uphold the security and integrity of the immigration system so that new immigrants and the public can hold in high regard the privileges and advantages of lawful presence in the United States.

But Eric Cohen, executive director of the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, said in 30 years working as an immigration attorney, Ive really never seen the hurdles that this administration has been putting up.

And for what gain? Cohen said. None whatsoever.

Despite creating a task force to comb through files of naturalized citizens looking for fraud, the administration has produced little evidence of such, he said.

TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox

The report, produced by ILRC and the Migration Policy Institute, is based on a survey of 110 naturalization assistance providers across the United States. The survey was heavily weighted toward California, Texas and Florida, which had the most respondents. That included 10 respondents helping immigrants applying through USCIS field offices in Houston, San Antonio and Dallas.

A quarter of those surveyed said citizenship interviews had doubled in length, and 1 in 10 said interviewers were asking more leading questions about issues not directly related to citizenship eligibility, including detailed questions about travel history, such as the exact number of days traveled, the exact dates and in some cases questions about how low-income applicants were able to afford to travel. Applicants have also faced more questions about criminal histories beyond the five-year statutory cutoff, with some having to prove that they paid off traffic tickets that were more than 10 years old, said Randy Capps, one of the authors of the report.

A third of the respondents said USCIS was asking for more evidence to support applications. That included a stricter scrutiny of marriage, one of the most common paths to citizenship, with new requests for details about the marriage ceremonies and who attended, including requests for pictures of the events, Capps said.

ben.wermund@chron.com
More than 18,500 Floridians' ballots were not counted during the March presidential primary after many arrived by mail after the deadline.

In Nevada, about 6,700 ballots were rejected in June because election officials could not verify voters' signatures.

And during Pennsylvania's primary last month, only state and court orders prevented tens of thousands of late-returned ballots from being disqualified.

As a resurgence in coronavirus cases portends another possible flood of absentee voting this fall, the issue of rejected ballots has emerged as a serious concern around the country, including in presidential battleground states and those with races that will decide control of the House and Senate.

While the number of rejected ballots in Florida and Nevada represents a fraction of those cast in their primaries, the unprecedented shift toward absentee voting during the coronavirus pandemic could make such margins potentially significant in the fall. In 2016, roughly 80,000 votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin helped Donald Trump win the White House.

The rejection of ballots because of mail delays, signature match problems and errors in completing and sealing the forms could end up disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of people, voting rights advocates warn. It could also fuel doubts about the integrity of the 2020 vote, which Trump has already claimed without evidence will be "the greatest Rigged Election in history."

The growing risks has party officials and voting rights activists on high alert, raising the stakes for dozens of ongoing legal battles over absentee voting rules and placing additional pressure on election officials, whose staffs and budgets are already stretched thin by the demands of administering the vote during a pandemic.

"I think Kentucky's absentee ballot laws need an overhaul," said Fayette County Clerk Don Blevins Jr., a Democrat, after last month's primary, when roughly 7% of returned absentee ballots in his county, or 6,645, were rejected. "This election has really revealed just how strict we are. We could do better."

Worries about rejected ballots comes in the wake of the most chaotic presidential primary season in memory, when Americans fearful of the coronavirus embraced absentee voting in record numbers to avoid crowds at polling places. The result was an unexpected stress test of mail balloting systems, many of which were designed to handle only a small portion of the vote and not ready to scale up in response to a pandemic.

Election experts said that if the trend continues in the fall, the number of ballots that end up being tossed out could far exceed the nearly 319,000 mail and absentee ballots that were rejected nationwide in the 2016 general election, a rate of about 1% of mailed ballots, according to a survey by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

So far, there are signs that voting by mail is on track to reach new heights.

In New York, more than 1.7 million mail ballots were requested for the June primary, compared with about 115,000 that were submitted during the 2016 presidential primary.

The deluge overwhelmed election officials, who are still tabulating the results of some races. In the process, large numbers of mail ballots have been rejected because they arrived late, were missing a postmark or lacked a voter signature - as much as 19% in parts of Manhattan and Queens and 28% in parts of Brooklyn, according to preliminary tabulation figures obtained by The Washington Post.

A spokesperson for the New York City Board of Elections did not respond to a request for comment.

"If you project that forward to how many ballots they could receive in November, that's incredible," said Laura Ladd Bierman, executive director of the League of Women Voters of New York State.

While a deep-blue state like New York is not in play for the presidential contest, the number of rejected ballots there could make a difference in more local elections.

In 2018, Democratic Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi flipped New York's 22nd congressional district by less than five thousand votes - a key victory that helped Democrats claim a majority of seats in the House.

"We are definitely not a battleground state, but we have a lot of other races that are key and could be close," said Bierman, noting that the state's ballot rejection rate was among the highest in the country over the past two election cycles. "They could have a big impact on how the House stands."

- - -

Mail ballots can be tossed for a range of reasons that vary from state to state.

If ballots are returned late, they are not counted unless a court intervenes. If they lack the required number of signatures from the voter, or if the voter's signature cannot be verified as authentic, the ballots are also rejected.

In some cases, the rules present a maze of obstacles and potential pitfalls.

If a state requires an "exact match" between signatures, even a tiny difference - such as a missing hyphen in a last name - can nullify a ballot. Ballots that arrive through the mail without a valid postmark might not be counted, even if the fault lies with the Postal Service. And some ballots that require a witness's signature are rejected if they do not also list that person's address.

The rules can be so strict in some jurisdictions that even a stray marking or small tear in the ballot envelope can cancel someone's vote.

Diane Haasch, a 69-year-old voter from Brookfield, Wis., was surprised to learn from a Washington Post reporter this week that her absentee ballot from the state's April presidential primary was not counted.

The cause? "Envelope damaged," according to a list of rejected ballots provided by local election officials.

"I know exactly what happened. I tore a little corner of it when I opened the envelope that it came in. I put a little piece of tape over it," Haasch said. "That is just really, really too bad. . . . Nothing was real close here where it would have made a difference, but it makes it possible to reject lots and lots of ballots over little problems."

Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the national Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a voting-rights advocacy group, called such rejections "grossly unfair."

"The use of inconsequential rules - for example, saying, 'We will not count this ballot because the voter provided the last two digits of their birth year instead of four' - and junk science-type rules, like signature-matching verification requirements, need to be set aside," Clarke said. "Those all provide avenues for officials to reject ballots from voters who are otherwise fully qualified."

Strict rules, such as those requiring that ballots be delivered instead of postmarked on or by Election Day, disproportionately affect young and minority voters, studies have shown.

Wendy Weiser, who directs the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law, said those rules create obstacles for voters that are especially unfair during a public health crisis.

"Ballot rejection is very low hanging fruit," she said. "Election officials or states can just change their procedures to avoid these high rejection rates and ensure that every eligible voter has a fair shot at getting their ballots counted. . . . I think it's unconscionable not to make those changes at this point. Those are easy fixes."

The League of Women Voters is one of several groups pursuing legal action around the country to make mail balloting more voter-friendly. In New York state, the group filed suit last week to ensure that voters have a chance to "cure" their ballot, or address errors and deficiencies, before it is rejected.

Democratic elections lawyer Marc Elias is litigating in at least 15 states to establish what he calls the "four pillars" of fair absentee voting: allowing ballots to be postmarked on or before Election Day, providing government-paid return postage, permitting community organizations to help return sealed ballots, and establishing standards for the signature-matching process that election officials must follow.

Democrats argue that such measures are necessary to make sure that voters are not disenfranchised because of factors outside their control or arbitrary enforcement of the rules.

"This is why we are suing to ensure that every voter who votes by mail has their ballot counted," Elias tweeted Monday in response to a warning from a fellow attorney that votes cast by mail might not be counted. "Unfortunately the @GOP is fighting us at every turn."

Republicans, echoing President Trump, say that such moves will weaken election security and open the door to fraud.

A spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee said that attempts to "forcibly implement" policies that make it easier to vote absentee will "destroy public confidence in the integrity of our elections."

"Republicans want to make sure every valid vote is counted and our elections are free, fair, and transparent," RNC National press secretary Mandi Merritt said in a statement. "Democrats are pushing for a rushed transition to a nationwide vote by mail system that would result in more rejected ballots and an open door for fraud. States simply do not have the procedures in place to move to predominantly vote-by-mail elections or oversee the secure mass mailing of ballots to all registered voters by November."

- - -

While some jurisdictions are scrambling to expand vote-by-mail for the first time this year, other communities - where large numbers of voters have already been using absentee ballots - have refined their protocols to keep ballot rejection rates low.

In Maricopa County, Ariz., which encompasses Phoenix and is the fourth-most populous county in the nation with 2.4 million registered voters, the rate of ballot rejection in the 2018 elections about 0.03%, or 307 out of roughly 1.2 million mailed ballots that were returned to the county, county officials said.

Rey Valenzuela, Maricopa County's director of elections services and early voting, said the county has improved its signature matching process since it began the use of no-excuse mail ballot in 1996. The use of mail-in ballots has expanded dramatically since, with 1.85 million of 2.4 million eligible voters in the county now on the permanent early voting list to receive their ballots by mail.

The county has multiple layers of verification and trains employees regularly on signature matching, including working with a forensics lab to learn the 23 points of a signature, including their slants and slopes. There are two layers of reviews by a lower-level employee and a managerial-level employee, and the county conducts a random audit on ballots to make sure the signatures match those on file. Updated technology allows officials to digitize signatures and keep them on file for the voter.

Election officials also regularly update their database to account for the evolution of voters' signatures. Voters are contacted by mail, email and phone if there is a problem with the match, and they can participate in a text-message service that updates them on the status of their ballot.

"We have had quite a few years of being able to perfect this process, how to indicate lessons learned, where we have been able to write best practices for other states," Valenzuela said.

But signature-matching rules have been a roadblock in other states where voting by mail is less common.

In Georgia, election officials in 2018 threw out 8,157 absentee ballots, or about 3% of the absentee ballots returned by mail for the election that November.

According to an analysis by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, ballots cast by minority voters were twice as likely to be rejected.

The state's "exact match" law meant elections officials could require extra verification for the slightest inconsistencies, like a missing hyphen or an initial instead of a voter's full middle name. In some cases, voters' ballots have been canceled for administrative errors, such as providing two digits of a birth year rather than all four.

Voters then needed to verify their identity by providing additional information or resubmitting their ballots. But some voters were not notified in time to verify their identity before the required deadline, according to local news reports.

Earlier this year, the Georgia Democratic Party and the state settled a lawsuit stemming from the rejected ballots in the 2018 election. State election officials agreed to notify voters within three business days by email, phone and mail if their ballots were rejected, to give them ample time to provide additional information.

Offering a "cure" process for ballots that require more verification could lead to delays in tabulating the results of close races, as elections officials contact the voters to provide additional identifying information.

As they contend with the wave of mail ballots this year, election administrators said they find themselves in a tough spot - trying to simultaneously make voting more accessible and secure.

"It's a balancing act," said Aaron Ockerman, executive director of the Ohio Association of Election Officials. "We're not trying to make the forms intentionally difficult. It's a Catch-22."

Ockerman said confusing ballot instructions can lead voters to provide incorrect or incomplete information, such as listing their polling location address rather than their home address on mail-ballot application forms.

The Ohio secretary of state's office is now working with ballot design specialists to make its materials easier for voters to understand and fill out, he said.

The federal coronavirus relief bill passed in March set aside $400 million to help election administration, and local officials can use some of that money toward voter education efforts.

Kim Smith, deputy elections director for Defiance County, Ohio, said her office plans to use social media and its relationships with local news outlets to inform voters about the mail voting process - and how to avoid errors.

"We have a situation here where there is a unique stub on every ballot - if the voter tears that off, then we cannot count that ballot," she said. "So one of the things we're going to be doing is making it explicit on our ballots that they should not do that."

- - -

The Washington Post's Amy Gardner and Jada Yuan contributed to this report.
Despite an overall year-on-year decline, Vietnams economic performance in the first nine months of 2020 shows that the country is well poised for a gradual recovery.

FDI growth rates were sustained by continued interest in Vietnams industrial zones and the approval of major projects.

Exports suffered, but some Vietnamese products are still in high demand.

Vietnam has garnered international praise for its swift and effective response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Although the country is not immune to the global economic downturn, its prospects for recovery remain positive and are the brightest among Asian countries. This view was also shared by the financial service firm UBS in a research note.

Vietnams economy shows positive signs

Data released by the General Statistics Office (GSO) estimated a 1.81 percent growth to Vietnams GDP in the first half of 2020. Despite being modest, these rates are encouraging considering that Vietnam is one of few countries that achieved positive growth during the pandemic. With business activities resuming normal operations, Vietnams economy is set to regain its momentum going into the second half of the year.

The government has targeted a 2 to 2.5 percent economic growth for 2020 with an aim of 6.5 percent in 2021.

The latest figures from the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) give an overview of Vietnams performance in the first nine months of 2020.

Vietnams continued FDI growth despite pandemic

The pandemic certainly had a dampening effect on Vietnams previously record-breaking FDI growth rates. As of September 2020, foreign investment projects disbursed US$13.76 billion, which is equivalent to 96.8 percent over the same period last year.

As of September 2020, the whole country attracted US$21.20 billion or 81.1 percent compared to the same period last year of total newly registered capital, adjusted capital, and capital contribution or share purchase from foreign investors.

As with last year, Asian countries represent the lions share of FDI into Vietnam.

In the first nine months of the year, Singapore, South Korea, China, Japan, and Thailand were the top five investors by revenue. In terms of the number of projects, South Korea, China, Japan, and Singapore were the leading contributors.

Chinas growing investment

Of particular note is Chinas ongoing acceleration of its investment in Vietnam, which allowed it to rise from being the fourth largest investor last year to now the third by total capital and second by the number of projects. Despite the poor reputation of Chinese companies and tense Sino-Vietnamese relations, this trend may reflect Vietnams more pragmatic attitude towards attracting much needed private capital and foreign expertise.

The approval of major projects in early 2020, which were submitted and negotiated prior to the pandemic, heavily contributed to the increase in new investment and capital adjustment.

Industrial zones (IZs) across the country attracted US$6 billion in FDI in the first half of the year, with Bac Lieu, Ho Chi Minh City, and Ba Ria  Vung Tau leading in terms of share of capital commitment.

Bac Lieu leads the way

Bac Lieu province is the site of new a liquified natural gas-fired power plant, a project by Singapores Delta Offshore Energy Pte Ltd, worth approximately US$4 billion. This explains why the province accounts for 18.8 percent of total investment with only one project. Therefore, although the number of new projects decreased, the larger average size per project kept FDI growth afloat.

The sectors that received the most foreign investment in the first half of 2020 are manufacturing and processing, electricity, gas steam, air production and distribution, retail and wholesale, and real estate. With the exception of a surge in energy investment attributed to the Bac Lieu project, the ranking of the top sectors has largely remained unchanged compared to last year.

In Vietnams southern region, the countrys most important center of economic activity, industrial land prices surged in the second quarter of 2020. The average leasing cost reached US$106 per square meter; a 9.7 percent increase compared to last year. Thus, many companies and investors still have a strong interest in Vietnams industrial real estate market despite the pandemic-induced slowdown.

Digital technology and high-tech products contribute to increased revenue

Within the manufacturing industry, digital technology and high-tech products continue to be a major source of revenue for Vietnam even in the context of a global pandemic. In the first six months of 2020, phones, electronics, and computers were the top commodities in terms of export value and share.

Some of the major project investments in this period include Chinas USI project to manufacture wearable electronic circuit boards in Hai Phong, Japans Furukawa Automotive Systems project to produce electric wires for cars in Vinh Long, and Taiwans Victory project to manufacture and assemble computers and other related parts.

Although these achievements are consistent with the governments desired shift towards high-tech manufacturing, low-tech products such as garment and footwear are still among Vietnams top five exports.

The development of Industry 4.0 to support innovation has been identified as both a priority and a challenge. Recently, several major firms established their production and research and development facilities in Vietnam. At a domestic level, Ho Chi Minh City is planning to develop an AI strategy which includes establishing three innovation centers across the country.

After successfully producing 5G equipment, Vietnam announced that it will commercialize the technology in late 2020. Though ambitious, if well-executed these plans will certainly help the country enhance its competitive advantage.

Exports affected, but Vietnamese products still in demand

In the first half of 2020, exports dropped by 6.7 percent over the same period last year, totaling US$79.8 billion. A US$14.2 billion trade surplus in the FDI sector offset a 10.2 billion trade deficit in the domestic sector, which contributed to an overall positive trade balance of US$4 billion.

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are particularly acute for Vietnams export-reliant economy. Aside from computers and machinery, most of Vietnams top products registered lower exports in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period last year. However, figures indicate that these losses were relatively mild and that Vietnamese goods are still in demand.

Spurring economic activity priority for government

Conscious of the urgent need to get the economy back on track, the government has implemented a number of measures to encourage exports, investments, and consumption.

Vietnam can already point to several recent successes, such as the recent implementation of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) and the expected signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in November 2020

A new government decree announced that companies with revenues lower than US$ 8.8 million (VND 200 billion) will benefit from a 30 percent reduction in corporate income taxes in 2020.

The manufacturing sector returned to growth in September with Vietnams Manufacturing Purchasing Index (PMI) rising to 52.2 from 45.7 in August. A score of more than 50 indicates an expansion in manufacturing.

However, a focus on investment is not enough. According to the GSO, the urban unemployment rate in the second quarter of 2020 was 4.46 percent, the highest in 10 years. The pandemic also lowered the salaries and work hours of millions of people, putting them at risk of unemployment. Rising public debt and slow disbursement of support packages are also ongoing concerns.

Despite facing many challenges and uncertainties, Vietnams performance in the first nine of 2020 demonstrates that it has managed to weather the economic storm. Although the current crisis is far from over, Vietnam will continue to reap the benefits of its early containment strategy as it continues to lead the way into post-COVID recovery.

As noted by a HSBC report, Vietnams economy continues to grow this year will stand out as the fastest growing economy in the region in 2021.

Note: This article was first published in July 2020, and has been updated to include the latest developments.
What can we expect from the visit to Kuwait by the Public Security's director general, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, in search of help for Lebanon, which is going through the worst eco-nomic and political crisis of its modern history? Upon his return Monday, Ibrahim informed President Michel Aoun of the details of his meetings, undertaken at the latter's request. How-ever, according to concordant sources, Abbas visit is not to change the donors position. Both Arabs and Westerners are waiting for the Lebanese government to implement economic and political reforms required to unblock aid promised to the country.

It is this message that Kuwaiti officials reportedly conveyed to Ibrahim who met with them in his capacity as emissary of the head of state. According to OLJ informant Mounir Rabih, the Kuwaitis have expressed readiness to help Lebanon in order to avoid famine and total collapse. But so far, no official decision has been made to provide financial assistance to Lebanon. This option remains linked to reforms that the cabinet should implement as soon as possible and to efforts confirming Lebanon's neutrality and distancing it from the region's conflicts. For more than two weeks now, Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Bechara el-Rahi has been tirelessly calling for neutrality to overcome the countrys national crisis.

However, an informed source said that Kuwait may allow its citizens to travel to Lebanon start-ing end of July.

According to Rabih, Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani is also ex-pected in Beirut, initially on July 20, to meet with Aoun, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Hassan Diab. His meetings in Beirut should also follow a visit by Ibrahim to Do-ha. Like the Kuwaitis, the Qataris do not seem willing to provide financial assistance to Lebanon until a formal reform process is put on track. They, however, may support some schools and help families in need.

The Qatari minister's visit may coincide with that of his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian, who is due in Beirut next week. Speaking at the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee on July 8, Le Drian announced that he would be visiting Beirut and addressed the Lebanese authorities by saying: "Help us help you, For God's sake! An informed source told L'Orient-Le Jour that the French official is expected to urge Lebanese top officials to carry out economic reforms, espe-cially within the electricity sector, and political reforms, by opting for Lebanon's neutrality with regard to the conflicts in the region.

Hitti's "Successful Visit" to Italy

Italian officials have also emphasized the need that Lebanon responds favorably to the interna-tional community's demands. Thats what Lebanese Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti heard from the officials he met during a visit to Rome last week.

A diplomatic source said the economic recovery plan drawn up by the Diab cabinet impressed the Italian officials. But they are waiting for action, stressing, again, that no one can help Leba-non if it doesnt make efforts for its recovery. The Lebanese authorities, they said, should fulfill their responsibilities in this regard.

Lebanese Ambassador to Rome Mira Daher said Hitti's visit to Italy was "very successful." In an interview with L'OLJ, she explained that Rome was ready to help Lebanon in all respects, includ-ing economic recovery and military assistance. "Discussions on this are underway between the defense ministries in Lebanon and Italy," Daher said.

For her part, US Ambassador Dorothea Shea continued her contacts and meetings. She met Monday with former President Michel Suleiman. Their talks reportedly focused on Lebanon's neutrality and economic recovery.





(This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour on the 14th of July)


Click here to read the full article.

Kendra Scott is dipping her toes into the apparel business. The Austin, Tex.-based jewelry designer and philanthropist will offer a limited-edition capsule that includes womens and childrens T-shirts and masks, all emblazoned with Scotts motto Stronger together.

The womens and childrens T-shirts retail for $28 and $22, respectively, while the masks come in a set of two for $22. They are all available on the Kendra Scott web site starting Friday.

Twenty percent of the proceeds from each T-shirt purchase will go directly to local hospitals COVID-19 relief efforts, and for the purchase of each mask, one mask will be donated to a frontline worker.

I have great faith that when we work together and treat each other with kindness, we can emerge from this challenge even stronger than before, Scott said. Over the last few difficult months, Ive come to believe this even more. This new apparel collection continues our support for local hospitals COVID-19 relief funds, and I hope it will also act as a light of encouragement when our customers need it most. That is always my goal, to spread joy with the products we create.

Asked if this is a harbinger of more apparel to come, she said, Yes, we do have plans to expand this collection in the future, continuing our focus on a positive, uplifting message. More to come soon.

These new T-shirt and mask styles are a continuation of Scotts commitment to the community. Over the past several months, Scott has donated more than 4,500 face masks to frontline workers and has raised funds to provide more than 3.5 million meals for Feeding America through sales of the Everlyne bracelet. She has also donated $475,000 to local hospitals from curbside shopping. The company has pivoted to virtual Kendra Gives Back events, booking more than 1,400 giveback events nationwide.

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PLYMOUTH, Massachusetts, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Plymouth Rock Technologies Inc. (CSE: PRT) (OTC: PLRTF) (Frankfurt: 4XA WKN# A2N8RH) ("Plymouth Rock", "PRT", or the "Company") a leader in the development of cutting-edge threat detection technologies, is pleased to announce a strategic alliance with Hummingbird Drones ("Hummingbird") fire AI. (Artificial Intelligence) for wildfire analysis from PRT's fleet of drones.

Fire AI. is a division of Hummingbird Drones, an infrared service provider in Canada, and has been used as their in-house hotspot detection platform for wildfires for the past three years.

"Live actionable data is precisely what the PRT unmanned aviation platforms were designed to deliver," stated Carl Cagliarini, Chief Strategy Officer of PRT. "This partnership is a further step in our mission centric focus. To date, commercially adapted Drones have used Wi-Fi frequencies with a limited range, usually under 2-3 miles.The X1 has both short-range capabilities, along with an optional military-grade system that enables high bandwidth data feeds up to 60 miles. These capabilities combined with best in class Artificial Intelligence applications such as fire AI. will deliver essential data when moments matter".

In the pursuit of providing the highest quality of intelligence, Hummingbird developed a wildfire-focused, data analytics software known as fire AI. Bringing fire AI. to the public provides the global community with the highest quality of wildfire data analytics. Maximizing the potential of infrared data sets, fire AI. specializes in high resolution hotspot maps, providing precise locational data for fire crews in pursuit of heat. These aerial maps provide fire managers with higher levels of confidence and fire crews with more effective, accurate data to extinguish and efficiently reallocate resources.

"We believe that the analytic capability of fire AI. combined with the overall capabilities of the Plymouth Rock UAS platform will prove itself as a formidable tool", stated Robert Atwood CEO and Founder at Hummingbird Drones Inc.

Due to the vast data analysis combined with data download constraints of almost all UAS platforms, fire AI. is currently a post-processing service, where the ground is scanned and footage data is removed from the drone and uploaded to the fire AI. portal, which after process delivers fast data analytics results, to the fire management authorities. This service has been an invaluable tool in helping incident commanders and fire crews tackle blazes more effectively. The incorporation of the fire AI. into the X1 and XV platform will involve using this tried and tested method, whilst also utilizing PRT's high speed VPN data capabilities that will enable a connection directly to fire AI. servers to get analytics to the fire fighters as close to real time as possible.

The fire AI. capability will be a standard configuration on all firefighting X1 and XV platforms for immediate benefit. This will include PRT assets deployed within the USA and Australia.

About Hummingbird Drones Inc.

Hummingbird Drones was founded in 2014 by then students and Initial Attack wildfire fighters Robert Atwood and Richard Sullivan. Seeing the untapped potential of drones to affect the way wildfire suppression efforts were conducted, they sought to make it a reality.

In 2015, after a year of product development and beta testing, Hummingbird was engaged for a trial by the BC Wildfire Service. Since then, Hummingbird has worked across western Canada, providing data and intelligence to support a variety of fire-line operations.

About Plymouth Rock Technologies Inc.

We are on a mission to bring engineering-driven answers to the most critical problems that threaten our safety. We work with government, law enforcement and military to innovate solutions for national security, defense and space systems.

The Company is developing the next generation of threat detection solutions, The PRT X1 is a purpose built multirotor Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). The unit contains an integrated sensor package that combines Thermal detection with 4K HD real-time air-to-ground streaming. Our advanced threat detection methods fuse artificial intelligence with augmented reality interfaces to eliminate human operating error. Plymouth Rock products, both air-borne and land-based, will scan for threat items at greater "stand-off" distances than current existing technologies. Our unique radar imaging and signal processing technology creates new opportunities for remotely operated, none intrusive screening of crowds in real time.

Plymouth Rock's other core technologies include: (1) A Millimeter Remote Imaging from Air-borne Drone ("MIRIAD"); (2) A compact microwave radar system for scanning shoe's ("Shoe-Scanner").

www.plyrotech.com

Forward Looking Statements

Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding future financial position, business strategy, use of proceeds, corporate vision, proposed acquisitions, partnerships, joint-ventures and strategic alliances and co-operations, budgets, cost and plans and objectives of or involving the Company. Such forward looking information reflects management's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to management. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "predicts", "intends", "targets", "aims", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. A number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause the actual results or performance to materially differ from any future results or performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. These forward  looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions and dependence upon regulatory approvals. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by securities laws.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Dana Wheeler

President and CEO

+1-603-300-7933

[email protected]

Investor Information:

Tasso Baras

+1-778-477-6990

SOURCE Plymouth Rock Technologies Inc.
A law intended to stop endemic bullying in Korean offices has proved largely ineffectual one year on. Critics say the criteria remain ambiguous and enforcement is toothless.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Korea Society of Labor Law held a panel discussion on Wednesday to mark the law's first anniversary. Prof. Lee Sang-hee at Korea Polytechnic University said that in a survey of 1,000 office workers, 72 percent said there has been no visible change in office bullying over the past year, while only 20 percent said incidents declined and eight percent said they increased.

The ministry received 4,066 complaints of office bullying over the past year, but only 40 or one percent were referred to prosecutors. Forty-two percent were retracted and 30 percent were dismissed because they occurred in firms employing fewer than five workers, which are not subject to the law, or before the law took effect.
Seoul, July 16 : Video-sharing app TikTok has been fined 186 million Won or roughly $1,55,000 for mishandling children's data in South Korea, amid growing concerns about users' privacy.

The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) which acts as the regulator and overwatches the country's telecommunications and data related sectors began the investigation into this matter back in October 2019 and found that TikTok collected that data of children under the age of 14 without consent from their legal guardians, reports Gizmochina.

The fine is equivalent to 3 per cent of the company's annual sales in South Korea, an amount designated for such violations under local privacy laws.

TikTok currently uses four cloud companies to store its data -- Alibaba Cloud, Fastly, Edgecast, and Firebase.

South Korean user data is stored on servers run by Alibaba Cloud, which are based in the US and Singapore.

Last month, India banned 59 Chinese apps including TikTok, citing national security concerns, similar to the US Army back in January.

Then, earlier this month, TikTok announced that it was exiting the Hong Kong market after the enforcement of new security laws by China.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
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Egypt is interested in deepening cooperation with Ukraine in the fields of tourism, culture and investment.

The Foreign Ministrys press service reported this following a meeting of Ukraine's Deputy Foreign Minister Vasyl Bodnar with an Egyptian delegation headed by Minister of Tourism and Antiquities of the Arab Republic of Egypt Khaled al-Anani.

The parties discussed the issues of a gradual restoration of tourism activities and ensuring safe conditions for Ukrainian tourists staying in Egypt in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic, as well as protecting the rights and interests of Ukrainian citizens employed in tourism in Egypt. In the context of expanding the bilateral legal framework, the parties agreed to work on projects based on two memorandums in the field of tourism and cultural and historical heritage, the statement says.

The delegations also discussed the possibility of organizing Ukrainian cultural events and expanding the use of Ukrainian language in the tourist regions of Egypt.

Special attention was paid to the prospect of further development of bilateral cooperation in the fields of trade and investment. The deputy minister called on the Egyptian side to actively participate in investment activities and privatization projects in Ukraine.

Bodnar expressed gratitude to the Egyptian side for all-round assistance in the prompt organization of evacuation of more than 32,000 Ukrainian tourists from Egypt in March of this year due to the threat of spreading coronavirus.

The meeting was also attended by officials of a number of state institutions of Ukraine and representatives of the tourism industry of Ukraine.

ish
Nearly half a century ago, a bloodless palace coup in Afghanistan ended more than two centuries of Durrani monarchy in Afghanistan.

But the power grab of the July 17, 1973, coup that saw Sardar Muhammad Daud Khan appoint himself president and declared Afghanistan a republic by deposing his cousin, King Zahir Shah, was the trigger for subsequent turmoil that still engulfs the mountainous country of 35 million.

Today, 47 years after the political storm stirred by the coup forced Afghanistan to witness instability and a seemingly endless war, Afghans are still divided about Daud Khans coup. Was it a harbinger of stability, development, and modernity, or did it unleash the subsequent rebellions and revolutions that saw communists and Islamists impose authoritarianism and attracted superpowers and regional states to shape and influence their impoverished country?

As the current Afghan government is fighting to preserve the democratic Islamic Republic and join vital peace talks with the hard-line Taliban, who are fighting to restore their Islamic Emirate, the legacy of the 1973 coup still looms large over Afghanistan.

Supporters see Daud Khan as a staunch Afghan nationalist driven by a desire to create a modern Afghan state that could ultimately transform into a self-sustaining democratic republic. But opponents remember him as an authoritarian figure who disrupted Afghanistans democratic journey by overthrowing the constitutional monarchy.

Historian Habibullah Rafi argues that Daud Khans main motivation in declaring Afghanistan as a republic was to devolve power to the countrys diverse population. He says the lack of protest or popular opposition to the coup is evidence of popular support.

A republican [political] system is a democratic system in which people are empowered. He [Daud Khan] wished for Afghanistan to gradually move toward a stage where people could elect their president and affairs of the state could move in accordance with the will of the people, he told Radio Free Afghanistan.

Rafi says the republican political system Daud Khan pioneered was violently disrupted. Like elsewhere in the world, it would have evolved and delivered stability in Afghanistan, he said.

But the coup ended a decade of democracy in Afghanistan. Under the 1964 constitution, King Zahir Shah had turned Afghanistan into a constitutional monarchy. Elections in 1965 and 1969 elected the parliament, and successive governments worked under prime ministers who were not members of the ruling Durrani dynasty. While the pace of reform was slow, Afghan democracy was remarkable in a region dominated by authoritarian regimes.

This has prompted critics such as Ghulam Nabi Mohammadi, a historian, to view Daud Khans coup as a power grab aimed at limiting freedoms for Afghans.

Daud Khan was opposed to democracy, social justice, political parties, and a free press, he told Radio Free Afghanistan while pointing to his authoritarian tendencies as royal prime minister from 1953 to 1963.

When he was in power as the prime minister, he limited freedoms by doing away with political parties and censoring the media, he said. Even his coup was motivated by [repeating] these steps.

While military officers loyal to one faction of the Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan, the countrys pro-Soviet communist party, helped Daud Khan launch the coup, officers loyal to another faction ended it in a gory episode. After a lengthy gunbattle, young communist army officers killed the Afghan president and his entire extended family on April 27, 1978.

More than a decade of communist dictatorship was followed by an anarchic mujahedin Islamic republic in the early 1990s. A ragtag student militia called the Taliban exploited the chaos to declare a harsh Islamic Emirate, but their regime crumbled following a U.S.-led military attack following the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the United States.

Nearly 19 year later, the Taliban are poised to initiate critical peace talks with the Afghan government after signing an initial peace agreement with Washington, which paves the way for the withdrawal of foreign forces.

For sustainable peace in the country, the two Afghan sides need to agree on whether they can co-exist under the umbrella of the current political system or the if the Taliban will continue to militarily push to recreate their Islamic Emirate.

Abubakar Siddique wrote this story based on Radio Free Afghanistan correspondent Omid Zahirmals reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan.
By Trend





As many as 2,500 people have been infected with the coronavirus (COVID-19) in the past 24 hours in Iran, said Sima Sadat Lari, spokesperson for Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Trend reports citing the ministry.

According to Sadat Lari, 198 more people have died from the coronavirus over the past day.

Sadat Lari added that the condition of 3,471 people is critical.

The official said that of Iran's 31 provinces, 25 are considered red and orange zones.

So far, more than 2.07 million 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 267,000 people have been infected 13,608 people have already died. Meanwhile, over 230,600 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.
The United States on Wednesday accused a Russian mercenary group of laying landmines in and around Tripoli and imposed sanctions over its alleged cooperation with Sudan's ousted dictator.

The Pentagon's Africa Command said it had "verified photographic evidence" that the Wagner Group, a private security operation allegedly sponsored by the Russian government, planted mines "indiscriminately" around Tripoli and toward Sirte east of the capital since mid-June.

"The Russian state-sponsored Wagner Group is demonstrating a total disregard for the safety and security of Libyans," Africom operations director Major General Bradford Gering said in a statement.

"The Wagner Group's irresponsible tactics are prolonging conflict and are responsible for the needless suffering and the deaths of innocent civilians. Russia has the power to stop them, just not the will."

The US has repeatedly accused Russia of introducing military weaponry, including at least 14 MIG-29 fighter jets with their Russian markings covered up, into the Libyan conflict, contravening the UN arms embargo.

Russia, mainly through the Wagner group, and the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, have backed the strongman of eastern Libya Khalifa Haftar, in his fight to seize power from the UN-recognized Government of National Accord in Tripoli.

Turkey's military support for the GNA has recently tipped the balance and allowed its forces in June to repel Haftar's 14-month advance on Tripoli and launch a counteroffensive.

Links seen to US election, Sudan

The United States says Russia helped Sudan's former military regime suppress pro-democracy protests, like seen here in 2019 outside the army headquarters. By Ashraf SHAZLY (AFP/File)

The United States says the Wagner Group functions through support of Yevgeniy Prigozhin, a wealthy financier close to President Vladimir Putin.

The United States has previously accused Prigozhin of funding the Internet Research Agency, a mysterious "troll farm" in St. Petersburg accused of running online manipulation to back then-candidate Donald Trump in the 2016 election.

While Prigozhin is already under US sanctions, the Treasury Department on Wednesday took action against entities in Sudan, Hong Kong and Thailand that it said had allowed the financier to maintain operations.

In Sudan, Prigozhin is accused of running M Invest, which the Treasury Department said was a front for the Wagner Group and was awarded concessions in gold mining by longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir.

It charged that M Invest developed plans for Bashir to suppress protests and carried out social media manipulation to discredit youth-led demonstrators, who started taking to the streets in December 2018 in frustration over economic conditions.

The effort ultimately failed with Bashir toppled in April 2019 after three decades in power and the military ultimately ceding to a transitional authority that involves civilians.

"Yevgeniy Prigozhin and his network are exploiting Sudan's natural resources for personal gain and spreading malign influence around the globe," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

"The United States remains committed to holding him and other bad actors accountable so Sudan and other countries can operate freely," he said.

The United States will freeze any US-based assets of M Invest and other entities and make financial transactions with them a crime.

The Treasury Department said it was also targeting companies in Hong Kong and Thailand that carried out transactions worth more than $7.5 million to benefit Prigozhin.

The funds paid for his private aircraft and activities in Sudan, the Treasury Department said.
The man who may be Ghislaine Maxwell's father-in-law has no idea if his son is indeed married to Jeffrey Epstein's accused madam, DailyMail.com has learned.

Scott Borgerson's father Chris said he had been unaware of any marriage and expressed both surprise and disbelief at the news when he was approached by DailyMail.com at his home in Missouri on Wednesday.

Prosecutors revealed on Tuesday that Maxwell was married and had toured her Bradford, New Hampshire hideaway with a man named 'Scott'.

DailyMail.com previously revealed Maxwell and Borgerson were a couple, and until last December, she had been living at his Manchester-by-the-Sea property.

Chris Borgerson, a former marine and Deputy Sheriff of Jefferson County, Missouri, described his son as 'very private,' and struggled to accept that the tech CEO would enter into a marriage without informing him.

The man who may be Ghislaine Maxwell's father-in-law has no idea if his son Scott Borgerson is indeed married to the disgraced ex-Jeffrey Epstein cohort, DailyMail.com has learned. Prosecutors revealed on Tuesday that Maxwell was married and had toured her Bradford, New Hampshire hideaway with a man named 'Scott'. DailyMail.com previously revealed Maxwell and Borgerson were a couple, and until last December, she had been living at his Manchester-by-the-Sea property

Borgerson's father Chris (pictured) said he had been unaware of any marriage and expressed both surprise and disbelief at the news when he was approached by DailyMail.com at his home in Missouri on Wednesday

Chris Borgerson answered the door to his ranch-style home holding a small pistol and refused to comment on his son's relationship with Maxwell.

However, he did admit the first he had heard about any possible marriage was via a telephone call he received that morning.

Borgerson and his father have been largely estranged since his parents' divorce more than a decade ago and there is little communication between the two men.

Chris refused to speak on the record, saying he was 'afraid to say anything or make any comment.'

He added: 'I don't know anything and if I did I wouldn't tell you.'

The bombshell marriage revelation came when US Prosecutor Alison Moe detailed Maxwell's alleged lack of transparency when it came to her court filings, during her detention hearing on Tuesday.

She said Maxwell 'makes no mention whatsoever about the financial circumstances or assets of her spouse whose identity she declined to provide to Pretrial Services.'

Moe did not say who she believed Maxwell's spouse was or give any indication as to how long they had been married.

A source told ABC News disclosure of the marriage was intended to show the judge Maxwell has not been that forthcoming about her circumstances and finances.

Chris Borgerson, a former marine and Deputy Sheriff of Jefferson County, Missouri, described his son as 'very private,' and struggled to accept the tech CEO would enter into a marriage without informing him

Borgerson is believed to have met Maxwell six years ago through speaking engagements connected to ocean preservation. They both were pictured speaking at the Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavik in 2014

The only other mention made of Maxwell being married is when Moe revealed the socialite had toured her $1 million hideaway in Bradford, New Hampshire with an unknown man in November 2019.

Moe said a real estate agent described the pair as a couple, giving their names as Scott and Janet or Jen Marshall. There is a discrepancy in Maxwell's alias, as Moe referred to the alias as both Jen and Janet during the hearing.

Moe said: 'The real estate agent told the FBI agent the buyers for the house introduced themselves as Scott and Janet Marshall. Both had British accents.

'Scott Marshall told her he was retired from the British military and was currently working on a book. Janet Marshall described herself as a journalist.'

It is unclear if the man who toured the New Hampshire home with Maxwell was Borgerson, whose shipping technology firm, Cargometrics, was valued at more than $100 million in 2016, according to the Financial Times.

Last summer, DailyMail.com tracked down Maxwell in Manchester-by-the-Sea, living at a $2 million home owned by Borgerson.

The bombshell marriage revelation came when US Prosecutor Alison Moe detailed Maxwell's alleged lack of transparency when it came to her court filings during her detention hearing on Tuesday. She said Maxwell 'makes no mention whatsoever about the financial circumstances or assets of her spouse whose identity she declined to provide to Pretrial Services'

Prosecutor Alison Moe said when Maxwell bought her $1 million Bradford, New Hampshire home (pictured), she toured the home back in November of 2019 with a man named 'Scott'

And today DailyMail.com revealed their neighbors were so disgusted that an accused sex trafficker was living in their well-to-do town, they tried to 'ostracize' the couple to compel them to leave town.

Borgerson is believed to have met Maxwell six years ago through speaking engagements connected to ocean preservation.

They both were pictured speaking at the Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavik in 2014.

Records also revealed Maxwell's $1 million New Hampshire home was purchased by a company that reportedly has ties to Borgerson.

The buyer is listed as Granite Reality LLC - a mysterious corporation that was set up just weeks prior the purchase.

The Sun reports that Granite Reality LLC is managed by Boston lawyer, Jeffrey W. Roberts, who is also the registered agent of a second company, Hopely Yealton.

Curiously, the publication reports that the manager of Hopely Yealton is Borgerson.
(Natural News) Rapid antibody tests have been hailed as an effective way to check for Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) infection for anyone who needs immediate results. Experts in the U.K., however, have warned that antibody tests are not reliable enough while questioning the use of wide-scale testing to influence public behavior.

According to a review of studies conducted by Cochrane, a U.K.-based network that assesses health research to help direct policy, roughly one in 10 antibody tests will miss cases of COVID-19. This could lead to people making harmful decisions delaying treatment or even traveling.

There is no decision [patients] should be making based on the results of a test, stated the reviews lead author Jon Deeks, a professor of biostatistics at Birmingham University in England. We have to ask: Is this doing more harm than good?

Review of studies raises doubts on antibody tests accuracy

Cochranes review took a look at 54 studies, the majority of which took place in China. In addition, it also looked at over 11,000 patient records and focused on 25 commercially available tests. Antibody test kits from Roche and Abbott Laboratories  those acquired by the British government  were not included in the review.

In reviewing the studies, the researchers outlined several concerns about their quality. This included the small size of some of the studies, as well as the inclusion of multiple samples from the same patients.

Methodological limitations raise questions about how trustworthy these figures are, said Deeks.

In one of the studies reviewed  a British one at that  the biomarker manufacturers did not approve the identification of the tests that had been evaluated. According to Deeks, this raised moral issues.

The review did find that that the tests, which rely on either a finger prick or blood being drawn from a vein, were much better at detecting the coronavirus in people at least two weeks after the onset of symptoms.

Tests conducted up to seven days after symptoms manifested picked up only 30 percent of coronavirus cases, the study found. From eight to 14 days after the onset, the tests found 70 percent; 15 to 35 days afterward, the tests detected more than 90 percent.

The clearest result we have is that: Timing is critical, said Deeks.

The researchers, however, said that they have no data on how well the tests work more than five weeks after symptoms manifest. In addition, they also state that the tests accuracy may be much lower outside a healthcare setting  most of the studies evaluated the accuracy in hospitalized patients. As such, it is unclear whether they can detect antibody levels associated with milder and asymptomatic cases.

Based on their findings, the researchers said that the U.K. governments antibody program should only be carried out for population-wide research purposes as scientists can adjust for accuracy limitations when looking at large datasets. The antibody tests should not, however, be used to inform individual decision-making.

Eleanor Riley, professor of immunology and infectious disease at Edinburgh University, who was not involved in the review, said that the reviews findings make it very clear that most, if not all, commercially available tests are not sufficiently accurate to warrant their use outside of the healthcare setting.

Immunity passports in doubt

The Cochrane review deals a serious blow to efforts to create immunity passports based on antibody testing, allowing people to go about their lives without fear of catching the COVID-19. (Related: The Bill Gates global nightmare is coming true with COVI-PASS Immunity Passports.)

Back in March, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson claimed that the tests would be a total game-changer and that they would be as simple as a pregnancy test  neither of which has been the case.

While the test kits used by the British government  supplied by Roche and Abbott Laboratories  were not part of the review, issues have been raised about them as well.

In May, Deeks called into question the effectivity of these test kits. He pointed out how, in a review of Roches own evidence, their test kit failed to pick up 15 known coronavirus antibody-positive samples out of 93. The Abbott test, on the other hand, was more sensitive, picking up 90 out of 96 positive samples.

Despite all the concerns raised, however, U.K. officials remain adamant about antibody testing, with the Department of Health and Social Care stating that antibody testing will improve our understanding of how coronavirus is spreading across the country, which will be vital for future decisions about controlling the virus.

Keep up with the latest at Pandemic.news.

Sources include:

FT.com

DailyMail.com
Bangladesh: 3 die in Noakhali fishing trawler capsize

July 16,2020 | Source: Dhaka Tribune

Bangladesh Coast Guard has recovered the bodies of three fishermen who died when a fishing trawler sank after colliding with a submerged sandbar in the Gangriar Char area of Noakhaliss Hatia upazila. The fishing trawler capsized near the mouth of the Meghna River and the Bay of Bengal on Tuesday night and the bodies were rescued on Wednesday afternoon. Hatia Coast Guard In-Charge Lt Bishwajit Barua confirmed the matter to Dhaka Tribune. 11 more fishermen were rescued alive from the area. All of them are from Subarnachar upazila.



The deceased are Shuklab Das, 25, from Purba Chorbata village in Subarnachar upazila, Sourabh Das, 23, from Noapara village in Char Amanulla union, and Pran Nath Das, 50, from Das Para village in Hatia upazila. The owner of the fishing trawler, Pankaj Thakur said: The boat went to fish in the Bay of Bengal on Sunday with 14 fishermen. While returning to Hatia on Tuesday night, the trawler hit a sandbar and sank. At the time of the sinking three fishermen were sleeping in the cabin who remained missing till Wednesday afternoon. 11 fishermen were rescued by another fishing trawler. Hatia police station Officer In-Charge (OC) Abul Khayer said: Bodies of the fishermen were handed over to their families.
By Express News Service

KOCHI: Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL) has signed a contract to construct autonomous electric vessels for ASKO Maritime AS, Norway.The pact was signed for the construction and supply of two autonomous electric ferries with an option to build two more identical vessels. ASKO Maritime AS, the subsidiary group of Norges Gruppen ASA, is one of the largest players in the Norwegian retail segment.

The project is an ambitious one in Norway and is partially funded by the Norwegian Government. It aims at emission-free transport of goods across the Oslo fjord. Once in operation, this vessel will create a new benchmark for the merchant shipping world in the field of autonomous vessels with zero carbon emission.

The 67m-long vessels will initially be delivered as a full-electric transport ferry, powered by 1846kWh capacity battery. After commissioning of autonomous equipment and field trials in Norway, it will operate as a fully-autonomous ferry that can transport 16 fully-loaded standard EU trailers in one go across the fjords. The vessels are designed by Naval Dynamics Norway using Kongsberg Maritime systems, with detailed engineering to be carried out by CSL.

CSL won this export order after a detailed evaluation of various global shipyards and based on its value proposition to the customer. CSL is already constructing 23 hybrid electric boats for the Kochi Water Metro. This project is expected to catapult CSL onto the league of premier shipbuilding yards in the world capable of handling high tech vessel construction.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) said on Thursday that second-quarter net profit surged 81 percent from a year earlier as strong demand for faster chips boosted sales despite coronavirus concerns.

The world's largest contract chipmaker reported April-June net profit of T$120.8 billion ($4.1 billion), ahead of the T$111.83 billion average of 19 analyst estimates compiled by Refinitiv.

Revenue for the quarter climbed 34.1 percent to $10.38 billion, within the company's earlier estimated range of $10.1 billion to $10.4 billion.
Commission chair Mary Ann Glendon looks at US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo before he speaks at the National Constitution Center about the Commission on Unalienable Rights in Philadelphia on July 16, 2020. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

US Must Champion Human Rights in Foreign Policy, State Department Panel Concludes

The United States should vigorously promote human rights around the world as part of its foreign policy, the State Department Commission on Unalienable Rights concluded in a draft report released on July 16.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tasked the commission in July 2019 to assess and advise the State Department on how Americas unique rights tradition can inform its foreign policy work. The panel found that the human rights advances of the past century are in crisis and recommended that the United States must leverage its foreign policy to advance the cause.

Our fellow Americans are not of one mind on many issues where there are conflicting interpretations of human rights claimsabortion, affirmative action, and capital punishment, to name a few, the commissions draft report states. But with hundreds of millions of men and women around the world suffering extreme forms of deprivation under harsh authoritarian regimes, we are of one mind on the urgent need for the United States to vigorously champion human rights in its foreign policy.

Pompeo, speaking at a July 16 event marking the release of the report, noted that while he didnt task the commission with making recommendations, they couldnt have arrived at a better time. He said that while the great and noble human rights project of the 20th century is in crisis, the institutions entrusted with the task of defending and promoting the cause of human rights are failing.

He suggested that many human rights advocacy groups have sacrificed principles for politics.

We see multilateral human rights bodies failing us, Pompeo said. The United Nations Human Rights Council does the bidding of dictators and averts its gaze from the worst human rights abuses of our times.

Pompeo placed particular emphasis on human rights violations by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and specifically called out Nicaragua, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Iran, Russia, Burma, and North Korea. He also laid blame on the incurious media, which rarely examines any of these failings. He singled out The New York Times, which declined to publish an op-ed on the commissions report.

In the weeks preceding the commissions report, the United States took significant steps to counter human rights abuses in China. The State Department issued a notice that warned U.S. companies about doing business with Xinjiang Province, where slave labor is rampant. The department also issued visa restrictions focused on CCP officials who have participated in Beijings ongoing crackdown on Hong Kongs citizens and undermining of its autonomy.

The commission concluded, and Pompeo concurred, that the United States must set an example in its domestic affairs in order to exercise leverage in foreign policy. The recent protests and riots sparked by the death of George Floyd prompted criticism from authoritarian regimes, who claim that the United States cant pressure others to uphold human rights while allegedly failing on the same front at home.

The commission and Pompeo bluntly reject the comparison.

Just as the Soviet Union did in 1948, China, Iran, and Russia have been quick to charge that our countrys domestic failures destroy its standing to defend universal human rights today, the report states.

There can be no moral equivalence, however, between rights-respecting countries that fall short in progress toward their ideals, and countries that regularly and massively trample on their citizens human rights.
Analysts at HSBC suggest selling AUD/JPY as risk appetite set to deteriorate, Sterling vulnerability liable to increase

HSBC is now more cautious over the global risk appetite and suggests selling Australian dollar against the Japanese yen. Sterling is also likely to be vulnerable with gains for Euro/Sterling.

Australian dollar vulnerable as risk appetite and momentum fades

Trends in global risk appetite and equities have been key drivers for currency markets over the past few weeks.

Last month, HSBC was broadly neutral on the outlook for global risk conditions, but it has adopted a clearer stance this month and sees scope for weakness in risk-on currencies.

We now also see some opportunity in looking for weakness in risk on currencies such as the AUD, NZD, and CAD against the safe havens such as the USD and JPY. Many of these have shown signs of exhaustion ahead of key technical levels, and the failure to extend their moves towards the strong end of their range points to scope for a reversal, absent a fresh catalyst for additional risk taking.

AUD/USD has again failed to hold a break above the 0.7000 level this week.

Australian dollar/Japanese yen is a clear expression of global risk trends.

HSBC recommends selling AUD-JPY at 75.04 with a target 70.10 and stop 77.10.

Pound Sterling vulnerability enhanced by Brexit stresses

If risk appetite dips, Sterling will also tend to be more vulnerable. Brexit tensions are also liable to be increasingly important for the UK currency during the next few months.

The first major concern expressed by HSBC is the fact that time is running out.

Businesses will need time to prepare for the new set-up, however that might look. On 13 July, the government launched an information campaign that seeks to boost preparedness ahead of the end of the transition period. But that requires some sense of what the destination is.

The UK economic recovery profile will also be a crucial factor with vulnerability liable to coincide with Brexit fears.

It would be very untimely for an economy which would have passed through the upswing created by the pent-up demand of the lockdown.

There will also be an increased focus on the labour market as the furlough scheme starts to wind down.

In the relative world of FX, evidence of which country is enjoying the greater upswing will be critical to FX performance. It is a risk that poses potential downside to GBP.
Beaumont voters likely will have to wait at least two more years before theyre given a greater say in how much more the city can take from them in taxes each year.

Starting in January, local governments were required to seek voter approval if the amount of taxes collected, not related to new construction, would increase by more than 3.5%.

That was a reduction from the 8% increase that previously would trigger an election.

But the Legislature also included a provision that a region that has been under a disaster declaration within the prior year can postpone that change for at least two years.

All of Texas is currently under state and federal disaster declarations due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Related: Tax hike could be in Beaumonts future

Earlier this week, unanimously and without discussion, the Beaumont City Council directed the city to take the disaster exemption.

City staff have repeatedly prepared the council for whats expected to be a tough budget year, in part because of the economic slowdown brought on by coronavirus.

City manager Kyle Hayes has warned about a potential need for the council to consider a tax increase. Additionally, the citys bond counsel currently is analyzing whether the city will need to raise water and sewer rates to cover the debt service on bonds the city is expected to issue next year.

Top hits: Get Beaumont Enterprise stories sent directly to your inbox

Late last month, however, Hayes noted that the city already had budgeted for sales tax revenue to be down. This year was expected to see spending closer to a normal year, as opposed to last years post-storm boom. As a result, at that time the city was still $415,000 ahead of what it budgeted.

Property appraisals also have increased. While there will be value challenges, the result of which the city doesnt get back for a few more weeks, appraised values have increased by 4.9%. That could bring in an additional $1.8 million to the citys general fund, Hayes said, as well as money to other funds.

With the disaster-related tax exemption, the city would be able to accept this increase in revenue without asking for voters approval.

Its unclear how much additional revenue the city actually will receive and if it will accept all of it.

Related: What to know about Beaumonts upcoming budget

Councilman Randy Feldschau noted that the exemption means the city can accept up to 8% more revenue, but that doesnt mean it has to be set as high as possible.

Hayes is expected to present the citys proposed budget to the council by Aug. 15.

Jefferson County commissioners have been in budget hearings much of this week. The majority of county department heads and elected officials budgeted conservatively this year, so most of the conversations have been regarding relatively small expenditures, comparatively.

Auditor Patrick Swain said previously that he hasnt heard anything from members of the court that would lead him to believe theyre considering a tax increase.

Kaitlin Bain is the Government Reporter for the Beaumont Enterprise. Contact her at Kaitlin.Bain@BeaumontEnterprise.com or on Twitter by clicking here.

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Virginia State Trooper C. Hewitt and Derrick Thompson during a traffic stop. (Derrick Thompson)

A Virginia state trooper is under investigation for a traffic stop in 2019 during which he can be heard on video telling a Black driver, "You're going to get your a-- whooped," before forcefully removing the man from his car, authorities said Wednesday.

An attorney for the motorist, Derrick Thompson, tweeted video Monday from the encounter that Thompson recorded with his cellphone.

The attorney, Joshua Erlich, also tweeted a letter that he said he sent to Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring on Monday alleging Thompson was "unconstitutionally assaulted" and his car was illegally searched on I-495 by Trooper Charles Hewitt. Herring did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

State police Superintendent Col. Gary T. Settle said he has seen the two-minute video and that Hewitt has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

"The conduct displayed by Trooper Hewitt during the course of the traffic stop is not in agreement with the established standards of conduct required of a Virginia trooper," Col. Settle said in a statement Wednesday. "Nor is it characteristic of the service provided daily across the Commonwealth of Virginia by Virginia State Police personnel."

Video: Protestors calling for release of black teen detained for missing homework

Thompson and Hewitt could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday. The Southern States Police Benevolent Association, the union representing more than 32,000 law enforcement officers including in Virginia, did not return requests for comment.

State police said in Wednesday's statement that at 4:15 p.m. on April 20, 2019, Thompson was stopped for an expired inspection decal. During the stop, state police said, the trooper confirmed that Thompson was driving with a suspended driver's license.

"The trooper also detected a strong odor of marijuana coming from inside Thompson's car," the statement said, adding that additional troopers responded to assist with the stop.

Story continues

State police said Thompson "refused to comply with the trooper's repeated requests to exit his vehicle" and after approximately 10 minutes, Hewitt informed him that he was under arrest.

Thompson still refused to exit his vehicle, according to state police. "Thompson was then forcibly removed from the vehicle and taken into custody," they said.

Thompson was taken to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center where "he underwent a medical evaluation for a minor abrasion to his forehead," state police said.

The clip begins with Thompson sitting in the driver's seat of his car and Hewitt at the driver's side window. It is unclear exactly what happened before recording began.

"You can't do that, sir," Thompson says to Hewitt, as the trooper tries to unlock the car door. "This officer is trying to unlock my car."

Thompson appears to attempt to prevent Hewitt from unlocking the door.

Hewitt opens the car door and Thompson says into the camera, "They just illegally entered my car and I am being forcefully removed."

"Take a look at me," Hewitt tells Thompson. "I'm a f------ specimen right here, buddy. You have gotten on my last nerve."

Thompson, still talking into the camera, says, "My hands are up on camera" and that he is no threat to the officers.

"You're going to get your a-- whooped in front of f------ lord and all creation," Hewitt responds.

He then says: "I'm going to give you one more chance. You can bring that with you -- I'll let you film the whole thing."

Thompson says, "I'm being threatened right now and I am not doing anything," to which Hewitt responds, "I'm giving you a chance."

The two continue to go back and forth. Thompson says: "I feel unsafe and I am in no threat to these three officers. My hands are up. I am doing nothing wrong to provoke anybody or anything." He also says that he is "making sure that this is all recorded" and that he has been threatened by an officer as two officers stand by and "do nothing." He turns the camera to the passenger-side door that is open. Another trooper is at the door leaning inside the car.

Hewitt tells Thompson to step out of the car and that he is being placed under arrest for disobeying the commands of an officer before he looks into the camera and says, "Watch the show, folks."

Hewitt is then seen putting his arm around Thompson's neck and wrestling Thompson out of the car as Thompson cries out for help. Hewitt can be heard saying, "How do you like that motherf-----? How do you like that? Huh? Put your hands behind your back." The two are no longer in view of the for the remainder of the recording and Thompson says multiple times, "My hands are behind my back" and "I am not resisting." Thompson can also be heard saying: "Sir, please get off my neck. I am not resisting." He repeats, "You are harming me" four times before the recording ends.

Thompson's attorney said his client was forcibly thrown face-down onto the pavement, causing cuts and abrasions to his face and left leg, and that Hewitt put either his elbow or knee on Thompson's neck while he placed him in handcuffs. When asked for a response to the allegation that Hewitt put an elbow or knee on Thompson's neck, Virginia State Police referred NBC News to its Wednesday statement saying the officer's actions in the video violated standards.

The other troopers then searched Thompson's car and found no evidence of any crime, Erlich said.

Hewitt, 38, then sat Thompson in the front passenger seat of his patrol car and attempted to explain what had just happened, Erlich said. Hewitt insisted it had nothing to do with race and told Thompson his wife is Black and so he could not be racist, according to Erlich.

Thompson told Hewitt "there was no way in hell a Black woman would marry him," according to Erlich.

Erlich said in an interview Thursday that Thompson, 28, of Woodbridge, was arrested and faced charges that included driving with a suspended license, which was dismissed, and misdemeanor obstruction of justice without force, a charge he pleaded guilty to in Fairfax County General District Court, according to court records.

"Our focus right now is on appropriate discipline for Trooper Hewitt and we are hopeful that the criminal investigation leads to charges," Erlich said.
Syracuse, N.Y.  Remington Arms has told hourly workers at its gun factory in Herkimer County they will be furloughed following their shifts on Friday.

The arms maker informed workers in Ilion of the furlough in a memo on Tuesday.

The company will be implementing a furlough with last day of scheduled work (for most work centers) being July 17, 2020, the memo said, according to WIBX. There WILL be limited work operations running in some work center(s) and you will be contacted by your Supervisor if your work center(s) will be scheduled to work.

Workers were told the furlough includes all production except for two lines and will last about four weeks, according to the report. Workers at the plant recently completed their scheduled two-week, company-wide summer vacation.

The company has not said how many workers the furlough will affect.

During a furlough, workers are not paid but usually get to keep their health insurance and other benefits. During a layoff, workers usually lose their pay and benefits.

Remington employs about 1,000 people in Ilion, where the company was founded in 1816. It is headquartered in Madison, North Carolina.

The furlough comes on the heels of a report that Remington is on the verge of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time in the past two years.

Sales of the companys products have fallen since President Donald Trumps election in 2016, which eased worries among buyers that gun sales would be restricted.

READ MORE: Remington Arms may file bankruptcy again, could be bought by Navajo Nation: report

Rick Moriarty covers business news and consumer issues. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact him anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148
Kiev disagrees with Iran's theory on Ukrainian jet crash: Ukrainian FM

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 10:09, July 15, 2020

KIEV, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine does not agree with Iran's claim that the downing of the Ukraine International Airlines passenger plane was due to human error, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Tuesday.

"I want to emphasize today clearly: It is too early to say that the plane was shot down as a result of a human error, as the Iranian side claims. We have many questions, and we need a lot of authoritative, unbiased, as objective answers. At the moment, Ukraine cannot agree that the plane was shot down due to human error. We are convinced that this issue should be studied during the investigation," said Kuleba during an online briefing on Tuesday.

Kuleba added that Iran would be responsible for the downing under international law, and the Foreign Ministry would do everything to ensure that Iran pays the highest price for what happened.

The Boeing-737, en route from Tehran to Kiev, was shot down by two rockets shortly after takeoff from Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport on Jan. 8. The tragedy resulted in the deaths of all 167 passengers and nine crew members on board, who were citizens of Ukraine, Iran, Canada, Sweden, Afghanistan, and the United Kingdom.

Later, Iran's armed forces confirmed that an "unintentional" launch of a military missile by the country was the cause of the incident.

According to Kuleba, the Iranian side expressed its readiness to visit Ukraine for negotiations regarding compensation between July 20 and July 30.

Kuleba noted that the decoding of the "black boxes" from the downed plane will start in France next week, with experts from the United States, Canada, France, Britain and Ukraine taking part.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 06:27:24|Editor: huaxia

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DUBLIN, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin announced on Wednesday night that the government's planned move to phase 4 of reopening society and business has been postponed till Aug. 10 due to the rise of the reproduction rate in the country over recent weeks.

He said in a statement that that the reproduction rate or the R number, which refers to the number of people infected by a virus carrier, has now risen over 1 compared with about 0.5 recorded a few weeks ago.

"The priority now must be to get that R number back below 1," he said, adding that by doing so the country will have the best chance possible to fully reopen schools in late August.

To achieve the target, the government has decided to take five additional measures with immediate effect on Wednesday, he said.

The five measures include compulsory wearing of face coverings by all customers in shops and shopping centers, demanding pubs, bars, hotel bars, casinos and nightclubs to remain closed until Aug. 10, limiting the number of visitors to people's homes to a maximum of 10, extending restrictions on indoor gathering of no more than 50 people and outdoor gathering of no more than 200 people until Aug. 10, and continuing to advise against all non-essential overseas travel.

He also said that the government will announce a green list of countries with virus levels similar to Ireland on July 20, which will be reviewed every two weeks.

People from the countries on the green list can visit Ireland without a 14-day self-isolation upon their arrivals in the country, according to local media reports.

Ireland embarked on a four-phase roadmap of reopening society and business on May 18 with each phase scheduled to last three weeks subject to the actual situation on the ground. The fourth phase was originally scheduled to commence on July 20. Enditem
How much do New Jersey seniors turning 65 pay for their Medicare supplement insurance? According to the American Association for Medicare Supplement Insurance virtually identical coverage can come with a $575 higher price tag.

"One Medicare insurance company charges $127 monthly for a woman turning 65 while another charges $176 for basically identical coverage," shares Jesse Slome, director of the Association. "In New Jersey added fees vary and available discounts also vary. You might find a five percent household discount or one as high as 14 percent."

The Association's 2020 Medicare Price Index reports the lowest and highest Medicare Supplement insurance rates for Plan G. "Plan G is the most popular Medigap choice among seniors turning 65," Slome explains. "We urge consumers to compare their Medicare supplement insurance options. You might be making a decision that you cannot easily change down the road."

"Each of the individual insurance companies establish pricing for New Jersey applicants," Slome explains. "Beyond the savings opportunity, Medicare insurance can be complicated especially when you are new to the plan. Working with a knowledgeable local Medicare insurance advisor or agent can be very helpful."

New Jersey Medigap Plan G 2020 Price Index Findings

BERGEN COUNTY (Zip 07607)



FEMALE age 65, Plan G



Lowest monthly premium: $127.58



Highest monthly premium: $175.80

MALE age 65, Plan G



Lowest monthly premium: $135.35



Highest monthly premium: $202.17

HUNTERDON COUNTY (Zip 08801)



FEMALE age 65, Plan G



Lowest monthly premium: $127.58



Highest monthly premium: $175.80

MALE age 65, Plan G



Lowest monthly premium: $135.35



Highest monthly premium: $202.17

MORRIS COUNTY (Zip 30906)



FEMALE age 65, Plan G



Lowest monthly premium: $127.58



Highest monthly premium: $175.80

MALE age 65, Plan G



Lowest monthly premium: $135.35



Highest monthly premium: $202.17

SOMMERSET COUNTY (Zip 08844)



FEMALE age 65, Plan G



Lowest monthly premium: $127.58



Highest monthly premium: $175.80

MALE age 65, Plan G



Lowest monthly premium: $135.35



Highest monthly premium: $202.17

The American Association for Medicare Supplement Insurance provides an online directory to find New Jersey Medicare insurance agents. "The nation's largest listing of Medicare insurance advisors is free to use and completely private," Slome adds.

The American Association for Medicare Supplement Insurance (AAMSI) is an advocacy and informational organization. AAMSI supports insurance professionals who market Medicare Supplement insurance.
With steady decline, active Covid-19 cases now constitute a third of total tally: Health Ministry

As of 15th July, 68,7467 Indian nationals have returned to India: MEA

Total of 3,26,826 samples tested in last 24 hours: Health Ministry

Delhi reported 1,652 new Covid-19 cases and 58 deaths in last 24 hours

Odisha govt announces 14-day complete lockdown in 6 districts from 9 pm of July 17 to July 31 midnight

207 new Covid-19 positive cases and 4 deaths reported in Jharkhand today

Telangana's Covid-19 case tally rises to 41,018 with 1,676 new cases reported today

A man walks past a mural of Covid-19 front line warriors. (Photo by Vipin Kumar/ Hindustan Times)

US recorded more than 67,000 cases in the last 24 hours. California, Arizona and Florida also recorded along with Texas almost 36,000 cases. Several state governments have asked establishments to ensure customers and visitors wear masks. India also saw a record rise in the number of cases. More than 32,700 fresh cases have been recorded in the lat 24 hours. The death toll has crossed 24,915 with 606 fresh fatalities. Maharashtra remains the worst-affected with 2.75 lakh cases.

Click here for complete coverage of Covid-19 pandemic

Economists said that Latin American nations GDPs will go back to pre-2010 levels due to the huge rise in unemployment and called the lack of growth a lost decade for these economies.
PHILADELPHIA, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Pennsylvania Ballet extends its community-led initiative by bringing art and dance to Philadelphia's blind and low vision students from Overbrook School for the Blind. The two groups of dancers and students use tap dance as a medium to come together in a documentary by Glenn Holsten titled "Live Out Loud," slated to premiere exclusively on WHYY on July 26 at 4 p.m. EST.

The launch premiere of "Live Out Loud" will commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act to reinforce equality of opportunity and integration for all.

"Pennsylvania Ballet strongly believes in contributing to the community in a meaningful, artistic and imaginative way and we couldn't think of a better partner than Art-Reach to band together for this program," said Sarah Cooper, Pennsylvania Ballet's director of community engagement. "This initiative allowed us to cultivate an environment where dancers and students could bond and engage with the arts. This film is extraordinary, and we can't wait for our viewers to absorb it and be moved by it."

Created in collaboration with Art-Reach, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization that connects people with disabilities and low-income communities to the arts, "Live Out Loud" documents the process of six dancers from the Pennsylvania Ballet Second Company and six students from the Overbrook School for the Blind who learn to tap dance for the first time. The film, directed by Glenn Holsten and produced by FreshFly, sheds light on the journey of students and dancers who hail from different backgrounds and undergo 10 weeks of intense rehearsals to create an original tap piece choreographed by Melissa Chasse, a nationally awarded tap and jazz choreographer and school administrator for the Pennsylvania Ballet.

"Dance has an amazing way of implementing itself into people's lives as the art form creates inspiration in so many different ways," said Charlie Miller, director of Access Philly at Art-Reach. "We hope that this film strengthens the power of dance and community and the magic it brings with it when everyone comes together with a common purpose of creating art."

"The opportunities that we receive are usually limited by predetermined ideas on what the capabilities are of our students, but programs like these give them an educational opportunity that ultimately helps them reach their greatest potential," said Todd Reeves, Overbrook School for the Blind's executive director and CEO.

"Directing 'Live Out Loud' was an absolute labor of love," said Glenn Holsten, FreshFly's documentary film director. "What I hope it conveys to audiences is that each and every one of us can learn and grow from shared experiences. The film captures a magical bond between dancers from completely different worlds, as they come together to learn a new art form and create a remarkable performance."

Deep-rooted in community-led efforts, Pennsylvania Ballet has extended a range of immersive art experiences to groups of people with disabilities across Philadelphia for many years. In 2016, Pennsylvania Ballet developed Philadelphia's first ever sensory friendly experience of The Nutcracker, in conjunction with Art-Reach. The organizations continued their partnership in 2017 to launch an original modern ballet piece titled "I Am" that paired students with intellectual disabilities from Saint Katherine School and eight dancers from the Pennsylvania Ballet's Second Company. Furthering these efforts, Pennsylvania Ballet partnered with The Associated Services for the Blind to host a five-week ballet class during its 2018 presentation of "Romeo and Juliet."

For more information about Pennsylvania Ballet, please visit Paballet.org and click here to watch the exclusive trailer for "Live Out Loud."

About Pennsylvania Ballet

Pennsylvania Ballet is one of the nation's premier ballet companies and one of Philadelphia's cultural treasures. Internationally renowned dancer Angel Corella took the reigns as Artistic Director at the start of the 2014/2015 season, bringing the company to a new level of excellence with 45 dancers from around the world and an ever-changing repertoire of works. In addition to its performances on Philadelphia's famed Avenue of the Arts, Pennsylvania Ballet serves more than 17,000 individuals across the Philadelphia region every year with hands-on, high quality arts education activities brought to children and adults alike regardless of socioeconomic background or abilities. For more information visit paballet.org or connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube for a behind the scenes look at our dancers in the studio and onstage.

Pennsylvania Ballet is supported in part by a grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Community & Economic Development and receives support from The Philadelphia Cultural Fund and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

SOURCE Pennsylvania Ballet

Related Links

http://paballet.org


The city of North Miami passed an ordinance Tuesday establishing a citizen investigative board on a 3-2 vote. The board will investigate complaints against the police department brought by North Miami residents.

Vice Mayor Alix Desulme first introduced the proposal at the June 9 council meeting amid nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd, who was killed in Minneapolis after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

This is definitely a little peace of mind, Desulme told the Miami Herald. I do think these are positive things, and I think history will judge us on that later.

Desulme said the board is an impartial option, as opposed to police internal affairs investigating allegations against its own officers. The ordinance states the board has subpoena power over witnesses, documents, and other potential evidence, but like the countys proposed panel, it will be unable to subpoena police officers. Desulme said that limitation is something hed like to see changed.

North Miami Vice Mayor Alix Desulme first proposed the investigative board on June 9.

Miami-Dade County voted to revive its own civilian panel to investigate police misconduct July 8, but Mayor Carlos Gimenez will likely veto the measure because of the subpoena powers granted to the panel. The measure will also appear on county residents November ballots as a charter amendment.

Desulme told the Miami Herald that when he proposed the board to the commission, he wanted to see what he could do to strengthen and make us one of the best police departments in South Florida, as well as to make sure the city was being proactive rather than reactive.

In 2016, Black behavioral therapist Charles Kinsey was shot by a North Miami officer while protecting his autistic patient playing with a toy truck, which had been reported as a gun. Kinsey was laying on his back with his arms in the air when he was shot. The officer, Jonathan Aledda, was found guilty of culpable negligence.

The occurrence came up a few times at the June 9 meeting, but was referred to simply as the incident.

Story continues

The vote Tuesday split along racial lines, with both white council members voting against the ordinance.

Councilman Scott Galvin, who voted against the ordinance, said theres not a need for the board, which Desulme said is meant to promote accountability and transparency.

If theres anything North Miami is doing right, its police, Galvin told the Miami Herald. I just dont see our police department as being one of the flaws in the city.

Desulme fought back against that opposition, which also came up during the public comments section of the meeting.

I think a lot of folks who, when [they] mention the civilian investigation board quickly, talk about our police chief, our police department and its a little bit frustrating when I hear that, Desulme said, because this has nothing to do with our police chief or our police department.

Another line of opposition stemmed from Councilwoman Carol Keys, who said she was totally in support of the board but had issues with its potential costs. She wanted the board to move forward with just one employee, rather than with a minimum starting staff of two employees, including an executive director, as proposed.

Keys also only wanted the city to hire investigators as needed to address complaints; under the ordinance, the director can hire staff as needed, which includes investigators, said City Attorney Jeff Cazeau. Keys voted against the ordinance.

Were looking at this type of money right now, which we dont have and which will raise taxes, Keys said. I dont want to fund a whole department. I think its overkill.

Keys said that the employees would probably be doing nothing right now.

The ordinance states funding for the board can take up to 1.5% of the police budget. Andrew Axelrad, general counsel for the South Florida Police Benevolent Association, said that the money is still defunding something.

At the June 9 meeting, both Desulme and Mayor Philippe Bien-Aime dismissed calls to defund the police.

The idea of defunding the police department  I dont share that idea, Bien-Aime said. Whoever has that intention better not come and spread it in the city of North Miami because I will go against it.

North Miami City Hall. The city passed an ordinance Tuesday, July 14, establishing a civilian investigative board.

Desulme expressed frustration with the financial conversation, pointing to other costly items on Tuesdays agenda he said had not received similar pushback.

You know what though, OK, fine, let it raise taxes. My district, my folks, we will pay for it, Desulme said, although he also disputed the cost of the ordinance as well as whether it would raise taxes. This is about somebodys life. You have residents who are calling who say how important this is, yet we are sitting here saying that Oh, this will raise taxes. 

Desulme told the Herald the board should be implemented by Oct. 1, the beginning of the new fiscal year.

A debate on police spending in Broward

South Florida hasnt seen sweeping reforms or budgetary changes in response to protests against police brutality, as some other cities across the country have. But debates are cropping up at the local level.

In Coral Springs, a city in northern Broward County with 130,000 residents, several people spoke at a virtual commission meeting Wednesday against a proposal for police to take $28,000 in federal grants for equipment.

The speakers were organized by local Black Lives Matter and March for Our Lives chapters and included current and former students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 people were killed in a shooting in 2018 that sparked a renewed movement against gun violence.

As a current student, I ask that we dont invest in the police, said Logan Rubenstein, the president of March for Our Lives Parkland, in response to some residents who pointed to the 2018 shooting as justification for filling the police departments requests for funding. Coral Springs police were widely praised for their response to the shooting in neighboring Parkland.

The Coral Springs police chief, Clyde Parry, said Wednesday that the people who opposed the federal grants mistakenly believed they would fund military-style equipment. Rather, he said, they would be funding  simunition conversion kits, which allow guns to be used in training; the replacement of handguns; and less lethal shotguns, which shoot bean bag rounds.

Bean bag rounds can severely injure people, though the commission didnt address that fact Wednesday.

Commissioner Josh Simmons, who is leading a new police reform task force in Coral Springs, said he doesnt see the grants as militarizing the police force. If they were funding a tank, he said, he would see it differently.

The head of the Coral Springs police union, Glenn Matonak, also weighed in, calling those who spoke against the grants the biggest farce this community has ever heard.

These requests to defund the police are absurd, he said.
Fighting on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan reportedly resumed early on Thursday, with the two sides accusing each other of attacking their frontline positions and shelling villages.

The Armenian military claimed to have thwarted a pre-dawn Azerbaijani raid on one of its border posts in the northern Tavush district.

After a fierce gun battle the enemy was repelled, suffering casualties, said Shushan Stepanian, the spokeswoman for the Defense Ministry in Yerevan. She said Azerbaijani forces then began shelling two Armenian border villages.

Gunfire is continuing at the moment, Stepanian wrote on Facebook in the morning. Units of the Armenian Armed Forces are neutralizing Azerbaijani provocations.

Stepanian reported shortly afterwards that Armenian Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan has phoned Andrzej Kasprzyk, the head of an OSCE mission monitoring the ceasefire in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, to brief him on the latest escalation. She said Tonoyan told Kasprzyk that the Azerbaijani side suffered many casualties.

The official added that no Armenian soldiers were killed at the volatile border section as of 9 a.m. local time.

Opening a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan later in the day, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said that a hilltop border post of the Armenian army in Tavush was the primary target of overnight Azerbaijani attacks.

Pashinian said that more than 100 Azerbaijani commandos stormed but failed to seize it before other Azerbaijani troops launched unsuccessful attacks on adjacent Armenian positions. None of the Armenian soldiers was killed or wounded, he told ministers.

Stepanian claimed, for her part, that Armenian forces destroyed an Azerbaijani tank and struck artillery and mortar positions that were shelling our settlements and positions. She posted a short video of plumes of black smoke rising from behind a hill on what appeared to be the Azerbaijani side of the frontier.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijans Defense Ministry accused Armenian forces of attacking its frontline troops and shelling Azerbaijani villages in the Tovuz district bordering Tavush. It said one Azerbaijani soldier was killed in action.

Azerbaijani news agencies quoted the ministry spokesman, Vagif Dargahli, as denying any incursions into Armenian territory attempted by the Azerbaijani army and shelling of Tavush villages. Our army units never shoot at settlements, he said.

Speaking to RFE/RLs Armenian service in the morning, Tavush Governor Hayk Chobanian said not only the local villages but also the town of Berd came under Azerbaijani artillery fire. None of their residents was hurt as a result, he said, adding that the shelling caused damage to civilian homes and infrastructure.

Residents are hiding in basements and shelters, said Chobanian. Their life is not at risk.

There is no need for evacuation  I hope that this wont last long, added the governor.

Renewed fighting in the area broke out after a one-day pause that followed three days of deadly clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces which left at least 15 soldiers dead and prompted serious concern from the international community.

In a statement issued late on Wednesday, the U.S., Russian and French mediators co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group hailed the lull in the fighting and urged the parties to make every effort to continue de-escalation.

The Co-Chairs welcomed the confirmation of the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan to hold substantive negotiations on crucial aspects of a Nagorno-Karabakh settlement as soon as possible and emphasized the importance of returning OSCE monitors to the region as soon as circumstances allow, said the statement.
Angola, IN (46703)

Today

Overcast. Morning high of 36F with temps falling to near 20. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy early with partial clearing expected late. Low 13F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph.
This terms trio of religion decisions carried the project into new territory. The chief justices opinion in the Montana case, Espinoza, was particularly eyebrow raising, because when the case reached the court, there was no longer a tax credit program in place for any nonpublic school. That the program no longer existed for anyone would seem to make a claim of anti-religious discrimination implausible at best.

Not so, the chief justice wrote for the 5-to-4 majority. He said the programs cancellation cannot be defended as a neutral policy decision because it resulted from a decision of the Montana Supreme Court that the state Constitutions no aid provision meant that religious schools could not be included in the program. Because the state court said it couldnt effectively rewrite the statute, it invalidated the entire program. But Chief Justice Roberts found this application of the no aid provision to be itself a violation of the federal Free Exercise Clause, amounting to discrimination against religious schools and the families whose children attend them.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor observed in dissent that it appears that the court has declared that once Montana created a tax subsidy, it forfeited the right to eliminate it if doing so would harm religion. She continued, This is a remarkable result, all the more so because the court strains to reach it.

There is a great deal to be said about each of these three cases, much more than this column can accommodate. Ill limit myself to one additional observation, about the Little Sisters of the Poor decision that upheld the complete opt out from the Affordable Care Acts contraception mandate that the Trump administration had offered employers with religious or undefined moral objections.

Anyone who hasnt dug at least part way into the weeds of this complex and long-running case (nine years and counting) is likely to have only a dim idea of what was actually at stake, with the confusion compounded by public opinion polls like the one I linked to in the first paragraph of this column. This poll, and others like it, offered a binary choice: Employers should or should not be forced to cover contraceptives in their health insurance plans. More than 52 percent of respondents said they agreed with the Supreme Courts answer, described in the poll as should not.

But that wasnt the choice. Nobody was forcing employers with religious objections to cover contraception. Following the Supreme Courts decision in the Hobby Lobby case in 2014, the Obama administration offered religious employers an accommodation under which all they had to do was inform their insurance carrier that they objected to covering contraception. The insurer would then eliminate the coverage from the policy and assume the obligation of providing the coverage directly to the female employees, with no involvement by the employer.

Ah, but the doctrine of complicity: Along with other religious organizations, the Little Sisters, an order of nuns who hire lay employees for the nursing homes they run, objected that this accommodation was insufficient to protect them from complicity in their employees sin of using birth control.
Parliament yesterday approved a 56,153,500 loan facility to finance the construction of trauma hospitals in Obuasi and Ayinam in the Ashanti and Eastern regions respectively.

Part of the facility is also expected to be used for the construction of an accident and emergency centre at the Enyiresi Hospital in the Eastern Region and a rehabilitation centre at the Obuasi Health Centre.

It would also be used to finance the provision of medical equipment and ancillary services to ensure that the beneficiary facilities were fully operational and befitting their status.

According to the Finance Committee's report on the loan agreement between the government of Ghana and Deutsche Bank AG, as facility lender, and TM Global Services (UK) Limited, as the facility arranger, the project forms part of government's commitment to the provision of universal health in line with the Sustainable Development Goal 3.

Moving the motion for the approval of the facility, Chairman of the Finance Committee, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah said the scope of work for the trauma hospitals include features like accident and emergency department, a male theatre, public health department, out-patient department, amongst others.

Dr Assibey-Yeboah observed that Obuasi and Anyinam presently do not have any major hospitals, hence the need to provide them with one.

"The existing Obuasi Health Centre is both ill-equipped and inadequate to meet the health needs of the burgeoning population of the catchment area," he stated.

The projects, to be completed in three years, Dr Assibey-Yeboah said, would bring quality healthcare to the doorstep of residents of beneficiary communities; and urged his colleagues to adopt his Committee's report.

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Seconding the motion, Adaklu MP, Governs Kwame Agbodza, said the facilities would aid the recovery process of accident victims, adding the facilities would be an addition to Ghana's healthcare sector.

According to him, there is difference in what was done in previous arrangements and the current one.

"Under this agreement, government has already gone to borrow the money by themselves, so they just contracted a local engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company to partner it in executing the project.

"I am happy that local contractors will play a role in EPC contracts. It is a good thing to do because even if you do EPC with foreigners, it is the local contractors who end up doing the work. It is a good idea that we are trying to introduce local contractors in this," he said.

Wa West MP, Joseph Yieleh Chireh, on his part urged that governments in the future considered the elevation of health centres into district hospital status instead of just rehabilitating them, so that they could serve a wider range of people and ailments.

Atiwa East MP and a Deputy Finance Minister, Abena Osei Asare, in whose constituency the Anyinam and Enyiresi facilities would be sited expressed appreciation to the government for reviving the project, which has been on the card since 2008.
Credit score company Experian has said growth in its consumer services business in North America was not enough to prevent the firm's revenues falling by 5 per cent in the last quarter.

The credit check multinational recorded a year-on-year rise of 4 per cent in organic revenues in North America, which total over 60 per cent of its business, thanks to rising demand for its credit education and identity monitoring subscription services.

Its B2B division on the continent also grew, though only by a modest 1 per cent, as did the company's income in Brazil, because of larger organic revenues from positive data scores and its technology platform Experian Ascend.

Experian offers credit reports, identity protection services, help on accessing loans and credit cards, and advice on personal finance matters, as part of its operations

However, the firm's revenues across Latin America remained flat despite earnings from consumer services more than doubling. Total year-on-year revenues from ongoing activities also plummeted by 26 per cent in the three months to June 30.

Tighter credit reference policies and lower lending levels caused revenues from the British Isles, the group's second-largest market, to contract 15 per cent.

'We also experienced delays in client purchasing decisions for software, a near-total shutdown in the automotive market, and marketing data revenue was also impacted as advertisers cut back on marketing spend," the company said.

Total revenues also declined by 15 per cent in the Asia-Pacific/EMEA region. Experian blamed the substantial initial impact of the coronavirus outbreak for its results across the two markets, with South Africa, India and Italy particularly affected.

The firm, which is the biggest credit check business in the world, expects organic revenues to be either flat or fall by 5 per cent over the coming quarter.

Chief executive Brian Cassin said Experian has been 'resilient' during the coronavirus pandemic. But due to uncertainty over the lockdowns, government support, and the extent of the economic recovery, it is not providing guidance for the financial year.

Experian's revenues were excellent across North America, but very poor in the British Isles

'The COVID-19 crisis has shown the critical importance of data in responding to the huge challenges created by the pandemic and of finding a route to recover,' he remarked.

'Through this challenging period, Experian has been working to support governments, hospitals, businesses and charities, and we will continue to provide data and other services to governments and frontline organisations to help get economies back on their feet.'

The Dublin-headquartered firm, which is a member of the FTSE 100 Index, provides credit reports, along with its U.S. peers Equifax and TransUnion including on bankruptcies and court judgements, and scores based on borrowing and payment habits of the consumer.

It also offers identity protection services, help on accessing loans and credit cards, and advice on personal finance matters, as part of its operations.

Shares in Experian were only 0.1 per cent higher during mid-afternoon at 2,849p.
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A look at the shareholders of Meridian Energy Limited (NZSE:MEL) can tell us which group is most powerful. Large companies usually have institutions as shareholders, and we usually see insiders owning shares in smaller companies. Companies that used to be publicly owned tend to have lower insider ownership.

Meridian Energy is a pretty big company. It has a market capitalization of NZ$12b. Normally institutions would own a significant portion of a company this size. Our analysis of the ownership of the company, below, shows that institutional investors have bought into the company. Let's delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about Meridian Energy.

See our latest analysis for Meridian Energy

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Meridian Energy?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

We can see that Meridian Energy does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone, since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Meridian Energy's historic earnings and revenue, below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Meridian Energy. The New Zealand Government is currently the largest shareholder, with 51% of shares outstanding. This implies that they have majority interest control of the future of the company. With 2.1% and 1.6% of the shares outstanding respectively, BlackRock, Inc. and Accident Compensation Corporation, Asset Management Arm are the second and third largest shareholders.

Story continues

While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Meridian Energy

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. The company management answer to the board; and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board, themselves.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of Meridian Energy Limited. Keep in mind that it's a big company, and the insiders own NZ$25m worth of shares. The absolute value might be more important than the proportional share. Arguably, recent buying and selling is just as important to consider. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 38% ownership, the general public have some degree of sway over MEL. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Meridian Energy better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 2 warning signs for Meridian Energy that you should be aware of before investing here.

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

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.



Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
HEILBRONN, Germany, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- LetyShops cashback service has been given $3M  a one-time investment from the German AB Capital Group. The investment will increase the holding's share in one of Eastern Europe's leading cashback service providers.

"The first time we invested in LetyShops was in 2016, after the service's explosive growth in both active users and sales. We see a great potential in the cashback market in the new regions and are certain that LetyShops will fully discover it."  AB Capital Group founder Alexander Bachmann believes.

AB Capital Group owns a cluster of IT-companies centered around Admitad, a global affiliate network that last year delivered $5B in advertisers' revenue  largely owed to the US, UK, Germany, France, Poland, Brazil and India.

LetyShops has already claimed the throne as one of the top cashback providers in CIS and shows dynamic growth in Western Europe as well as other regions, so the investment comes as an extra boost to enhance this advancement. In 2020, LetyShops revenue is expected to grow by another 30% and hit $30M.

LetyShops' plan to draw funding does not stop at that. The service is expected to get another round of investment approximately H1 2021. That money will also serve to push forward and consolidate the company's progress in the multiple digital markets.

"Our strategy is to continue with the fast-paced growth in Spain, Germany, Poland, Latin America & India as well as launch in the new markets. Letyshops generates $10 million in gross merchandise volume monthly for its partners and expects this figure to grow dramatically after raising funding from Admitad. To achieve this goal, we will invest in marketing and development of new products so we can help our advertisers increase sales and acquire new users,"  Letyshops CBDO Sergey Korneyev says.

LetyShops is currently available in 7 languages, hosts a total of 2400 e-shops and 12 million users. According to SimilarWeb, LetyShops.com website has seen 4 million visitors in May 2020. Top five countries by number of impressions were Russia, Ukraine, Spain, Poland and Belarus.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1215121/Admitad_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Admitad
Steadily improving the overall stimulus package would also have a strong signaling effect  demonstrating that the ECB still has ammunition and is constantly prepared to support the economic recovery. There have been signs that the second-quarter contraction was not as deep as the central bank initially feared, and the third-quarter rebound may be even stronger. But with the risks of a second virus wave, now is not the time to sit back and hope enough has been done.
Nearly 30,000 troops participate in cross-provincial flood rescue and disaster relief

PLA Daily

Source: China Military Online

Editor: Chen Zhuo

2020-07-15 18:07:11

BEIJING, July 15 -- Ordered by the Central Military Commission (CMC), the PLA Eastern Theater Commandon July 14 dispatched additional 16,000 soldiers with rescue equipment from Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui and Fujian Provinces to carry out rescue and disaster relief operations in flood-stricken cities including Shangrao, Jiujiang and other areas of Jiangxi Province.

Up to now, more than 29,000 soldiers of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the People's Armed Police (PAP), together with more than 5,000 militia,have been fighting side by side in the flood-stricken areas to reinforcedams, blockpipings anddealwith hidden dangers.

Severe water seepage occurred at many places in the flood control dam of Jiujiang City in Jiangxi Province on the evening of July 12. A division assigned to the air force under the PLA Eastern Theater Command immediately organized an emergency rescue team to the scene. Officers and soldiers fought overnight and effectively controlled the situation.

On the early morning of July 14th, the flood crestarrived inJiujiang section of Yangtze River. More than 400 service members assigned to an army pontoon brigade under the PLA Eastern Theater Command rushed to downtown area in the flood-hit Lushan city along the river.They continuously fought for 10 hours and blocked over ten places of piping.

As of July 14, a brigade of the PLA Rocket Force has deployed a total of 597 troops, completed ten rescue missions, and controlled 33 dangerous situations. The PAP has dispatched a total of 7,550 soldiers, 482 construction machinery vehicles, 96 boats, carrying 22,973 pieces (sets) of equipment. They participated in emergency rescue missions in Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Sichuan and other provinces, while having transferred a total of 980 people, piled upmore than 97,000 sand bags, and reinforced 9,660 meters of dams.

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CHAPEL HILL, N.C.--The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has broadly affected how health care is provided in the United States. One notable change is the expanded use of telehealth services, which have been quickly adopted by many health care providers and payers, including Medicare, to ensure patients' access to care while reducing their risk of exposure to the coronavirus.

In an article published in JAMA Oncology, Trevor Royce, MD, MS, MPH, an assistant professor of radiation oncology at the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and UNC School of Medicine, said the routine use of telehealth for patients with cancer could have long-lasting and unforeseen effects on the provision and quality of care.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the rapid deregulation of telehealth services. This was done in part by lifting geographical restrictions, broadening patient, health care professional, and services eligibility," said Royce, the article's corresponding author. "It is likely aspects of telehealth continue to be part of the health care delivery system, beyond the pandemic."

The article's other authors are UNC Lineberger's Hanna K. Sanoff, MD, MPH, clinical medical director of the North Carolina Cancer Hospital and associate professor in the UNC School of Medicine Division of Hematology, and Amar Rewari, MD, MBA, from the Associates in Radiation Medicine, Adventist HealthCare Radiation Oncology Center in Rockville, Maryland.

Royce said the widespread shift to telehealth was made possible, in part, by three federal economic stimulus packages and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services making several policy changes in March that expanded Medicare recipients' access to telehealth services.

The policy changes included allowing telehealth services to be provided in a patient's home. Medicare previously only paid for telehealth services in a facility in nonurban areas or areas with a health professional shortage. Medicare also approved payment for new patient appointments, expanded telehealth coverage to include 80 additional services, allowed for services to be carried out on a wider assortment of telecommunication systems - including remote video communications platforms, such as Zoom - and modified the restrictions of who can provide and supervise care.

While the potential benefits of telehealth have been demonstrated during the pandemic, Royce said they must be balanced with concerns about care quality and safety.

"There is a lot we don't know about telehealth, and how its rapid adoption will impact our patients," Royce said. "How will the safety and quality of care be impacted? How will we integrate essential components of the traditional doctor visit, including physical exam, lab work, scans and imaging? Will patients and doctors be more or less satisfied with their care? These are all potential downsides if we are not thoughtful with our adoption."

He said appropriate oversight of care is critical. There will be a continued need for objective patient assessments, such as patient-reported outcomes, physical examinations and laboratory tests, and to measure care quality and monitor for fraud. There are also a number of standard measures of care quality that can be implemented during the transition to telehealth, including tracking emergency room visits, hospitalizations and adverse events.

Telehealth presents other challenges, as well. Though technology and internet access are now more widely available, they are not universally accessible. Where one lives, their socioeconomic status and comfort level with technology can be barriers to using telehealth services. A reliance on telehealth might lower participation in clinical trials, which can require regular in-person appointments.

"Telehealth can be used to improve access to care in traditionally hard-to-reach populations. However, it is important to acknowledge that if we are not thoughtful in its adoption, the opposite could be true," Royce said. "For example, will lower socioeconomic groups have the same level of access to an adequate internet connection or cellular services that make a virtual video visit possible? Telehealth needs to be adopted with equity in mind."

###
Ghana, like all democratic dispensations around the world, embraces the rule of law not the rule of men in almost every pertinent issues of national importance and such issues may include the citizenship status of people living in the country.

It is very imperative to note that how people become citizens of countries is determined by the fundamental principles according to which they are governed. Therefore, some people may hold the view of belonging to a country but may not if they do not advert their minds to the constitution of the country in question.

Watching Hon. Kennedy Agyapong's Net2's programme The Seat with Kwaku Annan last

recently, Ibra 1's brothers was asked if he was a Ghanaian and he said yes we are Ghanaians. All my siblings were born in Ghana but our parents are from Niger. So I ask the question, who is a Ghanaian? And what does the 1992 Constitution of Ghana requires one to be considered a Ghanaian?

Articles 6,7,8,9 and 10 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana address the question of who a Ghanaian is but am here to deal with one of the means through which one can be considered a Ghanaian which has a proclivity with Ibra 1's brother's answer.

According to him, they are Ghanaians because they were born in Ghana, they have schooled from here and have no other country. With this in mind, it automatically posits that he is referring to citizenship by birth.

What is Ghana's position in respect of citizenship by birth? First of all, it is noteworthy to appreciate that citizenship by birth is in two broad contexts under the following.

Place of birth Descent or blood relations.

PLACE OF BIRTH

This quintessentially posits that one is a citizen of a country if he was born in that country. Example of such countries include United States of America. I believe you would appreciate why some people would want to deliver their babies in US. Thus to gain automatic citizenship status for their babies in order to accrue all the benefits that come with it.

DESCENT OR BLOOD RELATION

with this, one can only be considered a citizen of a country if one or both parents belong to that country with emphasis on irrespective of the place of birth. (Article 6 Clause 2) of the 1992 Constitution. So if your parents come from say America and you were born in Ghana, you would be denied the privilege to be a Ghanaian by the spirit and the letter of this.

Even Article 6 Clause 3 will not guarantee them citizenship status of Ghana because one would have to be a child less than 7 years and found in Ghana whose parents' identity could not have been traced before he or she qualifies to be a Ghanaian.

So the only Avenue left is Article 7 Clauses 1 and 5 whereby marriage and registration or naturalisation, they could be considered to have been qualified to be a Ghanaian if they so wish.

Therefore if they and anyone who thought he or she was a Ghanaian by the same thinking and understanding and do wish to be Ghanaian, vote and do all there is for Ghanaian to do legally, might want to advert his or her mind to my write-ups to do the needful, which is naturalisation.
The Republic of Artsakh National Assembly factions strongly condemn recent military operations provoked by Azerbaijan on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in the direction of Tavush region of the Republic of Armenia which resulted in human casualties.

Targeting Armenian settlements, the military-political leadership of Azerbaijan involves its own people in another adventure which is fraught with disastrous consequences for its own country.

Adhering to the principle of maintaining the ceasefire and Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict resolution through negotiations, at the same time, we warn that the Armenian Armed Forces are ready to resist with equivalent actions in case of any encroachment on the state borders of Armenia and Artsakh.

We state that in the conditions of rapid spread of the epidemic, when the whole world joins forces to overcome it, to get out of the severe global health and economic crisis, such aggressive behavior of Azerbaijan and its military sponsor Turkey, is dangerous not only for Armenia and Artsakh but also for the whole region.

We call on the OSCE Minsk Group to strongly condemn and bring to responsibility Azerbaijan and impose all necessary measures to prevent further aggravation of the situation and maintain stability and peace in the region.

Free Motherland  UCA faction

United Motherland faction

Artsakh Justice faction

Armenian Revolutionary Federation faction

Democratic Party of Artsakh faction
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 23:30:32|Editor: huaxia

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RIGA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The Latvian national financial supervisory authority has penalized Signet Bank for breaching standards of combating money laundering and financing of terrorism and proliferation, the Financial and Capital Market Commission (FCMC) informed Thursday.

In addition to slapping a 906,600-euro (about 1.036 million U.S. dollars) fine, the regulator has also ordered the bank to submit a plan for dealing with the detected breaches and to commission an independent audit of its internal control system's efficiency and compliance with anti-money laundering regulations.

The sanctions have been imposed after the regulator conducted an on-site inspection to examine Signet Bank's compliance with the anti-money laundering rules, specifically in vetting potential customers and supervising transactions.

The inspection revealed a lax internal control system at the bank, risks in the bank's customer base and poor risk management.

Although the FCMC recognized the progress made in addressing the identified shortcomings, it also indicated that the explanations provided by Signet Bank's management did not reassure the regulator that the bank understands and admits its faults and that it is really committed to enhancing its internal controls to prevent any attempts to launder illegal proceeds through its accounts. Enditem
India has condemned Islamabads decision to construct the Diamer Basha dam on the Indus river in Chilas in Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir saying it will submerge large parts of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

India strongly protested against construction of Diamer Basha dam to Pakistan govt. It will lead to submergence of large part of land of Indian UTs of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. We condemn attempts by Pak to bring about material changes in Indian territories under its illegal occupation, Anurag Srivastava, official spokesperson of Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said Thursday.

We have also consistently conveyed our protest and shared concerns with both China and Pakistan on all such projects in Indian territories under Pakistans illegal occupation where it has no locus standi, Srivastava said at a briefing.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan inaugurated the construction of the Diamer-Bhasha dam on Wednesday, despite Indias objection to the huge China-backed project.

Also Watch l PoK residents protest against China and Pakistan over illegal dams

Khan said the Diamer-Bhasha will be Pakistans third largest dam and will generate 4,500 MW of electricity and provide at least 16,000 jobs. The dam expected to be completed by 2028.

In May, the Pakistan government signed a 442 billion contract with a joint venture of a Chinese state-run firm and a commercial arm of Pakistans powerful military for the construction of the dam.

India had then said that carrying out of such projects in territories under Pakistans illegal occupation was not proper.

In 2016, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) had refused to commit funds for the dam project, two years after the World Bank declined to fund the project following Islamabads refusal to seek a no objection certificate from India.
WALTHAM, Mass. and VENLO, The Netherlands, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE: TMO), the world leader in serving science, and QIAGEN N.V. (NYSE: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA), a leading global provider of Sample to Insight molecular diagnostics and sample preparation technologies, today announced that they have entered into an amendment to their acquisition agreement under which Thermo Fisher has commenced a tender offer to acquire all of the ordinary shares of QIAGEN.

The amendment provides for an increase from the original offer price of 39.00 to a new price of 43.00 per QIAGEN share in cash, which represents a premium of approximately 35% to the closing price of QIAGEN's ordinary shares on the Frankfurt Prime Standard on March 2, 2020, the last trading day prior to the announcement of the acquisition agreement and Thermo Fisher's intention to commence the offer. The amendment also provides for a reduction of the minimum acceptance threshold from 75% to 66.67% of QIAGEN's issued and outstanding ordinary share capital at the end of the acceptance period on August 10, 2020, as well as a USD 95 million expense reimbursement to Thermo Fisher if the minimum acceptance threshold is not met.

The members of QIAGEN's Supervisory Board and Managing Board have reaffirmed their unanimous support for the offer and their unanimous recommendation that all QIAGEN shareholders accept and tender all of their QIAGEN shares in the offer prior to the end of the acceptance period, which has now been extended to August 10, 2020. Each of the members of the Supervisory Board and Managing Board has tendered or will tender all of their QIAGEN shares in the offer.

Marc N. Casper, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Thermo Fisher Scientific, said, "Industry dynamics have changed considerably in the past few months, creating tailwinds and headwinds for our businesses. Both of our companies are playing important roles in helping customers to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. After careful consideration, we've decided to increase our offer for QIAGEN to reflect the fair value of the business given the current environment. We remain confident that this transaction will create shareholder value and, importantly, provide meaningful benefits to our customers and society by combining our capabilities to combat infectious diseases and other healthcare issues. We continue to look forward to completing the transaction in the first half of 2021."

"After carefully considering the updated offer by Thermo Fisher, QIAGEN's Supervisory Board and Managing Board both unanimously recommend that shareholders accept this offer given that it reflects the improvements in our business performance and future prospects as a result of the coronavirus pandemic," said Thierry Bernard, chief executive officer of QIAGEN N.V. "The rationale for this strategic step is stronger than ever, especially as the value of molecular testing becomes ever more evident. This combination is designed to enable QIAGEN employees and our portfolio of Sample to Insight solutions to have an even greater impact on society while also delivering significant cash value to our shareholders. We look forward to working closely with Thermo Fisher to successfully complete the transaction."

QIAGEN shareholders who have already effectively accepted the offer by tendering their shares are not required to take further action in order to receive the increased offer price in accordance with the terms of the offer. Thermo Fisher's tender offer statement on Schedule TO, including the offer document that is an exhibit thereto, and QIAGEN's solicitation/recommendation statement on Schedule 14D-9 will be amended to reflect the revised terms of the transaction. The acceptance period is now scheduled to expire at 24:00 hours (Frankfurt am Main local time) / 18:00 hours (New York local time) on August 10, 2020.

Advisors

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC are serving as financial advisors to Thermo Fisher, and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is serving as legal counsel. For QIAGEN, Goldman Sachs International is serving as lead financial advisor and Barclays Bank PLC is serving as financial advisor, while De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek NV, Linklaters LLP and Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo P.C. are serving as legal counsel.

About Thermo Fisher

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE: TMO) 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.

About QIAGEN

QIAGEN N.V., a Netherlands-based holding company, is the leading global provider of Sample to Insight solutions that enable customers to gain valuable molecular insights from samples containing the building blocks of life. Our sample technologies isolate and process DNA, RNA and proteins from blood, tissue and other materials. Assay technologies make these biomolecules visible and ready for analysis. Bioinformatics software and knowledge bases interpret data to report relevant, actionable insights. Automation solutions tie these together in seamless and cost-effective workflows. QIAGEN provides solutions to more than 500,000 customers around the world in Molecular Diagnostics (human healthcare) and Life Sciences (academia, pharma R&D and industrial applications, primarily forensics). As of June 30, 2020, QIAGEN employed approximately 5,200 people in over 35 locations worldwide. Further information can be found at http://www.qiagen.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This communication contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Words such as "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "seeks," "estimates," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, but other statements that are not historical facts may also be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties relating to: the duration and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic; the need to develop new products and adapt to significant technological change; implementation of strategies for improving growth; general economic conditions and related uncertainties; dependence on customers' capital spending policies and government funding policies; the effect of economic and political conditions and exchange rate fluctuations on international operations; use and protection of intellectual property; the effect of changes in governmental regulations; and the effect of laws and regulations governing government contracts, as well as the possibility that expected benefits related to recent or pending acquisitions, including the proposed transaction, may not materialize as expected; the proposed transaction not being timely completed, if completed at all; regulatory approvals required for the transaction not being timely obtained, if obtained at all, or being obtained subject to conditions; prior to the completion of the transaction, QIAGEN's business experiencing disruptions due to transaction-related uncertainty or other factors making it more difficult to maintain relationships with employees, customers, licensees, other business partners or governmental entities; difficulty retaining key employees; the outcome of any legal proceedings related to the proposed transaction; and the parties being unable to successfully implement integration strategies or to achieve expected synergies and operating efficiencies within the expected time-frames or at all. Additional important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements are set forth in Thermo Fisher's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 28, 2020, which are on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and available in the "Investors" section of Thermo Fisher's website, ir.thermofisher.com, under the heading "SEC Filings," and in any subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other documents Thermo Fisher files with the SEC, and in QIAGEN's Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2019, which is on file with the SEC and available in the "Investor Relations" section of QIAGEN's website, corporate.qiagen.com/investor-relations, under the heading "Financial Reports," and in any subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 6-K and other documents QIAGEN files or furnishes with the SEC. While Thermo Fisher or QIAGEN may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Thermo Fisher and QIAGEN specifically disclaim any obligation to do so, even if estimates change and, therefore, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing either Thermo Fisher's or QIAGEN's views as of any date subsequent to today.

Additional Information and Where to Find It

This communication is for informational purposes only and is neither an offer to purchase nor a solicitation of an offer to sell any ordinary shares of QIAGEN or any other securities, nor is it a substitute for the tender offer materials that Thermo Fisher and/or its acquisition subsidiary has filed with the SEC and published in Germany. The terms and conditions of the tender offer are published in, and the offer to purchase ordinary shares of QIAGEN is made only pursuant to, the offer document, the publication of which was permitted by German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt fur Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht), and related offer materials prepared by Thermo Fisher and/or its acquisition subsidiary. The offer document for the tender offer (in German and in English), as amended, containing the detailed terms and conditions of, and other information relating to, the tender offer is, among other things, published on the internet at https://corporate.thermofisher.com/en/offer.html.

Acceptance of the tender offer by shareholders that are resident outside of the member states of the European Union and the European Economic Area and the United States may be subject to further legal requirements. With respect to the acceptance of the tender offer outside of the member states of the European Union and the European Economic Area and the United States, no responsibility is assumed for the compliance with such legal requirements applicable in the respective jurisdiction.

THE TENDER OFFER MATERIALS (INCLUDING THE OFFER DOCUMENT, A RELATED LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL AND CERTAIN OTHER TENDER OFFER DOCUMENTS) AND QIAGEN'S SOLICITATION/RECOMMENDATION STATEMENT ON SCHEDULE 14D-9, AS THEY MAY BE AMENDED FROM TIME TO TIME, AS WELL AS QIAGEN'S RECOMMENDATION STATEMENT PURSUANT TO SEC. 27 OF THE GERMAN SECURITIES ACQUISITION AND TAKEOVER ACT (WERTPAPIERERWERBS- UND UBERNAHMEGESETZ-WPUG) AND POSITION STATEMENT (GEMOTIVEERDE STANDPUNTBEPALING) PURSUANT TO SECTION 18 AND APPENDIX G OF THE DUTCH DECREE ON PUBLIC TAKEOVERS (BESLUIT OPENBARE BIEDINGEN) CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION. INVESTORS AND SHAREHOLDERS OF QIAGEN ARE URGED TO READ THESE DOCUMENTS CAREFULLY BECAUSE THEY, AND NOT THIS DOCUMENT, WILL GOVERN THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE TENDER OFFER, AND BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION THAT SUCH PERSONS SHOULD CONSIDER BEFORE MAKING ANY DECISION REGARDING TENDERING THEIR ORDINARY SHARES.

The tender offer materials, including the offer document and the related letter of transmittal and certain other tender offer documents, and the solicitation/recommendation statement and other documents filed with the SEC by Thermo Fisher or QIAGEN, may be obtained free of charge at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov or at QIAGEN's website at www.qiagen.com or by contacting QIAGEN's investor relations department at 240-686-2222 or at Thermo Fisher's website at www.thermofisher.com or by contacting Thermo Fisher's investor relations department at 781-622-1111. In addition, Thermo Fisher's tender offer statement and other documents it files with the SEC are available at https://ir.thermofisher.com/investors. Furthermore, copies of the offer document are available free of charge by contacting D.F. King & Co., Inc., Thermo Fisher's information agent for the tender offer.

SOURCE Thermo Fisher Scientific

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http://www.thermofisher.com


Exclusive: How COVID-19 has affected the global dance music industry & 15 other key points from the 2020 @IMSibiza Business Report https://t.co/Buf8YG0FoR  billboard (@billboard) July 16, 2020

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it's known that the dance music industry would be deeply affected. The annual IMS Business Report offers statistics on how the scene was faring before and after the pandemic. Prepared by London analyst Kevin Watson, the annual report is a tool for the industry, serves as a global baseline.Usually the report is presented at a spring Ibiza summit, this year's online.Amidst the pandemic, the value of the industry could fall by over 56%. Pre COVID-19, the electronic music industry grew by 2% to $7.3 billion. Over the past 5 years, electronic lost only to hip-hop/rap.Other data includes how in Ibiza, clubbers contributed with 0.5 billion to the Ibiza economy, with two million club tickets sold. During the island's summer 2019 season, sales generated 80 million in revenue. Drinks and VIP sales added 67 million and 9 million, respectively. A "musical tourist" spends twice that of an average family while on the island.Dance/Electronic clubs and festivals could lose 75% of income in 2020, roughly $3.3 billion. The pandemic impacted the festival and Ibiza seasons, it remains to be seen whether some events will be able to take place later in 2020. DJ and artist income fall from $1.1 billion in 2019 to $0.4 billion in 2020, a drop of 61%.Germany saw the most event cancellations, followed by France, Netherlands, the UK and the USA, with brands switching to live streaming. And using different venues for performing, with DJs who performed in Fortnite increasing their Instagram follower growth by 10x during and after the event.Source 1
The Defence Headquarters says the Air Task Force of Operation Lafiya Dole has destroyed a Boko Haram camp in Borno, killing several terrorists in a massive airstrike on July 15.

The Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, John Enenche, in a statement on Thursday, said the air raid took place at Ngwuri Gana along the Gulumba Gana-Kumshe axis of the state.

Mr Enenche said the air operation was in continuation of the sustained offensive against terrorist elements in the North-East.

He said the operation was carried out on the heels of intelligence reports indicating that the settlement was one of the locations from where the terrorists launch attacks against own troops positions and villages around the area.

According to him, aerial surveillance missions also confirmed the heavy presence of a large number of terrorists in the settlement, some of whom were seen slinging their rifles.

The Air Task Force, therefore, launched coordinated attacks on the various targets within the settlement, employing an enhanced force package of Nigerian Air Force (NAF) fighter jets and helicopter gunships.

The attack aircraft took turns in engaging the designated locations within the settlement, scoring devastating hits which led to the destruction of several structures, including the communication centres, as well as the neutralisation of several terrorists.

READ ALSO:

The Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, commends the Air Task Force for its dedication, dexterity and professionalism.

The Defence Headquarters equally urges it to intensify the air offensive against the terrorists and all other criminal elements threatening the peace and security of our beloved country, he said.

(NAN)
Myriam Borzee/iStockBy WILLIAM MANSELL and EMILY SHAPIRO, ABC News



(NEW YORK) -- The novel coronavirus pandemic has now killed more than 584,000 people worldwide.



Over 13.5 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 or downplaying the scope of their nations' outbreaks.



The United States has become the worst-affected country, with more than 3.4 million diagnosed cases and at least 137,419 deaths.

Here is how the news is developing today. All times Eastern. Check back for updates.

6:56 p.m.: Georgia governor sues Atlanta mayor over mask mandate, coronavirus restrictions



Georgia Gov. Brian Kemps office filed a lawsuit against Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms' recent mask mandate and coronavirus restrictions. Members of the city council are also named as defendants in the lawsuit.



The suit challenges recent executive orders by Bottoms that mandate facial coverings in public and prohibit gatherings on city property due to increasing COVID-19 cases.



"This lawsuit is on behalf of the Atlanta business owners and their hardworking employees who are struggling to survive during these difficult times," Kemp said in a statement. "These men and women are doing their very best to put food on the table for their families while local elected officials shutter businesses and undermine economic growth."



"We will fight to stop these reckless actions and put people over pandemic politics," he added.



Attorney General Chris Carr, whose office the lawsuit was filed, said on Twitter the state still urges citizens to wear masks, and that the lawsuit "is about the rule of law." Kemp has executive power for the state, he said, and Atlanta "cannot continue to knowingly enter orders that are unenforceable and void."



The court filing states that Bottoms' executive orders on July 8, 10 and 13 "purport to impose more restrictive terms" than Kemp's executive order.



Bottoms responded to the lawsuit on Twitter, saying, "3104 Georgians have died and I and my family are amongst the 106k who have tested positive for COVID-19. ... A better use of tax payer money would be to expand testing and contact tracing."





There have been at least 333 deaths in Fulton County, which includes the city of Atlanta.



Kemp had previously issued an executive order banning cities and counties in the state from issuing mask orders, a move the mayor of Savannah said Thursday was "reckless."

6:39 p.m.: US records new daily record for COVID-19 cases



The U.S. saw a record 71,229 new cases on Thursday, according to the COVID Tracking Project.



There were 977 new deaths nationwide, the highest number since May 29. More than 500 were reported in the South, a new high for the region, according to the project.





There are 57,369 patients currently hospitalized, a level not seen since April 23, it reported.

5:55 p.m.: Texas sees record death toll

Texas reported its highest number of deaths from COVID-19 yet on Thursday.

There were 129 new fatalities, for a total of 3,561, according to state data. It's previous record was set just yesterday.

The state reported 10,291 new cases, for a total of 292,656. The test positivity rate was 16.89% as of Wednesday, tying the previous record.

There are 10,457 people currently hospitalized, with 865 ICU beds remaining statewide.

4:40 p.m.: CDC extends no-sail order until end of September

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has extended its no-sail order for cruises until Sept. 30. The order was previously set to expire at the end of July.

Most major cruise lines previously said they would suspend trips until the fall.

4:20 p.m.: Savannah mayor fires back after governor bans cities from requiring masks

The mayor of Savannah, Georgia, is firing back after Gov. Brian Kemp issued an executive order banning cities and counties in the state from issuing mask orders to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

"Governor Kemp is overstepping his authority," Mayor Van Johnson said at a news conference Thursday, calling his actions "reckless and irresponsible.

Masks will be provided for free to anyone in Savannah who wants them, Johnson said.

"We will continue to wear them," he said, adding, "We will continue to require them in our city."

"We want to be consistent. So the difference between yesterday and today is nothing in Savannah," Johnson said.

The Savannah area saw more COVID-19 cases in the first 13 days of July than all of March, April, May and June combined, Johnson said.

"Masks are not a political statement -- masks are a public health tool," said Johnson, a Democrat.

"I do not care about politics, perceptions, opinions, beliefs or emotions," Johnson went on. "I am solely concerned and obsessed at this point with keeping Savannah and Savannahians safe."

Wednesday night's executive order from Kemp, a Republican, outlawed mask mandates but "strongly" encouraged all residents and visitors in Georgia to "wear face coverings as practicable while outside their homes or place of residence, except when eating, drinking or exercising outdoors."

3:45 p.m.: US borders with Canada, Mexico remaining closed to non-essential travel through Aug. 21

The U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico will remain closed to non-essential travel through Aug. 21, Canadian officials confirmed Thursday. Mexico confirmed on Tuesday.

The closure was first enacted in late March. There have been multiple extensions and the latest agreement was set to expire on July 21.

"We're going to keep working closely with our American neighbors to keep people safe on both sides of the border," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday.

Mexico has 317,635 coronavirus cases while Canada has just 110,911 cases.

3:15 p.m.: Parents without masks pack meeting on mask rules

In Utah County, Utah, parents rallying for the right to send their children to school without masks packed into a county commission meeting side-by-side Wednesday, ignoring social distancing and face covering rules, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

When the meeting began, Commissioner Tanner Ainge told the crowd, "This is the exact opposite of what we need to be doing.

"We are supposed to be physically distancing, wearing masks," Ainge said, which was met by boos from the residents.

"All of our medical experts, our Department of Health, everyone is encouraging us to do that," Ainge continued, as the crowd interrupted and yelled.

Ainge made a motion to continue the meeting to another day, and when another member voted in his favor, Ainge walked out, The Tribune reported.

Utah County has 5,637 people who have been diagnosed with coronavirus, including 30 residents who have died.

1 p.m.: Dog in South Carolina had COVID-19



A dog in Charleston County, South Carolina, is confirmed to have SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, according to Clemson University's Public Service and Agriculture.



The dog -- an 8- or 9-year-old shepherd mix with a chronic health condition -- was tested by a private veterinarian after one of its owners was confirmed to have coronavirus, Clemson said.



The dog was euthanized because of his chronic condition, state veterinarian Dr. Boyd Parr said.



12:45 p.m.: Arizona reports 24.5% positivity rate



Coronavirus cases are surging in Arizona, where the positivity rate stands at 24.5%, the state's Department of Health Services said Thursday.



Arizona has 3,454 patients in hospitals. The state's ICUs are 89% full, the health department said.



Over 134,000 people in Arizona have tested positive and at least 2,492 people have died.



12 p.m.: California's spike 'more than we anticipated,' Lt. Gov. says



In California, the recent spike in cases has been "more than we anticipated," Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis told ABC News on Thursday.



"We expected that there would be some increase when we started to loosen that stay at home order. What's happened, however, is that the spike is more than we anticipated, and it's too much," she said.



It appeared "the culprit for the resurgence is that people aren't taking those precautions seriously enough," Kounalakis said.



As cases rose, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday he was closing all bars and all indoor restaurants statewide. Also among the indoor businesses ordered to close were wineries, movie theaters, zoos, museums, family entertainment centers and card rooms.



Those closures will remain "until we can basically flatten that curve again," Kounalakis said.



California has 347,634 diagnosed cases and at least 7,227 fatalities.



But Kounalakis said she's confident in the hospital systems' capacities.



In the first few months of the pandemic, California added 50,000 more hospital beds and now has 250 million masks in storage, she said.



"Parts of the state are now more impacted than others. So we have been moving patients around from Imperial County for instance, down on our border, we're bringing patients up to Northern California where there are fewer cases," she said.



And as students gear up for the new school year, Kounalakis said each of California's 1,000 school districts is working on its own back-to-school plan.



"Several of the largest have said, you know, 'we're just going to do the fall in distance learning, because trying to bring students back is not looking feasible for us,'" she said. "Other school districts have a different approach. So every one of those school districts has to work it out."



Kounalakis added the state has worked hard to close the "digital divide" and providing students with the computers, iPads and internet access they need to learn at home.



11:15 a.m.: Florida has 54 hospitals with no ICU beds



Of 309 facilities being tracked, Florida has 54 hospitals with no available ICU beds and 32 hospitals with just one available ICU bed, according to the state's Agency for Healthcare Administration. These numbers will fluctuate throughout the day.



Florida's positivity rate stands at 12.94%, according to data released from the state's Department of Health Thursday. The national average is 9%.



The Department of Health reported 156 new deaths Thursday -- a daily record. Florida's death toll now stands at 4,782.



At least 315,775 Florida residents have been diagnosed with COVID-19.



Among the hardest hit areas are Miami-Dade County, which includes Miami, and Broward County, home to Fort Lauderdale.



Miami-Dade's positivity rate stands at 18.5% while Broward County's is at 16.6%, the Department of Health said Thursday.



10:50 a.m.: At least 24 coronavirus cases linked to church in West Virginia



At least 24 coronavirus cases have been linked to the North Charleston Apostolic Church in Charleston, West Virginia, according to the local health department. Congregants are asked to isolate, the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department said.



The church will be closed for three weeks for deep cleaning, the department said.



"Please consider attending services electronically, especially if youre at high risk for complications from COVID-19," Dr. Sherri Young, health officer and executive director of the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, said in a statement.



10:08 a.m.: Dozens of Miami cops have coronavirus



In hard-hit Miami, there's a surge of COVID-19 within the city's police department, with 79 officers testing positive, ABC Miami affiliate WPLG reported.



"In the first few months, we had about 30 officers that were COVID positive throughout that entire time. In the last few weeks  a month or so  we have 68 officers that are COVID positive and about 11 civilian employees, Chief Jorge Colina told WPLG.



Colina tested positive for COVID-19 in April, WPLG reported.



As a precaution, 151 officers are quarantining at home, the chief said.



9:30 a.m.: Republican convention in Jacksonville will be scaled back



Next month's Republican National Convention in Jacksonville, Florida, will be scaled back, according to a letter obtained by ABC News.



Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel sent a letter to party members Thursday morning informing them of the new plans.



Regular delegates are the only ones allowed to attend the first three days of the convention, the letter said, according to a Republican familiar with planning.



On the final day, when President Donald Trump gives a speech and accepts the nomination, "each delegate, their guest, and alternate delegates will be permitted to attend," the letter said.



The convention will be held Aug. 24 to Aug. 27. Health protocols like on-site temperature checks, personal protective equipment and available COVID-19 testing will be implemented, according to the letter.



"We expect there to be evening programming each night, along with some daytime events and festivities," the letter said. "We plan to utilize a number of indoor and outdoor venues."

9 a.m.: 'Absolutely no way' to open schools safely in high virus areas: Former CDC director



Dr. Richard Besser, former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and ABC News' former chief health and medical editor, spoke to "Good Morning America" Thursday about the reopening of schools and the possibility of long-term health effects on children with COVID-19.



"As a pediatrician and parent I know that children need to be in school ... but it has to be done safely. Not just for the children," Besser said, "but teachers and staff have to be safe."



"And we have to make sure that every school is safe -- not just those in wealthy neighborhoods that have the money to retrofit classrooms and hire staff to do cleaning and hire staff to do screening," Besser said.



He went on, "If you have widespread transmission in the community, like what is going in on in so many places, there's absolutely no way to safely open schools. You have to get it under control in the community first and then get your schools open ready to open."



Besser also addressed the possibility of long-term impacts on children who have COVID-19.



While most children with COVID-19 will do well, that's not the case for every child, Besser said, and the possible future health effects are "one of the big concerns when there is a new infectious disease."



Many adults who had COVID-19 still have fatigue and trouble breathing two months out, Besser said.



"There are a number of infections. If you get them in childhood, you get on into adulthood [and] they can have consequences," he said.

8:15 a.m.: NJ nursing homes allowing visitors

Family members, legal guardians and support people can now visit residents at New Jersey's long-term care facilities, the state's Department of Health announced Wednesday.



I understand how stressful and heartbreaking it has been for so many families not to be able to visit their loved ones in person for more than three months now, Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said in a statement. Reuniting families with their loved ones in these facilities is a critical step for the mental, physical, social and emotional well-being of these residents.



Visitors must wear masks, be screened for symptoms, get their temperature checked and maintain social distancing from other residents and staff.



The long-term care facilities can only allow visitors if no COVID-19 cases have been reported on site for 28 days (two incubation periods), the department said.

6:58 a.m..: Tulsa City Council passes mandatory mask ordinance



The Tulsa City Council in Oklahoma has issued a mask mandate less than a month after President Donald Trump held a reelection rally at an arena in the city.



The ordinance was passed with a 7-2 vote and is expected to be signed by Mayor G. T. Bynum on Thursday.



"I am very grateful for the broad support of the City Council in approving this important ordinance. Our local health care leaders made clear how important this is, and the City of Tulsa listened, Bynum said in a statement Wednesday night. "This pandemic continues to present us with difficult decisions that no elected official would ever want to make, but we will continue to do what we have to do to protect our local health care system."



The ordinance requires anyone over the age of 18 who will be in public places where social distancing is challenging to wear a mask.



The science is clear that the use of cloth face coverings are most likely to reduce the spread of COVID-19 when they are widely used by people in public settings," Tulsa Health Department Executive Director Dr. Bruce Dart said in a statement. "Wearing a mask not only considers others, but also allows us the freedom to go about our day during this new normal.



Tulsa's face-covering mandate comes just a day after Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, who attended Trump's rally without wearing a mask, announced he has tested positive for the coronavirus.



Oklahoma has more than 22,000 diagnosed COVID-19 cases, with at least 432 deaths.

5:42 a.m..: Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp bans local mask rules



Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp issued an executive order Wednesday night, which outright banned cities and counties in the state from issuing mask orders to help stop the spread of COVID-19.



The move, despite neighboring states like Alabama requiring masks in public, voided mask mandates in 15 local jurisdictions in the Peach State where they had been implemented.



While outlawing mask mandates, Kemp's executive order "strongly" encourages all residents and visitors in Georgia to "wear face coverings as practicable while outside their homes or place of residence, except when editing, drinking or exercising outdoors."



Kemp's order comes after Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottom issued an executive order requiring masks or face coverings in the city on July 8.



The state, according to an internal Federal Emergency Management Agency memo obtained by ABC News, has a test-positivity rate greater than 10%, with record numbers of new cases in rural, urban and suburban areas alike.



Georgia has had more than 127,838 diagnosed cases of coronavirus, with at least 3,091 deaths.



Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
LANSING, MI -- Michigan is contracting with multinational accounting giant Deloitte to assist with prevention and prosecution of widespread and national unemployment fraud.

Michigan selected Deloitte through a competitive bidding process and will pay $727,488 for 13 weeks of services, Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity spokesman Jason Moon said.

Deloitte will review the programs and systems at the UIA and assist with the investigation of imposter and fraudulent claims, the UIA said in an announcement issued Thursday, July 16. Deloitte has extensive experience with state unemployment and workforce systems across the country and will provide valuable financial and systems knowledge as the UIA continues to process a historic number of claims during this health and economic crisis.

Deloitte will also bring additional capacity to help the state identify potential cybersecurity vulnerabilities and take action to mitigate identified risks.

The contract comes at a time when unemployment insurance fraud has become a national issue. Maryland officials this week announced the discovery of over $500 million in suspected fraudulent unemployment claims there.

Criminal unemployment activity in Michigan is a part of an attack on unemployment systems nationwide, the UIA said. The U.S. Secret Service issued a national alert in May regarding an international criminal ring exploiting the COVID-19 crisis to commit large-scale unemployment fraud and the Inspector General of the U.S. Dept. of Labor has warned that the coronavirus pandemic has created a perfect storm for criminal activity across the country.

The suspected fraud led to increased scrutiny and longer wait times for Michigan residents seeking unemployment benefits.

As of June 12, the UIA had flagged 140,000 unemployment claims as being potentially fraudulent and state Attorney General Dana Nessel launched a task force in collaboration with the UIA, state police and the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO) to investigate.

State unemployment insurance systems across the country have been under attack by well-organized criminals attempting to take advantage of the unprecedented global pandemic and economic crisis to illegally obtain benefits through imposter claims, Michigan state police said in a June 12 statement. Bad actors are using previously stolen or false personal information from data breaches involving Equifax and others to apply for benefits.

As of July 6, the LEO had processed 97% of its backlogged unemployment claims but has not released an update as to how many were identified as fraudulent, nor has it released the amount of suspected illegitimate claims already paid.

Consistent with our commitment to our clients and our communities, Deloitte is pleased to bring our deep understanding of unemployment insurance systems and our broad capabilities in cybersecurity and forensic assessment to support the State of Michigans efforts to protect the integrity of their complex systems, said David Parent, the Michigan Managing Principal for Deloitte.

The UIA has paid nearly $15 billion to more than 2 million claimants since Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued a state of emergency over the coronavirus pandemic in March.

New unemployment claims are seeing a slight decline.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, new unemployment claims nationally dipped by 10,000 to 1.3 million for the week ending July 11.

The four-week moving average was about 1.4 million, a decrease of 60,000 from the prior weeks average.

The weeks seasonally adjusted national unemployment rate was also down about .3% to 11.9% percent, the Department of Labor said. for the week ending July 4, a decrease of 0.3 percentage point from the previous weeks revised rate

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.

More on MLive:

Fraud leaves unemployment claims unresolved

140,000 claims flagged for fraud

Michigan reports highest number of new cases in months

Whitmer orders mask use in Michigan, violators could be fined up to $500

Pronto Pups owner issues social media rant against coronavirus masks and Black Lives Matter

Pfizer coronavirus vaccines being manufactured in Michigan get FDAs fast track status

Michigan already has more coronavirus cases in July than all of June; track the trend in your county

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.

Read more on MLive:

Michigan reports highest number of new cases in months

Whitmer orders mask use in Michigan, violators could be fined up to $500

Pronto Pups owner issues social media rant against coronavirus masks and Black Lives Matter

Pfizer coronavirus vaccines being manufactured in Michigan get FDAs fast track status

Michigan already has more coronavirus cases in July than all of June; track the trend in your county
By Nikhat Fatima, TwoCircles.net

Stella Simona is a Bangladeshi origin designer, who before starting her jewelry store was a model and a fashion photographer. The jewelry line she runs is called Haati Chai and has creations that are handmade with conflict-free stones.

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But among the various designs in her collections is the Devi Ring, which was earlier named as Dalit ring. The Dalit ring or the Devi ring is embedded with raw unfinished diamonds set in 18K gold.

The ring has lead to controversy among Dalits in India. Many bloggers, activists and filmmakers, who found the name of the ring to be distasteful, have expressed displeasure on social media.

The Dalit ring has raw unfinished stones, which many dont find beautiful because they want perfectly finished diamonds. Just like the Dalit caste, the Dalit ring is very unique and extremely beautiful, goes the description of the ring on the website.

Dalits have raised questions like why market a ring in their name? Some opined that using the word Dalit, which represents the poor and marginalised section of the Indian society, at an exorbitant amount of USD 2000 (Rs.1.5 lakhs INR) is a business tactic.

Many others questioned how much of the revenue generated by Stella goes to support the Dalit community.

Kamna Singh, a research scholar at Delhi University issued a statement saying that the description of the ring is in contrast with the reality as even today Dalits get raped, killed and humiliated in India.

Words such as raw, unfinished, unique and beautiful do not do any justice to the history of a people who Hindus and Hinduism continue to subject to untouchability and humiliation by way of language, social, economic and political marginalisation, she wrote.

Some Dalit activists believe that people from outside the Dalit community can never really understand the pain and trauma of being a Dalit. And when they write or talk about Dalit issues it is not the same as a Dalit person recounting her or his pain and humiliation, they say.

The ring designed by Stella, worth a whopping amount and naming it Dalit ring, is trivialising the painful history of Dalits.

But what inspired Stella, who is based in Los Angeles in the USA to create the Dalit ring?

TwoCircles.net had a conversation with the creator of the jewelry line Haati Chai, that has been running since 2011 from Los Angeles.

Jewelry for me holds a lot of meaning, Stella explained. And I try to design every piece offering art that people can create a conversation around. But I dont always expect a positive conversation because I know people have different opinions and interpret things in different ways, she told TwoCircles.net.

I was not aware of the intensity of the atrocities and injustices meted to the Dalits until recently. And when I became aware I wanted the world to know about the plight of Dalits and create awareness. And I wanted to do it through my designs, she said.

To elaborate her point, Stella refers to one of her jewelry collections called Shavar (the Bengali word for our is Shavar) which was to create awareness about a building that collapsed in Bangladesh resulting in the death of many workers who worked there. The name of that building was Shavar and it housed factories that had several workers, many of whom were also under aged. The Shavar collection had pieces named after some of the people who were involved in the cause for the workers welfare.

Likewise, the Dalit ring too has the story of struggle and forging identities by the Dalit people, says Stella.

When the Dalit ring was displayed in my store, several customers wanted to know its meaning, she said.

Stella said she used this chance to create awareness about the Dalit community.

People who were not aware of Dalits learnt about them as a lot of people gravitated towards the design of the ring, she said.

Re-naming the Ring

Stella admitted that people from the Dalit community dont have the financial power to invest in something like this. But I want other people to be aware of Dalits issues and invest in their cause.

However Haati Chai has not contributed so far to the cause of Dalits, she said. But will definitely do so in the future.  We are in communication with 3 organisations and are working to properly vet, who will be donating 100% of all the profits for this ring, disclosed Stella.

After the backlash from Indian community of Dalits, more so when the #BlackLivesMatter was trending after the death of George Floyd, Stella and her team have communicated through Instagram their intention was to bring attention to the struggle of the marginalised community of Dalits but they failed in its execution.

To rectify the mistake, the ring has been renamed Devi ring, in honour of a Dalit woman warrior named Uda Devi.

We will also be changing the caption of the ring to a more in-depth explanation of how important and in my opinion, beautiful the community is, she said.

I truly value this piece and it is one of a kind. It is traditional and very Indian. The idea is individualism and strong, Stella said.

Stella said that many understand the concept and where it is coming from. And then there are Indians in America who dont like the word Dalit, she explained and added, And when one person or people are hurting it hurts the rest of us whether we want to see it that way or not.

TwoCircles.net spoke to various people about their thoughts on the Dalit Ring before it was renamed as Devi Ring.

Youngsters among the Dalit community see the Dalit ring now named as Devi ring as a unique piece that pays tribute to Dalits.

However, Dalit poetess, Mercy Margaret differs, Dalits have been suppressed from ages and till today are struggling for their rights. They may not even have enough money to buy one gram of gold. Calling it a Dalit ring seems more of an upper-caste approach. I feel it is not correct to name the jewel after Dalits.

Maya Promod, a research scholar from Kerala is happy about the product and the understanding behind it.

I dont know if it can be termed inspirational, but I feel good that the designer has such an understanding of things. At a time when brands like Brahmin and Pisharodis are established and sold well, I am feeling great that a product, that too such a costly thing as gold, is marketed in the name of Dalits as Dalit Ring, Said Maya Pramod, a research scholar from Kerala.

Dolly Arjun, a Physician Assistant in Boston, liked the idea of having conflict stones in the Dalit ring. But this does not benefit the community. It benefits someone else. If the ring was named as Ambedkar ring then one can explain that Ambedkar was a person who fought the caste system and for rights of Dalits. But calling it Dalit ring and having unfinished diamonds which are not perfect suggests that Dalits are not perfect either. I wish it was made with perfectly finished stones so it would be sensitive to Dalits and their struggles. The designer may have good intentions but I dont know how it helps Dalits, she said.

While some wanted to know if upper caste people would wear something named as Dalit ring but now that it has been renamed they feel it is just a patronising gesture with the motive remaining same, which is to make money in the name of Dalits.

Some took to social media to criticise the name saying that descendants of Uda Devi should sue the makers of the ring.

So far the customers of Haati Chai who have purchased the Dalit/Devi ring from the western world are mostly from the United Kingdom, said Stella.

The issue and controversy around the Dalit ring have raised important questions concerning people from outside the oppressed community being seen as appropriating the cultural symbols or vocabulary of the oppressed.

For now, there appears to be an uneasy compromise with the renaming of the ring. But the episode goes to show how fraught and complicated it can be for outsiders to engage with sensitive subjects  especially dealing with violence and oppression, without first consulting with or interacting with the affected community, said an activist based in the US.
Heather Morris has paid tribute to her on-screen wife in Glee, Naya Rivera, who died after drowning in Lake Piru on 8 July.

The actors body was found at the lake in California five days after she went missing.

Authorities had been searching the area since Rivera, 33, was reported missing after she rented a pontoon boat with her four-year-old son. The boy told police she pushed him back into the boat before disappearing beneath the surface.

Rivera played Santana Lopez in Glee, a character who ended up marrying Morriss Brittany Pierce.

Morris wrote on Instagram that the pair had the most beautiful friendship built out of love and understanding.

She said Rivera constantly taught me lessons about grief, about beauty and poise, about being strong [and] resilient.

Morris added: Yet, the utmost important lesson I learned most of all from you was being a consistent and loving friend. You were the first to check in, the first to ask questions, the first to listen... you cherished our friendship and I never took that for granted.

She concluded: I speak to you everyday because I know youre still with me and even though Im feeling greedy that we dont get more time together, I cherish every moment we had and hold it close to my heart.

On Monday (13 July), Ventura County Sheriff Bill Ayub suggested the lakes currents could have caused difficulties.

Riveras child was found alone and asleep in the boat by a leasing agent after it was not returned.

The medical examiners report confirmed the cause of death as drowning, and said that there were no signs of it being the result of anything other than an accident.

Earlier on Tuesday, Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan shared their memories of working with Rivera, saying in a written statement that they were heartbroken at the loss of their friend.
In 2018, Charlamagne signed to do a series of specials for HBO, but the network pulled out over jokes he made about having sex with a woman who was drunk and drugged, said a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment. He apologized for the remark and said the sex was consensual. At the same time, a 2001 criminal charge of sexual misconduct with a minor  which he has denied  also surfaced as the alleged victim unsuccessfully tried to have the case reopened.
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Vietnam confirmed on Wednesday eight imported COVID-19 cases who are Russian experts having arrived in the country last week.

The eight new patients touched down at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City on board flight IO4405 on July 11, the Ministry of Health said.

They flew in a group of 69 Russian experts and were sent to a centralized quarantine center in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, more than 100km from the city, upon landing.

Each of the 69 Russians stays in a separate room at the center. Their samples were taken for coronavirus testing on Monday.

The Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City confirmed eight of the samples to be positive on Tuesday.

The eight patients are being isolated for treatment at Ba Ria-Vung Tau Hospital.

Vietnam has documented a total of 381 coronavirus cases to date, with 353 having recovered and zero deaths, the health ministry said.

More than 12,000 people are in quarantine to stem viral transmission in Vietnam at the time of writing.

The Southeast Asian country has denied entry to all foreigners since March 22 to prevent COVID-19 spread but certain foreign experts and skilled workers are allowed in, subject to government approval.

All entrants have to be quarantined for 14 days as per local regulations.

Vietnam still bans commercial flights to and from foreign countries, with government-approved planes arranged to bring back citizens from overseas.

The nation is planning on resuming some regular international flights to mainland China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Laos, and Cambodia from August.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
It's taken 55 years but Chris Rock is finally rocking some ink.

The comedian and actor stopped by celebrity favored Bang Bang in NYC to get his first tattoo with the ink master showing off his handiwork on Instagram.

According to the tattoo artist Keith Scott 'Bang Bang' McCurdy, Rock's daughter Zahra also got her first inking at the same time.

Inked: Chris Rock got his first tattoo at 55 on Wednesday as he stopped by celebrated Bang Bang in New York City

Rock posed for a photo wearing a white t-shirt and a white hat along with a black cloth face mask.

He rolled up the left sleeve of his tee to reveal the new Basquiat crown image on the front of his left shoulder.

According to a close-up snap also posted to Instagram, Rock's daughter got the same crown design on the back of her right shoulder but with a dinosaur underneath it.

Did it: Rock posed for a photo wearing a white t-shirt and a white hat along with a black cloth face mask. He rolled up the left sleeve of his tee to reveal the new Basquiat crown image

Matching tats: According to a close-up snap also posted to Instagram, Rock's daughter Zahra got the same crown design on the back of her right shoulder but with a dinosaur underneath it

On Monday, Rock was spotted out and about in the Big Apple with Zahra, the youngest of his two daughters with ex-wife Malaak Compton.

The pair stepped out together in Manhattan, stopping for a slice of pizza in the SoHo neighborhood.

Rock opted for an all-black ensemble on that occasion along with a slightly misshapen straw hat an aviator shades.

Zahra, 16, looked summery in a red sundress paired with hi top white sneakers.

Dad and daughter time: On Monday, Rock was spotted out and about in the Big Apple with Zahra, the youngest of his two daughters with ex-wife Malaak Compton

Summer vibes:The two relaxed as they enjoyed a slice of pizza at an outdoor picnic table in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood

Before the coronavirus pandemic shut down most movie production, Rock had finished filming The Witches for Robert Zemeckis and the Saw sequel, Spiral.

He is also attached to star in I Am Maurice, a drama about a Haitian immigrant who travels to America following his country's 2010 earthquake to pursue his dream of becoming a boxer.

It's not known when the film, which will co-star Leslie Jones, is likely to start shooting due to the pandemic.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 23:19:22|Editor: huaxia

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JERUSALEM, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Israel's cabinet is preparing to vote on a nationwide weekend lockdown to curb a resurgence in the coronavirus cases.

An urgent meeting of ministers and health officials convened by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to impose a series of measures including a lockdown during the weekends.

The Israeli cabinet is expected to convene later on Thursday night to approve the new measures.

If approved, shopping malls, gyms, and beaches will be closed and gatherings of more than ten people will be prohibited during the weekends, from Friday to Sunday morning.

Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office that he convened the urgent meeting "following the jump in morbidity to around 1,800 cases and the sharp increase in the doubling of the number of severe cases every seven days."

He was hopeful that the "interim steps" could "prevent the need for a general lockdown."

"The cabinet will convene this evening to approve the recommendations that were unanimously approved at the discussion," the prime minister added.

Israel is facing a resurgence of a COVID-19 outbreak with a record-high number of daily cases. On Wednesday, 1,828 new cases were diagnosed, bringing the total number of cases to 44,188. It was the second-largest daily increase since February and came only two days after a record of 1,962 daily new cases were reported.

Netanyahu's government is facing growing public anger over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak and the ensuing economic crisis, as many Israelis believe it had not done enough to halt the pandemic and help the soaring number of unemployed people.

In a bid to soothe public protest, Netanyahu announced on Wednesday night a new aid plan that promises to cut a check to every Israeli citizen. Enditem
By Trend





The Armenian side planned its latest provocation in advance and on purpose, Assistant to Azerbaijans President, Head of Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmat Hajiyev said in an interview to the European Euractiv.com news website.

Hajiyev was commenting on the recent provocation made by the Armenian armed forces in the direction of Azerbaijans Tovuz district along the state border with Azerbaijan, Trend reports.

Armenia wants to create a new source of tension in the region and a new source of conflict in the region, particularly in the border area of two countries, assistant to Azerbaijans president added. And we also see the Armenian side tries to derail the negotiations process by all means, not to withdraw its armed forces from the Azerbaijani territories.

The Armenian side has unleashed this provocation in a deliberate manner, Hajiyev added. Real facts on the ground speak for themselves. Firstly, number one fact is that before the clashes, we have monitored a concentration of Armenian troops and high-level military officials around this area. Secondly, the Armenian side says that there was one small military car, truck or minibus that engaged, but its ridiculous.

No one conducts any attack or operation offensive with a small, unarmored car, Hajiyev added. The real fact is that the Armenian side attacked the positions of the Azerbaijani side with artillery. It was sudden and targeted deliberate attack. In order to diffuse tension in the border area, Azerbaijan deployed State Border Service personnel along the border with Armenia.

Attacking civilian objects and civilians is the modus operandi and the rule of engagement of Armenian armed forces, assistant to Azerbaijans president said. It once again demonstrates that Armenia is flagrantly violating international humanitarian law, including the Geneva Conventions. Today, we regret that one 76-year-old man was killed as a result of an Armenian artillery attack.

We also see a declining social-economic situation in Armenia, Hajiyev said. The situation is becoming worse, particularly in the list of spreading of COVID. The Armenian government is trying to deflect public attention and anger.

I think the EU and EU countries have a better understanding of the situation, Hajiyev said. From our side, we are also trying to inform our EU partners.

But we expect more addressed statements from EU to distinguish between the aggressor and those who have been the subject of aggression, Hajiyev said. The actions of Armenia need to be strongly condemned by the international community and EU as well. The impunity of Armenia encourages Yerevan to new military adventures and provocations. We also expect that the EU should assess the illegal activities of Armenia in the occupied territories, including the illegal settlement of Armenia in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

The original text is here
Mother nature has unleashed a number of bizarre creatures across the US this year  first it murderous hornets, then annoying cicadas and now self-cloning ticks.

Asian longhorned ticks have been spotted in the northeast for the first time since 2017 and are known to carry dangerous diseases that infect livestock.

What makes this species threatening is that it is asexual and does not need a mate in order to reproduce, allowing females to create a fast-growing population.

Reports of ticks have surfaced in at least 12 states this year and experts believe the invasion may have started from just three females from East Asia.

Asian longhorned ticks have been spotted in the northeast for the first time since 2017 and are known to carry dangerous diseases that infect livestock

The Asian longhorned tick was first detected back in 2017 by Rutgers Center for Vector Biology, in collaboration with a team of outside researchers, who discovered the arachnid in New Jersey.

However, ticks have made their way into 11 other states including Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia and experts believe it may have traveled as far as Maine.

The species has two forms: one with males and females, and one with self-cloning females that lay eggs without needing to mate, a process called 'parthenogenesis.'

The self-cloning form, free from the need to look for mates, are especially likely to thrive and spread.

What makes this species threatening is that it is asexual and does not need a mate in order to reproduce, allowing females to create a fast-growing population. Reports of ticks have surfaced in at least 12 states this year and experts believe the invasion may have started from just three females from East Asia

And a single female can establish a fast-growing population.

These arachnids invaded Australia and New Zealand in the early 1900s and has since established a population that causes significant losses in the cattle industry and experts warn similar events could occur in the US.

The tick is known to carry and transmit diseases in its native land, but those disease have yet to be recorded in the US.

However, there is a concern that the species could pick up and transmit diseases that already occur in the U.S. in other tick species, such as anaplasmosis, babesiosis and Powassan virus.

Andrea M. Egizi, research scientist with the Monmouth County Tick-borne Diseases Laboratory, said: 'While additional samples from the tick's native range are needed to pinpoint more exactly the source of the U.S. introduction, our data suggest that they came from one or more locations in northeastern Asia -- either through a single introduction of at least three ticks or as multiple introductions from different populations.'

Rutgers Center for Vector Biology researchers collected samples of Asian longhorned ticks across the US and in other countries, which used in gene sequencing to detect genetic similarities and differences between various populations.

Following the analysis, the team discovered at least three individual self-cloning ticks that were brought to the states, which lines up with the fact the only ones found in the US so far are female.

'Overall, US ticks are more likely to have come from an East Asian country (or countries) than from Australia and New Zealand,' the team shared in a statement.

Asian hornets, dubbed 'murderous hornets' were invade the US earlier this year

Working with the US Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Veterinary Services, researchers found evidence that these ticks traveled within the United States on wildlife as well as through the transport of pets or livestock.

Dina M. Fonseca, a professor and director of the Center for Vector Biology in the Department of Entomology in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, said: 'One thing we uncovered is the ease with which pets, especially dogs, can accidentally help ticks cross international borders and state lines.'

'Many countries require dogs to be treated for ticks and other parasites before entering the country, but the United States does not.

'We urge greater awareness of this issue to prevent future exotic tick introductions.'
A Los Angeles police officer who worked as a bodyguard for Mayor Eric Garcetti for seven years filed a lawsuit against the city Monday alleging a top advisor of the mayor's repeatedly sexually harassed him.

The suit says that Mayor Garcetti was present when many cases of the alleged harassment took place but that he would 'laugh' at the comments and did nothing to intervene.

LAPD cop Matthew Garza said he refused to go back to working in the mayor's security detail in June because of the continued harassment from longtime Garcetti consultant Rick Jacobs.

Garza claims Jacobs, a former executive vice mayor of Los Angeles, made crude sexual comments and touched him inappropriately over several years, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Longtime LA Mayor Eric Garcetti consultant Rick Jacobs, pictured center, has been accused of sexual harassment against a cop who worked in the mayor's security detail in a new lawsuit

The suit alleges the harassment took place on trips Garcetti took to Arizona, New Hampshire and elsewhere.

Garza, who first joined the police force in 1997, became a member of the mayor's security detail in October 2013, according to the suit.

The detail involves accompanying the mayor at all times, driving him to and from his engagements and traveling with him on out-of-town trips.

Over the following years, the suit claims, Garza was 'subjected to unwanted sexual harassment by Jacobs, who is openly gay'.

It alleges that the harassment only let up for a brief period in 2016 when Jacobs was on a leave of absence from Garcetti's team of top advisors for an unknown reason.

Garza filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday alleging sex/gender harassment and the existence of a hostile work environment in violation of the California Fair Housing and Employment Act.

The city of Los Angeles is the only named defendant.

According to the suit, the harassment began in 2014 and continued up until October 2019.

It claims Jacobs would pull Garza into a 'long, tight hug' while making an 'inappropriate comment' such as '"youre so strong and handsome"; "your muscles are so tight"; "I love me my strong LAPD officers".'

In the lawsuit, LAPD cop Matthew Garza claims that Mayor Garcetti, pictured, was present for much of the harassment but did not intervene and would even 'laugh' at some of the comments

Garza said it made him 'extremely uncomfortable'.

Jacobs was also accused of repeatedly talking about his young gay lover, having 'rough sex' with his gay partners, liking 'big c***' and being attracted to younger men, the complaint states.

A March 2016 incident in the lawsuit alleges that Jacobs gestured for Garza to 'sit on his lap' after spotting him in a hotel bar when the mayors team traveled to Phoenix for a fundraiser.

Another incident cited in the suit claims Jacobs on several occasions massaged Garzas shoulders from the backseat of a car when the team traveled to New Hampshire so the mayor could give a college commencement address in May 2018.

Garza said Garcetti was sitting next to Jacobs but did nothing to stop the unwanted advances.

Rick Jacobs, a former executive vice mayor, has denied all the claims

In a trip later that year, Garza claims Jacobs pointed to some Magnum brand condoms in a gas station and asked Garza if he wears Magnum large condoms.

'Garcetti was present on approximately half of the occasions when Jacobs behaved in this way, and witnessed Jacobs conduct, but he took no action to correct Jacobs obviously harassing behavior,' the suit claims.

'On some occasions, the mayor would laugh at Jacobs crude comments.'

It also claims that other Garcetti staffers would apologize to Garza for Jacobs' behavior but no actions were ever taken to end it.

'Over a dozen occasions, both while Jacobs was employed by the city and after he left city employment, staffers in Mayor Garcettis office apologized to [Garza] for Jacobs harassing conduct,' the suit states.

'Nevertheless, the mayors office never took any action to stop Jacobs harassment of [Garza].'

The officer says he eventually decided to leave the security detail last month because of Jacobs' behavior.

He was returning from a leave of absence for a back injury, but 'refused to return to the Mayors detail because of the continual touchings, comments, and vulgar behavior directed at him by Jacobs and silently condoned by the Mayor of the City of Los Angeles'.

The suit says he lost higher wages and benefits because he was no longer a member of the higher-paying assignment.

Garza said he lost his rank as Police Officer III + 1, as well as approximately 5 percent of his base salary and approximately $20,000 in overtime a year.

Mayor Garcetti, pictured, has denied he witnessed any sexual harassment from Rick Jacobs

The complaint adds Garza will 'continue to sustain damage to his reputation, and his ability to advance and/or promote in the department has been and will continue to be adversely impacted'.

Jacobs has vigorously denied the claims of harassment made against him.

'This lawsuit is a work of pure fiction, and is out of left field. Officer Garza and I worked together for many years without incident,' he said in a statement to the LA Times.

'I will vigorously defend myself, my character and my reputation.'

The Mayor has also denied that he witnessed any of the sexual harassment claims laid out in Garza's lawsuit.

'The mayor has zero tolerance for sexual harassment and unequivocally did not witness the behavior that Officer Garza alleges,' the mayor's spokesperson Alex Comisar said.

Jacobs is a long-time political advisor to Garcetti.

According to the Los Angeles Times, he raised millions of dollars in support of Garcettis 2013 mayoral campaign.

On Garcetti's win, he was given a top post of executive vice mayor but stepped down in 2016 when going on a leave of absence for an unknown reason.

Jacobs has previously been accused of threatening a Los Angeles County business organization if they opposed a tax measure supported by the mayor.

Garza's lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.
Brazil is expected to report more than 2 million confirmed coronavirus cases on Thursday, hitting that grim milestone at an alarming pace as anger grows over President Jair Bolsonaro's handling of the outbreak.

Just 27 days have passed since the South American nation reached the one-million mark, according to government's Health Ministry.

Brazil has the world's second-largest outbreak after the United States and has seen the ravaging virus's infection rate accelerate since then, hitting a plateau of nearly 40,000 confirmed new cases per day in recent weeks.

As of Thursday morning, there were 1,966,748 positive cases and at least 75,366 people have died from the epidemic in Brazil, which has become the virus's epicenter in Latin America.

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro (pictured) is treating his COVID-19 with the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, although it has not been proven effective against the virus

Workers at a cemetery in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, cary the coffin of 62-year-old Edson Amorim, who died of the coronavirus, before the victim's burial Thursday

Residents in Sao Paulo (pictured Wednesday) wear protective face masks and face shield amid the outbreak of the coronavirus. The state has been the hardest hit in Brazil with more than 390,000 confirmed cases and more than 18,000 deaths

Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain who on Wednesday said he tested positive for the coronavirus for the second time in a week, has pressured local governments to lift lockdown restrictions despite the rapid spread of the virus.

In comparison, 43 days passed between 1 million and 2 million confirmed cases in the United States, where the spread of the deadly virus eased briefly in May before accelerating again in June, according to a Reuters tally.

Brazil, the largest country in Latin America, is home to around 210 million people - roughly two-thirds the size of the U.S. population.

In both countries, contagion has exploded as the virus gains steam in new areas far from the largest cities. A patchwork of state and city responses has held up poorly in Brazil in the absence of a tightly coordinated policy from the federal government.

Relatives react near the grave of 81-year-old Neusa Freitas dos Santos, 81, who died from the coronavirus disease in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Thursday

Edinilson Silva is taken out of plane, which is equipped as an ICU unit, upon arrival to the Brazilian city of Santarem on Wednesday

Bolsonaro, who once compared the virus to a 'little flu,' has played down its health risks and fought against social distancing orders, calling their economic effects worse than the disease itself.

Under pressure, many governors and mayors have loosened restrictions in recent weeks, fueling bigger outbreaks.

Just two days after he tested positive last week, Bolsonaro boasted on Twitter that no other country had put forth a better effort to protect lives and jobs throughout the pandemic.

'No other country has done like Brazil. We preserve lives and jobs without spreading panic, which also leads to depression and death,' he wrote.

Bolsonaro continuously has championed the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, claiming it has helped him battle the infection although it has not been proven effective against the virus

Polls show Bolsonaro's popularity has been sinking during the pandemic. The share of Brazilians that see his government as bad or terrible has risen to 44 percent according to a late June survey by pollster Datafolha. That was up from 38 percent in April and 36 percent in December.

'The government didn't budge despite the health crisis. They thought more about money than about people,' said Rafael Reis of Rio de Janeiro, who lost his 71-year-old mother to the illness. 'They mocked the disease. They didn't believe in it ... They wanted everyone back in the streets.'

In some big cities such as Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, where the outbreak first emerged in Brazil, new daily cases have stabilized and even begun to decline slowly.

As a state, Sao Paulo has been the hardest hit in Brazil with more than 390,000 confirmed cases and more than 18,000 deaths. The state of Ceara is second with more than 141,300 cases and 7,030 deaths. Rio de Janeiro ranks third with over 134,400 infections and more than 11,700 deaths.

However, that has been offset by worsening outbreaks in other regions.

President Jair Bolsonaro (pictured) tested positive for the coronavirus July 7 and revealed Wednesday that a test he had taken the previous day confirmed he was once again infected with the virus

Gravediggers wearing protective suits bury a coffin at Vila Formosa cemetery in Sao Paulo on Thursday

A relative of 62-year-old Edson Amorim places a rose at her tomb at a cemetery outside Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Thursday

Among the the states with the fastest growing outbreaks are Rio Grande do Sul and Parana in southern Brazil, which had kept a lid on their outbreaks early on.

'The disease has evolved not only over time, but also over geographies,' said Roberto Medronho, a professor of medicine at Rio de Janeiro Federal University. 'We still have not reached the peak in Brazil because of these successive epidemics occurring in various regions.'

He said models show the next million cases in Brazil may come more slowly, as there are now fewer untouched corners of the country. By the end of July or first half of August, Medronho said new daily cases could begin to decline nationally.

However, public health experts are raising alarms about the worsening outlook in southern Brazil, which has the coldest weather during the southern hemisphere winter, now underway, and a population that skews older than the rest of the country.

COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, is known to be significantly deadlier for the older population. While other coronaviruses have spread more rapidly during winter months, the impact of the colder weather on the novel virus has not been scientifically proven.

'What worries me in the south is the spread to the interior, with an older population,' said Wanderson Oliveira, a former secretary in the health ministry. 'Given the cold and the humidity, it has all the conditions to explode.'
Sen. Dan Goddard listens to a question at a fundraiser event for his reelection campaign Tuesday evening at Wall Family Center, 2605 Main St.
YEREVAN, JULY 16, ARMENPRESS. The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has already claimed lives, now we are again on the verge of war and should fight for peace, ethnic Armenian MP of the Swedish Parliament Arin Karapet said on Facebook.

Recently the Azerbaijani troops launched an attack on an Armenian bordering military base, firing mortar shells at the settlements. Exchange of fire has taken place from both sides, and there is a danger of one more bloody conflict. The recent events should be condemned, and the two countries should return to a negotiation table. The war will only lead to human sufferings, the MP said.

According to him, Sweden can and should act now and contribute to preventing a new bloody conflict.

We are a member of the OSCE Minsk Group which has been created specially for the mediation between the two countries during the war in the 1990s. We can be constructive through it and call for restraint.

Now we need to condemn the violence and work actively for installing latest surveillance technologies along the border. This allows independent countries to control the conflict in the real time and contribute to accountability. Eventually, it can lead to the political solution of the conflict, rather than the military one, the ethnic Armenian lawmaker said.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
The man suspected of fatally shooting two sisters last week at an Upper Kirby apartment was found dead Monday with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a motel room near San Antonio, according to police.

The man, identified as Arian Hojat, 34, is accused of fatally shooting Nasim and Sousan Arab multiple times Friday in the Camden Greenway Apartments in the 3200 block of Norfolk. Police said he is the ex-boyfriend of one of the women.
The latest development comes just four days before the deadline for Jadhav to file a review petition in his case ends.

India on Thursday got its second consular access to former Indian Navy personnel Kulbhushan Jadhav, who has been sentenced to death for alleged espionage in Pakistan. According to TV media reports, two Indian High Commission officials were given 4 pm (PST) as the time for the meeting.

However, India expressed its disappointment over Pakistan not providing an unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional consular access to Jadhav.

"Pakistan did not give unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional consular access to Indian death row convict Kulbhushan Jadhav in violation of an order by an international tribunal and its officials left the meeting venue after lodging a protest," the Ministry of External Affairs said.

The MEA said Jadhav was "visibly under stress" and indicated that clearly to the Indian consular officers, adding the arrangements did not permit a free conversation between them.

The ministry said the consular officers could not engage Jadhav on his legal rights and were prevented from obtaining his written consent for arranging his legal representation.

"The consular officers were not given unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional access to Jadhav. On the contrary, Pakistani officials with an intimidating demeanour were present in close proximity of Jadhav and consular officers despite the protests of the Indian side," the ministry added.

The MEA said it was also evident from a camera that was visible that the conversation with Jadhav was being recorded.

"In the light of these circumstances, the Indian consular officers came to the conclusion that the consular access being offered by Pakistan was neither meaningful nor credible. After lodging a protest, they left the venue," the MEA said.

The latest development comes just four days before the deadline for Jadhav to file a review petition in his case ends. However, Pakistan had claimed that Jadhav had refused to file a review petition but only follow up on the mercy petition to the President of Pakistan.

Earlier, New Delhi had asked Islamabad to give "unconditional consular access" to Jadhav, as per sources.

"Last time what they did was insulting to his mother, father and wife and insulting to India as a whole. So we want that consular access should be unconditional," Arvind Singh, Kulbhushan Jadhav's childhood friend, told ANI.

India had also charged Pakistan of coercing Jadhav into forgoing his right to seek the implementation of International Court of Justice's verdict, which was in his favour.

In July 2018, the ICJ overwhelmingly had upheld India's claim of Pakistan committing an egregious violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations on several counts in Jadhav's case.
SARATOGA SPRINGS  One hundred and 57 years after Capt. Luther Wheeler died while storming Fredericksburg, the statue with his face was shattered at Congress Park.

It was knocked off its pedestal and appears to have shattered when it hit the ground.

Police discovered the Civil War statue in pieces on the ground during a routine foot patrol around 3:30 a.m. Thursday. Officers were reviewing security camera footage to determine whether they could identify who committed the vandalism.

Its not the first time sculptures have been damaged in the park. In 1999, a teenager vandalized Spit & Spat, two figures blowing water through conch shells. In the Italian-style garden there used to be many other sculptures near them, but they were destroyed by vandals decades earlier.

But when the public raised money to restore Spit & Spat, the city received so much money that it was also able to afford security cameras, which are now placed throughout the park.

Wheelers image was chosen in the 1870s for a Union soldier statue to commemorate the members of the 77th New York Volunteers. The battalion was drawn out of companies from all of the northern Saratoga towns, as well as Saratoga Springs. Numerically, the battalion should have been given a number in the 30s, but members petitioned the governor to be named in honor of the Battle of Saratoga in 1777, a decisive battle in the Revolutionary War.

Their petition was accepted and they formed in 1861 as the 77th, Bemis Heights Battalion, in honor of their Revolutionary War roots. The battalion took part in all the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, the Campaign in the Shenandoah Valley under General Philip Sheridan, and fought in the Battle of Fort Stevens at Washington, D.C.

It started with 900 men in 1861. By the Battle of Antietam in 1862, there were fewer than 300 men able to fight, and the highest ranking commander was a captain.

That might be why Wheeler was remembered so fondly. He was one of the captains.

He had joined the regiment as a first lieutenant. He was 21 when the regiment mustered out of Saratoga Springs. Six months later, he was promoted to captain.

On May 3, 1863, at age 22, he was wounded while storming Maryes Heights at Fredericksburg. He died a day later, but the Union army won the battle.

After the war, the statue was commissioned to stand in downtown Saratoga Springs. Soldier statues were very popular.

You could go to these foundries and you just picked the style you wanted. These were out of the catalog, said Executive Director James Parillo of the Saratoga Springs History Museum.

They could be customized, and this one was made to resemble Capt. Wheeler.

It was dedicated in 1875 to the members of the 77th.

Two years later, the Grand Army of the Republic Post 92 in Saratoga Springs was named in his honor.

Its not clear why the statue was made with his face, Parillo said. A former archivist researched it and left a handwritten note in the museums file on the statue, he said.

She researched it for somebody, he said.

The statue was of a soldier in a knee-length coat and cape, holding a rifle in both hands, with the rifle butt resting on the ground.

The monument was well-marked, with a bronze plaque that clearly stated the meaning of the statue. It reads: The Seventy-Seventh Regiment, New York Volunteers (Bemis Heights Battalion, Third Brigade, Second Division, Sixth Corps, Army of the Potomac, 1861  1865) Took part in all the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, also in the Battle of Fort Stevens at Washington, D.C. and in the Campaign in the Shenandoah Valley under Sheridan.

This was to commemorate the volunteers who volunteered to preserve the Union, Parillo said.

Hes hoping it will be replaced with a similar statue.

I look forward to seeing something back. Our park, were a national historic landmark, he said. All of these monuments are here for a meaningful reason.

You can reach Kathleen Moore at 742-3247 or kmoore@poststar.com. Follow her on Twitter @ByKathleenMoore or at her blog on www.poststar.com.

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Chiemelie Ezeobi writes that the recent death of Flying Officer Tolulope Arotile, Nigeria's first ever female combat helicopter pilot, who continuously escaped enemy fire during her combat operations against banditry in the North-central, only to die in a freak road accident in Kaduna, has defied logic.

The death of Flying Officer Tolulope Arotile, Nigeria's first ever female combat helicopter pilot, is the stuff ironies are made of- she had successfully evaded death as bandits shot at her aircraft during one of her recent operations, only to die in a freak accident inside the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Base in Kaduna on Tuesday, July 14.

She had just come back from Operation GAMA AIKI in Minna, Niger State, where she was deployed in the fight to rid the North-central states of armed bandits and other criminal elements by flying several combat missions.

Ironically, in one of her most recent operations, she was targeted by the bandits who shot repeatedly at her aircraft but the dogged fighter engaged her combat skills and evaded them, while successfully carrying out what she was deployed for.

It was on her return to the NAF base in Kaduna with her pass that an excited excited former Air Force Secondary School classmate saw her strolling and reversed his car to greet her, a move that proved fatal as his car pushed her down and squished part of her head.

Although she was rushed to the hospital immediately, she was pronounced dead on arrival. She was only aged 24.

Her Passion

Arotile loved to fly-that was truly one of the things she was passionate about, little wonder she aced her courses as the best flight student from the NAF Academy, which qualified her for the helicopter training she received in South Africa.

In an exclusive interview this reporter had with the deceased on October 15, 2019, after she was winged at NAF headquarters in Abuja, her passion for flying was contagious and showed none of the grueling hours and pain it took to gain her license.

"Throughout my training I have always looked towards flying. The major thing I have come to realise in my field is that there is just no break in my career, you just have to keep pushing and doing your best.

"My advice to younger ones out there is that they should keep doing their best, they should keep running the race until they finish and they should not set limit for themselves because the only limit they have is the one they set for themselves," she told THISDAY.

NAF's Reaction

NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola said until her death, Arotile, who was commissioned into the NAF in September 2017 as a member of Nigerian Defence Academy Regular Course 64, was the first ever female combat helicopter pilot in the service.

He said: "During her short but impactful stay in the service, late Arotile, who hails from Iffe in Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State, contributed significantly to the efforts to rid the North Central States of armed bandits and other criminal elements by flying several combat missions under Operation GAMA AIKI in Minna, Niger State.

"The Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, on behalf officers, airmen, airwomen and civilian staff of the NAF, commiserates with the family of late Flying Officer Arotile over this irreparable loss. We pray that the Almighty God grants her soul eternal rest."

According to the DOPRI, she has "gone too soon like a candle in the wind, and she will be greatly missed by the entire Nigerian Air Force family".

The CAS in his statement said he was heartbroken by the incident, just as he described her as "one of our shining young stars".

In a statement on Wednesday, Abubakar said Arotile was "a very intelligent, disciplined, confident and courageous young officer who added value wherever she served."

He added, "as a squadron pilot in Operation GAMA AIKI in Minna, Niger State, she flew her quota of anti-banditry combat missions to ensure a safer, more secured Nigeria."

Condolence Messages

President Muhammadu Buhari has commiserated with the family of the late Flying Officer Tolulope Arotile.

The president in a statement on Wednesday signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, extolled the virtues of the first female combat helicopter pilot in the history of the Nigerian Air Force.

The statement read, "President Muhammadu Buhari received with deep pain the passing of Flying Officer, Tolulope Arotile, condoling with the family on loss of such a promising officer, whose short stay on earth impacted greatly on the nation, especially in peace and security.

"The President salutes Arotile's bravery in the field to protect the country from onslaught of bandits and terrorists, assuring that her memory will be indelible, and her efforts remembered.

"President Buhari commiserates with the Nigerian Air Force, airmen, airwomen and all friends of the deceased, recalling her deft skills in manoeuvring combat helicopters, which he had physically witnessed with pride.

"The President sympathises with government and people of Kogi State on the loss. President Buhari prays that the Almighty God will receive the soul of the departed, and comfort the family she left behind."

Also mourning her was Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, who described her death as shocking and devastating.

In a condolence message by the Governor's Chief Press Secretary, Onogwu Muhammed, Bello said the death is a national disaster, saying she was a fantastic aviator.

"It was with great sorrow and shock that I received the news about the passing of Flying Officer Tolulope Arotile, the first female combat Helicopter Pilot in the history of the Nigerian Airforce," the statement added.

"Late Flying Officer Arotile brought the country to a standstill on October 15, 2019 when she was decorated as the first female combat Helicopter Pilot. This was a huge honour to her family and state, the nation, and the entire women in the country and beyond."

Governor Bello said the late Arotile combined professionalism and patriotism in the discharge of her duties and was instrumental to Nigeria's fight against banditry and other criminal activities especially in the North Central region.

"We are devastated by the tragic death of this young promising lady who took bravery to the next level, demystified prejudicial stereotype and flew her parents, state and nation high in honour and professionalism," he added.

He stated that "at the age of 23, late Arotile has woven her own story into the Nigerian Folklore as a patriot who died in defence of her nation. On behalf of the state, I commiserate with the family of late Flying Officer Arotile over this irreparable loss and I pray that the Almighty God grants her soul eternal rest, She will be sorely missed."

Also condoling the family, President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, expressed shock and sadness at the tragic death.

In a statement by his Special Adviser (Media), Ola Awoniyi, Lawan said despite her brief service, the deceased flying officer, 24, left indelible footprints as a dedicated officer and Nigeria's first female combat helicopter pilot.

The Senate President noted the attestation of the Nigeria Airforce that Arotile flew several combat missions and made remarkable contributions to the military efforts against banditry and other criminal activities particularly in the North Central states.

Noting that Arotile was a role model for young women and the Nigerian youths in general with her focus and dedication to service and calling, he condoled with the family of the deceased, CAS, her officer colleagues, other airmen and airwomen, as well as the government and people of Kogi State.

Also, the Speaker of the House or Reps, Femi Gbajabiamila wrote on his Twitter page, "I received with great shock the death of our country's first female combat pilot, Tolulope Arotile, I saw her months ago display her talent to the admiration of many of us at a @NigAirForce event. Indeed we have lost a great talent! My condolences to the Arotile family and N.A.F."

NAF's Women of War

For the first time in the history of the Armed Forces, value beyond desk jobs (manning the schools and hospitals etc) have been emplaced on its female personnel, thus breaking the mould of gender discrimination. Championing this laudable feat is the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) as it has engaged its female personnel to operational and combatant roles.

NAF had seven female pilots who have distinguished themselves in a field often seen as the exclusive preserve of their male counterparts, but with Arotile's untimely and bizarre death, the flanks have been reduced to six.

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From Flight Lieutenant Blessing Liman and Flight Lieutenant Chika Ani to Flying Officer Genevieve Nwaogwugwu, Flying Officer Olubunmi Ijelu; Flying Officer Kafayat Sanni, and Flying Officer Tolulope Arotile and Flying Officer Chinelo Nwokoye, they all play combat support roles.

These seven female pilots have proven to be a new breed of high flyers whose passion push them to soar the skies in service to nation and mankind. The feat has again reinforced the fact that their dreams remain valid as they are nurtured and also harnessed for greater heights. With Arotile's death, things might never be the same again but soldier on they must.

Biography

Born on December 13, 1995 to the family of Mr and Mrs Akintunde Arotile in Kaduna, Arotile hails from Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State.

She attended Air Force Primary School, Kaduna from 2000 - 2005 and Air Force Secondary School, Kaduna from 2006 - 2011 before she later gained admission into the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna as a member of 64 Regular Course on September 22, 2012.

Arotile was commissioned into the Nigerian Air Force as a Pilot Officer on September 16, 2017 and holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the Nigerian Defence Academy.

She was winged as the first ever female combat helicopter pilot in the Nigerian Air Force on October 15, 2019, after completing her flying training in South Africa.

She held a commercial pilot license and also underwent tactical flying training on the Agusta 109 Power Attack Helicopter in Italy.

Incidentally, she introduced the newly acquired Agusta 109 Power Attack Helicopter to the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, during the induction ceremony at Eagle Square in Abuja on February 6, 2020.

Before her untimely death, she made significant and outstanding contributions to the war against terrorism, armed banditry and other forms of criminality in the country, flying several combat missions.

Flying Officer Arotile joined the Nigerian Air Force out of passion for the job. In her words "I joined the military simply out of passion for it. Being a military personnel has been a long time ambition, the carriage and what it stands for are simply exceptional".
by Biju Veticad

The Congregations Indian province celebrates its first 50 years. Increasingly, its missionaries reach Europe. In India, they are active in youth ministry, social work, education, charity and health services for the poor. In Kerala they still follow the Syro-Malabar rite.

Kuravilangad (AsiaNews)  The ultimate meaning and history of the Missionaries Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (CMF[*]), the Claretians, is centred on the mission returning to its origins.

Founded on 16 July 1849 in Spain, the Congregation expanded over the decades in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. This year, the Indian province of the congregation marks its golden jubilee, 50 years of life and missionary activity since it was established in 1970, developing in particular in the north of the country.

Starting out as a mission of the German province, the Congregation in India has now reversed the roles by sending priests to Europe, including Germany. This is another way of conceiving going back to the origins.

Today more than ever the Claretians are the spirit and soul of the Church in India. The Congregation itself can count on 588 Indian priests out of more than 3,000.

Inspired by its missionary motto, For the love of Christ impels us (2 Cor 5:14), they are actively involved in the youth ministry, social work, education, charity and healthcare services for the poorest people.

Speaking to AsiaNews, Fr Jojo Mannoor, head of the congregation in Kerala, noted that 50 years since the foundation provides an opportunity for renewal for the Church and its members.

For him, personal renewal "is the founding basis for a renewal of the Church itself. In fact, since the start of the jubilee year, "all three of our provinces and two delegations in India, a total of 82 houses, have focused on renewing the Congregations spiritual charism and on its wide-ranging missionary activities" in the country.

At the beginning, the only condition imposed on the German congregation in 1969 by then Bishop Sebastian Vayalil of Palai, who had invited the priests to India, was to follow the Syro-Malabar rite in Kerala. This is the one thing that sets Claretians apart from other congregations in Kerala.

Nevertheless, this missionary charism has not been confined to one state, but has spread to many others, including Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in southern India, and Meghalaya, West Bengal, Odisha and Arunachal Pradesh in the north.

Now, 50 years later, the Congregation is proclaiming the Gospel in 18 states in the mission "ad Gentes" as Pope Francis himself called for on several occasions.

Another reason to celebrate is the fact that the current Claretian superior general, Fr Mathew Vattamattom, is Indian. Starting with the first two priests in Kerala half a century ago, this is a milestone to celebrate.

[*] Cordis Mariae Filii.
opinion

I am writing this from my home in South Africa, a land that owes much of its freedom to Liberia like many African countries. A white candle with sage burns on South African soil in honour of this your passing as your father Col Walter Maxwell Pelham Sr welcomes you home. Munah, your passing is not only a loss for Liberia but for the entire African continent.

There is an African proverb that says, "It is better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life". The reason this proverb comes to mind is because Munah lived her life as fierce as a lioness, she was at the forefront of building her nation till her last days. I met this majestic leader on the shores of Ghana in May 2017 where we were both speakers at the Sheroes Conference.

As a speaker that has spoken across the continent, I meet a lot of young Africans but as Liberians, you would agree that once you have met Munah, you never forget her warmth. Munah stayed my Senior Sister and will forever be that. My first memory of Munah when I heard of her passing was walking the streets of Accra with her and her telling me of her journey from being a model to being a servant of the people. She told me of how fulfilling it was to serve and how she would have members of her community knocking on her door at all hours asking for assistance.

What struck me as we were walking under the moonlight of Accra, jumping from one shop to another was the sparkle in her eye when she talked about serving her people. She talked about a young boy who came to their office seeking assistance and he was ignored, she talked to the young boy who ended up having a radio station that later assisted her to mobilize. As we walked the street, she was recognized greeted by the people and she would reply ever so gracefully. It was at that moment when we walked over to buy a kente dress for me and she negotiated on my behalf that I fell in love with this humble leader.

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On the 26th July 2018, I was fortunate to visit Liberia during its Independence Day celebrations, I had known for some time that she had been ill and I was overjoyed to see my senior sister recovering and at home in Monrovia. I spent the Independence Day with this angelic leader and the same humility that I had seen in her spirt in Ghana, I saw in her land. She was kind to those we met, she was giving to those she could help, she was not only open-handed but most importantly, open-hearted. I was in Liberia for a cause close to my heart and as gracious as she was, she helped me reach my goal. It is a cause that I still hold close to my heart and will ensure that in a due cause, I fulfill the promises made on that trip to the people of Liberia.

Honourable Munah Pelham Youngblood, you are to me what all young Africans should aspire to be. A voice that never once said, I am too young. A bold leader, a mother to Sarafina, a wife to Dr Youngblood, a daughter to your mother. You are the epitome of beauty, grace, eloquence, and strength. As a Pan African speaker, I promise to continue to tell your story. A story of a young leader that dared to call for the re-writing of the Liberian History.
People's private homes are emerging as a "hotspot" for Covid-19 outbreaks as the virus takes hold among households, it emerged yesterday.

There were 96 outbreaks of the virus in the course of a week up to last Sunday as families interact more outside their homes and bring the infection back with them.

They also include outbreaks due to house parties where young people socialise without observing physical distancing.

Acting chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn said yesterday some of the house parties had involved between 40 and 50 people in some cases.

It was decided yesterday to restrict house gatherings to a maximum of 10 people from no more than four households.

It comes as the Cabinet yesterday postponed the opening of remaining pubs and allowing larger gatherings until August 10 as the R number - the rate at which the virus is transmitted - rose to between 1.2 and 1.8.

If it rises above one, this means people infected with the virus are spreading it to others at a rate faster than one-to-one, which could see the disease spread worryingly. Fourteen new cases of the virus were reported yesterday which, although fewer than previous days, shows sustained spread of infection at higher levels than two weeks ago.

Another two deaths from the virus were notified, bringing the toll to 1,748.

A new study of 149 countries, including Ireland, published today shows that physical distancing measures, such as closing schools, workplaces, and public transport, and restricting mass gatherings, are associated with a meaningful reduction in new Covid-19 cases.

The study in the 'British Medical Journal' also confirms that implementing lockdown restrictions earlier was associated with a greater reduction in new cases.

In the Republic, the first case of Covid-19 was reported on February 29 and lockdown was implemented in March.

The study by the Department of Population Health in the University of Oxford said that without evidence for effective treatments or a successful vaccine for Covid-19, physical distancing has been recommended to minimise transmission, and thus reduce risk for the most vulnerable in society.

"Physical distancing also therefore reduces pressure on public health and healthcare services, and allows time for the prevention and management of the disease.

"But 'real-life' data on the effectiveness of physical distancing measures are scarce."

To address this evidence gap, a team of UK and US researchers set out to compare the change in new cases of Covid-19 before and up to 30 days after implementation of physical distancing measures in the early stages of the pandemic.

Their findings are based on daily reported cases of Covid-19 for 149 countries or regions that implemented one or more of five physical distancing measures: closures of schools, workplaces, and public transport, restrictions on mass gatherings and public events, and restrictions on people's movement within countries or regions between January 1 and May 30.

On average, physical distancing measures were first implemented nine days after the first reported case. However, some countries took longer to implement measures - including the US, which took 40 days.

On average, implementation of any physical distancing measure was associated with an overall reduction in Covid-19 incidence of 13pc over the study period.

Dr Glynn said yesterday: "We are at a sensitive stage in the pandemic - this requires caution and collective effort to hold firm and keep the virus suppressed in the community."

He asked people to follow public health advice.
Samsung unveiled the Galaxy M31 just this February, but the company is now almost ready to introduce us to its successor. The Galaxy M31s is set to be revealed for the Indian market before the end of this month, according to a new report.

That said, it will only become available at some point in August. The Galaxy M31s is expected to sport a price tag close to INR 20,000 (approximately $265 or 233 at the current exchange rates).

Galaxy M31

The Galaxy M31 started at INR 14,999, but there is now a version of it with 8GB of RAM that goes for INR 19,999. Oddly enough, the M31s seems to be quite similar to the M31, at least if we go by a past benchmark run.

It appears to be powered by the same Exynos 9611 chipset and have the same 6,000 mAh battery. The M31s that ran that benchmark had 6GB of RAM, and storage is said to be 128GB. On the rear there will be a quad camera setup with a 64 MP main sensor. Its Super AMOLED panel however will have a hole-punch cutout for the selfie camera.

Source | Via 1 | Via 2
ST. LOUIS  On the eve of a pivotal Board of Aldermen vote on airport privatization, a key player on the issue threatened Thursday to sue the city over lead poisoning and other contamination tied to vacant and demolished buildings.

Adolphus Pruitt, president of the St. Louis NAACP, said the chapters executive committee has decided to retain legal counsel and ask the national NAACP to work with it on a likely lawsuit citing the federal Civil Rights Act.

Pruitts organization was part of an initiative petition drive that submitted a privatization proposal for St. Louis Lambert International Airport that could funnel $1 billion into various city projects, including millions for proper environmental removal of vacant city-owned buildings.

Similar wording is in an alternate privatization bill on the agenda for Fridays aldermanic meeting but Pruitt said the announcement of the potential lawsuit wasnt connected.

Weve been working on this for a while, he said regarding the possible litigation.
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The British-built European Space Agency Solar Orbiter has captured the closest images ever taken of the Sun and it did so while flying between the orbits of Venus and Mercury, according to the UK Space Agency.

The stunning images taken by the Solar Orbiter while 47 million miles away from the surface of our host star include signs of mini solar flares that have been dubbed 'campfires' by the scientists behind the probe.

Solar flares are brief eruptions of high-energy radiation from the Sun's surface and these 'campfires' are millions of times smaller than normal flares from the star.

The images were captured in the middle of June while the Solar Orbiter was still in its testing phase, so the team say images will become higher resolution as the probe gets closer to the Sun.

At its closest approach to our star, the Solar Orbiter will be 26 million miles from the surface of the Sun - that is closer than the 37 million miles Mercury is from the Sun and it will get there by the end of next year.

The most important discovery was the presence of these 'campfires', also known as 'nano-flares' that were seen dotted across the surface of the Sun, astronomers explained - they are bright and dynamic eruptions.

In this image the white arrow points to one of the newly seen 'campfires' - a small flare similar to a solar flare on the surface of our star. In the bottom corner you can see Earth to scale against this 'small region' of our star

The campfires were captured by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager - as seen from this pink image of our star - they were taken around Solar Orbiter's first perihelion, the point in its elliptical orbit closest to the Sun

The British built European Space Agency Solar Orbiter captured the closest images ever taken of the Sun while between the orbits of Venus and Mercury

The stunning images taken by the Solar Orbiter while 47 million miles away from the surface of our host star include signs of mini solar flares called 'campfires' - tiny dots of light visible within the swirls of plasma in this image. This image is a small part of the corona and in high resolution there is a lot going on

The images from the orbiter are 'not optimal' and were taken from twice the optimal distance the spacecraft is expected to operate at during its 'key science phase'.

Images are only going to improve over time as the orbiter gets closer to the star. By March 2022 full high resolution 'science' images will begin to come in regularly - but new data on the Sun are already appearing.

'The first images are exceeding our expectations,' says Daniel Muller, Solar Orbiter Project Scientist at ESA, adding it is providing more detail than observed before.

He said the instruments on the spacecraft are 'working beautifully' and providing a holistic view of the Sun and solar wind in a way never before seen.

'This makes us confident that Solar Orbiter will help us answer profound open questions about the Sun,' said Muller.

The spacecraft will make a close approach to the Sun every five months, and at its closest will only be 26 million miles away, closer than the planet Mercury.

It will use the gravitational force of Venus and Earth to adjust its trajectory, before getting into operational orbit in November 2021.

At that point, it will send back much more data about the Sun's surface that could give clearer information on the impact of the small flares discovered during this phase of the mission.

Over time the probe will gradually change its inclination to position itself in a way that it can capture images of the poles of the Sun - something never seen from Earth before.

Between 2025 and 2027 the first photos of the poles will begin to arrive on Earth.

European Space Agency Solar Orbiter was launched from NASAs Cape Canaveral in Florida on February 10. This is an artist impression of the spacecraft with the Sun behind it

The Solar Orbiter, a European Space Agency probe designed and built in the UK, captured the images during a close pass between the orbits of Venus and Mercury, and have revealed miniature solar flares, which have been dubbed 'campfires', dotted across its surface

There are ten different instruments on the Solar Orbiter including an Ultraviolet imager that lets astronomers see the star in a different light - including spotting bright 'campfire' flares on the surface

Dr Caroline Harper, head of space science at the UK space agency, said that scientists were excited by the presence of the 'campfires' across the solar surface.

The campfires currently visible today is about 250 miles across but as the probe gets closer to the Sun and images become higher in resolution even smaller campfires will become visible.

CAMPFIRES ON THE SUN: MINI SOLAR FLARES COULD UNLOCK THE SECRETS OF OUR STARS ATMOSPHERE In the first set of images of the Sun captured by the ESA Solar Orbiter were tiny eruptions on its surface. These miniature flares have been dubbed 'campfires' by astronomers and they could be a 'vital clue' to the nature of the Sun's atmosphere. Within this close image of the Sun you can see tiny dots of light - or 'campfires' dotted on the surface Dr David Long, Co-Principal Investigator on the ESA Solar Orbiter Mission EUI Investigation, said the images provide an impressive level of detail. 'They show miniature flares across the surface of the Sun, which look like campfires that are millions of times smaller than the solar flares that we see from Earth. 'Dotted across the surface, these small flares might play an important role in a mysterious phenomenon called coronal heating,' said Long. This is where the Sun's outer layer, or corona, is more than 200 - 500 times hotter than the layers below. Astronomers don't know why this is the case or what causes the massive discrepancy. 'We are looking forward to investigating this further as Solar Orbiter gets closer to the Sun and our home star becomes more active,' said Long. The campfires were captured by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager around Solar Orbiter's first perihelion, the point in its elliptical orbit closest to the Sun. To find out more, scientists will monitor the temperatures of campfires using a tool on the orbiter called SPICE - Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment. Advertisement

'We do not really know what they are doing but there is speculation that they might play a role in coronal heating, a mysterious process whereby the outer layer of the Sun, known as the corona, is much hotter than the layers below,' Harper explained.

'These campfires may be contributing to that in a way we do not know yet.'

To find out more, scientists will monitor the temperatures of campfires using a tool on the orbiter called SPICE - Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment.

Dr Andrzej Fludra, the SPICE Instrument Consortium lead said it is likely we will be able to solve the outsanding questions about the Sun's dynamic processes.

'Spectroscopy is a powerful tool for the diagnostic of fundamental processes in hot plasmas. Each spectral line gives us a piece of the puzzle  combining information from all lines reveals the amazing complexity of the atmosphere.'

'The campfires are little relatives of the solar flares that we can observe from Earth, million or billion times smaller,' says David Berghmans of the Royal Observatory of Belgium.

'The Sun might look quiet at the first glance, but when we look in detail, we can see those miniature flares everywhere we look.'

The scientists do not know yet whether the campfires are just tiny versions of big flares, or whether they are driven by different mechanisms.

Aside from helping unlock the mysteries of coronal heating, the Solar Orbiter will also help scientists piece together the Sun's atmospheric layers and analyse the solar wind, the stream of highly energetic particles emitted by the star.

Understanding more about solar activity could also help scientists make predictions on space weather events, which can damage satellites in orbit.

These events, including larger solar flares are also able to disrupt the infrastructure on Earth that mobile phones, transport, GPS and the electricity networks rely on.

'The science will allow us to start improving our operational capability to predict the space weather, just like you predict the weather here on Earth,' Harper said.

Occasionally, the Sun erupts giant amounts of particles known as coronal mass ejections and when they hit the Earth's magnetic field it generates surges.

Solar scientists do not have reliable ways to predict such an eruption and the last major event to hit the Earth was in 1859 and caused telegraph wires to catch fire.

A similar event today could potentially cause not only continentwide blackouts, but also destroy giant transformers on the electric grid and disrupt satellites.

Satellite services such as communications, navigation and Earth observation supporting wider industrial activities are worth 300 billion to the UK economy.

This mission through discoveries like 'campfires' could herald breakthroughs that help protect this infrastructure, a UK Space Agency spokesperson said.

The Solar Orbiter was constructed by Airbus in Stevenage and blasted off from Nasa's Cape Canaveral site in Florida on February 10.

It has been designed to withstand the scorching heat from the Sun that will hit one side, while maintaining freezing temperatures on the other side of the spacecraft as the orbit keeps it in shadow.

'We have leading roles on four of the 10 scientific instruments on board the Solar Orbiter,' said Harper, talking about the UK Space Agency involvement.

'For me, it showcases the UK's world-leading role in solar physics research and its capabilities in the industrial space sector.'

The UK played a key role in development of the European Space Agency and NASA mission to study the Sun in greater detail than ever before.

It provided funding for four of the 10 scientific instruments on board, and researchers from Imperial College London and UCL lead the teams behind Solar Orbiter's Magnetometer and Solar Wind Analyser instruments.

UCL also has a key role in the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager, which will enable the scientists to study processes on the Sun in greater detail than ever before.

The ESA Solar Orbiter has ten different instruments capturing our star in different frequencies and wavelengths. The top images are in ultraviolet wavelength and bottom images shows the line of sight velocity of the Sun and its magnetic activity

Dr Caroline Harper, head of space science at the UK space agency, said that scientists were excited by the presence of the 'campfires' across the solar surface - seen as bright 'dots' within the swirling surface

This artist impression of the British-built probe shows it approaching the Sun. It will reach its closest point to the Sun in November 2021 when it will pass 26 million miles from the surface - closer than the orbit of Mercury

ESA says the instruments on the spacecraft are 'working beautifully' and providing a holistic view of the Sun and solar wind in a way never before seen

Dr David Long, Co-Principal Investigator on the ESA Solar Orbiter Mission EUI Investigation, said the images provide an impressive level of detail.

'They show miniature flares across the surface of the Sun, which look like campfires that are millions of times smaller than the solar flares that we see from Earth. ]

'Dotted across the surface, these small flares might play an important role in a mysterious phenomenon called coronal heating, whereby the Sun's outer layer, or corona, is more than 200 - 500 times hotter than the layers below.

ESA's Solar Orbiter 'accidentally' passes through the tails of Comet ATLAS ESA's Solar Orbiter probe will 'accidentally' passed through the tails of Comet ATLAS at the end of May. Scientists switched on four of the spacecraft's instruments especially to take advantage of this rare opportunity in order to conduct 'bonus science'. The encounter with ATLAS, pictured, was not planned The encounter with ATLAS was not planned  the Solar Orbiter probe was launched in February to study the sun up-close, with a focus on the star's polar regions. Solar Orbiter mission scientists were altered to the window for data gathering by planetary scientist Geraint Jones of Britain's Mullard Space Science Laboratory. The probe collected data on the separate trails of dust and charged particles released from the comet as it is slowly vaporised by the solar radiation from the Sun. The craft passed within 27.3 million miles (44 million km) of the comet's core, or 'nucleus'  passing through the ion tail on May 31June 1 and the dust tail on June 6. Advertisement

'We are looking forward to investigating this further as Solar Orbiter gets closer to the Sun and our home star becomes more active.'

The campfires were captured by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager around Solar Orbiter's first perihelion, the point in its elliptical orbit closest to the Sun.

'These campfires are totally insignificant each by themselves, but summing up their effect all over the Sun, they might be the dominant contribution to the heating of the solar corona,' says Frederic Auchere, of the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS), France, Co-Principal Investigator of EUI.

The solar corona is the outermost layer of the Sun's atmosphere that extends millions of miles into outer space.

'It's obviously way too early to tell but we hope that by connecting these observations with measurements from our other instruments that 'feel' the solar wind as it passes the spacecraft, we will eventually be able to answer some of these mysteries,' says Yannis Zouganelis, Solar Orbiter Deputy Project Scientist at ESA.

Science Minister Amanda Solloway said the craft was eight years in the making and represents an 'incredible feat of UK engineering'.

'Now, this spacecraft has helped us make this historic discovery of the 'campfires' near the surface of the Sun,' Solloway said.

'This mission is one of the UK's most important space ventures for a generation and, with our 600 million investment in international space science missions, I hope it will be one of many in the years to come.'

Four in situ instruments on the orbiter have also revealed initial results, beyond the stunning images shared by the mission teams.

In situ instruments measure the space environment immediately surrounding the spacecraft including a wind analyser.

As a result of this instrument astronomers have the first dedicated measurements of heavy ions - carbon, oxygen, silicon, iron, and others - in the solar wind from the inner heliosphere, researchers explained.

Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA.

The UK is at the heart of the mission with UK industry winning 200 million worth of contracts and the UK Space Agency investing 20 million in the development and build of the instruments.

Engineers at Airbus in Stevenage designed and built the spacecraft to withstand the scorching heat from the Sun that will hit one side, while the other is frozen as the orbit keeps it in shadow.

It will face intense solar radiation that is 13 times more powerful than in Earth's orbit.

Principal Investigator Professor Tim Horbury from Imperial College London the data coming in just five months since launch is uncovering the Sun's secrets.

'Already our data are revealing shockwaves, coronal mass ejections, phenomena called 'switchbacks' and fine-scale waves in the magnetic field that we are only able to see thanks to the extreme sensitivity of our instrument,' he said.

'Our small team of engineers here at Imperial College London have been working really hard to keep the instrument operating and process all the measurements that are coming down to the ground.

'Teams from around the world are now working on all this data, which will no doubt reveal new insights into the Sun's behaviour.'

The Solar Orbiter is not fully into its science phase yet as not all of the instruments are fully operational. It will use fly-bys of Venus and Mercury in the coming months to tweak its orbit and test instruments.

In November 2021 there will be a final swing-by of Earth that means the craft should be visible from 'home' with a small telescope before flying back to the star for its closest approach.
YORK  After nearly a week of searching, Jadey Jenkins, 30, of Omaha was found by law enforcement west of McCool Junction late Tuesday night.

York County Sheriff Paul Vrbka said she was found in a ditch at approximately 11 p.m.

She was incoherent and clearly showed signs that she had been out in the elements for nearly a week. She was badly disheveled, but she was alive and we are so incredibly grateful, Vrbka said.

Jenkins was taken to York General Hospital for a medical evaluation and then placed in emergency protective care, the sheriff said.

Think of what she had been through. She had been out there this whole time, walking, with no shoes on, through two major thunderstorms, with such heat during the day. The corn is eight, nine feet tall now. I cant even imagine. We think she probably drank water from irrigation wells, in order to stay alive. We just dont know, Vrbka said.

An abandoned vehicle driven by Jenkins was found July 8 along Interstate 80 near the Bradshaw exit. Her belongings, including her cellphone, wallet, credit cards and shoes were inside, the sheriff said. The keys were also in the vehicle.

Using the information they had, the sheriffs department developed contact information and called Jenkins family members. He said he was told by the womans fiance that she had left Omaha early July 8 and was thought to be traveling to Colorado or California where family members live.

Volunteers scoured the area nearly constantly throughout the weekend, Monday and Tuesday.

I was getting reading to contact the FBI, Vrbka said, because, at that point, we wondered if she had been picked up by someone on the interstate.

Then, Tuesday evening, residents who lives west of McCool Junction reported that they definitely had seen her. They immediately called the sheriffs department, who in turn dispatched the McCool Junction and York fire departments to help with the search.

About 11 p.m. Tuesday night, sheriffs Capt. Josh Gillespie radioed his fellow officers, saying they should check culverts.

I went to check a culvert, and, as I swung my flashlight around to shine inside the culvert, I was stunned to see her lying there in the ditch, Gillespie said. It was an incredible moment, to have finally found her. I am just so glad she is OK.

Vrbka said he immediately contacted Jenkins mother in Oregon, who is en route to Nebraska, and her sister in California.

In all my years of law enforcement, Ive never experienced anything like this, Vrbka said. We have had fugitives out there, hiding maybe for a day or so, but never a situation like this where weve had someone missing for a week.

The community has been extremely helpful, and we thank God for all the volunteers and the fire departments and everyone who helped. Thank you so much for showing up, for this woman.

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Investors in solar power plants are worried that infrastructure shortcomings will prevent them from meeting a year-end deadline after which tariffs might be reduced.

Twenty five plants are currently being built, with their investors racing to finish them to get the feed-in tariff of 7.09 U.S. cents per kWh for 20 years.

The government describes this purchase price as an incentive, and investors are afraid it will be reduced further in the new year following an earlier cut from 9.35 cents in June last year.

Energy company Hado Group is building a 50 MW solar farm in the central province of Ninh Thuan, and it would become operational this month.

Nguyen Huu Vinh, deputy chairman of the group's energy development board, said at a recent meeting that since a transmission line would not be completed by September, the operation date of the plant might be delayed.

The lands required for the line have not been acquired yet, and negotiations for their purchase are still ongoing, he said. The company has urged authorities to complete the installation by August.

The second phase of the 104 MW Sao Mai Solar Power Plant in southern An Giang Province, the first solar farm there, faces a similar problem.

The company said its plans to begin operation of the second phase by the end of this year might be delayed because a transmission line upgrade has begun three months later than planned.

Another issue is that foreign experts have not been able to enter Vietnam due to the Covid-19 pandemic, meaning equipment might not be installed in the plant in time for the project to enjoy the incentive feed-in tariff, said Ho Manh Dung, a spokesperson for Sao Mai Corporation.

He called for the deadline to be extended allowing more solar power plants to go on stream.

National utility Vietnam Electricity (EVN) said it has been making efforts to enable more solar power plants to link up with the national grid.

The National Load Dispatch Center (NLDC) said it has been upgrading transmission lines in Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan provinces to accommodate new renewables projects.

It has also been cutting down the load from hydropower plants to offer more space to renewable energy plants.

NLDC has ordered relevant agencies to complete installation of the transmission lines relating to the two projects so that they could be operational by the end of the year.

Eleven solar farms began operating in July, bringing the total number in the country to 110 with a total capacity of 5,482 MW, or 9.5 percent of Vietnams electricity supply.

So far 35 have been eligible for the 7.09 cents tariff.

The government is trying to reduce reliance on coal-fired power plants and increase production of renewable energy.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

Add the New Mexico Attorney Generals Office to the list of agencies looking into the city of Albuquerques police overtime practices.

Attorney General Hector Balderas said Wednesday that State Auditor Brian Colon asked him to aid in the investigation. Colon asked the attorney general to assign special agents to work with his offices auditors on its Albuquerque Police Department examination.

We have received the Auditors request and have assigned law enforcement to assist in this matter, Balderas said in a written statement.

Colons office began its inquiry last year after receiving multiple complaints regarding APD overtime. That examination is underway, although Colon has since ordered the city to undergo a special audit by an outside accounting firm due to red flags his offices review found. His staffs examination into APD will continue, along with the special audit, Colon said. He told the Journal earlier this week that the special audit could involve working with a prosecutorial agency, such as the Attorney Generals Office. The State Auditors Office does not have the authority to file criminal charges.

Colon said in a statement Wednesday that he had brought in Balderas staff to help in the investigation, calling the allegations of potential criminal activity regarding APD overtime severe.

Together, we intend to determine what is really happening at the Albuquerque Police Department, Colon said.

At the same time, APD says it is also running its own Internal Affairs investigation into overtime-related issues.

COVID-19 created a huge need for extra officer hours and exacerbated long-standing overtime problems at APD, Matt Ross, a spokesman for Mayor Tim Keller said in a statement. He added that the city appreciates the auditors and welcomes help with changes already underway to fix APDs broken system.
A North Jersey suburban school district accused of allowing racial segregation of schools and classrooms has agreed to a settlement that will see its integration efforts overseen by a retired New Jersey Supreme Court justice.

The deal was announced in separate statements Tuesday by the plaintiffs, the Black Parents Workshop Inc., and the South Orange-Maplewood School District.

While the Black Parents Workshop  a group launched in 2014 by parents of district students  lauded the agreement as a historic victory that will force change in a troubled district, school officials called it a resolution that recognizes the strides the district has already made under the leadership of Superintendent Ronald G. Taylor, while incorporating proposals for further improvement offered by BPW.

Attorney Robert L. Tarver Jr. filed suit on behalf of the Black Parents Workshop in 2018, arguing that the districts decades-old practice of tracking and leveling  grouping students in tiered classes based on test scores or perceived abilities  systematically discriminated against Black students, who were generally placed in lower level classes. In 2014, the district reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Educations Office for Civil Rights to fix the racial disparities in advanced level courses, but the BPW argued the disparity persisted.

The lawsuit also accused the district of allowing de facto segregation because five neighborhood elementary schools are majority white and one is predominantly Black. It also pointed out racial disparities in discipline handed down and a lack of diversity among faculty and leaders.

As part of the settlement agreement, the district will implement integration plans and related recommendations by educational expert and Temple University professor Edward Fergus, which will be monitored by former New Jersey Supreme Court Justice John Wallace Jr.

The district also agreed to improve recruitment of minority teachers, to publicly report class enrollment, suspensions and expulsions by race and gender, to fill a new position of assistant superintendent for equity and access who will work toward agreed upon goals, and to get state verification that it has fully implemented the state-mandated Amistad Black History curriculum.

The settlement also involves payments to the plaintiffs, including several Black students and a white student with ADHD, as well as at least some of their legal fees. The district said this will be paid by its insurance carrier. Both parties declined to specify the amounts.

The district of approximately 7,100 students was 55% white, 27% Black, 8% Latino and 4% Asian, according to state data for 2018-2019.

The board voted unanimously to approve this settlement as it helps us move closer to delivering upon the as yet unrealized promise of the access and equity policy passed in 2015, Board of Education President Annemarie Maini said in a statement.

Walter Fields, founder of BPW, said in a statement that it should not have taken a lawsuit to force the changes, but he hopes the agreement is the start of a real collaboration between the school and the parent group.

This is not the end, but the beginning of a process to inculcate equity in this district, said Fields. It is our expectation that a real effort will now be put forth to close the unacceptable racial achievement gap in this school district. The real work now begins.

Part of that work involves not just eliminating the racial bias that sees students of color discouraged from taking more challenging courses at Columbia High School, but implementing programs and supports to facilitate their enrollment and success, Fields said.

And while the school no longer uses the tiered levels, instead offering only regular and honors classes, Fields said the group still believes that some form of tracking is still going on.

We believe that because of implicit bias Black students are still being relegated to lower level courses, he said.

For instance, district statistics show Black students are still underrepresented in AP calculus. Black enrollment has gone from a high of 28% in 2017-2018 to 19% in the 2019-2020 school year. White students, who make up 52% of the school, account for 71% of AP calculus enrollment.

This doesnt just exist in South Orange and Maplewood. Its about the new arrangement in suburban districts, Fields said. When you go beyond the front door, theyre racially segregated by class.

To address segregation in the schools, the Board of Education in June approved the districts Intentional Integration Initiative. It calls for an algorithm to help reassign new students to schools based on things like race, parental income and education level, neighborhood proximity and sibling preference. The district proposes beginning the process with kindergarten students in the fall of 2021, followed by incoming 6th graders at the middle schools the following year.

Fields said his group believes that gradual integration, which avoids moving students from one school to another, is an unnecessary delay, and the schools should be completely integrated by fall of 2021.

Thats something we intend to broach with the court and the monitor, he said.

The public reporting of discipline broken down by race and gender is also an important part of the agreement, the BPW said in a statement.

In 2015, Black students made up 33% of the districts population but received 70% of all suspensions, including a total of 510 days of out-of-school suspensions. White students, who that year made up 52% of the district, received 20% of suspensions. They missed 92 days for out-of-school suspensions.

Thats according to a statistical analysis by Ryan W. Coughlan, a Molloy College education professor who studies school segregation and was hired by the BPW to author a report on inequity in the district. His report called the racial gap appalling.

Fields said he hopes the settlement might encourage others to seek similar equity changes in their schools.

What we achieved in the South Orange-Maplewood School District is a template for school districts across the nation, in urban and suburban communities, he said.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Staff reporter Noah Cohen contributed to this report.

Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
It was a complaint from a civilian that launched a major investigation into a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme that ensnared dozens of Ontario Provincial Police officers and was allegedly created by one of their own now retired members.

When the global pandemic caused the scheme  which promised staggering investment returns of up to 26 per cent  to blow up in late May, an upset civilian investor walked into a London, Ont.-area OPP office and blew the whistle, two police sources have confirmed to the Star. None of the police officers who had invested in the scheme made a complaint, sources say.

Meanwhile, the OPP is now making a broad appeal for people affected by the scheme to come forward as many, particularly police officers who invested, have yet to do so.

Are there people trying to avoid us? Absolutely, said OPP Det. Supt. Domenic Chong, who oversees financial crimes investigations.

Sources close to the case have told the Star that some officers are afraid they will be disciplined for taking part, while others are embarrassed that they, seasoned officers (some high ranking, with experience investigating frauds), failed to ask proper questions of a scheme that promised almost impossibly high rates of return.

Everybody was so dazzled at the money they were making or could make, one source with knowledge of the scheme told the Star.

When the civilian investor complained, officers at the London-area detachment did not know what to do, particularly because it involved fellow officers, many of them from that geographical area of the OPP. The gist of the complaint was this: Retired OPP officer Larry Renton, who portrayed himself to his clients as a shrewd player in the financial markets, had since at least 2016 been promising whopping returns to OPP and municipal officers, and a select group of non officers including lawyers and businessmen.

Renton retired from the OPP in 2016. He was a detective sergeant in charge of street crime in the Simcoe area. Many of the initial investors were people Renton worked with at the OPPs West Region OPP office in Simcoe, or retired OPP officers from the area who had moved to municipal forces. His former boss in Simcoe, Insp. Zvonko Zonk Horvat, said at one point in 2014 Renton asked for permission to have a second job as a financial adviser, and he turned him down. He also noticed Renton monitoring the markets from his detective office, and told him to stop.

Once the scheme got rolling, Renton not only offered high returns, he was promising to pay his existing clients a finders fee equal to 5 per cent of each new investment they brought in. Sources say that some investors did not declare this finders fee income on their tax return.

I just want to send a thank you out to everyone that has helped out by increasing their position or bringing a new person forward, Renton wrote in one email in early 2020. It is a great help to me.

According to emails from Renton to his clients, his clients were receiving regular payouts until early in 2020. When the pandemic hit, sources say, two things happened. First, people who were considering investing in the scheme backed out, meaning there was no new source of income, an essential to a Ponzi scheme, which relies on a continual influx of investment. Second, existing investors wanted their money out.

Sources say that, as is typically the case with a so-called Ponzi-style investment scheme, early participants get their money out, but more recent participants only get paid out if they stay in long enough and if new participants join.

Renton wrote to his investor group in March, asking his clients to wait a month for their payments, which he made by PayPal or e-transfer. Then in April, he again asked to delay their payments. My request at this time is for some further support, Renton wrote in an email on April 17. I am asking for one more month deferral, adding that it would not affect their overall return because I will simply increase the payments for the next 10 months.

That was the last investor email Renton sent, though he sent an email to 12 close friends in late April saying he was going to end his life (police found him in a hotel room in Brantford and he was hospitalized for several weeks).

On May 24, a civilian investor, worried his money was lost, made a report to the London-area OPP fraud squad. The Ontario Securities Commission has told the Star it began an investigation into Renton earlier in the year, something referenced in Rentons emails.

Det. Supt. Chong said the London-area fraud squad decided it was a complicated fraud beyond the means of the detachment to investigate. He also said that, given the elephant in the room  the allegations involved police in western region of the force  a decision was made that the Orillia-based anti rackets squad would take over the probe.

To date, Chong said they have identified more than two dozen victims of what police and investment sources have told the Star was a classic Ponzi scheme. The Stars sources say investors contributed as much as $800,000 into a pool of money and the allegation police are now investigating is that their huge returns (21-26 per cent of the investment) were paid not from investment in the markets, but from money contributed by later investors.

The Stars sources say that as many as 70 victims, mainly police officers, current and retired, are involved. The Stars sources say that at least $15 million was invested, but the number may be much higher. At least three members of Rentons family, all police officers retired or current, invested. In one case, a retired officer has put up a house and cottage for sale due to financial pressures caused by the scheme, sources say.

Chong said police know there are additional victims out there but due to the stigma with financial crimes  embarrassment being one of the main ones  they have not come forward.

The Stars sources have suggested that it is a conflict of interest for the OPP to investigate this case.

OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique and Chong told the Star that, for now, they see no reason to ask an outside force to get involved.

Carrique said the probe is being pursued with great seriousness.

As to the alleged involvement of so many officers, Carrique said he is sensitive to that issue.

I certainly understand the impact that allegations like this make on the trust of the public in the police, Carrique told the Star in an interview.

This is an active, ongoing investigation, Carrique said. This is even more concerning because it concerns allegations that involve a former member of the OPP.

Renton has told the Star he has been instructed by counsel not to speak about the matter. He has not responded to a request to identify his lawyer, nor has he responded to a series of questions sent to him by the Star.

Senior OPP officers have told the Star that while they have had contact with Renton, he has not been formally interviewed.

Det. Supt. Chong said it bothers him that police officers, whether current or retired, are involved in the scheme. But police officers are just like anyone else, some great, some not so great.

The OPP has asked anyone with information to contact the anti-rackets investigating officer, Det. Staff Sgt. Sean Chatland at 1-888-310-1122 or emailing OPP.IB.Anti-Rackets@opp.ca.
At the start of April, anyone who predicted how the second quarter of 2020 fundraising would go was probably bluffing. The coronavirus pandemic had shut down much of the economy. Millions of workers who might have been small-dollar donors were waiting for unemployment checks. The stock market was crashing, with unknown effects for the megadonors who can give seven figures to super PACs or max out to lists of down-ballot candidates.

Three months later, political fundraising has basically kept pace with a normal political year - or even run past it. There's plenty of money sloshing around, most of it in competitive races, some of it frittered away on buzzy campaigns that are not going to decide control of Congress. Here are five big things we learned.

- - -

Joe Biden has caught up with President Donald Trump.

There were warning signs for the president's campaign during the Democratic primary. The total donations to Republicans running against Barack Obama in 2012 did not surpass Obama's fundraising; the total donations to the two dozen-plus Democrats running against Trump added up to more than the president himself was raising.

From April 1 to June 30, when Biden was the presumptive Democratic nominee, his campaign raised $282.1 million, ahead of the $266 million raised by the president's reelection operation. As The Washington Post has reported, Biden lagged with small donors, then inherited them from other Democrats and attracted the sort of big checks that eluded him during the primary.

There's no slack in the Trump operation, though some of the money might not be spent as efficiently. Biden ended the quarter with $242 million in the bank, between his campaign and its joint fundraising committees (JFCs). Trump ended the quarter with $295 million in cash between his campaign and his JFCs. Three months ago, Trump had a 2-1 lead in cash on hand; that lead has dwindled over a period when heavy campaign spending did not stop Biden from rising in the polls.

- - -

Most Democrats in competitive Senate races outraised the GOP incumbent

In Maine, the most lopsided of these races, Democrat Sara Gideon raised $9.2 million to Sen. Susan Collins's $3.6 million. In Colorado, the other Hillary Clinton 2016 state with a Republican defending a Senate seat, former governor John Hickenlooper raised $5.2 million while GOP Sen. Cory Gardner raised $3.6 million. Hickenlooper's primary drained some resources, and Gardner has twice as much cash on hand.

In North Carolina, Democrat Cal Cunningham raised $7.4 million while GOP Sen. Thom Tillis raised $2.6 million, a gap that let Cunningham erase his cash-on-hand deficit. In Montana, Democrat Steve Bullock, the governor who's running for Senate, outraised Republican incumbent Steve Daines, $5.3 million to $3.7 million. In Arizona, Republican Sen. Martha McSally had the best fundraising quarter of her career, with $9.3 million; challenger Mark Kelly raised $12.8 million. Even some candidates in deep-red states that the national party is not investing in put up blockbuster numbers, with South Carolina's Jaime Harrison and Mississippi's Mike Espy outraising Republican incumbents. (Espy practically never stopped running after a single-digit loss in a 2018 special election.)

The exceptions: two races in mirror-opposite swing states. In Michigan, challenger John James once again outraised Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, $6.5 million to $5.2 million, the fourth consecutive quarter he's outraised him. (Peters was outspent in his first race six years ago, albeit by a weaker candidate.) In Texas, where a two-month runoff delay dragged out the Democratic primary, GOP Sen. John Cornyn raised $3.5 million; MJ Hegar, who won the primary, raised just $1.6 million.

- - -

House Democrats built a cash lead, with a few exceptions

Republicans had a few reasons to cheer in the second quarter, from the full deployment of its WinRed donation portal to a special-election victory in California's 25th Congressional District. Yet across the races both parties are competing seriously to win, Democrats raised about $68.4 million; Republicans raised about $51.2 million.

The primaries that started in earnest over these months complicated the picture. A few Democrats who had been on the GOP's target list, such as California's Josh Harder and Katie Porter, drew weak opponents and put up seven-figure fundraising hauls as the Republicans sputtered. Some Democrats whose districts were vulnerable on paper - the president carried them in 2016 - ran far ahead of their challengers. In New York, for example, Rep. Antonio Delgado raised more than $722,000 to defend a district where Republicans failed to find a strong challenger, and he has literally 1,000 times as much cash on hand as his opponent.

The strongest Republican challengers stood out. In Iowa, state legislator Ashley Hinson outpaced Rep. Abby Finkenauer; in California, challenger Michelle Steel outraised Rep. Harley Rouda by nearly 2-1; in Minnesota's 7th District, the most Trump-friendly seat currently held by a Democrat, 2018 Senate candidate Michelle Fischbach outraised Rep. Collin Peterson. Republicans outraised incumbent Democrats in at least 12 competitive districts. (The president carried 30 districts currently held by Democrats, and California's 25th District was substantially less Republican than any of them.)

To win the House, Republicans would need to flip twice as many seats, and most Democratic incumbents still lead in cash on hand. (Some, such as California's Rep. Gil Cisneros, have personal wealth they can plow into the race.) Still, a Republican premise at the start of this cycle was that they could find some challengers with more energy and appeal than many incumbents who'd lost in 2018. In some key races, that theory is bearing out, and candidates such as Pennsylvania's Sean Parnell, who's challenging Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb, are doing enough to be competitive in places the party gave up on two years ago.

- - -

Four "squad" members, just one getting outspent

The Democratic women who won high-profile races in 2018 - Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan - have starred in Republican advertising ever since.

But Pressley has no primary challenge (or Republican opponent), and Ocasio-Cortez easily defeated a well-funded challenger. While Tlaib made a splash at the start of 2019, using an unprintable word to describe the president she promised to impeach, her reelection has not attracted much interest from donors; Brenda Jones, the Detroit City Council president whom Tlaib narrowly defeated in 2018, raised less than $100,000 in the quarter and had less than $13,000 cash on hand. Tlaib raised nearly $780,000 and had close to $1.3 million on hand, a 100-to-1 cash advantage.

The exception, and it's a big one, is Omar. She raised less than $500,000 over the quarter, which for a safe-seat member of Congress is fairly standard. Her highest-profile primary challenger, Antone Melton-Meaux, raised $3.2 million. Much of that, as Buzzfeed's Molly Hensley-Clancy reported last week, came from donors outside the state who maxed out at the chance to retire Omar. Lacy Johnson, Omar's Republican opponent, raised more than $2 million for the quarter, despite having no clear path to victory in a Minneapolis-centered district that gave Hillary Clinton 74% of the vote.

- - -

Make news, make money

The single biggest predictor of whether a candidate has raised big money is whether that candidate has taken a high-profile role in an ongoing story. Omar and Melton-Meaux stand out in the category, but it's a crowded one.

Some of that money went to candidates who might not need it. Rep. Devin Nunes of California, who survived an expensive challenge in his safely Republican seat two years ago, raised $4.6 million for a race that Democrats are not seriously contesting. Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York raised $1.2 million for her reelection; she has a rematch with a Democrat who, in 2018, lost the increasingly red district by 14 points. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, whose seat is even redder, raised $901,000; that's nearly as much as he spent, in total, in his first congressional race four years ago. All three were prominent defenders of the president during the impeachment hearings and subsequent trial, and all three have remained prominent party voices since.

In one race, a surge of attention helped out a Republican who literally has no opponent - Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas. His Democratic opponent quit after it was too late for the party to pick a replacement. When Cotton wrote a New York Times opinion article arguing for the use of military resources to quell civil unrest, the backlash (and counter-backlash from conservatives) helped him raise $1 million from small donors, letting him triple his fundraising from the previous quarter. In California's 28th District, the attention around impeachment helped Rep. Adam Schiff of California raise $1.7 million as his Republican opponent raised nearly $800,000. All of that for a district that Clinton carried by 50 points.
Qantas pilots who agree to go on unpaid leave and not earn holiday entitlements for more than a year will be spared from forced redundancies.

The plan means Qantas is much less likely to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic with the risk of its long haul international pilots taking holidays just as the company's planes get back in the air.

Qantas pilots leave an A380 after it was put into storage in California in July 2020. Credit:AP

It's an example of one way companies are trying to manage the build up of annual leave, which a national small business organisation has warned could put businesses under as their costs rack up even while workers are stood-down during the coronavirus pandemic.

Peter Strong, chief executive of the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia, said the expense of leave entitlements was "really going to hit home" for small businesses that had stood their staff down on JobKeeper during the pandemic.
TUCSON, Ariz., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- U-Haul of Southwest at 32 W. Ajo Way will be closing the doors to its retail showroom and ceasing other store operations in the coming weeks.

Plans call for the facility, which has been serving the DIY moving public in Tucson since 1976, to be leased to a new tenant.

U-Haul is transferring the possessions of its self-storage customers to a new Company-owned and -operated store less than two miles away at U-Haul Moving & Storage of Bravo Park at 1265 E. Benson Hwy. In addition to self-storage options, customers will find an expansive showroom featuring a full line of moving supplies, boxes, hitches, towing accessories, bike racks and more to fill the void left by U-Haul of Southwest.

As a result of U-Haul of Southwest closing, five U-Haul Team Members will be let go.

Local U-Haul Companies are always exploring opportunities for growth as they pursue means to better serve the needs of customers, but sometimes find it necessary to close or relocate stores. Reasons for closures may include: long-term strategic plans; physical plant limitations, including insufficient square footage; shifts in demographics; trends in migration; expansion of the U-Haul neighborhood dealer network; and proximity to new or existing U-Haul stores.

Find U-Haul store and neighborhood dealer locations near you at uhaul.com/locations.

As an essential service provider, U-Haul has remained open throughout the COVID-19 outbreak while offering contactless programs and enhanced cleaning protocols, including added steps for sanitizing equipment between customer transactions. U-Haul products are used daily by First Responders; delivery companies bringing needed supplies to people's homes; small businesses trying to remain afloat; college students; and countless other dependent groups, in addition to the household mover.

Please visit uhaul.com/announcement for more information on how U-Haul is keeping its Team Members and customers safe during the summer moving season.

About U-Haul

Since 1945, U-Haul has been the No. 1 choice of do-it-yourself movers, with a network of 22,000 locations across all 50 states and 10 Canadian provinces. U-Haul Truck Share 24/7 offers secure access to U-Haul trucks every hour of every day through the customer dispatch option on their smartphones and our proprietary Live Verify technology. Our customers' patronage has enabled the U-Haul fleet to grow to approximately 167,000 trucks, 120,000 trailers and 43,000 towing devices. U-Haul offers nearly 697,000 rooms and 60.7 million square feet of self-storage space at owned and managed facilities throughout North America. U-Haul is the largest installer of permanent trailer hitches in the automotive aftermarket industry, and is the largest retailer of propane in the U.S.

Contact:

Andrea Batchelor

Jeff Lockridge

E-mail: [email protected]

Phone: 602-263-6981

Website: uhaul.com

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The Times story was initially titled Liberty Brings Back its Students, and Coronavirus, Too when it was published online at 3 p.m. but was later changed that evening to Liberty Brings Back its Students, and Coronavirus Fears, Too  a sign the paper recognized the claim was false, according to the suit.

Liberty faced a flood of criticism this spring after the universitys president, Jerry Falwell Jr., invited students to return to campus dorms at the end of spring break, even as classes moved online because of the public health threat.

The New York Times was one of several national outlets that descended on Lynchburg to cover the schools approach to the pandemic. Falwell has accused the paper of attempting to undermine him because of his close relationship with President Donald Trump.

Politically-motivated attacks by the mainstream news media that defame and libel conservatives and Christians should not be allowed in the United States of America and will not be tolerated by Liberty University, he said in a statement and on Twitter on Wednesday.

A representative for The Times said Wednesday that the paper stands by its reporting .
(Natural News) Perhaps taking a page out of the playbook of the left-wing anarchists who populated the short-lived nation of Seattles CHOP, a group of college students have put together a list of demands for the leadership at the University of Pittsburgh to follow.

(Article by Ryan Foley republished from WesternJournal.com)

This radical list of prescriptions essentially mandates that the college transform itself into a social justice activist organization where the First Amendment is an afterthought.

As the Washington Free Beacon reported, Black Pitt, a coalition of black student groups, is demanding that the university fire any employee dubbed racist by a black-only student council and end employee speech immunity, a core principle of academic freedom and First Amendment protections for academics at public universities.

The black-only student council proposed by the students, formally referred to as the Peoples Voice Committee, would actually include African-American staff, faculty and alumni as well, according to Black Pitts list of demands.

The fact that a black-only council would even be considered in the first place illustrates just how regressive the far left has become. In a letter dated June 18, the student activists outlined an action plan designed to address the Universitys failures at combating racism on campus, in the classroom, and amongst students.

In addition to demanding that the university transform the mission of the focus of our academic curriculum to be inclusive and comprehensive regarding the plight and triumphs of Black people, the letter urges officials to terminate the employment of racist and/or discriminatory employees on campus.

According to the letter, Students should be allowed to submit formal complaints when they experience racial bias by University of Pittsburgh faculty and staff.

The letter calls for faculty and staff with one (1) incident or complaint of racial bias, excessive force, or unlawful arrest/detainment to be immediately terminated and banned from campus if found at fault.

Furthermore, during the time of the investigation, the faculty/staff should be disclosed by name and banned from the University campus until its completion.

In other words, even if a professor or staff member is found innocent of charges of racism, his or her reputation will have already been irredeemably dragged through the gutter. So much for the idea of innocent until proven guilty.

The list of demands clearly runs afoul of the First Amendment, according to Katlyn Patton, spokeswoman for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

As a public institution, the University of Pittsburgh is bound by the First Amendment in its decisions concerning when to discipline a professor, Patton told the Free Beacon.

While these students are free to express their concerns and propose ideas, Pitt, like any public college or university, must consider the protections afforded to professors by the First Amendment and the principles of academic freedom in evaluating allegations of racial bias based on speech.

The far-left student activists also called on the University of Pittsburgh to create a space  on campus solely for Black students to congregate. Sadly, this troubling phenomenon of demands for segregation is hardly a new development.

As black economist Walter Williams explained in a 2018 Op-Ed for The Western Journal, Harvard University, Yale University, UCLA, and many other universities, including George Mason, have black graduation ceremonies while Cal State Los Angeles, the University of Connecticut, UC Davis, and UC Berkeley, among others, offer racially segregated housing for black students.

This latest development at the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the atmosphere in academia in general, makes it seem like actor Terry Crews had it right when he warned on Twitter that if both Black and Whites dont continue to work together  bad attitudes and resentments can create a dangerous self-righteousness.

The brains behind the list of demands definitely have all three of those things, but their far-left demands didnt pop up out of nowhere.

As Spencer Brown, spokesman for Young Americas Foundation, told the Washington Examiner when discussing the results of a survey measuring the patriotism of high school and college students, Its clear that leftist orthodoxy has a comfy home in higher education.

July 4th poll: College spoils patriotism in high schoolers. @itsSpencerBrown of @yaf 'Leftist orthodoxy has a comfy home in higher ed. Biased or incomplete lessons on Americas history go unchallenged because conservative ideas are not welcomed.' https://t.co/MWZ8ZUkejy pic.twitter.com/rGKijwt4p5  Paul Bedard (@SecretsBedard) July 1, 2020

The student groups at the University of Pittsburgh calling for extreme changes have taken this leftist orthodoxy to the extreme. It should scare Americans that someday, the students responsible for crafting this long and unconstitutional list of demands will be in charge.

If these regressive leftists still hold those toxic views when they obtain power in society, then America is headed for a constitutional crisis, where the First Amendment and other inherently American values are overruled by the desire to create a liberal utopia that is actually a dystopian nightmare.

Read more at: WesternJournal.com
YES! Magazine

For Indigenous peoples of the Americas, the U.S.-Mexico border is increasingly a symbol and tool of genocide.

When this border was created, Indigenous peoples of the region were divided, including the Yaqui, Oodham, Cocopah, Kumeyaay, Pai, Apache, and Kickapoo. These peoples are represented by 26 sovereign tribal nations in the United States with tribal relatives residing in Mexico. Indigenous peoples tend to understand and talk about the U.S.-Mexico border in different terms from those who understand the border to be an agreement between governments, often describing the border as artificial or imaginary.

Kumeyaay Nation and their allies gathered for a second time to stop contractors from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from blasting for border-wall construction right in the middle of Kumeyaay land. #SacredSites #Repatriation #NoMoreStolenAncestors https://t.co/2Bxdp5rnu9 pic.twitter.com/CBmAAVHGH2  A.A.I.A. (@IndianAffairs) July 13, 2020

Several international legal instruments, including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), confirm the right of Indigenous peoples to maintain connections to their homelands and peoples across international borders. Some Indigenous groups such as the Lipan Apache have pursued actions to address rights violations through the U.N. reporting system. International human rights law, however, is not now recognized as binding for decision-making in U.S. courts.

Throughout my decade-long field research on grassroots Indigenous border activism in the southern Arizona region, the usefulness of international Indigenous rights for ensuring rights at the local level was one area of debate among activists.

Given the sovereign status of U.S. tribal nations, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has established some general policies and practices to facilitate border crossing for Indigenous peoples of the U.S.-Mexico border region. The only fully formalized policy for southern border crossing, however, is a mandate that tribes develop and make use of Enhanced Tribal Cards , tribal identification cards that include security technology to confirm the tribal enrollment and citizenship status of U.S. tribal members.

The San Miguel Gate is a border crossing site on the Tohono O'odham Nation in Arizona. Photo: Tohono O'odham Nation

The absence of clear policies and procedures for such things as the handling of Indigenous sacred items and the processing of Indigenous members who are Mexican citizens has resulted in delays or denials of entry for Indigenous members into the United States for ceremonial and cultural events, detainments, and the mishandling or destruction of sacred items.

A number of grassroots Indigenous organizations such as the Indigenous Alliance Without Borders, Oodham Voice Against the Wall, and Indivisible Tohono are working in the U.S.-Mexico border region to raise consciousness about the negative impacts of current border enforcement policies on Indigenous peoples, and to work for new policies that recognize the rights of Indigenous peoples within their homelands. Since 1997, the Indigenous Alliance Without Borders has provided support to and advocated for the border rights of Indigenous groups throughout the border region.

The Indigenous Alliance has long advocated for the development of comprehensive legislation that would address Indigenous border rights at both the Canada-U.S. and U.S.-Mexico borders, and has envisioned summits that include both tribal government and grassroots community leaders. Recent tribal border summits in Tucson, Arizona, organized by the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, the Tohono Oodham Nation, and the National Congress of American Indians are building toward this vision. The Indigenous Alliance has also advocated for the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by U.S. tribal governments on the U.S.-Mexico border to help build a common reference for Indigenous border rights.

While Indigenous leaders work to address issues they face with U.S.-Mexico border policy, Indigenous members must continue to grapple with the everyday impacts of increasing border enforcement, including the growing presence of Border Patrol and surveillance technology on reservation lands, as well as the disruption of their lands by border barrier construction.

EARLIER: You have an obligation to protect sacred sites and sacred areas. You have failed: Tohono Oodham Nation Chairman Ned Norris Jr blasts Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney for letting Trump administration desecrate sacred places for wall along US border. pic.twitter.com/yrEzEgetBJ  indianz.com (@indianz) February 11, 2020

The effect of a wall is already in us. It already divides us . Its a psychological wall, says Oodham activist Mike Wilson, who is also concerned about increased border barrier construction. That psychological wall has devastating impacts that many will not realize until generations to come, he adds.

Given the U.S. governments historical treatment of Indigenous peoples in the attempt to eradicate their rights and presence on U.S.-claimed lands, both continued Indigenous movement and widespread public support are needed to help rectify the physical, social, and psychological harms caused by the imaginary line.

Christina Leza is an associate professor of Anthropology at Colorado College.

Note: This article originally appeared on YES! Magazine . It is published under a Creative Commons license

Join the Conversation
Paul Smith, a lawyer with the Campaign Legal Center, said he was deeply disappointed with the order. Floridas voters spoke loud and clear when nearly two-thirds of them supported rights restoration at the ballot box in 2018, he said in a statement. The Supreme Court stood by as the Eleventh Circuit prevented hundreds of thousands of otherwise eligible voters from participating in Floridas primary election simply because they cant afford to pay fines and fees. We look forward to continuing to fight for Florida voters so they can participate in the General Election in November.
Canadian Businesswoman Illegally Sentenced by the CCP

Sun Qian, a Chinese Canadian who practices Falun Gong, has been illegally detained by the Chinese Communist Party. Recently, she was sentenced to eight years in prison by Beijings Chaoyang Peoples Court. This case has been highly publicized. Suns former defense lawyer, Xie Yan-Yi, indicated that the trial is a total violation of the legal process and the result is illegal and invalid. In addition, an insider revealed that Suns mother has reported the illegal activities of several of the CCPs agencies.
Prabhat Mishra also known as 'Kartikey', who was killed in an encounter by UP Police amid their search for gangster Vikas Dubey, was a minor, his family has claimed.

Merely 10 days before he was killed, Mishra has passed his Class 12 Uttar Pradesh school board exams on June 29, his family said. According to his Aadhaar card, and Class 10 marksheet, he was born on May 27, 2004, which makes him 16 years old, states a report by the Indian Express.

Notorious gangster Vikas Dubey was wanted for the death of 8 policemen, and was carrying a reward of Rs 5 lakh for information leading to his arrest. The gangster had been on the run since last Friday night when a police party, which had gone to arrest him from his house in Bikru village in the Chaubeypur area of Kanpur, was ambushed.

Kanpur range Inspector General Mohit Agarwal said he did not have any information on Mishra's age, adding that Haryana Police had recovered pistols from him on July 8 during his arrest, that were used in the Bikru shootout.

Mishra was held in Faribadabad, and Faridabad police had said that Mishra's age was 19. Agarwal said Dubey would influence youth in his gang akin to terrorists, the report states.

When Mishra was being brought from Faridabad to Kanpur on July 9, he snatched a sub-inspector's pistol and attempted to escape, said the UP Police.

It was said that the encounter took place in Panki, Kanpur. After the police vehicle got a flat tyre, Mishra tried to take advantage of the situation and opened fire on the policemen. He was fired at by the police personnel in self defence, said the UP Police.

Mishra's mother Geeta told Indian Express that after the Bikru shootout, she had asked her son to leave the village for a few days.

Later that night, she said, police came and took away her mobile phone. Unable to remember Mishra's phone number, Geeta said she was not able to contact him after he left.

She came to know of his arrest on July 9, and said that she did not know the two men that the police said were with her son at the time. She added that the family did not have any relatives in Faridabad.

Only a few hours later, Geeta learned of her son's death from the media; that the police had killed her son. She said it was "murder", the report states.

She said she had been told by police the firing had taken place from her terrace on July 3. According to her, she "did not know the truth", as she had not allowed anyone to enter her premises.

She is of the view that that the police killed her son as the criminals used her terrace. She now fears for her husband's safety. Geeta said that her husband, Rajendra Kumar, had not been home since the shootout, in fear of the police.

Geeta, showed her son's Class 10 marksheet in which he had scored 78% per cent. The family said that he was a good students, and his Class 12 exams too, he scored 61% per cent marks.

She said that Mishra had not collected his marksheet from his school - Shri Bajarang Higher Secondary School - yet. The rueful mother said her son had even wanted to join the Air Force, and that a child with such good marks would be involved in criminal activities. She said the police was false blaming him.

Mishra's elder sister Himanshi, a graduate who is now studying for a basic training certificate, told IE that the police was trying to frame her father too now.

She said the family had come to know that a man called Shashi Kant - another Bikru resident who had been arrested for the July 3 shootout - had said that her father was also involved. Himanshi was at a relative's home at the time of the shootout.

Mishra's mother has now removed all government documents, which include all educational qualifications of Mishra and Himanshi, from her house, in fear that the police will destroy them in a search.

UP Police said that five days after the Bikru shootout, Faridabad police had arrested Mishra and two others who were alleged to also be Dubey's aides; Shrawan and his son Ankur from Kanpur, the report states. Police had received information that aides of the gangster were hiding at a house in New Indira Nagar, and said the three were held after an exhange of fire.

According to Faridabad Police, Mishra had confessed of fleeing with Dubey after grabbing two pistols and cartridges that had belonged to policemen. Shrawan and Ankur are currently in judicial custody.
Clay County, Missouri health officials are issuing an emergency order in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. Starting Sunday, July 19, face masks will be required in "all indoor areas of public accommodation" in Clay County. Health officials said those locations include but are not limited to grocery and retail stores, special events, public transit, and more.
She shot to worldwide fame through her starring role in the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, and she's braced for more success with her upcoming fantasy show Cursed.

But Katherine Langford has admitted that she struggled with her own identity when growing up, because she was a 'nerd' who didn't fit in.

The Australian actress, 24, opened up about her growing pains in GLAMOUR UK's July digital issue  which saw the star posed in shots taken on her own iPhone.

Stunning: Katherine Langford is the brand new cover star for GLAMOUR UK's July digital issue

Speaking of her younger years, she said: 'I didn't know where I fitted in and that was a big thing for me, I could do sport but then I was also "girly", and I liked makeup, but I didn't want to be a part of that popular girl group, and I was also a nerd.

'I remember we had this "girls magazine", and they would have pictures of celebrities with a quote. There was a picture of Scarlett Johansson who was saying something along the lines of like, "Just be yourself."

'I was 12 years old, and I looked at this and I just went, "But who am I? Tell me who I'm supposed to be. Should I dress like this and then I'm that person?"'

Identity: In her interview, the actress, 24, admitted that she struggled with her own identity when growing up, because she was a 'nerd' who didn't fit in. Pictured in November 2019

As for how she sees herself now, the brunette beauty admitted: 'I still feel like I don't know 100% who I am, and I don't want to put labels on myself because we put labels on things to make them easier to digest.

'I still feel restless but in a good way because to hell with that, f**k it, I'll make my own box.'

And while Katherine has been named the new L'Oreal Paris ambassador, the screen star has admitted that she found makeup 'intimidating' when she was younger.

She told GLAMOUR UK: 'When I was younger, beauty or being beautiful equated to looking like someone else. I think I felt a little bit intimidated by makeup, because my mom didn't wear a lot and I didn't wear a lot because of sport.

'So sometimes beauty felt very oppressive and to be able to see it as something expressive and freeing was just so liberating.'

Since finding screen success, Katherine has found herself enjoying the perks that come with her career  including being welcomed into the fold by some of the world's biggest stars.

She said: 'My first ever Golden Globes nomination came at the time of the Time's Up movement. Reese Witherspoon reached out to me and we chatted on the phone. I thought, "Oh my gosh, this person wants to welcome me in."

Out now: Read the full interview in the GLAMOUR UK July Digital Issue online now

'We had a meeting the day before and I walked into this room of 25 of the most experienced actresses, I felt very starstruck but at the same time I also felt very welcomed.

'I got a bit teary when I was talking to some of them, because, especially growing up in this industry, you hear these things like, "Women are this way, women are that way," and it just felt so far from the truth.

'To realise that we don't actually need to compete  we're such an indomitable force together when we truly support each other and stand together, it only serves to lift all of us up!'

As well as posing for self portraits for her GLAMOUR UK shoot, Katherine also did her own makeup under the guidance of LOreal Paris global makeup director Val Garland.

The cover shot saw the Perth native posing with her back to the camera as she looked over her shoulder while donning a red sequinned top.

In another snap, she wowed once again in a shimmering blue sequinned top with a beaded neckline and cuffs, which matched her large hoop earrings.

Read the full interview in the GLAMOUR UK July Digital Issue online now.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jul. 16

By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:

The value of trade turnover between Kazakhstan and France amounted to $1.2 billion over first five months of 2020, compared to $1.9 billion during the same period of 2019, Trend reports with reference to Kazakhstans Statistics Committee.

The share of France in total value of Kazakhstans trade turnover was 3.6 percent during the reporting period of 2020 compared to 5.1 percent during the same period of 2019.

Kazakhstans export to France amounted to $952.5 million over the period from January through May 2020 compared to $1.6 billion during the same period of 2019.

Frances share in total volume of Kazakhstans export amounted to 4.3 percent during the reporting period of 2020, compared to 7.2 percent during the same period of 2019.

In turn, Kazakhstans import from France amounted to $287.9 million over the reporting period compared to $230.8 million during the same period of 2019.

Frances total share in Kazakhstans import was 2.3 percent during the reporting period of 2020 compared to 1.7 percent during the same period of 2019.

Total volume of Kazakhstans trade turnover amounted to $34.9 billion over the period from Jan. through May 2020 which indicates a decrease from $37.5 billion during the same period of 2019.

Kazakhstans export amounted to $22.3 billion during the reporting period of 2020 ($23.6 billion in the same period of 2019), whereas import amounted to $12.6 billion ($13.9 billion).

---

Follow the author on twitter: @nargiz_sadikh
SINGAPORE, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A NEW breast cancer drug shown to significantly reduce the risk of cancer recurrence is now approved for use in Malaysia.

The drug, NERLYNX (neratinib), is an oral medication taken by women with breast cancer who have had surgery, chemotherapy and prior trastuzumab-based therapy.

It has been shown to significantly reduce the ongoing risk of recurrence in HER2+ early breast cancer patients,[2] with the greatest benefit seen in women who are also hormone-receptor positive (HR+) and who commence therapy within 12 months of completing trastuzumab-based therapy. For these women, the five-year risk of recurrence is reduced by up to 42%.[1]

NERLYNX is approved in Malaysia for "the extended adjuvant treatment of women with early-stage hormone receptor positive HER2-overexpressed/amplified breast cancer and who completed adjuvant trastuzumab-based therapy less than one year ago."

Nerlynx was also recently approved in Singapore by the HSA.

Independent pharmaceutical company, Specialised Therapeutics Asia (STA) is making NERLYNX available in South East Asia under exclusive license from Puma Biotechnology Inc.

STA Chief Executive Officer Mr Carlo Montagner said the latest approval in Malaysia represented a key commercial milestone and highlighted the company's expertise in navigating regulatory pathways in these complex regions.

"Our regulatory team has worked tirelessly to secure these approvals for NERLYNX in Singapore and now Malaysia," he commented.

"NERLYNX is the first drug in our portfolio to be approved in these regions. We are now rapidly progressing other portfolio products through relevant regulatory channels to enable patients across South East Asia access to therapies where there is an unmet medical need.

"In the case of NERLYNX, we look forward to seeing women throughout South East Asia benefit from this important therapy, that provides an opportunity to improve outcomes for early breast cancer patients."

Professor Arlene Chan was the lead investigator and primary author in the pivotal Phase 3 trial of NERLYNX, ExteNET.[2]

Professor Chan said its availability in Malaysia, as well as Singapore, would be "a huge step forward" to further reduce the risk of cancer recurrence in local women diagnosed with HER2+ early breast cancer.

"Despite the clear proven benefit of standard of care chemotherapy and trastuzumab therapy, women diagnosed with early-stage HER2+ breast cancer are still at risk of disease recurrence," Professor Chan said.

"This drug provides women with an opportunity to remain disease-free who may otherwise have had a recurrence."

Data from the Malaysia National Cancer Registry Report (MNCRR) 2012-2016 demonstrates that the number of breast cancer cases being recorded in Malaysia is rising, with around 34 women in every 100,000 diagnosed with the disease between 2012 to 2016, compared to about 31 women between 2007 to 2011.[3]

Singapore health data shows that breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the country, accounting for almost 30% of all cancer cases. It is estimated that one in 15 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer before age 75.[4]

About NERLYNX[5]

NERLYNX (neratinib) is an irreversible tyrosine kinase inhibitor that blocks signal transduction through the epidermal growth factor receptors, HER1, HER2 and HER4.

NERLYNX is the first HER2-targeted medication approved by the Australian TGA, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)[4] and the European Medicines Agency (EMA)[6] as extended adjuvant treatment for early-stage HER2-positive (HER2+) breast cancer, for patients who have previously been treated with trastuzumab following surgery (i.e., adjuvant trastuzumab-based therapy).

Extended adjuvant therapy is the next step of treatment that follows adjuvant therapy (treatment after surgery) to further reduce the risk of breast cancer returning.

NERLYNX is an oral tablet and works by binding to multiple receptors inside the cancer cell, blocking signals that tell cancer cells to grow and multiply.

About HER2+ Breast Cancer

Up to 20% of patients with breast cancer tumors over-express the HER2 protein (HER2-positive disease) and in the ExteNET study, 57% of patients were found to have tumors that were hormone-receptor positive. HER2-positive breast cancer is often more aggressive than other types of breast cancer, increasing the risk of disease progression and death. Although research has shown that trastuzumab can reduce the risk of early stage HER2-positive breast cancer recurring, up to 25%[7] of patients treated with trastuzumab experience recurrence within 10 years, the majority of which are metastatic recurrences.

About the ExteNET Study[2],[8]

The ExteNET trial was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, Phase III trial of neratinib versus placebo after adjuvant treatment with trastuzumab (Herceptin) in patients with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer.

The ExteNET trial randomised 2,840 patients in 41 countries with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer who had undergone surgery and adjuvant treatment with trastuzumab. After completion of adjuvant treatment with trastuzumab, patients were randomised to receive neratinib or placebo for a period of one year. Patients were then followed for recurrent disease, ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), or death for a period of five years after randomisation.

The primary endpoint of the trial was invasive disease free survival (iDFS). The trial demonstrated that after a median follow up of 5.2 years, treatment with neratinib resulted in a 27% reduction of risk of invasive disease recurrence or death versus placebo (hazard ratio = 0.73, p = 0.008). The 5-year iDFS rate for the neratinib arm was 90.2% and the 5-year iDFS rate for the placebo arm was 87.7%.[8]

An additional five-year sub-group analysis demonstrated a 42% risk reduction in women who were HR+ and who had commenced neratinib therapy within 12 months of completing treatment with trastuzumab.[8]

Puma is conducting a Phase 2 CONTROL study investigating various prophylactic anti-diarrhoeal regimens for the first 1-2 cycles of neratinib therapy. Emerging data suggest that prophylactic management reduces the incidence, severity and duration of neratinib-associated diarrhoea as compared with events observed in ExteNET.

About Specialised Therapeutics Asia

Headquartered in Singapore, Specialised Therapeutics Asia Pte Ltd (STA) is an international biopharmaceutical company established to new therapies and technologies to patients throughout South East Asia, as well as in Australia and New Zealand. STA and its regional affiliates collaborate with leading global pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies to bring novel, innovative and life-changing healthcare solutions to patients affected by a range of diseases. Its mission is to provide therapies where there is an unmet need. The company's broad therapeutic portfolio currently includes novel agents in oncology, haematology, neurology, ophthalmology and supportive care.

Additional information can be found at www.stbiopharma.com

References:

[1] Gnant, M et al. Presented at the 41st Annual San Antonia Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) Dec 4-8, 2018, San Antonia, TX.

[2] Chan A et.al. Lancet Oncol. 2016;17(3):367-77

[3] Malaysia National Cancer Registry Report 2012  2016. Available online. Last accessed July 2020.

[4] Singapore Cancer Registry Interim Annual Report 2010  2014. Available online.

[5] NERLYNX (neratinib) US Product Information https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/lab

[6] NERLYNX (neratinib) European Summary of Product Characteristics

[7] Goldhirsch A et al. Lancet.2013;382:1021-1028

[8] Martin M et. Al. Lancet Oncology 2017; 1-13

SOURCE Specialised Therapeutics Asia
Vietnam welcomes countries stances on the East Vietnam Sea issue that are in line with international law, the Ministry of Foreign Affair' spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang said at a press meeting on Wednesday.

Peace, stability, cooperation, and development in the East Vietnam Sea are the aspirations and goals of countries in the waters and the region as well as the international community, Hang remarked with regard to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeos statement on the United States position on maritime claims in the waterway.

In order to achieve these goals, relevant parties must respect maritime legal order and comply with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the diplomat stated.

Vietnam welcomes other countries stances on the East Vietnam Sea issue in line with international law, she continued, adding that the 1982 UNCLOS is a legal framework for all activities at sea.

Vietnam hopes that all countries will make an effort to contribute to maintaining peace, stability, and cooperation in the maritime area and settle disputes through dialogues and other peaceful measures, in accordance with international law and for the common interest, the spokesperson stressed.

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated that Beijings claims to offshore resources across most of the East Vietnam Sea are completely unlawful, as is its campaign of bullying to control them.

We seek to preserve peace and stability, uphold freedom of the seas in a manner consistent with international law, maintain the unimpeded flow of commerce, and oppose any attempt to use coercion or force to settle disputes, the top diplomat remarked.

We share these deep and abiding interests with our many allies and partners who have long endorsed a rules-based international order.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic Ivan Korcok discussed the resumption of the operation of Uzhhorod International Airport and the terms of signing the relevant agreement.

The diplomats paid special attention to the resumption of the Uzhhorod International Airport operation and discussed the progress of the finalization of a draft bilateral agreement on scheduled air services, the press service of Ukraines Foreign Ministry informs upon a telephone conversation between the ministers.

"Ukraine fulfilled the requirements for signing the agreement and expects Slovakia to promptly complete domestic procedures to prepare the document for signing," Kuleba said.

Ivan Korcok assured that the agreement was a priority for the Slovak side in view of the preliminary intention to sign the document during the official visit of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to Slovakia scheduled for autumn.

The ministers discussed the rate of COVID-19 spread in Ukraine and Slovakia and the efforts of the governments to fight the epidemic. In this context, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine proposed speeding up the preparation of a meeting of the Ukraine-Slovakia Intergovernmental Commission which would give impetus to economic cooperation and trade development.

Korcok assured that the Slovak side would accelerate the appointment of a co-chair of the Ukraine-Slovakia Intergovernmental Commission for Economic, Industrial, and Scientific-Technical Cooperation.

Minister Kuleba expressed deep gratitude for Slovakias humanitarian assistance in overcoming the consequences of floods in western Ukraine.

On June 10, 2020, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted a resolution on signing an Agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of the Slovak Republic, determining the terms of use of a certain part of Slovak Republics airspace for operation of the air services at the Uzhhorod International Airport by a designated Ukrainian air navigation service provider.

The parties plan to sign the agreement within the framework of the official visit of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to Slovakia.

On July 3, 2020, the Slovak Republic provided humanitarian aid to flood-affected areas of the Ivano-Frankivsk region to the tune of about EUR 80,000.

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Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday kicked off construction work at the Diamer-Bhasha dam in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, saying it will generate low-cost environment friendly hydel power in the country.

Addressing a public gathering in Chilas in Gilgit-Baltistan, Khan said the Diamer Bhasha will be the third largest dam of the country after Tarbela and Mangla dams.

The project will generate 4,500MW cheap electricity and provide at least 16,000 jobs. It is expected to be completed by 2028.

The Pakistan government in May signed a whopping Rs 442 billion contract with a joint venture of a Chinese state-run firm and a commercial arm of Pakistan's powerful military for construction of the Diamer-Bhasha dam.

India took strong note of Pakistan awarding the contract to build the dam, saying carrying out of such projects in territories under Pakistan's illegal occupation was not proper.

"Our position is consistent and clear that entire territory of the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh have been, are and will continue to be integral and inalienable part of India," MEA Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said in May.

"We have consistently conveyed our protests and shared concerns with both Pakistan and China on all such projects in the Indian territories under Pakistan's illegal occupation," he said.

The Council of Common Interests (CCI) had approved the project for construction in 2010, but it suffered delays because of international lending agencies which remained associated with the project but later backtracked because of opposition from India as major part of the dam is located in Gilgit-Baltistan.

During his address, Khan lamented that building of this dam was delayed while the previous governments started building thermal power stations.

"The decision to build this dam was taken 50 years ago. There can be no better site for constructing a dam, it is a natural dam. Forty, 50 years ago this was decided, and work on the project has begun today, he said.

He announced plans to build more dams on rivers to get cheap energy and decrease the pressure on foreign exchange to buy foreign fuel.

Khan said that hydropower projects would also be helpful to reduce global warming. He was accompanied by Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and ISI chief Lt Gen Faiz Hamid besides Minister for Water Faisal Vawda and other officials.
Chris joining the LAVA practice shows our continued commitment to enabling workflows for the wealth industry.

Oakbrook Solutions is pleased to announce the appointment of Chris Martinez as Product Management Director of its new LAVAwm (wm = wealth management) workflow optimization and automation practice.

In addition to his current role leading Oakbrooks Family Office practice, Chris will be responsible for coordinating Oakbrooks business process management and Financial Services operations & technology experts to orchestrate end-to-end workflow solutions tailored for each client. Chris will also set the product vision and strategy, define the road map, and identify new business opportunities for LAVAwm.

I am excited to join LAVA at this inflection point in the industry, said Chris. As the industry consolidates and adapts to working remotely in this "new normal," more clients are challenged by regulatory and compliance issues, and are asking how to eliminate paper, inefficient, manual processes and proliferating spreadsheets. I look forward to demonstrating how our open architecture, technology agnostic workflow solutions can measurably cut the number of steps, handoffs, forms, man-hours, and processing times, accelerating the time to deliver client value and shortening time-to-revenue.

Based in Chicago, Chris has 25+ years experience in the wealth management industry from prior C-level roles with The PrivateBank & Trust Co. (PVTB), Wilmington Trust (MTB), and Bingham Legg Advisers (LM). He holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, earned a bachelors degree in Computer Science from the University of Southern California, is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER(TM) professional, and a member of the Financial Planning Association.

Chris joining the LAVA practice shows our continued commitment to enabling workflows for the wealth industry." Craig Cook, CEO of Oakbrook, commented. "His blend of technology, product, business expertise, and leadership is a perfect fit for our practice and our clients.

Since 2000, Oakbrook Solutions has been a leading consulting and services firm for the Wealth Management industry, serving RIAs, Private banks, trust companies, family offices, and other financial service providers. For more information, visit https://lavawm.com/.

Contact:

Chris Martinez

chris@lavawm.com

773.312.5585
MADRID - From the palm-fringed beaches of southern India to the bar-lined streets of a Spanish island and the rolling hills of Ireland, restaurants, pubs and clubs have emerged as front lines in efforts to prevent the re-emergence of the coronavirus.

With Europes summer vacation season kicking into high gear for millions weary of months of lockdown, scenes of drunken British and German tourists on Spains Mallorca island ignoring social distancing rules and reports of American visitors flouting quarantine measures in Ireland raised fears of a resurgence of infections in countries that have battled for months to flatten the COVID-19 curve.

Germanys foreign minister condemned the rowdy tourists for imperiling hard-won gains in efforts to contain the virus. We just recently managed to open the borders again in Europe. We cannot risk this by reckless behaviour, Heiko Maas told Funke Media Group. Otherwise, new measures will be inevitable.

Meanwhile, in the United States, Florida reached another ominous record with 156 virus deaths reported Thursday as the state continued to experience a swift rise in cases. The state Department of Health reported 13,965 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to nearly 316,000.

And in hard-hit Texas, refrigerated trailers were being rushed in to handle the growing number of bodies as deaths surge in the state. Dr. Ivan Melendez, Hidalgo Countys public health authority, said its not uncommon for a deceased COVID-19 patient to lay on a stretcher for 10 hours in the communitys overcrowded hospitals until the body is picked up and put in a freezer.

Before someone gets a bed in the COVID ICU unit, someone has to die there, Melendez said.

Also Thursday, the Boy Scouts of America announced it was postponing next years National Jamboree in West Virginia. The increasing number of virus cases and the pandemics persistence and unpredictability make it impossible for the Boy Scouts to comply with its Be Prepared motto, said the announcement on the organizations website.

In a move designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus and shake off Mallorcas reputation as a party hub, regional authorities ordered the closure Thursday of all establishments along Beer Street and Ham Street, as the popular party areas near the beach of Palma de Mallorca are known, and on another boulevard in nearby Magaluf.

Bar owners reacted angrily to the restrictions on the islands that have seen, like most regions in Spain, recent spikes in infections. Bars and nightclubs employ some 20,000 people in the region.

They are undertaking drastic measures that are typical of other countries, closing entire streets and curtailing the free exercise of private initiative, Jesus Sanchez, who leads a local business association told The Associated Press. He blamed clandestine parties for some of the images of tourists ignoring virus containment measures.

At a solemn service in Madrid, relatives of about 100 COVID-19 victims sat socially distanced with representatives of health workers and other vital professions and with Spains king and queen to pay tribute to the dead and those fighting the pandemic.

In an emotional speech, Hernando Calleja said he was sharing the pain of the loss of his brother Jose Maria, a well-known journalist and writer in Madrid.

Lets not forget that the coronavirus was and continues to be a cold, cruel and wrecking executioner, Calleja said at the ceremony at Madrids Royal Palace.

Another European tourism hot spot, Greece, lifted a ban on flights from Britain on July 15 and on Thursday welcomed the first arrivals with random testing at Athens airport.

Alexandros Maziotis, a Greek who lives in the UK, said he wasnt tested.

Im planning to be a bit careful, especially the first week, so I make sure I dont pass something to my parents, he said.

In France, which has seen new outbreaks, Prime Minister Jean Castex said masks would be mandatory in closed public places as of next week  sooner than Aug. 1 as previously announced. One of the Catholic Churchs holiest sites, Lourdes, held its first-ever online pilgrimage, to mark the anniversary of claims by 19th-century girl Bernadette Soubirous that the Virgin Mary appeared to her there.

More than than 13.5 million people have been infected worldwide and over 580,000 have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The true numbers are thought to be far higher for a number of reasons, including limited testing.

Brazil, which hit at least 75,000 confirmed deaths Wednesday was poised to report 2 million confirmed cases Thursday. The country has recorded more than 1,000 daily deaths on average in a gruesome plateau that has yet to tilt downward.

Indias record daily increase of nearly 32,700 cases pushed its total close to 1 million and led authorities to reimpose a three-day lockdown and night curfew in the popular western beach state of Goa, two weeks after it was reopened to tourists.

The states top elected official, Pramod Sawant, said people there were flouting social distancing rules and not wearing face masks. Nearly 40,000 people have been fined in the past two weeks for not wearing masks.

Israel also registered a new daily record of confirmed coronavirus cases, and a new nationwide lockdown appeared imminent.

Hezi Levi, the Health Ministry director general, told Army Radio that he would be pushing at a meeting Thursday for more stringent movement restrictions, including a possible nationwide lockdown on weekends.

Americans heading overseas were causing consternation in Ireland, amid fears that some were ignoring the governments requirement that they self-isolate for 14 days after arrival. The Irish Post cited restaurant owners who complained they had no way of knowing if American visitors had completed the two-week quarantine.

Showing that there can be a way forward, China became the first economy to resume economic growth since the pandemic began in its central city of Wuhan. It reported an unexpectedly strong 3.2% expansion in the latest quarter after lockdowns were lifted and factories and stores reopened. The 6.8% contraction in January-March was the countrys worst downturn since at least the mid-1960s.

The economic news elsewhere was grimmer, however.

More than 1 million Americans sought unemployment benefits last week, indicating that companies are cutting more jobs amid virus surges in the Sunbelt and some of the nations most populous states. Layoffs in Florida, Georgia and California rose by tens of thousands, the Labor Department said Thursday in its weekly report.

In Britain, the national statistics office said clear signs were emerging that job losses will skyrocket over coming months to levels not seen since the 1980s.

___

Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands, and Kurtenbach from Bangkok. Associated Press reporters around the world contributed to this report.

___

Follow all of APs pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said he has tested positive for the new coronavirus for a second time, following his July 7 announcement that he had COVID-19.

'I did the test yesterday, and at night the result came back that I am still positive for coronavirus,' Bolsonaro said.

'I hope that in the coming days I will do another test and, God willing, everything will be all right to return soon to activity.'

The far-right leader said he hasn't experienced serious symptoms of the disease as he isolates at the presidential residence in capital of Brasilia.

The poorly looking president was pictured attending a flag lowering ceremony at the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia last night.

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has admitted he is still testing positive for Covid-19 following a flag unveiling ceremony

Bolsonaro, pictured, was seen carrying a feather outside his official residence in Brasilia

According to the World Health Organization, the median time from onset to clinical recovery for mild cases is approximately two weeks.

Before his diagnosis, Bolsonaro had spent many of his weekends since the beginning of the pandemic mingling in crowds, sometimes without wearing a mask.

He is treating his COVID-19 with the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, although it has not been proven effective against the virus.

Brazil, the world's sixth most-populous nation and home to 210 million people, is one of the outbreak's epicentres.

More than 75,000 Brazilians have died from COVID-19, and almost 2 million have been infected, according to government statistics.

Both numbers are the world's second-highest totals, behind those of the U.S.

Bolsonaro's administration on Wednesday completed two months without a health minister. The interim minister, Gen. Eduardo Pazuello, who had no experience in the field before April, is facing pressure to leave the job.

He took over after his predecessor, a doctor and health care consultant, quit in protest over Bolsonaro's support for the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, a related drug.

Bolsonaro, pictured, is treating his COVID-19 with the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, although it has not been proven effective against the virus

'We know that there is no scientific evidence, but it worked with me,' Bolsonaro said Wednesday on Facebook. 'The future will say whether that remedy is effective or not. It was for me. I believe in it. If it was, a lot of people were wrong. People with responsibility.'

Other world leaders who previously contracted COVID-19 include British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Britain's Prince Charles, Prince Albert II of Monaco and Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez.
Green River is joining a group of cities in monitoring sewage for presence of the novel coronavirus.

Last week, the city council voted to approved a contract with the Wyoming Department of Health to monitor sewage for the virus. The health department is providing up to $28,000 in funding from the federal CARES Act for sampling and testing.

Testing sewage for evidence of the coronavirus isnt new to Wyoming. In April, Teton County started sending samples to MIT for testing as it allows scientists and health officers the ability to track the disease.

The concentration of coronavirus found...
According to reports, Rao will either be shifted to GT Hospital or St George Hospital.

Activist and poet Varavara Rao, who is currently in jail in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence case, has been found positive for coronavirus.

He is currently undergoing treatment, said Dr Ranjeet Mankeshwar, dean of JJ Hospital, adding that " he is stable and will be shifted to another hospital". Mankeshwar said that he will be shifted to a designated COVID-19 hospital as JJ Hospital is a non-COVID centre.

According to reports, Rao will either be shifted to GT Hospital or St George Hospital. Moreover, another co-accused and jail inmate, Vernon Gonsalves, is now at serious risk of contracting COVID-19.

Rao had been taken to the state-run JJ Hospital in Mumbai on Monday after he complained of dizziness. Rao, 80, has been behind bars for almost two years and lodged at the Taloja jail in neighbouring Navi Mumbai.

The family members of the activist had expressed their concerns about his declining health in the past. They had also requested the jail authorities to provide him immediate medical care.

Rao and nine other activists have been arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, which was initially probed by the Pune Police and later transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in January this year.

The case related to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial.

The police have also claimed the conclave was organised by people with alleged Maoist links.
Gunn Historical Museum in Washington will present a two-part lecture about the Shepaug River via Zoom in the coming days.

Edwin Matthews, president of the Shepaug River Association, will lead the presentations that will include a slideshow with photos from the collection at the museum, followed by a discussion with the audience.

The first lecture, The Story of a River: Contrasting History of the Shepaug, will be offered July 20 at 6:30 p.m.

The Shepaug River has been flowing since the ice left Connecticut perhaps 30,000 years ago.

Its storied history incudes the Native Americans, who occupied the valley for many thousands of years, followed by opportunistic European colonists, and then by all manner of industry and finally a steam railroad along its banks.

At the turn of the last century, its natural beauty drew city folks to enjoy and later to preserve the river landscape.

In 1955, a dramatic flood destroyed the Washington Depot river front, which with commitment to community was restored.

The second lecture, The Story of a River: Rallies to Save the Shepaug, will be held Aug. 3 at 6:30 p.m.

In recent times, the Shepaug has been threatened by diversions of its water to Waterbury: in summer months, the river went dry.

In the 1920s, valley citizens had been caught off-guard when the headwaters were sold to the Waterbury Water Company. In 1921 a contract was signed that was hoped would protect the river but did not.

In the 1990s river advocates mobilized to save their river. Their battle led to complex litigation and in 2005 to a settlement agreement with Waterbury which has restored river flows for future generations.

Registration is required for the programs. To register, visit www.gunnmuseum.org.
We Muslims face a choice between Allahs Islam and Mullahs Islam. We owe it to Canada and our children to make the choice Martin Luther made in the 15th century.





by Tarek Fatah





Without fail, hardly a week goes by when news from the Islamic World does not embarrass ordinary Muslims worldwide.









Either we are each others throats, or are hunting to eliminate the kuffar, be they Christian, Hindu, Jew or the agnostic and atheist, unless of course, they adhere to the guilt-ridden Cancel Culture.





And if at all a Braveheart among the infidels murmurs a protest, trust us to invoke Islamophobia, the ever-present Sword of Damocles that hangs over the head of whosoever dare protest. For we are unique  demanding both supremacy as well as victimhood.





The late Iranian scholar Ali Dashti concluded that Muslim follies have little to do with Islam, but everything to do with early Islamic conflicts where ambition for the leadership replaced zeal for the religion as a pivotal motive.





In the book Twenty-Three Years that got him tortured by the Khomeini regime, Dashti wrote: The study of the history of Islam shows it to be a sequence of struggles for power in which the contestants treated the religion (Islam) as the means, not as an end.  The further the Prophets death receded in the past, the greater became the tendency to use it (Islam) as an instrument of seizure of the leadership and the rulership.





It is just such power-hungry men who have today cloaked themselves under the cover of Islam to bring turmoil in a world already shaken up by a pandemic and an economic catastrophe rivaling the 1930s depression.





In Istanbul, once known as Constantinople, the Islamist leader of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has by decree converted the majestic Hagia Sophia Cathedral built in 573 CE, into a mosque.





The tragedy of Hagia Sophia began in 1453 CE at a time when the Arab World and its caliphate was about to fall in Baghdad and the vacuum was being filled by Turkic warlords. Among them was Sultan Mehmet II (Muhammad) who invaded Constantinople and erased all signs of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, converting the jewel of the city, the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia, into a mosque.





Elsewhere during the medieval period, another Turkic plunderer, Babur the Mogul, invaded India in 1528 and destroyed Hinduisms most sacred place, the birthplace of Lord Rama. To add insult to injury, he built the infamous Babri Mosque, an act that became a source of conflict and recrimination for 500 years until in 2019 when the Indian Supreme Court, thanks to a Muslim archeologist, determined the Babri Mosque was built over the Ram Janambhumi (where Lord Rama manifested himself in human form).





Just as Turkey was erasing the Christian character of the 1,000-year-old cathedral, Pakistani mullahs and radical jihadis tore down the foundation of a Hindu Temple in Islamabad, claiming there was no room for temples or churches in a city named after Islam and a country created to spread Islam.





The fact that some interpretations of Islam prohibit the destruction or occupation of non-Muslim houses of worship must matter. Hatred of the Hindu, Christian and Jew remains paramount in contemporary Islamic discourse. It should not.





Prophet Muhammad himself is quoted as saying, Whoever usurps the land of somebody unjustly, his neck will be encircled with it down the seven earths (on the Day of Resurrection).





The Australian Islamic cleric Mohammed Tawhidi quotes the 11th century Persian Islamic philosopher Al Ghazali from his book, Revival of Religions Sciences (Ihya Ulum ad-din): In regard to the Mosque, if it is constructed in an illegally usurped land, or with wood that is illegally usurped from another mosque or property, it is impermissible to enter it, even to offer Friday prayer.





We Muslims face a choice between Allahs Islam and Mullahs Islam. We owe it to Canada and our children to make the choice Martin Luther made in the 15th century.
A hospital trust at the centre of Britains largest ever maternity scandal has widespread failings across departments and is getting worse, the care regulator has warned as it calls for NHS bosses to take urgent action.

Ted Baker, chief inspector of hospitals, urged NHS England to intervene over the worsening picture at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust, which is already facing a criminal investigation.

There are as many as 1,500 cases being examined after mothers and babies died and were left with serious disabilities due to poor care going back decades in the trusts maternity units.

Now, in a leaked letter seen by The Independent, Prof Baker has warned national health chiefs that issues are still present today across wards at the trust  with inspectors uncovering poor care in recent visits that led to continued and unnecessary harm for patients.

He raised the prospect that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) could recommend the trust be placed into special administration for safety reasons, which has only been done once in the history of the NHS  at the former Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust, where a public inquiry found hundreds of patients suffered avoidable harm and neglect because of widespread poor care.

In a rarely seen intervention, Prof Bakers letter to NHS Englands chief operating officer, Amanda Pritchard, warned there were ongoing and escalating concerns regarding patient safety and that poor care was becoming normalised at the trust, which serves half a million people with its two hospitals  the Royal Shrewsbury and Telfords Princess Royal.

He said the trust currently has more civil enforcement actions imposed on their registration and more potential criminal cases being investigated, than any other NHS trust in England, adding that inspectors had consistently identified institutional failings. Specific care concerns included:

The delivery of fundamental care needs to patients

Ongoing failure to managing the risk of patient falls. The trust was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive in 2017 for systematic failures after five patients died following falls

Recognising and reacting to patients whose condition deteriorates

Skin care of patients and pressure sores

Care for patients at the end of their life

Treatment of patients under the Mental Capacity Act

Prof Baker wrote: There is a lack of professional accountability and professional curiosity amongst staff to recognise, challenge and address poor care, adding that senior nurses do not highlight or challenge poor practice and were at a loss as to how to address some safety issues. Some staff were unaware the trusts chief nurse had changed, he said.

He said he had no confidence in the leadership of the trust to turn the situation around and demanded an urgent meeting with NHS England.

This failure to improve demands further action and, as the independent regulator, our only remaining option is to consider recommending trust special administration. This is not an option that is without risk and considering this situation, I feel it is imperative we meet to discuss any alternative action that can be taken.

The Independent understands a meeting took place on 9 July and could see NHS staff from across the country drafted in to drastically improve the trusts services.

Prof Baker said: We remain concerned about the length of time patients are being provided inadequate care, with continued and current unnecessary harm being identified. The pace and scale of improvement demonstrated is not sufficient, and we do not have confidence in the current executive teams collective capacity and overall capability to address these concerns at sufficient pace.

Given that our enforcement to date has not driven the necessary interventions and improvements, I need to consider the most appropriate way forward to prevent further failings and omissions of care.

The CQC first rated the trust inadequate in 2018 and it remains in special measures despite promises it would get support to improve.

In November The Independent revealed that the independent inquiry into maternity services at the trust by then-health secretary Jeremy Hunt had identified deaths of dozens of babies and three mothers. Malpractice continued unchecked over a period of 40 years, as doctors, midwives and hospital bosses failed to take action, according to the leaked review led by midwife Donna Ockenden. The inquiry has now been expanded to consider 1,500 cases.

On the latest warning, Rhiannon Davies, who with her husband Richard Stanton, helped expose the scale of the problems at the trust following the avoidable death of their daughter Kate in 2009, said: This underlines what weve been worried about for more than 10 years. The trusts culture and failure to learn has not only harmed mothers and babies but has spread to other parts of the hospital and is harming patients even today.

Recommended Dozens of mother and baby deaths in largest ever NHS maternity scandal

This situation cannot be allowed to carry on indefinitely. The NHS has to act to change the way things are done at the trust so patients and families can have confidence in the care they will receive. Enough is enough, any future harm is the fault of the wider NHS for failing to act now.

The CQC told The Independent it would be publishing the report from its latest inspection of medical care at the trust in the coming weeks and added it was in ongoing discussions with NHS England and closely monitoring the hospital.

A spokesperson for NHS England said: NHS England put in place a number of supportive measures including more senior nursing expertise, better training and development and improved freedom to speak up procedures for staff who wish to raise concerns and working closely with the CQC will continue to monitor progress made by Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust so that they can provide safer and improved care for patients and families.

Maggie Bayley, interim chief nurse at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust, said: The trust continues to work with NHS England regarding the support that the trust needs to continue its improvement journey.

The trust said it had introduced a new focus on some of the issues raised by the CQC with matron reviews as well as new nursing documentation and expanding its patient safety team.
Surrounded by white sand and crystal-clear waters of the Red Sea, the Arous Holiday Village was a dream destination for tourists and adventurers of the 1980s. According to a glossy brochure - Arous on the Red Sea, a wonderful world apart.

The only thing was, unbeknown to the guests or the authorities, the Red Sea diving resort was entirely fake. It was a front, set up and run for more than four years in the early 1980s by operatives from Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency.

The Mossad used it as a cover for a humanitarian mission, namely, to smuggle out thousands of beleaguered Ethiopian Jews stranded in refugee camps in Sudan and evacuate them to Israel. Because Sudan was an enemy country, the whole operation had to be done without anyone finding out, either there or at home.

The Ethiopian Jews belonged to a community called Beta Israel (House of Israel), whose origins are shrouded in mystery. For many centuries, a story had existed that they were descended from Israelites who had accompanied a son of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon back to Ethiopia around 950BC, smuggling the Ark of the Covenant with them.

The Ethiopian Jews adhered to the Torah, practiced a version of Judaism, and prayed in buildings similar to synagogues. But, because they had been isolated from other Jews for thousands of years, they believed they were the last remaining Jews in the world.

In the late 1970s, Jews in Ethiopia had come under increasing pressure from authorities. Many had fled across the border into Sudan. One of their leaders pleaded with Israel to help them escape to Israel. One of his many letters found its way to Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin  himself a refugee from Nazi-occupied Europe. Begin believed that Israel existed as a safe haven for all Jews in peril. The Beta Israel were no exception and he ordered Mossad to act.

A Mossad operative was instructed to find a way to get the beleaguered Jews out of the Sudan and into Israel. The operative thought the best way to evacuate the Beta Jews was by sea.

Posing as the director of a Swiss-based tourism company (which did not actually exist), the Mossad agent convinced the Sudanese authorities that he could revive the resort and bring in tourists again. They agreed to let him rent it for $250,000.

The Israeli team spent the first year renovating it. They also recruited local staff, including maids, waiters, and a chef they "poached" from a hotel by paying him double what he was making.

While guests slept at night, a squad would rendezvous at a point about 560 miles away where they picked up groups of Ethiopian Jews. Once they got to the coast near the resort, Israeli navy special forces came ashore on dinghies, collected the refugees and transported them to an Israeli ship, which then took them to Israel. Eventually, that method of evacuation became too dangerous. Mossad then came up with an alternative plan whereby Jewish refugees would be airlifted from a secret desert location.

All the while, the resort continued to cater to its guests. "Arous was really beautiful," one American guest said. "They had these lovely little vacation cabins and you'd go out on boats and go diving or snorkeling. The underwater scenery was just breathtaking.

Over 28 covert airlifts 6,380 Ethiopian Jews were flown to Brussels and then straight on to Israel. The airlift was code-named Operation Moses.

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In an opinion released Thursday, the Tennessee Supreme Court determined that, when analyzing a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, trial counsels failure to file a timely motion for new trial does not require a presumption of prejudice, overruling the Courts previous decision in Wallace v. State.

In 2014, a jury convicted the petitioner, Antonio Howard, of six counts of aggravated rape, one count of especially aggravated robbery, two counts of aggravated robbery, and three counts of aggravated assault, for which the Criminal Court for Shelby County imposed an effective 124-year sentence. Following the jury trial, trial counsel for Mr. Howard admittedly failed to file a timely motion for new trial. Because of counsels failure, Mr. Howards only viable issues on appeal were sufficiency of the evidence and sentencing. He also raised several issues concerning the admission of witness testimony. However, because he did not file a timely motion for new trial, the Court of Criminal Appeals concluded that he waived the additional issues on direct appeal.

Mr. Howard then sought post-conviction relief claiming, among other things, that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to file a timely motion for new trial. The post-conviction court denied his request, concluding that trial counsel was deficient for failing to timely file the motion but that Mr. Howard was not prejudiced. The Court of Criminal Appeals, however, relied on Wallace v. State and held that, because it was apparent from the record that Mr. Howard intended to file a motion for new trial, he was presumptively prejudiced by trial counsels deficient performance. Therefore, the intermediate court concluded that Mr. Howard was entitled to post-conviction relief in the form of a delayed appeal. The Supreme Court granted review.

In its opinion, the Supreme Court expressly overruled its previous holding in Wallace v. State that, when a defendant indicates a desire to appeal, trial counsels failure to file a timely motion for new trial is presumptively prejudicial. It explained that, while a presumption of prejudice is appropriate for claims involving the complete denial of an appeal, the petitioner in this caseas well as the petitioner in Wallacereceived meaningful review on direct appeal and complained of waiver of only certain issues. The Court concluded that, because the petitioner was not completely denied a direct appeal, the post-conviction court appropriately required him to demonstrate actual prejudice. Further, the Court found no error in the post-conviction courts conclusion that Mr. Howard was not prejudiced by trial counsels deficiency. Accordingly, the Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals and reinstated the judgment of the post-conviction court denying post-conviction relief.

To read the unanimous opinion in Antonio Howard v. State, authored by Justice Roger A. Page, visit the opinions section of TNCourts.gov.
Claims about the Muslim community and Leicester's lockdown were hidden on Facebook following a fact check. (PA)

A baseless claim that Muslims in locked-down Leicester did not adhere to the governments coronavirus advice has been partially hidden by Facebook.

The post  a screenshot  was put up on the site claiming members of the Islamic community didnt understand Downing Street messaging about COVID-19 and couldnt use alcohol-based sanitiser because of their religion.

Rachael Krishna, from fact checker charity FullFact, wrote that the first claim was unproven and the second is false.

Facebook has put the post behind a message which highlights that it contains false information, with FullFact describing the post as baseless.

Leicester was put under a local lockdown to get its outbreak under control, the first time a particular area was put back into restrictions designed to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

The Department of Health told Leicester Live: Observational data and the epidemiology suggest that transmission within households, lower compliance with social distancing in the community, and workplace transmission may all be contributing to the current situation.

The Facebook post contains a screen grab, in which someone has written that Muslims in Leicester didnt understand government messaging because it wasnt translated to what the person calls their language.

It was shared more than 400 times, and goes on to make the claim about alcohol-based sanitisers. It is hidden by Facebook, with a message that FullFact has debunked the sanitiser claim, but can still be viewed.

Facebook displays this message with the "baseless" screenshot but the post can still be seen. (Facebook)

FullFact said the claim about language appears to have come off the back of a newspaper article.

The charity said the piece reported sources claiming a lack of translation of coronavirus messaging contributed to the Leicester outbreak, but did not specify any religions.

The specific claim that Muslims had not understood the guidance was not proven, FullFact said, and the assertion that Muslims would not use alcohol-based hand sanitiser is false.

The Muslim Council of Britain told FullFact: The issue of alcohol in Islam relates to the drinking of alcohol, and not its use in other ways, such as the disinfection of skin.

Many Muslims believe it is permissible to use alcohol-based sanitisers for alleviating illness or improving health, particularly as this is a necessity in the current climate.

Coronavirus: what happened today

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President Moon Jae-in speaks during the opening ceremony of the 21st National Assembly, Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap



By Jung Da-min



President Moon Jae-in's job approval rating fell to its lowest level in nine months, according to a poll agency, Thursday, with the recent sexual harassment accusation against and death of Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, a member of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), apparently becoming the key factor pulling down the rating.



In a poll conducted of 1,510 adults by Realmeter from Monday to Wednesday, 44.1 percent of the respondents believed Moon was doing a good job, down 4.6 percentage points from a week before.



It is the lowest since the second week of October when the President was criticized for pushing ahead with the appointment of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk who was embroiled in corruption scandals.






Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2020) - American Aires Inc. (CSE: WIFI) (the "Company" or "Aires") is pleased to announce that, further to its press release dated March 6, 2020 and the Company's collaborative agreement with Green Space Worldwide Inc. ("Green Space") (https://greenspaceworldwide.com/), a leading media company, Green Space and Aires have launched their "direct response marketing campaign", the new "Gold standard" in next generation online marketing.

To date, Aires has enjoyed solid sales success with their current online advertising sales campaigns. Aires will continue to market through these proven media channels in addition to this new campaign strategy.

Direct response marketing has become the preferred choice for online businesses and is a proven sales strategy to increase and drive revenue. Using the sophisticated targeting capabilities of online platforms like Google and Facebook (among others), Aires will be advertising their products directly to several key target markets that they have identified as being their greatest opportunities. By tailoring their message to each of these communities and by speaking directly to the needs of these potential customers Aires intends to create a deeper connection with the individuals who are purchasing their products and hope that as a result of this strategy there will be an increase in sales and branding globally for the Company.

Effective July 6th, Aires has launched this new direct response marketing campaign and is scaling this particular advertising budget with a predictable and fixed cost for each customer acquisition made. The Aires brand will also be exposed in a global e-commerce segment, opening additional new sales channels.

"We are pleased with the growth we have achieved to date. This has occurred in a very short period and our new initiative to our existing advertising platform should further increase our sales and revenue" Dimitry Serov, CEO commented. "Aires is committed to exploring and utilizing various advertising sales channels to grow our revenue".

This new campaign will focus on social media, email, and display ads, and is targeting a new audience who are likely to be customers.

Global B2C ecommerce sales are expected to reach $4.5 trillion by 2021. (Shopify Plus, 2019) (Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics)

WHAT IS DIRECT RESPONSE?

The purpose of direct response marketing is to evoke an immediate response from a potential customer. By catering advertising language and images directly to a group of people with similar interests and beliefs you can create a stronger connection with individuals who may be interested in purchasing your products. This more diverse approach, as opposed to a "one size fits all" marketing message, results in a higher likelihood that the people you are advertising to will do business with you in the near (or even immediate) future. Unlike large scale "branding" initiatives, direct response marketing results are immediate and, more importantly, measurable. This type of marketing leverages the latest in online marketing strategy and technology and works for all businesses, small, medium, and large.

About American Aires Inc. American Aires Inc. is a nanotechnology company which has, developed proprietary silicon-based microprocessors that reduce the harmful effects of electromagnetic radiation (EMR).The technology was developed by a team of highly credited scientists and confirmed by independent third-party validation including peer reviewed studies and publications in scientific journals. The technology specifically targets cellphones, computers, baby monitors, Wi-Fi radiation and general EMR emitted by consumer electronic devices. Aires has launched a full suite of consumer products under the brand name "Airestech" for use on almost all consumer electronic devices. The Company has adopted a global ecommerce and distribution platform that scales easily as sales grow. Since launching in 2019, Aires has enjoyed exuberant growth. The company has been aggressively building out their ecommerce platform which is now capable of delivering up to 10,000 shipments a day along with recent customer service center agreements. Strategically placed fulfillment centers have been secured to ensure prompt delivery around the globe (see PR Jan. 31, 2020).With the launch of 5G networks around the world, this year, we are seeing an increase of news, reports and leading health organizations discussing the potential harm of EMR and the importance of identifying solutions to reduce these harmful rays. Aires products are the solution. www.airestech.com

On behalf of the board of directors

Company Contact

Dimitry Serov, CEO

Email: dimitry@airestech.com

Telephone: (905) 482-4667

Website: www.airestech.com

For further information please contact:

Investor Cubed Inc.:

Neil Simon, CEO

Email: wifi@airestech.com

Telephone: (647) 258-3310

Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding future financial position, business strategy, use of proceeds, corporate vision, proposed acquisitions, partnerships, joint-ventures and strategic alliances and co-operations, budgets, cost and plans and objectives of or involving the Company. Such forward-looking information reflects management's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to management. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "predicts", "intends", "targets", "aims", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. A number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause the actual results or performance to materially differ from any future results or performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions and dependence upon regulatory approvals. Certain material assumptions regarding such forward-looking statements may be discussed in this news release and the Company's annual and quarterly management's discussion and analysis filed at www.sedar.com. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by securities laws.

No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this news release. The Shares have not been, nor will they be, registered under the 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 or for the account or benefit of any person in the United States, absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any common shares in the United States, or in any other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. We seek safe harbour.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Not intended for distribution to United States Newswire Services or for dissemination in the United States. Any failure to comply with this restriction may constitute a violation of United States Securities laws.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/59906
The watchdog ruled last year that Trudeau had used his office to circumvent, undermine and ultimately attempt to discredit the attorney general when he pressured her to cut an out-of-court deal with SNC-Lavalin, a Montreal-based construction firm facing corruption charges. The scandal left the leader on the ropes for much of 2019. He said he had taken many lessons from it but did not apologize.
Beijings municipal government released a 145-page blueprint today outlining a plan to become a hub for blockchain innovation over the next two years.

The blueprint comes nearly a month after the city's municipal government announced an initiative called the Beijing Blockchain Innovation Development Action Plan (2020-2022), which is aimed at making Chinas capital one of the first cities in the country to integrate blockchain technology into the citys economic development.

"By 2022, Beijing will become an influential blockchain technology innovation center, application demonstration center, industrial development center, and innovative talent center, taking the lead in forming the 'Beijing Plan' for blockchain-enabled economic and social development," the initial announcement stated.

According to a local media report, 140 government services already use blockchain applications, which include data sharing, collaborative business management, and electronic certifications.





 2020 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
For five days, Qusay al-Zaidi searched for a recovered coronavirus patient to give him plasma for use in the treatment of his relatives who had contracted the virus. He expected to get it from a volunteer free of charge, but this was not the case.

The recovered patient asked for $1,500 per liter and refused to negotiate the price, he told Al-Monitor.

Zaidi had no choice but to buy the plasma, but perhaps too late. His relative died on July 8 in Baghdad.

The Blood plasma trade in the Iraqi black market has flourished in recent weeks, with the daily number of confirmed COVID-19 cases exceeding 2,000 per day. Hospitals are packed with patients and other facilities have been turned into quarantine centers.

Member of the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights Ali al-Bayati told Al-Monitor, Many are exploiting the need for blood plasma amid a lack of planning by the Ministry of Health. Poverty and desperation have pushed many coronavirus patients to sell their antibody-rich plasma.

Families of coronavirus patients in Iraq search for volunteers from among those who had caught the virus and survived. Their blood plasma may save the lives of their infected relatives. But as the crisis lingers, people are refusing to donate their plasma.

"There is a black market for blood plasma. Some are trading it and exploiting people's suffering. Traffickers and midddle men are encouraging recovered patients to sell their plasma," parliament member Rizan Al-Sheikh told Al-Monitor. She added, There is almost no supervision by the Ministry of Health, which has allowed the plasma black market to thrive. The ministry should regulate the transfer of plasma from the recovered patients to those who need it."

With the increasing demand, the price of a liter of plasma stands at around $2,000. The precious commodity is being advertised for sale over social media. Closed Facebook groups list the phone numbers and addresses of people selling plasma after their recovery from COVID-19 as well as volunteers willing to donate it.

In a July 3 press statement, Dr. Hamed Al-Saadi, a physician at the Iraqi National Blood Transfusion Center, warned against the blood plasma trade and said the Ministry of Health is taking measures to stop it. He called the sale of blood plasma morally and scientifically unacceptable and warned that the black market offers no guarantee that the plasma is free of HIV and other viruses.

Iraq's law on human organ transplants does not forbid selling blood, but does provide for penalizing those who can donate but refuse to do so as any person who, without justification, refrains from or hesitates in giving assistance to a victim of a disaster or offense.

Dr. Falah al-Saadi, an embryologist who has worked with the International Committee of the Red Cross, believes blood plasma may be helpful, but only for a period. He explained to Al-monitor, This high demand for the blood plasma of recovered patients is futile.

On June 15 Hassan Karim Al-Kaabi, the first deputy speaker of the Iraq Parliament, himself recovering from the virus, urged Iraqis to donate plasma. This is a legitimate and humanitarian responsibility that contributes to saving lives, he said.

Of note, some recovered patients do prefer to donate their plasma to those battling COVID-19. On the "Al-Mohamma" call-in show, the host asked a recovered patient to sell him his plasma, saying he prefers to donate it.

A staff member at Baghdad Medical City, a sprawling medical complex where coronavirus patients are being treated, spoke to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. There are patients who bought plasma at prices ranging from $1,500 to $2,000 and they were cured, he said. Some middle men are advertising plasma in quarantine centers and on social media. They even give out their phone numbers. They are dealing with this humanitarian crisis as a lucrative business.

The Iraqi Scholars Jurisprudential Council issued a fatwa calling on recovered patients to donate their plasma, saying it's their duty to save the lives of others.

Subpar medical services provided in Iraqi hospitals and health institutions seem to be pushing patients, whether they can afford it or not, to buy blood plasma at any cost, as faster recovery could spare them time suffering at overcrowded quarantine centers.
After a few setbacks exacerbated by the ongoing COVID-19 situation, another small rocket launcher is readying to demonstrate their ability to launch a vehicle to space. Astra has just completed a second static test fire of its Rocket 3.1 orbital launch vehicle, and that means it's now ready for a trip to Alaska, where it'll hopefully make its first trip to orbit from a spaceport in Kodiak.

Astra originally started out as a company with the specific goal of answering the DARPA launch challenge, which asked companies to create a launch vehicle that could orbit within a few weeks of each other (originally from separate launch sites, but then later only from separate pads at the same spaceport). The challenge expired without Astra claiming the prize, after the 3.0 version of their Rocket failed to reach orbit.

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The company has developed, tested and flown three successive generations of Rocket, mostly without much in the way of public fanfare or information sharing. The startup builds its small rockets, which measure roughly 40-feet tall, in Alameda, California at their own factory. In an interview with TechCrunch ahead of their DARPA challenge attempt, Astra CEO and founder Chris Kemp explained that their approach is focused on rapid, at-scale manufacturing and potential failure margins that might be higher than the existing launch companies tolerate.

A kind of mass-market delivery system approach definitely has advantages, and Astra has focused on a launch system that's much more portable than others for deployment almost anywhere in the world. The company is also focused on small payloads, which it can deliver responsively, so a loss of such a spacecraft wouldn't be nearly as expensive as, say, a rocket failing and losing a large geosynchronous GPS satellite.

Rocket 3.1 sounds like a relatively minor iteration on Rocket 3.0, versus the large full point updates of prior generations. Astra says it's currently headed to Kodiak, and that the company is now working to finalize a launch window, with a date to be confirmed early next week for that next big test.
Allentown, PA (18103)

Today

Turning out mostly cloudy and not as cold. There might be a rain or snow shower late..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy with some rain and snow showers. Any rain will be early in the night.
New Delhi, July 16 : After Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai committed $10 billion to drive India go digital, its Cloud arms CEO Thomas Kurian said on Thursday that they are not only committed to grow deeper in the India market but also aggressively invest to increase its Cloud footprint and empower enterprises in the country.

In the last couple of months, Google Cloud has won some key customers in India in the face of stiff competition from Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, and Kurian is fully aware about the potential in the country as industries across the spectrum adjust to the new normal post Covid-19 pandemic.

"We have always been bullish on India and you will see more investment coming from us towards that direction. India offers a great opportunity where Google Cloud Platform (GCP) with its latest agile, secure and scalable offerings can help enterprises, SMBs and the growing startup ecosystem amid the government's call for digital transformation," Kurian told IANS during a press interaction during the 'Google Next '20: OnAir' digital event series.

Google would open its second GCP region in India, in Delhi next year. Google launched the Mumbai region in 2017. The new cloud region will expand Google's existing network, which stands at eight regions in the Asia Pacific, 24 regions and 73 availability zones globally.

Kurian said that the company continues to expand its global footprint, opening several new regions over the last year, with plans for many more and India is on his priority list.

"We have hired industry veteran Karan Bajwa to further drive the growth of GCP in the country. We have some great customers across the spectrum, like homegrown app Sharechat, ICICI Prudential, Cleartrip, L&T Finance, Ather Energy and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), among others," Kurian informed.

The homegrown regional language social media platform ShareChat decided to migrate to Google Cloud in April this year. The migration from its incumbent Cloud platform to Google Cloud took place amid the Covid-19 crisis.

According to the market research firm Canalys, AWS enjoys 32.4 per cent of the global market share, Microsoft Azure 17.6 per cent and Google Cloud about 6 per cent.

Jefferies estimates that Google Cloud will have a 9 per cent market share in 2020.

Google Cloud revenue, which includes Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and G Suite, jumped to $8.9 billion in 2019, a nearly 53 per cent increase from the prior year and the GCP growth was "meaningfully higher," according to the company.

Kurian said the Cloud going forward is multi-cloud, that allows enterprises to train their staff on a single platform which allows them to use multiple clouds or environments of their choosing.

"Our mission at Google Cloud is to accelerate our customers' ability to digitally transform and reimagine their businesses through data-powered innovation. We continue to see organisations across various industries place their trust in Google Cloud because of the differentiated technology we provide to help them solve real business problems," Kurian noted.

(Nishant Arora can be reached at nishant.a@ians.in)
AFP via Getty Images

The new head of the United States Postal Service (USPS) has established some major operational changes in a Monday memo, including slowed mail delivery in an effort to cut costs.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major donor to President Donald Trump, took over the mail service last month and has since enacted difficult changes to help the USPS financial situation.

Changes include mail delivery being delayed by one day or more to reduce costs.

Late trips will also no longer be authorised, according to a document obtained by the Associated Press. If a postal distribution centre is running late, they will keep the mail for the next day.

Previously mail carriers were trained to never leave behind mail and to make multiple trips if necessary.

Besides increasing mail delays, this change would eliminate overtime opportunities for hundreds of thousands of postal workers across the US.

The memo, titled the New PMGs [Postmaster Generals] expectations and plan, according to The Washington Post, said changes are happening because mail deliveries declined in the last decade due to competitors like UPS, FedEx, and other rivals. Declining mail deliveries created deep revenue losses.

The coronavirus pandemic further exacerbated the situation, and the memo stated the service had to make an operational pivot in order to maintain health and stability for the coming years.

In the memo released Monday, the US Steel company was cited to prove that USPS was not untouchable despite its decades-long service in the country. In 1975, the US Steel was the largest company in the world, the memo stated. They are gone. US Steel actually still remains the leading producer of steel in the country, despite what the memo alluded.

Experts have warned these changes could push customers away from using the service, further exacerbating revenue losses. The company was also considering increasing packaging prices to boost revenue, but this move could encourage competitors to lower their prices.

Story continues

Reports of the agency allowing delayed services has come amid debates about mail-in voting for the November election.

Democrats have called for mail-in voting to be an option across the US, a proposition Mr Trump strictly opposes over accusations it would increase voter fraud. No research or studies have shown voter fraud increases when using mail-in ballots.

Democratic Representative Bill Pascrell of New Jersey was one vocal opponent against the new agency changes.

Trump and his cronies are openly seeking to destroy the post office during the worst public health crisis in a century, Mr Pascrell said

He added it was a a direct attack on American democracy itself to impact the delivery service prior to the election, while also potentially impacting 600,000 jobs for employees during the pandemic.

Read more

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 17:00:54|Editor: huaxia

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An automated driverless metro train manufactured by China for Turkey has rolled off production line in Zhuzhou, central China's Hunan Province. The train has been developed by CRRC Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. only 6 months after it received the order. It will be the first automated and self-driving metro train that China exports overseas at a speed of up to 120 kilometers per hour. The train boasts a number of high-tech features, including lifelong remote tracking, diagnosis and maintenance, full vehicle circulation induction system and so on. The 4-carriage train has a capacity of carrying 1,100 passengers. It is also capable of managing all scenarios in driver-less operation. A total of 176 such trains will serve on the new airport line in Istanbul.
Quan expressed sympathies for the difficulties facing Cuba from embargoes and COVID-19 and lauded the countrys efforts in fighting the pandemic.

He said he believes that, under the leadership of the Cuban Party, the Cuban people will overcome all challenges.

He used the occasion to thank the Cuban Party, State, and people for their valuable support to Vietnam during the pandemic.

For his part, Angel congratulated Vietnam on its success in fighting COVID-19 and thanked it for its assistance to Cubas fight and in other regards.

The mutual support of the two Parties amid the pandemic contributed to deepening the Vietnam-Cuba special friendship, he affirmed.

The two officials also discussed activities in celebration of the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries, on December 2.
More than one in three coronavirus patients admitted to ICUs in the US will die within a month of being moved into critical care, a new study finds.

As cases surge in many US states - increasing most dramatically in Florida, Texas, Arizona and Oklahoma - hospitalizations are beginning to rise and the nation is holding its breath for ICU beds to fill.

New research from Brigham and Women's Hospital suggests that where a patient ends up in critical care may have a dramatic effect on their survival odds.

People admitted to critical care at hospitals with fewer than 50 ICU beds were more than three-times more likely to die, compared to patients in hospitals that had 100 or more such beds, they found.

ICU beds are filling up in states like Mississippi, as coronavirus cases surge across the US. A new study found that more than one third of ICU patients in 65 hospitals died

For the Brigham and Women's study, the researchers analyzed data on more than 2,000 ICU patients across 65 hospitals.

All of the patients were admitted March 4 and April 4 - what was then considered the peak of the pandemic in the US.

In total, 784 of the patients admitted to ICUs across much of the US died in under a month (28 days).

Patients who suffered from chronic diseases including kidney and liver dysfunction, obesity, heart disease, cancer, or had low oxygen levels when they were admitted were at greater risk of dying, as has been widely seen.

Also consistent with previous data, men and older patients were at greater risk of succumbing to COVID-19.

But death rates varied wildly from hospital to hospital.

In some ICUs, as few as six percent of patients died, while in others the fatality rate soared up to 80 percent.

Although the study did not establish what kinds of treatments might work best, the authors did find wide variations in the methods chosen from hospital to hospital.

At that time, hydroxychloroquine was certainly controversial, but still regarded optimistically by many doctors throughout the country.

Nearly 80 percent of patients were given the malaria drug, and nearly 60 percent were given the antibiotic azithromycin, which was used in combination with hydroxychloroquine to treat 50 percent of patients.

Only 6.1 percent of patients got remdesivir - now shown to reduce the severity of coronavirus and risk of death - and 3.8 percent were given a combination of HIV drugs now believed ineffective against the disease.

In total, 38 percent of the patients were put in prone position in an effort to help them breathe more easily, but the use of that method varied drastically from hospital to hospital.

At one hospital, only four percent of patients were put onto their stomachs, while 80 percent of critically ill people were flipped over at another.

But the most significant difference in death rates came down to the hospital itself - specifically, how many ICU beds the facility had to begin with.

Critically ill patients admitted to hospitals with 50 or fewer ICU beds had a 3-fold lower chance of survival than did patients who got care at larger facilities with 100 or fewer beds.

It's not exactly clear why patients at these smaller hospitals faced so much poorer odds, but these facilities may have lacked personnel or resources to and been more strained than others.

Coronavirus is still hitting cities hardest - now striking metropolitan areas like Miami-Dade County in Florida, Houston, Texas and Phoenix, Arizona - but it's beginning to overwhelm less populated areas as well.

As of Thursday, one third of Florida counties have fewer than 10 ICU beds left.

Fewer than 10 percent of all hospitals in the state have more than 50 hospitals, and if the trends observed by the Brigham and Women's team hold true, it could bode poorly for the soaring number of coronavirus patients in Florida.
Tucked away in the Arcadia Valley of the St. Francois Mountains of Missouri are the earthwork remains of Fort Davidson, the only testament to a long forgotten Civil War skirmish fought in late September of 1864 and known as the Battle of Pilot Knob. Outnumbered ten-to-one, the Union troops under the command of Brigadier General Thomas Ewing held off the superior Army of Missouri consisting of cavalry and mounted infantry and cannon that Confederate Major General Sterling Price had marshaled for the purpose of liberating his home state. Although Price and the Confederates won the battle, Ewing and his men managed to detonate their supplies with a slow-burning fuse to their powder magazine, escape in the darkness of night, and so severely diminish the size of Prices advancing army and their available munitions that the Confederates ultimate objective, to seize St. Louis and control of Missouri, was lost for good.

Why do I tell this story? Because that fierce contest, like many others lost to our collective American memory, had the potential to rewrite history. After repeated military defeats in the summer of 64, the Confederacys best chance of yet winning the war was to prevent Lincolns re-election. Had Ewing not managed to inflict such loss on the Confederates, or had Price just ignored the fort on his way to St. Louis, an otherwise certain surrender for the South could have been forestalled by so tormenting a war-weary North and publicly embarrassing President Lincoln that the 1864 election just weeks later turned for the Democratic Partys General George McClellan and the Democrats promise to seek peace with the South after political victory.

A campaign to embarrass Lincoln out of office. A promise from the Democrats that peace would return if they were given control of the country. A rag-tag collection of Union defenders trying to survive the steady bombardment from an army ten times their size just long enough to wear the enemy down. A military operation meant to prevent re-election of an American president. And 156 years later, history repeats.

For all the Republicans suffering right now from Democratic Party-sanctioned violence and political intimidation behind Blue State lines, remember that your efforts, however small they might seem, are what keep the Blue army from advancing from New York and Minneapolis and Seattle into the total national occupation they have in mind. And while it is dispiriting to be outnumbered ten-to-one, those are the battles that often turn the tide of any conflict with meaning.

For America has always been the story of the underdog heavily surrounded. It was a minority of our colonial population that desired to free itself from the chains of the English empire. It was a minority of freedom-minded revolutionaries who collaborated to chart a risky and uncertain path for a new nation to be self-governed and forged in individual liberty. It was a minority of nineteenth-century Americans who rejected the prevailing political parties of the time so that Republican Party abolitionists could fight for those without a voice.

As difficult as it often is to be surrounded by an army of corporate news malefactors distorting the truth, social media censors depriving Americans of their speech, and Democratic Party prosecutors using their offices to support Antifa violence against innocent Americans, it is helpful to remember that there is nothing more American than being greatly outnumbered and left for certain defeat. Every statue the Democrats topple and monument they destroy today honors an American who at one time was surrounded, too. And we honor them, not because they ultimately prevailed, but because their moral certainty to persevere against terrible odds surpassed the natural impulse to fade away.

Just as the Democrats worked for the dissolution of the Union by struggling to prevent President Lincolns re-election, all the madness about us right now only seems overwhelming because the Democrats have put all of their remaining efforts in this war into defeating President Trump. Surely, if they truly believed they were on the right side of history, they wouldnt feel compelled to use government-sanctioned violence, involuntary home confinement, and mass censorship to achieve their results.

The Democrats have given up on free speech and religious tolerance and private choice. They have forfeited Jeffersons Declaration of Independence and Madisons ordered liberty. They have decided to rid America of her history, so that Americans turn on each other by forgetting what binds them as one. They have decided to rid America of her police, so that chaos conquers freedom.

Who could look at this graveyard of ideas discarded so casually by the Democratic Party and not take heart, for all we must do is pick them up off the ground and make them wholly ours. The Democrats have already lost the battle of ideas, so long as we never lose resolve in our own. And just as with the generations before us, these are the ideas that a small minority can carry to victory, even when the powers of the day count them out.

For Blue State Republicans now surrounded, for dispirited constitutionalists who think our end is nearfight on. The Democrats have put everything they have into this one presidential election, and if we deny them that victory, we can win this war.
India to get second consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav. Pakistan had earlier claimed that Jadhav had refused to file a review plea on the Pakistani court.

Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav was granted second consular access on Thursday, Pakistan media reported. Indian officials are presently at Pakistan Foreign Office. Earlier, New Delhi had asked Islamabad to give unconditional consular access to Jadhav, as per sources.

Pakistan claimed that Jadhav had refused to file a review plea on the Pakistani court military courts judgment which awarded the death penalty to the former naval officer on charges of espionage. India said that he had been coerced into doing that.

Last time what they did was insulting to his mother, father and wife and insulting to India as a whole. So we want that consular access should be unconditional, Arvind Singh, Kulbhushan Jadhavs childhood friend, told ANI.

Pakistan claims that Jadhav was arrested from Balochistan in 2016 on charges of espionage. India has rejected Pakistans allegations about Jadhavs involvement in spying and subversive activities and said he was kidnapped from the Iranian port of Chabahar.

In early 2017, a Pakistani military court sentenced him to death. In May 2017, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) stayed his execution.

In July last year, the ICJ, by a vote of 15-1, had upheld Indias claim that Pakistan has committed an egregious violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations on several counts.

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As the coronavirus pandemic will not die down anytime soon, it is important for everyone to take precautionary measures to ensure their safety as the SARS-CoV-2 virus has already claimed more than 100,000 lives in the U.S. alone. As such, governments and communities around the world are taking implementing strict measures to prevent the further spread of the virus.

This virus can be easily spread to others if you don't observe proper protocols such as wearing face masks, practicing social distancing, and washing your hands thoroughly.

Although traveling is not prohibited, it is limited. So, should you ever find yourself in need to travel, then pack your face mask and maybe this "haute hazmat suit" too while you're at it.

Developed by VYZR Technologies, the BioVYZR 1.0 is a ground-breaking outer layer designed to provide an unmatched degree of protection against airborne hazards in our daily environments.

Based on Toronto, VYZR Technologies was founded in response to the absence of innovative and effective Protective Personal Equipment (PPE) available to the public in the face of a global pandemic.

As practical as they would be, the Telegraph has learned it may not be allowed on board at all as the YouGov poll showed that two thirds (64%) of Britons would not feel safe traveling internationally on a plane. Despite this, 50,000 suits have already been pre-ordered with the first batch to be delivered by the end of July.

Airlines' Grievances

The main concern why this would not be allowed on airlines is because the suit blocks outside sound. Meaning that the user can be heard, but they cannot clearly hear.

A spokesperson for easyJet told Telegraph Travel that if decompression happens, it is crucial for airlines to fit an aircraft oxygen face mask to the traveller which would be impossible.

"We most likely would not allow this on board as it's too big and could impede an exit, alongside the ability for passengers to hear the safety demo. Our focus is on face coverings as opposed to head coverings." said a spokesperson for Ryanair.

Read Also: HelloMask: Could Transparent Eco-Friendly Surgical Face Masks be the Next Big Thing?





The BioVYZR 1.0

Yezin Al-Qaysi, who is the company's co-founder has mentioned that this suit is an adaptation of his company's early invention - a solar visor, to provide hands-free shade in the desert.

Al-Qaysi told Bloomberg that when the outbreak happened, everyone would have access to a Powered Air Purifying Respirator taking a product that is limited to health care and transforming it to be used for public consumption.

Costing $249, the suit has a respirator device that provides clean, filtered air from a lithium battery-operated blower with a battery life of up to 12 hours. Its anti-fogging helmet is only 0.5Celsiuss above normal temperature.

The weatherproof Bio VYZR 1.0 is made from silicone, neoprene and vinyl, weighs less than three pounds, with a chest harness, adjustable side straps and buckles to be secured around the waist.





Read Also: 6 COVID-19 Tracing Apps Including CDC Found to be Potential Threats to Your Privacy, Investigation Reveals
The European Union has removed Serbia and Montenegro from its list of countries whose citizens should be allowed to travel to the bloc because of their improved coronavirus epidemiological situation.

The European Council on July 16 urged member states to gradually lift the travel restrictions for residents of 12 countries: Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia, and Uruguay.

In addition, the council said, restriction on citizens of China should be lifted subject to confirmation of reciprocity.

EU diplomats told RFE/RL earlier this week that Serbia and Montenegro would be removed from the safe list because of recent spikes of coronavirus cases.

As of July 16, Serbia has reported 19,717 infections and 442 deaths, while Montenegro has reported 1,287 infections and 24 fatalities.

Both Balkan countries were included on the list that the EU issued on June 30.

The list is reviewed every two weeks. It is not binding on member states, but the European Council instructed that members should not decide to lift the travel restrictions for non-listed third countries before this has been decided in a coordinated manner.
Agartala, July 16 : After months of ordeal, the 14-year-old Tripura girl, who was trafficked and sold to a man in Rajasthan, met her family at Uttar Ratacherra in the Unakoti district of northern Tripura on Wednesday evening.

The Tripura High Court had taken suo motu cognizance of an IANS report on the sale of the poverty-stricken minor into marriage in Rajasthan. The authorities in Jaipur handed her over to a four-member Tripura officials' team on Tuesday.

Unakoti District Superintendent of Police (DSP) Ratiranjan Debnath said the girl had returned with officials to Kailashahar (Unakoti district headquarters) on Wednesday evening. Leter she was taken to meet her family, he added.

"As per the Covid-19 protocol, she will remain in 14-day institutional quarantine in Kailashahar," the DSP told IANS by phone.

She had tested coronavirus positive in Rajasthan, but recovered. She had the medical certificate issued in Rajasthan, he added.

Shailendra Pandya, the Rajasthan State Commission of Protection of Child Rights' (RSCPCR) member, who had taken up the case with the National Commission of Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), said, "I am happy she has been reunited with her family after the horrible time." "During the legal battle in Jaipur, she was infected with Covid-19. But she has won on both fronts," Pandya told IANS over phone from Jaipur.

After IANS highlighted on June 16 the teenager's sufferings, then sheltered at the Swadhara Women Home at Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan, the Tripura High Court took suo motu cognizance of the report and issued notices to six authorities, including the Tripura government, the Tripura State Human Rights Commission, the Unakoti District Magistrate and the NCPCR.

Issuing notices, a Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Akil Kureshi and Justice Subhashish Talapatra, observed, "We can only imagine the current mental state of the girl. We would request all respondents to mull and suggest appropriate ways to ensure the safety and security of the minor girl.

"Suggestions may be made on the next date of hearing as to how the girl can be brought back to Tripura at the earliest, and as and when she is brought back how to ensure her safety and well-being." The case came to light when the girl fled her "husband's" house. On May 2, the man filed a missing complaint at the Mandawa police station, claiming that his "wife" had gone missing.

The police traced her on May 4. But the girl, whose father died in Tripura five months ago, refused to go with the person and sought protection. Then the Jhunjhunu Sub-Divisional Magistrate ordered her lodging at the shelter home.

The NCPCR had also asked the Unakoti DSP to submit a report on the teenager. While the Jhunjhunu SDM asked the Mandawa police to re-investigate the case, the RSCPCR asked the Child Welfare Committee to get an FIR registered against the "husband" under the Juvenile Justice Act, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and anti-trafficking law.

The girl in her statement to the police as well as the local court said she was sold in Jhunjhunu for Rs 1.5 lakh and was kept in a locked home for some months, Pandya said.

"Since she was 10-week pregnant, a counsellor was appointed to counsel her about it. With her consent, it was aborted earlier this month," Pandya said.

The Rajasthan Police have arrested two persons in Jhunjhunu in connection with the case. Under the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences), the girl was entitled to financial compensation up to Rs 5 lakh, Pandya said.

(Sujit Chakraborty can be contacted at sujit.c@ians.in)
Chairman of the Romania-Armenia Parliamentary Friendship Group Varujan Vosganian and deputy of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of Romania representing the Union of Armenians of Romania Varuzhan Pambukchyan have issued a statement condemning the recent actions of Azerbaijan. The statement has been published in the Romanian-language Araratonline magazine and reads as follows:

On July 12, Azerbaijan violated the ceasefire regime, starting with military escalation on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border and in the direction of the Tavush Province of the Republic of Armenia. Through these actions, Azerbaijan has applied aggression against the interstate border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, not Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), by attacking the Armenian armed forces. Starting on July 13-14, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces have been targeting peaceful Armenian settlements far from the line of contact, including the city of Berd and nearby villages. The intensity of use of artillery and unmanned aerial vehicles and the number of infantry are unprecedented. These provocative actions of Azerbaijan directly contradict the call of the United Nations Secretary-General to declare a global ceasefire during the coronavirus pandemic and show the belligerence and destructive actions of Azerbaijan.

Running counter to the call of the international community for restraint, once again, Turkey expressed an extremely aggressive and biased position. In its statement issued hours after the incident, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its unconditional support to Azerbaijan and fired groundless allegations against Armenia. This goes to show that Turkey cant play any role in the international efforts for a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and first and foremost within the scope of the talks under the auspices of the OSCE. We, the undersigned, strictly condemn Azerbaijans ceasefire violation and the assaults against the territory of the Republic of Armenia, as well as the attacks on Armenian settlements and the civilian population.
The prolonged stalemate in nuclear talks have raised doubts on whether Kim Jong Un would ever agree to fully relinquish the nukes he likely sees as his strongest guarantee of survival. Some experts see him as trying to shape the diplomacy as an arms reduction negotiation between nuclear states rather than talks that would culminate in a surrender of his nuclear program.
CASPER  Gov. Mark Gordon has signed off on more than $250 million in state budget cuts that includes furloughs and layoffs for state employees, a significant hit to senior services and a $90 million reduction to the Department of Health amid a worsening pandemic.

This is an incredibly difficult task but we must respond to the financial circumstances the state is facing, Gordon said in a statement. These cuts will impact families across the state, will affect the services we provide and will have an effect on dollars that flow into the private sector.

At this point, it is uncl...
Having the ability to view usage on this platform will allow us to scale appropriately and provide transparency for our clients.

AMOP, LLC is pleased to announce that Titanium Wireless of Gulf Breeze, Florida, an AT&T Platinum Solution Provider, has selected AMOP's connectivity management platform to assist in running their mobility practice. Titanium is the fourth AT&T mobility resellers to choose AMOP in 2020 to become a vital part of the mobility practice.

We are excited to announce the launch of our partnership with Altaworx. The partnership aligns with our mission to provide superior mobility experiences that transform how clients conduct business. Having the ability to view usage on this platform will allow us to scale appropriately and provide transparency for our clients. The team at Altaworx is exceptional, and we are thrilled to get this launched." Jessica Rhodes, Titanium Wireless CEO.

About Titanium Wireless

Titanium Wireless is a mobility focused telecommunications company located in Gulf Breeze, FL. The company delivers cutting edge mobile and data connectivity and best in class support for business clients throughout the nation. Titanium Wireless specializes in creating customized solutions for business communications, including mobility, IoT, fiber, MDM, and fleet tracking. Titanium Wireless partners with the strongest carriers to bring unique solutions to businesses, coupled with concierge level, 24/7 customer support.

AMOP, LLC (http://www.getamop.com) located in Fairhope, AL, was founded in 2018 by Rickie Richey to addressing the lack of operational software for resellers of telecommunications and cellular mobility services. His vision was to build a company that provides leading-edge Software as a Service (SaaS), and operational expertise in the telecommunications resell business. The AMOP connectivity management platform integrates will all tier 1 cellular carriers, cloud billing platforms, and IoT software to assist in automating telecom resellers operations. AMOP is focused on helping telecommunications resellers drive revenue, control expenses, increase their productivity, and operate more efficiently. In addition to operational software and consulting, AMOP provides billing, taxation, and compliance as a service via its Catapult program (http://www.catapult-launch.com). Working with its sister company, Altaworx, AMOP also provides a suite of white label products, including UCaaS and LTE failover.
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Spain's tourist resorts are virtually empty after only a trickle of tourists arrived at top destinations, as Magaluf shuts down bars to enforce social distancing on holidaymakers.

Despite bargain breaks on offer for as low as 99, very few tourists have flocked to enjoy the summer sun as the country lifted its borders.

The usually crowded beaches are eerily quiet in tourist destinations, Madrid's designer shops remain deserted and Seville is a ghost town as tourists refuse to travel amid the pandemic.

Tourism-dependent Spain, one of Europe's hardest-hit countries with more than 28,000 deaths from the pandemic, brought a tough national lockdown to an end on June 21.

Since then, more than 170 clusters have sprung up, prompting regional authorities to impose a patchwork of local restrictions, confusing locals and angering businesses.

Empty deck chairs are pictured at Magaluf beach, Calvia, in Spain's Balearic island of Majorca on July 16

A view of the almost empty terrace of a bar in La Florida district, in L'Hospitalet near Barcelona

Tourists walk along an empty street at the resort of Magaluf

The usually bustling Magaluf strips remain eerily quiet

Police patrol an empty street at the resort of Magaluf. In a move designed to stop the spread of the new coronavirus and shake off the region's reputation as a party hub, regional authorities in the Balearic Islands ordered the closure from Thursday of all establishments along Mallorca's 'Beer St.' and 'Ham St.', as the popular party areas near the beach of Palma de Mallorca are known, and another boulevard in nearby Magaluf.

Tourists in Torrox trying to reserve beach spots have their towels and chairs removed by police

Police write tickets after tourists dumped their belongings on Torrax beach

Authorities were seen removing sun loungers and sun umbrellas as they confiscated them

View of an empty narrow street and closed shops and restaurants on in Ibiza amid the coronavirus pandemic

Stores remain shuttered as shops at Playa d'en Bossa on July 14, 2020 in Ibiza are closed to tourists

A woman adjusts her mask at Palma Beach in Palma de Mallorca

Tourists stand on an empty street at the resort of Magaluf on the Spanish Balearic island of Mallorca, Spain

View of an empty street and closed restaurants yesterday in Ibiza. Summer season has kicked off in Ibiza, albeit with far fewer tourists due to the coronavirus outbreak

View of closed 'Ushuaia' Beach Hotel and Club and 'Hi' night club empty car park in Ibiza, Spain

View of empty street and closed restaurant in Ibiza, Spain. Chairs and tabled remain turned over amid a lack of tourists to the area

View of closed 'Amnesia' night club on July 14, 2020 in Ibiza, Spain. Summer season has kicked off in Ibiza, albeit with far fewer tourists due to the coronavirus outbreak

A truck full of confiscated beach items drives away from Torrox beach near Marbella

Closed bars are pictured at Calle de la Cerveza (Bierstrasse) in Palma de Mallorca

Welcome posters for July 1 seen at the entrance to the popular Casa Batllo in Barcelona

Magaluf's empty strips come after regional authorities ordered the immediate closure of bars on three streets popular with hard drinking tourists to limit the potential for coronavirus outbreaks.

Concerned many tourists are not respecting social distancing guidelines, authorities elected to close the venues on the Platja de Palma strip in the capital Palma and Magaluf, a favoured haunt with young booze-fuelled Britons.

Mallorca's partying tourists were in stark contrast to a solemn commemoration service Thursday morning in Madrid, where relatives of about 100 Covid-19 victims sat, socially distanced, with representatives of health workers and other vital professions and with Spain's king and queen to pay tribute to the dead and those fighting the pandemic.

In an emotional speech, Hernando Calleja said he was sharing the pain of the loss of his brother Jose Maria, a well-known journalist and writer in Madrid, with other relatives of 'anonymous' victims.

'Let's not forget that the coronavirus was and continues to be a cold, cruel and wrecking executioner,' Calleja said at the ceremony at Madrid's Royal Palace.

Women walk at Punta Ballena street in Magaluf, Calvia

Tourists walk at Punta Ballena street in Magaluf, Calvia, in Spain's Balearic island of Majorca on July 16

A few solo tourists stroll along the Punta Ballena street in Magaluf

Two lone women appear to have the beach to themselves in Calvia

Tourists walk at Magaluf beach - which would usually be jam packed at this time of the year

As the summer season starts to take off authorities on the island fear matters could get out of hand unless they take tough action.

The news came as Costa del Sol police became so fed up with sunbathers reserving beach spaces 'for hours' they they started confiscating their belongings.

Officials in the British tourist hotspot of Torrox near Marbella in Andalucia, issued a warning after tourists dumped belongings on the beach during peak times  despite being nowhere to be seen.

The council shared a series of images on Facebook showing police removing empty sun loungers and writing tickets to rule flouters, Metro reported.

Earlier this week, Germany's health minister had expressed concern after hundreds of German tourists were seen partying on the island without masks or keeping a safe distance, fuelling fears of another coronavirus wave.

The police were seen stationed along the strip as they began to enforce the closures following an order from the town hall

The scenes, which occurred on Friday as police reached the area to make sure bars closed on time, come as concerned residents predicted the problem would only get worse. Pictured: A packed club in Magaluf

British revellers, who were not wearing face masks, made their return to the Punta Ballena party strip in Magaluf, Spain, shortly after 2am on Friday to begin their booze-fuelled holiday

Local media on the Spanish island voiced outrage after video footage showed mainly German holidaymakers carousing outside bars and terraces on Friday evening, leading the German-language Mallorca Zeitung to note 'it was as if no one had ever heard of the corona pandemic'.

The regional government last week had already announced hefty fines for those caught organising illegal parties or flouting rules on social distancing and face masks.

'We do not want uncivil tourists on our islands,' said regional tourism minister Iago Negueruela.

Negueruela warned that if the tourists took their behaviour elsewhere then the crackdown would simply be widened.

Authorities in the Balearic Islands off Spain's eastern coast say they need to protect public health even as summer tourism, on which some 200,000 local jobs depend, begins to ramp up.

Elsewhere, images from Ibiza show shops with their shutters down, nightclubs with no revellers and restaurants with no diners on the party island, which is usually packed-full of tourists for its summer season.

Supermarkets along the longest beach, Playa d'en Bossa, which is home to some of the island's most popular clubs, are closed, as were the Amnesia and Privelige nightclubs.
A origin tech entrepreneur and CEO has been murdered and his body dismembered in a luxury flat in city, according to media reports. He was 33 years old.

Fahim Saleh's sister found the body on Tuesday afternoon when she went to his $2.5 million-flat to check in on him, CBS, local TV channel, reported on Wednesday.

His killer may have been interrupted by her as he was cutting up the body with an electric saw.

The TV station reported that police said they have a video of her arriving at the apartment and his alleged killer was leaving about the same time after probably being interrupted by her ringing of the bell from the lobby.

It said that police are looking into the possibility that a business dispute was behind the killing.

According to his LinkedIn profile, he was the founder of Pathao, a Bangladesh-based company valued at $100 million that provides transportation and food delivery and offers a payment system.

He also lists himself as the founder and CEO of Gokada, a Nigerian company, which provides delivery service and motorcycle taxi service. It claims investments of $6.9 million.

Post said that Saleh was born in Saudi Arabia to Bangladeshi parents and grew up in Poughkeepsie in New York state.

It quoted unidentified sources as saying that the killing appeared to be a "professional" job and his limbs and head cut with "surgical precision".

The newspaper said that a surveillance video showed a man dressed in black following Saleh into his flat and tasering him after a dispute.
NJ Transit is making a major change in its plan to upgrade and replace its aging locomotives by spending $70 million to purchase eight additional dual-powered electric and diesel locomotives.

The agency also is getting an infusion of $264.1 million from the state Transportation Trust Fund and property tax relief fund.

Both moves were approved by the agencys board Wednesday night.

The locomotive purchases changes a 2014 fleet plan that called for overhauling the fleet of 33 of the railroads newest PL-42 AC diesel powered locomotives and retiring the 50-year old plus GP-40 locomotives that predate NJ Transit. Dual-mode locomotives can run on either overhead electric power or by an onboard diesel engine.

Instead, seven of the half-century old GP-40s will be rebuilt for Atlantic City Line service and eight dual-mode locomotives will replace 23 of the PL-42 ACs. Only 10 of the PL-42 AC engines will receive a reduced overhaul. The PL-42 ACs were built between 2004 and 2006 by Alstrom.

NJ Transits board unanimously approved the contract with the Bombardier Corporation of Bensalem, Pennsylvania. This would bring the total fleet of dual-mode locomotives to 25.

But transit advocates questioned if this was the right time for the purchase, citing the states budget issues and the governor seeking 15% budget reductions from state departments.

Dont buy the locomotives for $11 million each, David Peter Alan, chairman of the Lackawanna commuter coalition chairman said. The way Gov. Murphy says New Jerseys economy, especially the public sector, is going, you cant afford them.

Because the PL-42 AC locomotives are a unique design, only found on NJ Transit, the cost to overhaul them would be close to their purchase price, NJ Transit spokesman Jim Smith said.

The pool of qualified vendors and parts is small, he said. For a similar price, we are able to purchase additional dual powered locomotives.

The dual-mode locomotives would be the same design as 17 purchased in 2017 that are being built, said Eric Daleo, NJ Transit vice president of capital projects. The new locomotives would meet the most stringent tier 4 emissions standards, he said.

Purchasing the ALP-45A (locomotive) allows us to retire some diesel engines, Daleo said. Even if we overhaul the PL 42s they cant be upgraded to tier 4.

Replacing a tier 1 locomotive with one that meets tier 4 pollution standards would reduce 52 tons of nitrogen dioxide annually, he said. The dual modes also have more power and under electric power and can go faster, reaching speeds of 110 mph, Daleo said.

The dual modes are considered more versatile and have the ability to rescue a train by switching to diesel power if overhead electric power is disrupted, officials said.

On the funding, the $264.1 million infusion will bring the capital budget total to $1.687 billion.

Gov. Phil Murphy signed budget legislation on June 30 allocating an additional $259.53 million from the Transportation Trust Fund and $4.6 million from the Property Tax Relief Fund to NJ Transit. A spokesman for the governor referred questions about the allocation to NJ Transit.

Murphy signed what he called a bare bones $7.7 billion stopgap spending plan on June 30 to keep the state running for three months. That supplemental appropriations bill extended the states fiscal year through Sept. 30, an unusual step taken because of the coronavirus pandemic as the unemployment ranks swelled and tax revenues fell sharply.

A lack of detail on the public agenda item led transit advocate to urge the board not to act until more details were provided.

I urge all board members to table it, said Joseph Clift, a former Long Island Rail Road planning director and transit advocate. If you vote for it you are (giving) NJ Transit a blank check, which is the opposite of what the NJ transit reform legislation asked for.

Transit advocates and members of the public couldnt comment about it because they had no details about what the windfall would be spent on.

There is no detailed information provided, which would allow us to comment intelligently, so it appears that you dont care what we say, said Alan, the Lackawanna chairman.

Murphy and NJ Transit CEO Kevin Corbett unveiled a five-year capital plan and a 30-year strategic plan on June 9. The five-year capital plan is actually two parts. The entire plan is a $16.985 billion, five-year capital plan - of which $11.2 billion is funded.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.

Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com
Washington

The Trump administration said Wednesday it will impose travel bans on employees of the Chinese technology giant Huawei and other Chinese companies the U.S. determines are assisting authoritarian governments in cracking down on human rights, including in China's western Xinjiang province.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also said the administration is finalizing plans to minimize data theft from the popular Chinese video streaming app TikTok, although he stopped short of saying it would be banned outright.

Pompeo made the announcements a day after the British government said it would ban Huawei from its 5G networks over concerns that sensitive data could be compromised by the Chinese Communist Party.

Pompeo told reporters at a State Department news conference that Huawei employees found to be providing "material support to regimes engaging in human rights violations and abuses globally" would be hit with sanctions.

"Companies impacted by today's action include Huawei, an arm of the CCP's surveillance state that censors political dissidents and enables mass internment camps in Xinjiang and the indentured servitude of its population shipped all over China," he said. "Certain Huawei employees provide material support to the CCP regime that commits human rights abuses.

"Telecommunications companies around the world should consider themselves on notice: If they are doing business with Huawei, they are doing business with human rights abusers," Pompeo said.

Huawei said it was "disappointed" in the decision, which it called "unfair."

"Huawei operates independent of the Chinese government," it said in a statement. "We are a private, employee-owned firm. We are disappointed by this unfair and arbitrary action to restrict visas of our employees who work tirelessly to contribute to technological innovation in the U.S. and around the world."

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

At a later event sponsored by The Hill newspaper, Pompeo said the administration was also looking at how to prevent data theft from TikTok and other Chinese companies.

"Whether it's TikTok or any of the other Chinese communications platforms, apps, infrastructure, this administration has taken seriously the requirement to protect the American people from having their information end up in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party," he said. "And so we are working through a process where all the relevant agencies and the private sector are getting to say their piece. We hope to have a set of decisions shortly which will reflect this central understanding."

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters that administration officials are looking at the national security risks associated with TikTok, WeChat and other apps gathering information on American citizens. He said there is no deadline for action, but said it was likely weeks, not months.

It is not clear how many Huawei employees would be affected.
Taiwan has held annual military drills, meant to show off its readiness to defend itself against an attack from mainland China.

Taiwan has held annual military drills, meant to show off its readiness to defend itself against an attack from mainland China.

President Tsai Ing-wen says the war games are important to show determination and efforts to protect the island.

Al Jazeeras Rob McBride reports from Seoul, South Korea.
Words of the Week: Where is the Vision?

Racism is an ugly word that most people do not care to talk about. Yet, vestiges of racism exist and are consistently being uncovered and discovered, both overtly and covertly in this country tis of thee. Persons cringe when they hear the words racism, White supremacy, and neo-Nazi. Yet, for centuries, racism has been hurtful, destructive, and ignored in this beloved Sweet land of liberty.

For centuries, racism hid significant cultural history; belittled cultural accomplishments, destroyed civilizations, separated mothers from both children and their mates! Additionally, its affects have derided, chided, and led people of color into fighting and distrusting themselves, rather than fighting and distrusting the devil himself!

Racism shows itself in examples of White male privilege and instances of injustices leveled on people of color. Yet, our country proclaims, All men are created equal and granted certain inalienable rights.

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Racism makes it appear persons of color do NOT have the right to adequate healthcare, housing, or education! Additionally, minorities are historically passed over for promotions to less knowledgeable candidates because of the color of their skin, sound of their voice, the way they wear their hair or chose to spell their names!

Why are persons of color forced into experiencing the gray area between life and death when interacting with certain members of law enforcement?

Why have Black children been bombed in churches; and the Emmanuel 9 happened; our ancestors have been beaten, shot, and hanged by persons hiding behind white sheets and nooses are still being found?

Why have people of color experienced an increase in homelessness, mass incarceration, poverty, and healthcare issues, while the worlds list of billionaires and millionaires has increased? Our people have been imprisoned on trumped-up charges, enslaved, dismembered, hunted down, forbidden to learn to read and threatened not to vote! All this, while we have been singing, A Change is Going to Come.

Four-hundred years of waiting and just being patient.

While waiting, people of color have been gunned down from behind, executed by vigilantes, murdered during bible study, and choked out by members of law enforcement.

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While waiting, persons of color have been falsely accused of having weapons at the scene of tragedies and the sworn to uphold the law victimizers have gone free!

While waiting, grieving families are left mourning! So, we began this series asking, Where Do We Go from Here? then, You Did Not Consult with Me? and now, Where the People Perish?

Now, the doors of racism are being knocked and kicked through marches and uprisings by persons no longer waiting.

But racism is still subjugated to God! Racism exists, but God is still in charge:

He said, The bottom will be on the top and the top will be on the bottom. The first will be last and the last will be first.

God said, I open doors no man can open and close doors no man can close. Hallelujah!

But there is a caveat; there must be order and there must be vision.

The NLT reads, When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is joyful. Divine guidance (vision) is the word of God delivered to the prophets and priests of God to be preached to the people of God! Where there is ignorance or rejection of God, there is crime, sin and people running wild without vision.

Morality, the bible says, depends on the knowledge of God and on keeping the laws of God. If not, we perish.

There must be vision!

 In your house, in the church, on your job, there must be vision: Somebody feeds the dog, pays the bills, prepares the food.

 There must be vision during a pandemic, a racial uprising, in addressing systemic racism, defunding the police, or voting someone in or out of office!

 When there was slavery, there was an Underground Railroad and evidence someone had a vision.

 When there was strange fruit hanging from trees and colored only drinking fountains, an I Have a Dream speech indicated somebody had a vision!

Visionary leaders can surmise that what is done on this side of an organization, ultimately affects the other side of an organization. A vision helps you determine how you can get what you want, when you want, how you want. No one can deter you from your vision! If God be for you, who can stand against you?!

 Want to go to college  go to college!

 Want someone working for you, instead of you working for somebody  work your vision! Tired of poverty  work your vision!

Yes, someone will try and stop you; yes, something will hinder you, but only you can stop your vision! It is your vision! It is yours! It is yours!

 Without a vision: systemic racism will not be eradicated!

 Without vision: you are dancing in someone elses vision instead of your own! But there is another caveat:

When you need assistance, emotionally, physically, or spiritually, you must be careful where your help comes from! Help can have its own agenda.

Just because you march with me, kneel with me, and raise your fist does not mean you support my vision!

All that glitters is not gold. All who look sincere are not sincere! All that smile, are not smiling for you, but sometimes against you! Recent marching started with people of color saying, No justice no peace. Now, signs are carried more by White Americans than Black Americans, reading Defund the Police. Let us prioritize agendas with careful vision.

Let us Lean not unto our own understanding  but in all our ways acknowledge Him  and let Him  direct our paths.

Well, I am over my time now and this is just part 3: So, let us keep rising up; keep getting up; keep sitting up; keep speaking up; voting up, marching up and calling on the name above every name! And a change is sure to come; for He will show us the vision!

Rev. Dr. M W Eagle, Sr. in the Senior Pastor of Grant AME Church in Long Beach, CA.

For more info, visit www.Grantamelb.org
A 26-year old domestic worker who allegedly stole monies totaling GHC50,440 and hid some in her pants at Osu has been arraigned before an Accra Circuit Court.

Mawunya Amenuvor aka Enyo, is said to have stolen GHC25,000.00 and $4,800.00 belonging to her employer, Eric Appiah.

Her accomplices Janet Frimpong aka Ante Ama, a 45-year-old nanny is alleged to have stolen a baby Stroller, a suitcase and kids shoes, and Faustina Yeboah a 22-year-old cleaner is to have stolen four mobile phones valued GHC6,500.00.

The three accused persons have jointly been charged with conspiracy to steal and stealing.

Janet is facing additional charge of abetment of crime and dishonestly receiving.

The accused persons have pleaded not guilty to the various charges and they have been admitted to bail in the sum of GHC50,000.00 bail each with two sureties each.

They are expected to reappear on August 20 before the court presided over by Mrs. Afua Owusua Appiah.

Prosecuting Inspector Samuel Ahiabor said the complainant is a Financial Consultant living with his family at Osu, Accra. Mawunya and Janet are nannies in the complainant's house and Faustina is a cleaner.

According to Inspector Ahiabor, Faustina is the daughter of Janet.

Prosecution said the accused persons have been employed by the complainant to take care of his three kids and assist in domestic chores.

During the course of their work, Janet advised Mawunya not to return any money found in Mr Appiah pocket whenever she washed his clothes, but rather keep them.

During that same period, Prosecution said Janet introduced her daughter to be employed as a cleaner in the house. Soon after Faustina came to the house, the complainant detected that four assorted mobile phones worth GHC6,500.00 was stolen.

On July 19, last year, the complainant brought some bulk money to the house to be taken to the bank. On July 22, last year, Mawunya and Janet stole GHC15,000.00 out of the money.

Based on the development, Prosecution said the complainant placed GHC10,000.00 as bait and again Mawunya on July 24, last year stole the GHC10,000.00

The complainant suspected Mawunya and he demanded that she gives him access to her room. Mawunya then claimed that her key was missing.

Prosecution said the complainant insisted and Mawunya's door was broken. But she had already managed to sneak in and started packing the monies in her pant whiles holding on to GHC10,000.00.

Additional 800dollars was retrieved from her room, Prosecution added.

Prosecution said at the Police station, GHC4,000.00 was retrieved from Mawunya's pants and $1,100 under her brassier.

The prosecutor said Mawunya told the Police that it was Janet who advised her to steal so they could share. When Janet was arrested GHC1,600.00 was retrieved from her room.

Prosecution said during the arrest of Janet, Faustina was seen in the room and two mobile phones, a suit case, baby stroller were also retrieved.

During Police investigations, GHC19,800.00 and $1,900.00 have been retrieved and released to the complainant.

---GNA
 Flash

China is strongly opposed to the British government's decision to ban Huawei's involvement in 5G networks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Wednesday.

Hua made the remarks in response to a request for comment in a press briefing. The British government announced on Tuesday that purchase of new Huawei 5G equipment will be banned after Dec. 31, 2020, and all Huawei equipment will be removed from the country's 5G networks by the end of 2027.

Britain, in collaboration with the United States, discriminates against and excludes Chinese enterprises without any solid evidence of risks, Hua said.

The decision, which blatantly violates principles of market economy and free trade rules, as well as relevant commitments made by Britain, will seriously damage the legitimate interests of Chinese enterprises and the foundation of mutual trust in China-UK cooperation, said the spokesperson.

It is not a matter of an enterprise or an industry, rather, it is a matter of the UK's politicization of commercial and technological issues, Hua said, adding that the decision severely threatens the security of China's investment in Britain and raises concerns over whether China can maintain confidence in the openness, fairness, and non-discrimination of the British market.

With grave concern about the matter, China will make comprehensive and serious assessments, and take all necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate and lawful rights and interests of Chinese enterprises, she stressed.
Senior police officers led by the Director-General of the Police Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Isaac Ken Yeboah, Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, the Director-General, Welfare of the Ghana Police Service and other police officers have called on the overlord of Dagbon Ya Na Abukari Mahama II.



The delegation was at the Gbewa palace in Yend to meet with the overlord concerning the incident involving the Yendi divisional commander, ACP Peter Akokora Ayirezang.



A reliable source at the palace told DGN Online that the police delegation apologized to the Ya Na on behalf of the police commander.



The source indicated that the Ya Na accepted the apology but requested that a new divisional police commander be appointed to the Yendi municipality.



According to the source, the Ya Na wants someone who can collaborate and work with the palace.



 The government has suffered a lot to bring Yendi to where it is now so any person who wants to disrespect the Palace and Dagbon he wont allow it .



It will be recalled that on Saturday, July 11, 2020, at about 3 pm, irate youth in Yendi with the support of the Ya Naa neaely attacked the Divisional Commander ACP Peter Akokora Ayirezang in front of the Yendi Divisional Police Headquarters but for the timely intervention of the Divisional Crime Officer and the BNI Commander.



The Police, therefore, proceeded to the Gbewaa Palace with the BNI Commander to persuade the overlord for peaceful settlement of the case.



But the Ya Naa emphatically made it clear that since the Divisional Commander does not respect him and his people, Yendi has become a no go area for the police chief.



The delegation according to reports left the Gbewaa Palace and went to inform the Divisional Commander but he had already packed his luggage and left Yendi.

Source: daily guide









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EDWARDSVILLE  The Madison County Historical Society has announced the receipt of two grants to assist with operations and programming.

The first is a $2,500 CARES Emergency Relief Grant from Illinois Humanities, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the National Endowment for the Humanities.
FDA stated that the nonclinical program was appropriate to support initiating studies in COVID-19 patients

OTTAWA, CANADA / ACCESSWIRE / July 16, 2020 / Tetra Bio-Pharma Inc. ("Tetra" or the "Company") (TSXV:TBP)(OTCQB:TBPMF), a leader in cannabinoid-derived drug discovery and development, is excited to announce that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has favorably reviewed the company's Pre-Investigational New Drug (PIND) application for ARDS-003. The review was conducted within the framework of the Coronavirus Treatment Acceleration Program (CTAP), the FDA's expedited process for investigational therapies to treat COVID-19 patients.

Dr. Guy Chamberland, CEO and CRO commented, "ARDS-003 is an investigational drug designed to dampen the cytokine release syndrome and prevent the development of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). ARDS is a serious, life-threatening condition that develops as a result of infection by SARS-COV-2. The Company is not making any expressed or implied claims that its product has the ability to eliminate, cure and/or contain the COVID-19 or the SARS-COV-2 virus at this time.

Tetra is extremely pleased with the positive feedback provided by the FDA for the development of ARDS-003, an innovative novel investigational new drug for COVID-19 patients. Overall, the FDA agreed with Tetra's proposed active substance and finished product specifications as well as the stability programs. The FDA stated that the nonclinical program was appropriate to support initiating phase 1 study. The FDA confirmed that assessments such as blood compatibility and local irritation, which are typically required for intravenous drug products will be required. These are part of Tetra's nonclinical program and are currently ongoing. The FDA also stated that no additional nonclinical safety studies would be required to initiate phase 2 studies in SARS-COV-2 patients.

The majority of toxicology studies were not completed at the time of the submission of the PIND meeting package, including how humans may metabolize ARDS-003. The FDA stated that humans may metabolize cannabinoids differently than standard nonclinical toxicology test species such as rodents and canines (e.g. cannabidiol also known as CBD). Therefore, Tetra's development program needed to identify disproportionate or human specific metabolites and address the safety of human major metabolites. The safety of human major metabolites needs to be emphasized given the concerns that the FDA raised over the nonclinical safety program of Epidiolex (CBD). Tetra is confirming that these toxicology studies have been completed, and we did not identify any disproportionate or human specific metabolite for ARDS-003.

COVID-19 Pandemic impact on global health care

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a major impact on global health care. Hospitals and emergency clinics have been hard hit by this pandemic and some intensive care units (ICUs) have been reaching overcapacity thereby limiting access to optimal care for some severely ill patients. As the pandemic completes its first wave of infection, physicians and scientists have learned a tremendous amount about the consequences of the cytokine release syndrome, often referred to as the cytokine storm. The clinical picture that has evolved from the risk and consequences of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) requiring oxygen therapy to potential consequences caused by the cytokine release syndrome. These consequences include scarring of the lungs (pulmonary fibrosis) to organ injury caused by the decrease in blood perfusion to the tissue. The medical community is in urgent need of drugs that can reduce the strength and duration of the severe inflammation. It is anticipated that this type of new drug would favorably impact health care and possibly reduce the negative health outcomes post infection.

Dr. Guy Chamberland, CEO and CRO commented, "We received the response from the FDA last week and are excited to share this feedback with our shareholders. The feedback received is extremely positive news because now we have confidence that the rodent and nonrodent species used in the nonclinical toxicology study will provide a relevant assessment of the safety profile of the new drug (ARDS-003) prior to first-in-human trials. The impact of this outcome will result in a decreased cost to run the drug development program because any human-specific metabolite or disproportionate metabolite requires additional toxicology testing and has a significant effect on the overall cost of and time to complete the program. This will allow us to design the program in such a way that we can potentially further increase shareholder value." The FDA also provided detailed feedback on the proposed Phase 1 and 2 clinical trial protocols. "The FDA repeatedly stated that they want clinical trials for COVID-19 to begin as soon as possible, as long as they meet regulatory requirements. In addition, the FDA stressed the importance that the trials be designed to rapidly address the question of whether a drug has any potential efficacy in COVID-19 patients. Based on this guidance, Tetra will revise its proposed clinical trial protocols to ensure that we expedite the answer to this question for the World Health Organization and the Canadian and USA governments. In addition, Tetra is planning to initiate a study in COVID-19 patients in parallel to conducting the phase 1 trial in healthy volunteers. Tetra expects to start the Phase 1 trial in late September 2020. The treatment phase of the study should be completed within the two months followed by the analysis and reporting phase. Our plan is to obtain preliminary efficacy data from a small well-controlled clinical trial as soon as we can", stated Dr. Chamberland.

"Many companies have joined the quest for an effective treatment for the cytokine storm. A number of these companies have repurposed drugs, including arthritis-type drugs hoping that these older molecules will be effective. ARDS-003, however, is an innovative molecule that has been studied for more than a decade, specifically as a treatment for sepsis and severe inflammatory reactions. Tetra is not repurposing our drug for the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather, we are accelerating a drug development program of a drug designed to treat this type of serious health condition. This is in-line with Tetra's goal to develop patent protected innovative therapies for patients with serious health conditions. Tetra's research team works hard to develop intellectual property to ensure that our products, and their markets, are well protected providing value for our share-holders" said Guy Chamberland, Chief Executive Officer and CRO of Tetra Bio-Pharma.

About Tetra Bio-Pharma

Tetra Bio-Pharma (TSX-V:TBP) (OTCQB:TBPMF) is a biopharmaceutical leader in cannabinoid-based drug discovery and development with a Health Canada approved, and FDA reviewed and approved, clinical program aimed at bringing novel prescription drugs and treatments to patients and their healthcare providers. The Company has several subsidiaries engaged in the development of an advanced and growing pipeline of Bio Pharmaceuticals, Natural Health and Veterinary Products containing cannabis and other medicinal plant-based elements. With patients at the core of what we do, Tetra Bio-Pharma is focused on providing rigorous scientific validation and safety data required for inclusion into the existing bio pharma industry by regulators, physicians and insurance companies.

For more information visit: www.tetrabiopharma.com

Source: Tetra Bio-Pharma

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.

Forward-looking statements

Some statements in this release may contain forward-looking information. All statements, other than of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future (including, without limitation, statements regarding potential acquisitions and financings) are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of the words "may", "will", "should", "continue", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "believe", "intend", "plan" or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict, that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, without limitation, the inability of the Company to obtain sufficient financing to execute the Company's business plan; competition; regulation and anticipated and unanticipated costs and delays, the success of the Company's research and development strategies, including the success of this product or any other product, the applicability of the discoveries made therein, the successful and timely completion and uncertainties related to the regulatory process, the timing of clinical trials, the timing and outcomes of regulatory or intellectual property decisions and other risks disclosed in the Company's public disclosure record on file with the relevant securities regulatory authorities. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results or events not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. 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 legislation.

For further information, please contact Tetra Bio-Pharma Inc.:

Investor Contact:

Tetra Bio-Pharma Inc.

Dr. Guy Chamberland, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer

Phone: + 1 (833) 977-7575

investors@tetrabiopharma.com

Alpha Bronze, LLC

Mr. Pascal Nigen

Phone: + 1 (646) 255-0433

tetra@alphabronze.net

Media Contact:

energi PR

Ms. Carol Levine APR, FCPRS

Phone: + 1 (416) 425-9143 ext. 226

Mobile: + 1 (514) 703-0256

carol.levine@energipr.com

SOURCE: Tetra Bio-Pharma

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/597674/FDA-Provides-Positive-Feedback-on-Tetra-Bio-Pharmas-Pre-Investigational-New-Drug-Application-for-ARDS-003-to-Be-Studied-in-COVID-19-Patients-at-Risk-of-Developing-Acute-Respiratory-Distress-Syndrome-ARDS
B lack police were targeted by protesters during the Black Lives Matter protests in London, Mayor Sadiq Khan was told today.

Susan Hall, leader of the GLA Conservatives, said that the assemblys police and crime committee was yesterday told by Met police deputy commissioner Sir Stephen House of the attacks on black officers.

She told Mayor's Question Time that attacks on Met police in general were on the rise in recent months and black officers were attacked apparently more vociferously during the recent protests.

She added: Sir Steve House was very clear that a proportion of these attacks came from the Black Lives Matter protesters themselves.

Mr Khan, who as the capitals police and crime commissioner oversees the Met, said: I was really distressed when I spoke to black officers during the first Black Lives Matter protests.

What was distressing, in addition to the abuse and violence our officers faced being unacceptable, was when I was told that black officers were being verbally abused and attacked by those on the Black Lives Matter protesters.

We are doing all this hard work to recruit black officers, to keep and progress them [within the Met] but yet members of the community are giving them a hard time for joining the police service, and its very difficult.

He said BAME (black and minority ethnic) officers were being given extra welfare support to deal with the attacks.

Sadiq Khan

It really is distressing, he said. By talking about it, we have got to make sure Londoners appreciate its unacceptable to attack our officers, and that includes our black and Asian minority ethnic officers.

Ms Hall said it was vital to send the message to BLM protesters that British police were very, very different in terms of their approach, tactics and relationship with the public than police in the US, where the BLM protests originated following the death of George Floyd during a police arrest in May.

We all need to do everything we can to stop the police being regarded as the enemy, Ms Hall said.

Protestors clash with Police at Black Lives Matter Rally 1 /24 Protestors clash with Police at Black Lives Matter Rally A firework explodes as police officers clash with demonstrators in Whitehall during a Black Lives Matter protest in London Reuters Police were hit with glass bottles in Downing Street Getty Images Police officers clash with demonstrators in Parliament Square during a Black Lives Matter protest in London Reuters There were angry clashes between violent protesters and police last night Getty Images Getty Images Police clash with protesters during a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Westminster, PA Police clash with protesters during a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Westminster, PA Police clash with protesters during a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Westminster, PA Police on Westminster Bridge during a Black Lives Matter protest rally PA A protester is detained by police officers in Westminster, AP A protester is moved away by police in Whitehall AP A protester is restrained by Police Officers close to Westminster tube station outside the Houses of Parliament during a Black Lives Matter protest Getty Images Police officers surround the cenotaph in Whitehall, London AP Police officers restrain a protester close to Westminster tube station outside the Houses of Parliament Getty Images A protester is restrained by Police Officers close to Westminster tube station outside the Houses of Parliament during a Black Lives Matter protest Getty Images Police officers restrain a protester close to Westminster tube station outside the Houses of Parliament during a Black Lives Matter protest Getty Images A protester attempts to set fire to the flags on the Cenotaph memorial during a Black Lives Matter protest Getty Images Police clash with protesters during a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Westminster PA

Mr Khan said the UK did not suffer the same levels of police brutality  saying there was a million miles between the two - but had earlier at Mayors Question Time repeated the fact he had been stopped and searched numerous times as a young man prior to becoming mayor.

He said: Growing up in south London I lost track of the number of times I was stopped and searched.

I remember the anger and humiliation I felt when, yet again, I was stopped, for seemingly nothing other than the colour of my skin.

Green assembly member Sian Berry said stop and search was being used disproportionately against black Londoners but many were reluctant to complain. She said they were twice as likely to be fined under coronavirus laws.

She said: Londoners have been reaching out to me to tell me about their experiences of mistreatment and their reluctance to get involved in formal complaints. They need reassuring that their issues will be taken seriously at the top.
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Scientists have found new evidence of a massive tsunami that devastated ancient Britain in the year 6200 BC on the east coast of England.

The giant tsunami event, known as the Storegga Slide, was caused when an area of seabed the size of Scotland - around 30,000 square miles - under the Norwegian Sea suddenly shifted.

New geological evidence reveals three successive waves tore across an ancient land bridge connecting Britain with the rest of Europe, known as Doggerland, now submerged beneath the North Sea.

The waves of biblical proportions would have caused devastating damage and had a catastrophic effect on human populations on the inhabited land.

Evidence of the event had already been found in Scandinavia, the Faroe Islands, northeast Britain, and Greenland, but no direct evidence for the event had been recovered from the southern end of the North Sea until now.

Underwater deposits including stones and broken shells taken from the North Sea, in an area south of a marine trough named the Outer Dowsing Deep just off the coast of Lincolnshire, show trademarks of the tsunami event.

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The North Sea, Storegga underwater landslide event run-out (top of the image) and associated deposit locations, including the core deposit marked by a star within the Outer Dowsing Deep, as well as others taken from the north of Britain

'Exploring Doggerland, the lost landscape underneath the North Sea, is one of the last great archaeological challenges in Europe,' said Professor Vince Gaffney from the University of Bradford.

'This work demonstrates that an interdisciplinary team of archaeologists and scientists can bring this landscape back to life and even throw new light on one of prehistorys great natural disasters, the Storegga Tsunami.'

Storegga is thought to have been triggered when a 120 mile long stretch of sediments that had accumulated off the coast of Norway during the Ice Age broke free of the continental shelf and plunged into the depths 8,150 years ago.

Doggerland stretched from where Britain's east coast now is to the present-day Netherlands, but rising sea levels after the last glacial maximum and the Storegga Slide led to its disappearance. The research team present evidence of the tsunami from geological deposits in the southern North Sea, at the head of an inactive river system, the Outer Dowsing Deep

WHAT IS DOGGERLAND? Doggerland is an area of land that was flooded more than 8,000 years ago. It connected Lincolnshire to continental Europe with a vast low-lying landscape that provided a homeland to the Mesolithic people. Gradually, the North Sea spread southwards after around 10,000 BC and it began to flood. The Dogger Bank, part of the land mass, was submerged about 8,700 years ago. Dogger Bank now refers to a shallow area of the North Sea about 60 miles off the east coast. The last part of Doggerland became submerged following a tsunami, the Storegga Slide, about 8,200 years ago, researchers believe. The present shape of the coastline of southern Britain was roughly established by about 7,500 years ago. Advertisement

This huge underwater landslide sent waves out in all directions, causing huge tsunamis to sweep over the coastline of Norway and Iceland.

For those unfortunate enough to be caught within the tsunami run-up zone, it would have been devastating, according to the researchers.

The waves also raced south, engulfing the Faroe Islands, Orkney and large parts of the coastline of mainland Britain.

It also ripped through Doggerland, an inhabited ancient land bridge that existed between Britain and mainland Europe, now submerged.

In these coastal areas, where Mesolithic human populations may have resided for most of the year, settlements would have been heavily affected, causing death and destruction.

At the time the tsunami hit Doggerland, a Mesolithic hunter-gather population may have still been living on the remaining islands.

Huge waves would have suddenly appeared, sweeping away people who had been fishing along the coasts.

'For those who survived the tsunami, the loss and destruction of dwellings, boats, equipment, and supplies must have made the following winter very difficult,' Knut Rydgren and Stein Bondevik previously wrote in Geology.

It is thought the tsunami, the largest to hit Northern Europe since the end of the last ice age, happened following a period of global climate change.

Until now no clear trace of the tsunami had been found across the southern North Sea, nor on Doggerland, which was gradually swallowed by rising sea levels.

Scientists now think the tsunami may even have led to the final inundation of Doggerland, which now resides below the water's surface at Dogger Bank, a shallow area of the North Sea.

Artists' impression of life in Doggerland. It's unlikely many or any survived the deadly tsunami caused by the Storegga Slide

Prehistoric: Nomadic hunters and gatherers in the late Mesolithic age. Doggerland is described as 'an extensive European submerged landscape and a former heartland of the Mesolithic period'

A huge landslide of Ice Age sediment under the Norwegian Sea 8,150 years ago (illustrated) produced a tsunami so powerful it swept hundreds of miles down the North Sea and created waves of up to 65 feet high

The Outer Dowsing Deep (pictured) was originally a river valley cutting through the rump of the Doggerland plain and is now underwater. The Outer Dowsing Deep river valley, from which the samples were taken (marked by ELF001A), cut through the rump of the Doggerland plain and was once about 25 miles from the sea, before being scoured by the tsunami wave. The light green marks the area flooded by the tsunami, the medium green marks the area that has been flooded since, and the dark green is the current coastline

Present coast of East England (grey) with offshore area showing the coastline reconstruction at approximately 8,150 years ago

The research team present evidence of the tsunami from geological deposits in the southern North Sea, at the head of an inactive river system called the Outer Dowsing Deep.

The Outer Dowsing Deep river valley cut through the rump of the Doggerland plain and was once about 25 miles from the sea, before being scoured by the tsunami wave.

The evidence, based on lithostratigraphy, which focuses on rock layers, geochemical signatures, macro and microfossils and a technique known as 'sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA)', suggests that these deposits were a result of the tsunami.

3D rendering of the area from northern and southern perspectives (arrow represents north direction) of the east coast from which the newly-studied sediments were taken. These images show land that doesn't exist anymore on the east coast. The black line is land border before the tsunami hit and the green area is land. Modern land isnt shown

sedaDNA is an emerging tool in the field and involves sequencing of ancient DNA contained in sedimentary remains despite the absence of fossils.

Their conclusions were supported by radiocarbon dating and optical stimulated luminescence (OSL)  a technique used to date the last time sediment was exposed to light  that indicated they were contemporary with the Storegga event, and was backed up by other deposits taken from locations in the north of Britain.

Signatures of tsunamis are often difficult to identify in comparison to those from periodic storm activity.

Cross section of the inland basin at the head of the Outer Dowsing Deep. ELF001A marks the spot of the most recently recovered samples from the east coast of England

Therefore, key to understanding the sequence was the interpretation of geochemical signatures of three major waves hitting and retreating from the land.

'The sediment grain size changed according to the flow and ebb of the waves and studies of the chemical components could show both that material had been dragged in from the sea and then material from the land drawn back with the wave,' Professor Gaffney told MailOnline.

'Together this information could be tied together to provide a clear picture within the core to see when the waves hit the land and then ebbed back.'

However, the palaeo-topography analysis suggested that much of the Doggerland landscape may have survived reasonably intact to rapidly return to pre-tsunami conditions.

The longer term fate of these lands was to be submerged as sea level rose to those of the present day.

Doggerland was gradually swallowed by rising sea levels after the end of the last glacial maximum  a period when glaciers were at their thickest and much of Europe was covered in ice.

Professor Gaffney believes the climate-change events leading up to the Storegga tsunami have many similarities to those of today.

'Climate is changing and this impacts on many aspects of society, especially in coastal locations,' he said.

The study has been published in the journal Geosciences.
Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) leader Hanuman Beniwal on Thursday accused former Rajasthan chief minister and veteran BJP leader Vasundhara Raje of "trying to save the minority Ashok Gehlot-led government" in the state.

The allegation from the BJP ally came at a time the Congress is embroiled in a political crisis after sacking Sachin Pilot as deputy chief minister and president of the state party unit.

"Raje is also making a strong effort to save the minority government, she has also made calls to many Congress MLAs about this," Beniwal said on Twitter, tagging BJP, party president JP Nadda and Home Minister Amit Shah.

The MP from Nagaur made this claim hours before the Rajasthan High Court deferred for Friday the amended plea of Sachin Pilot and the rebel Congress MLAs against disqualification notice issued by the Assembly Speaker.

There was no immediate reaction from Raje, a senior BJP leader who has been the state's chief minister for two terms.

Beniwal has often criticised Raje in the past and quit the BJP just before the 2018 Rajasthan elections that was won by the Congress. He has claimed there is an "internal understanding" between Raje and Gehlot.

Raje has maintained silence during the unfolding crisis in the state after Pilot's revolt.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 14:00:53|Editor: huaxia

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WASHINGTON, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Sixty-six percent of U.S. registered voters say it is not appropriate to use "kung flu" and "China virus" when referring to COVID-19, a U.S. poll has found.

The poll, conducted online by U.S. media outlet The Hill and survey research company HarrisX on July 3-4, collected the opinions of 933 registered voters in the United States.

It found that 83 percent of Democratic voters and 66 percent of independents think it is inappropriate to use those terms, while 56 percent of Republican voters think the terms are "appropriate."

It also found that 89 percent of those who disapprove of the current administration deem it is inappropriate to use the terms, while the other 11 percent say they are appropriate.

Reporting the polling result, the Hill cited critics as saying that President Donald Trump's rhetoric "is partly to blame for an uptick in reported crimes against the Asian American community." Enditem




Click here to read the full article.

Olivia Culpo made a case for summer whites in style as she posed on Instagram on Wednesday.

The Paradise City actress looked stylish in a white shirt dress with a high slit from pal Cara Santanas eponymous line. She accessorized with a Bottega Veneta Hobo bag ($2,800 from Net-a-Porter.com), as well as a Jacquie Aiche finger shaker bracelet.

More from Footwear News

To complete the look, Culpo selected The Goldie, a $40 sunglass silhouette from her new collaboration with Prive Revaux. For every pair of sunglasses sold, Culpo and the brand will donate one pair of glasses to someone in need, in partnership with the organization Restoring Vision.

Square-toe shoes have been having a moment since last summer, with several of Bottegas styles gaining major ground among celebrities and fashion week goers alike. Previously thought of as a faux pas (particularly on the mens end), the square toe has now become a wardrobe staple for It girls such as Emily Ratajkowski, Kendall Jenner and Dua Lipa. Fans of Bottegas square-toe silhouettes include such notable stars as Kim Kardashian, Hailey Baldwin, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Rihanna.

Related video: Olivia Culpo shares her favorite pairs of sunnies

When it comes to her off-duty shoe style, Culpo often can be spotted in Stella McCartney platform brogues, with other past choices including Balenciaga dad shoes and Gucci Princetown slippers. The Rhode Island natives work wardrobe includes plenty of classic pointed-toe pumps from brands such as Jimmy Choo, Brian Atwood and Manolo Blahnik.

In addition to making a statement with her on- and off-duty looks, Culpo has also parlayed her fame into multiple fashion deals. In recent months, the influencer has collaborated with Express on her More Than a Mask collection, as well as introduced her sunglasses line with Prive Revaux. In the past, Culpo has worked on collaborations with PrettyLittleThing and Marled by Reunited and landed paid partnerships with the likes of Tiffany & Co. and Stella Artois.

Story continues

Below, shop a selection of sandals that offer a similar look to Culpos pair but sell at a more accessible price point.

DKNY, square-toe sandals





To Buy: DKNY Bronx Dress Sandals, $54 (was $120).

Billini Stormi, square toe sandals





To Buy: Billini Stormi, $64.

Villa Rogue, sandals





To Buy: Villa Rogue Womens Viva Mules, $140.

Click through the gallery for a look back at Olivia Culpos standout street style moments.

All products featured have been independently selected and curated by our editorial team. If you buy something through our retail links, we may earn commission and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

Launch Gallery: Olivia Culpo's Best Street Style Moments

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Exercises taking place at a time of increased tension between China and the United States in the South China Sea.

Taiwans army is carrying out a live-fire drill in the central city of Taichung on Thursday, as part of a major military exercise against the backdrop of rising tensions with China across the strait and in the South China Sea.

President Tsai Ing-wen was expected to witness the drill, which is based on the scenario of an invasion by the Chinese military. The five-day war games will end on Friday.

The annual Han Kuang military exercise was postponed from earlier this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, Taiwan has successfully contained the spread of the disease and has declared the island virus free.

On Wednesday, a live torpedo was fired from a Taiwan Navy submarine, the first time in 13 years that such weapons were deployed during the annual exercise.

Taiwans state-backed Central News Agency (CNA) reported that the heavyweight surface and underwater target torpedo was fired from an electric submarine and hit its target.





The last time a Taiwan Navy submarine fired a live torpedo during the annual military exercises was in 2007.

The annual exercises, which involve all branches of Taiwans military and reserve forces, have been held since the early 1980s to test Taiwans combat readiness in the event of an attack by China.

Frequent incursions

During the exercises on Wednesday, the military reported that two Chinese reconnaissance vessels were seen off the east coast of Taiwan, according to CNA.

The report said that a Taiwan Navy warship was immediately dispatched to monitor and deter the two vessels, which eventually sailed away.

The annual drill comes as Taiwan has accused Chinese military aircraft of frequent incursions into the islands air defence zone over the past few months.

In April, a Chinese naval flotilla led by the countrys first aircraft carrier passed near Taiwan.

China claims the democratic island as its own territory, and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under Beijings control. Taiwan has shown no interest in being run by China.

In May, Beijing threatened to resolutely smash Taiwan in case of any moves for independence.





Taiwans military is well-trained and well-equipped, mostly with US-made weapons, and President Tsai has made boosting the islands defences a priority since she first won office in 2016. She was re-elected by a landslide in January.

However, Taiwan faces an increasingly formidable and far larger Chinese military, which has been undergoing its own modernisation programme, adding stealth fighters, aircraft carriers and anti-satellite missiles.

The exercises are also taking place at a time of increased tensions between China and the United States in the South China Sea.

The US currently has two warships, the USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan, sailing in the disputed regional waters on freedom of navigation operations.

On Monday, the US announced that it rejected Chinas territorial claims in the South China Sea, drawing an angry response from Beijing, which said Washington was trying to inflame tensions in the disputed waters.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the world would not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire.


By Stephen Costello





The appointment of Suh Hoon to National Security Council director should be a good move for the South Korean administration, now going into its fourth year. Director Suh seems to have the background and the seriousness to make this key position work for the president's complicated goals.



Those goals would include making the South Korea-U.S. alliance serve both countries' interests; keeping the South Korea-China relationship high-level, productive, and honest about its limits; reminding both sides of the South Korea-Japan relationship of the specific gains that increased cooperation can bring; and treating inter-Korean engagement as the first-order "core interest" that it is.



By appointing Park Jie-won to lead the National Intelligence Service, President Moon Jae-in is continuing to treat that agency with the seriousness that it deserves. The NIS has some of the very best analysts and thinkers in the government, and its corruption by some past presidents was terribly destructive.



Park's past experience with the details of South-North cooperation, and with a generation of North Korean officials, can be timely and valuable.



It is also a big advantage that Park was a New Yorker, a businessman, and a committed supporter of the democracy movement in the 1990s when it was organizing to contest power with the authoritarians of that time. It is precisely because of Park's broad capabilities that opponents of South-North rapprochement in Seoul and Washington will howl with objections.



The appointment of Lee In-young as unification minister should reinvigorate that critical institution, and perhaps allow it to do its job fully.



Since expanded inter-Korean peace and cooperation, accompanied by the capping and rollback of the DPRK's nuclear and ICBM capabilities, are the key to each of South Korea's interests, the role of the Ministry of Unification has long been central to any modern or realistic ROK government. President Lee Myung-bak's early attempt to abolish it is a reminder of the backward-looking worldview of many non-Democrats in Korea.



However, none of these appointments will matter much at all unless there is a change in the president's approach.



The problems with its U.S. ally have been clear from the moment Moon was elected. Many people pointed them out. Even before the election of Donald Trump, the U.S. policymaking process was broken and assumptions underlying policy toward North and South Korea had been proved wrong for over a decade.



Trump's incapacity to help either South Korea or the U.S. was not a secret. His hiring of aides, from John Bolton to Stephen Biegun, has not changed this deficit. This was the time for Seoul to lead a multilateral effort to return to a productive deal with Pyongyang. Now three years have gone by.



In addition, Moon's analysis of the peninsula situation was flawed. Despite his many statements supporting the views of Kim Dae-jung, the president came to office convinced that North Korea required "extreme sanctions" by the U.N. in order to negotiate its development and denuclearization.



Embarrassingly, he urged Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting in Vladivostok three years ago to support a U.S.-proposed oil embargo on the North. Putin politely pointed out the impracticality of that policy.



Seoul's national security, inter-Korean and U.S. alliance policies have not been in crisis due to cabinet ministers. And they are unlikely to be solved or improved with these new appointments, even if Park, Suh and Lee are excellent choices.



A new outreach to Kim Jong-un will only be successful if it is accompanied by a shift to a proactive posture by President Moon. U.N. sanctions must be addressed urgently, because for 20 years they have been the key to South Korea and U.S. interests and goals. Rather than "being nice to Kim," rolling back sanctions is the only route to getting what Washington and Seoul need.



Finally, the South Korea-U.S. alliance could be resuscitated and reinvigorated if Seoul were to confidently take the lead, on issues that are its primary responsibility, and stop expecting Washington to do something it cannot do.



For now, the U.S. needs to be led back to an updated Hanoi deal. But the route to such a deal is through the U.N., Asian regional support, the EU, Australia and others.



President Moon has the right team to do this complex diplomacy, and he has more good people waiting to be asked to help. Importantly, he also has good people in the U.S. who would gladly assist in this effort. But he must take on a new project, and no longer rely on the excuse of U.S. immobility.





Stephen Costello (scost55@gmail.com) managed the Kim Dae Jung Peace Foundation Washington office in the 1990s. He directed the Korea program at the Atlantic Council there from 1999 to 2004. He now directs AsiaEast.Org, a policy initiative focused on security, development and politics in Northeast Asia. He writes from Washington and Seoul.


WASHINGTON, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As COVID-19 infection rates continue to increase in states across the country, many of those jurisdictions are facing the complex dilemma of high infections rates complicating school re-openings and thereby limiting students' access to school-based meal programs. Among the states with spiking infection rates and high percentage of students participating in school-based meal programs are Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina.

In March schools across the country began closing to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus. In response, and recognizing the important source of nutrition school-based meals were to millions of American children, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service began approving nationwide waivers to provide school systems flexibility in how meals were provided to students. For example, these waivers enable schools to serve meals in non-congregate settings and outside of standard mealtimes, serve afterschool snacks and meals outside of structured environments, and waive requirements that students be present when meals are picked up.

Over half of all students in elementary and secondary schools across the country depend on the National School Lunch Program, and 12.5 million of those students also participate in the School Breakfast Program. As the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools this spring, these students were placed at risk of not having enough to eat.

A new policy brief, Beyond School Walls: How Federal, State and Local Entities are Adapting Policies to Ensure Student Access to Healthy Meals During the COVID-19 Pandemic, released today by Trust for America's Health, reviews steps the federal and state governments have taken to ensure students' access to healthy meals when schools are closed and what needs to be done to ensure continued meal access as all school systems face uncertainties about how to safely reopen for the 2020-2021 school year.

"School meal programs are the most important source of nutritious food for millions of American children. To the degree possible, school systems, with financial and regulatory relief from the federal government, should continue to be innovative about how to deliver meals to students and should strive to meet or exceed federal nutrition standards for these meals despite product shortages created by the pandemic," said Adam Lustig, Project Manager at Trust for America's Health and the brief's author.

Due to the economic impact the pandemic has had on millions of American families and the numerous uncertainties about how to safely re-open schools, the currently in place program waivers should be extended through the summer and may need to be kept in place during the 20202021 school year, the brief says.

Many of the states hardest hit by COVID also have highest school meal programs participation rates

States with some of the highest rates of COVID-19 infections also have high percentages of students who depend on school meals for much of their nutrition. States in which both COVID-19 infection rates are above national medians and school meals program enrollment is high include Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.

States in which more than half of students are enrolled in school-meals programs are:

Percentage of students enrolled in school meal programs

D.C. 76.4% Mississippi 75.0% New Mexico 71.4% South Carolina 67.0% Arkansas 63.6% Louisiana 63.0% Oklahoma 62.5% Georgia 62.0% Nevada 60.8% Kentucky 58.7% California 58.1% Florida 58.1% Arizona 57.0% Missouri 52.7% New York 52.6% Illinois 50.2% Alabama 51.6% Oregon 50.5%

Hunger, poor nutrition and food insecurity can increase a child's risk of developing a range of physical, mental, behavioral, emotional, and learning problems. Hungry children also get sick more often and are more likely to be hospitalized. Maintaining children's access to nutritious meals despite school closures not only ensure they do not go hungry, but also promotes children's health.

"State and federal guidelines waivers have allowed school systems to provide meals to students during the pandemic response, keeping them in place this summer and into the 2020-2021 school year will be the difference between kids who have enough to eat and kids who go hungry," Lustig said.

Trust for America's Health is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes optimal health for every person and community and makes the prevention of illness and injury a national priority. www.tfah.org . Twitter: @HealthyAmerica1

SOURCE Trust for America's Health

Related Links

https://www.tfah.org


The events that took place on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border were discussed during the show Time Will Tell aired on Russias Channel 1.

Why did the old conflict break out again? What is going on in the region and how are the forces distributed? Who is supporting the conflicting sides and whom do the disturbances in the Caucasus favor? These and other questions were discussed during the show with Deputy of the Russian State Duma, Vice-Chairman of the Committee on the CIS, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots of the State Duma Konstantin Zatulin; editor-in-chief of Azru news portal Roman Aghayev; Candidate of Historical Sciences, editor-in-chief of Realist News Agency Sargis Tsaturyan; international commentator of Kommersant Publishing House Maksim Yusin; political scientist, Associate Professor of the Chair of the Theory of Regionology at Moscow State Linguistic University Ikbal Duren (Turkey).
At the height of lockdown, there was an emerging trend of a drop in footfall in our city centres, according to the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium.

"Larger city centres suffered worse across the UK, with a drop of 89.7% as consumers stuck to their more local shopping areas (during April)," it said.

The trend was notable across all of the UK, with villages and smaller high streets benefiting from the stay-at-home worker.

"Footfall shifted away from large towns and cities to smaller, more local centres," the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium explained.

Expand Close Aerial images showing Belfast city centre after lockdown. Pic Kevin Scott Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph / Facebook

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In Northern Ireland, high street footfall dropped by 79.2%.

City centres with a high density of office workers continue to feel the pinch even as lockdown restrictions ease, with businesses geared towards that demographic struggling most.

Recent research by UK firm Instant Offices revealed that 73% of employees considered working from home to be the new norm.

It indicated 83% of workers felt they did not need to be in the office to be productive, with 68% of businesses saying they had a flexible working policy in place.

Several major corporations have adopted policies that will allow employees to work from home, with Twitter offering its staff the opportunity to work from home permanently.

Such trends, if implemented by local employers, could see the landscape of our city centre transformed, with retail dwindling and office properties struggling to find tenants.

The changes in how people work are definitely having a tangible effect on retail across Northern Ireland

Day-trade specialists that thrive on office workers' lunch breaks and after-work purchases will be hit hardest. Aodhan Connolly

Aodhan Connolly, director of the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium, said shoppers and businesses needed to pull together to ensure the vibrancy of our city centres was preserved.

"The changes in how people work are definitely having a tangible effect on retail across Northern Ireland," he added.

"As people are no longer travelling to work in towns and cities, we have had a drop in footfall, which is needed to keep stores ticking over.

"Stores such as convenience, fast food and those with sandwich counters are suffering most, with some still not reopened because they really rely on the lunchtime and evening traffic from workers.

"This is one of the reasons that we have asked the Executive for support for the retail industry.

"While we are allowed to open, that doesn't mean that we are able to trade profitably. We need the support of the Government, but most of all we need the support of our shoppers."

The city centre office market will evolve as a result of Covid. Neil Gibson

Neil Gibson, EY chief economist for Ireland, said the shift in workplace culture would hit the office market too.

This is despite last year's Deloitte Belfast Crane Survey revealing that the city had one million square foot of office space under construction or completed in 2019, more than 80,000 square foot up on 2018.

"The city centre office market will evolve as a result of Covid, with a more flexible working culture likely to be adopted by many firms," Mr Gibson said.

"It is possible to imagine a reimagined workplace that is (designed) for meeting and collaborating, with more routine tasks carried out remotely.

"Many firms are still gathering evidence to determine the best way forward for their office footprint. What do staff want and what is possible under new health and sanitary guidelines are the most common questions being considered, alongside the usual analysis of cost."

Expand Close Members of the public in Belfast City centre during the outbreak. Credit: Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E / Facebook

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Whatsapp Members of the public in Belfast City centre during the outbreak. Credit: Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye.

Mr Gibson suggested that different working patterns could open up new opportunities for retailers. He also insisted that working from home would not sound the death knell for offices.

"Many firms report that staff mood is changing as the time at home extends," he explained.

"As we head towards autumn and winter, many of the costs of less social interaction may become more apparent.

"So, while there is much being written about the art of the possible in terms of remote working and the development of smaller, more adaptable workplaces, it is important to moderate that with the voice of the office worker.

"Surveys show there are aspects of the office that workers miss and we are likely to see a return to office life for many.

"That will be little comfort for a business for whom even a modest reduction in long-term demand would be devastating.

"Perhaps they will see new shift patterns opening up new sales opportunities in the early mornings or the evenings, so all is not lost.

"A vibrant city centre has much to offer to workers and can help their morale and productivity, but it will not return to exactly the way it was before."

The hospitality trade in the towns and cities around Northern Ireland is also taking a hit from office workers' new-found flexibility, said Colin Neill, chief executive of Hospitality Ulster.

"The loss or drop in workers in town centres is a huge blow for hospitality," he added.

"Footfall drives spend and office workers go for coffee, lunch, a pint after work and quite often dinner. Any drop in footfall has a direct impact on hospitality. We are looking at the tourism budget and asking authorities to promote coming back into centres because if we don't have the office worker, or 'coffice worker', as the trade might call them, what do we replace them with?"

Mr Neill said city centres were transforming and diversifying to include office, retail, hospitality and residential elements prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and that the reshaping of our towns as we currently know them was inevitable.

"There has been a sway towards a more mixed trade and to make retail a more social experience, so I do see our centres becoming less retail-led, but there is still a lot of growing to do," he stressed.

The hospitality chief is currently waiting on the 'wet pub' reopening date for those bars that don't serve food.

"In our line of work, we are carrying out online meetings. They work well, but they take the social element out of it," he said.

"By nature, what we do for a living has a social side to it and there's that old water cooler line.

"While working from home is good for some things, like intensive projects, for everyday life it's a long day to sit in your kitchen or home office."

Chris McCracken, managing director at Linen Quarter BID agreed. "As the economy recovers, many organisations will appreciate the enhanced innovation and collaborative working that only the shared work space of the office can bring," he said.

"The Government is now encouraging a return to office working and we are already starting to see this in the Linen Quarter among both the public and private sectors."
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All the 12 aspirants jostling for the governorship ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State have been cleared by the partys screening committee.

The partys screening panel chaired by Tijjani Tumsa, had on July 8 and 9, screened the states incumbent governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, alongside 11 aspirants at an undisclosed venue in Abuja.

Contrary to the speculation that one of the aspirants had been disqualified by the panel during the process, the partys deputy spokesperson, Yekini Nabena, quoting the report from the screening exercise submitted by the panel to the party, said none of the 12 aspirants has been disqualified from the race.

The APC screening committee cleared 12 aspirants to contest the partys forthcoming primary election, Mr Nabena said in a statement issued late Wednesday night.

He listed the aspirants in the primary election slated for July 20 to include Mr Akeredolu, Joseph Iji, Segun Abraham, Olayide Adelami, Kekemeke Isaac and Olusola Oke.

Others are Ifeoluwa Oyedele, Odimayo John, Olajumoke Anifowoshe, Awodeyi Akinsehinwa, Olubukola Olarogha and Nathaniel Adojutelegan.

Meanwhile, 11 aspirants, apart from Mr Akeredolu, have rejected the indirect mode of primary adopted; they called for direct mode of election.

They made this known in a letter signed by the aspirants and addressed to the party on Friday in Abuja.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed October 10 for the governorship election in Ondo.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16

By Ilkin Seyfaddini - Trend:

Uzbekistan, along with Kazakhstan, is a key partner of Poland in the region of Central Asia, Press Office Director of Polands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Andrzej Fafara told Trend in an interview.

"Significant demographic potential as well as political, economic and social reforms, initiated in 2016 by a change in the office of president, are factors that induce Warsaw to deepen contacts with Tashkent. Mutual interest in expanding cooperation were evidenced by two visits of Poland's Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs to Uzbekistan (2018, 2019), visit of the Secretary of the National Security Council of Uzbekistan Viktor Makhmudov to Warsaw and raising the status of head of the Uzbekistan diplomatic mission in Warsaw to the rank of Ambassador in 2019," noted Fafara.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Jacek Czaputowicz maintains his willingness to pay a visit to Uzbekistan as soon as the COVID-19 pandemic situation makes it possible, he said.

"Poland assesses positively the changes in Uzbekistan's internal policy that have taken place in the last four years. They were manifested, among others, by the adoption of the Development Strategy of Uzbekistan for the period from 2017 through 2021, providing for a comprehensive modernization of the country's economy and achieving sustainable economic growth. The program of reforms was recognized by 'The Economist', which declared Uzbekistan the country of the year 2019  the country which was the most outstanding in the world in terms of the importance of introduced changes," Poland's MFA said.

Fafara said Poland is convinced that the new approach of the Uzbekistans authorities to socio-economic issues will contribute to improving the standard of living of citizens, as well as a more complete fulfilling of the demographic, economic and political potential of the country.

"We are interested in deepening contacts with Uzbekistan in all spheres  in the field of political as well as economic, social and cultural cooperation and Uzbekistan is interested in deepening cooperation with Poland in many fields too, including trade, healthcare, social policy or education. Further priorities include good governance, agriculture, scientific collaboration as well as historical and cultural heritage," he said.

"Moreover, Poland has recently engaged in Uzbekistan in establishment of institutional mechanisms for achieving gender equality and preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, initiating joint projects and allocating funds from Polish Aid to development assistance and humanitarian aid on an annual basis," said Fafara.

Also, he noted the importance of the fruitful cooperation with the Uzbekistans authorities regarding the issues concerning cemeteries of the Polish soldiers from the General Wladyslaw Anders Army and promoting shared historical ties.

Furthermore, Fafara noted that Poland consider the field of education as its main priority.

"Poland, together with Latvia, served as the state-coordinator of the EU-Central Asia Education Platform (CAEP) in the period from 2015 through 2019. We are interested in continuing our commitment concerning education in the Central Asia region and look forward to the European Commission's proposals in this regard. Polish experts are also involved in the reform of the pre-school education system in Uzbekistan, particularly implementing Polish teaching methods and experience of alternative forms of early education," he pointed out.

---

Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini
UK Almost Certain Russia Sought to Interfere in 2019 Election

Britain is almost certain Russia sought to interfere in the 2019 UK General Election by spreading leaked documents, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said.

On the basis of extensive analysis, the Government has concluded that it is almost certain that Russian actors sought to interfere in the 2019 General Election through the online amplification of illicitly acquired and leaked Government documents, he said in a statement.

British intelligence agencies have been investigating a leak of documents pertaining to Britains Free Trade Agreement with the United States ahead of the General Election in 2019.

Sensitive Government documents relating to the UK-US Free Trade Agreement were illicitly acquired before the 2019 General Election and disseminated online via the social media platform Reddit, Raab stated.

The 451-page dossier of official emails was subsequently used by the Labour Party in the election campaign.

UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn (R) and Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry meet after both retaining their Parliamentary seats following the count at Sobell leisure centre in London on Dec. 13, 2019. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader at the time, said the dossier showed that the National Health Service (NHS) was on the table in trade talks with the United States.

Whilst there is no evidence of a broad spectrum Russian campaign against the General Election, any attempt to interfere in our democratic processes is completely unacceptable, Raab said in the statement.

Theres an ongoing criminal investigation, and the government reserves the right to respond with appropriate measures in the future, he said.

The UK also joined the United States and Canada on July 16 in accusing Russia of trying to steal information from researchers seeking a vaccine for the CCP virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.

In response to reports of Russian hackers targeting UK vaccine researchers, the Labour Party stated, The reported actions of the Russian Intelligence Services are wrong and should be condemned.

The Labour Party is committed to working with the government to protect the UKs national security and safeguard our institutions from foreign interferencenone more so than those leading the international effort to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, said Lisa Nandy, Labours shadow foreign secretary, in a statement.

Russia has denounced Raabs accusation as vague and contradictory and has urged the UK to produce facts supporting the allegations.

On the one hand, there is no proof; on the other, some possible retaliatory measures are mentioned, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova at her weekly media briefing. These are mutually exclusive things.

A long-delayed report into Russian influence in UK politics is to be published before Parliament breaks up for the summer on July 22, the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee announced on July 16.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Pathfinder Regional Technical High School Salutatorian had one simple piece of advice to give fellow students: be kind.

Could you imagine what our lives would look like if we were all just kind to one another, Caitlyn Sigovitch asked in her graduation speech that was streamed online. It would be a beautiful thing.

The graduate of the high school in Palmer encourages her peers to be kind because you never know whats going on in someones life, she said.

This advice is all too timely. As the coronavirus pandemic cut students school year short, it also added a number of other stressors to peoples lives throughout the world.

A study released by the Journal of the American Medical Association earlier this month found that cardiomyopathy, or Broken Heart Syndrome, has increased during the coronavirus pandemic, Fox News reported.

The causes of the condition are not yet fully understood, the news station reported but physicians believe unexpected stressful events can cause a release of stress hormones that temporarily reduce the hearts ability to pump and cause it to contract less efficiently or irregularly.

Sigovitch reminds her peers that in the end, it doesnt matter how smart you are if you forget to be kind.

You might be the smartest person in the world but if you dont have a kind heart it is all meaningless, she said. You will be remembered by your actions, not your smarts.

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Maharashtra Board SSC Result 2020 Date | The Maharashtra SSC result 2020 will be declared by the end of July. MSBSHSE chairperson Shakuntala Kale said at the review meeting of the school education department chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday.

Maharashtra Board SSC Result 2020 Date | The Maharashtra SSC result 2020 will be declared by the end of July, MSBSHSE chairperson Shakuntala Kale said at the review meeting of the school education department chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday.

"The process to declare the results has been fast-tracked and the results of HSC will be declared by July 15 and the SSC results will be declared by the end of July. Almost 97 percent answer-sheets have been submitted by the examiners during the lockdown period and its scanning has also been fast-tracked," Kale was quoted as saying.

According to a report in Jagran Josh, much like other years, this year too Maharashtra SSC results will be declared by the board online on its official result portal mahresults.nic.in. The report added that the website is handled by the National Informatics Centre, which is a central agency that maintains result portal for several other boards as well.

Last year, of the 17 lakh students who had appeared for the SSC exam, 75 per cent cleared the exam as compared to 89.41 per cent in 2018.

According to Hindustan Times, Maharashtra Board SSC exam was conducted between 3 March and 21 March. However, Maharashtra board had to cancel the SSC Geography exam due to the COVID-19 pandemic and said that the students will be awarded an average of the marks obtained in the other five subjects for the last paper.

According to a report in India TV, students can also check the SSC results on mahahsscboard.maharashtra.gov.in. Once students log in, they will have to enter their seat number and mother's name to view their score. The results can also be checked via SMS by sending a message to 57766.
KAMPALA  Legislators have called on government to expedite the construction of a sugar factory in the Busoga region to avoid a repeat of the current ban on export of sugarcane by the Kenyan government.

The call is part of the prayers in a motion on the prohibition of importation of raw sugar cane from Uganda by the government of Kenya.

Luuka North County MP, John Bagoole who moved the motion said that due to the defied bi-lateral trade agreements, farmers have suffered losses because they cannot export their sugarcane to Kenya.

Trucks ferrying sugarcane to Kenya are lined up at the Busia border which has led to loss in terms of rotting cane, losses of funds spent and spending high costs of hiring the trucks for unforeseen number of days, Bagoole said.

Bagoole moved the motion at a sitting of the House chaired by the Speaker Rebecca Kadaga on Wednesday, July 15.

He added that the government should reconsider reviewing trade agreements signed with Kenya.

Government through the Ministers of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives and the Minister of East African Affairs should urgently intervene and resolve the impasse with their counterpart in Kenya. If they fail to lift the ban, then Ugandan government should also reciprocate by putting a ban on imported goods from Kenya, he added.

Kenneth Lubogo of Bulamogi County said it was prudent to push government for the sugar factory that was promised by the President.

We need to put a time frame on the government to fulfill this pledge to the Busoga people. Other parts of the country have factories; why not Busoga? This sugar factory will allow consumption of the excessive sugarcane which cannot be used by the existing millers, he said.

Hon. Robert Centenary Kasese Municipality said it was important for government to fulfill its pledge since the sugarcane loses content easily.

It takes six days for sugarcane to rot and lose its moisture content and the farmers are losing so much at this stage. We need to have an out growers factory because our farmers are facing numerous losses at this point, he said.

Busia Municipality MP, Geofrey Macho called for the immediate ban on import of goods from Kenya if the bi-lateral trade agreements signed in regard to exportation of Ugandan goods to Kenya are not respected.

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New Delhi, July 16 : A plea has been moved in the Supreme Court seeking direction to the Centre to extend its scheme of providing dry rations under the Atmanirbhar Bharat scheme for 8 crore migrant labourers or needy persons not covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).

The plea has been moved by Harsh Mander, Anjali Bharadwaj and Jagdeep Chhokar seeking a direction to the Centre to extend this scheme for 12 months to ensure inclusion of migrant labourers under NFSA by issuance of ration cards.

The petitioners also contended that the apex court should also issue direction to the Centre and state governments to set up a proper mechanism in association with the chief secretary of each state to ensure time-bound implementation of the scheme for distribution of food grains to the migrant workers in the backdrop of Covid-19 pandemic.

Under the Atmanirbhar Bharat scheme, which was announced in May, the Centre took cognisance that most migrant workers are left out of the purview of the Public Distribution System (PDS) under the National Food Security Act. The Centre declared that for 8 crore migrant workers, the government will provide 5 kg of food grains per person and 1 kg of pulses per family, free of cost, for a period of 2 months in May and June.

"This scheme was to cover migrant labourers, stranded persons, who are not covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) or State scheme PDS cards", said the plea. The petitioners argued that the scheme for food security of migrant workers has not been extended beyond the 2 months, despite a declaration of National Disaster under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 still being in force and despite no measure of normalcy having returned in the country and in the lives of migrant workers.

"This is a violation of the right to food and right to life of crores of people and will cause further distress among migrant workers. As per the ministry's own statistics, this scheme for food distribution had been underutilised. Out of eight lakh tonnes allotted to the states, only 6.39 lakh tonnes had been picked up. Out of this only 2,23,433 tonnes of food grains was given to 2.24 crore beneficiaries in May and 2.25 crore beneficiaries in June", contended the plea.

The petitioners argued that these figures establish that despite the scheme, the food grains and pulses reached only a fraction of those without ration cards due to problems with identification of beneficiaries and then in distribution by the states.

Citing the Centre's nod to the extension of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana (PMGKAY) till November 2020, the plea said "This shows that the central government is well aware of the fact that people, especially those in the informal sector, daily wagers, labourers and marginalised require continued assistance to survive and have two square meals a day. In such a scenario not extending scheme for providing rations to migrant workers who have been hit the hardest by the crisis and whose desperate plight led the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognisance of the matter, is in violation of the fundamental right to food of people as protected under article 21."
Ghislaine Maxwell, widely alleged to be the accomplice of deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, has revealed that she is married during her trial for assisting Epsteins child sex trafficking network.

Maxwell is stonewalling about her husbands identity, according to federal prosecutors. They believe she refuses to disclose his identity because she is hiding the extent of her wealth.

In addition to failing to describe in any way the absence of proposed co-signers of a bond, the defendant also makes no mention whatsoever about the financial circumstances or assets of her spouse whose identity she declined to provide to Pretrial Services, Assistant US Attorney Alison Moe said to Manhattan federal court Judge Alison Nathan at a video conference.

Theres no information about who will be co-signing this bond or their assets, and no details whatsoever, Moe added.

Maxwell was denied bond at the hearing after prosecutors argued she was an extreme flight risk due to her privileged connections and history of hiding from authorities. The Judge believed there was merit to those arguments and denied Maxwell the $5 million bond that her lawyers were requesting. Maxwell will be housed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn awaiting her trial.

Big League Politics has reported on Maxwell being charged with six counts of recruiting and grooming underage women for Epsteins perverted operation:

Ghislaine Maxwell, a close associate of deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, has been apprehended by federal authorities, according to widespread reports. She was apprehended in Bedford, New Hampshire at 8:30 am on Wednesday by FBI agents. She is expected to appear in a federal court sometime today and be charged for her alleged role in Epsteins child sex trafficking network. Maxwell has been indicted on six counts stemming from her alleged decades of helping Epstein groom his underage victims. In some instances, Maxwell was present for and participated in the sexual abuse of minor victims, the indictment says. Big League Politics has reported on how Maxwell has skirted accountability and lived high on the hog even after Epsteins alleged suicide.

Maxwell certainly knows many secrets about powerful interests so it would not be surprising if she died suddenly before she could divulge that information similar to her former partner Epstein.

Continue reading: Epstein Collaborator Ghislaine Maxwell Hides Details About Secret Husband From Federal Prosecutors ...
Chicago Governor J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday said he would divide the state into 11 regions as part of his reopening plans for the state.

The Chicago official said he would divide Illinois into smaller regions to separate the hard hit Chicago and suburban Cook County from other areas.

Pritzker's response to the cases of coronavirus in Chicago will divide the state from four regions into 11. His plans were made after Chicago reported another 1,187 coronavirus cases and eight additional deaths from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The case positivity rate rose from 2.6 percent less than a week ago to 3.1 percent.

Pritzker said the new, smaller regions will give the state more flexibility to fight coronavirus in Chicago if an area experiences an outbreak. He said this is "to carefully, but deliberately - depending on the severity of the situation - control the spread of the virus, while continuing to allow a region to be open to the greatest extent possible."

Some lawmakers from collar counties said they do not like being in the same group with Chicago. All regions in Illinois moved into Phase 4 of the governor's reopening plan on June 26. This means that bars, restaurants, and some other public spaces could reopen with limited capacity.

The governor said the state could not move into Phase 5 until there is a vaccine.

"Opening up our economy does not have to come with a spike in cases." Pritzker was quoted in a report. He said that other countries have done it successfully, while reducing cases and infection rates. He noted that this still requires vigilance on the part of all of the people.

Coronavirus in Chicago

Chicago health officials said that younger populations are now testing positive for coronavirus in the state. The state's health officials said the majority of the cases are in the 18-29 year-old age range.

Chicago health commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said the new cases in the said age group are mostly from the Lincoln Park area. Arwady said they are seeing positive cases of coronavirus in New City in the south, as well.

Around 30-percent of Chicago's new coronavirus cases are from that age group, since June 15.

Chicago Reopening

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday said she is willing to reverse the reopening measures in the city if coronavirus cases in the state increase.

"I won't just turn the car around, I will do worse, I'm going to shut it off, I'm going to kick you out and I'm going to make you walk home," Lightfoot was quoted in a report.

She included the young people in her warnings after seeing a rise in cases of coronavirus in the state among youth. Lightfoot said young people are not only putting themselves at risk, but also every single person that they were in contact with.

She noted that young people are not following the health guidelines, such as face coverings and social distancing, including the bar scene.

Lightfoot said the state is dangerously going back to dangerous state conditions.

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Indiana Pacers' Malcolm Brogdon Tests Positive For COVID-19
While it is every countrys duty to protect itself from illegal immigrants and the scourge of terrorism, the present US embargo rationale is through the prism of the pandemic which it has repeatedly downplayed.

The United States administration has rescinded its earlier order requiring international students to leave the country if their universities switch entirely to online courses. This flip flop comes after the order was legally challenged by multiple states and educational institutions led by Harvard and MIT.

Notably, this had been preceded by the freezing of green-cards till 2020 end, probably the most over-arching ban on legal immigration. Other pronouncements like suspending temporary H1B and H2B work permits indicate a larger policy proclivity to curb legal immigration into the US via employment and the family chain.

"History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes" is a quote attributed to Mark Twain.

The US history too reflects a checkered pattern in proscribing immigrants. The US has never categorically embargoed the entry of virtually all immigrants seeking to settle permanently even when confronted with the World Wars, perilous pandemics or the Great Depression.

The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act was probably the bellwether legislation in American history to limit legal immigration. Though minuscule in number, the Gold Rush had triggered the migration of Chinese to the American West. The anti-Chinese sentiment engendered the Act, which made them and their American-born families ineligible for citizenship till 1943 when it was revoked by the Magnuson Act.

Towards the end of World War I in 1918, the scourge of the Spanish Flu devastated and infected nearly 1/3rd of the world population, claiming millions of lives, much more than those lost in the war. Concomitantly the largest immigration surge was underway in America. Between 1880 and the 1920s, most of them from Southern and Eastern Europe, but also from Canada and Mexico.

Immigrant groups were traduced as purveyors of peculiar diseases and were stigmatised with monikers like Asiatic Cholera as it had its roots in India despite flourishing in Europe. Ironically the deadly Spanish Flu of 1918 had originated in Kansas, America.

Sweeping fear coupled with the triumph of the nativist sentiment questioning immigrant loyalties led to the Immigration Act of 1924. These conclusively established quotas for immigration based on the National Origins Formula by restricting immigration from non-North European countries besides barring immigrants from Asia with a few exceptions.

It took four decades before the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the HartCeller Act abolished the quota system which had made national origin and race the basis for immigration. This comprehensive reform gave preference to individuals with specialised skills and emphasised family links.

That this occurred just a year after the civil rights renaissance and legislation is no mere coincidence. The Immigration Act of 1990 ensured a 7 percent annual cap on employment-based green cards per country and immigration has tripled from 4.7 percent in 1970 to nearly 44.4 million in 2017 which is 13.6 percent of the population.

While it is every countrys duty to protect itself from illegal immigrants and the scourge of terrorism, the present US embargo rationale is through the prism of the pandemic which it has repeatedly downplayed. It is supposed to open 5,25,000 jobs for native-born Americans as 22 million have filed for unemployment since the onset of COVID-19 crisis.

The shift from land of immigrants toward a narrow nativist narrative squarely broad-brushes the diversity of experiences and contributions that has built the America of today.

Contrary to conventional logic, high skilled workforce in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics [STEM] streams stood at 20.4 million people or only 12.6 percent of the total workforce [2015] in the US. Foreign-born STEM employees, even under a broader definition of STEM, accounted only for 19.3 percent of this STEM workforce, which is just 2.43 percent of the total workforce.

Notably, a study reveals that for every 100 STEM workers with advanced degrees, 262 more jobs were created for US-born workers. Working from home has mitigated the risk of job loss to an extent during the pandemic and may well become the new norm. Inter alia, innovation and technology-driven solutions will facilitate the shift to remote work, upskilling blue-collar workers and saving large numbers of jobs. The advent of Uber, Airbnb etc. is testimony to such job creation in the pre-pandemic years.

At the same time, according to a Pew Research Centers analysis of federal government data, immigrants were more likely than US-born workers to be employed in lower-skill jobs.

Hispanic immigrants, for instance, have been securing a significant share of non-capped H2A temporary visas for basic low-paying jobs in the agricultural sector. Despite posturing, over 250,000 H2-A visas have been issued in 2019, which is 55 percent more than what was issued in 2017. Immigrants have and will continue to play a pivotal role in the growth of the US and its varied workforce. Is a push back to a blinkered variant of immigration indeed the way forward?

Emblazoned on the Great Seal of the United States is E Pluribus Unum that translates to One out of Many, symbolising the union of 13 colonies into a single nation. In an era of coexistence, instead of using the markers of hyphenation to segregate its immigrant communities, America would do well to draw from the provenance of its syncretic culture which exemplifies her innate strength and spirit.

CR Kesavan is a former member of the Prasar Bharati Board. He tweets @crkesavan. Vignesh Karthik KR is a doctoral researcher at Kings College, London. He tweets @krvtweets
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks onstage at the Fourth Annual Berggruen Prize Gala celebrating 2019 Laureate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg In New York City, N.Y., on Dec. 16, 2019. (Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Berggruen Institute )

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Discharged From Hospital After Medical Procedure

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been discharged from a hospital after being treated for a possible infection, a Supreme Court spokesperson said on Wednesday.

The 87-year-old justice was at home and doing well, the spokesperson said.

Ginsburg was expected to stay in the hospital for a few days after undergoing a procedure at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore on Tuesday afternoon to clean a bile duct stent. The stent was inserted last August when she was treated for a cancerous tumor on her pancreas.

The latest health-related event for the courts oldest justice started when she went to a hospital in Washington late on Monday after experiencing fever and chills, the court said.

Ginsburg, who has had a series of health scares, has been treated four times for cancermost recently in August 2019when she underwent radiation therapy for pancreatic cancer.

In December 2018, Ginsburg had two cancerous growths removed from her left lung. The justice was previously treated for pancreatic cancer in 2009 and colon cancer in 1999.

Ginsburg joined the Supreme Court in 1993 as an appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton. Ginsburg said she would like to serve until shes 90 if her health allows.

Her most recent hospital stay was in May when she had an infection caused by a gallstone. While in the hospital, she continued to participate remotely in the courts oral arguments.

Justices had cancelled courtroom arguments in favor of telephone sessions because of the pandemic caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, a novel coronavirus from Wuhan, China.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, when asked by reporters on Wednesday about the possibility of a vacancy on the court before the election, said that President Donald Trump would act quickly.

I cant imagine if he had a vacancy on the Supreme Court that he would not very quickly [to] make the appointment and look for the Senate to take quick action.

That being said, were glad Ruth Bader Ginsburg is out of hospital, he said, adding he didnt want any comment to be seen as we wish her anything but the very best.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said that if there were to be a vacancy on the court during this years election cycle, the Republican-controlled Senate would likely confirm a nominee selected by Trump.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
1. The new era of fraud investigation

Modern fraud is transnational and agile. The insurance industry cant rely on traditional techniques to combat what is an evolving enigma. Not so long ago, fraud investigation was a labor-intensive process. Teams on the ground would go door to door to examine cases. Today, this process isnt just inefficient  its insufficient.

As fraud evolves, so must investigators. Todays fraud fighters need nuanced skill sets and agile ways of working to be able to identify the scams and tactics modern fraudsters are adopting. But they must also strike a delicate balance. While investigators need to gather data and build a case that will result in criminal prosecutions, they must also consider privacy implications that are more stringent than ever before. In the age of GDPR and CCPA, its not just a new era for insurance investigation, but a new era for evidence collection, too.

2. The significance of social media

Investigators must also acknowledge the central role that social media plays as a primary source of intelligence. Mining social media for information to uncover hidden relationships and connections between entities is vital to the counter-fraud engine of many insurers. Leading insurers are placing huge value on social media, employing a dedicated team of social media analysts.

But while human expertise will always be critical, the uptake of automation and artificial intelligence is accelerating. There are several tools available to automate social media investigations. The challenge isnt the availability of the technology, but the compatibility and stability of the platform.

3. The necessary collapse of silos

Until recently, fraud scams were fairly rudimentary. Fraudsters would steal an identity, create synthetic IDs and execute criminal activity. It was a repeatable, linear and somewhat predictable process. Today, however, criminals are more subtle and nuanced in their approach.

One area that insurers need to be particularly conscious of is silos. Whether theyre within departments or interdepartmental (i.e. between cyber and risk divisions), silos enable fraudsters to execute their scams. Thats why insurers are moving to embrace a 360-degree view of fraud and break down the silos. Accordingly, insurance carriers understand that they need to manage their data differently to be able to identify and thwart fraud.

4. The crucial role of consortiums

The value that consortiums offer the insurance industry is increasing. They provide a birds-eye view of transactions and shine a spotlight on suspicious activity across multiple carriers and lines of business.

Currently, the maturity of insurance consortiums varies between regions and countries. Organizations like CANATICS in Canada are adept at analyzing cross-carrier activity and providing invaluable surveillance intelligence.

5. The increase in fraud variety

As more insurance products are introduced, the surface area for insurance fraud grows. Fraudsters seek to adapt and exploit the volume and variety that those products offer. For example, life insurance can be gamed by entering incorrect details during the application phase to avoid high premiums. Meanwhile, healthcare insurance can be manipulated by masking existing or underlying conditions.

Newer products are also being targeted. In the US, workers compensation insurance is subject to mod factor gaming. Higher salaries are hidden, shell companies are created, and employee classifications are massaged to bring premiums down.

Paradoxically, the one thing about fraud that never changes is the fact that its constantly changing. As this pernicious practice continues to evolve, carriers need a partner with a track record of anticipating trends and evolving faster than the fraudsters.

Dennis Toomey is the global director of counter-fraud analytics and insurance solutions at BAE Systems. He has nearly three decades of experience and is a certified fraud examiner in the US.
'Naughty Tory' MP Charlie Elphicke agreed to pay a woman 5,000 in 'compensation' after allegedly sexually assaulting her, withdrawing the money in small amounts to prevent his wife from finding out, a court heard today.

The 49-year-old father-of-two said the complainant wanted 'compensation' after the alleged incident at his Belgravia townhouse in London in 2007.

Elphicke said he believed the woman 'wanted to take matters further' after they shared a bottle of wine while his wife, MP Natalie Elphicke, was away on business, but said he had been 'under a misapprehension' in making advances towards her.

The woman, in her early 30s at the time, alleged Elphicke tried to kiss her, groped her breast, then chased her around his home while trying to grab her bottom.

A second woman, a parliamentary worker in her early 20s, has accused Elphicke of two sexual assaults inside the Palace of Westminster in 2016.

Elphicke, who was Dover MP from 2010 until 2019 when he was succeeded by his wife, denies three counts of sexual assault.

Neither complainant can be identified due to laws granting anonymity to alleged victims of sexual offences.

'Naughty Tory' MP Charlie Elphicke agreed to pay a woman 5,000 in 'compensation' after allegedly sexually assaulting her, withdrawing the money in small amounts to prevent his wife MP Natalie Elphicke (right with Elphicke outside court) from finding out, a court heard today. The 49-year-old father-of-two said the complainant wanted 'compensation' after the alleged incident at his Belgravia townhouse in central London in 2007

'I'm not into bondage': Tory MP Elphicke denies sexually assaulting woman in 2007 as he reveals he's 'not into whips' 'Naughty Tory' Charlie Elphicke denied sexually assaulting a woman in his London townhouse in 2007 as he revealed that he has 'never been interested in' bondage and whips. Southwark Crown Court was played a recording today where Elphicke was interviewed by Met police in 2018. DCI Simpson asked the former MP about a passage from the woman's testimony in which she claimed he talked to her about 'silk and leather'. He asked 'are you familiar with that term?' to which Elphicke replied: 'No, what's that? I don't understand. Where's that come from?' 'I don't think we had that conversation. I have never heard of this term. I don't know what it means.' The officer interjected: 'It is to do with bondage and whips.' Elphicke said: 'That is never something I have been interested in. 'I am not that sort of person. I am not into that kind of thing.' Advertisement

Excerpts from Elphicke's interview with the Metropolitan Police in March 2018 were played during his trial at Southwark Crown Court today.

In them he said the woman asked him not to tell his wife Mrs Elphicke about the 2007 incident and to pay her 5,000.

He said: 'I said we should tell Natalie. She said she didn't want Natalie to know.

'She wanted compensation due to the destructive nature of what happened. We settled on 5,000 in the following weeks I gave her the money in cash.

'I got it in smaller amounts - 500, 1,000 - because she was insistent Natalie shouldn't know. 5,000 then would be the equivalent of 10,000 now.

'It is a lot of money. I came to deeply regret it.'

Asked if he had ever told his wife about the payments, former Tory government whip Elphicke told the interviewing officers: 'No.'

He also described how the first alleged incident happened and said that he stopped immediately when the woman told him to.

Elphicke said: 'My wife Natalie was away and I got chatting to her and we decided to open a bottle of wine and have a chat sitting on the sofa.

'I cannot recall if it was her idea or mine to open the bottle of wine, I think it was consensual. I recall she was feeding me chocolate stars. I don't know why chocolate stars, but she was feeding me chocolate stars and putting them into my mouth.

'It was very convivial, very friendly. She became friendly. It was tactile and the atmosphere was, it was very warm and convivial and I believed she wanted to take matters further so I leant over and I kissed her.'

The court heard: 'At first she responded positively but after a short period it became clear this is not what she wanted.

'I thought she had consented and wanted me to kiss her and things got to that point, but after a time it became clear this was not what she wanted.

The woman, in her early 30s at the time, alleged Elphicke tried to kiss her, groped her breast, then chased her around his home while trying to grab her bottom. A second woman, a parliamentary worker in her early 20s, has accused Elphicke of two sexual assaults inside the Palace of Westminster in 2016. Elphicke, who was Dover MP from 2010 until 2019 when he was succeeded by his wife (right), denies three counts of sexual assault

'I did not touch her breast. We were on the sofa sat side by side. I believe what happened was we were both sitting facing forwards.

'I was sat on the left hand side and she was sat on right hand side. I put my arm on the back of the sofa. I turned to her. If she felt anything on her breast it would behave been an arm not a hand not on purpose.

Elphicke was 'very concerned' about being included in Telegraph's 'dirty dossier' of Tory MPs accused of sexual assault, court hears Charlie Elphicke said he was 'very concerned' about being included in The Telegraph's 'dirty dossier' of Tory MPs accused of sexual assault published October 30, 2017. The court was played a recording where Elphicke was interviewed by two Met Police officers in 2018. DCI McInerney: 'A list was published sometime at the end of last year some sort of dossier, some list I think which you were named in. Did that ever cause you concerns when it was published?' Elphicke replied: 'Obviously yes, it did. 'I found out I was on it I believe November 3. 'When I found out on the Wednesday I was very concerned. I think everyone on there was very, very, concerned and indeed then on the Friday evening I'm suddenly being phoned up and told I'm being suspended for unspecified allegations. 'I asked what these allegations were and the Chief Whip would not tell me. 'So I've had I think it is a good four months, four and a half months to this day where I have not known what the allegations against me are and obviously, that has caused me much fear much concern and I find it unnecessary to have been in this situation for so long without having been able to make an answer against any case against me.' Advertisement

'I put my right arm on the back of the sofa, my left arm I put on the top of her arm for the purpose to hold her gently.

'I believe she consented, it was what she wanted, as soon as I realised this was not the case I stopped immediately.

'She was not happy, she was very unhappy. I was very apologetic because I had been under a misapprehension.'

The woman later alleged that Elphicke chased her round the Belgravia townhouse chanting 'I'm a naughty Tory'.

Elphicke told police they discussed the matter at a later date, during which the woman was 'very unhappy' with what had happened.

He said: 'I was incredibly apologetic. I believed this was what she wanted.

'She said she accepted my explanation, my apology, and that I had been under a misapprehension.'

He said that he 'got it wrong and for the last ten years I have had to live with this', adding: 'I did not grope her.

'She felt I had done that and I explained no I hadn't done that. I explained to her this is a situation where I went to put a hand on her other arm which would have been across her chest and she may have thought that was the case and that is absolutely not my intention.

'Every life has its regrets and this is the regret of my life. I got it wrong. And for the last ten years I have had to live with this.'

He also said he was 'not that sort of person' who was interested in bondage and whips.

'I don't think we had that conversation. I have never heard of this term [silk and leather]. I don't know what it means.'

The officer interjected: 'It is to do with bondage and whips.'

Elphicke said: 'That is never something I have been interested in. I am not that sort of person. I am not into that kind of thing.'

Moving on to the 2016 allegations, Elphicke said he was shocked to be 'brought completely blind' in a meeting with deputy chief whip Anne Milton and chief whip Julian Smith, which was played to the jury yesterday.

The jury heard he took former Attorney General Dominic Grieve along to his next interview who 'castigated' the pair for conducting 'not a fair or proper process'.

MP Elphicke 'told people to steer clear of 2007 sexual assault accuser', court hears Charlie Elphicke told people to 'steer clear' of a woman who accuses him of sexual assault, a court heard today. The woman alleges Elphicke, 49, groped her twice inside the Palace of Westminster in 2016. Margot James, 62, told jurors that Elphicke tried to 'bad-mouth' the woman, in her 20s, in the 'members' tearoom' at Westminster. Ms James was MP for Stourbridge between 2010 and 2019 and was Minister for the Arts in 2018 before she had the whip withdrawn and stood unsuccessfully as an independent. She said in her statement written in December 2017: 'I have been asked to provide a statement in connection to a colleague of mine, Charlie Elphicke MP. 'I am currently an MP for Stourbridge having been elected in May 2010. Prior to this I ran my own business for approximately 15 years. '[The woman] was young but very competent, serious about her work and acted appropriately at all times. I don't actually work with her. 'She later contacted me to request my support. 'Some weeks after, Charlie spoke to me in the members' tearoom. He suggested people should steer clear of her. 'He said she had said things about him which had no basis whatsoever and continued to bad-mouth her.' Advertisement

'I attend the meeting with the Deputy Chief Whip Anne Milton who is a senior minister in the government and Julian Smith who is the Vice Chamber in the Household a senior member of the government who is my own Whip and with no prior warning what the meeting's about they accuse me of sexually harassing and assaulting [the woman]. I rejected these allegations.

'I was shocked, shocked by the meeting and shocked to be called in without any notice. It was clear to me some sort of investigation had taken place by Ms Milton and that was a concern to me.

'It was a concern to have allegations launched on me at which I had no notice, no representation and literally was brought completely blind and I was very concerned and worried it can only serve to contaminate the evidence and make it harder to get an answer.

'I had a further meeting where I took along Dominic Grieve the former Attorney General who castigated them for breaches of natural justice, the risks of contaminating the evidence in this matter, the risk of leading people and you know, the general conduct was not a fair and proper process.

'That was on Tuesday January 17 and Mr Grieve came along as my representative and I was told there the matter was being dropped and I was told she did not wish to proceed with her complaint and that no further action would be taken. Ms Milton told me that the papers in relation to this matter would be destroyed.

'I sent various text messages to Anne Milton setting out my serious concerns asking to be able to see what had been alleged asking for the papers asking for the detail and I received nothing whatsoever.'

Elphicke continued: 'I see the allegation is I touched her leg over her clothing and ran my hands up her thigh and into her groin without her consent.

'This was not true. If either of these allegations had been true she would, could have immediately made a complaint.

'She made no complaint to me or anybody else about this business.'

The trial continues.
India on Thursday said it has strongly protested with Pakistan against the construction of the Diamer-Bhasha dam in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and condemned Islamabad's continuous attempts to bring about material changes in Indian territories under its illegal occupation.

India's strong protest came after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday kicked off construction work at the Diamer-Bhasha dam in Chilas in Gilgit-Baltistan, notwithstanding New Delhi's objection to the China-backed mega project.

Asked about the development at the weekly briefing, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said India had made its position on it clear earlier and it remains unchanged.

"The entire Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Union territory of Ladakh, have been, are, and will be an integral and inalienable part of India. We have strongly protested against the construction of this dam to the government of Pakistan," Srivastava said.

"This dam will lead to submergence of a large part of land of the Indian union territories of J&K and Ladakh and we condemn the continuous attempts by Pakistan to bring about material changes in Indian territories under its illegal occupation," he said.

India has also consistently conveyed its protest and shared concerns with both China and Pakistan on all such projects in the Indian territories under Pakistan's illegal occupation where it has no locus standi, the MEA spokesperson said.

The Pakistan government in May had signed a whopping Rs 442 billion contract with a joint venture of a Chinese state-run firm and a commercial arm of Pakistan's powerful military for the construction of the Diamer-Bhasha dam.

Asked about reports of Pakistan allowing Afghan goods to be exported via Wagah, Srivastava said it was another example of Pakistan's creation of a mirage of goodwill.

"Let us be clear on this, Pakistan is not allowing Afghan trucks to carry Afghan goods and is seeking monopolistic transport practices. It is not allowing Afghanistan two-way transit rights as committed under article 3 of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (also known as APTTA)," he said.

"So, Pakistan has been following a policy of creating captive markets by denying full transit access to Afghanistan by restricting products from India and other countries. It is failing to fulfil its own commitments under APTTA," Srivastava said.

Pakistan has even denied transit of humanitarian grant assistance, including wheat from India, to Afghanistan, he said.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2020) -NetCents Technology Inc. (CSE: NC) (FSE: 26N) (OTCQB: NTTCF) ("NetCents" or the "Company"), a cryptocurrency payments technologies Company, is pleased to announce the addition of Jannis Flachsmann to the Advisory Board.

Mr. Flachsmann is a Senior Attorney at GHM Partners AG focusing on Legal, Tax, and Fiduciary Matters. Previously, he was an attorney at the firms of Weidmann Rudolf & Partner and Lichtsteiner Rechtsanwaelte. Mr. Flachmann also worked at the Civil Court of the Canton of Zug, Switzerland. Notable about his experience is that he has lived and worked in Zug, Switzerland, for almost his entire career. Zug is a highly respected hub for legal and technology matters relating to the growing cryptocurrency industry. Mr. Flachsmann has been admitted to the bar in Switzerland, and obtained his Masters of Law (LL.M.) degree from Fordham University in New York.

"I have been watching the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry mature for the last few years, but I think that 90% of the growth is still to come," stated Mr. Flachsmann. "I am very excited to bring my unique experience, legal skillset, and connections to NetCents."

"Mr. Flachsmann will bring a unique dimension to our advisory board and add immensely to our capabilities to react to a very dynamic landscape," stated Clayton Moore, Founder and CEO of NetCents Technology. "The taxation considerations of cryptocurrency are extremely complicated. Having someone as well versed as Mr. Flachsmann will give us a strategic edge in winning the large international corporate customers we are now soliciting."

NetCents continues the buildout of its European presence, including specific resources dedicated to servicing European customers from an operational, banking, and sales perspective. "Europeans are more focused on having financial capabilities that aren't tied directly to government agencies. They are more open to the cryptocurrency products we are building, so we are going to capitalize on that momentum," added Mr. Moore.

The Company is looking forward to sharing developments with investors regarding its European efforts. In addition, NetCents has engaged FXCT Media Inc. ("FXCT") for investor relation services. FXCT has been paid a fee of US$190,000 for a term of twelve months. FXCT is a digital marketing agency specializing in online investor awareness for publicly traded companies. FXCT reaches a broad range of investors and institutions through highly targeted placement on financial media platforms.

About NetCents

NetCents Technology Inc, the transactional hub for all cryptocurrency payments, equips forward-thinking businesses with the technology to seamlessly integrate cryptocurrency processing into their payment model without taking on the risk or volatility of the crypto market. NetCents Technology is registered as a Money Services Business (MSB) with FINTRAC.

For more information, please visit the corporate website at www.net-cents.com or contact Investor Relations: investor@net-cents.com.

To keep up on the latest - make sure to join the telegram channel http://t.me/NetCents

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

NetCents Technology Inc.

"Clayton Moore"

Clayton Moore, CEO, Founder and Director

NetCents Technology Inc.

1000 - 1021 West Hastings Street

Vancouver, BC, V6E 0C3

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include regulatory actions, market prices, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates, and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/59910
The Donald Trump administration is considering a sweeping ban on travel to the US by members of the Chinese Communist Party and their families, according to people familiar with the proposal, a move that would almost certainly prompt retaliation against Americans seeking to enter or remain in China and exacerbate tensions between the two nations. The presidential proclamation, still in draft form, could also authorise the US government to revoke the visas of party members and their families who are already in the country, leading to their expulsion. Some proposed language is also aimed ...
New Delhi:

Delhi woke up to smog on Day 7 after Diwali, and the Delhi air has become toxic cocktail of dust and smoke. In a spate of emergency measures, all schools in Delhi have been directed to remain closed till Wednesday. In a bid to control air pollution, New Delhi Municipal Council has started sprinkling water on roads.

Delhi is witnessing worst smog condition in last 17 years, and on Sunday, it has recorded an average level of PM2.5  tiny particulate matter that can clog lungs  at nearly 600 micrograms per cubic meter. The limit is 60 times more the level considered safe by the WHO and 10 times the governments norms.

Here are the live updates:

#80 % of air pollution problem in Delhi is derived from here itself,20% is frm crop burning in neighbouring states; need to address this:Dave

#There must not be 'blame game' here, right now the priority is to make air pollution free so that people can breathe: Env Minister Anil Dave

# Till State Govt takes initiative immediately, no issue would be solved. They must sprinkle water and do the needful on time: Anil Dave

# We will issue an environment protection calendar which will be state specific. Dust is one of the major reasons for pollution: Anil Dave

#DelhiSmog: New Delhi Municipal Council begins to sprinkle water using Jet pressure pump technique to control air pollution pic.twitter.com/qWn1dmMIZo  ANI (@ANI_news) November 7, 2016

#Isn't it your responsibility to curb pollution? What is Nagar Nigam doing, they were asked to use machines for cleaning purposes earlier-NGT

#"What action have you taken against those violating NGT orders? 70% land in Punjab is used for crop burning,what is Delhi Govt doing?: NGT

#NGT asks, "Why haven't you started sprinkling water on roads to reduce dust?What happened to proposal of sprinkling water using helicopters?

Meeting chaired by Environment Minister Anil Dave underway over the rise in pollution levels in Delhi #DelhiSmog pic.twitter.com/1FUKIjO73C  ANI (@ANI_news) November 7, 2016

#"What have you done till now to curb pollution," asks NGT to Centre, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab Govt.

#NGT slams Delhi Govt, Centre, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan Govt over rise in pollution levels matter

#Meeting chaired by Environment Minister Anil Dave underway over the rise in pollution levels in Delhi

#80% of air pollution problem in Delhi is derived from here itself,20% is frm crop burning in neighbouring states; need to address this:Dave

#WATCH: Locals burning paddy stubble in Moga district of Punjab causing pollution in many states pic.twitter.com/dWiKGQ9vUJ  ANI (@ANI_news) November 7, 2016

#WATCH Heavy smog blankets the capital city Delhi, situation has been the same over past one week. pic.twitter.com/aZtSblK8oZ

#FLASH Air Quality Data for Delhi - Particulate Matter 'Severe' pic.twitter.com/cysiUbH34M

We have ordered the schools to remain shut till November 9. We will assess the situation after that and take a decision accordingly," said North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) Mayor Sanjeev Nayyar.

"Schools of East Delhi Municipal Corporation will also remain closed till November 9," said an EDMC official.

"All SDMC schools will remain closed till November 12 due to the high level of pollution and smog," South Delhi Municipal Corporation Mayor Shyam Sharma said.

"We have also urged the parents to take special care of the children as they are vulnerable to the situation," he added.

Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday held an emergency cabinet meeting to find out ways to combat smog, he referred the current environment condition as 'gas-chamber' and also announced list of measures to tackle the situation.

Delhi government has asked to all school private and public  to remain closed till Wednesday. Health experts have raised concerns of the ill-effects of Smog on aged-people and children. There were demands to close school but the Delhi government was saying it was not necessary earlier in the week.

Announcing a series of emergency measures, Kejriwal said the Delhi government was also exploring the possibility of bringing back the odd-even car rationing scheme, while appealing to the people to stay indoors and work from home if possible, considering the alarming levels of pollution.

Schools shut, DG ban, work from home: Ten directives CM Kejriwal gave to solve Delhi smog

As smog engulfs Delhi-NCR, you must know all about its ill-effects



Listing short-term steps to deal with the situation, the Chief Minister said the use of all diesel gen-sets has been prohibited for the next five days beginning Monday, barring emergency services like hospitals and mobile towers.

Delhi government also decided to shut down the coal- based Badarpur power plant, considered one of the key sources of pollution, for 10 days from Monday. The plant generates around 300MW of power.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-17 00:21:46|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Victor Botto's dream to build a pan-African e-commerce platform is largely inspired by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's global success.

The 34-year-old's ambition was nurtured by his month-long training stint back in 2019 at the Alibaba Business School in Hangzhou, China, where together with other budding African entrepreneurs, he received valuable lessons on the opportunities available in the digital economy.

"The training was the best investment I have ever made for myself because it was an eye-opener. It cut a lot of guesswork in my entrepreneurial journey," Botto told Xinhua during a recent interview.

Before schooling in China, the married father of two children was already operating a brick and mortar electronics store in the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi.

"I was totally dependent on walk-in customers but from what I learned from Alibaba, I decided to develop an e-commerce platform in order to expand my customer base to all towns in Kenya," Botto said.

He was then inspired to establish an online platform dubbed Bovic.co.ke.

Botto told Xinhua that he has since gained traction with many online shoppers attracted to affordable priced electronic products, most of which are sourced from reputable Chinese suppliers.

He observed that while in China he also received training on how to interact with suppliers and vendors as well as how to structure partnerships.

According to Botto, African e-commerce platforms can borrow critical lessons from their Chinese counterparts who have created global online sales platforms.

"The Chinese are hard-working and disciplined, and focus on volumes and low margins to be able to offer competitive prices to consumers," he added.

The entrepreneur, who is also a graduate of electrical engineering from the University of Nairobi, said that e-commerce players in Africa face a lot of challenges due to underdeveloped infrastructure.

"The lack of street names in many neighborhoods makes it costly to deliver goods ordered online," Botto said.

He noted that his operation is currently profitable despite the fact that some larger e-commerce platforms in Kenya are not because he owns the inventory and therefore can make more profit margins.

BOVIC has also emerged as a viable enterprise because it stocks over 2,000 different electronic products at price points that target different income brackets.

Botto said that the future of e-commerce in Kenya is bright because it is largely unexploited as the bulk of retail sales is from informal shops and supermarkets.

"A lot of consumer education is therefore required to educate people on making online purchases. Consumer confidence will also have to be built in order to have a vibrant e-commerce industry," he added.

Data from the Communications Authority of Kenya indicates that as of March, total internet subscriptions stood at around 39.3 million.

Botto urged the continent to take advantage of the growing online presence by Africans in order to boost the e-commerce industry. Enditem
Bihar will be under lockdown from Thursday. The state government took the decision after a spike in the number of coronavirus disease cases.

The lockdown will be in place till July 31.

A government order on Tuesday, announcing the lockdown, said that restrictions will remain applicable to all district, sub-division and block headquarters and municipal areas.

The services and institutions which will be impacted:

 Government offices, private and commercial establishments, barring some exceptions and educational institutions will remain closed during this period.

 As per the government order, transport services will remain suspended during the lockdown period. State capital Patna has been put under severe curbs. No transport sevice will be available in the citys 114 localities. The district administration has said that the vehicles of those autorickshaw drivers who are found violating the orders will be impounded.

 Places of worship will also remain closed. Only priests will be allowed to enter the premises for daily rituals. These temples and places of worships cant hold any festival within their premises.

 The owners of motor garages and mobile repairing shops will have to take permission from the administration before opening their establishment. Those within or in the vicinity of a containment zone wont be allowed to operate.

What remains open:

 Industrial establishments will be allowed to function and construction activities will be permitted with strict adherence to social distancing norms and wearing of masks.

 Agricultural activities, along with shops relating to the same, will also be allowed to function.

 Those plying their vehicles for commuting to and from their places of work will be required to carry their identity cards.

 Taxis and autorickshaws will be allowed but at local level.

 Hotels and restaurants will remain open.

The order passed by a special secretary to the state government supersedes all orders issued by district magistrates concerned in their respective area of jurisdiction and the DMs cannot dilute restrictions but, based on their assessment of the situation, may prohibit certain activities in areas outside containment zones.

Lockdowns have been in place in nearly a quarter of the states 38 districts, for the past few days, clamped by the local administrations.
Dumplings from Cali Dumpling, a new dumpling delivery and takeout service started by Allan and Candace Tea in response to the pandemic. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

On the afternoon of March 14, restaurant owners Candace and Allan Tea exchanged vows at the Hummingbird Nest Ranch in Simi Valley. Three days later, restaurants in L.A. and Orange counties shut down due to the pandemic, and the world, as they knew it, fell apart.

The couple put off their honeymoon plans and instead closed the dining rooms at their Capital Seafood and three Capital Noodle Bar Chinese restaurants, which meant about 100 employees were out of work.

I was really frustrated that I couldnt do anything for my staff, Allan said. My employees were trying to get unemployment [but] some of them didnt qualify, so we wanted to find a way to generate some revenue for our workers.

Candace and Allan decided that dumplings were the answer.

Dumplings are made for Cali Dumpling at a production facility in El Monte. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Ive always grown up eating dumplings, and its the easiest thing to cook and eat at home, said Candace. With everyone falling on such hard times, we thought dumplings were the perfect comfort food.

Within 24 hours, they recruited a handful of their staff, built a website, designed a logo and launched the Cali Dumpling delivery service. All the profits are donated to former staff members or other nonprofits.

They reached out to Paul Chang, Anna Tang and Ann Lem, the trio behind the Mamas Dumpling House and Mama Lus Dumpling restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley, for help. The restaurateurs have a 3-year-old dumpling production facility in El Monte, which produces about 15,000 dumplings a day for their own restaurants, the Teas restaurants (in Brea, Costa Mesa and Irvine) and a selection of wholesale businesses.

This is where Cali Dumpling's 12 dumpling varieties are made, including pork and chive, fish, pan-fried chicken, vegetarian, shrimp and pork wontons and xiao long bao. Each bag of 30 dumplings ($15-$17) is delivered frozen with reheating instructions.

All of them are handmade using Tangs secret family recipes, which she stores in a binder, hidden in a locked room.

On a recent morning, eight employees stuffed and folded xiao long bao, pork potstickers and chicken dumplings for Cali Dumpling orders on a long wooden table. In the prep room next door, a chef wielded a large knife to break down pork butts and then loaded them into a grinder. Industrial-sized containers of soy sauce, sesame oil and white pepper covered the kitchen shelves overhead.

Story continues

Eloy Pacheco, the lead chef responsible for the dumpling wrappers and mixing the fillings, has been making dumplings for more than 20 years, honing his skills at a variety of restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley.

Pacheo worked quickly, using a short roller to flatten the small rounds of dough, careful to leave the center just a tad thicker to support the weight of the filling. He used a paddle to slap a ground pork mixture into the middle, then nimbly closed each one using exactly 18 folds.

Freshly-made dumplings are immediately placed in the refrigerator at the El Monte facility where the Cali Dumpling dumplings are made. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

I make maybe 2,000 dumplings a day, he said.

Once the dumplings are folded, they are frozen and packaged until they are delivered. Allan estimates the crew makes anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 Cali dumplings a day.

While Allan has rehired some of his staff to make and deliver the dumplings, he hasn't been able to bring back more than 20% of them.

With the money we raise with the dumplings, weve just been cutting people checks or hiring them to do deliveries or packaging to earn some income, he said. Allan estimated they have given $30,000 in dumpling profits to employees since starting Cali Dumpling at the end of March.

They recently expanded the operation to include pickups at the Capital Noodle Bar restaurants as well as at select farmers markets. The plan is to continue to give the dumpling profits to their out-of-work employees, but Allan hopes to eventually turn Cali Dumpling into a for-profit business and widen the delivery range to include San Diego, Northern California and Las Vegas.

We still have to plan our honeymoon whenever we can travel again, said Allan. But in the meantime, we love what were doing.

Just last week Allan got a new tattoo on his right bicep. Its a snake (his Chinese zodiac sign), with its body coiled tightly around a plump little dumpling.
According to the state-run MENA news agency, Cairo received a delegation from several tribes from Benghazi for talks about the current crisis and how to overcome it

Egypt received on Wednesday a delegation of Libyan tribes loyal to eastern forces to discuss developments in the war-torn country, a few days after the eastern-based Libyan parliament asked Egypt to directly intervene if needed in light of what it described as a Turkish occupation.

According to the state-run MENA news agency, Cairo received a delegation from several tribes from Benghazi for talks about the current crisis and how to overcome it.

It is unclear who the tribes are meeting during their visit to Egypt.

The visit comes a few days after Libya's Tobruk-based parliament asked Egypt to intervene militarily if needed to safeguard the national security of both countries.

Egypt, the UAE and Russia are backing military commander Khalifa Haftar in the east, while Turkey supports the Tripoli-based GNA.

The tensions come one month after Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi warned that Cairo has a legitimate right to intervene in the war-torn neighbouring country to restore security and stability after GNA-affiliated forces pushed back Haftars forces in the capital.

El-Sisi said that any intervention in Libya by Egyptian forces would be led by the Libyan tribes, stressing that the Libyan frontline of Sirte and Al-Jufra is a red line for Egyptian national security.

The Egyptian presidents statements came weeks after El-Sisi, Haftar, and the speaker of the Libyan parliament Aguila Saleh announced a peace initiative, dubbed the Cairo Declaration, to end the civil war in Libya through a ceasefire and an elected leadership council.

The Cairo plan was drafted after the collapse of an offensive launched by Haftar in April 2019 to capture the Libyan capital, further extending the rival GNAs control over most of northwest Libya.

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ROME (Reuters) - Italy on Thursday banned people coming from Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro from entering its territory to prevent the importation of COVID-19 cases from the outside.

"Anyone who has been in these territories in the last 14 days is prohibited from entry and transit in Italy. In the world the epidemic is in its hardest phase. We need the maximum caution to defend the progress we have made so far," Health Minister Roberto Speranza said in a statement.

Last week Italy had already banned entry to people coming from 13 countries, including Brazil, that it said presented an excessive rate of COVID-19 infections.

(Reporting by Angelo Amante; Editing by Alison Williams)
By Azernews





By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan's State Security Service has issued a warning against dissemination of unverified and biased information about the Azerbaijani army, and its combat potential amid ongoing cross-border clashes with Armenia.

According to the statement, despite the regular official information provided to the public about military operations on the Azerbaijani- Armenian border, some social networks and media intentionally disseminate false and biased information.

There were incorrect reports and information of occupation of part of Azerbaijans territory by the enemy, concealment of number of losses, as well as the seizure of military positions and equipment, the statement reads.

State Security Service stresses that there is no basis for such inaccurate and biased information.

Azerbaijani people must know that our Armed Forces are always ready to firmly prevent enemy attacks. The countrys leadership is taking the most necessary measures in this direction, the message reads.

Moreover, State Security Service calls on citizens to remain calm, not to follow any provocations and stand for statehood in the tense situation on the front line.

The statement emphasized that strict measures will be taken against those who disseminate unverified and biased information, in accordance with the legislation of Azerbaijan.

"We once again ask our citizens to show national solidarity, to rely only on information from official government agencies," the statement says.
SAN FRANCISCO, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A new nationwide survey from Fast shows that 35% of American workers are considering relocation to a new city or town because of COVID-19. As the realities of the pandemic continue to discourage and restrict movement, especially in cities, American workers say that they are most often considering a move to a less populated area (40%), followed by 36% who say it's because there are more opportunities to work remotely than before the pandemic and 31% who are looking for a lower cost of living.

As the cost of living in major Americans cities continues to rise, and COVID-19 cases spike across states including California and Arizona, those in the West are now considering a move at the highest rates (43%), most importantly for a lower cost of living and a less populated area, compared to 36% in the Northeast, 35% in the South and 22% in the Midwest. The survey also found:

41% of those aged 18-34 and 40% of those 35-49 are now considering relocating, compared to only 17% of those 50 and older

Men (44%) are considering a move almost twice as often as women (24%)

The highest earners are now considering a move at the highest rates: 49% of those in the $150K+ income bracket are now considering relocation, compared to 31% for those making $100K - $150K , $50K - $100K and less than $50K

- , - and less than Those with postgraduate degrees are considering a move most often (44%), followed by some college (36%), high school or less (35%) and an undergraduate degree (26%)

"Innovation can happen anywhere, and Americans are realizing that increasingly they can live where they want without sacrificing their career," said Fast Chief Operating Officer and Co-founder Allison Barr Allen. "Smart companies realize that their highly skilled employees will leave if they aren't given the flexibility to work from anywhere in the world."

It's clear that workplace flexibility is top of mind as Americans think about relocating to new cities  66% of Americans say flexible remote work increases their interest in taking a new job, outpacing more traditional benefits:

51% say a generous paid time off policy increases their interest in taking a new job

48% say 401(k) matching

39% say professional development stipends

35% say wellness stipends

28% say paid time off to volunteer

23% say catered snacks or meals

Fast recently announced a hybrid workplace initiative called Fast Flex, allowing every team member to decide when and where they work, whether in the Fast office, from home or from another location anywhere in the world. Every Fast employee receives top-of-the-line tech gear, $500 to create a comfortable at-home office, plus a monthly stipend for high-speed internet and even regular shipments of snacks.

Fast's survey was conducted online within the United States among 600 U.S. adults ages 18 and older, who are currently employed in a job that could be performed remotely, between July 5-7, 2020.

About Fast

Fast's mission is to make buying online faster, safer and easier for everyone. Its Fast Login and Fast Checkout products enable a one-click sign-in and purchasing experience that makes it easier for people to buy and merchants to sell. The company's products work on any browser, device or platform to deliver a consistent, stress-free purchasing experience. Fast is entirely consumer-focused and invests heavily in its users' privacy and data security. Headquartered in San Francisco, Fast is a privately held company funded by Stripe, Index Ventures, Susa Ventures, Global Founders Capital and Brian Sugar  who also serves on the board. To learn more, visit fast.co.

Mission North for Fast

[email protected]

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Authorities in Spains Balearic Islands ordered the closure Wednesday of bars and nightclubs in beachfront areas popular with young and foreign visitors, pulling the plug on endless drunken nights to the beat of techno music.

Arguing the need to stop the spread of the new coronavirus, regional authorities issued the order for all establishments along Mallorcas Beer St. and Ham St., as the popular party areas near the beach of Palma de Mallorca are known, and another boulevard in nearby Magaluf.

The regions tourism minister, Iago Negueruela, said the Mediterranean archipelago also wants to shake off its reputation as a wild party destination.

People walk in the Bierstrasse street (Miquel Pellisa street) in El Arenal beach in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, July 15, 2020. (REUTERS)

We dont want uncivil tourists in our islands, we dont want them to come, Negueruela said at a press conference, announcing that the establishments should close as of Thursday until further notice.

Scenes of boozy Mallorca visitors ignoring social-distancing rules and going without face masks went viral on social media in recent weeks and made headlines in Germany and the U.K., home to many of the tourists that Mediterranean islands typically court.

Spanish regional authorities are also banning straws and glasses containing more than 0.5 liters of alcoholic beverages because they want to stop drinks from being shared by different people, as well as bar stools that might tempt party-goers to linger.

Open touristic bars are seen in the corner of Bierstrasse street (Miquel Pellisa street) in El Arenal beach, in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, July 15, 2020. (REUTERS)

Negueruela warned that authorities would take action against tourists who disregard the regulations.

We are not going to allow this lack of control, he said.

Its not the first that the popular Balearic Islands have attempted to curb binge-drinking. Earlier this year, the regional government passed a law prohibiting the organization and promotion of pub crawls and publicizing alcohol sales by means of open bars and happy hours. They also banned the practice of jumping from hotel balconies into swimming pools, a practice known as balconing that has led to many injuries and several deaths.

Police officers patrol as tourists stand in a terrace at the resort of Magaluf on the Spanish Balearic island of Mallorca, Spain, Thursday, July 16, 2020. Authorities in Spain's Balearic Islands are pulling the plug on endless drunken nights to the beat of techno music by closing bars and nightclubs in beachfront areas popular with young and foreign visitors. (AP)

The archipelago is trying to brand itself as a safe destination for tourists after a three-month halt on all economic activity during the coronavirus pandemic. More than 30% of the islands economy depends on tourism.

Spain has recorded at least 28,400 COVID-19 deaths and is grappling with dozens of fresh outbreaks after the country started to reopen last month.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)

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Bhubaneswar, July 16 : The COVID-19 positive cases crossed the 15,000 mark in Odisha with 494 new infectees in last 24 hours, informed the health department on Thursday.

The corona death toll also rose to 79 with two more deaths in Ganjam district in the last 24 hours.

Two male patients aged 51 and 34 years succumbed to the virus. The total number of Covid deaths reached 48 in the Ganjam district.

The total positive cases have increased to 15,392 in the state.

Out of the 494 fresh positive cases, 322 were reported from the quarantine centres and 172 are local cases.

Ganjam district reported highest 246 positive cases followed by Khordha (64) and Cuttack (38).

While the active cases stand at 4,813, as many as 10,476 have recovered so far.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Canadas oil production drops to its lowest level since 2016 wildfires

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook July 2020

Canada was the worlds fourth-largest producer of petroleum and other liquids in 2019, but in the first half of 2020, Canadas production declined 20% from its 2019 average of 5.5 million barrels per day (b/d). Canadas production of petroleum and other liquids declined as a result of low global crude oil prices, reduced demand for crude oil for refined petroleum products in Canada and the United States, and continued production curtailments imposed by the government of Albertathe province where more than 80% of Canadas 2019 crude oil production was located.

Canada produced about the same amount of petroleum and other liquids in 2019 as it did in 2018. In late 2018, Western Canadian Select crude oil was trading at historically low prices. The government of Alberta imposed production curtailments in early 2019 to reduce associated bitumen production and to alleviate increasing crude oil inventories and growing constraints on export pipeline takeaway capacity. These restrictions were scheduled to be lifted at the end of 2019, but in October 2019, the restrictions were extended through the end of 2020.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that Canadas production of petroleum and other liquids fell from 5.6 million b/d in March 2020 to 4.9 million b/d in April, down 700,000 b/d. This decline is similar to the 640,000 b/d decline from April to May 2016, when wildfires in the Fort McMurray area forced a temporary shutdown of some oil sands projects in Alberta.

In the July 2020 Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), EIA estimated that Canadas production fell by an additional 560,000 b/d to 4.4 million b/d in May, the lowest production since mid-2016. EIA estimates Canadas production increased slightly in June, as demand for petroleum products in Canada and United States also increased.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook July 2020

Canadas decline in the production of petroleum and other liquids in May was greater than declines in total petroleum and other liquids production for some countries that are members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Canada also reduced production more than most of the 10 countries that voluntarily coordinate their production with OPEC (OPEC+). Among non-OPEC producers, Canadas production declines were the third largest after Russia and the United States.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook July 2020

In the July STEO, EIA forecasts that Canadas production will remain less than its 2019 average through the remaining months of 2020 and the first half of 2021 as lingering effects of lower global petroleum demand persist. EIA forecasts that Canadas production of petroleum and other liquids will average 5.1 million b/d in 2020 and 5.5 million b/d in 2021.

Principal contributors: Natalie Kempkey, ShaMyra Sylvester
Xtalks Life Science Webinars A combined knowledge of the EU MDR, abovementioned guidance documents and guidelines and associated MEDDEV guidelines provides manufacturers with the essential information in respect to the collection of clinical evidence of non-marketed devices...

Since the adoption of the European Medical Device Regulation (MDR) 2017/745 in 2017, several guidance documents have been published by the Medical Device Coordination Group (MDCG). Although these documents may not be legally binding, it is strongly recommended to follow them closely, as they aim to ensure uniform application of the MDR within the EU. Recently, a number of guidance documents referring to clinical investigation and evaluation became available. In parallel, the European Data Protection Board regularly publishes guidelines, recommendations and best practices that should be taken into consideration when collecting clinical data. A combined knowledge of the EU MDR, abovementioned guidance documents and guidelines and associated MEDDEV guidelines provides manufacturers with the essential information in respect to the collection of clinical evidence of non-marketed devices  it is an evident challenge to connect all bits and pieces.

The featured experts will provide their thoughts and considerations on getting a solid clinical development strategy in place. From the very first question (What clinical evidence do I need?), toward a study design (What type of study design shall I consider?), until the evaluation of the clinical evidence (Am I ready to access the market?). Each of these topics will be discussed, taking sidetracks as necessary to help attendees understand the decisions that are to be made  but also to get you on board for the remainder of the journey.

This webinar will be part of a series. Whereas the main focus of this webinar refers to the premarket phase, the subsequent webinar will have a post-market focus. Both webinars can be attended separately, and knowledge of the other webinar is not required. However, as Aristotle already pointed out, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts! Attendance to both webinars will provide attendees with the full journey throughout the clinical lifetime of the device.

Join Alwin van den Broek, Project Manager and Data Protection Officer and Anne Leijsen, Director, Medical Writing from Avania in a live webinar on Tuesday, August 4, 2020 at 10am EDT (3pm BST/UK).

For more information or to register for this event, visit The Journey from Final Medical Device Design to the EU Market: Expert Insight on Collecting and Evaluating Clinical Evidence.

ABOUT XTALKS

Xtalks, powered by Honeycomb Worldwide Inc., is a leading provider of educational webinars to the global life science, food and medical device community. Every year thousands of industry practitioners (from life science, food and medical device companies, private & academic research institutions, healthcare centers, etc.) turn to Xtalks for access to quality content. Xtalks helps Life Science professionals stay current with industry developments, trends and regulations. Xtalks webinars also provide perspectives on key issues from top industry thought leaders and service providers.

To learn more about Xtalks visit http://xtalks.com

For information about hosting a webinar visit http://xtalks.com/why-host-a-webinar/
Turkey inks accord for new management of Hagia Sophia Culture ministry to protect building, 'tourists to increase'

(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, JULY 16 - The Turkish authorities on Thursday morning signed an agreement for the new management of Hagia Sophia after the decision was made Friday to turn it back into a mosque. The agreement calls for the administration to be placed under the Diyanet, the body overseeing religious affairs and the 80,000 mosques in the country, while activities concerning the protection of the building's artistic and architectonic heritage has been entrusted to the culture and tourism ministry. ''I believe that the number of visitors to Hagia Sophia will rise, not only from our country but also from abroad,'' Diyanet chief Ali Erbas said, ''No one should doubt that Hagia Sophia will be carefully protected,'' added Culture Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, who noted that ''it will be open to local and foreign visitors and access will be free.'' (ANSAmed).



(ANSA).




Lower House speaker Mohamed Mursal says that they will not accept indirect elections amid regional state leaders ruled out one person one vote election on schedule this week's Dhuusamareb meeting .

Mursal made this statement at todays parliamentary session, which was discussing on the amendments of the political parties law.

"Parliament should to decide the model of the upcoming elections" Mursal says

Speaker Mursal emphasizes that neither the cabinet nor the regional states can decide on the election model. Any election-related legislation belongs to the parliament and not to the states and the cabinet, he adds during today's session.

"I am confused because we don't know what is really going to happen " Activists Elmi Mohamed told Dalsan on the phone from Dhuusamareb.

Somalia is rocked by political turmoil following disputes about election models between the federal government and regional states.
Mumbai Polices crime branch on Wednesday arrested a group of three people including a minor for allegedly stealing motorbikes in the western suburbs. The accused would steal the bikes, change a few parts and the registration number, and then sell them to college students for 5,000 to 10,000, said a police officer.

Mohammad Ali Imtiyaz Andale, 19, is the main accused in the case. Both Andale and another arrested accused Afzal Aksar Khan, 19, are residents of Goregaon.

After receiving a tip-off that a group of people involved in bike theft are active in Goregaon, officers from unit 11 of crime branch laid a trap and arrested the accused when they were riding a stolen bike, on Wednesday afternoon.

During inquiry police learnt that they had stolen a bike from Sahar in Andheri (East), where a case of theft was registered, said deputy commissioner of police (crime branch) Akbar Pathan. The accused also revealed that they had stolen five bikes from MIDC, DN Nagar, Aarey and Sakinaka areas.

We have recovered five bikes from them and four bikes from college students from Goregaon and Malad-based colleges, said an officer.

The accused were handed over to Sakinaka police for further inquiry.
No casualties have been reported, the agency said

At least seven ships have caught fire at the Iranian port of Bushehr, the Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday, in what appeared to be the latest in a series of unexplained incidents around nuclear and industrial installations since late June.

No casualties have been reported, the agency said.

There have been several explosions and fires around Iranian military, nuclear and industrial facilities since late June, including a fire at Iran's underground Natanz nuclear facility on July 2.

Natanz is the centrepiece of Iran's enrichment programme, which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes. Western intelligence agencies and the UN's nuclear watchdog (IAEA) believe it had a coordinated, clandestine nuclear arms programme that it halted in 2003.

Tehran denies ever seeking nuclear weapons.

Iran's top security body said on July 3 that the cause of the Natanz fire had been determined but would be announced at a later time. Some Iranian officials have said it may have been cyber sabotage and one of them warned that Tehran would retaliate against any country carrying out such attacks.

In an article in early July, state news agency IRNA addressed what it called the possibility of sabotage by enemies such as Israel and the United States, although it stopped short of accusing either directly.

Israel's defence minister said on July 5 his country was not "necessarily" behind every mysterious incident in Iran.

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By Jeremy Redmon, J. Scott Trubey and Willoughby Mariano The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (TNS)

Atlanta  Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday extended Georgias coronavirus restrictions while explicitly banning cities and counties from adopting rules requiring masks or other face coverings, a measure that could bolster the states case in a possible legal battle.

Kemps executive order  which was set to expire Wednesday evening  still encourages, rather than requires, Georgians to wear masks in public. The governor has called such a requirement a bridge too far, and his office has said local mandates are unenforceable.

The governor's coronavirus orders have for months banned local governments from taking more restrictive or lenient steps than the state. But the new set of rules he signed on Wednesday specified for the first time that cities and counties can't require the use of masks or other face coverings.

That could improve the state's standing in a courtroom fight against a string of cities that have defied Kemp's emergency order by requiring masks. Savannah led that charge earlier this month, and since then other cities including Atlanta, Athens and Augusta have followed suit.

The governor's order also requires vulnerable people to shelter in place, restricts gatherings of more than 50 people, and mandates that restaurants and other businesses take numerous precautions.

Another significant change in the order, set to expire on July 31, is a rollback of transportation limitations for day care centers. Just about all other restrictions that were in place at the start of the month remain intact.

"We continue to watch the data and the numbers," Kemp said earlier this week. "We've got to learn to deal with it, and we're encouraging people to wear masks and follow the guidance that we have."

Hours before Kemp took action, his Republican counterpart in Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey, announced a statewide mask requirement that will take effect Thursday. Meanwhile, Walmart and Sam's Club said they would require shoppers to begin wearing masks Monday.

Also Wednesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Twitter that New York will send 7,500 Covid-19 test kits, 30,000 pieces of personal protective equipment and 1,250 gallons of hand sanitizer to Atlanta by Friday. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who earlier this week sought the states help amid a mounting feud with Kemp, said she was grateful.

"My mother often says, 'A friend, in need, is a friend indeed,' " she tweeted.

Georgia reported 3,871 new cases of the disease on Wednesday, the second-highest daily count to date, and 37 deaths. So far, 127,834 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Georgia, more than double the number reported in mid-June, and 3,091 have died from it in the Peach State.

The rate of new tests that are positive for the disease is soaring, an indication that experts say suggests the spread of the disease  and not increased testing  is the culprit. During the week of May 24, state public health officials reported the rate of positive tests was about 6% over the course of seven days. Last week, the positivity rate was more than 13%, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of state data shows.

Even though the new wave of Covid-19 patients tends to be younger and less sick, they are filling hospital beds at a rapid clip. Hospitalizations topped Georgias prior peak in April after the Fourth of July weekend. Shares of open critical care beds in regions surrounding Athens, Dublin, Macon, Marietta, Savannah and Tifton have dipped into the single digits. Only one was left in Dublin, according to the most recent figures available.

Disease experts at Georgia Tech and elsewhere have warned that Georgia is running out of time to prevent surges of cases that have overwhelmed hospitals in Florida, Arizona and other states that eased restrictions. This month, more than 1,400 health care workers signed an open letter calling on Kemp to shut down bars and restaurants, ban indoor gatherings of more than 25 people, mandate masks, and free local governments to institute their own rules to halt the spread of the disease.

"It's not too late to go back to the basics: mandatory masks, more restrictions on social distancing, freeing mayors to manage their local epidemics, and vastly expanding testing and contact tracing," Dr. Melanie Thompson, principal investigator of the AIDS Research Consortium of Atlanta, said last week. "These are basic, but we haven't come close to mastering them yet."

Dr. Harry J. Heiman, a clinical associate professor at Georgia State University School of Public Health, said: In the absence of aggressive action, its only going to get worse.
A homesick camel recently managed to melt the hearts of millions of Chinese people after it was reported that it traveled 100 kilometres through the desert to return to its former owners, eight months after being sold.

Chinese media recently featured the heartwarming story of a loyal camel who allegedly spent days crossing the barren desert of North Chinas Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to reach its former home after being sold to another farmer eight months prior. The injured animal was spotted walking through the desert earlier this month by another herdsman who took it in and tended to its needs while trying to find its owner. News of the camels discovery reached its owner who rushed to retrieve it, but after hearing about the animals arduous journey, its former masters wanted it back.

Photo: Bayan Nur Daily

Temur, the camels former master and his wife had sold it to another farmer back in October 2019. The man took it to his home 100 kilometres away and raised it in their hometown in winter and grazed it in the mountains in spring. The animal seemed to have adjusted fine to its new home, but on June 27, just one day after its summer shearing, it ran away.

According to a viral Pear video, the homesick camel walked more than 100 kilometres through the desert, wading through mountains, crossing highways and fences before finally approaching its old home, which was when the herdsman spotted it. It certainly had the scars to show for its adventure, and when its former owners heard about its risky journey, they decided to take it back.

Photo: Bayan Nur Daily

When we heard the news, we wanted to bring back the camel, but its current owner had already caught it back to his place, Temurs wife said. So we contacted the buyer and decided to replace the old camel with a 3-year-old female. After we got it back, I was so distressed when I found that it had lot of wounds on its body, as it must have got crossing the fences.

We will not sell it to anyone else anymore, as camels are intelligent animals, the woman added. It will be free for the rest of its life.

Photo: Bayan Nur Daily

Temur and the aging camels current owner reached an understanding where Temur and his wife would get their camel back and they would offer a younger, 3-year-old camel in return.

As of Wednesday, the Pear video documenting the loyal camels journey though the desert had been watched 16 million times, with many viewers declaring themselves impressed by the animals endurance and its ability to find its way home.

This has brought me to tears. Animals are so pure. Please take good care of it from now on, one person commented.

I cant imagine the hardship it encountered. It must have missed its home so much, another person wrote.
An Oregon Liquor Control Commission employee has been charged with second-degree theft after $250 was found missing from an agency office, the commission said Thursday morning.

An audit revealed in March that money was missing from license payments made in-person at the commissions Roseburg office. The Oregon State Police investigated in June and arrested 43-year-old Fawnettia Laster in July, police said.

Laster was subsequently released to appear in court.

The commission is performing an internal investigation to review and correct procedures that allowed any possible theft to take place.

A commission spokesperson did not immediately release information on Lasters employment status.

--Alex Hardgrave | ahardgrave@oregonian.com | @a_hardgrave

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The Twitter logo on a phone in a photo illustration in Washington on July 10, 2019. (ALASTAIR PIKE/AFP via Getty Images)

Twitter Hack Likely More Than Just Cryptocurrency Fraud, Experts Say

Cybersecurity experts say the July 15 breach that enabled hackers to access Twitters internal system, resulting in the hijacking of a number of high-profile accounts, was likely more than just the cryptocurrency fraud it appeared to be. It also opened up a barrage of concerns about Twitters own tools.

The massive breach, which allowed one or more intruders to post on behalf of some prominent Twitter usersonly generated just over $117,000 in bounty as of July 16. The FBI is now currently leading an inquiry into the Twitter hacking, unnamed sources familiar with the situation told Reuters.

The attack began in the afternoon on July 15 when prominent cryptocurrency accounts posted similar messages calling on people to deposit bitcoin into an account with a promise that the senders would receive twice their money back. The breach then quickly expanded to major accounts in business and politics, including Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Barack Obama, and Kanye West.

It was clearly to show their clientele what they could do, Rob Behnke, CEO at Halborn, a cybersecurity firm working with emerging technologies, told The Epoch Times, referring to the hackers.

Now this group will be able to charge a lot more money to their black market clientele since theyll be able to claim credit for the attack, he said. Bitcoin is nothing compared to the amount of global press they got.

Behnke, like other experts, said the breach exposed two of Twitters major vulnerabilities: humans and backdoors.

Sophisticated hackers usually have more defined objectives that they use for social media hacks, such as large-scale financial disruption, political activism, and state-sponsored threats or large-scale electronic disruption, according to Charity Wright, a cyberthreat intelligence adviser at IntSights with 15 years of experience with the U.S. Army and the National Security Agency.

They gained so much control over Twitter and only used it for a petty crypto scam, Wright told The Epoch Times.

Some alleged witnesses have since come forward with screenshots of conversations from the alleged criminal (called Kirk) behind the operation. While the screenshots reveal that the individual prefers English, Wright said a quick analysis of the syntax reveals that the user speaks very colloquial, somewhat broken English. She said it indicated the person was young, uneducated, or is not a native English speaker.

Ray Walsh, digital privacy expert at ProPrivacy.com, said that while its possible the hackers did simply want to steal Bitcoin, it more likely they were testing a new attack method that gave them access to Twitters back end and multiple high profile Twitter accounts.

The end game might even have been to prove it can be done, to then provide similar access to hackers for a price on the dark web, Walsh told The Epoch Times. Alternatively, it is possible that the hackers covered up their real motives  that they were really stealing data from the compromised accountsperhaps from sensitive direct messages that might prove useful for extortion or for information-leaking purposes later on.

Within an hour, Twitter blocked verified users from changing their passwords or posting messages in an attempt to stop the scam from spreading. The platform restored the functionality roughly two hours later as it continued to investigate the attacks.

Most likely this was a financial scam, but potentially a smokescreen for something more sinister, Eliza May Austin, CEO and co-founder of th4ts3cur1ty.company, told The Epoch Times.

Taking over social media accounts of famous people or politicians could lead to all sorts of misinformation.  Its possible that this was testing the tools to see if high-profile accounts can be compromised en mass, Austin added.

Some experts said the apparent failure of the hackers to do more damage with the power they had indicates they were unlikely to be professionals.

These are amateur actors, Mike Hamilton, former chief information security officer (CISO) for the City of Seattle and current CISO of CI Security, a Seattle-based cybersecurity firm, told The Epoch Times.

Wasting this access and potentially the knowledge of a valuable vulnerability is a real indicator that the perpetrators are not deep thinkers.

Hamilton said the tactics the hackers used to monetize the access was basically a version of a Nigerian Prince scam. The hackers, he said, were likely African actors.

Others, however, say the hacking wasnt a regular account compromise. Dhananjay Sampath, co-founder and CEO at Armorblox, said the hackers had very specific targets that focused on key employees with access to the admin console, which allows employees to tweet from any account.

Twitters employees having access to this admin console and not having security controls that prevents this is a broader conversation of security culture within the organization, Sampath told The Epoch Times.

Password protections wont do much when employees can be willing participants, or be compromised via social engineering operations and old-school blackmail schemes, said Dr. Robert Bunker, instructor at the Safe Communities Institute, USC Sol Price School of Public Policy.

Twitter has had security incidents in the past, but the latest attacks were by far the most brazen and far-reaching.

Joe Vezzani, CEO and founder of LunarCRUSH, a social listening platform for cryptocurrencies, said the biggest takeaway from the hack would be for our large digital media companies to iterate and rework their admin controls and who has access to God Mode at their companies.

Ivan Pentchoukov contributed to this report.
Nearly $13 million will be spent in an effort to safely reopen Tucsons largest school district as the coronavirus continues to ravage Arizona.

A big chunk of those funds are the result of TUSDs decision to adopt an online learning model for all students, regardless of whether their parents keep them home or send them to school once the state deems it safe to do so.

Beyond paying for laptops and tablets and accounting for maintenance of those devices, the district will have to hire school monitors expected to supervise students as some teachers wont physically be in classrooms, teaching remotely instead.

About 50% of TUSD families have said they want their children to return to in-person learning on Aug. 17  the tentative start date set by Gov. Doug Ducey. Arizona Schools Chief Kathy Hoffman said Wednesday she and Ducey are reevaluating that date, according to Cronkite News.

Ducey is requiring school districts to offer a full academic year of in-person learning to any family who wants it for schools to be able to maintain funding levels comparable to last years.

When Tucson Unified School District opens, students who are doing in-person learning will be assigned a computer and a learning lab or work space with about 13 students to a room. That room will be overseen by a monitor, who will supervise the students, making sure they are safe and following health department guidelines around the coronavirus, such as wearing masks and social distancing.
Answer of Spokesperson for DPRK Foreign Ministry

Korean Central News Agency of DPRK

Pyongyang, July 15 (KCNA) -- A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA on July 15 with regard to the fact that the Japanese authorities made an issue of the DPRK in its "2020 Defence White Paper."

"2020 Defence White Paper" adopted on July 14 by the Japanese government at its cabinet meeting hurled a stream of nonsense on our possession of nuclear weapons, and went to the length of reprimanding us, arguing that it constitutes a new challenge to the neighbouring countries.

This shows that Abe regime has not yet discarded its bad habit of having used every opportunity to create a sense of fear across the Japanese society by exaggerating "missile threat" from the DPRK, thus abusing it for achieving their sinister political and military purpose.

The Japanese main purpose of having found faults with us in the latest White Paper is to legitimize its move for becoming a military power and dispossessing territories under the pretext of "threat" from us.

Against a backdrop of its expanded military forces, Japan has completely thrown off the veneer of "total defence" and is openly talking about possession of "capability to attack enemy base" with a design of pre-emptive strike. The countries in the vicinity of Japan are following this move with stern eyes and keeping a close watch with due vigilance.

The imprudent and extremely dangerous military move of Abe regime will turn out to be an ignition source of undermining the regional peace and stability, and it will invite a miserable consequence of hastening the fall of the regime itself like a foolish tiger moth flying into the flame only to perish. -0-

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Top officials overseeing a $715 million-plus project on Interstate 5 though the Rose Quarter said Wednesday the state remains committed to addressing historic injustices against Black people caused by the freeway construction despite several key partners declaring last month they will no longer participate.

Brendan Finn, director of the states transportation departments Office of Urban Mobility, said he and other staffers overseeing the contentious Rose Quarter development are focused on the same goals they agreed to earlier this year at the behest of the politicians and Black-led civic group who pushed the state to do more before walking away. The leaders who quit in protest said transportation agency officials said the right things but their actions belied their words.
One of the most popular articles ever published at American Thinker concerned civil rights attorney Leo Terrell. Bill Schanefelt wrote about what is a really "big deal": namely, the fact that black civil rights attorney Leo Terrell, a longtime Democrat supporter, announced during Mark Levin's Life, Liberty & Levin that he is throwing his support behind Donald Trump.

The reason for Terrell's change of heart is he has realized that the Democrat party is not a friend to black Americans. Instead, it uses them. His epiphany came when Joe Biden told blacks that if they didn't vote for him, they were race-betrayers. Terrell has also looked at the way the Democrat party has enabled the riots that have served no purpose other than to destroy black communities and take black lives. You can read the American Thinker post and see the video here.

Having taken a courageous stand, Terrell is now paying the price. In an interview with the Daily Caller's Stephanie Hamill, Terrell talks about how, since he went public with his declaration of independence from the Democrat party, he's essentially been "un-personed."

In the interview, Terrell tells Hamill that today's Democrat party has "been hijacked by Black Lives Matter." He continues to be outraged by Biden's remark about blacks being a monolithic group defined by loyalty to the Democrat party. He also says defunding the police is "absolutely ridiculous." BLM and the Democrat party have no issues or beliefs other than attacking Trump.

Terrell has decided that everything the Democrat party stands for is inconsistent with his values as a civil rights attorney. Terrell believes that law enforcement is critical for all Americans. The Democrat party, however, is backing a group that wants to throw out the 98% of good police who help Americans. As far as Terrell is concerned, this dangerous idea will overthrow the whole American system, a system in which he believes.

In a statement that was balm to my soul, Terrell says he rejects the idea of systemic racism. Moreover, he says, the Black Lives Matter movement (and, presumably, by extension, the modern Democrat party) has no idea what that phrase means. Terrell points out the obvious, which is that we're no longer living in 1960. The chaos in American cities isn't coming from systemic racism; it's coming from awful Democrat governance.

Terrell wants whites to know they're not racist if they don't support Black Lives Matter. He doesn't support it because the group doesn't care in the slightest about actual black lives. Instead, the group has turned into a "shake-down" organization that's getting millions from foolish corporations, something that deeply offends Terrell.

CNN and MSNBC are also part of the problem. They're in bed with Black Lives Matter. Those groups, and the race-hustlers like Al Sharpton, continued to support Seattle's CHOP even as the anarchy there was killing blacks.

When it comes to Biden, Terrell dismisses him as an "empty-suit being hijacked by extremists on the left." To him, that's a reason by itself to walk away from the Democrat party. He doesn't have any kinder words for AOC. She is an ignoramus about the things that matter for keeping black lives safe.

Terrell is also disgusted by how Sen. Cory Booker and Sen. Kamala Harris blocked Sen. Tim Scott's efforts to improve police reform simply because Scott is a Republican. For all these reasons, if the election were held today, Terrell says, he would cast his vote for Trump.

Terrell has paid the price for these principled views:

My colleagues have shunned me. They don't talk to me. They don't text me anymore. I don't care. I don't care. 'Cause you know what? I'm thinking here [pointing to his head] and here [pointing to his heart]. They are so, excuse my term, hellbent on defeating Trump, they'll vote for anyone. I can't ignore or dismiss logic. And so shun me. Fine. I sleep well at night because I am not going to sell out. There is no black vote that is going to be 100% Democratic. And I find it offensive. So, hey! I sleep very well at night.

It's an excellent interview and one I urge people to watch:

What Leo Terrell may discover is that, now that he's crossed the Rubicon, he'll meet wonderful people whose values are more compatible with his. Moreover, these new friends, unlike his old friends, won't insist that he march in ideological lockstep with them to preserve the friendships.

Image: YouTube screen grab.
CLAYTON  Police Chief Mark Smith reported Tuesday to the Clayton City Council that a recent audit of "suspicious person" calls received by his department found that such calls increased from 2015 to 2018, despite crime levels going down.

But a lot of these calls are invalid," Smith said. Just 17% of such calls last year resulted in police action.

The primary concern relates to the racial component of such calls, Smith said.

Of suspicious person calls, 48% involved a subject described as Black, which means African Americans are substantially overrepresented in such call descriptions, he said.

Smith said officers are aware of the problem.

One officer surveyed commented that 95% of the time, it's just a regular person walking around in the middle of the day, just trying to get some steps logged on their step counter and minding their own business, Smith said.

He added that 35% of such calls lacked a clear claim of suspicious activity, while 40% lacked reasonably specific subject identifiers such as clothing, distinguishing features and height.
San Antonio officials have secured refrigerated trailers for hospitals to store bodies until they can be released to funeral homes.

Mario Martinez, the assistant director of Metro Health, said hospitals are experiencing a backlog of deceased patients with the growing number of COVID-19 deaths and many funerals on hold.

"This is a morbid topic and its not one that we enjoy talking about," Martinez said Wednesday. "But it really does underscore the severity of COVID-19 in our community."

READ ALSO: 'Psych' star and S.A. native explains decision to change name

Two of the trailers are already in operation and three more will be ready by the end of the week. Each trailer can hold between 24 and 36 bodies. The trailers require security and staff members to ensure temperatures inside stay within 34 and 36 degrees.

In addition to the five trailers city and county officials have secured, Martinez said local hospitals have also put in orders for refrigerated trailers.

"Again, this is a morbid topic," Martinez said. "These individuals are our family members and friends and we cant emphasize enough the precaution measures that weve stated before and will repeat again."

He reminded residents to wear masks, avoid crowds and stay within the social bubble of your immediate household.

On Monday, Ken Davis, chief medical officer for Christus Health South Texas, said hospitals and funeral homes were "out of space" for the deceased. He noted that hospitals did not have enough morgue capacity and were looking for refrigerated trucks.

"It's a hard thing to talk about  people's loved ones are dying  but in the hospital, there are only so many places to put bodies of the loved ones in," Davis said. "We're out of space, our funeral homes are out of space, and we need those beds. So when someone dies we need to quickly turn that bed over."

Nueces County officials recently requested a FEMA mobile morgue unit (a refrigerated trailer) and body bags from the state. County Judge Barbara Canales told residents that "the sudden spike in deaths has created this need."

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Wendy Yost submitted this commentary on behalf of the Nuclear Free World Committee of the Syracuse Peace Council.

On July 16, 1945, the world forever changed when the first nuclear bomb was exploded in New Mexico as part of the Manhattan Project. Three weeks later, on Aug. 6, the United States carried out a nuclear attack on Hiroshima; on Aug. 9, the United States dropped a nuclear bomb that annihilated Nagasaki. The 75th anniversary is a time to mourn the loss of Japanese people and other disproportionately non-white people around the world who have suffered and died due to nuclear weapons and testing. At this time, we also celebrate 75 years of anti-nuclear activism and call on our community and Congress to act to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

An estimated 120,000 to 225,000 Japanese people died from the immediate aftereffects of the bombings. Many Japanese citizens, international atomic veterans and their children also suffered from long-term effects including trauma and health problems associated with radiation exposure. Many more suffered from effects of nuclear testing that took place before and since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They include people of the Marshall Islands, where testing occurred without warning, downwinders in the U.S., Russia and Ukraine who lived near testing sites, and indigenous people who lived/live near uranium mining and nuclear waste dumps. Others around the world continue to suffer due ongoing wars that are executed under the cover of nuclear weapons. It is also fair to say that many more people still suffer for lack of health care and other basics due to the countrys misguided practice of committing vast resources to nuclear weapons.

In the face of horror, survivors and other peace activists have engaged in all forms of activism to prevent another nuclear war through storytelling, supporting treaties, lawsuits, legislative campaigns, civil disobedience, strikes and boycotts. We owe it to these people and to future generations to join their efforts.

On this anniversary, the world is closer to nuclear catastrophe than we have been in decades. Mainly in the hands of U.S. and Russia, 15,000 nuclear weapons still exist, each far more powerful than the bombs dropped on Japan in 1945. The use of even a small fraction of existing weapons would cause worldwide climate disruption and global famine. A large-scale nuclear war would kill hundreds of millions of people directly and make the Earth largely uninhabitable.

In recent years, international treaties have expired, the Iran nuclear deal was reversed, diplomacy has been neglected and denigrated, and trust with our international allies has been broken by the Trump administration. There is the ongoing danger that any president of the United States has the sole power to wage a nuclear war on hair trigger alert. The Trump administration is considering ending a 28-year international moratorium on the dangerous practice of nuclear testing. The New START nuclear arms control treaty between the U.S. and Russia is set to expire in February 2021, with no action from Congress and doubt expressed by the Trump administration that the treaty will be renewed. Letting this agreement expire will lead to a new arms race and move us even closer to nuclear war.

In addition, the U.S. is planning to spend $1.7 trillion over the next 30 years to update our nuclear weapons despite an already vast arsenal. This would consume resources that should otherwise be allocated to more pressing needs: health care, jobs, food security and climate change mitigation. The Covid-19 crisis makes it even more pressing that we shift our national resources away from war making.

We call on individuals, policymakers, community organizations and faith communities to join the movement to eliminate nuclear weapons and shift resources toward health and safety at home and everywhere. You can help by taking any or all of the following steps:

Endorse the national Back for the Brink Campaign to prevent nuclear war spearheaded by Physicians for Social Responsibility. This calls on the U.S. to renounce the option of using nuclear weapons first; end the sole unchecked authority of any president to launch a nuclear attack; take U.S. nuclear weapons off hair trigger alert; cancel the U.S. plan to replace its entire nuclear arsenal with enhanced weapons, and actively pursue a verifiable agreement among nuclear-armed states to eliminate their nuclear arsenals. Sign on at preventnuclearwar.org

Ask your U.S. Senators and Representatives to renew the New Start Treaty before it expires in February 2021.

Attend our Hiroshima Day news conference at noon Aug. 6 at the steps of Syracuse City Hall.

Visit preventnuclearwar.org and or https://www.peacecouncil.net/programs/nuclear-free-world-committee for additional information and a list of local endorsers.

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Indiana: A convicted murderer was executed in the United States on Thursday, in the second federal execution in a week after a 17-year pause, over objections by his lawyers that he had dementia and no longer understood his punishment.

Wesley Purkey, 68, was convicted in 2003 in Missouri of raping and murdering 16-year-old Mary Ruth Bales before dumping her dismembered and burned remains in a septic pond.

Wesley Purkey pictured in 1998 at his arrest for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl. Credit:AP

A Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman confirmed Purkey's death.

The execution had been blocked by a federal court, but the US Supreme Court on Thursday overruled it, just as it had done in another case on Tuesday, once again putting the federal government back in the business of executing prisoners.
While the coronavirus recession has sapped demand for energy and put fracking companies on the ropes  with hundreds of bankruptcies declared so far  the renewables that would replace oil and coal are facing a growing challenge that will last long after the pandemic: The resistance of rural communities to mammoth solar or wind farms that can power cities.

From New York to California, local opposition is thwarting wind and solar projects seen as essential to transitioning from fossil fuels. Many opponents support renewable energy in theory and express concern about climate change. And many landowners have partnered with environmental groups to block or delay natural gas pipelines designed to run through their property.

But enough of them just cant stomach the outsize "green" projects themselves  wind farms with 500-foot-tall turbines (around the height of the United Nations Secretariat Building) and solar spreads covering many square miles that forever change the idyllic look of rural communities and threaten pristine desert habitat.

From Virginia to California, a backlash across the political and economic spectrum.

The opposition has been brewing for years and now poses a threat to states with plans to rapidly accelerate the buildout to meet ambitious renewable energy goals by 2030. The backlash is powerful because its coming from across the political and economic spectrum, including professionals, environmentalists, farmers, activists and concerned parents.

The opposition has become a serious impediment to New York meeting its clean energy goals, says Michael Gerrard, a professor at Columbia Law School specializing in environmental and energy regulation.

A key problem is that while many governors have lofty targets  for example, Andrew Cuomos call for renewables to meet 70% of New Yorks energy needs by 2030  working out the nitty-gritty with power companies often falls to rural counties with little or no experience regulating complex industrial projects.

Local officials have to set new safety rules for developments with enormous footprints. A typical wind farm with 50 turbines might occupy 15,000 acres, or 23 square miles, which is many times the size of the worlds largest manufacturing plants. The proposed buildout of solar farms in Virginia could require 490 square miles of land (about the size of Los Angeles). Many counties and towns facing public opposition have responded with tough measures, imposing moratoriums or restrictions so onerous that they scare developers away.

Out-of-town developers have to win the trust of rural communities, a big challenge that some fail to meet. Utah-based sPower, which has built 158 utility-scale wind and solar projects in 13 states, first investigates a towns sentiment toward renewable energy in local newspapers and in zoning laws. If that doesnt raise red flags, the company quietly reaches out to a handful of big landowners to see if they would lease their land for a fee to host a turbine and become advocates for the project.

The hardest part is enlisting the support of those who dont get lease payouts of thousands of dollars a year, before they join the opposition and derail the project. Like fossil fuel purveyors, renewable energy developers pitch a boost in tax revenues for schools and health services.

What some developers have done well and some have done very poorly is getting in front of that opposition and controlling the messaging within the community, says Jeffrey Nemeth, director of wind at sPower who was raised in rural Illinois. Im out there sitting at dining room tables or on a tractor talking with landowners. My most successful projects have been when I built relationships with them. Im not just some guy from the city coming here to change their way of life.

Even after developers devote years to public meetings and outreach, some folks cant be swayed. They mostly complain that turbines are an eyesore and make too much noise. At a typical distance of about 1,000 feet from a home, they make about as much noise as a dishwasher that runs most of the day.

And some opponents are raising sensational claims about the noise to stop projects.

It does cause health issues, says Diane Fitch, a Madison County, Iowa, supervisor whos pushing to ban turbines and likens them to cigarettes. This is going to be the same. They'll dispute this until we start dying.

The resistance encountered by renewables in three states  New York, California and Michigan  illustrates the depth and breadth of obstacles clouding dreams of a carbon-free future.

New York: Tourists, Not Turbines

The five-year fight over Lighthouse Wind farm is among the longest disputes in upstate New York, where hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has been banned since 2015.

New York: The Lighthouse Wind project near Lake Ontario could become at least the 11th wind farm defeat in the state.

Most residents of the small rural towns of Somerset and Yates first heard about Apex Clean Energys plan to install about 47 turbines  each one 591-feet tall - after the company quietly began cutting deals with landowners. They stood to earn a total of more than $1 million a year, according to Apexs website, providing a boost for struggling farmers in the region.

At the first meeting between Apex and residents at a firehouse about five years ago, Jim Simon became incensed because the company had already developed a timeline and approximate location for the wind farm.

I told the company representative, Youre on step four, and this is the first time you have done anything public with our town. Dont you feel thats inappropriate? says Simon, associate dean at Genesee Community College. It went downhill from there.

Apex did not respond to a request for an interview.

Pam Atwater, a retired engineer and businesswoman, helped set up a nonprofit, Save Ontario Shores, to rally the opposition. Its website details the potential negative impact of the turbines on migratory birds and tourism and even names the landowners who signed confidential leases. When you put in 47 turbines, it industrializes the community, says Atwater. But people come here for tourism and a lot of people have cottages that are rented along the lake.

The 555-foot Washington Monument is a piker next to some wind turbines.

Simon, a Republican, and other opponents outmaneuvered Apex by running for office and completely taking over both town boards, which enacted tough zoning restrictions. Two years ago, Somerset passed a 200-foot-limit on the height on turbines that amounts to a ban. Clean energy advocates, who stressed the benefits of the estimated $1.5 million in annual tax revenues for schools and services, were outnumbered.

We got to the point where two guys at a meeting said, You want to step outside? says Simon, supervisor of Yates. There were moments when it was very tense.

Apex put Lighthouse Wind on pause and if it quits the project, it would be at least the 11th wind farm defeat in New York. That doesnt bode well as the state aims to leap from 30% to 70% renewable energy in 10 years.

In response, the state government is working to sideline local officials. In April the legislature passed a law that creates a much quicker approval process for wind and solar projects and makes it easier for a new state office to overrule local zoning decisions.

It's important to listen to the [local] concerns and try to mitigate them, says Anne Reynolds, executive director of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York, an Albany-based advocacy consortium of companies and environmental organizations. But the great majority of New Yorkers support the clean energy goals and understand we have to have a place to put it.

The law has reignited tensions upstate. Apex could use it to try to overturn the zoning restrictions in Somerset and Yates that are blocking Lighthouse Wind  a possibility that Simon considers an assault on local governments by Cuomo.

The system is rigged, compliments of Governor Cuomo," the supervisor says.

California: Solars Desert Storm

The sparsely populated, blazing hot California desert would seem to offer a way around such problems. Solar developers, fueled with federal incentives, pushed into the California desert over the last decades, aiming to build mega projects on the vast federal properties overseen by the Bureau of Land Management. BLM had as many as 80 applications to process at once in about 2010.

It was like the gold rush, says Jeremiah Karuzas, renewable energy program manager for BLM in California.

San Bernadino County outside Los Angeles (shaded light) is the largest county in the contiguous U.S. -- and largely off-limits to renewable energy developers.

Big environmental groups cheered the buildout in the California desert  one of the best solar locations in the world. But Kevin Emmerich, a retired national park ranger who has lived in the Mojave since the early 1990s, witnessed firsthand a problem that has long thwarted fossil fuel projects: threats to wildlife.

Specifically, he saw how the projects were crushing tens of thousands of acres of pristine habitat for the threatened desert tortoise and other species just to send power to the Los Angeles area. His nonprofit group, Basin and Range Watch, spearheaded the opposition starting about a decade ago, providing research to pressure federal and local officials to reject projects in the desert.

Emmerich estimates that 70,000 acres of tortoise habitat in California have been destroyed, adding to the recent push for its listing as an endangered species. There is huge potential to build solar on rooftops and degraded agricultural lands, says Emmerich. Why destroy pristine desert when you have many alternatives?

Emmerich and other opponents helped delay and defeat about a dozen projects. All told, the bureau rejected about 93 solar developments between 2008 and 2016 in the desert for environmental and military concerns. It approved 24 solar and wind farms over the last decade, but only five solar installations are finished and operating on BLM land with three more on the way.

To speed up the rollout, BLM and state officials in 2016 put in place the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan. It identified 600-square-miles of federal land where projects would be fast-tracked, hundreds of additional square miles open to development, and set aside about 10,000-square-miles for conservation.

But rules to protect vegetation and habitat got in the way of fast-tracking and contributed to the plunge in applications to only two in 2017 before a more recent uptick. Karuzas says the bureau is now fixing the plan to give more flexibility to developers.

The promise was that permitting would be a little easier, says Shannon Eddy, executive director of the trade group Large-Scale Solar Association. Its much more difficult, and in a lot of cases, precludes development altogether.

Big environmental groups cheered the buildout in the California desert until they realized pristine habitats for the threatened desert tortoise and other species were being crushed just to send power to the Los Angeles area.

Developers who have sought refuge in private lands closer to small towns in San Bernadino County have faced strong pushback from residents concerned about dust storms and the use of scarce water by solar farms. The desert crust that binds soil  and absorbs carbon dioxide like a sponge -- is disturbed when a solar farm is installed. Strong desert winds pick up the loosened sand and dirt, adding more particulate matter to the frequent dust storms that travel for miles and even stop traffic, says Neil Nadler, a commercial real estate developer and conservationist.

A couple of times driving from Lucerne Valley to Joshua Tree I had to pull over because my car was going to get wiped out from the dust storm, says Nadler.

Last year San Bernadino, the largest county in the contiguous U.S., sent a jolt through the industry by pushing off large developments to five remote areas and taking about a million acres out of play to protect communities. Los Angeles County has also choked off projects, leaving Kern and Riverside counties as friendlier destinations for developers.

Kerns director of planning, Lorelei Oviatt, has turned her county into the top wind and solar producer in the state. Early on, she set clear rules on where projects can be sited  on land thats not useable for agriculture or industry  and created a more efficient environmental review that developers appreciate.

But Oviatt says its fantasy to think that California can double its solar output to meet its target of 60% renewable energy by 2030 if other things dont change. For one, counties need to generate more tax revenue from new solar projects, which are currently excluded from reassessments on land values.

The easy land is gone, she says. The tolerance of local governments and local communities for hosting is gone. They are closing fire stations and libraries. If you are serious about 60%, you have to look at the impact of solar on local government revenue.

Michigan: An Activist in Farm Country

The battle over a giant wind farm that tore up a farming community in Michigan came with an unusual twist. At public meetings in Lapeer County, a mother repeatedly made emotional appeals to officials to oppose the project because she said shadows from spinning blades could cause her special-needs child to have seizures.

Michigan: A mother's concern for her special-needs child galvanized opposition to a big wind farm in rural Lapeer County.

DTE Energy, which had been responding to more typical concerns at public meetings for months, now had another fire to put out. The utility brought in neurologist Jeffrey Ellenbogen, an expert in potential health impacts of wind power, who tried to assure the mom and other folks at a public meeting last year that theres no link between turbines and headaches, dizziness or seizures.

It didnt work. A month later she galvanized the opposition to the 50-turbine wind farm at a packed gathering in a church, featuring a presentation by a prominent anti-wind power activist, Kevon Martis.

Martis is the bane of renewable energy developers in Michigan. The activist travels around the state and says he has made about 40 presentations at public meetings over the last decade. He dismisses wind power is a high-cost and low-value proposition that profits only a few landowners with leases.

Natural gas is certainly cheaper than unsubsidized wind energy, says Martis, who is agnostic on the issue of human-caused climate change. My long-term solution is nuclear power.

If officials need to be pressured, Martis tells opponents to use fear. Your county commissioners will not be moved by facts. They will be moved by political fear, he wrote on Facebook in December. Your path to success must involve showing them that your group is a substantial portion of the electorate and that you are fired up and willing to do whatever it takes to stop this project.

Opponents have been notching victories along the way. Ed Rivet, executive director of the Michigan Conservative Energy Forum, estimates that for every wind farm that gets approved in the state, another one is abandoned, with local opposition a significant factor.

Kevon Martis, wind-power opponent: Your county commissioners will not be moved by facts. They will be moved by political fear.

Thats what happened in Lapeer County. While DTE had signed agreements with more than 600 landowners controlling 23,000 acres in its three-year campaign to win support, it couldnt stop local officials from essentially killing the project through zoning changes that greatly reduced the available land. Michigans biggest utility pulled the plug in May.

Regrettably, part of the opposition is not based on science and facts, says Matt Wagner, manager of renewable energy development at DTE, which has abandoned three wind projects. It has really made building wind in Michigan a challenge.

Developer Rich Vander Veen has had success in Michigan using an economic approach that doesnt divide towns into those who get lease payouts and those who don't. For several wind farms, he offered all landowners with at least one acre a share of the projects revenue, whether or not they host a turbine.

We got zoning approval from the different townships, the project went up on time and on budget, and we never had any complaints, says Vander Veen, the Michigan counsel at developer Savion. We balanced the responsibilities between the developer and communities to help them achieve their goals, like keeping family farms for future generations.

DTE and the Consumers Energy, the states other big utility, have set a goal of 25% renewable energy by 2030. To get there, DTE is shifting to solar farms, which are lower slung and less visible than turbines, and they dont make noise. The falling price of solar power and the possibility of fewer community conflicts is behind the transition.

Theres a pretty big shift to solar, DTEs Wagner says. While solar is not without its challenges, some of them are much more manageable.
Navitas is the only production gallium nitride [GaN] company to be recognized by EE Times, recognizing our monolithic, highly-integrated approach is leading the industry for next-generation power electronics solutions

Navitas Semiconductor announced today its selection to the prestigious 2020 Electronic Engineering Times Silicon 100 start-up ranking. Navitas exceeded selection criteria including technology, intended market, financial position and investment profile, maturity and executive leadership. EE Times has published the Silicon listing since 2004, and the latest list includes companies across a broad range of semiconductor categories that include analog & mixed-signal, wide-band gap materials, machine learning, quantum computing and wireless, among others.

Navitas is the only production gallium nitride [GaN] company to be recognized by EE Times, recognizing our monolithic, highly-integrated approach is leading the industry for next-generation power electronics solutions, said Stephen Oliver, Navitas Vice-President Marketing and Investor Relations, adding Customers clearly see the performance advantages GaN has over old, slow silicon, and see how they can upgrade their products to take advantage of the speed, density and efficiency GaNFast Power ICs deliver.

Brian Santo, Editor in Chief of EE Times, explained All of the companies in our Silicon 100 made the list because of their innovations in the electronics industry. Recently there have been some great strides in the use of semiconductors other than silicon. Navitas specializes in power ICs built with gallium nitride. The company earned inclusion in the Silicon 100 with its aggressive program to create patentable improvements in GaN and GaN circuitry, efforts that have caught the eye of OEMs who need power ICs for their products. We take pride in knowing technology and understanding the business. The Silicon 60, this year expanded to the Silicon 100, demonstrates the commitment of EE Times and its distinguished reporters to recognize the critical role that start-ups play in technological progress.

Gallium nitride is a next-generation semiconductor technology that runs up to 20x faster than old, slow silicon (Si), and enables 3x more power, which translates to up to 3x faster charging in half the size & weight.

Navitas recently announced that their GaNFast Power ICs are the leading choice in creating the worlds smallest, thinnest and lightest power adapters and fast-chargers having been selected in over 50 fast-charger products and platforms including Lenovo, Xiaomi and NVIDIA. A 100+ patent IP portfolio is the established technology foundation on which next-generation GaNFast chargers are built.

About Navitas:

Navitas Semiconductor Inc. is the worlds first and only GaN Power IC company, founded in 2014. Navitas has a strong and growing team of power semiconductor industry experts with a combined 200 years of experience in materials, devices, applications, systems and marketing, plus a proven record of innovation with over 300 patents among its founders. GaN power ICs monolithically-integrate GaN power, GaN analog and GaN logic circuits to enable faster charging, higher power density and greater energy savings for mobile, consumer, enterprise, eMobility and new energy markets. Over 100 Navitas patents are issued or pending.

About EE Times

Since 1973, Electronic Engineering Times has been delivering news and analysis geared for electrical engineers. Over the 50+ years since its founding, the electronics and publishing industries have gone through enormous changes, but EE Times remains committed to delivering content about technology, business and the profession that is accurate, insightful, useful and entertaining. EE Times offers design engineers and management executives news and analysis of the latest technologies and business developments in the global electronics industry. Award-winning journalists and subject matter experts strive to cover not just what happened today, but why it happened and how it transpired.

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Navitas Semiconductor, GaNFast and the Navitas logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Navitas Semiconductor, Inc. All other brands, product names and marks are or may be trademarks or registered trademarks used to identify products or services of their respective owners.
Guy PhilLaak Dunlap Wins 2020 WSOP Online Event #15: $1,000 PLO 8-Max ($133,780)

July 16, 2020 Chad Holloway

On Wednesday night, the 2020 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Online Event #15: $1,000 PLO 8-Max attracted 386 players who rebought 277 times. The 663-entry field resulted in a $629,850 prize pool, and after more than 12 hours of play, it was Guy PhilLaak Dunlap, who hails from Portland, Oregon, claiming victory for a $133,780 top prize plus his first gold bracelet.

According to The Hendon Mob, Dunlap has $106,317 in live tournament earnings including a career-best $26,104 for finishing third in the Pendleton 2011 Fall Poker Round-Up $500 Main Event.

In addition to having success in the Pacific Northwest, which includes several victories in smaller events, Dunlap has also amassed six figures playing online. Now, hes the proud owner of a WSOP online bracelet.

Watch: Daniel Negreanu Blows Up after Connection Glitch! Everyone experiences tilt in this game we all love... even "KidPoker"! CHECK IT HERE

2020 WSOP Online Event #15 Final Table Results

Place Player Prize 1 Guy PhilLaak Dunlap $133,780 2 Shane danish01 Daniels $82,069 3 Todd chi.t.420 Sladek $56,749 4 Jacob Bandit275 Powers $39,870 5 Keith thxsimgod Ferrera $28,469 6 Blake shampainpopn Whittington $20,659 7 Matt jacksup Matros $15,305 8 Anthony heheh Zinno $11,526

Action of the Day

After wippitywap bubbled the tournament in 100th place, the top 99 players got paid including Jesse mrjessejames Sylvia (78th - $1,700.59), Erik NW1Time Seidel (60th - $2,015.52), Event #13 champ Michael miguelfiesta Lech (43rd - $2,582.38), Event #6 winner Nathan surfbum Gamble (28th - $3,023.28), Event #3 bracelet winner Robert bustinballs Kuhn (15th - $5,416.71), and Calvin "projector52" Anderson (11th - $6,865.36).

Todd chi.t.420 Sladek began the final table as the chip leader while two-time WSOP bracelet winner Anthony heheh Zinno was the short stack. Not surprisingly, Zinno was the first to go after he got it in on the flop with a set of aces against three-time bracelet winner Matt jacksup Matros, who had a flush draw. The diamond flush came in on the turn and Zinno failed to pair the board on the river to fall in eighth place.

A final table for two-time bracelet winner Anthony "heheh" Zinno

Matros wound up following him out the door after getting it in preflop with kings against Sladeks aces, and then Sladek eliminated six-time circuit ring winner Blake shampainpopn Whittington cracking kings when he made two pair on the river.

Next to go was Keith thxsimgod Ferrera after getting it in with a flush draw and missing against Shane "danish01" Daniels, who finished the hand with two pair. Daniels then busted Jacob "Bandit275" Powers after the duo got it in on the flop with the former holding an open-ended straight draw and the latter a set. The straight came in and that was all she wrote for Powers.

On this same day in history, John Cynn and Joe Hachem won the Main Event

Sladek bowed out in third place after getting short, and that saw Dunlap take an 8.4 million chip lead into heads-up play against Daniels, who had 4.8 million. For the second time in the 2020 WSOP online series, Daniels was heads-up for a bracelet, though in his first outing he had to settle for second place in Event #6: $600 PLO8 Six-Max for $55,283.

Once again, Daniels was denied WSOP gold as he was unable to spin up his stack, ultimately calling it off when Dunlap had aces in the hole. Both players wound up making a club flush on the runout, but Dunlaps was best to eliminate Daniels in second for $82,069.

2020 Online WSOP Bracelet Winners

*Lead image courtesy of Chinook Winds Casino.

Download WSOP.com in Nevada and New Jersey

The first step in getting set up to play on WSOP.com is to download the client. You can do so for both mobile (Android and iOS) and desktop (Windows 7 or higher and Mac OS X 10.6.8).

To get the correct version of the client, use the links below:

The next tournament on the schedule  Event #16: $500 No-Limit Hold'em Turbo  will take place at 3 p.m. PDT on Thursday. The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will once again be reporting all the action, so be sure to tune in then to see who captures the next 2020 WSOP bracelet!
By Andres Rojas and Herbert Villarraga

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Doctors in Bogota are calling for a return to a strict city-wide quarantine to slow coronavirus infections in Colombia's capital, warning that medical services are close to collapsing, a leading medic said on Thursday.

The Andean country has reported over 165,000 cases of the coronavirus and around 6,000 deaths. Bogota accounts for more than a third of the country's total cases and over 20% of its deaths.

"We're in a critical situation," the president of the Bogota College of Medicine, Herman Bayona, told Reuters. "We are close to collapse."

Colombian President Ivan Duque declared an ongoing quarantine to slow the spread of the coronavirus in late March.

The quarantine is due to be lifted on Aug. 1, with certain sectors of the economy and parts of the country already starting to reopen.

This week the capital began strict, rolling two-week quarantines by neighborhood, something Bayona said was ineffective.

"We don't think zonal quarantines have the power to slow the speed of infections," he said.

Bayona said a number of medical associations had met with political leaders in Bogota to argue for a return to a strict city-wide quarantine.

Bogota's intensive care units (ICUs) were at just under 90% capacity as of Wednesday evening, according to local government figures. Mayor Claudia Lopez visited a public hospital on Thursday and said between 20 and 30 new ventilators will come online daily to increase ICU capacity.

"Bogota's hospitals haven't collapsed," Lopez said. "The hospital system and ICUs are serving everyone who needs attention."

Though some ICUs are at full capacity, patients can be moved to hospitals with space, she said.

But ICUs are not the only measure of a stretched health system. COVID-19 wards in the city are full, Bayona said, while emergency services are operating above capacity.

Lopez is set to hold a meeting early next week with the health ministry to determine whether all of Bogota will be placed under a strict quarantine.

Story continues

If hospitals reach full capacity as the peak of the pandemic hits, it will spell disaster, Bayona said.

"The possibility of a great number of deaths in our city is a latent risk," he said.

(Reporting by Andres Rojas and Herbert Villarraga; additional reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb; Writing by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
KHARTOUM (Sudanow) - Sudan has rejected a move taken by neighboring Ethiopia which started filling the Great Renaissance Dam, well before an agreement was reached by the three countries, Egypt, Ethiopia and the Sudan, on a number of technical and legal questions related to the filling of the huge dam.

The Sudanese ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources on Wednesday said local and international media widely circulated reports supported by satellite imagery that Ethiopia had begun filling the Renaissance Dam reservoir before reaching an agreement on the first filling and operation.

The Press release said these reports are confirmed by water levels recorded by the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources of the Blue Nile in Sudan. It added that "The figure of 90 Million Cubic Meters release per day recorded at Daim station in Sudan suggests that the filling of the GERD has started indeed.

The Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources reiterates its firm rejection of any unilateral actions taken by any party, especially at a time the efforts of the African Union and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa continue to reach an agreement between the three countries on the pending issues that could be resolved with robust political will, the Sudanese ministry said.

The release stressed that the Government of Sudan and the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources will follow these developments in a manner that secures the national interests of Sudan.
Bills envisaging responsibility for alienation of Russias territory reach State Duma

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

10:18 16/07/2020

MOSCOW, July 16 (RAPSI)  Bills establishing punishments for actions aimed at cession of Russias territory and calls for such actions have been submitted to the State Duma, according to a statement of lawmakers representing the United Russia political party in the lower house of Russias Parliament.

The documents are authored by co-chairs of the working group on drafting amendments to the national Constitution State Duma deputy Pavel Krasheninnikov and Senator Andrey Klishas.

The respective prohibition is enshrined in the amended Constitution; to set it in effect it is proposed to amend a number of Codes and laws of the Russian Federation; the bills have been already positively assessed by the Government and the Supreme Court, the statement reads.

The bills are to introduce administrative responsibility for first time offenders publicly calling for violation of territorial integrity of Russia instead of criminal responsibility for such deeds as currently envisaged; the repeated violations committed within a year are to be criminally prosecuted. Criminal fines are to be increased and set at 200,000 to 400,000 rubles (about $3,000 to $5,500 at the current exchange rate), whereas the imprisonment terms up to 4 years are to be unchanged.

Administrative punishments are to include fines in the range from 30,000 to 60,000 rubles ($425 to $850) for individuals, from 60,000 to 100,000 rubles ($850 to $1,500) for officials, and from 200,000 to 300,000 rubles ($3,000 to $4,200) for corporations. Higher fines are to be applied in cases where public calls were made via mass media outlets, internet, or other means of communications: from 70,000 to 100,000 rubles ($1,000 to $1,500) for individuals, from 100,000 to 200,000 rubles ($1,500 to $3,000) for officials, from 300,000 to 500,000 rubles ($4,200 to $7,000) for corporations. The cases are to be initiated by prosecutors offices and heard by district courts.

It is proposed to introduce a criminal punishment for violation of territorial integrity of Russia in the Criminal Code; the respective imprisonment terms are to make from 6 to 10 years.

Krasheninnikov reminded that the State Duma had recently approved in the first reading a package of laws against extremism, which includes certain provisions protecting territorial integrity of Russia.




An Amazfit Band 6 device has been spotted getting its FCC certification, which is something of a surprise considering the Amazfit Band 5 from Huami only recently went by the same agency too. It could be possible that "Amazfit Band 6" might be the US market name for the widely rumored Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 5 Pro wearable.

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

An Amazfit Band 6 device has been spotted getting its FCC certification surprisingly soon after the Amazfit Band 5 was also discovered visiting the same authority. It could be that Huami is planning on global domination of the activity tracker/wearables market thanks to its involvement with Xiaomis highly successful Mi Band range and for its own Amazfit-branded range of smart bands and smartwatches. However, there could be a very simple reason for the Amazfit Band 5 and Amazfit Band 6 to show up like this.

As has been pointed out by Gadgets & Wearables, the currently known Amazfit Band 5 specifications that we recently reported about are identical to what the Xiaomi Mi Band 5 can offer: A water-resistant AMOLED, 125-mAh battery, a heart-rate monitor, etc. Its even believed to look like the Mi Band 5, which has just been released outside of China as the Mi Smart Band 5. It seems possible then that the Mi Smart Band 5 could be rebranded as the Amazfit Band 5 for the US market, as Amazfit is a known brand in the USA.

So if the Amazfit Band 5 is basically the Mi Smart Band 5, then what is the Amazfit Band 6 and why is it coming out hot on the heels of its predecessor? The logical explanation seems to be that the Amazfit Band 6 will be the still unconfirmed Mi Smart Band 5 Pro, bringing extra tech goodies like an SpO2 monitor, NFC functionality, and virtual assistant integration to its wearers. The fact that the Huami Amazfit Band 6 has actually just turned up at the FCC may have indirectly confirmed the existence of the rumored Pro variant of the Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 5.

Current documentation for the Amazfit Band 6 reveals almost next to nothing about the device, apart from some official marks and a model number A2005. However, appearing at the FCC so shortly after the Amazfit Band 5 does lend weight to the likelihood that these two wearables are basically the "Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 5 Pro" and Mi Smart Band 5 in disguise for the US market.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16

By Ilkin Seyfaddini - Trend:

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan Abdulaziz Kamilov met with Minister of Foreign Economic Relations and Foreign Affairs of Hungary Peter Szijjarto on July 16, 2020, Trend reports citing the Uzbek Foreign Ministry.

During the talks, the sides exchanged views on the prospects of Uzbek-Hungarian relations in political, trade-economic, investment, cultural-humanitarian and other spheres, as well as within international and regional organizations.

A particular emphasis has been placed on the implementation of agreements reached during the bilateral meeting between President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in October 2019.

The sides confirmed big existing potential for further expansion of trade-economic and investment cooperation, discussed mechanisms to increase the volumes of bilateral trade.

The sides stressed interest in developing relations in cultural and humanitarian sphere, in particular, in establishing ties between leading higher education institutions of the two countries.

The heads of foreign affairs agencies also exchanged views on bolstering Uzbek-Hungarian interaction within the framework of Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council) and Uzbekistan-Hungary-EU format.

The meeting concluded with the signing of Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan and the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Foreign Affairs of Hungary on cooperation in diplomatic training and exchange of information and documentation.

---

Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini
Duleshwar Tandi aka Rapper Dule Rocker, is the latest sensation on social media. In his songs, he raps about the plight of the migrant workers during the COVID-19 crisis.

Rapper Dule Rocker is a 27-year-old migrant worker from Odisha and hails from the state's Kalahandi district. His whole purpose of becoming a rapper was to make everyone aware about the conditions of workers during the pandemic-induced lockdown.

Also read: COVID-19: How The Quarantine Is Proving To Be Another Deadly Threat For The Underprivileged

Twitter/Dule Rocker

He uses no musical instruments, no background scores or any fancy stages in his songs. Instead, he sings in his humble muddy hut and records the songs on his mobile phone.

Duleshwar had moved to Raipur back in 2013 as a migrant worker after he completed his BSc degree in Chemistry from a government college in Kalahandi. He also worked as a waiter in a hotel and often washed plates and cleaned tables.

He returned to his village, Borda, on March 23, just before the national lockdown.

Also read: This 80-YO Coolie Is Doing His Bit To Help Troubled Migrants By Carrying Their Luggage For Free

He told India Today, "As I saw news reports of the novel coronavirus cases growing in China, US and European countries, I sensed, situation may get worse here. After the state government announced the lockdown in major districts, I made up my mind and decided to come back."



When he saw migrant workers with no means to get home, and walking barefoot with their kids on their shoulders, Duleshwar came up with his first song called Telling The Truth. In the song, he rapped about how politicians are using this opportunity to make money in the name of helping others.

He came up with another rap video called Sun Sarkar, Sat Katha (Listen Government, True Story) which again talks about the plight of the poor workers during this pandemic.

Also read: Story Of Sonu Sood: India's Unexpected Lockdown Migrant Hero

"In one video, I rapped about how the migrants had exhausted all their savings and lost everything in a matter of days after the factories and construction sites were closed due to the lockdown. They had to walk, some barefoot, with their kids on their back in summer. The leaders were only giving them sermons instead of helping them," he said.



Duleshwar started writing rap at an early age in life and has also done performances in Chandigarh. Currently, he lives in a tiny mud hut with his mother. After his songs went viral, he received offers from the Odia film industry, which might help improve his situation as well as give him an opportunity to showcase his talent on a much bigger platform.
R Sivakumar By

Express News Service

TIRUPATHYR: Tamil Nadu Minister for Labour and Employment Dr Nilofer Kafeel tested positive for COVID-19, official sources said on Thursday.

She is the fourth Minister in Tamil Nadu cabinet to test positive, after KP Anbalagan (Higher Education), Sellur K Raju (Cooperation) and P Thangamani (Electricity).

Her son and son-in-law have also tested positive for the virus.

Nilofer Kafeel, who represents Vaniyambadi segment in Tamil Nadu Assembly, has been residing at Vaniyambadi town. However, a few days back, she left for Chennai and since have been staying at her official residence in the capital.

Kafeel was absent when top leaders including her cabinet colleague KC Veeramani (Commercial Taxes and Registration) lined up to receive Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Wednesday en route to Krishnagiri, the sources noted.

Kafeel is a Unani doctor while her son practices allopathy. Her residence in Vaniyambadi has been sanitized following the test results.

The Health department officials have initiated contact tracing in Tirupathur district where she had attended certain official functions recently.

We have initiated contact tracing to find out people who have come in contact with her in the recent days, a senior officer told The New Indian Express.

On July 9, Kafeel had attended a review meeting along with Veeramani in Vellore collectorate, in which top officials of Tirupathur and Ranipet also participated.
New Delhi: Actress Rhea Chakraborty has finally opened up about actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death and urged for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into his suicide case. She has written to Home Minister Amit Shah requesting to initiate a CBI enquiry in the "interest of justice".

Sushant died by suicide on June 14 at his Mumbai residence. He was said to be under stress and depression for some months. His suicide case is being currently investigated by Mumbai Police.

In her post shared on Twitter and Instagram, Rhea addressed herself as Sushant's girlfriend and wrote, "Respected Amit Shah sir, I'm Sushant Singh Rajput's girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty. It is now over a month since his sudden demise. I have complete faith in the government. However, in the interest of justice, I request you with folded hands to initiate a CBI enquiry into this matter. I only want to understand what pressures prompted Sushant to take this step - Rhea Chakraborty. Satyameva Jayate."

Take a look at her post here:

Sushant and Rhea were often spotted together in and about Mumbai but had never acknowledged their relationship publically. It was on Sushant's one-month death anniversary on Tuesday that the actress finally spoke about him in a heart-wrenching post. She also changed her display picture (DP) of WhatsApp to a selfie with Sushant.

Since Sushant Singh Rajput's death, Rhea has been subjected to a lot of trolling and abuse on social media. Earlier today, she revealed about receiving rape and murder threats on Instagram and has also been told to "commit suicide" or else she would be "killed".

Rhea shared a screenshot of the message she received and added that she has been called a "gold-digger, a murderer" and also "slut-shamed" earlier.

Rhea was also interrogated by the Mumbai Police as part of the investigation after Sushant's death. Apart from Rhea, some of Sushant's family members, his friends, work associates and house helps were also called to record their statements.
MOSCOW, July 16 (Reuters) - Russian mining giant Norilsk Nickel (Nornickel) and Russian Platinum, backed by Russian businessman Musa Bazhaev, will cooperate in developing the Chernogorskoye platinum group metals deposit in Siberia, they said on Thursday.

The agreement is another attempt by the companies to cooperate after their talks about creating a joint venture for the larger Arctic palladium project failed to get an approval from one of Nornickel's shareholders amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "The cooperation of both companies in the new format will help to ... provide the needed amount of platinum group metals to the market which is running in deficit," Sergey Dubovitsky, Nornickel's head of strategy, said in a statement issued by the companies.

Nornickel is the world's largest producer of palladium, with its main mines based around the Arctic city of Norilsk. Russian Platinum is developing the Chernogorskoye and another deposit - the southern part of the Norilsk-1 - on its own in the same region.

Nornickel would offer Russian Platinum access to its infrastructure near the city of Norilsk and will be responsible for sales of metals produced in this deposit.

The long-term off-take agreement is expected to be signed by the end of March, 2021, they added.

(Reporting by Polina Devitt Editing by Edmund Blair and Frances Kerry)

Messaging: polina.devitt.reuters.com@reuters.net))
T he heartbroken family of a teenager who was stabbed to death in west London said they forgive his killers as they paid tribute to their loved one.

Ahmed Yasin-Ali, 18, was heard begging No, no, dont do this as he was ambushed and beaten by a gang in Maida Hill in the early hours of Wednesday.

The victims family paid tribute to him as detectives investigating the his murder continued to appeal for witnesses.

In a statement, Ahmed's family said: "Our beloved son, brother and friend peacefully passed away on Wednesday morning. He was loved by all and will forever be missed.

"Caring, loving, and by far the most clean-hearted of us all.

He wanted nothing but good for everyone and himself; striving hard in his school work and job to make it to university in order to provide our family with a better life.

Police at the scene of the stabbing / John Dunne

They said Ahmed was a victim of youth violence, adding: the last thing we need is any retaliation or revenge.

We as Muslims forgive those who so painfully took away our precious and beautiful son. Forever in our hearts, our neighbourhood hero."

Detective Chief Inspector Vicky Tunstall said the scene of the murder was near Harrow Road, a busy arterial road through West London.

She is keen to hear from anyone who saw or heard a disturbance on Elmfield Way, or a vehicle driving at speed in the Harrow Road around 12.30am.

Neighbours raised the alarm after they were woken by screams. They tried to save the teenager but he was pronounced dead in hospital about 30 minutes later.

The killing, in a car park between a housing block and NHS buildings in Elmfield Way, Maida Hill, was Londons sixth violent death in 11 days.

DCI Tunstall said: "I would particularly like to hear from anyone who was driving in Harrow Road between 11:45pm and 12.30am on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, if you have dashcam footage, regardless of whether you witnessed anything unusual.

"Ahmeds family are devastated by the loss of their son and brother and we are working tirelessly to investigate the circumstances surrounding his murder. Ahmed was only 18 years old, had his whole life ahead of him and had aspirations to attend university, so this is a particularly tragic and wasted loss of life.

"I would also like to appeal to those in the community who may hear, or know information about this tragic death. I can assure you, this information will be treated with sensitivity and care, and I ask you to trust that we will take appropriate action and can provide complete confidentiality, if that is your concern.

"Importantly, as a specialist command, we are working very closely with the local police to ensure the safety of the community during this time, and ask that you support us in this and provide information, regardless of the relevance it may or may not have. I am determined to ensure those responsible for his death are brought to justice as swiftly as possible.

No arrests have been made.

Anyone with information is asked to call police via 101 quoting Cad reference 185/15Jul. Alternatively, to remain anonymous, please call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Former minister and Samajwadi party leader Ghoora Ram died of coronavirus early Thursday morning at the King George's Medical University in Lucknow, his family said.

According to the SP leader's son Santosh Kumar, he was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday after he complained of a cough and difficulty in breathing.

He tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday, Kumar said, adding that his condition deteriorated in the evening.

Ghoora Ram, confidant of BSP founder Kashi Ram, was elected from the Rasra (reserved) assembly seat in 1993, 2002 and 2007, and was also health minister in the Mayawati government.

Recently, he had joined the Samajwadi Party and was made a member of the national working committee.
C Shivakumar By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: In a bid to woo investments in the defence industrial corridor, Tamil Nadu government is planning to tweak the Aerospace and Defence Industrial Policy, which was unveiled at the Second edition of global Investors Meet, according to Chairperson and MD of TIDCO, Usha Kakarala.

Kakarala spoke at the fifth edition  Virtual Conference on Aerospace & Defence Manufacturing Technologies with the theme of Empowering India with Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Mission organised by the Tamil Nadu Technology Development & Promotion Centre of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in partnership with Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM) through a Virtual Platform.

The policy, which was unveiled by then Defence Minister Nirmala Seetharaman a year ago, will include more investment packages to woo investment in the defence corridor, a top official in the Industry

department told The New Indian Express.

It is learnt that Tamil Nadu is targeting investments worth USD 10 billion in the next five to 10 years in the six clusters identified in the state.

The six clusters include Chennai, Coimbatore, Kancheepuram, Krishnagiri, Salem and Trichy.

The policy by Tamil Nadu stresses on the need to create an end to end ecosystem for aerospace sector development covering design, engineering and manufacturing of aircraft for the civil and defence sector.

The plan is also to attract Original equipment manufacturers and Tier-1 suppliers and India majors as anchor units in the state by providing required facilities and support at competitive rates, the official said.

Dr G Satheesh Reddy, Secretary, Department of Defence, Research and development and Chairman, Defence Research and Development Organisation, highlighted that for India's technology base to grow, there is a need to develop technology in-house.

He highlighted that DRDO is filtering out the patents which are promising for the industry and added that 87 percent of Akash Missile System was developed where subsystems and technology came from the industry highlighting the success of public-private partnership.

There are a lot of schemes available which will support and handhold industries to do in house production.

Shripad Yesso Naik, Minister of State for Defence, said the Covid-19 has given opportunity for Tamil Nadu to attract new investment from companies in countries like Germany, Finland, Taiwan, France, Korea, Japan, China, the US, Australia, the UK and the Netherlands.

The government is focusing on developing a strong domestic capability in defence to give greater impetus for economic growth, skilled job creation in manufacturing and to support growth of domestic manufacturers and MSMEs.
Andrew stepped back from royal duties last November. (Getty Images)

Prince Andrews website has been taken down, more than eight months after he stepped back from his royal duties.

The prince had his own website, dukeofyork.org, which gave details of his royal work and his family, with pages on his daughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.

However the link now redirects to his profile page on the royal.uk website, which has pages for all working family members.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman told Yahoo UK the contract with the host provider for dukeofyork.org came to an end, and was not renewed.

She said the website is being redirected, but added there were no plans to have new pages written for the dukes daughters, because royal.uk is for working members of the Royal Family.

The Duke's Twitter bio still directs people to visit his old website. (Twitter)

The Duke's instagram account also directs to his main website. (Instagram)

The Duke of York stepped back from royal duties in 2019, after a disastrous interview on BBC Newsnight about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who took his own life in prison while awaiting trial for sex trafficking offences.

The duke has been accused by Virginia Guiffre, also called Virginia Roberts, of having sex with her on three occasions, one of which when she was underage in the US.

He denies the allegations, and has promised to cooperate with US authorities investigating Epstein.

Read more: Prince Andrew 'highly likely' to be called to give evidence in Ghislaine Maxwell trial

However, prosecutors in the case say he hasnt made good on that pledge, though he claims he has offered to help on multiple occasions.

The dukes social media pages are still active, though nothing has been added to them since his statement in November about stepping back.

His former web address is still listed, even though it redirects.

Prince Harry and Meghan also retain their pages on royal.uk despite stepping back from their senior royal roles in March.

None of the work they carry out is on behalf of the Queen.

Prince Andrew, centre left, and Ghislaine Maxwell, centre right, at Ascot in 2000. (Getty Images)

Read more: What has Prince Andrew said about his friendship with Ghislaine Maxwell?

Despite reports earlier this year that the Queen was resigned to her second son, Andrew, never returning to frontline royal duties, the palace did not add to the statement released in November, that said he would not be back for the foreseeable future.

Story continues

Andrews old friend Ghislaine Maxwell is in jail in New York as she awaits her trial next year, charged with procuring girls for Epstein to sexually abuse.

She and Andrew met at university and he previously said she was the person who introduced him to Epstein. However that has recently been disputed, as her friends claim the men met at a party she did not go to.

Andrew has rarely been seen in public since stepping back from his duties, and made a statement last month suggesting US authorities were seeking publicity instead of answers.
By Trend





Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan Abdulaziz Kamilov met with Minister of Foreign Economic Relations and Foreign Affairs of Hungary Peter Szijjarto on July 16, 2020, Trend reports citing the Uzbek Foreign Ministry.

During the talks, the sides exchanged views on the prospects of Uzbek-Hungarian relations in political, trade-economic, investment, cultural-humanitarian and other spheres, as well as within international and regional organizations.

A particular emphasis has been placed on the implementation of agreements reached during the bilateral meeting between President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in October 2019.

The sides confirmed big existing potential for further expansion of trade-economic and investment cooperation, discussed mechanisms to increase the volumes of bilateral trade.

The sides stressed interest in developing relations in cultural and humanitarian sphere, in particular, in establishing ties between leading higher education institutions of the two countries.

The heads of foreign affairs agencies also exchanged views on bolstering Uzbek-Hungarian interaction within the framework of Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council) and Uzbekistan-Hungary-EU format.

The meeting concluded with the signing of Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan and the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Foreign Affairs of Hungary on cooperation in diplomatic training and exchange of information and documentation.
South Africa: Gauteng welcomes court order halting taxi violence

Gauteng Public Transport and Roads Infrastructure MEC, Jacob Mamabolo, has welcomed a court order aimed at keeping the peace in taxi operations in the Johannesburg CBD.

The High Court successfully granted the MEC an interdict against the Johannesburg Minibus Taxi Association from preventing, intimidating or interfering with the taxi operations of the Johannesburg Bara Qwa-Qwa Transport Services Taxi Association at the citys taxi rank.

As of 1 July 2020, the Johannesburg Minibus Taxi Association has prevented the Johannesburg Bara Qwa-Qwa Transport Services Taxi Association from using the Johannesburg Taxi Rank on corner Lewds and King George Street, said the Gauteng Public Transport and Roads Infrastructure Department.

In a statement on Thursday, the provincial department said minibus taxis belonging to the Johannesburg Bara Qwa-Qwa Transport Services Taxi Association were expelled by heavily armed men, who occupied and took over control of their taxi rank.

Mamabolo tried to intervene by having a meeting with representatives of both associations and even offered the parties a mediator to assist in resolving the matter.

However, his efforts were futile as the Johannesburg Minibus Taxi Association rejected his call for a truce.

The MEC has described this order that was granted on Tuesday as a victory for stability in the taxi industry and the commuting public.

Throughout, the MEC pleaded with the Johannesburg Bara Qwa-Qwa Transport Services Taxi Association not to take matters into its own hands and retaliate. This was because the MEC was going to approach the courts for an intervention.

The MEC has commended the taxi association for showing full confidence in negotiations and the rule of law.

It was thanks to the maturity of the leadership of the Johannesburg Bara Qwa-Qwa Transport Services Taxi Association that we avoided the CBD of the City of Joburg becoming a war zone, which could have threatened the lives of members of the public, commuters and taxi operators, said Mamabolo.

The MEC has urged all parties to respect the law, especially the court order granted.

He further urged leaders of the taxi industry to appreciate that the period of armed gangs and guns parading at taxi ranks is a thing of the past.

The MEC has also called on taxi industry leaders to begin a transition to the new normal of a gun-free taxi industry.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2020-07-16. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
A parliamentary committee will begin its probe today into the federal government's decision to task the WE Charity  which has ties to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's family  with administering a $900-million summer student grant program.

The House of Commons finance committee voted last week to hold four three-hour meetings this month to "examine how much the government spent in awarding the $912 million sole-source contract to WE Charity."

That motion called on Clerk of the Privy Council Ian Shugart, Minister of Diversity Bardish Chagger, a senior deputy minister from Employment and Social Development Canada and a representative from Volunteer Canada to appear before the committee.

It remains unclear if Shugart will appear at a subsequent meeting, but the notice for today lists Chagger as the first witness set to appear before the committee when the hearing begins at 3 pm ET. CBCnews.ca will livestream the committee hearings today.

Also appearing today is Gina Wilson, senior associate deputy minister at Canadian Heritage. Two people from Employment and Social Development Canada are set to appear before the committee: senior assistant deputy minister Rachel Wernick and Stephanie Hebert, an assistant deputy minister.

The committee also will hear from Paula Speevak, president and CEO of Volunteer Canada, which has criticized the student grant program.

Prime Minister Trudeau and his government have been under fire since announcing the program and the contract with WE Charity late last month because of the charity's close association with the Trudeau family.

Trudeau and his mother, Margaret, have appeared at a number of WE Day events, while Trudeau's wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, hosts a podcast for the group called "WE Well-being."

Initially, WE Charity said members of the Trudeau family were not paid for appearing at WE events, although Sophie Gregoire Trudeau had been reimbursed for travel expenses.

Story continues

Late last week, it emerged that Trudeau's mother Margaret was paid approximately $250,000 for speaking at 28 events, while his brother Alexandre spoke at eight events and received about $32,000.

Watch | Trudeau asked Thursday if he'll appear at committee studying WE contract

Multiple inquiries launched

The deal between WE Charity and the federal government has since been dissolved but the controversy over Trudeau's role in the contract continues to haunt his government.

Late last month, Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion launched an investigation into Trudeau's role in the contract after both the Conservatives and the NDP wrote to him asking for a probe.

Dion said Trudeau is being investigated under subsection 6(1) of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Act, which prohibits public office holders from making decisions that further their own private interests or the interests of another person.

Trudeau also is being investigated under sections 7 and 21 of the Act, which relate to giving someone preferential treatment and failing to recuse from a conflict of interest.

Calling on the RCMP

The democratic reform advocacy group Democracy Watch, meanwhile, has asked Dion to investigate Finance Minister Bill Morneau, who also has ties to WE Charity through his family, and to look into whether Trudeau or anyone operating on his behalf  such as his chief of staff, Katie Telford  tried to influence the public service to undertake the contract with WE Charity.

A spokesperson from Dion's office told CBC on Tuesday that all requests for investigations are being considered and a decision will be made later this week.

Watch: 'The mistake that we made was on me': Trudeau apologizes for WE Charity furor

The Conservatives also have written to RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki asking the Mounties to investigate the student grant program and the seven other federal grants and contributions  valued at more than $5 million  that WE has received from Ottawa since 2017.

Democracy Watch has asked the RCMP to look into whether the prime minister violated the Criminal Code in his dealings with the charity.

Yesterday, the National Post reported that Trudeau asked WE Charity to host a 2017 Canada Day event on Parliament Hill, for which the government paid the charity $1.18 million.

The National Post also reported that Trudeau's mother, who had been receiving fees for making public appearances at WE events at the time, was a speaker at the event.

PMO spokesperson Chantal Gagnon told CBC News that the PMO was aware of the event on July 2, 2017, but was "not aware of any payments to event participants."

WE announces internal review

The WE Charity was started by human rights advocates Marc and Craig Kielburger in 1995. Last month, Trudeau announced that WE would administer the Canada Student Service Grant, which will provide eligible students with up to $5,000.

The grants are intended to help students cover the cost of post-secondary education in the fall. The amount of the grant depends on how much time students spend doing volunteer work.

Last night, WE Charity issued a statement saying that it had decided to "refocus on [its] mission" by concentrating on international aid. It said it would cancel WE Day events going forward, "reflecting the realities of COVID-19," and launch an organizational review to "streamline the WE organizational structure."

That review, said the statement, will include an evaluation of the "future" of ME to WE Social Enterprises  the profit-making arm of the organization that paid Margaret Trudeau for some of her speaking engagements.

"The purpose of the review is to streamline the WE organizational structure, including evaluating the future of ME to WE, with the goal of a clearer separation of the social enterprise from the charitable entities," said the statement.
(Newser)  In the global race to make a coronavirus vaccine, a state-owned Chinese company is boasting that its employees, including top executives, received experimental shots even before the government approved testing in people, the AP reports. "Giving a helping hand in forging the sword of victory," reads an online post from SinoPharm with pictures of company leaders it says helped "pre-test" its vaccine. Whether it's viewed as heroic sacrifice or a violation of international ethical norms, the claim underscores the enormous stakes as China competes with US and British companies to be the first with a vaccine to help end the pandemic. "Getting a COVID-19 vaccine is the new Holy Grail," said Lawrence Gostin, a global public health law expert at Georgetown University.

story continues below

"The political competition to be the first is no less consequential than the race for the moon between the United States and Russia." China has positioned itself to be a strong contender. Eight of the nearly two dozen potential vaccines in various stages of human testing worldwide are from China, the most of any country. And SinoPharm and another Chinese company already have announced they're entering final testing. Both China and SinoPharm have invested heavily in a tried-and-true technology  an "inactivated" vaccine made by growing the whole virus in a lab and then killing it, which is how polio shots are made. Leading Western competitors use newer, less proven technology to target the "spike" protein that coats the virus. Click for the full story. (Or read about a related accusation against Russia.)
Chinese officials, observers 'not surprised, but prepared' for US sanctions over HK

Global Times

By Chen Qingqing Source: Global Times Published: 2020/7/15 10:52:06

Top Chinese legislators and veteran observers of Hong Kong affairs said they are not surprised to see the US president sign the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which is considered "a piece of scrap paper" by the Chinese government. Observers said that Washington is shooting itself in the foot through the move, which only has "symbolic effect," adding that the top authority in China has made full consideration of the worst case scenarios amid deteriorating China-US ties.

US President Donald Trump said he signed the legislation and executive order to impose sanctions on Chinese officials related to the national security law for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) and end the region's special status, which "will now be treated the same as the Chinese mainland," he was quoted as saying in media reports.

The act was introduced to Congress on July 1, will impose sanctions on foreign individuals and entities that materially contribute to China's "failure to preserve Hong Kong's autonomy," and would allow the US president to impose property-blocking sanctions on an individual or entity, visa-blocking sanctions on a named individual, and prohibit a financial institution from receiving loans from a US financial institution.

The executive order aims to end preferential treatment for Hong Kong, including revoking export licenses of high technology, and is part of Washington's choreographed efforts to respond to the recent passage of the national security law for Hong Kong, experts said.

Tam Yiu Chung, a member of the National People's Congress Standing Committee who took part in the formulation and consultation on the national security law, told the Global Times that the US moves have been foreseen. Asked if he was worried about possible sanctions against Chinese officials connected to HKSAR affairs, including himself, Tam said, "The central government has made full preparations."

China strongly opposes the Hong Kong Autonomy Act signed by the US government, which is a blatant interference in China's internal affairs, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday after the bill was signed into law. "China will take necessary response to it if the US won't correct its mistake, and impose sanctions on relevant US personnel and entities," the statement said.

China's Foreign Ministry earlier reiterated that any attempt to interfere in Hong Kong affairs and obstruct the national security law are doomed to fail, calling the Hong Kong Autonomy Act nothing but "a piece of scrap paper."

"The Hong Kong Autonomy Act is actually driven by Congress, showing that Trump's decision-making process has already been kidnapped by congressmen like Nancy Pelosi," Li Xiaobing, an expert on Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan studies at Nankai University in Tianjin, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

After the national security law for Hong Kong was enacted on June 30, the US has not stopped playing the Hong Kong card in suppressing the Chinese government, Li said. "The Chinese side won't take any initiative in imposing sanctions. We are taking countermeasures based on the cards Washington plays," Li said, noting that the real impact of the US measures is very limited.



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Linkedin Jessicha Valentina (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 16, 2020 15:31 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666d2e0e 1 Lifestyle shopping,fashion,retail-store,lifestyle,#ForgingtheNewNorm,new-normal,new-normal-in-Indonesia Free

This article is part of The Jakarta Posts "Forging the New Norm" series about how people are adjusting to the new realities of COVID-19 in Indonesia.

Fashion retail is one of the industries that have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. With many viewing fashion as non-essential during the ongoing health crisis, international brands such as Zara and GAP experienced profit losses in the first quarter of 2020.

Similar to other industries, how fashion retailers conduct business has been transformed by the outbreak and the onset of the so-called new normal. If earlier this year most retailers still relied on physical stores, the pandemic has forced them to change and adapt to the digital world.

Local fashion brands Cottonink and SARE Studio were no strangers to the world of e-commerce, as both brands started their businesses online. The former kicked off its business on Facebook a decade ago, while SARE Studio uses a website to sell its products. As of now, Cottonink and SARE Studio have also integrated with online marketplaces, such as Tokopedia and Shopee, as their sales channels.

During this pandemic, both brands felt the advantages of using online channels.

SARE Studio cofounder and creative director Putri Andamdewi told The Jakarta Post that the company saw online platforms as the future of retail business and the COVID-19 outbreak proved it right.

Putri said that when most offline businesses were closed following the implementation of large-scale social restrictions (PSBB), which started in Jakarta on April 10, SARE Studio was not affected. Its sales even saw an increase.

Cottonink brand and marketing director Ria Sarwono said the brand also saw an increase in online sales. She concluded that customers were bored with their daily routines at home and wanted something new to boost their mood, which led them to buy new clothes online.

While most local brands have a firm footing in online marketplaces, lifestyle retailer PT Mitra Adiperkasa (MAP) has only started to get familiar with the channel.

MAP senior vice president Irawati said during a virtual media gathering that the retail giant had been thinking about going digital for quite some time, but the pandemic finally made it realize the plan.

The company, which holds the license for multiple brands, including Zara, Topman, Topshop and Lacoste, actually has its own website. However, customers can now also find its brands on Tokopedia, Shopee, Blibli and Lazada.

Irawati said that opening up to marketplaces was among MAPs efforts to stay connected with customers.

E-commerce platform Pomelo Fashion also earned an advantage from the pandemic. The platforms CEO and cofounder, David Jou, said the company saw its number of new customers double following the acceleration of e-commerce in the region.

Fashion expert Syahmedi Dean said e-commerce could be considered the best solution when the customers were faced with social distancing protocols.

The trend will continue as people will be less interested in going to public places, he predicted.

From a customers point of view, Jakarta resident Devina Heriyanto considered online marketplaces a convenient place to shop, saying that no human interaction and the availability of a shipping tracker and complaint section were among the advantages of using the platforms.

Devina, who has spent more on fashion items online during the pandemic compared to the precoronavirus days, said she was still reluctant to purchase clothes in physical stores.

I imagine that it must be a hassle because we need to wear face masks and cant touch the items in accordance to health protocols, she said, adding that her favorite online shops had mentioned that customers were not allowed to try on clothes.

Read also: Consumers wary of visiting shopping centers despite relaxed rules: Survey

Embracing the change, retaining the existing

But amid the popularity of e-commerce, physical stores are still deemed promising.

Pomelo Fashion, for example, is set to open an outlet in Central Park shopping mall in West Jakarta in November.

Jou said the pandemic allowed Pomelo to expand to promising locations at fair rental prices.

Meanwhile, Japanese clothing brand UNIQLO has yet to offer online services, although it has been using social media and a website for marketing purposes.

Our customers can get the latest information about UNIQLO collections and promotions through our social media accounts and website, said UNIQLO Indonesia public relations manager Stefanie Saragih.

As shopping malls have reopened, fashion retailers are now ready to welcome customers with health precautions, which include physical distancing measures and cashless payments.

Stefanie said UNIQLO mandated 1.5-meter distances between customers and staff in stores.

Along with face masks, face shields and hand sanitizers, which are mandatory for their staff, MAP also conducts frequent cleaning and disinfecting at all stores.

For fittings, Cottonink allows customers to try on clothes with various protocols.

Ria said all clothes were steamed before and after customers tried them on.

We request all customers to use hand sanitizer before and after trying on the clothes. After a customer tries a product, we will immediately separate it and put it on hold for a period of time before putting it back on display, she said. (wng)
Crown Group, led by chairman Iwan Sunito, is looking to build a $1 billion retail portfolio as part of its global large-scale residential development business.

Mr Sunito has earmarked land of about 30,000 square metres under nine towers by 2024 with a value of $285 million.

Crown will then expand that within Australia and then to its planned developments overseas to reach about $1 billion in value.

Mastery by Crown Group in Waterloo, Sydney. Credit:Artist impression

Crown Group has been developing luxury apartments across Sydney since it launched in 1996. It now has a $5 billion development pipeline across Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Los Angeles that spans residential communities with shopping centres and hotels  as well as its own fund management platform. Mr Sunito said he is reviewing plans for a future public listing.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-17 00:19:43|Editor: huaxia

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MAPUTO, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The National Institute for Disaster Management of Mozambique (INGC) announced Thursday that a shelter in Lichinga, the capital city of the northern province Niassa, will soon be open to accommodate those people displaced by terrorist attacks in the neighboring province Cabo Delgado.

The institution has already installed running water in the "accommodation center" and the construction of eight sanitation facilities is underway, said Faride Taibo, Head of Planning at INGC in Niassa, in an interview with Radio Mozambique.

Niassa province currently hosts around 200 families who fled the province of Cabo Delgado in districts including Lichinga, Lago and Maua, said the official.

He said INGC has also started an awareness campaign as some families tend to resist to move from their current foster families, mostly homes of their relatives, to the accommodation center.

The provincial capital of Cabo Delgado, and its neighboring provinces Nampula and Niassa are among the main destinations for the displaced people who fled the violence and terror to seek shelters. Enditem
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP)  A state court judge Friday denied a Juneau mans request to block distribution of federal coronavirus relief aid under expanded rules proposed by Gov. Mike Dunleavys administration.

Superior Court Judge Philip Pallenberg ruled Eric Forrer had not shown a clear probability of success on the merits in his underlying case. Even if Forrer had, Pallenberg in his order wrote he would not have blocked disbursement of funds amid the virus economic fallout.

The current situation is too grave, and the needs of Alaskans too great in the present emergency, fo...
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Certain countries have begun to reopen for tourists, but many have strict requirements for travelers coming from the US.

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Travel Insurance Tip: Some travel insurance policies include emergency medical and medical evacuation coverage for COVID-19. Squaremouth.com reports 24 policies available that currently offer this coverage.

Policies that may include cancellation coverage and medical coverage for contracting coronavirus can be found here .

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Traveler's Guide to Travel Insurance for COVID-19 : Updated with available travel insurance coverage for COVID-19.

The Coronavirus Pandemic Current Event Center : Answers to FAQs.

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Westerly, RI (02891)

Today

Sun and clouds mixed. High 46F. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early then becoming cloudy with periods of rain late. Snow may mix in late. Low 33F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
July 15, 2020 Ottawa, Ontario Natural Resources Canada



Canada has a world-class energy sector with power coming from growing and dynamic renewable and non-emitting sources. As the clean energy sector grows and transforms, we have a tremendous opportunity to attract more young people, women and Indigenous workers and to pass knowledge and skills on to the next generation.

Paul Lefebvre, Parliamentary Secretary to the Honourable Seamus ORegan, Canadas Minister of Natural Resources, today announced $470,923 in funding toward projects in remote Ontario First Nations communities that focus on supporting and enhancing Indigenous youth participation in Canadas clean energy transition. The investment includes:

$262,700 for Matawa First Nations Management to build energy literacy in five remote Matawa First Nations communities. This project will increase community members skills and capacity, encourage them to pursue careers in clean energy and support the development of renewable energy projects and energy-efficient solutions in their communities. The project also includes career mentorship for youth; and

$208,223 to Opiikapawiin Services LP, in partnership with the Independent Electricity System Operator, for its Plugged into a Brighter Future initiative  a youth-focused energy engagement initiative for First Nations communities with the Wataynikaneyap Power project. This initiative will bolster Indigenous youths knowledge of energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions so they may participate in future community energy planning.

Funding is provided through Natural Resources Canadas $220-million Clean Energy in Rural and Remote Communities (CERRC) Program that aims to reduce diesel reliance in rural and remote communities by deploying and demonstrating renewable energy, encouraging energy efficiency and building local skills and capacity.

PS Lefebvre made the announcements during a virtual event hosted by Electricity Human Resources Canada (EHRC). EHRC launched its new study entitled Generation Impact: Future Workforce Perspectives, which offers a clear picture of how Canadas next-generation workforce views the electricity sector and insights into how to recruit and retain youth and women.

To date, the Government of Canada has provided $13.7 million to EHRC through Employment and Social Development Canadas (ESDC) Student Work Placement Program (SWPP). Through work-integrated learning opportunities, interested students benefit from a wide range of transferable skills and key research skills in the renewable energy industry. In total, these projects will help create more than 1,700 paid placements for students between 2018 and 2022.

The CERRC program is part of the Government of Canadas more than $180-billion Investing in Canada infrastructure plan for public transit projects, green infrastructure, social infrastructure, trade and transportation routes and Canadas rural and northern communities.
A young woman charged with murder after the body of a man was found in the middle of a road in a New South Wales town is claiming she acted in self-defence.

Lily Ridgeway, 21, applied for bail on Wednesday with her Aboriginal Legal Aid Trial Advocate Elana Scoufis putting forward the self defence argument, according to The Newscastle Herald.

Ms Ridgeway was arrested on March 2 after the body of 27-year-old Jason Adams was found lying in the middle of an intersection in Raymond Terrace, NSW with multiple stab wounds.

Lily Ridgeway, 21, (pictured) applied for bail on Wednesday with her Aboriginal Legal Aid Trial Advocate Elana Scoufis putting forward the self defence argument

Jason Adams, 27, was stabbed to death in Raymond Terrace, in the Hunter Region of New South Wales

The discovery sparked a two-day search for by police for a woman who was known to the victim with police finding Ms Ridgeway at a Motel in North Haven.

She was charged with murder and has been in custody since March.

Mr Adams was found in the street by a neighbour on February 29 at about 5.45am and emergency services were called.

Residents of the cul-de-sac had reported being woken about 5:30am by screaming.

In Ms Ridgeway's bail hearing on Wednesday at Newcastle Local Court, Ms Scoufis said a combination of the self-defence issue, the COVID-19 pandemic, and strict bail conditions meant her client should be released.

She said that coronavirus lockdowns were preventing Ms Ridgeway from properly instructing her lawyers or from having any visitors.

Ms Ridgeway was arrested on March 2 at a Motel in North Haven, New South Wales

She also argued bail conditions, including that she live with her grandmother in Dubbo away from potential witnesses and 'negative influence,' would ease concerns about her release.

The magistrate said that while Ms Ridgeway had shown cause why she should be released, she was an unacceptable risk of not appearing for trial because of existing outstanding warrants.

She remains in custody with a trial to be scheduled in the NSW Supreme Court.
By El Planteo's Marian Venini, translated from Spanish and adapted by Benzinga's Natan Ponieman.

Argentinas Ministry of Health will make definitive changes to the countrys medical marijuana law.

On Wednesday, the Health Minister met with key actors to close details on a draft regulation that will allow for home cultivation of cannabis and the production of oils and topicals by local pharmacies.

The measure will also guarantee access to medical cannabis to all patients free of charge, regardless of their health coverage, reported local news site Infobae.

Argentina had formally legalized medical cannabis in 2017, but the existing law failed to cover for patients' needs. According to activists and critics, the laws lack of clarity propelled a legal vacuum that forced patients to either rely on the illicit market or be left without treatment.

With a population of over 44 million, Argentina is one of Latin Americas most significant markets for cannabis. Neighbor Brazil announced a similar measure last year. Colombia leads the region today in terms of regulatory development and corporate presence.

Whats in the New Law?

With this new regulation, Argentinas federal government will allow for personal cultivation of cannabis to all patients, researchers or users who register in the countrys national cannabis program (REPROCANN).

Growers can cultivate through personal means or by the use of a growth network. Personal information regarding growers will remain anonymous. Limits on the number of plants allowed per person have not yet been defined.

The law will also authorize the production of cannabis topicals, creams and oils in pharmacies that participate in the program. With this measure, people who are not a part of REPROCANN will be able to obtain cannabis medicine in pharmacies with a doctors prescription.

Patients in this last category will need to portray a qualifying condition. The list of conditions has not been released, but is expected to cover more afflictions than the current list, which only allows medicinal cannabis in the case of refractory epilepsy in children.

Story continues

Its not just home growers that will benefit from the new regulation. The country will begin to conceive a country-wide, large scale plan for cannabis production. Research and development from universities, labs and research institutions will be prioritized, as well as incentives that will assist the production of cannabis from publicly-owned laboratories.

Why its Important

With this change in the law, medical users will be able to leave the illicit market and the state will implement policies to guarantee the quality of medical cannabis products.

Facundo Garreton, director of YVY Life Sciences, a medical cannabis company from the neighbouring country of Uruguay, said that this is an important step forward.

Knowing that cannabis can alleviate many peoples suffering and not do anything about it, thats the true crime, said Garreton, who is also a former House rep for Argentinas province of Tucuman.

Good regulation will help to know the needs of every person, what to buy, where to buy it, while at the same time controlling the products quality. We hope this is the start of a path towards full regulation of the entire supply chain, he said.

Valeria Salech, founder of advocate NGO Mama Cultiva Argentina, said that the new regulation can also assist the countrys economy, which has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cannabis is the answer to our therapies. But as were seeing all over the world, it also has the potential to create jobs in many sectors, not just in medicine, but also in agriculture, commerce and manufacturing, added Gabriela Cancellaro, the NGO's head of communications.

Lead image by Ilona Szentivanyi. Copyright: Benzinga.

See more from Benzinga

 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
By Peter Nurse

Investing.com - European stock markets are seen opening lower Thursday, amid caution over the pace of the global economic recovery ahead of the latest meeting from the European Central Bank.

At 2:05 AM ET (0605 GMT), the DAX futures contract in Germany traded 0.5% lower, the FTSE 100 futures contract in the U.K. fell 0.4%, while CAC 40 futures in France dropped 0.4%.

China reported 3.2% growth in its second quarter GDP year-on-year earlier Thursday, as the worlds second-largest economy returned to growth after the first quarters contraction of 6.8%.

But the recovery is still uneven. Separate data showed China's industrial output beat expectations in June, but retail sales unexpectedly fell again, suggesting consumer demand remains weak.

Although the quarter-on-quarter growth of 11.5% supports the V-shaped recovery narrative, which financial markets have been trading on, year-on-year growth of 3.2% is still the lowest since records began in 1992, said analyst Amy Yuan Zhuang at Nordea, in a research note. It suggests that economic activity remains far below the pre-pandemic levels.

At the same time, the Covid-19 virus continues to work its way through the global population, with the summer tourism season in Europe generating pockets of high-risk gatherings. Tensions between the U.S. and China are also still simmering.

Lingering uncertainty could prolong the recovery and make the asset price rebound fragile to a correction, the analyst at Nordea added.

Attention will now turn to the latest ECB get together, although the central bank is unlikely to deliver another easing package so soon after Junes largesse.

We think the ECB will strike a more positive note on current economic developments, while continuing to express caution about the outlook further out, said analysts at ABN Amro, in a research note.

In corporate news, Novartis (SIX:NOVN)will be in focus after the Swiss pharma giant said it will offer medicines on a zero-profit basis to financially-strained countries to help treating Covid-19 patients.

Story continues

Oil prices weakened Thursday after the worlds major producers agreed to relax their record cuts to output, but losses have been mitigated by a sizable drop in last weeks official U.S. crude inventories.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, known as OPEC+, agreed on Wednesday to scale back oil production cuts from August to 7.7 million barrels a day until December, from the 9.7 million barrels per day seen since May. The Energy Information Administration, meanwhile, reported U.S. crude inventories fell 7.5 million barrels last week, much morethan expected.

At 2:05 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.8% lower at $40.86 a barrel, while the international benchmark Brent contract fell 0.7% to $43.40.

Elsewhere, gold futures fell 0.2% to $1,810.65/oz, while EUR/USD traded at 1.1406, down 0.1%.

Related Articles

Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.69%

Royal Bank of Scotland bids farewell to tainted name on July 22

Shares fall as Sino-U.S. tensions eclipse China GDP growth
Montreal, CA (H4T1V6)

Today

Snow this morning will taper off to light snow this afternoon. Some sleet may mix in. High near -4C. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 100%. Snow accumulating 3 to 5 inches..

Tonight

Snow showers this evening. Breaks in the overcast later. Low -16C. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 50%.
On the eve of more businesses being allowed to open in much of Ontario, the province reported 111 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday.

There were also five more deaths reported.

Locally, 30 of Ontarios 34 public health units are reporting five or fewer cases, with fully 19 of them reporting no new cases, Health Minister Christine Elliott said on Twitter.

Elliott noted the province processed 26,492 tests on Wednesday.

With 141 more resolved, there are 30 fewer active cases in Ontario. The number of hospitalizations, ICU admissions and vented patients have all declined, she said.

The government says 2,737 people have died from the virus since the pandemic struck in March, but the Star has determined there have been 2,776 coronavirus deaths here.

That difference of 39 fatalities is because some werent included early in the outbreak since COVID-19 tests had not been conducted before those people  most of whom were elderly residents of long-term-care homes  died.

The government says there have been 37,163 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario.

As of 5 p.m. Thursday, Ontarios regional health units were reporting a total of 39,187 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19, according to the Stars latest count.

There are 107 people in hospital with COVID-19, 26 are in intensive care units. Of those, 20 are on ventilators.

The Stars tally includes some patients reported as probable COVID-19 cases, which means they have symptoms, travel history or contacts that indicate they likely have the disease, but havent yet received a positive test from a lab.

Also Thursday, the government extended the emergency orders that are in place through to July 29.

Ontario has been in a state of emergency due to the outbreak since March 17. While that is due to expire July 24, the Progressive Conservative government is expected to pass legislation next week that will ensure more permanent powers so temporary emergency orders will be unnecessary.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) has expressed concern the Tories are overreaching.

Along with the Aboriginal Legal Services, the Black Legal Action Centre, and the HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario, the CCLA has announced a court challenge against the governments decision to share with police the personal information of all Ontarians who test positive for COVID-19.

The groups contend that the emergency provision breaches provincial health privacy protections and violates individuals constitutional rights to privacy and equality.

Premier Doug Ford insisted the emergency orders are only to give the government with the necessary flexibility to ensure the protection of vulnerable populations, such as seniors while reopening the economy.

Most of Ontario  except for the Great Toronto and Hamilton Area and parts of the southwest  will enter stage three of opening up on Friday. That will allow indoor service at restaurants and bars and permit gyms and outdoor playgrounds to reopen in much of the province outside of the GTA.

Although the trends in public health indicators continue to improve, we must remain on our guard and only relax emergency orders if and when safe to do so, said Ford.

We do not want to undo the tremendous progress we have made together, so I urge everyone to stay the course and follow public health advice
The Thursday sought response from the Centre on a plea which has sought guidelines for time-bound disposal of mercy petitions and exhaustion of legal remedies by death-row convicts.

A bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices R S Reddy and A S Bopanna issued notices to the Centre and others on the plea which has also sought directions to the authorities to dispose in a time bound manner the mercy petitions pending before them and forward their respective recommendations to the President or Governor of states as per the procedure.

The plea, filed by advocate Subhash Vijayran, has said that the Centre and states should be directed to take necessary steps to execute death sentence of those convicts who have exhausted all their legal remedies.

It said that authorities should be directed to "issue notices to those death-row convicts who have not exhausted their legal remedies, directing them to exhaust the same, in a time bound manner and thereafter take necessary steps in a time bound manner in accordance with law to execute the sentence of death for those convicts who are still on death-row after exhausting all their legal remedies."



Referring to the case of two convicts who were held guilty of kidnapping and murdering five children, the plea claimed that their death sentences, despite being confirmed by the apex court, has been stayed since 2014 as their petition seeking stay on execution citing inordinate delay in rejection of their mercy pleas is pending before the Bombay High Court.

The bench, which agreed to hear the petition, tagged it with a separate pending plea which has raised similar issues.

The apex court had on May 27 sought the Centre's response on a separate plea seeking direction to the government to frame specific procedure, rules and guidelines for time-bound disposal of mercy petitions.

The top court had then said that only thing it may consider is directing the Ministry of Home Affairs on time limit for placing the mercy petition before the President.

It had observed that format of mercy petition is not important but what is important is time limit for placing it before the President.

The separate plea has claimed that there were no guidelines for disposal of mercy petitions within a particular time frame.

It has sought a direction to the Centre to fix a time-frame within which a mercy petition has to be decided and "the consequences of not disposing of the mercy petitions within such time frame".

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A city councillor who was denied security clearance required for a seat on the Winnipeg Police Board says police acted arbitrarily and may rescind her resignation from the civilian governance and oversight body.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/7/2020 (552 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A city councillor who was denied security clearance required for a seat on the Winnipeg Police Board says police acted arbitrarily and may rescind her resignation from the civilian governance and oversight body.

Coun. Vivian Santos (Point Douglas) said Wednesday she was reconsidering her decision to step down from the board  and is looking at all options to clear her name.

"After having considered new information and taking time to think about what happened, I do feel that the Winnipeg police have acted arbitrarily and have denied me procedural fairness," she posted to Twitter.

"Ensuring accountability for the (Winnipeg Police Service) and City of Winnipeg is of utmost importance to me. I will provide more information in due course."

MIKE SUDOMA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS City Councillor for Point Douglas, Vivian Santos, answers media questions about her resignation from the Winnipeg Police Board outside City Hall Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Santos resigned from her appointment to the police board after being notified she had failed its required security check. Santos said she has never been charged criminally, and city police did not tell her why such clearance was withheld.

She declined an interview request Wednesday.

Criticism of WPS involvement in issuing security clearance for Winnipeg Police Board members is not new: Louise Simbandumwe raised her concerns the credibility of the board would be undermined by police influence when she was nominated for a civilian seat at the table seven years ago.

Santos steps down from police board after failed security check Click to Expand Coun. Vivian Santos notified her colleagues via email that following a failed security clearance check, she was not eligible to hold a seat on the Winnipeg Police Board. (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press) Posted: 7:15 PM Jul. 14, 2020 Coun. Vivian Santos has resigned from the Winnipeg Police Board, after being denied security clearance by city police. In an email Tuesday, the councillor for Point Douglas notified colleagues that following a failed security clearance check, she was not eligible to hold a seat on the board. Read Full Story

"I think that issue is even more pronounced right now, in light of the Black Lives Matter movement," Simbandumwe said Wednesday. "It is absolutely critical at this time the board is seen as a fully independent oversight body.

"Essentially, the police have veto power over the people on the board, particularly if theyre conducting these checks annually."

Simbandumwe, a human rights activist who has sat on federal advisory committees related to poverty and consumer protection, was nominated by the provincial government to the Winnipeg Police Board in 2013.

At the time, the intrusive and secretive police inquiry by the same force she was to help oversee struck her as incredibly problematic and as a conflict of interest, she said. The board provides high level oversight on police spending, strategic plans, and evaluates the performance of the WPS chief.

According to WPS, the security clearance check involves running a potential board members name against the police database. If the database check reveals associations with people who have been charged or faces criminal charges, the security clearance could be jeopardized, police said.

"I can see it disproportionately impacting Indigenous people, Black people, people of colour, for a variety of reasons," Simbandumwe said, noting those communities are often overpoliced. "And so theres more likelihood that there would have been encounters with the police, in terms of the communities that theyre connected with.

Giving the police this amount of power is really inconsistent with the required independence of this body."  Abby Deshman, Canadian Civil Liberties Association criminal justice program director

"I think what that will result in is that many community leaders who would otherwise be excellent would be reluctant to apply to serve on the Winnipeg Police Board."

Canadian Civil Liberties Association criminal justice program director Abby Deshman said members of the public should be concerned about the independence of police oversight bodies when police can veto an appointed member without any accountability or recourse measures.

"Giving the police this amount of power is really inconsistent with the required independence of this body," she said.

Police databases contain a wealth of information on individuals not necessarily related to criminal activity  mental health calls, protest and political activity, former friends  which can form part of a background check and lead to "deep unfairness," Deshman 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.

"When we just give these types of decontextualized security checks, it ends up discriminating against people who are already overpoliced and excluding people unfairly from a wide variety of positions," she said.

Under the Winnipeg Police Board Bylaw, all potential board members "must pass background security checks including, without limitation, any background security checks" required under the Police Services Act.

Board chairman Coun. Markus Chambers (St. Norbert-Seine River) said he wants to see a third party, other than the Winnipeg police, perform security clearance checks for board appointees.

"That way its more of a transparent process and allows for contributions from those who might be eliminated from consideration," he said.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca
Increased public scrutiny of American policing  through cellphone videos, social media and mass protests  has revealed in recent weeks an urgent need for sustained and systemic reform. The New York Police Department has chosen to respond by pressing ahead with new rules to grant wider latitude to bar journalists from covering official police activity.

The departments proposed regulations would add new reasons to revoke reporters credentials that allow them past police lines. In a news release Wednesday, the department outlined a litany of offenses that can cost reporters their credentials, including being arrested, being perceived not to be complying with police orders or conduct that interferes with legitimate law enforcement needs.

The timing of the changes, in the works for years, sends a message that police officials are trying to hinder an important check on their conduct. The new rules themselves are an affront to both good government and common sense. As proposed, they are too broad and clear the way for the department to act capriciously in retaliation against the press.

The city has included journalists on the list of essential workers in the pandemic, allowing them to be on the streets even during Covid-19 lockdowns and out after curfews. In practice, however, the police have too often treated reporters as a nuisance. In New York City and beyond, reporters were a frequent target of retaliation by police officers during the protests that followed the killing of George Floyd. Journalists were pushed, bludgeoned and shuffled away as cameras rolled. In June, for instance, two Associated Press reporters were shoved and berated by officers and ordered to go home shortly after a curfew went into effect, though they were permitted to be there.
Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia:

Global private equity giant KKR has backed Australian carbon offsetting specialist GreenCollar through its $1.3bn Global Impact Fund, which is focused on generating risk-adjusted returns by investing in companies that contribute toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The investment is part of KKR 's Global Impact Strategy and marks the Global Impact Fund's first investment in Australia, and third in the Asia-Pacific, according to a statement. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The global investment firm said in a press release that its investment in GreenCollar is to advance the Company's mission to provide commercial solutions to climate change-related challenges faced by governments, corporates, and individuals.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. KKR launched its Global Impact strategy in 2018 and recently held a final close on a $1.3 billion fund.

GreenCollar's core business directly contributes to SDG 13 (Climate Action) and supports other sustainable goals, including SDG 15 (Life on Land) and SDG 14 (Life Below Water).

"GreenCollar was established with a simple mission: to put the environment on the balance sheet, demonstrating that we can deliver essential environmental outcomes whilst building a strong for-profit business. KKR's investment is the next part of our evolution as we look to grow GreenCollar into a global business," GreenCollar co-founder and CEO James Schultz said.......................

To view our full article Click here
The shareholding of Uday Kotak in Kotak Mahindra Bank has fallen to 25.82 per cent in the April-June quarter of the ongoing fiscal from 29.63 per cent in Q4FY20. Total number of shares held by the promoter and managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank currently stands at 51,09,27,100, according to the latest shareholding pattern data available on the exchanges.

Promoter and Promoter Group together hold 26.07 per cent shareholding in the bank. RBI's norms stipulate 26 per cent promoter holding in the bank.

Kotak recently sold 56 million shares, or 2.8 per cent stake, for more than 6,900 crore to reduce his stake to 26.1 per cent in Kotak Mahindra Bank in accordance with the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) norms. The billionaire banker had a standoff with the apex bank over his surplus personal shareholding in Kotak Mahindra Bank. Kotak had dragged the RBI to the Bombay High Court in December 2018 over the issue.

On January 30 2020, the bank had said that the RBI had agreed to its proposal to reduce promoters' stake to 26 per cent from over 29 percent over the next six months, which is June. It had also said promoters' voting rights would be capped at 20 per cent of the paid-up voting share capital until March 31, 2020 and would be further capped at 15 per cent effective April 1, 2020.

The bank said that as part of its settlement with the RBI, the promoters would not purchase any more paid-up voting equity shares until their shareholding reached 15 per cent. Following this agreement, the bank withdrew its writ petition from the Bombay High Court. On February 18, the RBI granted final approval to the settlement between both parties.

Shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank ended the intraday trade at Rs 1,317, up 27 points, or 2.09 per cent on NSE.

Also read: BT Buzz: Why India is becoming main hub for smuggled gold

Also read: Two Chinese companies' bids for Delhi-Mumbai expressway projects rejected
She relocated from Queensland's Sunshine Coast to Sydney in February, to be closer to her then boyfriend Carlin Sterritt.

But on Thursday, Angie, 30, revealed she has no plans to move back up North after calling it quits with Carlin, and will remain living at her Rose Bay apartment.

'I still live in Sydney. I've had heaps of work in the Sunshine Coast, and just wanted to be with my family and friends for a while,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'I just wanted to be with my family and friends for a while': The Bachelorette's Angie Kent has revealed she will STAY living in Sydney despite calling it quits with her ex Carlin Sterritt

The former Gogglebox star then promised she'll 'be back soon', before adding it was 'no big deal' she was always traveling between the two cities.

'I have lived between the Sunshine coast and Sydney for a few years now, so it's nothing new,' she explained.

The reality star couple confirmed her split with Carlin in June after being plagued by breakup rumours for weeks.

'I still live in Sydney. I've had heaps of work in the Sunshine Coast, and just wanted to be with my family and friends for a while,' she told Daily Mail Australia

'We have not wanted to confirm until this point because there have been much bigger issues going on in the world and we've both been taking space to think about what we really want,' Angie wrote in a post on Instagram Stories at the time.

Last week, a heartbroken Angie admitted the split has been so tough that she was seeking professional help.

Speaking to House Of Wellness, she said: 'I am navigating it all and dealing with the feelings and thoughts as they arise... and have an amazing therapist who is helping'.

'I was hiding in bed a lot for the first couple of weeks dealing with all the feels': Last week, Angie said she was seeking support from friends, family and a therapist in Queensland following her split with Carlin

'I was hiding in bed a lot for the first couple of weeks dealing with all the feels and the constant speculation for over a month that Carlin and I had broken up when in fact we had not,' she added.

The reality star claimed the constant split speculation, fan comments and media interest contributed to the breakup.

'As much as people seem to think I am just some character on a show, I am a human just like everyone else with huge feelings and my own personal life,' she explained.
As Veronica Nelson lay on her prison cell floor in excruciating pain in the hours before she died, she used the intercom to call staff nine times in desperate attempts to get help.

The Indigenous woman's body was battling a rare, unknown medical condition restricting her arteries and she was withdrawing from heroin.

Veronica Marie Nelson Walker.

Ms Nelson, 37, was given Panadol and the anti-nausea drug Maxolon and told there was nothing more she could be prescribed.

As her pain and body cramps increased, other worried prisoners at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Melbourne's west used their intercom to ask nurses to help Ms Nelson.
Lesion of doom -- how a parasitic bacterium induces blood vessel formation to cause lesions

Bacteria of the genus Bartonella are parasites that can be transmitted to humans via insect bites and animal scratches, resulting in an infection known as "bartonellosis." Cat-scratch disease and trench fever are forms of bartonellosis caused by different Bartonella species infecting humans. Bartonella bacteria can cause lesions to pop up in the skin and internal organs. To provide themselves with a safe habitat, the bacteria bring about the increase of the number of "vascular endothelial" cells (cells that line the interior of blood vessels), which hide themselves from the host immune system and stimulate the creation of new blood vessels, through a process called "angiogenesis."

Previous studies on Bartonella henselae (B. henselae for short), the bacterium responsible for cat-scratch disease, have shown that it can directly "inject" proteins that inhibit programmed cell death (apoptosis) into the endothelial cells. However, B. henselae can also promote angiogenesis without directly contacting endothelial cells, which implies that the bacterium can secrete a bioactive substance that takes on the duty of kick-starting angiogenesis.

In a new study published in Nature Communications, a team of scientists led by Senior Assistant Professor Kentaro Tsukamoto and Professor Yohei Doi of Fujita Health University, Japan, have identified that this bioactive substance is actually a protein. They have also named this protein as Bartonella angiogenic factor A, or "BafA" for short. This is the very first report of a vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF for short)-like protein produced by bacteria.

The scientists started their project by introducing B. henselae into human endothelial cells in petri dishes, and observed that the bacteria caused the endothelial cells to multiply. To identify the genes that give B. henselae this ability, the researchers began inducing random mutations in the DNA of the bacteria and seeing whether the mutated bacteria could still make the endothelial cells multiply. Through these experiments, the scientists determined that B. henselae can stimulate angiogenesis in human endothelial cells only if it possesses a functional copy of the gene that "codes for," or guides the synthesis of, the BafA protein. They also observed that exposing human endothelial cells to the isolated BafA protein caused the cells to multiply.

Then, to confirm that BafA stimulates angiogenesis, the scientists extracted samples of a major blood vessel called the aorta from mice and placed the samples in gels that did or did not contain BafA. As can be seen in the image below, the aorta samples that were not exposed to BafA did not sprout new blood vessels, but the aorta samples that were exposed to BafA grew vessels that extended into the gel. The scientists also found that surgically placing a BafA-containing gel plug into living mice led to blood vessels growing from the surrounding tissue into the gel.

Further experiments with human endothelial cells in petri dishes indicated that BafA activated cell surface receptors that recognize VEGF. By binding to these receptors, BafA triggered the activation of a process inside the cells, involving proteins called mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERKs). The MAPK/ERK pathway plays an important role in the multiplication of endothelial cells and angiogenesis. "In the last set of experiments, we performed similar studies in a related bacterium called Bartonella quintana, the bacterium that causes trench fever, and we found that it produces its own version of BafA that also causes human endothelial cells to multiply," explains Dr Tsukamoto.

These findings provide valuable insights into the mechanisms by which infectious bacteria can produce lesions in their hosts. "We believe that BafA proteins can be leveraged as tools for studying angiogenesis, and we also consider potential medical benefits," reports Prof Doi. "Most importantly," he elaborates, "BafA is a potential target for the development of diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for bartonellosis."

The scientists also speculate that BafA proteins could be used in regenerative medicine, which is a highly specialized branch of medicine that deals with replacing or regenerating lost or damaged parts of the body. Further research is needed to confirm the scientists' findings, but needless to say, BafA proteins will certainly be of immense interest to the scientific community.

###

Reference

Title of original paper: The Bartonella autotransporter BafA activates the host VEGF pathway to drive angiogenesis

Journal: Nature Communications

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17391-2

About Fujita Health University

Fujita Health University is a private university situated in Toyoake, Aichi, Japan. It was founded in 1964 and houses one of the largest teaching university hospitals in Japan in terms of the number of beds. With over 900 faculty members, the university is committed to providing various academic opportunities to students internationally. Fujita Health University has been ranked eighth among all universities and second among all private universities in Japan in the 2020 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings. THE University Impact Rankings 2019 visualized university initiatives for sustainable development goals (SDGs). For the "good health and well-being" SDG, Fujita Health University was ranked second among all universities and number one among private universities in Japan. The university will also be the first Japanese university to host the "THE Asia Universities Summit" in June 2021. The university's founding philosophy is "Our creativity for the people (DOKUSOU-ICHIRI)," which reflects the belief that, as with the university's alumni and alumnae, current students also unlock their future by leveraging their creativity.

Website: https:/ / www. fujita-hu. ac. jp/ en/ index. html

About Dr Yohei Doi from Fujita Health University

Yohei Doi, M.D., Ph.D., is a Professor at the Departments of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at Fujita Health University School of Medicine and the Director of the Center for Innovative Antimicrobial Therapy at the University of Pittsburgh. He has authored 226 publications and has served on several journals' editorial boards. He is leading a clinical trial of the flu drug "Avigan" (favipiravir) as a potential treatment for COVID-19 at Fujita Health University.

About Dr Kentaro Tsukamoto from Fujita Health University

Kentaro Tsukamoto, D.V.M., Ph.D., is a Senior Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology at Fujita Health University School of Medicine. He has authored 24 publications. His areas of research interest include bacteriology and host-pathogen interaction.

Funding information

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP19K07548 (K.T.), MEXT-Supported Program for the Strategic Research Foundation at Private Universities from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan (H. Kurahashi), and the Grant for Joint Research Project of the Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University (K.T.).

This story has been published on: 2020-07-16. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
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To Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson, theres no question that COVID-19 will change humanity. I do believe that this global pandemic will reshape the way we think about and live the rest of our lives, he said.



The virus has already changed the way the company runs its stores. The global retail giant is in what Johnson called a monitor and adapt phase, following a playbook that will likely guide the company for the next 18 to 24 months while the world waits for a widely available vaccine, or multiple vaccines, he said.

Until theres a vaccine, Johnson said, everyone around the world is going to be aware that we have to live in a world with COVID-19. Johnson made his comments Thursday as part of the National Retail Federations virtual leadership series.

Through its operation in China, Starbucks had an early look at how the virus might impact the world. Johnson said he started to get involved with the leadership team in Chinas COVID-19 response in mid-January, and it was quickly evident [that the virus] would be something that would impact all markets around the world. As the virus moved to other parts of the globe, the company adapted the safety protocols it had created for China in various regions.

Johnson said that even though the pandemic is ongoing, the company is no longer in crisis mode, because it has figured out how to operate in this new environment. Were in a position now where we accept that is the new reality until theres a vaccine, he said. This is the new environment that all retailers have to operate under. Johnson said this moment is a chance to build a sense of trust with customers; if they believe retailers are creating safe environments for them, that trust will continue beyond the pandemic, he added.

Starbucks has provided all of its store employees with facial coverings, installed plexiglass at the point of sale, and instituted employee hand-washing on a 30-minute basis. The protocols, he said, were grounded in its work of understanding the science behind the spread of COVID-19. If we dont provide a safe environment, we and the economy cant expect to reopen.

Story continues

Starbucks was one of the first retailers to say that it would require customers wear face coverings in its stores, a mandate that went into effect yesterday.

Johnson noted that while the average amount spent per transaction had increased during the pandemic, the product mix was essentially unchanged. Trends that had already emerged were continuing: cold beverages outselling hot drinks and the move toward plant-based beverages and food. Earlier this summer, Starbucks started offering breakfast sandwiches made with Impossible Foods plant-based sausage patty.

However, the pandemic does have the potential to remake the companys store footprint. With a significant amount of commercial real estate likely available in urban areasat what Starbucks believes will be a lower ratethe company is going to take this opportunity to transform its store portfolio, Johnson said. Starbucks is planning on opening more rapid pickup stores in urban areaswhat are essentially the pedestrian equivalent of a drive-thru.

The concept of experiences that are safe, familiar, and convenient, Johnson said. Thats going to be the theme until a vaccine or multiple vaccines are available.

More must-read retail coverage from Fortune :

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Abu Dhabi's Quality and Conformity Council (QCC) said it held discussions with Saudi Arabia Standards, Metrology and Quality Organisation (SASO) on ways to boost cooperation in the development of related standards and metrology infrastructure.

During a remote meeting held via videoconferencing, QCC Secretary-General Dr Hilal Al Kaabi and SASO Governor Dr Saad bin Othman Al Qasabi agreed to exchange knowledge in standards and metrology and boost co-operation.

The e-meeting, which was attended by senior officials of both countries, highlighted the need to reinforce the infrastructure of both countries, strengthen their joint economic system and support Emirati and Saudi private sector companies.

Both sides also explained the details and outcomes of their key programmes and initiatives, which have helped advance the related standards and metrology infrastructure of their countries.-TradeArabia News Service
Photos published online, allegedly showing Armenia shooting down Azerbaijan's UAV are fake, Trend reported on July 16.

The Armenian side has posted photos of the allegedly shot down Azerbaijani unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). However it has been revealed that the photos were taken in 2014 in Afghanistan, as is evident from the photo above.

Earlier, Azerbaijans Defense Ministry Colonel Vagif Dargahli said that all UAVs owned by units of the Azerbaijani army are in service, and none of them were shot down.

The ministry also asked citizens not to believe unverified information, or share them and to follow only the officially disseminated information.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
The suspect was caught on video and described as a white man, about 45 years old, with short brown hair. He has a larger build and is 6 feet tall. He was wearing a white T-shirt, gray sweatpants, white sneakers and dark-colored glasses during the robbery, FBI officials said.
The agreement gives SSB exclusive access within the U.S. bedding category to HeiQ Viroblock technology, which has previously been approved by the European Medical Device Directive for antiviral use in medical personal protective equipment such as N95 equivalent masks, and registered as an antiviral active by the German EPA. HeiQ Viroblock was recently independently tested as 99.99% effective in 30 minutes against SARS-CoV-2 by a leading Australian infection and immunity research institute. SSB plans to pursue any necessary approvals for its line of Serta and Beautyrest HeiQ Viroblock mattresses with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency.

If approved, SSB plans to utilize HeiQ Viroblock across much of its industry-leading portfolio of brands, which includes Serta, Beautyrest and Tuft & Needle.

"We know that our partners in the hospitality and healthcare industries are doing everything they can to help provide the cleanest environment and reassure their guests," said David Swift, chairman and CEO of Serta Simmons Bedding. "Antiviral and antibacterial mattresses will be an enormous asset in that effort."

SSB, the largest provider of mattresses to the hospitality industry, has already received early interest to acquire HeiQ Viroblock-treated mattresses from several of the world's largest hotel brands to bolster cleanliness and safety initiatives. Elie Khoury, EVP operations resources at Aimbridge Hospitality, the global leader in hotel management services said, "As the largest third-party manager we are proactively searching for the best opportunities to add value for our owners and enhance the experience for our guests. We are currently testing the new antiviral bedding and accessories from Serta Simmons and eager to understand the impact in helping our properties deliver the highest level of safety and cleanliness for guests."

Here's why HeiQ Viroblock represents such a breakthrough for the mattress industry: Virus particles and bacteria are invisible to the human eye (SARS-CoV-2 is only 90 nanometers large) and they easily pass through sheets. They can persist and stay infectious for days on textiles, such as traditional mattresses. HeiQ's Viroblock technology solves that problem by using microsilver technology that attracts virus particles, combined with vesicle technology that breaks down the viral membrane within seconds. Tests conducted at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity showed that COVID-19-causing virus samples concentrated on fabric treated with HeiQ Viroblock were 99.99% reduced.

In accelerated aging tests, textiles infused with HeiQ Viroblock demonstrated the ability to retain their antiviral qualities for three years, and antibacterial qualities for 20 years.

Serta Simmons Bedding has been active in the fight against COVID-19 in other ways as well. In March, it announced it was donating 10,000 mattresses to hospitals in areas hard hit by the pandemic. A few weeks later it launched a platform in conjunction with Relief Bed International to facilitate further donations.

About Serta Simmons Bedding LLC

Serta Simmons Bedding, LLC is one of the largest manufacturers, marketers and suppliers of mattresses in North America. Based in Atlanta, SSB owns and manages two of the best-selling bedding brands in the mattress industry: Serta, which has five other independent licensees, and Beautyrest. The brands are distributed through national, hospitality, and regional and independent retail channels throughout North America. SSB also owns Simmons and Tuft & Needle direct-to-consumer mattress brands. SSB operates 27 plants in the U.S. and Canada. For more information about SSB and its brands, visit www.sertasimmons.com.

About HeiQ

Founded in 2005 as a spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH), HeiQ is a leader in textile innovation creating some of the most effective, durable and high-performance textile technologies on the market today. HeiQ's purpose is to improve the lives of billions of people by perfecting an everyday product: Textiles. Combining three areas of expertise  scientific research, specialty materials manufacturing and consumer ingredient branding  HeiQ is the ideal innovation partner to create differentiating and sustainable textile products and capture the added value at the point of sale. With a total capacity of 35,000 tons per year HeiQ manufactures in the USA, Switzerland and Australia serving its chemical specialties in over 60 countries worldwide. www.heiq.com

HeiQ & HeiQ Viroblock are trademark(s) or registered trademark(s) of HeiQ Materials AG.

SOURCE Serta Simmons Bedding, LLC

Related Links

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Linkedin Norman Harsono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 16, 2020 08:32 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666a9cdb 1 Business pgn,gasification,power-plant,PLN,electricity Free

State-owned gas firm PT Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN) plans to convert three liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals into regional gas distribution hubs as part of a government program to cut oil imports.

PGN, which expects to spend US$2.5 billion to execute the program, plans to focus the funding on developing its LNG terminal in Arun, Aceh, developing its floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) in Lampung, Sumatra, and building a third terminal in Ambon, the capital of Maluku.

It will use the three terminals to channel fuel for 52 compressed natural gas (CNG)-fired power plants in western, central and eastern Indonesia.

Read also: PGN to spend $2.5 billion to support PLNs gasification program

The power plants, owned by state-owned electricity giant PLN, can run on both gas and diesel fuel but have been using more of the latter for logistical convenience.

PGN president director Suko Hartono said in a statement on Monday that the program was expected to improve the primary energy mix for PLN plants and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Gas-fired power plants emit less greenhouse gases than coal or diesel plants, but their environmental credentials are still a far cry from plants harnessing wind, solar or geothermal power or another source of renewable energy.

The terminals will respectively serve western, central and eastern Indonesia. The development plan includes acquiring pipelines, ships, trucks and supporting facilities, PGN said in the statement.

Gasifying power plants are one of many government programs launched to slash oil imports, which has been a leading contributor to the countrys trade deficit in the past, a key vulnerability for Southeast Asias largest economy.

PGN and PLN plan to gasify three of the 52 plants this year, namely those on Nias Island (North Sumatra), Tanjung Selor (North Kalimantan) and Sorong (West Papua).

The three plants  described by both companies as quick wins  had been chosen because they were most ready in terms of infrastructure, operational capacity and local demand, said PLN primary energy director Rudy Hendra Prastowo.

The remainder of the 52 plants are, to be frank, spread out and isolated. We will have to assess their feasibility, he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

In this stage, we aim to provide gas at a lower price than high-speed diesel, said PGN business development director Syahrial Mukhtar.

The two state-owned enterprises have until January 2022 to complete the gasification program, according to Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Decree No. 13/2020.

With the program, the electricity company expects to cut diesel consumption by 1 million kiloliters and save Rp 4 trillion ($277 million) in fuel spending.

Read also: PLN to use LNG in 52 power plants to help reduce oil imports
The political arm of an anti-gun-violence group cofounded by the billionaire former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg says it will spend at least $1 million to help Democrats try to gain control of the Pennsylvania legislature in the November elections.

Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund said Wednesday it would aim to oust Republican lawmakers in Harrisburg who have refused to take action on common-sense gun safety legislation like strengthening background checks.

We see Pennsylvania as one of the most important battleground states for gun safety in 2020, Charlie Kelly, senior political adviser for Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund, said in an interview Wednesday. After yet another year without action on gun safety, I think that the Pennsylvania state House and state Senate are absolutely in play.

Pennsylvania is already considered a crucial swing state in the presidential election, but the fight over gun laws underscores how some Democrats and progressive groups see an opportunity to expand their ambitions beyond merely defeating President Donald Trump.

The stakes in state legislative races are perhaps higher than usual this year, as the next General Assembly will be tasked with drawing new legislative and congressional maps for the next decade in decennial redistricting.

Democrats need a net gain of nine seats to take control of the House and four in the Senate.

In 2018, Democrats flipped 14 state House seats in Southeast Pennsylvania, putting the party within striking distance of a majority in the lower chamber. But Democrats lost three seats in other parts of the state, and will likely need to make gains beyond the Philadelphia suburbs to win a majority. Their odds of taking the Senate grew tougher late last year, when Democratic Sen. John Yudichak of Luzerne County announced he would become an independent and caucus with the Republicans.

 READ MORE: Pennsylvania Democrats dont just want to beat Trump in 2020: They want the state House back

Everytowns commitment to flipping the legislature is notable in part because the group has angered progressives in recent years for backing Republicans  a record that came under fresh scrutiny during Bloombergs short-lived presidential campaign this year.

For example, in 2018 Everytown endorsed U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick in the Bucks County-based 1st District. He was reelected even as Republicans lost scores of seats in other suburban districts. The groups decision to back Fitzpatrick led some activists with Moms Demand Action, an affiliate, to splinter off and start a new gun safety group.

But at least in Pennsylvania legislative races, Everytown says its goal is a Democratic majority. The group says it will target at least 18 House districts and five in the Senate.

Some of the contested House seats are in the Philadelphia suburbs, including those being vacated by retiring GOP Reps. Marcy Toepel of Montgomery County, Tom Murt of Montgomery County, and Stephen Barrar of Delaware County.

We are a nonpartisan organization. What we care about is how you vote on gun safety, Kelly said. Were not targeting anyone in the legislature because theyre Republican. Were targeting them because they failed to act on gun safety.

Everytown says it hopes to build on its success last year in Virginia, where the group spent $2.5 million to help Democrats take control of the legislature. In April, the state enacted new laws establishing universal background checks and other measures championed by gun-control groups.

Pennsylvania legislators should have paid attention to last years elections in Virginia, where lawmakers who ignored gun safety suffered a resounding defeat, John Feinblatt, head of Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund, said in a statement.

The fund is a political action committee affiliated with the nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety, which Bloomberg cofounded in 2014 with Shannon Watts of Moms Demand Action, and to which he has donated tens of millions of dollars.

It remains to be seen whether voters will consider gun violence as a major factor at a time when the country is grappling with the coronavirus pandemic, mass unemployment, and a reckoning over police brutality and race relations.

Kelly said Everytowns surveys showed Pennsylvania voters see gun safety as a kitchen table issue like taxes and health care. A lot of folks see gun safety, police reform, issues of criminal justice reform as inextricably linked, he said.

Everytown accused Republicans in Harrisburg of blocking legislation last year that would establish a process by which family members, loved ones, and law enforcement could ask a judge to temporarily prohibit people from possessing firearms if they are found to pose an extreme risk to themselves or others.

House Judiciary Chairman Rob Kauffman (R., Franklin) said in September that the committee would not consider the so-called red flag measure as long as he was chairman.

The legislation was introduced by Republican Rep. Todd Stephens of Montgomery County. Everytown is not targeting Stephens seat.

Everytown also blames the GOP for the legislatures failure to advance a bill that would expand background checks.

Gov. Tom Wolf, a second-term Democrat, implored lawmakers during his February budget address to pass those measures, but so far they have not advanced.
A Myanmar worker carries a basket in a copper mining waste dump area in Monywa, northwestern Myanmar's Sagaing region, in a file photo. Villagers whose lands were grabbed under a former military junta in the copper-rich region use discarded soil from nearby mines, mixed with old aluminum cans, water, and acid, to retrieve copper from the waste.

The recent approval of plans by a Chinese-backed mining firm to explore a vast swathe of northwestern Myanmar for copper has alarmed residents who fear losing their farms in a repeat of earlier bitter clashes over land rights, pollution, and compensation that gripped the region.

The multinational firm with links to a Chinese state-owned resource exploration company began initial operations early this year to explore 750 square kilometers (290 square miles) of land in the Sagaing region, home to Letpadaung  a name that symbolizes social unrest over Chinese copper mining after years of protest.

It is places like the Sagaing copper region where resource-rich Myanmars desire to develop an economy stymied by decades of isolationist military rule intersects with neighbor Chinas ambition to connect regional and global economies to the Chinese market with a vast infrastructure-building scheme.

Local residents, however, say mining companies have a history of neglecting community concerns and causing environmental damage, while taking their farmland without adequately compensating them. Community conflicts with Chinese workers are not rare amid popular wariness about Chinas growing influence.

Activists say that when making deals, the central government and foreign investors do not listen to local officials who have to deal with residents during the approval process, while officials at all levels are eager to create jobs. Myanmar exported about U.S. $825 million a year worth of copper in 2018, about half to China.

In the latest move to exploit the copper reserves of Sagaing, a mostly rural region of 5.3 million people that borders northeastern India, PanAust Services (Myanmar) Co. Ltd. was given a new five-year exploratory license in May to look for copper deposits in three townships in Sagaing region.

Since 2016, the firm has had exploratory rights to more than 1,500 square kilometers (580 square miles), according to information on PanAusts website.

PanAust is an Australian incorporated company owned by Guangdong Rising H.K. (Holding) Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Guangdong Rising Assets Management Co. Ltd. (GRAM).

GRAM is a Chinese state-owned investment company active in mineral resource development, electronics, industrial waste management, real estate, and finance. In the division of labor among state-owned enterprises under Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), GRAMs role is to support resource development in Southeast Asia, researchers say.

The map shows the locations of two Chinese-backed copper mining projects in Wuntho and Salingyi townships in northwestern Myanmar's Sagaing region. RFA graphic Belt and Road in Myanmar

The BRI, Chinese President Xi Jinpings signature global development initiative, includes major plans in Myanmar, such as the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, which features railways linking southwestern Chinas landlocked provinces to a deep-sea port in Rakhine state on the Bay of Bengal.

In Myanmar, PanAust holds a 90 percent stake in Wuntho Resources Company Ltd. (WRCL) and has set up a joint venture with Myanmar Energy Resources Group International Company Ltd. (MERG), a Myanmar-based company which holds the remaining 10 percent of WRCL.

WRCL holds seven exploration licenses in Sagaing region.

If PanAust finds sufficient copper reserves during the next five years and the mining project is realized, the copper mine could take its place as a new mega-mining center next to the U.S. $1 billion Letpadaung copper mine project.

PanAust Executive Chairman Qun Yang welcomed the green light to expand explorations, saying the country was working in neighboring Laos and was well-placed to start exploring in Sagaing once the coronavirus pandemic conditions allowed.

PanAust has made significant improvements to healthcare, education, and transportation infrastructure in the areas in which it operates, he said in a statement.

Qun Yang said the project in Sagaing would contribute to the nations long-term economic growth and prosperity, including through job creation.

Myanmar protesters shout slogans as they demand the closure of a flashpoint copper mine, near the Chinese consulate in Myanmar's central city of Mandalay, Dec. 27, 2014. The mine, run by Chinese firm Wanbao as part of a joint venture with a major Myanmar military conglomerate, has raised questions about the Southeast Asian nation's reliance on investment from China. Credit:AFP Letpadaung legacy

If comparisons to Letpadaung cause excitement among mining executives, the name evokes trouble to others in the Sagaing region, where mining began in the 1980s.

Chinas Wanbao Mining Copper Ltd., which has operated the Letpadaung project in cooperation with the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd. (UMEHL) since 2010, plans to invest U.S. $1 billion at Letpadaung over 30 years.

For years, the Letpadaung project has generated heated disputes over land takeovers, prompting violent crackdowns on protests by farmers forcibly displaced by the chinese-run mine, who contend that they have not received fair compensation for their losses.

An incident in December 2014 left one woman dead and several people injured when police fired on protestors. And in February 2015, witnesses told RFA that police fired guns during a clash at Letpadaung.

A parliamentary inquiry commission on the Letpadaung project called for more transparency in Wanbaos land appropriation process and urged the Chinese company to conduct environmental, social, and health impact assessments or to come up with an environmental management plan before the project continued.

Amnesty International and other rights groups have blasted authorities harsh treatment of protesters and called for the projected to be halted.

In May 2019, Myanmars Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation raised concerns over increased levels of particulates in the air near the project, and lawmakers complained about the high levels of sulfur dioxide and raised concerns about deforestation in the area, the analysis said.

Me Me Tun from Wuntho township, who said she heard that 22 villages in her community are in the exploration zone, cited Letpadaung as a reason why many residents do not want Chinese companies operating in their area.

We dont trust Chinese companies anywhere  on wildlands, on farmlands, or in villages, she said.

Whos going to take responsibility if any damage is done? Look at what [happened] in the Letpadaung area, Me Me Tun said.

We heard the company said local residents agreed to it, but which local residents? she asked. We did not see any meetings with any local residents. We did not get any information.

A Myanmar worker walks by pools in a mining waste dump area in Monywa, northwestern Myanmar's Sagaing region, in a file photo. Credit: AFP Corporate responsibility concerns

Than Zaw, who lives near the Wuntho project site, said Chinese companies doing business in Myanmar had poor reputations among local people and are not held to account for actions that harm communities.

Most Chinese joint ventures exercise less corporate responsibility than do companies from other countries, he told RFA.

Most of the governments in the past stood by Chinese companies interests when conflicts occurred with local people. Nor did regional governments seek the support of locals in these cases, Than Zaw added.

Zaw Lin Oo, a lawmaker representing Wuntho township, said that he and other regional legislators were not informed of the start of the exploratory project, though hundreds of acres have been allotted for mining operations.

He also said that concerned residents had asked him if their farmlands were included in the parcels covered by the exploratory licenses.

We cant tell them anything because we were not informed about the details of the project, he told RFA, noting that other Chinese-run mining operations in Sagaing have caused several problems.

Judging from past experience, local people are now almost certain that there will be similar problems in the region, he said.

Min Min Oo, permanent secretary of Myanmar's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation, rejected the accusation that local lawmakers had not been informed.

PanAust had applied for and received permission from the Union government for the exploratory operations, and in 2018 the company took Sagaing regional lawmakers and delegates from the parliaments Natural Resources Committee on tour of mining projects and briefed them about mining operations in Laos, he said.



Myanmar activists burn a Chinese flag during a protest against Chinese copper mine company Wanbao in front of the Chinese Embassy in Yangon in a file photo. Wanbao runs the Letpadaung copper mine project in Sagaing region as part of a joint venture with a major Myanmar military conglomerate. Credit: AFP Mine problems never go away

Thet Tin Nyunt, director general of the ministry's Department of Geological Survey and Mineral Exploration (DGSE), said PanAust began applying for permits in 2017, amended its application to meet new 2018 mineral regulations, and was approved by the Sagaing regional government and central government as of Feb. 21.

Than Hlaing, a lawmaker who represents Pinlebu township, also marked for exploration, said he will have no complaints against PanAust as long as the company conducts its operations in accordance with contract agreements.

Currently, it is only doing exploration for metals, not mining operations, he said.

The company is digging holes deep into the ground to extract samples," he said. I dont find their operations damaging to the natural environment. We expect that they are sticking to the rules and regulations.

The Myanmar government and PanAust say that the expanse of the project area will be reduced when the five-year exploratory period is completed.

Despite the huge land area of the project, the actual mining activities will only be done at feasible sites so as to avoid local residents farmlands, a PanAust official, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media, told RFA.

Tint Aung Soe, a member of the Myanmar Alliance for Transparency and Accountability, a civic group monitoring resource extraction in the country, said mining companies that receive direct permission from the central government usually ignore any problems that arise with local communities.

PanAust has not shared information with local residents or responded to their concerns about their farmland and the natural environment, he said.

We dont know what kind of activities it is doing or how well it is following rules and regulations, Tint Aung Soe told RFA.

We have seen that problems related to the loss of farmland from mining operations at the Sabae Taung and Kyay Sin Taung mountain ranges never go away, he said, referring to long-running copper mine dispute in Monywa, another place in Sagaing, where a Wanbao affiliate fenced off village farmlands.

The Union government should do more than give permission, he said.

Reported by Aung Theinkha for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung and Kyaw Min Htun. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
NEW HAVEN  The number of homicides in New Haven has surged so far in 2020, rising to 11 by July 15. In 2019, there were 12 people killed in homicides during the entire year.

Here are the names and ages of those lost this year.

Dashown Myers, 18, was fatally wounded near 1425 Quinnipiac Ave. on February 24.

Nathaniel Henry, 24, was fatally wounded in a parking lot at 75 Whalley Avenue April 28.

Secundino Ramirez, 29, was fatally wounded following an altercation on Congress Avenue at Cedar Street just after midnight on April 28.

Roberto Rivera, 34, died after a triple-shooting on Lloyd Street on May 22.

Robert Lee Joines, 29, was found wounded in a parking lot in the 1300 block of Quinnpiac Avenue on June 8.

Kiana Brown, 19, was shot while she was sleeping in a Valley Street home on June 17.

Luis Nelson Perez, 27, was found wounded and lying on Elliot Street on June 20.

Joel Price, 29, was found dead in a parking lot several hundred feet behind a business near 301 Sargent Drive on June 30.

Ricky Newton, 36, was wounded on Rosette Street on July 10.

Howard Lewis, 40, was shot while sitting in his car with his son and brother on Munson Street on July 14.

Ibrahim Valentino Shareef, Jr., 33, was found wounded inside a corner store on Whalley Avenue on July 14.

The map included in this story will be updated regularly, allowing residents to more easily consider the locations of this type of violence in the city.

The dots are color-coded, with the most recent shootings in the darkest hue and the older ones in the lightest. Theyre placed at the approximate location of the shooting as released by police, typically an intersection or portion of the street in question. Information about each case is available by clicking on the entry.

The Register is always interested in speaking with city residents, including those affected by violence in New Haven.

My email address is william.lambert@hearstmediact.com; my phone number is 203-680-9916. I cover crime, violence, public safety and breaking news in the city. Please reach out.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
Two years into their relationship, things are stronger than ever between Migos rapper Quavo and My Type rapper Saweetie but their relationship had a bumpy beginning.

The 29-year-old Georgia native first spotted the 27-year-old NoCal native on his Instagram explore page and he DM-ed her a snowflake emoji referencing her 2017 hit, ICY GRL.

'I told her, "You an icy girl, you need a glacier boy,"' Quavo (born Quavious Marshall) said in the August edition of GQ.

Hip-hop power couple: Two years into their relationship, things are stronger than ever between Migos rapper Quavo (L) and My Type rapper Saweetie (R) but their relationship had a bumpy beginning

'I told her, "You an icy girl, you need a glacier boy"': The 29-year-old Georgia native first spotted the 27-year-old NoCal native on his Instagram explore page and he DM-ed her a snowflake emoji referencing her 2017 hit, ICY GRL (pictured BTS of the GQ shoot)

Saweetie (born Diamonte Harper) replied: 'And I sent him the stir-fry [emoji] back' referencing Migos' 2017 hit song.

After months of phone calls, the cousin of Gabrielle Union agreed to fly to Atlanta for their first date, which began at Stoney River Steakhouse and Grill where he nearly choked on a crab cake.

'I'm still getting to know him, so I feel awkward because he's, like, choking at the table,' Saweetie said.

Quavo then gave her a tour of his recording studio Quality Control Music before capping the night off at the strip club Magic City where a fight broke out.

'I'm still getting to know him, so I feel awkward': After months of phone calls, Saweetie agreed to fly to Atlanta for their first date, which began at Stoney River Steakhouse and Grill where Quavo nearly choked on a crab cake

Classy move: Quavo then gave her a tour of his recording studio Quality Control Music before capping the night off at the strip club Magic City (stock shot from 2017) where a fight broke out

The Narcos: Mexico guest star (L) recalled to GQ: 'I didn't know if it was on some gang s***, so it was like, "Let's get to the car!" All this time, I forget I'm having a date! She catches up and cussed me out in front of Magic City'

'I didn't know if it was on some gang s***, so it was like, "Let's get to the car!"' the Narcos: Mexico guest star recalled.

'All this time, I forget I'm having a date! She catches up and cussed me out in front of Magic City.'

Saweetie said she was so angry she 'could've fought' Quavo, who noted: 'And we ain't look back since.'

The cousin of Gabrielle Union (R) said she was so angry she 'could've fought' Quavo, who noted: 'And we ain't look back since'

'Mr. & Mrs. Huncho': The 2020 high school grad (L) has since helped teach the USC grad (R) 'to be a better communicator' and she said she's been 'growing and maturing because of him' (pictured October 25)

Quavo stated: 'When she talk to me and when we started talking to each other, the Saweetie s*** go out the window and the Quavo s*** go out the window. I give her Quavious...She's showing me how to love a woman' (pictured April 3)

The 2020 high school grad has since helped teach the USC grad 'to be a better communicator' and she said she's been 'growing and maturing because of him.'

'When she talk to me and when we started talking to each other, the Saweetie s*** go out the window and the Quavo s*** go out the window,' Quavo stated.

'I give her Quavious. I give her what my mama calls me. I don't let people inside my life, and I let her inside. And she's helping me grow up. She's showing me how to love a woman.'
July 16, 2020

Edwin Paalvast will succeed current Chief of International Markets Henk de Jong, who has been appointed as CEO of Philips' Domestic Appliances business, effective August 1, 2020

Amsterdam, the Netherlands - Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG; AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today announced the appointment of Deeptha Khanna as the Chief Business Leader of its Personal Health businesses, effective July 20, 2020, and the appointment of Edwin Paalvast as Chief of International Markets, effective August 1, 2020. Ms. Khanna and Mr. Paalvast will become members of Philips' Executive Committee reporting to Philips CEO Frans van Houten.

Ms. Khanna joins Philips from Johnson & Johnson to lead its Personal Health businesses that were temporarily led by Frans van Houten. Mr. Paalvast joins Philips from Cisco Systems, and will succeed current Chief of International Markets Henk de Jong, who has been appointed as CEO of Philips' EUR 2.3 billion Domestic Appliances business, effective August 1, 2020. As announced in January 2020, the Domestic Appliances business is being separated from Philips, a process that is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2021.

"Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, our purpose and strategy to improve people's lives through meaningful innovation remain more relevant than ever," said Frans van Houten, CEO of Royal Philips. "We see significant opportunities to further strengthen Philips' leadership in health technology. Throughout our markets, care delivery is accelerating towards telehealth, virtual care and remote services directly to patients at home. And in the personal health domain, we are seeing an accelerated shift in priorities and buying behaviors towards online. I am pleased that in Deeptha, with her rich consumer health and digital experience, and Edwin, with his strong informatics and solutions expertise, we have found the right leaders to join our team and help us unlock Philips' full potential."

"Moreover, with the planned divestiture of the Domestic Appliances business, we are completing the strategic portfolio pivot to a health technology focus. I am convinced that Henk is the best leader for Domestic Appliances, as this business will embark on a new chapter in its journey to thrive and grow independent of Philips. As a seasoned business leader, Henk possesses a great combination of deep consumer knowledge across many countries, as well as a passion for bringing out the best in his team."

Deeptha Khanna (India-born Singaporean, 1976) most recently was the global President of Johnson & Johnson's Skin Health business and Office of Marketing Value. Through 2015 - 2019, she held various leadership positions in Asia and globally, during which she successfully drove a comprehensive transformation of the Baby Care portfolio. Prior to this, Ms. Khanna spent 17 years at Procter & Gamble in Asia, where she held various leadership positions in marketing. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Statistics, Mathematics and Computer Science, and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Management.

Edwin Paalvast (Dutch, 1963) joins Philips from Cisco Systems where he was Senior Vice President Global Specialists, leading a global sales force in specialist areas, including the Internet of Things (IoT), networking, data center, cloud, collaboration, cybersecurity and services. Prior to that, he held a variety of senior roles, including that of President of Cisco Systems EMEA. He started his career in 1986 at TNO, the Dutch Institute for Applied Research, where he led research on High Performance Computing and Applied Computer Science. He holds two Masters in Computer Science and Mathematics, and a PhD in Computer Science and Physics.

Henk de Jong (Dutch, 1964) joined Philips in 1990, and after holding various business roles in Floor Care, Coffee and Kitchen Appliances, and leading Philips' former Consumer Lifestyle sector in Europe and Asia, he successfully led Philips' Latin American market for five years. He has subsequently led Philips' International Markets since 2017, delivering consistent year-on-year profitable growth and market share gains. In his new role as CEO of Philips Domestic Appliances, Mr. De Jong will gradually assume end-to-end management responsibility in line with the design and timeline of the carve out process. ?He will continue to report to Frans van Houten, and remain a member of the Executive Committee.

For further information, please contact:

Ben Zwirs

Philips Global Press Office

Tel.: +31 6 15213446

E-mail: ben.zwirs@philips.com

Derya Guzel

Philips Investor Relations

Tel.: +31 20 59 77055

E-mail: derya.guzel@philips.com

About Royal Philips

Royal Philips.







He will continue to report to Frans van Houten, and remain a member of the Executive Committee.







Attachments
Leicester: Additional lockdown restrictions have been in place since June 29 - PA

Matt Hancock has confirmed that Leicester's schools and some shops can reopen from July 24 - but the rest of the lockdown measures will remain for at least a fortnight.

The Health Secretary told the Commons that the percentage of positive cases within the city has fallen to 4.8 per cent - one of several "positive indicators", he said, however overall rates "still remain well above the national average".

Mr Hancock also announced a new local power to close non-essential shops in Leicester where necessary, but said restrictions on the hospitality sector will continue.

It is "vital" for the people of Leicester and the rest of the country that these measures are followed, he said, paying tribute to the "perseverance" of those affected. He urged people "not to lose their resolve".

The Health Secretary spoke shortly after Sir Patrick Vallance issued a warning that there will be "waves" of coronavirus for many years to come - and made it clear he thought office workers should be encouraged to get back into city centres.

Sir Patrick told MPs that working from home remained a "perfectly good option" and there was "absolutely no reason" to change the advice, which is still to "work from home if you can".

It is widely expected that Boris Johnson will make a key intervention tomorrow, urging people to do return to their workplaces where possible.

Follow the latest updates below.

Story continues

04:55 PM

And that's it for another day

It's been a busy day in Westminster, with much of the focus on Russia and the extent to which certain unnamed "actors" may have influenced the election in 2019 - as well as the Brexit referendum.

Julian Lewis made a splash in his first day as chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee, confirming he will release the much-delayed Russia report before recess next Wednesday.

Shortly after that we had not one but two statements from the Government about Kremlin action, including cyber attacks on vaccine research centres and a claim that ministers are "almost certain" Russians were involved in amplifying a leaked document about post-Brexit trade.

Whatever you think about Russia, and the timing of these statements, it's pretty clear you're not impressed by Number 10 expelling Dr Lewis from the Conservative party after he thwarted efforts to install Chris Grayling instead.

Nearly 1,500 people voted in our poll, and 60 per cent think it was "plain wrong" to do so, while a further 12 per cent think it was understandable, but a move Downing Street will come to regret.

Tomorrow we will hear from the Prime Minister, but there too he seems to have been thwarted. Sir Patrick Vallance told MPs there was "no reason" to change the work from home advice. So will Boris Johnson take that on board, or will he press the case for economic stimulus?

We will be here from 8am to find out.

04:35 PM

Matt Hancock agrees to publish 'lessons learned' statement next week

Bernard Jenkin has asked Matt Hancock to submit a written ministerial statement detailing "lessons learned" in lieu of an independent inquiry.

The Liaison Committee chairman called on the Health Secretary to do so before recess next week setting out "the key lessons learned and how they are being implemented as we go into the autumn, which could be another very testing time for our country".

Mr Hancock says he "wouldn't deny the chair of the Liaison Committee his wishes on that", and notes he is appearing before the Science & Technology committee next week.

04:30 PM

Watch: Dominic Raab 'almost certain' Russians sought to interfere in 2019 UK election

Russians almost certainly sought to interfere in the 2019 UK general election through illicitly acquired documents, the Government has said.

Watch Dominic Raab explain what minister believe in the video below.

04:28 PM

Universities must tackle cancel culture to be eligible for loans

Universities must prove their commitment to protecting free speech in order to be eligible for emergency loans to help them through the pandemic, the Government has warned.

The Department for Education DfE has announced a new package of loans for higher education providers for those at risk of collapse due to the pandemic.

But universities who fail to "demonstrate their commitment to academic freedom and free speech" would be excluded, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson warned.

The measures have caused alarm in some quarters, after the DfE also warned not all establishments would be saved from bankruptcy if they are not deemed to be providing a valuable education.

One of the UK's largest higher education unions accused the Government of exploiting universities' financial difficulties in order to impose its own conservative ideology on the sector.

Mr Williamson has previously expressed his anger at so-called "cancel culture" and "no-platforming", whereby individuals are barred from speaking at university events because their views are perceived as offensive.

04:25 PM

Matt Hancock agrees to meet over 'worrying variation' in hospital mortality rates

Jeremy Hunt asks about "the worrying variation in mortality rates" among hospitals.

Some is "likely to be a failure in hospitals to adopt best practice", the former Health Secretary suggests, and asks his successor to meet him and Tim Briggs to discuss next steps.

Matt Hancock agrees to a meeting, and says the "unjustified variation in performance" is a "huge issue across the board".

"I would be very happy to hear what both he and Prof Briggs have to say," he adds.

04:22 PM

Matt Hancock defends Government over lockdown dates

Matt Hancock explains that the tests are being paused because the "certification was not forthcoming" and after they were checked out it became apparent they weren't "up to the standards we expect".

The Health Secretary says the "clinical position is that there is no evidence of any harm being done".

Asked about Sir Patrick Vallance's comments earlier, regarding the March 16 recommendation for lockdown, Mr Hancock says that is "precisely when the lockdown started", noting that is when he said "unnecessary contact should cease".

"It is unusual for being attacked for saying exactly the same as the Chief Scientific Adviser," Mr Hancock says.

04:13 PM

Matt Hancock confirms Randox swab test 'paused'

Matt Hancock then confirms that Randox swab tests have been paused while the Government assesses their safety.

The problem was brought to his attention yesterday afternoon.

Clinical advice is there is no evidence of any harm, test results are not affected and there is no evidence of issues with any other tests.

Further details are available here.

04:11 PM

Leicester lockdown will be reviewed in fortnight: Hancock

Matt Hancock says it is vital for the people of Leicester and the rest of the country that lockdown remains as it is.

He will review the situation again in a fortnight.

He pays tribute to the "perseverance" to the people of Leicester, saying he knows it hasn't been easy.

There is still much to do, he adds, urging people "not to lose their resolve".

04:09 PM

Leicester schools and shops can reopen - but other lockdown measures remain

Before Matt Hancock starts his statement, the Speaker begins by telling him off for not providing the speech earlier. It only arrived at 4:59, he claims.

The Health Secretary then talks about the action being taken in Leicester.

He tells the House there were 642 cases yesterday, saying "we are successfully turning the tide" against the virus.

Mr Hancock says following the decision to close schools and shops, as well as not to reopen pubs and other hospitality venues. At that time cases were three-times higher than the rest of the country.

He says he is "grateful" to local leaders.

Mr Hancock confirms that the lockdown in Leicester will be partially relaxed.

The percentage is 4.8 per cent - "positive indicators" he says, but they "still remain well above the national average".

From July 24, childcare and non-essential retail will be relaxed, he says. However other restrictions, such as transport and groups of six, will remain in force while hospitality still cannot reopen.

03:59 PM

UK does not have capacity for winter testing need, says Sir Patrick Vallance

The UK does not yet have the capacity to carry out 350,000 coronavirus tests per day over the winter, the Government's chief scientific adviser said.

Sir Patrick Vallance was asked about a report by the Academy of Medical Sciences which suggested 350,000 people would need to be tested daily as they show symptoms of either flu of Covid-19 during the winter.

Asked if the UK had such capacity, Sir Patrick told the Science and Technology Committee: "We haven't got the capacity to meet that at the moment."

However, he said he "believed" a plan was being developed, adding: "It's essential."

Sir Patrick said: "The other question on this is whether you can do what's called multiplex testing, so whether you can do something to test for multiple respiratory viruses at the same time, which would allow you to say, 'you've got flu, you've got flu plus Covid, you've just got Covid', and triage much more effectively."

03:56 PM

Russians tried to influence General Election, Dominic Raab claims

Russians tried to influence the UK's General Election in December, by amplifying the leaked US trade deal documents touted by Jeremy Corbyn during the campaign, the Government believes.

"Extensive analysis" has led the Government to conclude that "it is almost certain" Russians tried to meddle in the 2019 vote, Dominic Raab has said in a written ministerial statement. Documents relating to the UK-US Free Trade Agreement were "illicitly acquired" before the election and disseminated online via the social media platform Reddit, the Foreign Secretary explained.

The matter is now subject to a criminal investigation and the Intelligence and Security Committee has been made aware of the matter.

Jeremy Corbyn brandished the document during the 2019 campaign

03:50 PM

Coronavirus tests halted over safety fears, as Matt Hancock to make statement

Coronavirus tests used by the NHS may be unsafe and have been halted, the Government has announced.

Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, is to make a statement in the House of Commons on Thursday afternoon about the problems with coronavirus kits, which could hamper widespread testing.

Ahead of his statement, have a read of the full story here.

03:35 PM

Don't bank on coronavirus vaccine, Sir Patrick Vallance tells MPs

Sir Patrick Vallance has told MPs not to assume there will be a coronavirus vaccine in the immediate future - if at all.

He told the Science and Technology Committee the UK had a "wide range" of vaccine options "because we don't know which one is going to win". The odds are that any single trial wouldn't succeed, he added.

Sir Patrick said: "Our assumption is we won't have it and when we get it we will be thrilled."

Asked about human challenge trials, which involve deliberately exposing people to the virus after giving them the vaccine, he said the method was a "well-established way" of testing vaccines.

Sir Patrick said: "What are the two big challenges for this virus? Dose and rescue. So the prerequisites to do human challenge studies are to understand what dose causes a safe infection and can you rescue it if you get it wrong?"

Asked what the current answer to those questions was, he said: "We don't know the dose and we don't yet know when remdesivir will rescue the infection. It is absolutely the right thing to explore, but we are not there yet in terms of having all the answers.

"We need to make sure we progress safely."

03:31 PM

Getting back to work is another front in the coronavirus culture war

With depressing inevitability, our tiresome culture wars have sought to compromise our understanding of the physical, as well as the economic and political, world.

Those who hold nothing but contempt for the Prime Minister and his party will be quick to accuse him of wantonly risking millions of lives as he seeks to shore up the economy. His supporters will claim that an early return to work will reduce the period of recession that now lies ahead and will help generate the tax revenue without which our public services will wither.

The one fact we can agree on is that Boris Johnsons appeal to workers to get back onto trains and buses and head into the office is a huge risk.

03:17 PM

Further 66 people die with coronavirus across UK

A further 66 people have died with coronavirus throughout the UK in all settings, according to Government figures.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said 45,119 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Wednesday.

The figures do not include all deaths involving Covid-19 across the UK, which are thought to have passed 55,500.

The DHSC also said that in the 24-hour period up to 9am on Thursday, there had been a further 642 lab-confirmed UK cases.

Overall, a total of 292,552 cases have been confirmed.

03:04 PM

Sage 'not accountable' for care home deaths, says Sir Patrick Vallance

Sir Patrick Vallance has insisted the Government's scientific advisers were not to blame for the spread of coronavirus in care homes.

The Chief Scientific Adviser told MPs that "the risk was identified, there are papers showing the risks" and set out various types of risks that had been highlighted including people working between homes importing cases and the spread within care homes.

Asked why there was no action taken as a result of those risks being identified, Sir Patrick said "we don't recommend policy options."

He added: "How that is utilised is not a responsibility of Sage... we give the advice, it is laid out clearly, it is in the public domain... then it is a matter of operationalising it - that clearly is not an accountability of Sage."

02:55 PM

Labour calls for 'concrete steps' to protect Britons from Russian cyber attacks

Labour has said the UK Government must set out "concrete steps" to protect Britons, following reports that Russia is targeting vaccine researchers in the UK.

Lisa Nandy, Labours Shadow Foreign Secretary, said: The reported actions of the Russian Intelligence Services are wrong and should be condemned. The Labour Party is committed to working with the government to protect the UKs national security and safeguard our institutions from foreign interference  none more so than those leading the international effort to develop a Covid-19 vaccine.

The long-overdue Russia Report must now be made public, and the Foreign Secretary come to the House of Commons and provide MPs with concrete steps that will be taken to protect the UK from these kind of foreign cyber-attacks.

02:48 PM

Watch: Chancellor Rishi Sunak visits Jobcentre as number of unemployed grows

02:48 PM

'No reason' to stop working from home, says Sir Patrick Vallance

It is "quite probable" that coronavirus could come back in "waves over a number of years", Sir Patrick Vallance has warned.

He told MPs that although scientists "don't yet know" that it is a seasonal virus there are "some pretty strong hints" it is.

We are "dealing with a suppressed first wave", he added. There is a "very high likelihood" that we will see an increase of cases in winter as set out by the report published this week. That could be "the tail-end of the first wave still there, coming back", he added.

The Chief Scientific Adviser also warned against a rush to get office workers back to their places of work.

He told MPs: "We are still at a point in this where distancing measures are important. Of the various distancing measures, working from home remains a perfectly good option because it's easy to do."

He noted there was "absolutely no reason I can see to change it".

02:43 PM

Sage advised lockdown a week before it was brought in, says Sir Patrick Vallance

Sage advised the government to impose lockdown measures as soon as possible on March 16 or 18 - around a week before lockdown was actually imposed - Sir Patrick Vallance has told MPs.

He said this happened as soon as data showed further restrictions were needed. Looking back, you can see the data may have preceded that but the data was not available before that.

Scientists realised in mid-March that we were further ahead in the epidemic than had been thought.

The Chief Scientific Adviser has also said Sage did not advise on whether cricket balls were "a vector" of coronavirus.

Last month Boris Johnson said the sport could not be restarted on a grassroots level, claiming the balls acted as natural vector of disease.

His claim drew heat from many in the sport, including former players such as Michael Vaughan and Dukes manufacturer Dilip Jajodia. Thanks in part to the the Telegraph's Bring Back Club Cricket campaign, the decision was overturned.

But now it seems there was never any scientific rationale for the decision.

02:25 PM

Face masks best for 'short periods', Sir Patrick Vallance says

Sir Patrick Vallance has been answering questions about his face mask, which he was wearing at the start of the session with the Science & Technology Committee.

He told MPs it is best to wear masks for "short periods", suggesting that they are not suitable for wearing in an office all day. He also stresses that "like other clothes, I wash it".

Asked if he thinks there is a placebo effect, he says that actually a mask "reminds you things you need to do", saying there are "positive benefits to the messaging that might come in with that".

Asked about wearing face coverings in schools, Sir Patrick says "that's not really a science question - that's a straight policy one".

"Clearly it's not practical to ask small children to wear face masks," he adds.

02:15 PM

Russia rejects 'ambiguous' and 'confusing' claims about election interference

Russia has rejected the UK Government's claims that it interfered in the 2019 General Election, accusing Dominic Raab of making an "ambiguous" and "confusing" statement.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said it was "unclear what they are trying to say".

She said the UK had admitted there was "no evidence of full-scale interference" by Russia.

"However they claim that any attempts of such interference are unacceptable and they also voiced some hints on certain investigations, criminal investigation, that allegedly is under way.

"At this juncture it is premature to make any statements on our behalf, but let me say this: this statement is so ambiguous and so confusing that it is unclear what they are trying to say."

02:10 PM

No Covid deaths in London yesterday as England registers 19 fatalities

A further 19 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths in hospitals to 29,144, NHS England has said.

The patients were aged between 52 and 91 and all patients had known underlying conditions.

Another 10 deaths were reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.

There were no deaths in London or the South West, while there were six in the East of England, the worst-affected region.

02:08 PM

Covid-19 patients get antibodies - but they 'may not be long-lasting' warns Sir Patrick Vallance

Sir Patrick Vallance has said people who have had Covid-19 do get antibodies, but suggests that people see their antibodies drop off at about three months.

He told MPs that "antibodies may not be long lasting" but added: "That does not mean some type of immunity is not forming."

"We don't know to what extent a positive antibody means you are protected against the virus," he added.

02:00 PM

Vallance: 'Absolutely clear' that UK response has not been good

Sir Patrick Vallance has issued a damning verdict of the UK's response to coronavirus, saying: "Its clear that the outcome has not been good in the UK, I think you can be absolutely clear about that.

He stressed that adequate data systems need to be in place so that authorities have the information they need to deal with emergencies like the pandemic.

It would have been absolutely preferable to have had much greater testing capacity earlier on, but its not just testing, its basic information flows around patients in hospital, rates of admission, rates of movement, he said.

01:56 PM

'Highly unlikely' MPs will be moved to York without a vote, says Jacob Rees-Mogg

Back in the Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg has told MPs he thinks it is "highly unlikely" that they will be forced to relocate to York against their will.

Chairman of the Liaison Committee Sir Bernard Jenkin has questioned whether York could become "the home of our national Parliament permanently", after a letter from the Prime Minister suggested the Commons and Lords could be moved to the city while restoration was carried out.

The restoration is estimated to take around six years.

Other possible London locations proposed by Boris Johnson in the letter to David Goldstone and Sarah Johnson, who are overseeing the restoration project, include Richmond House, the QEII (Queen Elizabeth II Centre) and City Hall.

Mr Johnson said that the case for both Houses staying in place should also be considered.

Mr Rees-Mogg replied: "I think [Sir Bernard] may be alluding to the mention in the Prime Minister's letter of York and I would remind [Sir Bernard] that between 1301 and 1335, Parliament met in York 11 times, but that when Edward IV tried to get it to move to York it was unsuccessful.

"And so it will end being a matter for parliamentarians as to where this House sits.

"Though strictly speaking, the meeting of Parliament is called by the sovereign to her palace at Westminster and that, I think, is something that it would be highly unlikely to change without the acceptance of parliamentarians."

Pictures Shows: Viking from the Jorvik Viking Festival take part in the Viking Parade through York City Centre

01:50 PM

Sir Patrick Vallance shifts blame for care home decision onto politicians

Sir Patrick Vallance has sought to shift the blame for the high number of care home deaths in the UK onto the politicians.

The Chief Scientific Adviser told the Science and Technology Committee: "It's very clear care homes were flagged up very early on," telling Greg Clark that advice "went back right the way to February".

He added: "There was always case there was a worry [about care homes]. What you are describing is policy choices and how those policy choices are made."

Sage advice does have "uncertainy" but within that says "here are the bounds of the advice", he added.

01:41 PM

Sir Patrick Vallance masks up for MPs

Sir Patrick Vallance has started giving evidence to MPs of the Science and Technology Committee - initially with a face mask.

He takes it off after establishing they are all two metres apart. Strong signal, after a few days of mixed ones from ministers.

CSO Patrick Vallance starts sci & tech committee wearing a face mask, then says "we are all two metres apart" and takes it off. pic.twitter.com/gn30WmUlSk  Rachel Wearmouth (@REWearmouth) July 16, 2020

01:36 PM

UK Parliament restoration project is not time 'to create second Versailles', says Rees-Mogg

The project to restore the UK Parliament must not be treated as an opportunity to "create a second Versailles", Jacob Rees-Mogg has said.

The Commons Leader told MPs there can be "no blank cheque" for the project.

He said: "No-one here today will forget for a moment that we are discussing this matter in the midst of a global pandemic which is placing great strain on the nation's purse-strings.

"Today's debate is a chance to set out our expectations in this context and this should be a limited project to replace failing mechanical and engineering equipment, not an opportunity to create a second Versailles.

"There can be no blank cheque for this work which is why it is so important that the outlined business case will be fully costed."T

01:32 PM

Labour condemns Russian interference in 2019 election

Labour has condemned alleged attempts by Russia to influence the 2019 election - but failed to acknowledge its own role in the matter.

The Government is "almost certain" that Russian actors "amplified" leaked US trade deal documents touted by Jeremy Corbyn during the campaign, according to a statement issued by Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, earlier today.

A Labour spokesperson said: "We condemn any attempt by Russia, or any foreign power, to interfere in our countrys democratic processes.

"Labour stands ready to work cross-party to protect our nations security.

"That includes in our response to the publication of the long-awaited report by the Intelligence Security Committee on the Russian threat to the UK.

Jeremy Corbyn brandishes documents talks during the campaign which were "amplified" by Russian actors

01:25 PM

Shamima Begum ruling serves as 'lightning rod' for terrorists, warns Sajid Javid

Sajid Javid has warned that allowing Shamima Begum back into the UK would "create a national security risk that cannot be fully mitigated".

The former Chancellor and Home Secretary, who revoked her British citizenship on national security grounds last year, said the ruling serves as a "lightning rod for both Islamist and far-right extremists".

I am deeply concerned by today's judgment at the Court of Appeal: pic.twitter.com/Ns94KOAQH4  Sajid Javid (@sajidjavid) July 16, 2020

01:17 PM

Government may be trying to 'pre-empt' Russia report with two statements, says Grieve

Dominic Grieve has said it is "certainly possible" that the Government it trying to "preempt" the publication of the delayed Russia report next week by making two back-to-back statements about Russian interference today.

Dominic Raab has published a statement saying the Government is "almost certain" that Russia tried to influence the 2019 election, while the National Cyber Security Council said it believes Russia tried to hack vaccine research centres.

But the former attorney general told Sky News there was "nothing new about this", saying Russia has been seeking information and to spread disinformation "for a considerable time".

It was in keeping with "Russia's strategy", he added.

Asked about the statement regarding the 2019, he said it "seems to exactly show Russia's strategy", which is to "put people off balance... It is classic Russian tactics and I am not surprised."

The Russian report will "shed some light on Russian activity in earlier elections" he said.

He says he has never understood why the report was delayed, and would by now be "outdated". It would have been useful to be published before the 2019 election, Mr Grieve said.

"The explanation they offered at the time was simply not credible... I don't know what their motive was.

"it may just have been a fit of pique by individuals in Number 10," he added, suggesting they may not have wanted his name on the report, suggesting it was "very shallow" if so.

01:01 PM

Breaking: Russians attacked British vaccine research centres, NCSC says

Russia has been accused by the Government of trying to steal Britains research into a Covid-19 vaccine in a state-sponsored cyber attack.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) told Boris Johnson it had the highest level of confidence the Kremlin was behind the ongoing attack, which was also verified by the US and Canada.

Both Oxford University and Imperial College London, the two British teams trying to develop a vaccine, are understood to have been targeted. Security sources refused to say whether any attempts to steal information had been successful.

The NCSC said the hack was part of an ongoing campaign of malicious activity that began in around February or March when coronavirus became an international pandemic.

Read the full story here.

12:51 PM

Lobby latest: Downing Street defends race disparity appointment

Downing Street defended the appointed of Tony Sewell to lead the racial disparity work, despite his previous claim that evidence of the existence of institutional racism was "flimsy".

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "The PM's view is that he has asked the commission to examine inequality in the UK across the whole population and he is very pleased to have assembled a group of talented and diverse commissioners who each bring a wealth of experience from across a range of important sectors.

"In terms of Dr Sewell CBE, he has supported many young people from diverse backgrounds into Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers.

"The PM knows very well his work and how it has improved access to education across London.

"The PM is confident that he shares his commitment to maximising opportunity for all."

12:47 PM

Government 'riding roughshod over Scottish powers' claims Nicola Sturgeon

The SNP's opposition to a UK-wide regulatory framework is about preventing central Government from "riding roughshod over the powers of the Scottish Parliament," Nicola Sturgeon has said.

The subject was debated in Westminster today, leading to Ian Blackford being rebuked for shouting at Alok Sharma, the Business Secretary (12:38pm).

Speaking during her daily press conference, Ms Sturgeon said the proposals "effectively would allow the UK Government to decide issues of food standards or consumer standards, environmental standards that right now are decisions for the Scottish Parliament".

Ms Sturgeon added: "Retrospectively that could have meant the Scottish Parliament not being able to legislate for minimum pricing for alcohol, and not being able to stop GM crops.

"These are important issues of principle and it is about the ability of democratically elected Parliament of Scotland to take decisions in the powers we have, based on what we consider to be right for Scotland."

Ms Sturgeon also confirmed that Scotland had seen its first coronavirus-related death in eight days.

12:43 PM

Lobby latest: Downing Street defens Test and Trace

Downing Street has defended the NHS Test and Trace programme following the release of new data that suggests it is not reaching the minimum level required to be effective.

This morning it emerged that only three-quarters of people are being reached through the Government's Test and Trace system. The threshold for the system to be effective is 80 per cent, Government advisers on Sage have previously said.

But speaking today the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "Fewer people have been testing positive as the infection rate comes down, so we are naturally seeing less contacts being identified."

Boris Johnson claimed on Wednesday that the system was "as good as or better" than any other in the world.

The PM's spokesman said: "We set up a test and trace service from scratch and you can expect it to continue to improve in coming weeks."

12:24 PM

Lobby latest: Downing Street 'bitterly disappointed' by Shamima Begum ruling

The Government is "bitterly disappointed" by the court's ruling in the Shamima Begum case, Downing Street said.

This morning senior judges ruled that Ms Begum - one of three east London schoolgirls who travelled to Syria to join the so-called Islamic State group (IS) - should be allowed to return to the UK to challenge the deprivation of her British citizenship.

Now 20, she travelled to Syria in February 2015 and lived under IS rule for more than three years before she was found, nine months pregnant, in a Syrian refugee camp in February last year.

Then-home secretary Sajid Javid revoked her British citizenship on national security grounds later that month.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "The Government's priority is maintaining our national security, and decisions to deprive individuals of their citizenship are not taken lightly.

"We will always ensure the safety and security of the UK and will not allow anything to jeopardise this."

The Home Office has said it will apply for permission to appeal.

12:11 PM

Russian report to be published next week, says newly-formed Intelligence and Security Committee

The Intelligence and Security Committee has unanimously agreed to publish the long-delayed report into Russian interference in British democracy before summer recess next week.

This morning was the first meeting of the committee since before last winter's election, after veteran MP Julian Lewis orchestrated a coup to block Number 10's preferred candidate Chris Grayling from becoming chair.

The report, into Russian interference in British democracy, was compiled under former chair Dominic Grieve last spring. The House of Commons rises for recess next Wednesday (July 22).

While there have been calls for the Government to publish the report for many months, multiple backbenchers said this was more of an opportunity to "give No 10 a bloody nose".

One senior MP told Politics Live it was proof of Parliament "fighting back against an overpowering executive" at Number 10, with Downing Street responding by expelling the veteran MP from the party.

A former minister said it was a critical turning point in scrutiny, although stressed the infamous Russia report was "a red herring".

Another said: "Personally I think [removing the whip] is a brave move. No 10 is disliked by rank and file... Julian is in the ERG and they are tribal, and have all worked with Labour to stop EU measures in the past. I think No 10 may come to regret it."

A third high-ranking backbencher said: "Folk are mostly just laughing at Grayling and the incompetence of of No 10".

Another said the coup "shows that No 10 can't have their own way on everything. It shows up the weakness in this administration", although insisted Mr Grayling was "well-liked" among colleagues.

11:52 AM

Business Secretary insists there will be no change to UK's food standards because of trade deals

Alok Sharma has stressed the Government "will not be signing up for trade deals that will compromise" the UK's food standards.

Asked by Labour MP Clive Efford about chlorine washed chicken, the Business Secretary says this practice is illegal and says ministers will do nothing that might affect "our high animal protection, our animal welfare and food safety standards".

Mr Sharma added: "We are a world leader in these areas and that is not going to change".

11:38 AM

Ian Blackford told to 'desist' after shouting at Business Secretary

Ian Blackford, the SNP's Westminster leader, has been told to "desist" from shouting at the Business Secretary.

During a debate on on the post-Brexit shape of the UK's internal market, Mr Blackford accused the Government of seeking a "race to the bottom on standards" which would "destroy Scotland's world class food and drink" reputation.

Alok Sharma responded to Mr Blackford saying he "certainly does not understand business in Scotland and certainly does not understand the people of Scotland in this issue".

At this point deputy speaker Nigel Evans was forced to intervene, telling Mr Blackford "I can hear what you're shouting - please, desist".

I can't work out what he is saying - answers on a postcode (or better yet, in the comments section below).

Ian Blackford gets a telling off for shouting at Alok Sharma pic.twitter.com/pxplJNaAcH  CatNeilan (@CatNeilan) July 16, 2020

11:27 AM

Tony Sewell to chair race disparity commission

Tony Sewell has been named as the chair of a government commission looking into race disparity in the UK.

The formation of the new body was announced in June by Boris Johnson in wake of anti-racism protests following the death of George Floyd.

The commission is expected to report back to the government by Christmas with its findings.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "Tony has supported many young people from diverse backgrounds into STEM careers. I know well how his work has improved access to education across London, and I am confident that he shares my commitment to maximising opportunity for all.

The Commission will be inclusive, undertaking research and inviting submissions where necessary. It will set a positive agenda for change.

Dr Sewell added: "I have spent my entire career in education striving to help all students achieve their full potential. I know however that inequality exists, and I am committed to working with my fellow commissioners to understand why. "

11:22 AM

Alok Sharma rules out devolved subsidy controls

Alok Sharma has said the UK will adopt a single state aid regime after leaving the EU, saying subsidy control has "never been a devolved matter".

The Business Secretary said the Government would "clarify in law" the fact that internal markets are not a matter for devolved administrations.

He told the Commons: "The Government has been clear that after the end of transition, the UK will have its own domestic subsidy control regime," adding ministers would "consult widely".

Earlier this week Nicola Sturgeon claimed withholding post-Brexit state aid powers would represent a "full scale assault on devolution", warning the Prime Minister it would increase support for Scottish independence.

The UK has had to adhere to European Union rules on state aid during its membership of the bloc. But once the Brexit transition period finishes at the end of this year Britain will be free to set its own policy on subsidising private companies.

Regaining the ability to act unilaterally on state aid is viewed by many in the Government as one of the leading benefits of splitting from Brussels.

Number 10 wants to keep the powers for the UK Government to exercise but the Scottish and Welsh administrations believe they must be devolved.

11:11 AM

Julian Lewis 'playing ducks and drakes' with Labour over Intelligence committee

Jacob Rees-Mogg has accused Julian Lewis is "playing ducks and drakes" with opposition MPs - and failed to reject rumours that Downing Street is still planning to have the new Intelligence and Security Committee chair ejected from the role.

Conservative Peter Bone accused Downing Street of having a "huge hissy fit" over Julian Lewis becoming Intelligence and Security Committee chairman.

The MP for Wellingborough said Mr Lewis was "exceptionally well qualified" and will do an "excellent job".

He told the Commons: "However, some in Number 10 seem to be having a huge hissy fit about the decision. Will the Leader of the House confirm that he will not bring forward a motion to remove [Mr Lewis] from the ISC?"

But Commons Leader Mr Rees-Mogg replied: "[Mr Lewis] was playing ducks and drakes with the Labour Party and that is why the whip has been withdrawn."

Julian Lewis was playing "ducks and drakes" with Labour, says Jacob Rees-Mogg

11:05 AM

Act more quickly and share more data in future local lockdowns, Starmer says

Keir Starmer has claimed the Government had failed to act quickly enough in imposing Leicester's local lockdown, and urged ministers to share data with "people on the ground".

The lack of data has been repeatedly criticised by city mayor Sir Peter Soulsby, who said information was only available now showing that 90 per cent of the population needn't have suffered the ongoing restrictions.

Asked what lessons could be learned from Leicester, the Labour leader responded: "Two big lessons. Act more quickly - the Government delayed 11 days between first announcing that there was a problem in Leicester and actually going into lockdown.

"The second thing is - share the data. People on the ground... weren't getting the data shared with them in a timely manner.

"Both of those things need to improve for Leicester and for anywhere else that might go into a local lockdown.

"This is impacting on people's lives. We owe it to them to act more quickly and to share the data so we can properly identify where the real problems are.

"That's a lesson for Leicester and it's a lesson for every other area that might go into lockdown."

Labour Party leader, Sir Keir Starmer, wears a face visor during a visit in Nottingham

11:00 AM

Starmer 'didn't know' about Intelligence Committee coup

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said he had no idea about Julian Lewis' plans to out-maneuvere Chris Grayling as chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee, despite the coup involving opposition MPs.

Dr Lewis has been expelled from the party for having worked with Labour and SNP MPs to secure their votes in yesterday's committee election.

Speaking during a visit to Nottinghamshire today Sir Keir said he "didn't know what was going to happen".

"It's an independent committee, they choose their own chair and they obviously chose to reject the imposition by the Prime Minister of his preferred chair on them.

"That's a matter for them. We should respect the decision they came to."

Sir Keir added: "It's a very important committee looking at issues of national security and intelligence - key issues.

"It's for them to choose their chair. We should respect that, not complain about it."

10:38 AM

Government criticised over 'lack of transparency' on spending claims

Paul Johnson, the well-respected boss of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, has crunched the numbers from last week's mini-Budget and says it is "not quite what it seems".

The economist says "all that extra money.... represents an increase of precisely zero this year on Budget plans".

It is in fact "a reallocation from one set of projects to another", he claims.

"This is not a complaint about policy," Mr Johnson adds. "It is sensible to reallocate money especially at present time. It is a complaint about lack of clarity and transparency. It should not take us [at the IFS] a week to work out what is going on. In part mea culpa, but really more transparency please."

The details are linked to below.

All that extra money announced by govt last week not quite what it seems. https://t.co/iwaQROENHH



The "Rooseveltian" additional 5.5bn of capital spending represents an increase of precisely zero this year on Budget plans. Is a reallocation from one set of projects to another  Paul Johnson (@PJTheEconomist) July 16, 2020

10:32 AM

Test and Trace failing to meet threshold for effectiveness, official data reveals

Three-quarters of people are being reached through the Government's Test and Trace system, according to data published moments ago, falling below the threshold for it to be effective.

A total of 34,990 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in England had their cases transferred to the NHS Test and Trace contact tracing system since launch, with 76.4 per cent reached while 7,124 20.4 per cent were not reached.

A further 1,124 people (3.2 per cent) could not be reached because their communication details had not been provided.

But Sage has said that at least 80 per cent of the close contacts of anyone infected with Covid-19 must be traced and isolated for the system to be effective.

Since the launch of Test and Trace, 155,889 close contacts of people who have tested positive for Covid-19 have been reached through the tracing system and asked to self-isolate.

This is 84.1 per cent out of a total of 185,401 people identified as close contacts. The remaining 29,512 people (15.9 per cent) were identified as close contacts, but were not reached.

10:23 AM

Michael Gove blasts SNP 'myth-making' over power grab claims

Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove has denied the Government's "internal market" plan represented a power grab by Westminster from the Scottish Government.

The SNP's Ian Blackford yesterday warned a new oversight body for Scotland "will not be accepted". He said that decisions made in the Scottish Parliament must be upheld and accused the government of "ignoring the wishes of the Scottish people".

But today Mr Gove said: "No single SNP MP, MSP, councillor or activist can point to a single power currently exercised by the Scottish Parliament which is being taken away.

"There is no power grab, there's simply an example of SNP myth-making which this Internal Market Bill finally puts to bed."

10:19 AM

Gove dodges question about Julian Lewis - and is picture in a mask

Michael Gove has dodged questions about why Julian Lewis was expelled from the Conservative party yesterday, after he won the nomination for the Intelligence and Security Committee.

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves asked her counterpart to "explain or justify" the move which she described as a punishment "for the crime of being elected as a chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee".

Ms Reeves added: ""Losing the whip used to be the result of serious misdemeanour, not independent thought. What does this say about the Government's approach to expertise and scrutiny?"

Mr Gove said: "The Intelligence and Security Committee's membership is chosen by this House, an election was appropriately taken place, but whipping matters are quite properly matters for the respective whips' offices of our parties and not for those like myself who exercise a different constitutional role."

Mr Gove was pictured wearing a face mask for the first time this morning, after he was at the centre of a row over mixed messages ahead of new measures making them mandatory.

Michael Gove wearing a face mask this morning

09:51 AM

Breaking: Russia report to be published before summer recess

The Intelligence and Security Committee has unanimously agreed this morning that it will publish the Report on Russia prepared by its predecessor before the house rises for the summer recess.

This morning was the first meeting of the committee since before last winter's election, after veteran MP Julian Lewis orchestrated a coup to block Number 10's preferred candidate Chris Grayling from becoming chair.

The report, into Russian interference in British democracy, was compiled under former chair Dominic Grieve last spring.

While there have been calls for the Government to publish the report for many months, multiple backbenchers have suggested it is a "red herring" when it comes to Dr Lewis' coup, which they see as more of an opportunity to "give No 10 a bloody nose".

09:45 AM

Listen: Why are Conservative voters more likely to oppose mandatory face masks?

The move to make face covering compulsory in shops has caused anger - online, at least. And a YouGov poll suggests that those who oppose the move are more likely to be Conservative voters and Brexiteers.

The Telegraphs Parliamentary Sketchwriter, Michael Deacon joins Theodora Louloudis to discuss why decision goes against Boris Johnsons own libertarian principles and what leaving the EU might have to do with wearing a face mask.

09:40 AM

Julian Lewis coup 'amplifies' already weakening discipline

Reaction from the Tory benches is coming in thick and fast this morning, after Julian Lewis orchestrated a coup against Number 10.

Dr Lewis nominated himself as chair of the Intelligence and Select Committee at the last minute, winning the contest five votes to four, thanks to support from Labour and the SNP. He was expelled from the party in response, a move he has described as "strange".

One Tory MP has told Politics Live the affair "leaves the chief whip looking like an ineffectual bully". He noted the same goes for Dominic Cummings and the Number 10 operation as a whole.

Another warned: "Discipline was already weakening - this amplifies it."

What do you think? Have your say in the poll below

09:25 AM

Sturgeon will not 'shy away' from border controls to control coronavirus

Nicola Sturgeon has said she will not "shy away" from imposing a quarantine on the border between England and Scotland if required to keep coronavirus cases out of the nation.

The First Minister told ITV last night that forcing travellers from the rest of the UK to self-isolate was not something I want to do if we can avoid that.

However, she added: But I am not going to shy away from doing anything that I think is necessary and appropriate and effective in protecting people in Scotland from a virus that we know now to our painful cost can take life and also as we are increasingly learning can do a lot of long-term health damage to people.

Ms Sturgeon has repeatedly refused to rule out imposing quarantine restrictions on English arrivals, despite opposition from tourism businesses that are heavily reliant on visitors from south of the border.

09:11 AM

DfT buys 27-acre site in Kent for post-Brexit 'lorry park'

The Government has purchased a 27-acre site in Kent which opponents fear will be turned into a post-Brexit "lorry park" to deal with major tailbacks caused by border checks.

In a letter to residents, transport minister Rachel Maclean said it could be used "as a permanent site for facilities related to future border processes" as well as "a contingency lorry holding area for the particular, foreseeable risk of significant disruption at the end of the transition period."

Ms Maclean said there was "no intention" to develop the site as a permanent lorry park in the event of "cross-Channel disruption".

A DfT spokeswoman said: "At the end of this year the UK will become a fully independent country and take back control of our borders.

"This site will form part of our ongoing plans to help ensure the free flow of freight at the border as we make our new start at the end of the transition period."

09:02 AM

Number 10 made 'improper' attempt to name ISC chair, says Julian Lewis

Julian Lewis has said it is "strange" that Number 10 expelled him from the Conservative party after he out-maneuvered Number 10's "improper" attempt to make Chris Grayling chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee.

In a statement to the PA news agency, the veteran MP noted that the 2013 Justice and Security Act "explicitly removed the right of the Prime Minister to choose the ISC chairman and gave it to the committee members".

However yesterday afternoon he received a text "asking me to confirm that I would be voting for the Prime Minister's preferred candidate for the ISC chair," Dr Lewis said.

"I did not reply as I considered it an improper request. At no earlier stage did I give any undertaking to vote for any particular candidate."

The former Defence Committee chair added: "In recent days, the official No 10 spokesman explicitly denied that the Government was seeking to 'parachute' a preferred candidate in to the chair, stating that it was a matter for the senior parliamentarians on the committee to decide.

"It is therefore strange to have the whip removed for failing to vote for the Government's preferred candidate."

Julian Lewis, the MP at the centre of a political row

08:41 AM

Leicester mayor warns of anger if lockdown not lifted from bulk of city

Leicester's mayor has urged the Government to lift its local lockdown in 90 per cent of the city - and warned that a further two-week extension would leave residents "very angry indeed".

Speaking ahead of a decision about whether the city's lockdown will continue, mayor Sir Peter Soulsby told BBC Radio Leicester, the Government had got local people into a "messy situation" by its handling of the restrictions.

"It was quite clear that it was a political decision taken without the advice of Public Health England (PHE) to take us into this lockdown in the first place," he said. "It'll be a political decision to let us out and the sooner that political decision is taken, the better."

Sir Peter said Government data had "finally" told city officials which areas of Leicester were worst affected by coronavirus.

He added: "If only we'd had this information in advance, we'd have been able to do what they're now doing in Blackburn, which is actually working closely with the communities and avoiding having to be locked down.

"I very much regret the fact that the Government didn't trust us with this data earlier but I think now we've got it, we are the ones well-placed here in the city to make sure that we use it effectively."

Asked what he hoped Mr Hancock would announce, Sir Peter said: "I hope that he will allow us and trust us at a local level to work with the people of the city - and to recognise that the other 90 per cent of the city that has been locked down, along with the area that is of concern, should be allowed to go free with the rest of the country."

08:29 AM

Allister Heath: The death of the commuter is an extinction-level event for London

This week, the penny has dropped: we are not returning to our old, carefree ways for the foreseeable future.

Unless something is done and fast, the death of commuting will have immense, permanent consequences for our economy and way of life.

As Allister Heath writes today, its most devastating impact will be on central London, which is facing an extinction-level event. Britains only hope is a suburban renaissance.

08:27 AM

Have your say on: Julian Lewis and the Intelligence and Security Committee

Backbenchers this morning are full of applause for Julian Lewis, after he engineered a coup against Number 10 and Chris Grayling.

With the Intelligence and Security Committee packed with a Tory majority for the first time in recent history, Number 10 thought their candidate was a shoo-in. But at the last moment, Dr Lewis nominated himself - and won the contest five votes to four, thanks to support from Labour and the SNP.

Tory MPs have told Politics Live that it is the start of parliament "fighting back" against an executive that has been overreaching, suggesting that the decision to remove the whip from Dr Lewis could come back to bite them in the long-run.

A senior government source said the punishment was for "working with Labour and other opposition MPs for his own advantage".

But what do you think? Have your say in the poll below:

08:05 AM

Empty plinth 'best expression' of country's state of mind after Black Lives Matter statue removed

The plinth left empty by the removal of two statues in Bristol is "one of the best expressions" of the country's current state of mind, the city's mayor has said, saying it is time to "pause and stop to reflect".

Bristol City Council this morning removed the sculpture of a Black Lives Matter protester which replaced the statue of slave trader Edward Colston after it was put up in the early hours of Wednesday without official permission.

Bristol mayor Marvin Rees told Radio 4's Today programme there was no rush to replace either monument.

"An empty plinth at this moment in time is one of the best expressions of here we are," he said. "We are a city and country that is searching for answers and doesn't quite know what the answer is.

It is right that people "pause and stop to reflect who we are and what we stand for," he added, saying: "We shouldn't be scared of pausing."

Mr Rees said: "My job is to hold that space... no individual can just come in and claim to express the will of the people without speaking to the people."

07:42 AM

Black Lives Matter statue removed by Bristol Council

The sculpture of a Black Lives Matter protester which replaced the statue of slave trader Edward Colston has been removed.

Pictures from the scene appeared to show workers at the site at around 5.20am on Thursday. The statue, by Alison Lapper Pregnant artist Marc Quinn, was put up in the early hours of Wednesday.

The sculpture, entitled A Surge of Power (Jen Reid), was installed without the knowledge or consent of Bristol City Council.

Marvin Rees, the mayor of Bristol, told BBC Radio 5 Live that the city was going through an "incredibly delicate time".

"This is not about taking down a statue of Jen, who is a very impressive woman," Mr Rees said.

"This is about taking down a statue of a London-based artist who came and put it up without permission."

Mr Rees said when he spoke to sculptor Marc Quinn, the artist was unaware that the toppling of the Colston statue also caused damage to the grave of Scipio Africanus - a memorial to an enslaved African man.

"If you're going to do something, you need to do it with awareness and a full knowledge of the context in which you're doing it," Mr Rees said.

A Surge of Power was removed early this morning

07:39 AM

Britain must 'get back to work', says Business Secretary

Alok Sharma has said "we need to get Britain back to work" in order to stave off further redundancies.

The number of UK workers on payrolls fell by 649,000 between March and June as the coronavirus crisis claimed another 74,000 jobs last month, according to figures published by the Office for National Statistics this morning.

Fending off calls for the Government to offer further support, including sector-specific furlough extensions, the Business Secretary told BBC Breakfast "the best thing the Government can do" is to reopen the economy.

"We need to get Britain back to work", he added, later telling Radio 4's Today programme: "The best thing we can do is continue to open up the economy in a phased manner, a cautious manner, and get businesses up and running again."

Mr Sharma was speaking ahead of a press conference scheduled for tomorrow, in which Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, is expected to call on office workers to start commuting again.

It comes after Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey warned that while city and town centres remain deserted, the country will be "in a recession for a long time".

07:32 AM

Business Secretary refuses to be drawn on sacking of Julian Lewis

The Business Secretary has refused to be drawn on the sacking of Julian Lewis after he was nominated as chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee yesterday, stressing it is "a matter for the whips".

Alok Sharma told the Today programme the chairmanship was "obviously a matter for the committee itself" - despite Number 10's own admission that Dr Lewis was punished for having worked with Labour MPs against the party.

Mr Sharma added: "The whole point of that committre is to provide oversight, scrutiny and that will continue. With reference to individuals of the parliamentary party, I can only repeat that is a matter for the whips rather than me."

Asked if Dr Lewis - a former defence committee chair and Naval reservist - was more qualified than the former Transport Secretary often referred to as "Failing Grayling", Mr Sharma said: "I am not going to get into a discussion about individuals. There are lots of very good people who have huge experience who are sitting on this committee.

"Now it has been formed, it can move forward with its work."

07:19 AM

Leicester mayor blasts 'political' decison over city lockdown

The Mayor of Leicester has blasted the Government's "blanket political-led lockdown" of the whole of the city, arguing that more detailed data had clarified where the outbreak was centred.

The Government is analysing 14 days of data on Covid-19 cases and will make an announcement this afternoon about whether the measures will be eased.

Speaking ahead of the decision Sir Peter Soulsby told Sky News: "Some streets have no issue at all and in other streets nearby you've got a major issue, and we needed to know that at the time so we could intervene with pinpoint accuracy.

"Further advice needs to be given, support needs to be given, and we needed to know where that advice and support was needed."

Asked when he expected to learn whether the local lockdown was being lifted, Sir Peter added: "I expect to hear when the rest of the city, and indeed the rest of the country hears - because frankly we have not been involved in any of the decision-making about this.

"We have been told what the political decisions will be, and we will be told again what the political decision will be - whether or not we come out of it."

Speaking yesterday Matt Hancock said: We will look at that on Thursday of this week and make a public announcement as soon as is reasonably possible about whether and if any changes can be made to the situation in Leicester."

07:13 AM

Boris Johnson 'author of his own misfortune' on intelligence coup, says Sir Malcolm Rifkind

Former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind has said Boris Johnson had no business interfering in the election of the chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC).

Sir Malcolm, a former ISC chairman, said the Prime Minister had only himself to blame after his favoured candidate Chris Grayling was defeated.

"The Prime Minister is the author of his own misfortune. The Prime Minister has no role in the choice of the chairman of the committee. I think the Prime Minister or his advisers have handled this in an extremely incompetent way," Sir Malcolm told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme

"If they had succeeded, that destroys the whole purpose of the Intelligence and Security Committee. It is a unique committee. They are the only people who have access to the highest levels of intelligence.

"They need the confidence of the intelligence agencies and of Parliament. If they are thought to be creatures of government they have no authority to do the job that the law requires them to do.

"The Prime Minister either should have known that or should have been advised of that, and whoever is advising him deserves to be stripped of their responsibility at this very moment."

07:11 AM

Downing Street attacked for 'trying to manipulate' intelligence watchdog

A former Cabinet minister has attacked Downing Street for "trying to manipulate" the chairmanship of Parliament's intelligence watchdog and branded the expulsion of the man who beat Chris Grayling to the role as "an utter absurdity".

Julian Lewis managed to out-manoeuvre Mr Grayling and Number 10 to be named chair of the Conservative-dominated Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC). But Downing Street removed the whip from Dr Lewis, saying he had "acted with the opposition for his own advantage".

Former Tory Cabinet minister and chairman of the ISC, Dominic Grieve, told the BBC: "What troubles me about this episode, quite apart from its utter absurdity, and now withdrawing the whip from Julian, who is indeed highly respected, is the mindset it gives about what on earth is going on in Downing Street.

"Why did they try to manipulate this process? They shouldn't have done.

"The committee can only exist, the committee can only be respected... if it is seen to be non-partisan, and independent."

A senior Government source said the removal of the whip was because the MP was "working with Labour and other opposition MPs for his own advantage".

Former national security adviser Lord Ricketts warned that Mr Grayling - who earned the nickname "Failing Grayling" during a chequered ministerial career - does not "match up" to the authority and reputation of former chairs.

Following Dr Lewis's success, Lord Ricketts said the body was now in the "hands of someone with much wider experience of defence and security".

06:45 AM

Boris Johnson to tell nation to get back to work

Boris Johnson will on Friday tell the nation it is time to get back to work after the Governor of the Bank of England said people's "fear" of commuting was "holding back the recovery".

The Prime Minister is concerned that the economy is recovering more slowly than had been hoped after most lockdown restrictions were lifted and wants people to return to their workplaces wherever it is safe to do so.

His worries were echoed by Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey, who told Tory MPs on Wednesday that he was shocked by deserted city centres such as London's.

Mr Bailey set out a three-point plan for saving city centre economies, saying ministers must restore confidence in using public transport, lift all remaining restrictions and get people back to work. He warned that, if the Government did not follow his advice, the country will be "in a recession for a long time".
A former Honolulu police officer has been sentenced to four years in federal prison on Wednesday for forcing a homeless man to lick a public urinal in 2018.

U.S. District Judge Leslie Kobayashi made the decision while telling defendant John Rabago, 44, to imagine someone doing that to his two young daughters.

The homeless man, Sam Ingall, was just as defenseless and powerless as the Rabago's 10-year-old and eight-year-old children, Kobayashi said.

'You took from him his only possession: his dignity as a human being,' Kobayashi added.

Rabago had taken an oath as a police officer to protect and defend but instead took advantage of someone poor and homeless, she said.

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Former Honolulu police officer John Rabago was sentenced to four years in federal prison on Wednesday for violating a homeless man's civil rights in 2018

Reginald Ramones (center), a former Honolulu police officer, will be sentenced next week for participating in the concerning incident and then not informing authorities about it

He officially resigned from his position ahead of his sentencing after pleading guilty to violating Ingall's civil rights.

Rabago and another officer, Reginald Ramones, had responded to a nuisance complaint in January 2018 when they found Ingall in a stall in a public restroom that afternoon.

According to a lawsuit filed by Ingall, Rabago told him in an 'aggressive tone' that the 'only way he could avoid arrest was by licking the urinal in the bathroom'.

The convicted officer also threatened to beat Ingall and stuff his face in a toilet if he didn't lick the urinal, Kobayashi said.

Rabago then grabbed Ingall's shoulder, held him down and stepped on his legs to keep him on his knees until he licked the urinal, the judge said.

Meanwhile, Ramones stood the doorway while watching the exchange. He later closed the bathroom entrance so he and Rabago wouldn't be caught on surveillance cameras, the lawsuit said.

Afterwards, Rabago followed Ingall out of the public restroom and laughed as he told his fellow officers what he did, the lawsuit states.

Sam Ingall (pictured), a 37-year-old homeless man, filed a lawsuit against the Honolulu Police Department and the city after the incident in 2018

The disturbing incident was first reported after one officer at the scene saw what his colleagues were doing and left out of disgust.

At the time, Honolulu Police Chief Susan Ballard said the incident 'cast a dark shadow on the department'.

Rabago later told Ramones to delete text messages about the incident in an attempt to cover it up, Kobayashi said.

'I'm here to judge you on the worst thing you've done in your life,' Kobayashi said to Rabago.

However, she noted that he should not let the act define his future.

Next week, Ramones will be sentenced after also leaving the police department following the allegations and trial.

Ramones pleaded guilty to knowing Rabago committed a civil rights violation and not informing authorities about it.

As part of his deal, Ramones was tried on lesser charges and vowed to testify against Rabago in court.

Rabago (pictured) told Ramones to delete any text messages about the civil rights violation and urged him to not tell their bosses, according to the judge

During the federal investigation, Ramones claimed any comments he made were joking but later admitted they were entirely serious.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Brady said Rabago had sometimes been a good officer and ultimately took responsibility by pleading guilty to a pair of civil rights violations in the case, but had initially laughed about the incident and later denied it happened.

'To be homeless, not knowing where your next meal is going to be, to be forced to lick ... a dirty urinal by a uniformed police officer. Theres only one word that comes to mind: hopelessness,' Brady said.

Rabago offered his apologies to the victim and his family.

'Two years ago I made a decision I'm not proud of. My actions changed the course of life for all of us,' said Rabago.

His defense attorney, Megan Kau, said after the hearing that she and Rabago expected a sentence of about three years.

'I think shes taking the national environment and making him an example,' Kau said about the judge and the protests against racial injustice and police misconduct across the nation.

The nationwide protests sparked after Memorial Day when George Floyd, an unarmed African-American father-of-five, died after officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

Since, the US has faced a reckoning over racial disparities and police brutality as the protests have evolved to include more law enforcement victims, including Breonna Taylor and Elijah McClain.

Law enforcement has come under increasing scrutiny for as civilians determine what role authorities have, and should play, in daily policing.

'This is not the same,' Kau said, noting that Rabago is Filipino American and the victim is white.

The lawsuit filed by Ingall is against the Honolulu Police Department and the city. Both Rabago and Ramones as listed as individual defendants.

'Hes pleasantly surprised that the court punished him appropriately,' his lawyer, Myles Breiner, said.

'He was under the impression that they would coddle him and give him a minimum term, a very low sentence.'

Ingall's relatives have previously said he struggles with drug addiction.

He was filmed as part of 2016 documentary on Hawaiis homelessness crisis.

In the documentary, Ingall is seen recently released from prison with plans to turn his life around.

A few days later he overdosed on crystal meth.

Ingall is currently in a residential substance abuse program and plans to go into a clean and sober house, his attorney, said.
Maharashtra 12th Result 2020: Maharashtra State Board for Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) has announced the class 12th or higher secondary certificate (HSC) results on Thursday, July 16. The Maharashtra HSC Results 2020 was released at 1 pm today. Students can check their scores at mahresults.nic.in.

Follow Maharashtra HSC Results 2020 Live Updates here

This year, around 15 lakh students are registered for Maharashtra HSC Board exam that was conducted from February 18 to March 18. Out of the 15 lakh students, 3.39 lakh students are from Mumbai division alone, including Thane, Raigad and Palghar. A total of 1,919 students with special needs are also registered for the MSBSHSE 12th exams.

Here are the direct links to check your Maharashtra HSC Results 2020



Click here to check Maharashtra Class 12th results 2020

MSBSHSE will allow the students to apply for revaluation of their scores between July 17 to July 27 and for photocopy between July 17 and August 5 on the boards official website. Fees for the same can also be paid online. Students who wish to apply for revaluation have to first secure a photocopy for their papers and then apply for revaluation.

ALSO WATCH | Maharashtra HSC Results declared, overall success rate 87.69%

Earlier last week, education minister Varsha Gaikwad had told HT that the HSC Results will be announced anytime between July 15 and 20 while the Maharashtra SSC or class 10th results can be expected before July 30.

(with inputs from Ankita Bhatkhande in Mumbai)

The author tweets @ NandiniJourno

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By PTI

NEW DELHI: India on Thursday said it has strongly protested with Pakistan against the construction of the Diamer-Bhasha dam in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and condemned Islamabad's continuous attempts to bring about material changes in Indian territories under its illegal occupation.

India's strong protest came after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday kicked off construction work at the Diamer-Bhasha dam in Chilas in Gilgit-Baltistan, notwithstanding New Delhi's objection to the China-backed mega project.

Asked about the development at the weekly briefing, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said India had made its position on it clear earlier and it remains unchanged.

"The entire Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Union territory of Ladakh, have been, are, and will be an integral and inalienable part of India. We have strongly protested against the construction of this dam to the government of Pakistan," Srivastava said.

"This dam will lead to submergence of a large part of land of the Indian union territories of J&K and Ladakh and we condemn the continuous attempts by Pakistan to bring about material changes in Indian territories under its illegal occupation," he said.

India has also consistently conveyed its protest and shared concerns with both China and Pakistan on all such projects in the Indian territories under Pakistan's illegal occupation where it has no locus standi, the MEA spokesperson said.

The Pakistan government in May had signed a whopping Rs 442 billion contract with a joint venture of a Chinese state-run firm and a commercial arm of Pakistan's powerful military for the construction of the Diamer-Bhasha dam.

Asked about reports of Pakistan allowing Afghan goods to be exported via Wagah, Srivastava said it was another example of Pakistan's creation of a mirage of goodwill.

"Let us be clear on this, Pakistan is not allowing Afghan trucks to carry Afghan goods and is seeking monopolistic transport practices.

It is not allowing Afghanistan two-way transit rights as committed under article 3 of the Afghanistan"Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (also known as APTTA)," he said.

"So, Pakistan has been following a policy of creating captive markets by denying full transit access to Afghanistan by restricting products from India and other countries. It is failing to fulfil its own commitments under APTTA," Srivastava said.

Pakistan has even denied transit of humanitarian grant assistance, including wheat from India, to Afghanistan, he said.
 Consolidated revenue at $130.6 Mn (INR 9,917 Mn); degrowth of 12.5% QoQ (in $ terms) and de-growth of 16.6% YoY (in $ terms) and degrowth of 7.6% QoQ (in INR terms) and de-growth of 8.9% YoY (in INR terms)

 Services revenue at $112.2 Mn; de-growth of 15.2% QoQ (-14.3% in CC) and de-growth of 18.6% YoY

 DLM revenue at $18.4 Mn; growth of 8.5% QoQ, and de-growth of 1.4% YoY

 Free cash flow to EBITDA conversion at 138.1%

 EBIT margin for services at 6.7%, down 283 bps QoQ

 EBIT margin for DLM at -4.6%, down 410 bps QoQ

 Profit After Tax at INR 814 Mn for the quarter; growth of 8.0% QoQ

Business Highlights

Update on deal wins - Hitachi Rail :

Signed an agreement with Hitachi Rail to deliver project engineering services and accelerate the evolution of its signalling technology

to deliver project engineering services and accelerate the evolution of its signalling technology

Cyient will develop and operate a Central Delivery Centre for Hitachi Rail in India , and a Regional Centre in the US

in , and a Regional Centre in the US

Will be responsible for delivering engineering services for Hitachi's global signalling projects that use proprietary interlocking platforms

Update on collaboration with Microsoft

Cyient loT Edge Gateway 5400, the flagship product in the company's family of loT gateways, is Microsoft Azure Certified for loT



Cyient's loT Edge Gateway 5400 provides diverse connectivity and communication protocol options, advanced data processing, and edge analytics capabilities for remote asset monitoring and predictive maintenance solutions

Diversifying our customer base

We have added 25 new customers in Q1 FY21

Commissioning of the Hyderabad factory

The new DLM factory in Hyderabad has been commissioned. This is one of the most advanced electronics manufacturing facilities in India , underpinned by the latest technologies in factory automation, Industry 4.0 and supply chain management

has been commissioned. This is one of the most advanced electronics manufacturing facilities in , underpinned by the latest technologies in factory automation, Industry 4.0 and supply chain management

Strategic advantage to be located in a manufacturing hub in terms of proximity to probable customers, managing supply chains and co-ordination with the design teams

Message from the Management

Commenting on the results, Mr. Krishna Bodanapu, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, said "Q1 FY21 results were better than our expectations, where we recorded a revenue of $130.6 Mn which was lower by 11.6% QoQ and 15.1% YoY in constant currency. Services business was lower by 14.3 % QoQ in constant currency. The DLM business grew by 8.5% QoQ. We expect traction from top clients to return post Q2. The EBIT margin is lower by 328bps QoQ mainly due to lower business volume which was somewhat offset by lower SG&A spend. We generated Free Cash Flow of INR 2,163 Mn which was higher by 101% QoQ.

This quarter we had some significant wins in both new business and existing clients. This will help us strengthen our revenue outlook in the coming quarters. This quarter we also made significant investments in strengthening our business through strategic partnerships and alliances. We partnered with Microsoft for industry 4.0 offerings. The partnership will allow us take IoT solutions faster to market with hardware and software that has been pre-tested and verified to work with Microsoft Azure IoT services. We also signed a partnership with Fore Optics for joint Go to Market on taking asset tracking offering to the market. As part of this partnership Fore Optics brings in its IP in supply chain analytics and Cyient its IP in asset tracking IoT. We further strengthened the management team with the addition of Felice Gray-Kemp as the Global General Counsel and Meenu Bagla as the Chief Marketing Officer. The new DLM factory in Hyderabad has been commissioned and I am happy to say that this is one of the most advanced electronics manufacturing facilities in India, underpinned by the latest technologies in factory automation, Industry 4.0 and supply chain management.

Our Outlook for Q2 is positive and we expect growth to return in all industries except Aerospace, which will de-grow further in Q2. For the year, we expect a de-growth in revenue in double digits. We will also reiterate that H2 margin will be back to the steady state margin of H1 of last year. This will continue to be underpinned by strong free cash flow generation and prudent Capex spend."

Commenting on the results, Mr. Ajay Aggarwal, President & CFO, said, "The revenue for Q1FY21 stood at $130.6 Mn (INR 9,917 Mn) with EBIT of INR 511 Mn and PAT of INR 814 Mn. Our rigor on cash collections, close engagement with customers and initiatives on cash conservation has yielded results with FCF generation of INR 2,163 Mn and FCF to EBITDA conversion of 138.1%.

With significant efforts spent on efficiencies and cost optimisation in the last financial year, our focus on cost reduction and profit improvement continued in Q1 and well set to show results in the coming quarters. We are positive on realising benefits of our sustained initiatives on collections, working capital cycles, payables and discretionary cost control in FY21.

In the current turbulent times, it is very difficult to predict future with a reasonable certainty. We are cognizant of the dynamic situation we are in, and are working with extreme agility in making decisions and taking corrective actions to manage business scenarios with special focus on cash and costs.

We remain strongly focused on growth, improvement in operating efficiencies and cash generation and thus maximizing the value for our shareholders."

Business performance and outlook

Aerospace & Defense

Aerospace & Defence business unit witnessed a decline of 15.6% QoQ and 21.5% YoY. The services business from commercial aviation clients witnessed significant challenges across geographies. The defence business remained resilient and we expect the traction to continue through the year. The manufacturing business grew driven by new wins and stable defence accounts.

We expect to witness decline in Q2 driven by poor market demand for passenger travel. We are actively engaged with key clients to strengthen our relationship and retain our market share. We expect manufacturing business to witness strong growth through Q2. The digital offerings are seeing momentum in this vertical. We expect the demand to be driven by digital, defence and DLM in the near term.

Communications

Communications business unit witnessed a decline of 10.8% QoQ and growth of 0.6% YoY. The services business witnessed increased demand in key clients driven by demand for increased network bandwidth both from consumer & enterprise segments. Also, 5G rollouts across various geographies are gaining traction. However, closure on major programs, field access and new client acquisition remained a challenge.

We expect strong growth in Q2 driven by growth in key clients. 5G rollouts, wireless and fiber rollout, digital technologies will continue to drive growth through next few quarters.

Transportation

Transportation business unit witnessed a decline of 10.9% QoQ and 23.9% YoY, primarily driven by change in revenue complexion and lower momentum in one of our key clients.

Our outlook for Q2 continues to remain positive driven by growth in key client accounts and new wins in mobility business. We expect momentum in signaling business to return through the quarter.

E&U

Energy and Utilities business unit witnessed a decline of 19.4% QoQ and 30.0% YoY driven by temporary stoppage in field work for the Utilities business and decline in demand for the manufacturing business.

We expect strong growth in Q2 driven by growth across services. We expect traction in Energy segment to return post Q2

Medtech and Healthcare

Medical technology and Healthcare business unit witnessed a growth of 18.2% QoQ and 32.7% YoY driven by growth in key client in the services business and manufacturing business.

Our outlook for Q2 stands positive driven by growth in key client in the manufacturing business. We expect growth in Covid related equipment's like IVD and hospital equipment's to drive growth through the quarter.

SIA (Semiconductor, Semiconductor, IoT and Analytics)

Semiconductor, IoT and Analytics business unit witnessed a growth of 15.6% QoQ and decline of 18.7% YoY. The growth was driven by growth in key clients in semiconductor as well as embedded automotive services. We also completed ASIC IC shipments for a high precision GPS chip leveraging our new test infrastructure in Europe. Asides this, our facilities in Leuven (Belgium) and Duisburg (Germany) will be fully equipped to perform test development for high volume production for complex analog mixed signal ASICs through the year.

We expect growth through Q2 driven by ramp up in new turnkey ASIC projects and IC shipments.

DLM (Design Led manufacturing)

Design Led manufacturing business unit witnessed a growth of 8.4% QoQ and decline of 1.4% YoY driven by growth across Aerospace and Medical segments. Our strong focus on inventory reduction through the quarter resulted in increased cash flow for the business.

We expect strong growth through Q2 driven by key clients in Aerospace & Defence and Medical segment. We will continue to focus on better inventory management and operational excellence to improve our cash position.

About Cyient

Cyient (Estd: 1991, NSE: CYIENT) is a global engineering and technology solutions company. As a Design, Build, and Maintain partner for leading organizations worldwide, Cyient takes solution ownership across the value chain to help customers focus on their core, innovate, and stay ahead of the curve. The company leverages digital technologies, advanced analytics capabilities, domain knowledge, and technical expertise to solve complex business problems.

Cyient partners with customers to operate as part of their extended team in ways that best suit their organization's culture and requirements. Cyient's industry focus includes aerospace and defense, healthcare, telecommunications, rail transportation, semiconductor, geospatial, industrial, and energy.

For more information, please visit www.cyient.com.

Follow news about the company at @Cyient.

Media Relations

Perfect Relations

Vishal Thapa

Mobile: +91 9701834446

Email: [email protected]

Disclaimer

This document contains certain forward-looking statements on our future prospects. Although Cyient believes that expectations contained in these statements are reasonable, their nature involves a number of risks and uncertainties that may lead to different results. These forward-looking statements represent only the current expectations and beliefs, and the company provides no assurance that such expectations will prove correct.

All the references to Cyient's financial results in this update pertain to the company's consolidated operations comprising wholly-owned and Step-down subsidiaries Cyient Europe Limited; Cyient Inc.; Cyient GmbH; Cyient Australia Pty Ltd; Cyient Singapore Private Limited; Cyient KK; Cyient Israel India Limited; Cyient Insights Private Limited; Cyient Canada Inc.; Cyient Defense Services Inc.; Certon Software Inc.; Certon Instruments Inc.; B&F Design Inc.; New Technology Precision Machining Co. Inc.; Cyient Insights LLC; Cyient Benelux BV; Cyient Schweiz GmbH; Cyient SRO; AnSem NV; AnSem B.V.; Cyient AB; partly owned subsidiaries Cyient Solutions and Systems Private Limited; Cyient DLM Private Limited; joint venture Infotech HAL Ltd (HAL JV) & associate company Infotech Aerospace Services Inc. (IASI) until 8th December 2017.

The income statement and cash flow provided is in the internal MIS format. MIS format is different from the income statement published as part of the financial results, which is as per the statutory requirement.

SOURCE Cyient

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The visit comes a few days after Libya's Tobruk-based parliament asked Egypt to intervene militarily if need be to safeguard the national security of both countries against what it described as a Turkish occupation

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is scheduled to meet on Thursday a delegation comprising several Libyan tribal leaders, presidential spokesman Bassam Rady announced in a statement.

The meeting will be held under the slogan "Egypt and Libya one people, one fate," Rady said.

Egypt received from Benghazi on Wednesday the delegation of Libyan tribes which support the Libyan government in Tobruk and the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by military commander Khalifa Haftar, for talks about the current crisis in Libya and ways to overcome it.

The visit comes a few days after Libya's eastern-based parliament asked Egypt to intervene militarily if need be to safeguard the national security of both countries against what it described as Turkish occupation.

Turkey has recently transferred thousands of Syrian Jihadis and mercenaries into Libya to back the Government of National Accord (GNA) in its war against the LNA.

In June, El-Sisi warned that Cairo has a legitimate right to intervene in the war-torn neighbouring country to restore security and stability after GNA-affiliated forces pushed back Haftars forces in the capital.

El-Sisi stressed that any Egyptian intervention would be led by the Libyan tribes, stressing that the Libyan frontline of Sirte and Al-Jufra is a red line for Egyptian national security.

The warning came weeks after El-Sisi, Haftar, and Speaker of the Libyan parliament Aguila Saleh announced a peace initiative, dubbed the Cairo Declaration, to end the civil war in Libya through a ceasefire and an elected leadership council.

Egypt, France and the UAE support the government in eastern Libya while Turkey and Qatar back the GNA in Tripoli.

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Late Tuesday night, Assistant to the President Ivanka Trump tweeted an odd photo of herself dramatically holding a can of Goya black beans. Above the photo, she wrote the company's slogan in English and Spanish: "If it's Goya, it has to be good. Si es Goya, tiene que ser bueno." She posted the same photo and slogan on Instagram, as well. The next day, President Donald Trump himself posted a picture in which he posed at his White House desk in front of an array of Goya products, grinning and offering two thumbs up.

Ivanka Trump's posts violated an executive branch ethics regulation prohibiting employees from misusing their official positions to endorse commercial products. As a pictorial representation of the Trump administration's war on government ethics, both photos are perfectly clear. They scream "the rules don't apply to us," a central message of the Trump administration from the start.

Even before his inauguration, President-elect Trump seemed to delight in telling reporters that the ethics rules weren't his thing. As a matter of law, he was mostly right. As a matter of norms, he could not have been more wrong. Since the early 1970s the Justice Department, based on an opinion by then Assistant Attorney General and future Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, emphasized the importance of presidents acting as though the rules applied to them. The Office of Government Ethics (OGE) reiterated this advice in the 1980s and again after President Trump was elected. OGE had a vested interest in doing so. Lacking any real enforcement power of its own, OGE has always depended on White House support for the ethics program. Past presidents delivered that support in abundance.

They also led by example, establishing a post-Watergate norm of presidents divesting their conflicting financial interests or placing them in blind trusts. But Trump's very first act as president was to breach that norm. With that initial act, he made clear that even if he wanted to support the government ethics program, he would lack the moral authority to do so. And he has made clear that he doesn't want to support that program; he and his staff are openly hostile to it.

Three weeks after Trump's inauguration, Kellyanne Conway showed she had received the president's anti-ethics message. Participating in a television interview from the White House, Conway told America to "go buy Ivanka's stuff." As OGE's director, I asked the White House to address this violation of the misuse of position regulation. The White House shrugged off the violation, responding that Conway had uttered her endorsement "in a light, offhand manner" and was "highly unlikely to do so again."

But Conway did violate ethics rules again, literally dozens of times. That's according to Henry Kerner, the Trump appointee leading the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC). That agency (which is unrelated to former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III) enforces the Hatch Act, an ethics law that prohibits misuse of official position to influence partisan political elections. Conway violated that law so many times that Kerner recommended her termination. Trump rejected the recommendation.

As long as the White House protects ethics violators, presidential appointees will continue violating ethics rules. OSC has determined that at least 13 Trump appointees have violated the Hatch Act. Ethics investigations and resignations under the cloud of ethics violations are now the hallmark of the Trump administration. Ivanka Trump's endorsement of Goya beans is only the latest in the administration's long string of ethics problems.

There can be no doubt that her Twitter post violated the misuse of position regulation. OGE has adopted a "totality of the circumstances" approach in applying the misuse of position regulation to personal social media accounts. While the president's daughter asserts in the biographical section of her account that it is a personal one, she includes her official title in that section. Her Twitter account also frequently touts Trump administration activities. The first item she posted after the Goya endorsement, for example, is a retweet of a Republican politician regarding the "White House American Workforce Policy Advisory Board," which she co-chairs in her official capacity as a White House official. The dozen tweets and retweets she posted immediately before the Goya endorsement similarly focused on a White House employment initiative in which she participates in her official capacity. An official's prominence in the administration is also a consideration, and there is no presidential appointee more closely associated with President Trump than his daughter.

Other factors further establish the ethics violation. A few days before Ms. Trump's tweet, Goya's CEO praised President Trump, and her tweet was an obvious response to the backlash the company has faced for the CEO's remarks. There's a particularly unseemly aspect to both Ivanka and Donald Trump's posts: they suggest that the government's endorsement is for sale. Endorse the president while he's running for reelection, and he and his staff will reciprocate by endorsing your product. This too is in keeping with the administration's track record. Trump, after all, is the president who asked Ukraine to investigate his political rival and seemingly conditioned the delivery of hundreds of millions of dollars in desperately needed aid on the performance of that favor.

The tone taken by those at the top is everything in government ethics, and the tone from the top of the Trump administration consistently undermines the principles of government ethics. The government's 2.1 million federal employees are told in ethics training that they should play by the rules, while those at the top of government routinely flout rules. They see the Trump administration attack anyone who decries ethics violations. With the recent resignation of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, they see retaliation against witnesses who expose wrongdoing. They see the president blasting whistleblowers and replacing Inspectors General, the government's internal watchdogs, with lap dogs.

Lawlessness is not just tolerated in the Trump administration, it's virtually required. That's a threat to the republic because the breakdown of legal safeguards is a necessary predicate to the rise of authoritarianism. So don't think for a second that this was just about a can of beans. Ivanka Trump's social media posts were a declaration that she and the other members of this administration stand above the rule of law.

Trump loves the rule of law. As long as it targets his enemies.

- - -

Shaub is a former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and a senior adviser to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Police are appealing for more information after a group of teenagers participated in 'disgraceful cruelty' against sheep in Wales.

A group of '12-15 year old boys' were seen tying a lamb down in the Coedpoeth area of Wrexham over the weekend.

According to a series of Twitter posts by the rural crime division of North Wales Police, ears were removed from the lamb.

Police explained that the group of boys were disturbed and claimed they were 'going to shave it', before leaving the scene.

In another incident, a group of teenagers chased a sheep with a rope, making attempts to tie it down. However, the public managed to intervene.

Coedpoeth incidents...

Do you know who these 12-15 yr old boys are who were seen tying the sheep down. One of the group was described as having red hair. The ears removed from the lamb were left still with the tags

Pls RT and hopefully social media can do what it does best?? pic.twitter.com/KI4nCBUY6P  Tim Troseddau Cefn Gwlad HGC/ NWP Rural Crime Team (@NWPRuralCrime) July 14, 2020

In the final incident, police officers said they found two dead lambs with ears and tongues removed.

The police team said: "We are investigating three appalling separate incidents reported over the weekend in the Coedpoeth area of Wrexham.

"The first involved three boys aged 12-15yrs of age caught tying a sheep to a fence. When disturbed they said they were going to 'shave it' before running off.

"The second incident involved boys chasing a sheep with a rope and again tying it down before the public intervened.

"The third involved the finding of two dead lambs with one having had its ears cut off and tongue removed. Disgraceful cruelty."

Rob Taylor, rural team manager, added: "This is disgraceful behaviour and these boys need catching. Anyone who has any info to call 101. We need the public's help."
LOS ANGELES, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Seth Rogen and Lauren Miller Rogen's HFC, a national non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness, inspiring change, and accelerating progress in Alzheimer's care, prevention, research, and support, announced the results of a study researching the effectiveness of online Alzheimer's and brain health education for high school and college students. In collaboration with the educational website Alzheimer's Universe (AlzU.org) and led by Dr. Richard S. Isaacson, director of the Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian, the randomized controlled trial engaged over 700 high school and college students ages 14-24.

The trial (NCT03149380), titled Effectiveness of Online Alzheimer's and Brain Health Education for High School and College Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial, was published in the July 14, 2020, online issue of Neurology. The study evaluated the effectiveness of online education on Alzheimer's disease (AD) knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intent using an online portal providing evidence-based AD education. The study recruited students by using Facebook and Instagram advertising, and tested three lesson variations, including interactive webinar-lessons narrated by Seth Rogen (Celebrity-Webinar), interactive webinar-lessons narrated by a physician (Doctor-Webinar), and non-interactive video lessons with Seth Rogen (Celebrity-Video) against the control group, which received lessons that included the same educational content and imagery but without the interactive components or voiceovers by Rogen or Dr. Isaacson.

According to the research, online education involving a celebrity may be an effective approach to teach college students about potential AD-risk reduction strategies. For both high school and college students, celebrity and doctor-led lessons resulted in greater awareness that nutrition and exercise may reduce AD risk compared to the control group. After completing the celebrity-led lessons, college students felt more hopeful that AD research would yield new treatments and methods of prevention, and were more likely to recommend AlzU.org to their peers versus those who completed the doctor-led and control lessons. College students also reported being more willing to volunteer for AD-causes and pursue healthcare careers than the control group as a result of completing the online course. Considering that several studies have found that Alzheimer's disease can begin 20-30 years before the onset of cognitive symptoms, this new study highlights that it is essential to educate younger generations of high school and college students on brain-healthy lifestyles that may reduce AD-risk.

"People think of Alzheimer's as a disease that only affects older people, but that's not the case," said HFC founders Seth Rogen and Lauren Miller Rogen. "We hope that these results will be pivotal in spreading this message. There is more work to be done, but this research indicates we are on the right track to help future generations prevent this horrible disease."

Alzheimer's is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. But life choices made today may impact brain health in the future. In fact, 1 out of every 3 cases of Alzheimer's may be preventable through education and behaviors that affect AD risk factors such as high blood pressure, smoking, obesity, diabetes, physical inactivity and depression.

"Most people are unaware that Alzheimer's disease starts in the brain decades before the first symptoms of memory loss begin, and that there are many risk factors that can be addressed early on in life to help protect the brain over time," Dr. Isaacson noted. "Students in high school, college, and beyond learn about many topics in their health education classes, but the subject of brain health is commonly overlooked. We hope that this study is the start of a transformation in how students of all ages think about and value their brains."

Since its inception, HFC has raised over $13 million, primarily through the organization's annual variety shows in both Los Angeles and New York. Last year, HFC not only launched a Brain Health Dinner Series but expanded the LA event in both size and scope. The nonprofit hosted the first-ever HFC County Fair which featured a breadth of celebrities and comedians hosting the rides and game booths as well as a performance from Grammy-award winning musician Anderson .Paak, a half-pipe show starring the legendary Tony Hawk, a brain-health scavenger hunt, various activations such as a puppy-kissing booth, food trucks, and merchandise stands. HFC's signature events raise much-needed Alzheimer's awareness and the proceeds fund HFC's care and support programs for Alzheimer's caregivers, prevention-focused research such as Dr. Isaacson's study, and HFC's brain-health education initiatives. In partnership with Home Instead Senior Care, HFC has awarded over 290,000 hours of in-home care relief to Alzheimer's family caregivers through its's North American Caregiver Respite Grant Program.

About HFC:

Founded in 2012 by Seth Rogen and Lauren Miller Rogen, HFC is a national non-profit organization whose mission is to care for families facing this disease, educate young people about living a brain-healthy life, and activate the next generation of Alzheimer's advocates.

HFC is accelerating progress in Alzheimer's care, prevention, and support all while bringing many laughs and light to the Alzheimer's space. Our movement is also bringing much-needed awareness to this disease through our signature events. We've launched a Brain Health Dinner Series, hosted nine star-studded variety shows and one comedian-filled carnival, and have a comedy special currently streaming on Netflix. Thanks to the ongoing support of our generous donors, we've raised over $13 million and awarded over 290,000 hours of in-home care relief to Alzheimer's family caregivers through our North American Caregiver Respite Grant Program. In addition to providing caregiver respite, HFC organizes online support groups to build caregiver community and connectivity, engages young people across the country to become Alzheimer's advocates, funds prevention-focused and brain-health research, and teaches people how to care for the health of their brains today, so they can reduce their risk tomorrow.

While there isn't a cure, there is care.

www.wearehfc.org

SOURCE HFC

Related Links

http://www.wearehfc.org


By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Stranded passengers outside railway stations and bus stands, crowds at the airport, deserted markets, empty roads and law enforcement officers cracking down on lockdown norms violators, marked the first day of the week-long lockdown in Bengaluru Urban and Rural. Starting Wednesday, at least four more districtsBidar, Kalaburagi, Dakshina Kannada and Dharwadwent under lockdown as well, in an attempt to contain the Covid-19 spread.

Shivamogga will see a lockdown from Thursday, until further orders, as decided at a meeting on Wednesday chaired by Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister and district minister KS Eshwarappa. While the lockdown ends on July 22 in Bengaluru Rural and Urban, Dakshina Kannada will open on July 23, Dharwad on July 24 and Kalaburagi on July 21.Essential services will be available. I appeal to citizens not to panic, follow all norms, take precautions and cooperate with the government, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa had said on Tuesday night, ahead of the lockdown.

Four other districtsHassan, Kolar, Gadag and Chikkaballapur have imposed voluntary lockdown with traders unions and vendors associations deciding to shut business by 2pm every day. Kodagu, Udupi, Chikkamagaluru, Belagavi, Vijayapura and Bagalkot are witnessing heavier restrictions and partial lockdowns, as ordered by district authorities. While the authorities have not ordered a lockdown in Udupi, district borders have been sealed till July 31. Those wanting to enter or exit the district via Shiroor check-post, Hejamady check-post, Mala, Someshwara, Hosangadi, among other places, were given time till 8pm Wednesday.

In Kodagu, night curfew has been extended to 12 hours, and businesses will be allowed to function only between 6am and 6pm till July 31. Instead of the Sunday lockdown, the authorities have decided on a complete lockdown through the weekend. In Bagalkot too, night curfew has been extended from 6pm to 6am. The week-long lockdown in Dakshina Kannada came into effect at 8pm on Wednesday, while in Dharwad, it began at 10am. In Dakshina Kannada, emergency services and government offices have been exempted from the lockdown, while grocery shops will be open only between 8am and 11am. While public transport is prohibited, people who have booked their flights and trains in advance are permitted to move.

Dharwad district announced a 10-day lockdown from July 15 to midnight of July 24. All businesses, except those engaged in agriculture, manufacturing and construction work, will remain closed. Shops selling essentials will be open from 5 am to 12 noon, from Monday to Saturday. Transportation services have been stopped, and those entering the district will need passes from the administration. Dharwad district police have set up 16 check-posts along the borders. While life appeared normal on Wednesday morning, with people thronging shops to purchase essentials, roads wore a deserted look by afternoon as policemen cracked down on lockdown violators. In Kalaburagi, essentials are allowed between 10am and 3pm, with the lockdown in full force.

The Shivamogga district administration decided to impose afternoon lockdown from Thursday, shutting down all activities from 2 pm till 5 am the next day, until further orders. In Chikkamagaluru, the administration has shut inter-district movement of vehicles and also extended night curfew from 7 pm to 5 am. While there is no official lockdown in Kolar district, Bangarpet MLA S N Narayanaswamy, in the presence of tahsildar Ramesh, during a meeting on Wednesday, decided to impose lockdown on the town from July 16 to 23.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is in contact with the relevant authorities on the issue of Armenian citizen Narek Sardaryan captured in Azerbaijan.

"We are in contact with the concerned authorities on both sides on this matter. As you may know, the ICRC, as a humanitarian organization and in its capacity of neutral intermediary, has a mandate to visit persons detained in relation to the conflict, to monitor their treatment and conditions of detention and to provide them with the opportunity to re-establish with their family," Zara Amatuni, Communication and Prevention Manager of the ICRC Delegation in Armenia told Armenian News - NEWS.am.

Sardaryan got lost and went to the territory of Nakhichevan, where he was captured.

He is described as a patriot, calm and hardworking person, who has never had problems with either law enforcement agencies or local authorities. N. Sardaryan has a family and minor children.
As news of Delhi Government cancelling all state university exams poured in, students across colleges rejoiced and breathed a sigh of relief. Amid the widespread transmission of coronavirus, students from various universities had been demanding that exams be cancelled. In a tweet, deputy chief minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia announced: In light of the major disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Delhi govt has decided to cancel all Delhi state university exams including final exams.

In light of the major disruptions caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, Delhi govt has decided to cancel all Delhi state university exams including final exams https://t.co/g4SFLqaBQK  Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) July 11, 2020

Final year is the time when students start applying for jobs or give exams for further studies, and were caught in the doldrums as there was no disclosure till now. We speak to some students from GGSIPU on how they think this decision will help them.

Joshua Porter, a final year student of BJ(MC) at VIPS (Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies), feels that this decision has helped quash the uncertainty. We were stuck in the middle since May, when the exams usually take place. We can now plan to apply for jobs or further studies with ease. There is no pressure, he says.

Aditya Kaushal, final year B.Tech student at MAIT (Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology) feels that the whole point of exams needs to be revised. Companies and employers conduct their own interviews, so I dont think that exams are a good metric to judge anyones capabilities. There is no point in conducting exams just for the sake of it, he asserts.

Md Shahbaz Alam, final year B.Tech student at BVCOE (Bharati Vidyapeeths College of Engineering) is of the opinion that either way, there would be some problems and some benefits. Agar paper hota toh bhi kuch nuksaan hota, agar nahi hai tab bhi thoda nuksaan toh hoga. Offline exams would have posed the threat of contamination, whereas evaluation on past performance and internal exams robs students of a chance at scoring better. If a student scored less in internals due to any reason, then he/she has this chance of improving their overall percentage. But it is for the good that this decision was taken, he says.

As for the option of sitting for online exams, students unanimously agree that those come with their own set of problems. DU conducted mock tests which turned out to be a failure, says Projukta Chatterjee, a final year student of BJ(MC) at VIPS, adding, I welcome this decision, but I would request the authorities to grade us on the basis of our past performance. I studied the whole year as no one knew it would come to this. But then there are students who have backlogs and werent quite as meritorious. So there should be fair grading taking these aspects in consideration.

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YEREVAN, JULY 16, ARMENPRESS. Armenias National Security Service informs that measures are being taken to return Armenian citizen Narek Sardaryan from the Azerbaijani captivity, the NSS said in a statement.

Farmer Narek Sardayan was working in the fields and caring for his livestock. He went to retrieve his farm animals but lost orientation, getting lost and accidentally crossing into the territory of Nakhijevan where he was captured.

He has a family and minor children.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
(HealthDay)Even as new coronavirus infections soar in the United States, a new study offers one piece of good news: Severely ill COVID-19 patients are significantly more likely to survive now compared to a few months ago.

In fact, deaths for COVID-19 patients in intensive care units have fallen by nearly a third in North America, Asia and Europe since the start of the pandemic, researchers report.

Overall, ICU deaths fell from nearly 60% at the end of March to 42% by the end of May.

That translates to tens of thousands of lives saved and "may reflect the rapid learning that has taken place on a global scale" of what drugs work (for example, remdesivir and dexamethasone) or don't (hydroxychloroquine) to beat back COVID-19, according to a team led by Tim Cook. He's a consultant in anesthesia and intensive care medicine at Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust in England.

But just because fewer very ill COVID-19 patients are dying doesn't mean societies can become complacent about the threat, experts said.

"Any successful treatment, when not coupled with good public health measures to keep the new case rate below the limit of existing health care resources, will erase any gains made over the last few months by simply overwhelming the ICUs that have just become better at treating COVID-19," stressed Dr. Eric Cioe Pena. He directs global health at Northwell Health in New Hyde Park, N.Y.

Indeed, COVID-19 death rates are beginning to rise again in the United States, despite improvements in care. By Wednesday, the U.S. coronavirus case count passed 3.4 million as the death toll passed 136,000, according to a New York Times tally.

And after plateauing earlier this month, U.S. death counts are rising again. By Monday five statesArizona, California, Florida, Mississippi and Texasbroke records for average daily COVID-19 fatalities over the past week, the Washington Post reported.

Still, if you are unlucky enough to land in an ICU with COVID-19, your odds of leaving alive are better now, Cook and his team found.

Their report was based on an analysis of 24 studies from around the world, involving more than 10,000 patients. All studies focused on ICU deaths among adults battling COVID-19 published up to May 31.

The data suggest that the credit for improved survival doesn't rest with any one specific therapy, the researchers said. They published their findings July 15 in the journal Anaesthesia.

Still, something must have changed over the study period. Besides all the new data on what drug therapies may help beat COVID-19, "it may also be that ICU admission criteria have changed over time, for example, with greater pressure on ICUs early in the pandemic surge," Cook said in a journal news release.

His team also noted that longer ICU stays for COVID-19 patients take time to be reflected in the published data. In fact, severe COVID-19 illness can last for long periods, with about 20% of COVID-19 ICU admissions in the United Kingdom lasting more than 28 days, and 9% for more than 42 days.

"The important message, however, is that as the pandemic has progressed and all these factors combine, survival of patients admitted to ICU with COVID-19 has significantly improved," the researchers concluded.

Still, it's too early for congratulations. As Cook's group noted, even at around 42% the death rate for COVID-19 patients in the ICU is still nearly double the death rate of ICU patients battling other viral pneumonias (22%).

Even so, the findings suggest that "as the pandemic progresses, we may be coping better with COVID-19," the team said.

For his part, Pena says the study "rightly concludes something that we expect: As we learned more about this virus and its effect on the critically ill, we became better at treating it and its complications."

Dr. Syed Iqbal is an ICU physician at Long Island Jewish Forest Hills in New York City, which was hit hard by COVID-19 early in the pandemic. Reading over the study findings, he agreed that "the disease does have a prolonged course and some patients died after a prolonged ICU stay. It also shows that the death rate is much higher than other viral illnesses."

Explore further Study suggests overall COVID-19 intensive care mortality has fallen by a third since the start of the pandemic

More information: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on Journal information: Anaesthesia The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on COVID-19

Copyright  2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 07:09:33|Editor: huaxia

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LIMA, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra swore in on Wednesday his new ministerial cabinet, appointing 11 new ministers and naming attorney Pedro Cateriano as the new president of the Council of Ministers.

Cateriano previously held the position from 2015 to 2016 during the government of former president Ollanta Humala.

Though most of the previous cabinet members remained, there were also some significant changes.

Mario Lopez was appointed as the new head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Pilar Mazzetti was appointed as the new Minister of Health, replacing Victor Zamora, who had been leading the country's fight against the novel coronavirus.

Shortly after the cabinet was sworn in, Vizcarra met with his new team and called for their maximum efforts to control the pandemic.

"One of the main axes of government action at this stage continues to be the fight against the pandemic. We will do it with greater effort and renewed energy. Our objective is to contain the disease and strengthen the health system," he stated.

The president also asked the ministers to redouble their efforts so that the nation's economy could begin to recover.

"We will deepen measures to accelerate the recovery of the economy and return Peru to the path of growth," he said. Enditem
Sinduja Jane By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: In a new development, the Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday gave its approval to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to conduct trials in the State as part of its study on the efficacy of the Bacillre Calmette Guerin (BCG) vaccine in reducing COVID-19 mortality among the elderly.

The multi-site study is being conducted in conjunction with the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis (NIRT). Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has given approval to the study, a press release from Health Minister C Vijayabasker said.

"Elderly persons, people with cardiac problems, diabetes, blood pressure and other problems are vulnerable to COVID. For the last 50 years, the BCG vaccine has been given for infants to protect against TB, and it is learned that it increases innate immunity. Also, it may reduce mortality and morbidity when administered to the 60 to 95 age group," the minister said in the release, adding that the trial would begin soon.

Explaining the contours of the study, Dr T S Selvavinayagam, director of Public Health said ICMR had identified persons who are COVID negative. There is a test group and control group. One group will receive the vaccine to see if there is any protective effect, he said.

However, on Twitter, the ministers announcement of the study -- as a pilot programme raised concerns among experts. BCG vaccine shall be administered on a trial basis for adults aged 60-95, ordered by Honble @CMOTamilNadu... National Institute for research in Tuberculosis will start the pilot program soon, the minister tweeted.

BCG vaccine shall be administered on trial basis for adults aged 60-95, ordered by Honble @CMOTamilNadu. This is aimed at reducing the #COVID mortality rate in Senior people. National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis will start the pilot program soon. #ICMR #Vijayabaskar  Dr C Vijayabaskar (@Vijayabaskarofl) July 15, 2020

"Nobody has any experience in giving the live BCG vaccine to elderly people! Without proving safety, no program should be vaccinating elderly people. There is no direct evidence proving that BCG will reduce #COVID mortality," Dr Madhu Pai, an epidemiologist, and director of the McGill International TB Centre, said on Twitter, in response.

This worries me a lot. Nobody has any experience in giving the live BCG vaccine to elderly people! Without proving safety, no program should be vaccinating elderly people.



There is no direct evidence proving that BCG will reduce #COVID19 mortality.



Please wait for RCT results!! pic.twitter.com/WZF6zQfW5x  Madhu Pai (@paimadhu) July 15, 2020

Dr Pai drew attention to the multiple randomised control trials underway in Netherlands, Australia, USA, and South Africa studying BCGs efficacy against COVID.



Former TN director of public health Dr K Kolandaswamy also urged caution. "The BCG vaccine is not new to India and a majority of the population has received the vaccine. So, by now either they would have developed immunity by vaccination or by natural infection, he said.

Noting that scientists were attempting to try a bacterial vaccine against a virus, he said such studies should not divert from the main focus. "The primary focus should remain on preventive and control measures, such as stressing on hand washing, surface disinfection, as well as testing and contact tracing, he said.

Indian researcher Dr Anant Bhan said that announcements of such studies should be carefully worded so as to avoid raising public expectations.

Chief Ministers should not be issuing orders to conduct experiments on 'trial' basis.

These studies, if any, should ONLY be conducted by scientists after due examination of evidence, and permission from regulators and/or ethics committees, and consent from participants. #COVID19 https://t.co/kGh2gPKK9K  Anant Bhan (@AnantBhan) July 15, 2020

"The research happening during COVID-19 is welcome, more so when it is conducted by government institutions such as ICMR. However, the studies should be based on solid science while also ensuring patient safety. The study should not cause a misconception among people that this is some breakthrough. It should be stressed that it is only a study and we will know only in due time if anything promising comes of it," Dr Anant Bhan told The New Indian Express.

States COVID-19 update

The State recorded 4,496 new COVID-19 cases and 68 deaths, including that of a 19-year-old girl from Kancheepuram, taking the tally to 1,51,820 and toll 2,167 on Wednesday.

Chennai alone recorded 1,291 cases and 23 deaths. Cases continue to spike in Chennais neighbouring districts of Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Chengalpattu.

According to the media bulletin issued by the Directorate of Public Health, Chengalpattu recorded 186 cases, Kancheepuram 163 and Tiruvallur 278 cases. Madurai, where cases have been on the rise, recorded 341 cases on the day. Meanwhile, among the deceased, four didnt have any comorbidities.

A 19-year-old girl from Kancheepuram was the youngest among the deceased on Wednesday. The girl with Type I Diabetes Mellitus (TIDM) and Chronic Kidney Disease was admitted at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital on July 10.

She tested positive on the same day. She died on July 14 due to acute respiratory distress syndrome, respiratory failure, COVID-19 pneumonia, sepsis, acute chronic kidney disease, diabetic ketoacidosis, TIDM.




Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath is set to become the Leader of Opposition (LoP) when the monsoon session of the state Assembly begins from July 20. "We have sent a letter to the Assembly secretariat stating that our leader in the House is going to be Nath," said Congress spokesperson Bhupendra Gupta on Thursday.

Nath was elected as leader of the Congress Legislative Party after the 2018 elections when the party came to power in the state, Gupta said. Nath had to resign as chief minister in March this year after the Congress government lost majority with the ...
Caltrain, so battered by financial losses that it may have to pull the plug on service, has found a protector in San Francisco.

Supervisor Matt Haney is attempting to save the Peninsula rail line after two of his colleagues tried to scuttle a sales tax measure to keep it running. Watching the outcry that followed, Haney said he intends to resurrect the tax proposal Tuesday and at least give it a chance.

If the 1/8 cent tax is placed on the ballot and passes in San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, it would pump $100 million a year into Caltrain, which lost 95% of its riders when COVID-19 engulfed the region. Without the funding, the railway could be forced to shut down, officials said.

Its hugely important that we sustain the regional rail system and expand it, Haney said Thursday  two days after stepping into a battle that spilled from City Hall over to Twitter, and seemed to escalate quickly. Officials in San Mateo shot back at their San Francisco counterparts, accusing them of endangering a commuter rail to win a parochial dispute.

But even getting it on the ballot has proved complicated. The measure requires approval from four transportation boards and three county boards of supervisors, and so far only San Mateo County has signed off. San Francisco Supervisors Aaron Peskin and Shamann Walton left the tax proposal for dead this week by declining to introduce it at Tuesdays board meeting.

Both supervisors have grievances with the governance structure of Caltrain, the transit line that runs from SoMa to Gilroy, with stops throughout Silicon Valley. Walton and Peskin say its leadership is skewed to favor San Mateo County, since the San Mateo County Transit District manages and operates the rail system for a three-county Joint Powers Board.

Separately, Peskin and some of his colleagues objected to the sales tax because its regressive and disproportionately impacts low-income residents, supporting a rail system that carries affluent commuters to tech companies. Others, however, pointed out that Caltrain serves a variety of people, that part of the sales tax money would have paid for fare discounts for low-income riders, and that the consequences of halting the train and packing more drivers onto Highway 101 would be devastating.

For people who dont drive, losing a train system could mean a long, sluggish bus commute, said transit activist Monica Mallon. A recent graduate of San Jose State University, she often took the train from the South Bay campus to San Francisco to attend meetings of various transportation agencies.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle

Ive taken the bus all the way from San Jose when I was short on money, and it took almost half a day, Mallon said. The buses really get stuck in traffic.

The rail system, which relied on fares to cover 70% of its operating costs, hemorrhaged about $9 million a month once shelter-in-place orders took effect, even as rail officials continue a $2 billion project to switch from diesel to electric rail cars. Many view the sales tax as a potential lifeline and say that without it, they would have to ask Muni and the Valley Transportation Authority for more money.

Muni, which expects to shed $568 million in revenue over four years, already kicks in $15.6 million a year to support Caltrains capital costs and operations.

In desperation, Caltrain board chair Dave Pine, who is also a San Mateo County supervisor, took to social media Tuesday night to decry San Franciscos resistance.

Regrettably, the (San Francisco) Board of Supervisors has just declined to introduce the lifeline Caltrain tax measure, effectively killing this effort, he tweeted. Caltrain will now face a more uncertain future.

The fight that erupted online pitted counties against one another but also became ideological, as environmentalists and transit enthusiasts criticized the politicians for prioritizing local control over seamless regional transportation. The posturing began almost immediately: Peskins challenger in November, upstart politician Danny Sauter, said that he wont take away your Caltrain like other supervisors will.

Haney at first chided Caltrains staff and elected officials, tweeting Thursday morning that they had hastily decided to move the tax with no outreach to supervisors other than Peskin and Walton. He accused them, moreover, of orchestrating an attack against San Francisco on Twitter.

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.

By the afternoon, hed become more of a peacemaker, saying he will work with state leaders and San Mateo County officials to resolve conflicts. Hes pursuing small reforms, such as hiring an independent general counsel for Caltrain who wouldnt work for SamTrans. Walton, who sits on the Caltrain board, also wants sway in the hiring and firing of the agencys CEO. Under the current power structure, SamTrans oversees that process.

David Bragdon, head of the New York City-based think tank TransitCenter, sees the governance of Caltrain as inherently unstable. Officials who managed to find consensus in times of prosperity were suddenly at each others throats in a moment of scarcity, he said, each trying to guard his or her own interests.

To meet the August deadline for ballot measures, Haney will have to introduce the tax measure at Tuesdays Board of Supervisors meeting, then call a special meeting of either the board or the budget committee. Both options require support from a majority of the board, and possibly agreement from the board president and budget chair.

Even if Haneys colleagues accede to the special meetings, its unclear whether they would vote to put the one-eighth cent sales tax before voters. If they do approve it, the tax still has to go before two government bodies in Santa Clara county  and then to the voters.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan
President Donald Trump has told more than 20,000 lies or misleading statements since his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2017, according to the Washington Post.

Now we know that he not only often tells lies, he also rewards others who tell lies.

In a move that was stunning for its cynicism, Trump commuted the sentence of his friend Roger Stone, the self-described political trickster.

This was not a decision based on sound judgment or legal acumen; it was a favor to a longtime crony and, thus, the worst kind of corruption.

Commutations are intended to redress miscarriages of justice, but this looks like a blatant attempt to reward loyalty. If so, it speaks to the venality of this administration as it carries out its official duties.

A longtime Republican operative, Stone was convicted last year of lying and obstructing an investigation by the House Intelligence Committee  a trial that stemmed from a probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The federal jury also found him guilty of witness tampering regarding his involvement in the WikiLeaks scandal, which involved the release of information damaging to former Secretary of State Hillary Clintons presidential campaign.

The commutation arrived just days before Stone was to start serving a 40-month prison sentence.

Roger Stone has already suffered greatly, said a White House statement. He was treated very unfairly, as were many others in the case. Roger Stone is now a free man.

The statement was peppered with the exclamation points favored by the president, but critics  including some Republicans  were just as passionate in condemning the commutation.

A willingness to use the pardon power to protect his friends and supporters sends a signal to others who might be willing to break the law in support of the president, said Jim Pfiffner, a professor at George Mason University.

Attorney General William Barr had said he thought the 40-month sentence was fair.

I think the prosecution was righteous, and I think the sentence the judge ultimately gave was fair, Barr told ABC News.

In a recent interview, Stone himself acknowledged his allegiance to the president.

(Trump) knows I was under enormous pressure to turn on him, he told journalist Howard Fineman. It would have eased my situation considerably. But I didnt.

Trump has condemned the Russian investigation as a hoax, reserving special invective for the special counsel who headed the probe, Robert Mueller. He pressured the Justice Department to reduce the length of the original sentence, which was from seven to nine years. The bullying worked; the sentence was shortened to 40 months earlier this year.

Prosecutors argued that Stone lied because the truth looked bad for Donald Trump. The reduction in the sentence incensed some of them. Four prosecutors resigned in protest.

Mueller, usually taciturn about his role in the investigation, criticized the commutation in a blistering op-ed for the Washington Post. He said the conviction was based on solid evidence gathered by his investigators.

The investigation (established) that the Russian government perceived that it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, he wrote. It also established that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.

Beyond the specifics of the Stone case, the commutation is disturbing because it dramatizes the narrow lens through which the president views the justice system. Legal and illegal activities are defined not by the Constitution, but by whether or not they benefit Trump. The result, ultimately, is a travesty of justice.

While the move ends any legal jeopardy for Stone, it does not expunge the crime for which he was convicted by a federal jury.

Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes, Mueller wrote. He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so.

It is, perhaps, the only consolation we can glean from this sad, sordid affair.
- Alessandra de Rossi is now walking on cloud nine after her film "Through Night and Day" with Paolo Contis is gaining a lot of following on Netflix

- She has been very vocal about her experiences in Iceland and even narrated the one time that she almost "nakipag-away" with a fellow Filipina

- Alex said that there was an area in Iceland, which looked like Batanes, and when she voiced it out, the Filipina took offense

- The woman turned to her and said that she paid so much for the trip to Iceland and that she could not believe that the actress was just comparing it to the Philippines

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Alessandra de Rossi is thankful for the outcome of her film "Through Night and Day," where she was paired with Paolo Contis.

The actress took to Twitter to narrate the experiences she had in Iceland while shooting the film.

At one point, she came to a spot in Iceland, which she compared with the Philippines, particularly Batanes.

According to the actress, she was telling her friend that the exact spot was like Batanes, when another Filipina just turned to her and snapped without provocation.

"Sa isang place, basta ine-explain ko sa kanya na, 'This part looks like Batanes, almost like the Philippines.'

May biglang humarap sa akin na Pilipina at ang sabi [sa akin] ay, 'I paid so much for this trip, you know. I can't believe you're comparing Iceland to the Philippines!'

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This shocked Alex.

Na-shock ako and I said sorry and walked away. But in my head, 'Business class ka? Ako, oo. Sagot ng Viva Films.'

Alex just shrugged it off.

So ayun, kasama siya sa experiences ko sa Iceland. Ginawa ko na lang na napaaway para mainis si Ben [ang karakter ni Paolo Contis].

Cinematic tayo! In real life, I don't patola to nonsense. Busy ako."

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Alessandra de Rossi aired her honest thoughts on the rising cases of COVID-19 in the country. She stated that the ABS-CBN franchise issue was just a way to mask the reality.

The actress is also a caring sister. Her reaction to the pregnancy dilemma of her sister Assunta de Rossi just revealed how close they are.

Alessandra de Rossi is a Filipina actress. She recently did the movie "Through Night and Day," which is gaining popularity on Netflix.

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!

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Mayor Garcetti Updates Safer at Home Order, Aligns with Gov. Newsoms New State Directives

Mayor announces Los Angeles is bordering level red on the COVID-19 severity model

Monday, July 13, Los Angeles City Mayor Eric Garcetti provided updates regarding the COVID-19 escalation. He addressed new state orders closing all gyms, places of worship, offices, and personal care services. Data shared by the Los Angeles County Department is showing a rise in transmission among the ages of 18-40. The mayor disclosed news to guide the city through the fluctuation and adjustments.

Garcetti addressed how the updates issued by California State Governor Gavin Newsom will affect the city, the state-made changes in direction of opening certain firms due to the increased levels of COVID-19. Newsom stated, Weve made this point on multiple occasions and that is why were moving back into a modification mode of our original stay-at-home order. Los Angeles has already felt the retraction in bars, indoor dining, and outdoor activity since July 4. The Local Safer at Home Order is looking to be modified to include the state updates.

Garcetti disclosed the results from the launch of renters assistance that started on Monday, there were over 150,000 applications. Los Angeles Renter Assistance Program is the largest monetary initiative in the nation. The window to apply is open until midnight, Friday night, there are five days to request the assistance. For more information there is a website available; hcidla.lacity.org.

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The city is still in an emergency condition, Garcetti emphasized the need for physical distancing, face coverings, and extreme attentiveness to hygienic practices. Lives are at stake and each day more are at risk; the pandemic has gotten worse across the country. The mayor admittedly stated, we never had so many people infected or infectious. L.A. is on the border of level red indicating severe condition.

A new online platform for scheduling tests was announced on Monday, designed to provide more user-friendly experiences. Key benefits include reduction in delayed results and appointment modifications. The new website to schedule an appointment is la.fulgentgenetics.com. Mobile and pop-up testing sites are still in action, especially among those who are most susceptible to the virus.

Protocols have been prompted for grades k-12; the mayor stands behind educational resurgence with the directives that were issued on Monday; it was described as a road map to what campus will look like when they decide to reopen. Distance learning will most likely be a part of the physical learning system, student and faculty will have to wear face coverings, and extracurricular activities will be limited.

The L.A. Public Health Department provided numbers that show an escalation in hospitalization, positive cases, and the overall community death rate is still in the double digits. The mayor shared the latest numbers surrounding coronavirus on July 13, reflected 13 additional deaths, bringing the total COVID-19 related deaths in the L.A. County to 3,822.

Among multiple counties, the state of California mandated to close all indoor operations, such as indoor protests and personal care services. There were over 2,000 people hospitalized as of July 13, Los Angeles Director of Public Health Dr. Barbara Ferrer disclosed in an earlier briefing, the Public Health Department is guided by the science and data, monitoring key metrics to see a clear report in status.

Garcetti stated, We can get through this, we can make those small sacrifices. Wear a mask, we can, clean our hands, and keep six feet between us. In doing so, we can accelerate the day forward, in which we are back at school and our economy is roaring back, and we are rebuilding our prosperity and enjoying our city.
Jessica Mulroneys husband is firing back at the reports that she has been trying to contact her former bestie, Meghan Markle. Jessica and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, reportedly had a major falling out after she sent angry emails to a black influencer named Sasha Exeter. Meghan allegedly cut ties with Jessica over the scandal, yet her husband claims that the reports surrounding the fashion stylist are unfounded.

Meghan Markle and Jessica Mulroney | George Pimentel/WireImage

Has Jessica Mulroney been contacting Meghan Markle?

Jessica and her family members have not said much about the drama surrounding her and Meghan. But reports that the two are no longer friends surfaced after Jessica sent some controversial emails to Exeter on social media.

The messages included threats that Jessica was going to sue Exeter over one of her blog posts about white privilege. Needless to say, the scandal put Jessica in the hot seat and allegedly made Meghan cut all ties with her former best friend.

In light of the drama, inside sources claimed that Jessica was doing everything in her power to salvage her relationship with Meghan. But when she tried to reach out to the Duchess of Sussex, the former Suits star gave her the cold shoulder.

Sources claim that Jessica was at her wits end after Meghan ended their friendship. With nothing to lose, she is reportedly thinking about writing a tell-all book about her relationship with Meghan that will cover the time before she started dating Prince Harry.

There is no doubt that royal watchers would love to discover what Jessica has to say, but her husband recently fired back at the reports that she tried to reach out to Meghan.

Ben Mulroney speaks out against the reports

It should be noted that Meghan is currently embroiled in a lawsuit against several British tabloids, including the Mail and the Daily Mail over a breach of privacy and copyright infringement. The Duchess launched a lawsuit against the publications for letters they posted that she wrote to her father, Thomas Markle, in private.

Following the reports of a major falling out between Meghan and Jessica, her husband, Ben Mulroney, tweeted a one-word response. Taking to Twitter, Ben wrote FALSE in reply to the Daily Mails story about his wife.

Jessica released a statement shortly after the scandal made headlines. The fashion stylist apologized for her comments towards Exeter and revealed that she has a lot to learn about racism. She also stated that she will be stepping out of the spotlight and will be focusing on her family.

The events that have transpired over the last few days have made it clear that I have work to do. I realize more than ever how being a white, privileged woman has put me far ahead of so many, and in particular those in the Black community, she stated.

Jessica has not released any more statements about her relationship with Meghan. The Duchess of Sussex is currently living in Los Angeles with her husband and son, Archie Harrison. She has not commented on the reports surrounding Jessica.

Inside Jessica Mulroneys ties to Meghan Markle

Jessicas friendship with Meghan has been well documented. The two met while Meghan was working in Canada on the set of Suits. The pair struck up a friendship and remained close even after she started dating Harry.

Jessica played an important role in Meghans wedding in the spring of 2018. Not only was she Meghans maid of honor, but her children were also a part of the ceremony, which was held inside St. Georges Cathedral.

Since the wedding, there have been multiple reports that Jessica has profited from her friendship with Meghan. During the 2018 Invictus Games, for example, Meghan allegedly offered Jessica a car worth over $81,000.

RELATED: Meghan Markles Former BFF Jessica Mulroney Reportedly Considering a Tell-All Because She Has Nothing to Lose

At the time, sources stated that Jessica and her husband turned down the offer in a bid to show that she was not taking advantage of her royal connections.

Unfortunately, Jessica and Meghan have yet to address the rumors so fans will have to wait and see how things shake out. If the reports are true, then it doesnt sound like the two are going to rekindle their friendship anytime soon.
New Jerseys coronavirus death toll rose Thursday to 15,665 known and probable fatalities with 176,501 total positive tests, while the states transmission rate crept up to the critical benchmark of 1, according to the states data.

Gov. Phil Murphy and state officials have tracked the transmission rate closely as theyve lifted coronavirus restrictions. A rate of 1 or more means, on average, each newly infected person is passing the virus to at least one other person. When its below 1, that means the outbreak is declining.

The state Department of Health reported the transmission rate was 0.93 a day earlier, significantly down from the peak of the outbreak when it was over 5. It had been hovering around 1 the last few weeks.

Weve got to get that number back down below 1, Murphy said during a Thursday afternoon event in Irvington to announce an education initiative.

The state has reported 13,691 confirmed deaths and 1,974 probable coronavirus fatalities since the outbreak began March 4. Officials reported 32 new deaths and 254 new cases on Thursday.

Nearly 1.76 million tests have been administered.

There were 862 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases across New Jerseys 71 hospitals as of Wednesday night, down from previous days.

That includes 146 in critical or intensive care and 64 patients on ventilators. New Jerseys intensive or critical care peak was on April 13 with 2,070 patients and ventilator use hit its high a day later with 1,700 people.

New COVID-19 cases as of July 15, 2020, according to the New Jersey Department of Health. (Data are provisional and subject to revision with further investigation.)

COUNTY-BY-COUNTY CASES AND DEATHS

Bergen County: 19,950 cases (24 new), 1,762 confirmed deaths (268 probable)

Hudson County: 19,240 cases (19 new), 1,312 confirmed deaths (185 probable)

Essex County: 19,119 cases (27 new). 1,834 confirmed deaths (255 probable)

Passaic County: 17,150 cases (22 new), 1,074 confirmed deaths (158 probable)

Middlesex County: 17,142 cases (16 new), 1,176 confirmed deaths (221 probable)

Union County: 16,567 cases (11 new), 1,162 confirmed deaths (179 probable)

Ocean County: 9,902 cases (13 new), 928 confirmed deaths (73 probable)

Monmouth County: 9,626 cases (24 new), 745 confirmed deaths (101 probable)

Mercer County: 7,827 (11 new), 561 confirmed deaths (43 probable)

Camden County: 7,786 (17 new), 502 confirmed deaths (56 probable)

Morris County: 6,932 cases (7 new), 669 confirmed deaths (157 probable)

Burlington County: 5,430 cases (11 new), 414 confirmed deaths (42 probable)

Somerset County: 5,059 cases (5 new), 470 confirmed deaths (82 probable)

Atlantic County: 3,079 cases (18 new), 221 confirmed deaths (15 probable)

Cumberland County: 3,072 cases (4 new), 140 confirmed deaths (13 probable)

Gloucester County: 2,808 cases (8 new), 189 confirmed deaths (7 probable)

Warren County: 1,268 cases (1 new), 154 confirmed deaths (17 probable)

Sussex County: 1,241 cases (4 new), 158 confirmed deaths (37 probable)

Hunterdon County: 1,098 cases (0 new), 70 confirmed deaths (56 probable)

Salem County: 822 cases (2 new), 74 confirmed deaths (5 probable)

Cape May County: 747 cases (3 new), 76 confirmed deaths (4 probable)

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

New Jersey, once a coronavirus hotspot, has seen its number of new cases, deaths, and hospitalizations remain relatively stable in recent weeks after falling significantly from their peaks in April.

Hospitalizations dipped below 1,000 patients for the first time at the end of June before creeping up slightly and then dropping below 1,000 people again on July 3. The number of people hospitalized since then has held steady between 855 and 964 patients, according to the states Department of Health figures for Wednesday. The recent numbers are down dramatically from the states peak of 8,033 on April 14.

The largest percentage of people who tested positive were between the ages of 30 and 49 years old, with 55,685 or 31.7%. Residents between 50 and 64 years old were the second highest ,with 48,829 or 27.8%, then 65-79 years old, with 24,872 or 14.2% and 18-29, with 23,866 or 13.6%. Ten percent of people tested were 80 or older (17,637) and only 2.2% of positive cases were between the ages of five and 17, and only 833 people up to age four tested positive, according to the data.

Health officials said Monday, however, that adults aged 18 to 29 are the fastest-growing age group of residents testing positive for the virus in New Jersey.

The outbreak has been disproportionately deadly for older people.

Lab-confirmed COVID-19 deaths as of July 14, according to the state's Department of Health.

There have been 6,459 lab-confirmed COVID-19 deaths of people who were 80 or older, according to state data from Tuesday. There were 4,387 deaths of people between 65 and 79, and 2,160 between the ages of 50 and 64. According to the data, 574 people between 30 and 49 died, 53 people between 18 and 29, and two people in the state younger than 2 years old.

Murphy has been gradually lifting New Jerseys coronavirus restrictions in recent months in Stage 2 of the states recovery plan.

The governor is calling for travelers arriving in New Jersey from 22 states considered hotspots to voluntarily self-quarantine for 14 days to help prevent the virus from spreading more in the state. New Jersey health officials added Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, and Wisconsin to the list Tuesday and removed Delaware.

As of Thursday, there have been more than 13.5 million positive tests for COVID-19 across the globe, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University. Of those, more than 584,900 have died, while more than 7.6 million have recovered.

The United States has reported more than 137,400 deaths, the most  by far  of any country.

NJ Advance Media staff writer Brent Johnson contributed to this report.

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.
There are more territories under the control of the Armed Forces of Armenia in which there are bodies of servicemen of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan. This is what ex-spokesperson of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia Artsrun Hovhannisyan told reporters today.

During the day, the Armenian Armed Forces allowed representatives of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces to evacuate the bodies left after their losses last night, and interestingly, this wasnt the only territory in which there are bodies of servicemen of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces. In regard to this, the Azerbaijani presses disseminated false news about this, and there was a ridiculous discrepancy. If those bodies were in their territory, why were they left there so long? If they were in their territory, how was it that they were under our control? Why were they asking for permission or ceasefire to evacuate those bodies? I leave it up to everyone to draw conclusions, he said.

Hovhannisyan added that today the Azerbaijani Armed Forces used unmanned combat aerial vehicles, a civilian was wounded by one of the strikes, after which employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Armenia came to help, and there was another strike against the car of the ministry, and fortunately, the employees werent wounded, and there are no other victims.
In filing the lawsuit, Kemp combined a previous dispute with Bottoms over policing in the city with coronavirus control. He said he was suing to protect business owners and employees in the same way he called out the National Guard last week to protect state office buildings and the governors mansion after an 8-year-old girl was fatally shot July 4 by armed men at a site where a white Atlanta police officer shot and killed a Black man who had grabbed a stun gun and ran.
Tens of thousands of families have waited more than nine months for payments they are owed by the government under the childcare subsidy scheme introduced in 2018.

About 1.28 million families received the childcare subsidy in 2018-19, the first full financial year the system was in effect. The subsidy is distributed based on families' estimated incomes and they receive an extra payment or debt notice based on actual incomes at the end of the financial year.

Hundreds of thousands of families have faced a long wait to receive money they are owed by the government. Credit:Louie Douvis

According to data provided to the Senate's COVID-19 committee by Services Australia, 312,000 families had not had their 2018-19 subsidies reconciled by the end of March. Of the 968,000 families that had been processed, 14 per cent received debt notices.

Asked why a quarter of the families had not had their subsidies balanced  with the majority set to receive a top-up payment after under-estimating income or see no change  a spokeswoman for Services Australia said the "vast majority" had been processed.
We all know what the Rose Parade means to us here in Pasadena, as well as to New Year celebrations around the world. To know that we wont get to experience this great tradition on January 1, 2021, is extremely disappointing. However, we also know that we must act responsibly to protect our community in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Pasadena Mayor Terry Tornek. We look forward to working with the Pasadena Tournament of Roses on their reimagined New Year celebration, as well as the return of the Rose Parade on January 1, 2022.

In considering the options for the 2021 Rose Parade, the Tournament of Roses commissioned a feasibility and safety report for hosting the Rose Parade during the COVID-19 Pandemic, conducted by public health experts from the Keck School of Medicine of USC. That report showed that even with intensive effort to ensure compliance with public health measures such as six-foot distancing and face masks, it is likely that Rose Parade activities before, during and after the event would inevitably lead to large numbers of individuals (many of whom represent high risk groups for COVID-19 complications, such as retirees over age 60) in close proximity to each other, potentially, in some cases, without masks. This creates a high-risk environment for viral spread, including super-spreader events. In addition, thousands of parade participants and spectators will travel to the Los Angeles region from across the nation and even the world, in many cases by plane. Such travel represents infection risk to the travelers, but also may lead to the importation of the virus to the area from other regions of the country and world as well as exportation of the virus to other regions of the nation and world when these spectators return home.

Although the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association will not be hosting its 132nd Rose Parade, they will celebrate the New Year on January 1, 2021. Working in conjunction with our broadcast partners and sponsors, the Tournament of Roses has plans underway for a new kind of New Year celebration for those across the country and around the world. Each year, the country turns its eyes to Pasadena for Americas New Year celebration and we plan to deliver on that important promise, said Eads. We may not be able to host our traditional five-mile march down Colorado Boulevard, but we are exploring new and safe ways we can collectively share in the celebration, and we look forward to announcing further details about our exciting new plans in the coming weeks.
BANGKOK, July 16 (Reuters) - Thailand's Finance Minister Uttama Savanayana on Thursday handed in his resignation, in a move that adds uncertainty to policy making at a time when Southeast Asia's worst-performing economy is struggling to recover from the impact of COVID-19 crisis.

The departure of Uttama, who confirmed his resignation at a briefing, comes as the government has been rolling out billions of dollars of stimulus measures in a bid to support an economy battered by the pandemic's hit to tourism and domestic activity.

According to media reports, Predee Daochai, president of the Thai Bankers' Association, is expected to be picked as the next finance minister.

(Reporting by Orathai Sriring, Kitiphong Thaichareon, and Satawasin Staporncharnchai Editing by Ed Davies)
LITCHFIELD, MI  Police are investigating a car fire in the village of Litchfield they say was intentionally set.

Officers were called to the suspicious vehicle fire at 4:15 a.m., June 17, in the 100 block of Clay Street in the Hillsdale County village, according to Michigan State Police.

With assistance from the Litchfield Fire Department, investigators determined one or more suspects approached the vehicle on foot, set it ablaze using an accelerant and ran from the scene through several residential properties before police and fire crews arrived, police said.

There is no suspect information available at this time and the incident remains under investigation.

Anyone with information regarding the fire is asked to contact the Michigan State Police Jackson post at 517-780-4580 or leave a confidential tip on OK2say.

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The Morrison government has announced a stimulus package to ensure job seekers and school leavers will learn in-demand skills to help them survive the recession amid deepening unemployment.

In this episode, The Sydney Morning Heralds editor Lisa Davies is joined by chief political correspondent David Crowe to analyse the federal governments $2 billion JobTrainer plan to help school leavers and the unemployed upskill.

Our supporters power our newsrooms and are critical for the sustainability of news coverage.

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NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Mayor Bill de Blasio signed a package of police accountability bills into law Wednesday, including one criminalizing cops use of a chokehold, two days before the six-year anniversary of Eric Garners chokehold death on Bay Street.

The chokehold legislation also bans other methods of police restraint, like kneeling on a persons neck when cops conduct arrests, language NYPD brass had pushed back on and asked to be changed before it was signed into law by the mayor.

The bill was introduced shortly after Garners July 17, 2014 death on Bay Street after his last words I cant breathe became a rallying cry for a nationwide anti-police brutality movement, as Officer Daniel Pantaleo wrestled him to the ground using an apparent chokehold on him before he died.

But the City Council had struggled to pass the chokehold legislation for years because de Blasio had threatened to veto the bill.

The death of George Floyd, a black Minneapolis man, who cried I cant breathe -- reminiscent of Garners last words -- while a white cop kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes, set off nationwide police accountability protests, including in New York City, prompting the City Council to revisit the chokehold bill and quickly pass a sweeping police reform legislative package.

The other police accountability bills de Blasio signed Wednesday include: one that will protect the right of citizens to record police activity, require NYPD transparency on the use of surveillance technologies, establish an online NYPD disciplinary matrix, and ensure all NYPD officers have their shield number and rank designations visible at all times while on the job.

The majority of the police reform bills, including the chokehold legislation, received the full support of just one Staten Island City Council member, North Shore Democrat Debi Rose. The boroughs two Republican councilmen, Joseph Borelli and Minority Leader Steve, Matteo, voted against all of the police accountability bills except for one requiring the NYPD to develop a disciplinary matrix outlining penalties for violations and public reporting on how that matrix is used.

MAYOR VOWS TO WORK WITH NYPD TO ADDRESS CONCERNS ABOUT CHOKEHOLD, SURVEILLANCE BILLS

De Blasio acknowledged concerns from the NYPD about the chokehold and surveillance disclosure bill and vowed to work with the department to address those concerns.

I know many in the police department, including many I truly respect, are concerned because although they agree 100% and its been the policy of the police department, we cannot have chokeholds, theres concern about some of the additional language around diaphragms, de Blasio told a crowd at a bill signing ceremony in the Bronx.

I am signing this bill because I believe we can make it work, I believe we can find a way to hear those real concerns to keep people safe, to retrain our officers the right way, but I also believe that we need to acknowledge those concerns because theyre saying in the effort to keep us safe, they want to make sure that they can do their job on our behalf and I take that as an honest concern.

De Blasio vowed to work together with the NYPD on the chokehold and surveillance bills to make these pieces of legislation work together.

As with all legislation, if something happens thats unintended we will name it and we will determine how to act together, he said.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 06:15:09|Editor: huaxia

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ROME, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The Italian government on Wednesday started the process of temporarily nationalizing the country's main highway operator, a company that came under intense scrutiny after the deadly collapse of a major bridge in the northern port city of Genoa almost two years ago.

The office of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Wednesday confirmed that government officials agreed on a plan that would see the holding company of the Benetton family, sell its controlling stake in highway operator Autostrada per l'Italia (Highway for Italy), which is controlled by Atlantia, an infrastructure company also controlled by the Benetton family.

State lender Cassa di Depositi e Prestiti (the Bank of Deposits and Loans) will acquire the stake relinquished by the Benetton. When the transfer is complete -- it is estimated it will take about a year to carry out -- Autostrada per l'Italia will be spun off from Atlantia and will be listed in the Italian Stock Exchange in Milan.

Once the process is complete, "we will have fairer and more transparent tolls, more efficiency, more checks, and a safer system," Conte said in a social media post on Wednesday, after the conclusion of contentious talks that started late on Tuesday and lasted through the night and into the following morning.

Autostrada per l'Italia -- which operates and collects tolls on more than 3,000 kilometers of highways in Italy -- was thrust into the spotlight in August 2018 when the Morandi Bridge in Genoa collapsed, killing 43 people. A ministerial commission found that Autostrada per l'Italia failed to adequately maintain the bridge, which was dismissed by the company as inaccurate.

According to Italian official news release, Atlantia controls 88 percent of Autostrada per l'Italia. Atlantia shares, which over the previous six trading sessions had lost a third of their value surged more than 25 percent Wednesday when the government deal was announced. Enditem
Visitors unfamiliar with the Iberian pride, heritage and aspirations of Bokisch Vineyards will see the clue before they sample the wines.

The bright-red wall at one end of the tasting room bar is given over to two ancient threshing boards from Spain, the homeland inspiration for Lodis most remote, isolated and Iberian-oriented winery. Opposite, a collection of stainless-steel fermentation tanks gleams behind a towering glass wall. Markus and Liz Bokisch and their winemaker, Elyse Perry, use the tanks to turn out clear-cut and spirited wines based largely on Iberian grape varieties such as Tempranillo, Albarino and Garnacha.

No winery in Lodi, and perhaps in all of California, is more determined to show that Spains winemaking culture can be as comfortably and as impressively at home in the United States as those of Italy and France.

The start of the couples infatuation with Spain can be traced to Markus Bokischs mother, who was born in Catalonia, which he visited each summer while growing up.

Markus introduced Liz to Spain in 1992 as the couple traveled about the country in a 1967 blue Volkswagen van.

Before the couples sojourn in Spain, Markus Bokisch, a graduate of UC Davis with a degree in plant science, was a viticulturist with Joseph Phelps Vineyard of Napa Valley. In that role, hed been assigned to find fruit beyond Napa Valley as the winery ramped up production.

Those scouting trips introduced him to Lodi, where he became smitten not only with Lodis grape-growing history and potential, but also with the cooperative spirit among the areas farmers.

After returning from Spain, the Bokisches in 1997 bought 20 acres in the gently rolling Clements Hills outside of Lockeford in the northeast reaches of Lodi. There, they began to plant Rhone varieties and christened the site Terra Alta for its resemblance to his familys home territory in Spain.

They started to add Spanish varieties to their mix in 1999 when they developed a small vineyard behind their residence in Victor, about 10 miles southwest of Clements Hills. Encouraged by the vigor of those vines, they began to add Spanish varieties to Terra Alta.

They introduced their Bokisch Vineyards brand with wines from the 2000 harvest and for several vintages processed their grapes at custom-crush facilities before building their own winery in 2016 alongside the Terra Alta vineyard.

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In addition to their 85 acres of vineyards, Markus Bokisch farms nearly 3,000 acres for other growers who sell their grapes to around 60 wineries.

As a measure of their devotion to the culinary arts of Iberia, the Bokisches keep bowls of almonds on the tasting bar and stock the tasting rooms small deli case with Serrano ham, chorizo and cheeses such as Manchego. Outside, bright red Adirondack chairs invite guests to relax with snacks and wine on a slope overlooking the couples vineyard.

Liz Bokisch also maintains a vibrant and comprehensive blog  Lizs Kitchen (lizbokisch.com)  on entertaining, traveling and cooking, much of it with a Catalan bent, including recipes for dishes like chilled prawns with romesco, rosemary Manchego bites and cantaloupe gazpacho.

While the couple remain devoted largely to Iberian grapes and wines, they also cultivate French varieties like Picpoul Blanc, Chardonnay and Malbec. They also just planted a plot to three grape varieties customarily used for the Spanish sparkling wine cava, a suggestion of things to come.

WHAT TO TRY: The Garnacha Blanca from the couples Vista Luna Vineyard in Lodis Borden Ranch sub-appellation just to the north of Clements Hills delivers beguiling floral aroma and refreshing tropical fruit with a fleshy feel, while the Garnacha from the home Terra Alta Vineyard is lean, spicy and perfumey in its celebration of the pomegranate side of the grape. Under the proprietary name Trencadis, Spanish for a technique of creating a mosaic with irregular pieces of ceramic, glass and tile, Bokisch releases two tightly composed blends, a fragrant white with suggestions of watermelon, orange and lemon, made with five Spanish and French grape varieties, and a complex and robust red made with three Spanish and French varieties.
An Taisce, a charity that works to preserve and protect Irelands natural and built heritage, has included Carriglass Manor, Co Longford among what it determines are the countrys Top 10 Most-at-Risk Buildings.

Templeview House, Co Sligo; Durrow Abbey House, Co Offaly; Hope Castle + Market House, Co Monaghan and Duleek House, Co Meath are among the other nine buildings that An Taisce deem are most-at-risk.

It is the second time that An Taisce has compiled and updated the Top 10 Most-at-Risk Buildings.

The Buildings-at-Risk Register was put in place in response to the growing number of structures that are vacant and are falling into a state of disrepair.

A spokesperson for An Taisce said, These are all buildings of importance, both intrinsically and to the heritage of their local areas, buildings that lie vacant and are in such a state of disrepair that they may be dangerous or have no identifiable new use.

These buildings could be lost to future generations unless direct action is taken soon to preserve them.

The spokesperson added, Given that the recent pandemic brought construction around the country to a halt, together with a homeless situation that has not gone away, there is a compelling argument to save and repurpose these buildings.

The An Taisce Top 10 Most-at-Risk Buildings profiles Carriglass as follows;

Carriglass is a property with a strong literary connection and it is in dire need of restoration: in its case, the literary link is Jane Austen.

Carriglass is a 19th century Tudor revival house designed by Daniel Robertson. For over 160 years it was the residence of the Lefroy family.

The outside buildings, the late 18th century stable yard and main entrance gates, were designed by James Gandon, the architect responsible for The Four Courts and The Custom House, in Dublin.

When Sir Thomas Gleadowe-Newcomen shot himself under financial strain, in 1825, the property passed into the ownership of Thomas Lefroy, a lawyer, judge and MP for the constituency of Dublin University between 1830 and 1841. However, Lefroy is perhaps best remembered today as the possible object of Jane Austens intentions.

His presence in her life would appear to be reflected in the teetering romance between Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett, in her novel Pride and Prejudice. The Lefroy family remained at Carriglass until 2005 when the estate was sold to a property company called Thomas Kearns Developments.This resulted in the felling of large tracts of ancient woodland and the construction of a first phase of housing.

In 2014, Carriglass was taken over by a local company, Glennon Brothers.
Amber Heards former personal assistant claimed Wednesday that she told the model-actress about a violent sexual assault she had endured, only for Heard to twist the story for her own use. Kate James gave dramatic testimony at Johnny Depps libel trial against a British tabloid newspaper that accused the actor of abusing ex-wife Heard during their relationship.

Depp is suing News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, and the papers executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an April 2018 article that called him a wife-beater. He strongly denies abusing Heard. James, who worked for Heard between 2012 and 2015, gave evidence in support of Depp, and said she had told Heard that she was raped at machete-point in Brazil about 25 years ago.

She said she was shocked to learn that in a witness statement, Heard misrepresented and exploited the incident. She referred directly to a violent rape that occurred to me 26 years ago and she twisted it into her own story and she used it for her own use, James said by video link from Los Angeles.

I am a sexual violence survivor and thats very, very serious to take that stance if you are not one, she added.

Heard is due to give evidence in the case later this week.

Heard, 34, has made 14 allegations of violence by 57-year-old Depp between 2013 and 2016, in settings including his private island in the Bahamas, a rented house in Australia and a private jet. He denies them all.

Depp and Heard give wildly differing accounts of their volatile relationship, which began after they met on the set of the 2011 comedy The Rum Diary. They married in Los Angeles in February 2015. Heard filed for divorce the following year, and the divorce was finalized in 2017.

Also on Wednesday Depps former estate manager accused Heard of asking him to lie under oath after she was charged with bringing her two dogs to Australia illegally.

Kevin Murphy claimed Heard pressured him to commit perjury about the traveling terriers or risk losing his job.

She wanted me to say essentially that it was my fault in one way or another that the paperwork wasnt completed, so that I could take the blame for her, Murphy said.

Heard was charged in July 2015 with bringing Yorkshire terriers Pistol and Boo to the country illegally earlier that year. She pleaded guilty in April 2016 and escaped a conviction after expressing remorse.
Black Lives Matter protesters scuffle with an NYPD officer on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York during a demonstration Wednesday. Several New York City police officers were attacked and injured during the protest, police said, and more than a dozen people were arrested. Read more

NEW YORK  Several New York City police officers were attacked and injured Wednesday as pro-police and anti-police protesters clashed on the Brooklyn Bridge, police said. The confrontation happened hours before Mayor Bill de Blasio signed into law a series of police accountability measures inspired by the killings of George Floyd, Eric Garner and other Black people.

At least four officers were hurt, including Chief of Department Terence Monahan, and 37 people were arrested, police said. Information on charges was not immediately available.

It was not clear how many protesters were injured. An Associated Press photographer witnessed several people getting roughed up by police, including a woman who ended up on the pavement with an officer pulling on her hair.

Surveillance video posted on social media by the police department showed a man on the bridges pedestrian walkway rushing toward a group of officers and reaching over a fence to smack one of them in the head with a cane.

Police photos of the aftermath showed a lieutenant with a bloodied face, a detective holding a bandage to his head, and a bicycle officer helping a fellow officer dress a head wound.

Monahan, who last month knelt in a show of solidarity with protesters, sustained injuries to his hand.

He and the other injured officers were marching with a pro-police group led by local clergy when they were met on the bridge by activists, some of whom have been camping outside City Hall in recent weeks to demand severe cuts to police funding.

Some people in the pro-police group marched with a banner that said, We Support the NYPD." The leader of that group said they were calling for an end to a recent spate of violence, including the shooting death of a 1-year-old boy in Brooklyn.

De Blasio helped paint a Black Lives Matter mural on a Bronx street before signing the police reform measures. They include a ban on chokeholds and other restraints that could restrict a person's breathing. The NYPD has long barred chokeholds, but that hasn't stopped some officers from using them in recent years  most notably in Garners death on Staten Island just shy of six years ago.

Other reforms include requirements for officers to have their shield numbers visible  and not obscured by things like black mourning bands; for the NYPD to create and publish to its website a schedule of officer disciplinary violations and penalties, and for the department to disclose information about its secret surveillance technology.

Another makes clear that the public has a right to record police activity.

Wednesday's demonstrations and mural painting were the latest in a wave of protest activity across the country since George Floyd was killed May 25 by Minneapolis police.

The first few nights of protests in New York City were marred by stealing, unrest and violence inflicted both by and on police officers. Since then, protests have largely been peaceful.
Updated at 6:35 p.m. Eastern.

Firefighters have extinguished all known blazes on the Navy amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard after four-plus days of round-the-clock efforts.

Teams are inspecting every space on the ship, which has spent days burning pier side at Naval Base San Diego. The fire started Sunday morning in the ship's lower cargo hold, and it quickly spread throughout the vessel.

Now, officials with Naval Surface Force Pacific say they will launch an official investigation once every space is checked and it's determined there are no longer any active fires.

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"We did not know the origin of the fire," said Rear Adm. Philip Sobeck, commander of Expeditionary Strike Group Three. "We do not know the extent of the damage. It is too early to make any predictions or promises of what the future of the ship will be.

"We cannot make any conclusions until the investigation is complete," he added.

The Bonhomme Richard is considered stable and survivable, Sobeck said during a Thursday press conference. Whether the Navy will choose to spend the time and money repairing it remains to be seen.

"The superstructure that you see that's been at a roughly 45-degree angle, that's aluminum -- it's a softer metal," he said. "So you saw the remnants of what high heat does to aluminum. The deck underneath is secure."

Sobeck credited the crews getting the temperature on the ship down about 1,000 degrees in the last 24 hours. The situation on the Bonhomme Richard highlights, he added, that every sailor is a firefighter.

"The bottom line is their ship is their home," he said. "... Over the last four days, I've witnessed your sons and daughters rushing to the flames, putting the flames out and securing their ship."

Sixty-three people -- 40 sailors and 23 civilians -- were hurt battling the fire, which at points topped 1,200 degrees. Teams from across several Navy commands and the San Diego Fire Department fought the blaze for days. They did so inside the ship, from the pier, and in nearby boats and helicopters.

"We had support from the air and sea," Sobeck said. "Three helicopter squadrons conducted more than 1,500 water bucket drops, fighting the fire and cooling the super structure and flight deck, enabling fire crews to get onboard to fight the fire. Tugs also provided firefighting support from the waterline, cooling the ship's hull."

Late Wednesday night, firefighters were evacuated from the Bonhomme Richard as the ship again tilted. The crews were moved to the pier, officials said at the time, out of an abundance of caution as they monitored the ship as it settled.

By Thursday morning, they were again allowed to enter the ship.

The Bonhomme Richard was about two-thirds of the way through scheduled maintenance before the ship would have headed into a basic training phase, Sobeck said. The crew was nearing the point at which it would begin testing the ship's engines, which was why there was about 1 million gallons of fuel onboard when the fire started.

There were also about 85 sailors living on the ship at the time of the fire, said Capt. Mark Nieswiadomy, Naval Base San Diego's commanding officer. They've been given lodging at Naval Bases San Diego and Point Loma.

-- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @ginaaharkins.

Related: 2 More Injured as Fight to Put Out Bonhomme Richard Fire Reaches Day 4
I deem it nationalistic to join the debate on the implementation of the free Senior High School policy by the current Nana Addo led New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration. The introduction of the free Senior High School ignited debate from the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC). Following the implementation of the policy, the NDC argued that the country was not ready for it. They claim that there was infrastructural deficit so the current administration should have waited.

Meanwhile, when they were in government, they boasted of embarking upon massive infrastructural development, especially in the area of education. I hope Ghanaians still remember the 200 community Senior High Schools that were built in the NDC green book.

True to their claim, the implementation of the free SHS policy exposed the infrastructural deficit in the education sector as the policy exponentially shot up the enrollment of SHS students. As a government that is determined to ensure that every Ghanaian child is educated enough to appreciate national issues and prepare themselves for life, the Nana Addo led administration adopted the double-track system to address the challenge of congestion in the schools. This double-track system was adopted alongside embarking upon massive expansion of school infrastructure.

The adoption of the double track system brought about the argument of increase in teenage pregnancy among students in the country. Interestingly, this argument, which was championed by the NDC was not backed by any comparative scientific data. Nevertheless, it was propagated on different forms of media without any sense of intellectual and moral shame.

Irrespective of their wish for the failure of the free SHS policy, the determined Nana Addo led administration is still doing its best to make the policy succeed. The big question we should ask ourselves as Ghanaians is, who should Ghanaians cooperate with in this matter, the NDC that want the programme to fail or the NPP that is doing everything possible to let the programme succeed?

Whether the free SHS is a bane or blessing can best be assessed with the following positive effects associated with it, vis a vis the challenges the Nana Addo led administration is working to overcome.

It has made SHS education accessible to all interested Ghanaian youth. Many were the Ghanaian children who ended their education at the Junior High School level because of poverty, which still exists though.

The implementation of the policy has also pushed the current Nana Addo led administration to embark upon massive expansion of infrastructure in existing schools.

The policy has also relieved poor Ghanaian parents from the burden of paying school fees which was uncomfortably catered for at the expense of other equally important needs.

It has also created jobs for hundreds of thousands of unemployed graduates and unskilled labour. Thus, the policy has reduced the problem of graduate unemployment.

Above all, the implementation of the policy would go a long way to build an informed society, which is a key determinant to national development.

Though the policy is not without challenges, its implementation has become a blessing to the Ghanaian society. It is against this backdrop that I would want to appeal to students, teachers, parents and all other stakeholders to cooperate with the current administration to make it a success.

On a more serious note, I would want to appeal to the majority of the naturally weak students to do their best to study hard to pass their exams for their own good. Left with the ill wishers of the programme, the students should woefully fail so that they can blame it on the policy. Unfortunately, however, no matter how many students fail, many will still pass to compete to enter the few good tertiary institutions so those who fail, do so to their own disadvantage.

For the fact that the free SHS policy benefits the Ghanaian citizen than the Ghanaian politician, we need to cooperate with the government to make it a success for the good of the Ghanaian society.

Bala Ali

Nationalist/Pan-Africanist
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An eight-year-old Vietnamese girl from the south-central coastal province of Binh Thuan was hospitalized after parents suspected she was stung by jellyfish while swimming at a local beach.

Dr. Duong Le Trung at the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital of Dermato-Venereology, where the girl had received treatment, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the teenager was suffering from acute contact dermatitis  a type of body reaction that occurs after exposure to strong irritants, such as jellyfish venom.

Manifestation often occurs soon after exposure to the allergen.

Symptoms include prickling, itching and burning sensations, blisters, and bacterial superinfections.

Her family said that the girl had been swimming after school at a beach near her house during the peak of the jellyfish season.

As she finished swimming, the skin on her right arm became slightly hot and painful. Later, it appeared red and itchy.

She later received treatment at a local hospital, but her conditions remained unchanged so her family took her to the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital of Dermato-Venereology.

She was given antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs, and topical medications. The girls skin began to heal after a week at the hospital and she was discharged.

Dr. Trung said that after being stung by jellyfish, people should leave the area suspected of having the sea creature as soon as possible. They should also run clean water over the wound and keep the affected skin clean.

If the skin does not improve after a few days, or the area of affected skin spreads, patients should visit the hospital for professional help.

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New York  New figures released today show that before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, progress was being made in tackling multidimensional poverty, according to the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), a measure that looks beyond income to include access to safe water, education, electricity, food and six other indicators. Now that progress is at risk.

The data, released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), shows that 65 out of 75 countries studied significantly reduced their multidimensional poverty levels between 2000 and 2019.

Sierra Leone made the fastest progress in reducing their global MPI value. It is one of seven Sub-Saharan African countries in the top ten fastest-moving countries, alongside Cote DIvoire, Guinea, Liberia, Mauritania, Rwanda and Sao Tome and Principe.

India saw the most people moving out of multidimensional poverty  some 270 million people between 2005/6 and 2015/16. 70 million people in China left multidimensional poverty between 2010 and 2014. In Bangladesh, numbers declined by 19 million between 2014 and 2019.

COVID-19 is having a profound impact on the development landscape. But this data  from before the pandemic  is a message of hope. Past success stories on how to tackle the many ways people experience poverty in their daily lives, can show how to build back better and improve the lives of millions, says Sabina Alkire, Director of OPHI at the University of Oxford.

Addressing Multidimensional Poverty in a post-COVID-19 world

While data is not yet available to measure the rise of global multidimensional poverty after the pandemic, simulations for 70 countries in the developing world, based on the anticipated impacts of the virus on just two components of the global MPI  nutrition and school attendance  suggests how much impact the crisis could have unless it is addressed.

In three scenarios of varying deterioration in which 10, 25 and 50 percent of people who are multidimensionally poor or vulnerable become undernourished, and half of primary school-aged children no longer attend school, poverty levels could be set back 8 to 10 years. But even if we look only at the impact on nutrition, if anticipated increases in undernutrition are not prevented or swiftly reversed, the setback could range between 36 years.

COVID-19 is the latest crisis to hit the globe, and climate change all but guarantees more will follow soon. Each will affect the poor in multiple ways. More than ever, we need to work on tackling poverty  and vulnerability to poverty - in all its forms. This is why the Multidimensional Poverty Index is so important says Pedro Conceicao, Director of the Human Development Report Office at UNDP.

Among the 1.3 billion people still living in multidimensional poverty today, more than 80 percent are deprived in at least five of the ten indicators used to measure health, education and living standards in the global MPI. The data also reveals that the burden of multidimensional poverty disproportionately falls on children. Half of the 1.3 billion poor have not yet turned 18. While 107 million are 60 or older.

The MPI  with its information on both the level and composition of poverty  provides the data needed to pinpoint where and how poverty manifests itself. Otherwise policymakers are flying blind, unable to know how  or where  to target resources and interventions, adds Alkire.

For instance, in Sub-Saharan Africa, 55 percent of the population (558 million people) is multidimensionally poor. Of these, 98 percent (547 million people) do not have access to clean cooking fuel, 84 percent (470 million people) lack access to electricity and 66 percent (366 million people) do not have access to clean drinking water.

Addressing each challenge requires a different approach, many of which need to go beyond improving income. This is particularly true in the light of UNDPs work encouraging societies everywhere to take the opportunity to rethink development pathways and build back better post-COVID.

Access full data and publication: http://hdr.undp.org/en/2020-MPI

***

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Anna Ortubia/ anna.ortubia@undp.org / +1 646 642 4071

Lesley Wright / lesley.wright@undp.org

Maya Evans / maya.evans@qeh.ox.ac.uk / +44 751 502 8985


Gemma Collins arrives at the ITV Gala held at the London Palladium in 2017. (WireImage)

Gemma Collins got a shock when she went to check her bank statement for the first time in a while to find that she's been paying for six mobile phones.

The reality star has two numbers, but doesn't quite know how she started coughing up for so many more.

Speaking on the subject of money on her BBC podcast, she shared: "I actually looked at my bank statement the other day.

Read more: Gemma Collins says she and GC persona are very different people

"I don't normally do it but obviously I've had time in lockdown. I've got six mobile phones that I'm paying for that I didn't know I was paying for. Six.

Gemma Collins (Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

"That could only happen to the GC. That's something that's on my to-do list to address. Why am I paying six mobile phone bills when I've only got two numbers? I do go between the numbers. Literally, how am I paying for six phones and not even realising?"

The 39-year-old's career has gone to strength to strength in recent years after landing her podcast and reality series and Diva series on ITVBe.

Collins recently appears to have split with on-off boyfriend James 'Arg' Argent after she shared a series of chat screenshots to Instagram of the pair engaged in an argument.

The TOWIE star recently opened up about experiencing a heartbreaking miscarriage which occurred when she was four months pregnant.

Speaking on her podcast, Collins said she did not realise she was pregnant at the time before suffering a miscarriage on her landing floor.

Ill never forget it. It was a very traumatising experience because I didnt know I was pregnant and literally I remember waking up with severe pains, she shared.
Drivers wait in line for boxes of food from the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida at a drive-through event at the City of Destiny church in Orange County, Florida. Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

August is shaping up to be a tough financial month for millions of Americans. The Senate has indicated it will soon start hashing out the contours of another round of coronavirus relief measures. But any forthcoming aid, like more stimulus checks or enhanced unemployment benefits, may take weeks to reach people, likely extending well into August or beyond, experts said. More from Invest in You:

How to cope with coronavirus money stressors keeping you up at night

Coronavirus crisis is causing financial stress for nearly 9 in 10 Americans

How women can lower financial stress and take control of credit card debt Meanwhile, financial relief that families are currently getting from the CARES Act is scheduled to expire by the end of July or shortly thereafter  including a $600 weekly supplement to jobless benefits and loan funding that has propped up payrolls for small businesses. And aside from delays, some experts fear any upcoming aid legislation will be far less generous.

"This is a horrendous time to have a lapse in benefits," said Wendy Edelberg, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. "I expect households are living week to week, financially speaking. "I'm far more worried what Congress ends up passing will be a lot less supportive than what was initially in the CARES Act," added Edelberg, a former chief economist at the Congressional Budget Office and senior economist on the Council of Economic Advisers under Presidents Obama and George W. Bush. Taken in sum, next month could be "ugly" for millions of families, said Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute.

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Living standards could drop precipitously, poverty may increase, and rent and mortgage payments could be a struggle, potentially leading to evictions and foreclosures for those outside the scope of any moratoriums, she said. That's especially true since many families don't have a financial cushion to rely on in times of financial hardship. Those hit hardest by the recession are disproportionately lower earners. "It is going to mean a big increase in suffering for many families," said Shierholz, a former chief economist at the Department of Labor during the Obama administration. "There will be no way to fill in those [income] gaps. "Some will be able to get jobs, but we know millions will be unable to get one no matter what they do because the jobs aren't there," she added. Lawmakers appear poised to pass another round of financial relief, but its timing and scope remain unclear.

The Senate will start discussing the measure next week, according to a spokesman for majority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Lawmakers come back from a two-week recess on Monday. The legislation will likely be finalized within three weeks, McConnell said this week. But much of the current aid may have lapsed by then. And McConnell has hinted that the next round will be much smaller in scope than the $2.2 trillion CARES Act. The CARES Act upped jobless benefits by $600 a week, authorized one-time stimulus payments for millions of households ($1,200 for individuals, $2,400 for married couples and an extra $500 per eligible child) and made forgivable loans to 5 million small businesses to help prop up payrolls.

Unemployment benefits

The $600 weekly unemployment subsidy is scheduled to end after July 31. (It will effectively lapse by July 26 in all states, due to the schedule they use to pay benefits.) Around 32 million Americans are currently collecting unemployment benefits  about five times the peak during the Great Recession.

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Doing away with the benefit entirely would cut their weekly benefits by about 60%, to a national average of roughly $380 a week, according to Labor Department data. Some states pay much less. Mississippi, for example, pays up to $235 a week. Republicans, who believe the current policy offers a disincentive to return to work, have discussed reducing the amount of weekly aid or replacing it with a cash bonus for people who find new jobs. Even if the $600-a-week aid is reduced instead of eliminated, there would likely be a delay of several weeks in getting that money out to Americans if Congress doesn't act before the $600 lapses, said Michele Evermore, senior policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project, who cited programming challenges with government computer systems.

Stimulus checks

Further, stimulus checks could take weeks or months to reach families, if the last round is any guide. The first wave of stimulus payments hit Americans' bank accounts in mid-April, about three weeks after the CARES Act became law. Those paid via paper check or other means like debit card received their payments weeks or even months later. The time frame would likely be similar this time around, said Betsey Stevenson, a professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan.

While the White House has offered support for another round of stimulus checks, McConnell wants them to be narrower in scope, going to individuals making less than $40,000 a year. The new threshold  which was previously $75,000, and phased out for individuals making up to $99,000  would dramatically reduce the number of Americans eligible for the checks. The Democrat-led House of Representatives in May passed a $3 trillion measure, the HEROES Act, that would extend enhanced unemployment benefits and offer larger potential stimulus checks to households, among other things. The scope of any forthcoming relief will be much more significant for Americans than the speed of the aid, said Stevenson, a former chief economist at the Department of Labor. "The bigger concern isn't a two-week lag, if that's what it takes," she said. "It's, what is [the relief] that they actually pass, and is that enough?"

Paycheck Protection Program

Meanwhile, an improvement in the unemployment rate could stall or reverse in coming weeks given recent developments, economists said, meaning more people would be relying on jobless benefits. Spiking coronavirus infections have led officials in states like California, Nevada and Texas to close some businesses for a second time. Also, around 84% of small businesses that received a Paycheck Protection Program loan will exhaust their funding by the first week of August, according to a Goldman Sachs survey.
China has given the green light to an early-stage human test for a coronavirus vaccine candidate using German firm BioNTech's technology, its local partner said on Thursday.

A unit of Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group plans to initiate a phase I clinical trial of the potential shot, dubbed BNT162b1, developed with BioNTech's technology, "as soon as possible once it is ready", Fosun Pharma said in a filing.

Prior to the latest approval, Chinese researchers and companies have already moved eight vaccine candidates into different phases of human tests at home and abroad.

Fosun Pharma agreed in March to pay up to $85 million in licensing fees to use BioNTech's proprietary mRNA technology and make an equity investment of $50 million for 1,580,777 ordinary shares in the German firm.
Park Min, center, CEO of PR agency ToGo Communication, holds a copy of the book "Winning English" with Casey Lartigue Jr., co-founder of Teach North Korean Refugees (TNKR), a NGO offering educational services to North Korean refugees, in a donation ceremony at the NGO's office in Seoul, Thursday. To Park's left is Lee Eun-koo, co-founder of the NGO. Park donated 20 copies of the self-help book on how to learn English efficiently to TNKR to help North Korean refugees interested in learning English. The two organizations will seek collaboration in areas that meet their interests. Courtesy of TNKR
Today Im excited to announce Snorkel AIs launch out of stealth! Snorkel AI, which spun out of the Stanford AI Lab in 2019, was founded on two simple premises: first, that the labeled training data machine learning models learn from is increasingly what determines the success or failure of AI applications. And second, that we can do much better than labeling this data entirely by hand.

At the Stanford AI lab, the Snorkel AI founding team spent over four years developing new programmatic approaches to labeling, augmenting, structuring, and managing this training data. We were fortunate to develop and deploy early versions of our technology with some of the worlds leading organizations like Google, Intel, Apple, Stanford Medicine, resulting in over thirty-six peer-reviewed publications on our findings; innovations in weak supervision modeling, data augmentation, multi-task learning, and more; inclusion in university computer science curriculums; and deployments in popular products and systems that youve likely interacted with in the last few hours.

Through all this academic tinkering and industry spelunking, we realized two things: first, that this concept of labeling and building training data programmatically, rather than by hand, had transformational potential to make machine learning more iterative, auditable, faster to deploy, and ultimately, more practical. And second, that these ideas changed not just how you label training data, but so much of the entire lifecycle and pipeline of ML: how knowledge and feedback is injected; how models are constructed, trained, versioned, and monitored; how entire pipelines are developed iteratively; and how the full set of stakeholders in any ML deployment, from subject matter experts to ML engineers, are incorporated into the process.

In other words, we saw that this shift to programmatic training data required a top-to-bottom rewrite of the entire ML development and deployment process. With the support of some amazing investors (Greylock, GV, In-Q-Tel, and others) and incredible early customers, weve spent the last year doing just this: building and deploying Snorkel Flow, an end-to-end platform to support this new vision of the ML process.

The Training Data Bottleneck

Snorkel Flow was motivated first and foremost by a growing realization that training data had become the key bottleneck in much of ML pipeline and AI application development.

Todays ML successes often rest on a hidden cost: massive, hand-labeled training datasets.

In the last decade, weve seen a tectonic shift in AI and ML towards powerful but data-hungry representation learning models. These modelsoften deep learning architecturesare not only more powerful at obviating traditionally manual development tasks like feature engineering and bespoke model design, but also have never been more accessible in the open source. However, theres no such thing as a free lunch: these models are highly complex, with tens to hundreds of millions of parameters, and they require massive labeled training datasets to learn from. And, other than in special scenarios where labels are naturally derivative of existing processes, these training datasets need to be labeled by hand.

The hand-labeled training data interface to ML has enabled tremendous progress but is also ridiculously broken.

Manually labeling training data is prohibitively expensiveespecially when expertise and privacy are required.

Consider a simple example: a legal analyst at a bank wants to train a contract classification model, and wants to inject a simple heuristic into the ML model: that if employment is in the title, the contract should be labeled as an Employment contract. Simple, right? Not so. Theoretically, to communicate this specific feature to a machine learning model via only labeling individual data points could require thousands of examples (roughly, inversely proportional to the sparsity of the feature space). From this perspective, its like playing 20 questions rather than just communicating the answer directlyfine if you have a massive question-answer bank, but otherwise wholly impractical.Building training datasets often requires armies of human labelers at massive cost and time expense. For example, ImageNetone of the foundational projects behind MLs current explosive progresstook over two years to create. However, labeling cats, dogs, stop signs, and pedestrians is one thing; labeling data like medical images, legal and financial contracts, government documents, user data, and network data requiresand. This means for sectors like financial services, government, telecommunications, insurance, healthcare, and more, creating training data (and by extension, using ML) is either a hugely expensive on-premise activityor more often, one that is just not feasible to tackle, let alone practical.

Iterative development is not possible with hand-labeled data. From an engineering and data science perspective, manually labeled training data fundamentally breaks the ability to quickly iterate, which is absolutely essential in real world settings where input data, output goals, and annotation schema change all the time. From a business perspective, training data is an expensive asset that cant be reused across projects, can often depreciate to worthless overnight due to changing conditions or business goals, and that presents growing riskseverything from COVID-related delays to issues of bias.

A New Input Paradigm for ML: Programming with Data

With Snorkel Flow, rather than needing to hand-label any training data, users develop programmatic operators that label, augment, and build training data to drive the ML development process.

Programmatically labeling and building training data. With Snorkel Flow, the idea is to instead communicate this domain knowledge directly via a programmatic operator like a labeling function. For example, our legal analyst could write a labeling function that labels documents as Employment contracts if the word employment is in the title, and otherwise abstains; or, a range of more complex and powerful labeling functions relying on internal knowlegebases, models, legacy heuristics, and more. This approach of effectively programming ML with data is simple, direct, interpretable, modifiable, and agnostic to the model used (which is especially important given the ongoing Cambrian explosion of powerful new open source model architectures).

The directness of rules with the flexibility of ML. Rule-based systems have long been used in industry for certain tasksas an input, individual rules have the desirable property of being direct and interpretable. However, rules can also be brittle, and lack the robustness, flexibility, and sheer power of ML approaches. With Snorkel Flow, you get the best of both worlds: rules (and other interpretable resources) as inputs, and powerful ML models that generalize beyond these rules as the output.

A more powerful yet weaker supervision. At the same time that this programmatic supervision is advantageous in several transformational ways, it is also messier and raises fundamental new technical challenges. The labeling functions and other programmatic operators that users write will have varying unknown accuracies and expertise areas, will overlap and disagree with each other, and may be correlated in tangled and unknown ways. We focused on the algorithmic and systems solutions to these issues over four-plus years of research, showing both empirically and theoretically that with the right techniques, these deep technical challenges can be overcome. The result: training data that is as good as or better than hand-labeled data, and immensely more practical to create and maintain.

Beyond labeling: data augmentation, slicing, monitoring, and more. In high-performance production ML, training data is about a lot more than labeling. For example, data augmentation is a cornerstone technique wherein transformed copies of data (e.g. rotated or blurred images) are used to expand the sizes of training datasets, and make resulting models more robust. Slicing or structuring training datasets into more or less important and difficult subsets is also a critical part of managing production ML. Finally, monitoring and adapting not just models but also the training data that informs them is a critical necessity in any production-grade ML application. All of these operations have been the subject of our research and deployments for years, and now find a centralized home in our end-to-end machine learning platform for AI application development, Snorkel Flow.

The Snorkel Flow Platform: A New, Data-Centric Way to Build ML

Through years of deployment experience, we realized that this new programmatic approach is not just about training datait transforms the entire way one builds, deploys, monitors, and maintains ML-driven applications. Over the last year we have been building the end-to-end platform supporting this new approach to ML: Snorkel Flow.

An ML development process centered around the data. Snorkel Flow enables users to drive the end-to-end process of developing and deploying ML-powered applications by iteratively and programmatically labeling, augmenting, and building training data. Users start by developing programmatic operators, ranging from simple labeling functions developed in a push-button UI (e.g. expressing rules or heuristics), to complex custom operators bringing diverse sources of signal to bear (e.g. existing models, labels, knowledge bases, etc.) via the Python SDK. Snorkel Flow automatically cleans and manages the output of these operatorsalso integrating any hand-labeled data or other sources of signal if availableand then uses this to train state-of-the-art models, either push-button or via SDK. For more details, see this page.

An iterative, actionable development and monitoring loop. A key design principle behind Snorkel Flow is that successful ML development processes must be fundamentally human-in-the-looppush button automagic solutions simply do not work in the real worldbut that these loops should give users clear, actionable guidance at each turn. In Snorkel Flow, monitoring and analysis guides users to rapidly identify and correct error modes in their training data and models. The net effect: AI as an iterative development process, rather than a one-and-done exercise bound by the data.

Building and deploying end-to-end AI applications, beyond just models. One of the key principles is Snorkel Flow is that ML application development is all about the dataand not just the training data, but the various pre-processors, post-processors, connectors, and overall workflows around the ML models that make up any real production application. Snorkel Flow provides an end-to-end environment for building these full data workflows, and deploying them as APIs with the push of a button.

A developer-first platform that is all about cross-functional teams. Successful AI solutions require collaboration across teams and roles- from the subject matter experts knowledge and objectives to the machine learning engineers deployment pipeline. Snorkel Flow is built to be both developer-firstwith full SDK and CLI access and configurability at every stageas well as empowering and explicitly including other key roles, with push-button UIs and specific managed workflows for integrating subject matter experts, business stakeholders, and others.

Snorkel AI: The Pathway Forward

What weve built with Snorkel Flow so far has been entirely dependent on partnerships with some amazing early customers (including several top US banks, government agencies, and other large enterprises), an incredible group of top-tier investors (Greylock, GV, In-Q-Tel, and others) who have actively supported us the whole way, and a truly once-in-a-lifetime team of engineers from places like Google, Facebook, NVIDIA, etc. and academics from places like Stanford, UW, Brown, Wisconsin, etc.

Moving forward, we are excited to continue partnering with a select set of the best teams and organizations from sectors like finance, government, telecommunications, insurance, and healthcare to deliver rapid bottom-line value while also helping us evolve our platform. If you are interested in being one of these early partners, please reach out here.

And, of course, could our company really be based in Palo Alto if we didnt say the following: Were hiring!? Please check out our jobs page if youre interested in being part of a highly technical, world-class team at the cutting-edge vanguard of a new intersection of ML, data, and systems with significant and immediate real-world impact.

Theres a lot more coming that we are very excited to announcein the meantime, stay tuned!
ANNAPOLIS, MD  President Donald Trump first addressed the coronavirus pandemic on Jan. 22, saying "We have it totally under control." On April 18, Gov. Larry Hogan welcomed a South Korean plane carrying 500,000 coronavirus tests to Baltimore Washington International Airport.



Now it's July 16, and Hogan is criticizing Trump in a Washington Post opinion piece. How did we get here?

If you ask Hogan, a moderate Republican, he'd say the federal government hung states out to dry with an insufficient coronavirus response. Trump, on the other hand, would say the country's robust testing system made Hogan's purchase from South Korea a frivolous expense.

"It was hopeless, waiting around for him," Hogan wrote in his Thursday op-ed. "Governors were being told that we were on our own. It was sink or swim. And if I didnt do something dramatic, we simply would not come close to having enough tests in Maryland."

Critics, including Hogan, said Trump downplayed the severity of the pandemic and overestimated the number of tests the country had available. In March, Trump said that any American who wanted a coronavirus test could get one.

About 2,000 Americans had been tested at that point. Spread across 50 states, that wasn't enough, Hogan said.

As Hogan and other governors continued to ask for more resources, Trump reasserted in April that testing was the states' responsibility. Maryland had about 12,000 coronavirus infections and more than 400 deaths by this point.

Hogan said he feared that the state could not know the true scope of the virus if it did not have widespread testing. That's when he turned to one of the world's leading testers: South Korea.

The governor has a unique relationship with South Korea, the birthplace of his wife, Yumi Hogan. In his op-ed, Hogan said South Korean President Moon Jae-in called him the "son-in-law of the Korean people."

The Hogans leveraged this relationship with the South Korean president and its ambassador, eventually striking the $9 million deal that sent half a million coronavirus tests to the Maryland. The deal wouldn't have been possible without the first lady's connections, bargaining and translation, the governor wrote.

Story continues

Congratulations, honey, Hogan told his wife when the tests arrived at BWI. You helped save a lot of lives.

The testing supply should last well into the fall, Hogan said at a Wednesday press conference. The arsenal has helped Maryland conduct nearly 873,000 coronavirus tests. With kits secured, Hogan's goal is to test 10 percent of every jurisdiction in the state.

While the Hogans touted their atypical deal, Trump criticized the foreign diplomacy. Hogan remembers that disapproval in his op-ed.

"The governor of Maryland couldve called [Vice President] Mike Pence, couldve saved a lot of money," Trump, a fellow Republican, said. "I dont think he needed to go to South Korea. I think he needed to get a little knowledge."



Hogan's ongoing feud with Trump is a major theme in his upcoming book, which this op-ed draws from. The memoir, called "Still Standing" comes out on July 28. Analysts say the release and upcoming book tour are a sign that Hogan may consider running for president in 2024.

The virtual book tour features several well-known Republican guests. Hogan will have conversations with former new Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (July 29), former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (July 31), former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (Aug. 3) and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (Aug. 6).



"Still Standing" was initially slated to make its debut on June 9, but Hogan pushed the date back as coronavirus became the state's top priority.

More than 75,000 Marylanders have tested positive for coronavirus. The virus has killed 3,215 people in the state.

While Maryland has seen decreased positivity rates and increased testing, the number of new daily cases is trending slightly upward. The state reported 733 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, the largest jump in more than a month.

On Thursday, Maryland clocked 648 new cases. This time last week, that number was 586. New daily cases topped out at 1,784 on May 19 and were as low as 260 on June 18.



Coronavirus-related deaths are down, however. Daily deaths peaked at 68 on April 29. The virus killed three people on Wednesday.

The state has not reported more than 20 new deaths since June 20. Daily deaths have hovered between two and 18 since then.



Hospitalizations, which peaked at 1,711 on April 30, are also down. As of Thursday morning, 436 Marylanders were hospitalized with the virus.



RELATED:

Have a story idea? Please contact me at jacob.baumgart@patch.com with any pitches, tips or questions. Follow me on Twitter @JacobBaumgart and on Facebook @JacobBaumgartJournalist to stay up-to-date with the latest Anne Arundel County and Prince George's County news.



This article originally appeared on the Annapolis Patch
Embracing Technology

Preparing to Reopen

Government officials from Rhode Island, New Mexico and Florida gathered virtually July 16 at an event organized by Salesforce and including more than a dozen guests from the private and public sectors to talk about the role technology has played in their response to COVID-19.Collectively, they painted a picture of how essential cloud technology and agile systems are  for preparedness, management and telework, and eventually reopening.Speaking for one of the relative success stories in meeting COVID-19 at the state level, Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo is overseeing a response that has led to fewer than 100 new confirmed cases a day almost every day for the past month, according to the states data portal. She said she took early, decisive steps and viewed the pandemic not just as a public health challenge but also a technological one, given the telework, data and testing she knew would be necessary to confront it.It seemed very clear early on that meeting the needs of the COVID crisis was all about speed.  If the virus moves quickly and outruns you, its very hard to regain your footing, she said. If you have to move fast, you have to be innovative, you have to scale, then you have to embrace technology.Raimondo said Rhode Island has tested a number of people equivalent to nearly 30 percent of its population, with a positive test rate of about 2 percent, even with restaurants and beaches now open. She attributed much of this success to contact tracing  the process of interviewing every person who tests positive and then alerting everyone they recently came into contact with  which can only be done at scale with the help of technology. Apple, Google, MIT and state governments have been piloting their own contact-tracing apps and programs in recent months, with some success but also privacy concerns . Salesforce is pitching one on its work.com platform to help agencies get employees back to work by tracing their interactions and health through phone surveys.Contact tracing was absolutely vital, Raimondo said. As you know, one of the things were all tracking is the rate of spread  how many other people an infected person infects. We want to do that as well as possible, and the only way to do that is when somebody tests positive, to immediately reach out and touch everyone theyve had contact with.Dave Rey, Salesforces president of global public sector, backed up Raimondo on all of this. He called COVID-19 a perfect storm of demands on digital government, requiring speed, 24/7 availability, security and scalability to millions of citizens. Almost overnight, governments were dealing with supply chain disruptions, hospital capacity issues, exploding unemployment, emergency business loans, scheduling problems, limited tests and contact tracing.Rey pointed out that digital transformation  which he defined as putting all government services on the Internet in such a way that citizens can serve themselves and find all forms, use electronic signatures and follow up afterward  went from nice to have to essential, in short order. He said Salesforce helped deploy dozens of those systems in the past few months, and he suggested bullet points to help such fast modernizations succeed: private-public partnerships; the use of a low-code, cloud-based platform that can deploy fast, at scale, even to millions of users; keeping data in one place so leaders can have what they need to make decisions; and using an agile platform that can integrate with older systems, because sometimes government cant modernize everything at once.All that said, Raimondo was sanguine about what it could mean for state and local governments to embrace technological revolution: no more snow days thanks to remote learning, no more lines at the DMV and unemployment claims processed faster, among other things.The bad news is, it took a crisis for us to move so quickly. The good news is, on the other side of it, if we embrace technology, Rhode Islanders will be better for it. Their experience, I think, with government will be more streamlined and effective and efficient, she said. If we are smart  and thats a big if  we can build a fair, more inclusive, more resilient economy. Right now, we come together as a nation, public and private, and make the right investments in technology, training and people, we can lay the groundwork for decades of productivity which includes everyone. But it does embrace doing things differently and being honest about the fact that a lot of people have been left behind in the past.On the sheer scale of change required to meet the new normal of digital services and answering citizen needs online, New Mexicos Sue Anne Athens, chief information officer for the states Department of Workforce Solutions, said it took an exponential shift in staff.We were handling 3,000 to 4,000 calls on a weekly basis, and this increased to hundreds of thousands of calls a day, peaking at over 900,000 calls in a single day, she said.Athens had to borrow staff from other agencies, hire temporary agents and increase call center capacity threefold in less than two weeks, which was only possible because she had access to Salesforces cloud-based contact system. Still unable to answer every question, her department set up chatbots, one of which ended up taking almost 100,000 interactions in the first week.Even these iterative steps were possible, she said, because the state had an agile technology stack, and it had transformed its old mainframe system for unemployment claims to a Web-based platform in 2013. Since then it had overhauled its call-center systems with cloud technology, enabling it to scale quickly when crisis demanded it earlier this year.Besides cloud tech and agile systems, she recommended focusing on people: everything from user-centered design to an agency culture that views government employees as public servants.I think I would advise public servants and government agencies to work toward agility and drop their bureaucracy, she said. You need to focus on the service, use your resources, create partnerships in order to face challenges that will continue to arise, and face what we think is going to be a very different future of work, and government service.On the subject of bringing people back to their offices safely, Salesforce Executive Vice President of Global Real Estate Elizabeth Pinkham talked about more hands-on steps. Best practices like office cleaning, installing glass barriers between workstations, having people fill out daily wellness surveys, communicating with one another and scheduling staggered arrival times so people arent crowding halls and elevators are common recommendations.Kevin Guthrie, deputy director of Floridas Division of Emergency Management, said his agency is swabbing people every Monday and Thursday, questioning them about where theyve been and what theyve done, trying to reduce the turnaround time for COVID tests and making sure first responders have personal protective equipment. But he said data-based management and contact tracing software will be essential everywhere.
(Natural News) Earlier this month, Gov. Greg Abbott issued an order mandating the use of masks in Texas. A growing number of county sheriffs, however, have said that they wont enforce the order, calling it unenforceable and unconstitutional.

The sheriffs of nine counties  Upshur, Panola, Nacogdoches, Montgomery, Kerr, Houston, Gregg, Gillespie and Denton  have sworn that they will not even consider upholding Abbotts new directive. This comes as the states number of confirmed coronavirus cases soared past 200,000 on Tuesday.

Abbotts order allows counties with 20 or fewer active COVID-19 cases to opt-out of the mask mandate, and over 40 counties in the state have already done so. But all nine counties refusing to enforce the mandate have more than 20 coronavirus cases each, according to data gathered from their websites.

Abbotts mask order is difficult to enforce

When Abbott relaxed Texas coronavirus lockdown measures, he initially did not require Texans to wear face coverings while in public. He reversed course this last week, however, issuing an order that made the wearing of face masks mandatory statewide.

The order states that law enforcement officials will be able to charge repeat offenders with a fine of up to $250. However, no offenders may be detained or jailed for not wearing a mask.

This language in the directive, many have argued, is what makes it difficult to enforce  stopping people who arent wearing masks could be seen as detaining them.

In Montgomery County, the Sheriffs Office argued that because the mandate did not allow law enforcement to detain, confine or arrest individuals who dont follow the order, it stripped them of the necessary tools to enforce compliance with the law, and, therefore, see no reason to enforce it. Many other counties have used this argument, while others have stated staffing problems.

The order is not a law, there is no requirement that any police officer enforce it, and its unenforceable, wrote Denton County Sheriff Tracy Murphree on Facebook on Friday. We cant spend our time running from place to place for calls about masks we can really do nothing about.

Draconian mask order violates constitutional rights

Murphree and other police officials in the nine Texas counties have said that they will not impose the ruling with either verbal or written citations. (Related: Harvard doctor wants US to enforce national mask mandate; Surgeon General says order may lead to REBELLION.)

On Twitter, Joe Gamaldi, president of the Houston Police Officers Union, called the mask mandate draconian and said that the task of enforcing it should not be given to law enforcement.

While we in law enforcement are desperately trying to build trust w/our community and are spread incredibly thin with the huge rise in violent crime, we are now expexcted to enforce yet another draconian mask law. Everyone needs to wear a mask, but dont put us in this position.  Joe Gamaldi (@JoeGamaldi) July 2, 2020

Similarly, the Panola County Texas Sheriffs Office said that, while they strongly encourage the wearing of face masks, they believe that compliance should be voluntary and that they do not have the manpower to keep tabs on individual warnings and citations.

In a Facebook Live video, Nacogdoches County Sheriff Jason Bridges said that his deputies will not be enforcing Abbotts mask mandate, nor will he be limiting gatherings. Bridges argued that he was sworn in to defend the U.S. Constitution and that many of Abbotts recent directives are close to infringing on many of their constitutional rights.

Rusty Hierholzer, Kerr County Sheriff, said on Thursday that while he believes that the coronavirus is real and that it should be taken seriously, his officers will not be issuing citations for not wearing a mask. Instead, what he will do is educate his countys residents on why its important to wear a mask.

Hierholzer further stated that if the governor of Texas wants law enforcement officials to issue citations for his mask mandate, then that job should fall on the state police.

He has more officers at his disposal than I will ever have, said Hierholzer. He followed this up with a message on social media posted on Sunday where he echoed Bridges concerns about how the mask mandate might be unconstitutional.

The Gregg County Sheriffs Office, as a departure from the eight other counties, said that they will enforce the mask mandate. However, they will educate their residents and request voluntarily compliance with the mask mandate first before they proceed with verbal and written warnings, turning to written citations as a last resort.

Abbott blasts officials for refusing to enforce his mask mandate

During an interview with KFDM anchor Tiffany Murphy, Abbott took issue with elected officials, including sheriffs, who were refusing to enforce his mask mandate. He criticized them for what he called absenteeism instead of action on their parts.

He compared the sheriffs who are refusing to enforce his directive to the local officials who are asking that Texas economy be shuttered once more and everybody placed on lockdown again. These officials, Abbott argued, need to enforce the law theyve sworn to uphold before doing anything else.

They ask for more and more, but they do absolutely nothing, he said.

He went on to say that he issued an executive order to mandate the wearing of masks based upon the advice of health experts. If local officials enforce the mask order, it will slow the spread of the coronavirus. They just now need to step up and begin to enforce the orders that are already in place.

Learn more about what states like Texas are doing  and not doing  to fight coronavirus at Pandemic.news.

Sources include:

BigLeaguePolitics.com

NPR.org

MySanAntonio.com

CBSNews.com

KFDM.com
Ministry of Health presents 200,000 face masks to Lao counterpart

The Vietnamese Ministry of Health presented 200,000 medical face masks to its Lao counterpart on July 15 to support the country in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.









At the hand-over ceremony (Photo: The Vietnamese Ministry of Health)



Speaking at the hand-over ceremony, Acting Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long highlighted the special relationship between the two countries, saying the two governments have coordinated closely in the fight against the disease.



Vietnam highly valued the efforts of the Lao Government and people in preventing and controlling the pandemic, he said, adding that the two sides are considering when to resume activities in all respects.



The minister said it is necessary to establish a regular information channel between the two sides, with technical and equipment assistance, to cope with the pandemic as well as other diseases, adding that the two ministries should coordinate closer in the time to come.



For his part, Lao Ambassador to Vietnam Sengphet Houngboungnuang thanked the Ministry of Health for its meaningful gifts and spoke of the support provided by the Vietnamese Government and people to his country.



He congratulated Vietnam on its achievements in responding to the disease, saying that the Government and people of Laos are still carefully working towards controlling the outbreak./.


The number of initial jobless claims recorded last week stood at 1.3 million, down just 10,000 from the previous week and signaling a possible stall in labor market recovery.

While initial claims have declined drastically since the coronavirus pandemic caused mass closures of businesses, the decline has leveled off in recent weeks, according to data released Thursday by the Labor Department. The week of July 4 saw 1,310,000 initial claims, while the week of June 27 saw 1,408,000 such claims.

Continuing unemployment claims stood nationally at about 17.3 million, or almost 12 percent unemployment. Those figures also show signs of leveling off, with 12.2 percent continuing unemployment for the week of July 4 and 12.9 percent for the week of June 27.

Coronavirus has forced mandatory closures of sites where people congregate, including restaurants, movie theaters, offices, and others. Outbreaks have escalated in recent weeks in states across the south and west of the U.S., leading to reimposition of closures in California and Texas and mandatory face mask orders in states including Alabama.

Amid mass economic dislocation, various U.S. banks are setting aside billions of dollars to prepare for fallout from a recession. JPMorgan, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo have set aside a collective $28 billion to prepare for loan defaults and falling revenues.

This is not a normal recession, JPMorgan chief executive James Dimon told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. The recessionary part of this youre going to see down the road.

More from National Review
(Bloomberg) -- The hijacking of several prominent Twitter accounts, including that of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, has again raised questions about the companys ability to combat disinformation on its platform and rekindled concerns about potential election interference with November just four months away.

Twitter Inc. and other social media sites such as Facebook Inc. were already facing scrutiny over their ability and willingness to protect the integrity of the democratic process and avoid a repeat of 2016, when Russia spread disinformation in efforts to bolster Donald Trumps candidacy.

That pressure increased on Wednesday as Biden, Barack Obama, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Elon Musk were among the prominent political and business leaders whose accounts were exploited to send out tweets in an apparently coordinated effort to promote a cryptocurrency scam.

What happened today should be a red flag in terms of the huge amounts of disinformation that are already rife in this election and its only going to get worse, said Meredith McGehee, executive director of Issue One, a non-profit focused on political reforms. When youre going after presidential candidates and the richest men in the world, its a display of their vulnerability.

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said at her Thursday briefing that President Donald Trump will remain on Twitter, but lawmakers were swift to call on the company to answer questions and bolster its security as they stressed that the hack had highlighted the dangers of fake information on the platform.

Democratic Senator Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, called for Twitter and law enforcement to investigate, and for large social media platforms to put greater resources and monitoring into high-risk accounts.

The ability of bad actors to take over prominent accounts, even fleetingly, signals a worrisome vulnerability in this media environment -- exploitable not just for scams, but for more impactful efforts to cause confusion, havoc, and political mischief, Warner said in a statement Thursday.

Story continues

Republican Senator Roger Wicker, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee that oversees U.S. tech policy and consumer protection, called for a briefing from Twitter and said he was concerned that the hack had eroded user trust in the content on verified accounts.

It is not difficult to imagine future attacks being used to spread disinformation or otherwise sow discord through high-profile accounts, particularly through those of world leaders, Wicker said.

Democratic Representative Frank Pallone of New Jersey, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee that oversees much of U.S. technology policy, said in a tweet that Twitter needs to explain how all of these prominent accounts were hacked.

Representative James Comer, the top Republican on the House Oversight Committee, also called for a briefing in a letter to Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey and warned that breaches similar to yesterdays have the potential to jeopardize national and economic security and disrupt the lives of millions of Americans. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said the attack bodes ill for November balloting.

Within a few hours of the incident, Twitter explained that the hack was a coordinated social engineering-attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools and used that access to take control of highly-visible accounts and tweet on their behalf.

Who hacked the site and how are the companys greatest immediate concerns. But until Wednesdays episode, users took for granted that verified account holders were indeed who they claimed to be. That sense of trust may have been altered during the hack, said Laura Galante, founder of the cyber-research firm Galante Strategies.

Whats really important now are the parameters Twitter sets to disclose these incidents to the public, she said. And how are you going to verify swiftly that a tweet is fake and an account has been hacked.

Voters or the media may be swift to recognize false statements from Biden, Trump and other high-profile figures, yet the credibility of accounts is more tenuous, and important, at the state and local level, experts said.

Who will notice right away if local election administrators accounts are hacked and used to peddle misinformation about how to vote or where? said Darren Linvill, a professor and disinformation researcher at Clemson University. Even if its just a day, if that day is Election Day, then theres more than enough time to do damage.

Experts had bigger worries than a cryptocurrency scam following Russias use of fake personas in 2016 to promote false news, sow division and suppress Democratic votes. Yet lawmakers, cybersecurity researchers and good-government advocates have spent the ensuing years warning that disinformations tendency to spread quickly on Twitter could be a threat to the election as well as to public health amid the coronavirus pandemic.

They cited not just the actions of foreign nations but domestic operatives including official campaigns, with Trump showing an eagerness to spread falsities, that use tools ranging from lies to manipulated videos.

The calls seemed to have moved Dorsey, whose companys smaller size relative to Facebook or Alphabet Inc.s YouTube means it must rely more on algorithms than humans, to enforce policies that ban manipulating elections and other forms of disinformation.

In October, he announced Twitter would ban political ads on the platform even as Democrats complained that Trump was spreading lies about Biden on Facebook unchallenged.

In May, Twitter fact-checked Trumps false claims about mail-in voting, prompting the White House to issue an executive order aimed at curbing liability protections for social media services. The company has since then flagged one Trump tweet for violating its policies on glorifying violence and continued to take a more active role in monitoring his tweets.

(Updates with Trump remaining on Twitter in fifth paragraph)

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

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2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Borussia Dortmund are reportedly expecting a 109m (120m) bid from Manchester United for Jadon Sancho this summer if the Red Devils finish in the top four.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side are currently fifth in the Premier League table, ahead of a trip to Crystal Palace on Thursday night.

But should United qualify for next season's Champions League, Solskjaer will move for top target Sancho in a potential club-record deal, according to German outlet Bild.

Borussia Dortmund are reportedly expecting a 109m bid from Man Utd for Jadon Sancho

Yet any move for Sancho depends on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side finishing in the top-four

Dortmund are reportedly expecting a lofty bid for their 20-year-old forward, who will not want to drop down to the Europa League.

Sancho, who signed for Dortmund in 2017 for a measly 8m from Manchester City, is believed to be keen on a return to Manchester.

United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward is keen to pursue Sancho this summer, but needs the financial assurance qualifying for Europe's premier club competition would bring.

Sancho, an England international with 11 senior caps to his name, has had another fruitful season for Bundesliga runners-up Dortmund.

He racked up 17 goals and 17 assists in the German top-flight in 32 matches for Lucien Favre's side.

The England international has enjoyed another excellent season in attack for Dortmund

Due to the pandemic, Dortmund have a financial hole of more than 40m to fill, with a fee for Sancho set to wipe out that deficit in one swoop.

The Bundesliga outfit already appear to be planning for life without him, having secured a 22.5m deal for Birmingham City forward Jude Bellingham.

They beat off competition from the likes of United and rivals Bayern Munich to secure services of the 17-year-old.

Birmingham City starlet Jude Bellingham has reportedly agreed a deal to sign for Dortmund

Meanwhile in the top-four race, with three games to go for both Leicester and United, the situation is incredibly tight.

The Foxes, tied on 59 points with United but with a superior goal difference, host Sheffield United on Thursday before a tricky trip to Jose Mourinho's Tottenham.

United have Palace and West Ham to play, before what could be a final-day decider between the two sides at the King Power on July 26.

Current occupants of third, Chelsea, are not home and dry yet either - four points clear having played a game more, they still have to travel to champions Liverpool and host Wolves on the final day.
A Bondi party girl has begged a judge to extend her bail curfew to 11pm so she can run events in the lead up to her trial for her alleged involvement in a Sydney drug ring.

Event planner Danielle Hogan, 24, faced Burwood Local Court on Wednesday after she was released on bail last year following a 12-day stint in Silverwater prison.

She applied to have her curfew extended from 10pm to 11pm so she can continue to run parties while on bail, news.com.au reported.

Danielle Hogan (pictured) has begged a judge to extend her bail curfew to 11pm so she can run events in the lead up to her trial for her alleged involvement in a Sydney drug ring.

Event planner Danielle Hogan (pictured), 24, faced Burwood Local Court on Wednesday after she was released on bail last year following a 12-day-stint in Silverwater prison

Hogan was arrested at her family's North Bondi home on November 7 over the alleged involvement in the drug ring

Magistrate Susan Horan on Wednesday granted Ms Hogan the extra hour but said she must be accompanied by one of her parents while outside the family home.

'So she's proposing to take one of her parents with her to work? The chaperone condition remains unchanged,' Ms Horan said.

She is due to face the NSW District Court in September alongside Mandana Naghbi, 27 and Isabella Wu, 24.

All three women will face trial in September unless they choose to enter not guilty pleas before.

Hogan was arrested at her North Bondi home on November 7 over her alleged involvement in drug delivery service across the Harbour City.

Hogan (pictured), from North Bondi, spent 12 days behind bars after she was arrested at her apartment on Thursday November 7

Police allege the glamorous event planner supplied 380g of cocaine to Sydneysiders between August and October 2019.

During this period the party girl was posting photos to Instagram of her glamorous life involving jaunts to waterside bars and ocean swims in bikinis.

She was one of seven arrested by police in raids across Sydney in a strike force operation targeting an alleged drug runner operation across the city.

She has been charged with five offences, including two counts of ongoing drug supply and participating in a criminal group.

Hogan (pictured) was one of seven arrested by police in raids across Sydney in a strike force operation targeting an alleged drug runner operation across the city on November 7

Hogan (pictured) is required to follow strict bail conditions, including residing at her family home and reporting to Chatswood Police Station

Hogan began to tear up during a hearing in January when the court heard her anxiety and depression has gotten worse as a result of the police charges and incarceration.

Hogan is required to follow strict bail conditions, including residing at her family home and reporting to Chatswood Police Station.

She is only allowed to leave the house between 6am and 11pm in the company of her parents and she is prohibited from contacting her co-accused or using any encryption apps on her mobile phone.

Hogan was also required to surrender her passport.
Washington

A $10.2 million "sole source" contract to run a centralized COVID-19 database for the Trump administration drew sharp criticism Wednesday from congressional Democrats, who demanded that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention be reinstated as the primary repository of coronavirus data.

The contract drew scant public attention when it was awarded in April to TeleTracking Technologies, a Pittsburgh company whose core business is helping hospitals manage the flow of patients. But it drew scrutiny after the administration ordered hospitals on Tuesday to report coronavirus information, including bed availability, to the new database, housed at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, instead of to the CDC.

Two top federal health officials  Dr. Robert Redfield, the CDC director, and Jose Arrieta, the chief information officer for the Department of Health and Human Services  defended the decision in a conference call with reporters, saying that the new database was necessary to expedite and streamline data, which is used to help the government make decisions about where to deploy personal protective gear or medicine.

Redfield said CDC experts would still have access to the data. "This access is the same today as it was yesterday," he said.

But the officials had no explanation for the TeleTracking contract, which was awarded on a sole-source basis, federal records show. Arrieta said he was not involved in the contract negotiations. The company did not respond to emails seeking comment.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the senior Democrat on the Senate health panel, has been seeking an explanation for the contract, which she argues is duplicative because the CDC already has its own data-gathering system, the National Healthcare Safety Network.

"CDC has had a system in place for over a decade to track infection data, and hospitals and states know and trust this system," Murray said Wednesday in a statement. "So it's entirely unclear why the Trump administration has asked states and hospitals to upend their reporting systems in the middle of a pandemic  in 48 hours nonetheless  without a single explanation as to why this new system is better or necessary."

Another top Democrat, Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, told reporters in Hoboken that if the administration did not reverse itself and put the CDC back in charge, "we will look at withholding funding until the administration changes course."

The switch in reporting exposed deep flaws in the way the government collects health data, and the CDC has been no stranger to criticism. Congress has long been asking the agency to modernize its data collection, and passed laws in 2006, 2013 and 2019 requiring a system that could collect data in near-real time.

The CDC has yet to establish such a system, which would spare hospital employees from having to enter data manually. But the TeleTracking system also requires manual entry, said Dr. Lissy Hu, the chief executive of CarePort Health, a technology firm. She said the new arrangement made little sense.

"This whole thing is bizarre," she said. "The White House is saying collecting real-time information is problematic, and I agree with that. But with TeleTracking, it's still going to be manual entry, so how is that better than the current manual entry system?"

Addressing concerns about transparency, Arrieta said the Department of Health and Human Services was considering giving members of Congress access to the new database and was "exploring the best way" to make information available to the public.
A man in Odisha hacked to death a woman, who claimed she knew black magic, after she failed to save his brothers life, the police said. He later walked into a police station with the severed head and axe, they added.

The police said that Kartik Kerei of Chhatara village in Danagadi block of Jajpur district had taken his ailing cousin brother to Nandini Purti, who used to practice black magic. Nandini reportedly assured Kartik that his brother would get cured by her black magic skills.

Danagadi inspector AK Mohanty said after Kerei brought his brother home, his condition worsened. Kerei rushed Purti to the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, but he died on the way.

Angry over Nandinis black magic skills going wrong, Kerei picked up an axe and went to Nandinis home where he hacked her to death. He then carried the severed head to police station and surrendered, said the inspector.

Kerei was arrested and the axe seized by police.

In a similar incident last month, a 30-year-old man in Mayurbhanj district had killed his aunt on suspicion of practising black magic and then walked with her severed head to police station. Budhuram Singh had severed the head of his aunt Champa Singh, suspecting that his daughters death was the result of black magic done by the 60-year-old.

On an average, 60 witchcraft-related murders have taken place annually since 2010 across Odisha.
Former game show host Chuck Woolery Twitter's account has disappeared after he blasted health officials and Democrats for their 'outrageous lies' about the coronavirus pandemic, then revealed a day later his son was diagnosed with the virus.

The 79-year-old, who was the original host of Wheel of Fortune and also hosted beloved game shows Love Connection and Scrabble, took to Twitter to reject the severity of the pandemic as a political ploy.

On Sunday he tweeted: 'The most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19.'

'Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most, that we are told to trust. I think its all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. Im sick of it,' he added.

Chuck Woolery, 79, was the original host of Wheel of Fortune, presenting the show from 1975 to 1981

Woolery has deleted his social media accounts days after tweeting about the 'outrageous lies' surrounding the coronavirus pandemic on Sunday. On Monday he tweeted his son tested positive for the virus. By Wednesday his Twitter account was gone

Trump retweeted that message, kicking off a Twitter firestorm for raising question over his own health officials.

When asked about that tweet by CBS News Cathering Herridge, Trump said: 'I didnt make a comment.'

'I did. I reposted a tweet that a lot of people feel. But all I am doing is making a comment. Im just putting somebodys voice out there. There are many voices. There are many people that think we shouldnt do this kind of testing, because all we do, its a trap,' Trump added.

Late Monday Woolery changed his tune, admitting his son contracted Covid-19, the deadly virus that has killed over 137,000 across the country and infected over nearly 3.5million.

'To further clarify and add perspective, Covid-19 is real and it is here. My son tested positive for the virus, and I feel for of those suffering and especially for those who have lost loved one,' Woolery tweeted.

By Wednesday his Twitter account was gone.

Its not clear if he deleted it himself or if it was related to a widespread hack Twitter experienced earlier Wednesday that effected Elon Musk, Joe Biden and Bill Gates.

Its not clear which of Woolerys sons are sick with the virus or his current condition.

Woolery hasnt responded to request for comment, as per Deadline.

On Monday, President Donald Trump had highlighted Woolery's original tweet which put him under an intense spotlight. He has since deleted his account.

Trump's critics were shocked by the president's siding with the 1980s game show host over experts such as the head of the center for infectious diseases, Dr Anthony Fauci.

Fauci is said to have increasingly irritated the president with his refusal to back up some of Trump's outlandish claims and theories.

Fauci has continued to issue stark warnings about the risks of reopening the country amid the pandemic, leading the White House to issue lists of when Fauci made mistakes.

'This idea that our president is taking advice from somebody like Chuck Woolery, or promoting these kind of words from the guy whose biggest claim to fame is being the host of the Love Connection or a name in a Beastie Boys song is just utterly insanity,' said epidemiologist Anne Rimoin, in an interview with MSNBC.

Ben Sommers, a doctor who teaches at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said the retweet was damaging.

'When the president is calling the guidance wrong and endorsing the view that these public health experts are lying, it makes it incredibly difficult for the public to know what to do,' he told The Washington Post.

Woolery's career as a game show host began in the 1970s and ended in 2007

In 2002 Woolery hosted a contest to find who had the 'most beautiful underarms'

'It erodes the long-term ability of our government to provide one of its basic goals which is to protect the public safety.'

Beto O'Rourke, a former Texas congressman and Democrat presidential candidate, despaired at the tweet.

'This virus is out of control, with no leadership from our governor, no leadership from the president, who as you mentioned is tweeting out health guidance from Chuck Woolery instead of Dr Fauci,' he said.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, asked about the retweet, defended the president's criticisms of Fauci and reinforced the president's attacks on the government's health experts.

She accused 'some rogue individuals' at the CDC of misleading the public and defended Trump's retweet of Woolery by saying he was calling out scientists for engaging in politics.

'Overall, the notion of the tweet was to point out the fact that when we use science, we have to use it in a way that is not political,' she said.

Beto O'Rourke, a former Texas congressman and Democrat presidential candidate, despaired at the tweet. 'This virus is out of control, with no leadership from our governor, no leadership from the president, who as you mentioned is tweeting out health guidance from Chuck Woolery instead of Dr Fauci,' he said

Beto ORourke on surging coronavirus cases in Texas: This virus is out of control, with no leadership from our governor, no leadership from the president, who as you mentioned is tweeting out health guidance from [ex-game show host] Chuck Woolery instead of Dr. Fauci. pic.twitter.com/s1iiwBxW8e  MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 13, 2020

But the retweet was ridiculed on social media by Trump's critics.

Ted Lieu, congressman for California, defended the scientists and accused the president of deciding 'to stab you in the back during a pandemic.'

He later tweeted: 'Dear @chuckwoolery,' with a link to an LA Times account from a hospital chaplain.

Bryan Behar, an Emmy-nominated writer, tweeted: 'Now we have TWO washed-up game show hosts giving the nation medical advice.'

Grant Stern, an activist with Occupy Democrats, simply told his 100,000 followers: 'Trump values Chuck Woolery's opinion over Dr Fauci.'

Woolery is conservative and an active supporter of the Republican party and is a gun rights activist. Hes been married four times and has at least five children. Pictured with his fourth wife Kim Barnes at The Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in 2019

Woolery was the original host of Wheel of Fortune, presenting the show from 1975 to 1981.

He hosted a series of dating shows, and his career culminated in 2007 with Game Show Network's Lingo.

Woolery is conservative, a gun rights activist, and an active supporter of the Republican party.

Hes been married four times and has at least five children.

With his first wife Margaret Hayes he had two children together  Katherine and Chad. Chad was killed in a motorcycle accident in January 1986.

In 1972 he married actress Jo Ann Pflug and they had a daughter Melissa, but divorced in 1980.

His third wife was Teri Nelson with whom he has two sons, Michael and Sean. In 2006 he married his fourth wife Kim Barnes.
(TNS)  Latah County, Idaho, Commissioners approved the submission of a $1.6 million federal grant application Wednesday that, if approved, would improve public internet access for Moscow, Potlatch, Genesee, Troy and Deary residents.Partnership for Economic Prosperity Executive Director Gina Taruscio said the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act grant funding, which is administered by the Idaho Department of Commerce, would cover the installation of 2-foot by 2-foot internet nodes on public buildings, light poles and other public infrastructure in the Latah County towns so residents can access wireless internet.For example, the Latah County Fairgrounds in Moscow and Potlatch City Hall are proposed sites for nodes installation.Taruscio said each city would need to choose an internet provider and determine policies for access.While many public buildings, such as the fairgrounds and Potlatch City Hall, have internet access, Taruscio said the nodes will improve connectivity for users  whether that be employees in the buildings or residents who can stop by and access the internet.Its for areas of public congregation so that we can serve the most people in the simplest way, Taruscio said.If approved for the grant  which requires no matching funds from the cities  all construction needs to be completed by Dec. 15. Taruscio said she expects the grant awardees to be announced in the next couple weeks.She said it would be huge if the five towns receive the grant money and she said the other Latah County cities still need broadband help.Were not done yet, Taruscio said.Potlatch applied for a roughly $700,000 CARES Act grant this week that would bring fiber broadband connectivity from Palouse to Potlatch, allowing for a stronger, more reliable internet connection, Potlatch City Clerk Judi Davis said. The grant awardees should also be announced in the next couple weeks since work needs to be completed by Dec. 15.Potlatch Mayor David Brown said the fiber broadband connection would help existing businesses in town and potentially attract new ones. He said he would like to improve internet access for homes in and around Potlatch in the future too.
San Diego, July 16 : Firefighting teams have made "significant progress" extinguishing the four-day-old blaze onboard the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard in San Diego, but there was still a lot to be done before it was declared extinguished, a US Navy spokeswoman said.

As of Wednesday, 40 sailors and 23 civilians have been treated for fire-related injuries such as smoke inhalation and heat exhaustion, reports The San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper.

Without providing further details, Lt. Cmdr. Nicole Schwegman, a spokeswoman for Naval Surface Forces Pacific in San Diego, told the newspaper on Wednesday that the Navy doesn't have "a whole lot more to report".

"There's some smoke, less smoke than the last 24 hours," Schwegman said, adding: "(The fire) is nowhere near what is was." She further said that 84 sailors who lived on the Bonhomme Richard full-time have been moved to living quarters on Naval Base San Diego.

The fire on the 844-foot ship began on Sunday morning and sent plumes of smoke into San Diego city for two days.

Firefighting crews from a dozen San Diego-based ships with more than 400 sailors, were assisting federal firefighters from bases throughout Southern California to help extinguish the blaze.

Several photos of the damage to the ship's island superstructure and interior were posted online over the last two days, showing entire spaces blackened by fire and smoke as well as at least two large holes in the island's roof, said The San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper report.

The forward mast, located on the island, collapsed early Monday.

Prior to the blaze, the Bonhomme Richard was nearing the end of an almost two-year, $250 million maintenance and system upgrade meant to modernize the ship and to allow the fifth-generation Marine fighter, the F-35B, to operate on the ship.
16.07.2020 LISTEN

The Director-General of the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA), Mr. Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, says his office is to serve Ghanaians and deliver results.

He said he would, therefore, not look on unconcerned when appointed Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) were not performing.

He explained further that his mandate is to protect state institutions and as such he is ready to go to the extreme to ensure that state interests are protected.

Mr. Asamoah Boateng was speaking on a number of measures taken by SIGA to ensure maximum profitability of institutions under his supervision.

He said his outfit has had to take steps like threatening sanctions against the heads of institutions to get them to discharge their duties and ensure maximum benefit from their operations.

According to him, even though he may be friends with many of the CEOs of state-owned businesses, he discharges his duty without fear or favor, holding everyone accountable.

I dont work as a friend when Im here. This is a public office and as a public officer, I work for the people of Ghana and the President who appointed me, he said on Joy News PM Express.

Mr. Asamoah-Boateng said one of his mandates was to advise and recommend to President Akufo-Addo organisational heads who should be sanctioned or sacked for under-performing.

He said SIGA was now legally-backed to sanction heads or boards of state institutions for non-performance or mismanagement.

He, however, added that the decision to sack an organisational head lies solely in the hands of the President, that is, after he, as head of SIGA, had made recommendation to the President to that effect.

Citing the Produce Buying Company (PBC) case, Mr. Asamoah-Boateng said he, together with the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, dissolved the board, sacked the managing director (MD) and later appointed a new board and MD.

I have worked with the Minister of Agriculture to change the management of PBC. We changed the Board and the MD because the direction was not there. We had to put our foot down so they had to go, he explained.

He said he was part of the team that recommended managerial changes to the President on issues surrounding the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST) that saw the sacking of management members at the company.

Mr. Asamoah-Boateng would not give details of his involvement in that case but maintained that his office looks at the performance of the various institutions before recommending what action should be taken.

I cannot tell you the details but I was involved in every one of them. We work as a team and looking at the performance, I can then give factual information to His Excellency the President who, based on such recommendation, takes a decision, he said.

According to him, the sanctions have put other heads of state institutions on their toes because they were appointed to turn around the businesses they have been put in charge.

He was, however, quick to add that the sanctions and recommendations for sacking are the last option his office considers.

The SIGA boss said he had created a Chamber of CEOs where all the various organisational heads met to discuss how they could work together to ensure that everyone is delivering on their mandate.

What I have tried to do here is not go head-on with sanctions. What I came here to do is to create an environment for us to work together. So we created the Chamber of CEOs and we work together as a team.

We have met several times and elected Dr. K. K. Sarpong as the head. I just coordinate for them and we have brought together a team who knows when one falls, we all fall.

The chamber has three objectives: to learn from each other to inter-trade among ourselves and conduct peer reviews. I have set up a team for conflict resolution made up of eight people. Two top CEOs, three Board Chairs, and two cabinet ministers. So it is not always sanctioning. It is talking to them and letting them know they are veering off.

They know the ground rules that if you do not perform, it goes to the resolution group who recommends an action to be taken by the President, Mr. Asamoah-Boateng explained.

Source: Tishdaily.com
Mayor John Tory expects the TTC to be one of the major beneficiaries of $19 billion in emergency funding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Thursday to help provinces and municipalities recover from the COVID-19 crisis.

Details of the funding and how much Toronto will receive have not yet been made public, but the prime minster said operating funding for the countrys struggling transit agencies will be part of the relief package.

Under an agreement reached with provincial governments, funding for transit would be split evenly between Ottawa and the provinces. Ontario is expected to receive $7 billion from the federal government.

Trudeau framed helping Canadas transit operators, whose ridership has been decimated by the pandemic, as key to the nations economic recovery.

If we want people to participate in the economy they need to be able to get to work safely. No one should have to turn down a job because they dont want to risk their health during a crowded commute, he said.

At a news conference at city hall, Tory said he didnt want to pre-empt any decisions about how the funding would be allocated, but based on his involvement in the negotiations, Ontario transit agencies are set to receive billions of dollars.

According to the mayor, the Ontario government will decide how that money will be divided, but larger transit operators that have sustained the deepest losses will likely receive the bulk of the funding. The TTC, which last year carried more than 520 million passengers, is by far the provinces busiest transit agency.

I know Premier Ford is mindful of the size and of the scale (of) transit systems in Toronto and the rest of the GTA, and the tremendous damage that has been inflicted upon those very same transit systems by the pandemic, Tory said.

I think its going to be a big help. Well know exactly how much help in the next short period of time.

At the height of the pandemic, TTC ridership fell to less than 15 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, dealing a huge blow to an agency that relies on fare revenue for about two-thirds of its operating budget. Despite collapsing ridership, the TTC has continued to operate about 85 per cent of its regular service to allow for social distancing on vehicles.

City staff have estimated that the transit agency will face a $700-million shortfall by the end of 2020, which makes up the majority of the gaping $1.35-billion hole Toronto is projecting in its operating budget this year as a result of the coronavirus.

TTC CEO Rick Leary said Thursday afternoon he was eagerly awaiting details of how much his agency will receive, but he was absolutely thrilled by Trudeaus announcement.

Leary said he hoped the money would be enough to fund the TTCs entire projected shortfall this year.

Leary said the TTC did our part by instituting painful cost containment measures like announcing more than 1,000 temporary layoffs. The agency has only cut about half those jobs so far, however, and the CEO said the new funding could allow the TTC to avoid furloughing any more employees, and to restore normal service levels as the city begins to reopen and ridership returns.

Tory cautioned that while the money will go a long way to solving the problems Toronto faces as a result of the pandemic, its too early to rule out service cuts or tax increases.

Until the allocations are done quite precisely and until we see all the fine print, as it were, its premature for me to declare victory, he said.

The mayor said he hoped to know details of Torontos allocation in time for the upcoming city council meeting scheduled for July 28.

Tory said Toronto and other cities across Canada have been on the front lines of fighting COVID-19, incurring huge costs related to increased demand for some services, like safely housing the homeless, combined with a loss of revenue from parking fees and transit fares. Earlier this week, Tory said cities had been asking for funding since April and the money was needed before the end of the summer.

He said Thursday the negotiations had been difficult, not because of an unwillingness to help on the part of either order of government, but because Canadas governing structure often makes it difficult to determine who should be doing what.

Tory predicted the federal and provincial governments would benefit from the funding because strong cities will drive the countrys economic recovery.

But the biggest winners will be the cities themselves and the 80 per cent of Canadians who live in them, he said.

Ben Spurr is a Toronto-based reporter covering transportation. Reach him by email at bspurr@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @BenSpurr

Francine Kopun is a Toronto-based reporter covering city hall and municipal politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @KopunF

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St. John A.M.E. Church in Montgomery has held free food giveaways every other Tuesday for the past decade.

On July 14, business was particularly brisk. Volunteers quickly distributed the days allotment of grocery bags to those who drove or walked into the parking lot.

Pastor Roosevelt Williams said he didnt know if the increased turnout reflected more need in the community or greater awareness of the event. Ever since the pandemic started, the need for food has run high.

As you can imagine right now, its a very active ministry, Williams said.

Williams purchases food from the Montgomery Area Food Bank, which serves hundreds of food pantries in 35 Alabama counties. The food bank acts as the hub of a food distribution network that has become even more vital since the pandemic struck in March, crippling the economy and causing record unemployment. The area served by the food bank has an estimated 300,000 residents unable to regularly afford groceries.

Now the coronavirus threatens the food bank itself. Six members of its 35-person staff have tested positive for the virus, including a truck driver who wound up in the hospital. The first case emerged about 10 days ago, and quickly spread through the ranks and even into management.

This is a major hit, said Richard Deem, CEO of the Montgomery Area Food Bank. My COO is out. My communications officer is out. Our assistant manager is out. Every day I will meet with my staff and ask them this question, What can we do and what cant we do today?

So far, the food bank has continued to make deliveries, Deem said. Staff members have stepped up to keep supplies flowing to local food pantries. But almost all the positive cases have happened in the last week. Deem said he thinks the remaining employees have less chance of infection, but more cases could make it difficult to continue their work.

I had some folks calling me yesterday saying Im sorry your food bank is closed, Deem said. We are not closed. But this definitely disrupts it.

The outbreak coincided with an influx of food from the United States Department of Agriculture. Deem and his remaining staff have been struggling to expand their refrigeration capacity. And some clients have been concerned about the safety of the food they received.

Weve put a lot of things in place where there is no contact during deliveries, Deem said.  A lot of people are asking, are they going to get food that has COVID-19 on it? The CDC says that is very unlikely.

Ricky Martin, pastor of Triumph Church near Clanton, said he relies on the Montgomery Area Food Bank to provide groceries to more than two dozen people and families that rely on the food pantry. If the service were disrupted, he is not sure where people in this rural stretch of Alabama could turn.

For our church personally, you are looking at 25 to 30 families would go lacking, Martin said. A lot of children would go lacking because there are no other agencies that provide this service.

At both St. John A.M.E. and Triumph Church, people do not need to provide any documentation or paperwork to receive food.

Most people know us and drive up on Tuesday, Williams said. Every now and then they get off the bus and walk up.

Williams said many of his clients are older and struggling to make ends meet on a fixed income. Martin sees families, and many mothers with children

Were not asking for any information as far as how much money they have, Martin said. We just need to know that they are in need.

Martin said the need for food hasnt increased since the pandemic in Chilton County. The area was already struggling, he said.

Chilton County is a very poverty stricken area, Martin said. We typically serve the ones who are already in poverty. The Montgomery Area Food bank has really done a terrific job helping us do that.

Deem said the truck driver who initially came down with coronavirus is doing better. Staff members who tested positive still receive full pay and are not required to take sick days. Financially and logistically, it has been difficult, he said. Deem said the food bank followed CDC guidelines to prevent the spread of coronavirus, but also put in more restrictions to keep employees apart.

On Friday, the food bank had an event to honor a shipment of eggs from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But the celebration was short-lived.

One of my employees come up after and told me he tested positive, Deem said. First thing he said to me is boss, Im sorry. Im sorry I cant be here Monday because I know we have a lot to do.
Maharashtra saw a glimmer of hope on Wednesday, as the number of recovered coronavirus disease (Covid-19) patients crossed the 1.5-lakh mark at 1,52,613, who have been discharged from various hospitals and sent home to date.

Over 61,000 Covid-19 patients have recovered from their viral infection in the past 15 days and 3,606 were discharged on Wednesday itself.

Click here for full Covid-19 coverage

However, Maharashtras recovery rate at 55.39% is still lower than the national rate at 63.24%.

Similarly, the states mortality rate, as per a report released by the medical education and drugs department, is also 4%, as compared to the national average of 2.6%.

On Wednesday, the state recorded 7,975 fresh Covid-19 positive cases, the second-highest single-day spike, as the tally climbed to 2,75,640.

State officials, however, exuded confidence that the situation could improve over the next few weeks, if smaller towns and rural areas could rein in the viral outbreak.

The flattening of the curve could be achieved by end-August, a state official told HT.

In the last few days, the number of Covid-19 positive cases in Mumbai, which had emerged as the epicentre of the viral outbreak in Maharashtra, has been on the wane.

The densely populated Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) contributed to the lions share to the daily spike in Covid-19 positive cases. Besides MMR and Pune district, Aurangabad, Jalgaon, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Dhule, and, Solapur have seen an uptick in Covid-19 positive cases that have increased the states tally.

In an interview to HT on Wednesday, state environment and tourism minister Aaditya Thackeray said that Maharashtra is looking at a cumulative bed capacity between 40,000 and 50,000 in MMR.

In Mumbai, jumbo facilities have around 20,000 beds. Institutional beds in hospitals are around 8,000. Similarly, municipal commissioners in MMR are working overtime on ramping up the healthcare infrastructure. We have set models as far as chasing the virus, testing people, and quarantine facilities are concerned, Thackeray said.

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STRATFORD  The annual summer Blues on the Beach concert has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The concert, which attracts thousands of people to Short Beach, had been scheduled for July 25.

Mayor Laura Hoydick announced the cancellation during the Town Councils meeting Monday, saying the event couldnt go forward.

In a statement Wednesday the mayor called the event a rite of summer since it began in 2010.

Blues on the Beach is a terrific summer event that we all look forward to, and it is hard to think of summer without it now, Hoydick said. However, we need to continue exercising caution. In consideration of how impossible implementing social distancing guidance would be at this event, we really dont have a choice.

Sponsored by the Jackson Law Group and Connecticut Distributors, Inc., Blues on the Beach is part of the Celebrate Stratford Festival series and is coordinated by volunteer Erin McLaughlin.

Past performers have included acts such as Funky Dawgz, Chris DAmato, Alpaca Gnomes, and Evan Goodrow and Da Band.

The mayor noted the states relatively good handling of the coronavirus in saying the summer concert would be canceled out of an abundance of caution.

Connecticut is currently doing very well in this phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, as is Stratford, and we need to continue to do our part to protect our residents, she said. We have deep appreciation for Erin and all the volunteers who have built up this event and made it a tremendous success over the years, and we look forward to the day we can resume this and other events we have had to give up this year.
EAST LANSING  Sgt. Kyle Bartosiewicz, a native of Manistee, is serving in East Lansing as part of the Department of Defenses response to COVID-19 and preparation for any other concurrent natural or man-made incident in the homeland.

Bartosiewicz is a paralegal NCO with Task Force 46, U.S. Army North's flexible, adaptable headquarters responsible for supporting Department of Defense COVID-19 efforts, and providing command and control over DoD military assets as part of Defense Support of Civil Authorities in the event of an all hazards event or a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incident in the homeland.
President Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House early June 21 after returning from a campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla. (Associated Press)

"I am ashamed to this day for voting for him."

"Donald J. Trump has broken my faith in the Republican Party."

"He's a pathological liar."

The pained testimony of more than a dozen Republican voters  who go on to explain why they plan to vote for Democrat Joe Biden  filled an ad that ran on Fox News last weekend. In the 60-second spot, one man concludes, Its OK to change your mind. We did.

The message could've come from a Democratic playbook. But it was created by Republican Voters Against Trump, one of several GOP groups aiming to deny the president a second term by encouraging just enough disaffected Republican voters that it is in the best interest of the nation to support Biden.

"Trump is a singular danger as far as I'm concerned," said Tim Miller, a senior advisor to the group who previously worked for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and the Republican National Committee.

Miller said Biden can win the election by improving on Hillary Clintons performance "among traditional Republican voters who sat it out, voted third party or held their nose and voted for Trump."

No president in modern history has faced such organized opposition to his reelection by members of his own party.

In addition to the Republican Voters group, which counts conservative writer Bill Kristol among its leaders, there is the Lincoln Project, whose co-founders include George Conway, husband of Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway. That group is the agent provocateur of the bunch, nimbly turning around ads that have drawn the president's ire. Former Trump aide Anthony Scaramucci is supporting the Right Side PAC. Former George W. Bush administration staffers launched the 43 Alumni for Biden super PAC; another group features Republican national security experts.

The groups plan different tactics aimed at a shared goal: moving a small segment of Trump voters who soured on the president into Biden's column on Nov. 3.

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Were all in this together. We are allies, and we all see our efforts as complementary. We all have our own ways of prosecuting our case against the president, said Reed Galen, a top advisor to the Lincoln Project who previously worked for George W. Bush, the late Sen. John McCain and former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Lincoln Project does its best to ... take him on in a very direct manner that keeps him and his campaign off balance politically.

Sacramento-based GOP strategist Beth Miller said the opposition within Trump's party is unprecedented.

"I don't recall in my 30-plus years of working in politics of having so many different groups formed to really bring down a sitting president of their own party," said Miller, who is critical of Trump but not part of any of the organizations (and who is no relation to Tim Miller).

She described the effort as partly an "examination by self-identified Republicans today of what their party means and where it's going," though she questions their ability to sway enough voters given the president's massive fundraising advantage.

"It takes a whole lot of money to move the needle, especially in a country this size," Beth Miller said, adding that a targeted approach could help. "But Trump's going to have a lot of money to defend himself and speak to the voters."

The Trump campaign argues that these are the limited efforts of out-of-touch Washington, D.C., insiders who dont speak for GOP voters across the nation.

This is the swamp  yet again  trying to take down the duly elected president of the United States, said spokeswoman Erin Perrine. President Trump is the leader of a united Republican Party where he has earned 94% of Republican votes during the primaries  something any former president of any party could only dream of."

Trump has an overwhelming fundraising advantage over all of the anti-Trump GOP groups, many with budgets that top out in the tens of millions of dollars. But the groups are confident it is enough because they are narrowly  and surgically focused on identifying and turning out a single-digit percentage of the electorate that they believe is enough to elect Biden.

The Biden campaign is going to have to go out and win this thing on their own. But this is the kind of election where the margins could matter, so we just want to do our part, said Matt Borges, a former Ohio Republican Party chairman who worked in the George W. Bush administration and now runs the Ride Side PAC, which is focused on phone banking, canvassing and digital efforts to increase turnout for Biden.

Borges voted for Trump in 2016, hoping the presidency would temper his behavior. "He did change," Borges said. "He got worse."

Sarah Longwell, a founder of the Republican Voters group, said it spent years holding focus groups and building a voter list of several hundred thousand that helps it target a sliver of the electorate, notably college-educated women in states such as North Carolina, Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania who have grown skeptical of the president. The group's messaging using testimonials is designed to give permission to GOP voters who never considered supporting a Democrat.

Theyre Republicans, theyve always been Republicans. Its cultural. Its tribal. Its their party, and we understand that as Republicans, Longwell said. This vote is about getting rid of this uniquely unsuited person."

These efforts come as the president's standing in national and battleground states has declined over his response to a pandemic that has killed more than 135,000 people in the U.S. and left millions unemployed.

From what I've seen, a lot of Republicans are going to vote for Joe, Bidens wife, Jill, said on The View last month, adding that she heard so from many GOP voters she met on the campaign trail.  of course Trump has his supporters. But I think a lot of his supporters have become disillusioned, especially in the way he's handled this pandemic."

Four years ago, some Never Trumpers tried to derail Trumps campaign. But their $19-million effort was limited to a short period in the primaries, with critics in the general election largely venting their frustration on cable television, op-eds and Twitter. Few lined up behind Clinton.

This time, their efforts started earlier and are more organized. And they say they are buoyed by Biden as the nominee, who doesnt carry the baggage Clinton did among many Republicans after a quarter-century in the public eye as first lady, senator and secretary of State.

Bidens record on issues such as trade and his well-known faith alleviates concerns for some GOP voters, said Borges.

Hes not a defund the police supporter, hes never been a Bernie [Sanders] Medicare-for-All person. He did sign onto the balanced budget amendment, Borges said. These are things Republicans at least used to care about.

These groups also have more of a runway than they did in 2016. RVATs parent group, Defending Democracy Together, formed in 2017. The Lincoln Project kicked off in late 2019 and has received the most attention for its viral ads.

The group makes a point of putting its finger in the presidents eye, airing incendiary ads in the Washington, D.C., media market during Fox News shows Trump is known to watch. Part of its effort is aimed at an audience of one, and the president has taken notice.

In May, the Lincoln Project aired an ad called Mourning in America, a play on a famed 1984 Ronald Reagan campaign ad. The ad blasted Trumps handling of the pandemic and economic freefall. The group posted it online and spent a few thousand dollars to air it during Tucker Carlsons Fox News show.

Trump lashed out on Twitter soon after: A group of RINO Republicans who failed badly 12 years ago, then again 8 years ago, and then got BADLY beaten by me, a political first timer, 4 years ago, have copied (no imagination) the concept of an ad from Ronald Reagan, 'Morning in America,'  Trump wrote in a firestorm of tweets. ...They dont know to win, and their so-called Lincoln Project is a disgrace to Honest Abe.

The groups ads, viewed by millions online, delight liberals and highlight messages that may be unseemly for the Biden campaign to zero in on, such as the president's physical and mental fitness. One recent spot, about leaks in Trumps White House, appeared designed to play upon the presidents perceived insecurities.

But some question the effectiveness of their ads.

"It completely rents space in Trump's head, and there may be value to that. We can kind of giggle about it," said Rob Stutzman, a GOP strategist who worked on an anti-Trump effort in 2016 but is not involved with any this year. "In terms of moving voters, I don't see Lincoln doing anything. It's like porn for MSNBC viewers.... That doesn't move Republicans."

The Lincoln Project is branching out to go after Republicans other than Trump, drawing flack from some strategists who say the group is muddying its message.

A recent ad accuses senators, including Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Martha McSally of Arizona and Cory Gardner of Colorado, of enabling the president. It is running digitally in the home states of the senators, all of whom face tough races in November.

We made it part of our mission statement going back to December to defeat Trump and Trumpism at the ballot, Galen said. From our perspective, at least at this moment and time, its impossible to separate Trump from Republicanism and vice versa.

The other groups are focused on reaching potential ballot splitters, who can be persuaded to vote for Biden at the top of the ticket and then their Republican Senate candidate.

"We're looking for someone who will vote for Biden and [North Carolina Sen.] Thom Tillis. They're a very small part of the electorate but a key part in a close election," Tim Miller said. "We're laser-focused on talking to them."
Crew says it was a 'purr-fect' ending

Newbury firefighters carried out the purr-fect end to their shift after rescuing a kitten stuck up a tree.

Willow the kitten had been stuck for three days in Marsh Benham.

Station manager at Newbury Fire Station Robin Jordan said the RSPCA was unable to attend, so the firefighters decided to take a look.

Crews used a 13.5 metre ladder to reach Willow and put her in a shopping bag in case she tried to escape.

Mr Jordan said: "Everyone was extremely happy and pleased. It was a purr-fect ending.

"The cat was very friendly, a lovely little kitten and we were able to reunite her with her family. We put our skills into good use in not scaring the kitten."
The Maharashtra government on Thursday banned the release of controversial film "Muhammad, the messenger of God" days after the Raza Academy had asked for the same citing the movie as "blasphemous". The government has also ordered for the shutting down of Don Cinema's portal.

Earlier on July 15, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had written to the Centre on the matter as the movie will hurt religious sentiments. The movie was scheduled for online release on July 21 and is directed by Majid Majidi.

The Raza Academy had been opposing the release of the movie and some people from the Academy had gone to meet Don Cinema owner Mahmood Ali to speak on the matter. Ali had told them, "We have the copyright of the film but it is being shown on many social media platforms. First, you stop them all, then I too will halt the release too."

On the ban, Ali said that the commissioner has called him to his office and he will ask for an appointment with the state Home Minister. He further said, "I don't understand when many films have already been made on this subject, even before this, and appreciated all over the world, why is there so much havoc on my film? I had asked the people from the academy to watch the film once and if there is any objection I will not release the film." Ali added, "We are residents of a democratic country and I have full faith in the law, it will do justice to me."

The state government on Wednesday asked the Centre to block the digital platforms where the film is set to release as it will hurt religious sentiments. In a letter to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Deshmukh had said that the state government has received a complaint from Raza Academy to ban the movie alleging that "movie will severely hurt the sentiments and will be considered blasphemous by a particular community".

"The movie can potentially disturb the religious sentiments of citizens in the country and may cause religious tensions creating law and order problems in the country. The movie can potentially disturb the religious sentiments of citizens in the country and may cause religious tensions creating law and order problems in the country," added Deshmukh's letter.

"We hereby request you to block/suspend those digital platforms where the movie would be released on the probable date of 21st of July 2020, under section 69A and the blocking rules of the Information Technology Act, 2000 & Information Technology Act (Amendment), 2008. It's also requested to issue instructions / Directions to all Digital Platforms like Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, Whatsapp, Instagram, Snapchat etc to ban the release of the aforesaid movie," the letter had added.

"In this respect, Maharashtra Cyber department, the nodal agency for the state of Maharashtra for cyber matters has also requested, the Senior Director (Scientist - G) Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, to prevent the release of the said movie on OTT (Over the top) platforms," further added the letter.

On July 13, Raza Academy General Secretary Saeed Noori had written to Mumbai Cyber Crime IGP Yashasvi Yadav demanding a ban on the digital release of the film.

"Don Cinema is set to digitally Release blasphemous film Named 'Muhammad, the Messenger of God' in the Hindi language on the 21st of July. Ever Since the advertisement was published there has been an uproar in the community and we have been receiving hundreds of calls to get the film banned as it is completely blasphemous," read the letter.

"...The film portrays the life of the Holy Prophet as a child and even has the characters of the blessed parents The Mother and Father of the Holy Prophet who has been shown in person," added the letter.

"It must be noted that The Holy Prophet of Islam can never be picturised and those who have done it have committed blasphemy which is un-tolerable and needs to be condemned at all costs. In faith, A Muslim will die in honour than to see or hear the insult on his Holy Prophet," further said the letter.

"Hence we earnestly request you to kindly ban the film through the Cyber Cell and block all sites carrying this film before it creates unrest and law and order problems in the city. We hope you shall kindly understand the gravity of the situation and do the needful immediately," further added the letter.
Former Workers' Party secretary-general Low Thia Khiang. (PHOTO: Screenshot/Facebook)

SINGAPORE  Former Workers Party chief Low Thia Khiang insisted that he is not stepping away completely from the political arena, and will continue to serve the public by imparting knowledge and sharing his experiences with the younger generation.

The 63-year-old had decided not to take part in this years General Election, after serving 29 years as a Member of Parliament for Hougang single-member constituency (SMC) and Aljunied group representation constituency (GRC)  the longest-serving opposition party member in Singapore.

While he had suffered a serious fall in April, he insisted that he had always planned to step down at this GE  a natural progression from his handing over of the WP secretary-general post to Pritam Singh during the partys 60th anniversary dinner in 2017.

On Wednesday (8 July), the WP put up two videos on its Facebook page  one in Mandarin, one in Teochew  with Low explaining his decision not to contest at this GE as well as encouraging voters to vote for the next generation of opposition party members come Polling Day on Friday.

I will continue to groom politicians who can debate effectively in Parliament against the ruling party, and to fight for the interests of the people, he said in the videos.

After 29 years in Parliament, the Workers Party has secured six elected Parliamentary seats. We must maintain the momentum by voting for capable young candidates, to cultivate a new generation of politicians and establish a rational, responsible and respected Workers Party.

Experiences of discrimination prompted entry into politics

Low said that he had hoped to thank his supporters at rallies and house visits during the GE campaign, but as the GE is held amid the COVID-19 pandemic, he decided to convey his heartfelt appreciation through video.

He related how his experience of being discriminated as a Chinese-educated student, as well as his witnessing of how students were impacted by the unfair streaming policy, prompted him to resign as a teacher and enter politics all those years ago.

Story continues

After I was elected in 1991 in Hougang, people doubted my ability to represent voters, as government correspondence and most parliamentary debates were carried out in the English language, he said in the video.

Despite the attacks and ridicules against me, I persisted in voicing out, because this is my conviction.

Low added that, having experienced lawsuits, smearing campaigns and an uneven playing field in the political system, he is even more convinced now that Singapore needs a rational and responsible opposition party.

He said that, in the WPs momentous victory at Aljunied GRC in 2011, voters have delivered a tight slap to the ruling party, and effectively conveyed the peoples expectations of achieving democratic progress and improvements to their lives.

The opportunities you have given to the Workers Party over the years have encouraged young aspiring Singaporeans to join us, and they now form the next-generation leaders. We owe it to the voters for where the Workers Party stands today, he said.

More opposition members for holistic discussion in Parliament: Low

Low ended off his video by urging voters to vote for WP candidates. He posed the question whether, in these uncertain times due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Singaporeans can rely solely on the ruling party to take care of people in need.

We ought to groom more opposition members with alternative suggestions and opinions to enter the Parliament, to provide a holistic discussion on policies, he said.

At the same time, we will let the ruling party know that the support of the people must never be taken for granted, or like a blank cheque for the government to use at will.

Follow Yahoo News Singapores GE2020 coverage here.

Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore

Related stories:

COMMENT: Lows departure has accelerated the Workers Partys transition - but at what cost?

Low Thia Khiang: Most memorable quotes from his 32-year political career

COMMENT: Pandemic politics and Singapore's general election

COMMENT: Why master of the moment Low Thia Khiang is stepping down
Scott Morrison has set aside $400million to encourage production companies to make their films in Australia, providing up to 8,000 jobs a year.

The Prime Minister will pump more cash into a tax break called the Location Incentive and extend it by four years until 2027.

The scheme lets production companies apply for a total tax offset of 30 per cent - instead of 16.5 per cent - making it much more attractive for them to produce films in Australia.

Is Australia becoming the new Hollywood? Ten productions including Thor: Love and Thunder, filmed in Sydney, have already benefited from tax breaks. Pictured: Chris Hemsworth as Thor

The Prime Minister will pump more cash into a tax break called the Location Incentive and extend it by four years until 2027. TV series Reef Break (pictured) has benefitted from the policy

Ten productions including Godzilla vs Kong, filmed on the Gold Coast, and Chris Hemsworth's Thor: Love and Thunder, filmed in Sydney, have already benefited from the policy.

In June Ausfilm CEO Kate Marks said Australia was fielding extra inquires from filmmakers because of its success in dealing with coronavirus, especially compared with the US.

But she warned that many new projects would not come Down Under if the $140million Location Incentive, which had almost run out of money after being introduced in 2018, was not given more cash.

The additional $400million is expected to attract $3billion in foreign expenditure and create 8,000 new jobs for Aussie workers including carpenters, lighting technicians, local actors, set designers, extras, crews and special effects experts.

Preacher Season 4 was filmed in Melbourne. Pictured: Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer in the show

Scott Morrison has set aside $400million to encourage production companies to make their films in Australia, providing up to 8,000 jobs a year

'This investment is key to our JobMaker plan to create jobs, boost local business activity, and provide training and skills,' the Prime Minister said.

'Behind these projects are thousands of workers that build and light the stages, that feed, house and cater for the huge cast and crew and that bring the productions to life.

'This is backing thousands of Australians who make their living working in front of the camera and behind the scenes in the creative economy.'

Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts Paul Fletcher described the Location Incentive as an 'economic multiplier'.

'It will sustain the vitality of Australian screen production and support jobs and local businesses,' he said.

'Through this additional commitment, the Government is telling the world that Australia is a desirable destination for screen production  with great locations, skilled crews, world-class talent, post-production expertise and state of the art facilities.'

The ten productions that have benefitted so far are estimated to generate spending of around $1billion, support 8,000 jobs and engage more than 9,000 Australian businesses.
After shunting out the collector, Superintendent of Police of Guna district and Inspector General of Gwalior range over the beating of a Dalit couple at Guna, the Madhya Pradesh government on Thursday suspended six police personnel allegedly involved in the incident.

Outgoing Guna SP Tarun Nayak issued orders suspending six police personnel including two women cops, official sources said.



Ashok Singh Kushwaha, Rajendra Sharma, Pavan Yadav, Narendra Rawat, Neetu Yadav and Rani Raghuwanshi were suspended.

The incident at Guna town comes ahead of bypolls to 25 assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh.

Taking the matter seriously, the Bharatiya Janata Party government on Wednesday night transferred collector S Vishwnathan, SP Nayak

and IG Rajababu Singh, a senior official said.

Home Minister Narottam Mishra also informed that a high-level probe had been ordered by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan into the incident.

On Tuesday, a Dalit couple drank pesticide when officials tried to evict them from a piece of government land in Guna city, allotted for a college, which they were cultivating. Their condition was now said to be stable.

Rajkumar Ahirwar, 38, and his wife Savitri, 35, had reportedly leased the land from those who had encroached on it, officials said.

Police were compelled to use force against them as they resisted the eviction and refused to go to hospital after drinking pesticide, officials said.

A video which went viral on social media showed the police beating the man with batons severely.



The Congress slammed the use of force and demanded action against those responsible for the incident.

Madhya Pradesh BJP president Vishnu Dutt Sharma alleged that Gabbu Pardi who had allegedly encroached on the land was a Congress worker who was close to a senior Congress leader.

"It is a very unfortunate incident. The government has taken it very seriously and removed the Collector, SP and IG," he said.

State Congress working president and former minister Jitu Patwari termed Sharmas allegations as "baseless" and alleged that Pardi was a BJP worker.



State Congress spokesman, Bhupendra Gupta demanded a probe by a sitting judge in the matter and also suspension of senior officials.
BRIDGEPORT  An arrest was made Thursday morning in the death of a city man whose body was found on the side of the road in East Lyme in early June, police officials said.

Jonathan Dawson, 23, was shot and killed on June 2.

Dawson was picked up from his Bridgeport home earlier that day by 25-year-old Jefton Brown, according to Capt. Brian Fitzgerald.

Authorities said Dawson, who lived on Edna Avenue in Bridgeport, was found around 10:30 p.m. June 2.

Contributed Photo / Bridgeport Police Department /

A 911 caller reported a unresponsive individual on the side of West Society Road. Responding units found Dawson dead at the scene. The medical examiner ruled his cause of death a gunshot wound and the manner of death was classified as a homicide.

Fitzgerald said Brown allegedly killed Dawson in the vehicle then dumped Dawsons body on the side of the road in East Lyme.

Detectives learned Brown had been driving a rental car at the time of the homicide. Fitzgerald said investigators found that Brown had used extraordinary efforts to repair and clean the vehicle to hide evidence that he killed Dawson.

The detectives collected evidence from the vehicle that Fitzgerald said was instrumental in charging Brown with Dawsons murder. He said the FBI helped Bridgeport police establish probable cause to charge Brown.

Brown has since fled Connecticut to Cape Cod, Mass., according to Fitzgerald.

Bridgeport detectives assigned to the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force coordinated with U.S. Marshals in Massachusetts and took Brown into custody in Falmouth, Mass., Thursday morning.

Fitzgerald said Brown will be extradited back to Connecticut.

Browns lawyer, Frank Riccio II, declined comment on the case against his client on Thursday.

The captain, who oversees the Detective Bureau, said Detective Robert Winkler and the rest of the homicide unit should be commended for quickly developing leads in the case that led to Browns arrest.
TORONTO, July 16, 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 announces the filing of its Q1 2020 Financial Statements ("Statements") and Management Discussion and Analysis ("MD&A") for the period ending March 31, 2020. A comprehensive discussion of XTM financial position and results of operations is provided in the MD&A for the quarter ending March 31, 2020 filed on SEDAR and can be found at www.sedar.com.

Highlights (to be read together with the Company's MD&A)

Revenue of $217,458 for the quarter compared to revenue of $241,968 for the same period in 2019. The Company began 2020 with revenues trending higher however with COVID-19 the Company started to see declines in February and significant declines in March that led to a full government mandated shutdown of all businesses in March 15, 2020 .

for the quarter compared to revenue of for the same period in 2019. The Company began 2020 with revenues trending higher however with COVID-19 the Company started to see declines in February and significant declines in March that led to a full government mandated shutdown of all businesses in . The Company had a net loss Q1 2020 of $588,102 or a loss per share of $0.01 compared to a loss of $413,175 or a loss per share of $0.01 in Q1 2019. The increase loss was mainly due to the increased costs associated with the Company's go public transaction and listing on the CSE on March 10, 2020 .

"Despite typical seasonality resulting in reduced revenues in January in hospitality and in salons post the holiday season, coupled with revenue reductions in late February and complete business shutdowns as of March 15, 2020 due to COVID-19, XTM only experienced an 11% decrease in revenue as compared to Q1 2019" commented Marilyn Schaffer CEO. "We quickly added delivery as a Today Card vertical in Q2 2020 and now with businesses beginning the next phase of reopening we are confident we will see a very strong finish to 2020."

Corporate Update

With COVID 19 re-openings and record Today Program boarding of salons, restaurants and delivery companies, XTM is seeing a surge in the Gross Dollar Value loads (GDV) loaded to the Today Cards and mobile wallets by the employers for employee earnings.

Since XTM earns transaction fees from the usage of the card including out of network ATM usage, card to bank transaction fees, foreign exchange etc., GDV is a metric used by XTM and other companies like XTM as a key performance indicator (KPI). It is too early for XTM to provide guidance on revenues as percentage of GDV and spend usage expectations however other companies like XTM providing corporate loads and payroll are experiencing revenues between 1.28%-2.14% of the GDV as a gross revenue number.

Since Q4 2019 XTM has executed and launched two new verticals including Delivery, Salon and Personal Care. As well the Company has added new partnerships and is working on several new API integrations allowing for seamless, fully automated daily payments and new products for launch before the end of Q3 2020.

Key Metrics for the First 6 Months 2020



Delivery

As per the news releases issued on April 22, 2020 regarding Dominos Pizza and on May 19, 2020 regarding Toppers Pizza the Company has also signed and boarded Pizza Pizza, Pizza Hut, Boston Pizza and many other food delivery locations.

As at June 30 the Company has:

Boarded over 350 locations with an estimated pipeline of 750 locations to be on-boarded in the coming months.

Current annual run rate GDV greater than $35M with an estimated annual GDV in excess of $100M by end of Q4 2020.

Salon and Personal Care

As per the news release dated July 3, 2020 regarding the signing of hundreds of franchised personal services salons.

As at June 30 the Company has;

Signed and boarded more than 250 salon franchise owned locations including brands First Choice Haircutters, Magic Cuts, Supercuts, Roosters and SmartStyle, all part of the Regis Corporation family of brands.

Approaching 4,000 active salon users.

Pipeline in excess of 200 additional locations in Canada and thousands more in the US.

and thousands more in the US. Estimated annual run rate GDV of $65M at the end of Q4 2020.

Hospitality

XTM continues to board restaurants of all sizes across the country in record numbers. With the employee per location numbers in the hospitality sector being five (5) to seven (7) times higher than that of a salon or delivery location combined with higher annual sales, the Today card GDV is higher per location in the hospitality sector.

As at June 30 the Company has;

Boarded a total of 376 restaurants with a pipeline in excess 2,200 plus locations either in boarding que, pending re-opening schedule due to COVID-19 or in final contract review.

A 652% increase in GDV since end of Q4 2019.

Estimated annual run rate GDV of $345M at the end of Q4 2020

New Business

Cashless Closed Loop Payment Network

XTM is working on finalizing development of a closed loop payment network and end-to-end solution for community services spending including licensed cannabis dispensaries both online delivery and bricks and mortar. Leveraging many of the systems and processes XTM has already built with the cashless Today Program, XTM expects to have a beta of the product ready for market by the end of Q3 2020. The Company is currently in discussions with a few large US based cannabis dispensaries who are interested in participating in the beta launch.

Credit Card Program

XTM has completed the process of bank approval and has a dedicated Visa Credit BIN and is finalizing the processor integration. This first of its kind all mobile app based micro credit offering will use artificial intelligence (AI) including digital banking to adjudicate and approve credit without the need for a credit check or credit score. With bankruptcies expecting to reach all-time highs in 2021 this product will report good credit to the bureaus and will be a low-cost solution for those looking to establish or re-establish credit. With much of the technology already built and in production with the Today program, it is being leveraged to launch the credit program. XTM is in discussions with multiple parties to license the entire solution and expects to have a significant announcement in the coming weeks.

U.S. Today Card Launch

The Company continues to make great progress with the U.S. issuing bank and networks to launch the Today card program in the U.S. We had anticipated completing the process and launching the end of July 2020 but due to delays out of our control we are now looking at an August 2020 launch.

Stadium and Large Venues

Further to the press release dated June 9, 2020 regarding cash to card kiosks to eliminate cash, XTM is in numerous discussions with large stadiums and sporting event arenas looking to eliminate cash. The XTM kiosk solution coupled with Today card program facilitates a complete end to end turnkey cashless solution and the Company anticipates to have news shortly regarding several large sporting event arenas adopting the solution upon reopening before end of year.

Other items

XTM is in a unique position as it has a rapidly expanding network of integrations and direct to employer technology using Today mobile app whereby we are delivering instant access to earnings and have full visibility to earnings data. The Company is in early stage discussions with several large payroll companies where XTM would integrate and fully automate the payroll process and give employers access to a very low cost payroll processing platform fully integrated with the Today platform and allow instant access to earnings to all employees. The Company expects to have a deal finalized before the end of Q3 and have a beta solution available Q4 2020.

The Company is working on API integrations with a few large Point of Sale (POS) platform providers. This would allow any users of the POS platform instant access to the Today Card program and give XTM access to tens of thousands of restaurants.

About XTM Inc.

XTM, www.xtminc.com is a Toronto-based fintech innovator in the challenger banking space helping business and workers alike expedite earnings payout and reduce or eliminate banking fees. We are a global card issuer and payment specialist providing free technology to business to automate and expedite worker payouts that can eliminate cash. XTM integrates businesses to a payment ecosystem that is coupled with a free mobile app and Mastercard debit card with free banking features. XTM drives enterprise value and creates a positive user experience.

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Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) talks to reporters during her weekly news conference in the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center in Washington, DC. on July 16, 2020. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Rift Over Unemployment Bonus Persists as Critical Deadline Looms

WASHINGTONDemocrats and Republicans are divided over an additional $600 per week in coronavirus unemployment benefits as the July 31 deadline nears.

The CARES Act, passed in March, substantially expanded unemployment insurance to help workers who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. The bill has provided a $600 weekly pay boost on top of regular unemployment insurance benefits. The bonus is set to expire unless the federal government extends it.

While Democrats believe the enhanced benefit is an urgent necessity, Republicans say it discourages workers from returning to work.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on July 16 said she strongly favored full extension of unemployment relief, but also signaled that there could be a compromise.

Im all for the $600. But again, what I said was the whole package will depend on what we do also for direct payments, the speaker said, when asked to clarify if she was willing to compromise with Republicans on the size of the benefit.

In May, House Democrats passed a $3 trillion relief legislation, the HEROES Act, that would extend the extra unemployment benefit through January and provide another round of direct payments of up to $1,200 for eligible adults and children.

The Trump administration and Republicans voiced opposition to renewing the unemployment benefit.

On the point of unemployment insurance, one thing that he [the president] is concerned about is he does not want to see an incentive not to work, Kayleigh McEnany, White House press secretary, told reporters on July 1.

In recent weeks, however, some Republicans have suggested narrowing the benefit to $400 or less to signal their openness to a compromise. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also indicated that future unemployment benefits would not exceed 100 percent of a workers prior wages.

In addition, some Republican lawmakers called for replacing the $600 unemployment bonus with a back-to-work bonus to reward workers who return to their jobs. For example, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) introduced a bill last month that would offer a $1,200 cash bonus for Americans going back to work.

I dont know if they know what theyre talking about, Pelosi said when asked about return-to-work bonus proposed by Republicans.

People do not want to risk their lives and that of their families by going to work that isnt safe. We can open the economy if we make it safe for people to go back to work, she said.

Economic Impact

The U.S. labor market made a stunning comeback in the last two months, beating expectations. Employers added 7.5 million jobs over May and June, as states began reopening their economies. The unemployment rate dropped to 11.1 percent in June from 14.7 percent in April.

While theres a strong argument in favor of income support during the pandemic, some economists raised concerns about the generous unemployment benefit, saying that it could induce labor supply disincentives as the economy recovers.

According to a recent study by economists at the University of Chicago, 68 percent of people who are eligible for unemployment benefits receive compensation that exceeds their prior wage. Before the pandemic, the unemployment program typically provided benefits that were a fixed fraction of workers previous earnings.

The crisis, however, transformed the unemployment system, which is now rewarding jobless workers more when compared with employed workers.

Nearly 20 percent of unemployed workers are receiving benefits at least twice as large as their lost wage, according to the study.

According to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute (EPI), cutting off the $600 will not incentivize Americans to get jobs, and it will cause hardship.

The concern about the disincentive effect has been massively overblown, Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the EPI, wrote in a report.

First, it ignores the realities of the labor market for working people, who will be unlikely to turn down a permanent jobparticularly in a time of extended high unemploymentfor a temporary boost in benefits, she wrote.

Further, there are 14 million more unemployed workers than job openings, meaning millions will remain jobless no matter what they do.
Ulrika Jonsson has shared a glimpse of her visit to the doctor's as she underwent a smear test during lockdown.

The veteran presenter, 52, took to Instagram to share a glimpse of her visit to the doctor's surgery, telling fans she hated the visit as it was a far cry from the atmosphere pre-lockdown.

During the post Ulrika also admitted that wearing a mask to the doctor's made her feel 'claustrophobic,' and joked she may not be returning to the shops when face coverings are made mandatory on Friday 24th July.

Medical business: Ulrika Jonsson, 52, has shared a glimpse of her visit to the doctor's as she underwent a smear test during lockdown

Ulrika shared the snap of her legs ready to undergo the test in her local surgery, reassuring fans that the tests were still taking place during lockdown.

It comes as many medical procedures have been cancelled or postponed due to the COVID-19 crisis, with many routine cervical screenings also delayed.

She penned the caption: 'So this still happens apparently. My favourite words during a smear test are: ''Just relax.''

Hard: The presenter shared a glimpse of her legs ready to undergo the procedure, admitting she 'hated' visiting the doctor's as it was far from the same atmosphere during lockdown

Ulrika also told fans she felt 'claustrophobic' after wearing a mask for the first time to undergo the smear test, and admitted she may not return to the shops when coverings are made mandatory.

'Wore a mask for the first time and struggled a bit what with a touch of claustrophobia and regulating my breathing. Pathetic, I know,' she told fans.

'So, that's me then, not going to the shops after 24th July. Hated the Dr's surgery without the lovely receptionist and normal buzz of patients, frustrated mums, anxious kids and bewildered others.'

Oh dear! Penning a lengthy caption, Ulrika also told her followers she wasn't keen on returning to the shops if masks were made mandatory

From Friday 24 July, masks or face coverings will mandatory when visiting a shop in England.

Children and those with some medical conditions, disabilities or breathing difficulties will be exempt.

Anyone caught without a mask could be fined up to 100, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced.

Masks have already been made mandatory in shops in Scotland, and throughout the UK they must already worn on public transport.

Protected: The former GMTV star also recalled the mortifying moment she accidentally left her local supermarket without paying after getting distracted while chatting to the staff

Ulrika went onto recall the moment she accidentally left her local supermarket without paying after getting distracted while chatting to the staff.

She added: 'Went to my local @waitroseandpartners on Monday. One of the managers, Brian, comes rushing up to me with a big grin on his face: ''I need to speak to you. When you were here on Friday, you left without paying!''

'Oh, how we laughed. I mean I blushed and laughed.

'It's the b****y staff. I can't stop chatting and get distracted. It's a good job I'm a regular and love them all more than I love my family.

'At least I had my wallet out. so the CCTV says.. (Who's bright idea was CCTV anyway??!?). Menopausal brain and all that.'

Sun soaked: Ulrika has been openly documenting her exploits in lockdown which included plenty of sunbathing during the unexpected heatwave last month

Ulrika has been openly documenting her exploits in lockdown which included plenty of sunbathing during the unexpected heatwave last month.

The TV veteran took to Instagram to share a series of snaps including a selfie and a racy shot of her bottom as she soaked up the 92F heat.

Detailing her day, she added a caption reading: 'Bla, bla, scrawny neck, sunburn, bla, bla.. Sun's out; old woman's bum out. Laundered; nagged; didn't raise my voice. Much. Drank Rum because I'm basically a pirate now.'

Her caption read in full: 'Bla, bla, scrawny neck, sunburn, bla, bla... Took the Geminis swimming in the river. It's a spectator sport, trust me.'

Earlier this month, Ulrika admitted that when she moved from her native Sweden to the UK in 1979 she was stunned at 'pale, colourless, doughy and pasty' Brits and has proudly professed she has always exposed her children's skin to the sun.

Speaking to The Sun newspaper, she said: 'My drug of choice is the sun and as I've lived by the sword, I shall, no doubt, die by it  as long as it's in the sun.'
The 19 Congress rebel lawmakers of Rajasthan assembly, including sacked deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, moved Rajasthan high court (HC) on Thursday against the notices issued by the state assembly Speaker CP Joshi on the petition by chief whip Mahesh Joshi seeking their disqualification, but sought more time to amend their petition.

The petitioners, who are slated to respond to Speaker Joshis notices on Friday, informed the court that they would want to challenge the rules and not the validity of the notices, said the counsels, who were present during the hearing in the court.

The 19 rebel Congress legislators had moved the plea to challenge the validity of the notices under Article 191 of the Constitution read with Rajasthan Assembly Member (Disqualification on the grounds of changing party) Rules, 1989.

Also read| Chhattisgarh: 25 MLAs given positions in govt in last three days amid Rajasthan crisis

Advocate Prateek Kasliwal, who represented Speaker CP Joshi, said senior counsel Harish Salve, who is representing the petitioners, has sought time to amend the petition.

The petitioners said that they would challenge the Rajasthan Assembly Member (Disqualification on the grounds of changing party) Rules, 1989, instead of the notices, Kasliwal said.

State transport minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas said, Speaker Joshi is empowered to question the rebel lawmakers.

Everyone needs to follow the partys whip, he told media persons.

Earlier, Speaker Joshi had issued notices to 19 rebel members of the Rajasthan legislative assembly (MLAs).

The notices stated disqualification of the 19 MLAs from the Rajasthan assembly under the 10th schedule of the Constitution, which deals with anti-defection.

Also read: Rajasthan ex-minister hits back at Gehlot over horse-trading charges

The notices cited an alleged conspiracy to destabilise the democratically elected Ashok Gehlot government, as the rebel lawmakers skipped the Congress legislative party (CLP) meetings on July 13 and 14.

All of these lead inescapably and irresistibly to the conclusion that the individual has voluntarily given up membership of the Indian National Congress and the provisions of Para 2(1)(a) of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution are attracted to disqualify him with immediate effect, the complaint had said.
WASHINGTON  Western governments on Thursday accused hackers believed to be part of Russian intelligence of trying to steal valuable private information about a coronavirus vaccine, calling out the Kremlin in an unusually detailed public warning to scientists and medical companies.

The alleged culprit is a familiar foe. Intelligence agencies in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada say the hacking group APT29, also known as Cozy Bear, is attacking academic and pharmaceutical research institutions involved in COVID-19 vaccine development. The same group was implicated in the hacking of Democratic email accounts during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

It was unclear whether any useful information was stolen. But British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said, It is completely unacceptable that the Russian Intelligence Services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

He accused Moscow of pursuing selfish interests with reckless behavior.

Sticking to more general language, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, We worked very closely with our allies to ensure that we would take measures to keep that information safe and we continue do so so.

The allegation that hackers linked to a foreign government are attempting to siphon secret research during the pandemic is not entirely new. U.S. officials as recently as Thursday have accused China of similar conduct. But the latest warning was startling for the detail it provided, attributing the targeting by name to a particular hacking group and specifying the software vulnerabilities the hackers have been exploiting.

Also, Russian cyberattacks strike a particular nerve in the U.S. given the Kremlins sophisticated campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election. And the coordination of the new warning across continents seemed designed to add heft and gravity to the announcement and to prompt the Western targets of the hackers to protect themselves.

I think (the governments) have very specific intelligence that they can provide, said John Hultquist, senior director of analysis at Mandiant Threat Intelligence. The report is full of specific operational information that defenders can use to protect their networks.

Russian President Vladimir Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, rejected the accusations, saying, We dont have information about who may have hacked pharmaceutical companies and research centers in Britain.

We may say one thing: Russia has nothing to do with those attempts, Peskov said, according to the state news agency Tass.

The accusations come at a tenuous time for relations between Russia and both the U.S. and U.K.

Besides political ill will, especially among Democrats, about the 2016 election interference, the Trump administration is under pressure to confront Russia over intelligence information that Moscow offered bounties to Taliban fighters to attack allied fighters.

The Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, said its clear that Russias malign cyber operations and other destabilizing activities  from financial and other material support to non-state actors in Afghanistan to poisoning dissidents in democratic countries  have persisted, even when exposed. He urged President Donald Trump to condemn such activities.

The vaccine assessment came two years to the day after Trump met with Putin in Helsinki and appeared to side with Moscow over U.S. intelligence agencies about the election interference. The U.K. did not say whether Putin knew about the more recent research hacking, but British officials believe such intelligence would be highly prized.

Relations between Russia and the U.K., meanwhile, have plummeted since former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a Soviet-made nerve agent in the English city of Salisbury in 2018, though they later recovered. Britain blamed Moscow for the attack, which triggered a round of retaliatory diplomatic expulsions between Russia and Western countries.

More broadly, Thursdays announcement speaks to the cybersecurity vulnerability created by the pandemic and the global race for a vaccine.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Securitys cybersecurity agency warned in May that cybercriminals and other groups were targeting COVID-19 research, noting at the time that the increase in people teleworking because of the pandemic had created potential avenues for hackers to exploit.

Profit-motivated criminals have exploited the situation, and so have foreign governments who also have their own urgent demands for information about the pandemic and about things like vaccine research, Tonya Ugoretz, a deputy assistant director in the FBIs cyber division, said at a cybersecurity conference last month.

Some of them are using their cyber capabilities to, for example, attempt to break into the networks of those who are conducting this research as well as into nongovernmental organizations to satisfy their own information needs, Ugoretz said.

The alert did not name the targeted organizations themselves or say how many were affected. But it did say the organizations were in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, and said the goal was to steal information and intellectual property related to vaccine development.

Britains NCSC said its assessment was shared by the National Security Agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and by the Canadian Communication Security Establishment.

A 16-page advisory prepared by Western agencies and made public Thursday accuses Cozy Bear of using custom malicious software to target a number of organizations globally. The malware, called WellMess and WellMail, has not previously been associated with the group, the advisory said.

In recent attacks targeting COVID-19 vaccine research and development, the group conducted basic vulnerability scanning against specific external IP addresses owned by the organizations. The group then deployed public exploits against the vulnerable services identified, the advisory said.

Cozy Bear is one of two hacking groups suspected of separate break-ins of computer networks of the Democratic National Committee before the 2016 U.S. election. Stolen emails were then published by WikiLeaks in what U.S. intelligence authorities say was an effort to aid Trumps campaign over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

A report on Russian election interference by former special counsel Robert Mueller called out another group, Fancy Bear, in the hack-and-leak operation. Cozy Bear, though, operates quietly gaining access and gathering intelligence, said Hultquist of the Mandiant cybersecurity firm.

Their goal, he said, is good old-fashioned espionage.

Separately, Thursday, Britain accused Russian actors of trying to interfere in Decembers U.K. national election by circulating leaked or stolen documents online. Unlike in the vaccine report, the U.K. did not allege that the Russian government was involved in the political meddling.



This version corrects in paragraph 17 that DHS cybersecurity warned of dangers in May, not April.

Lawless and Kirka reported from London. Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Jonathan Lemire and Ben Fox in Washington contributed.
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Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Moscow, Russia  Thu, July 16, 2020 12:30 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666c1622 2 World Russia,scientists,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-vaccines,pandemic,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus Free

Russian scientists hailed the results of their first clinical trial of a potential coronavirus vaccine on Wednesday, saying it had been proved safe and that volunteers had developed an immune response.

Speaking to a crowded room without wearing masks, three of 18 volunteers monitored over a month at the Sechenov University said they all had experienced few side-effects.

A larger-scale trial, intended to ascertain the strength of the immune response produced by the vaccine and how long protection will last, is expected to begin in Russia in mid-August.

More than 100 possible vaccines are being developed and tested around the world to try to stop the pandemic. Of 19 in human trials, only two are in the final Phase III - one by China's Sinopharm and another by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.

"We were primarily testing for safety," Elena Smolyarchuk, a department director at Sechenov University and one of the coordinators of the trial, said.

"On non-specific immunity we can only talk about preliminary results. These show a good, positive tendency, a strengthening of non-specific immunity," she said.

However any final conclusions about the immune response among the volunteers will be drawn by the Gamaleya Institute, which developed the vaccine, and are expected towards the end of the month.

Russia's health ministry will then decide whether to register the vaccine and begin a larger-scale trial, Smolyarchuk said.

The vaccine is administered in two doses and consists of two serotypes of the human adenovirus, each carrying an S-antigen of the new coronavirus, which enter human cells and produce an immune response, Smolyarchuk said.

It was first tested on primates and then administered to the volunteers on June 18.

The platform used for the vaccine was developed by Russian scientists over two decades and had formed the basis for several vaccines in the past, including three against Ebola, the Sechenov University's Vadim Tarasov said.

The defense ministry, which conducted a parallel trial of the same vaccine on a separate set of 20 volunteers, also said on Wednesday the group had been discharged.

"It's not scary anymore," Yuriy, a soldier and volunteer, said in a video shared by the Ministry of Defense.
Channel Seven has mysteriously spiked its documentary series into the controversial Church of Scientology on the day it was due to air.

Scientology: Black Ops, which was promoted as a 'world exclusive investigation', was due to air on July 14.

However, the series was pulled and promotion was suddenly stopped 'due to legal concerns'.

US actor Leah Remini, who has long spoken out against Scientology after leaving the church in 2013, has slammed the network as 'spineless' for dropping the series.

Scientology: Black Ops, which was promoted as a 'world exclusive investigation', was due to air on July 14

US actor Leah Remini, who has long spoken out against Scientology after leaving the church in 2013, has slammed the network as 'spineless' for dropping the series

Ms Remini, who was raised a Scientologist, was interviewed as part of the series front by journalist Bryan Seymour.

'7news Australia and Bryan Seymour have told the world they have evidence of a criminal conspiracy involving the 'church' of Scientology,' Ms Remini said in a post on Instagram.

'Survivors, victims and courageous whistleblowers have a right to see this evidence. Anyone who hides evidence of a crime is just as guilty as the criminal.'

Ms Remini went on to accused the church of being involved in blocking the program from airing.

'7news Australia you are p*****s, just for the record. We will get to the bottom of this.

'Bryan Seymour I know how hard you worked on getting the truth out there, only to have your spineless network bail.'

The series, which was planned to stream online on 9 July, but then it was delayed until Tuesday 14 July.

A spokeswoman for the network told Daily Mail Australia: '7NEWS adjusted the scheduling of the series of its own volition and due to legal concerns'.

She refused to comment further on the issue.

US actor Leah Remini, who was due to appear in the series, has spoken out against the decision to pull the program

Ms Remini quit the church after being a member for 30 years in 2013.

Raised as a member of the Church of Scientology from childhood, Ms Remini then began publicly criticizing the organisation that many regard as a cult.

She also released her own series Scientology And The Aftermath, which exposed the church beloved by Tom Cruise and other Hollywood stars, created by the late science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard, who died aged 71 in 1986.

The Church of Scientology opened its Australasian headquarters - built on the bones of the former National Acoustics Laboratory - in September 2016.

Facilities include 60 'auditing' or spiritual counselling rooms - where technology called 'e-meters' are used, a chapel, grand auditorium, production studio and an office devoted to L. Ron Hubbard.
It was only a matter of time.

Clean wine, as a marketing ploy, was just waiting to be exploited by some opportunistic company. How could it not be? Weve seen the astonishing success of clean eating as a sales tactic  its worked for mega-brands like Panera and Campbells Soup  not to mention the growing popularity in recent years of natural wine, with its no-additive, full-transparency mantra.

So it seemed inevitable that someone would come along and capitalize on the clean allure to hook mainstream wine drinkers, whether or not the wine in question could truthfully be described as clean.

And maybe it was inevitable, too, that that someone would be Cameron Diaz, who has spent the last decade building herself into a lifestyle and wellness guru and has a wide enough reach to actually make the term clean wine sound believable.

With her friend Katherine Power  the CEO of fashion company Who What Wear  the Theres Something About Mary actor has now launched Avaline, a wine brand founded on ingredient transparency, featuring a Spanish white blend (Xarello, Macabeo, Malvasia) and a French rose (the varieties include Grenache and Cinsault). Diaz is far from the only celebrity with a cute rose brand: She joins a long list that includes Jon Bon Jovi, Sarah Jessica Parker and Post Malone. But Avaline promises to be different, and it cashes in the healthy-living currency that Diaz has gained with her wellness tomes The Body Book and The Longevity Book: The Avaline wines are, according to the press release, clean, delicious, vegan-friendly, made with organic grapes and free of unnecessary additives.

Avaline

Predictably, many in the media swooned. Cameron Diaz Just Released an Ultra-Chic, Summer-Ready Line of Wines, the Harpers Bazaar headline read. InStyles announcement seemed to imply that the rest of us are drinking a very unclean beverage: Cameron Diaz and Katherine Power Were Grossed Out By What Was In Wine, So They Made Their Own.

Diazs particular strain of celebrity lifestyle brand is based on the premise that her advice is grounded in science, and now that shes dabbling in wine, she seems eager to apply the same down-to-earth mythbusting style that she shared in her books. When your mouth turns purple from drinking red wine? Thats not natural, Diaz told InStyle. Thats a coloring called Mega Purple.

But dont be fooled: The claims are a hoax at worst and ignorant at best. Avaline is no more clean than the average bottle of wine youd find on a grocery-store shelf and no more natural than the Cabernets that stain your tongue.

For one, red wine compounds like anthocyanins and tannins turn your mouth purple, whether or not the grape concentrate Mega Purple is present. And based on Avalines ingredient list from its website, the white and rose (both $24) appear to be completely middle-of-the-road industrial wines. Could it be more manipulated? Sure, and many mass-produced wines are. But to put it on a clean wine pedestal would be a feat of wild imagination, and I have a hard time seeing how it aims to set a new standard for the wine industry, as its press release proclaims.

Lets consider sulfites. Quick backgrounder on this controversial wine ingredient: Sulfur occurs naturally in wine grapes, but most winemakers add some extra sulfur dioxide in the winery, largely to prevent unwanted bacterial growth. Many, however, try to limit their sulfur additions, since too much of the stuff can strip a wine of its nuances. Some people also believe theyre harmful to consume, although that opinion draws hot debate within the wine industry.

Avaline

Avaline says it keeps its sulfur levels to under 100 parts per million, which, frankly, is not a very low dose of sulfur at all. For comparison, Raw Wine, the leading natural wine fair, requires that all participating wines clock in at under 70 parts per million. If youre looking for a low-sulfur wine, Avaline is not it.

Bentonite clay, pea protein and cream of tartar are also identified as ingredients in Avalines wines. All of these are used to spiff up the appearance of a wine  to ensure it doesnt have bits of (unsightly, but harmless) sediment floating around in it, and to transform a wine from hazy to clear. The clay and pea protein are whats known as fining agents: You add them to the wine, certain particles bind to them, and when you remove the fining agents, you also remove the particles.

Avaline ostensibly advertises its use of these particular fining agents because theyre vegan; some others, like egg whites and gelatin, are animal derived. (Either way, fining agents are not present in the wine by the time youre drinking it.) OK, but natural-wine purists would consider any fining, vegan or not, a major intervention in the wine. This is not the way to earn ones bona fides.

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Finally, we come to yeast and yeast nutrients. If any natural winemaker has read this far, surely shes laughing by now, because inoculating a wine with commercial yeast is pretty much the first disqualifier in natural-wine circles  at least the ones that are actually setting standards in the industry for low-additive winemaking. Its not that any of Avalines additives are unsafe for you to consume. Its just that its peddling a false narrative where its a clean messiah in a world of sinful, dirty wines.

Of course, Avaline isnt the only big brand to capitalize on the language of clean, natural and organic (brands like Minimum in Australia have done it before) without really abiding by its ethos, but its the first to have a name like Diaz, with such an enormous platform, attached to it. She gets to pick up the hard work of an actual movement, one that has striven to promote real transparency in winemaking, and use it to simply promote herself.

But, to use a non-vegan idiom, thats not even my main beef with Avaline. The deeper problem is simple: Clean wine itself is a delusion. Ironically, the cleanest-looking wines may actually be the ones that look and taste the dirtiest. Wines that are truly additive-free, which havent been filtered or inoculated or pasteurized or cryo-extracted  some people call these zero-zero wines  often look a little bit cloudy and taste a little bit funky. That crystal-clear, perfectly pink rose, Im sorry to inform you, isnt found in nature.

Thats the problem with the clean myth, for food as well as wine. What often gets marketed as clean, skinny, pure and low-impact is so often a result of excessive manipulation (Ill spare you my rant on hard seltzer) and, in fact, might not even be that healthy.

What ought to actually matter to us in a wine is how the grapes were farmed, including whether the people who worked the vineyard were treated equitably. And what determines the quality of a fine wine isnt whether it was fined with pea protein as opposed to egg whites  its a vineyards climate and soil, and the unique weather patterns of any given vintage.

How does Avaline score on those standards? Apart from identifying the regions of origin  Frances Provence for the rose, Spains Penedes for the white blend  the company did not disclose any information about who made the wines. When I asked for the names of the winemakers or the wineries, a spokesperson told me, We have mutually agreed not to publicize our relationship. So much for transparency.

Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicles wine critic. Email: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Esther_mobley Instagram: @esthermob
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is considering re-imposing tight quarantine restrictions in the countrys capital, Manila, as the nationwide tally of coronavirus infections rose to more than 61,000, with 1,643 deaths, the presidential spokesperson, Harry Roque, said on Thursday.

In a late-night meeting on Wednesday with an inter-agency task force on COVID-19, health experts had recommended that public transportation, private offices, restaurants and commercial shops be shut down again in Manila, Mr Roque said.

The president agreed at first, but officials appealed to him because the mayors of Metro Manila promised they will step up localised lockdown, to contain the spread of the virus, Mr Roque said.

They promised to intensify testing, tracing and treatment.

Mr Duterte agreed not to place Metro Manila under the stricter protocol, called modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ), in the next two weeks, said Mr Roque.

It was clear in the discussion that if the spread of the COVID-19 does not slow down in Metro Manila, it is possible that MECQ will be re-imposed after two weeks, he added.

The Health Department on Thursday reported 2,498 additional confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines, bringing the national tally to 61,266.

The department also recorded 29 additional deaths, more than half of which occurred in June and May. Nearly 50 per cent of the infections and 57 per cent of deaths were from Metro Manila.

Since June 1, the Philippine government has been easing the lockdown that was imposed in the countrys most populous island of Luzon, which encompasses Manila, and in other high-risk areas in mid-March.

Limited public transportation has resumed, while shopping malls, salons, barber shops, restaurants, private offices and even some churches have also opened in a reduced capacity.

(dpa/NAN)
By Foo Yun Chee and Padraic Halpin LUXEMBOURG/DUBLIN (Reuters) - Europe's second-highest court on Wednesday rejected an EU order for Apple to pay 13 billion euros ($15 billion) in Irish back taxes, dealing a blow to the bloc's attempts to crack down on sweetheart tax deals.

By Foo Yun Chee and Padraic Halpin

LUXEMBOURG/DUBLIN (Reuters) - Europe's second-highest court on Wednesday rejected an EU order for Apple to pay 13 billion euros ($15 billion) in Irish back taxes, dealing a blow to the bloc's attempts to crack down on sweetheart tax deals.

In its order four years ago, the European Commission said Apple benefited from illegal state aid via two Irish tax rulings that artificially reduced its tax burden for over two decades - to as low as 0.005% in 2014.

"The General Court annuls the contested decision because the Commission did not succeed in showing to the requisite legal standard that there was an advantage for the purposes of Article 107(1) TFEU1," judges said, referring to EU competition rules.

The defeat for European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager could weaken or delay pending cases against Ikea's and Nike's deals with the Netherlands, as well as Huhtamaki's agreement with Luxembourg.

Vestager, who has made the tax crackdown a centrepiece of her time in office, saw the same court last year overturn her demand for Starbucks to pay up to 30 million euros in Dutch back taxes. In another case, the court also threw out her ruling against a Belgian tax scheme for 39 multinationals.

While 14 billion euros - including interest - would have gone a long way to plugging the coronavirus-shaped hole in Ireland's finances, Dublin appealed against the Commission's order alongside Apple because it wanted to protect a low tax regime that has attracted 250,000 multinational employers.

However, the government is likely to face strong criticism from opposition parties for not taking the cash, which could cover at least half of a budget deficit forecast to balloon to as much as 10% of GDP this year.

The defeated side can appeal on points of law to the EU Court of Justice, Europe's highest court.

($1 = 0.8793 euros)

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Mark Potter)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
The controversies surrounding the compilation of a new voters' register seem not over as a former Ambassador to the Arab Emirates has asked the Electoral Commission (EC) to go back to the old voters' register.



Consular Daniel Osei says no matter the amount of money spent so far in the ongoing voter registration, the EC should halt the exercise to save the lives of Ghanaians.



Speaking in an interview on Neat FM's 'Me Man Nti' programme, the former Ambassador said since COVID-19 is airborne, the registration exercise is exposing Ghanaians to the virus.



"The main aim of compiling a new register is to vote. We already have a register which is good enough; we should use it . . . the lives of Ghanaians matter," he told Adakabre Frimpong Manso.



Listen to him in the video below





Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Wesley Ira Purkey, center, is escorted by police officers in Kansas City, Kan., in 1988 after he was arrested in connection with the death of 80-year-old Mary Ruth Bales. Purkey was also convicted of kidnapping and killing a 16-year-old girl. (Jim Barcus/The Kansas City Star via AP)

Rapist Who Murdered Teen Girl Executed

The second federal execution this week took place in Indiana after the Supreme Court cleared the way.

Wesley Ira Purkey, 68, who was convicted in 2003 of raping and murdering a 16-year-old girl, was executed at 8:19 a.m. at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Lawyers for Purkey claimed he suffered from dementia and schizophrenia, making him unable to understand his punishment.

But his final words included an apology to the family of his victim.

I deeply regret the pain and suffering I caused Jennifers family. Im deeply sorry, he said.

I deeply regret the pain Ive caused to my own daughter who I love so very much.

Department of Justice spokeswoman Kerri Kupec described the execution as justice being serve.

After many years of litigation following the death of his victims, in which he lived and was afforded every due process of law under our Constitution, Purkey has finally faced justice, she said in a statement.

The death penalty has been upheld by the federal courts, supported on a bipartisan basis by Congress, and approved by Attorneys General under both Democratic and Republican administrations as the appropriate sentence for the most egregious federal crimes. Today that just punishment has been carried out.

Wesley Ira Purkey in May 2000. (Kansas Department of Corrections via AP)

Guard towers and razor wire ring the compound at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., on March 17, 2003. (Michael Conroy/AP Photo)

The execution was scheduled for Wednesday before U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, nominated by President Barack Obama, issued a preliminary injunction.

Chutkan said Purkeys lawyers had demonstrated a likelihood of success on his claim for a competency hearing and that he would suffer irreparable harm if he wasnt granted one.

In a brief order, Supreme Court justices in the majority said the application from the government to stay the injunction was granted, vacating the judges ruling.

Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh, and Chief Justice John Roberts, all nominated by Republican presidents, were the majority. They also cleared the way this week for the governments execution of a white supremacist murderer.

That execution, carried out Tuesday, was the first federal execution in 17 years.

In a dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer, with whom Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg joined, argued that the execution of Daniel Lewis Lee this week revealed the inherent arbitrariness of the death penalty.

Breyer said Lees co-defendant was sentenced to life in prison, not the death penalty, despite committing the same crime.

In a separate dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, with whom Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, and Elena Kagan joined, attacked filings by government prosecutors, alleging they were not likely to succeed if the Supreme Court hadnt intervened.

Breyer, Sotomayor, Ginsburg, and Kagan were elected by Democrat presidents.

Janita Kan contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON  Russian hackers are attempting to steal coronavirus vaccine research, the U.S., British and Canadian governments said Thursday, opening a dangerous new front in the cyberwars and intelligence battles between Moscow and the West.

The National Security Agency said APT29, the hacking group known as Cozy Bear which is associated with Russian intelligence, has been taking advantage of the chaos created by the coronavirus pandemic and targeting health care organizations seeking to steal intelligence on vaccines.

The Russian hackers have been targeting British, Canadian and American organizations researching vaccines against COVID-19. The hackers have been using spear-phishing and malware to try to get access to the research.

We condemn these despicable attacks against those doing vital work to combat the coronavirus pandemic, said Paul Chichester, director of operations for Britains National Cyber Security Center.

Cozy Bear is one of the most high profile, and successful, hacking groups associated with the Russian government, and was implicated alongside the group Fancy Bear in the 2016 hacking of the Democratic National Committee.

More for you European police hacked secret phone network, used AI for major bust

APT29 has a long history of targeting governmental, diplomatic, think-tank, health care and energy organizations for intelligence gain so we encourage everyone to take this threat seriously and apply the mitigations issued in the advisory, said Anne Neuberger, the NSAs cybersecurity director.

The British and Canadian governments said Thursday that Cozy Bear is almost certainly part of the Russian intelligence services.

The two governments cyberdefense arms published advisories aimed at helping health care organizations bolster their computer network defense.

The malware used by Cozy Bear to steal the vaccine research included code known as WellMess and WellMail.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
TORONTO - Canada's emergency response benefits have become a flashpoint, as employers seek to recall workers who are still concerned about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 16/7/2020 (551 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The employment insurance section of the Government of Canada website is shown on a laptop in Toronto on April 4, 2020. Canadas emergency response benefits have become a flashpoint, as employers seek to recall workers who are still concerned about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jesse Johnston

TORONTO - Canada's emergency response benefits have become a flashpoint, as employers seek to recall workers who are still concerned about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A poll by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business suggested tensions are flaring between workers and employers, with around 27 per cent of 3,389 employers polled indicating some of their laid-off staff have refused to return to work.

Of the nearly 870 businesses that provided the reasons their employees gave for refusing to return to work, 62 per cent reported workers "prefer the Canada Emergency Response Benefit." Employers could choose more than one explanation for why a worker refused to return, and respondents also selected options such as concern for health (47 per cent), childcare obligations (27 per cent) or lack of hours in return offer (16 per cent).

CFIB president Dan Kelly said it's "clear" that CERB "created a disincentive to return to work for some staff, especially in industries like hospitality." Other sectors where conflicts are arising include child care, dental offices, home health care, amusement parks, gambling and spectator sports, the study suggested.

"CERB was created as emergency support for workers who had lost their job due to the pandemic, not to fund a summer break," Kelly said in a statement.

But Ian Robb, Canadian director of the Unite Here union that represents hospitality workers, disagrees. He said workers are impatient to return to work  for what is usually the lucrative summer season  but employers are the ones failing to adopt measures like frequent cleaning and wage subsidies. The union previously estimated that average wages in cities like Toronto are around $20 per hour for hospitality.

"A number of our members in the U.S. have gone to work and contracted (COVID-19)," Robb said.

"There's just not enough safety in front of service. Nobody wants to stay home and make two grand when they can make double that by working."

The survey suggested that the hospitality sector had the biggest share of employers, 45 per cent, who had trouble recalling workers. CFIB defines hospitality as including hotels, restaurants and bars.

The CFIB study suggests that in the hospitality sector, 56 per cent of hard-to-fill positions were "unskilled, entry-level jobs" that pay "at or around minimum wage," although across sectors, skilled and semi-skilled jobs were harder to fill.

Employment and human rights lawyer Neena Gupta says she has heard of tradespeople unable to perform jobs because workers failed to return.

She said the reason an employee is refusing the work matters. Lack of childcare, like daycare and camps, can be a job-protected reason for staying home, as can disabilities such as being immunocompromised, says Gupta, a partner in Gowling WLG's Waterloo Region and Toronto offices.

The federal government's website states that workers seeking CERB, which offers $500 per week over a limited period, "should be seeking work opportunities and/or return to work when their employer makes a request for their return, provided they are able and it is reasonable to do so." The government's COVID-19 guidelines also provide for employees to refuse to do a dangerous job, although the worker must already "be at work" to refuse such a task.

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However, notes Gupta, general apprehension about the pandemic is likely not enough to merit a job refusal. She said workplaces must comply with health and safety guidelines, and that a ministry inspection must find some sort of violation to justify a job refusal.

Managers should give workers a written "come back to work" recall and an indication that it will be treated as job abandonment if the worker doesn't return, says Gupta. After that process is completed, the employer could consider that worker terminated for cause, and hire a replacement.

While reporting misuse of CERB by a former employee might appear to give an employer some moral satisfaction, Gupta says its unlikely to help with staffing concerns or worker morale.

"I do ask people to be reasonable. You cant call someone at noon on a Thursday and expect them in at 7 a.m. on Friday," she says.

CFIB, a policy advocacy group that represents small and medium-sized businesses and has 110,000 members, collected the data from members online between July 3 to July 6.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 16, 2020.
A 42-year-old man, Jubril Anifowose, on Thursday appeared in an Ile-Ife Magistrates Court in Osun, for allegedly abducting his neighbours wife and two children.

Mr Anifowose, who pleaded not guilty to the charge, allegedly committed the offences in 2016 at No. 15, Enuwa St., Ile-Ife, where he lived in the same premises with the couple, Mr & Mrs Dotun Elufidipe.

The prosecution counsel, Abdullahi Emmanuel, told the court that the defendant abducted Mrs Kemi Elufidpe and her two children sometime in 2016, thereby committing an offence.

Mr Emmanuel also alleged that the defendant conducted himself in a manner that may likely cause a breach of public peace of law and order.

The prosecutor said that the offence committed contravened the provisions of Section 249(d) of the Criminal Code, Laws of Osun, 2002.

However, the defence counsel, F.O. Lawal, applied for the bail of the defendant in most liberal terms and promised that his client would not jump bail and attend court to face his trial.

Magistrate A.A. Adebayo admitted the defendant to bail in the sum of N100,000 with one surety in like amount.

Mr Adebayo ordered that the surety must swear to an affidavit of means, reside within the court jurisdiction as well as submit to the court registrar three recent passport photographs.

He adjourned the case until July 30, for hearing.

(NAN)
Severe weather forecasts in Japan have led to a further delay in the launch of the first Arab mission to Mars, with the Hope probe not launching until next week.

The probe, named Al-Amal, was designed and built by the United Arab Emirates over the past six years to stimulate the science sector in the Arab state.

It was due to leave from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan at 21:51 BST on July 14 but has since been delayed twice due to 'unstable weather conditions'.

A spokesperson for the Emirates Space Agency hasn't confirmed a specific new launch date but said it should leave between July 20 and July 22.

The mission has to launch by the middle of August, as after that date Mars and Earth will no longer be in alignment and the next opportunity will be in 2024.

The 3,000lb (1,350kg) craft (pictured) will complete one orbit every 55 hours for a total of one Martian year  687 Earth days

The probe is being launched from Japan using a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-IIA launcher from Tanegashima Island.

The delay was due to 'continued thunderstorms, clouds and unstable weather conditions in the coming days on Tanegashima Island', a spokesperson said.

'The launch is now scheduled to take place between the 20th and 22nd July 2020, depending on improved weather.'

This isn't the only Mars mission that has faced delays. NASAs Mars 2020 mission was due to launch on July 17 but now won't leave until July 30 at the earliest.

This is the first Arab mission to the Red Planet and has involved them working with a range of universities and organisations to train UAE students and specialists.

The 2,970lb probe was built entirely within the Emirates and will take seven months to reach the Red Planet.

When it gets there it will stay in orbit for a whole Martian year - 687 days.

Three instruments mounted on the probe will provide a picture of Mars's atmosphere throughout the year and all of the data gathered will be made widely available.

Also known as the Hope probe, the mission is one of three launching for the Red Planet this year - the others are from NASA and the Chinese space agency.

The US and Chinese missions will see a rover land on the planet in a bid to search for signs of ancient or present Martian life and the UAE probe will study the atmosphere.

Sarah Amiri, deputy project manager of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Mars Mission talking about the voyage due to launch no earlier than July 20

The Hope probe has been developed almost entirely in-house by scientists in the UAE, with learning and partnership support from various international institutions.

There are a number of instruments on the spacecraft that will give scientists a clearer picture of the Martian atmosphere and even how it lost most of its air.

This includes an infrared spectrometer to measure the lower atmosphere and temperature, a high-resolution imager to study the ozone and another to look at levels of hydrogen and oxygen up to 27,000 miles from the surface.

Understanding the atmospheres of other planets will allow for a better understanding of the Earth's climate, UAE Space Agency officials say.

UAE's Amal orbiter will have three sensors on-board to help astronomers learn more about Mars's climate

Most Mars missions assess the geology of the planet, to try and understand its history and what made the world so barren, but this mission is different.

Sensors which will help reveal the secrets of Mars's climate UAE's Amal orbiter will have three sensors on-board to help astronomers learn more about Mars's climate. One will be a high-resolution camera dedicated to tracking dust movements and the ozone of Mars. This will scan a range of light frequencies. Another device will specifically focus on infrared and was built by scientists at Arizona State University. This IR camera will measure both the upper and lower atmosphere. The third sensor will be an ultraviolet spectrometer for measuring oxygen and hydrogen levels. Advertisement

Deputy project manager and minister for advanced sciences, Sarah al-Amiri, said Mars appears similar to Earth but has undergone major climate changes.

He said this has happened to the point where it can no longer have water, one of the major building blocks of life, and understanding that could help the Earth.

'For instance, if there is a major dust storm on Mars does that increase the rates of escape of hydrogen and oxygen?'

Officials hope that this mission, and ones that will follow, will open up opportunities for the youth of the UAE and cement its place as a globally influential country.

There are currently only eight active Mars missions, and the UAE is hoping to join this exclusive club.

NASA is sending its Mars 2020 mission to the Red Planet either later this month or early next month after a number of setbacks delayed the original launch.

The mission, which includes the Perseverance rover, was due to leave for the Red Planet on July 17 but a number of issues meant this was delayed until 'no earlier than July 30'.

However, due to the need to launch within a specific window, Mars 2020 has to launch no later than August 15 or it won't reach Mars, as it will no longer be in alignment with the Earth.

Last week NASA packed up Perseverance and the other elements of the Mars 2020 mission into the nose cone that will get it out of Earth's atmosphere.

It is launching on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V booster from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in the coming weeks.

No matter what day Perseverance lifts off during its July 30 to August 15 launch period, it will land in Mars' Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021, according to officials.

NASA says that by targeting landing for one specific date and time helps mission planners better understand lighting and temperature at the landing site.

It also helps the location of Mars-orbiting satellites tasked with recording and relaying spacecraft data during its descent and landing.

'I have seen my fair share of spacecraft being lifted onto rockets,' said John McNamee, project manager for the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission.

'But this one is special because there are so many people who contributed to this moment. To each one of them I want to say, we got here together, and we'll make it to Mars the same way.'

NASA is sending its Mars 2020 mission to the Red Planet either later this month or early next month after a number of setbacks delayed the original launch. It has been loaded into the nose cone of the Atlas V rocket

The mission, which includes the Perseverance rover, was due to leave for the Red Planet on July 17 but a number of issues meant this was eventually delayed to 'no earlier than July 30

No matter what day Perseverance lifts off during its July 30 to August 15 launch period, it will land in Mars' Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021, according to officials

NASA says that by targeting landing for one specific date and time helps mission planners better understand lighting and temperature at the landing site

Like the Chinese mission, which is also due to launch this month for the Red Planet, Mars 2020 is tasked with studying the planet's geology and look for signs of life.

China's mission to Mars, named Tianwen-1 (Questions to Heaven), will launch between July 20 and July 25 from Hainan.

The probe will reach Mars around the same time as the NASA and UAE missions - February 2021 and will first enter Martian orbit before deploying a small rover.

China made global headlines when it succeeded in landing a rover on the far side of the moon last year and says that was a 'practice mission' for Mars.

The UAE has also had some space success before, having launched four earth observation satellites and sent its own astronaut, Hazzaa al-Mansoori, to the ISS.

The next opportunity to head to the Red Planet after it goes out of alignment with the Earth in the middle of August will be 2024

For the mission to Mars the UAE said they wanted to make their data open and accessible in real time to the global scientific community.

'What is unique about this mission is that for the first time the scientific community around the world will have an holistic view of the Martian atmosphere at different times of the day at different seasons,' the mission's project manager Omran Sharaf.

'We have a strategy to contribute to the global effort in developing technologies and science work that will help one day if humanity decides to put a human on Mars.'

The next opportunity to send missions to the Red Planet will be in 2024 when the European Space Agency will launch the Rosalind Franklin Rover as part of their ExoMars mission to search for signs of life.

The ESA mission was due to launch this year but had to be postponed due to coronavirus lockdown measures in Europe making final tests difficult.
Donald Trump is considering implementing a new travel ban on all 92 million members of the Chinese Communist Party, a new report revealed late Wednesday, as Beijing accuses the U.S. of 'bullying' tactics.

Among the citizens included in this ban would be Chinas richest man and highest-profile business leader, Jack Ma, the founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, which is often referred to as the Amazon of China.

Jack Ma is worth $46.3 billion and acts as an adviser to political leaders in Asia and Europe, along with fostering ambitions in the U.S.

The executive order, if ultimately signed, could also result in the government revoking visas and expelling Chinese citizens, who are part of the ruling Party, and their families from the U.S., four people familiar with the discussions told The New York Times.

The proclamation, according to the sources, is still being drafted by administration officials, and could ultimately be rejected by the president.

Language of one draft also takes aim at limiting or banning travel of members of the People's Liberation Army, its executives and family members  although many are also likely to be members of the Chinese Communist Party.

China's Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters Wednesday that if rumors of the executive order are true, it would be a 'bullying' tactic she dismissed as 'pathetic.'

'If the U.S. thinks that everything China does is a threat, then it will be a self-fulfilling prophecy,' Hua said.

The Trump administration says the party must be punished for its domestic and global actions and in recent months has increased drawing distinctions between members of the party and all other Chinese citizens.

Donald Trump is considering signing an executive order drafted by his administration that would ban all 92 million members of the Chinese Communist Party from traveling to the U.S.

Members of the Chinese Communist Party make up about 7 per cent of China's 1.39 billion population and hold some of the most elite positions in the country

China's Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunying (pictured) said if the executive order is signed, it would be 'pathetic,' claiming: 'If the U.S. thinks that everything China does is a threat, then it will be a self-fulfilling prophecy'

Tensions between Washington and Beijing have been on the rise recently as Trump imposed sanctions on China with two executive orders on Tuesday

Officials have denounced the Chinese Communist Party by pointing to its role in covering up the initial outbreak of coronavirus. It also has criticized party leaders for detaining 1 million or more Muslims in internment camps and at the same time dismantling civil liberties in Hong Kong by implementing new security laws.

The president has the power to temporarily block travel by foreign nationals to the U.S. if they are determined to be 'detrimental to the interests of the United States.'

The presidential order would cite this statue, found in the Immigration and Nationality Act, which was used in the 2017 travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries  a measure that was fought in courts ever since it was ordered.

The order would specifically target those in China's ruling party and likely those in the People's Liberation Army, which are the armed forces of the People's Republic of China and its ruling political party.

The 92 million citizens with membership to the Chinese Communist Party make up less than 7 per cent of the country's population of nearly 1.4 billion.

China said Thursday that it will fulfill its commitments to the Phase 1 trade deal it reached with the U.S. earlier this year but warned that it will respond to Washington's threats as relations continue to deteriorate.

Hua invited Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to visit China, specifically the western Xinjiang region, to see that there are no human rights violations.

The invitation incomes after Trump imposed sanctions on the country earlier this week through two different executive orders. It also is a direct response to Washington accusing the Chinese Communist Party of wrongdoing against the Uighur Muslim minorities who live there.

Relations between Beijing and Washington are at the worst in decades as the two nations clash on multiple fronts including China's handling of the coronavirus outbreak, the new national security law in Hong Kong, trade and the accusations of human rights crimes in Xinjiang.

On Tuesday, Trump removed special status designation for Hong Kong and imposed sanctions against top Chinese officials and companies over Hong Kong and Xinjiang. Beijing condemned the moves and vowed to retaliate.

WHAT IS THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY? Being a member of the Chinese Communist party puts you firmly in the country's elite. There are 1.4 billion people in China but just 92 million are party members, with access to the top jobs almost entirely dependent on carrying a party card. Nearly every top position in China is held by a member of the party, even in the private sector. Membership has been even more limited recently, as Chinese President Xi Jinping and other leaders believe entry has become too accepting and the party to large and unwieldy. Aspiring members submit applications, including an essay, make speeches arguing to be let in and subject their family, friends and colleagues to secret interviews. Applicants then take, and must pass, a two-hour test on ideologies and theories including Marxism and Mao Zedong thought. After a year of probation without any infractions, applicants are then transitioned to full party membership. About 40 per cent of new members are students who were recruited from universities. The Chinese Communist Party emerged in China in 1949 when Mao Zedong's Communist Party overthrew the Nationalist Party when there were nearly 4 million members. Advertisement

Asked whether the recent sanctions will impact the trade deal, Hua told reporters Thursday that China hopes the agreement can still carried out.

'We always implement our commitments but we know that some in the U.S. are oppressing China and bullying China,' Hua said.

'As an independent sovereign state China must respond to the bullying practices by the U.S. side; we must say no, we must make responses and take reactive moves to it,' she continued.

If the proposed travel ban against all members of China's ruling Communist Party were signed by the president, it could further strain an increasingly confrontational relationship.

Trump's campaign strategy is keen on portraying the president as tough on China as he has expressed his displeasure with the Chinese government on several issues, especially trade.

The president, however, has also lavished praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping and, before this week, has remained largely silent of the repression in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.

Trump signed an executive order Tuesday ending special status for Hong Kong after China seized more control and issued new security laws in the semi-autonomous region

Hua called Washington's accusations of human rights crimes against the Uighur minorities the 'biggest lies of the century'.

'We welcome him (Pompeo) to travel to our country and see what the Xinjiang people's view of him is,' she said. 'I could introduce him to some Uighur friends.'

Nearly three million Chinese citizens visited the U.S. in 2018  showing the travel ban would not only affect relations between the countries, but also the tourism industry.

The amount of visitors from there have plummeted recently because of the coronavirus pandemic and the already present ban on most travelers from China.

The primary recruiting ground for the Chinese Communist Party is at universities, with students making up nearly 40 per cent of new members.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration floated a plan on canceling the visas of Chinese students and researchers who have direct ties to universities in China  specifically those affiliated with the People's Liberation Army.

This would only affect about 3,000 of the 370,000 Chinese students studying in the U.S.

The move is an attempt to lower potential risks of these individuals stealing sensitive research.
WARSAW  Supporters of the mayor of Warsaw, joined by scores of Polish voters and rights groups, raced on Thursday to file legal challenges to the validity of Sundays presidential election, which he narrowly lost to the incumbent, President Andrzej Duda.

The rush to file the complaints was the result of a new electoral code passed by the government in May, cutting the time to file such challenges from 14 days to three.

In lodging the official protests with the nations Supreme Court, supporters of the mayor, Rafal Trzaskowski, were not expecting to overturn the result of the election, given the margin of defeat of nearly half a million votes.

Their object was more to expose what they said was a pattern of political interference that marred the countrys closest election since the end of communist rule in 1989 and to delay the certification of the vote long enough for it to be declared invalid.
Vivo India director for brand strategy Nipun Marya said the company has announced  7,500 crore investment in India to increase smartphone manufacturing capacity from 3.3 crore units to 12 crore.

Smartphone maker Vivo will set-up an industrial design centre in India to develop devices locally, and increase its headcount to 50,000, a top company official said on Thursday.

Vivo India director for brand strategy Nipun Marya said the company has announced 7,500 crore investment in India to increase smartphone manufacturing capacity from 3.3 crore units to 12 crore.

"Very soon we will be setting up our industrial design centre in India too. We will not only make in india but also design in India. This design centre will focus on understanding the needs of Indian consumers. The first product from Vivo that will be designed and made in India will be rolled out in 2020-21," Marya said.

He was speaking at a virtual event to announce strategic foray of Chinese handset maker Vivo into the premium smartphone segment with X50 series with 5G technology.

We have decided to wholeheartedly support our Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vocal for local programme. We have announced that we will be investing 7,500 crore into the expansion of our Greater Noida factory," Marya said, adding the investment will increase local sourcing from 15 per cent to 40 per cent in one year.

Vivo was the second largest smartphone selling brand in India with 21 per cent market share in January-March quarter, according to market research firm IDC.

Vivo X50 Pro: In pics

The company will increase the factory employment to 50,000 Indians. And the investment will make Vivo India factory not only Vivo's one of the biggest factories but also one of India's largest smartphone manufacturing units, Marya noted.

During the launch event, the company unveiled two models of X50 series priced at 34,990 and 37,990, while X50 Pro has been priced at 49,990 as it has higher hardware specifications in terms of processor, battery and camera.

Marya said Vivo has been premium segment earlier, but the the company is foraying strategically with dedicated X50 series in the high end segment.

"Vivo has been doing good in the below 30,000 segment. There are many people who are Vivo loyalists and when they look for smartphones beyond 30,000 then they don't get a choice from Vivo. It is on the back of this feedback, we should be able to do good in this segment," he added.

The company has started pre-booking of the product starting Thursday and will start selling them from July 24, Marya informed.

Vivo also announced entry into the mobile allied devices segment with the launch of wireless earphones TWS Neo in a move to start developing the internet of things (IoT) product.
Reuters

At least a dozen Twitter accounts belonging to the worlds most wealthy and influential people were taken over Wednesday in an unprecedented attack on the platform designed to promote a suspected cryptocurrency scam. The culprits, as yet, are unknown.

Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Apple, Uber, Kanye West, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Wiz Khalifa, and even Kim Kardashian West saw their accounts tell hundreds of millions of followers to send Bitcoin money to a certain wallet address if they wanted to see their money doubled in a giveaway of up to $10 million.

I am giving back to my fans. All Bitcoin sent to my address below will be sent back doubled. I am only doing a maximum of $10,000,000. bc1qxy2kgdygjrsqtzq2n0yrf2493p83kkfjhx0wlh. Only going on for 30 minutes! the tweets read. Musks account, which has been the victim of imitators hawking Bitcoin wallets before, sent three tweets promoting this one and replied once to Bill Gates.

People sent almost $110,000 to the account listed within a couple hours of the fraudulent tweets going up, according to The Verge.

According to Twitter, the hackers used employees corporate accounts to gain access to internal tools with vast capabilities. The hijackers used social engineering, where malicious actors trick account owners into divulging sensitive information like login credentials, to wrest control from the employees themselves.

We detected what we believe to be a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools... the social media giant said. We know they used this access to take control of many highly-visible (including verified) accounts and Tweet on their behalf.

CEO Jack Dorsey acknowledged that it had been a tough day for Twitter late Tuesday. We all feel terrible this happened. Were diagnosing and will share everything we can when we have a more complete understanding of exactly what happened, he tweeted.

Story continues

A Biden campaign official told The Daily Beast, Twitter locked down the account immediately following the breach and removed the related tweet. We remain in touch with Twitter on the matter.

A representative for Gates said in a statement to Recode, We can confirm that this tweet was not sent by Bill Gates. This appears to be part of a larger issue that Twitter is facing. Twitter is aware and working to restore the account.

The hack also affected his other company, Square, when its popular CashApp Twitter account pushed the Bitcoin scam.

Twitter temporarily locked down an unspecified number of verified accounts in response to the incident, potentially leaving health organizations and emergency management agencies unable to put out statements on the platform amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The National Weather Service in Lincoln, Illinois, was hit by the lockdown in the middle of a tornado warning.

Were in the middle of it right nowmiddle of the storm, middle of this situation on Twitter, Chris Miller of the Central Illinois National Weather Service told The Daily Beast.

If anybody has a feed through twitter, theyre not getting information, he said. Weve had so many warnings this evening I cant even countflash floods, severe thunderstorm warnings, high winds, tornado, all kinds of severe warnings this afternoon.

When asked about the widespread blocking, a Twitter spokesperson sent a tweet from the companys security account: You may be unable to Tweet or reset your password while we review and address this incident. Some verified Twitter accounts were apparently back up and running a couple of hours after the lockdown.

Sources cited by Motherboard said the social media giant was also deleting screenshots of an internal administration tool being circulated among hackers. One source said the tool had apparently played a role in the account takeovers.

The FBIs San Francisco Bureau said it was aware of todays security incident and advised the public not to send money to the Bitcoin wallet in the tweets.

The hijackers also took over prominent accounts in the cryptocurrency industry, including Coinbase, the largest trading platform for Bitcoin and other digital currencies.

Most quickly deleted the tweets. The domain registrar used by the scammers told TechCrunch the company removed the URL after it was reported Wednesday.

Experts say its not at all surprising that a slew of influential figures were the ones targeted in the attack.

Crypto-scams are nothing new and have been around essentially since the technology was created. Scammers commonly rely upon impersonating celebrities to feign credibility and wealth when pedaling these ploys, said Brenna Smith, a cryptocurrency researcher who writes the CryptOsint newsletter for Bellingcat.

But in this case, the hackers were somehow able to go above and beyond their usual MO of using fake accounts.

This mass hack was unprecedented in the crypto-world because of the coordinated and systematic hijacking of verified accounts on a major social media platform, Smith said.

Scammers frequently use accounts imitating Musk, one of the accounts hit by the latest hacking scam, in order to promote schemes purporting to pay back double the amount Bitcoin users send to a given address and have hit platforms ranging from Twitter to YouTube. Hoax artists perpetrating the double-your-money hoaxes have netted at least $2 million in bitcoin since the schemes first began, according to bitcoin.com.

In 2019, hackers pulled off a similar attack against Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey. In that case, hackers gained access to Dorseys account through his mobile provider, AT&T. Its unclear how, exactly, the hackers managed to get the company to give them access to his phone number on a different device, but once in control of the number they were able to send tweets via an outdated service that allowed users to tweet by sending text messages.

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People sit at the bar of a restaurant in Austin, Texas, on June 26, 2020. (Sergio Flores/AFP via Getty Images)

100,000 Restaurants Shut by State or Local Governments, Many Cant Survive: Industry Group

A trade group representing about a million of Americas restaurants is calling on lawmakers to help the nations ailing eateries after it said nearly 100,000 restaurants were shuttered recently amid pandemic-driven reopening rollbacks.

The National Restaurant Association, the worlds largest food service trade association, on July 15 sent a letter to Congress along with a Blueprint for Restaurant Revival (pdf), urging a range of relief measures and estimating that the nations restaurants are on track to lose $240 billion in revenue this year.

In just the past two weeks, state and local government mandates have shut down almost 100,000 restaurants, said Sean Kennedy, executive vice president of public affairs for the association, in the letter (pdf).

As of today, the industry has lost over $120 billion and the current revenue path aligns with our year-end loss projections.

As COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations have surged in states ranging from Arizona and California to Florida and Texas, many local governments have reversed course on reopening plans.

Many are advising us they cannot survive this ongoing on/off approach to operations and will permanently close, Kennedy wrote.

The restaurant industry has been particularly hard-hit by the outbreak. About a quarter of the approximately 20 million jobs lost in April were in the restaurant industry. The most recent nonfarm payroll Labor Department figures (pdf) show that while employment in food services and drinking places recovered by 1.5 million in May and by the same amount in June, it is still down by 3.1 million since February.

Despite losing more jobs and revenue than any other industry in this country, Congress has chosen not to advance a recovery package that is tailored for the unique challenges of a restaurant on the cusp of bankruptcy, Kennedy noted in a statement.

The associations plan calls for short-term relief and long-term foundation-building to help restaurants survive the shifting policy landscape amid the COVID-19 surge.

The Blueprint for Restaurant Revival calls on lawmakers to implement a range of measures, including short-term relief, by creating a targeted Restaurant Recovery Fund.

Given the evolving reopening start again, stop again landscape, the urgency for this recovery solution grows daily, the association writes in the plan.

Another form of relief involves grants, capped at $10 million, to cover costs ranging from payroll, benefits, mortgages, rent, supplies, protective equipment, and cleaning materials.

The blueprint also urges lawmakers to deploy another round of funding under the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP.

The initial PPP provided eight weeks of vital short-term relief, but the challenges facing our industry have not gone away and restaurants have exhausted their PPP loans, the association writes.

Other measures include liability protections and payroll tax relief.

The restaurant industry is one of tenacity, innovation, and dedication to serving our community, Kennedy stated. We are looking to Congress not only for support for our short-term survival, but to create a long-term framework that sustains our role as a key part of the food supply chain for the millions of families that rely on us for nourishment.
THE LEGACY OF BLACK EXCELLENCE CONTINUES TO SHINE WITH CONTINUED PRESIDENTIAL APPOINTMENTS

Michael Drake, M.D. will become the first African American head of the UC system in its 152-year history.

Education is the passport to the future; for, tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today. These verbal stylings of the late Malcolm X have often served as a mantra for young African American boys, girls, women and men alike, who navigate the challenges of primary, secondary, and higher education in pursuit of their academic dreams and aspirations, as well as careers filled with promise and possibility.

Well, sometimes those dreams do come true, even when one had not planned on a specific outcome. EXTRA, EXTRA: read all about it. Michael Drake, M.D. has just been appointed by the UC Regents to be the next president of the University of California system. His appointment will be effective August 1 of this year. Drake will become the first African American head of the UC system in its 152-year history. Thats a lot of glass to break in that ceiling, but the shattering of that threshold has reverberated throughout the higher education community, and certainly here in California. I want to join the chorus and shout with joy, even as I bear witness to similar Black excellence continuing to shine in California, and other parts of the nation as well.

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Dr. Drake, The Man

Michael Drake is an accomplished physician by training, specializing in Ophthalmology. He holds an undergraduate degree from Stanford University, and a medical doctorate from UC San Francisco. He is an accomplished scholar and National Academy of Sciences physician, and seasoned administrator. He is the former vice president for Health Sciences and Health Affairs at the UC Office of the President, former chancellor at UC Irvine, and most recently president at The Ohio State University. But while the degrees and awards speak loudly about what he has done in a stellar career, they do not tell the whole story about who he is.

Dr. Drake is a very principled and transformative leader who is selfless, values driven, personable, politically savvy, visionary, and collaborative. He is constantly in pursuit of excellence, but unlike many institutional leaders, is not moved simply for metrics and ratings sake. Rather, he expects the outcomes produced by the people in the institutions he leads to enhance the quality of peoples lives and experiences. He is a family man who partners with his wife Brenda in everything he does. Her support in turn, is anchored in an intellectually gifted mind, giving and loving heart, and very personable demeanor that is nurturing and caring. Both Brenda and Michael come to this work of facilitating students personal and intellectual growth and development with a cultural consciousness that is keenly focused on the legacy they were blessed to inherit, the landscape they have had to navigate to achieve the level of prominence and accomplishments they have, and a broad base of experience that provides the teachable moments that new generations of students, faculty, staff, and senior executives learn from. Indeed, Michael Drake is a renaissance man who is as comfortable in the executive suite as he is a clinical operatory; as composed in a faculty senate meeting as he is delivering a classroom lecture; as sensitive to Black Lives Matter as he is to African American heritage that necessitates his respect for the dignity and humanity of other members of the human family.

Historic Challenges of Black University Leaders

Owing to the belief that increased educational attainment coupled with substantive experience would lend itself to a greater range of choices and options on the educational career ladder, women and men like Michael Drake have engaged in pursuit of higher education degrees and administrative experiences that should position them for higher level positions. Yet, despite the excellence produced, the degrees attained, and the experiences gained, opportunities at the highest level of president, chancellor, and chief executive of colleges and universities have been an elusive prize for all, but a select few over recent decades. Thats what makes Drakes appointment to lead the entire UC system so remarkable and compelling.

Over a decade ago, research by Black Issues In Higher Education in 2007 (Diverse Magazine  https://diverseeducation.com/article/8499/ ), supported this assertion as there were 105 African American presidents at traditionally White institutions, four of whom were about to retire. As far back as 1996, some ten years earlier, data indicate that the ranks of Black presidents numbered 113. The majority of Black presidents at that time headed two-year institutions, with only thirty-six leading four-year schools. In addition to the chief executives of the 102 historically Black institutions (most of whom are Black), that means approximately 200 institutions out of the roughly 3,800 colleges and universities in the nation  both two-year and four-year  were headed by African Americans.

Unquestionably, data at that time and since then has shown there is plenty of room for improvement in diversifying the ranks of executive leadership. A survey of 1,662 U.S. colleges several years ago found only 6 percent were led by Black presidents, despite the fact that 13.3 percent of the U.S. population is African American. These results mirror findings of a 2012 survey from the American Council on Education (ACE) which was sent to public and private colleges and universities across the U.S., including two-year programs. More recently, in a 2017 study by the American Council on Education, researchers found that individuals who identified as something other than white held just 17 percent of college and university presidencies in 2016, while representing 42 percent of students enrolled in 2015. Among the presidents of color, 36 percent led two-year associate, or two-year, colleges; only 5 percent identified as women of color.

Signs of Progress

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That all seems to have changed of late as major research and regional comprehensive institutions have broken through and continued to shatter their own glass ceilings of racial and ethnic diversity progress that extends beyond student demographic percentages on college and university campuses. Evidence of that phenomenon can be seen among the nations largest public university system, as the California State University system, comprising 23 campus, now boasts three African Americans, of which I am blessed to be one who leads the Dominguez Hills campus. Dr.s Soraya Coley at California Polytechnic University Pomona, and Tom Jackson at Humboldt State University are the other African American presidents, and one systemwide executive Dr. Loren Blanchard, who serves as executive vice chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs for the CSU system. However, we are not the first Black presidents by any means in California, though our presence in positions of the highest levels of executive leadership has been sporadic at best.

In the California State University (CSU) system for example, which is the largest system of public higher education in the nation, the color line of Black excellence was broken some forty-one years ago, when Dr. James Rosser was appointed president of California State University Los Angeles in 1979. Within the CSU system, which educates nearly 485,000 students each year across its 23 campuses, there were other African American presidential appointments that followed at CSU Stanislaus (Marvelene Styles Hughes), CSU Northridge (Blenda Wilson), CSU Fullerton (Jewell Plummer Cobb, Milton Gordon), CSU Bakersfield (Horace Mitchell), and CSU Dominguez Hills (Herb Carter, Boyce Bowman, James Lyons, Willie Hagan). In the domain of private colleges, we can point to John Slaughter becoming president of Occidental College in 1988, and Linda Oubre being named president of Whittier College in 2018.

Fifteen years ago, it was Dr. Michael Drake who broke the barrier in Californias public research 1 institutions by becoming the first African American to permanently lead a University of California institution when he was appointed Chancellor of the Irvine campus in 2005. He served as Irvines chief executive for nine years. Subsequently, he became the first African American appointed to be the President at The Ohio State University, where he served from 2014 until his short-lived retirement in June of this year. In between those years, the UC System chronicled two more milestones, appointing Dr. Gary May as Chancellor of the University of California Davis, and Dr. Michael Brown to serve as systemwide executive vice president and provost under president Janet Napolitano. Well, the UC system has hit the lottery again as the Regents voted this week to name Michael V. Drake, M.D. as its new president.

Across the country, the recent appointment of Darryl Pines to the University of Maryland College Parks chief post brings to three the number of African American presidents serving the states University of Maryland system (Freeman Hrobowski at University of Maryland Baltimore County, and Heidi Anderson at The University of Maryland Eastern Shore (excluding presidents at HBCUs). In nearby Virginia, the recent appointment of UC Irvines Dean of the Samueli School of Engineering Dr. Gregory Washington as President of George Mason University becomes a historic achievement as he in the first African American to hold that post in that universitys history. The naming of Jonathan Holloway to the presidency at Rutgers University New Brunswick becomes a historic first as well, and recently Dr. Lori White (the oldest daughter of famed Black psychologist Dr. Joseph L. White) as the first African American and woman at Depauw University in Indiana follows that trend.

Recent appointments of African American men and women as president, and other senior administrative positions points to an inclination that Boards of Trustees and Regents have begun to initiate a change in their hiring practices. While it is difficult to make precise attribution about why, I suspect that more diverse board compositions, confronting and relaxing unconscious biases, student protests and demonstrations, congruent matches between a candidates background and an institutions need, and public pressure may in part account for the trends higher education is now witnessing. It is also worth noting that these individuals identified above are exceptionally well qualified, and bring to their roles as president an impressive blend of academic, co-curricular, and administrative experience. Whatever the reason for the explosion of appointments, it seems clear that the landscape of higher education is changing, becoming more culturally rich, and decidedly Black.

Looking Beyond Desegregating the Presidency

Beyond the historic implications of many of these appointments the nation is now witnessing, higher education has done itself a great service by further opening-up these doors of opportunity for Black people. Indeed, beyond being the beacons of intellectual enlightenment, scientific discovery, knowledge acquisition, innovation, and co-curricular learning, these colleges and universities provide a platform from which African American chief executives can demonstrate their visionary, intellectual, administrative, fiscal, student centered, athletic, and fundraising leadership. These supremely gifted men and women are more than just a single variable increase of a frequency distribution. They allow for an infusion the culturally rich values that characterize a worldview that is often different than their White counterparts bring to their roles. Expect the presidents/chancellors chronicled above to provide that necessary texture to the policies and practices of the institutions they now lead, and to higher education more broadly. Also, expect Michael Drakes influence to penetrate throughout the entire 10-campus UC system, as he continues to make his mark on the world of higher education. He is that good; he is that respected; he is that determined, and he is that culturally conscious.

Cautious Reflections

But, being African American in these positions of power and influence, while a celebratory moment for us all, presents challenges of their own, many of which are unique to Black people. The seminal scholar, Asa G. Hilliard III, argued that there was something wrong with an educational system that leaves Black people strangers to themselves, aliens to their culture, oblivious to their condition in America and around the world, and inhuman to their oppressors. And, in the wake of the George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Aubrey murders, Black Lives Matter advocacy, and universities looking to reconcile their contemporary image with a new found recognition of a racist and oppressive past, the burden for addressing those issues in higher education will fall squarely on the shoulders of presidential leaders like President Drake and others. Dont expect him to flinch.

Ironically, while we celebrate these milestones in Black achievement here, many university African American chief executives will be perceived as too Black for some in their institutions and communities, or not being Black enough, at some moment in our careers for other cohorts of colleagues and students who expectations about what should change and the pace at which that change should occur will be a point of contention. Added to that will also be the usual issues of shared governance, union demands, budget and fiscal issues, questions of police reforms, enrollment challenges, free speech debates, athletics, faculty recruitments and retention, research productivity, development and fundraising, and adaptations to a health crisis and global pandemic that is changing the landscape of how universities function in this virtual reality.

Each president, including Dr. Drake, will also have to confront the internal dissonance of managing their cultural selves in the midst of institutional legacies and academic cultures that are more Eurocentric in orientation, and oftentimes less supportive of different cultural worldviews. Indeed, I have argued in my previous writings that the central identity question that must be asked and answered is: how does one maintain a sense of cultural integrity in a world that does not support or affirm your humanity as a person of African descent? That can sometimes be a delicate dance for many, but less so for people used to navigating the waters of higher educations executive suite.

The passport to Michael Drakes future has been stamped with a measure of intellectual and emotional fortitude, parental love and support, and an uncommon sensibility and personal agency to turn a personal dream into reality, while being comfortable to accept unexpected opportunities that came his way. That allowed him to navigate the terrain of undergraduate education, medical school, residency in ophthalmology, a senior executive position in the University of California system office, a chancellorship at UC Irvine, a presidency at Ohio State, and now being named president of the UC System. Indeed, his passport book has certainly seen a full range of university experiences, but this latest stamp may be his crowning achievement. In that way, his journey, while filled with both joy and pain, is a symbol of possibility and potential for so many others who are ready to seize the moment when opportunity presents itself. For now, we welcome him and his spouse and partner, Brenda, home and back to California where opportunities abound and new challenges await. Lets make sure that he has the support he needs from the community. Afterall, our childrens futures are at stake and he is exactly the right man for the job. Amid the tensions of the moments and the adversities of the day, I suspect that the ancestors and elders are smiling today at Michael Drakes appointment. We all should be smiling as well.
While Netflix viewers were left transfixed over erotically-charged Polish drama 365 days, it seems there's a new raunchy show vying for people's attention.

Mexican drama Dark Desire is centres around married Alma, who spends a fateful weekend away from home which ignites a steamy tryst with a 23-year-old named Dario, before tragedy ensues and she's left questioning the truth about those close to her.

And fans seem to be going wild for the 18-part show - which features scenes of forbidden love, erotic stimulation and naked murder.

'I don't know why I started watching that #DarkDesire in the middle of the night - it's 365 Days all over again! Some very passionate wrestling in there,' wrote one, while a second penned: '5 minutes in and we have a murder & a cheating husband. This is already fabulous!!'

Alma Solares (pictured), a prestigious lawyer and college professor, is married to Leonardo - played by Jorge Poza

Alma meets 23-year-old Dario Guerra during her getaway (pictured, together) and they have a wild tryst

Taking to Twitter, one person wrote: 'I don't know why I started watching that #DarkDesire in the middle of the night - it's 365 Days all over again! Some very passionate wrestling in there'

The synopsis of the show, which documents two separate affairs, reads: 'Alma Solares, a prestigious lawyer and college professor, who visits her best friend for the weekend to 'process the grief' of the latter's divorce.

However, during the getaway, Alma meets 23-year-old Dario Guerra, and they have a wild tryst in their hotel room, where Dario can be seen greedily kissing Alma's body.

She returns home with her husband and daughter, determined to forget her lapse in judgment, but her life becomes a living hell.

What started as a minor adventure becomes an incendiary passion, and then a dangerous obsession, unraveling a chain of secrets of a past that fatally binds them all.'

In one scene, Alma arrives home and that night, has a dream whereby Leonardo pulls a gun on her after catching her having a steamy encounter in the pool with a very naked Dario.

Elsewhere, Leonardo 'accidentally' sprays Edith with a showerhead, making her white outfit see-through - before making love in the shower.

Thorough the first few episodes, Alma tries to fight her lust for Dario, but is haunted by the steamy memories of their initial meeting.

Alma and Leonardos daughter, Zoe Solares (played by Regina Pavon), has a bizarre fascination with death and dreams of becoming a forensic examiner

Brenda Castillo (played by Maria Fernanda Yepes) is Almas best friend and after going through a divorce, persuades her pal to hit the town

Almas husband and Zoes father, Leonardo (pictured, far right) is a judge - who is having an affair with his executive assistant, Edith

Many took to Twitter to swoon over Dario - the man Alma embarks on an affair with (pictured)

In a particularly erotic scene, Alma daydreams and has flashbacks of her night with Dario while she is in the shower.

Eventually, the pair meet again after Alma finds out about her husband's affair, and share a passionate romp in Dario's car repair shop, where the 23-year-old conveniently lives.

Alma succumbs deeper to her desire as Dario pushes her against a wall before taking her to bed and slowly undressing her.

But the betrayed wife and the toyboy are not the only ones having fun in the steamy show.

In a dream-like sequence that might be a flashback during episode two, Esteban, Leonardo's brother, chases Brenda in the woods and the pair engages in an earthy romp where his lips are all over her in an instant.

As the show progresses and Leonardo and Alma work on their marriage, they too enjoy some romps in their home, with the unfaithful husband kissing on his wife's shoulder blades in front of a mirror before taking things further and sitting her on the bed.

Taking to Twitter, one viewer penned: 'Alma & Dario. I love their chemistry,' while a second commented: 'The best friend slept with marichuys husband! Marichuys lover slept with her daughter! What in the entanglement is going on!?'

Others were quick to swoon over Dario, with one writing: 'Dario is so hot,' and a second joking: Can I have a #Dario please. Like he is sooo... hot. I am still at episode one but I DON'T CARE WHAT HAPPENS IN the REST OF EPISODES. I have decided I will be on Dario's side no matter what!'

Leonardo's brother, Esteban (pictured), is a former criminologist and keeps a close eye on the main characters

It's unsurprising many have made comparisons to Polish film 365 DNI, also known as 365 days, which tells the story of 'fiery executive' Laura Biel (Anna-Maria Sieklucka) who is kidnapped and imprisoned on a holiday to Sicily by mafia boss Massimo Torricelli (Michele Morrone).

The film, which arrived on the streaming service in the both the UK and the US on 7 June, features scenes of BDSM, voyeurism and multiple kinky sex scenes - and it sparked furious controversy on both sides of the Atlantic.

Fans of the X-rated film said it was the 'hottest thing ever' and 'made Fifty Shades of Grey look PG', but critics accused the creators of 'romanticising' a dangerous relationship between a captor and victim.
As Maria Sarat rushed to her brothers apartment in the early morning hours Monday, she knew that neither the prayers of his wife and six children back home in western Guatemala nor the natural medicine she had brewed were working.

Alfonso Sarat, 47, had developed a persistent cough days before, and felt so fatigued he had fallen asleep in his car between shifts as a dishwasher and kitchen assistant at two different restaurants. But he couldnt afford to see a doctor and was fearful of exposing himself as living in the U.S. illegally.

When Maria Sarat saw her brother, she wept, and, shaking, embraced him. He was so pale. The four men with whom he shared a westside apartment were paralyzed, fearful of authorities, of deportation. But she called 911.

If we flat out have nothing left, she said, lets see how God could help.

Courtesy of the Sarat family.

The coronavirus is raging through Hispanic communities in the Houston area, data show, and has local leaders worried that public health messaging urging residents to wear masks and maintain social distance has not reached some of the most vulnerable residents.

Beginning in late May, Harris County Public Health data gathered outside the city of Houston show rapid case growth among Hispanic residents, far outpacing the virus spread among other ethnic groups. Between half and 65 percent of all those hospitalized with the virus each week during this period also were Hispanic.

State officials have not released comprehensive racial and ethnic data on COVID-19 cases, but a snapshot from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration of 14,471 Texans tested on July 3 showed Hispanic patients made up 37 percent of those tested and 72 percent of the positive tests.

The city of Houston lacks ethnicity data on most of its cases, but a UTHealth School of Public Health analysis that covers both city and county residents confirms the trend  and that it is accelerating.

Roughly a third of Hispanics being tested for the virus in Harris County are receiving a positive result, according to the study, by far the highest positivity rate of any ethnic group and multiples higher than what public officials have said is a manageable level.

Theres no question this is spreading right now more quickly in the Hispanic community than in other communities, said Houston Methodist CEO Dr. Marc Boom. Lets be clear  its spreading everywhere  but particularly rapidly in Hispanic patients.

The countys 10 ZIP codes with the highest rate of positive tests, in fact, are all predominantly Hispanic, according to the UTHealth analysis, which drew data from all Texas Medical Center-affiliated facilities countywide, hospitals and primary care clinics alike.

Two of the five ZIP codes with the highest positivity rates are in southwest Houstons Gulfton and Sharpstown, not far from Alfonso Sarats apartment.

Residents there are not hearing public health messaging aimed at containing the virus's spread, said Aisha Siddiqui, executive director of Culture of Health - Advancing Together, a nonprofit that serves the areas Hispanic and immigrant communities. This is a particular risk, she said, given that the area is packed with huge apartment complexes, often with many people living in the same unit.

You would hardly see a mask in this area. They are not getting the information, they are not taking precautions, Siddiqui said. Residents living in the U.S. illegally are getting sick, but they don't want to talk or go to the hospital.

Alfonso Sarat, too, had no plans to visit a hospital. So Maria Sarat bought a pound of corn for homemade chicken soup and made an herbal tea with cinnamon and ginger for her brother, even though her husband was out of work and they were reliant on food donated from their church.

But now, on Monday, Alfonso Sarat could barely speak. The frightened voice that had summoned her that morning  What should we do?  belonged to one of his roommates.

After paramedics arrived, Alfonso Sarat was taken to Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital and placed in intensive care with a breathing mask. Clinicians confirmed his diagnosis: COVID-19. He did not seem to be improving, Maria Sarat said, after getting an update from hospital staff over the phone.

Missed messages

Community leaders say the surge is not a surprise, given that Hispanic residents are more likely than others to work many jobs that cant be done from home  and many that were deemed essential even when stay-home orders were in effect.

Many of these undocumented workers, theyre front-line, essential workers, working in construction, in bars, as cooks and dishwashers, said Houston City Councilman Robert Gallegos. Our city as a whole is less safe when our undocumented neighbors are too afraid to get tested or seek medical help when they most need it.

County Judge Lina Hidalgo this week echoed that.

There should be no surprise that our minority community is disproportionately impacted, she said. Many of these folks are the folks that call my office saying that their supervisor is making them work when theyre sick, that their supervisor is keeping the business open when they know it should be closed, that theyre not taking adequate precautions in the workplace as they should.

Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

Indeed, U.S. Census Bureau data from 2018 show that in Harris County, Hispanics comprise 43 percent of residents, but account for 81 percent of construction workers; 65 percent of building and grounds workers; 57 percent of repair and maintenance laborers and 50 percent of food industry employees.

Hispanic residents are more likely to be exposed to the virus while earning a living, which compounds public officials and health care leaders concerns that many have not heard public health messages.

This is particularly true, officials noted, because Hispanic residents have a higher prevalence of conditions including obesity and diabetes, which heighten the risk of COVID-19 patients becoming seriously ill.

City and county officials have responded to the surge of cases among Hispanic residents by launching targeted outreach campaigns. They have long stressed that no one will be asked about immigration status or health insurance at testing sites, but stepped up that messaging with targeted social media initiatives and increased testing in Hispanic neighborhoods.

County Commissioner Adrian Garcia worried during Tuesdays Commissioners Court meeting, however, that public health officials traditional efforts had been proven inadequate, citing surging case counts. He called for creative thinking on how to deal with this infection rate.

Hidalgo responded by saying she hoped to present an item for the courts approval in two weeks that would fund a more robust outreach effort.

Hospital leaders, too, have responded to the influx with renewed messaging efforts.

We definitely have a significant number of patients who are Hispanic who are working front-line jobs  many times more than one front-line job  who economically need to, and we have a significant number of the patients who are essentially Spanish-speaking only, said Boom, the Methodist CEO. Were hearing from some of them that the messages that we all think weve been chanting from the rooftops have not been getting through to them as effectively.

From the tail of the last wave of COVID cases in May to early July, Boom said, Methodists share of patients who are Hispanic roughly doubled, from a quarter of patients to more than half.

Memorial Hermann CEO David Callender said he, too, has seen a similar surge in Hispanic patients since early June, particularly at the systems large hospital in southwest Houston  where Sarat is in intensive care.

Courtesy of the Sarat family

Memorial Hermann has distributed numerous posters in Spanish to businesses in neighborhoods around that campus urging visitors to maintain social distancing, wash hands and wear masks.

Public health messages also have not reached the families seeking care at El Centro de Corazon in Houstons East End, CEO Marcie Mir said.

That federally qualified health clinic, which serves predominantly uninsured, low-income and Spanish-speaking patients, has seen a spike in concerns about the virus, conducting 14 times as many COVID tests in the first half of June as were done in all of April.

Most of the clinics COVID-19 patients were exposed to the virus at home by family members, Mir said, which is a particular risk when many of her clients live in crowded homes or apartments with several generations present.

How can we best educate our patients and communities about how to maintain that social distancing and disinfecting? she said. I dont think weve done a good enough job in providing that message out to our Hispanic community and other communities that dont have the ability to self-isolate in one room while the rest of the house can live normally.

Are you OK?

When the message is missed, it can cost lives.

Arturo Castro hadnt seen his mother, Idalia Garcia, in weeks when she called in late June to tell him she wasnt feeling well.

Both had worked at the DAV Thrift Store on Griggs Road, which had shuttered during the spring shutdowns. But when the store reopened, Garcia went back to work. The Laredo native had worked there nearly the entire 30 years she had lived in Houston. Castros wife, meanwhile, had just given birth, and he stayed home.

Garcia was an active person who liked dancing, who made coffee at night and chatted with friends on the phone, but she had stopped going out, stopped visiting Castros four children  and wore a mask at work. Soon, however, she felt ill enough to seek out a COVID-19 test.

Courtesy of the Sarat family.

As she pulled up in front of Castros apartment, she stayed in her seat and cracked the window. The test had come back positive, she said.

She had worked a shift that day and visited a doctors office, but she had grown impatient with the long wait and left without being seen. Garcia asked if her son had any medication. He did, but he didnt think it made sense to give her someone elses antibiotics.

Im going to go home and rest, she said. Im just tired.

Still, she couldnt smell or taste, couldnt get a full breath. He tried to keep her calm. Nah, dont worry about it, he told her about the COVID-19 diagnosis. Thats not real.

That night he called to check in. He asked repeatedly, Are you OK? Do you want to go to the doctor again? She said she was fine.

When he called the next morning just after 7, she didnt pick up. After several more tries, Castro drove to her apartment near Griggs and MLK, worried this would be the last time he would see his mother.

The manager of the complex gave him a key, but the door was dead-bolted. The manager let him use a chair to break the window.

In her room, he found the light and TV on, and a cup of coffee on her nightstand. Her phone was in her hand, resting on her chest. She wasnt moving. At her bedside, he wept.

mike.morris@chron.com

olivia.tallet@chron.com

stephanie.lamm@chron.com
Activists and lawyers have called for the officer to be fired. Local authorities are investigating the latest death.

A police officer in a Milwaukee suburb whos killed three people in five years was suspended by the citys Police and Fire Commission (PFC) on Wednesday, following calls from local parents and lawyers for his firing.

Joseph Mensah, an officer with the Wauwatosa Police Department, was previously put on administrative leave with pay after the death of Alvin Cole, a 17-year-old Black youth shot by Mensah in February.

The PFCs five members voted unanimously to suspend Mensah, though he will continue to receive pay while Coles death is under investigation by the local district attorneys office.

Police claim Cole fired a gun at them before his killing. Lawyers representing Coles family dispute the claim.





Aside from Cole, Mensah killed two other people: Jay Anderson in 2016 and Antonio Gonzalez in 2015.

The killings of Anderson, 25, and Gonzalez, 29, were both ruled justified.

The complaint to the PFC was filed by Kimberly Motley on June 18, a lawyer representing the families of the shooting victims.

Hes only been an officer for five years, and within that five, very short years of him being an officer, he has fired his weapon 19 times, Motley told Al Jazeera. He is also the only officer in his precinct to have killed anyone in the past seven years, she said.

I do think its a homicide. I do think he should be criminally charged for shooting and killing Alvin Cole, Motley said. I also think that there may be an argument to be made that he should also be charged with homicide as it relates to Jay Anderson and Antonio Gonzales.

The Cole family has received support from national organisations as protests on police brutality have spread throughout the US following the alleged murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The support included rapper Jay-Zs Team ROC.

JAY-Z's Team Roc calls for the prosecution of police officer who has killed 3 men of color The social justice sector of Roc Nation wrote an open letter in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to Milwaukee DA @DAJohnChisholm,calling for the firing & prosecution of officer Joseph Mensah pic.twitter.com/RvDfh7jSCV  JAY-Z Daily (@JAY_Z_Daily) July 2, 2020

Team ROC paid for a full-page advertisement in a local paper to call on John Chisholm, the Milwaukee County district attorney, to prosecute Mensah.

If you fail to prosecute Mensah, youre doing a disservice to the legacies of Alvine Cole, Antonio Gonzalez and Jay Anderson, the advertisement said.

The law demands each shot fired from a police officers gun is carefully and thoroughly scrutinized. Nineteen shots and three deaths in five years are not a pattern of accidents.

Jon Cermele, the lawyer representing Mensah, said public pronouncements certainly taint the PFCs impartiality, according to local outlet Fox 6.
Antoinette Keegan and her mother Christine with photos of Mary and Martina. Photo: Tom Burke

The daughter of Stardust fire disaster campaigner Christine Keegan has vowed to carry on her mother's fight for justice following her death earlier this week.

Antoinette Keegan said her mother (84) died on Tuesday thinking the State had finally fulfilled its promise to hold an inquest into the deaths of 48 young people in the blaze.

They included Antoinette's sisters Mary (19) and Martina (16), who died in the fire at the Stardust nightclub in Artane on Valentine's Day 1981, which Antoinette survived.

Despite a promise by Attorney General Seamus Woulfe last September that a fresh inquest would be held, the family have still not been given a date despite lobbying for one for nearly four decades.

Crusade

To comfort her dying mother, who took ill on the 39th anniversary of the tragedy, Antoinette said she was forced to lie and tell her a date had finally been set.

"She died not knowing this wasn't the case," she said.

Antoinette and her mother became leading campaigners for justice and were heavily involved in the Stardust Victims Committee.

To honour her mother's crusade, Antoinette vowed to fight on for answers.

"I'm more determined now than I ever was," she said.

"We're left here lingering on like beggars, but I'm not letting it go. There's my poor mother gone to meet her maker. It's an absolute disgrace."

Due to Covid restrictions, her mother's funeral this Saturday at St Joseph the Artisan Church in Coolock will be restricted to 45 mourners.

However, Antoinette said that anyone who wants to pay tribute can do so during a memorial service to be held at 10am on Saturday at the Stardust Memorial Park in Coolock.

Inquiries into the fire showed a number of escape routes from the dance hall were blocked because emergency doors had been secured with chains.

Concerns have also been raised about the investigation of the scene, which politicians and the media were allowed to visit only days later.

Despite findings of safety breaches, there were no prosecutions.

An initial finding of prob-able arson meant the relatives of the dead and injured were unable to sue the club owners and operators for alleged negligence.

In 1983, the owners of the Stardust were awarded damages of more than 730,000 after suing Dublin Corporation.

Families and survivors have been lobbying the Government for years for a fresh inquiry.

Tributes

Tributes poured in yesterday following the news of Mrs Keegan's death.

A statement from the Justice for Stardust 48 committee on Twitter read: "It is with deep sadness that we have to ann-ounce the passing of Christine.

"Our thoughts are with Antoinette and all the Keegan family. Christine was an amazing woman, our hero, our fighter for justice for our loved ones. She is now at rest with John, Mary and Martina."

The families' solicitor Darragh Mackin said: "Truly devastating. Mrs Christine Keegan was a real-life legend who never gave up in her quest for truth and justice for the Stardust."

Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald tweeted: "So sorry to hear of the death of Christine Keegan, a wonderful mother who lost two beautiful daughters in the Stardust disaster. Justice must be served."
Rachel Ellsworth never thought shed home school her children. Even when she started distance learning with 10-year-old Brigit and 7-year-old Joseph, she loathed it. She just wanted them to make it to summer.

But as COVID-19 cases kept climbing in the United States  and especially in Florida where she lives  the medical intensive care nurse felt she could not send her children back to school.

It became pretty obvious to me that this was not going to be better by August, the 36-year-old from Indian Harbor Beach told TODAY Parents. When the governor said that he was opening schools again I just decided, nope.

As part of their

A recent survey of 1,000 parents from Varsity Tutors found a whopping 47% of parents are considering home schooling for the 2020 school year. Normally only 3% of families home school in a given year, the organization said.

The phrase can are considering does some heavy lifting. It doesn't mean 47% will (home school) but the fact that they are really considering it speaks to their fears and one is will school be safe? Brian Galvin, chief academic officer for Varsity Tutors, told TODAY Parents. One of the things we've been hearing from a lot of parents is these hybrid models that schools are proposing put a lot of strain on the parent.

The survey also found that almost half, 48%, might not send their children to school even if they are open and 43% dont believe in-person fall classes will even happen. Yet, 61% worry that their children faced the COVID slide and lost skills with virtual learning.

Home school provides safety, consistency

Celeste Lawson-Schlitzs daughter Julianna Joy attends school in Naperville, Illinois. They havent heard what the school plans for next year and it is small so Lawson-Schlitz believes class size will be manageable and kids can stay six feet apart. But, there still are unknowns, such as whether children can actually keep their masks on for a full school day or stay away from one another during gym. Theres just too much uncertainty.

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They've already said what happens if one person has COVID-19? Well, the schools to close down for two weeks, Lawson-Schlitz, 50, told TODAY Parents. Then we're just back to where we were again we started in March.

Online classes keep Julianna Joy busy in the afternoons when she would normally enjoy extracurricular and spending time with friends. (Courtesy Celeste Lawlson-Schlitz)

Julianna Joy spends a lot of time with her grandparents and the family doesnt want to risk their health.

If she goes back to school full time or even part time with people that aren't quarantining, she could be exposing her elderly grandparents, Lawson-Schlitz said. We're just not sure how things are going to work.

Of course, home schooling is not an option for many families, because of finances, logistics or both.

"I fully embraced the fact that I am privileged enough to have this choice and feel like at this point in my life it makes sense for me to have the kids at home," Ellsworth said. "And if that's two less kids in the classroom to make room for learning for others, that's an added bonus."

Though there are many free resources, homeschool curriculums and add-ons can run upwards of $300-$600 per child a year.

Programs like Outschool and others offer low-priced Zoom classes that can supplement curriculums. When all extracurricular activities were canceled, Lawson-Schlitz signed Julianna Joy up for Outschool classes to keep her daughter occupied in the afternoons. It also gave her a chance to interact with other kids her age that helps her cope with social isolation.

She misses the human interaction. She misses that a lot, Lawson-Schlitz said. You have to find some kind of outlet.

Marnie Benjamin also uses Outschool with her children to supplement their distance learning last year. Her son, Aaron, loved taking an oceans class every Monday. Using those courses to bolster the traditional coursework kept her children motivated. When it became clear that school would not return to normal this year, Benjamin jumped at the chance to home school.

I feel comfortable either remote schooling or home schooling because I know that there are resources to lean on, the 48-year-old from Marlton, New Jersey, told TODAY Parents.

Marnie Benjamin's sons learned so much thanks to the supplemental learning she used to keep them occupied during pandemic learning. They're coding, learning about DNA and ocean biology before they would if they were just doing prescribed school work. (Courtesy Elaina Joy Photography)

While she believes their school district did a good job transitioning to virtual school it seems too risky for her children to attend. Benjamin and her husband have diabetes and her children have epilepsy. She worries about a seizure sending them to the emergency room in the middle of a COVID-19 surge. But she also enjoyed working with Aaron, 9, and Max, 6.

Having them home actually gave me the opportunity to almost be a one-on-one, she said. I was able to guide them and I kept saying to myself, This is working.' They both did very well in school and they both had great supports in school but I felt like I was even able to help them even more.

And, she can provide something that school cannot: Consistency.

Why dont we have consistency? If we know everybody is going home, if the virus is going to blow up why dont we allow the students to begin (at home) from day one?" Benjamin said.

Ellsworth wonders the same thing.

Nothing really gave me the confidence that they were going to be a consistent method of learning for my child unless I took responsibility for it, she said. "That is in no way a reflection of the teachers or the district."

While Rachel Ellsworth struggled to teach her older children subjects from two grades while also entertaining her 3-year-old son Matthew, she still believes home school will be safer and more consistent for her children next year. (Courtesy Rachel Ellsworth)

Even though she originally disliked distance learning, Ellsworth has embraced home schooling. To build excitement, everyone took part in picking a science course for the year: Brigit selected botany, Joseph earth energy and she picked marine biology.

One of the parts about home schooling that is the coolest is to do a marine biology class and then go to the beach and or go to the river or and try to go find examples of it and find ways to make it exciting for them, she said. I'm choosing home schooling because I believe it's the best option for my kids.
New Delhi, July 16 : The jewellery industry which is going through a slowdown in consumption demand amid the pandemic would require digital strategies for its growth post the Covid-19 crisis, according to a report by the World Gold Council.

The report noted that although the online gold market is still in its nascent stage in India, digital and social activity plays a key role in the purchase journey.

"In urban India, consumers browse online/mobile apps pre-purchase and use online blogs and social media for ideas and inspiration. Mobile apps/wallets are playing a key role in the growth of Internet Investment Gold," it said.

COVID-19 has caused retailers in India to re-evaluate their brick and mortar business model and implement an enhanced digital strategy, said the report on the online gold market in India, adding that successful retailers embrace an omni-channel strategy to boost online sales.

"There is a real opportunity for growth in India's online gold market if it can improve the end-to-end gold jewellery purchase journey and thus establish the 'loyalty loop'. To drive market growth post COVID-19 the industry needs digital strategies that will ensure gold jewellery reaches more consumers at the consideration stage of their purchase journey and reaches them more often," it said.

The WGC report noted that the outbreak of COVID-19 and consequent closure of stores from mid-March caused jewellery sales to collapse.

With stores closed, retailers such as major jewellery brands rolled out various incentives and offers in April, such as providing opportunities to lock in prices, discounts on the gold rate, gold ownership certificates or gold vouchers, and exchange of gold coins for jewellery via their e-commerce websites during Akshaya Tritiya, it said.

"Even so, online sales volumes were nowhere near the same period in 2019. COVID-19 has forced jewellery retailers to reconsider their brick and mortar business model and implement digital as a core strategy,a the report said.

This focus on digital will be key to a successful growth post COVID-19, but more importantly the seamless integration of offline and online channels will play a crucial role in driving sales, it added.
Like the song by The Replacements says: Here comes a regular. In the first shot of Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets, a man bearing coffee slowly zigzags his way across a hot Las Vegas street and arrives at his destination. Hes our introduction to the Roaring 20s Cocktail Lounge, way, way off the Las Vegas Strip, a bar about to enter its final day and night and early morning of existence. The film is a fascinating experiment in documentary/fiction hybrid moviemaking by the brothers Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross.

Celine Dion can have it, the bartender with the ZZ Top beard mutters, once the film ventures inside. Im movin.

One by one, we meet a sharply realized variety of hard-drinking regulars. More than the bartender, the true host of this enticingly dodgy enterprise (more on that soon) is Michael, a reedy, creased but lively-eyed sometime actor who cleans up the bar in exchange for the couch over in the corner.

At one point, the camera catches him reading a Eugene ONeill play collection, checked out from the library. The movie is ONeills rummy rhapsody The Iceman Cometh, old Vegas style, with a clear eye and an empathetic gaze at the lure, and the trap, of a life defined by alcohol.
GLENDALE, WI  Glendale is the second North Shore community to implement a mask requirement amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Wisconsin. Glendale officials passed a resolution this week requiring masks be worn indoors in buildings that are open to the public.

Shorewood passed an ordinance earlier in July.

According to Glendale officials, the resolution calls for people 4 years old and up to carry masks with them in Glendale, and to wear them in certain indoor locations. Businesses can call police if they need help enforcing the resolution, Glendale officials said.

Officials said they went with a resolution, instead of an ordinance, based on the different ways ordinances and resolutions are enforced.

An ordinance has to have an enforcement mechanism. Many of our city ordinances are complaint-based. For example, if you refuse to cut your grass, until a neighbor complains, the city does not enforce the ordinance. We do not have the city services staff patrol the city look for uncut lawns that are not in compliance with city property maintenance ordinances. We only respond to complaints, Mayor Bryan Kennedy said in a statement.

Resolution At A Glance

Anyone, ages 4 and older, is required to wear a face mask in indoor public spaces.

People must have a face covering when leaving home or place of residence.

Glendale requires wearing the face covering in an indoor public space or where social distancing is not feasible.



Exceptions

People under four years of age.

People who fall into The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions guidelines for those who should not wear face coverings due to a medical condition, mental health condition, developmental disability, or are otherwise covered under the Americans With Disabilities Act.

People with an upper respiratory chronic condition or silent disabilities.

People persons in a setting where it is not practicable or feasible to wear face coverings including when obtaining goods or services such as the receipt of dental services or medical treatment.

Story continues

Businesses

A Glendale business implementing a mask requirement can receive police assistance if necessary.

If a customer refuses to honor a business mask policy, the business may call the police. An officer will ticket that person for trespassing and escort them off the property

Businesses are required to post their policies and procedures on their entrances.

This article originally appeared on the Whitefish Bay Patch
Campus News

Restrictive federal guidelines for student visas rescinded, bringing relief to UB community

By CHARLOTTE HSU

Rest assured that we will continue to monitor the policy landscape for our international students. At UB, it is our collective imperative that all of our students can achieve their educational goals and professional aspirations. 

In the face of heavy criticism and multiple lawsuits, the U.S. government has rescinded student visa guidelines that had threatened to strip international students of their F-1 and M-1 visas if their coursework was fully online.

In deeply uncertain times, the now obsolete policy change  originally announced July 6 by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)  would have added to the hardship for international students and their families during a global pandemic.

UB  with 5,500 enrolled and incoming international students  was among higher education institutions across the country that had advocated against the guidelines. On Monday, New York Attorney General Letitia James had filed a lawsuit to challenge the guidelines, with strong support from UB and SUNY, both of which had worked closely with the attorney generals office to gather crucial information.

Many other states and universities also took legal action, and the U.S. government agreed to reverse its policy, as announced on Tuesday by a federal judge during a court hearing for a case brought by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

President Satish K. Tripathi said in a statement on Tuesday that it was heartening to see the entire U.S. higher education community coming together on behalf of international students to effectively compel the Department of Homeland Security to rescind the policy directive.

Rest assured that we will continue to monitor the policy landscape for our international students, he added. At UB, it is our collective imperative that all of our students can achieve their educational goals and professional aspirations.

I am delighted that DHS has rescinded this harmful policy, allowing international students the flexibility to pursue their educational aspirations so as not to disrupt their plans and in a way that protects their health, says John J. Wood, interim vice provost for international education. The policy was harmful to our students and to UB. At institutions across the U.S., international students are already very worried and very anxious. Their lives were disrupted by this ICE policy.

UB had joined with higher education institutions across the country to advocate against the ICE guidance. Efforts included working with elected officials to change the federal governments stance, as noted in a statement that Tripathi made last week in support of UBs international community, and again in his statement on Tuesday.

From our founding, our international students have immeasurably enriched the University at Buffalo, Tripathi said in Tuesdays statement. Their diversity of background, perspective and lived experience greatly enhances UBs research, education and engagement mission. As always, the University at Buffalo is committed to providing all of our students with a transformative educational experience so that we can make a positive impact on our local and global communities.
Sinn Fein MLA and Assembly Health Committee chair Colm Gildernew has said that it is "concerning" that areas of deprivation have higher Covid-19 death tolls and called for immediate action to prevent more deaths if a second wave hits.

Mr Gildernew was responding today to figures published by the Belfast Telegraph that revealed that an East Belfast community has recorded more COVID-19 deaths than any other community across the north.

The figures showed that the deaths of 36 residents in parts of east Belfast - including some of the most affluent parts of the city, such as Stormont and Ballyhackamore - were registered by May 29. A further 28 deaths of people living in Castlereagh, Clarawood, Gilnahirk and Knock had been registered by the same date.

All parts of Belfast were badly affected by the virus, according to the figures released by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA).

Read More

There were 45 Covid-19 deaths registered in north Belfast, which takes in the likes of Crumlin Road, Ardoyne and New Lodge. A further 30 deaths were registered for people with postcodes in the area including the Shankill Road and Ballygomartin.

There were 33 deaths attributed to the virus in south Belfast, although the figures show that Saintfield Road, Four Winds, Carryduff, Knockbreda and Newtownbreda were worse affected than the Malone Road, Ormeau and Lisburn Road areas.

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The figures do not state where the person died or where they contracted the virus.

Following the release of the figures, Mr Gildernew has said that the Department of Health must make tangible and immediate efforts to tackle health inequalities.

"In recent days it has been confirmed that our more deprived and densely populated communities have been impacted most by the COVID-19 pandemic. One area of East Belfast has recorded the most deaths due to the virus, according to NISRA.

Read More

Areas of high deprivation are known to have ongoing and largely unaddressed underlying health conditions such as obesity, respiratory disease and various cancers.

As the pandemic took hold in recent months, it is clear that inequalities in health, housing and income have become even more deadly for our citizens who are trapped in areas of high deprivation."

Read More

Mr Gildernew added that he was deeply concerned that a second wave of COVID-19 in the future could be even more deadly.

"A second wave would be likely to disproportionately affect deprived communities where underlying conditions are even more life-threatening and low income inhibits the ability of the poor to access face masks and hygiene products.

Immediate action is needed across all departments, and in particular the Department of Health, to prepare our more deprived communities for the possibility of a second wave of COVID-19.
NobleWorks is helping the nation send a smile from a safe distance, with the introduction of 85 humorous new greeting cards for a variety of everyday occasions.

Included in the company's latest release are hilarious new designs for popular card-sending occasions, including Birthday, Thank You, Congratulations, Get Well, Retirement, Anniversary, New Baby, Bon Voyage, Divorce, Engagement, Good Luck, New Home, New Job and Sorry. Designs range from funny cartoons by some of the world's most clever artists, to retro-inspired "Talk Bubbles" images, to irreverent gags in the "RedRocket" line, plus animal-themed "PetiGreet" cards, and more.

See All Cards Online

All of NobleWorks' new Everyday Humor cards can be viewed via catalog pdf at: https://www.nobleworksinc.com/current-everyday-wholesale-catalogs.html. The entire product line also can be viewed at http://www.NobleWorksCards.com or on the company's wholesale-only website at http://www.NobleWorksInc.com.

About NobleWorks

Known as "The Humor Company," NobleWorks is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year! Its line includes thousands of everyday and seasonal cards ranging from slightly silly to somewhat risque. All of NobleWorks' counter cards wholesale at just $1.75 each. All cards are printed on recycled paper, on demand, in North America.

(Note to Editors: Hi-res jpgs of all of NobleWorks' new Everyday cards are available upon request.)
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Up to 150 British jihadis and their brides will be celebrating today after senior judges ruled that Shamima Begum must be allowed to return to the UK to fight the Home Office's decision to revoke her British citizenship for joining the murderous Islamic State regime.

Begum  one of three east London schoolgirls who travelled to Syria to join ISIS when she was 15 - was stripped of her UK passport after she was found, nine months pregnant, in a Syrian refugee camp in February last year.

Tory MP Andrew Bridgen was left furious by today's ruling saying it risked a flood of jihadis returning. He told MailOnline: 'It opens the door for all her fellow jihadi brides to return to Britain  and potentially their terrorist partners too.

'Most Brits will rightly think that when you swear allegiance to another country that declares war on Britain, that you have given up all the rights and protections and privileges of your British citizenship. After today's ruling it appears you have not'.

Appeal: Begum challenged the decision made by then Home Secretary Sajid Javid saying she now feared for her life. Her third child Jarrah, pictured in her arms, died at three weeks old

Tooba Gonda (left), a former AK-47-wielding ISIS bride who groomed others online and bragged online about her 'real freedom' in Syria before caliphate collapsed. Jihadi bride Amira Abase (right) from Bethnal Green is rumoured to have been killed in an air strike but there are reports that Begum's schoolfriend could still alive

Former bouncy castle salesman Siddhartha Dhar, 36, known as jihadi Sid, could be among the male jihadis looking to get back to Britain following today's ruling

'Hungry' Hamza Parvez, Aseel Muthana, and 'Jihadi Jack' Letts have also been stripped of their British citizenship

Begum's brother-in-law says he is stuck 'between a rock and a hard place' The brother-in-law of Shamima Begum said today that he is stuck 'between a rock and a hard place'. Mohammed Rahman, an electrician, said he does not want to cause rifts between him and his brother's family by airing his views on his sister-in-law's bid to return to Britain. He said: 'She's part of my extended family. I am not going to try and cause any rifts between me and my brother. I'm very uncomfortable with the whole situation. I'm in between a rock and a hard place. I have my own opinions. I don't want to offend anyone.' He said he was not very 'close' to Ms Begum's family, saying he found out she went to Syria on the news and about the Court of Appeal's decision via Twitter. Mr Rahman said: 'I'm not very close with my brother's wife - I've met Shamima, but only at family functions. There's a big age difference between me and her anyway. That's it. I have sympathy for her family. It's a tough thing for a family to lose a child, but that's as far as I'll go. I only found out she went to Syria on the news. I didn't even know. They didn't broach it with me. You take the hint.' Mr Rahman said he could see both sides of the argument over whether Ms Begum should be allowed to return to the UK. He said: 'If that's what she can do, that's what she can do. I can't see what other option she has. I can understand her point of view, equally I see how people can say 'you've made your bed and now lie in it.'' Advertisement

These include Tooba Gondal, a former AK-47-wielding ISIS bride who groomed others online and bragged online about her 'real freedom' in Syria before the caliphate collapsed.

She is also in the Al Hol camp with Begum and has begged to come back to the UK because of 'dire conditions' there.

British jihadi fighters believed to be alive including former bouncy castle salesman turned alleged executioner Siddhartha Dhar, 36, 'Jihadi Jack' Letts, ISIS grave digger Shahan Choudhury, fast food addict 'Hungry' Hamza Parvez and Cardiff ice cream salesman Aseel Muthana may also try to seize on Begum's legal victory.

UK civil rights groups including Liberty helped launch Begum's legal battle in Britain and today the Court of Appeal found she could not have an 'effective' appeal against the decision by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) in February while she is out of the country - and said letting her back into the UK 'outweighed national security concerns'.

The three judges, led by Lord Justice Flaux, said: 'The Court concludes that Ms Begum's appeal to the Court of Appeal should be allowed, so that she can have leave to enter the UK in order for there to be a fair and effective appeal before SIAC'.

Mother-of-three Begum, 20, whose children with Dutch jihadi husband Yago Riedijk all died, is still in the Al Hol camp in northern Syria but could be heading back to Britain within weeks after today's landmark ruling.

Her first two children, a one-year-old girl and a three-month-old boy, died in the caliphate after becoming sick and malnourished, while her third child Jarrah died shortly after he was born in the camp where his mother still lives.

The Government is 'bitterly disappointed' by the court's ruling in the Shamima Begum case, Downing Street said.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'The Government's priority is maintaining our national security, and decisions to deprive individuals of their citizenship are not taken lightly.

'We will always ensure the safety and security of the UK and will not allow anything to jeopardise this.'

Sajid Javid, who made the decision while Home Secretary, tweeted he was 'deeply concerned' by the judgment.

Jihadi bride Shamima Begum: What happens next and how quickly can she return to the UK? What happens next? The Home Office is rushing to appeal today's ruling to prevent Shamima Begum returning to Britain. The Government will file papers with the Supreme Court within days. Judges will look at their arguments and then decide by the end of July whether they will grant a full hearing on the issue. If they reject the appeal either at the first stage or after a full hearing than Begum would be likely to get back into the UK within hours. The Special Immigration Appeals Commission, a semi-secret court which hears national security case, ruled that Ms Begum has not been rendered stateless by the UK because she can ask Bangladesh for citizenship. The tribunal also ruled it was fair to hear her case while she is still in Syrian camp. They will now turn to consider again whether ministers had legitimate national security grounds to bar Ms Begum from coming back to the UK - probably with her in court. What happens if she does return to Britain? She would be arrested. Mr Wallace has said everyone who returned from taking part in the conflict in Syria and Iraq must be investigated by police. Scotland Yard would launch an investigation to determine if she committed any crimes, and if she poses a threat to national security. Would she be prosecuted? After Begum and her friends travelled to Syria, the head of counter-terrorism at the time, Met Police assistant commissioner Mark Rowley, said: 'They have no reason to fear, if nothing else comes to light, that we will be treating them as terrorists.' Tasnime Akunjee, the solicitor for the families of the three girls, said: 'Effectively, this is immunity.' The Director of Public Prosecutions, Max Hill QC, said in 2017 that it was right that those who travelled to Syria out of naivety at a young age and who returned in a state of 'utter disillusionment' should be diverted away from the criminal courts. What offences could Begum be charged with? Ministers are introducing terror laws to target IS fighters who cannot be prosecuted for other crimes because of a lack of proof. The Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Bill would make it an offence punishable by up to ten years in jail for anyone to enter a 'designated area' abroad unless they can provide a 'reasonable excuse'. But the proposed legislation could not be applied retrospectively to Begum. The sentence for being a member of IS, or supporting the group, is up to ten years in jail. Other offences that could be considered include disseminating terrorist materials, terrorist fundraising and terrorist training. Any involvement in killings could lead to a murder charge. How easy would it be to bring a prosecution in Britain? Even if Begum assisted in atrocities or committed other crimes such as encouraging others to go to Syria, it would be difficult to prove. Jihadis returning to their home countries have been prosecuted on the basis of fingerprints recovered by American troops from bomb parts on the battlefield, but it is unlikely that evidence would have been gathered on the activities of a 15-year-old jihadi bride. Advertisement

He said he respected the court and would limit how much he said about the case, but that there were important principles at stake.

'Any restrictions of rights and freedoms faced by Ms Begum are a direct consequence of the actions she has taken, in violation of both government guidance and common morality,' he said.

'It is not clear to me why an appeal could not be made abroad using modern technology.

'However, this is not solely a matter of justice. It is also a matter of national security.'

The Home Office says it will appeal the Begum ruling to the Supreme Court in attempt to stop her entering the UK. But if Priti Patel's department loses it faces the embarrassing prospect of an extremist they claim poses a risk to the country's safety being allowed back to the UK - and opens the door to other jihadi brides and their extremist partners flooding back to Britain.

It said in a statement: 'This is a very disappointing decision by the Court. We will now apply for permission to appeal this judgment, and to stay its effects pending any onward appeal. The Government's top priority remains maintaining our national security and keeping the public safe'.

The Court of Appeal has acknowledged that letting her back into the country raises 'national security concerns' but said 'the only way in which she can have a fair and effective appeal before SIAC is for Ms Begum to be permitted to come into the UK to pursue that appeal'. The judgment added: 'Fairness and justice must, on the facts of this case, outweigh the national security concerns, so that the LTE (leave to enter the UK) appeals should be allowed'.

If Begum returns to Britain for the citizenship case she will either win and be handed back her British passport, or lose and face deportation with the process expected to run into 2021.

Daniel Furner of Birnberg Peirce Solicitors, representing Begum, said in a statement after the decision: 'The Court's judgment today is an important reminder that fairness and the rule of law remain cornerstones of the British legal system, and that they set the legal limits within which the Home Secretary may act.

'Justice cannot be defeated, or indefinitely delayed, because a case is difficult or because national security is engaged. Fundamental rights are not extinguished because a person is abroad, or because the allegations against them are serious.

'As important as the reiteration of those centuries' old principles was the Court's unqualified rejection of the Home Secretary's argument that the impediments to Ms Begum's participation in her appeal were of her own making. As the Court said, approaching the case on that basis risks putting the cart before the horse.

Ms Begum has never had a fair opportunity to give her side of the story. The Court itself noted the 'obvious' difference between interviews given to journalists, and instructions provided to a solicitor in court proceedings.

Ms Begum is not afraid of facing British justice, she welcomes it. But the stripping of her citizenship without a chance to clear her name is not justice, it is the opposite.'

Civil liberties groups have hailed today's decision.

Mohammed Shafiq, CEO of the Ramadhan Foundation, said: 'The decision of the Court of Appeal to allow Shamima Begum to return to the UK is the right decision and British citizens should welcome it.

'This is a great victory for all those that believe in a equal society and oppose discrimination in applying citizenship rules. I hope she returns to the UK and is held to account for her alleged crimes like any other British citizen'.

Maya Foa, director of not-for-profit organisation Reprieve, which is calling for all Britons held in camps in north-east Syria to be repatriated to the UK, said after the Shamima Begum ruling: 'It was always unsafe and unjust to make Brits in Syria someone else's problem.

'The Government must urgently revisit its policy and repatriate the tiny number of remaining British families, to face British justice wherever there are charges to answer'.

Jihadi bride Shamima Begum, 20, is desperate to return to Britain five years after she voluntarily left to join ISIS in Syria - her British citizenship was revoked when she was found in a refugee camp after the caliphate fell last year

ISIS' jihadi bride 'matchmaker', a bouncy castle salesman turned 'executioner' and 'Jihadi Jack': The British extremists vying to return to the UK ISIS' British 'matchmaker' British mother-of-one Tooba Gondal, 25, moved to London as a child and had previously claimed that she had permanent British residence but the Home Office issued her with an exclusion order last November, which bars her from ever returning to the UK. The mother-of-two studied at Goldsmith's University in London and is accused of acting as a 'matchmaker', allegedly arranging marriages for members including ISIS bride Shamima Begum. Gondal was born in France but moved to London as a child and previously held British residency. She lived in Britain before joining ISIS in 2015 and is believed to have recruited several teenage women. She is banned from re-entering Britain. The 25-year-old is accused of being one of the top recruiters of females to the ranks of ISIS. Known as a 'matchmaker', she allegedly arranged the marriage of Shamima Begum who fled her Bethnal Green home for Syria in 2015. In October, Gondal wrote an open letter to the Sunday Times from the Ain Issa camp in Raqaa, northern Syria. 'I desperately wish for the British government to take us back. I want to prove that I am a changed person; a much better individual for society. I offer to help prevent vulnerable Muslims from being targeted and radicalised,' she said. Turkey's incursion into northern Syria caused chaos and she was able to escape into Turkey, where she was later arrested. Gondal's son Ibrahim is entitled to British citizenship because his father - who was killed in a suicide bombing in Iraq - was from the UK. 'Sid Vicious' Hindu-born Londoner Siddhartha Dhar, 32, was known as 'Sid' to friends and enjoyed drinking, would take girls to his favourite action movies and dreamed of being an NHS dentist. MI6 and foreign secret services are now trying to work out if he is the new Jihadi John - and has already earned the nicknames 'Sid Vicious' and 'Jihadi Sid'. Dhar's family say he was a 'sensitive boy' who 'changed' as a teenager after the death of his father and converted to Islam, shunning TV and music, sleeping on the floor and even telling his mother he couldn't love her anymore because she is not a Muslim. He stopped studying and rented bouncy castles for children's parties while supporting banned militant group Al-Muhajiroun and running 'roadshows' aimed at attracting troubled youngsters in inner-cities. Dhar then wrote ISIS' 46-page guide to life in the caliphate promising a holiday lifestyle with home comforts. He said the Islamic State was like a 'plush Mediterranean resort' with British chocolate like Kit Kats, Bounty bars and Snickers freely available 'and the best lattes and cappuccinos around.' After Jihadi John was eviscerated in a drone attack it was rumoured that Dhar took over as executioner in chief. He has at least one son. Jihadi Jack Once Jack Letts had travelled to Syria, he became almost unrecognisable from the soccer-mad boy who used to sleep with his football. The elder of Sally Lane and John Letts's two sons, Jack struggled with obsessive compulsive disorder and Tourette's at school, jurors were told. His British-Canadian father described him as a 'personable' young man who was 'engaging and humorous'. His friend, Anwar Belhimer, told his father he had been saying 'worrying things' and urged him to confiscate his passport. But at the age of 18, his parents supported his decision to study Arabic abroad and he set off for Jordan and Kuwait. From there, he married an Iraqi woman named Asmaa and they had a son Muhammed. Despite warning signs, Lane was horrified when he told her he was in Syria in September 2014. He was probably helped to travel to Islamic State territory by a group of fighters from Portsmouth. He has spent the last two years in a prison in Kurdish-held Rojava, in northern Syria. The British Government has said it has no consular assistance in the region. Meanwhile, in a phone voicemail to a BBC journalist, Jack appeared not to support their unstinting efforts. Despite his parents' high profile campaign for his return, he told a BBC reporter: 'To be honest the whole idea of putting pressure on the British Government to come and save me is not something I wanted to do or something I thought was clever.' The caliphate's gravedigger Father-of-five Shahan Choudhury, 32, from London, was one of ISIS' gravedigger who buried fighters during the caliphate's last stand. He was a former suspect in a gang murder before he fled to Syria in 2014 - after being radicalised in what is allegedly one of Britain's most secure prisons. Shahan Choudhury, 30, vanished from his flat in London last year and has since used Twitter to urge other British Muslims to carry out terror attacks in the UK. His family say he was 'brainwashed' after spending 18 months on remand in HMP Belmarsh for allegedly taking part in the stabbing of a 17-year-old. He was acquitted in 2007 but his family believe he was 'brainwashed' by Islamic extremists at HMP Belmarsh. As soon as he was released he joined the banned al-Muhajiroun (ALM), the hate group led by Anjem Choudary which has called for the implementation of Sharia Law in the U.K. A relative said: 'He was just like any other western kid when he went in but by the time he came out he was going on about religion and how the kuffar [non-believers] would all end up in hellfire.' 'Hungry Hamza' 26-year-old west Londoner Hamza Parvez - the first known British man to have joined the group in Iraq who was captured by Kurdish-led forces outside the group's final stronghold in Banghouz, in April last year. He was dubbed 'Hungry Hamza' because he repeatedly tweeted about loving life with ISIS  but then moaned about how much he missed KFC, Nando's and McDonald's dinners. He was used by ISIS to tweet about the food available in the caliphate including ice cream and hailed life there as the 'golden age of jihad'. But as it collapsed a lack of fast food meant he lost 30 kilos and was last seen languishing in a jail on the Syrian border with Turkey. The 26-year-old left his home in west London to join the terror group, but after he surrendered to Kurdish forces he claimed he did not realise ISIS were so bad when he went to join up. Cardiff's ice cream jihadi A British ice cream seller who went to join ISIS in Syria five years ago has pleaded to come home because he misses his mother and his life in Cardiff. Aseel Muthana left Wales for Syria in February 2014, aged 17, following his brother Nasser and another friend in joining the jihadist group. His family feared he had died but Muthana has now resurfaced at a prison camp in northern Syria and his mother has backed his plea to come home. Speaking to ITV News from the prison, Muthana, now 22, claimed he had merely wanted to 'help the poor' when he travelled to Syria. The wave of widely publicised ISIS beheadings began later in 2014, when journalist James Foley and British aid worker David Haines were among numerous people murdered in propaganda videos broadcast by the terror group. However, ISIS had its roots in extremist groups which had been using beheadings during the war in Iraq well before that. Begging to come home, Muthana said he missed his mother Umm Amin and his former life in the Welsh capital where he worked selling ice cream. The fate of his brother Nasser remains unclear while his friend Reeyad Khan was killed by a drone strike in 2015. Advertisement

The British judges who ordered her return to the UK Lord Justice Flaux Chair of bench in today's case was appointed Lord Justice of Appeal in December 2016. A year later he was among three senior judges have made an extraordinary plea after revealing that immigration, asylum and deportation appeals are suffering unacceptable delays. Earlier this year he was criticised after he refused a case brought by the parents of Harry Dunn to reveal documents relating to the 'secret immunity' deal it agreed with Anne Sacoolas after she fled the country following the teenager's death. Lady Justice King One of Britain's top family judges, in May she ruled that children in care can be vaccinated against their parents' wishes without courts having to intervene. She has also ruled in some of Britain's biggest divorce cases. Lord Justice Singh He is one of Britain's top judges on national security matters - and Britain's first Sikh High Court judge. In December last year her ruled that MI5 moles are authorised to potentially commit murder, kidnap, torture or carry out other serious and violent crimes otherwise it would be 'impossible' for them to maintain their cover. In 2019 he ruled against civil rights groups and said the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) - dubbed the 'Snoopers' Charter' by critics - which allow intelligence agencies to obtain and store communications data, and take remote control of electronic devices through 'bulk hacking', was not unlawful. Advertisement

Human rights organisation Liberty, which intervened in Ms Begum's appeal, welcomed the ruling.

Liberty lawyer Katie Lines said: 'The right to a fair trial is not something the Government can take away on a whim. It is a fundamental part of our justice system and equal access to justice must apply to everyone.

'Banishing someone is the act of a Government shirking its responsibilities and it is critical that cruel and irresponsible Government decisions can be properly challenged and overturned.'

Government sources, who described the ruling as a 'bitter blow' to UK national security, were last night said to be 'pouring over' the details of the secret judgment and its impact on other jihadi brides whose hope of returning to the UK have been raised significantly.

Now 20, the Londoner left the UK in February 2015 and lived under ISIS rule for more than three years where she married a Dutch jihadi.

Their three children all died - the final baby perished in the camp where she was found after the caliphate fell - and she claims losing her British citizenship left her at risk of torture and 'real risk of death'.

Then home secretary Sajid Javid revoked her British citizenship on national security grounds later that month.

Ms Begum took legal action against the Home Office, claiming the decision was unlawful because it rendered her stateless and exposed her to a real risk of death or inhuman and degrading treatment.

In February, SIAC - a specialist tribunal which hears challenges to decisions to remove someone's British citizenship on national security grounds - ruled the decision was lawful as Ms Begum was 'a citizen of Bangladesh by descent' at the time of the decision.

The UK government successfully argued that under Bangladeshi law, Ms Begum, whose parents are from the country, is a citizen of Bangladesh by descent so cannot be made stateless by losing her British citizenship.

The tribunal also found that she 'cannot play any meaningful part in her appeal and that, to that extent, the appeal will not be fair and effective', but ruled that 'it does not follow that her appeal succeeds'.

But on Thursday, the Court of Appeal ruled that 'the only way in which she can have a fair and effective appeal is to be permitted to come into the United Kingdom to pursue her appeal'.

Lord Justice Flaux - sitting with Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Singh - said: 'Fairness and justice must, on the facts of this case, outweigh the national security concerns, so that the leave to enter appeals should be allowed.'

The judge found that 'the national security concerns about her could be addressed and managed if she returns to the United Kingdom'.

In its ruling, the court said: 'If the Security Service and the Director of Public Prosecutions consider that the evidence and public interest tests for a prosecution for terrorist offences are met, she could be arrested and charged upon her arrival in the United Kingdom and remanded in custody pending trial.'

Lord Justice Flaux also said: 'With due respect to SIAC, it is unthinkable that, having concluded that Ms Begum could not take any meaningful part in her appeal so that it could not be fair and effective, she should have to continue with her appeal nonetheless.'

He added: 'It is difficult to conceive of any case where a court or tribunal has said we cannot hold a fair trial, but we are going to go on anyway.'

Begum was one of three schoolgirls (pictured) to leave Bethnal Green in east London to join the terror group ISIS in Syria in 2015, when she was aged 15. Pictured with friends Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana, centre and left, who were both believed to have died in drone attacks

What happened to Begum's two school friends who ran off to Syria with her? Amira Abase The British schoolgirl who travelled to Syria to join Islamic State with two teenage friends is feared to have been killed in an air strike. The mother of Amira Abase, who was just 15 when she fled her London home to join IS in 2015, has told friends that she understands her daughter died almost a year ago. As well as being told by informed sources that her daughter is believed to have been killed, Fetia Hussen lost the mobile phone app communication she had with Amira last summer. Friends of Fetia Hussen say she believes her daughter, who married Abdullah Elmir, an 18-year-old Australian jihadi, has died, but clings to the faint hope that she is wrong. Both Fetia Hussen and Amira's father, Abase Hussen, declined to comment. Some have claimed she may have faked her death to escape Syria. Kadiza Sultana Kadiza Sultana, 17, is thought to have died in 2016 after her home in the terror state's stronghold city of Raqqa was hit by a bomb believed to have been dropped by a Russian plane. The teenager had quickly become disillusioned with Isis and told her family last summer that she wanted to return home. ITV News revealed that Kadiza, who was one of three Bethnal Green schoolgirls who left their homes to join so-called Islamic State, is dead. Her sister Halima Khanom said: 'We were expecting this, in a way. But at least we know she is in a better place.' Advertisement

Ms Begum's challenge to the Home Office's decision to refuse to allow her to enter the UK to effectively pursue her appeal was also rejected.

A Home Office spokesman said: 'This is a very disappointing decision by the court.

'We will now apply for permission to appeal this judgment, and to stay its effects pending any onward appeal.

'The Government's top priority remains maintaining our national security and keeping the public safe.'

In June, Ms Begum's barrister Tom Hickman QC told the Court of Appeal that removing his client's British citizenship took away 'the real possibility that she could return to the UK'.

He said the decision had the result of 'exposing her to ... the real risk of removal to Bangladesh or Iraq', where Ms Begum faced 'extra-judicial killing at the hands of the police' or 'a wholly unfair and predetermined 'trial' and an immediate sentence of death'.

On Thursday morning, Lord Justice Flaux, Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Singh are due to give a ruling on her appeal, which will be delivered remotely.

At the hearing last month, Mr Hickman argued that Ms Begum's appeal against the deprivation of her citizenship should be allowed because it 'cannot be pursued in a manner that satisfies even minimum requirements of fair procedure'.

He also said Mr Javid had been informed that Ms Begum could not have a fair or effective appeal when he took the decision to revoke her citizenship.

Mr Hickman pointed out that Ms Begum, who remains in the al-Roj camp in Syria, was only 15 when she left the UK, saying: 'She had not even taken her GCSE exams.'

Sir James Eadie QC, representing the Home Office, said: 'The fact that the appellant could not fully engage with the statutory appeal procedure was a result of her decision to leave the UK, travel to Syria against Foreign and Commonwealth Office advice and align with ISIL.

'This led to her being held in conditions akin to detention in a foreign state at the hands of a third party, the Syrian Defence Force.

'It was not the result of any action by the secretary of state and the deprivation decision did not have any causative impact on the appellant in this respect.'

Ms Begum was one of three schoolgirls from Bethnal Green Academy who left their homes and families to join IS, shortly after Sharmeena Begum - who is no relation - travelled to Syria in December 2014.

Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase, then 16 and 15 respectively, and Ms Begum boarded a flight from Gatwick Airport to Istanbul, Turkey, on February 17 2015, before making their way to Raqqa in Syria.

Ms Begum claims she married Dutch convert Yago Riedijk 10 days after arriving in IS territory, with all three of her school friends also reportedly marrying foreign IS fighters.

She told The Times last February that she left Raqqa in January 2017 with her husband but her children, a one-year-old girl and a three-month-old boy, had both since died.

Her third child died shortly after he was born.

Timeline: How Shamima Begum's dream of becoming a jihadi bride saw her stripped of her British citizenship for joining ISIS Escaping to Syria: Kadiza Sultana,16, Shamima Begum, then 15, and 15-year-old Amira Abase before they joined IS in Syria. Begum's friends are believed to be dead Here is a timeline of events following the three girls' disappearance leading up to Shamima Begum's legal action. 2015 - February 17 - Kadiza Sultana, Amira Abase and Shamima Begum leave their east London homes at 8am to travel to Istanbul, Turkey, from Gatwick Airport. Begum and Abase are reported missing by their families later the same day. - February 18 - Sultana is reported missing to the police. - February 20 - The Metropolitan Police launch a public appeal for information on the missing girls who are feared to have gone on to Syria. The Met expresses concerns that the missing girls may have fled to join ISIS. - February 21 - Four days after the girls went missing, police believe they may still be in Turkey. - February 22 - Abase's father Abase Hussen says his daughter told him she was going to a wedding on the day she disappeared. - March 10 - It emerges that the girls funded their trip by stealing jewellery. 2016 - August 2016 - Sultana, then 17, is reported to have been killed in Raqqa in May when a suspected Russian air strike obliterates her house. 2019 - February 13 - Begum, then 19, tells Anthony Loyd of The Times that she wants to return to the UK to give birth to her third child. Speaking from the al-Hawl refugee camp in northern Syria, Begum tells the paper: 'I'm not the same silly little 15-year-old schoolgirl who ran away from Bethnal Green four years ago. And I don't regret coming here.' - February 15 - Home Secretary Sajid Javid says he 'will not hesitate' to prevent the return of Britons who travelled to join IS. - February 17 - Begum gives birth to her third child - a baby boy, Jarrah - in al-Hawl. Her two other children, a daughter called Sarayah and a son called Jerah, have both previously died. - February 19 - The Home Office sends Begum's family a letter stating that it intended to revoke her British citizenship. - February 20 - Begum, having been shown a copy of the Home Office's letter by ITV News, describes the decision as 'unjust'. - February 22 - Begum's family write to Mr Javid asking for his help to bring her newborn son to Britain. Shamima's sister Renu Begum, writing on behalf of the family, said the baby boy was a 'true innocent' who should not 'lose the privilege of being raised in the safety of this country'. - Late February - Begum is moved to the al-Roj camp in north-eastern Syria, reportedly because of threats to her life made at al-Hawl following the publication of her newspaper interviews. - March 7 - Jarrah dies around three weeks after he was born. - March 19 - Begum's lawyers file a legal action challenging the decision to revoke her citizenship. - April 1 - In a further interview with The Times, Begum says she was 'brainwashed' and that she wanted to 'go back to the UK for a second chance to start my life over again'. - May 4 - Bangladesh's foreign minister Abdul Momen says Begum could face the death penalty for involvement in terrorism if she goes to the country, adding that Bangladesh had 'nothing to do' with her. - September 29 - Home Secretary Priti Patel says there is 'no way' she will let Begum return to the UK, adding: 'We cannot have people who would do us harm allowed to enter our country - and that includes this woman.' - October 22-25 - Begum's appeal against the revocation of her British citizenship begins in London. Her barrister Tom Hickman QC submits the decision has unlawfully rendered her stateless, and exposed her to a 'real risk' of torture or death. 2020 - February 7 - SIAC rules on Begum's legal challenge - July 16 - Court of Appeal rules on the case and finds in Begum's favour Advertisement

From Gatwick to Islamic State's last stand: Shamima Begum's journey across war-torn Syria that saw a schoolgirl from Bethnal Green transformed into a callous ISIS bride who looks set to return to Britain

It is just over five years since Shamima Begum, now 20, and two classmates ran away to become 'jihadi brides' aged 15.

When Begum left to join Islamic State with friends from Bethnal Green Academy  15-year-old Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana, 16  they plotted their departure with cynical precision.

They stole jewellery from their families and sold it to fund their secret half-term flight to Turkey in February 2015.

They lied to their devout Muslim families about why they had to go out that weekday morning. One girl said she was going to work at school, another that she had a wedding to go to.

Shamima Begum pictured with a Union Flag cushion and for the first time without her usual black burqa in February, which has been banned in the camp as part of attempts at de-radicalising the women and children

Kadiza Sultana, then 16, Amira Abase, then 15 and Shamima Begum, then 15, (left to right) in images released by police in 2015 after they ran off to Syria. Only Begum is believed to have survived

After arriving in Istanbul, the girls took a bus to the Syrian border, where a people-smuggler guided them into IS territory. They were taken to a 'house for women' and each was married off to foreign fighters within three weeks.

Pictured: Begum at Gatwick Airport heading for Turkey in 2015 where she crossed into Syria

In camera-phone footage, which has emerged from IS, the Bethnal Green trio are shown trudging through a snowy landscape to load their bags into a car.

They slipped into IS territory and disappeared  until Begum dramatically reappeared, having been found by The Times, registered as number 28,850 among 39,000 other refugees at the Syrian Al-Hawl holding camp near the last desperate redoubt of the remaining few hundred IS fighters.

She may sound sorry for herself and her unborn baby now. But the truth is that Begum and her fellow jihadi brides were well on the road to radicalisation before they left British soil.

Abase had gone to radical Islamic protests in London with her father, and Begum had been in touch with a female IS recruiter online before she left the UK.

All three had attended meetings at a hardline Islamic women's group which preached the virtues of IS and was an offshoot of the local mosque.

Friends at Bethnal Green Academy have told of how the three girls changed as they became devotees of IS.

The three formed a clique. They began wearing the hijab to school and talking about the fighting in Syria. They also started to badmouth their non-Muslim classmates, calling them 'slags' and 'kaffirs', an Arabic term of abuse for an infidel or non-believer.

The trio also sent their classmates a computer video link claiming that Israelis were deliberately burning Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip.

Begum was using her Twitter account to contact a former medical student called Aqsa Mahmood, a 21-year-old who left Glasgow for Syria in 2013 to join IS and marry a jihadist.

The Glaswegian was a prolific blogger and recruiter for Islamic State, praising its terror attacks online. She is still alive and thought to be a leading light in the al-Khansaa Brigade, an all-female group enforcing strict Sharia law rules on women and children in Islamic State territory.

Begum was also 'following' 70 other IS terrorists from around the world  both male and female  on Twitter.

But nearer home, there was a further influence on Shamima Begum. It came from another teenager, Sharmeena Begum, who is not a relation but a 15-year-old school pal and a fellow jihadi bride.

Begum said previously she still loves Riedijk (pictured) very much and fears she'll never see him again

Normal life: Shamima Begum (right) now wears a maroon headscarf. She is pictured alongside her Canadian roommate Kimberly Polman (centre)

The girls flew to Istanbul from Gatwick and were helped ISIS traffickers through Turkey to bus all the way to Raqqa

Sharmeena disappeared from the UK on a Saturday morning in December 2014 flying from Gatwick, apparently on her own, to Turkey before crossing the border into Syria with the help of IS fighters.

The teenager's family had allowed her to open a bank account with cash gifts given to her to mark the recent loss of her mother, a tradition in her Bangladeshi community. She withdrew 1,000 to fund her flight and told her family she was going to extra school classes on a Saturday morning before taking a plane to Turkey.

After arriving in the IS stronghold of Raqqa in 2015, she was put in the 'house for women' where newly arrived jihadist brides-to-be waited to be married off.

'I applied to marry an English-speaking fighter between 20 and 25,' she said this week. She was the first of the girls to marry, to the Dutchman from Arnhem, while Sultana married an American, Abase an Australian, and Sharmeena Begum a Bosnian.

Soon after, Shamima Begum received her first reality check of life under Islamic State. Her husband was arrested and charged with spying.

'They imprisoned and tortured him for six and a half months,' she says. 'There were a lot of similar oppressions of innocent people.

Ahmed Ali, the father of a British teenager Shamima Begum who ran away to join the Islamic State group in Syria. He lives in Bangladesh

'In some cases, fighters who fought for the caliphate were executed as spies, even though they were innocent.'

Sometimes, she says, the wrongly accused were tortured so hideously that they confessed to being spies so they would be executed to end the pain.

Despite the charge against her husband, he was released from prison, but was no longer classified as an IS fighter. The two continued to live their married life together in Raqqa, an existence that alternated between normality and horror. 'Mostly it was a normal life in Raqqa, with every now and then bombing and stuff. But when I saw my first severed head in a bin it didn't faze me at all. It was from a captured opposition fighter on the battlefield, an enemy of Islam.

In January 2017 she left Raqqa with her husband to live on the outskirts of the town of Al- Mayadin, where she was later slightly wounded during an airstrike that killed another woman and child in the same house. By the time she had given birth to her first child  a daughter, Sarayah  the family had moved south- west along the Euphrates valley, moving away from Syrian government advances.

The family moved on to Baghuz, which is now the last stronghold of IS. Already pregnant with her third child, she then watched as her daughter grew sick there and died, too. She described how in the past few weeks IS gave instructions to the families of all foreign fighters to make up their own minds about whether they would stay in the besieged village to face the bombings.

Begum walked out of Baghuz along a three-mile long road east of the town, where her husband surrendered to a group of Syrian government fighters. That was the last time she saw him.

Of the other Bethnal Green jihadi brides, she says that Sultana is dead, blown up in her house alongside her IS fighter husband when the building was targeted by the Russian allies of the Syrian government.

She added: 'I was in denial when I heard. I always thought that if we were killed, we would all be killed together.'

As for the Bethnal Green ringleader Sharmeena Begum and the fourth girl, Abase, they were last heard of alive two weeks ago in Baghuz, according to Shamima Begum's account from the refugee camp.

Wives and children of fighters were yesterday flooding out of the besieged village as 100 IS fighters made a last stand against Syrian Democratic Forces aided by the West. 'With all the bombing, I am not sure they will have survived,' she said.

One of three children in a family of Bangladeshi immigrants, Shamima Begum is thought to have travelled under the name of her sister Aklima, who is two years older, to avoid scrutiny at the airport gates from police over her young age.

In February she was pictured for the first time without her usual black burqa, which has been banned in the camp as part of attempts at de-radicalising the women and children.

Her tent, which she shares with US-Canadian citizen Kimberly Polman, has heating, electricity, satellite TV and cooking appliances. The women have decorated it with hearts and fairy lights for Valentine's Day.

They have made a small sofa from blankets given to them by the UN and Miss Begum has a knitted cushion with the UK flag, made for her by her roommate.

The tent has poems about love and hangings with inspirational quotes.

Begum was stripped of her UK citizenship by former home secretary Sajid Javid after she left the UK with two school friends Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase five years ago at the age of 15 to join Islamic State in Syria.

Ten days after arriving, she married Yago Riedijk, a Dutch convert to Islam who was 23 years old at the time.

Riedijk is being held at a Kurdish detention centre in northeastern Syria. Begum gave birth to their son in the refugee camp last year. The child later died, as had her previous two children.

The 20-year-old was dealt a blow this month when she lost the first stage of her appeal against the Government's decision to remove her citizenship.

She told the American network ABC News that her 'whole world fell apart' when she was stripped of her citizenship last year.

A tribunal ruled she could be stripped of her citizenship because she had not been left stateless.

Britain has refused to take back dozens of British women and children from Syria out of fear they would present a security risk back in the UK.

The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) said Begum could however turn to Bangladesh for citizenship, where her father is from.

She said: 'When my citizenship got rejected, I felt like my whole world fell apart right in front of me.

'You know, especially the way I was told. I wasn't even told by a government official. I was told by journalists.'

She added: 'I thought I would be a bit different because I had not done anything wrong before I came to Isis.'

Asked about her previous comments to the Times where she appeared unrepentant after being found in Al-Hawl camp after fleeing the village of Baghuz, she said she was 'afraid for my life'.

She said: 'I had just come into the camp. I had just given birth. I was hearing all these stories about women threatening other women, you know, folk uncovering their faces or speaking to men or doing interviews, or anything like that.

'I just was afraid for my life.'
Omans government is expected to marginally step up funding for the Sultanates electricity sector to RO605.2 million ($1.56 billion) in 2020, as against the actual subsidy of RO601.9 million paid to the sector in 2019, a media report said.



In 2018, subsidy allocations rose 23 per cent to reach RO536.29 million, up from RO456 million 2017, reported Oman Observer.



It is anticipated that 2020 will witness the first overall negative growth in supply since the restructuring of the electricity sector in 2005, a sharp fall from the decade after restructuring which saw consistent double-digit annual growth rates in supply, Omans Authority for Electricity Regulation (AER) was quoted as saying in the report.



Supply growth in 2020 is expected to decrease by 1.1 per cent from 2019 outturn, mainly driven by the impact of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting downturn in the general economy, AER said in its Annual Report 2019.



Subsidies are an integral factor of the electricity sector and are implemented through Article 18 of the Sector Law wherein the Ministry of Finance (MoF) provides subsidies based on annual calculations by the Authority to licensed suppliers. These calculations are divided into three subsidy categories: Main Interconnected System Subsidy (required by Muscat Electricity Distribution Company MEDC, Majan Electricity and Mazoon Electricity); Dhofar Power System Subsidy (required by Dhofar Power), and Rural Systems Subsidy (required by Rural Areas Electricity Company RAEC). For the purposes of these calculations, a subsidy is defined as the difference between the economic cost of supply (including financing costs) and Permitted Tariff (and other) revenue, the regulator explained.



Subsidy for the Main Interconnected System, covering the northern half of Oman, is estimated at RO451 million for 2020, up from RO431.1 actually paid out in 2019. For Dhofar Power System, catering to parts of Dhofar Governorate, subsidy is projected to climb to around RO50 million in 2020, up from RO43.8 million in 2019.



The Rural Systems, an important beneficiary of government subsidy, is expected to see its allocation decrease to RO104.2 million for 2020, down from RO117 million in 2019. The decline is mainly attributable to the pandemic, with power consumption expected to be five per cent lower than in 2019.



Significantly, the Main Interconnected System (MIS) witnessed no growth in supply in 2019 over 2018 trends, which was lower than anticipated when compared to recent annual average growth rates of approximately 5 per cent (3-year average for 2015-2018), according to the Authority.



The general economic slowdown in 2019 and, to some extent, the impact of Cost Reflective Tariffs for large customers in 2017, are likely causes of this stunted growth, the regulator added.
OTTAWA, July 16, 2020 /CNW/ - The Honourable Bill Blair, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, and the Honourable David Lametti, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, today issued the following statement:

"Public trust in government institutions such as Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and Justice Canada is essential in the fulfillment of their missions. Protecting Canadians in a manner that is compliant with the law is something that we are determined to uphold.

"Today, the Federal Court issued a decision in which it found that institutional failings, by both CSIS and the Department of Justice, led to a breach of CSIS' duty of candour to the Court in failing to proactively identify and disclose all relevant facts in support of warrant applications. The Court has recommended a comprehensive external review of the policies and practices of the Department of Justice and CSIS in this area.

"We take these findings very seriously and are committed to following up on the Court's recommendation, in conjunction with the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency and the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, the oversight bodies put in place to review and report on all national security activities across the federal government.

"As acknowledged by the Court, the fulfillment of CSIS' national security mandate is challenging and the consequences of failure are significant. CSIS and Justice Canada have carried out their mandates in an evolving legal environment. We want to reassure Canadians that at no time was the safety of Canadians at risk, nor were our rights and freedoms. The potentially illegal activities referred to in the Court decision, such as paying a source for information or providing a cell phone or other electronic equipment to a source, are common collection activities used around the world by security agencies and law enforcement to investigate terrorism.

"The National Security Act, 2017 has now addressed the question of illegality going forward by providing CSIS with a limited justification framework to conduct these types of activities that would otherwise constitute offences. In addition, we note that Justice

and CSIS have already begun implementing a number of concrete measures that address the duty of candour responsibilities that this Federal Court decision underscores.

"We have written to the Chair of the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA) to request that they look into the findings and provide recommendations on how to address the concerns raised by the Court's decision and to report on their progress regularly to the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians. We have also retained an external advisor, the Honourable Ian Binnie, who will to help with the implementation of NSIRA's recommendations within Justice Canada, to provide other advice on the provision of advisory and litigation services to clients, and to help ensure both institutions can fulfill their duties to the court when applying for warrants.

"While we are fully committed to addressing the Court's recommendation, we are appealing on narrow but important legal grounds concerning solicitor-client privilege and the government's ability to provide and obtain legal advice in the future. Appealing this single legal question in no way diminishes our commitment to addressing the full range of the Court's recommendation".

Associated links

SOURCE Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada

For further information: media may contact: Mary-Liz Power, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, [email protected]; Media Relations, Public Safety Canada, 613-991-0657, [email protected]; Rachel Rappaport, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, 613-992-6568; Media Relations, Department of Justice Canada, 613-957-4207, [email protected]

Related Links

https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca


Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 16:42:42|Editor: huaxia

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BISHKEK, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Kyrgyzstan on Thursday reported 521 new COVID-19 cases and seven more deaths, raising the total number of infections to 12,498 and the death toll to 167.

Head of the public health care department of the country's Health Ministry Ainura Akmatova at a regular news briefing said that among the new cases 96 are medical workers, raising the tally of contracted medical workers to 2,076, including 583 recoveries.

Akmatova said that there are currently 682 confirmed cases, who are receiving treatment in hospitals, and 16 of them are in intensive care units.

She also announced the recovery of 75 more cases of COVID-19 infection, raising the total recoveries in the country to 5,632.

A total of 2,266 coronavirus tests were conducted in the country in the past 24 hours.

Kyrgyzstan reported its first coronavirus case on March 18.

On Wednesday, an extra batch of mobile oxygen concentrators purchased by the Kyrgyz government were delivered to the country by a charter flight from China, the press service of the Kyrgyz government said. Enditem
The minister of health, Osagie Ehanire, has warned Nigerian doctors of the dangers of migrating to other countries.

Mr Ehanire, while responding to questions at the bi-weekly Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing on Monday, said unlike Nigeria, the United Kingdom do not pay hazard allowance to health workers.

I think we are one of the few countries giving hazard allowance. This UK where they are going, there is no hazard allowance, they dont give doctors hazard allowance but you just get your salary.

They say it is part of your job and that is what you are trained for. They dont pay you anything but here apart from your salary we try to add something to it with the hope that you will stay, he said.

Last month, the federal government released N4.5 billion for the payment of hazard allowance of doctors across the country for the months of April and May.

Mr Ehanires statement is in response to the attempt by about 58 doctors to travel to the United Kingdom a week ago.

The doctors, who had received provisional employment in the UK, were intercepted by the Nigeria Immigration Service at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos because they had no visas.

Nigerian doctors routinely migrate to U.S, Canada, Saudi Arabia, the UK and many other nations across the globe in search of better pay and working conditions.

It is estimated that at least 12 Nigerian doctors leave the shores of this country weekly to practice overseas.

Global challenge

Mr Ehanire said the challenges are not peculiar to Nigeria alone as doctors were also migrating from the UK to other countries.

Even in the UK they are losing doctors to other countries so they think there is a movement but I think we have to look at our own situation the best way we can, he said.

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He, however, said doctors willing to leave the country must have their visas before they will be allowed to depart.

With regards to the 58 doctors, we were all surprised to hear that they were at the airport and it was irregular in that many of them did not have visas.

I dont know what evidence you have whether they have left the country but no one should leave the country without a visa, he said.

Community service

The minister urged Nigerians who became doctors through subsidised education and scholarship to remain in the country and give back to their communities.

This, he said, remains an obligation that should take precedence above financial consideration.

Those who were trained through scholarship or whose training was subsidised and have jobs here actually have a moral responsibility to give back.

Nigerian doctors in the UK, the US and Europe who apply to come here every year and serve even though they werent trained here or at the states expense, he said.
Bears About The House

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Paul OGrady: For The Love Of Dogs  Back In Business

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Despite the cute title, it took a strong stomach to endure the scenes of animal cruelty in Bears About The House (BBC2).

The image of a starving sun bear cub, no bigger than a Cavalier spaniel, trapped in a cage littered with rubbish, will be hard to wipe from the mind.

When I interviewed presenter Giles Clark last month, he assured me the sights he saw in the South-East Asian country of Laos were still giving him nightmares.

A visit to a village market, where boxes of live tortoises were on sale in the street and wine steeped in ground tiger bones was illegally available in darkened shops, left him boiling. It makes me sick and it makes me angry, he said. Theres a lot of people in this trade who dont care, as long as they are profiting, and we need to stop it.

Giles Clark presents Bears About The House (BBC2) and admits the sights he saw in the South-East Asian country of Laos were still giving him nightmares

Most horrendous of all is the way bears are tortured in the name of traditional medicine.

The smaller sun bears, with their bandy legs, razor claws and sun-like circles of yellow fur on their chests, are generally sold for fur and meat, or as trophy pets.

Burgeoning brand of the week Back in a bookshop for the first time in months, I spotted a novel stamped with the logo of C4s Walter Presents. Its a French whodunnit and, if its as good as Walters Euro crime serials, Ill love it. What a clever departure. Advertisement

But their larger cousins, the Asiatic black bears or moon bears, with a blond crescent under their throats, are confined in cages so small they cannot even turn around, and their livers are milked to extract bile, an ingredient in local medicines. In these unspeakably barbaric conditions, the animals can be kept alive for up to eight years.

Mostly, the bears are illegally taken from the wild by poachers, who kill the adults and sell the cubs.

Giles was in Laos to help an old friend, Matt Hunt, who runs a bear sanctuary. Tipped off about a baby sun bear for sale, the two men rescued her and set about beefing her up on high-fat milk.

They named her Mary, and she proved incredibly affectionate  her favourite games were riding in wheelbarrows and leaping out of trees into her keepers arms.

Because of the poachers, Mary can never be released into the wild. Instead, she will live in a five-acre enclosure maintained by Matts charity, Free The Bears, where she is guarded by intruder-proof fences and CCTV.

Conservationist Giles is completely committed to saving bears like Mary, one by one from their cages if theres no other way. He told me he planned to fly back to the smothering 40c heat of Laos as soon as travel restrictions were lifted.

Paul OGrady lifted the spirits as he returned to Battersea animal rescue centre after lockdown in For The Love Of Dogs  Back In Business (ITV)

His dedication is awe-inspiring. But it was impossible not to feel saddened and disheartened by the suffering he uncovered.

Paul OGrady lifted the spirits as he returned to Battersea animal rescue centre after lockdown in For The Love Of Dogs  Back In Business (ITV). The pets waiting for adoption have spent the past few months with foster families  Paul looked after one himself, a Jack Russell puppy called Nancy.

Now the charity is reopening its doors and the work of finding permanent homes for its dogs and cats can start again in earnest. I was on the point of phoning the show to demand Bobby the four-month-old bichon frise (which, fittingly, is French for curly-haired lapdog). But I was too slow: Pauls agent Joan nabbed him first.

George the Staffie is faring rather worse. Hes been dubbed the most unlucky dog at Battersea after being adopted by three different families . . . and brought back every time. He doesnt get on with cats, apparently.

Lightweight though this show is, it never fails to restore a little faith in humanity.

Now, if only someone will give George a home.
Measures allowing same-sex marriages in churches in Northern Ireland if priests and ministers enjoy support from their governing bodies have become law.

It will not be possible to compel churches or individual clerics to provide the ceremony.

Campaigners for the change said it was a landmark day.

A UK Government statement said: The Marriage and Civil Partnership (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2020 mean that from September 1 2020 officiants can be appointed to solemnise same-sex religious marriages, with the consent of their governing authority.

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Most mainstream religious denominations oppose same-sex marriage.

The official statement added: The regulations also put in place protections so that religious bodies (and individual officiants) cannot be compelled by any means, including by the enforcement of a contract or a statutory or other legal requirement, to perform same-sex marriages or otherwise be involved in same-sex marriages.

Equality law protections are also in place so that religious bodies and individual officiants will not unlawfully discriminate if they refuse to solemnise marriages because of the sexual orientation of the couple, and we have extended the protections to cover premises such as church halls and other buildings owned by (or on behalf of) a religious body, except where the premises are used solely or mainly for commercial purposes.

The provisions of the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019 have come into force.

The law was passed at Westminster while the Stormont Assembly was suspended.

The earliest date for a same-sex religious wedding will be September 29.

The Rev Chris Hudson, minister of All Souls Church in Belfast, a member of the Non-Subscribing Church of Ireland, said: This is great news for couples who wish to celebrate their marriage in church, embraced by family, friends and the love of God.

I have already been speaking to a number of couples who have been waiting for this day so they can finally have the church wedding that they have longed for.

Autumn wedding bells will be ringing in Belfast.

Expand Close Rev Chris Hudson (left), minister of All Souls Church in Belfast, said wedding bells would be ringing in the autumn (Niall Carson/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Rev Chris Hudson (left), minister of All Souls Church in Belfast, said wedding bells would be ringing in the autumn (Niall Carson/PA)

Same-sex marriage has sharply divided political and societal opinion in Northern Ireland.

The Church of Ireland, Methodist, Presbyterian Church in Ireland and Catholic denominations have opposed it in the past.

Amnesty Internationals Northern Ireland director Patrick Corrigan said: This is a landmark day for equality in Northern Ireland.

After a long campaign, same-sex couples of faith will finally be able to marry in a church or other religious setting.

He added: In line with our calls, we are pleased that the law will protect religious freedom, and that churches will neither be compelled nor prevented from offering wedding ceremonies to same-sex couples.
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse)  Thu, July 16, 2020 07:02 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666a29a5 2 Science & Tech carbon-footprint,Internet,world-wide-web,carbon-emission,energy Free

Many people are unaware of the fact that surfing the web can contribute significantly to carbon emissions caused by the energy consumption of data centers.

With a view to reducing the amount of greenhouse gases we create, here is a list of five easy ways to reduce your digital carbon footprint.

1. Do not leave your computer in sleep mode

Systematically turning off your computer and more generally any electronic equipment that is not in use should come at the top of any list to save energy consumed by digital devices. Even if the quantity of energy is small, the fact that it is used when a machine is asleep means that it is effectively wasted. Lets not forget that lowering your screen brightness can also improve the battery life of machines while making them kinder to the planet.

2. Downloading is better than streaming

When watching videos or listening to music, you should know that downloading files always uses less power than streaming. As a general rule, if you are trying to save energy you should opt for locally sourced data rather than files on remote servers. By the same token, storing data in the cloud is more damaging to the environment than storing it locally.

Read also: How to completely remove yourself from the internet

3. Manage your emails

Applying a few simple techniques can also reduce the carbon footprint of your email correspondence. As a rule you should limit the number of mails you send, especially mails to multiple recipients. At the same time, it is worth thinking about the size of attachments, which should be kept small and in text format rather than HTML wherever possible.

4. Use your browser intelligently

To cut down on your personal carbon footprint, there are a few browsing behaviors that you might want to avoid. First and foremost, you should try to minimize the number of tabs you have open at any one time, and make use of bookmarks rather than Google searches to find frequently visited websites. Last, but not least, it is important to ensure that autoplay for video is turned off in settings.

5. Use an alternative search engine

The search engine Ecosia donates 80 percent of its profits to organizations that plant trees. The non-profit organization which runs the service claims to have financed the planting of 100 million trees worldwide, each of which was funded by an average of just 45 web searches. The long-term goal Ecosia, which is a Berlin-based carbon-negative business, is to compensate for some of the emissions caused by global Internet use.
New Delhi:

UK Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday inaugurated India-UK Tech Summit along with her India counter part PM Narendra Modi. During her speech she termed Indo-UK ties 'special' and said that there is a lot of potential of growth.

British Prime Minister Theresa May flew to New Delhi on Sunday night on a three-day visit aimed at enhancing Indo-UK ties in the key areas of trade, investment, defence and security.



On her first bilateral trip outside Europe since taking office in July in the aftermath of Britain voting to exit the European Union, May will hold talks with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Monday. She will also inaugurate jointly with him the India-UK Tech Summit.

Here are the live updates:

#We expect Make in India to be an important aspect of India-UK bilateral engagement: PM Modi

#India & UK must continue to nurture research that can fight global challenges: PM Modi

#We have agreed to establish a clean energy R&D Centre on solar energy & a new Anti-Microbial Resistance initiative: PM Modi

#Affordable healthcare, clean energy, technology are the sectors opening new potential for India-UK businesses to bring innovation: PM Modi

#UK has experienced resilient growth in recently, it excels in academic quests and technological innovations: PM

#An honour for us that you chose to visit India as your first bilateral visit outside Europe: PM Modi at India UK TECH Summit



#In Britain we are working on economic & social reforms. Indian investment is helping us diversifying our economy: UK PM Theresa May



#There is so much potential when it comes to India-Britain relationship, we have a special bond: UK PM Theresa May



Before leaving London, she described India as the UKs most important and closest friend and a leading power in the world, adding We will be promoting the best of Britain, sending out the message that we are open for business, and making the most of the opportunities offered by Brexit as the worlds foremost champion of free trade.

Also read | UK PM Theresa May visit: Tight student visa norms on Indian minds, trade ties on British



I will be using this visit to reaffirm the importance of the strategic partnership we already have, which delivers huge benefits for both our countries, and to work with Prime Minister Modi to agree concrete steps to realise our shared vision of going even further in our cooperation across trade, investment, defence and security, she added.



May, who is accompanied by senior British ministers and a big trade delegation, will also travel to Bengluru on Tuesday where she will attend some business events and will meet the Karnataka Chief Minister.



Also read | Brexit: Prime Minister Theresa May calls on British MP's to accept people's verdict

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
With face masks already compulsory on public transport and becoming mandatory in shops and supermarkets in England from July 24, the items have fast become an essential accessory in our everyday lives.

But while the overwhelming benefit of wearing one is to stem the spread of coronavirus and keep others around you safe, the coverings do have their drawbacks.

Many people have taken to social media to complain of bad skin, smudged make-up and fogged up glasses as a result of their masks.

So how can you avoid a face mask faux pas? Here FEMAIL shares an expert guide to tackle the annoying niggles caused by Covid-19 coverings - and the best way to keep them clean and prevent cross-contamination.

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove was spotted in Westminster sporting an NHS rainbow face mask - and rather foggy-looking glasses

STOP MASKS FOGGING YOUR GLASSES

This week the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove was spotted in Westminster sporting a mask emblazoned with rainbows in tribute to the NHS.

However, the politician's vision appeared to be slightly impaired because the mask looked to have made his glasses steam up.

He's not alone; others have taken to social media complaining they have to 'pick between breathing or seeing' when warm breath escapes from the top of the mask and lands on the cooler surface of the lens.

Thankfully there are ways to prevent your eyewear fogging up if you wear glasses.

Gordon Kyle, of Miller and McClure Opticians, recommends keeping the glasses on top of your mask, meaning they act like a seal to keep it tight to the top of your cheek and restrict air from hitting the lenses.

And here, Ceri Smith-Jaynes, from the Association of Optometrists (AOP), shares a series of tips with FEMAIL.

Fitness coach Max Silver shared this image of himself wearing a mask on Instagram, admitting it had caused his lenses to fog up

How to keep your mask clean and stop it contaminating your handbag British hygiene expert Lisa Ackerley, who is a trustee of The Royal Society for Public Health, gave FEMAIL her top tips for keeping your mask clean in your handbag. How often you should wash it if it's not disposable? Much depends on how and where you have worn the covering, but generally daily is a good guide for re-usable coverings. How often can you wear the disposable ones before throwing them away? This should be after every use, but you may have only used it for a few minutes, for in which case you could remove carefully and keep out of the way for 72 hours before using again. Dont re-use if dirty or damaged. If you're using it more than once during the day and taking it off, where do you store it/how do you stop it contaminating your handbag? Keep the covering in a bag folded over so the inside surfaces touch each other, and the straps are at the top. then when you get it out again, pull it out by the straps. What hygiene should you practice before taking it off/putting it on and is there a particular way you should fold it? Always wash your hands or use hand sanitiser before putting a face mask or covering on. Dont drag it over the face, but put it on over the mouth and nose and then loop the elastic round the ears. If you have the type of mask with elastic that goes over the head, hold the mask in place whilst you put the straps over your head. When you wear it, try not to fiddle with it. If you do touch it, sanitise your hands When you come to take it off, sanitise your hands first, then remove carefully, not dragging over your face. fold it with the inner sides together and place with the loops upright in a clean bag. Then wash or sanitise your hands again. How should you best washing your mask? If you have a number of coverings, you could keep them for 72 hours before laundering normally, or if you want to wash daily, then wash at 60C. You may want to use a saucepan and some detergent rather than use the washing machine for just a small wash. A food thermometer would tell you when your water temperature is 60C. Advertisement

Ensure the mask is well-fitted

Take a little time to shape the nose wire on your face mask so that it closely follows the contours of your nose and cheeks, and secure the top strap well.

If your mask has no wire, you can insert a twist tie or pipe cleaner into the top edge of the mask. You could secure the top edge with micro-pore tape, if necessary.

Alternatively, fold a tissue until it forms a strip and place it along the top edge of the mask before you put it on.

Adjust the loops

If you have a small head, you may find you need to twist the loops before putting them around your ears to get a snugger fit.

Buy good quality anti-fog sprays Good quality anti-fog sprays can work well and can be purchased from most opticians. Never use washing up liquid on glass lenses. It can break down the anti-reflection lens coating gradually over the years, resulting in a crazy-paving effect for which there is only one cure  replacement lenses. Advertisement

If the mask has tapes to tie it, tie the top one high on the back of your head after putting on your glasses.

Keep your glasses warm

Your lenses will fog up more if they are cold, so wear your glasses or put them in your pocket to warm them a little before you need to put on your mask.

Have your glasses professionally fitted

Ring your optician and book an appointment, remembering to take your mask with you (and your face-shield if you need to work in one).

They can adjust the nose-pads or sides to fit properly with your PPE. Varifocals will need to sit exactly right to ensure optimum performance.

Consider contact lenses

If you've never worn them before, now is a great time to try them. If it's been years since you wore contact lenses, ask the practice about the new options.

You'll need a professional fitting by an optometrist or contact lens optician. The range of prescriptions is vast; even if you wear varifocal glasses, there are options for you.

STOP MASKS SMUDGING YOUR LIPSTICK

London-based make-up artist Olivia Todd told FEMAIL that a lip stain or matte lipstick is really effective to prevent the dreaded smudged lip.

'Avoid products like sheer, creamy lipsticks or lipgloss because inevitably as soon as you've applied these, they will smudge and transfer onto your mask and be wasted,' she said.

'A lip liner can also be used all over the lip as a lipstick and is certainly worth investing in during this time as it has a lot of staying power to lock in your lip look all day.

'A key tip though is that you must make sure to blot your lips with tissue, then reapply the liner and do the same again to build up in fine layers and also remove any excess.'

Earlier this month presenter Laura Whitmore shared this snap of her rid lipstick smudged all over her face after wearing a mask

MUA Olivia Todd's durable lipwear recommendations MUA Olivia Todd told FEMAIL a lip stain or matte lipstick is really effective to prevent the dreaded smudged lip LIP LINER One I absolutely love is the NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil (22 from NARS) as it is super easy to apply for day-to-day wear. It delivers the impact of a matte lipstick, with the spontaneity of a lip pencil. LONG-WEAR LIPPY A liquid matte lipstick is your best friend as it will dry and set on your lips, meaning a transfer-free finish. Huda Liquid Matte lipsticks (18 at Boots) are a favourite of mine. I use them regularly on shoots, as well as on my bridal and celebrity clients as it is a lightweight formula, so they don't dry out or crack on the lips and last all day. BUDGET LONG-WEAR LIPPY A great super affordable alternative to the Huda lipsticks is the Revlon Ultra HD Matte Lip Mousse at just 8.99 from Boots. This is not only super pigmented, it lasts up to eight hours and is a creamy comfortable formula for the lips. Despite being matte it has a non-drying formula and is totally smudge free. VEGAN AND CRUELTY-FREE Cruelty Free & Vegan I recommend the 3ina londwear lipstick (14.95) which is the ultimate liquid lipstick as even the boldest of shades will last up to eight hours behind a mask. It has a flawless matte finish and its creamy and mess-free formula stays put on your lips with a vivid shade that won't budge. TRY A LIP SEALER Lipcote is the original lip sealer and is great for ensuring all lipsticks are long lasting. At 3.69 from Boots, it's the perfect option for those not wanting to invest in loads of new make-up! For more information about Olivia visit: https://www.oliviatodd.co.uk Advertisement

STOP THEM RUINING YOUR MAKE-UP

With masks covering the majority of the bottom half of our faces, it's not conducive for maintaining flawless make-up throughout the day.

Olivia recommends applying the same new rules for your lipstick to your foundation.

'The ideal base to wear under your mask is one that is long-wear and a hydrating yet sweat-proof formula,' she said.

'A sheer foundation or CC/BB cream will rub off onto your mask in an instant.

'Setting your foundation is also a crucial step before you wear your mask. You want one that absorbs moisture and instantly sets the make-up.

'The By Terry Hyaluronic Hydra Powder Face Setting Powder (42) is perfect for this as it creates a weightless silky veil and is non-drying.'

MUA Olivia Todd's long-wear make-up recommendations LONG-LASTING FOUNDATION Estee Lauder's Double Wear Foundation (36) is an absolute must as it truly stands the test of time and promises 24 hour staying power. It's sweat, heat and humidity resistant, waterproof and I can verify from my personal usage that it just doesn't budge! Fenty Pro Filt'r Soft Matte Longwear Foundation (42 from Boots) is amazing as it's a super lightweight formula, but with great coverage. Hourglass Immaculate Liquid Powder Foundation (44.58) is also an innovative product because the foundation transforms instantly from liquid to powder, so it's the perfect foundation if you are in a rush as you have to apply it quickly. It's infused with Kaolinite clay which helps to soak up excess oil and keep skin looking flawless all day. 3ina's The 24H Foundation (24.95) offers medium to high buildable coverage which lasts 24 hours and a natural matte finish. POWDERED FOUNDATION The beauty of a powdered foundation is that it doesn't rub off as it buffs into the skin. For flawless, radiant coverage I recommend the Tropic innovative range of mineral foundations (24), which are created using light-diffusing spherical particles and active botanical extracts that help to improve your complexion with continued use. I also highly recommend using a Kabuki style foundation brush. Brushworks brushes (12.95) are a favourite of mine as they are vegan and cruelty free plus they come in great colour ways. Advertisement

STOP DRY SKIN AND CHAPPED LIPS

Dry skin and chapped lips are two troublesome symptoms from wearing a face mask.

Dr Lucy Glancey of www.drglancey-clinics.com recommends investing in a good quality moisturiser to suit your skin type, whether it's oily or dry.

'A face mask will exacerbate any skin problems,' she said. 'Always apply a moisturiser before you wear the mask no matter what your skin type as it will add a barrier between your skin and the mask. Good moisturising is key, and regular application.

'Re-apply lip balm before and after wearing a mask and before bed.'

When it comes to choosing your mask, Dr Lucy said: 'If you have sensitive skin already then avoid certain materials that might irritate your skin further.

'Wear a snug but breathable mask that is not likely to rub against your skin and be too abrasive, preferably a cotton one.

'Avoid harsher skin products such as aftershave and retinoids whilst wearing a mask for long periods of time.'

Dr Lucy also suggests avoiding wearing make-up under your mask if possible as it is more likely to clog your pores and lead to breakouts, especially in the warmer summer months.

STOP ACNE BREAKOUTS

A build-up of moisture underneath your mask creates the perfect breeding ground for germs which can provoke a breakout - known as 'maskne'.

Dr Lucy suggests cleaning your face with a tea tree oil-based face wash to prevent a spotty outbreak.

Dr Ross Perry, owner of skin clinics chain www.cosmedics.co.uk, said it's more important than ever to regularly wash your face.

'It will get more sweaty under a mask, particularly at this time of year and on and off public transport,' he said.

Dr Toni Phillips, group clinical director at Destination Skin, recommends regular cleansing to minimise congested skin and clogged pores which can lead to blackheads and a dull, uneven complexion.

A build-up of moisture underneath your mask creates the perfect breeding ground for germs which can provoke a breakout - known as 'maskne'. Several people have taken to social media complaining of the side effect of wearing face coverings

'The right cleanser for your skin type will remove excess oil if present, gently exfoliate dead skin cells and debris, whilst leaving the skin barrier intact and will not interfere with the water levels, leaving you with optimally clean, hydrated and glowing skin,' Dr Toni explained.

'It's especially important to keep the inside part of your mask clean, which is in contact with your skin. For day-to-day use  even if you are only wearing a mask on transport or as required indoors  remember it will trap dirt, oil and make-up.

'Fabric masks or home-made face coverings need to be washed daily. Using a clean face covering, along with a consistent skin care routine, will prevent breakouts and other more serious problems such as skin rashes or acne.'

STOP IT FROM HURTING YOUR EARS

Behind your ears is an area particularly vulnerable to friction - so wearing masks with straps that go there for long periods of time can be painful.

Many savvy social media users have shared their hacks for combatting this online, from using a hair clip to secure the straps to investing in a headband with buttons.

Savvy social media users have shared their hacks for combatting sore ears from masks online. Olivia Smalley -  who calls herself the Queen of Hair Hacks on Instagram - posted this clever trick

Another way of keeping the straps off your ears is to invest in a soft headband with buttons like this. Many variations are available on sites like Etsy

Vet Maria Lagana shared this tip on Facebook, writing: 'I crisscrossed [the straps] over ponytail, works great! No extra cloth... and I can just jump in the shower after work'

Twitter user Goofy Chick, from California, shared her PPE hack on Twitter which involves using a paperclip to connect the straps at the back of her head to her hair
The European Court has banned data transfer from the European Union to the US, Interfax reported.

According to it, the data transfer puts Europeans at risk of surveillance by US authorities.

An unexpected decision by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg overturns the EU-US data transfer agreement known as the Privacy Shield.

Depending on how the court ruling will be applied, some of the giants - including Facebook Inc., Alphabet Inc., and Apple Inc. - may face a choice whether to relocate data centers to Europe, or stop doing business in the region.
A protester who attempted to set fire to a police precinct within the Seattle CHOP area in June has been charged with arson after his family recognized him by the distinctive yellow hoodie he was wearing.

Isaiah Thomas Willoughby, 35, was arrested Tuesday on a federal arson charge that could land him up to 20 years in prison if he is convicted.

He was identified with the help of his family after he was seen in a video from June 12 starting a small fire at the Seattle Police East Precinct which then lay within the protester occupied zone on Capitol Hill.

The former Seattle resident was caught out by the bright yellow and green hoodie he was wearing from a brand he represents online.

Willoughby allegedly admitted to family members he started the fire and said it was because he was angry about the way he was treated during a prior arrest at the East Precinct, according to the complaint.

Isaiah Thomas Willoughby, 35, was arrested Tuesday on a federal arson charge after he was identified by his yellow hoodie as the protester who set fire to a Seattle police precinct

Willoughby was first arrested by Seattle police on June 18 during a search of his residence in Tacoma.

He was charged in state court and arrested again on the federal charge in a Seattle residence this week.

'This is the third case we have charged federally for the criminal acts that tainted otherwise peaceful protests. Other crimes remain under investigation and may result in additional federal charges,' U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran said in a statement Wednesday.

'Those who worked to turn protests into riots will not escape accountability for their criminal conduct.'

The area known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest, or CHOP, was cleared out on July 1 on an order from Mayor Jenny Durkan who had declared the ongoing protest an 'unlawful assembly'.

According to the criminal complaint filed against Willoughby on Wednesday, he was seen in surveillance video at around 3am on June 12 using a small red can, similar to a gas can, to put liquid on debris piled up beside the precinct before stepping out of the frame.

He returns after 23 seconds with something that he then sets on fire and tosses on the debris pile.

Willoughby, who most recently lived in Tacoma, allegedly then walks away as the debris lights up and the fire starts to scorch the side of the building.

Other protesters used fire extinguishers and pulled the debris away from the building to stop the fire from spreading further.

His actions and those of the other protesters are seen in surveillance footage of the night.

Seattle police released footage from June 12 which showed a protester setting a pile of debris against the Seattle East Precinct alight. The precinct then lay in the CHOP zone

As the debris bursts into flames, the man police say was Willoughby walks slowly away

Other protesters are heard screaming 'fire' and rush to put out the flames

The pile of debris can be seen exploding in flames as Willoughby walks away and the other protesters realize what is happening.

One man begins to shout for water before more urgent cries of 'fire' begin and people are seen rushing toward the building.

According to the complaint, a female protester followed Willoughby and took his picture so he could be later identified.

She shared the picture online and it was also circulated by the Seattle police department.

Because the area around the precinct was under the CHOP occupation control at the time of the arson attack, the Seattle Police Department was not able to enter to investigate the scene.

Willoughby's family contacted police after they recognized this yellow hoodie

A protester had followed the suspect and taken his picture to share online with the hope of identifying him after the blaze on the police precinct was set on June 12

However, an undercover police officer did enter the area on June 20 to take photographs of where the fire was started.

The picture taken by the other protester and shared widely on social media helped to catch Willoughby with thanks to the distinctive clothing he was wearing as he sparked the fire.

In the surveillance video, he has on a bright yellow sweatshirt with a unique pattern on the back from clothing brand Sneaker Warz.

Police charged Isaiah Willoughby, pictured, after finding him linked to the clothing brand being worn by the suspect in the video on his Facebook page

Willoughby is said to represent the brand on social media and those who know him were quickly able to help police identify him from his clothing.

His aunt contacted the police on June 18 to tell them her nephew had started the fire and confirmed that Willoughby had been in the protest area on the night of the fire.

'The aunt specifically asked Willoughby why he set the fire, and Willoughby replied that it was because he was angry about the way he had been treated by officers at the East Precinct during a prior arrest,' the complaint states.

'Willoughby also stated that he had a lawsuit about his mistreatment by SPD East Precinct officers.'

The complaint noted that Willoughby attempted to remove social media posts that would have linked him to the fire but left others that revealed his anger at police and his knowledge of the Seattle East precinct.

One Facebook post from June 9 read: 'This why Iam [sic] on the front lines of this Regime change in America if you support my parties then we need you on this Iam burn it down.'

According to the complaint, Willoughby's aunt and uncle said that they had witnessed his brother trying to help him delete all the incriminating posts.

His aunt added that Willoughby's father told her that the 35-year-old had started the fire.

During the initial June search of his Tacoma residence, police found other clothing from the same brand as the hoodie seen in the video surveillance.

The complaint also listed Facebook posts from Willoughby, as pictured above

Willoughby had shared pictures from the CHOP zone mentioning the clothing brand

'We support every American's right to protest,' said ATF Seattle Field Division Acting Special Agent in Charge Mickey French of the incident.

'But when someone turns to an act of violence, putting many lives in danger, ATF will work to ensure he or she is held accountable.'

TIMELINE OF VIOLENCE IN SEATTLE'S CHOP ZONE June 8: Protesters occupy the area; police abandoned the precinct June 12: Isaiah Willoughby allegedly attempts arson of the East Precinct June 20: A 19-year-old man is shot dead and a 33-year-old man was wounded June 24: Nearby businesses and property owners filed a federal lawsuit against the city June 29: Two teens shot - one fatally - in Jeep at zone's concrete barriers June 30: Barricades at Seattle's cop-free zone are torn down as protesters replace concrete barriers with trash cans and couches July 1: Early hours : Mayor Jenny Durkan demand all barriers are removed after a 525 per cent spike in violent crimes in the area 5am: Police swarm the zone 5:30am: Eyewitnesses say officers have cleared the area 7am: Chief Carmen Best confirms police have taken back precinct Advertisement

The case is being investigated by the the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, the FBI and the Seattle Police Department.

This is the third federal case filed in Seattle in relation to criminal acts carried out by protesters in the relation to criminal acts during recent protests.

The U.S. Attorneys Office has charged two other defendants with crimes related to the civil unrest in May and June 2020.

Margaret Aislinn Channon is charged with five counts of arson for setting police vehicles on fire the evening of May 30, 2020.

Devinare Antwan Parker is charged with possession of an improvised destructive device for the improvised firearm he brought to a protest on May 31, 2020.

The CHOP zone in Seattle emerged as Black Lives Matter and anti-cop protests mounted across the country throughout early June.

Protests erupted after 46-year-old black father of five George Floyd died during an arrest when white office Derek Chauvin pressed his knee against the man's neck for close to nine minutes.

The slaying, which cost Chauvin his job and got the ex-cop charged with murder, set in motion nationwide protests, driven by the Black Lives Matter movement and a call for police reform and end to systematic racism.

In Seattle, the CHOP zone was create after people occupied several blocks around a park and the Seattle Police Department's East Precinct when officers abandoned the building on June 8 following clashes with protesters calling for an end to police brutality.

However, by July 1, Mayor Durkan branded the gathering at the East Precinct and Cal Anderson Park an 'unlawful assembly' and demanded all barriers be removed.

Officers tore down demonstrators' tents and used bicycles to herd the protesters.

Police tore down fences that protesters had erected around their tents and used batons to poke inside bushes, apparently looking for people who might be hiding inside.

The move to dismantle the area followed the shooting death of a 16-year-old boy, named as Antonio Mays Jr, in the early hours of Monday morning.

A 14-year-old was also critically injured when eyewitnesses say armed security inside the zone fired 300 rounds.

Lorenzo Anderson, 19, was shot on the protest area on June 20.

A sign inside the Capital Hill Autonomous Zone on June 12
(Natural News) The mother of a 3-year-old boy was shot dead in an ambush over the 4th of July weekend after telling a group of Black Lives Matter supporters that all lives matter.

(Article by Tyler Durden republished from ZeroHedge.com)

According to the womans fiancee and confirmed by her father in a statement to Gateway Pundits Cassandra Fairbanks, 24-year-old Jessica Doty Whitaker was out on a walk with her fiancee, Jose Ramirez and two friends near the Indianapolis Canal Walk on July 5 around 3 a.m., when one of them was overheard using a slang version of the n-word, according to Fox 59.

A group of strangers confronted Whitakers group. Guns were drawn and an argument ensued in which someone in the suspect group shouted Black Lives Matter, to which Whitaker or someone in her group replied that All Lives Matter.

The groups then fist bumped and walked away from each other, but then Ramirez says they were ambushed from a nearby bridge and ran away.

It was squashed and they went up the hill and left we thought, but they were sitting on St. Clair waiting for us to come under the bridge and thats when she got shot, said Ramirez, who admits he returned fire but says he didnt hit anyone. He says he had his arms around Whitaker when she was shot.

I was actually holding her when it happened. She just fell, he said. I didnt see nobody. I didnt hopefully I didnt hit nobody.

According to a Facebook post by Whitakers grandfather (reported by TGP), multiple black assailants shot her in the head.

Why isnt anybody outraged about this? he asked. Is it that BLM was involved or that it was white young adults that [were] the victims?

Whitaker was rushed to a local hospital where she succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead.

Im never going to get to hold her again, the victims mother, Arlena Doty, said. I just want the people who are responsible to be held accountable. Before her death, Whitaker was a home health nurse who planned to attend school in August and get married next year. She leaves behind a three-year-old son named Greyson. Just justice. For us, mostly for him. Hes got a mom he probably wont even remember when he gets older, said Ramirez. Ramirez, when speaking to Fox 59, was overcome with emotions and became tearful when speaking about his fiancee. She shouldnt have lost her life. Shes got a 3-year-old son she loved dearly, Its hard to tell him his mom is in heaven and if you want to talk to her you have to look up and say, I love you mom. He added: Were going through a lot. The 3-year-old boy doesnt even understand really. Daily Mail

Meanwhile, this story has received little to no attention in the mainstream media. We wonder if that would be the case if the races were reversed?

Read more at: ZeroHedge.com
A key aide of 1993 Mumbai blasts case convict Abu Salem who worked in his illegal property business in Delhi-NCR has been arrested by the Special Task Force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh police, officials said on Thursday.

Gajendra Singh, who was also close to gangster Khan Mubarak, was nabbed in Mumbai late Wednesday night by the Noida unit of the STF, they said.

"Gajendra Singh had taken Rs 1.80 crore from a Delhi-based businessman in 2014 in a property-related case. When he was pressured to return the money, Singh had Khan Mubarak's shooters open fire at the businessman in sector 18 of Noida," Additional Superintendent of Police, STF, Raj Kumar Mishra said.

The businessman was in his car when the attack took place, and he narrowly escaped, the officials said.

Mishra said Singh had paid the shooters Rs 10 lakh, and the agency has cracked the money trail of the transaction.

"Gajendra Singh also invested Abu Salem and Khan Mubarak's money into properties in Delhi-NCR," the officer added.

Singh was wanted in a couple of cases registered at a police station in Noida where he has been lodged now for further proceedings, the STF said.
Adam Montgomery lives for the time he spends with the dead.

It sounds ghoulish, but its not. The Niagara historian and author has been walking, studying and photographing cemeteries in Niagara and southern Ontario for several years.

To him they are a living, breathing part of the community, each with their own personality. And personalities.

Most of my exploration is in Niagara, because Im in Grimsby, but I try to explore everywhere, says Montgomery.

My photo collection is well over 10,000, probably over 20,000 by now, and its cemeteries all over southern Ontario.

You can learn sort of everything about the community from it, right? Theres still sort of a stigma attached to them, people see it as morbid. But they dont realize in a lot of cases that the whole history of the community is here.

You have people of different racial backgrounds, different religious backgrounds, all within this one spot. You can tell oftentimes just by looking at the monuments who were the movers and shakers  you can see the socioeconomics of the community.

His most recent project, just completed, was a two-part video series Symbols in Stone he did for the Niagara Falls History Museum with documentarian Ayodele Adewumi and initiated by Christine Girardi from the museum.

In a walk through Drummond Hill Cemetery in Niagara Falls  one of Canadas most historically significant graveyards  he explains the symbols carved into the old headstones, of which there are approximately 2,500.

Doves. Lambs. Urns. Wheat sheafs. Hands with a finger pointed up (and sometimes down).

I encourage people to come in and have a look, says Montgomery. Because these were meant to be art, even by todays standards.

We have this conception now of cemeteries as sort of morbid places where you dont go, theyre seen as depressing or sad.

But the Victorians saw them as places not only to visit, but sometimes as places of leisure. We have accounts of people at cemeteries across Canada going to picnics on a Sunday.

He continues: We tend to look at these stones, and they have this archaic old look. And because theyre aged, they almost have this inherent  I dont know if depressing is the word  but again, a lot of symbols on them were meant to represent an optimism.

That Christian belief that this is just the beginning, Im going somewhere else.

He grew up like most other kids, a little spooked by graveyards. His attitude changed while he studied history in university, focusing on the lives and deaths of soldiers.

Now he has a Twitter site called Canadian Cemetery History with nearly 4,000 followers. Hes written one book and has another in the works on the cemeteries of Niagara.

He also worked on a book called After The War with Stephane Grenier, who was second in command with Gen. Romeo Dallaire as part of a United Nations force stationed in Rwanda during the genocide of 1994.

Grenier has become an advocate for mental health, after suffering PTSD after his time in the African country.

More than the headstones and history, Montgomery has gotten to know the people buried under the ground where he walks.

He points to one stone at Drummond Hill. Its small, with just a name and dates: Loretta Gee, 1893-1913.

An American, she jumped over the falls over a scorned love, unrequited love I guess, he says.

She was 19, not even 20 when she died, it says on her death record  she was buried here, it must have been friends who had the monument put up for her.

RELATED STORIES Niagara Region Buried history being uncovered in St. Davids

Im always curious about the ones who had a short lifespan, just because there were so many things that killed people at a young age then.

Every death was a life. Every name has a story.

At Drummond Hill Cemetery there are the famous  War of 1812 heroine Laura Secord and ill-fated daredevil Karel Soucek  and theres the poor soul whose horse was spooked by one of the newfangled automobiles, broke into a sprint and threw him into a tree when the wagon took a sharp turn.

And there is Robert Powley, a local man executed in the electric chair in an Auburn, N.Y. prison in 1897 for murdering his wife Alzotta.

I think of these as historic sites, says Montgomery.

Because you think of just how much has happened in that place, in the sense of literally several thousand funerals have taken place there. Every life.

And the stories are just incredible in terms of the people. I could literally go on for days just with some of the stories Ive researched in terms of the lives people lived, and the ways that are sad and tragic  and I cant help but say fascinating  ways that people died that just dont happen today.
By Alan Steinberg

Since the inception of the State of Israel in 1948, the Democratic Party, the party of a continuing large majority of American Jews, has, for the most part, maintained its allegiance to the American-Israel alliance. Indeed, this alliance has been a continuing bipartisan cornerstone of American foreign policy.

The basic tenets of a pro-Israel American foreign policy are currently best exemplified by the views of the three leading Democrat advocates of Israel in the United States Senate: Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, and Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland. All three are opposed to land annexation proposals put forth by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. There are two principles, however, upon which there is complete concurrence between the Netanyahu government and the three Democratic Senators.

The first is that despite any disagreements that arise between the Israeli and American governments regarding the annexation issue, American military security assistance to Israel under the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) of 2016 shall continue unimpeded and uninterrupted. The goal of the MOU is to guarantee Israel a qualitative military edge (QME) over its neighboring foes. The second is firm opposition to the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

BDS is considered to be an existential threat to the economy of Israel. Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumed 2020 Democratic presidential nominee has embraced these two principles as his own, hereinafter referred to as the Biden principles. They will likely be the core and essence of the Israel platform plank at the Democratic National Convention. His advocacy of the Biden principles has solidified his wide lead among American Jewish voters over President Donald Trump.

The Donald has been unmistakably pro-Israel, yet his racism, abuses of power, alliance with White Nationalist leaders, opposition to Obamacare, and obstruction of the rule of law have made him anathema to the overwhelming majority of the American Jewish electorate. So Joe Biden and Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are guaranteed overwhelming support from the American Jewish community in the 2020 November election.

Yet among certain sectors of American Jewry, particularly the Orthodox, there is a growing unease as to whether the next generation of Democrats will support Israel. The reason for this apprehension is the increase in the number of anti-Israel Progressive Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives who support BDS. This progressive contingent, currently numbering 17, is led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.

Yet, American Jews need not fear. With the forthcoming election this November of Joseph Kennedy III of Massachusetts, grandson of Robert Kennedy, to the Senate and Amy Kennedy of New Jersey, daughter-in-law of the late Senator Ted Kennedy and wife of Patrick Kennedy, a former congressman from Rhode Island, to the House, a new fourth generation of Kennedys is ascending to national leadership.

Both Joe and Amy Kennedy have endorsed the Biden principles. And no political family in the United States has had a stronger tradition of pro-Israel support than the Kennedys. The familys commitment to the survival and security of the State of Israel began with the administration of President John F. Kennedy. In 1962, JFK directed the sale of the defensive Hawk missile system to Israel. This was the first sale of a major weapons system from Israel to the United States since the 1948 founding of the Jewish State.

Since then, all Kennedys who have served as members of the United States Senate and the House of Representatives have had literal perfect voting records on measures involving the American-Israel alliance. Yet the ultimate sacrifice of any American politician on behalf of Israel was made by the late Senator Robert Kennedy of New York, who gave his life.

In the California Democratic presidential primary of 1968, the two principal candidates, Robert Kennedy and Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota participated in a statewide televised debate on June 1. During the debate, Robert Kennedy reaffirmed his commitment to the American Israel alliance. Watching the debate was an implacable hater of Israel, a Palestinian Arab named Sirhan Sirhan.

Four days later, on Tuesday, June 4, 1968, Robert Kennedy won the California primary, which made him the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination. Tragically, shortly after claiming victory at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, Robert Kennedy was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan.

The members of the Kennedy family have honored the memory of RFK in many ways, including leadership on behalf of the American-Israel alliance, a cause Joe and Amy Kennedy will further as members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, respectively. This will help ensure that the Democratic Party remains a pro-Israel party.

And within the next decade, Joe Kennedy III will emerge as a presidential candidate. Indeed, the dream shall never die.

Alan J. Steinberg served as Regional Administrator of Region 2 EPA during the administration of former President George W. Bush and as Executive Director of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission.

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After the ad ran  helping to inject questions about Trump's fitness into the cable news cycle  Trump went off script for nearly 15 minutes to address his West Point performance at a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was intended to reset his stalled reelection bid. As the campaign unfolds, the movement's influence will be tested, however, as many Republicans rally around the embattled President and as former vice-president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, becomes a more high-profile target of GOP attacks. Meanwhile, Trump on Wednesday, US time, demoted his campaign manager Brad Parscale in favour of veteran GOP operative Bill Stepien. Parscale, a digital expert, has been credited with help in Trump's election but their relationship had been strained since a Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally that drew an unexpectedly low crowd after TikTok users and K-pop fans tricked the campaign into believing more people would attend, infuriating the President. Empty seats at Donald Trump's Tulsa rally. Credit:AP Trump has been struggling in his reelection campaign against presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as the country faces health and economic crises during a pandemic that has killed more than 135,000 Americans.

Two Republican officials who work on House and Senate races said the Lincoln Project and similar groups are more effective at rattling the President than affecting the electoral landscape. "They don't have juice," one of them said. A second added that groups weren't spending "big money", and that Trump  if the election were held right now  would face "a bloodbath" regardless of the groups' various efforts. Joe Biden has faulted President Donald Trumps handling of the coronavirus crisis, demanding he unite the people and take the virus seriously. Credit:AP And it remains to be seen just how much influence the groups will ultimately have with the only metric that matters  persuading voters  rather than simply generating Twitter buzz and titillating the media. The White House declined to comment on the record, although privately both administration officials and outside allies are dismissive of the groups  especially the Lincoln Project  which they dismiss as "scam PACs" run by "beltway swamp creatures whose candidates can't win," in the words of one senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share the administration's view of the groups. Erin Perrine, a Trump campaign spokeswoman, was similarly critical. "This is the swamp  yet again  trying to take down the duly elected President of the United States," Perrine said in an email statement. "President Trump is the leader of a united Republican Party where he has earned 94 per cent of Republican votes during the primaries  something any former president of any party could only dream of."

Still, the leading members of the anti-Trump bloc believe they can be helpful to Biden by sharply attacking Trump on divisive and controversial topics that campaigns typically avoid, such as his physical health. The Biden campaign, for its part, sees little downside to these outside groups going after the President, an official said. Loading And unlike in 2016, when many of them bandied around independent candidate Evan McMullin, whose campaign failed to dent Trump, their work this time is aimed at damaging Trump's standing rather than on offering a Republican alternative or challenging Trump at the party's convention. Other groups in the anti-Trump wing include Right Side PAC, which is led by Matt Borges, former chairman of the Ohio Republican Party and advised by former Trump White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, a financier who has become a Trump critic. And there is 43 Alumni for Biden, formed by officials who worked in the George W. Bush administration. The Lincoln Project was founded by Republican strategists John Weaver, Rick Wilson, Steve Schmidt and former New Hampshire Republican Party chair Jennifer Horn. Lawyer George Conway, who is married to White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway, is also involved.

Republican Voters Against Trump, which was founded by longtime conservative and self-described "Never Trumper" Sarah Longwell, has concentrated almost entirely on sharing testimonials from traditional Republicans who voted for Trump in 2016, but are planning  sometimes reluctantly  to support Biden in November. Loading The group also includes William Kristol, a conservative commentator, Tim Miller, a Republican operative who worked on Jeb Bush's 2016 presidential campaign, and Mike Murphy, a longtime Republican strategist. Longwell said she spent most of the three years following Trump's election trying to understand what happened and conducting focus groups with voters who supported Trump in 2016 but now rate his performance in office as "somewhat bad" or "very bad". As her group began testing ads, they quickly realised that slick commercials were often less persuasive than raw testimonials from fellow Republicans with similar doubts about the current President. They worked for several months to recruit 100 first-person testimonials, largely shot on smartphones  but now they have more than 400 videos, many of them unsolicited.

"The ones that really stand out tend to the be the ones where someone is really grappling with the decision, someone saying, 'I've been a Republican my whole life, I'm passionate about this party, I'm passionate about these ideas, but I just can't vote for Donald Trump'," Longwell said. "It feels like they're getting something off their chest, and people really respond to that authenticity and the realness of that." The group, which has begun airing testimonials on television and online in North Carolina and Arizona, plans to spend between $US10 and $US15 million and also go on air in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and possibly Florida. Their target audience is largely white suburban women, a group that has already begun to move away from Trump. On Sunday, Republican Voters Against Trump will air an ad during Fox News Sunday, a program Trump frequently watches, in North Carolina and Arizona highlighting 15 Republicans who voted for Trump in 2016 but will now vote for Biden. "It's OK to change your mind," the ad ends. "We did." The current incarnation of the Never Trump movement represents an evolution from the group that first came together in 2016 to oppose Trump with blog posts and magazine articles. After Trump was elected, many of them eventually fell into line and backed the President with varying levels of enthusiasm, both in Congress and in the activist and media ranks, seeming to relegate the "Never Trump" slogan to curio status.

When the Lincoln Project was founded in December, expectations were low. Trump's approval rating among Republicans was sky high and most of his party's lawmakers were vocally supporting him in the impeachment inquiry on Capitol Hill. Loading Then in early May the project received a jolt: "Mourning in America"  a dystopian twist on Ronald Reagan's famous 1984 "Morning in America" campaign spot  went viral, generating millions of views and drawing Trump's wrath for its skewering of his handling of the pandemic. The Trump campaign issued a lengthy statement in response to the ad, saying it inaccurately depicted the federal government's handling of the outbreak and calling those involved "scumbags" and "scam artists". PolitiFact rated as false one of the ad's claims that the bailout has not helped Main Street, an assessment disputed by the group. Trump piled on, calling the group's founders "LOSERS" in a series of midnight tweets and later telling reporters, "They should not call it the Lincoln Project. It's not fair to Abraham Lincoln, a great president. They should call it the 'Losers Project'."

Since then, the group and others like it have been emboldened. "It would be foolish not to take advantage of the most undisciplined President in modern history," said Stuart Stevens, the chief strategist on Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign, who joined the Lincoln Project in May. "It's really a national conversation and one guy - Trump - has a pulpit unlike anything, and to get him to enter into the conversation amplifies the conversation like nothing else." Never Trump operatives also say they learnt lessons from their failures in 2016, and believe the political landscape is more favourably disposed to their efforts this time. Trump now has a record for them to assail, and Biden is a more palatable candidate for some Republicans and independents who voted for Trump four years ago because they so disliked Hillary Clinton. "Is there enormous energy to beat a divisive and incompetent President who is responsible for worsening the most devastating health and economic crisis in a generation? Absolutely. But we're also seeing a genuine and powerful movement of Americans uniting behind Joe Biden," said Biden campaign spokesman TJ Ducklo. "Never Trump is translating to pro-Joe, and that is very bad news for the President of the United States." Inside the Lincoln Project, there has been a frenzy of activity as the group has gone from a small outfit with a couple million on hand to a viral-video production machine. Turning their attention to the Senate map is of particular importance, and a new ad this past week offers a rebuke of Senate Republicans who have lifted Trump. "Learn their names. Remember their actions. And never, ever trust them again," the ad urges, promising accountability for these lawmakers even after Trump is no longer president.

A Friday memo from the group obtained by The Washington Post argues that "Arizona and Colorado are off the board for Republicans" and says South Carolina, Kansas, and even Alabama could be in play. Senator Tom Cotton, left, could continue "Trumpism", say those campaigning against US President Donald Trump. Credit:Bloomberg Weaver also said that "dispatching Trump does not dispatch Trumpism," and cited Fox News host Tucker Carlson, as well as Republican Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Josh Hawley of Missouri as other potential party leaders he hopes to sideline. "The next battle will be making sure those from his ilk do not get the next Republican nomination," Weaver said. "Our task won't be finished when Joe Biden takes the oath of office." Meanwhile, Republican Voters Against Trump has been heartened by the outpouring of unprompted videos sent their way, like the one from Josh in North Carolina. When his video first landed, some suggested some light editing, but Miller, the group's political director, argued the video's power was its raw authenticity.
A pro-Western party in North Macedonia is poised to try to form a coalition government following a narrow election victory.

The Social Democrats led by former prime minister Zoran Zaev declared victory Thursday after receiving 36% of the vote with 94% of ballots counted, according to official results.

But main conservative rivals VMRO-DPMNE were less than two percentage points behind and insisted they could ultimately prevail in coalition negotiations and form a government.

Oliver Spasovski, the caretaker Prime Minister, said elections had been organized freely and fairly "as it should be for a state that is waiting for the talks for its membership into EU."

The election involved two days of advance voting due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The state electoral commission suffered a website outage after polls closed in what officials described as suspected hacking attack. An official from the commission told The Associated Press the incident had been referred to the Interior Ministry for a potential police investigation.

Zaev, 45, led the countrys effort to end a decades-long name dispute with neighbor Greece, clearing the way for the former Yugoslav republic to join NATO earlier this year.

Coalition talks will involve parties representing the countrys ethnic Albanian minority which makes up nearly a quarter of the countrys 2.1 million population.

Preliminary seat projections from the electoral commission gave Zaev's Social Democrats 46 seats in the 120-member parliament - well short of the 61 needed to form a government and leaving the former prime minister faced with complicated negotiations that could involve several smaller parties.

The conservatives gained a projected 44 seats.

Power-sharing negotiations are expected to last several weeks.
Monetising real estate assets is part of the overall relief package that would be used to retire debts, upgrade networks, and offer VRS aimed at reducing the telcos employee strength by half.

The Union government has started the process of monetising landholdings of state-owned telcos Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL).

In a definite first step, the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) has appointed consultancy firms CBRE, JLL, and Knight Frank to look at the feasibility of such a sale during the pandemic.

The consultants will submit their reports by end of the month.

The asset monetisation of BSNL and MTNL, estimated to fetch around Rs 37,500 crore, was discussed at a meeting in the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) last week.

The telecom department has now been told to fast track the process, according to an official in the know.

The consultants would look at the valuation of the assets, along with the current market appetite, while preparing their reports.

The companies will prioritise the asset sale thereafter. CBRE, JLL, and Knight Frank did not respond to queries sent by Business Standard.

The sale of the land bank of BSNL and MTNL is expected to help the government offer relief packages to the financially stressed state telcos.

In October 2019, days before Diwali, the government approved a revival package of nearly Rs 70,000 crore for BSNL and MTNL.

Monetising real estate assets is part of the overall relief package that would be used to retire debts, upgrade networks, and offer a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) aimed at reducing the telcos employee strength by half.

The real estate assets primarily include land as well as rental and leasing of buildings. MTNL has around 29 retail outlets in Delhi alone.

The relief package includes a sovereign bond issue worth Rs 15,000 crore, to be serviced by these PSUs.

Also, BSNL and MTNL will be allotted 4G spectrum at an administered price, pegged at the 2016 auction value.

Officials said the asset sale would be an important exercise for payment of VRS compensation to the staff of BSNL and MTNL.

Asset sale is not a one-time exercise and will be spread over a couple of years.

The appointment of the consultants is the first step. They will have several queries which have to be fulfilled by us and only then can any progress be made in the sale, a senior BSNL official pointed out.

DIPAM will work in close coordination with the two companies and their parent ministry DoT.

Theres no official word yet on whether the asset sale would take the two telcos closer to a merger.
New Delhi, Jul 16(UNI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will deliver a keynote address virtually at this years High-Level segment of the United Nations Economic and Social Council session on Friday, the Prime Minister's office said.

Mr Modi will be speaking at the valedictory session along with the Prime Minister of Norway and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

The annual High-level Segment convenes a diverse group of high-level representatives from the Government, the private sector, civil society and academia. The theme of this years High-level Segment is "Multilateralism after COVID19: What kind of UN do we need at the 75th anniversary.

Set against the changing international environment and the COVID-19 pandemic, this session will focus on critical forces shaping the course of multilateralism and explore ways to bolster the global agenda through strong leadership, effective international institutions, a broadening of participation and enhanced significance of global public goods.

This will be first opportunity for the PM to address the broader UN membership since Indias overwhelming election as a non-permanent member of the Security Council on June 17, for the term 2021-22.

The theme of the High-Level Segment of the ECOSOC, on the 75th Anniversary of the founding of the UN, also resonates with Indias Security Council priority, wherein we have called for reformed multilateralism in a post-COVID-19 world.

It also recalls Indias role, as the holder of the inaugural Presidency of ECOSOC (Sir Ramaswami Mudaliar, in 1946). PM had earlier delivered the keynote address virtually at the 70th anniversary of ECOSOC in January 2016.

UNI AR SB 1248
By Ayya Lmahamad

President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva have attended the inauguration of a newly built Boyukshor substation in Baku, Azertag reported on July 16.

The voltage of the newly built substation is 220/110/10 kV and its capacity is 750 MVA.

In the central control room of the substation, a micro SCADA system was installed to monitor the workflow and transfer indicators to the SCADA system of Azerenergy.

This substation is important to ensure a stable power supply to a number of existing and planned major infrastructure facilities, social and industrial enterprises and the population located in Sabunchu, Binagadi, Narimanov and Nizami districts of capital.

Moreover, Boyukshor substation, will eliminate the load of the 220 kV lines and substations that supply the Absheron power crossing, reduce losses in the lines and increase reliability and capacity of the power crossing. In addition, this substation will improve the power supply circuitry of the existing 110 kV and solve the problem of connecting the new 110 kV to the power system.

Prospective socio-economic development and population growth were taken into account in the construction of the new substation.

It should be noted that till now, power supply of the northern part of central Baku was carried out via Khirdalan and 8 substation lines, which created certain difficulties in providing consumers with quality electricity.

Thus, with the commissioning of the Boyukshor substation, this problem has already been solved. Three modern transformers were installed on the substation, and the existing air lines of 2nd Hovsan and 3rd Ramana were provided with access to substation. Currently, cable lines have been laid to Binagadi substation to reduce congestion and increase reliability.

Until recently only five 220-kilovolt substations operated in Baku, four of which have already reached their resource level.

Over the past two years, two closed substations were built in the territory of Boyukshor and Shimal power plants, bringing the number of 220 kilovolt substations to seven.

At the same time, reconstruction of the two out of four 220-kilovolt substations has been completed and the remaining two will be completed in the coming months.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Black Lives Matter protests have swept the United States since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25.

David Ryder/Getty Images

The city council of Asheville, North Carolina, unanimously voted to provide reparations to Black residents and their descendants during a meeting on Tuesday.

The resolution plans to provide reparations through helping Black communities with business ownership, housing ownership, and career opportunities.

It will also work to close racial gaps in healthcare, education, and the criminal justice system.

City council members told Insider that the resolution is a good first step toward reparations, but they still have a long way to go.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

The city council of Asheville, North Carolina, has unanimously voted to provide reparations to Black residents and their descendants.

According to the resolution, viewed by Insider, Asheville officials plan to allocate funds to help reduce racial disparities in minority business ownership, access to affordable housing, and career opportunities. The city will also work to close racial disparity gaps in healthcare, education, and the criminal justice system.

The resolution was approved by city council members in a 7-0 vote on Tuesday.

In the resolution, officials say the reparations are a first step in making amends for the city's role in slavery, segregation, and an urban renewal program that "destroyed multiple, successful black communities."

But city council members told Insider that Asheville still has a long way to go.

Councilwoman Julie Mayfield said that voting for reparations was "an important first step in starting to right hundreds of years of wrongs and to repair the damage done during that time."

"The City is not the only entity that needs to or can act  the resolution calls on the County and private organizations to join us in our apologies and to address racism within their own structures," she told Insider. "The resolution also calls on the state and federal governments to address reparations, as this is a societal debt that needs to be paid at every level. There is much work for us to do, and we are excited to get started."

Story continues

Keith Young, one of two Black members of Asheville's city council, told Insider that the discussion of reparations will not end with last night's vote.

He said the city plans on taking a step-by-step approach that will identify root causes of racial disparities, find entry points to close gaps, and search for solutions, before taking action.

"We are seeking to embed systemic solutions into a systemic problem. This process begins and is perpetual, repeating this process over and over again," he said. "There is no completion box to check off.

Black residents are disproportionately likely to be searched and arrested by police

According to the local nonprofit news service AVL Watchdog, Asheville was named in 1797 after Samuel Ashe, a former North Carolina governor and slave-owner. As of 1860, about 15% of Western North Carolina was enslaved, according to AVL Watchdog, and the city's tourism industry was largely based on slave labor.

Today, Black residents make up just 11.7% of Asheville's population of 92,870 people, according to data from the US Census Bureau. Arrest data from AVL Watchdog found that Black people in the city are three times more likely to be searched by police than white people during traffic stops, and that they're disproportionately charged in a number of crimes, including marijuana possession, the Asheville Citizen-Times reported in June.

According to the AVL Watchdog data, Black people make up 33 to 40% of lower-level crime charges, despite only making up 11.7% of the population.

Veronica Edwards, an Asheville-based Black business owner who runs the accounting firm Balanced Virtually, told Insider that she believes the reparations are "necessary to close the gap" in racial disparities in the city.

An anti-racist protesters rings a bell commemorating the Confederacy outside of Alamance County Courthouse in Graham, North Carolina on July 11, 2020.

LOGAN CYRUS/AFP via Getty Images

She said that recent gentrification has made racial disparities worse in the city  causing displacement of minority communities and an increase in racial profiling.

"As a double minority, small business owner, and a resident of Asheville for the last four years I feel these reparations are necessary to close the gap we currently have seen grown to its highest heights," she said. "The reparations are well overdue to reverse the inevitable, total displacement of minorities, if no action is taken. I am excited and encouraged that Asheville is leading the charge."

Councilman Young told Insider that the city council's reparation plan is an ongoing project.

"This work does not end and will be adaptive, no matter what governing body holds office or who runs our city," he said.

Mayor Esther Manheimer celebrated the unanimous vote for reparations in a statement to Insider.

"The City of Asheville is one of the many institutions throughout our nation grappling with addressing historical and continued structural racism," she said. "The resolution unanimously adopted by the council acknowledges this and expresses support for the concept of reparations."

"It's clear to me that federal reparations legislation would be the most impactful," he added. "However, this is a conversation that is happening among diverse groups of people in cities and towns throughout the United States, and through our resolution, the City of Asheville has joined in this conversation."

Expanded Coverage Module: black-lives-matter-module

Read the original article on Insider
An anti-police violence protester in Portland, Oregon was shot last Saturday night, July 11, by a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officer with what has been described as an impact munition, leaving him hospitalized in critical condition. The strike on the left side of his face inflicted skull fractures and required reconstructive surgery.

The victim, Donavan LaBella, 26, remains hospitalized where, according to his mother, doctors continue to monitor his neurological condition and to drain blood from his brain. LaBella also required an MRI for vision problems in the left eye. An eyewitness interviewed by KOIN-TV said the shooting caused a pretty deep laceration, but he was bleeding from his nose, his mouth, his ears  it was pretty bad.

The assault by DHS occurred a day after President Trump, in a briefing by military commanders in Florida, asked acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolfin what was obviously a staged eventabout out of control protests in Portland. Trump spoke approvingly that We sent you there recently. It was out of control. The locals couldnt handle it. And you people are handling it very nicely.

A pair of unmarked agents arrest a protester in Portland (Image Credit: Twitter/matcha_chai Screen capture)

Wolf answered that [T]he Department of Homeland Security, along with the [Department of Justice], FBI, and others are surging resources, and were starting to make a difference there.

Two days after the shooting, Trump, making no mention of the injured young man, menacingly stated that Portland was totally out of control, and they went in, and I guess we have many people right now in jail and we very much quelled it, and if it starts again, well quell it again very easily. Its not hard to do, if you know what youre doing.

Since the murder of George Floyd at the end of May, Portland has seen significant daily demonstrations and protests of a multi-racial and multi-ethnic character. Protesters have gathered outside the federal courthouse in downtown Portland in what has become a nightly occurrence.

It is clear that Portland has been used by the Trump administration as a test casewith only token opposition from state and local Democratsfor the use of federal police forces built up during the so-called War on Terror and the ongoing war on immigrants to suppress popular protests against police brutality in cities across the United States.

In a White House meeting with Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday, Trump attacked those who have been demonstrating for an end to police killings as well as the Democratic Party, declaring that Democratic-run cities have turned into war zones. He added that the left-wing group of people that are running our cities are not doing the job that theyre supposed to be doing. Trump said he had a very exciting announcement next week about what were planning to do to help them [the Democrats].

A news release by the Federal Protective Service listed four federal agencies tasked to Portland. Officers from the Department of Homeland Securitys Federal Protective Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and from the Department of Justices U.S. Marshals Service continue to defend federal property from criminal acts of violence and vandalism.

Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) reported on the presence of an elite Border Patrol tactical unit known as BORTAC, which has been based on the US-Mexico border, with specialized military training and experience obtained during operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. What role is a military-style unit, previously in the Middle East battlefields, projected to play in a domestic environment against young protesters? One only has to look at their role in those countriesthe suppression of popular opposition to US imperialismin order to determine their purpose.

The response by Governor Kate Brown and the states two senators, all Democrats, condemning the use of DHS officers, rings hollow since a federal court on June 9 had to order that the Portland Police Bureau (PPB), overseen by Democratic mayor Ted Wheeler, be restricted from using tear gas or its equivalent except as provided by its own rules generally.

Jesse Merrithew, an attorney for Don't Shoot Portland, an accountability group formed by Black Lives Matter, stated The federal courts have made it clear that what PPB was doing was unlawful and in violation of the Constitution.

The judge's order has been circumvented multiple times by PPB as it repeatedly declares that a protest has become a riot, allowing the full use of previously prohibited less than lethal weapons. Dozens of people had been injured by the PPB's indiscriminate use of tear gas or other types of gas, as well as being struck by so called less than lethal rubber and foam tipped bullets.

Ten days after the court order, PPB attacked a late night protest, and used impact munitions against the participants, resulting in a head injury that, according to PPB, started to bleed profusely with the victim still suffering dizzy spells a week later. The article went on to note that Two months of protests and a court order seem to have done little to change how police disperse crowds in the city. That is, violently.
President Donald Trump will be able to claim victory after a pair of down-ballot contests Tuesday evening where two high-profile Republican candidates he supported prevailed in primary races.

Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions came up short in a fight for his political life. Democrats picked their candidate to take on Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins in the fall, and Trump's former physician Ronny Jackson won a GOP primary runoff for a Texas congressional seat.

Those were a few of the top takeaways from a slate of primary elections and runoffs Tuesday in Maine, Alabama and Texas.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN's Simone Pathe and Alex Rogers contributed to this report.

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 Read the full article on Motorious

A digital rendering of a 2021 Chevrolet Monte Carlo by talented automotive artist TheSketchMonkey.

The Chevrolet Monte Carlo had a cult following, especially when it came to NASCAR fans, especially the late Dale Earnhardt. Produced for six generations, General Motors axed the Monte Carlo in 2007. The last two cars built at GM's Oshawa Assembly plant were both finished in Precision Red paint over SS trim models. This rendering shows just what the Monte Carlo may look like if Chevy were to produce a 2021 model.

TheSketchMonkey

The rendering of this modern Monte Carlo was posted by TheSketchMonkey, a popular automotive digital artist. Finished in bright yellow, there's no denying what this car is supposed to be without saying as the car was given hints of the sixth-generation Chevy Monte Carlo.

According to the artist, he points out that the C-pillar is incredibly narrow and pinches down on the real-life sixth-gen Monte Carlo models, so he incorporated the same idea into his rendering. The tail lights went from a rounded shape to a modern triangular shape that appears as if they could be designed for a next-generation Cadillac model.

Here is the video by TheSketchMonkey that is 13 minutes and 39 seconds long as the artist goes into detail about the process of the design along with his ambition to create a new version of the car.

Nowadays, we need to ask if interesting vehicle builds are real or a rendering considering how realistic and talented these automotive artists are. The finished rendering is impressive with a rear spoiler incorporated into the trunk lid, an angular rear end, and a black diffuser that shows off the dual exhaust tail pipes protruding out from under the car. It also has door handles that are flush with the car, and large wheels with plenty of spokes. And of course, you can't forget the Monte Carlo SS badging on the sides.

What do you think of this modernized rendering of a Chevrolet Monte Carlo? Is this a car you would like to see return to the Chevy lineup?

Source: GM Authority

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The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has advocated for severe punishment for rapists as a way of fighting the rising cases of rape and sexual violence in Nigeria.

Mr Gbajabiamila said the stern punishment could involve "chopping off the genitals" of convicted rapists.

Speaking on Wednesday when he received a delegation of the Movement Against Rape and Sexual Violence (MARS-V) at the National Assembly, the speaker said leaders and citizens must rise against rape.

Mr Gbajabiamila, who described the rising rape in the country as a pandemic, said the society, including the media, has a role to play in the fight against the pandemic.

He said the statistics on rape cases in Nigeria "is mind-boggling."

He said Nigerians, especially those that hold religious views on rape, need adequate education and awareness against the rape pandemic.

"The statistics are very alarming on the issue of rape. You hear figures in terms of rape and gender-based violence that are mind-boggling. It's only a deprived mind that can engage in rape. I consider the issue of rape as a pandemic. In my estimation, it's a pandemic.

"The issue of rape should be treated the way corona (virus) is treated. How do we treat a pandemic? There has to be a frontal onslaught. The media has a role to play. It should be in the front line. There's a lot of work to be done from different angles.

"In a pandemic, you look for cure. No sane man would have sexual intercourse with a 3-month old baby. The idea alone is sickening," Mr Gbajabiamila said.

He urged men to show solidarity with women in the fight against the scourge.

"Whilst I see so many women here with you, this is a fight not just for women. I can see some few men too, but this is a fight for all. Let a subliminal message be sent that even though over 95 per cent of the victims are women, let it be that it's we, the men, that are championing your course."

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'Relevant laws, weak'

The speaker also said the Nigerian laws related to rape are weak, hence they would not deter people from engaging in the act.

Mr Gbajabiamila also said he believed a lot of rape cases are not reported as victims feel ashamed to speak out.

He urged the movement to make a presentation in that regard to see what can be done as financial support in the 2021 budget to be presented to the National Assembly in September.

Earlier, a wife of the Kaduna State governor, Aisha-Ummi El-Rufai, drew the speaker's attention to the rising cases of rape in the country, saying it was becoming alarming and that urgent action needed to be taken.

She said the current trend is a situation where "our women are raped to death and butchered even in churches and mosques where God is worshipped."

Their main reason for visiting the speaker, she said, was "to seek his help, ask questions, seek justice and challenge the status quo".

She noted that statistics had shown that "717 reported rape cases and 7,170 unreported ones occurred in Nigeria within five months".

She said while over 7,000 lives have been brutalised, with some destroyed and others terminated, "perpetrators of such heinous acts are not brought to justice even as the laws appear to the lenient".
Three French police officers have been charged with manslaughter after a deliveryman choked to death while being arrested earlier this year.

Cedric Chouviat, 42, who was of north African descent, died of asphyxiation caused by a fractured larynx after being bundled to the ground by police on January 5.

Chouviat, a father-of-five, said 'I'm suffocating' seven times as he was held down by officers near the Eiffel Tower in Paris for around 20 seconds before going limp.

The case has echoes of George Floyd, a black man who suffocated while being knelt on by a white police officer during his arrest in America.

Three French police have been charged with manslaughter after Cedric Chouvait, 42, a deliverman and father-of-five, suffocated while being arrested back in January

Lawyers for the accused officers say they did not hear Chouviat shouting because he had a motorcycle helmet on.

Chouviat was initially stopped by officers for looking at his phone while riding his scooter and having a dirty licence plate, Le Monde reported.

He began filming the incident along with a female police officer who was involved in the stop, before getting into a confrontation with the officers.

Footage taken by the female officer and shown on French TV reveals the officers began pushing him, before they ended up on the floor.

The struggle was then caught on camera by passing motorists, with video showing Chouviat being pinned to the ground.

Chouvait shouted 'I'm suffocating' seven times before passing out. He died of asphyxiation caused by a broken larynx

The arrest lasted around 20 seconds before he went limp, and an was called to take him to hospital.

He was admitted in a coma after suffering a cardiac arrest, and died two days later. A post-mortem revealed he had fractured his larynx.

Two male officers who were seen kneeling directly on Chouviat during his arrest were charged last week, FranceTV.info reports.

A third officer, also male, was charged on Thursday, according to his lawyer.

A fourth female police officer is under investigation but has not been charged.

It is not clear why

Chouviat's family said Thursday that a charge of manslaughter was too lenient 'for the violence and aggressiveness of the police officers' as seen in video footage captured by witnesses.

'Voluntary blows led to the death of Cedric Chouviat,' the family said in a statement.

A charge of 'voluntary violence' could carry a higher penalty than manslaughter under French law.

The family has asked that the restraint techniques used on Chouviat - a chokehold and a position where a person is forced face down on the ground while pressure is applied on their torso - be banned.

Former Interior Minister Christophe Castaner announced a ban on chokeholds in June but backtracked after a backlash by police who demonstrated across France.

Fatima Chouviat, Cedric's mother (pictured centre), welcomed the news but say the officers should have been charged with voluntary wounding, which carries a harsher penalty

France has seen demonstrations in recent weeks against police brutality and racism.

The protests were sparked by a report clearing the officers who arrested Adama Traore, a 24-year-old black man who died in police custody in 2016.

One of the officers had admitted the young man was pinned to the ground with their combined bodyweight.

The controversy has gained resonance since mass protests erupted in the United States over the killing by police of George Floyd, a black man who similarly died after being pinned to the ground as he pleaded: 'I can't breathe'.
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court did something it does very rarely: It issued a major opinion, a life-or-death decision, at 2 in the morning. Daniel Lee, a man on death row, had asked to receive a dose of an opioid before his lethal injection to mitigate any pain he might suffer in the process. It didnt seem like a big ask. But the Department of Justice denied his request, and on Tuesday the five conservative justices on the Supreme Court issued an order allowing the execution to proceed. Lee, who had been strapped to a gurney for four hours awaiting the decision, was put to death at around 8 a.m. Tuesday.

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This was the culmination of months of planning on the part of the Justice Department. When Attorney General William Barr took office, he vowed to resume federal executionsLees was the first one in 17 years. On Thursdays episode of What Next, I spoke with Slates Mark Joseph Stern about what this execution means for the future of the death penalty.

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Mary Harris: It stood out to me that in this ruling from the Supreme Court that allowed the execution to move forward, no one authored it. It was just an opinion without someone standing behind it. Thats pretty rare, right?

Mark Joseph Stern: It is relatively rare, but it is increasingly common for these late-night decisions that the court hands down that could cause public backlash. For instance, the instantly notorious decision that forced Wisconsin voters to either go to the polls in person or forfeit their right to vote was also unsigned. No justice wanted to put their name to it. I think whats going on behind the scenes is the five conservatives convene and they all agree, but no one justice wants to author the opinion, and all of this is happening on a super-accelerated schedule. They just want to get this out there in the world, and the only reason we know which justices joined it is because the other justices, the liberals, dissent. And when they dissent, they do so by name, so you have to actually deduce which justices constituted the five in the majority here.

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Daniel Lee was on death row for triple murder. And the facts around his case are horrific. Back in 1996, Lee killed two adults and an 8-year-old child while he and a co-conspirator were looking for guns and money to fund their white supremacist organization.

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Obviously this was a terrible crime, and I dont want to downplay the details here. But what seemed to come out at trial was that Lee was not the ringleader of this plan. Lees co-conspirator was the ringleader. Basically, Lee went along with it, but at trial a fair amount of evidence came out that it wasnt even Lee who killed the child, that it was his co-conspirator, a guy named Chevie Kehoe. Now, heres another interesting fact: Chevie Kehoe is still alive, and he will remain alive because he was sentenced to life in prison, while Lee was sentenced to death.

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And its notable that both the judge in the case and the prosecutor didnt think that Daniel Lees sentence was fair. The judge even wrote a little bit of a mea culpa, like, Hey, there were some misunderstandings here, and this is just my opinion, but this doesnt seem to make sense.

The sentence of death is so random that it is often compared to getting struck by lightning.  Mark Joseph Stern

Right, the judge later said, essentially, Im sorry, that this was a bad sentence. And the federal prosecutors at the time of the trial asked the Justice Department to reduce the requested sentence to life in prison. The Justice Department refused.

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All of these side notes help to explain how the death penalty is just so incredibly arbitrary in the way that it is imposed, in the way that it is meted out. There are murder trials in this country all the time where people are convicted of heinous crimes and brutal acts, and those people may be tried in states that still have the death penalty, but they are sentenced quite often to life in prison. The sentence of death is so random that it is often compared to getting struck by lightning.

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It is unclear why occasionally judges and juries decide that death is appropriate. One reason is certainly racism. We have a lot of statistics that show that race factors in here, especially the race of the victim. Black people are more likely to get the death penalty. People who kill white people are more likely to get the death penalty. But theres also just this overall arbitrariness where it seems to come down to the whims of the jury. Its very difficult to predict when this sentence will be handed down. And so that makes you wonder: How is this really serving as retribution, and how is this serving as a deterrent? How is this persuading other people not to commit these crimes, when the odds of getting death are really low, and it seems really random, and frankly it seems that if you can afford a good lawyer, youre not going to get a sentence of death? It is people with bad public defenders who often wind up with these sentences, which means it wasnt really about the heinousness of the crime. It was about the quality of the defense.

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Youre raising this really important question, which is who is the death penalty for? Bill Barr tried to answer that question in one of his statements about this execution, where he said the reason why we needed to do this was because the family of the victims needed justice. But the family of the victims had been really clear that they didnt support Daniel Lees execution. The mother of one of the victims, whos a Trump supporter, recorded a video saying, I dont believe that this man should be executed.

Right. These family members of the victims do not have a political agenda and cannot plausibly be accused of that. We sometimes see prosecutors trying to dismiss families of victims who oppose the death penalty as basically just bleeding hearts who are trying to push their agenda. That is obviously not the case here because this particular family member is a staunch supporter of Donald Trump. She said, I dont want this, do not do it in my name. She actually tried to halt the execution in an earlier lawsuit because she felt that if she couldnt stop it, she was at least obligated to attend. But she could not attend during COVID when it was basically impossible to fly, especially for an elderly woman. And so she said, Please, Department of Justice, just delay this execution so that I can at least be there. And the Department of Justice said no and fought her successfully in court.

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Every time an execution is blocked, the Justice Department can text the five conservatives on the Supreme Court and say, Hey, give us what we want.  Mark Joseph Stern

I think the Department of Justice, like virtually all prosecutors, has no use for victims and victims families who dont fit into the victim-industrial complex, by which I mean the entire structure by which victims are lifted up as voices for harsh, draconian criminal laws. If you ever go to some kind of press conference where law enforcement is opposing criminal justice reforms, you can assure yourself that there will be victims and victims family members there who will stand up and say, My mother was murdered and I dont want the killer going free, or My sister was assaulted and I dont want more people to suffer that same fate. And who has the heart to tell those victims youve been misled? These draconian sentences are not deterring crime. They are not stopping violence. They are not helping. It is very difficult to look victims in the face and tell them that, and prosecutors know it. And so they exploit these victims and they rely on them to provide humane cover for fundamentally inhumane policies. And thats what Barr tried to do here.

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On Wednesday afternoon, the Supreme Court allowed another execution to move forward, with the four liberal justices opposed once again. And this is one of three executions Barr wanted to perform in the coming weeks.

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If you go read what the Supreme Court said in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, it looks like the Justice Department has a trump card here: Every time an execution is blocked, the Justice Department can text the five conservatives on the Supreme Court and say, Hey, give us what we want. And the justices will. They may not sign their name to it, they might do it in the dark of night, but they will give the Justice Department authorization. And so I think were going to see more executions soon. But I dont think it will become the new normal.

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Why not?

Because even though Barr has tried to accelerate this, and even though the Supreme Court has helped him to speed up these executions, each one is still a massive undertaking, a huge burden, a drain on the time and energy and resources of the Justice Department and of different U.S. attorneys offices around the country. And its notable that Barr did not release a list of 20 or 30 or 40 people. He set his sights pretty low, and he decided that he was only going to pick a handful of people to use as examples. It is very clear that these people are being used as examples. He is not going to go down the list and execute everyone who has been sentenced to death.

I think that Barr wants to normalize this. He just cannot do it. There are too many obstacles, there are too many roadblocks, and its too dirty of a business for him to make it just another normal part of American life, the way he so obviously craves.

Listen to the full episode using the player below, or subscribe to What Next on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.
LAVRIO, Greece - A childrens summer camp and dozens of homes had to be evacuated Thursday due to a wildfire south of Athens, where for hours high winds hampered efforts to contain the blaze.

Greek authorities said two water-dropping helicopters and two planes were involved in the firefighting effort outside the port town of Lavrio, some 60 kilometres (37 miles) south of the capital. The fire was eventually contained and plans were being made to return residents to their homes after most had been taken to nearby beaches.

The evacuations had been ordered as a precaution and homes had not faced an immediate threat, Fire Service and municipal officials said.
Melburnians who have been ordered to stay at home amid a second wave of coronavirus infections have flooded shopping centres due to boredom and to escape their families.

Retailers at Chadstone Shopping Centre, in Melbourne's south-east, say they are 'shocked' by shoppers going against the stage three stay-at-home orders just to get out of their house.

'We have a lot of customers who come in and do the right thing, but there are some who are walking in and saying they are bored and needed time away from their families,' one worker told The Monash Leader.

'I have seen police and security regularly patrolling and they're doing a great job.'

Melburnians who have been ordered to stay at home amid a second wave of coronavirus infections have flooded shopping centres due to boredom, according to retail workers

A sign reads 'If you have any symptoms please go home - No shopping' at the Broadmeadows central shopping centre where drive through COVID-19 testing took place on July 2

Pictured: Shoppers walk through Chadstone Shopping Centre, in Melbourne's south-east

Victoria is currently battling a second spike in coronavirus infections and the state recorded its highest ever daily spike on Thursday, with 317 cases.

Residents in metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire are only allowed to leave their homes for food and supplies, receive or provide care, exercise, and study or work.

STAY-AT-HOME RULES Metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire re-entered lockdown at 11.59pm on Wednesday July 8. There are only four reasons to leave home: 1. Shopping for food or other essential items 2. To provide care giving, for compassionate reasons or to seek medical treatment 3. For exercise (outdoor exercise only, with only one other person or members of your household) 4. Work or study, if you cannot work or study from home Advertisement

Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Rick Nugent said on Tuesday police have checked thousands of homes, businesses and public places since the stage three restrictions returned.

There's been 546 fines issued since the stay at home directives were reintroduced, with 151 busted at vehicle checkpoints.

Premier Daniel Andrews on Thursday thanked Victorians who are following the rules but warned of complacency.

'I'm very proud of and grateful to every Victorian who is doing the right thing. That's the vast majority,' he said.

'But we've just got to stay the course on this. We've got to keep following the rules. They make sense. I know they're challenging, I know they're frustrating.

'Everyone would prefer this to be a very different set of circumstances but it's not an ordinary winter. This is not an ordinary week.

'If we pretend it is, if we pretend it is over because we want it to be over, all we'll be doing is spreading the virus, seeing more people in hospital and sadly more people will pass away as a result of this virus.'

The 317 new cases recorded in Victoria make it the 11th consecutive day of a triple-digit increase in the state.

There are 2,128 active cases.

Pictured: Empty rows of shops with no customers on the main road in Glenroy on July 4
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday held a meeting with all members of parliament from Delhi to discuss the COVID-19 situation in the national capital.

According to the government, Kejriwal in the meeting said that the 'Delhi model' of fighting COVID-19 has been possible due to the collective efforts and support from all political parties, MPs and MLAs.

Kejriwal in a tweet said MLAs and MPs have contributed significantly to the battle against coronavirus here.

There are three Rajya Sabha and seven Lok Sabha MPs in the national capital. The meeting was held via video conference.

"Have been meeting all MLAs and MPs from Delhi for the last few days. There has been significant contribution by these public representatives in fight against coronavirus," the chief minister tweeted in Hindi.

"Met several MLAs in the last two days. Today, spoke to all MPs. If everyone's cooperation continues in the same way, we will soon beat corona," he added.

Later, the government issued a statement, saying that in meeting, all the MPs unanimously said that they are with the Delhi government and will take all possible steps to save the people of Delhi from the pandemic.

"The Delhi model was also appreciated. It was also decided that the MPs will stand united with the Delhi government to fight the novel coronavirus," the statement stated.

Meanwhile, BJP MP from East Delhi Gautam Gambhir on Twitter said he raised issues like inflated bills without taking meter readings and waiver of electricity charges for MSMEs in the meeting.

Here are the other updates on the Covid-19 pandemic:

 "We have decided to create a data bank of Covid-19 recovered patients in the state and convince them to donate plasma for treatment of virus infected patients," said Rajasthan Health Minister, Raghu Sharma.

 Health officials in Uttar Pradesh reported a record 2,061 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, taking the tally to 43,444, while 34 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 1,046. A total of 26,675 patients discharged/cured and active cases stand at 15,723.

 As many as 650 Kolkata Police personnel have tested positive for the coronavirus over the past four months, of which around 512 have recovered and several others are undergoing treatment at hospitals, a senior officer said.

 A total of 2,593 new coronavirus cases and 40 deaths were been reported in Andhra Pradesh, taking the total number of cases in the state to 38,044. The tally includes 8,159 active cases, 19,393 discharged cases and 492 deaths.

 "Our negotiations are at an advanced stage with three countries. Air France will operate 28 flights from July 18 to August 1 between Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Paris. US will be flying 18 flights between July 17-31 but this is an interim one. We have request from Germany too," said Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri

 The total lockdown in Bihar to last for 16 days, is beginning today. "There will be a total lockdown in Bihar from July 16-31 to contain the spread of COVID-19," Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Tuesday announced.

 The Delhi University will conduct the online open book examinations - which have continued to get delayed due to Covid-19 - for final year undergraduate and postgraduate students from August 10 to August 31, it said on Wednesday.

 Forty Indian fishermen, who had been stranded in Iran due to the Covid-19, returned to Tamil Nadu yesterday. These fisherman from Kanyakumari, Nagapattinam, Thuthukudi, Ramanathapuram, Nagapattinam, Cudallore, Thirunelveli were handed over to respective district officials. They will be quarantined for 14 days.

 Early-stage human trial data on a vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University will be published on July 20, The Lancet medical journal said on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

 The United States has reported the highest record of 67,632 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours. US Disease Expert Dr Anthony Fauci, meanwhile, predicted on Wednesday the country will meet its goal of a Covid-19 vaccine by year's end and was unmoved by the prospect that China would get there first.

 The NIMHANS has come out with guidelines that define a framework to address the mental health needs of healthcare personnel in COVID-19 treatment settings. The guidelines also aim to provide technical inputs to guide healthcare personnel to help themselves and their colleagues in distress.

 Five more Border Security Force (BSF) personnel have tested positive for novel coronavirus in Mizoram, taking the states COVID-19 tally to 238, officials said on Wednesday.

 A COVID-19 treatment centre with over 1000 beds has been set up at Calicut University in Malappuram. K Gopalakrishnan, District Collector, Malappuram says, "Patients who have tested positive but don't have any symptom will be treated here."

Kerala: A #COVID19 treatment centre with over 1000 beds has been set up at Calicut University in Malappuram. K Gopalakrishnan, District Collector, Malappuram says, "Patients who have tested positive but don't have any symptom will be treated here." (15.07.2020) pic.twitter.com/VWV2DGNwci  ANI (@ANI) July 15, 2020

 Oklahoma's governor said on Wednesday he had been diagnosed with COVID-19, one of the highest elected U.S. politicians to test positive for the disease, as new coronavirus infections in his state and neighboring Texas surged by record numbers for a second straight day.
OAK BROOK, Ill. (July 16, 2020) - COVID-19 is associated with life-threatening blood clots in the arteries of the legs, according to a study published in Radiology. Researchers said COVID-19 patients with symptoms of inadequate blood supply to the lower extremities tend to have larger clots and a significantly higher rate of amputation and death than uninfected people with the same condition.

COVID-19's association with blood clots in the pulmonary arteries is well-established. Less is known about the virus' connection to lower extremity arterial thrombosis, a condition characterized by blood clots in the arteries that impede the flow of oxygenated blood to the lower extremities.

During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, radiologists at the city's Montefiore Medical Center observed an increase in patients testing positive for lower extremity arterial thrombosis on CT angiography exams. The patients had arrived at hospitals with coldness, pain or discoloration of their legs. Frequently these symptoms of leg ischemia, a condition in which blood flow to the lower extremities is restricted, were accompanied by respiratory distress, cough, fever and altered mental status.

The alarming trend prompted the researchers to look more closely at a possible connection between COVID-19 and lower extremity arterial thrombosis and whether people with the virus had a worse prognosis.

In March and April 2020, they identified 16 COVID-19-positive patients, average age 70, who underwent CT angiography of the lower extremities for symptoms of leg ischemia. These patients were compared with 32 COVID-19-negative patients, average age 71, who underwent CT angiography with similar symptoms in previous years and who were well matched with COVID-19 cohort for demographic and clinical characteristics.

All patients with COVID-19 infection undergoing lower extremity CT angiography had at least one clot in the leg, compared with only 69% of controls. The clots in the COVID-19 patients were significantly larger and affected arteries higher up in the leg with greater frequency than those in controls. Death or limb amputation was more common in the COVID-19 patients.

"We found that arterial thrombosis associated with COVID-19 infection was characterized by dire outcomes, namely strikingly increased rates of amputation and death, which in our series were 25% and 38%, respectively," said study lead author Inessa A. Goldman, M.D., a radiologist at Montefiore and assistant professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. "For comparison, the rate of both amputation and death was only 3% among controls. It is unclear whether the patients' concurrent COVID-19-related pneumonia, the virulence of the COVID-19-related clotting disorder or delayed initial arrival to the hospital contributed to these outcomes."

COVID-19 patients presenting with symptoms of leg ischemia only were more likely to avoid amputation or death than patients who had symptoms of ischemia and systemic symptoms including cough, respiratory distress or failure, hypoxia, fever, or altered mental status.

"In our cohort none of the five patients presenting with complaints pertaining to leg symptoms only, such as pain or discoloration, without systemic symptoms sustained amputation or died," Dr. Goldman said.

Dr. Goldman noted that with infection rates rising in many parts of the country, it is important that physicians be mindful of the connection between COVID-19 and lower extremity arterial thrombosis.

"Awareness of lower extremity arterial thrombosis as a possible complication of COVID-19 infection is important for all providers who take care of these patients, because early diagnosis is usually crucial for limb preservation in lower extremity ischemia," she said.

COVID-19's association with lower extremity arterial thrombosis is likely related to a combination of factors, Dr. Goldman said, including an increased tendency of the blood to clot, damage to the lining of the arteries, and immune reactions tied to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 infection.

"This continues to be an area of intense study around the world," she said.

###

"Lower Extremity Arterial Thrombosis Associated with COVID-19 is Characterized by Greater Thrombus Burden and Increased Rate of Amputation and Death." Collaborating with Dr. Goldman were Kenny Yee, Ph.D., and Meir H. Scheinfeld, M.D., Ph.D.

Radiology is edited by David A. Bluemke, M.D., Ph.D., University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, Wisconsin, and owned and published by the Radiological Society of North America, Inc.

RSNA is an association of radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists promoting excellence in patient care and health care delivery through education, research and technologic innovation. The Society is based in Oak Brook, Illinois. (RSNA.org)

For patient-friendly information on CT angiography, visit RadiologyInfo.org.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 16:03:46|Editor: huaxia

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Yin Mengxing arranges a temporary bed that is made by putting together desks at a primary school in Caohu Village at Susong County in Wuhu, east China's Anhui Province, July 15, 2020. Along with ten fellow villagers from Zhenchang Village, Yin Mengxing, an 18-year-old alumnus of the Aikou high school in Susong County, came forward to join the fight against flood along the Tongma dike in Caohu Village as a volunteer on July 12. To prevent the possible havoc caused by the flood water from Yangtze River, Yin and other volunteers take turns to ensure 24-hour patrols along the 600-meter-long dike. Although the long journey between their homes and the work site make them have to cook meals on their own and sleep on desks in a nearby primary school, for Yin, all the efforts are worth making to safeguard the dike. (Xinhua/Liu Junxi)
The diplomats have called on all parties to respect the ceasefire in the east of Ukraine.

The Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine says that the killing of a Ukrainian medical officer in Donbas on July 13 violates the Minsk peace process and the agreements reached at Normandy talks.

"The escalation of violence in Donbas, incl. the killing of Ukraine medical officer, is a breach of Minsk agreements, Normandy Summit commitments and int. humanitarian law," the Delegation said on Twitter on July 15.

Read alsoU.S. Embassy in Kyiv condemns killing of Ukrainian military medic in enemy shelling in Donbas

"[It is] imperative that all parties respect [the] ceasefire and fully implement their commitments," it added.

As UNIAN reported, a Ukrainian military medic was killed on July 13 as Russia-led forces fired on an evacuation team of Ukraine's Joint Forces near the village of Zaitseve in Donbas, eastern Ukraine.

The team wearing white helmets with identification marks was just a few meters from the body of the earlier killed soldier when the enemy opened fire from rifles, then from grenade launchers and large-caliber machine guns.

As a result, the military medic was killed, one serviceman was wounded, while another one sustained a combat-related injury.
Official White House Photo by Tia DufourBY: AARON KATERSKY, ABC NEWS

(NEW YORK)  After the Supreme Court rejected President Donald Trumps claim of broad immunity from a Manhattan grand jury subpoena for his tax returns, Trump's legal team is coming up with new ways to challenge it.

During a telephonic hearing Thursday, Assistant DA Carey Dunne said, "Our offices position is 'bring it on."

The Manhattan DA sought the presidents tax records as he investigates hush payments to women who alleged long-denied extramarital affairs with Trump.

A federal judge in New York is now considering whether the subpoena was properly tailored or overbroad and whether it was motivated by a desire to harass or otherwise issued in bad faith.

"This is not a properly tailored subpoena," said the presidents attorney Will Consovoy on Thursday.

Protracted litigation over the subpoena could keep the tax records private through the election or through the time the statute of limitations would expire.

"What the presidents lawyers are seeking here is a delay," said Dunne. "There is nothing new here."

Consovoy told the judge the president hasnt decided which specific arguments he intends to pursue as he fights the attempt to get him to relinquish his financial records.

The Manhattan DAs office pushed for an expedited review and argued the president is not entitled to drag out his challenge to the subpoena.

"There is no special heightened standard just because he is the president," Dunne said.

The DAs office also questioned whether Mr. Trump has standing to challenge a subpoena served on his accounting firm now that the Supreme Court turned down his immunity claim.

Written submissions are due later this month.

Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
At least once a summer, I can't help it, and I just have to vent about how dang hot it is.

Its too hot to cook outside, and its too hot to fire up the stove inside.

But, all things considered, I'd rather hover over the stove in the air conditioning for a short while than stand over a hot grill outside.

When we made our visit to the market this weekend, I got some fresh pork chops, chestnut mushrooms, sweet Italian peppers and peaches.

I spent about 10 minutes over the stove browning the chops and sauteing the vegetables, then put everything in a big pot and tucked it into the oven for a couple of hours. The oven was set on low, so that didn't heat up the whole kitchen.

The chops came out juicy and tender, and the vegetables were the perfect complement.

As for the peaches, I combined them with some blueberries and whipped up a quick sorbet to cool us down. This sorbet base can be made with any fresh or frozen fruit. The fruit adds natural sweetness, but the simple sugar syrup gives it that ideal sorbet consistency.

So even though it's scorching hot, we still have to eat. I'll do my best to bring you more ways to make hardy hot meals, without heating things up even more. Stay cool everyone!

TESTED RECIPE

Blueberry Peach Sorbet

Makes 5 cups sorbet. Recipe by Teresa B. Day.

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 cups blueberries (1 pint)

2 cups peaches, peeled and sliced (3 peaches)

 cup fresh mint leaves

1. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, combine sugar and water and cook, stirring, until sugar dissolves (about 5 minutes).

2. Remove from heat. Stir in salt and lemon juice.

3. Place blueberries and peach slices in a blender or food processor. Top with mint leaves.

4. Puree the fruit until smooth while pouring in the syrup mixture.

5. Strain puree to remove most of the blueberry seeds.

6. Allow sorbet to cool uncovered before sealing in an airtight container then freezing.

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7. Freeze for at least two hours or overnight before serving.

TESTED RECIPE

Market Pork Chops

Makes 4 servings. Recipe by Teresa B. Day.

4 pork chops, bone in

1 teaspoon salt

 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning blend

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 small onion, sliced

2 cups mushrooms

1 cup pork or chicken broth

2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved

1 tablespoon fresh oregano

2 large sweet peppers, cut into strips

1. Heat oven to 275 F.

2. Pat chops dry then season with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning blend.

3. In a Dutch oven over medium-high heat, heat olive oil and brown chops about 3 minutes per side. Drain on a plate lined with paper towels.

4. In the same pot, saute garlic, onion and mushrooms until tender.

5. Add broth and bring to a simmer. Add tomatoes and fresh oregano.

6. Remove from heat. Place chops on top of vegetables. Place pepper strips on top.

7. Cover pot, place in oven and bake for 2-3 hours (depending on thickness of pork chops) until tender. Serve immediately.
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By The Associated Press

Jul. 16, 2020 | WALTONVILLE, AR

By The Associated Press Jul. 16, 2020 | 07:58 AM | WALTONVILLE, AR

Walmart will require customers to wear face coverings at all of its namesake and Sams Club stores, making it the largest retailer to introduce such a policy.



The company said Wednesday that the policy will go into effect on Monday to allow time to inform customers.



Currently, about 65% of its more than 5,000 stores and clubs are located in areas where there is already some form of government mandate on face coverings.



Hours after Walmarts announcement, supermarket chain Kroger, based in Cincinnati, and department store Kohls, based in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, followed suit. Kohls policy will go into effect on Monday, while Krogers mask protocol will go into effect July 22.



Last week, Starbucks announced that customers who visit its company-owned cafe locations in the U.S. will be required to wear face coverings. The policies at Starbucks and Best Buy went into effect Wednesday.
Sesa sen By

Express News Service

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Retail has emerged as the partner of choice for global investors and is on track to be the next big investment driver for Reliance Industries, after Jio. On Wednesday, the company said it plans to sell stakes in its retail venture to "strategic and financial investors" over the next few quarters.

"Today, the world recognises our hyper-growth inclusive model and we have received strong interest from strategic and financial investors in Reliance Retail. We will induct global partners and investors in Reliance Retail in the next few quarters, Ambani said, while addressing the 43rd annual general meeting of Reliance Industries (RIL).

Industry observers say that the partnership could include tech firms, and not just retail. With revenues of Rs.1.62 lakh crore and EBITDA of Rs 9,654 crore, Reliance Retail has grown to be the largest and most profitable retail business.

It is also the fastest growing retailer in the world, and the only Indian retailer to feature in the top 100 global retailers and we continue to be a partner of choice for marquee international brands, said the RIL chairman, while accentuating the success of its consumer businesses.

Outlining plans for his "New Commerce" platform --- Jio Mart, Ambani said the venture will be expanded to include newer categories like electronics, fashion, pharmaceutical and healthcare into its omni-channel venture.

"The beta version of JioMart grocery platform is being piloted in 200 cities. Daily orders have crossed 2.5 lakh and the number is growing each day," Ambani said. More than two-thirds of Reliance Retails' nearly 12,000 stores are operated in tier II, tier III and tier IV towns.

Jio Mart will have a hybrid model of hyperlocal partnership with brick-and-mortar stores for delivery of products across segments, apart from the inventory model of fulfillment from Reliance Retail stores. It will also connect its platform to a large number of unorganised retailing linked through the network of its telecommunications arm Jio.

"Connecting with farmers and delivering their fresh produce directly to homes is a key part of our grocery strategy. This will significantly improve farmer income and incentivise higher productivity. The deep-rooted bond with tens of thousands of farmers has helped us source over 80 per cent of our fresh fruits and vegetables directly from farmers," Ambani said, adding JioMart and WhatsApp will be working closely to create growth opportunities for millions of Indian small merchants and kirana shops.

Plans are also afoot to accelerate the rollout of JioMart, Ambani added. With aggressive investment and predatory pricing, Reliance is at the centre of the world's sixth richest mans drive to create a homegrown version of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

After shaking up the technology space, the next goal is clear: to build a full-fledged e-commerce venture competing against Amazon and Flipkart, who have marked their presence in all segments except pharma and healthcare. In the e-pharmacy space, JioMart will compete directly with the likes of Practo and PharmEasy.
Technavio has been monitoring the industrial wireline networking market and it is poised to grow by 1.91 bn 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/20200716005333/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Industrial Wireline Networking 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. ABB Ltd., Belden Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Emerson Electric Co., Hitachi Ltd., Juniper Networks Inc., Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Moxa Inc., Rockwell Automation Inc., and Siemens 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.

The growing benefits of industrial ethernet has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. However, the growing preference for wireless communication might hamper market growth.

Industrial Wireline Networking Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Industrial Wireline Networking Market is segmented as below:

Application Industrial Ethernet Fieldbus

Geography North America Europe APAC 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=IRTNTR44044

Industrial Wireline Networking 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 industrial wireline networking market report covers the following areas:

Industrial Wireline Networking Market size

Industrial Wireline Networking Market trends

Industrial Wireline Networking Market industry analysis

This study identifies the emergence of single-pair Ethernet cabling as one of the prime reasons driving the industrial wireline networking market growth during the next few years.

Industrial Wireline Networking Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the industrial wireline networking market, including some of the vendors such as ABB Ltd., Belden Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Emerson Electric Co., Hitachi Ltd., Juniper Networks Inc., Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Moxa Inc., Rockwell Automation Inc., and Siemens AG. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the industrial wireline networking 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.

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Industrial Wireline Networking Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist industrial wireline networking market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the industrial wireline networking market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the industrial wireline networking market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of industrial wireline networking 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 Application

Market segments

Comparison by Application

Industrial Ethernet Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Fieldbus 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

Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024

APAC 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

Vendor landscape

Landscape disruption

Competitive scenario

Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

ABB Ltd.

Belden Inc.

Cisco Systems Inc.

Emerson Electric Co.

Hitachi Ltd.

Juniper Networks Inc.

Mitsubishi Electric Corp.

Moxa Inc.

Rockwell Automation Inc.

Siemens AG

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.

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On Thursday, the army said that India and China have agreed to discuss complete disengagement along the Line of Actual Control. The statement comes two days after senior military commanders from both sides met at Chushul to discuss the road map for reducing tensions along the contested LAC.

On Thursday, the army said that India and China have agreed to discuss complete disengagement along the Line of Actual Control. The Indian army said that it is a complicated process. It needs consistent verification.The statement comes two days after senior military commanders from both sides met at Chushul to discuss the road map for reducing tensions along the contested LAC.

The negotiations on July 14 were persistent with the agreement reached between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yiboth of whom are the Special Representatives for border talksduring their talks on July 5, the army said.

The standoff begins in early May along the LAC. To address the prevailing situation, India and China have been engaged in discussions through established military and diplomatic channels. The standoff is now in its 12th week and more conversations at both diplomatic and military levels will be needed to resolve it.

Also read: Rhea Chakraborty demands CBI enquiry in Sushant Singh Rajputs death case

Also read: Only God can save us: Karnataka Health minister B Sriramulu amid Covid-19 surge

A statement issued by the army said that to ensure complete disengagement at Eastern Ladakh, Indian and Chinese military delegates discussed further steps and also reviewed the progress on implementation of the first phase of disengagement. The commanders held 15-hour-long negotiations. The talks began at 11:30 am on Tuesday and concluded at around 2 am on July 15.

On Wednesday, Multiple meetings were held to discuss the outcomes of the talks. The meetings were attended by the governments high-powered China Study Group, a panel comprising top civil servants, armed forces, and intelligence personnel, that serves as a policy adviser to the executive on China.

Also read: Majority of universities across country to conduct examinations: UGC

For all the latest National News, download NewsX App
Indian stranded abroad will pay for their own flights says Hardeep Puri

By Diwali, we will have 55-60 per cent of pre-COVID domestic flights: Aviation Minister

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, July 16: Civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday underlined that bilateral air bubbles will be the way to resume international travel amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

International flights: Bubble travel with US & France, flights to resume from tomorrow|Oneindia News

"Unless the international civil aviation space reclaims its pre-covid space, air bubbles are the only answer to international flights," the minister said in a press conference on Thursday.

"We will carry as many people as we can through these air bubbled. But it will not be free. There will be some checks and balances and the foreign countries are also imposing restrictions. So even if you have visa and all, special permission will be required," the minister said.

No flights to Kolkata from 6 cities including Delhi, Mumbai from July 6-19

''I expect that in coming few weeks the number of flights may be increased depending on the situation. We are assuming that by Diwali this year, we will have 55-60 per cent of pre-COVID domestic flights operating in India,'' the minister said.

Puri also said Air France will operate 28 flights between Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore to Paris from July 18 till August 1 while United Air will operate 18 flights between Delhi, Mumbai to Newark till 31 July.
The Verfassungsschutz Report 2019, presented by German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (Christian Social Union) and secret service (Verfassungsschutz) President Thomas Haldenwang on July 9, made clear for all to see that the greatest danger to democratic rights stems from Germanys secret service and other state security agencies.

The year 2019, on which the report focuses, was characterised by a surge in right-wing terrorism, but hardly a word on this threat is to be found in the Verfassungsschutz report. Instead, it concentrates on denouncing as left-wing extremists organisations that oppose right-wing extremism, criticise capitalism and advocate socialist policies.

Germany Constitution Protection Report

The new report underscores the importance of the lawsuit brought by the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (SGPSocialist Equality Party) against the Interior Ministry. Early last year, the SGP filed a suit rejecting its identification in the Verfassungsschutz Report 2017 as left-wing extremist. We warned at the time:

With its attack on the SGP, this criminal government agency wants to set a precedent for a new kind of legal prosecution of thought crimes that would provide the basis for the prosecution of anyone who criticises the current reactionary social and political situation. Striking workers would be prosecuted as well as book sellers who make available Marxist literature, or critical artists, journalists and intellectuals. ... If the right-wing conspiracy in the state apparatus is not stopped and the SGP is not defended, the dam will be broken for even more far-reaching measures.

This assessment has now been fully confirmed. Hardly a day goes by without new details emerging about right-wing terrorist networks in the Army and other state agencies. Left-wing lawyers and politicians receive death threats signed by NSU 2.0, a reference to the neo-Nazi terrorist group National Socialist Underground. The authors of these letters use personal information accessed from internal police computers to create an atmosphere of intimidation.

The right-wing conspiracy within the state apparatus and the governments refusal to confront it have drawn international attention and concern. Even international media outlets like the New York Times are now reporting on the danger of a fascist coup in Germany.

The secret service and the right-wing conspiracy within the state apparatus

A wave of right-wing terrorism during 2019 laid bare before the population the threat posed by fascism in Germany 75 years after the downfall of the Nazi dictatorship. However, the Verfassungsschutz report barely mentions this.

This is in spite of the fact that growth of right-wing terrorism recalls the darkest days of the Weimar Republic, when paramilitary units with close ties to the Reichswehr (Army), which would later go on to become a key base of support for Hitlers reign of terror, intimidated and murdered left-wing workers leaders and prominent politicians.

On June 2, 2019, Kassel District President Walter Lubcke was murdered. Stephan Ernst, the prime suspect, was active in neo-Nazi circles, which were full of secret service informants. He had been under surveillance by the secret service for three decades.





On October 9, 2019, the right-wing extremist Stefan Balliet shot two passers-by outside a synagogue in Halle. His plan to massacre 70 Jews celebrating Yom Kippur inside failed only because the buildings security door withstood his assault.





On February 19, 2020, another neo-Nazi, Tobias Rathjen, shot nine people with immigrant backgrounds in Hanau.

The murders in Kassel, Halle and Hanau were only the tip of the iceberg. In 2019, the number of anti-Semitic offences reached its highest level since records began 20 years ago. On average, between five and six anti-Semitic offences are recorded each day.

The right-wing terrorist networks have close ties to the state apparatus. In the so-called Hannibal network, which was established by a soldier in Germanys elite special forces (KSK) through the Uniter group and various online chat groups, hundreds of soldiers, police officers, intelligence agents, judges, military reservists and others are organised. They hoard weapons, maintain lists of political opponents and prepare for a coup on Day X.

But only on June 30 of this year, after more information became public about massive hoards of weapons and Nazi memorabilia, did Germanys defence minister feel compelled to partially dissolve the KSK.

The Verfassungsschutz report says nothing about this. The Lubcke murder, the first murder of a major politician by a right-wing extremist since the founding of the Federal Republic, is given just one page in a 388-page report. And this page focuses chiefly on the reaction of an obscure far-right group in Dortmund.

The Hannibal network also goes unmentioned. One searches in vain for key words such as KSK, Northern Cross, Hannibal, Franco A., NSU 2.0 and Combat 18.

Seehofer and Haldenwang could not avoid mentioning the threat posed by right-wing extremism as they presented the report. Seehofer even declared that the biggest threat to security in Germany currently comes from right-wing extremism, racism and anti-Semitism. The aim of paying lip service to the danger was to cover up the key role of the secret service in establishing far-right networks.

Unlike in the dying days of the Weimar Republic, when the Nazis enjoyed a mass base of support among the petty-bourgeoisie, the vast majority of the population today reacts to the right-wing extremists with horror and disgust. The strengthening of the far right and neo-fascists is above all the result of a conspiracy within the state apparatus. The spearhead for this conspiracy is the grand coalition government. Its state arm includes the security agencies, above all the secret service. Its political arm is the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Any serious analysis of right-wing extremism in Germany must begin with the secret service itself. When the series of murders carried out by the National Socialist Underground came to light nine years ago, at the latest, it was clear that the neo-Nazi milieu from which the NSU terrorists emerged was built and financed by intelligence agency informants.

At least several dozen informants were active in the milieu around the NSU, including some who were in direct personal contact with the terrorists while they lived underground. Andreas Temme, an employee of the Hesse secret service, was even at the crime scene when one of the NSUs murders took place in Kassel. Later, when Walter Lubcke was assassinated, Temme was employed in his government office. The suspected assassin, Stephan Ernst, came from the same neo-Nazi circles in Kassel on which Temme was spying. None of this is mentioned in the Verfassungsschutz report.

Haldenwangs predecessor as president of the secret service, Hans-Georg Maassen, was forced to step down in 2018 after publicly defending a neo-Nazi protest in Chemnitz. Ever since, he has made public appearances as a star guest at AfD events. Haldenwang was Maassens deputy for five years and cooperated closely with him.

The media made much of the fact that for the first time, the Verfassungsschutz report named two groups within the AfD as suspect cases: the now formally dissolved Flugel (the Wing), and the Young Alternative, the AfDs youth movement. But this is merely aimed at covering up the true extent of the right-wing extremist conspiracy.

The extent to which the report downplays the threat of the far-right is also revealed by the chapter on the Reichsburger (Reich Citizens), of which it estimates there to be 19,000. Even though the Reichsburger oppose the state authority of the Federal Republic, are heavily armed, and advocate the redrawing of Germanys borders along the lines of the German Reichi.e., the reconquest of large areas of Polandthe Verfassungsschutz report notes: However, in the majority of cases in this milieu, the influence of right-wing extremist ideology appears to be very low or non-existent.

The SGPs lawsuit against the Verfassungsschutz

The secret services attack on the SGP and other allegedly left-wing extremist organisations is inseparably bound up with its downplaying and promotion of far-right terrorism.

Ever since Benito Mussolini founded his fascist party in Italy in 1919, the task of such movements has always consisted in violently suppressing socialist and progressive forces. They combine historical anti-Marxism with nationalism, racism and anti-Semitism, with the goal of dividing the working class and directing social tensions against scapegoats. In Germany, this led to the Holocaust, the greatest crime in human history.

The secret service is attacking the SGP because it opposes the lurch to the right by the German ruling elite and thus gives voice to the widespread opposition to this dangerous development that exists within the population. Any opposition to social inequality, environmental damage, state repression, militarism and other injustices caused by capitalism is to be intimidated and suppressed.

In its response to the SGPs suit, the Interior Ministry openly advocated the suppression of all socialist, progressive and left-wing thought. It declared the advocacy of a democratic, egalitarian and socialist society, the agitation against so-called imperialism and militarism, and thinking in class categories and belief in irreconcilably opposed classes to be unconstitutional.

A ruling on the SGPs suit remains outstanding. The administrative court in Berlin responsible for the case has not yet issued a date for the hearing. However, the Interior Ministry felt compelled to respond to the suit by making some alterations to the 2019 Verfassungsschutz report. The 2017 and 2018 reports stated:

The SGP directs its programmatic agitation against the existing state and social order, invariably slandered as capitalism, against the EU, supposed nationalism, imperialism, and militarism, as well as against Social Democracy, the trade unions and the Left Party.

This passage has been removed from the latest report. In its place, the report states:

The SGP bases itself on a Marxist class analysis that is irreconcilable with the Basic Law and propagates the class struggle. The party calls for the overthrow of capitalism not only as an economic system, but also to overcome the free democratic social order.

The experts in the Interior Ministry have evidently realised that even a prejudiced court will find it difficult to declare criticism of the Left Party and the Social Democratic Party to be unconstitutional. But the condemnation of a Marxist class analysis underscores even more clearly what the secret service is concerned about.

It is becoming clearer with every passing day that capitalism cannot be reconciled with freedom and democracy: class tensions are sharpening, millions of people are threatened with losing their jobs and their livelihoods, a handful of banks and hedge funds decide the fate of hundreds of thousands, the rich continue to get richer, and the top 10 percent of the population owns 56 percent of all wealth.

Under these conditions, the ruling class fears that the mounting opposition among workers and young people will coincide with the socialist programme of the SGP and the International Committee of the Fourth International. This is why Marxist thought is declared unconstitutional and is to be banned.

The formulation could come directly from the programme of the AfD, with which the secret service cooperated closely under Haldenwangs predecessor, Maassen. It draws on the propaganda of the Nazis, whose ideology of a Volksgemeinschaft (peoples community) was based on the denial and violent suppression of the class struggle. And like the political and ideological justice system of the Nazis, the secret service is not punishing illegal activity, but criminalising mere thinking in class categories.

But the class struggle is not the product of the SGPs propaganda. It develops objectively as an international response to the polarisation of society. Seventy-five years after its defeat in World War II, German capitalism confronts the same problems it sought to resolve by means of dictatorship and war. It is responding once again with militarism and dictatorship to the intensification of international tensions and mounting class conflicts, which have been dramatically exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.

The SGP appeals to all those wishing to defend democratic rights and oppose the rise of the far right to protest against the attack by the secret service and support the SGPs lawsuit against the Interior Ministry.

We demand that the secret service halt its monitoring of the SGP and all other left-wing groups, and that this right-wing breeding ground for anti-democratic conspiracies be dissolved.
OCEAN CITY, NJ  There's a lot of news to keep up with right now  locally, nationally and worldwide. Here's a recap of coronavirus updates in Ocean City and Cape May County.

Cases

The Cape May County Health Department has reported five active coronavirus cases in Ocean City as of 3 p.m. Thursday. Forty-six people have been cleared off quarantine, and the virus has killed three people in the city.

Officials have reported 123 active cases, 662 people cleared off quarantine and 75 deaths in Cape May County as of 3 p.m. Thursday.



Testing



Testing locations for COVID-19 now include Cape Regional Urgent Care in Wildwood, Marmora, and Cape May Court House, Cape Regional Hospital, Complete Care Health Network and CVS in Seaville. Proof of insurance is not needed at the Cape Regional Urgent Care locations.

Shore Medical Center offers tests to determine whether patients have antibodies to the coronavirus. All asymptomatic individuals are eligible for the blood test. MORE.

New Jersey Coronavirus Updates: Don't miss local and statewide announcements about coronavirus precautions. Sign up for Patch alerts and daily newsletters.

Recent Updates

Three Manco & Manco employees tested positive for the coronavirus in the past week, according to ownership. The pizzeria shut down boardwalk operations Tuesday so BioBlast Inc. could professionally sanitize each location. MORE.

Ownership said Wednesday that the employees may have worked at any of the three boardwalk locations. All three employees who tested positive were identified because of contact tracing from sources outside the pizzerias.

"We have no reason to believe that any person to believe that person to person transmission has taken place within our restaurants," Wednesday's statement said.





Sand House Kitchen, a restaurant that recently opened in Ocean City, originally couldn't seat customers at their outdoor patio because of their roof's material. The state adjusted dining rules, which now allows the eatery to serve customers in the open-air deck. MORE.

The U.S. Small Business Administration and U.S. Treasury released details of the country's massive Paycheck Protection Program that helped 29 local businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic. MORE.

Elsewhere in the county, the North Wildwood Irish Fall Festival has been canceled because of COVID-19. MORE.

Story continues

Something to Smile About

(French Consulate in New York)

Francis McCormac's radio messages became critical in stopping Nazi efforts. The U.S. Army veteran, who lives in Ocean City, also helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp.

Members of the French Consulate presented McCormac with their highest honor Tuesday  Chevalier (Knight) of France's National Order of the Legion of Honor. MORE.

Here's what else you should know:



We want to know what you think: Should New Jersey schools reopen for in-person learning this fall amid the coronavirus outbreak? Take our survey. Read more: Should New Jersey Schools Reopen This Fall? Take Our Survey

Governor Phil Murphy, speaking during a Wednesday news conference, said he's concerned about a sharp increase in shooting murders amid the coronavirus outbreak. Murphy made the statement as he announced that New Jersey has 396 additional coronavirus cases and 27 more deaths. Read more: Gov. Murphy: Sharp Increase In NJ Gun Deaths Amid Coronavirus

Many New Jersey towns have had coronavirus spikes and now rank high on the case and fatality lists. Here are the latest New Jersey town-by-town numbers, ranked. Read more: New List Shows Town-By-Town NJ Coronavirus Cases, Deaths, Spikes

Click here to get Patch email notifications on this or other local news articles or get Patch breaking news alerts sent right to your phone with our app. Download here. Follow Ocean City Patch on Facebook. Have a news tip? Email josh.bakan@patch.com.

This article originally appeared on the Ocean City Patch
Moon Rabbit, an independent advertising and marketing agency focused on the consumer and healthcare sectors, today announced that Alejandro Canciobello and Danny DAgostino, senior vice presidents and creative directors at the agency, have been selected as jurors for some of the advertising industrys most prestigious awards, including the upcoming Rx Club Show, The One Club for Creativitys Next Creative Leaders, and the White Square Festival, as well as this springs D&AD Awards and the New York Festivals AME Awards.

Canciobello, an award-winning creative and member of the D&AD Creative Council, has been invited to join The One Club for Creativity and The 3% Movements jury for this years Next Creative Leaders, which recognizes 10 outstanding women and non-binary global creatives. He is also part of the digital jury for the international marketing and advertising festival White Square, which focuses on Eastern Europe. The festival was included in the global creativity ranking AdForum Business Creative Report in 2017.

Additionally, he was invited to serve as a jury member for this years D&AD Awards Impact category, honoring original and transformative design, campaigns and initiatives that benefit business and society. He also served on the 2020 AME Grand Jury for the Asia-Pacific region, which is part of the New York Festivals, awarding innovative campaigns that succeed in both creativity and effectiveness.

DAgostino, an accomplished and awarded healthcare and marketing creative, has been invited to serve as a judge of print, video and integrated entries for this years Rx Club Show. In its 34th year, the Rx Club awards recognize and honor the creativity of pharmaceutical product advertising and promotion in the healthcare community.

Alejandro and Dannys deep creative expertise and experience make them ideal jurors for these prestigious awards, said Arvid Lithander, managing partner, executive creative director. Were proud to see them recognized by the industry at large in this way.

Moon Rabbits team of diverse talent is breaking boundaries to deliver a higher level of creativity, perspective and technology-driven offerings. The agency is led by industry veterans and an accomplished group of senior leaders, including managing partners Michael Banner, a former director with McCann Health Singapore and Concentric, and co-founder of Elixir Advertising; John Tenaglia, co-founder of agency NSight Driven Communications; James Tinker, also previously a director with McCann Health Singapore and co-founder of Elixir Advertising; and Arvid Lithander, a former executive at Saatchi & Saatchi and Wieden+Kennedy and founder of creative agency Bakheda Co.

About Moon Rabbit

An independent advertising and marketing agency that blends consumer and healthcare talent, Moon Rabbit creates powerful brand campaigns and finds new ways for clients to integrate in a multichannel, multicultural world. Established following a merger in 2019, the agency has offices in New York, California and Singapore.

Web | http://wearemoonrabbit.com/

LinkedIn | Moon Rabbit

Twitter | @wearemoonrabbit

Instagram | wearemoonrabbit
SILVER SPRING, Md., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The American College Health Association's (ACHA) CEO, Dr. Devin Jopp, released a statement countering several false claims made by the Washington Post in a recent investigative report:

The Washington Post's investigative report on July 13th grossly mischaracterizes college health centers as "the Wild West of medical care."

While we empathize with the students and their experiences referenced in this articletheir frustration and pain are clearcollege health centers provide excellent care for millions of college students nationwide. With 20 million college students in the U.S., The Washington Post drew conclusions from less than .01% of the total enrolled student body. ACHA's Patient Satisfaction survey found that 86.2% of students indicated that they were either satisfied or very satisfied with their student health center experience.

This article also falsely states that no regulations for college health centers exists and that these centers are not licensed. The providers in these health centers are in fact licensed and governed by their local and state boards and adhere to the same guidelines and standards of care followed by other community medical, nursing, and mental health providers.

Additionally, this article makes wide generalizations without substantiating with facts. To the point of accessibility, many college health centers have same day appointments and at the very least triage to determine urgency level.

The Washington Post also fails to recognize the countless times that college health centers have been mobilized to help prevent the spread of diseases on campus and the illnesses and deaths that have been prevented.

For years, college health centers have played a critical role in helping campuses mitigate outbreaksSARS, seasonal flu, H1N1, measles, and meningitis to name a few. While the COVID-19 pandemic overshadows all others, student health center staff are the experts on whom campus leaders must rely. As we state in our reopening guidelines, the "student health service remains central to public health effort[s] and must have sufficient resources to address both COVID-19 surveillance and containment along with all other routine health and well-being needs of students."

Ultimately, the Washington Post fails to differentiate how college health centers are different than any other healthcare organizations that may also have unhappy or disgruntled patients. The use of random student stories to paint an inaccurate picture of college health centers is not fair and balanced journalism. It's notable that the Washington Post refused to publish ACHA's rebuttal, and we strongly urge the Washington Post leadership to review the integrity of its investigative journalism.

As campuses prepare to reopen in the fall, this is the time to recognize the critical importance of our campus college health centers and the value that they add in student education, wellness, retention, and success.

About ACHA

The American College Health Association is a national nonprofit association serving as the nation's principal leadership organization for advancing the health of college students and campus communities through advocacy, education, and research. For more information, visit www.acha.org.

Media Contact:

Rachel Mack

443.270.4560

[email protected]

SOURCE American College Health Association

Related Links

http://www.acha.org


The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has submitted a legal advice highlighting the dangers of the proposed re-introduction of criminal defamation law into Timor-Leste to Prime Minister Taur Matan Ruak on July 14.

The advice, prepared by Jim Nolan, an Australian barrister and legal adviser pro bono to the International Federation of Journalists (Asia Pacific), outlines several worrying legal issues and highlights IFJs deep concerns regarding attempts by authorities in Timor-Leste to undermine press freedom.

In the advice, the IFJ legal advisor states that, the proposal is disturbing because it flies in the face of the consensus in the democratic world which regards criminal defamation laws as toxic, liable to gross abuse by the wealthy and well connected, anti-democratic, and anti-transparency. Criminal defamation law has historically been associated with severe encroachments upon press freedom and is typically seen as an instrument of authoritarian rule.

Although Minister Carceres has stated that the new law will encourage people to respect leaders more. In reality, the law which proposes up to three years jail for an offender will protect politicians, government officials and religious figures. The law will also extend the right to instigate criminal proceedings to corporations and government agencies. The fact that the proposed extension of criminal defamation applies to the deceased is also disturbing. It is also disturbing that are no defences or protections for journalists set out in the bill.

Timor-Leste already has a robust, effective and highly regarded Press Council which deals with complaints against the media and journalists by a mechanism which does not criminalise free speech and publication. The IFJ fears that if this proposed law is adopted, the state of press freedom in Timor-Leste will be weakened.

The IFJ said: IFJ respectfully ask the Prime Minister to ensure that the proposed criminal defamation law does not make its way into the laws of Timor-Leste. To do otherwise, would tarnish the image of Timor-Leste as an open and fair democracy.
Two smaller positives have emerged from the Barry Cowen debacle: first is that Micheal Martin can again "show his nose in Ballina".

The second is that just 18 days after bitter disappointment at not making Micheal Martin's first team, Dara Calleary is now a full minister after all.

The Taoiseach has been forced by the sacking of Barry Cowen to fall back on his party deputy leader who he had originally named on June 27 in the second string job of Government Chief Whip. That caused a warning from local Mayo Fianna Fail activists that Martin was not welcome - especially in Calleary's hometown of Ballina - an "informal fatwa" which was yesterday lifted.

While Calleary is not directly from a rural background, the Mayo constituency he represents has a large farming population, giving him a good insight into his new job as Agriculture Minister.

Many of his supporters, and those who gave political backing to his father Sean and grandfather Phelim were small farmers.

Calleary had played a major role in the coalition talks with Fine Gael and the Green Party, heightening his disappointment at not making Cabinet first time around.

That controversy was further aggravated by the three-party coalition having no full minister from counties west of the River Shannon.

Now Mayo and the west's gain follows a loss to the midlands. The Taoiseach tried to assuage a little of this by also promoting veteran TD Sean Fleming, who comes from the same Laois-Offaly constituency as Barry Cowen, to the government team.

Read More

Calleary (47) entered politics in the 2007 General Election with the expectation that he would be a "sweeper", mobilising votes for heavier political hitters. But he swept up so many votes that he got elected.

In keeping with the family tradition he had been variously involved in Fianna Fail for a decade previously.

He is one of the few in the current Fianna Fail parliamentary party with any previous government experience as in 2009 he was appointed junior enterprise minister just as the economy foundered and the Fianna Fail-Green Party coalition teetered towards collapse.

Calleary retained his Dail seat in 2011 as Fianna Fail suffered huge losses in an electoral meltdown.

Thereafter, he helped the embattled leader, Micheal Martin, in the slow and difficult task of party re-building.

In March 2018, he was named as the party deputy leader - a post which had lain vacant since 2012 when Eamon O Cuiv resigned after a series of high-profile acrimonious rows with his boss.

That promotion for Calleary involved the heavy task of helping prepare the Fianna Fail organisation for the upcoming general election, meant to capitalise on slow-but-sure gains in previous contests.

Some saw Calleary's appointment to deputy leader as a tribute to his interpersonal skills. But it was also a signal by Martin to would-be future leaders, at the time cited as Michael McGrath and Jim O'Callaghan, that there were other poles of power in the organisation.

The February 8 General Election was a big disappointment for Fianna Fail. Activists blamed Martin's poor choice of tactics - but there were also mutterings about Calleary, specifically over shortcomings in the party's election manifesto which were laid at his door.

He played a key role for the party in lengthy and complex three-party negotiations and there were tributes to his diplomatic skills from those involved. But some Fianna Fail die-hards blamed him and others for a lack of "wins" in the horse-trading on policy.

Yet Micheal Martin insisted none of these factors was at play in picking Calleary as chief whip - rather than as a "full minister". Martin insisted that he was the best person to deliver TDs for votes and keep government going. That consideration has been surpassed by Cowen's abrupt exit. Calleary moves to Agriculture at a time of challenge with EU funding up for renewal and at risk of cuts, and issues like climate change coming to a head.

He leaves behind Gaeltacht policy and sport to his successor, the untried Jack Chambers (29) of Dublin West. Chambers has vowed to emulate former Fine Gael minister Joe McHugh and re-learn Irish.

Chambers will have a hard act to follow. Calleary is a good Irish speaker and a regular contributor to RTE Raidio na Gaeltachta.
The White House indicated on Wednesday that a decision on Chinese mobile applications, including TikTok, could be taken within weeks and not months. "I do not think there is any self-imposed deadline for action, but I think we are looking at weeks, not months," White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters aboard Air Force One, flying with President Donald Trump form Atlanta.

"There are a number of administration officials who are looking at the national security risk as it relates to TikTok, WeChat and other apps that have the potential for national security exposure, specifically as it relates to the gathering of information on American citizens by a foreign adversary," Meadows said.

The move to ban TikTok in the US has suddenly gained momentum after India's decision in this regard last month.

"They (Indians) made the decision that they were going to pull 50 or so Chinese applications off the systems that were operating inside India. They did not do that because the United States told them to. They did it because they could see the threat to the Indian people from the Chinese Communist Party," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the Economic Club of New York in a virtual exchange.

The US, he said, has been working closely with the Indians across a broad spectrum of the full range of international partnership with them to assist them in making sure that they have all the information they need to make good decisions. Early this month, Pompeo had said the US may ban TikTok.

"I made a comment about TikTok. But we got to go back to principles first. The mission set is to protect American national security. And in this case, the information of American citizens," he told The Hill newspaper in an interview. "So, whether it is TikTok or any of the other Chinese communications platforms, apps, infrastructure -- this administration has taken seriously the requirement to protect the American people from having their information end up in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party," Pompeo said.

According to Pompeo, the Trump administration is working through a process where all the relevant agencies and the private sector are getting to say their piece. "We hope to have a set of decisions shortly, which will reflect that central understanding," he said. "We have been working on ZTE, we have been working on Huawei. We are pleased to see the United Kingdom make its announcement that it is going to pull out Huawei technology from its telecom infrastructure. We watched telecom companies all across the world from Orange and others to say no, we understand," Pompeo said.

"We want to make sure that our data flows only across trusted vendors. That is the mission set and that is certainly the mission set when it comes to applications that our kids may be touching," he added. In a related development, the US House Committee on Appropriations on Wednesday passed a number of provisions, authored by Congressman Tom Graves, to crack down on foreign entities and state-owned enterprises that seek to steal data and personal information from American citizens.

"Today's language was authored amidst ongoing discussions about the potential threats posed to the US from companies like Huawei and TikTok," Graves said. "While taking steps to protect our networks, we also need to make sure that the apps and platforms we download on our personal devices do not have ties to foreign governments with a history of bad actions," the Congressman said.

Also read: TikTok ban takes a big tool away from China's 'espionage work': US NSA
A proposal on revenue sharing among counties that would favour densely populated regions has caused a big division in the Senate.

The failure by the Senate to agree on the third basis of revenue sharing formula has consequently thrown counties deeper into financial crisis as it will now take longer for the devolved units to share out Sh316.5 billion allocated to them as equitable shareable revenue in the 2020/21 financial year.

A special sitting of the Senate called on Tuesday to discuss the formula adjourned without debate after Minority Leader James Orengo called for further consultations on the various proposals submitted by lawmakers.

THIRD GENERATION FORMULA

The Nation Tuesday learnt that adoption of the third generation formula was held back after Mr Orengo restrained his three colleagues from Nyanza from casting their vote for the formula that has been vehemently opposed by senators from the sparsely-populated northern part of Kenya.

Three senators -- Johnson Sakaja (Nairobi), Boniface Kabaka (Machakos) and Prof Sam Ongeri (Kisii) -- have opposed the formula even though their counties stand to gain more money.

The failure by the legislators to agree on the formula means that debate on the County Allocation of Revenue Bill, 2020, which had been shelved pending a decision on the formula, will remain in abeyance.

The Bill is the legal instrument that details the horizontal share of the revenue raised nationally but which is allocated to the 47 counties.

It is calculated at not less than 15 per cent of the last audited accounts of the national government as approved by Parliament.

SHARING CRITERIA

To determine the parameter weights in the third basis, Commission on Revenue Allocation developed 10 criteria for sharing revenue among the counties.

They are health index on which the commission placed 17 per cent weight, agriculture (10 per cent), population (18 per cent), poverty (14 per cent), basic share (20 per cent), land area (eight per cent), rural access (four per cent), urban households (five per cent), fiscal effort (two per cent) and prudence index (two per cent).

CRA Chairperson Jane Kiringai said the commission intended to share out the money on the basis of a qualitative analysis of each county's needs to ensure equity, help the poor counties catch up with the rest, and take into account the outcomes of previous investments.

"This formula proposes measures of expenditure needs aligned with devolved services," she said during the launch of the proposal.

"It is a departure from the previous ones, with key attention placed on strengthening the link between the constitutional mandates of the counties and the devolved monies transferred to counties."

LESS POPULOUS COUNTIES

If the Senate adopts the formula, 18 counties, mainly the less populous and marginalised, will lose up to Sh17 billion as the remaining 29 snap the amount.

The central region counties are among the 29 devolved units that stand to benefit from the disputed formula.

"We are supporting this formula because all the money should go to the people because they are the ones who pay taxes," said Nyandarua Governor Francis Kimemia, whose county is among those the formula favours.

Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga said the formula will ensure that the one-man, one-vote, one-shilling strategy is achieved.

"In Nyeri, we will be receiving about Sh400 million due to our dense population which we have not been receiving previously," he said.

Ten counties under the Frontier Counties Development Council (FCDC) have opposed the new formula.

Mandera Governor Ali Roba, who is also the FCDC chairman, argues that if implemented, the formula will only further marginalise arid and semi-arid counties.

EXISTING POLICIES

To determine the parameter weights, the commission was guided by existing policies on devolved functions, binding conventions on some of the devolved functions, actual expenditures by county governments and transfer shares from nationally raised revenues for key devolved functions.

The formula was submitted to the Senate Finance Committee and after consultations, it developed a synthesised version tabled in the House on Tuesday.

Essentially, there are already five proposals which the House must consider as it tries to unlock the financial deadlock that could interrupt basic services should it persist.

Apart from the proposal by CRA, there is the report of the Finance Committee, which contains amendment to the CRA proposal. Still, three senators have proposed amendments to the committee's report, all in an attempt to end the deadlock.

CAPPED EXPENDITURE

While CRA had capped expenditure on health index at 17 per cent in the allocations, the committee has improved the same to 20 per cent, arguing that expenditure need will be determined by three measures: health facility gap, three years' average number of primary health care visits to levels 2 and 3 health facilities at 60 per cent, and a three-year average in patients in levels 4 and 5 hospitals at 20 per cent.

On agriculture, the committee, which is chaired by Kirinyaga Senator Charles Kibiru, recommends that its expenditure should be determined through the county's proportion of rural households as provided for the in the 2019 population Census.

Of the 20 per cent weight on basic share, the committee proposes that the funds should be distributed such that 19 per cent is shared equally among all counties and one per cent be shared based on inverse of a county's population.

The committee reduces the weight on land index from eight, as proposed by CRA, to five per cent and recommends that land parameter should be measured using the county's proportion of land area on what it calls county proportional distances -- which is the square root of the county land area from the headquarters to the furthest point.

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ROAD ACCESS INDEX

The committee proposes that the road access index be determined by the county rural access index, which is the proportion of a county population who have access to a motorable road within two kilometres based on data at Kenya Roads Board.

The committee further reduced the weight on fiscal effort from two per cent as proposed by CRA, to one per cent, prudence index from two per cent to one per cent and raised weight on rural access from four per cent to seven per cent.

The weight on fiscal effort will be pegged on the ratio of a county's three-year average actual own source revenue to the gross county product based on data from the office of the Controller of Budget and the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.

However, senators Mwangi Githiomi (Nyandarua), Ledama ole Kina (Narok) and Abdullahi Ali (Wajir) have brought further amendments to the report, which Mr Orengo used to justify his adjournment motion.

In his amendment, Mr Githiomi wants 70 per cent of total allocation to the counties shared equally by all the 47 counties, while the remaining 30 per cent to be subjected to the criteria developed by CRA with population and health index getting the lion share.

"The proposed amendments are not simple. We need to study thoroughly to understand them," Mr Orengo told the House, justifying support for his adjournment motion.
The Punjab government has joined the list of states to have fixed rates for treatment of coronavirus patients in hospitals amid reports of inconsistent rates and overcharging. The range varies from a minimum prescribed rate of Rs 8,000 a day for treatment of moderate Covid-19 cases at non-NABH accredited hospitals to Rs 18,000 a day for treatment of critical patients at private medical colleges.

The state government on Thursday issued an order to fix Rs 10,000 as daily charge for all private medical colleges and Rs 9,000 for NABH (National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers). Non-NABH accredited hospitals are allowed to charge up to Rs 8,000 per day for moderate sickness, reported news agencies.

For severe sickness requiring ICU care without a ventilator, the daily rates have been capped at Rs 15,000, Rs 14,000 and Rs 13,000 respectively for the above-mentioned categories of hospitals.

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The government order has also fixed the rates for treatment of very severe covid-19 patients who require critical care at Rs 18,000, Rs, 16,500 and Rs 15,000 for all private medical colleges, NABH-accredited hospitals & non-NABH accredited hospitals respectively.

All the above-mentioned rates are inclusive of PPE cost, according to the statement released by the government.

The Punjab government had constituted a committee under Dr K K Talwar for fixing rates after receiving several complains of overcharging. It had also asked the committee to discuss the issue with private hospitals. The statement released today said that the committee had finalised the treatment rates for private hospitals and medical colleges.

The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19

The committee has also fixed the per day admission rates for private hospitals for mild sickness cases at Rs 6,500, Rs 5,500 and Rs 4,500, respectively.

The decision was announced after a Covid-19 review video conference meeting chaired by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, reported PTI.

The CM, who had personally also received complaints on this count, had asked the Talwar committee and the state health and family welfare department to look into the matter and work out the rates after discussions with private hospitals.
CAIRO  After the technical and legal discussions sponsored by the African Union ended July 13 without a consensus being reached between Cairo, Addis Ababa and Khartoum over the rules for filling and operating the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Ethiopia published statements and pictures of the dam site showing that it has started filling the dams reservoir despite ongoing disagreements with Egypt and Sudan.

On July 15, Ethiopian state television reported that the process of filling the mega dam has begun, quoting Minister of Water and Energy Seleshi Bekele It also published an Amharic-language video report claiming that the dam's reservoir had begun storing water.

The unilateral Ethiopian move sparked angry backlash. The Sudanese Ministry of Water claimed July 15 that according to recent measurements, water levels had declined by 90 million cubic meters per day, definitively showing that the dams gates have been closed.

The statement said the ministry rejects any unilateral measures taken by any party.

Egypt requested an urgent clarification from the Ethiopian government regarding the matter.

Just two hours after the Ethiopian announcement, the Ethiopian Minister of Water and Energy backtracked on his statements and explained in a tweet, The inflow into the reservoir due to heavy rainfall and runoff exceeded the outflow and created natural pooling.

The official Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation edited its Facebook post and deleted the statement that the reservoir's filling had begun. In another post, it apologized for what it called a misinterpretation and said, The construction of the Renaissance Dam is ongoing to protect the interests of Ethiopia. Filling the dam will be a natural process once construction works reach advanced levels.

Abbas Sharaqi, a water resources and geology professor at Cairo University, told Al-Monitor, The pooling of water behind the dam should not be assumed to mark the formal beginning of storage, as the rainy and flood season is still in full swing in the Nile technically ends in September, at which time the Ethiopian administration will announce whether it will close the dam gates or allow water to flow to Sudan and Egypt.

The water quantities flowing into Egypt from the current flood season are still limited because they are pooled behind the GERD, and the flood season in Egypt technically begins in August, he added, explaining that the water quantities pooled behind the GERD will not cause significant harm this season as Egypt has enough water stored in Lake Nasser behind the High Dam.

After the conclusion of the AU-sponsored talks on July 13, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said in televised comments, Any serious harm caused by the Renaissance Dam to the water security of Egypt and Egyptians is a red line, and Egypt and its apparatuses cannot stand idly by without responding to the damage caused.

A diplomatic official familiar with the negotiations over the GERD told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, The conflicting Ethiopian statements regarding the beginning of storage have embarrassed Ethiopia in front of the African and international community, especially amid the countrys continued intransigence and rejection of initiatives proposed by Egypt or Sudan to resolve the outstanding issues and achieve a comprehensive and binding agreement over the rules for filling and operating the dam. These were the points discussed by observers representing the AU and the international community during the lengthy negotiations that lasted for 11 days.

The source explained, In the event that the Ethiopian intransigence continues, Egypt will be prepared with technical, legal and political responses, but Cairo is awaiting the outcome of the summit scheduled to be held under the umbrella of the AU, adding, Chief among the options is returning to the UN Security Council, which has the final say in matters that threaten international peace and security.

He went on, In the event of a return to the Security Council, Egypts position will be stronger" after the AU will have unified other states on the matter.

Sudan's water minister said in a July 13 press conference the points of dispute remained unchanged during the latest negotiations, adding that they concerned the annual volume of water discharge in the event of prolonged drought, the extent to which the agreement would be binding and whether it would be concerned with water sharing or limited to filling and operating the GERD." He said, "A binding mechanism to settle the conflict was also discussed. Ethiopia believes the issue should be limited to heads of state, while Egypt and Sudan believe a critical mechanism must be agreed upon among the three countries under international arbitration.

On July 14, a statement released by Ethiopias Water Ministry raised new concerns. The most [pressing] issue is the impact of the guidelines and rules on Ethiopias future water use upstream of the GERD. In this respect, the absence of a comprehensive treaty governing the relations of Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan with regard to the Nile is the major factor that poses a challenge, its statement read.

Asked about the conflicting Ethiopian positions, Rawia Tawfik, a professor of political science at Cairo University, told Al-Monitor, The apparent Ethiopian confusion may be the result of efforts on the part of the Ethiopian political administration to convey two messages, one internal and one external. These positions are complicating matters."

Concerning the consistently unproductive efforts to reach a comprehensive and binding agreement with Ethiopia, Tawfik said, This conflict should be understood in a historical context of mistrust between Addis Ababa and Cairo. Some Ethiopian policies are the result of accumulated animosity and attempts to settle historical scores as in the past Cairo has overlooked Ethiopian demands to be part of the quota-sharing agreement in 1959.

Tawfik explained, The problem now requires political decisions capable of achieving a historical breakthrough in order to change the course of the conflict. This, in turn, requires a strong leadership with popular consent at home, one that is not influenced by popular sentiment. The administration of [Ethiopian Prime Minister] Abiy Ahmed may not be capable of such leadership, given the escalating domestic tension plaguing Ethiopia.

The Egyptian steps now depend on the results of the AU summit expected to take place next week.
Photo: Ashley Fraser/Post Media

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized this week for not having recused himself from a cabinet decision where he was in conflict of interest.

The cabinet awarded a sole-sourced, $900-million program to be administered by WE charity, which has close ties to the Prime Ministers family.



It has been revealed members of the Prime Ministers family received financial payments from WE Charity.



As you may have also heard, the Ethics Commissioner announced an investigation relating to Prime Minister Trudeaus involvement in this decision.



This would make the third time that the Ethics Commissioner has investigated Prime Minister Trudeau.



The purpose of my report this week is not to question the Prime Ministers judgment, his apology or the ethics investigation, but rather the decision to outsource the program as many of its details are deeply concerning.



Many Canadians will know that, for decades now, the Canada Summer Jobs program has successfully matched students with employers and, for the most part, has been successfully and efficiently administered by the Government of Canada public service.



The only major complaint over the years has been a lack of funds to meet the all of the requests of potential employers.



Rather than increase funding by $900 million to the Canada Summer Student Jobs program and increase the mandate to include charities and not-for-profit organizations, the Trudeau Liberals came up with a different scheme.



The $900 million was directly awarded to the WE Charity, which, in turn, intended to use teachers and camp operators to recruit students to become paid volunteers.



The recruitment fees payable to teachers and other organizations would be in excess of $10,000 for a certain number of students. The students would then be paid below minimum wage to volunteer for a set number of hours.



Aside from the issue of paying volunteers, there is another challenge.



Even if the program were able to recruit 100,000 students who worked enough hours to earn the maximum credit of $5,000, this only works out to $500 million.



Where does the other $400 million end up?



In recruitment fees?



Either way, it does not make sense to spend $900 million and have only $500 million reach students who are ultimately being paid less than minimum wage to volunteer.



At the same time, there are small business owners and other organizations that have applied for the Canada Summer Jobs program and have been denied placements due to a lack of funding.



The WE Charity and the Liberal government have made the decision to end this project leaving the future uncertain.



As the Conservative Opposition, we have recommended the Trudeau Liberal government should instead use that $900 million and invest it into the Canada Summer Jobs program and ensure that charities and non-profit organizations have the opportunity to apply.



My question this week is:

Do you agree?

I can be reached at [email protected] or call toll free 1-800-665-8711.
As it makes choices concerning Budget 2021, the Government must recognise and acknowledge three imperatives.

First, that the primary focus should be on increasing employment and delivering services, not on reducing the deficit.

Second, that a huge amount of borrowing will be needed in the next three years, and probably more again after that.

Third, that this borrowing is affordable and is the correct thing to do for the future of the economy and society.

The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has recognised that Ireland is faced with the "exceptional circumstances" outlined in the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), while the European Commission has activated the 'general escape clause' of the SGP.

When combined with the extremely accommodating policies of the European Central Bank, this provides Ireland with the substantive policy space to implement a fiscal policy focused on sustaining demand and incomes, rather than targeting an arbitrary debt or deficit number.

We must use that space over the next three years to not only restore the demand for labour, but to address social and infrastructure deficits, to strengthen the economy and to protect the environment.

Over the longer term, Ireland should engage with the EU Commission, who acknowledged in February that the fiscal rules are not predictable. The rules should be revised so people, the environment and the economy are priorities.

This does not mean that we borrow over the long-term to avoid broadening the tax base and increasing the total tax take. We need to do both of these, but not simply to reduce the deficit or the debt.

Rather, we should see the present situation as a welcome opportunity to refocus on preparing Ireland for a post-carbon world.

We live in a unique moment characterised by three immediate challenges: the spread and impact of Covid-19, the persistence of poverty and inequality, and the degradation of our environment.

The national effort to address the pandemic has cast a sudden spotlight on many aspects of Ireland's social and environmental fabric that have been neglected in many ways in recent years.

Those most vulnerable to the pandemic have been those with least power and influence in our society. Those on the frontline carrying out essential work have been those who are often paid the least for work which matters the most.

That neglect may have been unintended. But now that it has been revealed, there is no excuse for leaving it unaddressed. Despite significant economic growth over most of the past decade, our financial system has been protected and reinforced even as our housing system has failed and homelessness has grown; poverty and inequalities in wealth, power and income have not been reduced sufficiently or effectively; and our natural environment has been seriously degraded while we failed to address the climate crisis.

In confronting the impact of Covid-19, we must not only tackle the immediate consequences of the measures necessary to suppress the virus - record unemployment, a collapse in domestic and foreign demand, and a subsequent collapse in income and expenditure - but must take the steps necessary to reform all those structural features of our economy and society that perpetuate poverty and destroy the environment.

To do so, Budget 2021 must:

:: Outline a three-year stabilisation programme targeted at supporting incomes, restoring demand for labour, and sustaining strategic firms and institutions; and,

:: Commence the major economic and social reforms that we need to meet the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals and address the deep structural challenges of poverty and inequality that confront us.

The approach Social Justice Ireland is proposing will require Ireland to borrow, which will see the national debt grow.

Less important than the absolute level of debt, however, is the ratio of debt to the size of the economy and the cost of servicing that debt. Competent investment of borrowed money should see debt ratios maintained or even falling. The additional servicing costs would be negligible, as Ireland's borrowing costs remain at historic lows.

Social Justice Ireland's message on Budget 2021 is simple: Lock in this cheap money for as long a timeframe as possible; do what already needed to be done on poverty and social inclusion, housing and health, the Just Transition Fund, and other infrastructure investment; and park the costs as cheap borrowing to be run down over a long period of time.

During the last economic crisis, Ireland's austerity approach led to insufficient investment in social services, such as childcare and education, and in infrastructure such as social housing, public transport and rural broadband.

Investment is essential for a number of reasons: a) to secure economic development; b) to protect communities (with initiatives such as Community Healthcare Networks); c) to keep unemployment as low as possible (with initiatives such as childcare programmes); d) to ensure critical infrastructure deficits are addressed; and e) to tackle climate change, and ensure that the transition to a low-carbon economy is just and fair.
HONG KONG - A breach in Twitters security that allowed hackers to break into the accounts of leaders and technology moguls is one of the worst attacks in recent years and may shake trust in a platform politicians and CEOs use to communicate with the public, experts said Thursday.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 16/7/2020 (551 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

HONG KONG - A breach in Twitters security that allowed hackers to break into the accounts of leaders and technology moguls is one of the worst attacks in recent years and may shake trust in a platform politicians and CEOs use to communicate with the public, experts said Thursday.

The FBI said Thursday it is investigating the hacks, and said the high-profile accounts "appear to have been compromised in order to perpetuate cryptocurrency fraud."

The ruse discovered Wednesday included bogus tweets from former President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and a number of tech billionaires including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Celebrities Kanye West and his wife, Kim Kardashian West, were also hacked.

Twitter said the hackers used "social engineering" to target some of the company's employees and then gained access to the accounts. The term refers to taking advantage of human nature via phishing attacks, tricking people into downloading malicious software or compromising them by offering something in return for information. Twitter did not say how its employees were compromised.

The attackers sent out tweets from the accounts of the public figures, offering to send $2,000 for every $1,000 sent to an anonymous Bitcoin address.

Cybersecurity experts say such a breach could have dire consequences since the attackers were tweeting from verified, globally influential accounts with millions of followers.

"If you receive a tweet from a verified account, belonging to a well-known and therefore trusted person, you can no longer assume its really from them," said Michael Gazeley, managing director of cybersecurity firm Network Box.

Reacting to the breach, Twitter swiftly deleted the tweets and locked down the accounts to investigate. In the process it prevented verified users from sending out tweets for several hours.

The company said Thursday it has taken "significant steps to limit access to internal systems and tools." User passwords did not appear to have been compromised, Twitter said, so it's not necessary for users to reset them.

Many celebrities, politicians and business leaders often use Twitter as a public platform to make statements. U.S. President Donald Trump, for example, regularly uses Twitter to post about national and geopolitical matters, and his account is closely followed by media, analysts and governments around the world. The White House said Thursday his account was secure and wasn't jeopardized by the hacks.

Twitter faces an uphill battle in regaining peoples confidence, Gazeley said. For a start, it needs to figure out exactly which accounts were hacked and show the vulnerabilities have been fixed, he said.

"If key employees at Twitter were tricked, thats actually a serious cybersecurity problem in itself," he said. "How can one of the worlds most used social media platforms have such weak security, from a human perspective?"

Rachel Tobac, CEO of Socialproof Security, said that the breach appeared to be largely financially motivated. But such an attack could cause more serious consequences.

"Can you imagine if they had taken over a world leaders account, and tweeted out a threat of violence to another countrys leader?" asked Tobac, a social engineering hacker who specializes in providing training for companies to protect themselves from such breaches.

Tobac said companies can guard themselves against such attacks by beefing up multi-factor authentication - where users have to present multiple pieces of evidence as authentication before being allowed to log into a system.

Such a process could include having a physical token that an employee must have with them, on top of a password, before they can log into a corporate or other private system. Other methods include installing technical tools to monitor for suspicious insider activities and reducing the number of people who have access to sensitive data, Tobac said.

This week's case follows last year's federal investigation of two former Twitter employees charged with spying on users for the Saudi government.

Several U.S. lawmakers called on Twitter to co-operate with authorities including the Department of Justice and the FBI to secure the site after the latest breach.

"I am concerned that this event may represent not merely a co-ordinated set of separate hacking incidents but rather a successful attack on the security of Twitter itself," said Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican.

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He added that millions of users relied on Twitter not just to send tweets but also communicate privately via direct messaging. Twitter hasn't said if hackers were able to access the private messages of their high-profile targets.

Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden said Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey told him in a private conversation in 2018 that the company was working on protecting direct messages, known as DMs, with end-to-end encryption.

But that promise never materialized, Wyden said Thursday, leaving everyone's private messages "vulnerable to employees who abuse their internal access to the companys systems, and hackers who gain unauthorized access."

"This is a vulnerability that has lasted for far too long, and one that is not present in other, competing platforms," Wyden said in an emailed statement. "If hackers gained access to users DMs, this breach could have a breathtaking impact, for years to come."

___

AP reporters Matt O'Brien in Providence, Rhode Island, Eric Tucker and Kevin Freking in Washington and Barbara Ortutay in Oakland, California contributed to this report.
Roger Stone's sentence for lying to and obstruction of Congress was commuted by President Trump, but the justice system should not call it quits with him yet. (Lynne Sladky / Associated Press )

President Trumps commutation of Roger Stones sentence is a body blow to two core democratic values.

The first, and most immediate, is the principle of fair and impartial justice for all. It is a travesty that Stone  who was plainly guilty of serious crimes, who snubbed his nose repeatedly at the justice system, who continues to challenge his convictions  is now a free man. There is little that can be done now to reverse that injustice.

The second principle is the publics right to know, in this case about the full story of the 2016 election and the Trump campaigns complicity in Russias attack on American institutions. Here Stone may yet be called to account, and that should be a goal shared across political boundaries.

The perversion of justice in Stones case stinks. The commutation vividly illustrates Trumps corrupt two-tiered system: the full force of law for everyone but his cronies and supporters. The special status of Trumpers provided Stone a pass on the most basic of the norms associated with such executive branch actions: People convicted of crimes are not supposed to be eligible for commutation until they begin to serve their sentences and cease challenging their convictions, neither of which Stone has done.

In fact, Stones commutation is arguably the most corrupt use of the presidents constitutionally granted pardon power in history and one of the most corrupt acts of Trumps abysmal presidency. Other controversial pardons in history have provided preferential treatment to friends of the president; this one served to directly protect Boss Trump himself. Trump got Stones silence, Stone got freedom, and the public got shafted.

The exact nature of that shafting is not trivial. As special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs report makes clear, Stones lies and his obstruction, including witness tampering are major reasons why to this day, there are large gaps in our understanding of the Russian attack on the 2016 election and the Trump campaigns complicity in it.

Story continues

Stone is the key witness on two not fully answered questions. The first is whether Trump and the campaign knew in advance about or even collaborated on the WikiLeaks dump of purloined emails from the Clinton campaign. Indeed, freshly unredacted material in the Mueller report indicates that Paul Manafort told Mueller that Stone had been tipped off and had passed that info along to Trump or the campaign. The second question is whether Trump lied in his written answers to Mueller when he claimed he couldnt remember the specifics of any conversation with Stone in the six months before the election.

On both issues, the government should not be finished with Stone. He can and should be made to testify under penalty of perjury.

If he is subpoenaed Stone could assert his 5th Amendment right not to incriminate himself. Because his sentence was commuted, as opposed to his being pardoned, his convictions stand and the book is not fully closed on the crimes. His further testimony could be used against him as regards those crimes.

But theres a fairly easy workaround, as Muellers deputy Andrew Weissmann explained in a New York Times op ed this week. If Stone takes the 5th, the government could grant him immunity, and his liability would disappear.

Immunity isn't something the government offers casually, but it is appropriate when the value of witness testimony is paramount  as is the case here  and there is no other way to get it. Once immunized, if Stone were to persist in refusing to answer questions, he could be jailed for civil contempt until he agreed to talk. And if he lied (again), he would be subject to brand new perjury charges.

Where should this testimony take place? I suggest Congress, either as part of regular congressional hearings or, possibly, under the aegis of a broad-based commission on Russian election interference, much like the commissions that investigated 9/11 and the Kennedy assassination. Such investigations are specifically meant to inform the American people.

It is galling that the president has managed to foil nearly every effort to impose punishment on his cronies and himself. The ledger is not yet closed, however, and a fuller reckoning may await them after Trump leaves office.

In the meantime, the American people and their lawmakers urgently need to get the fullest possible account of exactly what happened to our election infrastructure in 2016. Examining systemic failures and enemy attacks is what democracies do, not least because it is the only way to reduce the risk of similar harms going forward.

Trump seems to believe that by commuting Stones sentence he closed the book on what Stone knows, ensuring his buddys lifelong silence. Trump has the power to keep Stone out of prison for the felonies he has been convicted of, but keeping him silent is another matter. Commutation notwithstanding, its likely the day will come when Stone has to sing or sink.

@HarryLitman
Tamara Clark was shot dead in Springfield on the evening of June 26, while she was sitting in a car on Oakland Street. She died the next day. The perpetrator of this heinous crime has yet to be caught and Tamaras mother, Tangela Clark, took to the street with other mothers to demand action from the police and city officials.

Clark and her sister who organized the march, Juanita Batchelor, led families that had been affected by gun crime or supporters of their cause from the Springfield Police Department to City Hall to demand elected officials to take action to ensure safety in Springfield neighborhoods terrorized by gun violence and to provide justice to the families of those that have lost loved ones.

Batchelor, Tangela Clarks sister created the advocacy group Mother, Overlooked, Reaching out, Empowerment, known as MORE. She started the group in 2018 after the shooting of Batchelors son Darrell Jenkins Jr.

Tangela Clark holds a picture of her daughter Tamara Clark who was shot dead in Springfield on the evening of June 26, in Forest Park. She marched from Springfield Police Department to city hall to bring attention to the unsolved shootings of her daughter and others children. (Douglas Hook / MassLive)

Ever since then, Ive been fighting for justice for Darrell while trying to help other families going through similar situations, said Batchelor, founder and president of MORE. My organization provides support for families of homicide victims and missing persons, standing with them as they meet with police and make court appearances, identifying resources for their children and grandchildren, and most importantly, showing empathy as they grieve.

MORE is a Springfield organization set up to help and support families who are dealing with the aftermath of the tragedy of homicide and unsolved murders in their time of confusion and need.

Springfield residents march from the Springfield Police Department to city Hall to demand that elected officials take action to ensure safety in Springfield neighborhoods terrorized by gun violence and to provide justice to the families of the murdered and missing.(Douglas Hook / MassLive)

From the police department on Pearl Street, the march walked past the federal court and arrived at city hall. The crowd, of roughly 60 people, consisted of mostly women and children.

Clark, on route to City Hall, told MassLive that she hoped to speak to the mayor or anyone from the city that could listen to hers and the groups concerns. Mayor Domenic J. Sarno was waiting as was City Councilor Adam Gomez.

I stand with you moms, said Gomez. We lost a great friend to this city named Jafet Robles in another town to gun violence. We just lost a mother to gun violence, weve lost children, weve lost officers.

On the evening of Sept. 10, 2017, the life of 33-year-old Springfield community organizer Robles ended in gunshots under a grove of trees at the southern end of Chicopee's Szot Park.

Sarno spoke of the disappointment over judges not working enough with police and others to keep armed criminals off the streets. He had previously spoken candidly about the men and women of the citys police department who put their lives on the line to confront people who are carrying unlawful semi-automatic guns.

Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno spoke of the disappointment over judges are not working enough with police and others to keep armed criminals off the streets. (Douglas Hook / MassLive)

Police Chief Cheryl Clapprood has also repeatedly complained that several people arrested in connection with gun violence have been released on low or no bail and are returning to the same neighborhood to resume gun violence.

Three mothers last week were saying that, these individuals who perpetuated crime killed my son or daughter, have been arrested numerous times, on a gun violence charge and then courts subsequently let them out, said Sarno. You heard the same thing today.

Batchelor told MassLive that the shootings are out of control and feels angry that so many mothers and families are still waiting for answers.

Were here trying to get justice for all the unsolved homicides. To bring awareness to the mayor, city councilors and the community. We will not keep our voices quiet, said Batchelor. We want justice for our loved ones. We want to find our missing persons, our family.

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.

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Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois lifted her hold against the promotions of over 1,000 military service members, following the Defense Department's confirmation that it had officially approved of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman's tentative promotion.

"I'm glad the Department of Defense was finally able to set the record straight that Vindman had earned and was set to receive a promotion to Colonel," she said in a statement. "We must always protect the merit-based system that is the foundation of our Armed Forces from political corruption and unlawful retaliation."

Duckworth effectively stalled the promotions and demanded an answer to whether Vindman's promotion to colonel was approved by the Defense Department before it was supposed to make its way to the White House for final approval.

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Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois lifted her hold against the promotions of over 1,000 military service members, following the Defense Department's confirmation that it had officially approved of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman's tentative promotion.

"Donald Trump's unprecedented efforts to further politicize our military by retaliating against Lt. Col. Vindmanfor doing his patriotic duty of telling the truth under oath  are unconscionable," Duckworth said in a statement on Tuesday.

"I'm glad the Department of Defense was finally able to set the record straight that Vindman had earned and was set to receive a promotion to Colonel," she added. "We must always protect the merit-based system that is the foundation of our Armed Forces from political corruption and unlawful retaliation."

Duckworth's statement comes days after she held up the promotions for 1,123 military officers. Duckworth, who serves on the Armed Service Committee, effectively stalled the promotions and demanded an answer to whether Vindman's promotion to colonel was approved by the Defense Department before it was supposed to make its way to the White House for final approval.

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Vindman, a 21-year US Army veteran and a Purple Heart recipient, resigned last Wednesday before the White House could make its decision.

Vindman's promotion was speculated to be uncertain; particularly after he attracted the president's ire for complying with a congressional subpoena for the impeachment proceedings. After Vindman's testimony, Trump baselessly claimed he broke the chain of command and "leaked" details of his conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The president previously suggested the military was going to explore taking disciplinary action against Vindman  which never materialized  and dismissed him from the National Security Council as its Ukraine-Russian expert. Vindman's twin brother, US Army Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, was also dismissed from the NSC.

Following Vindman's retirement, Duckworth praised him for his service while accusing Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Trump of bullying him into retirement.

"Lt. Col. Vindman's decision to retire puts the spotlight on Secretary of Defense Mark Esper's failure to protect a decorated combat Veteran against a vindictive Commander in Chief," she said in a previous statement. "Secretary Esper's failure to protect his troops sets a new, dark precedent that any Commander in Chief can interfere with routine merit-based military promotions to carry out personal vendettas and retaliation against military officers who follow duly-authorized subpoenas while upholding their oath of office and core principles of service."

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Copenhagen, Denmark  Thu, July 16, 2020 17:08 551 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666d7a71 2 Food ice-cream,denmark,Eskimo,Racism Free

A Danish ice cream maker said on Wednesday it would remove the name "Eskimo" from one of its products in case it offended Inuit and other Arctic people.

Hansens Is said it had opposed changing the name of its Eskimo ice lolly but after careful consideration had decided to choose a more suitable name.

The firm said there was now more information and debate "around the derogatory treatment and inequality towards minorities and indigenous people".

The term Eskimo, used to refer to indigenous people from all over the Arctic, started being criticized by some of the 140,000 indigenous people of the Arctic region in 1970s.

Aaja Chemnitz Larsen, one of two politicians representing Greenland in the Danish Parliament, pointed out that the term meant "eater of raw meat" - although this theory is the subject of debate.

"Eskimo has a pejorative meaning for many Greenlanders. So I think it is only natural to show this level of respect for us," she told Danish news agency Ritzau.

"After dialogue and examination, it was clear to us that people feel that the name Eskimo reminds of a time of degradation and unjust treatment - which we haven't considered before," Hansens wrote on their Facebook page.

Read also: Australian mountains ditch King Leopold name

Chemnitz Larsen welcomed the move and encouraged other brands to follow suit.

But Danish ice cream maker Premier Is said it intended to keep the name "Kaempe Eskimo" ("Giant Eskimo") for its chocolate-covered ice cream stick, according to media reports.

Greenland, with roughly 55,000 mostly Inuit inhabitants, became a Danish colony in the 18th century and remained so until 1953, when it became a Danish province.

In 1979, home rule was established and in 2009 it increased its autonomy through a referendum.
A former Miss Kentucky has been sentenced to two years in prison after admitting to exchanging sexual photos with a teenage student when she was working as a school teacher.

Ramsey BethAnn Bearse, 29, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing material depicting minors in sexually explicit conduct in December 2019 and was sentenced Tuesday.

Authorities said the former West Virginia middle school educator admitted to exchanging photos with the student on Snapchat between August and October 2018. A parent of the male student reported finding the images on the teen's phone, news outlets said.

She was also sentenced to an additional 10 years of supervised release and must register as a sex offender for life, according to Kanawha Assistant Prosecutor Meshell Jarrett.

Bearse was initially charged with four counts of sending obscene material to a minor.

A teacher and former Miss Kentucky is pictured after she was arrested for exchanging explicit images with a 15-year-old boy at the school she worked in (left). Ramsey BethAnn Bearse, 29, won the state beauty competition in 2014 (right), impressing the judges with her bluegrass fiddle playing

Former Miss Kentucky Ramsey BethAnn Bearse, 29, has been sentence to two years in prison after sending explicit photos to a 15-year-old student while she was working as a teacher

Bearse previously testified she meant to send a photo to her husband, but accidentally sent it to the teen. She claimed the student asked for additional photos, so she continued to send them because she was 'afraid to not appease him.'

Bearse said Tuesday that she accepted 'full responsibility' for her actions.

'Since I am the adult, and he was just a teenager, it is my fault, and I accept full blame for the situation,' Bearse said in December last year.

'So thats how Im guilty of this crime. I messed up big-time.'

An image shows Bearse in the 2014 Miss Kentucky swimsuit round. One of the student's parents found lewd photos of Bearse on the student's phone

Bearse is said to have impressed the Miss Kentucky judges in 2014 by playing her fiddle

Under her maiden name of Carpenter, Bearse was crowned Miss Kentucky in 2014 in the Miss America pageant.

Bearse is said to have impressed the Miss Kentucky judges in 2014 by playing bluegrass music on her fiddle.

After the win, she went on to act as a spokeswoman for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and featured in interviews to talk about being diagnosed with the central nervous system disease in 2010.

She was suspended from her teaching position during the investigation, and the Kanawha County school district has said she no longer works there.


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Yes Bank's follow-on public offer (FPO) to raise Rs 15,000 crore was subscribed 22% till 11:40 IST Thursday (16 July).

The bank's FPO opened on 15 July 2020 and will close on 17 July 2020. A discount of Re 1 per equity share will be given to the eligible employees of the bank bidding in employee reservation portion. In the FPO, shares can be bid in lots of 1,000 equity shares.

The private sector bank is offering 909.98 crore shares under the public offer at a price band of Rs 12-13 per share. Yes Bank plans to utilise the proceeds from issue to meet its capital requirements to support growth and expansion.

On Tuesday (14 July), the private lender allotted 3,41,53,84,614 equity shares to a total of 14 anchor investors at Rs 12 per share.

More than half of the anchor book was subscribed by Bay Tree India Holdings. Other investors include HDFC Life Insurance Co, Amansa Holdings, Jupiter India Fund, Jupiter South Asia Access Fund, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Co, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co, RBL Bank, Reliance General Insurance Co, Edelweiss Crossover Opportunities Funds, Elara India Opportunities Fund, Hinduja Leyland Finance and ECL Finance.

State Bank of India (SBI) had earlier informed that it would invest upto Rs 1,760 crore in the FPO.

Shares of Yes Bank were down 7.82% at Rs 18.85 on BSE.

Yes Bank reported a net profit of Rs 2628.61 crore in Q4 March 2020 as against a net loss of Rs 1506.64 crore in Q4 March 2019. Total income rose 44.4% YoY to Rs 12,115.53 crore during the quarter. The bank generated an extraordinary income (net of tax) of Rs 6,296.94 crore during the quarter on account of writing down of certain Basel III additional tier-1 (AT-1) bonds amounting to Rs 8,415 crore. Excluding this extraordinary item, Yes Bank reported a net loss from ordinary activities of Rs 3,668.33 crore in Q4 March 2020 compared with a net loss from ordinary activities of Rs 1,506.64 crore in Q4 March 2019.

Yes Bank is a full service commercial bank' providing a complete range of products, services and technology driven digital offerings, catering to corporate, MSME & retail customers.

The bank was under moratorium for 13 days in March 2020. It resumed full-fledged banking operations from 18 March 2020. This came after a consortium of eight public and private banks, led by State Bank of India, agreed to infuse capital into Yes Bank to rescue it from the brink of a collapse. These financial institutions had together pooled in Rs 10,000 crore as investment at Rs 10 per share in Yes Bank when it faced pressure from depositors.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
To say 2020 has been historical so far is probably the biggest understatement of the year.

Not only have we experienced a global pandemic like nothing weve ever seen in recent times, were also experiencing a second Civil Rights Movement. Many media outlets consider this second wave of the movement a direct result of the murder of George Floyd. I take umbrage to that simplistic viewpoint. Floyds death was the proverbial straw that broke the camels back. Weve had marches and protests before, but they always ended and things went back to the way they were before. This time, we gave a collective, Hell no! to the status quo. We are tired of racial disparities, inequities and injustices, the prison industrial complex, police brutality, etc. Basically, were tired of getting the short end of the stick as a group of people.

So how refreshing was it to see some good happen in 2020? To see that were finally being heard and real action is being taken?

The city council in Asheville, North Carolina, by a vote of 7-0, moved to provide reparations to Black residents whose ancestors were enslaved. The council also apologized for the citys role in slavery, denial of basic liberties to its Black residents and discrimination.

For those wringing their hands, worried about the citys coffers, the resolution doesnt include direct payments. Instead, it includes creative solutions to solve a problem that shouldve been solved a long time ago. COVID-19 continues to bring out the creativity in all of us. The city will create a Community Reparations Commission, and it will be the commissions job to recommend programs and resources.

The resulting budgetary and programmatic priorities may include but not be limited to increasing minority home ownership and access to other affordable housing, increasing minority business ownership and career opportunities, strategies to grow equity and generational wealth, closing the gaps in health care, education, employment and pay, neighborhood safety and fairness within criminal justice, the resolution reads.

For too long the conversation about reparations centered on cash payments and opponents inability to conceive how America could deliver these cash payments, how to determine who was owed and if it is unfair to white people. (Dont you just love how when it comes to Black people, we always have to be fair, but its never vice versa. If that were the case, we wouldnt have these problems.) Ive long said we dont need cash payments but rather creative ways to provide actual equity to descendants of slaves. Well, theyve figured it out in Asheville, North Carolina, and hopefully this city will be a model.

By the way, there are only two Black members of the city council. Yes, a Black man, Keith Young, was the chief proponent of the resolution, but this measure passed unanimously. I dont know the race or ethnicity of the other five members, but its clear they arent African American. Its also clear they had the guts to stand up for whats right. And reparations for descendants of slaves couldnt be more right.

Yes, there are some who are angry, dont feel responsible for slavery and dont believe theyve benefited from white privilege. Who cares? Living in a democracy means you may not always get your way. Majority rules.

America owes this debt. Just because you dont want to pay the debt doesnt mean its not owed. Try that move at a casino and see what happens. I dont recall Black America ever forgiving the debt, either.

I explained white privilege in a previous column, and at this point, its not a matter of not understanding but a matter of refusing to understand. White people who continue to point out how their lives perfectly illustrate the lack of white privilege are being willfully obtuse, and I have no time for such mendacity.

For every action theres an equal and opposite reaction, and there are some white proponents of the resolution. One such supporter is David Greenson. Referencing the beating of Johnnie Rush, an unarmed Black man, in August 2017 by a police officer, Greenson said white people need to provide reparations because our souls are in jeopardy. While Greenson wasnt involved in the beating of Rush, he acknowledged his tax dollars paid the officers salary.

Greenson gets it. The city council gets it. We need more people who get it.

We need more people to move away from theory and unproductive conversation to action. This is how you right a wrong, America. Its the moral thing to do.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 07/15/2020



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

star Clare Crawley will definitely have her hands full when she's introduced to her Night 1 bachelors, and ABC has revealed the identities of 42 men who may be competing for her heart on Season 16.ABC has announced 42 bachelors who "may" have a chance to meet and date Clare on 's sixteenth season, which is expected to begin filming any day now and will air on the network Tuesday nights at 8PM ET/PT this fall.ABC revealed names, bios and photos for 42 guys Wednesday on Facebook, and it appears some of the men might have taken the photos themselves considering the photos feature a variety of backgrounds."We are giving you an early look at the men who may be on this season of #TheBachelorette! Leave a [rose] for who would get your first impression rose," 's official Facebook page wrote.The inclusion of the word "may" suggests a portion of the 42 men -- which is a much larger group of suitors than the show typically starts with (around 30) -- will not actually appear on Clare's season of .Reality Steve spoiler blogger Steve Carbone said during a recent episode of his podcast that producers had decided to invite a bunch of extra potential bachelors to the location where they are filming Season 16 in case anyone tests positive for coronavirus during the quarantine period that will occur before production officially commences.Just last week, Carbone revealed 's sixteenth season will be filmed at La Quinta Resort & Club, which is a Waldorf Astoria resort, in Palm Springs, CA.Carbone reported Clare, her cast of guys, and the crew were scheduled to arrive in Palm Springs late last week, and then after quarantining the whole group for about a week, production will begin around July 17.Among the 42 candidates, 25 are fresh selections and 17 of the guys were announced back in March as members of the original cast when ABC unveiled the identities of Clare's initial set of 32 bachelors.Due to COVID-19 and a drastic delay in production, the casting process was extended and more men continued to apply over the last several months.host Chris Harrison therefore previously said in multiple interviews the first set of 32 bachelors from March would likely change and Clare could end up with a significantly different lineup of suitors. Matt James , for instance, was plucked out of Clare's cast and promoted to star on The Bachelor's 25th season in 2021.Given Clare is the oldest star the franchise has ever seen at age 39, the age of her bachelors has been a topic of interest and conversation.Clare's current lineup of men are from all over the United States as well as from Canada, and 20 of the 25 newly-announced guys are age 30 or older. As a whole, the cast of 42 men includes 26 bachelors that are age 30 or older.Clare's official and final set of bachelors who will star on 's sixteenth season will be confirmed at a later date.Once begins filming, cast and crew will be tested regularly with routine temperature checks for the duration of the show in order to ensure everyone's health and safety, Variety reported.The entire season will reportedly be taped at one quarantined location with cast and crew living on-site, and visitors and members of the press will not be allowed to drop by.Given the unusual production situation, ABC has not yet announced an fall premiere date for Season 16.'s new season was originally supposed to have begun filming in March and premiere on May 18, but global health restrictions in light of coronavirus have shut down nearly all Hollywood productions.Clare was a 32-year-old from Sacramento, CA, when she was first introduced to Bachelor Nation on Juan Pablo Galavis ' season of The Bachelor in 2014. She finished as his runner-up.Clare then unsuccessfully continued to search for love on Seasons 1 and 2 of Bachelor in Paradise, which aired on ABC in 2014 and 2015.Clare got engaged to French Canadian bachelor Benoit Beausejour-Savard on the reunion special for The Bachelor Winter Games, which aired in early 2018, but they broke up in April of that year.Below is a listing of the 42 men who may be appearing on 's sixteenth season starring Clare.- AJ Jalawan, a 28-year-old from Irvine, CA- Alex Brusiloff, a 28-year-old from El Paso, TX- Ben Smith, a 29-year-old from Indianapolis, IN- Bennett Jordan, a 37-year-old from Atlanta, GA- Blake Monar, a 30-year-old from Rockport, IN- Blake Moynes, a 29-year-old from Burlington, ON, Canada- Brandon Goss, a 28-year-old from Cleveland, OH- Brendan Morais, a 30-year-old from Milford, MA- Chasen Nick, a 31-year-old from Walnut Creek, CA- Chris Conran, a 27-year-old from St. Louis, MO- Collins Youngblood, a 30-year-old from Midlothian, VA- Dale Moss, a 31-year-old from Brandon, SD- Demar Jackson, a 26-year-old from San Diego, CA- Ed Waisbrot, a 36-year-old from Pittsburgh, PA- Ellis Matthews, a 26-year-old from Libertyville, IL- Garin Flowers, a 34-year-old from Fort Lauderdale, FL- Gary Briggs, a 29-year-old from Cleveland, OH- Ivan Hall, a 28-year-old from Dallas, TX- Jason Foster, a 31-year-old from Rutland, VT Jay Smith , a 29-year-old from Langhorne, PA- Jeremy Higgins, a 40-year-old from Virginia Beach, VA- Joe Park, a 36-year-old from North Woodmere, NY- Jordan Chapman, a 26-year-old from Southington, CT- Jordan Manier, a 30-year-old from Dearborn, MI- Josh Elledge, a 31-year-old from Minneapolis, MN- Karl Smith, a 33-year-old from Miami, FL- Kenny Braasch, a 39-year-old from Oaklawn, IL- Mike Tobin, a 38-year-old from Calgary, Alberta, Canada- Montel Hill, a 30-year-old from Hingham, MA- Noah Erb, a 25-year-old from Tulsa, OK- Page Pressley, a 37-year-old from Santa Fe, NM- Peter Giannikopoulos, a 32-year-old from Everett, MA- Riley Christian, a 30-year-old from Detroit, MI- Robby Stahl, a 31-year-old from St. Pete Beach, FL- Spencer Robertson, a 30-year-old from La Jolla, CA- Tien Yang, a 36-year-old from Great Neck, NY- Tyler Cottrill, a 27-year-old from Gassaway, WV- Tyler Smith, a 36-year-old from Dallas, TX- Uzoma Nwachukwu, a 29-year-old from Dallas, TX- Yosef Aborady, a 29-year-old from Mobile, AL- Zac Clark, a 36-year-old from Haddonfield, PA- Zach Jackson, a 37-year-old from Yakima, WAInterested in more The Bachelor news? 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US President Donald Trump's administration is considering a sweeping ban on travel from members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and their families, a media report said.

The presidential proclamation is still in its draft form and Trump might ultimately reject it, The Hill news website quoted The New York Times report as saying on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources.

The reported draft ban may also authorize the US to revoke visas of party members and their families who are already in the country, according to the repor.

The order would cite the same statute in the Immigration and Nationality Act the Trump administration used in 2017 as part of a travel ban on several predominantly Muslim countries, The New York Times report said.

It further said that the statute gives the President power to temporarily block travel to the US by foreign nationals who are deemed "detrimental to the interest" of the country.

There was no official comment on the development yet.
Although Lady Nicholson apologised 'unreservedly' for the unintended slur, she found herself accused of racism, transphobia and homophobia.

For a woman who has recently been in the eye of the literary world's most tumultuous social media storm, Baroness Emma Nicholson seems remarkably chipper when we meet.

Earlier this month, the Tory peer was peremptorily dismissed from her honorary post as vice president of the Booker Prize after 'misgendering' the British transgender model and activist Munroe Bergdorf and referring to her as a 'weird creature' on Twitter.

Although Lady Nicholson apologised 'unreservedly' for the unintended slur, she found herself accused of racism, transphobia and homophobia.

So it gives her no small satisfaction to reveal that Ms Bergdorf has accepted an invitation to tea at the House of Lords.

'She's in Los Angeles at the moment, but has provisionally accepted the invitation,' Lady Nicholson says.

'When I wrote that it wasn't my intention to cause hurt or offence, and retracted my comments, she was gracious. She replied: 'Everyone's human. We all make mistakes'  bless her.

'So that's been put to bed and I hope she comes to tea when I'll be able to apologise to her in person, learn more about the experience of [others] and work from a more informed perspective to promote their rights.'

The Twitter spat may have been resolved amicably, but the row that underpins it rumbles on.

Lady Nicholson, whose late husband Sir Michael Caine helped to establish the coveted Booker literary prize, remains profoundly dismayed that the Booker trustees appeared to be challenging her right to speak freely about her beliefs.

'I'm not complaining that Booker's board of trustees asked me to stand down,' she says.

'I'd have been more than happy to do so if they'd asked me courteously. But the crudity and bluntness with which they dealt with the matter was really beneath what I'd have expected of them.'

Earlier this month, the Tory peer was peremptorily dismissed from her honorary post as vice president of the Booker Prize after 'misgendering' the British transgender model and activist Munroe Bergdorf (above) and referring to her as a 'weird creature' on Twitter

She laughs; a rich contralto chuckle. 'They sent me an email addressed to 'Dame Emma', more or less saying that my role ceased to exist and goodbye. I wrote back telling them that 'Dame Emma' is not my title. But what appals me most is their cowardice and feebleness.

'I'm ashamed of them . . . the issue is one of freedom of speech. It is being challenged in a very profound way and, if we lose it, that's the end.'

She is adding her voice to the growing clamour by authors, activists and academics.

Last week, 150 eminent names  among them J.K. Rowling, Margaret Atwood and Sir Salman Rushdie  signed an open letter deploring today's 'intolerant climate' and 'vogue for public shaming'.

For her part, Lady Nicholson  'Call me Emma,' she insists stands accused by author Damian Barr of three transgressions which led to her dismissal after he wrote to the Booker trustees.

First Mr Barr (who is gay) accused her in a tweet of homophobia because, in 2013, she voted against same-sex marriage. She defends herself against the first charge and has said in the past that her vote was prompted by her religious beliefs.

'But once the law was passed I accepted it completely,' she tells me. 'It's not a cause that grips me in any way but I thought it rather extraordinary to be criticised for it nearly a decade after the event.'

(It hasn't escaped her notice that Mr Barr has, it has emerged, made transphobic tweets, using the pejorative term 'tranny'). His second accusation relates to tweets in which Emma inadvertently 'misgendered' Munroe Bergdorf (used a pronoun with which she does not identify).

Munroe Bergdorf's tweet on Baroness Nicholson being stripped of her Honorary Vice President title is pictured above. The Booker Prize Foundation (BPF) states that Baroness Nicholson's honorary post was not removed because of her views and votes on gay marriage, although it concedes that her tweet calling Ms Bergdorf a 'weird creature' was likely to be seen by many as 'objectionable'

The peer, who has been profoundly deaf since birth and has impaired sight, is deeply repentant.

'I wrote twice on Twitter to say 'I'm so sorry',' she says. 'I hurt her feelings and I had no wish to do that, but I mistyped. I wrote 'Mr' by mistake.'

And the 'weird creature' comment? 'I was quoting from a Shakespeare sonnet. 'Weird creature' is a phrase from a poem and in its context and time it meant delightful, fantastical.

'It was flattering. I'm surprised the Booker chairman doesn't know his Shakespeare well enough to realise this.'

Social media storms aside, there is much that causes Emma disquiet about attempts to silence debate on transgender issues.

She points to the disputes between Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and the transgender community. Rowling, who denies being transphobic, was targeted for mocking an online article that used the words 'people that menstruate' instead of women.

Emma expresses her beliefs similarly: 'I'm not nearly as fluent as J.K. Rowling about this, but I'd say that if transwomen adopt women's clothes and mannerisms and sometimes have surgery, that is not the same as being a woman.

'And I believe the term 'cis' women (to describe women who retain the same gender they had at birth) is pejorative.'

Emma, who co-founded a charity now called Lumos (which seeks to end the institutionalisation of children worldwide) with Rowling, describes the author as a 'real heroine' for speaking out about transgender matters.

When Rowling wrote of her fears about an 'explosion' of young people transitioning and was again vilified, Emma was appalled.

'Someone tweeted that she wasn't fit to be around children and I was horrified by that,' she says.

'I've been with her in orphanages in the Czech Republic where children were tied to their cots and she was enchanting with them, as she is with all children, especially those in need.'

She says she is gratified by the support from other writers, including the Wild Woman Writing Club. Signatories including Trezza Azzopardi (short-listed for the Booker herself), Susan Hill, Elizabeth Speller and Helen Dale.

They wrote to Booker saying they are 'dismayed' by the 'hasty' decision to abolish the post and call for her reinstatement.

'The Booker trustees appear to have participated in 'cancel culture' applying moral standards differently to different people and allowing Baroness Nicholson  a respected figure with long-standing ties to the prize  to be pilloried for a historic position taken for her religious beliefs,' they wrote.

And she is further buoyed by support from her social media followers, gaining thousands of Twitter followers  she now has 10,000  since the furore.

'We form an impregnable and ever-growing team,' she says. The granddaughter of a suffragist, she shows me a letter she recently received from a supporter expressing 'deep appreciation and admiration' for her campaigns for women's and girls' rights.

Damian Barr's third charge, that Lady Nicholson is 'racist' (presumably made on the basis that Munroe Bergdorf is mixed race), also seems palpably absurd when set against the context of her charity work.

Social media storms aside, there is much that causes Emma disquiet about attempts to silence debate on transgender issues. She points to the disputes between Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling (above) and the transgender community. Rowling, who denies being transphobic, was targeted for mocking an online article that used the words 'people that menstruate' instead of women

She and her late husband, who married in 1987, have a foster son Amar Kanin, rescued from Iraq after he survived a napalm attack in March 1991.

The Baroness set up a charitable foundation in Amar's name and asks that I mention that its work with Yazidi women in camps in the Middle East  many of whom were forced into sexual slavery by Islamic State from the age of ten.

She is also president of the council of the Caine Prize for African Writing, named after her late husband.

I wonder what he would make of her sacking from the Booker post and she replies ruefully that perhaps it's just as well he's not around.

He worked for Booker when it was a huge and prospering food company in Africa and Guyana, and was a bibliophile. He co-founded the prize in 1969 'because he wanted books to be read, published and purchased'.

The honourable aim was realised: 'Hardback books, which sold in hundreds before the prize, started to sell as many as 40,000 copies,' she tells me.

After Michael died in 1999, Emma remained on the board of Booker trustees, but found her sight and hearing impediments 'massively inhibiting' at meetings, and was invited to be an honorary vice president instead.

'It was a very sweet, kind gesture,' she says. 'However, lately it had become clear that my presence in any capacity at all was not helpful, and this was rammed home by these recent less than happy exchanges.

'I'm supposed to have criticised the chairman of this year's International Booker Prize and denigrated it.

'I didn't. I understood that I didn't fit, but to have stifled freedom of speech in this profound way  that would have concerned Michael.'

The Booker Prize Foundation (BPF) states that Baroness Nicholson's honorary post was not removed because of her views and votes on gay marriage, although it concedes that her tweet calling Ms Bergdorf a 'weird creature' was likely to be seen by many as 'objectionable'.

'The Trustees saw that many who commented on that tweet believed that her honorary position connected it to the Booker Prize,' say the BPF, while adding that Baroness Nicholson had, 'publicly questioned the impartiality' of Ted Hodgkinson, chair of the 2020 International Booker Prize judges.

'Too many believed the honorary positions carried weight in the life of the contemporary Booker prizes. BPF thus clarified matters by removing all these positions,' it states.

If Emma was invited to return, I ask, would she do so?

Her response is customarily crisp. 'Would I? It's too difficult to answer. While I respect the Booker, it seems that Booker does not respect me. Successful and productive relationships go both ways,' she says.

To support the Amar Foundation's work helping the vulnerable communities faced by conflict in the Middle East go to: amarfoundation.org
The best of leaders in the most desirable companies aren't characters in some rose-colored Hollywood script. In these turbulent times, they are real humans beings with a wholehearted commitment to their people.

To know whether you fit the bill of a leader, ask yourself three simple questions:

1. Am I communicating well?

Communication, whether interpersonal or organizational, is a necessity for success. In this day and age of corporate scandals and controversies, how leaders communicate with and to others can make or break a business.

Author and leadership guru Brian Tracy says, "Your ability to communicate with others will account for fully 85 percent of your success in your business and in your life."

When people ask me, "What's the secret to great communication?" my response can seem counterintuitive: "Be radically transparent."

When a leader displays transparency, team members know exactly how they're doing and where they stand with performance. It's a leadership strength that helps build a foundation of trust.

The key is for information to flow freely and quickly both ways, so that expectations are mutually clear and consistent and everyone is on the same page. This eliminates confusion, ambiguity, suspicion, and the element of an unpleasant surprise.

2. Am I being optimistic in the face of uncertainty?

With unprecedented events comes the opportunity to show unprecedented optimism. Show it by being that beacon of light piercing the dark, by lifting people up and encouraging those in distress.

Be the person who shows gratitude in tough times for the things you have--like access to instant information to make the right decisions.

Be the person who praises the efforts of courageous and resilient colleagues who are being productive and making work happen under extreme adversity.

Be the person who shows optimism by taking responsibility for your actions and finding solutions to problems. By doing so, you are helping yourself and others.

3. Am I providing guidance and direction?

When the future is uncertain, many employees will look to their leaders for reassurance and direction--even though they might not have all the answers. As a leader, it's OK to confidently express your own doubt or uncertainty while maintaining your authority.

As you assess where people are in the crisis, ask simple questions to address any of their concerns first. This places confidence in their eyes that you have their best interests in mind. For example:

What do you need an immediate answer to?

Where can I focus my efforts and attention to better support you right now?

What's in the way of you achieving your goals right now?
This is a renewed season of Pan African agency and global solidarity. Recently, 54 African nations called the United Nations to an urgent meeting on racism and asked for an investigation into the killings of people of African descent at the hands of police. The meeting was not only a response to the killing of George Floyd, but to the many lives in the United States and throughout the world extinguished or harmed by racism. The global meeting at the UN was one of many signs of a renewed Pan African spirit  calling for global solidarity to stop racism and the killing of people of the African diaspora.

Other signs of this growing coalition of Pan African agency include on-the-street uprisings to change racist systems, policies and practices; rejection of symbols that serve as a reminder of a draconian past of racial violence and hatred; and focus of health disparities that negatively impact people of African descent  revealed again in this COVID-19 season.

The roots of Pan African agency go back to the days of the transatlantic slave trade, when the struggle for liberation of enslaved African peoples sparked cross-continental activism. Breads Pan African devotional Lament and Hope highlights this with a focus on their faith. Activists hope for a future devoid of the public policies and practices that have systematically contributed to the inhumane treatment and discrimination of people of African descent. These policies and practices have contributed to the colonization of the lands of African peoples and have left many African peoples landless and hungry.

In the last century, strategic movements channeled the work and agency of the African diaspora. For example, women leaders participated in Pan African conferences and congresses  including the Manchester Pan African conferences. In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, African nations attained independence from colonial rule. And a collaborative Pan African spirit supported the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. and elsewhere. These movements served as catalysts unifying the African world in collaborating against apartheid, neo-colonialism and exploitation of land and resources. This has pushed the international community and international institutions to maximize focus on the issues of peace, justice and dignity for the Pan African world. This legacy has helped usher in the renewed Black Lives Matter moment.

As the renewed rising of African peoples takes place throughout the world, we need renewed justice-centered relationships and policies to propel us to overcome racism in all its manifestations: poverty, hunger, disease, injustice and climate change. At Bread for the World, we are working toward a strong and prosperous Africa and its diaspora  to protect dignity and prosperity within and outside Africa.

In a spirit of oneness and ubuntu, we seek a shared understanding of the different contexts in which African peoples reside as we join together to create a public policy agenda for the good of all.

Rev. Dr. Angelique Walker-Smith is senior associate for Pan-African and Orthodox church engagement at Bread for the World in Washington, D.C.
Washington, July 16 : US President Donald Trump announced that he has replaced his re-lection campaign manager Brad Parscale, amid recent polls showing the President has fallen further behind presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

"I am pleased to announce that Bill Stepien has been promoted to the role of Trump Campaign Manager," Xinhua news agency quoted Trump as saying in a tweet on Wednesday.

"Brad Parscale, who has been with me for a very long time and has led our tremendous digital and data strategies, will remain in that role, while being a Senior Advisor to the campaign." To clarify the President's seemingly ambiguous tweet, Fox News cited two top campaign officials as saying that "there are not two campaign managers", and that Stepien, currently deputy campaign manager and a veteran GOP operative, will have total executive control after the promotion.

The personnel reshuffle came at a time when the coronavirus pandemic is still raging in the US, crushing the national economy, and when racial discrimination showcased in brutal killings of African-Americans by police has triggered sweeping protests not seen in decades.

Feeling the urgency to salvage his re-election bid, Trump resumed his rally on June 30 in the city of Tulsa, US state of Oklahoma, an event in which the actual number of participants fell far short of what the campaign boasted.

The underwhelming rally amid the pandemic was largely blamed on Parscale, with whom Trump's frustration has grown ever since, according to US media reports.

Meanwhile, Biden's lead over Trump in the polls has widened to double digits.

In two polls released on Wednesday, Biden was ahead of Trump by 15 percentage points in a Quinnipiac University poll, and retained an 11 per cent edge in an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Trump, who repeatedly denounced media polls as being biased against him, said in the Wednesday tweet that a victory in the 2020 election "should be a lot easier as our poll numbers are rising fast".

Tasked with helping run Trump digital campaign ad in 2016, Parscale was tapped as the president's 2020 campaign manager in February 2018.

Stepien has involved himself in politics for years, previously working for former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and serving as Trump's national field director in 2016.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Tens of thousands of students in Ho Chi Minh City will begin the first year of each level

In the new school year of 2020-2021, the southern growth centre Ho Chi Minh City expects to welcome 200,000 students who will begin the first year of each level (Grade 1, Grade 6, and Grade 10). In Grade 10 alone, over 80,000 students attended the entry exam last year. The need to pick the right school of tens of thousands of parents and their students are becoming ever more urgent.

Aside from public schools, the city is home to over 1,000 educational institutions, ranging from kindergartens to private and international high schools. They are set up to meet the diverse requirements of parents in terms of tuition fees, training programmes, and the corresponding academic performance. Of these educational facilities, international schools are the priority for middle or higher-income families.

Wise choice

The tuition fees offered by international schools in Vietnam are the fourth highest in Asia. This result is from a 2019 poll of 688 international schools in 27 countries and territories conducted by Expat Finder, a company providing information and support services for families moving abroad. According to the survey, Vietnam has an average annual tuition fee of $17,940 per year (about VND412.6 million), cheaper only than China, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

The need to pick the right school of tens of thousands of parents and their students are becoming ever more urgent.

This rate ranks 13th in the world, which also represents Vietnamese parents priority for investment in the education of their children.

However, the global pandemic has adversely affected the whole country as well as the income of every family, with no end to be seen. Non-essential spending has been cut drastically, including spending on education, which traditionally accounts for a quarter or a third of a familys total income.

In general education, this is a long-term process and parents need to keep a cool head to think over their options. Tuition fees at international schools in Ho Chi Minh City range from VND3 to 8 billion ($130,430-$347,830). That is the amount needed for a student to finish all the curricula from kindergarten to Grade 12.

Bilingual schools become the trend

Many students are returning home to study while high schools and universities worldwide remain closed. Parents realise that the switch of international schools to a bilingual environment is a practical choice at the time being so as to cut parents spending while still retaining the curricula and graduation certificates.

Take for example, the Cambridge general education programme which is being taught at British International School (BIS) and Vietnam Australia International School (VAS) in line with bilingual curricula.

Saving considerable costs of investment in education whilst ensuring the childrens learning output with the bilingual programme

Both are official Cambridge schools which offer the same curricula and are assessed by the Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE) together with the AS/A Level certificate.

However, the tuition fees at VAS are only from a half to two-thirds of the BIS. Meanwhile, VAS students studying CAP or CAP International programmes may take the national exam for high school graduation to attend domestic universities if they wish to.

The facilities and curricula of the two models are relatively compatible. Meanwhile, VASs extracurricular, talent cultivation, outdoor exercises, and other educational programmes to boost core value as well as soft skills and life skills are designed to maximise students potential.

Students are helped to bring into full play their academic potential and other skills. They will also gain rich experience in community activities to be ready to adapt to a new learning environment or gain considerable advantage when applying for scholarships.

The understanding of national consciousness and identity contributes in building a childs characteristic and individual differences

What is more, the majority of Asian families want their children to study in a bilingual learning environment so that they can be fluent in both English and Vietnamese. This can partly relieve parents worries that their kids may neglect their mother tongue or the countrys culture and history if they work in an English-only speaking environment.

In the worlds new situation, a high-quality bilingual school which offers world-recognised certificates can ensure students safety in Vietnam while saving considerable costs of investment in education.

Vietnam Australia International School is one of the leading educational institutions both in size and history among the circle of foreign-related schools in Vietnam. It provides a learning environment for almost 9,500 students from kindergarten to Grade 12 at seven of its campuses. Run by a teaching staff of nearly 1,000 domestic and international teachers holding extensive expertise, VAS is also the school which offers the highest number of teaching periods using only English to communicate among the bilingual schools applying the same curricula.

More information on the three diverse programmes and free placement test is available at http://www.vas.edu.vn or hotline 0911267755.




Haiti - News : Zapping...





Moise discusses land conflicts

"I had an important meeting, Wednesday July 15 at the National Palace, on the thorny issue of land conflicts. All relevant branches of the Executive were represented at this meeting with a view to providing concrete and coherent responses," Jovenel Moise.



Electricity in words...

According to Nader Joiseus, the Minister of Public Works, 60 megawatts of thermal energy and 130 Mw of solar energy will become a reality thanks to the loan of 150 million from Taiwan (Republic of China). However, regarding the provision of this new energy to consumers, he evokes long procedures and some obstacles to overcome to set up this project, without specifying details or timing ...



Massacre of Raboteau, towards the end of impunity ?

"We continue to turn to the Haitian authorities to see justice done for the victims of the Raboteau massacre and to hold Emmanuel Constant responsible for the crimes he committed in Haiti. The establishment of the rule of law begins with the end of impunity," said Embassy of the United States in Haiti.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-31276-haiti-justice-the-file-of-toto-constant-mysteriously-not-found.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-31107-haiti-flash-former-frap-chief-deported-by-the-usa-arrested-upon-his-arrival-in-port-au-prince.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30845-haiti-flash-usa-will-expel-78-haitians-including-the-former-head-of-fraph-emmanuel-toto-constant.html



Penal Code and Protestant Federation of Haiti

Wednesday, as part of consultations on the Penal Code, Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe met with the Representatives of the Protestant Federation of Haiti with a view to broad consultation on this text which will only be applicable 24 months after its publication in The monitor.



Winners of the French Embassy competition

The winners of the contest of the French Embassy accredited to Port-au-Prince on the occasion of the National Day of France on July 14 https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-31168-icihaiti-notice-freedom-equality-fraternity-contest.html are Widson Rene, Gedelien Gide Olivio Neida and Francois Jean Enock who win vouchers at the La Pleiade bookstore for 30,000 and 20,000 Gourdes.



The Minister of Justice multiplies the meetings

Monday, Rockefeller Vincent the new Minister of Justice and Public Security, met with Tacite Toussaint the Secretary of State for Public Security, around the urgency of the files related to public security. On the same day, Minister Vincent met Rameau Normil, the Director General a.i. of the National Police of Haiti (PNH), to discuss the general security situation in the country and more specifically the armed gangs.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















New Delhi:

The Left Democratic Front led Kerala Government on Monday told Supreme Court that it favoured the entry of women of all ages in Sabarimala temple.

This stance was however heavily opposed by the Travancore Devaswon Board, which criticized the government and claimed that it couldnt change its stand as per its own convenience.

The LDF government had filed an affidavit favouring womens entry in the temple on November 2007. However, the successive United Democratic Front (UDF) government led by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy supported restriction of women devotees entry in the temple.

As the LDF government returned to power led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, it filed an additional affidavit supporting the stand of the then UDF government.

Also Read: Two Hindu bodies move SC, seek entry of women at Sabarimala temple

On Monday however, the state government completely reversed its stand and claimed that it will support womens entry in Sabarimala temple.

The Travancore Devaswon Board appealed to a three judge bench led by Justice Dipak Misra to refer the case to a Constitution Bench. Latest position of the state was also opposed by the deitys mythical foster-father, the Raja of Panthala.

Also Read: Sabarimala temple: Supreme court questions ban on women

He emphasized that the people had huge faith on the legend and customs associated with the temple.

Also Read: Tradition cant justify ban on womens entry in Sabarimala: SC

The case has been scheduled for hearing by the Bench on February 20, 2017.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
As California reverses course this week and shutters many reopened businesses in the counties on its coronavirus watch list, one crucial metric guiding health officials decisions is the positive test rate.

That figure, which officials refer to as the positivity rate, is the percentage of tests conducted that come back positive for coronavirus. The state threshold for counties to reopen faster is 8% over a seven-day period. Californias current positive test rate sits at 7.1%, and the latest 7-day moving average for the U.S. is 8.7%.

Lee Riley, an infectious disease expert at UC Berkeley, said the positive test rate is one of several ways to assess the trajectory of the epidemic, along with hospitalizations and deaths.

The public should care because if any of these parameters are increasing, they need to know why, he said. They need to know who is not wearing masks and what social gathering settings are contributing to the increased spread. Then, these behaviors can be targeted for correction.

But what does the positive test rate look like across different regions of the Bay Area, where seven counties  Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma  are on the watch list?

We examined what the average positive test rate was over the past two weeks for each county, and compared that to the historical trendline to see how things have changed over time. For a number of counties, the changes are quite stark.

Top of the list: Marin, Solano, Contra Costa

Marin County tops the list right now with an average rate of 12.9%, the third highest in the state over the past 14 days as of Tuesday afternoon. That number includes the outbreak at San Quentin State Prison, which now has more than 1,300 active cases. The prison had zero coronavirus cases through May until the transfer of prisoners from Chino to Marin County on May 30, which led to the rapid spread.

Marin County doesnt include the prison statistics in its reporting, and instead listed a 14-day average positive test rate of 7.1% as of July 10. But the state and The Chronicles Coronavirus Tracker include the San Quentin cases, which are putting a strain on local hospitals and contributing to community spread, since prison workers have also become infected.

Both of those numbers are considerably higher than what Marin was averaging at the end of May, about 3.7%, before the outbreak at the prison. And the countys rate was just 2% in early May. Marin County has seen outbreaks in skilled nursing facilities, growing cases among essential workers and within the countys Latino population.

Todd Trumbull

Solano County currently has the next highest positive test rate in the Bay Area, at 6.3% for the 14-day period. The state points to outbreaks among farmworkers who live in Solano County but work at Napa and Sonoma vineyards. Like many other places that are reopening, county officials have tied many cases to more in-person gatherings among individuals who dont live in the same household.

Contra Costa County is third highest at 5.1% over the past 14 days. The state reports a rise in hospitalizations paralleling the increasing infections. The 7-day average was last reported at 7.8% on July 12, and in May, it never went higher than 3.8%. The county recently implemented a stricter face mask order requiring individuals dining on restaurant patios to keep face coverings on at all times except when actively eating or drinking.

Posting the lowest rates: San Francisco, Santa Clara

San Francisco has the lowest positive test rate of any Bay Area county at 2.1% for the 14-day period. The lowest average rate it has posted on a weekly basis was 1.1% in mid-June, and the highest was 4.3% in early May.

San Francisco has been cautious about reopening, waiting until June 12 to allow outdoor dining and indoor retail. Further expansions planned for late June and early July, including hair salons and indoor dining, have been postponed indefinitely.

San Francisco was the first county to implement the lockdowns, so it had low rates to begin with, Riley said. I think they've been able to maintain these low rates also because people have accepted social distancing practices seriously.

Todd Trumbull

Santa Clara County is the second lowest at 2.5% for the past 14 days. While Santa Claras positive rate has remained well below the state threshold and the average rate hasnt peaked above 3.3%, the county has seen an increase in hospitalizations, which prompted the state to place it on the watch list.

Many of the cases identified in Santa Clara County are from long-term care facilities, who are more likely to develop severe disease requiring hospitalization, Riley said. The overall number of cases is not very high, but the proportion of people developing severe disease may be higher in this county than some of the other counties.

The county reported its biggest daily case count of the pandemic, 258, on July 8. Essential businesses in food service and construction have recently been tied to outbreaks in the county.

In the middle: San Mateo, Napa, Alameda, Sonoma

San Mateo Countys positive test rate is 3.3% for the 14-day period ending Tuesday. The county has progressed far into reopening, with less risky businesses resuming in May, indoor dining OKd in mid-June, and most other businesses allowed to open by June 19. It was the only Bay Area county still allowing indoor dining as of Monday, when Gov. Gavin Newsoms statewide order revoked that privilege; others either suspended operations earlier or hadnt allowed them to reopen yet.

Napa County, with a 3.7% positive test rate over the 14-day period, was the earliest Bay Area county to reopen outdoor and indoor dining, on May 20. For most of June, Napas weekly positive test rate was steady at 1.7%, and in late May it was as low as 0.4%. But the state reports social gatherings, an increase in transmission, especially among the Latino community, and the impact on agricultural workers contributed to a recent rise in the rate, which reached 4.7% on July 5.

Todd Trumbull

Alameda County, at 4% for the 14-day period, has been among the slowest in the Bay Area to reopen. But increased social interactions and a spike in cases among essential workers and in nursing facilities prompted the state to place it on the watch list on Wednesday. The county had allowed outdoor dining to resume on June 19, but had to reverse course last weekend because of a state restriction. As of Wednesday, restaurants can reopen for patio dining again. Alameda posted its lowest weekly rate in mid-June at 3.6%. Throughout May it hovered around 5%.

Sonoma County follows with a 4.2% positive test rate over the 14-day period, and saw its highest daily case count since the start of the pandemic on July 12, when 116 infections were reported. Health officials have blamed the rise on more social gatherings, and workplace outbreaks including at skilled nursing facilities. Outbreaks have also occurred among workers at wineries. Past positive test rates are not recorded on the county website, so we were unable to chart the historical trend.

Here is the complete list of positive test rates for all 58 California counties over the 14-day period ending at 4 p.m. Tuesday:

Stanislaus: 15.2

Merced: 14.9

Marin (includes San Quentin cases): 12.9

San Joaquin: 12.6

Imperial: 12.3

Tulare 12.1

Orange: 12

Glenn: 11.8

Fresno: 11.6

Colusa: 11.5

San Bernardino: 11.2

Riverside: 10.8

San Diego: 10.2

Madera: 9.6

Kings: 8.9

Monterey: 8.7

Santa Barbara : 8.4

Sutter: 8.4

Yuba: 8.4

San Benito: 6.8

Kern: 6.7

Los Angeles: 6.5

Sacramento: 6.4

Solano: 6.3

Yolo: 6.3

Contra Costa: 5.1

Placer: 4.9

San Luis Obispo: 4.8

Ventura: 4.3

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.

Butte: 4.2

Sonoma: 4.2

Alameda: 4

Napa: 3.7

Calaveras: 3.6

San Mateo: 3.3

Santa Cruz: 3.2

El Dorado: 3.1

Del Norte: 2.9

Lake: 2.7

Tehama: 2.6

Amador: 2.5

Santa Clara: 2.5

Mono: 2.3

Shasta: 2.2

San Francisco: 2.1

Plumas: 2

Nevada: 1.9

Humboldt: 1.7

Lassen : 1.6

Siskiyou: 1.4

Inyo: 1.1

Mariposa: 0.9

Tuolomne: 0.8

Mendocino: 0.6

Alpine: 0

Modoc: 0

Sierra: 0

Trinity: 0

Kellie Hwang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com
Infrastructure Minister of Ukraine Vladyslav Kryklii and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Cuba to Ukraine Natacha Diaz Aguilera discussed the prospects of further bilateral cooperation in various areas, including aviation.

"Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Vladyslav Kryklii held a working meeting with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Cuba to Ukraine Natacha Diaz Aguilera in Kyiv on July 16. The parties discussed prospects for further bilateral cooperation in various fields, including aviation," the press service of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine informs.

Kryklii stressed that Ukraine highly valued friendly relations with Cuba and was interested in developing mutually beneficial cooperation.

The minister also stressed the importance of signing an airworthiness agreement between the State Aviation Administration of Ukraine and the Civil Aviation Institute of Cuba for the exchange of experience and further development of the industry.

The event was also attended by Chairman of the State Aviation Administration of Ukraine Oleksandr Bilchuk and representatives of the Ministry.

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After a short Governors Plate Week hiatus, live racing will return to Charlottetown on Thursday evening (July 16), as an 11-dash card is set for Red Shores Racetrack and Casino at the Charlottetown Driving Park.

The first of the CDP's 11 Thursday races will face the starter at 6 p.m.

The evening feature will see top trotters go toe-to-toe in Race 5, which will carry a purse of $2,400. Glider Man has been relegated to the outside in the field of six after having upset Freddie during Summersides big race week and having defeated the top class the previous week. Kenny Arsenault is scheduled to drive Glider Man for co-owner and trainer Jennifer Doyle and co-owner Danny Birt of Earnescliffe. Freddie will have a favourable post position this week, as the veteran trotter will line up in Post 2 for trainer-driver Marc Campbell. Freddie was defeated in his latest outing while racing as the post time favourite. The Majestic Son trotter will be looking for redemption and to add to his 63 lifetime wins. Rail control will belong to Maritime champion Daisy River and driver Walter Cheverie, while Jim Ripley will be back in action from his Amherst, NS stable with Majian Tango from Post 3.

Race analyst Les MacIsaac has sided with Freddie for the top spot. Freddie has not been worse than second this year and draws inside those that look to be his main competition, MacIsaac said. Other than the short price, there's not much to dislike.

Also in the Open Trot field is Star Photo (to be driven by Jason Hughes) and Windemeredontuworry (Brodie MacPhee).

The top pace of the evening has been carded as Race 10 and will feature a $2,350 purse and a field of seven aged pacing mares. Much Adoo will have the post position advantage with the rail for driver MacPhee, trainer Ron Matheson and owner Rollwithitharry Racing of Marshfield. The Classic Card Shark eight-year-old was a winner her last start in 1:58 at Red Shores Summerside. Other top entries are Miss Kabana (Vincent Poulton) and Collective Wisdom (Gilles Barrieau).

Catch the action live on the worldwide broadcast at redshores.ca and wager online at HPIBet.com.

To view the harness racing entries for Thursday at the CDP, click the following link: Thursday Entries - Charlottetown Driving Park.

(Red Shores)
There was an outpouring of sympathy for Barry Cowen among TDs who attended yesterday's Dail sitting in the National Convention Centre.

While Taoiseach Micheal Martin came under fire in the makeshift parliamentary chamber over his knowledge of Cowen's drink-driving case, Fianna Fail TDs were commiserating with the country's shortest-lived Cabinet minister.

Cowen is a popular figure in Fianna Fail and considered party royalty due to his political lineage that dates back to his grandfather Christy, who was an Offaly councillor and member of the party's national executive.

His father Ber Cowen was a Fianna Fail minister, TD and senator, while his brother Brian served as Taoiseach.

Micheal Martin is not a popular figure in Offaly - or indeed among the Cowen family - over his role in ousting the Fianna Fail leader in 2010. Martin's decision to axe Barry Cowen from his Cabinet 17 days after his appointment will not have done much to heal those wounds. However, Cowen left the Taoiseach with little option but to sack him after he refused to publicly address any further questions about his drink-driving ban.

Martin could no longer force Government TDs from either Fianna Fail, Fine Gael or the Green Party to defend Cowen in the media while he was keeping schtum.

But Martin had to weigh up the pros and cons of taking the decision to sack Cowen.

The divisive action will suck oxygen from the controversy - even though he spent yesterday defending the decision from a barrage of Opposition questions.

But it is the questions that are not being aired publicly that Martin should be worried about. There was speculation that Martin was not prepared to answer questions from his own TDs and senators when it emerged Fianna Fail's weekly parliamentary meeting was cancelled. So there will be no time for members to express their views about the sacking with the Taoiseach behind closed doors.

Publicly, most members are toeing the party line and insisting Martin was left with no choice due to Cowen's insubordination.

But privately some are suggesting the Taoiseach may have forced a powerful enemy into the arms of those who are planning for life after Martin.

Cowen is not necessarily seen as a successor but that could change in the coming years if the Offaly TD garners enough support while working the party from the backbenches.

The main threat Cowen poses to Martin is his ability to galvanise support among TDs and senators who are anxious to see Martin's succession plans before the Taoiseach's term in office comes to an end in 2022.

"He's not someone who will come forward to take out Micheal but he could get the numbers together to help someone who wants to be the next leader," a senior Fianna Fail TD said.

Another TD said there are "battalions of lads" waiting for the starting pistol on a leadership campaign and added that "Barry will have a lot of influence once that happens".

In the aftermath of the general election, Cowen was among those agitating over Fianna Fail's poor result and the failures of Martin's leadership during the campaign. He was seen by some as being aligned with Jim O'Callaghan, who many consider the heir apparent to Martin.

In Cabinet, Cowen would have been more inclined to defend Martin in the face of backlash from party members which he has done plenty of times in the past.

But now that he has been set adrift he is well-placed to become a life buoy for the disillusioned party members who are struggling to make sense of Martin's leadership.

But the Taoiseach's determination to hold on to power should not be underestimated.

Almost three-quarters of the party voted in favour of putting Martin into Government with Leo Varadkar and Eamon Ryan and will still be eager to see him succeed.

However, if success is not obvious soon, the battalion may take up arms.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 16:25:24|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 95 percent of the respondents in a recent survey look forward to garbage sorting on a larger scale, according to a China Youth Daily report.

Among the 2,009 people surveyed, a total of 64 percent of the respondents suggested the promotion relies on efforts in communities and at workplaces, and around 61 percent said enhanced work in providing some guidance of garbage sorting by volunteers and social workers is needed.

Nearly 80 percent of the respondents said garbage sorting has been carried out in their cities.

Lu Jia, a resident in Shanghai, told the newspaper that the environment of public areas in the community she lives in has taken on a new look thanks to the garbage sorting.

According to the survey, over 78 percent of the respondents believe that garbage sorting helps to reduce environmental pollution, and more than 61 percent said it improves resource utilization efficiency.

"Garbage sorting is necessary as it concerns people's living environment and the health of the natural environment," said Nie Xin, a resident in Beijing, adding that garbage sorting can turn some waste into valuables, contributing to sustainable development.

Over 80 percent of the people surveyed come from large or medium-sized cities. Enditem
Chattanooga State Community College has cancelled commencement services originally planned for Aug. 1. After exploring every possible option that would have allowed the College to hold an in-person graduation and celebrate the accomplishments of our students, the College has determined that a non-traditional alternative is the best option to protect the health and safety of our students, faculty and staff.

Although it will not be a traditional ceremony, we know that our students have worked hard to mark their academic and personal milestones, and as an alternative, weve planned a hybrid graduation ceremony giving students an opportunity to walk across the stage," said Debbie Adams, vice president of student affairs. "We will release a virtual celebration video on Aug. 1."

Each student participating in the ceremonies have been assigned a date and time for the in-person portion of the commencement. A graduation video recognizing all of our graduates will be released on Aug. 1.

The virtual ceremony will follow much the same format as a traditional in-person, and will include opening remarks from Dr. Rebecca Ashford, Chattanooga State president, followed by remarks from Dr. Flora Tydings, chancellor of the Tennessee Board of Regents, governing board of The College System of Tennessee.

Presenting the commencement address will be Katrina Griffin, Class of 2020, who returned to Chattanooga State as a Tennessee Reconnect student in fall 2017. As an associate of science general transfer major, Ms. Griffin worked hard not only in her academic career but in her personal life as well. Overcoming illnesses, raising two children and working full-time did not stop Ms. Griffin in pursuing her dreams. Her hard work was recognized in fall 2019 as she was named Chattanooga States SOAR Award winner, the East Tennessee SOAR award winner, and most recently, Chattanooga States Presidents Award winner. Ms. Griffin was selected as a top three finalist out of 100,000 community college students for the State of Tennessee SOAR award. Katrina is a member of Phi Theta Kappa and Spire Honor Society for adult learners. Katrina will graduate from Middle Tennessee State University with her bachelors degree in December 2020.

Immediately following Ms. Griffins address, academic divisions will recognize candidates for degrees and certificates.

Commencement ceremonies for Tennessee College of Applied Technology graduates will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 4, and Wednesday, Aug. 5, with a virtual celebration video to be released at a later date.
According to Michael Cannon, Stafford Countys chief technology officer, the grant awarded to Stafford was $874,000, with the Stafford County Economic Development Authority pitching in another $50,000 for the project. Cannon said the county also added another $55,000 in services to waive conditional use permits and applications, as well as other in-kind services related to the project above that amount, including project management, grant administration, and inspections.

KGI also kicked in another $298,082 worth of in-kind contributions to cover construction, engineering and planning expenses associated with the project.

Michele Wido, president of KGI Communications, told supervisors July 7 that residents in the service area are thrilled that broadband is finally coming to one of the countys most rural areas.

We get the calls every day, said Wido. We are glad that its moving, and we can see light at the end of the tunnel for these people.
New Delhi, July 16 : Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday convened a meeting with all Members of Parliament from Delhi on the preparations being done to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

In a meeting held through video conferencing, Kejriwal said that the 'Delhi Model' of fighting the viral disease has been possible due to the collective efforts and support from all political parties, MPs and MLAs.

"I have been holding meetings with all the Delhi MLAs, MPs for the last few days. Met several MLAs in the last two days, and spoke to all MPs today. If we continue to get such cooperation, we will soon be able to defeat Corona," he said in a tweet.

Asserting that the pandemic cannot be fought alone, he claimed that the reason why the 'Delhi Model' of fighting coronavirus has been possible and successful is that all the parties and their members rose above their political affiliations and worked collectively to combat the virus.

The foundation of the 'Delhi Model' is collectivity and teamwork, he said, adding that in the time of this pandemic, the Central government, hotels, private hospitals, banquet halls, NGOs, and religious and cultural organisations have come out in support.

The Chief Minister also said that the battle against coronavirus should continue, and they cannot be complacent in their fight.

In Thursday's meeting, all the MPs briefed Kejriwal on significant steps being taken in their areas.

All the MPs unanimously said that they are with the Delhi government and will take all possible steps to save the people of Delhi from this pandemic.

In the last month, Delhi has seen a huge decline in the death rate and positivity ratio. Initiatives such as increased testing, home isolation protocol, increasing medical infrastructure, increased number of beds, and teamwork on behalf of various stakeholders have reduced the impact of the disease.
Responsibility Our disability inclusiveness earns top employer award Learn how we maximize potential by making employees across all dimensions of ability feel valued and empowered

More than a billion people live with some form of disability. Many have remarkable skills, great ideas and insights, and a passion for the same things we care deeply about: saving and improving lives. People living with disabilities represent a huge source of talent, says Celeste Warren, our companys vice president of global diversity and inclusion. Weve taken considerable action to create a place where employees across all dimensions of ability feel valued and empowered to make amazing things happen. In recognition of our commitment to disability inclusiveness, Disability:IN has presented us with the 2020 Employer of the Year Award. The award is for exemplary policies, strategies and initiatives that have resulted in measurable results in the areas of disability inclusiveness in the workplace, marketplace and supply chain. Our employees showing support for #PurpleLightUp, a global movement designed to draw attention to the economic empowerment of disabled people.

Disability:IN is a nonprofit resource for business disability inclusion worldwide. The organization presented the 2020 Inclusion Awards across 12 categories during its annual conference, which was held virtually and attended by approximately 2,000 people from 16 countries.

How we help maximize potential

For decades, weve known that a diverse and inclusive workforce inspires innovation. It also helps us better understand the unique needs of customers, health care providers and patients who ultimately use our products, including those with disabilities.

Our capABILITY Network is among 10 employee business resource groups (EBRGs), which open doors for networking, learning and expanding awareness. The capABILITY Network provides opportunities for employees with disabilities and helps educate our entire workforce about the many dimensions of disability.

Our capABILITY chapters have grown by nearly 30% in the last year and are thriving in multiple countries, including India, where 40 to 80 million people live with a disability. We also launched the Global Disability & Strategy Council in 2015. The council has paved the way for dozens of successful programs and initiatives that make a difference inside and outside our company.

For example, weve created facility-accessibility standards that help our facility managers implement signs, lights, cafeterias, reception areas, parking lots, desks and more to help employees and visitors do their best work. Were also working to reduce the stigma of mental health by raising awareness and offering mental health first aid training to our employees.

Externally, were designing innovative outreach solutions to recruit individuals with disabilities, through partnerships with college and university career centers and disability-related advocacy organizations. One example is our strong alliance with Best Buddies, an international organization that helps people with disabilities get jobs, create friendships and develop partnerships. Were working closely with Best Buddies to identify and recruit talent.

Were proud of the Employer of the Year Award from Disability:IN, because it acknowledges were on the right path for our company, our employees and the people we serve. But theres more we can and plan to do, says Celeste.

The World Health Organization expects the number of people living with a disability to double from 1 to 2 billion by 2050. We cannot know for sure what our world will be like years from now, says Celeste. But what we do know is that a diverse and inclusive workforce is critically important in helping us solve health care challenges today and in the future.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Grenada's Ambassador to Russia Oleg Firer have signed an agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of Grenada on the abolition of visa requirements, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's press service has reported.

"The provisions of the agreement provide for the introduction of visa-free travel for citizens of Ukraine and Grenada for a period of 90 days within 180 days for the purpose of tourism or other unpaid activities," the report said.

The agreement will enter into force after the parties complete the necessary domestic procedures.

During the meeting, both parties also discussed prospects for bilateral cooperation between Ukraine and Grenada, including within international organizations.

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Part of the reason for the crisis in recent days is the expiration of the federal Payroll Protection Program, the $669 billion scheme offering loans that were forgivable if employees were retained. In many ways, the PPP didnt fit well with the arts. It meant that workers were retained when there was little they could do, when it probably would have made sense to apply that funding at the moment of potential institutional recovery and focus instead on short-term relief for individuals. It was, in the end, a band-aid that did not incentivize retaining positions in the long term.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  An additional contract, as well as an additional year, is needed to start and complete the $615 million, 5.3-mile East Shore Seawall, which has been plagued with delays from the start.

The project -- consisting of a series of levees, berms, and seawalls stretching 5.3 (or 5.5) miles, from Fort Wadsworth to Great Kills (and Oakwood Beach) -- is being constructed in phases by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in partnership with the state and city.

The delayed completion date was announced during a public meeting last year.

Initially, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the project would be split into seven construction contracts due to the magnitude of the project.

The newest contract, and now the first award contract, will be the road closure gate on Hylan Boulevard; the Army Corps previously said the gate would be the fourth contract along with the construction of the 3,400-foot earthen levee that would be awarded in 2021.

The contract for the road closure gate is now expected to be awarded in December.

The second contract, the pile-supported concrete flood wall around the Oakwood Beach treatment plant, is expected to begin in May 2021. The fourth contract will now construct an interior drainage area in South Beach near Father Capodanno Boulevard and Sand Lane.

The remainder of the contracts remain unchanged, and many will be awarded this year, despite challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, as a result of combined efforts from Borough President James Oddo and Rep. Max Rose (D-Staten Island/South Brooklyn).

After years of delays, our offices have been working closely with Gov. Andrew Cuomo and others to ensure that this project is completed as scheduled, Oddo and Rose said in a joint statement.

They went on to say, We will not accept any delays and will continue to use every resource available to us to get the project finished on time.

PREVIOUS WORK WAS DONE ON SCHEDULE

The Army Corps said the removal of the phragmites was completed in January; the next step that is taking place is spraying in Oakwood and New Dorp Beach areas between July 6 and July 31, followed by Midland Beach between August 3 and August 17, and South Beach, which will take place between August 20 and August 31.

A second round of mowing phragmites and spraying may be necessary but will not be determined until this fall.

The project is extremely complex and requires heavy coordination between the Corps, State and City of New York. There is also significant design efforts that need to take place, as well as project refinements, that are all currently underway, said Project Manager, Army Corps Costal Restoration Branch, Frank Verga.

The coronavirus pandemic has not impacted the project at this time, Verga said, noting the Army Corps, city and state have been coordinating virtually.

FLOOD INSURANCE PREMIUMS COULD RISE WHILE RESIDENTS WAIT FOR COMPLETED CONSTRUCTION

The Army Corps says the seawall will rise 20 feet above sea level and reduce damages to the area by $30 million annually over a 50-year timeline. The elevation of the new seawall is more than 19.4-feet.

Once a certain amount of the project is complete, flood insurance rates are expected to drop.

Based on present law, flood insurance rates can start to go down if this project, at its 50% completion mark, hits certain metrics, Rose previously said.

Last year, the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) overhauled the National Flood Insurance Program, putting residents in flood-prone areas at risk of an increase in premiums up to 18%.

The truth of the matter is, even at that point, we have more work to do. Thats why Im drafting legislation to reduce the cap to 9%. You should never, under any circumstances, be allowed to have your flood insurance increase by double digits in one year, Rose said.

In March, FEMA extended the grace period for homeowners facing economic hardships that needed to renew their National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) for 120 days during the coronavirus pandemic.

FOLLOW KRISTIN F. DALTON ON TWITTER.
ALTON  Aldermen will meet as a committee of the whole for a teleconference at 6 p.m. Monday to consider an ordinance authorizing amendments to the citys lease agreement with American Cruise Lines.

The ordinance  the only resolution on the meetings agenda  is crucial to the cruise lines plans to port three of its riverboats in Alton starting in August.

In order for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to approve the lease agreement, the corps listed several changes to the agreement in a letter to Greg Caffey, Director of Alton Planning and Development, earlier this year.

The sublease provided cannot be approved as it currently stands because it is not in compliance with your lease, the letter read. The following items must be revised and addressed in your sublease document with American Cruise Lines in order to receive approval from the district engineer.

One issue listed was that the Exclusive Lease Area noted in the sublease appeared to be on federal property, although the sublease said it was not and any exclusive use is not permitted on federal land. An earlier article on the issue can be found at thetelegraph.com/news/article/Corps-questions-Alton-cruise-line-pact-15317038.php

Last summer American Cruise Lines signed a five-year agreement with the city to use Alton as the mid-river hub for its four cruise boats. The agreement has an estimated economic impact of $2.38 million.

Earlier this week American Cruise Lines announced its first upper Mississippi River excursion this year  an eight-day trip to St. Paul, Minnesota  will leave Alton on Aug. 20. The company is planning a total of 10 cruises on the upper Mississippi River through October. Because of the pandemic, boardings will be limited to 75 percent occupancy and medical staff will be on each vessel.
More than 125 million people in India were put under a new lockdown on Thursday, as international dignitaries gathered in Spain to honour coronavirus victims while infections surged across the world.

Governments in many countries have been forced to reimpose restrictions as COVID-19 refuses to fade, having officially infected nearly 13.6 million people, killed more than 584,000 and crippled the global economy since it emerged late last year.

The virus has been running rampant through the United States and Latin America, and the Red Cross has warned that South Asia is fast becoming the next epicentre.

"While the world's attention has been focused on the unfolding crisis in the United States and South America, a concurrent human tragedy is fast emerging in South Asia," said John Fleming, Asia-Pacific head of health for the organisation.

Badly-hit Spain pauses to honour its tens of thousands of victims at a state ceremony. By Juanjo Martin (POOL/AFP)

After India registered more than 600 deaths in a single day, the 125 million people in impoverished Bihar state, neighbouring Nepal, started a new 15-day lockdown on Thursday.

"We have not faced such a situation in my life before, it is really a horrible experience," housewife Radhika Singh said in Bihar, where all schools, clubs, temples and non-essential businesses were ordered closed.

'Symbolically saying goodbye'

Badly-hit Spain honoured its more than 28,000 virus dead at a solemn state ceremony joined by bereaved families and top EU and World Health Organization figures on Thursday.

The memorial, held barely three weeks since Spain ended its state of emergency, comes as the country fights more than 120 active outbreaks.

"Today, we are symbolically saying goodbye to mothers, fathers, children, siblings, friends," Hernando Calleja, who lost his brother in April, said at the ceremony.

Spain's King Felipe VI said that "this act cannot heal the pain felt by so many families". By Mariscal (POOL/AFP)

Spain's King Felipe VI said that "this act cannot heal the pain felt by so many families at not being at the side of their loved ones in their final hours".

"But what it can do is pay tribute to their lives, to their contribution to our society, to their memories."

Elsewhere in Europe, Germany was preparing plans for tougher, more localised lockdowns to contain fresh outbreaks.

France meanwhile said it will make mask-wearing compulsory in indoor public spaces from next week after an uptick in infections.

'Stop this nonsense'

The United States has recorded by far the most deaths and infections in the pandemic, setting a record on Wednesday with more than 67,000 new cases in 24 hours.

Some US states are rolling back reopenings after a spike in virus cases. By Frederic J. BROWN (AFP)

And the country's outbreak is showing no sign of slowing down, the virus surging in the south and west, with the latest research indicating the number of US deaths will pass 150,000 by next month.

US President Donald Trump fired his campaign manager for November's election late Wednesday after his popularity plummeted over his response to the crisis.

Trump has repeatedly attempted to discredit the country's top infectious diseases expert, Anthony Fauci, who has called for an end to the bickering.

"We've got to almost reset this and say, 'Okay, let's stop this nonsense'," Fauci told The Atlantic magazine.

Walmart, the world's largest retailer, said customers would need to wear masks at all its 5,300 stores from Monday, joining a growing group of American businesses to mandate face coverings.

'Radical quarantine'

Deaths in Latin America have topped 150,000, making it the world's second-hardest-hit region after Europe.

A world map showing the official number of coronavirus deaths per country. By Simon MALFATTO (AFP)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced a "radical quarantine" in the capital Caracas and neighbouring Miranda state following an alarming burst of cases.

In a rare positive sign, China reported its economy bounced back with a better-than-forecast 3.2 percent expansion in the second quarter. But the news was unable to lift the gloom in stock markets.

Most cinemas in China will be allowed to reopen next week, with social distancing rules in place, after domestic infections remained at zero for 10 straight days.

The world's hopes have turned to a vaccine to bring the cycle of deaths, lockdowns and economic carnage to an end.

Two new studies have raised hopes of a potential vaccine in the near future.

On Thursday, British media reported that an Oxford University trial had showed its prototype vaccine generated an immune response against the virus.

The potential development comes after American biotech firm Moderna -- a leader in the race for a vaccine -- said it would start the final stage of human trials on July 27.

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Queen Letizia of Spain cut a sombre figure today as she and her family attended a state tribute to the country's coronavirus victims and frontline workers alongside the Spanish prime minister.

The royal, 47, joined her husband 52, and daughters Princess Leonor, 14, and Princess Sofia, 12, as they donned masks and wore dark colours to pay their respects at the royal palace in Madrid.

It marks another outing for the two young princesses whose presence in the public eye has increased in recent months, joining their parents at multiple official engagements.

The mother-of-two wore a long -sleeved knee-length skirt navy blue dress which she teamed with matching court shoes as as spoke to the country's leader, Pedro Sanchez.

Queen Letizia of Spain (second right) put on a solemn display as she joined her husband King Felipe (second left) and daughters (Sofia, left and Leonor, right) to meet the Spanish Prime Minster and pay tribute to the country's victims of the coronavirus crisis

The royal, 47, joined her husband 52, and daughters Princess Leonor, 14, and Princess Sofia, 12, as they donned masks and wore dark colours to pay their respects at the royal palace in Madrid.

Meanwhile Princess Leonor, 14, matched her mother in a knee-length navy shirt dress and black pumps, while little sister Sofia, 13, opted for a black T-shirt and grey patterned A-line skirt.

King Felipe also chose dark colours, sporting a dark navy suit, a crisp white shirt and a polka dot tie.

The family met with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez upon their arrival at the Royal Palace to attend the state tribute for victims of coronavirus disease, and for people working on the front line to fight against pandemic.

Felipe and Letizia have been attending a range of touristic and cultural engagements to help boost the country's economy following their stringent lockdown.

The mother-of-two wore a long -sleeved knee-length skirt navy blue dress which she teamed with matching court shoes as she joined her family to pay tribute to the fallen

Princess Leonor, 14, (right ) matched her mother in a knee-length navy shirt dress and black pumps, while little sister Sofia, 13, (left) opted for a black T-shirt and grey patterned A-line skirt.

Yesterday, Letizia wore a floral maxi dress to speak with older residents in the town square in Vinuesa.

The trip was part of a royal tour taking King Felipe and Queen Letizia through several Spanish Autonomous Communities with the objective of supporting economic, social and cultural activity after the coronavirus outbreak.

Last week, they attended a funeral mass at La Almudena Cathedral in Madrid, where they stood at the front of church to listen to the service marking the tragic events.

Crown Princess Leonor, King Felipe of Spain, Queen Letizia of Spain and Princess Sofia arrive to the State tribute to the victims of the coronavirus at the Royal Palace

Pictured, left to right: Princess Sofia, King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia and Crown Princess Leonor. The family all wore facemasks as they sat near a cauldron at the Royal Palace for the sombre occasion

Others at the service stood up to mark the family's arrival. They also had flags of each Spanish state present

Earlier this month, they visited Benidorm and Valencia, joined by Ximo Puig, the President of the Valencian Government, to attend the 2019 Innovation and Design Awards ceremony.

Speaking at the ceremony, King Felipe said: 'Today more than ever, we need to undertakecreateon the basis of design and innovation. As we also need to increase the resources dedicated to research, which is the previous step to knowledge-based innovation.

'In this way, we will be able to build the future with much more solid foundations.'

Yesterday, Letizia (right) worea floral maxi dress to speak with older residents in the town square in Vinuesa. She is pictured with King Felipe

The trip is part of a royal tour that will take King Felipe and Queen Letizia through several Spanish Autonomous Communities with the objective of supporting economic, social and cultural activity after the coronavirus outbreak

He added: 'Spanish design and innovation are excellent letters of introduction of our countryof our creativity and our economyinternationally.

'These elements, the result of innovation and investment in R&D, are more necessary than ever because of their ability to drive our economic growth.

'A sector that is also truly necessary, because if we want to make our economic system also sustainable, we have to generate innovative products, create patents and promote exports. In this challenge, the design and the exploitation phase of the knowledge that innovation implies play an essential role.'

The royal coupled are pictured yesterday arriving at a meeting for the Demographic Challenge in Vinuesa, Spain. They posed for a socially distance photo

More than 300,000 people have been infected with Covid-19 in Spain, with the country's death toll at 28, 413 according to latest figures.

British tourists were allowed to enter Spain for the first time in three months on June 21 when the country's state of emergency ended.

In the first lockdown of its kind since the end of the state of emergency around 140,000 people in Lleida, a city just under two hours drive west of Barcelona have been told to remain in doors and only leave for food or to work if 'essential'.

People in another seven municipalities near Lleida in the Segria region have also been given the new lockdown order, which means they can only venture outdoors to buy food or go to the bank or for work if it is an 'essential service' and cannot be done from home.
N ewly available body-camera video from two Minneapolis police officers involved in George Floyd's arrest shows him pleading with officers in the minutes before his death.

Mr Floyd tells officers he is "not a bad guy" as they try to wrestle him into a squad car. A few minutes later he lays face down on the street and the cameras record his fading voice as he eventually goes motionless.

The footage, which shows the officers continue to keep Mr Floyd in a restrained position, was filed last week by an lawyer seeking to have charges dismissed against one of the four police officers charged in the case.

A district judge declined to allow the video's publication but allowed news outlets to view the footage, which show the clearest picture yet of Mr Floyd's last moments in Minneapolis on May 25.

Mr Floyd's death sparked protests against racial discrimination across the US which spread across the world.

George Floyd funeral in Houston - In pictures 1 /32 George Floyd funeral in Houston - In pictures REUTERS REUTERS POOL/AFP via Getty Images POOL/AFP via Getty Images POOL/AFP via Getty Images POOL/AFP via Getty Images Getty Images AP REUTERS REUTERS AP Family members react as they view the casket AP Mourners pause by the casket of George Floyd POOL/AFP via Getty Images The Reverend Al Sharpton arrives for the funeral service AFP via Getty Images Reverend Al Sharpton enters the church for the funeral for George Floyd REUTERS Quincy Mason Floyd, son of George Floyd, enters the church for his father's funeral REUTERS Actors Channing Tatum (C) and Jamie Foxx (R) attend the funeral service of George Floyd Getty Images Terrance Floyd, brother of George Floyd, exits his car before Floyd's funeral AFP via Getty Images he family of George Floyd prepares to enter the the Fountain of Praise church Getty Images Philonise Floyd, brother, of George Floyd pauses at the casket during the funeral POOL/AFP via Getty Images Philonise Floyd, brother, of George Floyd pauses at the casket during the funeral POOL/AFP via Getty Images The Reverend Al Sharpton prepares to lead the family of George Floyd into the sanctuary Getty Images Family members of George Floyd pauses at the casket during the funeral service AP The Reverend Al Sharpton prepares to lead the family of George Floyd into the sanctuary AP

Though transcripts of the footage were released earlier, the video itself is the fullest public view yet of Mr Floyd's interaction with the officers who were later charged over his death.

The screening comes the same day Mr Floyd's family filed a lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and the four police officers charged in his death.

They allege the officers violated Mr Floyd's rights when they restrained him and that the city allowed a culture of excessive force, racism and impunity to flourish in its police force.

The lawsuit, filed in US District Court in Minnesota, was announced by Ben Crump and other lawyers representing Mr Floyd's family members.

George Floyd's brother: The world is united against police brutality

"This complaint shows what we have said all along, that Mr Floyd died because the weight of the entire Minneapolis Police Department was on his neck," Mr Crump said in a statement.

"The city of Minneapolis has a history of policies, procedures and deliberate indifference that violates the rights of arrestees, particularly black men, and highlights the need for officer training and discipline."

Mr Crump said the action seeks to set a precedent "that makes it financially prohibitive for police to wrongfully kill marginalised people - especially black people - in the future."

Mr Floyd died after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, pressed his knee against his neck for nearly eight minutes as Mr Floyd said he could not breathe. Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter.

Three other officers at the scene - Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J Kueng - are charged with aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and manslaughter.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump announced Wednesday night that he is replacing campaign manager Brad Parscale with longtime political aide Bill Stepien as recent polls show him falling further behind Joe Biden in the presidential race amid a spreading pandemic that has devastated the economy.

The president wrote on social media that Parscale "who has been with me for a long time," will stay as a senior adviser focusing on digital and data strategies. Parscale has been marginalized in the campaign for several weeks, officials said, with Trump angry about a botched rally in Oklahoma, where far fewer people attended than expected, and his lagging poll numbers.

Parscale did not respond to a request for comment. The campaign referred a request for comment to the president's Facebook and Twitter posts.

Stepien was the field director for the 2016 campaign and has worked for the president since the election. He's known for a low-key style in Trump world and his knowledge of battleground states. He was formerly a top aide to Gov. Chris Christie.

Trump told Stepien on Wednesday he was getting the job, a senior White House official said.

The shake-up comes as the Trump campaign struggles to find its footing after national health, economic and racial justice crises have shaken the nation. Recent polls in key swing states like Arizona, Michigan and Florida have consistently shown Trump losing to Biden, the former vice president and presumptive Democratic nominee, this summer. Trump also trailed Biden nationally in two polls released Wednesday - by 15 percentage points in a Quinnipiac University poll and 11 percentage points NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

It's unclear what the shake-up of campaign staff will achieve given that Trump often acts on his instincts and has show little interest in taking the steps political strategists say would help him win over undecided voters.

He continues to downplay the severity of the pandemic while deferring to local officials to mitigate the outbreak rather than seizing control of the situation. His reaction to the racial justice protests has increasingly been to inflame tensions by defending the police against calls for reform and embracing memorials to the Confederacy at a time when many are calling them monuments to racism not history.

Parscale publicly embraced the president's approach to issues roiling the country and sought to become a prominent figure among Trump's supporters.

At 6-foot-8 with a dramatic red beard, Parscale cuts a brash figure and is given to statements such as comparing the Trump campaign to the Death Star, a superweapon in the Star Wars movies.

His strength from the start of the 2016 campaign, in addition to his digital know how, was his close relationship with Trump's older children. His firm, Parscale Strategy, bills for the campaign salary of Lara Trump and Kimberly Guilfoyle, the wife and girlfriend respectively of Trump's two oldest sons, Eric and Donald.

Parscale's standing with the president had been growing shakier since the spring, according to people close to the president who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the internal dynamics. The underwhelming rally in Tulsa, which failed to meet expectations Parscale had set for Trump, was broadly blamed on the campaign manager.

A senior Trump administration official said last week that Parscale "knows he screwed up" but that he maintained the trust of the Trump family.

The president, however, has been more vocal in his frustration with Parscale, and the campaign leadership had begun to shift, with Stepien and other advisers taking an increasing hand in strategy and messaging.

Some officials have questioned Parscale for regularly staying in Florida instead of working in Virginia, where the campaign is headquartered.

The president has also grown angry at times over how much money Parscale was making off the campaign, according to people familiar with the situation.

But the consensus was that the biggest blow he suffered in Trump's eyes was over the Tulsa where Trump grew angry at the thousands of empty seats after Parscale heavily hyped the demand for tickets on social media.

Stepien faces a difficult challenge as Parscale's replacement working for a president who has regularly disregarded campaign advisers recommendations and has seen his approval numbers fall due to his handling of the coronavirus outbreak and racial unrest across the country.

Stepien is expected to conduct an analysis of the campaign and could make changes in the coming weeks, according to people close to the campaign.

A politician who tends to keep his own counsel, Trump has filtered through a string of political advisers during his career and time in the White House. Trump fired Corey Lewandowski, the manager of his first presidential campaign, in June of 2016, at a similar point in the election cycle. The person elevated to take Lewandowski's role, Paul Manafort, lasted about two more months before he resigned. He was replaced by Kellyanne Conway, who still advises Trump at the White House.

Trump's new kitchen cabinet, a combination of White House and campaign employees led by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, includes Stepien, and two communications aides from the 2016 campaign - Hope Hicks and Jason Miller, who was recently hired by the campaign and is increasingly seen as its principal strategist.

Miller and Stepien were talking with Trump almost every day in the week leading up to Trump's pivotal July 3 speech at Mount Rushmore. Sometimes, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and Chris Carr, the party's political director, joined the conversations. Parscale, though, returned to his home in Florida after visiting Washington early in the week and continued to dial into conference calls, officials said.

Kushner for months had tried to protect Parscale, a close ally who he is viewed to control, but he is also seen as being close with Stepien.

Parscale was named campaign manager of the Trump reelection effort in early 2018, charged with building a data-driven, digital first campaign. People close to the campaign credited him with building a massive online fundraising operation early in the cycle.

He took an early public-facing role in the campaign, often addressing rallies before the president, having his name added as a "host" of high-dollar fundraising invites and even allowing the campaign to use his image in the first televised campaign ad that the campaign ran in 2020. In recent weeks, the campaign has advertised heavily through Parscale's personal Facebook page, spending nearly $700,000 on spots that featured his name and image, in what campaign officials described as a successful test to increase the effectiveness of the advertising.

Trump struck in optimistic note about the presidential race ahead at the end of his message announcing the campaign shake up, although he wrongly claimed that polls were moving in his direction.

"This one should be a lot easier as our poll numbers are rising fast, the economy is getting better, vaccines and therapeutics will soon be on the way, and Americans want safe streets and communities!," he wrote on Twitter.
The Aam Aadmi Partys (AAP) national spokesperson Raghav Chadha on Thursday criticised the Congress over the ongoing power tussle in Rajasthan and said that the party has no future.

The Congress has no future and is no longer capable of doing anything for the welfare of the country. The Congress is currently on a ventilator, unlikely to survive, Chadha said in a press statement in reaction to the ongoing politics crisis in Rajasthana state ruled by the grand old party.

Chadha, who is also a Delhi MLA, further said, The AAP, on the other hand, is a party with fresh blood and invigorating force... It is unfortunate to see parties trying to trade MLAs in Rajasthan amid the pandemic.

Jitender Kochhar, the spokesperson of the Delhi unit of Congress, said, The Congress has seen numerous ups and downs since Independence. The AAP is not a party which should try teaching politics and government to the Congress.
China accuses that US president Donald Trump's recent Hong Kong Autonomy Act is an attempt to curb its developments

Beijing: China has accused the U.S. of seeking to obstruct its development with recent steps to sanction officials who undermine local autonomy in Hong Kong, summoning the U.S. ambassador in Beijing to lodge a protest.

Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang told Ambassador Terry Branstad that threatened sanctions and the withdrawal of special trading privileges for Hong Kong are not about democracy and freedom in the semi-autonomous territory but an attempt to contain Chinas development.

I want to warn the U.S. sternly that any bullying and unfairness imposed on China by the U.S. will meet resolute counter attack from China and the U.S. attempt to obstruct Chinas development is doomed to failure, he said, according to an account of Wednesdays meeting carried by state media.

President Donald Trump signed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act into law on Tuesday, as well as an executive order affirming an earlier decision to eliminate preferential treatment that has been given to Hong Kong, but not mainland China.

The U.S and other Western democracies have grown increasingly concerned over developments in Hong Kong, and in particular Chinas imposition of a national security law that is seen as a threat to freedom of speech and the right to protest.

At the same time, the Trump administration has challenged China on multiple fronts, treating it as a strategic competitor, an approach that seems only likely to expand as Trump faces a tough battle for re-election this fall.

Zheng told Branstad that the U.S. has also interfered with Chinas internal affairs and harmed Chinas interests on the issues of Xinjiang, Tibet and the South China Sea, further exposing its nature of naked hegemony.

He urged the U.S. not to go further and further on the wrong path.

The U.S. Embassy did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Poet-activist Varavara Rao, accused in Elgar Parishad case, tests positive for COVID-19

India

pti-PTI

Mumbai, July 16: Jailed poet and activist Varavara Rao, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, has tested positive for COVID-19, a hospital official said on Thursday.

The 80-year-old, lodged in the Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai under judicial custody, was admitted to the state-run JJ Hospital here earlier this week. Rao is asymptomatic and has general weakness, said Dr Ranjeet Mankeshwar, dean of the JJ Hospital. The poet-activist's medical report came on Thursday and he was found to be coronavirus positive, he said.

Elgar Parishad: Navlakha, Teltumbde in NIA custody, following SC order

"He has been found positive for COVID-19, but his condition is stable, no symptoms of COVID-19 have been found, he is having general weakness," said Mankeshwar.

"His treatment is going on," he said. It was a routine swab check that was done on Tuesday after he was admitted to JJ Hospital and claims made by his family members that he is not getting proper medical care were not true, the official maintained. "We are providing best health facilities to him and by late (Thursday) night he may be shifted to St George Hospital (another state-run hospital) for further treatment," said Mankeshwar.

International flights: Bubble travel with US & France, flights to resume from tomorrow|Oneindia News

Rao, who hails from Telangana, was shifted to the government-run hospital in south Mumbai on Monday night after he complained of giddiness and was later admitted to its neurology department. Rao's family members along with several writers and activists had asked the Maharashtra government to immediately shift him to hospital for treatment, citing his deteriorating health condition.

NCP leader and minister Jitendra Awhad had also demanded that Rao be shifted to hospital. Rao's family members on Sunday sought the jail authorities to provide him immediate medical care and claimed that when the veteran activist contacted them last week, he was in a "delirious state and hallucinating".

Elgar Parishad: Two activists given a weeks time to surrender

Rao has been in jail for about 22 months and had earlier approached the special NIA court, seeking bail on medical grounds and the prevailing COVID-19 situation. On Monday, Rao filed two petitions in the Bombay High Court, seeking temporary bail owing to his ill-health and a direction to the jail authorities to produce his medical records and admit him to a state-run or private hospital.

Rao and nine other activists have been arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, wh

ich was initially probed by the Pune Police and later transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The case related to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial. The police have also claimed the conclave was organised by people with alleged Maoist links.
In May, the U.S. Justice Department filed criminal charges against two Iranians, accusing them of trying to launder some $12 million to purchase the tanker, then named the MT Nautica, through a series of front companies. The vessel then took on Iranian oil from Kharg Island to sell abroad, the U.S. government said.
Remains found Wednesday buried in a shallow grave behind the dumpsters at LoMonacos Ristorante Italiano in Branford are those of missing East Haven mother Lizzbeth Aleman-Popoca, East Haven police said Thursday.

We can confirm that the human remains recovered behind LoMonacos Restaurant have been positively identified as Lizzbeth Aleman-Popoca, said East Haven police Capt. Joseph Murgo in an email update. The manner and cause of death have not yet been determined.

I will provide updates as more information develops, he wrote.

Shortly after 1 p.m., an official from the state chief medical examiners office said the cause of death is pending further investigation.

The investigation into the disappearance of Aleman-Popoca, 27, led East Haven police to the rear parking lot of LoMonacos Ristorante Italiano at 990 W. Main St. in Branford, according Murgo.

Vincenzo LoMonaco, owner of the restaurant, confirmed Thursday morning that Aleman-Popocas significant other  Jonnathan Jara-Aucapina  worked at the restaurant for at least seven years.

Murgo said Aleman-Popoca and Jara-Aucapina were not legally married but referred to each other as husband and wife.

Jara-Aucapina, who worked at the restaurant until about two weeks ago, was a prep person, dishwasher and short-order cook, LoMonaco said.

LoMonaco said he was aware that Jara-Aucapinas wife was missing and that police were investigating.

It was a total shock, he said. For the last few weeks Jara-Aucapina had not been his normal self, was coming in late and wasnt doing his job well, LoMonaco said. Jara-Aucapina has another job at UPS and LoMonaco said he thought Jara-Aucapina was prioritizing that job over the job at the restaurant.

LoMonaco said police did contact the restaurant. .

During a press conference Wednesday night, East Haven police Chief Ed Lennon confirmed a deceased human was found. He said it was a very, very active investigation.

East Haven police were joined by Branford police and Connecticut State Police.

Upon our arrival, we located what we determined to be an area with disturbed dirt behind the dumpster area, Murgo said. The Connecticut State Police Central District Major Crime Squad responded and located human remains buried in a shallow grave.

Aleman-Popoca hadnt been seen or heard from since July 1. Family reported her missing to police July 3.

LoMonaco said his business, currently open for takeout only, was closed for a week around the Fourth of July.

He said the restaurant has video cameras inside but not outside the business.

Wednesdays discovery in Branford came just a day after police and law enforcement held a press conference pleading with the public for any information on Aleman-Popocas whereabouts.

Her father, Albino Aleman, said the family has been searching for her and had a lot of questions about what happened to her.

I want to know what happened with my daughter. Were looking for answers, Aleman said on-air. We have too many questions.

When asked whether the family knew where she could have gone, he said they had no idea.

His other daughter had reiterated that at Tuesdays press conference.

If you heard anything, if you see anything, please speak up. We really need to find her, said Yaneth Aleman, Aleman-Popocas sister. We dont know what happened. Were really worried.

Yaneth Aleman told WTNH Wednesday that Aleman-Popocas 7-year-old daughter is starting to ask lots of questions.

Shes starting to ask me questions like, Wheres mommy, when can I see her, when can I talk to her?

Police had asked anyone with surveillance equipment in the area of Main Street to review their footage between about June 28 and July 9, and turn over any video that might show something suspicious.

Police said the initial complaint, filed by Aleman-Popocas father, sister and husband on July 3, stated that Aleman-Popoca went missing the night of June 30, or the early morning hours of July 1.

Her husband stated he received a phone call from their 7-year-old daughter while he was at work, telling him that her mother was not home when she woke up, police said. Upon his arrival to the family home in East Haven, the father reported finding his daughter alone, and Aleman-Popoca missing, police said.

He also said most of her personal belongings had been left behind.

Staff writers Jim Shay and Ben Lambert contributed to this story.
Rosenda Rios, a longtime San Antonio TV and radio journalist best know for her time at KSAT, died Thursday morning at a hospice in Houston. She was 62.

The TV station announced Rios' death on air Thursday during "Good Morning San Antonio." From 2001 to 2010, she worked for KSAT as an anchor and as an investigative reporter for the station's "The Defenders" team.

"We begin the newscast with a sad note for our KSAT family," said morning anchor Mark Austin. "One of our former colleagues, Rosenda Rios, has lost a long battle with cancer. She passed away this morning with her family by her side."

"Loving, kind, compassionate, a constant professional, a mentor and probably one of the most positive people I've ever known," Austin said during the broadcast.

Rios had battled cancer over the past year and at one point was cancer free until it returned, according to a report by KSAT.

READ ALSO: Parents of late Fox San Antonio anchor die of coronavirus

In 2010, Rios left KSAT for USAA, where she was the lead digital content strategist as part of the company's communications team.

But before moving to the corporate world, Rios had a distinguished career as a journalist, dating back to 1980s, when she worked as a newscaster and reporter for a local radio station. She started her TV career in the early 1990s as a reporter and sometimes anchor. She left in 1995 to work for Austins CBS affiliate, where she anchored first the morning show and then the weekend news.

Rios returned to San Antonio, initially as a weekend anchor for KSAT before joining the stations investigative team.

She was also the co-owner of Rios Burns Media Group LLC., which focused on digital video in new media.

Rosenda is one of the kindest, most generous women Ive ever worked with. She lived her life with gusto, fiercely loved her family and friends, and never stopped being a member of the extended KSAT family," said Bernice Kearney, the station's news director. "I will miss her beautiful smile and her infectious laugh, and will always be grateful for the time she spent as part of the KSAT12 News team.

Rios is survived by her husband former KSAT photographer Larry Burns and their two sons, Noah and Gabriel.



Friends and former colleagues took to social media to share their memories of the late TV journalist.



"I am sure our dear colleague and friend Rosenda Rios is now truly at the happiest place...heaven," shared KSAT anchor Ursula Pari on Facebook. "We will miss that ever present smile and dependable kind word she offered to everyone. Rest in peace among the angels, Ro. I know you'll keep everyone in line up there."



Pari also shared memories of her friend and colleague on "KSAT News at Noon" on Thursday.

"It's with a heavy heart that the KSAT12 family share with you the loss of a dear friend and colleague Rosenda Rios. She was an excellent reporter and anchor in the early 200os," Pari said.

"Rosenda was known for her kindness bright smile, her volunteerism and her pride in her two sons, Gabriel and Noah, as well as her beloved Pumpkin kitty," Pari added on air.

Candice.Garcia@express-news.net | Twitter @_candicegarcia
A new modeling framework designed to track the transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in the U.S. suggests that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic was not under control by the end of May - just before containment measures were relaxed.

The model, developed by researchers at Imperial College London, showed that although daily infections had reduced in most states by June 1st, a vast reservoir of infectious individuals still posed a risk of continued transmission.

The new modeling framework showed that the reproduction number was still too high in many states and that the relaxation of interventions introduced in June, without other measures in place, would lead to increased cases of infections.

A pre-print version of the paper is available on the server medRxiv*, while the article undergoes peer review.

Civil protest in Downtown Chicago against the restrictions placed upon the citizens. Image Credit: Kevin Kipper / Shutterstock

The U.S. tried to curb the spread of SARS-CoV-2

The first COVID-19-related death in the U.S. was reported in California on February 6th. Throughout March, the government introduced non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) such as school closures and stay-at-home orders to help curb the spread of SARS-CoV-2.

During April, the reported number of COVID-19-related deaths had surpassed that of Italy, one of the most severely impacted countries in the world.

Assessing the impact of containment measures

Unwin and colleagues sought to estimate the impact that NPIs and other behavioral changes had on the transmission of COVID-19 at the state-level.

They used a new semi-mechanistic Bayesian model they had developed to assess the underlying disease transmission based on publicly available mobility data released by companies such as Google.

Mobility measures reveal stark changes in behavior following large-scale government interventions, with individuals spending more time at home and correspondingly less time at work, at leisure centers, shopping, and on public transit, explains the team.

According to the authors, some state governments, including the Colorado Department of Public Health, have already started using similar mobility data to inform changes to social distancing guidelines.

As states ease the stringency of their NPIs, future policy decisions will rely on the interaction between mobility and NPIs and their subsequent impact on transmission, alongside other measures to track and curtail SARS-CoV-2 transmission, they add.

How does the new model work?

The new Bayesian statistical framework estimates the transmission intensity based on time-varying reproduction number (Rt) and the attack rate (proportion of the population infected) based on the reported number of deaths.

The team estimated the posterior probability of their parameters, which refers to the statistical likelihood of a hypothesis being true given the data observed, while also incorporating prior uncertainty.

The researchers say this renders the approach empirically-driven while accounting for as many areas of uncertainty as possible.

The model also estimated the number of currently infectious people and made short term forecasts, which were compared with the actual infection numbers that were recorded throughout June.

What were the results generated?

According to the models estimates, the average proportion of people infected by COVID-19 on June 1st was 3.7%.

However, this national average masked wide state-by-state variations. Attack rates were as high as 15.9% and 14.8% in New York and New Jersey, respectively, and also higher than 10% in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Among states that experienced outbreaks early on in the epidemic, such as California and Florida, attack rates were around 2%. In some states such as Maine, where the epidemic was still in the early stages, the attack rate was below 1%.

The U.S. epidemic was not under control in many states

According to the authors, although initial reductions in the daily infection rate had occurred in most states by June 1st, the reservoir of infectious individuals still remained large with approximately 0.01% of the population being infectious on that date and posing a risk of further transmission.

The model also estimated that the posterior mean Rt was above one in 23 states on June 1st, and the researchers say they could not be more than 95% confident that the Rt was below one in any state.

These reproduction numbers suggest that the U.S. epidemic was not under control in many states and that the loosening of interventions seen in June, without additional measures in place, would result in increased infections, conclude Flaxman and colleagues.

*Important Notice

medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Writers, activists as well as politicians took to Twitter to express their dismay over the conditions in which jailed poet and activist Varavara Rao is kept at a government hospital in Mumbai

Writers, activists as well as Opposition leaders took to Twitter to express their dismay over the conditions in which jailed poet and activist Varavara Rao is being held at a government hospital in Mumbai and the treatment meted out to him despite his old age.

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram was among the Congress leaders who questioned the State, prison authorities and the police over Rao's condition.

"The condition of Rao as described by his family is a matter of grave concern. It is beyond belief that the State, the police and the prison authorities can behave in such an inhuman manner under the watch of the NHRC," the former finance minister said in a series of tweets.

The condition of Shri Varavara Rao as described by his family is a matter of grave concern. It is beyond belief that the State, the police and the prison authorities can behave in such an inhuman manner under the watch of the NHRC.  P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) July 16, 2020

Reiterating the demand to release the poet, that echoed on social media since reports of Rao's conditions and him testing positive for COVID-19 spread, the senior Congress leader too sought the poet's immediate release and urged the authorities to immediately admit him at a super specialty hospital "that will treat him properly".

Eighty-year-old Rao, who is an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, was lodged in the Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai under judicial custody. He was admitted to the state-run JJ Hospital here earlier this week. News reports of the poet testing positive for COVID-19 was circulated widely along with reports quoting the poet's family as saying that they found him "lying in a urine-soaked bed".

Varavara Rao. Sudha Bharadwaj. Devangana Kalita. Safoora Zargar. Scores of activists&students, all labelled criminals, all charged under a law whose processes ensure that proof of their guilt is irrelevant. Courts participate in this perversion of Justice https://t.co/4MPWzuRREQ  Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) July 16, 2020

It's utter cowardice on part of those boasting of 56" to detain Varavara Rao and others on political ground.

Why are you so afraid of them? It's no magnanimity but some courtesy and little courage what you lack. Better release all of them now. https://t.co/R7pM3O89y7  Surjya Kanta Mishra (@mishra_surjya) July 16, 2020

For #VaravaraRao, the JJ Hospital has proved to be as hellish as the Taloja jail. Denied proper treatment, the poet is now reported to have tested Covid-positive. Detention without trial is now turning into a design to subject him to death sentence. #SaveThePoet https://t.co/oZE6UqQqHZ  Dipankar (@Dipankar_cpiml) July 16, 2020

Terrible. As it is, there's no rationale to the case against him and other co-ac cused, but where is the justification for this inhuman treatment? We Found Him Lying on Urine-Soaked Bed, Says Varavara Raos Family https://t.co/urzcXNIVqx  geeta seshu (@geetaseshu) July 16, 2020

This is how Modi regime treating one of India's most well known political prisoners! #VaraVaraRao is not even a Kashmiri Muslim. https://t.co/lovvufAsP6  Ashok Swain (@ashoswai) July 16, 2020

#Shocking treatment of #VaraVaraRao at JJ Hospital: Human Rights Defenders Alert urges @India_NHRC to intervene immediately. VV's family in #Mumbai since yesterday has been horrified to find him in a pathetic & unattended condition at hospital in a pool of urine! #FreeVaravaraRao https://t.co/VE32rwZVzF  Suchitra Vijayan (@suchitrav) July 16, 2020

Lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan tweeted:

Varavara Rao. Sudha Bharadwaj. Devangana Kalita. Safoora Zargar. Scores of activists&students, all labelled criminals, all charged under a law whose processes ensure that proof of their guilt is irrelevant. Courts participate in this perversion of Justice https://t.co/4MPWzuRREQ  Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) July 16, 2020

Referring to Rao as a "revolutionary poet", filmmaker Avinash Das of Anaarkali Of Aarah fame urged people to raise their voice for the freed om and better medical care for the poet-activists.

A loosely translated version of Das's tweet reads: "Revolutionary poet Varvara Rao is in jail. Governments are afraid of his words, be they from the BJP or Congress. Varvara Rao is a symbol of the burning creative tradition of India. We must all raise our voice for his freedom and better medical care."

Rao, who hails from Telangana, was shifted to the JJ Hospital in south Mumbai on Monday night after he complained of giddiness and was later admitted to its neurology department.

He has tested positive for COVID-19, a hospital official said on Thursday.

Rao's family members along with several writers and activists had asked the Maharashtra government to immediately shift him to hospital for treatment, citing his deteriorating health condition.

The poet's family members had on Sunday sought the jail authorities to provide him immediate medical care and claimed that when the veteran activist contacted them last week, he was in a "delirious state and hallucinating".

Rao has been in jail for about 22 months and had earlier approached the special NIA court, seeking bail on medical grounds and the prevailing COVID-19 situation.

On Monday, Rao filed two petitions in the Bombay High Court, seeking temporary bail owing to his ill health and a direction to the jail authorities to produce his medical records and admit him to a state-run or private hospital.

A group of about 2,000 citizens had issued a statement on Monday urging that Rao be immediately released on bail due to his deteriorating health condition.

"The health of poet, litterateur and political rights activist Rao, incarcerated for nearly two years in the Bhima Koregaon conspiracy case, has significantly been deteriorating since he had a fall on 28 May in the Taloja jail," a statement issued by them said.

Rao and nine other activists have been arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, which was initially probed by the Pune Police and later transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

The case related to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on 31 December, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial.

The police have also claimed the conclave was organised by people with alleged Maoist links.

His condition is stable, say doctors at JJ

Rao is asymptomatic and has general weakness, said Dr Ranjeet Mankeshwar, dean of the JJ Hospital.

The poet-activist's medical report came on Thursday and he was found to be coronavirus positive, he aid.

"He has been found positive for COVID-19, but his condition is stable, no symptoms of COVID-19 have been found, he is having general weakness," said Mankeshwar.

"His treatment is going on," he said.

The official, however, termed the claims made Rao's family members that he is not getting proper medical care as not true.

"We are providing best health facilities to him and by late (Thursday) night he may be shifted to St George Hospital (another state-run hospital) for further treatment," said Mankeshwar.

With inputs from PTI
Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday addressed the resumption of international flights in the country saying that bilateral air bubbles was the only way to go forward. A bilateral air bubble is when specific countries mutually decide to open the travel corridor between them, based on understanding and partnership. Such an operation has already been established between India and the UAE, while negotiations are underway with countries like the US, France and Germany.

"Bilateral air bubbles is the way forward to establish international flight connectivity. These will be present until international aviation becomes normal. Many countries still have travel restrictions. We will operate in air bubbles," said Hardeep Puri.

Owing to the prevailing Coronavirus situation in the world, most countries have shut down their airspace banning inbound flights in their countries. India has also suspended all international flights following the announcement of its first lockdown on March 24. Given these circumstances, a bilateral air bubble would need to be set in place between India and the respective countries to re-open and resume international air travel.

Our negotiations are at an advanced stage with 3 countries. Air France will operate 28 flights from July 18 to Aug 1 b/w Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru & Paris. US will be flying 18 flights b/w July 17-31 but this is an interim one. We have request from Germany too: Civil Aviation Min pic.twitter.com/J4olL7lPmT  ANI (@ANI) July 16, 2020

'Air travel with France and US to resume'

"We are at a very advance stage of negotiations with at least 3 countries - France, US & Germany for air bubble. Air France will be operating 28 flights from Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru to Paris between July 18 to August 1. In the case of the United States, we have an agreement with United Airlines to operate 18 flights between India-US between July 17 and July 31 but this is an interim one. We have a request from Germany also & an agreement with Lufthansa is almost done," said Puri.

Read: Announcement On Resuming International Flights Likely On Thursday, After 4-month Hiatus

Read: US Bars Pakistani Flights After Pilot-license Scandal

Earlier Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had hinted that international flights would resume when domestic traffic reaches about 50-60% and other countries also open up to international traffic. In his latest statement on June 23, Hardeep Singh Puri said, This morning, I took a brief from the key point person (from the MOCA) who is negotiating with the countries, and he said that we are in constant touch. We are working on a consensus to restart international flights. This is going to be through air bubbles.

After the successful operation of Vande Bharat mission, under which thousands of Indians were brought back home, civil aviation sources reveal that airlines are ready to take the next leap forward.

Read: Flight Carrying 101 Students Stranded In Ukraine Arrives In MP

Read: Unapproved Charter Flights From UAE Must Not Be Allowed To Land In India: DGCA To AAI
Pie chart showing breakdown of anxiety thoughts

What to know: A new study from Queens University in Canada suggests the average person has more than 6,000 individual thoughts every day. Scientists made the discovery by having subjects watch movies to identify when one thought ends and another begins. More specifically, the researchers identified thought worms  moments where a person is focused on a specific idea. The way this was done is groundbreaking, as scientists previously needed a template to identify each thought. The study was recently published in Nature Communications.

Researchers tracked the thoughts of 184 participants by gathering brain activity during movie-viewing using fMRI and resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) data.

The new method used by the researchers consisted of focusing not on what subjects are thinking about, but when theyre thinking about it and when they have moved on to a new idea.

According to the studys lead scientist, Dr. Jordan Poppenk, this new research could help explore how the rate at which we think can have an effect on our mental scape and other qualities of our psyche.

Related: Download The Mighty app to connect in real time with people who can relate to what you're going through.

Humans Have More than 6,000 Thoughts per Day, Psychologists Discover https://t.co/9xcVwhUdqu  Wafik S. El-Deiry, MD, PhD, FACP (@weldeiry) July 15, 2020

The Frontlines: Anxious or racing thoughts, negative self-talk, worry, and overthinking are hallmarks for people who know the challenges of dealing with mental health diagnoses like anxiety and depression. These conditions affect a growing number of Americans.

Related: New Survey Confirms Acceptance of LGBTQ Identities Could Mean Life or Death

Story continues

Anxiety disorders affect 1% of people in the U.S., making it the most common mental illness.

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, anxiety disorders develop from a complex set of risk factors, including genetics, brain chemistry, personality, and life events.

Get more on mental health: Sign up for our weekly mental health newsletter.

A Mighty Voice: Our contributor, Erin Kerry, shared her struggle with bipolar disorder and depression and how racing thoughts affected her saying, During times of stress, my thought patterns can spin out of control. I swing from catastrophic, worst case scenarios, to numbed paralysis and the inability to want to do anything. Both of those, and everything in between, are traps for my mental health. You can submit your first person story, too.

From Our Community:

Other things to know: Our Mighty contributors know well the struggles of dealing with unwanted or spiraling thoughts that are common with mental health conditions. Youre not alone and here are several articles that might also help you get back on track.

Related: When I Tell a White Person What They Said Is Racist

How to Take Action: If you often deal with overthinking and intrusive thoughts, you may have an undiagnosed mental health condition, or could benefit from extra support. Here are some resources that may help, and always speak with your doctor if you are concerned.

Read more stories like this on The Mighty:

Hey Drew Barrymore, Not Being Naturally Thin Isn't a Sign of 'Bad Karma'

Moving My Body After Lockdown Will Be an Act of Joy, Not Weight Loss

The Blessing and Curse of a Psychiatric Diagnosis

Kid Cudi Describes Mental Illness as Swimming in a Pool of Emotions
Dublin, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "United States of America (USA) Telecom Operators Country Intelligence Report" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



United States Telecom Operators Country Intelligence Report provides an executive-level overview of the telecommunications market in United States today, with detailed forecasts of key indicators up to 2024. Published annually, the report provides detailed analysis of the near-term opportunities, competitive dynamics and evolution of demand by service type and technology/platform across the fixed telephony, broadband, mobile, and pay-TV segments, as well as a review of key regulatory trends.



The telecom service revenue growth in the US over 2019-2024 will be driven by mobile data and fixed broadband revenues. Mobile data service revenue will grow from US$130.4 billion in 2019 to US$211.7 billion by 2024 at a fastest CAGR of 10.2%. This growth will be driven by continued rise in mobile Internet subscriptions and mobile data ARPU. Fixed broadband service revenue will grow at a CAGR of 3.7% over the period 2019-2024 to reach US$77.1 billion by the end of 2024 led by growth in FTTH/B and fixed wireless subscriptions and overall fixed broadband ARPU over the forecast period.



The report provides in-depth analysis of the following:

Demographic and macroeconomic context in United States.

The regulatory environment and trends: a review of the regulatory setting and agenda for the next 18-24 months as well as relevant developments pertaining to spectrum licensing, national broadband plans, tariff regulation, and more.

Telecom and pay-TV services market outlook: analysis as well as historical figures and forecasts of service revenue from the fixed telephony, broadband, mobile voice, mobile data, and pay-TV markets.

The competitive landscape: an examination of the positioning of leading players in the telecom and pay-TV services market as well as subscription market shares across segments.

Company snapshots: analysis of the financial position of leading service providers in the telecommunications and pay-TV markets.

Underlying assumptions behind our published base-case forecasts, as well as potential market developments that would alter, either positively or negatively, our base-case outlook.

Story continues

Key Highlights



The overall telecom and pay-TV service revenue in the US will grow at a CAGR of 0.5% during 2019 -2024.

Mobile revenue will account for 58.8% of the total telecom revenue in 2024, driven by continued rise in mobile Internet subscriptions and mobile data ARPU.

4G will be the most adopted mobile technology over the period 2019-2024, despite its share falling from 89.0% in 2019 to 60.1% by 2024. 5G subscriptions will grow drastically from 1.4% in 2019 to reach about 39.0% by 2024.

The top three mobile operators Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile accounted for 80.4% share of overall mobile subscriptions in 2019.

Reasons to Buy

This Country Intelligence Report offers a thorough, forward-looking analysis of US's telecommunications markets, service providers and key opportunities in a concise format to help executives build proactive and profitable growth strategies.

Accompanying the publisher's Forecast products, the report examines the assumptions and drivers behind ongoing and upcoming trends in US's mobile communications, fixed telephony, broadband markets, including the evolution of service provider market shares.

With more than 20 charts and tables, the report is designed for an executive-level audience, boasting presentation quality.

The report provides an easily digestible market assessment for decision-makers built around in-depth information gathered from local market players, which enables executives to quickly get up to speed with the current and emerging trends in US's telecommunications markets.

The broad perspective of the report coupled with comprehensive, actionable detail will help operators, equipment vendors and other telecom industry players succeed in the challenging telecommunications market in the US.

Key Topics Covered



1. Market Highlights

Demographic, macroeconomic, and regulatory context

Demographic and macroeconomic context

2. Regulatory Context

Telecom and pay-TV services market outlook

Total telecom service revenue

Mobile services market

Fixed services market

Pay-TV services market

3. Competitive Landscape and Company Snapshots

Competitive landscape

AT&T

Verizon

Comcast

T-Mobile

Additional resources

Baseline forecast assumptions

Data tables

Companies Mentioned



Verizon

AT&T

Comcast

T-Mobile

Sprint

Tracfone

DirecTV

Charter

Cox

DishUS

Century Link

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/kgao2e

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.



CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com

Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com

For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470

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When Niagara steps into the next phase of economic recovery, it will depend entirely on the behaviour of residents to prevent a return to pandemic lockdowns and closed businesses, says Niagaras acting medical officer of health.

Dr. Mustafa Hirji said the jump from Stage 2 of the provincial government plan  where Niagara currently is  to Stage 3 is a vastly bigger leap than the Stage 1 to Stage 2 move a month ago.

He said while Stage 3 does place constraints on some activities, many of the restrictions that shut down businesses and social activities are being lifted.

Our (COVID-19) numbers are good because of the really hard work of many people who are doing the right thing and physically distancing and practising good hand hygiene, Hirji said. But it is also because the restrictions imposed by the government kept people apart. When those are lifted, which does increase our risk, it is going to be up to all of us to continue to do the right thing to ensure we dont see a rise in cases.

Hirji said while it is not clear how the Ontario government is deciding which regions move forward, he thinks Niagara is ready for Stage 3.

Niagaras new daily case count has been in the low single digits for over a month. There were no new confirmed cases or COVID-19 related deaths on Wednesday, leaving the historical total number of cases at 783. Niagara has seen several days of zero cases in recent weeks, despite three active outbreaks at local long term care homes.

Hirji said restrictions that limited what people could do over the last three months have done the job of suppressing the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Whether the situation remains that way will depend on Niagara residents.

My worry is that people will take this to mean the threat is over and that will lead to complacency, he said. The truth is we are not finished with this by a long shot.

On Monday, when the provincial government announced some regions were moving to phase three, Ontario Health Minister Christie Elliott said no region will be moving beyond Stage 3 for the foreseeable future. She also said that if the situation worsens some regions will be moved back.

It is up to us, said Hirji. Without those restrictions, it will really be up to everyone in Niagara to ensure we limit the spread of the virus.

Although Stage 3 will reopen many businesses that have been shuttered since March, it still does place limits on some activities.

Gatherings will be limited to groups of 50 indoors and 100 people outdoors. However, Hirji said the stipulation is that in those gatherings people remain two metres apart.

The only people you can be in close contact with is your social circle of 10 people, he said. Beyond that, you have to continue physical distancing, continue hand hygiene and wearing face coverings.

Niagara was not included in the first round of Stage 3 regions announced by the provincial government, just as it was not among the first adopters of Stage 2.

However, given Niagaras low case counts and flattened infection rate curve, Hirji expects the government could announce Stage 3 for the region on Monday, with implementation on July 24.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Police have identified a man found dead Sunday along a trail in a wooded area of Southwest Grand Rapids as 45-year-old Mearl Wayne Evan of Grand Rapids.

Grand Rapids police say they are investigating the death as suspicious and the cause of death is still under investigation.

The body was found about 1:50 a.m. Sunday, July 12 in the area of Oxford Street SW and Norwich Avenue.

Police said Evan was found face down in a wooded area along a trail.

Anyone with information about Evan can call police at 456-3400 or Silent Observer at 616-774-2345 or silentobserver.org.
Lakeland Community College, in partnership with Medical Mutual of Ohio and Lake Health, has announced a new scholarship available for students in health care fields that have critical shortages.

Medical Mutual of Ohio has established the new scholarship fund through the Lake Health Foundation.

According to the school, the funding amount totaling $100,000 will help defray the cost of tuition for Lakeland students enrolled in their second year of designated programs.

As part of the scholarship agreement, recipients will commit to work for Lake Health after graduation, where they will have an opportunity to pursue a long-term career ladder, based on eligibility.

The scholarship will be administered through Lake Health.

The cost of education is frequently cited as the leading reason that many students drop out of school, said Greg Sanders, executive director of the Lakeland Foundation and vice president for institutional advancement.

On behalf of the students that this funding will be helping, we thank Medical Mutual for this generous gift.

Lakeland officials confirm scholarship funding will be distributed for fall semester 2020, and will cover the entire amount of tuition for students in the following associate degree programs:

* Medical laboratory technology

* Nursing

* Occupational therapy assistant

* Respiratory therapy

The scholarship has also been designated to cover tuition for the medical assisting and phlebotomy certificates.

Funding does not cover books, placement testing, or fees for background checks and drug tests.

Associate Provost for Teaching and Learning Deborah L. Hardy, who also serves as dean of faculty and dean of health technologies, believes the collaboration between Lakeland, Lake Health and Medical Mutual Foundation comes at a perfect time in support of students and soon-to-be essential workers.

This extraordinary partnership brings together extraordinary Northeast Ohio organizations to address the urgent and increasing need for health care professionals within the immediate communities, and provides the framework for employment after graduation, she said.

Across the health care industry, job openings are at record highs, with over 1.2 million jobs open. According the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, roughly 2 million nurses are needed over the next decade to keep pace with demand under the current care delivery structures.

The Lakeland partnership aims to educate future health care professionals and strengthen the economy and quality of care within Lake and surrounding counties.

We are at a critical juncture with a shortage in health care workers, said Mark Flash, executive director of the Lake Health Foundation. Few other industries are racing the clock to find a future-ready workforce and todays announcement is the shot in the arm that will help close those gaps in Lake County.

For more information, contact Operations Coordinator Tracy Dennis at Tracy.Dennis@lakehealth.org.
Beijing Grooming Australian Businesses to Lobby Federal Government on Its Behalf: Expert

Beijing has been grooming Australian business leaders to lobby the federal government to change its policy settings on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), amid rising scepticism of Australia-China relations, according to Professor Clive Hamilton, an expert on CCP influence.

Hamilton, author of Silent Invasionwhich details Beijings influence operations in Australiasaid the CCP was leveraging business proxies to pressure the government. The activities of these proxies have escalated in the fallout from the recent Beijing-instigated trade dispute.

The trade dispute has seen tariffs, bans, and warnings imposed on Australian exports to China affecting the barley, meat, coal, travel, and education industries.

[The CCP] routinely mobilises business groups and corporate leaders in the targeted country to apply pressure on their government to relent, he stated in a submission (pdf) to a parliamentary inquiry into diversifying Australias trade relationships.

Clive Hamilton, author of Silent Invasion, speaks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in A Conversation on Chinese Influence in Australia and Beyond in Washington on Oct. 18, 2018. (Wu Wei/Epoch Times)

A few hints from Chinese officials about how it would be a pity to jeopardize a good relationship is usually enough to prompt business lobbies and mining tycoons to speak out in public or to privately pressure senior ministers to capitulate to Beijings demands, he said.

Hamilton called this a well-drilled tactic commonly employed by the communist regime called yi shang bi zheng meaning  using business to pressure government.

On April 26, Chinese Ambassador Cheng Jingyes said the Chinese public was frustrated, dismayed, and disappointed in Foreign Minister Marise Paynes calls for an inquiry into the origins of the pandemic.

When pressed on whether Beijing would boycott trade with Australia, the ambassador said, tourists may have second thoughts.

A group of Asian tourists arrive to have their photograph taken in front of the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, in this photo taken on May 8, 2012. (Greg Wood/AFP/GettyImages)

He continued: Maybe the parents of the students would also think whether this place, which they find is not so friendly, even hostile, is the best place to send their kids to.

Maybe the ordinary people will think why they should drink Australian wine or eat Australian beef. Why couldnt we do it differently?

Hamilton said the ambassadors comments were calculated, targeting export-reliant industries, and designed to send a message to vice chancellors, tourism executives, farmer representatives, and wine exporters to pressure Canberra to back down.

Its worth noticing that as soon as Beijing expressed its ire at Minister Paynes call for an inquiry, several influential commentators who frequently call for appeasement of China went on the attack, castigating the government for its ineptness and for provoking Beijing unnecessarily, he said.

In late April, two prominent West Australian billionaires Andrew Forrest and Kerry Stokes caused a stir when they called on the Australian government to ease its rhetoric around China, at a time when there was bipartisan support for an inquiry into the virus.

Andrew Forrest addresses the media on Oct. 25, 2019 in Perth, Australia. (Paul Kane/Getty Images)

Forrest, a mining magnate and chairman of Fortescue Metals (which ships 1.3 billion tonnes of iron ore to China each year) invited Melbournes Chinese consul general to speak at a joint press conference with the health minister on April 29 as an olive branch to ease diplomatic tensions.

The arrival of the consul general allegedly caught the health minister by surprise and was later criticised by several members of Parliament.

Kerry Stokes, a media mogul with previous business interests in China, gave an interview on April 30 in the West Australian newspaper (which is owned by Stokes company Seven West Media) warning the Australian prime minister to stop making accusations and pushed for the government to mend relations with China.

Executive chairman of Australias Seven Group Holdings, Kerry Stokes, in Sydney, Australia on Aug. 5, 2014. (WIlliam West/AFP via Getty Images)

Hamilton said business leaders had been groomed over many years and were easy targets for the CCPs techniques of persuasion.

Their minds have been rewired so that they believe that whatever keeps Beijing contented is in their own and their countrys interests, he wrote.

Years of grooming can result in business leaders speaking up for Beijing, even if there is no financial gain at stake.

Hamilton also called into question foreign investment from Chinese firms saying Australias due diligence on China-based companies needed urgent upgrading.

Due diligence faces special barriers when the information must come from Chinas extremely opaque court system, corporate regulators, banking system and complaints mechanisms, he said.

Hamilton made three recommendations to the federal government. The first is to liaise with industries deemed vulnerable and overly exposed to the China market. They should be encouraged to factor in potential risks in their business planning and be told they cannot rely on taxpayer support if risks evolve into problems.

Packs of beef imported from Australia are displayed for sale at supermarkets on June 17, 2015 in Beijing, China. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

The second recommendation is to direct Austrade to play a more proactive role in diversifying Australias trade relationships.

Third, the government can introduce a levy on exports to compensate companies if they are penalised by Beijing. Hamilton referred to Beijings plan to compensate brewers in China for the increased cost of barley importsa consequence of the regime imposing 80 percent tariffs on Australian barley.

The China Inquiry is examining Australias trade relations and will look into whether the country is too reliant on one trading partner.

The inquiry was spearheaded by Queensland federal politician George Christensen who told Parliament on May 12 that Australia was at a crossroads and it needed to stand up for its sovereignty and economic independence.

With more than 36 percent of our exports being sold to China, representing 7.9 percent of GDP, its clear we have put too many eggs in the one basket, he said.
An Irish MEP has raised the issue of unsafe toys for sale online at the European Commission.

Ireland South MEP, Deirdre Clune raised the issue recently and revealed that in 2019, a record number of dangerous products were flagged by the European Commissions Rapid Alert System.

This is a system that helps prevent or restrict the sale of dangerous items. Toys were the most notified product category, making up just under a third of all reports. 23% of alerts concerned motor vehicles and 8% concerned electrical equipment.

In addition to this, a recent study from a group of consumer organisations tested 250 electrical goods, toys, cosmetics and other products bought from online marketplaces such as Amazon, AliExpress, eBay and Wish.

They selected the products based on possible risks and found that 66% of them fail EU safety laws with possible consequences such as electric shock, fire or suffocation.

In relation to toys which do not meet EU safety measures, there is concern currently at the lack of regulation when it comes to buying online.

Ireland South MEP Deirdre Clune has raised the matter of dangerous toys being purchased online and not adhering to regulations at the European Commission and has asked what can the Commission to in the context of the upcoming Digital Services Act to address this matter.

MEP Clune asked, Does the Commission intend to place additional requirements on platforms to prevent this and what type of measures might the Commission envisage in this regard?

At present, online platforms must remove the dangerous items once they become aware of them but further consumer studies have shown that the same dangerous items can reappear a number of months or years later," she added.

In relation to the products we buy and sell within the European Union, they must be safe. There are existing product safety rules that need to be looked at and adapted where necessary to take account of the digital transformation. This might be in specific areas such as machinery or toys or a more general product safety laws. Consumers must be able to count on a high level of safety for all products and know that the authorities are effectively monitoring this.

In 2021, a new regulation on products will come into force. This will ensure monitoring across borders in the EU, for products that fall under EU harmonisation legislation. However, not all products come under this legislation. So, for example, a dolls bed, as a toy, is covered by stricter rules than a childs bed, which, as an item of furniture, is a so-called non-harmonised product as it is a piece of furniture. In the Internal Market and Consumer Protection committee there is a proposal that the rules should also cover non-harmonised products.
A 6-year-old boy brutally attacked by a dog while protecting his sister is being hailed by celebrities, including Captain America and actress Anne Hathaway, for his act of heroism.

Captain America actor Chris Evans in an Instagram video praised Bridger. The video was shared, according to NBC News, by Bridgers aunt, Nicole Walker.

According to NBC News, Bridger Walker, 6, and his sister, 4, were at a friends house in Wyoming on July 9 when a 1-year-old German Shepherd mix lunged at them while they were outside in the backyard. Without thinking, Bridger stepped in front of his sibling to protect her and was bitten in the face by the dog, his parents said.

He underwent a nearly two-hour surgery that required more than 90 stitches, his parents Robert and Teila Walker said in a statement. Bridger is currently recovering at home.

In the video, Evans says, This is a message for Bridger. Hey Bridger, Captain America here, how are you doing? So I read your story, saw what you did.

Now I am sure youve heard a lot of this over the past couple of days but let me be the next one to tell you, pal, youre a hero.

What you did was so brave, so selfless.

Your sister is so lucky to have you as a big brother. Your parents must be so proud of you.

I am going to track down your address and I am going to send you an authentic Captain America shield because pal, you deserve it.

Keep being the man you are, we need people like you. Hang in there, I know recovery might be tough but based on what Ive seen I dont think there is much that can slow you down.

Anne Hathaway said on Instagram, Im not an Avenger, but I know a superhero when I see one. I can only hope Im half as brave in my life as you are in yours, Bridger. Wishing you an easeful recovery, and many cool looking rocks. "

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The coronavirus pandemic has created hurdles for Year 12 students that have never before been faced.

But Southern Cross University psychology student and 2019 Year 12 graduate Belinda Morris knows what it can be like when the HSC does not go as planned.

"I didnt have the easiest two senior years of high school. At age 16, partway through Year 11, I had to move out of home," she said.

Belinda Morris from Southern Cross University has been through the transition to uni program.

"Id previously been a straight-A student, but living out of home meant I had to work a lot to support myself, which meant my grades dropped and I knew I might not have received the HSC result I needed to study psychology."
The approximately $1.1 billion COVID-19 spending bill sent to Gov. Charlie Baker on Thursday directs money toward a wide slate of programs and organizations, including the health care system, homelessness prevention, child care providers, elections, food banks, addiction treatment services and more.

The bill (H 4808) includes hundreds of millions of dollars for some of the more obvious COVID-19 costs, like $350 million for personal protective equipment, $85 million spent on field hospitals and shelters, $44 million for the states contact tracing collaborative, and more than $111 million in supplemental payments to hospitals and providers.

It also contains funding meant to help companies affected by the pandemic and the states orders to close all non-essential businesses. The bill calls for $10 million to go to the Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation to provide grants to businesses with 50 or fewer employees to help cover payroll and benefits, mortgage interest, rent and utilities.

The MGCC is directed in the bill to prioritize grant funding for companies that focus on reaching underserved markets, are women-, minority- or veteran-owned, and have not received aid from federal COVID-19 relief programs.

The Baker administration has said that many of the pandemic-related appropriations will be mostly reimbursed by the federal government, and the governor has warned that Massachusetts is in a race with other states to access a limited pool of resources available for reimbursement.He said his administration could not pursue funding until the Legislature finished the bill, which the governor initially filed back on May 12.

If Baker signs the bill as expected, the state would direct $3 million to summer camps and youth programs that are operating this summer to provide adequate and appropriate accommodations in a manner that is consistent with the safety protocols necessary to mitigate the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus pandemic.

The legislation grants the Department of Early Education and Care $500,000 to leverage state funding by working with philanthropic and private partners in order to assist the business and technical needs of early education and care providers in the commonwealth during the reopening and recovery process.

That Early Education and Care Public-Private Trust Fund would include money directly appropriated by the Legislature and gifts, grants and donations, and would provide statewide and regional training and make available opportunities for providers and stakeholders to assess and share best business practices relative to early education and care reopening efforts.

The bill also includes $5 million for COVID-related elections costs, which Secretary of State William Galvin said would probably get us going towards his offices new requirement to send out applications for mail-in ballots for the 2020 primaries and general election.

Under a new state law, Galvins office had a July 15 deadline to send applications for mail-in primary ballots, but the states elections overseer said that he could not send out the applications until the Legislature provided funding for postage. On Tuesday, Galvin told the News Service that he had begun to mail applications after the governors office agreed to advance him some of the funds included in the COVID-19 supplemental budget.

Supreme Judicial Court Justice Frank Gaziano is scheduled to hold a hearing at 2 p.m. Friday to consider an emergency lawsuit filed against Galvin by a group of Massachusetts voters and voting rights organizations. One plaintiff told the News Service on Thursday that Fridays hearing is still on and that the plaintiffs plan to press on until every single vote-by-mail application has been sent out to voters.

Also in the legislation is $139 million for rate add-ons for human service providers, including congregate care facilities, $93 million for incentive pay for workers at facilities that are open 24 hours a day, $36 million for the emergency child care centers the state established prior to the reopening of the entire secot, and $13.5 million to help local housing authorities deal with the impacts of the pandemic.

Though the supplemental budget bill is primarily focused on pandemic-related costs or addressing issues that were exacerbated by the crisis, it also makes a significant change to the calendar.

A section of the bill would designate June 19 as a state holiday known as Juneteenth Independence Day, commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. That designation gained favor with lawmakers last month amid the nationwide demonstrations that grew out of the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota and renewed discussions about race in America.

Related Content:
Bamako, Mali (PANA) - Twelve people were killed on Tuesday in two separate attacks by suspected terrorists on villages in central Mali, PANA learned on Thursday from knowledgeable sources
Edmonton, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2020) -Benchmark Metals Inc. (TSXV: BNCH) (OTCQB: CYRTF) (WKN: A2JM2X) (the "Company" or "Benchmark") and the Tahltan Central Government ("TCG") are pleased to announce the signing of a Communications and Engagement Agreement (the "Agreement") covering the Company's 100% owned Lawyers Gold-Silver Project located in the prolific Golden Horseshoe of northern British Columbia, Canada.

The Agreement provides a framework for a collaborative working environment between the parties, based on open dialogue, transparent communications and mutual cooperation with regards to the Company's exploration activities at the Lawyers Project.

John Williamson, Benchmark CEO commented, "Today's announcement is another step forward in fostering the positive and constructive relationship we share with the Tahltan Nation. The Company looks forward to working in a collaborative manner with the Tahltan Nation as we continue to develop our flagship gold-silver project."

About the Lawyers Gold-Silver Project

Benchmark's 100% owned Lawyers Gold-Silver Project is a 140 km2, road accessible property surrounding the historic Cheni Mine, located 45 kilometres from the world-class Kemess Gold-Copper Mine, within the prolific Golden Horseshoe of north-central British Columbia, Canada. Benchmark has actively engaged First Nations in the territory for employment and consulting roles. The First Nations participation with Benchmark over the past two (2) years has rapidly advanced the Project, and provided the following previously disclosed results:

Near surface gold-silver mineralization;

7.0 m at 108 g/t gold and 911 g/t silver (drill core length);

33.53 m at 5.76 g/t gold and 128.65 g/t silver (drill core length);

High-grade and bulk-tonnage system;

5 resource expansion areas and 6 early stage targets for new discovery; and,

Targeting 1.68 million to 1.92 million ounce gold equivalent grading 1.71 To 1.73 AuEq g/t at Cliff Creek Zone;

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Michael Dufresne, M.Sc., P.Geol., P.Geo., a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About the Tahltan Nation

The Tahltan Central Government (TCG) is the administrative governing body of the Tahltan Nation. The Iskut Band and the Tahltan Band continue to govern Tahltan interests with respect to the Indian Act. The TCG is the representative government of the Tahltan Nation with respect to inherent Aboriginal title and rights. The Tahltan Nation's Territory spans 95,933 square km of Northwest British Columbia or the equivalent of 11 per cent of the province.

About Benchmark Metals

Benchmark Metals Inc. is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on proving and developing the substantial resource potential of the Lawyer's Gold and Silver Project, located in the prolific Golden Horseshoe of northern British Columbia, Canada. The Company trades on the TSX Venture Exchange in Canada, the OTCQB Venture Market in the United States, and the Tradegate Exchange in Europe. Benchmark is managed by proven resource sector professionals, who have a track record of advancing exploration projects from grassroots scenarios through to production.

Metals Group

To view an enhanced version of this image, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6169/59893_b342327c5443baeb_001full.jpgwww.metalsgroup.com

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Benchmark is part of the Metals Group portfolio of companies. Metals Group is an award-winning team of professionals who stand for technical excellence, painstaking project selection, uncompromising corporate governance and a unique ability to pan through the rubble to discover and develop golden opportunities.



s/ "John Williamson"

John Williamson, Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please contact:

Jim Greig

Email: jimg@BNCHmetals.com

Telephone: +1 604 260 6977

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

This news release may contain certain "forward looking statements". Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this news release 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.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/59893
A gruesome-looking 'Darth Vader' sea cockroach discovered at the bottom of the Indian Ocean has been identified as belonging to a new species.

Researchers from Singapore found the frightful, 14-legged creature during a deep-sea survey off of the coast of Banten, Western Java, Indonesia back in 2018.

The animal  whose head and compound eyes resemble the helmet of Star Wars' villainous Sith Lord  has now been given the formal name 'Bathynomus raksasa'.

A gruesome-looking 'Darth Vader' sea cockroach discovered at the bottom of the Indian Ocean has been identified as belonging to a new species. Pictured, Bathynomus raksasa

The animal  whose head and compound eyes resemble the helmet of Star Wars' villainous Sith Lord, Darth Vader (pictured)  has now been given the name 'Bathynomus raksasa'

The marine survey was conducted by Peter Ng of the National University of Singapore and colleagues, during which they explored 63 sites over two weeks.

The expedition  a collaboration with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences  collected thousands of specimens from the depths using trawling, dredging and various types of seafloor coring devices.

Most of their work was undertaken at a depth of around 0.49 miles (800 metres)  but their deepest sample was taken down at 1.3 miles (2,100 metres) below the ocean's surface.

In total, the researchers collected 12,000 deep-sea creatures  including crabs, jellyfish, fish, molluscs, prawns, sponges, starfish, urchins and worms  comprising 800 species in total, of which 12 were unrecorded in the scientific literature.

Bathynomus raksasa is a so-called 'giant isopod'  a type of crustacean that resembles the cockroaches and woodlice of land, but are in fact more closely related to other marine species like crabs and shrimp.

These 'sea cockroaches' live on the ocean bed, scavenging on the remains of dead marine animals that have sank to the sea floor, but are also  like their cockroach namesakes  quite able to survive for long periods without food.

While most isopods typically reach around 13 inches (33 centimetres) in length, some species, like Bathynomus raksasa, can reach up to around 20 inches (50 centimetres) long thanks to lower levels of predation and the cold of the deep-sea.

In fact, B. raksasa is the second-largest isopod species known to science, superseded only by 'Bathynomus giganteus'.

Researchers from Singapore found the frightful creature during a deep-sea survey off of the coast of Banten, Western Java, Indonesia back in 2018. Pictured, Bathynomus raksasa's head

In total, the researchers collected 12,000 deep-sea creatures  including crabs, jellyfish, fish, molluscs, prawns, sponges, starfish, urchins and worms  comprising 800 species in total, of which 12, including Bathynomus raksasa (pictured) were unrecorded in the scientific literature

The animal  whose head and compound eyes resemble the helmet of Star Wars' villainous Sith Lord  has now been given the formal name 'Bathynomus raksasa'

'The discovery of new species is a great achievement for a taxonomist. especially spectacular species in terms of size and even the ecosystem where the species is found,' Cahyo Rahmadi of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences told the BBC.

The finds, he added, just go to show how Indonesia's great biodiversity potential still has yet to be fully tapped.

The full findings of the study were published in the journal ZooKeys.
The two former Soviet republics accuse each other of shelling military positions and villages.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have accused each other of shelling military positions and villages, breaking a day of ceasefire in border clashes between the long-feuding former Soviet republics.

The Azerbaijan defence ministry said on Thursday one of its soldiers died, while Armenias defence ministry said a civilian was wounded in Chinari village from an Azeri drone attack.

Prior to that, 15 soldiers from both sides and one civilian had died since Sunday in the flareup between nations who fought a 1990s war over the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region.

In a blizzard of rhetoric on both sides, Azerbaijan warned Armenia it might attack the Metsamor nuclear power station if its Mingechavir reservoir or other strategic outlets were hit.

The neighbours have long been in conflict over Azerbaijans breakaway, mainly ethnic Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh. But the latest flareups are around the Tavush region in northeast Armenia, some 300km (190 miles) from the enclave.

With no gain in the battlefield, the Azerbaijani military units began shelling the villages  deliberately targeting the civilian infrastructures and the population, Armenias foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday.





Armenias defence ministry accused the Azerbaijan army of moving positions while using villagers as human shields.

Azerbaijan denied targeting civilians and made the same accusation against Armenia of shelling villages.

A Reuters news agency correspondent reportedly saw several partly-destroyed houses in the villages of Dondar Gushchu, Agdam and Alibeyli in Azerbaijan.

Local villagers on both sides of the border told AFP news agency their homes had come under fire and they feared for their lives.

An artillery shell hit our yard, 10 metres from the house, resident Shain Abiyev said in the Azerbaijani village of Dondar Quscu near the border.

Fortunately my family was not at home, but if they had been in the house there would have been a tragedy.

In Aygepar, on the Armenian side, 70-year-old Evelina Hovhannisyan said she had spent eight hours in her bathroom while the village was under fire.

A woman shows the damage to her house, which locals said was damaged during a recent shelling by Armenias forces, in armed clashes on the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia, in the village of Dondar Quschi, Azerbaijan [Aziz Karimov/Reuters]

Azerbaijani foreign minister replaced

In a surprise move on Thursday, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev sacked his long-serving foreign minister, Elmar Mammadyarov, after denouncing his performance, accusing him of meaningless negotiations with Armenia.

He was replaced by the education minister, Jeyhun Bayramov.

The fighting has prompted calls for immediate de-escalation from the United States, the European Union and regional powerbroker Russia. Turkey has spoken out in support of its ally, Azerbaijan.

International concern is heightened because of the threat to stability in a region serving as a corridor for pipelines taking oil and gas from the Caspian Sea to global markets.

It is unclear what ignited this summers flareup, but analysts say it could have been a small incident like a cross-border shooting that quickly escalated.

Olesya Vartanyan, senior South Caucasus analyst for the International Crisis Group, told AFP a major confrontation would draw in regional powers Russia and Turkey.

But she said it seemed unlikely the crisis would escalate, as neither side has territorial claims on northern border areas and the fighting had not spread to Karabakh itself.

Ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh declared independence during a conflict that broke out as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

Though a ceasefire was agreed in 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia frequently accuse each other of attacks around Nagorno-Karabakh and along the separate Azerbaijan-Armenia frontier.
MOUNT PLEASANT  With an outsized heavy reliance on property taxes to provide operating revenues for funding municipal operations, leaders in the Village of Mount Pleasant are looking at ways to diversify the communitys revenue sources.

Mount Pleasant Village Administrator Maureen Murphy told trustees on Monday that Wisconsin municipalities rely on property tax revenues more than those in any other Midwestern state and to a greater degree than most states nationally, referencing the Wisconsin Policy Forum report Dollars and Sense: Is It Time for a New Municipal Financing Framework in Wisconsin.

In Wisconsin, we are unlike any of our sister states around the Midwest in that we are almost completely reliant on property tax dollars to fund our operations, Murphy said. Clearly, that has caused a lot of people to be concerned  Other states are doing  better because they have a more diversified revenue stream.

Wisconsin municipalities rank seventh nationally among states for being the most reliant on property taxes for their revenue, with no other Midwestern state relying so heavily on the property tax and so little on other taxes to pay for municipal services.

Murphy said the WPFs recently released analysis of the villages fiscal condition found that like almost all municipal governments in Wisconsin, the village is highly dependent on a single source of revenue  the property tax  to finance its day-to-day operations.

In the report, it was noted that in 2018 more than $18.2 million of the villages $25.3 million in operating revenues came from local property taxes.

We dont have a diversified revenue stream, Murphy said. Were reliant on one source of revenue. If property values continue to rise were in good shape, but if they go in the other direction  and were unsure what will happen with COVID-19  that would be a problem for us. What do you do when you have a service youre not able to pay for?

County-wide sales tax proposal

Looking at one possible revenue diversification solution, Murphy gave an informational presentation to trustees on a possible proposal for diversifying the villages revenue stream  implementation of a revenue-sharing 0.5% sales tax in Racine County.

Murphy noted the proposal was discussed at a number of meetings of Racine County community leaders, many held pre-COVID, to explore ways to diversify the revenue stream. Attendees included top elected officials and administrators, with Murphy and Village President David DeGroot representing Mount Pleasant.

How do we pay for all these services when were reliant on just one revenue stream? Murphy asked.  One of the items that we all thought would be something worth looking at was a county-wide sales tax.

Under the county sales tax proposal discussed, 50% of the half-percent sales tax collections would go to Racine County, with the other half split between the countys 17 municipalities by population.

Murphy noted Wisconsin State Statue allows counties  without referendum by simple county board action  to enact a countywide -cent sales tax on retail purchases, with revenues generated used to cover general operating expenditures of the individual county imposing the tax.

Racine County has the authority  and the ability  to levy a 0.5% county-wide sales tax on retail purchases, she said. They can do this simply by the adoption of a resolution  its that easy. But is there the will to do it?

Murphy said the consensus of the gathered leaders was to take the information and discuss it locally.

The idea, when the leaders all met, was why dont we have each community consider this presentation and start educating ourselves on what it would mean, how much money is there, would it be possible for Racine County to share some of the revenue with communities within the county

County sales tax widely adopted

Sixty-eight of Wisconsins 72 counties, 94.4%, have enacted a half-percent county sales tax, with proceeds received through monthly distributions from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue. This year, Outagamie County and Menomonee County enacted county-wide sales taxes in January and April respectively.

Murphy noted only four Wisconsin counties  Racine, Manitowoc, Waukesha and Winnebago  have yet to implement a half-percent county sales tax.

Based on Wisconsin Department of Revenue data and Racine Countys current estimated population of 195,584, Murphy said it was a reasonable estimate that a half-percent county sales tax would generate $18,024,787 annually  $91.69 per capita.

By sheer adoption of a resolution and notification to the Department of Revenue, Racine County could begin collecting the $18 million, she noted. One of the areas the group was concerned about  was how do you distribute that  in the fairest way. Equalized value? Population? Number of lane miles if it was used only for roads? It was decided early on that probably the fairest way to do this would be a population-based model, especially for the growth communities. For us, I think it would be reasonably fair.

The population-based revenue sharing model for county sales tax collections, Murphy said, is used in Sheboygan County.

Under the proposed county sales tax distribution model, Murphy said Racine County would receive $9,012,393 in annual sales tax revenues, with the other half divided among the countys 17 municipalities by population.

At a population estimate of 27,014 residents, Murphy said the Village of Mount Pleasant would receive $1,238,467 in annual county sales tax revenues under the proposed model. Among the countys largest municipalities, the City of Racine would receive $3,549,870 in annual county sales tax revenues, with the Village of Caledonia collecting $1,149,518 annually.

That would be if Racine County agreed to it, Murphy cautioned. They dont have to, but the thought process is if we work with our partners at Racine County and told them that there is a need at a very local level, its hoped that they would split it with us  This is an idea. It would be rather gracious and wonderful if they would agree to split half of it  I think it would be an absolutely outstanding partnership if they agreed to split half of it with the communities.

For the proposed half-percent county sales tax and distribution model to become a reality in Racine County, Murphy said all governmental jurisdictions  county and local  would need buy-in to reach a consensus of support, saying the proposal would provide for the long-term financial sustainability of all Racine County and its jurisdictions.

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Gene Frymire, a former Castle Rock mayor and active community volunteer, died in his home Friday at the age of 91.

His family, friends and colleagues remembered him as a humorous and compassionate man who rarely slowed in his efforts to serve his hometown.

My dad was always moving, always going. And he always thought of others before himself, said Frymires daughter, Theresa Stagner. He would give you the shirt off his back, and he would never take a shirt back in return.

There was no moss growing under dads feet. Even the morning he died, he got up and rode his tractor to the mailbox and watered the garden, Stagner added.

Throughout his lifetime, Frymire served on a slew of community organizations, including the No. 129 Sunnyside Grange, the Washington State Grange, the Eagles and American Legion, the Castle Rock Volunteer Fire Department and the Lower Columbia Community Action Program.

Suffice to say, he was on more committees and attended more meetings than any of us could ever count, Stagner said.

Frymire, a Navy veteran, also served more than a decade on the Castle Rock City Council, including two terms as mayor. He was especially passionate about politics, and he often attended council meetings even after stepping down in 2001, his daughter said.

He was always on top of everything going on in the community, whether it was in the city of Castle Rock or Cowlitz County, said current Castle Rock Mayor Paul Helenburg. Id run into Gene at commissioners meetings quite often. ... It wasnt uncommon for him to come to a council meeting, get up and speak.

Although he could be stubborn, Frymire rarely made political enemies, Stagner said. He had a knack for listening to both sides of an argument and, when necessary, respectfully disagreeing.

He was very passionate about his politics, but he could talk to you and you could have a spirited conversation and you could go away being friends, Stagner said.

Howard Mason served on the City Council while Frymire was mayor, and the two men often argued about the citys budget, Mason said. Once Frymire called Mason daddy deep pockets, poking fun at his more spendy budget proposal.

Despite their disagreements, his colleague was a very wonderful individual who never said a discouraging word about anybody, Mason said.

Gene was very caring. He cared about the city and the people. He liked to keep the budget tight, but it wasnt a fault of Genes. He just wanted to keep the taxes low, Mason said.

Frymire was a workers type of mayor who held city staff to high standards, said Dave Vorse, city public works director.

He was one of those people who not just spoke it, but rolled up his sleeves to make it happen, Vorse said.

Frymire also kept his door open to citizens who had questions or concerns, and he was quick to address them.

He had a very listening ear, Vorse said. Hed always say, By golly, we will look into that. He was just a really personal type of mayor, and very approachable.

Frymire never met a stranger, Stagner said. She recounted one family trip during which they lost track of her father while on a ferry ride to Alaska, only to find him two hours later talking to a man hed just met. He knew the gentlemans whole life story, and he had his business card, Stagner laughed.

In 2010, Frymire headed the Granges volunteer effort to add a World War II veterans name to a memorial outside of City Hall. He also manned the Granges booth at the Castle Rock Community Fair.

He was a hard worker. If he had to sit down, he was sitting down thinking of the next project, said Rayna Covington, former city clerk/treasurer.

Frymire became mayor in 1988, shortly after Covington started working with the city. She said he made a great boss because he had defined expectations for an honest days work for an honest pay, but trusted the employees to make their own recommendations on projects.

He also knew how to add levity to the workplace. Early in her career at City Hall, Covington received a call from Senator Snark, a political big-wig with complaints to air. Covington tried to track down more information for Snark until Frymire broke out laughing and admitted it was him.

Frymire is survived by his wife, Joan, and their children Phillip Williamson, Ron Frymire, Mary Rauth, Charlotte Blackman and Stagner.

To sum Gene Frymire up: He was a very caring, loving man, Mason said. He was devoted to his wife, his family, this city, the Grange. Whatever endeavor Gene was embroiled in  hed give it 100%.

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Incumbent Justice Larry Doss has been declared the winner in the race for seventh Court of Appeals in Amarillo.

The Republican reclaimed his seat with an election night win Tuesday against opponent Steven Denny.

Since there is no Democratic challenger, Doss was declared the winner. He takes the bench (again) in January.

Voting turnout in Hale County did not exceed 1,000 over the past two weeks.

The primary runoff election included no local races but winners include:

Republicans

Larry Doss for Justice of the 7th Court of Appeals District, Place 4

Democrats

Mary MJ Hegar for United States Senator

Chrysta Castaneda for Railroad Commissioner

The Democrat candidates won Hale County by narrow margins.

Overall voting totals in Hale County for Hegar were 101 (52.88%) and opponent Royce West received 90 (47.12%) of votes. Overall numbers for Castaneda were 96 (50.79%) of votes and opponent Robert R. Beto Alonzo were 93 (49.21%) of votes.

The Republican race in Hale County was not as close. Doss received 337 (70.65%) of votes while opponent Steven Denny received 140 (29.35%) of votes.

According to The Texas Tribune, which is keeping track of poll numbers (not all mail-in ballots are included yet), Hegar ended the night victorious with an overall 52.1% to Wests 47.9% of votes. West conceded the race Wednesday morning via news release.

Hegar is set to face incumbent Republican Senator John Cornyn in November.

Castaneda was winning the race for Railroad Commissioner with 62% to Alonzos 38% by Wednesday afternoon, according to the Tribunes tracker.

Castaneda will face Republican Jim Wright in November.
Government hospitals in Ludhiana have run out of essential drugs required by thalassemia patients amid the Covid-19 crisis, which has increased the financial burden on patients families.

Struggling because of the unavailability of medicines, many patients have written letters to civil surgeon Dr Rajesh Bagga, urging the official to re-stock the life saving drugs at the government hospital.

In their plea to the civil surgeon, the patients highlighted the exorbitant cost of treatment. On an average, a thalassemia patient spends around Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000 on medicines and treatment per month. The availability of the life-saving drug at government hospitals goes a long way in relieving the patients financial burden.

As many as 300 thalassemia patients are enrolled with the health department. Due to the unavailability of the medicines, families are losing out on their savings, even as patients steadily lose hope of survival.

Patients said essential drugs such as Asunra, Desferal and Rocaltrol have been unavailable since the coronavirus outbreak.

CAN NO LONGER AFFORD TO TAKE THE COMPLETE COURSE

One of the patients wrote, I have been a thalassemia patient for around 25 years. I am undergoing treatment for the same at a charitable hospital. I need five vials of Desferal daily. As the medicines are very costly, I have not been able to afford to complete the daily course due to which my health is being compromised. I am dependent on my father, a shop keeper. It is difficult for him to spend approximately Rs 50,000 a month on my treatment and medicines. I hope some measure will be taken to provide these medicines as soon as possible.

The parent of a thalassemia patient, who did not wish to be named, said, A minimum Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000 is spent each month on treatment. Amid the pandemic, it is not possible to arrange so much money each month. To top it all these lifesaving drugs are not available at government hospitals.

A 30-year-old patient wrote, I would like to draw your attention towards the non-availability of medicines such as Desferal, Rocaltrol and Defrijet. As I am a thalassemia patient, I need four vials of Desferal daily. My father has passed away and mother is a pensioner. It is very difficult for her to spend approximately Rs 55,000 each month on my treatment and medicines. I hope that some measure will be taken to provide these medicines as soon as possible.

Dr Bagga said blood transfusion officer at the civil hospital Dr Gurinderdeep Singh Grewa was dealing with the issue.

Dr Grewal admitted that there was an initial hiccup in the availability of medicines. But for the last one week medicines have been available, he said.

HEALTH DEPT TAKING US FOR A RIDE

However, the patients kin say patients registered with the department have not been informed of the availability of medicines.

The health department is taking us for a ride. If the medicine had been available instead of sitting in the civil surgeons office, we would be visiting the dispensary at ESI hospital to collect the medicine, said an exasperated parent.
The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the bail plea of former chief financial officer (CFO) of Bhushan Steel Nitin Johari who came to court claiming that the fraud alleged against him by the serious frauds investigation office (SFIO) has 287 other accused while he alone was still in jail.

Johari sought a two-month bail citing co-morbid conditions that posed a grave risk to his health in jail. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde remarked, You are the brain behind it as the court refused to accept the argument by Joharis lawyer senior advocate Kapil Sibal that he was just an employee of the company.

The SFIO arrested Johari in May 2019 and filed a charge-sheet the same year claiming that while as CFO, Johari fraudulently obtained letters of credit from banks worth nearly Rs 20,000 crore by furnishing false documents. SFIO further alleged in the chargesheet that during 2016-17, Johari inflated the inventory of raw materials to avail enhanced working capital from lenders.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  When the Indians travel to Pittsburghs PNC Park for an exhibition game on Saturday, fans back home will be able to follow the action. MLB Network announced it will carry a slate of seven summer camp exhibition games across a five-day stretch beginning with the Indians vs. Pirates matchup at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

Other games include the Mets-Yankees on Sunday at 7 and a doubleheader featuring the Yankees-Phillies and Dodgers-Padres on Monday. The network will also carry Astros-Royals at 2 p.m. and Rockies-Rangers at 8 p.m. on Tuesday and Twins-Cubs at 8 p.m. on Wednesday.

Tuesdays game in Texas marks the first ever contest at the new Globe Life Field.

Game times and availability are subject to change, but the network noted that Saturdays game will be available in the Cleveland television territory. SportsTime Ohio will air the second exhibition matchup between the Pirates and Indians from Progressive Field beginning at 7 p.m. Sunday.

The Indians released their 2020 regular-season broadcast schedule on Wednesday featuring four nationally-televised games, including a pair against the Twins on July 30 and Sept. 12.

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New Indians face masks for sale: Heres where you can buy Cleveland Indians-themed face coverings for coronavirus protection, including a single mask ($14.99) and a 3-pack ($24.99). All MLB proceeds donated to charity.

Buy Indians gear: Fanatics, Nike, Amazon, Lids

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Photo: (Photo : Instagram/nicolenoelwalker)

On July 9, six-year-old Bridger Walker stood up to protect his sister from a charging dog. He got 90 stitches on his face after the incident. Marvel heroes, The Hulk and Captain America, could not help but reply about him being a hero.

Nikki Walker, the boy's aunt, posted on Instagram about what happened. She wrote that the dog bit his nephew several times in the head and face. Then, the little boy grabbed his sister's hand and ran away to keep her safe. The Cheyenne, Wyoming young boy later said that if there was someone who would die, it should be him.

Marvel heroes commented

In her viral post, the aunt tagged Bridger's favorite superhero actors from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Two of them have already replied to the post.

The Hulk, Mark Ruffalo, replied and wrote an encouraging comment for the little boy's heroic deed. He said that after reading the post, he wanted to reach out to Bridger. He said that the most heroic and thoughtful people are those who put the wellbeing of others first.

He said that he truly respects and admires the courage of the little boy. Ruffalo explained that real courage is not dominating people or fighting against them, adding that it is neither walking around like a tough guy.

The Hulk also said that real courage is seen when doing what you think is right, even though it might hurt you. He complimented Bridger by saying that he is more of a man than most people that he knows. Ruffalo closed with remarks indicating his admiration for the little boy.

Captain America, Chris Evans, had a conversation with Bridger saying that what he did was so brave and selfless. Evans told him that his sister is so lucky to have him as a big brother. He also said that the boy's parents must be so proud of him.

He said that he would send an authentic Captain America shield because he deserves it. Captain America said that the world needs people like him.

Walker edited her post and showed an updated one about her nephew. She wrote that Bridger is in great spirits with his awesome personality intact. She also wrote that he was grinning after reading some of their comments on the post even though he could not smile widely.

Donation to help the veterans

After the story had become viral, people asked if there is a GoFundMe page so they could help the little hero. Bridger's family asks people to donate to Mission 22 or Wounded Warrior Project if they want to donate for him. These are two organizations that help wounded veterans.

Walker also noted that Bridger loves science, specifically geology. If people see cool rocks, he would love to get pictures of them by sending to the address below:

Bridger Walker

P.O. Box 22141

Cheyenne, WY 82003

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Today the correspondent of the ArmenianReport newspaper Tevos Arshakyan was mentioned during the broadcast of the Echo of Moscow radio station. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Azerbaijan to Russia Polad Bulbul oglu quoted an article by the Armenian author "Russia and the CSTO - fie on you!" The host of "Echo of Moscow" retorted to the Azerbaijani diplomat: "Well, I think they are picking up phrases for you, of course, the brightest on this topic."

However, if you read the full text of Mr. Arshakyan's article, it becomes clear that the quotes cited by the Azerbaijani ambassador are not yet the brightest, and the Armenian journalist skillfully manipulates public opinion, distorting the meaning of what is happening on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, where from noon on July 12, the units of the armed forces Armenia, having violated the ceasefire in the Tovuz region, fired on Azerbaijani positions from artillery installations and tried to seize the combat positions of Azerbaijan.

According to the author of ArmenianReport, Armenia was subjected to "aggression from a neighbor who has gone mad from petrodollars and a large amount of military equipment", but "The Armenian Armed Forces adequately reflect the inclinations of the Azeri military to the Armenian borderland."

In theory, if an occupying army adequately repels aggression, then it does not need help. However, in Yerevan, moving the arrows, she turned to the Collective Security Treaty Organization, calling on the CSTO members to solidarity in the context of the aggravation of the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and mutual support in accordance with the spirit and letter of the organization's charter. The CSTO took note of the information.

Why is it so dry? Because the same Russia, which Mr. Arshakyan is attacking in the first place, remains the mediator in the settlement of the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, and therefore, even if it wishes, cannot take the side of one of the participants. In this case, Moscow can only say "Break!", But not get involved in an armed conflict.

The reaction of the military-political bloc was quite expected - the CSTO stated many times that they were not going to "harness" for Armenia. But the current rejection sparked an overly emotional reaction:

Have you already been foolish at your place in Moscow? Or are you blind? Can't you see who in this case is the victim and who is the aggressor? What restraint is said in Moscow when the second day Azeri artillery works in our settlements in Tavush? You at least look at how Turkey stood up for the defense of Azerbaijan. It is worth recognizing that Ankara openly demonstrates to the whole region that it is a genuine military-political ally of Baku and is even ready for military action for the sake of Azeris. Alas, Armenia cannot boast of such an ally in the person of Russia - the Russians once again betrayed us, leaving us alone with an aggressor armed to the teeth, including Russian weapons. "

Indeed, yesterday the Turkish Foreign Ministry, and today the head of the Turkish Defense Ministry, Hulusi Akar, declared their full support for Azerbaijan against the background of the military escalation, while blaming Armenia for what was happening. Did Yerevan expect another reaction from Ankara? Or, referring to Turkey's support for Azerbaijan, are they trying to play it off against Moscow?

One way or another, Mr. Arshakyan assures readers that it is no longer worth counting on Moscow's support, and he does it in his own very peculiar manner, reminiscent of the style of presenting information of the Georgian journalist Georgy Gabunia. Damn you, shameless ones! Not only are you silent about aggression against a member of the CSTO, you canceled the meeting under any pretext. Everyone is ready to do so as not to help Armenia, if only to please the fuel oil sultanate. It is understandable - both Nazarbayev and Lukashenko, the leaders of Kazakhstan and Belarus, are brothers of Aliyev, wear medals and orders named after his father. Under no circumstances will they quarrel with Aliyev. Moreover, for the sake of democratic Armenia ... They will sell us to Azeris and Turks with giblets, the Armenian journalist predicts.

Indeed, the majority of the CSTO members sympathize with the position of Baku, so it is not entirely clear why Armenia so needed a meeting of the bloc.

Summing up his reasoning, the citizen of democratic Armenia asks himself topical, in his opinion, questions: Maybe its enough for us to play along with the dying empire and it's time, finally, to make the final choice in favor of the West? But first, it is necessary to escort Russian military bases from the territory of Armenia. Why should Armenia feed Russian pigs, which are of no use? "
Bridger Walker, 6, is being hailed as a hero for protecting his 4-year-old sister from a dog attack.

The little boy and his sister were at a friend's house in Wyoming earlier this month when a 1-year-old German Shepherd mix lunged at them while they were outside in the backyard. Without thinking, Bridger stepped in front of his sibling to protect her and was bitten in the face by the dog, his parents said.

He underwent a nearly two-hour surgery that required more than 90 stitches, his parents Robert and Teila Walker said in a statement. Bridger is currently recovering at home.

After his story began to surface online, many people, including celebrities Anne Hathaway and Chris Evans, praised Bridger for his bravery.

Robert and Teila said the scary incident happened on July 9 while Bridger and his sister were hanging out at a friend's house. The children went out into the yard and the friend pointed to a dog and said "that is the nice dog." The friend then pointed to another dog in the yard and said "that is the mean one."

Bridger Walker after receiving stitches. (Courtesy Walker family)

"Bridger explained how, at that moment, the mean one ran at them," the couple said in their statement. "In Bridgers words, 'I stepped to the side, in front of my sister so that the dog wouldnt get her. I kept moving, so it couldnt get past.' "

The dog ran at the children and "latched onto Bridger's cheek," Robert and Teila wrote.

"Bridger explained that when the dog bit him, he yelled for his sister to run," according to the statement. "After the dog released, Bridger ran to his sister and led her to a more secure part of the yard where he thought they would be safe."

The dog's owner was able to secure the German Shepherd and called for help.

"At the hospital, emergency workers immediately wheeled Bridger into a curtained-off area. The only time he cried was when he got the IV," his parents wrote.

The dog's owner wanted to put the canine to sleep, Robert and Teila wrote, but Bridger  who has two dogs himself  did not want it to be killed.

Story continues

"We assured him that the animal police would take care of the dog and that he wouldnt ever need to worry about seeing it again," the statement read.

Bridger Walker and his sister. (Courtesy Walker family)

"Captain America" actor Chris Evans was one of many celebrities moved by Bridger's actions. In an Instagram video shared by Bridger's aunt, Nicole Walker, the little boy  dressed in a Captain America costume  watched a video of Evans praising him for being a hero.

"I read your story. I saw what you did. And I'm sure you've heard a lot of this over the last couple of days but let me be the next one to tell you, you're a hero. What you did was so brave, so selfless. Your sister is so lucky to have you as a big brother. Your parents must be so proud of you," the actor said.

Evans told Bridger that he's going to send him an authentic Captain America shield and wished the little boy a speedy recovery.

Actress Anne Hathaway wrote on Instagram: "Im not an Avenger, but I know a superhero when I see one. I can only hope Im half as brave in my life as you are in yours, Bridger. Wishing you an easeful recovery, and many cool looking rocks."

Other celebrities have also spoken out.

"This young man is an ACTUAL superhero. Praying for his speedy recovery," actor Zachary Levi wrote on Instagram. "@nicolenoelwalker please tell him hes now an honorary member of the @shazammovie 'Shazamily'. Hope I get to shake his hand some day."

Robert and Teila said in their statement that they wanted to share his story to help cheer him up.

"We are so appreciative of all the kind words, love and prayers extended. The love and support we have received astounds us," they said, also thanking his doctors. A spokesperson for the hospital did not immediately return a request for comment.

When Robert asked Bridger why he stepped in front of his sister, the child explained that he wanted to keep her safe.

"Bridger, in his own words and without hesitation, declared: 'If someone had to die, I thought it should be me,' " his parents wrote.
 Read the full article on Motorious

Hide your keys and more if you dont want your ride boosted.

We already know theres a rash of car thefts going on during the coronavirus lockdowns, which seem to be never-ending. Having your car stolen is a horrible feeling. Not only do you have to deal with the bureaucratic insurance company and its never-ending list of procedures, if you truly love your car its an emotional loss akin to having your best friend or dog die. Plus you feel violated that some jerk took what was yours. Thankfully, we have some information about what cities in the United States are the ones where your car is most likely to get swiped. As they say, information is power.

Photo credit: Flickr

This info was compiled using data from the Federal Bureau of Investigations 2018 Uniform Crime Report, with the data broken down into the number of car thefts per 100,000 residents of each city. All municipalities of at least 20,000 people were taken into account, but as youll see its surprisingly many of the big cities youd likely name off didnt lead the way for car theft. Instead, it was midsize cities, most of which are located in large metropolitan areas next to the big cities you might have originally suspected as being car theft hellholes.

Without further delay, here are the seven worst cities in the US for car thefts.

Photo credit: Ford

7. Independence, MO  1,029 car thefts per 100,000 residents

A suburb on the Missouri side of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, this isnt the kind of place where you should even consider leaving your car doors unlocked or the windows down. Back in 2018 the local news highlighted how a Missouri scrap metal law which allows people to sell vehicles more than ten years old to scrap dealers without presenting a vehicle title. For whatever set of reasons, Independence is thieves preferred hunting ground in the state.

6. Gresham, OR  1,132 car thefts per 100,000 residents

Located just east of Portland, this Oregon city is a hotbed for car thefts. Things apparently are getting worse, with the Mount Hood Community College paper reporting late last year that car thefts just on campus were on the rise. Another local news outlet blames the high car theft statistics in Oregon on laws which allow anyone caught driving a stolen vehicle in the state to claim they didnt know it was stolen. HB 2328 was supposed to close that loophole, but it looks to have died in committee last year.

Story continues

Photo credit: Flickr

5. Albuquerque, NM  1,181 car thefts per 100,000 residents

While Walter White might have been fictional, Albuquerque has quite the crime problems, especially when it comes to vehicle thefts. Its so bad that the police department has a Facebook page where people can post information about their car thats been stolen. The police can then respond to the post and encourage people to file an official report.

4. South Salt Lake, UT  1,244 car thefts per 100,000 residents

As the name indicates, this city is just south of Salt Lake City and is a favorite for criminals looking to boost cars. Not surprisingly, car thefts have been on the rise in this Utah city with the lockdowns. In fact, just a few months ago thieves hit an auto shopping, stealing 14 cars in one swoop.

Photo credit: Flickr

3. Richmond, CA  1,1518 car thefts per 100,000 residents

Located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, many people not too familiar with the area havent heard of the city before. It sits just northwest of Berkley, plus its a place where your ride could very well get swiped. And weve seen how in the Bay Area dealerships as well as private citizens have been targeted in a spike of car thefts during riots.

2. East Point, GA  1,646 car thefts per 100,000 residents

Another suburb, this one is located in the Atlanta area and is a place where leaving your car parked in public is certainly a risk. With the recent lockdowns the problem has increased, say multiple local news outlets, just like the nation in general. According to reports, the police feel these crimes have become better organized, a disturbing trend for a city already dealing with too many car thefts.

Photo credit: Flickr

1. Tukwila, WA  2,819 car thefts per 100,000 residents

Another suburb in a major metropolitan area, Tukwila sits just south of Seattle. Considering it tops the list as the highest rate of vehicle theft per 100,000 residents, you might be well-advised to not leave your car in a public parking area while visiting. Whats not great news is just last year the local news reported vehicle thefts were even higher in Tukwila and south Seattle. Police even started giving away free steering wheel locks to help with the problem.

If you must drive in any of the above cities, you might want to take some extra precautions. For one, dont drive a car you absolutely love and leave it anywhere in the open. Also, keep valuables out of sight, lock the doors, and consider installing a kill switch.

Source: 24/7 Wall St.

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India has said that its national Kulbhushan Jadhav was "visibly under stress" as Pakistan did not permit a free conversation between him and the consular officers. They were not given "unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional" access.

India has said that its national Kulbhushan Jadhav was visibly under stress as Pakistan did not permit a free conversation between him and the consular officers on Thursday and they were not given unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional access.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said in a statement that the conversation between Jadhav and consular officers was being recorded as evident from a camera and the consular access offered by Pakistan was neither meaningful nor credible. The spokesperson said that Pakistani officials with an intimidating demeanor were present in close proximity of Jadhav and consular officers despite the protests of the Indian side.

He said Jadhav himself was visibly under stress and indicated that clearly to the consular officers.

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External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar apprised the family of Jadhav of the developments.

The spokesperson said that the government was committed to ensuring the safe return of Jadhav to Indi and will decide on a future course of action in the light of the events today.

The consular officers were not given unimpeded, unhindered, and unconditional access to Jadhav. On the contrary, Pakistani officials with an intimidating demeanor were present in close proximity of Jadhav and consular officers despite the protests of the Indian side. It was also evident from a camera that was visible that the conversation with Jadhav was being recorded, the statement said.

Jadhav himself was visibly under stress and indicated that clearly to the consular officers. The arrangements did not permit a free conversation between them. The consular officers could not engage Jadhav on his legal rights and were prevented from obtaining his written consent for arranging his legal representation, it added.

The statement said, the Indian consular officers came to the conclusion that the consular access being offered by Pakistan was neither meaningful nor credible in the light of these circumstances and left the venue after lodging a protest.

The spokesperson said that Pakistans approach to this matter continues to be obstructive and insincere.

It has not only violated its assurance to the ICJ to fully implement the 2019 judgment but also failed to act in accordance with its own ordinance, the statement said.

The statement said that over the past year, India has requested Pakistan more than 12 times to provide unimpeded, unhindered, and unconditional consular access to Jadhav, who remains incarcerated in Pakistani custody since 2016.

This consular access is of utmost importance as it is the basis for a process of effective review and reconsideration ordered by the ICJ in July 2019 of the conviction and sentence of Jadhav by a Pakistani military tribunal, it said.

In May 2020, Pakistan passed an ordinance, ostensibly to comply with the order of the International Court of Justice.

It inter-alia envisaged the consular officer of the High Commission of India filing a petition before a High Court for the relevant review and reconsideration. In that context, the contacts and conversations between the Consular Officer and Jadhav assume great importance, the statement said.

India recently requested the Pakistani side for an unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional consular access to be provided on July 13.

Pakistan was asked to ensure that the meeting is held in an atmosphere free from fear of retribution and without the presence of any Pakistani official in the vicinity of Jadhav and the Indian consular officials.

Pakistan was also requested to not record (video and audio) the meeting.

The statement said that despite Pakistans assurance of ensuring unhindered consular access to Jadhav, the environment and the arrangements of the meeting were not in accordance with the assurances of Islamabad.

After extensive discussions, the Pakistan side conveyed that they were ready to organize consular access on July 16. We were assured that this consular access would be unimpeded, unhindered, and unconditional. On the basis of this assurance by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, two consular officers of the High Commission proceeded to the meeting with Jadhav.

Regrettably, however, neither the environment nor the arrangements of the meeting were in accordance with the assurances of Pakistan, the statement said.

The spokesperson said that any conversation between Jadhav and High Commission officials must necessarily take place in privacy and without the presence of any Pakistani official or recording by Pakistan.

It is only then that Jadhav can speak freely without any concerns of reprisal as he remains in Pakistani custody after the meeting. It is already evident that Jadhav has been intimidated repeatedly in the past, including in being made to express his alleged disinclination to seek a review, the spokesperson said.

Pakistan claims that Jadhav was arrested from Balochistan in 2016 on charges of espionage. India has rejected Pakistans allegations and said he was kidnapped from the Iranian port of Chabahar.

In early 2017, a Pakistani military court sentenced him to death. In May 2017, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) stayed his execution.

In July last year, the ICJ, by a vote of 15-1, had upheld Indias claim that Pakistan has committed an egregious violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations on several counts.

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When the US imposed sanctions on four Chinese officials over Chinas crackdown on Uighurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang, Beijing reciprocated by announcing travel bans and sanctions on prominent Republican members of Congress

China on Wednesday sharply criticised President Donald Trumps moves to strip Hong Kong of its preferential trading status with the United States and clear the way for new sanctions on officials and companies there, vowing to retaliate with punitive measures of its own.

The response from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing promised to continue a pattern of tit-for-tat punishments that have accompanied the sharp downward turn in relations between the two countries on a variety of fronts, from trade to technology to human rights.

China was swift to criticise Trumps latest actions, which he announced at a rambling White House news conference on Tuesday. Those moves, along with his remarks, underscored the extent to which relations with Beijing have become intertwined with the US presidential election.

Trump said he had issued an executive order revoking the special trading status that Hong Kong had enjoyed for more than two decades, following the Chinese governments imposition of a sweeping new national security law there. The law came into force on 30 June, and its chilling effect on political freedoms in the city  which, under a formula called one country, two systems, is supposed to have a high degree of autonomy from China  has already been evident in a series of arrests and police raids.

Trump also signed legislation, adopted overwhelmingly in May by Congress, that authorises the administration to impose sanctions on officials or institutions, including banks, that were found to have undermined Hong Kongs semi-autonomous status.

His executive order, besides revoking the territorys special trading status, calls for sanctions against people deemed to have been involved in a variety of acts in Hong Kong, including arrests made under the new security law and actions that undermine democratic processes or limit the news medias freedoms.

Officials in Beijing had clearly anticipated the moves, but they reacted harshly nonetheless.

The act on the United States side maliciously denigrates Hong Kongs national security legislation, threatens to impose sanctions on China and gravely violates international law and basic rules of international relations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement posted on Wednesday morning in China, not long after Trump finished speaking.

It is gross interference in Hong Kong affairs and Chinas internal affairs, the ministry said.

The Hong Kong government said in a statement that the United States was using human rights, democracy and autonomy as an excuse to introduce measures aimed at attacking China.

The impact of the new powers detailed in the US law and Trumps executive order remains to be seen. Congress has authorised similar measures before, only to have the administration delay imposing them as it weighed other foreign policy considerations, including Trumps signature trade deal with China.

With relations deteriorating badly and the pandemics toll mounting in the United States, the administration has acted more aggressively in recent weeks.

When the United States imposed sanctions on four Chinese officials over Chinas crackdown on Uighurs and other Muslims in the far western region of Xinjiang, Beijing reciprocated by announcing travel bans and sanctions on prominent Republican members of Congress.

Lau Siu-kai, a senior advisor to the Chinese government on Hong Kong policy, said the US actions would have limited effect on Hong Kong and would, contrary to the intent of the United States, drive the territory closer to mainland China.

The overall damage to Hong Kong and to China is rather minimal and can be absorbed, said Lau, a former senior Hong Kong government official who is now with the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies.

He said Hong Kong was becoming increasingly detached from the United States and the West, and increasingly attached to China and Asia.

Others said the US actions could have more significant effects by hurting the citys reputation for openness and rule of law. That could affect companies as well as academia.

The only way we can regain the respect and favourable conditions that we deserve is if Beijing fulfils its original promise to the world and Hong Kong people, which is the genuine implementation of one country, two systems and our high degree of autonomy, said James To, a pro-democracy Hong Kong lawmaker.

Steven Lee Myers c.2020 The New York Times Company
The hatred towards the Uyghurs, who are considered to be ethnic Turks, has led to major demographic changes. The Chinese state has been settling the Han population, the dominant ethnic group in the country, in the area in an attempt at hanification of Xinjiang province.

An expansionist China is not just a threat to its neighbours but also a trouble maker for its ethnic minorities. While the situation of the Tibetans under the dominance of the Chinese is known across the world, the plight of the Uyghur Muslims, in the face of the stranglehold policy of the country that is threatening to decimate several ethnic minorities, has largely gone unnoticed.

Residing in Chinas Xinjiang province in the western part of the country, the Uyghur Muslims are considered to be a threat by the Communist government of China. The hatred towards the Uyghurs, who are considered to be ethnic Turks, has led to major demographic changes in the region. The Chinese state has been settling the Han population, the dominant ethnic group in the country, in the area in an attempt at hanification of Xinjiang province. It is thought to be the precursor of a larger plan of the Communist Party of China to erase Uyghurs off the map through genocide, rapes, mass exodus and re-education plan.

The Chinese government has been repeatedly criticised by the United Nations Human Right Council for its mass detention of the Uyghur community. Despite several Western countries like the US and Canada taking up the calls, China is yet to budge from its activities. According to various estimates, China has detained over one million Uyghurs in internment camps. The Chinese have tried to maintain an iron grip over the Xinjiang province as the area is a major logistical hub for the countrys ambitious belt and road initiatives. Words cannot explain the horrific torture Uyghurs face from the Chinese  their women raped, men abducted, children separated. But the biggest crime is denying the Uyghurs the right to practice their faith.

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At the internment camps, the detainees are forced to pledge loyalty to the Communist Party and renounce Islam. Most of them are forced to learn Mandarin, the dominant language of the country, and many are forced to separate from their families, forever. The processes and policies adopted by the Chinese dictatorial regime, for decades, have forced the Uyghurs into isolation and left them to suffer in silence. However, some brave journalists have been able to provide the World a peek into the human rights violation and genocide of the ethnic Uyghurs.

Despite such details coming out of the country on a regular basis, the Islamic countries of the world have decided to maintain a stoic silence over the issue of human rights violation of Uyghur Muslims. In fact, most Muslim countries, like Pakistan, have contributed to the plight of Xinjiangs Muslims. While the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a 57-country consortium that calls itself the collective voice of the Muslim world, have responded vehemently against the alleged atrocities committed by the Myanmar government against the Rohingyas, they have been rather muted in the criticism of China even when horror stories of Xinjiangs internment camps continue to pile up.

However, in recent years, the OIC did once acknowledge disturbing reports of Beijings Muslim crackdown, but later it rowed back its comments. It even went as far as saying that it commends the efforts of the Peoples Republic of China in providing care to its Muslim citizens.

But all the worlds conscience is not lost. Last year, 23 countries banded together to condemn Chinas oppression of its Muslim minority and called upon the country to put a stop to arbitrary detention in the province. However, most Muslim nations were again found to be conspicuously absent from the statement. In fact, many Muslim countries are openly defending China in its crackdown against Uyghurs. It is high time that the Muslim world looks beyond their economic motives and come out in support for the rights of the Uyghur community, which has been facing unprecedented atrocities at the hands of the Godless communist regime.

Citizens of the Islamic nations also need to force their governments to take a strict stand against the Chinese government which is hell-bent at permanently altering the demographic nature of the Xinjiang province. Unless there is worldwide support for the Uyghurs, their future under the Chinese regime will continue in the dark phase.

Vivek Bansal is former Media Consultant to Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India. He is currently working as a poll strategist and digital media professional.

Also read: China vows to retaliate as US ends preferential treatment
"Nova is disrupting the PE industry and Pierre is going to be the leader to take both Power Digital and our clients in this space to the next level, said Grayson Lafrenz, CEO of Power Digital.

Power Digital, a tech-enabled growth marketing agency announced today the addition of Vice President of Private Equity, Pierre Le Veaux, to lead its private equity business unit harnessing the power of Power Digitals proprietary technology, SPRnova (nova). Le Veaux brings an extensive portfolio to Power Digital, with more than 10 years of experience from his previous roles as banker at Goldman Sachs, to advising private equity (PE), venture capital (VC), hedge fund founders and general partners as well as family-owned and operated businesses on a global scale. Le Veaux joins the team shortly after Power Digitals launch of nova, an AI and machine learning-powered technology platform, which enables PE firms to make data-driven decisions for a better diligence process and smarter investments.

I am tremendously excited to join Power Digital, as the opportunities to add value to the investment community and its portfolio companies are endless, said Pierre Le Veaux, VP of private equity at Power Digital. Through proprietary technology, Power Digital is in a unique position to provide PE and VC firms with objective analytics and unique insights that are directly tied to revenue and helping end-users execute on tailored plans.

Le Veaux served as Senior Director at Banc of California, where he provided financial solutions to alternative investment and real estate principles with underlying portfolio assets. Through this experience, Le Veaux brings the expertise needed to grow Power Digitals PE business offering, advising investment firms on how to further expand their solutions tool kit with insightful digital marketing analytics and tangible quantitative outcomes.

"Nova is disrupting the PE industry and Pierre is going to be the leader to take both Power Digital and our clients in this space to the next level, said Grayson Lafrenz, CEO of Power Digital. So much of what we see through our current PE partnerships lacks data, strategy and automated ways to assess opportunities. nova streamlines this with more than five years of data to uncover what's working, what's not and how to most effectively empower business and revenue growth. Our vision for Pierre is aligned with his strengths and proven track record. It's the perfect storm of great leadership plus technology that brings innovation to an industry that so desperately needs it."

nova drives quick wins in efficiency and volume, combining quantitative and qualitative data sets across all digital marketing channels to provide strategic recommendations, from where to fuel underutilized strategies and recommended pivots to drive performance. The AI and machine learning platform ultimately decreases cost per acquisition and increases conversion rates, driving revenue growth as efficiently as possible.

About Power Digital

Power Digital is a leading, data-driven performance marketing agency located in San Diego, Calif. As a full-service agency, the company offers services including: SEO, Content Marketing, Paid Media, Social Media Marketing, PR, Influencer, Email, Conversion Rate Optimization, Amazon Marketing and Web Development. Power Digitals newest and most innovative service offering is nova, a technology platform powered by AI and machine learning that identifies growth opportunities and provides strategy recommendations through quantitative and qualitative data analyses. Power Digital helps brands scale revenue and increase profits through customer acquisition and retention programs. Its tech-enabled B2C and B2B marketing campaigns focus on measurability and driving bottom line business results. The Power Digital teams family mentality and growth mindset culture fosters a strong work ethic, innovation and an ownership mentality from its talented team. For more information, please visit powerdigitalmarketing.com.


Dr Thomas Abraham: An NRI trailblazer rallying the Indian-American community

US has seen an explosive growth of the Indian community over the past six decades. As per the latest data available on the Indian Ministry of External Affairs website, it is home to the largest Indian diaspora of any single country in the world.

Dr Abraham is also credited with coining the term PIO, which today is widely used to refer to members of the Indian diaspora. Photo courtesy: FCC

Dr Thomas Abraham, Chairman of GOPIO (Global Organization for People of Indian Origin) International is one such trailblazer, an NRI who emigrated to the US in the 1970s and built the foundation for todays flourishing Indian-American community. A respected community leader, his achievements and contributions have been recognised by various Indian governments over the years.

The Indian diaspora is the fastest-growing ethnic community in the world. Right now, we contribute the most in terms of remittances. Many of Indias economic and technological advances in the past 30 years can be attributed to NRIs who have returned home, Dr Abraham told Connected to India.

An engineer and metallurgist by training, Dr Abraham is the president and Founder of Innovative Research and Products Inc, an industry and market analysis company based in Stamford, Connecticut. Dr Abraham has been conducting market research in advanced materials for 30 years and is experienced both as a materials scientist and a technical-economic analyst in the field of advanced and nanomaterials, electronic components and nanotechnology.

Dr Thomas Abraham (centre) at the Indian Consulate in New York with Consul-General of India Sandeep Chakravorty (right) at the inauguration of the emergency passport and visa application facilities. Photo courtesy: CGI, New York

The beginning

Dr Abrahams public service and involvement with the Indian community started in 1974 when he mobilised student groups under the India Club of Columbia University. He was elected as its president in 1975.

I came here as a student in 1973 when the US had a shortage of engineers and doctors, Dr Abraham said. I came to study Metallurgy at Columbia University. Going back to that time, all our universities had Indian students and faculty, in addition to doctors, nurses and engineers in New York, who made up the Indian community.

Dr Abraham (Centre, back row) and a GOPIO delegation meeting then-External Affairs Minister of India Sushma Swaraj (centre) in New York in 2018. Photo courtesy: CGI-New York

In 1976, Dr Abraham became the Chairman of a body known as the Joint Committee of India Organisations, which he subsequently renamed as the Federation of Indian Associations (FIA) of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut in 1977. He served as president from 1976-81.

At a time when there were only a handful of Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) in the United States, Dr Abraham envisioned uniting them under one group. After seeing the grand success of FIA, he decided to bring the numerous FIAs from around the nation under the single umbrella of the National Federation of Indian-American Associations (NFIA) in 1980, with the next step being the creation of the Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) in 1989.

Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO)

GOPIO was formed at a conference in New York City and the Government of India extended its support and sent a delegation headed by Madhav Rao Scindia.

Incidentally, Dr Abraham is also credited with coining the term PIO, which today is widely used to refer to members of the Indian diaspora.

(From left) Dr Thomas Abraham, Chairman of GOPIO International, Dr Pradip Sewoke, Chairman of GOPIO Europe Convention & GOPIO International Europe Coordinator and Ryan Tewari, GOPIO International Coordinator at large. Photo courtesy: GOPIO

I served as the first president of the Federation of Indian Associations of New York in 1980 and the National Federation of Indian American Associations, he recalled. At that time when we were taking broader issues of the Indian American community, the major concern was the discrimination and human rights abuses the Indian communities in different parts of the world were facing.

From there, GOPIO spread to various parts of the world such as the West Indies, Guyana, Fiji, South Africa and other countries to combat human rights violations against Indians abroad in an organised manner.

Today, the organisation has branches in over 40 countries and links members of the Indian community across the globe.

Our organisation played a major role in bringing the community together and rallying them in politics and business, Dr Abraham told Connected to India.

In addition to helping the Indian community in politics and business, GOPIO assists organisations in various ways.

Apart from planning Indian food banquets and Bollywood film screenings to give expats a taste of home, diaspora organisations in the US have also managed to raise substantial sums of money which they began remitting back to India as far back as 1990.

A prime example of this comes from 1991 when the India Club in New York provided Dr Kiran Seth, the founder of the Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture Amongst Youth (SPIC-MACAY), with USD 15,000 in startup funds. SPIC-MACAY is one of Indias most prominent cultural non-profit organisations today.

GOPIOs growing influence and COVID-19 crisis management

Over the years, diaspora organisations have gone from strength to strength with the growth and success of the Indian community in the US.

GOPIO USA doing its bit in the fight against CovId-19by delivering N95 masks to Stamford Hospital with Chairman Dr Thomas Abraham (right). Photo courtesy: GOPIO-CT

GOPIOs influence among Indian-Americans today is evident with the smooth way the organisation helped out with the COVID-19 crisis. Helping students, getting doctors prescriptions for stranded Indian tourists and providing online webinars that were both entertaining and informative in conjunction with the Indian consulate are just some of the ways the organisation has helped during the US lockdown.

We were locally involved to provide PPEs to hospitals and also provided volunteer services and items to hospitals and homeless shelters, Dr Abraham said.

He added that it was the need of the hour to prepare and implement a strong restart plan after COVID-19 for business partnerships growth and expansion, with India-American business community in a perfect position to affect Indo-US relations for generations ahead.

GOPIO-Connecticut officials with Dr Thomas Abraham (2nd from left). Photo courtesy: GOPIO

Dr Abraham also called upon the Indian government to allow all OCI cardholders to travel to India in these testing times and said that the Indian government should promulgate dual citizenship for overseas citizens.

I think former citizens of India and children of NRIs should get full citizenship, including the right to vote, instead of the current OCI system, he said. We (the diaspora) would be happy to make the process simpler for the government if they want it done. Other countries are already doing it.
People of Dundalk are used to aeroplanes flying over North Louth in the 21st century but the skies over the old Town has been eerily quiet over the past four months, due to the Covid 19 pandemic! The con-trails, however, are beginning to creep black into the 'blue patches' on fine mornings in recent weeks and I find myself looking up to try to spot them. These giant liners of the skies are flying so high that you can scarcely hear the sound of them until after they have passed but modern technology has made it possible for ordinary folk to know exactly what sort of 'planes they are, where they are going and, maybe, even their cargo. A neighbour of mine has an app on his smartphone which can reveal this sort of information.

All this has got me to wondering what it must have been like for people who had never seen an aeroplane previously? Young people might be forgiven for thinking that this was something from the dim and distant past that has passed forever but I can recall, from my own youth, old people telling me of the wonder of seeing a 'heavier than air' machine, as they were once called, for the very first time!

This very thought has come back to me during the 'lock-down' when I came across an old journal loaned to me by the late Canice O'Mahony over a decade ago which, to my discredit, I never returned. It is an edition of The Irish Sword, the Journal of Military History Society of Ireland, in which there is a description of the very first squadron of the Royal Flying Corps to reach Ireland in September 1913.

The article was written by a Guy Warner about whom I know little. It is about the flight of six military aircraft from a military base at Montrose in Scotland which were being transferred to a base near Limerick. They departed from Montrose and landed on a beach at Newcastle, near the Slieve Donard Hotel at 1.50 pm on September 1, 1913.

There had been other 'flying machines' in air over Ireland before that date and, indeed, I have read that Harry Ferguson, the famous designer of a make of farm tractor, was the first Irishman to make and fly his own plane in County Down on a earlier date, to whom there is a aeroplane monument near Hillsboro.

This flight in 1913 was something very different because it included an aircraft that was to be the very first to land in Dundalk 107 years ago. It was a bi-winged craft called a Maurice Farman Longhorn and it was flown by an Englishman who was born in Dublin in 1881when his mother was visiting his Irish grandmother. His name was Captain George Dawes who had served in the Royal West Surrey Regiment of the British Army and joined the Flying Corps in 1912. I wonder if he has any relatives still living in Ireland?

To cut a long story short, the Sword article records that, while most of the squadron flew directly to Dublin --- 'Captain Dawes broke his journey at the Royal Field Artillery Barracks in Dundalk'. The article quotes a report from the 'Dundalk Examiner' dated September 1913 which reads ---

'On Monday evening about 4 o'clock the machine was first sighted in the direction of Carlingford when it appeared as a mere speck above the horizon. It seemed to have claimed the attention of the inhabitants of the air first, many birds being much perturbed in the vicinity of Dundalk Bay. Soon the airman was steering his course up the Bay, taking practically the same line as a ship entering the Harbour would have taken.'

Dawe's first attempt at landing was aborted, as he was too close to a boundary fence. Some horses (military?) had to be removed from the field and he took the opportunity to circle the Town. As he did so, the crowd began to gather.

'This time he came right over the fence and alighted in quite a central position with a precision and smoothness that evoked much favourable comment. This was Dundalk's first experience of the landing of an aircraft.'

The article by Warner goes on to state that --- 'Dawes commented that he had maintained a height of 3,000 feet and that he had covered about 65 miles (from the beach at Newcastle?) in about an hour.

During the course of the evening many local people took the opportunity to visit the Barracks grounds to view the aeroplane. About 3,000 gathered the following afternoon to watch the departure.'

'After running a short distance the machine gracefully and gradually ascended. The spectators cheered enthusiastically but, in a few minutes, the aeroplane was lost to sight.'

This local newspaper report would seem to indicate that, while this was the first aeroplane to land in the area, there may have been others seen in the air over North Louth at an earlier date.

I wonder who wrote the report? Was it by any chance Paddy Duffy, of Clanbrassil Street, who later was to write 'The Book of Dundalk', whom I know was a young reporter working for the Examiner in I913. Strangely he does not mention the incident in his book published in 1946 but then a lot had changed in Dundalk over the thirty years in between!
Delaware River Waterfront Corporation workers install signs inviting the public to share ideas at the Christopher Columbus monument at Penns Landing in Philadelphia on Thursday, June 18, 2020. The corporation, which maintains the monument, boarded up the bottom of the statue, which is painted so that people can use chalk to write on it while it considers whether to remove it. Read more

Imagine watching the statue of one of your cultural icons being torn down. Now imagine the statue of someone who committed genocide coming down. This could be the same statue, viewed by two different people with different backgrounds.

Thats whats happening in Philadelphia  and across the country  right now. It has been almost two months since George Floyds death at the hands of police, and Philadelphia, like many other metro areas, has been protesting for almost as long. Many cities are seeing the benefits of their work, with reforms enacted to protect civilians and hold police accountable, and funds are being allocated for mental health care and to benefit underserved communities. For some places, change includes the removal of memorials honoring controversial figures.

 READ MORE: Rizzo, Columbus statue defenders are back in court, challenging city handling of memorials

Emotions are running high, and some members of the Italian American community are reeling over the removal of Christopher Columbus statues. Critics of Columbus rightly note that the legacy of the explorer includes the massacre and enslavement of Native peoples.

But ultimately, removal of his statues oversimplifies history and instead prioritizes symbolic changes when we need concrete ones.

Columbus is seen as an icon for many, one that Italians attached themselves to in the late 1800s, when xenophobia was rampant and Italians were ostracized and sometimes killed, like during an 1891 mass lynching of 11 Italians in New Orleans. Some Italian Americans elevated Columbus to seem more than a man  a legend that touted Italian contributions to the U.S., with hopes of gaining respect for Italian people. A year after the New Orleans lynching, to mark 400 years since Columbus ship encountered America, President Benjamin Harrison officially declared Columbus Day a national holiday.

Harrisons intentions were understandable, but at the same time, researcher Kathryn Anastasi asserts that propping up Columbus inadvertently helps Italian Americans take part in the U.S. custom of violent denial of the existences of indigenous peoples and promote the erasure of [real] Italian American history, in exchange for a distinct Italian American history that the mainstream finds acceptable.

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Anastasi supports what many know: Columbus reputation is not in fact great. Columbus wasnt the first explorer in the Americas, which he happened to bump into trying to find the East Indies. He is heralded, despite the fact that, after he touched down in the Caribbean, the Taino population dwindled from 250,000 to a few hundred. That is because he rounded up thousands against their will to be enslaved back in Spain.

Still, regardless of ones opinion on Columbus, local leaders should ask themselves: What will be accomplished by removal? Will marginalized communities suddenly trust officials? Statues are symbolic, just like removing them. We cant stop at symbolic change. We need an action plan that begins to heal the wounds of minority communities, not proverbial bandages.

That plan should include policies and procedures that provide equity for marginalized communities. Lets start by banning chokeholds across Pennsylvania, and prioritizing de-escalation from police. Nationally, we should enforce penalties for racially motivated 911 calls (like Amy Coopers in New York). Law enforcement in Philly and beyond need to hold themselves accountable, like Louisville, Ky., police need to arrest Breonna Taylors killers.

Beyond law enforcement, every profession that is directly responsible for the lives of others  not just police, but in hospitals, courts, and schools as well  should require implicit bias and diversity training. And governments must recognize the importance of, then fund, arts and after-school programs for underserved communities.

 READ MORE: 3 black Philadelphians whose statues should replace Frank Rizzo | Opinion

As for the statues already being taken down: Lets replace them with admirable figures. For the Italian American community: How about a saint like Mother Cabrini? She was an Italian American nun and the patron saint of immigrants, so how could she not be a unifying figure? What about Leonardo da Vinci? St. Francis of Assisi?

Its time for Philadelphia, and other cities, to implement changes that dont just topple historic eyesores but will alter the course of history toward equality and equity.

Tonya Russell is a freelance journalist based in South Jersey.
TORONTO - A new report that ranks North American cities on their ability to attract tech talent has put Toronto at No. 4, giving it the top spot in Canada.

Commercial real estate firm CBRE reached that conclusion by assessing 50 cities on 13 attributes, including tech-talent supply, cost of living, educational degrees and real estate prices.

Torontos ranking was down one spot from last year, as Washington, D.C.  chosen in 2018 to be host of Amazons second quarters  jumped two spots to No. 2 after the San Francisco Bay Area.

Seattle  home of Amazons original head quarters  slipped one notch to No. 3 and New York City stayed at No. 5.

Vancouver retained its 12th position in the rankings, Ottawa jumped five spots to No. 14, Montreal dropped three levels to No. 16 and Calgary made its debut in the Top 50 in the 34th slot.

CBRE said Toronto gained 66,900 or 36.5 per cent more tech jobs over the past five years, the second-most after the Bay Area over that time frame.

The report says the average tech worker salary in Toronto rose by 11.2 per cent to reach $84,986, keeping it a much more affordable market for talent than many U.S. cities it studied.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 15, 2020.
Rains lead to heavy flooding inside the hospitals in Hyderabad. The water entered the patient wards also, the staff tried to block the flow using metal beds but it turned futile.

After two weeks rest in the Farmhouse also, it seems The Chief Minister of Telangana KCR is not that much serious about Covid19 cases in the state. He has not conducted any review meeting and taking any steps in this direction. Rains lead to heavy flooding inside the Osmania General Hospital premises. The water entered the patient wards also. the staff tried to block the flow using metal beds but it turned futile. Osmania hospital is historic and one one of the biggest hospitals in the state of Telangana. It tests COVID 19 samples and people are in institutional quarantine.

On the other hand, there is a mismanagement of Government hospitals in Telangana. there are many allegations on Gandhi hospital regarding swapping of dead bodies and refusing to treat patients. About one thousand nurses and outsourced staff at the Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad continued their strike to demand better facilities and salaries. its is a first designated Covid-19 hospital.

One sanitation worker told the Daily Guardian,  we dont even get 8 thousand rupees per month salary. We clean COVID patients beds and sweep all the hospital in the time of crisis. Earlier, junior doctors of Gandhi Hospital held a protest when relatives of a Covid-19 patient attacked them following his death. Doctors resumed their duties after three days of protest and an assurance from the government.

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After two days of protests by The outsourcing staff and nurses in Gandhi Hospital, The government has assured to look into the problems faced by them. the Nurses, who were getting Rs 17,500 per month, would now get Rs 25,000 and also a COVID-19 incentive of Rs 7,500. Sanitation personnel would also get a hike in wage. The officials agreed for their demand of 15-day work in a month in the COVID time and those who are on the duty to take care of COVID patients to get Rs.300 extra per day. on the assurance, They have resumed work but whether the government will fulfil its promise or not, only time will tell.

Also read: India and EU natural partners: PM Modi at virtual summit

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The smear campaign  which had 25,000 tweets in just 24 hours  was led by numerous high-profile Saudi Twitter accounts.

The International Press Institute (IPI) has condemned the phone hacking and smear campaign against Al Jazeera Arabics senior presenters Ghada Oueiss and Ola Fares, terming it a campaign of intimidation.

Led by numerous high-profile Saudi Twitter accounts, the smear campaign  which had 25,000 tweets in just 24 hours on June 2  included spreading private photos of Oueiss that were hacked from her mobile phone.

We are appalled at the vicious online attacks on Ghaida Oueiss and Ola Fares, which not only aim to discredit their work and reputation but also silence them through a campaign of intimidation, Barbara Trionfi, the IPIs executive director, said in a statement on Wednesday.

These types of attacks threaten press freedom through the toll they can take on victims, leaving them wondering whether it is worth covering the news and present[ing] the facts, Trionfi noted.

Unfortunately, this is very likely what the organizers of coordinated campaigns aim at, which is why it is important to stand in solidarity with journalists subject to such abuse.

The campaign was also condemned by Agnes Callemard, the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings who led an investigation into Khashoggis 2018 murder and was herself targeted online.

Previous IPI research has shed light on how powerful state actors have increasingly resorted to online harassment and smear campaigns as a strategy to control the narrative and intimidate critical voices into silence.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp sued Thursday to stop Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms from mandating masks be worn in the city to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The legal actions comes after prominent Democratic mayors in the state pledged to challenge an executive order by Kemp barring local mask mandates. Bottoms defiantly declared, I am not afraid of the city being sued.

Kemp made that a reality, writing on Twitter that his lawsuit "is on behalf of the Atlanta business owners and their hardworking employees who are struggling to survive during these difficult times."

"We will fight to stop these reckless actions and put people over pandemic politics," Kemp wrote.

On Wednesday, Kemp banned localities from ordering people to wear masks in public to stop the spread of coronavirus. Mayors across the state hit back at Kemp and accused him of playing politics during a pandemic.

From the coastal city of Savannah to the county that holds the University of Georgia to the state capital, local officials have ordered Georgia residents to mask up while in public as cases continue to rise .

Its my belief that the city of Atlanta still has the appropriate standing to mandate masks, Bottoms said at a news conference on Thursday . Especially as it relates to buildings and places that we own and operate.

Mayor Van Johnson of Savannah told MSNBC on Thursday that he was flabbergasted by Kemps Wednesday order.

On one hand were fighting Covid. On the other hand were fighting our governor, Johnson said. Our hands should be totally and unequivocally working to fight this virus, but unfortunately, for whatever reason, our governor has chosen and continuously chosen to make a public health emergency into some type of political issue.

Johnson vowed to continue to provide masks in his city and wrote on Twitter that Kemp does not give a damn about his constituents. Savannahs mask mandate went into effect on July 1 .

In Athens-Clarke County, Mayor Kelly Girtz also blasted the governors executive order, which voided the countys ordinance that required masks to be worn in public.

Story continues

We wanted science to lead us, Girtz told CNN, adding that he had been in contact with other mayors and that he believed the local mask orders would stand.

In Texas, in Alabama, youve got Republican governors understanding that the science has got to lead the way, Girtz said. Even if there were some reluctance earlier in this bizarre national environment that weve been in, at the end of the day we need to protect the health of the people who live here.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said it was the role of local governments to dictate mask policies and said the president was not considering a nationwide mandate.

We leave it to localities to make the decisions with regard to face coverings, McEnany said at a Thursday press briefing.

Republicans across the South are challenging mask mandates and claiming they infringe on personal freedoms.

Louisianas attorney general, Jeff Landry, released an official statement this week arguing that Gov. John Bel Edwards statewide mask mandate was unconstitutional . In Florida, a Republican state legislator is suing localities on the grounds that their mask mandates violate the states constitution.

A similar conflict surrounding Kemp flared up in the spring, when he drew criticism from both Republicans and Democrats for trying to reopen the states economy. While Kemp opposes mask mandates, he is publicly urging Georgians to wear masks voluntarily .

Anthony Fauci, a public face of the Trump administration's coronavirus efforts, dismissed Thursday the narrative that enforcing measures to promote public health  including mask wearing and social distancing  were antithetical to shoring up the economy.

Speaking during a discussion with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Fauci said there was a widening disparity in the number of cases between parts of the Northeast and several Southern states, where lockdowns have been more lax.

"There has been this unusual and unfortunate mindset of there is public health measures and there is getting the economy back and these are opposing measures," Fauci said. "We should be looking at public health measures as a vehicle or a gateway to opening the country again, to getting the economy back."

Georgia has recorded 3,091 coronavirus deaths and 127,834 cases as of Thursday, according to The COVID Tracking Project .

It has nothing to do with politics, Johnson, the mayor of Savannah, told CNN on Thursday afternoon. Its about protecting our folks.

Matthew Choi contributed reporting.
If one appreciates in-your-face, unsubtle art stylings, the newest poster design from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and his visualization of Covid-19s New York slam wont disappoint.

Images of Cuomos daughters. His dog. One of his daughters boyfriends. His now famous mountain imagery to depict the Covid-19 infection rate line in New York. A plane depicting his ongoing narrative that European travelers were to blame for New Yorks woes. President Trump depicted as Covid-19 hapless with this nearby quote: Its just the flu.

Cuomos design is Cuomo-centric. The Cuomo Covid-19 quotes are splashed aplenty.

Equally aplenty were the the critical reviews. Its been a flop in many media and political circles from the left and right. New York Times art critic Jason Farago sniffed: Your average TikTok video displays more careful graphic execution than this.
Soon after issuing her statewide mask order today, a masked Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey met in person with one of the leaders in the nationwide effort to stem the pandemic.

A roundtable with about two dozen state health and community leaders also gathered to discuss the states COVID-19 response.

Ivey first met with Dr. Deborah Birx, the Coronavirus Response Coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said Gina Maiola, press secretary for the governor.

After meeting with Dr. Birx and Alabama State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris in the governors office, they attended a roundtable discussion at the Capitol with various state health individuals, members of the business and religious communities and other lawmakers, Maiola said.

Dr. Birx emphasized very strongly that this is a critical time for the South to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and that the governors decision to issue a statewide mask order was brilliant and critical to keeping our businesses open and running safely, Maiola said. A variety of topics were discussed and questions were asked on anything from testing, to Remdesivir and reopening schools and churches safely.

Maiola said that Birx explained that early on the virus seemed to be concentrated in large cities in the Northeast, however, this has not proven to be accurate in the South. She expressed how the South, specifically Alabama, has high rates statewide.

Dr. Birx told the governor that she was personally worried about the South, which is why she visited our state in person, Maiola said.

Ivey looks forward to keeping an open dialogue with her (Birx) and the Trump Administration as we work through the pandemic.

Iveys order, which goes into effect Thursday at 5 p.m., states a face covering must be worn in public when in close contact with other people. Specifically, it stipulates Alabamians must wear a mask when within 6 feet of a person from another household; in an indoor space open to the public; a vehicle operated by a transportation service such as Uber; or an outdoor public space where 10 or more people are gathered.

The order will remain in effect until at least July 31.

The order, which comes as Alabama has seen a sharp increase in the number of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, supersedes any local regulations.

Here is a list of participants provided by the governors office of those attending the roundtable (reporters were not invited): Jo Bonner  Chief of Staff, Governor Kay Ivey; Dr. Scott Harris  State Health Officer, Alabama Department of Public Health; Dr. Sherri Davidson  State Epidemiologist, Alabama Department of Public Health; Dr. Sharon Massingale  Public Health Laboratory Director, Alabama Department of Public Health; Dr. Mary McIntyre  Chief Medical Officer, Alabama Department of Public Health; Stephanie Azar  Commissioner, Alabama Medicaid Agency; Brian Hastings  Director, Alabama Emergency Management Agency; Dr. Eric Mackey  State Superintendent, State Department of Education; Sarah Wilkinson-Buchmann  President, Alabama Nursing Association; Brandon Farmer  President and CEO, Alabama Nursing Home Association; Emily Marsal  Executive Director, State Health and Planning and Development Agency; Dr. Don Williamson  President and CEO, Alabama Hospital Association; Kyle Searcy  Senior Pastor, Fresh Anointing House of Worship; Father Alejandro E. Valladares  Pastor, St. Bede the Venerable Catholic Church; Pastor Jay Wolf  Pastor, First Baptist Church of Montgomery; Representative Jeremy Gray  Alabama House of Representatives, SHCC Member; Representative Paul Lee  Alabama House of Representatives, Health Chairman; Senator Jim McClendon  Alabama State Senate, Health Chairman; Stephanie Bryan  Tribal Chair and CEO, Poarch Band of Creek Indians; April Weaver  Regional Director, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Also on the phone were Seema Verna, Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS); and Dr. Selwyn Vickers  Senior Vice President of Medicine and Dean, University of Alabama at Birmingham.
EU foreign policy chief: Preserving JCPOA is urgent need

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, July 15, IRNA -- High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy and Security Affairs in his Op-ed underlined the fact that Iran nuclear deal is under pressure, adding that it is urgent need to preserve the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

"Today, the JCPOA is under great pressure on multiple fronts. I am convinced that action to preserve it is not just necessary but urgent, for at least two reasons. First, it took more than 12 years for the international community and Iran to bridge their differences and conclude a deal. If the JCPOA is lost, no other comprehensive or effective alternative will be waiting around the corner," Josep Borrell said.

Earlier in a statement, Borrell said that the EU will do everything possible together with other parties to preserve Iran nuclear deal - the JCPOA.

The full text of Borrell's article that originally appeared in project-syndicate.org is as follows:

Five years ago this week in Vienna, the E3/EU+3 (China, France, Germany, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States, along with the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy) and Iran agreed to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). To mark the fifth anniversary of that occasion, we should acknowledge a simple reality: without this deal, Iran could have developed nuclear weapons by now, adding yet another source of instability to a volatile region.

Today, the JCPOA is under great pressure on multiple fronts. I am convinced that action to preserve it is not just necessary but urgent, for at least two reasons. First, it took more than 12 years for the international community and Iran to bridge their differences and conclude a deal. If the JCPOA is lost, no other comprehensive or effective alternative will be waiting around the corner.The international community's concerns about Iran's nuclear program go way back. Discussions to lay the groundwork for a negotiated solution began in 2003 at the initiative of the French, German, and British foreign ministers, and were soon joined by then-EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Javier Solana. He and his successors, Catherine Ashton and Federica Mogherini  all of whom were supported by the European External Action Service  always kept the door open for a diplomatic solution. And, after many ups and downs, the JCPOA eventually became a reality.

The deal would have not been possible without diplomatic persistence. It required the full buy-in not just of the United States, but also of Russia, China, and of course Iran. The final agreement was solid. At more than 100 pages, and with several annexes, it set out all of the details for a clear quid pro quo: Iran would abide by strict limitations on its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions.The JCPOA is enshrined in international law through UNSC Resolution 2231 (which needs to be fully implemented). It stands as a prime example of what European diplomacy and effective multilateralism can achieve within the rules-based international order. But the process leading up to it was lengthy and difficult, all but ruling out another chance at a deal.Second, the JCPOA is not merely a symbolic success. It delivered on its promises, and proved effective. Owing to the unprecedented level of access that it provided for the International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA was able to confirm in 15 consecutive monitoring reports between January 2016 and June 2019 that Iran had met all its obligations under the deal.

As such, Europe and other partners lifted sanctions, as specified in the agreement. Iran's international isolation was coming to an end, setting the stage for a restoration of normal economic and trade relations with the rest of the world. In May 2018, however, the US decided to withdraw from the JCPOA and reinstate sanctions in pursuit of a new strategy of "maximum pressure."Although the restoration of US sanctions clearly had negative effects on Iran's economy and people, Iran continued to adhere to the deal for another 14 months. But now, Iran is once again accumulating worrying levels of enriched uranium and acquiring new nuclear know-how. The JCPOA is being further eroded, and fears from the past are resurfacing.In January, France, Germany, and the UK formally expressed their concerns about Iran's renewed enrichment activities, and urged it to return to full compliance. Iran, similarly, has voiced its own concerns, arguing that it has not received the expected economic benefits from the lifting of sanctions.As the current coordinator of the JCPOA, I will continue to work with all remaining parties to the deal, as well as with the entire international community. We will do everything possible to preserve what we achieved five years ago, and to ensure that the deal remains effective.

It is important to remember that the Iranian nuclear program remains under tight scrutiny, with its peaceful nature being constantly verified. Thanks to the IAEA inspections regime, we continue to know a great deal about the Iranian nuclear program, even under the current circumstances. If the agreement were to be lost, however, we would lose these insights and be set back by two decades.

I firmly believe that the JCPOA has become a key component of the global non-proliferation architecture, which is why I continue to call for all parties to remain committed to its full implementation. Iran, for its part, must return to full compliance with its nuclear obligations; but it also needs to be able to reap the economic benefits envisioned in the agreement. Having already established measures to protect our companies against extraterritorial US sanctions, we in Europe can do more to satisfy Iranian expectations for legitimate trade.The EU will intensify its efforts to build bridges and narrow the gaps among all concerned parties. I am convinced that if we do manage to preserve the JCPOA and ensure its full implementation, it can become a stepping-stone toward addressing other shared concerns, including those related to regional security.We need to return to a more positive dynamic. When the moment is ripe, we must be ready to build on the deal. The EU is willing to do so. But the first step is to protect the Iran nuclear deal as it is, in its entirety, and for all parties to comply fully with their obligations.

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Reports were floating on the internet stating that Kamal Haasan's daughters and actresses Shruti Haasan and Akshara Haasan will be sharing screen space for the first time, in Tamil remake of hit Hollywood flick, Don't Breathe. It all started when the Hollywood movie's director Fede Alvarez surprised cine-goers by stating that talks for a Tamil remake of his film are on.

Earlier, actor Chiyaan Vikram was also finalised to play the role of Stephen Lang in the Tamil version of Don't Breathe. But the actor got busy with other projects due to which the shoot got postponed. Now, we hear that Vikram has expressed interest to revive the project and pre-production works have already begun.

Coming back to Shruti Haasan and Akshara Haasan's casting in the Tamil remake of Don't Breathe, a source close to Shruti informed India Today that the actress was not approached at all for the film. "Shruti Haasan is yet to finalise her next. These are mere speculations as neither Shruti nor Akshara was approached for the film," a source informed the portal.

Talking about the Tamil remake of Don't Breathe, Anand Shankar will direct the film. For those who don't know, Don't Breathe is the story of three amateur thieves, who try to rob a blind war veteran's house by breaking in. Later, they get trapped in the house and various horrors unfold.

Also Read : Shruti Haasan Charging Rs 1 Lakh Per Hour For Pawan Kalyan Starrer Vakeel Saab?

On a related note, Shruti Haasan will next be seen in Tamil film Laabam, which stars Vijay Sethupathi in the lead role. Directed by SP Jananathan, the film's release has been kept on hold due to the lockdown. Moreover, Shruti Haasan is also a part of Ravi Teja-starrer Telugu cop drama Krack, which is likely to release on OTT platform.

Also Read : Krack New Poster Out: Ravi Teja & Shruti Haasan Ask People To Stay At Home And Enjoy With Family
By Humeyra Pamuk

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Europe can do more in Libya by designating Russian military contractor Wagner Group and calling out Moscow and other countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Egypt that are violating a U.N. arms embargo, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Thursday.

Europeans are "proud" about their naval mission in the Mediterranean Sea, carried out to help enforce the U.N. arms embargo on Libya, but their maritime interdictions have been limited to Turkey, David Schenker, assistant secretary for Near East Affairs at the State Department, told a virtual think-tank event.

"The only interdictions that they (EU) are doing is of Turkish military material that they're sending to Libya. Nobody is interdicting Russian aircraft, nobody is interdicting Emirati aircraft, nobody is interdicting the Egyptians," Schenker said.

"They could at least, if they were serious, I think, call them out - call out all parties of the conflict when they violate the arms embargo," he said.

Libya has descended into chaos after the NATO-backed overthrow of leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Since 2014, it has been split, with an internationally recognized government controlling the capital, Tripoli, and the northwest, while military leader Khalifa Haftar in Benghazi rules the east.

Haftar is supported by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia, while the government is backed by Turkey. It is a messy battlefield where foreign powers have been pouring in weapons and fighters in violation of the arms embargo.

Washington has increasingly voiced concern about the heavy involvement of Russian mercenaries as well as other external powers and has called for de-escalation, but fighting has persisted.

A U.N. report in May said Russian private military contractor Wagner Group has up to 1,200 people deployed in Libya, strengthening Haftar's forces.

"There is a lot more that they (Europe) could do. They could, for example, designate the Wagner Group. ... If they aren't going to take out a more robust role, then this thing is going to drag on," Schenker said.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Northern Ireland screenwriter Declan Lawn will reunite with his Salisbury Poisonings co-creator to direct a thriller about a British conman who convinced his victims he was an MI5 and Special Branch agent dodging IRA hitmen.

Three-part series The Salisbury Poisonings, which depicted the deadly 2018 nerve agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, aired on BBC One in June.

It was broadcast over three consecutive nights. The first episode was watched by 7.2m viewers, making it the biggest UK TV premiere this year.

Penned by former BBC NI journalist Lawn and fellow ex-BBC reporter Adam Patterson, The Salisbury Poisonings starred Shameless actress Anne-Marie Duff, Rafe Spall, MyAnna Buring and Johnny Harris.

Their latest project, Chasing Agent Freegard, is based on the gripping true story of English conman Robert Hendy-Freegard, who masqueraded as an MI5 agent and manipulated and threatened multiple people into going underground for fear of IRA assassination.

Hendy-Freegard met his victims on social occasions or as customers in the pub or car dealership where he was working.

He would reveal his "role" as an undercover agent for MI5, Special Branch or Scotland Yard working against the IRA before winning them over, asking for money and making them do his bidding.

The movie, which is due to begin filming in 2021, is written by Captain Phillips co-producer Michael Bronner. James Norton will star as Hendy-Freegard.

In a statement Lawn and Patterson said: As soon as we heard the pitch for Freegard we were hooked. Its one of the extraordinary stories of our times  a surreal tale of deceit and manipulation played out over many years.

"James is one of the finest actors around and it will be a true pleasure working with him and the rest of the team at Rabbit Track, TDP and Great Point.

McMafia star Norton said: We are so excited to be working with Adam Patterson and Declan Lawn. Their incredible show The Salisbury Poisonings was both gripping as well as deeply human, and showed their unique skill for dramatizing true stories.

Great Point Media co-founder Jim Reeve, who is serving as an executive producer on the film, added: Were thrilled to have Adam and Declan on board and were confident that the duo will deliver something special we can all be proud of.
2020-07-16

This partnership builds on the previous work of the two organisations to bring to bear innovative ways of blending public and private finance, ultimately enabling local governments to access funding for sustainability projects and a just economic recovery.

A new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between ICLEI Africa and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA)will enable the two organisations to align efforts and better facilitate the flow of finance to local and subnational governments to plan and implement context-specific sustainability projects.

The DBSAs integrated approach to infrastructure development puts the bank in a unique position to sustainably drive economic growth and social development in South Africa, and the rest of the African continent. Our role working with municipalities increases government capacity and addresses market deficiencies along the entire project development, financing and management value chain, ensuring sustainable interventions that improve quality of life for all South Africans. This MoU with ICLEI Africa complements these capabilities, ensuring that we lead with an expanding knowledge and expertise base on sustainability matters across all our local government initiatives, said Mohale Rakgate, Group Executive: Project Preparation Division at the DBSA.

This strategic partnership allows ICLEI Africa and DBSA to work together and co-develop programmes focused on the following:

Climate finance access, including project packaging, planning and support

Tools and resources, such as the Transformative Action Program (TAP), that assist subnational governments in gaining access to climate finance

Training and capacity building for subnational and national government staff to actively promote financing for sustainability

Networking opportunities between subnational government officials to share experiences and good practices on financing sustainability initiatives

The DBSA brings to this partnership their deep knowledge and experience of facilitating the flow of finance and packaging project pipelines to attract financing. ICLEI Africa understands sustainability processes and action at local government level, both regionally and globally, with access to an extensive body of knowledge, methodologies and tools across its more than 20 offices across the world.

This MoU provides the means for the organisations to partner on initiatives that are appropriate for a city or regions unique needs and context, says Ms Kobie Brand, ICLEI Africas Regional Director. It is timely in that consequent joint activities can assist cities and subnational governments to recover from the pandemic in a resilient way that considers not only the needs of people, but also the available natural resources in the long term.

Ends
But Hawley in his letter to Barr said a family reportedly faced a mass of demonstrators trespassing on their property and threatening them. When help from the police or from nearby security failed to arrive, this family, the McCloskeys, did what any reasonable person would do: They retrieved their lawfully owned firearms and defended their property and their lives.

Dog-whistle attacks

After Parson came out in support of the McCloskeys, Gardner issued a statement accusing the governor and President Donald Trump of launching dog-whistle attacks. Gardner said Parson and Trump came after me for doing my job and investigating a case.

While they continue to play politics with the handling of this matter, spreading misinformation and distorting the truth, I refuse to do so, Gardner said. As I always do, I am reviewing all the available facts and the law and will apply them equally, regardless of the people involved.

It is unbelievable the governor of the state of Missouri would seek advice from one of the most divisive leaders in our generation to overpower the discretion of a locally elected prosecutor, Gardner said.
The OECD Observer online archive takes you on a journey through half a century of public policy and world progress.

Since November 1962, the OECDs experts and leading guests offer insights on the questions facing our member countries with concise and authoritative analysis, and provide our audiences with an excellent opportunity to understand policy debates and consider solutions.

Each edition of the OECD Observer reports on a core theme of the OECDs on-going work, from economics and society through governance, finance, and the environment, and articles are bolstered by tables and graphs.
Rep. Patrick Neville reads through some of legislative work in progress from the house floor. Colorado lawmakers return to the state Capitol on May 26, 2020 in Denver, Colorado. Legislators have returned after a 10-week pause due to fears from the spread of the coronavirus.
Achieving Justice for George Floyd: Radically Reimagining and Rebuilding America

Part II. Indeed, it is a clear and constant given that if we are to achieve real justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks and all the victims of this racist violent democracy called America, to paraphrase Min. Malcolm, then we have two interrelated objectives that must be achieved. They are: radically reimagining and rebuilding America; and sustaining the struggle on every level which will make this possible. And key to all of this is holding the ground weve gained, building on what we have and fighting fiercely to move forward, day by day, year by year and battle by battle until victory is clearly won.

Let me note at the outset, that we of Us do not come to the table to talk about this great challenge as if it were about things we have only secondary and intellectual knowledge of. Rather, we speak from the valuable vantage point of over a half century of sustained struggle, deep in the belly of the beast. Thus, we bring the experience of decades and deep reflection on it as well as the critical study of liberation struggles before and during our time. Moreover, we speak here of those who have refused to be broken or bow to pressure to be less Black, less radical and resistant to White domination and oppression in its various savage and subtle forms.

We speak also as targeted victims and defiant survivors of state suppression, vicious character assassination, political imprisonment, exile and disrupted and difficult lives underground. And we speak here as all-seasons Simba soldiers, who have fought wherever we were with whatever means we had, and who remain unbreakable in our commitment to the struggle for liberation of our people and unbudging in our Blackness, regardless of the ongoing faddish invitations to fantasize and be otherwise.

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To radically reimagine and rebuild America, or as we usually say, to radically reconceive and reconstruct America, we must think in deep, incisive and audacious ways. We must break through the catechism of impossibilities taught by the established order and imagine, not only a new society, but also new people to embrace and build that society. For no new society is truly possible without a struggle that also changes the people. For as Frantz Fanon taught, An authentic national liberation exists only to the precise degree to which each person has irreversibly begun their own liberation. Also, we must think structurally, not accept media and established order singular focus on designated disposable bad persons, but focus on society as a whole, with its pathology of oppression, i.e., its systemic racism, capitalism, sexism and other forms of domination, deprivation and degradation.

Moving beyond Americas self-congratulatory myths of perfection, freedom and justice for all and manifest destiny as savior of the world, we must find new ways of relating, working and building. Imagine, then, a radically restructured society with a transformed economy which puts people first, not profit, prioritizes satisfying the needs of the poor and vulnerable, and is actively committed to health care, housing and food security for all; dignity affirming, well-paying work for everyone interested and able and equitable income for those who cannot work; free education through college; clean air, water and waterways and unpolluted soil and renewable and clean energy use in the interests of the people and the planet. And imagine a society without someone to lord over and oppress others or hate them and make them hate themselves.

This means also moving beyond reform to radically transformative change, from reduction and end of police violence to the end of policing and public safety as we now know it. It means imagining the abolition of prisons as we now conceive them and moving resources to life-preserving and life-enhancing initiatives for the masses of the people. This projects a possibility where everyone is self-consciously involved in practicing Ujima, collective work and responsibility, and where they practice Ujamaa, cooperative economics  shared work and shared wealth for everyone to live a good life, flourish and come into the fullness of themselves.

We must also, as Min. Malcolm taught, seek and build linkages  coalitions and alliances on the national and international level, finding common cause with all the oppressed and struggling peoples of the world. We must continue to join in solidarity with radical and progressive groups so that our struggle for racial justice informs and undergirds the collective struggles for economic justice, legal justice, social justice and environmental justice. This means finding common cause in struggle with the Native Americans against violations of their lands, identity and sovereignty, with Latino/as against racist immigration policies which involve us as Africans and Afro-Latinos also, and with the Asians against racist verbal and physical attacks and demonization.

But, in all of these initiatives, it is imperative that we remain at the center and as the subject of our own history and struggle, remembering and reminding each other repeatedly that we are own liberators, no matter how numerous or sincere our allies are. Moreover, we must learn and apply the lessons of our history; its best ideas and practices; and its models of human excellence and achievement. Also, we must practice operational unity, unity in diversity, both with our organizations and our movements. For just like we have many organizations, we have many movements. Thus, we must engage in full, free and frank discussion over common and shared goals and craft a comprehensive national agenda. And at the heart of this agenda must be the overarching and foundational commitment to advancing African liberational interests, human good and the well-being of the world.

One of the greatest challenges of any organization, movement or liberation struggle is to sustain itself in the midst of twists and turns, setbacks and serious threats, waning and aging wills and uncertainties and goals not achieved as first demanded or as quickly as once imagined. For the enemy, the oppressor or the opponent we fight will hold on to his wealth, power and privileged status to the very bitter end and will concede only when he sees and has no alternative. And that crucial condition of having no alternative to real and radically transformative change can only be achieved through sustained and unsagging struggle. This is the lesson and ever-instructive meaning of Frederick Douglass teaching that power concedes nothing without demands. It ever did and it never will. Moreover, he tells us that (people) may not get all they pay for in the world, but they must certainly pay for all they get. And we do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, deep commitment and righteous and relentless struggle.

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Therefore, let us again and always, set aside all illusions and deepen our commitment to continue and intensify this long, difficult, dangerous and demanding struggle. Nana Harriet Tubman tells us freedom aint free and victory does not come without cost. She tells us we must Go free or die. And freedom is not bought with dust. Min. Malcolm tells us that Wherever Black people are is a battleline. Likewise, Fannie Lou Hamer tells us if you want victory, Youve got to fight every step of the way. Youve got to fight. And we are advised and warned by all our ancestors that the road to real freedom and justice is a rough and rocky one, filled with potholes, sharp turns, steep climbs, deceptive detour signs and seductions of all kinds on all sides. But we owe it to ourselves, our ancestors and future generations to continue the struggle, keep the faith and hold the line until real victory is won.
Tilt Renewables presents its production results for the three months to 30 June 2020 (June 20 quarter).

For the June 20 quarter, total group production was 23% above the normalised (excluding Snowtown 2, SWF2) June 19 quarter result, primarily driven by the 81 GWh contribution from the 336MW Dundonnell Wind Farm (DDWF), which is in commissioning. As reported to the market on 10 July 2020, the further commissioning of DDWF remains subject to AEMO approvals to increase energy exports above the current level of 113MW.

Production from fully operational Australian assets (excluding SWF2 and DDWF) was 13% below the June 19 quarter and 10% below long-term expectations, driven primarily by wind speeds below long term forecast levels and curtailment of Snowtown 1 due to the South Australian System Strength constraint imposed by AEMO (~4GWh during the quarter).

New Zealand production was in line with the June 19 quarter and 7% below long-term expectations, due to lower wind speeds along with an extended network outage at Tararua 3 (associated with wider network upgrades by Transpower) and the commencement of a mid-life major maintenance program targeting a number of turbines also at the Tararua 3 site.

See futher information below

TILT June 2020 Quarter Production Results

Source: Tilt Renewables

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State Democrats have proposed a package of bills aimed at expanding Wisconsinites eligibility for unemployment benefits to address the states persistent backlog of claims due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

GOP leaders quickly rebuked the package of eight bills, which comes amid mounting criticism from state Republicans directed at the Department of Workforce Development and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers over the states ongoing struggles to manage the onslaught of unemployment claims caused by widespread closures and layoffs during the pandemic.

Also on Thursday, DWD reported the states unemployment rate fell from 12.1% in May to 8.5% last month.

Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, said many of the bills  including one he co-authored to eliminate the concept of substantial fault as a disqualifying factor for benefits  would rollback changes to state unemployment laws enacted under Republican Gov. Scott Walker.

I would say there are a number of different tripwires on the obstacle course of people trying to get unemployment insurance, Larson said. Each bill pulls up a number of tripwires along the way.

The package unveiled Thursday would allow Social Security disability recipients to also receive unemployment benefits, provide benefits to participants of extended occupational training programs, temporarily suspend the states $500 wage threshold for unemployment eligibility and expand the Department of Workforce Developments authority to administer rules.

This package is basically Democrats attempt to divert attention away from Governor Evers abysmal record of not processing UI claims correctly or in a timely fashion, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said in a statement. Democrats are trying to reinstate failed policies when their elimination contributed to record low unemployment and prosperity while eliminating fraud. Democrats simply want to make it easier to stay on unemployment and cheat the system.

Other proposed bills would lower the work search requirement from four searches per week to two and eliminate the state requirement that claimants must wait one week before receiving unemployment benefits.

These bills can help improve and accelerate the process for people who need help now, Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh, said in a statement. A quicker turnaround on an unemployment claim could literally be the difference between someone being evicted or staying in their home. State government must take every decisive action possible to eliminate unnecessary hurdles that have slowed down the process for people applying for unemployment insurance.

Earlier this week, DWD reported the department had received more than 4.2 million weekly unemployment claims since March 15. Of those, 75% have been paid and another almost 125 have been denied. About 13% of weekly claims, including claims awaiting wage verification and adjudication, were being processed.

DWD is working diligently to serve the people of Wisconsin, DWD Secretary Caleb Frostman said in a statement. Since March 15, 2020, DWD has received over 4 million weekly claims. To put this in perspective, the Department received approximately 1.6 million claims in all of 2019.

The Evers administration on Thursday announced an additional 100 state employees were being reassigned to help process unemployment claims.

Despite efforts by DWD to boost staffing, add call centers and expand help center hours to manage the influx of claims, criticism over delays has grown among Republican lawmakers.

Last week, Assembly Republicans called on Evers to use some of the states remaining federal coronavirus relief dollars to provide immediate relief to the thousands of Wisconsinites waiting for state unemployment benefits.

Republicans said Evers should create a 100% forgivable bridge loan program using a portion of the states more than $280 million in remaining federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funds. Doing so would bypass DWDs time-consuming adjudication process, which department officials have said is necessary to prevent unemployment fraud and ensure that funds are distributed only to those eligible.

As of June 27, about 141,000 Wisconsinites were awaiting the DWDs adjudication process. Department officials have said skyrocketing unemployment claims have placed considerable strain on the departments low staff numbers and the states outdated unemployment system.

The Evers administrations response to this unemployment crisis has been nothing short of a dumpster fire, Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, R-Kaukauna, said in a statement. The tired proposals trotted out today would only serve to expand eligibility to an already strained system and fuel the flames of the problem at hand.

Evers this week said he viewed the GOP proposal for bridge loans as somewhat of a political stunt.

First of all, it takes human beings and an organization in order to physically do that and second of all its risky just to send money out with no understanding of the adjudication process that DWD does, Evers said on Tuesday.

Unemployment rate

The latest data from DWD shows Wisconsins unemployment rate continues to drop from the 13.6% rate recorded in April, when the states stay-at-home order was in effect.

DWD reports the state added 104,600 total non-farm and 99,300 private-sector jobs in June.

DWD chief economist Dennis Winters said some of the industries to see the biggest gains include leisure and hospitality, but added those sectors also were hardest hit this spring as businesses closed down statewide to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Leisure and hospitality employment is still down 30% from last year, while entertainment is down almost 46%.

Youve seen some good pop-backs in the industries that were devastated the most, Winters said. They still have a ways to come.

Winters said part of the reason Wisconsins unemployment rate has fallen below the nations 11.1% is due to the states concentration of industries like manufacturing, which were not as affected by coronavirus and the subsequent shutdown.
New Delhi, July 16 : National carrier Air India's pilot unions have alleged that the airline's management under the guidance of the Centre plans to institute a 60 per cent pay cut on a retrospective basis.

Accordingly, the Indian Commercial Pilots' Association and the Indian Pilots' Guild have jointly alleged that plans are afoot to cut almost 60 per cent of gross emoluments owed to pilots.

In a letter written to the airline's CMD Rajiv Bansal, which was reviewed by IANS, the two unions said: "The proposed cut for pilots is almost 60 per cent of gross emoluments. It is hilarious to note that the top management has proposed a meagre 3.5 per cent cut on its own gross salary." "... The 'Director Personnel' takes a minuscule cut of 4 per cent on gross pay while a Co-pilot who is paid less than the market is given a cut of 60 per cent. How is this justified? Doesn't this mount to unchecked greed and selfishness?" The letters dated July 16, refers to a series of meetings held with the airlines management and ministry officials.

Both the unions said that they have expressed willingness to negotiate a pay cut in line with the current market conditions.

However, "We were told by the Ministry officials that we are being compared to one of the leading low cost private carriers, it was then explained to the MoCA (Ministry of Civil Aviation) officials how the worst conditions of these private airlines were being cherry picked to our disadvantage." According to the letter, the unions said: "You (Bansal) had briefed us that the MoCA has given you directions to slash pilots' salary by 60 per cent. This is nowhere at par with market standards." "If this is true, then we would like to humbly submit that we would like to seek an appointment with the Hon'ble Minister of Civil Aviation and return all the appreciation letters given to our pilots by him as well as the Hon'ble Prime Minister for our service to the nation. Nevertheless, we will continue to serve the nation in this time of need, as always." Besides, both the unions said that pilots have not been paid 70 per cent of their pay since the month of April 2020.

"To discuss a retrospective pay cut on the work done is unfair and humiliating to an employee who has been loyal to the company and the nation. We demand that the management honour our existing agreements till such time a mutually agreed settlement is reached," the letter dated July 16 said.

"We would like to remind you that nobody is above the law and we hope Air India and the Secretary, Civil Aviation, will respect the law of the land." (Rohit Vaid can be contacted at rohit.v@ians.in)
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With various updates throughout the spring, and with steady reopening of Alabamas economy, it can be difficult to keep track of exactly what the current state order requires.

I continue to get questions from businesses that clearly are not reading the governors health order, said Dr. Rendi Murphree, an epidemiologist who is the director of the Mobile County Health Departments Bureau of Disease Surveillance and Environmental Services, at a press conference in Mobile on Wednesday. It states that anyone from a restaurant that interacts with the public shall wear a face covering. Its not a suggestion. Its an order.

Maiola said the governor also continues to stress the need for personal responsibility. If we do not take it upon ourselves to keep ourselves and others safe by taking smart health precautions, we cannot expect to make progress.

Other states with large COVID spikes have begun implementing more restrictions, with Texas closing bars and Florida prohibiting the sale of alcohol at bars on Friday. But there has been little talk of more restrictive business closures from political leaders or health experts in Alabama.
NEWTOWN  A judge has ruled that information 10 Sandy Hook families are seeking from gunmaker Remington in a wrongful death lawsuit are fair game, and Remington must act in good faith to provide it.

The obligation to act in good faith and provide documents within their knowledge, possession, or power rests on (Remington), and it is fair game for the (families) to discover whether the defendants met their obligations, wrote Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis in a ruling on Tuesday.

The ruling sends the nations oldest gunmaker back to the negotiating table with lawyers for nine families who lost loved ones and a teacher who was shot in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, as the two sides prepare for a 2021 trial.

Tuesdays ruling against Remington represents the families latest victory in their six-year battle charging the maker of the AR-15-style rifle used in the shooting with reckless marketing, in violation of Connecticuts Unfair Trade Practices Act.

In mid-June, Bellis permitted the families attorneys to question the gunmakers executives under oath about its internal organization and procedures  questions which Remington considered invasive and improper.

Autumn Driscoll

The families lawsuit, once considered to have a slight chance of winning, has become the nations most visible case of victims suing a gunmaker over a mass shooting.

Bellis ruling on Tuesday stems from a dispute between the two sides over Remingtons objection to naming every person the company has contacted for any statements, documents, and/or communication concerning the December 14, 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, including statements, documents, and/or communications concerning responses to the shooting and/or the shooter from the time of the shooting through December 31, 2016.

Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media /

(Remingtons) obligation in responding to requests for documents is to make reasonable searches for responsive documents, Remingtons attorneys argued in a July 13 brief to Bellis. That is what (Remington has) done and will continue to do in responding to ... each of (the families) more than 70 separate requests for documents, which to date has resulted in production of tens of thousands of documents, consisting of more than 100,000 pages.

Bellis disagreed.

The court rejects the Remington defendants arguments that Remington defense counsel determines which Remington employees might possess responsive documents without further explanation, Bellis wrote in her Tuesday ruling.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342
The term "working parent" has taken on a whole new meaning during the Covid-19 pandemic. Cooped up in their homes, caretakers are faced with managing personal responsibilities along with professional ones, all within the context of a global pandemic, and varying school, daycare, and nursing home closures.

"It's not just an issue of time management, which can be stressful enough," says Brian Christman, chief people officer of New York City-based freight and transportation company Transfix. "The emotional toll of having to worry about your work, your children's education, and your family's health and well-being right now is immense."

A number of large corporations have stepped up. For example, Amazon now offers a family care benefit that provides subsidized emergency child and adult care while Goldman Sachs offers employees 10 days of family leave so they can focus on caregiving. For small-business owners on smaller budgets, these new benefits probably are out of reach.

Even so, there are creative ways for companies with limited budgets to offer extra support to employees with children. Here are three to consider:

1. Crowdsource ideas.

After the more than 200 employees at Transfix started working from home this spring, the team used a #Transfixparents channel on their company Slack for parents to share ideas, useful articles, and other resources to help parents juggle both child care and their professional responsibilities. The channel also created a place to vent about their new circumstances and to tell jokes. Slack is also a good place for reminders about existing resources available through the company's benefit plans, such as mental health, child care, and other family care offerings, says Christman, who has three teenagers.

"Company leaders have to listen, have empathy, have patience, and be creative about developing practical solutions to help working parents through this time," he says. "Make sure you keep communication lines open."

2. Adopt make-your-own schedules.

New York City-based Ellevate Network recently instituted flex work hours, according to Kristy Wallace, the networking company's CEO. The change allows employees to work in shifts, rather than a typical 9-to-5 schedule, to accommodate caretaking throughout the day. The 20-person company also created Slack icons to easily indicate if someone is on child care duty and may be slow to respond.

Wallace suggests changing the times of reoccurring meetings that are inconvenient for caretakers, particularly early morning meetings that can take place when caretakers may be making breakfast or helping with daily routines. She adds that many working parents and caregivers are concerned that they're not doing well enough and worried about how their work-and-family juggle might impact their employment. After hearing this feedback from her own employees and understanding it as a mother herself, Wallace says she made sure to redefine goals about what a successful employee looks like at this time to her staff to clear up fear and confusion.

"There's a lot of unknowns. There's a lack of confidence and fear of stigma," says Wallace. Ellevate, which had been acquired by former Wall Street executive Sallie Krawcheck in 2013 when it was known as 95 Broads, ranked No. 3454 on the 2019 Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private U.S. companies. "The more that companies can create a space that eliminates a lot of that, and the more that the mental load of employees is lessened, then they've got more bandwidth to really commit to the organization and their work."

3. Offer low-cost but meaningful perks.

Shipstation, a shipping software company based in Austin, recently began offering its nearly 300 employees DashPass, a paid subscription to the DoorDash food-delivery service that waives delivery fees on takeout orders. Shipstation has also hosted activities for its staff's kids at home to keep them entertained and busy, such as a magic show, webinars, and virtual lunches with characters such as Elsa from the Disney animated movie Frozen.
By Foo Yun Chee and Marine Strauss

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Europe's highest court ruled on Thursday that a transatlantic data transfer deal is invalid because of concerns about U.S. surveillance in a decision that could disrupt thousands of companies that rely on the agreement.

The ruling effectively ends the privileged access companies in the United States had to personal data from Europe and puts the country on a similar footing to other nations outside the bloc, meaning data transfers are likely to face closer scrutiny.

The so-called Privacy Shield was set up in 2016 by Washington and Brussels to protect personal data when it is sent to the United States for commercial use after a previous agreement known as Safe Harbour was ruled invalid in 2015.

More than 5,000 companies have signed up to it but the Privacy Shield was challenged in a long-running dispute between Facebook and Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems who has campaigned about the risk of U.S. intelligence agencies accessing data on Europeans.

"In respect of certain surveillance programmes, those provisions do not indicate any limitations on the power they confer to implement those programmes, or the existence of guarantees for potentially targeted non-U.S. persons," the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Luxembourg said in its ruling, which cannot be appealed.

"It looks perfect," Schrems said.

"One of the biggest takeaways is that we would need fundamental reform in U.S. surveillance laws if U.S. companies still want to have any kind of decent access to the European market," he told Reuters TV.

Facebook said it was studying the ruling and looked forward to regulatory guidance on its impact.

"We will ensure that our advertisers, customers and partners can continue to enjoy Facebook services while keeping their data safe and secure," Eva Nagle, associate general counsel at Facebook, said in a statement.

Facebook's lead EU regulator, Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon, said assessment would need to be made on a case-by-case basis.

Story continues

Supervisory authorities across the EU will play a central role in allowing data transfers, and will develop a common position to give practical effect to the judgement, she said.

'PRIVACY TRADE WAR'

EU concerns about data transfers have been growing ever since former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden's revelations in 2013 of mass U.S. surveillance.

The court is saying that the surveillance regime in the U.S. does not respect the rights of EU citizens and puts U.S. state interests over the interests of individuals, Jonathan Kewley, co-head of technology at law firm Clifford Chance said.

"What we are seeing here looks suspiciously like a privacy trade war, where Europe is saying their data standards can be trusted, but those in the U.S. cannot," he said.

Kewley said the outcome could be that more customer data remains stored in Europe, which is what happened after Safe Harbour was annulled.

The U.S. Department of Commerce said it was "deeply disappointed" and would remain in close contact with the European Commission to try to limit the negative consequences of the ruling.

Judges upheld the validity of another data transfer mechanism known as standard contractual clauses (SCCs).

They are used by thousands of companies including Facebook, industrial giants and carmakers to transfer Europeans' data around the world for services ranging from cloud infrastructure, data hosting, payroll and finance to marketing.

However, the court stressed that under SCCs, privacy watchdogs must suspend or prohibit transfers outside the EU if data protection in other countries cannot be assured.

Schrems said this meant companies that fall under U.S. surveillance laws, such as Facebook, could not use the clauses to shift data to the United States.

Facebook welcomed the decision on SCCs.

"These are used by Facebook and thousands of businesses in Europe and provide important safeguards to protect the data of EU citizens," Nagle said.

Schrems said before the ruling that transactions by Europeans such as booking a hotel or hire car in the United States or emailing someone there would not be affected. His concerns centred more on the way personal data is stored.

Microsoft said Thursday's rulings did not affect its customers ability to transfer data between the EU and the United States using the Microsoft cloud.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Additional reporting by Kirsti Knolle in Vienna and Keith Weir in London; Editing by David Clarke)
UBS will no longer be informed or be able to contest customer data the Swiss tax authorities hand over to their French counterparts investigating alleged tax avoidance, a Swiss court said late on Wednesday.

Switzerland's Federal Administrative Court upheld a decision to revoke UBS's position as a party to the arrangements over what client information can be sent to France.

The bank said on Thursday it took note of the decision.

Under a previous arrangement, the Swiss Federal Tax Administration had allowed the bank to inspect the files and be informed of all final decisions related to 40,000 UBS accounts requested by France. UBS could also challenge the respective final decisions on what details to send.

But after UBS contested some of the decisions, the Swiss tax authorities eventually ended the bank's involvement on documents that had not already been supplied.

The bank appealed against the decision, which was rejected by the Federal Administrative Court earlier this month.

"The Swiss Federal Tax Administration has rightly revoked UBS's status as a party to the ongoing proceedings," the court said in a judgment published on Wednesday.

Switzerland's highest court last year ruled that historical data from about 40,000 UBS clients must be handed to French tax authorities, while blocking the use of the data against the bank itself.

In Wednesday's judgment, the court said UBS feared the data could be used in ongoing criminal cases against the bank in France, a concern the court said was unfounded.

In February last year, a French court found UBS guilty of illegally soliciting clients and laundering the proceeds of tax evasion and ordered it to pay 4.5 billion euros ($5.1 billion) in penalties.

UBS has denied any wrongdoing and has appealed against the ruling. Appeal proceedings are due to start in March.
What the presidents lawyers are seeking here is delay, Mr. Dunne said. I think thats the entire strategy here.

He added: Lets not let delay kill this case.

The prosecutors assertion came during a virtual hearing held before the judge, Victor Marrero, of Federal District Court in Manhattan. Mr. Trumps lawyers did not respond directly to the accusation in court.

Jay Sekulow, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, said later in an email, Our strategy seeks due process.

The district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., a Democrat, issued the subpoena to Mr. Trumps accounting firm, Mazars USA, in August.

Mr. Trump initially fought the subpoena last year with a bold and untested argument: that a sitting president was immune from a state criminal investigation. Judge Marrero oversaw that case and ruled against the president, and his decision was upheld by an appeals court.

The case went to the Supreme Court, which last week also rejected the presidents argument. Still, the high court left open the possibility that Mr. Trump could raise new objections to the subpoena.
An analysis after the Styrian Grand Prix showed that Mercedes currently has a more powerful engine than Honda and Renault. Moreover, it was noticed that Lewis Hamilton reached the finish line with ten kilograms of fuel left, while the tank of Max Verstappen was practically empty.

According to information in the possession of Motorsport.com, the Mercedes engine has about a thousand horsepower. The Honda engine of Red Bull Racing is currently supposed to yield twenty bhp on the power unit of the German racing team. The fact that the Japanese are lagging behind was also discovered earlier by Auto, Motor und Sport. The RB16 will have to compensate some tenths that it loses in this respect in the corners. In Hungary there is a good chance for that, because the Hungaroring is known for its many curves and few straights.

Mercedes finished with more fuel

What is perhaps even more striking, according to the aforementioned medium, is that Lewis Hamilton finished in the second Grand Prix on the Red Bull Ring with ten kilograms of fuel still in his tank. However, the fuel tank at Verstappen was almost empty. "On the circuit where 106 kilos of fuel (out of the 110 allowed kilos) is sufficient to reach the finish line, this indicates that Mercedes didn't want to take any major risks with the strategy".

What exactly does this difference mean? "It could be caused by a more thirsty Honda engine, or a start with less fuel on board. When converted, ten kilograms less fuel saves about two to three tenths of a tenth of a second, which seems to indicate that Mercedes has even more on its hands". Compared to 2019 Mercedes seems to have made quite a step with the power unit.

Renault stays behind

No representative data from Ferrari is available, because Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel were both out after seven laps last week. The Renault engine is said to have 35 hp less than the Mercedes engine. So work to be done for the French
Recently, President Trump tweeted about his intention to use federal funding as a lever to stop that extreme politicization in our schools. The tweets were:

Too Many Universities and School Systems are about Radical Left Indoctrination, not Education. Therefore, I am telling the Department of Education to re-examine their tax-exempt status And/or Funding, which will be taken away if this Propaganda or Act Against Public Policy continues. Our children must be Educated, not Indoctrinated!

Immediately, education experts were contacted by reporters for verification that the president really cant do that. The Associated Press cited Terry Hartle, the senior vice president of the American Council on Education (ACE), which represents university presidents. Hartle suggested that the president cannot revoke schools tax-exempt status because ideology is not on the IRSs list of matters for which that action can be taken.

I dont think anything will come of this quickly, Hartle added.

I can lay claim to being a higher education policy expert as well as Hartle. Ive worked for a long-established higher education think-tank for 13 years. I have written substantial reports on academic freedom, university governance, the politicization of teacher education schools, the decline of English departments, general education programs, and more. I have written or edited nearly a thousand articles on higher education, and my work has appeared in major media markets such as Fox News, U.S. News, Forbes, and the Washington Times.

But no major media contacted my colleagues or myself for commentary about the presidents tweets. After all, unlike ACE, my organization is not part of the higher education establishment. We have been highly critical of higher education, instead of glossing over its problems. We seek ways to reform academia, not to maintain its status quo.

Even though deemed unworthy, I now offer my unsolicited thoughts about the presidents tweets:

Please, Mr. President. Please, please, please do this! Find a way, end as many programs that funnel money to academia as you can. Starve the beast instead of feeding it!

To be sure, federal student aid and veterans benefits are politically off-limits at this point. But the federal government funds nearly $42 billion of research in academia; trimming some of that would be a good start. And there are other programs that bear looking at.

As far as the tax status of universities goes, they are organized as 501(c)3 non-profit institutions for educational purposes. IRS Publication 557 states:

Advocacy of a particular position or viewpoint may be educational if there is a sufficiently full and fair exposition of pertinent facts to permit an individual or the public to form an independent opinion or conclusion. The mere presentation of unsupported opinion isn't educational.

It adds that:

The method used by an organization to develop and present its views is a factor in determining if an organization qualifies as educational within the meaning of section 501(c)(3). The following factors may indicate that the method isn't educational.

The presentation of viewpoints unsupported by facts is a significant part of the organization's communications. The presentation of viewpoints unsupported by facts is a significant part of the organization's communications. The facts that purport to support the viewpoint are distorted. The organization's presentations make substantial use of inflammatory and disparaging terms and express conclusions more on the basis of emotion than of objective evaluations.

Much of what passes for education today fails these tests. Much of the information offered in the humanities and social sciences is completely one-sided. How is white privilege not disparaging? How is the claim that science is not universal but dependent on culture -- and that indigenous myths are science -- substantiated? The examples are infinite.

The problem is not that the president was wrong about universities tax-exempt status. The problem is that nobody has taken academias abuse of the tax regulations seriously until now.

It was no great secret that academia was already politicized to an extraordinary degree before this summers Black Lives Matter campaign. Academia created the rhetoric of Black Lives Matter and the critical race theory upon which that organization is based. These ideas are not uplifting. Just the opposite: they focus on condemnation of an entire race. They propose taking resources legitimately created or earned by innocent people and redistributing them based on distorted beliefs. They divide people into those who are deserving and those who are guilty and must make amends for history through no fault of their own.

Now, in response to this summers riots, universities are creating programs that will shift the academic Overton Window even farther to the left. For instance, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the administration is planning student and faculty diversity, equity and inclusion training sessions to, in part, create a common set of terms about race. These common terms will make such disreputable concepts as structural racism official and inarguable. It is hard to imagine any good coming to anybody who openly refuses to participate or dissents; the training essentially makes compliance with the radical agenda mandatory, either explicitly or implicitly. For, if one dissents, even if no official punishment is forthcoming, one will be outed as an opponent, which opens one up to all manner of abuses such as doxxing, Twitter mobs, and the like. Just ask Brett Weinstein, a biology professor who was hounded off his campus for refusing to submit to racial intimidation.

UNCs program violates the principle of institutional neutrality to which public universities are supposed to conform -- and may very well violate the schools tax-exempt status.

Many other schools are planning similar programs and initiatives. Using tax dollars to promote the ideas of critical race theory and force the targets of those theories to submit to them is especially perverse. It means taxing people to fund their own degradation. It means making them pay for their own degradation to another caste because of their birth. This goes way beyond taxation without representation.

So, do it, Mr. President. Dont just tease us with a tweet. In the past, you issued an executive mandating campus free speech. But there has been no further action, and the ideological bias in academia has only gotten worse.

We can tell by your tweets that you comprehend the symbiotic relationship between academia and the forces that are trying to transform this country into a totalitarian hellhole. A lot of people wont go down without a fight; according to a recent Rasmussen poll, 34% of Likely U.S. Voters think the United States will experience a second civil war sometime in the next five years. Think of the human devastation should such an event comes to pass.

Recently, though, you showed some backbone with your executive order ending visas for foreign students who will not be taking in-person courses. The intent may have only been to force academia to open up its campuses, as part of the push to get the country to return to normal, rather than to directly address academias intellectual dysfunction. But then, in what is becoming a disturbing pattern, you backed down when all the vested interests squealed.

That was a mistake. Appeasement and feigned threats dont work; they merely embolden the mob that is pushing this country to the brink. Attack the beast in its heart. Cut its life source -- the flow of government dollars.

Jay Schalin is the Director of Policy Analysis for the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal.
Starbucks didn't want to wait for a federal facemasks law.

"We just decided it's time for us to adopt this and require customers to wear masks across the country," said Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson in a webinar on leadership hosted by the National Retail Federation on Thursday. If essential businesses don't follow guidelines to help stop the spread of the virus, he said, they only delay other businesses from opening their doors and hurt the economy. "It's just evident that it's going to help us all reduce the spread of Covid, and that's the right thing to do."

Johnson discussed the Seattle-based company's response to the pandemic, including its decision to mandate that customers wear a mask or facial covering in its store and a new experimental store design. He also shared his advice for other retailers on connecting with customers.

Johnson's team first faced the coronavirus's impact on its business in January in China. It was then that Starbucks, which sees nearly $30 billion in annual sales, established three guiding principles to shape its decisions related to the pandemic and its 32,000 retail stores in more than 80 countries around the world:

Prioritize the safety, health, and well-being of employees and customers.

Support government and local health officials as they work to contain the virus.

Show up to work in a positive and constructive way, and be responsible in every community that they're a part of.

Starbucks is working on opening new stores designed with virus-prevention measures, Johnson said. One concept is a "walk-thru" store in urban centers, similar to drive-thru locations in suburban areas. The company is looking at opening its first walk-thru locations in Manhattan, where real estate prices are falling, making it a good time to experiment with new store designs.

All businesses, regardless of industry, should focus on what positive, optimistic messaging and experiences they can offer their customers, said Johnson.

"Customers are looking for experiences that they find familiar, that they find convenient, and that are uplifting in some way," he said. The pandemic has made a sense of community increasingly important for consumers, whether shopping in-store or on smartphones, he noted.
Popular social media platform Twitter was hit by a massive cyberattack on Wednesday, which resulted in several high-profile personalities being compromised. The list of hacked users includes Bill Gates, Joe Biden, and Barack Obama, as well as massive companies such as Apple Inc.

Massive Twitter cyber-breach

According to The Wall Street Journal, experts are calling the breach the most significant cybercrime that Twitter has experienced and began past 4:00 in the afternoon EDT. The attack hijacked multiple accounts, most of which were related to Bitcoin, a type of cryptocurrency, and began to post tweets saying they would double any amount that was sent to them.

The messages quickly went viral and spread to other, more prominent accounts. Thousands of users shared and reacted to the post before the social media platform took them down temporarily. The stop-gap was ineffective as accounts that were closed were able to post once again shortly after.

Around 5:45 pm EDT, Twitter's security account posted a tweet stating the company was looking into the incident and taking appropriate measures to handle it. The following half-hour, Twitter limited the posts of several accounts with blue checkmarks that signified verified accounts.

The investigation continued into the night, and at 7:18 pm the security account announced it was still limiting several accounts from posting as it continued its investigations of the case.

On Wednesday, Jack Dorsey, Twitter's Chief Executive, expressed his grief and his team's apparent disappointment in a twitter post. The official also said the company was continuing to pursue the investigation and would share any information once the security team knows more.

Also Read: WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange, Anonymous Hacker Conspired to Gather and Disclose Classified Info?

The extent of the attack and the focus on prominent and verified accounts puts into question Twitter's attempts at ensuring its safe and secure social media platform continues to provide expansive and robust security.

The accounts that called for the cryptocurrency and financial donations were able to receive more than $100,000, as seen through blockchain records available to the public, as reported by BBC.

Security system in doubt

Last year, Dorsey also had his account compromised, but the social media platform had since announced it had taken steps to ensure the security of his account from future attempts of cyberattacks.

The field office of the San Francisco branch of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a statement on Wednesday revealing details on the cyber attack. The statement wrote that the attackers conducted the breach in order to manage a cryptocurrency fraud.

The office announced its warnings to the public to remain vigilant and take care not to fall victim to these sorts of scams.

According to CNN, three hours after the initial post by Twitter's security account, the majority of the accounts that it took down or limited posts of have been returned to full functionality at around 8:30 pm EDT.

The post wrote that the reinstated accounts were able to posts tweets again and noted that as investigations continue, the accounts' functionalities may be susceptible to being closed and open at unexpected frequencies.

Related Article: Dark Web Investigation Finds 15 Billion Credentials Being Put On Sale

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Former Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi - The Ministry of Public Securitys Police Investigation Authority completed its investigation relating to the land plot at 2-4-6 Hai Ba Trung Street in HCM City on July 13 and transferred the case to the Supreme Peoples Procuracy.

The case involves former Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang and former Director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT)s Light Industry Department Phan Chi Dung, who have been charged with violating regulations on the management and use of State assets, causing losses and wastefulness.

Former Vice Chairman of the HCM City Peoples Committee Nguyen Huu Tin and seven accomplices were accused of violating regulations on land management.

Former Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Ho Thi Kim Thoa, who has fled, is now wanted for her involvement in the case.

According to investigators, Hoang knew that the land plot of 6,000 square metres at 2-4-6 Hai Ba Trung Street in downtown District 1 was to be assigned to Vietnams largest brewery, Sabeco, under MoIT, for the construction of a six-star hotel and trade and convention centre.

While Hoang knew that Sabeco was not permitted to establish a new entity to use the land allotted to it, he still instructed the State Capital Management Board at Sabeco to establish the Sabeco Pearl Company.

Based on Hoangs approval and Thoas direction, Phan Dang Tuat, Chairman and Head of the State Capital Management Board at Sabeco, signed a document submitted to the HCM City Peoples Committee requesting approval for Sabeco Pearl to be the owner of the project.

He also asked city authorities to let Sabeco transfer its land use rights to the newly-formed joint venture.

Based on this, departments and agencies under the HCM City Peoples Committee recommended Nguyen Huu Tin to sign a decision allowing Sabeco Pearl to lease the land in violation of regulations.

Hoang himself also directed Sabeco to speed up divestment of capital in Sabeco Pearl and approved the auction price for Sabecos stake at 13,247 VND per share.

These illegal actions resulted in the land becoming private property, causing especially big losses to the State budget.

As Thoa has fled and the investigations timeframe has expired, police have decided to suspend the investigation against her until she is arrested.
A nude by Roy Lichtenstein led Christies relay-style auction that played out virtually Friday in four cities around the globe.

The live-streamed event -- which had been postponed from May due to the pandemic -- produced $421 million in sales over four hours, exceeding its low estimate. Like Sothebys and Phillips before it, Christies pivoted from a live to virtual auction, connecting sales rooms in Hong Kong, Paris, London and New York digitally and drawing more than 20,000 viewers.

It worked, said Alex Rotter, Christies chairman of newly formed 20/21 department. The market was ready for a new way of thinking about collecting art.

The sellers included billionaire Lorenzo Fertitta, according to people familiar with the matter. Fertitta parted with two works, including the Lichtenstein, the people said, asking not to be identified because the sellers werent made public.

Christies declined to comment, as did art dealer Brett Gorvy, who represented the anonymous consignor. Fertitta, chairman of Fertitta Capital, didnt immediately return a call seeking comment.

Lichtensteins Nude with Joyous Painting fetched $46.2 million, surpassing its presale target of $30 million. A diptych by Joan Mitchell, La Grande Vallee VII, went for $14.5 million, within the estimated range. It was also consigned by Fertitta, according to the people. Both paintings were sold in Hong Kong.

Marden Record

Among the seven record sales Friday was a painting by Brice Marden, Complements, that once belonged to Donald Marron, the former chairman of Lightyear Capital who died in December. It sold for $30.9 million, within the estimated presale range. The results include fees charged by Christies, while estimates dont.

Four Pinball Machines by Wayne Thiebaud, a California artist who turns 100 years old this year, fetched $19.1 million. It last appeared at auction in 1981, selling for $143,000 to Irvine Co. Chairman Donald Bren, according to the provenance provided by Christies. In 1982 Bren sold the work to San Francisco investment manager Ken Siebel and his wife Judy, the parents-in-law of California Governor Gavin Newsom.

While many works hammered below their estimated targets, few failed to find buyers. Among those that didnt sell was an abstract canvas by Zao Wou-Ki, which had been estimated at about $10 million.

We saw a flight to safety, and even further, very cautious bidding, said New York art dealer Andrew Terner. Missing was the magic of a live salesroom. It really may have helped.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)

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Shekhar Suman Decides To Take A Backseat In Fight For Justice For Sushant Singh Rajput, Bounces Back After Fans Get Upset
The Malian opposition alliance that demands President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita step down has called off a high-risk protest, a spokesman said Wednesday.

Demonstrations had been set for Friday, but the so-called June 5 Movement decided to transform them into memorial services for victims killed in violence last week, the spokesman said.

Three days of clashes with the security forces left 11 dead and 158 injured, according to an official tally -- Mali's bloodiest toll from political unrest in years.

The news was announced as envoys from Mali's neighbours led by former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan arrived in Bamako to mediate the escalating political crisis.

Representatives from the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are trying to bridge apparently irreconcilable differences between Keita and a protest movement that demands his resignation.

The June 5 Movement, an alliance of political, social and civil-society leaders gathered around a powerful imam named Mahmoud Dicko, is tapping into deep-seated anger.

Mali. By (AFP)

Malians are worried and frustrated by an eight-year-old jihadist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives, driven hundreds of thousands from their homes and swept into Niger and Burkina Faso.

In the latest violence that plagues the north and centre of the country, seven farmers were killed Tuesday by gunmen, the mayor of Sangha in central Mali told AFP.

Many Malians are also incensed at perceived government corruption and the outcome of long-delayed parliamentary elections in March and April that handed victory to Keita's party.

Tension was high as the opposition had planned a "ceremony of sacrifice and of prayer" for protest victims on Friday, but spokesman Ahmadou N'Dounga Maiga said in a statement that "commemorations" would instead take place in places of worship.

Opposition leader Mountaga Tall told reporters Tuesday: "We are convinced that President IBK has neither the intellectual nor the physical capacity to lead the country," referring to Keita by his initials.

Constitutional experts

Mali's international allies remain anxious, however, given the country's poverty, ethnic mix and strategic location at the heart of the Sahel region.

In a message issued by its embassy in Bamako, the United States urged all sides to show restraint and "commit to a rejection of any extra-constitutional changes of government".

It called on the security forces "to avoid the excessive use of force", and welcomed the arrival of the ECOWAS delegation.

Keita's office said the delegation would include constitutional experts.

A potential solution being explored is to appoint new judges to the Constitutional Court, a tribunal that is a major target of protest anger.

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is facing anger over corruption, Mali's worsening jihadist insurgency and the outcome of parliamentary elections. By Ludovic MARIN (POOL/AFP)

The court tossed out about 30 results from the elections in a decision that handed seats to members of Keita's party.

An ECOWAS mission to Mali last month concluded that the court's decision was "at the root of the tension" and called on the government to review the results or stage new elections as soon as possible.

It also called for a "consensus government of national union".

Keita has made several gestures toward the June 5 Movement, including the dissolution of the Constitutional Court to enable a U-turn on the contested seats.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying's Regular Press Conference on July 16, 2020

2020/07/16

CCTV: State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin held a meeting via video link, which was described as "open, cordial, and fruitful discussions" in a statement issued by the Philippine foreign ministry. Could you share with us more details? What consensus had been reached?

Hua Chunying: On July 14, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. via video link to exchange in-depth views on China-Philippines relations, anti-epidemic cooperation and the South China Sea. Just as the Philippine side pointed out, the talks were open, cordial, and fruitful.

Both sides said they attach high importance to bilateral relations and will continue to implement the consensus between the leaders of the two countries. On the occasion of the 45th anniversary of diplomatic ties, China and the Philippines will further enhance friendship and solidarity, deepen the synergy between the Belt and Road Initiative and the Philippine's "Build, Build, Build" program, advance practical cooperation and new progress in China-Philippines comprehensive cooperative relations and bring more benefits to the two countries and regions.

The two sides spoke highly of their mutual assistance during hard times in the joint fight against the epidemic. China and the Philippines will continue to promote anti-epidemic cooperation including vaccine research and development, accelerate the establishment of a fast track for personnel exchanges and promote socio-economic development while maintaining ongoing epidemic prevention efforts. Both sides made clear their opposition to politicizing and attaching a geographical label to the virus and their support to the international community's efforts to tide over difficulties in solidarity.

After friendly discussions, both sides believed that maritime disputes do not represent the whole of bilateral relations, and should not and will not derail China-Philippines friendship. China and the Philippines will continue to follow the principle of mutual respect, sincerity and sovereign equality and stay committed to resolving the disputes through friendly bilateral consultations, advancing maritime cooperation, and jointly upholding peace and stability in the South China Sea.

CRI: Workers at Los Alamos National Laboratory might have been exposed to plutonium after a nuclear leakage at the site. The US side is seeking to jump-start the lab's ability in plutonium pit production to 30 plutonium pits per year by 2030. What is your comment?

Hua Chunying: I have seen relevant reports. The US already possesses the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, and yet it is still advancing modernization of nuclear weapons and development of new-type nuclear weapons to seek absolute strategic security advantage. Its massive investment in rolling out new nuclear weaponry disrupts global strategic stability and poses greater security risks. Experts with the Union of Concerned Scientists already voiced concerns. The US should earnestly fulfill its special and primary responsibilities to nuclear disarmament and promote global strategic security through concrete deeds.

Bloomberg: Bloomberg reported that the US President Donald Trump has decided for now against sanctioning a list of high-level Chinese officials. However, the New York Times has separately reported that the administration is considering barring all communist party members from traveling to the US. How does China respond to these?

Hua Chunying: I cannot tell whether what you just cited are true. You need to ask the US side for verification. If they are indeed true, I think it's very pathetic. As the strongest power, what impression does it want to leave to the world except for hurling sanctions?

We hope the US will refrain from doing more things that disdain the basic norms governing international relations and undermine its reputation, credibility and status as a major country.

The Paper: On July 15, US State Secretary Pompeo said he stood by his remarks describing "the things that are happening on a human rights scale" in China as "the stain of the century". Does China have a comment?

Hua Chunying: To be frank, the US, while talking about human rights non-stop, is actually the world's number one human rights abuser, and its allegation on human rights issues in Xinjiang is the lie of the century. Relevant US officials should be ashamed of this, and the American people must be sad having such liars in the administration.

The most important criteria on China's human rights situation is whether the Chinese people are satisfied, not the US politicians' comments. Since the People's Republic of China was founded over 70 years ago, the Chinese people, under the leadership of the CPC, have found a development path in line with the country's national realities and achieved remarkable progress. Its vast land of 9.6 million square kilometers is free from war, terror and displacement. The 1.4 billion Chinese people of all 56 ethnic groups live happily together. In the past four decades, per capita income in China increased more than 25 times, with over 850 million people out of poverty, contributing over 70 percent to global poverty reduction. China is also the only country in recent decades that has become the world's second largest economy without resorting to warfare, colonialism or slavery. For more than ten consecutive years, China has contributed to over 30 percent of global GDP growth. This is the greatest human rights endeavor, the best human rights practice, and China's enormous contribution to the global human rights cause. People without bias can all see this fact.

If we look at the US, in nearly a century after the country was founded, the US expelled and killed a large number of Indians through the Westward Expansion. The population of native Americans nosedived to 250,000, only one twentieth of the original 5 million. Throughout its 240-plus-year history, only 16 years saw no warfare. Since 2001, it has waged unjustified wars and military operations in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan and other countries, spending over $6.4 trillion, causing over 800,000 deaths and displacing tens of millions. Today in the US, African Americans and other minorities are still in dire straits. Mr. Floyd was not the only one who died in the US because he couldn't breathe. There is racial discrimination everywhere and the wealth gap is just shocking. Actually, the US has the most serious income inequality in Western countries. From 1989 to 2018, the bottom 50 percent of households' net wealth growth was essentially zero, a record high in wealth gap in 50 years. In front of such iron-clad facts, we don't know how Mr. Pompeo can be so unabashed when talking about human rights with China? Before opening his mouth, he should ask how the late Mr. Floyd and minorities in the US think of human rights in the US, and how the innocent lives lost in Iraq, Syria and other countries think of the US human rights record.

AFP: There have been a lot of US sanctions and Chinese countermeasures recently on Hong Kong, Huawei, Xinjiang. A lot of people are concerned about the trade deal signed between China and the US in January. Is this trade deal still alive, in your opinion? And is China committed to carry out this deal?

Hua Chunying: After making arduous efforts, the Chinese and US teams reached a mutually beneficial trade deal based on equality and mutual respect. As we said on multiple occasions, the deal benefits China, the US and the whole world. We surely want to see it faithfully implemented. China always acts on its commitments. We will implement the deal because we put our name on it.

That said, some in the US have been spreading hearsay, bullying and oppressing China like crazy, which harms trust and cooperation between the two countries. China must say no to US bullying and biased practices. We are determined in taking measures to safeguard sovereignty, security and development interests.

Shenzhen TV: A spokesman for British Prime Minister said on July 15 the reason for the UK's change of position regarding Huawei's participation in the country's 5G network rollout was the impact of the US sanctions which were announced in May. Within the UK, there are also different voices, like the BT's Chief Executive Philip Jansen said the decision clearly had logistical and cost implications for BT. A Vodafone spokesman also said that they're disappointed at this decision which will add delay to the rollout of 5G in the UK and will result in additional costs for the industry. Do you have any comment?

Hua Chunying: We noted relevant reports. All this shows that the UK has lost its independence and self-decision, the most cherished thing for a country. The benefits it may gain from this decision cannot make up for its loss.

Like I said yesterday, in the past two decades or so, the UK and Huawei had very good cooperation, which serves the interests of the UK. Huawei brought tens of thousands of jobs to the country and made positive contributions to the infrastructure building of the British telecom sector. So, the UK's decision to ban Huawei just compromises its own interests. The British government should heed the rational call at home and make choices that best serve the long-term, fundamental interests of the country.

Beijing Daily: US State Secretary Pompeo recently said repeatedly that excluding Huawei means joining "clean countries". Do you have a comment?

Hua Chunying: As the PRISM incident has revealed, the US is really the top empire of hackers in this world. American companies Cisco and Apple admitted years ago that there are security loopholes and backdoors in their equipment. US intelligence has long been running indiscriminate, illegal surveillance programs on foreign governments, businesses and individuals including those of its allies. Even American citizens don't have any secrets. These are open facts.

Huawei, however, has been providing services in more than 170 countries, and no country has presented any evidence showing security threats or backdoors in Huawei products. For example, Huawei funded and set up a cyber security testing center in the UK, opens itself to testing by UK experts, and is willing to sign no-backdoor agreement with all countries. Can any other business in any other country do this? Will Apple or Cisco offer to do the same, setting up a security center, opening itself to testing and standing ready to sign no-backdoor agreements? Can any US company match Huawei on such transparency? It makes one laugh to hear Pompeo to accuse Huawei of being not clean.

The US always boasts of its strong democracy, freedoms and values, but now it won't allow a foreign private company to live and prosper. Huawei is a successful private company. Its only fault in the eyes of the US is that it's a Chinese company, right? Driven by strong ideological bias, the US went so far as to employ national resources, abuse national security, and use democracy and values as a cover to align its minions to smear, attack and repress the Chinese company. This is the very opposite of being "clean". They are playing real dirty tricks.

Bloomberg: Just a follow-up on the Huawei issue. Secretary of State Pompeo said that the US will impose visa restrictions on some employees of Huawei over human rights abuses including against Muslims and other ethnic minorities. Can you comment on that?

Hua Chunying: I have made it very clear. The US is actually the world's number one human rights abuser, and its human rights allegation on Xinjiang-related issues is the lie of the century. The US should feel ashamed of having a senior official who tells such monstrous lies on this issue. If Mr. Pompeo has the sincerity, he is welcome to visit Xinjiang, talk with the people living there and also get a grasp on how people in Xinjiang feel about him.

Global Times: Pompeo in a recent interview also said that the CPC didn't fulfill its Paris Agreement commitments and broke its promise of not militarizing the South China Sea. Would you like to comment on this?

Hua Chunying: I don't want to turn our MFA press conferences into special briefings debunking Pompeo's lies. But since he made these comments, I have to respond to them. I have noted his intensive remarks in the past few days attacking and smearing China. China's position on climate change and the South China Sea is crystal clear. As he's been talking about China violating international law or treaties, I think it might be interesting to see how many treaties and organizations the US has withdrawn from.

In 1982, to maintain its maritime hegemony, the United States refused to sign the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), of which it is still not a party.

In 1984, the United States formally withdrew from UNESCO, dissatisfied with the gradual erosion of its cultural control by developing countries. After returning to the organization in 2003, it once again withdrew in 2017 on the so-called ground of saving funds and urging reform.

In 1985, the United States refused to recognize the compulsory jurisdiction of the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) after Nicaragua complained that US armed intervention violated its sovereignty.

In 1995, the United States withdrew from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and refused to pay arrears by claiming domestic budgetary constraints.

The United States has refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol since 2001, saying it was not in its national interest to meet relevant environmental obligations.

In 2001, the United States withdrew from the United Nations World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance after failing to prevent discussion of Israeli military action against Palestinians.

In 2001, to strengthen its military advantage, the United States formally withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty signed by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1972.

In 2002, the United States withdrew from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, citing unfavorable terms for American soldiers, diplomats and politicians.

In 2017, the United States announced its formal withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) because it believed that multilateral trade agreements were not in its best interests and hindered its "America First" policy.

In 2017, the US government announced its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, believing that it hindered the economic development.

In 2017, the United States withdrew from negotiations of the United Nations Global Compact on Migration, and cast votes against the UNGCM at the UN General Assembly.

In 2018, despite the fact that the IAEA confirmed Iran's fulfillment of its JCPOA commitment and that the United States had no clear evidence to show Iran conducted nuclear tests in breach of the deal, the United States withdrew from the JCPOA, a deal that has been endorsed by the United Nations Security Council, and re-imposed unilateral sanctions against Iran.

In 2018, the US announced its withdrawal from the UN Human Rights Council claiming it failed to effectively protect human rights.

In 2018, the United States withdrew from the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, concerning the Compulsory Settlement of Disputes relating to the jurisdiction of the ICJ in order to avoid a Palestinian complaint filed legitimately to the ICJ.

In 2019, the United States withdrew from the INF Treaty to develop short- and medium-range missiles without restraint.

In 2020, under the pretext of alleged Russian violations of the Open Skies Treaty, the United States announced steps to exit the Treaty.

In 2020, the US government, looking for scapegoats for its botched response to COVID-19, announced its withdrawal from the World Health Organization. It should be noted that the United States still owes more than $200 million in assessed contributions. Will it pay it off before exiting?

Before accusing other countries of failing to comply with international law and treaties, the US should first reflect upon its own record of exiting at every turn whenever its interests are not served. It exposes its hypocrisy, stark hegemony and double standards. Will the US rejoin these treaties and groupings before attacking China? I hope the US can act like a truly responsible major power and honor international law and treaties it has joined like China and other countries.

ITV: A question about Taiwan. Today the Taiwanese military held drills rehearsing for a Chinese invasion. President Xi has said that unification is his aim. What is the position of the government on that today and is there a timetable for unifying China and Taiwan?

Hua Chunying: You should ask the Defense Ministry on questions about military drills. I've seen reports commenting that Taiwan wants to flex its muscle through holding military drills. If Taiwan really thinks that way, then it is hugely overestimating its strength.

China is rock-firm in safeguarding its sovereignty and security. Reunification of the People's Republic of China is the inevitable trend. Any force that seeks to separate China needs to be clear-minded about this. The 1.4 billion Chinese people will not allow an inch of the territory to be taken away.

China Review News: Considering where the China-US relations are standing now, some analysts say that there is now a unbridgeable ideological chasm between the two countries. A new Cold War is brewing between China and the US. What is your comment?

Hua Chunying: China-US relations are closely followed and widely commented by all. This is understandable. State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi gave a full account of China's take on the current China-US relations and offered some opinions and suggestions in his video speech at the China-US Think Tanks Media Forum several days ago.

State Councilor Wang Yi said that some in the US with ideological biases are resorting to all possible means to portray China as an adversary, and even an enemy. They seek relentlessly to frustrate and contain China's development, and to impede interactions between China and the US. The current China policy of the US is based on ill-informed strategic miscalculation, and is fraught with emotions and whims and McCarthyist bigotry. Its suspicion about China, totally uncalled-for, has reached a point of paranoia. It seems as if every Chinese investment is politically driven, every Chinese student is a spy, and every cooperation initiative is a scheme with hidden agenda. If the US lacks confidence, openness and inclusiveness to such an extent, and chooses to conjure up "China Threats" of various kinds, its paranoia may turn into self-fulfilling prophecies at the end of the day. China and the US should not seek to remodel each other. Instead, they must work together to find ways to peaceful coexistence of different systems and civilizations. Every country takes its development path on the basis of its cultural and historic traditions. China's path of socialism with Chinese characteristics suits its own national conditions, and it is the choice of the Chinese people. Facts have proved that this has been the way out of poverty and backwardness for the 1.4 billion Chinese people, and that it has enabled the Chinese nation to make important contribution again to the progress of mankind. International polls have indicated over and again that Chinese people's approval ratings of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the government rank the highest worldwide. Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government released a report based on their survey in China spanning 13 years. It showed that the Chinese people's overall satisfaction towards the Central Government exceeds 93%. No country, person or external force is in a position to deny the proven right path chosen by the Chinese people.

China has never provoked the United States and has no intention of challenging, replacing or confronting on all fronts with the United States. What we care about is to improve the well-being of our people and meet their growing needs for a better life. China's policy towards the US has never changed. We always hope to develop mutually beneficial and win-win China-US relations based on the principle of equality and mutual respect. Of course, this cannot be achieved by China alone. We need the US side to work with us. From the very first day of diplomatic relations with China, the United States knew it was dealing with a socialist country with Chinese characteristics, led by the Communist Party of China. Over the past decades, China and the United States have achieved a lot in cooperation, which has not only promoted our respective development, but also contributed to world peace and settlement of global issues. We hope that the US side will take a more rational and objective view of China and formulate a rational and pragmatic policy towards China. This best serves the fundamental and long-term interests of the Chinese and American people and the expectations of the people across the world.

China News Service: Reports say three US soldiers stationed in Japan, who was later found to be infected with COVID-19, concealed their travel histories when entering Japan in violation of the country's quarantine regulations. Defense Minister Kono called it a severe incident, asking the US to handle it seriously. Some commented that the US government won't care about Japan's quarantine as it doesn't even do a good job at home. What's China's view on this?

Hua Chunying: It's not the first time that US troops overseas disregarded the laws, regulations and public opinions of their host countries. However, when it comes to COVID-19, a matter concerning people's health and even life and death, their behavior has breached the bottom-line of morality, which is unacceptable to any civil society.

APP: According to reports, Pakistan has recently opened five key routes with Afghanistan for bilateral and transit trade. Pakistan has already allowed Afghan traders to use Gwadar port, a key project of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, for import and export. As a major country in the region and a neighbor of Pakistan and Afghanistan, what does China think about this resumption of trade activity in the region?

Hua Chunying: China applauds the endeavors of Pakistan and Afghanistan to overcome difficulties caused by COVID-19 and resume trade and personnel exchange recently. As a neighbor and friend of both countries, China looks forward to improvement of relations between and economic development in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and stands ready to play a constructive role to this end. China supports the extension of CPEC to Afghanistan, which will bring more BRI benefits to the Afghan people. China is also pleased to see the Gwadar port, among other CPEC projects, plays a positive role in this process and stands ready to work together with Pakistan and Afghanistan in this regard.
MILFORD  The Greatest Bluefish Tournament on Earth will kick off at 12:01 a.m. Aug. 29, throughout Long Island Sound. The tournament offers anglers up to $40,000 in cash prizes. The grand prize of $25,000 goes to the heaviest bluefish, second place takes home $7,500 and third place gets $2,500. In addition, there are cash prizes for 4th through 20th place. The tournament also offers a port prize for the heaviest fish at each participating weigh-in station in Connecticut and New York. WICC600am broadcasts hourly update results all weekend long. The most up-to-date information can be found at www.bluefishtournament.com or @bluefishtournament on Facebook.

Registration is $36 which has been reduced from previous years--anglers can register by calling 203-366-BLUE or apply in person at any one of the 21 registration stations around the sound in CT and NY. Registration is also offered online and includes a unique 2020 Greatest Bluefish Tournament t-shirt. To get a complete list of registration/weigh-in stations, FAQs, rules on the Tournament or to register visit bluefishtournament.com. The fishing tournament is open to all ages including children.

Registration locations include AW Marina New London, Bobby Js Milford, Captains Cove Seaport Bridgeport, Dees Bait & Tackle New Haven, Fishermans Paradise Milford, Fishermans World East Norwalk, Fishin Factory Milldale, J&B Niantic, Petes Place Bait & Tackle Stamford, Rivers End Bait & Tackle Old Saybrook, Shoreline Bait Runners Bait and Tackle, Sportmans Den Cos Cob, and Teds Bait & Tackle Old Saybrook.

Deadline to register is Aug. 28. Registration is required to participate. The tournament begins Aug. 29 ends Aug. 30 at 5 p.m. The first-place winner will be interviewed live on WICC600, and all winners are announced immediately after the tournament.

Beach parking stickers mailed with tax bills

WEST HAVEN  City tax bills  real estate, personal property, motor vehicle and sewer  have been mailed and are payable in two installments: July and January. Included in the mailing are the new two-year beach parking stickers. Taxes are due July 1. Payments after Aug. 3 are considered delinquent and subject to interest, Tax Collector Dorothy Chambrelli said.

Taxpayers can make a payment on the city website at https://www.mytaxbill.org/inet/bill/home.do?town=westhaven. Sewer bills are on the same page but under a separate heading. Tax payment history can also be viewed and printed. The fees for credit cards and electronic checks are available at http://cityofwesthaven.com/276/Payments.

Current taxes can be paid by the drop box at the Main Street entrance of City Hall. Current taxes can also be paid by mail  check or money order, no cash  to the tax office lockbox: City of West Haven, Tax Collector, P.O. Box 150461, Hartford 06115-0461. When paying by lockbox or drop box, the canceled check is the receipt.

After Aug. 3, taxes with interest can be paid by mail to the City of West Haven, Tax Collector, P.O. Box 401, West Haven 06516. In-person payments are not offered at the moment because City Hall remains closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. For beach sticker information, call the tax office at 203-937-3525.

MAC announces new recreated campaign

MILFORD - The Milford Arts Council presents a new campaign they are calling The MAC: Recreated - a slate of online and outdoor events straight from the heart of the arts. These programs include the same quality arts experiences and opportunities that have enriched, enlightened, and entertained the community for nearly 50 years, presented in new and different ways.

Some of the new programs include: Homebound with Eastbound, one-act plays that are presented online once a month by Eastbound Theatre; Explore Your Inner Creative online and outdoor classes and tutorials that enrich the creative spirit; Artist to Artist sessions that provide a safe and supportive place for artists to share life and art with each other every Tuesday evening by Zoom; Movement classes five ways/five days - tap, tango, nia, bodyart, and dance exercise online Mondays through Fridays; and Open Mic Online every second Wednesday of the month re-starting this Fall.

The new MAC Summer Pop Up series premiered in June, offering a spontaneous visual or performing arts experience in a surprise natural setting on Saturdays at 11 a.m.. The community can look out for location clues all week long as to the surprise setting of the event at milfordarts.org, Milford Arts Council Facebook, or milford.arts on Instagram.

The MACs Sandsculpt Contest is ON (line) as well. The MAC will feature sandsculpt creations on their website and social platforms during the months of July and August, continuing this 43 year old tradition in a new and different way. Stay tuned for details at https://milfordarts.org/sand-sculpt-lp

Veterans, elderly exemptions, renters rebates resume

NORTH HAVEN  North Haven Assessor's Office has resumed taking applications for Additional Veterans Exemptions from June 29 through Oct. 1, 2020. Applications will be processed by appointment only. Call the Assessor's Office at 203-239-5321 ext. 610 or e-mail assessor@northhaven-ct.gov.

Only one person at a time will be allowed to enter the building to process applications.

Veterans receiving the base $3,000 exemption only need to apply once unless they move out of town. Veterans receiving income-based exemptions must reapply every two years.

The Assessors office is also accepting applications for the Renters Rebate Program, June 29 through Oct. 2, by appointment only. Call the Assessor's Office at 203-239-5321 ext. 610 or e-mail assessor@northhaven-ct.gov.

If there are any questions, please contact the North Haven Assessors Office at 203-239-5321.
NEON by G. S. Locke (Orion 8.99, 416 pp)

NEON

by G. S. Locke (Orion 8.99, 416 pp)

This high-concept novel tells the story of DCI Matt Jackson, whos in such despair over the murder of his wife by a serial killer  who likes to illuminate his victims with chains of neon lights  that he decides he wants to end his own life.

He hires a hit man (who turns out to be a hit woman) to kill him. Then, at the last moment, he changes his mind when he stumbles across a fresh lead in the hunt for the Neon killer.

Jackson offers the hit woman his house and inheritance if she helps his search. What follows is an enthralling quest in which the three individuals circle each other as it emerges that there may be unexpected links between them all.

Vivid and stylish, it rushes along like a rollercoaster before plunging to an intense conclusion  to be read in a single sitting.

CRY BABY by Mark Billingham (Little, Brown 20, 448 pp)

CRY BABY

by Mark Billingham (Little, Brown 20, 448 pp)

Twenty years ago, Billingham introduced troubled detective DI Tom Thorne in his debut, Sleepyhead, which became an international bestseller. Now Billingham has written a prequel to this, where Thorne is still only a DS investigating the disappearance of a seven-year-old boy who had been playing with his friend in the woods in Highgate, north London.

He is haunted by the memory that he once ignored his instinct about a suspect, which saw a horrifying crime committed.

Thorne is determined not to make the same mistake again as he senses something strange about a neighbour of the missing boys mother.

Does this man have something to do with the disappearance? Written with Billinghams characteristic flair and drive, with a protagonist who stalks every page.

SHED NO TEARS by Caz Frear (Zaffre 7.99, 400 pp)

SHED NO TEARS

by Caz Frear (Zaffre 7.99, 400 pp)

Christopher Masters, the so-called Roommate Killer, was responsible for the deaths of three young women in a London house in 2012, but his fourth victim  thought to be Holly Kemp  was never found.

Now, her remains are discovered in a field in Cambridgeshire many miles from the killers house  the other bodies were found much nearer to home.

DC Cat Kinsella, who appeared in Frears debut, Sweet Little Lies, is on the major incident team asked to re-examine Hollys cold case. Masters is now dead, but the question is, did he kill Holly, or is there another killer?

Kinsellas refreshing in your face attitude, and her appetite for breaking the rules, add spice to this complex story. Told with poise, Frear never lets the suspense drop.
A Florida sheriff who took the knee with Black Lives Matter protests last months has had his re-election endorsement by a Florida police union rescinded.

Members of the The Fraternal Order of Police who voted unanimously to rescind the endorsement of Orange County Sheriff John Mina in his re-election bid on Tuesday.

A survey of members found that a majority of respondents complained about low morale, with many saying they believed that Mina would not back them up if they were involved in a use-of-force case that became public, according to Fox 35.

A number of Sheriff Mina's deputies were disappointing when he took a knee - a sign of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter protesters demonstrating against police brutality and racial injustice.

'You knelt with the same protesters/rioters who were hurling insults and bricks at us for your own political gain,' read one comment in the survey.

Orange County Sheriff John Mina (pictured near-left taking a knee along-side Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolon and Black Lives Matter protesters last month) has lost his re-election endorsement from The Fraternal Order of Police after the action

Mina reportedly took the knee with demonstrates in Orlando who were protesting against police brutality and systemic racism following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died while being detained by police officers in Minneapolis.

The four officers involved - Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, James Kueng and Thomas Lane - have since been fired and are facing criminal charges.

In a statement from Mina, he said that he and Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolon were asked by a group of young protesters who asked them to kneel in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

'The two young gentlemen asked us to kneel and we said, "Well, why don't we kneel and pray?"' Mina told Fox News.

'And so we did, and I think that sent a great message not only to the people protesting out there but to our officers and our deputies who were watching their two leaders here in Orange County kneel, take a knee and listen to what the protesters had to say.'

Mina said in a statement that young men at the protests asked him to kneel with them in a sign of solidarity. Above, John Mina describes the details of the fatal shootings at the Pulse Orlando nightclub during a media briefing Monday, June 13, 2016

Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolon, pictured above, was also asked to kneel by some young men during the protest in a show of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement

When the news station reached out to Mina for comment, he released a formal statement, saying that he is disappointing that the union rescinded the endorsement.

'I understand that these are tough times in law enforcement  we are all feeling vilified because of the intense spotlight on law enforcement misconduct,' the statement said.

'I value and respect our deputies and all of their hard work. They risk their lives every day, doing one of the most difficult and complex jobs in the world. And they are some of the best law enforcement has to offer.

'But I am the Sheriff of everyone in Orange County, and voters elected me to keep this community safe. I am accountable to them  and I am also accountable to all members of this agency,' he continued.

Thousands of protesters across the United States took to the streets to protest against racial injustice. Pictured; Black Lives Matter protesters march down Orange Avenue in downtown Orlando, Florida

'The changes I have already instituted at the Sheriffs Office might have been the impetus for the unions decision to pull its endorsement by a vote of 50 members. If thats the case, I accept that.'

Mina went on to say that he acknowledges that his community is 'pleading for change' and that he would 'continue to work of finding common ground with memebers of our community.'

In his statement, he also made it clear he has had to make difficult decisions himself in the past when his deputies have used excessive force, and has even terminated some for breaking the law.

'But I want everyone at the Orange County Sheriffs Office to know that I am extremely proud of the work they do. My door is always open to them and I am willing to have any discussions, even difficult ones,' his statement concluded.
According to new research from the UCLA COVID-19 Behind Bars project, the death rate in US prisons is 39 deaths per 100,000, as opposed to 29 per 100,000 in the wider population. When age-adjusted for the disproportionately young US prison population, inmates are three times more likely to die from the virus than the population as a whole.

According to the project, as of July 15, there have been over 68,900 confirmed infections across prisons in the US and at least 675 deaths. Reflecting the trend of a nation-wide resurgence of the virus following the criminal bipartisan reopening campaign, this figure is over double the 29,251 cases reported on May 29.

Testing has also been criminally inadequate. Just 382,749 of the over 2.3 million inmates in the US criminal justice system have been tested since the beginning of the pandemic. In crowded and unsanitary prison and jail conditions, where social distancing is near-impossible, without every single prisoner being tested regularly the true extent of the virus spread cannot be known.

The latest tally has been collected from individual reports by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) on both jails and prisons at county, state and federal levels. Given the agencys reputation for opaque statistics, accusations of undercounting, and recorded instances of information suppression at both state and federal levels throughout the pandemic, it is likely the current infection rate and death toll are significant undercounts.

For many states, data for prisons has not been made available by the BOP. This includes Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Mississippi. All of these states have seen record daily new infections in the past two weeks. The BOP has also not released any data on deaths for prisons in New York and Massachusetts, states which have suffered 32,516 and 15,736 deaths respectively.

Many of the most intense outbreaks in prisons have been in states experiencing a resurgence of the virus.

In California, where the daily confirmed infections exceeded 10,000 on July 8, Terminal Island prison has had ten deaths. An intense outbreak at the infamous San Quentin prison in Northern California has led to 2,032 confirmed cases and at least eleven deaths. At the California Institution for Men in Chino there have been 949 confirmed cases and seventeen deaths; the largest official death toll of any single incarceration facility in the country.

In Florida, where hospitals are now turning away ambulances due to a flood of COVID-19 patients, there are at least 2,632 prisoners infected. Exposing the influence of the deadly reopening campaign on prisons, the number of prison staff infected has doubled in just the last month to 885. Due to the increasing number of infected prison staff on quarantine, those left are being asked to work twelve-hour shifts, six days a week. While this number includes a large number of prison guards, it also includes social workers who provide vital services for the well-being of the inmates.

In North Carolina, which has had around 2,000 newly confirmed cases every day this week, Butner Low prison has had 677 infections and 16 deaths, while another adjoined facility, Butner Medium, has had 214 infections and at least nine deaths.

Federal prison facilities have also been hit hard. At the Elkton Federal Correctional Institution in Ohio, there have been nine deaths. This is the location where prisoners leaked harrowing footage documenting inmates struggling for breath and the construction of a temporary morgue. Following this leak, in what is still an unexplained episode, the National Guard were sent in to deal with a COVID-19 medical emergency. At another federal facility in Fort Worth, Texas, there have been twelve deaths from the coronavirus.

In Houston, a lawsuit has also been taken out against a for-profit facility run by the Geo Group. The facilitys management has been accused of threatening to discipline prisoners if they call health agencies to seek information on the virus and of covering up at least three COVID-19 deaths. Geo Group runs prisons and mental health institutions in the US, UK, South Africa and Australia and has an annual revenue of $2.4 billion. In the US alone it manages 95,000 beds in prisons or halfway houses.

Since the onset of a federal prison lockdown on March 31, which was later followed by similar restrictions in state prisons and jails, inmates have lived in conditions of solitary confinement for 23 hours a day. Limitations on phone access and family visits have also left prisoners unable to communicate with the outside world.

There have been exceptions to this blackout, however. For example, in late June images were posed on Twitter that showed prisoners at Bradley County jail in Tennessee, holding up signs to cell exterior windows. One read, Nobody is given underwear, socks, or bras! Women bleeding on themselves! Denied medical attention. While another read, Fourteen-day quarantine, no tests, no masks, no way to communicate with outside or family. No court dates. The only response of the Bradley Countys Sheriffs Office was to board up the windows. According to the BOP, there have been four COVID-19 deaths in Tennessee prisons.

The accelerating outbreak in prisons and jails is a product of two intersecting crimes of the American ruling class. The first is the broader reopening campaign, the deadly toll of which is beginning to be seen most acutely in California, Arizona, Texas and Florida. The second is the failure to enact a mass release of non-violent and elderly prisoners to allow for social distancing to limit the exposure of at-risk prisoners to the virus. Despite well-publicized executive orders from many state governors and US Attorney General William Barr, mass releases never actually happened.

In practice the treatment of the most vulnerable prisoners has been quite the opposite. In New York, last month 96 aging inmates were transferred to the Adirondack Correctional Facility, two hours from the Canadian border. Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the plan was implemented to protect the inmates from the virus. However, on July 8, one prisoner tested positive. Now they are many hours further away from their families and at high risk of infection and death. Given the virus decimation of elderly populations in care homes in New York earlier this year, it is probable that large numbers of elderly prisoners will die from COVID-19.

In truth, the vast majority of prisoners who will die as a result of the latest national surge should have been released months ago. Indeed, many of them should not have been incarcerated in the first place.

The consequences of the criminal failure to enact a mass release are not just borne by prisoners themselves, however. Prisons also act as vectors for the spread of the disease in the wider population. An ACLU study published in April estimated that a failure to release inmates and implement effective measures within prisons would lead to a further 99,000 deaths in the US population at large. That figure assumes strict social distancing, tracing and testing to contain the virus. In the absence of such measures the study predicts 188,000 extra deaths.

Despite the advice of scientists and prison advocates, who have published clear step-by-step guidance to politicians since lockdowns began in March, no meaningful action has been taken to protect prisoners or the wider population from the virus. In line with the wider COVID-19 response, inaction in prisons was a conscious decision taken by Democratic and Republican politicians on behalf of the profit interests of the ruling class. For this they have the blood of hundreds of individuals on their hands.
Humanigen's investigational monoclonal antibody, lenzilumab, was developed using Catalent's proprietary GPEx  cell line development technology

Expanded partnership established product supply for lenzilumab, an investigational Phase 3 product for COVID-19

Catalent's OneBio integrated biologics suite expected to accelerate development, manufacturing and supply of lenzilumab for clinical trial use in COVID-19 patients and potential commercialization

SOMERSET, NJ and BURLINGAME, CA / ACCESSWIRE / July 16, 2020 / Catalent and Humanigen, Inc. (HGEN) ("Humanigen") today announced the expansion of their relationship, under which Catalent will provide development, manufacturing and commercialization services for lenzilumab, Humanigen's proprietary Humaneered anti-human granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) monoclonal antibody.

Catalent is the leading global provider of advanced delivery technologies, development, manufacturing and clinical supply solutions for drugs, biologics, cell and gene therapies and consumer health products. Humanigen is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on preventing and treating cytokine storm with lenzilumab, the company's lead therapeutic candidate.

Mayo Clinic recently announced data on the first clinical use of lenzilumab in 12 patients with severe and critical COVID-19 pneumonia, the majority of whom showed rapid recovery and hospital discharge. A Phase 3 study is currently underway evaluating hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

"Based on lenzilumab's promising clinical data, we are pleased to expand our relationship with Catalent to solidify our ability to manufacture and supply lenzilumab," commented Cameron Durrant, MD, MBA, Chief Executive Officer of Humanigen. "If we are able to secure FDA approvals or Emergency Use Authorization, Catalent Biologics' deep expertise and integrated OneBio solution will accelerate our ability to get this therapy to patients that need it most."

Story continues

"Catalent has partnered closely with Humanigen to develop and supply lenzilumab for clinical trials," commented Karen Flynn, President of Catalent Biologics and Chief Commercial Officer. "The experience we already have with lenzilumab, and our OneBio integrated offering from development to supply, make Catalent uniquely suited to support Humanigen in the journey to make this promising therapy available to COVID-19 patients as soon as possible following receipt of regulatory approvals."

To date, Catalent Biologics has provided early-stage development and clinical cGMP drug substance manufacturing for lenzilumab at its facility in Madison, Wisconsin to support Humanigen's ongoing clinical trials across various disease categories. Under the expanded partnership, Catalent is also providing clinical supply support for Humanigen's Phase 3 potential registration study in COVID-19 from its Philadelphia facility.

Lenzilumab was originally manufactured in Catalent's Madison facility using Catalent Biologics' proprietary GPEx cell line development technology. As part of the expanded partnership, Catalent intends to provide additional drug substance clinical supply for Humanigen's clinical trials, Expanded Access Program (EAP), as well as additional late-stage development and clinical and potential commercial drug substance manufacturing and vial filling at its Madison and Bloomington, Indiana, sites.

Catalent Biologics' Madison facility provides development and drug substance manufacturing, including GPEx cell line development, process development, process validation, formulation development, and clinical and commercial cGMP manufacturing. Its Bloomington facility has deep expertise in sterile formulation, with drug substance development and manufacturing and drug product fill/finish capacity across liquid and lyophilized vials, prefilled syringes, and cartridges as well as primary and secondary packaging.

Catalent's OneBio Suite is an integrated solution for the development, manufacturing, and supply of biologic drugs. Launched in May 2019, the suite of offerings is designed to integrate activities and accelerate timelines, reduce risk and simplify development with a single contract, program manager, and development timeline from cell line development to supply, with harmonized quality systems.

About Humanigen, Inc.

Humanigen, Inc. is developing its portfolio of clinical and pre-clinical therapies for the treatment of cancers and infectious diseases via its novel, cutting-edge GM-CSF neutralization and gene-knockout platforms. We believe that our GM-CSF neutralization and gene-editing platform technologies have the potential to reduce the inflammatory cascade associated with coronavirus infection. The company's immediate focus is to prevent or minimize the cytokine release syndrome that precedes severe lung dysfunction and ARDS in serious cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The company is also focused on creating next-generation combinatory gene-edited CAR-T therapies using strategies to improve efficacy while employing GM-CSF gene knockout technologies to control toxicity. In addition, the company is developing its own portfolio of proprietary first-in-class EphA3-CAR-T for various solid cancers and EMR1-CAR-T for various eosinophilic disorders. The company is also exploring the effectiveness of its GM-CSF neutralization technologies (either through the use of lenzilumab as a neutralizing antibody or through GM-CSF gene knockout) in combination with other CAR-T, bispecific or natural killer (NK) T cell engaging immunotherapy treatments to break the efficacy/toxicity linkage, including to prevent and/or treat graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) in patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Additionally, Humanigen and Kite, a Gilead Company, are evaluating lenzilumab in combination with Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel) in patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma in a clinical collaboration. For more information, visit www.humanigen.com.

About Catalent Biologics

Catalent Biologics is a global leader in development, manufacturing and analytical services for new biological entities, cell and gene therapies, biosimilars, sterile injectables, and antibody-drug conjugates. With over 20 years of proven expertise, Catalent Biologics has worked with 600+ mAbs and 80+ proteins, produced 13 biopharmaceutical drugs using GPEx cell line development technology, and manufactured 35+ commercially approved products. Catalent Cell & Gene Therapy, a unit of Catalent Biologics, is a full-service partner for adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors and CAR-T immunotherapies, with deep experience in viral vector scale-up and production. Catalent recently acquired MaSTherCell, adding expertise in autologous and allogeneic cell therapy development and manufacturing. Catalent Cell & Gene Therapy has produced 100+ cGMP batches across 70+ clinical and commercial programs. For more information, visit biologics.catalent.com

About Catalent

Catalent is the leading global provider of advanced delivery technologies, development, manufacturing, and clinical supply solutions for drugs, biologics, cell and gene therapies, and consumer health products. With over 85 years serving the industry, Catalent has proven expertise in bringing more customer products to market faster, enhancing product performance and ensuring reliable global clinical and commercial product supply. Catalent employs over 13,500 people, including over 2,400 scientists and technicians, at more than 40 facilities, and in fiscal year 2019 generated over $2.5 billion in annual revenue. Catalent is headquartered in Somerset, New Jersey. For more information, visit www.catalent.com

More products. Better treatments. Reliably supplied.

Humanigen's Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements reflect management's current knowledge, assumptions, judgment and expectations regarding future performance or events. Although management believes that the expectations reflected in such statements are reasonable, they give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct and you should be aware that actual events or results may differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Words such as "will," "expect," "intend," "plan," "potential," "possible," "goals," "accelerate," "continue," and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding our expectations for the Phase III study and the potential future development of lenzilumab to minimize or reduce the severity of lung dysfunction associated with severe and critical COVID-19 infections or to be approved by FDA for such use or to help CAR-T reach its full potential or to deliver benefit in preventing GvHD. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, the risks inherent in our lack of profitability and need for additional capital to conduct the Phase III study and grow our business; our dependence on partners to further the development of our product candidates; the uncertainties inherent in the development and launch of any new pharmaceutical product; the outcome of pending or future litigation; and the various risks and uncertainties described in the "Risk Factors" sections and elsewhere in the Company's periodic and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary notice. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements made in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law.

Chris Halling

+44 (0)7580 041073

chris.halling@catalent.com

Richard Kerns

+44 (0) 161 728 5880

richard@nepr.agency

SOURCE: Humanigen, Inc.





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/597673/Humanigen-Expands-Partnership-with-Catalent-Biologics-to-Manufacture-Investigational-COVID-19-Therapeutic-Candidate-Lenzilumab




Blount County Sheriff Mark Moons deputies wont be enforcing Gov. Kay Iveys order mandating Alabamians wear masks when out in public starting Thursday, saying his office has higher priorities than punishing people for not wearing the protection, according to a published report.

I dont have enough people to go around looking for people not wearing a mask when I have all these other things like drugs, burglaries and thefts, Moon told the Trussville Tribune. I have a whole lot of other things I have to worry about.

Moon could not be reached for comment by AL.com to confirm the Tribunes report.

Blount Countys top cop also told the paper that he doesnt believe Iveys order is legal.

Its not that I dont believe that this is a real virus, he said . Its not that I dont believe this thing is highly contagious. Its not that I dont think we should take precautions to protect ourselves, but I just dont believe forcing people to wear that mask is constitutional.

But Moon also said that he read up on opinions of medical experts whom he said did not find any benefits to wearing masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

I have seen just as many reports and documentation from people in the medical field that say wearing a mask is not safe and not healthy for people who arent sick as I have seen on the other side of that coin, he said.

Yet on Tuesday, the CDC said cloth masks are a critical tool in the fight against COVID-19 that could reduce the spread of the disease, particularly when used universally within communities.

We are not defenseless against COVID-19, CDC Director Dr. Robert R. Redfield said in a statement. Cloth face coverings are one of the most powerful weapons we have to slow and stop the spread of the virus  particularly when used universally within a community setting. All Americans have a responsibility to protect themselves, their families, and their communities.

Violators of Iveys order face up to a $500 fine or jail, although the governor said she favors educating the public over punishing them.

We are not asking sheriffs or police officers to seek out people not wearing a face mask. Our goal is to inform people, the governor said.

Moon has been at odds with Iveys coronavirus orders before. When the governor announced her Safer at Home order in late April, the sheriff said he would not have deputies go into businesses or churches to enforce that directive either.
New Canaan Town Hall will not host a meeting until at least September 9, and those people with transactions are being given alternatives to handle any of their town financial matters rather than visiting the building.

The towns First Selectman Kevin Moynihan told the Board of Finance at its virtual meeting on Tuesday, July 14, 2020, via Zoom, that in-person meetings will begin when Gov. Ned Lamonts executive order for Connecticut amid the coronavirus pandemic expires. This is scheduled for September 9, 2020.

Town Hall opened as planned July 6, but officials are discouraging residents from visiting.

Tax payments

The counter at the Tax Collectors office is not open. July payments may be made by:

Using the dropbox in the Town Hall Lobby;

Residents who are doing this are asked to not leave cash in the dropbox. Payments can be made at either the Bankwell drive-thru, at 156 Cherry Street in the town, or at the banks other location in the town, at 208 Elm Street, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. during the week, Monday through Friday.

Payments can also be made online via the towns website: newcanaan.info

Payments can also be made by sending them to the following address: 77 Main Street, New Canaan, CT 06840. Residents can ask for a stamped receipt if they desire it.

Among the other changes in Town Hall when it comes to the aforementioned matters amid the pandemic, the pandemic has also changed the process, and deadline for how dog owners license their dogs, and how the town gives a license for a dog to its residents. An executive order by Lamont gives the residents until August 1, 2020, 30 days later than usual, to license a dog before late fees of $1 per month are applied.

When it comes to renewing a dog license from the town, dog owners may renew at https://dogs.egov.basgov.com/Dogs/Search?munirecid=39, paying by credit card or electronic check.

Dog owners must ensure their dogs are up-to-date with the rabies vaccination, and that the Town Clerk, Claudia Weber, has been provided with any updated information.

To renew a dog license by mail, the dog owners can send a check or money order that is payable to the New Canaan Town Clerk. The name, and address for doing this is: Town Clerk Dog Licensing, P.O. Box 447, New Canaan, CT 06840. Dog owners are asked to also include a self-addressed, stamped envelope, and any updated rabies vaccination information about their dog in the mailing, if it is necessary. Originals of all of the documents will be returned to the dog owners.

To register a dog for the first time, dog owners are asked to download the application from https://www.newcanaan.info/Departments/Town%20Clerk/Dog_License_Application.pdf, then mail the completed application along with their original rabies vaccination certificate, proof of spaying or neutering if it is applicable to them, and a check payable to Town Clerk Dog Licensing, P.O. Box 447, New Canaan, CT 06840. They are to also be sure to include a self-addressed stamped envelope so the original documents, that the designated dog owner sent in for registering their dog for a dog license with the town can be returned, to them.

You have no idea how much I will miss seeing my four-footed friends this year, Weber wrote in an online message. They always bring me such great joy when they come in-person for a biscuit and their license. Hopefully I will see you next year. Until then, stay safe, be kind, be well, and enjoy.
DoorDash announced a partnership Thursday with Walgreens Boots Alliance to deliver over-the-counter medication and other products from the drugstore chain.

The service is launching in the Chicago, Atlanta and Denver areas, with plans to expand to other markets throughout the summer, according to a news release. More than 2,300 products from the store are available for delivery.

DoorDash and CVS Health teamed up for a similar collaboration last month as the on-demand delivery start-up continues to widen its offerings outside of restaurants. In an interview Thursday on CNBC's "Squawk Alley," DoorDash COO Christopher Payne said the strategy has been influenced by the economic disruption of the coronavirus pandemic.

"One of the things we did in Covid is we shifted into going beyond restaurants and focused on empowering local economies by bringing other things that people want to be delivered to their home, and Walgreens is a perfect example of that," Payne said.

The number of Walgreens' products available on DoorDash will "rapidly grow ... to 5,000 items to essentially bring the entire Walgreens store to your door on demand," Payne said.

The Walgreens collaboration will enter markets such as Cleveland, Minneapolis and Phoenix by the end of summer, according to DoorDash's release.

The increasingly crowded third-party food delivery landscape has been shaken up by two recent moves as companies try to grow market share and reach profitability. GrubHub merged with European rival Just Eat Takeaway.com in early June. And this month Uber, following its previous talks to acquire GrubHub, bought out Postmates.

DoorDash, recently valued at $16 billion, had the largest share of the U.S. food delivery market in June at about 45%, according to a recent report from data analytics Second Measure. Uber was second at 24%, followed by GrubHub at 22%. Postmates was fourth with 8%, according to Second Measure.

DoorDash's entrance into convenience store delivery also means it is maybe competing more directly with the likes of Amazon and Instacart. But Payne said the delivery market in general has always been competitive and stressed DoorDash's emphasis is on its own business plan.

"That's one of the key reasons I believe we have a market share lead in food delivery in the United States," he said. "The idea is we want to connect every local business to every local consumer, and that's a very different strategy than just broad e-commerce."

Shares of Walgreens were up nearly 1.5% on Thursday. The stock has fallen 30% year to date.
BEIJING  China says it has nine new confirmed coronavirus cases, all of them brought from outside the country, and no new deaths.

Thursdays report buttresses growing signs the virus has been essentially contained inside the nation in which it first appeared late last year.

The near elimination of local virus transmission has allowed the reopening of most businesses and resumption of some social activities, including the holding of the crucial annual college entrance exams. Sports, tourism and cultural activities are also slowly starting to return.

The wearing of masks remains obligatory in most indoor spaces and a proof of health is required for entrance to many venues.

China has reported a total of 4,634 deaths among 83,581 cases of COVID-19 during the pandemic.

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HERES WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

 U.S. government to advise health care workers to reuse PPE

 Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker calls for national mandate on masks

 European Union urged to agree to ambitious recovery fund

 Six months after COVID-19 started spreading around the globe, desperation rather than information is still driving many decisions about how to treat the disease. Two drugs have been shown to help but key questions remain about their use.

 Africa now has more than a half-million confirmed coronavirus cases. The continent-wide total is now over 508,000 after South Africa recorded another day of more than 10,000 confirmed cases as a new global hot spot.

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Follow all of APs pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

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HERES WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea has reported 50 new cases of the coronavirus as new clusters continue to emerge across the country.

The figures announced by South Koreas Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday brought the national total to 13,293 cases, including 287 deaths.

Nineteen of the new cases came from the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, which has been at the center of a virus resurgence since late May. Fifteen were reported from the southern city of Gwangju, where infections have been tied to various places, including a Buddhist temple, Christian churches and office buildings.

Twenty-two of the new cases were linked to international arrivals as the COVID-19 continues to spread in southern Asia, the United States and elsewhere.

Story continues

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BRISBANE, Australia  An Australian state has closed its doors to people fleeing a second lockdown in Australias second-largest city.

Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles said Thursday that a number of people were willing to pay for their own 14-day hotel quarantine to be allowed to escape Melbourne and other parts of Victoria state, where a six-week lockdown began Wednesday night because of spreading coronavirus infections.

Miles said that beginning Friday, anyone who has been in Victoria in the previous two weeks will be barred from entering Queensland. However, the state will let in residents of Queensland who are coming home and a few other exceptions.

Miles says that we need to reserve hotel accommodation for people who need to be quarantined.

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AUSTIN, Texas  Texas has reported its deadliest day of the pandemic, with nearly 100 new deaths as newly confirmed cases continue soaring. Officials in the state capital of Austin have begun preparations to turn the downtown convention center into a field hospital.

The 98 reported deaths in Texas set a one-day record, surpassing the previous high of 60 a day earlier. Texas has recorded a total of 2,813 deaths. The state reported 9,979 new coronavirus cases after hitting a record 10,028 Tuesday.

Hospitalizations for COVID-19 continued to climb Wednesday, with 9,610 patients in hospitals across the state.

Gov. Greg Abbott aggressively began one of Americas fastest reopenings in May but has begun reversing course in recent weeks, ordering bars closed and mandating face coverings.

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LONDON  The humanitarian group Oxfam says the coronavirus has worsened the hunger crisis in the worlds poorest corners and warns that up to 12,000 people could die each day from hunger linked to the social and economic impacts of the pandemic.

The groups report issued Thursday says mass unemployment, disruption to food production and declining aid as a result of the pandemic could push an estimated 122 million people to the brink of starvation this year.

The charitys chief executive warns that the knock-on impacts of COVID-19 are far more widespread than the virus itself, affecting many in middle-income countries like India, South Africa and Brazil.

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Los Angeles Countys public health director is urging local school officials to prepare for a possible delay of classroom instruction next month.

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday said that is a setback he would like to avoid by convincing more people to wear masks and avoid gatherings to slow the spread of the coroanvirus.

Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer urged school districts to have a plan b because of the uncertainty around the spread of the virus. Newsom said school districts will decide for themselves if they can safely reopen. He said he hopes the school year is not delayed.

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NEW ORLEANS -- Louisiana officials are sounding the alarm about coronavirus infections continuing to rise across the state, and officials in New Orleans say they will soon restrict bars and restaurants to table service in hope of reducing the diseases resurgence.

Gov. John Bel Edwards said Wednesday at his weekly pandemic briefing that we have a statewide epidemic. Its no longer one or two regions.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, meanwhile, issued new regulations ending table service at the city's bars and restaruants. The new rules also limit indoor gatherings to 25 people. The mayor says the rules take effect at 6 a.m. Saturday.

The state health departments said Wednesday that bars have been identified as the focus of 36 coronavirus outbreaks that infected 393 people.

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UNITED NATIONS  The leading U.S. infectious disease expert says he is cautiously optimistic that a coronavirus vaccine with some degree of effectiveness will be successfully developed by the end of the year or the beginning of 2021.

Dr. Anthony Fauci told a U.N. event Wednesday that Modernas vaccine will go into Phase 3 trials sometime at the end of July and then others will follow in August, September and October.

He says Modernas vaccine has shown very promising results, which makes me cautiously optimistic, although you could never, ever predict with any certainty whether a vaccine is going to be safe and effective.

Fauci heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He says a strategic approach has been adopted to test multiple vaccine candidates using the same standards and measurements.

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OKLAHOMA CITY  President Donald Trumps campaign rally in Tulsa in late June that drew thousands of people, along with large protests that accompanied it, likely contributed to a dramatic surge in coronavirus cases, health officials said Wednesday.

Tulsa County reported 261 confirmed cases on Monday, a new record one-day high, and another 206 cases on Tuesday.

County Health Department Director Dr. Bruce Dart said those large gatherings more than likely contributed to the spike.

A reporter who attended Trumps rally is among those who have tested positive for COVID-19, along with six of Trumps campaign staffers and two members of the Secret Service.

Statewide, Oklahoma health officials on Wednesday reported 673 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus, the states second-highest daily total since the start of the pandemic.

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RENO, Nev. -- The first coronavirus antibody study conducted in Nevada suggests COVID-19 test results dramatically underestimate the number of people who actually have been infected by the disease.

The joint study by the Washoe County Health District and researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno concludes that four to five times more people have been infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 than have been formally confirmed as positive cases to date in the Reno-Sparks area.

Based on blood tests for antibodies, the June study indicates 2.3% of adults in Washoe County had an infection or exposure resulting in an immune response to the virus.

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SANTIAGO, Chile  Chile will begin easing lockdown measures in two southern regions on Monday with 800,000 people able to resume some of their activities and those over 75 able to go out once a day.

Restaurants, cinemas, theaters and cafes will be allowed to open at 25% capacity. Sporting activities can be carried out without an audience and can include up to 10 people in enclosed spaces and 50 in the open.

The new measures will apply in the Los Rios and Aysen regions in the countrys south. If a new outbreak occurs in either region, the government said tighter restrictions will be considered.

The number of people with confirmed infections of the new coronavirus surpassed 300,000 in the South American country, the sixth highest figure in the world.

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JOHANNESBURG  A health official in South Africas new coronavirus hot spot of Gauteng province says authorities are preparing over 1.5 million gravesites as confirmed cases rise.

Bandile Masuku, a medical doctor and member of the provinces executive council, said it was the publics responsibility to make sure the gravesites were not needed.

Its an uncomfortable discussion, he said. Gauteng province includes Johannesburg and the capital, Pretoria.

The number of confirmed virus cases in Gauteng is now over 71,000, or 33% of South Africas cases. The country has more than 215,000 confirmed cases and is posting some of the worlds highest daily totals of newly reported cases.

Meanwhile, the easing of lockdown measures continues.

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ANKARA  Turkey is preparing to appoint observers at weddings and engagement parties to ensure that social distancing practices are adhered.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca told reporters following a weekly meeting of the countrys scientific advisory council on Wednesday that the decision was reached after several recent COVID-19 outbreaks were traced back to weddings.

Authorities in eight provinces have banned traditional send-off ceremonies for young men starting their military serviceconsidered another source for coronavirus infections.

Meanwhile, religious authorities were considering measures to ensure social distancing at funerals gatherings, Koca said.

Turkey saw an uptick in daily confirmed infections and deaths in mid-June, after it eased restrictions aimed at curbing the virus spread.

On Wednesday, the total number of infections in Turkey rose to 208,938. The death toll now stands at 5,282.

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ATLANTA  Atlantas mayor says she will sign an executive order mandating masks in Georgias largest city, defying Gov. Brian Kemps decision to encourage voluntary masking.

Spokesman Michael Smith says Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms plans to sign an order requiring masks, which could set up a confrontation with the Republican Kemp.

Like several other local leaders in Georgia, Bottoms has unsuccessfully appealed to Kemp to change his order that local governments cant exceed the states requirements. Bottoms announced she tested positive for the coronavirus on Monday.

Other cities have taken the approach that they are going to defy the governors executive order. Savannah has done it, some other cities have done it, and Atlanta is going to do it today, Bottoms told MSNBC in a Wednesday interview. Because the fact of the matter is that COVID-19 is wreaking havoc on our cities, specifically black and brown communities with higher death rates.

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.  Federal prosecutors say a Florida man and his three sons are facing federal charges that they illegally sold a bleach-like chemical mixture as a miracle cure for the coronavirus and other diseases.

Prosecutors say the substance was sold nationwide through an entity called the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing in Bradenton, Florida. A Miami federal judge in April ordered the self-styled church to stop selling the substance, but authorities say they ignored the order.

Charged in the criminal complaint are 62-year-old Mark Grenon and his sons with two conspiracy counts and criminal contempt. Court records didn't list attorneys for them.

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PHOENIX  Arizona residents sat in cars up to 13 hours to get coronavirus testing. Others say theyve waited weeks for results.

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego called the situation desperate. She told local and national outlets this week that FEMA dismissed her pleas for a testing blitz in the nations fifth-largest city.

So far, Arizona has reported more than 108,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in the state from more than 827,000 tests. Experts say more tests are needed beyond just the sickest people if Arizona wants to get a handle on its surge.

FEMA administrator Robert Fenton said Tuesday the agency is doubling the number of testing supplies it plans to ship to Arizona this month. The federal government plans to provide more manpower to do contact tracing and clinical care.

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SALT LAKE CITY  Utah Gov. Gary Herbert is considering issuing a statewide mask mandate after discussing the issue with state legislators this week.

The Republican governor raised the possibility of a statewide order last week because of a spike in coronavirus cases. He held a virtual meeting with House Speaker Brad Wilson and Senate President J. Stuart Adams on Tuesday to discuss a potential state measure.

Herbert is also facing mounting pressure from the Utah Hospital Association, which sent a letter urging the legislative leadership to require Utah residents to wear masks.

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ATHENS, Greece  Greeces government has eased more coronavirus restrictions, ending a six-person limit per table at restaurants and allowing visitors to shop at malls without wearing a mask.

The measures were announced as infection rates remain generally low in most of the country, despite some concern about the growing number of cases among tourists.

The Health Ministry on Wednesday reported 33 new cases, 24 from people visiting the country since tourism was allowed.

The total number of confirmed cases reached 3,622, while the death toll reached 193.

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WASHINGTON  Vice President Mike Pence says the U.S. government will issue guidance encouraging front-line health care workers to reuse personal protective equipment.

Pence, speaking at White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing on Wednesday, added that PPE supplies remain very strong but the Trump administration will be encouraging healthcare workers to use some of the best practices to preserve and reuse face masks and other protective equipment.

The head of the White House task force says Americans in states that have seen a recent spike in cases need to do more to clamp down on gatherings in order to stem spread of the virus.

Dr. Deborah Birx says in addition to closures of bars, ceasing indoor dining and wearing face coverings, Americans in hot spots should stop holding or cut down on the size of gatherings they hold in their homes.

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WASHINGTON -- Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is calling for a national mandate on masks, saying that it might be the most important thing we can do to save lives.

Illinois mandated masks in public spaces on May 1, one of the first U.S. states to do so. Pritzker, a Democrat and frequent critic of President Donald Trump, says his state's move aligns with our most significant downward shifts in our infection rate.

The governor told a U.S. House committee on Wednesday: Its not too late for the federal government to make an impact  in fact, its more important than ever.

Pritzker testified before the House Homeland Security Committee.

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WASHINGTON  Vice President Mike Pence says the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be issuing new guidance for the reopening of schools in the fall.

School districts across the United States are struggling with how to safely reopen as the coronavirus continues to surge in some states. The vice president, speaking after a meeting Wednesday of the White House coronavirus task force at the Education Department, called it absolutely essential for students to return to the classroom for in-person learning.

Pence announced plans for new CDC guidelines shortly after President Donald Trump took to Twitter to criticize the public health agency for asking schools to do very impractical things.

Arizona, Florida and Texas are among states in recent weeks that have seen some of the biggest spikes in coronavirus infections.

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MADRID  Spain says that the daily coronavirus infection count has doubled up in the past 24 hours amid dozens of small outbreaks.

Contagion was up Wednesday with 257 confirmed infections, from 124 the day before and to more than 252,500 since the pandemic hit the country, official Health Ministry statistics showed. There have been at least 28,300 confirmed deaths, nine of them recorded since Tuesday.

Admissions into hospitals and intensive care units are increasing, the data showed, especially in parts of the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia. Thats where authorities have made mandatory the use of face masks even when social distancing can be maintained.

Infection clusters around the Catalan city of Lleida, population 200,000, have led to the first localized lockdown since Spain emerged from a nationwide stay-at-home order.

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BAGHDAD  Iraqs Ministry of Health says the country has recorded 2,741 new cases of the coronavirus, its highest daily total yet.

The number of cases has risen dramatically despite a prolonged lockdown followed by weekly weekend curfews.

The country with a long history of conflict and fragile health system is gripped by a severe economic crisis brought on by plummeting oil prices, and its hospitals are now overflowing with coronavirus patients.

Doctors are running low on medical equipment, including key protective gear and large numbers of medical staff have reportedly been infected.

Field hospitals have been set up throughout Baghdad, where infections are highest, to cope with the exponentially rising number of virus patients.

The total number of confirmed cases in the conflict-torn country stands at 67442 , with 2,779 deaths.
Television actor Charu Asopa has shared a cryptic quote as the rumours of her fight with husband, model and entrepreneur Rajeev Sen, intensify. She took to her Instagram stories to share a quote by American author Mark Twain about arguing with stupid people.

Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience, the quote read.

Lately, there has been speculation of trouble in paradise, after Rajeev flew to Delhi in May while Charu remained in Mumbai. It was reported that he moved out of their house after a fight. The two also deleted pictures with each other from their social media accounts.

The quote shared by Charu Asopa on her Instagram stories.

Also read | Richa Chadha says same directors who posted condolence messages have replaced actresses who refused to sleep with them

Recently, Rajeev admitted that there were some misunderstandings with Charu, but hinted that someone was trying to take advantage of the situation and break them up by brainwashing her against him.

Charu retaliated in an interview and said that maybe he was brainwashed into deleting their pictures. She accused him of walking out on her days before their first wedding anniversary. If he thinks that I am innocent and gullible, and could be influenced by those around me, why did he leave me to live on my own during these tough times? This is the time for families to come together and be by each others side. But, Rajeev moved out and flew to Delhi a few days before our first wedding anniversary. Its been two months now. Why would he do that?, she asked.

Rajeev, on Wednesday, shared a screenshot of a video call with Charu, seemingly hinting that they resolved their differences. However, she has not yet shared any picture or video with him since their fight.

Meanwhile, there was speculation that Rajeev was approached to be a part of Bigg Boss 14, but he has denied the news.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
FINANCE Minister Paschal Donohoe has defended Ireland's system of Covid-19 mortgage payment breaks after it was claimed the interest being charged by the banks is a "rip-off".

Mr Donohoe said that 70,000 payment breaks are in place for mortgage holders that need support and while banks must not make extra profit from the interest, there is a cost to providing the breaks.

He also dismissed comparisons payment breaks with other European countries.

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He said there are limitations placed on the payment breaks in places like Belgium and Spain that aren't in place here.

Rise TD Paul Murphy claimed the interest being charged by the banks is a "rip off" and challenged Mr Donohoe on what the government will do about it.

Mr Donohoe said he wants to ensure that no additional profits are being made from the practice and that mortgage holders are dealt with "fairly".

But he said that there were costs in bringing in the payment breaks and "they have to sit somewhere".

He said there must be clear information given to people receiving the payment breaks about the expense they may face in the future.

He also said that when they resume mortgage payments it must be at around the same level as before the break.

Mr Donohoe said that while there's "concern and debate" about the mortgage breaks they have been a "really significant help to tens of thousands".

Mr Murphy claimed that Mr Donohoe's answer amounted to the government not doing anything about the situation and this was "unacceptable" given the State's part-ownership of some of the banks.

Mr Donohoe referenced the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme and Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) as part of his "track record" of helping people during the coronavirus pandemic.

He reiterated that the mortgage breaks should not be "an opportunity for profiteering".

Mr Donohoe added: "It's not a case of what I haven't done. It's a case of what I have done in supporting families in a time of such difficulty and supporting those who are paying these loans."

Sinn Fein's finance spokesman Pearse Doherty has been raising the issue in recent weeks.

Mr Doherty told the Dail that the banks met Mr Donohoe and then-Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in May and claimed that the charging of interest was required by the regulator.

The Sinn Fein TD said "we know that that was not true".

He said that the Central Bank and European Banking Authority (EBA) have confirmed that interest does not have to be charged.

Mr Doherty said some Permanent TSB mortgage holders could be left with interest payments of more than 6,000 as a result of the payment breaks.

He asked what actions the government will take to "prohibit the profiteering".

Mr Donohoe said the payment breaks were brought in quickly to provide "rapid relief to worried and anxious borrowers - including mortgage holders - in situations where income had been directly impacted by Covid and during a fast moving and evolving public health crisis."

He outlined some of the regulations that are in place.

Mr Donohoe said he and Tanaiste Leo Varadkar have been meeting bank bosses this week and discussing issues relating to the payment breaks.

Mr Doherty said that interest is not charged in schemes in place in Spain and Belgium.

The Finance Minister pointed to limits on the mortgage breaks in both countries that aren't in place here.

In Belgium people with savings of more than 25,000 are excluded in Belgium and there are "very strict criteria" in place in Spain limiting the breaks on the basis of income.

"What we've done here in Ireland is we've made mortgage breaks broadly available to those who need them the most," Mr Donohoe said.
This article by Haley Britzky originally appeared on Task & Purpose, a digital news and culture publication dedicated to military and veterans issues.

An Army private reported missing last year from Fort Hood, Texas and whose remains were later discovered during a search for Spc. Vanessa Guillen will now be buried with full military honors.

Pvt. Gregory Morales, 24, joined the Army in 2015 and was assigned to the 1st Sustainment Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division in November 2016. He was last seen on Aug. 19, 2019, according to Army Times, days before he was set to be discharged from the service.

The Army originally classified him as absent without leave (AWOL) and later listed him as a deserter, though his name no longer appears on the Army's list.

Morales' remains were discovered in a field on June 19 as investigators were searching for another missing soldier, Spc. Vanessa Guillen. The Army said at the time that foul play was suspected in the investigation of Morales' death.

Though the Army eventually put up a $15,000 reward for credible information about his disappearance, that wasn't until over nine months after he was last heard from, according to the Washington Post. Per the Post, the award was announced one day after Morales' mother emailed asked why there was no reward out for her son, while there was one for Guillen.

On June 15, that reward was increased to $25,000, the Post reported.

Morales' family has fought the Army's characterization of him as a deserter, claiming that he was killed.

"He wasn't a deserter," Morales' cousin, Abigail Wimberly, said according to KTBC, the Austin, Texas, Fox-affiliate. "He was a soldier that got murdered."

According to a Fort Hood press release, Morales' status was changed "from dropped from rolls to active duty ... based on trustworthy investigative updates into his disappearance," meaning he is entitled to burial with full military honors.

"While no words or gestures can make up for the loss of a family member, friend, or fellow soldier like Gregory Morales, we hope that this news will comfort his family and the friends he served with in this time of terrible grief," Maj. Gen. Jeffery Broadwater, commanding general of the 1st Cavalry Division, said in the release.

Morales' death is still being investigated by the Killeen Police Department.

His family started an online petition last week to raise public support for him receiving military honors at his funeral.

The petition also calls for an investigation into the Killeen and Fort Hood police "for their lack of investigation skills over the years." At the time of this article's publishing, there were over 38,000 signatures on the petition.

"The military failed him by not looking," Morales' mother, Kimberly Wedel, told the Post of her son's death. "They just assumed the worst and let it go."

More articles from Task & Purpose:
Bank of America said Thursday that it had added $4 billion to the pool of funds it keeps to cover credit losses as it prepares for customers to default on their loans at an increasing rate once the government programs designed to support Americans through the coronavirus crisis come to an end.

The banks key performance measures remained fairly steady, despite the broader economic slowdown. Revenue for the quarter was $22 billion, compared to $23 billion during the same period a year ago. The bank earned $3.5 billion for the quarter, compared to $7.3 billion during the second quarter of 2019. It now has $21 billion set aside for credit losses.

Bank officials expect unemployment to remain in the double digits for the rest of the year and then fall to around 7 percent in 2021. But even though they are prepared for loan losses to rise, the officials said they were encouraged by recent customer activity.

Were seeing early signs of cautious optimism, Paul Donofrio, Bank of Americas chief financial officer, said on a call with journalists on Thursday. Mr. Donofrio said that spending by bank customers had risen and the banks commercial clients were starting to repay the money they had quickly taken from revolving credit lines during the height of the lockdowns in March and April.
New Delhi, Jul 16 (UNI) Amid the ongoing tension between the United States and China over the claim of South China Sea, India on Thursday reiterated that it's position is clear and consistent and that, the South China Sea is a part of global commons.

Addressing the mediapersons during the virtual weekly briefing, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said India has an abiding interest in peace and stability in the South China region.

'We have articulated our position on South China Sea on several occasions in the past, most recently on May 21, 2020. Our position on this issue has been clear and consistent. South China Sea is a part of global commons and India has an abiding interest in peace and stability in the region,' he added.

He said New Delhi firmly stands for the freedom of navigation and overflight and unimpeded lawful commerce in these international waterways, in accordance with international law, notably UNCLOS.

'India also believes that any differences be resolved peacefully by respecting the legal and diplomatic processes and without resorting to threat or use of force,' he added.

The US has toughened it's stand on China. It has called Beijing's extensive claims to South China Sea 'completely unlawful'.

'The US champions a free and open Indo-Pacific. Today, we are strengthening the US policy in a vital, contentious part of that region - the South China Sea. We are making clear: Beijing's claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, as is it's campaign of bullying to control them,' US Secretary of State Michael R Pompeo had said.

In the South China Sea, 'we seek to preserve peace and stability, uphold freedom of the seas in a manner consistent with international law, maintain the unimpeded flow of commerce, and oppose any attempt to use coercion or force to settle disputes.

'We share these deep and abiding interests with our many allies and partners, who have long endorsed a rules-based international order,' he added.

Mr Pompeo also said that the world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire.

'America stands with our Southeast Asian allies and partners in protecting their sovereign rights to offshore resources, consistent with their rights and obligations under international law,' he added.

'We stand with the international community in defence of freedom of the seas and respect for sovereignty and reject any push to impose 'might makes right' in the South China Sea or the wider region, the secretary of state said.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam contest China's claim to almost all of the South China Sea. The countries have wrangled over territory for decades but tension has steadily increased in recent years.

UNI ASH/VT RJ 1956
Bengaluru, July 16 : The opposition Congress on Thursday sought President's rule in Karnataka, as it said the ruling BJP government failed to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, as cases have been surging daily since July 1.

"It's time the BJP government resigns and allows President's rule in the state, as it is has failed miserably to control the Covid cases, which have been surging daily," party's state unit president D.K. Shivakumar told reporters here.

Latching on to state Health Minister B. Sriramulu's statement on Wednesday that "only god can save Karnataka from the pandemic", Shivakumar said the government's incompetence had left the citizens to god's mercy.

"Why do we need a government, which cannot tackle the pandemic? What Sriramulu said reflects poorly on the BJP government's ability to handle the situation, which appears to be going out of its control due to its incompetence," thundered Shivakumar.

Addressing reporters at Chitradurga in the state's northwest region, Sriramulu had said only god could save the southern state from Covid-19 or the people should be made aware of it to avoid getting infected by violating lockdown guidelines.

"The BJP came to power nearly a year ago after engineering defections from the Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) and defeating our 14-month-old coalition government in the assembly on July 23, 2019. As it came to power by foul means, its chief minister B.S. Yedyiurappa should resign and let governor Vajubhai Vala run the state to contain the virus spread," asserted Shivakumar.

Noting that the infection does not differentiate between rich and poor, police, doctors, politicians or legislators, Sriramulu said the communicable disease could rise to alarming level in the ensuing two months, as the cases were rising daily the world over.

"Who can control corona? In the present situation, only god has to save us. Otherwise, the people should become aware of its (virus) consequences. If we have made mistakes, we are ready to face punishment for them," said Sriramulu, who is the ruling BJP's legislator from the Molakalmuru reserved assembly segment in this district.

Refuting the opposition Congress charge that the cases were rising in the state due to negligence by ministers, officials and legislators, Sriramulu said Karnataka was performing better than other states till the cases began to steadily rise since unlock began and the people were moving in violation of the guidelines.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Chennai, July 16 : Modulus Housing, a startup incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) has developed a portable hospital unit that can be installed anywhere within two hours by four people, said the IIT-M.

In a statement issued here on Thursday, IIT-M said the portable hospital called MediCAB is a decentralised approach to detect, screen, identify, isolate and treat Covid-19 patients in their local communities through these portable microstructures.

According to IIT-M, MediCAB has been recently deployed in the Wayanad district in Kerala to treat corna patients.

The startup is developing micro hospitals that can be deployed rapidly across the nation.

The MediCAB is foldable and is composed of four zones - a doctor's room, an isolation room, a medical room/ward and a twin-bed ICU, maintained at negative pressure.

The startup collaborated with Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) who provided inputs on the certifications and customisations necessary for the project.

The company Modulus Housing founded by two IIT alumni in 2018, was supported by the IIT-M Incubation Cell and has a vision to revolutionise housing through modular prefab structures.

They have re-purposed their designs to support the fight against Covid-19.

"The outcome of this pilot project in Kerala will help in proving the applicability of the technology and advantages of micro hospitals, with MediCAB as an instant infrastructure solution. It can be easily assembled in eight hours by four people. When folded, our collapsible cabins are reduced five-fold, making it very cost-effective for transportation," Shreeram Ravichandran, Chief Executive Officer said.

"Health infrastructure is crucial in fighting any pandemic. With a contagious disease such as Covid-19, it is essential to have smart health infrastructure to screen, contain and treat people. Unlike urban areas where there is plenty of existing infrastructures that can be converted to hospitals, rural areas do not have a lot of infrastructure. It is difficult to construct buildings from scratch as the requirement is immediate. As the rural population density is relatively low, more micro hospitals help greatly in tackling COVID-19 cases." Modulus is working on a dual design where these can be rapidly launched as Covid-19 isolation wards.

Post Covid-19, these can be transformed into micro-hospitals/clinics in rural India where the medical infrastructure needs to be augmented.

Modulus Housing has set up its manufacturing unit at Chengalpet (located about 35 kms from Chennai).
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 16, 2020 17:01 551 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666d7456 1 National BNPB,Mount-Merapi,volcanic-activity,volcanic-eruption Free

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) has warned of a potential eruption of Mount Merapi in Central Java following a series of tectonic earthquakes that recently rattled surrounding regions.

BNPB prevention division deputy head Lilik Kurniawan said their prediction was based on the agency's observation and report from the Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center (PVMBG) regarding Mt. Merapi's volcanic activity over the past few weeks.

We received information from the PVMBG on July 4 regarding Mt. Merapis activity. [It found] that shallow tectonic quakes had occurred on two consecutive days, Lilik said during an online discussion held by the national COVID-19 task force on Thursday as quoted by kompas.com.

He went on to say that such frequency of tectonic quakes could indicate a potential volcanic eruption.

The agency had officially written to Yogyakarta Sultan Hamengkubuwono X  who also serves as the governor of Yogyakarta  and Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo regarding such concerns, he added.

We need to be informed of the possibilities and be ready for a potential eruption, Lilik said as he called for the local residents to prepare for such an occurrence.

Mt. Merapi  one of the most active volcanoes in the archipelago  erupted twice last month, spewing a 6,000-meter-high column of hot ash and volcanic material.

In 2010, the volcano erupted, leaving more than 300 people dead and forcing almost 400,000 people to take refuge. Authorities have raised the volcano's alert level to waspada (caution), the second-highest level in the countrys four-tiered alert system. (rfa)
At least a dozen people, including five children, were killed on Wednesday in an air strike in Yemens northern Al-Jawf province, government and medical sources told AFP.

At least 12 people, including four women and five children, were accidentally killed in the city of Al-Hazm, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) northeast of the capital Sanaa, a government source told AFP.

Yemen has been embroiled in a civil war since 2014 that pits the government  backed by a Saudi-led military coalition that provides air support  against Iran-backed Huthi rebels, who control much of the north, including the capital.

The government source added that the strike landed in a residential area about three kilometres from a battlefront between the Huthis and pro-government forces.

Medical sources confirmed that at least 12 people were killed, among them women and children.

Rebels blamed the deaths on the Saudi-led coalition, which has not yet commented on the incident.

The strike came days after the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said seven children and two women had been killed in an air raid on Sunday in the northwest governorate of Hajjah.

Another two women and two children were wounded in the strike, according to OCHA.

UN experts have accused both sides in Yemens five-year-old conflict of war crimes.

The Norwegian Refugee Council said in a statement on Wednesday that bombings by the Saudi-led coalition have reached an intensity not seen in two years and missiles fired by (the Huthis) into Saudi Arabia have also increased.

It urged the UN to act and called for an immediate independent investigation.

On Monday, the Saudi-led coalition acknowledged the possibility of civilian casualties during an anti-Huthi operation in Hajjah and said it was being investigated.

It also said its forces had intercepted and destroyed seven drones and four ballistic missiles launched by the Huthis against civilians in Saudi Arabia.

Yemens war escalated in March 2015 when the coalition intervened against the rebels. Tens of thousands have been killed since then in what the UN has described as the world worst humanitarian crisis.
The Buffalo Bills and New Era Cap Company released a joint statement on Wednesday afternoon announcing that the two parties are set to end their stadium naming rights relationship.

The Buffalo Bills and New Era Cap Company jointly announce that New Era has asked to be released from their Naming Rights and Sponsorship deals with the Bills, the statement read. The Bills and New Era are currently negotiating the details of this separation and the Bills are beginning the process of pursuing a new naming rights partner for the stadium.

New Era laid off 117 employees that worked at the companys downtown Buffalo headquarters earlier this month. It was the second big layoff the company has had since it signed a reported seven-year deal to have naming rights to the Bills Orchard Park-based stadium.

After hearing the news of the layoffs, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz vowed never to refer to the stadium as New Era again.

I am exceptionally disappointed with New Era, Poloncarz said. I would rather see the stadium called Veterans Stadium than New Era. I wont even use that name. I still call it Ralph Wilson Stadium. Im a little disappointed in the way New Era treated our community. That company would not exist without the hard work of the people in this community.

MORE ON THE BILLS

NFL, players confront challenges in preparing for season. Can this be done safely?

Bills TreDavious White responds to Madden snub, focused on Raising a Lombardi Trophy for the 716

Why was Buffalo Bills TreDavious White rated significantly lower than Pats Stephon Gilmore in Madden NFL 21? Heres what EA Sports said
Three California churches are bringing a federal lawsuit against the state over Governor Gavin Newsoms ban on singing as a part of religious services, claiming that the coronavirus restriction is being applied to them in a discriminatory manner.

The Calvary Chapel of Ukiah, Calvary Chapel Fort Bragg, and River of Life Church say that the governors ban violates the northern California churches constitutional rights to freedom of speech and due process.

Coronavirus cases in California began to spike at the end of June, and by July 7 the state recorded 11,700 cases in a single day. On July 1, Newsom banned singing and chanting during indoor church services but permitted the same activities in other contexts in the same counties, say the plaintiffs, who call the action a worship ban.

Newsom had previously allowed houses of worship to resume services several weeks earlier on May 25. On July 13, as cases of the virus continued to increase, Newsom imposed restrictions again on church services as well as businesses including indoor restaurants, gyms, and hair salons.

Places of worship must therefore discontinue indoor singing and chanting activities as well as limit indoor attendance at church services to 25 percent of building capacity or a maximum of 100 attendees, whichever is lower, Californias health guidance now reads.

The lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District of California, names Newsom as a defendant as well as Californias Public Health Director Dr. Sonia Angell and the public health officers for Mendocino and Butte Counties. The churches are represented by American Center for Law and Justice, including attorney Jay Sekulow, who served as lead outside counsel to President Trump during his impeachment trial.

The plaintiffs describe themselves in the lawsuit as evangelical Christian churches with sincerely held religious beliefs who are committed to the teachings of the Bible and for whom singing and praying aloud as a body of Christ is an integral part of worship.

Story continues

Banning singing in California churches is an unconstitutional abuse of power. And to do it in the name of a pandemic is despicable. This ban is clearly targeted at religion. It is clearly a violation of the First Amendment and a direct violation of religious liberty, said attorney Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the ACLJ.

Hundreds of worshippers gathered last week on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco to protest the ban, local religious leaders guiding the crowd in worship and prayer for about two hours.

More from National Review
Opinion

What does it mean to be free?

Amidst all the current restrictions on peoples freedom, Jane Walters recalls a recent holiday and how much the Channel Islanders rejoice in their freedom from previous oppression.

Last year I had the opportunity to travel to Guernsey for a holiday. Beautiful though the place is, and Im hoping to return one day, there are reminders everywhere of the German occupation during World War II. Still now, its like theres a banner over the island declaring its message of Liberation  its even the name of their local brew. Having once known the horrors of enemy invasion and oppression, freedom is something the islanders dont take for granted.



Freedom is one of the great benefits of living in the West. Our society and culture aim to honour human rights, which include the freedom to come and go as we choose and to speak out whatever is on our mind. There are courtesies and responsibilities that go along with that, of course. It doesnt give us licence to wander over private property or verbally and physically abuse others. Instead, we respect the different beliefs and opinions of the people with whom we share the planet.



Recently, the Covid-19 pandemic has imposed severe restrictions on our freedom. The entire nation has been put into a kind of domestic imprisonment, the right to roam at first limited to essential journeys and daily outdoor exercise. Although the rules are changing, we still cant just go where we please. This invisible enemy has invaded and all of us are caught up in the fight.



All this time, we took freedom for granted, thinking its supplies were endless:- Freedom to be together with those we love, Freedom to move around where and when we want to, Freedom to have a meal or a drink in a pub or restaurant. All of us could add to that list our own particular things were missing out on. And, in place of freedom, we have not only frustration but other invaders such as anxiety, fear, worry, and depression.



All of this begs a question for me: what does it mean to be free? Is it something we can experience within the midst of restriction, limitation, and constraint or do we have to wait until its all over? Im not talking mind over matter here, but remembering the words of Jesus, who said, If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed (John 8:36). I find that His presence in my life makes all the difference. We might be stuck indoors for now, but Hes with us wherever we are.



The image of Guernsey above is courtesy of Jane Walters.



Also published in the Great Yarmouth Mercury and on Network Yarmouth .

Jane Walters, formerly Clamp, is the author of Too Soon, a mothers journey through miscarriage (SPCK) and a regular contributor to Premier Radio and UCB. She leads creative writing retreats and is a popular speaker locally and further afield. Visit: www.janeclamp.com

The views carried here are those of the author, not of Network Norfolk, and are intended to stimulate constructive debate between website users.
Human capital development in Russia through increased per-student expenditure could lead to long-term benefits in manufacturing, services, agriculture, food production, and other sectors. Seen here: Russian students from Tyumen State University. Credit: United Nations Development Program

Today, Russia's economy depends heavily upon its abundant fossil fuel resources. Russia is one of the world's largest exporters of fossil fuels, and a number of its key exporting industriesincluding metals, chemicals, and fertilizersdraw on fossil resources. The nation also consumes fossil fuels at a relatively high rate; it's the world's fourth-largest emitter of carbon dioxide. As the world shifts away from fossil fuel production and consumption and toward low-carbon development aligned with the near- and long-term goals of the Paris Agreement, how might countries like Russia reshape their energy-intensive economies to avoid financial peril and capitalize on this clean energy transition?

In a new study in the journal Climate Policy, researchers at the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change and Russia's National Research University Higher School of Economics assess the impacts on the Russian economy of the efforts of the main importers of Russian fossil fuels to comply with the Paris Agreement.

The researchers project that expected climate-related actions by importers of Russia's fossil fuels will lower demand for these resources considerably, thereby reducing the country's GDP growth rate by nearly 0.5 percent between 2035 and 2050. The study also finds that the Paris Agreement will heighten Russia's risks of facing market barriers for its exports of energy-intensive goods, and of lagging behind in developing increasingly popular low-carbon energy technologies.

Using the Joint Program's Economic Projection and Policy Analysis model, a multi-region, multi-sector model of the world economy, the researchers evaluated the impact on Russian energy exports and GDP of scenarios representing global climate policy ambition ranging from non-implementation of national Paris pledges to collective action aligned with keeping global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius.

The bottom line: Global climate policies will make it impossible for Russia to sustain its current path of fossil fuel export-based development.

To maintain and enhance its economic well-being, the study's co-authors recommend that Russia both decarbonize and diversify its economy in alignment with climate goals. In short, by taxing fossil fuels (e.g., through a production tax or carbon tax), the country could redistribute that revenue to the development of human capital to boost other economic sectors (primarily manufacturing, services, agriculture, and food production), thereby making up for energy-sector losses due to global climate policies. The study projects that the resulting GDP increase could be on the order of 1-4 percent higher than it would be without diversification.

"Many energy-exporting countries have tried to diversify their economies, but with limited success," says Sergey Paltsev, deputy director of the MIT Joint Program, senior research scientist at the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) and director of the MIT Joint Program/MITEI Energy-at-Scale Center. "Our study quantifies the dynamics of efforts to achieve economic diversification in which reallocation of funds leads to higher labor productivity and economic growthall while enabling more aggressive emissions reduction targets."

More information: Igor Makarov et al. Impacts of climate change policies worldwide on the Russian economy, Climate Policy (2020). Igor Makarov et al. Impacts of climate change policies worldwide on the Russian economy,(2020). DOI: 10.1080/14693062.2020.1781047
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  Its no secret that COVID-19 has devastated New Mexicos tourist economy, manifested by the various restrictions placed on hotels, restaurants and other hospitality businesses  as well as the number of unemployed people.

At Wednesdays Legislative Finance Committee in Cloudcroft, Economic Development Secretary Alicia Keyes showed legislators unemployment rates in every county. Taos County led the rest, with a staggering 30% of its residents receiving unemployment benefits.

Officials from Taos County said the areas economy relies heavily on tourists, and their absence has hurt local businesses.

Sen. Roberto Bobby Gonzales, D-Ranchos de Taos, said it was very alarming to see the share of unemployed workers in Taos County. Bars and restaurants without patios, in particular, have been hit hard, he said.

Our businesses are really, really struggling, he said.

One of those businesses is Mountain Skills Rock Guides, which offers guided rock climbing tours, usually to tourists. Donna Longo, who runs the business with her husband, said the little help theyve received has not gone very far.

They received a few thousand dollars from the federal government, which did little to address their mounting expenses.

It paid one bill, Longo said.

To keep their business alive, Longo and her husband have been using their unemployment checks to supplement lost revenues, as well as pulling from their personal savings. However, with federal unemployment set to expire in two weeks, its unclear how they will keep their business afloat.

Now we have nothing left to feed our business, she said.

County officials are now looking for ways to diversify Taos economy to make it less reliant on tourism.

County Manager Brent Jaramillo said there is an urgent need for new industries in the area, especially with more and more people losing their jobs. He pointed to a recent KOAT story about low food supply at the Roadrunner Food Bank in Albuquerque.

We are having the same issues up here, he said.

However, diversifying presents its own set of challenges.

Like many other tourist towns in New Mexico, Taos has historic preservation laws that limit where and what types of buildings can be constructed. The county also consists of large amounts of federal and state land unavailable to developers.

This, Jaramillo said, is the primary barrier to new industries coming to Taos County.

Its harder for us to attract a business because we dont have that commercial space available, he said. The county can offer the same state incentives as other local governments, but one of our challenges is not having that infrastructure.

Whatever businesses are able to come, officials and residents say the area can no longer live and die by a tourists dollar.

The pandemic definitely shows that you cant rely on tourism, Longo said. Snap of a finger, its gone.

Journal staff writer Dan McKay contributed reporting to this report.
Photo: The Canadian Press A crowd gathers before the WE Day red carpet in Toronto,.

WE Charity is restructuring its operations weeks after its sole-sourced contract with the government shone a spotlight on the organization at the centre of an ethics investigation of the prime minister.

The charity says it will return to its roots by prioritizing international development work focused on children and their families.

But after 25 years of rapid growth, WE Charity says its structure is too complicated and needs to be more transparent.

A formal review will be conducted by experts Korn Ferry to streamline its operations and clearly separate the social enterprise from the charitable entities. The firm will also review the board of directors for diversity, inclusion and independence.

A chief risk and compliance officer independent from management will be hired to oversee all risk management, regulatory and governance compliance.

Avis Glaze, an international leader in the field of education, and McCarthy Tetrault LLP will conduct a workplace review.

David Onley, the former lieutenant governor of Ontario, will join become an executive adviser to provide advice on the transformation and implement Korn Ferry's recommendations.

"By making these changes within our organization, WE can move forward to the next 25 years of impact focused on what matters most: the communities and youth we serve," it said in a news release.

Federal ethics commissioner Mario Dion is investigating Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for a potential conflict of interest after he failed to recuse himself from a decision to award a $900-million student-aid program to WE even though his mother, brother and wife received a combined $283,400 for a number of appearances at the organization's events.
By Kole Casule SKOPJE (Reuters) - North Macedonia's Social Democrats who pledged to take the Balkan country to the European Union are set to win the parliamentary vote on Wednesday, state election commission parliamentary results showed. The ruling SDSM party of the most recent prime minister, Zoran Zaev, won 36.9% of the votes, with its main rival, nationalist VMRO-DPMNE, second with 35.9%, according to preliminary results based on 71% of the votes counted. Ethnic Albanian party, Democratic Union of Integration, which had been in the government with SDSM, was third with 10.2% of the votes

By Kole Casule

SKOPJE (Reuters) - North Macedonia's Social Democrats who pledged to take the Balkan country to the European Union are set to win the parliamentary vote on Wednesday, state election commission parliamentary results showed.

The ruling SDSM party of the most recent prime minister, Zoran Zaev, won 36.9% of the votes, with its main rival, nationalist VMRO-DPMNE, second with 35.9%, according to preliminary results based on 71% of the votes counted.

Ethnic Albanian party, Democratic Union of Integration, which had been in the government with SDSM, was third with 10.2% of the votes.

The vote was originally scheduled for April but postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. Voters arrived at the polling stations wearing mandatory masks.

The former Yugoslav republic of 2 million people has so far reported a total of 8,530 infections and 393 deaths due to the coronavirus.

Zaev, in office since 2017, put the country on the path towards EU membership by agreeing to add "North" to its name.

That resolved a decades-old stand-off with Greece, which had viewed the name Macedonia as a claim on its province of the same name, and had blocked its neighbour's entry into both the EU and NATO. The newly renamed North Macedonia joined NATO this year.

The opposition VMRO-DPMNE of Hristijan Mickoski opposed the name change, and also accused Zaev's Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) of corruption and cronyism, which it denied.

"I believe ... we have succeeded in ... convincing the people that the coalition led by SDSM is the one that will get most support," Zaev said after voting.

Parliament dissolved in February when Zaev resigned after the EU declined to set a date for membership negotiations. A month later the EU announced talks could begin. It again set no date, but diplomats said it would likely be later this year.

An SDSM victory could be seen as lending momentum to Skopje's membership talks with the EU.

(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic and Kole Casule; Writing by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Peter Graff and Matthew Lewis)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
SELBYVILLE, Del., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Market Insights, Inc. has recently added a new report on the industrial fall protection equipment market, which estimates the market valuation for industrial fall protection equipment will cross US $4.6 billion by 2026. Rising safety norms, changing perceptions on workplace safety and labor rights is likely to boost industry demand.

Industrial Fall Protection Equipment Market demand is set to surpass USD 4.6 billion by 2026, according to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc.

The industrial fall protection equipment market from rescue kits is likely to grow at a CAGR of over 7% by the end of 2026, owing to rising safety initiatives and regulations. Industry players in construction, mining and labor-intensive industries are rapidly equipping their workforce in an attempt to reduce contingent costs. Furthermore, rising awareness of health and safety, along with changing perceptions on worker rights, should boost the market share.

Request a sample of this research report at https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/1693

The Asia-Pacific market is likely to grow with a CAGR of 9% by the end of 2026, owing to rising manufacturing industries and strict labor laws. Industry players in the region compete on price & quality, which makes the market scenario competitive. Additionally, strict regulations on worker safety, along with a strong emphasis on healthy workplace practices, is likely to boost the adoption of high-quality equipment and boost the regional market share.

Industry players are engaged in new product development and rapidly entering into new markets in an attempt to boost their global presence. Various manufactures have also adopted strategic expansion measures by mergers and acquisitions to take advantage of well-established distribution networks. Furthermore, industry players are also entering into long term contracts with suppliers in an attempt to reduce supplier power equilibrium during COVID -19 epidemic and also to maintain their position in a competitive market scenario, thus boosting market share.

Major industry players include Honeywell Miller, Pure Safety Group (PSD), Capital Safety, 3M, GF Protection Canada, SKYLOTEC GmbH and French Creek Production.

Browse key industry insights spread across 220 pages with 193 market data tables and 26 figures and charts from the report, "Industrial Fall Protection Equipment Market Share & Forecast, 2020  2026" in detail, along with the table of contents:

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/fall-protection-market

Some major findings of the industrial fall protection equipment market report include:

The demand for industrial fall protection equipment is increasing rapidly, owing to rising safety concerns and a shift towards high-quality safety equipment.

Rising construction & renovation activities and the rapid construction of high rise buildings are likely to augment industry growth.

Industrial fall protection equipment from body belts is likely to grow with a CAGR of over 7%, owing to rising demand for durable and full-body protection kits.

Industry players are rapidly investing in material research and branding initiatives in a bid to surpass current safety norms, boost brand image and recognition in competitive market sphere.

The rising transport industry and increasing demand for high-performance safety equipment is likely to foster market share.

The industrial fall protection equipment market from the energy & utilities industry is likely to surpass USD 650 million by the end of 2026, owing to the rapid demand for shock and fireproof safety gear.

by the end of 2026, owing to the rapid demand for shock and fireproof safety gear. Industry players are rapidly entering into long-term contracts with manufacturers in an attempt to smooth their operations, continue supply chain and boost market share.

New product development and strategic mergers to consolidate market share remains a pivotal growth strategy.

Browse the report's complete table of contents at https://www.gminsights.com/toc/detail/fall-protection-market

Partial chapters of the report's table of contents (TOC):

Chapter 3 Industrial Fall Protection Equipment Industry Insights

3.1 Industry segmentation

3.2 Industry size & forecast, 2015 - 2026

3.3 Industry ecosystem analysis

3.3.1 Vendor matrix

3.3.2 Distribution channel analysis

3.3.2.1 Collaborations/Partnerships

3.3.2.2 Distributors

3.3.2.3 Suppliers

3.3.2.4 Technology providers

3.4 Regulatory landscape

3.4.1 U.S.

3.4.1.1 Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

3.4.1.1.1 1910.28 - Duty to have fall protection and falling object protection

3.4.1.1.2 1926.760 - Fall protection

3.4.2 Europe

3.4.2.1 REGULATION (EU) 2016/425

3.4.3 Asia Pacific

3.4.3.1 WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH (WORK AT HEIGHTS) REGULATIONS 2013

3.5 Pricing analysis

3.5.1 Cost structure analysis

3.5.1.1 Machinery & Equipment Cost

3.5.1.2 Manufacturing cost

3.5.1.3 Other expenses

3.6 Industry impact forces

3.6.1 Growth drivers

3.6.1.1 North America

3.6.1.1.1 Increasing workplace injuries

3.6.1.1.2 Favorable regulations for occupational safety

3.6.1.2 Europe

3.6.1.2.1 Adoption of fall protection standards

3.6.1.2.2 Increasing fatalities rate and growing on-site training in various industries

3.6.1.3 Asia Pacific: Growth in the construction industry

3.6.2 Industry pitfalls & challenges

3.6.2.1 Sale of low quality and inexpensive products

3.7 Innovation & sustainability

3.8 Growth potential analysis, 2019

3.8.1 Emerging business model

3.8.1.1 Collaboration/Joint ventures

3.8.1.2 Acquisitions

3.8.1.3 Product launch

3.9 Porter's analysis

3.10 Competitive landscape, 2019

3.10.1 Company market share analysis, 2019

3.10.2 Strategy dashboard

3.11 PESTEL analysis

Browse related report:

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Market Size By Product (Head [Safety Helmets & Hard Hats, Bump Caps], Eye & Face Protection [Face Protection, Eye Protection  Plano], Hearing Protection [Cap Mounted, Over the Head Type, Disposable], Protective Clothing [Flame Retardant Apparel, Chemical Defending Garment, High Visibility Clothing], Respiratory Protection [SCBA  Fire Service, SCBA  Industrial, APR  Disposable, Emergency Escape Devices], Protective Footwear, Fall Protection [Personal Systems, Engineered Systems], Hand Protection), By Application (Construction, Oil & Gas, Manufacturing, Chemicals, Pharmaceutical, Food, Transportation), Industry Outlook Report, Regional Analysis, Application Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2019  2025

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/personal-protective-equipment-PPE-market

About Global Market Insights

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:

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Corporate Sales, USA

Global Market Insights, Inc.

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Related Images

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Industrial Fall Protection Equipment Market size worth $4.6B by 2026

Industrial Fall Protection Equipment Market demand is set to surpass USD 4.6 billion by 2026, according to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc.

Related Links

Industrial Protective Clothing Market

Fire Protective Materials Market

SOURCE Global Market Insights, Inc.
In this Friday, April 27, 2018, file photo, North Korean security personnel run next to a car carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as he returned to North Korea for a lunch break after a morning meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone.

Authorities in North Korea arrested a teenager who was to begin training for the elite military unit that serves as personal security for Kim Jong Un, after the teen allegedly murdered his father, sources in the country told RFA.

The boy, a high school student in his junior year from Kimjongsuk county, Ryanggang province, was to join Department Five of the Korean Workers Party, from which male students are assigned to serve in the Supreme Guard Command, known also as Unit 963, tasked with protecting Kim and the rest of his family.

Female students in Department Five, meanwhile, become secretaries or nurses to the leadership and high-ranking officials.

Selection for the elite group is rigorous. A defector who had served in the Supreme Guard Command told Time in 2002 that not only must the guards be perfect physical specimens, recruiters will also look into their family history to assess loyalty.

Sources say the party committee in Kimjongsuk county might be in trouble themselves since the teen who they screened for Department Five is now in custody on suspicion of murder.

On July 5, a 16-year-old boy from Kimjongsuk county high school strangled his father to death at his home, a resident of the county told RFAs Korean Service Tuesday.

He was a final candidate for Department Five of the Central Partys Organization and Guidance Department, said the source.

According to the source, the boy and his father became embroiled in an argument, over his studies.

The father, a math teacher at Kimjongsuk high school hit the computer while his son was using it to play computer games, yelling at him to study. In protest, the son strangled his father to death using the computers charger cord while they were fighting, said the source.

He was to be assigned to the Supreme Guard Command, which protects the leadership [of the Korean Workers Party]. The boy was waiting for the call from Pyongyang and was ready to leave on a moments notice, the source said.

But he killed his father, so the party committee of Kimjongsuk county charged him with felony murder, the source said, adding, He could be sentenced to life imprisonment or death.

But the fact that the son had been approved by the countys committee to join the Supreme Guard Command means they could also be held responsible.

We cant tell how far up the responsibility will go in this issue, the source said.

An official in North Pyongan told RFA on Wednesday just how difficult selection for Department Five is, illustrating that the boy, who was a finalist, had fallen through many cracks.

Each year Department Five instructs each provincial party to recommend candidates, and the provincial party tells the city and county committees to submit a list of prospective teens. Competition is fierce, with about 1 in every 100 on the list selected to train with Department Five, the official said.

After going through strict screening, Department Five assigns the boys to the Supreme Guard Command, whereas the girls are sent to the guest lodges or vacation homes for the countrys leaders, the official added.

But once the candidate is selected, the local party committee is responsible for managing them before they are ready for training in Pyongyang.

If any of the selected candidates get sick before going to Pyongyang, the local party will immediately exclude them and submit a new list of candidates as soon as they can, the official said.

But if the candidate commits a serious crime during this waiting period, the problem is different. Since this student is supposed to either please or protect the Highest Dignity, the crime is considered a major fault for the party officials as they failed to properly evaluate the candidates sincerity and morality, the official said, using an honorific term to refer to Kim Jong Un.

Elite status waning

Since the Kim Il Sung era (1948-1994) boys and girls selected for Department Five were paid high salaries and given special treatment. However they must live in complete isolation and cannot even meet their families because they are not permitted to take vacations or go on outings.

Now in the Kim Jong Un era, many students no longer see selection for Department Five as glamorous, meaning that candidates are more difficult to find. Local party committees have been known to select high school students in their junior year to groom as candidates for the privileged organization, sources have told RFA.

Reported by Hyemin Son for RFAs Korean Service. Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Rachel Wells did not want to relocate her family in the middle of a global pandemic, but after falling behind on rent and falling out with her landlord, she had to move.

After her husband was laid off from work, the couple, owing $600 in back rent, moved from their rental home in Flint to a new residence in Clio.
'Supermarket staff are not medics and do not have the training or experience to take on the responsibility Covid placed on them' (stock photo)

In response to Ivor Shorts criticism of supermarket staff not wearing masks (Supermarket staff need to copy customers use of masks, Letters, July 14), I think supermarket and other shop staff are the real heroes of Covid. Even if they do not wear masks, they are in the frontline trying to keep people fed and watered.

I suggest that their flitting in and out between the customers might be better described as run off their feet trying to juggle different queues and keep customers in line, and observing social distance.

Supermarket staff are not medics and do not have the training or experience to take on the responsibility Covid placed on them.

They are doing their best and in fact are real heroes who have been overlooked. I have even heard of some people being abusive to them, which is a disgrace.

People should be shining a light in their windows for the supermarket and other shop staff. When you go home with your shopping theyre still there working under very trying conditions. Maybe Mr Short should venture back and spend a couple of months flitting between customers and packing shelves and trying to balance all the responsibilities and obligations they are not trained for. Then he could wear a mask to hide the fact that unlike the supermarket staff he would not, according to his attitude, be smiling.

John Williams

Clonmel, Co Tipperary

Greeting is a touchy subject thats not to be sneezed at

We are advised to cough or sneeze into our elbow in the absence of a tissue or handkerchief. Why then is it suggested we elbow-touch when greeting friends?

Having seen and heard some people sneeze, even foot-touching should be avoided.

David Ryan

Co Meath

Military recruitment age limits need to be reviewed

Recently I was informed by the Defence Forces that 49 years of age was the limit for rejoining, as I had volunteered during the pandemic crisis when invited to by the then Taoiseach.

Im aged 50.

If the State pension age is to be increased, shouldnt recruitment ages be also increased in line with this?

Alan McKenna

Dundalk, Co Louth

Lives depend on us having mandatory quarantine here

I note that Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has ruled out mandatory quarantine for people arriving into Ireland. I believe this decision is a mistake.

If the right to travel within Ireland could be curtailed to slow the spread of Covid-19, the right to travel into Ireland can and should be modified to require that people, especially those arriving from high-risk Covid-19 countries, undergo mandatory quarantine.

Lives are depending on it.

Nicola Daveron

Athenry, Co Galway

Astrologys unlucky No 13 was written in the stars

The worlds headlines seem to be full of gloom and doom at the moment, but a new sign of good times has appeared  Ophiuchus, the snake bearer.

Like most people with any education in science, I consider astrology to be in the same category as snake oil salespeople and it appears I was right, snakes do have an influence over our lives.

The only real concern is the mention of Nasa in an article about star signs, as many believers will seize on that and not read the rest of the article. The basic information from Nasa is that the constellations have slowly moved relative to the Earth and are now not where they should be in terms of the calendar. Astrology has not included the 13th constellation, perhaps because 13 is considered an unlucky number.

Nasa should probably have just laughed and not tried to convince the unscientific of the truth of science.

Like most people, I have glanced at the horoscopes and considered what the day holds for me and it is generally positive, non-specific and sometimes full of mumbo-jumbo. As a science teacher, I used a simple approach to show students the falsehood of these predictions by giving them a set of predictions without the star sign name, the apparent characteristics of the star signs and asked them to identify which was which  the students failed to do this correctly.

For interest, mine, Aries, says in the local paper that I seem to be in a castle under attack, but there is a rescue party on the way.

Im not sure what to make of this but I think staying at home while the Covid pandemic is happening and waiting for a vaccine might be the only scientific reading of it and I didnt really need to be told this again.

Well see if tomorrow is more positive.

Dennis Fitzgerald

Melbourne, Australia
Ministro del Interior, #JorgeMontoya, recomienda a todas las personas que vayan a tomar un vuelo lleguen al aeropuerto tres horas antes como maximo, no mas. Asi se evitara la aglomeracion. Del mismo modo, recomendo seguir todos los protocolos sanitarios y de seguridad. pic.twitter.com/97tjqdpoBQ
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 10:49:51|Editor: huaxia

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KIGALI, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) on Wednesday expressed condolence over the killing of a Rwandan peacekeeper in Monday's attack on the UN peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (CAR).

The RDF said in a statement that they are "deeply saddened" by the death of the fallen peacekeeper, who was serving under the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the CAR (MINUSCA).

The attack on a MINUSCA convoy by alleged Return, Reclamation and Rehabilitation armed elements occurred in Gedze in the northwestern prefecture of Nana-Mambere on Monday, also injuring two others.

The RDF expressed its "heartfelt condolences" to the family and friends of the fallen peacekeeper, adding that RDF peacekeepers remain committed to the protection of civilians within the mandate of MINUSCA and the other peacekeeping missions under which its troops serve.

The central African nation is currently one of the biggest troop and police contributing countries in support of the UN and the AU peacekeeping mandates. Enditem
Vietnamese citizens return home from the UK (Source: VNA)

Hanoi  No new COVID-19 infections were recorded in Vietnam on July 16 morning, making the 91st day in a row without any transmissions in the community, according to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

The total number of infections still stood at 381, including 241 imported cases who were quarantined upon their arrival.

There are currently 10,123 people under quarantine nationwide, including 81 at hospitals, 9,634 at concentrated quarantine facilities and 408 at home.

A total of 353 patients have recovered fully. Among the remaining patients, three have tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 once and two negative at least twice.
According to sources, the delay is caused by the fact that the commission itself is yet to be constituted. PTI Photo

The National Medical Commission was created last year to replace the previous scam-tainted Medical Council of India (MCI) for the development and regulation of all aspects of medical education, profession and institutions.

Yet despite the urgency displayed in the creating the new regulator, the government has still not issued a notification on the appointment of the chairman of the commission.

Six months ago, the government named Prof. S.C. Sharma of AIIMS as the chairman of the new commission for three years. Yet it has yet to issue the notification of his appointment. This inordinate delay has set off whispers in the babu corridors about the governments intentions.

According to sources, the delay is caused by the fact that the commission itself is yet to be constituted (its only on paper) since the selection committee recommendations for the other posts are still under consideration of the health ministry.

So, according to them, the chairmans appointment can only be notified once the commission is constituted.

Under the National Medical Commission Act, 2019, the commission will have a chairperson, 10 ex-officio members and 22 part-time members. Besides Prof. Sharma, the only person appointed so far is R.K. Vats, the secretary-general of the board of governors of the Medical Council of India. He too was appointed as secretary of the commission for a tenure of three years.

Succession saga at Sebi

With Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) chairman Ajay Tyagis term ending next month, the race to find his successor has heated up.

The tenure of Tyagi, a 1984-batch IAS officer of Himachal Pradesh cadre, was set to end in February but he was given a six-month extension to ensure continuity at the regulator due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

According to sources, several names are being floated as probable successors to Tyagi. Among them are Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) chairman Madhusudan Sahoo and Madhabi Puri Buch, who is whole-time member of Sebi.

Also being mentioned are former corporate affairs secretary Injeti Srinivas and a few officials in the finance and corporate affairs ministries.

Apparently, the government had already narrowed down some of the probable candidates in February before it decided to give an extension to Tyagi. Will the list be revised now? Will it include only bureaucrats? Well have to wait and see.

Cracks in the alliance?

Mumbai police chief Parambir Singh recently transferred 10 deputy commissioners of police apparently without chief minister Uddhav Thackerays knowledge.

On learning about the move, Thackeray promptly ordered the state home department to cancel the transfer orders. The CMs office claims that it was wrong of Parambir to shift such a large number of DCPs without the CMs knowledge.

Later, it turned out that Parambir had briefed home minister Anil Deshmukh on the transfers, who failed to inform Thackeray. Thackerays alliance partner National Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar had to step in to mollify the irate chief minister.

According to sources, during a meeting with the chief minister in the presence of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Deshmukh argued that it was well within the powers of the Mumbai police commissioner to transfer officers without informing the CM.

But the CMs office has taken the view that it not the rulebook but convention that is more important, which means that the transfers should have been discussed with Thackeray before the announcement.

Does this imply that there are cracks in the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance government in Maharashtra, in which the partners do not see eye to eye anymore on important issues of governance?

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Its been 25 years since Clueless hit the big screen, so director and writer Amy Heckerling spoke to TheWrap about how the film came together, where she thinks Cher would be now and that controversial love story between Cher and her stepbrother Josh.

Ultimately, Heckerling wanted to do a film about the in crowd while also painting the world in the way that she wanted to see.

It wasnt like I was doing something that was based on anything real, I was making up a world that I liked and thats the way I want the world to be, Heckerling told TheWrap about why she made the film. Everyone is equal. I just wanted this fake world that you would see in a comedy of manners about the turn of the century  something more beautiful and happy than what really is.

Also Read: 'Clueless' Mystery-Drama Series Reboot in the Works at CBS TV Studios

Clueless starred Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Paul Rudd and Donald Faison, and was written and directed by Heckerling. It followed a group of Beverly Hills High School teenagers navigating popularity, love and life together.

Clueless hit theaters in 1995 and grossed $56.1 million in the United States. Since then, it has developed a cult following and has been followed by a spin-off TV sitcom, a musical and a series of books.

Read TheWraps Q&A with Heckerling below.

TheWrap: How did you get involved with the movie 25 years ago  tell me about the process of how it all started.

Heckerling: Pretty much I was going, its all over now, I did a movie that made a bunch of money, which was Look Whos Talking and my life is over. And I had to make a sequel, and I was like, nothing good is ever going to happen again. You get offered stuff that you dont like or get pressured to do something you dont want to do, but when youre not offered stuff, you get mad. I was like, what do I want to do? What makes me happy? I was thinking about Fast Times at Ridgemont High and the character not being aware when people were mad at him, it just didnt occur to him that everybody wasnt okay with him and didnt like the same things he did. I thought, thats such a positive thing. Then, I remember reading Gentlemen prefer Blondes and how she just assumed all men were in love with her and someone thats imperfect narrating the story.

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Positivity fascinates me  I dont understand it. Im very curious about how that could be, so I started to think about a character that would be so happy and sure things would work out and what would their life look like? I started playing around with that, and I went into the studio to pitch a TV idea I had and they told me all these people came in pitching stories about young people that were the nerds and the depressing people and they wanted to do something about the in crowd. I said, alright, but can I make them a little wacky? And they said, yeah. So then I started combining what I was fascinated with, with what they were looking for and sort of developed the Cher character.

It started out as a pilot for 20th Century Fox and things werent happening and I was annoyed and I switched my agent and I got this guy, Ken Stovitz, and TV people had passed on my pilot, and I gave him things I had written recently and he read that and he said, this should be a feature. We went back to Fox and said, heres the material that you already own because the TV people have it. And heres how it could be a feature. I wrote the first few drafts for them and then I started thinking, what would be the three-act story that would work for her, and I started to think of longer forms that had positive characters, and thats when I thought of Jane Austen and Emma and reread that. I loved it when I read it in college  its the most modern story with the most perfect character, the most lovable, flawed person that youre rooting for. Then I looked at what could make the bones for the present day high school teenagers, and if I ever thought like, wait, how would this happen, I would just go back to Emma and there were the answers.

How many people did you see for the main roles, and how did you ultimately land on Alicia Silverstone for Cher?

I was on the treadmill and she was in the Aerosmith Cryin' video and something about her just hit me that I had to jump off the treadmill, find a VHS, put it in the machine and record the video. Then I had the person in my brain.

I met people who were out there at the time and I had talked to Mel Brooks who had just done Men in Tights, and there was a guy in there that I thought was amazing, Dave Chapelle, and Mel couldnt be more effusive and saying, hes going to be so big, hes amazing I met Dave at a restaurant and he blew me away but I was looking for someone who was a totally naive puppy, and Dave Chapelle was such a mensch, not to say he isnt a wonderful actor. When I met Donald Faison, he was a whippet, he just had that wonderful, energetic, innocent, fun spirit but then when he attached to read these long speeches that showed his extensive vocabulary and that he was actually really smart too, but that wasnt the side he was pushing. It felt like he was Murray.

Stacey Dash came in and read and I wanted someone who could be the queen of a country somewhere and she had that regal bearing.

Also Read: 'Clueless' Remake in the Works at Paramount

Where did this film and such a specific world you created come from?

It wasnt Beverly Hills High School, it was Bronson Alcott High School. It wasnt like I was doing something that was based on anything real, I was making up a world that I liked and thats the way I want the world to be. Everyone is equal. I just wanted this fake world that you would see in a comedy of manners about the turn of the century  something more beautiful and happy than what really is.

On his Scrubs podcast, Donald Faison told a story about the decision to give his character braces because he had these baby teeth. Do you remember that?



Its always tough because youre like, how long will these be in, but it was such a good look for him. You could say some hardcore slang or rap stuff but then hed smile with those braces and youd be like, aw like when your 5-year-old says something sophisticated, it undercuts it  its so sweet.

Could you have anticipated how iconic the film would be 25 years later? It remains one of the most quoted films to date.

That makes me so happy. When someone told me that their daughter and her friends decided to go as Cher and Dionne for Halloween, I was like, oh my God, I fking love that.

Do you have a favorite line, quote or saying?

Keeping it real came from Donald. The cast would come in with things where I was like, yes, thats brilliant! Then there were things that came from my parents, an angry Jewish couple yelling at each other.

You know, I was at the Museum of Modern Art and I heard someone quote the Monet part (Shes a full-on Monet. Its like a painting, see. From far away its okay, but up close its a big ol mess.)

I have to give props to the UCLA linguistics department  they published a list of slang words and phrases, and Monet came from that. You keep your ear to the ground and you do research and you hear things, and a lot of things came from gay friends, from rap songs, from linguistics, from old slang dictionaries, and old movies and songs.

Is there anything that you look back on and think, dang I wish Id done that differently, or that doesnt age well or hold up?

I dont watch it a lot. Every time I see pieces of it on TV, I think, good God, I think it shouldve moved much faster. But I feel that about everything. It was 90 minutes? Comedies should be that length.

Also Read: Stacey Dash to Publish Memoir 'There Goes My Social Life' (Exclusive)

Lets talk about how the technology of Chers closet pretty much still doesnt exist today. How did that come about?

I mostly wear sweats as a writer and when I have to go somewhere, I always have to think about what I would look good in. Why cant I just have pictures like when I had cutouts when I was little and do it like that, and then I wouldnt have to try on my clothes? Then I thought I could do it on a computer  its doable, that would be a good use of computer technology.

25 years later, what do you think Chers life looks like?

Well, she wouldve been married to Paul Rudd. I would expect shed be a do-gooder, which is not far from where Alicia Silverstone has landed. Sometimes she says things where Im like, no no no, but for the most part, she has the biggest heart. If youre thinking Cher went into fashion, I dont think so. She was much more into the Pismo Beach disaster.

Lets talk about the love story between Cher and her stepbrother. Did that come with any complications? Did you get any pushback for anything included in the movie?

Oh yeah, from the first studio, but not from Paramount. I thought, theyre not blood-related at all and he was briefly married to her mother and they are not related at all. In the traditional rom-com, you realize the person under your nose is the person you should be with. Thats the way it always is in movie world. They were so close to each other, they knew what was lovable about each other. I felt very strongly that that was how it should be. 20th Century Fox was like, thats disgusting and I was like, why, its not incest because my grandparents were step-siblings and within the Jewish ghetto it wasnt a man or woman, you dont stay single and see whats the best person you can get. You were expected to find somebody because kids ned parents and youre in a world thats only people in this world. There was a widow and a widower and they got married and they had kids.

Do you have a favorite high school movie? What about a favorite modern-day literary adaptation?

I saw the recent Emma which I thought was wonderful. There were others that I wasnt as crazy about. The one with Anya Taylor-Joy was amazing and the director did an amazing job. What was used from the story was amazing. There are other teen movies that I love: Booksmart I thought was great, The Edge of Seventeen. My favorites of all time are The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, A Clockwork Orange, American Graffiti but I guess those arent high school movies.

Read original story Clueless 25 Years Later: These Are Writer Amy Heckerlings Favorite Lines At TheWrap
Among the 900 foreigners detained in March and April from across the city for allegedly spreading the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and defying government orders on large gatherings by attending a congregation of the Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamic missionary group, is a 16-year-old boy from Ukraine.

The teenager, who turned 16 in January in India, is being held in a south Delhi facility along with 200 others who participated in the congregation at the Markaz headquarters of the group in New Delhis Nizamuddin Basti.The cases of the participants are being heard in different courts.

Frequently wiping the sweat on his brow and shifting uneasily in the humid climate he is yet to get used to, the boy said hes been in India for seven months. Coming from a country known for its cold and snowy winters, he said hes finding it difficult to adjust to the scorching heat and humidity of the Indian capital.

After a trip to Nepal and Aurangabad, the boy, accompanied by his father, had moved into the Nizamuddin Markaz on March 22, just days before the country went into a complete lockdown for Covid-19.

Click here for complete coronavirus coverage

A three-month trip that was supposed to have been a post-exam vacation ended up stretching into an almost five-month detention. Though not officially charged by police, his passport was seized, and he was lodged with his father at quarantine detention centres since being evacuated from the Markaz on March 31.

Following a Delhi high court order on May 28, the foreign attendees at the Markaz congregation -- after their release from quarantine centres  were housed in different court-approved facilities across the city.

The 16-year-old is lodged at a school turned into a temporary detention facility in Jamia Nagar, where the detained attendees sleep in classrooms turned into sleeping spaces.

We were supposed to return in May. I was to join a new school in September, but I cannot do that now. I miss my mother and my family. I was enjoying my visit to the country. This was my first time. I do not know why I am not allowed to return, he said.

Trapped in the national capital since March, the teenager has also learnt Hindi words such as Sathi (friend) and Nahi (no). When asked if he had tested positive for Covid-19, he replied: Nahi.

He is the only minor at the facility that is mostly housing senior citizens and couples. The teenager spends most of his time browsing the internet and playing mobile games alone in empty classrooms. His days are spent joining the adults in the centre in offering prayers or catching up with their experiences in the country.

I miss my mother, even though I speak to her and my two elder brothers over video call. It is not the same as being there with them. I am not sure when I will be able to be with them but I miss them and cant wait to go back, he said, recalling how he had always been pampered, being the youngest child of the family.

The teenagers father, Fazluddin, a businessman in Ukraine, said they had come to India on December 20 and visited Nepal, and Aurangabad in Maharashtra. It was his second visit to the country. For his son, it was the first.

We came to the Markaz on March 22. We were not preaching. We visited religious places as part of our learning experience. On March 31, we had no symptoms but were taken by the government officials to the quarantine centre in Tughlakabad. We were given a room, where we stayed for around one-and-a-half months. We did not face any problems at the centre, though. It is unfortunate that he is trapped here with me, Fazluddin said, adding that he and his son had tested negative for the coronavirus disease.

Aslam Masuri, who helps the foreigners at the centre, said: This is no age for a child to be trapped in a foreign country and unable to return home. We are adults and can manage the stress. For a boy of his age, he has suffered enough. His case should be considered and he should be sent back immediately. The only solace in all this is that he is at least with his father.

When contacted, Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) member Roop Sudesh Vimal said that the commission had not been informed that a minor had also been moved to the quarantine centre along with those taken into custody in the Markaz case.

We will take cognizance and see if the authorities followed all protocols in the case of this minor, said Vimal.

At the centre, other attendees said that the two are always together. He always walks behind his father. He is a shy boy, one of the foreigners said.

Stuck in the city for the last seven months and scared of a lengthy trial that could prolong their stay, the teenagers father last week pled guilty and agreed to a plea bargain. He has been convicted and let off with a fine of Rs 5,000 and simple imprisonment of five days(already undergone in quarantine). The court convicted him under the Foreigners Act, Epidemic Diseases Act and Disaster Management Act.

HT contacted the Ukraine embassy and also emailed a questionnaire to the mission seeking its response to the minors case, but it elicited no reply until Thursday night. An official at the embassy, who did not want to be named, said: We are helping our nationals stranded in the country and provided all assistance. We do not want to make any official comment on the legal aspect of the cases because of the diplomatic ties of the country.

Commenting on the minor being lodged in quarantine for around two months, a senior Delhi government official said that the administration had followed the Centres orders while sending foreigners from the Markaz to the quarantine centres.

Fazluddin said he and his son were now waiting for the governments order to leave the country. He said they would have to spend another 14 days in quarantine after reaching home but wouldnt mind that .

I long for the sea. If I was home during the summer, I would have been out swimming with my friends. I cannot see any sea here, the teenager said in response to what he misses the most about home.
A 31-year-old man has been arrested after a woman fell to her death from a bridge on a dual carriageway.

It has been claimed that the woman fled a burning car, which has been pictured on the roadside, moments before the fall.

She allegedly remained alive on the land below for almost two hours before succumbing to her multiple injuries including damage to her spinal cord.

The A21 near the exit for Tonbridge, Kent, was closed after police arrived on the scene at 2.40am, and is expected to stay shut until tomorrow.

Kent Police said they had arrested a 31-year-old man from London in connection with her death as officers work to establish the 'full circumstances'. The woman, who is said to be 35 years old, has not been named.

A ten-mile stretch of the A21 has been closed in both directions between Morley's roundabout and the Tonbridge bypass as detectives hunt for clues. A drone has also been sent into the sky to scour the surrounding area.

A 31-year-old man has been arrested after a woman fell from a bridge on the A21 near Tonbridge, Kent, to her death

It has been claimed that she fled a burning car (pictured) and remained alive on the ground below for almost two hours before succumbing to her multiple injuries

The burnt out car remained on the roadside this morning as detectives searched for clues

Paramedics arrived after 2.30am and pronounced the woman dead at the scene. Two fire engines also rushed to the roadside to extinguish the burning car.

A forensic investigation team is currently at the scene.

Kent police said: 'Officers are working to establish the full circumstances of the incident, including any possible connection between the vehicle fire and the womans death.

'(Officers) have arrested a 31-year-old man from London in connection with her death. He remains in custody.'

A tweet posted this morning by Kent Police RPU showing a drone said: 'Assisting with the investigation this morning on the A21. Drone teamwork.'

Detectives are appealing for witnesses to come forward, including motorists with dashcams who have recently travelled in the area.

Kent Police said a 31-year-old man in London has been arrested in connection to the incident. A drone has been sent into the sky to search for clues

Vehicles remained stationary on the closed part of the A21 for more than four hours. This photo shows vehicles after they had been waiting near Tonbridge for three hours

A ten-mile stretch of the A21, which links to Hastings, has been shut due to the incident

Officers also sent a drone into the sky this morning to scour the surrounding area

Highways England has told drivers that the road will remain closed 'throughout the day' and warned of 'very heavy congestion in surrounding local areas, including Tonbridge'.

A motorist who was stuck near the scene for four hours said: 'I got here at about 2.40am.

'Emergency services were already on the scene and traffic had been halted so there were about 20 vehicles between myself and the accident. A helicopter appeared a few times but didn't land.

'At about 6.15am a police officer came and took the details of everyone in the queue.

'Traffic officers finally let the cars and vans turn around and head the wrong way up the dual carriageway at about 6.40am. But half the vehicles in the queue were lorries and as I left they were preparing to reverse for three-and-a-half miles.'

Anyone who believes they have information is asked to call Kent Police on 01622 604100 quoting 16-0120. You can also contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously by calling 0800 555 111 or using the anonymous online form at Crimestoppers-uk.org
New Delhi:

Sacked Delhi minister Sandeep Kumar, arrested on alleged rape charges, was on Monday granted bail by a Delhi court which directed him not to tamper with the evidence.

Special Judge Poonam Chaudhry enlarged the AAP MLA on bail on furnishing of a personal bond of Rs one lakh and surety of a like amount.

The court directed Kumar, who was arrested on September 3 and was in custody since then, to deposit his passport and not to influence witnesses.

Kumar had sought bail on the ground that probe in the case was over and his custodial interrogation was no longer required.

The police had opposed his bail plea saying he was an influential person and could scuttle the investigation.

It had contended that the victim lived in the same constituency which Kumar represented and if he was released from jail, he might tamper with the evidence.

Kumar sought relief saying he has been in custody for two months and his conduct since the lodging of FIR was good and unquestionable and he had himself surrendered before the police.

Kumar was arrested after a woman had lodged a complaint at Sultanpuri police station in North Delhi alleging sexual harassment by the former Social Welfare and Women and Child Development minister, following which a case was filed. She had allegedly figured in an objectionable video with him.

The MLA from Sultanpur Majra was sacked from AAP government and the party on August 31 after the CD surfaced. He had defended himself saying he had been targeted.

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Nigeria's contraceptive coverage, indicated by the modern Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (mCPR), currently stands at a mere 16.6 per cent, and has stood at an average of 17 per cent for some time.

These were the findings of the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS). It is worth noting that this average is below the Nigerian government's national objective to achieve an mCPR of 27 per cent by the year 2023. Coverage and other indicators provide a glimpse of the state of Nigeria's family planning sector and are largely attributed to funding.

In 2017, the Nigerian Government, through her Federal Ministry of Health committed to set aside US$4 million (N1.2 billion) annually from 2017-2020 to fund the Family Planning (FP) programmes in Nigeria. The government planned to use the set aside sum to facilitate commodity procurement and distribution to respective states.

As it stands, only N300 million of the agreed sum was awarded and released in 2019. Currently, the government is yet to release the 2020 family planning budget constituting N1.2 billion. 2020 as the final year in the allocation schedule creates a sense of urgency. Moreover, the constant delay and inconsistency in funds discharged has now created a gap of N2.1 billion. Over the past three years, although the government has tried to keep up with its end of this commitment, shortfalls have occurred, the largest being in the year 2019.

In all fairness, the year 2020 has seen a lot of challenges already. The ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic has brought on a lot of strain on the world healthcare systems, seeming to drive backwards most of the health gains made in developing countries in areas such as the fight against Malaria, HIV and Tuberculosis, and uptake of services such as family planning. With the current circumstances, the hope of covering the gap of 10.4 per cent mCPR by 2023 may be prolonged.

These fears were further driven with the recent budgetary cuts that saw the proposed expenditure on healthcare cut to almost 50 per cent. Over these past five years, government's commitments such as that of the FP funding have made this basic service available to couples at the necessary levels of care. However, the current family planning funding gap has been a significant issue of concern for various stakeholders, given its significance on the women's maternal health as well as the health of the family and the nation at large.

On that note, Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ) in partnership with Development Research and Project Centres' (dRPC) Partnership for Advocacy in Child & Family Health at Scale (PAFAH@Scale) project held a webinar on July 3 that centred on this very concern.

The theme, "Securing the Funding Gap for Family Planning in the face of Covid-19" was aimed at openly discussing these rising uncertainties. The panel discussion featured the representative of the Federal Ministry of Health, President of the Medical Women Association of Nigeria (MWAN), the Executive Director, Association for the Advancement of Family Planning (AAFP), the First Vice President, Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics in Nigeria (SOGON). The Managing Director/Chief Executive officer of ACIOE associates, Lawrence Anyanwu, Minnie Oseji, Ejike Oji, Habib Muhammad Saduki, and Ekenem Isichei were also in attendance. Also in attendance was one of the winners of the 120Under40 award, 2018, Hameed Adediran. The RASuDiN Programme Manager further doubled as a panel moderator.

Mr Anyanwu, the representative of FMoH, remarked that "it is true that the federal government of Nigeria committed to the contribution of a certain sum of money annually to the procurement of contraceptive commodities." He added that this is intended to support funding coming from other sources to ensure the family planning needs of Nigerians are met wholly. Presently, money for FP commodities is jointly funded by the Government, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Gender imbalance in decision-making was also noted to be one of the perils that hinder access to family planning services in Nigeria. Historically, our male dominated cultures mean most women have to seek permission from their spouses and choose an agreed method of contraception. Ms Oseji further remarked on how MWAN had actively been involved in sensitisation campaigns that aimed to push for client patronage of services at the community level from this standpoint.

Mr Isichei offered some recommendations, which he suggested would tackle the family planning shortfalls. These include an evidenced-based advocacy effort at the highest level, private sector partnership, the Federal Governments' need to purchase commodities before October of each preceding year, strengthening last mile community-based distribution, strengthening the capacity of health care workers and lastly, data generation and mapping.

Overall, several important questions were raised about advocacy strategy to catalyse action from the government as well as questions on the private sector options for family planning services. Mr Orji noted that on this level, pushing for broader inclusion of FP services into the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), that would ensure service provision at public and private facilities, is a sure strategy.

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Mr Sadauki had also noted the continual active role played by professionals like the Obstetricians and Gynaecologists over the years in service provision. This service, in his opinion, needed to continue.

COVID-19 has no doubt brought a lot of uncertainties to a sector that had seen strong advocacy for increased funding and sustainability plans. As we enter the second half of the year, it is hoped that promised funds such as that of the government would be made available soonest to meet the growing need of FP services in the country. Mr Orji noted that this challenge was already great as the estimated cost of dealing with the ongoing pandemic runs two times over the FCT's health budget for instance, which calls for a more significant commitment towards funds to be released for services such as FP. As already seen, even designated family planning facilities are seeing low client turnout due to ongoing social challenges, which would also call for creativity such as providing commodities that can be self-administered by clients, in giving couples better access.
Congress is now reportedly looking to address concerns about how foreign apps are handled by the Google Play Store. National Security Subcommittee Chairman Stephen Lynch is said to have reached out to Google with a letter on the matter.

The letter highlights potential issues stretching across the gamut. Thats from user privacy to national security, with the Subcommittee is seeking to ensure that Google is doing enough to keep US citizens safe. To that end, its looking for clarification pertaining to how the company is storing data. And details on how the company addresses overseas storage of and access to app data.

Congress is also seeking to understand how the company assesses the unique national security threat posed by apps. Applications, the letter points out, can provide adversaries access to a lot of potentially sensitive information.

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That information could ultimately be a detriment to US national security, the letter notes. Specifically, those that are made available to US citizens but potentially originate from adversaries. Or that store data in countries that are adversarial to the US.

Its not immediately clear how Google will address concerns about foreign apps

Google will have until July 31 to respond to the inquiry. Thats a similar timeframe set in place for Apple, with regard to the same questions surrounding its App Store. And Mr. Lynch was reportedly the author of that letter too. But it isnt immediately clear what actions Google or Apple might be able to take if their respective answers arent enough to satisfy Congress.

What is clear is that the Subcommittee and leaders in Congress fully expect some form of action on Googles part with regard to foreign apps. For Google, Mr. Lynch indicates that the company can and must do more. Particularly with regard to keeping US citizens safe. At a bare minimum, Congress has expressed an expectation that Google informs US citizens of the risks on the Play Store.

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Its not at all unlikely that the same applies to Apple as well.

Congress is also examining the applications themselves

Now, Congress is also busying itself with investigating foreign apps. Among the more prominent of those are Tencent apps and TikTok. The former of those companies boast responsibility for developing games such as Call of Duty: Mobile and partial ownership of Fortnite.

Conversely, TikTok is facing scrutiny as well and could ultimately be banned. But thats not just from lawmakers. Amazon, for instance, recently began forcing employees to remove the app from company-owned phones as well.
As coronavirus cases in Bihar continue to rise unabated, the state government has announced a complete lockdown starting July 16 till July 31. The decision was announced by Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi saying that the Nitish Kumar-led government had ordered that all city municipalities, district headquarters, block headquarters will stay under lockdown.

Amid low testing rate, Bihar recorded over 1,000 cases for the past four days. Cases here are nearing the 20,000-mark with 1,432 new cases reported on Tuesday. Health experts are worried as Bihar could become the next corona hotspot in the country, India Today reported.

While many states have announced partial lockdowns in high-risk cities and containment zones, Bihar is the only state that ordered a complete lockdown due to unprecedented surge in cases.

Here are the activities which will remain unaffected during the lockdown:

 Hospitals and all related medical establishments will remain functional

 Construction work, home delivery of products will be permitted and encouraged to minimise the movement of people outside

 Banks will be functional

 Air and rail transport services will insurance offices, and ATMl be operational

 Taxis, auto-rickshaws and private vehicles will be allowed only for permitted activities

 Private vehicles will be allowed across the state for permitted activities only

 Petrol pumps, LPG petroleum and gas retail and storage outlets will be allowed to operate

 Public utilities, power generation and transmission units, post offices will be functioning

 Essential service providers will be permitted to commute only from home to workplace

 Government and private vehicles carrying government staff will be allowed to commute with their office identity cards

 Restaurants will be allowed to function only for providing home delivery options

Defence, central armed police forces, treasury, public utilities, disaster management, power generation and transmission units, post offices. National Informatics Centre will be operating

Activities which wont be permitted

 Schools, colleges, and other educational institutions will remain shut

 Sports, cultural complexes, malls, religious places, movie theatres, swimming pools, and gymnasiums will remain shut.

 Commercial, private and government establishments will remain closed

 Offices of the Government of India, its Autonomous Subordinate Offices and Public Corporation will also be not functioning.

However, all the rules will not be applicable to containment zones in the state, which will continue to be under strict central government guidelines, NDTV reported.
DUBLIN, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Vacuum Cleaner Market: Insights & Forecast with Potential Impact of COVID-19 (2020-2024)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global vacuum cleaner market is estimated to reach US$ 20.5 billion in 2024, growing at a CAGR of 6.06% for the period spanning from 2020 to 2024.

The factors such as growing urban population, rising incidences of allergy-related diseases, growing working women population, changing lifestyle and concerns about health and indoor air pollution are expected to drive the market. However, the growth of the industry will be challenged by the high cost associated with machinery and high power supply. A few notable trends include the integration of AI technology, protection against hazardous dust and hygiene, the growing trend of smart homes and new product launches.

The global vacuum cleaner market is segmented into canister, upright, robotics, central, drum and others. The global vacuum cleaner market is highly dominated by canister vacuum cleaners owing to its ease of use, high suction power, and convenience to store.

The global vacuum cleaner market is expected to grow in future due to growing urbanization, rising awareness regarding new vacuum cleaner technologies and rising concerns towards hygiene. In terms of geographical areas, North America and Europe are major contributors to the global vacuum cleaner market supported by growing consumer spending on smart home infrastructure development and rising concerns towards health and hygiene. The Asia-Pacific represents the fastest-growing market for vacuum cleaners with huge demand for all types of vacuum cleaners.

Scope of the report:

The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the global vacuum cleaner market, segmented into canister, upright, robotics, central, drum and others

The major regional markets ( North America , Europe and the Asia-Pacific ) have been analyzed.

, and the ) have been analyzed. The market dynamics such as growth drivers, market trends and challenges are analyzed in-depth.

The competitive landscape of the market, along with the company profiles of leading players (Electrolux AB, iRobot Corporation, Midea Group Co., Ltd., Panasonic Corporation, Koninklijke Philips N.V. and LG Electronics Inc.) are also presented in detail.

Key Topics Covered



1. Introduction

1.1 Vacuum Cleaner

1.2 Working of Vacuum Cleaner

1.3 Components of Vacuum Cleaner

1.4 Types of Vacuum Cleaner

2. Impact of COVID-19

2.1 Decline in Global GDP Growth

2.2 Rise in Unemployment

2.3 Decline in Global Trade

2.4 Decline in Industrial Production

2.5 Accelerating Global Poverty

3. Global Market Analysis

3.1 Global Vacuum Cleaner Market by Value

3.2 Global Vacuum Cleaner Market Forecast by Value

3.3 Global Vacuum Cleaner Market by Product Type

3.3.1 Global Canister Vacuum Cleaner Market by Value

3.3.2 Global Canister Vacuum Cleaner Market Forecast by Value

3.3.3 Global Robotics Vacuum Cleaner Market by Value

3.3.4 Global Robotics Vacuum Cleaner MarketForecast by Value

3.3.5 Global Central Vacuum Cleaner Market by Value

3.3.6 Global Central Vacuum Cleaner Market Forecast by Value

3.3.7 Global Drum Vacuum Cleaner Market by Value

3.3.8 Global Drum Vacuum Cleaner Market Forecast by Value

3.3.9 Global Upright Vacuum Cleaner Market by Value

3.3.10 Global Upright Vacuum Cleaner Market Forecast by Value

3.4 Global Vacuum Cleaner Market by End Use

3.4.1 Global Household Vacuum Cleaner Market by Value

3.4.2 Global Household Vacuum Cleaner Market Forecast by Value

3.5 Global Vacuum Cleaner Market by Region

4. Regional Vacuum Cleaner Market Analysis

4.1 North America

4.1.1 North America Vacuum Cleaner Market by Value

4.1.2 North America Vacuum Cleaner Market Forecast by Value

4.2 Europe

4.2.1 Europe Vacuum Cleaner Market by Value

4.2.2 Europe Vacuum Cleaner Market Forecast by Value

4.3 Asia-Pacific

4.3.1 Asia-Pacific Vacuum Cleaner Market by Value

4.3.2 Asia Pacific Vacuum Cleaner Market Forecast by Value

5. Market Dynamics

5.1 Growth Drivers

5.1.1 Growing Urban Population

5.1.2 Rising Incidences of Allergy Related Diseases

5.1.3 Growing Working Women Population

5.1.4 Changing Lifestyle

5.1.5 Concerns about Health and Indoor Air Pollution

5.2 Key Trends & Developments

5.2.1 Growing Trend of Smart Homes

5.2.2 Protection against Hazardous Dust and Hygiene

5.2.3 New Product Launches

5.2.4 Integration of AI technology

5.3 Challenges

5.3.1 High Cost Associated with Machinery

5.3.2 High Power Supply

6. Competitive Landscape

6.1 Global Market

6.1.1 Key Players - Revenue Comparison

6.1.2 Key Players - Market Cap Comparison

7. Company Profiles

7.1 Electrolux AB

7.1.1 Business Overview

7.1.2 Financial Overview

7.1.3 Business Strategies

7.2 iRobot Corporation

7.3 Midea Group Co. Ltd.

7.4 Panasonic Corporation

7.5 Koninklijke Philips N.V.

7.6 LG Electronics Inc.



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/expb4w

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]



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People sit and drink at Shenannigans Restaurant Bar on Mitchell St in Darwin, Australia on May 15, 2020 . (Shane Eecen/Getty Images)

Northern Territory Borders Open After Being Shut in March

As the Northern Territory prepares to open its borders on Friday after quarantine restrictions were imposed in March, Chief Health Officer Hugh Heggie says he is calm and confident but concerned Territorians were no longer taking physical distancing seriously.

From Friday, many domestic travellers will be able to visit the NT without having to go into quarantine for 14 days.

When the lifting of border restrictions was first announced last month it applied to the whole country, but since then Chief Minister Michael Gunner has declared the whole of Victoria, Sydney and the Blue Mountains coronavirus hotspots due to new outbreaks.

Any arrivals from those places, which represent more than 10 million people, will be sent to supervised quarantine for 14 days at their own expense, costing $2500.

The Northern Territory has avoided any community transmission or deaths of COVID-19, with 32 cases since early March and only two currently active.

In the past I have been known to say I am terrified and confident, right now I am calm and I am confident because we do have all of the things in place, Heggie said.

That included testing capability, intensive care capability, retrieval of people, isolation of people and potential lockdowns of urban, apartment or remote communities if there were outbreaks, he said.

I think this is where it swings back to: weve got things in place: Im confident, are we all confident about our own behaviours?

Those travellers that come to the Territory will have to sign statutory declarations that they have not been in a hot spot and face heavy fines or even jail if caught lying.

Heggie agreed that with the NT having had no community transmission of COVID-19 and its lockdown restrictions lifted, people were not practising physical distancing and taking the risks of getting the virus as seriously as they should.

He warned a hard lockdown could easily occur in the NT forcing businesses to shut if there was an outbreak and people were not practising distancing.

I have the last couple of days seen close encounters with people having conversations close in contained spaces, thats where most of the transmission has occurred, he said.



By Greg Roberts in Darwin
Melanie Waldow and Zack Sobieraski s wedding day began at 12:30 a.m. Monday at the trailhead of an Adirondack High Peak.

Despite heavy rain storm warnings throughout the weekend, the Rochester couple decided to make a go of it late Sunday afternoon and follow through on their decision to elope. They had originally planned a wedding in Lake Placid at a hotel with some 60 guests for late August, but cancelled it due to the Coronavirus pandemic

Leaving the trailhead parking lot in darkness, the two hiked nearly 5 miles in warm, balmy conditions with a photographer to the summit of Algonquin Mountain, a trek of more than 3  hours. They carried their wedding clothes and shoes in their packs, along with water and protein bars to munch on.

I considered bringing up a small wedding cake, but logistically, I couldnt see packing one extra Tupperware container in my pack with my clothes, shoes and all, Zack said.

The photographer, Whitney Tracy, of Mountainaire Gatherings Photography, helped by carrying a flower bouquet made by a Plattsburgh florist. She had also agreed to double duty: to not only take pictures of the couple for their sunrise ceremony, but to act as the officiant to marry them.

Zack, a Rochester police officer, and Melanie, a veterinary technician, have hiked 21 of the Adirondack High peaks together. They are both 29 years old. The two said it was Tracy, whose specialties include adventure elopement photography, who suggested they scale Algonquin for the summit ceremony.

The general consensus of our friends was that no one was surprised that we did this, Melanie said.

Melanie Waldow and Zack Sobieraski reached the summit of Algonquin Mountain more than an hour before sunrise. Whitney Tracy photo.

At an elevation of 5,114 feet, Algonquin is the second highest mountain in New York. It is located in the town of North Elba, in Essex County.

The threesome reached the top of Algonquin at about 4:30, about an hour before sunrise. The idea was to give the couple took about an hour to cool down from the hike and to get ready.

I didnt want them them flushed and sweaty for the photos, Tracy said.

Actually, it was chilly and a bit windy at the summit (about 50 degrees), Melanie said. After changing into her wedding dress, Melanie wrapped a blanket she had brought up around herself to keep warm. Zack changed into his suit.

Melanie Waldow and Zack Sobieraski, of Rochester, hiked 3 1/2 hours in darkness to reach the summit of Algonquin Mountain before dawn. Whitney Tracy photo.

Meanwhile, the sky above the summit was clear. However, we could see clouds and flashes of lightning in the distance, Zack said.

The wedding ceremony, which included the reciting of vows each had written for themselves, began around 6 a.m. It took about 8 minutes.

Melanie said she and Zack had been together as a couple for 11 years, meeting just after high school. In her vows she made an emotional reference to her father, who died 10 years ago from cancer.

He only knew Zack for about a year. I added that hes looking down on us, thankful that were taking the next step after being together so long, she said.

Melanie Waldow and Zack Sobieraski eloped, hiked to the summit and got married on Algonquin Mountain. In this photo, Melanie reads her wedding vows. Whitney Tracy photo.

Following the wedding ceremony, Melanie then changed dresses, putting on a red one. We never got our engagement photos, so we decided to get that taken care of, too, she said.

Melanie Waldow and Zack Sobieraski decided to get their engagement photos taken as well. For that session, Melanie changed into a red dress. Whitney Tracy photo.

Tracy, 33, who lives in Wells, in the southern Adirondacks, said she photographed a wedding last fall at the summit of Ampersand Mountain. Since then, she has shot wedding vow renewal ceremonies on Noonmark Mountain and Indian Head, a scenic overlook. Both are in the Adirondacks. She said the idea of an adventure elopement is common out west and in Colorado, and just seems to be catching on lately in the Adirondacks.

After all the pictures and wedding business were handled, the couple then changed back into their hiking clothes, donning T-shirts that said Mr. and Mrs. on the front, along with Mondays date.

They said everyone they met along the return hike offered their congratulations.

Getting back to their Jeep around 10:30 a.m., the couple then drove to Lake Placid. Unbeknownst to Melanie, Zack had arranged for her mother and his parents to meet them there for an early lunch.

Melanie Waldow and Zack Sobieraski, now husband and wife, kiss on the summit of Algonquin Mountain. Whitney Tracy photo.

That was amazing. Perfect. Melanie said.

The couple plan on having a reception in Lake Placid next year to celebrate their marriage, and afterward hopefully will take off for a honeymoon in Fiji, she said.

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Johnny Depp's former partners Vanessa Paradis and Winona Ryder have given staunch statements in defence of the Hollywood actor, labelling 'wife beater' claims against him, 'horrific, distressing and outrageous.'

Actress Paradis, who was in a relationship with Depp for more than 14 years and had two children with him, had been expected to give evidence in support of the Pirates Of The Caribbean star's case over a videolink today.

But the court was told today that there was no need for her - or his ex-fiancee in the 1990s, actress Ryder - to give evidence because Depp's claim that he has never hit a woman was only tested by the defence regarding Heard.

However their bombshell statements were released by the court today, showing both stood faithfully by Depp's side.

Winona Ryder said she was 'absolutely shocked, confused and upset' by the allegations against him.

She added in her statement, provided in advance of the trial: 'The idea that he is an incredibly violent person is the farthest thing from the Johnny I knew and loved.

'I cannot wrap my head around these accusations. He was never, never violent towards me. He was never, never abusive at all towards me. He has never been violent or abusive towards anybody I have seen.

'I do not want to call anyone a liar but from my experience of Johnny, it is impossible to believe that such horrific allegations are true. I find it extremely upsetting, knowing him as I do.'

Vanessa Paradis described the actor as a 'kind, attentive, generous and non-violent person and father.'

'On movie sets the actors, directors and entire crews adore him because he is humble and respectful to everyone, as well as being one of the best actors we've seen,' she added.

Depp, 57, is suing The Sun publisher News Group Newspapers (NGN) and its executive editor over an April 2018 article which alleged he was violent towards ex-wife Amber Heard, 34, during their tumultuous relationship.

It is another development in the extraordinary case in London, with the court also told today:

Depp's bodyguard insisted he was not lying over claims that he saw Depp being regularly attacked by Heard;

The security guard, Sean Bett, said he regularly saw Heard throw 'bottles, glass and other objects' at Depp;

He added that Heard was 'verbally and physically abusive' towards Depp throughout their relationship.

Johnny Depp (left) and Amber Heard (right) arrive at the Royal Courts of Justice in London today for the libel trial to continue

Johnny Depp and his former partner Vanessa Paradis in London on October 17, 2004. Paradis will now no longer appear at the court today via videolink in support of Depp's libel claim against a newspaper over an article that labelled him a 'wife beater'

Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder in Los Angeles in September 1990. Ryder had been due to give evidence via videolink

A court artist's sketch of Johnny Depp's counsel David Sherborne reading documents at the High Court in London today

Depp is assisted into the High Court by his security team this morning for his libel claim against The Sun to continue

Amber Heard (centre) arrives at the High Court today with her girlfriend Bianca Butti (left) and sister Whitney Heard (right)

'It is impossible to believe that such horrific allegations are true': Johnny Depp's ex-fiancee Winona Ryder says he was 'a really good man' In her witness statement, provided in advance of the trial, Johnny Depp's ex-fiancee Winona Ryder said she does not know the 'full details' of the claims against the defendants in these proceedings. The actress said: 'I am aware of the violence allegations that have been made publicly for the last few years by Johnny Depp's ex-wife Amber Heard. 'I knew Johnny very well years ago. We were together as a couple for four years, and I counted him as my best friend, and as close to me as family. 'I count our relationship as one of the more significant relationships of my life.' In her statement about Johnny Depp, Ms Ryder said: 'I understand that it is very important that I speak from my own experience, as I obviously was not there during his marriage to Amber, but, from my experience, which was so wildly different, I was absolutely shocked, confused and upset when I heard the accusations against him. 'The idea that he is an incredibly violent person is the farthest thing from the Johnny I knew and loved. 'I cannot wrap my head around these accusations. He was never, never violent towards me. He was never, never abusive at all towards me. He has never been violent or abusive towards anybody I have seen. 'I truly and honestly only know him as a really good man - an incredibly loving, extremely caring guy who was so very protective of me and the people that he loves, and I felt so very, very safe with him. 'I do not want to call anyone a liar but from my experience of Johnny, it is impossible to believe that such horrific allegations are true. I find it extremely upsetting, knowing him as I do.' Advertisement

This morning, Depp's barrister David Sherborne said the trial timetable had been revised, adding: 'There is no need to reschedule those witnesses (Ryder and Paradis), much as it would have been a pleasure to have them here.'

Witnesses will instead today include Starling Jenkins and Alejandro Romero, who worked at the Eastern Columbia Buildings in Los Angeles where Heard and Depp lived.

Also appearing today was Depp's former bodyguard who revealed a photograph of the Hollywood actor with a black eye after Heard allegedly punched him.

Security guard Sean Bett, who has worked for Depp and his family for nine years, claimed in his witness statement released today that the injury was caused by Heard following her 30th birthday party in Los Angeles in April 2016.

But NGN's barrister Sasha Wass QC told the court that the photograph was actually taken in March 2015 in the same city on a date when Heard had already admitted she attacked Depp in defence of her sister Whitney.

Heard has previously claimed she and Depp were having an argument when he approached Whitney on a landing between two staircases in their home in Los Angeles - and she feared he might push her, so hit him in the face.

Last week, Ms Wass claimed in court earlier on in the case that the couple had an argument in March 2015 because Heard found out he was having an affair with Rochelle Hathaway, with Depp responding that Heard 'was quite jealous of Rochelle and several other people, so I don't know that she found out I was having an affair'.

CCTV shows Depp 'extremely agitated' in lift after he was 'ushered out of couple's LA penthouse following blazing row with Amber

Today, the court was shown the moment Johnny Depp got into a lift in an 'extremely agitated' state after being allegedly ushered out of a his penthouse in Los Angeles following a row with then-wife Amber Heard.

The actor was seen rocking back and forth in the lift in the Eastern Columbia Building in CCTV footage taken on May 21, 2016 and shown to London's High Court today as part of Depp's libel case against The Sun newspaper.

Depp's security guard Sean Bett was asked about the visit to see Heard while giving evidence today, as he also revealed four photographs of the Hollywood star with facial injuries after Heard allegedly attacked him.

Sasha Wass QC, for News Group Newspapers (NGN), whom Depp's action is against over an article which alleged he was violent towards Heard, said Mr Bett had an understanding that the pair were 'going to have a sort of talk'.

Mr Bett told the court: 'He was going to pick up some belongings and he was also going to speak with her.' Mr Bett said he went into the flat with Mr Depp and saw lit candles and an open bottle of wine.

The court heard Mr Bett left the penthouse and stood in the hallway. He said he was 'waiting to see if Mr Depp was going to come out soon or waiting to see if there was going to be any type of argument'.

Ms Wass asked him if he was expecting that, and he said: 'From Ms Heard, yes.' Mr Bett said it was known that Heard was showing a pattern of 'getting upset with Mr Depp', and this is why he stayed outside the door.

Ms Wass asked Mr Bett how long he, Depp's former head of security Jerry Judge and Depp were in the apartment building on May 21, 2016, to which Mr Bett said 'between 30 and 40 minutes'.

The barrister then showed Mr Bett CCTV footage of the three of them entering the lift at around 7pm and leaving at around 8.30pm. She said: 'It would appear that your estimate of how long you were there is incorrect.'

Mr Bett replied: 'They are slightly off according to the (footage).' Ms Wass asked what happened when Mr Bett entered the penthouse and whether 'Ms Heard was sitting on the sofa'. Mr Bett said: 'No, she was standing.'

Vanessa Paradis tells court her ex-partner was a 'non-violent person and father' In a witness statement provided in advance of the trial, Johnny Depp's former partner Vanessa Paradis, with whom the actor has two children, said: 'I work as a musician, singer-songwriter, actress, and fashion model. 'I have known Johnny for more than 25 years. We've been partners for 14 years and we raised our two children together. 'Through all these years I've known Johnny to be a kind, attentive, generous and non-violent person and father. 'On movie sets the actors, directors and entire crews adore him because he is humble and respectful to everyone, as well as being one of the best actors we've seen.' Ms Paradis' statement continued: 'I am aware of the allegations which Amber Heard has publicly accused Johnny of for more than four years now. 'This is nothing like the true Johnny I have known, and from my personal experience of many years, I can say he was never violent or abusive to me. 'I have seen that these outrageous statements have been really distressing, and also caused damage to his career because unfortunately people have gone on believing these false facts. 'This is so upsetting as he has helped so many persons in his personal and professional life, with kindness and generosity.' Advertisement

Ms Wass asked if Ms Heard was crying, to which Mr Bett said: 'She was agitated and upset.' He added: 'I can't remember if I saw tears.' Ms Wass said: 'Ms Heard said to Jerry Judge 'if he hits me one more time I'm going to call the cops'.'

Mr Bett confirmed that she said 'words to that effect'. Ms Wass asked if Mr Bett was certain that he saw 'no injuries to Ms Heard'. Mr Bett replied: 'Correct.'

He added: 'If you are 20 feet away, in my opinion it can be difficult to see a tear on one's face (but) it's clear if there is an injury of any type, you would be able to see.'

Mr Bett said that he would be able to have seen an injury to Ms Heard 'especially with her fair skin'. Ms Wass suggested to Mr Bett that 'you are lying and that she had visible reddening to her cheek'.

Mr Bett replied: 'I'm not a liar, I'm telling the truth.' Ms Wass asked if Johnny Depp was 'extremely agitated' when he was being 'ushered out of the flat', and Mr Bett said he was.

The barrister said: 'Presumably you have seen him like that many times before.' Mr Bett said: 'No.'

Ms Wass said Depp then went to one of the neighbouring penthouses he owned and 'was threatening people, other people (Joshua) Drew and the other woman'.

Mr Bett replied: 'That's not true. Mr Depp told Mr Drew and the said female to get out of this apartment.' Ms Wass said: 'When Mr Depp left (the penthouse) he had with him a bottle of red wine, do you remember that?'

Mr Bett replied: 'I can't confirm if he had wine with him or not.' Ms Wass suggested Depp 'threw the wine and smashed the wine' outside one of the other apartments.

Mr Bett responded: 'There was no smashing of anything.' 'Did you not see wine dribbled along the wall?' Ms Wass asked. 'I didn't,' Mr Bett replied.

Ms Wass put it to Mr Bett: 'Your evidence, Mr Bett, is that Mr Depp is not violent and you are not violent.' He replied: 'That's correct.'

Yesterday, Heard's former personal assistant accused the actress of 'twisting' her own account of a machete-point rape for 'her own use', in explosive evidence on the seventh day of Depp's libel claim.

Appearing by videolink from Los Angeles on Wednesday, Kate James claimed Heard, 34, had 'stolen' her story of being 'violently raped' in Brazil almost three decades ago.

Heard's former PA accuses her of 'twisting' her own account of a rape for 'her own use'

In her witness statement, Ms James said she discovered the Aquaman actress had 'stolen my sexual violence conversation with her and twisted it into her own story to benefit herself'.

She added: 'This of course caused me extreme distress and outrage that she would dare to attempt to use the most harrowing experience of my life as her own narrative.' Ms James said she was giving evidence because she took 'offence' at Heard's actions.

Depp waves to the photographers outside the High Court this morning (left), while his ex-wife Heard also arrives (right)

A woman films Johnny Depp arriving at the High Court in London this morning as legal proceedings in the capital continue

Johnny Depp being taken to hospital with a severed finger, following the incident in Australia in March 2015

Depp, 57, and Heard, 34, met on the set of the 2011 comedy 'The Rum Diary' and married in Los Angeles in February 2015. They are pictured at the film's premiere in London in November 2011

Johnny Depp's bruised face is seen in photo shown to High Court from night Amber Heard 'punched him during row over his secret affair with Rochelle Hathaway in their LA penthouse' Johnny Depp's security guard today revealed a photograph of the Hollywood actor with a black eye after his then-wife Amber Heard allegedly punched him, to support his sensational libel claim against a newspaper. Johnny Depp's security guard Sean Bett today revealed a photograph of the actor with a black eye after his then-wife Amber Heard allegedly punched him. He said it was taken on April 2016, but the court heard claim it was actually March 2015 Security guard Sean Bett, who has worked for Depp and his family for nine years, claimed in his witness statement released today that the injury was caused by Heard following her 30th birthday party in Los Angeles in April 2016. But NGN's barrister Sasha Wass QC told the court that the photograph was actually taken in March 2015 in the same city on a date when Heard had already admitted she attacked Depp in defence of her sister Whitney. Heard has previously claimed she and Depp were having an argument when he approached Whitney on a landing between two staircases in their home in Los Angeles - and she feared he might push her, so hit him in the face. Last week, Ms Wass claimed in court earlier that the couple had an argument in March 2015 because Heard found out he was having an affair with Rochelle Hathaway, with Depp responding that Heard 'was quite jealous of Rochelle and several other people, so I don't know that she found out I was having an affair'. Advertisement

NGN's barrister Sasha Wass QC suggested Ms James had been 'influenced' by Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas actor Depp and his associates and 'encouraged' to give 'vicious evidence' against Heard.

Ms James replied: 'I'm here for my own reasons ... I'm a sexual violence survivor and that's very, very serious to take that stance if you are not one and I am one.

'That's the reason I'm here, because I take offence.'

Ms James, who worked for Heard between 2012 and 2015, said her former employer would send a 'barrage of drunk text messages between the hours of two and four in the morning ... on an almost daily basis', describing the messages as 'abusive'.

She accused Heard of deleting all the 'abusive' texts after the actress terminated her employment, adding: 'She saved the ones that weren't.'

Heard 'did not care about throwing anyone under the bus', says former PA

In her statement, Ms James said Heard felt she was 'above the law', and claimed she 'did not care about throwing anyone under the bus, if it meant saving her own skin'.

Heard asked her in September 2014 to send a letter the actress had drafted to Homeland Security officials in the US about a woman named Savannah McMillan, who had been hired to work as a set assistant, Ms James claimed.

According to Ms James, Heard said in the letter: 'Savannah McMillan is a personal friend and, to my knowledge, has never worked unlawfully or otherwise in the United States. Or for me.'

Ms James said in her statement that Heard 'knew this to be untrue' and 'Amber was therefore wilfully lying to the US immigration department'.

She also claimed Heard 'deliberately smuggled' two Yorkshire terriers, Pistol and Boo, into Australia illegally in April 2015.

Heard asked Depp's estate manager to ask her PA to 'lie under oath', court hears

The High Court in London earlier heard evidence from Kevin Murphy, Depp's former estate manager, who claimed Heard asked him to contact Ms James and ask her to 'lie under oath' to an Australian court.

Mr Murphy said the actress also 'demanded' he make a false statement about the animals being 'smuggled' into the country, and told him: 'I wouldn't want you to have a problem with your job.'

In October 2015, Heard faced criminal proceedings in Australia for taking the couple's two dogs into the country illegally. She and Depp later recorded a now infamous video, which was played to the court, apologising for doing so.

Mr Murphy said he lied under oath 'because Amber wielded a lot of power and would have made my life miserable'.

He also gave evidence about the 'defecation incident', when faeces were found in the couple's bed after Heard's 30th birthday party in April 2016.

Amber Heard photographed Johnny Depp with ice cream spilled on his legs during a private flight from Boston to Los Angeles in May 2014 before showing it to him the next day and saying: 'Look at what you've become', the court heard earlier this week

A man holding a placard in support of Depp stands outside the High Court in London this morning ahead of the latest hearing

The carnage in a home in Australia after Depp and Heard allegedly had a fight in 2015, which was released yesterday as part of Ben King's evidence. The picture shows an undamaged phone handset, with Mr King insisting ' I did not see any phones which had been broken', despite Heard's claims that he smashed it against a wall and cut off his fingertip while attacking her

Depp is alleged to have trashed a penthouse in Los Angeles, California, which Heard used as a colossal closet

Photographs were issued by Heard's legal team of her with injuries to her face around the time of the alleged attack on December 15, 2015, showing bruising across the bridge of her nose and under her eyes after Depp allegedly headbutted her

Johnny Depp v The Sun: Key issues in libel trial Hollywood star Johnny Depp's libel claim against The Sun enters its second week on Monday. These are the key issues the trial judge, Mr Justice Nicol, has to determine. - Whether the April 2018 article by the tabloid's executive editor Dan Wootton was defamatory of Depp. Under the Defamation Act 2013, a statement is not defamatory unless its publication causes 'serious harm to the reputation of the claimant'. - The Sun's publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN), is defending the claim and relying on a defence of truth. It is for the publisher to prove that the allegations made in the article are 'substantially true'. - The meaning of the article, which is defined as what it would mean to the 'reasonable reader', will have to be determined by the judge. But NGN's lawyers say the differences between the rival meanings contended by each side are 'not significant' and the outcome of the case will therefore not turn on meaning. - Depp's case is that the article bore the meaning that he was 'guilty, on overwhelming evidence, of serious domestic violence against his then wife, causing significant injury and leading to her fearing for her life, for which he was constrained to pay no less than 5 million to compensate her, and which resulted in him being subjected to a continuing court restraining order; and for that reason is not fit to work in the film industry'. He strenuously denies the allegations and claims he 'has never hit or committed any acts of physical violence against Ms Heard'. - The meaning which NGN will seek to prove is true is that the Claimant beat his wife Amber Heard, causing her to suffer significant injury and on occasion leading her to fearing for her life. They rely on 14 separate allegations of violence and allege more generally that Depp was 'controlling and verbally and physically abusive' towards Ms Heard, particularly when he was under the influence of alcohol and or drugs, throughout their relationship. NGN's lawyers say an important issue for the judge to decide will be what substances Depp was using during the relationship. They contend that he frequently lost control of himself, partly because of his heavy drug and alcohol use, and also that his memory has been impaired by his heavy use of drugs. - If Depp wins his case, the judge will have to decide what level of compensation he should receive for the harm to his reputation and for the 'distress, hurt and humiliation caused'. There is an upper limit on general damages for libel of 300,000 to 325,000. However, if he succeeds, Depp may also be entitled to aggravated damages. The actor is also asking for a final injunction against NGN, who his legal team say 'have retained the article on their website and maintained their allegation to the bitter end'. Advertisement

Ms Wass read a text from Heard to Mr Murphy in October 2014, when the actress said: 'I'm worried she's got brain damage.

'She can't seem to predict or control when she uses the bathroom.

'Last night she s**t ON Johnny while he was sleeping, like all over him. Not exaggerating.'

Mr Murphy said in his witness statement that, when he spoke to Depp in April 2016 about the 'defecation incident', the actor was 'sullen and disgusted'.

Ms Wass read two text messages sent by Depp shortly after the incident, saying that in one, he wrote 'my wife left a whopper poop on my bed' and 'then he says 'Amber Turd''.

She said: 'In fact, it appears from those texts that Depp found the subject quite amusing,' to which Mr Murphy said he thought the actor was being 'sarcastic'.

Mr Murphy was asked if Heard had told him the faeces in the bed was a 'harmless prank', and said: 'She certainly did.'

Yesterday morning, Depp's previous estate manager, Ben King, gave evidence that Depp and Heard 'argued like schoolchildren', with explosive rows starting from 'banal beginnings'.

He claimed Heard was the 'antagoniser' in the relationship, often 'goading' and attempting to provoke the actor.

Mr King, who worked for the Hollywood star for three separate periods between 2014 and 2016, said he never saw Depp 'be violent or unkind towards Heard, or indeed towards anyone else'.

In his first witness statement, Mr King said that in March 2015 he was summoned to the house the couple were renting in Australia, where he found a 'significant amount of damage' and discovered the actor's severed fingertip on the floor of the bar area while cleaning up broken glass and debris.

Depp has been accused of subjecting Heard to a 'three-day hostage situation' and trashing the house during the Australia trip, which he denies.

His finger was severed during the stay, which he says was caused by Ms Heard throwing a vodka bottle at him, which she denies.

Yesterday, the court did not have time to hear from actress Ryder, who was engaged to Mr Depp in the 1990s, or Katherine Kendall, an actress and #MeToo advocate who claims she was 'misquoted' in The Sun's article.

Depp is suing NGN and its executive editor Dan Wootton over the publication of an article headlined: 'Gone Potty: How can JK Rowling be 'genuinely happy' casting wife beater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film?'.

His lawyers say the article bore the meaning there was 'overwhelming evidence' Depp assaulted Heard on a number of occasions and left her 'in fear for her life'.

Heard claims that, during an incident in Australia, she was subjected to a 'three-day hostage situation' during which Depp drank to excess and took pills.

NGN is defending the article as true, and says Depp was 'controlling and verbally and physically abusive towards Heard, particularly when he was under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs'.
District Attorney Heather Adams didnt give the answer everyone was hoping to hear Thursday afternoon.

We have not yet found Linda, she said during a press conference at Lancaster Countys emergency services training center.

The Linda she was referring to is Linda Stoltzfoos, the 18-year-old Amish woman who has been missing since June 21. She disappeared while walking from her church to her nearby home on Beechdale Road.

Days after police charged Justo Smoker, 34, of Paradise Township, in connection with Stoltzfoos disappearance, investigators had little more to report, at least publicly.

Unfortunately, Adams said, the evidence they have collected so far does not tend toward good news or a happy outcome for the investigation.

The Stoltzfoos family did not know Smoker and there seems to be no reason why Linda would have gotten into his beat-up red Kia Rio sedan voluntarily, the DA said. That and other findings, including the discovery of her abandoned undergarments, leads only to the conclusion that she suffered harm, Adams said.

Linda Stoltzfoos

Smoker, a former Pequea Valley High School wresting star with an extensive criminal record, is sitting in Lancaster County Prison without bail, charged so far with kidnapping, the DA said. Judging from the statements made during Thursdays press conference, hes not providing information regarding the whereabouts of the missing woman.

Meanwhile, hundreds of volunteer searchers have been looking for Linda, East Lampeter Township Police Chief Stephen Zerbe said. Where they are searching  and it appears there have been multiple sites  is not being released because each location has the potential to be a crime scene, Zerbe said.

The Amish community has aided in the investigation, he said, and have rallied to support Stoltzfoos anxious family. Arrest papers show eye-witness testimony from several members of the Amish community, along with a video that allegedly shows Smoker with Stoltzfoos at the time of her disappearance, were key bits of information that led police to Smoker.

More information is needed, officials said. Local and state police and the FBI agents working the case urged anyone with information, no matter how seemingly insignificant, to provide it promptly.

State Trooper Kevin Kochka said police especially want to know where Smoker and his Kia were right before, during and immediately after Stoltzfoos vanished. Kochka asked residents of East Earl, East Lampeter, Paradise and Salisbury townships to pick their brains and provide any home security video that might provide leads in the case. Tips can be provided by calling state police at 717-299-7650, he said.

Police are asking the public to provide information regarding this car, and older Kia Rio with a missing right front hubcap, that was driven by the man accused of kidnapping Linda Stoltzfoos, an 18-year-old Amish woman.

Frank Apicella, agent-in-charge of the Harrisburg office of the FBI, said information also can be provided to 1-800-CALL-FBI.

The common theme voiced during the press conference was determination. We are using all investigative tools at our disposal, Adams said. This case is a priority.

We will continue to work on this case until we find Linda, Zerbe vowed.
A former nickel mine worker from the 1980s has blasted the current generation of Fly-In-Fly-Out workers, saying they have it far easier than just a few decades ago.

Michael Whitworth, in a letter published in The West Australian on Wednesday, said when he worked on remote mine sites in the state, they would travel home just four days a month.

His letter follows recent debate about so-called 'divorce rosters' in the industry, with the mining union claiming extended COVID-19 rosters for FIFO workers are causing relationship problems.

A former nickel mine worker form the 1980s has blasted the current generation of Fly-In-Fly-Out workers, saying they have it far easier than just a few decades ago (stock image)

Mr Whitworth said despite the exceptional circumstances, workers in his day still had it a lot tougher, though he also imparted some wisdom for those working in isolated locations.

'For someone of my age group who worked up North in the 1980s today's FIFO workers seem to have it very soft in comparison to the recent past,' Mr Whitworth wrote.

He said that one company he worked for would pay for just one flight home a year leaving many to drive 1,500km each way to get their four days a month.

MR WHITMORE'S ADVICE TO YOUNG FIFO WORKERS Let your partner make the household decisions while you are on-site and 'suck-up' things you may have done differently. Pay down debt to secure your financial future, rather than seeking the 'best of everything' now. Don't take links such as Skype, the internet, or inexpensive plane flights for granted as they have not always been around. Advertisement

Phoning home was also very different, he explains, saying there were no mobile phones or internet, but instead three pay-phones that would be full of coins and unusable by Saturday.

'Four days at home per month and a weekly phone call and postal letters, that is more like a divorce roster,' he wrote.

Speaking to Perth Now, Mr Whitworth said he expected his partner to make the decisions while he was away working and, while he may not have agreed with everything, he would just 'suck it up' for the sake of the relationship.

'Today's generation, they text over what cereal to get at Aldi,' he said.

The Australian Manufacturing Worker's Union repeated calls for FIFO rosters to return to normal pre-coronavirus swings on The West Live on Thursday morning.

A number of Australia's major mining companies in March reportedly doubled, and in some cases tripled, the length of rosters, changing from two weeks on one week off to four weeks on and two weeks off, for example.

The mining union's calls follow the death of a worker at Saracen Mineral Holding's Dervish mine in WA on Monday after a 25 metre fall.
After the arrest of Jeffrey Epstein's former associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, all eyes are now on Prince Andrew and what is next for him in this whole sex trafficking case.

Some reports have claimed that Maxwell could throw Prince Andrew under the bus using the secret tapes showing his time at Epstein's mansion with the minors. Meanwhile, some have suggested that the 58-year-old British socialite will never say anything incriminating against the Duke of York since she is very loyal to him.

On Tuesday (July 14), Maxwell faced the New York court for the first time through a live video link to request bail. During the hearing, the so-called "madam" of Epstein's circle pleaded not guilty but was denied bail, which means she would remain behind bars until her trial next year.

Maxwell reportedly cried after the judge denied her of bail. He lawyers raised the risk of contracting coronavirus while inside the jail facility in Brooklyn, New York.

While everything seems going smoothly with the investigation, a lawyer suggested that the case could have a major plot twist through the help of Queen Elizabeth II's favorite son.

Prince Andrew As Witness

Speaking to Lorraine Kelly's namesake show in ITV, the lawyer representing six of Epstein's alleged victims said that the authorities could summon Prince Andrew and turn him into a witness against Ghislaine Maxwell.

During his BBC interview in November 2019, the 60-year-old royal admitted visiting Epstein at his homes in New York, New Mexico, and at the private "Little Saint James" on the Caribbean Island.

But according to Lisa Bloom, the Prince made it clear that he was not that close to Epstein because his real friend among the two is Ghislaine Maxwell.

When Lorraine asked if the FBI could call Prince Andrew a witness against Maxwell, she said: "Certainly he could, he is not above the law, no one is above the law. People from the US testify in cases in the UK and vice versa all the time."

The lawyer then pointed out that Andrew's friendship with Maxwell could be enough reason to know stuff about her and her role in Epstein's sex trafficking scheme.

"He previously said, 'I wasn't all that close with Jeffrey Epstein, really my friend was Ghislaine Maxwell,' well she is the one front and center now so all the more reason for him to talk to the investigators," she added.

Could Prince Andrew actually talk out Maxwell despite knowing that she could have tapes to expose his involvement in the alleged sexual assault with Virginia Roberts? Is he willing to risk his friendship to clear his name?

Bloom also expressed her belief that Maxwell deserves the judge's verdict, as she is considered an extreme flight risk individual.

"She has three different passports, she has over 20 million dollars, and it appears as though she has been hiding and evading the law over the last few months," Bloom explained.

Rejoicing Prince Andrew?

Instead of worrying about his own future involving the case, it looks like Prince Andrew was relieved with the outcome of Maxwell's first court appearance.

It is after he was photographed all smiles a few hours after Maxwell wept for being denied of bail. He came out with a huge smile on his face while driving his black Range Rover.

In the photos obtained by the Daily Mail, Prince Andrew appeared to be happy and joking around with his bodyguard as he drove out of the gates of Windsor Castle.

READ MORE: Prince William Cheating: 3 Times The Future King Was Rumored To Cheat On Kate Middleton
MUNICH -- Indigenous knowledge, including oral histories, mythologies, place names, and classification schemes, can span many generations, preserving information that has helped native communities adapt to natural hazards as well as gradually changing conditions. Although Western scientists have historically deemed such information unreliable, during the past decade there has been increasing recognition of the advantages of bicultural approaches to scientific research, including demonstration of reliability.

Now a review published in the European Geosciences Union's journal Earth Surface Dynamics offers a roadmap for weaving together Indigenous knowledge with modern research, with a focus on the geosciences. "One goal is to encourage scientists to consider how their project might be of interest or relevance to Indigenous communities and to make conducting research with such groups more accessible," says Clare Wilkinson, a Ph.D. student at Te Whare Wananga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury and the paper's lead author.

The review, which is co-authored by native and non-native researchers from both Te Whare Wananga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury and Te Whare Wananga o Tamaki Makaurau | The University of Auckland, showcases a variety of tools for weaving Indigenous knowledge with Western science that maintain the integrity and validity of both methodologies, Wilkinson says. "There are clear links between Indigenous knowledge and values with respect to geomorphology," states Wilkinson, "but there is not much research that weaves these two cultural knowledge bases together."

Bicultural research: benefits for all

Bicultural research undertaken within respectful, reciprocal relationships can yield benefits for everyone involved, according to Wilkinson. Oral histories, for example, may provide insight into events that have been erased from the geologic record. Filling such gaps is crucial for projects such as the Aotearoa New Zealand Palaeotsunami Database, a catalogue of tsunamis that occurred prior to the start of historical written recordkeeping that is being used to better understand the distribution and magnitudes of these potentially destructive mega-waves.

Weaving of Indigenous knowledge with Western scientific research also has the potential to support native communities to make informed decisions regarding potential hazards on their ancestral lands. An example cited in the review describes native Maori purakau (stories) about a ngarara: a mythological, lizard-like creature, who lives in the Waitepuru River in Aotearoa New Zealand (a name that reflects the country's bicultural foundation). According to the authors, many Maori purakau are codified knowledge expressed through metaphors. These particular stories document the river's past geomorphic activity, expressed through the analogy of the ngarara flicking its tail back and forth.

"These stories, which my co-author Dan Hikuroa first published in 2017, document flood events," says Wilkinson, who notes that these have implications for understanding both the area's geomorphic history and the potential risks of living there. "The stories of the danger posed by the ngarara were taken into consideration when Maori built their homes, leaving them unharmed by past river-related hazards that have affected other nearby settlements," Wilkinson says.

Braided rivers tool: merging knowledge streams

In the review the authors describe tools that may help other researchers find respectful ways to initiate bicultural research projects. These include several potential frameworks--methodologies used during the theoretical design of the research--as well as step-by-step methods for acquiring data that incorporates Indigenous values.

The most transferable framework, suggest the authors, is the He Awa Whiria | Braided Rivers, which is based on the iconic Aotearoa New Zealand river systems characterised by networks of frequently shifting, sediment-choked river channels. This framework consists of two streams, one symbolising Maori knowledge and a second representing Western science. "The two knowledge streams operate collaboratively as well as independently, but both have the same objective of providing a balanced research outcome," Wilkinson says.

An element of reciprocity

When working with Indigenous communities, it's essential to understand--or at least respect--Indigenous priorities, interests and worldview, according to Wilkinson. "You need to anticipate that rock formations and rivers can be ancestors; that when communities talk about fish, they are speaking about brothers and sisters; and when communities talk about the soil, they are describing their Earth mother."

Shifting language is also a challenge, explains Wilkinson; words must be chosen very carefully to maintain mutual respect and safety for all involved, and researchers shouldn't expect Indigenous input on a project that doesn't interest them or provide them with any benefit. "Purely extractive research is not acceptable; there must be an element of reciprocity," says Wilkinson. The authors strongly recommend that scientists wishing to participate in bicultural research find cultural advisors who know the preferred procedures for engaging with Indigenous people.

Ultimately, suggest the review authors, drawing from multiple knowledge systems will help researchers and native communities realise novel understandings that could not be reached in isolation. "It is an exciting time to be a researcher and to play a part in increasingly important engagements with Indigenous culture and knowledge," concludes Wilkinson.

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The Coronil kit released by Baba Ramdev's (centre) company Patanjali Ayurved is selling for three times its price in the black market.

Hyderabad: Baba Ramdev's Coronil may or may not boost one's immunity but the mysterious product from Patanjali Ayurved has bolstered the financial health of many individuals. Many are willing to blindly gulp down any concoction to keep COVID-19 at bay.

As COVID-19 cases rise sharply across Telangana, people are shelling out three to four times the original cost of Coronil, including up to Rs 1,800 for a kit that is originally priced at Rs 545.

On Tuesday, the Hyderabad police busted a gang that was selling COVID-19 medicines at exorbitant prices.

Sales have peaked in the past few days among members of a particular business community many of whom are followers of Baba Ramdev.

Deccan Chronicle spoke to buyers and Patanjali product in Hyderabad. A startling revelation was that apart from individuals and families, many prominent local business houses bought Coronil in bulk the day it was released in the market.

This includes a leading pearl dealer, a resort on the outskirts of Hyderabad and some garment dealers. All of them are selling the Patanjali product in the black market, albeit clandestinely, and door delivering them and making a killing in the process.

Ironically, during a random check, it was found that, due to bulk buying, several Patanjali dealers in the twin cities had no stock of Coronil.

''I bought five Coronil kits for Rs 1,500 each. The demand is high as hundreds of families from our community have been affected,'' one businessman disclosed.

Another businessman, who purchased the kit for Rs 1,200, said before being hospitalised, many of his relatives tried the product.

''Our people are dying and the panic is such that people are willing to try anything to boost immunity. The price does not matter,'' he said.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  The Santa Fe school board on Thursday will consider a proposal to start the 2020-21 school year remotely. The plan calls for a gradual transition to a hybrid model based on infection transmission rates of the coronavirus.

The school district and the teachers union representing most public school educators announced their plan in a news release Wednesday afternoon.

Weve agreed to propose that school begin for all students on August 20th fully remote for the first nine weeks. We will assess infection transmission rates and when they fall below 1.05 we will begin to bring students back into a pilot hybrid model, the release said.

The school board will consider three options for opening the school year  remotely, full reentry or a hybrid model  at its 5:30 p.m. meeting Thursday after a presentation on the topic.

The joint statement says that both SFPS and the National Education Association-Santa Fe believe that normally the best place for kids to learn would be in the classroom, not only for their academic growth but for their social and emotional well-being. However, our number one priority has to be their safety and health, and these are not normal circumstances.

The statement said that when transmission rates fall below 1.05, students would be brought back in a small pupil-teacher ratio. If that proves successful, students will be called back to class gradually, increasing the student population by 20% at a time.

A survey conducted by the school district released this week showed that about half of faculty and staff members preferred a remote reentry into the school year, while 17% supported a full reentry plan. Nearly half  45%  of students in grades 4-12 surveyed preferred a full reentry, while 23% favored a remote approach. Parents were evenly split between remote, full reentry and hybrid models.

During a press briefing on Monday, Superintendent Veronica Garcia said two district staff members recently testing positive for the coronavirus over the weekend opened her eyes as to just how difficult it would be to open school amid the pandemic no matter what precautions were adopted.

The district said Wednesday that two contract employees had also tested positive, despite strict protocols to keep employees safe.

The recent series of cases in our district have shed a light on how important decisions made outside of work impact the workplace, Garcia said. What happens at home with this virus doesnt stay at home.

The most recent modeling by Presbyterian Healthcare Services and state officials estimated the transmission rate in New Mexico to be 1.1, up from 0.87 a month ago. The spread rate in the northeastern region of the state, which includes Santa Fe County, was also 1.1.

Santa Fe County has experienced a surge in the number of reported COVID-19 cases in recent weeks. The 29 new cases reported Wednesday represents 8% of the 380 total cases in the county to date.
ALBANY  Albany County officials said five more people were infected with coronavirus as a result of attending a July 4 street party on Hudson Avenue.

The new cases revealed Thursday increased to 11 the number of people who contracted the virus after attending the block party, which drew about 200 college-aged people.

On Wednesday, the county expressed concern after it received 44 new positive cases, which was the largest daily increase in confirmed infections since May 20.

On Wednesday, the Capital Region had the highest percent of tests that came back positive - 2.1% - of all regions in New York. New York City, in comparison, had 1.3% of people test positive.

But the overall new case count was much lower Thursday, with 13 new cases in Albany County - five of which where from the block party.

In an example of how coronavirus statistics can swing wildly, the region went back to having one of the lowest percent positive rates Thursday at 0.8%. The state rate was slightly more, at 1.06% of all tests done coming back positive.

Still, elected officials across the Capital Region are viewing any uptick in cases with caution. On Thursday, Warren County found a sixth case of someone who appeared to contract coronavirus from a July 4th weekend camping get-together that is believed to have happened in Saratoga County.

Meanwhile, Albany County leaders pleaded with party-goers from the Hudson Avenue celebration to get tested.

"We would like to encourage anyone who was at that party to be tested and contact Albany County Department of Health at 518-447-4640," said Albany County Health Commissioner Dr. Elizabeth Whalen. "Its very important for control of COVID for us to be able to identify and appropriately isolate individuals who test positive as quickly as possible - especially because we know people in that age group are asymptomatic. Knowing youre positive empowers you to make positive decisions."

RELATED: Have you been tested for COVID-19? Tell us about it.

Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan weighed in on Twitter after the Albany County press conference, saying: "Our entire city, county, and region has worked very hard over the last several months to limit the impacts of COVID, however we cannot continue on the trajectory we are on or we will quickly undo that work."

"Mask up or close down (again) - its as simple as that," Sheehan wrote.

Coronavirus has been most prevalent in Albany County among people aged 20-29, a group that often shows no signs of the virus and can easily spread it to others, including sick and elderly people who are particularly vulnerable.

Whalen said officials worry that the party cases will eventually spread to at-risk people, which could lead to increased hospitalizations. During Schenectady County's weekly Facebook live press conference, County Manager Rory Fluman reminded residents that "COVID is a disease of opportunity" as 95% of the 40 people who have died there have been over the age of 70.

'You don't want someone who is quite ill to say you were the contact," Whalen said. "Please think of others."

Albany County also announced four health care workers tested positive for the virus, including two staffers from the county's nursing home, Shaker Place in Colonie.

Overall, cases in nursing home are coming back in the Capital Region after a lull of several weeks. Riverside Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Castleton-on-Hudson has had 34 residents test positive for virus recently, along with 11 staff members. Four other health care workers in Rensselaer County at Living Resources and Evergreen Commons also tested positive Tuesday.
(ANSA) - Rome, July 16 - The Italian interior ministry said Thursday that it had thus far received 123,429 requests for the regularisation of undocumented migrant workers. Some 11,101 are currently being assessed, it noted. The procedure has been open since June 1 and will end on August 15. Cleaners and caregivers make up the bulk of both the requests already assessed, 87%, and those currently being worked on, 76%.

An average of 3,000 requests were submitted every day between July 1 and July 15, with the Lombardy region seeing the highest number of requests for caregivers and cleaners and Campania for agricultural workers. Most of those requesting permits as cleaners or carers were from Ukraine, Bangladesh or Morocco, while Albanians, Moroccans and Indians are the largest number of those requesting permits as agricultural workers. The vast majority of employers requesting the regularization for their employees are Italian nationals. (ANSA).


House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that President Trump was like a man who refuses to ask for directions in ignoring scientific advice on how to respond to the worsening coronavirus pandemic.

At her weekly news conference in the nations capital, Pelosi, D-Calif., again called on Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act to increase supplies of personal protective equipment for health care workers treating COVID-19, which as of Thursday afternoon had killed at least 137,000 Americans and infected more than 3.5 million people here.

The president has made so many bad executive decisions. We wish he would make a good executive decision and do that, Pelosi told reporters. Observing his behavior, I have concluded that he is like a man who refuses to ask for directions. All of the answers are there. The scientists have the answers. We know that testing, tracing, treating, distancing, masking, sanitation can stop the spread of this virus, and yet the president continues to go down the wrong path and refuses to ask for directions from scientists who know better than any of us.

As the president and many Republicans in Congress are pushing for the reopening of the nations schools despite a sharp rise in the number of COVID-19 cases across multiple states over the past few weeks, Pelosi has stepped up her pressure on Trump.

If we want to open our economy and now if we want to open our schools, we have to have the testing, we have to have the judgment, and therefore we need the equipment and we also need the PPE, Pelosi told reporters on Wednesday.

Since COVID-19 began spreading across the U.S. in February, Trump has used the DPA sparingly, issuing contracts to 19 companies to produce emergency supplies like face masks. Critics say the administration needs to do much more, especially if schools are to reopen in the fall.

With members of the Trump administration openly attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci, Trump spoke by phone with the leading expert on infectious diseases on the presidents coronavirus task force on Thursday, the first conversation between the two men since June 2.

Story continues

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi talks to reporters Thursday. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Fauci has largely been sidelined as the public face of the administrations coronavirus response, as task force briefings have been largely supplanted by events at the White House and with Republican governors that better resemble campaign rallies.

On June 26, at the last public briefing of the coronavirus task force, Vice President Mike Pence declared that were in a much better place in dealing with COVID-19, despite record-setting numbers of new cases being reported in Texas and Florida. Pence also echoed the presidents false assertion that increased testing for COVID-19 is the sole reason for the recent spike in cases, saying that the volume of new cases coming in is a reflection of a great success in expanding testing across the country.

Since that June 26 briefing, another 12,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, and hospital beds in U.S. cities and towns considered hot spots for the virus have been filling up. After falling for weeks, the number of daily deaths has begun rising again, approaching 1,000.

But Trump has continued to push states to reopen their schools, threatening to withhold federal funding to those districts that refuse.

Now that we have witnessed it on a large scale basis, and firsthand, Virtual Learning has proven to be TERRIBLE compared to In School, or On Campus, Learning. Not even close! Schools must be open in the Fall. If not open, why would the Federal Government give Funding? It wont!!!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 10, 2020

A Yahoo News/YouGov poll released Thursday found that 63 percent of Americans believe Trump should not be pressuring schools to reopen. Only 25 percent say he should continue his push.

At Thursdays press conference, Pelosi stuck with her analogy to drive home the point that Trump is ignoring those who know best when it comes to public safety.

Mr. President, admit it: Youve gone down the wrong path. Ask for direction. Ask for directions from our scientists, she said.

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Read more from Yahoo News:
Welsh farmers have called for 'refreshed thinking' on the future direction of food and farming policy following the 'unprecedented' Covid-19 crisis.

NFU Cymru's new policy paper calls for food supplies to be better secured and increased protection for rural communities and Welsh culture.

It also proposes the creation of a Food and Farming Commission in Wales to oversee future food and farming policy from farm to fork.

The report suggests that the events brought about by Covid-19 should prompt Welsh government to 'rethink' the current policy proposals set out in the Sustainable Farming and our Land consultation.

The Welsh government's response to the consultation concluded that sustainable farming will be at the heart of future agricultural support post-Brexit.

But NFU Cymru president John Davies said the overnight closure of the foodservice sector had 'exposed the fragility' in the food supply chains.

Empty supermarket shelves and the need to ensure food is provided to the vulnerable has reminded us of the need for safe, high quality, affordable food.

The experience we have gained provides us with the opportunity to look afresh at the direction of travel set out in the Sustainable Farming and our Land," he said, adding this was conceived in 'very different circumstances' to present.

"We believe it is vital that we consider the ambition of future agricultural policy and the extent to which food security and resilience are embedded as key objectives."

The policy paper urges the establishment of a Food and Farming Commission in Wales with an independent commissioner to oversee food and farming policy.

It also highlights the role of public procurement in recognising the sustainability credentials of Welsh farming and in underpinning the rural economy.

A focus on research and development and supporting investment in the latest technologies and innovation is also identified as key to strengthening the resilience of the farming sector.

Mr Davies said the union had identified a 'suite of measures' to support farming business continuity in the short to medium term.

This includes maintaining the current BPS regime in place to 'provide stability' until 'revised measures that deliver the same or better outcomes have been developed'.

The events of the past few months have served to highlight that food security and ensuring a stable supply of home produced food for consumers is most certainly in the nations interest," Mr Davies said, adding that this should be a 'priority' for governments.
(HealthDay)Lockdown measures helped reduce the number of COVID-19 cases in countries around the world, a new study finds.

Moreover, earlier stay-in-place restrictions such as closing schools and workplaces were tied to a greater reduction in cases, according to British researchers.

The findings, published July 15 in the BMJ, were based on data from 149 countries and regions.

"These findings might support policy decisions as countries prepare to impose or lift physical distancing measures in current or future epidemic waves," study co-author Nazrul Islam said in a journal news release.

Islam is a research fellow and medical statistician at the University of Oxford.

He and his team compared new cases of COVID-19 before and up to 30 days after the introduction of physical-distancing measures, such as restricting large gatherings and closing schools, workplaces and public transit.

On average, such measures were implemented nine days after the first reported case of COVID-19. However, some countries took longer to implement measures, including Thailand (58 days), Australia (51 days), Canada (46 days), and Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom (45 days). Finland and Malaysia issued orders after 42 days, while Cambodia, Sweden and the United States did so after 40 days.

Implementation of any physical distancing measure was associated with an overall 13% average reduction in COVID-19 incidence, the study found.

In combination, restrictions on mass gatherings and closures of schools and workplaces appeared to play a significant role in the reduction of COVID-19 cases. But shutting down public transit when the other measures were in place wasn't associated with an additional decline in COVID-19 cases, likely because fewer people were using public transportation, according to the authors.

The study provides important early evidence for the effectiveness of lockdown measures in controlling the new coronavirus pandemic, Thomas May, of Washington State University, wrote in an accompanying editorial.

However, the study can't prove a direct cause-and-effect relationship. And, May said, the findings need to be interpreted with caution due to shortfalls in testing practices and data collection in many countries.

"We must be careful not to mislead or overplay politically convenient findings and risk violating the public trust necessary for an effective pandemic response," May wrote.

More information: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on Journal information: British Medical Journal (BMJ) The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on COVID-19

Copyright  2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 23:26:56|Editor: huaxia

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MOSCOW, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani discussed the Iran nuclear deal, the situation in Syria and the fight against COVID-19 in a phone conversation Thursday, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Putin and Rouhani discussed various aspects of the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in detail, known commonly as the Iran nuclear deal, the statement said.

Putin stressed that the JCPOA remains an important agreement contributing to global stability and security, it said.

Rouhani reaffirmed Iran's commitment to the JCPOA and his readiness for an equal and constructive interaction with all its participants and within the International Atomic Energy Agency, and thanked Putin for his consistent support for maintaining and implementing the nuclear deal, it added.

While exchanging views on the situation in Syria, Putin and Rouhani noted the timeliness of decisions taken at an online trilateral conference of the leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran on July 1.

In this context, the two sides expressed their willingness to further coordinate closely to achieve lasting peace and improve the humanitarian situation in Syria, the statement said.

In addition, Putin and Rouhani briefed each other on their anti-pandemic measures and agreed to continue cooperation in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, it said.

The two sides also touched upon a number of topical topics on the bilateral agenda, including the implementation of major joint projects in the energy sector, and agreed to continue contacts at various levels, it added. Enditem
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The new research report by Market Research Future (MRFR) emphasizes that the global market is poised to secure a significant Automotive Exhaust Emission Control Device Market valuation at a moderate 6.3% CAGR over the assessment period.

Drivers and Restraints

The growing stringent emission standards and rising concern over the environment safety from both the public and private sectors. On the other hand, the rising demand for electric vehicles and the ban announced by various developed and developing regions on internal combustion engines (ICE) are impeding the market growth. The need for commercial vehicles is comprehensively driven by growing industrialization and growing service sectors, which contribute to the growth of this market. Rising demand for diverse factors such as high-capacity catalytic converter and continuous improvement in technology is accountable for the expansion of the automotive exhaust emission control device market. Furthermore, technological advancement, rising awareness from the key manufacturers in decreasing the carbon footprints, and growing usages of emission control three-way catalyst converter in automotive vehicles are set to drive the development of this market during the study period. The increasing penetration of emission control devices such as a three-way catalytic converter (TWC) and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) in the commercial and passenger vehicles market is expected to drive the exhaust emission control device market over the review period.

Market Segmentation

The global automotive exhaust emission control device market is analyzed on the basis of device type, materials, engine type, vehicle type, and sales channel.

Based on the device type, the market has been segmented into Gasoline Particulate Filter (GPF), Lean NOx Trap (LNT), Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR), Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF), Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC), and Three-Way Catalytic Converter (TWC).

On the basis of materials, the automotive exhaust emission control device market has been segmented into Palladium, Rhodium, and Platinum.

On the basis of engine type, the automotive exhaust emission control device market has been segmented into diesel, gasoline, and hybrid.

Based on the vehicle type, the automotive exhaust emission control device market has been bifurcated into passenger cars and commercial vehicles.

On the basis of the sales channel, the market has been bifurcated into OEM and aftermarket.

Regional Overview

The geographical overview of the global market has been conducted in four major regions, namely the Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, and the rest of the world (including Latin America and the Middle East and Africa).

Asia-Pacific is anticipated to lead the market over the forecast period. This is due to the augmented urbanization and growing purchase of consumers, increasing disposable income, and the existence of robust automotive manufacturing facilities in China, South Korea, Japan, and India has further fuelled the market for automotive exhaust emission control devices in this region. Constant improvement in technology for weight reduction of the automotive exhaust emission control device will further enhance the Asia-Pacific market size.

In Europe, strict emission standards for diesel and petrol vehicles such as Euro 1 to Euro 6 drive the growth for the automotive exhaust emission control device market. In addition to this, the presence of key manufacturers such as Continental Emitech Gmbh, Johnson Matthey, and Albonair GmbH are anticipated to fuel the development of this market.

North America is estimated to hold the second-highest market share in terms of value in 2017 and continue its advancement during the forecast period. This progress is attributed due to the high rate of deployment of these devices in countries such as the US and Canada.

Competitive Landscape

The top market players identified by MRFR in the global exhaust emission control device market are Denso Corporation (Japan), Albonair GmbH (Germany), Continental Emitech Gmbh (Germany), Johnson Matthey (UK), Bosal (Belgium), CDTi Advanced (California), Bosch Rexroth (Germany), Eberspacher (Germany), Tenneco Inc. (USA), and Faurecia (France).
In Honolulu, nearly all public schools are planning to allow students to return for just part of the week. But at Punahou, a private school for grades kindergarten through 12, school will open full time for everyone.

The school has an epidemiologist on staff and is installing thermal scanners in the hallways to take peoples temperatures as they walk by. It has a new commons area and design lab as well as an 80-acre campus that students can use to spread out. There were already two teachers for 25 children, so it will be easy to cut classes in half to meet public health requirements for small, consistent groups.

The same thing is happening in communities across the country: Public schools plan to open not at all or just a few days a week, while many neighboring private schools are opening full time.

Private schools may reverse course if there are outbreaks in their communities, and governors could still shut down all schools if they determine that local infection rates call for it. Some families and teachers wont feel comfortable returning. But the ways in which private schools are reopening show it can be done with creative ideas  and the money to carry them out.

Public schools, which serve roughly 90% of American children, tend to have less money, larger class sizes and less flexibility to make changes to things like the curriculum, facilities or workforce.

The virus is this huge stress test on our education system, said Robert Pianta, dean of the school of education at the University of Virginia. It has exposed a great deal of inequity, and we are going to see this only exacerbated in the coming months, not years. Certain kids in certain systems, depending on the resources, are going to get much closer to what looks like a typical high-quality education than others.

Gretchen Hoff Varner, a lawyer in Alameda, California, and the mother of two elementary schoolers who will go to school part time this fall, said public school educators had done a heroic job with what they have. But the fact that they cannot fully open while independent schools can, she said, represents a failure of political will and resources.

If we were a country interested in saving schools the same way weve saved airlines and banks, then this is a problem we could solve, said Hoff Varner, who was the PTA president at her childrens school last year.

Some public districts have developed plans to open full time for most students. They include smaller, wealthier suburban districts as well as urban ones like those in Durham, North Carolina, and Charlottesville, Virginia.

But overall, fall reopening plans are just another way the pandemic has widened gaps in education. Private schools were able to offer much more robust online learning last spring, and research suggests that school closures have widened achievement gaps. Now, as private schools move forward with reopening plans, its the children who most need to attend in-person school  those lacking the necessary technology for online learning, or with parents unequipped to oversee it  who tend to be the least likely to do so.

The biggest challenge for schools is how to maintain physical distance, as required by guidelines from state governments and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most countries in which schools have opened after reducing infection levels and imposing distancing measures have not had outbreaks.

It generally means capping classes at around a dozen. Public school buildings in the United States are often old, with small classrooms, cramped hallways and outdated ventilation systems. Independent schools (private schools not run by a for-profit company or religious organization) are more likely to have smaller class sizes to begin with and money to hire additional teachers.

Public schools faced a funding crisis even before the pandemic. K-12 schools received $13.5 billion from the federal coronavirus relief package in March (although Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has required that it be shared with private schools). School officials and education policy researchers say that the money was not nearly enough and that because states are facing budget shortfalls because of lockdowns, schools would need a huge federal infusion of cash to reopen for all students. An average district with 3,700 students and eight buildings would need to spend an additional $1.8 million on health and safety measures, a report estimated.

Theres a giant hole in state and local tax revenue due to not bringing in money over the past months, said Sarah Cohodes, an associate professor of economics and education at Teachers College at Columbia. Schools need more money. The money needs to come tomorrow. Theres no way anything can happen without the money.

Punahou has spent $3 million on health, technology and hiring in response to the pandemic and has increased its financial aid by 50%, to $12 million, so families who are suffering financially because of the pandemic can still enroll.

Weve been very fortunate in this respect that our donors and our alumni have been able to give us additional money to make that possible, said Mike Latham, Punahous president.

Size makes a difference, too. When Justin Guerra, a sixth-grade English teacher at the Athenian School in Danville, California, taught public school, he had three times as many students as he has now. He is comfortable returning to the classroom when Athenian opens, given the new safety measures in place, but said he was sympathetic to public schoolteachers fears about returning.

Its such painful mixed emotions, he said. Remote learning is freaking hard  the amount of work that goes into it for the return you get is painful. You want to be with the kids; its the reason to do this job. At the same time, safety is our priority, and I dont know the guilt we could carry if someone in our community got sick or died.

Another key difference for private schools, said Mike Walker, the head of school at San Francisco Day, is flexibility. Independent schools dont have all the same regulations for the curriculum or facilities that public schools have, and teachers generally are not unionized. They also have smaller student bodies, with less diverse needs.

The school decided to focus on bringing younger students back full time  because distance learning doesnt work as well for them and its a crucial period for learning social skills  and junior high students part time. Although some teachers are anxious about returning, Walker said, they are trying to meet teachers individual needs.

Were nonunionized and really want to stay that way, he said. Theres a different ethos, a different culture. I chose to work in a smaller system because I think we can make decisions more quickly.

When the San Francisco Unified School District said this month that it would probably be unable to open schools in the fall, it raised really considerable issues of equity, he said. It breaks our heart.

Public schools typically dont have the resources that private schools do, and certain things, like the size of public districts, will always be different. But other changes are within policymakers or administrators control, researchers said.

Schools could consider using libraries, community centers, empty office buildings, churches or parks, Cohodes said. Teachers may need to teach a different grade or subject for a year. Unemployed young people could tutor or monitor recess or small group activities.

And, she said, communities could make a public health push, conducting lockdowns, testing and contact tracing to bring the virus under control before schools opened.

Andrew Saultz, director of the education and leadership program at Pacific University, said, I think the way to do it politically is to make it about equity: This is good for low-socioeconomic students and students of color.

The Durham public school system in North Carolina has made plans to open full time for pre-K through eighth grade. High schoolers would be remote unless they had special learning needs. Its a large, urban district, with 33,000 students in 53 schools, 60% of whom receive free or reduced-price lunch.

The district, which began planning for fall in April, would use the empty high schools for extra space and reassign some teachers. Families could choose to attend online, and teachers could teach remotely if they had medical issues. The district used money from the federal coronavirus relief act for laptops and a new remote curriculum, and has largely relied on local philanthropy from high-tech businesses and universities in the area.

We recognize that working families depend on the benefits of in-person instruction, social-emotional support and food, said William Sudderth III, known as Chip, the chief communications officer for the district. This is our effort to provide the best possible education for our students in a situation that is far from the best possible.

The reopening is not assured, though: This week, a Durham teachers group requested that schools stay closed while coronavirus is still spreading.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
WASHINGTON  Despite poll numbers that show him trailing Democrat Joe Biden by wide margins, President Trump said at the White House on Tuesday that hes doing better than anyone realizes in his quest for reelection.

Trump criticized polls that currently show him an average of nearly ten points behind Biden nationally and insisted there is a silent majority that backs him. He also pointed to boat parades in Florida and biker groups led by his supporters as evidence of his popularity.

You look at the Intracoastal in Florida, you look at the lakes, you see thousands of boats with Trump signs  American signs, the president said at the tail-end of a lengthy and discursive press conference that the White House said would be about the U.S. relationship with China.

You look at whats going on, you look at bikers for miles and miles riding up highways proudly with their signs.

The president made these remarks when a reporter asked if he believes he is losing to Biden.

Evan Vucci/AP

While polls show Trump behind, some of the presidents Florida supporters organized a massive boat flotilla to celebrate his birthday last month. There is also a prominent Bikers For Trump group that has volunteered to provide security at his events.

The president  whose private Mar-a-Lago club is situated along Floridas Intracoastal Waterway  has repeatedly touted his support from bikers and boaters on his Twitter page.

But beyond the boating and biking communities, Trump is currently struggling against Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee and a former vice president. The president has endured weeks of controversies stemming from his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and nationwide protests over racial issues.

Trumps press conference on Tuesday was ostensibly dedicated to steps his administration has taken to strike back against China as it attempts to assert control over Hong Kong, a municipality that has traditionally enjoyed a measure of independence from Beijings autocratic one-party system.

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Trump described Chinas handling of Hong Kong as oppressive. He also suggested an executive order he signed Tuesday ending preferential treatment for the Chinese territory, as well as various tariffs he has imposed, would stop Beijing from taking advantage of the U.S. And he criticized Chinas handling of the pandemic, which originated there.

After briefly addressing the topic at hand, Trump entered into a rambling and largely political speech that touched on a variety of topics.

He criticized Bidens handling of China as vice president as too lenient.

He also pointed to the policy recommendations crafted for Biden by a Democratic group that included supporters of progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, who ran against the ex-vice president in the Democratic primary.

Joe Biden at a campaign event in Wilmington, Del., on Tuesday. (Patrick Semansky/AP)

The president accused Biden of having gone radical left and described him as really bizarre. Trump also savaged New York for its handling of the coronavirus.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo emerged as a foil to Trump earlier, in large part due to his daily briefings explaining his states aggressive response to the virus while consistently downplaying the threat it posed. In recent months, New York  once the epicenter of the pandemic  has seen a dramatic drop in hospitalizations and deaths while states that took looser approaches are now enduring severe outbreaks.

As he offered an optimistic assessment of his prospects, Trump noted he was expected to lose in the last presidential election.

We won a race where it was the same thing  2016  we had polls that were  they turned out to be fake, Trump said.

I think were doing very well in the polls and I think you have a silent majority the likes of which this country has never seen before. This is a very important election, Trump said.

The president suggested polls didnt reflect his base due to the fact people might not be eager to declare their support for him.

I think that the enthusiasm now is greater and maybe far greater than it was in 2016, Trump said.

I think a lot of people dont want to talk about it. I think theyre not going to say, Hey Im for Trump. Im for Trump. They dont want to go through the process and I fully understand that because the process is not fair. The media doesnt treat us fairly. They never have and perhaps they never will.

The president also vowed he would turn his electoral chances around for a second time and said it would happen very quickly because, he insisted, the economy will continue to rebound following the devastating impact of the initial pandemic lockdowns.

I think by Election Day youre going to see some incredible numbers. ... Next year is going to be one of the best economic years, Trump said.

Trump argued he has a great chance to win and predicted the public will ultimately credit him for an economic recovery in the wake of the virus.

So, hopefully Ill be able to be the president where we say look at the great job I did.

_____

Read more from Yahoo News:
Photo credit: .S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Mar'Queon A. D. Tramble

From Popular Mechanics

The USS Bonhomme Richard is still burning after it caught fire while undergoing maintenance in port on Sunday.

The ship has taken extensive damage, but it isn't in as bad of shape as originally feared.

Navy helicopters have dumped more than five million pounds of water onto the ship, preventing the fire from overrunning the ship.

The USS Bonhomme Richard is still burning, five days after the Navy's amphibious assault ship caught fire in port in San Diego.

The 847-foot-long warship has suffered extensive damage, but there are some glimmers of hope as the fire has reportedly spared key areas of the ship. Navy helicopters have dropped more than 600,000 gallons of seawater on the fire-ravaged vessel, dowsing the fire and helping prevent the flames from spreading.

Bonhomme Richard caught fire on the morning of Sunday, July 12. The fire was first reported in a lower cargo area where ship maintenance supplies, including cardboard and rags, were stored, Rear Adm. Philip Sobeck, Commander, Expeditionary Strike Group 3, told reporters . The ships crew managed to escape and were all accounted for, but the fire rapidly turned into one of the worst aboard a Navy ship in the post-Vietnam era.

Photo credit: U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Gretchen M. Albrecht

The ships fire suppression system was inoperative, part of the vessels stand-down procedure during a maintenance period. The Navys initial efforts to contain the fire were reportedly frustrated by the condition of the ship, which had electrical and other cables running through key areas to facilitate maintenance while the engines were powered down. The large, heavy cables prevented sailors from closing doors and other hatches to prevent the fire from spreading.

The temperature of the fire inside the ship reached as high as 1,000 degrees Fahrenheitso hot that firefighting ships poured water on the hull in an attempt to cool the interior. Others poured water straight into the ships interior, and by Monday, the ship was listing to the right due to the amount of seawater inside. By Wednesday, the Navy had commenced dewatering the ship, or evacuating water from the interior.

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Much of the damage is internal, though the fire inevitably found a way out. The ships flight deck is melted through and collapsed in several places, and the island and bridge are destroyed. Heres a pair of before and after images from the ship:

Over 400 personnel, including local firefighters, federal firefighters, and Navy personnel, were sent to fight the fire. As of this writing, the fire has injured 63 naval personnel and civiliansnone seriouslywith most already discharged from medical supervision.

Despite the devastating damage, there are some bright spots. The ships engineering spaces, including the engines, are untouched. And the fuel tanks, reportedly holding a million gallons of ship fuel, are safe, Adm. Sobeck told reporters.

Photo credit: U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Brandon Martinez

The helicopters of Navy Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 3, the Merlins, are heavily involved in fighting the fires. The squadrons MH-60S Knighthawk helicopters have flown more than 1,600 missions dropping seawater from so-called bambi buckets, or sling-loaded buckets designed to scoop up standing water and drop them on fires. Each bambi bucket can carry 420 gallons of water , so HSC-3 has probably dropped a total of 672,000 gallons (5.3 million pounds) of water.

Its still not clear, and may not be clear for months, whether Bonhomme Richard can ultimately be saved. Even if vital spaces were spared, much of the ship was not, and it could simply be too expensive to return the 22-year-old ship to action. The U.S. Marine Corps has also recently argued for a fleet of smaller, more agile amphibious assault ships . The Navy and Marines may elect to accelerate development of these ships instead of repairing the Bonnie Dick.

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TORONTO, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Red White & Bloom Brands Inc. (CSE: RWB and OTC: RWBYF) (RWB or the Company) is pleased to announce that it has appointed Steven Grasso as Business Advisor to the Company.



Steven Grasso began his career on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in 1993. He joined Stuart Frankel & Co. as an institutional sales trader in 1999. As Director of Institutional Sales for Stuart Frankel & Co., Steven has worked closely with some of the largest mutual funds, pension funds, insurance companies, and hedge funds in the world directly from the floor of the Stock Exchange. Over his 27-year career, Steven has actively participated in various Stock Exchange committees ranging from allocating new listings to designated market makers to developing standardized tests that the floor community uses for continuing education. Steven closely follows the Washington D.C./Markets connection, using his extensive Capitol Hill and SEC relationships to better inform his clients on policy changes and regulation.

Steven is perhaps best known for being a CNBC market analyst and is a regular on CNBCs popular Fast Money show, which airs daily during the business week and has an average daily viewership that currently exceeds 250,000. Mr. Grasso also speaks at many traders conferences across the country on a regular basis, as well as business round tables with many influential leaders of industry where he addresses a broad range of market related issues, including the effects of regulation and the political process on equities.

Steve has been assisting the company for some time and we are pleased that he has agreed to take an expanded role as a business advisor, stated Brad Rogers, CEO of RWB. We believe Mr. Grassos significant experience in the financial markets coupled with his relationships in the Healthcare and Life Sciences industries will be a great asset to us as we move forward with our expansion plans in the US."

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About Red White & Bloom Brands Inc.

The Company is positioning itself to be one of the top three multi-state cannabis operators active in the U.S. legal cannabis and hemp sector. RWB is predominately focusing its investments on the major US markets, including Michigan, Illinois, Massachusetts, California, and Florida with respect to cannabis, and the US and Internationally for hemp-based CBD products.

For more information about Red White & Bloom Brands Inc., please contact:

Tyler Troup, Managing Director

Circadian Group IR

IR@RedWhiteBloom.com

Visit us on the web: www.RedWhiteBloom.com

Follow us on social media:

Twitter: @rwbbrands

Facebook: @redwhitebloombrands

Instagram: @redwhitebloombrands

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.

FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION

This press release contains forward-looking statements and information that are based on the beliefs of management and reflect the Companys current expectations. When used in this press release, the words estimate, project, belief, anticipate, intend, expect, plan, predict, may or should and the negative of these words or such variations thereon or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. The forward-looking statements and information in this press release includes information relating to the implementation of Red White & Blooms business plan. Such statements and information reflect the current view of the Company with respect to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in those forward-looking statements and information.

By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the following risks: risks associated with the implementation of Red White & Blooms business plan and matters relating thereto, risks associated with the cannabis industry, competition, regulatory change, the need for additional financing, reliance on key personnel, the potential for conflicts of interest among certain officers or directors, and the volatility of the Companys common share price and volume. Forward-looking statements are made based on managements 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.

There are a number of important factors that could cause the Companys actual results to differ materially from those indicated or implied by forward-looking statements and information. Such factors include, among others, risks related to Red White & Blooms proposed business, such as failure of the business strategy and government regulation; risks related to Red White & Blooms operations, such as additional financing requirements and access to capital, reliance on key and qualified personnel, insurance, competition, intellectual property and reliable supply chains; risks related to Red White & Bloom and its business generally. The Company cautions that the foregoing list of material factors is not exhaustive. When relying on the Companys 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 a certain progression, which may not be realized. It has also 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, the list of these factors is not exhaustive and is subject to change and there can be no assurance that such assumptions will reflect the actual outcome of such items or factors. While the Company may elect to, it does not undertake to update this information at any particular time.

THE FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS PRESS RELEASE REPRESENTS THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE COMPANY AS OF THE DATE OF THIS PRESS RELEASE AND, ACCORDINGLY, IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AFTER SUCH DATE. READERS SHOULD NOT PLACE UNDUE IMPORTANCE ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION AND SHOULD NOT RELY UPON THIS INFORMATION AS OF ANY OTHER DATE. WHILE THE COMPANY MAY ELECT TO, IT DOES NOT UNDERTAKE TO UPDATE THIS INFORMATION AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME EXCEPT AS REQUIRED IN ACCORDANCE WITH APPLICABLE LAWS.
India and Israel have signed an agreement to further expand collaboration in dealing with cyber threats amid rapid digitisation due to the coronavirus pandemic that exposed the vulnerabilities of the virtual world.

The agreement was signed on Wednesday between the Director-General of Israel's National Cyber Directorate (INCD), Yigal Unna, and India's Ambassador to Israel, Sanjeev Singla.

"Deepening cooperation with India is another important step in confronting global cyber threats," Unna said.

"The accelerated digitisation processes that accompany the enormous challenge of dealing with the COVID-19 epidemic and the increase in threats in cyberspace bring with them challenges and the need to quickly build protected services and systems," Unna told PTI after signing the agreement.

"Israel can contribute from its experience and can benefit from the vast experience gained in India in dealing with cyber attacks," he added.

Announcing the signing of the MoU on operational collaboration in cyber security, the Indian embassy's twitter handle described it as a "new normal" in "staying the course and reaching newer heights together".

Cyber security is a growing and natural area of close cooperation between India and Israel. It has been emphasised strongly by our two Prime Ministers. And its relevance has been underscored by the latest COVID-19 pandemic, Singla told PTI.

The MoU signed between the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), a unit of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, and INCD deepens the operational cooperation between the two sides and will expand the scope of exchange of information on cyber threats in order to raise the levels of protection in the field.

The agreement lays down the framework for dialogue, cooperation in capacity building, mutual exchange of best practices in the field and facilitates regular exchanges.

Cyber security was identified as an important area of cooperation during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Israel in July 2017 and an agreement was signed between the two sides during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to India the following year.

"India and Israel have been cooperating in the cyber field since January 2018, so a new agreement is another opportunity to reaffirm the mutual commitment between the two countries. Since the initial agreement, professional seminars have been held among industry and government officials and many reciprocal visits have taken place," a press release by INCD said.

Several meetings have been held between the Indian and Israeli side since 2018 to strengthen cooperation in the field of cyber security.

Lt General (Retd) (Dr) Rajesh Pant, National Cyber Security Coordinator (NCSC) of India had also visited Israel to attend the Cyber Week in June 2019.

The last five months of global lockdown has witnessed the expanding scope of the digital world and in the process, it has also exposed the vulnerabilities of protecting vital national infrastructure from the threat of cyber attacks.

(Photo Credit: Twitter/indemtel)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Borough President James Oddo hopes to prevent the overdevelopment of Staten Island even after hes out of office.

In a letter to Chair of the City Planning Commission Marisa Lago, Oddo requested that, through text in a zoning amendment, the property encompassing the Staten Island Mall be prohibited from residential development in the event it would be put up for sale.

During a conversation with the Advance/SILive, the borough president specified that he was not privy to information about the Mall closing, but wanted to protect the property, particularly in the era of the coronavirus pandemic.

This is not a 2020 issue. It may not be a 2025, 2030 (issue), Oddo said. I dont want there to be any possibility of apartments being built at (the Mall) site.

Like many brick-and-mortar operations, commercial malls have faced challenges since the advent of online shopping, and some have taken steps to expand their offerings.

Since 2015, the Staten Island Mall has undergone a revitalization adding a new food court, multiple new restaurants, and a state-of-the-art movie theatre offering a bar and dine-in options.

Brookfield Property Partners LP, which owns the Mall, is a global commercial real estate company with approximately $68 billion in total assets. The company did not respond to a request for comment regarding Oddos concerns.

However, representatives for the mall laid our their plans for reopening with the Advance/SILive earlier this week. The plans include new air filters, increased signage, reduced hours, hand-sanitizing dispensers, and possible outdoor seating.

Before Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that malls would need enhanced air filtration systems in place to reopen when regions hit phase four, Staten Island Mall management said it had invested in more than 100 high-powered air filters, known as MERV-13 filters.

A spokesman for the Department of City Planning said they are currently in review of Oddos letter, and said that under current rules any residential development of the Mall property would need to be done by a special permit.

Oddo said that under the right circumstances that special permit could still allow for development of the property, and said he wanted to do what he could to ensure it is not used residentially.

I want to ensure, in 2020, that we eliminate a huge headache for Staten Island down the road, Oddo said.
As Twitter grapples with the worst security breach in its 14-year history, it must now uncover whether its employees were victims of sophisticated phishing schemes or if they deliberately allowed hackers to access high-profile accounts.

On Wednesday, some of the world's most prominent names, including former President Barack Obama and Democratic candidate and his former vice president, Joe Biden, along with Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett, had their Twitter accounts post invitations for an apparent Bitcoin scam. Twitter reacted by blocking further posts from all verified accounts on the service and said it had detected "a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools."

The company's explanation has ignited speculation over the identity of the perpetrators and what they were actually targeting in the attack. The scale of the endeavor and its timing -- months before the November U.S. elections -- have given rise among cybersecurity experts to theories that the attack masked a more nefarious campaign to seize sensitive data.

In its investigation of the incident, Twitter will now likely focus on employee logs, email and phone records. At question will be any failures in authentication processes that might have allowed hackers to hijack verified accounts, and also what other information, such as direct messages, might have been compromised in the breach. The Bitcoin wallets promoted in the tweets collected around $120,000 in cryptocurrency.

A social engineering attack means "leveraging the human element of security" and there are many different ways to do that, said Rachel Tobac, Chief Executive Officer of San Francisco-based SocialProof Security.

"I can phish someone who has administrative access and try and gain access to their credentials and log into their account," she said, or the less technical method would be to develop "a relationship with someone who works on those panels and convincing them to do your bidding for you."

Security awareness at companies like Twitter would be mandatory, but ultimately it's hard to track insider attacks when it's the employees rather than the technology who fall under the microscope, Tobac said.

"It used to be the Nigerian prince letter with a bunch of spelling mistakes, and now it's something that almost looks legitimate, but it always starts with a person," said Frances Dewing, the CEO of cybersecurity firm Rubica Inc., based in Seattle.

"There's a playbook for doing this, there are cybercriminal organizations that make millions of dollars. It's the fastest growing business in the world," she said.

And there is no accounting for disaffected workers, as Twitter learned in 2017 when an employee deactivated President Donald Trump's account before it was quickly restored.

Identifying potential Twitter employees to target wouldn't be difficult for the hackers, given the way most smartphone apps hungrily vacuum up location and other contextual data from users -- data which is often then sold on to marketing companies. Anyone frequenting the same coffee shops and businesses or entering and leaving a workplace at particular hours can give away clues about themselves.

Cybersecurity experts can only speculate until Twitter itself reveals what happened and where the failures occurred, but even this kind of show of force -- a demonstration by hackers to earn credibility or gain infamy -- isn't convincing them that a Bitcoin scam was all there was to the operation.

With U.S. elections looming, the cyber landscape is ripe for a major attack. Stas Protassov, co-founder and president of global technology firm Acronis said the attack was "too prepared to be just a cryptocurrency scam."

"We don't believe that's all the hackers went into once they got access," he said in an email. "The attack is too big and too noisy and likely covering a bigger play. We've yet to see the full impact of what this was about."

Tobac also raised the possibility that the attack could have been a distraction while hackers harvested private direct messages and any other confidential data to be able to deploy at a more critical time. So while the initial disruption to Twitter's service appears to have been patched over and the company is gradually restoring normal operation, the lingering effects of this breach might have much wider effects than Wednesday's spectacle.

"Maybe they were doing something insidious and this was just a cover up," she said. "There's no way for us to know, we can just speculate."

Whatever happened, Twitter must be completely candid about the cause of attack once it's established, Tobac said. "This was such a public meltdown that if they're not completely transparent it would damage their brand further."
Nguyen Thi Minh, 43, holds her nine-month-old son in her arms with the great happiness of a mother.

Nguyen Thi Minh and her husband hold their nine-month-old son in their arms at an event in Hanoi in July. VNA/VNS Photo Thuy Giang

Minh finally fell pregnant when she was 42 years old thanks to in vitro fertilisation (IVF) after experiencing a 20-year journey with her husband seeking to become a mother.

Minh married her husband in 2000. She had an ectopic pregnancy twice and had to have a fallopian tube cut. She was also diagnosed with endometriosis.

This meant the couple had yet to have a baby after eight years of marriage although they went to many major hospitals in Hanoi for treatment.

The couple then decided to use all their savings and borrow money from their relatives for IVF for the first time in 2008. However, the treatment failed.

They ran out of money due to medical expenses, so her husband decided to work abroad to earn money to cover the debt.

In 2018, her husband returned to Vietnam after a decade of working. But he did not think of doing IVF again and he feared a second failure.

However, I still wanted to have one more chance, I still really wanted to become a mother, Minh said.

She persuaded her husband and the couple went to Andrology and Fertility Hospital of Hanoi in November 2018 for another chance.

Two months later, Minh was eager for the first embryo transfer.

On the day to transfer the first embryo, Le Thi Thu Hien, deputy director of the hospital advised Minh to carefully consider because Minhs endometrium was in bad conditions and it would be difficult to conceive.

Minh hesitated, but her husband encouraged her and said she should try, so she agreed.

Six days later, Minh burst into tears when she saw the home pregnancy test showed two faint lines.

She immediately went to a hospital for a blood test and the result confirmed she was pregnant.

No word can describe my happiness at that moment, she said.

Minh was often threatened with miscarriage during her pregnancy. She also suffered gestational diabetes until the 39th week of pregnancy.

I cried a lot because of fear, the fear of losing my baby," she said.

But her husband kept encouraging her.

We together cried with happiness when our healthy son was born, she said.

Hope for infertile couples

Nguyen Khac Loi, director of the hospital said the Department of Reproductive Support, had successfully carried out IVF for thousands of couples in the past eight years, including many difficult cases.

Loi said modern reproductive technologies, especially IVF technology with other supporting methods, had helped many infertile couples in Vietnam have healthy babies.

The success rate for IVF treatment increases year after year and is currently about 50  70 per cent, he said.

Hien, deputy director of the hospital, gave an example that the hospital conducted IVF for a couple in Soc Son District in 2018. Both husband and wife were diagnosed with thalassemia.

The doctors advised the couple to perform IVF with the support of pre-implantation genetic testing, she said.

As a result, the embryo transfer was successful the first time. The wife, Le Thi Xuan, 36, delivered two healthy infants, one male and one female in 2019, Hien said.

Another example was a couple with a husband who suffered from testicular trauma which meant the couple could not have a baby for nine years, she said.

In May 2018, the couple decided to go to the hospital for treatment and doctors performed surgery for the husband to take his sperm to carry out in vitro fertilisation and intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF ICSI).

Thanks to the successful surgery, his wife was pregnant and delivered two healthy boys. The little boys were 15 months old now, she said. VNS

New study brings hope to infertile couples Vuong Thi Ngoc Lan, a specialist at the HCM City University of Medicine and Pharmacy, has brought hope to thousands of infertile couples in Vietnam through a study about the efficiency between the transfer of fresh or frozen embryos in women
As the sun poked out of the clouds on Wednesday afternoon, Worcesters Black Lives Matter mural had started to take shape.

Eighteen different artists -- all Black or Brown save for two -- joined in a community effort to paint the words in downtown Worcester. Murals like this one have gone up across the country, with one nearby in Boston. But unlike many of those murals, which are painted in just one color, each artist in Worcester created a unique design, offering a message within a message.

The artists gathered downtown to start the project around 7 a.m. Wednesday. A symbolic location was selected for the artwork: on Major Taylor Boulevard near the intersection with Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Now, this site honoring a famed cyclist and an icon of the civil rights movement has even more history.

Artists worked on letters of a mural reading "Black Lives Matter" in Worcester. The display is painted on Major Taylor Boulevard.

Khalil Guzman-Jerry, a Worcester artist who designed the letter K, said he had the idea for his painting long before the mural came to fruition.

Inside the letter was blue paint and white stars, reminiscent of the American flag, and also the colors red, black and green, which appear on the Pan-African flag.

African Americans, even though were Americans and definitely proud to have the American flag, I love it, a lot of African Americans dont really know how to trace back their heritage, and identity, said Guzman-Jerry. Its just cool to have some kind of symbolization.

Guzman-Jerry said that after seeing murals go up in other cities, he never expected to have one in his hometown.

Its awesome, he said. Its just cool to be a part of it ... To have one in the city Ive lived in my whole life is just cool.

Artists worked on letters of a mural reading "Black Lives Matter" in Worcester. The display is painted on Major Taylor Boulevard.

For the first time in our history, we have an opportunity to make incremental and even bigger change as it relates to racism, said City Councilor Sean Rose, who helped organize the mural. We do recognize that all lives matter and blue lives matter, thats not what were about. Were about recognizing that Black and Brown people are in danger around this country and us expressing our solidarity in that.

Organizers stressed that the project was truly born from the community, originating from Black and Brown residents.

We want Black, Brown and white people to share in the spirit and share in this energy, to come down here and safely rub shoulders with each other, and have conversations with each other and ask questions about each other and be vulnerable with one another, said Rose, the citys District 1 councilor.

Each letter told a different story. The letter A featured colors from the Pride flag, the Transgender Pride flag as well as a Black and Brown stripe. One letter T was designed like a tree. The letter I was painted yellow, with block letters inside its border that read cant breathe.

Organizers said the mural may be complete on Wednesday evening. If not, finishing touches will happen Thursday.

Among the first mural letters to reach completion was M, which organizers said was designed to symbolize Black joy.

Artists worked on letters of a mural reading "Black Lives Matter" in Worcester. The display is painted on Major Taylor Boulevard.

Hana Lasell, the artist behind the letter M, said this was her first mural.

Lasell, a graphic designer from Worcester, said being a part of this project meant a lot to her as a Black person and the daughter of civil rights activists.

I definitely think of Worcester as my home. Im not from here. Im from Colorado. But [Worcester has] always been a really welcoming place and this is a more permanent way to feel a part of the city, Lasell said. And I have my daughter here with me and to have her be a part of this historic moment, too, is really important.

Lasells daughter, 9-year-old Lucy, smiled as she stood next to her mothers work.

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The Ford government should scrap changes it made late last year to the provinces tribunal appointment process, a new legal filing from Democracy Watch says, as advocates complain of delay and dysfunction.

The lawsuit from Democracy Watch filed July 8 alleges Premier Doug Ford and his attorney general, Doug Downey, broke rules ensuring the independence of the quasi-judicial bodies, which deal with everything from landlord and tenant disputes to human rights and police complaints, land use and environmental matters, and parole and youth custody review.

More than half of young people aged between 25 and 34 are renters, who are involved in hearings where they risk losing their homes in one of the biggest of those tribunals, the Landlord and Tenant Board.

Young people could also be expected to fall into rent arrears in large numbers given they were most drastically hit by job losses and reduced work hours due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which prompted Ford to order a temporary pause on eviction hearings.

Tenant rights advocates complain that board is being deliberately starved of adjudicators to justify the streamlining efforts contained in Bill 184, which went to third reading on Wednesday and will soon become law.

The bill makes it easier for a landlord to evict a tenant who misses an arrears payment without a hearing, and will be retroactive to the start of the pandemic.

Democracy Watch said the system for appointing members to Ontarios tribunals had previously involved a competitive application process controlled by the tribunals, but it is now largely controlled by cabinet.

The group said previously fixed-term appointments were being made for shorter and more uncertain time periods and that recommendations of tribunal chairs are being routinely rejected.

This means tribunal members have little job security and are essentially serving at the pleasure of the cabinet, undermining their independence and politicizing and weakening the enforcement of many key laws across the province, the advocacy group said in a statement.

The application asks the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to judge whether the appointments, which are largely done behind closed doors, run afoul of the Adjudicative Tribunals Accountability, Governance and Appointments Act of 2009 (ATAGA, or the Tribunals Act).

The Ford government has been slow to fill vacancies on a string of its Tribunals Ontarios 19 tribunals (five of which were recently carved off into their own cluster), which combined issue more than 130,000 quasi-judicial rulings a year. Last month it named Sean Weir, a former head of top law firm Borden Ladner Gervais and federal Conservative candidate in 2018, as executive chair for Tribunals Ontario.

The bottleneck in the hiring process has led critics with long involvement in the tribunal system to question the governments motives.

It seems to me you can only conclude that one of the motives of the government was to make room for their own appointments, said Ron Ellis, the former chair of the Ontarios Workers Compensation Appeals Tribunal.

He is a part of Tribunal Watch Ontario, which warned in May of a growing crisis due to the Ford governments actions.

It said those who appear before tribunals must have confidence that the adjudicator makes decisions based on the law and the evidence and free from fear of losing their job by displeasing the government.

This becomes especially obvious for tribunals where the government is a party, the group wrote.

Tribunal Watch Ontario counted 113 members of social justice tribunals at the end of April compared to 199 in 2018, just before the election victory of Fords Progressive Conservatives.

The Landlord and Tenant Board, one of the busiest of the tribunals with close to 80,000 decisions made a year, went from 53 members to 40, all full-time jobs lost. The Human Rights Tribunal went from 57 to 22, and the Social Benefits Tribunal from 38 to 21.

The Environmental Review Tribunal had only four members in April, the group found, with the highest-ranking member being a part-time vice-chair, compared to 12 members in March 2018.

A shortage of adjudicators is restricting peoples access to justice and a fair and timely hearing. Then on top of that, there is funding cut to those that are supporting and helping low-income folk navigating a very complex legal system, said Bahar Shadpour, a spokesperson for the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario.

It is a recipe for a disastrous way for people to access justice, she said, noting the Ford government had cut funding for legal aid by nearly 30 per cent.

Shadpour said she expects a spike in demand for those legal services, especially related to housing, as the LTB faces an avalanche of eviction hearings once a pandemic-related moratorium is lifted.

The provincial ombudsman in January launched an investigation of the Landlord and Tenant Board focused on whether the government was doing enough to fix delays and backlogged cases, following a surge of complaints.

About 80 of the more than 200 complaints the ombudsman, Paul Dube, received about the LTB in fiscal 2018-2019 were specifically about delays. He has already received more than 110 delay complaints in the first nine months of this fiscal year, including 43 in December alone.

This reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.

Read more about:
The Spanish intelligence services have the spy program Pegasus at their disposal, according to sources close to the community. It was a version of this software, which is supplied by the Israeli company NSO, that was used to target the cellphones of Catalan parliamentary speaker Roger Torrent, and regional deputy and former minister Ernest Maragall, both from the pro-independence Catalan Republican Left (ERC) party. Spains CNI intelligence service has the system, the same sources confirmed. The Interior Ministry, meanwhile, which has publicly denied having acquired Pegasus after EL PAIS and The Guardian broke the news of the alleged hacking earlier this week, possesses at least one similar program.

After the allegations surfaced this week, based on a report from Citizen Lab, a cybersecurity group from the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, Torrent directly accused the CNI of having hacked his cellphone, although the identity of who exactly installed the spy system on the phones of the parliamentary speaker and veteran politician Maragall will be difficult to determine. What is known is that the Spanish intelligence services do have the Pegasus program, which can take control of handsets, listen to conversations, read messages, access files, take screenshots and activate the camera and microphone via remote control.

The Spanish Interior Ministry, the National Police and the Civil Guard claim that they have never had a contract with NSO

The date that the program was acquired is currently unconfirmed. What is known is that until 2015, the CNI and the National Police were clients of Hacking Team, an Italian company that competes with NSO. The sources that have confirmed that the Spanish intelligence services have Pegasus, however, doubt whether NSO only sells the program to governments and security forces, as the Israeli company claims.

The Spanish Interior Ministry, the National Police and the Civil Guard claim that they have never had a contract with NSO, while the CNI, whose resources and capabilities are classified by law, would only say that they always act under full compliance with the legal system. Their actions are covered by legislation that dates back to 2002, and which was approved after scandals involving illegal wiretaps that stained their reputation in the previous decade. The law allows for Spanish spies to enter homes and intercept communications when necessary in order to comply with the tasks assigned to the CNI.

In order to tap a phone, the secretary of state and head of the CNI, Paz Esteban, must seek prior authorization from a judge at the Supreme Court, one who has been named for this role by the CGPJ legal watchdog. The magistrate then has 72 hours to approve or reject the request, which must be specific and justified, and identify the target of the telephonic intervention. Permission is given for a three-month period, which can be extended if necessary.

Regional deputy and former minister Ernest Maragall in 2019. Albert Garcia

Experts in the intelligence services say that the CNI would not risk tapping a phone in Spain without strictly complying with the law. As for what happens abroad, they add, that is a different matter, given that all operations outside a countrys shores are, by definition, clandestine. As well as the cellphones of Torrent and Maragall, there are claims that the handset of the former pro-independence deputy for the far-left CUP party, Anna Gabriel, was also monitored. She fled Spain to Switzerland in 2018 in the wake of the secessionist drive of the previous year in order to avoid arrest.

Could a Supreme Court magistrate have authorized a wiretap on Torrent? The sources consulted for this story point out that, at least since 2015, the Catalan pro-independence movement has been considered a threat to the unity of the Spanish state and constitutional order, and has formed a part of the information-gathering objectives of the intelligence service.

The CNI was very active in 2017, at a critical moment for the independence movement, which culminated in an illegal referendum on secession from Spain held in October of that year, and a subsequent declaration of independence that was passed by the Catalan parliament. The intelligence services were supplying the government of then-Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy with drafts of the so-called laws of disconnection, which were setting out the route map for independence for the northeastern Spanish region.

They also played a key role in the 2018 capture in Germany of Carles Puigdemont, the regional premier at the time of the events in 2017 and who fled Spain to avoid arrest. They were also criticized for not having been able to intercept the ballot boxes that were used to hold the October 1 referendum. But it is one thing to tap the phone of a pro-independence leader, and another thing to monitor the communications of someone in an institutional role, such as the speaker of the regional parliament, the second-highest authority in Catalonia after the premier. The sources consulted explain that often the registered users of a cellphone do not coincide with their real users and that sometimes a number is reached via a different one and without knowing who is the owner of the line.

The Pegasus program can take control of handsets, listen to conversations, read messages, access files, take screenshots and activate the camera and microphone via remote control

Despite its role as the junior partner in the Socialist Party-led coalition government, leftist party Unidas Podemos has lent its voice to a joint statement by 10 political groups denouncing the severity of the spying on Torrent and calling for the creation of a parliamentary investigation committee into what is commonly referred to in Spain as the cesspit of the state. Such a commission, however, would not be able to access information about CNI wiretaps, which are classified. The Congressional Official Secrets Commission, which meets behind closed doors, would indeed be able to investigate the claims.

The leader of Unidas Podemos and one of Spains deputy prime ministers, Pablo Iglesias, has since March formed part of the Governments Executive Committee for Intelligence Affairs, which, among other tasks, proposes the CNIs annual objectives to the prime minister.

The secret service cannot investigate the pro-independence movement unless the prime minister gives the order to do so in the Intelligence Directive, which develops the objectives that are proposed by the aforementioned commission.

English version by Simon Hunter.
Last month, a San Diego woman named Amber Gilles publicly shamed a Starbucks barista for refusing to serve her because she wasn't wearing a face mask.

A GoFundMe campaign raised more than $100,000 in tips for the barista, Lenin Gutierrez.

Now Gilles says she wants half of the money, telling KGTV she was the one who was "discriminated against."

She also said she was medically exempt from wearing a mask, giving the TV station results from a 2015 pelvic exam and a chiropractor's note saying she had "underlying breath conditions."

Wearing a mask is mandatory inside businesses in San Diego County, but there are some exceptions for medical reasons.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Amber Gilles posted a photo of Lenin Gutierrez and complained that he wouldn't serve her because she wasn't wearing a face mask.

Screenshot/Facebook

Video: How to make and wear effective face masks

A San Diego woman who tried to shame a Starbucks barista for enforcing the government's mandatory face-mask rule says she wants half of the $105,000 in tips that supporters raised for the employee on GoFundMe.

On June 22, Amber Gilles posted a picture of Lenin Gutierrez on her Facebook page, writing: "Meet Lenen from Starbucks who refused to serve me cause I'm not wearing a mask. Next time I will wait for cops and bring a medical exemption."

The post, which has since been taken down, was shared widely, and many people criticized Gilles.

A GoFundMe started by Matt Cowan, of Orange County, California, to raise tips for Gutierrez had raised $105,450 before Cowan ended the campaign more than a week ago.

Gilles says she wants half of the money that was raised for Gutierrez.

KGTV

Gilles this week told KGTV, a local ABC affiliate, that she'd been speaking with lawyers about pursuing a lawsuit to get half of the money raised for Gutierrez.

"I've been discriminated against," she said. "I'm the one who's sick."

She said that because the lawyers were expensive, she started her own GoFundMe to raise money to pay for them. Insider could not find a GoFundMe account associated with Gilles on Thursday.

Face masks are required inside businesses in San Diego County, but there are some exceptions for medical reasons.

Story continues

KGTV said Gilles provided two documents she said proved that she didn't need to wear a face mask: the results of a 2015 pelvic exam saying she had an ovarian cyst, and a handwritten note from a chiropractor saying Gilles "has underlying breath conditions that prevent her from wearing a mask or any type of facial covering whatsoever."

When asked why a chiropractor gave her a medical note for a breathing issue, Gilles told KGTV it was "because they are dedicated to providing non-invasive personalized care and treatment," adding, "They are real doctors."

KGTV said the chiropractor, who it did not identify, declined to speak about Gilles with the station.

Gutierrez has already received the money from his GoFundMe campaign.

In a video posted on the fundraiser's page, he said he planned to use the cash to study kinesiology at Cal State Fullerton and pursue his dream of becoming a dancer. He said he also wanted to donate some of the money to charity.

Read the original article on Insider
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / July 16, 2020 / How did Richard Telfeja go from earning $7/hour to building a seven-figure E-commerce empire? The answer lies in the rising E-com star's self-starter attitude and ability to innovate under pressure. After just 5 years in the E-commerce industry, Telfeja has built a side-gig dropshipping on Facebook into a multi-million dollar profit machine. The Miami native now looks to share his success with others through his tailored Ecom Profit Masterclass and build E-com's next generation of entrepreneurs.

The first-generation son of hard-working Cuban immigrants, Telfeja was studying to become a financial advisor when he first stumbled upon the world of E-commerce. "I was studying finance at FIU, but was looking for ways to make some extra money," Telfeja explains. "I had always been interested in business, so when I saw an ad to start my own business, I introduced the idea to my partner. I think what makes us unique is that we had no intention of being entrepreneurs previously, but when hit with an opportunity, we went along with the ride and it ended up completely changing our lives."

When the business started taking off, Telfeja knew that he had to go all in. Eschewing the nine-to-five workweek and choosing instead to take his financial life in his own two hands, Telfeja jumped headfirst into the competitive world of E-commerce. Telfeja's success has earned him international recognition and a huge following on Instagram, where the young entrepreneur regularly updates his followers with E-com tips and motivation.

Yet success did not come easily to Telfeja. When asked what the biggest challenge in starting a business is, his answer was a simple: "Yourself." According to Telfeja, "The biggest challenge is trusting in yourself. It's hard because you are a beginner, you don't know why things aren't working, etc. But instead of simply trusting yourself, trust in your ability to grow and adapt to whatever the situation demands. Once I made this shift in my brain, things started moving."

Telfeja's self-starter attitude paid off and he now looks to pass his expertise into E-commerce newcomers and experts alike through his acclaimed Ecom Profit Masterclass. Under Telfeja's tutelage, Masterclass students have begun earning tens of thousands of dollars on their own, using his patent sales strategies and E-commerce know-how.

Moving forward into new business ventures, Telfeja isn't afraid to point to his immigrant roots as inspiration for his determination to strike out on his own towards financial independence. "I come from a family of immigrants who did whatever they had to so they could ensure I would have a better future than them," Telfeja shares. "I wanted to give them and anyone around me a better life. Everything I have built was built on the foundation of those sacrifices they made when I was just a child. So I had to show them I wouldn't take the opportunity they gave me for granted."

Looking forward, Telfeja hopes to expand his business into optimizing product fulfillment, expanding his e-Com community and launching more product brands and ad agency work. Through Instagram, he is constantly engaging with other professionals and monitoring trends in the dynamic E-com industry. In a recent post, he demonstrated the resilience of his E-com business model, posting more than $454,000 in revenue, even in the midst of a global economic slowdown.

As society reemerges from the grips of COVID-19, E-commerce has once again proven itself as one of the world's most resilient and fastest-growing industries. Following in Telfeja's digital footsteps may appear difficult at first, but he assures other entrepreneurs that the first step is always the hardest. "Just start. You will never get rid of fear, you will either find ways to ignore it, or ways to use it for your own benefit."

To learn from Telfeja himself, attend his Ecom Profit Masterclass or get E-com advice directly from the source on his Instagram.

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By Ayya Lmahamad

President Ilham Aliyev has said that the Azerbaijani people are tired of meaningless negotiations with Armenia over its occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Those who deal with this issue and those who put forward their mediation proposals these days must think about it. Azerbaijani peoples patience is not inexhaustible. Today we have created a strong army. Today, the unity of the people and the government is the main guarantor of the development of stability in Azerbaijan. Therefore, we will not take a step back on the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Azerbaijan's territorial integrity must be restored, and we are firm on this issue, the president said.

He made the remarks during the video meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers on the results of socio-economic development in the first half of 2020 on July 15.

Everything we do, we do with precision. Over the past four years, there have been three operations, three clashes. In all three, we have won. In all three, we have hoisted our flag where we wanted it. In all three, the enemy was hit with a crushing blow. Saying something more than that would be wrong, the president said.

Aliyev pointed out to Armenias artillery strike on the Azerbaijani border on July 12 that killed Azerbaijani servicemen.

The president also denied Armenian allegations that Azerbaijani servicemen tried to cross the state border in a UAZ car, which allegedly started the clash.

The question is which country's army is organizing an attack on the UAZ car with two officers and soldiers? Maybe the Armenian army is preparing such "wise" military operations, but neither Azerbaijani nor any other army of the world will take such an unwise step. That is, the main reason for Armenia to present this absurd version is to blame us, as always. But, this time nobody believed it. One doesn't have to be a military specialist not to believe in this absurd version, he said.

Aliyev said that the clash started with Armenia firing an artillery at Azerbaijan's poisition in the direction of Tovuz region.

An artillery strike was fired at our military post, and our soldiers died as a result of this sudden ugly action. I gave all the relevant instructions to the Armed Forces to avenge our servicemen, as well as to Presidential Administration and Cabinet of Ministers to inform all international organizations about this sabotage, the president added.

Commenting on the fact that Armenia appealed to the Russian-lead Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) following Azerbaijans retaliatory attack, Aliyev said: I reiterate once again that Azerbaijan has not violated Armenian state border, has not carried out provocation and has not crossed to the Armenian territory. In this case, what does CSTO have to do with this issue?

It shows that they will not resist Azerbaijan alone and they know it. We know that, too. Addressing the CSTO is another manifestation of their cowardice. They manifested the cowardice of their leadership yet again. Well, if you have committed provocation and crime, then answer for it. And they answered in full, the president said.

It should be noted that, the cross-border fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan started on July 12 with Armenia's firing artillery at Azerbaijan's positions in the direction of Tovuz region.

On the night leading to July 14, five Azerbaijani servicemen, including a major general and colonel, were killed during the Armenian attack on the border.

In three days of fighting, the Azerbaijani army lost 11 officers and soldiers. One civilian was killed as a result of artillery fire by the Armenian armed forces.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. However, final peace deal has not been reached yet.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNews
No more SSO payout for jobless subscribers

BANGKOK: The board of the Social Security Office (SSO) has opposed extending its relief compensation scheme to subscribers made jobless as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a board member.

economicsCOVID-19

By Bangkok Post

Thursday 16 July 2020, 04:17PM

Labour Minister MR Chatu Mongol Sonakul, pictured here attending the opening of a Tu Pan Suk community pantry, requested the extra social security payments earlier this year. Photo: NNT

The members of the board, chaired by labour permanent secretary Suthee Sukosol, voiced their opposition at a meeting on Tuesday, reports the Bangkok Post.

They did not want the compensation, drawn from the Social Security Fund (SSF), extended to assist jobless subscribers until the end of the year, as requested by Labour Minister MR Chatu Mongol Sonakul.

The SSO had sought additional financial assistance for its 86,128 members who worked less than 26 days before losing jobs. The law limits the office from compensating such workers at 62% of daily wages, which for most is less than B5,000 a month.

According to the board, the SSF finished paying the compensation three months ago. The compensation had been paid out to allow the employers time to revive their businesses and get back on their feet before they can rehire workers.

The compensation cost the fund about B12 billion. Extending it until the end of the year could destabilise the financial standing of the fund, according to the source.

However, Theerawit Wongpet, a board member, said the issue will be considered in detail in the next board meeting on July 30.
FAIRFIELD  A recent survey of parents and staff by the school district showed uncertainty within both groups about how to approach the coming school year.

Superintendent Mike Cummings went over the survey results during a Tuesday night presentation on school reopening to the Board of Education. One of the main takeaways, he said, was the need for reassurance on the districts preparedness to ensure student and staff safety.

Out of more than 4,500 parents asked, 18 percent said they would prefer to continue distance learning until a vaccine was developed and distributed. While 46 percent of respondents said no, more than 36 percent said maybe.

Of the maybes, approximately 80 percent said they would be more comfortable sending their child to school if there were low infection rates in Connecticut. Another 64 percent said school district precautions would make them more comfortable with in-building learning.

Only 7 percent of respondents said their child or another person at home had a pre-existing condition that would prevent them from returning to school.

The survey also polled Fairfield schools staff, of whom 1,072 responded.

About a quarter  28.2 percent  said they would prefer to work from home, even though they had no one in their home with pre-existing conditions. More than 12 percent of staff said they or someone in their home had pre-existing conditions.

Planning for the coming school year, in light of the coronavirus pandemic, is a complicated process with more questions than answers, Cummings said, adding that plans will see continuous revision as the first day of school gets closer.

Theres a great complexity to this, Cummings said. Its all worth it if we can get the kids back, because there is a great benefit to getting the kids back together.

Cummings said the school system is planning for three different types of situations: students returning to school, parents choosing to keep their students home for virtual learning and a hybrid school week where cohorts of students come in on different days.

The superintendent pointed out that they are working in an ever-changing situation, with state officials still working on guidelines. One thing is certain, Cummings said, students that come into school will be wearing face masks.

Unless somebody has a note from a doctor, Cummings said, theyre going to be expected to wear a mask.

Cummings said having all students wear face masks will allow the schools to place students closer than 6 feet apart. He said the schools are replacing shared table seating with traditional desks and removing other furniture to free up space.

Students will not be allowed to share supplies, Cummings said, and teachers may travel from room to room while students stay in place to reduce the number of cohorts a student is in. He said the nature off the middle schools makes that effort problematic, adding that the size of the high schools will make it difficult.

According to Cummings, transportation is also a complicated aspect of planning.

As part of the survey, parents were asked about busing. Of those eligible for district-provided transportation, slightly more than half said they would prefer to bring their children to and from school rather than having them take the bus.

The superintendent said parents driving their children to school may impact traffic, but the school system is planning to start the year with buses at full capacity and make changes as time goes on.

The superintendent said next steps include finding out which students and staff are going to return to school in person and placing them in the best learning environment.

Cummings said the districts draft reopening plan is due to the state on July 24. He said officials would continue to revise and fine tune it in the following weeks.

Things are going to be changing a lot in the next month and a half, he said, adding that the school system would continue to do best by the kids.
The city of Tokyo raised its coronavirus alert to the highest level on Wednesday. City officials acted after record-setting numbers of new infections were reported in the Japanese capital.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike described the situation in the city as rather severe.

The fast spread of the virus in Tokyo could add to growing pressure on Japanese policymakers to protect the worlds third-largest economy. Some observers expect Japans economy to shrink at its fastest rate in many years because of the health crisis.

The infection rate in Tokyo is at stage red, the highest of four levels in the citys alert system, Koike said. She promised to increase testing for the coronavirus by using equipment at universities.

Tokyo has recorded 200 or more new cases of the virus in four of the past seven days. Infections among young people and among those who show no real signs of sickness are rising there, health experts have noted.

We are in a situation where we should issue warnings to citizens and businesses, Koike told reporters, urging city residents to avoid unnecessary travel.

Japans central government is preparing to launch a major Go To travel aid campaign that aims to increase tourism within the country.

But opposition lawmakers, local-level leaders and social media users have asked the government to suspend that campaign as daily new cases rise. Leaders of some rural towns say that travel in and out of high-risk areas like Tokyo may lead to widespread transmission of the coronavirus.

Japans economy minister, Yasutoshi Nishimura, leads the governments policy on fighting the virus. He says the government will move forward slowly with the Go To campaign.

Obviously we will consider the thoughts of many of our people, while monitoring the situation ahead, Nishimura told parliament.

The travel campaign is among the governments top efforts to increase economic activity. The program is set to start on July 22. It offers big savings on day and overnight trips, as well as on shopping and food purchases.

Koike urged the government on Wednesday to reconsider the timing for the campaign.

Coronavirus infections are not only rising in Tokyo. They are also rising in Osaka prefecture. The area reported 61 new cases on Wednesday. That marks the highest number of daily cases there since April 20.

Im John Russell.

The Reuters news agency reported this story. Ashley Thompson adapted it for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

_____________________________________________

Words in This Story

alert - n. something (such as a message or loud sound) that tells people there is some danger or problem : an alarm or signal of danger

shopping - n. the activity of visiting places where goods are sold in order to look at and buy things (such as food, clothing, etc.)

monitor - v. to watch, observe, listen to, or check (something) for a special purpose over a period of time

ahead - adv. in, into, or for the future

resident - n. someone who lives in a particular place

tourism - n. the activity of traveling to a place for pleasure

transmission - n. the act or process by which something is spread or passed from one person or thing to another
Undersized JetBlue Wants to Leverage This Crisis to Grow at Big Airports

JetBlue Airways wants to cozy up to American Airlines, with the carriers on Thursday announcing a new codeshare partnership in which JetBlue will send passengers to American for its long-haul flights, mainly in Boston and New York, including new nonstops from JFK to Tel Aviv and Athens.

What sounds like a one-way partnership may help JetBlue significantly. JetBlue has a strong brand on the East Coast, but as the nations sixth-largest airline, it is tiny compared to its competitors. It does not fly many popular routes from Boston and New York, and on many where it does fly, it offers fewer flights than larger carriers, a competitive disadvantage.

In announcing the agreement, JetBlue suggested it plans to leverage the partnership into more growth by adding new flights to strategic markets on the East Coast, West Coast and in the Southeastern United States. Eventually, American said it wants to add new markets in India, Africa, Europe and South American from New York, and to fill those airplanes, American will need JetBlue to provide a significant number of connecting passengers. JetBlue said it also will use the partnership, which includes some reciprocal loyalty benefits, to boost flights at New York LaGuardia and Newark airports, and and said it still plans to start flights from New York and Boston to Europe.

The arrangement, similar to one the airlines had between 2010 and 2014, is another indication JetBlue plans to use current airline industry crisis to improve its competitive positioning. After several years of playing the docile competitor against bigger airlines, JetBlue is on the offensive.

Even before the American announcement, JetBlue made it clear it had thrown out its old playbook. Last month, JetBlue said it would challenge market leader United Airlines with new nonstops from Newark, including flights with a premium business class cabin to Los Angeles and San Francisco. And last week, in a separate announcement, JetBlue said it would bulk up in Los Angeles, planning as many as 70 daily departures by 2025.

Story continues

I see long-term opportunity, Scott Laurence, JetBlues head of revenue and planning, said in an interview after the Los Angeles announcement. Out of these really difficult times, I think if we make the right decisions, we can make a huge difference in terms of the future sustainability and profitability of our company.

Not the Initial Plan

JetBlue made money during the recent industry boom times, but the airline sometimes lost its mojo over the past six years, increasingly becoming irrelevant on a national stage as competitors staked out stronger positions.

The final problem was the American and US Airways merger in 2013. Following four U.S. airline mergers in five years, JetBlue was vastly undersized compared to American, United, Delta and Southwest, which held the vast majority of gates and landing rights at key U.S. airports.

The U.S. Department of Justice required airlines to divest some gates and slots as a condition of consolidation, but the access was not enough to help Alaska, Virgin American and JetBlue achieve parity. Even when smaller airlines could win gates at airports like Newark, entrenched hub carriers used economies of scale to crush them.

To improve its position, JetBlue tried to acquire Virgin America, but Alaska won the bidding at $2.6 billion, leapfrogging JetBlue to become the nations fifth-largest airline.

As JetBlue battled irrelevancy beyond core focus cities in New York, Florida and Boston, executives started complaining on the lobbying and speaking circuit, railing about how the Big Four controlled 80 percent of the U.S. market. For awhile, CEO Robin Hayes repeatedly blasted Delta, blaming it for why JetBlue couldnt win more gates in Atlanta.

Its hard to believe that at an airport with 193 gates, we were told we could only have one gate  and we have to share it, Hayes said in a 2017 speech. (Delta CEO Ed Bastian has called it an airport matter and said the airline didnt block anything.)

More recently, Hayes began speaking in Europe to lobby regulators to open access for new entrants at busy airports, including London Heathrow. Airlines typically enter Heathrow by paying tens of millions of dollars for a single slot.

During the boom times, JetBlue never solved the problem. Even when competitors struggled  American has said it never has made as much money in L.A as other hubs  they would stick around and keep their gates, perhaps only to thwart other airlines.

That was tremendously frustrating, because weve got a great brand, weve got a great product and we are bringing low fares, Laurence said. As we see things open up a little bit, I love the opportunity to announce 30 new routes, or to grow in Newark, or to grow at LAX.

Will It Work?

In expanding during a crisis, JetBlue returns to an old strategy. After 9/11, JetBlue bulked up in New York, winning share at the expense of legacy airlines, while after the 2008-09 financial crisis, it built focus cities in Boston and San Juan, adding flights as American pulled back.

Weve grown out of crises in the past, and we have grown out of this crisis, Laurence said.

Still, todays climate is different. No U.S. carrier went into the crisis as a weak player, and all face the same core issues of weak demand, plus an uncertain future.

JetBlue might be in a bit better shape than American, United and Delta because it does not fly long-haul routes and carries few business travelers, who may be slower to return then leisure flyers.

But it is not so far ahead that it is immune to the crisis. Remember, this is an airline based in New York, which requires travelers to quarantine for 14 days if they enter from one of more than 20 Covid-19 hot spot states.

In a report this week, released before the JetBlue and American announcement, Hunter Keay, an analyst with Wolfe Research, questioned whether JetBlues opportunistic expansion could work. In Los Angeles, he asked why JetBlue felt the need to compete against well-entrenched and financially strong (all things considered) competitors, on routes like Los Angeles to Las Vegas.

JetBlue  is making questionable decisions about growth, Keay added. It would seem to be an odd time to add capacity to non-core markets but thats what JetBlue is doing in droves.

JetBlues competitors already may be reacting. On Thursday, Alaska, the smallest among the five airlines that already call Los Angeles a hub or focus city, announced seven new routes from L.A.. Just one overlaps with JetBlue  a flight to Bozeman, Montana  but the growth suggests Alaska will fight to keep share. Among the airlines in L.A., Alaska may have been considered mostly likely to walk away.

As a planning organization we always have strategies on the shelf for a certain time, or a certain industry dynamic, Brett Catlin, Alaskas managing director of capacity planning and alliances, said in an interview. The timing is somewhat coincidental, but we are fully committed to L.A. We intend to compete and leverage our position.

Is There Another Plan?

If you follow the industry rumor mill, JetBlue is among the more likely targets for a merger if Covid-19 forces U.S. airlines to consider more consolidation.

Insiders often float rumors that another carrier, like Alaska or United, might want to acquire it. They may now add American to the mix, since tight codeshare agreements can serve a precursor to a merger.

In a post after JetBlues Los Angeles move, analyst Brett Snyder asked whether the airlines recent offensive should be analyzed in the context of consolidation. Perhaps, he said, JetBlue is increasing its presence to attract a suitor, just like Virgin America added routes and aircraft before Alaska stepped in.

There are plenty of reasons JetBlue could have used to rationalize this internally, Snyder said. Is it to be more attractive in a merger?

In his report, Keay mentioned something similar. Maybe this is them trying to get acquired, he said. It worked for Virgin America, after all.

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China reported that the country's GDP grew by 3.2% in the second quarter of this year, compared to a year ago  beating analysts' expectations and rebounding from the first quarter's contraction.

It comes as lockdowns to contain the coronavirus outbreak in China eased, and as Beijing rolled out stimulus measures to prop up its economy.

Economists polled by Reuters expected gross domestic product to have grown modestly at 2.5% in the April to June quarter.

China's first quarter GDP contracted by 6.8% in 2020 from a year ago as the world's second largest economy took a huge hit from the coronavirus outbreak. This was the country's first GDP decline since at least 1992, when official quarterly records started.

China's official GDP figures are tracked as an indicator of the health of the world's second-largest economy, but many outside experts have long expressed skepticism about the veracity of China's reports.

"Generally speaking, the national economy overcame the adverse impact of the epidemic in the first half gradually and demonstrated a momentum of restorative growth and gradual recovery, further manifesting its development resilience and vitality," said China's National Bureau of Statistics in a press release on Thursday.

The Chinese government has introduced measures to boost the economy including fiscal spending and cuts in lending rates and banks' reserve requirements  the amount of cash that lenders must hold in reserve.
16.07.2020 LISTEN

Four pre-tertiary education unions are calling on government to close schools over cases of COVID-19 recorded in schools.

The unions namely, the National Association of Graduate Teachers, Ghana National Association of Teachers, the Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana (CCT-GH) and the Teachers and Educational Workers Union, in a joint statement demanded that government immediately order the closure of schools in order to avert any catastrophe.

They say the governments claims of providing all the needed facilities and materials for pre-tertiary institutions to operate safely and avert the spread of COVID-19 in their various institutions are not accurate as the situation on the ground is not the best.

They said the materials in most instances are non-existent or limited.

Angel Carbonu, who spoke on behalf of the unions told Citi News that although the government makes the final determination, their position is that the government closes the schools because the current situation is worrying.

We as a professional body and base on what is available to us have called on the government. Snippets of the situation is even gradually seeping into the media of infections in schools, schools converting infirmaries into isolation cents but if the government thinks that that situation is good, the final decision is for them to take but it doesnt look as if it is a good story we are telling, he said.

Government prior to the reopening of schools assured teachers, parents and students of adequate supply of PPEs and measures to enforce compliance of COVID-19 safety and prevention protocols but according to the teachers that is not the reality on the ground across the schools.

Cases on schools

Ghana has recorded more than 100 COVID-19 cases in various pre-tertiary institutions across the country.

While the cases are fairly spread across the country, those reported at Accra Girls Senior High School gained prominence as some students staged a protest on campus to demand their release to go home over concerns they were not safe due to the confirmed cases.

Parents also thronged the school to demand the release of their wards, a request school authorities turned down.

At least 55 people including students have tested positive for COVID-19 in that school.

The Director of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Badu Sarkodie also recently announced that there was a confirmed case in a basic school in the Oti region.

---citinewsroom
Toronto police are evacuating buildings in the downtown core after a crane struck one Thursday morning.

At 10:23 a.m. July 16, police tweeted its officers were responding to an industrial accident near Simcoe and Wellington streets.

Police said a crane hit a building, and that the operator had minor injuries.

Emergency services are responding to the call, and occupants of nearby buildings are being evacuated.

Simcoe Street is closed between Wellington and Front streets, and westbound Wellington is closed at University Avenue.

Police advise commuters to expect delays.
South Africa: Government engaging stakeholders on reopening of schools

President Cyril Ramaphosa has assured South Africans that saving lives during this pandemic is important as government is set to engage stakeholders in the education sector on the reopening schools.

Interacting with communities across the nation through a virtual Presidential Imbizo on Coronavirus on Wednesday, the President said government will in the next few days engage parents, student organisations, unions as well as other organisations, on the matter of reopening schools.

Once this had been done, we are going to assess what we have heard and discuss it with the medical advisory committee in the light of what the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said. I think we will come to a positive and inclusive decision, the President said.

The WHO recently warned against the reopening of schools while local transmissions of the Coronavirus are on the rise.

The latest COVID-19 statistics show that South Africa has a total of 311 049 positive cases with 160 693 recoveries and 4 453 deaths.

The President said the decision to open schools was an inclusive decision even though some might not agree with it.

Responding to a caller who asked what is governments threshold in terms of sacrificing the academic year? The threshold being how many lives must be lost, the President said every life is important.

We dont focus on how many people should die first before we take a particular action. We are about saving lives and we are also about preserving livelihoods. Our strategy is not based on the number of lives of people who must die.

We are going to sit back and listen carefully to all the key role-players about the re-opening of schools. Losing an academic year cannot be weighed up against the lives of the people we must lose. If we have to get to a point of closing schools, that will be the decision, President Ramaphosa said.

Sale of alcohol

The President also explained the decision to suspend the sale of alcohol.

Out of the lived evidence that was given to us by our health workers and medical advisory committee, we realised the hospital beds were being utilised more by people who go to hospital with trauma cases that are alcohol induced, he said.

Job losses

The President also addressed the recent reports stating that approximately three million people in South Africa lost their jobs between February and April as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Economic recovery

We are committed to focusing our efforts on the economic recovery. Were working on a very direct economic process and in this we are working together with business, unions and economists in our country.

Infrastructure is going to unleash a lot economic activities. We've got projects that are ready. Weve also got projects on the public employment side. We will recalibrate the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) to ensure weve got a much more robust public employment process, the President said.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2020-07-16. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
The Michigan Liquor Control Commission is calling the owners of Harpers Restaurant and Brewpub in for a hearing after more than 100 positive COVID-19 cases were traced back to the East Lansing bar.

The hearing, scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday, July 23, will require the owners of Harpers to answer questions regarding the steps it took or failed to take relative to complying to Gov. Gretchen Whitmers executive order allowing bars and restaurants to reopen, according to an order issued by the Liquor Control Commission this week.

Harpers will also have to demonstrate to the Commission that its plan for reopening will protect its patrons and employees from another outbreak at its establishment, per the order.

The hearing will be conducted over Zoom and can be watched on the commissions YouTube page. Public comments can be emailed to MLCCHearingsAppeals@michigan.gov ahead of the hearing.

Harpers made national headlines last month after more than 100 positive COVID-19 cases were associated with visits to the bar between June 12-20. At least 174 cases have been connected to Harpers, according to the Lansing City Pulse.

The bar has remained closed since the outbreak.

The outbreak prompted the Ingham County Health Department to issue an emergency order to reduce restaurant capacity to 50 percent or no more than 75 people, whichever is fewer.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also cited the incident when issuing her decision to shutting down indoor bar service in most of Michigan for establishments that earn more than 70 percent of their money from alcohol sales.

CORONAVIRUS 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 MORE:

Coronavirus outbreak linked to East Lansing bar tops 100, officials take emergency action

Whitmer shuts down indoor bar service in most of Michigan

51 coronavirus cases traced to East Lansing bar, up from 14
It's not typical of Mukesh Ambani, Asia's richest tycoon, to announce a deal before signing a document.

But that's exactly what he did last year when he told a packed hall of shareholders that Saudi Aramco, the world's biggest oil producer, was set to buy a 20% stake in Reliance Industries Ltd.'s refining and petrochemicals business, valuing it at $75 billion. So it may have come as a shock to some of those investors when Ambani said on Wednesday that a deal hadn't been worked out yet with the delay partly down to the coronavirus.

With oil prices around a third lower than a year ago, a typical Asian complex refinery is losing money on every barrel it processes, compared with earnings of almost $7 a barrel last year. The International Energy Agency estimates global oil consumption will slump by 7.9 million barrels a day, or about 8%, in 2020, a big change from the 1.2 million barrels a day of growth it was predicting at the start of the year.

"While the partnership is undoubtedly a prolific one, one could easily imagine the road to fruition is not an easy one," said Sri Paravaikkarasu, head of Asia oil at industry consultant FGE. "With Covid-19 sending the oil market into a tailspin, Aramco's earlier strategies will be reevaluated."

There's also another reason for the delay in the deal that was originally expected to close by March: Ambani doesn't need Aramco's money as desperately as he did a year ago, something that he didn't shy away from mentioning to his investors.

"Our equity requirements have already been met," Ambani said. The Aramco "deal has not progressed as per the original timeline" due to "unforeseen circumstances in the energy market and the covid-19 situation," he said.

Reliance has amassed almost $30 billion in recent months through investments in its digital unit and by selling shares to existing stakeholders, easing the pressure to raise cash to meet its goal of becoming net debt free by 2021. Ambani has already declared his flagship company free of net debt without relying on Aramco.

Even before the virus sent oil prices into a tailspin, differences over valuations and structure early in the talks had slowed progress. The Indian government also threw a spanner in the works after it asked a court to stop the proposed sale, in an attempt to force Reliance to pay arbitration claims in an unrelated case. While oil demand in India is recovering after dropping to the lowest level in more than a decade in April, it's still about 10% below pre-pandemic levels.

"The market has changed very significantly since the letter of intent was signed last year," Neil Beveridge, senior resources analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in Hong Kong, said in a phone interview. "The deal is still quite strategic for Aramco to get a foothold in the Indian downstream oil market but clearly not at a $75 billion price tag."

The deal is possible at a lower valuation of $57 billion, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analysts wrote in a note separately.

Ambani, meanwhile, plans to create a separate business unit for his refining and petrochemicals operations. Reliance will approach India's National Company Law Tribunal to spin off the oil-to-chemicals division, and expects to complete the process by early 2021. The firm has been approached by global companies for strategic partnerships in its petrochemical business, he said without divulging any names.

"Nevertheless, we at Reliance value our over two-decade long relationship with Saudi Aramco and are committed to a long-term partnership," Ambani said, leaving the door open for a potential transaction.

The deal is crucial for Aramco, formally called Saudi Arabian Oil Co., as well. Iraq has replaced Saudi Arabia as India's top supplier of crude and its lead has been widening.

"It does make more economic sense to integrate an existing refinery fully with petrochemicals and Aramco will continue pursuing the opportunity with Reliance," Paravaikkarasu said. "More roadblocks can be expected along the way, even if Covid-19 leaves us."
A portion of a new bridge connecting Gopalganj and East Champaran in Bihar collapsed on Wednesday after heavy rainfall in the region, just 29 days after it was inaugurated by chief minister Nitish Kumar. No injuries have been reported so far.

The 1.4km Sattarghat Mahasetu bridge on Gandak River was thrown open to commuters on June 16, eight years after work on it started in April 2012. It was built by the Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam Ltd at a cost of Rs 264 crore.

But the culvert connecting the approach road to the bridge was unable to withstand the pressure caused by the rising levels of the river and was washed away after water was released from Valmiki Nagar, officials said.

The culvert had already been eroding after rains in the region over the last couple of days that has caused the river to swell. The bridge collapse has led to severe traffic disruption, with several areas being cut off as this was the only major link between Gopalganj and East Champaran.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav and Bihar Congress chief Madan Mohan Jha attacked the Chief Minister on the issue.

"The Sattarghat bridge of Gopalganj built at a cost of Rs 263.47 crore in 8 years, was inaugurated by Nitish Ji on June 16. Today, 29 days later the bridge collapsed. Beware! If someone terms it corruption by Nitish ji. Rs 263 crore is for just a glimpse. Even their rats consume alcohol worth this amount," Tejashwi Yadav tweeted in Hindi.

Bihar Congress chief Dr Madan Mohan Jha also posted in Hindi: "The inauguration of the bridge constructed at a cost of Rs 263.47 crore on June 16 and its destruction on July 15. Now do not accuse the poor rat for this."

In 2017, a minister in Nitish Kumar's cabinet had blamed rats for making holes in the embankments, weakening structures and allowing river water breach through them, thus resulting in floods in Bihar.
Wednesday, 15 July 2020 21:05:21 (GMT+3) | Sao Paulo

Mining investments in Peru in the accumulated period of January to May reached $1.5 billion, according to the local ministry of mines and energy, Minem.

Minem said mining investments in Peru in January-May this year fell 24.5 percent, year-on-year, from $2.06 billion in the same period of the year prior.

The Peruvian ministry said investments in the mining segment affected most areas, with the exception of beneficiation plants. Investments in beneficiation plants in the January-May period rose 31.1 percent, year-on-year. However, investments in mining equipment in January-May fell 40.3 percent, year-on-year.
The decision not to proceed with phase four of reopening the country increases the possibility of all children returning to school in September, the Higher Education Minister has said.

Health experts say the R value, which is the number of people that a single infected person will go on to infect, is now between 1.2 and 1.8.

Simon Harris said: We know that we have a huge body of work to do as a country to get our kids back to school and to get our learners and third level students back as well.

Mr Harris said it would have been grossly irresponsible to ignore public health advice and move forward with phase four as planned.

It is down to every single one of us now as citizens to give our children the very best chance now by keeping the virus as low as possible Higher Education Minister Simon Harris

Taoiseach Micheal Martin said on Wednesday that his main priority is to reopen schools in September.

The Taoiseach has said time and again that getting children back to school is a major priority. I have seen the negative impact on children and their wellbeing from being out of school, said Mr Harris.

On Wednesday, the Government made a decision to delay the reopening of Irelands pubs and nightclubs until August 10.

Speaking in Dublin on Thursday, Mr Harris said: It is down to every single one of us now as citizens to give our children the very best chance now by keeping the virus as low as possible.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly warned reopening pubs now could materially add to the possibility of a second wave of Covid-19.

He said that while Ireland has been doing well in the fight against coronavirus, there is increasing concern over the rise in the R number.

Plans to allow larger crowds to gather indoors and outdoors from Monday have also been scrapped amid concerns over the spread of the virus.

All pubs are being treated the same, thats the public health advice, Mr Donnelly said.

It hasn't been done lightly, but the public health advice is, were we to open them now it could materially add to the possibility of a second wave and it's just not a risk we are willing to take Health Minister Stephen Donnelly

This is not easy. This is not an easy decision to make. We are following the public health guidelines.

Essentially we are prioritising the opening of schools, the opening of healthcare facilities, the opening of the economy over the accelerated reopening of the pubs.

This is not done lightly. We really do understand that there are publicans all across the country who are waiting and hoping they will be able to reopen on Monday.

It hasnt been done lightly, but the public health advice is, were we to open them now it could materially add to the possibility of a second wave and its just not a risk we are willing to take.

It was also confirmed that social visits to peoples homes will remain limited to a maximum of 10 visitors from no more than four other households.

Restrictions on indoor gatherings to 50 and outdoors to 200 will remain until August 10.

Mr Donnelly said that wearing face coverings in shops and other indoor spaces is advised.

He added: On the first day on the buses, nine in every 10 passengers arrived with a face mask.

You can be sure that many of the one in 10 who didnt, some cant wear them, some forgot them.

So if we continue as we have been, my hope is there will be no need for enforcement whatsoever.

If we did not intervene and take these measures, it would take an inevitable course, which is in nobodys interest, he added.

Testing is the foundation stone of everything we are doing with this disease, if we don't know how many people have it and don't know where the disease is then we can't stop it spreading Liz Canavan, Department of the Taoiseach

Senior Government civil servant Liz Canavan, of the Department of the Taoiseach, said there is a rise in the number of people identified as close contacts of a confirmed case who are being offered tests but not coming forward.

Ms Canavan said: Testing is the foundation stone of everything we are doing with this disease, if we dont know how many people have it and dont know where the disease is then we cant stop it spreading. So, if you are asked to get a test  please do so.

Irelands Covid-19 death toll rose to 1,748 after the deaths of two more people were confirmed by the National Public Health Emergency Team.

As of midnight on Tuesday, the health system had been notified of 14 more confirmed cases.
Johnson & Johnson said it expects to begin a late-stage human trial for a potential coronavirus vaccine in late September, ahead of schedule.

The company is in talks with the National Institutes of Health to move up the timeline for the trial, J&J's Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Paul Stoffels said during an earnings call with investors Thursday. The company announced earlier in the day that it plans to enter a phase one human trial next week, which will include more than 1,000 participants.

The company is also planning a phase two study in the Netherlands, Spain and Germany, he said.

J&J is one of several companies working on a potential vaccine for Covid-19, which has infected more than 13 million people worldwide and killed at least 584,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. More than 100 vaccines are under development, according to the World Health Organization. At least 23 are already in human trials, the WHO said.

On Tuesday, biotech firm Moderna released promising data on its potential coronavirus vaccine trial, saying it generated a "robust" immune response.

J&J said it is using the same technologies it used to make its experimental Ebola vaccine, which was provided to people in the Democratic Republic of Congo in late 2019. It involves combing genetic material from the coronavirus with a modified adenovirus that is known to cause common colds in humans.

The company has previously said it could produce 600 million to 900 million doses by April if the vaccine works well.

The comment by Stoffels came after the company said in an earnings release that its second-quarter profit slid 35% from a year earlier as the coronavirus forced hospitals to postpone elective surgeries, hitting the company's medical device business hard.

It said it earned $3.63 billion, or $1.36 per share, during the three months ended June 30, a 34.6% drop from $5.6 billion a year earlier as sales in its medical device unit fell. The decline in its medical device unit was partially offset by higher sales for its over-the-counter consumer products such as Tylenol and its Listerine mouthwash.

Overall, the company beat earnings expectations, reporting adjusted earnings of $1.67 per share, higher than the $1.49 per share projected by analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. The company generated $18.3 billion in revenue, higher than the $17.6 billion expected but a 10% decline from a year earlier.

Shares of J&J were down fractionally in early trading Thursday.
Envoy calls for investigation into Wednesdays air strikes that killed at least 11 civilians in al-Jawf province.

The United Nations envoy for Yemen has called for a transparent investigation into air strikes that killed at least 11 civilians in al-Jawf province, saying resurgent violence is complicating UN-led efforts to end the five-year war.

Security is deteriorating anew as Yemen faces the coronavirus pandemic and what the UN describes as the worlds biggest humanitarian crisis, with millions on the verge of famine.

The raids were the third such incident since June. The Saudi-led coalition battling Yemens Iran-aligned Houthi group has said it is investigating reports of civilian deaths in Wednesdays attack and in the Hajjah region earlier this week.

We deplore yesterdays air strikes in #AlJawf  A thorough & transparent investigation is required, envoy Martin Griffiths tweeted, describing attacks on civilians as reprehensible.

The UN humanitarian coordination office in Yemen said at least 11 civilians were killed. The Houthi health ministry raised the death toll to 24 after initially saying nine people, including two children, were killed when coalition air raids hit homes.

The Houthis have recently stepped up cross-border missile and drone attacks on Saudi cities as well as military operations on the ground. The coalition has retaliated with air raids.

At al-Thawra hospital in the Houthi-held capital Sanaa, where some of the injured were taken, a child writhed in bed with a chest drain and bandaged shoulder and legs.

A 15-day-old baby died from his wounds, hospital employee Ahmed Sanad, told Reuters news agency.

For what sin is this child and a baby only days old bombed? another employee, Ahmed al-Aawag, said.





Removal from UN blacklist

The coalition, which receives weapons and intelligence from Western allies including the US and the UK, was last month removed from a UN blacklist several years after it was first accused of killing and injuring children in Yemen.

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In a statement on Thursday, the Houthi health ministry condemned the attack in al-Jawf.

It stated that since the UN removed Saudi Arabia and its coalition from the blacklist, the coalition has increased its targeting of children and women in Yemen with airstrikes, Yemens Houthi-run Al Masirah media network reported.

The ministry condemned the UNs removal of the Saudi Arabia alliance from the blacklist of violators, placing the legal and humanitarian responsibility of these crimes on the UN and US-Saudi alliance, Al Masirah reported.

The conflict has killed more than 100,000 people since the alliance intervened in Yemen in March 2015 shortly after the Houthis forced the Saudi-backed government from power in Sanaa.

Griffiths has been holding virtual talks between the warring parties to agree to a permanent ceasefire and confidence-building steps to restart peace negotiations last held in December 2018.
Misty Diaz has undergone 28 surgeries due to spina bifida. During the hundreds of days she's spent in hospital beds, her father would drive his pickup the 110 miles from Bakersfield, California, to Los Angeles to visit her in the hospital. When visiting hours ended, hed return to his parked truck, curl up for a few hours in the flatbed and drive back to Bakersfield in time for his 4 a.m. shift at a grocery store.

"My dad sacrificed everything," said Diaz, a motivational speaker and adaptive athlete who uses crutches.

"He worked so hard to make sure that I, despite having a disability, would be OK," she said, noting that the family needed health insurance to ensure Diaz got the care she needed. "There has not been a day he has not worked."

Lately, Diaz has been the one sitting vigil outside a hospital. When she learned that her father's kidneys were failing as he neared the end of his battle with COVID-19, she did the reverse drive, from L.A. to Bakersfield, to be with her family.

Her father, Jose Pinales, passed away at the age of 62 on Wednesday morning, nearly two weeks before his retirement, Diaz said.

MORE: Faces of some of the more than 130,000 lives lost in US to coronavirus

PHOTO: Misty Diaz speaks with ABC News' Matt Gutman, July 15, 2020, in Bakersfield, Calif. (ABC News)

In a tearful interview with ABC News' Matt Gutman on Wednesday, Diaz described the past two-and-a-half weeks as a "slow-walking nightmare."

After her father was diagnosed with COVID-19, "it started escalating from one to 100 literally overnight," she said.

At first, Pinales lost his sense of taste and had body aches and a slight fever. By the third day of his diagnosis, he was hospitalized. Before he was intubated and put on a ventilator he texted Diaz, "I love you."

Diaz said she never thought it would be their last communication. She had always thought she would die before the man whod always protected, but never coddled her, did.

When she was a child, her father built her a treehouse in an apple tree. When she asked him how she was supposed to get into it, he replied, Figure it out. So she asked for a rope, which he tied to a branch, and she would haul herself into it. When she was old enough to drive, they both learned how to use hand controls for drivers who are disabled.

Story continues

But late Tuesday night, Diaz and her siblings had to decide to allow him to die. His kidneys had failed and medical staff feared a heart attack was next. "We just didn't want him to be in any more pain," she said.

A nurse held up an iPad so they could FaceTime him and say goodbye.

Hours after they signed a DNR (do-not-resuscitate) order, Pinales passed peacefully, nurses told Diaz.

When a nurse assured her that her father had not died alone, that he was surrounded by staff, even though all families were prohibited from the ward, Diaz said she wept.

Diaz posted a wordless video on TikTok Monday after a particularly hard day during her father's illness. She filmed herself weeping -- great, big grief-stricken sobs. It has been viewed more than 683,000 times.

"I want to use my influence to shed light on how serious this COVID is," she wrote. She begged people to wear a mask.

"People just need to make adjustments," she told ABC News. "It's about respecting other people."

"This isnt a joke," she added. "This is literally life or death."

MORE: Some hospitals see rise in younger admissions for COVID-19, raising doctors' concerns

Her family decided to cremate her father, said Diaz, who plans to make a necklace out of his ashes to wear during her competitions.

"He taught me to never give up, to keep on going, use your voice," Diaz said. "'Walk with your legs, Mija. Walk with your legs one foot in front of the other.' That's what he always would tell me. 'You have the ability to walk -- walk.' So today we're going to take it one day at a time and just walk through this."

This report was featured in the Thursday, July 16, 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.

What to know about the 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

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.

'This is literally life or death': Motivational speaker shares experience losing father to COVID-19 originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
NEW YORK, July 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft ("Deutsche Bank" or the "Bank") (NYSE: DB) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, and indexed under 20-cv-08978, is on behalf of all investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Deutsche Bank securities between November 7, 2017, and July 6, 2020, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), seeking to recover damages caused by Defendants' violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act") and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Bank and certain of its top officials.

If you are a shareholder who purchased Deutsche Bank securities during the Class Period, you have until September 14, 2020, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 7980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

Deutsche Bank was founded in 1870 and is headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The Bank provides investment, financial, and related products and services to private individuals, corporate entities, and institutional clients worldwide.

Deutsche Bank has been the subject of scandal, investigation and regulatory enforcement for years because of anti-money laundering ("AML") compliance failures and deficiencies in its disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting, causing it to have one of the lowest gradings offered by the U.S. Federal Reserve ("Federal Reserve").

The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Deutsche Bank had failed to remediate deficiencies related to AML, its disclosure controls, procedures, and internal control over financial reporting, and its U.S. operations' troubled condition; (ii) as a result, the Bank failed to properly monitor customers that the Bank itself deemed to be high risk, including, among others, the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein ("Epstein") and two correspondent banks, Danske Estonia and FBME Bank, which were both the subjects of prior scandals involving financial misconduct; (iii) the foregoing, once revealed, was foreseeably likely to have a material negative impact on the Bank's financial results and reputation; and (iv) as a result, the Bank's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On May 13, 2020, media outlets reported that the Federal Reserve had sharply criticized Deutsche Bank's U.S. operations in an internal audit. The audit reportedly found that Deutsche Bank had failed to address multiple concerns identified years earlier, including concerns related to the Bank's AML and other control procedures.

On this news, the value of Deutsche Bank's ordinary shares fell $0.31 per share, or 4.49%, to close at $6.60 per share on May 13, 2020.

Then, on July 7, 2020, the Federal Reserve's criticism of Deutsche Bank's failure to address its AML and other issues was reaffirmed when the New York State Department of Financial Services fined the Bank $150 million for neglecting to flag numerous questionable transactions from accounts associated with Epstein and with two correspondent banks, Danske Estonia and FBME Bank, both of which were the subjects of prior scandals involving financial misconduct.

On this news, the value of Deutsche Bank's ordinary shares fell $0.13 per share, or 1.31%, to close at $9.82 per share on July 7, 2020.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

[email protected]

SOURCE Pomerantz LLP

Related Links

www.pomerantzlaw.com


CloudShare and Training Industry Survey of Decision Makers Details COVID-19 Challenges and Tech Strategies Were seeing video conferencing isnt enough for a tech sector that deals with highly complex software.

CloudShare, the business acceleration cloud company, has announced results of a survey it commissioned from Training Industry, a trusted source of information on the business of learning. The study was conducted during Q2 to understand the challenges training teams face as a result of COVID-19 and possible solutions. Approximately 150 respondents from across the U.S. participated, all qualified as decision makers in training, sales or business development in the tech sector.

When asked, What is the biggest business challenge your department/division encountered as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?, top answers were: Team reduction (25%), changes in travel policy (23%), budget cuts (19%) and struggles collaborating (14%). The data highlights the pressure training is under to do more with less and realize greater cost-efficiencies, while also closing personal gaps due to social distancing.

Asked if the pandemic would increase investment in specific technologies to improve virtual learning capabilities, respondents most selected: Virtual conferencing (53%), virtual IT labs (35%), augmented reality (16%) and gamification (14%). The remote migration has prompted a sharp rise in virtual conferencing but thats clearly not enough. Tech training requires real-world, interactive experiences to compensate for a lack of face-to-face and thats prompting immediate strategic investments.

With virtual labs increasingly a critical component in the tech stack of many software orgs (see below), participants were asked about its primary benefits to their company. Respondents answered: Self-service training (38%), better automation (16%), cost control (15%) and channel management (15%), stronger analytics (9%). Not surprisingly, all address the industrys need to accomplish more with less, operationally and financially, while gleaning further insight thatll help them competitively.

The survey followed an earlier one on customer education (CE) conducted at the start of Q1  just prior to the pandemics major impact  involving roughly the same size and group profile. Further findings of particular interest from that study included 32% of respondent companies were already using virtual IT labs in their tech stack, and, the average buying cycle for learning technology solutions was seven months.

Were seeing video conferencing isnt enough for a tech sector that deals with highly complex software, said Michal Frenkel, vice president of product for CloudShare. You need to train and sell using exact products in real-world environments and processes must be faster and more cost-efficient. For this, virtual labs must also be part of a business acceleration cloud with features like purpose-built tools to automate functions and analytics for greater insight. This will decrease cycles, speed results and increase margins."

On a related note, registration is now open for CloudShare and Training Industrys July 23 webinar, Product Demo: How to Build and Deliver Your First VILT Course In Under 60 Minutes. The event will explain how virtual instructor-led training labs can free up budget previously reserved for travel while maintaining the impact of face-to-face software training. In one hour, experts will show how to build scalable environments, create outstanding experiences and increase engagement.

CloudShares virtual labs accelerate time to value. Typical customers include large technology enterprises that need to deliver hands-on, real-world experiences. Complex scenarios are easily replicated and environments spun up in seconds. Self-paced, instructor-led training and events can handle groups of all sizes. Organizations can provide powerful sales demos and PoCs with greater efficiency and speed. And not only are cycles compressed, but enterprises can track and analyze engagement to shed light on user behavior, continually boosting performance and increasing ROI.

CloudShare provides comprehensive support for Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Amazon Web Services (AWS). The company is continually exploring ways to ensure customers have the most flexible, specialized cloud options available for accelerating business.

About CloudShare

CloudShare, the business acceleration cloud company, is the easiest solution for sales and customer success. Its specifically designed to help software companies deliver complex demos, PoCs and training, replicating real-world environments without compromising time to market. It automates processes, eliminates friction and reduces cycles for better results, faster. Virtual labs enable powerful hands-on experiences at scale, anywhere. CloudShare fits any infrastructure - on-premise or on top of a public cloud - easily integrating core sales and LMS tools.

More than 500 customers in over 100 countries trust CloudShare, including Palo Alto Networks, Atlassian, ForgeRock, Dell and HP. The company is headquartered in San Francisco with R&D in Tel Aviv and offices worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.cloudshare.com.
In the couple weeks leading up to the primary runoff for South Carolina state Sen. Luke Rankin's seat, televisions in the Myrtle Beach area were flooded with political ads  at least $785,000 worth of them, to be exact.

The ads were paid for by three different groups but, beyond those groups' names, not much else is known about them. That's because they're so-called "dark money" organizations that pour huge sums of money into political ads but don't disclose their donors.

For this particular race, which pitted Rankin against a conservative challenger, those groups combined were able to spend more than three times what Rankin raised for his own campaign.

This kind of political spending is becoming increasingly common in the U.S., but the system is particularly bad here in South Carolina because of the state's campaign finance laws.

South Carolina is one of just three states that does not track or police this type of political advertising in any way.

For this week's podcast, we talked with political reporter Jamie Lovegrove and business reporter Andrew Brown who followed the money with the race for Rankin's seat.

They also discussed why this race in particular was targeted, which other S.C. elections have been influenced by dark money and how likely it may be to see legislation that reins in these groups in the near future.

Listen now to find out.

Understand SC is a weekly podcast from The Post and Courier that explains important issues in our state as well as the context that gives it meaning. Hosts Emily Williams and J. Emory Parker use the reporting resources and knowledge of the newspaper to help you better understand our state.

How to listen:

Related reading:
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  Arizona coronavirus patients are being transferred to New Mexico hospitals due to shortages of staffing and bed space at the same time that some New Mexico hospitals intensive care units are at or nearing capacity levels.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham addressed the issue this week, saying the transfer of out-of-state patients poses challenges, because New Mexico has fewer hospital beds per capita than many other states.

That means we have less available for our folks here, which means I have to do even a better job at managing COVID and New Mexicans are going to have to have even more personal responsibility than many other Americans, Lujan Grisham said in an interview with The Washington Post that was broadcast online.

But she also cited a federal law that requires hospitals to accept patients from neighboring states if they have available beds and suggested that New Mexico would not reject such patients even if it could.

No American would deny another American health care, the governor said. Thats not who we are.

At least two Albuquerque health care systems  University of New Mexico Hospital and Presbyterian Healthcare Services  have accepted Arizona patients for treatment.

Clay Holderman, Presbyterians chief operating officer, said that 96 coronavirus patients from the Navajo Nation in Arizona have been accepted since the coronavirus pandemic began in mid-March but that only two such patients have arrived in the past week. Such patients are generally transferred either by helicopter or small aircraft, he said.

A UNM Health Sciences spokesman also confirmed that UNM Hospital has accepted out-of-state patients for treatment, but he declined to say how many.

Meanwhile, a state Department of Health spokesman said COVID-19 patients have been transferred to Albuquerque from Arizona as needed over the course of the pandemic, but not in large enough numbers to affect New Mexicos ability to take care of its own residents.

Being able to work with other states to share resources in emergencies is very important, but its also important that Arizona learn to better manage the rampant spread of COVID-19 that its let occur there, DOH spokesman David Morgan told the Journal.

He also said he was not aware of COVID-19 patients from states other than Arizona being transferred to New Mexico for treatment.

Hospitalizations are up

Coronavirus cases have exploded in Arizona in recent weeks, with the states positive test rate rising to 25% and an increase in deaths causing some morgues to approach capacity.

With cases skyrocketing, some residents of Pima County  which includes Tucson  with serious COVID-19 symptoms have been transferred to Albuquerque, San Diego and Las Vegas due to the local health care crisis, The Arizona Daily Star recently reported.

The number of New Mexico corovonvirus cases has also increased in recent weeks, with the number of new cases tying a single-day record of 330 on Wednesday, although the states death rate from the virus has remained below peak levels.

Hospitalizations from COVID-19 have also increased since the start of July. There were 174 people hospitalized due to the virus Wednesday  up from 127 on July 1.

Out-of-state patients transferred to New Mexico are not added to the states case count, although they are included in the hospitalization figure.

Overall, Human Services Secretary David Scrase said this week, New Mexico probably sends more patients to other states than vice versa. People who live near state lines, he said, routinely go to the nearest hospital when theyre sick, regardless of whether its in another state.

I would be really surprised if we were a net importer of COVID cases right now, Scrase said.

But he also said New Mexico health officials regularly monitor the hospital capacity of neighboring states as part of their planning.

Concerns about surge

Despite concerns expressed by Lujan Grisham and other state officials that a surge in coronavirus cases could overwhelm New Mexicos health care system, that hasnt happened to date.

The number of occupied ICU beds at seven designated New Mexico hub hospitals this week was at 256  far below the maximum capacity of 614 beds, according to Health Department data.

However, Holderman said two Presbyterian hospitals  one in Albuquerque and one in Rio Rancho  are both at surge level capacity and have activated their disaster plans.

But most of the patients at those two hospitals are not being treated for COVID-19, he said, but rather a range of other ailments that have been exacerbated by a lack of preventive care.

In 2018, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that New Mexico had 1.8 hospital beds per 1,000 people, compared with the national average of 2.4.

State officials have looked for additional beds to absorb a possible surge in COVID-19 cases, including renting the old Lovelace hospital site on Gibson SE in Albuquerque.

But no patients have been treated at the facility, according to the Health Department.

Journal Capitol Bureau reporter Dan McKay contributed to this report.
Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot and his team of 18 lawmakers on Thursday approached the Rajasthan high courts Jaipur bench to seek cancellation of the disqualification notice served on them by assembly speaker CP Joshi, insisting that the anti-defection law could not be invoked against them for disagreeing outside the House with some government decisions and policies.

The petition will be heard on Friday by a two-member division bench of the high court at 1pm.

Pilots decision to move the Rajasthan high court is seen by Congress leaders as a signal that he intends to pursue his battle with chief minister Ashok Gehlot, and underlines his growing distance with the party that removed him on Tuesday as the head of its state unit and as deputy CM of Rajasthan after differences came to a head last weekend.

The hearing was deferred after Pilots camp  represented by senior advocates Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi -- filed an amended petition in the evening, incorporating additional grounds of challenge to its earlier plea filed before a single-judge bench.

Also read: The tale of Rajesh and Sachin Pilot, writes Rajdeep Sardesai

If the Pilot camp is disqualified, it would reduce the strength of the assembly and place Gehlot on a stronger footing in a House with reduced strength until elections are held to fill their seats. The battle in the court is important from the point of view of the numerical strength in the assembly, which will matter in the event of a no-confidence motion against the government.

The joint petition was taken up by the high courts justice Satish Sharma on Thursday afternoon, when Salve sought time to amend the petition to broaden its scope.

Justice Sharma resumed the hearing a few hours later at 5pm. The amended plea challenged the Constitutional validity of a key provision in the 10th Schedule of the Constitution: Clause 2(1)(a). This states that a lawmaker will be liable for disqualification on the ground of defection if he voluntarily gives up membership of the political party on whose ticket he was elected.

Also read| Sachin Pilot, disqualification and the Tenth Schedule: An explainer

The petition said that clause 2(1)(a) is very wide, since previous judgments have even construed the expression of opinion or views by lawmakers against party leadership as conduct falling within its contours. Therefore, the petition argued, that the clause violates freedom of speech under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.

The Congress maintained that the action of the speaker was justified and within the ambit of the provisions. Everyone needs to follow the partys whip. The speaker has full rights to send notices to MLAs, state transport minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas said.

Differences between the CM and his former deputy were seen to be simmering for months, and the acrimony became public in the last two days after Pilot was sacked from his party positions. On Wednesday, Gehlot said Pilot was part of a conspiracy to topple the government and that traits such as looking good and speaking fluent English did not matter in public life. Pilot, earlier in the day, said Gehlot had humiliated him and kept him out of key decisions.

As things stand, the numbers still remain slightly tenuous for Gehlot. He appears to have the support of 101 members  same as the majority mark in the 200-member state assembly (though this does not include speaker CP Joshi). Pilot has 18 other Congress MLAs and three independents in his camp. The BJP and its ally Rashtriya Loktrantrik Party have 75 seats. One Congress MLA, Bhanwarlal Meghwal, is indisposed, though he is said to be close to Pilot.

Pilots primary argument was that his missing two meetings of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) did not amount to defection. According to the Constitutions 10th Schedule, the anti-defection provisions kick in if a member voluntarily gives up membership of the political party or votes contrary to the partys direction in the assembly.

Pilot also said speaker Joshi may act under the influence of chief minister Gehlot.

It is evident that the 10th Schedule of Constitution is sought to be used as a guise to impose the majoritarian view on the members and to stifle their freedom of speech and fair play in democratic setup, the petition stated.

Elected representatives who disagree with certain policies or decisions of some members of the party cannot be counted as acting against the interests of the party; a healthy discourse on the pros and cons of policies of a political party cannot be inferred to imply voluntarily giving up membership under the anti-defection law, the petition said. It added that they had never spoken about quitting the Congress or trying to pull down the Gehlot government.

The complaint against them was therefore based on assumptions and surmises and were without a factual basis to support such concerns, the petitioners argued.

It contrasted the speakers inaction on a disqualification complaint against Bahujan Samaj Party legislators who crossed over to the Congress with Joshis July 14 notice that was issued within hours of a complaint by the Congress chief whip.

The petition by 19 lawmakers also said that there would be dangerous consequences if an elected member is deprived of membership merely on the whims and fancies of party leaders.
New study by researchers from the University of Konstanz, the co-located Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (both in Germany) and the University of Texas at Austin finds that groups led by subordinate males outperform those led by dominant and aggressive males

Being the strongest, biggest and most aggressive individual in a group might make you dominant, but it doesn't mean you make all the decisions.

A new study of fish behaviour published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that dominant individuals can influence a group through force, but passive individuals are far better at bringing a group to consensus. The study, published by an international team from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, the University of Konstanz and the University of Texas at Austin, overturns assumptions that dominant individuals also have the greatest influence on their groups, and sheds light on the potential of domineering individuals to obstruct effective communication in organisations.

"The same traits that make you powerful in one context can actively reduce your influence in others, especially contexts in which individuals are free to choose who to follow," says senior author Alex Jordan, a group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and at the University of Konstanz?s Cluster of Excellence "Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour".

"Dominant individuals can force their will on the group by being pushy, but that also makes them socially aversive. When it comes to bringing peers to consensus during more sophisticated tasks, it is the least aggressive individuals that exert the greatest influence. Our results illustrate that although domineering individuals most often ascend to positions of power, they can in fact create the least effective influence structures at the same time."

Separating dominance and influence

To disentangle the effects of dominance and influence, the researchers studied groups of a social cichlid fish, Astatotilpia burtoni. "This species form groups with strict social hierarchies, in which dominant males control resources, territory, and space," says Mariana Rodriguez-Santiago, co-first author on the study and a doctoral student in the lab of co-corresponding author Hans Hofmann at UT Austin.

"We ask if the colourful dominant males, which are aggressive, central in their social networks, and control resources, are most influential? Or if drab subordinate males wield the greatest influence, despite being passive, non-territorial, and having little or no control over resources."

The researchers separated the effects of social dominance from social influence by examining how information flows between either dominant or subordinate males and their groups in two different contexts: routine social behaviour, or a more complex social learning task. In the more complex social learning task, dominant or subordinate male fish were trained that a certain coloured light on one side of the tank meant food would soon arrive at that location. These "informed" individuals were then placed into new groups of uninformed individuals and researchers asked which group - those with informed dominant or subordinate males - more quickly learned to associate a coloured light with food.

The cost of being domineering

The researchers observed the movement of the fish and found that in routine social interactions the dominant males exerted the greatest influential by chasing and pushing the group around. But in the more complex task, where influence was not forced on the group, but rather individuals had a choice about who to follow, it was subordinate males who wielded the greatest influence in their social groups. In groups with a subordinate male as demonstrator, fish quickly came to a consensus about which light to follow, moving together as a coherent unit to succeed in the task. With a dominant male as the informant, groups were far slower to reach consensus, if they did at all.

Breaking down behaviour with machine learning

By using additional machine-learning based animal tracking, employing cutting edge techniques developed in the computer sciences, researchers were able to break down the behavioural differences between dominant and subordinate males: dominant males were central in behavioural social networks (they frequently interacted with others) but they occupied peripheral locations in spatial networks (they were avoided by others). The technology provided insights never before available, revealing the mechanisms of influence as well as the outcome.

"By capturing behavioural data that are impossible to be measured with the naked eye, our automated tracking methods revealed that it was not the difference in social position between dominant and subordinate per se, but rather in the way they moved and interacted with others," says co-first author Paul Nuhrenberg, a doctoral student at the Cluster of Excellence "Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour" at the University of Konstanz. "These behavioural differences lead directly to differences in social influence."

Rethinking leadership

This result touches on the evolution of animal societies as well as leadership structures in organisations. "In many societies, whether animal or human, individuals in positions of power all possess a similar suite of traits, which are aggression, intimidation and coercion," says Jordan. "But effective communication requires the presence of a diversity of voices, not just the loudest. Our results from a natural system show that allowing alternative pathways to positions of power may be useful in creating stronger advisory, governmental, and educational structures."

Facts:

A new study of fish behaviour conducted by researchers from the University of Konstanz, the co-located Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and the University of Texas at Austin shows that dominant individuals can influence a group through force, but passive individuals are far better at bringing a group to consensus.

Using the social cichlid, Astatotilpia burtoni, which forms strict social hierarchies of dominant and subordinate males, the study separated the effects of social dominance from social influence by examining groups in two different contexts: routine social behaviour, or a more complex social learning task.

The study used additional machine-learning based animal tracking, employing cutting edge techniques developed in the gaming and graphics industries, to break down the behavioural differences between dominant and subordinate males.

Original publication: Mariana Rodriguez-Santiago, Paul Nuhrenberg, James Derry, Oliver Deussen, Fritz A Francisco, Linda K Garrison , Sylvia F Garza, Hans A Hofmann, Alex Jordan, "Behavioral traits that define social dominance are the same that reduce social influence in a consensus task", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 16th July 2020 URL: https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/07/15/2000158117. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2000158117

Researchers include scientists from the Cluster of Excellence "Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour" at the University of Konstanz and the co-located Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany, and the University of Texas at Austin.

Funded by the National Science Foundation BEACON, the DFG Cluster of Excellence 2117 "Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour" (ID: 422037984).

###

Notes to editors:

You can download a selection of images of the study's social cichlid here:

Image 1: https://cms.uni-konstanz.de/fileadmin/pi/fileserver/2020_EXSTRA/when_power_is_toxic_a_burtoni_jordanlab/1.png

Image 2: https://cms.uni-konstanz.de/fileadmin/pi/fileserver/2020_EXSTRA/when_power_is_toxic_a_burtoni_jordanlab/2.jpg

Image 3: https://cms.uni-konstanz.de/fileadmin/pi/fileserver/2020_EXSTRA/when_power_is_toxic_a_burtoni_jordanlab/3.png

Image Caption: Dominant and subordinate males of social cichlid fish, Astatotilpia burtoni. The species forms groups with strict social hierarchies, in which dominant males are colourful, aggressive and control resources. Image credit: The Jordan Lab, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior

One video of analyses is available: https://youtu.be/z4iv8LGgZCM

Please contact Communications and Marketing (kum@uni-konstanz.de) at the University of Konstanz if you require this video.

Credit can be given to The Jordan Lab, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior.

Contact:

University of Konstanz

Communications and Marketing

Phone: +49 7531 88-3603

Email: kum@uni-konstanz.de

uni.kn/en
People talk on the street after a judge barred Catalan authorities from enforcing a stricter lockdown on the city of Lleida.

Despite the rising number of coronavirus outbreaks in Spain, the government says it has no plans to restore the kind of emergency powers that led to one of Europes strictest lockdowns between March and June.

Sources in the Spanish executive said that regional authorities have enough tools at their disposal to control the current outbreaks, which now number over 100. One of the most recent ones was detected on Monday at a summer camp for children in Soria, where 20 minors and several camp counselors have been quarantined.

But the Spanish Health Ministry will take action when an outbreak affects two or more regions of Spain, according to an early response plan that the ministry will show regional leaders on Tuesday afternoon ahead of a Thursday meeting to approve the document.

Confined by decree

Catalan premier Quim Torra inside the regional parliament on July 8. David Zorrakino (Europa Press)

In Catalonia, regional premier Quim Torra said he will use a decree to provide legal backing for a decision to impose home confinement on 160,000 residents of the city of Lleida and seven nearby municipalities affected by a surge in coronavirus cases. The move comes after a regional court ruled against the decision, saying Catalan authorities do not have the power to impose stay-at-home orders.

In the nearby region of Aragon, the cities of Zaragoza and Huesca as well as four larger areas in the east are being moved back to a previous stage of the national deescalation plan that officially ended on June 21. Under the stricter rules, there will be limits on how many people can be admitted at one time inside stores, public swimming pools, bars and restaurants. Gatherings will also be restricted to 10 people at the most.

Mandatory masks

A face mask vending machine at a tramway station in the city of Zaragoza. Javier Cebollada (EFE)

Meanwhile, the number of regional governments making face masks compulsory in public spaces keeps growing. Aragon, Asturias, Cantabria, Navarre, La Rioja, Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Extremadura, Andalusia and Murcia have either made the face coverings mandatory or are about to. And in the Valencia region, premier Ximo Puig said on Monday that he is seriously considering the option and that the regional government will reach a decision this week.

The new rules make face masks compulsory in public even when a social distance of 1.5 meters between people can be observed. although exceptions are made for eating and drinking, at beaches and swimming pools, and when exercising.

Until now, the Spanish governments new normality decree said that face coverings must be worn in public only when it is not possible to maintain the established distance. But the recent outbreaks have led some regional authorities to make the masks mandatory at all times.

I dont like making it compulsory, but seeing as how the epidemiological situation is getting worse and citizens attitude is growing relaxed, it is adequate, said Magda Campins, head of preventive medicine at Vall dHebron hospital in Barcelona.

Catalonia was the first region of Spain to introduce the new rule, warning that violators could face 100 fines. Just 24 hours later, the Balearic Islands followed suit. Then came Extremadura in western Spain.

Extremadura health chief Jose Maria Vergeles announcing that face masks are now mandatory in public. Jero Morales (EFE)

We have to take measures to reduce community transmission, and in order to prevent that, it is necessary to take things seriously. When it comes to controlling the pandemic, it has been demonstrated that it is necessary to be assertive, said Jose Maria Vergeles, the health chief of Extremadura, on Friday of last week.

On Sunday, the Andalusian premier Juan Manuel Moreno said the decision to make face masks mandatory was partly due to the tourist-phobia on display against visitors who fail to wear one.

Early response plan

The governments new early response plan lists the actions considered necessary to prevent a repeat scenario of March, when Spain failed to act quickly against the epidemic and soon became one of the worlds worst-hit countries.

Under the plan, central and regional health officials will periodically analyze the situation, and if coronavirus transmission affects two or more regions, the Health Ministry will introduce controlled health action. In theory this will not include a nationwide confinement like the one that kept Spaniards at home during much of March and April. To do that, the government would have to declare a new state of alarm granting emergency powers to restrict fundamental citizen rights such as freedom of movement.

The plan also establishes that regional governments must have enough safety equipment to last eight weeks, while the central health ministry must stockpile enough material to cover 25% of the countrys healthcare needs.

English version by Susana Urra.
Ten Tibetans drew stiff prison terms at the end of June in Chinas Gansu province after attempting to block construction of a slaughterhouse and demanding compensation for confiscated land in protests that Chinese authorities said had disturbed social order, RFA has learned.



Convicted at the end of a two-day trial held from June 28 to 29 in Gansus Sangchu (in Chinese, Xiahe) county, the men were sentenced to terms ranging from eight to 13 years and given fines of 50,000 to 70,000 yuan, Tibetan sources said.



Among those sentenced, two monks from Sangchus Namlha monastery named Tashi Gyatso and Tsewang drew the heaviest penalties, with both men sentenced to prison terms of 13 years and fined 70,000 yuan (U.S. $10,008) each, a Tibetan living in exile told RFAs Tibetan Service this week.



Both monks were members of the monasterys democratic management committee, and had been appointed by local members of the community, RFAs source said, speaking on condition of anonymity and citing contacts in Sangchu.



Along with the other eight defendants, they were arrested in 2019 after their failed attempt to block construction of a slaughterhouse and their demand for compensation for Tibetans whose land has been taken for the project, the source said.

Four of the laymen convictedNyingchak, Gyal-lo, Sonam Gyal, and Takthar Gyalwere sentenced to prison for nine years and fined 50,000 yuan (U.S. 47,149) each, with the remaining fourTenpa Gyatso, Tamdin Dorje, Tamdin Tsering, and Choepa Tseringgiven eight-year terms and fined 50,000 yuan, the source said.A television record of the trial obtained by RFA showed all defendants pleading not guilty to the charges of obstructing government construction projects and causing social disturbances made against them.The sentences given to us are unfair, the monk Tashi Gyatso said addressing the court, adding that money given to him and Tsewang in partial compensation by the Hui Muslim owners of the slaughterhouse had not been diverted by them for personal use, but had been given instead to their monastery.We havent broken any of the countrys laws. Why is the court sending us to prison? he asked.Another defendant, Gyal-lo, pleaded ignorance of any rules he might have broken, saying, I am uneducated, as I didnt attend school as a child.But we worked to protect the interests of the monastery, and our services to the monastery are now being called illegal. We dont believe we have done anything against the law. We only carried out our responsibilities according to the instructions given to us by the township government, he said.We appeal for clemency, as we are now all old, he added.A local Tibetan who attended the trial told RFA the verdict against the 10 men appeared to have been determined by authorities in advance.It is sheer theatrics to hold such a trial when the verdict has already been passed. This trial was a farce and a sham. The Tibetans did not receive justice, said the man, who requested anonymity for his safety.After failing to block construction of the slaughterhouse at Barka Thang township in Sangchu, local Tibetans had protested over several years to demand compensation for land lost to the project and damage to structures along a road being built, including cracks in the wall of a local restaurant, the source said.The accused Tibetans ranged in age from 50 to 70 years, and had appealed for clemency both during their interrogations and at trial, saying they had only represented the wishes of local residents to protect their land and fight for their rights.Therefore, they launched their advocacy campaign, he said. They feel strongly that they have not committed any crime, but the court disregarded their appeal and went ahead with its harsh sentences.Disputes over the project and the protests had created a rift in the Barka Thang community for several years, another source in exile said, also citing contacts in the region.And there are many stakeholders involved, as the controversy is intricately connected with the interests of local Tibetans, Chinese officials, Chinese business owners, Chinese workers, and the Hui Muslims.But in the end, it was the 10 Tibetans who bore the brunt of all the trouble caused by this controversial project, he said.Development projects in Tibetan areas have led to frequent standoffs with Tibetans who accuse Chinese firms and local officials of pilfering money, improperly seizing land, and disrupting the lives of local people.Many result in violent suppression and intense pressure on the local population to comply with the governments wishes, with protest leaders frequently detained and charged under cover of a Chinese campaign against so-called underworld criminal gangs in Tibetan areas.
Everything that has happened since Illinois entered phase four of reopening points to the new intimacy of making and hearing music. When Chicago guitarist Andy Brown led his trio at Andys Jazz Club this month, you could hear every minute interaction among him, pianist Jeremy Kahn and bassist Joe Policastro in a previously rambunctious room where the din of conversing diners often obscured the music. When Chicago guitarist Joel Paterson led his trio at the Green Mill last month, the limited audience meant the rooms ferocious energy was diminished, but the warmth, plushness and vibrancy of its acoustics were more immediate than ever.
INDIANAPOLIS - State investigators identified six potential crimes Thursday in an incident report concerning the reported assault on a Black man at a southern Indiana lake.

Vauhxx Booker, a local civil rights activist and member of the Monroe County Human Rights Commission, said five white men pinned him against a tree, shouted racial slurs and one of them threatened to get a noose at Monroe Lake near Bloomington over Independence Day weekend.

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources responded to the scene on the day of the alleged assault and released the 68-page document to The Associated Press Thursday following a public records act request. In it, potential crimes committed by four people  on both sides of the altercation  are indicated.

Sean Purdy, whose lawyer spoke out Monday saying Booker has been putting forth a false narrative about what happened, is listed as facing potential charges of felony criminal confinement and misdemeanour battery against Booker. Booker himself is named as potential victim, as well as a suspect on charges of battery and criminal trespassing against Purdy and another man involved in the incident, Jerry Cox. Cox could also face misdemeanour battery charges, according to the DNR recommendations.

Ian Watkins, who was with Booker at the lake that day, could also face a criminal trespass charge.

Investigators determined there was evidence of multiple crimes after conducting more than a dozen interviews with witnesses and those involved in the physical altercation. Video footage from cellphones was also gathered and reviewed.

Purdys lawyer, David Hennessy, claims that Booker was on private property on the day of the incident. During a Monday press conference, Hennessy said that after Purdy and his associates informed Booker of the property line, the situation was assumed to be resolved. Hennessy contends that hours later, however, Booker again approached Purdy and a group of others. Witnesses told DNR investigators that Booker threatened them, claiming to be a county commissioner. Thats when Booker allegedly got in the face Purdys girlfriend and proceeded to punch Purdy three times.

An emailed statement Thursday from Booker and attorney Katherine Liell said the information released by Indianas Department of Natural Resources was done improperly and follows a refusal by the officers to make any arrests after the incident.

This is inappropriate conduct by a law enforcement agency to publicly release documents which are generally denied even under Indiana public access laws, the statement said. Why are they doing it? Because they are threatened and embarrassed, since they didnt do the right thing two weeks ago.

Booker and Liell also wrote that references to Booker possibly facing charges is inexcusable, immoral, and more evidence that racism is systemic.

Vauhxx Booker has not committed any crimes and is a free man, the statement said. He refused to be subjected to an interview with the same DNR officers who refused to listen to him July 4 when he was attacked.

A lawyer for Purdy didnt respond Thursday to a message seeking comment.

Cox, a friend of Purdys who told investigators he had permission to be on the property that day, said he was also punched in the face by Booker. Cox additionally said he was pretty sure that he hit Booker twice in the face.

Booker has a different story about what happened. He said he was pinned to a tree at the lake just south of Bookers hometown of Bloomington and that the group of five men accused him of trespassing on private property. After he tried to apologize, he said the situation got physical. Booker said the men threatened to break his arms and said, get a noose, while telling his friends to leave the area. Booker also said one of the men had a hat with a Confederate flag on it and that the men made statements about white power.

Witnesses who were with Booker that day told investigators they heard racial slurs being shouted and that someone said get a noose and leave the boy here, we will take care of him.

The DNR investigation shows Cox and Booker both sustained minor injuries.

No charges have been filed yet, but the Monroe County Prosecutors Office is now reviewing the evidence and weighing potential charges, said Deputy Prosecutor Jeff Kehr. The FBI confirmed it also is still investigating the incident as a possible hate crime.

___

Casey Smith is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a non-profit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
The U. S. is pinning its hopes on a Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine, but will a vaccine alone be enough to stop the pandemic and allow life to return to normal? The answer depends on a how good the vaccine ends up being.

In a study published July 15 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, my colleagues and I used a computer simulation of every person in the country to show how effective a vaccine would have to be and how many people would have to get vaccinated to end the pandemic. We found that a coronavirus vaccines effectiveness may have to be higher ...
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 20:10:27|Editor: huaxia

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HELSINKI, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The major Finnish meat producer and exporter HKScan made a 0.6 million-euro (0.68 million-U.S. dollar) profit in April-June 2020, while its result in the second quarter last year showed a 2.5 million-euro (2.85 million-dollar) loss, said the company in a press release on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the company's turnover reached 440 million euros (501.38 million dollars) in the second quarter of 2020, slightly up from 439 million euros (500.24 million dollars) of the same period in 2019. Finnish business daily Kauppalehti noted on Thursday that HKScan emerged from a long period in the red.

Tero Hemmila, CEO of HKScan, said in a statement it was estimated that the COVID-19 pandemic had reduced the turnover in the second quarter of 2020 by 2 million euros (2.28 million dollars).

He said that the market price level of meat in Europe has fallen due to the increase in stocks, causing indirect pressure on the price levels in domestic markets. Consumers have also switched to lower-end products.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has changed consumer behavior and it is quite unlikely that we will fully return to the pre-pandemic operating environment," Hemmila said.

According to the HKScan release, online food sales multiplied in Finland compared to before the pandemic hit.

Based in southwestern Finland's Turku, HKScan is a well-known Finnish manufacturer of meat foods and products both domestically and internationally. Enditem
SOUTHFIELD, Mich., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Lear Corporation (NYSE: LEA), a global automotive technology leader in Seating and E-Systems, will hold a conference call to review the company's second quarter 2020 financial results and related matters on August 4, 2020, at 8:30 a.m. EDT.

To participate in the conference call:

Toll-free calls: 877-270-2148

International calls: 412-902-6510

The conference code is 7705540.

You also may listen to the live audio webcast of the call, in listen-only mode, on Lear's Investor Relations website at ir.lear.com. The webcast replay will be available two hours following the call.

Note: The second quarter 2020 slide presentation will be available on Lear's website before the earnings call begins on August 4, 2020.

SOURCE Lear Corporation

Related Links

http://www.lear.com


The debate surrounding how the state should handle the coronavirus pandemic has descended into an all-out interbranch war. 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  Having lost battle after battle to wrest control of Pennsylvanias coronavirus response from Gov. Tom Wolf, the GOP-controlled legislature now wants voters to permanently weaken a governors emergency powers while boosting their own.

This week, Republican lawmakers  with help from a handful of Democrats  cleared the first hurdle to get a constitutional amendment on a future ballot that would allow the General Assembly to unilaterally end a disaster declaration.

The process is lengthy with no guaranteed outcome, but it has a major benefit for the GOP  unlike a piece of legislation, this approach doesnt require Wolfs approval. To send a question that would amend the Constitution to voters, the House and Senate must approve a resolution during two consecutive sessions, a relatively easy task when one party controls both chambers.

Currently, a governor can issue a disaster declaration for 90 days and extend it as needed. Wolf did that in March as the state began reporting its first cases of the coronavirus, and he renewed the order in early June. Such a declaration greatly expands the executives powers, allowing the governor to suspend regulatory provisions, control travel from certain areas, and suspend the sale of guns.

The new resolution, authored by Sen. Kim Ward (R., Westmoreland), would allow a simple majority in the legislature to end a disaster declaration without the governors consent. It would also require the General Assembly to approve any extension beyond the first 21 days.

Should the legislature prioritize the resolution when lawmakers return for a new session in January, the soonest the question could appear on the ballot is May 2021, according to Jennifer Kocher, a spokesperson for Senate Republicans.

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Wolf and his administration have made the big decisions  to shut down schools, close businesses, and issue sweeping stay-at-home orders  and set the speed for reopening Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvanians largely approved of those decisions, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll from May, which showed more than 70% of adults in the state agreed with the governors handling of the pandemic.

Still, the strategy has frustrated the usually powerful Republican-controlled legislature, whose efforts to ease restrictions ahead of the administrations timeline were repeatedly vetoed by Wolf. The frustration boiled over into a lawsuit to force Wolf to end his emergency order, which was rejected by the state Supreme Court.

Justice David Wecht, writing for the majority, said lawmakers were required to send the resolution to Wolf, who then would be able to approve or veto the measure.

That is a key component of our Constitutions balance of powers among the several branches of government, a balance that prevents one branch from dominating the others, Wecht wrote.

Wolf made his disapproval of the measure official when he formally vetoed it Tuesday.

The debate surrounding how the state should handle the coronavirus pandemic has descended into an all-out interbranch war. Republicans in the Senate have twice taken the Wolf administration to court, including in May for documents related to a waiver program that allowed some non-essential businesses to stay open while others had to remain shuttered. That case is still pending.

GOP leadership has framed the proposed constitutional amendment as a way to give Pennsylvanians [a] voice in emergencies.

Pennsylvania is not a dictatorship, and the voters should ultimately decide, House Speaker Bryan Cutler (R., Lancaster) said in a statement. We are a co-equal branch of government and have tried at every turn to work with the administration, including asking to join a multi-branch, bipartisan task force to manage this crisis. The governor turned us down, deciding instead to go it alone for months on end.

The General Assembly is also advancing bills that would force the Wolf administration and future ones to act in certain ways during disaster declarations, though the legislation is subject to the governors veto pen. This week, the Senate unanimously approved a bill that would compel the executive to give the public and press access to government records during an emergency. The legislation garnered the same level of support when it passed the House in May.

Wolf said Wednesday he will reject the bill when it reaches his desk.

I am for transparency and I will set my record of transparency up against members of the General Assembly any day of the week, Wolf said. I think that particular bill has some flaws.

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.
Shamima Begum who had her UK citizenship revoked after joining ISIL in Syria should be allowed to return, judges say.

A woman who had the citizenship of the United Kingdom revoked after she travelled to Syria to join the ISIL (ISIS) group should be allowed to return home to challenge the decision, a court has ruled.

The decision came on Thursday, months after Shamima Begum, 20, lost the first stage of her case about the legality of the governments decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) in February.

Three senior judges at the Court of Appeal on Thursday said: Ms Begum should be allowed to come to the United Kingdom to pursue her appeal albeit subject to such controls as the (home secretary) deems appropriate.

Begum was 15 when she and two other schoolgirls from Bethnal Green in east London left home to join the armed group on February 17, 2015.

She claims she married a Dutch convert soon after arriving in ISIL-held territory. She was discovered, nine months pregnant, in a Syrian refugee camp in February 2019.

Her newborn baby died soon after she gave birth. Two of her other children also died under ISIL rule.

The then-home secretary, Sajid Javid, annulled Begums British citizenship on national security grounds after an outcry led by right-wing media.

Begums legal action

That prompted her to take legal action, arguing the decision was unlawful, made her stateless and exposed her to the risk of death or inhuman and degrading treatment.

The UK-born Begum is of Bangladeshi heritage. But Bangladeshs foreign minister has said he would not consider granting her citizenship.

Daniel Furner, Begums lawyer, said his client had never had a fair opportunity to give her side of the story, which made the governments decision unjust.

Human rights group Liberty also welcomed the decision, saying: The right to a fair trial is not something the government can take away on a whim.

It is a fundamental part of our justice system and equal access to justice must apply to everyone, it said.

The Home Office called the ruling disappointing and said it would seek permission to appeal.
BuyBack Booth, a Montreal, Canada-based Robot-as-a-Service company that can diagnose a phones condition, closed a $5.2m seed funding round.

The round was backed by Brightspark Capital and includes financing from the Quebec government through Investissement Quebec.

The company intends to use the funds to continue to expand operations and its business reach.

Led by Tony Mastronardi, CEO, BuyBack Booth has developed technology that supports retailers in their trade-in programs, producing an accurate diagnostic of a used smartphones condition. In less than 3 minutes, the booth and smartphone app can accurately test 40+ unique functions to determine the internal health of a device, and evaluate its external state to ensure consistency in customer trade-ins. The company integrates with retailers as part of the stores existing trade-in offering, warranty claim verification, anytime insurance feature, and more.

FinSMEs

16/07/2020
Caption Health, a Brisbane, Calif.-based medical artificial intelligence (AI) company, closed its $53m Series B funding round.

The round was led by existing investor DCVC. New investors Atlantic Bridge and cardiovascular medical device leader Edwards Lifesciences also participated, along with existing investor Khosla Ventures.

The company intends to use the funds to scale up its commercial operations, continue to develop its AI technology platform and form new partnerships to expand the use of Caption AI in additional care settings.

Led by Charles Cadieu, CEO, Caption Health provides Caption AI, an AI-guided medical imaging acquisition system, which allows healthcare providers to perform ultrasound and obtain diagnostic-quality images, to support clinical decision-making and deliver savings for medical institutions.

The Caption AI platform, which includes Caption Guidance and Caption Interpretation, makes it radically easier to perform ultrasound and obtain diagnostic-quality images by providing:

Expert Guidance  Caption Guidance provides 90-plus types of real-time feedback and instructions to emulate the guidance of an expert sonographer;



Automated Quality Assessment  Caption Guidance helps standardize diagnostic-quality exams by accurately assessing, automatically recording, and seamlessly providing real-time feedback on diagnostic image quality;



Intelligent Interpretation  Caption Interpretation produces an automated ejection fraction calculationthe most widely used measurement to assess cardiac functionfrom single or multiple cardiac ultrasound views commonly acquired at the point of care (AP4, AP2, PLAX).

Caption AI software is currently available fully integrated with a Terason uSmart 3200T Plus portable ultrasound system, which offers a full range of clinical applications including lung, vascular, and abdominal scanning.

FinSMEs

16/07/2020
Brett Sutton the Chief Health Officer of Victoria speaks to the media in Melbourne, Australia, on June 22, 2020. (Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

Too Early to Suggest Lifting Victorias COVID-19 Restrictions as Cases Rapidly Rise

The Victorian government is under pressure to find a way of controlling the spread of COVID-19 in aged care homes and hospitals in the greater Melbourne region in Australias south.

Premier Daniel Andrews has not ruled out plans to enforce stage four lockdown measures but is not looking at that right now.

We, of course, plan for every single contingency. But its well too early for us to be moving to a whole new stage, Andrews said at a press conference with Victorias Chief Medical Officer Brett Sutton and Health Minister Jenny Mikakos on July 16.

Since the start of the stage three lockdown on July 7, Victoria has had confirmed COVID-19 case numbers in the triple figures with the highest on record being 317 on July 16.

The states total number of COVID-19 cases now stands at 4,750 with 2,128 being classed as active.

A growing number of these new virus cases have appeared at aged care homes with 39 facilities now having active cases in Victoria.

Chief medical officer Brett Sutton revealed that 80 new COVID-19 cases were tied to four aged care homes, 31 of which are from Menarock Life in central Melbourne.

Sutton noted his concern based on global statistics for aged care deaths.

Aged care deaths contributed to a third or a half of deaths in European countries, he said.

There have been two more deaths due to COVID-19 in hospitals, two gentlemen in their 80s, now making it 29 total deaths in Victoria.

Some have argued 29 deaths is a low enough rate to ease restrictions as it is lower than an average flu season, but Sutton says new virus cases and deaths would be much higher if it werent for the measures currently in place.

And so the idea that 29 deaths is nothing and that we can lift all restrictions and that we can let it run is absurd, Sutton said.

People admitted to hospital for COVID-19 has swelled from 5 to 109 in the last four weeks. A quarter of these patients are in ICU.

Sutton said that if the government decides to move to stage four lockdowns, it will be based on seeing where ongoing COVID-19 transmission is occurring.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said on July 15 that avoiding such restrictions should be the objective in Victoria and the rest of the country.

Our goal as a country, and whether its as a Victorian or a Melburnian, is to avoid having to go to higher levels of lockdown, Hunt said.

All of these people are doing it tough as it is already. Higher levels of lockdown would mean even greater hardship for individuals, mental health, social isolation, the elderly wholl be isolated, he said.

Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said in the press conference that the Victorian health system was starting to feel the effects of the recent outbreak and the government would now be making changes to elective surgery to meet growing demand.

We will pause all category three surgery across our hospital system, and our hospitals that were reaching a close to 90 percent of normal activity will now pause at 75 percent, so this is for all Metropolitan public hospitals, she said.

Mikakos said since January the government has invested at least $1.9 (US$1.32) billion in ICU beds, PPE and other medical equipment, and staff training for Victoria.
The citys model of chasing the virus to contain the outbreak of Covid-19, which was used successfully in the densely populated area of Dharavi, and parts of Worli, Govandi, Bandra East, or Byculla, will also be replicated in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), considering the surge in cases.

When Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray visited Thane and Kalyan earlier this week to take stock of the situation, he was accompanied by Kiran Dighavkar, assistant commissioner of the G-North ward with jurisdiction over Dharavi, to help cities in MMR replicate the model.

Aaditya Thackeray told Hindustan Times on Tuesday, Yes. [the Dharavi model will be used in MMR.] Essentially the Dharavi or Worli model, or the Bandra East or Govandi, or E ward model is that BMC has aggressively chased the virus.

According to Thackeray, when aspects of life will begin to open up in cities adjoining Mumbai, it will be important to have medical buffer beds, control mortality, and analyse data to predict what could happen.

Kiran Dighavkar said, The Dharavi model is about organising a large number of fever camps for early detection of suspected cases, quarantining them in institutional facilities, tracing the maximum number of high-risk contacts and moving them to quarantine facilities too. We are testing a lot. We are not waiting for a patient to fall sick, get a test done, and then come to us. We are chasing suspected patients. It requires large-scale infrastructure for institutional quarantine facilities and manpower for screening and testing.

The state is planning to create 40,000 to 50,000 Covid hospital beds for all cities in the MMR, and is also planning to construct jumbo facilities. Thackeray said, We have set models in terms of chasing the virus, testing people, and also quarantine facilities. All municipal commissioners have been told that first they need to have standard operating procedures in place. I want to ensure there is strict division of work, and coordination among all teams.

As of Thursday, Navi Mumbai has recorded 10,546 total cases and 322 deaths with a doubling rate of 22 days, Kalyan has recorded a total of 14,598 cases and 225 deaths with a doubling rate of 14 days, and Thane has recorded a total of 14,832 cases and 523 deaths, with a doubling rate of 23 days.

The rising number of cases is also a worry for Mumbais Covid-19 curve, as the city is gradually coming out of lockdown. Mumbais municipal commissioner IS Chahal said on Tuesday that the city will completely open up, and local trains, malls and gymnasiums will become operational only when the situation in MMR shows the same improvement as Mumbai.

Sanjay Pattiwar, public health consultant, said, Large scale testing, institutional quarantine, community participation, involvement of private practitioners is a pattern known to everyone, replicating it will not be a problem. But it requires a large number of resources that need to be made available quickly. I would suggest the government should decentralise quarantine centres, and make small local quarantine centres catering to people living in a two kilometre radius or so. These will be easier to manage.
Armenian News - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 16.07.2020:

Armenian defense ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan took to her Facebook to share an update on the situation at the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.

According to her, 'around 03:40 at night, positions of the RA Armed Forces noticed enemy movement. Switching to all-around defense Armenian units prevented the enemy's attempt of infiltration.'

She added that 'after a hot battle, the enemy was thwarted back suffering losses.'

"Afterwards, at 05:20 the Azerbaijani units started shelling the villages of Aygepar, Movses, using mortars and a D-30 howitzer," she said. "This is the first serious violation of the fragile ceasefire established yesterday at 00:15."

Over 100 people from the Azerbaijani side took part in attempted sabotage penetration, said Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during the government's meeting on Thursday.

As PM noted, "the situation is completely under control."

"There are no casualties on our side: neither among the military nor among the civilian population," the PM, in turn, noted.

In the meantime, Azerbaijan has confirmed losses.

As the Defense Ministry spokesman Vagif Dargali told the BBC, the information will be provided later.

The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office have issued a statement amid the tensions at the border.

"The Co-Chairs urge the sides to refrain from inflammatory rhetoric and attempts to change the situation on the ground. The Co-Chairs continue to stress the necessity of building up an atmosphere conducive to the restoration of the peace process," the statement said. "The Co-Chairs welcomed the confirmation of the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan to hold substantive negotiations on crucial aspects of a Nagorno-Karabakh settlement as soon as possible and emphasized the importance of returning OSCE monitors to the region as soon as circumstances allow."

Information on detention of an Armenian citizen by Azerbaijan is being verified, Armenian National Security Service spokesperson Arthur Gevorgyan told Armenian News - NEWS.am.

Azerbaijani media has been reporting on the detention of Armenian citizen Narek Sardaryan. The 30-year-old Armenian citizen was reportedly detained by Azerbaijani troops on the border with Nakhichevan.

[UPDATE] Measures are being taken to return Armenian citizen Narek Sardaryan to Armenia, National Security Service reported.

Sardaryan got lost and went to the territory of Nakhichevan, where he was captured.

He is described as a patriot, calm and hardworking person, who has never had issues with either law enforcement agencies or local authorities. N. Sardaryan has a family and minor children.

Armenia has confirmed 554 COVID-19 new cases, bringing the total number to 33,559, the health ministry reported.

The death toll has reached 607.

The total number of tests conducted is 141,410.

In fact, 10,832 patients are being treated at the moment.

According to the latest data, 21,931 people have already recovered - 583 people in the last day.
China has infiltrated Britain more successfully than it has other European countries, an expert warned last night.

Author Mareike Ohlberg, who has written about the underhand tactics of the country's Communist Party, said attempts to groom leading figures in business and politics were at an advanced stage in the UK.

Miss Ohlberg, whose book Hidden Hand has been serialised by the Daily Mail, said: 'There has been a tremendous amount of work in getting elites over to the CCP side.

'To me, the UK has always stood out for the very advanced stage of elite capture compared to other European countries.'

China, led by President Xi Jinping, pictured, has infiltrated Britain more successfully than it has other European countries, an expert warned

Speaking at a virtual debate organised by the US Embassy in London and think-tank the Henry Jackson Society, she also revealed the CCP had been offering jobs in Chinese firms to ex-British government workers.

The academic warned that numerous high-profile individuals linked to China's 'united front' underground diplomacy network are embedded in the UK where they seek to influence politicians.

She said that Chinese companies such as Huawei have been able to succeed in Britain by establishing local stakeholders on the ground 'who are invested in your success'.

The academic added: 'Until last year, it was incredibly rare to hear anyone in the establishment challenge the golden era consensus that if post-Brexit Britain is to succeed it absolutely needs China.'

She said that UK officials and politicians needed to 'smarten up' to China's influence operations, warning that its divide and conquer' strategy is much sophisticated than other nations.

Matthew Henderson, from the Henry Jackson Society and a former British diplomat in China, said that 'China had locked on to the way the British establishment works'.

He said: 'China is basically replicating that. It has found vanities, it has found greed, it has found a sense of cosiness, people who like wearing funny robes and hats and free trips to China.'
A hospital in Dubai has waived off Rs 1.52-crore bill of a coronavirus patient from Telangana on humanitarian grounds. 42-year-old Odnala Rajesh, who went to Dubai as a construction worker a couple of years ago, was admitted to 'Dubai Hospital' on April 23 and tested positive for COVID-19. After 80 days of treatment, he recovered and while getting discharged, he received a bill of Rs 1.52 crore (7,62,555 Dirhams).Thereafter, a Telugu NRI Gundelli Narasimha came to the rescue of Rajesh, according to senior officials of the NRI cell in the Telangana government. Narasimha, in fact, informed Sumanth Reddy, a volunteer in the Indian Consulate in Dubai about Rajesh's health and financial condition.

Thereafter, Reddy, along with another social worker Ashok Kotecha of BAPS Swaminarayan Trust, requested Harjeet Singh, Consul (Labour) of Indian Consulate in Dubai to help Rajesh. Singh wrote a letter to Dubai Hospital management asking them to waive off the bill on humanitarian grounds.

After getting discharged from the hospital, Kotecha provided free flight tickets to Rajesh for Hyderabad. Rajesh reached Hyderabad in the early hours of Wednesday. Rajesh has now been sent to his native village on a 14-day quarantine.

Rajesh's wife Laxmi is a washerwoman by profession and she also works as an agriculture labourer on daily wages. His daughter Mounika is a student of B. Com student and his son Madhu is studying in Class 12.

Also read: Coronavirus crisis can't be controlled unless testing is increased: Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran

Also read: Rajasthan political crisis: Tussle continues; Congress asks Sachin Pilot to make 'ghar wapsi'
Coronavirus infections in Hong Kong hit an all-time daily high of 67 cases on Thursday, more than half of them untraceable, as the government weighed ordering civil servants to work from home amid pressure from health experts and unions.

In the first legal action taken under sweeping social-distancing rules reintroduced this week to push back the latest wave of the pandemic, the owner of a restaurant was ticketed by police when more than a dozen patrons were found eating inside after 6pm.

There is still a chance more cases are coming

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the communicable disease branch

The number of new infections exceeded the previous daily record of 65 cases, which were mostly imported, recorded on March 27. But even worse numbers could lie ahead, warned Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the communicable disease branch at the Centre for Health Protection.

Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.

I cannot say this is a peak because usually you can only say it is a peak afterwards, Chuang said. There is still a chance more cases are coming.

Among the 63 new local infections, 35 are from an unknown source, continuing an alarming trend that poses challenges for health officials trying to limit infection risks within the community. Since July 6, 120 out of 299 local infections have been untraceable.

When they are untraceable, then you cant find all their close contacts and isolate them, which means community outbreaks will go on happening, said Professor David Hui Shu-cheong, a respiratory medicine expert at Chinese University.

A clearer understanding of the danger should emerge by next Wednesday, a week after the preventive measures were stepped up and enough time for newly infected people to begin displaying symptoms, according to Hui.

We will review the situation, follow up on the pandemic and decide the next step

Dr Chui Tak-yi, undersecretary for food and health

Story continues

The four imported cases were two arrivals from the Philippines, and one each from India and Indonesia. The latest infections push the citys overall tally to 1,655 cases, with 10 related deaths. More than 10 people also tested preliminary positive on Thursday.

The surge in cases recently has prompted the Department of Health on Thursday to change its quarantine policy for people returning from high-risk areas, such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Such arrivals would have to undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine in hotel rooms rented by the government, instead of at quarantine centres.

The department said the arrangement would be implemented if the number of arrivals from high-risk areas exceeded the capacity of quarantine facilities on a given day, as these centres must be prioritised for close contacts of confirmed patients.

Those requiring quarantine would be transferred in coaches to the hotel rooms, where they would need to wear an electronic wristband during the period. A government source said they would stay on floors separate from other hotel guests.

During the first wave of Covid-19 infections in January, the administration ordered some of the citys roughly 180,000 civil servants to work from home, although most disciplined services staff and other frontline employees were excluded.

While Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor dismissed the idea of working from home for civil servants providing services directly to the public as recently as Monday, Undersecretary for Food and Health Dr Chui Tak-yi said the government was assessing the situation.

We are aware of the trend of cases, Chui said. We will review the situation, follow up on the pandemic and decide the next step. We will continuously and very closely monitor the situation and adjust the measures accordingly.

The Civil Service Bureau has already issued guidelines on the latest social-distancing measures to various departments, including allowing them to decide whether staff can voluntarily work from home.

More government employees have become infected, including an amenities assistant under the Leisure and Cultural Services Department who worked at the Tsuen King Circuit Wu Chung Swimming Pool in Tsuen Wan.

The Housing Department also revealed a senior technical officer who worked at its Ho Man Tin headquarters had contracted the virus. A customs officer who tested preliminarily positive on Wednesday was also among the newly confirmed.

But a representative from one of Hong Kongs leading unions said the government should immediately order some civil servants to work from home.

I dont understand why the government has not implemented a forced work-from-home arrangement now, when the extent of community outbreak is more serious than that in February, said Chan Chiu-wai, an organising coordinator with the Confederation of Trade Unions.

Hui, who advises the government on its pandemic strategy, said many private companies were not allowing staff to work from home because the government had not introduced such arrangements for its own staff.

Professor David Hui advises the Hong Kong government on the pandemic. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Hui said he understood the administration wanted to maintain public services and had implemented flexible working hours as a way to mitigate the Covid-19 risks, but the crowds he saw on the streets and taking public transport were increasing the chances of community contagion.

I hope companies that arent providing emergency services can allow staff to work from home for some time. It doesnt have to be long, perhaps just one to two weeks. It can help break the chain of virus transmission in the community, he said.

Asked whether the government should take the lead and introduce work-from-home arrangements to encourage the private sector to follow suit, Hui said he believed the authorities would change their strategy if the infection figures remained high in the coming days.

He also advised public hospitals to run coronavirus tests on elderly patients even if they were admitted for other reasons, as many of the recent infection cases were of the older generation.

Health workers are also contracting the virus but authorities believe the infections are not linked to their workplace. One new case involved an employee at Queen Elizabeth Hospital who worked in a centre coordinating non-emergency ambulance services. The mans duties did not put him in contact with patients, according to Dr Lau Ka-hin, a chief manager with the Hospital Authority.

He didnt go to the medical ward where a cluster of transmission cases happened. We believe he is not related to that cluster, Lau said, referring to an outbreak involving three female patients including a 92-year-old woman who was initially asymptomatic.

Another case involved a patient care assistant at the hospital who tested preliminary positive on Wednesday. The worker was suspected of contracting the virus from her neighbourhood in Tsz Wan Shan where clusters of infections emerged at an elderly care facility and several restaurants.

The governments tightening of social distancing measures has once again upended daily life in the city, public gatherings limited to four people, with masks mandatory on public transport.

Bars, gyms and karaoke lounges have been closed, while restaurants can only seat four people at a table and must offer only takeaway after 6pm until 5am the next day. Patrons must also wear masks while not eating.

Wearing masks on public transport was made compulsory this week. Photo: Nora Tam

A police spokeswoman said officers had issued six verbal warnings and received nine reports related to the rule on masks, but that no prosecutions have been made.

A fixed-penalty ticket was issued to the owner of a dim sum place in Sham Shui Po when officers discovered 14 people eating inside after 7.30pm on Wednesday.

To ease the burden the ban on dine-in service places on some workers, the government will exclude staff canteens not open to the public from the rule, according to health undersecretary Chui.

Staff at some companies had difficulty heading out for meals, such as those working 24 hours, or in cases where the offices are remote, and thus they need to eat at staff canteens, Chui said, adding factory canteens were excluded in the exemption.

Health authorities said earlier this week that eateries located at certain premises such as hospitals, residential care homes and government facilities could be exempted from the ban. Chui added that restaurant employees would be allowed to eat at work after 6pm, but only in clearly designated areas away from other tables.

Restaurants and eateries are prohibited from providing dine-in services between 6pm and 5am. Photo: Sam Tsang

He also clarified that people could wait for takeaway inside the restaurant as long as they wore masks and were not eating.

Starting from Friday, taxi drivers can register for a free, voluntary Covid-19 test. Samples will be collected at centres located at four car parks, starting from Sunday.

The testing is part of a wider screening effort for groups deemed at high risk, including care home workers, covering about 400,000 people in total.

Meanwhile, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said Ngau Chi Wan Market and Pei Ho Street Market, both related to recently confirmed cases, will be closed an hour earlier on Friday at 7pm for deep cleaning and disinfection.

Additional reporting by Christy Leung

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Since mRNAs play a key role in protein synthesis in vivo, the use of mRNAs as medicines and for in vitro protein synthesis has been desired. In particular, mRNA therapeutics hold the potential for application to vaccine therapy(1) against coronaviruses and are being developed. However, the efficiency of protein production with mRNAs in the natural form is not sufficient enough for certain purposes, including application to mRNA therapeutics. Therefore, mRNA molecules allowing for efficient protein production have been required to be developed.

A ribosome(2) repeats the following three steps to synthesize a protein in vivo using an mRNA as a template (translation reaction): 1) Initiation step: A ribosome binds to an mRNA to form a translation initiation complex; 2) Elongation step: The ribosome moves on the mRNA and links amino acids to synthesize a protein; and 3) Termination step: The protein synthesis process concludes, and the ribosome is liberated. In the translation reaction cycle, the initiation step takes the longest time.

Collaborative research by a group of Nagoya University consisting of Professor Hiroshi Abe, Research Assistant Professor Naoko Abe, and graduate student Daisuke Kawaguchi with Yoshihiro Shimizu, a team leader at RIKEN, has succeeded in the development of modified messenger RNAs (mRNAs). The modified mRNA contains sulfur atoms in the place of oxygen atoms of phosphate moieties of natural mRNAs. It is capable of supporting protein synthesis at increased efficiency. They discovered that modified mRNAs accelerated the initiation step of the translation reactions and improved efficiency of protein synthesis by at least 20 times compared with that using natural-form mRNAs."

This method is expected to be used for large-scale synthesis of proteins as raw materials for the production of biomaterials. Moreover, the application of the results obtained in this study to eukaryotic translation systems enables the efficient production of mRNA therapeutics for protein replacement therapy(3) to contribute to medical treatments. Furthermore, there are virtually no previous reports on the molecular design of highly functional mRNAs; therefore, the successful design achieved in this study can guide a future direction of the molecular design of modified mRNAs.

###

This study was supported by the Strategic Basic Research Program CREST of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).

(1) Vaccine therapy

A method of administering a protein antigen to individuals to elicit antibodies that can reduce the susceptibility to infectious diseases. In the case of an mRNA vaccine, an mRNA for in vivo expression of an antigen protein is administered, and then antibodies are produced against the expressed antigen protein.

(2) Ribosome

Multicomponent machinery providing a place where sequence information of an mRNA is read, and a protein is synthesized based on the sequence information while migrating on the mRNA. A ribosome is composed of ribosomal proteins and ribosomal RNAs.

(3) Protein replacement therapy

A treatment method that aims at improvement by supplementing protein from the outside when the deficiency of proteins (enzymes, etc.) is a cause of an illness.
Im appealing to you and appealing to everyone in the state to join me and making certain that he doesnt get 5% of the vote before its all said and done. Im going to work hard to make sure that that doesnt happen. I hope youll join me in that effort, I need your help, he said.
WASHINGTON -- Ahead of the August 9 presidential election, authorities in Belarus are detaining and physically attacking hundreds of activists and journalists, including five from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), in a campaign of aggression targeting the power of the independent press.

The most violent of the attacks took place on July 15, when RFE/RL journalist Anton Trafimovich was detained and beaten by seven riot police members, who left him handcuffed and kneeling on the floor of a police van, bleeding with a broken nose, as he was taken to a precinct station. Trafimovich, who was later released without explanation, had been reporting from downtown Minsk on protests following the Central Election Commissions disqualification of Viktar Babaryka and Valer Tsepkala, the two main challengers to the authoritarian incumbent Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who is seeking a sixth consecutive term in office. Belarus Investigative Committee has said that it will investigate the circumstances of Trafimovichs detention.

A day earlier, RFE/RL journalists Ales Piletsky and Andrej Rabchyk were forcibly detained during a live broadcast about the CECs decision and held by police for several hours.

The Belarus Service later received from an anonymous source audio recordings suggesting that the Service's broadcasts were being monitored and that its journalists had been deliberately surveilled. Former Belarus police have reviewed the recordings and confirmed they are authentic.

RFE/RL Acting President and Editor-in-Chief Daisy Sindelar said, As the audio recordings indicate, these are calculated, highly coordinated assaults on professional journalists  indeed, journalists that Belaruss own Ministry of Foreign Affairs has accredited. Sindelar added, That our colleagues were attacked in the middle of live broadcasts leaves no doubt that the government is trying to stop our coverage and prevent audiences from having access to reliable news."

This week's detentions are just the latest move against RFE/RL journalists covering the controversial run-up to the August vote, which has been marked by so-called "pickets of solidarity" and other protests in support of opposition candidates. On June 19, the final day of candidates signature-gathering campaigns, RFE/RL journalists Alyaksandra Dynko and Andrei Rabchyk were seized by men in plainclothes while they were livestreaming from downtown Minsk, forced into a waiting van, and driven to a precinct where they were detained for several hours.

On June 25, prominent blogger and former Vaclav Havel Journalism Fellow Ihar Losik was arrested and accused by authorities of using his Telegram channel to prepare to disrupt public order. Losik, who is also a social media consultant for RFE/RLs Belarus Service, is currently being held in a Minsk detention center.

Belarusian Interior Minister Yury Karayeu has openly accused RFE/RL of helping to "coordinate street protests with its live news coverage, and threatened to revoke the bureaus official status, a message that was reinforced on Belarusian state television.

RFE/RL's Belarus Service, providing independent news and analysis to Belarusian audiences in their own language, demonstrated record-breaking use of its online platforms in June. Consumption of Belarus Service video content on YouTube in June tripled over the previous month to 9.6 million views, while Facebook video views rose by a similar factor to 3.1 million video views. The total number of visits to the svaboda.org website also rose to over 4.1 million, an increase of 49% over May. Video views on the Services Instagram page rose by a factor of four, to 1.5 million.

About RFE/RL

RFE/RL relies on its networks of local reporters to provide accurate news and information to more than 38 million people in 27 languages and 23 countries where media freedom is restricted, or where a professional press has not fully developed. Its videos were viewed over 3.6 billion times on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram/IGTV in FY2019. RFE/RL is an editorially independent media company funded by a grant from the U.S. Congress through the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

----

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Joanna Levison in Prague (levisonj@rferl.org, +420.221.122.080)

Martins Zvaners in Washington (zvanersm@rferl.org, +1.202.457.6948)
When it comes to both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump and the political hot water each is currently flailing about in, there are garbage barges full of family dysfunction on display.

In the high heat of the summer of our disease and discontent, they stink.

Reminds one of British poet Philip Larkins blunt immortal words:

They f--k you up, your mum and dad.

They may not mean to, but they do.

They fill you with the faults they had

And add some extra, just for you.

After exhibiting admirably tough, competent and compassionate leadership through the worst public-health crisis of our time, Trudeaus current conflict-of-interest difficulties in the WE charity mess are so ridiculous and unnecessary that even one of his elderly and most ardent fans in my family exploded over the phone as if she were admonishing her own children. That is just plain STUPID, she said of the leader she had faithfully watched on television every single day during lockdown to approvingly receive his how were going to help you briefings during the height of the COVID-19 crisis.

Trudeau, now caught in an apparently blatant not to mention boundlessly inane conflict-of-interest imbroglio when his Liberal government awarded a juicy, multimillion, sole-source contract to the WE charity to administer volunteer student grants, was forced to publicly apologize when it was revealed that his mother Margaret Trudeau had in the recent past earned $250,000 from the organization and its affiliates in more than 20 speaking appearances and his brother Alexandre (Sacha) Trudeau more than $30,000.

And while the PM said he knew his whole family, including his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau (she was paid before he became PM) were very close to WE, he neither asked them just how much they had made from the organization nor, more puzzlingly, step away from the cabinet table when the deal was decided.

Bill Morneau, finance minister, also wearing ethical short pants, did not step away from the decision though his own daughter worked for the charity. (Note: politicians of many stripes, including Justin Trudeau himself, have appeared at WE events.)

Come on. Even though the charity withdrew from the contract and is now undergoing a restructuring, there better be a much more thorough explanation as to why on earth Trudeau thought participating in the decision to award this contract was OK.

More to come, Im sure, from a PM who prefers to bend the rules and apologize later. I dont believe at this crucial point in our pandemic recovery, with no entirely competent, present or persuasive political opponents, that this breach is criminal or even career-ending. Its maddening, though.

Simple question sir: Why not, in light of two previously confirmed ethical violations for which the voters forgave you, follow the rules even more strictly and find other worthy organizations to help students through a disastrous economic time that will impact their future for years to come? As the kids would say, Man, that is messed up.

What Trudeau said during his apology rang the dysfunctional bell. I deeply regret that I have brought my mother into this situation. Its unfair to her, and I should have been thoughtful enough to recuse myself, Trudeau said.

Yes, you owed her more than that. Now his mother, the fabled Margaret Trudeau, who has been in succession the daughter and wife and mother of three powerful male politicians (there oughta be a gold medal for that arduous trifecta), who arguably has done more for ordinary Canadians than most blowhard politicians by opening up a necessary national conversation about her own mental illness, is being both slammed and supported on social media.

What good has she ever done, yells the Twitter pyjama brigade, no doubt jealous of the big bucks shes received. I heard a CBC host shorthand the scandal as Mum got paid.

Nope. It is not wrong for Margaret Trudeau to be paid for her high-profile speaking and advocacy work. It is wrong for her firstborn son as PM to ignore conflict-of-interest klaxons blaring and let his cabinet choose the charity in the first place.

Margaret Trudeau has earned admiration in the mental-health community. Ive seen her talk powerfully and gracefully about how her illness derailed her private and very public life. Ive also seen her in the last decade at least once painfully fumble a promotional appearance during a difficult time.

Everyone gets paid far too much for these appearances, but its rationalized as how you subsidize social change.

When it comes to the Trudeau family dysfunction, theres always been a relatively harmless streak of narcissism running through this complex and fascinating political family. Pierre, Margaret and their son Justin have always been a bit too ready for their close-ups.

But I will say this: the self-regard they have each displayed is not malignant, its not destructive, and its not close to being as savage and dangerously dysfunctional as the virulent and brutish and amoral family narcissism that produced Donald Trump, the worst American president in modern history.

As an explosive new book this summer, Too Much and Never Enough, by one of Trumps own family members, niece Mary L. Trump, a clinical psychologist confirms, Donald Trump grew up in an emotional wasteland, raised to be a winner or killer by his brutish, racist father and ignored by his needy and unwell mother.

All the wealth and advantages in the world, however misbegotten, could not help Trump become a decent leader, ready to contribute to the good of society  which used to be, in a galaxy far away and long ago, one of the acceptable goals of privileged people entering public service.

Trump  savagely incompetent and clinically narcissistic, according to his niece  was raised in a dysfunctional family to become the worlds most dangerous man.

When Mary Trump was asked during an interview what she would say to her uncle Donald right now, she succinctly responded: Resign.

How dare I compare these two leaders, Justin Trudeau, shining moral beacon to the world  at least those who didnt vote against him at the UN  who stands on his own, seeks to do good and normally does it, even if he arrogantly bends a few rules along the way; and Donald Trump, ugly Goliath of the White House, whose racism, ignorance, corruption and deceits in dismissing the pandemic have helped kill tens of thousands of Americans with more to come?

Family dysfunction affects us all. It makes us or breaks us. But only up to a point. After that point, and with all due diligence about our own weak spots, we sink or swim. Which leader will survive this summer of disease and discontent? I hope its ours.

Judith Timson is a Toronto-based writer and a freelance contributing columnist for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @judithtimson

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About a year ago Tara June Winch was in tears. She bumped into her friend Melissa Lucashenko at the State Library in Sydney and told her she was there to see her win the Miles Franklin Award. She was making a joke ... but cried minutes later when Lucashenko did win.

Tara June Winch has won the $60,000 Miles Franklin Literary Award for her book The Yield.

Winch cried again a few days ago when she learnt she had won this year's $60,000 Miles for her second novel, The Yield. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, this time she remains at home in rural France, and the presentation ceremony was held online on Thursday afternoon.

But 36-year-old Winch  the fourth Indigenous writer after Lucashenko, Alexis Wright and two-time winner Kim Scott to win Australia's most significant literary prize  said she didn't really cry because she had won. She cried because she had wanted another shortlisted Indigenous writer, Tony Birch, to win for his novel The White Girl.

"Tony's my mentor, Tony's my elder, Tony's who I look up to," she said. "I've learnt from Tony, so it didn't make sense."
Pennsylvanias new coronavirus mitigation restrictions that, in part, limit indoor gatherings to 25 people or less will not apply to religious institutions.

Gov. Tom Wolf and Health Department Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine were asked and answered that question on Wednesday, the same day the pair signed an order that limits numerous things as fears begin to mount that another COVID-19 surge is on the horizon.

For background, a portion of the new order reads as follows:

Events and gatherings must adhere to these gathering limitations:

Indoor events and gatherings of more than 25 persons are prohibited.

Outdoor events and gatherings of more than 250 persons are prohibited.

The maximum occupancy limit includes staff.

In response, a reporter on hand at the in-person briefing inside of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency asked the following question when Levine was at the podium:

Does the 25-person indoor limit apply to religious institutions?

No, Levine responded, before turning to Wolf, who also said, no.

The order does drop indoor dining capacity from 50 percent of a retail foodservice businesses occupancy to 25 percent, and also forbids alcohol sales for on-site consumption unless they are accompanied by a food sale. Additionally, service at the bar is prohibited, and bars can only operate if they serve dine-in meals.

Outdoor bars may also not operate, though they can offer outside dining services if tables do not backup against or face the bar and/or other service areas.

Music and night clubs must also close under the new order, and while gyms can still allow customers to workout inside, they are encouraged to offer as many outdoor activities as they can.

You can read the full text of the order below. It is being put into effect, Wolf said, because of three problem areas. According to Wolf, one is related to a lack of compliance with the states mask-order mandate at many bars and restaurants, while the other two are related to out-of-state travel and the increased number of confirmed coronavirus cases in states like Florida and Arizona, among other places.

Pennsylvania continued a trend on Wednesday of reporting nearly 1,000 new confirmed cases.

Together these three catalysts have turned our downward trend into an alarming escalation, and were already at a tipping point where we really have to act, Wolf said.

We dont want to become Florida, [dont] want to become Texas, we dont want to become Arizona. We have got to act now.

Added Levine:

We know what will happen if we wait until cases rise exponentially before taking action. The numbers would continue to increase in our entire state. We then [would] potentially have to quarantine.

By acting now, and making these specific and targeted mitigation efforts statewide, we can get ahead of the curve and ensure that not only our hospitals and health care system be available to patients, but the economy will survive, while still saving lives.

You can read the order in its entirety and other details below, courtesy of a Wolf administration press release:

Bars and Restaurants

All businesses in the retail food services industry, including restaurants, wineries, breweries, private clubs, and bars, are permitted to provide take-out and delivery sales of food, as well as dine-in service in both indoor and outdoor seating areas so long as they strictly adhere to the requirements of the guidance, as required by the order, including:

Prohibition from conducting operations unless the facility offers sit-down, dine-in meals or is serving take-out sales of alcoholic beverages. All service must be at a table or booth; bar service is prohibited.

Alcohol only can be served for on-premises consumption when in the same transaction as a meal.

Take-out sales of alcohol for the purposes of off-site consumption are permitted subject to any limitations or restrictions imposed by Pennsylvania law.

Non-bar seating in outdoor areas (i.e. tables or counter seats that do not line up to a bar or food service area) may be used for customer seating.

Social distancing, masking, and other mitigation measures must be employed to protect workers and patrons.

Occupancy is limited to 25 percent of stated fire-code maximum occupancy for indoor dining, or 25 persons for a discrete indoor event or gathering in a restaurant. The maximum occupancy limit includes staff.

Nightclubs

All nightclubs, as defined by the Clean Indoor Air Act, 35 P.S.  637.2, are prohibited from conducting operations.

Other events and gatherings

Events and gatherings must adhere to these gathering limitations:

Indoor events and gatherings of more than 25 persons are prohibited.

Outdoor events and gatherings of more than 250 persons are prohibited.

The maximum occupancy limit includes staff.

Teleworking

Unless not possible, all businesses are required to conduct their operations in whole or in part remotely through individual teleworking of their employees in the jurisdiction or jurisdictions in which they do business.

Where telework is not possible, employees may conduct in-person business operations, provided that the businesses fully comply with all substantive aspects of the business safety order , the worker safety order , and the masking order .

Gyms and fitness facilities

All gyms and fitness facilities, while permitted to continue indoor operations, are directed to prioritize outdoor physical fitness activities. All activities must follow masking requirements as provided by the July 1 order , and must provide for social distancing requirements of persons being at least 6 feet apart, as well as being limited by any limitations related to gatherings.

Enforcement

Businesses and individuals in violation of these orders, issued pursuant to the authority granted to the Governor and the Secretary of Health under the law, including the Pennsylvania Disease Control and Prevention Law, could be subject to fines, business closure or other applicable enforcement measures.

Beginning with a spike in cases in Allegheny County in late June, Pennsylvania has seen cases continue to rise there and in other southwest counties, along with additional select counties in the state.

The state has identified three catalysts for case increases:

First, some Pennsylvanians have been ignoring mask-wearing requirements and social distancing when they are visiting Pennsylvania bars and restaurants. There they are unknowingly spreading or picking up the virus.

Second is out-of-state travel . Both by Pennsylvanians returning from travel to hotspot states, and travelers visiting our commonwealth from those hotspots.

And third, a lack of national coordination has resulted in states in the south and west not committing to social distancing.

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WEST CHESTER  With the state imposing broad new statewide restrictions on bars and restaurants and larger indoor gatherings, Chester County leaders urged residents to take careful steps toward protecting (their) health, in following the new rules, even they acknowledged the mounting challenges business owners face in order to adhere to the new requirements.

Gov. Tom Wolf announced the steps Wednesday, citing an alarming escalation in new coronavirus infections and heavily criticizing people who he said had ignored public health orders.

Nightclubs will be shut down, bars will be closed unless they also offer dine-in meals, and bars and restaurants will be limited to 25 percent capacity under Wolfs order, which took effect Thursday and also requires companies to have their employees telework to the extent possible.

We must be prepared to resist the potential wave of COVID-19 coming from other regions of the U.S., county Commissioners Marian Moskowitz, Josh Maxwell, and Michelle Kichline said in a joint statement Wednesday.  While it is challenging  and yes, frustrating  to implement an increase in restrictions, we believe that this is the right step to take, to avoid the move back to shutting down that other states have had to do.

On Thursday, Chester County reported 22 new cases of COVID-19. There were 50 on Wednesday.The county has a positive test rate of 4.3 percent which has been fairly consistent since going green. But one out of three positive cases recently are of individuals between the ages of 15 to 25.

Its in our best interest for everyone to wear a mask and practice socially distancing, said Josh Maxwell, county commissioner. We still have work to do before we are out of the woods.

The new restrictions, coming more than two months after Pennsylvania began reopening its virus-battered economy, risked major backlash in large swaths of the state where COVID-19 has largely been kept at bay.

Republican lawmakers have staunchly opposed most of Wolfs restrictions since mid-April and accused him of behaving like a dictator, abusing his power and failing to consult lawmakers on his plans.

The irreversible impact of his countless, confusing orders cannot be overstated, House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, of Centre County, said in a written statement. Gov. Wolfs decision today will close the doors of some small businesses forever and devastate the livelihoods of so many Pennsylvanians who were just beginning to feel hopeful for the future.

The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry and the National Federation of Independent Business questioned why the order couldnt be tailored to areas seeing an outbreak, or why stronger enforcement couldnt be wielded against rule-breakers.

But Wolf warned that a new surge is in the offing that could eclipse what happened in the spring, when the virus killed thousands and sickened tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians.

The Democratic governor said people who refused to wear a mask or abide by social distancing requirements while patronizing bars and restaurants are responsible in part for the viruss resurgence in the state.

This carelessness has resulted in pockets of super-spreading, Wolf said.

He also cited out-of-state travel to virus hot spots, and blamed states in the South and West for not committing to the things they shouldve done to keep this virus from spreading.

We did everything we shouldve done, we were responsible, and yet were paying the price right now, he said.

In Chester County, the pace of new infections from the virus has slowed to a crawl. On Tuesday, the countys website showed 4,153 positive COVID-19 cases, with 34,29 negative tests since the first infection appeared in the county on March 13. The month started with 3,939 positive cases, meaning that there had been 214 new cases of the disease, or about 15 a day.

In Floridas Miami-Dade County for contrast, there were about 10,000 new cases on Wednesday.

Under Wolfs order, indoor events and gatherings of more than 25 people are prohibited, though administration officials said places of worship are exempt. Gyms are allowed to remain open but are supposed to prioritize outdoor physical fitness activities. The new restrictions on bars and restaurants say alcohol may only be served on site with a meal.

A group representing liquor licensees asked for financial relief, including the elimination of state fees and deeper discounts on liquor sold to bars and restaurants by the state.

People have paid their license fees and are unable to use them. People have brought staff back and will probably have to lay them off again. Its not a good situation if youre a licensed tavern or restaurant, said Chuck Moran of the Pennsylvania Licensed Beverage and Tavern Association.

The state Health Department reported 994 new positive virus cases Wednesday, bringing the statewide total to more than 97,000. The department reported the results of nearly 29,000 virus tests, the highest one-day total since the beginning of the pandemic, and 26 new deaths, raising the statewide toll to 6,957.

Pennsylvanias recently elevated statewide virus numbers have been driven in large part by increased spread in the Pittsburgh area, where officials attribute the spike to people congregating in bars and restaurants.

Allegheny County, which had already imposed temporary restrictions on restaurants and bars, on Wednesday reported 246 additional infections from tests performed between June 30 and July 14. Infection numbers are also up in neighboring counties.

Theres evidence the virus is likewise resurgent in south-central Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia area, according to Dr. David Rubin, director of PolicyLab at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, which developed a virus tracking model.

Rubin, who took part in the governors news conference, said that school reopenings will be in jeopardy unless the state acts decisively while case numbers are still manageable.

The commissioners, in their statement, urged residents to continue to socially distance themselves, wear protective face masks, and practice preventative hygiene.

These practices help to contain outbreaks, minimize community spread of coronavirus, and break the cycle of transmission, they said.

We continue to conduct investigations of those who have a confirmed-positive COVID-19 test. We have expanded our contact tracing to more quickly and thoroughly notify everyone who is in close contact with those who have tested positive for COVID-19. And we have increased access to diagnostic swab testing for anyone who is high risk for COVID as well as for anyone who may be asymptomatic.

No cost testing is available throughout the County and is open to all residents and individuals who work in Chester County. County sponsored locations, times and registration can be found on www.chesco.org/coronavirus.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.
Theyve been coming by the thousands, packing Tel Avivs main square, chanting outside the prime ministers residence, and unfurling black flags from bridges spanning Israels highways. All with a single message: Were fed up with you, Bibi.

Rarely has public dissatisfaction with Prime Minister Benjamin Bibi Netanyahu been so high, as a resurgent coronavirus outbreak, mounting unemployment and the corruption allegations against him come together in a flood of discontent. Polls show his Likud party sinking, and only about 30% of Israelis trust his handling of the health crisis.

The anger is weakening Netanyahu precisely at a time when the optics of appearing strong and admired would serve him best. Next week, with his political survival and a possible jail sentence at stake, his multi-layered corruption trial shifts into higher gear, with a possible scheduling of future hearings where hell take the stand.

The shift in public sentiment came swiftly. Netanyahu initially won high marks both at home and abroad for assertive decisions that kept both virus deaths and infections down. But the reopening of the economy -- done not in the gradual, measured way that was promised, but in a burst of celebration (Go out and have fun, he said) -- has brought cases shooting up again. New daily infections that had dwindled to single digits in May topped 1,700 this week.

The prime minister was forced to concede in a rare public apology last week that he had erred. The new 90 billion shekel ($26.1 billion) economic aid package he announced at the same time did little to mollify protesters who say his fractious coalition government -- formed explicitly to tackle the health emergency -- has managed the crisis ineptly and doesnt understand the publics pain.

The government is so disconnected with the economic situation, said Aviad Ben Sadon, a consultant and leader of an independent contractors group. They think always about themselves. They think, What is going to be our salary, my position in the politics. Theyre not thinking about us.

Little more than half of the governments initial rescue aid, announced in late March, has been disbursed to needy workers and businesses, a government official told parliament on Monday as the crisis deepens and talk of a possible new lockdown abounds.

There have been some 43,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, including about 375 deaths, in the country of 9 million.

The mounting sense that the government is out of touch has only been fueled by the personal conduct of the premier and several key allies. While businesses were collapsing and unemployment stood at a menacing 21%, Netanyahu was busy pressing parliament to give him a tax refund worth hundreds of thousands of shekels. He parried the consequent uproar by saying the timing was off.

A minister without portfolio in his bloated cabinet dismissed claims that some Israelis are going hungry as bullsh*t. It wasnt lost on critics that the minister doesnt have a clearly defined job.

Netanyahus health minister, meanwhile, went to a birthday bash for his wife just after announcing impending new restrictions on gatherings.

A poll Sunday night on Channel 13 showed Likud winning just 33 seats in Israels 120-seat parliament, down from 40 just weeks ago. Another survey by the Israeli Democracy Institute showed 75% of Israelis are dissatisfied with the governments functioning during the crisis.

Yet while Netanyahus on the ropes -- as hes been before -- the same coronavirus thats hurting him will also preserve his government, at least for now. Neither he nor his coalition partners have anything to gain from going to early elections at this point because theyd either lose seats or maintain their current strength, polls show.

Netanyahu would have no incentive to resign now, either, since he sees an advantage to going to trial as Israels leader, and not as an ordinary citizen. Hanan Kristal, political commentator for Israel Radio, predicts the crunch time will come in November 2021, when Netanyahu is scheduled to turn over the premiership to Defense Minister Benny Gantz under the power-sharing pact underpinning their government. Many in Israel have suspected the prime minister would find a ruse to bring the government down and call elections rather than honor the agreement.

In November next year is the rotation, by then well see where this all goes, Kristal said.

In the meantime, Israelis are hitting the streets. Demonstrations have included unusually large turnouts outside the prime ministers residence in Jerusalem and protests on bridges demanding that Netanyahu resign over the multiple graft cases against him. About 50 people were arrested on Tuesday night in clashes with police after a raucous rally where some anti-corruption protesters carrying torches attempted to rush the barricades outside Netanyahus home.

For Netanyahu, its starting to look like the perfect storm against him because its the health care, its the economy, its the government, said Mitchell Barak, a pollster and former Netanyahu adviser. The prime minister is not keyed into whats going on.
The distraught family of Theo Hayez have broken their silence after Byron Bay police revealed they are keeping an 'open mind' about skeletal remains found in bushland near the town on Wednesday afternoon.

Police search teams discovered bones near where the Belgian backpacker has been missing for more than a year.

The grim discovery was made on Wednesday afternoon during a cadaver dog-led hunt for clues into the disappearance of another missing person - nomadic woman Thea Liddle.

Ms Liddle, 42, was known to move between homeless camps, but vanished last year.

Mr Hayez, 18, was last seen leaving a bar on May 31, 2019.

New South Wales Police say they are yet to determine if the bones discovered belong to a man or a woman, or even if they relate to either of their disappearances.

Byron Bay Detective Chief Inspector Brendon Cullen told reporters on Thursday forensics teams were conducting a 'methodical and thorough examination' of the .

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Skeletal remains have been found during a search of bushland around Byron Bay near where Belgian backpacker Theo Hayez (left) went missing last May and nomadic traveller Thea Liddle (right) vanished last October

The grim discovery was made on Wednesday afternoon during a cadaver dog-led hunt for clues near Tallow Beach

'We may not know the identity of that deceased person for a number of weeks,' he said.

Det Chf Insp Cullen said the site of the discovery appeared to be a camp site and there were several other items found there which would go under forensic examination.

'The land is particularly dense bushland near Tallow Beach known for people who do camp and live rough in that area,' he said.

'The full extent of our investigation is still unknown and I won't speculate on who the deceased person could be.

'What we have here is an unexplained death - we don't know who that person is or how they came to be there or the cause of death.'

The police chief said though he believed it was 'highly unlikely' the remains were those of Mr Hayez.

The Belgian backpacker's father Laurent Hayez broke his silence to support a call for calm in the search for his son and Ms Liddle

'We have produced a brief of evidence to the coroner and the circumstances surrounding the location of this deceased person we do not believe this deceased person is Theo Hayez,' he said.

Police brought in sniffer dogs and rescue specialists to scour Byron Bay bushland on Tuesday as part of the hunt for answers about Ms Liddle's disappearance.

As news of the search for Ms Liddle's body was announced on social media, the Belgian backpacker's father Laurent Hayez broke his silence to call for calm in the search for both missing people.

Police fence off an area (pictured) near Tallow Beach, to the south of the Byron Bay lighthouse

The elder Hayez was responding to a plea on the Looking for Theo Hayez Facebook group asking followers not to add further stress to the family's search for answers by sharing news coverage of the event.

'Please refrain from commenting on this post with recent news articles about the search for Thea for the time being,' the comment read.

'Thea's friends are on this post and Theo's Belgian family needs to be made aware of the recent news in an appropriate way as it is just the morning there [in Belgium].'

NSW Police say they are yet to determine if the bones discovered belong to a man or a woman, or even if they relate to either of their disappearances

Mr Hayez responded simply 'thank you sweet sista'.

Ms Liddle's last known address was a rural property where she was living with a 46-year-old man.

While she was known to lead a transient lifestyle, her disappearance has prompted a major search amid fears for her safety.

Theo, 18, was in Australia on a working holiday visa and had gone out to Byron Bay's popular nightclub Cheeky Monkey's on May 31, 2019

Officers have searched homeless camps where she was known to reside in the months before her disappearance.

Byron Police District Commander, Superintendent Dave Roptell, said the search area is relatively wide because of her nomadic lifestyle.

'Thea lived a very transient lifestyle  shifting from place to place, changing campsites often and would opt for places in remote bushland away from the public,' Superintendent Roptell said.

Ms Liddle, 42, disappeared on Halloween last year from Mooball in Northern New South Wales

One of those sites was a section of bushland around the Youth Activity Centre near Byron Bay's town centre.

This was the same site police searched as part of investigations into the disappearance of Hayez.

The 18-year-old was in Australia on a working holiday visa and had gone out to Byron Bay's popular nightclub Cheeky Monkey's on May 31.

He was seen on CCTV leaving the bar, but his movements after that are unknown.

He never returned to the hostel where he was staying and it was not until June 6 - a week after he was last seen - that his family in Europe raised the alarm.

Officers have been searching homeless camps in the bush where she was known to reside in the month's before her disappearance

Theo's father Laurent (pictured) flew out to Australia to join other family members, police and local volunteers in the search for his son last year

His father Laurent flew out to Australia to join other family members, police and local volunteers in the search for his son.

'When I left Belgium I promised Hayez's little brother, Lucas, I would bring his brother home, please help me keep my promise to him', Laurent said on his arrival.

A grey Puma hat similar to the one Theo was wearing when he vanished was found in bushland last July.

Despite speculation Australia could have a second backpacker serial killer in a similar vein to Ivan Milat, there is no indication the two missing persons cases are linked.

Thea was reported missing by her family in January 2020 and police hope the search will uncover new evidence which may assist with investigations.

When she was reported missing officers launched Strike Force Holby to investigate her disappearance.

Hundreds of locals and people from all over Australia joined in the desperate search for Theo in the days and weeks after he went missing

A grey Puma hat similar to the one Theo was wearing when he vanished was found in bushland last July

She is known to frequent several areas around the New South Wales Far North Coast including Mooball, Nimbin and Byron Bay.

'We are conducting thorough searches throughout these locations for any indication of Thea's presence there,' Supt Roptell said.

'It wasn't uncommon for Thea to travel throughout the Far North Coast, however, is it unusual for her to go this length of time without speaking to family members.'
The California woman who tried to shame a Starbucks barista on Facebook for not serving her because she wasn't wearing a mask is claiming that she was discriminated against.

Amber Lynn Gilles, 35, a yoga instructor, photographer and self-proclaimed anti-vaxxer, took to Facebook on June 22 to blast the barista - identified as Lenin Gutierrez - for denying her service at a Starbucks in San Diego.

'Meet lenen [sic] from Starbucks who refused to serve me cause I'm not wearing a mask,' she said in the post, tagging the coffee shop off the 4200 block of Genesee Avenue. 'Next time I will wait for cops and bring a medical exemption.'

The post, which has been deleted after drawing numerous negative comments directed at Gilles, inspired a stranger, Matt Cowan, from Irvine, to launch a GoFundMe campaign for Gutierrez as a way of tipping him for his work.

As of Thursday afternoon, the fundraiser has drawn more than $105,000 in donations.

Gilles recently told Fox 4, that she was the real victim and is demanding half of the money raised for Gutierrez on GoFundMe. 'I feel like I need the apology,' Gilles said. 'Ive been discriminated against, Im the one whos sick.'

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Amber Lynn Gilles (pictured) whose viral Facebook post seeking to shame a Starbucks barista for refusing to serve her because she was not wearing a mask is claiming that she was discriminated against and has demanded an apology

'Meet lenen from Starbucks who refused to serve me cause I'm not wearing a mask,' she said in the post, tagging the coffee shop off the 4200 block of Genesee Avenue. 'Next time I will wait for cops and bring a medical exemption'

Gilles said she was the real victim and is demanding half of the money raised on GoFundMe for Lenin Gutierrez (pictured)

'It was discrimination and everybody is OK with it and enabling and rewarding that behavior,' Gilles said.

She then described her health issues that prevent her from wearing a mask.

'I get shortness of breath, dizziness and it messes with the heartbeat,' she explained.

'And I do have asthma as well, and I do get mask-acne. So theres several things going on and not only that but it doesnt even work.'

According to Fox 4, Gilles provided documentation to prove she's medically exempt from wearing a mask.

One document was a pelvic exam from 2015 with results that say 'probable exophytic fibroid arising from the anterior wall of the uterus measuring 2.9 cm size,' and 'simple 2.5 cm left ovarian cyst'.

The second document came from a chiropractor who wrote that she has 'underlying breathing conditions that prevent her from wearing a mask or any type of facial covering whatsoever'.

It's unclear why a chiropractor gave her that diagnosis and when asked, Gilles responded: 'Because they are dedicated to providing non-invasive personalized care and treatment. They are real doctors.'

Gilles also told the station that she has spoken with lawyers about taking her case for getting half of the GoFundMe money but she says they are all expensive.

She claims she will be starting her own GoFundMe to try to raise money.

Cowan told ABC10 earlier this month that when he launched the campaign, titled 'Tips for Lenin Standing Up To A San Diego Karen,' he never expected the outpouring of support that followed.

'I set it at $1,000 thinking that was a reach but we would be lucky if we hit like $250 and when we hit $100 I was overwhelmed by that,' said Cowan.

Gutierrez told ABC10 that he plans to use the money to pursue a college degree in kinesiology - the study of movement - and to donate some to charity.

'Everything I wanted to do seemed very far away, but with all that's going on, it seems more within my reach,' he said. 'Everyone showed my kindness, so now I want to show it back.'

Gutierrez posted a video on his Facebook page offering his side of the story.

Gutierrez (pictured) posted a video on his Facebook page offering his side of the story. He said after he asked Gilles to wear a mask, the woman began hurling profanities and calling people 'sheep'

He said that he asked Gilles if she had a face mask, to which she allegedly replied that she did not need one.

'Before I could say anything she flipped me off and said I dont need one and she started cursing up a storm,' he said.

'She started calling people sheep and she left and within a few minutes came back and she asked for my name and took a photo.'

Under California Governor Gavin Newsom's mandate regarding face coverings, people can be exempt for wearing masks in public but must provide a medical reason.

Speaking to NBC San Diego days after the incident, Gilles denied ever threatening Gutierrez.

'I just called him out on his actions,' the mother-of-three said.

'I never threatened him and Ive received death threats, thousands, its very upsetting. Its very scary.'

Gilles, who opposes vaccinations, argued that forcing people to wear masks is a slippery slope.

'It starts with coffee but it ends with mandatory digital certificates, the mark of the beast and all of that forced vaccination,' she said.

Starbucks released a statement standing behind the need to wear masks inside stores.

'We want everyone to feel welcome in our stores,' they said in a statement to CBS 8.

'We respectfully request customers follow social distancing and safety protocols recommended by public health officials, including wearing a facial covering when visiting our stores.
A former rookie Peel Regional Police officer who shot a Black Mississauga woman during a domestic call on Mothers Day has been charged by Ontarios police watchdog.

Valerie Briffa was still on probation, just months into the job, when she accompanied another officer to a Mississauga home on May 10  an encounter that led to a violent escalation and ended with Chantelle Krupka, a 34-year-old mother, being Tasered then shot.

Following a two-month probe, Ontarios Special Investigations Unit (SIU) announced Thursday that Briffa is charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm, assault with a weapon and careless use of a firearm, offences that each carry the possibility of jail time upon conviction.

In a rare move, Briffa has since resigned from the police service.

Its a victory that shes no longer a police officer, Davin Charney, Krupkas lawyer, said Thursday.

Police officers in Ontario are rarely fired after facing criminal charges, and can be suspended with pay for years as the case makes its way through the justice system. The officer then usually faces a disciplinary tribunal to determine whether he or she will be fired.

The charges against Briffa come amid an international outcry over police accountability and officer use of force, particularly against Black and Indigenous people. Recent weeks have seen a wide-scale reckoning over police shootings of racialized citizens, including the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.

As the charges were laid, Krupka and a group of about 30 supporters were protesting outside a Peel Regional Police division against police use of force and the fact that Krupka, herself, faces charges stemming from the incident. Krupka has said that, as a Black woman, she feared the police even before she was shot outside her home.

I am afraid of police, because I have seen so many Black people killed or abused by police and I have bad experiences with them before, she wrote in a recent complaint to the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD), the provinces police complaints watchdog.

Although Krupka says she was hoping for more serious charges against Briffa, she said Thursdays developments were a step in the right direction.

That goes to show that, when a community stands up behind someone and we make noise like this, we do get answers, Krupka said.

The SIU has faced criticism for its high clearance rate for police officers who use force in the line of duty. Of the 363 cases closed in 2019, only 13 saw criminal charges laid, according to the watchdogs most recent annual report.

The civilian agency has also been criticized for the length of its investigations, but both Charney and the Peel Regional Police said they appreciated that the SIU completed its probe swiftly.

We have been asking the SIU for more timely investigations and appreciate that this investigation has been resolved quickly, said the Peel Regional Police statement.

According to Krupka, she and her partner Michael Headley were unarmed when they were both Tasered outside her Mississauga home. It was as she lay wounded from the shock of the Taser that Krupka says a female police officer, now identified as Briffa, pulled out her gun and shot her without warning.

The bullet struck her in the abdomen and fractured her hip. Krupka is facing months of physiotherapy and walks with a cane as a result of her injury.

Krupka provided a detailed summary of the incident in her written complaint to the OIPRD, which she provided to the media.

The allegations contained in the complaint have not been proven.

She says the incident began after Krupka got into an argument with her ex-partner over access to their 10-year-old son. Krupka said shed asked to see her son on Mothers Day, and, when her ex-partner did not agree to this, they got into an argument by text, but there was nothing threatening.

Krupka said she later got a call from an officer saying police were outside, and that they had to come to tell her not to contact her ex-partner.

Krupka says when she refused to come outside to speak with the officer, he threatened to bring charges against her. She decided to call police to try to speak with the officers supervisor and was told by a dispatcher to go outside and speak with the police, according to her complaint.

Krupka says she and her boyfriend, Michael Headley then came out of the house and two officers, a male officer and a female officer, now known to be Briffa, got out of the vehicle and walked up to the home.

When Krupka says she told the officers they needed to leave, she says a male officer moved toward her and pulled out his Taser. Soon after, both she and Headley were Tasered; Headley had been standing about two metres away from the officer and was not threatening him in any way, according to Krupkas complaint.

Krupka was Tasered soon after. She says it was as she was lying on her back and reaching out towards Headley that the female officer shot her without warning.

Krupka and Headley have since been charged with possession for the purpose of distributing, and with laundering proceeds of crime.

Briffa is scheduled to appear in court in Brampton on Aug. 4.

Charney, Krupkas lawyer, said the next step will be to get the charges dropped.

This is going to have a very significant impact on the charges that Chantelle is facing, said Charney, who said he expects that the Crown prosecutor is going to be very hesitant to continue to prosecute Chantelle in light of the fact that it would appear that she was wrongfully shot.

With Star files

Jason Miller is a Toronto-based reporter for the Star covering crime and justice in the Peel Region. His reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. Reach him on email: jasonmiller@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @millermotionpic

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

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Pontifical Lateran University names its Chair of Logic and Epistemology to Dean

VATICAN CITY, July 16, 2020, focused on identifying and removing the most significant impediments to human flourishing in collaboration with the Holy Seein Vatican City. The news comes on the heels of a majority vote from the Council of the Philosophy Department placing Fr. Philip Larrey as the front runner. In a formal confirmation on July 3rd, 2020, the Pope's Vicar General for Rome and Grand Chancellor of the University, Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, confirmed the appointment.



Fr. Philip Larrey commented: "Although I am honored by the trust of the Faculty and excited to build upon the academic excellence which characterizes our Department, I also realize the profound challenges which lie ahead. The Lateran University, also known as the University of the Pope, is currently addressing the societal and cultural transformations which we all face today. Humanity 2.0 eagerly waits to see how we can best collaborate with the Philosophy Department to continue to identify impediments to human flourishing and support initiatives to overcome those impediments."

Students are expected to return to classes in October 2020 with certain virtual aspects still in place.

About Father Philip Larrey

Fr. Philip Larrey, Ph.D., is a Catholic priest who holds the Chair of Logic and Epistemology at the Pontifical Lateran University in the Vatican. His publications deal with the philosophy of knowledge and critical thinking. He has published several books concerning the effects of the new digital era on society. Two of his recent works highlight this theme: Futuro ignoto (IF Press) and Connected World (Penguin). The Italian translation of this later was published by Mondadori in 2018, entitled, Dove inizia il futuro.

For years he has been following the philosophical implications of the rapid development of artificial intelligence. With candor, he challenges industry leaders he comes into contact with at the Vatican to discuss how technology is shaping the fabric of our society. His new book, Artificial Humanity, delves into a more philosophical discussion of what AI research means for all of humanity.

About Humanity 2.0

Humanity 2.0 a Non-Profit (Non-Government Organization) focused on identifying and removing the most significant impediments to human flourishing in collaboration with the Holy See (Vatican). A vehicle for facilitating collaborative ventures between the traditionally siloed public, private and faith-based sectors. Its mission is to identify impediments to human flourishing and then work collaboratively across sectors to remove them by sourcing and scaling bold and innovative solutions. Developed in collaboration with the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development at the Holy See and a consortium of leaders and luminaries, Humanity 2.0 seeks to unite humanity in the common cause of realizing a better world for our children.

For more information visit: www.humanity2-0.org | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn

*Communications and media services provided by CommPro Worldwide

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Editorials are longer opinion pieces that are written by a group of community members recruited across campus who address relevant issues on a local, national and international level. Editorials are research-based. The purpose of the Editorial Board is to promote discussion concerning relevant issues in the community while advising on possible solutions. Topics are chosen via relevancy and interests of the members, which are then discussed by the Editorial Board in order to reach a general consensus concerning the topic or issue.

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If you have a grievance concerning the content or argument of the Editorial Board, please contact either Opinion Editor Peyton Hamel (peyton.hamel@iowastatedaily.com) or the Editorial Board as a whole (editorialboard@iowastatedaily.com). Those wanting to respond to editorials can also submit a letter to the editor through the Iowa State Daily website or by emailing the letter to Opinion Editor Peyton Hamel (peyton.hamel@iowastatedaily.com) or Editor-in-Chief Sage Smith (sage.smith@iowastatedaily.com).

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Columns are hyper-specific to opinion and are written by only columnists employed by the Iowa State Daily. Columnists are unique because they have a specific writing day and only publish on those writing days. Each column undergoes a thorough editing process ensuring the integrity of the writer, and their claim is maintained while remaining research-based and respectful. Columns may be submitted from community members. These are labelled as Guest Columns. These contain similar research-based content and need to be at least 400 words in length. The following requirements should be met: first and last name, email and relation or position to Iowa State. Emails must be tied to the submitted guest column or it will not be accepted or published. Pseudonyms are prohibited and the writer will be banned from submissions.

Read our full Opinion Policies here. Updated on 10/7/2020
Harbin city in northeast Chinas Heilongjiang province has opened the first drive-thru testing point for nucleic acid tests for coronavirus in Harbin New Area, with sample collection taking just six seconds, Chinanews.com reported on Wednesday.

A medical worker carries out a nucleic acid test on a passenger, who can remain in his vehicle during the entire process. Photo courtesy of Harbin New Area

People being tested can remain in their vehicles during the entire process, which will take a maximum of six minutes, and receive their results in about six hours. It is very quick and convenient, and most importantly, it helps avoid mass gatherings.

People who wish to receive the test can make an appointment online beforehand. When they arrive, a medical worker will first check their identity then input their personal information into the system. A personal bar code will be attached to the sample, which will be stored in a special box and later transported to a nucleic acid detection laboratory.

The sample collection takes just six seconds. Photo courtesy of Harbin New Area

The drive-thru testing point in the new area will make taking nucleic acid tests for people travelling between China and neighboring Russia easier and more convenient, and is therefore expected to boost investment and development of local industries.

As the only national-level new area featuring Chinese cooperation with Russia, and the biggest modern industrial cluster in the province, the new area plays a vital role in boosting economic cooperation between China and Russia.
After conflicting reports, Ethiopia says it is not deliberately filling Blue Nile mega dam, points to heavy rainfall.

The Egyptian foreign ministry has demanded urgent clarification from Ethiopia after conflicting reports on whether it had started filling the reservoir of its giant dam on the Blue Nile River.

Ethiopian state television had reported that the filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) started on Wednesday, a day after talks with Egypt and Sudan on the hydroelectric project, the largest in Africa, stalled.

The two downstream countries have been seeking a legally binding deal on the operation and filling of the dam before the latter begins.

Later on Wednesday, Seleshi Bekele, Ethiopias minister of water, irrigation and energy, denied Addis Ababa was filling the reservoir, saying water levels behind its wall had increased naturally due to seasonal, heavy rainfall.

There is a lot of water going through. There is heavy rainfall, and the inflow is much greater than the outflow, he told DPA news agency.

Seleshi said the dams wall had been raised to 560 metres compared with 525 metres last year, so the filling of the dam was in conformity with the normal process of the construction, according to state broadcaster FANA.

The inflow into the reservoir due to heavy rainfall and runoff exceeded the outflow and created natural pooling. This continues until overflow is triggered soon, he wrote on Twitter.

Read more: Could mega-dams kill the mighty River Nile? (an interactive report)

The GERD has been a source of tension in the Nile River basin ever since Ethiopia broke ground on it in 2011, with Egypt and Sudan worried it will restrict vital water supplies.

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Addis Ababa has long intended to begin filling the dams reservoir this month, in the middle of its rainy season, though it has not said exactly when.

The government has not stated explicitly whether the water backing up behind the dam is due to the remaining outlets being closed, or whether it is simply water accumulating behind the almost complete structure during the rainy season, said William Davison, an analyst with International Crisis Group (ICG).

Sudans rejection

The project has raised concerns in Egypt that already limited Nile waters, which its 100 million people depend on heavily, will be further restricted. The Blue Nile is a tributary of the Nile River, from which Egypt gets 90 percent of its freshwater.

Ahmed Soliman, a research fellow with Chatham House, noted Egypts water requirements already outpace availability.

What we have in Egypt is a significant gap between the amount of water they produce and the amount of water they consume. And with a rapidly growing population of more than 100 million, it points to this problem only getting worse, Soliman told Al Jazeera.

Read more: Could mega-dams kill the mighty River Nile? (an interactive report)

On Tuesday, talks between the three countries to regulate the flow of water from the dam failed to reach an agreement.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told reporters that Guterres had urged the three countries to seize the opportunity in the coming days to bridge remaining differences and reach a mutually beneficial agreement for their peoples.

The dam, when finished, will have an installed capacity of 6,450 megawatts  more than doubling Ethiopias existing capacity  and is the centrepiece of the countrys bid to not only be completely self-sufficient in electricity but also to become Africas biggest power exporter.

It is being built about 15km (nine miles) from the border with Sudan.

Sudans Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources said it was prompted to investigate after satellite images appeared to show the reservoir filling.

It was evident from the flow meters in the al-Deim border station with Ethiopia that there is a retreat in the water levels, equivalent to 90 million cubic meters [three billion cubic feet] per day, confirming the closure of the gates of the Renaissance Dam, it said in a statement.

Sudan rejects any unilateral actions taken by any party as negotiating efforts continue, it said

Davison, of ICG, said the latest developments should not distract Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt from their essential task: to keep talking in order to find compromises on the outstanding areas of disagreement.
Mehulkumar Manubhai Patel and his wife Chitali Dave allegedly laundered over $400,000 on behalf of India-based phone scammers who cheated Americans into sending money by pretending to be government officials or tech support, prosecutors said July 14. (representational image/pixabay.com)
The State needs to be wary of new business registration applicants and M&A deals related to Chinese investors, Bui Ngoc Son from the Institute of World Economics and Politics (IWEP) has said.

According to Son, the new M&A wave began in 2019 when the US-China trade war broke out and prompted foreign investors to leave China.The Covid-19 breakout has accelerated the relocation process.





Among the 20 M&A deals in 2019 and in recent months of the year, the capital flow was mostly from Japan, South Korea, Thailand and China.



The businesses that caught the attention from investors were in the fields of logistics, financial service, banking, retail and supporting industries. Foreign investors are buying into Vietnamese enterprises to prepare for plans to relocate their factories to Vietnam.



There is still no clear evidence but analysts think Vietnams enterprises have been aware of the risk of being taken over by foreign investors, so they have joined forces to develop.

The new M&A wave began in 2019 when the US-China trade war broke out and prompted foreign investors to leave China.The Covid-19 breakout has accelerated the relocation process.

Retailers, for example, have signed cooperation agreements, while Vinamilk has bought Moc Chau to become stronger in the dairy industry.



However, Son stressed that the big concern is the investment from China, not from Japan and South Korea. The M&A deals made by Japanese and South Korean investors aim to prepare infrastructure (banking, logistics, retail and accommodation) for the relocation wave.

Meanwhile, Chinese businesses come to Vietnam to buy into Vietnams enterprises, which allow them to avoid high tariffs imposed by the US on Chinese imports.



Agreeing with Son that Vietnam needs to be wary of Chinese investors, an analysts warned Chinese may use Vietnams enterprises as a screen.

This may occur if Vietnams businesses are set up and then merge with businesses from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. In the worst scenario, the US and other partners may impose high taxes on Chinese invested enterprises, which would affect Vietnams businesses.



What should Vietnam do?



The M&A wave from Japan and South Korea helps Vietnams businesses access capital, technology, management skill and helps scale up production in the context of big difficulties brought by the pandemic. If Vietnam stops the investment flow, its businesses will die before they are taken over.



However, since Vietnams businesses are getting weaker after the blows from Covid-19, there must be state control over M&A activities.



It needs to assess M&A deals and find out investors capability and technologies, Son said.



However, he said the state should only intervene in specific business fields to avoid possible influences on economic security. As for other projects, the state should open the doors widely to receive foreign capital.

Kim Chi

How should Vietnam reopen to other economies after COVID-19? Experts believe that Vietnam should follow a gradual opening roadmap instead of an immediate opening to protect its great achievements in fighting against Covid-19.
USC President C.L. Max Nikias presides at commencement ceremonies in 2018 on the campus in Los Angeles.

He was president of the University of Southern California during a sex abuse scandal involving a campus gynecologist, for which the U.S. Department of Education condemned the school for its complete failure to protect students after decades of complaints.

But when C.L. Max Nikias stepped down in the wake of the scandal in August 2018, he walked away with a compensation package totaling nearly $7.7 million  more than three times his previous annual compensation, a USA TODAY review of just-released tax documents shows. That would have put him at the top of the most recent list of compensation for private university leaders by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

USC officials declined to speak with USA TODAY about the compensation, as detailed in the private universitys most recent tax filings. A statement from the USC board of trustees said the group voted to honor Nikias contract and agreed to certain other provisions to accelerate his departure.

The tax filing revealed a $3 million, no-interest housing loan for Nikias, who lived in the on-campus presidents home through the end of 2018. Nikias bought a Manhattan Beach home from sports media personality Colin Cowherd for $4.1 million in the fall of 2018, according to the Los Angeles Times.

After an investigation by the Department of Education released in February, USC had to overhaul its processes for following Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sexual discrimination in education.

"This total and complete failure to protect students is heartbreaking and inexcusable," U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said in a statement.

Nikias, who is still a faculty member at the university and is listed as president emeritus, was not directly involved in the accusations against George Tyndall, a gynecologist at the university for decades who was charged with sexually assaulting female students. The LA County district attorney filed six more counts of sexual assault and battery last week against the 73-year-old, making a total of 35 charges against him.

Story continues

The original charges: Longtime USC gynecologist George Tyndall charged in sex assaults of 16 women

Nikias, whose tenure began in 2010, was president when a scandal erupted involving then-medical school dean Carmen Puliafito.

Puliafito had been associating with criminals and was filmed apparently smoking methamphetamine. Puliafito resigned as dean in 2016. The university fired him in 2017 after a Los Angeles Times story documented his illicit behavior, including drug-fueled parties in hotel rooms.

The university was also implicated in the national college admissions scandal known as Varsity Blues, in which wealthy parents were accused of paying bribes or faking academic and athletic credentials to help secure their children spots at highly selective colleges. Several of USC's coaches have since pleaded guilty to their involvement in the scandal, which ran from 2011 to 2018.

Nikias' payout came as tuition prices were rising nationally, with students finding it increasingly difficult to pay for their education. The spread of coronavirus and its impact on in-person classes has students broadly questioning the value of a higher education.

Nikias already was among the most highly paid presidents at roughly $2.4 million in pay and benefits in 2017, according to the last survey of private university leaders by the Chronicle of Higher Education. His compensation of $7,654,938 for the year of his departure would have put him at the top of that list.

That total was about $5.4 million more than he received on average during the previous four years, excluding a $1.5 million bonus in the 2015-16 year. Nikias base pay for the year was listed at $1.467 million, almost identical to what he received for all of 2017.

He received $5.485 million in other reported compensation for that year. Nearly $1.5 million of that came from funds reported as deferred compensation in prior tax filings. The tax documents dont detail the source for the rest of the other compensation, which was about $5 million more than Nikias received in the previous four years combined.

The compensation reflects money owed to him for salary, retirement and other benefits, some of which date back to the employment agreement he entered into when he became President in 2010, the board of trustees' statement said.

Contributing: Steve Berkowitz

Education coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation does not provide editorial input.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: USC president: $7.7M salary payout in wake of sexual assault scandal
Thiruvananthapuram, July 16 : The congress-led opposition UDF on Thursday sent a notice under rule 65 of the rules of procedure and conduct of business of the Kerala assembly to the assembly secretary seeking leave to move a resolution for the removal of speaker P Sreeramakrishnan.

The notice sent by Manjeri MLA M Ummer of the Indian union muslim league (IUML) accuses Sreeramakrishnan of having lowered the dignity of the speakers post by associating himself with the accused in the sensational gold smuggling case.

The opposition charges the speaker with having dubious links to the accused in the gold smuggling case being investigated by the national investigation agency (NIA).

Sreeramakrishnan landed himself in a soup after an old video showing his inaugurating a workshop of one of the accused in the gold smuggling case went viral on social media.

The opposition UDF and the mainstream media went to town with the video despite the speaker insisting that he did not know the accused personally.

The NIA suspects the accused of having terror links. Sreeramakrishnan has tarnished the reputation and dignity of the office of the speaker by associating with such elements and hence does not deserve to continue in the post, the opposition charges.

Rules of procedure mandate that a notice seeking leave to move a resolution for the speakers removal has to be given 14 days prior to the start of an assembly session. With the assembly convening on July 27 for a single day to pass the finance bill, the notice will fall short of the 14-day requirement. Hence, the assembly secretary is likely to reject the notice.

The opposition also plans to move a no-confidence motion against the CPI(M)-led LDF government, accusing the chief ministers office of having links to the accused in the gold smuggling case.

A seizure of 30kg of gold concealed in a diplomatic baggage addressed to the UAE consulate in Thiruvananthapuram has kicked up a political storm with one of the key accused turning out to be a contract employee in the state governments prestigious space park project under the state IT department. The said accused was also found to be close to the chief ministers former principal secretary M Sivasankar, bringing the chief ministers office under a cloud.
White House National Security adviser Robert OBrien on Wednesday expressed sympathy for Frances account of events in a Mediterranean naval standoff with Turkey last month over a Libyan arm smuggling allegation.

NATO allies shouldnt be turning fire control radars on each other. Thats not good, OBrien told reporters in France. We are very sympathetic to French concerns.

While Paris has accused three Turkish ships of harassing a French vessel and flashing their radar lights at it, OBrien acknowledged that Ankara has offered a different account of the event. OBrien also suggested that President Donald Trump would be available to mediate the dispute between French President Emmanuel Macron and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Why it matters: France said Turkish forces harassed its ship after it attempted to inspect a Tanzania-flagged vessel suspected of carrying arms to Libya in violation of the United Nations arms embargo. France is closer to Libyan warlord Khalifa Hifter in the dispute, while Turkey has committed forces to support the rival Government of National Accord, based in Tripoli. OBriens remarks came after Trump and Erdogan discussed Libya in a phone call Tuesday. The United States has urged both Hifters forces and the Government of National Accord, as well as their myriad of foreign backers, to commit to the UN peace process and disband their militias.

Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker took a slightly different tack than O'Brien and emphasized Hifter's Russian, Emirati and Egyptian backers, Reuters reported today.

The only interdictions that [the European Union is] doing is of Turkish military material that theyre sending to Libya. Nobody is interdicting Russian aircraft, nobody is interdicting Emirati aircraft, nobody is interdicting the Egyptians, said Schenker. They could at least, if they were serious, I think, call them out  call out all parties of the conflict when they violate the arms embargo."

Whats next: NATO has ordered an investigation into the incident, but it remains classified. However, France said the report did not establish the facts and pulled out of the NATO naval operation that enforces the Libya arms embargo earlier this month. France has issued four demands that it wants its NATO allies to meet before rejoining the Mediterranean naval operation.

Know more: Frances dispute with Turkey comes amid broader tensions between the European Union and Ankara, Rina Bassist reports.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 11:49:42|Editor: huaxia

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WASHINGTON, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Lawyers for U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday the president will continue his fight to shield his tax returns and financial records from a federal prosecutor who subpoenaed them, days after the Supreme Court ruled the president is not entirely immune to criminal investigation.

In a status report filed to a Manhattan federal judge overseeing the case, Trump's lawyers said they planned to argue that the subpoena issued by Cyrus Vance, the Manhattan district attorney, seeking eight years of Trump's personal and corporate tax returns in a criminal probe, is too broad and politically motivated.

"The President should not be required, for example, to litigate the subpoena's breadth or whether it was issued in bad faith without understanding the nature and scope of the investigation and why the District Attorney needs all of the documents he has demanded," the lawyers wrote to Victor Marrero, the judge who scheduled a hearing for Thursday.

The new filing came less than a week after the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 to reject the president's claim that he has absolute immunity to investigative subpoenas such as the one issued by Vance, a Democrat.

Trump's lawyers noted in the Wednesday filing that the Supreme Court in its ruling said Trump may argue that the subpoena seeks too much information, or intends to impede the president's constitutional duties or harass, manipulate or retaliate against him. "The President intends to raise some or all of these arguments," the lawyers wrote.

Lawyers for Vance's office, for their part, said in a joint filing Wednesday that Trump's lawyers -- who argued that the case requires a more thorough factual record -- are demanding beyond what they are allowed, and that Vance could enforce the subpoena immediately but would give Trump until July 27 to file an amended lawsuit.

Trump's lawyers told Marrero, who initially handled the case and to whom the Supreme Court returned the case after last Thursday's ruling, that "further proceedings are necessary," and that an amended lawsuit would soon be filed.

Vance has been seeking Trump's financial records in part to investigate a hush money payment arranged by the president's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen -- now convicted and jailed -- to porn actress Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal, who claimed to have had affairs with Trump, allegations that the president denied.

Trump hasn't disclosed his tax returns since taking office in 2017, breaking both his promise made during the 2016 presidential campaign and a tradition kept by U.S. presidential candidates for decades.

A Reuters/Ipsos public opinion poll released Wednesday showed that two in three Americans wanted to see Trump's tax returns.

Trump said in November 2019 that he would make public his financial records before Election Day 2020, which falls on Nov. 3. The disclosure, he claimed, would only serve to prove that he is much richer than people thought. Enditem
Move Oregons Border Chief Petitioner Mike McCarter has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Eugene in hopes of getting the grassroots movements proposal onto the ballot in 17 counties this November.

He wants to know if citizens in those counties, including Douglas, would like to divorce Oregon and get hitched to Idaho instead.

And his case may have just received a boost from the same court's favorable decision this week in a similar case brought by People Not Politicians over a different ballot measure.

Both cases boil down to signature gathering.

The state mandates petitioners obtain a minimum number of signatures in order to qualify for the ballot. But petitioners for both Move Oregons Border and People Not Politicians argued COVID-19 restrictions have made the usual methods of signature gathering impossible.

Under these circumstances, they said, the signature requirements violate their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution. That's because they effectively block voters from any chance to consider their proposals.

On Monday, the court agreed with People Not Politicians, and said the state must reduce the number of signatures required.

The two cases make similar claims, but are a little different.

People Not Politicians involves a statewide measure. Petitioners, in that case, want to create an independent commission to oversee the drawing of state legislative and congressional district boundaries. Those boundaries are currently drawn by the state Legislature, which People Not Politicians said can lead to gerrymandering to favor incumbents at the voters' expense.

Monday's court decision essentially assures People Not Politicians of a spot on the November ballot, as the new court-mandated signature requirement is lower than the 64,172 they've already collected. The signatures still have to be verified, but the deadline has also been extended so they have time to replace any that aren't valid.

Move Oregon's Border (also known as Greater Idaho) on the other hand, is a proposal to move Eastern and Southern Oregon counties out from under the state of Oregon and join them to Idaho instead. It's a movement born of frustration with a state Legislature perceived by some conservatives as too liberal and indifferent to rural concerns.

Making such a significant border change would ultimately require the approval of both states legislatures and Congress.

Before they bring in the lawmakers, Move Oregon's Border wants to gauge the opinion of voters in the 17 counties about whether they would like to switch states.

So rather than a statewide ballot measure, they want 17 separate countywide measures. That means a similar, but a slightly different set of requirements is in play, and the county clerk of each of the counties is named as a defendant.

The number of signatures required to get on each ballot varies from county to county and is based on a percentage of the number who voted in the last gubernatorial election.

For Douglas County, the minimum is 2,955, and Move Oregon's Border Chief Petitioner Mike McCarter said Tuesday his group has only been able to collect 65% of those signatures so far, with a deadline looming Aug. 5.

In other counties, he said, it's been even harder.

"By far, Douglas County has exceeded just about every other county as far as collecting signatures. It is amazing," he said.

McCarter said the idea was gathering momentum in February and March, before COVID-19 hit.

He said he still has fond feelings for Roseburg from a well-attended March 7 rally here for Move Oregon's Border.

"I knew we were talking about freedom, I knew we were talking about conservative values, but the word that came up out of the rally that I had not even thought about was hope, and people mentioned that to me. This is a hope movement that maybe we can get something changed," he said.

But five days after that rally, the governor banned large gatherings. Even collecting signatures one-on-one was made difficult by subsequent mandates to stay at home and to maintain six feet of distance from others.

"Who could have anticipated something like this happening?" McCarter said.

Despite the difficulties and the court challenge, McCarter said volunteers are continuing to gather some signatures. If they don't make it on the county ballots this time, they'll aim for 2022.

Its a little rough, but well keep working at it, he said.

--Carisa Cegavske/The News-Review

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Rishi Sunak was pictured again today wearing a face mask that scientists say 'acts like a jet' to spread Covid-19  despite being ridiculed for using the same covering yesterday.

The Chancellor  seemingly oblivious to the concerns of top scientists who called him out for his choice of mask  wore the grey covering with a white valve on a visit to a job centre in Barking, east London.

It comes after a top Oxford University professor and ex-Tory MP Rory Stewart both criticised Mr Sunak for wearing the covering.

Professor Trisha Greenhalgh, a firm believer that masks help to cut transmission of the coronavirus, said: 'Not that one Rishi. One without a valve. Way to go.' In response to another Twitter user saying it was better than wearing nothing at all, she said his valve was worse because it 'makes the exhalation into a jet'.

Mr Stewart, a former Conservative leader candidate, said a 'little guidance maybe needed' and warned the point of masks is to protect others. Other social media users jumped in to tell Mr Sunak he was setting a 'bad example' with his 'exhaust pipe' mask.

A mask with a valve filters the air the wearer inhales, but does not filter the air they exhale. Therefore scientists say virus-laden droplets are able to escape the mask, perhaps more so than a piece of material.

It comes amid ongoing confusion about Number 10's policy on masks, which has been engulfed in chaos. Michael Gove sparked furore at the weekend by publicly making clear he did not think they should be required by law.

Rishi Sunak is still wearing a face mask that scientists claim 'acts like a jet' to spread germs. The Chancellor was pictured with the grey mask for a second day while chatting with staff at a job centre in Barking, east London,

Mr Suak posted a picture of himself yesterday wearing a covering while getting a takeaway from Pret, which led to criticism

Professor Trisha Greenhalgh, of Oxford University, tweeted: 'Not that one Rishi. One without a valve. Way to go.' In response to another Twitter user saying it was better than wearing nothing at all, she said his valve was worse because it 'makes the exhalation into a jet'.

Rory Stewart, a former Conservative leader candidate, said a 'little guidance maybe needed' and warned the point of masks is to protect others

Mr Sunak visited the London Jobcentre Plus hours after it was revealed the number of workers on UK company payrolls slumped by 650,000 during Britain's coronavirus lockdown.

Posing with his valve fitted grey face mask, he appeared oblivious to the concerns of others on social media who called him out for his choice of covering.

The Department of Health and Social Care has also been blasted by top doctors for promoting masks fitted with valves in its new campaign.

Number 10 on Tuesday shared a tweet explaining that face masks will become compulsory in shops in England from July 24 in an attempt to curb the spread of coronavirus.

And following Health Secretary Matt Hancock's announcement, the official Downing Street Twitter account shared a clip which told how wearing a face covering means you're 'protecting others'.

But dozens of users, including several doctors, pointed out that the type of mask pictured doesn't stop the wearer from spreading Covid-19.

The aim of the valve is to make it easier for the wearer to breathe because the valve tends to filter the air coming in. But it doesn't filter air when it is exhaled, rendering it useless in stopping infected patients from passing on the virus.

And the aim of making people wear face masks in public spaces is to prevent viral transmission from infected individuals to people around them.

Michael Gove sparked a furore at the weekend by publicly making clear he did not think they should be required by law. He is pictured leaving Pret a Manger in Westminster on Tuesday morning, hours before Matt Hancock announced face coverings would be mandatory in England from next Friday

Many members of the public were aware that valve masks did not offer the best level of virus control

WHAT IS WRONG WITH MASKS THAT HAVE A VALVE IN? Masks containing one-way valves are usually used in construction, allowing labourers to breathe in filtered air that doesn't contain dust. But the coverings  banned in some parts of the US, according to Forbes  do not filter exhaled air. Because of this, doctors say they aren't appropriate for medical settings because they offer very little protection for others around them. The valve doesn't prevent the wearer from spreading the virus. In comparison, cloth masks are intended to trap droplets released when the wearer talks, coughs or sneezes. And Professor Trisha Greenhalgh, of Oxford University, claimed the valve 'makes the exhalation into a jet'. Advertisement

N95 masks, masks that protect against at least 95 per cent of very small particles, are the gold standard for mask protection in a medical environment.

But commercially-made valve masks do not work in the same way, and while it may seem like an advanced mask than a piece of material, doctors say it may actually be worse.

Some US states have banned their use entirely, including California which ruled against them on April 17 with the addition of a $1,000 fine or imprisonment up to 90 days or both.

Cloth masks are intended to trap droplets released when the wearer talks, coughs or sneezes.

Britain was one of the last places of western nations to advise their use, first on public transport in England from June 15.

The Government announced on Monday night that face coverings will be made mandatory in shops and supermarkets i England as of July 24. This has been mandatory in Scotland since July 10.

The Times reported yesterday that the Cabinet Office has quietly updated its advice on masks, saying: 'You are also strongly encouraged to wear a face covering in other enclosed public spaces where social distancing may be difficult and where you come into contact with people you do not normally meet.'

The updated guidance came despite ministers claiming office workers would not need to cover-up, nor would people in pubs or restaurants.

Number 10's policy has been engulfed in chaos, with Michael Gove sparking a furore last weekend by publicly making clear he did not think they should be required by law.

He was pictured leaving a Pret a Manger in Westminster on Tuesday without wearing a covering, proving ministers are divided on the issue just hours before Mr Hancock said they would be mandatory.

And yesterday Downing Street claimed masks are not necessary in takeaway food outlets  just hours after Matt Hancock suggested the opposite.

Mr Hancock insisted on Tuesday that coverings will be required in venues like Pret when people buy things to go.

He suggested that the crucial point was that people needed to wear masks if they were not receiving table service, and confusingly claimed that ordering at the bar is not permitted at pubs  despite official guidance saying it is.

Doctors slam Downing Street for using a graphic of a man wearing a mask with a valve that's 'useless' at protecting others in a video to explain rules about face coverings in shops

Doctors have called out the government for its new messaging regarding face coverings after it shared a video featuring a graphic of a man wearing a mask with a valve.

Number 10 on Tuesday shared a tweet explaining that face masks will become compulsory in shops in England from July 24 in an attempt to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Following Health Secretary Matt Hancock's announcement, the official Downing Street Twitter account shared a clip which told how wearing a face covering means you're 'protecting others'.

Doctors have called out the government for its new messaging regarding face coverings after it shared a video featuring a graphic of a man wearing a mask with a valve

Julia Simons, the medical student representative of the Doctors' Association UK who has worked on the frontline of the pandemic during her final year studying, spotted the blunder

Doctors Nisreen Alwan and Dr Bharat Pankhania also explained the reasoning behind not wearing a mask with a valve in response to the government's video

Numerous Twitter users waded in on the debate, all criticising the video for promoting masks with valves which don't protect others

An additional video has since been shared by Downing Street featuring a woman wearing a mask without a valve. The new video, shared earlier this morning, also states that exemptions to the face covering rule include young children, people with breathing difficulties and people living with a disability

Health Secretary Matt Hancock struggled to explain the new system coming into force from July 24 amid warnings from police that it will be completely unenforceable

Do face coverings help reduce coronavirus transmission? Initially many authorities, including the World Health Organization (WHO), suggested face coverings were not effective in preventing the spread of Covid-19 but are now recommending wearing them in indoor spaces. So, has the science evolved on face coverings? A report recently published by the Royal Society suggests that even basic homemade face coverings can reduce transmission if enough people wear them. Dr Julian Tang, who is an associate professor of respiratory sciences at the University of Leicester, said wearing face coverings in public places could keep the R value below 1 by creating an 'artificial herd immunity'. But Dr Simon Clarke, an associate professor of cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said that while face coverings may reduce the spread of cough droplets, robust epidemiological evidence on their benefits is still lacking. Are there any benefits to wearing them? Experts say the risk of coronavirus transmission appears to be higher in poorly ventilated indoor spaces and wearing face coverings in small shops or enclosed shopping centres could help reduce the spread. In addition, there is also increased evidence which suggests that many people with the virus who do not have symptoms can still be contagious. What does this mean for those looking to go back to the office? Experts say wearing face coverings could provide an added line of defence amid growing evidence of airborne transmission of coronavirus. Dr Tang said: 'If half the people in the office wear a mask, it would increase artificial herd immunity to around 25%, which can reduce transmission overall within the office, just by reducing the number of people who are susceptible.' Are there downsides to face coverings? There are many indoor spaces, such as pubs and restaurants, where the use of face coverings may not be possible. Some experts have also shared concerns that wearing face coverings may give the wearer a false sense of security, although Prof Neal said there is 'no evidence to suggest that is the case'. Are some face coverings better than others? The WHO advises a three-layer face covering in the community - the outer layer should be water resistant, the inner should be water absorbent and the mid-layer acts as a filter. The Government has said coverings can be made from scarves, bandanas or other fabric items, as long as they cover the mouth and nose. But scientists at the Leverhulme Centre say some coverings are not as effective as others, with loosely woven fabrics, such as scarves, shown to be the least effective. Advertisement

But dozens of users, including several doctors, pointed out that the type of mask pictured doesn't stop the wearer from spreading Covid-19.

Masks containing valves are usually used in construction and aren't appropriate for medical settings because, although they filter the air used by the person wearing it, they offer very little protection for others around them.

Julia Simons, the medical student representative of the Doctors' Association UK who has worked on the frontline of the pandemic during her final year of studies, spotted the blunder.

She tweeted: 'Please do wear a cloth face covering. Don't wear a face mask with a valve. The valves mean your face mask is no use for protecting others.

'How can the government video not get this right? Continuous dither, delay and disaster.'

Dr Nisreen Alwan, an epidemiologist, consultant in public health and an associate professor at Southampton University also criticised the video, tweeting: 'The graphic is wrong.

'Don't use a mask with a valve because it pushes air out and doesn't protect others. Use any cloth face covering over mouth and nose.'

Dr Bharat Pankhania, a senior clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter Medical School with over 20 years experience in communicable disease control and infectious disease management, added: 'Just don't use masks with a valve.

'It propels expired breath forcefully and this, as in Bernoulli's principle, it will travel with greater velocity a lot further. It is not fit for purpose.'

The video remains on the government's Twitter account, where it's had over 153,500 views, however an additional one has now been shared featuring a woman wearing a mask without a valve.

The new video, shared earlier this morning, also states that exemptions to the face covering rule include young children, people with breathing difficulties and people living with a disability.

Masks with valves have been banned in parts of the US, including Florida and California.

Marisa Glucoft, director of infection prevention Children's Hospital Los Angeles, previously said: 'When you wear a mask with a valve, people around you are not protected because the valve lets all of your breath into the air.

'From that perspective, its almost like youre not wearing a mask at all.'

The San Francisco Department of Public Health also tweeted in May that masks with valves are 'NOT safe' and 'may actually propel your germs further'.

The government's face mask rules descended further into confusion today as Matt Hancock insisted they must be worn to get takeaway coffee but not in pubs.

The Health Secretary also denied speculation that Boris Johnson wants to make masks compulsory in offices as part of a drive to convince workers to return.

Meanwhile, official guidance published by the government overnight has raised fresh doubts about how it can be policed.

Despite the threat of 100 fines, the document says people can have a 'legitimate' excuse for not wearing a face covering if it causes them 'distress'.

The Police Federation, representing rank-and-file officers, has said it is 'unrealistic and unfair' to expect them to patrol the aisles looking for people breaking the coronavirus regulations.
DUSSELDORF, Germany, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In the beginning of July, Huawei hosted its 2020 Smart PV FusionSolar Day in Europe with 5 speakers and 5 panelists from leading research firms, customers and partners. The online event gathered attendees from more than 40 countries covering topics from PV market trends during and post COVID-19 to experience sharing for utility-scale projects.

Watch the playback of the event here:

https://solar.huawei.com/eu/fusionsolarday

"We are extremely happy that our 2020 Smart PV FusionSolar Day has been a great success in bringing industry leaders together online and discuss key technology trends and market outlook during and after COVID-19," Hariram Subramanian, CTO, Huawei FusionSolar Europe said. "With more than 3000 people in Digital Energy R&D team around the world including Germany, Spain, Japan and China, we will continue to devote to our international research and co-innovate with our customers. At this challenging time, we thank all the speakers, panelists and our team who made this possible and every participant who came and supported us."

Despite facing a challenging year in 2019, Huawei continues to be the global leader in the inverter market. Looking at the future, Sam Wilkinson, Associate Director, Clean Technology & Renewables from IHS Markit shared, "The forecast of 2020 solar installation lowered to 110 GW. In the long term, solar growth is still on track, and it can play a central role in a 'green recovery'  there is still huge potential to grow."

Xavier Daval, Solar Expert, CEO also shared his insights on the future of a new power system, "Power system is centered on AI. And the future system will be bidirectional supported with data collected by IoT. And the key values are coming from the data. So, the system should be smarter and smarter if we want to stay in the race."

Alvaro Zanon, Senior Solution Manager, Huawei shed light on the main challenges of bifacial system, and how Huawei's FusionSolar Smart PV solution could help customers to optimize a bifacial power plant with a few references case studies. Following which Richard Morris, Founder CEO, Zebotec GmbH touched on the topic of Power Plant Control with Huawei PV Inverters. Our last keynote speaker, Hariram Subramanian, CTO, Huawei FusionSolar Europe summarized Huawei's latest 10 emerging technology trends for smart PV in 2025. These trends encompass four dimensions: lower levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), power grid friendliness, intelligent convergence, and security and trustworthiness. Read the full details here.

The event also comprised of a panel discussion moderated by Javier Asensio, CEO, Vector Renewables, and featuring: Jrgen Rasmussen, Director, HV/MV Grid Connections from Better Energy Solutions, Miki Risita, Head of Solar Main Equipment, Enel Green Power, Jorge Aleix, Head of Engineering from Grupotec, Terje Melaa, SVP Engineering and Technology from Scatec Solar ASA and Benedikt Ortmann, Global Director Solar Projects of BayWa r.e.. The panelists debated on various hot topics such as grid connection, yield estimation and financial modelling of the plants. Lastly, the event was wrapped with a virtual tour of Huawei Smart PV solution suite and an engaging quiz session with all the participants.

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 194,000 employees, and we operate in more than 170 countries and regions. Founded in 1987, Huawei is a private company wholly owned by its employees.

For more information, please visit Huawei online at www.huawei.com.

About Huawei FusionSolar

Huawei offers leading Smart PV solutions which harnessing more than 30 years of expertise in digital information technology. As the largest inverter supplier from 2015 to 2019 globally for 5 consecutive years, Huawei is committed to building efficient, smart O&M, safe, reliable and grid-supporting Smart PV plants, and helping customers maximize the return of investment over the plants' lifetime. In 2020, Huawei will further integrate AI technologies to boost LCOE and accelerate grid parity for all.

For more information, please visit Huawei online at https://solar.huawei.com/

Related Links

www.huawei.com/cn



SOURCE Huawei
Londons West End could be at risk of losing 5 billion in sales (Doug Peters/PA)

More than 50,000 jobs could be at risk in Londons West End if tourists and office workers do not return, a partnership representing the area has warned.

The New West End Company, which represents 600 businesses across Oxford Street, Bond Street, Regent Street and Mayfair, said the district could also lose 5 billion in sales without further Government assistance.

In the first full month since the reopening of non-essential retail on June 15, some 5.1 million people visited the West End  down 73% year-on-year for the same period, the business partnership said.

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It has now called on the Government to provide clarity about whether people should return to their offices, as many retailers rely on the lunchtime trade.

Jace Tyrrell, the New West End Companys chief executive, said that without consumers having the confidence to travel and visit, the situation was highly precarious with 50,000 jobs at risk.

He said: With no international visitors and mixed messaging surrounding the safety of returning to work and using public transport, we urgently seek clarity of Government messaging for our businesses to survive.

The partnership said London was faring worse than the rest of the UK, despite footfall increasing in the West End  which is home to many of the capitals major tourist attractions  by 5% since the reopening.

Figures from retail expert Springboard show footfall on the UK high street is down 57.2% compared with June 2019.

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Meanwhile, footfall in the UKs regional cities has dropped 70.4% compared to the same period last year, while in central London it was down 76.2%, Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said.

The partnership said long-term measures were needed to boost business when international visitors eventually return to cities in larger numbers.

It said 70% of all international visitors are from EU member states but are excluded from the tax-free shopping scheme.

By including them in the scheme as part of any future trade deal negotiations with EU countries, a further 1.4 billion could be generated in retail sales annually, the partnership claimed.

Mr Tyrrell added: With the UK-EU trade deal deadline also looming, we need to ensure that destinations that rely on international visitors, which have been so hard hit by the pandemic, are accounted for in longer-term recovery plans including levelling up on tax-free shopping with the EU.

The New West End Company said without further Government action, and a lack of domestic and international tourists and office workers, there could be a 5 billion loss in sales, putting over 50,000 jobs at risk.
It's not a story any person whose loved one is battling coronavirus wants to hear--no open hospital beds, COVID-19 patients waiting for 10 hours for care. According to a report by the Texas Tribune, rural Texas towns are fighting some of the most difficult challenges treating the surge of coronavirus patients.

"Several months ago, I warned of a potential tsunami if we did not take this more seriously, " Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez said last week. "The tsunami is here."

The intense influx of patients at border hospitals is escalating. In rural Starr County, doctors were down to two ventilators, according to County Judge Eloy Vera.

"There aren't any hospitals in Texas that would take them, so he was looking at maybe sending them to New York. It's bad," Vera said.

PATIENTS ARE FLOWING IN: Medical military reinforcements battle COVID-19 surge in Houston

Short-staffed hospitals in Midland and Odessa have been forced to turn away patients from rural West Texas facilities, since the regional hospitals lack the key resources to treat the flow of patients, according to The Texas Tribune.

We know what its like to be in a small hospital outside of this area and not have the resources, and its difficult to turn down a request for a transfer to a higher level of care, said Dr. Rohith Saravanan, Odessa Regional Medical Centers chief medical officer said. There is really no option for that patient at that point  theres no care they can provide that would give these patients a good fighting chance.

Now, there's a long wait--sometimes up to 10 hours--for ambulances to deliver patients to emergency rooms in Hidalgo County, which puts medics at risk, according to Med-Care EMS head Mack Gilbert.

"You cant blame the hospitals for being full. The ICUs are full, Gilbert told the Texas Tribune. But the longer [the patients are] with us, the longer it takes to get them the care they need. Were not really set up for long-term care like that, for four to six to eight hours.

In Houston, Mayor Turner called upon the governor for a shutdown of businesses for two weeks, after the acceleration of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Texas.

"I do believe that we need a two-week shutdown, at the minimum of two weeks, and I have proposed this to the Governor so we can help blunt #COVID19 progression," tweeted Mayor Turner.

'WE'RE SEEING THE WORST OF THE WORST': Houston nurse describes dire situation in ICU surge

Houston hospitals are also feeling the weight of the escalation in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. As of Tuesday evening, there were 10,569 patients hospitalized for COVID-19 across the state, according to Texas Health and Human Services. Tuesday also marked the sixth straight day Texas hospitals recorded having fewer than 1,000 ICU beds available.

"More Texas hospitals are really bursting at the seams, and they really don't have the capacity to care for patients, so I feel bad for them," Houston Methodist ICU director Dr. Faisal Masud told Chron.com. "Our community has the power to stop this and change the trajectory."

Masud added that Houston Methodist has managed the surge by adding Intermediate Care Units to help those who do not need the critical care of the ICU.

"We're managing quite a few of these patients in our intermediate care units," Masud said. "These are for patients who are not sick enough for ICU, but not well enough to be in another ward. We've been successful so far to provide patient-centered care. We've done a good job stabilizing patients and getting them better."

Even though Methodist's teams are managing the patients, the healthcare workers are becoming exhausted.

"My teams are tired. It's five months--five months they've been working non-stop," Masud said. "We are stretched but we are managing."

Masud said that drugs for COVID-19 patients are also in short supply.

"The entire state of Texas needs more Remdesivir," Masud said.

He also underscored the gravity of COVID-19 after-effects for patients who might think that they will quickly recover.

"If you get admitted to hospital and you get oxygen, the data that there is some long lasting damage," Masud said. "If youre admitted to the ICU, almost half of those patients are showing some abnormality on the heart scan. If youre young, you may think you can recover, but you are looking at a lifelong impact on the heart and lungs."

To respond to the unprecedented surge, Governor Greg Abbott said the federal government is stepping to help with military medical teams to help bridge the gap for staffing.

"The Federal Government is surging a massive amount of medical personnel and resources to regions across Texas to help our communities and hospitals care for COVID-19 patients," tweeted Governor Abbott.

So, what else can be done to stop this escalation?

"As we say, we have to figure out a way to halt community transmission," Dr. Peter Hotez told Chron.com. "If we don't do it, it would be mandatory stay-at-home order."

Hotez added that now is the time for real leadership with a national plan to stem the spread of the virus.

"The bigger issue is that there is no plan for the country," Hotez said. "The entire southern half of the country is in a health crisis. But the problem is that we're not getting any federal guidance or leadership. Without us having a national roadmap, it's hard to do the details. I point fingers at the lack of coherent federal response."

alison.medley@chron.com
Anirudh Krishnan And Radha Raghavan By

The recent tensions between India and China has led New Delhi to introduce a slew of measures restricting Chinese investments into the country, including a ban on 59 Chinese apps such as TikTok, WeChat and CamScanner. Pertinently, the press release stated that the ban follows the available evidence suggesting that through these apps, China is engaged in activities that are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order. Earlier, in April, India issued an FDI notification stipulating heightened scrutiny for all inbound investments from neighbouring countries including China, with the objective of protecting its economy during the ongoing pandemic.

Moreover, a Cabinet minister was quoted as saying that Chinese companies would be disallowed from participating in highway joint venture projects and investing in the MSME sector. Do these measures breach Indias international obligations to Chinese investors under the Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT)? India-China BIT status: The India-China BIT, dated 21 November 2006, came into force on 1 August 2007, mutually promising to protect and promote investments made by nationals of one state (Home State) into the other (Host State). However, this BIT was terminated on 3 October 2018 when India unilaterally repudiated it, seeking to renegotiate the terms based on the new 2015 Model BIT. With India and China not being able to agree upon a new treaty till date, investments after 3 October 2018 do not enjoy any BIT protection.

However, by virtue of a 15-year sunset clause, the terminated BIT protects investments made prior to this date for a period of 15 years. The investor protections under the BIT include the following:

(i) Fair and Equitable Treatment (Article 3): A promise to accord fair and equitable treatment to the Contracting Partys investment in its territory. This standard generally requires the state to treat the investors in a non-arbitrary manner. It also requires the state to provide a stable and transparent legal environment, while also respecting the legitimate expectations of the investor.

(ii) National Treatment and Most Favoured Nation Treatment (Article 4): A promise not to discriminate between the Contracting Partys investors and domestic investors in like circumstances, and the Contracting Partys investors and investors from other countries in like circumstances.

(iii) Right against Expropriation: A promise not to physically deprive the Contracting Partys investor of their investment or introduce any measure that would harm the value of the Contracting Partys investment. However, an action by the state with a public purpose is exempt from this rule, provided it is not discriminatory and effective; adequate and prompt compensation is paid to the investor, in such circumstances, to make good such expropriation.

The states defences: Besides providing protections to investors, the treaty provides exceptions under which state measures would be precluded from liability. These exceptions are measures aimed at protecting essential security interests (ESI) or taken in circumstances of extreme emergency (Article 14). The provision also requires that these measures are non-discriminatory and in accordance with the Host States domestic laws applied in a reasonable manner.

For a state to use the defense of ESI under the BIT, it must demonstrate that (i) the threat perceived is legitimate; (ii) meets the threshold of essential security; and (iii) the measure has a necessary nexus to the security interests of the state. An analysis of whether a threat falls within the scope of essential security is often guided by the definition provided in the BIT itself. However, some BITs, like the India-China BIT, do not provide such a definition. In such cases, guidance is sought from explanations provided under Indian Law and international precedent, including ICJ decisions. International precedents vary, ranging from a limited interpretation by the ICJ in Nicaragua v. USA, which suggests the requirement of a significant military threat, to a more liberal interpretation by an arbitral tribunal in LG&E v. Argentina, which included economic threats as well.

Some BITs incorporate a test of necessity, which requires a causal link of the highest order to be established in order to avail of the defence. Such a test is not expressly set out in the India-China BIT and hence it is arguable that it is likely sufficient for India to establish a minimal causal link to show that its measures were taken for the protections of an ESI rather than show that it was necessary for the protection of an ESI. However, it is crucial for India to establish this causal link based on material evidence.

India can also raise customary international law defences like the Doctrine of Police Powers, which precludes an expropriatory measure from being unlawful provided it was adopted in good faith to fulfil a legitimate public welfare objective. To do this, India must overcome the hurdle of establishing that the impugned measures are not discriminatory.

Conclusion: Practically, it is critical for the parties to carefully weigh the consequences of their actions and strength of their claims. Treaty arbitrations take substantial time and money and an award either way can be significantly disruptive. While conducting this analysis, it is helpful to bear in mind factors that a tribunal would weigh while adjudicating FET and expropriation claims, such as the transparency with which the measure was introduced; whether sufficient notice was provided to the investors; permanency of the measure; evidence corroborating the legitimacy of the objective and absence of alternative less restrictive options. It is difficult to predict an outcome as the material evidence likely to be relied upon is not available in public domain; however, it is crucial to flag the above relevant issues.

Anirudh Krishnan / Radha Raghavan

Indian Advocates also qualified in England and New York respectively

(anirudh@aklawchambers.com)


The 73-year-old man who was shot by police Wednesday morning at a home on Indian Point Road, northeast of Haliburton had assaulted an employee at the Eastons Valu-mart grocery store in Minden over a dispute about having to wear a mask.

The Special Investigations Unit, the provinces police watchdog, said Thursday an autopsy will be conducted Friday morning on the 73-year-old man.

The man has not been publicly identified because attempts are still being made to locate his next-of-kin, the SIU also said Thursday.

The worker was cleaning carts outside the Highway 35 store Wednesday morning and attempted to give the man a free mask, which all customers are required to wear, when he was assaulted, OPP Sgt. Jason Folz told the Toronto Stars Ted Fraser.

The Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit issued an order requiring non-medical masks or face coverings to be used at all commercial establishments in Haliburton County, as well as the City of Kawartha Lakes and Northumberland County, as of Monday.

Only one person was attacked at the store, Folz said.

The man left the grocery store in a vehicle, driving dangerously through the parking lot, Folz said.

Haliburton Highlands OPP were notified about the Valu-mart incident at about 9:25 a.m., according to the provinces Special Investigations Unit which is investigating the shooting.

A police officer observed the vehicle and began following it for a short time.

Our units caught up with him on Highway 35 and tried to stop him, but that pursuit was discontinued in the interest of public safety, Folz said.

Excessive speed and wild driving played a part in calling off the chase, Folz said.

Using the licence plate, police tracked down the vehicle to a home on Indian Point Road, near Eagle Lake and Drag Lake, about 103 kilometres north of Peterborough.

According to Folz, shots were fired at Haliburton Highlands OPP officers after their arrival at the home and then additional police officers were called in.

There was an confrontation outside of the home and two officers discharged their firearms, striking the man, according to the SIU.

He was transported to hospital by paramedics, where he was pronounced dead at 11:47 a.m., the SIU said.

The SIU has not said which police force or unit the officers who shot the man were with.

Linda Easton, the owner of Eastons Valu-mart, told the Toronto Stars Ted Fraser that she was proud of her staff for mitigating a bad situation.

I want to say how great staff are in grocery stores everywhere during COVID, and that they need a lot more recognition for the services they provide to customers, Easton said.

We all need a lot of recognition and we dont know who comes into our building so I dont know if we all get that.

Easton said she didnt want to comment on the events that unfolded after the incident at her store.

What happened here is one thing, but what transpired after is a whole different story, Easton said.

Four SIU investigators and two forensic investigators have been assigned to the case.

Four Ontario Provincial Police officers have been designated as witness officers.

The SIU continued searching the Indian Point Road property on Thursday and have collected a semi-automatic rifle and a pistol, along with the firearms of the two police officers that fired at the man.

Anyone with information for the SIU investigation to contact the lead investigator at 1-800-787-8529.

The SIU is also urging anyone who may have any video evidence related to this incident to upload that video through the SIU website.

The SIU is an arms length agency that investigates incidents in Ontario involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.

 with files from Ted Fraser, Toronto Star
California has a plan to help people vote safely this fall using a technology that is far from newfangled: the mail. It nevertheless drew not one but three frivolous lawsuits, all of which found their way to the legal equivalent of the dead letter office.

The Republican-backed lawsuits portrayed Gov. Gavin Newsoms recent orders to send mail-in ballots to every registered voter, which cooler heads might view as a routine piece of pandemic-era housekeeping, as a power-mad usurpation of legislative prerogatives. But as the governor and legislative leaders made plain, the order was effectively a stopgap awaiting legislation to the same effect. Newsom signed that legislation, passed with super-majorities including 10 Republicans, last month, rendering the lawsuits largely moot.

Darrell Issa, the once and would-be future Republican congressman from Southern California, at least had the discretion to drop his suit quietly last week. Meanwhile, a state appellate court overturned a ruling blocking Newsoms order in a case brought by two Republican legislators, taking such a dim view of their rush to court as to require them to compensate the state for costs. The Republican National Committee, which joined the National Republican Congressional Committee and California Republicans in yet another lawsuit, was the only plaintiff creative enough to drop its doomed case while declaring a significant victory for California voters.

But the partys war on mail-in ballots, which encompasses legal action to make remote voting more difficult in 13 other states, shows no regard for voters here or anywhere else. Rather, the goal is to force more Americans to choose between their health and their franchise on the theory that lower turnout favors Republicans. President Trump acknowledged as much in March, when he worried that Congress proposal to ease absentee balloting would induce such levels of voting that, if you ever agreed to it, youd never have a Republican elected in this country again.

Not content to oppose voting by mail, the president is attacking the mail itself, calling the U.S. Postal Service a joke and demanding steep rate increases as the agency grapples with a fiscal crisis. The new postmaster general, a top Trump donor, announced procedural changes this week that could hamper delivery just as Americans have become especially dependent on the mail for voting and more.

Its probably not a coincidence that slow delivery is one of the chief obstacles to voting by mail. A recent National Public Radio analysis found that more than 65,000 primary ballots were rejected this spring for arriving too late, often through no fault of the voter. Even in California, which took extraordinary steps to facilitate voting by mail before the pandemic struck, the Associated Press found that more than 100,000 primary ballots, or about 1.5% of the total cast, were rejected for a variety of reasons; they included more than 9,000, or 5% of the total, in San Francisco. Most were either postmarked or delivered after the deadline.

Such figures do little to support the conspiracy theory that mail voting lacks barriers against fraudulent voting. On the contrary, state and local officials have more work to do to ensure that every eligible vote counts.

This commentary is from The Chronicles editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters.
FLINT, MI -- Flint schools students will start school online Wednesday, Aug. 5, with plans to potentially return to classrooms in September, depending on the state of COVID-19 in Michigan.

Three weeks before students are scheduled to begin the 2020-2021 year, the Flint Community School Board of Education approved the districts safe return and recovery plan to outline instruction options amid continued concerns over coronavirus.

In 2019, the Flint school district adopted a balanced calendar school year. This means it is preparing for an Aug. 5 start date, despite uncertainty over whether students will be allowed back in the classroom.

The district will start classes online in August. The plan states the district could possibly reopen classrooms Monday, September 14, depending on state recommendation as that date approaches. The district is prepared to remain online after September if COVID-19 cases continue to rise. The plan allows for flexibility based on state and district guidance.

The plan is a fluid document, Superintendent Anita Steward told the board.

Because there are so many unknowns with the virus, its going to be changing, she said.

Michigan schools have been closed to in-person instruction since March 16, when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered buildings closed as the state grappled with the spread of COVID-19. It is not yet clear if Michigan schools will open in the fall. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has instructed districts to make different plans, ranging from all-online instruction to full in-person instruction.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer unveils guide on reopening Michigan schools this fall

The safe return plan that Superintendent Steward presented at the Wednesday, July 15 Flint Community Schools Board of Education meeting mirrored the states guidance.

The plan included three options and additional choices within each option:

Face-to-Face Instruction (all students attend school, with the exception of those who select virtual instruction).

Hybrid Learning (combination of face-to-face and virtual).

Virtual Instruction (all students attend online).

If parents are not comfortable having their child participate in face-to-face instruction, an option for full-time virtual learning will also be available. Parents will need to come into the central enrollment department to complete the Virtual Learning Consent Form.

The key to planning for the coming school year is flexibility, Steward said. The plans were developed by the school operations subcommittee and the instruction subcommittee.

Masks, class sizes and busing: 10 ways Michigan schools could look different this fall

Nearly 700 parents responded to an online survey released by the district to ask questions about reopening.

Steward said the parents responses were split between the three options: returning to school, working online or opting for blended learning. They also said, if students returned, the district would need to implement social distancing, mask enforcement and further sanitation requirements. They suggested, if the district opted for distance learning, that physical assignments still be made available as well.

Anita Steward takes over as Flint Community Schools superintendent

Districts across the state will pursue a reopening plan based on which economic recovery phase a district is in at the time.

The Lower Peninsula of Michigan is currently in Phase 4, however, cases of COVID-19 have increased drastically in July.

If the state is in Phase 3, the flattening phase, schools will pursue remote learning. If its in Phase 4, the improving phase, schools can pursue in-person instruction with strict protocols. In Phase 5, the containing phase, schools can resume in-person instruction with more flexibility.

Michigan trying to ward off coronavirus second wave that could shutter schools and businesses

Michigans trajectory of coronavirus cases is moving upward. On Wednesday, the state reported 891 new cases of coronavirus, more than any day since May 14.

Whether or not people adhere to the requirement to wear masks will determine what phase the state is in when school starts in less than two months, Whitmer said during a Wednesday news conference.

Masking up is so important right now. We are trying to hold on to staying in Phase 4. But if that trajectory continues, and we have to move some regions back to Phase 3, that means there will not be in-person instruction, Whitmer said.

If students do return for in-person instruction, Michigan schools will face a slew of new requirements and recommendations meant to keep COVID-19 from spreading.

Within the Flint schools plan, the district will offer options to limit COVID-19 exposure risk to staff at higher risk, such as remote work and modifications to job responsibilities. It will also offer options for students at higher risk of severe illness that limit their exposure risk, such as virtual learning.

If classrooms open, the district will promote and ensure social distancing, limit classroom sizes and group sizes during assemblies and public events, according to a Q&A document on the districts website. It will also consider staggered scheduling in arrival and dismissal times.

The district will also develop, expand and implement flexible sick leave policies and practices that enable staff to stay home when they are sick, have been exposed or are caring for someone who is sick, according to the document. The district will establish contact people at all schools responsible for responding and providing assistance to students and staff regarding COVID-19 risks, exposures and other related concerns

Steward said she is sending weekly robocalls to parents and guardians on updates.

Im trying to over-communicate rather than under-communicate, she said in a Wednesday, July 15 live update.

If a parent or guardian is not receiving the calls, Steward asked they email superintendent@flintschools.org.

Read more:

Flint school board terminates superintendents contract without cause

Michigan sues U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos over school coronavirus funds

Coronavirus shutdown of Michigan schools creates unprecedented challenge for educators, families

Michigan reports 891 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, July 15; highest number in 2 months

Michigans June unemployment rate surpassed that of the Great Recession
Click here to read the full article.

MILAN  The wave of innovation that has marked the evolution of the textile sector in Europe and elsewhere in the past decade has increased the number of performances the garments we wear now boast  think antibacterial, natural stretch and wrinkle-free qualities.

But unusual times call for unusual projects and in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic bringing customers safety and health concerns to the forefront, textile firms in Europe have been banking on a new performance-driven innovation: antiviral fabrics.

As reported, apparel and accessories inspired by personal protective equipment could be a $10 billion to $20 billion opportunity for the fashion industry. But what about antiviral fabrics that luxury players can source from their usual suppliers and craft into suits, shirts and cocktail dresses?

Textile firms developing this category have made clear these fabrics do not substitute for PPE, nor do they prevent the risk of contagion. Rather, they are seen as an additional layer of performance that is likely to become the new norm in manufacturing.

The latest brainchild of cotton specialist Albini Groups Albini Next think tank for smart innovations is a family of antiviral fabrics dubbed ViroFormula, developed in partnership with Swiss company HeiQ, which provided the chemical treatment called Viroblock. This destroys the virus within five minutes, the company claims.

Treated with liposomes combined with a silver compound that enhances the antiviral property, the ViroFormulas range of fabrics  intended for shirts, jackets, trousers and to be applied soon to knitwear yarns, too  marks an evolution from existing textiles that were adjusted to become suitable for the treatment, maximizing their performance without any impact on quality.

When we realized the violent impact that COVID-19 could have on the world, strong enough to freeze the economy and change social behaviors, we prompted HeiQ to apply the treatments they were already developing for PPEs to regular apparel, explained Fabio Tamburini, chief executive officer of Cotonificio Albini, the groups production arm.

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Despite the shutdown of all nonessential manufacturing businesses that Italy enforced on March 23, the group powered ahead to bring the family of fabrics to the market in less than two months, instead of the six to nine months that are typically required, conducting about 1,200 tests.

Similarly, the Marzotto Wool Manufacturing company partnered with Polygiene, a spin-off of Sweden-based chemical company Perstorp Group, to adapt the ViralOff finish to fabrics crafted from natural yarns, including wool, linen and cotton, which required the fabrics manufacturing process to be revised.

The compound, which is made of titanium dioxide and silver chlorine ions, underwent lab tests showing it can eliminate 99 percent of viruses within two hours, or 93 percent in 30 minutes.

Before taking it to the market, the company wants to assess that the treatment can persist on fabrics such as wool, stretch wool and washable wool after at least three to six dry cleanings. Marzotto already evaluated that cotton significantly retains the coating compound after 15 water washes, with a 4 percent reduction in efficacy.

At the beginning of the lockdown in Italy, the idea started taking shape, even though wool itself boasts antimicrobiotic features, commented ceo Giorgio Todesco. We had never thought about antiviral treatments, despite the fact that Polygiene had already developed a few solutions during the 2002-03 SARS outbreak, but customers easily forgot about that epidemic because the impact was limited to a few regions of the world.

In the U.K., Promethean Particles has cooperated with local textile businesses to explore the antiviral effect of its copper nanoparticles technology when embedded via melt extrusion into nonwoven polymer fibers.

Initial results showed that the antimicrobial effect can last longer than in surface-coated textiles, but the company is assessing the efficacy in collaboration with Mexican research institute CIQA and textile trade association NWTexNet through independent laboratories in the U.S. and the U.K. If we can show evidence of antiviral properties from the testing being carried out, then its particularly relevant to the current COVID-19 outbreak, and we may see a lot more urgency in its development, noted Selina Ambrose, technical manager at Promethean Particles.

Also, Germany-based chemical company Rudolf Group has conducted lab tests on its RUCO-BAC AGP technology introduced in 2005 to assess whether it could boast antiviral properties on the family of coronaviruses. Made of microstructures, or vehicles, that carry and release an appropriate quantity of silver ions on the treated textile, the solution enhances the durability of the chemicals antibacterial qualities, up to 100 water washes.

As an evolution of antimicrobial or odor-control treatments already widespread and common among textile suppliers, the antiviral fabrics seem to be generating buzz and interest.

The market has responded very well, especially for those areas, such as Japan, South Korea and China, that have been traditionally more sensitive to the topic, said Marzottos ceo, adding that demand in Europe is also strong, especially in Germany, France and Spain.

Like for any innovation, the request has been spotty, with companies at the forefront of the conversation and others which will probably follow suit, he noted. I cannot really tell whats the future of these fabricsbut talking to scientists I got the impression that COVID-19 is not going to be an isolated incident and that vaccines typically require a long amount of time, so having the chance to be ready with these fabrics in the future is meaningful.

I hope it will become a market standard, as I believe people deserve to return to a normal life, which cannot rely only on the progresses made by the pharmaceutical industry, echoed Tamburini while stressing that Albinis ViroFormula fabrics cannot alone help prevent contagion.

The executive said the innovation resonates with the psychological impact the coronavirus has had on consumers and on more exposed workers such as frequent travelers, health-care professionals and retail employees.

The range has been welcomed by Albinis clients, but Tamburini sounded cautious. Like for any fabric category, ViroFormula will perform as a learning curve, with its demand spiking in the next six months triggered by curiosity and the psychological needs of the moment. Then the interest will probably decline until it becomes a market standard, growing consistently.

He believes that in the next two to three years, the market share of antiviral fabrics will be comparable to wrinkle-free textiles as a performance-based feature.

Although the business of antiviral textiles seems to be thriving in the wake of the pandemic, these technologies pose a number of questions in terms of marketability, safety, sustainability and compliance with countries regulations.

The coronaviruses are not particularly viable in external environments compared to other viruses that are more robust. COVID-19 tends to be inactivated in a relatively short amount of time, its viability does not last more than a few hours or less, said Carlo Federico Perno, professor of microbiology and virology at the University of Milano and director of Niguarda Hospitals department of laboratory medicine.

The airborne, respiratory contamination is the dominant route for the spread of this virus in the environmentthe example of shirts is particularly fitting as if an infected person wearing a shirt sneezes on it, the shirt becomes a vehicle of transmission only if another person touches it shortly after and then with the hands [dirty of secretions] touches their mouth, nose or eyes. As you can understand, this way of transmission is unlikely and limited, he said.

Im saying that Im not sure about the real need for excessive efforts to make antiviral clothes that in reality do not represent a vehicle of transmission, Perno underscored, noting other pathogens can definitely transmit via garments. Despite this, he underscored the positive psychological impact these textiles can have on consumers, who want to feel safe.

Research conducted by scientists at the National Institutes of Health and published in the New England Journal of Medicine assesses the life of the virus on different surfaces, but no real evidence was provided by this study and by the scientific community on COVID-19s ability to persist on fabrics.

Italys health-care authority, the Istituto Superiore di Sanita, issued guidelines to sanitize garments and fabrics. Compiled with the support of Tessile e Salute, an eco-toxicology association that evaluates the safety and sustainability of chemicals employed by the textile and fashion industries, the guidelines are vocal about the indiscriminate use of chemicals, suggesting instead dry-steaming as the technique of choice, the only one avoiding potentially harmful compounds and preventing damage to the quality of the fabrics.

The antiviral fabrics are a new category for every stakeholder and we never had in the past the necessity to evaluate the toxicology of such treatments, noted Marco Piu, scientific and organizational coordinator at Tessile e Salute, raising health and environmental concerns.

Among the compounds available, Perno said ions of silver chlorine are the more effective antiseptics and probably among the few that can easily be applied to textiles with no harm, while stressing the need to make sure these chemicals persist after several cleaning cycles.

The eco-toxicology problems might surface as these production processes potentially encompass additional treatments other than the antiviral coating, such as additives, coadjuvants and vehicles, that guarantee that the compounds stick to the fibersalso after several cleanings. It represents a downside because those could be harmful chemicals entering the textile process, Piu said.

To this end, companies marketing antiviral fabrics have been stressing their compliance with safety regulations. The treatment is environmentally respectful, this is extremely important because it sits in our broader green initiatives, said Todesco about Marzottos antiviral fabrics. The ViralOff chemical has already obtained the Eco Passport by Oeko-Tex and the seal of approval by the American Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA. The company also claims the compound is hypoallergenic and in no way harmful to the skin.

As a company stressing its commitment to sustainability and having recently developed an organic range of fabrics that forgo chemical compounds, Todesco acknowledged this project seems counterintuitive compared to our values, but health care is very much top-of-mind.

Innovating in the field of chemistry means adding new performance features to existing fabrics but at the same time it challenges us to do so while respecting the environment, noted Tamburini, who added that Albinis ViroFormula fabrics boast all the certifications the company has gained for regular textiles. They include the AATCC 100 test method, the most commonly chosen test and the industrys standard for antimicrobial fabric performances in the U.S.

Tackling diverse international laws and regulations can also represent a challenge.

In Europe any textile product claiming antiviral features is required to get the ISO 18184:2019 certification, which attests the substances  chemical or otherwise  employed produce a modification of one of the elements of the virion structure that induce an inability to replicate. Albinis and Marzottos technologies have been tested according to that standard, although in compliance with the regulation lab tests could not be conducted on the COVID-19 virus causing SARS-CoV-2. ViralOff has been tested on the family of coronaviruses, instead, while the Albinis ViroFormula fabrics are being assessed by independent laboratories to make sure the antiviral property can be applied to the fabrics.

In the U.S., to distribute or use an antimicrobial product, it must be registered with the EPA, which has stringent rules regarding what language can be used to state or imply its antimicrobial capabilities. For instance, marketing claims must be limited to the protection of the treated article, and cannot refer to protection beyond it, such as for personal protection.

The antimicrobial claims must be limited to protection or prevention from microorganisms that are not considered public-health-related microorganisms. That means companies cannot market products with references to specific organisms infectious to humans, like COVID-19, unless the antimicrobial product has been approved by the EPA to make these claims.

Fashion and apparel companies must beware: If they buy such input products to use in finished goods, they are not allowed to make any similar kinds of claims about the end products ability to fight COVID-19. U.S. laws prevent companies from making public health claims about viruses and consumer textiles, noted Terry Walmsley, director of regulatory affairs and sustainability at Noble Biomaterials.

Todesco said Polygienes ViralOff compound is EPA-approved, securing a competitive advantage for Marzottos antimicrobic textiles in the U.S.

The Viroblock biocide developed by HeiQ for the Albini Groups ViroFormula fabrics is also EPA-approved and recognized by the American authority as an antiviral agent for textiles, according to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, or FIFRA, the U.S. federal law setting up the basic system of pesticide regulation to protect applicators, consumers and the environment. Such approval would extend the chemicals antimicrobial features to any finished good treated with it. Beside the full registration as an antimicrobial with Europes Biocidal Products Regulation, or BPR, HeiQ has already obtained the approval of the formula locally in Germany, and it has applied for it in Italy and Belgium.

The regulations that prevent companies from using antiviral labels or claims make sense to avoid speculations, also because demonstrating the antiviral properties is no easy task, commented Piu.

Im very happy about the innovation, I believe it represents the future of our industry. But despite our results, keep washing your hands, Tamburini concluded.

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Early voting starts Friday in Sullivan County for the Aug. 6 election, which features a handful of competitive races for Board of Education and constable seats.

The election will also determine primary victors for several seats in the Tennessee Senate and House of Representatives, as well as primary victors for seats in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

Heres what you need to know before heading to the polls.

Early and mail-in voting

Early voting will run Friday through Aug. 1 at the Slater Community Center in Bristol, Tennessee and the Civic Auditorium in Kingsport. Those polling locations will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays, and registered voters can cast ballots at either location. On Election Day, voters will cast ballots at their designated polling locations.

Sullivan County Administrator of Elections Jason Booher urged county residents to vote early because of the social distancing protocols that will be in place at the polls on Election Day.

It is likely that we will have some voters waiting in line outside of the facility or building in which (theyre) voting (on Election Day) because of the social distancing requirements, Booher said. We dont know what the weather will be for Election Day.

Booher added that it could seem like there are long lines at the polls on Aug. 6, but voters need to keep in mind that there is a 6-feet-apart rule in place, and the line will obviously look longer than it actually is, he said.

Beyond the 6-feet rule, the Election Commission will require election officials to wear face masks or shields, provide single-use ink pens to voters and implement other social distancing protocols outlined on its website. Voters are also encouraged to wear masks, practice social distancing and bring their own hand sanitizer and ink pens.

Residents can also vote by mail if theyre concerned about going to the polls during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Election Commissions website, they need to complete a vote-by-mail application by July 30. Ballots must be mailed to the Election Commission and received by the close of polls on Election Day.

County general elections

Four county Board of Education board seats will be on the ballot, and all are contested.

For the District 1 seat, incumbent Mark A. Ireson is competing with Mark D. Harris; for District 3, incumbent Matthew Spivey is competing with Mark Vicars Jr.; for District 5, incumbent Randall Jones, the current vice chairman of the board, is being challenged by Jason K. Horton and Grover Blane Starnes; and for District 7, incumbent Jane A. Thomas is competing with Mary Rouse.

Voters will also choose new county constables, but only a few spots are contested.

Jesse R. Griggs and Brian Malone are competing with incumbent Larry Mullenix for the two constable seats in District 8. In District 9, which has two seats, incumbents Gary Churchwell and Doug Woods are competing with Randall L. Bowers and Tim J. Lane. G. Dwain Hittinger is competing with incumbents J. Scott Anderson and Rodney G. Pierson for the two spots in District 10. And in District 11, which has three seats, incumbents Marshall H. Buckner, James O. Hagy and Ralph T. King are competing with Lance Sawyer.

The District 11 County Commission seat, currently occupied by Joe Herron, is uncontested. Herron stepped in to fill the seat after Pat Shull vacated it when he was elected Kingsports mayor. Herron isnt running for the next term, and Tim Bradshaw is running unchallenged for the seat.

The ballot will also ask voters to choose between retaining or replacing Carma Dennis McGee as a judge of the Court of Appeals, Western Division.

Primaries

One of the most crowded races in the primary elections is Tennessees District 1 seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, which Republican Phil Roe is stepping down from when his term is complete at the years end. Sixteen Republicans and three Democrats are vying for their parties nominations to seek that seat.

The Republican primary contenders are Jay Adkins; Phil Arlinghaus; Richard Baker; Chance L. Cansler; John Clark; Rusty Crowe; Steve Darden; Chad Fleenor; Robert D. Franklin; Josh Gapp; Diana Harshbarger; David B. Hawk; Timothy Hill; Chuck Miller; Carter M. Quillen; and Nichole Williams.

Chris Rowe, Larry J. Smith and Blair Walsingham are competing for the Democratic nomination for the seat.

Meanwhile, another large crowd  15 Republicans and five Democrats  is competing in the primaries for the U.S. Senate seat occupied by Lamar Alexander. Alexander is leaving the office when his current term ends.

The Republican primary contenders for the seat are Clifford Adkins; Natisha Brooks; Byron Bush; Roy Dale Cope; Terry Dicus; Tom Emerson Jr.; George S. Flinn Jr.; Bill Hagerty; Jon Henry; Kent A. Morrell; Glen L. Neal Jr.; John E. Osborne; Aaron L. Pettigrew; David Schuster; and Manny Sethi.

The candidates for the Democratic nomination to that seat are Marquita Bradshaw; Gary G. Davis; Robin Kimbrough; James Mackler; and Mark Pickrell.

Also on the ballot is the District 3 Tennessee House seat. The Republican candidates seeking their partys nomination are Scotty Campbell and Neal Kerney. No Democratic candidates are running for the seat.
The Dalai Lama now remains as the tallest Buddhist leader in the world.





by N.S.Venkataraman





When China occupied Tibet and massacred thousands of innocent Tibetans in the early 1950s, ,His Holiness the Dalai Lama had to flee Tibet and he came to India as a refugee.









Now , the Dalai Lama has completed 85 years of life, of which around 60 years have been spent in India.





He has been preaching love, harmony and peace for several decades and he was honoured with Nobel Prize for his efforts.





Certainly, India is benefited by his presence, as he symbolizes the qualities of compassion and hatred for none. Many Indians have been inspired by his thoughts and speeches and consider him as embodiment of culture.





The Dalai Lama now remains as the tallest Buddhist leader in the world.





What is particularly noteworthy is that in spite of the great harm that China has done to Tibet and the abuses that China has been hurling at the Dalai Lama for several decades, he has not spoken severely against China at any time. It is remarkable that the Dalai Lama does not consider even China as his enemy, in spite of its unethical and aggressive behavior and this is a unique quality that a person should possess to be hailed as a world leader par excellence.





While India has given refugee status to the Dalai Lama and Tibetans and the Dalai Lama has strictly remained without indulging in political activities as directed by Government of India, it is not known that Government of India has acknowledged this aspect of the Dalai Lamas stay in India for several decades now.





It is high time that India should suitably honour His Holiness the Dalai Lama on his 85th birth anniversary , as he has enriched India with his noble thoughts and advocacies for harmony, by touring all over India and delivering lectures advocating peace and love , just as several other great Indian philosophers have done in the past .





The Dalai Lama has clearly said on several occasions in recent times that he is no more interested in political activities and he is dedicated to the cause of universal brotherhood. One can say with confidence that the Dalai Lama is now the conscience keeper of the world , as he is one of the very few leaders in the world who has been stressing on the need for amity and good will between everyone, by remaining as role model for world civilization.





When several countries have honoured the Dalai Lama for his contribution to the promotion of world harmony and Nobel prize has been awarded to him, it is conspicuous that India has not honoured him in a suitable manner so far, in spite of the fact that he spent most of his life time in India.





India did a great mistake in early 1950s , when India approved the occupation of Tibet by China and did not object in any meaningful way to the massacre of thousands of innocent protestors in Tibet by Chinese army. With the Dalai Lama now in the ripe age of 85 years , India should clear its conscience for its unethical approval of Chinas occupation of Tibet earlier , by conferring The Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding to the Dalai Lama.





This is most appropriate to do so, since it was Jawaharlal Nehru , the then Prime Minister of India , who kept silent for whatever reasons , when China occupied Tibet and the Dalai Lama had to flee to India.





Jawaharlal Nehru was a peace loving man and he would certainly be happy, wherever he is now , that the mistake done by him would be corrected now by conferring the award that was named after Jawaharlal Nehru to the Dalai Lama,, the apostle of peace.
Rating Action: Moody's affirms Southern Company Gas Capital's Baa1 senior unsecured rating; outlook is stable

Global Credit Research - 15 Jul 2020

Approximately $4.8 billion of debt securities rated

New York, July 15, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) affirmed Southern Company Gas Capital's (Southern Gas Capital) Baa1 senior unsecured rating and P-2 short-term rating for commercial paper. Southern Gas Capital's ratings reflect the unconditional guarantee of Southern Company Gas (Southern Gas, unrated), an intermediate holding company of The Southern Company (Southern, Baa2 stable). The outlook remains stable.

Affirmations:

..Issuer: Southern Company Gas Capital

....Gtd Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture, Affirmed Baa1

....Gtd Senior Unsecured Revolving Credit Facility, Affirmed Baa1

....Gtd Senior Unsecured Commercial Paper, Affirmed P-2

Outlook Actions:

..Issuer: Southern Company Gas Capital

....Outlook, Remains Stable

RATINGS RATIONALE

"Southern Gas Capital's rating reflects the credit strength of its core gas distribution utilities and the supportive regulatory jurisdictions in which they operate" said Jeff Cassella, VP -- Senior Credit Officer.

Southern Company Gas Capital's credit quality is supported by Southern Gas' portfolio of predominantly low-risk regulated natural gas local distribution companies (LDCs) and contracted pipelines. Southern Gas benefits from the predictable cash flow and stable financial profiles of its LDCs, the credit supportiveness of their regulatory environments as well as the contracted cash flows generated by natural gas pipelines regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

The rating is constrained by Southern Gas' higher risk business activities which account for about 10-15% of consolidated results and consist of non-regulated gas marketing and wholesale gas services as well as gas storage. These businesses add earnings and cash flow volatility to Southern Gas' financial profile and detract from its credit quality.

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For the 12-months ended 31 March 2020, Southern Gas exhibited improved credit metrics, with a ratio of cash flow from operations pre-working capital changes (CFO pre-W/C) to debt of 19.2%, including the proportional consolidation of the cash flow and debt associated with its 50% ownership interest in the Southern Natural Gas Company pipeline. The improvement was partially attributed to a strong performance by the wholesale gas services business, bonus depreciation on qualified regulated assets, and, to a lesser extent, tax refunds related to divestitures. Going forward, as Southern Gas continues its elevated capital investment program, particularly across its LDC utilities, which will be partially funded with additional debt, we expect that its financial profile will decline but still support its credit quality. We expect the company will generate a ratio of CFO pre-W/C to debt in the 15-16% range, including the proportional consolidation of the Southern Natural Gas Company pipeline.

The rapid spread of the coronavirus outbreak, severe global economic shock, low oil prices, and asset price volatility are creating a severe and extensive credit shock across many sectors, regions and markets. The combined credit effects of these developments are unprecedented. We regard the coronavirus outbreak as a social risk under our ESG framework, given the substantial implications for public health and safety. We expect Southern Gas to be relatively resilient to recessionary pressures related to the coronavirus because of its rate regulated business model and regulatory cost recovery mechanisms. Nevertheless, we are watching for natural gas volume declines, utility bill payment delinquency, and the regulatory response to counter these effects on earnings and cash flow. As events related to the coronavirus continue, we are taking into consideration a wider range of potential outcomes, including more severe downside scenarios.

The effects of the pandemic could result in financial metrics that are weaker than expected; however, we see these issues as temporary and not reflective of the long-term financial profile or credit quality of Southern Gas.

As a predominantly natural gas distribution utility holding company, Southern Gas has a low carbon transition risk within the regulated utility sector. We view LDCs as having a lower level of carbon transition risk compared to vertically integrated electric utilities, mainly due to their lack of ownership of generation assets.

Social risks are primarily related to health and safety, demographic and societal trends, as well as customer relations as the company works to provide reliable and affordable service to customers and safe working conditions for employees. Regarding affordability, we see the potential for rising social risks associated with the coronavirus pandemic and its effect on Southern Gas' service territories, should unemployment remain high, making customers less able to absorb rate increases.

From a governance perspective, financial and risk management policies including a strong financial profile are important characteristics for managing environmental and social risks. Southern Gas' governance is based on its ultimate parent, Southern. We view the governance of Southern Gas as strong based on Southern's strong governance practices, including alignment with credit supportive benchmarks regarding ownership, control, compliance and reporting practices.

Outlook

Southern Gas Capital's stable outlook reflects the predictable cash flow and relatively low business risk profile of guarantor Southern Gas' natural gas LDC subsidiaries as well as the diversity and credit supportiveness of its various regulatory environments. In addition, the outlook incorporates the higher risk profile of the company's non-utility businesses and our expectation that these operations will not grow materially and will be managed prudently. Furthermore, the outlook incorporates our expectation that Southern Gas will exhibit sustained credit metrics supportive of its credit profile, including a ratio of CFO pre-W/C to debt of in the 15-16% range.

FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS

Factors that could lead to an upgrade

An upgrade of Southern Gas Capital's ratings is unlikely while Southern Gas continues to execute its elevated capital investment program. The ratings could be upgraded if capital expenditures moderate requiring less debt issuance and there is a sustained improvement in key credit metrics, such that its CFO pre-W/C to debt is maintained above 19%.

Factors that could lead to a downgrade

Southern Gas Capital could be downgraded if the regulatory environments of Southern Gas deteriorate and do not, collectively, continue to provide credit supportive and timely cost recovery. Additionally, Southern Gas Capital could be downgraded if the risk and volatility of Southern Gas' unregulated businesses increase such that the company's cash flows become less stable and predictable, or if Southern Gas demonstrates a weakened financial profile, including a ratio of CFO pre-W/C to debt sustained below 15%. A downgrade would also likely result from any changes to the unconditional guarantee of Southern Gas Capital's debt by Southern Gas.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Southern Gas Capital is a wholly owned finance subsidiary of Southern Gas (unrated), an intermediate holding company of The Southern Company, a large diversified, predominantly regulated utility holding company. Following the merger of AGL Resources with Southern on 1 July 2016, AGL Capital Corporation's name was changed to Southern Company Gas Capital and AGL Resources was renamed Southern Company Gas.

Southern Gas Capital is the financing vehicle for most of Southern Gas, issuing commercial paper, long-term debt securities and other financing instruments. Southern Gas unconditionally guarantees all of the debt and other obligations of Southern Gas Capital.

The largest segment of Southern Gas is its regulated gas distribution operations, consisting of four natural gas local distribution companies in Illinois, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia, which collectively serve over 4.3 million customers. The largest of these utilities are Northern Illinois Gas Company (A2 stable) and Atlanta Gas Light Company (unrated).

The principal methodology used in these ratings was Regulated Electric and Gas Utilities published in June 2017 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1072530. Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

REGULATORY DISCLOSURES

For further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and sensitivity analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and Sensitivity to Assumptions in the disclosure form. Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions can be found at: https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_79004.

For ratings issued on a program, series, category/class of debt or security this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series, category/class of debt, security or pursuant to a program for which the ratings are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the credit rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular credit rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt, in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would have affected the rating. For further information please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.

For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit support from the primary entity(ies) of this credit rating action, and whose ratings may change as a result of this credit rating action, the associated regulatory disclosures will be those of the guarantor entity. Exceptions to this approach exist for the following disclosures, if applicable to jurisdiction: Ancillary Services, Disclosure to rated entity, Disclosure from rated entity.

The ratings have been disclosed to the rated entity or its designated agent(s) and issued with no amendment resulting from that disclosure.

These ratings are solicited. Please refer to Moody's Policy for Designating and Assigning Unsolicited Credit Ratings available on its website www.moodys.com.

Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating review.

Moody's general principles for assessing environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in our credit analysis can be found at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1133569.

The Global Scale Credit Rating on this Credit Rating Announcement was issued by one of Moody's affiliates outside the EU and is endorsed by Moody's Deutschland GmbH, An der Welle 5, Frankfurt am Main 60322, Germany, in accordance with Art.4 paragraph 3 of the Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 on Credit Rating Agencies. Further information on the EU endorsement status and on the Moody's office that issued the credit rating is available on www.moodys.com.

Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued the rating.

Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.

Jeffrey F. Cassella VP - Senior Credit Officer Infrastructure Finance Group Moody's Investors Service, Inc. 250 Greenwich Street New York, NY 10007 U.S.A. JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653 Michael G. Haggarty Associate Managing Director Infrastructure Finance Group JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653 Releasing Office: Moody's Investors Service, Inc. 250 Greenwich Street New York, NY 10007 U.S.A. JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653

 2020 Moody's Corporation, Moody's Investors Service, Inc., Moody's Analytics, Inc. and/or their licensors and affiliates (collectively, "MOODY'S"). All rights reserved.

CREDIT RATINGS ISSUED BY MOODY'S INVESTORS SERVICE, INC. AND/OR ITS CREDIT RATINGS AFFILIATES ARE MOODY'S CURRENT OPINIONS OF THE RELATIVE FUTURE CREDIT RISK OF ENTITIES, CREDIT COMMITMENTS, OR DEBT OR DEBT-LIKE SECURITIES, AND MATERIALS, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND INFORMATION PUBLISHED BY MOODY'S (COLLECTIVELY, "PUBLICATIONS") MAY INCLUDE SUCH CURRENT OPINIONS. MOODY'S INVESTORS SERVICE DEFINES CREDIT RISK AS THE RISK THAT AN ENTITY MAY NOT MEET ITS CONTRACTUAL FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS AS THEY COME DUE AND ANY ESTIMATED FINANCIAL LOSS IN THE EVENT OF DEFAULT OR IMPAIRMENT. SEE MOODY'S RATING SYMBOLS AND DEFINITIONS PUBLICATION FOR INFORMATION ON THE TYPES OF CONTRACTUAL FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS ADDRESSED BY MOODY'S INVESTORS SERVICE CREDIT RATINGS. CREDIT RATINGS DO NOT ADDRESS ANY OTHER RISK, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO: LIQUIDITY RISK, MARKET VALUE RISK, OR PRICE VOLATILITY. CREDIT RATINGS, NON-CREDIT ASSESSMENTS ("ASSESSMENTS"), AND OTHER OPINIONS INCLUDED IN MOODY'S PUBLICATIONS ARE NOT STATEMENTS OF CURRENT OR HISTORICAL FACT. MOODY'S PUBLICATIONS MAY ALSO INCLUDE QUANTITATIVE MODEL-BASED ESTIMATES OF CREDIT RISK AND RELATED OPINIONS OR COMMENTARY PUBLISHED BY MOODY'S ANALYTICS, INC. AND/OR ITS AFFILIATES. MOODY'S CREDIT RATINGS, ASSESSMENTS, OTHER OPINIONS AND PUBLICATIONS DO NOT CONSTITUTE OR PROVIDE INVESTMENT OR FINANCIAL ADVICE, AND MOODY'S CREDIT RATINGS, ASSESSMENTS, OTHER OPINIONS AND PUBLICATIONS ARE NOT AND DO NOT PROVIDE RECOMMENDATIONS TO PURCHASE, SELL, OR HOLD PARTICULAR SECURITIES. MOODY'S CREDIT RATINGS, ASSESSMENTS, OTHER OPINIONS AND PUBLICATIONS DO NOT COMMENT ON THE SUITABILITY OF AN INVESTMENT FOR ANY PARTICULAR INVESTOR. MOODY'S ISSUES ITS CREDIT RATINGS, ASSESSMENTS AND OTHER OPINIONS AND PUBLISHES ITS PUBLICATIONS WITH THE EXPECTATION AND UNDERSTANDING THAT EACH INVESTOR WILL, WITH DUE CARE, MAKE ITS OWN STUDY AND EVALUATION OF EACH SECURITY THAT IS UNDER CONSIDERATION FOR PURCHASE, HOLDING, OR SALE.

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Moody's Investors Service, Inc., a wholly-owned credit rating agency subsidiary of Moody's Corporation ("MCO"), hereby discloses that most issuers of debt securities (including corporate and municipal bonds, debentures, notes and commercial paper) and preferred stock rated by Moody's Investors Service, Inc. have, prior to assignment of any credit rating, agreed to pay to Moody's Investors Service, Inc. for credit ratings opinions and services rendered by it fees ranging from $1,000 to approximately $2,700,000. MCO and Moody's investors Service also maintain policies and procedures to address the independence of Moody's Investors Service credit ratings and credit rating processes. Information regarding certain affiliations that may exist between directors of MCO and rated entities, and between entities who hold credit ratings from Moody's Investors Service and have also publicly reported to the SEC an ownership interest in MCO of more than 5%, is posted annually at www.moodys.com under the heading "Investor Relations  Corporate Governance  Director and Shareholder Affiliation Policy."

Additional terms for Australia only: Any publication into Australia of this document is pursuant to the Australian Financial Services License of MOODY'S affiliate, Moody's Investors Service Pty Limited ABN 61 003 399 657AFSL 336969 and/or Moody's Analytics Australia Pty Ltd ABN 94 105 136 972 AFSL 383569 (as applicable). This document is intended to be provided only to "wholesale clients" within the meaning of section 761G of the Corporations Act 2001. By continuing to access this document from within Australia, you represent to MOODY'S that you are, or are accessing the document as a representative of, a "wholesale client" and that neither you nor the entity you represent will directly or indirectly disseminate this document or its contents to "retail clients" within the meaning of section 761G of the Corporations Act 2001. MOODY'S credit rating is an opinion as to the creditworthiness of a debt obligation of the issuer, not on the equity securities of the issuer or any form of security that is available to retail investors.

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1. Sushant's Girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty Requests Home Minister Amit Shah For A CBI Inquiry

Instagram

Confirming that she was dating Sushant Singh Rajput for the first time, Rhea Chakraborty wrote to Home Minister Amit Shah and requested for a CBI inquiry. She said that she wants to understand as to what prompted him to take such a decision.



2. To Motivate Students Who Couldn't Score Well In Board Exams, Madhavan Reveals He Got 58%

Twitter

The CBSE results for Class 12th were announced this week. And we all know what a big deal it continues to be for parents and students who undertake these exams. We might say, exams don't matter in the long run but when you are in 12th, everyone wants to know how much you scored in your board exams.



3. Subramanian Swamy Writes Letter To PM Modi, Urges For CBI Probe In Sushant Singh Rajputs Case

TOI

In the letter, Swamy writes his sources have told him that Bollywood bigwigs with the help of dons in Dubai are trying to influence Mumbai Police to cover up this matter as voluntary suicide.



4. Karan Johar Unlikely To Be Questioned By Mumbai Police In Sushant Singh Rajput Case

BCCL

A couple of days after reports started doing the rounds that Salman Khan won't be questioned in Sushant Singh Rajput's suicide case, it has now been reported that it's unlikely that Karan Johar will be questioned by the Mumbai Police.



5. Home Minister Amit Shah Forwards Letter To Concerned Ministry For CBI Inquiry In Sushant's Case

ani

On June 19, a few days after the Bollywood actor's death, Bihar MP and Jan Adhikar Party's Pappu Yadav had written a letter to Home Minister Amit Shah seeking CBI inquiry into the matter. On July 9, the home minister acknowledged his request and forwarded his letter to concerned authority.






Rating Action: Moody's assigns first-time B3 deposit ratings to Bakai Bank, outlook stable

Global Credit Research - 16 Jul 2020

London, 16 July 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service, ("Moody's) has today assigned a B3 first-time long-term local and foreign currency deposit ratings to Kyrgyzstan-based Bakai Bank OJSC (Bakai Bank). The outlook on the deposit ratings is stable. Concurrently, the rating agency assigned Bakai Bank a Baseline Credit Assessment (BCA) of b3 and an Adjusted BCA of b3.

Moody's has also assigned the bank a long-term local and foreign currency Counterparty Risk Rating (CRR) of B2, a long-term Counterparty Risk Assessment (CR Assessment) of B2(cr) and Not Prime (NP) short-term local and foreign currency CRRs and NP(cr) short-term CR Assessment. The bank was also assigned NP short-term local and foreign currency deposit ratings.

A full list of assigned ratings can be found at the end of this press release.

RATINGS RATIONALE

KYRGYZSTAN VERY WEAK+ MACRO PROFILE

The macro profile of Kyrgyz republic (B2 stable) in part reflects the small size of the economy, characterised by a lack of scale in key industry sectors and low per capita incomes, which limit its shock absorption capacity. The economy is also highly exposed to external shocks, as it relies substantially on trade with and remittances from Russia (Baa3 stable), as well as volatile domestic gold production. The global coronavirus outbreak weighs heavily on Kyrgyzstan economy and its banking sector, dragging down loan growth. Banks are primarily funded with customer deposits and funding and liquidity conditions will remain steady, supported by limited dependence on market funding, ample liquidity and gradual de-dollarization in the long term.

In January 2020, Bakai Bank merged with its sister bank- Kyrgyzstan based BTA Bank, which was previously acquired by Bakai Bank's shareholders from Kazakhstan based BTA Bank. As a result of the merger, Bakai Bank's market shares more than doubled.

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BASELINE CREDIT ASSESSMENT

Bakai Bank's b3 BCA is constrained by: (1) macro-profile of Very Weak +; (2) modest profitability, which will remain under pressure amid worsened economic conditions and weakening asset quality and (3) potential challenges related to post-merger integration. At the same time the bank's BCA is underpinned by its robust capital levels, limited reliance on market finding, and ample liquidity buffer.

Moody's estimates that Bakai Bank's post-merger problem loans (defined as Stage 3 loans) accounted for around 4.1% of gross loans and loan loss coverage exceeded 100% of problem loans. Moody's, however, expects that problem loans will increase in 2020 because the slowdown in the economic activities in Kyrgyzstan as a result of the coronavirus outbreak will undermine borrowers' debt servicing capacity. This, in turn, will put pressure on the bank's solvency metrics, in particular asset quality and profitability.

Following the merger, Bakai Bank's capital position materially improved driven by highly capitalized BTA Bank. Moody's estimates that Bakai Bank's post-merger tangible common equity (TCE) ratio was around 18%, up from around 12% in 2019 and the rating agency expects the ratio to remain above 15% in the next 12-18 months.

Moody's expects that Bakai Bank's profitability will be strained by increasing loan-loss provisions and declining revenues amid worsened economic conditions and weakening asset quality. However, in the long run, Bakai Bank's profitability will benefit from increased scale of operations as a result of the merger with BTA Bank, which will help the bank to strengthen its operating efficiency and income generating capacity.

Bakai Bank's liquidity and funding profiles will remain stable over the next 12-18 months, supported by its ample liquidity buffer, which accounted for around 30% of total assets and limited reliance on market funding. Bakai Bank's funding base is highly dollarized which is typical for Kyrgyzstan banks.

Moody's does not have any particular governance concerns for Bakai Bank. The bank has not shown any material governance shortfall in recent years and its risk management framework is commensurate with its risk appetite.

Moody's assumption of a moderate likelihood of government support takes into account the bank's sizable post- merger market shares in Kyrgyzstan, however this support assumption does not result in any ratings uplift from the bank's BCA.

STABLE OUTLOOK

The stable outlook on Bakai Bank's long-term deposit ratings reflects Moody's view that the elevated risks stemming from the deteriorated operating conditions will be counter-balanced by the bank's ample liquidity and robust capital position. Thus, a likelihood of any rating changes for Bakai Bank in the next 12 to 18 months is limited.

FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OR DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS

Bakai Bank's deposit ratings will not likely be upgraded in next 12-18 months because of increased challenges amid unfavourable operating conditions related to the coronavirus outbreak. Negative pressure could be exerted on Bakai Bank if its financial fundamentals, notably asset quality, capitalization and profitability, were to deteriorate significantly beyond Moody's expectation as a result of material deterioration in economic conditions.

LIST OF AFFECTED RATINGS ..Issuer: Bakai Bank OJSC Assignments:

.... Adjusted Baseline Credit Assessment, Assigned b3

.... Baseline Credit Assessment, Assigned b3

.... Long-term Counterparty Risk Assessment, Assigned B2(cr)

.... Short-term Counterparty Risk Assessment, Assigned NP(cr)

.... Long-term Counterparty Risk Rating, Assigned B2

.... Short-term Counterparty Risk Rating, Assigned NP

.... Short-term Bank Deposits, Assigned NP

....Long-term Bank Deposits, Assigned B3, Outlook Assigned Stable

Outlook:

....Outlook, Assigned Stable

PRINCIPAL METHODOLOGY

The principal methodology used in these ratings was Banks Methodology published in November 2019 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1147865. Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

REGULATORY DISCLOSURES

For further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and sensitivity analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and Sensitivity to Assumptions in the disclosure form. Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions can be found at: https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_79004.

For ratings issued on a program, series, category/class of debt or security this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series, category/class of debt, security or pursuant to a program for which the ratings are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the credit rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular credit rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt, in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would have affected the rating. For further information please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.

For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit support from the primary entity(ies) of this credit rating action, and whose ratings may change as a result of this credit rating action, the associated regulatory disclosures will be those of the guarantor entity. Exceptions to this approach exist for the following disclosures, if applicable to jurisdiction: Ancillary Services, Disclosure to rated entity, Disclosure from rated entity.

The ratings have been disclosed to the rated entity or its designated agent(s) and issued with no amendment resulting from that disclosure.

These ratings are solicited. Please refer to Moody's Policy for Designating and Assigning Unsolicited Credit Ratings available on its website www.moodys.com.

Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating review.

Moody's general principles for assessing environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in our credit analysis can be found at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1133569.

At least one ESG consideration was material to the credit rating action(s) announced and described above.

Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued the rating.

Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.

Lev Dorf Asst Vice President - Analyst Financial Institutions Group Moody's Investors Service Limited, Russian Branch 7th floor, Four Winds Plaza 21 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya St. Moscow 125047 Russia JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456 Client Service: 44 20 7772 5454 Nicholas Hill MD - Banking Financial Institutions Group JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456 Client Service: 44 20 7772 5454 Releasing Office: Moody's Investors Service Ltd. One Canada Square Canary Wharf London E14 5FA United Kingdom JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456 Client Service: 44 20 7772 5454

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CREDIT RATINGS ISSUED BY MOODY'S INVESTORS SERVICE, INC. AND/OR ITS CREDIT RATINGS AFFILIATES ARE MOODY'S CURRENT OPINIONS OF THE RELATIVE FUTURE CREDIT RISK OF ENTITIES, CREDIT COMMITMENTS, OR DEBT OR DEBT-LIKE SECURITIES, AND MATERIALS, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND INFORMATION PUBLISHED BY MOODY'S (COLLECTIVELY, "PUBLICATIONS") MAY INCLUDE SUCH CURRENT OPINIONS. MOODY'S INVESTORS SERVICE DEFINES CREDIT RISK AS THE RISK THAT AN ENTITY MAY NOT MEET ITS CONTRACTUAL FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS AS THEY COME DUE AND ANY ESTIMATED FINANCIAL LOSS IN THE EVENT OF DEFAULT OR IMPAIRMENT. SEE MOODY'S RATING SYMBOLS AND DEFINITIONS PUBLICATION FOR INFORMATION ON THE TYPES OF CONTRACTUAL FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS ADDRESSED BY MOODY'S INVESTORS SERVICE CREDIT RATINGS. CREDIT RATINGS DO NOT ADDRESS ANY OTHER RISK, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO: LIQUIDITY RISK, MARKET VALUE RISK, OR PRICE VOLATILITY. CREDIT RATINGS, NON-CREDIT ASSESSMENTS ("ASSESSMENTS"), AND OTHER OPINIONS INCLUDED IN MOODY'S PUBLICATIONS ARE NOT STATEMENTS OF CURRENT OR HISTORICAL FACT. MOODY'S PUBLICATIONS MAY ALSO INCLUDE QUANTITATIVE MODEL-BASED ESTIMATES OF CREDIT RISK AND RELATED OPINIONS OR COMMENTARY PUBLISHED BY MOODY'S ANALYTICS, INC. AND/OR ITS AFFILIATES. MOODY'S CREDIT RATINGS, ASSESSMENTS, OTHER OPINIONS AND PUBLICATIONS DO NOT CONSTITUTE OR PROVIDE INVESTMENT OR FINANCIAL ADVICE, AND MOODY'S CREDIT RATINGS, ASSESSMENTS, OTHER OPINIONS AND PUBLICATIONS ARE NOT AND DO NOT PROVIDE RECOMMENDATIONS TO PURCHASE, SELL, OR HOLD PARTICULAR SECURITIES. MOODY'S CREDIT RATINGS, ASSESSMENTS, OTHER OPINIONS AND PUBLICATIONS DO NOT COMMENT ON THE SUITABILITY OF AN INVESTMENT FOR ANY PARTICULAR INVESTOR. MOODY'S ISSUES ITS CREDIT RATINGS, ASSESSMENTS AND OTHER OPINIONS AND PUBLISHES ITS PUBLICATIONS WITH THE EXPECTATION AND UNDERSTANDING THAT EACH INVESTOR WILL, WITH DUE CARE, MAKE ITS OWN STUDY AND EVALUATION OF EACH SECURITY THAT IS UNDER CONSIDERATION FOR PURCHASE, HOLDING, OR SALE.

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Additional terms for Australia only: Any publication into Australia of this document is pursuant to the Australian Financial Services License of MOODY'S affiliate, Moody's Investors Service Pty Limited ABN 61 003 399 657AFSL 336969 and/or Moody's Analytics Australia Pty Ltd ABN 94 105 136 972 AFSL 383569 (as applicable). This document is intended to be provided only to "wholesale clients" within the meaning of section 761G of the Corporations Act 2001. By continuing to access this document from within Australia, you represent to MOODY'S that you are, or are accessing the document as a representative of, a "wholesale client" and that neither you nor the entity you represent will directly or indirectly disseminate this document or its contents to "retail clients" within the meaning of section 761G of the Corporations Act 2001. MOODY'S credit rating is an opinion as to the creditworthiness of a debt obligation of the issuer, not on the equity securities of the issuer or any form of security that is available to retail investors.

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MJKK and MSFJ also maintain policies and procedures to address Japanese regulatory requirements.


If these reports are accurate, Trump and his cronies are openly seeking to destroy the post office during the worst public health crisis in a century, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-N.J., said in a statement.

With states now reliant on voting by mail to continue elections during the pandemic, the destabilizing of the post office is a direct attack on American democracy itself, Pascrell said.

DeJoy, a North Carolina businessman and megadonor to President Donald Trump, took over as postmaster general in June at a critical time. In April, Trump called the Postal Service a joke and said it should quadruple its package delivery fees, a move apparently aimed at Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, who owns The Post.

The beleaguered Postal Service actually is financially faring better during the pandemic because of the strong demand for package deliveries. Companies often use the Postal Service for last mile local deliveries. But even before the latest cost-cutting measures, the Postal Service has struggled to adjust to a surge in absentee ballots. In 2020, many more voters are choosing to vote from home rather than stand in long lines.
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By Alan D. Blotcky, PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist in Birmingham

Yesterday, Governor Ivey walked up to the microphone and announced that mask-wearing is now mandatory statewide. This is a good beginning step by our governor. But it is not enough. Not nearly enough.

Mask-wearing is an essential safety measure and I applaud Governor Ivey for making it mandatory. But Ivey fell short in several important ways.

First, she should have emphasized in her remarks that mask-wearing and social distancing are the two critical measures we need to use all the time in order to defeat this pandemic. Instead, she said, This is going to be a difficult order to enforce. That kind of defeatist statement does not come close to conveying the dire situation we find ourselves in. Mask-wearing and social distancing must be seen as absolutely imperative by all of us, no matter what age.

Second, Governor Ivey should have repeated over and over again that this surge of infections in Alabama is alarming and frightening and unacceptable. The virus is beating us. It is winning. Deaths are mounting. ICUs are full. We are far worse now than we were in March. Infections are increasing, with no ceiling in sight.

Third, the infection and death rates are so high that restaurants, bars, gyms, churches, and other similar places might need to be closed or at least severely restricted. Ivey did not take that step.

Finally, a shelter-in-place lockdown was barely discussed as an imminent possibility if we do not get this virus under control immediately. It is what will work for certain.

Alabamas surge in infections is associated with the opening up of our economy. Everyone wants the economy to be roaring back. No one wants limitations in our commerce. But this public health crisis cries out for strong and decisive measures.

I believe Governor Ivey should be doing everything she can to combat this virus and to protect us from its ferociousness. She should be visible and vocal every day. We need her to be bold and forceful.

We are in a life and death crisis. This is not the time for denial. This is not the time for wishful thinking. This is not the time to ignore data and public health recommendations.

Governor Ivey has taken a baby step with her announcement. But we need a giant leap forward. We need more aggressive safety measures in place. Now.

We need bold and forceful leadership by our governor. Because the coronavirus is winning.
NEW YORK - President Donald Trumps efforts to stall the release of his personal and corporate taxes to a New York state grand jury is jeopardizing the criminal probe of other individuals and entities and could kill this case, an attorney told a judge Thursday in urging fast action.

It isnt just about the president, attorney Carey Dunne said of an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. a week after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Vances favour. There are other individuals and entities who ... could end up above the law as a result of this delay.

Trumps attorney, William S. Consovoy, said the president believed there were strong arguments to be made that the subpoena was not properly tailored and instead copied verbatim portions of Congressional subpoenas.

We continue to be deeply skeptical that a subpoena from New York County fortuitously is exactly the same scope and nature as two different Congressional investigations focused on federal issues, he said.

And he said Trump can still assert claims that the subpoena reflected bad faith and harassment a year after U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero rejected those arguments. Consovoy said claims last year related to the initiation of the investigation but now would focus solely on the subpoena.

At the conclusion of Thursdays hearing, Marrero said he would follow a schedule agreed to by both sides that calls for written submissions to be completed by mid-August.

He also expressed interest in resolving Trumps claims quickly, noting that lawyers submitted their arguments last year within six days.

Part of Vances probe involves payments that Trumps then-personal lawyer arranged during the 2016 presidential race to keep the porn actress Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal from airing claims of extramarital affairs with Trump. Trump has denied the affairs.

Vance, a Democrat, has requested eight years of the Republican presidents personal and corporate tax records.

Last week, t he Supreme Court rejected arguments by Trumps lawyers and the Justice Department that the president cannot be investigated while he holds office or that a prosecutor must show a greater need than normal to obtain the tax records.

The top court returned the fight over the subpoena to Marrero, saying Trumps lawyers may still challenge it in the same manner as anyone served with a subpoena.

Consovoy suggested that the president believes the new lower-court review cannot be quickly resolved.

He said further investigation and review will certainly be necessary before Trump decides on exactly what grounds the subpoena should be challenged.

He said, for instance, it must yet be decided whether to challenge the subpoena on grounds that it is retaliatory or that the president was targeted for political reasons.

Dunne, though, said delay was unnecessary because there was nothing new from a year ago.

What the presidents lawyers are seeking here is delay. I think thats the entire strategy here. Every day that goes by the president wins the type of absolute temporary immunity he has been seeking in this case, even though he has lost on that claim before every court thats heard it, including now the Supreme Court, he added.

With deadlines for statutes of limitation looming, he asked the judge to not let delay kill this case.

Prevent the possibility here that justice delayed becomes justice denied, Dunne added.
HONG KONG, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Wednesday strongly condemned the signing of the so-called "Hong Kong Autonomy Act" into law by the United States and firmly opposed the U.S. gross interference in Hong Kong affairs.

The liaison office said in a statement that the Law of the People's Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the HKSAR was adopted by a unanimous vote by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and promulgated in the HKSAR on June 30.

In recent days, various sectors of Hong Kong society and the general public have expressed by different means their support for the national security law for Hong Kong, expecting Hong Kong to end the year-long social unrest and get back on track soon under the protection provided by the law, it noted.

The United States, in disregard of China's repeated representations and objections, maliciously smeared the national security law for Hong Kong and persisted in signing the so-called "Hong Kong Autonomy Act" into law, the statement said.

This is a gross interference in China's internal affairs and an outrageous desecration of the common will of the 1.4 billion Chinese people including Hong Kong compatriots, it added. "We express firm opposition to and strong condemnation of it."

Since the social unrest last year, Hong Kong has been facing the gravest situation after its return to the motherland as radicals committed violent and terrorist activities and anti-China forces blatantly advocated "Hong Kong independence," the statement said, adding that law and order in Hong Kong was seriously jeopardized and the interests of Hong Kong residents were harmed.

The statement said the role of the United States in the unrest is apparent and some U.S. politicians also know the truth well.

It is in line with the sovereignty principle and the international practice for China to enact a law to safeguard national security, end the chaos and close legal loopholes in Hong Kong, which is a special administrative region of China, the statement said.

The U.S. interference and threats were bullying and unreasonable, the statement said.

The United States has reaped enormous interests in Hong Kong and its so-called economic sanctions will only damage its own interests, rather than having real influence on Hong Kong, the statement said.

As national security is under protection, Hong Kong will return to stability and make new progress, guaranteed by "one country, two systems," the Basic Law and the support of the nation, the statement said.

No external force can undermine China's resolve and confidence to safeguard national sovereignty and security and Hong Kong's long-term prosperity and stability, the statement said.
Armenian defense ministry spokesperson Shushan Stepanyan has shared a video of shootings at Aygepar village of Armenia Tavush province.

"Today's attack by the Azerbaijani side in the direction of Aygepar village," she noted.

As Stepanyan noted earlier, "around 03:40 at night, positions of the Armenian Armed Forces noticed enemy movement. Switching to all-around defense Armenian units prevented the enemy's attempt of infiltration."

"After a hot battle, the enemy was thwarted back suffering losses," she added. "Afterwards, at 05:20 the Azerbaijani units started shelling the villages of Aygepar, Movses, using mortars and a D-30 howitzer. The fire still continues."

"Armenian Armed Forces units are neutralizing provocations of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces.

This is the first serious violation of the fragile ceasefire established yesterday at 00:15."
A member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Communication team, Alhaji Naziru Mohammed has described the Akufo-Addo government as a bad and cursed one that has infected Ghanaians with hardship and sickness.



According to him, people usually describe their wellbeing based on atrocities and sicknesses, but due to Akufo-Addos bad and 'cursed' government that Ghanaians are experiencing, both their pockets and physical being are not well as the country battles not only economic hardship but also the COVID-19 pandemic.



Nobody is well in this country . . . while your pocket is not well, at the same time we are not well physically and it is hard to understand, he slammed.



Speaking on Okay FMs 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, Alhaji Naziru Mohammed says it makes sense to him now when the late Sir John used to lament about hardship under the NDC government.



Sir John once said under the NDC government that the hardship in the country was so enormous that women could not even give birth and I understand him now, a certain government can make people run mad due to hardship and that is what we are experiencing under President Akufo-Addo," he asserted.







Source: Daniel Adu Darko/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.

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Real-life wedding crashers have revealed their go-to strategies for sneaking into lavish receptions without getting caught, and unlike the movies will lead you to believe, it's all about blending in  not standing out.

When the romantic comedy Wedding Crashers was released in 2005, fans admired the over-the-top antics of John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy Grey (Vince Vaughn), two divorce mediators who crash weddings to seduce bridesmaids. But it turns out they made things a lot more complicated than they needed to be.

'You just show up, eat as much as you want, and leave,' writer Orly Minazad, 36, told Mel Magazine of how she spent months crashing weddings to find inspiration for her own nuptials.

It happens! Real-life wedding crashers have detailed how they sneak into fancy receptions just like Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn's characters in Wedding Crashers (pictured)

Minazad, who is from Iran, explained wedding crashing is commonplace in her country, and she didn't realize it was frowned up in American culture until she moved to Los Angeles in 1991.

'In Persian culture, weddings are like tryouts for the venue, florist, caterer or band,' she said. 'We crash tons of them to spy on them and see what their work is like. Its kind of like a rite of passage  you go with your fiance and just sort of inspect the scene while 500 other people party around you.'

Between July and October of 2011, Minazad and her now-husband spent most Saturdays and Sundays trying to blend in at complete strangers' weddings just to check out the work of the caterers, florists, and bands they were considering hiring for their 400-person reception.

She did, however, admit it was always a bit stressful.

'No matter now socially accepted the practice is in our community, I found myself with pre-crashing jitters each week as I slipped into a black just-pretend-I'm-not-here dress and my fiance reluctantly put on a suit,' she wrote in an LA Weekly article about the experience.

Unlike wedding crashers who are looking for a free party, they were on a mission.

They would talk with the caters, try as much food as possible, and hit the bar before leaving, usually early. They would debrief in the car before changing out of their wedding uniforms and into their date-night clothes to enjoy the rest of their evening.

Expert: Fred Karger, who has been dubbed 'World's Greatest Party Crasher,' shared his go-to tips for sneaking into any party. He's pictured at the Met Gala

While the whole thing sounds exciting, Minazad admitted that it gets old fast.

'Once you start fighting about the food at other peoples weddings, it does get a little tiring,' she told Mel Magazine.

The publication also spoke with a man named Sean, an Alaskan miner in his late 40s who spent his youth crashing fancy weddings in Anchorage's ritziest hotels.

He and his friends worked as bellmen at the time when they realized the receptions were filled with 'free booze' and 'babes.'

They started sneaking into the more extravagant weddings around town, but they always avoided the ones that were held at the hotel where the worked.

To avoid getting caught, they made sure they were never too early when they arrived. They entered the venue in groups of real guests and would blend in with the crowd once inside.

Unlike the characters in Wedding Crashers, they kept their backstories vague. They always said they were on the groom's side, claiming they were 'college buddies' or 'a friend from growing up.'

Incredible: The 70-year-old former politician snuck into the Academy Awards not once but twice. He's pictured behind Liza Minnelli's right shoulder in 1973

Brilliant: Karger carried around a fake Oscar to sneak into Vanity Fair's after-party in 2006, but he's never crashed a wedding simply because he's never wanted to

They kept up with the ruse by avoiding the groom at all costs and only talking about 'Anchorage things' whenever they got into a conversation with another guest.

However, Sean did have a little fun with his backstory. After randomly telling one female guest his father was an oil exec and he was heading off to college at Arizona State, he committed to the story at future weddings.

He told Mel Magazine that he and his friends crashed between seven to ten weddings and never got caught.

He also boasted that he got 'lucky' with 'babes' more than a few times, and just like in Wedding Crashers, he attracted the attention of a 'cougar' he spent years hooking up with.

Under the assessment of Fred Karger, who has been dubbed the 'World's Greatest Party Crasher,' Sean and his friends did everything right.

The 70-year-old former politician and LGBTQ+ rights activist has made a name for himself in the party circuit for sneaking into the most exclusive events, including the Met Gala, Joan River's funeral, and the Academy Awards  twice.

HOW TO PROPERLY CRASH A WEDDING Wear proper wedding attire, but nothing that is too showy Prepare a believable backstory so you don't get caught off guard Try to enter the venue with other guests, either by striking up a conversation with them or walking close behind them If that's not possible, pretend you were already inside and had just stepped out for a cigarette or a phone call Blend in and avoid the bride and groom at all costs When talking to guests, ask how they know the couple. If they're friends with the groom, claim to know the bride and vice versa Consider bringing a gift, which can help you blend in and keep your karma in check Advertisement

In 1972, he was just 22 years old when he found himself on stage at the Oscars during an award ceremony for Charlie Chaplin, and he even went as far as shaking the star's hand.

When he crashed the prestigious awards ceremony the next year, he was seen standing behind Liza Minnelli while the closing credits were rolling.

Karger held onto a fake Oscar to get into Vanity Fair's after-party in 2006, and he bypassed five security checkpoints at Versaces Met Gala after-party in 2018 by carrying the train of Blake Lively's gown.

There doesn't seem to be an event he can't get into, but interestingly enough, he has never crashed a wedding simply because he has never wanted to.

'Id much rather crash a funeral,' he told Mel Magazine. 'Theyre a lot more interesting, and a lot harder to get into.'

However, if he were to sneak into a wedding, he knows exactly how he would pull it off. He'd rely on the same tricks that have gotten him into some of the world's most exclusive gatherings time and time again.

Karger explained that he would show up in proper wedding attire with a backstory to ensure he wouldn't tip off any guests to the fact he didn't belong.

To gain entry, he would either blend in with a group of guests by talking to them outside or walking close enough behind them that it looked like he was with them.

If that's not an option, Karger likes to find an empty drink and carry it so it appears as though he was already inside the venue. Sometimes, he pulls out a prop cigarette and pretends he's outside for a smoke break.

'Thats how I got into the Barbra Streisand concert for Al Gore and Joe Lieberman at the Democratic Convention in 2000,' he said. 'Its a real nifty trick.'

Karger has no love for Vaughn and Wilson's characters in Wedding Crashers, saying they are 'idiots' and their bizarre claim that they 'know Aunt Edna' would be sure to get them caught at real-life weddings.

'What you ought to do is engage in conversation with the other guests first. You strike up some chit-chat, ask them which side theyre on  bride or groom  and then suddenly, youre on the opposite side,' he explained. 'That way, youre almost guaranteed to have nothing in common.'

Karger also suggested bringing a gift, an envelope or gift bag that can serve as a disguise and also keep the crasher's karma in check.

The famed party crasher is so good at what he does that he has even written a book about in his forthcoming tell-all, which is aptly titled Crasher.

'Its not Wedding Crashers,' he told the publication. 'Thats all you need to know.'
After Business Insider named 30 of the best cities to live in after the coronavirus pandemic, they are back at it again, ranking cities specifically in the Northeast. Out of the 21 best cities on the list, nine are in Upstate New York.

In the original ranking, Business Insider looked at nine metrics including: pre-coronavirus unemployment rate, ability to work from home, population density, housing affordability, monthly household costs, cost of living, weekly two-way work commute, total elementary- and secondary-school spending per student, and share of residents age 25 and over who have at least a bachelors degree. These factors could help a metro area recover faster from the economic effects of the pandemic.

Here is how Upstate NY cities ranked on the new, smaller list.

#19 - Glens Falls

Business Insider reports that Glens Falls is among the 100 US metro areas with the lowest population density at 74 people per square mile, which is also the second-lowest population density of metro areas just in the Northeast. Glens Falls has one of the lowest average housing costs of metro areas in the Northeast region at $956 a month.

Glens Falls is located in the Adirondack foothills with a flourishing artistic community. It is home to the Adirondack Theatre Festival, World Awareness Childrens Museum, and The Shirt Factory Arts and Healing Center which is a historic factory building turned artisans hub with over 70 artist studios, shops, galleries and healing arts services.

You can see more at GlensFalls.com.

#18 - Elmira

Business Insider included Elmira on their list as it has the 15th-highest total spending per student in elementary and secondary public schools of all US metro areas. They report it also has the third-lowest average housing cost at $795 a month and tied for the 11th-lowest cost of living at 4.5% lower than the national average.

You can take a glider ride in this Southern Tier city at the National Soaring Museum, grab a cold one at Upstate Brewing Company, and visit the gravestone of Ernie Davis, the first Black man to receive the Heisman Trophy.

Albany City Hall has been acclaimed by critics as one of the most beautiful buildings in America. With a statue of Revolutionary War Major General Philip Schuyler towering in front of its main doors, Albany pays tribute to its Dutch beginnings and ties to the American Revolution.Stefani Reynolds | NYup.com

#10 - Albany

The states capital had the fifth-highest share of jobs that could be done at home at 42.4%, which Business Insider said is also among the highest shares among 100 US metro areas. The cost of living in Albany and its pre-coronavirus unemployment rate are both around the national average.

Though some have been temporarily closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Albany has several free things to do such as the New York State Museum, the Corning Tower Observation Deck, and a host of events at Washington Park. Fans of the Broadway hit musical Hamilton can also visit the Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site where Alexander Hamilton and his wife Eliza lived for some time.

For the best pain au chocolat outside Paris, look toward Utica For the best chocolate croissants outside Paris, look toward Utica, Food & Wine magazine says. https://trib.al/dhFrQk8 Posted by syracuse.com on Wednesday, October 10, 2018

#9 - Utica

Utica made the list with the the fourth-lowest average housing cost and the fifth-lowest population density of cities in the Northeast at 110 people per square mile.

Upcoming for the Central New York city is a new silicon carbide wafer manufacturing center which is set to be completed in nearby Marcy, NY in 2022 and plans to bring 614 new jobs. It is also home to the Saranac Brewery, the massive 15k Boilermaker road race run, and according to Food & Wine magazine, the best croissants outside of Paris.

On Buffalos waterfront there is an observation deck that offers 360-degree views of the city and Lake Erie. Drive all the way down Erie Street to arrive at the tower and take the long walk to the top.Matthew Digati | NYup.com

#7 - Buffalo

As if being the birthplace of the Buffalo chicken wing wasnt enough, Business Insider said Buffalo has the fifth-highest total spending per student in elementary and secondary public schools among all metro areas. It also had the 10th-lowest cost of living; lower than the national average. The city also had one of the shortest weekly commutes among metro areas in the Northeast at 3 hours and 36 minutes.

This Western NY city is home to the Buffalo Bills, a historic waterfront filled with activities, multiple Frank Lloyd Wright homes, Instagram worthy photo-ops, and Hotel Henry which was named one of the Worlds Greatest Places.

#5 - Binghamton

The magazine reports Binghamton has the fifth-lowest average housing cost out of metro areas in the Northeast and across all US metro areas has the 10th-highest total spending per student in public schools.

Located in the Southern Tier section of NY State, Binghamton is rich in history, and is home to one of the four university centers of the State University of NY. It is also the birthplace of the spiedie sandwich and home to the readers choice winner of the best Italian restaurant of Upstate NY.

The Syracuse skyline is seen from the former Nynex building in downtown Syracuse. Syracuse City Hall is on the right and the State Tower Building is in the middle of the photo. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)Rick Moriarty

#3 - Syracuse

Ranking #21 on the countrywide list, Business Insider cited one of the beneficial prospects of Syracuse being the pre-coronavirus unemployment rate at 3.4% in February, close to the national rate. This Central NY city also had one of the highest share of jobs that could be done from home across the US and has one of the lowest costs of living in the Northeast.

Home to the Great New York State Fair, Syracuse has a bounty of festivals, concerts, and an active local food scene. It is also home of the Syracuse Orange and the original Dinosaur BBQ.

#2 - Ithaca

Ithaca claimed #19 on Business Insiders original list. The metro area has the sixth-largest share of residents in the US with a bachelors degree or higher. Across the Northeast it has the third-shortest weekly commute and the seventh-highest share of jobs that could be done from home.

The college town claims the phrase Ithaca is Gorges and is located at foot of Cayuga Lake, one of Upstate NYs Finger Lakes. It boasts a pedestrian mall, an active arts community, two universities, and more.

#1 - Rochester

This Western NY city has been making headlines since last year as one of the top 10 hottest real estate markets for 2020. It ranked #7 on Business Insiders overall best US cities list. Rochester has a high share of jobs that could be done from home compared to other US metro areas and it had the most students enrolled and spends the second-highest amount per student.

Birthplace of the garbage plate, the Flower City has two major universities, the University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology which both turn out good job candidates and are major employers. The city also has a revitalized downtown area with restaurants, nightlife, and luxe housing options.

See the full list of top Northeast cities and details on Business Insider.

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HOLYOKE  Trustees of the Soldiers Home in Holyoke have endorsed multiple recommendations from an investigation that determined utterly catastrophic and baffling decisions led to dozens of coronavirus infections and deaths at the facility.

The board of trustees met by teleconference on Tuesday for the first time since the report was released on June 24. Chairman Kevin Jourdain called the report very difficult to read, very painful to read, but members mostly limited their discussions to recommendations made in the report.

Members passed 13 resolutions to make widespread improvements to the operations and management of the home. They also passed a second package of reform plans calling on state officials to update the building to meet infection control standards, fill the now-vacant state director of Veterans Services position quickly with an experienced health care leader, and provide funding for a new electronic record-keeping system.

The resolutions passed in 6-0 votes.

Member Richard Girard, who had only been on the board a few months, resigned recently, leaving the seventh seat vacant.

The investigation into outbreak, which infected more than 70 percent of the residents and killed 76, was conducted by attorney Mark Pearlstein at the request of Gov. Charlie Baker. It placed much of the blame for the outbreak on Superintendent Bennett Walsh, who was fired from his $122,299-a-year job shortly after the report was released. Pearlstein called Walsh an inept administrator who bullied his staff and lacked any experience to direct a health care facility.

Francisco Urena, the state director of Veterans Services, who was the direct supervisor of the Soldiers Home, submitted his resignation upon the request of the governor the day before the report was released.

Walshs attorney and uncle, former Hampden District Attorney William M. Bennett, has said the report was filled with baseless accusations that misrepresented facts and offered Walsh no opportunity for rebuttal. He is fighting Walshs termination and has threatened to sue the Baker administration.

The report contained nine primary recommendations for the board of trustees.

My personal view is I agree with all of his recommendations and I suspect my colleagues on the board do as well, Jourdain said Tuesday.

The recommendations include ending the Soldiers Homes exemption from licensing and inspections conducted by the Department of Public Health; hiring an occupational health nurse to ensure proper staffing levels for all shifts; creating policies to increase staff training and education; creating an electronic record-keeping system; closing the indoor smoking room and requiring smoking to be limited to designated outdoor areas.

In a nod to the constant complaint that the superintendents position has long been filled by political appointees, trustees voted to require the superintendent or deputy superintendent to hold a Massachusetts Nursing Home Administrator license, as all managers of private nursing homes must have. The resolution also called for the superintendent to have substantial healthcare experience in the field of gerontology.

Veteran status shall never be a substitute for satisfying the minimum experience or qualifications for employment at the Holyoke Soldiers Home at any level including, but not limited to, the position of superintendent, an additional resolution reads.

Trustees said they were especially concerned about information in the report that said staff were instructed to call families pushing them to change orders to do not hospitalize, do not resuscitate and do not intubate when the outbreak hit.

Trustee Isaac Mass said he found that one of the most egregious things in a report that was full of information about horrifying decisions and actions taken by managers.

It is medically unethical and resulted in deaths, he said.

It is beyond their scope of practice, it is against the law to ask that, trustee Carmen Ostrander said.

The trustees first resolution called for employees to be banned from taking any position on the contents of medical orders for life-sustaining treatment or questioning the familys or veterans decisions. Employees can provide factual information for families.

Trustees also discussed creating a fast-tracked study to decide how to renovate and possibly expand the Soldiers Home so it can meet modern infection control and general living standards so small rooms are not shared by two or three veterans.

State officials said they are working to complete a study and plans for renovations or rebuilding the home to meet an April 2021 deadline to apply for funding from the federal Department of Veterans Affairs.

I hope we look at exemplars around the country of the best facilities, Mass said. That is what the veterans of Western Massachusetts deserve.

Trustees also discussed efforts to start replacing multiple vacant management positions created by resignations  some of which came before the coronavirus outbreak and some of which were forced after the deaths of 76 veterans.

We have retained a professional services search firm given the number of management and clinical staff positions that need to be filled, said Daniel Tsai, deputy secretary of the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services, which also oversees the Soldiers Home.

Some of the positions that are currently vacant are the superintendent and deputy superintendent, the chief medical officer, director of operations, director of nursing, assistant director of nursing and infection control nurse. Val Liptak, chief executive officer of Western Massachusetts Hospital, has been serving as interim director since Walsh was placed on leave on March 30.

Related content:

State legislators form joint oversight committee to probe coronavirus outbreak at Holyoke Soldiers Home that killed 76

As Holyoke Soldiers Home stabilizes from coronavirus outbreak, former superintendent urges reconstruction of facility

Bennett Walsh, suspended superintendent of Holyoke Soldiers Home, releases emails showing pleas for help as coronavirus infected veterans
Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) was the victim of an extensive hack late Wednesday afternoon. Numerous high-profile users of the messaging platform, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, ex-Microsoft leader Bill Gates, and former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, saw their feeds hijacked.

In them, a post appeared that evening promising double returns on $1,000 donations made online, in Bitcoin within a 30-minute time window. Readers were directed to an outside URL for the donations.

It is unknown what person or persons hacked the platform, and it's unclear at the moment how much the apparent scammers reaped in donations. The Bitcoin posts were deleted, and Twitter froze an unspecified number of accounts while it worked on a fix. The company says that access to most of the frozen accounts has been restored.

"We detected what we believe to be a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools," said a post on the official Twitter Support account Wednesday night. "We know they used this access to take control of many highly visible (including verified) accounts and Tweet on their behalf."

Twitter is continuing to update the public on the situation via the Twitter Support account.

The hack is particularly alarming in the run-up to the national elections in November. Concerns have already been raised about the security of U.S. voting systems. This incident likely will heighten such worries.

Politicians have already begun taking action on the Twitter incident. In a letter sent Thursday to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Republican Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi has requested that the tech company brief the Senate's Commerce Committee on the incident by next Friday.

Not surprisingly, investors traded Twitter's shares down on Thursday. Shares fell by just over 1% on Thursday, a steeper drop than that suffered by the broader stock market.
The city of Leicester has been in the news because of its Covid-19 hot-spots and its local lockdown.

According to figures from Public Health England, the level of Covid-19 cases in Leicester is almost 15 times that of Derby, another city in the East Midlands, and almost 25 times that in Nottingham, which is also in the East Midlands.

However, that is not the only reason why Leicester has been in the news. There have also been fresh revelations about its fast fashion sweatshops, which comprise part of the citys garment industry.

In those sweatshops, people work in appalling and unsafe conditions that have rightly been described as modern slavery.

Indeed, the two issues may well be related. The campaign group Labour Behind the Label has claimed that the cramped working conditions in the sweatshops may have contributed to the spread of the disease in the city.

There is certainly strong evidence of sweatshops continuing to operate during the pandemic without social distancing, which would be all but impossible in such obviously confined conditions.

Covid-19 is a comparatively new problem, but the Leicester sweatshops and modern slavery have been around for decades and its not that people havent known about them.

Back in 2010, the Channel 4 Dispatches programme conducted an undercover investigation on fast fashion workshops in Leicester. It revealed dangerous, pressurised sweatshop conditions.

Employees were working in cramped and over-heated conditions, with unsanitary toilets, and were being paid only half the legal minimum wage. Since then, a decade has passed, but little has changed and many workers are still receiving poverty pay.

Many of the workers are of South Asian origin, which is not altogether surprising since one-third of the population of Leicester was born abroad.

The workers are mostly women, many of them speak little English and exploitative employers are not checking the identity and legality of their employees.

The Dispatches programme was titled Fashions Dirty Secret and it lifted the lid on the appalling conditions and the scandal that the sweatshops were stitching garments for major retail chains.

In 2018, a national newspaper investigation, entitled Dark Factories, exposed the exploitative practices in the Leicester garment industry and found that, although key organisations had discussed the situation in Leicester, little had been done to address the problem.

Leicester is a sizeable city, a bit larger than Belfast, but it is not so big that it is an unmanageable city and the failure to tackle the issue has been described as a national shame.

Andrew Bridgen MP described it as Leicesters dirty secret and said: These illegal businesses are not only keeping their workers in miserable conditions, theyre also undermining the marketplace for legitimate businesses to make a living in a very difficult market. Its a national shame.

The primary culpability for this form of modern slavery lies with the employers, who put profit before people.

But those responsible for inspections and for enforcing the law have a lot of questions to answer.

Why has there not been more robust and effective enforcement? Retail chains which purchase their clothing from these factories are also culpable and deserve to be named and shamed. Indeed, as the scandal becomes better known, what will be the reaction from consumers? There is such a thing as ethical shopping.

And finally, where is the outrage from those who rage about many things, but seem to remain silent about this stain on one of our major cities?

Over recent months there have been thousands of people out on the streets demonstrating about historic slavery. Indeed, in Leicester, some protesters were even targeting a statue of Gandhi, whom they accused of racism!

Historians may well want to debate the views of Gandhi about race, but is that really the most pressing issue in the city at this time?

Surely, modern slavery is a much more pertinent and pressing problem. So, why the silence? And why the lack of concern about the victims of this exploitation?

Asian lives matter just as much as black lives, so where is the outrage? And why are we not seeing it?
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 16)  Six areas in Antipolo City, Rizal will be placed on a one-week lockdown due to local transmission of COVID-19.

Mayor Andeng Ynares identified the areas that will be on lockdown from July 18-24:

 Phase 2, COGEO Village, Bgy. Bagong Nayon

 Upper Sto. Nino, Bgy. Sta. Cruz

 Lower Ruhat III, Bgy. Mambugan

 Phase 2, Sta. Elena Subd., Bgy. San Jose

 Phase 2, Peace Village, Bgy. San Luis

 College View Park HOAI, Purok 4, Zone 8, Bgy. Cupang

The IATF allowed these areas to be under localized enhanced community quarantine, or what they call a lockdown, because of the presence of local transmission and the case doubling rate reached beyond the limit in a span of one week, Ynares said in a statement.

The mayor did not specify the number of confirmed COVID-19 infections in these areas.

Only frontliners, those who fall under the Authorized Persons Outside of Residence list, and those with medical emergencies, are allowed to go out of their houses under the guidelines.

Those who work in the aforementioned lockdown areas are also permitted to go in and out of these places, provided they will present a company ID at the quarantine checkpoints.

Residents with quarantine pass are allowed to buy their goods and essentials during the seven-day lockdown.

Ynares assured affected residents will be given food packs to support them throughout the lockdown.

Last week, the Antipolo City government placed areas of Purok LogCom and Pina Valley in Sitio Phase 4B, Barangay Dela Paz under a one-week lockdown. The strict quarantine measures in these places will end on Friday, July 18.

The 14-day lockdown in the Antipolo New Public Market ended on Wednesday after complying with the minimum health standards set by the national government. Around 18 of its tenants and vendors tested positive of COVID-19 last June 30 after undergoing reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test conducted by the city government.

To date, Antipolo City has 440 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 182 active infections. The city also recorded 42 deaths and 216 recoveries from the virus.
China becomes first major economy to rebound after coronavirus: China became the first major economy to grow since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, recording an unexpectedly strong 3.2 per cent expansion in the latest quarter after anti-virus lockdowns were lifted and factories and stores reopened. Growth reported Thursday for the three months ending in June was a dramatic improvement over the previous quarters 6.8 per cent contraction Chinas worst performance since at least the mid-1960s.

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George Mireku Duker, Member of Parliament [MP] for Tarkwa-Nsuaem constituency, has advised Ghanaians to learn lessons from the fate of the people whose monies have been locked up in collapsed financial institutions in the country.



He urged the citizenry not to invest with shady businesses.



Due to the culture of investment adopted by many Ghanaians, some people tend to put their monies where they will gain more in order to advance their life objectives.



Just as it is important to develop the culture of savings and investment, it is equally of significant value to check where the investments are going so as to avoid losing the money to an illegal financial entity.



But this has been the fate of some Ghanaians as they invested with savings and loans companies as well as fund management agencies that were declared by the State and financial authorities as either operating without license or declared as illegal businesses.



The likes of Menzgold, DKM, Alpha Cap Limited, Beige Capital Asset Management Limited, Cambridge Capital Advisors Limited, EM Capital Limited, Energy Investments Limited, Fromfrom Capital Limited, Gold Rock Capital Management Limited, Heritage Securities Limited including banks like the Capital Bank, UT Bank among others have all had their licences revoked.



The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has shut down 53 fund management companies in the country.



Speaking on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' on Thursday, Hon. Mireku Duker wondered why some Ghanaians are so incorrigible that even upon all announcements by the financial authorities and the SEC not to save with some companies, they would go ahead and invest and later turn around to blame President Nana Akufo-Addo.



According to him, the affected Ghanaians are largely moved by greed to invest their monies with such illegal companies.



He therefore urged Ghanaians to stop running for quick money.



"Everybody must wake up. And when you're going to save your money somewhere, you need to ask questions for money is not obtained from the floor. Those people telling you to bring your money and they will multiply it for you, these are things that the bible is even against but you'll find Christians involving themselves in . . . Money is not cheap. You can't get it like that. From the days of Adam, it's not been cheap. You need to work for it," he lamented.



He also jabbed those companies that deceive people to invest with them and eventually duped them.



"These people are just cruel. Somebody works hard and comes to the bank to put his money there thinking his or her money is safe but those bankers, out of greed, enter different figures and it is President Akufo-Addo that the victims are blaming. How can you blame President Akufo-Addo?''





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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A Nigerian Professor, Charles Egbu, has been appointed Vice-Chancellor of Leeds Trinity University.

According to a statement on the UK Varsity website, he will take over from Margaret House, who will be stepping down after seven years.

Mr Egbu will return to Leeds, a city in which he studied and taught, to begin his new role on November 1, 2020.

Elated

Reacting to his appointment, Mr Egbu was quoted as saying: I am honoured to be joining Leeds Trinity; a University whos values and ethos around widening participation, offering a personalised approach and encouraging all students to achieve their best, align with my own. The University has an impressive track record in learning, teaching and employability, and I am looking forward to building on the strong foundations established under the leadership of Professor House.

I have already been impressed by the sense of community at Leeds Trinity and I am looking forward to engaging with students, colleagues and alumni as we shape the future strategy of the institution. I am also looking forward to returning to Leeds; the city in which I spent much of my early academic life.

With more than 25 years experience in higher education, he was previously Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education and Experience at the University of East London.

He is also a member of various external bodies, including the Advance HE Pro Vice-Chancellor Network and QAA Panel of Experts.

Prior to this, he was Dean of the School of Built Environment and Architecture at London South Bank University and Head of the School of Built Environment at the University of Salford. He held academic posts at University College London, Glasgow Caledonian University and Leeds Beckett University (formerly Leeds Metropolitan).

Mr Egbus research interests focus on project management, construction management and sustainable development.

He has written 12 books and contributed to more than 350 publications in various international journals and conferences. He has strong links with industry, professional bodies and policy makers, and has managed several large multi-disciplinary research projects.

Meanwhile, Jamie Hanley, Chair Designate of the Board of Governors at Leeds Trinity University, said, Professor Egbu brings with him a wealth of experience and extensive knowledge of the higher education sector. His energy and vision stood out throughout a very competitive recruitment process, and it is clear that he recognises Leeds Trinitys strengths and values, as well as bringing with him a detailed understanding of the opportunities and challenges faced from across the higher education sector. I very much look forward to welcoming him to Leeds Trinity University.

Mrs House will continue in her role as Vice-Chancellor until the end of October, when Mr Egbu will join the university.
(Newser)  Britain, the US, and Canada accused Russia on Thursday of trying to steal information from researchers seeking a COVID-19 vaccine, the AP reports. The three nations alleged that hacking group APT29, also known as Cozy Bear and said to be part of the Russian intelligence service, is attacking academic and pharmaceutical research institutions involved in coronavirus vaccine development. Britain's National Cyber Security Centre made the announcement, which was coordinated with authorities in the US and Canada. "It is completely unacceptable that the Russian intelligence services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic,'' Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement.

story continues below

"While others pursue their selfish interests with reckless behavior, the UK and its allies are getting on with the hard work of finding a vaccine and protecting global health," he added. The persistent and ongoing attacks are seen by intelligence officials as an effort to steal intellectual property rather than to disrupt research. The campaign of "malicious activity'' is ongoing and includes attacks "predominantly against government, diplomatic, think tank, health care, and energy targets,'' the NCSC said in a statement. It was unclear whether any information actually was stolen but the center says individuals' confidential information isn't believed to have been compromised. US authorities have for months leveled similar accusations against China.

(Read more Russia stories.)
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2020) - Generic Gold Corp. (CSE: GGC) (FSE: 1WD) ("Generic Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with StephenAvenue Securities Inc. (the "Agent"), in connection with a "best-efforts" brokered private placement financing for aggregate gross proceeds of up to $3,500,000 (the "Offering") through the issuance of units (each, a "Unit") at a price of $0.35 per Unit and flow-through units (each, a "FT Unit") at a price of $0.40 per FT Unit (together, the Units and the FT Units, the "Offered Securities"), with a lead order from Mr. Eric Sprott.

Each Unit shall be comprised of one common share (each, a "Common Share") in the capital of the Company and one Common Share purchase warrant (each, a "Unit Warrant"). Each Unit Warrant shall entitle the holder thereof to acquire one Common Share at a price of $0.50 for a period of two (2) years from the closing date (the "Closing Date") of the Offering.

Each FT Unit shall be comprised of one Common Share, which shall qualify as "flow-through shares" (as such term is defined in subsection 66(15) of the Income Tax Act (Canada)) (each, a "FT Share") and one-half of one common share purchase warrant, issued on a non-flow-through basis (each, whole warrant a "FT Unit Warrant"). Each FT Unit Warrant shall entitle the holder thereof to purchase one additional Common Share, issued on a non-flow-through basis, at a price of $0.50 for a period of two (2) years from the Closing Date.

The net proceeds from the sale of the Units will be used for general working capital and exploration purposes. The gross proceeds from the sale of the FT Units will be used by the Company to incur eligible "Canadian exploration expenses" that will qualify as "flow-through mining expenditures" as such terms are defined in the Income Tax Act (Canada) (the "Qualifying Expenditures") related to the Company's projects in Canada. All Qualifying Expenditures will be renounced in favour of the subscribers of the FT Units effective December 31, 2020. It is anticipated that most of the funds derived from the sale of the FT Units will be used to explore the Company's recently acquired Belvais project which is contiguous to Amex Exploration Inc. (refer to the Company's press release of July 7, 2020), shown in Figure 1.





Figure 1

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3923/59905_b4ca5dbf84ea9830_001full.jpg

The Offering is expected to close on or about August 6, 2020, or such other date as agreed between the Company and the Agent. The completion of the Offering is subject to certain closing conditions including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary regulatory and other approvals including the approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange. All Offered Securities will be subject to a statutory hold period of four months and one day from the Closing Date.

The Offered Securities have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the Offered Securities in any State in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

About Generic Gold

Generic Gold is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on gold projects in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt in Quebec, Canada and Tintina Gold Belt in the Yukon Territory of Canada. The Company's Quebec exploration portfolio consists of three properties covering 8,148 hectares proximal to the town of Normetal and Amex Exploration's Perron project. The Company's Yukon exploration portfolio consists of several projects with a total land position of greater than 35,000 hectares, all of which are 100% owned by Generic Gold. Several of these projects are in close proximity to significant gold projects, including Goldcorp's Coffee project, Victoria Gold's Eagle Gold project, White Gold's Golden Saddle project, and Western Copper & Gold's Casino project. For information on the Company's property portfolio, visit the Company's website at genericgold.ca.

For further information contact:

Generic Gold Corp.

Richard Patricio, President and CEO

Tel: 416-456-6529

rpatricio@genericgold.ca

StephenAvenue Securities Inc.

Daniel Cappuccitti

Tel: 416-479-4478

ecm@stephenavenue.com

NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR THEIR REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDERS ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon the current belief, opinions and expectations of management that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and other contingencies. Many factors could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein. We seek safe harbour.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/59905
The French embassy in Botswana celebrated Bastille Day (National Day) on June 14th with an address by the Ambassador H.E Laurence Beau beamed through social media.

The Ambassador began by commending the Botswana authorities for their exemplary management of the Corona virus health crisis, noting that safety and hygiene measures were quickly implemented and complied with. She observed that likewise, France had taken similar decisions and postponed many international events that were scheduled for this year, such as Africa-France Summit, the IUCN World Conservation Congress and the Generation Equality Forum.

Ambassador Beau noted that this years celebration of the Bastille Day is an opportunity to pay tribute to workers in all essential services who have been and still are on the front line of the fight against COVID-19. I would particularly like to thank all medical staff whose exceptional mobilisation allowed many lives to be saved: they embody the values of solidarity, fraternity and commitment that both our countries share and promote far beyond national borders, she said.

She emphasized that the pandemic is still raging and has in the process highlighted the interdependence of States and economies in a globalised world. It was for this reason that she warned against temptation or the trap of withdrawing from the international community.

She said France and Botswana stand together in promoting a collective response within the framework of multilateral institutions, hence France has been supporting Botswana in its fight against the outbreak of the virus, on the bilateral level and through European Union channels (Team Europe), as well as on the international level in strengthening WHO, GAVI and the Global Fund, to develop innovative and ambitious initiatives.

In this spirit of cooperation, we are pleased that the ACT-Accelerator initiative has raised 9.8 billion euros to guarantee universal and fair access to a vaccine against Covid-19 Ambassador Beau said. She ended this note with an assurance that Botswana can count on the commitment of France to support its objectives of strengthening its healthcare system as well as stimulating its economic recovery through greater diversification.




Wesley Ira Purkey, 68, (pictured) was put to death by lethal injection at 8:19 a.m. EDT Thursday morning in Terra Haute penitentiary, Indiana

'Claw-hammer' killer Wesley Ira Purkey, 68, said he was 'deeply sorry' before becoming the second federal inmate to be executed this week after the Supreme Court rejected his defense's plea that he has dementia and the father of his 16-year-old victim said 'I hope he rots in hell'.

Purkey was pronounced dead at 8:19 a.m. EDT Thursday morning - two days after the government carried out its first federal execution in 17 years of white supremacist Daniel Lewis Lee in the same federal prison in Terra Haute, Indiana, Tuesday.

Purkey was convicted and sentenced to death for kidnapping, raping and killing 16-year-old Jennifer Long before dismembering, burning and then dumping her body in a septic pond in 1998.

He was also convicted in a state court in Kansas after using a claw hammer to batter 80-year-old polio sufferer Mary Bales to death when he was called out to her home for a plumbing job.

The double murderer expressed remorse for Jennifer's slaying in his final words right before his death, casting doubt on his lawyer's claims that his dementia had left him unable to understand why he was being executed.

The killer also showed no remorse for bludgeoning to death his second victim, making no reference at all to Bales, and instead slamming his death sentence as 'sanitized murder'.

William Long, Jennifer's devastated father, (left with Jennifer's stepmother, Olivia Long) was at the execution and said he hoped his daughter's killer 'rots in hell'

The family members wore t-shirts bearing the face of Jennifer - who was brutally abducted, raped and stabbed to death by the killer

Long told the media the delays to the execution of his daughter's murderer had prolonged the agony of her brutal slaying and said it had been 'a long time coming'

'I deeply regret the pain and suffering I caused to Jennifer's family,' he said as he lay strapped to the gurney.

'I am deeply sorry. I deeply regret the pain I caused to my daughter, who I love so very much.

'This sanitized murder really does not serve no purpose whatsoever. Thank you.'

As the lethal chemical was injected into his right arm, Purkey took several deep breaths and blinked repeatedly, laying his head back down on the gurney before he was confirmed dead.

William Long, Jennifer's devastated father, attended the execution of his daughter's murderer, supported by her stepmother Olivia Long and family friend Brook Doolittle.

They all wore t-shirts bearing a photo of the teenager's face as Long told the media he hopes Purkey 'rots in hell'.

'We took care of today what we needed to take care of,' the victim's dad said.

'It has been a long time coming. He needed to take his last breath - he took my daughter's last breath.

'And there's some resolve. There is no closure, and there never will be because I won't get my daughter back.'

Purkey (pictured) was put to death by lethal injection Thursday morning, marking the second federal execution in 17 years

Purkey's victims: Jennifer Long, 16, (pictured) was last seen at East High School in Kansas City, Missouri on January 22, when she skipped lessons. Purkey confessed to her murder, saying he abducted the teenager, drove her to his home where he raped her and stabbed her to death

Purkey's victims: 80-year-old Mary Bales (pictured) was beaten to death by the killer when he came to her home to fix a kitchen faucet

THE GRISLY CRIMES OF WESLEY PURKEY On January 22, 1998, Purkey drove from his home in Kansas to Kansas City, Missouri for a job interview with a plumbing company. After the interview, Purkey smoked half a rock of crack cocaine and began driving down the street when he passed 16-year-old Jennifer Long, who was walking on the sidewalk. He pulled over to ask Jennifer if she wanted to 'party,' then took her to a liquor store and bought her gin and orange juice. He then told her needed to go back to his home in Kansas. She asked to be let out of his truck. Instead, Purkey reached into the glove box, grabbed a boning knife, and placed it under his thigh, making it clear she couldn't leave. When they arrived at his home in Lansing, about 30 miles away, Purkey took Jennifer into his basement. Holding a knife, he ordered her to take her clothes off and lie down on the floor, where he raped her. After Purkey finished the vile sexual assault, Jennifer told him that she had been a virgin. He confessed that he then grew fearful, and as Jennifer tried to escape his house, he grabbed her leg and forced her to the ground. The two briefly struggled before Purkey became enraged and repeatedly stabbed Jennifer in the chest, neck, and face with the boning knife, eventually breaking its blade inside her body. When he confessed, he told FBI Agent Dirk Tarpley, 'it's not like in the movies. They don't die right away. It took her a little time to die.' Purkey dismembered Jennifer's body with a chainsaw and tried to burn the body parts in his fireplace while his wife and stepchildren were away at work and school. Nine months after raping and murdering Jennifer Long, Purkey was employed by a plumbing company when he met Mary Ruth Bales, 80, on a service call at her home during the evening of October 26. Purkey told Bales his employer charged a lot for the job she needed, and he offered to return later to do the work under the table if she would pay him $70 up front. She paid, and Purkey left, using Bales's money to hire a prostitute and buy several rocks of crack cocaine the next morning. Purkey and the prostitute retired to a motel room for several hours, where they had sex and smoked the crack cocaine before driving together to Bales's house. Telling the prostitute that someone who lived in the home owed him money, Purkey went inside with a toolbox from his truck and bludgeoned Bales to death in her bedroom with a claw hammer. Investigators determined that Bales died from blunt force trauma resulting from repeated strikes to her skull with the claw side of the hammer. On November 5, 2003, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri found Purkey guilty of kidnapping a child resulting in the child's death, and he was sentenced to death. Advertisement

Long said the delays to the execution since the 2003 trial had prolonged the agony of her brutal slaying and said it was 'not something any parent should have to live through'.

'It brings up everything all over again. You just sit there and relive it,' he said.

'Every day for the rest of my life I will think of it, I will remember it and it is not something any parent should have to live through.'

Olivia Long slammed the killer for adding to their ordeal over the years by making several appeals .

'It just took way too long,' she said. 'All these appeals, some of them he put through several times.

'And then we sat in a van for four hours this morning while he did a bunch more appeals... We just shouldn't have to wait this long.'

Also present at the execution were Purkey's spiritual adviser and attorneys.

The teenage victim's mother, Glenda Lamont, had told the Kansas City Star last year she planned to attend the killer's execution but it is not yet clear if she was at the penitentiary Thursday.

'I don't want to say that I'm happy,' Lamont said last year about his execution.

'At the same time, he is a crazy madman that doesn't deserve, in my opinion, to be breathing anymore.'

Purkey's show of remorse over Jennifer's murder and lucidity in his final moments comes after his defense tried to halt the execution arguing he suffered severe dementia, did not understand why he was on death row anymore and thought his execution was part of a government conspiracy against him because he had complained about prison conditions.

Department of Justice Spokesperson Kerri Kupec issued a statement confirming the murderer's execution had taken place and saying 'justice' had been done.

'This morning, Wesley Ira Purkey was executed at USP Terre Haute in accordance with the death sentence imposed by a federal district court in 2004,' she said.

'Purkey was pronounced dead at 8:19 a.m. EDT by the Vigo County Coroner.'

Kupec added: 'After many years of litigation following the death of his victims, in which he lived and was afforded every due process of law under our Constitution, Purkey has finally faced justice.'

The Supreme Court voted 5-4 early Thursday for Purkey's execution to go ahead, one day after he was granted an eleventh-hour delay over his lawyer's claims of his mental incompetence.

The court's four liberal members - Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan - all dissented.

Sotomayor wrote that 'proceeding with Purkey's execution now, despite the grave questions and factual findings regarding his mental competency, casts a shroud of constitutional doubt over the most irrevocable of injuries.'

A lower court then put an emergency hold on the execution for one hour as it weighed issues in the case.

The double murderer had been granted a delay by a US District Court in Washington early Wednesday, just hours before it was due to take place that evening, following objections by his lawyers that he has dementia and no longer understands his punishment.

District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan imposed two injunctions prohibiting the federal Bureau of Prisons from moving forward with Purkey's execution.

'The court finds that at least one of plaintiffs' claims has a likelihood of success on the merits, and that absent a preliminary injunction, plaintiffs will suffer irreparable harm,' she said.

The Justice Department immediately appealed in both cases.

A separate temporary stay of execution was already in place from the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals.

Purkey's lawyers had argued he was not mentally competent and that he believed his execution was part of a federal government conspiracy against him because of complaints he raised about prison conditions.

They said his dementia had deteriorated so severely that he no longer understood why he was being executed.

'He has longstanding issues of mental illness, now suffers from Alzheimer's disease and his dementia has progressed to the point that he no longer has a rational understanding of why the government seeks to execute him,' said attorney Rebecca Woodman.

She added: 'He has long accepted responsibility for the crime that put him on death row.

'But as his dementia has progressed, he no longer has a rational understanding of why the government plans to execute him.'

Woodman also argued Purkey had a history of mental illness and an 'excruciating history of trauma at home and school' that stretched far longer than his dementia diagnosis.

Purkey pictured in 1998 being escorted by police officers in Kansas City, Kansas, after he was arrested in connection with the death of 80-year-old Mary Ruth Bales

They said he was the victim of physical and sexual abuse as a child - including abuse by a Catholic priest - and was diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression and psychosis when he was 14.

Last week, three mental health organizations urged US Attorney William Barr to stop Purkey's execution and commute his sentence to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Under the US Constitution, the government is prohibited from executing an individual who does not have a reasonable understanding of why they are being executed.

Purkey's lawyers also argued federal executions are not safe to conduct amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The US judge Wednesday didn't rule on whether Purkey was competent but said the court needed to evaluate the claim.

She said that while the government may disagree with Purkey's lawyers about his competency, there was no question he'd suffer 'irreparable harm' if he was put to death before his claims could be evaluated.

They also said that if Purkey's execution did not take place Wednesday, the government would need to set a new date.

But government lawyers said there was no obstacle to going through with the execution Thursday if the Supreme Court lifted the injunctions.

Protesters against the death penalty gather in Terre Haute, Indiana, Wednesday

A small group of demonstrators gathered outside the penitentiary ahead of the execution. In his final words Purkey said he 'deeply regret[s] the pain and suffering' he has caused to Jennifer's family but made no reference to Bales

The issue of Purkey's mental health arose in the run-up to his 2003 trial and when, after the verdict, jurors had to decide whether he should be put to death for Jennifer's brutal rape, murder and mutilation in Kansas City, Missouri back in 1998.

Jennifer was last seen at East High School in Kansas City, Missouri on January 22, when she skipped lessons.

The teenage girl was then lured into Purkey's pickup truck outside a grocery store and was never seen again.

Her remains have never been found.

Purkey, 46 at the time and an ex-con who was high on crack, later told investigators he abducted the teenager, drove her to his home where he raped her and stabbed her to death.

Purkey then used an electric chainsaw to dismember her body and burned her remains in a fireplace, before dumping her ashes 200 miles away in a septic pond in Clearwater, Kansas.

Nine months after the brutal rape and murder, Purkey beat 80-year-old Mary Ruth Bales to death with a hammer and tried to set her body on fire in October.

He had been working for a plumbing company at the time and had gone to Bales's home to fix a kitchen faucet.

Bales's neighbors saw him trying to burn the elderly woman's body and he was arrested.

Purkey pleaded guilty to Bale's murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

In December 1998, while in jail awaiting trial for Bales's murder, Long confessed to the abduction, rape and murder of the 16-year-old.

He was then convicted for Jennifer's murder in 2003 and sentenced to death.

Purkey's execution was originally set to take place in December but was put on hold by a federal judge before it was rescheduled for Wednesday.

The double murderer's execution marks only the second federal execution in 17 years and the second amid the pandemic, after Daniel Lewis Lee was the first to be put to death by the federal government in almost two decades earlier this week.

Purkey's (pictured in 1998) lawyers had objected to his execution saying he was not mentally competent, had dementia and no longer understood his punishment

Lee, 47, of Yukon, Oklahoma, was executed Tuesday morning at the same Indiana facility, when he died by lethal injection after the Supreme Court cleared the way overnight with a 5-4 vote.

The self-confessed white supremacist was convicted in Arkansas of the 1996 killings of gun dealer William Mueller, his wife Nancy, and her 8-year-old daughter, Sarah Powell.

Lee continued to maintain his innocence up until his death, saying 'I didn't do it' and 'you're killing an innocent man' just moments before he was executed.

His execution, which came over the objection of the victims' family, was carried out after a series of legal volleys that ended when the Supreme Court stepped in early Tuesday in a 5-4 ruling and allowed it to move forward.

It had been scheduled for Monday afternoon but was put on hold just hours earlier by a US District Court judge over concerns from death row inmates on how executions were to be carried out.

Lee was sentenced to death in 1999 for the brutal triple murder of a family in Arkansas in 1996.

His co-defendant and the reputed ringleader, Chevie Kehoe, received a life sentence.

Kehoe, of Colville, Washington, recruited Lee in 1995 to join his white supremacist organization, known as the Aryan Peoples' Republic.

The duo dressed in police raid clothing and lay in wait in the home of gun dealer William Mueller, his wife Nancy, and her 8-year-old daughter, Sarah Powell, in Tilly, Arkansas, about 75 miles northwest of Little Rock, according to court documents.

Daniel Lewis Lee, 47, of Yukon, Oklahoma, died by lethal injection Tuesday morning at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. He is pictured above waiting for his arraignment in Arkansas in October 1997

Dustin Honken (pictured in 2004) had his request for a delay to his federal execution denied by a federal judge Tuesday. The infamous Iowa drug kingpin who murdered five people in 1993 is due to be executed Friday

When the Muellers returned home, Lee and Kehoe overpowered and incapacitated Mueller and his wife.

They then interrogated the couple's young daughter, Sarah, about where they could find cash, guns, and munitions.

The home invaders found and took roughly $50,000 in cash, guns and ammunition.

After robbing and torturing the victims with a stun gun, prosecutors said Lee covered their heads with plastic bags, sealed the bags with duct tape, weighed down each victim with rocks, and threw the family of three into the Illinois Bayou.

The bodies of the three victims were found five months later.

A third death row inmate also had his request for a delay to his execution denied by a federal judge Tuesday.

Dustin Honken, 52, an infamous Iowa drug kingpin who murdered five people in 1993, had applied for a delay to his Friday execution due to the coronavirus pandmemic.

The decision to move forward with federal executions has drawn scrutiny from civil rights groups

Protesters outside Terra Haute Wednesday. Critics have argued that the Trump administration, which has been pushing for the executions, was creating an unnecessary and manufactured urgency for political gain ahead of the 2020 elections

US District Judge Leonard Strand wrote Tuesday that he would not intervene to delay Honken's execution date due to the coronavirus pandemic and that the Bureau of Prisons was in the best position to weigh the health risks against the benefits of carrying out the execution.

Strand also denied Honken's motion to declare his execution void due to an alleged procedural error by the government and affirmed the executive branch's power to set the date for executions.

A federal judge also turned down on Tuesday a request by Honken's spiritual adviser - a Catholic priest - to put the execution on hold until after the pandemic.

Honken is on death row for the 1993 slayings of five people in Mason City.

He shot and killed two men who planned to testify against him for operating a methamphetamine lab in Arizona, as well as a single, working mother and her ten-year-old and six-year-old daughters.

The decision to move forward with federal executions has drawn scrutiny from civil rights groups.

Critics have argued that the Trump administration, which has been pushing for the executions, was creating an unnecessary and manufactured urgency for political gain ahead of the 2020 elections.

Attorney General William Barr has said the Justice Department has a duty to carry out the sentences imposed by the courts, including the death penalty, and to bring a sense of closure to the victims and those in the communities where the killings happened.

The entrance to the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, where the executions are taking place
BRIDGEPORT  Robert Keeley and Wanda Simmons have lost their request for an appeal to primary for state representative.

In a brief letter, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Robinson denied their application to take an appeal of a state Superior Court judges decision supporting city Democratic Registrar of Voters Patricia Howard rejecting the petitions from Keeley and Simmons on the basis that they wanted to run in districts where they do not live.
When churches first canceled in-person worship services in March, virtually no pastors expected their sanctuary doors to still be closed at the end of the year. Those projections are quickly changing, with megachurch pastor Andy Stanley announcing Monday that his Atlanta-area multi-site church will not resume in-person worship services until 2021 due to the coronavirus risk.

North Point Community Church was the first major congregation to push back reopening plans as far as next year, but Stanley is not alone. In a Barna Group survey conducted over the past week, 5 percent of pastors said they didnt expect to reopen this year. Just two months ago, none of the respondents were thinking it would be long.

For much of the pandemic, church reopening plans have shifted month to month or week to week, depending on regulations and local outbreaks.

North Point, which gathered 38,000 attendees across locations during a typical pre-pandemic weekend, had announced in May plans for an August 9 reopening; when church leaders decided they would need to delay beyond that date, they opted to postpone for at least six months rather than wait and see what happens with the virus in the fall.

Wait and see puts the organization at the mercy of circumstances. Wait and see is no way to lead, Stanley told CT. People want certainty. We cannot provide certainty. Clarity is the next best thing.

In the video announcement sent out to his congregation, Stanley explained that even if North Point resumed services, only a small portion of the church could or would attend, and the church could not guarantee safety from the virus. Holding Sunday gatherings would also put leaders in the logistically difficult position of contact-tracing should an outbreak occur.

Instead, postponing their reopening allows staff to focus their efforts on creating programs to reach and engage people now, including through upgraded digital offerings and smaller, limited in-person gatherings.

We are intentionally an outward facing organization. Spending time and money to create safe-ish Sunday morning gatherings struck us as insider-focused, said Stanley, who made the decision with fellow leaders and based in part on surveys of staff, volunteers, and attendees. He estimated that 85 percent of the feedback hes received around the news has been positive.

By suspending Sunday morning in-person gatherings we are able to create a strategy that impacts 100 percent of our attendees and has the potential to impact their friends as well, he said. In-person services during COVID is neither missional nor evangelisticunless of course the mission of the church is to gather in a building on Sunday morning.

Another local congregation, Atlanta Christian Church, announced Tuesday that it would not be returning to in-person services this year. It does not mean, however, that we are closed, pastor Derek Sweatman said in an announcement posted on Instagram. On the contrary, this decision has allowed our pastoral staff to move forward with new plans and ideas.

Meanwhile, around half of pastors (49%) said their churches are already back to meeting in their regular locations for in-person services, Barna found. That number is down slightly from late June, when 56 percent said they had reopened.

Image: Barna ChurchPulse

The differences between churches that are open or closed arent as big as youd imagine, Barna president David Kinnaman said last week. I was sort of expecting the Northeast and the West to be almost categorically closed, but what we find is, like in states as big as California or New York, theres actually a big range of churches and environments in those placesfrom urban to suburban to rural.

Georgia reported a record 4,400 new cases on Friday, leading Atlantaa hotspot in the stateto reverse reopening plans and move back to Phase 1 guidelines. California Governor Gavin Newsom also reenacted restrictions on Monday, including shutting down indoor church services, following a surge in infections and hospitalizations over the past two weeks.

Were actually finding that one of the key differentiators between open and not open is whether the pastor perceives that it has affected their congregation, Kinnaman said. Of those that are not open, 86 percent (16% a lot, 70% some) believe that COVID has affected their church, but among those that have opened, its 69 percent (12% a lot, 57% some).

While the vast majority of congregations have complied with public health directives to prevent the spread of coronavirus, several church gatherings have resulted in significant outbreaks, both in the early span of the pandemic and over the past few weeks as many resume in-person worship with precautions in place.

As the Associated Press recently reported, church services are by no means at the top of the list of problematic activities, and religious liberty advocates have argued that they not face more stringent restrictions than similar gatherings. Officials and experts have raised concerns about crowd size, physical contact, and singing during services, which is believed to worsen the risk of coronavirus transmission.

While keeping health and safety a priority, church leaders are also worried about the spiritual health of their flocks during the pandemic.

Barna found that a third of churchgoing Christians havent participated in an online service in the past month. The initial declines in giving that worried pastors in the beginning have improved, though, with most pastors saying tithing is holding steady or increasing.

Stanley assured his congregation that he trusts that Jesus will continue building his church and that North Point will be just as strong when it reopens sometime in 2021.

Im absolutely confident that the church and our local churches will not only survive this, but I think ultimately were going to thrive as a result, he said in the video announcement.
NOVI, Mich., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Stoneridge, Inc. (NYSE: SRI) will webcast its second-quarter 2020 earnings conference call live on Thursday, July 30, 2020, at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time with President and Chief Executive Officer, Jon DeGaynor, and Chief Financial Officer, Robert Krakowiak.

The webcast can be accessed on the Webcasts & Presentations page of the Investors section of the Company's website, www.stoneridge.com.

Stoneridge, Inc., headquartered in Novi, Michigan, is an independent designer and manufacturer of highly engineered electrical and electronic components, modules and systems principally for the automotive, commercial vehicle, motorcycle, agricultural and off-highway vehicle markets. Additional information about Stoneridge can be found at www.stoneridge.com.

SOURCE Stoneridge, Inc.

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WATERLOO REGION  Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang has been appointed commissioner of public health and emergency services for Waterloo Region, and the region will apply to the province to have her appointed permanent medical officer of health.

Regional council voted unanimously at Wednesdays meeting to give Wang the appointment.

Im truly honoured and extremely grateful, Wang said after the announcement.

I truly appreciate it. Thank you so much for the support of council. Im really looking forward to doing my best to serve this community, which is one of the finest communities in the world.

Regional Chair Karen Redman commended Wang for doing an outstanding job of navigating some uncharted and very heavy waters.

This is great news, Redman said. You have the full confidence of the entire council and our gratitude from the community.

Wang was hired as the regions associate medial officer of health in 2004 and has been acting as medical officer of health for an extended period.

She has played an important leadership role for public health and emergency services, including the successful application for a safe consumption and treatment site and has shown exceptional leadership over the past few months guiding the community response to COVID-19, a regional release said.

Wang grew up in Quebec and did her medical and residency training in Quebec City. She lives in Waterloo with her husband and enjoys travelling, movies and reading.

Wang has acted as the medical officer of health during the extended medical leave of Dr. Liana Nolan. The release said the region looks forward to welcoming Nolan back to another role when she is ready to return.
If you've had to adapt to working from home in the last few months, you could learn a few things from Matt Mullenweg.

Co-founder of website-building platform WordPress and Automattic, its parent company, Mullenweg lives in Houston while overseeing a fully distributed team of about 1,100 employees operating in 77 cities around the world.

During a Real Talk Business Reboot webinar on Wednesday, Mullenweg told Inc. editor-at-large Tom Foster that any person--or company--can adjust to post-office-life if they try. "It can work for everyone, but I've seen people give up before they're there," he said.

Working outside of the office, Mullenweg explained, has "an incredible impact on the individuals," and ultimately empowers them to lead richer lives. That, he says, "leads them to be able to bring more creativity to the work."

Here are more takeaways from their conversation:

Beware "false proxies."

Asked how businesses can track the productivity of employees working from home, Mullenweg noted that even in the office "measuring productivity is actually really, really hard."

"It's way easier to slack off in the office as opposed to home," he continued. "When you're working from home, and all your colleagues are seeing are the results of your work, if you don't do the work, it's very obvious."

Mullenweg considers certain habits employees may use to signal hard work in a traditional office environment--showing up early and staying late, for example--as "false proxies," saying that "where you work and how you work don't really matter."

The most important thing: "Can you create something great in an amount of time?"

Make meetings worth the time.

While most meetings aren't great, Mullenweg said, "a great in-person meeting is a little better than a great remote meeting, but not much."

Here are Mullenweg's tips for effective meetings:

Have a clear agenda.

Invite the right number of people and no more.

Ensure no distractions or people looking at their phones.

Make sure it lasts as long as needed and has some outcome.

Mullenweg is also a fan of meetings with some movement. When he can be in person, he likes to walk and talk. When he's remote, he suggests meeting participants get good headphones and meet on the go.

Find the tools that work for your company.

According to Mullenweg, Automattic barely uses email except to communicate with people outside the company. Instead, the team uses an in-house blogging platform called P2, which it's beginning to make available to other companies.

Blogging "really elevates the written word and allows writing to be the way of collaborating," Mullenweg says. It also cuts back on the interruptions from email and Slack notifications.

That's not to say Automattic doesn't use the popular chat app: Mullenweg said he was an early adopter of Slack and cites it--along with Zoom, Google Docs, and other apps--as part of a functioning distributed workflow. Ultimately, it's about "whatever is effective for y'all," Mullenweg said. "It's all about managing these tools so they don't manage you."

Create a distributed culture.

"Your culture is not the Ping-Pong table," Mullenweg says. Instead, it can be found in the principles and values of your company. Even without an office and in-person meetings, those can and should be shared.
The German government is very concerned about reports of hostilities and violations of the ceasefire regime on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, DW reported referring to the German MFA.

According to the MFA, they call on both sides to immediately cease hostilities and refrain from further provocative statements and actions.

Berlin called on both parties to the conflict to use the established negotiation mechanism under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and return to a constructive dialogue to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The ministry noted that Germany, as one of the members of the Minsk Group, fully supports the efforts of the MG three co-chairs.
New Delhi, July 16 : Trinamool Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien on Thursday slammed national career Air India over its decision to send its employees to 'leave without pay, saying the scheme is "unprecedented" and a "ploy" to protect the top management and sacrifice the employees.

In a series of tweets, Trinamool spokesperson O'Brien said, "Air India's compulsory leave without pay scheme is unprecedented in the history of public sector undertakings. Obvious ploy to protect top management and sacrifice employees." He said the move violated labour norms, terming it as "anti-worker and arbitrary".

"This is match-fixing for proposed Air India buyers. Retrenchment in a new name," he tweeted, adding: "If top management is bloated, why sacrifice employees? No worker has sought this scheme. It denies workers rights, right to life and livelihood. Shocking that a PSU would use and throw employees in the face of a pandemic when 150+ #AirIndians tested Covid+ve doing Vande Bharat Missions." His remarks came a day after the national carrier instituted a scheme whereby employees can opt to take 'leave without pay' ranging from six months to up to five years.

Additionally, the airline's management will also have the option to send any employee on leave based on a few criteria.

An Air India staff notice, which was reviewed by IANS, read: "The Board of Directors in its 102nd meeting held on July 7, 2020 has approved a scheme whereby employees can opt to take 'leave without pay' ranging from six months or for two years and the same can be extended to up to five years."
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Challenger 350 aircraft to feature high-speed Ka-band connectivity, a refreshed CMS interface inspired by the flagship Global 7500 aircraft, and sophisticated cabin design options

Best-in-class Challenger 350 business jet delivers a smooth ride and an intercontinental range that holds true at full fuel with eight passengers

MONTREAL, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Passengers have even more reason to love the best-selling Challenger 350 aircraft thanks to a new suite of enhancements that further elevate the cabin experience aboard this award-winning jet.

The Challenger 350 aircraft stays on top because its the best, and these new features set this business jet even further apart from competitors, Peter Likoray, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Marketing, Bombardier Business Aircraft. Customers prefer this aircraft because it offers performance without compromise and a cabin experience you cant find anywhere else in this category.

Bombardier recently marked the 350th delivery of the Challenger 350 business jet, a milestone reached after only six years in service. Amid all this success, this winning platform continues to evolve.

Bombardier is pleased to introduce high-speed Viasat Ka-band connectivity aboard the Challenger 350 aircraft for an enhanced internet experience over business aviations most popular routes and regions. With service packages offering the fastest available download speeds in the super mid-size segment, passengers can enjoy improved productivity and cabin experience, whether videoconferencing or streaming. This offering will be available on new and in-service Challenger 350 aircraft, as well as on all in-service Challenger 300-series aircraft.

Bombardier is also refreshing the user interface for the cabin management system aboard the Challenger 350 aircraft, taking inspiration from the award-winning design of Bombardiers flagship Global 7500 aircraft to deliver a modern user experience via side ledge touchscreens and a new, platform-specific app. This new design also integrates moving maps, making it easier than ever to stay visually informed of flight progress.

Customers will also have an expanded cabin design selection thanks to a collection of sophisticated and contemporary interior design schemes that strike the perfect balance between aesthetics and ergonomics.

Bombardier has made several other recent enhancements to the Challenger 350 aircraft, including class-leading cabin sound-proofing technology, refined cockpit aesthetics and an available Head-up Display (HUD) and Enhanced Vision System (EVS). A performance improvement package allows the aircraft to fly up to 1,500 nautical miles farther than before out of short runways, complementing its already impressive takeoff and landing performance that includes steep-approach capability.

With a true, seats full, tanks full, 3,200-nautical-mile range, the Challenger 350 business jet can connect New York to London or Paris to Dubai nonstop* with a smooth ride at the lowest direct operating costs in its category.

These latest enhancements will start becoming available this year.

About Bombardier

With nearly 60,000 employees across two business segments, Bombardier is a global leader in the transportation industry, creating innovative and game-changing planes and trains. Our products and services provide world-class transportation experiences that set new standards in passenger comfort, energy efficiency, reliability and safety.

Headquartered in Montreal, Canada, Bombardier has production and engineering sites in over 25 countries across the segments of Aviation and Transportation. Bombardier shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (BBD). In the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, Bombardier posted revenues of $15.8 billion. News and information are available at bombardier.com or follow us on Twitter @Bombardier.

Notes to Editors

Visit the Bombardier Business Aircraft website for more information on our industry-leading products and services.

Follow @Bombardierjets on Twitter to receive the latest news and updates from

Bombardier Business Aircraft. To receive our press releases, please visit the RSS Feed section.

*Under certain operating conditions.

Bombardier, Challenger, Challenger 350, and Global 7500 are unregistered or registered trademarks of Bombardier Inc. or its subsidiaries.
By Azernews





By Ayya Lmahamad

Turkey has condemned Armenia's recent cross-border provocation that killed Azerbaijani servicemen and a civilian.

We strongly condemn the attack carried out by Armenia in the Tovuz region of Azerbaijan, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on July 14.

Head of the Turkish Defense Ministry Hulusi Akar stated full support for Azerbaijan in countering provocations of the Armenian side on the state border of the two countries.

"We resolutely condemn the attacks of the Armenian side in the Tovuz region of Azerbaijan. We express our condolences to the relatives and friends of Azerbaijani soldiers who died in the prevention of attacks," the Turkish minister said.

Moreover, he stated that Turkish Defense Ministry will continue to provide all possible assistance and support to the Azerbaijani Armed Forces against Armenia, which for many years has been pursuing a policy of aggression, illegally occupying Azerbaijani lands.

We will be by the side of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, supporting our brothers in accordance with the principle of one nation, two states, Akar said.

Moreover, earlier on July 13, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, during the phone conversation with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, stated that Azerbaijans position is based on the principles of international law and resolutions, noting that Turkey has always supported Azerbaijan.

In an interview with a Turkish TV channel, Cavusoglu said Armenias provocation on the border was unacceptable.

"Armenia must give an account of its actions. Turkey and Turkish people are beside to Azerbaijan by all means," the Turkish minister stressed.

He urged Yerevan to come to its sences.

"Armenia is trying to distract the attention of the world community from the fact of occupation of Azerbaijani lands and create new zones of tension," Cavusoglu said.

He recalled that to date Armenia has not agreed to any of the peaceful settlement plans of the Armenian- Azerbaijani Nagorno- Karabakh conflict.

Additionally, he stressed that Turkey is ready to provide all possible assistance in protecting the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

"Whatever the choice of Azerbaijan in the settlement of the situation in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent areas will be, Turkey will support this decision," the minister said.




The novel additions to the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) that came into effect on 1 July 2020 aims to protect companies against data breach and the misuse of personal information. The media and communications industry is one of the industries that will be affected by this legislation as the industry uses their clients' information to achieve their marketing and communication objectives, more especially in the digital age.

Photo by Christina Morillo from Pexels

The media and communication industry affected by the POPIA because one of the industrys main objectives is to convey information/messages about businesses, and individuals that are affiliated with communications companies. These companies share information through television and radio broadcasting as well as other publishing platforms for advertising and marketing purposes.The newly implemented POPIA objectives include regulating how companies process consumer personal information, how they get hold of that information and how they use it for their businesses. The act is more likely to impact this industry positively than it would negatively, when a company complies with the POPIA regulations, they stand a good chance of protecting themselves against any legal penalties should they experience data breach.The implementation of the POPIA will most definitely change how we operate in the communications industry. The act strongly states that there will be more regulations put in place as to how we process client information and share it without compromising our clients safety or personal information, says Mkhuseli Vangile, managing director at Dynaste Communications Firm (DCF).The sector uses peoples personal data for many reasons. Most communications companies buy and sell client data and share this with various organisations for different reasons. Marketers buy data to tailor their marketing efforts to the right people, PR people subscribe to databases that have contact details of all journalists and call centre companies buy peoples data to sell them products. This makes the communication sector an information sector that does not operate without peoples personal data. For this reason, communications companies are required to have protective measures in place which will enable them to safeguard valuable information.Communications firms now need to affiliate themselves with cybersecurity companies such as LAWTrust, having an excellent cybersecurity has proven to be beneficial to being POPIA compliant as a company. The communications industry deals with sensitive information on our websites, social media and emails, even databases. Ensuring that we have tight cybersecurity policies in place to protect ourselves from data breach while complying with POPIA regulations goes a long way, added Vangile.POPIA further states that companies that fail to comply with its requirements are likely to face penalties of up to R10m or possible jail time, therefore it is not an option for those companies to avoid compliance. Also, not having proper cybersecurity measures in place companies may suffer a financial knock as a result of these penalties and having to start afresh in restoring the companys reputation as well as ensuring their clients that their information is protected.Considering economic climate, it is not worth risking a companys reputation by failing to comply with the POPIA. Apart from jail time and fines as repercussions, no potential client would want to be affiliated with an organisation that does not adhere to regulations which is also at risk of experiencing data breach due to the lack of proper cybersecurity measures as per POPIA requirements.
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Seoul, South Korea  Thu, July 16, 2020 17:30 551 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666d8294 2 World South-Korea,inter-Korean,North-Korea,Kim-Yo-jung Free

Seoul prosecutors have opened an unprecedented probe into North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's sister over Pyongyang's blowing up of a liaison office last month, officials said Thursday.

The move is likely to infuriate the nuclear-armed North, which has repeatedly condemned South Korea in recent months, including directing personal insults at President Moon Jae-in.

Seoul Central District prosecutors received a criminal complaint against Kim Yo Jong from a Seoul-based lawyer and had started an investigation, a spokeswoman told AFP.

Last month, Pyongyang blew up an inter-Korean liaison office on its side of the border, days after Kim Yo Jong -- one of her brother's closest advisers -- had said the "useless" property would soon be seen "completely collapsed".

Before the demolition, it had issued a series of vitriolic condemnations of South Korea over anti-North leaflets that defectors send back across the heavily-militarized border -- usually attached to balloons or floated in bottles.

It raised pressure further by threatening military measures against Seoul, but later said it had suspended those plans in an apparent sudden dialling-down of tensions.

In his complaint, lawyer Lee Kyung-jae claimed the now-demolished liaison office was South Korean property as it was renovated using South Korean government funds, despite its being located in the North.

Kim "used explosives to destroy" the South's "quasi-diplomatic mission building that served the public interest", he said in the complaint.

Lee also filed a complaint against Pak Jong Chon, chief of the general staff of the North Korean military.

Under South Korea's criminal code, he stressed, damaging property or disturbing the peace using explosives was punishable by death, or a prison sentence of at least seven years.

Capital punishment remains on the statute books in South Korea, although it has not executed anyone since 1997.

In practice, it would be virtually impossible for Seoul officials to punish Kim Yo Jong or Pak, but Lee told the South's Yonhap News Agency that he wanted to "inform the North Korean people of their leader's hypocrisy".

The announcement came a week after a Seoul court ordered Pyongyang's leader to compensate prisoners of war who spent decades in North Korea, in a move that could set a far-reaching legal precedent on the divided peninsula.

Inter-Korean relations have been strained following the collapse of a summit in Hanoi between Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump early last year over what the nuclear-armed North would be willing to give up in exchange for a loosening of sanctions.
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Implementing Digital Healthcare Services in Canada: Key Strategies (Graphic: Business Wire)

Digital Healthcare Services have helped the global healthcare industry use technology to improve the health and wellness of patients. This includes electronic health, developing areas such as computing science, as well as artificial intelligence (AI). Canada currently ranks among the lowest in comparison with other countries in the OECD, that have universal healthcare systems. Digital healthcare services are the most efficient and effective solution for Canada to compare with its fellow economies and countries in the OECD. Digital healthcare services makes a patient and family centric approach to healthcare possible. However, this change has its own challenges, and this article details the steps that must be taken by the Canadian government to implement digital healthcare services effectively, as advised by Infiniti's industry research experts.

Request a free proposal from our industry experts for detailed insights into the challenges and effective implementation of digital healthcare services.

"To drive improved healthcare outcomes, the Canadian government must focus on adopting healthcare innovations, customer-driven models, and a new regulatory framework that facilitates change and embraces digital healthcare," says a healthcare industry expert at Infiniti Research.

Digital healthcare services are a crucial step towards progress for the Canadian healthcare system. This article lists and explains the following steps for the Canadian government to take towards implenting their digital healthcare services in detail:

Ensuring fair and adequate compensation to the physicians that offer virtual consultations

Adopting common nation-wide strategies to better implement digital healthcare innovations

The federal and provincial governments should design a policy framework for efficient implementation collaboratively

Want to know how to successfully implement digital healthcare services in Canada? Read the complete article

Infiniti Research has 15+ years of experience working in collaboration with healthcare clients to offer solutions that addresses their unique business challenges and related growth opportunities. Get in touch with an industry expert for more insights on our custom healthcare market intelligence solutions.

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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

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CLEVELAND, Ohio  Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen OConnor said this week that creating a statewide sentencing database will be the priority of her remaining years as the states top judge.

OConnor made the pledge while speaking Monday as part of a panel discussion sponsored by the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, saying she wants statewide sentencing information collected in a form that can be researched by those in the criminal justice system.
PHILIPSBURG: Janine Wijman better known as Blondie has succumbed to her injuries in Colombia. SMN News learned that Wijman passed away earlier this week, she was set on fire by someone while in Dutch Quarter. Wijman was a known homeless woman living on the streets of St. Maarten. Based on police information the woman was set on fire during the early morning hours of February 29th, 2020 in the Dutch Quarter area. Police have since arrested a suspect for severe mistreatment, the suspect has been identified as F.W.

Wijman was taken to the St. Maarten Medical Center on the night of the incident for medical treatment, she was then flown to Columbia for treatment and placed in a medically induced coma due to the severity of her injuries.

Police are yet to confirm the death of the homeless victim, and also indicate if the suspect is still in custody and if the charges against him have been upgraded.

Burn victim succumbs to her wounds.

The Sint Maarten Police Force was notified that the victim with initials J.J.W, who was severely burnt after being set on fire back in February of this year has succumbed to her injures.

J.J.W was flown off to Colombia for further treatment after receiving burns to over 70% of her body in the Dutch Quarter area on Saturday, February 29th, 2020.

in Dutch Quarter area.



The Detective Department arrested a male suspect with the initial F.W on March 3rd, 2020 in connection with the incident. He was later released a few days after his arrest due to a lack of sufficient evidence and information on what had taken place. The investigation into the case is currently still ongoing. On behalf of the Sint Maarten Police Force, we would like to extend our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the deceased.

KPSM Press Release.
Seoul Metropolitan Government spokesman Hwang In-sik speaks during a press conference at City Hall in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap



By Bahk Eun-ji



Civic activists are expressing doubts over Seoul Metropolitan Government's pledge to uncover the truth about the sexual harassment allegations made against the late Mayor Park Won-soon, made by his former secretary.



The city government held its first official press conference about the allegations, Wednesday, six days after Park's suicide, vowing to create an investigative team with outside experts to "thoroughly reveal the truth." However, questions about the details of the investigation, including how and when it will take place went unanswered, with Seoul Metropolitan Government spokesman Hwang In-sik claiming that answers could cause "secondary damage" to the former secretary.



"If you look at the city government's response, it seems that they still don't know who they have to investigate. Appointments to the investigation team should be done by the Ministry of Public Administration or the National Human Rights Commission, which have the right to audit external agencies," said Bae Bok-joo, a former head of the Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center.



Likewise, the selection of members for the investigation team will be another contentious issue. Hwang said "The investigative team will include women's rights, human rights and law experts from outside the city government," in the briefing, but the participants will be selected by the city, leading to questions over bias.



Experts and activists criticized the city, claiming it has come up with ambiguous measures merely to avoid public criticism, and doubted the internal investigation will have any tangible outcome to help the alleged victim. The internal team will not have the investigative prerogatives of the police or the prosecution. As a result, anyone the team wants to question regarding the allegations can easily refuse.



In addition, a high-ranking official in the secretariat office reportedly ignored the victim when she asked her colleagues and superiors for help regarding the sexual harassment in 2016; but a large number of staffers, including those she reported the situation to, were replaced by the former mayor in April. The scope of the investigation was broadened to those who have worked in the secretariat for the past four years.



According to the victim's lawyer, city officials were aware of her situation, and she asked her colleagues for help, but the office she worked in did nothing to assist her. However, the city government strongly denied knowing anything about the allegations against Park, and said they would have investigated the case earlier if they had been made aware.



Regarding the issue, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said it would create viable countermeasures to deal with elected high-ranking officials committing sexual crimes.



"Basically, we have created and distributed sexual harassment manuals in the workplace, including public institutions, but there are limitations to the response if such sexual crimes are committed by the head of a local government or an elected official. We are going to come up with follow-up measures for this," said gender ministry official Hwang Yoon-jung in a regular briefing at the Government Complex in Seoul.



A manual for handling cases of sexual harassment or sexual violence involving the heads of public institutions was first introduced in 2018. But the definition of public institution was ambiguous, meaning it was difficult to apply appropriate measures equally, depending on whether the head was elected or appointed to a public corporation by the central government.



The ministry is currently checking whether the city government will provide education to prevent sexual harassment and sexual violence, and plans to conduct on-site inspections if necessary.



The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office plans to launch a full-fledged investigation into the alleged leak of the complaint filed against the former mayor.



Earlier this week, a number of civic groups filed a complaint with the Supreme Prosecutors' Office against Cheong Wa Dae and the National Police Agency, alleging an official from one of them leaked the information about the sexual harassment complaint to Park.


Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker announced the state will disburse $19.6 million that he says will help fund homelessness prevention, food assistance and job training in communities across Massachusetts during the coronavirus pandemic.

The state Department of Housing and Community Development received the funding under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security or CARES Act. The money will be distributed across 181 communities statewide.

Municipalities and regional consortiums that received the funds plan to fund homelessness prevention, food pantries, job training for health care workers and technicians and other social services, Baker said.

Some of the money will go toward local grants for small businesses that have five employees or fewer. Thirty-six of the leading recipients will coordinate with their municipality or region to deliver services, according to the governors office.

The announcement follows a $20 million program the Republican governor announced in late June to provide rental and mortgage assistance during the coronavirus pandemic.

Massachusetts is a little over a month away from the expiration of a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures during the coronavirus pandemic. Baker signed the moratorium bill into law in April as coronavirus cases surged and unemployment claims skyrocketed to historic levels.

Baker could extend it for another 90 days or he could let it expire after Aug. 18.

We recognize and understand that were going to need to make a decision on that soon, Baker told reporters Thursday afternoon when asked about the moratorium.

Housing advocates are pushing not only for an extension of the moratorium, but for passage of a bill to extend the moratorium on evictions and foreclosures by a year and expand protections for renters and small landlords. The bill would pause rent increases for a year and extend the option for mortgage deferment through 12 months after the end of the state of emergency, tacking the payments onto the end of the loan.

A group of 200 community, labor and religious organizations signed onto a letter sent Thursday to Baker, Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Robert DeLeo urging them to approve HD.5166/SD.2992. The letter notes that housing court officials predict the state could see up to 20,000 eviction cases if the current moratorium expires.

We urge you to pass this bill quickly in order to protect residents who are suffering through no fault of their own, to safeguard public health and to set the stage for a strong and equitable economic recovery, the letter states.

Opponents of a bill that would extend the moratorium on evictions and foreclosures protested outside the Massachusetts State House Thursday, July 16, 2020.

Earlier in the day, a couple dozen of opponents of the moratorium bill stood outside the Massachusetts State House holding signs calling for lawmakers to vote no on the bill. Demonstrators spoke out against a provision that would prevent landlords from recovering rent in an eviction proceedings in circumstances resulting from loss of income directly or indirectly caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which the demonstrators considered a cancellation of rent.

Amir Shahsavari, a small landlord in the Greater Boston Area, said he believes it will enable tenants to avoid paying rent while leaving landlords without income they need to make improvements to the rental properties and to pay their own bills.

I treat my tenants well. They like me. I like them. Were in it together, said Amir Shahsavari, a small landlord in the Greater Boston Area. Im concerned that this bill to extend the eviction moratorium, combined with all the proposals for rent control, will destroy the housing market. These proposals will violate the rights of private property owners to run their businesses with dignity, to run their businesses safely.

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A medical staff member takes a throat swab sample from a woman at a newly-adopted mobile testing vehicle in Xicheng District of Beijing, capital of China, June 28, 2020. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)

The Chinese mainland is approaching zero COVID-19 patients despite sporadic outbreaks, which is attributable to an open communication between Chinese scientists and the leadership as well as the speed with which close contacts of patients had been isolated, wrote South China Morning Post on July 13, citing Chinas top epidemiologists.

Chinas goal of zero COVID-19 cases was the most efficient way to contain the pandemic and minimize its impact on economy and society, Zeng Guang, a leading expert with the National Health Commission, said during an online forum hosted by the magazine Caijing on July 12.

As of July 15, Beijing had reported zero new COVID-19 patients for 10 consecutive days, while other provinces have had no locally transmitted cases for months, declaring a temporary victory in the containment of the outbreak.

China now has entered into a new normal, meaning that the coronavirus is basically under control, with sporadic outbreak taking place from time to time, Zeng said.

The expert attributed Chinas success to the involvement of the whole country in the fight against the pandemic, during which various government departments worked together under a coordinated mechanism and scientists were able to have direct dialogue with state leaders.

The communication between Chinese scientists and the leadership, as revealed by Zeng, casts a stark contrast with the US, where top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci has been increasingly vocal in his concerns about the national surge in cases, as well as his lack of access to President Donald Trump over the past several weeks, the article shared.

The ability to quickly seperate and isolate close contacts of COVID-19 patients has been another advantage for China. According to Zeng, this was why China has outperformed Western countries.

However, Zeng warned that the autumn and winter months would be challenging, as people would have to worry about both the coronavirus and flu, which could greatly challenge the public health system.

Zhang Wenhong, a Shanghai-based infectious disease expert, said that the biggest difference between China and the US in controlling the pandemic iswas thein community management. China was able to make sure every person in affected communities was tested, while it would be impossible in the US, he said.
Two families have appeared before an Accra Circuit Court charged with disturbing public peace. The throwing of a stone at a dog sparked the fight between them.



Two families have appeared before an Accra Circuit Court charged with disturbing public peace.



The throwing of a stone at a dog sparked the fight between them.



The accused persons are Emmanuel Taylor, 40, Record Keeper, Kennedy Taylor, 24, Cleaner, and Ebenezer Taylor, 40, Teacher belonging to one family while Samuel Kojo Tetteh, 25, Trader, and Elijah Tetteh, 17, student, were from the other family.



Ebenezer Taylor is additionally facing a charge of causing harm after biting the right ear of Samuel Kojo Tetteh.



The accused persons have pleaded not guilty.



The court, presided over by Mrs Helen Ofie Ayeh, admitted Emmanuel, Kennedy, Ebenezer, and Samuel to bail in the sum GH10,000.00 each with two sureties each. One of the sureties should be a public servant.



Elijah was, however, admitted to bail in the sum of GH60,000.00 with one surety.



The court restrained the accused persons from getting 50 meters close to each others house.



Prosecution was also ordered by the court to make their disclosures and file their witness statements within 21 days.



The matter has been adjourned to October 21.



Prosecuting General Sergeant Thomas Sarfo said the accused persons are siblings residing at Kuku Hill in Osu.



On June 9, this year, at about 2030 hours, Emmanuel reported that Samuel and Elijah had assaulted him.



The same day, at about 2045 hours, Samuel also reported that Emmanuel, Kennedy and Ebenezer had assaulted him and during the scuffle, Ebenezer bit his ear.



Prosecution said despite reporting each other at the Police Station, the accused persons went and sat in front of a shop adjacent to Chateau Towers, a Chinese Block of flats, and were accessing internet for free.



While there, Prosecution said Kennedys dog emerged and it stood in front of his house.



Samuel who felt threatened threw a stone at the dog and that resulted in hot exchanges between Emmanuel and Samuel.



The other accused persons also joined in the fight. Later the two sets of siblings took turns to lodge complaints with the Police.

Source: GNA









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ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, today announced that Dor Minzer receives the 2019 ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award for his dissertation, "On Monotonicity Testing and the 2-to-2-Games Conjecture." The key contributions of Minzer's dissertation are settling the complexity of testing monotonicity of Boolean functions and making a significant advance toward resolving the Unique Games Conjecture, one of the most central problems in approximation algorithms and complexity theory.

Property-testers are extremely efficient randomized algorithms that check whether an object satisfies a certain property, when the data is too large to examine. For example, one may want to check that the distance between any two computers in the internet network does not exceed a given bound. In the first part of his thesis, Minzer settled a famous open problem in the field by introducing an optimal tester that checks whether a given Boolean function (voting scheme) is monotonic.

The holy grail of complexity theory is to classify computational problems to those that are feasible and those that are infeasible. The PCP theorem (for probabilistically checkable proofs) establishes the framework that enables classifying approximation problems as infeasible, showing they are NP-hard.

In 2002, Subhash Khot proposed the Unique Games Conjecture (UGC), asserting that a very strong version of the PCP theorem should still hold. The conjecture has inspired a flurry of research and has had far-reaching implications. If proven true, the conjecture would explain the complexity of a whole family of algorithmic problems. In contrast to other conjectures, UGC had been controversial, splitting the community into believers and skeptics. While progress toward validating the conjecture has stalled, evidence against it had been piling up, involving new algorithmic techniques.

In the second part of his dissertation, Minzer went halfway toward establishing the conjecture, and in the process nullified the strongest known evidence against UGC. Even if UGC is not resolved in the immediate future, Minzer's dissertation makes significant advances toward solving research problems that have previously appeared out of reach.

Minzer is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey, and will be joining MIT as an Assistant Professor in the fall of 2020. His main research interests are in computational complexity theory, PCP, and analysis of Boolean functions. Minzer received a BA in Mathematics, as well as an MSc and PhD in Computer Science from Tel Aviv University.

Honorable Mentions

Honorable Mentions for the 2019 ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award go to Jakub Tarnawski, Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne (EPFL) and JiaJun Wu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Jakub Tarnawski's dissertation "New Graph Algorithms via Polyhedral Techniques" made groundbreaking algorithmic progress on two of the most central problems in combinatorial optimization: the matching problem and the traveling salesman problem. Work on deterministic parallel algorithms for the matching problem is motivated by one of the unsolved mysteries in computer science: does randomness help in speeding up algorithms? Tarnawski's dissertation makes significant progress on this question by almost completely derandomizing a three-decade-old randomized parallel matching algorithm by Ketan Mulmuley, Umesh Vaziriani, and Vijay Vazirani.

The second major result of Tarnawski's dissertation relates to the traveling salesman problem: find the shortest tour of n given cities. Already in 1956, George Dantzig et al. used a linear program to solve a special instance of the problem. Since then the strength of their linear program has become one of the main open problems in combinatorial optimization. Tarnawski's dissertation resolves this question asymptotically and gives the first constant-factor approximation algorithm for the asymmetric traveling salesman problem.

Tarnawski is a researcher at Microsoft Research. He is broadly interested in theoretical computer science and combinatorial optimization, particularly in graph algorithms and approximation algorithms. He received his PhD from EPFL and an MSc in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Wroclaw, Poland.

JiaJun Wu's dissertation, "Learning to See the Physical World," has advanced AI for perceiving the physical world by integrating bottom-up recognition in neural networks with top-down simulation engines, graphical models, and probabilistic programs. Despite phenomenal progress in the past decade, current artificial intelligence methods tackle only specific problems, require large amounts of training data, and easily break when generalizing to new tasks or environments. Human intelligence reveals how far we need to go: from a single image, humans can explain what we see, reconstruct the scene in 3D, predict what's going to happen, and plan our actions accordingly.

Wu addresses the problem of physical scene understanding--how to build efficient and versatile machines that learn to see, reason about, and interact with the physical world. The key insight is to exploit the causal structure of the world, using simulation engines for computer graphics, physics, and language, and to integrate them with deep learning. His dissertation spans perception, physics and reasoning, with the goal of seeing and reasoning about the physical world as humans do. The work bridges the various disciplines of artificial intelligence, addressing key problems in perception, dynamics modeling, and cognitive reasoning.

Wu is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University. His research interests include physical scene understanding, dynamics models, and multi-modal perception. He received his PhD and SM degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, and Bachelor's degrees in Computer Science and Economics from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.

The 2019 Doctoral Dissertation Award recipients will be formally recognized at the annual ACM Awards Banquet on October 3 in San Francisco.

###

About the ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award

Presented annually to the author(s) of the best doctoral dissertation(s) in computer science and engineering. The Doctoral Dissertation Award is accompanied by a prize of $20,000, and the Honorable Mention Award is accompanied by a prize totaling $10,000. Winning dissertations will be published in the ACM Digital Library as part of the ACM Books Series.

About ACM

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery is the world's largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting computing educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field's challenges. ACM strengthens the computing profession's collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional networking.
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Linkedin Tri Indah Oktavianti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 16 2020

The National Police have arrested and named businessman Kusmianto, aka Lim Swie King, a suspect for allegedly attempting to smuggle 73,200 benur (lobster larvae).

The suspect was arrested in Bogor, West Java, on June 5, said Brig. Gen. Syahardiantono, the director of special crimes detection at the police's Crime Investigation Department (Bareskrim).

According to the police, Kusmianto had obtained a capture permit but the objects he had captured violated the requirement set under a 2020 maritime affairs and fisheries ministerial regulation.

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A former Conservative head of the intelligence committee has blamed Boris Johnsons incompetence for the farce that saw Chris Grayling  his hand-picked choice  defeated in his bid to lead it.

I think the prime minister is the author of his own misfortune, Malcolm Rifkind said  as Downing Street licked its wounds over the humiliation on Wednesday evening.

Mr Grayling was beaten by fellow Conservative Julian Lewis, who was promptly kicked out of the parliamentary party as a punishment for voting with Labour members.

The episode paves the way for the publication, next week, of the report into Russian interference in British politics, which Mr Johnson has suppressed for nine months.

Sir Malcom, who chaired the powerful intelligence and security committee for five years until 2015, said it was ridiculous for the government to protest at the choice of Dr Lewis.

It was set down in an Act of Parliament that the chair was chosen by the nine nominated members, with No 10 having no role.

The idea of using the whips to try and force Conservative members to vote for a particular candidate goes totally against the way in which the committee has  under statute  operated since it began, Sir Malcolm said.

The prime minister or his advisers, whoever was dealing with it, has handled this in an extremely incompetent way.

The committee is seen as increasingly important as the intelligence agencies gain stronger powers to intercept and hold data, and amid growing concerns about the activities of Russia and China.

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

Its members are given privileged access to classified information and receive confidential briefings security chiefs, but decide themselves  in secret  which controversies to pursue.

No 10 thought it had secured the chairmanship for Mr Grayling  despite anger over his gaffe-prone record and lack of intelligence background  by arranging a Tory majority on the committee.

But it was blindsided by Dr Lewis, who prizes his record as an independent thinker, quietly winning the backing of the three Labour and one SNP members.

Sir Malcom said he did not know if Dominic Cummings was behind the original plot, but added: If it had succeeded, that destroys the whole purpose of the intelligence and security committee.

Whoever is advising him deserves to be stripped of their responsibility at this very moment.

Asked if people would now see the Russia report released quickly, he replied: Of course we will  and we should have seen it 7 months ago. Its quite absurd.

Pressed on the row, Alok Sharma, the business secretary, said: The whole point of that committee is to provide oversight, to provide scrutiny, and that will continue.

With reference to individuals in the parliamentary party, I can only repeat that that really is a matter for the whips, not for me.
The Heritage Council is calling on children across the country to put their imagination to good use this summer by using LEGO bricks to recreate their favourite example of Irish built, natural or cultural heritage.

The competition is open to children aged between four and twelve years, with two age categories: 4-to-7-years, and 8-to-12-years. To enter, children need to build their model, choose their category, write a short description of what their model represents and why its important to them, and then take a photo of the model and submit it via the Heritage Council website. The Heritage Council plans to feature as many entries as it can on its website and Facebook page.

To provide some inspiration and guidance, LEGO brick artist, Jessica Farrell will build a sample model every week and will post the step-by-step plan on the Heritage Council Facebook page. The sample models will include:

 Built Heritage: Traditional thatch cottage; High Cross, Dolmen.

 Natural Heritage: Red Fox; Hedgehog; native Irish honeybee, with flower.

 Cultural Heritage: Celtic interlace pattern; Galway Hooker boat.

We have seen over the past number of months the important role that heritage has played in peoples lives in Ireland and we think that this fun competition will give children the opportunity to really think about their local heritage, to examine it in detail, and to recreate what they see through the power of LEGO," said Heritage Council chief executive, Virginia Teehan.

"This is the first time weve run such a competition and we are delighted to have LEGO brick artist, Jessica Farrell on board to show just what can be achieved with these little bricks. In terms of entries, were looking for anything from Irish landscapes, to round towers, to castles, to waterways, to Irelands wildlife  the possibilities are endless. Its also important for entrants to let us know what their model represents; why they chose this piece of local heritage, and why its important to them.

While technical merit will be a significant factor in the judging, the judges will also seek to award prizes on the basis of imagination, interpretation, and the supporting information submitted.

Chairman of the Heritage Council, Michael Parsons added: As a parent and as a former teacher, I am well aware of the joy LEGO can bring to children and the ingenuity it can spark. I very much look forward to seeing the heritage models the children of Ireland build as part of this competition.

The closing date for entries is Sunday, August 30, with prizes of LEGO DK books for the winners of each of the 4-7-year-old categories, and a LEGO kit for the winners of the older categories.

Visit the Heritage Council website, www.heritagecouncil.ie or the Heritage Council Facebook page for competition rules and further details.
Sweetwater County commissioners missed an opportunity to take a lead on an issue tied to the coronavirus pandemic and should reverse course.

Last week, the commissioners debated a resolution requiring residents to wear a mask when entering a county building and also making masks mandatory for county employees unless theyre in their private offices.

Some of the concerns presented were legitimate, such as the enforceability of the resolution. However, other concerns werent as solid.

Weve seen some incidents where face masks are required or event just recommended and theres a...
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A new statewide survey released today finds Missouri parents overwhelmingly support policies that protect and expand access to online public schools as a means to protect the health and safety of families during the pandemic.

These results come as many school districts in Missouri have been denying families the right to choose the best educational option for their child, including by abusing the veto authority over enrollment provided under the Missouri Course Access and Virtual School Program (MOCAP).

The survey revealed that:

79% of parents oppose giving school districts "veto power" over a parent's decision to enroll their child in a full-time online school: and

75% of parents support the state of Missouri granting emergency waivers for parents who wish to enroll their student in an online public school this fall.

Beyond the broad support for expanded access to online schools, parents are worried about the health impact of schools reopening. 57% of parents said they remained very concerned about risks due to COVID-19, while 75% of respondents anticipate additional school closures in the fall.

These concerns are being translated into significant support for online public schools, with 43% of respondents noting they'd be willing to consider this educational option for their own child. Based on 2019 enrollment data, that would mean more than 390,000 students may not return to their traditional classroom as parents become more familiar with online learning options.

The survey sampled 400 Missouri adults with children at home. The survey was conducted June 28 - July 6, 2020 by WPA Intelligence for the National Coalition for Public School Options (PSO). The survey has a margin of error of  4.9%.

STATEMENT BY PSO NATIONAL BOARD PRESIDENT COLLEEN COOK:

"Parents are concerned that COVID-19 remains a threat to the health of our children and the continuity of their education. With so much uncertainty around the return to brick schools this fall, policymakers must act immediately to ensure that every parent has the option to enroll in an online school so that their child may learn in a safe environment."

SOURCE National Coalition for Public School Options
It is increasingly hard to fathom why it is taking the Trudeau government so long to decide on whether Chinese telecom giant Huawei should be allowed to take part in the next generation of Canadian internet development.

For two years, Ottawa has been studying the question of having Huawei Technologies of China be part of 5G.

Along the way it has consulted and been lobbied in both directions. But the government has been steadfast. Industry Minister Navdeep Bains told the CBC: We will make sure that we proceed in a manner thats in our national interest. We wont get bullied by other jurisdictions.

Fair enough. Its an important decision with serious implications for 5G and Canadas international relations. The government is right to refuse to rushed. But two years?

The answer might have been complicated in the past. Canadian telecom companies were using Huawei technology. Canada had hopes of a new and beneficial relationship with China. Huawei technology was less expensive than some other options.

But all that changed when the international tide began to turn against China. Two of Canadas biggest telecom providers  Bell and Telus  are signing deals with Huaweis competitors, Ericsson of Sweden and Nokia of Finland to be suppliers for their new 5G networks. They follow Rogers, which said no to Huawei a long time ago.

All along in this process, Canadas security allies, members of the Five Eyes security network, have warned that China cannot be trusted and is a security threat, especially given that Chinese law says companies have a responsibility to act in the governments security interest. The U.S., Australia, New Zealand have said no. Great Britain, the other member of the group, first said a qualified yes, which would have allowed Huawei to take part in 5G development not linked to security matters.

But this week, Boris Johnsons government did an about face and has ruled China will not take part at all. That earned Britain a stern rebuke from Beijing along with the typical bellicose threats of reprisals. Britains reversal does not come cheap. The ban will add significant costs and delay 5G rollout by at least two years.

Its time for Canada to make up its mind and say no to Huawei and China.

How can we do otherwise? China has demonstrated it is not a trustworthy, ethical partner. It kidnapped two Canadian citizens, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, and holds them hostage to this day in retribution for Canadas upholding a legal extradition agreement with the U.S. and taking Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou into custody. China placed tariffs and other illegal trade barriers on Canadian imports. Beijing has bullied Canada at every turn.

And we are not alone. As part of its ascendancy on the world stage China has bullied and walked over anything in its path. It broke its commitment on Hong Kong independence. It is threatening a major power play in the South China Sea, trampling the interests of neighbouring countries like Japan.

China is an economic, political and military powerhouse, arguably the greatest power in the world considering the diminishment of the United States under Donald Trump. By itself, a mid-level power like Canada can do nothing to deter China. But acting with our allies, we can at least send a message that the world community will not sit quietly while Beijing does whatever it wants with impunity.

China does not need Canada. But Canada doesnt need China either, at least to develop a world-leading 5G network. Let us say no thanks to Huawei.

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YEREVAN, JULY 16, ARMENPRESS. Japan has expressed concerns over the armed confrontation on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan that has claimed several lives. ARMENPRESS presents the statement issued by press secretary of the foreign ministry of Japan Ohtaka Masato.

''Japan expresses its concern about the recent armed confrontation along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border and the loss of lives caused by it. Japan urges all parties concerned to cease any military actions and exercise maximum self-restraint.

A final resolution of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan is essential for peace and stability of the Caucasus region.

Under this recognition, Japan fully supports the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs efforts to resolve the conflict between the two countries, and expects peaceful resolution based on the principles of international law'', reads the statement.
"The Shangaan people feel that they are being discriminated against on tribal lines as this is a second eviction. First, they were evicted in the Triangle area to pave way for Tongaat Hulett. The government did not consult the Shangaan people, but just came with Paul Kruger as an investor," Mtombeni said.
(Reuters) - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev sacked his foreign minister on Thursday after accusing him of meaningless negotiations with neighboring Armenia amid a flare-up in hostilities between two South Caucasus countries.

Eleven Azeri soldiers and a civilian and four Armenian servicemen have been killed in border clashes between two former Soviet countries that fought a war in the 1990s over the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Aliyev said on Wednesday Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov did not do enough to try to resolve the conflict.

What was the foreign minister doing? Where he was? We were all at work after the July 12 events ... and I could not find him, Aliyev told a government meeting of the start of the clashes on Sunday.

... Unfortunately, recently our diplomacy is not compatible with the successful development of our country. In some cases it is engaged in meaningless work, meaningless negotiations.

Mammadyarov, 60, has been foreign minister since April 2004.

According to the presidents decree, former Education Minister Jeihun Bayramov was appointed to succeed Mammadyarov.
5th JCPOA anniv.: Iran urges European parties not to toe US line

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 15 July 2020 10:12 AM

Iran has urged the European parties to the 2015 nuclear deal to live up to their obligations under the agreement, which has been the target of the US's "illegal" and "destructive" moves, stressing Tehran's resolve to take "decisive" action against any "irresponsible behavior" undermining the UN-endorsed document.

Referring to the deal by its official name, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that "the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) as an important achievement of multilateral diplomacy, which has been strongly supported by the international community, is in serious danger on its fifth anniversary."

The ministry called on the international community to prevent the historic deal from becoming yet another victim of Washington's "unilateral and unlawful" approach by ensuring "the balanced implementation" of the accord by all parties.

The statement highlighted that Washington and those following in its footsteps must exclusively accept the repercussions of their policies.

"The international, legal, technical, strategic and political capital of this agreement has been deeply eroded on its fifth anniversary, due to the destructive and illegal actions of the United States," said the statement.

"The remaining Participants of the JCPOA are aware of this and by consensus are of the view that the root cause for the current situation is the continuing violations of UNSCR 2231 and the JCPOA, and ultimately the unilateral withdrawal of the United States from an agreement reached after years of hard multilateral negotiations," it said, referring to the resolution that endorsed the agreement.

The US government's noncompliance with its obligations under the JCPOA and Resolution 2231, together with the other parties' lack of seriousness in restoring the lost balance, have complicated the circumstances surrounding the deal, and have effectively prevented Iran from reaping the benefits of the JCPOA, including the removal of nuclear-related sanctions, it said.

This is while Tehran remained fully committed to its end of the bargain, the statement added.

Unfortunately, the situation took a turn for the worse and the rights and obligations enshrined in the agreement, which were agreed upon during complicated negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 states  the US, the UK, France, Russia and China plus Germany  need to be reminded to the remaining JCPOA signatories as well as UN member states, it said.

The statement went on to say that Resolution 2231 (2015) emphasizes on "promoting and facilitating the development of normal economic and trade contacts and cooperation with Iran" and "its full implementation on the timetable established in the JCPOA."

It then described JCPOA as a negotiated diplomatic solution to the peaceful settlement of a fictitious crisis over Tehran's civilian nuclear program, saying, "Iran entered the negotiations seriously and with a view to the future, and implemented the outcome of the negotiations in good faith. Transparency and confidence-building voluntary measures, beyond the obligations under the Safeguards Agreement, [were] part of the Islamic Republic of Iran's efforts to reassure the international community of the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear program."

Regrettably, Iran did not enjoy any economic benefits from the removal of the sanctions, which the US reinstated following its withdrawal, and it is once again witnessing attempts by some enemies of the JCPOA to reopen already-closed files and completely destroy the achievements of the nuclear deal, the Foreign Ministry said.

Iran has so far had constructive and extensive cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is corroborated by the number and volume of inspections, said the statement,, adding, "Any attempt to misuse the IAEA to put pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran is inconsistent with the provisions of the JCPOA, and in addition to tarnishing the IAEA's credibility."

The Iranian Foreign Ministry also warned the remaining signatories against involvement in US conspiracies, particularly attempts to destroy and weaken the UN's arms embargo system.

It said while Iran is ready to implement all provisions of the deal, "it is determined to take decisive action against any exaggeration and irresponsible behavior."

Tehran, the statement added, "strongly urges the E3 (France, Britain and Germany) to adhere to their commitments, and to preserve and fully implement the UN Security Council [resolution] instead of moving in the direction of the US maximum pressure policy."

The ministry also praised China and Russia's constructive actions and positions at the UN Security Council, the IAEA Board of Governors and the JCPOA's Joint Commission to protect and implement the JCPOA.

"There is no alternative to this agreement, therefore, if there is a political will of the international community, especially the remaining participants of the JCPOA, to preserve this agreement, it shall be concentrated on ensuring the balanced implementation of the agreement in good faith," it said.

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You may have noticed some smoke in the air around the Bay Area on Wednesday. With the sun shining through hazy skies, the region had a golden glow.

Similar conditions are expected Thursday morning as two separate fires south of the Bay Area continue to burn. Conditions should improve this afternoon but the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAQMD) has an advisory in effect through Friday as smoke may drift in and out of the region.

"It does look like there is already some smoke in the area that is going to linger through the morning but by the afternoon the near-surface smoke will be pushed out by the sea breeze," said Drew Peterson a forecaster with the National Weather Service's Bay Area office. "The area that might still see some smoke is the San Jose area. The San Francisco peninsula should stay mostly smoke free this afternoon."

Peterson said the smoke drift is beginning to shift east from the source points

The Mineral Fire in Fresno County has burned 16,500 acres and is 20% contained as of Thursday morning.

The Coyote Fire in San Benito is 1,400 acres and 50% contained.

BAQMD said smoke could continue to impact the Bay Area on and off through Friday.

"If the smell of smoke is present, it is important that Bay Area residents protect their health by avoiding exposure," BAQMD said in a statement. "If possible, stay inside with windows and doors closed until smoke levels subside, if temperatures allow. It is also recommended that those impacted by smoke set their air conditioning units and car vent systems to re-circulate to prevent outside air from moving inside."

This story was updated at 9:45 a.m.

Amy Graff is the news editor for SFGATE. Email her: agraff@sfgate.com.
Pro-democracy activist Lester Shum (2nd R) and other winners of the unofficial democratic primaries hold a press conference in Hong Kong on July 15, 2020. (Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images)

Hong Kong Protestors Adapt to Keep Fighting Amid National Security Law, US-China Tensions

Commentary

Hong Kongs million people marches, scenes of tear-gas engulfed street standoffs, and multi-day University sieges are gone to rest. Hong Kongs protest is changing with the times.

Two main factors influence the change: The Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) threatening National Security Law and the increasing tensions between China and the United States.

These recent turns bring a new wave for Hong Kongs pro-democracy fight as protestors adapt to fight for their autonomy in a newly emerging environment.

The enactment of the new National Security Law in Hong Kong by Chinas rubber-stamp legislature was passed with a comprehensive 66 articles that criminalize acts of succession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces.

The laws are both vague while promising of stern punishment. The maximum sentence under the law is life in prison, while the prerequisite for charges seem to be anything that displeases the Chinese regime.

The laws unroll a barrage of what the government can do to anyone suspected as a threat to national security. Mere suspects can be wire-tapped and put under surveillance. Management of non-governmental organizations and news agencies will be fortified. Those deemed guilty will not be allowed to run for public office. Suspects will be tried under a special committee led by the regime and the law applies to everybody, in and out of Hong Kong.

Despite the panoramic provision, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam asserts the National Security Law only targets a small group of extremists. Yet, her actions clearly show otherwise.

The law was passed on July 1. Since then, Hong Kongs government has continued to criminalize specific rights under the National Security Law.

The popular slogan, Free Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times, is illegal under the National Security Law.

People were arrested under the law for having stickers that say pro-Hong Kong independence slogans such as, Free Hong Kong or Hong Kong independence.

The Hong Kong and Chinese governments have been piling on statement after statement in tandem to suffocate the pro-democracy movement.

It has had a tangible effect on the protest movement.

It feels like were walking into a darkness, but we dont know what is the end, said 23-year-old Theresa to the Epoch Times Hong Kong on July 1. (The name is an alias for safety concerns). Right now, we are just finding new ways to protest while staying alive under this new law.

But while protest voices have gone quieter, they have not gone silent.

On July 12, Hong Kongs pro-democracy camp held its first-ever election primary. A move made to strategically consolidate Hong Kongs votes into the best candidates for the Legislative Council (LegCo) election this upcoming September. Its part of a strategy to secure a pro-democracy majority in the Legislative Council, a plan called 35 plus.

But Lam declared 600,000 Hong Kong residents who voted in the primaries as potentially having broken the National Security Law.

Our vote is our voice to the global community. Under the chilling threat of Beijing, we choose not to surrender, Joshua Wong declared amid a stronghold of black-clad nominees at the first press conference of pro-democracy nominees.

(L-R) Ivan Lam, Joshua Wong, and Agnes Chow speak to reporters after appearing in court in Hong Kong, on July 6, 2020. (Song Bilung/The Epoch Times)

With no external considerations, the regime can generally do whatever it wants. Usually, that means disqualifying any displeasing candidates. But this year, the United States is watching the elections closely. This key development has shaped Hong Kong protestors strategy for democracy.

Shortly after Carrie Lam threatened punishment under the National Security Law for participation in Hong Kong elections, Trump signed a law to revoke Hong Kongs special privileges. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released a statement condemning Lams condemnation, warning that the United States will be watching Hong Kong election developments closely.

Under these conditions, the energy of the protests now moves on to the anticipated election for Hong Kongs Legislative Council.

A subset of 16 of the nominees slated to fight for election this fall have named themselves the protest camp, also known as the localists. They represent youth for democracy in Hong Kong and are much more defiant against the CCP than traditional pro-democracy legislators. All but one are under 30 years of age.

Despite the identical goal of democracy for Hong Kong, there is contention among the older pro-democracy activists and the newly-emerged youth activists. The older camp has been active in government since the 1997 handover, while the youth activists were born around the 1997 handover.

Their main contention is on compliance with the CCP. Older legislators tend to compromise with China. The protest camp is much more defiant of the CCPs wishes.

We believe the traditional way adopted by the old politicians is not useful and quite pointless during this era, said Sunny Cheung, 24. He has turned down a chance to study for a masters degree at Johns Hopkins University to resist the evil regime according to Reuters.

With the crackdown from Beijing, we have no room and any chance to have any fragmentation. Its time for us to enhance solidarity, urges Joshua Wong.

The recent primaries show voters frustration with Hong Kongs moderate, more traditional pro-democracy politicians.

Final data from the primary election is yet to be released. But approximate numbers show the protest camp dominated popular votes, signaling the desire for more hardline fighters for Hong Kong democracy against the CCP to represent them in the Legislative Council. It signals that even with the new National Security Law, Hong Kong protestors want to continue the fight.

I hope that the new generation can respond to the angry roar of the times and resist in the Legislative Council with new methods and ideologies, said incumbent democratic lawmaker Helena Wong, 61, to Reuters. Wong did not win a nomination for Septembers election.

Veteran democratic candidates such as James To, Lam Cheuk-ting, Gary Fan, and Alvin Yeung all performed poorly, with their moderate call for democracy no longer appealing to young voters.

At the press conference for the protest camp, a reporter asked Eddie Chu, a current member of the Legislative Council, on why he was there. Hes the only protest camp member older than 30.

Until the direct question from a reporter, hed remained silent through the entire press conference. He stood in the corner, wearing a black T-shirt that read Im free, therefore I am.

Im a 40-something year old. Im very grateful to be able to join these 20-somethings in this new wave of pro-democracy legislators for Hong Kong. Chu, an established environmental activist, has served in Hong Kongs LegCo since 2016.

This tide will bring in a new generation of Hong Kong political leaders. I am a bridge between the new and old pro-democracy camps.

Decades of Struggle

Hong Kongs short history as a semi-autonomous region of China is rife with eras of protests.

In 2003, the fight was against Article 23 security laws. In 2014, historic umbrella protests and the emergence of student leaders lead the fight against mainland Chinas curriculum in Hong Kongs education system. In 2019, another powerful era of youth captivated international attention with their days-long standoffs with riot police on smoke-engulfed streets.

As the tear gas evaporates, the defiant spirit against the CCP grows stronger. This new form of protest via highly public participation in the election dares the CCP and the current Hong Kong government to do exactly what the candidates know they want to do: shut down Hong Kong democracy.

The United States strong support for Hong Kong autonomy gives Hong Kong protest leaders the backing needed to go head to head with Beijing. With stiffening U.S.-China relations, theres a lot on the line for China.

If the regime disqualifies popular pro-democracy candidates, as they did in the past, they will very publicly reveal that injustice of Hong Kong elections, warranting retribution from the United States under the Hong Kong autonomy actas well as condemnation from the international community. If they allow the candidates to serve in LegCo, they risk losing control of Hong Kongs government by allowing a pro-democracy majority in Hong Kongs legislative council for the first time in history.

The protest camp is also betting on the Hong Kong majority signaling support for pro-democratic candidates. Joshua Wong warns if the government cracks down on us and disqualifies all the candidates who joined the primaries, it will cause more outrage in the international community and encourage more people to vote for the pro-democratic camp in September.

People queue up to vote in Hong Kong, on July 12, 2020, (Vincent Yu/AP Photo)

Despite the regimes authoritarian clampdown with the National Security Law, Hong Kong protestors have adapted the energy of the past year of protests into fighting through the upcoming elections. They have vocally elected younger, hardline, anti-CCP leaders to represent them, strengthened by Americas backing of Hong Kong autonomy rights amid stiffening U.S.-China relations.

Owen Chow, a 23-year-old Hong Konger who ran in the Democratic Primaries, won 16,758 votes, securing the nomination for the LegCo election. He told Reuters, weve entered an era of change.

As U.S.-China relations morph, so are Hong Kongs unrelenting protestors in their fight for freedom against the CCP.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Officials call it a longstanding dilemma that the coronavirus exposed. Though New Jersey schools were ordered closed and students were forced to learn remotely because of the pandemic, tens of thousands of young residents  many from low-income households  didnt have a device or internet access at home to participate in online classes.

Now, the Garden State is seeking to bridge this so-called digital divide.

Gov. Phil Murphy and state lawmakers on Thursday announced a $115 million plan to make sure all New Jersey students have online access and devices to learn at home, using a mixture federal funds, philanthropic donations, and state coronavirus relief money.

Officials say the need is immediate, noting that even if many schools do physically reopen this fall, some will likely offer a hybrid of in-person and remote classes, while other students may continue to learn from home completely.

Officials say the initiative will also ensure students have access to this technology even when the pandemic is over.

We know that in many communities, the majority of students and educators were able to virtually connect every day, Murphy said during a public event in which officials unveiled the plan at Madison Avenue School in Irvington. But when it comes to educating our kids, I think we can all agree that words like many and most are simply not good enough.

Murphy said nearly half of the $115 million price tag to close the gap will be covered through federal funds already set aside for school districts.

That, he said, leaves a $54 million hole the state plans to fill in three ways:

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority will seek donations from businesses and philanthropic groups

The state will set up a one-time $10 million formula grant using federal coronavirus CARES Act money for New Jerseys public school districts to buy digital devices and internet connectivity for students who need it. Districts must apply for the funds to the state Department of Education.

The state will then make up to $44 million from the states Coronavirus Relief Fund available to public schools and $6 million to private schools to cover the rest of the funding. Murphys administration said the goal is to exhaust philanthropic help and federal funding first because of the fiscal strain the pandemic has placed on the state budget.

The announcement comes on the same day the New Jersey Legislature approved Murphys plan to allow the state to borrow up to nearly $10 billion to help fill whats expected to be a massive gap in the state budget because of lost tax revenue due to the pandemic. The governor signed it into law later in the day.

But Murphy and lawmakers defended using this money for digital educational tools.

The greatest equalizer in the world is an education, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said Thursday. And its a shame that children should be denied that opportunity.  These are tough times, and theres not a lot of money. But this is critically important.

New Jersey closed schools March 18 as COVID-19 spread quickly, and the states 1.4 million students learned remotely through the end of the school year in June.

Some districts used all-online assignments and video conferences. Others printed thousands of worksheets because they could not guarantee online access for students.

Murphy said the state Department of Education estimated about 230,000 students were immediately at a disadvantage because of a lack of technology or trusted internet connection. Even though many districts helped plug the gap, the department estimated last month that 90,000 students were still without access.

State Sen. Teresa Ruiz, D-Essex, said this had always been a problem, but the pandemic uncovered the ugly truth.

Lets equip every child with the resources they need, Ruiz said Thursday. Its 2020. Itll be 2021 soon. What is the problem with each one of our students having access to a computer so that they can learn? It is the most extraordinary investment.

Then-state Education Commissioner Lamont Repollett said last month that about 90% of the states school districts would likely to be able to provide a device and wireless access for every student if school does not physically reopen in the fall.

Thursdays news comes as the debate continues over whether students should physically return to school in the fall as COVID-19 lingers.

Murphy has said the plan is for schools to reopen with restrictions. Its up to each district in the state to come up with their own reopening plans. But the governor last week left open the possibility of continuing remote learning if officials deem in-person classes unsafe.

NJ Advance Media staff writer Adam Clark contributed to this report.

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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01.
'Zero chance' for US to isolate China

Global Times

By Yang Sheng and Wang Qi Source: Global Times Published: 2020/7/15 21:48:40 Last Updated: 2020/7/15 22:18:40

Struggles to come before peaceful coexistence: experts

Although China has tried to stabilize its ties and ease tensions with the US, the current situation showed that Washington is unwilling to stop its confrontations with Beijing. Chinese experts on China-US ties said on Wednesday that regardless of what the US did or will do to China, as long as China doesn't make a mistake and keeps on the right track of development, the possibility for the US to crack down on China is "zero."

US President Donald Trump, in announcing on Tuesday the cancellation of special treatment for China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, continued to criticize and stigmatize China on issues like the COVID-19 and Huawei's 5G technology, CNBC reported.

US warships and military aircraft also appeared more frequently in the South China Sea and areas near the island of Taiwan, and the US also continues to make diplomatic efforts to persuade and pressure other countries to join its team to isolate China in the international arena. These signs indicate that the US refuses to positively respond to China's proposal made by Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on July 9 to ease tensions and mend ties by boosting cooperation, observers said.

Jin Canrong, associate dean of Renmin University of China's School of International Studies in Beijing, told the Global Times on Wednesday that China's proposal could at least give future historians proof that "if a China-US cold war erupts and the world suffers from the confrontation between the two most powerful countries, it was not China's fault, and the US should take full responsibility."

Most Chinese experts agree that the US is now using all possible measures, excluding direct military conflict, to contain China, and they have discovered that although pressure and challenges from the US are increasing sharply, China is still in a favorable position after comparing the current situation with similar cases in the past - the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union and tensions between China and the West after 1989.

The most obvious difference is that China has already become one of the most powerful countries, and is extremely intertwined with not only the US but also the rest of the world, experts said.

Jin said the US has successfully cracked down on many "chasers" or "challengers to US hegemony" after it became the world superpower in the wake of the World War II."

"But China is different from those 'predecessors,'" Jin noted. For example, China has already surpassed the US in manufacturing output and electricity generation, and none of those "predecessors" that the US cracked down on had achieved this. Jin said these achievements made "isolation against China impossible and meaningless. The possibility for the US to crack down on us is zero."

Data provided by the World Bank shows China's manufacturing output was $3,896,345.03 million in 2019, about 1.8 times bigger than that of the US, and electricity - installed generating capacity of China - reached 1,646,000,000 kw in 2016, 1.5 times the US'.

Lu Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, told the Global Times on Wednesday that China is not like the Soviet Union.

"To be honest, we have no intention to challenge or replace the US. But due to the sheer size of China, as long as we keep developing for a better future, we will automatically surpass the US. The US has no right to force Chinese people to abandon their demand for a better life," Lu noted.

Wu Xinbo, dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the US policy to confront China is to maintain its global hegemony, and doesn't mean China is really threatening the economic interests of the US.

Lu said the US doesn't care about the intention; it only cares about the capability, "so no matter how hard we explain to the US we won't challenge it, it will still make trouble for us."

Jin noted that "in the hegemonic logic of the US, asking equality from the US is not just a mistake, but also a crime," so the only way China can do is to prove it's unbreakable and undefeatable, and then force the US to accept a real equal and peaceful coexistence.

Nervous Washington

According to the United States Strategic Approach to the People's Republic of China that the White House released on May 20, Washington openly acknowledged that it wants to remodel China, but realized this was impossible after the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), so it decided to compete with China.

Lu said, "By 'remodeling China,' the US wants the CPC to have leaders like Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, who failed to reform the Soviet Union and broke the big country into pieces by trusting the West and getting deceived by Western ideology, so that it won't be a significant threat to US hegemony."

Chinese experts said China has never considered the path chosen by Gorbachev to exchange peace with the US, since the path is all about recession, chaos, and humiliation. The decisions made by Deng Xiaoping in 1978 and 1989 have already proven that China made the right choice and the Soviet Union didn't, they said.

"Therefore, Trump and those hawkish US policymakers are making their last try to see if they can physically crack China or at least eliminate China's capability to develop," Lu noted.

The US is very frustrated, because when China is at its prime and keeps growing and reducing the distance with the US on all fronts, the US is facing a rampant COVID-19 epidemic situation, economic recession, and pervasive internal divisions, Li Haidong, a professor with the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Due to the successful handling of the epidemic, China could be the only major economy that keeps positive growth in 2020. The IMF predicted in April that China's economy will likely grow by 1.2 percent this year, and rebound strongly to 9.2 percent in 2021.

The US economy is projected to contract by 5.9 percent this year, and is poised to bounce back to 4.7 percent next year, the IMF said in its report.

Unlike the US and other major economies, Asia is likely to be the only region with a positive growth rate in 2020, averaging at 1 percent. But the growth would be more than 5 percentage points below the average in the previous decade, the IMF said.

Struggles before coexistence

Chinese analysts noted that this will further narrow the distance between China and the US, and this is why the US is now trying its best to contain and interrupt China, even it will face China's retaliation and will have to pay a heavy price.

Jin said, "As long as we make no mistakes and keep on the right track, the US has no chance at all. Maybe 10 years from now, the problems will go away, because the US will accept the reality to coexist equally and peacefully with a powerful China, even if the two countries have different political systems, ideologies and cultures."

"When the US is more advanced and powerful, it is totally natural for it to make trouble for us. But when we prove we can do better than them, they will be pragmatic and make friends with us, so China-US ties will recover eventually," he noted.

Lu said before this, a series of struggles would be necessary, but China should remember that when it strikes back at the aggression and provocation from the US, it should prevent adventurism and overconfidence. And when it negotiates to ease tensions or have cooperation, it should prevent an appeasement policy and capitulate.

"China won't initially escalate the confrontation, but will make sure the US feels the pain. China will also seize any opportunity to have cooperation with the US as long as it's good for the people of the two countries and for the world," he noted, "This is how China should shape the bilateral ties in the future.".

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Photo credit: Getty | Raydene Salinas Hansen

From Cosmopolitan

For many Latinxs, identity is a complicated thing. Latin America is made up of numerous different countries, across two continents, each one with its own unique histories, traumas, cultures, and, of course, populations. Our differences can make these tough conversations about race challenging to navigateas does language, the unfortunate prevalence of misogyny, and our countries histories of colonialism, Black erasure and violence.

There seems to be a myth in Latin America thatunlike the United Statesthere isnt a race issue. Its naive to think of our nations caste systems in a way that doesnt consider race in addition to class. Just look at mestizaje ("race mixture"), or the common belief that all Latinxs are mixed in some way, and therefore incapable of perpetuating racial hierarchies. This is not only false, but works to conceal how deeply rooted white supremacy, in part a result of European and American colonization, is in Latinx culture.

There isn't even enough room here to fully go into the role that colorism has played in Latinx culture. Like blanqueamiento, or the ideological project of whitening that governments in Latin America employed to encourage whiter populations (AKA the project of "improving the race," or mejorar la raza), whether by incentivizing European immigration or through outright violence.

Even normal family interactions can be steeped in anti-Blackness. Take, for example, the praise light-skinned, light-eyed babies get thanks to their complexion. Or the approval someone might receive for bringing home a light-skinned partner. And the inverse is also true: my mother, a very light-skinned Afro-descendant woman, once told me how my grandfather forbid her from having a relationship with a darker-skinned Afro-Colombian boy for fear of her and her children going in the "wrong direction." For me, growing up with curly hairor for my mother with her kinky hairhearing pelo malo ("bad hair"), peinese ("brush your hair"), or you look better with your hair straight was a common (and painful) occurrence.

Story continues

Which brings me to: Talking to our Latinx parents about Black Lives Matter. Remember that you wont be able to change anyones mind overnight, or bring them up to speed on an entire topic in one sitting. If you have immigrant parents, they might not have ever learned about American slavery, Jim Crow, the civil rights movement, or the history of mass incarceration and prison industrial complex. Lead with patience and thoughtfulness. Having experienced discrimination ourselves, Latinxs are in a good spot to empathize and understand what Black and Afro-Latinx communities are facing. Lets do this.

I spoke with three experts about how to navigate these conversations.

Photo credit: .

Julie Dowling PhD, is a Latina sociologist who is an Associate Professor in the Department of Latina/Latino Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has published articles on Latino racial identity construction and racial attitudes in a variety of journals. Dr. Dowling's research has focused on the US Census and how definitions of race and ethnicity are understood by Latinos. Her book, Mexican Americans and the Question of Race, explored the disjuncture between federal definitions and regional constructions of race, examining Mexican American responses to the U.S. Census race question. In the book, she examines how a Mexican Americans position themselves relative to whiteness and blackness. Her current research project focuses on how various racial groups feel about the government."

Photo credit: .

T. Urayoan Noel PhD is a Puerto Rican poet, critic, performer, and translator, who is currently an associate professor of English and Spanish at New York University and also teaches at Stetson Universitys MFA of the Americas. He is the author of eight books of poetry, including Buzzing Hemisphere/Rumor Hemisferico (2015) and the forthcoming Transversal, both with the University of Arizona Press.

Photo credit: .

Ramon Contreras is a young Afro-Latino activist and aspiring civil rights attorney from Harlem. Ramon founded Youth Over Guns in 2018 to bring more awareness to gun violence in Black and Brown communities and since then has traveled the country advocating for gun safety laws. Ramon also works on making voting more accessible to young people in America and promotes civic engagement throughout the country.

Why should non-Black Latinxs care about these protests?

Julie Dowling, PhD: Well, the short answer is that everyone should care about Black livespeople of all races should care about the deaths of Black people at the hands of the state. We should all want justice and racial equity. Also, Latinxboth Afro-Latinxs and non-Black Latinxsface racial profiling and discrimination from the police both historically and currently, including brutal immigration and detention policies. So policing is an issue for the Latinx community that impacts non-Black Latinxs too, and therefore protests calling for police accountability and alternatives to incarceration are of crucial importance for Latinxs.

La respuesta corta es que a todos nos deberia importar las vidas Negras a las personas de todas las razas les deberia importar las muertes de personas Negras a manos del Estado. Todos deberiamos querer justicia e igualdad racial. Ademas, Latinostanto Afro-Latinos como Latinos que no son Negrosenfrentan caracterizaciones raciales y discriminacion por parte de la policia a traves de la historia y hasta hoy en dia, incluyendo normas brutales de inmigracion y detencion. Entonces el patrullaje es un problema para la comunidad Latina que tambien afecta a Latinos que no son Negros, es por eso que las protestas que piden que la policia tome responsabilidad por sus acciones y que encuentren otras alternativas a el encarcelamiento son de gran importancia para todos los Latinos.

T. Urayoan Noel PhD: Because poor Latinx communities are also targeted by the police. Because an unchecked police is incompatible with democracy. Also, many poor and working class non-Black Latinxs live in historically racialized communities, and thus are subject to structural racism. One way to think about these protests is to ask ourselves why there is so much money for the policing and occupation of these Black and racialized communities, but not a concerted effort to remedy long-standing inequities in health, education, and so on.

Porque comunidades de Latinxs de bajos recursos tambien son victimas de la violencia policial. Porque un sistema policial desenfrenado es incompatible con la democracia. Ademas muchos Latinxs pobres y de clase trabajadora, que no se identifican como Negros, viven en comunidades historicamente racializadas, y por lo tanto tambien son sometidos al racismo estructural. Una forma de pensar en estas protestas es preguntarnos, por que hay tanto dinero para el patrullaje y ocupacion de estas comunidades negras y racializadas, pero no hay un esfuerzo concertado para reparar las desigualdades profundas en los sistemas de salud, educacion y etc.

What about us? Where are the marches and outrage over the treatment of undocumented people when they are being killed and put in cages?

Ramon Contreras: We're protesting the racial and cultural bias of every law enforcement system in America. When we call for justice, it includes everyone, including immigrants who are targeted solely because of their background. We're fighting the same fight and are in the same struggle to end discrimination.

Estamos protestando el prejuicio racial y cultural de cada sistema de ley en los Estados Unidos. Cuando pedimos justicia, eso nos incluye a todos, incluyendo a los inmigrantes que son discriminados exclusivamente por su origen. Estamos peleando la misma pelea, y estamos juntos en la misma batalla para terminar la discriminacion.

Julie Dowling, PhD: We can be outraged about undocumented children separated from their parents AND about Black people dying at the hands of police. We can see these issues as relatedas being about state violence against people of color. And we can unite to fight.

Podemos sentir furia cuando ninos indocumentados son separados de sus padres Y TAMBIEN cuando personas Negras mueren en manos del Estado. Podemos ver que estos problemas estan relacionados, que se tratan de violencia estatal en contra de personas de color. Y podemos unirnos en esta pelea.

T. Urayoan Noel PhD: Black Lives Matter has been fighting against deportations and for undocumented people for years, but this is not something that gets a lot of attention in a media landscape that eschews complexity and fuels polarization. Furthermore, as writers and activists like Alan Pelaez Lopez remind us, a lot of undocumented people are also Black (and Indigenous and queer and nonbinary), so if we frame this as "us versus them," we are erasing people in our own communities and reproducing a dangerous media narrative.

El movimiento de Las Vidas Negras ha estado peleando en contra de las deportaciones y en favor de personas indocumentadas por anos, pero esto no es algo que recibe mucha atencion en un mundo mediatico que evita la complejidad y alimenta la polarizacion. Es mas, escritores y activistas como Alan Pelaez Lopez nos recuerda que muchas personas indocumentadas tambien son Negras (e Indigenas, y LGBTA+), entonces si planteamos esto como nosotros versus ellos estamos borrando a personas en nuestras propias comunidades y propagando en los medios una historia peligrosa.

Why use the term Afro-Latinx?

Ramon Contreras: The term Afro-Latinx acknowledges my history and roots as a Black Latino. My ancestors are descendants from Africa and were brought over to the island of Hispaniola, where Europeans enslaved them. Our history represents colonialism and white supremacy that took the lives of millions throughout history. The term Afro-Latino is who I am by blood and history. To not acknowledge the term means not acknowledging the brutal history that is the result of many injustices today.

El termino Afro-Latinx reconoce mi historia y mis raices como un Latino Negro. Mis ancestros son Afro-descendientes y fueron traidos a la isla de Hispaniola donde los Europeos los esclavizaron. Nuestra historia representa el colonialismo y la supremacia blanca que tomo la vida de tantos millones a traves de la historia. El termino Afro-Latino es quien soy de sangre y de historia. El no reconocer esta frase, significa no reconocer esa historia brutal, que es la razon de muchas de las injusticias de hoy en dia.

T. Urayoan Noel PhD: To celebrate the impact and significance of African diaspora cultures as they have evolved in the Americas and helped shape Latinx culture. Musical forms such as salsa, merengue, and reggaeton have African roots but are a product of Afro-Caribbean Latin America and its diasporic histories in cities like New York. These cultural productions have global reach but are rooted in Afro-Latinx histories and experiences, and should be recognized as such.

Para celebrar el impacto y el significado de culturas Afro-descendientes y como se han desarrollado en las Americas, ayudando a moldear la cultura Latinoamericana. Tipos de musica como la salsa, el merengue, y el reggaeton tienen raices Africanas, pero son el producto de una Latinoamerica Afro-Caribe y sus historias diasporicas en ciudades como Nueva York. Estos productos culturales tienen un alcance global, pero son arraigadas en las experiencias e historias Afro-Latinx y deberian ser reconocidas.

How has anti-Blackness affected the Latinx community in the U.S.?

Ramon Contreras: Many Latinxs refuse to acknowledge their Blackness and history. In America, success is often linked with being white, and many Latinxs don't like to identify with their Black culture because it usually means less opportunities.

Muchos Latinxs se niegan a reconocer sus historias y raices Negras. En los Estados Unidos el exito es frecuentemente asociada con ser blanco, y muchos Latinxs no les gusta asociarse con su cultura Negra porque muchas veces significa menos oportunidades.

T. Urayoan Noel PhD: There is a long history of colorism within U.S. Latinx communities, where proximity to whiteness is valued and Blackness is frowned upon. Also, white-passing Latinxs benefit from the privileges of whiteness, even when they do not identify as white.

Hay una larga historia de colorismo en las comunidades Latinx en los Estados Unidos, donde la proximidad a lo blanco es valorada y la negrura es reprochada. Ademas Latinxs que pueden pasar fisicamente como blancos se benefician de ese privilegio blanco incluso cuando no se identifican asi.

What does it look like for non-Black Latinxs to be allies?

Ramon Contreras: Advocating for Black lives and showing up when people are fighting to end systems of oppression and also acknowledging that we all share the same aspirations for a better America that doesn't discriminate based on race, sexuality, gender, religion and social class.

Defender las vidas Negras y demostrar apoyo cuando las personas esten peleando para terminar sistemas de opresion. Tambien reconociendo que todos tenemos las mismas esperanzas para un America que no discrimine a las personas por raza, sexualidad, genero, religion o clase social.

T. Urayoan Noel PhD: We need to move beyond allyship and interrogate our own Latinidad. We need to acknowledge its historical and ongoing proximity to whiteness while acknowledging Afro-Latinx histories and perspectives, even and especially when it is painful or uncomfortable to do so. In this moment of reckoning, allyship is not enough: we need to confront our histories and find alternative histories that are not euphemistic and do not rely on platitudes. "We are all mixed" is like "All lives matter." It misses the point, it deflects, and it assumes equality when the task at hand is working through radical difference and understanding ourselves in relationship to the power wielded over us and the power we wield.

Tenemos que ir mas alla de ser aliados y interrogar nuestra propia Latinidad. Necesitamos reconocer la historica y continua cercania a la blancura, reconociendo las historias Afro-Latinas y sus perspectivas incluso y especialmente cuando, es doloroso e incomodo hacerlo. En este momento de ajuste, ser aliado no es suficiente: necesitamos confrontar nuestras historias y encontrar alternativas que no sean eufemisticas. Todos somos mezclados es como decir Todas las Vidas Importan; lo que malinterpreta el punto, desvia, y asume igualdad cuando el objetivo es analizar nuestras diferencias radicales y entendernos en relacion al poder que se ejerce contra nosotros, y el poder que ejercemos.

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We are deeply grateful for this transformative opportunity afforded NACF by YU board and staff, and stand united with all to reclaim Native truth, engage anti-racism, and address important issues we face today. ~ Lulani Arquette, NACF President/CEO

The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation (NACF) and Yale Union (YU) are proud to announce the transfer of ownership of the land and historic Yale Union building at 800 SE 10th Avenue in Portland, Oregon, from YU to NACF.

Together, the NACF board and staff believe that this free land and building transfer will set an example for recognizing the value of Native ownership of property in urban areas across the nation, says NACF President/CEO Lulani Arquette. Its liberating and encouraging to witness this kind of support for First Peoples of this country. The potential for local community and national partnerships around shared interests through Indigenous arts and cultures is wide open. We are deeply grateful for this transformative opportunity afforded NACF by YU board and staff, and stand united with all to reclaim Native truth, engage anti-racism, and address important issues we face today.

NACF is a Native-led national organization committed to mobilizing Native artists, culture bearers, communities, and leaders to influence positive social, cultural, and environmental change. As such, it focuses on strengthening Native arts, providing artists and the creative community with the resources and tools they need to be successful, and expanding awareness and access to Native knowledge and truth. NACF is accepting this special property with great appreciation for what came before. We honor and respect the elders past and present, and acknowledge the land that this building sits on and the previous Native tribes and peoples who inhabited the land.

I am proud of what we have accomplished with Yale Union over the last decade. Having been able to fulfill our mission through the unearned privilege of property ownership, its now time that we hand over the keys! says Flint Jamison, President, Board of Directors of Yale Union. I am inspired by NACFs leadership, unwavering commitment to their mission, and capacity to operate on a large scale. I am eager to listen and learn from them as they use the land and historic building to fulfill their vision.

The new national headquarters for NACF will be called the Center for Native Arts and Cultures, and the property will continue to be a site of contemporary artistic and cultural production. The building will benefit the local community and be a strong cultural asset for the city of Portland. NACF has just completed a planning process that determines its national programming and includes a vision for how it plans to maximize opportunities in the new space. The building will be a vibrant gathering place for Indigenous artists and local partnerships. It will provide space to present and exhibit, places to practice culture and make art, and areas for cultural ceremony and celebration. There will be opportunities for broad community learning, including workshops and seminars covering pertinent issues relative to decolonizing space, anti-racism, and environmental justice.

The process to transfer Yale Unions historic property to NACF began in mid-2018 with discussions between YUs then Executive Director, Yoko Ott, and YUs Board President, Flint Jamison, regarding art institutions potential for proposing models of restorative social change. Ms. Ott then made initial contact with NACFs President/CEO, Lulani Arquette, which led to NACF conducting a thorough feasibility study. In December 2019, NACFs Board of Directors approved to move forward with taking ownership of the property. Both NACF and YU would like to acknowledge Ms. Otts vision and leadership in initiating this transfer of ownership.

YALE UNION BACKGROUND

Since opening in 2010, Yale Union has provided public programming and presented the work of hundreds of artists through the labor of its dedicated board and staff, and the incalculable support of its donors, volunteers, colleagues, and friends. It has created and fostered a cultural community by hosting countless events, providing subsidized studio space to dozens of local artists, and facilitated numerous community programs. It has preserved its historic building and used its 9,400 square-foot exhibition space to present the work of internationally-recognized and under-represented artists in Portland. Through its publishing imprint, YU has published ten books, and it has housed a unique and publicly accessible art library.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Yale Union has suspended in-person events for 2020, but it will collaborate with NACF to co-present artistic programming in 2021. Later that year, Yale Union will dissolve its nonprofit. The property transfer to NACF will serve as a natural culmination of Yale Unions decade-long mission to support artists, propose new modes of production, and stimulate an ongoing public discourse around art. Yale Unions board and staff sincerely thank all of those who helped in achieving its mission and building a community of artists around the Yale Union building and beyond.

Visit https://www.nativeartsandcultures.org/media-kit for a media kit and more information.
Chinese military firmly opposes U.S. arms sales to Taiwan

PLA Daily

Source: China Military Online

Editor: Chen Lufan

2020-07-16 00:05:56

BEIJING, July 15 -- The Chinese military Wednesday voiced strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to US plan of selling Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles to Taiwan. "This move by the US side seriously jeopardizes China's national sovereignty and security," said Senior Colonel Wu Qian, spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense (MND).

According to a statement released by Defense Security Cooperation Agency of the US Department of Defense, the US State Department approved on July 9, American local time, the recertification of selling Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles worth 620 million US dollars to China's Taiwan region.

"The US move is a flagrant violation of the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques, it also grossly interferes in China's internal affairs and seriously impairs China's national sovereignty and security, China is strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to it," said Wu in an address on the US State Department's approval of the recertification of selling weapons to China's Taiwan region.

Taiwan is an integral part of China and China's position on Taiwan question is consistent and clear, Wu said, adding that China will not allow anyone, any organization or any country to take any means to separate Taiwan from the motherland.

All attempts to create "one China, one Taiwan" and split China are going against the historical trend and will be firmly opposed by all Chinese people both at home and abroad, Wu said.

"We sternly warn Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authority that, the reunification of the motherland is where the fundamental interests of the nation lie and the aspiration of people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits, its attempts to bond with foreign forces for "Taiwan independence" by military means will never succeed," the spokesperson continued.

China strongly urged the U.S. to immediately stop arms sales to Taiwan to avoid further damage to the peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits and the relations between the two countries and their militaries, Wu said.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) will take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits, Wu stressed.

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Egypt may have passed its peak infection rate and could be entering the flattening phase of daily cases ahead of a gradual drop during July, August, and possibly through September, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar said on Saturday.

Abdel-Ghaffars statement came as Egypts daily toll of infections began to flatten. According to Hossam Hosni, the head of the Scientific Committee to Combat Coronavirus, infection figures need to stabilise for at least a week before it can be said that Egypt is past the peak.

Egypts record of daily coronavirus cases  1,774  was recorded on 19 June. Since the reopening of the country on 27 June the daily figure has stabilised, hovering between 900-1,000 infections since last week.

Comparing the number of infections in the last week of June to the first of July, Health Minister Hala Zayed said that 10,518 coronavirus cases were detected nationwide between 23 and 29 June but the figure went down to 8,404 cases between 30 June and 6 July.

Al-Ahram Weekly visited the Fatimid Cairo Hospital, one of the 376 isolation hospitals designated by the Health Ministry to ease the burden from fever and chest hospitals, and found the decrease in infection rates reflected on the ground.

We used to receive between 4,000 to 5,000 people a day half of whom, after CT scans, could be classified as suspected cases. Now the daily number does not exceed 1,000, an otolaryngologist at Fatimid Cairo Hospital told the Weekly.

Since the beginning of June the Health Ministry has used clinical examination results, chest x-rays, and laboratory analyses to identify suspected cases of coronavirus. Patients testing positive start receiving treatment immediately after the PCR test result is available.

The otolaryngologist, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that during his 24-hour working shift on Monday the hospital was visited by 700 patients none of whom were diagnosed with the infection.

The majority of the Fatimid Cairo Hospitals 64 beds, which used to be filled with coronavirus patients, are now vacant, and there are only 12 patients isolated in the hospital.

At the French Qasr Al-Aini Hospital, which has 200 beds and which was designated as an isolation hospital in April, there are currently 24 isolated coronavirus cases, physician Hani Fekri wrote in a Facebook post.

As late as mid-June, Health Ministry hospitals which provide coronavirus tests and treatments free of charge were almost full, leading to complaints about a shortage of hospital beds.

Ayman Al-Sebai, a health researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), said that three weeks ago the EIPR would receive between 150 to 180 questions and/or complaints a day. These days we only receive from five to 10, Al-Sebai told the Weekly.

The decrease, said the EIPR researcher, has paralleled the reopening of the country which many feared would be accompanied by a spike in cases.

On 27 June the cabinet decided to lift restrictions in place since March, allowing cafes, cinemas, restaurants and gyms to reopen at 25 per cent capacity. The night-time curfew was cancelled, though the public has been told to keep wearing facemasks and maintain social distancing.

Al-Sebai said that it is a good sign that life has returned to relative normality while the number of daily infections has not increased.

Abdel-Ghaffar suggested the decrease in the number of cases is a result of citizens adhering to precautionary measures, and warned against complacency.

The otolaryngologist agreed, adding that the warm weather is also likely to have reduced the strength of the virus.

Currently, the symptoms that are being presented are weaker than before and some families prefer to be treating infected members at home. They may not be accounted for in the ministrys official numbers of cases, the doctor said.

Al-Sebai said that while it has not been confirmed that coronavirus is affected by the rising temperatures, the possibility cannot be discounted.

A recent paper on clinical infectious diseases linked higher temperature with lower rates of coronavirus infection. The papers authors concluded: The incidence of disease declines with increasing temperature up until 11 degrees Celsius, and is lower at warmer versus cooler temperatures. However, the association between temperature and transmission is small and transmission is likely to remain high at warmer temperatures... if containment measures are relaxed.

The average summer temperature in Egypt is 30-40 degrees Celsius.

Al-Sebai argues that the important thing now is the daily death toll, which should also see a decrease.

According to a statement by the Health Ministry last week Egypt, which had its first coronavirus fatality on 8 March, is currently seeing a stable death rate of 4.5 per cent from the respiratory virus. Nevertheless, Sunday saw 89 fatalities, a relatively high number given that the highest single-day death toll recorded so far was 97 on 15 May.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 16 July, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Global Shipping Companies End Recovered Paper Exports to China By Tim Woods Managing Director of IndustryEdge (for Forest2Market's blog) The second and fifth largest global shipping conglomerates (Mediterranean Shipping Company [MSC] and Hapag Lloyd) have announced separately that they will cease shipping recovered paper to China before the end of 2020. July 16, 2020 - Recovered paper shipments to China could cease before the end of 2020, with global shipping companies now rejecting shipments for delivery after the end of September. The second and fifth largest global shipping conglomerates (Mediterranean Shipping Company [MSC] and Hapag Lloyd) have announced separately that they will cease shipping recovered paper to China before the end of 2020. The move by the shipping lines is in response to Chinese laws that were introduced in late April that move China much closer to its stated aim of ending recovered paper imports entirely by the end of 2020. Key Points: Chinese officials have repeatedly signaled an end to imports of recovered paper

In April, China tightened its solid waste management laws

In late June, the Chinese Government announced it would ban the importation of solid waste from 2021

Major shipping lines are getting ahead of any bans, reducing their potential liabilities It appears that both companies plan to cease taking containers that would be delivered to China after the beginning of October, as part of a risk management strategy. IndustryEdge was recently advised by a client that other shipping companies are also conducting consultations on the future of recovered material shipping to China. In the interim, Chinas import permits continue to be metered out on a national needs basis, leaving exporters from countries like Australia and New Zealand uncertain about even short-term shipments. Month-on-month permits are extremely volatile and expected to result in Chinas total recovered paper imports declining to less than 5 million tons in 2020, down from a peak of around 28 million tons in 2017. This development must be viewed alongside the other significant development in global fiber markets of the last two years: the rapid expansion in the number of mills producing recovered paper pulp for shipment to China. Mills have been converted and established in North America, Malaysia and Vietnam, most significantly. The likelihood is that by years end, Australian suppliers will be seeking alternative markets to China in larger proportions than ever before. Over the year-ended May 2020, Australian recovered paper exports to China totaled 249.2 kt (valued at AUDM41.2), down 54 percent on the prior year. In fact, at just 8,579 tons in May 2020, Australias exports of recovered paper to China were their lowest in more than seven years, with average prices at AUDFob122/t, within range of the lowest monthly average price ever recorded. Indonesia is the next most likely destination for Australias recovered fiber. Over the year-ended May 2020, Indonesia received 295.5 kt of Australian recovered paper (valued at AUDM52.8). However, Indonesias market is already close to capacity and is expected to be swamped with potential supply options, placing obvious pressure on prices. Indonesia has recently repositioned its recovered paper import quality requirements, and countries like Korea are in the process of doing the same. One possibility under active consideration in some parts of the recovered paper sector is whether exports could be allowed into countries making recovered paper pulp that will ultimately be sent to China. That consideration alone is an indication that recovered paper pulping, for the international market, needs to be on the Australian infrastructure investment table right now. About IndustryEdge IndustryEdge is Australia and New Zealands dedicated provider of market intelligence, trade data and analysis in the paper, paper products, pulp and recovered paper sectors. For further information, visit: industryedge.com.au Forest2Market provides pricing data, supply chain expertise and strategic consulting services to participants in the global wood and fiber supply chain. The Forest2Market's unique databases contain more than 400 million rows of transaction data; they are the foundation for all analytics available in the firm's business intelligence platform, SilvaStat360, as well as client resource studies and consulting engagements. To learn more, visit www.forest2market.com . SOURCE: Forest2Market
Repetitive RA treatment improves the spermatogenesis of testis pieces transplanted into the testis interstitium of germ cell-depleted mouse. Credit: Springer Nature, licensed under cc by 4.0

One in fifty births in Japan are said to be through in vitro fertilization, and many couples remain unable to conceive for reasons unknown. Infertility is also an undesired side-effect of lifesaving cancer treatment in childhood.

Akihiro Tsuchimoto, Masaaki Tone and Seiji Takashima of Shinshu University transplanted testis tissue to observe its effectiveness as a treatment for male infertility. When just the sperm stem cells are transplanted, the germ cells of the recipient (individual who is being treated) needs to be depleted to ensure engraftment and growth of the transplanted stem cells. However, contrary to their expectation, depletion of recipient germ cells actually worsened sperm production in transplanted tissues. They set out to find out why.

The reason for the negative prognosis in testis tissue transplantation was due to the depletion of germ cells which contribute to retinoic acid (RA) synthesis in the testes. In this context, they succeed in ameliorate donor spermatogenesis by RA administration in recipients to produce healthy offspring via intracytoplasmic sperm injection, a typical method in assisted reproductive technology in humans.

Although RA can produce teratogenicity when administered to pregnant mothers, an adverse effect was not observed during this treatment, suggesting that testis tissue transplantation in combination with RA administration on demand is an effective method for preserving/recovering male fertility. The researchers continue their work to preserve and restore male fertility. Testicular tissue transplantation should be uncomplicated to put into application, so the researchers are hopeful. There are still parameters that need to be considered and investigated to be put to use in reproductive technology.

For more information please read, "Germ cell depletion in recipient testis has adverse effects on spermatogenesis in orthotopically transplanted testis pieces via retinoic acid insufficiency," published in Scientific Reports.

More information: Akihiro Tsuchimoto et al, Germ cell depletion in recipient testis has adverse effects on spermatogenesis in orthotopically transplanted testis pieces via retinoic acid insufficiency, Scientific Reports (2020). Journal information: Scientific Reports Akihiro Tsuchimoto et al, Germ cell depletion in recipient testis has adverse effects on spermatogenesis in orthotopically transplanted testis pieces via retinoic acid insufficiency,(2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-67595-1

Provided by Shinshu University
President Donald Trump traveled Wednesday to the new political battleground of Georgia to blast away at one of the nation's cornerstone conservation laws, vowing to speed construction projects by limiting legally mandated environmental reviews of highways, pipelines and power plants.

One day earlier, his Democratic presidential rival, Joe Biden, took a different tack, releasing a $2 trillion plan to confront climate change and overhaul the nation's infrastructure, claiming he will create millions of jobs by building a clean energy economy.

In that period, the major party candidates for the White House displayed in sharp relief just how far apart they are ideologically on infrastructure and environmental matters of vital importance to many American voters, particularly in critical battleground states, including Pennsylvania and Florida.

Biden is trying to win over young voters and supporters of his vanquished rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, by showing an aggressive awareness of climate change and promising to move urgently to combat it. At the same time he has sought to maintain his promised connection to white, working-class voters, especially in the Upper Midwest, who swung to Trump four years ago and are leery of what they see as threats to their livelihood, especially jobs in the oil and gas industry.

The president, in contrast, is pretty much where he has been for more than a decade: intermittently acknowledging global warming and calling it a hoax; making spurious accusations that windmills cause cancer, energy-efficient appliances are "worthless" and zero-emissions buildings "basically have no windows." At every turn and on every regulatory decision the administration embraces business over environmental interests.

"Biden wants to massively regulate the energy economy, rejoin the Paris climate accord, which would kill our energy totally; you would have to close 25 percent of your businesses and kill oil and gas development," Trump said Wednesday as he announced a "top to bottom overhaul" of the National Environmental Policy Act, a bedrock environmental law since its passage in 1969. He offered no evidence to back up his statistics.

"When I think about climate change, the word I think of is 'jobs,' good-paying union jobs that will put Americans to work, making the air cleaner for our kids to breathe, restoring our crumbling roads and bridges and ports," Biden said Tuesday as he outlined his plan.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

The events captured the two candidates' radically different beliefs about the global threat of the planet's warming and offered a glimpse of how they would lead a nation confronting a climate crisis over the next four years. For Trump, tackling global warming is a threat to the economy. For Biden, it's an opportunity.

The Trump administration's latest overhaul to the National Environmental Policy Act highlighted their differences still more.

The changes finalized Wednesday include a limit of two years to conduct exhaustive environmental reviews of infrastructure projects. They also revoked a requirement that agencies consider the cumulative environmental effects of projects, like their contribution to climate change.
The Kazakh authorities have extended the quarantine regime due to the coronavirus pandemic from July 20 to August 2, promising to pay financial assistance of 42,500 tenge ($100). World Health Organization experts will visit Kazakhstan to study the COVID-19 situation. Earlier, the Chinese Embassy had claimed unidentified disease spread in Kazakhstan with mortality rate higher than that of COVID-19. Read "Kazakhstan denies 'unknown pneumonia' outbreak". The republic's Ministry of Health reported that the cause of infection was "community-acquired pneumonia". The situation is aggravated by the shortage of drugs and ventilators.

The lockdown announced by the government in early July has been extended from July 20 to August 2. "In order to further stabilize the epidemiological situation, we have decided to extend restrictive measures in the republic for another two weeks," Prime Minister of the Republic Askar Mamin wrote on Facebook. On July 5, restrictions were introduced for 14 days. However, the number of people infected with coronavirus and "community-acquired pneumonia" has begun to rise sharply. Over the past day, 1,759 new cases were registered, according to the Kazakh Ministry of Health. The total number of COVID-19 infections in the republic exceeds 63.5 thousand, the number of recovered patients exceeds 38 thousand. The COVID-19 death toll in the country reached 396 people. These statistics do not include the deaths of people who tested positive for COVID-19. Other diseases were indicated as the cause of their death. There are more than 100 such people. Those who died from severe pneumonia are not included in the statistics. WHO Health Emergencies Programme head Michael Ryan believes that "most likely it was the same COVID-19."

WHO representatives are in no hurry to draw conclusions. A representative mission of an international organization will arrive in the republic to find out the reasons for the increase in pneumonia cases. This was announced by head of the WHO Country Office in Kazakhstan Caroline Clarinval. "Yes, the number of cases of pneumonia has increased since the beginning of June, and we have been instructed to look into the situation. The Ministry of Health is also doing this. These messages have attracted a lot of media attention, but we, before making conclusions, must collect data and analyse them," Clarinval said in an interview with the UN website.

In the meantime, catering and service industries are closed again in the republic, all transport services are stopped. People continue losing their jobs. The government will pay benefits to low-income Kazakhs in the amount of 42,500 tenge in July, President Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev wrote on Twitter.



At the end of June, Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population Birzhan Nurymbetov said that after Kazakh people were paid a social benefit of 42,500 tenge due to the state of emergency, the issue of the state social insurance fund's stability arose in Kazakhstan. Therefore, such payments to citizens are no longer planned.

On July 5, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population, refuting the information that Kazakhstan will pay 75 thousand tenge to citizens during the period of increased quarantine, said: "At present, restrictive measures are being strengthened. In this regard, there is no legal basis for making payments."



Social benefits in the amount of 42,500 tenge were paid to Kazakh people within two months in the spring - during the period of the state of emergency. It was appointed as the income of the population declined. According to the Ministry of Labor, it was received by 4.5 million citizens in the first month of the state of emergency. And by over 2 million citizens - during the second month.

At the last meeting of the government, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev acknowledged the sharp increase in Covid-19 cases and stressed: "We are now at war." The problem is aggravated by the fact that there is a shortage of drugs to treat coronavirus and pneumonia in the country. Supply monitoring launched by Kazakhstani volunteers shows that many pharmacies in the country have not received a number of coronavirus-related drugs for more than a month while they are being stored in warehouses. Tokayev called for an investigation and prosecution of all those responsible. Earlier, he fired head of the Social Insurance Fund Aybatyr Zhumagulov and chairperson of the 'SK-Pharmacy' company Berik Sharip.

However, a few days later, the situation with medicines in the country's pharmacies has changed little. There is also a shortage of drugs in overcrowded hospitals. The intensive care units do not have enough ventilators either.

Despite the difficulties, Kazakhstan decided to provide assistance to neighboring Tajikistan. Nur-Sultan will send a batch of ventilators to Dushanbe. This statement of the Ministry of Health of Kazakhstan has caused discontent among citizens, who literally scream about the shortage of ventilators in Kazakhstani hospitals.

Vice-Minister of Health Lyudmila Byurabekova said at a briefing on Wednesday that this would not affect the provision of automatic ventilating machines in Kazakhstani hospitals. "At present, all countries help each other, and other countries provide humanitarian assistance to our country. Indeed, the government of Kazakhstan is considering providing portable ventilators to Tajikistan by the end of the year. Portable ventilators are used to transport patients in ambulances. They are produced by a domestic manufacturer located in the Akmola region," Byurabekova said. According to her, Kazakhstan's need for such portable ventilators is 680 units. The manufacturer of these devices said it would be able to meet this need, as well as to provide humanitarian assistance.
Air India to send employees on LWP for six months or for a period of two years extendable upto five years

Air India to send certain employees on leave without pay for up to five years. (PTI Photo)

New Delhi: Air India has started the process of identifying employees, based on various factors like efficiency, health and redundancy, who will be sent on compulsory leave without pay (LWP) for up to five years, according to an official order.

The airline's board of directors have authorised its Chairman and Managing Director Rajiv Bansal to send employees on LWP "for six months or for a period of two years extendable upto five years, depending upon the following factors - suitability, efficiency, competence, quality of performance, health of the employee, instance of non-availability of the employee for duty in the past as a result of ill health or otherwise and redundancy", the order said on Tuesday.

The departmental heads in the headquarter as well as regional directors are required to assess each employee "on the above mentioned factors and identify the cases where option of compulsory LWP can be exercised", stated the order dated July 14.

"Names of such employees need to be forwarded to the General Manager (Personnel) in headquarter for obtaining necessary approval of CMD," the order added.

In response to queries regarding this matter, Air India spokesperson said,"We would not like to make any comment on the issue."

Aviation sector has been significantly impacted due to the travel restrictions imposed in India and other countries due to the coronavirus pandemic. All airlines in India have taken cost-cutting measures such as pay cuts, LWP and firings of employees in order to conserve cash flow.

For example, GoAir has put most of its employees on compulsory LWP since April.

India resumed domestic passenger flights from May 25 after a gap of two months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

However, the airlines have been allowed to operate only a maximum of 45 per cent of their pre-COVID domestic flights. Occupancy rate in Indian domestic flights has been around 50-60 per cent since May 25.

Scheduled international passenger flights continue to remain suspended in India since March 23.

The passenger demand for air travel will contract by 49 per cent in 2020 for Indian carriers in comparison to 2019 due to COVID-19 crisis, said global airlines body IATA on Monday.
Since protesters took to the streets a month ago in the wake of the death of a Minneapolis man who was pinned under the knee of a police officer for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the phrase defund the police has become a rallying cry of marchers, social activists and politicians.

Exactly how that should be accomplished and how far it should go, however, depends on the speaker.

For some defunding means diverting money from police departments to improve social support and mental health services in communities. For others it means removing some categories of emergency calls from police purview.

Still others call for shutting the whole policing system down, putting money into community services and assistance and rethinking community security.

[It means] divesting funds from a police force to be reallocated to other social programs that are better suited to handle situations like homelessness, mental health, domestic abuse, etc., one person on Twitter responded to a Daily Progress reporters query.

Reduce funding, responsibilities and military-style gear, responded another. Refocus that money to other social programs that help. Should help cops focus on protecting all people, not just responding to crisis calls.

Others said it means shutting the departments down altogether.

Reform doesnt work, one responder wrote. Reform serves those who are unaffected by the consequences of mass incarceration, school to prison pipeline, and police violence.

There is definitely a difference of opinion on this, said local attorney Jeff Fogel, a member of the Charlottesville-based Peoples Coalition on Criminal Justice. If I could live in a society without police, it would be my preference and we need to keep our eyes on that prize. For now, police are a necessary evil, but we want to restrict as much of that evil as possible.

Fogel has represented many social activists and sued the Albemarle County police and an officer for allegedly targeting Black drivers for traffic stops and car searches looking for drugs.

In June 2017, he was arrested by several Charlottesville officers at his home around 12:30 a.m. He was charged with misdemeanor assault after late night verbal dispute with Jason Kessler, the man who organized the August 2017 Unite the Right Rally attended by members of Nazi and white supremacist organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan.

Fogel was charged after gently pushing with an open palm one of Kesslers associates. He was found not guilty by a Charlottesville General District Court judge.

Fogel believes the community needs to shift more funding away from the police department and use it to provide housing, food, mental health and other social assistance in communities. The shift, he said, would help ease or eliminate social factors that lead to crime as well as provide mental health services to people in crisis that police are poorly equipped to handle.

It requires shifting of resources away from police and reducing their obligations, reducing their contact with the community in areas that law enforcement is not needed, Fogel said. The criminal justice system is designed to be punitive. It does nothing to help people reintegrate into society.

In recent moves, the Charlottesville School Board on June 11 voted to remove the city police officers who work in the schools, known as school resource officers. Protesters have pointed to similar programs across the country as leading to teenagers and children being arrested and entering the criminal justice system at an early age.

The boards goal is to have a new model in place before the 2020-21 academic year begins.

On June 18, Albemarle Countys school board voted to end its agreement with the county police department to have five officers in the schools during school hours. Like the citys board, the county board is working to determine what police presence, if any, will be in the schools this fall.

For city officials, the idea of shifting police funds to pay for social programs is one of dozens coming at them even as they balance budgets, work on community resources and deal with personnel issues.

It deserves a lot of attention and we need to have some meaningful dialogue, said City Councilor Heather Hill. Were going to have the conversations to determine what it means for Charlottesville. There is common ground to be found here with law enforcement.

That common ground involves police responding to persons with a mental health crisis, officials have indicated.

Charlottesville and Albemarle County police declined to comment on calls to defund agencies. However, officials with both departments have within the last month discussed police roles and responses in public schools and to persons experiencing a mental health crisis.

City councilors have posted on their social media pages their intent to investigate shifting some police funds to provide better mental health care, including emergency response teams, to decrease police response to individuals in crisis.

The conversation we are having locally and nationally is about the fact that our officers should not be responding to mental health emergencies, Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker said in a June 27 Facebook live chat with city residents. There is probably no one on council [or the police] chief who believes that is what the job is or that they can handle it well.

Councilor Lloyd Snook agreed.

The appearance of an armed officer can be triggering for people with mental health issues, he wrote in a Facebook post. It leads to the potential for criminalizing an encounter that shouldnt be a criminal justice issue. It puts the responsibility to figure things out in the hands of someone who might be fresh out of the police academy, but who likely has relatively little training in appropriate, mental health-sensitive responses.

The call for police reform is not new. In 1894, the Lexow Committee in New York City called for reform after investigating widespread corruption in the citys department, including regular beatings of civilians by officers wielding nightsticks.

In 1932, President Herbert Hoovers National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement brought to light police interrogation tactics involving the inflicting of pain, physical or mental, to extract confessions or statements. The committee noted that the process, dubbed the third degree was widespread throughout the country.

In 1961, a U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report called for reform and training after discovering violence by police across the country to enforce subordination or segregation, implement street justice and coerce confessions. The violence, the commission reported, was used with disproportionate frequency on Blacks.

In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnsons Presidents Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice found continued problems between minority communities and police and called for revising police practices and reform, including developing community-oriented policing programs.

In 1968, Johnsons Kerner Commission reviewed race riots that broke out in major cities across the county in 1964 and 1967, determining that poor policing practices, a flawed justice system, consumer credit practices, inadequate housing, high unemployment and culturally embedded forms of racial discrimination touched off the riots.

In 2015, President Barack Obamas Task Force on 21st Century Policing recommended a series of changes to police departments, including better use of social media and technology, clear policies on use of force, improved training and an emphasis on community policing.

Nationally, very few arrests made by police are for violent felonies. The FBI calculated that 4.8% of the 10.3 million arrests reported across the country in 2018, the last year for which figures were available, were for violent crimes.

The FBI estimated 16% of 2018 arrests were drug-related, 14.5% were alcohol related, including DUIs, and 31% were for a variety of misdemeanors excluding traffic-related offenses.

Exactly how a defunded police department would respond to the rare but attention-grabbing event such as an armed assailant in a public place or school has not been addressed in depth in current conversations across the country.

For some communities, its part of the study of how to develop a safer community.

In Minneapolis, Minnesota where the city council voted to dissolve the police department, a committee is reviewing how to create a community security network that includes those situations and other violent incidents to which a police department may be required to respond.

The committee is expected to make its first report later this month.

Most proponents of fully defunding police believe that violent incidents such as school shootings and domestic violence may be thwarted by community-based mental health and peer-based counseling efforts combined with programs to improve housing, eliminate hunger and provide medical care.

Althea Laughon-Worrell, a Charlottesville High School graduate and college student organizer who put together a recent Defund the Police march in Charlottesville, believes the community should handle as much of the police departments role as possible.

Community care is supporting each other rather than punishing each other. This means that instead of calling the police when someone is going through a mental health crisis we call a trained social worker to aid in their care. Instead of calling the police to talk down a violent offender you call someone who is trained to de-escalate the situation rather than respond with more violence, she said. Instead of allowing people to sleep on the streets we expand our housing system creating more emergency and long term housing options.

Laughon-Worrell said helping the poor, homeless and mentally ill will help reduce crime.

People who are desperate and have no other options are the ones who commit crimes. We have a system that is not serving our community in a helpful and constructive way, she said. The idea is that we create options and a community-based system of specialized support to eliminate the role of police in our society. We want to create a society that helps support the people who live in it and helps create lives that are not dependent on drugs or violence to survive.

Police presence could also be further reduced by training intervention specialists working in the community, Laughon-Worrell suggested.

When diverting funds to social services we want to see it used to fund trained specialists for specific services. The Guardian Angels were originally formed to protect their communities from violence and the police, she said. They served to de-escalate violent situations and negotiate conflict for communities.

How much of a police departments duties and funding can be shifted needs to studied, Fogel said.

We need to study carefully all of the functions of the police and decide whether they are essential or if they arent and decide how much money can be shifted, Fogel said. We need to discuss what is needed and to what the funding is going to be shifted.

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Activ Surgical, a Boston, MA-based digital surgery company, closed a $15m venture capital funding round.

The round was led by Artis Ventures, with participation from LRVHealth, and existing investors DNS Capital, GreatPoint Ventures (GPV), Tao Capital Partners and Rising Tide VC.

The company, which has raised a total of $32m to date, will use funds to accelerate U.S. commercialization and European expansion efforts for its ActivEdge platform.

Led by Todd Usen, CEO, Activ Surgical is building a hardware-agnostic platform to enable autonomous and collaborative surgery through the integration of computer vision, artificial intelligence and robotics. ActivEdge platform enables existing surgical systems, from scopes to robots, to visualize, characterize and track tissue, in real-time beyond todays human capability.

In conjunction with this fundraise, the Activ Surgical Board of Directors will expand to include Ameena El-Bibany from ARTIS Ventures and Will Cowen from LRVHealth. They will serve alongside current board members Emily Casey, DNS Capital; Ashok Krishnamurthi, Great Point Ventures; Paul Meister, Independent Board Member; Dr. Peter Kim, Activ Surgical; and Todd Usen, Activ Surgical.

FinSMEs

16/07/2020
Just how old is the universe? Astrophysicists have been debating this question for decades. In recent years, new scientific measurements have suggested the universe may be hundreds of millions of years younger than its previously estimated age of approximately 13.8 billions of years.

Now new research published in a series of papers by an international team of astrophysicists, including Neelima Sehgal, PhD, from Stony Brook University, suggest the universe is about 13.8 billion years old. By using observations from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) in Chile, their findings match the measurements of the Planck satellite data of the same ancient light.

The ACT research team is an international collaboration of scientists from 41 institutions in seven countries. The Stony Brook team from the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences, led by Professor Sehgal, plays an essential role in analyzing the cosmic microwave background (CMB) -- the afterglow light from the Big Bang.

"In Stony Brook-led work we are restoring the 'baby photo' of the universe to its original condition, eliminating the wear and tear of time and space that distorted the image," explains Professor Sehgal, a co-author on the papers. "Only by seeing this sharper baby photo or image of the universe, can we more fully understand how our universe was born."

Obtaining the best image of the infant universe, explains Professor Sehgal, helps scientists better understand the origins of the universe, how we got to where we are on Earth, the galaxies, where we are going, how the universe may end, and when that ending may occur.

The ACT team estimates the age of the universe by measuring its oldest light. Other scientific groups take measurements of galaxies to make universe age estimates.

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The new ACT estimate on the age of the universe matches the one provided by the standard model of the universe and measurements of the same light made by the Planck satellite. This adds a fresh twist to an ongoing debate in the astrophysics community, says Simone Aiola, first author of one of the new papers on the findings posted to arXiv.org.

"Now we've come up with an answer where Planck and ACT agree," says Aiola, a researcher at the Flatiron Institute's Center for Computational Astrophysics in New York City. "It speaks to the fact that these difficult measurements are reliable."

In 2019, a research team measuring the movements of galaxies calculated that the universe is hundreds of millions of years younger than the Planck team predicted. That discrepancy suggested that a new model for the universe might be needed and sparked concerns that one of the sets of measurements might be incorrect.

The age of the universe also reveals how fast the cosmos is expanding, a number quantified by the Hubble constant. The ACT measurements suggest a Hubble constant of 67.6 kilometers per second per megaparsec. That means an object 1 megaparsec (around 3.26 million light-years) from Earth is moving away from us at 67.6 kilometers per second due to the expansion of the universe. This result agrees almost exactly with the previous estimate of 67.4 kilometers per second per megaparsec by the Planck satellite team, but it's slower than the 74 kilometers per second per megaparsec inferred from the measurements of galaxies.

"I didn't have a particular preference for any specific value -- it was going to be interesting one way or another," says Steve Choi of Cornell University, first author of another paper posted to arXiv.org. "We find an expansion rate that is right on the estimate by the Planck satellite team. This gives us more confidence in measurements of the universe's oldest light."

As ACT continues making observations, astronomers will have an even clearer picture of the CMB and a more exact idea of how long ago the cosmos began. The ACT team will also scour those observations for signs of physics that doesn't fit the standard cosmological model. Such strange physics could resolve the disagreement between the predictions of the age and expansion rate of the universe arising from the measurements of the CMB and the motions of galaxies.

The ACT research is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the NSF also funds the work of Professor Sehgal and colleagues at Stony Brook.

Editor's Note: The papers from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope researchers are available online at: https://act.princeton.edu/publications
The recovery will inevitably slow down during the second half of the year now that the initial boost from reopening has passed, he said in a note to clients. But  we think GDP will return to its pre-virus trend by the end of the year, faster than in any other major economy.
Fresh off posting a record quarterly profit, Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman said Thursday his bank should be able to boost its dividend and resume stock buybacks next year.

The bank is "already sitting on $6 billion to $10 billion of excess capital," a figure that will swell to $10 billion to $15 billion by year-end, Gorman said in a CNBC interview.

"Yeah, we need to do something with it," Gorman said, citing investments in technology and growth in his retail and institutional businesses. "We also should increase our dividend and we should be back on the buyback trail. Not just yet, let's get through the new stress test in September, let's see how the economy performs in the next three to six months."

"But in 2021, Morgan Stanley should do something with this capital for the benefit of our shareholders and our clients," he added.

Morgan Stanley shares perked up after Gorman's comments, rising 3.1% in early trading.

Of course, the Federal Reserve ultimately dictates whether institutions can raise dividends and resume buybacks. The industry halted repurchases in March at the onset of the pandemic, and the Fed capped dividends for most institutions, adopting a new formula for the payouts. Morgan Stanley pays a 35 cent quarterly dividend.

The bank benefited from one of Wall Street's best trading quarters in years. Surging volatility and the Federal Reserve's unprecedented actions to prop up credit markets boosted bond trading, and corporations seeking to build cash to survive the pandemic sparked a frenzy in debt issuance.

Morgan Stanley on Thursday posted second-quarter results that blew past analysts' estimates, generating record profit of $3.2 billion, or $1.96 a share including an 8 cent per share expense tied to taxes, exceeding the $1.12 estimate. Revenue climbed roughly 30% to a record $13.4 billion, a surprise increase that exceeded expectations by a full $3 billion.

Helping Morgan Stanley right now is a limited presence in retail banking, where anticipated losses on credit cards and other loans have forced rivals to set aside billions of dollars.

"We didn't have the credit losses that would typically come in this type of economic scenario," Gorman told CNBC.
China will roll out new measures to catalyze entrepreneurship and innovation with special focus on employment of and business start-up by college graduates and other key populations, the State Council's executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang decided Wednesday.

The nationwide initiative spurring entrepreneurship and innovation is a crucial underpinning for sustaining and expanding employment, and nurturing new drivers of growth. Premier Li Keqiang highlighted the need to further take forward the entrepreneurship and innovation initiative, and catalyze its role in promoting employment, especially for college graduates.

The meeting underlined the imperative to make all-round efforts to maintain stability on the six fronts and security in the six areas.

Given the shocks caused by COVID-19 and shifting environment for development, the meeting urged keeping to the strategy of innovation-driven development, and spurring society-wide entrepreneurial activities and innovation, to unleash market vitality and people's creativity.

New drivers of growth will be fully harnessed to support jobs and market entities, with a particular focus on the employment of college graduates, rural migrant workers who have returned to their hometowns and other key populations.

"Stimulating entrepreneurship and innovation is highly important for providing employment for key groups of people and increasing their income. Competent departments should work out greater support for the employment of college graduates and rural migrant workers," Li said.

A series of concrete measures were adopted at the meeting. Support for entrepreneurs and innovators will be scaled up. Special funds will be earmarked from central budgetary investment for the development of the entrepreneurship and innovation demonstration centers.

Idle factory buildings and under-used land will be brought into full play as part of greater support for key entrepreneurial and innovation projects.

Government-invested incubators will provide a portion of their venues free of charge to college graduates and rural migrant workers.

One-off subsidies may be granted to first-time entrepreneurs returning or moving to the countryside, who have kept their business start-ups in regular operation no less than a year.

Demonstration programs for boosting employment by entrepreneurial activities will be carried out. Enterprises, entrepreneurship and innovation demonstration centers, and online platforms will be encouraged to jointly provide training on entrepreneurial skills in nursing, elderly care, domestic services, tourism and e-commerce to help shape the expectation of job-seekers and broaden their prospects for employment.

"We need to provide proper guidance for college graduates in their expectations for jobs, and encourage them to start their own businesses," Li said.

The entrepreneurship and innovation demonstration centers will be encouraged to build platforms for integrated cross-regional development involving companies of different sizes. And platforms providing specialized services will be built for the commercialization of scientific and technological research outcomes.

Financial institutions will be encouraged to provide insurance services for the financial leasing of equipment and entrepreneurial activities.

Restrictions on sectors where insurance funds may be used for financial equity investment will be lifted, and the quota transfer of equity investment and venture capital investment will be piloted in regional equity markets.

The meeting urged stepping up basic research in mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology, and encouraging teenagers to learn and explore basic theories.

"University students need to be further encouraged to study and research basic theories, to underpin the country's ability to innovate. Without a solid ground in basic research, it is impossible to make significant progress," Li stressed.
Tory rebels have vowed to fight government plans for a Chinese-designed nuclear power station.

Fresh from their victory in seeing Huawei banned from Britains 5G mobile network, senior backbenchers say their next target will be to halt Beijings growing involvement in the UKs nuclear industry.

The flashpoint will be a new power plant in Bradwell, Essex, which under current plans is to be designed by China General Nuclear Power Corporation, a company linked to the Beijing government.

The Bradwell power plant design is pictured above. Fresh from their victory in seeing Huawei banned from Britains 5G mobile network, senior backbenchers say their next target will be to halt Beijings growing involvement in the UKs nuclear industry

It comes just days after Boris Johnson was forced into a humiliating U-turn and announced the Government would block Chinese telecoms giant Huaweis involvement in the development of Britains 5G mobile systems.

Beijing has vowed retaliation for the move, which comes after years in which relations between the UK and China have become much closer.

The U-turn was pushed upon the Prime Minister by growing opposition on the Tory benches in the Commons, led by Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the foreign affairs select committee.

He set up the China Research Group, a group of about 50 Tory MPs who raised concerns over Huawei.

Mr Tugendhat told Bloomberg that the MPs were now turning their fire on plans to build Chinese nuclear power stations in the UK.

The U-turn was pushed upon the Prime Minister by growing opposition on the Tory benches in the Commons, led by Tom Tugendhat, above, chairman of the foreign affairs select committee

Critics are concerned about Bradwell because it has a design which is different from the Chinese-funded nuclear plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset.

This is built to a design by French energy firm EDF, although CGN is a major investor.

Mr Tugendhat said: The Bradwell power station raises many concerns. Economically it makes little sense to run two different designs, and with growing concern over Chinese control of critical national infrastructure, its hard to imagine it would get through Parliament.

Conservative MP Damian Green, a former Cabinet minister and a member of the CRG, said: We are winning the argument at the moment because China is making the case as eloquently as it could be that it is not to be trusted.

Its bad diplomacy to think this wolf-warrior tough talk is going to work against Britain. It just doesnt.

One minister told Bloomberg: The CRG is genuinely influential in that it gives a sense of where the mainstream middle of the Conservative Party is. Ambitious people have been persuaded this is not a group of head-bangers.

Among the CRGs members are aides to several Cabinet ministers, including Alicia Kearns, who works for Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden.

Another critic of China is former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who has set up the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, which includes US senators Marco Rubio, a Republican, and Bob Menendez, a Democrat, alongside representatives from other countries including Australia, Japan and Canada.

Sir Iain said his aim was to have politicians from both sides of the aisle in every country, who will act in concert over areas of concern such as the treatment of Uighur Muslims and co-ordinate international condemnation and demands for sanctions against Hong Kongs chief executive, Carrie Lam.
In-depth Analysis and Data-driven Insights on the Impact of COVID-19 Included in this Global medical central vacuum system Market Report. The medical central vacuum system market share is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 16% during the period 20192025.

New York, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Medical Central Vacuum System Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2020-2025" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05932563/?utm_source=GNW





The global medical central vacuum system market revenue will grow by 2.5X during the forecast period. The market is expected to witness a rise in non-conventional cleaning equipment such as centralized vacuum systems in several end-user segments on account of the growing awareness of hygiene, clean indoor air, and green cleaning practices. Central vacuum systems are becoming an ideal choice for residential as well as non-residential segments where they are installed at a designated location. An increase in awareness toward the need for enhanced safety requirements and health hazards at workplaces in the healthcare sector is driving the demand for medical central vacuum systems.



The surge in COVID-19 impact worldwide is increasing the demand for new hospitals. For instance, several governments are developing makeshift hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients. Due to the demand for isolation wards, several major and other prominent vendors are strengthening their market presence to meet the increasing demand for medical vacuums. Hence, the outbreak of pandemic has provided a stimulus to medical central vacuum systems.



The following factors are likely to contribute to the growth of the medical central vacuum system market during the forecast period:



 Increase in General Cleaning and Non-medical Potential

 Enhancements in Functionalities of Vacuum Systems

 Construction of new Hospitals



The study considers the present scenario of the medical central vacuum system market and its market dynamics for the period 2019?2025. It covers a detailed overview of several market growth enablers, restraints, and trends. The study offers both the demand and supply aspect of the market. It profiles and examines leading companies and other prominent ones operating in the market.



Medical Central Vacuum System Market Segmentation

The global medical central vacuum system market research report includes a detailed segmentation by end-user, application, technology, and geography. The coronavirus pandemic has led to unexpected growth in demand for medical central vacuum systems. The hospital and pharma segments have witnessed unprecedented growth due to the Covid-19 outbreak. The pandemic has laid the foundation of several specialty hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes. The requisite of clean medicine production, avoidance of cross-contamination, and safe elimination of hazardous chemicals, pathogens, and a hygienic environment in operation theaters are driving the demand for central vacuum systems.



Multifunctional medical central vacuum systems have witnessed an impetus in 2020 due to the rising demand from rapidly build hospitals for COVID-19 patients and hospitals, which have retrofitted as designated COVID-19 hospitals. The demand for effective multifunctional systems is growing as they remove bodily secretions and maintain clean and pure indoor air. The demand for medical central vacuum systems for dedicated gas scavenging applications is likely to be highest from two end-user segments - hospitals and pharmaceutical companies.



Rotary vane pumps are available in two types  oil-less and oil-sealed. Oil sealed rotary vane pumps are durable, long-lasting pumps with high application in hospital and laboratory end-users. The use of oil in the pump increases efficiencies, lowers operating temperatures and decreases sound levels. Therefore, the segment is witnessing high adoption in several end-user applications. Central vacuum systems with oil-sealed rotary vane pumps are capable of achieving the highest level of vacuum and suction. As these systems are relatively low cost than other central vacuum system technology types, they are finding higher adoption in general cleaning applications with hospitals being their key end-users.



The demand for oil-sealed rotary vane technology is expected to gain traction in India, Taiwan, Indonesia, Mexico, Argentina, and Sri Lanka. Dry claw pumps are the most technologically advanced innovation and are gaining traction in medical and laboratory applications. Central vacuum systems with claw pump technology have lower ultimate vacuum levels than oil-sealed rotary vane pumps, and this makes them ideal for use in dedicated waste anesthesia gas disposal systems.



Segmentation by Technology

 Rotary Vane

 Clamp Pump

Segmentation by Application

 Multifunction

 Gas Scavenging

 General Cleaning

Segmentation by End-user

 Hospitals

 Pharmaceuticals

 Clinics and Nursing Homes

 Others



INSIGHTS BY GEOGRAPHY

The healthcare segment in Europe is expected to emerge immune from political uncertainties post the Brexit negotiations and the corona pandemic. The economic growth in the region could result in low demand for cleaning services and non-conventional cleaning equipment during the forecast period. Vendors of medical central vacuum systems have been able to meet new orders in Q1 2020, despite lockdown in several countries. However, these events are expected to have an impact on the overall global economy by affecting manufacturing on a global scale, and it will also affect the production and supply chain for medical central vacuum systems, which can eventually decline production capabilities in Q3 2020.



Germany is the largest market in Europe due to the presence of over 1,942 hospitals, 1,142 habilitation nursing homes, 19,478 pharmacies, and extensive cleaning industry in the country. Healthcare institutions and pharmaceutical industries in Germany are increasingly adopting eco-friendly or green cleaning technology to reduce the risk of environmental pollution. Smart cleaning technology, such as a centralized collection for medical waste, will continue its growth in the region.



Segmentation by Geography

 North America

o US

o Canada

 Europe

o UK

o Germany

o France

o Italy

o Spain

 APAC

o China

o Japan

o India

o South Korea

o Australia

 Latin America

o Brazil

o Argentina

o Mexico

 Middle East & Africa

o Turkey

o Saudi Arabia

o UAE



INSIGHTS BY VENDORS

The global medical central vacuum system market is highly competitive with the presence of several vendors offering a plethora of equipment that can act as a substitute for medical central vacuum systems, especially in non-dedicated applications. Another key factor increasing the competition is the presence of smaller-than-potential addressable market as many medical facilities across geographies restrict the use of medical central vacuum systems to operation theaters and centralized gas scavenging systems; whereas, application segments such as general cleaning are still addressed by manual cleaning or using standalone vacuum cleaners. The major players in the market are Busch LLC and Tri-Tech Medical Inc.



Prominent Vendors

 Busch LLC

 Tri-Tech Medical



Other Prominent Vendors

 Atlas Copco

 Cardiovascular Systems

 Toshniwal

 Lindsay Manufacturing

 Medikar

 Medicare Gas Pipeline Services

 VAC-U-MAX

 Nilfisk

 Labconco

 Dustcontrol

 AutoVac

 Becker

 Drainvac

 Dint-Tech Control

 MILS

 Republic Manufacturing

 BGS GENERAL SRL

 NOVAIR MEDICAL

 Megasan Medikal

 MIM Medical

 Millennium Medical Products

 Powerex

 Allaway

 Drager

 Dynapumps

 Silbermann



KEY QUESTIONS ANSWERED:

1. What is the market size of the global medical central vacuum system market analysis?

2. What are the factors impacting the growth of the medical central vacuum system market forecast?

3. What is the growth of Europe Medical central vacuum system market during the forecast period?

4. How will the hospital segment growth be likely in the medical central vacuum systems market during the forecast period?

5. What is the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the market?

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05932563/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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Mamata Banerjee's TMC gives yet another jolt to Congress in Meghalaya; 11 members switch sides

50-year-old grandmother clears 12th board exam in Meghalaya

India

oi-Briti Roy Barman

New Delhi, July 16: It is being said that attitude is what matters while to achieve success. Meghalaya's 50-year-old woman has proved that yet again by clearing state board's 12th HSSLC exams at this age.

Lakyntiew Syiemlieh, the mother of four children and grandmother of two, has passed her class 12 exams on Monday.

Syiemlieh had dropped out from the Laitumkhrah Presbyterian School in Shillong in 1988, according to the report of The Print.

CBSE 10th Result 2020 released by the Board

She got married in 1991.

The resident of Umsning Syiemlieh of Meghalaya, this single working mother never gave up on education.

She enrolled as a student of Class X at a night school, the NIOS Umsning and successfully cleared her exams.

"I stopped going to school because mathematics was too difficult for me to understand. I was offered a job to teach pre-schoolers in 2008 and that was the beginning of my love for re-learning", Lakyntiew told PTI.

According to the report, she was applauded by the state education minister Lahkmen Rymbui for not allowing her age to act as a deterrent.

Bihar bridge collapse: Rs 263 crores washed away in 29 days, who is responsible? | Oneindia News

After she had cleared her XI examination from the Balawan College as a non-regular student, she decided to don the uniform and sit for the board exams from St Michael Higher Secondary School.

Now the lady has no intention to stop and said she would pursue her Bachelors and would take up Khasi as a major subject.
YEREVAN, JULY 16, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijans military is threatening Armenia with international nuclear crime - to deliver missile strikes at the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant.

The Armenian side should not forget that the latest missile systems, which are in the arsenal of the Azerbaijani army, can hit the Metsamor NPP with a great accuracy, which will lead to a great disaster for Armenia, the Azerbaijani defense ministry spokesperson told reporters at a press conference.

During the current tense situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border launched since July 12, Armenia has never announced hitting the civilian infrastructures, including that Mingachevir water reservoir. Moreover, the Armenian side has never targeted the civilian objects.

Its not the first time Azerbaijan is making such a terroristic statement. In 2018 Azerbaijans defense ministry has made such a threatening statement, noting that the Azerbaijani arsenal has the latest weapons of destructive power which can eliminate all important Armenian military objects and strategic communication lines in a short period of time.

In 1987 the Geneva Conference on Terrorism adopted The Geneva Declaration on Terrorism, which recorded that state terrorism manifests itself in the armed attack by the military forces of a state on targets that put at risk the civilian population residing in another state.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement summarising German regulations applying to residents of the Grand Duchy.

Minister Asselborn released a statement regarding the recent restrictions issued by the German state, which could affect travel plans of Luxembourgish citizens in the near future. Germany declared Luxembourg an at-risk area on 14 July. Germany has not yet reintroduced any form of border controls or lockdowns. None of the country's provincial states prohibits Luxembourgish citizens from entering. Quarantine measures implemented by Germany for travellers from at-risk countries do not prevent anybody from entering the country. Large parts of the population are exempt from quarantine measures altogether. Every state has different regulations, but it is to be noted that cross-border workers from Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland do not have to undergo quarantine. Other reasons for travelling, such as family visits, medical appointments, or university meetings will also be considered pertinent. Every state allows travelling through the area. It is important to note that travellers with a medical note conforming a negative molecular biological corona test (no older than 48 hours prior to travelling) will not have to undergo quarantine measures. The medical note needs to be in German or English and be kept for 14 days. German residents travelling to the Grand Duchy will also have to undergo certain measures, depending on their respective home states. Travellers from Rhineland-Palatinate can stay in Luxembourg for up to 72 hours without having to quarantine after. Saarland is currently considering the same measure. People travelling from Baden-Wurttemberg, Bavaria, Hamburg, and Schleswig-Holstein can only stay 48 hours. At this moment, we have to expect that more changes will follow in the not too distant future. Before travelling to Germany, citizens are advised to check in with the respective states' websites. Links Luxembourg residents traveling to Germany must have "valid reason" or self-isolate for 14 days
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16

By Leman Zeynalova - Trend

Russia is doing its best to put an end to the bloodshed on Azerbaijan-Armenia border, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said in an open interview to the First Deputy Director General of TASS News Agency Mikhail Gusman, Trend reports on July 16.

"Well do our utmost and show all our best qualities of both Russian and public diplomacy so that not only the current border conflict, but also the relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan as a whole would improve. Indeed, this problem is very complicated and, unfortunately, in recent days, each of us sees a sharp aggravation in relations between the two countries, i.e. Armenia and Azerbaijan, he said.

I would like to clarify what now is and was happening in recent days, these are events directly on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, on the state border, recognized by both the countries and, accordingly, the international community. We are very concerned about what is happening," the deputy FM noted.

Rudenko reminded issuing a statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry, in which Russia called on the parties to immediately ceasefire and start negotiations in order to prevent a recurrence of these incidents.

"Unfortunately, the confrontation at the border is ongoing. This night there was another outbreak, clashes. Russia makes every possible effort both in contacts with the foreign ministers and with the chiefs of general staffs of both countries in order to put an end to the bloodshed, he said. There are casualties on both sides, and we express our deepest condolences to the families of the victims and hope that the persons who were wounded or suffered in these clashes will soon recover. Nevertheless, the danger of the situation is that it may affect security throughout the region.

The deputy minister noted that the region is indeed very explosive.

"There are no diplomatic relations, no relations whatsoever between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The situation around Nagorno-Karabakh remains unresolved. In this connection, the role of mediators and co-chairs of the Minsk Group naturally increases. Intensive contacts are being held between them, involving, naturally, the Armenian and the Azerbaijani sides. We hope that their efforts will lead to concrete results. The main thing now is to stop the bloodshed on the border and to be more actively involved in the settlement of basic things, to intensify the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group. I am sure that they be involved in this.

Plans have already been outlined to advance this process. Nevertheless, now the primary task of the entire international community is to quickly stop what has been happening in the last two days. In this regard, the balanced position of those states that are members of the Minsk Group is very important," he concluded.
Fahim Saleh in Lagos, Nigeria, in May 2019.

Temilade Adelaja/Reuters

The family of a tech CEO whose body was found dismembered in his New York City condo has described the killer's actions as "nothing short of evil."

Fahim Saleh's body was discovered by his sister, with law-enforcement sources telling multiple news outlets that the killer seemed to have been interrupted while trying to clean up the scene.

"No words or actions to provide any of us comfort except the capture of the person who exhibited nothing short of evil upon our loved one," the family said, according to The Daily Beast.

Autopsy results reported by The Daily Beast indicate that Saleh was stabbed to death and that the killer most likely waited for his blood to coagulate before dismembering his body.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The family of a young tech CEO who was brutally murdered in New York City has described the killer's actions as "nothing short of evil."

The torso of Fahim Saleh, 33, was found Tuesday in his condominium in Manhattan's Lower East Side with his head and limbs removed, the New York City Police Department previously told Business Insider.

Saleh had a venture-capital firm and was the founder and CEO of Gokada, a motorcycle-hailing company in Nigeria, as well as the found of Pathao, a ride-sharing company popular in Bangladesh and Nepal.

A family statement reported by The Daily Beast said: "No words or actions to provide any of us comfort except the capture of the person who exhibited nothing short of evil upon our loved one.

"We need and urge the NYPD and other members of law enforcement to work diligently to get to the bottom of this horrific crime and bring justice for Fahim."

An electric saw was found next to his body, and an unnamed law-enforcement source told the New York Post that the crime scene looked like that of a "professional" killing.

Saleh's family said "the headlines talk about a crime we still cannot fathom."

Story continues

"Fahim is more than what you are reading," they said in the statement quoted by The Daily Beast. "He is so much more. His brilliant and innovative mind took everyone who was a part of his world on a journey and he made sure never to leave anyone behind."

Saleh was born in Saudi Arabia to Bangladeshi parents, the Daily Mail reported.

Detectives told The Daily Beast that a man wearing all black, including a mask and a hood, was recorded following Saleh into the elevator in his apartment building on Monday.

They said that Saleh appeared uneasy and that the two exchanged words, but there was no audio.

The man appeared to struggle to work the elevator because it had no buttons and Saleh had used a fob, the detectives said.

Surveillance footage then shows Saleh leaving the elevator, where the man came up behind him and raised his right hand, and Saleh then fell to the floor.

Detectives say the man may have used a Taser.

The description is similar to one that law-enforcement sources gave to the New York Post.

The Post reported that surveillance footage from Monday showed a man carrying a bag entering and riding the apartment building's elevator with Saleh, with Saleh then getting out.

The New York City condominium building where Saleh's body was found.

Google Streetview

The sources said the man then attacked Saleh just as he was entering his apartment.

According to The Daily Beast, an autopsy found that Saleh was repeatedly stabbed and died before his body was dismembered.

The killer seemed to have waited the night before doing so, so the blood would have coagulated, the outlet reported.

Law-enforcement officials told The New York Times that it looked as if the killer had attempted to clean up the scene to remove evidence.

The Daily Beast also reported that investigators believe the killer was interrupted by someone  possibly a relative  while trying to remove the body.

Saleh's body was found by his sister Tuesday afternoon.

Detectives suspect the killing may be because of a financial dispute, The Daily Beast reported.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Communication team, Dela Edem has urged President Akufo-Addo and members of the NPP to put aside shame and close down Senior High Schools since their motive of registering eligible students for sympathy votes have been achieved.



He said the best decision for government to save children in schools now is to do mass testing and isolate those who test positive and allow those who test negative to go back home and join their families.



"We will blame President Akufo-Addo should any student suffer death or any health problem through COVID-19. How can students learn in fear?" he said.



Dela Edem on UTV's 'Adekye Nsroma' political discussion show outlined lots of measures the government have embarked on that he believes have worsened and increased the national COVID-19 cases.



He heavily lamented on the science and data which according to President Akufo-Addo engineered the lifting of the 3-week partial lockdown in the Greater Accra, Kumasi and Kasoa areas.



Listen to him in the video below





Source: Elizabeth Semiheva Bedi, peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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ROCHESTER, NY  Almost 17 months ago, Charles Milks and John Boedicker, while heavily intoxicated, tried to steal one of Rochester's statues of historic abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

The two were not hard to catch. Then students at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY, they carried the downtown statue away after knocking it from its pedestal at the intersection of Tracy and Alexander streets in the city.

When Milks, now 22, earlier this month heard that another of Rochester's Douglass statues had been vandalized and needed to be replaced, he knew what to do: He offered to help erect the new statue when the time came.

"For me personally, it was shocking to hear, especially on that date," Milks said of the latest vandalism. The statue at Maplewood Park was removed from its base, and left upright against a fence about 50 feet away.

The destruction was discovered on July 5, the same date that Douglass delivered one of his most acclaimed and historically resonant speeches, remembered as the "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July" speech.

When the Douglass statue is replaced at Maplewood Park, Milks and Boedicker will be there. It is likely the two will know as much about the life of Frederick Douglass, and the depths of his ties to Rochester, as will many of those there.

Watch: British slave trader statue replaced by sculpture of Black Lives Matter protester

Watch: Christopher Columbus statue thrown into Baltimore Harbor on Fourth of July

After being arrested in December 2018 and charged with criminal mischief, the two agreed to take part in a "restorative justice" program. The program was crafted for the two by the Center for Dispute Settlement and the Re-energizing the Legacy of Frederick Douglass Committee, which was responsible for the Douglass statues across Rochester as part of the 200th anniversary of his birth.

The statue of Frederick Douglass was found vandalized in Maplewood Park in Rochester, NY over the July 4 weekend. Rochester police found the statue leaning against a nearby fence. All that remains on Monday, July 6 2020 is the base with the outline of the feet of the statue. This site also includes Kelsey's Landing, a part of the Underground Railroad, where Douglass, Harriet Tubman and others helped slaves get to freedom via the Genesee River located below adjacent gorge.

Through that program, Milks said, he and Boedicker came to learn of the historical importance of Douglass to the abolitionist movement, and, in particular, how his years in Rochester cemented indelible ties between Douglass and the city. They visited the statues throughout the city, learning at many of the sites why they were historical touchstone locations.

Story continues

The restorative justice program "seemed like the best way for us to atone for our mistakes and move forward," Milks said in a telephone interview.

But, for Milks and Boedicker, the post-crime lessons became more than a way to clear the books of their offenses. Instead, they embraced the legacy of Douglass, whose words now seem especially vital as the country gradually opens more and more to discussions of racism and the lasting scars of slavery.

"Over time, it became obvious that this was going to stick with us," Boedicker said in a telephone interview.

In particular, Milks said, he and his then-classmate were moved by the passion of the committee members who wanted to ensure Rochester strengthened its connections with Douglass.

"It was a lot of talk about our actions and what we planned to do moving forward," Milks said.

Difficult conversations

Carvin Eison, who heads the local Frederick Douglass historical committee, said he at first had qualms about meeting with the two college students in a restorative justice approach. For one, a witness claimed they had made racist remarks while uprooting the statue.

"They said they were drunk, they had been drinking for hours and they just made a stupid mistake," Eison said of Milks and Boedicker. "Others said they heard racial slurs. It was complicated."

Eison said he reviewed the social media accounts of Milks and Boedicker and did not find evidence of racism or political or other allegiance with groups espousing racist ideology.

Milks said those allegations of racism, which he said were untrue, made the first meetings especially tough.

"The racial slur or epithet never happened," Milks said. "That was one of the first things we talked about with the committee. ... Once we spoke with them and got everything hashed out there, we wanted to take responsibility for the destruction."

Also, Eison said, he and others questioned whether young Black or Hispanic offenders would have had the same opportunity through the criminal justice system. The statue was undervalued, making the crime a misdemeanor instead of a felony, he said.

"Right from the get-go, they were given a lesser charge, from our perspective," Eison said.

Eison said he met with District Attorney Sandra Doorley, and they were able to resolve that hurdle with a pledge that prosecutors would try to route defendants of color with similar crimes into restorative justice programs.

July 5: Frederick Douglass statue in New York vandalized on anniversary weekend of 'What to the Slave is the Fourth of July' speech

Douglass' wife: Frederick Douglass escaped slavery and became a famed abolitionist; his first wife made that possible

Sculptor Olivia Kim, who worked with a team to create the statues, said she met with the two young men as part of their amends. The meeting, she said, was "an intense and important experience."

"By talking to each other face to face, we were taking the time to understand what happened and to start to know each other as real people, unmitigated by secondary media," Kim said. "By reserving judgement, we were able to start the processing of something very difficult. I believe we all rose higher that day."

Milks and Boedicker also spoke with Kenneth Morris Jr., the great-great-great grandson of Douglass, who has been a vital player in the re-emergence of the Douglass legacy.

Frederick Douglass statue at Maplewood Park before vandalism

The latest vandalism

After the recent vandalism, both Milks and Boedicker reached out via email to local filmmaker Christine Christopher, who was a project manager with the Douglass birth bicentennial events in Rochester.

"It is truly aggravating for me and saddens my heart, especially in times like this where it looks like positive change is right around the corner given the progress of BLM (Black Lives Matter) across the world," wrote Boedicker. "I am still living in Rochester and with that, please let me know if there is anything I can do to help out. Seriously anything at all, let me know and I will take off work (and) do whatever to be there."

Milks, who lives in Buffalo and is now a University of Buffalo student, wrote, "Going through that (restorative justice) process once was difficult but there are no words for you guys to have to go through it again. I want to be an ally for you guys during this time and want to help in any way possible."

In the telephone interview, Milks said his first thoughts after learning of the recent vandalism was of the Douglass committee members. "I flashed back to all the pain they experienced" after his and Boedicker's crimes, he said. "It was hard for me because I know how much this meant to them."

Boedicker said he also ached to hear of the vandalism. He said he did not ask to be part of the team that will help erect a new statue, but was honored to be asked.

"When they offered for us to be a part of it, I agreed right there," he said. The return of the statue, whenever it happens, "is some reassuring news to hear for once in a time when there is so much going on."

The July 5 vandalism became a national story, a part of the current heated discussions over statues of Confederate soldiers and slave owners, some of the latter including Founding Fathers long venerated  with their enslavement of others sometimes sanitized or ignored  in our history books. President Trump Tweeted about the Rochester vandalism, claiming that "anarchists" were the culprits.

Police, meanwhile, apparently have no evidence that anarchists, Antifa, white supremacists, or drunken college students were the offenders. They as of yet have no suspects that they have identified.

While Twitter-fueled theories may abound about the vandalism, they often are, like so much social media discussion and vitriol, empty of the true historical significance of Frederick Douglass. That is where, Eison said, he wants the conversations to be, especially at a time of national reckoning with racism.

"It was significant what happened to them and for both of them to volunteer to address what they did and the rupture they created shows a lot of character on their part," he said of Milks and Boedicker. "What they're doing is complicated, and we're glad that they're doing it.

"While they are going to get credit for recognizing the wrong they committed, I hope that it's not going to overshadow what the issues really are."

Milks agrees, and said there is a message for what he and Boedicker learned.

"How can we be positive moving forward?" Milks said. "How can we educate ourselves as white Americans on the history that sometimes gets washed out?"

According to Eison, Frederick Douglass is still helping us answer those questions, just as he did with Milks and Boedicker. And the response to the recent vandalism  Eison has heard from from people across the nation wanting to help  shows that "as always when Douglass was on this earth, many choose the right path," Eison said.

"The Frederick Douglass statues have served to centralize this community," he said.

Follow Gary Craig on Twitter: @gcraig1.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Frederick Douglass: 2 who vandalized NY statue to help install new one
Bacteria of the genus Bartonella are parasites that can be transmitted to humans via insect bites and animal scratches, resulting in an infection known as "bartonellosis." Cat-scratch disease and trench fever are forms of bartonellosis caused by different Bartonella species infecting humans. Bartonella bacteria can cause lesions to pop up in the skin and internal organs. To provide themselves with a safe habitat, the bacteria bring about the increase of the number of "vascular endothelial" cells (cells that line the interior of blood vessels), which hide themselves from the host immune system and stimulate the creation of new blood vessels, through a process called "angiogenesis."

Previous studies on Bartonella henselae (B. henselae for short), the bacterium responsible for cat-scratch disease, have shown that it can directly "inject" proteins that inhibit programmed cell death (apoptosis) into the endothelial cells. However, B. henselae can also promote angiogenesis without directly contacting endothelial cells, which implies that the bacterium can secrete a bioactive substance that takes on the duty of kick-starting angiogenesis.

In a new study published in Nature Communications, a team of scientists led by Senior Assistant Professor Kentaro Tsukamoto and Professor Yohei Doi of Fujita Health University, Japan, have identified that this bioactive substance is actually a protein. They have also named this protein as Bartonella angiogenic factor A, or "BafA" for short. This is the very first report of a vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF for short)-like protein produced by bacteria.

The scientists started their project by introducing B. henselae into human endothelial cells in petri dishes, and observed that the bacteria caused the endothelial cells to multiply. To identify the genes that give B. henselae this ability, the researchers began inducing random mutations in the DNA of the bacteria and seeing whether the mutated bacteria could still make the endothelial cells multiply. Through these experiments, the scientists determined that B. henselae can stimulate angiogenesis in human endothelial cells only if it possesses a functional copy of the gene that "codes for," or guides the synthesis of, the BafA protein. They also observed that exposing human endothelial cells to the isolated BafA protein caused the cells to multiply.

Then, to confirm that BafA stimulates angiogenesis, the scientists extracted samples of a major blood vessel called the aorta from mice and placed the samples in gels that did or did not contain BafA. As can be seen in the image below, the aorta samples that were not exposed to BafA did not sprout new blood vessels, but the aorta samples that were exposed to BafA grew vessels that extended into the gel. The scientists also found that surgically placing a BafA-containing gel plug into living mice led to blood vessels growing from the surrounding tissue into the gel.

Further experiments with human endothelial cells in petri dishes indicated that BafA activated cell surface receptors that recognize VEGF. By binding to these receptors, BafA triggered the activation of a process inside the cells, involving proteins called mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERKs). The MAPK/ERK pathway plays an important role in the multiplication of endothelial cells and angiogenesis. "In the last set of experiments, we performed similar studies in a related bacterium called Bartonella quintana, the bacterium that causes trench fever, and we found that it produces its own version of BafA that also causes human endothelial cells to multiply," explains Dr Tsukamoto.

These findings provide valuable insights into the mechanisms by which infectious bacteria can produce lesions in their hosts. "We believe that BafA proteins can be leveraged as tools for studying angiogenesis, and we also consider potential medical benefits," reports Prof Doi. "Most importantly," he elaborates, "BafA is a potential target for the development of diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for bartonellosis."

The scientists also speculate that BafA proteins could be used in regenerative medicine, which is a highly specialized branch of medicine that deals with replacing or regenerating lost or damaged parts of the body. Further research is needed to confirm the scientists' findings, but needless to say, BafA proteins will certainly be of immense interest to the scientific community.

###

Reference

Title of original paper: The Bartonella autotransporter BafA activates the host VEGF pathway to drive angiogenesis

Journal: Nature Communications

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17391-2

About Fujita Health University

Fujita Health University is a private university situated in Toyoake, Aichi, Japan. It was founded in 1964 and houses one of the largest teaching university hospitals in Japan in terms of the number of beds. With over 900 faculty members, the university is committed to providing various academic opportunities to students internationally. Fujita Health University has been ranked eighth among all universities and second among all private universities in Japan in the 2020 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings. THE University Impact Rankings 2019 visualized university initiatives for sustainable development goals (SDGs). For the "good health and well-being" SDG, Fujita Health University was ranked second among all universities and number one among private universities in Japan. The university will also be the first Japanese university to host the "THE Asia Universities Summit" in June 2021. The university's founding philosophy is "Our creativity for the people (DOKUSOU-ICHIRI)," which reflects the belief that, as with the university's alumni and alumnae, current students also unlock their future by leveraging their creativity.

Website: https://www.fujita-hu.ac.jp/en/index.html

About Dr Yohei Doi from Fujita Health University

Yohei Doi, M.D., Ph.D., is a Professor at the Departments of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at Fujita Health University School of Medicine and the Director of the Center for Innovative Antimicrobial Therapy at the University of Pittsburgh. He has authored 226 publications and has served on several journals' editorial boards. He is leading a clinical trial of the flu drug "Avigan" (favipiravir) as a potential treatment for COVID-19 at Fujita Health University.

About Dr Kentaro Tsukamoto from Fujita Health University

Kentaro Tsukamoto, D.V.M., Ph.D., is a Senior Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology at Fujita Health University School of Medicine. He has authored 24 publications. His areas of research interest include bacteriology and host-pathogen interaction.

Funding information

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP19K07548 (K.T.), MEXT-Supported Program for the Strategic Research Foundation at Private Universities from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan (H. Kurahashi), and the Grant for Joint Research Project of the Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University (K.T.).
Fame and wealth may insulate you against many of life's rougher edges, but they offer little protection when it comes to grief and loss. And, despite a glittering career that includes two Golden Globe awards and two Oscar nominations, not to mention a fortune estimated last year at $270 million, John Travolta has had more than his fair share of both  though, of course, when it comes to losing loved ones, there is no such thing as fair.

On Monday, the Pulp Fiction star announced the death of his wife of almost 29 years, Kelly Preston, following a two-year battle with breast cancer. The 57-year-old actress had shunned the spotlight since 2018, when the couple co-starred in the gangster film, Gotti, her diagnosis a closely kept secret. As recently as Father's Day, Preston made an all-smiles post on Instagram, giving every impression that all was well in their Hollywood world.

The late Kelly Preston, with her husband John Travolta at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018. Credit:Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Less than a month later, however, Travolta has lost his companion of three decades  "marriage doesn't just happen on its own," Preston said when promoting Gotti at the Cannes Film Festival, "you have to keep creating love"  the latest blow in what, even before her death, he had described as "a life filled with variations of loss".

In 2009, he and Preston experienced every parent's worst nightmare when their 16-year-old son, Jett, died suddenly after having a seizure and hitting his head on a bathtub during a family Christmas holiday to the Bahamas. There had been speculation about Jett's health for many years  intrusive speculation is another recurring feature of Travolta's life, including over his sexuality  but it was only after his death that the couple revealed that their son, who had suffered seizures throughout his childhood, had also been diagnosed with autism.
Poet-activist Varavara Rao, an accused in the Elgar Parishad case, has tested positive for Covid-19, said a hospital official on Thursday.

The 80-year-old, lodged in the Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai under judicial custody, was admitted to the state-run JJ Hospital here earlier this week.

According to Dr Ranjeet Mankeshwar, dean of JJ Hospital, Rao's medical report came on Thursday and he was found to be coronavirus positive. "His treatment is going on," Mankeshwar said.

Rao was shifted to the government-run hospital in south Mumbai after he complained of giddiness.

Rao has been in jail for about 22 months and had earlier approached the special NIA court, seeking bail on medical grounds and the prevailing COVID-19 situation.

Rao and nine other activists have been arrested in the Elgar Parishad case, which was initially probed by Pune Police and later transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

The case is related to alleged inflammatory speeches made at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial.

Congress leader P Chidambaram demanded that Rao be released immediately and admitted to a super speciality hospital. His health is a matter of grave concern, Chidambaram said.

"The condition of Shri Varavara Rao as described by his family is a matter of grave concern. It is beyond belief that the State, the police and the prison authorities can behave in such an inhuman manner under the watch of the NHRC," Chidambaram said on Twitter. "Shri Varavara Rao should be released immediately and admitted to a super speciality hospital that will treat him properly."

(With inputs from PTI)
CAIRO  An Alexander County judge issued a temporary restraining order on Wednesday against Aperion Care Cairo, barring the nursing home from involuntarily relocating residents for at least 10 days.

Alexander County States Attorney Zach Gowin, in seeking the temporary restraining order and injunction, argued in a court filing that the company has failed to provide adequate notification to residents and their family members or representatives about the closure plans and their appeal rights as prescribed by the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act.

Aperion Care, which has owned the decades-old facility for about two and a half years, informed employees late last week of its planned closure.

This failure comes as the company is placing undue pressure on residents to move quickly based on the nursing homes imminent closure, the court filing argued. Gowins filing said his office was informed that Aperion Care Cairo had set targets for staff to relocate five to 10 of the facilitys roughly 50 residents per day beginning this past Monday.

The tragic effect of the company taking shortcuts with its closure, Gowin argued, has resulted in haphazard placement of residents into alternative nursing homes without appropriate discharge planning or a reasonable opportunity to investigate whether the alternative nursing home is a suitable placement, in direct violation of the language and spirit of the Nursing Home Care Act.

In one instance, the court filing said, the alternative placement identified for a resident was a facility more than 150 miles away in St. Clair County that is battling unacceptable levels of COVID-19 infection. Aperion Care Cairo has not reported any residents testing positive for COVID-19, and family members say they are terrified that their loved ones may have to transfer to a place currently experiencing an outbreak. Family members also have been restricted from visiting residents since March, making the closure even more difficult to navigate.

Further, Gowin argued that the companys omission of required notices and misrepresentation of other facts violate the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act. A person found to have violated the law by deceiving a person over age 65 can face a fine of up to $10,000 per infraction.

Aperion Care General Counsel Fred Frankel said that the company is working with its attorneys to meet all the requirements to close the facility. While this (temporary restraining order) may delay it or change our time frame, its not going to, unfortunately, change the outcome, he added.

According to Gowins court filing, Aperion Care Cairo is also required to submit a closure plan to the Illinois Department of Public Health for its approval outlining a process for a safe and orderly transition of residents. As of close of business Wednesday, IDPH had not received any documents from the company about its closure plan, but has been notified via telephone/email of their intent to close, said spokesperson Cristobal Martinez. IDPH is awaiting official documentation to declare this an official matter, Martinez said.

While the decision has come unexpectedly to residents and staff, Frankel said Aperion Care has been weighing this option for a while. These decisions dont come lightly, he said. I dont know if people believe me when I say that, but it doesnt. Frankel said that major drivers in the decision are the states historically low Medicaid reimbursement rates for nursing homes and challenges with recruiting staff  registered nurses especially  in a rural, depressed area. Another factor is that the nursing home has also not been full for some time, he said. About 30 beds in the 83-bed facility are vacant. Its just time  time to move on, he said.

Family members of residents say they were taken aback by the decision, and frustrated by the lack of clear communication from the company.

Trudy Morris said her 82-year-old mother has lived at the nursing home in Cairo for 12 years. Morris said shes received no communication from nursing home staff about the closure plans, but instead had to hear about it from others in the community.

Im very upset about it because if my mother needs to be moved, I would like to know rather than waiting until the last minute to try to move her, Morris said. I dont want her too far, and Im worried about them moving her someplace with COVID. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic necessitating the restriction of visitors to nursing homes in March, Morris said she frequently went to see her mom. She lives only about 12 miles from Cairo in the Pulaski County village of America. Shes concerned about how difficult it may be to visit her mom in the future if she has to move to a nursing home several hours away.

Aperion Care Cairo is the only nursing home in Alexander and Pulaski counties that is certified to accept people enrolled in Medicare or Medicaid.

Pat Comstock, executive director of the Health Care Council of Illinois, which represents about 300 long-term care facilities, said that she wouldnt be surprised if the closure of Aperion Care Cairo is just the first of what could become a trend in smaller communities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Illinois Medicaid reimbursement rates have long lagged behind the rest of the nation resulting in nursing homes that operate on pretty slim margins, she said. Small facilities like Cairos where the majority of residents are Medicaid recipients, struggle more compared to those with a diversified payer mix. In 2019, the Illinois Legislature increased Medicaid reimbursement rates for nursing homes, but Illinois rates are still low compared to peer states, she said. Before the increase last year, the Medicaid support rate for skilled nursing facilities was based upon 2004 costs, according to the Health Care Council.

The global pandemic has further squeezed operating margins, Comstock said. Even facilities that havent experienced an outbreak have had to take extraordinary infection control measures to protect vulnerable seniors. These costly endeavors, she said, have eclipsed the raise facilities received from the state beginning in late 2019, just months before COVID-19 hit Illinois.

Those facilities that were struggling before, this just might be the straw that breaks the camels back, Comstock said. Prior to the pandemic, many rural areas had already seen the closure of nursing homes.

When Aperion Care took over the Cairo nursing home, previously Daystar Care Center, around early 2018, Frankel said the company did it to help out the then-owner. I dont want to get into the whole long story, but we didnt go into this deal looking to take over this building, he said. Frankel said that when Aperion Care stepped in, the previous owner had a group of facilities that he could no longer operate financially, and he was in poor health. The nursing home was not in great shape when Aperion Care took it over, he said.

The facility has faced about $421,000 in fines by the federal government since 2017 for care-related issues. In 2018, health investigators found that the facility failed to notify a physician about a worsening pressure ulcer on a residents foot, which resulted in the resident having to undergo a leg amputation that may have been avoidable.

The facility is part of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Special Focus Facility Program because of its history of serious quality issues. Though the facility employs many dedicated certified nursing assistants, those care issues stem from an inability to recruit and retain qualified senior medical staff, Frankel said.

We stepped into that and we tried and we kept on trying and it was time to move on, he said.

Frankel said the facility was shopped around internally among regional nursing home operators, and no one expressed interest. But others are praying for a Hail Mary. The nursing home is also the second largest private employer in Cairo.

Im going to stay hopeful until the end. Ive got to for people depending on that, said Judy Simpson, field representative for the Laborers Local 773, which represents most of the nursing homes workers. Its a heartbreaking situation. Simpson said there are people working together to try to identify another operator, but its unclear if it can be pulled off in time.

Deb Conti said the decision is devastating for her family. Her 80-year-old father, a resident there, has dementia and will be startled by the move, she said. He is nearly deaf, and she and her sister are unable to talk to him about it over the telephone.

They also cant visit him because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Conti said that adding to the frustration is that the facility has really gone about this entire situation the wrong way. As of Wednesday evening, she said that neither she nor her sister had received any communication from Aperion Care Cairo about its plans for their father. She clarified that her frustrations are entirely with management  not the employees who have been good to him since he moved in about two years ago.

In response to the pandemic, she said, they have really gone above and beyond to make sure that place was kept safe for the elderly people and the residents of the community, and I believe they have done a fantastic job.

But if they take our parents and they move them to another facility  I looked on IDPHs website at all the nursing homes they could be transferred to, some with hundreds of cases and deaths in double digits  that is probably my biggest concern, and also upsetting my dad with regards to his mental state, she added.

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Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2020) - Orestone Mining Corp. (TSXV: ORS) (FSE:O2R1) (WKN: A2DWW7) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that a drill program on the Company's Resguardo copper-gold porphyry/manto project has started with the first drill hole nearing targeted depth, we anticipate the program will be completed by month end. Resguardo is located 75 kilometres NE of the City of Copiapo, Region III Northern Chile. Access to the project is excellent along Highway 31 which serves as the main route to the La Coipa Mine and the northern Maricunga Gold Belt.

The drill program, consisting of a minimum of 1200 metres of reverse circulation drilling (RC) in three holes, will be the first drill test of a strong IP chargeability anomaly that has a strike length of 1400 metres, a width of 500-800 metres, and lies at a depth of 150-200 metres. Holes 1, 2 and 3 will be drilled to a planned depth of 400 metres for a total of 1200 metres and the Company will then evaluate drilling additional holes for a program total of 2000 metres (20 drill sites have previously been approved for drilling).

Hole RE-20-001 is to be drilled in the strongest part of the anomaly along IP Section Line 4 in an overburden covered area just to the west of a strong NW trending linear.

Hole RE-20-002 is located at the west end of the IP high on Section Line 1 within a mapped area of sericite-silica-clay alteration and elevated surface copper oxide values on a strong NW trending linear.

Hole RE-20-003 is located within a mapped area of sericite-silica-clay alteration and elevated surface copper oxide values just east of a strong NW trending linear and west of Section Line 2 (offset to a historic 22 metre drill intercept of manto style mineralization grading 0.495 copper).

Hole RE-20-004 is located between Section Lines 1 and 5 just east of a mapped area of sericite-silica-clay alteration and elevated surface copper oxide values on a strong NW trending linear just west of a mapped diorite intrusive.

Story continues

Hole RE-20-005 is located between Section Lines 4 and 5 in an overburden covered area just north of a mapped diorite intrusive body.





Figure 1



To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://www.orestone.ca/projects/chile-resguardo-project/

The Resguardo IP target is located immediately west of outcropping oxide copper mineralization grading 1 to 7% copper and 0.50 g/t gold that was mined historically in a series of pits and underground workings. Although this historic sampling is believed to have been competently carried out, it was not certified by a professional geologist, therefore the results are not NI 43-101 compliant and cannot be relied upon.

The Resguardo project hosts copper-gold mineralization in mantos, skarns and breccia bodies (historic workings) accompanied by zones of strong hydrothermal alteration consisting of sericite-silica-clay with copper oxides at the junction of regional NNE trending low angle extensional faults with NW trending vertical faults in association with the large IP target.

The drill program is under the control of a registered professional geologist and will comply with standards and practices as established by the Association of Engineers and Geoscientists of the Province of British Columbia."

All contractors and the Company are coordinating with Sernageomin, the government agency controlling mining and exploration in Chile, to design and implement protocols to ensure the safety and health, especially with respect to Covid-19, for all personnel of the Company and Contractors involved in the drilling program.

Gary Nordin, P.Geo, a director of the Company, is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, Mr. Nordin has reviewed and approved the technical information in this press release.

Resguardo in Chile, as well as Orestone's Captain project in BC, are located in structural corridors adjacent to large copper-gold deposits. In Chile Orestone's Resguardo project is located in a NNE trending structural corridor 80 kilometres to the south of the El Salvador Mine and the past producing Potrerillos Mine, both large copper-gold porphyries. In Canada, the100% percent owned Captain project is located 30 km south of the Mt. Milligan Mine, a large copper-gold porphyry. On both projects copper and gold mineralization in association with extensive hydrothermal alteration demonstrate the potential for discovery of large copper-gold deposits. For more information please visit: www.orestone.ca.

ON BEHALF OF ORESTONE MINING CORP.

David Hottman

CEO

For further information contact:



David Hottman

604-629-1929

info@orestone.ca



Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this News Release. This news release has been prepared by management and no regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain 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, market conditions, availability of financing, currency rate fluctuations, actual results of exploration and development activities, environmental risks, future prices of copper, gold, silver and other metals, operating risks, accidents, labor issues, delays in obtaining governmental or regulatory approvals and permits, and other risks in the mining industry. In addition, there is uncertainty about the spread of the COVID-19 virus and the impact it will have on the Company's operations, global supply chains and economic activity in general. All the forward-looking statements made in this news release are qualified by these cautionary statements and those in our continuous disclosure filings available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. 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 by applicable law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/59896
Bengaluru, July 16 : Upping the ante, the opposition Congress has decided to challenge the Karnataka government ordinance that allows even non-farmers to buy agriculture lands, according to a senior party leader, here on Thursday.

"We will challenge the ordinance till the state government withdraws it. It's against the farmers' interests and favours corporate bodies and real estate sharks," Congress legislative party leader Siddaramaiah said.

Changes were made to the Land Reforms Act, 1961 on July 13 through an ordinance and were notified after Governor Vajubhai R. Vala gave his assent. It permits non-farmers to buy farmland and grow food crops.

Alleging that it was a scam bigger than the multi-crore mining that rocked the state during the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government's first tenure (2008-13), the former Congress Chief Minister said the new law would lead to Rs 50,000 crore farmland lost to vested interests.

While the mining scam was of Rs 35,000 crore, the imminent land scam would be of Rs 45,000-50,000 crore size, he said and added, 13,814 cases linked to transaction or buying of farmland by non-farmers were pending in courts across the state's 30 districts.

"Assuming that each case involves 4 acres of farmland, the new law, applicable retrospectively, allows 55,256 acres of land to be sold at a cumulative value of Rs 45,000-50,000 crore," claimed Siddaramaiah.

As some sections of the 1961 Karnataka Land Reforms Act prohibited sale of farmland to non-farmers, their repeal would enable petitioners to acquire land or legalise those already bought by them.

"The new law will destroy the farming community as corporate and real estate players will be the new owners of their lands. Their conversion or for non-agricultural use will cause fall in food production across the state," Siddaramaiah said.

The ordinance made changes to sections 63 and 80 of the Act, while omitting sections 79A, B and C, which were added in 1974 under the Devaraj Urs government to protect farmers and ensure social justice.

"The timing of the ordinance is suspect. If the BJP government wanted to help farmers, it could have introduced it as an amendment bill when the Assembly is convened after the Covid-19 crisis," reiterated Siddaramaiah.

"Sections 79 A, B and C of the Act have been repealed, paving way for bona fide citizens to invest in farmland and take to farming as a hobby, passion or additional occupation, which is rewarding," said a government official.

The BJP, however, contended the amended Act would enable the state to attract investment in the farm sector and boost food output. The farm sector's contribution to the state's gross domestic product (GDP) has been less than manufacturing and services sectors over the last two decades.

"Besides generating substantial revenue for the state government, the Act will now allow farmers who find the occupation non-remunerative and risky due to droughts/floods and labour shortage to sell their surplus land to urban buyers," a revenue official said.

Hundreds of people who have been in diverse professions, like business, services, manufacturing, hospitality, education, health and teaching, will get an opportunity to take to farming and serve the nation./Eom/550 words.
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Javed Akhtar talks about his Richard Dawkins Award win, the demerits of 'good and bad bigotry', and why there is a difference between 'inheritance' and 'nepotism'.

It was in March last year that I, along with a few others, first encountered Javed Akhtar's stirring clarion call to writers, imploring them to exert the might of their pens through his new poem, Likh.

"Jo baat kehte darte hain sab, tu woh baat likh

Itni andheri thhi na kabhi pehle raat, likh

Jin se qaseede likkhey thhay woh phenk de qalam

Phir khoon-e-dil se sachche qalam ki sifaat likh

Jo roznamon mein kahin paati nahin jagah

Jo roz har jagah ki hai, woh waardaat likh

Jitne bhi tang daire hain saarey torh de

Ab aa khuli fizaon mein ab kainat likh

Jo waqeyaat ho gaye unka to zikr hai

Lekin jo hone chaahiye, woh waqeyaat likh

Iss bagh mein jo dekhni hai tujh ko phir bahaar

Tu daal-daal de sada, tu paat-paat likh"

The occasion was the 53rd Shankar-Shad Mushaira held annually in Delhi, a much-awaited affair that takes stock of and celebrates the decadent richness of Urdu shayari in the subcontinent, with poets from Pakistan also in attendance...except that they were not last year. Amid escalating cross-border tensions with Pakistan, the organisers chose to give their neighbours a miss.

A little over a year later, as news broke that Akhtar has been commemorated with the coveted Richard Dawkins Award for being a public figure who endorses "the values of secularism, rationalism, upholding scientific truth", I was rather unsurprised to learn that he was the sole Indian recipient of the honour. In that moment, I was transported back to my seat in the audience at the poets' congress, clinging onto each lafz and iltija in his verses that beseeched society to be fearless in their pursuit of truth.

In a telephonic interview with Firstpost, the 75-year-old poet and screenwriter  who is spending time away from the 'Maximum City's' din at his Khandala home  discusses the merits of rationalism, the debate on nepotism, and why he writes for those who suffer.

What does winning the Richard Dawkins Award mean to you personally, considering you have been on the receiving end of a lot of hate and trolling for the very same views which have been acknowledged by this award.

Ah, you see, this is unique because this is an honour that has been given to me for my thinking, my beliefs  or shall I say lack of beliefs  and my point-of-view about rationality and religion. It is the first time that I have been awarded such a recognition, so I am very thankful. Remember one thing, if you have views, you will be challenged. Whatever views you have, there will be some people who will disagree with you, while some will totally understand you. I can see that there is a great attempt on Twitter and on other social media platforms to destroy my credibility and reputation as a secularist and rationalist, but that does not matter. It's totally expected. And more often than not, I keep getting hate mails from different communities  some Hindu, some Muslim  both of them troll me. That's alright, really. It does not matter to me.

We are not alien to the fact that critical thinking spaces are shrinking in India and across the world, and they have largely been divided into various binaries. In such times, for a person of words like you, how do you hold on to nuanced dialogue?

I don't think critical thinking is shrinking, but spaces for it  yes, maybe. However, there are people who think consistently, rationally, logically, scientifically  in a more progressive, liberal and secular manner. Their voices, at the moment, are not heard, and sometimes they are suppressed. Sometimes they feel that perhaps this is not the time to be louder and clearer than is necessary, because a lot of frenemies and enemies who are powerful can harm them. But, even if the other point of view is silent, or in the closet, it is not non-existent. And I am sure that at the right time, we will feel their presence.

And as for nuance, well, there are certain holds barred if you want to be decent and cultured. You just cannot use any language, or say everything in the crudest manner  there is a difference between frankness and crudity and rudeness; let's not confuse the two. I think whatever you want to say, you can say it decently and in a cultured way.

In a recent interview, you've mentioned that principally, a rationalist should be an atheist. How easy or difficult is it to stand by such statements at a time when one can be persecuted for their beliefs?

It's not just a matter of 'should be'. If you are not an atheist, you are not a rationalist. Rationalists and atheists aren't two different things, as a matter of fact. Rational thinking essentially means not depending on faith, because faith is something which you start believing in without any logic, reason or evidence. On the other hand, rationality means looking at things and finding reason, logic, witness and evidence behind them. Only then when you accept something, is when you practise rationality. So it is inherently the opposite of faith.

In any kind of social crisis  whether it's the pandemic or the CAA-NRC-NPR in recent times  the minorities and the poor are the ones who are the most oppressed systemically, irrespective of who is in power. However, under the current regime, the communal divides have become visibly more pronounced. What is the emotional and social cost of this crisis? How do you, personally, hold on to hope when you know that actively or tacitly your friends and colleagues are, perhaps, supporting these disruptive forces?

Even today, when we are complaining about the things that you mentioned, majority of Indians do not approve of the things happening. But the fact is, those people are fragmented into different parties and different groups. Today, the situation is such that it is enough to be in power if one gets 31 or 32 percent votes. This means that almost 67 to 68 percent of the people did not vote for you. But since the opposition is fragmented, it becomes ineffective. That is what is happening. So, I suppose that all those people who think that what is being done is not right, and the ideology that is gradually taking over society and the nation is not the right ideology, they will have to find some common platform and come together. They have to say this in a unified voice, because as long as they are divided, they will remain ineffective like they are today.

This brings me to the question of the 'apolitical artist'  a term we hear a lot today, especially in the Hindi film industry. What do you think the term means? Is there any space to appreciate an 'apolitical artist' today?

I think, if you dissect anybody's mind or intelligence, you will know that nobody is apolitical. But perhaps, it is their expediency that makes them look apolitical, and keeps them distant from all controversies, or subjects that can cause any kind of backlash or trouble to them. That is about it. But I don't think in India anybody is totally apolitical. They have their beliefs, their conditions and thoughts; they may or may not express them, but they of course have their ideas.

But when it comes to an artist and their art, can an artist, who claims to be apolitical, also say that their art has to be seen in the same 'apolitical' light, especially during such intensely polarised times?

It is not possible to do that. Artists look around, imbibe, and through some process of osmosis, learn what is happening in society, and then express their comments on the happenings through some form of art  like a painting, a film, a play, a story or a novel. All of this is nothing but what is happening around the artist, which the artist styles from his/her point of view, and irrespective of how nuanced their comments may be, they cannot exist in a totally water-tight compartment from the artist; because the artist's point of view, morality, likes and dislikes, terms and conditions will seep into that story, that painting, that poem. So, I don't see how an artist can be totally neutral  it is not possible.

As a matter of fact, if the artist is insisting that he/she is totally neutral, then the artist is with the powers at play. Because, in a situation where some people are very strong while some are very weak, if you say you are "neutral", you are obviously siding with the ones in power. By not saying anything, or by saying that you are indifferent, you are saying something. If you say you are 'apolitical' or neutral, you are, wittingly or unwittingly, condoning, or at least accepting the status quo. That is also a comment and a political stand.

You have said that critique cannot be limited to others and other communities, and one has to be critical of themselves and their own communities as well in order to progress...

First of all, you have to look around and set your home right, and accept what is wrong within your own home, society and community, and then talk about others.

...But we've often seen that when people adopt such an approach, there are sections that tag them as highbrow 'intellectuals', whose ideas are said to be inaccessible to the common person. What do you have to say about that?

That depends on the way you express yourself. But the fact remains that if somebody, say a Muslim, refuses to see what is wrong within their own community, and starts criticising and lecturing others, that will not be helpful. This is true for a Hindu also. The words of such people will not matter. There are some people  certain Hindu names  who only criticise Hindu communalism, but don't say a word about Muslim communalism. Similarly, there are also some Muslim names on Twitter, who only criticise Muslim communalism, and don't say anything about Hindu communalists. I think both are wrong. You see, you make a mistake by choosing your good communalism and bad communalism, good bigotry and bad bigotry. There is nothing like that. A bigot is a bigot, whether he/she is from your community or any other community. However, if you want to take a rational and objective stand, you have to criticise fundamentalism, regressive thoughts, anti-women and anti-other thoughts, or any thought that, directly or indirectly, propagates hate or schism in society. And this is irrespective of whether they are expressed by someone from your community or someone else's. You get the right to criticise another community only if you are just and willing to criticise your own community as well.

While we are on this subject, I remember a statement that you made in a public speech earlier this year, while addressing a crowd in Ghaziabad on the CAA-NRC issue. You said, "Ameer Musalmaan ke paas (identity proof) hai...tum fikar na karo uski. Sirf gareeb Musalmaan ke paas nahi hai, gareeb Hindu ke paas nahi hai, gareeb Dalit ke paas nahi hai. Yeh problem gareeb ka hai. Koi mere bacchon ko thodi nikaalne waala hai? Mere paas paisa hai. Usse tum poochhoge? Usse tum maalum karoge, jiske vote se tum power mein aaye ho?" These are some powerful words coming from a person who belongs to a fraternity that chooses to remain largely reticent on political matters.

However, being an influential figure from the Muslim community in India, do you think it's fair to always expect the 'Muslim celebrities' and actors  who arguably belong to a persecuted and vulnerable community in the country, even if influential  to make statements on communal tensions in India? Should one not expect more celebrities from Hindu and other communities to speak in support of their Muslim counterparts?

You may belong to a vulnerable section, but irrespective of that, you have to give your honest opinion and not pull any punches. You have to.

You see, what I was trying to say (in the speech) is that some people with vested interests have always wanted to divide the society vertically. Their religious communities or religious identities become their only identity. But the fact is that society is not divided vertically  it is really divided horizontally. There are very poor people and there are very rich people, and in between the two, there exists a whole spectrum, which is religion and community-blind. Some people belong to the middle class in every community, some are very poor in every community, there are also the poorest of poor in every community, much like the upper-middle classes in every community. The percentages may be different, but the fact remains that instead of dividing people according to their religions, if you look at it through the lens of economics and finances, you will know how the society is doing.

Some people don't want to establish that people from every community are in dire conditions. If this happens, the ones with vested interests will be proven guilty. They would prefer that these situations not come into focus, and instead of that, talk about communities and divide the society in some other way that will help them in not getting exposed.

But this again brings me back to the question of whether you think more people belonging to a visible majority should speak up increasingly for the disenfranchised and persecuted communities...

Actually, communities are not at fault. The average person from any community wants their children to go to a good school, and wants a good hospital for their family, and so on and so forth. People just wish for a decent life, and these are the ambitions they have  that's about all. But there are certain segments in every community who are troublemakers. Therefore, we should never accuse an entire community. So we need to differentiate between the community and its Right wing and extreme fringes, which exist everywhere and in every community.

The recent and unfortunate death of Sushant Singh Rajput has, once again, opened up debates on nepotism and privilege in the Hindi film industry. I ask you this question because your children too have successfully ventured into films, even though they have not been charged with nepotism as much as some others from the industry have been. Most 'film families' have responded defensively to these charges. What are your thoughts on this debate?

You see, first of all, one must differentiate between nepotism and inheritance. If you take a big industrialist dealing in major projects, factories, investments, bank balances and properties, when he/she dies  or even during his/her life  the person will give all of it to his/her children, right? If there is a shopkeeper, that shopkeeper will give his shop to his children, or maybe to his mother, or son, or daughter, or whoever else he wants to give it to. So even in the film industry, if a man wants to give his property to his children, is that nepotism? There is definitely a difference between inheritance and nepotism.

Mr Yash Chopra has made a huge business and a studio. So to whom should he have given his studio? Obviously to his wife and his children. So would you say that the fact that he gave his studio to his children is nepotism? He is a producer, and now his son wants to become a director. So if he gives him his own money and takes a personal risk for his children, and makes a film for his son who is the director, is it nepotism? How can it be nepotism? Everybody works for their children and their following generations, and strives to give them as many facilities and opportunities as possible. So how do you call this nepotism?

Besides that, if you look at the list of actors in the industry, they are not there because of nepotism. They might have one foot in the door because they probably have a parent in the film industry, or perhaps belong to a film family. There was one foot in the door, accepted. But that's about all.

The maximum that you can do for a child is give him a break. Ultimately, you cannot rig the results of your child's efforts. At the end of the day, he or she will become successful only if the public has approved and appreciated the person. There is no rigging possible here  it is a totally fair election.

You can give them a chance, that is all. There are many people who have been successful, but their children have not found much success. Conversely, there are also successful children whose parents did not do well in the industry. So, you can give both kind of examples. There are also people who came from outside and are doing extremely well, like Shah Rukh Khan and Akshay Kumar, who are huge stars today. They do not come from film families; they were complete outsiders who have now made a place for themselves. Look at the heroines  Katrina Kaif, Anushka Sharma, Deepika Padukone. They don't come from film families either, but have become huge stars.

When it comes to Alia Bhatt  whose father Mahesh Bhatt is a successful director  she became a star from a film that was produced and directed by someone who is not related to her. So what kind of nepotism is that? She is an extremely talented girl. Alia has become popular not because she is Mahesh's daughter, or because someone gave her a break, she is successful because she is a very fine actor.

There is no 'us' or 'them'. In the rolling credits that are shown in the beginning or at the end of a film, you'll see that every film and its unit has people from every part of India, belonging to every community, caste, region, language. The sets have people from every segment of society. The producer cannot afford this kind of nepotism. If someone has not made a place for himself or herself, the producer will not back that person or give that person a break; he cannot. Ultimately, it is your talent, your popularity and acceptance by the audience that will sustain you, and not because somebody is backing you. Someone can give you a break, yes.

You can say that this person is his/her child, but then their parents at one point were outsiders, who came and worked in the industry, made a place for themselves and were successful. Now today, if they put their money to bet on their children, who are we to raise objections? They are not using public money, or taking government aid to make the film. They are using their own hard-earned money. If they want to use their money for their own children, we cannot object to that, can we?

When it comes to the media in India, you have been a fierce advocate for a free press in the country. Over the past couple of years, have you noticed any difference in your interactions with journalists?

Well, today I can see that television channels do not have any room for a Barkha Dutt, or Karan Thapar, or Punya Prasun Bajpai, or even a Nidhi Razdan. These are exceptionally well-known and competent journalists, so I sometimes wonder as to why no channel is interested in choosing them for a programme? I don't know, but I would like to find out more about this.

What do you have to say about how the governments have been handling the coronavirus outbreak across the country?

It is not an ideal situation, and it is very easy to criticise the government. However, the fact remains that there was not much that they could have done anyway, except for maybe announcing the lockdown with a warning four days or a week prior to imposing it. Because, you know, the economically vulnerable sections really suffered due to the short notice given, allowing people only four hours, between 8 pm and 12 am. Indians, whom we now call the 'migrant labourers', were the worst sufferers.

When it comes to handling the coronavirus outbreak, the medical fraternity and the bureaucracy are trying their best. However, it is out of control in many countries; they are in a no-win situation. If they continue with the lockdown, it will reflect very badly on our economy, which in any case was not very healthy. And if they relax the lockdown, the coronavirus outbreak will start spiralling. So it's a no-win situation for the government also, and I won't like to criticise them. Imagine yourself in their shoes, what would you have done?

For us to come out wiser from this situation, there should be a greater budget allocated for healthcare in the country, with more hospitals built. There should be some kind of a hospital in every locality that has at least the basic equipment and medicine. Oftentimes, there are hospitals without proper facilities and medication, or even machines that are required today. We will have to prepare for such eventualities and increase healthcare budgets at state and central levels.

So would you say that a situation like this has revealed the cracks in the way the society has been run all these years?

Firstly, this is an extreme situation  nobody in the world was prepared for it. Even a country like the USA is totally helpless. Comparatively, we seem a little better. But the fact remains that we could have been, and we should have been, and at least in future we should be more well-equipped to face such a situation. Health has not been prioritised so far; now we have to allocate more national and state budgets to healthcare, and infrastructure should be made much better. You cannot depend completely on private hospitals  it is the responsibility of the government, which it cannot shrug off. All the governments have to look into this, so that in the future we are not so unprepared.

Finally, is there anything you have written during the lockdown that you could share with us? Has your writing helped you cope with the crisis?

What is more important is, does my poetry help others who are suffering?

Of course, somewhere you appeal to the conscience of the nation and the people who are listening to and reading your poetry, but the situation is more difficult than this. Most of the times I write for those who suffer, expressing his or her feelings through words.

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Fellow Traveller

(Translated from the Urdu by Rakhshanda Jalil)

Walking barefoot

On the scorching-searing road

Melting in the heat of the sun

Carrying their bundle of hunger and thirst

Both have set out from the Big City

To return to their small house in their small village

The house

That is far, far beyond

The strength of their feet

And the resolve in their heart

Who knows how far away?

When the gates of the factory

Were shut in their faces

When the contractor

Threw them out of a half-built factory

Who was there to look after them?

There was no hope on any path

The city was deserted

Every building seemed as though a stranger

All the houses and shops

Had their eyes closed

And in that city

Where they had toiled for years

These two

Were aliens

Even the Houses of all the Gods were locked

Only a silence echoed all around

Where could the beggar go to beg?

Even those loudspeakers were silent now

That would tell them till yesterday

Who they were

And what their true and complete identity was

Listen to us, they would say, and understand:

They are the sons of Babur

And you are the son of a Maharana

Your history is different from theirs

Your values are different from theirs

Your faith is different from theirs

And those loudspeakers too were silent now

That used to say:

They are the worshippers of idols

And you are the soldiers of Ghazni

You are the steadfast walkers on the true path

Your belief is different from theirs

Your hopes are different from theirs

Even your destination is different from theirs

Your paths, too, are different

All the loudspeakers dispensing such wisdom and knowledge

Are silent now

And the two of them can see

Their path is the same

Walking barefoot

On the scorching-searing road

Melting in the heat of the sun

Carrying their bundle of hunger and thirst

They have been walking like this for centuries

Both burning alike from the fire in their bellies

Now, both have realised

There are only two castes in the world:

Rich and poor

All else are lies.

All images via Facebook, except where indicated otherwise
The total number of coronavirus cases in Wyoming grew by 41 on Thursday, with the number of confirmed cases rising by 39 and the number of probable cases rising by two, according to the Wyoming Department of Healths daily update.

The new confirmed cases come from Albany, Big Horn, Carbon, Crook, Fremont (four), Laramie (three), Lincoln, Natrona (two), Park (three), Sheridan (two), Sublette, Sweetwater, Teton (11) and Uinta (seven) counties.

Thirty-four new coronavirus recoveries were also announced: 30 confirmed and four probable.

Probable cases are defined by officials as close contacts of lab-confirmed cases with symptoms consistent with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

A patient is considered fully recovered when there is resolution of fever without the use of fever-reducing medications and there is improvement in respiratory symptoms (e.g. cough, shortness of breath) for 72 hours AND at least 7 days have passed since symptoms first appeared, according to the Wyoming Department of Health.

There are now 2,026 total cases  1,644 confirmed and 382 probable  and 1,540 recoveries  1,241 confirmed and 299 probable  recorded in the state, as well as 24 deaths. The two most recent deaths were announced Thursday.

In the past 10 days, 295 new cases have been confirmed in Wyoming, the most of any 10-day stretch thus far.

As of Thursday, there have been 60,203 tests performed for COVID-19 in Wyoming, an increase of 856 from Wednesday: 29,845, from the Wyoming Public Health Laboratory and 30,358 reported by other labs. In total, 43,070 people have been tested.

More than three-fourths of confirmed patients have fully recovered.

Patients have tested positive for coronavirus in all 23 of Wyomings counties. Wyoming has the third lowest recorded number of coronavirus deaths of any state (Alaska and Hawaii), and its death rate (4 per 100,000 residents) is fourth-lowest to Montana, Alaska and Hawaii, according to the New York Times. The states infection rate (343 in 100,000) is eighth-lowest among states, also according to the Times, which includes probable counts where they exist.

Eight percent of Wyomings cases required a hospital stay. In 28% of the cases, health officials dont know if the patient was hospitalized.

The virus has disproportionately affected people of color throughout the United States, a trend that is also reflected in Wyomings data. More than 57% of confirmed cases in Wyoming are white, 21.2% are American Indian, 15.9% are Hispanic, 1.3% are Black, 0.6% are Asian, and 0.4% are Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. The racial identities of 4.5% of confirmed cases in Wyoming are not known, and 4.9% of confirmed cases identified as other races. According to 2019 census estimates, Wyomings population is 83.8% white (not Hispanic/Latino), 10.1% Hispanic/Latino, 2.7% American Indian/Alaska Native, 1.3% Black, 1.1% Asian and 2.2% two or more races.

In 48.9% of the cases, the patient came in contact with a known case. Community spread has been attributed to 19.5% of the cases. In another 11.6% of the cases, the patient had traveled either domestically or internationally. The Health Department attributes 3.4% of cases to communal living. In 7.6% of Wyomings cases, health officials dont how the person was exposed to the virus, and 12.3% of cases are pending investigation.

Cases in Wyoming by county (probable in parentheses)

Albany: 47 (7)

Big Horn: 27 (4)

Campbell: 74 (19)

Carbon: 17 (14)

Converse: 17 (11)

Crook: 9

Fremont: 360 (53)

Goshen: 8 (2)

Hot Springs: 9 (3)

Johnson: 18 (4)

Laramie: 242 (117)

Lincoln: 37 (8)

Natrona: 148 (25)

Niobrara: 1 (1)

Park: 80 (9)

Platte: 3 (1)

Sheridan: 29 (9)

Sublette: 7 (4)

Sweetwater: 147 (11)

Teton: 148 (33)

Uinta: 175 (42)

Washakie: 38 (5)

Weston: 3

Deaths in Wyoming by county

Fremont: 10

Washakie: 5

Laramie: 2

Sweetwater: 2

Carbon: 1

Johnson: 1

Natrona: 1

Teton: 1

Health Department data

National cases

There have been more than 3.5 million cases nationally, with about 137,000 deaths, according to the New York Times running count.

Know the symptoms

COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, is a respiratory illness. Its symptoms include cough, fever and shortness of breath. Symptoms appear within two weeks. If you have contact with a person who has COVID-19, you should self-isolate for 14 days.

Follow the Wyoming Health Departments tips

Stay home when sick and avoid contact with other people unless you need medical attention.

Follow advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on what to do if you think you may be sick.

Follow current public health orders.

Follow commonsense steps such as washing your hands often and well, covering your coughs and sneezes, and cleaning and disinfecting.

Nursing homes, assisted living facilities and other healthcare facilities should closely follow guidelines for infection control and prevention.

Older people and those with health conditions that mean they have a higher chance of getting seriously ill should avoid close-contact situations.
A new commission announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in June in the wake of the Black Lives Matter campaign to look into race and ethnic disparities includes two Indian-origin commissioners: Samir Shah and Ajay Kakkar, officials said on Thursday.

Chaired by education consultant Tony Sewell, the independent commission has 10 members. Shah is a former BBC journalist and former chair of the race relations think-tank Runnymede Trust, while Kakkar is professor of surgery at University College London.

Other members include experts across fields such as science, economics, medicine, policing and community organising. The commission is expected to report findings on the priority areas of health, education, criminal justice and employment by the end of this year.

The June announcement was flayed by the opposition Labour, which called on the Johnson government to implement recommendations of several previous studies into race and racism in the UK, instead of setting up another commission.

Johnson said: This cross-government Commission will examine inequality in the UK, across the whole population. I am thrilled we have assembled a group of ten talented and diverse commissioners, who each bring a wealth of experience from across a range of important sectors.

The commission will be inclusive, undertaking research and inviting submissions where necessary. It will set a positive agenda for change, he added on Thursday.

The commission said it will review inequality in the UK, focusing on areas including poverty, education, employment, health and the criminal justice system, while looking at outcomes for the whole population.

Shadow justice secretary David Lammy had dismissed Johnsons announcement, stating that if the prime minister were serious about addressing racial inequalities, he should implement the recommendations of the many reviews already conducted.

He said: I made 35 specific recommendations in the Lammy review. Implement them. There are 110 recommendations in the Anjiolini review into deaths into police custody. Implement them. There are 30 recommendations in the Home Office review into the Windrush scandal.

Implement them. Twenty six into Baroness McGregors review into workplace discrimination. Implement them. Thats what Boris has to do. And the Black Lives protests can stop and we can get on with dealing with the coronavirus, he added.

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By Express News Service

VIJAYAWADA: At least 15 Andhra Pradesh Special Police (APSP) constables, who were deployed at Vijayawada airport, reportedly tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday. As many 88 personnel of APSP 12th battalion, based out of Visakhapatnam, had recently come to the city. According to Gannavaram circle inspector Kagitha Srinivas, more constables might test positive as their results were yet to arrive. The infected personnel were admitted to a Covid hospital in Vijayawada and Siddhartha medical college in Pedda Avutupalli near Gannavaram.

The CI added a cook who had accompanied the APSP constables to Vijayawada, was also infected. How the constables contracted the virus is not known yet. All primary contacts have been informed and advised home quarantine for two weeks. He said all ground-level duty force were instructed to follow safety measures such as using sanitiser and maintain physical distance. It might be added here that 23 constables of APSP 3rd battalion had tested positive in June after they returned from duties in hospitals.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 19:58:58|Editor: huaxia

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CANBERRA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Australia's coronavirus death toll has grown to 113 after another two deaths in Victoria.

Authorities in Victoria on Thursday confirmed the deaths of two men in their 80s since Wednesday, taking the state's death toll to 29 including five since Monday.

As at 3 p.m. on Thursday, a total of 10,810 cases have been reported in Australia, and 8,036 have been reported as recovered from COVID-19, according to the latest figures from Department of Health. The department also said that the number of new cases in last 24 hours is 330.

Victoria has broken its daily increase record with 317 new cases. However, 15 previously diagnosed cases have been reclassified, resulting in a net increase of 302.

"Within Victoria, 28 of the new cases are linked to outbreaks and 289 are under investigation," said a statement from the Department of Health and Human Services in Victoria on Thursday.

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) on Thursday published a study that found that testing wastewater systems of long-haul planes and cruise ships on arrival in Australia can detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in incoming international arrivals.

Karen Andrews, the minister for industry, science and technology, said that the finding was another important step in efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

"Our science and research communities are among our greatest assets in our efforts to not only overcome this pandemic, but also to assist in the economic recovery from COVID-19," she said in a media release.

"The ability to test wastewater from planes and cruise ships is another piece of the puzzle as we look to the future of travel and keeping Australians safe."

Simon Birmingham, the minister for trade, tourism and investment, have previously warned that Australia's international borders are unlikely to re-open 2020 because of the pandemic.

Larry Marshall, the chief executive of the CSIRO, said that pinpointing COVID-19 in arrivals would help keep Australians safe when international travel resumes.

"Responding to a pandemic is not just about the race for a vaccine, Australian science is supporting our economic recovery by delivering for partners like Qantas," he said.

"Our relationship with air travel goes back to the 60s, and today our unique coatings already protect aircraft, so it's great to be trusted to keep Australia flying while helping to stay ahead of any potential new outbreaks."

It comes after the CSIRO in June announced that it had made a breakthrough in tracing COVID-19 in wastewater.

The breakthrough enabled authorities to test for the presence of COVID-19 carriers in a community regardless of whether they are showing symptoms or not.

Warish Ahmed, a CSIRO researcher, said that testing for the virus in wastewater from planes and ships could be used in addition to clinical testing.

"The study indicates that surveillance of wastewater from large transport vessels with their own sanitation systems has potential as a parallel data source to prioritise clinical testing among disembarking passengers," he said on Thursday. Enditem
Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus Liberal government is refusing to abide by its legal obligation to assist and repatriate dozens of Canadians, most of them young children and women, illegally detained in miserable conditions in military prisons in northeast Syria. The prisoners are being held by Kurdish nationalist forces, who allege the Canadians had ties to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS.

The New York-based organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a chilling 92-page report on June 29th on the conditions faced by some 47 Canadian citizens8 men, 13 women, and 26 children. The child detainees, most of whom are under the age of six, include a five-year-old orphan. The report was based on interviews with detainees, family relatives, and Canadian and foreign officials.

The Canadians are among some 14,000 non-Iraqi foreigners from more than 60 countries who are still being held in the north of Syria for suspected ISIS links, even though US President Donald Trump declared the Syrian war ended last year, and said ISIS forces were one hundred percent defeated. In fact, the US-led onslaught on Syria, which began with the instigation of a bloody civil war in 2011, has devastated the country, with more than half of the pre-war population forced to flee their homes. When the US-led air bombardment and military intervention was launched in 2014, on the pretext of combatting ISIS, Canadas Conservative government deployed fighter jets and troops to the Syria-Iraq conflict. After waging a progressive election campaign in 2015, including a demagogic pledge to withdraw the fighter jets, Trudeaus Liberals promptly extended and expanded Canadian military involvement in the war in early 2016. Four years on, Canada continues to maintain almost a thousand troops in Iraq, Jordan and Kuwait.

In the introduction to its report, HRW provides a scathing critique of Trudeaus refusal to bring the Canadian prisoners home. The Liberal government has left them languishing for more than a year in overcrowded, filthy, and life-threatening conditions, says the report. Canada, it asserts, has breached its obligations, including taking necessary and reasonable steps to assist nationals abroad facing serious abuses including risks to life, torture, and inhuman and degrading treatment. The HRW analysis continues, The indefinite detention without charge of the Canadians amounts to guilt by association and collective punishment, prohibited under international law.

The report underlines that none of the Canadians have been charged with any crime, or even brought before a judge to review the legality and necessity of their detention. In other words, no evidence has ever been presented to prove their ties to ISIS. Three of the adults interviewed even said that ISIS had imprisoned them before they were captured by the Kurdish nationalist forces, the YPG. Some women, including at least one Canadian, said they are on an ISIS kill list for refusing to support the terrorist group.

The Trudeau governments refusal to honor its obligation to ensure that the basic rights of Canadian citizens, including children, are being respected, leaving them to rot in illegal prisons in Syria, represents a dangerous precedent and an attack on citizenship rights. It is a de facto abrogation of the Liberals own Bill C-6, which at its passage in 2017 overturned a law adopted by the previous Stephen Harper-led Conservative government that stripped dual citizens of their Canadian citizenship if convicted of terrorism, treason or espionage.

The 26 children have been imprisoned because their fathers are suspected of having ties to ISIS. In many cases, their fathers have disappeared and are likely dead. Some children are imprisoned along with their mothers, but as the HRW report notes, others are orphans. Such is the case of five-year-old Amira, who was found on the side of a road last year after her parents and siblings were killed in an airstrike.

These people are arbitrarily detained in prisons and camps run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the militia force backed by the US-led Global Coalition Against ISIS, of which Canada is a member. It is worth noting in this regard that the SDF was embraced as Washington and Ottawas proxy force in the campaign to overthrow the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad only after the Sunni Islamist forces they had previously supported were either vanquished or had defected to ISIS. If anyone is to be held accountable for the crimes of Islamic Statemany of whose foreign fighters were funneled into Syria with the support of the Western powers or their Gulf State alliesit should be the imperialist powers who fostered its growth, rather than the women and children caught up in the maelstrom created by US imperialisms drive to consolidate its hegemony in the Middle East.

The conditions in the prison camps are horrendous. HRW notes, In makeshift prisons for men and adolescent boys food is scarce and overcrowding is so severe that many of the detainees must sleep shoulder to shoulder.  In locked camps for women, girls, and younger boys, tents collapse in strong winds or flood with rain or sewage.

The report goes on to point out that no protective equipment is provided to face the coronavirus pandemic. It notes, Drinking water is often contaminated or in short supply. Latrines are overflowing, wild dogs scavenge mounds of garbage littering the grounds, and illnesses including viral infections are rampant. Medical care is grossly inadequate.

HRW estimates that more than 100 prisoners and possibly several hundred have died, many from lack of care, since mid-2019. The Kurdish Red Crescent reported that in al-Holthe larger of two camps for women and children with about 65,000 detaineesat least 517 people, 371 of them children, died in 2019, many from preventable diseases.

Trudeau has resorted to evasions and flat-out lies to justify his governments decision to leave dozens of Canadian citizens in perilous conditions. Syria is an area where we do not have any diplomats or any Canadians on the ground and therefore we work through intermediaries to try and provide consular assistance as best we can, he said when questioned about the HRW report. In fact, Canada has managed to repatriate 40,000 citizens from 100 countries since March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including 29 from Syria.

Even though other imperialist countries such as the US, France, Germany, the UK and Australia have repatriated some of their citizens detained in Kurdish camps so as to prosecute and jail them, the Trudeau government has no intention of doing so. One reason for this is that the government knows that attempts to prosecute the adult detainees, male or female, are likely to fail, for lack of evidence that they were ISIS fighters, let alone broke any Canadian law.

Above all, the Liberals fear that if they repatriate the detainees, the Conservatives and other of their right-wing opponents will lambaste them for imperiling national security and an indulgent attitude towards terrorists so as to politically destabilize the government. As HRW points out in its report, Although Canadian authorities do not cite potential political fallout as a reason, in 2017 Trudeau faced a backlash simply for supporting rehabilitation programs for Canadian (ISIL) suspects who return home.

The abandonment of vulnerable, traumatized and, in many cases, ill children points to the vindictiveness and moral decay of Canadas ruling establishment. It is also in line with the criminal policy of successive Liberal and Conservative governments of imprisoning innocent refugees and their children in migrant prisons in Canada itself. According to the latest data reviewed by the refugee rights group No One is Illegal, the Canadian government jailed more than 87,000 refugee claimants and other migrants without charge between 2006 and 2014, including up to 807 children per year. These migrants are detained under atrocious conditions in provincial prisons and in various immigration-holding centers run by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

The capturing, jailing and torturing of civilians have also become commonplace in the uninterrupted series of US-led military conflicts involving Canadian imperialism over the past quarter century. From NATOs bombardment of Yugoslavia in 1999 to the neocolonial occupation of Afghanistan, the air war on Libya and the ongoing conflict in Iraq and Syria, US and Canadian forces have devastated entire societies, killed tens of thousands, and forced millions to flee their homes.

Canadian citizens caught in the crosshairs of US and Canadian imperialist aggression have suffered systematic abuse and mistreatment. Omar Khadr, who was detained as a child soldier in Afghanistan in 2002, became the youngest inmate of the infamous Guantanamo Bay prison camp. During 10 years of detention in this hell-hole, he was abused and tortured by US authorities with the complicity of successive Liberal and Conservative governments. (See: Canada's role in the persecution of child soldier Omar Khadr)

In the early years of the so-called war on terror, Ottawa also instituted what the World Socialist Web Site described as a made in Canada form of rendition, under which Canada s national-security agencies encouraged authoritarian regimes to detain and torture Canadians suspected of possible terrorist ties when they travelled abroad. Maher Arar and Abousfian Abdelrazikk, both of whom were Canadian citizens, were detained, tortured, and interrogated by the Syrian and Sudanese regimes respectively. In both cases, the torturers used information supplied by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service to question them. No evidence of their involvement in terrorist activity was ever uncovered (See: Cover-up in Canadas complicity in torture continues).
Sachin Pilot, sacked as deputy chief minister and the state unit chief for leading a rebellion against the Ashok Gehlot government, hasnt taken up the Congress on its offer to head back to Jaipur along with the other rebel lawmakers sequestered in a Gurugram on the outskirts of national capital Delhi.

On Wednesday, the Congress initiated the process to eject Sachin Pilot and the 18 rebel lawmakers from the assembly for skipping a party meet in Jaipur but followed up the many darts that Ashok Gehlot hurled at him with an offer.

Pilot had to make contact with the party leadership, pull out his group of legislators from a Gurugram hotel and head back home, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters. Then, Pilot would be given opportunities to raise his grievances with the partys large-hearted leadership who would look at how best to resolve them, he said.

Also Watch | Congress without Gandhis will be unprecedented, but it will work: Sanjay Jha

Surjewalas message signalled that it was for Sachin Pilot to make the first conciliatory move if he indeed intended to stay in the Congress, and not switch sides. But Surjewala had also made it clear that the party didnt buy the new narrative floated by his camp that he never intended to jump ship or hadnt been working with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The measured approach - a contrast to acerbic statements by Ashok Gehlot -- were driven by an assessment in the party headquarters in New Delhi that Congress leaders should not do anything to precipitate the matter.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi is learnt to have told the partys central observers camping in Jaipur that they should leave a window open for Pilots honourable stay in the party.

A Congress leader suggested that Sachin Pilots reluctance to grab the offer could stem from the fact that any face saver being contemplated by the party is unlikely to include any role of significance in Rajasthan, the state where Pilot is heavily invested.

His camp had earlier hinted at plans to launch a regional front if the Congress didnt accommodate his concerns around rival Ashok Gehlot who, Pilot had alleged, had been humiliating him and creating hurdles. Pilot, who had at one point expected 30 legislators to stand with him, subsequently found only 18 legislators willing to put their future in the party at stake.

This depleted strength of his camp vastly reduced his ability to negotiate with the Congress or the BJP. The Congress also moved faster than his camp had estimated, sacking him and two ministers from the government, and then purging the state unit of his supporters. But it is the Congress complaint to the assembly to disqualify Team Sachin Pilot as MLAs that could hurt him the most.

The BJP, which at one point this week believed the Gehlot government was nearing its end, appears to have stepped back for the moment. The BJPs state leadership has decided to switch back into the wait-and-watch mode, rather than be seen to be actively pulling down the Gehlot government.

A Congress leader in Delhi said Sachin Pilot would want to explore his options outside before driving back to Jaipur, given that the return may not really be on his terms. Gehlots continuation in the chief ministers chair does make it a little difficult for him to return, he said.
Following the Letter of Intent, both organizations engaged in due diligence and negotiations that led to the definitive agreement. The definitive agreement will now be submitted for review and approval to all the appropriate government regulators, including the Office of the California Attorney General. The review process usually takes several months.

The proposed affiliation includes commitments for continued investment in Huntington Hospital in enterprise information technology, growth of ambulatory services and physician development. It will also enable collaborations with the other entities in the Cedars-Sinai Health System to ensure access to high-quality, accessible and affordable care throughout the region. The proposed affiliation is intended to build upon Huntington's 128-year legacy, and to preserve its unique culture as a community institution governed by a local board, with its own employees and medical staff. In addition, philanthropy and volunteer support will remain locally controlled and used for Huntington Hospital and its existing community.

Cedars-Sinai Health System was established in 2017 to provide a platform for high-quality health care institutions to collaborate and share resources and expertise. It currently comprises Cedars-Sinai (which includes Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Cedars-Sinai Marina del Rey Hospital, as well as its network of physicians and medical offices throughout Southern California), Torrance Memorial (which includes Torrance Memorial Medical Center and its network of physicians and medical offices throughout the South Bay), and such joint ventures as California Rehabilitation Institute and Cedars-Sinai Providence Tarzana Medical Center.

"On behalf of everyone at Huntington Hospital, we are all very pleased to have reached this important milestone," said Jaynie Studenmund, chair of the Huntington Hospital Board of Directors. "With the definitive agreement now complete, we can move forward with our joint effort to secure the necessary regulatory approvals. We pledge to work cooperatively with all the relevant parties and believe that this proposed affiliation is in the best interest of all of our stakeholders and the greater San Gabriel Valley community."

"The goal of Cedars-Sinai Health System is to strengthen access to and affordability of quality care for more Southern Californians through the sharing of resources and expertise among our facilities," said Vera Guerin, chair of the Cedars-Sinai Health System Board of Directors. "The addition of Huntington Hospital, with its strong commitment to serving the community and the quality of its physicians, nurses and other staff, would further strengthen the ability to provide this for the region."

"With our institutions' shared focus on delivering exceptional, compassionate care to those we serve, I am confident that an affiliation with Cedars-Sinai Health System will enable Huntington Hospital to advance clinical quality and outcomes, sustain our legacy of providing outstanding patient care and maintain active engagement with all our communities," said Lori J. Morgan, MD, MBA, president and CEO of Huntington Hospital.

"Huntington Hospital is a great fit with Cedars-Sinai Health System, as its focus on meeting the community's needs is aligned with the similar goals of Cedars-Sinai and Torrance Memorial," said Thomas M. Priselac, president and CEO of Cedars-Sinai Health System. "Dr. Morgan and the Huntington board have a great vision for Huntington's future, and we are looking forward to strong collaborations with them."

About Cedars-Sinai Health System

Cedars-Sinai Health System was established in 2017 to bring together a collaborative network of high-quality healthcare institutions to share resources and expertise. Expanding patient access to convenient and affordable clinical care is a fundamental goal of the health system. Currently, the nonprofit Cedars-Sinai Health System comprises Cedars-Sinai (which includes the 890-bed Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the 145-bed Cedars-Sinai Marina del Rey Hospital), joint ventures with California Rehabilitation Institute and Cedars-Sinai Providence Tarzana Medical Center, as well as its network of physicians and ambulatory services at more than 40 locations throughout Southern California and Torrance Memorial (which includes the 470-bed Torrance Memorial Medical Center, its network of physicians and medical offices throughout the South Bay). The institutions in the health system serve nearly 2 million people each year.

About Huntington Hospital

Huntington Hospital, www.huntingtonhospital.org, is a 619-bed nonprofit hospital in Pasadena, California. The hospital offers the full spectrum of care for every need, in a variety of settings and through community partnerships. From primary care to urgent care, and from emergency care to trauma care, Huntington Hospital and its partners, ensure that community members receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time. The hospital has received six consecutive 'A' grades by The Leapfrog Group, a national distinction recognizing Huntington Hospital's achievements protecting patients from harm and providing safer health care. Learn more about us on Facebook www.facebook.com/huntingtonmemorialhospital and on Twitter @huntingtonnews.

SOURCE Huntington Hospital

Related Links

http://www.huntingtonhospital.com


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A hacker group "almost certainly" backed by Russia is trying to steal COVID-19-related vaccine research in Canada, the U.K. and the U.S., according to intelligence agencies in all three countries.

The Communications Security Establishment (CSE), responsible for Canada's foreign signals intelligence, said APT29  also known as Cozy Bear and the Dukes  is behind the malicious activity.

The group was accused of hacking the Democratic National Committee before the 2016 U.S. election.

APT29 "almost certainly operates as part of Russian intelligence services," the CSE said in a statement released Thursday morning in co-ordination with its international counterparts  an allegation the Kremlin immediately denied.

"These malicious cyber activities were very likely undertaken to steal information and intellectual property relating to the development and testing of COVID-19 vaccines, and serve to hinder response efforts at a time when health care experts and medical researchers need every available resource to help fight the pandemic," the CSE statement says.

APT29 "is likely to continue to target organizations involved in COVID-19 vaccine research and development, as they seek to answer additional intelligence questions relating to the pandemic," said a joint assessment from the CSE, the United Kingdom's National Cyber Security Centre and the National Security Agency in the U.S.

When asked if the malicious hits were successful and which facilities in Canada were targeted, a spokesperson said the CSE is generally "not able to comment on, or confirm details about specific cybersecurity incidents."

WATCH: U.K. condemns Russia for cyber attacks on COVID-19 vaccine developers

In response to CBC's inquiries, CSE spokesperson Evan Koronewski did point to a recent threat bulletin that reported a Canadian biopharmaceutical company was compromised by a foreign cyber threat actor back in mid-April.

Story continues

Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said he doesn't believe the alleged attack set back Canada's research.

"But it's a useful reminder to all of those scientists and industries right across Canada who are working very diligently to find that vaccine. Canadians and the world need it. It's important work," he told a news conference in Ottawa.

"We remain concerned. Not just the Russians targeting it, but other foreign actors as well. There are unfortunately people in this world who don't play by the rules and represent a risk  even a threat  to Canadian interests and to everyone's interests."

Watch | Blair asked about Russian cyber attack on Canadian COVID-19 vaccine labs

The three targeted countries said the Russian actors have been using custom malware known as WellMess and WellMail to attack a number of organizations globally during the pandemic.

The head of Britain's cyber security centre, Paul Chichester, said the allies "condemn these despicable attacks against those doing vital work to combat the coronavirus pandemic."

Previous warnings

In May, the CSE said authorities were investigating possible security breaches at Canadian organizations doing COVID-19-related research but did not say who was behind the attacks or where they were coming from.

The agency has been warning since the start of the COVID-19 crisis that Canadian intellectual property linked to the pandemic is a "valuable target" for state-sponsored actors.

U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said if Russia wants to rejoin international forums, "it needs to live up to its international responsibilities."

"I think it's important to call it out because we're not going to wait until there is harm," he told reporters earlier today.

"It's clearly wrong, contrary to international law, contrary to Russia's responsibilities as a member of the international community  and indeed a permanent member of the [UN] Security Council  to be targeting with cyber attacks the international effort, not just here in the UK, but in Canada, in the U.S., to try and find a vaccine, which is for the greater good of the world."

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne issued a statement this afternoon calling out "malicious state actors attempting to steal information and intellectual property." The statement doesn't cite Russia by name.

"We must call out irresponsible state behaviour that violates the rules-based international order and strive to live and work in a cyber environment that is open, stable, peaceful and secure," the statement reads.

"In Canada, we are committed to defending these principles in cyberspace, especially when they touch on the interests of Canadians."

The Russian news agency RIA said Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied the allegations, which he said were not backed up by proper evidence.

The CSE says Canadian health organizations should read its advisory and take necessary actions to protect themselves, and contact the Cyber Centre if they suspect they have been targeted.
ANSONIA  Ron Matusovichs doctors call him Superman as he seems to overcome the many obstacles thrown his way.

But unlike the real Superman, Matusovich uses a wheelchair to get around and has a dedicated wife of 37 years by his side.

Its just never ending, said his wife, Denise. Weve had to make a lot of adjustments. Were functioning - its a day-to-day thing.

Ron Matusovich, 62, formerly a math and social studies teacher at Carrigan Middle School in West Haven, is confined to a wheelchair, has no shoulder movement, has had toes amputated, cant bend one leg and cant walk, due to a persistent Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection  or MRSA  that took hold years ago.

The MRSA, for which hell take antibiotics for life, stems from surgeries he had after serious injuries he encountered breaking up student fights when he was a teacher at Carrigan, Denise Matusovich said.

Before the downhill spiral over years, Ron Matusovich was active and healthy, his wife said.

Its going to get better. It has to get better. We keep praying, she said. As long as Rons OK and everyones functioning were going to find a way.

The family has had generous community fundraising support, including an upcoming Bike Night fundraiser Monday at the Valley Diner in Derby from 6 to 9 p.m.

Richard Lupkas, who runs the Bike Night fundraisers, said he decided to do a fundraiser because, I heard the story and felt the poor family lost their life  ruined by helping others  and felt they needed our help.

Ron Matusovich said hes grateful for the financial help, as life is tough right now.

Id love to tell you Im doing great. But this is the worst part of my life these last 12 years. My kids grew up. Before this wed be rolling in the grass, paying ball, he said. Every day I wake up and its another day I cant do anything with my kids.

The kids  a son, 33, and a daughter, 30  live at home and contribute significantly to their dads care, Denise Matusovich said.

Ron Matusovich said as bad as the situation is now, I feel very lucky, because so many other people are worse off, including the homeless.

Denise Matusovich said they are always grateful for what they have, including the outpouring of support from a generous community.

Im still ... speechless, she said of the help theyve received and the upcoming Bike Night.

Denise Matusovich has a full-time job at Yale University as a cooks helper but has to watch her stress and get sleep because she has multiple sclerosis and a blood disorder.

Four years ago she was working two jobs  she was a school paraprofessional  but left that job when she got more hours at Yale University, as the two jobs were wearing on her.

While the overhead of their Ansonia house is covered by her salary and her husbands disability pension, and they have good medical insurance, there are many other medical equipment expenses not covered, Denise Matusovich said, adding that they have zero savings.

A friend ran a GoFundMe campaign to get a stair lift, with the help of other church and community donations, but they needed to install a special bathtub that cost $7,000, because Ron cant bend his left leg. Denise Matusovich took out a loan for the tub, as her husband hadnt had a shower in six months (although he took sponge baths).

She is hoping the Bike Night can help offset that expense, as the payments are tough.

The family doesnt know whether Ron Matusovich will walk again.

He left Carrigan on disability in 2007 after about 12 years, having suffered numerous injuries breaking up different fights there, including a shattered knee, then a shattered knee replacement, two shattered shoulders that required replacement. Once the MRSA came into the picture they had to remove his shoulder replacements and all kinds of health problems came into the picture.

Hes had more than 20 surgeries, has been in and out of rehab and is in pain, he said. He had some toes amputated on each foot and one leg is three inches shorter than the other.

Sometimes he falls.

Denise Matusovich said he possibly could walk in another year - and that hope is something they hold on to dearly.

Its going to be a very long time, Denise Matusovich.
First Majestic (NYSE:AG) announced Wednesday it produced 3.5 million silver equivalent ounces, consisting of 1.8 million ounces of silver and 15,764 ounces of gold in Q2.

Production was down sharply compared to the previous quarter. First Majestic said that total ore processed during the quarter at the company's mines amounted to 333,559 tonnes, representing a 44% decrease due to Mexicos Ministry of Healths Decree requiring non-essential businesses to temporarily suspend activities in response to the global pandemic.

The company said it is adding to inventory due to anticipated higher selling prices. As of June 30, the company held 970,000 ounces of silver in inventory in anticipation of realizing higher selling prices in the second half of 2020.

Despite the temporary shutdown of operations during the quarter, our production results were better than anticipated as a result of implementing an extended and safe ramp down of the San Dimas operation throughout the month of April, said Keith Neumeyer, President and CEO. San Dimas produced a total of 2.4 million silver equivalent ounces, or 35% lower than the previous quarter. Total production at the Santa Elena and La Encantada operations were 63% and 45% lower, respectively, compared to the prior quarter as a result of suspending operations in early April.

We began implementing restart procedures in mid-May following the Ministry of Healths announcement that mining activities were now deemed an essential business throughout Mexico. As of today, our operations are back to pre-pandemic production rates and our focus for the second half of 2020 is to try and fully recover the lost ounces due to the shutdown.

The company shaved the upper end of its guidance.

Its 2020 total production will be 21.4 to 22.9 million silver equivalent ounces compared to the prior guidance of 21.5 to 24.0 million silver equivalent ounces.

The company said it is also anticipating a reduction in annualized cash costs of approximately 30% due to the higher gold by-product revenues and the weaker Mexican Peso.
Reacting to the ongoing political crisis in Rajasthan, Aam Aadmi Partys national spokesperson Raghav Chadha on Thursday said that political parties are busy playing games at a time when the focus should be on fighting the pandemic. The AAP MLA said now is the time when all parties should come together and stand united in the face of the Covid-19 crisis.

It is a sad spectacle to witness that parties are busy playing dirty politics at a time when the pandemic crisis looms overhead, Chadha said.

Now is the time to figure out how can we protect our country, our citizens and their health ami the pandemic. How can we improve our recovery rate? How can various states conduct more tests and arrange for more beds, ventilators, ICUs, he said.

Also read: Rajasthan HC defers hearing on disqualification notice served on MLAs of Sachin Pilot camp

Sharpening his attack on the Congress party, Chadha described it as an old political entity which has collapsed completely and is now fighting for its survival.

The Congress party is currently on a ventilator, fighting for its survival. It cannot save itself. We all have seen, states after states it ican be seen selling its votes and MLAs, Chadha said, citing examples of similar power tussle in states like Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.

Press conference by AAP National Spokesperson Raghav Chadha on Rajasthan political crisis. https://t.co/b9Sc6sYnNo  AAP (@AamAadmiParty) July 16, 2020

Congress neither has any future, nor the party can give any future to this country, he said, adding that nothing can save the grand old party from its downfall.

Chadhas remarks come as the political tussle in Rajasthan intensifies with the recent removal of Sachin Pilot as deputy chief minister and state Congress committee chief by the Congress party.

Also read: Ashok Gehlot vs Sachin Pilot becomes Harish Salve vs Abhishek Singhvi in court

Rajasthan High Court on Thursday deferred the hearing on disqualification notice served to MLAs of the rebel Sachin Pilot camp. Pilot and others had moved the Rajasthan HC earlier in the day against the disqualification notice issued by assembly speaker CP Joshi to disqualify them as MLAs.

Congress had sought their disqualification from the assembly for anti-party activities. Pilot and his supporting camp of lawmakers did not attend the Congress Legislative Party meeting called by the party on Monday and Tuesday in Jaipur which was mandatory for party MLAs to attend.
Australia's first ever contactless robot bar is set to provide the answer to social distancing in the COVID-19 era.

The innovative bar is serving up Heineken beer for four days this week in Darlinghurst in Sydney's inner-city.

The only catch is the beer is Heineken's Zer0.0 alcohol-free brand - timed to coincide with Dry July when thousands of Australians across the country abstain from drinking alcohol to raise funds for those affected by cancer.

Scroll down for video

Pictured: Australia's first ever contactless robot bar opening in Darlinghurst in Sydney's inner-city this week

The bar is serving up alcohol-free Heineken beer for four days this week from July 15 until July 19

The bar will only permit one person inside at a time.

Customers can use the service between 11am and 6pm each day from July 15 until July 19.

The Heineken Zer0.0 Contact Bar features two robotic arms called Heidi and Ken.

It has been designed in response to guidelines introduced in the wake of the coronavirus crisis and developed by robotics students from the University of Sydney.

Heineken's new service - which features robotic arms called Heidi and Ken - has been designed by robotics students from the University of Sydney

Robotics students were tasked with coming up with a contactless alternative to hand-serving the famous import beer to customers during the COVID-19 era

They were challenged to create a social distancing-friendly alternative to hand-serving the famous import beer to customers.

'We challenged some of our students, who recently completed an experimental robotics course, to create a robotic, contactless solution by delivering samples to Heinekens customers,' the head of the university's school of aerospace Professor Stefan Williams said.

Heineken 0.0 is Heinekens first alcohol-free beer and launched in Australia in 2019.
2 | Next crop of COVID-19 vaccine developers take more traditional route: The handful of drugmakers dominating the global coronavirus vaccine race are pushing the boundaries of vaccine technology. The next crop under development feature more conventional, proven designs. The world will need several different vaccines to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, given the sheer size of global need, variations in effects on different populations, and possible limits of effectiveness in the first crop. Many leading candidates now in final-stage testing are based on new, largely unproven technology platforms designed to produce vaccines at speed.

Positive data from initial Phase 1 trials of AstraZeneca, the University of Oxfords potential COVID-19 vaccine, may be released on July 16 (today), a source told Robert Peston, political editor  ITV.

While trails have already reached Phase III  i.e. large scale human trials to access protection against the novel coronavirus, developers have not yet revealed Phase 1 data, which could show the immune response induced by the potential vaccine.

Earlier in July, developers said immune response gleaned from the trials has so far been encouraging and they expect to publish data for Phase 1 by month-end. The Lancet medical journal is expected to publish it.

Follow our LIVE Updates on the coronavirus pandemic here

In a blog post, Peston said: "I am hearing there will be positive news soon (perhaps tomorrow) on initial trials of the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine that is backed by AstraZeneca."

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 awaiting confirmation from a scientific journal on the publication date and time for the data and are not able to confirm when it will be released," an Oxford University spokeswoman told Reuters.

More than 100 vaccines are being developed and tested around the world to try to stop the COVID-19 pandemic. Till July 16, 13,516,656 cases have been recorded worldwide and the virus has killed as many as 583,450, as per the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research.

Follow our full COVID-19 coverage here

(With inputs from Reuters)
Representatives on the House Appropriations Committee have debated the status of magic mushrooms and other psychedelic drugs in Washington, DC, after activists called for them to be decriminalised in a petition.

Last week, activists submitted a petition with 36,000 signatures to the Board of Elections, that they say is enough to get the decriminalisation of natural hallucinogens in the district on the ballot in November, according to the Associated Press.

If the motion is successful, then it would follow similar laws passed in Denver, Colorado, and California cities Oakland and Santa Cruz, where natural hallucinogens, have been decriminalised in recent years.

Melissa Lavasani, who proposed the initiative and claimed using the mushrooms helped treat her postpartum depression, said the activists are focused on promoting the therapeutic and medical benefits of the drugs.

DC could really lead the way on this, Ms Lavasani told the AP. You shouldnt bear the repercussions of the drug war while you are healing yourself.

However, Maryland representative Andy Harris, proposed forbidding a voter initiative on the policy on Wednesday, and argued that we certainly  I would hope  dont want to be known as the drug capital of the world.

His amendment, which also called for the use of psychedelics to be still be banned without a doctors recommendation, was backed by other Republicans, who suggested that decriminalising the drugs would be dangerous, according to the New York Post.

We all can agree that policies that increase the availability of psychedelic drugs in the nations capital  thats dangerous, said Republican representative Tom Graves.

As the nations capital, the District of Columbia, it should be a place where Americans come to see their government at work, for history and to go to a Braves-Nats game. It shouldnt be a destination for illegal drugs, he added.

However, Democrats on the committee criticised Mr Harris proposed amendment and said that the vote is a choice for the public, not politicians.

If the districts residents want to make mushrooms a lower priority and focus limited law enforcement resources on other issues, that is their prerogative, Illinois congressman Mike Quigley argued.

The health benefits of using natural hallucinogens has long been debated, but a study at New York Universitys Grossman School of Medicine earlier this year found that a single dose of psilocybin, a compound found in psychedelic mushrooms, could have long-term positive effects.

The study into psilocybin, found that in conjunction with psychotherapy, cancer patients experienced improvements in emotional and existential distress five years after they had been administered just one dose.

Participants overwhelmingly (71 to 100 per cent) attributed positive life changes to the psilocybin-assisted therapy experience and rated it among the most personally meaningful and spiritually significant experiences of their lives, the researchers said of the study from 2016 to 2020.

Mr Harris later withdraw his amendment, but released a statement where he said he would revisit it if the motion is on the ballot in November.

This is a new issue to the committee, he said. Between now and the meeting of the conference committee this fall, the issue of whether this will be on the ballot will be resolved.

Fortunately, in that time, members will also have time to learn more about this complicated medical issue.
Mohammed Sani-Omolori, clerk of the national assembly, says his continued stay in office is backed by law and cannot be voided by the ...





Mohammed Sani-Omolori, clerk of the national assembly, says his continued stay in office is backed by law and cannot be voided by the National Assembly Service Commission.





In a statement shared on Wednesday, Sani-Omolori said the commission does not have the powers to set aside the revised condition of service passed by the previous assembly.





He directed all staff of the legislative chamber whom the commission asked to proceed on retirement to disregard the directive and go about their lawful duties.





Ahmed Amshi, the commissions chairman, had approved the retirement age for national assembly staff as 60 years of age or upon 35 years of service, contrary to the requirement stated in the amended conditions of service.





A plot by the previous assembly saw the conditions of service of the national assembly staff being amended, increasing the requirement of retirement for the staff to 65 years or 40 years of pensionable service.





In addition to Sani-Omolori who started his civil service career on February 6, 1985, and was initially due to retire in February, some other senior management staff of the national assembly were affected by the new development.





Amshi had said the commission has approved the immediate retirement of staff of the National Assembly Service who have already attained the retirement age of 35 years of service or 60 years of age, and that retirement letters would be issued to the affected staff accordingly.





But reacting shortly after, Sani-Omolori said the amended condition of service for national assembly staff remains in place.





The resolution of the 8th National Assembly on the Conditions of Service of Staff has not been rescinded nor abdicated by the National Assembly, who under the authentic National Assembly Service Act 2014 as passed, is empowered to review any proposed amended to the Conditions of Service by the Commission, he said.





Therefore, the National Assembly Service Commission does NOT have the powers to set aside the Revised Conditions of Service as passed by the 8th National assembly.




A federal bankruptcy judge Thursday decided she will not unseal reams of documents outlining how the Archdiocese of New Orleans handled sexual molestation allegations against a priest accused of molesting numerous children, though she said she will almost certainly revisit the issue again later.

Essentially, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill concluded that a claimants request that she publicly release the documents pertaining to his alleged abuser  Lawrence Hecker  was made in the wrong forum.

'The whole truth': Bankruptcy judge urged to unseal records of alleged abusive New Orleans priest Attorneys for a man who alleges he was preyed upon by a New Orleans priest wants a federal bankruptcy judge to unseal reams of confidential do

The claimants attorneys made the request while objecting to a motion from the archdiocese to continue paying certain lawyers after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections on May 1. The plaintiffs legal team argued those attorneys, who havent been identified, stand accused of helping the church cover up the truth about Hecker and other alleged clergy predators.

They contended that unsealing the Hecker documents would let the plaintiffs lawyers share them with a committee of molestation survivors representing the interests of archdiocesan creditors as they weigh opposing payments the church proposes to make.

But Grabill said she needed to be asked explicitly to either overturn a prior ruling in Orleans Parish Civil District Court that shielded the documents public release  or to return the case to that courthouse so the judge who initially issued the order can be urged to reconsider.

Thats not before me, Grabill said. It has to be teed up properly. Ill wait to rule until its properly before the court.

Lawyers for the archdiocese had pushed Grabill to dismiss the plaintiffs motion as an attempted end run around an order first handed down by Judge Nakisha Ervin-Knott of Civil District Court, where Heckers accuser filed his lawsuit last year.

The plaintiff, who is not named in court filings, alleged that Hecker fondled him and other boys at St. Joseph School in Gretna in 1968. The plaintiffs lawyers say their client is but one of Heckers countless victims, and they assert his supervisors never turned him over to police to be prosecuted for crimes that could still be punished.

The lawyers allege a wealth of evidence against Hecker exists in documents that the archdiocese handed over in the discovery process but that church lawyers classified as confidential, placing them under seal until someone successfully argued that they should be published.

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Retired New Orleans priest invokes rights against self-incrimination in molestation lawsuit In a clear sign of concern about potential criminal charges, a retired New Orleans priest who is accused in a lawsuit of sexually molesting c

In early March, the plaintiffs attorneys asked Ervin-Knott to remove the seal from those documents. The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate, along with WWL-TV, WDSU-TV and WVUE-TV, joined in that request, arguing the documents held information community members could use to protect themselves from a still-living priest.

Yet the archdioceses decision to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection halted that push indefinitely, along with lawsuits from the plaintiff and dozens of others whose state court cases were automatically stayed and transferred to federal court.

The archdiocese said the bankruptcy filings primary goal was to allow the church to straighten its books after the coronavirus pandemic and the cost of litigating abuse cases dealt it significant financial blows.

Abuse claimants advocates reject that, arguing the bankruptcy simply aimed to halt disclosures like the ones contained in the Hecker documents. They have a pending request for the bankruptcy case to be dismissed.

The archdiocese has admitted it first learned of a molestation allegation against Hecker in 1988, and that the church paid to settle at least four abuse complaints against him.

Yet Hecker had permission to remain in public ministry until 2002, when he retired. The churchs own transparency policies at the time appear to have required his immediate unmasking as a suspected abuser, but it wasnt until 16 years later that the archdiocese disclosed it suspected Hecker was a child molester, a disclosure church officials made by including him in a 2018 list of dozens of clergymen faced with credible allegations.

The church also continued providing him with money it gives to all retired priests, including funds to cover living expenses. Grabill has ordered those payments stopped.

Hecker denies the plaintiffs claims. The plaintiffs lawyers want Hecker held in contempt of court after he skipped a deposition, saying he would simply invoke his right against self-incrimination.
Khartoum  The head of the South Sudanese mediation team, Dhieu Mathok announced that the signing of the final peace agreement by the government and the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) rebel alliance has been postponed.

The peace agreement will be signed "in the coming days in Juba, after an accord on security arrangements has been reached", Mathok said at a press conference in Khartoum

He announced that a government security delegation will accompany the mediation team to Juba today to negotiate security arrangements.

He said that the government and the SRF agreed on six major issues, so that the negotiations between the government and the SRF will actually end. Only the security protocol remains to be discussed.

Mathok said that the mediation team is preparing a matrix for implementing the agreement, including a time table. The final peace agreement will also be translated into English, for the benefit of partner countries and international organisations.

SRF

The Sudan Revolutionary Front attributed the postponement of the signing of the peace agreement, called "national pivotal issues paper" by the SRF, to the violent break-up of the sit-in in Fata Borno in North Darfur by militiamen.

In a statement, the SRF announced that it accepts the draft agreement with its six articles, provided that the peace agreement is signed in Juba, where the negotiations took place, and only after agreeing on the implementation matrix, the security arrangements, and other remaining outstanding issues.

Women

Sudanese women started a campaign yesterday against the exclusion of women in the nominations of civilian governors. The campaign is headed by the No to Oppression against Women Initiative, the Sudanese Women's Union, and southern Khartoum Kandakat.

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The Civil Forces Association called in a statement issued yesterday on all the forces of the revolution, including the Forces for Freedom and Change and the government, to support the participation of women, "not as a decorative grant but as an acquired right".

The statement, entitled "No to the Exclusion of Women", stresses that the current list of proposed civilian governors "does not do justice to women". It brings to mind that active participation of women in political decision-making and implementation of policies "is one of the demands of the glorious December revolution, in which the best sons and daughters of our country fought, and were tortured and killed".

The Sudanese Women's Peace and Security Initiative called on the government to comply with the United Nations Security Council's decision on the need to protect women from being affected by conflict.

In a statement issued yesterday, the Initiative said that women in Darfur and Sudan are affected by wars and prolongation of conflicts. Solving the conflicts and addressing the consequences of war can only take place if women actively participate in the peace process and decision-making, the statement says.

The Women's Peace and Security Initiative added that is absolutely necessary to hold the perpetrators of violence accountable, and show fairness to the victims, especially women. It calls for positive discrimination of women at all levels of peacebuilding.

Radio Dabanga's editorial independence means that we can continue to provide factual updates about political developments to Sudanese and international actors, educate people about how to avoid outbreaks of infectious diseases, and provide a window to the world for those in all corners of Sudan. Support Radio Dabanga for as little as 2.50, the equivalent of a cup of coffee.
Ramu Patil By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: Bogged down by the surging numbers, the health authorities are now working on a plan to cut the time taken to provide treatment to Covid-19 patients, specially the high-risk category. Laboratories conducting the Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RTPCR) tests on samples will be directed to mention the Cycle Threshold (CT) level in the test reports, which will give an indication of the viral load among positive patients.

The move is likely to help provide timely treatment to critical patients and minimise mortality, especially at a time when deaths due to Covid-19 have almost doubled from 470 on July 8 to 928 on July 15.

This has happened mainly due to late reporting at hospitals. The CT level, along with symptoms and comorbidities, will help doctors decide which Covid-19-positive individuals need more urgent medical attention than others  a process called triaging. Senior IAS officer Dr Trilok Chandra, who heads the Covid- 19 Critical Care Support Committee, said directives will be issued to laboratories conducting the RT-PCR tests on Thursday.

Late reporting a major reason for fatality spurt

Dr CN Manjunath, Director, Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, who is also a member of Covid-19 lab testing team, said, The CT levels indicate if the viral load is high, mild or moderate. But the intensity of symptoms, based on viral load, varies from person to person. Symptomatic patients with high viral load need to be more carefully supervised. However, some people with higher viral load can also be asymptomatic. There is no correlation with high viral load and intensity of symptoms. The CT level is one of the indicators.

Dr Trilok Chandra stressed, CT triaging will help quicker and more precise treatment. He and his team are closely monitoring the treatment of high-risk cases. Of the 14,128 patients in the high-risk category, 4,145 have been discharged (as of Tuesday). Senior citizens, children aged below 10 years and those with comorbidities, who have tested positive for Covid-19 are categorised as high-risk cases who require more urgent attention from specialists.

The officer also expressed concern over late reporting, which is one of the main reasons for deaths among Covid-19 patients. Of the 87 deaths reported on Wednesday, most of them died just two-three days after being admitted to hospitals. The top priority is to get Covid patients to hospitals as early as possible and door-to-door survey is being conducted to identity people with Influenza-Like Illness, Severe Acute Respiratory Illness, and people with untreated comorbidities. Dr Manjunath said that the number of tests being conducted every day have been increased to around 22,000.
Credit: Olivia BeeThe Killers have dropped a triad of news items.

First, they've announced a new release date for their upcoming album, Imploding the Mirage. The record was supposed to arrive in May, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It'll now arrive on August 21.

Second, the band's North American tour has been postponed as a result of the pandemic. The outing was originally scheduled to kick off this coming August, but will now launch in 2021. Exact rescheduled dates have yet to be announced. Stay tuned to TheKillersMusic.com for more info.

And third, The Killers have premiered the video for the Imploding song "My Own Soul's Warning." The clip is a continuation of the previously released visual for the album's lead single, "Caution."

Imploding the Mirage is the follow-up to 2017's Wonderful Wonderful.

By Josh Johnson

Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(Video contains uncensored profanity.)
New York  Latin America is scrambling to contain surging COVID-19 infections while confronting near-certain recession and related impacts, but polices that prioritize poor and vulnerable people can help mitigate the regions already extreme poverty and inequality, a new UNDP study finds.

Before the pandemic, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected only 1.6 percent economic growth for the region in 2020, with recessions in several countries. In April, it projected a contraction of 5.2 percent, with almost every country in recession. Tourism-dependent Caribbean nations could see GDP plunge between 5 and 10 percentworsening the regions chronic poverty, inequality, and insecurity.

As of 24 June, Latin America and the Caribbean had 2,154,566 confirmed cases and a total of 100,214 deaths, straining chronically under-funded health systems. Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, and Chile have the highest numbers of deaths in the region, and Brazil now has the highest number of deaths worldwide after the United States. Experts also fear some countries are grossly under-reporting the number of COVID-19 infections and related deaths.

The Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative has proposed three indicators to capture the risk of COVID-19 infection: lack of access to safe drinking water; use of noxious fuels inside homes; and malnutrition. By those measures, 142 million people are at risk of contracting COVID-19 in Latin Americaroughly one quarter of the regions population.



And citizens across the region are worried. A survey of more than 1,000 people in Argentina and reports from 15 other UNDP country offices in the region found Latin Americans cited major worries related to lockdown measures aimed a containing the pandemic. Top concerns were:

 Income: 12 of 16 countries named falling incomes among the main concerns; 10 named falling incomes as their number one concern.

 Health: Eight of 16 countries named health-related issues such as access to medication and health services among top concerns.

 Domestic violence: Six of 16 countries named domestic violence among main concerns, fueled by high levels of alcohol and drug abuse in poor areas.

 Food supplies: Five countries named access to food among the main concerns.

 Discrimination: Five countries mentioned discrimination or exclusion of minorities, migrants, or members of the LGBTIQ community as a top concern.

 Overcrowding. Five countries named cited overcrowding among main concerns.

 Education: The in-depth report for Argentina found that limited access to online education and the governments failure to provide printed booklets to all children had severely disrupted learninglikely increasing the risk of students dropping out of school for good.

Policy actions can limit long-term damage

Action is urgent in multiple related areas, the study argues: the epidemiological, healthcare, and sanitation front; the economic front; labor markets; and social protection.

In the current state of emergency, governments should prioritize transparent public information campaigns, plan strategies that involve marginalized groups in urban areas and indigenous communities, guarantee access to clean water, soap, food, income, and other essential items, ensure internet connectivity, use spaces other than hospitals to isolate COVID-19 patients, and design strategies to safely move patients among medical facilities.

Later, governments should provide free COVID-19 testing to the poorest and most vulnerable groups, keep opening new isolation centers, guarantee access to safe drinking water, ensure marginalized groups own devices that allow them to be tracked, expand digital financial inclusion, protect livelihoods, and provide monetary transfers to the poor.

They should also devise temporary employment programs, direct safe food distribution, implement tax cuts or deferrals, prevent cutting of basic services such as water, electricity, and Wi-Fi, mitigate domestic violence, sustain education, and ensure access to health and medication beyond COVID-19, the study says.

UNDP at the country level

UNDP is working throughout Latin America and the Caribbean to help contain the pandemic and mitigate its social and economic impacts:

 In Argentina, UNDP has developed a social media campaign promoting inclusive finance. #PlataSinBanco (money without bank) explains current alternatives to withdraw money from a local ATM, even without a debit card or bank account. This program supports the Emergency Family Income effort by the national government to help the poorest and most vulnerable populations, among other measures. UNDP also partnered with regional Innovation Labs through a virtual Hackathon, gathering more than 800 partners and 2,000 proposals to cope with COVID-19.

 In Barbados, to generate jobs and safely deliver food, UNDP and FarmFinder are devising a digital farming and fisheries portal to more effectively connect vendors and consumers, including a system to trace and track locally farmed and fished products.

 In Haiti, UNDP is working to reprogram existing funds, with agreement from donors, to procure essential PPE, supporting medical personnel, and supporting the judicial and corrections systems.

 In Honduras, UNDP is providing technical assistance to prioritize households most affected by the crisis to receive social support and food transfers and launching a cash transfer mechanism that will reach some 500,000 people.

In Mexico, UNDP and UN Women are building response capacity and prevention units of the Secretariat of Women of the Government of Mexico City, which support women victims of domestic and gender violence. UNDP is also working with the Zurich Foundation to support 6,000 families from 100 communities with high levels of poverty, in the South of Mexico.


Both the Yemeni government and Houthi fighters lay claim to its valuable cargo and neither side is budging.

The United Nations is warning that time is running out for a derelict oil tanker which has been stranded off the west coast of Yemen for five years

Both the Yemeni government and Houthi fighters lay claim to its valuable cargo  and neither side is willing to budge.

But Houthi authorities have promised to allow a UN team of engineers to access the tanker to prevent a giant oil spill.

Al Jazeeras Laura Burdon-Manley reports.
Princess Caroline of Monacos stepson, Prince Christian of Hanover, just welcomed not one, but two royal babies.

According to Hello! magazine, the German nobles wife, Alessandra de Osma, gave birth to the couples first children on July 7: a boy named Nicolas and a girl named Sofia.

The delivery reportedly took place in Madrid, and both the mother and the babies are doing well. Although no further details have been released, we cant help but wonder if theres a special meaning behind Nicolass name.

While its undoubtedly regal, the moniker hasnt been used by the House of Hanover in the past. Its not unheard of for members of the royal family to choose never-before-heard nameslike Archieand since his twin sister has a special moniker, we wouldnt be surprised if thats the case.

Baby Sofia is likely named after Queen Sofia of Spain, who is the first child of King Paul of Greece and Frederica of Hanover. The royal family has yet to confirm the inspiration behind the name, but the connection is pretty clear.

Prince Christian is the youngest son of Prince Ernst August of Hanover and his first wife, Chantal Hochuli. He has an older brother, Prince Ernst August; a younger sister, Princess Alexandra; and several half siblings, which makes him second in the line of succession to the former Hanoverian throne. (His dad later remarried his current stepmom, Princess Caroline of Monaco.)

Wishing the new parents all the best on this exciting new chapter.

RELATED: Who Is Queen Letizia of Spain? We Have Answers
YEREVAN, 16 JULY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 16 July, USD exchange rate down by 0.86 drams to 483.64 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 3.31 drams to 550.33 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.04 drams to 6.79 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 4.86 drams to 605.66 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 7.84 drams to 28060.42 drams. Silver price up by 6.24 drams to 300.57 drams. Platinum price up by 132.74 drams to 12952.64 drams.
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Saudi Aramco has joined with European and US supermajors representing a third of the worlds oil industry to begin curbing emissions at their own operations as the clamor builds for the biggest polluters to act on climate impact.

Members of the Oil & Gas Climate Initiative, a group of big oil companies working on ways to respond to climate change, pledged to reduce the carbon intensity of their operations to between 20 and 21 kilograms of carbon dioxide per barrel of crude equivalent by 2025. That represents a reduction of as much as 13% from 2017 levels.

The target only refers to intensity, meaning it allows producers to increase their overall emissions, but theyll have to be cleaner on a per-barrel basis. It also doesnt include customer emissions, referred to by carbon accountants as Scope 3, which typically add up to more than 90% of an oil companys total footprint.

But the target is higher than the 18 kilograms of carbon dioxide per barrel averaged by members of the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers, which represents about 40% of the industry. Bob Dudley, the former BP Plc CEO and chairman of OGCI, said the new target is significant because it brings together privately owned and state oil producers around a common goal.

Its a start, Dudley said in a phone interview. I dont think its a small achievement to bring all these companies together -- national oil companies, who have their own pressures, European and US companies have different government and shareholder pressures on them -- actually work together, particularly during the pandemic.

Aggressive Targets

Achieving the target by 2025 will remove as much as 52 million tons of carbon dioxide per year, equivalent to the total emissions from about 6 million US homes, according to the OGCI. Anyone that tells you these are not big numbers, thats just not right, Dudley said.

Aramcos oil- and gas-production operations have a carbon intensity of 10.1 kilograms of carbon dioxide per barrel, which is one of the lowest in the industry, a spokesperson said in a statement on Thursday.

Aramco has been actively investing in sustainability for decades, the spokesperson said. Since the 1970s, the company has been investing in flare-minimization and the installation of a gas-recovery system.

European oil companies such as BP, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Total SA, have announced some of the most aggressive emission reductions targets, but have been criticized for a lack of detail and for giving themselves until the middle of the century to achieve carbon neutrality. By contrast, the OGCI target is near-term, which means its practical and can be measured, Dudley said.

Its a step in the right direction for national oil companies to set emissions targets, even if its only a small step, said Andrew Grant, head of oil, gas and mining at Carbon Tracker, an energy transition research group. Incremental developments are welcome, but they need to be followed up with broader goals. Upstream emissions are only a very small part of the issue.

The OGCI announcement comes the same week presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden unveiled plans to spend $2 trillion creating a clean-energy economy with the goal of rapidly reducing US greenhouse gas emissions. The European Union is aiming to be carbon neutral by 2050, a big reason why European oil companies are embracing a similar goal.

Dudley said its completely coincidental the OGCI plan was announced the same week as Bidens. Despite widespread public criticism for its contribution to climate change, the oil and gas industry has proved it can adapt quickly to economic and political pressures, Dudley said.

Big Oils new investment criteria has got to be cleaner, its got to be economic for sure, its got to be within policy and its seen to be moving the envelope because everybody has a sense of urgency about this, he said.
Having a member of the royal family become a patron has no financial benefit for a charity's income, a study has found.

Independent think tank Giving Evidence has carried out a comprehensive study of the revenues of the 1,187 UK registered charities that have at least one royal patron.

It's research published online reads: 'We could not find any evidence that Royal patrons increase a charitys revenue (there were no other outcomes that we could analyse), nor that Royalty increases generosity more broadly.'

CEO Caroline Fiennes said: 'Donors sometimes think if a charity has a royal patronage, it is somehow of a better quality than their peers. We did not find any evidence to suggest that.'

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have 21 charity patronages between them, Prince William has 12 and Kate Middleton has nine

Prince Charles founded the Prince's Trust in 1976 and is also patron for charities including Age UK and Age Cymru

The study found 74 per cent of charities to have a member of the royal family as a patron received no visit from them last year.

Despite making up just two per cent of the causes involved in the research, charities founded by a royal were more likely to receive an official visit or event.

Ms Fiennes said: 'A lot of charities think a royal patron will visit them and they'll be able to benefit from the press and the event.

'I was really surprised to find to see that three quarters of all those charities didn't get a single public engagement last year.'

'We could not find any evidence that Royal patrons increase a charitys revenue (there were no other outcomes that we could analyse), nor that Royalty increases generosity more broadly.'

Former charity CEO and board member Ms Fiennes explained how patronages are not necessarily decided on quality, but instead on history and location.

What is a royal patronage? The first royal patronage dates back to the 18th century when King George II was involved in the Society of Antiquaries, an organisation concerned with architectural and art history. The Royal Family has 2,862 patronages, under half of which are with charities registered in the UK. Its website states: 'Having a Royal patron or president provides vital publicity for the work of these organisations, and allows their enormous achievements and contributions to society to be recognised. 'Royal patronages add status to an organisation, and visits and involvement from a Royal Patron can often bring much needed publicity.' Advertisement

She said: 'Donors sometimes think if a charity has a royal patronage, it is somehow of a better quality than their peers.

'We did not find any evidence to suggest that.'

Giving Evidence's research reads: 'As well as finding no evidence that Royals bring revenue to their patronee charities, we also found no reason that donors should assume that a charity with a Royal patronage outperforms its peers.

'Take air ambulances. The UK has 21 air ambulance charities, each serving a different patch.

'The ones with senior Royal patrons are: Cornwall (Camilla: Duchess of Cornwall), London (William: who lives in London), Wiltshire (Camilla, who has a house in neighbouring Gloucestershire), and Yorkshire (Andrew: Duke of York).

'It seems likely that these selections are driven less by quality than by history and geography.'

It claims that London, the South East and the South West are 'over patroned,' compared to other parts of the country, while also saying royals tended to be represent 'uncontroversial' casues such as environmental, animal, culture and sporting charities.

It added: 'The sectors with fewest Royal patronages are housing, employment, social services, and religion.'
Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, China has been working to expand its influence over the KRG through medical aid.

The coronavirus pandemic created an opportunity for China to strengthen its burgeoning relations with Iraqs semi-autonomous oil and gas-rich Kurdish region of northern Iraq (KRI) through medical aid.

On March 8, the Chinese government sent 200,000 face masks to KRI to help the Kurdish Regional Governments (KRG) efforts to stem the spread of the virus in the region.

In the following weeks, Beijing delivered several other large batches of medical aid containing different types of personal protective equipment (PPE), medical devices and COVID-19 testing kits to the KRI.

The aid shipments were highly publicised and widely celebrated in the KRI. On April 20, for example, Chinas Consul General to Erbil Ni Ruchi and KRG Health Minister Saman Barzinji held an hourlong news conference to announce the arrival of a new shipment of aid.

Speaking in front of Chinese cargo planes at the Erbil International Airport, Ruchi said China was going to be a friend of the people of the Kurdistan region during hard times. At the height of the crisis, the Chinese Consul General also appeared on local TV channels in KRI, offering advice to the Kurdish people on how to take the necessary measures to contain the virus.

China also sent a medical team to the Kurdish region to help the KRG. During their four-day visit, Chinese doctors visited local hospitals and held panels to share their experience in treating coronavirus infections with their Kurdish counterparts.

Chinese companies also chipped in to help the Kurdish region during the COVID-19 crisis. On April 1, China Oil HBP group, a Beijing-based oil and gas resource development company, donated 30,000 masks and 5,400 COVID-19 testing kits to the KRG.

Sino-Kurdish relations are relatively new despite the overwhelming influence communist Chinas founding father Mao Zedongs political thoughts had on the Kurdish freedom movement.

China only started to become a real diplomatic and trade partner to Iraqi Kurds after the overthrow of Saddam Husseins government in 2003.

Jalal al-Talabani, then leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) who would later become president of Iraq, paid an informal visit to China in early August 2003. Subsequently, delegations from the PUK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) visited China. These visits were promptly reciprocated by senior Chinese officials.

In December 2014, when the ISIL (ISIS) group was at the peak of its strength in Iraq, China showed its support for the Kurdish people and the regional government by opening a consulate general in Erbil. China chose to send delegates to the region at such a dangerous time because it believed the economic gains it would make as a result of the move outweighed the risks. At the time, the KRG had already taken control of the oil-rich province of Kirkuk and built a link to connect the oilfields there to its newly built pipeline to Turkey, raising its oil production to 400,000 barrels per day.

Last year, China visibly increased its efforts to strengthen ties with the region.

In April 2019, Li Jun from Communist Party of Chinas (CPC) Central Committee paid a visit to Erbil and officially invited KRI President Nechirvan Barzani to Beijing. Li told Barzani that Chinas President Xi Jinping recognises the vital role the Kurdistan Region played in combating terrorism and defeating the so-called Islamic State.

A few months later, in August, the Chinese Consul to Erbil, Ruchi, launched the official Facebook page of the consulate with a video message. In the Kurdish language message, Ruchi said the Chinese government is eager to develop its relations with the KRG, highlighting the two peoples historic friendship that dates back to the ancient Silk Road.

In October 2019, a delegation from the Chawy Kurd Center for Political Development, a Kurdish political education NGO, visited China on the invitation of the Chinese government to promote Sino-Kurdish ties. The same month, the centre published Chinas Governance, a two-volume book authored by President Xi in which he highlights his thoughts on governance, economic development, and leadership.

Also in October, the KRCs first Chinese language department was opened at Erbils Salahadin University. Subsequently, in November 2019, a Chinese cultural and commercial centre was established in the region for the first time.

Despite these efforts, Chinas relationship with the KRG remained limited and superficial until recently. The COVID-19 crisis, however, finally provided China with the opportunity to deepen and expand its relationship with the region and emerge as a strong strategic partner that could offer crucial help in times of need.

Indeed, during the coronavirus crisis, Beijings image and prominence in the Kurdish region have improved significantly. Common Kurds who previously viewed China solely as an exporter of cheap but poor quality goods and products started to perceive Beijing as a global power that could provide the region with much needed economic and structural support. Moreover, more and more Kurds started to acknowledge China as an effective and powerful actor in the Middle Eastern political arena that could influence the KRGs future international prospects.

China has a lot to gain from strengthening its ties with Erbil. If Beijing succeeds in becoming a prominent player in the KRG, it can not only make significant trade gains, but also use it as leverage against Turkey.

In recent years, Turkey has become a sanctuary for political organisations and NGOs that are working to end the persecution of the Turkic Uighur minority in China. The Turkish government has also been vocal on the issue, calling on international organisations and other states to sanction China for its human rights abuses against Uighurs and other minorities.

China can try to use its growing influence over the Iraqi Kurdish region to silence Turkey through engagement with Kurdish organisations and groups defending Kurdish rights in Turkey. Although there is no indication of such cooperation yet, Beijings investment in cultivating stronger political, economic, and cultural ties with the Kurds could pay off in the long run.

Chinas rapid move into Iraqi Kurdish region could well be an opportunity for the KRG, but it presents a problem for Washington.

The United States has been the primary provider of financial, security, military and political support to Kurds in Iraq since 1991. However, recent events significantly damaged the relationship between Erbil and Washington.

In 2017, after Iraqi Kurds overwhelmingly voted for independence in a referendum rejected by the central Iraqi government as unconstitutional, US President Donald Trump failed to support the Iraqi Kurds. Consequently, Iraqi forces and Shia armed groups known as Popular Mobilization Forces drove Kurds out of Kirkuk. And some two years later, the Trump administration disappointed Kurds in Iraq once again by abandoning their brethren as they were facing an existential threat in Syria. All this led to Kurds viewing the US as an increasingly untrustworthy ally, and starting to look for other supporters.

Today, China appears to be capitalising on Washingtons fading popularity in the Iraqi Kurdish region. Eventually, Beijings multipronged outreach strategy that is clearly already increasing economic, cultural and political ties between KRI and China, could allow it to claim the role of primary global power in the region.

The Iraqi Kurdish region is one of the USs most successful state-building projects to date, despite its failures and shortcomings in the rest of Iraq. Moreover, the KRI, with its vast natural and human resources, has immense geopolitical importance for the US and its allies. Washington, which is already at loggerheads with China on many issues, cannot afford to lose the KRG to Beijing.

But the coronavirus crisis that allowed China to make significant inroads into the KRG also offers the same opportunity to the US.

Erbil still needs significant financial and medical assistance to manage the ongoing public health emergency. The Kurdish enclave is in dire straits due to the decline in oil prices and Baghdads decision to cut its share of the national budget.

Washington can easily improve its image in the KRG by sending medical help and helping Erbil and Baghdad reach an acceptable financial agreement.

Today, Washington may well think Iraqi Kurdish region is not one of its priorities. But if it does not take swift action to assure Iraqi Kurds that the US still has their back, China can easily take its place as the primary benefactor  and decision-maker  in the region.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
The COVID-19 pandemic threatens some major airlines across the globe with bankruptcy, and both Boeing and its archrival Airbus will have to adapt and shrink until some degree of normality returns, according to one of the world's top airline executives.

For Boeing, the worldwide downturn couldn't come at a worse time, said Tim Clark, president of Gulf airline Emirates and a key Boeing customer.

"The Max was probably the single biggest problem in Boeing's history, until the pandemic came along," said Clark. "Add the two together and you have a very stricken company."

He said Emirates, the launch customer for the massive 777X that flew for the first time in January, is negotiating with Boeing to delay delivery of any of the jets from next year to 2022. It also wants to swap out some of the remaining 126 of the big jets on order and replace them with smaller 787 Dreamliners.

Clark said problems at Boeing have the 777X running late at the same time as the pandemic crisis has hit airline demand for the jet.

The first delivery for the 777X was originally set for this year, but was pushed into 2021 after problems arose with development of its GE9X engines.

And after the damaging revelations about lack of oversight during certification of the 737 Max, he said, Boeing expects both U.S. and foreign regulators to take an extended time and insist upon a deep scrutiny before approving the 777X.

If delivery is deferred and 787s substituted for some of the 777Xs, it would be the second step back by Emirates from its original order. Last fall, it reduced the original 777X commitment, swapping out 24 of the jets for 30 Dreamliners.

Another 777X customer, Qatar, has also said it won't take deliveries next year, and all the other airlines in the 777X order book are suffering distress because of the pandemic shutdown of air travel.
Without offering specifics, Gov. Phil Murphy promised on Wednesday afternoon that New Jersey authorities can go after travelers arriving from 22 states who dont adhere to the 14-day quarantine protocols to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

In a radio interview with 1010 WINS in New York City, Murphy said, something will happen to you. If youre a real knucklehead and you come in and you flagrantly violate this, the commissioner of health in New Jersey has the teeth to go after you. And she wont hesitate to do that.

Theres now 22 states on New Jerseys quarantine list, with four new states added this week, while Delaware was removed. Unlike New York state, which has said violators will be fined up to $2,000, New Jersey hasnt threatened monetary penalties. State officials have expressed concerns that people arriving from coronavirus hotspots could reignite the outbreak in New Jersey after months of declines.

Data reported by hospitals early Thursday, showed New Jersey took another step in the right direction. As of 10 p.m. Wednesday, the number of people hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases dropped to 862 from 901. Only 64 people in the states 71 hospitals are on ventilators, down from 77 in the previous 24-hour period, while 146 are receiving critical care  three fewer than a day earlier.

On April 14, New Jersey hospitals housed more than 8,000 coronavirus patients.

New Jersey on Wednesday reported 27 more deaths attributed to COVID-19, though 10 occurred from April 16-June 3. Eight were in the previous 24 hours, with nine others were from earlier this month. There have been 13,660 confirmed coronavirus deaths since March. Another 1,974 fatalities were probably caused by the virus, officials said, for a total of 15,634.

Murphy also announced an additional 396 cases on Wednesday.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

A roundup of coronavirus news:

If MVC can be open, unemployment offices should reopen too, N.J. senators say: Some Republican senators are calling for the Department of Labor to immediately resume in-person meetings to help the thousands of New Jersey workers who have had trouble claiming their benefits and receiving money.

More than 1.3 million workers have applied for unemployment benefits in New Jersey since mid-March, when all nonessential businesses across the states closed to curb the spread of COVID-19. About one in four New Jersey workers have filed for benefits, creating an unprecedented avalanche of claims for the Department of Labor to address.

These are the N.J. lawmakers and lobbyists who benefitted from the small business loan program (PPP): The federal relief fund known as the PPP, or Payment Protection Program, was designed to benefit small businesses and relieve some damage done by the economic crisis in response to closing businesses across the country to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Along with the thousands of businesses in New Jersey that benefitted from the program are dozens of firms tied to lawmakers and to lobbyists, who received millions of dollars in low-interest, forgivable loans, according to data released by the U.S. Treasury and Small Business Administration.

Parents can visit kids, adults with developmental disabilities in N.J. long-term care facilities under new restrictions: Kept apart from loved ones because of the coronavirus pandemic for nearly four months, parents and legal guardians of pediatric, developmentally disabled, and intellectually disabled residents at New Jerseys long-term care facilities will be allowed to visit them indoors by appointment, Murphy announced Wednesday.

Indoor visitation would also be allowed at facilities that have have no new probable or confirmed COVID-19 cases in a 28-day period, officials said. Thats two coronavirus incubation periods.

There are four pediatric long-term care facilities in New Jersey, serving several hundred minors and young adults. In addition, there are about 500 adults with developmental disabilities in nursing homes.

Travel agency refused to give $55K in refunds to N.J. students after D.C. field trip was canceled, suit says: A school board in New Jersey has sued an out-of-state travel agency, claiming students and parents are owed $55,000 in refunds after their field trip to Washington D.C. was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The suit, filed by the Demarest School Board, states some parents paid an extra $49 each in the event the trip was canceled. That fee entitles them to a refund minus the fee, according to the suit, filed June 30 in Superior Court of Bergen County.

Coronavirus data from hospitals is funneled away from the CDC, sparking worries: Hospital data related to the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. will now be collected by a private technology firm, rather than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  a move the Trump administration says will speed up reporting but one that concerns some public health leaders.

The CDC director said Wednesday that hes fine with the change  even though some experts fear it will further sideline the agency.

U.S. cases: More than 137,400 have died in the 50 states with about 3.5 million cases reported as of 7 a.m. Thursday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

Worldwide cases: About 13.6 million have been infected in 188 countries with more than 584,700 deaths, the center says. At least 7.6 million have recovered.

The Associated Press, Anthony G. Attrino, Brent Johnson, Susan K. Livio, Sophie Nieto-Munoz and Jonathan D. Salant contributed to this report.

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Jaipur, July 17 : Amid the political crisis in Rajasthan, the Congress on Thursday released three audio clips purporting to be of "horse-trading" discussions, which it said, were being held between Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and an MLA of Sachin Pilot's camp, who were coordinating via a Jaipur resident.

A press note was also issued by the camp of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot claiming that the audio clips are of conversations between the BJP's Shekhawat and Pilot loyalist Bhanwarlal Sharma.

Gehlot's camp claimed that Shekhawat was in contact with the Congress MLA Bhanwarlal Sharma through Jaipur resident Sanjay Jain.

The press note says that the audio is of Sharma's updates on the progress in meeting the set target of bringing in 30 MLAs into their fold and the purported voice of Shekhawat, on the other side, says that this will bring in the Gehlot government on its knees.

The person, said to be Shekhawat as per the note, also says that Sharma and other MLAs should stay in the hotel for 8-10 days.

Another clip is purportedly of Sharma seeking assurances from Jain, who responds: "I assured you yesterday, again I assure you that your seniority will be taken care of", as per the press note.
RICHARD TAITTINGER GALLERGY CEO Richard Frerejean Taittinger (Courtesy of The Wall Street Journal)

The art market is on the cusp of a revolution. Rapid democratization, just as in the world of luxury goods, will open up the pool of potential new collectors to include a much younger and geographically diverse demographic. At the same time, the old gallery model will be displaced by powerful e-commerce platforms that connect many more art buyers in far greater volume. Poised to drive further disruption is RICHARD TAITTINGER GALLERY, a global luxury art brand currently raising expansion capital.

IPO Edge, in partnership with RICHARD TAITTINGER GALLERY and The Palm Beach Hedge Fund Association, a Florida trade association for financial professionals, hosted a Webinar on Thursday, July 16, 2020 at 12pm EST/9am PST  Art + Luxury + Tech. The event ran for approximately one hour, including a Q&A with the audience.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE WEBINAR WITH SLIDES

The Webinar featured Founder and CEO Richard Frerejean Taittinger, great grandson of the CHAMPAGNE TAITTINGER founder, whose tech-savvy Lower East Side New York gallery focuses on emerging and mid-career artists with global recognition. In addition, Ernest Jacquet, Chairman of the Advisory Board, presented his case for becoming a significant investor in RTG last year.

RTG is finishing the final half of its $3 million expansion round to bolster its online platform, and for general working capital. RTG has already raised approximately 50% of its target from new and existing investors, including the Harvard Business School Alumni Angels.

The art world has already grown dramatically in recent decades, from a $5 billion niche market, with 3 art fairs and 22,000 museums in 1975 to a growing global market of $68 billion in 2019 with 350 art fairs and 55,000 museums worldwide. And that growth is only the beginning.

Just as the market for luxury goods has expanded dramatically and created opportunities for investors in companies such as LVMH and Kering SA, a similar opportunity exists for investors in RTGs tech-savvy, global art brand. There is a natural bridge between the Art and the Luxury Goods markets, since Luxury Goods leaders have been using Art to elevate their brand by opening their own private museums: Cartier Foundation Paris since 1984, Prada Foundation, Milan since 1993, and LVMH Foundation Paris since 2014.

Story continues

Messrs. Frerejean Taittinger and Jacquet will discussed:

Evolution of the art market Post Covid

How galleries can use technology to disrupt the art market

Why art is becoming a lifestyle movement thanks to millennials and social media

An overview of how the luxury goods market is being democratized and analogy with art market

Benefits of investing in a global luxury art brand that understands technology

Qualified investors seeking more information about the offering can reach RTG Office Manager Michelle Vassallo at michelle@richardtaittinger.com

About the Speakers

Richard Frerejean Taittinger

Founder and CEO of RICHARD TAITTINGER GALLERY

Based in New York City since 2007, Richard is recognized for his expertise in Contemporary Art, having worked at auction houses, galleries, and as consultant for art fairs and museums. Pioneer of the Lower East Side art district, he founded in 2015 his eponymous gallery on 154 Ludlow Street. Richard is Chair of the board of Residency Unlimited and Co-Founder of CHAMPAGNE FREREJEAN FRERES. He speaks 3 languages and has an M.A. in Marketing & Business Management from EDC Paris, a Master of Wine from the University of Burgundy, and an M.A. from Christies Education, New York in Art Business. In 2019 he received the FIAF Young Patron Award.

Ernest K. Jacquet

Lead Investor and Chairman of the Advisory Board of RICHARD TAITTINGER GALLERY

Ernest was a Principal at Bain Capital and Summit Partners and was Co-Founder of Parthenon Capital -a $4 billion PE Fund. He has invested in several growth-oriented businesses including an early stage investment in KEURIG COFFEE MAKERS that just sold for over $12 billion. Mr. Jacquet graduated from the University of Michigan BSE and MSE (Honors) and earned his MBA from the Stanford Business School.

Contact:

John Jannarone, Editor-in-Chief

editor@IPO-Edge.com

www.IPO-Edge.com

Editor@IPO-Edge.com

Twitter: @IPOEdge

Instagram: @IPOEdge
New York:

Hillary Clintons close aide Huma Abedin, who was at the centre of the email controversy recently, and First Lady Michelle Obama are among 45 Americans who defined the 2016 US polls, in a list that also names parents of slain Pakistani-American soldier Humayun Khan.



The race for the 45th president didnt just involve Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Here (are) 45 everyday Americans who had their brief moment in the spotlight this election year, Time magazine said in its list of 45 Americans who defined the election.



About Abedin, the magazine said that one of Clintons most trusted advisers typically remained behind the scenes, enjoying unrivaled power inside Clintons orbit.



The release of Clintons emails from her tenure as Secretary of State and sexting scandals involving her husband, former Rep Anthony Weiner, brought her unwanted attention, it said.

Also read | Hillary Clinton evokes fallen US Muslim soldier Humayun Khan again



Michelle Obama has become one of the most passionate anti-Trump surrogates deployed by the Clinton campaign. After delivering a rousing speech at the Democratic National Convention, Mrs. Obama has been sent to college campuses across the country to rally young people behind the Democratic nominee, giving another memorable speech about her reaction to Donald Trumps Access Hollywood tape, Time said.Also on the list are the parents of Humayun Khan who died in the line of duty in Iraq and was was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star.



During the Democratic National Convention in July, Khans father gave an emotional speech criticizing Trump.Trump responded by bashing the Khans. Sales of pocket constitutions spiked on Amazon and strangers laid flowers on his sons gravesite. Khan later starred in a Clinton ad, the magazine said.

Also read | Clinton email investigation: FBI says no new conclusion after review of fresh batch



The list also includes Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, Vice President Joe Biden and former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, who spoke out about Trumps treatment of her after she gained weight. Anchor and nephew of former President George H W Bush, Billy Bush who was heard on an old video chatting with Trump about women in lewd ways is also figured in the list.



Machado became a US citizen so she could vote against Trump. She made headlines again when Clinton mentioned her during the first debate, prompting Trump the next morning to again criticize her past weight gain and claim (inaccurately) that she had a sex tape, Time said.



Trumps campaign manager Kellyanne Conway who convinced the Republican presidential nominee to use the teleprompter more for scripted policy speeches is also in the list.



She also appeared frequently as a top spokeswoman on television, an unusual move for a campaign manager, who is typically more focused on behind-the-scenes efforts, it said.



Popular news anchor Megyn Kelly, who who has been critical of Trumps policies and rhetoric, is also featured on the list.Abedins estranged husband Anthony Weiner also makes it to the list, with the magazine saying, while the failed mayoral candidate kept his head down for most of the presidential election, his fondness for sending lewd photos shot him once again into the news.



Abedin finally separated from Weiner, who resurfaced again in October when an FBI investigation into his photos revealed emails on his computer that might be of interest in the investigation into Clintons private email server.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Tauranga City Council is calling on community members to register their interest in a new Mount Maunganui trial, named Innovating Streets at the Mount.

The project aims to enhance the way people move around on the streets in the north Mount Maunganui area and will be developed in close collaboration with local residents and businesses.

While various ideas have already been suggested, one of which is a dedicated cycle/cruiseway along Pilot Bay accompanied by a one way traffic system, council says nothing is set in stone yet.

Tauranga Mayor Tenby Powell says Mount Maunganui is one the most popular spots in New Zealand, with high numbers of people in cars, on bikes, on foot and other modes of transport, but there is also limited space.

Innovating Streets at the Mount is all about taking up a great opportunity to test some quick, creative, low-cost and temporary street solutions, with direct involvement from the community in their design.

A Pilot Bay resident has several concerns regarding the proposed trial.

We do not have enough cyclists to justify disrupting all of the traffic caused by this idea. I really don't think that it will encourage more people to get on bikes.

There are more cyclists over the summer time, so for the rest of the year the cars have to be inconvenienced by the one-way idea.

Parking in the Mount area has also been an issue, particularly in the summer months.

One of the things people coming to the Mount complain about is parking. Having one way traffic means people can't get back to a park if they see one become available.

If people need to go back along The Mall then they have to go back down Maunganui Road and back through the main shops, making the roundabouts and streets busier in the already congested area.

It mentions a calmer environment on the pamphlet, when people are messed around, it makes them more frustrated.

Powell says the aim of the proposed trial is to make the treasured, but busy area as people-friendly and safe as possible, with better facilities for moving about and for recreation.

The lockdown due to COVID-19 gave many of us a new experience of using public spaces at the Mount.

We would like to learn from this and see if there are any ways to enhance this area and make it more available to a wider variety of users.

Community engagement is planned to start in late-August and will allow people to contribute to this project throughout its lifespan.

In order to enable the co-design aspect, a community design group will be formed to help guide the direction of the project, while the wider community will also be able to provide feedback to the plans developed.

Council will use the learnings and insights from an earlier proposal in 2017/2018, which considered a similar area.

That background information will be combined with new community input to develop a plan that will be implemented as a temporary trial before mid-2021.

The project is supported through Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agencys Innovating Streets pilot fund.

Costs for the total works are estimated at $1m + (ex GST), of which Waka Kotahi is funding 90 per cent and Tauranga City Council 10 per cent.

For more information about the project, visit www.tauranga.govt.nz/innovatingstreets. Anyone interested in being involved in the project is asked to register their interest by emailing haveyoursay@tauranga.govt.nz


Tourists who arrive in Egypt after July 1, 2020, are required to fill out a special declaration when boarding a plane and undergo a temperature screening upon arrival.

Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Vasyl Bodnar says Ukraine and Egypt have started talks to resume cooperation in the field of tourism in the context of countering the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

"Negotiations have kicked off with Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Khaled al-Anani. The key [issue] is the resumption of cooperation in the field of tourism amid the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring the rights and interests of our citizens who are staying for tourism purposes or work in Egypt," he said on Twitter on July 16.

Read alsoFive countries re-open borders for Ukrainians from July 1  Infrastructure minister

According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's interactive online map on travel around the world (https://tripadvisor.mfa.gov.ua/), the entry of Ukrainian citizens into Egypt is allowed.

However, if ahead or during the departure to Egypt from the country of residence, which is included in the list of countries declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) as those having a high COVID-19 incidence, travelers will have to provide the results of the last PCR test (done 48 hours before travel dates). Travelers are exempt from visa fees until October 31, 2020.

In addition, tourists who arrive in Egypt after July 1, 2020, are required to fill out a special declaration when boarding a plane and undergo a temperature screening upon arrival.
Comets are solar system objects made up of ice, rock and dust. Right now, a newly-discovered one is speeding by Earth, providing excellent light shows for the planets people.

The ice-rock is called Neowise. It is the brightest comet to appear above the Northern Hemisphere in 25 years. Social media users in many countries have posted images they captured of Neowise, as it lit up the sky over their heads.

Comets are normally about 8 to 16 kilometers wide. But, as they travel near the sun, they heat up, releasing gas and dust. The comet expands to form a glowing head that can be larger than a planet, says the U.S. space agency NASA. The process also creates a sunlit tail of dust. It can stretch for millions of kilometers behind the comet.

Scientists say Neowise is believed to be about 5 kilometers across. It passed inside Mercurys orbit on July 3, NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement. The close pass by the sun was cooking the comets outermost parts, causing a major release of gas and dust material. And yet the comet has managed to survive this intense roasting, the statement said.

The comet was named for NASAs NEOWISE infrared space telescope, which discovered it in March. The NEOWISE project aims to search the skies for what scientists call near-Earth objects, or NEOs. Such objects include asteroids and comets that could come within 50 million kilometers of Earths orbit.

In this case, NASA said Neowise would pass by Earth at a harmless distance of 103 million kilometers, while giving astronomers a good chance to study its substance and structure.

Sky watchers may be able to see Neowise as it passes through the inner solar system. But its nearness to the sun could make sighting it difficult, NASA says.

Experts say people in the Northern Hemisphere - the part of Earth above the equator - should look toward the northwestern sky, just below the Big Dipper star group.

Until recently, the best time to see Neowise was about an hour before sunrise. This week, the comet began making its appearance in the evening sky shortly after sunset.

People have been able to see the head of the comet without the use of equipment. But devices like binoculars and telescopes are better for viewing the comets long tail.

Neowise is expected to be seeable across the Northern Hemisphere until mid-August. It will then start making its way back to the outer parts of the solar system.

NASA says it will be about 7,000 years before the comet returns. So I wouldnt suggest waiting for the next pass, said Joe Masiero of NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Astronauts on the International Space Station caught a good look at the bright ice-rock last week. NASAs Bob Behnken captured an image of Neowise and shared the picture on social media.

It shows central Asia in the background, and part of the space station in the foreground. Stars, cities, spaceships, and a comet! Behnken tweeted from orbit.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from The Associated Press and NASA. Caty Weaver was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

Quiz - Comet Neowise Provides Light Shows while Passing by Earth Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

_____________________________________________

Words in This Story

glow  n. a soft, warm light

tail  n. the back part of something long

roast  v. to cook or dry with heat

asteroid  n. a rocky object that goes around the sun like a planet

view  v. to look at something
The government has imposed curbs on the import of power tillers and related components in a move that could discourage inbound shipments of these products that come mainly from China, which accounts for over 30 per cent of such equipment used in India. "Import policy of power tillers and its components is amended from free to restricted," the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has said in a notification.

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Dell Technologies has introduced Dell EMC PowerFlex, a new software-defined storage portfolio. The PowerFlex family, previously known as VxFlex, is now part of the Dell Technologies Power portfolio, and helps businesses harness the potential of software and embrace change while delivering consistent, predictable IT outcomes that drive business forward. Some other notable features include:

Enterprise-class Performance and Resiliency: Dell EMC PowerFlex delivers sophisticated high-performance, scalable, resilient storage services to its customers. PowerScale allows for easy isolation of key workloads with multiple protection groups for predictable and uninterrupted performance.

Dell EMC PowerFlex delivers sophisticated high-performance, scalable, resilient storage services to its customers. PowerScale allows for easy isolation of key workloads with multiple protection groups for predictable and uninterrupted performance. Simplicity and Efficiency in Operations: PowerFlex Manager software provides tools for IT operations and lifecycle management. This helps automate infrastructure workflows from BIOS and firmware to nodes, hypervisors and networking.

PowerFlex Manager software provides tools for IT operations and lifecycle management. This helps automate infrastructure workflows from BIOS and firmware to nodes, hypervisors and networking. Unmatched Flexibility and Scale: PowerFlex offers an agile and flexible foundation for IT infrastructure. Deploying PowerFlex, assures customers extreme flexibility with architectural freedom, broad environment support, flexible consumption and scaling options. It supports a wide range of traditional and modern applications from bare-metal databases to virtualized workloads to modern cloud native applications on a single platform.

Mr. Amit Luthra, Director & General Manager  Data Centre Solutions, Dell Technologies India, said, In an attempt to capitalize on the ever-increasing new-age workloads, customers of today are now demanding unprecedented freedom, control and protection in their IT infrastructures. They are looking for comprehensive data centre solutions that simplifies their overall IT architecture, while offering industry leading features such as scalability, predictable outcomes etc. To help customers address their IT hurdles and stay one-step ahead of their competition, we have introduced our all-new Dell EMC PowerFlex, a sophisticated high performing software-defined storage portfolio. By deploying PowerFlex, businesses will be able to evolve their IT infrastructure as needed to meet key business objectives, while also making enough space for their IT to focus on business-critical applications.
Immensa Technology Labs, the UAEs leading additive manufacturing company, expects the additive manufacturing and 3D printing sector in the UAE to triple every year to reach AED2.2 billion ($598.97 million) by 2025.

It also anticipates that the sector will add AED11 billion to the UAEs GDP in 2028, contributing to over 1.0% of the GDP and inducing it with around 3% of the 3D-printing global market share. This is due to the more advanced applications being developed and the growing number of organisations adopting the technology as well as the rapidly increasing demand from local and regional companies for 3D printing solutions.

The forecast for the industry was recently established after the company, represented by its CEO and Founder Fahmi Al Shawwa, met with HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Dubai Future Foundation, DFF, as part of a meeting that was organised by the Dubai Future Foundation. Led by DFF, His Highness launched the 3D Printing Strategic Alliance, the first initiative of its kind to create a comprehensive network of government entities, academia, and international and local 3D-printing companies.

During the meeting, His Highness expressed personal interest and involvement in establishing the UAEs 3D-printing capabilities and reiterated the governments support of the companies working in the field. He was also briefed on the challenges being faced in the sector and the developments done over the past few years.

In his comments, Fahmi Al Shawwa said: The meeting and the level of dialogue with His Highness were priceless. This is what differentiates Dubai from other places: its leadership continuously meets with business leaders and companies from different industries to discuss details of what is needed to boost economic activity and UAEs position on the global map across several fronts.

Al Shawwa continued: Since its inception in 2016, Immensa has played a vital role in a number of milestone additive manufacturing projects across the region. The company worked closely with the DFF team and witnessed first-hand how the government has been proactive by consistently evaluating how they can support the creation of a dynamic and internationally competitive 3D-printing sector. Today, the UAE boasts the widest range of concrete 3D printers in the world and is the only country in the GCC with a private sector that owns and operates metal 3D printing systems. Moreover, the country has the largest number of industrial 3D printers in the entire Middle East that produce mechanical and industrial parts. Immensas Digital Warehouse Solution is the only regionally developed inventory digitisation service and is currently adopted by both private and public sector organisations in the UAE.

The Dubai Future Foundation has always stood alongside the government in supporting, assisting, and promoting companies working in the private sector. They hosted 3D-printing industry roundtables that featured dozens of different companies, which facilitated and enabled direct interaction between various government entities and the private sector.

Immensa has developed industrial and mechanical applications for customers across various sectors, including defence, Oil &Gas, aviation, medical, and transportation, with the company being a member of the global consortium that developed the guidelines for printing 3D metal parts for the oil & gas and maritime industries. This was a milestone not just for Immensa, but for the UAE and the region as it is the first time that a regionally based company is invited to develop guidelines that were then converted by DNV GL as standards.

Immensa Technology Labs has grown over the past three years at an annual 100% rate and is on track to grow by more than 300% in 2020 despite all the global challenges faced to date. --TradeArabia News Service
A statement by the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) Calling on the Suspended EFCC Acting Chairman; Ibrahim Magu to Resign so as not to Destroy what is left of The Reputation of the Anti- Graft Agency and the urgent need to expand the scope of investigation on all the cases of assets forfeiture including the serious claim by Chief Emmanuel Nwude that the EFCC under Ibrahim Magu allegedly cornered his assets that were not part of the originally listed assets to be forfeited in the judgment of the Lagos High Court when he was convicted for advance fees fraud including houses of his original family built long before he had issues with the law.

BACKGROUNG

For the purpose of clarification, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is the major Financial crimes combating agency in Nigeria.

It was established in 2003 partially in response to pressure from the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), which named Nigeria as one of the 23 countries non-cooperative in the international communitys efforts to fight money laundering.

Since its inception, the Anti-Graft Agency has made giant strides to rid Nigeria of the popular Advance Fee Fraud otherwise known as 419 or the Nigerian Scam, positioning itself as a major tool for fighting official corruption in Nigeria and money Laundering.

EFCC partners with several agencies like the FBI, metropolitan Police, German Police, Canadian Police, USAID, DFID, the World Bank, The UNODC, Commonwealth Secretariat etc.

It is no doubt that recent events, which climaxed in the invitation, probe and detention of the Agencys Acting Chairman; Ibrahim Magu has left much to be desired of the Financial Crimes Combating Agency.

In view of this and coupled with our desire as a foremost Civil Rights Group, with the single agenda of building a formidable and economically strong united Nigeria based on rule of law and respect for rights, equity and justice, do make this statement calling for the resignation of the embattled acting Chairman of the EFCC in order to save what is left of the Agency in terms of reputation and credibility.

THE ISSUES:

It is no news that Ibrahim Magu; a Nigerian Police Officer who served as acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from 9 November 2015, until his suspension on 7 July 2020 is facing about 21 corruption allegations brought against him by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice; Abubakar Malami.

The former EFCC boss is being interrogated by the Rtd, Justice Ayo Salami-led Presidential Probe Panel over allegations bordering on mismanagement and lack of transparency in managing recovered assets by EFCC.

A final report of the Presidential Investigation Committee on the Federal Government Recovered Assets and Finances by EFCC from May 2015 to May 2020 had seriously indicted and implicated Magu on various allegations levelled against him.

The terms of reference for the investigative committee were:

1. Investigate, verify and review the recommendations of the Presidential Committee on Audit of Recovered Assets (PCARA ) as it relates to the EFCC, with a view to ascertaining the complicity or otherwise of the Ag. Chairman; Ibrahim Magu, in the mismanagement of the assets recovered by the Commission.

2. Identify Avenues through which the recovered assets are dissipated and seized, recovered, forfeited (Interim and Final) assets are valued, managed, disposed and/or mismanaged with a view to ascertaining compliance or otherwise with extant laws, regulations, processes and procedures.

3. Review the existing procedures on the Management of the seized, recovered and Forfeited assets (interim and final) and proffer Standard Operational Procedures for the management of seized, recovered and forfeited assets.

4. Determine whether assets recovered during his tenure, whether locally in Nigeria or abroad, are being kept safely in a manner as to preserve their original value and determine:

 Whether all the assets could be properly accounted for by the Ag. Chairman.

 To confirm if any of the assets have been diverted to the benefit of the Ag. Chairman, his family, relation, friends or favoured staff.

 To recover any such diverted assets and return back to the EFCC or appropriate government agency. The committee was also to probe and report on corruption and money laundering allegations based on petitions and intelligence reports, involving Magu and Bureau De Change operators as well as some of his associates.

It was to audit the Assets and Finances of the EFCC as a legal entity from 2015-2020, with a view to establishing compliance or otherwise with procurement procedures of the EFCC in line with the provisions of the Procurement Act.

The PCARA revealed how the investigative reports on EFCCs activities by the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) exposed acts of corruption and money laundering against some EFCC officials, including Magu. The NFIU report shows that the Acting Chairman has been using different sources to allegedly siphon money from the EFCC, and in some cases allegedly collecting bribes from suspects.

The report showed a particular Bureau de Change, owned by Ahmed Ibrahim Shanono linked to the Acting Chairman based in Kaduna has more than 158 accounts and has been receiving huge sums of money. The PCARA report also claimed that Magu was linked to a N28m payment to Falana who is alleged to be his close associate and ally.

Ibrahim Magu ,who was released on bail yesterday, Wednesday has been in detention since Monday, July 6, following his invitation for questioning by the Justice Ayo Salami-led panel investigating the various cases of official misconduct and financial irregularities against him, made by the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Abubakar Malami, who demanded for his removal as the acting Chairman of the EFFC in a memo to President Muhammadu Buhari.

In order to allow for an unhindered probe by the Presidential Investigation Panel under the Tribunal of Inquiry Act and other relevant laws, President Buhari had on Friday July 10, 2020 approved the suspension of Ibrahim Magu and asked Muhammed Umar who is EFCCs Director of Operations to take charge and oversee the operations and activities of the anti-corruption agency pending the conclusion of the ongoing investigation on the allegations against Ibrahim Magu and further directives in that regards.

WHY IBRAHIM MAGU SHOULD RESIGN

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) is worried that corruption has been so pervasive in Nigeria that it has turned public service for many into a kind of criminal enterprise. Graft has fueled political violence, denied millions of Nigerians access to even the most basic health and education services, and reinforced police abuses and other widespread patterns of human rights violations.

If a man who is being alleged to have been entangled in the web of corruption is left to superintend over the anti-graft Agency it will make a mockery of the sincerity of President Muhammadu Buharis administration in fighting corruption.

It would be recalled that in 2017, Again, in 2019, months after Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) and Lagos lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) publicly declared that the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC); Mr. Ibrahim Magu does not require the confirmation of the Senate to be in office, his supporters renewed prayers for his confirmation by the Senate.

Professor of Law and Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption, Itse Sagay (SAN), who also toed Osinbajo and Falanas line when Magu was rejected for a second time by the Senate in 2017, also made a volte-face then, and urged the Senate to revisit Magus case.

With the recent happenings, we are puzzled as to what informed the persistent demand for Magus confirmation particularly from the authorities without first clearing allegation of corruption against him and what is now delaying his outright removal from office or his resignation.

We do not think it has anything to do with his performance as going by the records we are yet to see any feat in the anti-corruption war that makes him indispensable as a person, if at all there is still such a war going on.

This development is both a moral burden on the executive, as well as the failure to observe global standards and best practices by a government that rode to power on the wings of integrity.

The 8th Senate twice rejected the nomination of Ibrahim Magu as the substantive chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, after the State Security Service, SSS, reaffirmed its position that the nominee lacks integrity to lead the countrys anti-corruption agency.

"No one gives what he does not have. Being boastful is one thing, actual display of the position you boast of is another thing. For one to fail the examination he sets is the 9th wonder of the world. How long is Mr. Magu allowed to act under Nigerian law? Is it forever?

The executive through the DSS, questioned his fitness to occupy the office, and the 8th senate agreed with it. But executive order has kept him there illegally for these years, and failed to clear him of the corruption baggage.

He sems to have been crushed under the weight of the burden just like all his actions in office carried out under the burden. We were ab initio told by law, that he is not fit and proper to occupy the office by parliamentary authority. Anything else is void, no matter the attire it is clothed or coloured.

Section 2(3) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act 2004 provides that the Chairman and members of the Commission other than ex-officio members shall be appointed by the President and appointment shall be subject to the confirmation of the Senate.

The implication is that the reign of Magu as the Head of the EFCC never received the full blessing of statutory compliance. It is only hoped that the right step would urgently be taken especially now that his conduct in office has been marred with alleged financial misdeeds.

It is rather disturbing, that a man who has been chairing an anti-corruption campaign (whether in acting or substantive capacity) has a DSS damning report over his head, which was not totally cleared. We do not intend to dabble into the politics of the issue. What is important is that the law should lead.

No doubt, Magus probe has reminded us of the very short and witty contribution, human rights lawyer; Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) who had stated then that: What goes around comes around. No one can hide behind a finger. No one can cover the sun with his palm. When the market is on fire, even the lame, deaf, dumb and blind will know because they will feel the heat.

OUR STAND AND WAY FORWARD

We believe that in spite of myriad of setbacks, a stronger and more independent EFCC represents Nigerias most promising avenue to make tangible progress in the fight against corruption. In large part, this is because the EFCC is the only Nigerian government institution that has posed meaningful challenge to the impunity enjoyed by corrupt and powerful members of the political elite.

Our team believes that the character and capacity of the EFCCs leadership is an important issue and therefore calls for the resignation of the embattled and suspended acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC); Ibrahim Magu.

We also restate our earlier call to the Justice Ayo Salami  led presidential panel to expand the terms of reference to the period that Mr. Nuhu Ribadu headed the anti-graft body and also publicly invite interested Nigerians who had had one bad experiences or the other about their encounters with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC to send in memoranda and petitions. This is because, the anti-graft commission stinks of professional misconduct and auditing corruptions which should necessitate a more elaborate investigations by the Justice Ayo Salami led Presidential Panel of inquiry on EFCC.

Additionally, we urge the Presidency to do more to fight corruption and strengthen the capacity and independence of key anti-corruption institutions, because, Corruption is at the heart of many of Nigerias most serious human rights problems.

COMRADE EMMANUEL ONWUBIKO:

NATIONAL COORDINATOR.

MISS. ZAINAB YUSUF, NATIONAL DIRECTOR OF MEDIA AFFAIRS.

HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA).

16th July 2020.


Mount Greylock Interim Superintendent: State Pushing for In-Person Instruction

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  The Baker administration is pushing school districts to form plans that allow all students to return to the classroom, according to comments from the interim superintendent of the Mount Gryelock Regional School District.

Speaking on Tuesday to the School Committee's Education Subcommittee, Robert Putnam said that while districts are required to create plans for the fall that would allow remote learning or a hybrid of remote and in-person instruction, the message from Boston is that the goal is to get students back in school buildings.

"The commissioner of education, Commissioner [Jeffrey] Riley, basically, he's prioritized getting kids back into the classroom," Putnam told the subcommittee. "I must submit three plans on the 31st of July with the priority on getting all kids in the classroom. And [Riley] has  his expectation is that we are right now in the midst of a feasibility study in terms of how many kids we can actually fit in the schools."

Putnam said full, in-person instruction is the focus for himself, the building principals and the district's director of buildings and grounds, Tim Sears.

"The first thing: What can we actually fit in the existing classrooms," Putnam said. "Then, in terms of feasiblity, what other spaces are available to us. What else could we use as a classroom?"

Tuesday's meeting included reports from five of the working groups Putnam's predecessor established earlier this summer to help formulate plans for reopening Lanesborough Elementary School, Williamstown Elementary School and Mount Greylock middle/high school, which were closed in March at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The technology working group reported that it has sent a "robust" survey to the district's faculty and paraprofessionals to assess what worked and did not work about remote learning in the spring and what the district needs to do going forward.

Putnam said the district is planning to provide more professional development opportunities for teachers to help them prepare for online instruction.

"No matter what we do, I'm convinced technology is the key for a number of reasons," Putnam said. "One being the fact that we need to have something in place in the event circumstances force us to close schools. We also have to have it set up in the event of a hybrid because any hybrid of both in-person instruction and remote is only as good as the remote portion of that."

Education Subcommittee Chair Steven Miller asked whether the teachers and administration were considering a model where teachers conduct lessons in the classroom that are simulcast via the web for students learning remotely.

"We have some of the hardware," Mount Greylock Principal Jacob Schutz said. "I don't know if we have the software for that. It's a question we'd have to follow up on. It's nothing we've ever done before."

Director of Curriculum and Instruction Joelle Brookner said the instruction working group earlier Tuesday heard a presentation about the HyFlex model, designed to let students take classes in person, at home or both.

"We are committed to safety first and trying to get as many students back to school as possible and are preparing for three possible scenarios: everybody's back in school, safely distanced, wearing masks or some sort of a hybrid version or if something happens and we have to be fully remote," Brookner said. "We're working on all three of those options right now."

Safely distancing students in the classroom has been the focus of the facilities working group.

Putnam said Sears has been working on removing extraneous items from classrooms and reimagining classroom layouts with a hexagonal grid that optimizes how many desks can fit in a classroom.

One of the hurdles to that plan might be the district's existing supply of desks and tables.

"It was interesting when [Miller] mentioned, is there any technology that could potentially be part of a wish list' of things," Putnam said. "It might be there's some simple technology like desks that we're still working through."

Putnam said he planned to reach out to other superintendents in the county to see if there were any surplus desks in the area that the Mount Greylock district might be able to acquire.

"There are desks and instructional objects that are sometimes languishing in rooms not being used," Putnam said. "I intend to reach out to neighboring superintendents and say, 'What do you have?' And can we do some trades and deals?

"Over the past 15 years, the student population in Berkshire County has dropped by about 5,000 students, so there most likely is excess capacity in terms of classroom furniture."

All of the planning and classroom reconfiguration is geared toward meeting a state mandate to make in-person instruction the goal.

"Commissioner Riley is committed to having schools open," Putnam said toward the end of the hour long meeting. "Although we've got to come up with three plans by the 31st, he's made it clear he wants in-person instruction with all those attending school or a hybrid model.

"He's actually said, he's going to require detailed explanations or perhaps send a team to review our work if we are unable to make this happen. Right now, I'm really just focused on the feasibility study. But simultaneously, we're working on the ideas of: What do we need to put in place to increase the skill of our entire faculty and administrators in the use of remote learning?

"I posit that remote learning must be the focal point for our reopening plan, based on several things. First, high-quality remote instruction is not a skill set found across the district. It will require all our energy to make sure teachers acquire these skills. Second, we've got to prepare to provide high-quality remote learning in the event the infection rates rise in the community.  As I said before, a hybrid model will only be as good as the remote portion of the model if we find we cannot bring students back to school safely."
The Porsche driver who allegedly taunted a dying police officer in the aftermath of the Eastern Freeway crash wants his case resolved "as quickly as possible", a court has heard.

Richard Pusey allegedly fled the scene of the crash that killed four officers on April 22. He was arrested on April 23 and has been in custody since then.

Richard Pusey, the driver of a black Porsche involved in the horrific Eastern Freeway crash. Credit:Nine News

He had been pulled over in his Porsche for allegedly speeding when a semi-trailer driven by Mohinder Singh struck and killed four police officers in the emergency lane.

The day after the crash, Mr Pusey was charged with a raft of offences, including driving at a dangerous speed, reckless conduct endangering life, failing to render assistance at the scene of a collision and possessing a drug of dependence.
TERRE HAUTE, Ind.  The Supreme Court has cleared the way for a second federal execution in as many days. The high court by a 5-4 vote early Thursday lifted two court orders keeping the execution of Wesley Ira Purkey on hold.

Purkey was convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing a 16-year-old girl before dismembering, burning and then dumping the teens body in a septic pond. He was also convicted in a state court in Kansas after using a claw hammer to kill an 80-year-old woman who suffered from polio.

Purkeys lawyers had contended that he had dementia and was unfit to be executed. They also said that if Purkeys execution did not take place Wednesday, the government would need to set a new date. But government lawyers said there was no obstacle to going through with the execution Thursday if the Supreme Court lifted the injunctions.

Purkey was scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. On Tuesday, Daniel Lewis Lee was put to death at the same facility after his eleventh-hour legal bids failed. He was convicted of killing an Arkansas family in a 1990s plot to build a whites-only nation.

Purkey, 68, of Lansing, Kansas, would be the second.

Image: Protesters against the death penalty gather in Terre Haute, Ind., Wednesday, July 15, 2020. (Michael Conroy / AP)

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that proceeding with Purkeys execution now, despite the grave questions and factual findings regarding his mental competency, casts a shroud of constitutional doubt over the most irrevocable of injuries. She was joined by fellow liberal justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan.

The issue of Purkeys mental health arose in the runup to his 2003 trial and when jurors had to decide whether he should be put to death in the killing of 16-year-old Jennifer Long in Kansas City, Missouri.

Prosecutors said he raped and stabbed her, dismembered her with a chainsaw, burned the body and dumped her ashes in a pond in Kansas. Purkey was separately convicted and sentenced to life in the beating death of 80-year-old Mary Ruth Bales, of Kansas City, Kansas.

Story continues

Purkeys lawyers argued recent filings he that he suffers from advancing Alzheimers disease.

He has long accepted responsibility for the crime that put him on death row, one of his lawyers, Rebecca Woodman, said. But as his dementia has progressed, he no longer has a rational understanding of why the government plans to execute him.

Glenda Lamont, the mother of the slain teenager, told The Kansas City Star last year she planned to attend Purkeys execution.

I dont want to say that Im happy, Lamont said. At the same time, he is a crazy madman that doesnt deserve, in my opinion, to be breathing anymore.

Repeatedly on Wednesday, a federal judge also denied a request from Dustin Lee Honken, an Iowa drug kingpin scheduled to be executed on Friday, to delay his execution. The judge said he would not delay Honkens execution due to the coronavirus pandemic and said the Bureau of Prisons was in the best position to weigh the health risks.
From either a moral or financial perspective, has there ever been a more opportune time for Canadas mortgage companies to step up and put in place programs that educate their staff on racism, promote diversity, and work to eliminate the unintended biases we all carry around inside us? What better time than now to capitalize on peoples increased awareness of systemic racism, and increased willingness to look critically at their own beliefs? What better time for lenders and brokers to display to a generation of future mortgage-holders  who have proven to be more open-minded and willing to support companies based on their moral stances than previous generations  that they are all on the same page?

For many, providing racial sensitivity training in this day and age is just common sense: The world has evolved; should businesses not evolve, too? But its not so common in the Canadian mortgage space.

After attempting to engage Canadas biggest mortgage companies in a conversation about the programs they use to ensure their employees are prepared to work in a diverse marketplace, Mortgage Broker News received input from two companies. Of those two, only one has made education around diversity and inclusion mandatory for its employees.
The damage caused to the grave of Warren Crossan in Milltown Cemetery. Photo Pacemaker Press

The grave of murder victim Warren Crossan has been vandalised at Milltown Cemetery in west Belfast.

Police confirmed they were investigating the incident after damage was caused to a headstone at a cemetery on the Falls Road.

Significant damage has been caused to Mr Crossan's resting place with his headstone shattered and family tributes and flowers destroyed.

It is understood the damage was caused between 10am on Tuesday and 10am on Wednesday.

Sinn Fein MP Paul Maskey condemned the vandalism.

In the early hours of this morning the grave of Warren Crossan was vandalised in Milltown Cemetery with the headstone and other family tributes destroyed," he said.

Those involved in this attack must be unreservedly condemned. Many grieving families find great comfort in visiting cemeteries, they are places of peace and reflection.

The desecration of a grave is very distressing for any family.

Those involved in this criminality should stop this activity and allow this family to grieve in peace.

Mr Crossan was shot dead in broad daylight on St Katharines Road in west Belfast last month.

He was chased by two masked gunmen through streets packed with people and motorists before he was shot dead on June 27.

He was laid to rest in the cemetery earlier this month following a service in St John the Evangelist Parish Church on the Falls Road.

Parish priest Martin Magill directly addressed the shocking nature of his death, and urged any witnesses to contact police.

The latest attack comes after the home Mr Crossan shared with his partner was targeted in a petrol bomb attack last week.

Mr Crossan was the son of murdered dissident republican chief Tommy Crossan, killed at a fuel depot in Belfast on Good Friday in 2014.

Expand Close The grave of Warren Crossan in Milltown Cemetery before it was damaged. Photo Pacemaker Press / Facebook

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It is understood Warren Crossan was killed for providing the getaway car used in the killing of Dublin hitman Robbie Lawlor.

At the time of his death Mr Crossan was on police bail accused of possessing 180,000 of cocaine with intent to supply after being arrested at the A1 near Sprucefield last November.

He was also on the run from gardai having skipped bail for a series of alleged burglaries in Donegal.

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Speaking at the time of Mr Crossan's murder Detective Chief Inspector Darren McCartney told reporters links to organised crime had not been ruled out.

He described it as a "callous and reckless killing", and saying the shooting taking place in a residential area on a Saturday afternoon "just beggars belief".

Warren was well known to police and that is part of the strategy of the investigation as it goes on at this time but again  it is a very early time at the start of this investigation and we cannot make a speculation around what has happened and why Warren was murdered," Detective Chief Inspector McCartney said.

Constable Andrews appealed for anyone with information about the vandalism to come forward.

"I would appeal to anyone who has any information about this incident to contact police at Woodbourne on the non-emergency number 101, quoting reference 633 15/07/20.



A report can also be made using the online reporting form via www.psni.police.uk/makeareport. Alternatively, information can be provided to Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at www.crimestoppers-uk.org
Healthcare workers administer tests at a COVID-19 testing site at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas, on July 9, 2020. (Mark Felix/AFP via Getty Images)

Texas Removes 3,484 COVID-19 Cases

Health officials in Texas on Thursday subtracted thousands of COVID-19 cases from their running case count.

A notice posted on the dashboard maintained by Texas Health and Human Services blamed local officials.

The San Antonio Metro Health District has clarified its reporting to separate confirmed and probable cases, so the Bexar County and statewide totals have been updated to remove 3,484 probable cases, the alert stated.

The local case count previously included probable cases identified by antigen testing but not those from antibody testing or other sources.

The gold standard of testing for COVID-19, a disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, is PCR testing. Antigen tests are faster but are more likely to give false results, according to the University of Texas Health, San Antonio.

Testing data is diluted by the different ways states count cases and deaths, an Epoch Times investigation found.

The states COVID-19 count for Bexar County is now 17,458. According to Bexar County health officials, there are 21,546 cases as of July 15.

A healthcare worker talks to a patient in the ER at Oakbend Medical Center in Richmond, Texas, on July 15, 2020. (Mark Felix/AFP via Getty Images)

Out of those, 3,634 are probable cases, the county website says.

Confirmed cases defined as cases that have a positive molecular (PCR/NAAT) test result. Probable cases defined as symptomatic cases that have a positive antigen (FIA) test result, it states.

San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, an independent, told reporters last week that Bexar County would continue reporting the probable cases.

From a science perspective and medical perspective, it doesnt make any sense to not count these test results, as they are just as accurate in determining positive cases, Nirenberg said. This gives us a better sense of where the infections are so we can control it in our community and get back to some sense of normalcy.

Still, the county would start separating probable and confirmed cases, he said.

An antigen test is still considered an accurate positive, added Metro Health Assistant Director Mario Martinez.

Experts actually prefer an antigen test be used when youre testing large populations. Now in San Antonio as we have more widespread prevalence of COVID-19, its definitely a good test to use in our community.
A nimal sanctuary workers have finally rescued a duck three months after it miraculously survived being shot in the head with an arrow.

The duck was spotted with a steel-tipped arrow through its head and neck in the River Radbuza in the city of Pilsen, Czech Republic.

Animal rescuers from DESOP Plzen were determined to help the mallard despite its attempts to flee whenever the workers drew near.

Karel Makon, head of the animal sanctuary, told the Daily Mail they finally managed to rescue the duck this week using kayaks in the river.

Hanka and Radek hold the injured duck / DESOP Plzen

He said: "On Monday we succeeded by taking advantage of the fact that the duck was molting, so he wouldn't be able to fly until new feathers grew.

"This time I was standing on the shore with a landing net on a long pole. Hanka and Radek distracted him in their kayaks."

Speaking about the moment the animal rescuers managed to catch the mallard, Mr Makon said: "I was on the shore above him, it was luck and I happened to see him.

An X-ray image of the duck with the arrow stuck in its head / DESOP Plzen

"I quickly swung the landing net into the grass and managed to catch him. He didn't have a chance to escape."

They took the duck to a local vet where the arrow was removed and he has since been released back in the river.

Mr Makon believes the duck may have been a victim of poaching.

"There was a fishing line on the arrow. It looks like a targeted hunt, but we lack evidence," he said. "Or it may be vandalism."

According to the Daily Mail local police are now searching for the culprit.
YEREVAN, JULY 16, ARMENPRESS. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev blamed a number of diplomats in state betrayal, noting that its the result of wrong cadre policy. ARMENPRESS reports, citing Azerbaijani media, during the meeting with the newly appointed foreign minister of Azerbaijan Ceyhun Bayramov Ilham Aliyev said that Azerbaijan makes active efforts for establishing friendly and partnering relations with all countries, but it does not mean that the interests of the state and people should be set aside.

''Some of our diplomats in other countries have become the Ambassadors of those countries where they work. This is the result of wrong cadre policy. Some diplomats have betrayed the state, they have betrayed and do not hide it. They are under the control of the special services of that countries'', Aliyev said.

According to the Azerbaijani president, those diplomats receive money and instructions from the special services of the countries they live in.

On July 15 Aliyev strongly criticized Elmar Mammadyarov and fired him from the post of foreign minister, appointing Ceyhun Bayramov to the post.

Editing and Translating by Tigran Sirekanyan
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Citing health and safety risks, several public defenders groups in the city have sued the state court administration agency over the plan to convene in-person matters in Criminal Courts on Staten Island and throughout the city.

The suit alleges the return to in-person appearances in some Criminal Court cases, which started Wednesday, is discriminatory and forces clients, particularly those with medical or disability issues, to choose between their well-being and liberty in wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The Legal Aid Society, which represents indigent defendants on Staten Island, is among the plaintiffs in the suit. It was filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court against the state Office of Court Administration (OCA) and Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence K. Marks.

Plaintiffs have at least hundreds of clients and staff members who have medical vulnerabilities that put them at great risk of serious illness or death from COVID-19, said a civil complaint. Plaintiffs clients with these disabilities face the tragic and illegal choice between their fundamental right to participate in their own cases and their health and safety.

Also on Tuesday, the head of the New York State Court Officers Association sought a temporary restraining order to prevent COVID-19 screenings of courthouse visitors which OCA has ordered his members to perform.

Dennis Quirk alleges court officers havent been provided adequate personal protective equipment to undertake those tasks, including taking visitors temperatures. As a result, members have a higher risk of being infected, the unions motion alleges.

Quirk had initially sued OCA two weeks ago over the reopening plan, also in Manhattan federal court.

Courts on Staten Island and throughout the city have largely operated remotely for the past four months since the coronavirus outbreak in New York.

However, on July 8, courts in the five boroughs entered Phase 3 of the gradual return toward increased in-person functions.

Those operations included expanding certain Criminal Court proceedings.

The next day, OCA issued an order informing criminal defense attorneys that in-person appearances in selected Criminal Court cases would begin Wednesday, July 15, said the public defenders civil complaint.

In response, the plaintiffs on Sunday advised OCA of their safety concerns. They requested that in-person proceedings be paused pending further evaluation, the complaint said.

Specifically, the public defenders said their public-health experts had previously cited significant failures in the courts reopening protocols, said the complaint.

Such issues include poor ventilation in courthouse detention areas, the adequacy of plexiglass dividers designed to prevent the virus spread, as well as the policies governing safety in public restrooms, the complaint alleges.

OCA has not said whether those matters had been rectified, said the civil complaint.

And, the public defenders say, their experts have not finished their assessment of courthouse safety conditions.

Moreover, the matters scheduled for in-person appearances are not urgent and can continue to be conducted remotely, the plaintiffs contend.

The public defenders seek an injunction ordering OCA to halt in-person operations in Criminal Courts and to develop a collaborative reopening plan with them.

In a statement, Lucian Chalfen, an OCA spokesperson, said the public defender groups had already agreed to, and we have already held, in-person appearances for some of their clients.

As we begin our entirely legal plan for a slow return to normalized operations, with a focus on personal health and safety, starting today, we are calendaring approximately 10 in-person cases a day in each court, said Chalfen.

The State Court Officers Association is also battling OCA over the reopening plan.

In particular, the union wants the federal court to scuttle OCAs order directing its members to screen courthouse visitors for the virus.

Court officers are being thrust into unsterilized courthouses, without proper personal protective equipment (PPE) or other available precautionary measures and being directed to engage individuals who could very well be carrying the COVID-19 virus, alleges the motion.

Ensuring the safety of plaintiffs and all other individuals entering a courthouse, whether a judge, attorney, court personnel or litigant is in the public interest, the motion said.

In response, Chalfen said court officers are the most appropriate court system personnel to implement the temperature screenings and have shown the ability to adapt to new conditions in the past, such as using the AEDs (automated external defibrillators) and administering Narcan.

Narcan is an overdose-reversal agent.

While the health and safety of everyone entering any of our courthouses is paramount, how we go about achieving that is at our sole discretion, said Chalfen.
Detention of Governor of Russias Khabarovsk Region in murder case upheld

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

12:40 16/07/2020

MOSCOW, July 16 (RAPSI)  The Moscow City Court on Thursday upheld detention of the Khabarovsk Region Governor Sergey Furgal in a case over organized murders of businessmen, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.

On July 10, Moscows Basmanny District Court placed Furgal charged with killing and attempted murders of businessmen in detention until September 9. The hearing was held behind closed doors. A judge took the decision granting a motion of investigators who said about threats against other defendants in the case. On July 13, he appealed the courts decision.

Furgal denied his guilt and political nature of the case.

Governor of the Khabarovsk Region Sergey Furgal was arrested on July 9. According to investigators, crimes were committed by an organized criminal group allegedly led by Furgal in Russias Khabarovsk and Amur Regions in 2004-2005. Earlier, four alleged members of the gang were arrested and placed in detention.

Born in the Amur Region, Furgal worked as general physician at a hospital more than 6 years before the start of his political career. After being discharged from healthcare in 1999, he went in for business, according to his biography on the Khabarovsk Krai governments website. He was elected as the State Duma lawmaker three times.

In September 2018, he was elected as a Khabarovsk Region governor by popular vote.




NEW YORK, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --



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The UV curing system market is projected to reach USD 6.7 billion by 2025 from USD 3.3 billion in 2020; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.0% during the forecast period. The UV curing system market in APAC is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Countries such as China, Japan, India, and South Korea are major contributors to the growth of the UV curing system market in APAC. China and Japan are considered as the early adopters of UV technology in the electronics manufacturing industry. The growth prospective of the UV curing system market in APAC is promising with a steady growth rate in the near future. The COVID19 pandemic has affected the market in APAC, however, a steady recovery by 2021 is expected with the significant chances of market expansion due to the rising exports of the region. The continuous rise in the production of end products for use in APAC and for exports derives a huge demand for UV coatings. The major restraints for the growth of the market are limited depth of curing. Risks related to hazardous effects of mercury present in UV mercury lamps and Slowdown in production of manufacturing industries due to COVID-19 act as major challenges for the growth of the market.



The Mercury lamp technology segment projected to hold a large share of the UV curing system market during the forecast period.

Mercury-based UV lamps employ an electric arc through vaporized mercury to produce UV light.These lamps can disinfect an area in lesser time, as the aperture produced by the lamp is broad.



These lamps can emit UV light of UVA (320 to 400 nm), UVB (280 to 320 nm), and UVC (200 to 280 nm) wavelengths.The intense spectrum of light causes the rapid curing of numerous applications, such as printing, bonding and assembling, and coating and finishing.



These lamps are limited to short lengths, and lamp life is usually less than 1,000 h.Furthermore, mercury lamps need to be handled properly as they consist of high-pressure gas, which may burst if the pressure is increased.



Moreover, the mercury lamp market is expected to grow due to increasing industrial development and stringent government regulations as well as increasing adoption in the medical vertical.



Among end-use vertical, the medical segment to hold the largest share of the UV curing system market from 2020 to 2025.

UV curing systems are used in a variety of medical products such as syringes, catheters, hearing aids, dialysis machines, medication patches, hydrogels, filters, and test strips, for the speed production of coatings, inks, and adhesives.These systems help in reducing costs and provide high-quality products.



The adoption of UV curing in the medical vertical has increased owing to its properties such as rapid processing, cure on demand, ease of automation, low temperature, and lower energy requirements.UV spot cure and UV LED flood cure are mainly used for the assembling of medical electronic components.



The features of UV curing technology, such as precise irradiance control and wavelength selection based on the requirement help medical device manufacturers with organized UV curing in assembly processes. UV curing systems are a key solution for high-volume automated processes, which reduce material and operating costs.



North America projected to hold the largest share of the UV curing system market in 2019.

The North American region is the largest market for UV curing systems with the largest share in 2019 and is expected to lead the market for a few years.North America is home to various largescale manufacturing industries in different sectors such as automotive, medical, and electronics, and semiconductors.



These sectors are witnessing significant adoption of UV curing technology to meet the increasing demand of the market and are estimated to rise in the near future.The manufacturing facilities in the region are highly automated with high precision manufacturing with minimal time required for production.



The UV curing system market in North America has been further segmented into the US, Canada, and Mexico. The UV curing system market in the region is expected to grow rapidly as the domestic players are focusing on the export market thereby, increasing the global market share.



Breakdown of profiles of primary participants:

 By Company Type: Tier 1 = 50%, Tier 2 = 30%, and Tier 3 = 20%

 By Designation: C-level Executives = 35%, Directors = 30%, and Others = 35%

 By Region: North America = 40%, Europe = 25%, APAC = 20%, and RoW = 15%



Baldwin Technology (US), Dymax (US), Nordson (US), Excelitas (US), Heraeus (Germany), Phoseon (US), Honle (Germany), Ist Metz (Germany), American Ultraviolet (US), and Hanovia (UK) are a few major players in the UV curing system market.



Research Coverage:

This report segments the UV curing system market based on technology, type, pressure type, application, and end user. The report gives a detailed view of the market across 4 main regions: North America, Europe, APAC, and RoW.



Reasons to Buy the Report:

 This report includes statistics pertaining to the UV curing system market based on technology, type, pressure type, application, and end user, and region, along with their respective market sizes

 Major drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges for the UV curing system market have been provided in detail in this report

 The report includes illustrative segmentation, analysis, and forecast for the UV curing system market based on its segments and subsegments



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Quarterly Activity report - 30 June 2020

Melbourne, July 16, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Nova Minerals Limited ( ASX:NVA ) ( FRA:QM3 ) ( OTCMKTS:NVAAF ) continued its fast-track exploration strategy at the district scale Estelle Gold Project in Alaska, achieving a significant milestone with the release of a JORC compliant 2.5Moz maiden inferred resource at its oxide Korbel prospect in the September quarter (ASX 11 September 2019) to outline the size and scope of the project area.There are two diamond drills rig now turning on Pad 3, aka the Block 2 "starter pit" area of the Korbel Deposit. The objective for 2020 is unchanged and remains to significantly increase the current 2.5Moz resource in both size and confidence. Most importantly, the 2.5Moz Inferred Resource was achieved using an average drill depth of less than 100m. Induced Polarisation chargeability results show that the mineralization is present to at least 300m below surface and remains open. The current program will test down to 500m below the surface, which is 5 times the current depth of the existing Resource area. To date, all holes have returned Continuous Gold Mineralisation from Surface exceeding the company's expectation. These results continue to support the potential for a massive, bulk-tonnage, heap leachable resource. We are sitting on a great sea of mineralization at Korbel with no end in sight.To view the Quarterly Report, please visit:About Nova Minerals Limited

Nova Minerals Limited's (ASX:NVA) (FRA:QM3) (OTCMKTS:NVAAF) vision is to develop North America's next major gold trend. The company is focused on exploration in Alaska's prolific Tintina Gold Belt, a province which hosts a 220 million ounce (Moz) documented gold endowment and some of the world's largest gold mines and discoveries including Victoria Gold's Eagle Mine and Kinross Gold Corporation's Fort Knox Gold Mine. The company's flagship Estelle Project has a current total estimated JORC gold resource of 9.6Moz (3Moz Indicated and 6.6Moz Inferred). Estelle is a 45km long string of 15 identified gold prospects bracketed by the Korbel deposit in the north and the RPM deposit in the south. These two deposits are currently host to extensive exploration programs.

Additionally, Nova has an indirect interest in the Canadian Thompson Brothers Lithium Project through a substantial stake in Snow Lake Resources Ltd (NASDAQ:LITM) and holds a 12.99% interest in Torian Resources Limited (ASX:TNR), a gold exploration company based in Western Australia.
Naga Munchetty publicly called out a pair of Twitter trolls on Thursday after they attacked her for what she was wearing on BBC Breakfast.

One - named Paul - derogatorily referred to the news anchor, 45, as 'that Asian bird' and slammed her for wearing 'whatever the hell she wants' to present the show.

It appeared to be a reaction to Naga's footwear - a pair of silver brogues - as she sat alongside co-host Charlie Stayt who was in a suit and tie.

Hitting back: Naga Munchetty publicly called out a pair of Twitter trolls on Thursday after they attacked her for what she was wearing on BBC Breakfast

Clearly outraged at the funky shoes, Paul marched to Twitter to rant: 'I never understand why Charlie has to wear a formal business suit and that Asian bird seems to be able to wear whatever the hell she wants?'

Naga replied to this with a simple: 'Oh Paul!'

She then replied to another now-deleted tweet, which clearly also attacked the shoes.

It's unclear whether this was from a different Paul or the same one, but Naga quipped in response: 'Paul - Three suggestions: 1. Add a picture of yourself to your Twitter profile 2. Think about what you Tweet before you write 3. I'll leave you to guess this one...'

Anchors: On the morning show, she sat alongside co-host Charlie Stayt who was in a suit and tie

Suited and booted: The outrage appeared to be a reaction to Naga's footwear - a pair of silver brogues

He's fuming! Clearly outraged at the funky shoes, Paul marched to Twitter to rant - 'I never understand why Charlie has to wear a formal business suit and that Asian bird seems to be able to wear whatever the hell she wants?'

Followers rushed to Naga's defence, hailing her 'stylish' and 'fabulous', with some branding her the best morning TV anchor across the whole of UK television.

The newswoman's ensemble was far from scruffy, as Naga slipped into a navy blouse with red hearts dotted around it and black slacks.

In 2016, Naga said she was 'not there to be abused' as she spoke out about the horrendous racial and sexist abuse she was bombarded with on Twitter.

She said she accepted that criticism is part of her role in the public eye but will always call out those who are simply abusive.

Previous tweets have claimed the award-winning journalist is only employed at the BBC for her ethnicity, but have also criticised her hair, glasses and even made distasteful sexual remarks.

Career: Naga is the second longest-serving member of the current presenting team, having joined the show in 2009, becoming a main presenter in 2014 [pictured with Dan Walker]

The presenter regularly replies to trolls, often ending tweets with a trademark 'BLOCKED', with her fans then jumping to her defence and criticising the abuser.

She told the Daily Mirror: 'Im on telly, Im in your home, so if you want to criticise me, fine. But Im not there to be abused. Nobody is there to be abused.

'You dont abuse someone while theyre doing their job, and you dont make racist, sexist or bigoted comments.

'If someone says, "She did a bad job of that interview, Ive come away and not understood anything", I would go back and re-examine that interview.

'Racist and sexist stuff, I just think, "Youre an idiot."'

Feisty Naga recently revealed she adored the Emily Bronte classic Wuthering Heights because its female star is cruel.

'It showed me that women do not have to be likeable, that they can be hateful and that love isn't glorious. I sound so dark by saying that - dark of heart,' she told The Mail On Sunday last week.

'Cathy is a hateful character, she is cruel. And I love her, I absolutely love her. Does that sound really awful?'

In May, Naga confirmed that 'all four main presenters of BBC Breakfast' are now paid the same following an equal salary complaint to the broadcaster in 2017.

The presenter was one of more than 100 female employees at the station who made complaints against the corporation over equal pay.

She, Charlie, Louise Minchin and Dan Walker are now all paid equally, which was not the case before the complaint was made.

She said: 'There are four main presenters who present three days a week, we do the same job, we have the same level of responsibility, the same expectation; we should be paid the same.'

Naga is the second longest-serving member of the current presenting team, having joined the show in 2009, becoming a main presenter in 2014.
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Biocon's Itolizumab, which was approved to treat COVID-19, has sparked a controversy. The drug was approved on July 11 by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for restricted emergency use for treating moderate to severe coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases.

Itolizumab isn't a new drug. The drug was approved in 2013 for treating psoriasis, and is now repurposed for treating COVID-19. The drug was positioned as an affordable option to Tocilizumab, an IL-6 inhibitor drug marketed by Roche and its Indian partner Cipla, which is also used for treating COVID-19 patients.

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director-General Balram Bhargava said there is not enough evidence from clinical trials that the drugs Itolizumab and Tocilizumab reduce mortality in COVID-19 patients.

Itolizumab, meanwhile, is drawing sharp scrutiny. The critics are pointing to the small size of the clinical trial, exemption of Phase-3 trial, use of the drug as off-label for COVID-19, and making claims to the press before data is published in a peer-reviewed journal. People are seeking more transparency from the Indian drug regulator on checks and balances that are being adopted while approving the drug.

To be sure, there are eminent doctors who are vouching for the drug. Some of them have used the drug as off-label, where an approved drug is used for a disease that it is not approved to treat. Kiran Mazumadar-Shaw, the outspoken Chairperson of Biocon, is taking certain naysayers of Itolizumab on Twitter head on, but some conversations have turned unsavoury.

Here are the main questions raised on the drug

Is the trial underpowered?

The Itolizumab trial is a randomised, controlled, open-label study at four hospitals in India, enrolling a total of 30 hospitalised COVID-19 patients with moderate to severe ARDS. Twenty patients were randomised to receive Itolizumab plus supportive care, while 10 patients in the control group received supportive care alone. The primary endpoint was mortality at one month.

Biocon said the small study was a feasibility study to see any benefit and were pleasantly surprised to find mortality benefit.

The company said that in the Itolizumab arm there were no deaths and all patients have recovered; in the control arm three patients died and the remaining have recovered.

But critics wonder if the trial is underpowered due to small sample size to pick a real effect of reducing the mortality.

Biocon's Chief Medical Officer Sandeep Athalye says this a label extension of an already approved product, and if they are able to show the magnitude of effect in a small trial, which is statistically significant, even a small trial would suffice.

Why no phase-3 trial?

Phase-3 is a large, multi-centre trial where the drug is tested on patients to demonstrate efficacy on treating the intended disease compared to placebo or regular standard of treatment.

The DCGI has waived Biocons need to conduct phase 3 clinical trials, and allowed the company to conduct post-marketing surveillance, also called Phase 4. But some experts say that given the complex nature of the COVID-19 disease, phase-3 ought to be done.

"If a disease is uniformly fatal then a small sample size is enough to establish whether or not a drug works. If death is, say under 10-20 percent, then you need to study a lot of patients to be sure the study's conclusions are valid. This is statistical theory at its finest," tweets Jammi N Rao, a public health physician with expertise in statistics and epidemiology,

Biocon said several doctors have used the drug off-label on 150 patients since May on compassionate grounds in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi and all have been cured of COVID-19.





In an interview to IANS, Mazumdar-Shaw defended that if they did a 100-patient trial on Itolizumab, it would have taken three months, even as patients were dying from COVID-19.

Peer-reviewed journal or press release?

Some experts have criticised the way the company went to the media before publishing the data in a reputed journal, that would have allowed independent experts to assess the claims threadbare.

Biocon said it will be publishing the trial data as well as real-world data to further strengthen the body of evidence for Itolizumab.

Has the regulator followed due process?

Some critics have questioned the DCGI for waiving phase-3 trial. They sought the regulator to make the minutes of the subject expert committee (SEC) that decided to approve the drug to be made public. Some even went to the extent of seeking disclosure of the names and professional details of SEC members to verify if they have any conflict of interest.

Biocon defended saying that the process followed has been extremely robust. The kind of scientific discussions that we had, have been of a very high order, Mazumdar-Shaw said.
The hackers who seized control of the Twitter accounts of Joe Biden, Kim Kardashian, Barack Obama and Elon Musk appear to have been in it only for the money.

But with social media now the main way many politicians, countries and companies communicate with the public, U.S. lawmakers were wondering if it could have been worse.

While this scheme appears financially motivatedimagine if these bad actors had a different intent to use powerful voices to spread disinformation to potentially interfere with our elections, disrupt the stock market, or upset our international relations, U.S. Senator Ed Markey, a Democrat, said in a statement.

Twitter Inc said hackers had targeted employees with access to its internal systems and used this access to take control of many highly-visible (including verified) accounts and Tweet on their behalf.

Other high-profile accounts that were hacked included rapper Kanye West, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, investor Warren Buffett, Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates, and the corporate accounts for Uber and Apple Inc.

Twitters shares slid after the hack, trading nearly 2 percent lower late on Thursday morning after paring earlier losses. In an extraordinary step, it temporarily prevented many verified accounts from publishing messages as it investigated the breach.

The hijacked accounts tweeted out messages telling users to send bitcoin and their money would be doubled. Publicly available blockchain records show that the apparent scammers received more than $100,000 worth of cryptocurrency.

CEO Jack Dorsey said in a tweet on Wednesday that it was a tough day for everyone at Twitter and pledged to share everything we can when we have a more complete understanding of exactly what happened.

But the breach is certain to refocus attention in Washington on social media companies, which have already attracted the concern of critics on both the left and the right because of their vast reach, security and privacy policies, and impact on political discourse.

A successful attack on your systems servers represents a threat to all of your users privacy and data security, Republican Senator Josh Hawley wrote in a letter to Dorsey.

Frank Pallone, a Democrat who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee that oversees a sizeable portion of U.S. tech policy, said in a tweet the company needs to explain how all of these prominent accounts were hacked.

Financial analysts said hacks of this nature are not likely to have much material impact on Twitters balance sheet, although it could lead the company to spend more on security.

The hack certainly doesnt help, Joe Wittine, Edgewater Research analyst, told Reuters in an email. It will pose more of a reputational risk, versus material near-term risk to advertising revenues.

Bernstein analyst Mark Shmulik said in the long-term, maybe if a few of the blue check mark accounts decide to leave the platform that could have a minor impact on usage.
Treasury Targets Financier's Illicit Sanctions Evasion Activity

U.S. Department of the Treasury

July 15, 2020

WASHINGTON  Today, the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took further action as part of its ongoing sanctions efforts regarding financier Yevgeniy Prigozhin (Prigozhin), by targeting entities located in Sudan, Hong Kong, and Thailand that have enabled his ability to evade U.S. sanctions. The actors targeted today have directly facilitated Prigozhin's global operations and attempted to suppress and discredit protestors seeking democratic reforms in Sudan.

"Yevgeniy Prigozhin and his network are exploiting Sudan's natural resources for personal gain and spreading malign influence around the globe," said Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin. "The United States remains committed to holding him and other bad actors accountable so Sudan and other countries can operate freely."

Prigozhin is the financer of the Internet Research Agency (IRA), the Russian troll farm that was designated by OFAC in 2018. Prigozhin is also believed to be the financier behind Private Military Company (PMC) Wagner, a designated Russian Ministry of Defense proxy force. PMC Wagner's activities in other countries, including Ukraine, Syria, Sudan, and Libya, have generated insecurity and incited violence against innocent civilians. Due to his involvement in these activities and his connections to the Russian government, Prigozhin has been designated pursuant to Executive Orders (E.O.s) 13848, 13694, as amended, and 13661.

While his activities span the globe, Prigozhin's role in Sudan highlights the interplay between Russia's paramilitary operations, support for preserving authoritarian regimes, and exploitation of natural resources. During his 30-year tenure, former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir increased economic and security cooperation with Russia, receiving military assistance and offering agreements spanning some of Sudan's most lucrative sectors such as oil, natural gas, agriculture, and gold. The Sudanese people peacefully ousted Bashir in April 2019, forming a civilian-led transition government that has taken steps to increase equality amongst the Sudanese people and respect for human rights. Today's actions are measures to prevent Prigozhin's interference with Sudan's democratic transition and allow the new government an opportunity to regain control of Sudan's national assets.

SANCTIONS TARGETS

Today's action targets three individuals and five entities directly involved in furthering Prigozhin's operations in Sudan and assisting his ability to evade sanctions pursuant to E.O.s 13848; 13694, as amended; and 13661.

Sudan Related Targets

M Invest is a Russia-based entity that is owned or controlled by Prigozhin. M Invest serves as a cover for PMC Wagner forces operating in Sudan, and was responsible for developing plans for former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to suppress protestors seeking democratic reforms. M Invest's plans advocated for the use of social media-enabled disinformation campaigns similar to those deployed by the IRA, and the staging of public executions to distract protestors seeking reforms. In addition, in 2017, M Invest was awarded concession agreements to explore gold mining sites in Sudan during a 2017 summit between the Russian and Bashir-led Sudanese governments. To oversee its activities on the ground, M Invest relies upon its subsidiary, Meroe Gold. M Invest also depends upon two key individuals to carry out its activities: Andrei Mandel (Mandel) and Mikhail Potepkin (Potepkin). Mandel serves as M Invest's Director General, while Potepkin, who previously was an employee of the IRA, is M Invest's and Meroe Gold's Regional Director based in Sudan.

M Invest is being designated for being owned or controlled by Prigozhin, while Meroe Gold is being designated for being owned or controlled by M Invest. Mandel is being designated for having acted for or on behalf of M Invest. Potepkin is being designated having acted for or on behalf of M Invest and Meroe Gold.

Financial Facilitation Targets

To expand his global operations, Prigozhin relies upon a vast network of financial facilitators and front companies to enable his ability to evade sanctions and transact in U.S. dollars despite being blocked from the U.S. financial system.

Between 2018 and 2019, Thailand and Hong Kong-based entities, Shine Dragon Group Limited, Shen Yang Jing Cheng Machinery Imp&Exp. Co., and Zhe Jiang Jiayi Small Commodities Trade Company Limited, facilitated over 100 transactions exceeding $7.5 million that were sent in the interest of Prigozhin. These funds supported his activities in Sudan and maintenance of his private aircraft, which were identified as blocked property by OFAC on September 30, 2019. Shine Dragon Group Limited sent over $6.5 million to M Invest, while all three companies were responsible for making numerous payments totaling over $800,000 for Prigozhin's private aircraft. Prior to their identification, Prigozhin's aircraft were known to operate in several countries throughout the Middle East and Africa, including Syria, Libya, and Sudan, where he has sought to extend his influence. Throughout the course of this financial activity, Igor Lavrenkov (Lavrenkov) was the director and owner of Shine Dragon Group Limited, and was personally involved in establishing the company's relationship with M Invest. Lavrenkov is also a director at both Shen Yang Jing Cheng Machinery Imp&Exp. Co. and Zhe Jiang Jiayi Small Commodities Trade Company Limited, while Shine Dragon Group Limited owns both entities.

Shine Dragon Group Limited, Shen Yang Jing Cheng Machinery Imp&Exp. Co., Zhe Jiang Jiayi Small Commodities Trade Company Limited, and Lavrenkov are being designated for having materially assisted Prigozhin.

As a result of today's designations, all property and interests in property of these persons that are or come within the possession of U.S. persons are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. Additionally, any entities 50 percent or more owned by one or more of these designated persons are also blocked. Non-U.S. persons that engage in certain transactions with the persons designated today may themselves be exposed to sanctions.

Identifying information on the individuals and entities designated today.

###

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Army chief MM Naravane, Northern army commander Lt Gen Y K Joshi and 14 corps head Lt Gen Harinder Singh also attended the meeting.

New Delhi: The China Study Group (CSG) headed by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met on Wednesday evening to discuss the emerging situation in Ladakh and how to proceed further with China.

Army chief MM Naravane, Northern army commander Lt Gen Y K Joshi and 14 corps head Lt Gen Harinder Singh, who has been negotiating with his Chinese counterpart on disengagement, are reported to have attended the CSG meeting.

CSG, which is apex policy advisor to the government on China discussed the outcome of the 4th Corps Commanders meeting between India and China, said sources. The CSG meeting took place at a time when there are indications that the second phase of disengagement between India and China is going to be tough and will need more negotiations. Army gave a briefing about the Corps Commanders meeting and overall ground situation at the line of actual control (LAC). Cabinet secretary and secretaries of home, defence and finance and representatives of the intelligence agencies are part of the CSG.

The Corps Commanders meeting between India and China on Tuesday went for 15 hours to finish at around 2 am in the morning (4:30 am Beijing time). Sources said that there were hard negotiations from both sides. However, there is still no official word yet on the meeting. The CSG meeting is likely to give direction on how to take negotiations further with China.

India wants China to completely disengage from Pangong Tso and Depsang plains besides reducing its troops strength from LAC where China has amassed tanks, artillery and radars, jammers.

Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday that the 4th Corps Commanders meeting achieved progress in pushing forward disengagement of frontline border troops from both countries and easing border situation.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh will visit forward areas in LAC and LoC this week to take stock of the situation. Mr Singh, who will be accompanied by Army Chief will visit Ladakh on July 17 and Srinagar on July 18.

A special meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council, under Mr Singh on Wednesday delegated the powers for buying urgent weapons and ammunition upto Rs 300 crores to the armed forces to meet their emergent operational requirements.

This will shrink the procurement timelines and ensure placement of orders within six months and commencement of deliveries within one year, said the defence ministry. It said that the special meeting was called considering the security environment due to the prevailing situation along the Northern borders and the need to strengthen the armed forces for the defence of our borders.

In the last meeting on June 30, 14 Corps Commander Lt Gen Singh and South Xinjiang Military Region, commander Maj Gen Liu Lin had agreed to mutually move back their troops in flash points by upto 2 kilometers in the Ladakh sector to bring down chances of a confrontation. However, further movement of troops away from flash points will not be easy, said sources.

Last week Indian and Chinese troops completed their initial phase of disengagement from flashpoints by mutually moving back from Galwan Valley, Hot Springs, Gogra Post and finger 4 area of Pangong Tso. However, in Pangong Tso Chinese are still occupying ridges in finger 4. Chinese troops still have to vacate area between finger 5 and finger 8, which India claims is its territory. In May 2020, Chinese troops in an aggressive move occupied the area between Finger 4 to Finger 8 and prevented Indian troops from patrolling the area.
There is a very low likelihood of injury with the display of a Taser or a firearm from one of our officers, Kirkland said. Were not touching them, and the application of actual force on a person is what we are going to collect and measure.

Councilor Vanessa Hall-Harper said capturing that data is a nationally recommended best practice, adding that its ridiculous that the department wont do so.

We do not believe that that is the best practice for the Tulsa Police Department, Kirkland said.

Councilor Kara Joy McKee said she echoed Hall-Harper regarding officers displaying weapons.

McKee said that a weapon directed toward a person might create a heightened sense of anxiety within that person, which could put the officer in more danger or escalate a situation.

I think that Councilor Hall-Harper is correct that it might be worth documenting that, so just something for your consideration, Joy McKee said. My 2 cents on that.

Councilor Jeannie Cue said she also is supportive of trying to track that data.
re.skin re.vive supplement and re.form serum

As face coverings become the new daily wear, more adults are noticing the unwelcome red marks and blemishes they havent seen in years. While dermatologists have more scientific terms to diagnose these flare-ups in patients, social media has coined the term Maskne when referring to breakouts that occur around the nose, mouth and chin areas.

According to medical experts, its not just the material covering causing the acne but a combination of hormonal stress and the moisture and bacteria from breathing within this closed off space thats creating the perfect storm.

What does this new battle in acne mean for those who already have a dedicated skincare regimen for aging skin? Products that combat breakouts normally arent effective in combating fine lines and wrinkles, and vice versa.

New Zealand brand re.skin may have the answer to multiple skin care woes. The line features a two-step system that harnesses science, nature and more importantly, less products in a skincare regimen.

The re.vive Supplement and re.form Serum resonates with the inside and out concept approaching beauty from a 360 degree angle. Beauty benefits include boosting skin elasticity; stimulating collagen production; enhancing skin brightness and radiance; reducing the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles and dark spots; and stimulating hyaluronic acid in the skin. Within the supplement, users also receive 20 antioxidant-rich vitamins and minerals that not only benefit skin but hair, nails, as well as overall body health.

When it comes to using a serum with Maskne, re.skin founder Lisa Anderson explains there are massive misconceptions around using oils on acne-prone skin. In the case of the re.form Serum, it contains multiple ingredients that deliver benefits to blemished, inflamed skin types.

Jojoba oil, for example, controls sebum levels, and in addition to its antibacterial, anti-inflammatory properties, its nontoxic. Squalane speeds up the skin healing process, fights bacteria and normalizes oils levels, while the serums use of Sweet Almond oil suits sensitive and blemish-prone skin, helping to relieve inflammation.

Within re.skins supplement, sustainably-sourced New Zealand Marine Collagen is the hero ingredient from down under. Anderson mentions that it may do more to help skin during a breakout as it hydrates, normalizes oil levels and helps heal skin from unsightly blemishes.

Although everyones skin is different and theres no one-and-done solution for acne, the re.vive Supplement adds vitamins and minerals that could make a difference in the skins complexion as long as wearing a face mask is a must.

Vitamins and minerals include:



Vitamin B2  reduces inflammation

Vitamin B3  improves inflammation, helps with skin sensitivity, controls oil flow

Vitamin D3  reduces incidence of acne

Vitamin A  a well-known vitamin to help with acne

Zinc  wards off acne flare ups, assists with the healing process

Selenium  flights off inflammation

Using re.skins serum and supplement system is one alternative to keep acne breakouts under control as face coverings are deemed necessary for now. What are two other tips you can follow to make sure this type of skin care is effective? Cleansing two times a day and wash your reusable face mask frequently.

About re.skin: Taking its name from how the skin can transform and reform based on quality skin care products, the company is committed to providing simplistic solutions backed by science and rooted in nature. Based in New Zealand and sold all over the world, re.skin is uncomplicating the skin care routine with two easy-to-use products that are filler and chemical-free.
The Center for Clinical and Translational Science, or CCTS, at the University of Illinois at Chicago will receive $22 million in new funding from the National Institutes of Health, or NIH, to continue its work supporting critical clinical and translational health research programs.

The center received initial funding in 2009 and over the last decade, it has helped provide multidisciplinary training and support to hundreds of faculty, researchers and staff at UIC who are involved in research that bridges the gap between scientific labs and patient care or community needs.

"The continued funding of the CCTS underscores UIC's deep-rooted commitment to translational discovery that directly benefits our patients and communities," said Dr. Robert Barish, vice chancellor for health affairs at UIC. "We are proud of this continued recognition and thankful for the investment in our interdisciplinary excellence across the university and its academic health enterprise."

"Never has the value and need for clinical translational research been more evident and important as during the current COVID-19 pandemic, when teams of researchers have been pulling together to address the critical health needs of the population," said Dr. Robin Mermelstein, co-director of the center and UIC professor of psychology. "The CCTS has been able to leverage vital institutional support from UIC to accelerate progress in moving discoveries into practice and policy and helping to develop opportunities and careers of faculty to address the health challenges we face."

The new funding will be provided over five years.

The UIC center, which is part of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences' Clinical and Translational Science Awards Program, is one of more than 50 centers in the U.S. to be funded as a hub of biomedical research.

It is one of the few research hubs to include research programs from seven health sciences colleges -- including applied health sciences, dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, public health and social work -- as well as other complementary UIC colleges, including engineering, liberal arts and sciences, and urban planning and public affairs.

According to the center's directors, the breadth of potential collaborations across all of UIC's 16 colleges is one of the strengths of the CCTS, which also is recognized for its attention to addressing health disparities and the needs of the Chicago community.

The center provides fundamental research services and tools -- such as access to clinical data, informatics support, biostatistical support and consultation, data management tools, and training in community-based research collaborations -- as well as mentoring and training. It also provides opportunities to develop innovative research addressing health issues through pilot funding, mentored career development and support for team science and interdisciplinary collaborations.

"The center provides support at every level of the research spectrum, from basic science through community engagement and implementation, and fosters collaborations between different disciplines with infrastructure, training, expertise and pilot funding as well as through conferences focused on critical research topics designed to bring researchers from all disciplines together," said Dr. Richard Novak, co-director of the UIC Center for Clinical and Translational Science and UIC professor and head of infectious diseases.

Since 2009, UIC's CCTS has provided more than $4 million in pilot funding to research projects across campus. Pilot funding has resulted in $54 million in subsequent external grant funding. Over 700 publications have cited CCTS support.

"With renewed funding, we look forward to continuing to help push clinical translational research forward rapidly so we can be most responsive to the complex needs of our communities," Mermelstein said.

###
If Pennsylvania remains in the green phase or slips back to the yellow phase of its coronavirus mitigation plan, Nazareth Area School District will more than likely open its schools.

The schools will open if a draft health and safety plan is adopted. The draft plan is now posted on the district website. It outlines measures planned to curb the spread of COVID-19, the disease that shut down schools last spring and prompted the district to offer online instruction instead.

The plan calls for mandatory face masks for students. Parents can opt students out of the requirement if they feel a mask will jeopardize their childs physical health, will jeopardize their mental health or if a disability prevents the child from wearing a mask.

Every school will open a half hour later than typical to avoid students congregating outside. Theyll be allowed into the buildings right away to head to their homerooms.

Parents who are uncomfortable with sending children to brick-and-mortar schools can enroll their children in Blue Eagle Cyber Academy, a new online district-run school. The school district is still creating the academy. Unlike the online offerings from the spring, this academy will be a fully-developed online school.

Parents are expected to screen their children each morning for a fever. A child with a fever of 100 or greater must stay home.

For more information about Nazareth Area School Districts health and safety plan, check out the plan on the district website. Theres a page with frequently asked questions and a PowerPoint presentation shared by Superintendent Dennis Riker with the school board.

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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.
(ANSA) - Rome, July 16 - The body of a migrant was left floating at sea, held up by parts of a wrecked dinghy, for 15 days without anyone bringing it ashore. The NGO aircraft Seabird reported the corpse but it was nonetheless not brought to land. The first to publish the photos was Sea Watch Italy on Twitter on June 30, the Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported on Thursday. The daily noted that the migrant may have been a victim of one of the wrecks between June 29 and June 30 off Libya, when several rescue operations saved about 80 people. The NGO ship Mare Ionio took part in the operations. Caritas noted that no one seems to have wanted to bury the body, which was left at sea for weeks by the Italian, Libyan and Maltese Coast Guards despite four alerts sent out by Seabird. (ANSA).


President Trump's ousted campaign chief Brad Parscale was spotted at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Thursday, one day after he was demoted from the re-election shop's top spot.

Politico Playbook first reported that Parscale was fleeing D.C., likely headed back to Florida, where he lives.

On Twitter, Parscale shared a Bible verse: 'Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them,' he wrote.

President Trump's demoted campaign aide Brad Parscale was spotted by Politico Playbook at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Thursday after he held an emotional meeting at Trump's Virginia campaign headquarters Thursday morning

Brad Parscale, who will now serve as a senior adviser to the campaign, also tweeted out a Bible verse Thursday. Sources told Politico that he was deeply hurt by the president's demotion, which was announced via social media Wednesday night

CNN reported that Jared Kushner (right), who hand-picked Brad Parscale (left) to lead Trump's 2020 re-election effort, was the one who had to tell him that he no longer had the job

President Trump used Facebook and then Twitter to announce that Brad Parscale would no longer be leading his re-election campaign

On Wednesday night, via Facebook and then Twitter, Trump formally bumped Parscale to the role of senior adviser to the campaign, overseeing its data and digital operations, similar to the job he held during the 2016 cycle.

The president promoted Bill Stepien, a longtime Republican political operative who had been Parscale's No. 2.

CNN reported that Parscale had been unaware of the coming demotion until several hours before the president's announcement on social media.

The network said it was Jared Kushner, who picked Parscale for the job, who had to tell him the news.

Kushner has acted as the de facto boss of father-in-law's political operation, with some White House sources telling Politico that the Parscale shake-up may be a signal that the president is displeased with his son-in-law as well.

Parscale appeared at a Thursday morning meeting at the Trump campaign headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, alongside Stepien, Politico also said, before leaving town.

On January 3 2019, the day of his 43rd birthday, Parscale bought this $2.4 million canal-front mansion in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Broward County real estate records show

On January 4, the day after his birthday, Parscale bought himself a BMW X6 (right) crossover worth $78,300, according to motor vehicle records. Then in April, a pre-owned $146,000-Range Rover Autobiography (left) appeared in the driveway

Parscale's January 2019 home purchase came just months after the campaign consultant, spent nearly $2 million on two condos, also in Fort Lauderdale. And this time, it was all cash

Parscale bought one of the condos in August 2018 under the corporate name Parscale Properties LLC., a company he owns with his San Antonio-based parents

Parscale and his wife spent another $900,000 three months earlier for a three-bedroom condo

Pictured: The waterfront condo building where Parscale has purchased a condo recently after working for Trump

The meeting was described as emotional and Parscale as deeply hurt.

Parscale received much of the blowback for the embarrassing turnout at the Tulsa, Oklahoma rally.

At one point the then-campaign manager had boasted about a million RSVPs. A city official said 6,200 attended.

An outdoor overflow area that the president was also supposed to speak at went unused.

Sources close to the campaign told Politico that Parscale may have gone wrong by making himself a public figure, something that has cost other members of Trumpworld their jobs.

Critics have also accused Parscale of enriching himself with Trump dollars.

DailyMail.com reported in August that Parscale went from losing one company to bankruptcy to now being able to afford multi-million dollar house and car shopping sprees.

Parscale has spent about $4.4 million on real estate in the last two years.

In 2019, he spent $300,000 on cars in just a few months.
Back in February, Samsung released the new crown jewels of its Galaxy line of phones: the S20, the S20+ and the S20 Ultra. The two smaller models (the S20 and S20+) impressed reviews editor Cherlynn Low with their long battery life, improved camera and 5G support. The S20 Ultra has a bigger screen, more camera features and higher-end specs, making it the most powerful but also the most expensive. The final scores for the S20 line were 87, 85 and 80.

If you bought one of the S20 phones, what did you think? We want to hear all of your impressions and feedback over on the S20 product pages: Head here if youve got an S20, use this page for the S20+ and go here if you shelled out extra for the S20 Ultra. Your reviews help your fellow readers make better buying decisions so dont leave any details out! The best reviews will get featured in an upcoming user review roundup article.

Write a review for the Galaxy S20

Write a review for the Galaxy S20+

Write a review for the Galaxy S20 Ultra

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President Donald Trumps outgoing campaign manager and his successor gathered staffers at the Trump campaigns Arlington, Va., headquarters Thursday morning for a pass the torch ceremony, after Trump abruptly replaced Brad Parscale with Bill Stepien atop his reelection effort Wednesday night.

Two attendees described the 20-minute meeting as emotional, with campaign leaders trying to push the idea that the change represented continuity for Trumps reelection bid. Parscale thanked the 200 or so assembled staffers and praised Stepien for his political skills. Stepien urged aides to ignore what he described as a media-driven narrative that Trump was losing to Joe Biden, and he told them to ramp up their efforts for the final stretch of the campaign.

The meeting came just hours after Trump orchestrated the dramatic shakeup. In a move that left many aides stunned, the president took to Facebook to announce that Parscale, who has worked for Trump for the past decade and spent the last two-plus years building a massive reelection campaign apparatus, would be demoted into a senior adviser role and that Stepien would be taking his place.

The new campaign managers elevation followed weeks of angst inside the White House about Trumps reelection prospects, with the typically self-assured president privately expressing concern about his plummeting poll numbers. The presidents lightly attended rally in Tulsa, Okla., last month piled anger on top of his anxiety, with Trump pointedly blaming Parscale for the fiasco.

Three people familiar with the internal deliberations over the campaign said the shakeup was set in motion Tuesday evening, when Stepien met privately with Trump in the White House.

Stepien, a 42-year-old hardened political veteran who is known for his organizational focus, has already taken steps to examine the state of the campaign. He has begun examining its budgets and organizational charts, and people involved in the campaign say its possible he will soon make changes. But it remains unclear how extensive those alterations will be with so little time until the election.

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Those close to Parscale expressed unhappiness at how the late-night shakeup played out. Trumps family, which has long been close to the ex-campaign manager, felt blindsided by the move, two people with knowledge of their reaction said.

They also described Parscale as deeply hurt. On Wednesday afternoon, he tweeted out a biblical verse: Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.

Parscale had relocated to Washington for the job but he is now expected to return home to Florida, where he will be focused on his specialties of data, digital and advertising. It is uncertain, however, the extent he will be involved in the day-to-day activities of the campaign.

Changing managers less than four months from an election is about the biggest staff move a presidential campaign can make. But the problems facing Trump appear to be on a different scale than a personnel solution. Trumps popularity levels are near a low point of his presidency, Biden has wide leads in polling, and both public health and the economy are weighing on American minds during the coronavirus pandemic.

The president has made other moves to buttress his campaign with the Republican National Convention just over a month away. Trump has also rehired key 2016 aide Jason Miller and Michael Glassner, a loyalist of the president who had been serving as the campaigns chief operating officer and was recently demoted.

Some described the sudden campaign manager shuffle as brutal and likened it to the demotion of Glassner, who learned of his fate not from the campaigns senior-most leaders but from his replacement, Jeff DeWit. Many in the campaign saw Glassner as the unfairly designated fall guy for the Tulsa failure.

Parscale has been under the microscope for months, and questions about his fate intensified after the Oklahoma rally. Some people close to the campaign said they felt Parscale erred by making himself a public figure, aggressively promoting himself on social media and at one point appearing in an advertisement.

Stepien, by contrast, has developed a reputation as a low-profile operative who studiously avoids the limelight. He is rarely quoted in the press and doesnt seek out TV interviews,

He is level headed and low key, something necessary in a chaotic campaign environment. Hes smart and analytical. He excels at the nuts and bolts tactics that often go unnoticed by Twitter and cable news shows but really decide campaigns, said Mike DuHaime, a veteran Republican strategist who has worked with Stepien on many races.

Stepien, who served as White House political director after joining Trumps first campaign in the summer of 2016, has been the subject of public intrigue in the past, though. Stepien formerly served as a top political adviser to ex-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. He was a leading contender to manage Christies 2016 presidential campaign before he was fired for emails he sent amid the Bridgegate scandal. Stepien has denied knowing about the scheme to shut down traffic on the George Washington Bridge and was not charged with a crime.

Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has asserted further control over the political operation in recent weeks, has played a key role in orchestrating the staff moves. But some in the White House saw the shakeup as a brushback against Kushner, who in 2018 picked Parscale for the campaign manager job.

Kushner, however, also has close ties to Stepien. Both men hail from New Jersey, a state with a notorious reputation for rough-and-tumble politics.
A woman currently in custody charged with murdering her five-year-old daughter is due to give birth to her third child next month

A woman currently in custody charged with murdering her five-year-old daughter is due to give birth to her third child next month.

These details emerged on Wednesday in Belfast's High Court, where her husband Abdul Wahab launched a bail application.

Both Abdul Wahab (32) and his 26-year old wife Aleksandra Wahab are currently in custody following the death of Mrs Wahab's 5-year-old daughter.

Nadia Zofia Kalinowska died in her Fernagh Drive home in Newtownabbey on December 15 last year after she sustained a fractured skull and injuries to her brain and liver.

The Crown has made the case that as well as sustaining these injuries, the young girl also suffered historic injuries.

Both her mother - who is originally from Poland - and her Pakistani-born step-father have denied murder and claim the youngster fell down the stairs in the middle of the night. They also deny charges of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, and causing or allowing the death of a child.

Abdul Wahab launched an application for bail, and after submissions were made by the defence and the Crown, Mr Justice Horner said he wanted to take time to consider all aspects and would give his ruling on Friday.

Prior to this, a prosecuting QC told Mr Justice Horner that the Crown was opposing Wahab's release on grounds including a risk of flight, and rejected a defence suggestion that the case against Wahab was weak.

The bail application was made by defence barrister Patrick Lyttle QC, who branded concerns that Wahab would be able to flee to his native Pakistan without his passport and other travel documents as "like something from a Hollywood movie".

Mr Lyttle said that having spent the past decade living in the UK and Ireland, Wahab was settled and had family ties here - including his three-year-old son.

Denying his client had harmed his step-daughter, Mr Lyttle said the Wahab family has been "torn asunder", that their son is now in care and his wife who is also in custody is due to give birth next month.

Mr Lyttle spoke of the length of time the case will take to get to trial, raised the issue of outstanding medical reports and said that should these reports conclude the child did sustain the fatal injuries by falling down the stairs, this will have been a "monstrous injustice" for Mr and Mrs Wahab.

He continued: "It is simply not clear at the present time from the prosecution case as to whether or not it is being alleged that one or other of the defendants or both of them acting in concert are alleged to have committed this murder."

Turning to his client's background, My Lyttle said that prior to his arrest Wahab was working as a driver for Uber Eats and had been living legally in the greater Belfast area for over two years.

Mr Lyttle said the family were so settled that Nadia attended a local primary school, where teachers described her as a happy, well-cared for child.

He said that after meeting Mr and Mrs Wahab several times, there were no concerns raised by teachers.

Addressing Crown concerns that Wahab would flee if released as "fanciful", Mr Lyttle said he was not part of a criminal gang who could obtain false passport - but a man without a criminal record who would stay in Northern Ireland for his family.

Urging Mr Justice Horner to grant Wahab bail, Mr Lyttle said his client is "languishing in prison" where he may remain for years due to the delay in court proceedings as a result of Covid-19.

Crown barrister David McDowell QC spoke of the gravity of the charge and the severity of the injuries the youngster sustained.

He raised the level of family care regarding Nadia and said her teeth were in an "appalling state", there was no record of her having visited a doctor or dentist in Northern Ireland and there were no female toys present in the house where she died. Mr McDowell also spoke of historic injuries including fractures to her ribs which he said were relevant to the Crown's case.

Opposing Wahab's release, Mr McDowell said: "He is charged with the murder of a five-year-old child and he has told police that he wanted to move the family to Pakistan."

Saying that before moving to greater Belfast Wahab had a "transient lifestyle" in the UK and Ireland, Mr McDowell said that in the days before the incident Wahab had searched online for flights to Pakistan and information on how to transport cargo.

Mr Justice Horner said he wanted time to consider the application and said he would give his ruling on Friday.
Two crew members were killed in a helicopter crash Thursday as Taiwan's military held drills across the island -- including one simulating coastal assaults from China. Thursday's climax of the five-day drill aimed to test how democratic Taiwan's armed forces would repel an invasion from its giant neighbour. Beijing regards Taiwan as part of its territory and has vowed to one day seize it -- by force if necessary. Thursday's main simulation saw Taiwan fighter jets, warships and ground troops repelling an enemy attempt to land on a beach in the central city of Taichung in an operation involving some 8,000 service members. The military said a Bell 0H-58D helicopter crashed as it returned to Hsinchu airbase from one of the exercises, killing the pilot and co-pilot. Taipei has lived with the threat of invasion by China since the two sides split in 1949 after a civil war. In recent decades it has found itself increasingly outnumbered and outgunned by China's enormous People's Liberation Army. Beijing has piled military, economic and diplomatic pressure on Taiwan since President Tsai Ing-wen came to power in 2016 because she refuses to acknowledge its stance that the island is part of "one China". Tsai won a landslide re-election in January in what was seen as a strong rebuke to China's strong-arm tactics against the island. Last year President Xi Jinping gave an especially bellicose speech about Taiwan, warning unification was coming. "I think it's inevitable that the People's Republic of China will realise the reunification of the motherland," Beijing foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters when asked about Taiwan's drills. In recent months Chinese warplanes have started buzzing Taiwan with unprecedented frequency, repeatedly breaching its air defence zone and prompting Taipei to scramble its own fighter jets. - New hardware - The military mismatch has been compounded by Western governments being increasingly wary of selling Taiwan advanced weapon systems, fearful of incurring Beijing's wrath. That has pushed the island to develop its own hardware, including advanced missiles, boats and a new trainer jet. Some of that hardware, including locally built surface-to-air and hypersonic missiles, was used during this week's drills. China's increasingly muscular approach towards the island has also sparked renewed international co-operation with Taiwan. Under US President Donald Trump, Washington has become far more willing to sell big-ticket items, including F-16 fighter jets and other hardware. Earlier this week, Beijing vowed to impose sanctions on defence company Lockheed Martin in response to the US agreeing to upgrade Taiwan's Patriot missile systems. France has also angered Beijing by agreeing to upgrade the missile interference systems on frigates Taiwan purchased in the 1990s. Washington has remained a leading unofficial ally and arms supplier to Taipei despite switching diplomatic recognition to Beijing in 1979. A warship launches a US-made Harpoon missile during the annual drill Armoured vehicles launch smoke grenades near Taichung during the exercises A US-made OH-58D Kiowa helicopter fires a Hellfire anti-armour missile Taiwan also used some domestically made hardware during the exercises, including this Thunderbolt-2000 multiple rocket system Two US-made F-16V fighter aircraft release flares after dropping bombs during the biggest military exercise of the year
Armenian soldiers take their position on the front line in Tavush region, Armenia, on July 14, 2020. (Armenian Defense Ministry Press Service/AP Photo)

Clashes Resume on Volatile Armenia-Azerbaijan Border

YEREVAN, ArmeniaClashes resumed between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces on the South Caucasus nations shared border on July 16, with both sides blaming each other for attacks that continue the worst outbreak of hostilities in years.

Armenian soldiers take their position on the front line in Tavush region, Armenia, on July 14, 2020. (Armenian Defense Ministry Press Service/AP Photo)

Armenias Defense Ministry accused Azerbaijani forces of trying to infiltrate the country. Ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan said that Armenian forces were able to deter the attack.

A local woman shows damage in her house after the shelling by Armenian forces in the Tovuz region of Azerbaijan, on July 14, 2020. (Ramil Zeynalov/AP Photo)

A statement released by Azerbaijans Defense Ministry said the Armenian military attacked Azerbaijani forces on July 16, firing at several settlements with large-caliber weapons and mortars. Officials in both countries said the fighting has continued.

A local woman shows damage in her house after the shelling by the Azerbaijan side in the Aygepar village in Armenias Tavush region, Armenia, on July 15, 2020. (Karo Sahakyan/AP Photo)

Skirmishes on the volatile border began on July 12, killing at least 16 people by July 14. Azerbaijan said it has lost 11 servicemen and one civilian in three days of fighting, and Armenia said four of its troops were killed July 14.

Armenian officials said July 16 that 20 servicemen have been injured since July 12, including one in grave condition.

A damaged house is seen after shelling by Armenian forces in the Tovuz region of Azerbaijan, on July 14, 2020. (Ramil Zeynalov/AP Photo)

The neighbors have been locked in conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan that has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces, backed by Armenia, since a war there ended in 1994. International efforts to settle the conflict have stalled.

Armenian and Azerbaijani forces have frequently engaged in clashes. The current skirmishes appear to be the most serious spike in hostilities since 2016, when scores were killed in four days of fighting.

The latest incident began July 12, when Armenian and Azerbaijani troops exchanged fire in the northern section of their border.

The United States and Russia, which co-chair the Minsk group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe that has tried to negotiate a settlement of the conflict, condemned the violence and called for restraint.

Turkey, which has close ethnic and cultural ties with Azerbaijan, has voiced strong support to Baku in the conflict. On July 16, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar met with Azerbaijans deputy defense minister and air force commander, Ramiz Tahirov, in Ankara and condemned the vile attack on Azerbaijans Tovuz district.

They (Armenians) will be crushed and drown in this plot they have created and they will definitively pay for what they did, Akar said after the meeting. We will continue to stand with our Azerbaijani brothers in the face of such attacks, as we have always done.

By Avet Demourian
In the West, there's no end to stories and listicles and books telling you how to work more productively so you can spend more time with your family or doing the things you love.

In Japan, there's not even a term for "work-life balance". What there is, though, is a word for "death by overwork." It's "karoshi", and it's considered such an inevitable result of Japan's notoriously gruelling work culture that it's hardly even discussed.

But every year here, hundreds, maybe thousands, of Japanese people literally work themselves to death.

Recommended Read more The clearest proof yet that your job is killing you

Kiyotaka Serizawa was one of them.

A year ago in July, the 34-year-old killed himself after working crazy hours  90 hours a week during the last weeks of his life  at a company that does maintenance at apartment buildings.

"His colleagues told me that they were amazed how much he worked," his father, Kiyoshi Serizawa, said in an interview in their family home. "They said they'd never seen anyone who didn't even own the company work so hard."

Japan has a working culture where spending long hours at the grindstone, or in compulsory social situations with superiors after work, is the norm.

 Japan: Tokyo workplace hires males to wipe away female employees' tears

It began in the 1970s, when wages were relatively low and employees wanted to maximise their earnings. It continued through the boom years of the 1980s, when Japan became the world's second-largest economy and everyone was on the juggernaut.

And it remained after the bubble burst in the late 1990s, when companies began restructuring and employees stayed at work to try to ensure they weren't laid off.

Still, irregular workers  who worked without benefits or job security  were brought in, making the regular workers toil even harder.

Now, no one blinks an eyelid at 12-hour-plus days.

"In a Japanese workplace, overtime work is always there. It's almost as if it is part of scheduled working hours," said Koji Morioka, an emeritus professor at Kansai University who is on a committee of experts advising the government on ways to combat karoshi. "It's not forced by anyone, but workers feel it like it's compulsory."

While the basic workweek is 40 hours, many workers don't put in extra hours for fear of being given a bad performance evaluation. This has led to the concept of "service overtime"  "service" being Japanese for "free".

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This relentless schedule has led to karoshi  either from a fatal heart attack or stroke, or a suicide triggered by overwork  becoming a recognised cause of death. Labour ministry figures show that 189 deaths were classified this way last year, although experts think the actual number is in the thousands.

Karoshi has long been considered a male problem, but advocates say they're seeing an increasing number of women dying, almost always by killing themselves.

The striking thing about them is that they're very young, often in their 20s, said Hiroshi Kawahito, a lawyer and secretary-general of the National Defense Counsel for Victims of Karoshi, which fights for victims' families.

Kawahito represented the family of a journalist in her early 30s who died of a heart attack. When a reporter gasped, he added: "It's actually not rare in Japan for people in their early 30s to have heart attacks."

Once a death is classified as karoshi, a victim's family is automatically entitled to compensation through a kind of workers' benefits system. The number of claims for karoshi-related cases rose to a record high of 2,310 in the year ending in March, government figures show.

But less than a third of applications are successful, Kawahito said.

Kiyotaka Serizawa's death was officially certified last month. He was a supervisor responsible for overseeing building janitors in three separate locations north-east of Tokyo.

Struggling to keep up, Kiyotaka had tried to resign a year before his death, but his boss refused to accept his notice. Apparently concerned about inconveniencing his subordinates, he carried on working.

He would sometimes stop at his parents' house to sleep as he drove between offices. "He would lie here on this couch and go into such a deep sleep that I would come and check on him to make sure his heart was still beating," said his mother, Mitsuko Serizawa.

The last time his mother saw him was July last year, when he came to collect the laundry he'd been too busy to do. He stopped off for 10 minutes and watched some cute cat videos on his phone with his cat-mad mother.

But then, on 26 July, he went missing. Three weeks later, his body was found in his car in Nagano Prefecture, not far from a place where he'd gone on family camping holidays as a child. He'd burned briquettes in his car and died from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Traditionally seen as a male problem, karoshi is killing an increasing number of women, generally by suicide (Getty) (GETTY)

Although karoshi has been a problem for several decades, it was only 18 months ago that the government passed legislation to try to tackle the problem.

The act sets specific targets, such as reducing the percentage of employees working for more than 60 hours a week to 5 per cent by 2020, from the 8 to 9 per cent range recorded in the past few years.

The government is also trying to get employees to actually take their paid vacation leave. Most Japanese workers get 20 days leave a year, but few take even half of that because of a working culture in which taking days off is seen as a sign of slacking or lack of commitment to the job.

The government hopes to entice workers to take at least 70 per cent of their leave owed.

"If you're conscious of this right, then you can show that there's nothing wrong with taking time off," said Yasukazu Kurio of the ministry of health and labour's office for the prevention of karoshi. Kurio is trying to set a good example: Last year he took 17 of his 20 days.

Kawahito, the lawyer, said that the government's efforts could have some impact at the margins but that they don't deal with the fundamental problem.

"There's nothing that's stated under this act to penalise companies that break the rules," said Kawahito, who's not exactly a role model for work-life balance. As a younger lawyer, he used to work long hours, but now that he's reached the age of 66, he's cut back to about 60 hours a week.

Still, he wants to see a law like the European Working Time Directive that stipulates 11 hours off between shifts.

The karoshi problem is exacerbated by the relative weakness of labour unions, which have been primarily concerned with raising wages rather than shortening working hours, and the Japanese practice of having a job for life. Most university students go into a company or a ministry after graduation with the expectation they'll be there until they retire.

"In a country like the US, people have more freedom to move to a company that treats you better," said Kenichi Kuroda, a professor at Meiji University in Tokyo who specialises in labour culture. "But in Japan, people tend to stay at one company for life, so it's difficult for people to move on."

Some companies, especially in the financial sector, are taking the initiative by allowing employees to come in earlier and leave earlier. So instead of working from nine to nine, they're now working from seven to seven and can be home in time to see their children.

"These companies are finding ways to bring about social change, and it could influence other companies by showing how they're creating a 'dream lifestyle'," Kuroda said, laughing to show he knew 12-hour days would not be considered revolutionary elsewhere.

Still, the problem is going to be difficult to alleviate.

Japan's population is aging rapidly, with the workforce expected to shrink by at least a quarter by 2050. That means even fewer people available to work, increasing the workloads of those who remain.

Morioka, the professor, said that eliminating death by overwork will mean changing the entire working culture of Japan.

"It's impossible to get rid of karoshi alone," he said. "We need to change the overtime culture and create the time for family and hobbies. Long working hours are the root of all evil in Japan. People are so busy they don't even have the time to complain."

 Washington Post
Russian laying ship in Baltic Sea in front of the cliffs of the island of Rugen, Germany. Photo: Stefan Sauer/Picture Alliance via Getty

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo warned on Wednesday that Washington would punish companies and investors involved in the Russia-owned Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline with sanctions.

"Its a clear warning to companies  aiding and abetting Russias malign influence projects will not be tolerated, Pompeo said. Get out now or risk the consequences.

He warned that those involved in the project could now face sanctions under a revision to the USs 2017 CAATSA (Countering Americas Adversaries through Sanctions) law.

The 1,200 km (745-mile) pipeline will cost around 10bn (9bn, $11.4bn) and run from Russia under the Baltic Sea to surface in Germany. Russian state energy firm Gazprom is the main owner of the pipeline; co-financing companies include Wintershall, Uniper (UN01.DE), and Royal Dutch Shell (RDS-A).

The pipeline has been a major issue for US president Donald Trump since he took office. He has constantly accused Germany and the EU of risking becoming dangerously dependent on Russia for energy, though it is frequently pointed out that he is keen for EU countries to buy more American liquified gas. Germany has staunchly resisted calls to halt the project.

Towards the end of 2019, Trump gave the go-ahead for sanctions to be imposed on companies involved, mainly on those laying the pipes, and work stopped in December.

However, earlier this month Denmark gave the Nord Stream 2 company permission to lay the final stretch of the gas pipeline in Danish waters towards Germany. Only about 120km is left to complete.

"There is reason to suspect that Washington primarily wants to sell its own gas in western Europe," Peter Beyer, the German governments transatlantic coordinator said. He added that the pipeline is also nearly completed and it would make no sense to let it now rot in the sea.

At a hearing in the German parliament earlier this month, lawmakers slammed the expanded US sanctions. Michael Harms, the head of the German Eastern Business Association, said the new sanctions could affect 120 companies from 12 European states, and many would feel forced to pull out.

Were talking about direct and grave interference in Germany and Europes sovereignty and energy policy, said Niels Annen, minister of state in Germanys foreign ministry.


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Reflecting the reopening of businesses following the coronavirus-induced lockdowns, the Commerce Department released a report on Thursday showing another substantial increase in U.S. retail sales in the month of June.



The report said retail sales soared by 7.5 percent in June after skyrocketing by an upwardly revised 18.2 percent in May.



Economists had expected retail sales to jump by 5.0 percent compared to the 17.7 percent spike originally reported for the previous month.



A note from economists at Oxford Economics said the rebound in retail sales over the past two months 'confirmed the strong snapback in demand as retail sales are now back to their pre-coronavirus levels.'



'But while today's report gives the illusion of a fearless consumer spending lavishly, the reality is more sobering: consumers are increasingly fearful amid new spikes in Covid-19 cases and a looming fiscal cliff,' the economists added.



The report showed a notable slowdown in the pace of growth by motor vehicles and parts dealers, although auto sales still jumped by 8.2 percent in June after spiking by 48.7 percent in May.



Excluding sales by motor vehicles and parts dealers, retail sales shot up by 7.3 percent in May after soaring by 12.1 percent in May. Ex-auto sales were also expected to surge up by 5.0 percent.



Sales by gas stations showed another notable increase, with the sales growth partly due to a recent increase in gas prices.



Core retail sales, which exclude automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, leapt by 5.6 percent in June after surging up by 10.1 percent in May.



Sales by clothing and accessories stores skyrocketed by 105.1 percent, while electronics and appliance stores, furniture and home furnishings stores and sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument, and book stores also saw substantial sales growth.



Reflecting the rebound in sales over the past two months, total retail sales in June were up by 1.1 percent compared to the same month a year ago.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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BELLEVUE, Wash., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Nintex, the global standard for process management and automation, and Sydney-based Synergy, a Premier Nintex Partner and 2020 Nintex Partner Award winner in the business continuity category, have successfully delivered a fully-automated, student roll call solution in 48 hours to support remote learning and student safety programs at Sydney's Trinity Grammar School.

"The shift to remote learning in 2020 happened with little warning," says Paul Queeney, Head of ICT at Trinity Grammar School. "We had a couple of days to change from classroom-based activity to having all students learning from home."

As part of this transition, the Australian school needed to swiftly and accurately check attendance to ensure students were participating in online activities each day. "Our plan was to continue to follow the school's existing timetable for classes, so we needed a way for students to confirm their participation each morning," adds Queeney.

To learn how Trinity Grammar School streamlined its daily attendance registration with Nintex Workflow Cloud during COVID-19 restrictions in Australia , read the case study at https://www.nintex.com/case-study/trinity-grammar-school/.

Trinity has worked with Synergy for the past nine years to deploy a range of technologies including a Canvas Iearning management system and Synergetic school management system. "Synergy already had a strong knowledge of both the school and our technology infrastructure. Once we decided to use Nintex Workflow Cloud, with Synergy's help we were able to respond quickly and get a solution in place fast."

Trinity's new digital student roll call solution leverages Nintex Workflow Cloud and integrates with the school's Microsoft SQL database. With a new digital form students can easily confirm their attendance at 8:25 a.m., the start of every school day.

"The Nintex form allowed us to quickly assess which students were in attendance and whether there had been any unanticipated absences," says Queeney. "If a student failed to log their attendance, an SMS message was sent from the school's student management system to their parents asking for an explanation for the absence."

Since introducing the automated roll call system, more than 1,600 middle and senior-school students accessed the Nintex Form via the school's Canvas learning management platform to confirm their presence.

With Nintex Workflow Cloud, Trinity also configured single sign-on capabilities. "When a student logged into Canvas, they clicked a link to submit their attendance which opened the Nintex form which was lightweight and responsive, regardless of the device the student was using at home. The entire experience was seamless and has prepared Trinity to support remote learning and future lockdowns, as needed."

"At Synergy we believe the right technology, when implemented correctly, can make businesses better. The way in which we were quickly able to help Trinity Grammar School use Nintex Workflow Cloud as a digital solution during a challenging time, is a reflection of that commitment," said Gavin Adams, Synergy Solutions Architect.

Established in 1913, Trinity Grammar School is an independent boys' school for pre-K to year 12. It has more than 2,000 students, a staff of 400, and three campuses in Sydney's inner west. The school is committed to delivering best-practice learning experiences for students and uses a mix of ICT resources to support classroom and administrative activities.

Trinity Grammar School now expects to leverage Nintex Workflow Cloud in other ways within the school.

"Nintex has capabilities that we can use to improve processes across the school and we'll continue to work with Synergy to identify opportunities for improvement. We still don't know if or when future periods of remote learning may be required, so it's good to have the attendance system available if we need it."

To experience the benefits of Nintex Workflow Cloud, request a demo at https://www.nintex.com/request-demo/ .

Media Contact

Kristin Treat

Nintex

[email protected]

cell: +1-215-317-9091

About Nintex

Nintex is the global standard for process management and automation. Today more than 8,000 public and private sector clients across 90 countries turn to the Nintex Platform to accelerate their digital transformation journeys by enabling them to quickly and easily manage, automate and optimize business processes. Learn more by visiting www.nintex.com and experience how Nintex and its global partner network are shaping the future of Intelligent Process Automation (IPA).

Product or service names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

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The state government has already ordered a judicial probe into the Kanpur ambush case.

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister Brijesh Pathak on Thursday accused the Samajwadi Party and the Congress of the bid to defame Brahmins after the Kanpur ambush in which eight police personnel were killed by the henchmen of slain gangster Vikas Dubey.

The state government has already ordered a judicial probe into the Kanpur ambush case. There is an attempt to defame the Brahmins by making fake accounts in their names on social media but people are aware of these things," Pathak told reporters here.

"Strict action will be taken against all those taking law in their hands and no one will be able to harass the innocent. This is the responsibility of this government," Pathak said.

The minister asked the Congress and the Samajwadi Party to introspect before accusing his party of being anti-Brahmin, saying the BJP enjoyed the community's support since beginning.

Today too, Brahmins support the BJP government,Pathak claimed, adding that there is an attempt to raise unnecessary issues by vested interests out of frustration but they will not succeed.

Earlier on Sunday in an apparent reference to Dubey, BSP chief Mayawati had said the entire Brahmin community should not be put in the dock over the crimes committed by one person.

In a series of tweets, the BSP leader also cautioned the state government against indulging in politics over the issue and refrain from doing anything due to which the Brahmins feel unsafe or terrorised.
(Natural News) Weve been warning for 4 years on ANP, dating back to the sad aftermath of the 2016 election, that Hillary Clinton would likely throw her witches hat into the 2020 ring once Democrats realized how wounded Joe Biden is and how disastrous a debate candidate brain dead Joe would likely make against President Donald Trump and sure enough, in a front page story over at the Daily Mail, Hillary has decided to give a dire warning that President Trump likely wont go silently into 2021 following his loss while hinting at the Democrats plans to steal the election themselves in November.

(Article by Stefan Stanford republished from AllNewsPipeline.com)

With the Democrats steal heavily written in covid-19 lies over the past several months that have completely taken down a once thumping US economy and set up America for a depression era election in November, as Conservative game show host Chuck Woolery recently pointed out, there are plentiful signs that this entire covid-19 mess was written up as a way to take down President Trump and his America 1st presidency with impeachment and the Russian collusion hoax having firmly blown up in Democrats faces for nearly 4 years running now.

And while ANP will not argue within this story that no planned-demic exists that we need to be taking precautions for, well instead argue once again that all of this is a part of Chinas silent war upon America, with a likely intentionally released virus/bioweapon that has hit America harder than China or any other country and, as ANP reader Mike recently pointed out in a comment, clearly part of the democrats/globalists long-running depopulation agenda as we race towards 2025 and the mind-shattering US population numbers being forecast for America by Deagel for that year of less than 100 million Americans living here; down over 227 million from 2017. Mikes comment first.

The Covid 19 thing is, in my mind, part of the massive depopulation agenda. It will only get worse as time marches on. The ONLY protection from this is The Lord Our God and His Son Jesus Christ. Psalm 91 comes to mind. Please try and keep the faith.

From this Yahoo News story before we continue.:

The most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19, wrote Woolery in the message promoted by Trump. Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most, that we are told to trust. I think its all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. Im sick of it.



Asked about the retweet at a briefing later Monday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said that the notion of the tweet was to point out the fact that when we use science, we have to use it in a way that is not political.



A key problem keeping the economy from coming back is the 135,000 Americans dead from the coronavirus, per tracking by Johns Hopkins University, which reported 61,352 new cases and 685 deaths on Saturday. Woolery didnt say whether he thought the death toll was faked.



Florida set a record for most single-day cases of any state so far with more than 15,000 reported Saturday, the same day Walt Disney World reopened in Orlando. Arizona, California, Florida, Mississippi and Texas have all set record highs for daily deaths over the last week. 

Yet all of this is also happening as the left attempts to erase history, tearing down long-standing monuments to Americas Founding Fathers and everything thats happening in 2020 looking more and more like part of the devil-crats pure evil plans to get President Trump out of office by 2020 by any means necessary, well agree with RX Kendricks argument in July 5th ANP story titled This Planned-Demic And The Events Of 2020 Are The Biggest Crimes Against Humanity Ever Carried Out By The Globalists To Complete Their Depopulation Agenda- Is It Time For The American People To Carry Out Mass Citizen Arrests Of The Enemies Of America Within.

Before we continue with a look below at Hillarys latest warnings about how President Trump may try to steal the election, lets take an important look at this new story by Michael Snyder over at the Economic Collapse Blog which further illustrates the points made by Chuck Woolery and President Trump.

Another wave of lockdowns has begun, and that is really bad news for the U.S. economy. The first wave of lockdowns resulted in the permanent closing of more than 100,000 U.S. businesses, colossal lines at food banks around the nation, and the loss of tens of millions of jobs. Needless to say, this new wave of lockdowns will make things even worse, and some are speculating that this is precisely what Democrats want.



If the U.S. economy continues to fall apart as we approach the election in November, the thinking is that this will make President Trump look bad and will make it more likely that people will cast votes for Democrats. But there is also the possibility that this could backfire in a huge way for the left. If millions of Americans start to identify the Democrats as the party of the lockdowns, that could actually greatly help President Trump in November.



At this point, the battle lines are becoming quite clear. President Trump and other top Republicans are strongly against more lockdowns, but Democratic politicians in many areas of the country are starting to institute them anyway. In fact, we just learned that all schools in Los Angeles, San Diego, Atlanta and Nashville will be closed at the beginning of the new school year



Resisting pressure from President Donald Trump, three of the nations largest school districts said Monday that they will begin the new school year with all students learning from home. Schools in Los Angeles, San Diego and Atlanta will begin entirely online, officials said Monday.



Schools in Nashville plan to do the same, at least through Labor Day. Other major cities are expected to follow suit. Of course considering the quality of the education in most of our public schools, most of those kids wont exactly be missing too much. Ultimately, closing the schools wont have too much of an economic impact, but shutting down most of the businesses in our largest state certainly will. On Monday, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a comprehensive lockdown for 30 California counties which account for about 80 percent of Californias population



Newsom, a Democrat, announced during a press briefing that all bars across the state must close up shop and that restaurants, wineries, tasting rooms, family entertainment centers, zoos, museums and card rooms must suspend indoor activities.



The governor also announced that all gyms, places of worship, malls, personal care services, barbershops, salons, and non-critical offices in counties on the states monitoring list had to shut down under the new order. The order affects more than 30 counties which are home to about 80 percent of Californias population.

Read more at: AllNewsPipeline.com
Billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates are among many prominent U.S. figures targeted by hackers on Twitter in an apparent Bitcoin scam.



The official accounts of Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Kanye West also requested donations in the cryptocurrency.



"Everyone is asking me to give back," a tweet from Mr Gates' account said. "You send $1,000, I send you back $2,000."



Twitter said it was a "co-ordinated" attack targeting its employees "with access to internal systems and tools".



"We know they [the hackers] used this access to take control of many highly-visible (including verified) accounts and Tweet on their behalf," the company said in a series of tweets.



It added that "significant steps" were taken to limit access to such internal systems and tools while the company's investigation was ongoing.



By 20:30 EDT (00:30 GMT Thursday) users with verified account started to be able to send tweets again, but Twitter said it was still working on a fix.



Dmitri Alperovitch, who co-founded cyber-security company CrowdStrike, told Reuters: "This appears to be the worst hack of a major social media platform yet."



The tweets were deleted just minutes after they were first posted.



The Twitter accounts targeted all have millions of followers: rapper Kanye West, reality TV star Kim Kardashian, former US President Obama, former US Vice-President Joe Biden, who is the current Democratic presidential candidate, media billionaire Mike Bloomberg and others.
Nobody cares what Roseanne Barr thinks, generally, but a few weeks ago, a one-minute video circulated online that seemed even more bizarre than her usual bizarre: "Hear me when I say this," she told her phone's camera as she paced around a hotel suite. "Trump is, in my opinion, the first woman president of the United States."

However you'd expected her to end the sentence, it wasn't that. Theories abounded: Was Roseanne trying to court Trump's diminishing female base by saying that Trump was so great for women that he might as well be one? Was it akin to the 1990s declaration that Bill Clinton was the nation's first black president?

Donald Trump bears very little in common with any actual woman I know. But, oddly, he has a lot in common with the basest, most unfair stereotypes of femininity. He is ruled by feelings rather than facts. He is fickle, gossipy and easily grossed out. He uses florid language, like "beautiful" and "perfect," and says he and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un "fell in love." He deals with adversity like a Mean Girl with a burn book, via insults and freeze-outs. For any Neanderthal who has ever feared electing a female president because what if she's too cranky when she's on her period - congratulations. For approximately 1,300 days, you have had a menstruating man in the Oval Office.

It's preposterous, not to mention insulting to women, to say that Trump is womanly. But it's nearly as preposterous, not to mention insulting to men, to say that he's manly.

The traditionally accepted positive characteristics of masculinity, i.e. stoicism, modesty and self-discipline, do not in the slightest resemble a person who goes online at midnight to tweet his own approval ratings, or whose staff has resorted to creating video clips of cheering supporters to bolster his mood. Self-sacrifice? When provided with a simple and easy way to protect the lives of millions of Americans in a pandemic that has killed 130,000 of us, it took the president four months to wear a mask.

Donald Trump is not our first female president. But we're now approaching either the end of his presidency or the midpoint. Roseanne Barr's weird video is as good a reason as any to reflect on the president's gender. Does he really represent masculinity, or is he ... well, what is he, exactly?

- - -

A new book came out Tuesday, purporting to answer at least some of this. "Too Much and Never Enough" takes armchair psychologists' speculative analysis of Trump's psyche one step further: The author is an actual psychologist and, more importantly for these purposes, she is the president's niece. In the book, Mary L. Trump, daughter of the president's older brother, Fred Jr., blends her clinical training with personal observations and anecdotes, all toward the goal of revealing unparalleled familial dysfunction.

As a source of gossip, the book is ... eh. If you've read any thoroughly reported profiles of President Trump in the past five years, none of the stories will surprise you, and some of Mary Trump's grievances come off as gratuitously vindictive or petty. So what if the president was a bad gift-giver at Christmas. Isn't everyone's uncle?

"Too Much and Never Enough" is a little more interesting as a psychological study. The thesis is that Donald Trump's father never loved his children (was, perhaps, incapable of love), that Fred Sr. belittled his oldest son because Fred Jr. wasn't enough of a "killer" - and that Donald, the second-oldest boy, was so terrified of the same ostracization that he cultivated the swagger necessary to avoid scorn and live up to his father's values. Her grandfather "short-circuited Donald's ability to develop and experience the entire spectrum of human emotion," Mary Trump writes. "By limiting Donald's access to his own feelings and rendering many of them unacceptable, Fred perverted his son's perception of the world and damaged his ability to live in it."

Fred Sr.'s family values, as described by Mary, involved a combination of never showing weakness, preying on the perceived weakness of others, winning at all costs and never apologizing or admitting fault. Fred Sr. saw these characteristics as manly, but, really, these are funhouse-mirror reflections of those classic masculine ideals: Stoicism becomes a lack of empathy, strength becomes cruelty, authoritativeness become authoritarianism. "If someone hits you, you hit back" becomes a belief that everyone is hitting you all the time - that negative feedback is never constructive criticism but only vicious personal attacks that must be repaid in kind. The truth is hitting. Other people's opinions are hitting. Even the briefest lull in a tidal wave of compliments is hitting.

"He makes his vulnerabilities and insecurities your responsibility," Mary Trump writes of her uncle. "You must assuage him, you must take care of him ... he has suffered mightily, and if you aren't doing all you can to alleviate that suffering, you should suffer, too."

It's such an old story. A neglected boy must play-act as manly to win his father's approval. And he does it so well that, eventually, the costume just becomes his clothes and then, finally, his skin.

A male friend of mine told me that he thinks a lot about 10 particular seconds of a 2016 Trump rally in West Virginia. In this clip, Trump puts on a hard hat. He crooks his arms in a kind of a hybrid muscleman flex/double thumbs-up/Fonzie "eyyyyy" pose. He puckers his lips and pantomimes shoveling coal.

There's a lot going on. His lip pucker seems intended to approximate a laborer's grimace, but it looks like Kardashian duckface. His shoveling looks like background choreography in a Dick Van Dyke musical. A neutral observer would not conclude that Trump is fit for a mine. But it is, in its own stylized way, a very good performance of masculinity - Kabuki-like, it hits all the broad markers of traditional manliness with hyperreal gestures whose meaning, at least, is clear: I want to be manly like you.

The crowd loves it. They cheer and cheer.

Masculinity, after all, is in the eye of the beholder.

- - -

What does Donald Trump's funhouse-mirror performance of manhood say about what his supporters see reflected back at them? During the 2016 presidential campaign, the merchandise at Trump events was designed to evoke testosterone. As read a series of hoodies and T-shirts: "Finally, a president with some balls." You could have written this off as a dig at Hillary Clinton, except for the "Finally," which implied that Barack Obama, and probably George W. Bush, were also deficient in this manner. Trump, to millions of voters, represented not just a candidate but a paragon of manliness: the most manly manliness seen in decades.

Multiple essays have since been written expressing bafflement over this. "In the 20th-century tradition, strong men didn't complain about their circumstances," wrote John Harris in Politico. "Trump is relentless in whining about his burdens." In the Atlantic, writer Tom Nichols asked, "Why don't the president's supporters hold him to their own standard of masculinity?" Nichols describes his own working-class upbringing and the men who shaped it, instilling values of hard work, modesty and willingness to take responsibility. "And yet, many of these same men expect none of those characteristics from Trump, who is a vain, cowardly, lying, vulgar, jabbering blowhard," he writes.

Perhaps the mistake Harris and Nichols are making is positioning their analysis "in the 20th-century tradition." Gender norms have shifted and broadened since then. Traits of stoicism and self-reliance are not only the purview of men, and, moreover, we're having overdue discussions about whether they should be the purview of anyone. Maybe cooperation is better than strict self-reliance. Maybe emotions are healthy. Maybe this is true regardless of gender.

The 21st century has sought new expectations for men and new responsibilities: to listen, to yield, to accommodate, to check their hormonal impulses and be held accountable. Looked at one way, this is necessary and dignified. This is adulthood.

Looked at by others, it's emasculating: When I have talked with Trump-supporting men - specifically the ones who call him "a real man" or "strong" - they're not referring to any illusions that he is taciturn or chivalrous. Rather, the source of his masculinity is that he fights these 21st-century expectations with every bone in his body. He "tells it like it is," and he "doesn't take crap from ("liberals," "social justice warriors," "feminazis," "cucks," "the mainstream media").

His complaining, his insults, his pouting, his neediness,his histrionics, his jagged, self-centered emotionalism - none of it is beside the point. It's what makes him a real man.

Plenty of folks still view masculinity in the traditional, strong and silent way. Plenty view it in a new, expanded way - masculinity includes nurturing, tenderness, etc. But I can't help but wonder whether there's a branch of Trump supporters for whom the new primary characteristic of masculinity is resentment.

Take evangelical voters, for example. "Their whole idea of militant masculinity was formed in reaction against feminism and more recently against so-called political correctness," historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez said in a Vox interview recently, discussing her new book about why evangelical Christians tend to support Trump. "That has been just such a powerful enemy for white evangelicals who feel oppressed by these new standards of behavior. And I think Trump really succeeds by not following any of those rules of civil discourse."

They hear a chorus of voices telling them, Grow up. They hear Trump - short-circuited and stuck in his own wounded adolescence - saying, Oh yeah? Make me. Then they buy a T-shirt.

- - -

Oddly, reading "Too Much and Never Enough" might leave you feeling kind of bad for the president. You might end up mourning the little boy who was raised to be not a man but rather an unfinished, unfinishable vanity project. You might end up wishing someone could go back in time and show him how many different ways there were to be a man. Or, much more to the point, a successful, worthy human.

Trump attempted to stop his niece's book from being published; the whole matter had to go to court, before the legal system ruled in Mary Trump's favor. It's not clear what President Trump feared the book would reveal, but one can make an educated guess: that it would make him look like a weak man.

What it actually reveals would probably be much more distressing to him. It doesn't make him look like a weak man. It just makes him look like a scared boy.
16.07.2020 LISTEN

In the Fourth Republic, under the fifth President, Addo Dankwa, Ghana, the centre of the earth beckoned all mankind of African descent to come back home to their roots, four hundred years after they were carried by slavemasters into the New World, America.

From Europe To America, Oceania to Asia, and the Caribbean, they who saw themselves as sons and daughters of African soil joined this pilgrimage.

The Ghanaian hospitality meant that homes were opened to these pilgrims.

As it's in the proverbial bad nut that spoils the good ones, a woman who was not born of black skin pigmentation perfectly painted her body to look a black woman and artfully wore an Afro hair on that of her natural silky one.

This cunning dissembling woman entered Ghana faking a name Optional Love, her destination not being Accra the capital of the Republic, or Kumasi the business centre, but saw Goka, a remotest fledging kingdom in the Bono Region, to make an abode. She entered carrying a flower pot with sweet-scented evergreen flowers that were doting to all eyes.

Optional Love was opened for the gates to the palace of the Queen Mother of Goka, and she was given a queenly service. Maids to the Queen Mother were at her beck and call.

Additionally, with her cunningness, Optional Love beguiled and seduced the gentle son of the Queen Mother, a prince of high learning who is an heir apparent to the Goka throne, to fall in love with her. The two did everything wedded couples do, with the expatriate praising highly the bedroom antics of the Goka prince. Truly, if it hadn't been for the business she was about, the unquenchable lovemaking flames of the prince could have by now given the Kingdom mulattoes, people of mixed race, as successors to the dynasty.

Nonetheless, an illegitimate son born out of the issues the two had was later repatriated to come and live in Goka after Optional Love was sentenced to serve terms in a jail of her home country. (The reader will learn how and why she was sent back to be jailed as the story progresses).

It later turned out that, the love Optional Love had for the gentle prince was comparable to her flower, which blossom in the morning when watered but loses its lustre with a minimal sunshine at sunset.

Early morn as the servants served her as they would to they who paid them, Optional Love had no chores to attend to safe wasting the wholesome water in the palace on her flower, making sure the prince is around to learn of her faked good intentions for the growing to greatness of the burgeoning Goka Kingdom. Tales that later turned out to be falsified to hoodwink, pillage, and plunder.

Optional Love was in truth trained by syndicated cabals who have heard of the vast resources bequeathed in the holy soils of the Goka Kingdom. The mass pilgrimage to the Republic was the only chance for these exploiters to infiltrate and learn every detail of the worth of Goka. And who was apt for this fiendish doing than the dissembler under discussion? If the Goka people knew any devil higher than the Optional Love, it should be the driver who didn't crash her to death but drove her into the kingdom to carry out her evildoings.

The prince, unsuspectingly, with good hearts seeking for investment and development for his kingdom, confided in and revealed every detail of the hidden worth in the Gokaland. Spanning the gold fishes that swam in the Asuo Goka (Lake Goka) who defecate and vomit gold dust, to the very forest Ptrdom (Rosewood) that bears diamond fruits when darkness falls on the ancestral forest, Optional Love knew to the bottom every precious thing Goka priced highly.

Armed with the information for which she was sent, Optional Love decided to unceremoniously leave the kingdom when the true and genuine pilgrims were returning to where they came from.

To make her sneaking out unnoticed, she surreptitiously left behind the supposed priced flower of hers, and announced she was going to Accra, the capital, to purchase gilded decors that would add shine to the Queen Mother's palace on her return.

It was when she reached Accra that a global pandemic in a Coronavirus Covid-19 compelled all governments to close all land, sea, and air borders to prevent entry and exit, aiming to stemming the spread of the airborne infectious virus that traced its patient zero to the Communist Republic of China, and was mauling beautiful souls found in its marauding path, from the rich to the poor, monarchs and servants, none was respected by this novel virus.

So, travellers like herself who got stranded at the airport must be housed by the state till the easing of travel restrictions worldwide.

All this while, Optional Love who was seen as a black woman was waited for by the Goka people, planning to welcome her with pomp and pageantry, receiving their promised freebies. Her flower was watered as she would every now and then, but it never returned to its beautiful past, as it kept on withering.

Back in Accra, Optional Love has emptied for usage the bottle that contained the cream that blackened her skin, and her natural skin reared its hideous complexion.

Those with whom she had been kept in the government facility saw the sudden change in her skin colouration, and raised an alarm. As it would have been expected of a thief who would resign and succumb to any treatment meted to her by her captives, Optional Love chose to fight back.

One of the genuine blackwomen who saw the scam, had a ravaging fire in her, and held tightly this agent of plunders till Optional Love resorted to engage in fisticuffs with her in attempt to fleeing from the impending shame that would come with the revelation.

But this blackwoman who later gave her name as Yasre (a Ghanaian adopted name that means Awakened), never let off the tightly hold of this imposter. And as they tussled, Yasre held the seeming Afro hair of Optional Love, the covering hair was stripped off, revealing the true hairs of the painted Caucasian derisively posing as a black African.

Under the Republic's legal system, it's a high crime to be prosecuted as an imposter. This meant Optional Love would be investigated.

It was through the investigation that papers were retrieved that had a graphical documentation of the resources of Goka, and the diabolic plans to come back and siphon all out, after poisoning to death the leaders of the Kingdom and all those who could be hindrance to the plundering of the sacred worth.

News went everywhere about the capture of Optional Love. It was heard also by the Goka people, who had wondered why it's taking long to welcome their new Messiah, one they think would be the only person to revive the withering flower.

Later, it turned out the flower was fake, artificial, and never needed the water wasted on its watering. It was diminishing because it has outlived its shelvelife, and must extinct to expiration.

Optional Love couldn't be vouched for a safekeep by the Ghanaian authorities. She was thoroughly searched and seized from every document she can present to her paymasters, carrying to fruition for which she was sent.

From that day forward, the government of Addo Dankwa got investors to harness the discovered resources in the Goka Kingdom, making there a centre of robust business activities. Skyscrapers housing global giant industries filled the skies of Goka and the place became a centre of attraction, a pilgrim's pride.

It was later reported in the news that, Optional Love was jailed alongside her elitists cabals who had disgraced the name of the American State, an ally of the Republic of Ghana, at the time Trump the Bully was the Commander in Chief of the American State, a no nonsense leader who feared the retributive posturing of the Ghanaian people if he was to violate the old friendly embassies between the two countries.

As her stripping took Optional Love to her deserving fate, her bewitching of the Goka Prince to deny the old custom of customary marriage of large family to adapting to imported ordinance marriage of one man one wife, went with her, and in her stead the Prince affianced maidens who became his consorts at the height of Goka's development. Amongst the beautiful maidens who did not only grace the Prince's bed, but are celebrated for contributing to the Kingdom's enviable feat are: The Black Beauty Ellen of the Akyerma root, Fair Lady Irene of the Police View, The Gentle Sporty Lizzy of Okrah lineage, the Slim Beauty Winifred of The Asante Kingdom, and Gertrude, the rich young merchant, the niece of Maroman, the famous hairstylist of Goka.

In the palace archives of the Goka Kingdom, these beautiful Queens are written about to immortalise them, along with the wise Prince whose fame and heroism reached all corners of the earth in his lifetime.

Today, if you hear a Goka native say: "as in the taste of the Prince", he's referring to beauty in physicality and in deeds, in choosing a life partner, or partners.

The moral lesson picked from what Optional Love, whose real name was Cavalier did in Goka, was that: be extra cautious when presented with the food you never met growing up in your mother's kitchen. With time, the falsity so wrapped in shining clothes would lay bear for its true identity.

Long live true lovers.

Written by: Charles Yeboah (Sir Lord)

The Founder Of One Ghana Movement (#1GhM)

Email: [email protected]
S ajid Javid has said he is "deeply concerned" after judges ruled Shamima Begum can return to the UK to fight the decision to remove her British citizenship.

The 20-year-old was one of three east London schoolgirls who travelled to Syria to join the so-called Islamic State group in 2015.

She lived under IS rule for more than three years before she was found, nine months pregnant, in a Syrian refugee camp in February last year.

Mr Javid, who was the Home Secretary at the time, revoked her British citizenship on national security grounds later that month.

Ms Begum took legal action against the Home Office, claiming the decision was unlawful because it rendered her stateless and exposed her to a real risk of death or inhuman and degrading treatment. Senior judges in the Court of Appeal ruled today that Ms Begum should be allowed to return to the UK to fight the decision to remove her British citizenship.

Shamima Begum was one of three teenagers to travel to Syria / PA

Taking to Twitter Mr Javid said he respected the court and would limit how much he said about the case, but that there were important principles at stake.

Any restrictions of rights and freedoms faced by Ms Begum are a direct consequence of the actions she has taken, in violation of both government guidance and common morality, he said.

The east London teenagers travelled in 2015 / PA

It is not clear to me why an appeal could not be made abroad using modern technology.

However, this is not solely a matter of justice. It is also a matter of national security.

Sajid Javid shared his concerns about the case / REUTERS

He warned that the judgments and precedents set in the case could bind the hands of the Government in managing past and future cases.

First and most critically, allowing her  and indeed other terrorists  back into the UK to pursue an appeal would create a national security risk that cannot be fully mitigated, even with the diversion of significant resources, he stated.

He also said that allowing her to walk the streets would serve as a lightning rod for both Islamist and far-right extremists and it would prove impossible to subsequently remove her.

I am therefore deeply concerned about this judgement," he said

"I welcome the decision of the Home Office to seek to appeal it.

The Government also said it was "bitterly disappointed by the court ruling.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman said: The Governments priority is maintaining our national security, and decisions to deprive individuals of their citizenship are not taken lightly.

We will always ensure the safety and security of the UK and will not allow anything to jeopardise this.
Shares of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) traded lower Wednesday despite increasing concerns about the economic impact of a second wave of COVID-19 infections nationwide.

GE still has a long way to go in demonstrating it's back on the path for long-term cash flow and earnings growth. However, a flurry of large bullish option trades on Wednesday suggests there are some deep-pocketed investors who see significant upside for GE.

The GE Trades

On Wednesday, Benzinga Pro subscribers received 44 option alerts related to unusually large GE option trades. Here are a handful of the largest:

At 9:55 a.m. ET, a trader sold 2,615 GE call options with a $10 strike price expiring on Jan. 15, 2021. The contracts were sold near the bid price at 35.9 cents and represented a $93,878 bearish bet.

Less than a minute later, a trader bought 2,665 GE call options with a $10 strike price expiring on Jan. 15, 2021. The contracts were purchased near the ask price at 36.1 cents and represented a $96,206 bullish bet.

Within seconds, a trader bought 7,360 of the same GE call options with a $10 strike price expiring on Jan. 15, 2021. The contracts were purchased near the ask price at 36 cents and represented a $264,960 bullish bet.

At 9:57 a.m., a trader bought 33,823 of the same GE call options with a $10 strike price expiring on Jan. 15, 2021. The contracts were purchased near the ask price at 37 cents and represented a $1.25 million bullish bet.

Of the 44 total large GE option trades on Wednesday morning, 27 were calls purchased at or near the ask or puts sold at or near the bid, trades typically seen as bullish. The other 17 were calls sold at the near the bid or puts purchased at or near the ask, trades typically seen as bearish. All three of the largest trades were bullish.

Why It's Important

Even traders who stick exclusively to stocks often monitor option market activity closely for unusually large trades. Given the relative complexity of the options market, large options traders are typically considered to be more sophisticated than the average stock trader. Many of these large options traders are wealthy individuals or institutions who may have unique information or theses related to the underlying stock.

Story continues

Unfortunately, stock traders often use the options market to hedge against their larger stock positions, and theres no surefire way to determine if an options trade is a standalone position or a hedge. In this case, given the relatively large size of the largest GE option trades and their timing, theres certainly a possibility they could be a hedge on a large position in GE stock.

Long-Term Bets On GE Rebound

A tremendous amount of Wednesday mornings trading action in GE was for the same Jan. 2021 calls with $10 strike prices. From 9:51 to 10:20 a.m., there were 27 unusually large trades involving those same Jan. 2021 $10 call contracts. Based on an average trade price of around 36 cents, the break-even price for those call buyers is $10.36, suggesting about 45% upside for GE stock over the next six months.

Bank of America recently estimated GE will report negative $3.3 billion in Industrial free cash flow in the second quarter and negative $500 million for the full year. The company is expected to report second-quarter earnings on July 29.

GE Chart by TradingView new TradingView.widget( { "width": 680, "height": 423, "symbol": "NYSE:GE", "interval": "D", "timezone": "Etc/UTC", "theme": "light", "style": "1", "locale": "en", "toolbar_bg": "#f1f3f6", "enable_publishing": false, "allow_symbol_change": true, "container_id": "tradingview_dddca" } ); Benzingas Take

Given all the GE investors have been through in recent years, the long-term call buyer might simply be betting that theres not much GE can do or say at this point that will disappoint or drive away its remaining loyalists.

Any incrementally positive commentary at all from GE over the next six months may be good enough in itself to get the stock above the $10.36 break-even price for the Jan. calls.

Related Links:

Here's How Large Option Traders Are Playing Boeing As Order Backlog Shrinks

How To Read And Trade An Option Alert

Photo credit: Momoneymoproblemz, via Wikimedia Commons

See more from Benzinga

 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
The sanctions the United States has imposed on the North Korean regime are of the utmost importance to the national security of our nation, said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, whose division announced the action with the FBI and the U.S. attorneys office for the District of Columbia. The company has now committed to working with our prosecutors to bring those individuals responsible for these acts to justice.
Both Companies Committed to Bringing the Best Cardiac Care to the Healthcare Workers and Patients that Need It

TOTOWA, New Jersey, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- GS Elektromedizinische Geraete G. Stemple GmbH, marketing defibrillators under the corpuls brand, and VectraCor Inc., announced today that they have concluded a licensing agreement allowing corpuls to incorporate VectraCor's cloud-based version of VectraCor's derived 22-Lead ECG and CEB (Cardiac Electrical Biomarker) technology into corpuls devices. This will help corpuls' customers obtain a faster ECG and even more clinically important cardiac data while helping their patients in the most urgent medical situations. VectraCor currently has this technology integrated into their VectraplexECG System, used mainly in Emergency Departments, Urgent Cares and Doctor's Offices. The VectraplexECG System has approval in the United States (FDA), Europe (CE Mark), Taiwan and Australia and is patented worldwide.

Dr. Christian Klimmer, CEO of corpuls said, "In 1991 corpuls was the first medical device company in the field of multi-parameter / defibrillators introducing the 12-lead ECG to the market. A little revolution back then, standard worldwide as of today. With the introduction of the 22-lead ECG and the CEB together with VectraCor we will again set the new standard in diagnosing cardiovascular disease, in particular in EMS. We deeply believe that our customers are very interested in more advanced diagnostics regarding acute coronary syndromes especially if this doesn't come with the price of more time on scene. This will hopefully enable a higher diagnostic accuracy, earlier treatment and an easier choice of the most appropriate hospital where the patient is transported to. For the receiving hospital to know exactly what to expect we have created the possibility to send all 22-Leads as well as the CEB ahead as a pdf or, in even more detail as part of our corpuls.misson Telemedicine solution."

Brad S. Schreck, President & CEO of VectraCor Inc. said, "We are very excited about this partnership with corpuls and to begin to license our patented technology so it can get into the hands of more of the brave life-saving medical professionals that need it. The corpuls product line is used widely and highly respected throughout the world, so naturally, we feel like they are an ideal partner to showcase our technology. We are also very pleased that corpuls sees the important clinical benefit of deriving a full 22-lead ECG which gives the provider more clinically relevant views of the heart, right-sided, posterior, and vectorcardiogram which can have isolated issues when the 12-Lead ECG looks 'normal'. The reduced electrode placement also saves money and patient prep-time along with helping avoiding potential electrode misplacement."

Schreck continued, "Our ECG technology may now help healthcare workers more quickly detect cardiac disease in real-time and non-invasively, in the form of VectraCor's easy-to-read, color-coded, CEB number. This could lead to a potentially faster treatment to save heart muscle and lives. After many years of published studies and presentations from prestigious institutions at medical congresses around the world such as ESC, ACC, ACEP, etc., which validated the clinical effectiveness of our technology, we are ready to take the company and healthcare to the next level. This will include licensing the CEB and derivation technology and putting it into various multi-parameter monitors and other cardiac devices like stress tests, Holter/event monitors, mobile consumer devices and telemedicine platforms."

On the strategic aspect of the partnership, Schreck said, "The defibrillator and EMS market has always been of major interest to us after VectraCor won the Top EMS Innovation Award at EMS World Expo a few years back. So partnering with corpuls, a major player in that market, fits right into our strategy and vision." He added, "This is only the beginning in our fight against the number one disease state, and killer, in the world, cardiovascular disease."

About GS Elektromedizinische Geraete G. Stemple GmbH

For close to 40 years, GS Elektromedizinische Geraete G. Stemple GmbH, a successful international family business, has been developing innovative medical devices for the emergency and intensive care medicine and manufacturers. Worldwide professional emergency services rely on the corpuls' brand of robust and reliable medical products. For more information, visit www.corpuls.world info@corpuls.com +49 8191 657220

About VectraCor Inc.

VectraCor is a medical device company based in Totowa, NJ focused in the cardio-pulmonary space. Their patented technologies, the CEB (Cardiac Electrical Biomarker), and a derived 22-lead ECG technology using only 5 electrodes (V2 & limbs), has the potential to be the new standard of care in ECGs and cardiac monitoring worldwide. VectraCor also produces a portable Orbit spirometer (lung function test) that is used widely by everyone from General Practitioners to Respiratory Therapists worldwide. For more information please visit VectraCor at www.VectraCor.com Info@Vectracor.com 1.973.904.0444 ext. 2

Related Files

VectraCor Corpuls Press Release 7 14 2020 FINAL.pdf
Regulatory News:

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200716005807/en/

(Photo: Business Wire)

AKKA Research (Paris:AKA) (BSE:AKA) (ISIN:FR0004180537), AKKA's in-house R&D and innovation centre, and ERTICO ITS Europe, a public-private partnership of approximately 120 companies and organisations, join forces to deliver critical milestones for the 5G-MOBIX project, bringing automated cross-border driving a step closer to reality. In today's hyper-mobile world, enabling cross-border interoperability plays a critical role in making autonomous possible.

Leveraging its considerable expertise in smart mobility, AKKA Research plays a key role in several work packages of this important multi-year collaborative R&D project which will run until mid-2022.

5G-MOBIX is developing and testing automated vehicle functionalities using 5G core innovations along multiple cross-border corridors and urban trial sites in real-time vehicular traffic, network coverage and service demand conditions.

5G-MOBIX is a project co-financed by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 Programme, aiming at building a sustainable future for connected and automated vehicles. The project consists of 52 partners from 10 countries and brings together telecom operators and vendors, road operators, car manufacturers and equipment suppliers, with the support of road authorities, telecom authorities, and regional and national governments.

AKKA's role in 5G- MOBIX project

AKKA supports the development of tools required for test data management and analysis for the pilots.

AKKA plays a key role on Cybersecurity and Data privacy issues by working with other partners to define guidelines and good practices for vehicles, networks and cloud infrastructures.

AKKA carries out the collection and description of standardized APIs (Application Programming Interface) to support edge computing interoperability and will ensure proper embedding of virtual functions to cloud strata, service assurance and monitoring.

AKKA is proud to be part of this challenging project that allows the Group to draw on its extensive experience in multi-modal mobility systems and related technology in telecommunications and smart infrastructures. AKKA's role is essential in ensuring continuity and quality of services in connected, cooperative and automated mobility enabled by 5G technologies.

Notes to editors:

List of project partners: https://www.5g-mobix.com/partners

About AKKA

AKKA is the European leader in engineering consulting and R&D services in the mobility segment. As an innovation accelerator for its clients, AKKA supports leading industry players in the automotive, aerospace, rail and life sciences sectors throughout the life cycle of their products with cutting edge digital technologies (AI, ADAS, IoT, Big Data, robotics, embedded computing, machine learning, etc.).

Founded in 1984, AKKA has a strong entrepreneurial culture and is pursuing its fast-paced growth and international development in line with its CLEAR 2022 strategic plan. With 22,000 employees, who are passionate about technology and dedicated to advancing the future of industry, the Group recorded revenues of 1.8 billion in 2019.

Following the completion of the friendly take-over bid of Data Respons launched in January 2020, AKKA now holds 100% of the company's shares; with the success of this operation, AKKA leverages the most comprehensive portfolio of digital solutions in Europe to harness the growing demand from its customers in the mobility sector.

AKKA Technologies is listed on Euronext Paris and Brussels Segment A ISIN code: FR0004180537.

For more information, please visit www.akka-technologies.com

Follow us on: twitter.com/AKKA_Tech

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200716005807/en/

Contacts:

Media Relations

Markus Leutert

Group Head of Communications

Tel.: +32(0) 4 96 26 27 55

markus.leutert@akka.eu

FTI Consulting

akka@fticonsulting.com

Media Relations, France

Emily Oliver Lea Truchetto

Tel.: +33(0) 1 47 03 68 15
It didn't take long for Timm Hanly to strip off his shirt and showcase his buff physique on Wednesday's premiere of Bachelor in Paradise.

And as the 28-year-old flaunted his six-pack in a pair of avocado print Speedos, there was one very distracting feature - and it wasn't exactly sexy.

The reality star was shown wearing a very unflattering beige band around his waist as he gossiped about his co-stars with Ciarran Stott at the bar.

What? Bachelor in Paradise fans were left baffled by Timm Hanly's (left) unflattering beige waistband as he arrived at the Fijian resort on Wednesday. Pictured with Ciarran Stott (right)

While it hardly enhanced Timm's appearance, the unflattering belt actually served a very practical purpose.

As Timm and Ciarran spoke about their fellow islanders, the belt held in place his microphone pack, so viewers didn't miss any of the gossip.

Meanwhile, there was no shortage of drama as the former Bachelor and Bachelorette stars arrived in Fiji for their second chance at finding love.

Mystery solved! While it hardly enhanced Timm's appearance, the unflattering belt actually served a very practical purpose. As Timm and Ciarran spoke about their fellow islanders, the belt held in place his microphone pack, so viewers didn't miss any of the gossip

Just moments after arriving, Abbie Chatfield told host Osher Gunsberg she was hoping to see Ciarran.

'So, as the rest of Australia does, I have a bit of a crush on Ciarran. I think he's hot,' the 24-year-old told Osher.

Abbie admitted she had even been leaving cheeky messages on his Instagram posts, looking for a way in with the 26-year-old Brit.

Girl with a man plan: Just moments after arriving at the Mango Bay Resort, Abbie Chatfield (pictured) told host Osher Gunsberg she was hoping to see Ciarran Stott

'I've been commenting on Ciarran's photos - embarrassingly, no replies yet, Osh. Putting it out there,' she laughed.

She was pleasantly surprised when Ciarran wandered in completely naked, with just a bunch of grapes covering his private parts.

Forgetting something? Abbie was pleasantly surprised when Ciarran (pictured) wandered in completely naked, with just a bunch of grapes covering his private parts

'He's naked. Yoo! Ciarran naked again. How good. Uh, would not have it any other way. I don't care if he's naked the whole time here,' she blushed.

Despite ignoring her Instagram comments, Ciarran admitted he was also interested in Abbie, and said she was on his 'list'.

The two later slept in the same bed, with Abbie cheekily revealing: 'Ciarran, he was in bed with me all night. Do you know what I mean?'

Getting cosy! The two later slept in the same bed, with Abbie cheekily revealing: 'Ciarran, he was in bed with me all night. Do you know what I mean?'

Ciarran was also asked how he'd feel if his ex-girlfriend Renee Barrett appeared on the show.

Becoming uncomfortable, he admitted his relationship with Renee didn't end on good terms, and said it was 'because of me'.

'I f**ked up. Went away for a wedding, ended up cheating on her. I told her. Said what it was. Obviously knew it was a mistake. Shouldn't have done it,' he said bluntly.

Cheating scandal: Ciarran admitted his relationship with ex-girlfriend Renee Barrett didn't end on good terms, and acknowledged it was 'because of me'

Meanwhile, Jamie Doran was left upset when he was age-shamed by his co-stars, who were asked what age they would date up to.

'Jamie's 40. Like, I'm 24. Like, I'm 16 years younger than you. Like, I'm not doing it,' Abbie said.

Mary Viturino said her age limit was 32, while Helena Sauzier admitted to being 'attracted to older guys', but said '38 is the upper limit'.

Too old, grandpa! Jamie Doran was also left upset when he was age-shamed by his co-stars, who were asked what age they would date up to

'I've only been 40 for, like, 20 days, okay?' Jamie shot back.

Brittney Weldon made a welcome return to the series, after appearing on last year's show, and it wasn't long before the 27-year-old caught the eye of Timm Hanly.

Along with Brittany Hockley, Timm selected the boisterous brunette to join him on a three-person date, but his chemistry with Brittany, 32, was undeniable.

Bachelor in Paradise continues on Thursday at 7.30pm on Channel 10
One of the biggest infrastructure investors in the country is lobbying the government to divide major job-creating projects into smaller contracts to help Australian businesses compete for infrastructure contracts typically won by global construction giants.

The significant proposal from IFM Investors chief executive David Neal to change the existing procurement system aims to give local medium-sized firms a better chance at being awarded contracts for nation-building initiatives and make super funds more willing long-term equity partners.

Major infrastructure contracts are typically awarded to global construction giants under current procurement systems. Credit:James Alcock

IFM and the 27 industry super funds that own the fund manager are multi-year investors and reluctant to invest in "mega-projects" under the current terms, which Mr Neal, the former Future Fund chief, said benefits construction giants typically from overseas who want to move onto other projects as soon as the build is complete.

"We're building these Australian projects and it's Australian constructors that are getting squeezed out," Mr Neal said.
In a statement on Wednesday, the exiled Queen of Iran Farah Pahlavi condemned the impending execution of three young men in Iran for participating in nationwide protests against the rise in the price of gasoline in November 2019.

The exiled Queen warned that the death sentences will only add to people's anger and make them want revenge.

"This vicious circle must break so that at a not-too-distant future, the people find it in their hearts to forgive the tyrants of today," Queen Farah said in her message and added: "Those who issue such unfair verdicts must be reminded that the person being convicted to [death] by them is a child of this homeland. Think of them as your child, father, mother, brother or sister".

An unprecedented "storm" of tweets to condemn the death sentence for the three young man erupted on Twitter on July 14 with the hashtag "Stop Executions In Iran" reaching a record of 6 billion views and five million retweets.

The spokesman of the Iranian Judiciary on July 14 announced that the death sentences issued for the three young men  Amir-Hossein Moradi, Mohammad Rajabi and Saeed Tamjidi  had been upheld by the Supreme Court.

International human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned the sentences and said the three young men had to confess to crimes such as setting fire to cars and banks under torture. According to their lawyer, they have denied having committed the crimes that they were forced to "confess" on the state-run television.

A call to protests for Friday July 17 was also made by activists, but on Thursday people took to the streets in Behbahan in oil-rich Khuzestan Province and Shiraz, the capital of Fars Province, and chanted against the government and death penalty.

As verified by international human rights watchdogs, Iranian forces even used tanks and machine guns against protesters and shot many in the head at point-blank range during the November 2019 protests. Human rights organizations even characterized the outcome of the crackdown at places such as Mahshahr in Khuzestan Province and Shahryar near Tehran as "massacre."

Reuters in December quoted three sources close to Khamenei's inner circle as well as another source as having said that some 1,500 Iranians were killed during the November protests. Khamenei had told the security forces in a public meeting: "Do whatever is necessary to stop" the protests.
By Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi and Simon Jessop

ZURICH/LONDON (Reuters) - Billionaires looked after by Swiss bank UBS are looking to move some of their cash out of equities after profiting from an unprecedented sell-off and rapid rebound from March to May, the world's largest wealth manager said on Thursday.

During the rout in stock markets across the globe in March, UBS' richest customers took out loans to place billions into crashing stock markets. They are now looking to pull that money from equities and put the profits in illiquid and private assets, UBS' head of global family offices told Reuters.

Their strategy has helped family offices which manage the financial affairs of the world's richest beat hedge funds and overall markets to outperform their target benchmarks through May, according to the bank's survey of 120 family offices, with an average family wealth of $1.6 billion, published on Thursday.

"We had record loans written during the middle of March and the middle of April, of significant family offices who asked us for balance sheet and then went into the market," Josef Stadler said in an interview. "They bought, for example, U.S. equities, but they didn't buy $50 million. They bought a billion-plus of those equities to rebalance. And they made a lot of money."

Known as the "fortress bank for billionaires", banking half the world's very richest, UBS said its wealthiest clients serviced by individual family offices were now looking to invest in residential real estate and private equity, or to make corporate and strategic deals.

Stadler said the trend had largely been seen in Asia and he expected it to accelerate in the last quarter of 2020 and into the early months of 2021. As a consequence, he expected equities markets to soften throughout the rest of this year.

But over the longer term just under half the family offices polled by UBS intended to increase their equities allocation in the next 2-3 years.

Story continues

Asked whether unrest in Hong Kong and its tensions with mainland China had affected investment decisions, Stadler said UBS did not see family office money moving out of Hong Kong to other jurisdictions.

"They made their arrangements years ago, where they want to put themselves on the map," he said, adding that such clients tended to keep their money in multiple jurisdictions and based their decisions on long-term strategies.

(Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi and Simon Jessop;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
It was late in the afternoon when Kieran McPherson was out working his summer job, felling trees on a block in Piarere situated on the outskirts of Lake Karapiro.

He was out earning his keep in his late teens chopping firewood, when a freak accident occurred.

A fallen tree moved and as he escaped its path, another tree was brought down across his back leaving the professional off-road triathlete unable to move.

Rescued by the Waikato Westpac Rescue Helicopter on April 10, 2012, Kierans tree-felling accident has not let it define him.

He ended up fracturing his L3 vertebra - the third lumbar spine vertebra, located in the middle of the lumbar spine.

With no road access, time was not on Kierans side, without the Waikato Westpac Rescue Helicopter his life would be very different today, says a spokesperson for the rescue helicopter.

Its thanks to the life-saving rescue helicopter service that Kieran is still alive today, he was airlifted to Waikato Hospital in HZQ  the Bell222 by Waikato Westpac Rescue Helicopter pilot  Dan Harcourt.

With a long road to recovery after fracturing his lower back, dreams of competing in the World Champs Triathlon were put on hold.

Kieran was more determined than ever and made an incredible recovery within six short months.

Later that year, after months of rehabilitation, he went on to win his first Age Group World Championship title held in Auckland, New Zealand.

Kieran is now ready to take on the length of New Zealand.

He will Tri Across NZ where hell do one triathlon per day to cover the length of both NZ islands  equal to 10 iron distance triathlons.

In the hope of completing his mission, Kieran will have to be traveling at least 150-160km per day through running, swimming, and biking.

In two weeks, he will cover over 2000-km from Bluff to Cape Reinga, to raise money for the Waikato Westpac Rescue Helicopter, TECT Rescue Helicopter, Greenlea Rescue Helicopter, and Palmerston North Rescue Helicopter  a life-saving rescue helicopter service that helped provide him with a second chance.

Its thanks to the swift response from the Waikato Westpac Rescue Helicopter that allowed McPherson to fully recover and pursue his passion.

Kieran holds this charity close to his heart.

Without that rescue helicopter, my life would be very different today.

He hopes his efforts will raise money and awareness for this critical operation.

Help support Kieran in his journey to take on the Length of New Zealand and donate to Kierans Give-a-little Page and stay up to date with his progress on his website.

https://givealittle.co.nz/fundraiser/triathlon-across-nz

https://www.lengthofnz.com/
Analysts and activists blame an increase in attacks on an indecisive Khan. They say he preaches a vision of a tolerant Pakistan where its religious minorities thrive as equals among an overwhelming Muslim majority. They say that at the same time he cedes power to extreme Islamic clerics, bowing to their demands and turning to them for the final say, even on matters of state.
Discussing a Movement in Time with Brenda Shockley, Los Angeles First Chief Equity Officer

Mayor Eric Garcetti appoints Black woman to lead Racial Equity Action Plan

Greater lengths are being taken in order to gain equality across all parts of Los Angeles, as Mayor Eric Garcetti creates a Racial Equity Action Plan; a Deputy Mayor for Economic Opportunity, with Brenda Shockley at the helm. In her new role as chief equity officer, Shockley looks to build bridges that allocate resources and leverage within city hiring, promotion, and construct a solid platform for meaningful change.

Shockley has provided over 20 years of service, dedicating the majority of her waking hours as president of Community Build, where she played a critical role during the noted social uprising in 1992. She had her hand in restoring South L.A. after the civil storm due to police brutality had passed. Shockley also holds the title of Deputy Mayor for Economic Opportunity; she has led initiatives within the Garcetti administrations that investigate inequalities within minimum wage, free community college, and housing.

On Juneteenth, Mayor Garcetti added one more badge; he announced Shockley as the first Chief Equity Officer. She is now sitting with dual roles as Deputy Mayor for Economic Opportunity and Chief Officer of Equity. Her background indicates that she is a well-rounded advocate for many pressing matters, such as the unsheltered pandemic, community revitalization, education, and equal employment opportunity.

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Garcetti shared within the announcement, Our city is hungry for change, and we must knit racial justice and affirmative action into the fabric of our policies, our institutions, and our society. Shockley and Garcetti are in alliance with making the City Mayors office a model for true racial and social equality. The movement towards healing within the Black community has penetrated Los Angeles City Hall.

Amid her entrance into the role, Shockley stated, I am honored to serve as the citys first Chief Equity Officer, and I welcome the opportunity to continue to fight for racial equity and against injustice, said the new Deputy Mayor. I am proud to work for an administration that recognizes it must start at City Hall if Los Angeles is to become a model of racial fairness.

Shining light on the combination of roles and responsibilities Shockley carries, there is an inquisition of balance and measurement of pressure. The inequalities against people of color were not created by the community itself, but there is applied weight brought to many in community leadership. Shockley responded to this inquiry, In some ways the roles are complimentary because its what I ve been fighting for since I been in the mayors office.

She continued, As the Deputy Mayor of Opportunity, our whole program is based on equity  we were poised to move ahead with an equity agenda  Shockley addressed that her standing as Deputy Mayor has not only paved a way for the new role of Chief Equity Officer, it created an impetus towards new sources to further her fight for equality.

The Racial Equity Action Plan is a multi-dimensional solution, looking to cover many different spears of racial discrimination and shield underserved communities. It looks to answer sharp topics of inequality within employment, lack of knowledge or resource in property ownership, and many more negative connotations that have been highlighted during this global pandemic.

These steps towards equality start with public officials and review of policy. Shockley is directly linked to one of the major community uprisings that took place in 1992, she shared her thoughts on the current social climate that has pinched an international nerve, You can push the pendulum only so far before it swings back and demands a place, Shockley said.

One of the first items on the agenda that Shockley will unsheathe is reform to police tactics. This will coincide with the Mayors declaration of 250-million dollars of the Citys budget being funneled back into the Black Community, towards social services, youth development, health, housing, and the overall recovery of underserved communities.

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The role as first Chief Equity Officer represents a milestone for change that has been reached in local government; Shockley shared her thoughts behind the meaning of this achievement and how she looks to bring forth the best results, This role of the citys first equity officer is sort of an acceleration and an outgrowth of what Ive been doing as Deputy Mayor of Economic Opportunities. The fact is, when you work in areas of economic opportunity, particularly in the portfolio I have  which is family source centers, work source centers, re-entry program, free college promise; all of those are really very much of an extension of what Ive done my entire career. 

She continued, I have this sense of hope, this abiding sense of hope, because I see what in the past has been a moment in time. I absolutely see this as a movement-in-time. Shockley further explained the fight against injustice across all scales of living as a Black American, post chattel slavery, is being looked at with no way of turning a blind eye.

Shockley plans to work with different departments, which include the Civil and Human Rights Commission. The focal point of the City Equity Branch is inclusive and designed to bring a generational line of equality and solidarity within opportunity for people of color and of all spectrums of the community.

The system Shockley has the power to create is looking to be all inclusive; shes starting with creating a baseline that is grounded in data and research. From her standpoint, the locomotive for change cannot move forward if we havent studied where its been. Shockley stated, I feel so moved to have the opportunity to be a part of turning this journey in the right direction, to really march into the future, unapologetically, and open about our goals and our objectives 
Taiwans military conducted live-fire drills simulating defence against hostile forces and showcase capabilities amid rising Chinese threat in the region. Ministry of Defence said that the exercises, dubbed as Han Kunag, simulates all possible scenarios of military threats and prove the capabilities of Armed forces in protecting the countrys sovereignty.

President Tsai Ing-wen told the troops that Han Kuang exercises are a major annual event for the armed forces which lets the world see Taiwans determination and efforts to defend its territory. Taiwan has ramped up its weapons procurement with its largest defence spending increase in a decade after Tsai made military modernisation a priority.

In May, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible arms sale to Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States. Taiwan has also revealed its plan to buy Harpoon anti-ship missiles from the United States to deal with the Chinese threat.

As I have said, national security does not rely on bowing and scraping but on solid national defence. All our officers and soldiers are the core of that, she said in a televised address.

Read: Tibetan Community, US-Indians & Taiwanese Stage Anti-China Protests In New York City

Beijing has become more assertive on the reunification of Taiwan with China under one country, two systems which has threatened Taiwans claim of sovereignty. The self-governing island republic considers itself as sovereign while China claims the province as Beijings territory under its one-China policy and has been pushing to implement the Hong Kong system in Taiwan.

Extensive drill

During the military drill, soldiers stood the heat and braved the winds and waves, while mounting at Zuoying naval base for joint landing operation. The air force conducted night air defence/interception drill and multiple fighters scrambled from Chiayi and Hualien AFB, while air defence units on the ground were deployed for engagement. Fighter jets conducted joint air defence operation, simulating interception of enemy aircraft while ground air defence units were being simultaneously deployed.

#HanKuang36 Live-fire drill demonstrated the coordination across different branches within #ROCArmedForces countering against simulated hostile forces. It also showcased our capabilities of being self-reliant in defense development. pic.twitter.com/CNHLEEt07B   Ministry of National Defense, R.O.C. (@MoNDefense) July 15, 2020

Read: Spooked Chinese Mouthpiece Claims Upper Hand After US Approves Arms Supply To Taiwan
As New Jersey school districts prepare to reopen for the 2020-2021 school year with modified schedules and socially distant classrooms, education officials say they are hearing the same question from parents over and over again: Can I just keep my kid at home?

The recent rise in COVID-19 cases in nearby states and the possibility of a second wave of the coronavirus later in the year has many families unsure if they want their children sitting in classrooms.
Chinas Belt and Road program has found new life in Pakistan with $11 billion worth of projects signed in the last month, driven by a former lieutenant general who has reinvigorated the infrastructure plan thats been languishing since Prime Minister Imran Khan took office two years ago.

The nations signed deals on June 25 and July 6 for two hydro-power generation projects costing $3.9 billion in the disputed Kashmir region, and another to revamp the South Asian nations colonial-era railways for $7.2 billion  the most expensive Chinese project yet in Pakistan.

Khans government appointed Asim Saleem Bajwa last year to run the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Authority, which oversees more than $70 billion in projects from power plants to highways. He also joined Khans cabinet in late April, becoming one of more than a dozen former and current military officials in prominent government roles as the army expands its influence in the country.

The Chinese financing has helped rid Pakistan of an electricity deficit that left exporters unable to meet orders and major cities without electricity for much of the day. Still, the implementation of some investments appeared to stall since Khan came to power, with no new projects announced in 2018 and very few in 2019.

Since Chinese President Xi Jinping launched the initiative in 2013, the World Bank estimates about $575 billion worth of energy plants, railways, roads, ports and other projects have been built or are in the works across the globe. Its progress has slowed recently, dogged by accusations that China is luring poor countries into debt traps for its own political and strategic gain.

The reality is that much of CPEC, like the Belt and Road more broadly, has been paralyzed, said Jonathan Hillman, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, referring to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Pakistan is a flagship for Chinas Belt and Road, so the need to show progress is even more important.

In a tweet last month, Bajwa said some detractors had given the false impression that CPEC had been slowed. Not only has the pace of work on projects picked up recently, but a great deal of ground work has been done to launch phase two of the project that also includes special economic zones to lure Chinese manufacturers, agriculture, science, technology and tourism, he wrote.

China says future cooperation with Pakistan will focus on social development, livelihood, industry and agriculture in addition to infrastructure construction [File: Asim Hafeez/Bloomberg]

The prime minister pushed very hard on this, said Abdul Razak Dawood, Khans adviser on commerce and investments said by phone. We feel that we have to get more and more hydro in our energy mix.

A spokesman in Bajwas office said he was not immediately available to comment.

Little Progress

Pakistans army is already responsible for securing every single Beijing-funded project scattered across the country, from the mountains near the Chinese border to the desert in Gwadar where the Chinese operate a port. Its role has become even more important following terrorist attacks on three Chinese-related projects in the past year.

There is no doubt that PM Khans arrival slowed the pace of CPEC projects, said Mosharraf Zaidi, a senior fellow at Islamabad-based think tank, Tabadlab, and a former principal advisor to the foreign ministry. The renewed energy and approval we are now seeing is almost entirely likely due to the chairperson having settled in, and being added to Prime Minister Khans cabinet.

Indeed theres deepening concerns over Islamabads ability to service its debts under the program. The Center for Global Development has listed Pakistan among eight nations that face potential debt-sustainability problems because of the initiative. The country must repay China more than double the amount it owes the International Monetary Fund over the next three years, according to an IMF report last year.

For its part, Beijing says its projects in Pakistan had made major progress over the last six years. China firmly supports the development of CPEC and stands ready to work with Pakistan, Chinas Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a regular press briefing in Beijing on July 7, adding that future cooperation will focus on social development, livelihood, industry and agriculture in addition to infrastructure construction.

Regional Conflict

The hydro projects are both based in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, a region at the heart of tensions with arch-rival India. The neighbors have fought three wars  two over Kashmir  and last year a terrorist attack in the Indian-controlled portion led to the most serious military escalation in more than a decade.

The $2.4 billion Kohala hydro power project is being built on the Jhelum River in Muzaffarabad, just 100 kilometers (62 miles) from where both armies exchange gunfire. The Azad Pattan project  which will cost $1.5 billion  is being built on the same river.

China and Pakistan may also be antagonizing India, said Hillman. Both hydro projects are in Kashmir, and the railway is part of a much longer, and still far fetched plan to connect China and Pakistan by rail, also passing through occupied territory, said Hillman.

Several countries have run into trouble with Belt and Road projects or had to rework plans after complaints over corruption, padded contracts, heavy debt loads, environmental damage and a reliance on imported Chinese labor over local hires.

Pakistan renegotiated the project to revamp its British-era legacy railway system. It was initially estimated to cost $8.2 billion but that was reduced to $6.2 billion, according to the nations railways minister. The final amount is higher than the revised cost but still $1 billion less that initial estimate.

All three new projects have been under discussion for some time before this months announcement.

Though these are difficult projects to get across the line compared to low hanging fruits like coal and LNG power projects that were announced at the start of the Chinese financing projects, said Samiullah Tariq, head of research at Pakistan Kuwait Investment Company, China is a critical ally for Pakistan to continue growing.
Chief Minister on Wednesday inaugurated the COVID for treatment of serious COVID patients at SCB Medical College, Cuttack.

is the third state besides Delhi and Maharastra to start this facility.

Inaugurating the facility, Chief Minister reiterated his government's commitment to providing advanced medical care and treatment to the people of the State.

"For me and my government, the life of every person is precious and the State would do everything possible to save the lives of our people. I would like to announce that Plasma Therapy will be made available free of cost to the people of Odisha," CM Patnaik said.

"My government is committed to provide the highest standards of medical care and treatment procedures for the people of the State. No person in would be deprived of access to the latest medical technology. This is a solemn commitment of this government", the Chief Minister added.

Appreciating the work of Doctors the Chief Minister said that doctors and medical personnel are working hard to provide their best in serving the people in these difficult COVID times and need to encourage and boost their morale.

The Chief Minister congratulated the four brave donors who volunteered to contribute their Plasma and appeal to all eligible Covid survivors to come forward to donate their Plasma which will go a long way in helping the treatment of serious Covid patients.

Pankaj Kumar Behera, Dr. Chid Bhusan Panda, Manoj Kumar Baral and Abinash Rout are the first four Plasma Donors of Odisha. Twelve more cured COVID patients including Salepur MLA Prasanta Behera have also come forward to join the mission and donate their Plasma. The Chief Minister thanked all of them and wished them the best.

While SCB Medical College will be the nodal agency for Plasma Therapy, the SUM Hospital, KIIMS Hospital both in Bhubaneswar and Aswini Hospital, Cuttack will provide Plasma Therapy treatment.

According to medical experts, bodies of people who recover from produce an anti-body/plasma in the blood to help the person fight against If a little bit of this anti-body/plasma is given to a critical patient then the plasma helps in the latter person's recovery.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Renard Edwards, a violist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, plays with other string musicians during a candlelight vigil and short concert in memory of Elijah McClain in Malcolm X Park on Wednesday night. McClain, a 23-year-old massage therapist and violinist, died last summer a few days after police in Colorado detained him, placed him in a carotid hold, and injected him with a sedative. String vigils have been held in New York, Boston, Chicago, and dozens of other cities for him and other Black Americans killed by police. Read more

An ensemble of about 30 violinists, violists, cellists, and double bassists gathered Wednesday night in Malcolm X Park in West Philadelphia for a candlelight vigil in memory of Elijah McClain. The musical demonstration in the park at 51st and Pine Streets drew about a hundred listeners, some of whom brought instruments of their own to join the ensemble in several works after an opening performance of George Walkers Lyric for Strings.

The 23-year-old McClain, a massage therapist and violinist, was detained by police in Aurora, Colo., last August, placed in a carotid hold, and injected with a sedative.

He died several days later. An initial investigation ended with no charges filed in his death. After public pressure, a new investigation was ordered.

Wednesdays vigil also honored the memory of Mouhamed Cisse, a cellist shot to death June 1 in West Philadelphia by an unknown assailant. The vigil will be repeated Sunday at 8 p.m. on the east steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

 READ MORE: Philadelphia string players are planning two candlelight vigils for violinist Elijah McClain
Dee Lescault, owner of Muti Hair Design Studio in Costa Mesa, is having to close her studio again, which she reopened for only 13 days. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Dee Lescault got the bad news from her landlord. Her Costa Mesa hair salon had reopened on June 1 after being dark for months because of the COVID-19 pandemic, dealing a painful economic blow to the 66-year-old stylist. And now, Coronavirus Shutdown 2.0.

"Is it asking too much to wear a mask?" Lescault tweeted in a rush of anger. "You can't have a healthy economy without a healthy community. Get a clue please."

At least she said please. Social media exploded this week with furious, often expletive-laced outbursts after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday that California must largely close for business yet again because of a spike in COVID-19 cases statewide that shows no sign of easing. On Tuesday, the state reported its largest one-day total of new cases, along with sharp jumps in hospitalizations and deaths.

Over the course of the four-month pandemic, Californians have focused their anger at the governor and other politicians, county health officials and the current resident of the White House. But now, in the early days of yet another shutdown, they are turning on each other like never before.

Because, when it comes to the coronavirus, we have met the enemy, and he is us.

The first shutdown was bad enough, throwing millions of workers out of jobs, canceling graduations and in-person June weddings and forcing families to bury loved ones without the solace of funeral services and the comforting embrace of supportive friends. Then George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis, unleashing a nationwide flood of fury aimed at police brutality and systemic racism.

And now, the federal program that offered out-of-work people an extra $600 a week in unemployment benefits is about to end unless a divided Congress votes to re-up it. The California Employment Development Department, which handles unemployment claims, is overwhelmed. The struggling economy has just taken another body blow. And hundreds of thousands of parents will have to keep their children at home for remote learning for the foreseeable future.

Story continues

And those people strolling toward you on the narrow sidewalk aren't wearing masks? What the ...?

"I'm angry with people that refuse to protect others," Lescault said Tuesday, as she and her partner went to collect plants and anything else they'd left behind at Muti Hair Design Studio. "They're being selfish and ignorant and they're not paying attention."

Nathan Mott is general manager of Built, a gym in Manhattan Beach that shut down this week by order of the state and is struggling to stay afloat. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

Don't tell that to Bahre Freeman, a personal trainer at Built, a neighborhood gym in Manhattan Beach that shut down this week and is struggling to stay alive. "We're pissed off at Gov. Newsom," he said. "Small businesses are going to close that are never going to come back. ... Is this gym gonna be able to survive if they have 60 days more of no revenue?"

Virus-light traffic zipped by on Highland Avenue. Freeman tugged at a black bandanna that kept slipping down his nose. He talked about a client, a lawyer, who had to take a pay cut because of the pandemic and can no longer afford training sessions. He fumed at "cookie-cutter responses" to the coronavirus that he says punish everyone, whether they live in a particularly hard-hit area or not, whether they're following federal safety guidelines or not.

"I don't want to kill your grandma. I don't want to kill my mom," he said. But "everyone is under this notion that they're doing this"  shutdown orders and mask mandates  "to save us. But they're not looking at the long picture. The long picture is that small businesses will close. Only major conglomerates will be able to stay open."

The latest surge of infections began in the last month or so, as cities began reopening, restless virus shut-ins got tired of making sacrifices for the greater good, and people began socializing again, standing way too close at family dinners and outdoor barbecues, eschewing masks and inhaling each others' droplet-laden breath.

People have drinks and dine on the outdoor patio at La Boheme in West Hollywood. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

On Monday, Newsom announced that all restaurant dining rooms, bars, zoos and museums in California must close. And in counties that have spent more than three days on the state coronavirus watch list, the closures are even more widespread. Among the businesses that must close again are gyms, houses of worship, barbershops, hair salons and malls. Offices with nonessential workers also must shut their doors.

The watch list fluctuates from day to day, but in recent weeks it's been stubbornly long. On Wednesday, 32 counties were on it, including all of Southern California: Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Ventura.

Twitter is not happy  #RecallGavin2020 has trended this week, and the social networking service has become a fulcrum of finger pointing.

"Just wear a [expletive] mask, people," actor Coby Ryan McLaughlin tweeted. "I wanna get back to work. I want my kid to be able to socialize at school. I wanna sit in a bar with my lady and have a drink. Stop being an [expletive]. Especially you, Florida. (And you, too, California)."

The show McLaughlin was on shut down because of the virus. He's unable to travel from his home in Los Angeles to Georgia, where he frequently works. His 9-year-old daughter will be learning from home in the fall because many school districts are keeping their campuses closed to help stop the virus' spread.

"Just wear a [expletive] mask, people," actor Coby Ryan McLaughlin tweeted. "I wanna get back to work. (NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via)

"It really in my opinion shines a light on the amount of entitlement we have as a society," McLaughlin said. "Wear a mask, don't go to [expletive] house parties. Just chill out. Follow the rules for once and don't make it this huge political issue."

Those in the wear-a-mask camp got lots of pushback from conservative social media users who shared images of thousands of people converging on Hollywood for a Black Lives Matter march and demonstration in June.

"But the dems said we cant get it at a protest," one user posted in response to a video of the massive protest. "Just the beach or a bar or restaurant. Home Depot and Walmart are safe."

The mask wars were fought this week in real life, too. On the same day Newsom announced the wider shutdown, the Orange County Board of Education voted to recommend schools reopen in the fall without mandatory masks for students or increased social distancing. The vote by the largely conservative board ignited an immediate uproar. As one antimask speaker at a subsequent Board of Supervisors meeting declared: We here in Orange County are the heart of the resistance.

On Tuesday night, Marciano Analco stood under the shade of an umbrella, scraping ice to make raspados, plastic cups filled with shaved ice in flavors like limon, tamarindo and strawberry. The 47-year-old, who wore gloves and a blue bandanna mask that looped around his ears, had been hired by a group called Defund South Gate Police Department, to serve protesters outside of South Gate city hall.

When the shut downs first began, Analco's business struggled. He had no choice but to work, to try and "at least sell a little." In recent weeks, things felt like they were starting to normalize. "Now, we're starting over," he said.

At times, while working, he said, he's encountered people who aren't wearing masks. It worries him for his own safety  Latinos are among the hardest hit by the virus. But he doesn't want to end up in a confrontation over it.

"People need to be following the rules," he said. "If masks are required, people need to use them. It's not comfortable, but we have to use it for the protection of everyone."

Bella Colbert couldn't agree more. She's 16, stayed mostly inside for the past four months and kept sane by looking ahead to school in the fall. To real classrooms for her junior year at Glendora High. Actual teachers instead of Zoom replicas. Friends.

Now, however, that's not going to happen. On Tuesday her school district announced that distance learning would continue next month with plans to move to an in-person hybrid model when it's safe. Colbert isn't mad at the school district, she said. She's mad at the world.

"Summer should have been spent by making the best efforts to decrease the curve and spread of coronavirus, to allow future generations of our society to earn an education as everyone else," the Glendora teen said. "Instead, it was spent by disobeying orders and spreading a plague of death that could've been prevented..."

Or as UC San Francisco epidemiologist and infectious-diseases expert Dr. George Rutherford put it: "I think wearing a mask and trying to follow a few simple things isn't the end of the world. We're not signaling the end of Western civilization here. This is pretty benign stuff."

Out of 36 people Rutherford saw on the street while driving home Tuesday, he said, only seven were wearing masks.

"What the hell is going on?" he asked. "Wear masks, period. That's it. You walk out of your house, have a mask on."
On this 75th anniversary of the first nuclear weapons test, the House Armed Services Committee is working to recognize veterans who witnessed the Trinity detonation and more than 225,000 who participated in later nuclear development and testing.

Committee members approved an amendment earlier this month to the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization bill that would award retired service members and veterans exposed to radiation during military service -- largely those engaged in nuclear weapons development -- a service medal.

Read next: All Fires on the Bonhomme Richard Are Now Out, Navy Says

Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Massachusetts, proposed the measure on behalf of colleagues, calling for former service members to receive the proposed "Atomic Veterans Service Medal."

Veterans who served between 1945 and 1992 and were exposed to radiation became eligible to receive a service certificate under the fiscal 2019 John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act.

But Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Massachusetts, and Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minnesota, who have worked for five years to include the measure in the defense bill, say a piece of paper is not enough.

"It is vital to note the unique nature of this group of Atomic Veterans and the urgent need to recognize their service," McGovern and Emmer wrote in a letter to other members of Congress, urging them to support the measure earlier this year. "Tragically, upwards of 80% of American atomic veterans have already passed away, never having received this recognition. Time is running out."

Keith Kiefer is president of the National Association of Atomic Veterans. While he would not be eligible for the service medal since the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs do not recognize his exposure -- which occurred in 1978, cleaning up the contaminated Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands -- he said it's important to the 5,000 members of his group and the families of thousands who have died from exposure-related cancers and other diseases.

"It's become a very personal thing for the family members, a recognition that their loved ones' premature deaths were not in vain and have been recognized," Kiefer said.

The estimated number of U.S. troops subjected to atomic tests is at least 225,000, according to Emmer and McGovern. They often were placed close to detonation sites in New Mexico, Nevada and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans with no protective clothing or gear, exposed to ionizing radiation in the wake of a blast.

Former service members also were tasked with cleaning up contaminated sites, often without proper protection such as masks, hazmat suits and respirators.

"My first job was to drain a crater" left by an atomic blast in Enewetak Atoll," retired Army Sgt. Bob Celestial told Military.com. "I was waist deep in the muck. Afterward, they told me, 'Just jump in the lagoon -- that's your decontamination.' We were young soldiers. We didn't know what we were doing."

Until 1996, when the Repeal of Nuclear Radiation and Secrecy Agreements Law was passed, atomic veterans were not allowed to disclose their participation in the U.S. secret nuclear testing and development programs -- not even to doctors who have treated their cancer, autoimmune disorders and organ failure.

They also continue to fight for recognition with the VA. Although the department lists 21 types of cancer as presumed to be related to exposure to ionizing radiation, some veterans don't qualify because, like Kiefer and Celestial, the Defense Department has said the levels of exposure were minimal, or their service records don't show they were present during a blast.

"I was exposed to a 74-kiloton hydrogen bomb in 1957. I was 1.5 miles away with no protective gear. I now have cancer, and the VA has turned me down twice," said Jim Despard, who was released from the hospital Wednesday following treatment for his cancer.

"They continue to deny that we were exposed to high levels of radiation, but if the dome is still contaminated, we were the ones that built that dome," Celestial said.

He was referring to what is called the Runit Dome on the small island of Runit in the Marshall Islands. It contains 111,000 cubic yards of radioactive debris and was built and filled with dirt and debris from other locations in the atoll by more than 4,000 veterans.

Only 300 are left.

"We deserve more than a medal," Celestial said.

Veterans with one of the named conditions presumed to be related to exposure to ionizing radiation are eligible for disability compensation and VA health care. All others can apply on a case-by-case basis, which are decided based on a VA estimate of dosage, an assessment of the likelihood of exposure and medical evidence.

They also may be eligible for compensation through the Justice Department's Radiation Exposure Compensation Program.

But fewer than 2,000 veterans receive disability compensation for radiation exposure from the VA.

The nuclear age began at 5:29 a.m. on July 16, 1945, when scientists with the Manhattan Project and the U.S. Army detonated an atomic weapon containing 13 pounds of plutonium at the Trinity test site on the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range, now part of White Sands Missile Range, near Socorro, New Mexico.

Three weeks later, the U.S. dropped a uranium-fueled device on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, and three days after that, a weapon similar to the Trinity bomb on Nagasaki.

The U.S. conducted more than 1,000 nuclear tests afterward, until Sept. 23, 1992, when the last detonation took place at an underground test at the Nevada National Security Site, roughly 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

To mark the occasion of the Trinity blast, President Donald Trump issued a message Thursday calling the event a "remarkable feat of engineering and scientific ingenuity" that launched an "unprecedented era of global stability, scientific innovation and economic prosperity."

He said he plans to revitalize and update the country's nuclear capabilities to preserve them and is investing in producing plutonium pits to support the stockpile.

"Our nuclear weapons continue to underwrite American national security and are the backstop of our national defense," Trump said. "Having robust and diverse capabilities constrains global nuclear proliferation, deters adversaries, and assures allies and partners that rely upon American nuclear deterrence as a key component of their security."

Kiefer said his organization has been working since 1992 to get the Trinity test anniversary date officially designated as National Atomic Veterans Day.

President Ronald Reagan in 1983 issued a proclamation honoring atomic veterans on that day, but the designation was not written in perpetuity.

"We'll continue to push for recognition on this day, for designation of highways and memorials honoring our members and for compensation," Kiefer said.

Bills currently in Congress that pertain to atomic veterans also include a bill sponsored by Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minnesota, that would designate the Enewetak Atoll cleanup crews officially as "atomic veterans," eligible for VA health care and disability compensation.

The creation and distribution of the Atomic Veterans Service Medal has been estimated to cost $4 million.

-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Monster.com. Follower on Twitter @patriciakime.

Related: 75 Years Ago Today, the Trinity A-Bomb Test Ushered in the Era of Nuclear Warfare
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San Francisco, 16 July 2020: The Report 3D Printing Ceramics Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report, By End-Use (Medical, Aerospace, Industrial Machinery), By Region, Vendor Landscape, And Segment Forecasts, 2019 - 2025

The global 3D printing ceramics market size is expected to reach USD 159.5 million by 2025, accelerating at a CAGR of 34% over the forecast period, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Advancements in printing technology and increased investments are among drivers triggering the market growth.

Metal and plastic 3D printing companies have started focusing on products made of ceramics in the recent years. The market is projected to grow at a rapid pace over the forecast period. Growing need for strong, tough, and temperature resistant components and parts in different end-use industries is the key driver triggering the growth of 3D printing ceramics industry.

Different printers that use materials such as porcelain, ceramics, alumina, and clay using various technologies are available in the market. Liquid deposition modeling (LDP) technology is anticipated to create opportunities in the design and architecture fields. Digital light processing (DLP) and stereolithography (SLA) technologies can be used to produce precise and complex parts for implants application in the medical field.

3D printing ceramics industry is still in the growing phase and faces some challenges. Lack of trained professionals & engineers and education programs for engineers related to the field of 3D printing are among major challenges in the sector. However, the adoption of 3D printing by major manufacturers, providers, and end users of products made of ceramics is projected to promote the technology.

Multinational companies and numerous startups are focusing on reduced execution time and enhanced operational efficiency in different end-user industries. Japan-based Canon Inc. developed a new 3D printing technology for ceramics in 2018. The technology can be used in various applications that require corrosion & heat resistance and insulation properties. The company also developed new ceramic materials to produce highly accurate parts.

Aerospace and medical industries are the key contributors to the growth of the market. As per a report by Airbus, the expanding middle-class population is projected to boost the number of flyers around the world, which, in turn, is anticipated to trigger the production of commercial aircraft and indirectly contribute to the demand for finished components or parts. Moreover, growing adult population and rising healthcare investments are likely to promote the use of 3D printed finished products made of ceramics. Growth of medical and aerospace industries in North America is among key factors influencing the demand for 3D printing. Government funding for healthcare sector in Asia Pacific is projected to assist the market growth. The region is projected to witness the highest CAGR over the forecast period.

Access Research Report of 3D Printing Ceramics Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/3d-printing-ceramics-market

Further key findings from the report suggest:

In terms of revenue, aerospace end-use segment is anticipated to reach USD 26.1 million by 2025 owing to increasing number of flyers globally

In terms of volume, medical end-use segment is projected to ascend at a CAGR of 35.4% over the forecast period owing to increasing adult population and growing healthcare investments, which is one of the key factors likely to trigger the demand for 3D printing of ceramics

Industrial machinery segment accounted for 8.7% volume share in the 3D printing ceramics market in 2018 owing to industrial output supported by increased demand for machinery

North America accounted for the highest volume share of 45.2% in 2018

Tethon3D, 3D CERAM, Lithoz, Steinbach AG, PRODWAYS, and Desamanera S.r.l. are some of the key players in the market.

Browse more reports of this category by Grand View Research at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry/automotive-and-aerospace-interior-materials

Grand View Research has segmented the global 3D printing ceramics market on the basis of end-use and region:

3D Printing Ceramics End-use Outlook (Volume, Kilograms; Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

Aerospace

Medical

Industrial Machinery

Others

3D Printing Ceramics Regional Outlook (Volume, Kilograms; Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Central and South America

MEA

Access Press Release of 3D Printing Ceramics Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-3d-printing-ceramics-market

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.

For More Information:www.grandviewresearch.com
Juvenile Arrested in North Adams Shooting

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  Police have arrested a juvenile in connection with the Tuesday night's shooting on River Street.

According to a statement from Mayor Thomas Bernard, the arrest was made on Wednesday and the suspect is being held in a correctional facility in Worcester.

Police Chief Jason Wood, in a statement, said the warrant for the 15-year-old was successfully executed in North Adams in the late afternoon without incident and the suspect was transported to Worcester. The arraignment is in Central Berkshire Juvenile Court on Thursday and the juvenile is facing two charges: assault with intent to murder and assault and battery on a person over 60 years old with serious bodily injury Because the suspect is a juvenile no further information is being released at this time. Wood said the investigation is still active and specific details need to be withheld as not to compromise the case.

The shooting victim, a 62-year old man, continues to receive treatment at Albany (N.Y.) Medical Center for his injury. Wood said his condition "is reported to have improved substantially."

"I would like to thank the North Adams Police Detective Unit, North Adams Police Patrol Division, as well as the Massachusetts State Police detectives assigned to the district attorney's office for the hard work and dedication put into this case," the chief said.

Police say the man, who has not yet been formally identified, was walking along River Street shortly after 7 p.m. on Tuesday night when he was struck in the neck. He staggered across the street and fell on the lawn at 71 River.

Officer Stephanie Mirante was able put pressure on the wound until North Adams Ambulance personnel arrived.

"I want to commend the North Adams Police Department and the Massachusetts State Police and detective assigned to the Berkshire District Attorney's office for their thorough and professional response to this shooting," said Bernard. "The police officers and detectives involved in the investigation responded quickly to understand the details of the case, to ensure there was no further risk to public safety related to the shooting incident, and to pursue evidence and leads resulting in the apprehension of a suspect."

The mayor said the investigation is ongoing.

"Finally, I want to commend the work of North Adams Police Officer Stephanie Mirante who provided lifesaving treatment to the victim at the crime scene," he said.
Experts say France is playing catch-up with the UK and the US in forging strong links between the intelligence community and academia (stock photo)

A French university has created the country's first chair in "intelligence" and a master's degree in espionage.

The political sciences university of Aix-en-Provence will start with an intelligence certificate in September followed by its first master's degree next year. The course will be run by General Serge Cholley, who commanded France's operation against Isil.

"We want to make intelligence a subject that is no longer restricted [to spying] but academic," said Rostane Mehdi, head of Aix's institute of political studies. "We're putting in place a programme that is unprecedented in France and which meets a strong institutional demand."

Experts say France is playing catch-up with the UK and the US in forging strong links between the intelligence community and academia.

In 2018, the heads of France's six main intelligence agencies issued a plea for engineers, IT specialists, linguists and analysts to join their ranks.

In May, the technical director of the DGSE, France's directorate-general for external security, said that it was seeking to recruit "geeks" rather than budding James Bonds to adapt to the post-Covid world.

Too many young people "have the special forces in their heads", the agency's technical director Patrick Pailloux said. "They think 'I am not Rambo, I am a geek'. It does not occur to them to enter the DGSE. If you are supercharged in science, then you can also serve your country."

 Daily Telegraph, London

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]
This 2019 photo provided by the Washtenaw County Health Department in Michigan shows a petri dish used to identify mosquito species likely to carry disease. In 2020, mosquito samples aren't being collected by the county because the health department didn't have the staff or ability to hire and train summer interns who would typically perform the work. (Washtenaw County Health Department via AP)

Bug spray, swollen welts, citronella. It's mosquito season.

And in a normal year, the health department serving Ohio's Delaware County would be setting out more than 90 mosquito traps a weekblack tubs of stagnant water with nets designed to ensnare the little buggers.

But this year, because of COVID-19, the mosquitoes will fly free.

The coronavirus has pulled the staffers away, so they haven't set a single trap yet this year, according to Dustin Kent, the program manager of the residential services unit. Even if they had the time, the state lab that normally would test the insects for viruses that infect humans isn't able to take the samples because it also is too busy with COVID-19.

That means the surrounding community, just north of Columbus, Ohio, has to wait until potentially deadly mosquito-borne illnesses such as West Nile sicken humans to find out if the insects are carrying disease.

"It's frustrating knowing that we can do a more preventative approach," Kent said. "But we're stuck reacting."

In Washtenaw County, Michigan, mosquito samples aren't being collected because the health department didn't have the staff or ability to hire and train the summer interns who would typically perform the work. In COVID-19 hot spot Houston, Texas, a third of mosquito control staffers are working a COVID call center, stocking warehouses and preparing coronavirus testing materials. And across Florida, public health officials couldn't test chicken blood for exposure to mosquito-borne viruseschickens get bitten by the insects, too, so they can serve as warning signsat the overwhelmed state lab until mid-June, a task that normally begins in the spring.

Monitoring and killing mosquitoes is a key public health task used to curb the spread of deadly disease. In recent years, top mosquito-borne illnesses have killed some 200 people annually in the U.S. But those low numbers are due in part to the efforts of public health departments to keep the spread at bay, unlike in other countries where hundreds of thousands are sickened and die each year.

In this Aug. 26, 2019 file photo, Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District biologist Nadja Reissen examines a mosquito in Salt Lake City. "Mosquitoes are the biggest nuisance and pest on this planet. Hands down," says Ary Faraji, the president of the American Mosquito Control Association. "They are responsible for more deaths than any other organism on this planet, including humans." (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

"Mosquitoes are the biggest nuisance and pest on this planet. Hands down," said Ary Faraji, the president of the American Mosquito Control Association, a nonprofit that supports public agencies dedicated to mosquito control. "They are responsible for more deaths than any other organism on this planet, including humans."

This is a physical job that can't be done by telecommuting from home. Keeping track of mosquitoes and the diseases they carry requires setting up traps, and searching backyards and commercial lots. Public health workers patrol irrigation ditches, and overturn the backyard tires, plastic bins and garbage that can hold standing water where mosquitoes breed.

Around the U.S., more than half of public health departments combat mosquitoes. In some states, including Florida and California, specific departments are dedicated to tracking and preventing their spread. The goal is to find infected mosquito populations and kill them before they get to humans, or at least warn the community about their presence as mosquito-borne epidemics are joint investigation published this month by KHN and The Associated Press detailed how state and local public health departments across the U.S. have been starved for decades, leaving them underfunded and without adequate resources to confront the coronavirus pandemic, let alone the other work like mosquito control they are tasked to handle at the same time. Over 38,000 public health worker jobs have been lost since 2008. Per capita spending on local health departments has been cut by 18% since 2010.

So as public health workers scramble to summon enough of a workforce to address a once-in-a-generation pandemic, they're being pulled from normal mosquito-related tasks. The short staffing is leaving many localitiesespecially those without separate, dedicated control districtsflying blind on potential mosquito threats.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stepped in to help and is now running mosquito testing for at least nine states, including Florida, Arizona and the Carolinas, said Roxanne Connelly, entomology and ecology team leader for the CDC's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, as well as evaluating human blood samples for mosquito-borne disease for 40 states. Concerned about the disruptions, the CDC issued a policy brief with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday, stressing that mosquito prevention and spraying of insecticides was an essential service that needs to continue even in a national health emergency.

"Mosquitoes are still going to be around, and still causing diseases, no matter what sort of pandemic is going on," Connelly said.

Even with limited testing to measure the problem and relatively low rates of disease so far this year, there are worrying signs. Fourteen people in the Florida Keys have come down with locally acquired dengue, which can cause fever, severe body aches and vomiting. Massachusetts has found its first mosquito carrying Eastern Equine Encephalitis, which kills approximately a third of people infected, according to the CDC. West Nile Virus has been found in mosquitoes, birds or other species in at least 18 states and has infected people in nine.

"This year it's more of a wild card, we're not getting the surveillance we'd normally get," said David Brown, the technical adviser for the American Mosquito Control Association.

In this Thursday, May 14, 2020 file photo, Mya Wiles and Nolan Fernandez, biologists with Berkshire Mosquito Control, explore the outlet of the Stockbridge Bowl looking for mosquito larvae in an effort to survey mosquito populations during the coronavirus pandemic in Stockbridge, Mass. Larvae can be controlled without pesticides using bacteria that specifically inhibit the larvae of mosquitoes. (Ben Garver/The Berkshire Eagle via AP)

The flu-like symptoms of diseases like West Nilefever, body acheespecially worry Nina Dacko, who supervises the mosquito control program for Tarrant County Public Health in Fort Worth, Texas.

"I wonder which cases are going to be missed as everyone is going to expect COVID and then move on when they test negative," she said.

Budget cuts are coming in waves as tax shortfalls rock local health departments. Three municipalities in Texas, including Watauga, Saginaw and Lake Worth, haven't sent any mosquitoes in for testing this yearthey don't have the time, or have lost staffing and money due to revenue shortfalls from COVID-19, Dacko said.

Smaller health departments and control programs appear to be bearing the brunt of the problems, North Carolina state public health entomologist Michael Doyle said in an email, as they have less staff to fight coronavirus. Some larger departments and programslike those covering Houston, California's Central Valley or Maricopa County, Arizonasay they've been able to operate close to normal.

And while public health officials say small outdoor gatherings are safest when it comes to avoiding exposure to the coronavirus, some worry that the risk of acquiring mosquito-borne diseases could rise.

"Everyone knows if you're outdoors, that's where you're actually going to get exposed," said Chelsea Gridley-Smith, the director of environmental health for the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

Lab crunches may be increasing that risk. Local governments often rely on the same public health labs to test whether mosquitoes are carrying diseases like West Nile, dengue or Eastern Equine Encephalitis that they do to test humans for infectious diseases, like COVID-19. As a result, much of the country is weeks behind where they would normally be in testing mosquitoes for the presence of dangerous diseases, Brown said.

Stopping mosquitoes requires getting information in real time. If a mosquito is carrying West Nile Virus, "you want to know that today, not two weeks from now," Brown said.

In this Aug. 26, 2019 file photo, Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District biologist Nadja Reissen examines mosquitos in Salt Lake City. In July 2020, Utah has done about 5% of the mosquito testing it would normally do at this point, says Ary Faraji, the president of the American Mosquito Control Association. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

When the COVID pandemic hit Salt Lake City, which has its own labs to test mosquitoes, the mosquito department shared its materials with the labs testing for COVID-19 and donated N95 masks that its staff uses when spraying mosquito-killing chemicals, according to Faraji, who is also the executive director of the Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District. Utah has done about 5% of the mosquito testing it would normally do at this point, he said.

"Our underlying concern is that one public health emergency doesn't lead into another," Faraji said.

Any grand fix to the hole in the nation's current mosquito netting is going to require some serious cash, Gridley-Smith said, to allow for dedicated staffing, instead of expecting public health workers to juggle it alongside multiple other programs.

The Southern Nevada Health Districtwhich includes Las Vegasdoesn't have a dedicated mosquito department. From April to October, workers there trap, collect and test mosquitoes for viruses, said Vivek Raman, who oversees the efforts. The rest of the year, the same team is in charge of sanitation for all of the area's hotels and mobile home parks, including those on the casino strip. But restaurant inspections, permitting and sanitation help pay their way.

"One of the challenges with mosquitoes is they don't pay permit fees," he said.

Several bills to support mosquito control efforts, including the Strengthening Mosquito Abatement for Safety and Health Act, have passed through Congress with bipartisan support in recent years, but haven't been funded.

For CDC's Connelly, the lack of dollars is just another part of the boom-bust nature of funding for health departments and mosquito control programs nationally. Infusions of cash after bouts with mosquito-borne Zika or hurricanes aren't enough to fully maintain robust programs, she said, and they often have to start over when the next crisis hits.

Raman and his colleagues did have plans this year to work with the CDC on a project to reduce the population of Aedes Aegypti, an invasive mosquito species that can carry a range of deadly viruses, including Zika, and which first showed up in southern Nevada around 2017. That project is on hold until next year.

Explore further Italy study shows mosquitoes cannot transmit coronavirus

 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Lester Kiewit has recently taken over The Midday Report on CapeTalk, which is no longer simulcast with Johannesburg-based sister station 702. While The Midday Report with 702 will be hosted by Mandy Wiener, Lester will speak exclusively to the Cape Town audience.

The Midday Report will be the one hour you cant miss. I will focus on the biggest regional, national, and global news stories sometimes with a twist. I look forward to offering our listeners an hour-long show that delivers a deftly news punch.

Congratulations on your new role as host of The Midday Report. How do you feel about it?

What excites you about CapeTalk and where its going?

What do you love most about your career in radio?

What did it take to get to where you are today?

Two #MiddayReport shows, different cities. Join me in Cape Town @CapeTalk and @mandyw @702. An hour of radio, you don't want to miss pic.twitter.com/EInn9lpaj7  Lester Kiewit (@lesterkk) July 6, 2020

Whats at the top of your to-do list in your new role?

What are you currently reading, watching or listening to for work?

Tell us something about yourself not generally known.

Of his new role, Kiewit commented:We caught up with Kiewit and asked him about the show, what's at the top of his to-do list and what it took to get where he is today.Excited, to say the least. It's a big step from night-time radio. It's a bit of an adjustment, with a faster-paced, news-driven show. But I'm a news and current affairs animal so I'm up for the assignmentLike Cape Town, Cape Talk is ever-evolving. I'm enjoying sharing opinions, viewpoints, and the platform with some talented and thought-provoking presenters, but also with some well-read and knowledgeable content and technical producers. They build the show we present and make us sound good.It's flexible. It allows me to be serious and practise journalism, but also to have fun, make jokes, take the mickey, especially while interacting with listeners who are the people of Cape Town.Luck? Chance? Kismet? Serendipity? Accident? There are things I'd like to do professionally, but I don't sit and plan a path. I work hard at what I'm doing at the moment and ensure that I'm having fun while doing it. If an opportunity presents itself I assess and decide if I want to take advantage of it or not.To bring a midday report that speaks to and for what's important for people in Cape Town and the Western Cape. We'll certainly cover whats important nationally, and globally, but we'll be focussing on what's going on and affecting people locally.I don't read as many daily newspapers as I'd like to, because I curate my social media to provide me with my daily news and analysis. Weekends are reserved for reading the weeklies. Podcast-wise, I listen to the New York Times' The Daily every night before bed. Also, the radio news game show Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. It's news, but fun.I'm a big musicals nerd.Catch Kiewit weekdays at 12pm hosting current affairs show, The Midday Report on CapeTalk. Follow him on Twitter and connect with him on LinkedIn
How technology is helping Indian, Sri Lankan fishermen amid climate change patterns

by Himanshu N

July 16,2020 | Source: DTE

Climate change has brought monumental shifts in weather patterns, fishing zones and migration of fish population to different areas. The phenomenon has impacted the source of livelihood for many in coastal India  pushing them to turn to technological assistance to practice sustainability.



Numer8 Analytics Pvt Ltd, a data science firm, has come to their rescue: The firm analysed changes in the cyclical pattern of potential fishing zones in 2018. It found that nearshore fishing zones had drifted away further into the deeper seas.



It also analysed the coastal vulnerability index for Kerala and Odisha post-2018 Kerala cyclone and Cyclone Fani in 2019. Following this, it developed an app, OFish, which provides fishermen with weather updates, helps them identify fishing zones and ensure that government guidelines on fishing are practiced.



The technology helps fishermen on the sea as well as on the coast.



About 170 million people in India are at the forefront of climate change and experience sea-level rise, tropical cyclones and storms, according to a United Nations report. The latest cases being of the Cyclone Amphan in Bay of Bengal and Cyclone Nisraga in the Arabian Sea, said Devleena Bhattacharjee, founder of the data science firm.



Think of it like a Google Map for fishing. A fisherman opens the app before he goes out to fish and the platform shows him fishing zones near his chosen port, said Nandhini Karthikeyan, chief technical officer, Numer8.



The high-precision marine and ocean data helps them to venture in safer areas of the sea.



Every trip made by fisherman and its details can be recorded in the app, allowing traceability to the end customers. Once the fishermen reach the shore, the aggregator helps him sell fish directly to buyers, earn a higher sales margin and realise faster payments, said Karthikeyan.



The firm enables marine and port authorities in India and Sri Lanka to monitor overfishing and unregulated fishing in the Indian coasts. It is currently working with fishermen in Maharashtra and Kerala in India.



The firm build their work on the 11 climate factors identified by the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF), said Karthikeyan.



These were:



-- Sea level

-- Sea surface temperature

-- Sea surface salinity

-- Wind patterns

-- Seasonality and seasonal patterns

-- Rainfall

-- Natural disasters

-- Waves and currents

-- Tidal action

-- Mud flows and turbidity

-- Shoreline changes



The above elements  combined with pollution, increase in number of fishing boats, unregulated means of fishing and a highly unorganised fishing sector  has led to a decline in fisheries through the years, Karthikeyan said.

 Down To Earth 2020

Theme(s): Others.
Shocking footage has captured the moment two men round on a black teenager on a bus before threatening to 'knock him out.'

Trey Robinson videoed two men as they told him to get off a bus in Lewisham, south London after a confrontation on the top deck yesterday.

The 17-year-old sixth form student claims the pair were 'staring' at him before he asked them 'if there was a racial issue.'

He then filmed as one told him to 'get off the f*****g bus,' adding, 'If you're pulling the race card you might as well be a black c*** then.'

Mr Robinson claims he then left the bus and was followed by the two men.

Trey Robinson claims he was on his way to a friend's house to get his haircut when the incident took place

The incident happened on the number 89 bus towards Lewisham station.

As the video begins, the two men can be heard repeatedly saying: 'Get off the bus', as Mr Robinson says: 'Why are you staring at me, is there a racial issue?'

One man shouts back: 'It's not about racist (sic) bruv. Get off the f****** bus.'

As the teenager alights, he is pursued by one of the men in a black tracksuit.

He asks: 'What are you doing? Why are you racially profiling me?'

The man yells back: 'If you're pulling the race card you might as well be a black c*** then.'

When asked why he is confronting the teenager, the man in the tracksuit claims Mr Robinson was 'giving it to his brother'.

As the clip ends, Mr Robinson is followed off the bus by one of the yobs who tells him he has '30 seconds to leave.'

Mr Robinson said: 'I believe I was racially abused.

'I was on the bus and being continuously stared at by an older white male, this was done around about five times within a 15-minute journey.

'As I went to get off of the bus, he carried on staring at me so I then asked, 'why are you still staring at me is there a problem?'

'In the moment of the recording stopping he saw my phone in my right hand, and said something along the lines of, 'you better stop recording me, yeah'.'
The multi-year contract will have digital agency, DigiDrub, transform and sustain Nolij's digital presence.

VIENNA, VA / ACCESSWIRE / July 15, 2020 / Nolij Consulting, (www.nolijconsulting.com) a progressive technology services provider, and a defense contractor which supports the well-being of U.S. military service members, veterans, and their families through the Department of Defense (DoD), signed a strategic multi-year agreement with global digital agency, DigiDrub, www.digidrub.com.

Nolij works with clinicians, doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals to deliver positive outcomes through safe and secure technology (electronic health records (EHR) modernization, and artificial intelligence (AI) platforms). Nolij also hires veterans who bring their intimate understanding of federal healthcare to projects that improve services for beneficiaries and their families.

"We are on an active path to transform our presence in the web and digital space; our newly imagined digital platform will carry our voice to the federal, public and private sector companies," said Ashley Mehta, President and CEO of Nolij Consulting based in Vienna, Virginia.

"Our partner, DigiDrub, will help us build digital assets, and accelerate our our branding and market making efforts," she added.

"Nolij's work has been progressive in EHR and AI technologies, we are delighted to partner with Nolij, and have the opportunity to support their growth ambitions," said Aninda Bose, Managing Partner of DigiDrub.

"We will be using our proprietary AI and machine learning platforms to bring actionable insights in branding," said Subhadeep Datta, Director of Digital Marketing, DigiDrub.

About Nolij Consulting

Nolij Consulting LLC (www.nolijconsulting.com) provides information technology services in test and evaluation (T&E), enterprise architecture (EA), EHR modernization, infrastructure operations and maintenance (O&M), data analytics and visualization, and agile transformation.

Story continues

At Nolij, health IT is what we do. Improving the health of Americans, particularly military service members and their families, is why we do it. From software and system testing to EHR modernization to enterprise solutions, we deliver mission-critical support so our customers can access the care they need, when they need it. Even in times of uncertainty - at home where we face the challenges of pandemic and across the globe where our servicemen and servicewomen sacrifice so much for our country - Nolij ensures program success.

Our mission is to understand the challenges and goals of our clients, address them with innovative solutions, and collaborate to achieve project success.

Nolij Consulting is a certified Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB).

About DigiDrub

DigiDrub (www.digidrub.com) is an award-winning global digital agency which re-imagines the digital space for its clients; the agency is an active user of several Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) platforms.

DigiDrub focuses on website design and development, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO); digital content creation, social media management, and enterprise-grade custom VR/AR.

DigiDrub's diverse client base have consistently received top honors in various independent media and analyst reports.

Nolij PR Contact



Dominic Lucas

Dominic.Lucas@NolijConsulting.com

Phone: 571.565.3610



DigiDrub PR Contact



Meghla Banerjee

Meghla.Banerjee@DigiDrub.com

Phone: +919674440899/+17329158530



SOURCE: DigiDrub





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/597682/Nolij-Consulting-signs-Strategic-Agreement-with-DigiDrub




Newly-arrived pupils who speak English as an additional language (EAL) often make 'mixed' linguistic and academic progress during their first years in British schools, which need a proper framework to give them sustained support, a study suggests.

The finding is one of numerous results and recommendations in a new book about the language development of EAL pupils, and its impact on their attainment and social integration. The book, authored by a team of academics from Cambridge, Anglia Ruskin and Durham Universities, examines the complex relationship between language, education and the social integration of newcomer migrant EAL students.

According to the School Census, there are currently over 1.5 million EAL pupils in England, and the proportion is steadily rising. The trend is similar in many other English-speaking countries.

The book builds on three years of research involving over 40 schools across the East of England, funded by the Bell Foundation, and highlights much good practice by teachers working in multilingual classrooms. But it also points to inconsistencies and gaps in support for EAL pupils, stemming from an absence of national guidelines, targeted assessment, and systemic problems in areas such as teacher training and school-parent communication.

EAL pupils themselves were found to make uneven progress during their first two years in English schools. While many became competent English-speakers, their written English frequently lagged behind. The authors suggest this pattern may be further exacerbated by reductions in funding for EAL support.

As well as analysing the progress of EAL pupils, the study proposes a model for a more inclusive approach to teaching EAL students.

Dr Karen Forbes, Lecturer at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, said: "At the moment, it is often left to individual teachers or schools to decide how to handle the challenges of a multilingual classroom. While many do excellent work, EAL pupils inevitably have a variable experience. Teachers and schools should be able to draw on a structured framework and a proper knowledge base so that they can give these pupils the sustained linguistic and educational support they often need."

The research suggests that while many schools rightly prioritise the integration of EAL learners into mainstream lessons, some will need ongoing, one-to-one support, especially with developing more academic English, long past the point where they appear socially-integrated and able to hold a casual conversation.

This is just one symptom of a wider need to provide schools with a structural basis to give EAL learners individualised, 'child-centred' support, the authors argue. They stress that the 'EAL' label does not describe one type of pupil, but encompasses a wide range of previous educational experiences, interests and skills.

Encouragingly, many of the schools surveyed actively encouraged an inclusive and positive environment for EAL pupils. Teachers also employed various tactics that could form part of a wider framework to support them, such as group learning and buddy systems, translated texts and different visual aids.

But the study finds that many such interventions are devised locally, by schools or individual teachers, absent more structured or systematic guidance. This can lead to inconsistencies: for example, teachers varied their approach to when EAL pupils could use their home language, which often left students confused about when to use English.

The researchers argue that other mechanisms are needed to give teachers a more solid foundation for working with EAL pupils. Teachers consistently enthused, for example, about the 'vital' support provided by dedicated EAL co-ordinators and bilingual support staff. But many schools that the researchers surveyed have struggled to sustain such services given that funding is no longer ring-fenced for this purpose.

The book also highlights the need for more EAL-specific, specialist training for teachers, both for their professional practice and to help them work successfully with local minority-ethnic and migrant communities, especially those unfamiliar with the English system of education. This is only covered briefly in most teacher-training courses, and rarely forms part of their continuing professional development or 'on the job' learning.

Critically, the researchers also suggest that parents of EAL pupils and their communities are an untapped resource of knowledge, strong educational values and expertise.

The researchers found that many parents of EAL children have a high level of interest in their children's education, but often are not sufficiently supported to understand context-specific curriculum choices, modes of assessment or school expectations. They argue that, as well as providing translated information and induction materials, schools should establish mechanisms such as EAL parents' networks, empowering parents within school governance structures to inform the way that they support migrant pupils, ensure that they achieve their potential, and promote positive experiences in school.

"Overall, there is a need for a more systematic, whole-school approach to the education of EAL pupils," Michael Evans, Emeritus Reader in Second Language Education at the University of Cambridge, said. "This includes supporting teachers to develop their skills, providing them with a knowledge base on which to draw, and developing an effective communication system to promote parental engagement in schools. If that can be achieved, the benefits will be felt far beyond schools and EAL pupils alone."

###

Language Development and Social Integration of Students with English as an Additional Language is published by Cambridge University Press on 16 July.
Luohu should further develop its port economic belt and "golden triangle" business zone over the next five years, according to Shenzhen's commerce development plan for the 14th Five-Year period (2021-25), published recently by the city's bureau of commerce to solicit public opinion.





According to the plan, Luohu should build an innovative consumption demonstration zone near its ports and improve the port zone's functions in promoting the development of cultural trade, services, tourism and e-commerce.





The consumption zone should have the Luohu Port-Shenzhen Railway Station as its center, where the service functions of business facilities should be further developed. The plan also states that smart retail spaces, cross-border e-commerce plus overseas warehouse retail models, customization outlets, chain stores and trade enterprise headquarters should be further developed to improve the zone's influence.





The Luohu "golden triangle" business zone has the Buji River as its axis, featuring greenways and pedestrian streets. The plan says it is expected to link many of the district's shopping zones.





Luohu is also urged to expedite its urban renovation projects in Caiwuwei to build a host of business landmark complexes, as well as to advance the upgrading projects in the Dongmen business zone and develop a pedestrian street combing local culture and modern fashion.





The plan also says that the Luohu Port and Shenzhen Railway Station's transportation hub upgrades must be accelerated.




As Chris Christie faced reporters on Jan. 9, 2014, the then-New Jersey governor, known for his pugnacious demeanor, was unusually contrite. For nearly two hours, Christie tried to distance himself from the fallout of "Bridgegate," the scandal that erupted over private emails and text messages revealing that a massive traffic jam had been orchestrated as part of a political revenge plot.

"I am embarrassed and humiliated by the conduct of some of the people on my team," the Republican governor said.

Christie singled out one top aide: Bill Stepien. During the news conference, Christie announced that he was cutting ties with Stepien, citing concerns over a "lack of judgment" shown in comments the longtime GOP operative had made about the September 2013 lane closures on the George Washington Bridge and the plot's intended target, the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, N.J.

"I was disturbed by the tone and behavior and attitude of callous indifference that was displayed in the emails by my former campaign manager, Bill Stepien," said Christie, who noted that he had taken immediate action to reduce Stepien's influence in state politics. "And reading that, it made me lose my confidence in Bill's judgment. And you cannot have someone at the top of your political operation who you do not have confidence in."

But Stepien's political career was far from over. Even though his name was reportedly mentioned almost 700 times during the Bridgegate trial, he was never criminally charged in the scandal and has denied allegations from others involved that was aware of the plot. Instead, Stepien, described by the Record as "a world-class political operative," has steadily climbed the ranks in President Donald Trump's orbit - taking another leap Wednesday when Trump announced that he will head the president's reelection effort, replacing former campaign manager Brad Parscale.

"I am pleased to announce that Bill Stepien has been promoted to the role of Trump Campaign Manager," Trump tweeted Wednesday night.

The shake-up, which leaves Parscale in a senior adviser role focusing on digital and data strategies, comes in the aftermath of a poorly attended rally in Tulsa last month and as recent polls show Trump trailing former vice president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee. Before Wednesday, Stepien, who served as White House political director, had been deputy campaign manager under Parscale.

When reached for comment about Stepien, the Trump campaign referred to the president's social media posts announcing the change.

Stepien became involved in New Jersey politics before he graduated from Rutgers University in 2000, starting as a volunteer for Republican Anthony Bucco's successful 1997 state Senate campaign, the Record reported. According to the newspaper, Stepien rose quickly, earning praise from Republicans for his effectiveness in campaigns, despite being "abrasive, imperious and quick to act against party members he considered wayward."

Over the years, Stepien has worked on campaigns for a host of prominent Republicans. He was New Hampshire political director for President George W. Bush's 2004 reelection bid. Several years later, he was part of former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani's presidential campaign before becoming national field director for the GOP nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain, in 2008.

"He came into our campaign in the summer of 2008 when we were at a low point and in a matter of weeks helped turn it around," Steve Schmidt, who directed McCain's presidential campaign, told the Record in 2014. "He knows his craft. He has common sense, and he gets things done."

In 2009, Stepien was tapped by Christie to run his bid for governor. The successful campaign signaled the beginning of a close relationship between the two men, with Stepien becoming Christie's deputy chief of staff. As Politico reported in 2017, Stepien's role had him "involved in the most minute details, from which senators and representatives to call in what order, to whipping votes, to the exact wording of a letter going to an advocacy group."

"Unlike many in the governor's orbit, Stepien had Christie's trust," according to Politico.

Then, in August 2013, as Stepien was busy handling Christie's reelection campaign, Bridget Kelly, who at the time was a member of the governor's senior staff, fired off a short email that would change everything: "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," she wrote.

Kelly's email was sent to David Wildstein, one of two Christie appointees at the Port Authority, who replied minutes later, "Got it."

The messages, which were first made public by NorthJersey.com and the Record in January 2014, would play a critical role in exposing the revenge plot targeting Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, D. The scheme involved closing two of three access lanes from Fort Lee to the George Washington Bridge, the nation's busiest, to create a bottleneck in the city as an alleged attempt to punish Sokolich for not endorsing Christie's reelection. Beginning on Sept. 9, 2013, the lane closures sparked a days-long traffic jam, causing headaches for police and emergency vehicles and leaving commuters trapped in their cars for hours.

One day after the emails became public in 2014, Christie announced that in addition to severing ties with his longtime aide, he had also fired Kelly, who was later revealed to have been in a relationship with Stepien. While Christie did not directly accuse Stepien of being involved in the scandal, he voiced harsh disapproval for the contents of the emails between his former top aide and Wildstein. In one message exchange dated Sept. 18, 2013, for instance, Wildstein sent Stepien a Wall Street Journal article that raised questions about the traffic jam.

"It's fine," Stepien responded, before calling Sokolich an "idiot."

Christie told reporters at the January 2014 news conference that he had instructed Stepien to not run for state party chairman and told him to end his contract with the Republican Governors Association, which was headed by Christie at the time.

"If I cannot trust someone's judgment, I cannot ask others to do so, and I would not place him at the head of my political operation because of the lack of judgment that was shown in the emails that were revealed yesterday," Christie said.

Still, Stepien emerged from the fallout of Bridgegate, which included a lengthy criminal trial, largely unscathed. He was not charged even though Wildstein, who plead guilty to masterminding the plot, testified that Stepien knew of the lane closures ahead of time. Prosecutors also suggested that Stepien had played a part in creating a culture in Christie's office that led to the incident, NJ.com reported.

Stepien's attorney Kevin Marino has denied the allegations.

"Bill Stepien was not involved in the origination, the planning, the execution, the concealment of the lane closures," Marino said in a 2014 statement. "And Mr. Stepien never lied to anyone about anything."

Following his ouster from Christie's team, Stepien was noticed by Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and a New Jersey native, Politico reported. Kushner brought Stepien into the 2016 Trump campaign, where he quickly impressed influential figures such as Stephen K. Bannon, according to Politico.

Meanwhile, Christie's approval ratings plummeted and his 2016 presidential campaign fizzled out, and Wildstein, Kelly and former Port Authority deputy executive director William E. Baroni Jr. were all convicted. In May, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overturned Kelly and Baroni's convictions, ruling that the pair had abused their power, but their actions fell short of a federal crime. Last month, a federal judge also vacated the conviction of Wildstein, NJ.com reported.

On Wednesday, Trump appeared confident that Stepien and Parscale in their new roles would help him secure a victory in November.

"Both were heavily involved in our historic 2016 win, and I look forward to having a big and very important second win together," Trump tweeted.
YEREVAN, JULY 16, ARMENPRESS. Armenian defense ministers spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan denies the reports spread by the Azerbaijani defense ministry according to which X-55 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) of the Armenian Armed Forces has been downed.

The Azerbaijani defense ministry is spreading disinformation according to which on July 16 the X-55 UAV belonging to the Armenian Armed Forces has been downed. No UAV of the Armenian Armed Forces has been downed, and the photo attached to the statement has nothing to do with the reality. Thus, the adversary is trying to somehow mitigate its numerous technical and human losses, Stepanyan said on Facebook.

Overnight July 16, at around 03:40, the units of the Armenian Armed Forces have noticed movement of the Azerbaijani side. Switching to all-round defense, the Armenian Armed Forces prevented the sabotage infiltration attempt of the Azerbaijani side. After a hot battle the adversary was pushed back suffering losses. Thereafter, at 05:20, the Azerbaijani forces started shelling Aygepar and Movses villages of Tavush province, firing mortars and D-30 howitzer.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
In a recent editorial, the Hearst Connecticut Media Editorial Board took Republicans to task for speaking out about voting fraud concerns. To summarize, the board accuses Republicans of following the White Houses lead and making absentee ballots a partisan issue for purely political benefit, says Republicans should just shut their collective pie hole because there is no fraud associated with mail-in-voting, and states concerns about voter fraud shouldnt matter because we are in the middle of a deadly pandemic. Basically, the opinion of the board is Republicans should get out of the way.

Absentee ballots have been debated for years with valid points made on both sides of the issue. In fact, many Connecticut Republicans have agreed with the benefits of Connecticuts absentee balloting system cited by the board and have voted to allow absentee ballots for any reason. It shouldnt be that hard to get both sides on board to allow absentee ballots for those who want to avoid exposure to the coronavirus and safely vote from home.
Residents of the Lao capital Vientiane are resisting seizure of their land by a Lao-China joint venture building an expressway, saying they had been promised earlier their land would not be taken, and calling offers of compensation unacceptably low, Lao sources say.



The project, a 13-km roadway connecting That Luang Marsh to Dong Mak Khai village in a suburb of Vientiane, is scheduled for completion in February 2023 and is being built by the Vientiane Expressway No. 1 Sole Company Ltd., a joint venture between a Lao firm and Chinas Norinco Company.



When finished, it will have taken 300 hectares of land from 21 villages in Vientianes Saysettha and Xaythany districts, sources say, with an estimated total of 350 billion kip (U.S. $39 million) paid in compensation to dispossessed landowners, sources say.



Amounts offered to individual property holders are far below market value, though, sources told RFAs Lao Service in July.



The offer is too low, one of 248 landowners now fighting the land grab told RFA, speaking on condition of anonymity.



The offer for my land is only 150,000 kip [U.S. $16.59] per square meter, which is much too low. It should be at least double that amount, but the project developer has rejected that, she said.



We will not accept the compensation, agreed another landowner, also speaking on condition he not be named. The company has only two options: First, it can buy our land at market price, or, second, it can give us new lots of land of the same value and in the same area.



I was told in January that my land would not be encroached on, the same source said, adding, But just last week, the project developer announced that my name was on the list of landowners whose land would be taken.



Landowners whose names appeared on the list have been told by Vientianes Natural Resources and Environment Department that they must accept the compensation offered to them by July 31, and that if they fail to do this, the project developer will deposit compensation directly into their bank accounts and immediately begin construction, sources said.



We have no intention to oppose the governments development projects, but if the project wants to acquire peoples land, the company should abide by the relevant regulations and laws, and it should be considerate and listen to the people.



You know that it is not easy to have a piece of land. We have to save money for a long time to get it, he said.



'This is not acceptable'



Also speaking to RFA, another landowner in the Vientiane suburbs vowed to fight the encroachment on his land, saying that authorities had assured him that a plot of land he was planning to acquire was not on the list of land to be taken by developers.



So I bought it afterward with a large amount of money I took from my longtime savings, he said.



Things will be fine if the company pays me compensation large enough for me to buy another piece of land in the same area, but the company is offering only $10 per square meter, six times less than the market price, and this is not acceptable.



The company told me to go to their office and pick up their compensation, but Im not going to go, another landowner said, adding that he has now signed a document rejecting their offer and is hoping the countrys parliament, the National Assembly, will intervene.



Many landowners have submitted complaints to the parliament about losing land in this area, he said. Im hoping that the Assembly will come down here to look at whats happening.



Shocked, suspicious



Writing on social media, a landowner in the Saysettha district said that he and other property holders in the area had been told in January that their land would not be taken, but early in July, our names suddenly appeared on the list of affected landowners.



Im shocked and suspicious, he said. The government should inspect this project and make sure that its dealings are fair.



Land located 500 to 600 meters away from the route of the proposed expressway is meanwhile also being claimed by the developing company, with a 100-hectare section likely marked out for construction of a housing complex, another landowner said.



So Im going to keep fighting for justice, he said.



Reached for comment, officials at the offices responsible for paying compensation to affected landowners and at the Economic Affairs Office of the Lao National Assembly declined to discuss the issue over the phone.



A key source of local social tension in Laos is the widespread practice of land grabs in which authorities seize land from people for development projects without paying them fair compensation for lost crops, property, and livelihoods.



Rights groups say the illegal appropriations violate basic human rights and that such land grabs are a major cause of social tensions in Laos and in neighboring countries in Southeast Asia.



Reported by RFAs Lao Service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 22:54:49|Editor: huaxia

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RIYADH, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Group 20 (G20) Finance Minister and Central Bank Governors will meet on July 18 to discuss the global economic outlook and coordinate collective action for a robust and sustained global economic recovery, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Thursday.

The virtual meeting will be chaired by Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan and Governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority Ahmed Alkholifey.

After the extraordinary G20 leaders' summit held in March, the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors have been committed to a globally coordinated response encompassing all necessary measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and lay the foundations for a swift recovery.

The G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors have held several meetings to attain consensus on a G20 Action Plan that was endorsed in April in response to COVID-19.

The Action Plan aims also to strengthen international financial assistance to countries in need, especially the poorest countries. Enditem
Srinagar, July 17 : The Jammu and Kashmir Police have arrested a miscreant for misusing social media by posting a threatening video against a businessman, the police said in a statement on Thursday.

The police said that a case against various fake social media account handlers has been registered for anti-national activities.

According to details, the police in Sopore in north Kashmir received a complaint from a reputed businessman from Bemina Srinagar stating that a social media user, Abu Huzaife (claiming to be from Gujranwala, Pakistan), had uploaded a threatening video against him for his association with a political party on his Facebook account.

"On receipt of the complaint, a case under relevant sections of the law was registered and investigation was initiated. During the course of investigation, Sopore Police with the help of Cyber Police have been able to identify the fake social media handler.

"The accused has been identified as Rayees Ahmad Mir alias Danish, a resident of Brath Kalan. He has also been found to be involved in misusing social media platforms by creating fake accounts and posting seditious and provocative posts for anti-national activities, which are highly prejudicial in maintaining law and order," the police said.

The police said that Danish has been arrested and is in custody now.

"Those who create fake accounts on social media to run anti-state propaganda and spread fake information will be identified and dealt under the law," the police said, adding: "The Sopore Police with the help of Cyber Police is in the process of indenting the antecedents of some 200 such accounts which have been propagating anti-state content in order to create law and order problem in the area. Such people shall be summoned shortly." The police have advised the general public not to circulate any anti-national content uploaded by miscreants which has the tendency of creating law and order problem.
More than 100 US diplomats and family members flew to China on Wednesday, according to internal State Department emails, as Washington pressed ahead with its plan to restaff its diplomatic mission amid heightened bilateral tensions.

A chartered commercial aircraft left Dulles airport outside Washington for the South Korean capital, Seoul, where passengers would transfer to another aircraft outfitted for medical operations before flying to the Chinese city of Guangzhou.

The flight, only the second of many required to return more than 1,200 US diplomats with their families, was the first since negotiations hit an impasse two weeks ago over conditions China wanted to impose on the Americans, prompting the State Department to postpone flights tentatively scheduled for the first 10 days of July.

The US is working to fully restaff its mission in China, one of its largest in the world, which was evacuated in February because of Covid-19. A Department email dated Wednesday and viewed by Reuters said more flights were being arranged.

"For those still waiting to return, we are in the process of getting approvals from the Department for subsequent flights to Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Tianjin/Beijing in the coming weeks. Due to PRC regulations, these flights will be limited to a maximum of 120 passengers," it said.

Bilateral relations have deteriorated to their lowest level in decades over issues including China's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, bilateral trade and a new security law for Hong Kong.

Washington and Beijing have been negotiating for weeks over the terms of how to bring U.S. diplomats back and the top issues of disagreement have been testing and quarantine procedures as well the frequency of flights and how many one journey can bring back.

The US state department told Reuters it "continues to work towards the safe and secure return of all our diplomatic personnel to China in a manner consistent with the standards for diplomatic inviolability enshrined in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations."

The State Department internally told its staff it received assurances from Beijing that parents would not be separated from their children if they tested positive.

But disagreements over other issues, such as testing being conducted in Chinese labs, have persisted.

Diplomats say agreeing to be tested contravenes the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The internal email said that on arrival in China, adults and children of all ages should be prepared to be tested for Covid-19.
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Cloudy. Morning high of 36F with temps falling to near 20. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Low 13F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph.
While the 12 signs of the zodiac take their names from the constellations that the Sun appears to pass in the course of a year, a 13th has been put forward for inclusion

Devotees of astrology may have been following the wrong star signs for their whole lives, Nasa has suggested.

While the 12 signs of the zodiac take their names from the constellations that the Sun appears to pass in the course of a year, a 13th has been put forward for inclusion.

Ophiuchus, named after the Ancient Greek word for 'snake bearer', straddles the celestial equator and comes into line for 18 days between November 29 and December 17. In a post on the official Nasa website, which has gained traction this week, it said that Ophiuchus was the 13th constellation which the Sun passes, leading some astrologists to completely redraw the Zodiac calendar.

Horoscope fans fear that they may have been following the wrong guidance all their lives, with Ophiuchans said to be clever, flamboyant but power-hungry.

The realignment has affected other star signs.

Mandy Southgate, from Kent, said: "No way I'm an Aries. Taurus forever. I'm going to ignore Ophiuchus just like I ignored Pluto not being a planet."

"So I am no longer a Sagittarius, I'm now an Ophiuchus. Took me years to learn how to spell Sagittarius, now have to learn how to spell and pronounce Ophiuchus," joked Shaun Connolly, from Scotland.

Sally Kirkman, a self-styled "consultant to the stars" from Blackpool, told 'The Daily Telegraph': "No one is going to have Ophiuchus as their star sign, it means nothing. All the star signs remain as they have since ancient times."

Ophiuchus was originally spotted by the ancient Babylonians, about three millennia ago.

"Even according to the Babylonians' own ancient stories, there were 13 constellations in the zodiac," Nasa said.

"To make a tidy match with their 12-month calendar, the Babylonians ignored the fact that the Sun actually moves through 13 constellations, not 12. So the Babylonians picked one, Ophiuchus, to leave out."

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]
The Karnataka government is facing a two-way battle. On one hand, serious charges of corruption have been levelled by the opposition, and on the other, there are increasing COVID-19 positive cases that have surpassed Gujarat, while assuming the 4th position in the COVID-19 tally across the country. At a time like this, Health Minister Sriramulu, who should be giving assurances to people about the governments commitment towards controlling the pandemic, is instead seen saying, Only God has to save us from coronavirus. Meanwhile, Medical Education Minister Dr.Sudhakar while addressing the media on COVID-19 update, was seen citing stories of Mahabharata and Shiva consuming poison in the press conference.

Read: Karnataka: Cute Bond Between Baby Elephant And Trainer Wins Internet, Watch Video

Talking to media in Chitradurga district of Karnataka, Health Minister Sriramulu was answering the questions of media personnel on allegations made by the opposition on corruption and internal politics of the government. Worldwide, the number of coronavirus cases is increasing. All of us should be alert. Whether you are part of the ruling party or the opposition, the rich or the poor, this virus doesnt discriminate. I am one hundred percent sure that this number will go up in the next two months. One can keep blaming government negligence or irresponsibility of ministers or the lack of coordination among ministers. All of these allegations are far from the truth. Only God can save us from coronavirus, he said.

Adding more meat to the controversy, Medical Education Minister, while addressing the press conference, said, "Its like how Vishakanta worked hard to save the world. He retained the poison in his throat. Demons and Gods came in search of nectar and churned the sea. First came poison. Gods and demons were both surprised. When the Gods prayed to Shiva, the latter consumed the poison."

Read: Karnataka Records 3,176 COVID-19 Cases,87 Deaths

Opposition slams Ministers

The statement of Health Minister and Medical Education Minister has not gone down well with the opposition. The opposition members criticised both the ministers statements and said they don't have the moral right to continue in power if they are not capable of handling the pandemic. They are instead seeking divine intervention.

Talking to Republic Media Network, opposition party leader Siddaramaiah said, "Let him resign and go out. The government cannot say that they are helpless. Then why are you there in power? You have power and you have the money. It is your primary duty. God is there. First, you should try all kinds of remedies and after that, you should go to God."

"I don't demand his resignation but if they say they are helpless then they have no business continuing as a Minister. Morally, he cannot continue," Siddaramaiah added.

KPCC President DK Shivakumar also cashed in on the situation and demanded Governor's rule in the state.

Talking to Republic Media Network, he said, Going by the way they tried to attempt tackling various issues, they couldn't sort out the problems of people of Karnataka, they couldn't protect the people of Karnataka and they couldn't deliver good administration. They say only God can save Karnataka. It is time now to resign. Submit the resignation to the Governor and let Governors rule come in to force. Then we will see how the officials and bureaucrats will maintain this pandemic. I think there is no need, the time has come, all of them have to step out.

The Karnataka government is facing corruption charges, the exodus of city dwellers with increasing COVID-19 positive cases in the IT capital. Frontline workers like Asha workers association are on an indefinite strike demanding a pay hike. These statements from Karnataka ministers during such difficult times add more fuel to the fire making things even more difficult for the BJP government in the state.

Karnatakas 47,253 COVID-19 positive cases have surpassed Gujarat in the tally of positive cases grabbing the 4th place in the country after Maharashtra (2,75,640), Tamil Nadu (1,51,810) and Delhi (1,16,993). Bengaluru has been a major contributor with 22,944 to the list in the state. The government has enforced Lockdown 5.0 for a week in Bengaluru urban and rural from July 14 to 22.

Read: Karnataka Announces Incentives Of Rs 5,000 For Plasma Donors

Read: Only God Can Save Us, Says Karnataka Health Minister On COVID-19 Spread
The interim head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was in Portland meeting with federal law enforcement officials on Thursday, the same day he issued a blistering public statement calling out local political leaders for their refusal to restore order to protect their city.

The message from Acting Secretary Chad Wolf condemned the rampant long-lasting violence in Portland.
Princess Diana endured a lot when she joined the royal family.

The Princess of Wales became an instant public figure when she married the heir to the throne, Prince Charles, in July 1981 at the famous St Paul's Cathedral in London.

She was a royal who exuded grace and poise, qualities that quickly made her a crowd favorite. Not to mention her exceptional beauty and charm that turned heads wherever she went to.

Cameras could not stop filming her every move. She was even named as the "most photographed woman" of her time.

Princess Diana Crowned As The "Most Attractive Royal Ever"

More than two decades since her tragic and untimely death at the age of 36, Princess Diana is recently hailed as the "most attractive royal ever" based on the ancient Greek golden ratio.

Also known as the "golden section" or "golden mean," experts use a mathematical ratio to measure facial perfection and symmetry features.

Based on the Phi and Golden ratio proportions, the head forms a rectangle with the eyes at its midpoint. Meanwhile, the nose and mouth are each placed at golden sections of the distance between the eyes and the bottom of the chin.

With this, Dr. Julian De Silva -- who runs the Centre For Advanced Facial Cosmetic & Plastic Surgery in London -- made a Golden ratio analysis through computerized facial mapping technique on some of the most famous royals. Dr. De Silva concluded that the People's Princess has the highest score of 89.05 percent, making her the most attractive.

"Diana scored highly for her face shape, the width of her nose, her brow area, her forehead and her eyebrows - which all got the top scores," he explained, per Daily Mail. "Her lowest scores were for her chin and lips. Her lips are a little thin and ill-defined and her chin is less classical than some of the other women."

Queen Rania Of Jordan Hailed As The "Most Beautiful Living Royal"

The 49-year-old Queen Rania of Jordan, on the other hand, closely came in second place with a score of 88.9 percent. Dr. De Silva also named her as the "most attractive living royal" based on the Golden ratio.

"Queen Rania is the most beautiful living royal and a stunningly attractive woman. She had the highest marks of all for her classically shaped chin and also scored highly for her lips," the surgeon mentioned. "She was marked down for her nose width and her brow area."

Grace Kelly, Princess Of Monaco

American actress-turned-Princess of Monaco, Grace Kelly got the third spot. However, she was only 0.1 percent away from Queen Rania.

The former Hollywood star, who also died in a car crash at the age of 52, scored 88.8 percent.

"Princess Grace has a timeless beauty and had the highest scores for her eye spacing and her eye position is almost perfect with a score of 99.8 percent. Her stunning lips also scored the highest. She lost marks for her chin which is a little indistinct," Dr. De Silva added.

Meghan Markle And Kate Middleton

Meanwhile, the duchesses from the British royal family bagged the fourth and fifth spots.

The 38-year-old Meghan Markle gained 87.4 percent and stood out due to her "beautiful facial symmetry."

The London-based surgeon noted that the Duchess of Sussex is "'closer than any other princess to having what the Greeks considered the perfect face."

He added that "Meghan has an almost perfectly shaped nose with a 98.5 percent score, her eye position is exactly right and she has a gorgeous V-shaped or heart-shaped chin which is the shape women most covet."

Holding the fifth spot is the royal mom Kate Middleton, who was praised for having a perfect gap between her nose and lips" and has a "very strong eye spacing."

Dr. De Silva explained that the Duchess of Cambridge was "marked down for having a weaker chin and jawline than Diana."

"Nevertheless, she is a striking woman and her scores mark her out as one of the most beautiful women in the world," the surgeon furthered.

READ MORE: Hollywood Cancer: 3 Celebrities Unfairly Victimized By The Cancel Culture
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PLANO, Texas (AP)  JC Penney says it will cut 1,000 jobs as it tries to fight its way out from under bankruptcy protection.

The company last month said it had identified just over 150 stores for closure in the first phase of a restructuring in which it will become a smaller operator.





. . .
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 09:54:43|Editor: huaxia

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by Xinhua writers Wu Shuguang and Xia Xiao

JINAN, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Zhang Jin's day usually begins with the clicks of sewing machines. Tailor-making qipao dresses for customers across the country, the day slips by before he knows it.

The qipao, a traditional Chinese dress for women, has long been popular for its unique status as a Chinese icon of elegance.

In 1987, at the age of 15, Zhang started to learn garment-making from the descendants of "Hongbang tailors," who are believed to have made China's first Western-style clothes. They are also thought to have fashioned the first Chinese tunic suit, also known as the Zhongshan suit, after Sun Yat-sen, a renowned statesman who led the revolution that ended imperial rule in China.

"We followed a conventional rule at that time," Zhang recalled. "As an apprentice, I was in charge of all chores, including cooking, cleaning and doing the laundry. Only if you did these for two years would you be allowed to learn clothes-making skills."

During his first three months, Zhang had to learn buttonholing skills and the correct use of a thimble, as well as ironing and hemming clothes every day.

Once he had a good grasp of these basic skills, Zhang stepped up to make pants.

"At the very beginning, I could make only three pairs of pants a day, then five, ten, and twenty pairs a day at the highest speed," Zhang said.

Finally, Zhang was allowed to learn qipao-making, which is known for its complexity and the extensive range of procedures involved. After a three-year training, he opened a garment-making shop in Jinan, capital of Shandong.

However, with the industrialization of garment-making in the 1990s, which brought low prices and a wide range of styles in polyester, demand for handmade clothes fell off. Zhang's shop was hit hard. He had to turn to other business, including selling fresh-cut flowers and operating restaurants.

Traditional Chinese garments regained popularity in 2001, after the meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum in Shanghai, at which leaders from many countries wore traditional Tang suits.

Seizing the opportunity, Zhang returned to the garment industry in 2006. "Every family wants to wear traditional clothes during the Spring Festival, and more and more people are starting to wear the qipao," he said.

The qipao originated from gowns worn by women in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Influenced by Western culture, the qipao changed continually during the early 20th century, becoming more fitted and body-hugging, with side slits that reached up to the thigh. During the 1930s and 1940s, it gradually evolved into its current form.

Unlike qipao dresses from the assembly line, Zhang tailors the garments on the basis of the customer's figure. He takes more than 20 measurements to ensure the uniqueness of every dress, and uses different fabrics and designs to suit each person's body shape and different occasions.

"Each qipao is a one-of-a-kind product," Zhang said.

He also believes that, while electric sewing machines are now common, they cannot replace hands. So, he insists on a combination of sewing by hand and using non-electric machines.

"A qipao must go through dozens of processes, from measuring to forming," said Zhang, adding that just a narrow piece of edging needs to go through nearly 10 procedures, taking three to four days to complete.

Zhang has adjusted his designs to keep pace with developments in aesthetic taste. The modern qipao has a zipper stitched into the side and a fake fastening on the front. Traditionally, the front was fastened by pankou knots, but these are now only used for decoration, which saves a lot of time.

In Zhang's view, the qipao is not just a simple dress that covers people's bodies, but a garment that embodies traditional Chinese etiquette and culture. With collars that stick upwards rather than folding, the qipao causes people to raise their heads and push out their chests. It also discourages bad habits, such as glancing right and left.

Zhang has many regular customers, including some that have never visited him in person. One customer from the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen sent her body measurements to Zhang. Based on these, Zhang sent her a sample qipao to try on, and the customer sent back the sample with her feedback for further adjustments. The customer ordered a dozen qipao from Zhang's shop in 2019 alone.

Learning that an increasing number of youngsters have become interested in the traditional qipao-making technique, Zhang has recruited more than ten apprentices, one after the other, teaching them skills in their spare time.

Zhang also participates in handicraft-themed lectures or seminars, through which he introduces qipao-making techniques, hoping that more people will learn about and fall in love with the traditional dress. Enditem

(Yan Xiuqi and Zhang Xiaohui contributed to the story.)
President Muhammadu Buhari has warned ministers and heads of government agencies not to disrespect or undermine the National Assembly.

The president said this at a meeting he had with Senate President Ahmad Lawan and House of Representatives Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, Thursday night.

Details of the discussion were sent to PREMIUM TIMES by presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu.

In the course of their conversation, recent events at the National Assembly were highlighted and the president re-emphasised his utmost respect for the National Assembly, adding that any disrespect to the institution by any member of the executive branch will not be accepted.

Ministers and all heads of Departments and Agencies should at all times conduct themselves in ways that will not undermine the National Assembly as an institution, its leadership and members, Mr Shehu wrote.

The meeting comes on the day the management of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) walked out on a House of Representatives committee probing the NDDCs finances.

The NDDC leadership accused the chairman of the House committee of corruption saying it would appear only if he steps aside from the probe.

Mr Buharis meeting with the national assembly leaders also occurs weeks after the minister of state for labour, Festus Keyamo, accused lawmakers of seeking to hijack a government temporary work project.

Read the full statement by Mr Shehu on Thursdays meeting below.

President Muhammadu Buhari received in audience the distinguished Senate President Senator Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan and Rt. Honorable Speaker of the House of Representatives Honorable Femi Gbajabiamila at the State House, Aso Villa.

STATE HOUSE PRESS RELEASE PRESIDENT BUHARI READS RIOT ACT TO MINISTERS, MDAs,CHIEF EXECUTIVES ON RELATIONSHIP WITH NASS President @MBuhari received in audience the distinguished Senate President @DrAhmadLawan & Rt. Hon Speaker @HouseNGR @femigbaja at the State House, Aso Villa. pic.twitter.com/lhU6ny4nwZ  Presidency Nigeria (@NGRPresident) July 16, 2020

The meeting, which lasted for almost an hour, was characterized by an engaging discussion on a range of key issues of national importance particularly the role of the legislature as a critical component in supporting their common goal and commitment towards improving the lives of the people of Nigeria.

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In the course of their conversation, recent events at the National Assembly were highlighted and the president re-emphasised his utmost respect for the National Assembly, adding that any disrespect to the institution by any member of the executive branch will not be accepted.

Ministers and all heads of Departments and Agencies should at all times conduct themselves in ways that will not undermine the National Assembly as an institution, its leadership and members.

The president and the leaders of the National Assembly recognized and acknowledged that the Executive and Legislative arms of government are essential partners in the fulfillment of their mutually aligned goal of improving the lives of the Nigerian people.
Three months ago, Colin Johnstone was living on the streets. He was among the 4500 homeless Victorians offered emergency accommodation in motels in March amid fears of a COVID-19 outbreak in the vulnerable rough-sleeping population.

Just before stage three restrictions were again imposed on Melbourne, Mr Johnstone signed a 12-month rental agreement for a bedsit in Flinders Street.

Colin Johnstone, who was formerly homeless, has found permanent accommodation just in time for lockdown 2.0 Credit:Eddie Jim

Homelessness organisation Launch Housing, which found Mr Johnstone searching for a place to sleep behind Federation Square in March, paid the bond and the first two months of his rent.

"Its definitely a relief  this gives me a chance to get back on my feet, Mr Johnstone said.
Another 1.3 million Americans filed for unemployment last week, marking the 17th week in a row that unemployment claims topped 1 million, new government data showed. The total claims filed since the onset of the pandemic have now topped 51 million, and the numbers indicate that joblessness caused by the pandemic isnt going away as the economy goes through a fitful, start-and-stop reopening.

While the national figures dropped slightly compared to the prior week, claims in California for the week of July 11 rose 8.7% to 287,732, the highest theyve been since early May, according to the data released Thursday by the Department of Labor.

In addition to the regular claims, Californias Employment Development Department processed 126,780 claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a program for gig workers and the self-employed, in the week that ended July 11. The state has paid $45.6 billion in unemployment benefits over the past four months, about double the benefits paid in 2010.

Things are not getting much better economically, said Julia Wolfe, an economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. Even though youre seeing a small uptick in employment through the jobs report over the last two months, people are still experiencing devastating levels of unemployment.

Economists say that the volume of new claims over the past four months could mean that we are headed into a serious recession, as people in financial distress cut back spending and compound the direct effects of the pandemic and stay-home orders.

We started out as a short-term freeze, but this has turned into a regular recession, said Jesse Rothstein, a professor of economics at UC Berkeley.

Rothstein also said that even though some businesses have been allowed to reopen, it is not on nearly a large enough scale to make a dent in the economic problems facing the country.

Theres a tendency to say OK, we did this for a little while, now were back to normal, he said. We are not back to normal and are not going to be back to normal for quite some time.

Experts also say that the unemployment claims themselves are only a part of the picture.

Till von Wachter, a professor of economics at UCLA and director of the California Policy Lab, pointed to the industries in which people claiming unemployment used to work as an indicator of a longer term recession as well. He said that at the beginning of the pandemic, there was a large spread in the industries seeing the most layoffs, with restaurants, bars and hotels seeing far more initial claims than other businesses. Now, the distribution across industries has begun to even out.

The ongoing economic crisis has affected other sectors, he said. Weve moved to a more general recession.

This has forced some jobless workers to switch industries to find a job.

In mid-March, as Bay Area shelter-in-place orders hit, Alec Cwener was laid off from his job as a records assistant at Fenwick & West, a Mountain View law firm with big tech companies and startups among its clients. His job required him to work in the office looking through physical files to track down information for the firms attorneys. Cwener said his boss told him that because his job could not be done remotely, he would have to be laid off.

Cwener immediately started looking for new jobs. He graduated from UC Berkeley in 2018 and planned to work for a few years at a big law firm before going to law school. He was hoping that even with the pandemic, he could find work related to his field so he could keep moving forward on his career path.

Cwener said hes applied to more than 100 jobs and wasnt getting any calls back.

Im just not having any luck, he said. I dont know if its due to quarantine or lockdown or changing business models or whatever, but it just seems like no ones calling.

Jed Kolko, chief economist at Indeed, said that the industries that were not initially devastated by the pandemic, like tech and finance, have also slowed down hiring. These sectors typically make hiring decisions with an eye to the future, he said, so the fact that they arent hiring indicates that they arent experiencing the type of modest rebound seen in food service or retail.

But last week, Cwener did end up with something promising  a job offer from the Employment Development Department, the state agency sending him his unemployment checks. Hes waiting for completion of a background check before he can start.

Its a very funny full circle to be working for the hand that fed me, he said.

On its website, the EDD says that its mass hiring due to the unprecedented number of unemployment claims. Cwener says hed be taking calls and processing forms to help handle the overwhelming demand.

Its certainly not the job he envisioned for himself, but hes hoping he can gain new skills and use the job as a stepping- stone to something else in government. More than anything, though, he just wants to be employed.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

If Ive felt ever kinship with someone before, it has been with anyone whos currently unemployed, he said, because I know how soul crushing it is to have been working and making money and feeling great about yourself to completely destroyed.

However, another crisis looms for those still unemployed. A federally funded $600 weekly boost to unemployment insurance payments is set to expire at the end of this month, and Congress has not made a decision about extending it. Without it, Californias unemployment benefits max out at $450 a week.

Its absolutely critical that they extend that well beyond July until people are back at work and until our economy really starts recovering, Wolfe said. She said the extra money is critical not only for the unemployed, but because it will also help stimulate economic recovery once things open back up.

The Economic Policy Institute predicted that if the emergency pandemic support expires, California could lose an additional 836,000 jobs over the next year. Wolfe said that this is because unemployed people will have likely dipped into their savings to support themselves, so even when they are hired again, theyll have less money to spend. As a result, the economy will be worse off, leaving businesses still struggling and unable to pay employees.

Wolfe added that people who have been collecting unemployment since the beginning of the pandemic should not feel ashamed about it.

If they lost their job, they shouldnt be forced back into the workforce at a time when thats putting them and their families and their broader communities at a very substantial health risk, she said. They should be getting compensated to stay at home and not be made to feel any guilt or shame about that.

Above all, the economy and the job market are dependent on the state of the fight against the coronavirus, especially as public health orders change what is or isnt allowed to be open, Kolko said.

Retail and restaurants could have to shut down or open more slowly, he said. It depends on what happens with the virus, what happens with the public health response and to the medical system.

Were in a period of huge uncertainty, he added.

Danielle Echeverria is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: danielle.echeverria@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DanielleEchev
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 21:33:57|Editor: huaxia

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YAOUNDE, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Some 63 civilians who were kidnapped on Monday in Cameroon's restive Anglophone region of Southwest were released Wednesday night, according to local authorities.

"They (kidnappers) released 25 people on Tuesday and the rest of us were released late Wednesday. Some of us who could afford paid a ransom before we were freed. We were maltreated," one of those who were kidnapped told Xinhua but preferred not to be named.

The army said, the abduction was led by a separatist commander nicknamed "general Aekeh" who is "notorious for atrocities against civilians" in the locality.

The 63 civilians who included children and women were abducted at their homes and a bar in Mmouck Leteh, a locality in Lebialem division of the Southwest region, which along with the Northwest region is home to most of Cameroon's English-speakers.

The two regions have seen a rise in clashes between government forces and armed separatists in spite of repeated calls by the United Nations for the establishment of a ceasefire amid COVID-19 pandemic.

Since 2017, separatists have been fighting to create an independent nation in the two Anglophone regions of the largely French-speaking Cameroon. Enditem
MP Iryna Vereshchuk has won the Servant of the People's intra-party primaries.

MP Iryna Vereshchuk has won the Servant of the People's intra-party primaries.

"Iryna Vereshchuk will be the candidate from the Servant of the People Party during the [mayoral] elections in Kyiv," MP from the Servant of the People Party Oleksandr Kachura wrote on Telegram on July 16.

According to journalist of the Novoe Vremya news outlet Maryna Shashkova, 83 MPs voted for Vereshchuk, three for Kachura, 41 for Oleksandr Dubinskyi, 30 for Mykola Tyshchenko, and 15 for Dmytro Gurin.

Read alsoUkraine's parliament approves date for local elections

As UNIAN reported earlier, 131 lawmakers from the Servant of the People parliamentary faction signed a letter, asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to convince the party's leadership to conduct intra-party primaries to nominate candidates for mayors in the country's all major cities of strategic importance.

On May 20, Zelensky announced primaries would be held by the ruling party before the mayoral elections in Kyiv and he would support the party's nominee.

On June 6, Zelensky said the primaries would be held in two stages.
Hyderabad, July 16 : After achieving tremendous growth in the last five years, the real estate market in Hyderabad took a big hit due to the COVID-19 crisis.

According to Knight Frank India, Hyderabad recorded over a 40 per cent slump in both office and residential markets during the first half of 2020 (January-June).

It launched the 13th edition of its flagship half-yearly report - India Real Estate: H1 2020 - which presents a comprehensive analysis of the office and residential market performance across eight major cities.

According to the report, office transactions in Hyderabad saw a 43 per cent year-on-year decline to 2.2 mn sq ft. The city also saw a decline of 32 per cent YoY to 2.7 mn sq ft in new office space completions. Subdued transaction activity arrested the growth of weighted average transacted rentals in the Hyderabad office market to 3.3 per cent YoY.

The report stated that residential sales in Hyderabad witnessed a decline of 43 per cent YoY in H1 2020, whereas new project launches fell by 19 per cent YoY during this period. Weighted average prices recorded a 7 per cent YoY increase in H1 2020, which occurred in Q1 and then remained stagnant in Q2 2020.

Hyderabad's office market had seen a record growth of 172 per cent in its transaction volumes in the last five years. In 2019, the city recorded an all-time high of 12.8 mn sq ft in office transactions which was the second-highest amongst the top eight cities in the country.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent national lockdown appear to be the primary reasons for this poor performance. New completions took a hit with 2.7 mn sq ft of new office space entering the market in H1 2020 whereas 2.2 mn sq ft of transaction activity was recorded during this period, a 43 per cent YoY fall.

An immediate impact of the crisis was felt by the co-working industry and its absorption fell by a significant 75 per cent. The other services sector transactions were also adversely impacted.

On the other hand, Information Technology/ Information Technology Enabled Services (IT/ITeS) sector companies, the primary driver of Hyderabad's office market, contributed a significant 75 per cent in the total transactions pie for H1 2020. In terms of absolute volumes as well, the IT/ITeS sector transaction volume grew by 11 per cent YoY, from 1.5 mn sq ft in H1 2019 to 1.6 mn sq ft in H1 2020, and this despite the overall lower absorption this half-year. Further, the top three deals of H1 2020 in terms of the transacted area are all from the IT/ITeS sector.

"The impact of COVID-19 is evident with pre-commitment deals coming under pause mode. Also, there is imminent delay in upcoming supply due to the near-halt situation in construction activity. Mobilisation of labour and finance, adherence to strict COVID-19 protocols and timely government approvals are likely to be the challenges for developers," said Samson Arthur, Branch Director, Hyderabad, Knight Frank India.

According to the report, H1 2020 was amongst the lowest periods for the residential market in Hyderabad as sales hit a decadal low and launches grew but not at the 2019 rate of growth.

"Launches fell by 19 per cent YoY, this half-year. Key contributing factors to this fall include a halt in all construction activity during the lockdown period, low sales on account of market uncertainties, scarcer credit availability for developers, hike in prices of inputs such as steel and cement, and the lack of availability of construction workers in the post-lockdown phase." Sales recorded a 43 per YoY fall with 4,782 units sold in H1 2020. This has been the lowest recorded sales figure for the city in this decade. Demand was strong until the pre-COVID period of January to March 2020 and was only restricted by the low availability of supply. Things took a sharp turn in the aftermath of the COVID crisis and the subsequent lockdowns.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
TDT | Manama

His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the Supreme Commander, lauded yesterday the continuous development of the Bahrain Defence Force (BDF) in military systems and training. HM the King said this as he paid a visit to the BDF General Command.

HM the King was welcomed by BDF Commander-in-Chief Field Marshal Shaikh Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Minister of Defence Affairs Lieutenant-General Abdulla bin Hassan Al Nuaimi, National Security Advisor and Royal Guard Commander Major-General His Highness Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, and Chief-ofStaff Lieutenant-General Dheyab bin Saqr Al Nuaimi.

HM King Hamad was accompanied by Royal Court Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, and Royal Guard Special Force Commander Lieutenant-Colonel HH Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa. The Supreme Commander praised the graduation of the second National Defence and the 12th Joint Command and Staff courses, held under HMs patronage, extending congratulations to the graduates from Bahrain and brotherly countries.

HM the King highlighted the importance of such courses that contribute to preparing high-level commanders that are capable of taking strategic decisions in the fields of defence and security, and wished everyone further success.

HM the King also praised the BDFs continued dedicated efforts to confront the coronavirus (COVID-19), as part of the nationwide campaign to combat the deadly respiratory disease that is targetting the entire world.

HM King Hamad expressed thanks and appreciation to the BDF for its noble contributions and the readiness of its medical services to provide facilities that are equipped with the latest health supplies for examination, treatment, and preventive measures through qualified and specialised medical personnel.

HM King Hamad expressed thanks to all military and civilian medical and administrative teams for their fruitful humanitarian efforts and bravery in fighting the pandemic, and determination to achieve success. He voiced pride in their noble stances, as well as in the awareness and solidarity of all Bahrainis.

The Supreme Commander also valued highly the ongoing positive executive-legislature cooperation and joint work to achieve the sustainability of pension funds in order to ensure their ability to honour their commitment towards the citizens.

HM the King stressed the importance of stepping up efforts to enhance support for low-income citizens in a way that would meet their needs and achieve stability for their families, as well as contribute to continuing to build on and optimise national gains.

The Supreme Commander reiterated Bahrains supportive stances towards brotherly Egypt and its armed forces, and the measures they take to safeguard Egypts security and stability, confront all threats to its sovereignty and top interests, and defend the Arab nation.
Every now and then, society experiences a massive shock to the system. The impact of a pandemic like the one we are seeing is big, is lasting, and will change how we go about our lives indefinitely. During these times, innovation is necessary for businesses and societies to adapt to the alterations in how we function.

For credit unions, we are being pushed to adopt or further invest in remote services, online education and new types of support for accounts and transactions. We are also finding that some of the most important inputs used for decision-making, like payment reporting on credit bureaus, are no longer reliable or able to share the whole story.

We do not yet know all the ways the coronavirus will impact us, but this is a moment when we are being forced to reflect and adjust. These moments are important and we should look for the opportunities to innovate in order to meet the new needs of our membership and to become more resilient.

Interra Credit Unions Response

Interra Credit Union  a $1.2B credit union based in Goshen, Indiana, with over 82,000 members  saw the opportunity created by the shifts in their local economy and wanted to find a collaborative way to push innovation. With a quick evaluation, Interra noticed a few important points they wanted to consider in their action plan:

The effects of the pandemic were seen across all industries, not just financial services.

All businesses were forced to scale back or discontinue in-person interactions. Some types of business functions were easy to shift while others were not.

For consumers, new challenges and opportunities emerged. Some existing challenges had a new light on them or were exacerbated.

Certain demographics were more affected by job or opportunity loss. This included students, who would normally be working a job or enjoying other summer activities.

To make a big impact in a short time, Interra joined forces with StartUp Moxie, an ideation incubator for high school kids in Elkhart County. With their help, the INnovate Now virtual challenge was created. The 5-week innovation challenge, kicking off on Monday, July 13th, is specifically geared toward local high school students. Challenge participants are asked to create teams of 3-5 and will work through a solution for a problem uncovered by the pandemic.

Interras Foundation provided funding for the project, and StartUp Moxie leveraged its network to add additional partners to improve the chance for success. Other partners include the Horizon Education Alliance (an agency for improving educational outcomes in Elkhart County), the Goshen Chamber of Commerce, and the Elkhart Chamber of Commerce.

The INnovate Now Virtual Challenge

The teams of students will work with mentors from the business community and alumni of Startup Moxie Elkhart County after the virtual kick-off event on July 13th. Theyll get a crash course on innovation and learn processes to create solutions. Next, theyll spend two weeks identifying and validating a problem, followed by two weeks building their case, ideating and finding a solution.

The last week is dedicated to refining their pitch and submitting the requirements for the Live Virtual Pitch Event on August 19th: an executive summary, business plan with projections, and 5-minute pitch with pitch deck. At the Pitch Event, up to 10 teams will pitch their ideas to local judges via Zoom for a chance to win $1,000 in cash prizes to implement their solutions.

Interest in the project has already been incredibly positive with 10 teams and more than 40 students signed up from 8 school systems across Elkhart County.

What Interra Credit Union and its partners have done is create an innovative program that has the potential to offer a number of benefits. Students who are looking for ways to meaningfully fill their time have a new opportunity that also teaches them useful skills while they participate. After completing the challenge, it is possible that even more ideas will come from the students once theyve had training in how to successfully innovate. The partners and local businesses will receive valuable input from young consumers. And, if the project is successful, viable solutions will emerge that could boost the local economy. This is viewed as a pilot project and if successful, will be replicated at both the high school and college levels during the school year.

How You Can Innovate in the Face of Crises

If this has inspired you, find a way to innovate at your own credit union. As you narrow in on what needs to be rapidly altered, a formula for innovation from MIT Sloan can help. This new framework is inspired by the health and pharmaceutical industry, but is intended to work for all industries finding themselves in need of rapid innovation:

Grasp the Innovation Problem: Be clear about what problem is being targeted. Map Your Resources: During uncertain times, repurposing the knowledge, tools and infrastructure you already have is effective. Use Emerging Technologies: New tech has online communities that share expertise and make linking data easier. Encourage Collaboration: Encourage and support cross-disciplinary collaboration. Integrate End Users: Meet urgent needs by launching quickly and giving the end users a voice.

If you would like more information about INnovate Now, you can contact David Birky, the Chief Strategy Officer, at Interra Credit Union at (574)534-2506.
Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: Grade-wise performance

Distinction - 143441 students

1st grade - 513575 students

2nd grade - 579667 students

1st grade - 45029 students

Total passed - 1281712 students

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: Konkan records the highest pass percent

The highest percentage in the Maharashtra HSC examination has been recorded by the Konkan region where 95.89% of students have passed the examination.

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: Stream-wise results

In the Science stream, 96.93% of students have passed. In Commerce and Vocational stream 91.27% and 86.07% of students have passed respectively. In Arts stream 82.63% of students have cleared the exam.

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: 39.03% of repeater students pass

Out of the 86341 students who took the repeater exam, only 33703 could pass making the pass percent of 39.03%

100% students pass in Malyalam, Punjabi, Russian and Telugu subjects

100% students who wrote the paper of Malyalam, Punjabi, Russian and Telugu have passed the Maharashtra HSC Exam. While only 97.73% students who wrote the paper of Marathi and 92.83% students who wrote the paper of Marathi literature passed. This year, 100% students have passed in 26 subjects.

Girls of all division perform better than boys in Maharashtra HSC Result

This year, girls in all the nine divisions have outscored boys in the Maharashtra class 12th exam. In the overall performance of fresh students, 88.04% boys and 93.88% girls have cleared the exam.

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: List of websites to check scores online

Maharashtra HSC Result is now available on all its official websites. Click here to know how and where to check scores

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: 7.14% increase in vocational result

In Maharashtra HSC vocational results, an increase of 7.14 percent than the previous year has been recorded. A total of 86.07% vocational students have passed the exam.

How to check Maharashtra HSC 2020 scores

1) Visit the official website mahresult.nic.in or /hscresult.mkcl.org

2) On the homepage, click on the link that reads, HSC Examination Result 2020

3) Key in your HSC seat number and mothers name

4) The result will appear on the display screen

5) Take a print out of your results for future reference.

Maharashtra HSC Result 2020: List of websites to check scores

mahresults.nic.in

Maharashtraeducation.com,

examresults.net/maharashtra/,

mahresult.nic.in,

mahahsscboard.maharashtra.gov.in

Read more

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020 declared, check scores here

MSBSHSE has declared the class 12th or HSC exam results. Students can now check their results at mahresults.nic.in or hscresult.mkcl.org. Get direct link here

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: Countdown begins, scores to be uploaded in 2 minutes

In just 2 minutes, Maharashtra HSC results will be uploaded on the official websites. Be ready with your admit cards.

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: Check stream-wise pass percent

Science - 96.93%

Arts- 82.63%

Commerce 91.27%

MCVC - 86.07%

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: Check last years toppers

Maharashtra HSC toppers of 2019

Rank 1- Gawade Amol Dilip (642 marks)

Rank 2- Amit Kisan (639 marks)

Rank 3- Chavan Dhanashri Eknath, Sahu Ritika Ramnaresh, Aditya Surendrakumar (637 marks)



However, this year MSBSHSE may not release the toppers list due to Covid-19.

Maharashtra HSC Result 2020: 26 subjects record 100% results

Students took exams for 145 subjects out of which 26 subjects have recorded 100 percent results in Maharashtra Board exam 2020

Maharashtra HSC Result 2020: 93.47% students with special needs pass

This year, 93.57 percent of students with special needs have cleared their HSC or class 12 exams this year. 1919 students with special needs had written the exam.

Maharashtra HSC Result 2020: Pune division bags 2nd position

After Konkan district, Pune division has bagged second position among the nine divisions of Maharashtra Board. Pune has recorded 92.5 pass percentage while Konkan leads with 95.89.

Maharashtra HSC Result 2020: Girls outshine boys

This year again, girls have outperformed boys. A total of 93.88% girls and 88.04% boys have passed Maharashtra HSC ecxam 2020

Maharashtra HSC Result 2020: Countdown begins, check scores after 15 mins

The countdown has begun. Students will be able to check their results at hscresult.mkcl.org after 15 minutes.The scores will be out at 1 pm.

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: 82.63% arts students pass

This year, a total of 82.63% arts students have passed the Maharashtra Board HSC exam. An improvement of 6.18 percent from last year has been recorded. In 2019, the pass percent in the arts stream was 76.45 percent

Maharashtra Class 12th results 2020: Aurangabad records the lowest pass percent

Among the districts, Aurangabad has secured the lowest position with 88.18 percent in the ,Maharashtra board HSC or Class 12 exams. Last year, Aurangabad was at 4th position.

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: 91.27% students pass in commerce stream

In the Commerce stream, Maharashtra Board students have recorded a pass percent of 91.27 in the Maha HSC exams. The pass percent saw an increase by 2.99 percent from last year. In 2019, the pass percent in the Commerce stream was at 88.28.

Maharashtra HSC Result 2020: Konkan district tops again

Konkan division has once again topped among districts with 95.89 per cent. The Aurangabad has recorded the lowest pass percentage with 88.18 per cent. The Pune division with 92.50 per cent bagged the second position

Maha HSC Results 2020: Science students record highest pass percent

This year, students of science stream of the Maharashtra Board have recorded the highest pass percentage in the Maharashtra HSC 2020 exam with 96.93 percent.

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: 87.66% success rate

The overall success rate (freshers and repeaters) for the state is 87.69% up from last years 83.18%. The freshers recorded a success rate of 90.66% while only 39.03% of repeaters passed. Students will be able to check their results at www.mahresult.nic.in at 1 pm. Read full details here

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020 announced: When to check

MSBSHSE has announced that 90.665 regular students have cleared the class 12th exam. However, the result will be uploaded only after 1 pm. Students will be able to check their scores at mahresults.nic.in from 1 pm onwards.

MSBSHSE says, 90.66% regular students pass, results yet to be uploaded on website

MSBSHSE has shared the result statistics according to which 90.66% regular students have passed Maharashtra HSC board exam. Results will be uploaded on website at 1 pm

Maharashtra HSC Result 2020: One hour to go

In just one hour, MSBSHSE will announce the Maharashtra 12th results today at 1 pm.

Maharashtra HSC Result 2020: List of websites to check scores

Maharashtra board students can also check their Maharashtra HSC examination on the following website:

Maharashtraeducation.com, examresults.net/maharashtra/, mahresult.nic.in, and mahahsscboard.maharashtra.gov.in

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: Merit list unlikely this year

This year, Maharashtra Board may not announce merit list due to Covid-19

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: Steps to check scores online

1) Visit the official website mahresult.nic.in.

2) On the homepage, click on the link that reads, HSC Examination Result 2020

3) Key in your credentials and login

4) The result will appear on the display screen

5) Take a print out of your results for future reference.

Maharashtra HSC Result: Stream-wise pass percent in 2019

Science ---

569,360 -- appeared

518,598 -- passed

91.08 -- pass percent

Arts --

481,288 -- appeared

350,128 --- passed

72.75 -- pass percent

Commerce --

381,498 -- appeared

327,261 -- passed

85.78 -- pass percent

Vocational ---

57,691 -- appeared

43,203-- passed

74.89 --- pass percent

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: Performance of Mumbai in last 2 years

2019--

3,35,598 - appeared

2,70,422 -- passed

80.58 -- pass percent

2018----

3,31,246 -- appeared

279,790 -- passed

84.47 -- pass percent

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: Highest number of students in commerce stream in Mumbai

In Mumbai division, commerce stream has recorded the highest number of students followed by science and arts.

While 92K students were registered for science and 52K for arts, 1.8 lakh students took the exam in commerce stream in the Mumbai division.

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: 1.8 lakh students wrote commerce exam in Mumbai

A total of 1,87,224 students have written the HSC Commerce exam from Mumbai division this year. Last year, the number of commerce students was 185,992.

Maharashtra 12th Results 2020: 94K students took HSC Science exam in Mumbai

A total of 94668 students took HSC Science exam this year from Mumbai division. In the year 2019, a total of 91,199 had written HSC Science exam.

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: 52K arts students took exam in Mumbai division

This year a total of 52189 students have taken the HSC Arts exam in Mumbai division. In the year 2019, 53,987 students had taken Class 12th arts exam in Mumbai.

Maharashtra HSC Results: 91.08% science stream students passed in 2019

Out of the 569,360 students who took the exam from science stream in 2019, 518,598 passed making a pass percent of 91.08

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: How the evaluation was done in lockdown

Citing a Supreme Court order which makes it mandatory for the Maharashtra education department had granted special permission for its workers, teachers and school staff to work even as the state was under a lockdown. In case where the papers are in schools or custodies, they can be transported to the examiners and they can evaluate them. Further, these evaluated papers can be sent for moderation to the moderators through staff which is deployed for the purpose, read the circular issued by the department to all municipal commissioners and district collectors.

When was Maharashtra HSC, SSC exam conducted

Maharashtra HSC exams took place between February 18 and March 18, 2020 while SSC exams took place between March 3 and March 21.

Maharashtra HSC Results: 83.85% students passed from Mumbai division last year

In the year 2019, Mumbai division had recorded a 83.85% result.

Maharashtra HSC Results: Konkan district recorded highest pass percent in 2019

Among all the districts of Maharashtra, Konkan had topped with a pass percentage of 93.23 in 2019. 29612 students out of 31764 had passed the exam.

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: Stream-wise figure of students in 2019

Out of the total students registered from the Mumbai region in 2019, 54,056 were from arts, 91,178 from science, 1,85,774 from commerce, 4,420 from MCVC (vocational), 1,877 students with special needs and 62 were transgenders

Maharashtra HSC Results: 86.14% students passed in 2017

In the year 2018, the Maharashtra HSC pass percentage stood at 87.14 .

Maharashtra class 12th Results 2020: 6.68 lakh students cleared HSC exam in 2018

In the year 2018, 14,85,000 students, including 834,000 boys and 650,000 girls had taken the Maharashtra HSC exam. 88.41% of these students had passed the exam.

Maharashtra HSC Results: Girls had outperformed boys last year

Last year, girls had performed better than boys securing a pass percentage of 92.36%, while 85.23% boys cleared the exam. Of the total 6,33,090 girls who appeared for the exam, 5,84,692 passed.

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: Mumbai stood at 6th position last year

In the year 2019, Mumbai was on 6th position with 87.44% while Nashik had the lowest pass percentage of 86.13%.

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: Check division-wise results of 2019

In the year 2019, Konkan division had secured the highest pass percentage of 94.85%, followed by Kolhapur with 91%, Pune (89.58%), Aurangabad (88.74%), and Amravati (88.08%).

Maharashtra HSC Results: Check last years pass percent

In 2019, the pass percentage has dipped to 85.88% as opposed to 88.41%in the year 2018. The Mumbai division had recorded a 83.85% result in 2019.

One paper of Maharashtra SSC was cancelled due to Covid-19

While all papers of class 12th were conducted before the lockdown was imposed in the country, Maharashtra board had to cancel the SSC Geography exam and said that the students will be awarded an average of the marks obtained in the other five subjects for the last paper.

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: Six flying squads were deployed at exam centres

The board had deployed six flying squads as well as several sitting squads in exam centres to ensure that there are no malpractices.

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: How to check scores online

1)Visit the official website mahresult.nic.in.

2) On the homepage, click on the link that reads, HSC Examination Result 2020

3) Key in your credentials and login

4) The result will appear on the display screen

5) Take a print out of your results for future reference.

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: 85.88% students passed the exam in 2019

In 2019, a total of 85.88%of students had passed the examination.

Maharahstra HSC Results 2020: When and where to check class 12th scores

The Maharashtra HSC Results 2020 will be announced at 1 pm today. Students will be able to check their scores on the official website at mahresults.nic.in after it is declared.Apart from these, the Maharashtra HSC results will also be available on the following websites of MSBSHSE:

Maharashtraeducation.com,

examresults.net/maharashtra/,

mahresult.nic.in,

mahahsscboard.maharashtra.gov.in

Maharashtra Results 2020: No press conference this year due to Covid-19

Due to Covid-19, MSBSHSE will not hold any press conference this year to announce the results. The results will be uploaded on the websites at 1 pm.

Divyang stickers on answersheets for special concessions

Since last year, the board has started putting divyang stickers on the papers of such students to ensure that their papers can be easily identified as many are eligible for special concessions such as additional time and right to choose vocational subjects.

Maharashtra HSC Result 2020: 1919 students with special needs took class 12th exam

A total of 1,919 students with special needs had registered for the exams

Maharashtra HSC Result 2020: How to check

How to check Maharashtra HSC 12th Results 2020:

1) Visit the official website mahresult.nic.in.

2) On the homepage, click on the link that reads, HSC Examination Result 2020

3) Key in your credentials and login

4) The result will appear on the display screen

5) Take a print out of your results for future reference.

Maharashtra Board HSC Results 2020: SSC Results expected by July 30

Last week, education minister Varsha Gaikwad had told HT that the HSC Results will be announced anytime between July 15 and 20 while the Maharashtra SSC or class 10th results can be expected before July 30.

Maharashtra Board: Online application for revaluation this year

MSBSHSE will allow the students to apply for revaluation of their scores between July 17 to July 27 and for photocopy between July 17 and August 5 on the boards official website. Fees for the same can also be paid online. Students who wish to apply for revaluation have to first secure a photocopy for their papers and then apply for revaluation.

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: 3.39 lakh students from Mumbai division

Out of the 15 lakh students, 3.39 lakh students are from Mumbai division alone, including Thane, Raigad and Palghar. A total of 1,919 students with special needs are also registered for the MSBSHSE 12th exams.

Maharashtra Board class 12th Results 2020: Websites to check scores

Apart from the official website - mahresults.nic.in, the Maharashtra HSC results will also be available on the following websites of MSBSHSE:

Maharashtraeducation.com,

examresults.net/maharashtra/,

mahresult.nic.in,

mahahsscboard.maharashtra.gov.in

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: Get instant SMS alert from hindustantimes.com

Once the result is declared, students will get instant SMS alert of results from hindustantimes.com. Students are advised to register on our result portal for free to get instant SMS alert as soon as the MSBSHSE Result 2020 is declared. Click here to register for Maharashtra Board HSC results 2020.

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: 15 lakh students to get class 12th results today

Around 15 lakh students who were registered for Maharashtra HSC Results will get their class 12th results today.

Maharashtra HSC Result 2020: Where to check class 12th results

The Maharashtra board students will be able to check their scores on the official website at mahresults.nic.in after it is declared.

Maharashtra HSC Results 2020: When to check class 12th results

The Maharashtra HSC Results 2020 will be announced at 1 pm today. Students will be able to check their results on the official website after the results are announced.

MSBSHSE to announce Maharashtra HSC Results 2020 today

Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) will declare the results of the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) or Class 12 exams today at 1 pm.
PHASE 4 COULD BE DELAYED: Or it may not include everything expected; a positive in new coronavirus numbers, and Poster Boy Cuomo in hot water. (Hot Zone) Posted by Staten Island Advance on Wednesday, July 15, 2020

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  The coronavirus pandemic has turned our world upside-down. We need information like we never have before.

How many new cases were there on Staten Island today? How many deaths? How many people have been released from the hospital?

What did President Donald Trump say about the pandemic? What about Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio?

More importantly, when is this pandemic going to be over? When are we going to get back to normal, whatever normal is?

Its almost too much to keep up with.

So twice a day, Mark Stein and I take to Facebook Live to give you all the Island information you need. Look for us around 2 p.m. and again at around 5:30 p.m. Then look for this wrap-up on SILive.com at the end of the day.

Well give you the numbers and all the latest news. Well answer your questions. Well follow up on your news tips.

Well share the good news too, the way that the Staten Island community is coming together in this time of crisis. Or well just share this strange and unique pandemic moment with you, as fellow Staten Islanders.

On Wednesday, we talked about how Mayor Bill de Blasio, citing virus spikes around the country, said that New York City could be delayed in entering Phase 4 of re-opening.

But in a hopeful sign, Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top advisor to the White House on the pandemic, said that a

COVID-19 vaccine trial by the Moderna drug company was good news. Those taking part in the trial developed antibodies to the virus.

See the video above for those conversations.

In the video below, Mark and I were joined by Advance education reporter Annalise Knudson for a talk about escalating concerns about re-opening schools among teachers and parents.

Were all in this together. Well all get through this together.
It's been a tough month for religious minorities in Pakistan. A Christian was gunned down because he rented in a Muslim neighborhood in northwest Peshawar, not far from the border with Afghanistan.

Another Christian, this one a pastor, his wife and 12-year-old son were beaten by their Muslim neighbors in eastern Punjab and told to leave their village.

An opposition politician was charged with blasphemy after declaring all religions were equal and a senior political figure, allied with the government and backed by Islamic extremists, stopped the construction of a Hindu temple in the capital of Islamabad.

Analysts and activists warn of worse times ahead as Prime Minister Imran Khan vacillates between trying to forge a pluralistic nation and his conservative Islamic beliefs.

Fear haunts the family of Nadeem Jordan, the Christian man who was shot and killed because he rented in a Muslim neighborhood in Peshawar.

Investigators say the gunmen have fled but also say they stalk Nadeems family, threatening his brother-in-law.

The police have registered a case, but the gunmen are free. Police say they have fled yet they stalk Nadeem's family, threatening his brother-in-law.

"They say 'we will teach you a lesson'," said Nadeem's mother-in-law Elizabeth Lal, who was shot in the arm during the attack in early June.

Her left arm is shattered. The bullet is still lodged within.

In the case of the Hindu temple, fatwas or religious instructions were issued saying non-Muslims could not build new temples or churches in Islamic Pakistan.

Lal Malhi, a Hindu minority Parliamentarian with Imran Khan's Pakistan Insaf (Justice) party, said abuse is not a new issue for religious minorities in the country.

"We have to be able to deal it with these things because we are Pakistanis," he said.

Analysts blame the uptick in attacks on a well-intentioned Khan, who champions a vision of a tolerant Pakistan where its religious minorities thrive as equals among an overwhelming Muslim majority, while at the same time ceding power to extreme Islamic clerics, bowing to their demands and turning to them for the final say, even on matters of state.

Khan's list of concessions to the radical religious are lengthy.

When the coronavirus first emerged as a threat, Khan refused to shut down a gathering of tens of thousands of Islamic missionaries from across the globe. It wasnt until they had reached Pakistan that he ordered it canceled.

Khan isn't the first Pakistani politician to walk a religious tightrope in Pakistan.

Successive military and democratically elected governments have buckled to the pressure of Islamic extremists, who critics say have the ability to bring impassioned mobs on to the street.

"It's the fear of the establishment as to what they can do. They can cause mayhem across Pakistan," says human rights activist Tahira Abdullah, who has courted the wrath of extremists championing the country's minorities, marching for their rights and women's rights.

Khan, like governments before him, has tried to present a "soft" image of Pakistan as a country that protects its minorities.

Khan even opened a visa free access for Sikhs from enemy India to visit one of their holiest of sites in Pakistan.

But analysts say the initiatives have been mostly symbolic.
The Rs 1,500 crore follow-on public offer (FPO) by YES Bank has been subscribed 48 per cent on the second day of the bidding process on Thursday. By 5 pm, the issue received bids for over 434.15 crore equity shares as against offer size of more than 909.97 crore shares (excluding anchor book portion), data compiled from BSE and NSE show.

Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIB) portion was subscribed 120 per cent. Non Institutional Investors (NII) portion has received 11 per cent subscription, while retail quota was subscribed 19 per cent in the day. Employee portion was subscribed by 11 per cent.

The FPO was subscribed 22 per cent at the end of the first day. The issue, which can be bid with a minimum lot size of 1,000 equity shares and multiples thereafter, will close on July 17. Yes Bank is aiming to raise the money by selling its shares at Rs 12-13 apiece.

On Wednesday, YES Bank in a regulatory filing said that it has raised Rs 4,098.46 crore from anchor investors by allotting 3,415,384,614 equity shares at Rs 12 per equity share, which may be subject to change upon determination of the offer price. The anchor

investors include US-based alternative asset manager Tilden Park Capital Management LP, Singapore-based fund management company Amansa Capital and UK-based fund management firm Jupiter Fund.

Tilden Park, a multi-strategy fixed-income-focused alternative asset manager with expertise in distressed credit, has alone invested Rs 2,250 crore in the lender's anchor book.

Meanwhile, the initial public offer (IPO) of specialty chemicals manufacturing firm Rossari Biotech was subscribed a whopping 79.37 times on the last day of bidding on Wednesday. The Rs 496-crore IPO received bids for 64,87,33,645 shares against the total issue size of 81,73,530 shares.Also read: BT Buzz: Why India is becoming main hub for smuggled gold

Also read: Two Chinese companies' bids for Delhi-Mumbai expressway projects rejected
Union aviation minister Hardeep Puri said that he hopes the number of domestic flights will reach 55  60 percent of the pre-coronavirus levels by Diwali this year.

The domestic aviation industry is facing financial losses due to the two-month long suspension of air travel followed by restricted resumption of domestic air traffic due to the impact of coronavirus.

We are assuming that by Diwali this year, we will have 55-60 percent of pre-Covid domestic flights operating in India, said Puri.

According to a report released earlier this year by aviation consultancy firm Capa India, the industrys losses in the first quarter of 2020 could run up to $3-3.6 billion due to covid-19-related disruptions.

It had predicted that the four months from June to September will be a critical phase for the Industry. It predicted that some carriers may even struggle to cover their variable costs up until the end of second quarter of financial year 2021 due to market conditions and the constraints imposed by possible social distancing requirements.

A total of 1,633 flights operated on July 15, carrying about 1,40,000 passengers. Initially, after the resumption of flights, the government had allowed airlines to operate at a maximum of 33 percent of their full capacity, in proportion to the market share and capacity they had in the pre-Covid market. The government had also capped fares for seven domestic sectors.

The scenario of international travel returning to its previous levels also remains uncertain as underlined by the minister. He said bilateral arrangements between countries allowing passenger traffic remains the best hope till the crisis is over.

Also Read: Air bubbles only way forward for international travel during pandemic

I think answer will lie through bilateral air bubbles which will carry a possible number of people but under defined conditions as countries are still imposing entry restrictions including India, he said.

Air India CMD Rajiv Bansal said that as on July 13, Air India and Air India Express operated 1,103 flights, bringing back 2,08,000 Indians under Vande Bharat Mission.
At a time when the is dealing with shockwaves in Rajasthan generated by Sachin Pilot's rebel leading to his dismissal from the party fold as well as Deputy Chief Minister post, the party may see troubles in the politically crucial state of as well.

Jitin Prasada, considered as the face of Youth in Uttar Pradesh, has lent his support and sympathies to Pilot -- a development that could activate alarm buttons in the

He is seen openly supporting over the ongoing events in Rajasthan. He has also tweeted in Pilot's favour.

" is not just a person who works with me but also my friend. No one can deny that these days he has worked for the party with full dedication. I hope that this situation will soon improve, I am sad that such a situation has come," he tweeted.

Prasada's tweet has created quite a stir in the political circles of and different meanings are being interpreted.

Just a few days ago, he thanked Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Twitter. This had happened after Priyanka had called Mayawati a spokesperson of the BJP.

The former chief minister had said in a tweet that no particular community should be pointed over criminals like Vikas Dubey. On this statement, Jitin Prasada had thanked Mayawati.

Says senior political analyst Ratanamani Lal says: "Prasada gave the first reaction after Vikas Dubey's death in a police encounter when he created the 'Brahmin Consciousness Council'. This is a big message in itself.

"He is looking for some other role too apart from being in Congress. It is not a big deal if he presents himself as a Brahmin face in the future. He is looking for a bigger role than being a Congress leader. Though he was considered to be close to Rahul Gandhi, it was seen that Rahul is not standing behind them," Lal opines.

"He (Rahul) could not stop Jyotiraditya Scindia from going to the BJP. had to face humiliation as well. And Jitin Prasada is yet to get any new role... he wants that role so he has 'Brahmin Council'. Through this, he wants to represent the Brahmins. Also, his reaction to Sachin Pilot's rebel in Rajasthan shows that he is not happy with the kind of behaviour he is receiving in Congress."

A Congress leader said on the condition of anonymity that Prasada is a "senior person and leader of Brahmins" but he has been sidelined after Priyanka Gandhi's arrival.

He is seeking a big role for himself in the state, but unable to get one.

Senior political analyst PN Dwivedi said: "Jitin Prasada has recently been working with Brahmin faces in Uttar Pradesh for the Congress party's organisation. He is considered very close to Rahul Gandhi. But, for a while, he is marginalised in the Congress party. Though he has not yet raised any open opposition to it, some of his recent reactions have indicated his not being happy with the party."

--IANS

hindi-pgh/

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dr. Nicola Millard, Principal Innovation Partner, Enterprise CTIO, BT, and John Riordan, Director of Support, Ireland, Shopify, will be two of the headliners at the new Customer Contact VIRTUAL event. Millard, once described as "human caffeine" on Twitter, is an award-winning presenter who injects a positive, people-centered espresso shot to innovation and future strategy. Her session is entitled, Disruption, Dolly, Dilbert and Droids: The 'D's Reshaping the Future of Work & the Contact Center. (Need we say more?) John Riordan, an international customer service leader with deep experience managing and implementing virtual customer solutions (fittingly, what the future holds), will lead a session entitled, WFH or WTF  Where From Here? (Again, need we say more?)

The event will also include a virtual escape room challenge, virtual platform demos, exhibit halls and briefing sessions, as well as cutting-edge industry insights and emerging best practices shared in a whole new way. Participants can customize their agenda and choose from three different collaboration zones: 1: Elevating Agent Experience and Effectiveness, 2: Operational Excellence in the New Now, and 3: Reimagining the Customer Journey and Experience.

Customer Contact VIRTUAL will leverage cutting-edge technology to allow participants to communicate freely in a roundtable format and break out into smaller groups for collaboration and best-practice sharing opportunities. This unique virtual experience will also include high energy, interactive breaks, the inaugural virtual Olympics and a virtual happy hour. Customer Contact VIRTUAL is NOT another webinar! Participants will leave with the latest CC industry strategies and tactics, out-of-the-box networking and real return on relationships that Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange events are known for around the world, all from the comfort of their home office. (Although, we do recommend upgrading your dress code from t-shirts and bathrobes.)

Customer Contact VIRTUAL will continue to provide solutions to meet the complex demands presented by today's multi-channel customer. This highly interactive program will offer customer contact industry vice presidents, directors, managers and other senior-level executives the opportunity to benefit from:

Current case studies and emerging best practices

Dynamic industry collaboration zones

Expert panel discussions

Peer-to-peer networking opportunities

For additional information about Customer Contact VIRTUAL, email [email protected] or visit customercontactmindxchange.com/virtual20/

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The mayor of Morristown has a message for runners: Please stop running along South Street.

Mayor Tim Dougherty said many South Street restaurants are relying on outdoor dining amid the coronavirus pandemic and that there is not enough space for runners, and their customers, to follow social distancing recommendations.

In a post on the towns Facebook page, Dougherty asserted that runners should stay 12 to 16 feet away from others, well beyond state and federal guidelines specifying a minimum 6 feet for all, due to their heavier breathing.

Please consider NOT using South Street as a running path during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dougherty wrote.

Many of our restaurants are utilizing outdoor dining to keep their businesses afloat. Diners will not be wearing face masks while eating and patronizing these restaurants, he added.

South Street is a major draw in Morristowns downtown and also popular with runners, with some using it as a way to reach a nearby county park and its trail network. U.S . Sen. Cory Booker led a group run that culminated on South Street in 2013, during his first campaign for Senate, and a running store is among the businesses on the street.

South Street in Morristown as seen in October 2019.Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for

Doughertys request  he made no indication of seeking to enforce a running ban on the street  goes further than Gov. Phil Murphys executive orders aimed at encouraging at least 6 feet of social distancing for everyone in New Jersey.

Murphy regularly runs with his wife, Tammy, and posts photos to social media in which both are shown wearing masks. The governor has mandated face coverings for anyone, not just runners, who are unable to maintain the 6 feet of social distancing.

Doughertys request drew support from one local runner, who told NJ Advance Media it made sense. Heather McDermott said barriers were recently placed on South Street, aimed at protecting outdoor diners from cars, and runners generally use the sidewalks.

McDermott said she runs on South Street, but only between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m.

In the evening, I just wouldnt run there. Theres too many people. You dont want to crash into a waiter with a tray of food, McDermott said.

She recommended that runners switch to Maple Avenue, which is parallel to South Street.

Dougherty, in his Facebook post, noted that runners in Morristown have plenty of other options.

Morristown has many beautiful side roads, trails and parks that are perfect for our runners and walkers, the mayor wrote.

This is not Doughertys first request pertaining to the coronavirus.

In late April, he asked anyone visiting Morristowns downtown to wear a face covering and that masks would be provided upon request to anyone contacting town hall.

He did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust.

Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com.
I slamic State bride Shamima Begum should be allowed to return to the UK to fight to regain her British citizenship, senior judges ruled today.

Begum, right, was 15 when she left Britain with two friends to join IS in 2015, marrying a jihadi fighter in Syria and spending more than three years in terrorist-controlled territory.

After news broke in February last year that she was in a Syrian refugee camp, then home secretary Sajid Javid stripped her of British citizenship on national security grounds.

Begum, who grew up in east London, was denied permission to fly back to the UK to challenge the decision, and a Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) then ruled that she had not been rendered stateless by Mr Javids decision as she is a citizen of Bangladesh by descent.

Three judges at the Court of Appeal today ruled that the case had been mishandled, and Begum should be given the chance to bring an appeal in person in the UK.

I have reached the firm conclusion that given that the only way in which she can have a fair and effective appeal is to be permitted to come into the United Kingdom to pursue her appeal, fairness and justice must, on the facts of this case, outweigh the national security concerns, said Lord Justice Flaux.

The judge, sitting with Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Singh, found that the national security concerns about her could be addressed and managed if she returns to the United Kingdom.

Sajid Javid revoked Shamima's British citizenship on security grounds last year / BBC

If the Security Service and the Director of Public Prosecutions consider that the evidence and public interest tests for a prosecution for terrorist offences are met, she could be arrested and charged upon her arrival in the United Kingdom and remanded in custody pending trial, he added.

The judges found that SIAC should not have dealt with Begums appeal without her, saying: It is difficult to conceive of any case where a court or tribunal has said we cannot hold a fair trial, but we are going to go on anyway.

The government had fought the case, insisting that proper process had been followed and Ms Begum had been the architect of her own situation rather than the decision taken by Mr Javid.

Ms Begum, now 20, was one of three schoolgirls from Bethnal Green Academy who flew from Gatwick Airport to Istanbul, Turkey, on February 17 2015, before making their way to Raqqa in Syria.

She has told journalists she married IS fighter Yago Riedijk within ten days of arriving in the terrorist-controlled territory, and openly discussed life under the extremist regime.

Shamima travelled to Syria in 2015 (Photo by Laura Lean - WPA Pool/Getty Images) / Getty Images

Ms Begum said she had two children with Mr Riedijk but they have since died. She was heavily pregnant when news of her situation broke, but the third child also died shortly after being born.

The court today found that neither Mr Javid not SIAC had considered the risks of serious injury or death that Ms Begum faces in the refugee camp or if transferred to Bangladesh or Iraq. The case will now be sent back to SIAC to be considered afresh.

Daniel Furner, Shamima Begum's solicitor, said the judgement was an "important reminder that fairness and the rule of law remain cornerstones of the British legal system".

"Justice cannot be defeated, or indefinitely delayed, because a case is difficult or because national security is engaged," he said in a statement.

"Fundamental rights are not extinguished because a person is abroad, or because the allegations against them are serious."

Rallying call: Sajid Javid (Photo: Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images) / Getty Images

He added: "Ms Begum has never had a fair opportunity to give her side of the story. The court itself noted the obvious difference between interviews given to journalists, and instructions provided to a solicitor in court proceedings.

"Ms Begum is not afraid of facing British justice, she welcomes it. But the stripping of her citizenship without a chance to clear her name is not justice  it is the opposite."

Human rights organisation Liberty, which intervened in Ms Begums appeal, welcomed the ruling.

Liberty lawyer Katie Lines said: "The right to a fair trial is not something the Government can take away on a whim. It is a fundamental part of our justice system and equal access to justice must apply to everyone.

"Banishing someone is the act of a Government shirking its responsibilities and it is critical that cruel and irresponsible Government decisions can be properly challenged and overturned."
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Linkedin Moch. Fiqih Prawira Adjie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 16, 2020 09:23 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666b30fe 1 National novel-baswedan,Novel-acid-attack,KPK,KPK-rift,Corruptors-fight-back,corruption-eradication-commission Free

Senior corruption investigator Novel Baswedan has expressed skepticism over the trial of his suspected attackers as the North Jakarta District Court prepares to issue its verdict on Thursday.

Novel said that it was difficult for him to remain hopeful about the legal proceedings.

"It's hard to speak of hope when the trial has deviated far from the facts of the incident. Not to mention the many irregularities and important witnesses who were intentionally not questioned," the senior investigator of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) e said on Wednesday, as quoted by kompas.com.

He continued that the judges should not push for punishing the defendants by manipulating the facts or fabricating evidence, and instead urged the court to find them not guilty if there was not enough evidence to support a guilty verdict.

State prosecutors have demanded a one-year prison sentence for the defendants, policemen Chief Brig. Ronny Bugis and Brig. Rahmat Kadir Mahulette, who allegedly threw sulfuric acid on Novel, permanently blinding him in one eye.

They were charged with Article 355 of the Criminal Code for planned assault. The article carries a maximum sentence of five years.

The light sentence demand sparked public outcry over the prosecutors' argument that the defendants "accidentally" threw the acid into Novel's face in April 2017. Novel's legal team also said that the prosecution neglected to summon several key witnesses, including Novels three neighbors.

Activists and members of the public also raised speculation that the two policemen were mere scapegoats and that the mastermind behind the planned attack was still at large.

Read also: Prosecutors reject defense arguments in Novel acid attack case

Novel also expressed his own doubts that the defendants were the real perpetrators, asking why two low-ranking police officers would target a KPK investigator in charge of high-profile cases.

The defendants have cited a "personal grudge" as their reason for carrying out the attack.

Ahead of the verdict, Novel's legal team expressed its hope that the judges would be objective and independent in ruling on the case. It also urged the Supreme Court to ensure that the judicial panel presiding over the trial would "act objectively and not take part in a misguided trial".

"[We also urge] President Joko Widodo to form an Independent joint fact-finding team, which we believe could uncover the attack on the KPK investigator, Novel Baswedan," lawyer Kurnia Ramadhana said in a statement released on Wednesday.

"If this is not done, then we deserve to say that the President failed in guaranteeing the safety of his citizens, given that the National Police and the Attorney General's Office are directly under the President, adding to that the fact that the victim is a law [enforcement agent]," the statement read.

KPK Employees Association chairman Yudi Purnomo also expressed hope that the attack on Novel would be fully uncovered to deter others from threatening law enforcement officers.

"The public will certainly be watching to see whether the judges will punish [the defendants] lightly as the prosecutors demanded, or punish them harshly because the perpetrators attacked [a member of] the state apparatus in charge of eradicating corruption," Yudi told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

"Maybe [the judges will] even clear the defendants because the facts [presented] in the trial prove that they are not the culprits," he suggested.

"But what is clear to us is that the long road to solving a case that has been going on for more than three years is not yet over. Because the [mastermind] has not been revealed over the course of the trial, and the motive for the attack remains unclear," he said, noting that the case was built entirely around the defendants confessions.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 15

By Nargiz Sadikhova  Trend:

Global coronavirus crisis and low oil prices bring major challenges to global trade, and will naturally affect trade relations between Finland and Kazakhstan, a representative of Finlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Trend.

The official said that currently Finland and Kazakhstan have well-established economic relations, although the trade numbers have been relatively low lately.

"The level of Finnish exports to Kazakhstan has remained steady during the past few years, while the imports from Kazakhstan to Finland has fluctuated," the official said.

In her words, since late 2018, the level of Kazakh imports to Finland has been significantly lower than the level of Finnish exports to Kazakhstan.

Thus, she said, Finnish exports to Kazakhstan amounted to 139.5 million euros in 2019, while the Kazakh exports to Finland amounted to 10.08 million euros.

"The global coronavirus crisis and low oil prices bring major challenges to global trade, and this will naturally affect the trade relations between Finland and Kazakhstan as well," the official said.

The official noted that the volume of Finnish exports to Kazakhstan was 11.8 percent lower in 1Q2020 than in 1Q2019, while the number volume Kazakh imports to Finland was 46 percent lower during the reporting period compared to 1Q2019.

"We are hoping that the trade numbers will pick up again once the situation starts to normalize," the MFA official said.

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Defence Headquarters has said that 602 repentant Boko Haram members swore Oath of Allegiance to the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the last one week.

The Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, John Enenche, disclosed this while giving an update on the Armed Forces of Nigeria operations between July 9 and July 16 at a news conference Thursday in Abuja.

Mr Enenche, a major-general, said the repentant Boko Haram members relinquished their membership of the terrorist group and underwent De-radicalisation, Rehabilitation and Re-Integration (DRR) programme by Operation SAFE CORRIDOR.

According to him, the ex-insurgents who have completed DRR programme at Malam Sidi Camp took the Oath before an 11 member quasi-judicial panel.

The reason behind the Oath of Allegiance is to emphasise their loyalty, discipline and obedience to the Federal Republic of Nigeria and thereby making a commitment.

The implication is that, at the end of the programme, if they commit any offence, they stand to forfeit all privileges and will be liable for offence against the State.

It is heartwarming to state that Operation SAFE CORRIDOR has successfully coordinated the DRR programme for 882 ex Boko Haram members including the 280 earlier graduated.

Thus, the message here is clear to others out there; surrender and be profiled accordingly for the DRR privilege, he said.

According to him, troops of Operation LAFIYA DOLE (OPLD), in the North-East, conducted several operations at various locations, which led to the neutralisation of terrorists, destruction of their equipment and structures as well as recovery of various items.

He said that this was in addition to several air bombardments at different terrorists locations at the fringes of the Sambisa forest and Bulabulin in Damboa Local Government Area.

He said that several BHT/ISWAP criminals and gun trucks were also deleted during the period.

Also, within the period, troops of Operation SAHEL SANITY in the North West rescued five kidnapped victims who were abducted in Isa and Sabon Birni Local Government Areas of Sokoto State.

The abductees were kidnapped in June. Troops also arrested five members of Yan Sakai group as well as a gun fabricator along Maga-Kyabu-Tadurga village.

Equally, troops of Operation SAHEL SANITY backed by the Air Component of Operation HADARIN DAJI neutralised six armed bandits in an encounter that took place on July 14 at Komani Hills within Rukudawa general area of Zamfara State.

Arms and ammunition including 34 motorcycles were recovered, he said.

Mr Enenche said that within the week under review, 714 rustled livestock comprising 302 rustled cows and 412 sheep were recovered in Zamfara State.

He said that the successes recorded within the period had brought about a renewed vigour and determination on the side of the gallant troops in tackling the security challenge in the North-West zone of the country.

The Military High Command, according to him, commends all the gallant troops of the Armed Forces and personnel of other security agencies involved in various operations across the country for their unwavering commitment and dexterity.

Troops are further encouraged to remain resolute and decisive in curtailing the activities of the enemies of the country. The High Command, also reassures the general public of its commitment to securing the country.

Members of the general public are, as always, enjoined to continue providing timely information on the activities of criminals in their various localities to the nearest military and other security agencies location for prompt action, he said.

(NAN)
It is now a practice, before a public event, to have an Indigenous land acknowledgment. Is this mere tokenism under the guise of Truth and Reconciliation with Indigenous communities, even when our province continues to have a colonial name, flag and coat-of-arms?

British Columbia was chosen on July 24, 1858, by Queen Victoria, a monarch who never set foot in these parts. Her decision, said to be hesitant, was unilateral and without consultation with the people who lived here, who, for the most part were Indigenous.

Vancouver Island was a British colony for just 22 years. The mainland was a colony for 13 years. British rule ended in 1871.

Yet we cling to the British moniker while ignoring both the 10,000 years or more that Indigenous communities inhabited these lands, and our 149 years in the Canadian Confederation.

Some will argue that a name change will dishonour British roots and heritage, and, oh yes, tradition. They conveniently forget the roots, heritage and traditions of our Indigenous communities, who have lived here for more than 10,000 years, and, those of us who are not of British ancestry (today a minority).

We are not British. And Columbus never came here. We have laboured under this colonial pretension for too long.

The government should ask the Indigenous peoples to come up with a new name that will reflect the provinces history, awesome grandeur, diverse biogeoclimatic zones and its mosaic of cultures.

The new name could be proclaimed on the 150th anniversary of the provinces entry into the Canadian confederation on July 20, 2021.

A new name will demonstrate solid confidence in ourselves as a province that is inclusive of all its residents, not one clinging to coattails of British colonists.
WASHINGTON  For the last year, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn sat back while Democrats duked it out in a bitter fight for their partys nomination.

The three-term Republican incumbent raked in cash as he played up the Democrats intraparty feud in campaign ads and on Twitter.

Now, the battle is coming to Cornyn. Democrats have settled on their challenger: MJ Hegar, a decorated Air Force combat veteran and suburban mother who they hope will have crossover appeal. And she has wasted no time going on the offensive.

When somebody who has been in statewide elected office for nearly four decades meddles in a Democratic primary for the first time in his career, I think it shows he knows what we know, which is: He is vulnerable, Texans are done and they are looking for something better, Hegar told Hearst Newspapers on Wednesday.

TROUBLE COMING TO JOHN CORNYN: MJ Hegar defeats Royce West in Democratic U.S. Senate runoff

Democrats insist that the momentum is finally in their favor: Voter registration is soaring in Texas, and President Donald Trumps poll numbers are flagging. Still, Cornyn has much to be confident about as he heads into what many expect to be his most difficult reelection battle yet.

Polls show the senator leading by as many as 13 points, and he just posted what his campaign says is his strongest fundraising quarter yet, yielding more than $14 million with which to shape voter sentiments. His campaign embarked on that effort Wednesday, releasing a video that called Hegar Elizabeth Warren on a motorcycle.

Hegar, who spent heavily during the last leg of the Democratic primary runoff, had less than $1 million on hand by the end of June.

The closing weeks proved to be very damaging to MJ Hegar and her allies, Cornyns campaign manager, John Jackson, wrote in a memo about the race. A fractured party and lack of financial support from grassroots voters are ominous signs for any candidate, much less one who also needs to overcome structural challenges.

Senator Cornyn and the Republican Party of Texas havent taken anything for granted since 2018, producing 100,000 new GOP voters over the past year alone, the memo said. With thousands of volunteers, field organizers around the state and a sophisticated voter contact program, Republicans in Texas remain on the offensive and Democrats remain ideologically out of touch.

Democrats are confident they can overcome all that. In Hegar, they have a candidate with potential crossover appeal, especially in the suburbs, where voters began to move away from Trump in 2018 and where the party hopes to gain more ground in November.

RUNOFF ROUNDUP: Who won and lost in runoff elections across Texas

Hegar brushed aside the notion that Democrats emerged divided from the tense final weeks of the long primary, when her opponent, state Sen. Royce West, accused Hegar of being a secret Republican. Hegar called West a part of a broken system, a politician who had become rich in office and had legislated in his own best interests.

The Cornyn campaign on Wednesday called Texas Democrats fractured.

If that was true, they wouldnt have to say it, Hegar said in response. They are trying to wish something into existence in a last-ditch hope they can save Cornyn.

Texas has added nearly 600,000 new voters since 2018  nearly 150,000 of whom have registered since March. Nearly 1 million Democrats cast ballots in the Senate primary, far more than is typical for a summer runoff and more than twice the number of ballots cast in the partys last statewide runoff in 2018.

Any Republican in Texas should be nervous right now, said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston. Theres a changing tide in the state, and the energy in the Democratic Party, combined with dislike of Donald Trump, makes every seat potentially in play.

Still, Rottinghaus said, Cornyn is in a better position than a lot of Republicans.

Hes seen these changes from a long horizon and has been planning for this for a lot of years, Rottinghaus said. Hes got obvious advantages. Hes got more money, hes got better name recognition and hes got the capacity to define Hegar before things take off for real.

Jacksons memo paints Hegar as a candidate who is really good at sharing her bio, but not policy specifics, and who needed support from the Democratic establishment in Washington and national progressive groups to make it out of the runoff.

Hegar is backed by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, as well as groups such as EMILYs List, both of which paid for pro-Hegar advertising in the runoff campaign.

The memo ties Hegar to Warren, who endorsed Hegar in the runoff. It notes that Warren, as a Democratic presidential candidate, campaigned on the Green New Deal, Medicare for All and a ban on fracking  issues that are anathema to the majority of Texans.

Most days, Hegar sounds a lot like a practiced politician when it comes to avoiding direct answers and delivering talking points, the memo said.

TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox

Hegar disagreed. Ive always been very transparent and clear about what Im fighting for, she said.

Her campaign released a video on Wednesday saying shes building a grassroots army across Texas and touting the millions of dollars she has raised from 56,000 donors.

I think that they are very uncomfortable with the fact that I am connecting so well with regular working Texans, because I am one, she said. It just does not compute for them  They just believe the wealthy, powerful special interests are going to be enough to carry them through, but those wealthy powerful special interests are not stronger than the will of the Texas voters.

Despite the professed confidence of the Cornyn campaign, the senator would rather have faced West, who after nearly three decades in the Texas legislature is a known commodity with an extensive voting record.

Hegar, by contrast, is a self-described badass motorcyclist whose only previous experience in elective politics was a 2018 congressional run.

She grew up outside Austin and lives in Round Rock. As an Air National Guard pilot, Hegar served three tours in Afghanistan on rescue missions. She was wounded in 2009 when her helicopter was shot down by the Taliban. She returned fire while riding on the helicopters skids. She was awarded a Purple Heart and became the second woman awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with valor.

I definitely think that West would have been the preferred candidate for us, said Brendan Steinhauser, a GOP strategist who ran Cornyns 2014 campaign but who is not affiliated with the senators current reelection effort. He said the race will be competitive, though he thinks Cornyn will win.

Youre going to have, I think, two candidates who wont have a problem with their base, who can compete for the independent and swing voters and who have a history of appealing to those segments of the population that are up for grabs, he said. So I think its going to be very interesting.

ben.wermund@chron.com
United States Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo speaking at the National Constitution Center on Thursday. Read more

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that American values are under attack as he touted the work of an advisory commission he appointed to examine how U.S. human rights policies can better uphold the nations founding principles.

The panel has been controversial, with political critics expressing fear it will result in attacks on abortion rights and the rights of LGBT people around the world.

In remarks at the National Constitution Center, Pompeo also took aim at protesters and media reports following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, saying many have pushed a view of a nation made up solely of the oppressors and the oppressed.

Instead of seeking to improve America, leading voices promulgate hatred of our founding principles, he said. This is a dark vision of Americas birth. I reject it. It is a slander on our great people.

Held in the upstairs atrium at the Constitution Center, the event was hosted by the Commission on Unalienable Rights and was attended by more than 100 people despite a city health order prohibiting indoor gatherings of 25 or more people due to the coronavirus. Guests were required to wear masks, and chairs for audience members were spaced six feet apart.

The event came a day after Gov. Tom Wolf announced new restrictions aimed at limiting the spread of COVID-19. Earlier this week, Philadelphia city officials canceled a slew of large outdoor gatherings until next February, including the Broad Street Run and the Mummers Parade, saying the ban was needed to prevent a rebound in infections.

 READ MORE: No large events in Philly through February: Were going to have to live with this virus for a long time

Deana Gamble, spokeswoman for Mayor Jim Kenney, said that the city learned of the Pompeo event several days ago, and that the Constitution Center staff shared the citys health guidelines with organizers.

Mayor Kenney believes its irresponsible to convene in-person events and large gatherings of any kind at this stage of the pandemic, she said.

The Constitution Center has been closed since mid-March because of the coronavirus. Spokesperson Annie Stone said the State Department rented the venue and provided most staffing for the event.

We have made their team aware of the revised state guidelines that came out yesterday afternoon about indoor gatherings and requested compliance, she said in an email.

The advisory commission, which on Thursday released its first report, was convened by Pompeo with the goal of reevaluating how the nation should approach human rights issues abroad, and whether foreign policy decisions are rooted in the countrys bedrock beliefs.

Pompeo has said the reexamination of human rights is warranted because the meaning of the phrase has been weakened due to a proliferation of rights that arent inherent but are bestowed on citizens by their governments. More rights does not necessarily mean more justice, he said Thursday.

The group is led by Mary Ann Glendon, former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican and a Harvard Law School professor, who is known for her opposition to abortion rights and same-sex marriage.

Human rights activists have sued Pompeo over the study group, alleging that he violated federal law by filling it with members who have staked out positions hostile to LGBTQ and reproductive rights while excluding established human rights organizations, according to the organization Democracy Forward. The suit also alleges that the commission has operated behind closed doors and failed to release key public documents.

The panel has not reached final recommendations.

The Pennsylvania Democratic Party on Thursday called the event a cheap political rally designed to appease Trumps far-right donors.

Instead of working to address the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, which has claimed the lives of nearly 7,000 Pennsylvanians, Donald Trump is sending one of his lackeys to double down on their anti-LGBTQ+, antichoice agenda, spokesperson Andres Anzola said in a statement. This is not an official event worthy of the office of the secretary of state.
Zhang Jin's day usually begins with the clicks of sewing machines. Tailor-making qipao dresses for customers across the country, the day slips by before he knows it.



The qipao, a traditional Chinese dress for women, has long been popular for its unique status as a Chinese icon of elegance.

In 1987, at the age of 15, Zhang started to learn garment-making from the descendants of "Hongbang tailors," who are believed to have made China's first Western-style clothes. They are also thought to have fashioned the first Chinese tunic suit, also known as the Zhongshan suit, after Sun Yat-sen, a renowned statesman who led the revolution that ended imperial rule in China.

"We followed a conventional rule at that time," Zhang recalled. "As an apprentice, I was in charge of all chores, including cooking, cleaning and doing the laundry. Only if you did these for two years would you be allowed to learn clothes-making skills."

During his first three months, Zhang had to learn buttonholing skills and the correct use of a thimble, as well as ironing and hemming clothes every day.

Once he had a good grasp of these basic skills, Zhang stepped up to make pants.

"At the very beginning, I could make only three pairs of pants a day, then five, ten, and twenty pairs a day at the highest speed," Zhang said.

Finally, Zhang was allowed to learn qipao-making, which is known for its complexity and the extensive range of procedures involved. After a three-year training, he opened a garment-making shop in Jinan, capital of Shandong.

However, with the industrialization of garment-making in the 1990s, which brought low prices and a wide range of styles in polyester, demand for handmade clothes fell off. Zhang's shop was hit hard. He had to turn to other business, including selling fresh-cut flowers and operating restaurants.

Traditional Chinese garments regained popularity in 2001, after the meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum in Shanghai, at which leaders from many countries wore traditional Tang suits.

Seizing the opportunity, Zhang returned to the garment industry in 2006. "Every family wants to wear traditional clothes during the Spring Festival, and more and more people are starting to wear the qipao," he said.

The qipao originated from gowns worn by women in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Influenced by Western culture, the qipao changed continually during the early 20th century, becoming more fitted and body-hugging, with side slits that reached up to the thigh. During the 1930s and 1940s, it gradually evolved into its current form.

Unlike qipao dresses from the assembly line, Zhang tailors the garments on the basis of the customer's figure. He takes more than 20 measurements to ensure the uniqueness of every dress, and uses different fabrics and designs to suit each person's body shape and different occasions.

"Each qipao is a one-of-a-kind product," Zhang said.

He also believes that, while electric sewing machines are now common, they cannot replace hands. So, he insists on a combination of sewing by hand and using non-electric machines.

"A qipao must go through dozens of processes, from measuring to forming," said Zhang, adding that just a narrow piece of edging needs to go through nearly 10 procedures, taking three to four days to complete.

Zhang has adjusted his designs to keep pace with developments in aesthetic taste. The modern qipao has a zipper stitched into the side and a fake fastening on the front. Traditionally, the front was fastened by pankou knots, but these are now only used for decoration, which saves a lot of time.

In Zhang's view, the qipao is not just a simple dress that covers people's bodies, but a garment that embodies traditional Chinese etiquette and culture. With collars that stick upwards rather than folding, the qipao causes people to raise their heads and push out their chests. It also discourages bad habits, such as glancing right and left.

Zhang has many regular customers, including some that have never visited him in person. One customer from the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen sent her body measurements to Zhang. Based on these, Zhang sent her a sample qipao to try on, and the customer sent back the sample with her feedback for further adjustments. The customer ordered a dozen qipao from Zhang's shop in 2019 alone.

Learning that an increasing number of youngsters have become interested in the traditional qipao-making technique, Zhang has recruited more than ten apprentices, one after the other, teaching them skills in their spare time.

Zhang also participates in handicraft-themed lectures or seminars, through which he introduces qipao-making techniques, hoping that more people will learn about and fall in love with the traditional dress.
Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn says the length of Melbourne's lockdown will have an important impact on the economy amid high levels of uncertainty among borrowers who have deferred their loans in response to the pandemic.

The head of the country's biggest bank also said he expected next week's budget update would involve continuing support for parts of the economy in the greatest need after stimulus efforts so far had been highly effective in supporting growth.

As the bank carries out three-month "check-ins" with customers who have put their mortgage payments on hold in response to the pandemic, Mr Comyn said it was too early to gauge the effect of Melbourne's lockdown on CBA customers, though it was clearly a setback.

Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn said the dominant theme emerging from its check-ins with customers was uncertainty. Credit:Louie Douvis

Mr Comyn said about 20 per cent of CBA customers who had deferred their loans nationally had resumed repayments and the bank was optimistic more would do so, but this would be influenced by events in Victoria.
Thursday's announcement was expected to reduce the number of attendees  even regular delegates  who make the trip to Jacksonville, in most cases spending thousands of dollars of their own money to attend a convention that will lack many of the traditional festivities. Already some had been having second thoughts about going, given that some states have imposed 14-day quarantine orders on people returning from virus hot spots such as Florida.
Members of the National Guard patrol the Sonora mountain range, where nine members of the LeBaron community were killed on Monday in the municipality of Bavispe, Sonora state, Mexico, on Nov. 8, 2019. (Herika Martinez/AFP via Getty Images)

Mexicos President Turns Attention to Cartel-Plagued States

MEXICO CITYPresident Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is traveling to three of Mexicos most violent states this week to counter what many call a hands-off strategy toward drug cartels that has exacerbated tensions with state governors.

A surge in cartel killings in Guanajuato, Colima, and Jaliscoall states governed by opposition partiesis threatening to become a political quagmire of finger-pointing for Lopez Obrador ahead of 2021 midterm elections.

Together with Mexicos rising death toll from the coronavirus pandemic, the violence could bring an end to a honeymoon for the president who famously promised to tame organized crime with hugs not bullets and said Mexico is no longer in the business of detaining drug capos.

With an army and National Guard distracted by the coronavirus pandemic, construction projects, and dozens of other tasks that Lopez Obrador has assigned them, it is unclear how much the president can bring to the table to fight the cartels.

I am going to these states because they have the toughest problems with violence and especially homicides, Lopez Obrador said. I am going to support the people with my presence and tell them that despite the public, notorious differences we have with the state governments, this is a matter that concerns everyone and we have a duty to act together.

Mexicos president has swung between blaming governors for the countrys problems  at times even accusing them of being in cahoots with cartels  and embracing them.

But at his first stop in Irapuato, Guanajuato on July 15, the message was cooperation and coordination.

Gov. Diego Rodriguez announced that he had started participating in the presidents daily security cabinet briefings.

If I want more coordination, I do have to do more on my part, said Rodriguez, adding that he began participating earlier this month four days after gunmen killed 27 men in a drug rehabilitation center in Irapuato.

A group in Guanajuato called A Tu Encuentro or Finding You, which is fighting to find at least 135 people who have disappeared during the drug violence, released a video on July 14 asking for a meeting with the states governor and the president. It called for the two to set aside their differences.

I hope he (Lopez Obrador) comes to help, and that his visit helps solve the violence problem, and not just pour more fuel on the fire of the political confrontation between the state and the federal governments, group leader Jose Gutierrez said earlier.

All three of the states are seeing vicious cartel turf battles.

In Guanajuato, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the local Santa Rosa de Lima gang are engaged in a fight that has left more than 1,900 people dead in the first five months of this year, including the slaughter of the recovering addicts at a rehab center in Irapuato on July 1. According to Lopez Obrador, 70 percent of these killings occurred between criminal groups.

The federal government has installed National Guard barracks at several points in Guanajuato, but the guards and the army just conduct periodic patrols. The tough work of investigating, serving arrest warrants, and responding to emergency calls has been left largely to state and local police, who are clearly outgunned. In the first six months of this year, about 60 police officers have been killed in Guanajuato, according to the civic group Causa en Comun.

On July 15, Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval Gonzalez said there were 7,500 National Guardsmen in Guanajuato and Lopez Obrador applauded a dramatic decrease in fuel theft in the state.

The problem grew and has been allowed to grow, and we have to look at whether there has been collusion, that is, criminal conspiracy, between the criminals and officials, the president said after the massacre at Guanajuato rehab center.

While Lopez Obrador has pointed toward the opposition governors for the violence, the opposition cites his hands-off policy with cartels. In October, federal authorities ordered the release of a captured Sinaloa cartel leader after gunmen staged a massive attack to win his freedom. And homicides in the first year of his administration have run at about the same record levels of 35,620 as in 2019 of his predecessors term.

Gov. Rodriguez, of the conservative National Action Party, said that coordination between all levels of government is indispensable in order to reduce the violence.

Guanajuato is the biggest exporting state not located on the U.S. border and has tried to keep its industry untouched. But it may have become the epicenter of a much larger, titanic struggle between Mexicos two most powerful cartels: Jalisco and Sinaloa.

In a video posted in June, Jose Antonio Yepez, the leader of the Santa Rosa gang, spoke about allying himself with the Sinaloa cartel to fight off the incursion by Jalisco, which experts say may have already created a kind of proxy war in Guanajuato.

Even though it rankles me to work for these guys from the border or the guys from Sinaloa  I will serve any of those guys before I let the other ones come in, said a man identified as Yepez. While authorities would not verify the authenticity of the tape, Yepez has been known in the past for posting such videos on social media sites.

Lopez Obrador has also had public differences with the governor of Jalisco state, Enrique Alfaro, over everything from measures to limit the spread of coronavirus, to how to handle dissent and drug violence.

Alfaro has claimed the federal government has sought to destabilize Jalisco and threatened him.

Jalisco state has accounted for about 29 percent of all bodies pulled from clandestine burial pits since the start of Lopez Obradors administration. A total of 487 bodies were found in the state between Dec. 1, 2018, and the end of June.

Our country faces a common enemy, organized crime groups that seek to defeat the government, Alfaro wrote recently. Now is the time to close ranks.

By Mark Stevenson
MIDDLETOWN  Authorities are still seeking information surrounding the disappearance of Nina Coe of Middletown, who went missing July 16, 2105.

As the first couple months passed with no word on what happened that day, when her loved ones last had contact with Coe, then 56, and police issued a Silver Alert. In 2016, calls with information dwindled to two to three times a week, and soon after, once a month, her brother Michael Plourd said at the time.

Thursday marks the fifth anniversary of Nina Coes disappearance.

Ninas family will not be gathering on the south green this year due to COVID-19, Middletown police posted on its Facebook page Wednesday.

She would want us all to be safe, the family said in a statement.

Coe, who wears eyeglasses, has a tattoo on one leg, and a scar on the right side of her neck, has brown hair and blue eyes, stands 5 feet 2 inches tall, and weighs about 130 pounds, police said in the alert. She suffers from alcohol and pain medication dependency and has mental health issues, her family has said.

With everything that is going on in the world today, having a loved one who has gone missing makes it even more difficult. Lets help this family find their loved one. No matter how small you think the tip may be, it doesnt matter. It may be the one piece of the puzzle we needed to locate Nina, the police post said.

The family held a vigil that August on the South Green.

Six months before her disappearance, Coe had gone into remission from the metastatic cancer Plourde said traveled to her lungs, thyroid and glands.

We almost lost her. She went through hell, her Plourd has told The Press. She had extensive chemotherapy and the doctors caught it early. But she kicked it. It was a miracle, Plourde said. To survive that and then die ... he trailed off.

Anyone with information is asked to call 860-638-4000.
(TNS)  Nearly three-fourths of classes at Madison Area Technical College in Wisconsin will be delivered completely online this fall amid the COVID-19 pandemic, President Jack Daniels announced Wednesday.To accommodate the many programs teaching hands-on skills, 23% of classes will be a mix of online and in-person instruction. Just 7% of classes, mostly in the construction, advanced manufacturing, transportation and other technical fields, will be offered fully face to face.And like UW-Madison and several other institutions across the state, MATC plans to end face-to-face courses by Thanksgiving and move all instruction entirely online in the last few weeks of the semester.Of course, flexibility is key in the pandemic era. MATC, also known as Madison College, is prepared to pivot to completely online instruction earlier in the semester if COVID-19 cases continue to surge.What level of infection would warrant making that call? Daniels said there is no specific threshold and it would depend on the overall health of the community and guidance from local health officials.Health and safety is obviously our top priority, he said in an interview.Anyone coming to campus is required to complete a health questionnaire at least an hour before arriving at the college. Students and staff must wear masks. Plexiglas will surround front desks and welcome centers. There will be constant cleaning of facilities.Financial losses to date, along with estimated expenses for the fall, top $9 million  roughly 6% of the colleges annual budget, Daniels said.Technology barriersA few hundred students already returned to campus in late spring and over the summer to complete training that cannot be replicated online, providing a window into potential pitfalls that in-person instruction may pose in the fall.But Daniels said few, if any, problems were reported. There were no defiant students refusing to wear a mask. Spaced-out furniture reminded everyone to keep their physical distance.College leaders are still working through barriers associated with online classes, such as limited internet access or difficulty learning online amid all of the other disruptions COVID-19 has caused.The average Madison College student is 27 years old, Daniels said. Some have been laid off from their jobs because of the coronavirus. Others are parents waiting to hear how the Madison School District will operate this fall.The college expects to loan at least 1,000 laptop computers to students in need this fall. It also has Wi-Fi hotspots on hand for those with broadband barriers, a problem in the northern Reedsburg area of the colleges district. Computer labs will be opened up for students who cannot focus at home or need technological assistance.Were providing every bit of supplemental support for those students that we can, Daniels said. Its not just the devices but the support to go along with it.Because course development for the spring semester wraps up by the end of September, he expects the spring semester to closely mirror the fall term.Enrollment unclearWhile some community colleges across the country reported upswings in students withdrawing this spring, Daniels said there was little difference at MATC compared with past years.Summer enrollment, more than 90% of which was offered online, was 1% above summer 2019.Fall enrollment numbers are still in flux, he said. The college is seeing a double-digit decrease in enrollment, but thats much smaller than the decline the college saw a month ago.Were trending in the right direction, Daniels said.Starting this week, students will be able to look at the semesters course offerings and corresponding mode of instruction, which he said will solidify enrollment commitments for many of them.Classes start Aug. 31.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

The New Mexico Attorney Generals Office has taken over the prosecution of a former Las Cruces Police Department officer who it said killed a man using a vascular neck restraint during an arrest in February.

Christopher Smelser, the former officer, now faces second-degree murder charges. The 3rd Judicial District Attorneys Office in Dona Ana County had charged him with manslaughter earlier this year, but that case was dismissed without prejudice Thursday.

According to a charging document filed in the case Thursday, on Feb. 29, Smelser did kill Antonio Valenzuela without lawful justification or excuse, and without sufficient provocation, upon a sudden quarrel, or in the heat of passion, and the defendant knew that his acts created a strong probability of death or great bodily harm to Antonio Valenzuela.

Attorney General Hector Balderas said his office worked with the 3rd Judicial District Attorneys Office and determined the evidence necessitated the more serious charge, according to the release.

But Smelsers attorneys, Susana Macias Munoz and Amy Orlando, countered that the facts do not support any charges at all against their client.

The facts are what they are, and they do not support any charge against Mr. Smelser much less second-degree murder, Munoz wrote in a statement. There has been absolutely no new investigation and no new facts that would warrant the charge being amended from manslaughter to second-degree murder. This move is solely the AGs attempt at becoming relevant and keeping the case in the media spotlight.

Third District DA Mark DAntonio said his office is seeking to ensure justice is served for all parties.

Since this incident occurred, Attorney General Hector Balderas and his staff have been in contact with my office regarding this case, as well as police and law enforcement reforms and accountability for the use of deadly force including the ban placed on chokehold restraint techniques, DAntonio wrote in the news release. In the pursuit for justice and given the seriousness of the charges against Las Cruces Police Officer Smelser, we agreed that this case be adopted and prosecuted by the New Mexico Attorney General.

Sam Bregman, who represents Valenzuelas family, said they are very happy with the decision.

Its the first step in getting justice for Tony, Bregman said. We have been insisting all along since charges were first brought that this was a second-degree murder case and we are glad the Attorney Generals Office sees it in the same way. We applaud them in their decision in taking this case over.
Energy company SSE has vowed to continue with its plans to invest 7.5billion in green projects even as it predicts a dent of up to 250million in its profits this year.

The firm said it expects the majority of the financial hit to occur in the first six months of the fiscal year, which comes as the energy sector experiences a considerable fall in demand due to the coronavirus pandemic.

SSE produced 1,988 Gigawatt hours (GWh) of renewable energy in the three months to June 30, about 15 per cent beneath its initially expected output of 2,352 GWh, but over 100GWh more than its production for the same period last year.

SSE is a major investor in offshore wind farm projects in the UK, especially in Scotland

However, chief executive Alistair Phillips-Davies said the firm had been making progress with its low-carbon projects, even as he admitted 'the wider economic implication of the coronavirus continues to impact on the business.'

He also declared that the firm had successfully raised over 1billion in hybrid bonds and was committed to paying its dividends, which SSE stated was 'particularly vital given the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.'

The FTSE 100 business outlined its five-year proposal last month that would invest billions of pounds in new eco-friendly schemes.

580million in funding is expected to go towards the Viking onshore wind farm in the Shetland Islands. Expected to become operational in 2024, the site plans to have 103 wind turbines and supply around 475,000 houses with electricity.

It also pledged to reduce the carbon intensity of the power it produces by 60 per cent over the next decade instead of its initial target of 50 per cent.

SSE's focus on renewable power generation and networks accelerated after it sold its household energy supply and services arm to OVO Energy at the beginning of the year in a deal worth 500million.

SSE and Equinor's Dogger Bank project is planned to be completed in three phases over the next five years. They hope it will provide enough electricity for 4.5 million UK homes

'Whilst the wider economic implication of the coronavirus continues to impact on the business,' said Phillips-Davies, 'we've been investing in the green economic recovery and progressing our 7.5billion capex plan of low-carbon investments, primarily in renewables and electricity networks.

'At the same time, we are delivering the comprehensive financial plan we set out last month at our full-year results, continuing work on our disposal programme and successfully issuing over 1billion in hybrid bonds.'

SSE is still seeking to acquire capital for its Dogger Bank project off the northeast coast of England, which it boasts will be the biggest offshore wind project in the world when finished.

SSE's focus on renewable power generation and networks accelerated after it sold its household energy supply and services arm to OVO Energy at the beginning of the year

Jointly-run with the Norwegian energy firm Equinor, Dogger Bank is planned to be completed in three phases over the next five years. The two companies hope it will provide enough electricity for 4.5 million UK homes.

Another offshore wind project, the 3billion Seagreen development, aims to give power to about 1.3 million homes and is co-owned by SSE and the French oil and gas giant Total, whom SSE sold a 51 per cent stake to earlier this year.

The Seagreen wind farm is based in the Firth of Forth and is one of many of SSE's Scottish wind energy projects that also include Beatrice, the country's largest offshore wind farm, and Gordonbush in the Scottish Highlands.

Scotland and the wider United Kingdom are considered one of the premier markets for wind power, being home to four of the world's five biggest offshore wind farms; Beatrice, London Array, Walney Extension, and the largest, Hornsea One.

In the first three months of 2020, wind generated a record 30 per cent of the UK's electricity, with onshore and offshore sources producing about the same amount of energy.

Shares in SSE Energy were up 2.5 per cent to 1,397p by the end of trading.
By Donald Kirk





China is behaving like a caged beast growling, menacing, lashing out and baring its teeth at potential enemies on all sides. In the far northern reaches of India, Chinese forces have challenged Indian troops along what's called a "Line of Actual Control" (LAC) established after the Chinese nipped off portions of Indian territory in a flare-up nearly 60 years ago.



I was in India at the time, and I was there again seven years ago when the Chinese again challenged India along the LAC. Now the conflict is much worse. About 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the latest clash, and India would not seem to have the strength to stand up to incessant Chinese bullying even after moving up tanks in a defensive posture that the Chinese could probably brush aside if they decided to invade in earnest.



China, however, is facing so many hot spots that President Xi Jinping, masterminding his forces as if he were standing before a huge map, arrows pointing here and there, is constantly deciding where to go and how hard to push, might think it's not a good idea to press deeper into India. Not while the U.S. persists in sending aircraft carriers and other weaponry into the South China Sea, which China claims as its own and is proving the point by enlarging air and naval bases on strategic islands.



Growing restive, angered, looking for a fight, the Chinese are intensifying the pressure on Taiwan, the island state about 150 kilometers off the eastern coast that China goes on and on about, claiming it as part of the mainland. Xi knows, however, that he cannot quite risk a war for Taiwan as long as it's defended by the U.S., but he's found a much easier target in the form of Hong Kong, the one-time British colony that became part of China in name only after the British left in 1997.



Flouting the deal under which Hong Kong was supposed to be able to remain essentially on its own, self-governing, for 50 years, the Chinese are now firmly asserting their authority in the face of riots and demonstrations that challenged Chinese authority. Now a new law enacted at President Xi's behest means his police and soldiers, if necessary, can pretty much do as they please while Hong Kong citizens holding old British colonial passports flee elsewhere, mostly to Britain. Chinese from the mainland can only wish them good riddance even if they appeared dismayed by the decision of thousands to look for homes in more hospitable settings.



Up the coast, not far from Taiwan, the Chinese are almost daring the Japanese to increase their defenses around the Senkakus, an outcropping of small islands to which Japan tenaciously clings even though they are uninhabited. China has been claiming Diaoyu, the Chinese name for the islands, ever since a United Nations team nearly 50 years ago concluded that deposits of oil and natural gas probably existed near them though no one has confirmed the presence of such resources.



The Japanese actually took over the islands in 1895 when they also acquired Taiwan as a result of their victory over China in a war for supremacy in the region. Japanese Coast Guard vessels now defend them from encroaching Chinese fishing boats and other craft, firing water from powerful hoses if they venture too close, but that defense may not be enough. The next step for Japan would be to have its navy warships patrolling the waters, inviting attack that could turn into a war that neither side wants, at least for now.



Which brings us to Korea, North and South, and the Yellow Sea. China does not have to risk war for the Korean Peninsula. The North Korean regime could not exist without the constant support of China, which supplies the North with all its oil and half its food along with a host of other products. And South Korea, eager to renew dialog with North Korea in the quest for reconciliation, now has to appeal to China to promote the next step in inter-Korean interaction.



As South Korea's biggest trading partner, China would appear to hold the cards. Much as they might want to appear totally cooperative with both China and North Korea, President Moon Jae-in and the men around him face the issue of what to do about their relationship with the U.S., particularly the mutual defense treaty that's been in effect since shortly after the Korean War.



As in the case of all the other fronts around its periphery, the Chinese haven't quite decided how far to go in defending their erratic, unpredictable ally. They appear to be waiting for just the right moment  maybe when the U.S. has again reduced its troop strength in the South, now around 28,500. In a great balancing act, Xi Jinping has to decide where to punch and jab before delivering the final blows that would make China, undeniably, the strongman of Asia.





Donald Kirk, www.donaldkirk.com, has been covering the confrontation between China and surrounding powers for decades.


CHICAGO, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CNA Financial Corporation (NYSE: CNA) will report second quarter 2020 results before the market opens on Monday, August 3, 2020. The news release, earnings presentation and financial supplement will be available on CNA's website at www.cna.com. A conference call for investors and analysts is scheduled for 8 a.m. CT and will be hosted by Dino E. Robusto, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of CNA Financial Corporation.

A live webcast will be available via the Investor Relations section of www.cna.com. Those interested in participating in the question and answer session should dial (800) 289-0571, or for international callers, +1 (720) 543-0206. An online replay will also be available on CNA's website following the call.

About CNA

CNA is one of the largest U.S. commercial property and casualty insurance companies. CNA provides a broad range of standard and specialized property and casualty insurance products and services for businesses and professionals in the U.S., Canada and Europe, backed by 120 years of experience and more than $45 billion of assets. For more information about CNA, visit our website at www.cna.com.

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Iranian security forces fired tear gas on Thursday to disperse demonstrators gathered in the southwestern city of Behbahan, witnesses told Reuters, and there was a heavy presence of forces in other cities.

Videos posted on social media from inside Iran showed protesters chanting, "Fear not, fear not, we are in this together". Other videos showed a heavy presence of security forces in Tehran and Isfahan. Some protesters chanted slogans against top officials.

The videos on social media could not be verified by Reuters.

"People are angry. The economy is so bad that we cannot survive," said an Iranian man from Tehran, who asked not to be named due to security concerns, reached by telephone.

Irans clerical rulers have tried to prevent a revival of anti-government protests that took place last November, when thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the deadliest street violence since Iran's 1979 revolution.

Last year's unrest began with protests over economic hardship but turned political, with demonstrators demanding top officials to step down.

Iran's economy, hard hit by US sanctions that have choked off its oil exports, has since further deteriorated as a result of the coronavirus crisis in the past months.

Irans judiciary announced on Tuesday that the death sentences of three men involved in last year's anti-government unrest had been upheld, sparking a surge of online protests against their sentences.

Some people on social media called on people to stage demonstrations across the country on Friday to protest the death penalty for the three men. Iran's Tasnim news agency said the security forces had arrested "key elements of opposition groups ... who were encouraging people to protest on Friday in the northeastern Khorasan Razavi province".

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A father and his infant daughter are fighting for life after they were found unconscious in a bedroom overcome by gas in what police describe as a 'domestic violence incident'.

Police were called to a home in Eden Hills in Adelaide's south-east just after midnight on Thursday following a frantic Triple-0 call from the man's distraught wife.

She told the operator she found him and their three-year-old daughter unconscious in a 'gas filled bedroom'.

When police arrived, they discovered architect Shaun Mate, 43, and his little girl Eloise lying on the floor unresponsive.

His wife and the couple's six-month-old daughter were in another room at time and were unharmed.

Shaun Mate and his daughter Eloise (pictured together) remain in a critical condition after the pair were found unconscious in a 'gas filled bedroom'

Mr Mate and his daughter were treated at the scene before they were rushed to Flinders Medical Centre in a critical condition.

A police spokeswoman said the man and little girl both remained in critical on Thursday night.

Eloise was later transferred to the Women's and Children's Hospital and placed in a induced coma, with her mother remaining at her bedside.

Mr Mate is also in an induced coma under police guard.

It is understood doctors won't know for days whether either of them have suffered any permanent brain damage, if they survive.

Mr Mate's wife is a doctor with an interest in mental health.

The couple are also believed to be keen scuba divers and recently celebrated their five year wedding anniversary.

Crime scene investigators remained at the single storey home on Thursday, where they were seen leaving with several bags of evidence - including a computer hard drive, oxygen tanks and several gas cylinders.

Mr Mate's wife (pictured with her husband) made the frantic Triple-0 call just after midnight

Shaun Mate (pictured with paramedics on the stretcher) was rushed to Flinders Medical Centre, where he remained in a critical condition on Thursday night under police guard

Police also door-knocked nearby homes as they tried to piece together what happened.

They are investigating the circumstances of the incident, but is not considered to be random.

Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said the investigation was in its 'very early stages' but said it was believed to be a 'domestic violence related'.

'Obviously very tragic circumstances but at this stage the indications are that it may be domestic-violence related but it's too early for us to be specific about the causes,' he said.

Shaun Mate remains under police guard at Flinders Medical Centre in a critical condition

Police are trying to piece together how Shaun Mate and his daughter Eloise ended up unconscious in a 'gas filled bedroom'

He added the incident had taken a toll on the emergency workers who responded to the Triple-0 call.

'I can speak from personal experience and I think most police officers can as well, when you're involved in a set of circumstances that involves injury or harm to a small child it does make the job that much more difficult and there's a personal toll that comes with dealing with those sorts of situations,' Commissioner Stevens said.

'You can't take away from the fact that you're dealing with a tragic set of circumstances.'

Any potential charges won't be laid until officers are able to speak to Mr Mate when his condition improves.

'Once the treatment is provided and we have a clearer picture of exactly what's happened,' Commissioner Stevens said.

News of the harrowing incident shocked neighbours in Kinedana Street.

Shaun Mate and his wife, a doctor, recently celebrated their five year wedding anniversary

'We saw someone was being sent into the ambulance and someone was crying,' Ben Xiong told the Adelaide Advertiser.

Professor Vincent Megaw has lived in the quiet neighbourhood for three decades.

'It's just total disbelief,' he said.

'This is the most unquiet thing that has happened since we've been here.'

Betty Malavazos said her granddaughters played chasey with the little girl at a neraby park only a few days ago.

'She is a beautiful little girl  a sweet little girl  and I pray to god for her,' she told reporters.

Fellow neighbour Peter Kavouras' only thoughts were for the little girl.

'My heart goes out to her and I hope she pulls though as quickly as possible,' he said.

For confidential support call Lifeline: 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636.
We are responsible for the position were in, Scharf said. The balance sheet cap exists because leadership failed to both oversee and build the appropriate infrastructure of the company, and our financial underperformance is because leadership didnt make the difficult decisions necessary.

In February, Wells Fargo was slapped with a $3 billion fine for the fake-accounts scandal.

Scharf also said that the lending giants expenses were too high.

To repeat, there is nothing structurally different about Wells Fargo that should prevent us from being as efficient as our large peers, but we are far from it, he said. For us to bring our level of efficiency close to our peers, the math would tell you we need to eliminate over $10 billion of expenses.

Although Scharf did not mention it in the earnings call, Business Insider has reported that the bank intends to eliminate tens of thousands of jobs later this year as part of its cost-cutting effort.
American health-care workers still face dangerous shortages of personal protective equipment as the uncontrolled spread of Covid-19 fills hospitals across the nation and threatens patients and workers in long-term care facilities.

Dayna James, an emergency department nurse in Miami, said some days shes had to clean patient rooms with hand sanitizer because no disinfectant wipes were available. Other days she was rationed to three Clorox wipes per room. Like many colleagues around the U.S., she gets a single N95 mask per shift, which means she may bring a potentially contaminated mask into a new patients room, ignoring longtime standard practice.

Even that, were grateful to have one, James said.

With the virus now surging in many large states, led by Florida and Texas, the nationwide pace of demand for the N95 respirator masks that give health-care workers the best protection is 300 million a year, up from 25 million prior to the pandemic, according to Premier Inc., which helps hospitals and other health-care providers buy supplies. And its not just hospitals affected.

Almost one-fifth of nursing homes have less than a weeks worth of PPE, and the N95 masks designed to be used in health-care settings are scarce, according to a letter the industry groups for nursing homes and assisted living facilities sent to governors Tuesday. That shortages persist months into the pandemic response is very concerning, the groups wrote. Meanwhile, physicians trying to re-open medical offices have similar concerns.

PPE and disinfectants simply are not readily available from the usual sources our physicians use, the American Medical Association wrote in a recent letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Its a challenge compounded by competing demands: While facilities in some states including Florida and Texas are burning through their supplies quickly as their hospitalization rates surge, other states such as New York and New Jersey have seen a dramatic pullback in their immediate needs. Medical providers and government authorities fearful of a new wave of infections are now trying to build up stockpiles.

The situation makes it hard to gauge the true rate at which the country is using up scarce N95 masks. What we dont know is how many of those are going into these efforts to create stockpiles, said Chaun Powell, group vice president of strategic supplier engagement at Premier.

New Jersey Stockpile

New Jersey offers a case in point. Governor Phil Murphy said on Monday that his state aimed to build a stockpile that would last 30 or 90 days. But were not there yet, he said. We still dont have the PPE we need as a state or as a country. And thats just a fact.

Domestic output of N95 masks has increased, with new projections of 110 million N95s manufactured this year compared with 30 million before the pandemic, according to Premier. Still, Powell said his company is calling for better coordination of national and local stockpiles to head off future shortages.

Coronavirus cases rose 2% in the U.S. on Wednesday to 3.47 million, and deaths reached 136,940, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg News.

Nursing homes with older residents who are highly vulnerable to the virus and outpatient centers dealing with those suffering other ailments are particularly hard hit. Historically, they didnt need the kind of PPE now in demand, so they dont have longstanding relationships with suppliers, Powell said, making it harder to get scarce equipment.

Kim Smith, an intensive care nurse at an HCA Healthcare Inc. facility in Corpus Christi, Texas, echoed Dayna Jamess concerns about single-use N95 respirators. The staff in her facility use the same mask for the entire shift, she said, a practice that has become common to preserve supplies. At the end of the shift, the masks are collected for reprocessing.

Medical Gowns

In recent days, Smith said, shes had to wear the same gown in multiple patients rooms if its not visibly soiled, rather than getting a fresh gown for each patient as she usually would. The hospital expanded its intensive care capacity from 21 beds to 35, she said, noting theyre full of Covid patients.

Were in full surge mode, said Smith, who is a representative for the National Nurses United union. The hospitals are completely full. It feels like Covids everywhere.

Smith typically takes care of two critical patients at one time. On her shift Monday she was tripled with an additional patient to attend to. Shes noticed colleagues sidelined by illness, and worries about her own safety, or exposing her teenage son who lives with her.

The hospital has the supplies it needs and, like other hospitals, is following crisis standards of care according to guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Eric Deppert, chief medical officer at Corpus Christi Medical Center, in a statement provided by a hospital spokeswoman. That includes decontaminating N95 masks for re-use and extending the use of isolation gowns for staff treating multiple patients with the same infectious disease.

Protecting Colleagues

Despite a pandemic that continues to strain the global supply of PPE and presents unique challenges to hospitals everywhere, we remain focused on protecting our colleagues so they can continue to provide care to our communities, Deppert said.

Front-line workers say the new standards of care can sometimes leave them feeling exposed as the pandemic that blindsided the medical system in the spring accelerates.

In nursing school, I wouldve gotten written up with a big-time unsatisfactory mark, like in a simulation for bringing a potentially contaminated mask into a new patients room, James, the Miami emergency room nurse, said. And now thats the norm.

With assistance from Stacie Sherman.

About the photo: 3M Co. 8210V N95 particulate respirators are arranged for a photograph in Hong Kong, China, on Monday, April 6, 2020. 3M pushed back against a request from the Trump administration to halt exports of protective face masks, saying the move would cut off critical supplies for neighboring countries and raise significant humanitarian concerns.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
Last week, rapper Kanye West announced that he will run for President, and now he has taken his first official step. The rapper has filed with the Federal Election Commission and his name will be included in the ballot this November 2020.

Kanye for president

On July 15, Kanye filed the first form that is required by the FEC, which is the Form 1, Statement of Organization, declaring that the Kanye 2020 committee will serve as the "Principal Campaign Committee" with his as its candidate. His party is listed as BDY, which stands for Birthday Party. However, this is just the beginning.

The rapper still needs to file Form 2, Statement of Candidacy, which shows that he has raised or spent more than $5,000 in campaign activity and triggers candidacy status under federal campaign finance law.

Kanye filing his form came after reports stated on July 14 that he decided to end his campaign days after he announced that he was running for office. Hundreds of people are working for the rapper already but according to an election strategist, just hours before West filed the form, that the rapper is "out."

Also Read: Kim Kardashian Reveals How She Feels About Kanye West's Bipolar Disorder

On July 15, Steve Kramer, a strategist hired by the rapper to get his name on the ballot in South Carolina and Florida, told Intelligencer that he will let the public know what he knows once he gets all of their stuff canceled. He said that there are around 180 people supporting the rapper's campaign and he has nothing good or bad to say about West.

According to TMZ, although West's hired staff said that the rapper's bid for president is off, the FEC tells a different story. Even though West finished the first form to run for president, he still has to file Form 2. The FEC filing shows that funds of Kanye's campaign will go through First Bank of Wyoming.

Kanye's announcement about his presidency came after he said that he wanted to move his family to the deep red state and he is allegedly in the process of building a massive mansion there, as reported by The DailyMail.

West's supporters

Reality star and Kanye's wife, Kim Kardashian West, reposted the rapper's tweet along with an American Flag emoji, showing his support for her husband. Elon Musk, West's friend and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, also showed his support on Twitter.

However, West's presidency is doomed even before it started because the deadline to get on the presidential ballots of certain states had already passed.

The deadline to register to get on the ballot for the election this November has already passed in six states - New York, North Carolina, Texas, Maine, Indiana, and New Mexico- and the deadline for seven other states are coming up before the end of July.

If the estimation is based on the 538 Electoral College votes, he would already be missing out on 102. West would need to move fast to avoid losing out on 85 Electoral College votes because the deadline to get on the ballot in West Virginia, Florida, Colorado, Missouri, Michigan, South Carolina, and Oklahoma are coming up in July.



Related Article: Fact Check: Is Whoopi Goldberg Dying? Tabloid Claims Actress is 'Wilting Away'

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Nigeria, despite its never stop heightened national challenges, it is still a nation under the Rule of Law.

Under our nations democratic laws, no one should have the unrestrained exercise of power over any other citizen, and the recent events in our nation shows that there is need to put a limit or check to the behavior of officials who think they are not subject to the laws of the land.

In a shameful and embarrassing ways, across national and international media we all saw the open official sores and verbal fights, between the Niger Delta Affairs Minister, Godswill Akpabio, and the former Managing Director of the Niger-Delta Development Commission, Joi Nunieh.

Then in a more disgraceful way, a full blown slap to the rule of law would take place by the illegal invasion of the residence of Nunieh, by the Nigeria Police ( https://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2020/07/16/wike-rescues-ex-nddc-md-nunieh-from-police-moves-her-to-government-house/ )

Nunieh, narrated to the media, how without warrant of search and arrest, multiple armed police officers broke her residential gate and tried to break the security door to her home.

Mr President, no matter her civil or criminal offenses if any, the open question is why should a citizen be subjected to this type of earlier hours terror and cruelty, in a State where we have the Courts from where a legitimate warrant can be obtained at any time.

The victim in an attempt to protect her life and property, desperately made phone calls including one to a Senator, Magnus Abe who then called the Police Commissioner Joseph Mukan, who reportedly denied knowledge of the intrusion but promised to quickly come to her residence to rescue her.

Still under acute fear and insecurity, she was informed of the CPs arrival only to find out he did not show up, instead a senior police officer under the CP, appeared, and risking her life more she opened the door at which time she stated that the police officers tried to grab her.

Still under huge pressure and danger, she was able to safely close her doors, and fortunately she finally reached the Nyesom Wike, the Rivers State Governor.

The Governor quickly arrived at the scene, rescued her from apparent police kidnapping and illegal invasion.

The media reports that she is currently no longer under police siege, and now under government protection at the Government House, Port Harcourt( https://allnews.ng/news/nunieh-vs-akpabio-how-wike-rescued-me-from-police-as-they-were-about-breaking-my-room-s-door-ex-nddc-dg ).

Mr President, the victim has now directly accused the Minister and the Police of apparently working together to capture her, especially on a day when she was due to appear before a House of Representatives panel, probing abuses at the Niger Delta Development Commission.

Mr President and Governor Wike, for this naked abuse from the executive branch of the government which include the reported conducts of the Minister and the Police who were present apparently under the command of a State police Commissioner. However, there is now general denial from the nations police force. This itself is strange.

Since there is now this line of denial by the Nigeria Police that the police officers who attacked the victim are not from the Rivers State command, makes it more important to find out if they came from another country or other commands. During this period for the purpose of a follow up investigation on the disorder, Akpabio and the CP should be briefly relieved and moved from their present offices. Pleading ignorance of this type of unlawful policing is no excuse.

What happened here, by all accounts is a form of oppression and threats to a citizen of our country.

This victim is to some extent, very lucky, as the average Nigeria does not easily have access to a Senator, and a Governor to save them from illegal invasion by the police.

Writing from the point of an observer, and having never met the two warring parties, to any reasonable mind the continued disdain for the Constitution and the rule of law remains troubling as we all try to grow our young democracy.

Prof John Egbeazien Oshodi, is a Forensic/Legal/Clinical/ Psychologist, a Police and Prison Scientist and the Chief Clinician at the STOP IT RIGHT NOW, a specialized Online and community-based program that is offered by the DR JOHN EGBEAZIEN OSHODI FOUNDATION (JEOF) a nonprofit Education and Psychological Forensic Behavioral organization. [email protected]
This is an opinion column.

These are things you cannot do.

For reasons of health. Ugh. And safety (insert eye roll here).

You cant keep bats as pets. Even in your own castle. Even if you already have a few up in the belfry.

In most states  Alabama is not one of them, as I understand it  you cant keep skunks in the living room either, but for some reason there hasnt been much of a stink made of that.

You cant go into Walgreens and buy as much Sudafed as it takes to get your nose running like a politicians mouth. Because meth made from pseudoephedrine was killing people  darn them. Meth makers have found other ways now, but you still have to deal with your own stuffiness.

You cant get high, by the way. Except on state-sanctioned spirits, and you cant make or sell those without special sanctioning. You know, people might die.

You cant grow a marijuana plant out beside your horseshoe pit. Somebody might die. I mean, they might get hit in the head with a horseshoe. Which is why you cant buy lawn darts to play in your backyard anymore. A lot of good parties were spoiled by impalement.

You cant spit on the sidewalk, even though Ive seen you do it.

You cant sell barbecue out of your house without a permit. You cant sell food at all without meeting a lot of complex safety requirements. You cant run a food truck without hot and cold running water. Im comfortable with that.

You cannot, in most places, sunbathe naked in your front yard. I wont.

You cannot ride the roller coaster unless you are taller than this.

You cant let the weeds in your yard grow over a certain height in my city. Because of snakes. And vermin. And Im not even talking about the city government.

You cannot put your baby in the back of your truck. You must wear a seat belt when you drive. You cannot darken your car windows to the point that police cannot see you inside. You cannot drive your car 100 miles an hour. You cannot decide that it is your car, and it looks much better without taillights. Not if you want to travel the roads with the rest of us.

In my county, you cant, for air quality reasons, burn anything in your back yard in the summertime except for burgers and steaks. In most places you cant burn anything during a drought, which is like a dryness epidemic.

You cant yell fire in a crowded theater. Even if you own the theater. Which would be a terrible business plan. Unless of course there is an actual fire. Then yell.

You cant ride your motorcycle without a helmet. You cant bring your gun into an airport. You cant pour your sewage into a river. Oh wait, under this Alabama Department of Environmental Management you probably can.

You cant do everything you want  in a thousand ways  at the expense of public safety and the health of other people.

Go figure.

So when people like Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth quack about how a statewide mask requirement during a pandemic is an infringement on property rights, theyre just spitting on the sidewalk.

When people like GOP Senate nominee Tommy Tuberville complain it is government overreach, theyre really just making a skunk into a pet.

I dont like the government telling us what we have to do, Tuberville says, as if the government never does that. Surely to goodness, we can protect our own selves without the government dictating every move that we make.

He must not have lived here very long.

John Archibald, a Pulitzer Prize winner, is a columnist for AL.com. His column appears in The Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register, Birmingham Magazine and AL.com. Write him at jarchibald@al.com.
* Africa faces $44 bln funding gap - IMF

* Businesses struggle as revenues sink

* Investors funding pharmaceutical supplies

* World Bank's IFC ramping up funding

* JPMorgan, MUFG piling in

By Tom Arnold

LONDON, July 16 (Reuters) - Blended finance, a mix of public and private capital, is set to boom in Africa to meet funding demand from businesses cash-strapped in the wake of COVID-19 and as investors seek safeguards against financial risks.

Africa has been hit hard by the pandemic, pushing it into its first recession in 25 years and likely to drag 27 million people in the sub-Saharan region alone into extreme poverty.

Businesses across the continent have struggled as banks and other financiers have slashed lending at a time when companies facing plummeting revenues need cash to pay suppliers.

Blended finance, which gained traction in recent years to help governments respond to long-term challenges such as climate change and food security, is helping fill the void.

Proponents such as the World Bank's private sector investment arm IFC and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have in the past helped mobilise up to $50 billion for Africa, more than a third of the global market.

But with the continent facing an estimated $44 billion fiscal gap, such funding is being used to help fix short-term challenges, like trade finance for medical supplies or working capital to keep businesses afloat.

For example, the IFC says it is allocating twice as much funding to blended finance as in recent years.

"What we're seeing is a tremendous amount of demand from distributors for some sort of working finance to help their customers," said John Simon, founding partner of U.S.-based TOTAL Impact Capital, which aims to invest for social good.

TOTAL Impact Capital and another firm, Cardano Development, aim to harness blended finance in countries including Kenya to help buy thousands of pharmaceutical sales invoices where goods have already been delivered.

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By advancing only a portion of the invoice value, with the balance paid at collection, the investment ensures returns for investors, while alleviating cash flows for the companies by shortening payment cycles, said Nico de Nijs CEO of IMFact, a company set up by the pair.

Demand has surged in the pandemic's aftermath, said Lade Araba, Africa managing director for Convergence, a global network for blended finance, noting more interest from institutional investors such as pension funds and insurance companies.

Comparing the demand in 2020 to spikes after the 2008-9 financial crisis and in 2015, she said many of the deals involved loans which offered more generous and flexible terms than those from a bank or institutional investor.

Calculating returns for blended finance can be tricky.

As they involve a "concessional funder", returns for private investors were often limited by the need to avoid the perception of subsidising private profits, said Simon.

Araba said such funding attracted private investment by either transferring risks to soft loan providers or providing an additional risk premium - and a more attractive upside - for investors.

SHRINKING PIPELINE

International banks are striving to play a role, either through lending or by pulling in private investors.

Japan's MUFG was one of several banks involved this month in a loan, backed by a 359 million euro ($409.5 million) guarantee by MIGA, part of the World Bank Group, to help the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank offer trade and project finance to its 22 member states.

JPMorgan in January launched a unit through which it aims to finance more than $100 billion annually in development activities from investment banking deals, with extra contributions from its markets businesses.

IFC is using blended finance to support cash-strapped companies it deems have a sustainable future with a focus on International Development Association (IDA) countries, many of whom are in Africa, said Martin Spicer, IFC's director of blended finance.

"We've had a shrinking of the immediate pipeline of projects, but an increase in the COVID funds part of the business," said Spicer, adding that the timeline was uncertain for the delayed projects.

Before the coronavirus outbreak, about 50% of blended finance investment targeted energy and financial services, said Araba.

This was partly because much of the focus had been on helping governments meet global targets to improve education, infrastructure, food security, climate change and health by 2030, requiring $5 trillion to $7 trillion per year.

($1 = 0.8766 euros)

(Additional reporting by Karin Strohecker; editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Associated Press/Patrick Semansky

The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday that President Donald Trump personally "authorized" and "encouraged" an op-ed by White House trade adviser Peter Navarro attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Fauci is the nation's top infectious-disease expert and a member of the White House coronavirus task force.

The LA Times' reporting contradicts the White House's claim from earlier Wednesday that it did not sign off on the Navarro op-ed and he broke protocol by publishing it.

Trump and his allies have leveled a string of public attacks against Fauci in recent days, accusing him of mishandling the coronavirus outbreak and circulating a list of talking points, characterized as opposition research, against him.

The attacks also come as Trump is reportedly rattled by Fauci's soaring reputation with the American public, his approval rating on handling the pandemic, and his frequent television appearances.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The White House said Wednesday it did not sign off on a controversial op-ed that trade adviser Peter Navarro wrote attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious-disease expert and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, characterizing it as "the opinion of Peter alone."

But according to the Los Angeles Times, Trump personally green-lighted the op-ed, which was published in USA Today on Wednesday. "Not only was he authorized by Trump, he was encouraged," an administration official told the LA Times, referring to Navarro.

Trump's top trade adviser accused Fauci in the op-ed of having "been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on."

"When you ask me whether I listen to Dr. Fauci's advice, my answer is: only with skepticism and caution," Navarro wrote.

Navarro, an economist who studied trade issues as an academic, has clashed with Fauci over issues including the use of hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment. Navarro pushed Trump to back the antimalarial drug as a coronavirus treatment and blew up at Fauci for raising questions at an April task-force meeting, Axios reported.

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The drug has since proved ineffective at treating the coronavirus, but Trump's fixation led the US government to spend at least $88 million on the drug, more than any other potential treatment, an Insider investigation found.

Navarro's op-ed comes as multiple White House aides step up their public attacks on Fauci. On Monday, Trump's deputy chief of staff for communications, Dan Scavino, shared a cartoon on Facebook accusing Fauci of trying to impose an "indefinite lockdown" in the US, keeping schools closed, and tanking the economy.

And over the weekend, White House insiders circulated a list of talking points criticizing Fauci for his handling of the US's coronavirus outbreak, which is the worst in the world. The talking points attacked him for flip-flopping his stance on lockdowns, not taking control of the crisis early on, and giving conflicting advice to the public on asymptomatic transmission.

Public-health officials sharply criticized Trump's aides for sending the list around, especially given that Trump failed to take early action against the virus, ignored over a dozen intelligence assessments warning of an impending pandemic, and spread misinformation about its severity after it gained a foothold in the US.

Fauci hit back at both Navarro and the Trump aides who circulated the list during an interview with The Atlantic on Wednesday, saying the list "doesn't do anything but reflect poorly" on the people who were behind it.

He also singled out Navarro, telling The Atlantic, "I can't explain Peter Navarro. He's in a world by himself. So I don't even want to go there."

Fauci was one of the main voices on Trump's coronavirus task force when it was first established, but he's been increasingly sidelined in recent months by the White House.

According to The Washington Post, Trump has been especially rattled by Fauci's soaring reputation with the American public compared with his own, as well as Fauci's frequent television appearances.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany denied this week that the talking points were opposition research and said Trump and Fauci had "a good working relationship."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Every donation to our Virtual Walk directly supports victims of domestic violence. We know that people want to help others and make a difference now more than ever and we are thrilled to offer this opportunity to give, even though we cannot host our event this year, said Crisis Center Auxiliary Board President Marie Kaminski.
SKOPJE -- North Macedonia's pro-EU Social Democrats appear to have secured a narrow victory in the Balkan countrys July 15 parliamentary elections.

The Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) secured 36.13 percent of the vote, compared to 34.65 percent for the right-wing VMRO-DPMNE, according to preliminary results with 94 percent of votes counted.

The State Election Commission (SEC) said it would announce the distribution of seats in the 120-member parliament on July 16 once all results are verified.

If the results hold, former Prime Minister Zoran Zaev will likely get the mandate for the SDSM to form a new government with an eye toward advancing the countrys Euro-Atlantic trajectory.

Zaev claimed victory, saying his coalition with a small ethnic Albanian party won at least three more seats in parliament than the VMRO-DPMNE.

"We had peaceful, dignified, free, democratic, and safe election," Zaev told a news conference at his partys election headquarters.

However, VMRO-DPMNE, whose leader, Hristijan Mickoski, ran a negative campaign attacking Zaev and tapping into nationalist-populist resentment, said on July 15 that they are still in the race to form a new government.

VMRO Secretary-General Igor Janushev said the party is entering the race to form a new government because the existing one is worn out and it is time for change.

"The race is uncertain," Janushev said. "We will still wait to see how the mandates will be divided in the end," Janushev said.

The largest ethnic Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), won 11.6 percent of the vote, putting it in a kingmaker position. DUI has been in coalition governments for the past 18 years and became the junior coalition partner of the SDSM after the last election in 2016.

DUI has suggested an ethnic Albanian should be prime minister. Ethnic Albanians make up about one-quarter of the population.

The Alliance of Albanians won 8.8 percent, the left-wing Levica 4 percent, and the smaller Democratic Party of Albanians 1.5 percent.

The election marked the first time an Albanian party, BESA, had formed a preelection coalition with one of the Macedonian parties, the SDSM.

The SEC website that publishes results had been down for almost four hours due to a cyberattack, during which time the count was instead streamed live on YouTube. The election body said the hack did not impact the ballot count.

The vote was originally scheduled for April but postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. With the outbreak in resurgence, polling stations were open for two additional hours to reduce crowding. Health protocols, including a face-mask requirement, were enforced.

The pandemic and its economic consequences have become a major issue and appeared to dampen voter turnout. The turnout among the 1.8 million registered voters was just over 50 percent

A caretaker government has been running the country since Zaev resigned from the post of prime minister in January after the EU failed in the autumn to provide a start date for accession talks.

After months of delay due to opposition from France, the EU in March finally gave North Macedonia a green light to start formal talks to join the bloc.

Zaev made efforts to mend fences with neighbors and advance integration with the West.

Since becoming prime minister in 2017, he reached a landmark deal with neighboring Greece to add "North" to the countrys name, clearing the way for Athens to lift its veto over Skopjes membership in NATO. He also signed a friendship deal with neighboring Bulgaria, removing another impediment to prepare for EU membership.

Zaev has tried to convince the public that his party achieved results and promises a brighter, more prosperous future for one of the poorest countries in Europe, where the average monthly salary is 420 euros ($477).

Hristijan Mickoski, the VMRO leader, ran a negative campaign, attacking Zaev and tapping into nationalist-populist resentment.

The VMRO opposed changing the countrys name from Macedonia to North Macedonia, which removed Greek concerns about a perceived claim to the Greek province of Macedonia. The party also opposed the deal with Bulgaria.

The vote carries broader geopolitical implications, as the EU and United States seek to bring North Macedonia closer to slow moves by Russia and China to increase their influence in the Western Balkans.

With reporting dpa and Reuters
One of the questions most-searched on Google these days is where to get tested for COVID-19 near me.

It can be difficult to figure out when and where you can get tested for the coronavirus with the vast number of providers offering tests across the region. As of July 15, there are more than 240 sites administering coronavirus diagnostic and antibody tests within 100 miles of downtown Houston, according to the Texas Division of Emergency Management.

Heres where you can get tested for COVID-19 in the Greater Houston area.

The two types of tests

COVID-19 diagnostic tests determine whether you currently have the virus. A trained medical professional uses a long swab to reach deep within your nostril, collecting mucus from the top of the throat. Some sites will provide saliva-based tests, which so far seem to be accurate, according to researchers at the University of Chicago.

You qualify to take a COVID-19 diagnostic test at most places as long as you fall under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for testing priorities. That means youve shown symptoms such as loss of taste or smell, fever, cough, shortness of breath, chills, sore throat, muscle pain, vomiting, and/or diarrhea, or your doctor or a public health official has asked you to get tested.

A few test sites will test you if you have been exposed to someone who was diagnosed with the virus.

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COVID-19 antibody tests look at whether youve had the virus. After drawing a blood sample, clinicians look for proteins produced to fight off COVID-19. The antibodies are in your blood for several weeks after recovering from COVID-19, but dont tell you if youre currently infected, according to the CDC.

A RISE IN CASES: Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner in favor of a 'step back,' two-week shutdown to reduce COVID-19 spread

People are taking antibody tests to see if they can donate plasma to treat current coronavirus patients, or to see if they may have been previously infected.

Genalyte, a San Diego, Calif.-based diagnostics company, is doing antibody testing at the Toyota Center. Testing is available for the next two weeks, with the possibility of an extension, according to Genalyte. Some private hospitals and clinics also offer this test.

Health insurers, including private and government-subsidized insurance, generally pay for the cost of a diagnostic test as long as your doctor deems it medically necessary. The Texas Department of Insurance recommends calling your primary care physician to order a test, and avoiding private hospitals or emergency rooms if its not urgent.

Test results can take some time to get back; Quest Diagnostics, a private lab company processing 125,000 test kits daily, said in a statement that hospital patients and symptomatic health care workers are receiving results in just over a day, while everyone else can expect results in seven or more days.

More Information What is this? I'm Gwendolyn Wu, and I'm writing "Houston How To," a series on how to navigate the city and its complexities. Humans have an innate drive to improve themselves, and we're always striving to live better, smarter and more efficiently by throwing countless dollars and hours at our problems. The Houston Chronicle wants to simplify that for you. As a reporter, I usually ask the questions, but I can't be the only one wondering how something works. What are things you need to know how to do, Houston? You can find me on Twitter at @gwendolynawu or by email at gwendolyn.wu@chron.com. See More Collapse

Government-run testing sites

There are several options for city and county-run testing sites in Harris County. The city manages two large test stadiums: Butler Stadium and Delmar Stadium.

Each site can process 650 tests a day. To get an appointment, call the city at 832-393-4220 to get a code for same-day testing. If they run out of codes for the day, youll have to try again the next morning. Most days, the city sites finish testing by the early afternoon, said Scott Packard, a Houston Health Department spokesman.

The city also sets up mobile test sites travel to at-risk neighborhoods in Houston and administer the tests. A schedule of mobile test sites is available on the Houston Health Department website.

Test results come from a federal contractor, and wait times have recently shot up from within five days to more than a week.

City test sites are open to everyone regardless of symptoms or testing priority at this time.

While we still generally encourage people to go to their medical provider, we recognize COVID-19 testing is not always widely offered by medical providers, Packard said. Our sites and partner sites are an option for everyone.

Harris County Public Health and the Texas Division of Emergency Management also operate a number of sites within the county. People looking to get tested at Harris County Public Health sites, which usually reach capacity in the mornings or early afternoons, must take the online COVID-19 self-assessment. To get a test at a TDEM site, patients must make an appointment online at texas.curativeinc.com.

For now, these test sites are partially run with federal help. Gov. Greg Abbott announced last week that U.S. government support for test sites in Texas has been extended to July 31. As of late June, the federal government had sent Houston $73 million in relief funds to cover the costs of the sites in the future, according to Assistant U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Brett Giroir.

Retail clinics

Cant get an appointment at one of the city sites? Theres always your neighborhood drugstore or big-box retailer. CVS Health, Walgreens and Walmart have also gotten into the COVID-19 testing space.

As of the week of July 13, there are 16 CVS Health drive-thru testing sites in Houston and more than 20 others in the Greater Houston region. Walgreens has also opened COVID-19 test sites in the parking lots of two stores in Harris County.

Test costs should be covered by your insurer, or by the federal program funding tests for uninsured people across the country.

The increase in cases of COVID-19 in certain areas of the country is causing extremely high demand for tests across the board, said Monica Prinzing, a CVS Health spokesperson.

The kits are going to independent, third-party labs for diagnosis. At CVS Health, it can take an average of 6-10 days for processing right now, and as coronavirus rates soar, those wait times could be longer, Prinzing said.

Walgreens did not respond to requests for comment on how long test results take.

MORE HOW TO: What to do about your drivers license, car registration and more during the pandemic

Walmart operates 18 drive-thru testing sites in the Greater Houston region at no-cost to the person getting tested. Test results are returning within between three to six days, according to the retailer.

To get an appointment at any of these testing sites, visit the retailers website.

Clinics and private medical centers

Some clinics and hospitals offer coronavirus testing. Patients who are going in for certain procedures or treatments may be asked to take a COVID-19 test before their appointment.

United Memorial Medical Center offers free testing at multiple sites in Houston. Federally qualified health clinics, which provide care to low-income communities in Houston, are also testing people regardless of insurance. Patients are given a price based on income level and family size. HOPE Clinic, Spring Branch Community Health Center, El Centro de Corazon, Avenue 360 Health and Wellness, Lone Star Circle of Care and Legacy Community Health are making appointments for COVID-19 tests.

Similar to other sites, theyre beholden to the same test delays from national lab providers.

The 24-hour independent emergency rooms around the Greater Houston area may offer COVID-19 diagnostic testing, and some may even do antibody tests. Under the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, they have been authorized to provide emergency care to Medicare patients during the pandemic, meaning that those on government insurance can go to one for testing without being charged.

However, note that some freestanding emergency rooms do not accept private insurance, nor are they all approved to accept Medicaid. Call ahead if you plan to stop by for a COVID-19 test and want to know the costs.

gwendolyn.wu@chron.com

twitter.com/gwendolynawu
She's known for her roles in Watchmen and Billions.

But with Hollywood still mostly shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Malin Akerman is focusing on keeping fit and spending time with her family.

On Wednesday, the leggy blonde actress, 42, got in a walk with her dog through the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Out and about: Malin Akerman, 42, took her dog for a walk in the Los Feliz neighborhood of LA on Wednesday wearing a cloth face mask as required due to a surge in coronavirus cases

Akerman showed off her tanned limbs in a gray t-shirt and white denim shorts worn with a belt.

She stepped out in white sneakers and donned a cloth Bravado face mask as required in LA due to the surge in coronavirus cases.

Her black-and-white pup happily walked beside her on a long purple leash and she checked her phone as she strolled along.

Fit: The leggy blonde actress, known for her roles in Watchmen and Billions, showed off her tanned limbs in a gray t-shirt and white denim shorts worn with a belt - and a Bravado mask

Stayed connected: Her black-and-white pup happily walked beside her on a long purple leash and she checked her phone as she strolled along

The Swedish-born star has been married to British actor Jack Donnelly since December 2018.

She is also mom to son Sebastian, seven, with her ex-husband, Roberto Zincone.

She and the Italian musician divorced in 2014 after seven years of marriage.

Family: The Swedish-born star has been married to British actor Jack Donnelly since December 2018. She is also mom to son Sebastian, seven, with her ex-husband, Roberto Zincone

In mid-June, it was announced that Akerman will executive produce a new horror film starring her husband.

Donnelly is joining Lydia Hearst and Kara Heywood in With Teeth that's set to shoot in New Mexico once coronavirus restrictions are lifted.

According to Deadline.com , the movie is about a group of influencers 'who are drawn to a reclusive billionaires mansion only to find themselves trapped in the lair of a horrifyingly evil vampire. The only way out is to be saved by a famous online gamer and an old school vampire hunter, who is set in his ways.'

The actress also served as a producer on the action comedy Chick Fight, now in post-production, in which she stars with Bella Thorne, Kevin Connelly and Alec Baldwin.
She has been a supermodel sensation for more than half a decade.

And Charlotte McKinney was stylish as ever even while taking a masked outing to a pharmacy in Los Angeles this week.

The 26-year-old emphasized her enviably trim figure in a sleek black sweater and a pair of matching leggings while running her errand.

Stepping out: Charlotte McKinney was stylish as ever even while taking a masked outing to a pharmacy in Los Angeles this week

Charlotte, who shot to fame after a Carl's Jr Super Bowl ad in 2014, swept her signature blonde hair into a high ponytail.

Accessorizing with a sleek black handbag, the Guess model pushed her sunglasses up onto the top of her head before heading into the shop.

She was stocking up on a few household essentials including Cottonelle toilet paper and a box of Total Home coffee filters.

Charlotte put her sculpted summer body on display for a recent new photo-shoot advertising PrettyLittleThing's Costa Rica bikini collection.

On the go: The 26-year-old emphasized her enviably trim figure in a sleek black sweater and a pair of matching leggings while running her errand

Alongside her modeling career the blonde bombshell has also picked up acting and has featured in multiple movies.

One of them was the flop 2017 Baywatch film, which featured Charlotte in a star-studded cast including Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron and Priyanka Chopra.

She was also part of this year's horror movie Fantasy Island, which bowed on Valentine's Day and became a big hit despite poor reviews.

Supplies: She was stocking up on a few household essentials including Cottonelle toilet paper and a box of Total Home coffee filters

Her co-stars included such famous faces as Pretty Little Liars star Lucy Hale, Ant-Man actor Michael Pena and Nikita alum Maggie Q.

Last year Charlotte filmed a comedy called The Argument which is described on IMDb as currently being in 'post-production.'

The film is helmed by Francis Ford Coppola's nephew Robert Schwartzman and Dan Fogler, Emma Bell, Danny Pudi as well as reuniting Charlotte with Maggie Q.
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Dickinson Colleges president announced Wednesday students are not returning to campus this fall for in-person learning due to the number of reported coronavirus cases increasing, as well as the lengthy lag time it takes to receive test results.

Classes will begin on August 17, but only a small number of students will be allowed to reside on-campus, according to Margee Ensign. Students, faculty, and staff have weighed in on how COVID-19 could play out if the college brought everyone back to the Carlisle campus.

Both COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are increasing nationwide, and there is ample evidence to suggest that the pandemic is not subsiding, Ensign wrote in a letter to the Dickinson community. Our knowledge of how the virus spreads indoors, the role of asymptomatic cases in the spread, and the possibility that immunity after illness may be of limited duration have also evolved.

The current climate creates too much of a risk for spreading the virus, she said. There are about 300 students who attend the college from the current 19 states that are on a list of geographical locations considered coronavirus hot spots. If one has traveled to a state on the list, a Pennsylvania order requires them to do a 14-day quarantine to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Concerns increase when international students and travelers are included in the campus population. Those individuals would also have to quarantine based on guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dickinson had initially decided last month to bring students back when coronavirus case numbers were going down. Students, staff, and faculty were going to be tested when they returned to campus to create a baseline, however, a testing company relayed to the college that it takes a minimum of two days to receive test results.

College officials later learned that the wait time for the entire college test results could extend to five to seven days or longer.

Testing and isolation would have been implemented had any student, staff, or faculty member exhibited signs of COVID-19. Having learned more about the virus, and knowing that it can mirror other illnesses, there are doubts about how long it would take for one to resume their work or studies.

We also know that if students returned, campus life would look much different, Ensign wrote. Students would not be able to gather regularly, would need to wear masks any time they were around others and would be required to socially distance from one another. The very heart of our residential campus coming together with others from around the world to gather, discuss, and debate  would be seriously impacted.

Here are the few ways students are going to be allowed back on campus:

International students who need to return to campus (permission will be automatically granted)

Students with specific basic needs that are not met at home, such as secure housing, food, internet, or computer access. (Students with other concerns may share their situation for consideration. We are limiting the number of students on campus, but we will review on a case by case basis.)

Special academic projects that cannot be postponed or done remotely  on request of faculty members only.

Student workers performing essential functions as approved by Human Resource Services and the divisional vice president.

The college has developed a Frequently Asked Questions webpage to try to answer questions.

Additionally, informational sessions will be held on the following days. The college plans to share more details in the following days:

Noon, Monday, July 20. This session will be for students and parents.

1:30 p.m., Monday, July 20, for all employees.

Noon, Wednesday, July 22, for alumni.

I make this announcement with deep disappointment, Ensign wrote. This is not the semester for which any of us had planned. It is a scenario unlike anything we have experienced, driven by a virus about which much remains unknown. Faced with the scientific evidence, and understanding that the virus spreads easily in locations where large groups of people live in close proximity, we felt we had to make this decision to preserve the health and safety of our students, faculty, staff, and the greater Carlisle community.

READ MORE

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Hospitals told to send coronavirus data to Washington D.C., not CDC, starting immediately

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The Cullen family of vampires stand at the center of The Twilight Saga. In the epic conclusion, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn  Part 2, the film series introduces several other distinct groups of vampires from around the world. One such faction, the Egyptian coven, comes to the Cullens aid, as they are bracing for a confrontation with the Italy-based Volturi. The eclectic collective of Egyptian immortals, the oldest coven on Earth, includes Benjamin, Amun, Tia, and Kebi.

With the ability to control fire, water, earth, and air, Benjamin is arguably the most powerful of the bunch. But off screen, which Egyptian vampire portrayer wields the most power, at least when it comes to wealth? Heres a breakdown of what the actors who portrayed Benjamin, Amun, Tia, and Kebi have been up to and how much net worth they have amassed since The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn  Part 2.

Rami Malek of The Twilight Saga | Michael Buckner/Getty Images

Rami Malek as Benjamin

Playing the part of Egyptian coven M.V.P. Benjamin, Rami Melek boasts a sizable fortune of about $8 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Before the Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn  Part 2, Malek began his on-screen career with guest roles on television and got his big break on the FOX comedy, The War at Home.

Next up, he starred opposite Ben Stiller in the Night at the Museum film series. After his scene-stealing role as Benjamin in The Twilight Saga, Malek racked up credits in live-action, animated television, video games, and movie projects.

The star headlined the critically acclaimed Mr. Robot for four seasons before winning the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody. Malek has done a tremendous job building a stellar Hollywood reputation, along with massive fame and fortune.

Omar Metwally as Amun

RELATED: The Twilight Saga: How Much Is the Cullen Coven Worth Today?

Versatile actor, Omar Metwally, portrayed Amun in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn  Part 2. He had already established himself as a solid performer in Hollywood prior to joining the cast of the blockbuster. Metwally nailed parts in high-profile movies like Munich, as well as guest-starring gigs on shows such as Greys Anatomy.

After The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn  Part 2, Metwally continued scoring winning roles in film and TV. Fans may remember his stints on The Affair and Treadstone. And he notably reunited with his Twilight Saga scene partner, Malek, in a recurring role on Maleks Mr. Robot. There is no definitive data about Metwallys net worth. Still, considering his robust resume, many sources, including Trend Celebs Now and My Celebrity Bio, have estimated that he has a substantial fortune anywhere from $1 million to $12 million.

Angela Sarafyan as Tia

RELATED: The Twilight Saga: How Much Are The Volturi Worth Today?

Before landing the part of Tia in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn  Part 2, Angela Sarafyan already had dozens of roles under her belt. The actor has worked in virtually every film and television genre, including horror, comedy, and drama. Sarafyan made the rounds in guest spots on shows including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 24, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

After The Twilight Saga, the star maintained her momentum and worked on a slew of big and small-screen projects. TV buffs may remember her character, Clementine Pennyfeather, in Westworld. Sarafyan has at least four projects in the works, including The S.H.U., in which she will partner with fellow Twilight Saga alum, Edi Gathegi. With nearly 70 acting credits so far, Sarafyans total wealth amounts to a healthy $6 million, as estimated by Celebrity Net Worth.

Andrea Gabriel as Kebi

RELATED: Twilight Villains James, Laurent, and Victoria: How Much Are the Actors Worth Today?

Before The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn  Part 2, Andrea Gabriel began on soaps, including All My Children, Another World, and Guiding Light. She also had a significant stint on ABCs sci-fi drama, Lost, among other series. After her turn as Kebi in The Twilight Saga, Gabriel continued working steadily in television and films.

With a solid resume and at least two projects in production, Gabriel appears to have built considerable wealth. Various sources, including Trend Celebs Now, estimate Gabriels total worth lies between $1 million and $5 million.

RELATED: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Which Cast Member Has the Highest Net Worth?
Cat Tien National Park Management and police in Dong Nai province, southern Vietnam, are hunting for four poachers suspected of killing a gaur, a rare and precious species of animals in Vietnam.

Poachers have managed to escape, leaving behind two sack and backpacks of gaur meat and bone. (Photo: laodong.vn)

Forest rangers of Cat Tien National Park Management said they had caught red handed a group of four poachers at midnight on July 13 carrying two sacks and backpacks of gaur meat.

When being stopped for inspection, the loggers used pepper spray, fired two shots and fled away. They left behind 2 sacks and backpacks containing about 140 kg of gaur meat, a flashlight, binoculars, shovels and some other equipment.

It was reported that the killed gaur weighs about 200 kg. Its legs and tail had been sampled for inspection, while its meat and bone had been destroyed.

The police are still on the hunt for the escaped poachers.

According to Cat Tien National Park, currently the park has about 110 individuals of gaur, classified in group 1B - a group of rare and precious animals, which need to be strictly protected. VOV

Endangered animals found in Bidoup-Nui Ba National Park A range of rare and endangered animal species in Vietnam and the world were discovered at the Bidoup-Nui Ba National Park in the central highlands province of Lam Dong through a camera-trap survey on the site from October 2019 to March 2020.
Jihadis may try to return to Britain to fight legal battles after a court ruled Shamima Begum should be allowed to enter the UK, it has been warned.

The Court of Appeal said Begum, who joined Isis at the age of 15, should be granted entry to contest the governments removal of her British nationality.

Judges found that she could not participate in a fair and effective appeal because she could not communicate properly with her lawyers while in Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) custody.

Whilst she remains detained in the camp she cannot give effective instructions or take any meaningful part in her appeal, said Lord Justice Flaux.

The only way in which she can have a fair and effective appeal is to be permitted to come into the United Kingdom to pursue it.

The case only considered Begums specific circumstances, but lawyers representing other detainees without access to phones or the internet could seek to use it as a legal precedent.

Sajid Javid, who stripped Begum and other Isis members from the UK of their British citizenship as home secretary, was among those raising concerns on Thursday.

Allowing her, and indeed other terrorists, back into the UK to pursue an appeal would create a national security risk that cannot be fully mitigated, even with the diversion of significant resources, Mr Javid said.

The judgments and precedents set in this case could bind the hands of the government in managing past and future cases.

Mr Javid claimed that if Begum reaches the UK it will be impossible to remove her again, and that there would be a small chance of prosecution for significant terror offences.

Of more than 900 people who travelled to Syria and Iraq from the UK, an estimated half have returned but only about 40 were successfully prosecuted.

 Shamima Begum: 'I would like them to re-evaluate my case with a bit more mercy'

The government has repeatedly refused to repatriate Begum or other detained Isis members, and has been using citizenship deprivation among other legal powers to prevent them returning voluntarily.

The Home Office has already moved to block the effect of what it called a very disappointing decision by the court.

We will now apply for permission to appeal this judgment, and to stay its effects pending any onward appeal, a spokesperson said.

The Independent understands that other detainees who have had their British citizenship removed would have to apply for leave to enter the UK, and do not have valid travel documents.

Many remain in the custody of the SDF, which has called for Britain and other nations to repatriate captured foreign fighters and families.

The Court of Appeal stressed that allowing Begum to return to Britain did not mean her appeal against citizenship deprivation would succeed, and that its judgment rested on the facts of this case only.

Lord Justice Flaux said national security had to be considered and that overturning the removal would set a dangerous precedent.

The judge added that the ruling did not prevent Begum being arrested upon arrival in the UK and charged with terror offences, or made subject to a Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures order.

Counterterror police continue to investigate Begum but would not comment on those possibilities.

The former London schoolgirl, who left the UK for Syria aged 15, lived under Isis rule for more than three years before being found in a refugee camp last year.

Timeline of the Isis caliphate Show all 19 1 /19 Timeline of the Isis caliphate Timeline of the Isis caliphate ISIS began as a group by the merging of extremist organisations ISI and al-Nusra in 2013. Following clashes, Syrian rebels captured the ISIS headquarters in Aleppo in January 2014 (pictured) AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi declared the creation of a caliphate in Mosul on 27 June 2014 Timeline of the Isis caliphate Isis conquered the Kurdish towns of Sinjar and Zumar in August 2014, forcing thousands of civilians to flee their homes. Pictured are a group of Yazidi Kurds who have fled Rex Timeline of the Isis caliphate On September 2 2014 Isis released a video depicting the beheading of US journalist Steven Sotloff. On September 13 they released another video showing the execution of British aid worker David Haines Timeline of the Isis caliphate The US launched its first airstrikes against Isis in Syria on 23 September 2014. Here Lt Gen William C Mayville Jnr speaks about the bombing campaign in the wake of the first strikes Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Isis militants sit atop a hill planted with their flag in the Syrian town of Kobani on 6 October 2014. They had been advancing on Kobani since mid-September and by now was in control of the citys entrance and exit points AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Residents of the border village of Alizar keep guard day and night as they wait in fear of mortar fire from Isis who have occupied the nearby city of Kobani Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Smoke rises following a US airstrike on Kobani, 28 October 2014 AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate YPG fighters raise a flag as they reclaim Kobani on 26 January 2015 VOA Timeline of the Isis caliphate Isis seized the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra on 20 May 2015. This image show the city from above days after its capture by Isis Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Kurdish forces are stationed on a hill above the town of Sinjar as smoke rises following US airstrikes on 12 November 2015 AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Kurdish forces enter Sinjar after seizing it from Isis control on 13 November 2015 AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Iraqi government forces make the victory sign as they retake the city of Fallujah from ISIS on 26 June 2016 Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Iraqi forces battle with Isis for the city of Mosul on 30 June 2017 AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Members of the Iraqi federal police raise flags in Mosul on 8 July 2017. On the following day, Iraqi prime minister Haider Al Abadi declares victory over Isis in Mosul Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Members of Syrian Democratic Forces celebrate in Al-Naim square after taking back the city of Raqqa from Isis. US-backed Syrian forces declare victory over Isis in Raqqa on 20 October 2017 after a four-month long campaign Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Female fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces celebrate in Al-Naim Square after taking back the city of Raqqa from Isis. US-backed Syrian forces declare victory over Isis in Raqqa on 20 October 2017 after a four-month long campaign AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Trucks full of women and children arrive from the last Isis-held areas in Deir ez-Zor, Syria in January 2019 They were among the last civilians to be living in the ISIS caliphate, by this time reduced to just two small villages in Syrias Deir ez-Zor Richard Hall/The Independent Timeline of the Isis caliphate Zikia Ibrahim, 28, with her two-year-old son and 8-month-old daughter, after fleeing the Isis caliphate, on Saturday 26 January 2019 Richard Hall/The Independent

She had three children with her Isis fighter husband but they all died, including a baby son born last year in the al-Hawl camp.

Sajid Javid removed her British citizenship in February 2019, as the government claimed she was entitled to Bangladeshi nationality.

But her lawyers argue that the decision made Begum stateless and exposed her to the risk of death or inhuman and degrading treatment.

The Court of Appeal ruling came days after another former London student who joined Isis in Syria reportedly died while being held in an SDF prison.

Ishak Mostefaoui, 27, was captured in March 2019 as the terrorist group lost the last scraps of territory in its self-declared caliphate.

In an interview with The Independent in December, Mostefaoui said he was willing to stand trial in the UK, adding: Ill put my hands up and do my time for that.

Government guidance states that the home secretary can deprive citizenship for the public good if a person can apply for alternative nationality.

This action may only be taken if the secretary of state (home secretary) has reasonable grounds for believing that the person is able, under the law of a country outside the United Kingdom, to become a national of that country, says a document published last year.

In practice, this power means the secretary of state may deprive and leave a person stateless if that person is able to acquire (or reacquire) the citizenship of another country.

The British government removed citizenship from 139 people for the public good between January 2016 and December 2018.

The figure for 2019, when Begum and other alleged Isis members including Jack Letts were deprived of citizenship, has not yet been published.

A 2016 report commissioned by the government warned that removing extremists citizenship left them free to continue terrorist activities abroad, prevented monitoring and encouraged the dangerous delusion that terrorism can be made into a foreign problem.

In August, former defence minister Tobias Ellwood told The Independent the detention of thousands of jihadis and their families in Syria was creating conditions for an Isis resurgence.

Well see Daesh 2.0, he warned. Well see a repeat of al-Qaeda regrouping and becoming a very real threat, and that threat wont just pose itself in the Middle East, but also to Britain.
By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijans presidential aide Hikmat Hajiyev has said that the recent cross-border violence on the Azerbaijani- Armenian border was a carefully planned provocation by the Armenian side and is just a continuation of military aggression against Azerbaijan. He also said that the entire responsibility for the cross-border violence lies with Armenia.

Hikmat Hajiyev made the remarks during the TV debate with his Armenian counterpart Zohrab Mnatsakanian hosted by Al Jazeera International TV channel on July 15.

Hajiyev stated that Armenia hides its military losses and the leadership of that country will have to account to its public for the real losses, as a result of this military gamble.

Hajiyev refuted Mnatsakanian claims that Yerevan was interested in peace, by stressing that Armenia has occupied the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding seven regions of Azerbaijan through aggression, as a result of which more than 1 million Azerbaijanis living in those territories have been ethnically cleansed and displaces from their homes. He also stressed that Armenia bore international legal responsibility for the military aggression against Azerbaijan.

Furthermore, Hajiyev stated that this provocation is connected with a couple of reasons:

- Armenia wants to avoid the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict and responsibility for this conflict;

-by provocation, Armenia wants to create a new center of tension in the region and exposes the region to new threats;

-in an effort to involve the Collective Security Treaty Organization in the conflict, Armenia is trying to play a dirty and irresponsible political game;

-Armenia seeks to damage the East-West transport corridor, the regional transport projects outside of which they stayed ;

-Armenia's leadership is also trying to distract attention from the acute social and economic problems observed in the context of the widespread COVID-19 pandemic.

Additionally, Hajiyev said that with statement Karabakh is Armenia, and thats the point, Armenian leadership clearly demonstrates the policy of annexation of a part of the territories of Azerbaijan, and undermines the format and the very essence of the negotiation process, which is conducted through the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. This is above all disrespect to the Co-Chair countries.

The cross-border fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan started on July 12 with Armenia's firing artillery at Azerbaijan's positions in the direction of Tovuz region.

On the night leading to July 14, five Azerbaijani servicemen, including a major general and colonel, were killed during the Armenian attack on the border.

In three days of fighting, the Azerbaijani army lost 11 officers and soldiers. One civilian was killed as a result of artillery fire by the Armenian armed forces.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. However, final peace deal has not been reached yet.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Lagos  Pressure has continued to mount on the Federal Government to lift the ban on international flights less than a week after the reopening of airports for national flights.

But the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the apex aviation regulatory agency, insists the time is not ripe to resume international operations, even as it stated that the decision was beyond it.

The Director General of NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu, made the clarification in response to pressure by travel agencies in the country for international flights to resume.

At the NCAA industry restart webinar held on Tuesday, travel agencies made a passionate appeal to the authority to lift the ban on international flights.

The President of the National Association of Nigerian Travel Agencies (NANTA), Susan Akporiaye, and her predecessor, Bernard Bankole, spoke on behalf of the travel agencies which constitute the downstream sector of the aviation industry.

Akporiaye said since evacuation flights were carried out virtually on a daily basis since the COVID-19 pandemic started, the Federal Government could lift the ban on international flights even if it would allow two or three flights per week.

Our correspondent reports that many travel agencies have been crying over the huge losses they have incurred as a result of the ban on international flights in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of the travel agents at the meeting said, "If we could manage evacuation flights this way and guaranteed their safety, why can't we take in international flights which have prepared well ahead of time to ensure safety on board."

Responding to the concerns of the travel agencies, the NCAA DG disclosed that the Federal Government had started working on public health protocols for international flights.

He empathised with the travel agencies for the huge losses they were incurring, saying NCAA as an agency also generated 85 per cent of its revenue from international flights.
Georgia on my mind: US President Donald Trump speaks about plans on infrastructure during an event at the United Parcel Service Airport Facility in Atlanta, Georgia. Photo: Reuters

Donald Trump is ready to roll back a key Nixon-era environmental law that he says stifles major infrastructure projects, but that environmentalists say has served for decades as a safeguard for low-income and minority communities.

The US president was travelling to Atlanta, Georgia, yesterday to formally announce the changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (Nepa), making it easier to build highways, pipelines, chemical plants and other projects.

When Mr Trump first announced the move in January, the administration set a two-year deadline for completing full environmental impact reviews while less comprehensive assessments would have to be completed within a year. The White House said the final rule will promote the rebuilding of America.

Critics call the Republican president's efforts a cynical attempt to limit the public's ability to review, comment on and influence proposed projects under one of the country's bedrock environmental protection laws.

"This may be the single biggest give-away to polluters in the past 40 years," said Brett Hartl of the US's Centre for Biological Diversity, an environmental group.

Mr Trump has made slashing government regulation a hallmark of his presidency and held it out as a way to boost jobs.

Environmental groups say the regulatory rollbacks threaten public health and make it harder to curb global warming.

With Congress and the administration divided over how to increase infrastructure investment, the US president is relying on his deregulation push to demonstrate progress.

"The United States can't compete and prosper if a bureaucratic system holds us back from building what we need," Mr Trump has said.

Opponents say the change will have an inordinate impact on predominantly minority communities. More than a million African-Americans live within a half-mile of natural gas facilities and face a cancer risk above the Environmental Protection Agency's level of concern from toxins emitted by those facilities, according to a 2017 study.

"Trump's changes to Nepa aren't surprising, but nonetheless again prove he and his administration have no regard for the impact their actions will have on our most vulnerable - who are already overburdened by pollution, lack of access to healthcare, structural racism and other environmental injustices," said Mustafa Santiago Ali, a former associate administrator at the EPA's office of environmental justice.

For his announcement, Mr Trump chose Georgia, a swing state in the US elections. He won the Republican-leaning state by five percentage points in 2016, but some polls show him trailing former US vice-president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee. This will be Mr Trump's ninth trip to Georgia and his sixth visit to Atlanta during his presidency.

The US president's trip also comes as the state has seen coronavirus cases surge and now has tallied more than 12,000 confirmed cases and more than 3,000 deaths.

Jon Ossoff, a Democrat who is running against incumbent Republican Senator David Perdue, said Mr Trump's decision to come to Georgia to discuss infrastructure as the state's coronavirus crisis worsens demonstrates that the US president is "in denial and out of control".

"Coming here for a routine photo-op is, frankly, bizarre, surreal against this unprecedented health and economic crisis," Mr Ossoff said.

Mr Trump's trip to Georgia comes one day after Mr Biden announced an infrastructure plan that places a heavy emphasis on improving energy efficiency in buildings and housing as well as promoting conservation efforts in the agriculture industry.

In the plan, Mr Biden pledges to spend $2trillion (1.75trn) over four years to promote his energy proposals.
The 22nd Ector County resident has died because of coronavirus-related issues, according to the health department.

The patient, a 73-year-old male from Ector County, died on Tuesday night. He was admitted to Medical Center Hospital on July 4 and had pre-existing conditions. MCHS reported he was the 20th resident to die at the hospital.

The man was the sixth person in the 70-79 age range to pass away during the pandemic. Other age ranges include 90 or older (three), 80-89 (two), 60-69 (six), 50-59 (two), 40-49 (one) and 30-39 (two).

Dr. Rohith Saravanan said that coronavirus affects children differently than adults.

One of the things we know about the disease process is that it affects children less severely than adults, he said. It is less likely to cause children to become symptomatic. Even those that become symptomatic, they are less likely to have a severe disease process. There is the one multi-system inflammatory syndrome that is severe in children.

Even if they are asymptomatic, we actually dont know what the long-term effects of this disease will be on these children who have it maybe a year from now or two years from now, he said.

Ector County commissioner Eddy Shelton said that the public needs to be aware of COVID parties which public health officials report have been happening among college students.

These students have gatherings where someone who is known to be COVID-19 positive is in attendance and everybody who shows up to the party pays a fee, he said. The first person who tests positive for coronavirus after attending the party is the winner of the money.

He said the Ector County Health Department cannot confirm or deny that any such parties have taken place in the community.

Saravanan said the majority of sentiments toward health-care workers in Odessa has been positive.

This work that we do as health-care workers is hard, he said. Those health-care workers who are doing this work and they are invested in caring for the community. There are some comments on social media that are discouraging especially from those people who dont understand the reason for masks, the treatment protocols that we use and the science behind all of this works. Regardless, the one thing that we all agree on is that we need our health-care workers to be in good physical and mental health to take care of the rest of us for if and when we need it.

He encourages people to stay positive to health-care workers and support them in every way.

Coronavirus stats

Medical Center Hospital

--MCH is treating 43 coronavirus patients.

--The hospital has nine patients in the critical care unit with five on ventilators.

--The critical overflow in the Wheatley Stewart Medical Pavilion has three patients all on ventilators.

--MCH has tested 4,271 total with 753 positive results and 432 pending tests.

Source: MCHS

Odessa Regional Medical Center

--15 patients being treated at ORMC with eight on ventilators

--Hospital has tested 1,327 with 242 positive results and 47 pending tests.

Source: ORMC

Ector County

-- The county reported 1,264 active cases with 911 recovered residents.

--12,422 total tests have been taken with 811 pending tests.

--There are 22 reported coronavirus related deaths of Ector County residents.

Source: Ector County Health Department
BEIJING  China has accused the U.S. of seeking to obstruct its development with recent steps to sanction officials who undermine local autonomy in Hong Kong, summoning the U.S. ambassador in Beijing to lodge a protest.

Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang told Ambassador Terry Branstad that threatened sanctions and the withdrawal of special trading privileges for Hong Kong are not about democracy and freedom in the semi-autonomous territory but an attempt to contain Chinas development.

I want to warn the U.S. sternly that any bullying and unfairness imposed on China by the U.S. will meet resolute counter attack from China and the U.S. attempt to obstruct Chinas development is doomed to failure, he said, according to an account of Wednesdays meeting carried by state media.

President Donald Trump signed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act into law on Tuesday, as well as an executive order affirming an earlier decision to eliminate preferential treatment that has been given to Hong Kong, but not mainland China.

The U.S and other Western democracies have grown increasingly concerned over developments in Hong Kong, and in particular Chinas imposition of a national security law that is seen as a threat to freedom of speech and the right to protest.

At the same time, the Trump administration has challenged China on multiple fronts, treating it as a strategic competitor, an approach that seems only likely to expand as Trump faces a tough battle for re-election this fall.

Zheng told Branstad that the U.S. has also interfered with Chinas internal affairs and harmed Chinas interests on the issues of Xinjiang, Tibet and the South China Sea, further exposing its nature of naked hegemony.

He urged the U.S. not to go further and further on the wrong path.

The U.S. Embassy did not respond immediately to a request for comment.


Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-17 00:42:06|Editor: huaxia

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DAR ES SALAAM, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian President John Magufuli on Thursday denied reports that he has promised to provide support to some officials seeking nomination for the parliamentary race on the ticket of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party.

"I have not asked anybody to vie for parliamentary seats. If there are people claiming that I have promised them my support they are liars," said Magufuli, who doubles as national chairman of the ruling party.

He made the denial following reports, that the president had asked some officials to collect the nomination forms, promising them his full support.

CCM members, including ministers, regional commissioners, heads of government agencies and district commissioners, on July 13 started collecting and filling forms seeking endorsement from the party to contest for parliamentary seats in the October general election.

According to a timetable released by CCM, prospective candidates seeking approval to vie for parliamentary seats were free to pick the forms until July 17 and names to be approved by the ruling party will be released on July 19. Enditem
The comforting glug of wine into glass has been one of the few pleasures left to us during the long months of lockdown -- but how much better to enjoy it on a sunlit winery terrace, CNN writes in the article The world's best vineyards for 2020 revealed. The World's Best Vineyards awards, created to honor the finest in modern wine tourism, was meant to be held this year in the lush surrounds of California's Sonoma County wine region, but -- 2020 being 2020 -- the winners this year were revealed online. There was one constant in these topsy-turvy times however; South America remains the best destination for a vineyard vacation (once we're all traveling again).

Winner at the inaugural 2019 awards and now again in 2020, Zuccardi Valle de Uco is an Argentinian winery in the heart of the Uco Valley, at the foot of the Andes mountains. A family-run business founded in 1963, it delivers what the Best Vineyard Awards calls "precision-made high-altitude wines" out of a stunning modernist bodega.

Uruguay's Bodega Garzon, once again in second place, was praised as a leader in sustainability. It offers a top-class program of tastings and events, and its 120-seat restaurant offers Uruguayan cuisine and panoramic views of the surrounding countryside.

No checklist, no criteria

The awards are based on nominations from a Voting Academy made up of more than 500 wine experts across the globe. To ensure the Academy is representative, the world is divided into 18 geographical regions, with 36 experts in each.

"There is no predetermined checklist or criteria," said awards founder Andrew Reed as he introduced the live-streamed event. "The experience will take in all sorts of things connected with the visit. The tour, the tasting, the ambiance, the architecture, the wine, the food, the staff, the view... The list goes on."

There were five South America winners in the top 20, with Chile's Montes and Vina Vik at 4 and 10 respectively, and Argentina's Catena Zapata, with its pyramid-like design inspired by Mayan architecture, dropping this year to No. 11.

Europe's best vineyard -- shooting up 16 positions to third place -- is not to be found in the traditional wine regions of France or Italy, but in an Austrian valley formed by the Danube River. Domane Wachau, with its baroque castle and UNESCO World Heritage site surroundings, also wows with its Gruner Veltliner white wines.

Better year for Europe

The highest-placed French vineyard was Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte, near Bordeaux, at No. 7, which climbed seven places this year. Chateau Pichon Baron, also in Bordeaux, broke into the top 20 at No. 19.

Italy's best vineyard was Antinori nel Chianti Classico in Tuscany, up nine places to No. 9. Its new cellar, opened in 2012, is a glorious brick-red structure of terracotta and wood and is, explained the World's Best Vineyards voiceover, "designed for gravity-flow winemaking." With no use of pumps or mechanics, it's a gentler approach to an ancient craft.

Spain's Marques de Riscal winery (up three places to No. 6), with its eye-popping design by legendary architect Frank Gehry, is typical of the new breed of vineyard where top-class architecture is on the menu alongside the traditional varietals and gourmet food offerings.

Impressive new vineyard from Japan

New Zealand's Rippon, a biodynamic vineyard on the shores of Lake Wanaka, dropped five places to No. 13, but was still named Best Vineyard in Australasia.

North America's highest entry was Robert Mondavi Winery in Napa Valley, which climbed seven places to No. 5. It produces world-class Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve and Oakville District Cabernet Sauvignon.

The highest climber, however, was Delaire Graff Estate, in South Africa's Cape Winelands. Leaping 25 places up the list, and boasting "unparalleled views of the Banhoek Valley, Stellenbosch vineyards and Table Mountain," it landed in 14th place and was named Best in Africa.

Japan's Chateau Mercian Mariko Winery, which only opened in September 2019, made a very impressive debut at No. 30, and was named Best in Asia.

Lebanon's emerging wine scene was represented by Chateau Oumsiyat (No. 38) and Chateau Heritage (No.48) and there were new entries from India (KRSMA Estates, No. 46) and Bulgaria (Wine Cellar Villa Melnik, No. 39).

The return of wine tourism

"There is no single definition for an amazing vineyard experience in the same way as there is no single definition for an amazing wine," said Reed as he introduced the live-streamed event. "As the world begins to emerge from lockdown, people will start close to home to begin with, and eventually they will become more bold, and they will venture further away from home to find the food and drink which they want. "There will of course be differences around the world, but I am sure we will get through this very soon."

The world's best vineyards

1. Zuccardi Valle de Uco (Argentina) *Best in South America*

2. Bodega Garzon (Uruguay)

3. Domane Wachau (Austria)

4. Montes (Chile)

5. Robert Mondavi Winery (California) *Best in North America*

6. Marques de Riscal (Spain)

7. Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte (France)

8. Quinta do Crasto (Portugal)

9. Antinori nel Chianti Classico (Italy)

10. Vina Vik (Chile)

11. Catena Zapata (Argentina)

12. Schloss Johannisburg (Germany)

13. Rippon (New Zealand) *Best in Australasia*

14. Delaire Graff Estate (South Africa) *Best in Africa* *Highest climber*

15. Weingut Dr. Loosen (Germany)

16. Ridge Vineyards, Monte Bello (United States) *Highest new entry*

17. Craggy Range (New Zealand)

18. Gonzalez Byass -- Bodegas Tio Pepe (Spain)

19. Chateau Pichon Baron (France)

20. Opus One Winery (California)
By Ali Kucukgocmen

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish court sentenced German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel in absentia on Thursday to jail for 2 years and 9 months for terrorism propaganda, his lawyer said, in a case that has strained ties between Ankara and Berlin.

Yucel, who denied the charges against him, returned to Berlin in February 2018 when he was released from custody after being kept in jail for a year without indictment.

The court convicted Yucel on Thursday for spreading propaganda for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, lawyer Veysel Ok said.

The court ruled that he was not guilty of sedition or of spreading propaganda for the network of Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric accused by Ankara of plotting a 2016 failed coup.

The court also filed additional criminal complaints against him for insulting President Tayyip Erdogan and for insulting the Turkish Republic and its agencies, Ok said.

"This is a political verdict," Yucel wrote in Die Welt newspaper after the verdict.

"In the end I don't care about it... I was arrested for doing my job as a journalist. And I don't regret doing that at all," he wrote.

Yucel's arrest led to a protracted dispute between Turkey and Germany, two NATO allies. Shortly after his arrest, Berlin banned Turkish ministers from speaking to rallies of expatriate Turks, while Erdogan called Yucel a terrorist agent and Ankara accused Germany of supporting Gulen's network.

Erdogan's international critics have questioned the independence of Turkey's judiciary, especially since a crackdown after the attempted coup in 2016.

They say the government used the coup as a pretext to quash dissent, with Turkey one of the biggest jailers of journalists globally. Erdogan and his AK Party say the measures are necessary given the security risks Turkey faces, and courts make independent decisions.

Ok said Turkey's highest court had already ruled that articles written by Yucel on which the charges were based were within the remit of his freedom of speech, and the lower court had violated the law by not abiding by that ruling.

"(Judges) convict anyone who writes news on topics the ruling party does not want - on Kurds, on Armenians. This is confirmation that there is no press freedom in Turkey," he said.

(Reporting by Ali Kucukgocmen; additional reporting by Thomas Escritt in Berlin; Editing by Ece Toksabay, Dominic Evans and Peter Graff, William Maclean)
The UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) calls on Armenia and Azerbaijan to end ceasefire violations and engage in dialogue.

An FCO spokesperson said:

The United Kingdom is deeply concerned by recent ceasefire violations on the international border between Armenia and Azerbaijan and greatly regrets the loss of life.

We call on both sides to respect the ceasefire and engage in dialogue to de-escalate the situation and avoid further casualties.

We urge both sides to show restraint and refrain from rhetoric that may increase tensions further.

We reiterate our support for the negotiation process facilitated by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group aimed at securing a peaceful settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The continued violence threatens regional stability and prosperity, and highlights the urgent need for formal negotiations to resume.
Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at an an event about affordable healthcare at the Lancaster Recreation Center on June 25, 2020 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Joe Biden and his joint fundraising committees combined to raise close to $100 million in the second quarter on the backs of many new donors from the business community who have come off the sidelines to help him try to defeat President Donald Trump.

Biden's committees, the Biden Victory Fund and Biden Action Fund, are also raising money for the Democratic National Committee and state parties, making the massive haul even more significant for their efforts to take down Trump and Republicans as a whole come November.

Biden Victory, according to the latest Federal Election Commission filings, raised close to $86 million, while Biden Action brought in around $11 million in the second quarter. The two committees combined have more than $90 million on hand going into the third quarter.

Biden and the DNC outraised Trump and the Republican National Committee in the second quarter, with the Democrats raking in $282 million and the GOP pulling in $266 million. Trump's two joint committees combined to raise close to $150 million, with much of it coming from small donors to the Trump Make America Great Again Committee.

James Murdoch, son of conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch and former CEO of 21st Century Fox, gave $615,000 to Biden Victory in late June, which is close to the most a donor can give to the joint committee. Jeff Lawson, CEO of cloud platform Twilio, gave just more than $620,000. Meg Whitman, CEO of media company Quibi, contributed $500,000. Bob Iger, executive chairman of Disney, gave $250,000, as did legendary movie director Steven Spielberg. Dustin Moskovitz, who co-founded Facebook with Mark Zuckerberg, gave one of his biggest checks of the cycle to Biden Victory in late June, worth more than $620,000.

Ken Frazier, the Merck CEO who was once on Trump's business advisory council, gave $50,000 to Biden Victory in May. Frazier resigned from the administration's American Advisory Council three years ago in protest of the president's response to demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia. While he's given to some other Democratic causes this cycle, records show Frazier has also backed allies of Trump's, including committees linked to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

Another donor that seemingly came out of nowhere to give big to the Biden-DNC committee is Eli Reinhard. He contributed over $620,000 to Biden Victory in June, his biggest contribution ever, according to data compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Reinhard, a California-based real estate developer and philanthropist, has a mixed donation history. His previous biggest donation came in 2008 with a $10,000 contribution to the Republican Party of California. He's also given to former New York Mayor and current Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani's 2008 presidential campaign, and made donations to former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown's 2010 Senate campaign.

Biden's success also comes after numerous virtual big-money events that were hosted by billionaire Tom Steyer, Sens. Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama. Outside Biden groups were also a boost to the former vice president. Anti-Trump super PAC the Lincoln Project raised more than $16 million in the second quarter, and American Bridge brought in close to the same amount.

Many of Biden's bundlers told CNBC that the renewed effort by these business leaders is linked to the fact that Sen. Bernie Sanders and more liberal candidates are no longer a threat to becoming president. There's also a sense that Biden is going to defeat Trump, with most polls showing the president consistently down against the former vice president.

Trump has been floundering in the polls since the early goings of the coronavirus pandemic and during the ongoing protests since the death of George Floyd, something donors have also taken note of and responded to with big checks for Biden in the month of June, as CNBC reported.
Ethiopia has denied reports that it started filling its massive hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile, after satellite images showed higher water levels. The dam has sparked tensions with downriver nations Egypt and Sudan.

Ethiopia's water minister denied that his country has started filling up Africa's largest dam on Wednesday, a day after talks with Sudan and Egypt on the issue came to a deadlock.

Earlier on Wednesday, Minister Sileshi Bekele told the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation that the construction of the dam and filling its reservoir "go hand in hand" and confirmed recently-released satellite images that showed higher water levels in the reservoir.

Following reports on his remarks, the minister said that higher water levels were due to recent heavy rainfall -- and not due to the conscious efforts to fill the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

"There is a lot of water going through. There is heavy rainfall and the inflow is much greater than the outflow," Seleshi told news agency dpa.

Sudan says water levels dropped

The government of Sudan said on Wednesday that it rejects any unilateral actions with concerns to the dam while negotiating efforts with Ethiopia and Egypt continue.

The statement, released by Sudan's Irrigation Ministry, also said water levels on Sudan's side of the Blue Nile dropped by 90 cubic meters in one day.

Following the reports, Egypt's Foreign Ministry said it was urgently seeking clarification from Ethiopia on the issue.

On Tuesday, the three countries failed to reach an agreement on regulating water flow from the dam.

Ethiopia says the $4.6 billion (4 billion) project is crucial to expanding its power exports and is an opportunity to pull millions of its 110 million population out of poverty.

Downstream Egypt and Sudan have voiced concerns since construction on the dam started in 2010. Egypt says the dam poses an existential threat to its citizens, as the country relies almost exclusively on the Nile for farming, domestic water use and its industry.

In June, Egypt took the issue before the UN Security Council, seeking a legally binding agreement on water flows and a legal mechanism for resolving disputes.

(dpa, AP, Reuters)
YEREVAN, JULY 16, ARMENPRESS. Shushan Stepanyan, spokesperson of the Defense Minister of Armenia, released photos and a footage showing the bodies of the killed Azerbaijani servicemen which are being evacuated by the permission of the Armenian side.

ARMENPRESS reports Stepanyan noted that the publication is the continuation of the announcement made in the morning about the casualties of the Azerbaijani side, as well as the statement of the Armenian side about allowing to evacuate the bodies of killed Azerbaijani soldiers from the neutral zone.
Tunisia's prime minister quit Wednesday after less than five months in office, threatening fresh political deadlock as the North African nation battles the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

Elyes Fakhfakh's resignation came as a political row deepened with the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, the largest in parliament, over allegations of conflict of interest.

"To avoid conflicts between institutions in the country, prime minister Elyes Fakhfakh has presented his resignation to President Kais Saied, in order to open a new path for him to get out of this crisis," Fakhfakh's office said in a statement.

Relations between the 47-year-old outgoing premier and Ennahdha have been strained since October legislative elections.

Ennahdha earlier Wednesday tabled a no-confidence motion against Fakhfakh, who took office in late February after winning approval from a fragmented parliament following four months of deadlock.

Ennahdha came top in the October polls but fell far short of a majority -- holding 54 of 217 seats in parliament -- and eventually agreed to join a coalition government.

"Ennahdha was forced to accept (a coalition government) to avoid new elections," said political analyst Chokri Bahria.

"But the party finds itself in a government with which it has difficulty dealing and in which it has little clout," he added.

Dashed post-revolution hopes

Ennahdha had initially nominated an independent for premier but he failed to win the support of parliament, leading the president to name former finance minister Fakhfakh for the post.

Saied now has 10 days to nominate a new prime minister, according to the presidency.

Under the constitution, the president must first hold consultations with political parties. His candidate has one month to win the backing of a divided parliament.

Tunisia has been praised as a rare success story for democratic transition after the Arab Spring regional uprisings sparked by its 2011 revolution.

But its leaders have struggled to meet the expectations of the Tunisian people and the already fragile economy has been battered by the closure of the country's borders due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The illness has claimed around 50 lives and infected more than 1,300 people in Tunisia.

Fakhfakh, the leader of a small social democratic party, has come under a parliamentary investigation over alleged failure to hand over control of shares he owns in private companies that have won public contracts in recent months.

"The economic and social situation is very serious and can only be overcome by a government whose head is not suspected of any conflict of interest," an Ennahdha senior official, Abdelkarim Harouni, told a news conference on Monday.
HYDERABAD, India, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cyient (Estd: 1991, NSE: CYIENT), a global engineering and technology solutions company, today reported its consolidated financial results for the First quarter (Q1) of FY 2021 ending June 30, 2020.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1215812/Cyient_Krishna_Bodanapu.jpg

Financial Highlights

-Consolidated revenue at $130.6 Mn (INR 9,917 Mn); degrowth of 12.5% QoQ (in $ terms) and de-growth of 16.6% YoY (in $ terms) and degrowth of 7.6% QoQ (in INR terms) and de-growth of 8.9% YoY (in INR terms)

-Services revenue at $112.2 Mn; de-growth of 15.2% QoQ (-14.3% in CC) and de-growth of 18.6% YoY

-DLM revenue at $18.4 Mn; growth of 8.5% QoQ, and de-growth of 1.4% YoY

-Free cash flow to EBITDA conversion at 138.1%

-EBIT margin for services at 6.7%, down 283 bps QoQ

-EBIT margin for DLM at -4.6%, down 410 bps QoQ

-Profit After Tax at INR 814 Mn for the quarter; growth of 8.0% QoQ

Business Highlights

Update on deal wins - Hitachi Rail :

Signed an agreement with Hitachi Rail to deliver project engineering services and accelerate the evolution of its signalling technology

to deliver project engineering services and accelerate the evolution of its signalling technology

Cyient will develop and operate a Central Delivery Centre for Hitachi Rail in India , and a Regional Centre in the US

in , and a Regional Centre in the US

Will be responsible for delivering engineering services for Hitachi's global signalling projects that use proprietary interlocking platforms

Update on collaboration with Microsoft

Cyient loT Edge Gateway 5400, the flagship product in the company's family of loT gateways, is Microsoft Azure Certified for loT



Cyient's loT Edge Gateway 5400 provides diverse connectivity and communication protocol options, advanced data processing, and edge analytics capabilities for remote asset monitoring and predictive maintenance solutions

Diversifying our customer base

We have added 25 new customers in Q1 FY21

Commissioning of the Hyderabad factory

The new DLM factory in Hyderabad has been commissioned. This is one of the most advanced electronics manufacturing facilities in India , underpinned by the latest technologies in factory automation, Industry 4.0 and supply chain management

has been commissioned. This is one of the most advanced electronics manufacturing facilities in , underpinned by the latest technologies in factory automation, Industry 4.0 and supply chain management

Strategic advantage to be located in a manufacturing hub in terms of proximity to probable customers, managing supply chains and co-ordination with the design teams

Message from the Management

Commenting on the results, Mr. Krishna Bodanapu, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, said "Q1 FY21 results were better than our expectations, where we recorded a revenue of $130.6 Mn which was lower by 11.6% QoQ and 15.1% YoY in constant currency.Services business was lower by 14.3 % QoQ in constant currency. The DLM business grew by 8.5% QoQ. We expect traction from top clients to return post Q2. The EBIT margin is lower by 328bps QoQ mainly due to lower business volume which was somewhat offset by lower SG&A spend. We generated Free Cash Flow of INR 2,163 Mn which was higher by 101% QoQ.

This quarter we had some significant wins in both new business and existing clients. This will help us strengthen our revenue outlook in the coming quarters. This quarter we also made significant investments in strengthening our business through strategic partnerships and alliances. We partnered with Microsoft for industry 4.0 offerings. The partnership will allow us take IoT solutions faster to market with hardware and software that has been pre-tested and verified to work with Microsoft Azure IoT services. We also signed a partnership with Fore Optics for joint Go to Market on taking asset tracking offering to the market. As part of this partnership Fore Optics brings in its IP in supply chain analytics and Cyient its IP in asset tracking IoT. We further strengthened the management team with the addition of Felice Gray-Kemp as the Global General Counsel and Meenu Bagla as the Chief Marketing Officer. The new DLM factory in Hyderabad has been commissioned and I am happy to say that this is one of the most advanced electronics manufacturing facilities in India, underpinned by the latest technologies in factory automation, Industry 4.0 and supply chain management.

Our Outlook for Q2 is positive and we expect growth to return in all industries except Aerospace, which will de-grow further in Q2. For the year, we expect a de-growth in revenue in double digits. We will also reiterate that H2 margin will be back to the steady state margin of H1 of last year. This will continue to be underpinned by strong free cash flow generation and prudent Capex spend."

Commenting on the results, Mr. Ajay Aggarwal, President & CFO, said, "The revenue for Q1FY21 stood at $130.6 Mn (INR 9,917 Mn) with EBIT of INR 511 Mn and PAT of INR 814 Mn. Our rigor on cash collections, close engagement with customers and initiatives on cash conservation has yielded results with FCF generation of INR 2,163 Mn and FCF to EBITDA conversion of 138.1%.

With significant efforts spent on efficiencies and cost optimisation in the last financial year, our focus on cost reduction and profit improvement continued in Q1 and well set to show results in the coming quarters. We are positive on realising benefits of our sustained initiatives on collections, working capital cycles, payables and discretionary cost control in FY21.

In the current turbulent times, it is very difficult to predict future with a reasonable certainty. We are cognizant of the dynamic situation we are in, and are working with extreme agility in making decisions and taking corrective actions to manage business scenarios with special focus on cash and costs.

We remain strongly focused on growth, improvement in operating efficiencies and cash generation and thus maximizing the value for our shareholders."

Business performance and outlook

Aerospace & Defense

Aerospace & Defence business unit witnessed a decline of 15.6% QoQ and 21.5% YoY. The services business from commercial aviation clients witnessed significant challenges across geographies. The defence business remained resilient and we expect the traction to continue through the year. The manufacturing business grew driven by new wins and stable defence accounts.

We expect to witness decline in Q2 driven by poor market demand for passenger travel. We are actively engaged with key clients to strengthen our relationship and retain our market share. We expect manufacturing business to witness strong growth through Q2. The digital offerings are seeing momentum in this vertical. We expect the demand to be driven by digital, defence and DLM in the near term.

Communications

Communications business unit witnessed a decline of 10.8% QoQ and growth of 0.6% YoY. The services business witnessed increased demand in key clients driven by demand for increased network bandwidth both from consumer & enterprise segments. Also, 5G rollouts across various geographies are gaining traction. However, closure on major programs, field access and new client acquisition remained a challenge.

We expect strong growth in Q2 driven by growth in key clients. 5G rollouts, wireless and fiber rollout, digital technologies will continue to drive growth through next few quarters.

Transportation

Transportation business unit witnessed a decline of 10.9% QoQ and 23.9% YoY, primarily driven by change in revenue complexion and lower momentum in one of our key clients.

Our outlook for Q2 continues to remain positive driven by growth in key client accounts and new wins in mobility business. We expect momentum in signaling business to return through the quarter.

E&U

Energy and Utilities business unit witnessed a decline of 19.4% QoQ and 30.0% YoY driven by temporary stoppage in field work for the Utilities business and decline in demand for the manufacturing business.

We expect strong growth in Q2 driven by growth across services. We expect traction in Energy segment to return post Q2

Medtech and Healthcare

Medical technology and Healthcare business unit witnessed a growth of 18.2% QoQ and 32.7% YoY driven by growth in key client in the services business and manufacturing business.

Our outlook for Q2 stands positive driven by growth in key client in the manufacturing business. We expect growth in Covid related equipment's like IVD and hospital equipment's to drive growth through the quarter.

SIA (Semiconductor, Semiconductor, IoT and Analytics)

Semiconductor, IoT and Analytics business unit witnessed a growth of 15.6% QoQ and decline of 18.7% YoY. The growth was driven by growth in key clients in semiconductor as well as embedded automotive services. We also completed ASIC IC shipments for a high precision GPS chip leveraging our new test infrastructure in Europe. Asides this, our facilities in Leuven (Belgium) and Duisburg (Germany) will be fully equipped to perform test development for high volume production for complex analog mixed signal ASICs through the year.

We expect growth through Q2 driven by ramp up in new turnkey ASIC projects and IC shipments.

DLM (Design Led manufacturing)

Design Led manufacturing business unit witnessed a growth of 8.4% QoQ and decline of 1.4% YoY driven by growth across Aerospace and Medical segments. Our strong focus on inventory reduction through the quarter resulted in increased cash flow for the business.

We expect strong growth through Q2 driven by key clients in Aerospace & Defence and Medical segment. We will continue to focus on better inventory management and operational excellence to improve our cash position.

About Cyient

Cyient (Estd: 1991, NSE: CYIENT) is a global engineering and technology solutions company. As a Design, Build, and Maintain partner for leading organizations worldwide, Cyient takes solution ownership across the value chain to help customers focus on their core, innovate, and stay ahead of the curve. The company leverages digital technologies, advanced analytics capabilities, domain knowledge, and technical expertise to solve complex business problems.

Cyient partners with customers to operate as part of their extended team in ways that best suit their organization's culture and requirements. Cyient's industry focus includes aerospace and defense, healthcare, telecommunications, rail transportation, semiconductor, geospatial, industrial, and energy.

For more information, please visit www.cyient.com.

Follow news about the company at @Cyient.

Media Relations

Perfect Relations

Vishal Thapa

Mobile: +91 9701834446

Email: vthapa@perfectrelations.com

Disclaimer

This document contains certain forward-looking statements on our future prospects. Although Cyient believes that expectations contained in these statements are reasonable, their nature involves a number of risks and uncertainties that may lead to different results. These forward-looking statements represent only the current expectations and beliefs, and the company provides no assurance that such expectations will prove correct.

All the references to Cyient's financial results in this update pertain to the company's consolidated operations comprising wholly-owned and Step-down subsidiaries Cyient Europe Limited; Cyient Inc.; Cyient GmbH; Cyient Australia Pty Ltd; Cyient Singapore Private Limited; Cyient KK; Cyient Israel India Limited; Cyient Insights Private Limited; Cyient Canada Inc.; Cyient Defense Services Inc.; Certon Software Inc.; Certon Instruments Inc.; B&F Design Inc.; New Technology Precision Machining Co. Inc.; Cyient Insights LLC; Cyient Benelux BV; Cyient Schweiz GmbH; Cyient SRO; AnSem NV; AnSem B.V.; Cyient AB; partly owned subsidiaries Cyient Solutions and Systems Private Limited; Cyient DLM Private Limited; joint venture Infotech HAL Ltd (HAL JV) & associate company Infotech Aerospace Services Inc. (IASI) until 8th December 2017.

The income statement and cash flow provided is in the internal MIS format. MIS format is different from the income statement published as part of the financial results, which is as per the statutory requirement.
KAMPALA  The National Transformation Alliance (ANT) has on Wednesday welcomed and unveiled former internal affairs Minister Sarah Kiyingi and KCCA spokesperson Aisha Nabasirye.

Kiyingi is a former state minister for internal affairs and Woman MP Rakai District.

In 2005, as a minister, she is remembered for vehemently opposing the lifting of term limits.

She subsequently lost her position in cabinet. ANT national coordinator Gen Mugisha Muntu said this earned her the good name and trust of the people.

Kiyingi led a petition against the dishing out of UGX 20M to MPs.

Additionally, Nabasirye was previously a member of the NRM and is the current Deputy Speaker of KCCA Makindye Division.

She announced plans to stand for Woman MP Kampala District on ANT ticket.

When we started the Alliance for National Transformation, we made it clear that our goal was to change the nature of our countrys politics. As a first step towards that, we decided that we must attract the right kind of leadership that will not only walk the talk but also put the countrys interests before their personal ambition.

Good people cannot keep saying politics is dirty and yet be unwilling to join and change it, Gen. Muntu said.

Today, we are happy to add among our number, people that have demonstrated their fidelity to truth, justice, equality and democratic principles, he added.

ANT recently picked Mugisha Muntu as their flag bearer in the presidential race.

The part last week unveiled two more MPs including Paul Mwiru and Gerald Karuhanga.

Mwiru and Karuhanga highlighted the need for an upgrade in some of Ugandas sectors which have informed their decision to cross the floor.

I want to inform the country, that I have joined Alliance for national transformation with my own conscious and passion, because theres a need to transform the health, economic sectors of Uganda, and ensure the respect of human rights Mwiru said.

Related
Up to two thirds of elderly patients discharged from hospitals into a care home at the height of the pandemic were not tested for Covid-19, it was claimed today.

NHS England data shows at least 25,000 patients were moved from hospitals to care homes between March 17 and April 15.

But 16,000 weren't tested to ensure they were coronavirus-free before being moved in with other elderly and vulnerable people, The Times reports.

Until April 15, the government said testing was only a requirement if patients being discharged had obvious symptoms.

The controversial guidance has been partly blamed for the severity of Covid-19 in care homes, where around 20,000 people have died.

Sir Ed Davey, acting leader of the Lib Dems, said today's figures 'confirms our worst fears', adding that the UK had 'one of the worst care home crises in the world'.

Up to two thirds of elderly patients discharged from a hospital into a care home at the height of the pandemic were not tested for Covid-19 (Stock)

The figures come from a freedom of information request (FOI) sent by The Times to 155 NHS trusts in the UK.

Fifty answered the FOI and revealed 4,300 patients weren't Covid-19 tested between March 17  when hospitals were told to free up beds  and April 15.

The 4,300 were two-thirds of all patients discharged. Another 759 swabbed positive and 1,548 received a negative result.

If applied to all 155 NHS trusts, it would suggest around 13,330 went untested when they were discharged during this crucial period.

But separate NHS England statistics show at least 25,000 patients were moved from hospitals to care homes between March 17 and April 15.

Using that data, it would suggest around 16,000 patients weren't tested for Covid-19 when they were discharged from hospitals.

CARE HOMES 20 TIMES MORE LIKELY TO HAVE A CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK Coronavirus outbreaks are up to 20 times more likely to occur in large care homes, according to the biggest study of its kind in the UK. Researchers analysed 189 care homes in the NHS Lothian area in Scotland where more than 400 people died from the disease in total. The data  not yet published  found the chance of clusters of cases tripled with every additional 20 beds. Edinburgh University researchers found the risk of an outbreak was as low as 5 per cent in homes with fewer than 20 residents. But for facilities home to more than 60 elderly people it soared to between 83 and 100 per cent, according to the scientists. More visitors and a revolving door of care staff, often agency workers who do shifts at other homes, are thought to be the driving factor behind the increased risk. The research is thought to be the broadest analysis yet of coronavirus cases in care homes in the UK. Advertisement

But the figure could be lower or higher because there is no official national data to show the scale of the problem.

Liz Kendall, Labour's shadow minister for social care, said the figures proved care homes were 'an afterthought' during the pandemic.

'Rigorous testing on discharge and sufficient supplies of PPE came too late to stem the spread of the virus through care homes,' she said.

Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said that 'unfortunately the focus on the NHS was to the detriment of the adult social care sector'.

There have been accusations the NHS was prioritised over care homes in terms of protecting it from being overwhelmed.

In May, Health Secretary Matt Hancock claimed Government had thrown a 'protective ring' around care homes 'from the start' - which has rattled chiefs in the care home sector.

The figures show some places in the UK discharged more untested elderly people than others.

For example, North Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust discharged 370 untested patients to care homes.

But all patients from several trusts in the Midlands, Harlow and elsewhere were tested.

It is not clear why these differences exist, but it is possible those trusts took it upon themselves to test all patients if they had the capacity to.

Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust said it had 'followed government guidance on testing'.

The same response was given by The North Bristol NHS trust, when an investigation last week revealed one Bristol hospital, Southmead Hospital, transferred 213 untested patients into care homes in March and April without checking whether or not they were infected.

However, the the trust's chief operating officer Evelyn Barkerthat added that the hospital 'only ever discharged people when our doctors believed it was safe'.

Official guidance issued by NHS England and the Department of Health said: 'Negative tests are not required prior to transfers/admissions into the care home.'

This was in place until April 15, when new NHS England guidance that came into effect on April 16 required hospitals to test patients being discharged into care homes.

But the 'peak' of the virus had already passed  infections were at their highest in the last week of March, and deaths in the second week of April, official figures show.

The move has been blamed for 'seeding' Covid-19 outbreaks in the homes which later became impossible to control.

Chair of the public accounts committee and a Labour MP in London, Meg Hillier, said: 'Residents and staff were an afterthought yet again: out of sight and out of mind, with devastating consequences.'

Care home managers also complained that they had been 'pressured' into taking the patients, and families said their loved ones had been moved out of hospital like 'sacrificial lambs'.

It has since become clear that patients without symptoms of the virus (asymptomatic) are able to spread the infection to others.

And elderly people are more likely to show atypical signs of the virus without the usual cough and fever, including delirium and diarrhoea.

It comes after Care England, which represents 4,000 providers, warned Boris Johnson must carry out his promise to fix the care crisis to prevent thousands of vulnerable residents being placed in danger.

In its letter, Care England states: 'With a second wave on the horizon, it is imperative that the Government fixes the stark social care crisis now.

'With such a large majority in Parliament, now is the time to put an end to all the past inertia and make changes.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: 'At every stage we have been guided by the latest scientific advice, and on March 13 care homes received advice, setting out actions around infection control and isolating residents or staff displaying symptoms.'

She added: 'Regular testing for staff and residents has now begun starting with homes for the over 65s and those with dementia before extending to all adult care homes.'

Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said that 'trust leaders have consistently adhered to public health guidance' and added that 'a public inquiry will be required to establish the reasons behind the number of deaths in care homes during the pandemic'.
Auburn, N.Y.  Auburn police are asking for the publics help locating a man in connection with a sexual assault that occurred Tuesday at an Auburn motel.

Brian S. Wilkinson, 38, is also wanted by New York State Parole for absconding from parole supervision. State records show Wilkinson was released from prison to parole supervision on Monday after he pleaded guilty to a 2017 home burglary.

Wilkinson is wanted for questioning in relation to a sexual assault that happened Monday at the Grant Motel, 255 Grant Ave., Auburn.

Police urged the public to not approach Wilkinson, but instead if he is located, to call the Auburn Police Department at 315-253-3231, state parole at 315-314-1635 or call 911. Callers can remain anonymous.
The wait-list for elective eye surgery in Ottawa could balloon to thousands if the city's main treatment centre doesn't reopen soon, according to one physician.

The Ottawa Hospital's Riverside Eye Care Centre (RECC) has been closed since March due to COVID-19. Despite a directive from the province in May allowing elective surgeries to resume, the RECC has yet to reopen.

The RECC is the largest outpatient facility of its kind in Canada, performing more than 10,000 surgeries a year. According to Dr. Peter Agapitos, a staff ophthalmologist at RECC, there could already be 5,000 patients waiting for surgeries that were cancelled due to the pandemic.

"Some of them are getting worse with time," Agapitos said, adding some patients could be at risk of losing their sight permanently

"As their problems progress, their surgery becomes more complicated, and that's the real problem."

Some procedures have resumed at the Eye Institute at the General campus of The Ottawa Hospital, but Agapitos said that facility is only functioning at 20 to 30 per cent of its normal capacity.

He said he's frustrated with the lack of communication regarding the RECC's closure, which he's been told will be re-evaluated in August.

"If we open up in September, it will take a long time to get through those 5,000 patients that are waiting. It'll take a number of years, and that's just not acceptable," Agapitos said.

Terrifying wait

One of the patients waiting for surgery is Dominic DeWolfe, who first started noticing a problem with his eyes a year ago when his night vision began to deteriorate. A few weeks ago he was diagnosed with aggressive cataracts.

Submitted by Dominic DeWolfe

"If I close my left eye, I'm basically blind at this point," DeWolfe said, adding his sight seems to be worsening by the day.

"It's just an awful experience," he said.

DeWolfe, a software developer in his late 40s, said it's difficult for him to cook, drive or help his wife with their three children.

Story continues

"It's a situation that seems avoidable with a 15-minute surgery," he said.

'Gradual approach'

The Ottawa Hospital says it's taking a "coordinated and gradual approach" to catching up on surgeries that were cancelled due to COVID-19. In a statement, the hospital said it's reviewing each case and working to reschedule appointments.

"Priority is based on acuity, and the health condition of the patient. This process will take some time, as our teams carefully consider the safety of patients throughout this process," the hospital said.

"While we are eager to care for as many patients as safely possible, this measured approach is in line with direction from the provincial government, which acknowledges this process will take weeks and months."

The hospital did not say why the RECC remains closed while similar facilities are reopening.
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Derivatives of cocoa beans, cocoa ingredients are widely used for various purposes. A new report on the global cocoa ingredients market, published by Market Research Future (MRFR), predicts that this market could witness growth between 2017 and 2023.

The biggest market driving factor raising the global cocoa ingredients market growth high is increasing worldwide demand for sweetened bakery products. Escalating demand for chocolate and its derivatives boosts the market has most chocolates have cocoa ingredients. Stable environmental conditions, along with improved cocoa production in Africa, is also fueling market growth. Other market driving factors include advancements in processing & procurement technologies, increasing awareness about health advantages through cocoa consumption, innovation in flavors, and high research & development (R&D) investments. The growing retail sector is developed economies as well as emerging economies is also increasing the reach and availability of cocoa in hypermarkets and supermarkets.

Market Segmentation

The global Covid-19 Analysis on Cocoa ingredients Market segmentation encompasses application and type. MRFR s take on the market explores various facets of the market in-depth.

The application-based segmentation of the market covers bakery & confectionery, beverages, dairy products, personal care products, pharmaceuticals, and others. The bakery & confectionery segment dominates the market due to the high demand for chocolate from industries related to the production of food items and beverages. Increasing health consciousness among consumers has increased the demand for organic chocolates, which can also boost market growth for all cocoa ingredients.

By type, the market has been segmented into criollo, forastero, and trinitario. The forastero segment dominates the market due to its high production volume. It grows easily and is available in two varieties. The less bitterness and strong flavor of forastero cocoa also have a positive impact on its market growth.

Regional Segmentation

A geographical outlining of the global cocoa ingredients market covers Latin America, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa (MEA).

Latin America is dominating the global cocoa ingredients market, followed by the Africa segment of the MEA region. Brazil and Ecuador are the biggest producers of forastero cocoa. Many countries in Latin America produce and export different types of Cocoa. Columbia is the third biggest revenue generator of the Latin American market. An analysis of the remaining countries in Latin America featured in this report estimate the huge contribution to market revenue from some other countries.

The MEA region is the second-largest regional market as Africa is the second-largest producer of cocoa. Many chocolate brands in the Middle East keep the demand for cocoa high. The Middle East segment of the MEA region, Saudi Arabia is the biggest country-specific market for cocoa. Other noteworthy country-specific markets in this region are Cameroon, CATe D'Ivoire (commonly known as Ivory Coast), and Ghana. An analysis of the remaining countries in the MEA region featured in this report estimates the huge contribution to market revenue from some other countries.

In North America, the USA is the biggest market for chocolates and many beverages, both in the aspect of production and consumption. Therefore, the cocoa ingredients market in the USA earns huge revenue. Canada is a strong economy. Although not as big market as the USA, Canada contributes significant revenue to the market.

Europe is another significant regional market as the increased demand for cocoa ingredients from France, Germany, and Switzerland is boosting the cocoa ingredients exports of countries all over the world that produce and export cocoa. The high density of population and a strong market for chocolates also strengthens the demand for cocoa ingredients. Other important country-specific markets in this region are Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK. An analysis of the remaining countries in Europe featured in this report estimate the huge contribution to market revenue from some other countries.

The Asia Pacific region is the fastest-growing regional market for cocoa ingredients due to the developing economy, rise of many local chocolate brands & beverage brands, and improving farming practices in the emerging country-specific markets like India, Indonesia, and Malaysia. One of the strongest economies in this region, China is another major country-specific market. An analysis of the remaining countries in the Asia Pacific region featured in this report estimates the huge contribution to market revenue from some other countries.

Key Players

Prominent players in the global cocoa ingredients market includes Agostoni Chocolate Inc. (USA), Archer Daniels Midland Company (USA), Barry Callebaut (Switzerland), Blommer Chocolate (USA), Cocoa Processing Company Ltd. (Ghana), The Hershey Company ( USA), Mars Inc. (USA), Olam International Limited (Singapore), and United Cocoa Processors Inc. (USA).

Latest Industry News

Nestle has created new chocolate that uses only the cocoa plant fruit pulp for sweetness. The cacao extract is also found in cocoa beans. Hence, to manufacture this chocolate, Nestle does not need to add refined sugar. 17 JUL 2019

Browse Full Report Details @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/cocoa-ingredients-market-1380

NOTE: Our team of researchers are studying Covid19 and its impact on various industry verticals and wherever required we will be considering covid19 footprints for a better analysis of markets and industries. Cordially get in touch for more details.

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PRESIDENT Mnangagwa has said he is convinced that realising an upper middle-income economy by 2030 is possible as he expressed confidence that new mining investments in Hwange, Matabeleland North Province, will transform the lives of local communities.





Speaking during a tour of coal mining companies here yesterday, the President said developmental challenges facing the province and other parts of the country, could easily be solved if private sector players and local communities play ball by partnering with Government in championing development progress.





President Mnangagwa, who toured Western Coal and Energy Company, the new South Mining Coke Plant, Jinan/Tutu Coke Project and Hwange Colliery Companys Chaba Mine, said the new dispensations drive was to bring about inclusive growth that is anchored on empowerment of local communities.





Traditional leaders were also part of the proceedings.





Hwange District alone has seen expansion of mining investments in the last few years with growing focus on diversification towards coal value addition and energy generation, which are set to enhance export prospects and job opportunities.





Creating a competitive business environment, expanding the job market and increasing domestic incomes and exports are the hallmark of the Second Republic, said the President. Such a path, he said, could yield the desired economic self-sufficiency that is informed by optimum use of natural resources available in the country.





As such, he said yester-year burdens, which have seen places like Hwange and other parts of the country lag behind in terms of development, must be ruthlessly overcome.





The President commended the Minister of Mines and Mining Development, Winston Chitando, and his portfolio for boldly pitching a US$12 billion mining target by 2023, as a build up towards towards Vision 2030, saying this drive has to be fully supported with equal enthusiasm by other sectors.





Our desire is to achieve higher middle income by 2030. No doubt, we will achieve the vision we have set but this wont be achieved by mining alone but all sectors.





Im happy that in the exploitation of resources in this area, the companies here are doing their best to recruit young people in this area to be given jobs and acquire artisanal skills that are critically important, said President Mnangagwa.





We must see the change of lives of the local communities because the resource is here. Yes, of course, the country will benefit but we must see also that this area changes and responds to the growth and modernisation of this area.





What is left is for the minister and your people and the companies to deliver what they are telling us.





While Government remains committed to supporting every developmental effort, the President said, private sector support is critical in unlocking wider economic opportunities in respective districts and provinces where companies operate from.





We need those in Government and private sector and communities around to all pull in one direction, in unison, said President Mnangagwa.





National challenges are not for Government alone but all of us working towards betterment of lives of our people.





Hwange is somewhat behind in terms of infrastructure development. We need no area to be behind.





He called on coal mining companies here to address challenges of water, social amenities like schools and clinics, and road infrastructure as part of their corporate social responsibility.





The President said the growing coal mining investments should also assist the country in tackling persistent energy generation shortages, which continue to negatively impact on productive sector.





Zimbabwe is currently importing electricity due to a deficit in the local generation of power, yet the country has resources to generate that power. Reliance on imports also drains the economy of scarce forex earnings.





On this concern, President Mnangagwa said a roadmap has been set to increase domestic capacity with a view to generating surplus in the short to medium term while also harnessing opportunity around fuel supply and local gas production. Invictus Energy is already exploring prospects for oil in Muzarabani while efforts to tap into vast gas reserves in Lupane are also underway.





We need to access modern technology to convert that gas to our use as well as through the coal processing levels and gas in the country. By 2030 we should be self-sufficient when it comes to fuel. Competencies and skills of doing that are there in the market and we should attract them, said President Mnangagwa.





Despite successive drought seasons that have affected the country due to climate change, President Mnangagwa also bemoaned the fact that Zimbabwe was importing food, stressing the need for adoption of technology and irrigation driven options to utilise the vast tracts of arable land and water bodies to enhance farm production.





We need to produce our own food and feed ourselves. A programme relating to achieving food security is now on course and we have put up a package to support that vision and we believe that within two to three seasons, we should achieve food sufficiency or food security in Zimbabwe. We do not need to import any food at all in Zimbabwe, he said.





We have adequate electricity and enough fuel in the country. I see no constraint in us achieving what we have set for ourselves; the attainment of higher middle-income status by 2030. All that is needed is focus, stability, harmony and unity in the country and peace. With that we will achieve our goal. We will change the lives of our people. Now can we walk the talk. That is the message throughout.





In his welcome remarks, Matabeleland North Minister for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Richard Moyo expressed appreciation to President Mnangagwa for steering new development projects in the area while making sure that long outstanding ones are completed.





He urged investors to consider employing locals while considering environmental issues in their operations.




While beating on the drums of war for years by Lebanon's Hezbollah has driven major foreign investors out of Lebanon, the group's leader Hassan Nasrallah has called for turning to China to rescue the country's failing economy.

This comes while Hezbollah has opposed taking loans from the International Monetary Fund to save Lebanon's economy.

In the meantime, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says a long-term contract with China trumpeted by Iran is yet another reason why the UN arms embargo against Tehran should be extended.

The statement by Nasrallah was made as Hezbollah's main financial and ideological sponsor, the Islamic Republic of Iran is striving to finalize a 25-year economic cooperation pact with China that translates into selling Iran's cheap oil to Beijing and giving a strategic economic foothold to China, against Beijings economic and diplomatic support.

Lebanon will soon find itself in the same economic situation as Venezuela. The Lebanese currency has lost its value at least fourfold during recent months dragging most of the Lebanese middle class below the poverty line

The United States and several European countries have designated Hezbollah, which was founded in 1983 with the assistance of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, IRGC, as a terrorist group. Nonetheless, it is a major player in Lebanon's politics as one of the parties that support Prime Minister Hassan Diab's administration.

Hezbollah favors the idea of giving a more significant role to China in Lebanon and has only reluctantly accepted negotiations with the IMF. However, so far 17 rounds of negotiations have remained futile.

In the meantime, the IMF refuses to grant an 11 billion-dollar loan it has promised to Lebanon in 2018 as Beirut has failed to implement regulations against financial corruption.

Hezbollah's pro-Chinese propaganda coincides with its disinformation about the U.S. role in Lebanon's economic crisis. Hezbollah ignores corruption, mismanagement and its own warmongering and blames Washington for Lebanon's problems.

Meanwhile, the Russian ambassador to Beirut has also opined that Russia, Iran, China, Syria and Iraq can help Lebanon out of its economic problems, mindless of the fact that some of these states have similar economic crises.

This comes while most Lebanese have always viewed their country as a fortress for Western values. In fact, Lebanon is one of the most pro-American nations in the Middle east.

Lebanon receives U.S. military aid and its banking system is also supported by the United States. Nevertheless, U.S. officials have warned Lebanese officials that assistance to Lebanon might end if they insist on the move toward China.

Former Lebanese Labor Minister Kamel Abu Suleiman has warned fellow Lebanese to be weary of China's "loan traps" and its bad record in funding projects. Meanwhile, economic analysts have said that China is eyeing the Port of Tripoli in Northern Lebanon as a terminal for its ambitious Silk Road project. Beijing also hopes to use Lebanon as a foothold to enter the Syrian market.

Some observers even say that with the rising tensions between China and the United States, the Chinese might even consider losing the U.S. market and focusing on the burgeoning market in the Middle East.

In the Meantime, Pompeo said in his remarks at the Economic Club of New York on 15 July: " I think thats very telling about what will happen on October 19 when the current embargo for Iran that prevents Iran from both purchasing most weapon systems and being  and acting as an arms dealer - expires. It would be tragic. This was one of the central failings of the JCPOA, just that that was but a roughly five-year hiatus in Iran being the worlds largest state sponsor of terror and one of its larger sellers of arms to bad actors around the world."

Pompeo added that the United States " will work with the UN Security Council to ensure that the arms embargo is extended, and Im confident that well get that outcomeI hope we can convince the P5 that its the right thing to do to extend this arms embargo, to make it an indefinite arms embargo until the Islamic Republic of Iran changes its ways, but in the event we cant convince them, Im confident that we have a legal basis and a path forward so that we can, as President Obama reminded us, unilaterally reimpose all of those sanctions."

He also said during a conversation with the editor-in-chief of The Hill that "every nation including Russia signed off on UN Security Council Resolution 2231 which imposed an arms embargo that denies Iran the capacity to sell or buy weapons systemsnow after just five years the worlds largest state sponsor of terror [will begin] to freely engage in arms trade around the world, and become not only the largest state sponsor of terror but one of the largest arms dealers purchasing Chinese and Russian weapon systems.

He added: "Were working and, we hope, alongside the Russians to ensure that that cant happen."
The current severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), causing the pandemic of COVID-19, has not met its match by way of an effective vaccine or antiviral. However, several risk factors have been identified, one of which is obesity. Statins are a class of drugs often used to control high cholesterol levels in obesity. Now, a study published on the preprint server medRxiv* in July 2020 suggests that statins do not aggravate the risk of COVID-19 infection and may have a small beneficial effect in some cases.

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

What are Statins?

Statins are most commonly prescribed to reduce cholesterol levels and inflammation in individuals with hypercholesterolemia, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, including ischemic heart disease and stroke. They make up an astounding number of prescriptions at 26% of all Americans over the age of 40 years and up to 40% of all German type 2 diabetes patients. Thus, a considerable proportion of older adults take them.

This same population group is at particular risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2, and of developing severe disease following virus exposure. Prior retrospective analysis has suggested that COVID-19 patients who are on statins fare better clinically than others.

SARS-CoV-2 - Transmission electron micrograph of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles, isolated from a patient. Image captured and color-enhanced at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Credit: NIAID

Statins work by inhibiting the activity of the HMG-CoA enzyme, a crucial component of the cholesterol biosynthesis pathway. SARS-CoV is known to depend heavily on its intact membrane, with cholesterol-heavy microdomains, to bind efficiently to the host cell receptor, the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2).

SARS-CoV-2 also uses the same receptor, which led to curiosity as to the possible impact of these drugs on the entry of the virus into the cell. The current study aimed to examine the effect of statins on the outcome of COVID-19 as well as to determine their impact on the entry and replication of the virus. The researchers here used cell cultures and pseudotyped vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), expressing the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2, to examine how the virus infectivity differed after statin exposure.

Reduction of Alphacoronavirus Entry

They found that the alphacoronavirus 229E (of low pathogenicity) showed a moderate reduction in infectivity at 5 M of statin concentration. The most significant effect was with Fluvastatin. This drug was able to reduce the infection in a dose-dependent manner, and the IC50 was 9.8 M. At all the tested doses, Fluvastatin did not produce any evidence of cell toxicity, with 80% or more of cells remaining viable.

When pretreated with Fluvastatin at 10 M, the entry of the virus was reduced fivefold, but not of viral particles that cannot bind to ACE2. The more frequently used drugs, simvastatin, atorvastatin, lovastatin, pravastatin, and rosuvastatin also caused slight but insignificant reductions in the 229E assay.

Reduction of Betacoronavirus Entry

Chloroquine, however, blocked infection effectively with SARS-CoV-2 but not with SARS-CoV, because the latter undergo cleavage of the spike protein at the plasma membrane rather than in the endosomes. When cyclodextrin was added to reduce cholesterol levels, both SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 entry was reduced but not the VSV pseudoparticle. This offers a possible explanation for the mechanism of action of statins on viral entry into the respiratory epithelial cells.

When Fluvastatin at 10 M dosage was used to pretreat human respiratory epithelial cells before exposing them to a highly pathogenic strain of SARS-CoV-2, the scientists observed a moderate reduction in viral genome copies. Thus, there is no enhancement of COVID-19 infection risk in patients on statins, as suspected earlier. Instead, some statins may be able to reduce viral entry and infection in vitro.

Retrospective Study: Low HDL in Older Patients, Increased Mortality

The researchers also carried out a retrospective analysis of 65 severely ill COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit (ICU), with 3 each on simvastatin and atorvastatin. Eight of them had low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels below 20 mg/dL.

The median age of the patients overall was 63 years, but of the eight with low HDL, 73 years. Most were male. The median ICU stay duration was 12 and 16 days, respectively. Seven of the eight low-HDL patients died, but 14/57 remaining patients. Those of an age-matched cohort matched the results in the low-HDL group.

Low HDL has been reported in critical COVID-19 patients. Since statins increase HDL levels while reducing LDL levels, their lipid homeostatic effect may contribute to their beneficial effect in this pandemic viral infection.

The Implications

The researchers speculate: As statins reduce LDL and may increase HDL levels, statin modulation of serum lipoprotein homeostasis may in addition to immunomodulatory and other yet unknown effects - contribute to the previous observations of beneficial effects of statins in patients.

They note that in keeping with the beneficial effect of statins on the progression of COVID-19 to severe disease, the study showed moderate inhibition of both alpha- and beta-coronaviruses in vitro. However, the concentrations of Fluvastatin used were at least one magnitude higher than serum levels in the typical patient and much more than that likely to be found in the respiratory tract.

In other words, the direct inhibitory effect may not be observed in patients. Moreover, the pseudoviruses used in the current study did not express the SARS-CoV-2 protease, which is essential for viral entry.

Instead, statins may make the immune response more effective and thus reduce the severity of the infection. Statins have been observed to have an immunomodulatory effect on neutrophils in patients with pneumonia and other infections. Further research is needed in animal models to find out how this occurs.

Another mechanism suggested is that the reduction of membrane cholesterol prevents normal ACE2-spike interactions.

Overall, they say, Cumulative data from this and other studies strongly argue that individuals on statin therapy can continue statin regimen during the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

*Important Notice

medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
FREDERICK, Md. - They say they've been stalked, stopped and harassed by police officers.

And when they tried to tell their stories - the way these stories are now being told across the nation - they were yelled at, waved away and belittled in a fist-pumping, flag-waving show of aggression.

"Go get a job!" yelled a woman flicking two small American flags at a group of protesters in this charming downtown of outdoor cafes and flower boxes, the way you might shoo away an animal. "Go back to where you came from!"

There were chants of "Black lives matter!" in downtown Frederick on Monday night. But this group of protesters also said "Brown lives matter!" and that distinction triggered the ongoing, nasty immigration debate that has festered in this place for years.

Frederick is a town of about 72,000 with a restaurant scene banging enough to draw Washingtonians from 50 miles away. And it has a sheriff who has been loudly and gleefully catching and jailing immigrants for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for years under the 287(g) program - a controversial agreement that the federal agency can make with municipalities across the nation to deputize local cops with ICE powers.

Long problematic for the racial profiling it encouraged and the federal cash that local departments ka-chinged when they detained suspects, the 287(g) program was coming to a close after more than a decade in use until President Donald Trump revived it. Since 2017, 287(g) agreements mushroomed in red jurisdictions across the nation. Prince William County in Virginia, which several months ago saw a Trump protege leave as chair of the Board of Supervisors, ended its involvement with the program a few weeks ago.

There have been plenty of lawsuits over the way Sheriff Chuck Jenkins, a Republican, uses the program to allegedly profile and target the Latino population of Frederick, and a county audit scrutinizing the program's costs is due this week.

Just last month, Frederick County settled the decade-old case of Roxana Orellana Santos, who was arrested by sheriff's deputies while on her lunch break. Essentially, she was lunching while Latina.

The ACLU is currently working on the case of grandmother and 13-year Frederick resident Sara Medrano, who was pulled over for an allegedly malfunctioning taillight that turned out to be working just fine after deputies found all her papers in order. So, driving while Latina.

And I spoke with Josefina Romero, 27, who said she was recently followed by a sheriff's deputy for seven miles on her way home from her restaurant job until he finally pulled her over for not stopping at a stop sign. She said she stopped properly at the sign and then pulled out her perfectly legal Maryland driver's license. "I have my papers," she said. Again, driving while Latina.

Sound familiar?

These cases echo the dangerous and too-often deadly traffic stops that the black community has endured and fought for years.

African Americans are killed by police at the highest rate in the nation - 31 out of every million black people are killed by a cop. The Washington Post's database shows police kill 23 of every million Hispanics. The rate is 13 for every million whites.

The protests following George Floyd's death spawned demonstrations in Texas and California by Latino communities joining in solidarity - and familiarity.

And that happened Monday night in Frederick, a majority-white town with a population that's 18% black and 17% Hispanic.

Protesters intended to stand on the steps of Winchester Hall, the county government building, and read the testimonies of Hispanic and black residents who have been profiled by police.

But the building was blocked off by the flag-waving counterprotesters who thwarted the group with their signs, their insults and, in at least one case, their spittle.

"I'm tired of having to turn away when these people are yelling, screaming and spitting in our faces," Blair Hudnall, 19, said.

Hudnall is black and came to the march to stand in solidarity with the Latina women who said they've been profiled, just like her.

"A lot of us standing right here know what it feels like to be discriminated against," Hudnall told the crowd, who had regrouped in front of a boutique furniture store as the counterprotesters sang "The Star-Spangled Banner." "Today is the end of that. They want to see us divided, but today we stand united. Our lives have always mattered."

Then Romero spoke up, telling her story of always fearing that she would be detained and separated from her three children, even though she left El Salvador as a small child and is in the United States legally. Her husband was deported last year after being stopped by a sheriff's deputy.

The stops made by deputies emboldened with ICE superpowers are not that fruitful.

"Eighty percent of the people that have been processed through the 287(g) program were detained for nonviolent and minor offenses," said Juliana Downey, coordinator for RISE, the Resources for Immigrant Support and Empowerment Coalition of Western Maryland, and one of the protest organizers.

Sixty percent of those people got nothing more than minor traffic violations, Downey said.

So much for all the violent crime the program's stopping.

As the all-white counterprotesters grew louder and angrier behind a line of stone-faced police officers, a woman tried to pull the black and Latino protesters away.

"They're not worth it," Dajah Gee, 21, said. "We're not here to argue with them, we're here for black and brown lives."

Gee spoke with me as the crowd broke away from the chaos and walked through the swank restaurant district filled with outdoor cafes and surprised diners.

"I'm just standing with my brown brothers and sisters," said Gee, who is black. "We're all tired of being dehumanized."

And as they walked past diners eating Mexican food beneath colorful market umbrellas, they chanted.

"Black lives matter! Brown lives matter!"

And they left a thick stack of the stories and pleas they didn't get to read on the steps. Stories of being stopped, of being afraid.

Giovanni Zevallos simply wanted to say "Gracias" - thank you.

Dilicia Rosabell Fuentes said "Necesitamos ayuda" - we need help.

Josefina Romero didn't use that chance to tell government officials about being stalked and stopped. Instead, she left them with this: "We are USA."
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  Members of an influential New Mexico legislative committee expressed frustration Wednesday with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams administration about feeling left out of the states decision-making in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Governors nationwide have faced questions about the scope of their emergency powers in recent months as the virus outbreak has prompted stay-at-home orders, bans on large public gatherings and mandatory mask requirements.

In New Mexico, Lujan Grisham has faced criticism from many Republican lawmakers, but Democrats have also expressed concern about the states balance of power.

You guys are going to have do a lot better job communicating with us, Sen. George Munoz, D-Gallup, told the governors chief of staff John Bingaman during a Wednesday meeting of the Legislative Finance Committee in Cloudcroft.

If I dont know whats going on, thats a big problem, added Rep. Javier Martinez, D-Albuquerque.

In response, a spokeswoman for the Democratic governor said Lujan Grisham and top staffers have been in regular contact with legislators.

The Legislature gave the governor the authority under which she and state agencies have been acting in order to protect New Mexicans amid the COVID-19 pandemic, decisions that require being made expeditiously given the nature of the emergency, Lujan Grisham spokeswoman Nora Meyers Sackett said.

She also said its critical that actions taken in response to the COVID-19 outbreak are communicated directly to the public  not just to legislators  shortly after being taken.

Since the pandemic began in mid-March, Lujan Grisham has generally held news conferences once or twice weekly to address her administrations virus response efforts.

The governor also called lawmakers back to Santa Fe for a special session last month to approve bills dealing with the states budget situation, handling of the Nov. 3 general election, and financial aid for businesses and local governments.

However, Lujan Grisham vetoed part of a budget solvency bill passed by the Legislature that sought to distribute $750 million in federal stimulus funds.

In her executive message to legislative leaders, the governor said it was not the lawmakers job to decide how federal funds are allocated.

But legislators have also raised questions about the governor overstepping her authority, as a bipartisan group of leading legislators voted last week to investigate Lujan Grisham authorizing more than $30 million in emergency spending to address the pandemic.

In addition, a bill to expand the governors emergency powers  including allowing alcohol delivery and curb-side pick-up  stalled during the recent special session.
Toronto should be shocked by a series of hate crimes on three construction job sites in the city. Nooses were hung targeting Black workers as a sick reminder of the lynching of thousands of Black men in the United States. General contractors immediately called for a criminal investigation, while construction unions and communities rallied to challenge hate and affirm that Black Lives Matter.

Police are investigating these incidents, but it is not clear how effective they will be. On July 7, union and community groups held a demonstration in front of 55 Division police station to condemn the police failure to press charges after a brutal racialized assault on two local east end residents, both members of the Steelworkers Union. Only after that public expression of outrage were charges finally laid.

This dramatic evidence of escalating physical hate crime in our society must be immediately addressed. We are all called upon to condemn these actions and the deeply ingrained systemic racism that gives rise to them. Toronto has experienced this before  with neo-Nazi groups in the 1930s; the Western Guard formed in the 1960s, physical attacks on South Asian immigrants in the 1970s, the attempt of the Ku Klux Klan to set up a Toronto operation in the early 1980s, and most recently, extremist groups targeting the Muslim community, etc.

But its not just about high profile incidents. The lived experience of Black workers and families need to be listened to and reflected upon. Here in Toronto, there is a growing frustration of communities who feel that little has actually changed despite many promises of transformation or reform.

There is no simple answer to this deeply disturbing reality. Every person who holds power or authority in society  in government, in business, in workplaces, in the education system and in unions  is called upon to use their position to implement lasting change to ensure that human rights and anti-racist practices are embedded in the culture of every workplace and every community. Having a workforce that is representative of our communities, and welcoming to everyone, requires dismantling historic barriers as well as supporting equitable hiring programs.

Unions hold a special place in society. Our legitimacy as a voice of change comes from the hundreds of thousands of women and men, from all cultural backgrounds, in every sector of our economy, represented among our membership.

As a Labour Council, we have been a consistent organizing force fighting for equity and inclusion in Toronto for nearly 150 years. From undertaking campaigns for legislation and action against discrimination, we helped secure some of the first anti-discrimination legislation in North America, lobbied to end Canadas deeply racist immigration policies, campaigned for Employment Equity, pushed for equitable public services, refugee rights, police accountability and helped establish the much-loved weekend.

We helped found the Urban Alliance on Race Relations and the United Way, and continue to support local community groups and activists pushing for human rights policies at work and in broader society.

Our recommendations build on decades of ongoing work that encompasses the lived experience of our members and their families, the knowledge of front-line workers, the lessons from dealing with political decision-makers and working with community allies, and the learning from both gains and setbacks.

Here are some steps that can be taken by those with power in our economy:

Condemn any hate crimes perpetrated in workplaces and demand full criminal prosecution of those responsible.

Develop a joint labour-management plan for every workplace to challenge systemic racism and commit to ensure that workplaces are free of any form of discrimination.

Ensure that extensive human rights and anti-racism training is mandatory for all employees and supervisors.

Support the use of Community Benefits Agreements to increase the hiring of racialized workers on infrastructure projects and in other venues.

Endorse and circulate a Charter of Inclusive Workplaces and Communities.

Our economy has been powered by skilled workers from Indigenous communities and generations of immigrants and refugees who have used their grit and determination to build Canadas largest urban centre. Yet, in the face of systemic racism, much more remains to be done. It is up to all of us to help create a future where there is zero tolerance for racism in our society so that we can all continue to thrive, together.
New Delhi, July 16 : The Supreme Court on Thursday sought response from the Kerala government on petitions challenging the constitutional validity of a Kerala state law, which prohibits sacrifice of animals and birds in temples to please the deity.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and comprising Justices R. Subhash Reddy and A.S. Bopanna said that there seems to be a dichotomy, as killing animals and consuming them is allowed, but sacrificing animals, offering them to the deity and then consuming them is not allowed.

"Under 1960 law, it's permissible to kill an animal but not to be cruel to an animal. Killing is not cruelty," asked the Chief Justice. After a brief hearing on the matter, the bench issued a notice on the plea.

The observation from the top court came on a plea filed by P.E. Gopalakrishnan, contending that animal sacrifice was an integral part of his religious practice. The petitioner has challenged the Kerala High Court stating that it violates his fundamental right under Article 25(1) of the Constitution.

"If the object of the law was to ensure preservation and protection of animals, it would demand its uniform application across all religious communities," contended the plea.

The Kerala High Court had on June 16 declined to entertain a plea challenging the validity of the Kerala Animals and Bird Sacrifices Prohibition Act. The high court observed that no material has been furnished on record to establish the practice was essential to the religion.

"The impugned Act criminalises the intent behind animal sacrifice, and not animal sacrifice per se. If the sacrifice is not for propitiating any deity but for personal consumption, even in the precincts of a temple, it is not forbidden. This arbitrary classification is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution," the plea stated.

The petitioner argued that animal sacrifice is an integral part of 'Shakti' worship. He contended that as he is unable to make an offering to the deity, he apprehends facing the "wrath of Devi", and also placed several doctrinal materials on record, which included a detailed list of scriptural mandate.

According to the petitioner, these scriptures established the essentiality and inalterability of the practice of animal sacrifice as per his religious customs and traditions.
A report commissioned by former UK Prime Minister Blair has called for Brexit completion to be delayed by 12 months in order to avoid the risk of a disastrous no-deal exit from the transition period at the end of this year.

Blair report calls for 12-month provisional Brexit

The report by former Brexit official Spisak concludes that it is too late to complete a deal in the timeframe available, especially given the need for ratification.

Instead, the UK government is urged to recognise that the responsible thing to do  with all of Europe facing a deep recession  is to agree a standstill implementation period for up to one year.

It is only possible if both sides show willingness to move away from principled stances and be realistic about what can be achieved by the end of this year. The alternative is a disastrous no deal.

According to the author, this would not be an extension of the transition period, but it would effectively be a skeletal free-trade agreement between the two sides.

Rather, it would be an actual implementation period  legally contained within the future treaty  allowing both sides to complete the technical negotiations, ratify the deal, and implement it, without rushing through a quick and poor agreement and risking far bigger ratification and legal problems down the line.

Under such an agreement, for example, the UK would agree to a system of sanctions if it were breach commitments to prevent it undercutting the EU  enforced by independent domestic regulators.

There would also be provisional deals in other areas with any breeches enforced by regulators.

According to the report, this approach would allow time to complete the legal framework without the risk of rushing into a bad agreement which would have to be changed later.

Given that Blair was vocal in opposition to Brexit, the report may not be considered as unbiased advice.

Political manoeuvres will continue to be watched very closely in the short term. The latest update from the trade talks and any rhetoric from the EU Summit will send important signals as to whether there will be a near-term breakthrough in talks.

If there is no sign of progress, political pressure for a change in approach will inevitably intensify. Traders will also be anxious to see whether Brexit displaces the economy and global risk as dominant trading factors.

GBP is back under pressure, being the worst performing G10 currency this week. The trend is set to continue as uncertainty about UK-EU trade negotiations keeps the pound on the back foot.
China has given the green light to an early-stage human test for a coronavirus vaccine candidate using German firm BioNTechs technology, its local partner said on Thursday.

A unit of Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group plans to initiate a phase I clinical trial of the potential shot, dubbed BNT162b1, developed with BioNTechs technology, as soon as possible once it is ready, Fosun Pharma said in a filing.

Prior to the latest approval, Chinese researchers and companies have already moved eight vaccine candidates into different phases of human tests at home and abroad.

Fosun Pharma agreed in March to pay up to $85 million in licensing fees to use BioNTechs proprietary mRNA technology and make an equity investment of $50 million for 1,580,777 ordinary shares in the German firm.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-17 00:34:18|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The World Bank's private sector arm, International Finance Corporation (IFC), said on Thursday that the demand for housing finance among women in Kenya is estimated at 1.59 trillion shillings (about 14.8 billion U.S. dollars).

Jumoke Jagun-Dokunmu, IFC regional director for Eastern Africa, told a virtual meeting that the east African nation has a relatively untapped housing finance market with significant unmet demand for housing finance among women.

"The demand for housing finance among women in Kenya is estimated at 14.8 billion dollars," Jagun-Dokunmu said.

She noted that despite high demand, women remain constrained by low income and inability to meet bank requirements.

According to the IFC, women comprise about 50 percent of the population but account for a small fraction of property owners.

Jagun-Dokunmu observed that the majority of women work in informal jobs so they are unable to produce critical documents required to access credit from financial institutions.

She revealed that homeownership is critical because it creates wealth, financial stability as well as economic empowerment.

She noted that women are generally disadvantaged in terms of income and property ownership due to a combination of policies and cultural practices that make it difficult for females to access assets.

The IFC noted that the majority of women use savings and credit cooperative societies for housing finance needs, primarily because they can not meet the down payment or provide documents required by banks. Enditem
Hackers broke into high-profile accounts apparently to lure people into sending money to an anonymous bitcoin account.

Social media giant Twitter is scrambling to fix a major hacking of its system that has seen fake messages posted to some of the most-followed accounts in the world.

Among those targeted on Wednesday were former US President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and a number of tech billionaires including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

The unidentified hackers broke into the high-profile accounts in a scam apparently designed to lure people into sending money to an anonymous bitcoin account

Here is what we know so far:

What happened?

Twitter says it is still investigating but believes it fell victim to a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools.

Social engineering describes fraudsters trying to manipulate their targets into divulging confidential information. The networks admission means that even IT-savvy staff at one of the worlds best known internet companies are not immune.





Tough day for us at Twitter, CEO Jack Dorsey said.

We all feel terrible this happened. Were diagnosing and will share everything we can when we have a more complete understanding of exactly what happened.

Citing web screenshots and two anonymous sources apparently behind the hack, Vice reported that a Twitter insider was responsible. One of the sources told the media group they had paid the employee.

That (Vice report) is deeply troubling as these platforms have such influence, said Professor Alan Woodward, of the Centre for Cyber Security at the University of Surrey in Britain.

It maybe suggests that no one person should be able to use these internal tools: its more difficult to bribe four eyes than two, he told AFP news agency.

What has the impact been?

So far, limited. Twitter reacted quickly to deactivate the targeted accounts, delete the hoax messages and stop their onward transmission.

The fake posts said people had 30 minutes to send $1,000 in bitcoin to receive twice as much in return.

A total of 12.58 bitcoin  worth almost $116,000  were sent to email addresses mentioned in the fraudulent tweets, according to Blockchain.com.

Ina Fried, chief technology correspondent at Axios, told Al Jazeera this was all about opportunity.

Very high profile people reach a lot of people very quickly; bitcoin is something that can be turned into cash very quickly, anonymously  so I think somebody found a very clever way to extract a lot of money from people in in a very quick amount of time.

Gerome Billois, Paris-based cybersecurity expert for the consultancy Wavestone, said early indications were that at least one person has in recent days been trying to hawk access to individuals certified accounts on the dark web, without success.

It seems therefore that they decided to exploit the accounts themselves to try to make a quick buck, he said.

What about longer term?

That is what concerns the experts more.

The hack might also be a demonstration of Twitters weak security control as campaigning steps up for Novembers presidential election in the United States, a contest in which the social megian giant is likely to play an influential role.

US President Donald Trumps account, which has more than 83 million followers, was not among those hacked.

Professor Anthony Glees, security and intelligence expert at the University of Buckingham, said a fake or hacked tweet could have a huge political impact, citing the upcoming vote in the US.

Someone getting in there at the right time with the right kind of misinformation could absolutely sway the election, Glees told AFP.

How to protect yourself

The normal rules of good online housekeeping still apply: be wary of fake web links or phishing messages designed to extract financial data, create strong passwords, use two-factor authentication to log in wherever possible. The trouble is, none of that helps when a companys own internal systems are penetrated.

So plain common sense was the best protection against the bitcoin hackers hawking a get-rich-quick scheme.

They used easy-to-spot pressure tactics  by stating the deal would be open only for the next 30 minutes  and honeypot tactics to appeal to the desires of users, the potential for financial gain, said Vic Harkness, associate consultant at F-Secure.

Potentially they could have made much more money by manipulating the prices of stocks, or could have pushed a political agenda, she added.
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, has called out Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, of Adamawa State for violating COVID-19...





The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, has called out Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, of Adamawa State for violating COVID-19 travel guidelines at the Port Harcourt international Airport.





FAAN on its official Twitter account on Thursday said Fintiri and his entourage stopped health officials from checking their temperature and being sanitised.





It strongly condemned the incident, describing the Governors action as irresponsible.





The Management of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) hereby strongly condemns the conduct of the Governor of Adamawa state Alh Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, who arrived Port Harcourt international Airport aboard aircraft 5N-IZY, at 17:08 hrs on 14th July 2020 with 8 others, and who flagrantly refused to observe the Airport Security and Public Health protocols on #COVID19.





The governor refused to have his temperature checked, or be sanitised by the health officials, it said.





The agency also accused the Governors team of ignoring traffic and Aviation Security instructions.




Arizona_man_in_a_coma_from_coronavirus_woke_up_paralyzed_ _CNN_

Eddie Case and Anne Costa Case talked to CNN's Anderson Cooper on July 15, 2020.

CNN

Eddie Case spent 20 days in a medically induced coma while recovering from the coronavirus in Arizona.

When Case woke up, he didn't know what had happened. "I really thought I had been involved in an accident," he told CNN's Anderson Cooper.

Case's muscles atrophied while he was in a coma, leaving him paralyzed. He couldn't speak at first, and had to learn how to stand, write, and walk again.

Doctors still don't know if some of the damage could be permanent. "The data is just not there," Case said.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

After experiencing breathing trouble from the coronavirus, Eddie Case was put on a ventilator and then into a medically induced coma, where he remained for 20 days.

He and his wife, Anne Costa Case, told CNN's Anderson Cooper their story on Wednesday. Spending nearly three weeks in a coma led Case's muscles to atrophy, leaving him temporarily paralyzed. It took him a couple of days to be able to speak, and he had relearn how to write, stand, and walk unassisted.

Related: 6 months of coronavirus in the USA, reviewed in 6 minutes

Though doctors couldn't tell Case exactly why he was left paralyzed, "The uniform idea is that COVID attacks the brain, and when mixed with the anesthesia and other drugs used to sedate me, your body will go into atrophy," he told Cooper.

Case has been in physical therapy working to regain his mobility, but his endurance is not the same, and doctors don't know if the damage could be permanent.

The couple thought they were infected with the coronavirus, but they had trouble getting tested because they hadn't traveled nor been around anyone who had tested positive.

"When he started reporting the shortness of breath, we decided that's it, we need to go to the ER," Costa Case told CNN.

After being diagnosed with the coronavirus, Case was transferred to another hospital in Arizona, where he was put on a ventilator. He was then transferred to a hospital in Chandler, Arizona, where he woke up from the coma.

Story continues

Costa Case wasn't able to visit her husband in the hospital, but she asked nurses to play him his favorite jazz music.

When she was finally able to see him again, he had lost so much weight he was unrecognizable.

"It was probably the most emotional day of my life. Not being able to see him for almost five weeks, and there he was. And I just kept staring at him because he looked like a different person," she told CNN.

Though Case is mostly recovered, he doesn't know if he will ever be the same. "Most medical professionals do not know what the outcome will be. This is going to take some time, that data is just not there," he told CNN.

Complications from the coronavirus go beyond the lungs. A new study published in the journal Brain showed that COVID-19 is linked to neurological problems and brain damage, Business Insider's Aylin Woodward reported.

Read the original article on Insider
The U.S. Navy commissioned its newest America-class amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli (LHA 7) during a ceremony in Pascagoula, Mississippi on July 15 2020. Due to public health and safety restrictions on large public gatherings, the Navy commissioned the USS Tripoli administratively and the ship transitioned to normal operations.

The U.S. Navy commissioned its newest America-class amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli (LHA 7) during a ceremony in Pascagoula, Mississippi on July 15 2020. Due to public health and safety restrictions on large public gatherings, the Navy commissioned the USS Tripoli administratively and the ship transitioned to normal operations.

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Amphibious assault ship Tripoli (LHA-7) sails the Gulf of Mexico during builders trials held in July 2019. (Picture source: HII Photo)

Although the Navy canceled the traditional public commissioning ceremony due to public health and safety restrictions on large public gatherings, the Navy commissioned the USS Tripoli administratively and the ship transitioned to normal operations. Meanwhile, the Navy is looking at a future opportunity to commemorate the special event with the USS Tripolis sponsor, crew and commissioning committee.

LHA 7 incorporates key components to provide the fleet with a more aviation-centric platform. Tripolis design features an enlarged hangar deck, realignment and expansion of the aviation maintenance facilities, a significant increase in available stowage for parts and support equipment, and increased aviation fuel capacity. The ship is the first LHA replacement ship to depart the shipyard ready to integrate the entire future air combat element of the Marine Corps, to include the Joint Strike Fighter.

Amphibious assault ship Tripoli (LHA-7) sails the Gulf of Mexico during builders trials held in July 2019. (Picture source: HII Photo)

Along with its pioneering aviation element, LHA 7 incorporates gas turbine propulsion plant, zonal electrical distribution, and fuel-efficient electric auxiliary propulsion systems first installed on USS Makin Island (LHD 8). LHA 7 is 844 feet in length, has a displacement of approximately 44,000 long tons, and will be capable of operating at speeds of over 20 knots.

LHA 7 is the third Navy ship to be named Tripoli. The name honors and commemorates the force of U.S. Marines and approximately 370 soldiers from 11 other nationalities who captured the city of Derna, Libya, during the 1805 Battle of Derna. The battle resulted in a subsequent peace treaty and the successful conclusion of the combined operations of the First Barbary War, and was later memorialized in the Marines' Hymn with the line, to the shores of Tripoli.
In-depth Analysis and Data-driven Insights on the Impact of COVID-19 Included in this Global Goat Milk Cosmetics Market Report. The goat milk cosmetics market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 7% during the period 20192025.

New York, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Goat Milk Cosmetics Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2020-2025" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05932562/?utm_source=GNW





Goat milk cosmetics constitute a niche but important segment in the global cosmetics market. Although the market concentration is gradually increasing with the increasing number of small brands entering the market, major global cosmetic brands are yet to capture share in the market. Consumers are investing in premium skincare products, which do not contain harmful chemical ingredients. Indigenous brands are thus increasingly entering the market with several natural ingredients, which are claimed to have therapeutic properties. These products are able to attract greater consumer attention. Hence, the awareness of goat milk cosmetics is rapidly growing. Goat milk contains high protein and fat content. It also contains Alpha-Hydroxy Acid (AHA), which can improve the appearance of surface lines and wrinkles, prevent acne breakouts, brighten your complexion, and increase product absorption. Thus, cosmetics contain goat milk have high demand among the aging and as well as the teenage population. The demand for goat milk products is thus expected to growly rapidly during the forecast period, as an increasing number of brands enter the goat milk cosmetics market.



The following factors are likely to contribute to the growth of the goat milk cosmetics market during the forecast period:



 Premiumization of Beauty Products

 Diversification of Product Portfolios

 Demand for Ethical Products

 Shift from Luxury Brands to Artisanal Products



The study considers the present scenario of the goat milk cosmetics market and its market dynamics for the period 2019?2025. It covers a detailed overview of several market growth enablers, restraints, and trends. The study offers both the demand and supply aspects of the market. It profiles and examines leading companies and other prominent ones operating in the market.



Goat Milk Cosmetics Market: Segmentation



The global goat milk cosmetics market research report includes a detailed segmentation by product type, distribution, and geography.



The presence of hydrating and moisturizing properties in goat milk is making it a valuable ingredient for bathing accessories. Goat milk soaps are the most popular cosmetic product, which is a major factor for high market share. Vendors are focusing on natural ingredients, handmade quality, and natural scents. In the US, the demand for naturally derived ingredients has remained a priority among consumers as a growing number of consumers are equating wellness with the consumption of cleaner products. Bathing accessories would continue to dominate the goat milk cosmetics market in North America. The demand for bathing products is expected to grow boost during the outbreak period. Thus, goat milk bathing accessories are expected to witness enormous growth opportunities in the cosmetics industry in North America.



The market share of skincare is lower than bathing accessories. As goat milk contains a high quantity of protein and fatty acids, which help to make hair soft and manageable, restore luster and shine, the segment is expected to grow significantly. Consumers are increasingly seeking local and artisanal products. Skincare products such as soaps, lotions, creams, and cleaners made of goat milk are increasingly finding their ways into mainstream beauty markets around the world. Goat milk has a natural and neutral pH; it also contains natural lactic acid, which makes it suitable for people with dry skin. The skincare market is mostly concentrated in the US, Canada, the UK, France, China, Japan, and South Korea. Luxury brands have a higher awareness. However, due to the high price of the products, penetration remains a challenge.



Rapidly evolving consumption and lifestyle patterns are greatly influencing the cosmetic industry. Cosmetics are primarily sold across several channels, ranging from retail stores such as supermarkets and hypermarkets, departmental stores to specialty stores. However, online channels have proven to be a game-changer in the industry and have been reshaping the market outlook rapidly. The sale revenue from specialty stores is expected to decline in 2020, owing to the outbreak of COVID-19. However, the distribution channel is still expected to continue to dominate the market. The North American region dominates the goat milk cosmetics market for specialty stores. However, APAC is expected to witness the fastest growth rate during the forecast period. Supermarkets & hypermarkets accounted for the second-largest shares in 2019. In Latin America and MEA, supermarkets & hypermarkets are highly potential distribution channels. They are expected to witness rapid growth with the increased availability of goat milk cosmetics products in the region. Online channels are the fastest-growing distribution channel for cosmetics globally. It accounted for 12% of the global goat milk cosmetics revenue in 2019. The growth in online channels is facilitating the growth of cross border sales, and increase growth opportunities for smaller brands, offering high-quality products. It is also generating opportunities for brands to target the consumers of tier II and tier III cities.



Market Segmentation by Product Type

 Bathing Accessories

 Skin Care

 Hair Care

 Hand, Foot, and Nail Care

 Others

Market Segmentation by Distribution

 Supermarkets & Hypermarkets

 Drug Stores

 Specialty Stores

 Online Stores

 Others



INSIGHTS BY GEOGRAPHY



North America constitutes a key market of goat milk cosmetics. These products are increasingly entering the mainstream cosmetics market in the region. Several brands are increasingly offering goat milk skincare products as well as other goat milk toiletries. In the US, the average annual expenditure on beauty products accounts for $255 per person. Globally, the US is the second-largest market for per capita spending on cosmetics after South Korea. The high per capita spending on beauty products in the US makes one of the highest potential markets for premium cosmetics, such as goat milk. The millennial women population is considered to be the potential consumers of premium beauty products. The North American market is expected to be greatly impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak, especially the retail industry. The demand for premium products such as goat milk beauty products is expected to decline in 2020.



The growing demand for natural ingredients, especially in skin care products, is a major trend across Europe. Skincare constitutes the largest segment in the cosmetics segment in Germany and Italy, contributing one of the highest sales revenues. The demand for cosmetics containing natural ingredients is witnessing high demand trend, with a wide range of cosmetics launching products citing specific skin protection benefits. In 2018, the UK became the leading global facial care market in terms of new product launches. Over 37% of the worlds launches in 2018 were in the UK, followed by the US and France with 25% and 15%, respectively. The faster growth of the French cosmetics industry is expected to be based on significant investments in innovation. The European market is expected to witness a slight decline in 2020 due to the outbreak of COVID-19. The sale in the Q1 and Q2 of 2020 is expected to remain low; however, it is likely to grow in Q3 and Q4.



Market Segmentation by Geography

 North America

o US

o Canada

 APAC

o China

o Japan

o South Korea

o India

 Europe

o Germany

o UK

o France

o Italy

 Latin America

o Brazil

o Mexico

 Middle East & Africa

o UAE

o Saudi Arabia



INSIGHTS BY VENDORS



The goat milk cosmetics market is highly fragmented with the presence of numerous local, regional, and global vendors across the globe. The number of global players is, however, limited, and the growing trend of natural cosmetics has given rise to numerous domestic and local vendors that are posing a tough challenge to renowned vendors across geographies. The number of players in the market is expected to increase, which intensifies the competition. Brands offering organic and natural products in sustainable and ethical packaging are expected to become successful. Brands are focusing on transparency, and ethical practices as the millennial population is highly conscious. In developing countries, such as India, Indonesia, and China, promotion plays a crucial role. Strategies including affordable pricing in attractive packages of small quantities in offline stores could drive consumer demand.



Prominent Vendors

 Dionis

 Bend Soap Company

 Ziaja

 Gorgeous Soaps

 Sunaroma

 Crabtree and Evelyn

 Legends Creek

 Horse o Peace

 Dr. Squatch

 Zum Bars

 Beekman

 Nubian Heritage

 Windrift Hills

 Bates Family Farm

 Lovers Care

 Goat Milk Stuff

 HARVEST Hill Skincare

 Sunhill Skin Care

 Little Seed Farm

 Kate Somerville

 Haute Goats

 Chivas Skincare

 Whey Organic Cosmetics

 Mt Capra

 Billie Goat Soaps



KEY QUESTIONS ANSWERED:

 What is the goat milk cosmetics market size and its growth forecast during 2019-2025?

 What are the top industry trends, drivers, challenges and investment opportunities in the global goat milk cosmetics industry?

 Which segment is going to have the largest market share?

 Which regions will dominate the global industry?

 Who are the key players and what are their key strategies?

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05932562/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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Panaji, July 16 : Goa Governor Satya Pal Malik has expressed concern about the negative and incorrect coverage of the state government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the mainstream and social media, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on Thursday.

Sawant was speaking to reporters after a review meeting chaired by the Governor at the Raj Bhavan, which was attended by Sawant, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane, Chief Secretary Parimal Rai and Health Secretary Nila Mohanan.

"There is wrong information being circulated on the social media, so we gave him the right picture. He (Malik) praised the ongoing efforts made by us and said that social media, electronic media and print media is giving the wrong picture," Sawant said.

"The Governor said that the media should also focus on the positives and said that he does not know why he was being given the wrong picture," Sawant added.

The meeting with the Governor comes a day after the Chief Minister announced a two-tiered curfew in the state. While a complete lockdown (barring essential and medical services) has been ordered in Goa from Thursday night to Monday morning, a night curfew has been imposed until August 10 in view of the continued spike in the number of active COVID-19 cases in the state, which have crossed 1,000.

The opposition has attacked Sawant saying that the partial lockdown was a sign of "defective administration", with state Congress president Girish Chodankar claiming that the lockdown announcement on Wednesday was made with an eye on the review meeting with the Governor the following day.

"This is a political lockdown or a survival lockdown announced in desperation by the Chief Minister ahead of his review meeting with the Governor," Chodankar has said.

Sawant, however, said that Governor Malik was appreciative of the state government's efforts to manage the COVID pandemic and blamed the opposition for giving the wrong picture through the media.

"The Health Secretary told the Governor that despite giving daily updates, wrong information is being circulated (in the media)," Sawant said.

When asked about the specific incorrect information which was being circulated in the media, Sawant said: "You ask him (Governor). His Excellency will tell you. The opposition makes incorrect claims and you all broadcast it."

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
If you need to get compromise, if you need a solution, then it is almost impossible to do it by digital diplomacy, said Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics, who marveled during a trip to Brussels this week  his first venture outside the Baltics since March  at how shut down Belgium felt compared with his own relatively coronavirus-free nation. You need to meet, you need to be able to gather like-minded people. Weve lost four months.
Taiwan Navy fires live torpedo during drill for first time in 13 years

ROC Central News Agency

07/15/2020 06:15 PM

Taipei, July 15 (CNA) A live torpedo was fired from a Taiwan Navy submarine off the southeast coast of the island during a military drill Wednesday, marking the first time in 13 years that such weapons were deployed as part of the country's annual Han Kuang exercises.

The heavyweight Surface and Underwater Target (SUT) torpedo, fired from a Chien Lung-lass diesel electric submarine, hit its target, upending the decommissioned Knox-class frigate, according to a military source.

The last time a Taiwan Navy submarine fired a live torpedo during the annual military exercises was in May 2007, according to the source.

Another source told CNA that the Navy rarely conducts live-fire torpedo drills because it only has about 60 of the heavyweight German-made SUT torpedoes, which it is seeking to replace with the more modern MK-48 Mod 6ATs from the United States.

Taiwan bought 46 MK-48 Mod 6ATs heavyweight torpedoes from the U.S. in 2017 and this year gained approval from the U.S. to acquire another 18.

The Taiwan Navy currently has four submarines in active service -- two Dutch-built Chien Lung-class diesel electric submarines from the 1980s and two U.S. Guppy-class submarines built during World War II.

The Navy drill on Wednesday was part of the 36th edition of the annual Han Kuang live-fire exercises, which are being held July 13-17.

The major war games, involving all branches of the military and reserve forces, have been held every year since the early 1980s to test Taiwan's combat readiness in the event of an attack by China.

Also on Wednesday, the military held a joint live-fire exercise at Jiupeng military base in the southeastern county of Pingtung, during which all of its major missile systems were test fired.

The weapons fired from the coastal base included the indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III anti-ship missiles and Tien Kung I and III anti-tactical ballistic missiles, and the U.S.-made Harpoon missiles, Patriot PAC-2 missiles, and Standard Missile 1 (SM-1).

During the drill, all the missiles, except the SM-1s, hit their targets, according to the military.

Meanwhile, the Air Force scrambled its fighter jets late Tuesday to intercept a simulated attack by Chinese warplanes.

The F-16 jets took off simultaneously at 7:45 p.m. from air bases in the southwestern county of Chiayi and from Hualien County in the east to engage simulated enemy fighters, according to the military.

As part of the air raid drill, air defense units on the ground also deployed AIM-7 Sparrow radar-guided missiles and 35mm Anti-Aircraft twin guns across the country to counterattack the invading forces, the military said.

The air defense drill was staged against a backdrop of frequent incursions of Chinese military aircraft into Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone over the past few months.

The live-fire drills will end Friday, and the second stage of the Han Kuang exercises, which comprises computerized war games, will be held Sept. 14-18.

(By Matt Yu and Joseph Yeh)

Enditem/pc

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Ambassador of Belarus I.Nazaruk meets the Prime Minister of Armenia

On July 14, 2020 on the occasion of the completion of the diplomatic mission the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus to the Republic of Armenia, Igor Nazaruk, was received by the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan.

During the meeting, the parties noted the high efficiency and keen nature of the Belarusian-Armenian interaction on a wide range of issues.

The interlocutors agreed on the need to continue an active dialogue of Belarus and Armenia, also in order to strengthen bilateral trade and economic cooperation.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 21:38:14|Editor: huaxia

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KUWAIT CITY, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Kuwait on Thursday reported 791 new COVID-19 cases and three more deaths, raising the tally of infections to 57,668 and the death toll to 402, the Health Ministry said in a statement.

Currently, 9,721 patients are receiving treatment, including 142 in ICU, the statement added.

The ministry also announced the recovery of 648 more patients, raising the total recoveries in the country to 47,545.

Kuwait started on June 30 the second phase of restoring normal life, which will last three weeks.

Kuwait and China have been supporting each other and cooperating closely in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kuwait donated medical supplies worth 3 million U.S. dollars to China at the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak.

On April 27, a team of Chinese medical experts visited Kuwait to assist the Gulf country's anti-coronavirus fight, through sharing their experience and expertise in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19. Enditem
Her body never was found.

"We don't know what happened down at that river, and we never will," Allen said.

In February, the jury found Keadle guilty of second-degree murder, an intentional killing without premeditation.

"Society needs to be protected from him," she said.

On the other side, Jeff Pickens, chief counsel of the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, took the blame for the verdict saying other than Keadle's own statements, the state didn't have a very strong case until he called an expert witness on hypothermia.

On cross examination, asked if someone could purposely take a person out in the cold where they can't get back to safety, the expert told the jury, "If there was evidence of something like that, then you would call it a homicide."

"That's how we got to this verdict," Pickens said.

He said the jury didn't buy premeditation. Pickens said the case is more like a manslaughter. But that's not how the jury saw it, "and I can't help but feel I'm responsible."

But, he said, Allen was asking the judge to disregard the jury's second-degree murder verdict.
T he Government is facing criticism after appointing charity boss Tony Sewell to lead the new racial disparity commission despite his previous claim that evidence of institutional racism was "flimsy".

Mr Sewell was confirmed by the Government as chairman of the new Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities on Thursday.

The international education consultant previously worked with Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2013, when he led the then mayors education inquiry into the capitals schools, which resulted in the creation of the London Schools Excellence Fund.

But Downing Street has already been forced to defend the decision in light of comments Mr Sewell made in Prospect magazine in 2010, where he wrote: Much of the supposed evidence of institutional racism is flimsy.

In an interview with the Times newspaper last year, the former teacher also suggested that the root cause of knife crime and gang culture among black youths was absent fathers, citing figures showing that about 50 per cent of black children grow up without a father.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman defended the decision / 10 Downing Street/AFP via Getty

People often say Im brave to say that. Its so patronising, he told the paper.

Wanda Wyporska, who heads the Equality Trust charity, criticised the decision as "disappointing", saying Mr Sewells views were seen as somewhat niche.

She said: If the establishment wants to get a black person to head something up and align with their thoughts, we know who those people are  Trevor Phillips or Tony Sewell. And the rest of us just think, Oh no, not again. Another wasted opportunity for change.

Its disappointing. Not just as a black person but as executive director of the Equality Trust, I know that the structural inequalities are undeniable."

Suresh Grover, a veteran campaigner who runs the Monitoring Group, which helps victims of racial violence, also told the newspaper: The appointment of Tony Sewell as the chair of the governments new commission on race disparity confirms a widely held view within the UKs BAME communities that its establishment is simply paying lip service to [the] deeply entrenched systemic problem of racism that exists within state institutions.

"It can now be regarded as a deeply hurtful and cynical exercise that has buried all hope for any meaningful and positive change for race relations in the UK.

But defending the decision to appoint Mr Sewell, the Prime Ministers official spokesman said: In terms of Dr Sewell CBE, he has supported many young people from diverse backgrounds into stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers.

The PM knows very well his work and how it has improved access to education across London.

London: Black Lives Matter George Floyd protest - In pictures 1 /33 London: Black Lives Matter George Floyd protest - In pictures People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally march on Vauxhall Bridge Road PA Demonstrators hold placards backdropped by the Victoria Memorial, outside Buckingham Palace AP People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally march on Vauxhall Bridge Road PA A protester shouts slogans in front of a line of police officers AFP via Getty Images People are seen wearing protective face masks as they demonstrate in a car REUTERS A demonstrator is seen during a Black Lives Matter protest in Parliament Square REUTERS Demonstrators wearing protective face masks and face coverings hold placard REUTERS Demonstrators are seen kneeling during a Black Lives Matter protest in Parliament Square REUTERS Demonstrators are seen during a Black Lives Matter protest in London REUTERS Demonstrators are seen during a Black Lives Matter protest in London REUTERS Demonstrators are seen during a Black Lives Matter protest in London AFP via Getty Images Protesters march towards the US Embassy AFP via Getty Images People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally march on Vauxhall Bridge Road PA People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally march on Vauxhall Bridge Road PA People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally march on Vauxhall Bridge Road PA Demonstrators block traffic outside Victoria Station AP Demonstrators hold placards backdropped by the Victoria Memorial, outside Buckingham Palace AP Demonstrators block traffic outside Victoria Station AP Youngsters shout slogans during a Black Lives Matter march AP People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Parliament Square PA Youngsters shout slogans during a Black Lives Matter march AP Protesters hold placards as they attend a demonstration in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Images Protesters hold placards as they attend a demonstration in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Images Protesters hold placards as they attend a demonstration in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Images Protesters hold placards as they attend a demonstration in Parliament Square AFP via Getty Images

The PM is confident that he shares his commitment to maximising opportunity for all.

Mr Johnson announced the establishment of the commission after a series of anti-racism protests on British streets triggered by the death in the US of George Floyd while in police custody.

The 10-person group, comprised of representatives from the fields of science, education, broadcasting, economics, medicine, policing and community organising, will look to deliver a report on race disparity within the health, education, criminal justice and employment sectors by the end of this year.

The Prime Minister said: This cross-government commission will examine inequality in the UK, across the whole population.

TODO: define component type apester

The commission will be inclusive, undertaking research and inviting submissions where necessary. It will set a positive agenda for change.

The early stages of setting up the commission drew controversy after Mr Johnson gave Munira Mirza, head of the Number 10 policy unit, a major role in its creation.

Ms Mirza had previously questioned the existence of institutional racism and hit out at a culture of grievance among anti-racism campaigners.

Mr Sewell, currently head of education charity Generating Genius, said: I have spent my entire career in education striving to help all students achieve their full potential.

I know however that inequality exists, and I am committed to working with my fellow commissioners to understand why.

Together we will set out recommendations for action across Government, public bodies and the private sector, and will seek to inform a national conversation about race, led by the evidence.

The other commissioners include space scientist and broadcaster Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, chairman of the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales Keith Fraser, ex-BBC journalist Dr Samir Shah, professor of surgery at University College London Lord Ajay Kakkar, economist Dr Dambisa Moyo, academies trust chief executive Martyn Oliver, co-founder of UKGovChat Naureen Khalid, Muslims for Britain co-founder Aftab Chughtai, and commentator Mercy Muroki.

Two representatives from the Windrush Working Group  director of Voice4Change Kunle Olulode and Blondel Cluff, chief executive of the West India committee  will attend meetings where relevant, No. 10 confirmed.
Here in Texas, we know how to recover from a catastrophe. In the two years following the 2008-09 recession, 40 percent of net jobs created in the United States were in our state. Today, with a daunting economic crisis on top of a devastating global pandemic, we face unprecedented challenges. But with proper leadership and smart, business-friendly policies, we can emerge prosperous.

Economic recovery will require the creation of new jobs, the ability to fill open positions and industry-wide innovation. To do this, we must attract and retain a talented workforce. This is why as chamber leaders, representing the states eight largest business sectors and serving more than 20,000 companies, we are concerned about the Trump Administrations recent executive order that suspended guest worker visas, including H-1B visas for high-skilled workers, H-2Bs for non-agricultural seasonal workers, and J1 visas for international students. The White House believes the order will boost employment for U.S. workers; instead, it will do the opposite and undermine our states recovery.

The visa holders targeted by the order are key to job growth. Every H-1B visa holder creates 1.83 American jobs, according to analysis from New American Economy (NAE). This means a one-year freeze on these visas could result in a loss of 155,550 U.S. jobs. Texas has a thriving science and tech industry, with some of the worlds top universities and researchers working on cutting-edge medical innovations, including COVID-19 vaccines. Yet we still struggle to fill open positions in STEM fields. For every unemployed STEM worker in Texas, there were 13 STEM jobs advertised online in 2016, according to NAE. The situation has not improved much since then.

Foreign-born workers are vital to our communities. Immigrants make up nearly 27 percent of our states STEM workers. For example, Dell Technologies is one of Austins largest tech employers, and it relies on H-1B visas to fill positions in areas like in cybersecurity and software development. And between 2010 and 2016, more H-1B visas were issued in Dallas-Fort Worth than Silicon Valley, according to Pew Research Center. To qualify for the H-1B visa program, employers must demonstrate that they cannot fill the position with anyone else in the country. That means they have looked for U.S. workers and come up short. Certain positions are particularly challenging: a study by ManpowerGroup found that 82 percent of employers struggled to fill engineering positions. Entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk of SpaceX, Satya Nadella of Microsoft and Mike Krieger of Instagram once used H-1B visas to work in the U.S. How many jobs might we have lost if we had not allowed them into the country?

In addition to the recent executive order, the Trump administration has also announced it will continue its pursuit to shut down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, after its initial attempt was blocked by the Supreme Court. DACA gives legal protections to 100,000 young adults in Texas, thousands of whom are classified as essential workers. We will rely on these young adults even more as we work to revitalize our cities in the coming months.

All of these policy measures hurt Texas and keep the United States from staying competitive in the global economy. We urge President Donald Trump and Congress to focus on comprehensive immigration reform that will lead to a robust and sustainable workforce for our state. Without access to qualified employees, companies will look to hire remote workers abroad and will not see Texas as a place to invest. We need to be forward-thinking as we navigate this challenging time, and that means prioritizing smart immigration policy. By doing so, we will emerge from this downturn the Texas way: stronger and more resilient than ever.

Huffman is the President and CEO of the Austin Chamber of Commerce, speaking on behalf of the Metro 8 Chambers. This op-ed represents the views from the chambers representing the 8 largest metro areas in Texas: The Greater Arlington Chamber of Commerce, Austin Chamber of Commerce, United Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce, Dallas Regional Chamber, El Paso Chamber of Commerce, Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, Greater Houston Partnership, and San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.
South Africa: Department tightens grip on water polluters

In calling for active citizenry, the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has urged residents to take a stand against the pollution of rivers.

The call comes as the department conducts the Clear Rivers campaign, which advocates for citizens to clean up rivers and water ecosystems, as part of dedicating their 67 minutes of goodwill during Mandela Month.

The department has, over the years, tightened the grip on those who pollute rivers. From 2017 to date, more than 50 criminal cases have been opened against transgressors.

Of the 50 cases, nine have been finalised, while 15 court interdict applications are presently underway for pollution related cases, said the department in a statement on Thursday.

Some of these cases include Lunathi Mining (Pty) Ltd, which is situated near Hendrina in Mpumalanga. The department received a complaint from a community member about unlawful water uses by the mine. The mining pit was full of water and overflowing downstream. This had a negative impact on the quality of water and it also led to the drowning of livestock grazing around the area.

Subsequent to this, the DWS conducted an investigation and issued a notice in terms of Section 19(3) and 53(1) of the National Water Act.

The act advocates for preventing, remedying the effects of pollution and rectifying contraventions.

The mine was urged to stop the unlawful use of water and the subsequent pollution. The mine was also tasked with rehabilitating the affected areas.

Following this directive, the mine has since appointed an environmental consultant and commenced with the implementation of a rehabilitation plan.

Follow-up investigations were conducted in May 2020 and it was found that there were no water uses and mining activities taking place in Lunathi Mine. To ensure that the mine follows the set directives, the department continues to monitor activities of the Lunathi Mine to enforce compliance, the department said.

Contravening conditions of water-use licence

The department has also intervened in Sishen Mine in the Northern Cape.

In this case, the mine was found to be contravening some conditions of a water-use licence. These included exceeding the authorised volume of water taken from boreholes, failing to comply with wastewater quality limits and poor storm water management.

The mines conduct was deemed unlawful, as failure to comply with wastewater limits results in ,pollution of both surface and groundwater resources which may impact downstream users and aquatic life relying on the resource.

A directive was issued to the mine to rectify the contraventions. An action plan for rectification was submitted to the department and implemented accordingly. Ongoing follow-up inspections are presently being carried out, the department said.

The department has also reiterated its commitment to safeguard the countrys water sources as part of its core mandate, and strives to ensure that those who are found to be contravening the law are held accountable.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2020-07-16. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Three arrested for drug trafficking in Carlisle County
details added (first version posted on 16:12)

BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 15

Trend:

The Armenian side planned its latest provocation in advance and on purpose, Assistant to Azerbaijans President, Head of Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmat Hajiyev said in an interview to the European Euractiv.com news website.

Hajiyev was commenting on the recent provocation made by the Armenian armed forces in the direction of Azerbaijans Tovuz district along the state border with Azerbaijan, Trend reports.

Armenia wants to create a new source of tension in the region and a new source of conflict in the region, particularly in the border area of two countries, assistant to Azerbaijans president added. And we also see the Armenian side tries to derail the negotiations process by all means, not to withdraw its armed forces from the Azerbaijani territories.

The Armenian side has unleashed this provocation in a deliberate manner, Hajiyev added. Real facts on the ground speak for themselves. Firstly, number one fact is that before the clashes, we have monitored a concentration of Armenian troops and high-level military officials around this area. Secondly, the Armenian side says that there was one small military car, truck or minibus that engaged, but its ridiculous.

No one conducts any attack or operation offensive with a small, unarmored car, Hajiyev added. The real fact is that the Armenian side attacked the positions of the Azerbaijani side with artillery. It was sudden and targeted deliberate attack. In order to diffuse tension in the border area, Azerbaijan deployed State Border Service personnel along the border with Armenia.

Attacking civilian objects and civilians is the modus operandi and the rule of engagement of Armenian armed forces, assistant to Azerbaijans president said. It once again demonstrates that Armenia is flagrantly violating international humanitarian law, including the Geneva Conventions. Today, we regret that one 76-year-old man was killed as a result of an Armenian artillery attack.

We also see a declining social-economic situation in Armenia, Hajiyev said. The situation is becoming worse, particularly in the list of spreading of COVID. The Armenian government is trying to deflect public attention and anger.

I think the EU and EU countries have a better understanding of the situation, Hajiyev said. From our side, we are also trying to inform our EU partners.

But we expect more addressed statements from EU to distinguish between the aggressor and those who have been the subject of aggression, Hajiyev said. The actions of Armenia need to be strongly condemned by the international community and EU as well. The impunity of Armenia encourages Yerevan to new military adventures and provocations. We also expect that the EU should assess the illegal activities of Armenia in the occupied territories, including the illegal settlement of Armenia in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

The original text is here
Healthy people should be purposely infected with the coronavirus to speed up the development of a vaccine, according to a group of 100 leading experts that includes Nobel Prize-winning scientists.

Controversial 'challenge trials' could rapidly accelerate studies on experimental jabs which are struggling to recruit volunteers because of falling Covid-19 infection rates, the group says.

They have written an open letter to the US National Institutes of Health saying the benefits of bringing a vaccine to the masses outweighs the risk to trialists' health.

Challenge trials are commonly deployed by scientists trying to develop a vaccine and have been used in malaria, typhoid and flu.

But, unlike those illnesses, there is only one scientifically proven treatment for Covid-19, so there is little to stop the participants falling seriously ill.

Dexamethasone, a 5 steroid, became the first drug to treat the virus  but it is only effective in the sickest of patients and does nothing for those with moderate illness.

There are 23 experimental vaccines in clinical trials around the world, and two of the frontrunners  created by Oxford University and US pharma company Moderna  have reported promising results in their early experiments, it was revealed yesterday.

But the researchers behind the two projects warn they might not have results until next year because not enough people are getting infected in the community.

Nobel Prize-winning scientists are among 100 experts calling for healthy people to be infected with coronavirus in a bid to speed up the development of vaccines (file)

Experts in an Oxford Vaccine Group lab in England have developed a vaccine which injects a damaged and harmless section of the coronavirus in order to provoke the immune system

Scientists at Moderna in Cambridge, Massachusetts, are developing a vaccine which uses RNA to force the body to produce proteins that look like the coronavirus and spur the immune system into action

The group behind the letter, called 1 Day Sooner, is made up of more than 100 prominent scientists and 15 Nobel laureates.

Among the signatories is Professor Adrian Hill, the director of Oxford University's Jenner Institute, which has one of the leading prototype coronavirus vaccines.

The group has written to NIH director Francis Collins, urging him to give the green-light to human challenge trials for coronavirus in the US.

WHAT ARE CHALLENGE TRIALS? Challenge trials involve intentionally infecting healthy people with viruses then giving them a shot of a vaccine to see if the jab can clear the virus. These studies have been done with many illnesses, including malaria, typhoid and flu. But, unlike those illnesses, there is no treatment that prevents someone from falling badly ill with Covid-19. Because of the ethical implications, so far none of the 23 clinical trials of coronavirus vaccines currently being carried out around the world have used the controversial study method. Instead they are relying on participants who have caught the disease by accident in the community. But because international lockdowns have been so effective, the number of people actually contracting the illness in the public is falling. For this reason many studies are grinding to a halt. Many projects - including Oxford University's - have had to move their trials abroad where infection rates are higher. Oxford is now testing he vaccine on 6,000 people in Brazil and South Africa - and hopes to have conclusive results by the end of the year. This would mean a jab could be rolled out in early 2021. Advertisement

The group say the risk to the health of volunteers would be low, and could speed up vaccine development by many months, saving countless lives.

Writing in the letter, they say: 'If challenge trials can safely and effectively speed the vaccine development process, then there is a formidable presumption in favour of their use, which would require a very compelling ethical justification to overcome.'

So far no Covid-19 vaccine developers have used challenge trials because of the ethical concerns and lack of treatments.

But 1 Day Sooner says more than 30,000 people from more than 140 countries have registered to take part in them, should they go ahead.

Dr Collins said the challenge trials are 'on the table for discussion  not on the table to start designing a plan'.

Vaccines are normally tested using two groups of people who aren't infected  one of which are given the vaccine and the other used as a control  and wait to see if they catch the virus on their own.

Two projects in Britain are using this method, Oxford and Imperial College London.

However, waiting for enough people to be exposed to the coronavirus can take months, particularly as Covid-19 infections fall globally.

Oxford has moved its phase three trials to Brazil and South Africa where the virus is still rife in the community to try speed them up.

Scientists are now starting to come round to the idea of using challenge trials for the coronavirus, which can be set up in weeks.

In order for them to be given the go ahead, a safe dose for the virus would need to be established.

Researchers need to give patients enough of the disease to cause very mild illness  which could be difficult becsause this is not universally agreed upon.

The higher a person's viral load  that is, the amount of virus they become infected with  seems to dictate how ill they fall.

Kate Bingham, head of the UK's vaccine taskforce, told MPs she was confident the world would have some form of vaccine against Covid-19 by early 2021

Professor Sarah Gilbert, who is leading the development of the Oxford University jab, said elderly people may need two shots of the vaccine

THE LETTER IN FULL Dear Dr. Collins, The COVID-19 pandemic must be fought urgently on many fronts, but it is hard to picture robust economic and social recoveries in the absence of a vaccine. We are writing to underscore the vast importance of human challenge trials as a method to help develop vaccines. In April, thirty-five members of the US House of Representatives called upon U.S. regulators to consider allowing volunteers to be infected with the pandemic coronavirus to speed vaccine testingin so-called human challenge or controlled infection trials. In addition, over a hundred vaccine candidates are already under development around the world, at least ten of which have moved into the clinical trial phase. In May, the World Health Organization published guidance supporting trials of that form, if done ethically, and in June published a draft laying out a practical roadmap for their implementation. The undersigned urge the U.S. government (including, but not limited to the Coronavirus Task Force, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, and Congress), its allies, international funders, and world bodies (e.g. the World Health Organization), to undertake immediate preparations for human challenge trials, including supporting safe and reliable production of the virus and any biocontainment facilities necessary to house participants. Advertisement

WHAT ARE THE LEADING COVID-19 VACCINE CANDIDATES? University of Oxford Clinical teams at the Oxford University's Jenner Institute and Oxford Vaccine Group began developing the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine in January, now named AZD1222 since a manufacturing partnership with pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca was secured. Human trials started on April 23 and they are now in the final phase. Lead of the project Professor Sarah Gilbert told The Times she is '80 per cent' confident of its success. Imperial College London Professor Robin Shattock is leading a team working to produce a vaccine at Imperial College. Fifteen volunteers have already been given the trial vaccines and testing is expected to ramp up to include as many as 200-300 new participants in the coming weeks. A second trial, involving 6,000 people, will come later. But Professor Shattock said the vaccine won't be available until at least 2021 even if everything goes according to plan. If the jab works, the team want to make it as cheap as possible so the entire British population could be vaccinated for the 'really good value' of just under 200million. Moderna Massachusetts-based Moderna was the first US company to start human trials of its potential Covid-19 vaccine, known as mRNA-1273, on March 16. The jab has proven to trigger an immune response in all 45 injected volunteers, according to a study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine on July 14. Moderna's shot showed early promise in its phase 2 human tests last month. The company reported that it triggered antibody production on par with that seen in recovered coronavirus patients. CanSino Chinese vaccine Ad5-nCoV, made by CanSino, was the very first shot to enter clinical trials earlier this year and is a leading candidate. A trial of 108 healthy volunteers in China showed it safely triggered an immune response in participants. Results published May 22 in The Lancet showed most of the people dosed with the vaccine had immune responses, although their levels of antibodies thought to neutralize the virus were relatively low. Researchers saw a stronger ramp-up of other immune compounds, called T-cells, that might also help fight the infection off. Pfizer Pfizer and BioNTech have been working on a number of potential Covid-19 vaccines under the 'BNT162 program'. It reported positive preliminary results from the ongoing Phase I/II clinical trial of one called BNT162b1 on July 1. Data is available for the trial of BNT162b1 on 24 volunteers. The results showed that it was well tolerated and produced dose dependent immunity. Dr Kathrin Jansen, Pfizer's head of vaccine research and development, said the vaccine 'is able to produce neutralizing antibody responses in humans at or above the levels observed' in Covid-19 survivors. Pfizer received fast track designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for two of their four potential Covid-19 vaccines this month. Johnson & Johnson The drug giant started work on the vaccine in January, two months before Covid-19 was labelled a global pandemic. A vaccine trial spearheaded by Johnson and Johnson will start recruiting people in September, with clinical data available by the end of the year. An 'emergency use' batch of the vaccine is anticipated to be authorised as early as 2021, which would likely be prioritised for vulnerable people. Advertisement

But some people with weaker immune systems need a very little amount of the disease to fall ill, while healthy people appear to be able to suffer no symptoms at all even with significant amounts of the virus in their system.

There was excitement yesterday when Oxford and Moderna both revealed people in their studies are showing signs of immunity.

People being given the Oxford vaccine have been developing antibodies and white blood cells called T cells which will help their bodies fight off the virus if they get infected, it is reported.

And experts at Moderna, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said participants in their trial  of a different type of vaccine  all successfully developed antibodies.

The vaccines work by tricking the body into thinking it's infected with Covid-19 and causing it to produce immune substances that have the ability to destroy it.

While early research focused on antibodies, scientists are increasingly turning to a type of immunity called T cell immunity  which is controlled by white blood cells  which has shown signs of promise.

In the early stages researchers will want to see that the jab is safe for people to take and doesn't cause serious side effects, and also that it seems to be stimulating the immune system in the right way.

If it passes these checkpoints researchers are expected to move on to even larger tests with thousands more members of the public.

In its own tests Moderna, the US pharmaceutical company, reports that its vaccine has passed these early milestones and now plans to move on to bigger trials.

Researchers at the company last night announced that all 45 volunteers in its early phase had developed immune responses after being given the vaccine.

They also found the jab  one of the front-runners in the global coronavirus vaccine race  was safe and no participants suffered any serious side effects.

But more than half reported mild or moderate reactions such as fatigue, headache, chills, muscle aches or pain at the injection site.

Scientists said side effects were a 'small price to pay' for protection against Covid-19.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the US government's top infectious disease expert, said: 'No matter how you slice this, this is good news.'

Moderna was the first US company to start human testing of a vaccine for the novel coronavirus on March 16, 66 days after the genetic sequence of the pathogen was released by China.

It's now preparing to start a 30,000-person trial later this month to prove the vaccine really is strong enough to protect against the coronavirus.

The share price of the company surged on the news as it stoked hopes of progress in the global battle against Covid-19.

The US federal government is supporting Moderna's vaccine with nearly half a billion dollars in funding.

Its vaccine, known as mRNA-1273, works using ribonucleic acid (RNA), which is a chemical messenger in human bodies that contains instructions for making proteins.

The jab introduces RNA which programmes the body to make proteins that look like those found on the surface of the coronavirus, which triggers the immune system to react because it recognises those proteins as a danger - even though they aren't actually attached to a virus and can't cause any harm.

This then trains the body to recognise these as a foreign invader, and mount an immune response against it.

The results, published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, involved three groups of 15 volunteers aged 18-55.

The groups tested 25, 100 or 250 micrograms of the vaccine. Everyone got two doses, 28 days apart.

The team reported a dose-dependent effect, whereby the participants grew a larger antibody response the higher their vaccination dose was.

In comparison, the University of Oxford team's jab works by injecting a damaged part of the real coronavirus that has been attached to another, harmless, virus.

It's a type of immunisation known as a recombinant viral vector vaccine.

Researchers place genetic material from the coronavirus into another virus thats been modified. They will then inject the virus into a human, hoping to produce an immune response against SARS-CoV-2.

The carrier virus, weakened by genetic engineering so it doesn't make people ill, is a type of virus called an adenovirus, the same as those which cause common colds, that has been taken from chimpanzees.

If the vaccines can successfully mimic the spikes that are found on the outside of Covid-19 inside a person's bloodstream, and stimulate the immune system to create special antibodies to attack it, this could train the body to destroy the real coronavirus if they get infected with it in future.

It could be developed so rapidly by Professor Sarah Gilbert, a vaccinology expert, and her team because they already had a base vaccine for similar coronaviruses.

Oxford had originally planned to have a vaccine by September, because early modelling of the epidemic in Britain predicted there would be huge community transmission right through the summer.

But it is thought the the number of people to be infected with the virus currently in the UK is in the low tens of thousands, so researchers are struggling to recruit enough participants.

The head of Britain's vaccine task force told MPs earlier this month she was confident the world would have some form of Covid-19 vaccine by early 2021.

But she said she was less optimistic that the jab could protect against catching the infection and it's more likely it will only reduce the severity of symptoms.

Mrs Bingham warned the jab could be so weak that elderly people have to take two doses to help fight the illness.

A Covid-19 vaccine has been touted as a quick fix to the pandemic that could bring an end to the social distancing measures in place around the world.

The MMR jab, for example, almost guarantees that someone will never get measles, mumps and rubella.

But experts say Covid-19 vaccines may be more like those that protect against the flu reducing the risk of experiencing severe symptoms should infection occur.
DUBUQUE, Iowa, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- HealthCheck360, a leader in population health management and well-being programs, announces the launch of a suite of COVID-19 solutions, including a daily symptom tracking tool. HealthCheck360 COVID-19 workplace solutions combine daily symptom tracking, a robust administration portal, testing resources, and patient support, giving clients a one-stop resource while providing members a better health experience through clinical support.

The HealthCheck360 daily symptom tracker is based on guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and helps employers determine who is safe to go to work by identifying COVID-related symptoms to deliver a safe working environment. Employees receive a daily text or email reminder to complete the questionnaire before leaving home. At completion, they are given direction on whether to proceed to work or if they need to remain at home. The tracker is flexible enough to accommodate at-home or on-site temperature checks.

When an employee demonstrates COVID-19 symptoms, employers automatically receive a notification that the employee will not be coming to work, providing a way to enforce employee safety. The administrative portal allows managers to track an employee's status as well as the progression of symptoms over time, all in a HIPAA-compliant system.

"Keeping employees safe is of the utmost importance for employers today. However, managing the process of daily symptom tracking, symptomatic employees, missed work, and on-going support across many locations is challenging. The HealthCheck360 daily symptom tracker gives everyone, even those who don't describe themselves as tech-savvy, an easy-to-use tool to mitigate the risks and spread of the virus," said Michael Kelly, co-founder and Vice President of HealthCheck360. "Maybe more importantly, the system provides employers the ability to support symptomatic employees with care management and enforce their company policies."

As an additional option, the system notifies care managers of the need to assist employees. "Demonstrating symptoms of COVID-19 is a frightening experience," said Trent Tangen, Assistant Vice President of Population Health Management. "The recent changes to healthcare and the process for seeing a doctor adds to the anxiety members experience. Our care managers help employees navigate the healthcare system and the employer's return-to-work process."

HealthCheck360 also provides antibody testing and temperature screenings through a national network of screening partners. Antibody testing is available as part of a wellness screening or at walk-in clinics. Employers using the HealthCheck360 technology platforms can track testing strategies and access real-time data on their results.

"As more states require daily symptom tracking and temperature tracking, employers need to be prepared to provide these services," said Kelly.

HealthCheck360 COVID-19 Workplace Solutions make it easy for employers and employees to monitor symptoms to mitigate the risks and spread of the virus.

Media Contact:

Jenna Wesenberg

Sales & Marketing Coordinator, HealthCheck360

Ph: 563.587.5225 | 866.511.0360 x5225

[email protected]

Related Links

Website

SOURCE HealthCheck360
In Michigans thumb region, three Republicans and two Democrats remain in the race for the open 10th Congressional seat being vacated by sitting U.S. Rep. Paul Mitchell. The 10th Congressional District covers all of Huron, Lapeer, Sanilac, and St. Clair counties as well as portions of Macomb and Tuscola counties. Its traditionally considered a safely Republican seat  Republican candidates have won the district since 2003, and President Donald Trump carried the region by 32 points in 2016. First elected in 2016 after former U.S. Rep. Candice Miller left office, Mitchell won re-election in 2018 with a 25 point margin. He opted not to seek re-election for a third term, citing frustration with political battles in Washington overshadowing policy discussions. Related: Congressman Paul Mitchell wont run for re-election in Trump stronghold district Three Republicans  state Rep. Shane Hernandez, R-Port Huron, Hantz Group senior vice president Lisa McClain and retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general Doug Slocum  are vying to take Mitchells place on the open Republican ticket. On the Democratic side, 2018 candidate Kimberly Bizon, an environmental activist and the web and interactive director at Sussman Agency, is seeking a second chance at the nomination. Shes facing Kelly Noland, a U.S. Army veteran and longtime nurse, in the primary election. MLive is partnering with the League of Women Voters of Michigan Education Fund at Vote411.org for the 2020 election cycle to provide voters with additional information about the candidates on their ballots. Learn more about the 10th Congressional District candidates and their positions on key issues below. Related: Who is running for Congress in 2020? Michigans top races to watch All responses in the voter guide were submitted directly by the candidate and have not been edited by the League of Women Voters, except for a necessary cut if a reply exceeded character limitations. Spelling and grammar were not corrected. Publication of candidate statements and opinions is solely in the interest of public service and should NOT be considered as an endorsement. The League never supports or opposes any candidates or political parties.

Related: MLive partners with League of Women Voters for 2020 voter guide

Lisa McClain, Republican

McClain is the senior vice president of Hantz Group, a Michigan-based financial services company she helped found in 1998.

McClain is also involved in several philanthropic organizations supporting drug treatment courts, people experiencing homelessness, people with multiple sclerosis and community projects in Detroits east side neighborhood. McClain led the formation of the Macomb District Drug Court, according to a statement.

In her Vote411.org candidate profile, McClain said she is a conservative outsider with experience building a business from the ground up.

She supports ending the Affordable Care Act and sending Medicaid to the state level, and believes COVID-19 patients should be held harmless from non-covered insurance costs.

When it comes to the economy, McClain wrote she would support deregulation wherever possible so the government gets out of the way of people in the workforce, and that the government should not pick winners and losers but instead create an environment where hard work and innovation can easily occur and be rewarded.

McClain wrote that she does not support mailing ballots to all eligible voters and believes voters should have to request an application to vote by mail, and believes there should be a nationwide voter identification system administered by states so that we are sure of who is casting each ballot and that they are qualified to do so.

McClain wrote that she believes making the U.S. more energy self-sufficient should be a high priority, and supports maintaining and enforcing existing immigration laws.

McClain has raised more than $1.7 million since the beginning of her campaign, including a $1.45 million personal loan. She currently has $965,826 on hand, according to the latest campaign finance totals.

Visit her campaign website here.

State Rep. Shane Hernandez, Republican

Hernandez, a former architectural designer, is currently representing the 83rd state House District in the state Legislature.

Hernandez was re-elected by a 28-point margin of victory for that seat in 2018, and currently serves as the House Appropriations Chair, meaning he works closely with the Senate and Whitmer administration on crafting the states budget.

In a video launching his campaign, Hernandez touted his work in Lansing to oppose tax hikes, defend the unborn and being recognized for having the most conservative voting record by Michigan Information & Research Service Inc. Hernandez said socialists are endangering the economy and U.S. national security.

Hernandez supports a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution to reduce the national deficit, according to his campaign website. He wrote that he opposes single-payer health care systems, and supports expanding the use of health savings accounts and the ability to purchase health care across state lines.

We must reduce the cost of healthcare so American families can not only be healthy through greater access to care but meet other needs important to their families, he writes on his website.

He states that he would oppose new tax increases and supports the completion of a border wall and enhanced border security, as well as a merit-based immigration system.

Hernandez has raised $488,976 since the campaign began and has $219,040 on hand, according to the latest campaign finance filings.

Visit Hernandezs official House website here and his campaign website here.

Doug Slocum, Republican

Doug Slocum is a retired brigadier general and fighter pilot who served in the U.S. Air Force for 35 years, and spent the last five years commanding the 127th Wing and Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Macomb County.

Slocum said his main goal if elected will be to protect and defend the Constitution: I think theres a lot of things that are going on right now that are counter to the vision of our founding fathers and what this country was founded on, he said.

He said he believes the federal governments role in health care should be limited and supports increasing free-market competition.

When it comes to the coronavirus, Slocum said he believes the country needs to get back to work in a smart and safe way, and that the federal government needs to coordinate with the states to ensure each state doesnt have separate, potentially confusing policies to combat the virus.

He said he believes the country should strive for energy independence while being good stewards of natural resources, and is supportive of securing the U.S. border with a wall while upholding the legal immigration system.

Slocum said the idea of defunding law enforcement agencies is absurd and said rioting and destroying property is unacceptable, but said he supports the First Amendment rights of protesters peacefully advocating for police reform around the country.

We need to really be supporting our law enforcement officials, looking at what the law is, improving it, and if its a bad law, we change it, he said. Hurting people is not the way to go.

Slocum has raised $457,805 since the start of his campaign and has $191,717 on hand, according to the latest campaign finance filings.

Visit Slocums campaign website here.

Kimberly Ann Bizon, Democrat

Bizon is an environmental activist and the web and interactive director at Sussman Agency. Shes running for the Democratic nomination for a second time.

In her Vote411.org candidate profile, Bizon said she would fight any efforts to take away the Affordable Care Act and instead supports improving it, noting that shes open to any proposals that expand coverage or lower costs.

She wrote that she supports a $15 per hour minimum wage and increasing investment into green infrastructure and small businesses, as well as increasing taxes on the wealthy.

Bizon supports mail-in ballots, automatic voting registration and campaign finance reform, as well as federal police reforms such as ending chokeholds and more transparency when it comes to complaints against police officers.

A persons right to survive an interaction with law enforcement should not be dependent on where they live or the color of their skin, she wrote.

Bizon wrote that she would support the Green New Deal proposal and is committed to combating climate change, and disagrees with selling or renting public land and parks to private business.

She supports a compassionate pathway to U.S. citizenship, including granting DACA recipients citizenship and keeping families seeking asylum together. Bizon wrote that she does not support the border wall and believes Congress needs to address inhumane and militarized ICE techniques.

Bizon has raised $9,443 since the 2020 campaign began and has $25,583 on hand, according to campaign finance filings.

Visit Bizons campaign website here.

Kelly Noland, Democrat

Noland is a U.S. Army veteran and retired nurse.

In her Vote411.org candidate profile, Noland said she is a people person, not a politician and would use her experience to work across the aisle.

Noland wrote that she supports expanding the Affordable Care Act and making maintenance medications or routine antibiotics free for patients, and also supports gradually phasing out private insurance.

To help the economy recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, Noland supports providing direct funding for small businesses with lower employee thresholds and levy additional taxes on large corporations.

We cannot continue to subsidize our own welfare to offer these companies tax breaks when they refuse to pay a real living wage, she wrote.

Noland wrote that she supports mail-in ballots and removing dark money from politics, and believes Congress should require all schools to spend more time covering slavery, Jim Crow laws, redlining, Japanese internment camps, feminism, civil rights movements and more during history classes.

Noland supports reinstating Trump-era rollbacks of the Environmental Protection Act, banning drilling in National Parks, gradually phasing out fossil-fuel vehicles and combatting climate change more aggressively.

She wrote that she believes vacant immigration judgeships need to be filled to address the backlog of cases and supports vetting and updating the entire U.S. immigration system.

Visit Nolands campaign website here.
Pictured: Sir Peter Soulsby, the Mayor of Leicester

Parts of Leicester will be released from lockdown after the Government on Thursday adopted a targeted approach which will see pockets of the city remain under tighter restrictions.

After putting the city into Britains first local lockdown a fortnight ago, the Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced that schools and nurseries will reopen from July 24.

The council will be given "local powers" to reopen non-essential retail stores where it is deemed safe, but pubs and restaurants will remain closed and restrictions on non-essential travel and gatherings of more than six people will continue to be enforced.

Updating MPs on Thursday, Mr Hancock said the citys lockdown zone would also be reduced, with areas of Leicestershire including Birstall, Thurmastone and Glenfield released from the measures entirely.

Read more: Leicester lockdown map: What restrictions are being lifted, and when is the next review?

The boundary imposed on June 29 will remain around the city of Leicester and include Oadby and Wigston.

While Leicestershire Council said the boundary changes would coincide with the other easements next Friday, Government sources indicated that they would likely be implemented within days.

Defending the decision to maintain a number of restrictions, Mr Hancock added that Covid-19 rates in the city "still remain well above the national average and the average for surrounding areas.

However, the move has reignited a furious row with Sir Peter Soulsby, the Leicester city mayor, who claimed the Government had chosen to release all of the Tory voting areas around the city.

Speaking shortly after the announcement, Sir Peter told Sky News he was angry, frustrated, very disappointed but frankly not surprised.

Later, he told reporters: What they have chosen to do now is not to focus on the areas of the city where the virus is and where we actually need to be putting our attention.

Story continues

"They have chosen to focus on the city geographical area - effectively the area of the county that votes Labour, and that's just scandalous.

"If they were going to alter the boundary, they should have gone down to the area that they now know where the virus is.

Hitting back, a senior Government source branded Sir Peter an imbecile and pointed out that one of the areas that remained under lockdown - Oadby and Wigston - was the constituency of Conservative MP Neil O'Brien.

They added that the decision to draw up the new boundary was taken at a meeting on Thursday morning attended by Sir Peter, the leader of Leicester council, Mr Hancock and Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer.

They actually asked the mayor if he wanted to do it differently, or if he could suggest a different boundary or a different way of drawing the line, the source continued. He just spluttered and waffled.

Sir Peter has previously accused ministers and Public Health England of failing to provide local health officials vital data that could have helped reduce the spread of coronavirus in the city before the lockdown was imposed.

His comments were rebuffed at the time by Government sources, who said that Sir Peter had been opposed to any form of local lockdown.

Urging people in Leicester not to lose their resolve, Mr Hancock said that the local restrictions had worked, with the seven-day infection rate in the city falling from 135 cases per 100,000 to 119.

The percentage of people testing positive is now at 4.8 per cent, down from 10 per cent before lockdown.

"These are positive indicators, especially in light of the huge increase in testing, Mr Hancock added.

"Some say that the local lockdown is unnecessary. I wish this were true, but sadly it remains vital for the health of everyone in Leicester and the rest of the country that these restrictions stay in place.

"We will review them again in a fortnight. I hope that this careful easing of restrictions will provide some comfort to people in Leicester and Leicestershire.

"And I'd say this directly to the people of Leicester and of Leicestershire: I pay tribute to you all.

"Your perseverance and your hard work has brought real and tangible results and you've shown respect for one another.

The sooner we get this virus under control, the sooner we can restore life in Leicester and across the country to normal.
A Sydney driving instructor tried to meet up with a 14-year-old girl after sending her sexually explicit material from an account titled 'Naughty Girls Needed'.

Tony Keith Whale, 65, was on Thursday jailed for two-and-a-half years over the communications in the weeks before his arrest in July 2018.

'A daddy wants to have fun with you so much ... teach you all about sex,' the then-married father sent on one occasion.

'Well, you're only 14 ... but I absolutely love that you are,' he said another time.

Creepy driving instructor Tony Keith Whale (pictured) has been jailed for two-and-a-half years

Unaware he was actually messaging a police officer, the then-63-year-old arranged to meet the girl and was arrested in his car in Westmead outside what he'd been told was the 14-year-old girl's family home.

Whale told police he only wanted to kiss 'Paige' before pleading his innocence at trial.

But the jury found him guilty on the charge of using a carriage service to procure a child for sexual activity and must have rejected Whale's claims the chat was mere 'fantasy talk,' Judge Ross Letherbarrow said on Thursday in Sydney's Downing Centre District Court.

After meeting 'Paige' on a sugar daddy website, Whale moved the conversation to message platform Kik and began sending sexually explicit requests and instructions from the account 'Naughty Girls Needed'.

The 65-year-old tried to meet up with a 14-year-old girl after sending sexually explicit material

He raised and persisted with the idea of an in-person meeting after school, during school holidays or 'if your mum is at work one day,' Judge Letherbarrow said.

Whale's wife separated from him after his arrest and he spent time in shared accommodation in the lead up to Thursday's sentencing but he still has some family support, the judge said.

Judge Letherbarrow said jail was the only appropriate sentence for the crime and sending a message to the community was 'of the utmost importance'.

But he said Whale was unlikely to re-offend and had good prospects of rehabilitation, despite the continued denials.

Whale, who was credited for 27 days on remand, will be eligible for parole in March 2021.
HOOD RIVER, Ore., July 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- One Community Health (OCH) is opening a new health clinic at 849 Pacific Avenue in Hood River, Oregon. Replacing its 29-year-old facility, the new 38,000-square-foot health center offers modern amenities and new technology to help reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

One Community Health: One Community Health's new clinic in Hood River, Oregon

While construction started on the new building before the arrival of COVID-19, OCH, in partnership with Scott Edwards Architecture LLP and Bremik Construction Inc., were able to make adjustments throughout construction to incorporate cutting-edge technologies to help prevent the spread of the virus.

"Negative pressure rooms, photohydroionization technology, MERV-15 air filtering, and air change optimizations are some of the ways the new building will help keep patients and staff safe. With these new systems, rapid COVID-19 antigen testing, and enhanced safety training and procedures, we'll be providing patients with one of the safest environments to receive care, including oral health," stated Dr. Elizabeth Aughney, Chief Health Officer for OCH.

In addition to multiple layers of COVID-19 defense incorporated into the building's HVAC systems, the added size (almost three times larger than the previous clinic) offers patients and staff more room to comfortably maintain distance. While the building provides immediate benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic, many more benefits will be realized in the future.

"For over 34 years, One Community Health has served residents of the Columbia River Gorge with a special focus on vulnerable and underserved communities. For example, we know from our own data (over 3,100 tests) that those who identify as Hispanic are over three times more likely to test positive for COVID-19. Now, more than ever, our patients deserve this safe, cutting-edge, and beautiful space along with additional access to our amazing providers and care teams," stated Max Janasik, Chief Executive Officer for OCH.

Starting today, patients will be seen in the new clinic and have access to integrated whole-person care including physical, mental, oral, and preventative health services.

About One Community Health

One Community Health (OCH) is a nonprofit, Federally Qualified Health Center with locations in The Dalles and Hood River, Oregon. Formerly known as La Clinica del Carino Family Health Care Center, Inc., it was founded in 1986 and today has evolved into an official Patient-Centered Primary Care Home recognized as the Best Primary Care Clinic of 2019 by the Central Oregon Independent Practice Association (COIPA).

OCH currently provides services to more than 16,000 patients. In addition, OCH excels in providing educational programs and support that reflect its integrated approach to health and wellbeing. Dedicated to advancing health and social justice for all its community members, OCH serves patients from the Mid-Columbia River Gorge Region: Wasco, Hood River, Klickitat and Skamania counties.

Media Inquiries

Contact Name: Michele Shrum-Guerrero

Phone: (541) 256-4335

Email: [email protected]

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One Community Health

One Community Health's new clinic in Hood River, Oregon

SOURCE One Community Health
Siberia's recent heatwave was made 600 times more likely due to human-induced climate change, a study has found.

Months of unprecedented warm weather in the normally frigid region of Russia culminated in the hottest June on record, and resulted in numerous wildfires.

The average temperature increase for the whole region over the entire month was in excess of 5C (9F).

On June 20, Siberia recorded an all-time high temperature of 38C (100F) at the Verkhoyansk monitoring station.

Preliminary findings from the study reveal the heatwave would have been 'effectively impossible' without climate change.

Scroll down for video

A satellite image showing a record-breaking temperature of 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit) registered in the Arctic town of Verkhoyansk on June 19

Average temperatures in Arctic Siberia were more than 5C above normal for June, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service. A new study has found Siberia's recent heatwave was made 600 times more likely due to human-caused climate change

A rapid analysis of the heatwave has produced the strongest evidence yet from the World Weather Attribution in attributing extreme events to climate change.

The sweltering conditions have been catastrophic, leading to a surge in wildfires which are pumping millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, further amplifying the effect of global warming.

It is also melting permafrost  permanently frozen ground  which caused the collapse of a fuel tank and huge oil spill in May.

An international team of researchers ran a series of complex computer models comparing the current atmospheric warming with a theoretical model based on a fictitious world where humans did not burn fossil fuels and set the world ablaze.

They examined average temperatures through the six months from January to June over a large region spanning most of Siberia, and also looked at daily maximum temperatures in June in the town of Verkhoyansk.

It revealed that this sort of prolonged heat in Siberia would only be expected to naturally occur once every 80,000 years.

On average, the entire month of June was more than 5C above normal levels, exceeding the previous records set in 2018 and 2019

The sweltering conditions have been catastrophic, leading to a surge in wildfires (pictured) which are pumping millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, further amplifying the effect of global warming

#Wildfires in #Siberia are releasing megatonnes of carbon and aerosols into the air. Their path is being tracked and forecast by the #CopernicusAtmosphere Monitoring Service.



More on the fires, their emissions and how they fit into long-term trendshttps://t.co/83e4Deph0r pic.twitter.com/ziKabqy68Q  Copernicus ECMWF (@CopernicusECMWF) July 8, 2020

Siberia's June heatwave saw temperatures soar 10C above average with a new record high of 38C Arctic Siberia saw exceptionally high temperatures last month as it sweltered in a heatwave which made it the region's hottest June on record. When compared to the normal temperature of Siberia, calculated from the average of every June from 1950 to 2018, this year was up to 10C higher. The average temperature increase, for the whole region over the entire month, was in excess of 5C. Siberia is a frigid region, normally averaging just 16C on a June day, but on June 20, it recorded an all-time high temperature of 38C. Advertisement

The study was done in two weeks and has not yet been put through the microscope of peer-review and published in a major scientific journal.

World Weather Attribution's past work has found some weather extremes were not triggered by climate change.

But 2020's Siberian heatwave stood out, said attribution team co-lead Friederike Otto, acting director of Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute.

'Definitely from everything we have done it's the strongest signal that we have seen,' Otto said.

The high temperatures in the Arctic are helping drive 2020 to being one of the hottest years on record.

Lead author Andrew Ciavarella, from the Met Office, said: 'Heatwaves and high temperatures occur naturally and human influence has a hand in changing the odds of just how warm they will be when they come along, and also how frequently they come along.

'We found the regional temperatures experienced over the six months to June 2020 have been made at least 600 times more likely to occur as a result of human-induced climate change and would have been effectively impossible without human influences.'

He said the probability of the mercury hitting the record 38C (100F) in Verkhoyansk, has also 'likely increased dramatically' because of global warming.

However the researchers are less confident of the results for this individual event as they are for the overall trend.
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Linkedin Joe Jackson (Agence France-Presse) London, United Kingdom  Thu, July 16, 2020 08:57 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666ac266 2 World bbc,job-cuts,coronavirus,coronavirus-effect,COVID-19,economic-impact,pandemic,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus,media-industry,media-company,COVID-19-joblessness Free

The BBC said on Wednesday it will go ahead with hundreds of newsroom staff cuts delayed during the coronavirus crisis, as UK media outlets reel from the pandemic's economic fallout.

The British broadcaster, which announced in January it planned to axe 450 newsroom jobs to meet changing audience needs and savings targets, said it now intended to implement 520 cuts.

The redundancies, which were paused as the COVID-19 crisis hit Britain severely from March, will now be implemented "in stages", it said.

"If we don't make changes, we won't be sustainable," Director of BBC News and Current Affairs Fran Unsworth, who heads the department's workforce of around 6,000 people, said in a statement.

"This crisis has led us to re-evaluate exactly how we operate as an organization," she added, noting it was focused on delivering "fewer stories, more targeted and with more impact".

In separate streamlining moves previously unveiled, the BBC will also shed hundreds of jobs in its sprawling regional operations.

It will axe 450 positions in England, as well as 150 in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as the broadcaster tries to cut costs and shake up its local radio stations and TV news.

The cuts came on the same day the Guardian newspaper said it plans to axe 180 jobs.

The left-leaning paper became the latest British publisher to announce redundancies as the pandemic drives readers online but slashes advertising revenues.

In a staff memo it said the cuts would affect around 70 editorial roles, with the remainder in areas such as advertising, marketing and events.

'Unsustainable'

Editor-in-chief Katharine Viner and Guardian Media Group chief executive Annette Thomas added revenues would be down by more than 25 million ($31.6 million, 27.6 million euros) this financial year, and the pandemic had created an "unsustainable financial outlook for the Guardian".

The move follows an announcement last week by Reach, which publishes national newspapers the Daily Mirror and Daily Express, and a string of local titles, to cut about 550 jobs.

It also blamed the fallout from the coronavirus crisis, which had accelerated "structural change in the media sector", with increases in digital revenue not making up the shortfalls from lost advertising income.

Reach's proposed reduction of 12 percent of its workforce was part of plans to make annual cost savings of 35 million, it added.

The Guardian announced its cuts alongside financial results for the 2019-20 financial year, which cover the 12 months to the end of March -- when Britain's three-month virus lockdown was just a week old.

They showed company revenues had fallen to 223.5 million. Income from readers through subscriptions and donations made up for a drop in advertising income.

The paper, which switched to a new tabloid format in 2018 to help cut costs, has kept its online content free-to-read and, in contrast to many rivals, not adopted a paywall model.

Viner and Thomas told staff they remained committed to the strategy.

"Despite the pressures that coronavirus has placed on our business, our unique reader relationship model has proved successful, and the strategy of the past few years has been the right one," they added.
A former Vice-President of Nigeria, who is still very much active in politics, Atiku Abubakar has mourned the sudden death of Nigerias first female combat pilot, Tolulope Arotile.

Mourning her death on twitter  a platform the former VP has been using to pass messages accross to Nigerians, he wrote;

Tolulope Arotile was an inspiration. She shattered the ceiling, and will always be our number 1. May she rest in the bosom of the Lord. And may the Almighty God grant the Arotile family and all her loved ones the comfort to bear this loss. -AA



Follow Us on Facebook  @LadunLiadi; Instagram  @LadunLiadi; Twitter  @LadunLiadi; Youtube  @LadunLiadiTV for updates
AUSTIN, Texas, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- There are an estimated 4.1 million Haitians currently living in a state of food insecurity, and Mission of Hope is doing something about it. The organization has been serving daily, nutritious meals to over 100,000 children through a network of schools, churches and orphanages. One year ago, they launched Team Hope, a team of people committed to meeting the most critical needs. The first need Team Hope addressed was the waitlist of 80,000 children who had been waiting to get into Mission of Hope's nutrition program.

"The structure is in place to deliver meals to all additional 80,000 children," says Mission of Hope president Brad Johnson. "The only thing we lack is the resources to secure those additional meals." Because of generous Team Hope supporters, 6,756 additional students in Haiti have been taken off the waitlist and added into the nutrition program. They will now receive a hot meal at school each day. Because of Team Hope, these kids do not have to wonder where they will find their next meal.

There is still much work to be done. "If every one of us was able to help one child, imagine what we could do together," says Johnson. "Times are tough for everyone right now, and yet we cannot look away. These kids need us now more than ever."

Those who want to help can join Team Hope by giving as little as $10 to feed a child in Haiti for an entire month. "When we move a child off the waitlist and into the nutrition program, that's 4.1 million minus one," says Johnson.

About Mission of Hope

As an organization following Jesus Christ, Mission of Hope exists to bring life transformation to every man, woman, and child. Through partnerships with local churches and organizations throughout Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Guatemala, Mission of Hope serves over 100,000 meals daily, impacts 62,600 students through education, and provides medical care to 150,000 people annually. For more information on how Mission of Hope is transforming lives, visit missionofhope.com .

Contact: Annette Boorman, Mission of Hope

Phone: (512) 256-0835

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Mission of Hope

Related Links

https://missionofhope.com


Here are todays top news, analysis and opinion at 9 PM. Know all about the latest news and other news updates from Hindustan Times.

India flays Pakistan for dam on Indus, says it will submerge parts of J-K and Ladakh

India has condemned Islamabads decision to construct the Diamer Basha dam on the Indus river in Chilas in Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir saying it will submerge large parts of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Read more

Nearly 4 million people still affected in Assam floods; 5 more deaths reported

Nearly 4 million people continued to be affected by floods in Assam on Thursday, which saw five more deaths due to drowning-taking the tally this season to 71. Read more

PM Boris Johnson appoints Indian-origin experts on new race commission

A new commission announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in June in the wake of the Black Lives Matter campaign to look into race and ethnic disparities includes two Indian-origin commissioners: Samir Shah and Ajay Kakkar, officials said on Thursday. Read more

Richa Chadha says same directors who posted condolence messages have replaced actresses who refused to sleep with them

Actor Richa Chadha has blogged about the nepotism debate, which was reignited after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. The actor died by suicide on June 14, and Richa wrote that instead of discussing mental health, nepotism became the primary talking point. Read more

Vanity Fair cover, featuring Oscar-winner Viola Davis, shot by Black photographer for first time

The new issue of Vanity Fair featuring a powerful image of Oscar-winning actor Viola Davis marks the first time the publication has featured the work of a Black photographer on its cover. Read more

Vivo X50 Pro review: All eyes on the Gimbal camera

Its the age of smartphones with unique camera features. This year itself we have seen smartphones with 108-megapixel sensors and periscope-style lenses. Adding to the list of unique cameras is Vivos X50 Pro, the smartphone with a Gimbal-style camera at the back. Read more

Brave boy saves sister from dog. Get this man a shield, says Chris Evans aka Captain America

Unless youre staying far away from the world of the Internet, you must have heard about the 6-year-old boy named Bridger who saved his younger sister from an attacking dog. A native of Wyoming, US, this brave boy is now a viral sensation and online worlds latest hero. His tale of bravery has not just wowed the netizens but the Avengers too  Captain America and Hulk. Read more

Assam floods: CM Sonowal visits Kaziranga National Park to assess damages

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal visited the flood affected Kaziranga National Park to take stock of the damages caused by the flood. He also met people who are staying at a relief camp in the area. He interacted with people and assured them of all possible help from the government during this time of crisis. The CM also spoke to people taking care of the injured and rescued animals. Sonowal also thanked PM Modi for his support in dealing with the flood crisis in the state. Watch more

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Almost a year after a West Baton Rouge sheriff's deputy shot and killed Josef Richardson while executing a "no-knock" warrant at his motel room, the officer has been cleared following an internal affairs investigation and has returned to regular law enforcement duties.

The sheriff's office released its full internal affairs report to the West Side Journal earlier this week and that newspaper shared the report with The Advocate. It shows that Deputy Vance Matranga Jr. was cleared of wrongdoing, a decision that came after prosecutors announced in March that they wouldn't press charges against the officer.

The shooting was controversial for several reasons  most notably the nature of the search warrant and the fact that that Richardson was shot in the back of the head and Matranga's gun had been modified with a lighter trigger. The incident prompted a handful of protests as citizens demanded answers about the July 2019 fatal encounter at the motel on U.S. 190, a few miles north of Port Allen.

A spokesman with the sheriff's office confirmed Thursday that Matranga had returned to work several weeks ago after the report was finalized. He had been placed on leave and later assigned to desk duty pending results of the criminal and administrative investigations.

Many details about the encounter had already been made public since the Louisiana Attorney General's office released their findings earlier this year. But the internal investigation sheds some new light on what happened that night at the motel.

+2 Deputy cleared after fatal shooting in no-knock drug raid at Port Allen-area motel Prosecutors have decided not to press charges against a West Baton Rouge deputy who fatally shot a Port Allen man during a motel raid last sum

Matranga and the other deputy involved in the fatal struggle with Richardson both told investigators that they had reason to believe the suspect was armed. A confidential informant had just purchased drugs from Richardson and told deputies the man kept a gun tucked into his waistband, according to the report. Matranga also said he was familiar with Richardson from past encounters and anticipated he would "either fight and run away, or run away and then fight."

Deputies have said they obtained a no-knock search warrant  which allows officers to enter a building unannounced  because they wanted to prevent suspects from destroying possible evidence, in this case drugs and a gun. The technique has been widely questioned amid nationwide demonstrations following the police shooting of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, who was killed after officers stormed her apartment while she was sleeping. Taylor died several months after Richardson.

When deputies entered Richardson's motel room, the suspect refused to comply with multiple orders to show his hands, according to the report. He first walked toward officers "with a straight face, with no emotion and with an aggressive posture," deputies said. Then he turned away from them, at which point Lt. Brett Cavalier started struggling with Richardson in an attempt to secure his hands.

Matranga said he saw Richardson reach his left hand into his pants, then remove it in a clenched fist. The officer said he saw "a dark object" in Richardson's fist and assumed it was a gun, which caused him to fear for Cavalier's life.

"Matranga stated at that point he could not see Mr. Richardson's hands, and there were no other options that he could have taken. He deliberately removed his finger from the frame of the gun on to the trigger, and fired a shot into Mr. Richardson's upper back near his neck."

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+2 Deputy shooting of Port Allen man raises concerns about using 'no-knock' warrants in Louisiana Members of a West Baton Rouge Parish drug task force gathered outside a motel in late July three miles north of Port Allen after getting a tip

The report doesn't include information about whether a gun was ever found at the scene, but attorneys for Richardson's family have argued in a federal wrongful death lawsuit that the shooting constitutes excessive force because Richardson was not armed. They also questioned whether Matranga accidentally fired his weapon after finding out the gun may have been modified with a lighter trigger pull.

Matranga has served about a decade with the West Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office. He's had extensive gun safety training, earned a prestigious award for saving a state trooper's life in 2011 and worked as the department's firearms instructor, records show.

He was also carrying his personal gun  not a department-issued firearm  on the night he shot and killed Richardson, according to the internal affairs report.

That didn't violate department policies because he had approval to use the weapon and had qualified with it in recent firearms certification training, Matranga told investigators. The gun in question was outfitted with a trigger connector that "allows for a smoother trigger squeeze" but Matranga said none of the safeties were disabled and "the trigger pull was not shorter."

Richardson was pronounced dead on the scene. Investigators found drugs in the motel room and arrested his girlfriend, Jessica Clouatre, who had witnessed the shooting.

Richardson's family and their attorneys have condemned law enforcement for taking his life over alleged drug sales. Bodycam footage of the encounter doesn't exist because West Baton Rouge sheriff's deputies don't wear them.

Bodycams more prevalent, but not all Baton Rouge area law enforcement agencies are on board Three people have died at the hands of local law enforcement officers since July, and there's no body camera footage of their deaths.

In response to recent outrage over the incident in Louisville that led to Taylor's death, the Louisville Metro Council voted unanimously last month to ban no-knock search warrants, which are still permissible almost everywhere else in the country.

Staff writer Youssef Rddad contributed to this report.
Monzo has brought back its packaged premium 'Plus' bank account after an extensive revamp, with a 5 monthly price tag and a new holographic blue card.

The smartphone-only bank is doubling down on budgeting and spending tools with launch features including the ability for customers to check credit scores, view accounts from different banks in one app and move money and divide single transactions like supermarket purchases into multiple categories.

Monzo scrapped a push into packaged bank accounts last September only five months after it initially launched Monzo Plus.

Monzo unveiled its revamped 5 monthly fee 'Plus' account, complete with a 'holographic blue' card. It scrapped its previous push into packaged bank accounts (below) last September

The previous version cost 6 a month in return for a different coloured card, either 'lagoon blue' or 'midnight sky', and a customer URL, while customers would then have to pay more on top for bolt-on features like travel insurance, phone insurance, 1.5 per cent in-credit interest and higher overseas ATM withdrawal limits.

However, the bank said it was starting the project from the beginning again after admitting things hadn't gone to plan with the account.

It had received a mixed response from Monzo's user base, with one person on its forum saying they 'didn't really see the point' of the account.

While the in-credit interest, albeit at a lower rate of 1 per cent on balances of up to 2,000, and 400 fee-free monthly overseas cash withdrawal limit have been retained, the revamped version of Monzo Plus has focused less on challenging existing packaged bank accounts and more on creating a new hyper-budgeting system.

While the bank's chief product officer Mike Hudack said it was not an 'either or' situation and that it 'might offer insurance in the future', he said 'over and over again we heard that people love Monzo because it gives them more control and visibility over their money.

'We've doubled down on that and created a premium product that we believe makes Monzo even better at managing your money, refocused on benefits that help customers today and in the future.'

One of the features Monzo Plus brings is the ability to see all bank accounts in one place and transfer money between them in-app. However, these features are increasingly widely available for free

The 5-a-month account will be gradually rolled out to the bank's 4.6million customers over the course of a week.

As well as the eye-catching holographic blue card, the account will let customers create up to five 'virtual' debit cards with their own individual details that can be stored online.

It means customers who lose their card don't have to worry about cancelling subscription services or updating details and can still spend money with certain retailers.

This can also be used to protect a customer's main Monzo account from fraud.

It has brought in virtual cards, which allow up to 5 separate debit cards to be stored online, each with their own details

It has also launched open banking functionality which enables customers to add accounts from all other major UK high street banks and view them in the Monzo app, and transfer money between them without leaving it.

Between that and other features like creating custom categories, splitting individual transactions into multiple categories and exporting transactions to Google sheets, Hudack described the paid-for account as a 'premium money management service'.

But while being able to view all accounts in one place and enhanced budgeting tools are increasingly commonplace among mobile banking apps of high street banks and third-party open banking apps like Money Dashboard or Yolt, Hudack was confident customers would be willing to pay 5 a month for Monzo Plus.

The bank has doubled down on budgeting features in the new 5-a-month account, including custom categories and exporting transactions to Google sheets

However, he declined to predict how many of its 4.6million customers would sign up.

Although it has long signed up current account customers in droves, and dethroned Nationwide Building Society as the king of bank account switchers earlier this year, the smartphone bank has struggled to convert that customer base into a profitable business model.

It has consistently looked for ways to persuade customers to keep more of their money with Monzo by striking partner deals with energy suppliers and savings banks and to diversify its revenue. It launched unsecured personal loans last August.

The bank has also likely been hit by a decline in consumer spending at home and overseas during the pandemic, and saw its valuation slashed by 40 per cent when it raised 60million last month.
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State University researchers have made a key advance in understanding how timing impacts the way microorganisms colonize plants, a step that could provide farmers an important tool to boost agricultural production.

The findings, published in the journal Current Biology, will help scientists better understand the plant microbiome, which consists of hundreds of thousands of microorganisms that live in and on plants and contribute to their health and productivity.

While scientists have studied microbes living in plants for decades, it has only been in the last 10 years or so that advances in DNA sequencing technology have it made it possible to characterize the unseen diversity of plant microbiomes with more precision. The surge in research involving the plant microbiome coincides with a spike in research involving the human microbiome and its role in human health and disease.

Understanding how plant microbiomes form is important because some microorganisms are beneficial and others are harmful to plants. Some factors shaping microbiome composition are predictable, like the relative humidity of the environment, or the thickness of the protective, waxy layer of cells on the leaf surface.

However, much of the variation in microbiome composition remains unexplained. The Oregon State research, led by Posy Busby, an assistant professor in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, and Devin Leopold, a postdoctoral fellow in her lab, unravels some of those mysteries.

In this study, Busby and Leopold explored one process that likely contributes to this unexplained variation: the order in which microorganisms colonize plants.

The research was unique in that they studied plants with different genetic backgrounds, in this case black cottonwood trees collected throughout the Cascade Range in the Pacific Northwest, and also exposed those plants to leaf rust, a disease-causing fungus.

They found that the order the microorganisms reached the plant had a significant impact on microbiome composition and how susceptible the plant was to disease. Additionally, the researchers found that this random variation in arrival order of microorganisms may be more important for highly disease-susceptible plants, which have not evolved their own effective defense strategies.

Farmers have a long history of applying beneficial microorganisms to crops. This research provides them with more information about which plant cultivars may be best suited for microbial biocontrol, and how to best time treatments to prevent disease in plants.

"Our hope is that our findings will translate into tools for combatting plant disease that aren't limited to planting only disease-resistant cultivars," Busby said. "Because maintaining diversity in our crops is essential to the long-term sustainability of our agricultural systems."

###

This research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research and the OSU Department of Botany and Plant Pathology in the College of Agricultural Sciences.
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A monument honoring the relationship between NASA Johnson Space Center and the city of Nassau Bay was unveiled July 16.

The structure, which curves into the sky is at the intersection of NASA Parkway and Space Center Boulevard, was created to celebrate the city's origins as a home for professionals  including some of the countrys first astronauts  drawn from across the county to work at NASA.
Mining giant Rio Tinto lifted its shipments of iron ore during the June quarter, driven by strong demand from China's steel mills, but warns a second wave of COVID-19 infections presents a key risk for advanced economies.

The nation's second largest miner on Friday revealed it had shipped 86.7 million tonnes of the steelmaking commodity from its operations in Western Australia's Pilbara in the three months to June 30, compared to 85.4 million tonnes a year earlier. The result came in slightly below investment bank UBS expectations that Rio's iron ore shipments for the quarter would be 88.1 million tonnes.

Australia's top miners have benefited as prices for iron ore, the nation's top export, have passed $US100 a tonne.

Chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques said Rio remained on course to meet its full-year iron ore export targets. "Despite various COVID-19 related challenges, all our assets have continued to operate, with our first priority to protect the health and safety of all our employees and communities," he said.

The production and sales of iron ore, Australia's biggest export commodity, are considered pivotal to the strength of the federal budget and the national economy.
SPRINGFIELD  A city resident wanted for shooting a woman in Pittsfield was arrested with five other people after law enforcement converged on a parking lot in the South End Monday.

Law enforcement also confiscated a loaded shotgun stolen out of Georgia, ammunition, heroin and crack cocaine during the operation. One of the men arrested is also accused of jumping on the hood of an undercover police cruiser and smashing the windshield as he tried to flee from officers, said Ryan Walsh, police spokesman.

A total of three people arrested also had warrants charging them with different felonies, he said.

Springfield police from the Warrant Apprehension Unit, the Narcotics Unit and the Metro Unit working with the Massachusetts State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section, the U.S. Marshal Task Force and Hampden Sheriffs Department confronted a group of people in a parking lot on Bayonne Street at about noon. Several of the people immediately started running.

Law enforcement quickly apprehended Myron Crapps, 29, of Bay Street in Springfield, and arrested him on a warrant that charges him with assault and battery with a firearm and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building. He was also charged with possession of heroin, Walsh said.

Crapps is accused of shooting a 43-year-old Pittsfield woman at about 1:45 p.m. on July 7 near 14 Kent Ave. The victim is recovering from her injuries. Police also located a maroon Chrysler van that witnesses and video footage identified as being used in the crime, Pittsfield police said.

Law enforcement also apprehended Jordan Crapps, 18, of Orange St., Springfield, who was wanted for past firearms offenses. He was also charged with possession of a firearm and ammunition without a permit, possession of heroin and receiving stolen property under $1,200, he said.

Kvion Valentine, 18, of Atlanta, Georgia, was also arrested on a fugitive of justice warrant charging him with a home invasion in his home state. He was also charged on Monday with possession of a firearm and ammunition without a permit, possession of heroin and receiving stolen property under $1,200, Walsh said.

During the incident Joshua Rainey, 18, of East Point, Georgia is accused of running from police, jumping on the cruiser and smashing the windshield with his foot. He was eventually stopped by officers on Dwight Street Extension and is believed to have thrown crack cocaine on the ground during the arrest, Walsh said.

He was charged with possession of a firearm and ammunition without a permit, receiving stolen property under $1,200, possession of heroin and cocaine and malicious destruction of property, he said.

Kirahjah Sutherland, 19, of Chicopee, was also arrested at the scene and charged with possession of a firearm and ammunition without a permit, possession of heroin and receiving stolen property, Walsh said.

Police also arrested a 15-year-old from Georgia on multiple charges. Names of juveniles are not released, he said.

The shotgun and some of the drugs were confiscated from the car where the suspects were inside or gathered around, Walsh said.

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The Hooker River in Aoraki Mount Cook National Park, Aotearoa New Zealand Credit: University of Canterbury

Indigenous knowledge, including oral histories, mythologies, place names and classification schemes, can span many generations, preserving information that has helped native communities adapt to natural hazards as well as gradually changing conditions. Although Western scientists have historically deemed such information unreliable, during the past decade there has been increasing recognition of the advantages of bicultural approaches to scientific research, including demonstration of reliability.

Now, a review published in the European Geosciences Union's journal Earth Surface Dynamics offers a roadmap for weaving together Indigenous knowledge with modern research, with a focus on the geosciences.

"One goal is to encourage scientists to consider how their project might be of interest or relevance to Indigenous communities and to make conducting research with such groups more accessible," says Clare Wilkinson, a Ph.D. student at Te Whare Wananga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury and the paper's lead author.

The review, which is co-authored by native and non-native researchers from both Te Whare Wananga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury and Te Whare Wananga o Tamaki Makaurau | The University of Auckland, showcases a variety of tools for weaving Indigenous knowledge with Western science that maintain the integrity and validity of both methodologies, Wilkinson says. "There are clear links between Indigenous knowledge and values with respect to geomorphology," states Wilkinson, "but there is not much research that weaves these two cultural knowledge bases together."

Bicultural research: benefits for all

Bicultural research undertaken within respectful, reciprocal relationships can yield benefits for everyone involved, according to Wilkinson. Oral histories, for example, may provide insight into events that have been erased from the geologic record. Filling such gaps is crucial for projects such as the Aotearoa New Zealand Palaeotsunami Database, a catalog of tsunamis that occurred prior to the start of historical written recordkeeping that is being used to better understand the distribution and magnitudes of these potentially destructive mega-waves.

The braided Waimakariri River located at the heart of Waitaha Canterbury, in Aotearoa New Zealand's South Island Credit: University of Canterbury

Weaving of Indigenous knowledge with Western scientific research also has the potential to support native communities to make informed decisions regarding potential hazards on their ancestral lands. An example cited in the review describes native Maori purakau (stories) about a ngarara: a mythological, lizard-like creature, who lives in the Waitepuru River in Aotearoa New Zealand (a name that reflects the country's bicultural foundation). According to the authors, many Maori purakau are codified knowledge expressed through metaphors. These particular stories document the river's past geomorphic activity, expressed through the analogy of the ngarara flicking its tail back and forth.

"These stories, which my co-author Dan Hikuroa first published in 2017, document flood events," says Wilkinson, who notes that these have implications for understanding both the area's geomorphic history and the potential risks of living there. "The stories of the danger posed by the ngarara were taken into consideration when Maori built their homes, leaving them unharmed by past river-related hazards that have affected other nearby settlements," Wilkinson says.

Braided rivers tool: merging knowledge streams

In the review the authors describe tools that may help other researchers find respectful ways to initiate bicultural research projects. These include several potential frameworksmethodologies used during the theoretical design of the researchas well as step-by-step methods for acquiring data that incorporates Indigenous values.

The most transferable framework, suggest the authors, is the He Awa Whiria | Braided Rivers, which is based on the iconic Aotearoa New Zealand river systems characterized by networks of frequently shifting, sediment-choked river channels. This framework consists of two streams, one symbolizing Maori knowledge and a second representing Western science. "The two knowledge streams operate collaboratively as well as independently, but both have the same objective of providing a balanced research outcome," Wilkinson says.

Mount Aspiring Glacier Valley, Aotearoa New Zealand Credit: Markus Benninghoff via immageo.egu.eu

An element of reciprocity

When working with Indigenous communities, it's essential to understandor at least respectIndigenous priorities, interests and worldview, according to Wilkinson. "You need to anticipate that rock formations and rivers can be ancestors; that when communities talk about fish, they are speaking about brothers and sisters; and when communities talk about the soil, they are describing their Earth mother."

Shifting language is also a challenge, explains Wilkinson; words must be chosen very carefully to maintain mutual respect and safety for all involved, and researchers shouldn't expect Indigenous input on a project that doesn't interest them or provide them with any benefit. "Purely extractive research is not acceptable; there must be an element of reciprocity," says Wilkinson. The authors strongly recommend that scientists wishing to participate in bicultural research find cultural advisors who know the preferred procedures for engaging with Indigenous people.

Ultimately, suggest the review authors, drawing from multiple knowledge systems will help researchers and native communities realize novel understandings that could not be reached in isolation. "It is an exciting time to be a researcher and to play a part in increasingly important engagements with Indigenous culture and knowledge," concludes Wilkinson.

More information: Wilkinson, C., Hikuroa, D. C. H., Macfarlane, A. H., and Hughes, M. W.: Matauranga Maori in geomorphology: existing frameworks, case studies, and recommendations for incorporating Indigenous knowledge in Earth science, Earth Surf. Dynam., 8, 595618, Wilkinson, C., Hikuroa, D. C. H., Macfarlane, A. H., and Hughes, M. W.: Matauranga Maori in geomorphology: existing frameworks, case studies, and recommendations for incorporating Indigenous knowledge in Earth science,., 8, 595618, DOI: 10.5194/esurf-8-595-2020
In May 2019, senior members of Ghanas law enforcement posed for photos with the U.S. ambassador to their country at a ceremony in the capital, Accra.



Between them they held boxes and bags, gifts from the U.S. government to Ghana which, according to one of the recipients, contained Israeli phone hacking technology.



That recipient was Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, then-director general of the Ghana polices criminal investigation department.



In May 2020, she spoke to CPJ about how the U.S. and U.K. governments, as well as Interpol, provided Ghanas security forces with digital investigations training and technology.



She cited tools made by the Israel-based Cellebrite corporation  whose website says their technology can break locks and encryption  and two U.S.-based companies, IBM and Digital Intelligence.



Journalists in Ghana say they are worried about how such technology may be used against them or their sources.



Last year, CPJ documented the use of Cellebrites Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED) by Nigerian security forces, and how the military targeted journalists phones and computers with a forensic search trying to reveal their sources.



Six days before the U.S. gave the same tools to Ghana, The Washington Post reported on how police used UFED to retrieve documents from journalists phones in Myanmar.



Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Cellebrite has pitched its technology to help authorities access devices of infected people to trace their contacts, Reuters reported in April.



If a state agency can decode my system without access to my password, that is scary, Emmanuel Dogbevi, managing editor of the website Ghana Business News, told CPJ in early July.



Dogbevi, a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, has reported on sensitive subjects, including offshore finances and Ghanas purchase of hardware from the Israel-based spyware company NSO Group.



He told CPJ that many sources were already hesitant to speak for fear of being identified, and the years-long pattern of Ghanaian authorities trying to intimidate journalists left him worried he too may be targeted.



Sources send me information, send me documents. I wouldnt want anyone to have access to that, Dogbevi said.



Before being transferred from criminal investigations to head police welfare in January 2020, Tiwaa Addo-Danquah said she sought to strengthen prosecutions by building the polices capacity to extract and analyze information from phones and computers.



In this [digital] era, most of the evidence are held on electronic devicesYou arrest one person and the person says Im not going to inform you [of] my accomplice. These are the tools that can help you to know who or whom that person is talking to, she told CPJ.



A year earlier, in June 2019, officers from Ghanas National Security Ministry arrested editor Emmanuel Ajarfor Abugri and reporter Emmanuel Yeboah Britwum, both of the Modern Ghana news website, held them for days, and searched their phones and computers in an effort to reveal their sources for a report on National Security Minister Albert Kan Dapaah, CPJ reported at the time.



Abugri told CPJ his devices were taken to an IT room and he was forced to give the officers his passwords. They were going into my gadgets, he said.



The Greater Accra police command still has Abugris phones and tablets, while the National Security Ministry has his computer, Abugri said. (A police spokesperson, Afia Tengey, said she was unable to comment because she could not locate the case files).



The experience changed the way Abugri thought about the safety of information: Sometimes in journalism there are certain information that are very confidential to you, that you dont want any other person to know the sourcehaving those information on your gadgets and those same gadgets are in the hands of certain people [security forces], I feel threatened.



Abugri sued Ghanas National Security Coordinator, Inspector-General of Police, and Attorney General claiming his arrest and detention, including alleged torture, violated his constitutionally guaranteed rights; the case is due in court July 15, he told CPJ.



CPJs calls to Kan Dapaah following the June 2019 arrests and in June 2020 rang unanswered.



But Tiwaa Addo-Danquah told CPJ that she had at times relied on the National Security Ministry digital forensics and surveillance capacities to assist with police investigations.



If the phone is on, [based on a telephone number] they were able to tell that this person was here at this time, he moved here at this time, she said.



Manasseh Azure Awuni, a freelance investigative journalist, told CPJ the arrests of the Modern Ghana journalists and seizure of their devices shows that journalists and sources are vulnerable.



If it has happened to some journalists, it is possible it can happen to me, Awuni said.



Awuni said he received death threats and was forced into hiding in 2019 because of a documentary that alleged Ghanas ruling party operated a secret militia group. The party denied ties to the group, he said.



It can exert a chilling effect on press freedom, Roland Affail Monney, President of the Ghana Journalists Association, told CPJ of security forces capacity to break into journalists phones and computers.



Ghanas police first received Cellebrites UFED technology from Interpol in 2017 at training for West African law enforcement in Cote dIvoire, Tiwaa Addo-Danquah told CPJ.



The year before, Cellebrite signed an agreement to provide Interpol with digital forensic equipment [including UFED] and training services over a three-year period, according to their websites.



Interpols press office acknowledged in an email that has provided Cellebrite tools to some national police but did not identify which countries or otherwise elaborate.



Tiwaa Addo-Danquah said that in 2019 the U.K. trained and provided Ghanaian police with IBM i2 Analyze to help organize and evaluate information pulled from devices.



IBM i2 Analyze facilitates analysis of large volumes of data and uncover[s] hidden connections, according to its website.



CPJ emailed the British High Commission in Accra requesting an interview regarding U.K. digital forensics support for Ghanaian law enforcement, but no interview was arranged before publication.



IBMs head of communications for the Middle East and Africa, Mark Fox, told CPJ in an email that IBM had no record of selling or providing IBM i2 Analyze to the government of Ghana, but declined to comment on whether Ghanas police used the technology.



[W]e carefully review potential business opportunities to ensure they do not conflict with IBMs principles of trust and transparencyExternal link, Fox said.



Separately, a 2019 British Immigration Enforcement document appears to show that the agency supplied Ghanas Immigration Service with Detego digital forensics equipment made by U.K.-based MCM Solutions (the document misspells the equipment as Detago).



Detego can [e]xtract and seamlessly analyse data from multiple devices, according to MCMs website.



In March 2019, MCM posted on Twitter that its staff were in Ghana conducting an advanced [Detego] training course for a number of specialist units.



John-Paul Backwell, MCM Solutions global sales and marketing director, told CPJ that the company had multiple clients in Ghana, but did not respond by publication time to a question about which security agencies had the technology.



Backwell said MCM Solutions ambition was to have their technology used for good to solve security challenges, but acknowledged the company cannot always control how a customer uses the software.



MCM Solutions would investigate cases where their tools may have been used against journalists, he said.



The U.S. embassy provided Ghana with Cellebrite UFED and UltraBlock, another digital forensics tool made by the Digital Intelligence corporation, in May 2019 at the ceremony with U.S. Ambassador Stephanie Sullivan, Tiwaa Addo-Danquah told CPJ.



UltraBlock is used to facilitate the extraction of information from hard drives, but does not have decryption capacity, Chris Stippich, the president of Digital Intelligence, told CPJ by phone in late June.



He said company policy did not permit him to comment on Digital Intelligences customers.



Procurement documents reviewed by CPJ and a report by the Nextgov news website indicate that in December 2018 the U.S. embassy in Ghana made a request to purchase UFED and UltraBlock technology.



The request specified UFED be capable of extraction and decoding of major cellphone models, including Android, Blackberry, Nokia, and Huawei, as well as GPS systems like TomTom.



This screenshot from the U.S. Embassy in Ghana website shows Ambassador Stephanie Sullivan, right, donating technology to the executive director of the Economic and Organized Crime Office, Frank Adu-Poku, rear, and Jacob Puplampu, left, at a cyber dark web investigations training session in Accra in May 2019.

According to a U.S. government database, State Department contracts were awarded to two U.S.-based companiesBIT DIRECT INC and Lyme Computer Systems, Inc for cyber investigations equipment for Ghana. Other contract listings indicate that in recent years U.S. embassies around the world have ordered equipment directly from Cellebrite.



CPJs calls and an email to Josh Longacre, Lyme Computer Systems CEO and president, as well as calls and a voicemail to the publicly listed number for BIT DIRECT INC, went unanswered.



CPJs questions emailed to Cellebrites press office and Masao Koda, a representative for Cellebrites Japan-based parent company, Sun Corporation, were not answered before publication.



The U.S. embassy in Ghana told CPJ in an emailed statement that it gave the countrys police and the Economic and the Organized Crime Office (EOCO) assistance to enhance their capability in investigating cyber-related offenses with technology and training.



It said those who were trained underwent Leahy vetting, a reference to U.S. laws that prohibit spending on foreign security forces implicated in human rights abuses.



The embassy did not directly answer CPJs questions specific to UFED and UltraBlock.



CPJ reached Frank Adu-Poku, Executive Director of Ghanas EOCO, by phone in May 2020, but he declined to comment.



Ghana immigration service spokesperson Michael Amoako-Atta told CPJ by phone that he would check for information about British support in 2019, but CPJs subsequent calls and text messages to Amoako-Atta went unanswered.



Any data that is accessed by police would be done so in accordance with [the] law, Sheila Kessie Abayie-Buckman, a spokesperson for Ghanas police, told CPJ by phone.



She said a framework for police-media relations and safety of journalists launched on July 1 would help curb instances where officers seized journalists devices or interrogated them about their sources.



Abayie-Buckman did not provide answers to emailed questions concerning police use of Cellebrite and IBM technology.



Sometimes I think it is good for governments to have that kind of [digital forensics] tools, Abugri told CPJ, noting that there are public safety reasons for devices to be searched.



But in a situation where people like us [journalists] are involvedthose tools are not being used for their intended purposethat is where it becomes a worry.

Source: CPJ









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An Aggie to the core, Texas A&M was a central part of who Brent was. He co-founded Bus 12 and found much delight in driving it around the "Promised Land" on gameday to get fellow Ags "hyped", and cheering the team on at the tailgate.

Brent had a deep affinity for being in nature. He felt it was the place where he was closest to God, and he used every opportunity to camp and fish with the people he loved. He also had great pride in being a 7th generation Texan with ties to significant moments in Texas history. Genealogical research was a pastime he enjoyed, as it helped him feel connected to the meaningful events he enjoyed learning about.

Brent's relationships were the nearest and dearest thing to his heart. His devotion to family was unwavering, and he sought opportunities to extend those bonds through the chosen family of his friendships. He was constantly looking for ways, big and small, to do meaningful things for others. Whether it was a thoughtful note, a heartfelt conversation, or supportive presence in moments monumental or mundane, Brent knew what was most important. Love was at the core of who he was and what he did.
PLANO, Texas, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CRITICALSTART, a leading provider of Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services, announced Thursday that it has become a member of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA). MISA is an ecosystem of independent software vendors and managed security service providers that have integrated with Microsoft Security to better defend against a world of increasing threats. Earlier this year, CRITICALSTART incorporated Microsoft Azure Sentinel, a cloud-native security information and event management (SIEM) system, into its MDR platform.

Because of an increased demand for a closely interwoven security ecosystem, MISA is growing, and it is launching an invitation-only pilot program in July of 2020 for select managed security service providers, including CRITICALSTART.



MISA members are comprised of organizations from across the cybersecurity industry, unified by the common goal of putting customer security first. Each new member brings their own valuable expertise, making MISA even more effective with each expansion. By including MSSPs in MISA, Microsoft hopes to further enable collaboration between leading security technology companies so that together, Microsoft and MISA members can deliver better protection to joint customers.

"We are thrilled to expand our collaboration with Microsoft by joining the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association so that we can reach an even broader audience with our MDR services," said Rob Davis, CRITICALSTART founder and CEO. "As part of this ecosystem, we are well positioned to continue leading in the fight against malicious online actors and increased cyber threats."

Mandana Javaheri, Global Director of Business Development, Cybersecurity Solutions Group at Microsoft said, "Due to the growing number and sophistication of security threats proliferating across the globe, we see great value in achieving strength through numbers. By adding proven partners like CRITICALSTART to the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association family of security solutions, we are helping to better combat threats to customers worldwide."

About CRITICALSTART

CRITICALSTART is the MDR expert that leaves nothing to chance. Our mission is simple: detect threats and stop breaches by resolving every alert for our customers. We do this for enterprises through our award-winning portfolio of end-to-end security services, including MDR and Professional Services. Visit criticalstart.com for more information or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.

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A film actors daughter has been kidnapped. A director is filming the actors desperate search for his child in real time. Popcorn on the ready, the next thriller is already in the making. Anil Kapoor and Anurag Kashyap are the two titular AKs in Vikramaditya Motwane film, AK vs AK, with the director and the actor carrying their real-life roles to the reel.

The kidnapping of a movie stars daughter makes for a great reel-life story, doesnt it? @anilskapoor should know ki creativity ki koi hadh nahi hoti! #AKvsAK directed by @motwayne coming soon on @netflix_in, Anurag tweeted with the first look of the film which will be out on Netflix.

Anil Kapoor replied, When @anuragkashyap10 decides to kidnap a kid for his next film, its time to show him ki baap baap hota hai! #AKvsAK @motwayne Coming soon on @netflix_in.

Talking about the film coming out on Netflix, Anil had told Hindustan Times, My next film was always going to have a digital release because we were all convinced of the power and reach of digital platforms, even when many warned us against taking such a huge risk. I cant deny that its reassuring to see a lot of other producers release their movies digitally now, because it validates something I have believed in for a long time now. That being said, when the theatres do open (and are deemed safe), we are bound to see a whole lot of people flock to the medium that they know and love.

The revenge drama is also likely to star Kapoors children - Sonam Kapoor, Harshvardhan Kapoor and Rhea Kapoor - as themselves. Harsh, Sonam and Rhea are very independent-minded. Sonam is a big star and Harsh is getting there in his own way. Rhea is making films she enjoys watching - fun, commercial films with girls, because for her actresses can be heroes too, Anil had told Mumbai Mirror.

The film is among the 17 new films and series teased by Netlfix in their latest sizzle reel. Other titles include Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, Raat Akeli Hai, Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare, Ludo, Class of 83 and more.

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The Brooklyn Borough President has called for the return of the controversial NYPD anti-crime unit just a month after it was shut down due to anti-cop protests as shootings in the Big Apple continue to spike.

Eric Adams, NYC's most influential black politician, claims that the plainclothes unit, whose job it was to get guns off the street, may need reform but should not have been completely eliminated.

The former cop, who is running for mayor in 2021, said that the absence of the unit led 'bad guys' to believe they can do 'whatever you want'.

He made the comments after another violent weekend in New York City and a spate of shootings which resulted in the death of a one-year-old child.

Brooklyn Borough President, one of NYC's most influential black politicians, claims that the NYPD anti-crime unit should never have been disbanded as he spoke about recent shootings

'Babies are not supposed to be wearing these in a coffin,' Adams told CBS while holding up a pair of baby shoes.

'I think that a total elimination is something we need to reevaluate. Right now, bad guys are saying if you don't see a blue and white you can do whatever you want.'

Outlining his vision for the return of the unit for the New York Post, Adams, the leading Democratic candidate for mayor, said that unit needed to replace its 'overly aggressive officers'.

In their stead would be placed 'cops more suited for high-difficulty police work'.

'Moving forward on police reform does not mean we have to move backward on public safety. The problem with the precinct level anti-crime unit wasn't the strategy behind it  it was some of the officers in it,' he said.

Adams added that he would 'shift detectives and other officers from low-crime areas to crime hot-spots when surges occur'.

On June 15, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea disbanded anti-crime plainclothes units that had focused on stopping people and searching for guns.

The controversial units had been involved in the 2014 death of Eric Garner and have long been criticized for aggressive tactics and so in a major redeployment, the country's largest police force reassigned some 600 plainclothes officers, effective immediately.

The NYPD's anti-crime units, which focused primarily on seizing illegal guns, were responsible for a disproportionate number of shootings and complaints, Shea said of his decision.

The commissioner made the announcement amid a nationwide reckoning over police brutality sparked by George Floyd's death in Minnesota.

Adams is running to replace Mayor Bill de Blasio, pictured, in 2021. The Brooklyn Borough President, a former cop, claims he would return the anti-crime unit disbanded just last month

A holdover from the department's 'stop and frisk' era, the anti-crime unit no longer fit in a department that has shifted to relying more heavily on intelligence, data and tools like video, DNA and shot-detection technology to fight crime, Shea said.

'Make no mistake, this is a seismic shift in the culture of how the NYPD polices this great city,' Shea said. 'It will be felt immediately in the communities that we protect.'

Yet Adams is just one of several voices calling for its return to get guns of the streets as the violence in the city increases.

According to CBS, shootings last week went up 277 percent - 49 compared to 13 in 2019 - as NYPD statistics showed a huge drop in gun arrests.

The number of victims also went up 253 percent, 60 compared to 17 in 2019.

Toddler Davell Gardner Jr. was among those fatally shot in NYC over the weekend

Shootings were up more than 50 percent this year over 2019 with 585 incidents reported as of July 5 and June was the most violent month in the city since 1996, the New York Post reports.

Just last weekend, there were 28 shooting incidents and 35 victims across the citys five boroughs, compared to just five incidents and six victims during the same Friday-to-Sunday period last year, Fox News reports.

Among them was one-and-a-half-year-old Davell Gardner Jr. who was fatally shot as he sat in his stroller outside the Raymond Bush Playground in the Bedford-Stuyvestant neighborhood in Brooklyn.

Mayor Bill de Blasio decried the shootings Monday stating, 'this is not anything we can allow in our city. It is heartbreaking'.

'Its heartbreaking for so many reasons and begins with the fact that there are just so many guns out there and that is a New York tragedy,' de Blasio said.

Yet community activist Tony Herbert told CBS that the mayor has young Garnder's blood on his hands.

'The guns keep going off and now we have a 1-year-old and the blood is on the hands of the mayor and the state Legislature,' said Herbert.

The disbanding of the anti-crime unit had already caused outrage among cops when it was first announced.

Police Benevolent Association President Patrick J. Lynch warned city leaders that they would have to 'reckon with the consequences'.

'Anti-Crimes mission was to protect New Yorkers by proactively preventing crime, especially gun violence. Shooting and murders are both climbing steadily upward, but our city leaders have clearly decided that proactive policing isnt a priority anymore,' Lynch had said in a statement.

'They chose this strategy. They will have to reckon with the consequences.'

Former NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly also blasted Mayor De Blasio for the move.

'He has eviscerated the police department. One of the most important, significant things [de Blasio] did was to eliminate the anti-crime units throughout the city  they are the real crime fighters,' he told Fox.

'[They were] the ones who have been able to address the violent crime for several decades in New York City. That unit is gone.'

De Blasio has doubled down on the decision, however, on Tuesday lauding the move to eradicate the gun-hunting unit.

'This is something that very, very sadly weve seen in the past and weve had to fight back before and we will fight back again,' de Blasio told reporters.

'We do that by bringing police and community together in a common cause,' he added.

The mayor placed the blame for the spike on crime on the coronavirus pandemic.

'Every aspect of life has been dislocated,' he said. 'Cmon, were not dealing with business as usual here.'
Selvarani and her three daughters have had a stream of visitors at their modest home in Sathankulam, a small town in Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu, ever since her son J Bennicks, 31, and her husband, P Jayaraj, 59, were killed due to alleged police torture last month. One of her visitors last week was 39-year-old Femina Sweety Babitha, whose brother Arun Bharath had died due to alleged torture by police from the same station, 14 years ago.

Everyone understands our suffering, but only those of us who have lost people we love to police brutality truly understands the pain, Femina told Hindustan Times over the phone.

Bharaths case came up in the Thoothukudi district fast track court in 2008, after the Tiruchendur Revenue Division Officer (RDO) conducted an enquiry, following which a government order allowed prosecution proceedings to be initiated against sub-inspector Srikumar. Since then the case has dragging its feet, mired in procedural items. In March 2019, the high court directed the home secretary of Tamil Nadu to appoint a special PP to handle the case. This has still not been done.

Also read: Custodial torture and violence is wrong. It is time for a stronger law

Srikumar filed a discharge petition that the Revenue Division Officer (RDO) [of Tiruchendur who conducted the enquiry], made him a scapegoat by not naming other police officers from the station. But it was dismissed, Subbu Muthuramaligam, who represents Feminas family, said.

Eyewitness accounts of the night Bharath died said that at least seven more policemen were involved.

A gruesome death

Bharath, then 20, and his brother, Vijay Amarnath, who worked in the neighbouring state of Kerala, had come home to Sathankulam on leave in May 2006. On June 1, Bharath filed a complaint at the police station against a certain Johnson for allegedly stealing his two-wheeler. When Johnson was released on June 15, he made an oral complaint against Arun, Femina said.

Two days later, Srikumar allegedly knocked on Bharaths door. It was around 10 pm, and his mother Ganana Ramani and two brothers, including Vijay, had just finished their dinner. Femina lived in another house. According to eyewitness accounts, Srikumar dragged Bharath out, and seven other policemen including a sub-inspector Kala beat him. Vijay, who tried to stop them, also got injured. One of the policemen reportedly kicked Bharath in his genitals causing him to collapse.

Bharath and Vijay were bundled into a police van and driven to Sathankulam police station. Upon reaching, the police allegedly asked Vijay to take Bharath home since he wasnt moving. Vijay took his brother to the government hospital instead with the help of his friend Murugesan. There, Bharath was pronounced dead on arrival.

Also read: This is not justice. India has faltered on the fundamentals of law, writes Barkha Dutt

Murugesan went to two homes to break the news that night: Feminas and his neighbours, Maharajan Elango, who worked as a journalist. Elango later turned witness in the enquiry conducted by the Tiruchendur RDO.

My physically disabled mother helplessly watched [Bharath] and Vijay being thrashed, Femina said. She told me everything when we met two hours later at the hospital. The men in our family didnt allow us to see [Bharath] because he had bled so much and his skin was peeled-off in several parts.

Police violence

It is common for several instances from the past to come up when a case like this (Jayaraj-Bennicks) is on-going, Thoothukudi superintendent of police (SP) Jayakumar said, when asked about Bharaths case. We have to conduct legal enquiries and if there is wrong-doing, action will be taken, he said.

Jayakumar was posted to Thoothukudi after the incumbent Arun Balagopalan was shunted out on June 30 as a result of the public outcry that followed Bennicks and Jayarajs deaths.

In a June 28 judicial probe into Bennicks and Jayarajs alleged custodial deaths, a police head constable testified that the two were thrashed with lathis in the police station through the night of June 19, when they were arrested for reportedly keeping their shop open longer than the curfew hour and for preventing the policemen from discharging their duties. Friends and family members who shifted the duo to the hospital, shortly before they died on June 22 and June 23, respectively, said that they had to change their lungis several times because of the blood that oozed from their wounds.

Their deaths have rekindled the conversation on police violence. According to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), there were 117 deaths in police custody across the country in 2019.

Some measures are being taken. The National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Nimhans) in Bengaluru has been conducting a wellbeing programme with the Tamil Nadu police since 2018.

Only through such wellbeing programmes can violent propensities in individuals be stymied, a Madurai bench of the Madras High Court, which took suo-moto cognisance of the case on June 24, noted.

After taking charge, Jayakumar said he has introduced behavioural training for the 52 sub-inspectors in Thoothukudi, and will be scaled up to cover higher officials. They are being instructed to register accurate sections at the police station and have been advised not to hit people. We are motivating them to be real police; not act cinematic, Jayakumar said.

However, new institutional measures on top of already established procedures to prevent custodial torture  such as one in the Kerala Police Act 2011 which mandates any police officer who witnesses torture or corruption must report it without fear of reprisal  are needed, Devika Prasad, programme head, police reforms for Delhi-based Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, said.

Also read: Why custodial deaths often go unpunished | Opinion

In such cases senior police barely get caught in the prosecution net. A transfer order is hardly punitive punishment, she said.

On June 29, the court initiated contempt proceedings against Thoothukudis deputy superintendent of police C Prathapan and additional deputy superintendent of police D Kumar and Sathankulam police station constable Maharajan (who was later suspended) after the investigating judicial magistrate reported that they were obstructing the investigation. However, both senior officers got new postings on June 30. The constable remains suspended.

The Crime Branch Criminal Investigation Department arrested 10 policemen in connection with Bennicks and Jayarajs death; five have been charged with murder. The Central Bureau of Investigation took charge of the case on July 10.

Seeing policemen arrested in this case (Bennicks) gives me hope that my brothers killers too will be punished, Femina said.

High price for justice

An FIR was registered under against sub-inspector Srikumar under section 302 at the Sathankulam police station, following which the RDO began his enquiry.

Why didnt the RDO report name sub-inspector Kala and the six constables from the station? All the 8 policemen should have been accused, Muthuramalingam said. The court dismissed petitions against the other policemen stating that evidence has to be produced to include them in the charge sheet, both lawyers said.

Ganana Ramani passed away a year after her son, Bharaths death. Vijay died by suicide in November 2009. The remaining family  brother, Rajesh Vinod and father, David Inbaraj  live and work in Erode and Chennai, respectively. Femina, a single mother, belongs to a womens self-help group run by the Thoothukudi collectorate.

Mirroring the events that followed after Bennicks death, local residents, lawyers and activists had also come together to protest at the same Kamarajar statue near the Sathankulam police after Aruns death. But back in 2006, without social media and a 24x7 news cycle, it didnt blow up.

Their family is broken and shattered like mine, Femina said of her meeting with Bennicks and Jayarajs family.

I told them not to give up until they get justice. There are going to be delays, everyone will move on but we have to stay strong.
When travelers feel safe enough to start flying again in big numbers, Terminal A at San Antonio International Airport will greet them as it always has  with all the fanfare of a kazoo band.

Theres a lot to dislike about Terminal A, the arrival and departure point for all but one airline serving San Antonio.

Pre-COVID-19, the place was packed with passengers during peak flying times. You could barely see the shiny terrazzo floor for all the travelers. At a width of 70 feet, Terminal As concourse is one of the dinkiest in the country for an airport its size.

Its length isnt exactly a point of civic pride either, squeezing in as it does a mere 17 gates.

And as a consultants report noted in 2018, the 36-year-old Terminal A is plagued by many functional deficiencies, including too few toilet fixtures for women.

John Dickson has a thought on what to do about the terminal: Tear it down and try again.

Hes chairman of the Airport System Development Committee, which is hammering out a 20-year master plan for San Antonio International and Stinson Municipal Airport, a general-aviation facility. Mayor Ron Nirenberg appointed the groups 21 members in early 2018.

The committee was just starting phase two of its work  the hard part, actually fleshing out the plan  when the pandemic hit in March, bringing the process to a standstill.

On ExpressNews.com: Revamp of San Antonio International Airport is coming, but clean restrooms now are the priority

When the planning starts again in the next few months, Dickson thinks a majority of the members would support replacing Terminal A. But hes not ready to say thatll be the plans big ticket item. A third terminal is also a possibility.

We are still waiting for the dust to settle to determine what a post-COVID-19 world looks like, said Dickson, a co-owner of the cybersecurity firm Denim Group. However, theres a strong sense from the committee that the energies will be focused on a new terminal. The timeline, cost and scope are still out in the future.

Still, theres no denying that Terminal A is a white elephant.

Terminal A has reached the end of its effective use, Dickson said. And cities compete on terminals.

Officials have basically jury-rigged the terminal for the last 20 years, he added. Six years ago, the city completed $35 million worth of renovations to spruce it up.

Dickson is pragmatic, not given to brooding on the past. But theres a dark history here, a mashup of feelings of betrayal and the fear that San Antonio doesnt measure up to other big cities.

More from Jefferson: San Antonios airport inferiority complex

Business leaders and elected officials have engaged in endless hand-wringing over San Antonio Internationals shortcomings  its lack of direct flights to key destinations such as Boston and Washington, D.C., as well as the blandness and inadequacy of its terminals  since at least 2008. Thats when Randall Stephenson, then CEO of AT&T, moved the telecommunications giants headquarters from San Antonio to Dallas.

It was a trauma we never got over. AT&Ts relocation said, or at least we heard, that San Antonio was too much of a business backwater to sustain a world-class corporation.

Stephensons specific complaint? The airport. In his view, as reported by KENS5, Dallas was home to more convenient, time efficient, and cost effective airports  Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Love Field.

Hence the hard stares at San Antonio International. If Stephenson had said San Antonio had too few car washes, a city task force would be at work figuring out how to bring more Rub-A-Dubs to town.

Frustration with the airports unremarkable midtier status has pushed some leaders to extremes. How about moving the facility to a less landlocked location? Or how about working around the airport, which is to say diminishing it, by teaming up with Austin officials to build a regional airport like DFW?

Nearly a year ago, Dicksons committee shrugged off the possibility of relocating the airport, concluding that the 2,600-acre San Antonio International has enough room to grow.

A regional airport had been a hot topic here, but not in Austin. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, with direct flights to London, Paris and Frankfurt, and strong passenger growth, is doing just fine without San Antonio.

More from Jefferson: Is San Antonio learning to play nice with Austin?

San Antonios air service has unquestionably fallen behind Austins. But lets give our little airport its due. About 10.4 million passengers passed through the facility in 2019, a 1.4 percent increase over the previous year. It was the 10th consecutive year of growth. Not too shabby.

The pandemic, of course, is bashing every airport in the country, and nobody knows how soon theyll recover.

Last month at City Council, Steve Niven of St. Marys University and another economist sketched out several scenarios for San Antonio International. Under the optimistic one, this year will see 35 percent fewer passengers than last year, and growth will pick up again in 2022 with a 7 percent increase over 2019. The pessimistic scenario: a 66 percent plunge in 2020, with growth not resuming until 2024.

San Antonios aviation director, Jesus Saenz Jr., arrived here in February, just ahead of the coronavirus. Talk about unfortunate timing. The city hired him away from the Houston Airport System, where he was chief operating officer and deeply involved in the operations of Hobby and Bush Intercontinental airports.

Saenz is far more circumspect than Dickson about Terminal A and its potential fate. Its concourse, he said, is one of the areas were looking at in the strategic plan.

In addition to establishing social distancing and sanitization procedures at the airport, including putting a virus-zapping Xenex robot on patrol, Saenz said his staff is working feverishly on air service  trying to line up more direct flights to other cities and increasing service to Mexico.

On ExpressNews.com: Pandemic cuts deeply into San Antonio-to-Mexico air travel

As far as landing a nonstop flight to Western Europe anytime soon, he said: We were certainly trending in that direction pre-COVID.

Increasing the number of gates is also a high priority. All told, the airport has 24; before Saenzs arrival, airport officials had set a goal of at least 35 gates to meet future demand.

Getting there could come down to rebuilding Terminal A with a bigger footprint or putting up Terminal C. Either one would be a hugely expensive, once-in-a-generation project.

A decade ago, a city-funded air service improvement study concluded: A new terminal  Terminal C  will be required to meet 2030 demand. It recommended starting construction around 2022, putting the cost of the new facility at $334.5 million. (Think at least three times that amount.)

The plan, called Vision 2050, also called for renovating, expanding and relifing Terminal A.

It didnt have much life to begin with.

City officials dreamed up Terminal A in 1975 as part of a master plan for the airport  a humble dream for a poor, largely inward-looking city. The facility opened to the public in 1984, all 360,000 square feet of it.

Obviously, it was built in another world, Dickson said. We want to create a terminal experience that reflects San Antonio.

greg.jefferson@express-news.net
America can be proud of many things: our innovation, generosity and entrepreneurial spirit are unsurpassed. Yet when it comes to our nation understanding one of the greatest gifts ever given to humanitythe Biblewe're moving from dumb to dumber, and it's no laughing matter.
Fresh hopes for a coronavirus vaccine and another round of US stimulus lifted most Asian markets on Wednesday, although gains were tempered by the reimposition of lockdown measures and China-US tensions weighed on Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Investors took their lead from Wall Streets pop higher, which came after US biotech firm Moderna said the final stage of human trials for a COVID-19 vaccine would start at the end of the month, after a report said first stage tests had been a success.

The news follows an announcement from Pfizer and BioNTech that two of four candidates for treatment had received Fast Track designation from US officials.

OANDAs Jeffrey Halley said significantly the results have been published in a peer-reviewed journal, meaning independent eyes have been cast over the results, and like what they see.

Providing added support was optimism the US would add to its stimulus after reports said top Republicans were reconsidering their opposition to it, including on extending supplemental unemployment benefits.

The trillions of dollars pledged by the US and other governments and central banks around the world have been a key driver of the rally in stock markets from their March lows.

And analysts expect that cash will probably fuel further gains, with Stephen Innes at AxiCorp saying even weak corporate earnings would be unlikely to derail that.

A market that has ignored virus resurgence concerns and US-China tensions is suddenly supposed to start worrying about earnings. That never made a great deal of sense to me.

Sure, there may well be some profit-taking due to the run the market has been on, but we then go back to the wall of money argument time and time again. Booking profits are all very well and good, but the way this market seems to be heading, it is not clear you will be able to repurchase those stocks so readily again.

 Needless layer of uncertainty 

Tokyo, Sydney, Mumbai, Singapore and Wellington rose more than one percent, while Seoul, Jakarta and Bangkok also posted gains.

But Shanghai ended more than one percent lower.

Hong Kong was flat, with optimism over a vaccine offset by China-US worries and rising infection numbers in the city.

Relations between the superpowers  already hit by a series of issues including trade and Huawei  were strained further by Donald Trumps decision to remove Hong Kongs special trade status, and his signing into law of an act authorising sanctions on banks over Chinas clampdown in the city.

Beijing responded to the Hong Kong Autonomy Act by saying it would make necessary responses to protect its legitimate interests, and impose sanctions on relevant US personnel and entities.

In the longer term, this adds another needless layer of uncertainty to already frosty Sino-US relationships, especially with regards to trade, said Justin Tang, head of Asian research at United First Partners.

Against the backdrop of COVID-19-related disruptions, an escalation of trade wars will plunge supply chains into further disarray.

Meanwhile, infections continue to spike around the world, forcing countries that had been emerging from lockdowns to enforce new measures to contain the pandemic and jolting the economic recovery.

Officials in Hong Kong, which had gone weeks without a new infection, fear the city is about to be hit by a third wave, while Florida, which was one of the first states to lift restrictions, saw a new daily record of deaths Tuesday.

In early trade, London, Paris and Frankfurt all rose 0.9 percent.

 Key figures around 0810 GMT 

Tokyo  Nikkei 225: UP 1.6 percent at 22,945.50 (close)

Hong Kong  Hang Seng: FLAT at 24,481.58 (close)

Shanghai  Composite: DOWN 1.6 percent at 3,361.30 (close)

London  FTSE 100: UP 0.9 percent at 6,234.51

West Texas Intermediate: UP 1.0 percent at $40.68 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: UP 0.8 percent at $43.26 per barrel

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1432 from $1.1392 at 2040 GMT

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 107.02 yen from 107.28 yen

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2602 from $1.2551

Euro/pound: DOWN at 90.72 pence from 90.76 pence

New York  Dow: UP 2.1 percent at 26,642.59 (close)

SOURCE> AFP
The Club for Growth, after a bruising primary season in which they funneled over $3.4 million into Alabamas GOP campaigns, was back at it again on Wednesday with a TV ad containing in-your-face visuals, explosions and warnings that the Chinese are preparing for economic war.

The ad is aimed at Democratic U.S. Senator Doug Jones with claims he supported business loans to China.

American green for the red war machine, according to the huffy narrator.

Over-the-top and sensational, the ad represents an opening salvo in what is expected to be a brutal and expensive general election between Jones and Republican challenger Tommy Tuberville. Club for Growth Action -- the super PAC arm of the anti-tax Washington, D.C.-based organization -- backed Tuberville during the runoff against former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and is the first group to push out a campaign TV spot less than 24 hours after the general election contests were firmed up.

Campaign officials representing the two Nov. 3 Senate candidates, in emails to AL.com, have differing views about the super PACs involvement in the race, as well as its influence during the Republican primary. According to Open Secrets, the Washington, D.C.-based anti-tax organization provided $581,422 in campaign funds to support Tuberville as he cruised to victory by over 21 percentage points Tuesday against Sessions.

The Tuberville camp believes that Alabamians should be worried more about the millions of dollars Jones has raised from groups outside of Alabama who do not share our conservative beliefs, ideals, and values.

Both the Club for Growth and President Trump are working to drain the Swamp and fundamentally change how Washington operates, and judging by the runoff results, Alabama voters agreed with those positions, said Paul Shashy, Tubervilles campaign manager.

Owen Kilmer, spokesman with the Jones campaign, said the Wednesday TV ad pushed out by the Club focused on a bipartisan vote in the Senate that included 30 Republican supporters including Senator Richard Shelby.

This bill funded Alabama priorities like investments in infrastructure, agricultural development, and medical research, said Kilmer.

He said the Club for Growths role underscored Tubervilles campaign strategy during the primary of hiding, dodging questions about his conduct on and off the field.

After months of negative campaigning against Jeff Sessions, he continues to hide behind dark money special interest groups and their false attacks on Doug, said Kilmer, They know Tuberville is unprepared to deal with the multiple crises facing our state and our nation, and the only way they can win is pitting Alabamians against each other.

Republican headache

A screenshot of a Club for Growth ad ran against Jerry Carl's campaign for the Alabama 1st congressional district ahead of the July 14, 2020, runoff. Carl won the GOP runoff against Bill Hightower, who was endorsed by Club for Growth Action. (screenshot image via Club for Growth Action).

The view over Club for Growths role in Alabama is bipartisan, coming from Republicans who had to thwart the groups involvement in the primaries.

So far during the 2020 campaign cycle, according to Open Secrets, the Club for Growths super PAC has spent more money in Alabama than in any other state. Of the amount spent in Alabama, approximately $1.2 million was spent to defeat Jerry Carl in Alabamas 1st congressional district race.

In fact, the money spent to oppose Carl was the most the group has spent to either support or oppose any candidate during the 2020 elections, according to Open Secrets. The group spent another $217,000 to support former Alabama State Senator Bill Hightower, whom they endorsed.

Carl and two other Republicans involved in the primary -- state Rep. Chris Pringle of Mobile and businessman Wes Lambert -- alleged that the Club for Growth asked them to vote on legislation that could potentially harm the 1st congressional district. Hightower said that had not been the case.

The Clubs outsized role in the congressional race ultimately didnt work  Carl defeated Hightower by a 52.3% to 47.7% margin. Carl will face Democrat James Averhart in November in a race for a seat that has long been held by a Republican. Cook Political Report ranks the district as a +15 advantage for Republicans, which means its a longshot for Democrats to seize.

Carl, while voting on Tuesday, said he was frustrated with the groups negativity. The campaign ads alleged that Carl would favor a tax increase if elected to the U.S. House. Other ads also questioned Carls past votes on the Mobile County Commission, alleging he approved a road project he would benefit from, personally.

Ive heard it all day long at every poll I went to, while talking to people that they were so turned off by that negative trash, Carl said. (Voters) are offended that this outside money from Washington is trying to make decisions here in South Alabama, not just in our race. Its just mumbling and grumbling (from voters) because the Club for Growth has played such a huge role in not just our race, but two to three other races. People are pretty upset by it.

Carl was endorsed by sitting U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Fairhope, who was also on the receiving end of the Clubs campaign club. According to Open Secrets, close to $700,000 was spent to campaign against Byrne ahead of the March 3 Republican primary.

A huge congratulations to @CarlForAlabama!!!! We sent a clear message to the D.C. Swamp and shady Super PACs that they arent welcome in coastal Alabama! Now on to November!  Bradley Byrne (@BradleyByrne) July 15, 2020

They spent twice as much (in the Alabama 1st congressional district race) than they did against the entire Democratic Party, said Carl. There is something bizarre about that.

Joe Kildea, spokesman with the Club for Growth, declined to respond to Carls comments. Alabamas 1st congressional contest was the only one that the Club for Growth lost in their endorsements in Alabama. The group won with Tuberville and state Rep. Barry Moore in his victory over Jeff Coleman in Alabamas 2nd congressional district race.

Kildea suggested that the groups work against Republicans are over  for now. He said, Club for Growth has  reserved a lot of time through election day for similar messages criticizing liberals and helping conservatives.

Brent Buchanan, a campaign strategist and pollster based in Montgomery, said GOP voters and candidates better get used to the Club for Growths role in future primaries, especially in states like Alabama where winning the Republican primary is tantamount to winning the overall race because general elections arent relevant.

The Club for Growth plays in GOP primaries, mostly where the primary is the election to decide who will be the next congressman or senator, said Buchanan.

Refined messaging

Angi Stalnaker, a GOP campaign strategist based in Montgomery, said the Club for Growths involvement in Alabama races isnt anything new. But she said the group has gotten more refined and focused in their campaign messaging in recent years with ads that are better researched than in years past.

It was more sensational before, said Stalnaker. Not that they were untrue ads, but I think they have a better understanding of Southeastern United States politics than they did before.

She said that the Clubs campaign ads are becoming more effective because the message is accompanied by sources, which Stalnaker said is important to political communication in Alabama.

Its OK to say something bad about (someone) in Alabama if you can prove it, she said.

Stalnaker said in 2014, when the Club for Growth was active in the 6th congressional district race won by Rep. Gary Palmer of Hoover, the groups strategy was off-putting. The group endorsed Dr. Chad Mathis during the primary, and ran ads against his opponents. Mathis finished a distant fourth place.

They dabbled and insinuated and all that crap, she said. You have to put it up against the wall or go home.

Billionaire funded

Club for Growth has been around since 1999, when it was founded in Texas by Dallas real estate investor Harlan Crow and was headed up by Stephen Moore, a former member of the Wall Street Journals editorial board. The group often supports Republicans based on their adherence to a free-market, free-trade and anti-regulation agenda. Current Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey, a former Wall Street banker, served as its president from 2005-2009.

The groups support does not always line up with Trump, and it spent over $1 million in Florida during the March 2016 primaries to try and defeat him. According to Politico, the organization spent $7 million to try and defeat the future president.

Today, the Club for Growth is funded through a cadre of billionaires from around the country. Its biggest individual donor is Illinois billionaire Richard Uihlein, who along with wife Liz, have spent around $95 million on Republican candidates an conservative causes over the past decade. This election cycle, Uihlein has funneled $16.5 million into the Club for Growth, according to Open Secrets.

Though the Club for Growth supports pro-Trump candidates who dominate Republican politics, they dont always back candidates endorsed by the president. In Texas, the Club for Growth spent $1.1 million against longtime incumbent Congresswoman Kay Granger, who was endorsed by the Trump. The Clubs endorsed candidate in the Texas 12th congressional district race -- Chris Putman  lost by 12 percentage points to Granger during the March 3 primary.

Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said the Club for Growth was not a real threat to to Grangers re-nomination.

Jillson said he feels that the Clubs peak occurred when Toomey led them over 15 years ago and ahead of his senatorial run. But he said the groups messaging and campaigning has taken a bit of a more sophisticated posture where they sort of think through their attacks other than make a bull rush at some incumbent.

The Club for Actions super PAC money isnt always used on attack ads. In Maine, a more politically moderate state than Alabama, the Club for Growth spent over $420,000 to support Eric Brakey, a state senator who once managed Rand Pauls presidential campaign in Maine during the states 2nd district congressional race. Brackey lost in Tuesdays primary.

Jim Melcher, a political science professor at the University of Maine in Farmington, said the Club for Growth ads contained positive, pro-Brakey messages that were relatively unnoticed among the other ads that ran statewide ahead of the primary.

Their ads were just one batch among so many, Melcher said. Club for Growth has been quite willing to go negative on candidates in other places in the past, but I saw none of that here. Thats maybe why I didnt see any ruffled feathers about their role here  it wasnt a major factor.
Norwegian English

(Fornebu, 16 July 2020) This quarter has brought unprecedented challenges for our customers and employees, as societies in the regions Telenor operates in have endured the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of measures taken to stop it. In such a situation, providing our customers with critical services and ensuring our employees health and safety has been our first priority. Despite the challenges, I am proud to say that during the past months, Telenor has taken a leap within digitalisation. We are now further increasing our focus on touch free operations, digital customer interactions and new ways of working.



Our operating model has given us flexibility to manage operations, cost and investments, contributing to an EBITDA growth of 1 percent and free cash flow of NOK 4 billion in the quarter. As expected, lockdowns have affected prepaid markets in Asia and global roaming revenues negatively. Combined with a reduction in new sales, this led to a decline in organic subscription and traffic revenues of 4 percent, which was offset by an opex reduction of 12 percent. The financial results this quarter are positively impacted by the strong performance in our operations in Norway and Finland, while Bangladesh and Pakistan, as expected, remain the most challenged prepaid markets.

Our strategy of growth, modernisation and responsible business has provided us with the ability to deliver critical services and manoeuvre in these demanding times. Going forward, we will use this experience to further enhance the execution of our modernisation journey. For 2020, we expect a low single digit percent decline in subscription and traffic revenues, stable organic EBITDA and around 13 percent capex to sales. We will continue to focus on cost management and capex to secure resilience in cash flow.

Sigve Brekke, President and CEO, Telenor Group

KEY FIGURES TELENOR GROUP Second quarter First half year Year NOK in million 2020 2019 2020 2019 2019 Revenues 30,903 26,917 61,856 53,505 113,666 Organic revenue growth (%) -4.2 0.9 -1.4 0.7 1.2 Subscription and traffic revenues 23,753 20,480 47,620 40,867 85,954 Organic subscription and traffic revenue growth (%) -3.6 -0.4 -0.9 -0.1 0.4 EBITDA before other income and other expenses 14,331 12,029 28,437 24,206 50,735 Organic EBITDA growth (%) 1.0 -3.5 1.8 -3.4 -2.7 EBITDA before other income and other expenses/Revenues (%) 46.4 44.7 46.0 45.2 44.6 Net income attributable to equity holders of Telenor ASA 4,428 2,856 5,125 6,678 7,773 Capex excl. licences and spectrum 3,815 4,087 6,894 8,116 17,415 Total Capex 3,861 4,093 6,985 8,122 18,075 Free cash flow before M&A 3,995 -1,092 6,659 495 3,831 Total Free cash flow 3,579 -1,147 7,353 1,404 -18,998 Mobile subscriptions - Change in quarter / Total (mill.) -3.2 2.3 182.4 178.3 186.0

Second quarter 2020 summary1

In the second quarter, subscription and traffic revenues decreased by 4 percent on an organic basis, driven by the loss of prepaid revenues in Asia as well as roaming revenues. Total reported revenues were NOK 30.9 billion. This is an increase of NOK 4.0 billion or 15 percent, driven by currency effects of NOK 2.8 billion as well as the consolidation of DNA.

Currency adjusted opex excluding DNA decreased by NOK 1.1 billion or 12 percent in the second quarter. Reported opex increased by NOK 0.7 billion, as underlying cost reductions partly offset the increases related to the consolidation of DNA and currency development.

EBITDA before other items grew by 1 percent or NOK 0.1 billion on an organic basis in the quarter, as substantial opex reductions were able to mitigate the revenue loss. Reported EBITDA before other items was NOK 14.3 billion and the EBITDA margin was 46 percent.

Capex excluding licences, spectrum and leases was NOK 3.8 billion in the quarter, yielding a capex to sales ratio of 12 percent.

Free cash flow before M&A was NOK 4.0 billion. Total free cash flow was NOK 3.6 billion.

In May, Telenor ASA paid the first tranche of the dividend for 2019 to its shareholders of NOK 6.3 billion, or NOK 4.40 per share. The Annual General Meeting further approved to buy back shares from the Norwegian state related to 2019/2020 share buyback programme, resulting in the recognition of an interest bearing liability of NOK 4.1 billion.

The net debt to EBITDA ratio decreased from 2.3x at the end of the first quarter to 2.2x at the end of the second quarter.

On 29 June 2020, the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) issued a decision against Telenor concerning abuse of dominant position. Based on the decision, Telenor has recognised a provision of NOK 1.2 billion in the second quarter. The decision will be appealed to the EFTA court. See Note 6 Legal disputes for further information.

Press contact:

Tormod Sandst, Director Media Relations, Telenor Group

M: +4790943215 | Tormod.Sandsto@telenor.com









1 Please refer to Definitions on page 27 for descriptions of alternative performance measures. Some of the comments on the Groups financial results for the second quarter 2020 are made excluding DNA. Please refer to page 9 for the Groups consolidated figures in NOK for DNA.






TN 12th Results 2020 DECLARED: Students need not worry as the result is available on alternative websites as well as via SMS and on an Android app.

TN 12th Results 2020 DECLARED: The Tamil Nadu HSC or Class 12 results have been declared today (Thursday, 16 July).

Students can check their scores on the official websites  tnresults.nic.in and dge.tn.nic.in.

However, the official website could be unresponsive or slow due to the heavy traffic once the results are declared. Students need not worry as the result is available on alternative websites as well as via SMS and on an Android app.

Follow all LIVE updates about Tamil Nadu Class 12 results here

Here some of the alternative websites to check your score:

The higher secondary exams were held in March but the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent nationwide lockdown delayed the evaluation of answer sheets. In 2019, the result was declared on 19 April and 91.3 percent students had passed the exam.

Previously, Class 10 exams were scrapped and the government had decided to promote students on the basis of internal assessment marks and attendance.

How to check Tamil Nadu class 12 score via SMS:

Students can also check their HSC scores via SMS. To do this, they must send their registration number and date of birth to 09282232585 or 919282232585 in the following format: TNBOARD12REGNO,DATE OF BIRTH.

How to check results on the app:

Additionally, students can choose to download the 'Tamil Nadu Board Result 2020, SSLC and HSC result' app from the Google Playstore, reports said.

Once the app is downloaded, students must enter the roll number and other details and hit submit.

How to check Tamil Nadu HSC result 2020:

Step 1: Log on to the Tamil Nadu Board's official website at tnresults.nic.in or dge.tn.nic.in

Step 2: Select the 'TN HSC result 2020' option

Step 3: Enter registration number and DOB to log in

Step 4: Check results and take a printout for future reference
Bank urges dialogue in order reach acceptable consensus

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is seriously concerned about the current situation in the Ukrainian Renewable Energy Sector.

The EBRD welcomed the mediation led by the Energy Community Secretariat between renewable energy investors and the Ukrainian authorities aiming to find a balanced and consensual restructuring of the renewables support scheme. However, while the process has secured agreement in many areas, it continues to raise concerns with many investors, who may face material financial losses if it is implemented in the current form.

The Verkhovna Rada is now considering Draft Law 3658, based on the memorandum. While the EBRD supports many of the elements in it, we urge the administration and legislators to continue their dialogue with investors in order to reach a consensual solution which is supported by the sector as a whole.

To date, Ukraines renewable sector has delivered more than 5 GW of clean, local electricity generating capacity, creating jobs and paying taxes across the country, while attracting billions of Euros of domestic and foreign investment.

The EBRD therefore urges all stakeholders to preserve this success. A consensual solution would reduce the cost of renewable electricity for consumers while also demonstrating, both at home and abroad, the resilience, stability and predictability of the Ukrainian investment environment.




A senior Pentagon official has mourned the passing of Korean War hero Paik Sun-yup, calling him a "stalwart friend" of the alliance between South Korea and the United States.







In a message delivered via the Korea-U.S. Alliance Foundation on Wednesday, David Helvey, acting assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, said Paik's passing is a "great loss" to the armed forces of both countries.







"He was a stalwart friend of the Alliance and a man of great devotion to the Republic of Korea," Helvey said. "We mourn with you, but take comfort knowing that we will go together for years to come."







Paik, South Korea's first four-star general and the best-known hero of the 1950-53 war, died Friday at age 99. His body was buried at the National Cemetery in the central city of Daejeon. (Yonhap)


New York, July 16 : At least three police officers in New York City were injured while trying to make arrests during a confrontation between two opposing groups of protesters, authorities said.

"Three officers violently attacked by protesters crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. The officers sustained serious injuries," Xinhua news agency quoted the New York City Police Department (NYPD) as saying on Twitter on Wednesday.

A video posted by the NYPD on Twitter showed the officers surrounded and attacked by a group of people with a long stick or cane when they were trying to arrest a man on the bridge.

NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan sustained minor injuries during the scuffle, and the other two officers were sent to the hospital for stitches, NBC New York reported.

Hundreds of people, including faith leaders, law enforcement and police union representatives, joined the "Power of Prayer -- Stop the Violence March" in Brooklyn on Wednesday morning, calling for an end to the surge of gun violence across the city in the past weeks.

Clashes erupted when the group marched onto the Brooklyn Bridge and were met by counter-protesters who tried to block them from marching toward Manhattan.

Police made 36 arrests and none of the arrested belonged to the "Stop the Violence March", according to NBC New York.

Since the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd, demonstrations against police violence have been taking place in New York almost every day, with many protesters urging the government to defund the police.

Meanwhile, the city is experiencing a staggering increase in gun violence.

A total of 43 shooting incidents occurred last week, an increase of 231 per cent compared with the same week in 2019, according to the NYPD.
Travelers itching for a change of scenery amid months of lockdowns and stay-at-home orders brought on by the coronavirus pandemic now have a new option. The Maldives reopened to international visitors this week, after being closed to visitors since March 27. While much of the world has shut its borders or enacted strict measures on incoming travelers, the Maldives will not require new arrivals to quarantine or undergo testing, other than a simple temperature check at the airport. There is one other rule: Visitors must book their entire stay at the same resort whilst visiting the South Asian country. Minister for Tourism Ali Waheed has described the impact of the pandemic as, "more devastating than the 2004 tsunami and the 2008 global financial crisis." With a population of half a million, the Maldives has recorded more than 2,700 cases of Covid-19. Its government originally announced it would require visitors to pay a new $100 visa fee and $100 for a Covid-19 test at the airport, plus stay a minimum of 14 nights. It has since dropped those requirements. Airlines, including Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways, are resuming services to the island nation. Despite the nation being open for business, hotels are only gradually reopening, with Conrad Maldives Rangali Island planning to reopen at the end of September, and St. Regis and all other Marriott International hotels in the Maldives not planning to reopen until October.

On-site hotel testing eases anxieties  for some

One resort, however, reopened immediately with new measures designed to stay clear of the virus. Guests of Soneva Fushi will be given a mask upon arrival and be tested for Covid-19. Guests are then required to stay in their room or villa until their test results come back, which could take between six and 24 hours. If they receive negative test results, guests can roam freely, but must still conduct daily temperature checks. On the fourth day of their trip, an additional test will be carried out. "You might consider that this is excessive and that we're being overcautious," said Sonu Shivdasani, CEO of Soneva, in a corporate video explaining the process. Yet his aim is "to make all our private islands Covid-free environments so the guests can truly relax and engage with our hosts (and) fellow guests." A socially-distanced guest experience simply didn't appeal to Shivdasani. "Life is about relationships, you know, the secret of life is about the friendships you make," Shivdasani told CNBC. "This idea of our guests distancing from each other, we felt would be a real challenge and we didn't want them to feel uncomfortable engaging with others."

"For the urban rich, luxury is about sitting outside in the open air." Sonu Shivdasani Soneva CEO

In fact, 55% of its revenue is generated by repeat guests, whom he said often mingle with one another. One factor that could lure tourists to the Maldives is its desolate nature, especially compared to say, a beach club in Mykonos. Also, many health experts have said being outdoors poses a lower risk for contracting Covid-19 than being indoors. "The urban rich have all the famous designer restaurants in their cities, the famous branded chefs in air-conditioned environments," Shivdasani said. "For the urban rich, luxury is about sitting outside in the open air." Soneva thinks its tight health measures could pay off. The hotel said reservations for August are higher than last year. Yet, not everyone was willing to undergo its new policies. "We've had one or two who feel it's unnecessary and didn't want to put their children through this difficulty," he said, "but most have said that's actually reassured them, and I've received lots of emails say, 'Fantastic, bravo. I was thinking about where to go, but I'm now coming to stay with you.'"

Hotels are ramping up cleaning services

Hilton, meanwhile, which has three resorts operating under its brands in the Maldives, will be gradually opening with new measures in place, including staff temperature checks and increased cleaning procedures. Nils-Arne Schroeder, vice president of luxury and lifestyle for Hilton's Asia Pacific hotels, outlined the company's new measures to CNBC: "You didn't want to see the people cleaning your public areas in the lobby; it was always cleaned in the night. Nowadays, you want to see them actually during the day so you know the hotel is looking after the cleaning." Last month, Hilton rolled out new guidelines for its properties worldwide. Called Hilton CleanStay, one measure includes putting a seal on the doors after cleaning a room to visibly show customers that nobody has since entered.

A socially-distanced sand bank dinner at Soneva Fushi. Courtesy of Soneva Fushi

Guests staying at Hilton properties will have their temperatures checked, but will not be required to take Covid-19 tests. "You can make decisions if you want to be distanced from everyone else because you can be in your villa, you can have in-villa dining all day, you can jump into your ocean ... but if you want to be part of the island community, of course, we are ready for you, to make sure that the self-distancing is available," Schroeder said.

Will tourists be willing to travel if they must quarantine after?

Marriott International plans to reopen its Maldives resorts in October and is implementing new policies, such as requiring guests to sit at the same table each day for breakfast. But, whether travelers feel safe enough to travel or leave their hometown and be subjected to restrictions, is yet to be determined. For instance, Hong Kong residents who leave the city must take a Covid-19 test upon their return and they are required to quarantine for 14-days while wearing a location-tracking wristband.

Some resorts in the Maldives are requiring guests undergo Covid-19 tests, while others are not. Levente Bodo
Footballer Ki Sung-yueng has begun a fresh effort to negotiate a contract with FC Seoul after his initial bid to return to the club failed earlier this year.

After leaving Newcastle United in the English Premier League, Ki spoke with FC Seoul and Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors in February in his initial effort to return to the K-League, but was unable to strike a deal with either club.

He then signed a four-month deal with RCD Mallorca in Spain's La Liga that was to be valid until June 30. However, his Spanish debut was immediately followed by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and La Liga was suspended on March 12. It resumed on June 11, just three weeks before the expiration of Ki's contract. Ki gave up on the prospect of renewing it and returned to Korea on June 25.

When Ki left for Celtic FC in the Scottish Premiership in 2009, his transfer contract included a provision requiring Ki to rejoin the Seoul club upon his return home, or pay it a penalty of W2.6 billion (US$1=W1,202). This is why Ki's talks with Jeonbuk fell through in the first place.

For Seoul, which desperately needs more depth, Ki would be an ideal player to strengthen the squad and revitalize the mood at the club.

The stumbling block is his salary. FC Seoul director Kang Myung-won said, "We offered the maximum we can give under the current financial situation." But it is apparently not high enough for Ki to accept. Ki is not in an ideal situation, either, as it is now harder to find an overseas club due to the pandemic.

Ki's agent said, "We are open to all possibilities."
Former first lady Michelle Obama kicks off her Becoming book tour with a signing at the Seminary Co-op bookstore on November 13, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois. I

Former first lady Michelle Obama is the latest high-profile name to host an exclusive Spotify podcast, the company announced Thursday.

The Michelle Obama Podcast, which launches July 29, is the first product borne out of last year's Spotify deal with the former first family's production company, Higher Ground.

The inaugural series will touch on the topic of vulnerability, and include Valerie Jarrett, Conan O'Brien and Michele Norris among its first guests.

Spotify has spent the past year strengthening its podcast library through several acquisitions and deals, including the acquisition of Gimlet Media, Anchor and Parcast. Comedian Joe Rogan announced in May that his podcast is moving exclusively to the streaming platform. Spotify last month partnered with DC and Warner Bros., and reportedly landed a deal with Kim Kardashian West to host an exclusive podcast.

In the company's first quarter earnings call in late April, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said podcast consumption grew by triple digits in the quarter compared to the year prior, and said it was also the company's biggest quarter ever for organic podcast creation.

"Both new and reactivated [monthly active users] grew substantially even during lockdown periods in major markets," he said. "And we believe this is a testament to how engaging our platform and ecosystem are to our users. And last year, as you all know, we outlined a vision to be the world's largest audio platform, and we've made significant progress. We now have more than 1 million podcasts on the platform, and we're the No. 1 audio service for podcasts in dozens of countries around the world and quickly gaining ground where we're not."

Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.
India's culturally rich heritage is known all over the world, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday, days after Nepalese Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli's controversial remarks on Ayodhya and Lord Ram.

Under fire for the PM's remarks, the Nepal government on Tuesday had launched a damage control act to clarify that Oli's statements were "not linked to any political subject" and had no intention at all to "hurt" anyone's feelings and sentiments.

Asked about Oli's remarks, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said, "The deep and culturally rich heritage of our country is known all over the world."

He also noted that the Nepalese foreign ministry had issued a clarification and he did not want to comment any further on the matter.

In its statement, Nepal's foreign ministry had clarified that the remarks made by Oli were "not meant to debasing the significance of Ayodhya and the cultural value it bears".

"As there have been several myths and references about Shri Ram and the places associated with him, the Prime Minister was simply highlighting the importance of further studies and research of the vast cultural geography the Ramayana represents to obtain facts about Shri Ram, Ramayana and the various places linked to this rich civilization," the ministry had said.

To a separate question on Kerala's gold smuggling case, Srivastava said India is in touch with the UAE authorities regarding the investigation in this matter.
The moment a hero tradesman confronts a 'bad driver' who sideswiped a stranger's car has been captured on dashcam footage.

A man driving a Toyota Corolla sideswiped another car as he pulled in to park on the busy Victoria Road in Sydney's Bondi Junction at 11:23am on June 17.

A tradesman who witnessed the incident then questioned the driver and took photos of his car, insisting that the owner must be informed about the scrape.

'I have to tell him. This poor bastard has got all this damage to his car. Look! Look at the damage he's got because of your bad driving,' the tradesman said.

'From your bad driving, you've got nothing wrong with your car.'

Footage of the incident was posted to the Dash Cam Owners Australia Facebook page on Thursday with a grateful message from the owner.

A tradesman (right) takes photos of damage to a stranger's car while a Toyota Corolla driver (left) who sideswiped it inspects damage to his own vehicle. Footage of the incident was posted to the Dash Cam Owners Australia Facebook page on Thursday

'My car got sideswiped while I was at work. A note was left on my windscreen with the guys name and number who hit my car,' the owner said.

'To the tradie in the orange shirt - youre a bloody Aussie legend!'

The dashcam footage begins with a large bang and the car shaking as it was sideswiped by the parking Toyota Corolla.

A tradesman in an orange high-vis shirt was parked in front of the Corolla and wagged his finger at the driver as he witnessed the incident.

The Corolla driver then got out of his car to inspect a scrape on the side of his vehicle. His left sideview mirror had also moved inwards from the collision.

The Toyota Corolla driver inspects damage to the stranger's car while speaking to another passerby as the tradesman looks on in the background

The tradesman confronts the Corolla driver, saying: 'I have to tell him. This poor bastard has got all this damage to his car. Look! Look at the damage he's got because of your bad driving.'

Another passerby inspected the damage and talked to the Corolla driver, saying: 'You're going to have to leave a note on there, buddy.'

The tradesman then walked over to speak with the driver before taking photos of the Corolla and the other damaged car.

It's at this point he accused the Corolla owner of 'bad driving' and insisted the other car's owner must be informed.

The footage then cuts off. The tradesman likely left a note for the damaged car's owner sometime after this.

The incident was recorded on a Navman dash camera, which also recorded the date, time, exact coordinates and speed of the damage car, which was stationary.
US Ambassador to China Terry Branstad speaks to the media during a press conference at his residence in Beijing on June 28, 2017. (Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images)

US Ambassador to China Calls on Beijing to Restore Hong Kongs Liberties

U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad expressed U.S. concerns about Beijings recent actions to undermine Hong Kongs autonomy while meeting with Chinas vice foreign minister Zheng Zeguang.

The U.S. Embassy in China issued a brief statement on July 16 about the face-to-face talks between Branstad and Zheng a day earlier. According to Chinese state-run media, Zheng had summoned the U.S. Ambassador to lodge a protest against President Donald Trumps recent actions on Hong Kong policy.

Trump on July 14 signed into law the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, paving the way for the U.S. government to slap sanctions on officials involved in eroding Hong Kongs autonomy and the banks that do business with them. He also signed an executive order ending Hong Kongs preferential trade treatment by the United States.

The executive order also suspends an extradition treaty signed with the Chinese-ruled city, and allows additional refugee admission for residents of Hong Kong on humanitarian concerns.

According to the embassy statement, Branstad explained to Zheng that Hong Kong is no longer sufficiently autonomous to justify differential treatment under particular United States laws and provisions.

Beijing has drawn international criticism over its decision to adopt a national security law for Hong Kong after ceremonial votes by Chinas rubber-stamp legislature on June 30.

The security law criminalizes what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) deems as acts of subversion, secession, terrorism, and collusion with a foreign country or with external elements against the communist state, with maximum penalties of life imprisonment.

Branstad called on Beijing to restore Hong Kongs liberties and refrain from any further erosion of its high degree of autonomy as guaranteed under the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

Signed in 1984, the Sino-British Joint Declaration is a legally-binding international treaty, under which Hong Kong was handed back to China from British rule in 1997. Under the treaty, Hong Kongs mini-constitution or Basic Law was drafted, which is meant to guarantee the city a high degree of autonomy for at least 50 years after 1997 under the one country, two systems model.

At the meeting, Zheng accused the United States of gross interference in Chinas internal affairs, and threatened sanctions on relevant U.S. entities and individuals, according to Chinese state-run media Xinhua.

Late on Wednesday evening, the Hong Kong government also issued a statement, accusing the United States of abhorrent acts by the political slogan of supporting Hong Kong people.

The city government said it will fully support the Central Government to adopt countermeasures.

In response to Trumps decision to suspend the extradition treaty, Alan Leong, barrister and chairman of Hong Kongs pro-democracy Civic Party, took to his Twitter account on Thursday to explain Hong Kongs current situation.

#HK is no longer trusted as a jurisdiction that practises the rule of law that is capable of affording to fugitives extradited here with the basic protections of human rights and a fair judicial process! Leong stated.
Sushmita Sen has shared a glimpse of boyfriend Rohman Shawl teaching maths to her younger daughter Alisah and making a futile effort in teaching science to her friend Alexa. The children are being home tutored the amid coronavirus pandemic.

Sushmita shared a video of Rohman helping Alisah with her online maths class and revealed that it was captured without his knowledge. She shared in with the caption, Love is beyond calculations, for everything else there is Math I see this sight often between Teacher @rohmanshawl & student Alisah Sen (both amazing in Mathematics)...its always a heart opening experience!! P.S My Rooh has no idea I was shooting this!! #sharing #naughtyme #preciousthem #forevercherished #love #seriousclass I love you guys!! #duggadugga.

The fans of the actor loved the video and praised Rohman for teaching the two kids at home. Rohmans sister reacted, Hahaha @sushmitasen47 this is so cute. @rohmanshawl has always been good in maths. Sushmita replied to her, @nadiyashawl After all, bhai kiska hai #truethat. A fan reacted, U r so lucky to have this man. One more wrote, Awww this is so pure.

However, the story seemed to be a bit different when he sat to help out Alisahs friend Alexa at geography. The model can be seen struggling with the subject as he tried to explain solar radiation to her with hand gestures. Sharing a video of Rohman trying to teach Alexa, she wrote, This time I got caught!!! Besides, #geography is best taught by me!!! Alexa (Alisahs best friend) decided to revise a chapter in Geography with @rohmanshawl & well, the rest is History!!! #toocute #myman #sun #radiation #love #sharing #simplejoys I love you guys!!! #duggadugga.

Also read: Hina Khan: I looked up to Sushant Singh Rajput, he made way for us TV actors

Sushmita recently made her acting comeback with a web show, Aarya. The Disney+Hotstar series, an official remake of popular Dutch crime-drama Penoza, revolves around Aarya Sareen (Sushmita), a happily married woman whose world turns upside down when her husband is shot. Director Ram Madhwani has also announced season two of the series and said the second instalment will see the titular character facing new obstacles.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Amazon Prime Video's second official Kannada film French Biriyani is all set to release on the platform on July 24. Ever since the makers announced the film, fans were eagerly waiting for the trailer of French Biriyani. Today, the makers finally released French Biriyani's official trailer and it promises to tickle your funny bone.

French Biriyani stars Danish Sait and Sal Yusuf in the lead role. The trailer shows French man Simon (Sal Yusuf) who visits India for the first time. He meets Asgar (Danish Sait), an auto-rickshaw driver from Bangalore. Their fates cross lines when unexpected circumstances make Asgar and Simon unite in order to search Simon's lost bag. The trailer promises to take you on a roller coaster ride.

Directed by Pannaga Bharana, French Biriyani also stars Rangayana Raghu, Disha Madan, Mahantesh Hiremath, Pitobash, Sampath Kumar, Nagabhushana & Sindhu Murthy in key roles. The film is jointly produced by Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar & Gurudath A Talwar under PRK Productions. Notably, the production house is also releasing its and Sandalwood's first digital release Law starring Ragini Prajwal in the lead role, on July 17.

Watch the trailer here:

Producer Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar feels that French Biriyani will uphold the tradition of Kannada film industry of giving the most-entertaining movies. She said, "If one can laugh out their heart and at the same time love the narrative, then it's a win for us. French Biriyani is one such movie from our house which will serve this purpose very well. The Kannada film industry is known to have rolled out some of the most entertaining movies of all time and French Biriyani too will uphold the tradition."

Also Read : Law Trailer Out! Ragini Prajwal Is All Set To Fight For Justice

Let's wait for audiences' reactions to French Biriyani Trailer!
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has inaugurated a Presidential Joint Board and Audit Investigation Panel to probe alleged N3.4 billion financial infractions levelled against suspended Managing Director of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Adebayo Somefun, and three other directors.

The committee is chaired by Ibrahim Khaleel of the Nigeria Labour Congress and Chairman of the Audit Committee of the NSITF board.

The minister said this during the inauguration in Abuja on Thursday.

The minister, who was represented by Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, William Alo, said the eight-member committee has three weeks to submit its report.

Mr Ngige, on July 2, approved the immediate and indefinite suspension of the Managing Director/Chief Executive of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Adebayo Somefun, and some members of his executive for allegedly lavishing N3.4bn on non-existent staff training split into about 196 different consultancy contracts in order to evade the Ministerial Tenders Board and Federal Executive Council approvals.

The suspension came after a month after the Secretary to the Government of the Federations (SGF) restrained cabinet ministers from removing heads of agencies and parastatals they supervise.

According to the minister, the NSITF is a government-owned human-centred entity which was established to address the socio-economic needs in the workplace by providing compensation to insured employees who suffer from occupational diseases, sustain injuries or disability from accident or even death during or in the course of employment.

In order to discharge this very noble mandate, the NSITF enabling Act provides that employers of labour should make financial contributions to the Fund of the NSITF. This includes employers in both the private and public sectors of the formal economy and the NSITF is the statutory custodian of these funds, he said.

He said it has become worrisome when preliminary investigations yield alarming results.

It becomes very worrisome when there are issues surrounding and emanating from the management of these funds entrusted to NSITF especially when seemingly done in transgression of extant rules, regulations and laws guiding due processes for the management of funds and general conduct/ethics in the public service, he said.

Also speaking, the chairman of the committee, Mr Khaleel, said the committee will do its duty justly and with the fear of God that nobody will be cheated.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the Administrative Panel of Enquiry, which probed the N6.2 billion scam at the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) submitted its report to the labour minister.

The chairman of the panel, Ishaya Awotu, said that there were irregular allowances totalling N5.7 billion paid to staff and management.

These allowances were paid without the approval of the National Salary, Incomes and Wages Commission, he said
The tail section of an Airbus 320 operated by Spirit Airlines is seen as it approaches for landing at Baltimore Washington International Airport. Read more

Three Philadelphia women were arrested and charged with battery for attacking Spirit Airlines employees at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Tuesday night.

Danaysha Dixon, 22; Keira Ferguson, 21; and Tymaya Wright, 20, were seen on video screaming and throwing large objects at employees before charging behind the counter.

The airline said the passengers became combative following a delayed flight, prompting Broward County sheriffs deputies to respond to Gate G14.

Arrest records say the passengers intentionally struck employees with phones, shoes, water bottles, metal boarding signs, and fast food, and that employees were punched and kicked repeatedly. Wright was also charged with petty theft for allegedly putting an employees cell phone in her backpack.

When asked to comment on the incident, the passengers said they were trying to get home to Philadelphia, WPLG-TV in Miami reported.

Spirit said in a statement that three employees suffered minor injuries. The company condemned the violence, and commended the employees for handling the incident professionally.

We thank our team members for their professionalism and quick actions, and we also thank the Broward Sheriffs Office for their assistance at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport yesterday, the statement read. This violent behavior is completely unacceptable and has absolutely no place in airports or any other place of business.
(CNN) - The antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine did not benefit non-hospitalized patients with mild symptoms from Covid-19 who were treated early in their infection, according to a study to be published Thursday in the medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

Scientists from University of Minnesota launched the trial March 22 to see if the drug could decrease the severity of symptoms and prevent hospitalization. This was the first randomized clinical trial to study hydroxychloroquine in Covid-19 patients who werent hospitalized.

It was tested in 491 adults in the United States and Canada. Half the patients received a five-day hydroxychloroquine treatment and half the patients received five days of a placebo. The adults were enrolled within the first four days of reporting symptoms, and 56% were enrolled in the trial the first day they reported any symptoms. Doctors monitored symptoms for two weeks.

At the end of two weeks, the study found that there was no advantage to taking the drug. About 24% of the hydroxychloroquine group had symptoms that persisted over 14 days, compared to the 30% who took the placebo. But hospitalizations were nearly the same  2% of those in the hydroxychloroquine group were hospitalized, compared to the 3% taking the placebo. The death rate was identical for both groups, at 0.4%.

And, 43% of those who took hydroxychloroquine had side effects, compared to the 22% that took a placebo. Gastrointestinal symptoms were the most commonly reported side effect.

The study also found there was no benefit seen among people who took zinc or vitamin C along with the placebo or hydroxychloroquine.

The University of Minnesota researchers first randomized trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in June, looked at the drug as a possible post-exposure prophylaxis for adults who had been recently exposed to someone who was positive for Covid-19. It showed hydroxychloroquine did not prevent illness.

Taken together, there is no convincing evidence that hydroxychloroquine can either prevent COVID-19 after exposure or reduce illness severity after developing early symptoms, study author Dr. Caleb Skipper said in a statement. While disappointing, these results are consistent with an emerging body of literature that hydroxychloroquine doesnt convey a substantial clinical benefit in people diagnosed with COVID-19  despite its activity against the coronavirus in a test tube.

President Trump has called hydroxychloroquine a game-changer for treating patients with Covid-19, and said he took it himself to prevent infection, but several studies have found no benefits to treating Covid-19 patients with the antimalarial drug.

The US Food and Drug Administration revoked its emergency use authorization for both hydroxychloroquine and a related drug, chloroquine, for the treatment of Covid-19, saying the drugs are unlikely to be effective in treating the virus based on the latest scientific evidence. The National Institutes of Health announced last month it was halting its clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine for coronavirus patients.

One study published this month by researchers at Henry Ford Health System in Southeast Michigan found hydroxychloroquine increased hospitalized patients chances of survival. However, researchers not involved with the study were critical of it, saying it wasn't of the same quality of the previous studies that showed hydroxychloroquine did not help patients.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Hydroxychloroquine doesn't help COVID-19 patients who aren't hospitalized, new study finds"
Cleveland State Community College offers students the opportunity to earn an Associate of Applied Science degree in Business in 18 months at all CSCC sitesthe main campus in Cleveland, in Athens, Tn. at the Athens Center, as well as the Monroe County Center in Vonore, Tn.

Officials said the Advance Business program is the colleges accelerated program that offers students a quick and convenient way to obtain a college degree. This option is suitable for highly motivated and mature adults that are seeking an A.A.S. in Business. Many business students obtain their A.A.S. in 18 months at Cleveland State and a bachelors degree in an additional 18-24 months at a selected four-year college or university.

According to Candice Patterson, associate professor/director of the Advance Business Program, the majority of Advance students are working adults who thrive in this scheduling option because they are enrolled with their peers, those with similar responsibilities and obstacles.

Ms. Patterson said, Since students go through all of their classes as a group, they form incredibly strong bonds and connections. At times, we have even seen these connections lead to job opportunities and / or job advancement.

The Advance program was great, said Melissa Davis, Advance Business program graduate. I really liked that we only had class one day a week and that most of the assignments are online. I also like that we were able to work at our own pace as long as we met the deadlines. This program is made for working adults, and the professors are understanding of this.

The schedule for the Advance program is so accommodating that the majority of students are able to work and go to school. According to Ms. Patterson, the common factor for all Advance students is the relentless pursuit of a degree and the willingness to do what it takes to be successful. Students have to have a strong dedication to earning a degree. The benefits of the Advance Business program include attending class one night a week, completing the degree in a fast-paced format and working with the same group of students throughout the program. Students complete online assignments throughout the week in preparation for their Thursday evening classes.

Ms. Davis said, I had wanted to go back to school for 18 years, and I wanted that degree. The classes got easier as I learned better time-management and study habits. I also made friends with my classmates which made the classes fun.

In a recent survey conducted of Advance students, 43 percent said that during the program, they had received a raise or promotion, while 62 percent anticipated receiving further incentives upon graduation.

Cleveland State also offers the Tennessee Reconnect Scholarship, a scholarship for adults to earn an associate degree or technical certificate, tuition-free.

The next Advance Business group begins this fall. Fall registration is going on now, and classes begin on Monday, Aug. 24. For more information on CSCCs Advance program, visit mycs.cc/advance or email advance_business@clevelandstatecc.edu.






Eboni Harrington was Roanoke born and raised, but her teaching career began in North Carolina. And a little more than a month ago, thats where she trained her attention as she surveyed some news.

At the time, Black Lives Matter murals were spouting in Tar Heel cities, following protests in the wake of George Floyds May 25 alleged murder by police in Minneapolis.

The 28-year-old math teacher at Lucy Addison Middle School went on her Facebook page and put up a short, from-the-gut post.

I would love to see a BLM mural downtown in Elmwood Park, she wrote June 12. Harrington added a brown heart emoji to the sentences end. The message quickly found a sympathetic audience and it snowballed.

Twenty-four Facebook friends replied  and 47 others signaled they liked the post. The next morning, Harrington met with some of the respondents and they began hatching plans.

Her 12-word sentence proved to be the spark behind the most recent, and  perhaps the biggest ever and quickest  public arts project in the city of Roanokes history. From conception to completion took exactly one month.

It stretches along Campbell Avenues asphalt, from the intersection with Third Street most of the way to Second Street. The city has closed that block until Saturday night, so onlookers can take in the message End Racism Now and many others within it.

A prime viewing spot is the top of the stairs of the Noel C. Taylor Municipal Building, named after Roanokes first Black mayor. From there you can see the submessages  including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and others.

Harrington wasnt envisioning that precise result when she posted to Facebook on June 12. She told me this week she remains somewhat stunned at the speed with which everything came together.

Among the folks who responded to her message was City Councilwoman Trish White-Boyd, who tagged Sherman Lea Jr., the mayors son. He was one person who jumped into the social media conversation.

I saw a Facebook post, Lea Jr. told me Tuesday. I reached out to [Harrington] and said Wouldnt that be great? (He said, Hey, this is a dope idea. Lets get together, Harrington recalled.)

The others were Kameron Melton, a lawyer at Woods Rogers, Roanokes largest law firm. And Jordan Bell, a community historian who puts on tours of Historic Gainsboro. As it turned out, those two had already been talking about the same thing, Harrington told me.

Xavier Duckett, an entrepreneur and founder of Hmble Hstle Clothing, joined the conversation, too. As did Alyasa Jones, a counselor at Hurt Park Elementary school.

We realized we were all interested in it, Jones said.

The six met the morning of June 13. Between that meeting and many to follow, there were lots of questions to answer.

What we needed to do, who we needed to contact, were two of the initial questions, Jones told me.

Sherman Lea Jr., who owns a mental health services company said, Im going to figure out a way to set up a meeting with the mayor and city manager, Harrington recalled.

Five days later, all of them save Melton (who was at work) were meeting Mayor Sherman Lea and City Manager Bob Cowell in the mayors office.

That spawned other meetings  with Roanoke police, the Roanoke Arts Commission, its collections subcommittee and others. A call went out for artists who were interested in participating.

But there were still plenty of questions to answer.

Where would the mural go? What should it say? How could they make it happen?

The group knew it wanted the mural in a very public place, Harrington told me. Besides Elmwood Park, another potential site was along Campbell Avenue in front of the City Market Building.

Melton and Bell, whod already raised the issue with Vice Mayor Joe Cobb, were in favor of Campbell Avenue in front of the municipal building.

The rest of the group came around to support that alternative.

It makes sense because many of our local officials are in the municipal building, Harrington said.

What would the message say?

We went back and forth between Black Lives Matter and End Racism Now, Jones told me. Ultimately the group decided on the latter. BLM is sometimes met with defensiveness, she added.

We wanted to represent all marginalized communities  Black lives, Asian lives, Hispanic and all lives that have been oppressed by an oppressor, Harrington said. We wanted everyone to be able to look at the mural and feel some type of connection.

Some local businesses stepped in to contribute money toward the project.

One was Lea Jr.s company, New Hope Support Services. A second was Magic City Ford. The Roanoke Arts and Cultural Endowment chipped in, too. So did the Roanoke Arts Commission.

It offered to supply portable toilets on painting day, plus $3,000 to pay the artists, said Doug Jackson, the citys arts and culture coordinator.

By the time they met with the mayor and city manager, the group had arrived at End Racism Now as their message. That has 12 letters. They invited 12 artists whod expressed interest to design one letter each.

We didnt tell the artists what [their letter] should say, Jones told me. We just asked them to come up with a sketch of a letter that reflected what social justice meant to them.

We sent out the message Friday and they had to have their designs back to us by Monday, Harrington said.

What followed were a couple of hastily arranged special meetings by the Roanoke Arts Commission. In between those, the commissions collections subcommittee met three times, Jackson added.

The commission approved the final design July 8, just four days before painting day. Each artist showed up with a support artist the morning of July 12, after Jackson and some other city employees did the setup. The whole thing was completed by 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

The mural begins with the name Raheim Alleyne, a young Black man shot and killed by a Roanoke police officer in 2009. It ends with Kionte Spencer, another young Black man shot and killed by Roanoke County police in 2016. No prosecution resulted from either death.

Sprinkled among the letters are names of Black people, who, like George Floyd, have been killed in other parts of the country after highly questionable law-enforcement encounters.

Its something to behold. If you can, you should check it out soon, while that blocks still clear.

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 It just feels really surreal. This is probably the calmest bit so far because Ive been so busy finishing it, says Pandora Sykes. Were chatting on the phone the day before her debut book, How Do We Know We're Doing It Right? is released. "I started writing it a year ago and I finished at the beginning of March. So it was quite a condensed time frame.

Sykes, a journalist best known for tapping into the cultural zeitgeist weekly on her hit podcast The High Low, which she hosts with fellow journalist Dolly Alderton, also gave birth to her second child, son Sasha, in December last year. So its fair to say shes been busy.

I think that lends itself quite well to the essays because they are about modern life, Sykes adds. "So they kind of date as soon as Ive written them and I think immersing myself in the essays was probably the best way rather than spending years on each one.

The decision to write a book of essays on modern life came after Sykes noticed there was a growing appetite for long-form journalism in the UK - an area she was yearning to dive into.

Most of the work I do is quite short and immediate. I record a podcast for an hour or I write a piece of journalism thats 1,000 words long. I don't really get the time to go deep and indulge my curiosity and see where it takes me, Sykes says.

So it was also just a really nice opportunity to get stuck into something that was not going to be shaped by the opinions of others. I was able to really bury myself into something in quite a singular way, which was really nice. Its not an opportunity that I've had before.

Writing on eight different topics - from the mania of wellness in The Dream Catchers to how noughties fashion shaped our world as we know it in Get The Look - one idea that didnt make the cut is Tupperware. I still really want to write it because I think the modern obsession with Tupperware, including Tupperware parties, is very weird, Sykes laughs.

Sykes' new book touches on everything from the mania of wellness to the cult of busyness (Eva K. Salvi ) / Eva K. Salvi

Sykes noticed a commonality running through each of her essays - the idea of the paradox of choice, and instead of endless options being liberating, its making people feel addled and overwhelmed. What we see a lot of now is a woman who is working full time but she is also expected to be a full time parent, and then she's buying into this eternal burnishing of herself to make her into this seamless, polished human, Sykes says.

And then she externalises all of that online, to make all of that work visible, and also tries to remain in contact with everyone at all times on the smartphone. And I think the multiplicity of these activities, the multiplicity of these options has led to this sort of feeling of restlessness and anxiety.

This paradox of choice is something Sykes explores in Get The Look: why, when we have multitudes of choice, was every second woman wearing that Zara dress last summer?

Women are starting to meme one another, Sykes observes. Essentially this is a time when we're being told that you can be an individual, you can be whoever you want to be and you are your own Queen, and my body, my choice and all the things that in rhetoric are great, but in practice, I felt like I was seeing real confusion about whether or not these choices were freedom or not.

Get The Look is the essay that Sykes enjoyed writing the most. It took me right back to my teenage years and I was trying to sort of track when celebrities and fashion met because they didn't always meet. They were quite separate things until the paparazzi really.

The paparazzi, the internet and magazines like Heat and Grazia in the late nineties in the early noughties is what created the celebrity fashion climate as we know it. So I found that really enjoyable because it took me back to a slightly mad time when the Hiltons ruled and jeans would barely cover your pubic bone and diamantes, fake take and GHD hair straighteners reigned.

Work To Get Happy, which looks at work in all of its guises, was the hardest section to write.

It meant looking at things that aren't called work that I felt should be called work like, the work of the home or the work of the self or the work of being constantly available via your phone. I did a vast amount of research for that and it was much much longer than it is now. It's still, I think, probably the longest essay.

The first section of the book, The Dream Catcher, taps into the madness of wellness and how it's become a billion dollar industry. [Wellness] is extremely expensive, which means that it becomes something that's out of reach for a lot of people. Its buying into this really entrenched myth. I think we have been thinking that wellness is really progressive and brand new, but it binds into this historic myth that women are unclean, and that they could be shinier and faster and purer and emptier. And essentially, it's just eternal self polishing.

Wellness binds into this historic myth that women are unclean, that they could be shinier and faster and purer and emptier.

I think it's really interesting that we don't talk about diet culture anymore even though 50 per cent of women are on a diet at any given time. Instead now we funnel it through the lens of wellness. You know, it's about eating clean or eating raw or self care. And there's nothing wrong with the elements of self care like taking a bath because you're really tired and your muscles hurt, or taking CBD oil because you've got anxiety, but when wellness is turned into the kind of industry which it is, I think it's really important that we have to remember that this is just another industry that profits off your insecurity and not only that, it demands extreme amounts of money.

Sykes cites Atlantic writer Amanda Mull who said that wellness is only accessible to the wellest among us. It becomes a real class issue, Sykes adds. So I think we just need a renosing and maybe a reunderstanding of what we mean when we talk about wellness.

In the introduction of How Do We Know We're Doing It Right?, Sykes admits that some of the anxieties she writes about could be categorised as middle class - but says she didnt have a specific woman in mind when she was writing the book.

Im keenly aware that while I was writing about lots of different anxieties and different experiences, these are not personal essays and they obviously can't speak for everyone, Sykes says. I gave the book at first actually to a few women in their 50s and one in their 60s and what was really nice is that they found things that really resonated with them. Because I really wanted to put in context that these are not new problems, every generation has to sift through the weeds and find the life that suits them best. Theyre attracted to new mediums, sure, social media, things like that. But they aren't new issues.

Obviously if you are struggling to pay your bills, you are not going to be worrying about wellness or WhatsApp, or that you haven't got a clear boundary between your work self and your home self. But the global middle class is half the world's population and its growing at tremendous speed, so they're not niche problems.

Sykes is the co-host of popular podcast, The High Low (Silvia Ruiz Gil ) / Silvia Ruiz Gil

One universal problem is the cult of busyness - something that is ingrained into our modern subconsciousness.

I feel like there are certain words that we now use all the time when we're communicating with other people. If someone says: how are you? So often we say, Oh, I'm really tired or I'm really busy. And those are two things I really wanted to look at. This idea that we were getting less sleep than we ever had before, which statistically is not true - were getting more sleep than ever before. Or this idea that we're busier than we've ever been before. I wasn't sure about that either, Sykes says.

I think what it often comes down to is a feeling. We feel like we're always busy because theres always things that we could be doing or watching or reading. And the psychology of that I think was quite interesting.

Sykes laughs when she admits that she has been really busy during lockdown - with a newborn, a new book and a new podcast - but has also been able to live in the present a lot more, a learning experience she thinks a lot of people have had.

I think a lot of business comes from always looking ahead. We really live in the future. I think now, with the experiential economy, every time you book something you're then looking forward to the next experience.

We havent been able to book anything or plan anything and certainly Ive found that liberating.

Of course, we havent been able to do that and havent been able to book anything or plan anything and certainly Ive found that liberating. From the conversations that Ive been having with other people, it sounds like lots of other people have found living in the present quite good for them as well.

In lieu of a book tour, Sykes launched her new eight-part podcast series, aptly called Doing It Right, earlier this month. When I realised I couldnt do a book tour, I wanted to do something else that could be a sort of communication tool, its not really about the book - actually I dont talk about the book at all in it.

I just wanted to interview people that I find really interesting, and who are experts in their field, and kind of really connect with a lot of the things that we're talking about and thinking about with modern life.

So far, Sykes has spoken to comedian Joe Lycett about the evolution of comedy and activist and educator Sinead Burke about how society should be designed with disabled people in mind as much as it is abled people. Sinead talks about it in the most intelligent, easy to understand warm way, I've had more response to that than any piece of work I've ever done.

While Sykes has been vocal in the past about trying to stay off social media - despite her 300,000-strong following on Instagram - she admits this hasnt been possible while trying to promote a new book and podcast.

I just think the important thing with social media is that we remember that it's meant to be a tool that serves us, its not meant to be something you're a slave to. I don't think we should be filling every spare moment scrolling on social media. It leaves no time to daydream, no time to ponder, no time to just be if you're always immersed in the white noise of other people's lives.

A known bibliophile, Sykes has added a slew of new titles to her library during lockdown. I love - I keep recommending this because I just think it's such an uplifting book to read at the moment when everyone's feeling a bit jittery and slightly lost and to give them a little bit of hope - is a book by the Dutch historian Rutger Bregman called Humankind. It's about how humans are inherently kind. That is a brilliant one to read at the moment.

I absolutely loved, I Am Not Your Baby Mother by Candice Brathwaite. Its a Trojan horse of a book. Its essentially about black motherhood but its also about so much more. Its such a lively and energetic book. I'm a really big fan of hers. I think anyone that appreciates a good book will roar through that. And fiction, Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers, thats a gorgeous one.

With her book finally out into the world, Sykes is ready to take a much-deserved break with her young family in August. I'm really excited about that as I didn't really manage a maternity leave with my son. Im looking forward to stepping away from the computer and spending some time by the seaside.

How Do We Know We're Doing It Right? by Pandora Sykes is out now. Buy it here.
Autologous Stem Cell & Non-Stem Cell Based Therapies Market Research Report - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19 The Global Autologous Stem Cell & Non-Stem Cell Based Therapies Market is expected to grow from USD 4,207.

New York, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Autologous Stem Cell & Non-Stem Cell Based Therapies Market Research Report - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913303/?utm_source=GNW

55 Million in 2019 to USD 9,109.64 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 13.73%.



Market Segmentation & Coverage:

This research report categorizes the Autologous Stem Cell & Non-Stem Cell Based Therapies to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets:



On the basis of Geography, the Autologous Stem Cell & Non-Stem Cell Based Therapies Market is studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas region is studied across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The Asia-Pacific region is studied across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. The Europe, Middle East & Africa region is studied across France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom.



Company Usability Profiles:

The report deeply explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Autologous Stem Cell & Non-Stem Cell Based Therapies Market including Antria, Bioheart, Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics, Cytori, Dendreon Corporation, Fibrocell, Genesis Biopharma, Georgia Health Sciences University, Neostem, Opexa Therapeutics, Orgenesis, Regeneus, Regenexx, and Tengion.



FPNV Positioning Matrix:

The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Autologous Stem Cell & Non-Stem Cell Based Therapies Market on the basis of Business Strategy (Business Growth, Industry Coverage, Financial Viability, and Channel Support) and Product Satisfaction (Value for Money, Ease of Use, Product Features, and Customer Support) that aids businesses in better decision making and understanding the competitive landscape.



Competitive Strategic Window:

The Competitive Strategic Window analyses the competitive landscape in terms of markets, applications, and geographies. The Competitive Strategic Window helps the vendor define an alignment or fit between their capabilities and opportunities for future growth prospects. During a forecast period, it defines the optimal or favorable fit for the vendors to adopt successive merger and acquisition strategies, geography expansion, research & development, and new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth.



Cumulative Impact of COVID-19:

COVID-19 is an incomparable global public health emergency that has affected almost every industry, so for and, the long-term effects projected to impact the industry growth during the forecast period. Our ongoing research amplifies our research framework to ensure the inclusion of underlaying COVID-19 issues and potential paths forward. The report is delivering insights on COVID-19 considering the changes in consumer behavior and demand, purchasing patterns, re-routing of the supply chain, dynamics of current market forces, and the significant interventions of governments. The updated study provides insights, analysis, estimations, and forecast, considering the COVID-19 impact on the market.



The report provides insights on the following pointers:

1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on sulfuric acid offered by the key players

2. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyzes the markets

3. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new product launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments

4. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players

5. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and new product developments



The report answers questions such as:

1. What is the market size and forecast of the Global Autologous Stem Cell & Non-Stem Cell Based Therapies Market?

2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Autologous Stem Cell & Non-Stem Cell Based Therapies Market during the forecast period?

3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Autologous Stem Cell & Non-Stem Cell Based Therapies Market?

4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Autologous Stem Cell & Non-Stem Cell Based Therapies Market?

5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Autologous Stem Cell & Non-Stem Cell Based Therapies Market?

6. What are the modes and strategic moves considered suitable for entering the Global Autologous Stem Cell & Non-Stem Cell Based Therapies Market?

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913303/?utm_source=GNW



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The European Union's top court has imposed a fine on Romania for delays and the incomplete application of the bloc's rules against money laundering and terrorism financing.

Romania was ordered on July 16 to pay to the European Commission a lump sum of 3 million euros ($3.4 million). Ireland was also fine 2 million euros ($2.4 million).

The decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union came in response to two actions against Romania and Ireland brought before the court by the European Commission -- the EU's executive body -- in August 2018 for failure to fulfill their obligations.

"Both member states failed to transpose in full, within the period prescribed, the directive on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing," the court said, referring to the EU anti-money laundering rules that came into force in 2015.

The regulations adopted in 2015 reinforced surveillance requirements for banks, lawyers, and accountants and mandated more transparency on company owners.

With reporting by Reuters
To catch a thief, the saying goes, you have to think like a thief. The same is true for invasive predators: to foil their depredations on native wildlife, scientists have to understand how they think.

A new study published in the Ecological Society of America's journal Ecological Applications examines how invasive mammalian predators both habituate to and generalize avian prey cues. Dr. Price and her team at Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research studied the behavior of ferrets and hedgehogs -- invasive mammals in New Zealand -- in an outdoor enclosure experiment to understand how they hunt avian prey. The discovery could have conservation applications for protecting native bird species.

Previous research has established that "chemical camouflage" could be an effective way to deter invasive species from harming vulnerable bird populations: scientists can distribute appealing bird odors near nests before eggs appear, so that the predator eventually starts ignoring the smell -- even after tasty eggs become available.

This study goes a step further, showing that invasive predators not only learn to pinpoint (or ignore) certain smells that are associated with food -- they can also classify similar smells into groups.

"We are trying to understand how these predators have been so effective at destroying the native fauna," says Catherine Price, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Sydney and the study's lead author. "We are researching new ways to exploit behavioral patterns and traits to understand why native species are so vulnerable and how to protect them."

In New Zealand, invasive mammalian predators have devastated local bird populations, especially of the wrybill, double-banded plover, kak?, and black-fronted tern, whose populations nest at the same time and in similar locations. Such nesting colonies are the proverbial sitting duck: with no defenses, small numbers of predators like ferrets and hedgehogs can essentially wipe out nearly a generation with very little effort.

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Hedgehogs and ferrets are generalists. Ferrets mainly hunt rabbits but will not turn down an easy meal of eggs or chicks. Hedgehogs eat mostly invertebrates and berries but also love eggs, especially right out of hibernation when they are especially hungry.

Price wanted to understand how the predators seek out bird colonies. While humans are primarily visual, many other animals -- including ferrets and hedgehogs -- draw more information from other senses, including their sense of smell.

"Because humans aren't olfactory species, we don't often think about odor," Price said. "But these predators are very sensitive to odor, and to the costs of odor. They respond very quickly if a hunting tactic -- like following a certain odor -- isn't working."

Price and her team captured local ferrets and hedgehogs and ran them through a series of controlled treatments in outdoor enclosures resembling their natural habitat to examine how these predators categorize smells -- whether they group smells of similar types of birds together -- and how and whether they habituate to smells. This is the first time this kind of research has been done on these predators in a controlled outdoor setting.

The question of categorization reveals a substantial amount about the hunting strategies and priorities of the predator. Separating smells into individual species requires an investment that might not always be merited. In some cases, it is sufficient for ferrets or hedgehogs to simply sniff out a broad category of prey, such as "ground-nesting bird with eggs this time of year," but knowing exactly what kind of bird they are smelling is irrelevant.

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"The idea that animals are grouping prey together by smell is exciting," Price said. "We never assumed wild animals did that before, and now we've shown that they can do this using smell."

The team discovered that ferrets generalized the avian smells (in this case gulls and quail) but the hedgehogs did not. In many ways, this makes sense: ferrets consume lots of prey besides bird species, so distinguishing between bird smells may not be worth a ferret's time or energy. Seasonality may also have played a role. In the experiment, hedgehogs were getting ready to go into hibernation, making them especially motivated to find high-quality meals easily.

This finding indicates it might be possible to protect bird colonies by distributing bird smell around the area. If an entire area were saturated with the smell of a nesting ground species, it could protect a nesting colony. Predators would become accustomed to the smell and ignore it, seeking out other prey.

"Understanding how predators group smell is important because if they generalize, we don't have to actually put out the smell of the bird we're protecting; we can put out chicken or quail odors that we can easily get in abundance," Price said.

Understanding how invasive predators hunt and think gives scientists and conservationists an edge in protecting native prey. Further studies may reveal more ways to protect native populations by exploiting predators' behaviors.
Falun Gong practitioners march in downtown Vancouver on July 16, 2017, to call for an end to the persecution of their spiritual discipline ordered by the Chinese regime on July 20, 1999. To mark the anniversary this year amid the pandemic, lawmakers, lawyers, and human rights advocates will join in an online rally on July 20, to stand in solidarity with practitioners. (Tang Feng/The Epoch Times)

As Family Members Suffer in Chinese Prisons, Canadian Falun Gong Adherents Mark Grim Anniversary of Persecution Launch

Toronto resident Tianxiao Zhang knew her sister Yunhe was being illegally held in a Chinese detention centre, but every time she contacted the facility she got the same answer: theres no such person here or wrong number.

As time passed, the answer changed to  Yunhe Zhang is against the Party and socialism. Once an officer advised her, dont call any more, dont waste your money.

Yunhe disappeared in February 2002. Zhang heard rumours that she had been arrested and taken to a detention centre in Qingdao City for distributing flyers raising awareness about the persecution campaign against Falun Gong adherents, after her husband was tortured to death in a nearby labour camp for refusing to give up the spiritual practice.

For the past 18 years, Zhang and her family have attempted to find out what happened to Yunhe. They have never received any official notice about her arrest, detention, or imprisonment.

Yunhe Zhang (R) and her husband Zou Songtao on their wedding day. Zhang was illegally detained in Qingdao city in February 2002. Zou was arrested in 1999 and persecuted to death in prison. (Minghui.org)

Yunhes disappearance and her husbands death meant the couples 2-year-old daughter Rongrong was orphaned, and as a result was shuttled between various family members and babysitters in China.

Whenever she missed her loved ones, she stepped up on a little stool, and reached up to kiss her daddys box of ashes, Zhang recalled. Sometimes she told others that her daddy is in heaven.

The high-profile case of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor being arbitrarily detained in China has brought awareness in Canada of the true nature of Chinas dangerous police state under the communist regime. But this reality is something Falun Gong practitioners and their families have faced for decades.

Just last month Sun Qian, a resident of Vancouver, was sentenced to eight years in prison for being a Falun Gong practitionerone of several Canadians who have family members in China impacted by the ongoing persecution of the spiritual discipline that was launched in July 1999.

A Canadian citizen and the co-owner of a multimillion-dollar company, Qian was arrested at her Beijing residence in February 2017 and held in custody ever since. She was sentenced on June 30 by a Beijing courtjust days after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rejected calls to release Meng Wanzhou, the Huawei CFO arrested in Canada on a U.S. extradition request.

Sun Qian, a Canadian citizen and Falun Dafa adherent who was illegally detained in China in February 2017 and was recently sentenced to eight years in prison, in an undated photo. (The Epoch Times/Handout)

Qian had endured abuse, torture, and intense brainwashing sessions at the Beijing detention centre where she was held, reports say, with the aim of forcing her to renounce her faith in Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa).

Falun Gong is a practice of meditation and exercises handed down from ancient China that includes teachings based on the universal principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Practitioners have suffered persecution in China since July 1999, when the Chinese Communist Party launched a campaign of violence and hatred to eradicate the spiritual discipline.

Family Members Seek Answers

In addition to Tianxiao Zhang and Sun Qian, there are at least seven more Canadian families who have relatives currently detained in China for their beliefs.

One is Tan Fengjiang, a truck mechanic from Yichun city and the nephew of Wenhua Pei, a Canadian citizen living in Toronto.

Tan was arrested for the second time in April 2006 after police found Falun Gong materials in his home. He was imprisoned for seven years, during which time he was subjected to horrific torturerelentless beatings with belts and electric batons, forcefeeding with salt water, forced labour, brainwashing sessions, and sleep deprivation.

Tan was finally released in 2013 only to be kidnapped by police in 2016 while trying to apply for a bank card. He was sentenced to nine more years in a Harbin prison after a show trial, where he remains.

According to data collected by Minghui.org, which compiles information and statistics on the persecution campaign, at least 27 Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted to death between January and May this year. Ten of them died during detention at a local police station or prison.

Two family members of Canadians have been arrested just in the past few months.

A 74-year-old Shanghai resident, Lin Qiupeng, was arrested on May 29 when eight policemen broke into her home and forcibly detained her without a search or arrest warrant. She is being held in the Changning Detention Center but her family knows little else about her condition as they are not allowed to visit her. Her sister, Shenli Lin, is a Canadian citizen living in Toronto.

Lin Qiupeng (R) pictured with her daughter. Lin was arrested by eight police officers in Shanghai on May 29, 2020, and is believed to be held in the Changning Detention Centre. (Courtesy of Shenli Lin)

Falun Gong adherent Yanqing Li, the sister of Toronto resident Yanjie Li, was arrested for practising Falun Gong on April 8 and sent to a detention centre near Harbin City. She was detained along with several other practitioners from the area, and has not been permitted family visits.

Like Yanjie Li, many family members are told little about their relatives arrest and are often prohibited from visiting or even knowing basic facts about their well-being. Sometimes practitioners in China simply disappear without a trace, leaving their family to fear the worst.

Falun Gong practitioner Yanqing Li, whose sister lives in Toronto, has been detained since April 8, 2020. (Courtesy of Yanjie Li)

Toronto resident Paul Li has been asking the Canadian government for help to release his father from a Chinese detention centre since 2014.

Paul and his father, Li Xiaobo, were arrested together in April 2014 in Chengdu for distributing literature exposing the persecution of Falun Gong. Paul was released because of his Canadian citizenship, but his father was sentenced to eight years in prison in April 2015 after a show trial.

His moral courage is an inspiration to me, but I worry every day whether or not I will ever see him again, said Li.

Li Xiaobo was also previously imprisoned for eight years between 2005 and 2012 for writing articles to clarify the facts about the persecution to the public. Due to the harsh conditions and severe torture he suffered in custody, by the time he was released in the spring of 2012, he had lost most of his teeth and was almost blind.

Falun Gong practitioner Paul Li holds a photo of his father Li Xiaobo, arrested in China and sentenced to eight years in prison. (Pam McLennan/The Epoch Times)

July 20: A Grim Anniversary

On July 20, across Canada and around the world, Falun Gong adherents and supporters will mark 21 years since the Chinese Communist Party launched its violent campaign against those who embrace the meditation practice.

In Canada, lawmakers, lawyers, and human rights advocates will join in an online rally on July 20, to stand in solidarity with practitioners and call for an end to the persecution and the release of all Falun Gong prisoners of conscience in China.

On July 20, 1999, the Chinese regime launched the persecution coupled with an extensive hate propaganda campaign against Falun Gong due to the rapidly growing popularity of the practice.

A government survey at the time found 70 million to 100 million people had taken up the practicemore than the number of Party memberscausing concern for the legitimacy of the atheist, totalitarian regime.

According to human rights researchers, millions of Falun Gong practitioners have since been rounded up and thrown into detention centers, forced labour camps, and brainwashing centres, where they are routinely tortured and subjected to other abuse.

Falun Gong adherents are also the main source of organs to supply Chinas lucrative state-sanctioned transplant industry, an independent peoples tribunal concluded last year.

Over 4,300 Falun Gong adherents have been killed in the persecution in China, according to Minghui.org. The actual number of deaths is thought to be much higher as thousands of cases remain unconfirmed due to the CCPs tight-fisted control over details of the persecution.
Official Ottawa is again consumed by allegations that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau broke conflict-of-interest laws.

Now he is accused of authorizing a contract with a charity that, in the past, employed his mother and brother.

But too often ignored in the brouhaha over whether Trudeau should have recused himself from that decision is the program at the heart of the matter, the new Canada Student Service Grant. Part of the bevy of new programs designed to support Canadians during the COVID-19 pandemic, this one is truly weird.

The idea behind the new grant is fine. As the pandemic causes charitable donations to dry up, organizations that depend on volunteers are being hammered. Why not, then, devise a new program to direct funds toward the charitable sector?

Even better, why not devise a new program to encourage young people  particularly students unable to find work during the pandemic  to volunteer at these charities?

The charities would get free help. The students would benefit both morally and practically by volunteering their time. This seems to have been the original idea.

What eventually emerged, however, was an odd mishmash of contradictions.

First, the students wouldnt exactly be volunteering their time. They would be paid for up to 500 hours of work at a $10 an hour (a rate, incidentally, that is well below the minimum wage).

Second, teachers would be paid up to $12,000 to find and supervise students willing to volunteer.

Third, as CBC reported this week, it was expected that there would not be enough space in existing charities to absorb this influx of students. So new charitable activities would have to be invented  such as creating exercise videos for children or interviewing seniors about their lives.

In short, a program meant to encourage volunteering became one where everyone, including the volunteers and those who found them, was paid to take part in activities of dubious usefulness.

This is the program that WE Charity was initially hired to administer. WE has since disengaged itself but the program  now to be delivered by federal civil servants  apparently continues apace.

The various Commons committees looking into the affair would do better to focus on the content of this bizarre program instead of debating whether Trudeau should have recused himself from the decision to approve it.

Indeed, too much is being made about Trudeaus alleged conflict of interest. Yes, his mother, Margaret, and his brother, Alexandre, were paid speaking fees by the for-profit arm of WE over the last few years. But these fees, at roughly $9,000 a speech for Margaret and $4,000 a speech for Alexandre, were within the normal range for such events. Certainly, they were nowhere near what a real celebrity such as Barack Obama could command.

More to the point, would the prime ministers view of WE be any different if his mother had never worked for the charity? I doubt it. Trudeau obviously thinks well of WE and has participated himself (for free) in some of its events.

Trudeau has apologized abjectly for not recusing himself from anything to do with WE. So has Finance Minister Bill Morneau, whose daughter works for the charity.

This may be good politics but it is a bad precedent. Cabinet decisions routinely affect millions of Canadians, including members of ministers families.

Must ministers with elderly parents recuse themselves from decisions about Old Age Security? Must ministers with young children recuse themselves from decisions affecting the Canada Child Benefit? Must ministers who have had hospital care recuse themselves from decisions affecting medicare?

Common sense says no, but the current fascination with conflict of interest pushes hard in the other direction.

The prime minister does not deserve to get out this mess scot free. But his real sin was not his failure to recuse himself from the WE contract discussion. Rather, it was his decision to approve a program that  with or without WE  was so deeply flawed.
 Flash

Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situations in Ukraine, Iran and Libya with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a phone conversation Wednesday, the Kremlin has said in a statement.

While discussing the situation in the southeast of Ukraine, both Putin and Merkel gave a negative assessment to the recent statements by Ukrainian officials about the need to revise the Minsk agreements, and agreed to intensify efforts to ensure their full and unconditional implementation.

On the situation concerning Iran, Putin emphasized the futility of the sanction pressure on Tehran and the importance of efforts to maintain the Iran nuclear deal.

Putin and Merkel exchanged assessments of the situation in Libya, with both underlining the need to deal with the crisis by diplomatic methods, as well as by establishing intra-Libyan dialogue.
(Reuters) - At least seven ships have caught fire at Iran's Bushehr port, the Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday, in what appeared to be the latest in a series of fires and explosions around the country, some of which have hit sensitive sites.

No casualties have been reported, the agency said.

Plumes of dense black smoke billowed into the air, in a photograph of the incident published by the official IRNA news agency. State broadcaster IRIB showed fighters tackling clouds of smoke at a shipyard at the southern port on the Gulf.

There have been several explosions and fires around Iranian military, nuclear and industrial facilities since late June, including a fire at Iran's underground Natanz nuclear facility on July 2.

Natanz is the centrepiece of Iran's enrichment programme, which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes. Western intelligence agencies and the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog (IAEA) believe it had a coordinated, clandestine nuclear arms programme that it halted in 2003. Tehran denies ever seeking nuclear weapons.

Iran's top security body said on July 3 that the cause of the Natanz fire had been determined but would be announced at a later time. Some Iranian officials have said it may have been cyber sabotage and one of them warned that Tehran would retaliate against any country carrying out such attacks.

In an article in early July, state news agency IRNA addressed what it called the possibility of sabotage by enemies such as Israel and the United States, although it stopped short of accusing either directly.

Israel's defence minister said on July 5 his country was not "necessarily" behind every mysterious incident in Iran.

On June 30, 19 people were killed in an explosion at a medical clinic in the north of the capital Tehran, which an official said was caused by a gas leak.

On June 26, an explosion occurred east of Tehran near the Parchin military and weapons development base that the authorities said was caused by a leak in a gas storage facility in an area outside the base.

(Reporting By Babak Dehghanpisheh; writing by William Maclean, editing by Timothy Heritage)
By PTI

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday kicked off construction work at the Diamer-Bhasha dam in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, notwithstanding India's objection to the China-backed mega project.

Addressing a public gathering in Chilas in Gilgit-Baltistan, Khan said the Diamer-Bhasha will be Pakistan's third largest dam after Tarbela and Mangla dams.

The project will generate 4,500MW electricity and provide at least 16,000 jobs.

It is expected to be completed by 2028.

The Pakistan government in May signed a whopping Rs 442 billion contract with a joint venture of a Chinese state-run firm and a commercial arm of Pakistan's powerful military for the construction of the Diamer-Bhasha dam.

Chinese state-run firm China Power holds 70% and the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), a commercial arm of the Armed Forces of Pakistan, 30% share in the consortium that will build the dam.

In May, India took strong note of Pakistan awarding the contract to build the dam, saying carrying out of such projects in territories under Pakistan's illegal occupation was not proper.

"Our position is consistent and clear that entire territory of the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh have been, are and will continue to be integral and inalienable part of India," MEA Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said.

"We have consistently conveyed our protests and shared concerns with both Pakistan and China on all such projects in the Indian territories under Pakistan's illegal occupation," he said.

Pakistan's Council of Common Interests (CCI) approved the project for construction in 2010, but it suffered delays because of international lending agencies which remained associated with the project but later backtracked because of opposition from India as major part of the dam is located in Gilgit-Baltistan.

In his address, Khan lamented that building of this dam was delayed while the previous governments started building thermal power stations.

"The decision to build this dam was taken 50 years ago. There can be no better site for constructing a dam, it is a natural dam. Forty, 50 years ago this was decided, and work on the project has begun today," he said.

He announced plans to build more dams on rivers to get cheap energy and decrease the pressure on foreign exchange to buy foreign fuel.

The completion of the dam would increase Pakistan's storage capacity from 30 to 48 days and make power generation facilities an attractive future investment by the private sector to add 4,500MW of additional electricity to the national grid, according to a report in Dawn newspaper in May.

Prime minister Khan said that hydropower projects would also be helpful to reduce global warming.

He was accompanied by Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and ISI chief Lt Gen Faiz Hamid besides Minister for Water Faisal Vawda and other senior officials.
Like the many politically-connected big businesses and nonprofits which received tens of millions of dollars from the federal small business Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), private charter school operators are likewise cashing in to the tune of $1 billion, many while getting their full regular public funding from taxpayers.

Established as part of the $2.3 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the $669 billion PPP was ostensibly intended to help small businesses with payroll expenses. If they could attest to saving jobs, they could have the loans forgiven.

President Donald Trump and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos (AP / Evan Vucci)

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchins partial public release of recipients and award amounts last week only occurred after he had sustained criticism for having kept it secret for months out of concern for protecting recipients proprietary and confidential data. He revealed that PPP has given 72.8 percent of the larger loans, of between $150,000 to $5 million, to only 13.5 percent of the recipients, most of whom could hardly be considered small but rather consist of some of the largest corporations and religious institutions in the country, in addition to Democratic and Republican Party-aligned businesses, think tanks, and advocacy organizations.

In other words, like the CARES Act as a whole, PPP has been a boondoggle of monumental proportions, funneling essentially free cash to the rich and well-connected while almost one-quarter of small businesses, 3.3 million, went permanently out of business between February and April.

The listing of recipients also revealed that, due to PPP being directed to nonprofits as well as private businesses, many charter schools, which can claim to fall into either category, have also sidled up to the trough. This same looting operation is going on within higher education as private colleges and universities took in hundreds of millions of dollars in the forgivable PPP loans while those in the public sphere are ineligible and suffering massive budget shortfalls.

The early July release of the list of PPP recipients only includes a dollar range of each loan amount, yet publicly funded, privately-run charter schools likely received more than $1 billion in funds according to an analysis by Salon.

A search for the term charter school in ProPublicas Coronavirus Bailouts database yields 422 charter school recipients. Many charter schools dont call themselves charter but opt for academy, among other euphemisms. As with many multi-million-dollar recipients of PPP funds, no jobs were retained by 15 charter schools that each received over $1 million, according to Salon. Idaho Arts Charter School, Inc. saved one job after receiving between $1 million and $2 million.

In addition to charter schools, elite private preparatory schools, such as those attended by billionaire President Donald Trumps son and Mnuchins children, both of which charge tuition of $44,000 per year for high school, have also received PPP loans. Not satisfied with private schools cash grab of small business assistance, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has issued additional guidelines that the $13.5 billion CARES Act public school funding be shared with private schools. This has prompted several states to sue DeVos to stop that particular raid.

Included among the private schools receiving millions are religious schools, thereby shredding the Constitutional prohibition on the state establishment of religion. In Illinois alone, Catholic schools received 119 PPP loans totaling between $51.4 million and $123.8 million. Overall, the Catholic Church was allowed to receive $1.4 billion and certified that the current economic uncertainty makes this loan request necessary to support the ongoing operations of the Applicant.

Secular private schools in Illinois, including those with tuition as high as $61,000 per year, received between $19 million and $48 million, and charter schools in Illinois received between $31.2 million and $74.7 million in PPP funds.

Some of the biggest charter school organizations in the country were receiving PPP funds at the same time that they were receiving additional millions from DeVos Expanding Opportunity through Quality Charter Schools Program (CSP) which granted $65.4 million to 12 charter management organizations, which are high quality public charter schools in underserved communities. These include:

The Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), with schools throughout the US, received between $28 million and $69 million from PPP.





Achievement First in New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island received between $7 million and $17 million from PPP, and $3.5 million from CSP.





Citizens of the World Charter Schools in Los Angeles received between $2 million and $5 million from PPP, and $1.7 million from CSP.





Mater Academy, Inc. in Florida received only $1 million from PPP, but $19.2 million three days prior from CSP.





LEARN in Illinois received from $5 million to $10 million from PPP.





Granada Hills Charter in California received between $5 million and $10 million from PPP.





Bright Star Schools in California received between $5 million and $10 million from PPP.





Birmingham Charter High School in California received from $5 million to $10 million from PPP.

I hear time and time again that charters are not businesses, and if theyre not, then why are they able to get this money, Vicky Martinez, a parent of four Los Angeles Unified School District students, told CBS.

In addition to the PPP funding, charter schools also get allotments out of the $13.5 billion in funding allocated to K-12 schools under the CARES Act.

Two charter schools in Pennsylvania received PPP funds of between $2 million and $5 million despite existing exclusively online, i.e., not having to save the jobs of bus drivers or custodians or revamp their normal learning program amid the lockdown.

In response to the Arkansas Times publishing a list of charter school recipients of PPP money, the comments to the article on Facebook were overwhelmingly hostile to such an open cash grab of public funds for charter and private schools. What about separation of church and state! They havent paid taxes! This upsets me to the brim on how unlawful the distribution of our tax payers money! said one. Another noted, I guess they do not teach ethics at those schools; because, they seem to lack them by taking public monies for their private endeavor.

Since federal disbursements of funds to states for charter schools began in 1995, $4 billion has been siphoned off from public schools and roughly $1 billion of that has disappeared due to fraud and waste, according to a report by the Network for Public Education. What money did not get wasted, stolen, or otherwise lost to the charter school black hole ended up paying for, at best, no better academic results than public schools.

According to a 2017 study titled Examining charter student achievement effects across seven states which corroborated earlier studies, students perform similarly across the two settings in most locations. One method used by charter schools to achieve whatever success they can claim is to impose selective admissions processes that would be illegal for public schools. A 2012 federal report found that charter schools enroll significantly fewer special-needs students than district schools. Many other basic standards observed by traditional public schools are violated by charter schools to cut corners and increase profits.

Charter school profiteers and their advocates have always denounced public education as a socialist enterprise, but they seem to have no compunction to receiving millions and billions in government largesse. They clothe their attempt to destroy public education in language about providing a choice to parents, particularly of children in low-performing urban schools that have been hard hit as a result of decades of deindustrialization and the collapse of cities tax bases. Last month, Trump declared, Frankly, school choice is the civil rights statement of the year, of the decade and probably beyond. Because all children have to have access to quality education.

Public education in the US has been under sustained attack and starved of funds for decades. Yet the ruling class is determined not to let the crisis of the still raging coronavirus pandemic go to waste and is pushing public schools across the country off the fiscal cliff while only providing a pittance to cover the astronomical costs of making school buildings safe for reopening. Meanwhile, amid the increasingly shrill demand that teachers and students be herded back into the virus deathtraps known as schools in order to get the economy fully running again, the spigots of federal aid are opened wide to charter, private, and religious schools as well as the enterprises of the rich and well-connected.

Public education, a product of historic class struggles in the aftermath of the Civil War and rooted in democratic and egalitarian traditions, can only be defended, along with the very lives of teachers, students, and their families, as part of a revolutionary movement to replace capitalism with socialism.
NEW YORK, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP) announced today the 131 public high school student recipients of $2,643,915 in scholarships for college level food and hospitality education. The announcement comes despite pandemic-induced obstacles, including the suspension of C-CAP students' in-school classes and the cancellation of the final Cooking Competition for Scholarships in five of the organization's six regional locations (New York City conducted its final competition before the onset of the COVID-19 crisis). Nonetheless, the nonprofit's 30-year history of empowering underserved youth forged ahead to determine C-CAP scholarship recipients for 2020 by their preliminary competition round performance, their grades, their competition application, and other factors.

Nationally, 382 public high school C-CAP students participated in the six preliminary competitions for scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $132,216 for 16 educational institutions such as the: Academy of Culinary Education; Culinary Institute of America; Delaware County Community College; the Culinary Institute of New York at Monroe College; the International Culinary Center; Joliet Junior College; Paul Smith's College; Scottsdale Community College; and Johnson & Wales University. A complete list is available at ccapinc.org/news/2020-scholarships/ .

For the preliminary competitions, each student prepares two dishes in a designated time period - a French omelette and a tomato, cucumber and bell pepper salad. The dishes, which were judged on taste and presentation, involve a range of skills, the mastery of which is fundamental to a cooking role in a professional kitchen.

The regional breakdown of the scholarship recipients and amounts is: Arizona, 28 scholarships equaling $470,309; Chicago, 10 equaling $225,756; Los Angeles, 34 equaling $430,131; New York, 24 equaling $841,643; Philadelphia, 15 equaling $316,968; and Washington, D.C., 20 equaling $359,107.

Nationally, 17 C-CAP students were awarded full-tuition scholarships for a bachelor's degree, for up to $132,216. Four scholarship awardees will attend the Culinary Institute of America (CIA); four will matriculate into Johnson & Wales University; two will attend Paul Smith's College; and seven will go to the Culinary Institute of New York at Monroe College. Another three students were awarded full-tuition scholarships for an associate's degrees at the CIA. One additional student was awarded The Russell Ferber Foundation Memorial Scholarship that will cover tuition at the CIA for an associate's degree in baking and pastry arts.

C-CAP awarded another seven full-tuition scholarships for a diploma or certificate, including four from the Institute of Culinary Education and one each from the International Culinary Center, Chef Eric's Culinary Classroom, and the Academy of Culinary Education. Other scholarships C-CAP awarded included half and partial-tuition scholarships and cash scholarships. (Representative scholarships by region follow at the end of the release.)

This year's C-CAP Scholarship awards were particularly meaningful, not only because they were awarded in spite of the pandemic, but they are a highlight of C-CAP's 30th anniversary. Over those three decades, the organization has served more than 350,000 students and bestowed more than $62 million in scholarships. Currently, C-CAP annually supports 15,000 students nationwide to develop their interest in and skills for culinary and hospitality industry career through: job training and internships; career exploration and advisement; college discovery and advisement; teacher professional development; and product donations for classrooms. The C-CAP scholarships are made possible by corporations, charitable organizations and individual donors, including: The Russell Ferber Foundation; The Ronald Newburg Foundation, Kendall College Trust; US Foods; Barbara Slifka; and the Joseph and Sylvia Slifka Foundation. For a complete list, see: ccapinc.org/news/2020-scholarships/ .

Regional Representative Scholarships:

Arizona

Kylee Yazzie , Dairy Council Scholarship, $2,000 & Fox Restaurant Concepts Scholarship, $1,000

, Dairy Council Scholarship, & Fox Restaurant Concepts Scholarship, Paige Beason , Johnson & Wales University Full-Tuition Scholarship for a Bachelor's Degree, $132,216

Chicago

Alexis Gonzalez , Johnson & Wales Full-Tuition Scholarship for the Bachelor's Degree, $132,216.00

, Johnson & Wales Full-Tuition Scholarship for the Bachelor's Degree, Trinity Rosario , Joliet Junior College Tuition-Assistance Scholarship, $500.00 & Kendall College Trust Scholarship, $2,50

Los Angeles

Kailee Brown , Chef Eric's Culinary Classroom Full-Tuition Scholarship, $2,400 & Ronald Newburg Foundation Scholarship, $1,000

, Chef Eric's Culinary Classroom Full-Tuition Scholarship, & Ronald Newburg Foundation Scholarship, Hunter Weier , Institute of Culinary Education [ Los Angeles campus] Full-Tuition Scholarship for the Diploma in Restaurant & Culinary Management, $12,586

Philadelphia

Ciara Robinson , Monroe College Full-Tuition Scholarship, Bachelor's Degree, $59,040

, Full-Tuition Scholarship, Bachelor's Degree, Giana (Gigi) Nunez, Culinary Institute of America Full-Tuition Scholarship for the Bachelor's Degree, $124,320 & Community College Stipend, $1,568

New York

Leslie Villalva , The Russell Ferber Foundation Memorial Scholarship $62,160

, The Russell Ferber Foundation Memorial Scholarship Amaya Joseph , US Foods Scholarship, $20,000

, US Foods Scholarship, Martha Tenesaca , Dr. Patricia Bartholomew Scholarship, $5,000 & Les Amis D'Escoffier Scholarship, $10,000

Washington, DC

Mauricio Ventura-Jimenez , Dr. Robert C. & Tina Sohn Foundation Scholarship, $5,000

, Dr. Robert C. & Tina Sohn Foundation Scholarship, Jaelyn Middleton , Barbara Slifka Scholarship, $4,000

About C-CAP

Co-chaired by chef, author, and restaurateur Marcus Samuelsson, Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP) is a national nonprofit that empowers today's youth through culinary arts, preparing them to shape their future with confidence. Through culinary training and career readiness programming, C-CAP prepares students for educational and career opportunities through connections to professional mentors, job training and internships, industry tours, job shadows, college advising and scholarships, and career consultation. Founded in 1990 by Richard Grausman, C-CAP impacts more than 15,000 students annually nationwide. Since our inception, C-CAP has given over $62 million in student support. Countless C-CAP alumni work throughout the country and are guiding the future leaders of the culinary and hospitality industry. For more information about C-CAP, see ccapinc.org and @ccapinc #CCAPisCooking.

SOURCE C-CAP

Related Links

http://www.ccapinc.org


ROCKFORD, MI -- Students and teachers from Rockford Public Schools and others joined together Wednesday afternoon with a simple message: Black Lives Matter.

The student-led Black Lives Matter peaceful protest took place Wednesday, July 15, at North Rockford Middle School to raise awareness and continue momentum combating racial injustice.

Organizer Adele Peterson, a Rockford High School senior, said the demonstration is likely the first to take place in Rockford since the death of George Floyd sparked nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice.

Despite his pleas for help, Floyd, a Black man, died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

Our purpose is just to raise awareness and educate our community, Peterson said. I believe that Rockford, it can be isolated and its not very diverse, so raising our concerns peacefully and respectfully I believe it will be really enlightening for the Rockford community.

Demonstrators worked with police and the school district for the event, which consisted of a demonstration along 10 Mile Road and diverse speakers talking about the importance of understanding white privilege and racial injustice in America.

Peterson said the demonstration isnt just a one-off event, saying that she and others are working with Rockford Public Schools for more diverse speakers and topics at school events.

Were wanting to integrate this into our school system, into our programs, she said. Weve been in contact with our superintendent and principal, and I think it would be really important to have some diverse speakers speaking at those (school assemblies) and sharing their thoughts and their experiences, especially to help people of color in our school system know that theyre not alone.

The U.S. Census Bureaus latest estimates show that only about 2.4 percent of Rockfords 6,391 residents are Black, 4.8 percent are Hispanic and 95.1 percent are white.

Rockford High School science teacher Eric Pilko opened his speech at the demonstration by saying he is incredibly proud of the students who worked to put this together.

He was one of three teachers -- two full-time and one substitute -- from Rockford Public Schools that spoke beside their students.

As a science teacher, Pilko said hes seen first-hand how the history of the subject is whitewashed, overlooking the works of Black people.

Students of color in our classroom must see themselves reflected in our curriculum, and white students need to see the impact that Black lives have had on their world, because Black lives have contributed an enormous amount to our story, he said, and it is so important that our kids know who (those Black scientists and innovators) are.

Pilko closed by echoing Peterson, saying the demonstration alone does not change racial injustice.

There is work to do, the work of eradicating systemic racism, he said. This is the work the people of Rockford need to be continually engaged in. Your presence here is a start. The work I do in the classroom is a start. But the world changes for the better only through continued, sustained effort, through a determination that says, This must end and we will not rest until it does.

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LONDON - Unemployment across the U.K. has held steady during the coronavirus lockdown as a result of a government salary support scheme, but there are clear signals emerging that job losses will skyrocket over coming months to levels not seen since the 1980s.

The Office for National Statistics said Thursday there were 649,000 fewer people, or 2.2%, on payrolls in June compared to March, when the British government imposed lockdown restrictions.

Thats an indication the countrys unemployment rate is set to rise during the summer months from the still historically low level of 3.9% recorded in May.

So far, Britain has been spared the sharp rises in unemployment seen in the United States, for example, because of the governments Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which pays the majority of the salaries of workers who have not been fired. Some 1.2 million employers have taken advantage of the program to furlough 9.4 million people at a cost to the government of 28.7 billion pounds ($36 billion).

Though these workers have not been working over the past few months, they are not counted as unemployed. But the government is going to bring the program to an end in October, arguing that it gives false hope to furloughed workers while at the same time limiting their prospects of getting new jobs as their skills fade.

Instead, the government is pinning its hopes on the reopening of the economy and that there is no second coronavirus spike.

Already, many sectors, such as manufacturing, retail and hospitality have reopened, though none appears to be operating anywhere near pre-lockdown levels. The government is also expected to tweak its advice on working from home in an effort to get more people to go to the office, a move that it hopes could kickstart town centres.

I think the best thing we can do is continue to open up the economy in a phased manner, a cautious manner, and get businesses up and running again, Business Secretary Alok Sharma told the BBC.

However that pans out, the end of the salary support scheme is a potential cliff-edge moment that will put firms on the spot.

Do they keep those workers on furlough in post or do they let them go? Its a tough call for firms facing a historic cash crunch following one of the deepest slumps ever recorded in the U.K.  the economy is around 25% smaller than it was in February before the full impact of the coronavirus.

The policy is not a long-term solution, and some workers will be made unemployed in time, especially in sectors such as retail and travel where demand may remain structurally lower in the long-run, said Kallum Pickering, senior economist at Berenberg Bank.

One of the U.K.s leading business lobby groups warned Thursday that nearly a third of companies are planning to cut jobs in the next three months as the government winds down its salary scheme.

In a survey of 7,400 firms published Thursday, the British Chambers of Commerce said 29% of businesses are planning to cut the size of their workforce before the scheme comes to an end, with just 12% set to increase staff numbers.

The number of firms cutting jobs has accelerated in the past couple of weeks, with the likes of Airbus and Rolls Royce among many announcing big job cuts. Burberry cut another 500 jobs Thursday globally, including 150 in the U.K.

Many economists think unemployment could more than double to over 3 million this year, levels last seen in the 1980s when the government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher reoriented the economy away from heavy manufacturing toward services.

Theres a national disaster unfolding, said Frances OGrady, general secretary at the umbrella Trades Union Congress. But ministers are watching from the sidelines, instead of saving jobs with targeted support for the hardest-hit sectors like retail, manufacturing and aviation.

___

Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
Lloyd Jones lost his job as an audio engineer in mid-March after Oregon Gov. Kate Brown banned large gatherings throughout the state in an effort to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Four months later, Jones remains unemployed. Like thousands of workers in the live events industry, he is unsure when, or if, his job will return.
South Africa: Gauteng Legislature mourns passing of Matsena

Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) Speaker Ntombi Mekgwe has extended her deepest condolences to the family and friends of its member, Mapiti Matsena, who passed away on Wednesday after being attacked in his home in Tshwane.

Matsena joined the GPL as a Member of the Provincial Legislature (MPL) following the 2019 National and Provincial Elections, and was immediately appointed as the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Community Safety.

He also served as a Member of the Portfolio Committee on Infrastructure Development and Property Management.

Mekgwe said Matsena served both committees diligently and with great distinction, and always demonstrated commitment and dedication in his work as a public representative.

Passionate about the safety of the residents of Gauteng, Mekgwe said Matsena never missed an opportunity to express his convictions with law enforcement authorities regarding the safety of the people of Gauteng.

He represented a rare breed of public representatives with a distinct ability to put political differences aside to achieve common objectives that served the best interest of citizens.

Understanding his role as a Public Representative, Matsena ensured full accountability by the Gauteng Department of Community Safety and the Provincial Police on matters of community safety, particularly women and children, Mekgwe said in a statement on Thursday.

Mekgwe also highlighted that Matsenas firm stance against Gender Based Violence (GBV), gained him popularity amongst his peers, as he never missed an opportunity to campaign and advocate for the strengthening of the fight against GBV, every time he addressed a House Sitting.

His passing marks a great loss to the province, and we appeal to law enforcement authorities to work with the greatest urgency to bring the murderers to book.

We wish to extend our deepest condolences to his family and thank them for sharing him with us, his friends, political party the ANC, and the entire community of Gauteng - which he represented in the Legislature and served with distinction. May his soul rest in eternal peace, Mekgwe said.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2020-07-16. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Protection of Media Rights monitor reports on violations detected during pandemic

15:01 16/07/2020

MOSCOW, July 16 (RAPSI)  Higher incidence of attempts to sanction journalists for allegedly fake news, even in some cases where the respective information was later proved to be true, has been registered amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the press service of the Presidential Council for Human Rights citing the data presented by the Protection of Media Rights monitoring center.

Earlier, the monitoring body established at the Councils Standing Commission on Freedom of Information and Rights of Journalists has reported on all signals about alleged violations of mass media workers it registered in March through June 2020.

Among other violations, the Center registered threats to and attacks on journalists; the monitors believe these incidents were facilitated by the fact that a provision of criminal law setting punishments for such actions has been applied too hesitantly. Most frequently the pressure on journalists comes from representatives of regional and local authorities, law enforcement officers; less frequently such cases are registered as concerns business structures, according to the Centers head Alexander Alymov.

The collected data indicate that practices aimed at barring access to information have been widely employed across a number of regions, where doors to certain events are often closed for journalists if the hosts dislike them for some reason, what is also contrary to the national law, Alymov observes.

Higher incidence of attempts to persecute journalists for allegedly fake news even if the published information later proved to be true has been registered at the time of the pandemic, the monitors note adding that in some such cases court hearings were closed for the public.

The monitoring center Protection of Media Rights was founded in March 2019 with the aim to create a system of monitoring of observance of journalists rights in Russias regions.
New Delhi, July 16 : A 35-year-old man was found hanging in the bathroom of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), police said on Thursday.

The man was found hanging with a plastic pipe, which is used with glucose bottles, in the bathroom of the Yellow Zone in the AIIMS Trauma Centre. No suicide note was recovered from him, said police.

"On July 16 at 12.55 a.m., an information regarding the suicide in the bathroom at the AIIMS Trauma Centre' was received in the Police Station Hauz Khas from AIIMS Hospital, New Delhi. On inspection, a ligature mark over the anterior aspect of Neck was found on the deceased," said Atul Thakur, DCP South Delhi.

The deceased was identified as RajMani Patel, a resident of district Satna in Madhya Pradesh.

The deceased underwent intestinal surgery at the AIIMS Hospital in July 2019. In continuation of his treatment on July 15, he came for further treatment in the AIIMS Trauma. His admission was made at about 11.30 p.m. on Wednesday. In the meantime, the deceased went missing from the admission area. Thereafter, he was found hanging in the bathroom at Yellow Zone, AIIMS Trauma Centre.

The deceased was rushed to the emergency area where doctor declared him brought dead.

"A dead body has been preserved and proceeding U/s 174 crpc is being conducted. No suicide note has been found so far and as per the statement and inquiry conducted, the matter is under investigation," the officer said.
More than 200 would-be immigrants from about 70 countries who were winners in the United States governments Diversity Visa lottery program and relatives in the U.S. have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the presidents recent executive order suspending immigration until next year.

The plaintiffs in the case followed the rules, and did everything they were supposed to do. They had planned to build a new life in the United States of America, the lawyer Curtis Lee Morrison, based in Los Angeles, told el Nuevo Herald.

The federal lawsuit was filed in the District of Columbia and claims that the Trump administration has repeatedly attacked the Diversity Visa program, created by Congress in 1990 with the purpose of facilitating immigration from countries that are under-represented in the demographics of the U.S.

The executive order, enacted in June, prevents the winners of the Diversity Visa Giveaway, just over 50,000 people, from completing the process of their immigrant visa application. The State Department has said it will not make an exception for immigrants, who must complete their application before the end of September.

Trump has said the order seeks to protect the U.S. job market at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has triggered unemployment and an economic recession is feared. But the lawyers and almost 500 plaintiffs  including the visa winners and relatives  disagree.

The executive order also affects the family claims of permanent residents in the United States. Thousands of them have joined in a petition to revoke the measure on the We the People platform, hosted on the White House site.

The countries with the highest representation among the winners of the Diversity Lottery in 2020 are Cuba and Venezuela, with 2,703 and 1,068 visas, respectively. The plaintiffs include family members from both communities, as well as from distant countries such as Egypt, Ukraine, Qatar and Lithuania, among others.

Morrison said that in November 2017 the Trump administration asked Congress to cancel the Visa lottery program. Failing to reach a bipartisan agreement, the White House renewed its request in 2018, and when Congress rejected it, the administration took a series of executive measures in 2020 to sabotage, he said.

As of May 2020, only two immigrant visas had been processed, the lawyer said.

The immigration ban until the new year directly impacts tens of thousands of people who had won the raffle in 2019.

Our dream was always to go to the United States to meet our family there and work to fulfil our dreams as professionals, said Katia Elena Casanova from Cuba, an industrial chemist who, along with her husband, won the Diversity Lottery.

My husband has always believed in the power of the Law of Attraction. We never doubted that we would win that raffle, but our hearts fell when President Trump signed the new decree, she said.

To meet the requirements of the United States to grant her an immigrant visa, Casanova and her husband sold some of their belongings. We needed at least $2,500 (U.S.) per person to travel to Guyana for the interview. Now we have debts and they took away the hope of travelling, she said.

We are university students, young people and workers. We want to bring the best of us to the United States and make that country our home, Casanova said.

Morrison said he is optimistic that the judge in charge of the case will issue a favourable decision for immigrants in August.

The judge can order the State Department to issue the ipso facto visas or can order the State Department to leave the visas set aside so that the process can take place in September, Morrison said.

Nothing is more monstrous than giving hope to desperate people, and then revoking that hope, he added.

The lawyer said his clients are incredible and very kind and patient.

All they want to do is contribute to making the United States a better country, he said.

Read more about:
DeCurtis Corporation has announced the hire of Camille Olivere as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

Olivere is formerly the Senior Vice President of Sales at Norwegian Cruise Line.

"I am excited to join an executive team that is working toward increasing the health, safety, security, and overall guest experience through innovative technology, " said Olivere. "I look forward to leading the initiative to advance these company objectives to the travel industry and beyond."

Olivere is an accomplished executive with over twenty years of experience in cruise, travel, and technology industries holding key roles in development and sales. Previously she held positions at several global companies, including Club Med North America, World Travel Holdings, Norwegian Cruise Line, and Oracle Corporation. In addition to her executive duties, Olivere finds time to raise funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and was chosen as Fort Lauderdale's 2019 Woman of the Year, acknowledging her efforts.

"The addition of Camille to our executive team brings extensive years of experience, both inside and outside of the hospitality space. We are looking forward to her driving our sales and marketing to new heights," said Derek Fournier, President, and Chief Executive Officer, DeCurtis Corporation. "She has a proven track record of success which we are certain will support and advance our mission and vision for our clients across all sectors."

Olivere will officially join DeCurtis Corporation as its Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing on July 13, 2020.

Decurtis is a provider of location and proximity enabled solutions in complex indoor environments with a focus on health, safety and security, operational enhancement, and experience evolution
Virginia Roberts has accused Ghislaine Maxwell of masterminding the abuse of young women - Miami Herald/Getty Images Contributor

Ghislaine Maxwell was worse than Jeffrey Epstein and masterminded the alleged abuse of women and young girls, one of his victims has claimed.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre said she met Maxwell when she was 16 years old and alleged that the British heiress arranged for her to have sex with Prince Andrew three times when she was 17. The prince and Maxwell have adamantly denied the accusations.

Ghislaine was much more conniving and smart than Epstein ever was, Ms Giuffre, who now lives in Australia, told CBS News.

I know that woman. Ive known her really well. Put it this way  Epstein was Pinocchio, and she was Gepetto.

Ms Giuffre, now 36, said she believes Maxwell "did it to keep Jeffrey happy" and "because she loves the control over people."

"Jeffrey was a sick pedophile. But she was the mastermind," she said.

Ghislaine Maxwell appears via video link during her arraignment hearing where she was denied bail for her role aiding Jeffrey Epstein - JANE ROSENBERG/Reuters

She called Maxwells arrest two weeks ago on charges that she recruited girls for longtime associate Epstein, a momentous moment. Its one of those life moments that Ill never forget, she said.

Ms Maxwell is being held in the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, on charges she helped lure at least three girls, one as young as 14, to be sexually abused by the late millionaire financier.

On Tuesday she pleaded not guilty to charges of trafficking and procuring young victims.

Maxwells lawyers have argued she has been a victim of media spin, and that she has been made a scapegoat since the death of Epstein by suicide in his prison cell last year.

Ghislaine Maxwell is not Jeffrey Epstein, Mark Cohen, her attorney, told a Manhattan court on Tuesday.

"The media focus quickly shifted to our client - wrongly trying to substitute her for Epstein - even though (she) had never been charged with a crime or been found liable in any civil litigation and has always denied any allegations of claimed misconduct," her lawyers said.
By Foo Yun Chee and Marine Strauss LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Europe's highest court ruled on Thursday that a transatlantic data transfer deal is invalid because of concerns about U.S. surveillance in a decision that could disrupt thousands of companies that rely on the agreement. The ruling effectively ends the privileged access companies in the United States had to personal data from Europe and puts the country on a similar footing to other nations outside the bloc, meaning data transfers are likely to face closer scrutiny. The so-called Privacy Shield was set up in 2016 by ...
Full registration for NECA 2020 LIVE will be available Aug. 3 at the following prices.

$200 per individual registrant for NECA members before Sept. 15

for NECA members before $250 per individual registrant for NECA members after Sept. 15

for NECA members after $500 per individual registrant for non-members

for non-members Free registration is available for members of NECA Student Chapters

"We're in unprecedented times in 2020, and at NECA National we have a fiduciary responsibility to our members in order to help get them through this challenging economy," said NECA CEO David Long. "This pricing structure will allow our entire membership to register for NECA 2020 LIVE, and we feel this is an incredible value that enables companies to provide our cutting-edge education and industry-best exhibits to their entire staff in this difficult year."

In planning the virtual convention, NECA is focusing on a "Five-Star Approach" to create a brand new experience. NECA 2020 LIVE is designed to Educate, Engage, Entertain, Excite, and Expand.

"This virtual convention is going to be a unique experience, unlike any NECA has done before, and we will surpass the level of quality our members have come to expect from our organization," Long said. "I'm so excited about the experiences and education we are going to provide attendees, and the fact that this will lead to a whole new audience of contractors and other industry professionals being exposed to what NECA has to offer."

AN ENTIRE CONVENTION AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

Thanks to innovative technology and the convenience afforded by a virtual convention, attendees will find NECA 2020 LIVE to be more connected than ever. Those attending education sessions will find the highest quality of instructors in NECA Convention history. With figures ranging from the powerful leadership speaker Alex Willis, to the communications maverick Sima Dahl and the thought-provoking Dr. Gustavo Grodnitzky, education at NECA 2020 LIVE will be better than ever. David Meade will serve as emcee, guiding attendees through the Convention and presenting on topics such as leading and selling in a virtual environment, the psychology of persuasion, and body language.

Additionally, through the NECA 2020 LIVE virtual platform, attendees can experience every single minute of education offered, along with other talks and general sessions, with archived recordings available for viewing 30 days after the fact.

NECA provides the best trade show floor in the industry, and that is not changing with NECA 2020 LIVE. Attendees will find a robust virtual exhibit hall experience, where they can interact directly with exhibiting company executives as well as other attendees, download product information into a virtual swag bag, attend trade show education and new product demonstrations, enter for a chance to win big prizes in our daily "Play to Win" game, and much, much more.

Finally, the first 1,500 full NECA member registrants for NECA 2020 LIVE will receive a special "Swag Box," featuring items such as a tote bag, lighted glasses, earbuds, and more!

NECA 2020 LIVE AT A GLANCE

Here is an overview of what attendees and NECA members can expect each day from NECA 2020 LIVE.

Monday, Oct. 5

- 10 a.m.  12 p.m.: Green Energy Challenge

- 1 p.m.  4 p.m.: NECA Board of Governors Meeting

Tuesday, Oct. 6

- 9 a.m.: Fireside Chat with NECA CEO David Long

- 10 a.m.  3:55 p.m.: Trade Show

- 10:15 a.m.  3:55 p.m.: 28 Education Sessions

- 12 p.m.: Bourbon and Chocolates sponsored by Graybar

- 4:30 p.m.: Opening Reception featuring the Milwaukee Tool Shed Band

Wednesday, Oct. 7

- 9:30 a.m.: General Session speaker Victoria Arlen, ESPN host and Paralympic athlete

- 10 a.m.  3:55 p.m.: Trade Show

- 10:15 a.m.  3:55 p.m.: 28 Education Sessions

- 12 p.m.: Chili Recipe presentation by Chef George Rodrigues ("Chopped," "Beat Bobby Flay")

- 4:30 pm.: Prize drawings

Thursday, Oct. 8

- 9:30 a.m.: General Session speaker Retired Lt. Gen. Nadja West

- 10 a.m.  3:55 p.m.: Trade Show

- 10:15 a.m.  3:55 p.m.: 28 Education Sessions

- 1 p.m.: NECA Awards, Grand Prize Drawings

- 4:30 p.m.: Closing Reception

Registration will open Aug. 3 on www.necaconvention.org. Follow NECA on social media to stay up-to-date on all the latest news.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL ELECTRICAL CONTRACTORS ASSOCIATION

NECA is the voice of the $171 billion electrical construction industry that brings power, light, and communication technology to buildings and communities across the United States. NECA's national office in Bethesda, Md., and 118 local chapters advance the industry through advocacy, education, research, and standards development. Go to www.necanet.org for more information.

SOURCE National Electrical Contractors Association

Related Links

https://www.necanet.org


COUNCILLORS have unanimously backed a call to grant all Credit Union branches the right to become a building society  and offer mortgages.

At this months full council meeting, held in the Limerick Racecourse, the five members of the Adare-Rathkeale district saw a motion passed on the issue.

At the moment, it is not common practice for Credit Unions to offer loans for houses.

But local councillors have now decided to lobby the leaders of the major political parties in a bid to change this.

Fianna Fail councillor Kevin Sheahan, a founder member of the Askeaton Credit Union, said: The Credit Union movement in Ireland has become very strong. The word is they are in a lot of funds at the moment. We have couples going around unable to persuade banks to lend to them for houses. The same people are members of Credit Unions and probably have significant savings in them.

He said many local Credit Unions are offering loans of six figures.

Its marvellous to see that. But the people who need 150,000 to buy a house or 180,000 to buy a house have good savings, and they need borrowings for a mortgage. The Credit Union should be licensed by the State to give mortgages. There would be no compulsion on Credit Union to exercise this option. But it would be an option for them to apply to the Department of Finance and get their licence, he said, If they are in funds, it would be a healthy exercise. They are encouraging people to borrow money, but the type of money that's wanted is not available because of Department of Finance regulations.

His motion was seconded by Fine Gael councillor Stephen Keary.

I see young couples seeking to build their own home and it's impossible, he told the meeting.

Newcastle West-based councillor Tom Ruddle, an auctioneer by trade, has experienced the sharp end of problems with mortgage lending.

He spoke of how a couple came into his offices, having saved up half the money for their home.

They had seen a mortgage granted, but then the bank pulled the plug as they had switched to the Covid-19 job retention scheme.

They were obviously very upset, he said, We have to have competition and in the banking sector, and a Credit Union offering this would be ideal.

Another auctioneer, Cllr Gerald Mitchell also supported the call, as did the Mayor of Limerick, Cllr Michael Collins, who also works in this sector.

The motion was submitted by Cllrs Sheahan, Keary, Bridie Collins, Emmett OBrien, John ODonoghue and Adam Teskey.
press release

Media Statement

Office of the Provincial Commissioner KwaZulu-Natal

DURBAN - Police in Montclair are appealing to the community to assist with regards to a missing child. Amanda Phungula (15) was reported missing after she disappeared from her home at Curlew Crescent in Yellowwood Park on 24 June 2020 at 13:00. She attends Mowart Park High School. She was last seen wearing a black leggings, a navy blue jacket with red print on the shoulders and a pink pair of sneakers. She is tall, average build, and light in complexion.

Anyone with information on her whereabouts is urged to contact the investigating officer, Sgt Finn on 082 334 2141/ 82 930 8615 or Crime Stop on 08600 10111.
You dont have to spend a lot to get a great tasting, everyday wine. You just need to know what bottle to buy. So, heres a round-up of seven delicious bottles under $15 to set you up for summer sippingstarting with a terrific pizza wine thats not Chianti.

That wine is 2017 Terredavino Barbera dAsti DOCG from Piedmont, Italy (LCBO 629840 $11.95). Barbera is the grape variety. Asti is the region. And this wine is the bees kneesjust a stunningly good wine. Expect a medium-bodied swirl of damson plum and black cherry that tastes clean, articulate and supremely drinkable thanks to its red berry undercurrent that keeps it juicy. And on the finish, quiet notes of warm wood, dried oregano, and black pepper leave the palate nicely seasoned. This wine is a steal and should be on hand for your next pizza night. Score: 94.

A brilliant wine thats new to the LCBO and actually alcohol-free is the NV Leitz Eins-Zwei-Zero Sparkling Rose from Germany (LCBO 12549 $12.95). Wines without alcohol can often taste flat and hollowbut not this bottle. It tastes lifted and pureluminous, evenwith bright raspberry and cranberry flavour while retaining the elegance and delicacy you want in a sparkling wine. The wine is sweet but well-balanced with vibrant acidity, so each sip finishes clean and dry-tasting. Serve this pure Pinot Noir with fried chicken and hot sauce for a treat. Score: 92

For a tangy but dry wine with 12.5 per cent alcohol, taste the 2018 Boya Sauvignon Blanc from Chile (Vintages 389726 $14.95). Chile is known for producing outstanding Sauvignon Blanc thats fresh and fruit forward. And this bottle is a fine example with compelling scents of sliced green apple and torn basil leaf that lead to a brisk attack of mouthwatering goodness. Damp herbs, lime oil, lemongrass and again that sliced Granny Smith character saturate the palate. Just a delightful find that goes marvelously with pesto anything. Score: 93

Also worth the dosh is the 2019 Spier Signature Chardonnay from Stellenbosch, South Africa (LCBO 487181 $12.50). In fact, Spier is one of the oldest wineries in South Africa dating back to 1692. It starts with invigorating scents of citrus confit that seem glossy and cool. Then it rushes in with full-bodied flavours that suggest lime and grapefruit with struck steel with crushed stone underpinnings that emerge on the finish. This wine by one of South Africas oldest wineries dating back to 1692 is an easy delight. Serve it with a handful of salted potato chips during happy hour or with pan-fried salmon with a cream sauce. Score: 89

Locavores who dont mind a kiss of sweetness in their wine will enjoy the 2017 Sue-Ann Staff Fancy Farm Girl Frivolous White, VQA Niagara Peninsula (LCBO 394072 $14.95). Its an Ontario Riesling that begins like a lick of lemon-sorbetall sweet-and-sourthen fans out with fleshy peach and crisp apple before tapering to a mango finish. This fruit-forward, easy-drinking white with just 11.5 per cent alcohol is delicious served cocktail style with coconut shrimp. Score: 89

An outstanding wine from Portugal is the NV Julia Florista Red from Vidigal Wines (LCBO 532358 $8.95.) Is exudes a lovely, heady perfume of sun-warmed violets then charms the senses with velvety flavours of muddled blackberries, poached plum, and cool chalk with earthy undertones. Pairs beautifully with charcuterie in the afternoonor a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. Score: 90

And to keep in the door of your fridge this time of year, theres NV Fresita Sparkling Wine from Chile (LCBO 56697 $13.95). Infused with hand-plucked strawberries and containing no artificial flavours or colours, this bottle of bubbly tastes like summertime in a glass. In fact, it has so much strawberry in it that a fine pulp settles in the bottom of the bottle. So, tip or swirl the bottle a bit before serving.

Each glass of Fresita tastes sweet and tartjust like a ripe, wild strawberry should. And aside from the obvious red berry goodness, mixed citrus notes lend interest too. Chill it down and pour it as a dessert wine with really good dark chocolate or strawberry shortcake for dessert. And yes, you could absolutely serve this wine on the rocks. Score: 93
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Ebenezer Oduro is urging that much premium is placed on advice given by local scientists in the fight against the coronavirus (COVID-19) scourge.



According to him, the over reliance on data generated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) may not augur well in countrys efforts at managing the pandemic as the virus behaves differently in different settings.



The President has said time and again that his decisions would be driven by science, so why should we wait for what the WHO says before we act when we have the human resource and capacity here? It is time for us to listen to our local scientists in unravelling the myths about this virus, he stated.



Prof. Oduro was speaking in an interview with the Ghanaian Times, during the launch of a five-year strategic plan and journal by the College of Health Sciences of the University of Ghana (UG), in Accra yesterday.



Both documents, aligned to the University strategic plan, are expected to guide the Colleges decision and actions towards institutional excellence.



The Vice Chancellor pointed out that when this virus begun, some of us said that due to its behaviour, we should wear masks right from the onset but WHO came to say that if you are not infected, do not wear. Some of us did not take kindly to it and here we are today.



Again, local scientists established that the virus was airborne because if you study the normal coronavirus that causes flu, it is airborne so in countries like Japan for instance, they wear masks every winter but that suggestion was shot down as well, yet, after the back and forth WHO has now sanctioned the wearing of masks.



While calling for an all hands on deck approach in controlling the spread of the virus, Prof. Oduro entreated Ghanaians to be disciplined by adhering to all outlined protocols.



It seems what the virus dislikes is indiscipline and we are lagging behind in that.We should wear the mask, observe social distance and abide by everything we have been told, if not, it will be difficult to control the spread, he said.



The Vice Chancellor also urged that the public refrain from stigmatising persons infected with the disease.



Provost of the College of Health Sciences, Rev. Prof. Patrick Ayeh-Kumi explained that the Colleges strategic plan was crafted to meet with changing demands within the health services as well as effectively respond to global research priorities.



The journal on the other hand, he said, would provide open opportunities for numerous scientific publications by faculty, staff and students of the college in line with the overall mission of the university to become a world class research institution.



Prof. Ayeh-Kumi courted the support of staff to successfully execute the strategic plan while encouraging them and students alike to ensure the journal serves the best interest of the public.

Source: The Ghanaian Times









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WELLINGTON, New Zealand - New Zealands opposition National Party suffered fresh setbacks ahead of a September election Thursday as two senior lawmakers announced their retirements, days after the shock resignation of party leader Todd Muller.

Mullers deputy Nikki Kaye and former finance spokesperson Amy Adams said they will not seek reelection at the Sept. 19 poll.

Both said their retirements arent related to the selection of conservative Judith Collins as Mullers successor. Kaye  a supporter of gay marriage and advocate for climate change policies  represents the liberal wing of the centre-right party but said she will campaign for Collins.

I believe Judith is absolutely the right leader for the party at this time and I will be supporting Judith and the party to win this election, Kaye said.

Adams had responsibility for the partys COVID-19 recovery portfolio under Muller but its removal with his departure led her to reaffirm her departure.

With Todd Mullers decision to resign the leadership the most important issue for our party was to get a strong and effective leadership team in place without delay and I am proud at the way in which the caucus managed this, she said.

The partys week of turmoil began Tuesday with Mullers shock resignation. The 67-year-old former businessman blindsided colleagues when he announced his resignation in an early-morning statement, citing health issues.

Muller had taken over the leadership 53 days earlier in a move prompted by the partys stagnant polling, but his tenure was short and troubled. Soon after his elevation he was photographed in his office among memorabilia which included a Make America Great Again cap and was accused of a dog-whistle to his partys right-wing supporters. He then named a shadow cabinet criticized for its lack of diversity; the highest-ranked person of colour was 17th.

Mullers greatest challenge came when a lawmaker leaked private health details of New Zealand COVID-19 patients to news media. It wasnt published and the lawmaker resigned, but Muller struggled to distance himself from the scandal.

National has also struggled against the popularity of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and the broad approval of her governments handling of the pandemic. New Zealand has gone weeks without a community-spread infection, nearly all lockdown restrictions have been lifted and public life has largely returned to normal.

Nationals pitch to voters has been that it has a more competent team than Arderns. But the departures of several high-profile MPs have begun denting that assertion.
Bachelor in Paradise star Abbie Chatfield has her heart set on finding love with Ciarran Stott.

But, it looks like the romance isn't meant to be after the 25-year-old was caught using the dating app Bumble.

On Thursday, a source shared Abbie's Bumble profile with Daily Mail Australia, proving that she is still on the hunt for Mr. Right.

Still searching for Mr. Right: Bachelor in Parsadise star Abbie Chatfield doesn't find love on Bachelor in Paradise as she is caught out using Bumble

In her profile picture on the dating app, the reality star is wearing a black long-sleeved blouse that features a large cutout showcasing her ample assets.

Abbie looks stunning with a full face of makeup featuring a bronze eyeshadow, pale pink lipstick and a sweeping of blush.

She has accessorised with a pair of pearl earrings and her long locks frame her face in loose curls.

Not sticking around: The rumour mill has gone into overdrive with gossip that the influencer leaves the Channel Ten dating show early

This comes after the rumour mill went into overdrive with gossip that the influencer leaves the Channel 10 dating show early.

And Abbie seemed to confirm rumours she leaves the reality show during a radio interview on Thursday.

Appearing on HIT Network's Stav, Abby & Matt, the 25-year-old addressed speculation she doesn't stick around.

The truth: Abbie seemed to confirm rumours she leaves the reality show early during a radio interview on Thursday. Pictured Abbie and Ciarran on Bachelor in Paradise

Host Abby Coleman brought up the gossip, asking Abbie if there is any truth to it.

Abbie quickly responded, saying: 'You know I can't answer how long I stay for.'

However, she did hint that if she does leave early, it could have something to do with her current love interest on the series, Ciarran.

'As you can see the only person I had my eyes on was Ciarran, so I mean maybe I'll talk to you guys once the show is over and I'll explain that one.'
National Youth Organizer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), George Opare-Addo has challenged his counterpart, Henry Nana Boakye (Nana B) to a public debate, "on any platform, anyway, and at anytime".



According to him, he will debate Nana B on issues that has a bearing on the youth and not the propaganda he has been speaking on.



There are so many things that we can speak to, and Im ready to openly debate Nana B on any platform, anyday anytime so that we speak to issues one by one, he said on Joy FM SMS.



Continuing, he said we must take them [debate] from sector by sector so that when we take education, we debate education issues properly and thoroughly; when we take health, we debate thoroughly too because every government policy has an effect on young people.



For instance, the banking sector clean up, do you know the number of people who lost their jobs. About 60 to 70% of these people who worked in these banks were young people. You cant introduce NABCO and say you have created jobsis that a sustainable job, does it give job security? he questioned.



Nana B on Wednesday said the NPP government has successfully introduced and implemented 60 oil percent youth policies and employed over the 200,000 youth.



Mr Opare-Addo said I said somewhere yesterday that I wasnt going to respond to what Nana B said because currently in Ghana there is hopelessness everywhere for young people.



The question is, why are young people disenfranchised, why are young people giving up on this country. Nana B is known for old fashioned politicsit is not new and its typical of NPP because the President engages in that kind of politics.



There are real issues confronting young people of this country. So when you say youve given jobs to young people, when you say that youve implemented 60 policies and you challenge a debate, our records speak loudly and clearly, he pointed out.



He emphasized "not once, not twice weve heard the number two, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia talks about NDC did nothing. Anytime the NPP talks, they talk about theyve done this, theyve done that.



What they forget is that, most of the so called policies they introduced or brought about, even the legal framework when President Kufuor started youth employment, there was no legal framework. It was the NDC that came to pass Act 887, that today the YEA has a legal framework that they operate on, he added.

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.

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Considering the speed at which Indian companies are sprinting in the race to find a coronavirus vaccine, Bill Gates' estimation does not seem far from the mark. Bill Gates said that India is capable of not only producing a COVID vaccine for the country but also for the world. He added that the Indian pharma industry is doing "a lot of important things". "India has a lot of capacity there -- with the drug and vaccine companies that are huge suppliers to the entire world. You know, more vaccines are made in India than anywhere -- starting with Serum Institute, that's the largest," he said at a documentary 'COVID-19: India's War Against The Virus' that will soon be aired on Discovery Plus.

After Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila, the green signal has been given for the trials of the BCG vaccine in Tamil Nadu. Moderna too, recently stated that the first phase of trials showed that the vaccine is safe. Moreover Oxford University and AstraZeneca are also likely to offer some positive results.

However, the question remains -- what happens after the coronavirus vaccine is developed? Some world leaders are already fighting to ensure there is no preferential treatment when it comes to availability of a COVID-19 vaccine. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for an equitable distribution of the eventual COVID vaccine.

"Vaccines save lives. That's why we're working here at home and with partners around the world to find one. And when we do, we must keep working together to make sure that people everywhere have access to it - because where you live should not determine whether you live," said Trudeau. South Korean President Moon Jae-in, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinder Ardern, South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa, Spanish President Pedro Sanchez are some of the other leaders who joined Trudeau to call on world leaders for equitable distribution of the coronavirus vaccine.

Also read: Coronavirus vaccine: Lakshmi Mittal donates 3.2 million pounds to Oxford Jenner Institute

CORONAVIRUS VACCINE UPDATE

BCG vaccine: The Tamil Nadu government has said that ICMR's tuberculosis institute has started trials to study the efficacy of the BCG vaccine against coronavirus. ICMR sought the government's approval to study the efficacy of the Bacillus Calmette-Gurin (BCG) vaccine in senior citizens at its National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis (NIRT) at Chetpet. The trials have already started. The ICMR is aiming to study if the BCG vaccine could reduce mortality rate in COVID-19 patients.

Zydus Cadila: The pharma company has started trials of its coronavirus vaccine candidate. "The Adaptive Phase I/ II human clinical trials of its plasmid DNA vaccine, ZyCoV-D commenced today with the first human dosing. The Adaptive Phase I/II dose-escalation, multi-centric study will assess the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of the vaccine," Zydus Cadilla said in a statement on Wednesday.

Moderna: The company has completed the first phase of its trials. The vaccine prompted production of coronavirus antibodies in the testers, preliminary findings state. Dr. Penny Heaton, chief executive of the Bill and Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute wrote in New England Journal of Medicine that the results are promising and support the continued development of the vaccine. "However, we must bear in mind the complexity of vaccine development and the work still to be done before COVID-19 vaccines are widely available," she said.

Oxford University-AstraZeneca: Positive news from the trials of the Oxford vaccine is likely to be out soon. The candidate is already in large-scale phase three trials. The developers of the vaccine said this month they were encouraged by the immune response they had seen in trials so far and were expecting to publish Phase 1 data by the end of July. A spokeswoman for Oxford University told Reuters that the team was awaiting confirmation from a scientific journal of a publication date and time for the data, but gave no further details.

Also read: Coronavirus vaccine: Zydus Cadila, Bharat Biotech start trials; Moderna enters final phase
High Court Judge James Wakiaga has disqualified himself from hearing the murder case of former Kabete MP George Muchai.

Justice Wakiaga succumbed to pressure from suspects in the case over alleged bias, Daily Nation reports. While recusing himself on Tuesday, the Judge said five suspects accused of killing Mr Muchai filed a complaint against him at the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) accusing him of gross misconduct and incompetence.

Wakiaga explained that the environment made it difficult for him to conduct a meaningful trial hence the decision to disqualify himself from the case.

The applicants main ground is that they were not granted bail. I find that there is no ground that can support the applicants appeal for recusal and the application is misplaced with the sole purpose of derailing the path of justice, said Wakiaga.

He noted that the five accused persons had walked out of his court on May 30, 2019, during trial immediately he rejected their bond review application.

They also shouted at the court and indicated that they would never be attending any further hearing before the same court.

Justice Wakiaga added that the accused had also shown remarkable disrespect to the court and made false and unfounded allegations against the character of the court which are defamatory in nature.

Since the said date of the walkout, this court has not been able to conduct any meaningful trial in this matter due to the conduct of the accused persons, as the record shows, he said.

While demanding his disqualification from the case in October of last year, the suspects, namely Simon Wambugu Gichamba, Raphael Kimani alias Kim Butcher, Kimani Anyonyi alias Musti, Stephen Lipapo alias Chokore and Erick Muyera alias Chairman, said they had lost confidence in Wakiaga.

We are not satisfied with this court. We have lost confidence in it and we want the judge to disqualify himself for being biased, they said.

The other two suspects, Jane Wanjiru Kamau alias Shiro and Margaret Njeri Wachuiri, said they had no problem with Justice Wakiaga and requested the case to proceed without further delay.

Justice Wakiaga directed the case file to be placed before the presiding judge of the criminal division for re-allocation to another judge for trial and determination.

In May, 2019, the suspects also accused Chief magistrate Francis Andayi of bias, forcing him to step down from the case that has dragged in court since the accused were charged with killing Muchai, his two bodyguards and his driver on February 6, 2015, in Nairobi.

All the accused persons have been in remand since March 2015 when they were charged with four counts of murder.
Tom Brenner/Getty

President Donald Trump has removed Brad Parscale as his campaign manager, installing instead Bill Stepien, his former second-in-command, in the role. Parscale had held the position since February 2018.

Parscale will remain a part of the campaign as a senior adviser overseeing digital operations, per a Facebook post from the commander-in-chief.

Brad Parscale, who has been with me for a very long time and has led our tremendous data and digital strategies, will remain in that role, while being a Senior Advisor to the campaign, Trump wrote.

Jared Kushner, the presidents son-in-law and senior adviser, delivered the news, according to ABC.

The move was the culmination of multiple elevations and additions to Team Trump earlier this year that amounted to alleviating Parscale of certain key responsibilities, even if he remained at the time as a campaign manager in title. For instance, Stepien and Jason Miller, another top Trump 2020 official who previously worked as a senior aide on the 2016 team and Trump presidential transition, had for weeks largely taken the helm on strategy, with Parscale generally focusing on duties that the president tweeted on Wednesday evening would remain in his portfolio after the demotion, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

In substance and assignments, this shakeup happened weeks ago, one of these individuals said. Difference [tonight] is that its now official in everyones titles.

For Stepien, this promotion was years in the making. In late 2017 and very early 2018, before Parscale was publicly announced as Trumps 2020 campaign chief, Stepien was on the shortlist for that job, with several of his allies in and out of the administration aggressively advocating to Trump and his inner circle that Stepien should be selected, three people with knowledge of this say. Apparently, this push became too forceful and irritating, as one of these sources characterized, and consequently chafed certain senior administration officials and top Trump advisers, partly contributing to Stepiens odds plummeting at the time, these sources said.

Story continues

The shake-up also comes at a time when the president has been polling poorly in recent months as his response to the new coronavirus has focused on reopening for business as usual and restarting the economy while cases and deaths continue to rise. Hes been largely unable to hit the campaign trail because of the virus. To date, more than 130,000 Americans have died of the virus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Ahead of Trumps June 20 rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, both Parscale and the president had boasted of more than a million signups for the event, a claim that proved embarrassing after footage from inside the arena showed entire sections of empty seats. The governor of Oklahoma, who attended the rally, has since tested positive for COVID-19, as have staffers of Trumps own campaign, extending the discussion of the event.

Parscale has weathered criticism for the better part of a year over his earnings from the campaign as he purchased large private properties and cars in Florida, where he lives. The former campaign managers company, Parscale Strategies, has been paid $16,682,477.82 by the campaign, the two Joint Fundraising Committees involving the campaign and the Republican Party, the Republican National Committee, and the convention committee since May 7. The Trump campaign and the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, a joint fundraising committee run by the campaign and the RNC, together paid nearly $700,000 to run more than 4,400 ads on Parscales Facebook and Instagram pages, according to the sites political ad archive.

-- Lachlan Markay contributed reporting

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Some Peterborough County politicians want clarity on whether mask wearing should be mandatory as more businesses reopen from the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

Peterborough Public Health is still considering the mandatory use of masks in the city and county, but as of Wednesday has not issued an order on it like some Ontario health units have done, including the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit.

Trent Lakes Mayor Janice Clarkson told The Examiner some people will only wear a mask if they see others wearing them.

I really, really wish the government would flat out say wear a mask, Clarkson said.

She does have some concerns now that more people are using marks.

I have a deaf granddaughter and she cant read lips with masks on, so we have to be very conscious that when somebody says I cant wear a mask, that theress a difference between I cant and I wont, Clarkson said.

Clear face shields would be a better option for those who are in job sectors where they must frequently interact with the public, she said.

Asphodel-Norwood Mayor Rodger Bonneau said he believes mandatory masks across the board is a public health initiative that needs to be put forward as the pandemic continues.

If each county township decided on their own whether or not to implement the rule of the mandatory use of masks, it could become confusing for local residents and visitors, he said.

So wed rather the health board make an initiative on their own and say yes or no, and then it would countywide, that way theres no misunderstandings, Bonneau said.

Selwyn Deputy Mayor Sherry Senis said she knows most regions have declared masks as a requirement.

Im not sure right now what direction that the medical officer of health is planning to go, but we will follow her lead, she said.

With more employers, including indoor bars and restaurants, allowed to reopen starting Friday, Peterborough County Warden J. Murray Jones said it will be good to get people back to work.

I think we all need to do our part to get our economy back in order again, but not to the point of causing the virus to spread, thats for sure, he said.

Bonneau said the reopening will benefit restaurants in Asphodel-Norwood.

Restaurants are a big thing in our area. If youre allowed 50 people inside now as long as youre social distancing, thats going to open up a lot of the seats available for restaurants in our area, he said.

While Stage 3 is good news for business owners, Senis said she hopes the public responds accordingly.

I think some of them (business owners) have been waiting I just hope that the public is responsible in the way they act, because if they arent, well end up taking steps backwards, she said.
MOUNTIES in Portage la Prairie are asking for help identifying four people in relation to a homicide investigation after determining the victims body was discarded days before it was found.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/7/2020 (552 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MOUNTIES in Portage la Prairie are asking for help identifying four people in relation to a homicide investigation after determining the victims body was discarded days before it was found.

RCMP released a new timeline in relation to last months killing of a man, whose identity remains unknown.

RCMP believe these individuals, who were seen in the Shell/Circle K store on Saskatchewan Avenue in Portage la Prairie June 20, may have witnessed suspicious activity regarding the killing.

Supt. Michael Koppang said its believed the body was placed near Baker Street on June 20 between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.

Officers had found the body on the evening of June 24 after a call to RCMP. They asked the public to help identify the victim, whom they described as 20- to 40-years-old, between 5-7 and 6-2 in height, with light brown hair and scoliosis of the spine.

Last week, Mounties said officers had reviewed all reports of missing persons in Canada, but none matched the description of the victim.

JESSE BOILY / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Superintendent Michael Koppang, Officer in Charge of Manitoba RCMP Major Crime Services speaks to media as the RCMP seek help in identifying homicide victim and potential witnesses.

On Wednesday, Koppang said people may have witnessed suspicious activity near the site four days prior to the remains being found.

"This new timeline is a significant development," he said. "We (are) asking anyone who was driving near Baker Street, or who resides close to the area and may have seen something suspicious in the early morning hours of June 20, to please also contact the tip line."

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The new timeline allowed RCMP to identify four people who were in a dark SUV at 4 a.m. on June 20. Video footage from the Shell/Circle K convenience store at 327 Saskatchewan Ave. in Portage la Prairie shows the four individuals.

Individual 1  Male, short dark brown hair, approximately 5-9, with tattoos on both of his forearms, neck and face, wearing a navy plaid shirt and black pants.

"At this time were only looking for help from the public to identify these individuals," said Koppang. "Based on the new timeline provided today, we believe they may have information that could assist and further our investigation."

One of the men has short dark brown hair, is 5-9 tall, with tattoos on both his forearms, neck and face, and was wearing a navy plaid shirt and black pants. The second male has short dyed blond hair, is six-feet tall, with tattoos on both arms. He wore a red and black ball cap, black T-shirt, black pants and brown boots.

Two females were also travelling in the SUV. One has long brown hair and is 5-6. The second female has long black hair, is 5-3 tall.

The public is asked to call the RCMP tip line at 431-489-8551 if they have information on the victim or the four individuals.

kellen.taniguchi@freepress.mb.ca
Netflix

Fatal Affair: Released Thursday, Nia Long plays a woman looking to make up with her husband after a compromising encounter with an old friend (Omar Epps), but she finds that the old friend is not going away easily.

Cursed: Katherine Langford (13 Reasons Why) is the star of this tale set in the world of King Arthur as the lady-in-the-lake character, and she knows how to wield her sword. Available Friday, July 17.

Fear City: New York vs. the Mafia: This docuseries shows how New Yorks five families mafia empires fell when the feds took them down in the 1980s. Available Wednesday, July 22.

Jack Whitehall: Im Only Joking: In his second stand-up special, filmed at Wembley Stadium, Whitehall tells stories both silly and shocking and attempts audience interaction with little success. Available Monday, July 20.

HULU


LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Since March, the UK lost about 650,000 jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic, despite the government's furlough scheme, official data showed Thursday.



The Office for National Statistics said early indicators for June suggested that the number of employees on payrolls fell around 650,000 compared to March. Although the number of payroll employees is still falling, the decline is slowing.



The statistical office said there were around half a million people temporarily away from work because of the pandemic and receiving no pay while their job was on hold.



In the three months to May, the jobless rate remained largely unchanged at 3.9 percent and well below economists' forecast of 4.2 percent.



At the same time, the employment rate rose 0.3 percentage points to 76.4 percent in the three months to May.



The number of unemployed increased by 55,000 from last year to 1.35 million in the March to May period.



Further, data showed that actual weekly hours worked decreased 16.7 percent annually between March and May, the largest fall since estimates began in 1971.



Average earnings, including bonuses, slid 0.3 percent annually, which was the first fall since mid-2014. Economists had forecast an annual decrease of 0.4 percent.



At the same time, annual growth in earnings, excluding bonuses, grew at a slower pace of 0.7 percent versus the expected growth of 0.5 percent.



Data showed that job vacancies during April to June were at the lowest level since the Vacancy Survey began in April to June 2001, at an estimated 333,000.



In June, the jobless claims decreased by 28,100 from the previous month, in contrast to an expected increase of 250,000.



The smaller-than-expected fall in employment in May and evidence that the first wave of joblessness in the coronavirus crisis ended in June shows that the furlough scheme has been effective in preventing a big rise in unemployment, Andrew Wishart, an economist at Capital Economics, said.



The big question is how large the second wave of unemployment will be when the furlough scheme is wound down, the economist added.



Low UK unemployment masks mounting job losses, James Smith, an ING economist said.



Job losses, unfortunately, appear to be rising, and recent data on the government's furlough scheme suggests that these redundancies are likely to be heavily concentrated among lower-paid workers, he noted.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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Scott Morrison has stated he wants to govern in the Howard tradition, but sadly that has also entailed adopting the worst of John Howards strategies: to admit or explain as little as possible. Recall the former prime ministers commitment to the Iraq war without parliamentary debate, the Tampa and children-overboard affairs, the Wheat Board scandal, and the bugging of the government of Timor-Leste, just to mention the most conspicuous cases.

Trial to be heard partly in secret: Barrister Bernard Collaery. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

There has never been a full accounting for these decisions. Indeed, in some cases there has been blatant cover-up. Moreover, there has been little discussion of the longer-term consequences. Successive governments since have acted as if they are beyond reproach.

In this vein, the Morrison government has avoided accountability for the sports rorts and other slush fund excesses. It is not commenting on ABC findings that Australian troops killed as many as 10 Afghan civilians during a 2012 raid in Kandahar Province, hiding behind an expected report from the Inspector-General of the Defence Force on alleged war crimes in Afghanistan. This begs the question of the appropriateness of the ADF investigating itself.

The government is also attempting to stop the Auditor-General providing evidence that was critical of their $1.3 billion deal to purchase a new combat vehicle from arms manufacturer Thales, some two years after having used extraordinary powers to redact aspects following complaints from an aggrieved Thales.
Harness horseman Scott Robbins sure figured out a way to surprise Standardbred industry followers last month.

Racetrack officials, horsepeople, handicappers -- heck, virtually everybody -- had to do a double take when the name 'Scott Robbins' appeared on the list of reinsmen set to drive during Hawthorne Race Course's June 1 qualifying session.

After having not raced since September of 1999, Robbins was in the bike for three drives during the June 1 session. He was back in the sulky for another three qualifying dashes a few days later (June 3) at the Illinois track.

On June 7 at the Chicagoland raceway, the 55-year-old pilot tasted victory in his pari-mutuel return. Robbins had four drives that night at Hawthorne, the first of which came aboard Louis Paisano. The duo was sent off as the public's second choice in the tilt, made the lead early, and then engineered a pocket ride through the middle half of the race. Robbins called on his charge in the final quarter, and the pair shot out to a three-length lead before cruising under the wire first in two minutes flat.

A handful of days later, a mention of Robbins' return was noted in a press release from the track -- an excerpt of which appears below.

The third driving story of the night came in Race 5. Race 5 was won by the talented trotter Lous Paisano in 2:00. Guiding Lous Paisano to the win was driver Scott Robbins. With over 1,000 lifetime victories and nearly $4 million in earnings, the name Scott Robbins was only familiar to those who followed Illinois harness racing in the '80s and '90s. Prior to Sundays win, Robbins' last pari-mutuel victory had come on September 18, 1998 at Maywood Park. Robbins will be seen much more in the coming weeks as he continues to pick up drives.

To this point in the COVID-19-affected season, Robbins has been in the stirrups for 30 pari-mutuel drives. He has notched a pair of victories and three third-place efforts -- not bad for a guy whose colours had been relegated to storage in a basement container for two full decades.

As Robbins recently explained to Kevin Hieronymus of Illinois' Bureau County Republican, he checked out some state fair racing last year, which renewed his interest in being at the controls of a thousand-pound athlete. Robbins threw some gas on that spark when he then attended the Night of Champions at Hawthorne later in 2019.

Fast forward a few months, and Robbins was unearthing his driving suit from its dormant state. Maybe the Good Lord knew more than I did, is why I kept them," Robbins explained to Hieronymus. "Its sort of neat, because I never even thought about going back until last year.

Robbins added, I said by next year when they open up in March, if I get back in shape and get a little more fit and I could fit back in my driving colours that I wore 20 years ago, I would give it a whirl.

And whirling he is.

Robbins explained how he had to get back in shape in order to make his return. Trimming down and cutting weight is no type of fun -- just ask, well, every single person that has ever attempted it. I had to lose some weight, eat healthier and stay more active," said Robbins, who added, "Anybody whos lost weight knows its not easy."

No matter how adept someone is at a craft, when a 21-year break is taken, there will anxiousness upon a return. Just ask Robbins.

First drive back, I was not crazy nervous, but nervous," Robbins stated, understandably. "It was my first drive in 21 years and the horse (Lous Paisano) won. It was pretty neat."

Robbins has stated that his return is no joke. He wants to steer horses, tally wins, and make it all worthwhile for his connections. I want to have success like I did the first time around, he said.

To read the Bureau County Republican article in its entirety, click here.

(With files from the Bureau County Republican)
(Photo : REUTERS/Vladimir Pirogov) A medical specialist wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) treats patients at a day hospital, which is located in a school gym and provides services free of charge, in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan July 16, 2020. The opening of the medical facility amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak was initiated by local businessmen, who currently provide its funding, which includes the purchase of pharmaceuticals, equipment and salaries payment. (Photo : REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration) A 3D-printed coronavirus model is seen in front of the words coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on display in this illustration taken March 25, 2020.

Viruses mutate, this is why the flu vaccine needs upgrading every year. However, since there are so many things that remain unknown about the coronavirus, learning that the virus is mutating just adds to our fears.

Scientists debunk the findings published in a prestigious journal Cell that the SARS-CoV-2 mutant strain is more transmissible after it was found in 78% of patients worldwide in July, which is a huge surge from 10% in March.

Columbia University virologist Vincent Racaniello said there is no evidence that the mutated SARS-CoV-2 strain has increased human transmission after the Cell study failed to provide proof. Racaniello added that the study is based on lab experiments that used a pseudovirus and not the actual SARS-CoV-2. To prove mutation has increased transmissibility requires studying how the actual mutant strain behaves inside a human.

Meanwhile, Yale University epidemiologist and virologist Nathan Grubaugh noted that lab and human transmissions have a huge gap. According to Grubaugh, a virus has to pass mucus and immune cells in the airway on its way to the lungs. It will then imitate itself and go back into the air via droplets. While the findings in the Cell study are reasonable, "there are so many other variables."

For one, the Cell study conducted its lab experiments with a pseudovirus, meaning the researchers did not use the real SARS-CoV-2 virus. To show that the mutation increases transmissibility, you would need to observe how the actual mutant behaves in people.

The COVID-19 Genomics UK consortium tracked the G614 mutation among British patients and analyzed more than 30,000 of genomes. The British consortium also found no evidence that G614 is making coronavirus infections more severe or more lethal. According to Imperial College London epidemiologist Erik Volz, G614 mutation can increase the transmission rate between people, but there is less disparity in laboratory findings.

G614 mutation: What we know so far

Cell study researchers, headed by biologist Bette Korber of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, cut and pasted the coronavirus's spike protein onto a lentivirus germ.

Research findings suggest that the mutation involving a single change in the "spike" protein could somehow improve the virus's ability to enter human cells and replicate. Korber explains that the "pseudoviruses" are a safe way to work with and compare viral spikes.

The scientists mixed these pseudoviruses with different types of kidney cells in test tubes. These include cells extracted from Vervet monkeys 60 years ago and those taken from humans in 1973. In this lab scenario, researchers found that a mutated spike is more infectious.

This has been easily picked up by the media earlier this month, which led to numerous alarming articles. The fact that the G614 mutation surged in months sounded like the virus has become more contagious.

Despite the seemly worrying findings, Racaniello said there is still no information as to how they could affect humans while Korber recognizes the limitations of their findings.

The G614 mutation was first spotted in China in January, just as the novel coronavirus is spreading across the globe.

Read also: COVID-19 Vaccine: All Participants in Moderna Vaccine Trial Produce Antibodies

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Wirecard's former boss borrowed nearly 32million from the German payments giant just months before its dramatic collapse, it has emerged.

Markus Braun received the personal loan from his company's banking arm in January, initially without the knowledge of Wirecard's group supervisory board.

When the group's board was informed, the cash had already been paid to Braun and directors were said to be 'furious', according to the Financial Times. Braun's lawyer said the loan was repaid in March.

Markus Braun received a 32m personal loan from his company's banking arm in January, initially without the knowledge of Wirecard's group supervisory board

Wirecard collapsed last month when auditors discovered a 1.7billion hole in its accounts.

Braun resigned and was arrested on suspicion of fraud by German authorities.

The 51-year-old is said to have asked for the loan from Wirecard Bank as part of his efforts to refinance a separate 136million personal loan from Deutsche Bank.

German regulator Bafin is said to be probing the loan and is examining whether it should have been told about it.

Wirecard declined to comment.
Kenyas flag carrier Kenya Airways among other budget airlines resumed domestic flights on Wednesday after implementing an array of safety measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

This came after Kenyan leader Uhuru Kenyatta ordered on July 6 the resumption of flights to save the East African nations fragile economy chocking under the impact of COVID-19 despite the growing number of infections.

Kenyan Transport Minister James Macharia flagged off the first flights from the Kenyan capital Nairobi heading to the towns of Mombasa and Kisumu in western Kenya.

"The local flights will act as a benchmark of our success, if this is not done correctly then the opportunity to fly internationally may be reversed."

Most of the passengers were business people and people who were stranded in Nairobi when Kenya imposed a lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Joseph Ogolla, a businessman locked in Nairobi told, Anadolu Agency: "We hope that business will come back to work as it used to be. I was locked in the city for three months, I am glad to be heading back home."

Passengers were cautioned to adhere to strict health and safety protocols that have been put at airports and onboard flights.

Kenya Airways announced that no meals will be served during the flights, noting that attendants and passengers physical contact will also be limited, and the planes have also been fitted with High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filtration systems to clean the air during flights.

To capitalize the capacity with the domestic flights resuming, Macharia said that there will be no social distancing inside the planes.

The Kenya government hopes the domestic flights will contribute to boost the countrys economy as it undergoes phased reopening with the easing of strict COVID-19 protective measures it implemented.

Kenya is set to start international air travel on Aug 1 which, coupled with domestic flights resumption, will hopefully revive the countrys tourism industry that is at a record low since the country announced its first COVID-19 case in February.

Image Credit:  AA
Sanctions leave no impact on Iran's defense achievements, defense minister says

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, July 15, IRNA -- Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami said on Tuesday that the Islamic Republic of Iran has always made progress despite sanctions, as they have had no impact on the country's defense accomplishments.

Condemning the US efforts to extend arms embargo against Iran, he said that the US statesmen are trying to extend arms embargos but they will never succeed.

Describing the US government's request for an extension of Iran's arms embargo as excessive and biased, he said that countries around the world would not support the US in this regard.

8072**2050

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For years, John Onwuchekwa was a rising star in the Southern Baptist Convention.

He attended a Southern Baptist seminary, spoke at the conventions national pastors conference, was befriended by SBC leaders, started a new SBC church in the west end of Atlanta, and helped recruit other black pastors to do likewise.

Onwuchekwa was part of the family and destined for great things.

Then he wasnt.

Last week, concerned about support for President Donald Trump among Southern Baptists and a lack of urgency in dealing with racial inequality, the pastor and his congregation decided it was time to leave.

The SBC liked me, he wrote, in announcing his decision to leave. But I feel like theyve failed people like me.

In recent years, evangelical groups have invested heavily in helping start congregations among communities of color, hoping to reach new people at a time when the United States is becoming more ethnically diverse. More than half of new congregations started by the SBCs North American Mission Board are diverse, according to an agency spokesman.

But the nations current political climate and national divides on matters of race may make it difficult for pastors like Onwuchekwa to ever feel truly at home. Yet financial ties to their denominations make it complicated to leave.

Onwuchekwa, who grew up in Houston, the son of Nigerian immigrants, said the SBC tried to make him feel welcome. But from the beginning, he had concerns.

We got on the bus with skepticism, nine years ago, he said.

In 2015, with help from several other churches, including an SBC congregation, and $18,000 of his own money, Onwuchekwa founded Cornerstone Church, a church plant in a predominantly African American community on the west end of Atlanta. The church is in a part of Atlanta that has made national news recently involving the police shooting death of Rayshard Brooks.

From the beginning, the congregation hoped to meet the spiritual needs of the community but also physical, emotional, and mental needs.

The church was started with three families who had a burden for the community, and now runs around 350 members before COVID-19 hit, he said.

When Cornerstone needed a building, the SBC helped the church get a loan. Last year, when the church wanted to renovate the building, it got a $175,000 grant from NAMB to assist with that. The grant was distributed through Blueprint Church, another local congregation that partnered with Cornerstone as a sending church. Blueprints pastor, Dhati Lewis, serves as one of the vice presidents at NAMB.

While things went well at Cornerstone Church, Onwuchekwa had concerns about what was happening in the broader denomination. When he brought up concerns about race or social justice, he said, they were downplayed.

The roadblock for me was that the urgency that I had for issues, others in the group didnt seem to have the same urgency, he said.

Onwuchekwa also pointed to SBC leaders who had close ties to Trump, as well as a controversy over a resolution to denounce the alt-right at the SBC 2017 annual meeting. At first, the SBC committee in charge of resolutions decided not to put the resolution to a vote. A revised version of the resolution was later approved.

Onwuchekwa was also concerned when critics of the SBCs Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and its leader, Russell Moore, tried to defund the group.

More recently, Onwuchekwa, who is also a council member of The Gospel Coalition, an evangelical group with Calvinist leanings, found himself having to defend his congregations ties to the SBC. Eventually, he felt those ties began to interfere with Cornerstones ministry.

Its kind of like the saying of the phrase the straw that broke the camels back, he said. One piece of straw isnt heavy. Its one added piece of straw thats the problem.

Mark DeYmaz, president of Mosaix, a network of multiethnic churches, said that as the United States becomes more diverse, so must congregations. Thats going to lead to challenges when people from different backgrounds are part of the same congregations.

Still, he said, churches have no choice but to become more diverse.

An increasingly diverse, polarized, and cynical society no longer finds credible a message of Gods love for all people as preached from segregated pulpits and pews, said DeYmaz.

Mike Ebert, a spokesman for NAMB, said the agency is committed to planting a diverse range of churches. The diversity of our denomination means a diversity of perspectives, and for that, we are grateful, he said. We see the need for the SBC to become more diverse so we can continue to grow in areas in which we are still lacking.

Kevin Ezell, president of the NAMB, expressed disappointment that Onwuchekwa and Cornerstone were leaving the denomination. Ezell said he loved them and would pray for them in the future. He said that there is a long history of ministry leaders working together for a time and then going their separate ways.

The Apostle Paul and Mark did some great work together, but then they chose to part, he said. They both were still proclaiming the gospel and working to expand Gods kingdom, and that is what is happening here.

Cornerstones departure may have financial complications. Ezell and Onwuchekwa have disagreed over whether Cornerstone should repay any of the grant it received for building renovations.

A few days after Onwuchekwa announced the churchs decision on Twitter, he and Ezell texted each other about the fallout from the announcement. That conversation led to Ezell bringing up the topic of money.

The SBC has been very generous in their investment in Cornerstone and you, Ezell told the pastor.

Ebert told Religion News Service that there was no written agreement saying Cornerstone would have to return grant funds if it left the SBC. But NAMB did expect that the church would remain part of the denomination.

We wouldnt invest in a church if we thought the commitment to the SBC was not there, he said.

Onwuchekwa initially told Ezell that he was open to repaying part of the grant. He said that, however, without first talking with church members and getting their approval. The pastor also began to feel that his integrity was being questioned if the church didnt return the funds.

If I ever felt like anyone would feel betrayed or undermined by me speaking my mind and following my conscience I never wouldve taken a dime, he said.

The pastor said he was also taken aback when Ezell suggested that he had a moral obligation to repay the grant. Onwuchekwa said the denomination itself, which was founded by slaveholders, has obligations of its own, especially when it comes to race. He pointed to a recent report from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary that detailed the schools founders ties to slavery and white supremacy and said the denomination has not done enough to reckon with the long-term consequences of that history.

I think theres a different conversation surrounding moral obligations that needs to be had by the SBC, Onwuchekwa said.

In the end, he said, the church could not in good faith remain part of the SBC.

Have I become the enemy because Im telling the truth? he said. I thought the mark of a good friendship was telling the truth.
Something to look forward to: As CPU core counts continue their upward trend, there's been a pressing need to improve DRAM bandwidth as well. DDR5 SDRAM will quadruple capacity per die and double the effective bandwidth, all while lowering power consumption thanks to architecture refinements.

The JEDEC Solid State Technology Association has announced the final DDR5 memory specification with a series of significant upgrades over the previous standard that is now over six years old and in dire need of a worthy replacement. After all, the standards body took two years more than originally planned to align what's coming next to the growing needs of system manufacturers.

Must read: Anatomy of RAM

The DDR5 SDRAM standard quadruples the density of DDR4, going from 16 Gb per die to 64 Gb. This will allow manufacturers to make DIMMs with capacities going all the way up to 2 TB. In terms of maximum data rate, DDR5 will offer 6.4 Gbps, or double the data rate of DDR4. However, the first modules to hit the consumer market will only be capable of reaching 4.8 Gbps, which is still a significant improvement over the 3.2 Gbps maximum of DDR4.

The power requirements have been lowered as well. The standard operating voltage is 1.1 V on DDR5 versus 1.2 V needed for DDR4. And while that may seem rather small, there are several architectural improvements that will simplify motherboard designs, while retaining the same 288 pin count.

DDR5 SDRAM modules won't be compatible with current DDR4 slots. Individual DIMMs will have to come with an integrated voltage regulator -- JEDEC calls this the "pay as you go" philosophy where manufacturers will only need to purchase as many voltage regulators as the number of DIMMs that are installed in the end systems. It's not entirely clear at this point, but this could also improve yields as well as power consumption, particularly for data center applications.

Interestingly, every DDR5 DIMM will work in dual-channel mode by itself, as the memory banks are now addressable on two independent 32-bit sub-channels (40-bit for ECC memory), which is a similar design to GDDR6 and LPDDR4 memory.

Furthermore, the burst length for each of those channels has been increased from 8 bytes (BL8) to 16 bytes (BL16), meaning DDR5 SDRAM will be able to perform two 64 byte operations in the same amount of time it takes for DDR4 SDRAM to perform a single one.

The earliest we can expect to get our hands on platforms with DDR5 support is Q4 2021-Q1 2022. Companies like Micron and SK Hynix are already sampling DDR5 with industry partners and mass manufacturing of DDR5 memory is expected to start later this year.
British spies were able to detect a Russian cyber attack on a university involved in testing for a coronavirus vaccine after installing a security shield around the facility, it emerged last night.

Intelligence services feared a possible hacking attempt in March as the pandemic spread throughout the country, as reported by The Times.

A cyber-shield was installed by National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), a division of GCHQ, who later detected an attack from hacker group Cozy Bear, also known as Advanced Persistent Threat 29 and the Dukes.

It is not clear if the group - who are thought to be closely allied to the Russian state - managed to secure any information.

It comes after the UK, US and Canada issued a bombshell joint statement yesterday afternoon claiming a hacking group called APT29, also known as Cozy Bear, is engaged in an ongoing campaign of 'malicious activity'.

Security chiefs believe the group is 'almost certainly' operating as part of Russian Intelligence Services, with officials confident the Kremlin has given the green light for the activity.

The three nations believe the purpose of the Russian attacks is to steal intellectual property so that Moscow can develop a coronavirus vaccine first or at least at the same time as the UK, US and Canada.

Targets have included Oxford University and Imperial College London, which are undertaking world-leading work to develop a vaccine. Security sources said the sophisticated espionage attacks were authorised at the highest levels of the Russian regime, and may have been ordered by Vladimir Putin himself.

Paul Chichester, director of operations at the National Cyber Security Centre, urged organisations involved in coronavirus research to shore up their defences.

He added: We condemn these despicable attacks against those doing vital work to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

Working with our allies, the NCSC is committed to protecting our most critical assets and our top priority at this time is to protect the health sector.

The statement is likely to provoke a diplomatic firestorm and worsen already strained relations between the UK and Russia.

The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman said the cyber attacks against scientists are 'despicable'

The NCSC has concluded that APT29 'almost certainly operate as part of Russian Intelligence Services'. Russian President Vladimir Putin is pictured in Moscow on July 16

The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman said: 'The attacks which are taking place against scientists and others doing vital work to combat coronavirus are despicable.

'Working with our allies, we will call out those who seek to do us harm in cyber space and hold them to account.'

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) today detailed the activity of the APT29 group.

The NCSC has concluded that APT29 'almost certainly operate as part of Russian Intelligence Services'.

The organisation's assessment has been backed by the US Department of Homeland Security, the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency and the National Security Agency as well as by the Canadian Communication Security Establishment.

The NCSC said APT29's 'campaign of malicious activity is ongoing' and it is 'predominantly against government, diplomatic, think-tank, healthcare and energy targets to steal valuable intellectual property'.

NCSC Director of Operations, Paul Chichester, said: 'We condemn these despicable attacks against those doing vital work to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

'Working with our allies, the NCSC is committed to protecting our most critical assets and our top priority at this time is to protect the health sector.

'We would urge organisations to familiarise themselves with the advice we have published to help defend their networks.'

The NCSC said that such attacks had been happening 'throughout 2020' and that APT29 had 'targeted various organisations involved in COVID-19 vaccine development in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom'.

The organisation said it is 'highly likely' the intention of the attacks was to steal information and intellectual property 'relating to the development and testing of COVID-19 vaccines'.

The NCSC has previously warned that APT groups, which stands for Advanced Persistent Threat, have been targeting organisations involved in both national and international COVID-19 responses.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the UK will work with its allies to 'hold perpetrators to account' as he demanded an end to the cyber attacks.

Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, said the cyber attacks were 'completely unacceptable'

He said: 'It is completely unacceptable that the Russian Intelligence Services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

'While others pursue their selfish interests with reckless behaviour, the UK and its allies are getting on with the hard work of finding a vaccine and protecting global health.

'The UK will continue to counter those conducting such cyber attacks, and work with our allies to hold perpetrators to account.'

The NCSC was set up in 2016 to boost the UK's cyber security defences and is part of GCHQ. It is the UK's lead technical authority on cyber security.
Srinagar:

Escalating the tension between Pakistan and India bilateral relationship, gunfight again started at Wangam (Shopian, J&K) between 62-RR, police, in which A two army personnel got injured,and one terrorist killed. The operation ended at 7:17 AM on Monday morning. Injured soldiers have been evacuated and their condition is said to be stable.A

Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist was killed and two army personnel were injured in an encounter in south Kashmir's Shopian district, police informed. "An encounter broke out between security forces and militants at Wangam in Shopian after the security forces launched a search operation following specific intelligence inputs," a police official said. In the gun battle, one militant identified as Sadam Hussain Mir, a resident of Chatripora Shopian, belonging to Hizbul Mujahideen, was killed, the official said.

Security forces have recovered one assault rifle, five AK47 magazines, 119 AK 47 rounds and one hand grenade, the official said.

Shopian (J&K): Encounter between security forces & terrorists ends - 1 terrorist gunned down, 2 jawans injured (visuals deferred) pic.twitter.com/WhAyCK3emm a ANI (@ANI_news) November 7, 2016

On Sunday also, two army jawans were killed and three others - two soldiers and a woman -- were injured as Pakistani army opened fire in a bid to facilitate two infiltration bids along the Line of Control (LoC) in Krishna Ghati and Poonch sectors of Poonch district.

The Indian army said that while the infiltration bids were foiled, it has also inflicted heavy damage to several Pakistani posts across the Line of Control in Poonch sector. Two infiltration bids assisted by Pakistan ceasefire violation was foiled in Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch.

The Army foiled two infiltration bids on the intervening night of November 5, 6 along Line of Control (LoC) in Krishna Ghati Sector.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Detectives from the Mt. Pleasant Police Department continue to investigate the shooting death Wednesday morning, but announced no new developments Thursday.

Chad Kuzma, 33, of Mt. Pleasant, was killed in what was described by the person who called Central Dispatch as a homicide in a trailer at the Bradley Trailer Park, 505 S. Bradley St. on Mt. Pleasants west side.

When police arrived at approximately 2:53 a.m. Wednesday, they found Kuzma already dead. Another man, 25 years old, was wounded but alive. Police previously said that the 25-year-old man is not believed a suspect.

Mt. Pleasant Police spokeswoman Autume Balcom said Thursday afternoon that no further details were available at the time. That includes whether police have determined a motive for the shootings, and whether a suspect or even just a person of interest had been determined.

The detectives are still working the investigation, she said in an email.

It is the second shooting death in Mt. Pleasant in 2020. The first was in late April, when Raven Tre-Von Edelen, who called himself Ray Nori, was shot while playing video games in a Campus Habitat apartment on the 700 block of Edgewood Drive on Mt. Pleasants south side.

The two are unrelated, and two men are in the Isabella County Jail awaiting Aug. 4 preliminary exams. Both were charged with open murder.

They are also the first homicides since the March 2018 shooting deaths on Central Michigan Universitys campus.

READ MORE:
To Be and To Have (France, 2002)

Netflix DVD only

(PG-13)

Grade: A

The Whistling Season, 2006

Book by Ivan Doig

Grade: A

In the 2013-2014 school year, only 200 one-room schools remained in the country  and 67 of those were in Montana.

Ive always marveled at one-room teachers. All subjects? All grades? Every day? How? All teachers should bow down to the maestros conducting those little schools on the prairie.

The rest of us are not worthy.

Professor and photographer Keith Graham from the UM School of Journalism has preserved one-room schools in his beautiful book, Chasing Time: The Last of Montana's One-Room Schools. He took his camera to schools from Yaak, to Polaris to Bloomfield.

I wanted to document a piece of our history before it disappears from the landscape, said Graham. His book has 240 photos.

Hop in. Lets visit a couple one-room schools, shall we? First a book, then a movie.

Ivan Doig, 1939-2015, was born in White Sulphur Springs and graduated in a class of 21 in Valier, Montana. His books capture rural life in Montana in intimate, loving detail.

Doigs novel The Whistling Season is a portrait of a fictional school, near the Marias River north of Great Falls around 1909. Oliver, a widower with three sons, sees an ad seeking a job as a housekeeper: Cant cook, but doesnt biteA-1 housekeeper, sound morals, exceptional disposition.

Who could resist? Shes hired.

The lady is Rose, and she arrives on the train with her brother, Morris. Rose restores order in the home even though, as threatened, she never cooks.

When the lady teacher runs off to get married, Morris is hired as the new master of the one-room schoolhouse.

Narrated by Paul, the smartest boy in the school, Whistling Season paints an intimate portrait of the school, from flag-raising to Latin verbs to Halleys Comet. The arrival of the comet, on its once every 75-year visit, serves as the celestial arc over the story. Mark Twain arrived with Halleys comet, and was carried away the next time it visited. Morris tells us so.

Doig gives us detailed descriptions of each student ranging from the lazy eighth grade boys to the precocious sixth grader Barbara, who renames herself RabRab.

At home, the boys become quite fond of Rose. Dad warms to her, too, although still grieving the loss of his wife, buried nearby.

Morris is the encyclopedic teacher who seems to know everything about anything. Most of the story is an affectionate tribute to Montanas past  its small towns, its small schools, its big gossip. A lovely read.

The 2002 French documentary To Be and To Have is a beautiful documentary about a one-room French schoolhouse in Frances rural Auvergne region. We follow a quiet, loving teacher through his 35th and final year of teaching. A more patient, unselfish teacher we will never meet.

Each day begins with the van picking up kids and delivering them to school where they are warmly greeted by Georges Lopez.

Lopez kneels beside a girl struggling with a lesson. He stays with her until she understands, and affirms her. He teaches clumsy boys to crack eggs and flip the omelet in the pan. He takes the kids sledding.

One student may be autistic, requiring extra care. The playground includes fights, of course. Tell him youre sorry. Im sorry.

Lopez imparts lessons beyond books.

Sickness is a part of life, he empathizes. It comes along and we deal with it.

The camera visits kids homes, where parents sit with their kids, helping with homework.

And then comes the end of the year, and the end of a career as well -- poignant hugs, final goodbyes. One girl is sad that shes leaving her beloved  and, so far, only -- teacher. Lopez reassures her he would welcome a visit. Shes in tears, and his eyes are moist as well.

Two one-room schools. One in Montana and one in France. But both overflowing with love from teachers who are following their calling, and transforming lives.

I love working with the children, says Lopez, affirming what we have witnessed, in exquisite detail.

Photographer Graham met many such dedicated teachers as he snapped his shutters on Montana one-room treasures before their doors are shuttered. He visited a school with one student, with a younger sibling poised to double its size next year.

I dont know what these students would do without these schools, said Graham. If one closes, a one-mile walk becomes a 33-mile bus ride. The schools are the heartbeat of their community. Teachers bring such love to class every day.

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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Jul. 15, 2020 | PADUCAH

By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 15, 2020 | 09:15 PM | PADUCAH

Boy Scout Deacon Jones, a junior at McCracken County High School, is putting final touches on his submission for Eagle Scout. Deacon, member of Lone Oak Scout Troop 2200, has totally restored two McCracken County Historical Markers. He started the restorations late summer 2019 and enlisted help from fellow scouts and family members. He followed the strict guidelines to refurbish the markers. The Chief Paduke and Paducah Pictorial markers are two of over 80 official Kentucky Historical Society markers in McCracken County. He finished painting the projects late last fall and the Kentucky Department of Transportation installed the markers to their original locations on Jefferson and on Broadway.



Since then he has also organized cleaning a dozen markers, painting poles, updating an inventory of those most in need of repair and on Wednesday he mailed letters to local churches and temple who have markers on their properties. The letter shares information for guidelines and contacts if their markers are in need of repair.



When asked why he chose this as his Eagle project, Deacon said, This is my hometown and I wanted to inspire others to learn more about our history and make our community an even better place to live. We all need to be involved.



McCracken County Historical Marker Coordinator Ro Morse said, "Deacon is such a hard working young man. His enthusiasm and determination to complete this project have been inspiring. It's encouraging to see his generation interested enough in local history to maintain the integrity of these historical markers. He involved other scouts to help with the project and organized times to clean additional markers. It's been a privilege to work with him."



Deacon has been actively involved in Scouting for ten years. He is the son of Eric and Heather Jones.
The Pennsylvania Senate unanimously approved a bill to revamp Pennsylvanias probation system Wednesday, a step criminal justice reform advocates have long awaited.

Advocates and lawmakers have said the probation system is preventing people from rebuilding their lives and wasting millions of taxpayer dollars. Rapper Meek Mill drew attention to the system after a Philadelphia judge sentenced him to prison for a probation violation in 2017 arising from a decade-old gun and drug possession case. Following a public outcry, he was released after five months.

The Senate passed the bill (SB 14) with a 50-0 vote. State Sen. Anthony Williams, D-Philadelphia, the prime sponsor of the bill, cast his vote remotely and urged lawmakers to support the bill, even as he battles the coronavirus.

This legislation will immediately improve the lives of many Pennsylvanians trapped in an inequitable probation system, Williams said. I am proud to stand today with a coalition of legislators and interest groups spanning the ideological spectrum, who have worked tirelessly to keep SB 14 moving forward.

Lawmakers and advocates say too many people are trapped in the probation system for too long and too often end up back in jail for technical violations, such as missing appointments with probation officers or falling behind in paying fines. In some instances, those individuals have years added to their probation sentences, which makes it harder for them to find work, advocates and lawmakers say.

Unlike Pennsylvania, most states have defined limits for probation terms, reform advocates say. Gov. Tom Wolf has urged lawmakers to pass legislation to reform the probation system.

Across Pennsylvania, about 178,000 people are on probation, according to state data. New York has only half as many on probation.

Advocates say reforming the probation system could potentially make communities safer. The state can focus its manpower and money on monitoring those who truly need supervision, as opposed to those who are staying out of trouble.

Probation officers have said they support shorter sentences, arguing that if individuals have stayed out of trouble for two years, they typically no longer need court supervision.

The bill aims to reduce probation sentences by establishing hearings after a certain amount of time depending on the offense.

Under the bill, there would be a mandatory probation review conference before a judge after three years for those convicted of misdemeanors. The conference would take place within five years for felony convictions. In those conferences, there would be a presumption that the probation sentence would be ended if the individual is staying out of trouble.

In addition, the measure calls for offering credits to reduce sentences for those who have taken steps such as holding a job or completing a degree. Advocates called the incentives an important step in reforming the system.

In this November 2019 photo, state Rep. Jordan Harris, D-Philadelphia, speaks at a probation reform rally in the state Capitol. Gov. Tom Wolf joined other criminal justice advocates in pushing for reform to Pennsylvania's probation system. Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com

The REFORM Alliance, a criminal justice reform group co-founded by Mill, backed the legislation. Jessica Jackson, the organizations chief advocacy, officer, hailed the passage of the bill as a significant step in reforming a broken system.

This legislation is going to change the way probation works, taking it from a system that traps people in a cycle of poverty and incarceration to one that gets people the support they need to succeed in their communities, Jackson said in a statement. The unanimous passage of this legislation is a major milestone in the fight for a fairer and more effective justice system in the Commonwealth.

Some advocates for probation reform, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, view the bill as a major disappointment. The ACLU said the bill lacks a key provision sorely needed to truly reform the system: hard caps on sentences limiting how long people can spend on probation.

The ACLU opposes the Senate bill. Reggie Shuford, executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said the bill isnt just flawed but could make it worse for those trying to get out of the probation system.

The Legislature can no longer get away with gaslighting Pennsylvanians about their attempts at reform. The reality is that this bill makes probation worse, Shuford said in a statement. It will keep poor people on probation indefinitely because they are unable to pay their restitution. It will make it easier to incarcerate people for technical violations of probation. And, the bill creates a far more convoluted and restrictive process for terminating probation than current law provides.

Williams, who had initially demanded hard caps on probation sentences, acknowledged compromises had to be made to take some steps to improve the system.

No single piece of legislation is perfect, such is the democratic art of compromise and negotiation, Williams said in a statement. However the protections and incentives contained in this bill will result in more fair and just community supervision that truly enhances public safety.

Williams said he hopes the legislation can be a start to more meaningful probation reform in the future.

State Sen. Dave Arnold, R-Lebanon, voted for the bill but said he didnt view it as a first step. Arnold is a former Lebanon County district attorney. Prosecutors have said they dont want uniform caps on probation sentences but support judicial hearings to review and shorten sentences when appropriate.

This in my mind is closer to the final step than being a first step, Arnold said. He added those on probation should earn their second chance, not get it handed to them.

The effort to reform the probation system has drawn bipartisan support, increasingly a rarity in the Pennsylvania Capitol.

State Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Washington, is the co-sponsor of the bill and has worked with Williams to move it through the legislature. She said she hopes the governor signs the bill this year.

Probation is supposed to be a pathway out of the criminal justice system, Bartolotta said.

The system has frequently become a probation-to-prison revolving door that is not making our neighborhoods safer, but separating individuals from their jobs, schools, communities and families, she said. By matching the punishment to their offense and rewarding good behavior, this legislation moves us towards our ultimate goal of rehabilitating offenders and restoring communities.

Conservative-leaning organizations such as the Commonwealth Foundation and Americans for Prosperity have also pushed for probation reform. Ashley Klingensmith, the Pennsylvania director of Americans for Prosperity, called the bill a good step toward helping people get a second chance.

Too often, Pennsylvanias probation system sets up individuals for failure, not success, she said. The community supervision period should be an opportunity to help citizens get back on their feet, but too often it traps people in a cycle of going back to prison for minor infractions of their probation. These types of sanctions do not increase public safety and hold individuals back from reentering society.

A similar measure is pending in the state House of Representatives. State Reps. Sheryl Delozier, R-Cumberland, and Jordan Harris, D-Philadelphia, sponsored the House legislation.

More from PennLive on probation reform

Pa. lawmakers want fewer people on probation; heres how other states are doing it

Pa. corrections chief says smarter probation system would reduce prison population

Reforming the Pa. probation system: Its time to stop paying for failure, advocates say

Inspired by Meek Mill, Michael Rubin sets a goal: Get 1 million people out of the criminal justice system

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.
Australia will continue to strongly advocate the freedom of navigation through the East Sea (internationally called the South China Sea), Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on July 16.

Fishing vessels operating in East Sea

Australia will continue to adopt a very consistent position, Morrison told a media briefing in Canberra when asked about Australias stance on US Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeos latest statement on the South China Sea issue.

On July 13, Pompeo affirmed that the United States champions a free and open Indo-Pacific, and the Chinas claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful.

Regarding Pompeos statement, the Vietnamese Foreign Ministrys spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang said on July 15 that Vietnam welcomes other countries stance on the East Sea issue in line with international law.

Peace, stability, cooperation, and development in the sea are the aspiration and goal of countries in the East Sea and the region as well as the international community, she said, adding that the respect of maritime legal order and the full and responsible implementation of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS) are significant in realising these goals.

Vietnam hopes that countries will make efforts to contribute to maintaining peace, stability, and cooperation in the East Sea and settle disputes through dialogues and other peaceful measures in accordance with international law, for the common interests and in line with the aspiration of regional nations and the international community. Vietnam always actively and responsibly contributes to the process, stated Hang./.VNA
A man came face-to-face with a hungry bear and bravely told it to 'get away' as it tried to break into his home.

A 17-month-old bear pulled down the window screen at a family's home in Mammoth Lakes, California, while it was searching for food.

Christian Pondella filmed the attempted heist on July 1, showing him holding his nerve as the animal stares at him through the uncovered window.

Christian Pondella filmed the bear staring at him through the window screen of his home in Mammoth Lakes, California, on July 1 before pulling it down

The bear sticks its entire head through the window, after pulling down the screen, and Mr Pondella bravely walks up to the animal, shouting 'get away'.

The animal looks at him but refuses to move, using his paws to keep the window screen down.

His children can be heard shouting 'hey, shoo!' joining in their father's attempts to get rid of the hungry animal.

The bear, which is standing on its back legs, puts both of its front paws on the window and casually glances around the inside of the house.

Someone can be heard gasping in the background as a woman politely tells the animal to 'please get down'.

Mr Pondella said he was eventually able to get the bear to leave his property, as the animal refused to move throughout the video.

The bear sticks its head through the window. Mr Pondella shouted 'get away' and 'shoo' at the bear

The animal looks at him but refuses to move, using his paws to keep the window screen down

The bear has been visiting Mr Pondella's neighbourhood in Mammoth Lakes since spring and has turned up at his home at least three times looking for food.

Mr Pondella said: 'He is a 17-month-old bear who has been recently weaned from his mother so he is looking for easy food.

'He probably got food at some point at a house in our neighbourhood so has kept returning looking for more.'

He added that bears, and other wildlife, are a common sighting in the area, as he and his family live near mountains.

Mr Pondella said the bears are not aggressive towards humans but are occasionally seen roaming through the neighbourhoods and campgrounds searching for food.
At mid-morning Wednesday in the U.S., Outlook stopped working. Dead in its tracks. Both the Click-to-Run version of Office (er, Microsoft) 365 and the installed (MSI) version of Outlook refused to start:

Today when I went to check my email, Outlook would not open; it would load the Starting Outlook splash screen, which would close without opening the Outlook window itself, and the taskbar icon went away. Looking in Reliability History, it states that Outlook has crashed. I tried opening in safe mode (it does the exact same process as described above) and restarting the computer to no avail. I even tried the full repair (not the quick one), redownloading and reactivating MS Office 2019, but no go.

Then, four or so hours later, Outlook suddenly started working again.

There are so many programs running around called Outlook that its difficult to nail down which versions of Outlook went AWOL. But it looks like all of the recent versions of Microsoft 365 Click-to-Run Current Channel  dating back to June 30s Version 2006 Build 13001.20266, at least  as well as Office 2019 packed their bags and left the station.

Microsoft, in its inimitable way, left a trail in its @MSFT365Status tweets:

Were investigating an issue affecting user access to Outlook. We're investigating whether a recently deployed update could be the source of this issue. As a workaround, users can utilize Outlook on the web or their mobile clients (four hours later) We're rolling out a fix for this issue, and we expect the mitigation to reach all customers over the next few hours.

So for four hours yesterday, you could get at your Outlook email through your iPad, or by hitting the website, but the version of Outlook you probably use on your PC had taken the morning off.

Ends up the sudden disappearance was attributable to the Outlook.exe program crashing with an error 0xc0000005. Lawrence Abrams at BleepingComputer has full details.

Two obvious questions present themselves:

What broke? There werent any new versions of Office pushed out yesterday. Yet, all over the world, millions (if not hundreds of millions) of Outlook users all had the rug pulled out from under them. How did Microsoft fix it? There was no patch delivered, no new C2R version, no emergency update for Outlook 2019. Microsofts resorted to some odd patch delivery mechanisms lately (notably using the Microsoft Store ) and its had multiple-cumulative-update problems. But this fix apparently didnt touch PCs at all.

Microsofts proffered explanation doesnt pass the sniff test:

There is a new symptom of Outlook crashing on launch starting on 7/15/2020. A fix has been published but will take time to propagate to worldwide availability. Outlook will automatically look for the fix on launch, so if this issue persists through multiple launches please use Outlook Web Access (or your providers webmail interface) for an hour then try again. This problem is not associated with any of the 7/15/2020 security patches so there is no need to uninstall them if Outlook will not launch.

In fact, there werent any changes made to any PCs. Individual users didnt get new versions. Administrators didnt push anything out on their networks. Outlook just suddenly started working again.

Many people discovered that they could get Outlook working by rolling back a few versions. Older versions of Outlook (both C2R and MSI) worked. The newer ones didnt. The bug had nothing to do with specific patches.

I was contemplating the mysteries of life, the universe and Outlook appcrashes, when an anonymous post appeared on AskWoody:

Woody  cant tell you my source but basically rumor is something was pushed server-side on Microsofts end in regards to a security or authentication change (who knows what specifically) and in that change it cut off communication with Outlook clients past a certain patch. I confirmed this was not last nights patch that contained these changes, but one previously issued. I do not know anything more specific about this patch in question. This is why rolling back worked  it went to a client version that was before that change in how it talked to their servers. Why this was done in the middle of the day, I dont know. Very unusual. All Im willing to go into right now.

That explains it. (Thank heaven for anonymous posters!) As @NetDef says:

Admins: do not need to check for updates or re-apply updates. Just start Outlook. If you rolled back earlier today its safe to roll forward again to bring you back to current patched status. The bug was a combination of a new security check on the client, and a back-end server patch/change. For now the back-end server change has been reverted for Office 365 Exchange tenants.

Translating that into English: Microsoft built some fancy new checking mechanism into the more recent versions of Windows-based Outlook. It was working just fine until, yesterday morning U.S. time, somebody changed something on Microsofts servers. Kaboom. No more Outlook.

Microsoft claims:

Root cause: A recent change to the Outlook client inadvertently resulted in this issue.

Thats sorta true. What clobbered everybody was some stupid change on a server.

Next steps:  Were reviewing our update procedures to isolate these issues prior to our deployment cycle.  Were analyzing our telemetry data to better identify these issues before they impact our customers. Well publish a post-incident report within five business days.

I could ask the obvious questions  most beginning with, What in the blue blazes? or something more colorful  but you can fill those out yourself. Bottom line: Somebody at Microsoft changed something on a server, without testing the change, and it brought down Windows-based Outlook everywhere.

Deployment "cycle"? Puh-leeze. We saw the same stupidity with the Windows Search box bug back in February. Somebody threw a monkey wrench (er, spanner) in the server. Everybody got clobbered.

Kinda makes you feel warm and fuzzy.

If you thought an installed Windows version of Outlook would be more stable than a cloud version  or an iPad or Android or iPhone version, for that matter  this is whats known as a comeuppance.

Were always looking for answers on AskWoody.
India's information technology industry must prioritise on realigning existing talent with emerging technologies and drive innovation to stand out in the post-pandemic world. "I want India to be the hub for digital talent and innovation-two elements that are going to be critical in the hyper-digital economy going forward," said Debjani Ghosh, president, Nasscom. "We already have an absolute advantage in terms of talent but we need to do a lot of work in innovation space like ensuring a right policy framework to take risks, try new things and make it easy for ...

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DENVER, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- EnerCom, Inc. is pleased to announce that the 25th Anniversary of The Oil and Gas Conference will include the Energy Innovation Capital Accelerator Session on Monday, August 17, 2020 starting at 2.30pm Mountain Time until 4PM.

The session will feature management team presentations from high-growth companies offering the latest in energy technology and innovations to cut costs, improve production efficiencies and enhance ESG performance.

The conference will continue on Tuesday, August 18th, kicking off at 7am Mountain Time with a live, group Q&A with all the Energy Innovation Capital Accelerator Session participants. Confirmed presenters include:

These companies will also be available for scheduled one-on-one meetings for interested attendees.

Health and Safety: EnerCom remains focused on the health and safety of our attendees, presenters, sponsors and staff. As such, this year's conference will be held primarily in a digital format which will ensure the safety of everyone involved in the event.

Conference Details: The Oil & Gas Conference 25 offers investment professionals the opportunity to listen to senior management teams in the oil and gas industry present operational and financial strategies and to gain exposure to important energy topics affecting the global oil and gas industry.

Public and Private Company Presenters: The 2020 edition of EnerCom's The Oil & Gas Conference will feature public and private oil and gas companies with operations around the world including the U.S. shale basins, the Gulf of Mexico and Canada. A list of presenting companies will be provided on the conference website at a future date and updated periodically.

Additional Speakers: Global energy industry leaders, economists, market strategists, government officials and other energy experts will provide their insights on global commodities markets, ESG policy and reporting, exports of crude oil and natural gas, frac sand supply and logistics, and capital sources for energy development.

Who Attends the Conference: More than 2,000 institutional, private equity and hedge fund investors, energy research analysts, retail brokers, trust officers, high net worth investors, investment bankers and energy industry professionals gather for the conference.

One-on-One Meetings: EnerCom works in advance with presenting company management teams to arrange one-on-one meetings with the attending institutional investors and research analysts at the conference venue. Traditionally, EnerCom arranged and managed more than 2,000 one-on-one meeting requests. Registered buy- and sell-side attendees will be able to schedule meetings with presenting management teams in-person and online as appropriate.

How to Register: Investment professionals and oil and gas companies can register for the event through the conference website.

EnerCom History and Sponsors: EnerCom ( Ener gy Com munications) has a rich history of working with clients to differentiate and deliver targeted messages to investors. EnerCom, Inc. founded The Oil & Gas Conference in 1996 with this goal in mind.

Global sponsors of EnerCom's conferences are Netherland, Sewell & Associates; and Moss Adams, LLP. Additional sponsors of The Oil & Gas Conference 25 include Enverus; CAC Specialty; Haynes and Boone, LLP; PNC; and Bank of America.

About EnerCom, Inc.

Since 1994 EnerCom, Inc. has developed into a nationally recognized management consultancy advising oil and gas industry clients on corporate strategy, asset valuations, investor relations, media relations, external communications and visual communications design.

EnerCom produces and publishes numerous data products and external communications tools for public energy companies and oil and gas investors including:

ESG consulting and reporting

peer group company valuations that are specific to the oil and gas industry;

corporate annual reports, oil and gas company websites, custom stratigraphic and subsurface illustrations;

company investor presentations; and

Oil & Gas 360 - an online daily industry news portal.

Headquartered in Denver, with senior consultants in Texas, EnerCom uses the team approach for delivering its wide range of services to public and private companies, large and small, operating in the global exploration and production, OilService, capital markets, and associated advanced-technology industries. EnerCom's professionals have more than 170 years of industry and business experience and a proven track record of success.

For more information about EnerCom and its services, please visit http://www.enercominc.com/ or call +1 303-296-8834.

About Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc.

Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc. (NSAI) was founded in 1961 to provide the highest quality engineering and geological consulting to the petroleum industry. Today they are recognized as the worldwide leader of petroleum property analysis to industry and financial organizations and government agencies. With offices in Dallas and Houston, NSAI provides a complete range of geological, geophysical, petrophysical, and engineering services and has the technical experience and ability to perform these services in any of the onshore and offshore oil and gas producing areas of the world. They provide reserves reports and audits, acquisition and divestiture evaluations, simulation studies, exploration resources assessments, equity determinations, and management and advisory services. For a complete list of services or to learn more about Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc. please visit www.netherlandsewell.com

For more information about NSAI, call C.H. (Scott) Rees, Chief Executive Officer, at 214-969-5401 or send an email to [email protected].

About Moss Adams LLP

Moss Adams is a fully integrated professional services firm dedicated to assisting clients with growing, managing, and protecting prosperity.

With more than 3,200 professionals and staff across more than 25 locations in the West and beyond, we work with many of the world's most innovative companies and leaders. Our strength in the middle market enables us to advise clients at all intervals of developmentfrom start-up, to rapid growth and expansion, to transition.

For more information, please contact Joe Blice, Partner, National Practice Leader, Oil & Gas, CPA.

[email protected], 972.687.7818.

Moss Adams LLP provides details at mossadams.com/industries/oil-and-gas

About Enverus

In 1999, Enverus was founded as Drillinginfo, a groundbreaking provider of reliable oil & gas data, when the industry was on the brink of a digital revolutiona revolution that we would eventually fuel. Over the years, we grew exponentially through product innovation, market expansion, and acquisitions. Today, we are the energy industry's leading data, insights, and software company, helping customers outpace their competition and influence their respective industries.

For more information, visit https://www.enverus.com

About CAC Specialty

CAC Specialty is an employee owned risk solutions company of seasoned and proactive industry leaders, operating as a nimble and collaborative partner who puts you and your business first. With a knowledge-driven approach informed by industry data and decades of honed instinct, CAC brings an innovative vision to insurance broking and merchant banking by providing solutions to solve your risk challenges  from the simple to the previously unsolvable. Backed by a $40B AUM asset manager and not constrained by traditional risk transfer thinking, CAC can expand the range of risk transfer through access to private debt and alternative pools of risk capital.

Read CAC's most recent insights here, and for more information contact Brad Elliott, Senior Vice President and Team Lead.

About Haynes and Boone

Haynes and Boone, LLP is an energy focused corporate law firm that provides a full spectrum of legal services and solutions to clients across the oil and gas industry, including the upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors. Our team of more than 100 energy lawyers and landmen has been helping operators, lenders and private equity firms complete some of the largest financings and M&A transactions in recent years. With more than 575 lawyers in offices in Texas, New York, California, Charlotte, Chicago, Denver, Washington, D.C., London, Mexico City and Shanghai, Haynes and Boone is ranked among the nation's most recommended law firms by general counsel for client service according to BTI Consulting Group's "Most Recommended Law Firms 2019" report.

For more information, please visit www.haynesboone.com.

About PNC

For more than 160 years, we have been committed to providing our clients with great service and powerful financial expertise to help them meet their financial goals. We are proud of our longstanding history of supporting not only our customers but also our communities, employees and shareholders.

For more information, please visit www.pnc.com.

Bank of America

Whether expanding a local business in the US, raising capital in Singapore or hedging currencies in Frankfurt, Bank of America Merrill Lynch understands the challenges our clients face in the US and around the world. We use the full resources of our company to help them achieve their goals. Our solutions span the complete range of advisory, capital raising, banking, treasury, as well as liquidity, sales and trading, and research capabilities.

Our Global Banking & Markets division serves mid- to large-sized companies, corporations and institutions. It comprises Business Banking, Global Commercial Banking, Global Corporate & Investment Banking and Global Markets. Aligned with these client-facing groups are Global Capital Markets, Global Research, Global Transaction Services and Wholesale Credit.

For more information, please visit www.bankofamerica.com.

SOURCE EnerCom, Inc.
Russian Christians Surprise Healthcare Heroes, Families with 'Love in Action' Supported by Slavic Gospel Association, 6,300-plus evangelical churches distribute 1.5 million free meals across Russia, former Soviet Union





RUSSIAN CHRISTIANS SPUR 'LOVE IN ACTION:' Supported by Slavic Gospel Association (SGA, www.sga.org), evangelical Christians in Russia and the former Soviet Union have distributed groceries to provide more than 1.5 million free meals and a message of God's love to families facing hunger -- including frontline medical workers caring for COVID-19 patients.



NEWS PROVIDED BY

Slavic Gospel Association

July 16, 2020



LOVES PARK, Ill., July 16, 2020 /Christian Newswire/ -- Evangelical Christians in Russia and the former Soviet Union have distributed groceries to provide more than 1.5 million free meals to families facing hunger due to COVID-19 -- even surprising frontline healthcare workers with food packages and a message of God's love.



"We'd like to share with you that God loves you very much," a local pastor told medical staff at a hospital in Tula, 120 miles south of Moscow, where his church handed out 500 food packages as well as Bibles to medical workers caring for COVID-19 patients. In Russia, medical staff often work in terrible conditions and are typically paid less than schoolteachers.



This "love in action" ministry is part of the "Christ Over COVID" global campaign launched by mission agency Slavic Gospel Association (SGA, www.sga.org), calling for prayer and urgent relief for orphans, widows, and families across Russia and neighboring countries.



Supported by Illinois-based SGA, evangelical churches across Russia and the former Soviet Union have proven to be a lifeline for thousands since the pandemic started in March. Russia has the fourth highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases -- more than 740,000.



'People of Light'

"We wish there (were) more people of light like you," a grateful healthcare worker told church members at the hospital.



In a nation where only one percent of the population is evangelical Christian, local believers are seizing the opportunity to "let their light shine" by reaching out to their neighbors -- including widows, orphans, elderly shut-ins, and those with disabilities -- sharing food packages and the Gospel.



Millions of Russian families are in dire straits, with no safety net or stimulus package to help them. Even in normal times, the average monthly salary in Russia is about $500, with many surviving on much less.



The Power of a Bag of Groceries

Christians in Russia -- the world's largest country stretching across nine time zones -- are discovering that a single bag of groceries can pave the way for the Gospel to change people's lives.



In Pokrovsk, a town in the far east of Russia, church members gave a food package and a Bible to Natalya, a mother of five abused by her alcoholic husband. The local believers shared the Gospel with Natalya and her husband's brother, Sergei, and prayed with them. As a result, Sergei gave his life to Christ, and Natalya's husband stopped drinking and got a job.



"This is the greatest opportunity since the fall of communism for evangelicals to share the Gospel message and the love of Christ in word and action," said SGA President Michael Johnson. "We hear stories of changed lives every day."



Through a network of 6,350 local evangelical churches in 10 countries across the former Soviet Union, the ministry distributes aid at the exact point of need.



Across the vast region, local believers partnering with SGA and its supporters say food recipients are open to hearing the Gospel -- many of them for the first time -- because they see Christians really care about them.



Anyone interested in learning more can go to www.sga.org/COVID to sign up to pray and receive updates about how God is working through evangelical churches in Russia and the former Soviet Union during the crisis.



Founded in 1934, Slavic Gospel Association (SGA, www.sga.org) helps "forgotten" orphans, widows and families in Russia, the former Soviet countries of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Russian-speaking immigrants in Israel  caring for their physical needs and sharing the life-transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ. SGA supports an extensive grassroots network of local evangelical missionary pastors and churches in cities and rural villages across this vast region.



SOURCE Slavic Gospel Association



CONTACT: Jamie Bowers, 704-426-2400, jbowers@inchristcommunications.com



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A Utah official was booed after he canceled a meeting about schoolchildren wearing masks when 100 people packed the room without face coverings and ignored social distancing markers.

Utah County Commissioner Tanner Ainge was met with jeers from the crowd of people who poured into the meeting room in Provo as he blasted them for disregarding coronavirus safety precautions and called off the meeting with immediate effect.

Parents had gathered Wednesday to discuss their objections to their children wearing face masks with some claiming they will 'rewire children's brains' and 'teach them to fear the world'.

This comes as cases in Utah are surging, with another 413 cases and seven deaths reported Wednesday and a top state hospital chief issuing a grave warning that the outbreak is 'unsustainable'.

A Utah official was booed after he canceled a meeting about schoolchildren wearing masks when 100 people packed the room (pictured) without face coverings and ignored social distancing markers

Governor Gary Herbert announced last week that all students, faculty, staff and visitors in all K-12 schools and on school buses must now wear masks in efforts to tackle the mounting health crisis.

Around 100 people flocked to the public meeting Wednesday which was called to discuss sending a letter to the state asking for exemptions to the mandate.

The vast majority of attendees refused to wear masks and ignored social distancing markers on the floor.

'This is the exact opposite of what we need to be doing,' Ainge told attendees.

'We're supposed to be physically distancing, wearing masks.'

Loud boos and jeers rose up to meet him as he added: 'This gathering violates current health recommendations.'

The commissioner filed a motion to adjourn the meeting until a later date because of attendees flouting the rules.

Utah County Commissioner Tanner Ainge (pictured) was met with jeers from the crowd of people who poured into the meeting room in Provo as he blasted them for disregarding coronavirus safety precautions and called off the meeting with immediate effect

The motion to cancel the meeting was approved on a 2-to-1 vote, with commissioner Bill Lee (left) who organized the meeting dissenting

Parents had gathered Wednesday to discuss their objections to their children wearing face masks with some claiming they will 'rewire children's brains' and 'teach them to fear the world'

The motion was approved on a 2-to-1 vote, with commissioner Bill Lee who organized the meeting dissenting.

Swarms of attendees - and the two commissioners besides Ainge - stayed in the meeting room for two hours despite its official adjournment to voice their outrage at the mask policy for schoolchildren.

One mom showed her disregard for masks by spitting her gum out into one as she took the podium and slammed them as 'garbage', according to The Salt Lake Tribune.

Another mother said she believes wearing a mask will 'rewire' her son's brain.

'It's going to rewire their brains,' she said.

'I'm especially not going to send my son back to have his mind broken.'

Meanwhile a grandmother of five dismissed the pandemic that has killed more than 137,000 Americans as a 'hoax'.

Cases in Utah are surging, with another 413 cases and seven deaths reported Wednesday and a top state hospital chief issuing a grave warning that the outbreak is 'unsustainable'

'We are perpetuating a lie. COVID is a hoax. It's a lie. It's a political stunt,' she said.

Other theories were floated including that children will learn to fear the world and will not be properly socialized if their faces are covered and that masks cut down on a person's oxygen, the Tribune reported.

One father even threatened to pull his children out of school altogether in the fall if the governor does not lift the mask mandate.

Around 150 people also gathered at an anti-mask protest ahead of the meeting, where they held up signs reading 'Don't smother the children' and 'Let kids be kids.'

The outrage over wearing masks comes as cases and hospitalizations are surging across the state and fears grow that healthcare systems will buckle under the demand.

Utah has reported 30,891 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 233 deaths.

Hospitalizations in the state reached 204 Wednesday, up from 176 Tuesday and just short of its all-time high of 209 on Sunday

Two-thirds of the state's ICU beds are already full and Dr. Thomas Miller, Chief Medical Officer at University of Utah Hospital, has warned that the surge in cases in the state is 'unsustainable'.

More than 137,000 Americans have been killed by the pandemic and almost 3.5 million have been infected.
Governor of Tavush Province of Armenia Hayk Chobanyan today told reporters that the Azerbaijani army has struck 4 infrastructures, 4 vehicles, 2 pets and 41 structures over the past few days, adding that 29 structures have been damaged since July 12, and 22 structures were damaged today alone.

Upon the governments decision, we need to restore the structures very quickly. We have engaged people who have returned to Armenia and cant leave the country due to the pandemic. We need to use this potential as much as possible in order to restore the structures very quickly, he said.

The regional governor added that the province has also solved the problems with infrastructures and that the wounded resident of Chinari is in stable condition.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16

By Samir Ali - Trend:

Azerbaijani special forces did not carry out any sabotage operations on the territory of Armenia, all these statements of the Armenian side are another fake, Head of the press office of Azerbaijans Defense Ministry, Colonel Vagif Dargahli said, Trend reports.

He made the remark commenting on statements of Armenian Defense Ministrys representative that

about 100 servicemen of the special forces unit of Azerbaijani armed forces tried to seize the position of the Armenian armed forces along the border.

"Their [Armenian side's] goal is to justify today's attack on Azerbaijani positions. Our special forces did not make any assault on Armenian territory. Accordingly, there are no casualties, neither in manpower nor in equipment. There can be no losses among Azerbaijani commandos, since they are not involved in military operations on the border with Armenia."
NEW YORK  If Keith Raniere's supporters began their series of dance rallies outside the Brooklyn federal lockup in hopes of providing him with nightly entertainment, they are out of luck: The jailed leader of NXIVM has been moved to another cell, his acolytes revealed in a news release in which they admitted the link between the street performances and the shadowy organization.

The release said the dancing effort, organized by a group billing itself as We Are As You, began July 3 when "three friends visited the parking lot of Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn to wave to their friend Keith Raniere," but that he was subsequently moved.

"Because of the prejudice in the media against Keith Raniere and his friends, individuals armed with hate and lies are trying to hijack this peaceful movement and make it into something its not," the release stated.

The group performed alongside placards offering warm words for "Kay Rose," a reference to Raniere's initials.

In a posting Wednesday evening, they acknowledged their NXIVM roots in a statement that included a link to a podcast featuring Eduardo Asunsolo, a member of the Colonie-based organization who suggested that news coverage is the reason for the mass incarceration of Black people in America  and said that social scourge was no different from what is happening to NXIVM members.

Speaking with"Good Morning Bushwick," Asunsolo opined about the evils of slavery and solitary confinement, glossing over the 59-year-old Raniere's conviction for  among other crimes  commanding female slaves and confining a woman to a room in Halfmoon for nearly two years.

Asunsolo and other Raniere loyalists in We Are As You had previously declined questions from the Times Union about their connection to NXIVM and Raniere, who was known within the group as "Vanguard."

Read the Times Union's complete coverage of NXIVM

Listen to the "NXIVM on Trial" podcast

The release claimed that Raniere had been "punished for writing an email about how wonderful it was to see his friends connecting with and recognizing the men inside. Keenly aware of the dire need for humanity inside, Keith encouraged the movement to expand, with the hope that anyone with friends or family who are incarcerated could gather and dance like this at facilities across the country. Although Keith was moved so he could no longer witness the dancing, his friends and others continue to show up because this is about restoring humanity to the people inside and bringing joy to the forgotten ones."

The Times Union reported Sunday that former NXIVM members believed the dancing routines were a cover movement for the now-shattered organization. We Are As You, the former members said, appears to have derived its name from an old NXIVM project.

In the podcast, Asunsolo noted the Times Union's coverage and said such media attention is scaring away people from joining their dancing efforts. He referenced a comment by Neil Glazer, an attorney representing litigants in a federal civil lawsuit against Raniere and 14 of his associates, who told the Times Union it was a cause for concern to have so many Raniere supporters gathering.

This has happened through history. This is what has allowed for whole groups of people to be hated and persecuted, Asunsolo said. You read the Times Union and it says, you know, its a concern that such a big number of NXIANs are gathering. This is like seven people there that knew each other from those programs. ... That's like what they said about the Jewish people in the 1930s in Europe. You are seeing, in front of your eyes, character assassinations on whole groups."

Raniere was convicted last year of all counts  including sex trafficking, forced labor and racketeering  and faces the possibility of life in prison at his sentencing, which has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

He was convicted of criminal acts that included possession of child pornography and sexual exploitation of a child. Evidence showed he had sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 45. The trial exhibits included video of Raniere saying that some small children are "perfectly happy" having sexual experiences with adults even though "society" calls it abuse.

That did not deter Asunsolo, who repeatedly mentioned he was a father but continued to support Raniere.

I was a teacher in NXIVM and Keith Raniere is my friend. Hes been my friend for 10 years, Asunsolo said in the interview.

Its interesting that if you go and you read the news and you judge the people that appear in the news just by what you read in the news, thats why theres millions of black people in jail because prejudice rendered them defenseless, Asunsolo said. If we do that again with another group because you call it a sex cult, because you call it a this, because you call it a that  its no different.

Raniere operated a secret master/slave club within NXIVM called Dominus Obsequious Sororium. Women in the group were branded in their pelvic area by a person using a cauterizing pen  with a symbol that, like "Kay Rose," incorporated Raniere's initials  as well as being forced to adhere to all wishes of their "masters," who were in turn under his control, or risk the release of embarrassing information.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 16) - A lawmaker suggested for the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to tap public utilities, such as power and water distributors to help in the distribution of cash aid to households.

Maraming lugar na hindi kaya o walang sistema for digital transfer. Eh yung mga electric cooperatives pwede niyong magamit, ambibilis nilang maningil nun sa kuryente. Sigurado po ako, kung mayroon kayong ayuda o tulong, kapag tinap niyo po sila, they have people on the ground, Anakalusugan party-list Rep. Mike Defensor said during a House of Representatives hearing on the social amelioration program Thursday.

[Translation: There are many areas who cannot afford or have no access to a digital transfer system. I think you can use electric cooperative because they are quick to charge people on their electric bills. Im sure that if you have to distribute any assistance and tap them, they have people on the ground.]

He added, I'm sure Meralco will be willing to help [and] Maynilad. Kasi bahay-bahay sila nagpupunta at kaya nila ibigay yung mga ayuda. (Because they can go door-to-door and they can give the cash assistance)

The DSWD said earlier that it is aiming to complete the distribution of the second wave of cash aid by the end of month. As of July 15, around 19.4 billion worth of financial assistance was already distributed to 3.2 million families through manual and digital transfer.

Social Welfare Secretary Rolando Bautista said the agency will consider the proposal.
In a fateful decision, Illinois Wesleyan University is considering eliminating a number of core humanities programs  including philosophy, religion and sociology  in order to adapt to what it sees as growing student demand for career-oriented classes.

The universitys Board of Trustees is set to vote on the cuts at a private meeting Thursday afternoon. The Pantagraph will have full coverage of the decision later this evening.

Also on the chopping block are programs in anthropology, music, French and Italian. The changes wont go into effect this school year but could prevent future students from majoring or minoring in those subjects.

The stakes for IWU, a liberal arts college with fewer than 2,000 students in downstate Bloomington, are at an all-time high. Enraged graduates are threatening to withhold donations and pleading for the programs to be spared. Reductions could also cost faculty members their jobs  about 25 instructors received notices that their departments could be discontinued.

But perhaps the greatest unknown pertains to IWUs future: Will the small college saddled with financial problems need to revamp its mission?

I am concerned that IWU may turn out to be a pre-professional school, so the identity of being a liberal arts institution will be gone, said Teddy Amoloza, a sociology professor whos taught at the college for 30 years.

On its website, the university says liberal arts have been taught there since the 19th century and have been at the foundation of Illinois Wesleyans curriculum since its inception.

Thursdays vote is the culmination of a yearlong effort to review the popularity and staffing levels of academic programs at Illinois Wesleyan, said President Georgia Nugent. Each of the schools approximately 40 academic programs were assessed, she said. In addition to liberal arts, IWU also has strong programs in nursing and business, Nugent said.

Many, many colleges and universities now are engaged in more internal evaluation that hasnt necessarily been the case in the past, Nugent said. We are looking at the programs that we offer and how we can best serve the students of today and tomorrow.

In a June email to faculty, Nugent made her case for why Illinois Wesleyan must evolve. About 630 majors were declared in financial and nursing subjects in 2019  programs that have only 18 tenure-track positions  compared to 83 majors in traditional humanities fields that have 23 faculty members on hand.

We could quibble over whether these numbers are perfect or not, but that would be fruitless, Nugent wrote. The overall picture they paint is accurate, and we all know it. A university where students choose to study in pre-professional fields is not a different institution; its the university we are.

The first changes came in May, when trustees decided to end American culture studies and Greek and Roman studies, along with programs in international business, design, technology and entrepreneurship. Faculty members supported those cuts and had been involved in the process through a task force, according to interviews with professors.

But the trustees werent finished. After that meeting, professors in programs that had never been recommended for termination suddenly learned, through a June 12 letter, that their subject areas could be discontinued.

That really came as quite a shock to the campus, said Carolyn Nadeau, a Hispanic Studies professor who chairs the world languages programs. Anthropology and sociology have double-digit majors. They have a vibrant curriculum. Religion and philosophy were programs that the task force had identified as core to the liberal arts education.

In the spring, Nadeau said, faculty voted to keep the French major. She said she had no idea that Italian, offered only as a minor, was also at risk because it had not been discussed before.

In all, seven programs will face their fate in Thursdays vote. They could be completely ended, reorganized or maintained.

John Twork, a school spokesman, said that students working toward degrees in programs altered by Thursdays vote will still be able to complete their studies. He said that courses in the fields of study will continue to be offered, but its not clear how many will be available, if at all.

Amoloza, the sociology professor, said that scaling back these classes would be a disservice to students. Many high schools dont offer courses in these subjects and students are exposed for the first time at college. Its common for IWU students who didnt know what sociology was before setting foot on campus to end up declaring majors in the subject, she said.

I think it is important for students who come to a liberal arts school like Illinois Wesleyan to have an opportunity for what we could say is a deep dive into the current issues in the country, Amoloza said. I think it will a real loss for our university if such a program is cut.

Theres conflicting information about how much budget concerns could influence the decision. While the review began well before the coronavirus pandemic, additional financial challenges over the last several months have only increased pressure on universities to make ends meet.

Nugent downplayed the issue, saying the school has a solid endowment and the review was started for other reasons.

I dont think there is any college or university in America that isnt concerned about cost, and so we are no different in that regard, Nugent said. That was not the primary driver here. The primary driver is trying to ensure that we are offering the strongest programs that we can.

Yet an email sent to faculty last year shows otherwise, according to a copy obtained by the Tribune.

The email, sent by Board of Trustees Chair Timothy Szerlong in September, says IWU was predicting a budget shortfall and must undertake a program review, vigorous pursuit of organizational or structural change to adjust to a reduced student population, and identification of offerings that will attract new students, and better deploy our university resources.

Szerlong also said the school must recoup $3.3 million in 2020 through additional revenue or cost reduction. Szerlong, who graduated from IWU in 1974 with a business degree, was elected board chair in May 2019. He is the former president of worldwide field operations at CNA Financial Corporation.

Last year, IWU enrollment dropped slightly to 1,636, according to news reports. About 75% of stude nts are Illinois residents, according to online data, and most study in the College of Liberal Arts. Undergraduate tuition for the upcoming school year is about $51,000, according to the universitys website.

In March 2019, the schools former president embarked on a $1.1 million cost-savings effort that included voluntary retirement incentives.

IWU was established with the help of the United Methodist Church in 1850. Its endowment was valued at $203 million in July 2018.

SEE PHOTOS: IWU faculty, students, alumni rally for liberal arts

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A man walks by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg on Oct. 5, 2015. The European Unions top court ruled that an agreement that allows big tech companies to transfer data to the United States is invalid, and that national regulators need to take tougher action to protect the privacy of users' data. July 16, 2020. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP Photo)

EU Court Cancels US Data-Sharing Pact Over Snooping Concerns

LONDONThe European Unions top court ruled Thursday that an agreement that allows thousands of companiesfrom tech giants to small financial firmsto transfer data to the United States is invalid because the American government can snoop on peoples data.

The ruling to invalidate Privacy Shield will complicate business for some 5,000 companies, and it could require regulators to vet any new data transfers to make sure Europeans personal information remains protected according to the EUs stringent standards.

It will no longer simply be assumed that tech companies like Facebook will adequately protect the privacy of its European users data when it sends it to the United States. Rather, the EU and United States will likely have to find a new agreement that guarantees that Europeans data is afforded the same privacy protection in the United States as it is in the EU.

An iPhone displays the apps for Facebook and Messenger in New Orleans on Aug. 11, 2019. The European Unions top court ruled that an agreement that allows big tech companies to transfer data to the United States is invalid, and that national regulators need to take tougher action to protect the privacy of users data. (Jenny Kane/AP Photo)

Privacy activists hailed the court ruling as a major victory, while business groups worried about the potential to disrupt commerce, depending on how the ruling is implemented. Companies like Facebook routinely move such data among their servers around the world and the practice underpins billions of dollars in business.

It is clear that the U.S. will have to seriously change their surveillance laws, if U.S. companies want to continue to play a major role on the EU market, said Max Schrems, an Austrian activist whose complaints about the handling of his Facebook data triggered the ruling after years of legal procedures.

He first filed a complaint in 2013, after former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the American government was snooping on peoples online data and communications. The revelations included detail on how Facebook gave U.S. security agencies access to the personal data of Europeans.

Though the legal case was triggered by concerns over Facebook in particular, it could have far-reaching implications not only for tech companies but also businesses in sectors like finance and the auto industry.

Things like email, and flight and hotel reservations would not be affected in the short term, experts say. Cloud services by providers such as Microsoft will also continue, pending any intervention from a regulator.

Companies use legal mechanisms called standard contractual clauses that force businesses to abide by strict EU privacy standards when transferring messages, photos, and other information. The clauseswhich are stock terms and conditionsare used to ensure the EU rules are maintained when data leaves the bloc.

The Court of Justice of the EU ruled Thursday that those clauses are still valid in principle. However, it declared invalid the Privacy Shield agreement between the United States and EU on data transfers over concerns that the United States can demand access to consumer data for national security reasons.

It said that in cases where there are concerns about data privacy, EU regulators should vet, and if needed block, the transfer of data. That raises the prospect that EU regulators will block Facebook, for example, from transferring any more European data to the United States.

The court noted in its ruling that there are limitations on the protection of personal data arising from the domestic law of the United States on the access and use by U.S. public authorities of such data transferred from the European Union to that third country.

Government surveillance of personal data is something the United States in its turn accuses China of doing through tech companies such as Huawei. It highlights the growing importance of data as the basis of modern business and politics globally.

Data drives much of the worlds biggest companies, such as Facebook, Google, Alibaba, and Amazon, and is also prized for national security to prevent extremist attacks, for example.

Alexandre Roure, a senior manager at Computer & Communications Industry Association, said the decision creates legal uncertainty for the thousands of large and small companies on both sides of the Atlantic that rely on Privacy Shield for their daily commercial data transfers.

We trust that EU and U.S. decision-makers will swiftly develop a sustainable solution, in line with EU law, to ensure the continuation of data flows which underpins the trans-Atlantic economy.

By Carlo Piovano
Bengaluru, July 16 : Karnataka will issue caste and income certificates to Brahmins in the southern state to reduce the socio-economic inequality faced by the community, an official said on Thursday.

"A notification has been issued to tehsildars in all 30 districts to issue caste and income certificates to Brahmins so that they can also benefit from the government schemes and scholarships," a Revenue Department official told IANS here.

The notification comes a month after the Karnataka State Brahmin Development Board on June 10 appealed to Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa to issue the certificates to the traditionally dominant community, which accounts for 3 per cent of the 7 crore state population.

"Though Brahmins are in 'minority' in terms of their population across the state, they need caste and income certificates to benefit from the welfare schemes meant for the economic weaker sections such as SC, ST and OBC groups," the official said.

The board was set up in March 2019 as a state-run company with Rs 5 crore authorised capital and Rs 5 crore equity and is registered with the Registrar of Companies.

The notification was issued to the local bodies and taluk offices after several members of the community complained to state Revenue Minister R. Ashoka that they were unable to benefit from the welfare schemes in the absence of the certificates.

The certificates will also help students from the community to avail scholarships for higher studies from the state-funded board if their gross annual family income is less than Rs 8 lakh per year.

The board has also urged the state government to implement the 10 per cent quota for its community members under the economically weaker sections, as applicable for Central government jobs and admissions to central institutions.

Noting that every community has people who are forward and backward economically for various reasons, including historical, the official said the board would be empowered to serve the Brahmins.

"The board will provide interest-free loans to the financially weaker sections of the community," said its Chairman H.S. Sachidananda Murthy.
Aidan Turner has returned to filming his new historical drama Leonardo, as he got to work on set on Thursday.

The Poldark star, 37, transformed into Leonardo da Vinci while shooting scenes in the medieval town Viterbo, Italy, with co-star Carlos Cuevas.

Transforming into the the Italian Renaissance artist, Aidan looked unrecognisable as he sported a bushy bear and long wavy locks to get into his role.

In character: Aidan Turner transformed into Leonardo da Vinci by sporting long locks and a bushy beard as he got to work on set of his new historical drama in Viterbo, Italy, on Thursday

Aidan wore a dark blue ruched tunic that had elaborate button detailing, long puffy sleeves, and a small black belt.

His outfit was complete with a pair of black breeches and matching knee-high boots which helped him embody the artist.

The actor could be seen perusing the streets of the Italian city while drawing in a small notebook as he was followed by his co-star.

Crew on set and the show's director could be seen wearing masks while working, and they could be seen chatting with the actors in between takes.

In character: The actor could be seen perusing the streets of the Italian city while drawing in a small notebook as he was followed by his co-star Carlos Cuevas

Protected: Crew on set and the show's director could be seen wearing masks while working, and they could be seen chatting with the actors in between takes

The show charts the artist's life from childhood to becoming one of the world's most beloved geniuses of art and science.

Born in 1452, Leonardo is one of the greatest individuals of the last millennium, he is known primarily for his contributions to the art world, including paintings like the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.

During the Rennaisance he dabbled in invention, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, and cartography.

Of the era: Aidan wore a dark blue ruched tunic that had elaborate button detailing, long puffy sleeves, and a small black belt

Plot: The show charts the artist's life from childhood to becoming one of the world's most beloved geniuses of art and science (pictured Aidan's co-star Carlos)

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show will 'unlock the mystery' behind Da Vinci's genius as well as explore a tantalising secret in his life.

Leonardo was created by The Man In The High Castle showrunner Frank Spotnitz and Sherlock writer Steve Thompson, the show will be directed by Daniel Percival and Alexis Sweet.

Speaking about the show, Frank, whose company Big Light Productions is co-producing the drama, admitted it was 'both a challenge and an honour' to portray Da Vinci's life on the silver screen.

In a statement, he said: 'Its both a challenge and an honour to dramatize the life of one of the most fascinating people who ever lived.

Icon: Born in 1452, Leonardo is one of the greatest individuals of the last millennium, he is known primarily for his contributions to the art world, including paintings like the Mona Lisa

'Leonardo is constantly surprising, and despite his fame remains an enigma more than 500 years after his death.

'Weve uncovered sometimes little-noticed clues about Leonardos life and pieced them together in a puzzle that attempts to reveal the humanity behind the genius.'

While Luca Bernabei, CEO of Lux Vide who have produced the drama, added in his own statement: 'Leonardos story invites us to believe in humanity, in its extraordinary abilities and the possibility of looking to the future beyond those horizons that today appear as overwhelming obstacles.'

Leonardo is currently set for release in 2021, but has yet to find a distributor in either the UK or the USA.
Theobald, Mai, Kean Move into New Positions at UW

With the start of the presidency of the University of Wyomings 28th President Ed Seidel, a number of changes have been made in the universitys administration.

Neil Theobald, the former vice president for finance and administration who has served as acting president for the past year, is now UWs senior vice president for finance and administration.

Bill Mai, who has been serving as interim vice president for administration, is now the deputy vice president for administration.

Alex Kean, who has been director of budget and institutional planning, is now interim director of government relations.

Theobald, Mai and Kean will assume the duties of Interim Vice President for Community Affairs Chris Boswell, who has retired from the university after returning from retirement to assist Theobalds administration, and former Director of Government Relations Meredith Asay, who has stepped down. Kean and Mai will report to Theobald.

I appreciate the willingness of Neil, Bill and Alex to move into these key administrative roles and carry on the duties that have so ably been filled by Chris and Meredith, Seidel says. We greatly appreciate the contributions of Chris and Meredith to the university. Their presence will be greatly missed.

With UW Board of Trustees approval, Seidel earlier appointed Anne Alexander as UWs interim provost and vice president for academic affairs, succeeding Kate Miller, who has stepped down. Seidel soon will launch a search for a provost/senior vice president for academic affairs.
YEREVAN, JULY 13, ARMENPRESS. Member of the Armenian parliamentary standing committee on defense and security affairs Tigran Karapetyan says the Azerbaijani military-political leadership in fact has not learned lessons from the slap received on July 12.

Well, the choice is theirs, the response is going to be very painful, the lawmaker said during the special session of the Parliament, reminding that the Azerbaijani armed forces have shelled also the town of Chinari in Tavush province.

The MP said yesterday, on July 12, the Armenian Armed Forces refrained from firing any shell to the direction of peaceful settlements. The fire has been completely directed towards the engineering structures and the military equipment. Unfortunately, we have to respond, and the response will be very painful. Azerbaijan is using attacking UAVs in the frontline, fires shots from various caliber weapons towards our positions, it has just targeted also Chinari. Fortunately, we have no losses and wounded, the roof of a house was damaged. Therefore, we will have to give a painful response, the lawmaker said.

He reminded that the Armenian side is repeating for two years that the negotiation table is the only way of solving the Artsakh conflict. But at the same time we state for two years that we are ready for any scenario. The Armenian Army has changed a lot within two years. We are capable of downing any target in the territory of Azerbaijan, any object of strategic significance. The leadership of Armenia will not doubt for and will not think about the sovereignty of Armenia and Artsakh for a second to give an order to destroy any target. This adventurism will have irreversible consequences for Azerbaijan, he said.

In addition to the provocative operations launched on July 12 on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, the Azerbaijani armed forces also fired seven 82 mm mortar shells at the Armenian town of Chinari in Tavush province. No casualties have been reported. Only the roof of one of the civilian houses has been damaged. Later today the Azerbaijani forces also fired three 120 mm mortar shells at Chinari, one of the shells hit a house, two hit the yard. No casualties have been reported.

Reporting by Anna Grigoryan; Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
The headquarters of LG Chem, left, and SK Innovation in Seoul / Yonhap



By Nam Hyun-woo



The dispute between LG Chem and SK Innovation over electric vehicle (EV) battery patents is reaching a climax, after the former filed a complaint with the prosecution in Korea.



The move is seen as an attempt to raise its leverage before the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) hands down its final determination on whether SK Innovation stole battery secrets from LG Chem, according to industry officials, Thursday.



Last week, LG Chem filed a criminal complaint with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office against SK Innovation, accusing it of stealing trade secrets on EV batteries. LG said it did so to get a "faster investigation of the truth," referring to a complaint filed with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency in May last year on the same accusation.



LG Chem's move came before a USITC final determination which is expected in October. Since April last year, the U.S. watchdog has been looking into LG Chem's complaint and came out in favor of the company by granting a default judgment in an interim ruling in February.



If the USITC upholds this in its final determination, SK Innovation will face a ban on exporting batteries to the U.S. Thus, the SK Group unit is destined for a pricey settlement with the LG affiliate.



Reportedly, efforts to reach a settlement are at a stalemate, as LG Chem is demanding a "sincere apology" before moving forward with the talks, while SK Innovation is seeking to end the dispute with a relatively small amount of compensation.



"LG Chem's stance is that SK Innovation must deliver a sincere apology and promise to prevent a recurrence as a prerequisite for any settlement," a senior executive having knowledge of the dispute said. "If these conditions are met, LG Chem will advance settlement talks including a plan to possibly sign a comprehensive licensing agreement, in which LG Chem can receive royalties from SK Innovation's U.S.-bound EV batteries for years."



The two sides are reportedly also locking horns over royalties. Though it is uncertain how much LG Chem will demand from SK Innovation, industry officials pointed to a separate USITC resolution of a dispute between LG Chem and China's ATL as a reference.



In 2017, LG Chem filed a patent lawsuit with the USITC against ATL, claiming the Chinese company had infringed on three of its battery separator patents. Last year, they reached a settlement on a licensing agreement, in which ATL pays 3 percent of its sales of the safety-reinforced separator.



Given SK Innovation had 955.3 billion won in sales in batteries last year and its growth outlook, the amount is expected to start in the hundreds of billions of won and climb to up to the trillion-won-level.



Another factor in pushing the two companies to reach an agreement is President Moon Jae-in who identified EVs and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles as one of the country's next growth engines under his Korean New Deal initiative. The government hopes to nurture Korea as one of the powerhouses for eco-friendly mobility, by making it home to 1.13 million EVs by 2025.



In a response to this plan, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Vice Chairman Chung Euisun pledged to the President and the public that the carmaker will "cooperate with Samsung, LG and SK on batteries" to lead the global EV market, dropping hints at forming an alliance with the Korean battery makers.



With the government picking the growth of the EV battery industry as a matter of national interest, officials said this is interpreted as an "indirect message" calling for a settlement between the two companies.



In a press briefing after the announcement of the Korean New Deal, presidential spokesman Kang Min-seok quoted Moon stressing the importance of reaching a compromise between contradicting interests.




Lozoya was arrested in Spain in February on Mexican corruption charges after months as a fugitive. He is accused in one case of receiving a $3.5 million bribe in connection with Pemexs purchase of a run-down fertilizer plant in 2013. In a second case, he is charged with pocketing millions of dollars to steer contracts to Odebrecht, the Brazilian construction giant at the center of a massive regional kickback scandal. Part of that money was allegedly paid while he was the international coordinator of Pena Nietos campaign.
The global death toll from the coronavirus is almost 585,000, with nearly 13.6 million infections confirmed, causing mass disruptions as governments continue to try to slow the spread of the respiratory illness.

Here's a roundup of COVID-19 developments in RFE/RL's broadcast regions.

Uzbekistan

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev has reprimanded Health Minister Alisher Shodmonov, Tashkent Mayor Jahongir Ortiqhojaev, and other top regional officials for what he called "failing" to properly handle the situation around the coronavirus outbreak.

The July 16 announcement came a day after Mirziyoev said during a government session that ministry and regional officials, "especially the government of the Tashkent region and Tashkent city officials," had lost control over the situation at medical facilities, adding that the ministry had "significantly violated the strategy and tactics" of the efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the last 30 days.



Mirziyoev stressed that in recent weeks important medicines used to treat acute respiratory diseases either disappeared from pharmacies or prices jumped by as much as 800 percent.

"People have no information about where to refer to get tests on coronavirus or get treatment for coronavirus and other diseases. It became a problem to get an ambulance assistance," Mirziyoev said.

Mirziyoev ordered a tripling of so-called mobile groups that deal with coronavirus patients at all hospitals in Tashkent and the region, as well as the addition of 1,000 beds at a newly built hospital in the capital, measures to regulate medicine prices, improvements to ambulance services and call-center operations, and an increase in financial compensation for medical personnel.

According to the latest official data, the number of coronavirus cases in Uzbekistan as of July 15 was 14,581, including 71 deaths.

Kazakhstan

Officials in the southern region of Turkistan said late on July 15 that the regional governor's first deputy, Qosman Aitmukhametov, had died of COVID-19 at the age of 57.

Earlier in the day, President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev signed a decree to posthumously award medals to 40 medical personnel who lost their lives while treating COVID-19 patients.

As of July 16, the number of coronavirus cases in Kazakhstan was reported at 65,188, including 396 deaths -- the highest numbers in Central Asia.

Kyrgyzstan

Health Ministry official Ainura Akmatova said on July 16 that the number of medical personnel infected with the coronavirus while treating COVID-19 patients was 2,076.

President Sooronbai Jeenbekov on July 16 visited the family of a senior student from the Medical University in Bishkek, Adinai Myrzabekova, who died of pneumonia on July 13, just 11 days after she started working as a volunteer at a medical facility treating COVID-19 patients in the Kyrgyz capital.

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.



On July 15, Jeenbekov posthumously awarded Myrzabekova with the Erdik (For Heroism) medal.

As of July 16, the number of coronavirus cases in Kyrgyzstan was reported at 12,498, including 167 deaths.

Tajikistan

The head of the northern Bobojon Ghafurov district, Zarif Naziri, said on July 15 that the control along the border with Kyrgyzstan had been beefed up "to prevent possible coronavirus spread" from the neighboring country that "is facing spike in coronavirus cases."

As of July 15, the number of coronavirus cases in the country was officially reported as 6,695, including 56 deaths.

However, an investigative report by RFE/RLs Tajik Service last month revealed that the real number of lethal cases of COVID-19 in the country might be several hundred.

Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan is the only country in the region that has not not officially registered any coronavirus cases, but RFE/RL correspondents have reported that local hospitals have been overwhelmed with patients with pneumonia symptoms, some of whom, including medical personnel, have died.

In some parts of the country, so-called quarantine zones have been established and some industrial facilities are being shut down, RFE/RL correspondents report.

The leader of the World Health Organization's mission, Catherine Smallwood, told a press conference in Ashgabat on July 15 that the mission had concerns about reports of pneumonia in the tightly controlled energy-rich nation.

Smallwood advised the Turkmen government to activate the critical public health measures in Turkmenistan, as if COVID-19 was circulating.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Uzbek, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, and Turkmen services
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev had a phone conversation with the mother of Major General Polad Hashimov Samaya Hashimova and the son of Colonel Ilgar Mirzayev Elvin on July 15, Trend reports.

Major General Polad Hashimov and Colonel Ilgar Mirzayev were martyred on the frontline during the battle with the Armenian armed forces.

The president expressed deep condolences to the families of the martyrs and wished them patience.

President Aliyev noted that the heroism of the servicemen fallen for the Motherland would never be forgotten, their revenge has been and will be taken, and their blood will be avenged.

Samaya Hashimova and Elvin Mirzayev thanked President Aliyev for the phone call and condolences.
Security forces have arrested terror associate of proscribed outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba involved in providing shelter, logistics and other support to the LeT terrorists.

Security forces arrested him from Awantipora of Pulwama district on Wednesday. Arrested terror associate has been identified as Sahil Farooq Mir, a resident of Chakoora Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir police said.

According to police, the terrorist associate was involved in the transporting of arms, ammunition of the terrorists in Tral, Kakpora, Khreew, and Awantipora areas.

Incriminating material including explosive material and ammunition has been recovered from him in the Noorpora area, Police said.

A case has been registered against the arrested terror associate in Awantipora Police Station under relevant sections of law.
Colorado Governor Imposes Statewide Mask-Wearing Mandate

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday announced a statewide mandate to wear facial coverings over the mouth and nose in a bid to stem the spread of COVID-19.

Noting a significant uptick in COVID-19 cases in Colorado in the past several days, Polis told a press conference that he would be signing an executive order requiring every Coloradan over 10 years old to wear a mask while out in public.

Look, in Colorado, theres no shirt, no shoes, no mask, no service, Polis, a Democrat, said. Very simple.

Citing the need to protect the economy and the people of Colorado, Polis said the statewide mask-wearing order would go into effect at midnight Thursday.

Exceptions to the new rule on facial coverings include eating at a restaurant, exercising alone, or receiving a service where a mask would interfere with its provision, such as getting a facial or having ones beard trimmed. Also exempt are members of law enforcement, emergency medical responders and firefighters, as well as religious officiants people addressing a televised audience.

State epidemiologist Rachel Herlihy presented figures on the spread of COVID-19 in Colorado, noting a 40 percent week-over-week increase in new infections for the week ending July 5, compared to a 13 percent rise in the previous week.

Were concerned this trend is going to continue, Herlihy said, adding that if it does, this could mean Colorados ICU bed capacity will be depleted sometime in early September, with a peak ICU need coming in October.

Colorado joins other states like Arkansas and Montana that have just rolled out mask-wearing mandates as many regions across the country are seeing a resurge of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes the COVID-19 disease.

The number of new daily infections has surged in the United States in recent weeks to levels roughly twice as high as during the first peak in April, according to a Worldometers compilation of official data. However, the number of new daily deaths due to the virus has fallen nationally to between one third and one half of the April peak.

The United States reported over 71,750 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, according to the Worldometers tally.

President Donald Trump and public health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on July 14 recommended Americans wear masks when necessary to prevent the spread of the potentially deadly bug.
Twenty one years ago, the Indian Army and Indian Air Force fought a bloody and bitter war to evict Pakistani intruders from the icy heights in Kargil.

Air Commodore Nitin Sathe (retd) salutes the lesser known heroes of the Kargil War.

A new series.

Part 1: Colonel Gautam Khot (retd), Vir Chakra: 'The enemy started firing at us'

Group Captain Ashwani Bhakoo (retd), Vishist Seva Medal

IMAGE: An Indian Air Force Jaguar. Photograph: Kind courtesy Wikemedia Commons

My earliest memories of Group Captain Ashwani Bhakoo are from Gorakhpur.

He was posted as the Station Flight Safety Officer and was known to be a hard taskmaster.

I was in Gorakhpur, practicing for a six helicopter formation flypast for a colour presentation ceremony.

The President of India was to award colours to the 17 Squadron and 114 Helicopter Unit.

It was a matter of honour for all to see that the show went off flawlessly.

While I led the six helicopters, Bhakoo Sir sat atop the ATC and controlled the formations of helicopters and fighters.

He ensured that we were always bang on target -- passing over the dais as the parade commander presented the salute to the Supreme Commander.

IMAGE: An Indian Air Force MIG-29. Photograph: Kind courtesy Wikemedia Commons

In May-June-July 1999, Bhakoo Sir was the commanding officer of 14 Squadron at Ambala flying Jaguars.

The role of the squadron was bombing and photo reconnissance in those turbulent times.

Bhakoo Sir was involved in leading a number of missions during the Kargil conflict; spearheading intelligence gathering efforts to determine the positions of enemy infiltrators.

Pakistani troops had infiltrated the Kargil heights and taken up vantage positions.

The Pakistanis overlooked the road to Drass and could play hell with our logistics chain when they wanted to.

"Whether it was an intelligence failure or not is another point of discussion, and I won't go into that," says Bhakoo Sir. "But the fact of the matter is that the army thought it was a minor incursion and therefore did not ask the air force to check what was the actual position on the ground."

"When things got a little hot and the confusion cleared, the army finally asked for a recce mission which was flown by a Canberra aircraft piloted by Wing Commander Perumal Alagharaja," Bhakoo Sir recalled.

Wing Commander Alagharaja, who retired from the IAF as a group captain, sadly passed away in January 2012 after a heart attack.

IMAGE: Group Captain Ashwani Bhakoo with officers and men during the Kargil War. Photograph: Kind courtesy Group Captain Ashwani Bhakoo

During this sortie, Bhakoo Sir recalls, Wing Commander Alagharaja's Canberra was hit by a Stinger missile and had lost power in one of its engines.

The brave wing commander nursed his aircraft back to Srinagar without any instruments to carry out a safe landing and was later awarded a Shaurya Chakra.

Wing Commander Alagharaja made history by piloting the first IAF aircraft to have returned home after a missile hit.

IMAGE: An article in Sakal Times. Photograph: Kind courtesy Group Captain Ashwani Bhakoo

"This incident told us the Pakistanis were there on the hilltops in good numbers and they were not the mujahids or terrorists as claimed initially. They were trained soldiers who held state of the art anti-aircraft missiles to shoot down our airplanes," remembers Bhakoo Sir.

"We were now in business well before the actual ops had started. In fact, without our recce missions, further operations could not be planned at all, so important was the requirement," Bhakoo Sir points out.

The squadron was given very little time to prepare for the missions which were to fly from Ambala and carry out reconnissance flights along the Line of Control.

The photographic evidence the flights brought back were to be analysed immediately and the reports rendered to the commanders and decision makers at Army and Air HQ.

Some of the sorties had been flown by MiG-21 aircraft with photo pods and the results were not encouraging.

Later, the MiG-21s also tried an innovative method of filming with a portable video camera being carried in a trainer aircraft (which had two pilots) on a mission.

With this better resolution filming, preliminary analysis suggested that the enemy were there in big numbers at various points along the LOoC.

"We decided to fly low and in a formation of 4," recalls Bhakoo Sir. "We were equipped with some self defence equipment like 'Chaff' and 'Flares' (which can fool radar controlled/heat seeking missiles) and some rounds of front guns for self defence."

"We did the complete run from Srinagar to Siachen maintaining radio silence and being escorted by the potent MiG-29 as air defence escorts," he adds.

"We flew pretty low, sometimes at just about 400 feet above the crest line. At the end of the mission we had captured enough evidence for planning future action."

"In all our missions, we had a threat of the F-16s who used be scrambled from across the border," he says. "But our MiG-29s could ward them off and we were able to do our missions unhindered."

"Right through the Kargil conflict, we flew these missions and got valuable information for the strike missions to go through with pin-point accuracy."

IMAGE: Group Captain Ashwani Bhakoo (retd), VSM. IMAGE: Group Captain Ashwani Bhakoo (retd), VSM.

The squadron flew more than 60 missions during the conflict and continued to do so even after the guns fell silent at the end of July 1999.

"Our information on the enemy positions was important to our artillery, who, with this information, were able to deliver devastating attacks on enemy gun positions," says the IAF veteran.

"We had special pods which could look deep inside enemy territory even while maintaining the sanctity of the border as we were ordered to do," he adds.

The IAF had clear orders not to violate the LoC because the leadership felt it would lead to escalation of the conflict.

The missions were flown at low and high levels depending on the level of clarity/detail required.

"My boys in the squadron were so full of josh," remembers the then commanding officer.

"We had an augmentation of pilots to the squadron in those times. There used to be a huge tussle amongst all of them to get their names on the missions," Bhakoo Sir remembers.

The squadron's engineering and administrative staff were not to be left behind.

Tents were deployed inside the squadron complex and the men refused to go home even for their meals, recalls Bakhoo Sir.

"All that was left for me to do was to plan the missions in consultation with Western Air Command."

"When I asked the men how they were going to manage the food, water and ration requirements whilst staying inside the technical area, they replied: 'Sir, you do the missions, leave everything to us, we will manage everything else on ground!'

Group Captain Bhakoo lives in Pune and often lectures at schools, colleges and other educational institutions.

"My retired Jaguar now operates within a radius of 500 km from Pune!" he says with a chuckle.

Air Commodore Nitin Sathe retired from the Indian Air Force in February 2020 after 35 distinguished years of service in the IAF.

He is the author of three books including Tsunami 2004: The IAF Story: a Few Good Men & the Angry Sea about how the IAF rebuilt its Car Nicobar airbase after the December 26, 2004 tsunami completely devastated it.

Feature Production: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
The federal judiciary is experiencing a crisis of diversity. President Donald Trump has appointed mostly white men to the courts, undoing the progress his Democratic predecessors made toward building a bench that looks more like the country it serves. Diverse judges bring different perspectives to their worka deeper understanding of racial discrimination, for instance, or a better sense of how law enforcement can oppress minority communities. These benefits were on full display when, on Thursday, a Black judge had to teach his colleague about the existence of racial profiling by police.

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Because it is ubiquitous across the country, racial profiling crops up in the background of countless criminal cases. But it was the main focus of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuits decision in U.S. v. Curry on Thursday. The facts are disturbing: Four officers responded to gunshots heard in the vicinity of Creighton Court, a public housing community in Richmond, Virginia. They drove to a field where they thought the shots originated and saw a group of Black men. An officer confronted one of these men, Bill Curry, who pointed toward the area where he believed the shots had come from. The officer abruptly forced Curry to put his up hands, then demanded that he lift his shirt. When Curry refused, the officer restrained and searched him. A struggle ensued, and the officer testified that an illegal revolver fell from Currys clothes.

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Curry moved to suppress this evidence, alleging that the officers search violated his Fourth Amendment rights. To justify even a brief warrantless search, law enforcement must generally have reasonable suspicion that the suspect engaged in criminal activity. And the officers had no reasonable suspicion to search Curry, who was merely a Black man standing calmly in a public space. The police can get around this requirement by citing exigent circumstances, including the need to protect individuals who are threatened with imminent harm. But even then, officers at least need specific information about the crime and suspect. Here, the officers had no reason to believe that the men walking in the field had anything to do with the gunshots they heard. Thus, by a 96 vote, the court held that the search was unconstitutional.

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This conclusion sent Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, a white Ronald Reagan appointee, into a conniption fit. We face again in this day of sad and unhappy truths the divide between what are already two Americas, Wilkinson huffed in dissent. In one America, where citizens possess the means to hire private security or move to safer neighborhoods, the impact of judicial barriers to effective law enforcement may be minimal. In another America, though, people have no choice but to endure the unintended consequences of our missteps, as crime moves to fill the vacuum left by the progressive disablement of the laws protections.

Wilkinson complained that, by limiting cops ability to search civilians without suspicion, courts risk inducing police officers to simply abandon inner cities as part of their mission. The police, tired of being wrongly scapegoated, will flee high-crime areas, leaving the least fortunate among us to fend increasingly for themselves. That abandonment, in turn, will drive out many minority-owned businesses and lead to the emboldening of gangs and drug rings. Courts will doom youngsters to be recruited as runners for the enticement of easy money, then claimed by an addiction that can lead to a lifelong chemical dependency.

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In sum, Wilkinson believed, the majoritys decision imperils predictive policing, which uses big data and machine learning to identify likely areas of crime and stop criminal offenses before they occur.

Chief Judge Roger Gregory, who is Black, felt obliged to respond to this warped jeremiad. (Gregory has bipartisan credentials: Bill Clinton placed him on the 4th Circuit as a recess appointee, and then George W. Bush renominated him.) When I read the first line of Judge Wilkinsons dissent, the chief judge wrote, I was heartened by the thought: well, at least he acknowledges that there are two Americas. But this glint of enlightenment was to serve as a soap box for his charge against the majoritys decision. Gregory continued:

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It is understandable that such a pseudo-sociological platform was necessary as his assertions are bereft of any jurisprudential reasoning. More to the point, his recognition of a divided America is merely a preamble to the fallacy-laden exegesis of predictive policing that follows. Through his opinion, my colleague contributes to the volumes of work gifted by others who felt obliged to bear their burden to save minority or disadvantaged communities from themselves.

Citing Frederick Douglass and James Baldwin, Gregory noted the long history of black and brown communities feeling unsafe in police presence. Alluding to recent, high-profile police violence toward Black Americans, he went on:

In a society where some are considered dangerous even when they are in their living rooms eating ice cream, asleep in their beds, playing in the park, standing in the pulpit of their church, birdwatching, exercising in public, or walking home from a trip to the store to purchase a bag of Skittles, it is still within their own communitieseven those deemed dispossessed or disadvantagedthat they feel the most secure. Permitting unconstitutional governmental intrusions into these communities in the name of protecting them presents a false dichotomy. My colleague insists on a Hobsons choice for these communities: decide between their constitutional rights against unwarranted searches and seizures or forgo governmental protection that is readily afforded to other communities.

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This case, Gregory pointed out, demonstrates why courts should not tolerate unconstitutional policing to prevent crime: That approach isnt just racist; it also doesnt work. Here, Curry and his friends tried to point the officers toward the location of the gunshots. In response, the officers were aggressive, discourteous, and ineffective. They ignored the assistance and the shooter got away. In their zeal to arrest someoneanyonethe officers failed their mission. These tough on crime officers did not actually solve the crime.

It did not seem to occur to Wilkinson that predictive policing is fraught with the racial biases of those who design programs to make predictions. (In her own concurrence, Judge Stephanie Thacker derided the practice as little more than racial profiling writ large, noting that it lets officers violate the constitutional rights of people like Curry for walking while black.) The task fell on Gregory to enlighten his colleague about the realities of racist policing, and to inform him that American cities will not descend into an urban hellscape without racial profiling. And yet, in the face of Gregorys lesson, Wilkinson still chose to dissent. So did his five conservative colleagues, all of whom are white, though none signed on to his tone-deaf opinion. If there were more judges like Gregory in the federal judiciary, Americans might not have to fight so hard to vindicate their most basic liberties.

For more of Slates news coverage, subscribe to What Next on Apple Podcasts or listen below.
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Thursday to overturn a federal appeals court's decision that blocked some Florida felons' eligibility to participate in elections - a major blow to efforts to restore voting rights to as many as 1.4 million people in the battleground state.

The action lets stand a temporary halt by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit of a judge's order that had cleared the way for hundreds of thousands of felons in the state to register to vote.

In early July, the Campaign Legal Center in Washington, the ACLU and other plaintiffs petitioned the high court to lift the stay, arguing that the appeals court decision had "thrown the election rules into chaos."

But on Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied that request. Three liberal justices noted their dissent, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing that the court's order "prevents thousands of otherwise eligible voters from participating in Florida's primary election simply because they are poor."

As is common in emergency requests, the majority did not offer a reasoning for its action.

Paul Smith, a lawyer with the Campaign Legal Center, said he was "deeply disappointed" with the order. "Florida's voters spoke loud and clear when nearly two-thirds of them supported rights restoration at the ballot box in 2018," he said in a statement. "The Supreme Court stood by as the Eleventh Circuit prevented hundreds of thousands of otherwise eligible voters from participating in Florida's primary election simply because they can't afford to pay fines and fees. We look forward to continuing to fight for Florida voters so they can participate in the General Election in November."

A spokesperson for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Earlier this month, his office said the governor would not comment until there is a final appeals court ruling.

It's unclear whether the issue will be resolved in time for the November presidential election or whether the final ruling will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The appeals court has scheduled a hearing on the issue for Aug. 18 - the same day as Florida's primary election.

The reenfranchisement of felons has been a contentious issue in the swing state since voters passed Amendment 4 in 2018. The amendment - which more than 65 percent of voters supported - cleared the way for most felons, except those who had been convicted of murder or felony sexual offenses, to register to vote.

An estimated 85,000 felons have registered since Amendment 4 took effect in January 2019. Previously, Florida had been one of a handful of states that barred felons from voting for life.

A law signed by DeSantis last year appeared to thwart the potential reach of Amendment 4, adding a requirement that fines, fees and restitution be paid first. Without a system in place to help felons get the information, they were left on their own to find out whether and how much they owe.

That created "an administrative nightmare," U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle said when he ruled against the state in May, finding that the law amounted to an unconstitutional voting tax.

Lawyers for the government, meanwhile, argued in their response to the Supreme Court that proponents of Amendment 4 had campaigned for its passage with the proviso that it "could" give felons a second chance "upon payment of fines, fees and restitution."

Supporters of the amendment "knew that felon reenfranchisement 'polls higher' in Florida when payment of financial punishment was required, and that there would be a 'harder fight to win 60% + 1% approval' required to amend the Florida Constitution without that requirement," the lawyers wrote.

In numerous voting-related cases decided near election dates, the Supreme Court has declined to intervene, citing the Purcell Principle, a legal doctrine arising from the 2006 case Purcell v. Gonzalez. In that case, the high court ruled that "court orders affecting elections, especially conflicting orders, can themselves result in voter confusion and consequent incentive to remain away from the polls. As an election draws closer, that risk will increase."

The state of Florida argued that Hinkle's decision had bucked that principle.

"Far from creating the chaos described by applicants, the Eleventh Circuit's order actually quells the chaos created by the district court's unprecedented injunction," the state's lawyers wrote.

In her dissent, Sotomayor argued the opposite, saying the Supreme Court's decision "allows the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to disrupt Florida's election process just days before the July 20 voter-registration deadline for the August primary."

"This Court's inaction continues a trend of condoning disfranchisement," she added. "Ironically, this Court has wielded Purcell as a reason to forbid courts to make voting safer during a pandemic, overriding two federal courts because any safety related changes supposedly came too close to election day."

The case is Raysor v. DeSantis.

Voting rights activists worry that the uncertainty around Florida's law now will discourage people with felony records from trying to register even if they are eligible.

"Having cried and walked with numerous families and individuals impacted by this legal roller coaster over the last year, we are continually focused on reminding people that this is not a political science exercise to the people directly impacted by these type of decisions," said Neil Volz, deputy director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition.

Desmond Meade, executive director of the coalition, said: "We are disappointed with the Supreme Court's decision but not deterred. Where others see obstacles, we see opportunities. We know a more vibrant democracy is a stronger democracy, and that the voices of the people will be heard."

Meade spent three years in prison on a drug charge. He registered to vote in January 2019 and later found out he still owed about $1,000 in fines, fees and restitution. He paid them, and he plans to vote in August for the first time in 30 years.

His group is helping others pay their fines if they can't afford to do so, but they can't reach all felons in the state, and sometimes finding out whether they owe anything is difficult, even with the help of pro bono lawyers who are working with the group.

Hinkle's ruling in May ordered the state to tell felons whether they are eligible to vote and what they owe. If they didn't get an answer from the state within 21 days, they could register to vote.

A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court, which leans conservative, has twice agreed with Hinkle, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton. But the state's latest appeal to the full circuit resulted in a freeze of his order until after the August hearing.

- - -

Rozsa reported from Broward County, Fla. The Washington Post's Robert Barnes contributed to this report.
GRIPBELL Revolutionary Fitness Product Line Everyone said a patent would be nearly impossible to harness, so were particularly thrilled to receive one," said Ronald Obray, CEO of GRIPBELL.

The company also is awaiting approval of several other U.S. and international patents on its technology. It has filed with the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) to protect the weight system in countries governed by the World Trade Organization and has filed a continuation patent application from its issued utility patent.

GRIPBELLs handheld products are the most versatile, highest-quality fitness products ever built for gym or home use. They offer an all-in-one full-body workout and can replace many other handheld gym products, including dumbbells and kettle bells to simplify or intensify cross-training, physical therapy, weightlifting, yoga or interval training sessions.

GRIPBELL products were developed with every type of fitness level in mind. With its simple transportable design, a variety of weights and the potential to be incorporated into multiple types of training, GRIPBELL can enhance any individual fitness program.

We believe we have built the most radically innovative fitness tools for all ages and fitness levels, said Ronald Obray, GRIPBELLs President and CEO. Everyone said a patent would be nearly impossible to harness, so were particularly thrilled to receive one. The GRIPBELL weights are the ideal product to keep in shape at home  now more than ever.

GRIPBELLs fitness set is already proven in the marketplace. The company sold 25,000 units during the beta soft launch phase in 2017. Key features of the product include:



All-in-one product, consolidates all other handheld, weighted fitness equipment

Beautiful streamlined design

Color-coded weights from 3 to 90 pounds

Training for any age, fitness level or activity

Evenly distributed weight makes them easy to handle

Made with hypoallergenic materials

Easy to transport and lays flat in luggage for ultimate portability

Can be used as an isometric tool to build strength and gain more flexibility

Training exercise videos from experienced fitness instructors included

The newly issued utility patent is #10,449,404. It joins GRIPBELLs three trademark registrations to protect the companys intellectual property. A China patent for the product is pending with approval expected later this year.

We will aggressively pursue our international patents over the next two years to find highly qualified distribution partners in the top 20 economic countries around the world, Obray said.

About GRIPBELL

Based in Reno, Nevada, GRIPBELL develops, sells and distributes the revolutionary GRIPBELL products. In response to the increased demand for innovative, full-body, space-saving fitness equipment for all ages and fitness levels, the patent-pending GRIPBELL is a powerful all-in-one Elite Performance fitness tool that can be used at home, at the office, in commercial gyms, or even while traveling. For more information, go to gripbell.com.

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Pizza Hut fans are only minutes away from a Ho Chi Minh City branch

Anhul Chauhan, CEO of Pizza Hut Vietnam, told VIR that NPC Internationals recent bankruptcy filing in the United States will thankfully have zero effect on the brand in Vietnam. NPC International is one of many franchisees that operate Pizza Hut in the US whose businesses are completely separate from the brands operations outside of the US.

The Pizza Hut brand itself is owned by Kentucky-based Yum! Brands, Inc., which has a presence of over 50,000 restaurants in more than 150 countries and territories primarily operating the companys restaurant brands of KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill  global leaders of the chicken, pizza, and Mexican-style food categories.

In Vietnam, however, Pizza Hut is operated by Jardines Restaurant Group (JRG), part of Jardines Matheson Group. JRG also has Pizza Hut and KFC franchise rights in multiple Asian markets, with close to 1,000 stores across the continent.

According to Chauhan, Pizza Hut Vietnam has been one of the fastest-growing food and beverage (F&B) brands in Vietnamm, with 95 stores at present across the country. Pizza Hut Vietnam has not had to close any stores permanently due to the COVID-19 crisis. As with all restaurant operators, we had to close restaurants temporarily for some time to follow the guidelines from the local authorities, Chauhan said. This had a significant impact on sales and profit during that period. We continue to see an ongoing effect on sales, especially in Ho Chi Minh City, due to lower customer spending and traffic.

Fortunately, some negative impacts have been reduced for the group due to its balanced business model, with a significant portion of sales coming from its delivery and takeaway service. In Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Pizza Hut has a very strong store network which means that customers can reach a Pizza Hut store in around eight minutes or less, regardless of where they are in the city. This also allows the chain to make and then deliver hot and fresh pizzas to the customer quickly.

As the spread of the pandemic has been controlled well in Vietnam so far, Pizza Hut aims to continue growing in the country. So far in 2020, the chain has opened four new stores with expansion in Hanoi, the northern province of Thai Nguyen, the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho, and Ho Chi Minh City.

Pizza Hut will open two more new stores this month, and aims to reach the 100 store mark before Lunar New Year 2021.

As part of Jardines Matheson, we are backed by a very strong balance sheet with adequate cash, and have a long-term view on growth, the Pizza Hut Vietnam CEO stressed. We continue to believe that Vietnam is poised for medium- and long-term growth for our business. Our long-term vision is to have 400 stores across the country, and we continue to invest in building the foundation for this in 2020 and beyond.

Sean T. Ngo, founder and CEO of VF Franchise Consulting, told VIR that while unfortunate, the collapse of Pizza Huts largest franchisee NPC International in the US was not surprising. For the past two decades, Pizza Hut and brands like Dominos have continued to decline due to high maturation and increasing competition. This trend, combined with the COVID-19 situation in the US, has been a fiasco and the situation continues to get worse, not better, he said.

Similarly, Lion City, the Singaporean restaurant chain, is also feeling the pinch of the global health crisis. COVID-19 was one of the worst things that could happen. Nobody is spared in retail, especially in F&B, Lion City founder Harry Ang told VIR. Our sales dropped below 50 per cent as people were afraid of going out for fear of being affected. Fortunately, the Vietnamese government did a good job. Our guests are coming back but not as before, as tourists and foreigners have not yet returned. They account for 30 per cent of our business turnover.

Ang added that the groups plans post-pandemic are very challenging. We are starting to shrink with fewer outlets and unfortunately have had to cut staff, and we will build from there, he said, adding that the chain expects to be back to normal by the second quarter of 2021.

In another case, Singaporean food and beverage corporation BreadTalk, which operates a chain of bakeries across Vietnam, has also been significantly affected. Its recent delisting from the Singaporean Stock Exchange is also a direct result of its sale to BTG Holdings. Its key markets of China, Hong Kong, and Singapore have all been hit hard.

Businesses that have been able to capitalise on take-away and deliveries have benefited the most during the crisis, including concepts that offer foods that can be easily delivered like pizzas and other types of fast food and popular beverages such as coffee and milk tea.

Ngo predicted that there will be an additional shake-out in Vietnams restaurant industry in terms of more exits of local and foreign brands, while at the same time there will be more players entering the field as they look to capitalise on consumers increasing demands for appealing and affordable F&B concepts that cater to an ever-growing eat-anywhere segment.

This is the reason, he added, why American brands such as Little Caesars Pizza and Thailands Mango Chilli, both of which VF Franchise is helping enter this country, are looking for qualified franchisees in Vietnam, even in these tough times.
Spike entered Buffy, the Vampire Slayer Season 2 like the Billy Idol of vampires. He had the platinum hair and British accent so down that some fans were surprised to learn that actor James Marsters was American. Spike could have sounded very differently if Marsters had gotten his way in his first audition for Buffy creator Joss Whedon.

James Marsters | Albert L. Ortega/WireImage

RELATED: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Creator Joss Whedon Once Terrified James Marsters By Backing Him Up Against a Wall

Marsters was a guest on Michael Rosenbaums Inside of You podcast on July 14. Rosenbaum asked him about Spikes voice, and Marsters told the whole story about why he originally wanted to try a southern accent for Spike.

James Marsters was southern in a play before he did Buffy, the Vampire Slayer

Buffy, the Vampire Slayer premiered on The WB in the spring 1997. Marsters would join the cast for the second season in the fall. Prior to his audition for Whedon, Marsters performed in a play where he used a very different accent.

I had done a play where I used like a Louisiana accent, like deep on south, way on down Louisiana like that, Marsters told Rosenbaum. Again, I was playing a killer and the killer was on the phone with the lead of the play and we were getting all of these laughs that we didnt plan on having. I remember asking the director why are we getting these laughs.

James Marsters | Frank Mullen/WireImage

RELATED: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: James Marsters and Amber Benson Weigh in on the Upcoming Reboot

It turned out the accent Marsters chose was even more transformative than he realized. He ended up playing more than just southern.

He said, Well, they cant see your face and youre using that accent. They think youre Black. So its playing differently than I wrote it but its actually working very well. Marsters said.

The southern accent could have worked for Buffy, the Vampire Slayer

Apparently, the accent Marsters had chosen was at one time a universally southern accent, but over time had migrated into the Black community.

He said, The accent that youre using wouldve been a white accent, say, 150 years ago but in modern times, only Black people would use that accent now. So they think youre Black. Marsters said.

Spike was hundreds of years old so he could have adopted an accent centuries ago, which would become anachronistic in the 90s.

James Marsters | Jean-Paul Aussenard/WireImage

RELATED: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Cordelia Was Supposed to Be Played by a Black Actress

So I thought wow, a vampire, that would be a fun accent to use that one, Marsters said. When they asked me later during the Buffy audition, what other accent? I thought, Well

James Marsters couldnt sell Joss Whedon on his southern accent

Marsters brought his southern accent to the Buffy, the Vampire Slayer audition. In the end, he did what Whedon told him to.

So I did that as well but Joss Whedon wanted an English punk rock vampire, Marsters said. Its not surprising that he said, No, that other accent is very cute but I want what I want.

If Spike were southern, where would he have met Drusilla (Juliet Landau)? Would she have become a southern Belle? Its probably for the best Whedon stuck to Brit punk vampires.
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Linkedin Luis Jaime CIisneros and Jesus Olarte (Agence France-Presse) Lima  Thu, July 16, 2020 09:35 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666b3ad6 2 News Peru,travel,Airlines,air-travel Free

Peru reopened domestic air travel on Wednesday in a bid to reignite the economy as it announced a drop of 33 percent in GDP for May year-on-year.

Long queues of passengers formed from dawn at the Jorge Chavez airport in the capital Lima with 17 domestic flights operating during the day.

"We're opening together the Peruvian sky with our first flight from Lima to Cusco," Latin America's biggest airline LATAM said on Twitter.

Air travel had been suspended for four months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Cusco, the ancient capital of the Inca empire, is the nearest airport to Machu Picchu, the ruins of an Inca citadel that is Peru's most visited tourist site.

Authorities are hoping to re-open Machu Picchu, with a restricted number of visitors, on July 24.

The move comes with Peru revealing its economy shrank by 3.4 percent in the first quarter of 2020.

GDP slumped almost 33 percent in May compared to the same month in 2019, although that was a slight improvement on April's year-on-year figure of more than 40 percent, the national statistics institute said.

The first flight of the day, from Lima to the Amazonian city of Iquitos, left with an hour's delay.

Cross-country bus travel was also restarted.

Read also: Peru plans to reopen Machu Picchu on July 24

All airplane and bus passengers must wear face masks and facial protectors, according to the government's biosecurity regulations.

Passengers must present an affidavit assuring that they are free of COVID-19 and have their temperature taken before boarding a flight.

They will not be able to fly if showing any COVID-19 symptoms.

Air passengers must also arrive three hours before their flights rather than the usual one hour for domestic travel.

Air and bus travel is now permitted in 18 of Peru's 25 regions. Airlines are allowed to use only 30 percent of their fleet.

Peru's external borders remain closed, though, with the government looking into the possibility of restarting foreign travel in August.

Peru has registered the second most coronavirus cases in Latin America with more tha 333,000, the the third most deaths at over 12,000.

The Central Bank says GDP will fall by 12.5 percent in 2020.
HOLLAND, MI -- A 31-year-old man suspected of shooting a woman in the face was captured by police not long after he jumped from an apartment balcony to escape police.

Police responded sometime after 3 p.m. Wednesday, July 15 to the 500 block of 136th Avenue after someone called 911 out of fear that a shooting might happen.

As police approached an apartment door, they heard arguing and someone referencing weapons. As they made entry, they heard shots fired.

They were able to enter the apartment and found a 29-year-old woman had been shot in the face. She was taken to Holland Hospital for injuries not believed to be life-threatening.

Police learned the suspected shooter had jumped form a balcony and ran away.

Ottawa County sheriffs deputies set up a perimeter and were able to spot the man in nearby woods. He was taken into custody.

The suspected shooter and victim had been in a relationship but were separated, police said. Three young children inside the apartment where the shooting happened were not hurt.

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The exquisitely decorated abdomen of the mirror spider may resemble a disco ball, but the special effect is not just a flashy show.

The reflective jacket covering the spiders abdomen scatters light and confuses potential predators, making it a defense mechanism that also looks quite spectacular.

A byproduct of the spiders digestive activity, the mirror-like panels on its abdomen are made of the organic compound guanine, according to Find-A-Spider Guide author Ron Atkinson. The spider excretes crystals onto the surface of its back side somewhat like a mirrored mosaic, giving it a disco ball effect.

Theridiidae thwaitesia nigronodosa specimen from Mallacoota, Australia, pictured Jan. 21, 2015 (Courtesy of Ian Macaulay via Robert Whyte)

Australian spider expert and photographer Robert Whyte first noticed the mirror spider in its natural habitat reflecting the light of a small leaf. Whyte, who is a researcher for Queensland Museum, has amassed a huge collection of impressive closeup photographs since that first encounter.

Speaking to Australian Geographic, Whyte described its mirrored abdomen as particularly good camouflage in the tropical areas where it rains more, because you have rain drops which also sparkle in the sun, and so the spider goes relatively unnoticed.

A Thwaitesia nigronodosa specimen from North Queensland, Australia, on Nov. 12, 2014 (Courtesy of Ian Macaulay via Robert Whyte)

A Thwaitesia nigronodosa specimen belonging to the Entomological Society of Queenslands Bug Catch of March 16, 2014 (Courtesy of Robert Whyte)

The mirror spider can also contract its gut muscles over the guanine crystals, resulting in a rapid color change. The stimulus for these muscle cell contractions is usually external, such as from a predator, Atkinson told Science Friday.

[R]eflections from the plates may resemble those from droplets of water in the green vegetation, he added, and the colored bits of the spider could easily be confused with flower parts.

The mirror spider is a member of the Thwaitesia genus of comb-footed tropical spiders. Females are larger, measuring an average of 4.5 millimeters in length, and males measure 2.7 millimeters.

A lightning-fast runner, the mirror spider is also allegedly camera shy.

A juvenile Thwaitesia nigronodosa sporting a large black patch on its back photographed at Springbrook, Australia, on July 13, 2013 (Courtesy of Robert Whyte)

Meanwhile, Whyte maintains that the beautiful arachnid is changing public perception of Australian spiders amid the countrys reputation for hosting some of the largest in the world.

These lovely little arachnids are hugely changing the way we think about spiders, he told Australian Geographic. When I show pictures of the mirror spider to people during talks, people will say, Oh thats beautiful, while other people who might be afraid of spiders say, Thats not a real spider.

The spider expert believes that hope for change lies with the next generation, as the non-venomous mirror spider, with its unique, captivating sparkle, is particularly popular with kids.

A closeup Thwaitesia nigronodosa specimen pictured on March 6, 2015 (Courtesy of Ian Macaulay via Robert Whyte)

Kids are not as ingrained in their attitudes towards spiders and schools are taking more initiative, Whyte explained. The mirror spider is so common around creek lines, especially in Brisbane. I can describe to a six-year-old  and within five minutes theyll go out looking for it.

In fact, more and more people may have the chance to get on friendly terms with this marvelous miniature creature as the mirror spiders habitat appears to be expanding.

Besides Australia, there are already several Thwaitesia in China and Vietnam, says Atkinson, and one species each in Myanmar and New Guinea. I am confident that more Thwaitesia species will be found and described in Southeast Asia in the near future, he added.

We would love to hear your stories! You can share them with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.nyc
Illegal armed groups are imposing strict COVID-19 quarantines in parts of Colombia where the state has a weak presence, threatening and even killing those who don't comply, Human Rights Watch warned Wednesday.

At least nine people have been assassinated in recent months for either refusing to abide by the restrictions or actively opposing them.

One man, community leader Edison Leon, was killed in June after sending a letter alerting local authorities that members of a group called 'La Mafia' were forcing residents to staff a health checkpoint in the south-western region of Putumayo.

'I am not willing to continue sending my people to death,' he wrote. Days later he was killed.

COVID-19 cases have been steadily increasing in Colombia, with 165,169 confirmed as of Wednesday evening. There have also been 5,814 confirmed deaths.

Illegal armed groups are imposing strict COVID-19 quarantines in parts of Colombia where the state has a weak presence, threatening and even killing those who don't comply. Pictured: Soldiers on the streets in Bogota, Colombia's capital, to enforce a strict lockdown

At least nine people have been assassinated in recent months for either refusing to abide by the restrictions or actively opposing them

In the Pacific coast port city of Tumaco, which is one of the most dangerous places in Colombia, gangs have banned residents from fishing.

They have also imposed a 5pm curfew, which is far stricter than that imposed by the government.

Community leader Edison Leon was killed after raising the alarm about the cartel lockdown

'Draconian punishments imposed by armed groups to prevent the spread of COVID-19 mean that people in remote and impoverished communities across Colombia risk being attacked and even killed if they leave their homes,' said Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director for Human Rights Watch.

Vivanco said the groups - which include rebel dissidents of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation Army, among others - are using the pandemic to assert their control and gain legitimacy in the eyes of the public - but also acting out of fear of the virus itself.

Many of the rural areas where the groups operate do not have hospitals equipped with ventilators to treat those who become severely ill.

'There is a genuine fear of an outbreak within their ranks,' Vivanco said.

The nation is facing the pandemic at the same time that it is grappling with a host of other issues, including massive coca production, drug trafficking, and the killing of social leaders and former guerrillas in the aftermath of Colombia's historic 2016 peace accord.

In the Pacific coast port city of Tumaco, which is one of the most dangerous places in Colombia, gangs have banned residents from fishing

Colombia's unemployment rate is at about 21 per cent and officials estimate that 4.7 million people will become newly poor by the end of the year.

Human Rights Watch said its investigation found illegal armed groups are imposing rules to halt the spread of COVID-19 in at least 11 of Colombia's 32 states.

In at least five, they are using violence to exert control.

The warnings arrive to citizens through paper pamphlets or WhatsApp messages.

One community leader in Putumayo told the Guardian on condition of anonymity that the cartels have 'shut down transport between villages, and when someone is suspected to have Covid-19 they are told to leave the region or they will be killed.'

One pamphlet released the National Liberation Army rebels in northern Colombia earlier this year said fighters have been 'forced to kill people in order to preserve lives' and warned only those working in food stores, bakeries or pharmacies are allowed out.

COVID-19 cases have been steadily increasing in Colombia, with 165,169 confirmed as of Wednesday evening. There have also been more than 5,800 confirmed deaths

In one case, three civilians were killed and four injured in southwestern Colombia after being gunned down while in a public park.

In another incident, two Venezuelan migrants were killed while drinking alcohol at a cellphone repair shop.

In both instances, prosecutors or humanitarian workers believe the victims were killed for breaking quarantine rules.

Though many crime indicators have fallen in Colombia and other parts of Latin America during the pandemic, violence against vulnerable communities including peasants, social leaders and ex-rebels has continued.

The quarantines being established by the illegal armed groups are even stricter than those imposed by the government, Human Rights Watch found. Whereas the nationwide quarantine allows for residents to leave home to seek medical care, some illegal armed groups refuse even that.

The organization is calling on Colombia's government to protect civilians and ensure their access to health care, food and drinking water.

'This abusive social control reflects the government's long-standing failure to establish a meaningful state presence in remote areas of the country, including to protect at-risk populations,' Vivanco said.
New research led by Bournemouth University archaeologists supports the theory that the Hyksos, the rulers of the 15th Dynasty of ancient Egypt, were not from a unified place of origin, but Western Asiatics whose ancestors moved into Egypt during the Middle Kingdom, lived there for centuries, and then rose to rule the north of Egypt.

The Hyksos were a foreign dynasty that ruled parts of Egypt between 1638 and 1530 BCE, the first instance of Egypt being ruled by individuals of a foreign origin.

The narrative of how the Hyksos rose to rule is apocryphal. The Ptolemaic priest Manetho was for centuries the only account of their rise, rule, and fall.

Living approximately twelve centuries after the Hyksos dynasty, Manetho described the Hyksos rulers as leading an invading force sweeping in from the northeast and conquering the northeastern Nile Delta during the Second Intermediate Period in a time when Egypt as a country was vulnerable.

Manethos account only survived in the works of later historians such as Flavius Josephus and, however biased and unreliable, was the solitary known source of the Hyksos for centuries.

Archaeological evidence does link Hyksos culture with an origin in the Near East, but exactly how they rose to power is unclear.

In a new study, Dr. Chris Stantis and her colleagues from Bournemouth University, the Universite de Bordeaux, Durham University, and the Austrian Academy of Sciences Vienna collected enamel samples from the teeth of 75 ancient people from the Hyksos capital city of Tell el-Daba.

Comparing ratios of strontium isotopes in the teeth to environmental isotope signatures from Egypt and elsewhere, the researchers assessed the geographic origins of the individuals who lived in the city.

They found that a large percentage of the populace were non-locals who immigrated from a wide variety of other places. This pattern was true both before and during the Hyksos dynasty.

This pattern does not match the story of a sudden invasion from a single far-off land, but of a multi-cultural region where one internal group  the Hyksos  eventually rose to power after living there for generations.

Archaeological chemistry, specifically isotopic analysis, shows us first-generation migration during a time of major cultural transformations in ancient Egypt, Dr. Stantis said.

Rather than the old scholastic theories of invasion, we see more people, especially women, migrating to Egypt before Hyksos rule, suggesting economic and cultural changes leading to foreign rule rather than violence.

The study was published online in the journal PLoS ONE.

_____

C. Stantis et al. 2020. Who were the Hyksos? Challenging traditional narratives using strontium isotope (87Sr/86Sr) analysis of human remains from ancient Egypt. PLoS ONE 15 (7): e0235414; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0235414
ZAGREB, Croatia - Croatias president on Thursday handed Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic the mandate to form a new government after his conservative party prevailed in a July 5 parliamentary election.

Plenkovics Croatian Democratic Union, or HDZ, came first in the election, held amid a renewed spike in new coronavirus infections, but failed to gain an outright majority in the 151-seat parliament, winning 66 seats.

However, it garnered the support of another 10 lawmakers from smaller parties and minority groups. The exact composition of the future Cabinet will be known next week.

There are many difficult challenges ahead for Croatia, Plenkovic said. These challenges are of a political, economic, financial nature  and of course they also concern public health.

HDZ prevailed over the main liberal opposition party that won 41 seats, while in third place was a party that challenged Plenkovic from the right-wing pole of the political scene.

President Zoran Milanovic on Thursday granted Plenkovic the mandate to form his new government after a total 76 lawmakers formally pledged to support him.

The new assembly is expected to convene next week. Plenkovic has announced that his new government will have fewer ministries, to ensure greater efficiency.

European Union-member Croatia has been struggling to salvage its key tourism season thats been ravaged by the virus outbreak. Authorities have made wearing face masks in shops and other closed areas mandatory.

A country of 4.2 million people, Croatia is known for its stunning Adriatic Sea coast.
Remember Mathu Vadalara, the Tollywood film that had everyone sitting up and taking notice last year? Well, the comic thriller has joined the list of recent Telugu films to be remade in Bollywood.

Apparently, the Ritesh Rana debut directorial has even caught the attention of the Hindi-speaking movie-goers. The buzz is that Ritesh, who had directed the original, will also helm the remake.

Producer Cherry garu and I always believed that the Mathu Vadalara script has the potential to be told on a larger scale. So we had initially thought of making the film in Hindi too. The appreciation and acclaim the Telugu version reinforced our confidence in the script, and we decided to narrate it to a wider audience, explains Ritesh, who has just begun the draft of the Hindi version.

Although the script has universal appeal, we are trying to tweak it to suit the sensibilities of the Hindi audience, just to make sure that we tighten all the loose ends whilst retaining the core emotional appeal. So I am trying to give a new spin to the revised narrative, the director explains.
Just over a fortnight after Brazilian regional operator Algar Telecom was rumoured to be interested in a bid for the mobile and fixed businesses of operator Oi, Telecom Italia seems to be back on the scene  via TIM Brasil.

According to TeleGeography's CommsUpdate, Telecom Italia Group has authorised its subsidiary TIM Brasil to bid for the cellular unit of cash-strapped operator Oi. According to local press, Telecom Italia chairman Salvatore Rossi has given TIM Brasil CEO Pietro Labriola the go-ahead to examine and approve the final terms of the binding proposal.

This bid, if it happens, may not be totally unexpected. Back in October Telefonica, America Movil and Telecom Italia were rumoured to have begun talks to jointly purchase Ois mobile division and then divide the assets between them. However, in March TIM Brasil and Telefonica Brasil, through its brand, Vivo, were said to have commenced negotiations to jointly acquire Ois mobile business. As we have mentioned, the possibility of an Algar Telecom bid has also been discussed in various media outlets.

The bidding process may clarify matters  when it actually starts. It will involve the submission of sealed bids for 100 per cent of Ois mobile unit. The minimum acceptable bid is about $2.9 billion. The winner may not be the highest bidder, however, if the second highest bid over the minimum provides greater legal assurances and certainty for the closing of the sale.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-17 01:15:42|Editor: huaxia

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BERLIN, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Local entry and exit bans could now be imposed upon regions with high COVID-19 infection numbers or uncertain infection chains, the German government announced on Thursday.

In view of the ongoing holiday and travel season in Germany, precautions had to be taken to prevent the coronavirus from spreading again, head of the Chancellery Helge Braun and the heads of the state chancelleries agreed.

The entry and exit bans would be "target-oriented" and would not necessarily affect entire districts or cities, according to the agreement. "Faster, smaller-scale, more precise, that is what we want to agree on today," Braun told German broadcaster ARD and ZDF ahead of the discussions on Thursday.

Following an outbreak at Germany's largest meat processing company Toennies, where more than 1,400 employees tested positive for COVID-19, contact restrictions on public life had been temporarily re-imposed for 640,000 inhabitants in two districts.

As of Thursday, no German district had seen the critical benchmark of 50 infections per 100,000 inhabitants was breached, according to the RKI. After the outbreak at the slaughterhouse, the seven-day incidence in the affected district peaked at 270 in late June.

According to the agreement, Germany's federal states should take precautions that travelers from regions with increased COVID-19 infections were only allowed to enter other federal states if they could provide a valid medical certificate with a negative test result.

Germany's federal states and national government also agreed that returnees from other countries as well as travelers who had stayed in a risk area within the last 14 days would "remain obliged" to undergo home quarantine for 14 days.

"We have only just succeeded in reopening borders in Europe," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told the German Funke Media Group on Thursday. This achievement should not be "jeopardized by careless behavior." Enditem
The Nigeria Union of Journalists, Bauchi State council, has banned media coverage of all activities of the Youth Wing of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the State.

The council, through its Secretary, Isah Gadau, announced the ban in a statement made available to journalists on Thursday in Bauchi.

It said that the ban followed the disruption of a press conference at the NUJ Press Centre, allegedly by members of the Youth Wing of the party.

The union said the violent disruption of the conference resulted in some members of the union sustaining injuries and the damaging of their work tools.

While commending the policemen for their prompt action in bringing the situation under control, it called on the security agents to fish out the culprits.

Reacting to the incident, Publicity Secretary of APC in the state, Adamu Jalla, said he was not aware of any such press conference, saying those who disrupted the conference were not members of the party.

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Confirming the incident, spokesman of Bauchi Police Command, Ahmed Wakili, said the incident was unfortunate, adding the situation was brought under control promptly.

Its our responsibility to tackle all such incidents across the state; we managed to calm the situation, he said.

He said that they had commenced investigations, assuring that culprits would be apprehended and brought to book.

(NAN)
Charlottesville officials are considering expediting the process of approving day care facilities to meet a potential need stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.

The Planning Commission directed staff to draft a zoning amendment to allow family day homes and day care facilities by-right in all zoning designations and exempt them from off-street parking requirements during its meeting on Tuesday.

The action also directs staff to craft regulations for pickup and drop off locations while requesting that the staff waive the application fee and expedite the review process.

Commissioner Lyle Solla-Yates brought forth the proposal to address the potential need for child care as employers start returning people to the office. At the same time, however, schools are gearing up for partial or total online classes to start the semester.

Meanwhile, some day care facilities are reopening, but with reduced capacity to increase safety measures, leading to a shortage in availability.

Its a disaster, Solla-Yates said. We are not as strong as we were before. We are substantially weaker than we were before.

Family day homes fall under residential uses and are regulated based on the number of children that they serve. A home serving one to five children is allowed by-right in residential and business districts. A home serving six to 12 children is allowed by-right in business districts, but requires a special-use permit in all but high-density residential zoning.

Day care facilities serve 13 or more children and are allowed by-right in business districts, but require a special-use permit in all but high-density residential zoning.

Family day homes require one off-street parking space per employee who doesnt live in the home on top of parking regulations required for the zoning designation. For a day care, one space is required per 1.5 employees.

Deputy City Attorney Lisa Robertson said the issue is further complicated because once a facility is serving five children, it falls under state regulations.

Commissioner Lisa Green advocated for the additional measures that would expedite the approval process and waive the $100 fee because a zoning amendment can take several months to get approved, saying I think we need a more immediate stopgap.

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At least five persons were killed and seven injured on Thursday in two separate incidents when two buildings collapsed in Mumbai due to heavy rains.

In Malad area, at least one person was killed and five others injured on Thursday when a portion of a two-storey building collapsed. Several others were still stuck when last reports came in. Four fire engine, a rescue van and a 108 ambulance were rushed to the place where the L2 house collapsed.

The incident took place at around 2.30 pm at Malvani in the Abdul Hamid Marg of the area. On arrival at the scene of the incident, it was noticed that ground plus two-floor chawl had collapsed and thereby 5-6 persons were trapped.

Two people were rescued by the fire brigade, rendered first aid and sent to the hospital in a 108 ambulance. Two others were sent to the hospital in a private vehicle by the people before the arrival of the fire brigade. The injured are currently undergoing treatment.

The search and rescue operations of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and fire brigade were going on when last reports came in.

In another incident, at least four people were killed and two others critically injured when a portion of an old six-storey building collapsed in Fort area of Mumbai on Thursday. This is the second such incident in the day. Many people are feared trapped in the debris.

A corner portion of the Bhanushali building on Mint Road near Lucky house caved in around 4.43 pm. Eight fire engines, two rescue vehicles and ambulances were rushed to the spot. Several people have also been stranded in the side of the remaining portion of the affected building.

A team of the NDRF is helping the fire brigade in the search operation for the trapped persons. The deceased have been identified as--Jokhna Gupta (F/70), Kusum Gupta (F/45), Padumlal Gupta (M/60) and the identity of the fourth person is yet to be ascertained. Two people died before the arrival of the NDRF and two bodies were recovered by the NDRF and other agencies.

The torrential rains in Mumbai have filled the low-lying areas. Every year there is a lot of damage due to the collapse of decaying houses in the rainy season. There are accidents that lead to the deaths of people. There are large scale buildings in Mumbai, which are prone to collapse in heavy rains.
By Alexander Salerno

As a primary care physician, Im not used to seeing my patients in parking lots. Its not normal to do oral swabs and blood draws out of a van or for patients to be standing six feet apart in a line wrapped around the block. If coronavirus has proven anything, its that normal is a bygone word. Ive been practicing medicine in New Jersey for decades and Ive never seen anything like the coronavirus pandemic. New Jersey is starting to open up, but the virus is still ravaging communities at alarming rates.

In April, I spent $42,000 to purchase a sprinter van and outfit it to specifications required of a mobile COVID-19 testing unit. Its complete with a sink, a generator, wifi and a refrigerator unit. My family medical practice, Salerno Medical Associates, has been swamped with patients seeking testing and treatment for COVID-19 for months. The influx of patients, 80% of them Black or Hispanic, started to reveal a truth thats been confirmed on a national scale: Coronavirus is disproportionately affecting communities of color. It became apparent that we needed to act fast to reverse this trend, and we didnt have time to wait for patients to come to us. We had to go to them in their communities.

I have been taking the van to underserved areas of New Jersey for the past two months and am testing hundreds of patients a day. The Urban Healthcare Initiative Program, a nonprofit I started to provide healthcare education to underserved populations in their communities, has also become almost completely dedicated to testing and treating coronavirus. My team and I do oral swabs to identify people with the active virus, and antibody blood tests to see if they previously contracted it. Both are vital measures to identify the disease and stop the spread.

My home state of New Jersey just confirmed a case total of nearly 175,000. When I started my mobile clinic, 21.3% of COVID-19 deaths involved African American patients, even though they make up only 14% of the population of New Jersey. This is not unique to New Jersey, however, and unless relentless action in the form of testing and treatment continues, it will persist.

This pandemic has exposed our countrys lack of a proactive public health system, and people of color are bearing the brunt. First, Black and Hispanic people are predisposed to chronic illnesses such as hypertension, asthma and diabetes, conditions that when compounded with coronavirus, produce deleterious effects. Underserved minorities are also disproportionately represented in service jobs and occupations where working from home is not a possibility. Lastly, many minority-dominant areas are chronically medically underserved, meaning there is a shortage of primary care doctors for people to see if they do fall ill, as is the case in many urban areas across the country.

To be sure, doctors and public health officials across the country have been going beyond the call of duty during this pandemic. Health professionals are working around the clock to treat and test coronavirus patients in unprecedented acts of heroism. In order to stymie the spread of coronavirus to New Jerseys most vulnerable, however, we have to remain active and vigilant.

My mobile testing and treatment unit is just one example of a grassroots effort to reach medically underserved populations. Other grassroots public health solutions have popped up across the country. After learning that the Latino community was disproportionately impacted in Alexandria, Virginia, a healthcare clinic primarily serving Spanish-speaking patients set up a testing unit in a local park. A Philadelphia doctor tired of the lagging government response to coronavirus death disparities set up a testing unit in a local church. These are examples of local doctors recognizing a need and acting quickly to fill it. In order to open states safely, it must continue.

It is imperative that as states begin to relax restrictions, we continue our pace with testing. This is the only way we will control the spread and keep the public safe as the summer months get into full swing. Last month, New Jersey doubled coronavirus testing capacity with an influx of 550,000 tests from the federal government. This is good, but we cant stop there. Physicians on the frontline across the country must continue to work with state and national governments to communicate what is needed and where the need is most acutely felt.

Medically underserved minority populations are dying at disproportionate rates from this virus, a trend that inspired action in my practice and in others across the country. To combat this deadly pandemic in an equitable way, grassroots public health efforts need to continue to mobilize. Coronavirus wont let up anytime soon, and neither should we.

Dr. Alexander Salerno is a physician at Salerno Medical Associates, a family-run, second-generation practice that serves East Orange and Newark. Hes also the founder of The Urban Healthcare Initiative Program (UHIP), a community-based health and education provider.

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A technology entrepreneur who founded Nigeria's Gokada ride-hailing app was found decapitated and dismembered in a luxury New York apartment with a power saw plugged in nearby, New York media reported late Tuesday. Police on Wednesday confirmed the death of Fahim Saleh in a statement and deemed it a homicide but offered none of the grisly details reported in New York media.

Detectives found Saleh's torso near a power saw and later discovered his head and limbs sorted into plastic bags, police told New York crime reporters. Saleh's sister discovered the body Tuesday afternoon, and the fact the saw was still connected led detectives to suspect her arrival may have startled the perpetrator, who would have fled through another exit, the New York Times reported.

"We have a torso, a head that's been removed, arms, and legs. Everything is still on the scene. We don't have a motive," police spokesman Carlos Nieves told the Daily News.

Saleh, 33, founded the Gokada motorbike hailing app. It was popular in the Nigerian megacity of Lagos until state officials in February banned all motorcycle taxis, known locally as 'okada' and able to weave through traffic. Gokada, funded by U.S and Gulf investment and venture capital funds, has one of the largest fleets of motorcycle hailing taxis in Nigeria. But the company, along with its competitors, fell foul of regulators in Lagos state.

Security camera video showed Saleh in the apartment building's elevator with a man in a dark suit, mask and gloves, the media reports said. Video showed the masked man following Saleh into the apartment, where a struggle began.

A police spokesman declined to offer details beyond a short statement saying police found him unconscious and unresponsive and that emergency medical technicians pronounced him dead. A Gokada spokesman did not respond to Reuters requests seeking comment.

Also read: 'India's George Floyds': Father-son's custodial death sparks social media outrage
Holland Cotter

In the New York art world, normal is still a long hike down the pike, but some of the citys galleries are tiptoeing in that direction with socially distanced reopenings.

Walk in, and you instantly feel what months of virtual visits couldnt give: the immediate experience of texture, scale and color; the sensual incidents and accidents of light, sound, scent, air; and opportunities for conversation with gallery personnel. What a relief to have all this back.

And at what price? A healthy dose of pandemic angst. On the Covid-19 caution spectrum I land about midway, being neither foolhardy nor phobic. I mask up and, by now, instinctively measure space, as is required by the galleries I visited earlier this week on the Lower East Side and in SoHo. It helped that at each, I happened to be the only drop-in. (My colleague, Jillian Steinhauer, writes below of her own, different experiences in Chelsea.)

For most stops, Id made an appointment. (Email addresses and telephone numbers, along with summer hours, are on gallery websites; See Saw, the gallery listing service app, is another booking option, though not all galleries use it.) In the case of two street-level spaces that I hadnt contacted  Shrine on the Lower East Side and Jeffrey Deitch in SoHo  the lights were on, and chance arrivals were welcome.
Washington, July 16 : US President Donald Trump's administration is considering a sweeping ban on travel from members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and their families, a media report said.

The presidential proclamation is still in its draft form and Trump might ultimately reject it, The Hill news website quoted The New York Times report as saying on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources.

The reported draft ban may also authorize the US to revoke visas of party members and their families who are already in the country, according to the repor.

The order would cite the same statute in the Immigration and Nationality Act the Trump administration used in 2017 as part of a travel ban on several predominantly Muslim countries, The New York Times report said.

It further said that the statute gives the President power to temporarily block travel to the US by foreign nationals who are deemed "detrimental to the interest" of the country.

There was no official comment on the development yet.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
YEREVAN, JULY 16, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijani media outlet haqqin.az continues spreading series of fake reports about Armenia and the Armenian Armed Forces.

Armenias Information Checking Center informs that this time the Azerbaijani media outlet made another fake report, publishing the photo of Armenian citizen Narek Petrosyan, born in 2000, in a military uniform, and reporting that he has died in the border section of Tavush.

Narek Petrosyan personally reacted to this report on Facebook.

He told the Information Checking Center that he learnt the news about his death from the internet. Firstly, he got surprised and angered, but then understood that it is another Azerbaijani disinformation.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
The Rajasthan High Court on Thursday granted time to Sachin Pilot and 18 other dissident Congress MLAs to file an amended petition challenging the disqualification notices issued to them by the Rajasthan Speaker.

The Rajasthan High Court on Thursday granted time to Sachin Pilot and 18 other dissident Congress MLAs to file an amended petition challenging the disqualification notices issued to them by the Rajasthan Speaker.

The petition against the move to disqualify the rebel MLAs from the state assembly was moved by MLA Prithviraj Meena who is among one of the 18 MLAs supporting beleaguered Congress leader Sachin Pilot. The petitioner is being represented by senior advocates Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi.

It was taken up for hearing at 3 pm but Salve sought time to amend it. Salve argued that the MLAs wanted to challenge the constitutional validity of the notices and needed some time to file it afresh. The matter would now be heard by the division bench of the high court.

The rebel MLAs, in their petition, had alleged that the state government was acting against the petitioners to threaten them.

The petitioners also termed the notices 'constitutionally invalid', adding that a probe by the Special Operations Group (SOG) was also launched merely to intimidate them for raising their voices against leadership issues within the party, India Today reported.

The Congress party, meanwhile, has appointed its senior leader and advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi to represent the Rajasthan Speaker in the court, ANI reported.

The Rajasthan Assembly Speaker had sent notices to Pilot and his 18 supporters on Tuesday after the Rajasthan Congress sought their disqualification on the grounds that the MLAs 'deliberately' defied a party whip and did not attend its legislature party meetings.

All 19 MLAs were supposed to file a reply before Friday.

Among those sent notices are Vishvendra Singh and Ramesh Meena, who were sacked along with Pilot from the state cabinet after their rebellion against Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. Others include Deepender Singh Shekhawat, Bhanwar Lal Sharma and Harish Chandra Meena, who had given statements to the media challenging the Gehlot government.

According to PTI, the Speaker initiated disqualification proceedings against the 19 MLAs after Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi, wrote to the Speaker, alleging that that the MLAs deliberately conspired against the Congress, acting openly against its interests.

The Congress chief whip alleged that over the past several days attempts are being made to topple the state government through corruption, bribery and other illegal means . He also referred to a probe by the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Rajasthan Police to investigate the conspiracy .

The Congress has accused the opposition BJP of trying to lure its MLAs. AICC general secretary Avinash Pande on Wednesday said it was up to the Speaker to decide what action to take if the replies to the notices were not satisfactory.

Gehlot too, has been taking swipes at Pilot for his rebellion, indicating that the younger leader was acting entitled without undergoing the due struggle.

"Speaking good English, giving good quotes and being handsome isn't everything. What is in your heart for the country, your ideology, policies and commitment, everything is important... A knife made of gold is not for use on a plate for eating. Do you get my drift?" Gehlot told his supporters on Wednesday.

"I have been in politics for 40 years, we love the new generation, the future will be theirs. This new generation, they have become central ministers, state presidents if they had gone through what we did in our time, they would have understood," Gehlot was quoted as saying.

Pilot was removed as the state's deputy chief minister on Tuesday, and two MLAs close to him also lost their position in the state cabinet. The 18 MLAs supporting Pilot are reportedly lodged at a hotel in Haryana's Manesar, a state ruled by the BJP.

Pilot, meanwhile, has said in a press conference that he will not join the BJP and it is people in Congress who are spreading such rumours to malign him.

"I am not joining the BJP," Pilot said on Wednesday, asserting that he had worked hard to defeat the saffron party and bring the Congress back to power in Rajasthan.

Pilot told PTI that some leaders in Rajasthan were trying to fuel speculation that he is joining the BJP and he would like to categorically state that he was not doing so.

BJP also echoed Pilot's claims.

Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Wednesday said that no talk has been held between Pilot and the BJP, reported PTI.

The opposition party has maintained that the Rajasthan political crisis is a result of infighting within Congress and it has no role to play in it. But the party also said that the doors of the saffron party were open to those who believed in its ideology.

With inputs from PTI
On the night of Sept. 8, 2017, police officers near Creighton Court heard gunfire and responded immediately. According to court summaries of the case, officers found Curry and a half-dozen others walking away in the area of the gunfire.

No one was shot in the incident, but there had been six shootings and two homicides in the public housing community in the prior three months.

Police told the men to stop, shined a flashlight on them, and told them to raise their hands and lift their shirts to see whether anyone were armed. Others in the area were not told to stop. According to court summaries, Curry was the only one who refused to fully lift his shirt, and a search and struggle turned up a .38-caliber revolver.

Curry, a felon, was arrested and charged with possessing a firearm and was later indicted by a federal grand jury. His lawyers with the public defenders office moved to have the evidence tossed out, alleging that it was obtained in violation of Currys Fourth Amendment rights.

U.S. District Judge M. Hannah Lauck sided with the defense, holding that police could not cite particular reasons for stopping Curry and others in the field who were simply walking away.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Target and CVS are the latest retailers that will require customers to wear masks while shopping in their stores, the outlets announced Thursday. The mandate, meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus, is nationwide.

The CVS announcement came in a Tweet, saying the policy will go into effect Monday.

News | With the recent spike in COVID-19 infections, we're joining others in taking the next step and requiring all customers to wear face coverings when entering any of our stores throughout the country effective Monday, July 20. #COVID19  CVS Pharmacy (@cvspharmacy) July 16, 2020

Target stores will require face coverings beginning Aug. 1.

The announcements come a day after Walmart and Kroger announced they would require shoppers to wear masks in all of their stores nationwide. Best Buy and Starbucks announced Tuesday they will require customers to wear masks.

Retailers are responding as cases of confirmed coronavirus are once again climbing and many cities and states are re-imposing restrictions to contain new outbreaks, including mask requirements in public settings. In Ohio, the number of coronavirus cases increased 1,290 on Thursday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says everyone should wear a face covering in public to protect other people.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, in a televised speech Wednesday, implored Ohioans to wear a mask whenever they are in public.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) recently laid down new guidelines recommending universities to conduct the final year examinations for higher education, latest by this September. But since the commission has left the decision of the mode of conduct of examination  offline (pen and paper) or online (open book exam; OBE) or a blend of both  on the decision of the respective varsities, the students at Delhi University are agitated due to DUs visible preference for OBE exams.

Earlier, UGC had recommended all universities to call-off the exams, but soon after the revised guidelines came in, students have been taking to social media to express their angst. DU has decided to postpone the exam yet again, and planning to conduct them in August now, but the recently conducted mock online exams was a flop show. The mock test was to give us a chance to get acquainted with the process of online, OBE exams. And its obvious that this is how DU plans to conduct exams later as well. But, the mock tests preceding the online exams were a failure. I joined the twitter trend against boycotting the final exams, #Studentslivesmatter and authorities must understand that, says Shubham KR Jaiswal, a final year student of B Com (Prog) at Ramanujan College.

DUs decision to conduct online exams saw overnight vandalism on the campus with roadside signages, bus stops, etc getting spray painted with protest slogans. An anonymous rap video has is also being circulated on social media by student political parties. Utkarsh Singh, a final year student of Hindi (Hons) at Satyawati College, who is in Uttar Pradesh at present, says, Though we are at home, we know about the vandalism on campus and feel its done with the right intention to ensure that our plea doesnt fall on deaf ears. We didnt get any online class throughout the lockdown, and were not even provided any study material! Many of us dont have laptops, and now that monsoon has begun, many are facing power cuts as well... How do you expect us to give an online test then? I wasnt able to even log in to the DU website to appear for the mock test. And if you talk about offline exams, then thats more unbelievable! With Covid-19 cases increasing rapidly, how can I risk my health to travel from my village Amgaliyan and go back to Delhi to write an exam!

Students are mostly against conduction of examination, be it online or offline.

Students have complaint of experiencing anxiety and depression due to the constant changes in the status of examination mode and dates. Singh adds, For students who choose to give offline exams in September, itll be so difficult to compete with students who would have given online OBE. Online exams are discriminatory in nature. In such circumstances, when the authorities arent helping us, what must we do to express our angst?

Mock tests were a failure. Even if I choose to not to give online exams for now, Ill have to give exams in pen and paper by September. What guarantee is there that things will become better by then?

 Aaditya Singh, DU student

Calling the rap video thats being widely circulated as relatable, students are registering their defiance to online exams and are questioning the validity of attempting delayed offline exams. The rap video thats circulating on social media is actually what we all our feeling at this point of time. Mock tests were a failure. Even if I choose to not to give online exams for now, Ill have to give exams in pen and paper by September. What guarantee is there that things will become better by then? And that it will lead to delay in admissions to higher courses, since we wont get our degree until then, is another issues. I cant give online exams or wait till September to give offline exams, what do I do? rues Aaditya Singh, a final year student of B Com (Prog) at School of Open Learning.

Many students have started petitions on social media against online exams. Twitter trends, petitions, rap videos, and long social media posts express our state of mind. Mock exams were a trailer of what a film the online exams are going to be  We were supposed to upload documents of 5 MB but the site wasnt even accepting two pages of a few KB, says Himanshi Pandey, a final year students of Hindi (Hons) at Miranda House, adding, Many of my classmates got the access to the question paper too late to even get enough time to write. And sabse zyada problem thi documents scan karne me because saare documents ek saath upload krne ka option nahi tha. Toh humko individually saari photos click kar ke ek ek kar ke upload karni padi. How can these problems be resolved in a span of few days for final online exams? And offline exams are out of question as our parents wont allow us to travel amid the pandemic. Our future is at stake!

Author tweets @FizzyBuddha

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Reed Exhibitions Announces Ron Walden as Executive Sponsor for Race

July 13, 2020, Hugh Jones, CEO of Reed Exhibitions, announces the appointment of Ron Walden, Group Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Activation of Reed Exhibitions USA, as the companys first Global Executive Sponsor for Race.

Commenting on the appointment, Hugh Jones said, The unequal treatment of Black people, and especially the recent killings of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and others have left many people around the world shocked, angry, devastated, and broken-hearted. We have witnessed the collective anger reach a boiling point in many cities and communities around the world where Reed Exhibitions employees and customers live and work.

Black Lives Matter. We stand in solidarity with our Black and ethnic minority employees, customers, and partners, and we are committed to helping build a company and a world where everyone can live equitably, with dignity and free from fear.

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On behalf of Reed Exhibitions, I have signed the Business in the Communitys Race at Work Charter.

We must take action now, and I am therefore delighted that Ron Walden has agreed to be our Global Executive Sponsor for Race. Using all his experience and advocacy, Ron will provide us with visible leadership on race and ethnicity across our company. He will drive actions such as recommending where to target our charitable donations, set targets for ethnic minority representation, how we work with recruitment agencies and how we drive mentoring and sponsorship. He will work with me to create a team to work and advise on these matters globally.

Speaking to his appointment, Ron Walden said, Im honored and proud to be named as Reed Exhibitions Global Executive Sponsor for Race and to work with Hugh and all our leaders across the business.

Diversity and inclusion are key to the recovery of companies in the face of economic recessions in many countries, and so Im excited to see that Reed Exhibitions is reasserting our commitment to race equality by signing up to Business in the Communitys Race at Work Charter.

My role will be to hold Reed Exhibitions accountable and responsible for all our race and ethnic minority initiatives moving forward and to bridge the investment and commitments well make back to the communities in which we live and we operate.

We will of course focus on talent  the recruiting, hiring, training, mentoring, promoting, and rewarding of a diverse workforce. But we also want to impact our events and the way we organize and hold them  ensuring that Black and minority businesses and voices are heard across all sectors and in all countries. Im excited and proud to have this opportunity, and I look forward to working with Hugh and all our colleagues to deliver the impact we have committed to.

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About Ron Walden

Ron is Group Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Activation of Reed Exhibitions, USA. He is a Sales Executive with broad experience in all aspects of sales, marketing, and strategic planning and is a member of the USs Executive Management Team. Previously, he spent seven years with NIKE; the last four as a Senior Sales Director for Nike, North America. A life-long advocate committed to elevating social causes, Ron currently serves on board of directors of 4thMVMT and the advisory boards of Chargefuze, and Ally2action. He is a former board member of the multi-cultural Food Service and Hospitality Alliance (MFHA), Portland Public Schools Foundation, Nike School Innovation Fund, and the Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce (GLAAACC). Ron attended California State University (Los Angeles), where he majored in Business Accounting. Ron and his family reside in southern California.
A New Orleans commission that will consider renaming streets, parks and other places named for Confederate leaders and White supremacists kicked off Wednesday as its members met virtually for the first time.

The largely organizational meeting was mostly given over to introductions of the commissioners and a discussion of the process they will follow, with no debate or discussion of what street names might be changed.

Here's which Confederate streets and parks in New Orleans are up for renaming consideration City officials have identified more than 20 streets and city parks that could have their names changed as part of a broader effort to shed mem

We find ourselves at a place for meaningful change, it has always been my experience that meaningful change occurs at the intersection of passion, pain, profit and policy, and thats where we find ourselves today, said Karl Connor, an attorney and board member of the Louisiana Civil Rights Museum who was picked to chair the commission by his fellow members. Were going to try to advance understanding and also enhance our community by the work that we do here.

The City Council created the Street Renaming Commission, made up of appointees of each council member, Mayor LaToya Cantrells administration and the City Planning Commission, last month. That came as protests broke out across the country against police brutality and racism. In some cases, protesters toppled statues of Confederate leaders, slaveholders and others who they argued promoted white supremacy. Other cities acted to take down such monuments themselves.

+8 After 3 statues were vandalized, some New Orleans officials say they're open to talking removal New Orleans monuments to John McDonogh, a slaveowner who donated to the citys schools he died, and to the first Confederate officer killed in

In New Orleans, a bust of John McDonogh  a slaveowner who funded schools in New Orleans and Baltimore in his will  was knocked over and thrown in the Mississippi River during one protest. Two other statues were taken down by unknown people last week and two more were covered in graffiti.

The effort comes three years after former Mayor Mitch Landrieu grabbed national attention when he removed statues of three Confederate officials and a monument to a white supremacist militia.

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 preliminary list put together by researchers at the New Orleans Public Library contains 26 roads and parks for the commission to consider. Additional names are expected to be added to the list by staff from the library, the Historic New Orleans Collection and other historians who have volunteered to aid the commission.

Those groups also will be charged with coming up with the names of people who should be honored instead for the commissions review.

It is our hope that as these narratives are crafted and go on the website well be able to bring up more dialogues across the city about how really rich our community is, and how many people have gone unnoticed that really need to be in places of honor, Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer said.

The commission is expected to complete an initial assessment of the names and replacements within three months, to be followed by a process of soliciting public comments on the proposal before a final report is issued. Commissioners agreed to attempt to meet every two weeks to speed the process along.

The commission heard from dozens of residents who wrote in to the virtual meeting, most of them critical of the process. Some objected to the plan to rename the streets, while others argued there was nothing to discuss and that streets named for White supremacists should come down immediately.

New Orleans City Council takes next steps to address Confederate street names, police funding The New Orleans City Council moved forward on Thursday with measures aimed at addressing the widespread anger over racism and police brutality

Councilman Jay H. Banks seemed to anticipate such criticisms when he opened the meeting.

Whatever we do is going to be criticized, Banks said. If in this process, we walk on water, somebodys going to say, 'Yeah, but they cant swim.' If we turn water into wine, someones going to say, 'But they cant make 7-Up.' There is not going to be an end where everybody is going to say, 'Good job.' While we will strive for perfection, we will not and should not sacrifice good.

Editor's note: This story was updated on Jan. 28, 2021, to correct the spelling of Karl Connor's name.
WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT

A Melbourne teacher accused of masquerading online as a 13-year-old girl to encourage students to send him nude images and child abuse material has been granted bail.

Timothy Cordova, 25, has been charged with 31 abuse offences for allegedly using a fake Instagram account to lure boys from a school where he taught into sending him images of themselves performing sex acts.

Police said they had observed 71 different children in the material they seized from Mr Cordova. Police had identified 33 of the boys, including some who were taught by the accused.

Mr Cordova put his hand over his mouth and held his head down as police told the court they had also found 16,000 child abuse images on his phone that were unrelated to the investigation.
The endless night crept by one gasping breath at a time.

Just make it to sunrise, Jill Kendrick told herself. Inhale. Exhale. Just keep breathing.
(CNN)  The woman who accused Seoul's mayor of sexual harassment says the city government told her he wasn't "that kind of person" when she made her complaint, according to two non-profit organizations working with her.

Park Won-soon, 64, died in an apparent suicide last week shortly after the sexual harassment claims were filed with police, meaning that the victim's claims won't be criminally investigated.

But the accusations of Park's former secretary have sparked a firestorm among women's rights groups in South Korea, and raised questions over how seriously sexual harassment is really taken by President Moon Jae-in, who campaigned on the promise of becoming a "feminist president."

Moon has not discussed the allegations publicly -- and in a major address to the country's legislature Thursday, he did not mention Park's death, the alleged victim, or even touch on broader gender issues.

Park is now the third top leader associated with Moon's Democratic Party to be accused of sexual harassment or assault in recent years. As the Seoul City Government launches an internal investigation into Park's alleged misconduct, there are calls for both the party -- and the government -- to do more to support victims of sex crimes.

Four years of alleged harassment

Like Moon, Park described himself as a feminist.

As Seoul's mayor -- a role that made him the second-most powerful official in South Korea -- he implemented welfare policies aimed at helping women and was a vocal supporter of the #MeToo movement. A former human rights lawyer, in the 1990s Park represented the victim in one of South Korea's first successful sexual harassment convictions. In the 1980s, he was part of the team of lawyers who represented one of the first women to bring charges of sexual assault against authorities.

So for many in Seoul, last week's allegations came as a shock.

In a press conference Monday, the alleged victim's lawyer, Kim Jae-ryon, claimed Park had sent pictures of himself in his underwear to his secretary, as well as obscene, late-night messages over the encrypted app Telegram. On one occasion, when he saw a bruise on her knee, he pretended to blow air on it to ease the pain but allegedly touched her knee with his lips, Kim said.

The four years of alleged harassment began when the woman was hired as Park's secretary and continued after she had moved to another department, said Kim. In a letter written by the accuser, and read at Monday's press conference, the alleged victim said she "should have screamed the first time it happened" and she regrets not coming forward earlier.

CNN has reached out to the accuser through her lawyer. The lawyer did not wish to comment beyond what she said at the press conference. Park did not comment on the allegations before his death.

Attempts to speak out

Park's former secretary did try to speak up earlier, but was discouraged, women's rights groups said.

The former secretary claims she asked people at the Seoul City Government for help, but her complaints were brushed off as the mayor making simple mistakes. She was also told that her duty as secretary was to help the mayor emotionally, so she felt as if she couldn't speak out, according to conversations between the woman and non-profit Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center. CNN reached out to the Seoul City Government for comment.

Even after the woman told police, women's rights groups allege that due process wasn't followed.

The alleged victim filed her criminal complaint of sexual harassment on July 8 and finished giving her statement in the early hours of July 9, according to lawyer Kim. Park was reported missing on the evening of July 9.

Under standard police procedure, a suspect is informed of accusations against them once they are questioned by police. But Lee Mi-kyoung, the head of Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center, who is representing the alleged victim, claims Park was tipped off about the complaint, and was able to get rid of evidence before an investigation could begin, although she did not specify who tipped him off.

"Who could report a sexual crime and trust the government's system in this situation?" she said.

Police denied tipping off the Seoul City Government, but said they had reported the case to Blue House -- the South Korean presidential office -- as it was about a high profile person.

In a statement Monday, Blue House spokesman Kang Min-seok said that claims that the Blue House had tipped off Park about the legal complaint were false and urged the public to stop targeting the alleged victim online.

Ko Mi-kyoung, the head of non profit Women's Hotline, which is representing the alleged victim, wants the government to announce what actions it is taking in response to the allegations.

"When a victim speaks, the nation must try to uncover the truth so the victim can recover their human rights and the offender can be punished," she said.

On Wednesday, Seoul City Government seemed to hear those calls, and announced it would form an investigation team with external experts into the accusations against Park.

The accusers' representatives don't want that to be the end of it.

Democratic Party and sex scandals

In South Korea, the allegations against Park have struck a chord. It's not just that he portrayed himself as a feminist -- he's also now the third high-profile Democratic Party leader to become involved in a sex scandal.

For the past few years, the country has faced a reckoning against its deeply patriarchal culture. Women have pushed back against discrimination in the workplace, sexual violence and harassment, and unreasonable beauty standards. The country continues to rank poorly globally for female representation in government and wage equality.

Moon promised to change that. In 2017, he vowed to "become a feminist president."

But the following year, former governor, one-time presidential contender and Democratic Party member Ahn Hee-jung was accused of raping and assaulting his former secretary. He was initially acquitted of the charges, but in 2019 was jailed for three-and-a-half years for rape and assault.

Earlier this year, Oh Keo-don, the mayor of South Korea's second-largest city, Busan resigned and apologized for sexually harassing an employee at his office. In June, a Busan court denied an arrest warrant for Oh, saying the charges were serious but it didn't deem detention necessary or justified, according to a report from state news agency Yonhap. Oh, who is still under investigation, admitted the actions but claimed they were not intentional, according to a report from local media KBS.

Oh, too, was a Democratic Party member.

Moon has stayed silent on the accusations against all three leaders. But he has managed to anger the public further.

Last week, Moon sent a wreath with his name on it to Ahn's mother's funeral. When asked why he did that, a Blue House official said it was about the funeral, not about Ahn as an individual, local media SBS reported.

And on Monday the public purse paid for a livestreamed funeral for Park, despite more than 500,000 people signing a petition opposing the 211-million-won ($176,000) expenditure, due to the allegations against Park.

The latest accusations against Park are bad press for the party, and could be a problem at next year's mayoral reelections to find replacements for both Park and Oh.

Conservative parties have also faced sexual harassment complaints. In 2015, former National Assembly Speaker Park Hee-tae was given a suspended sentence of six months in prison for sexually harassing a female caddie.

In 2013, disgraced former President Park Geun-hye apologized after her former aide Yoon Chang-jung was accused of making inappropriate advances toward a female student hired as a guide for Park's first official visit to the United States. At the time, Yoon denied the allegations although he apologized to Park for the trouble he caused.

But the issues go beyond politics, with some frustrated by what they see as an attempt by politicians to brush the allegations against leaders under the carpet, despite a national reckoning in recent years against a misogynist culture.

Calls to do more

Women's rights activists say that both the Democratic Party -- and Moon's government -- need to do better.

On Tuesday, a statement signed by 61 women's groups with a total of five million members offered solidarity and support for the alleged victim.

"We cannot ignore continued sexual harassment crimes by leadership (of the ruling party) anymore," the statement said. "The politicians should establish responsible measures to prevent similar incidents from recurring and make a solemn promise to the public."

A citizen complaint posted on the Blue House website labels the Democratic Party a "crime group," and another demands an apology from both Moon and his party.

CNN has reached out to the Democratic Party for comment. On Monday, the leader of the party, Lee Hae-chan, expressed his sympathy to Park's alleged victim in a message distributed by party spokesman Kang Hoon-sik.

"I apologize for the current situation we're faced with," Lee said. "The party will do its best to prevent this from happening again in the future."

But Jung Seul-ah, an activist from non-profit Korean Womenlink, said it was important to not only focus on one political group. Instead, she said, there was a need to be critical of what was going on in workplaces all over the nation.

"This case should not stop by punishing one person -- we must think of a way to change this culture including how colleagues should react when they meet someone who experienced harassment. Just because you don't see a problem before your eyes doesn't mean there is no issue."

She said that although the government kept issuing policies and solutions to address sexual harassment, those policies still needed to be implemented. "Without them being implemented, no change will come," she said.

"Every time I think Korea is moving forward and changing, I encounter cases like this and feel that we're moving backwards again," she said. "I wonder if conditions for women at work are getting better, or if conditions for accusers are getting better."

This story was first published on CNN.com, "South Korea's President says he's a feminist. Three of his allies have been accused of sex crimes"
The Bombay high court (HC) on Thursday held that a person convicted and sentenced for more than seven years, who did not avail parole or furlough twice or more before the Covid outbreak, can still be released on emergency parole.

Two persons convicted for crimes under section 302 (punishment for murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and lodged at Kolhapur Prison approached the HC after their application for emergency parole was rejected by the superintendent of the prison.

The superintendent had held that as the emergency parole rule framed by the High Power Committee (HPC) stipulated that the applicant should have availed of parole or furlough twice and as the two convicts did not fulfill the criteria, the application was rejected. The HC, however, observed that the order was absurd, and directed the superintendent to reconsider the applications afresh.

A division bench of justice SS Shinde and justice Milind Jadhav, while hearing a plea by Milind Patil and Nishant Mane challenging the emergency parole rule laid down by HPC, was informed by senior advocate Satish Talekar that following a directive by the Supreme Court (SC) on March 23, the HPC had framed emergency bail and parole rules. The rules were for all those undertrials and convicts whose sentence was less than seven years. The rules were amended on May 8 to include convicts with sentences of more than seven years. The amended emergency parole rule stated that applications of such convicts would be based on two conditions  that a convict should have availed parole or furlough twice or more and returned on time prior to the emergency rules came into force; and that he should not be a habitual offender.

Talekar submitted that as his clients had availed of furlough only once, their application for emergency parole was rejected, though two other convicts who were serving similar sentences were permitted. Talekar argued that the amended rule was absurd and would defeat the purpose of decongesting jails and hence section 19 (C) (ii) of the Maharashtra Prisons (Mumbai Furlough and Parole) Rules, 1959, inserted by Maharashtra Prisons (Mumbai Furlough and Parole) (Amendment) Rule, 2020, should be declared ultra-vires of Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India.

The two convicts along with three others had been arrested in 2013 and sentenced to life imprisonment. All five were lodged at Kolhapur Central Prison since their arrest and were serving their sentences after being convicted. Following the Covid outbreak, four of them applied for furlough/parole. While two were granted furlough/parole, Patil and Manes application was rejected as they did not conform with the amended emergency furlough/parole rules.

After hearing the submissions, the bench observed that as two other convicts had been granted emergency parole, Patil and Mane should also get the benefit of the same, and quashed the rejection order of the superintendent. HC directed the superintendent to decide the applications for emergency parole in two weeks and disposed of the petition.
SINGAPORE, July 16 (Reuters) - Barrick Gold Corp will reduce power supply to townships near its Porgera gold mine in Papua New Guinea, the mine's operator said on Thursday, to save costs amid a deepening standoff with the government over mining rights.

Canada's Barrick, the world's second-biggest gold miner, was refused an extension of its expired lease on the mine in April, with the government citing unrest and pollution concerns.

It stopped production and said in a statement from mine operator Barrick (Niugini) Ltd that "due to necessary cost reductions" electricity the mine provides free to nearby communities would from Friday only be supplied for 12 hours a day.

Barrick is challenging the lease refusal and the reduction in power supply may increase pressure on the government to find a solution.

Barrick and China's Zijin Mining Group each own 47.5% of the Porgera mine and last week approached the World Bank's International Centre to try to settle the dispute.

A spokesman for PNG Prime Minister James Marape had no immediate response on Thursday. Marape has previously said the government intended to operate the mine itself.

(Reporting by Tom Westbrook Editing by Robert Birsel)
A gravestone for Dambusters hero Guy Gibson's pet dog 'N****r' has been removed and replaced with one without his name  sparking fury among veterans.

The stone tablet, which is based at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, honoured Gibson's black Labrador, which was run over by a car and killed just hours before his Wing Commander owner led the famous World War Two raid.

But RAF top brass have now paid for a new memorial, replacing where his name was with an outline of the famous canine and the words 'The Dog'.

It came after the service carried out a 'review of its historical assets' and decided the term  which is an offensive slur against people of colour  had to go.

Until now it had remained untouched at RAF Scampton - the World War Two base of 617 'Dambusters' Squadron  for years in the dog's honour.

The switch was only revealed when headstone firm Draper Memorials posted an image of the new tablet online.

RAF top brass have now paid for a new memorial for Guy Gibson's pet dog 'N****r', replacing where his name was with an outline of the famous canine and the words 'The Dog' (pictured left: The old gravestone. Right: The new)

Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC (right), Dambusters hero with his devoted dog 'N****r'. The black labrador was kiiled by a hit-and-run driver just hours before Gibson led the RAF's crack 617 squadron to drop 'bouncing bombs' on German dams in May 1943

Wg Cdr Guy Gibson, Officer Commanding No. 617 Sqn, was awarded the VC for his part in leading the Dambusters raid but died in 1944 aged 26 when his plane crashed over Germany

Royal Air Force veteran Mark Dewberry told the company he was disgusted about the monument being changed.

He said: 'You have questions to answer about replacing N****r's memorial stone.

'You have upset thousands of veterans, like myself.

'Are you going to delete this post and start to disrespect your countries veterans. You all should be ashamed of yourselves.'

Despite having been paid for the work, Drapers' originally comment next to their now-deleted post seemed to hint at their own disquiet over the change.

It said: 'This morning we have been out to replace the plaque to Guy Gibson's black Labrador at Raf Scampton. You can't rewrite history'.

Richard Todd played Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC in the 1955 film The Dam Busters

Social media users expressed their opinions on the topic of changing the dog's gravestone

Owner Ian Credland refused to comment on the furore when he was contacted by the MailOnline this afternoon.

The dog, that served as the mascot of 617 Squadron, was run over by a car and killed on the day of the famous raid in May 1943.

He was buried at Scampton at midnight, the very moment his owner, who was killed a year later aged 26 during a late night sortie over Germany, was leading the daring attack on a series of dams in Germany's Ruhr Valley for which he won the Victoria Cross.

The gravestone was marked with his name at the top and the story of his demise beneath it.

But the RAF today confirmed the headstone has been removed and placed in storage as the name on it could cause offence to people.

A reconnaissance photograph of the Eder Dam taken two months after the famous Dambusters raid showing a 96ft breach

It has instead been replaced with a brand new stone which bears the outline of a black Labrador dog at the top instead of its name, although the wording underneath remains the same.

An RAF Spokesperson said: 'As part of an ongoing review of its historical assets, the RAF have replaced the gravestone of Guy Gibson's dog at RAF Scampton.

'The new gravestone tells the story of Guy Gibson's dog, but the name has been removed.'

But not just veterans were offended by the change, with social media lighting up over the replacement.

Derek Murray said: 'Guy Gibson's dog, henceforth to be referred to as 'the dog' or, more formally, 'the dog belonging to the pilot'.

Andy Porter said: 'Those of you who know Scampton will be aware of the grave of Guy Gibson's dog N****r outside Hangar 2.

'The memorial stone has very recently been replaced. It seems history can be changed...'

Gus Turnbull posted on social media: 'Now they've gone too far. It's part of history and the dog belonged to a British hero recipient of our country's highest award for valour. You cannot change history to appease militants.'

Scott Asby posted: 'Absolutely disgusting, history is history, cannot & should't be changed.'

There has been a lot of controversy over the use of the dog's name over the years.

In the 1955 war film, The Dam Busters, in which Richard Todd played Guy Gibson, the pet was called by its original name.

In 1999 ITV removed any mention of the name in a re-run of the film while a US version of the movie changed the name to Trigger by dubbing over it.
Technavio has been monitoring the natural gas market and it is poised to grow by USD 137.51 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of about 5% 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/20200716005609/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Natural Gas 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. BP Plc, Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips Co., Exxon Mobil Corp., PetroChina Co. Ltd., PJSC Gazprom, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Saudi Arabian Oil Co., Suncor Energy Inc., and TOTAL SA 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.

The rising investments in upstream projects have been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. However, environmental concerns related to drilling might hamper market growth.

Natural Gas Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Natural Gas Market is segmented as below:

Resource Type Conventional Unconventional

Geographic Landscape 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=IRTNTR40331

Natural Gas 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 natural gas market report covers the following areas:

Natural Gas Market size

Natural Gas Market trends

Natural Gas Market industry analysis

This study identifies the commoditization of LNG as one of the prime reasons driving the natural gas market growth during the next few years.

Natural Gas Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the natural gas market, including some of the vendors such as BP Plc, Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips Co., Exxon Mobil Corp., PetroChina Co. Ltd., PJSC Gazprom, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Saudi Arabian Oil Co., Suncor Energy Inc., and TOTAL SA. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the Natural Gas Market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Natural Gas Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist natural gas market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the natural gas market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the natural gas market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of natural gas 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: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE

PART 07: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

MEA Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024

APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024

South America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Key leading countries

Market opportunity

PART 08: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY RESOURCE TYPE

Market segmentation by resource type

Comparison by resource type

Conventional Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Unconventional Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by resource type

PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK

PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES

Market drivers

Market challenges

PART 11: MARKET TRENDS

Rise in deepwater and ultra-deepwater projects

Commoditization of LNG

Technological advances in gas distribution

PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Overview

Landscape disruption

Competitive scenario

PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

BP Plc

Chevron Corp.

ConocoPhillips Co.

Exxon Mobil Corp.

PetroChina Co. Ltd.

PJSC Gazprom

Royal Dutch Shell Plc

Saudi Arabian Oil Co.

Suncor Energy Inc.

TOTAL SA

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/20200716005609/en/

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Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media Marketing Executive

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Email: media@technavio.com

Website: www.technavio.com/
San Francisco, July 16 : A number of high-profile Twitter accounts have been simultaneously hacked by attackers to spread a cryptocurrency scam, according to a report by Tech Crunch.

Twitter has responded to the incident on Wednesday. "We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly," Twitter Support said in a tweet, adding that users may be unable to tweet or reset passwords while they review and address the incident, Xinhua reported.

The scammer's website was quickly pulled offline. Kristaps Ronka, chief executive of Namesilo, the domain registrar used by the scammers, told Tech Crunch that the company suspended the domain "on the first report" it received.

The accounts being hacked included technology company @Apple, ride-hailing company @Uber, Democratic presidential candidate @joebiden, Former president @BarackObama, Amazon co-founder @jeffbezos, Tesla and SpaceX founder @elonmusk, Microsoft founder @billgates, and legendary investor @WarrenBuffet. Some of the accounts were quickly back under their owners' control and the tweets sent out when those accounts were compromised were quickly deleted, the report said.

According to the report by Tech Crunch, security researchers found that the attackers had fully taken over the victims' accounts, and also changed the email address associated with the account to make it harder for the real user to regain access.

Tech Crunch said in the report that these kinds of scams are common. Scammers take over high-profile Twitter accounts using breached or leaked passwords and post messages that encourage users to post their cryptocurrency funds to a particular address under the guise that they'll double their "investment".

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Montana Governor Mandates Mask Wearing in Select Counties

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock on July 15 signed an executive order mandating that residents in certain counties must wear facial coverings while in public in a bid to stem the spread of COVID-19.

Effective immediately, face coverings will be required in certain indoor spaces and for certain organized outdoor activities in counties currently experiencing four or more active cases of COVID-19 to slow the spread of the virus in Montana, Bullock, a Democrat, wrote in a tweet.

The directive requires masks in indoor spaces open to the public and at organized outdoor activities of 50 or more people, in situations where social distancing is not possible.

Counties with three or fewer active cases are exempt from the mask-wearing mandate, as are children under 5 years of age. In both cases, however, facial coverings are strongly encouraged, the governors office said in a statement.

Other exceptions include while eating or drinking at bars and restaurants, while engaging in exercise, speaking in front of a socially distanced audience, or for people with health conditions that would make it unsafe for them to wear a mask.

Many Montanans answered the call to mask upa call that came from our hospitals, nurses, and doctors, our vibrant small business community, our frontline workers, and our high-risk neighbors, Bullock said in a statement. I thank all of those who take seriously their personal responsibility and their role in stopping COVID-19. But we need even more Montanans, and the visitors who come here, to mask up.

President Donald Trump and public health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on July 14 recommended Americans wear masks when necessary to prevent the spread of the potentially deadly bug.

After flattening its COVID-19 new daily infection curve through May and June, Montana has seen a recent surge of COVID-19 cases, with the public health department on July 15 reporting 145 new infections. The total number of confirmed cases now stands at 2,096, including a total of 34 deaths.

The number of new daily infections has surged in the United States in recent weeks to levels roughly twice as high as during the first peak in April, according to a Worldometers compilation of official data. However, the number of new daily deaths due to the virus has fallen nationally to between one third and one half of the April peak.

The United States reported more than 71,750 new cases of COVID-19 on July 15, according to the Worldometers tally.
Science-led Drugs Charity Invites AWAKN to Join Its Working Group on Psychedelics

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2020) - AWAKN Life Sciences Inc ("AWAKN"), the psychedelic healthcare company focused on the UK and European markets, announced the new partnership to coincide with Drug Science's inaugural Psychedelics Working Group meeting that took place this week on 14th July 2020.

Founded in 2010 by Professor David Nutt, Drug Science works to provide evidence for widespread application of psychedelic drugs within public health models. Its aim is to break the barriers of 50 years of medical censorship by creating a rational and enlightened approach to psychedelic research and clinical treatment.

AWAKN's Chief Medical Officer, Psychedelic Psychiatrist Dr. Ben Sessa will be the representative for the company alongside patient representatives, policy makers, scientists and healthcare professionals. The group shall be designing campaigns that will ultimately lead to the rescheduling of all psychedelic drugs for research and medical purposes.

Dr. Ben Sessa said of the new partnership, "A systematic overhaul of the current scheduling of psychedelic compounds is required so these medicines can be used to heal, not harm. We must reverse the nonsensical censorship of psychedelics so that life changing medicines and medical pathways can be realised. Working with Drug Science will exponentially assist progress."

The invite to join Drug Science comes following the recent appointment of Drug Science founder, Professor David Nutt, as chairman of AWAKN's Scientific Advisory Board.

About AWAKN Life Sciences Inc

AWAKN is a UK and European focused company that is dedicated to integrating psychedelics into mental healthcare. We work across three business lines of clinical research, therapeutic clinics and practitioner training.

More Information:

Anthony Tennyson | CEO

anthony@awaknlifesciences.com

awaknlifesciences.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/59911
GREENWICH  When COVID-19 hit Greenwich, the town relied on front-line medical workers for care in life-or-death situations. Greenwich Hospital is now ready to give back to those workers who made many sacrifices to help others.

It has established a COVID-19 Employee Disaster Relief Fund that is dedicated to helping the front-line caregivers who worked tirelessly through this unprecedented health crisis and now face unexpected hardships of their own.

The fund was launched thanks to a $500,000 donation from The OMalley Family Foundation, which also committed to doubling each dollar that is contributed by others.

The staff at Greenwich Hospital has performed extraordinary service for our community, Mary Allice OMalley said. Theyve put themselves in harms way to make sure the residents of Greenwich and the surrounding area receive the care necessary during this pandemic. We think its incredibly important to recognize their contribution and assist those staff members who have suffered physical and financial damages.

The fund will provide financial assistance to Greenwich Hospital employees as well as other front-line employees from the Yale New Haven Health System who worked in the town at the height of the pandemic.

Greenwich Hospital saw its first patient with the coronavirus on March 14. At the height of the pandemic in mid-April, it had as many as 117 patients with COVID-19 admitted at one time. As of Wednesday, Greenwich Hospital was treating four patients with the coronavirus.

Since the pandemic began, the hospital has discharged 599 patients after virus treatment. The need to treat that many patients meant hospital employees had to give more than time.

For many, the financial stress stemming from the pandemic includes the loss of household income, increased childcare costs and COVID-related critical care expenses, to name a few, Greenwich Hospitals Office of Development said in a statement. The new program empowers Greenwich Hospital to provide flexibility around what the disaster relief fund can cover and lower the burden for employees after a difficult time that impacted people in many ways.

The program has support at the hospitals highest levels, too.

Greenwich Hospital is profoundly grateful to our front-line heroes who, thrust into the epicenter of Connecticut and Westchester Countys COVID-19 pandemic, met this challenge and worked tirelessly for our patients and their families, new hospital President Diane Kelly said. Every health care professional and all support staff, from the nursing assistant and respiratory therapist to environmental services and transport, selflessly committed themselves to the demands of this crisis.

Kelly said the hospital intends to continue to show our employees that we are committed to caring for the caregiver and front-line workers.

To make a donation to the fund, visit https://giving.greenhosp.org/giving/covid-19-disaster-relief.

kborsuk@greenwichtime.com
Jair Bolsonaro feeding the rhea outside the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia, Brazil: SERGIO LIMA/AFP via Getty Images

The president of Brazil has reportedly been bitten by an emu-like bird that he tried to feed while in coronavirus quarantine at the presidential palace.

Jair Bolsonaro complained of his horrible isolation on Monday, saying he cant stand this routine of staying at home.

Later that day, he took a stroll around the Palacio da Alvorada in Brasilia and decided to feed the birds.

One of the flightless creatures, called a rhea, pecked at the president, the Metropoles news website reported.

The moment was caught in several pictures taken as he walked the grounds.

On Monday, Mr Bolsonaro said he was feeling very good and would continue to isolate himself until he is free of the virus.

The right-wing president told CNN Brasil he has not felt out of breath and has not lost his sense of taste.

Mr Bolsonaro tested positive for the coronavirus on Tuesday last week, after coming down with a fever.

By Wednesday, he said he was already doing very well, crediting his use of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine - which has been unproven for treating coronavirus.

Brazil is the second-worst hit country by coronavirus in the world after the United States.

Some 20.286 new cases were registered by the Health Ministry on Tuesday, bringing the total to nearly 1.9 million. More than 72,000 people have died from the virus in the south American country.

Read more

Bolsonaro says he cant stand being in isolation

Brazil to produce AstraZenecas experimental coronavirus vaccine

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro ordered to wear face mask in public

Brazil becomes second country to pass 1 million Covid cases
There were church burnings this month, and statues of the Blessed Virgin were vandalized. You wouldnt know it, though, if you depended on the local media for your news.

When I searched the internet for Catholic churches vandalized near the newspaper of record, or used the terms Catholic relics destroyed near papers for which I do not write, the only thing that came up were cases from almost ten years ago. And there was scant mention in the national media as well.

There was this interesting quote from a column about a renegade church that styles itself as independent catholic (small c) but that is not affiliated with the Vatican: They dont admit theyre on fire until its too late  And now the whole church is burning. Clearly, the conflagration they were referring to was the exodus of worshippers from the one true and holy apostolic church, as we say at every Mass. They werent talking about hate crimes.

So I will talk about hate crimes, the kind that rarely gets the type of attention they deserve. The following incidents happened in July:

 Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Marion County, Florida, was set on fire after a man named Steven Anthony Shields (why do they always have three names?) rammed his vehicle into the vestibule and poured gasoline in the foyer;

 The Church of San Gabriel in Los Angeles caught fire under suspicious circumstances, right before its 250th anniversary;

 A statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary which had been set up decades before in honor of World War II veterans was set on fire outside of a Boston church;

 A similar statue of Mary was vandalized outside of Cathedral Prep School and Seminary in Queens, N.Y.

And in June, the statue of Father Junipero Serra was forcibly pulled down from its pedestal in the park bearing his name in Los Angeles. Serro was a Franciscan friar who is credited as the principal architect of the California Mission system when that part of the country was under Spanish colonization. Native Americans have long argued that Serra was behind the forced conversion of indigenous to Catholicism, and that the terms of that conversion were often brutal.

While I strongly oppose the removal of that piece of history from its legitimate location, just as I condemn the attacks on statues of Christopher Columbus in Philadelphia and other historical figures, and while I definitely place this trend to cancel the culture we dont like in the category of vandalism, there is an argument to be made that controversial figures can be expected to attract this sort of attention in contentious times.

What is not legitimate, what is not acceptable and what is not something that the media should be ignoring with the blithe attitude of what the public doesnt see wont hurt them is the deliberate, obvious, coordinated and (to my mind) condoned attacks on my faith. As someone once told me, anti-Catholicism is the last acceptable prejudice.

There are those who object to the term anti-Catholicism when it comes to anything that smacks of a hate crime. They prefer the sanitized phrase anti-clericalism, which acts as a form of gaslighting. In other words, if a Catholic such as myself dares to raise the specter of sectarian bigotry, we are generally told that its not the Catholics that people hate, its the people and the policies of the church. This is commonly employed when those self-styled cleric-haters criticize the churchs position on same-sex marriage, or abortion, or most commonly when they want to describe my faith as a training ground for pedophiles. We dont hate Catholics, they say with a straight face. We hate what they stand for.

Well I am here to say that when you burn a church to the ground, you are setting me on fire. When you paint vile words on a statue of the Blessed Mother, you are smearing those words onto my own skin. When you throw rocks through the windows of a chapel to destroy the jewel-like stained glass, you are bruising my body. And when you are a member of the media, and you look away as this is happening but make sure to point out every offense perpetrated against every other group that has you as its free P.R. director, you are ignoring my righteous cries and my pain.

This is not a popular position. I will be accused of playing the victim, which I suppose is fitting since I have pointed the finger at those who have whined about perceived offense in the past, particularly those excesses endemic to the #MeToo movement. Ill deal with whatever blowback comes.

But just as swastikas painted on tombstones at a Jewish cemetery are evidence of bigotry, and just as the vilification of women in hijabs is bigotry, and just as crosses burning on an African-Americans lawn is bigotry, so is the torching of my spiritual home and the defiling of my mothers image.

The difference is that I need to scream louder to get noticed. And that, in and of itself, is the most insidious sort of prejudice.

Christine Flowers is an attorney and a Delaware County resident. Her column usually appears on Sunday. Email her at cflowers1961@gmail.com.
Class Of 83: Bobby Deol's Intense First Look Revealed, Actor Plays An Exiled Ex-Cop Turned Police Academy Dean In Netflix Film
BOISE, Idaho, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- IDACORP, Inc. (NYSE:IDA) will report its second quarter results on Thursday, July 30, in a news release before the stock markets open. The company will hold an analyst conference call that day at 2:30 p.m. Mountain Time (4:30 p.m. Eastern Time) to discuss the second quarter 2020 earnings.

All parties interested in listening may do so through a live Webcast or by calling (800) 242-0681 for listen-only mode . No passcode is needed  please ask to be joined into the IDACORP, Inc. call. The conference call logistics are posted on the company's Website (www.idacorpinc.com) and will be included in the company's earnings news release. Slides will be included during the conference call. To access the slide deck, register for the event just prior to the call at http://www.idacorpinc.com/investor-relations/earnings-center/conference-calls. A replay of the conference call will be available on the company's website for a period of 12 months and will be available shortly after the call.

IDACORP, Inc., Boise, Idaho-based and formed in 1998, is a holding company comprised of Idaho Power Company, a regulated electric utility; IDACORP Financial, a holder of affordable housing projects and other real estate investments; and Ida-West Energy, an operator of small hydroelectric generation projects that satisfy the requirements of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978. Idaho Power began operations in 1916 and employs approximately 2,000 people to serve a 24,000 square-mile service area in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon. Idaho Power's goal of 100% clean energy by 2045 builds on its long history as a clean-energy leader providing reliable service at affordable prices. With 17 low-cost hydropower projects at the core of its diverse energy mix, Idaho Power's more than 570,000 residential, business, and agricultural customers pay among the nation's lowest prices for electricity. To learn more about IDACORP or Idaho Power, visit www.idacorpinc.com or www.idahopower.com.

SOURCE IDACORP, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.idacorpinc.com


Oregons immigrant communities have received more than $10 million in disaster relief through the Oregon Worker Relief Fund since its launch on May 10, according to the coalition of advocacy groups that pushed to establish the program.

The fund was designed to reach those who are ineligible for other public programs because of their immigration status. Nearly all the money for the fund comes from state and city coffers.

The fund had distributed its first $8.6 million in relief funds by July 1, providing more than 5,000 individuals an average of $1,712 each, according to data compiled by Innovation Law Lab.

Thousands of Oregon immigrants have lost their livelihoods due to COVID-19 and Congress has intentionally excluded them from financial assistance programs, said Martha Sonato, the chair of the Oregon Worker Relief Fund, in a statement. Each day, we receive hundreds of applications for assistance and we dont have the resources to offer relief to all those who need it. The need for financial support  from the state, from foundations, and from private donors  is as great today as it was in May.

The majority of relief recipients work in industries that have continued to operate during the coronavirus pandemic. Workers in the food service industry have received 37% of the funds distributed so far, while agricultural workers have received 21% and housekeepers and janitorial workers have received 20%.

In April, the Oregon Legislature allocated $10 million to start the fund. By the end of May, the fund had received an additional $1.5 million in donations, including a $250,000 donation from the city of Portland.

But advocates say more funding is needed to support immigrant communities that have been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Data shows that the pandemic has disproportionally impacted Latino communities within Oregon, many of whom hold essential jobs and have had to work through the pandemic. Coronavirus outbreaks at food processors and agricultural sites, which rely heavily on immigrant labor, had infected more than 600 workers in Oregon and Southwest Washington by mid-June.

The Oregon Worker Relief Fund is accepting donations at workerrelief.org/donate.

The longer this pandemic lasts, the more families it impacts, with a disproportionate burden on immigrant communities across Oregon, said Causa Oregon Executive Director Adriana Miranda, in a statement. Despite the progress weve made in issuing relief payments, most applicants have been waiting five weeks or more since they lost income. The more support we receive from local officials, businesses, and the community, the more people we can help.

-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com | @jamiebgoldberg

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
BATON ROUGE, La.  Following an increase in reported COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths in recent weeks, Gov. John Bel Edwards on Saturday issued a statewide mandate that requires residents to wear face masks in public places. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana urges everyone to follow the mandate, which goes into effect today, and take other steps, including social distancing and frequent handwashing, to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The rise in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks has been alarming, but be assured that taking small steps like wearing a face mask, staying six feet apart from others and washing your hands frequently are effective at slowing the spread of novel coronavirus, said Blue Cross Senior Medical Director Dr. Dee Barfield. Take these steps whenever you leave home to protect the health of those around you, and they should take the same steps to protect you. Dr. Barfield explains why face masks are effective in this video (1:08).

Blue Cross has created interactive graphics for its social media that encourage people to wear masks now so we can slow the spread of COVID-19 and safely resume activities like tailgating, going to festivals and having crawfish boils. Anyone can share or post these graphics to their personal social media and are asked to use the hashtag #MaskUp when doing so. Find and download the graphics at www.bcbsla.com/covid19.

In addition to wearing a face mask that covers your mouth and nose and fits snugly against the sides of your face when shopping, at doctors appointments or in other public settings, other things the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and health officials recommend people do when leaving home to lower their risk of spreading COVID-19 include:

 Staying at least six feet apart from others (social distancing)

 Washing your hands frequently or using hand sanitizer thats at least 60% alcohol

 Avoiding touching your face  including when you put on or take off your face mask

 Carrying tissues to cover your mouth when sneezing or coughing  do not cough or sneeze into your face mask or your bare hands

 Checking your temperature frequently and staying home if its 100.4 or above, you have symptoms like coughing or sore throat, and/or you have been exposed to COVID-19 See health tips for safely leaving home in this video (1:01). For Louisiana employers, Blue Cross has created an online, multimedia toolkit to address common questions and share information from medical directors as more business reopen and employees return to the workplace. You can visit the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana YouTube page to see short videos with the clinical team and others discussing various health topics. Subscribe to know when new videos are added. You can also connect with Blue Cross on social media for regular updates.

For information on what Blue Cross is doing for members during COVID-19, visit www.bcbsla.com/covid19.

About Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana is committed to our mission to improve the health and lives of Louisianians. Founded in New Orleans in 1934, we are a tax-paying nonprofit health insurer with offices in every major region to serve our customers. We were recognized in 2019 as an honoree of The Civic 50, named by Points of Light as one of the 50 most community-minded companies in the United States.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. We are a private mutual company, owned by our policyholders, with an independent Louisiana Board of Directors and no shareholders. We invite all Louisianians to visit our website at www.bcbsla.com or talk to us on social media.
While American is issuing 25,000 notices, it hopes to ultimately reduce the number of employees it will have to furlough by encouraging some to take early retirement, unpaid leaves or early-out programs. Officials at United said they also hope to reduce the number of employees it will have to let go. Still, they acknowledge that will be a difficult task. According to current estimates, American has roughly 20,000 more employees than it expects it will need in the fall, but the carrier is sending notices to 25,000 since other workers could be displaced as others are shifted to different locations.
China is getting increasingly concerned at the alarming deterioration in relations between China and the United States (US). Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-owned Global Times, who has a huge following on social media, wrote on his Weibo account in May: Honestly, America today wont back off before crippling China!

Many Chinese academics, intellectuals and strategists have been cautioning the leadership, since 2017, that the assertive foreign policy it has adopted will lose China friends and add tension to the already severely strained Sino-US relationship, thereby adversely impacting Chinas rise. They have been advocating a return to Deng Xiaopings policy of lie low, bide your time. This was also among the demands listed in the criticisms levelled against Chinese President Xi Jinping in the wake of the pandemic, and in letters to members of Chinas National Peoples Congress (NPC)  the countrys version of a Parliament  posted on the Internet in May.

Either as a response to these voices, but probably to make overtures to Washington as the political establishment in the US gets busy with the presidential elections, Chinas foreign minister Wang Yi made an important 3,144-character speech to a forum on China-US relations on July 9. Moderate in tone, the speech was an obvious plea to get relations back on track. Wang Yi said, Alarmingly, China-US relations, one of the most consequential bilateral relationships in the world, is faced with the most severe challenge since the establishment of diplomatic ties. In an apparent bid to dispel notions of China using force to achieve its goals, Wang Yi emphasised that aggression and expansion are never in the genes of the Chinese nation throughout its 5,000 years of history. He explained: Some friends in the US might have become suspicious or even wary of a growing China. Id like to stress here again that China never intends to challenge or replace the US, or have full confrontation with the US. Wang Yi was emphatic, though that China and the US should not seek to remodel each other. Instead, they must work together to find ways of peaceful coexistence of different systems and civilisations.

Chinas ministry of foreign affairs (MoFA) quoted Wang Yi as stating that China just wants the relationship back on track and is willing to sit down and talk to make that happen. He proposed creating three lists to frame a discussion to mend relations: One, to outline bilateral and global issues the two countries could work on together; two, to list issues on which they have disputes, but which can be resolved through dialogue; and three, for tough issues that are unlikely to be resolved in the near future. It quoted Wang Yi as saying that the US must not seek to change Chinas political system.

In late April 2020, retired major general Qiao Liang, co-author of the book, Unrestricted Warfare, and a hawk who is very popular in China and Wu Shicun, a high-level provincial cadre and president of Chinas National Institute for South China Sea Studies, commented on Chinas most sensitive issues through media outlets in Hong Kong. Qiao Liang hinted that the reunification of Taiwan with the mainland need not have a deadline, adding that Beijing should clarify this. Similarly, asserting that the South China Sea (SCS) is vitally important for China, Wu Shicun acknowledged that it is indispensable for US hegemony in the Western Pacific and hinted that China would not precipitate matters in the SCS. Taiwan and the SCS are both areas where Beijing has either resorted to, or hinted at the imminence, of military action.

Separately, just days prior to Wang Yis speech, a government-managed web portal published an article by three Chinese researchers calling on Beijing to actively manage differences with Washington. It candidly stated that China is the weaker side of the strategic competition of major powers and needs to carefully assess the risk of these confrontations dragging the two countries into conflict. The article said maritime strategic competition in the West Pacific Ocean and SCS should be properly managed and a long-term strategic stalemate envisaged. Similarly, China and the US should refrain from the urge to gather third-party forces to block and counterbalance each other.

Wang Yis speech excluded no subjects from discussion except Chinas political system. It would have particularly addressed persons favouring continued ties with China. Whether it indicates the potential for a foreign policy course correction or attempts to reduce tensions while Beijing continues pursuing policies as before, is uncertain. Washington has interpreted it as the latter as indicated by its reaction to developments in Hong Kong and its naval exercises in the SCS. It nevertheless confirms that China is under immense strain and that pressure on President Xi Jinping, who also chairs the Central Leading Small Group on Foreign Affairs which oversees Chinas foreign policy, is growing.

Jayadeva Ranade is former additional secretary, cabinet secretariat, Government of India and is presently president of the Centre for China Analysis and Strategy

The views expressed are personal
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky urges not to rush into extending coronavirus quarantine for a long time.

"We should not rush into extending the quarantine for a long time. We should consider how the situation develops. Everyone is tired of this quarantine. We need a clear framework for how we will extend it, so that people have the opportunity to live safely, so that business can function, so that economy does not stand still. Therefore, as of now, we will extend [quarantine] for a month, but not longer," Zelensky said at a conference call with participation of representatives of the Government and law enforcement agencies, the Presidents press service reports.

In turn, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov informed that a resolution on changes in quarantine had already been elaborated.

In particular, the regions will be divided into "green", "yellow", "orange", and "red" zones with clear criteria for restrictions. Restrictive measures are planned to be introduced depending on the situation that arises in a particular populated locality of the region.

As July 16, Ukraine reports 56,455 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases. Over the past 24 hours, 848new cases were recorded.

The adaptive quarantine is in force in Ukraine until July 31. Restrictive measures can be mitigated or toughened depending on the epidemic situation in each region.
Global oil demand will recover significantly next month, climbing to be within 10% of the level that the world saw prior to the coronavirus pandemic, Russia Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday, according to Reuters.

That demand, according to Novak, was off by 25% in April, compared to demand levels before the virus hit, causing major lockdowns the world overincluding the worlds top two oil consumers, China and the United States.

OPEC seems to agree.

Yesterday, OPEC agreed to relax on August 1 its production cuts that it had set for the last couple of months, with the anticipation that demand would improve accordingly. OPEC will reinstate 2 million barrels per day of oil production from its 9.7 million bpd that it had cut in May, June, and July.

OPEC cautioned, however, that another possible wave of the coronavirusparticularly in the United Stateswould continue to sap demand.

Russia, as part of the OPEC+ group, issued a caveat for the increase in oil production, stating that the additional oil produced by OPEC+ member countries in August would be consumed domestically by each country, and not exported. Novak insists that Russia will be able to consume any additional production for August.

Russian Urals is now trading at a $.50 premium to dated Brent, however, and so Russia could be tempted to export that grade in order to capitalize on the favorable differential.

For the worlds most visible data-dominated oil market, the United States, this is critical, with Saudi Arabias exports dropping off in June, which allowed US inventories to draw down this week, according to data provided by the EIA and API.

The increased OPEC+ production starting in August is expected to run through December.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
"The Golden Girls" house is for sale for the first time everand for a famous property, some might say this 2,901-square-foot, four-bedroom house in Los Angeles is a bargain, listed for a mere $2,999,000.

With lush landscaping full of exotic plants, the propertylocated in the Brentwood neighborhoodwas used only for the exterior shots on the show, which ran from 1985 to 1992 and starred Rue McClanahan as Blanche, a widow who opened up her home to three roommates played by Betty White (Rose), Bea Arthur (Dorothy), and Estelle Getty (Sophia).

Yet most of these spunky senior citizens' anticswhich occurred inside the house, around the kitchen table, or in the living roomwere filmed on a Hollywood set.

As such, while this house has attracted a few fans to snap pictures curbside, the home's interior has long remained a mysterywhich is all the more reason why this home is bound to receive tons of attention now.

"The Golden Girls" house today. Brandon Valente, Brandon V Photography

The reality behind 'The Golden Girls' house

In real life, this house served as the longtime residence of David Noble Barry III and Margaret Carr Barry, a married couple who had the house built in 1955. The Barrys lived in the house for more than 60 years until their deaths in 2017 and 2019, respectively. The property is being sold by a trust.

James Barry, the late couple's son, reported that location scouts first noticed the property because of its verdant landscaping, thinking it had just the right aesthetic to represent the four friends' fictional home in Miami at 6151 Richmond St. (FYI, no such address actually exists.)

So the NBC network paid the Barrys a small sum of money to film exterior shots at the home. They agreed, in part because they wanted to show off their home's unique architecture.

In fact, the home was primarily used as a filming location for only the first season of the show. For later seasons, the Barrys loaned NBC the home's original blueprints so the network could build a replica at Disney's Hollywood Studios, where fans could tour the house until it was torn down in 2003.

So what's the original "Golden Girls" house really like?

An inside tour of 'The Golden Girls' home today

The Barrys modeled their Brentwood property after the Honolulu home of David Noble Barry III's father. Japanese and Hawaiian influences abound throughout the property, which features original oak floors, high ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows, sliding Shoji screens, built-in cabinets, and an engawa, a traditional Japanese wood flooring surrounding the home.

The living room inside the Los Angeles home used for exterior shots on "The Golden Girls" Natalie Way

The retro kitchen, which is original to the home, has turquoise and avocado cabinets, yellow accents, and turquoise Formica countertops.

The retro kitchen inside the Los Angeles home used for exterior shots on "The Golden Girls" Natalie Way

Who will buy 'The Golden Girls' houseand how much will it cost?

So, who will be the lucky new owner of this iconic TV home? Many real estate experts say it's priced aggressively to sell and the buyer will likely be a toss-up between TV or movie producers who may want to use the location, or private buyers who may be fans of the show.

The backyard features plenty of outdoor lounging areas. Brandon Valente, Brandon V Photography

"The list price is strategic and meant to attract a lot of attention and interest," says Rachelle Rosten, the home's listing agent with Douglas Elliman. "The beauty of this pricing strategy is the market ultimately determines the value. I anticipate this property will sell over the list price. Its an exciting and emotional house as well as being a nice-sized lot on a desirable street. The market will respond accordingly. It will be very interesting to see who ends up buying this property."

A bedroom inside the Los Angeles home used for exterior shots on "The Golden Girls" Natalie Way

One potential buyer? HGTV, which in 2018 outbid Lance Bass to purchase the home used for exterior shots for "The Brady Bunch." The network renovated the house back to its 1970s glory on the hit show "A Very Brady Renovation."

"'The Golden Girls' home reminds me of 'The Brady Bunch' home sale scenario all over again," says Cara Ameer, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker in California and Florida. "A television network could be an ideal buyer for the property, such as HGTV or even NBC, which originally aired the series. Perhaps Amazon, Netflix, or a studio like Paramount will want it for future projectsa 'Golden Girls' remake or a similar show with a new twist or even a movie."

The house is on a nice quarter-acre lot. Brandon Valente, Brandon V Photography

As for dollars and cents, Ameer says it's hard to put a specific price tag on a home with celebrity status.

"I would venture that this is going to be subject to multiple offers and may go well above asking priceas much as by $1 million or a bit more," she says.

The living room inside the Los Angeles home used for exterior shots on "The Golden Girls" Natalie Way

But not all celebrity-status homes sell quickly. Just look at the famous "Full House" home in San Francisco, which was last sold for $4 million in 2016 and has been listed twice since then with no success. One possible reason could be all the "Full House" tourists crowding the front, which might become a nuisance at "The Golden Girls" house as well, especially if it becomes the subject of a pop culture revival.

"A buyer of this house will need to contend with tourists and fans constantly taking photos and the privacy concerns that come along with that," says Shane Ray, a real estate agent in San Francisco with Domicile Properties/Compass.

The dining room inside the Los Angeles home used for exterior shots on "The Golden Girls" Natalie Way

Some real estate agents think that the headaches of owning a famous home make them a poor investment.

Cedric Stewart, a real estate agent with Keller Williams Capital Properties in Washington, DC, thinks "The Golden Girls" house will sell for under asking, at around $1.95 million.

"Is there a chance someone would buy it for sentimental purposes or use it as an attraction of sorts? Sure," Stewart says. "But the generation that would most appreciate that is on their way out, so this is not a place you buy to make money."

Only time will tell what will happen to this house, but in the meantime, it's fun to get a chance to see a piece of TV history.

The post An Eye-Opening Tour of 'The Golden Girls' HouseNow for Sale for the First Time appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.
In an apparent reference to US President Donald Trump and his Presidential opponent Joe Biden in the upcoming elections in November, the Editor of Chinese Communist Party's mouthpiece Global Times has hit out at both the leaders and America. In a tweet, China 'foreign mission' media stooge Hu Xijin said American voters have to choose between two candidates who are in their 70s. "This is a tragedy of American democracy," he said, adding that energy decreases with age.

'Energy decreases with age'

The Chinese stooge said that these two "old men" cannot be the best candidate for the US Presidency, but the US system cannot select the "most suitable people."

American voters this year have to choose between two candidates. Both are in their 70s. This is a tragedy of American democracy. Energy decreases with age. These two old men cannot be the best candidate for US presidency, but the US system cannot select the most suitable people.  Hu Xijin  (@HuXijin_GT) July 15, 2020

Last week, after Trump said that relation with China is 'severely damaged', Xijin attempted to warn the President. Claiming that "decoupling from China" won't help in getting him a second term, he said that the US should not take more action against China.

Dont take more actions to damage China-US ties. Dont squeeze out Chinese students, block young Americans from using TikTok or undermining bilateral business ties. Decoupling from China isnt in the interest of American people. Remember this and it will help in your reelection. pic.twitter.com/J5pe55wfQ4  Hu Xijin  (@HuXijin_GT) July 11, 2020

US-China's 'severely damaged' relations

The relations between the two countries have deteriorated as the US has taken a number of measures against China. Trump has recently said that his administration is mulling over the US-China trade deal amid tensed relations with Beijing. He had been blaming China since the outbreak of Coronavirus and has pulled out from the World Health Organisation (WHO), citing its bias towards China.

READ | Former US President Barack Obama, Joe Biden in list of those hacked by Bitcoin scammers

Last month, Trump had called the Coronavirus Kung Flu, blaming China for the deadly outbreak across the globe. Addressing an election rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Trump said that COVID-19 has more names than any other disease in history and he can name different versions of it.

READ | Donald Trump claims he has 'good relationship' with Anthony Fauci amid signs of rift

The US has also announced visa bans on senior Chinese officials involved in restricting access to foreigners to the sensitive region of Tibet and reaffirmed its support for "meaningful autonomy" for Tibetans. Moreover, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that they are considering a ban on TikTok and warned American citizens from using Chinese-origin applications.

READ | 'I haven't spoken to Xi Jinping; have no plan to speak': Donald Trump unleashes at China

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has also called on China to immediately stop forced sterilisation of Uighur Muslims after reports of coercive family planning emerged. On June 17, Trump signed Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 into law which condemns gross human rights violations of the ethnic Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang region in China.

READ | Joe Biden wins Democratic primary in Puerto Rico
The Los Angeles Police Department has come under further scrutiny regarding rough treatment of protesters after cops were caught throwing a man out of his wheelchair to arrest him.

Video shows three officers involved in knocking Joshua Wilson to the ground, grabbing him by the back of the neck and twisting his arm behind his back to restrain him.

Footage shows some witnesses immediately criticize an officer who then drags the wheelchair into the road far away from Wilson, who police claim had punched one of them in the face while they were arresting several people from an unrelated matter.

According to a statement the LAPD was in the area of Figueroa Street and Wilshire Boulevard in Downtown Los Angeles arresting two women and a man in connection to a mental health crisis.

LAPD were seen tossing Joshua Wilson out of his wheelchair on Tuesday. He was leading a Black Lives Matter protest when dozens of cops were seen flowing into the Downtown LA area

LAPD said they responded on a call for help from other officers

They were taking the two women to a medical facility based on statements they had made.

However they noticed a man walking down the street, pushing another man, so proceeded to arrest him.

They say they happened to come across a protest of about 50 people around 2.45pm while carrying out the arrest. Wilson was part of that group.

That's when the demonstrators started chanting 'Let them go' and Wilson allegedly connected his fist to a law enforcement officer's face.

LAPD said a 'use of force occurred between the officers and Wilson', which is what's seen on the video.

A statement said that cops called for help and numerous officers reported to the scene. They are seen detaining other people.

Police claim he punched a police officer in the face prior to the recording that was shared online

A witness is seen speaking to a cop who dragged the chair away from Wilson (left) meanwhile several other officers held him down on the ground

Police said they later found a loaded firearm in Wilson's backpack which was connected to his wheelchair.

Wilson was booked for being an 'ex con with a firearm' and was held on $35,000 bail.

The LAPD said he was seen by medical personnel before the booking. They didn't state whether Wilson sustained any injuries but they noted three officers and one sergeant suffered minor injuries during the incident and received medical treatment.

It's unclear how the officers obtained the injuries but cops say another man tried to grab an officer's baton during the incident and that's when another use of force ensued.

That man, Mario Chacon, received medical treatment at a local hospital, was treated and released and booked for Battery on a Peace Officer.

Active Advocate is trying to raise money for a bail fund. The social media account shared the clip with the captions: 'They beat us. They used excessive force.'

LAPD said in a statement they later found a loaded gun in his backpack which was on the chair they hurled him from
Portfolio of 15 generic and over-the-counter (OTC) medicines from Sandoz division addresses urgent unmet needs of low- and lower-middle-income countries to treat patients with COVID-19 symptoms





Portfolio will be sold at zero-profit to governments in up to 79 1 eligible countries during the pandemic and until a vaccine or curative treatment is available



eligible countries during the pandemic and until a vaccine or curative treatment is available Early access to treatment for managing COVID-19 symptoms is critical to preventing healthcare system overload

Basel, July 16, 2020 - Today, Novartis announced a new initiative to help patients in low-income and lower-middle-income countries (LIC; LMIC) access affordable medicines to treat the major symptoms of COVID-19 - a critical need in the absence of a vaccine or curative treatment. Inflammation and respiratory problems linked to COVID-19 can cause severe medical complications and can lead to death in some people, putting immense strain on fragile healthcare systems.

The Novartis COVID-19 portfolio includes 15 medicines from its Sandoz division for gastro-intestinal illness, acute respiratory symptoms, pneumonia as well as septic shock. The medicines were chosen based on clinical relevance and availability to ensure demand can be met globally.

The medicines will be made available to governments, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and other institutional customers in up to 79 eligible countries at zero-profit to support financially-strained healthcare systems. Countries will have the flexibility to select the medicines in the portfolio that meet their healthcare needs. Eligible countries must be included on the World Bank's list of LICs & LMICs1.

"Access to medicine can be a challenge for patients in low- and lower-middle-income countries and the situation has worsened during COVID-19. With our COVID-19 portfolio, we wish to help address the additional healthcare demands of the pandemic in the countries we are targeting," said Dr Lutz Hegemann, Chief Operating Officer for Global Health at Novartis.

"This initiative builds on our earlier global commitment to keep prices stable for a basket of essential drugs used to treating COVID-19 patients," said Sandoz CEO Richard Saynor. "The COVID-19 Response Portfolio for low-income and lower-middle-income countries is designed to support governments in treating COVID-19 symptoms before they lead to complications in patients."

The following medicines are included in the Novartis COVID-19 Response Portfolio:

Amoxicillin, Ceftriaxone, Clarithromycin, Colchicine, Dexamethasone, Dobutamine, Fluconazole, Heparin, Levofloxacin, Loperamide, Pantoprazole, Prednisone, Prednisolone, Salbutamol, Vancomycin.

The portfolio will be offered in addition to the Novartis Access portfolio (on- and off-patent medicines against key non-communicable diseases) via the local Novartis or Sandoz affiliate.

This global pandemic has placed extreme pressure on healthcare systems in low- and lower-income countries. The pandemic response portfolio complements the previously launched Novartis COVID-19 Response Fund to support healthcare workers and communities in over 50 projects around the world.

The COVID-19 medicines portfolio is Novartis latest contribution to the global effort to combat the pandemic and support the stability of global healthcare systems. The company has committed to donating USD 40 million to support communities around the world impacted by the pandemic. In addition, Novartis has been active in two key cross-industry research initiatives, the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, coordinated by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome, and Mastercard, as well as a COVID-19 directed partnership organized by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI). Novartis continues to provide hydroxychloroquine for ongoing investigator-initiated trials (IITs) and upon government requests, as appropriate. The company is also separately supporting COVID-19 related clinical investigations of several Novartis medicines. To support access, the Novartis generics and biosimilars division Sandoz became the first company to commit to keeping stable prices for a basket of essential medicines that may help in the treatment of COVID-19 and entered into a partnership with US-based Civica Rx to support stable supply of essential generic hospital medicines. Furthermore, AveXis, Novartis gene therapy unit, entered into a manufacturing agreement with Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Massachusetts General Hospital to produce its novel genetic COVID-19 vaccine candidate called AAVCOVID. More information about the Novartis response to COVID-19 is available on https://www.novartis.com/coronavirus (https://www.novartis.com/coronavirus)

Disclaimer

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by words such as "potential," "can," "will," "plan," "may," "could," "would," "expect," "anticipate," "seek," "look forward," "believe," "committed," "investigational," "pipeline," "launch," or similar terms, or by express or implied discussions regarding potential marketing approvals, new indications or labeling for the investigational or approved products described in this press release, or regarding potential future revenues from such products. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on our current beliefs and expectations regarding future events, and are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. There can be no guarantee that the investigational or approved products described in this press release will be submitted or approved for sale or for any additional indications or labeling in any market, or at any particular time. Nor can there be any guarantee that such products will be commercially successful in the future. In particular, our expectations regarding such products could be affected by, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including clinical trial results and additional analysis of existing clinical data; regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; global trends toward health care cost containment, including government, payor and general public pricing and reimbursement pressures and requirements for increased pricing transparency; our ability to obtain or maintain proprietary intellectual property protection; the particular prescribing preferences of physicians and patients; general political, economic and business conditions, including the effects of and efforts to mitigate pandemic diseases such as COVID-19; safety, quality, data integrity or manufacturing issues; potential or actual data security and data privacy breaches, or disruptions of our information technology systems, and other risks and factors referred to in Novartis AG's current Form 20-F on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Novartis is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Novartis

Novartis is reimagining medicine to improve and extend people's lives. As a leading global medicines company, we use innovative science and digital technologies to create transformative treatments in areas of great medical need. In our quest to find new medicines, we consistently rank among the world's top companies investing in research and development. Novartis products reach nearly 800 million people globally and we are finding innovative ways to expand access to our latest treatments. About 109,000 people of more than 145 nationalities work at Novartis around the world. Find out more at

https://www.novartis.com (https://www.novartis.com).

Novartis is on Twitter. Sign up to follow @Novartis at https://twitter.com/novartisnews (https://twitter.com/novartisnews)

For Novartis multimedia content, please visit https://www.novartis.com/news/media-library (https://www.novartis.com/news/media-library)

For questions about the site or required registration, please contact media.relations@novartis.com (mailto:media.relations@novartis.com)

References

1. https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/906519-world-bank-country-and-lending-groups (https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/906519-world-bank-country-and-lending-groups)

# # #

Novartis Media Relations

E-mail: media.relations@novartis.com (mailto:media.relations@novartis.com)

Peter Zuest Katrina Lucking Novartis External Communications Novartis Global Health Communications +41 79 899 9812 (mobile) +41 79 484 7625 (mobile) peter.zuest@novartis.com (mailto:peter.zuest@novartis.com) katrina.lucking@novartis.com (mailto:katrina.lucking@novartis.com) Eric Althoff Novartis US External Communications +1 646 438 4335 Eric.althoff@novartis.com (mailto:Eric.althoff@novartis.com)

Novartis Investor Relations

Central investor relations line: +41 61 324 7944

E-mail: investor.relations@novartis.com (mailto:investor.relations@novartis.com)
Rite Aid Corporation RAD has been contributing to the society in these times by opening various COVID-19 testing locations across the United States in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In this regard, the company has now added 161 drive-through locations in California, Washington, Idaho, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.



These new sites will be open from today and operate from 10 am to 8 pm on the weekdays and from 10 am to 5 pm during weekends. This brings the total number of testing facilities to 258. Also, these testing locations can now perform roughly 94,000 tests each week, which is double the prior figure. The self-swab nasal tests will be monitored by Rite Aid pharmacists.



Moreover, individuals can take online appointments to avail this facility. Keeping in these lines, the company has joined hands with Verily in order to use the latters Baseline COVID-19 Program for the purpose of screening, scheduling and returning of results to patients. In addition, asymptotic adults can also avail the testing facility at these sites. Such patients will be dealt with keeping in mind the guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.



Its rivals, CVS Health Corporation CVS, Walgreens WBA and Walmart WMT, also trod the same path. Notably, CVS Health has 1,416 COVID-19 testing sites across more than 30 states and Washington, DC. Walgreens now has 31 testing locations in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. Walmart also crossed more than 100 testing sites on May 15.



The companys 21 no-charge testing sites became operational on Jun 11. These sites can perform roughly 47,000 tests each day. Earlier, it announced the opening of 46 more locations that became operational on May 11 with the ability to perform roughly 10,000 tests each day.



Apart from these, it is providing home delivery services to customers with an eligible prescription. Also, the customers will have the benefit of zero delivery fees and pick-up services for prescriptions and over-the-counter products. Customers can use the drive-through option available at more than 50% of its retail locations. Moreover, it is progressing well with the rollout of the Buy Online Pickup In Store initiative, which will offer better drive-through and curbside pickup options. Further, Rite Aid expanded the Instacart delivery facility to more than 2,400 locations and received positive feedback for the same. Moving on, customers who belong to the Rite Aid wellness+ reward program have access to healthcare professionals and pharmacists at 1-800-Rite Aid or via live chat on the website. In this context, the surge in demand for Tele Health in the wake of COVID-19 has led the company to accelerate the launch of Rite Aid Virtual Care.



These efforts have been boosting investors confidence in the stock. In the past three months, shares of this Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) company have rallied 37.5% compared with the industrys growth of 3.2%. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

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India recorded the highest single-day spike of 32,695 cases and 606 deaths reported in the last 24 hours. The total number of cases have now reached 9,68,876, including 3,31,146 active cases, 6,12,815 cured/discharged/migrated and 24,915 deaths.

With the highest single-day spike of 32,695 cases and 606 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, Indias COVID-19 tally on Thursday reached 9,68,876, informed the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday. The total number of COVID-19 cases includes 3,31,146 active cases, 6,12,815 cured/discharged/migrated and 24,915 deaths.

As per the Ministry, Maharashtra  the worst-affected state from the infection  has a total of 2,75,640 COVID-19 cases and 10,928 fatalities. While Tamil Nadu has a tally of 1,51,820 cases and 2,167 deaths due to COVID-19. Delhi has reported a total of 1,16,993 cases and 3,487 deaths due to COVID-19. Meanwhile, as per the information provided by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 1,27,39,490 samples have been tested for COVID-19 till 15th July, of these 3,26,826 samples were tested yesterday.

The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday informed that the daily growth rate of newer coronavirus cases is declining each day. Till July 12, the Central government has recorded daily the growth rate for newer cases at 3.24 per cent.

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Also Read: Rajasthan rumble: Cong willing to give Pilot another chance after RaGas intervention

While deliberating at a media briefing on COVID-19 status, Rajesh Bhushan, Officer on Special Duty at the union health ministry informed that in a country like India with a massive population, numbers tend to cloud the focus of policymakers as well as people who are managing public health challenges. Hence, it is essential to know the trend of daily growth rate of cases and we are witnessing that the growth rate of daily fresh cases are declining every day, Bhushan said.

If we see in the month of March, the daily growth rate of COVID cases was 31.28 percent, in May it was 9.27 percent and further reduced to 4.82 percent in May end and if we see the figures of July 12, the growth rate for newer cases is at 3. 24 percent. There is a progressive decline in the daily growth rate of new cases, said Bhushan.

According to the health ministry as on July 14, the number of active cases in the country stood at 3,11,565, while 5,71,459 patients have recovered from the disease. Bhushan informed that there are 10 states which have 86 per cent of the total active cases. Maharastra and Tamil Nadu have 50 percent of the active caseload while Karnataka, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal, Gujarat, and Assam have 36 percent of active cases, respectively.

The central government said that recovered cases are surpassing active cases with each passing day. Until May end, active cases were more than recovered cases i.e. from 2 May till 30 May. After that, cured cases have increased and as on date, recovered cases are 1.8 times of active cases.

The national recovery rate is improving each day. In May, the recovery rate was 26.59 percent and further increased to 47.76 percent and on July 12, the cured rate climbed to 63.02 per cent.

According to the Central government, there are 20 States and Union Territories (UTs) which have a recovery rate percentage more than the national average. Some of these states includes: Madhya Pradesh (73), Haryana (76), Tripura (71), Rajasthan (75), Delhi (80), Chandigarh (72), Chhattisgarh (76), Uttarakhand (79), Ladakh (UT) (87), Himachal Pradesh (76), Assam (64.87), Tamil Nadu (64.66) Uttar Pradesh (64), Odisha (67), Mizoram (64.94), Punjab (68.94), Bihar (69.09), Gujarat (70), Assam (65).

The health ministry informed that testing has increased every day and expansion of laboratory capacity from March 23 till date.

The testing lab network in the country is further strengthened with 1,206 labs in the country; 853 labs in the government sector and 353 private labs. These include Real-Time RT PCR based testing labs: 628, TrueNat based testing labs: 478 and CBNAAT based testing labs.

Recently, WHO has issued a guidance note on public health criteria to adjust public health and social measures in the context of COVID-19. In this document, WHO underlines the need for comprehensive surveillance and testing of suspect cases and they further elaborated on the meaning of comprehensive surveillance by saying that if a country is testing 140 people per day per 10 lakh (one million) population. So, we are taking that indication from the WHO document. In the Indian context, there are 22 states which are doing more than 140 tests per day per million population, said the official, adding there are certain states which require major containment strategy, testing, and clinical management.

The official said that the government is conducting house to house surveillance, upgrading healthcare infrastructure, and urged people to maintain best-practice of social distancing, hand hygiene and wear masks to win the war against Coronavirus pandemic.

Also Read: We have proof horse-trading was being done in Jaipur: Ashok Gehlot

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Declaration on state sovereignty in 1990 was supported by MPs from different parts of Ukraine, with different views, but with common goal - Zelensky

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky notes that the Declaration on State Sovereignty of Ukraine of July 16, 1990 was supported by deputies of the then Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR from different parts of Ukraine and with different views.

"Today we are celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the birth of this landmark document. Thirty years ago a confident step was taken towards the final attainment of independence. The declaration brought closer the victory of Ukrainians in the centuries-old struggle for a free and independent state. July 16, 1990 was a truly historic day. Then the declaration of state sovereignty was supported by 355 deputies. From different parts of Ukraine. From different parties. With different views. But with a common goal," he said on Thursday speaking at the solemn meeting of the Verkhovna Rada on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration on State Sovereignty of Ukraine.

Zelensky drew attention to the fact that no one prevented this Declaration from passing, proposing eight thousand amendments, no one tried to block it with decrees, no one tried to ban it through the Constitutional Court.

"The adoption of the declaration is an act of incredible unity of politicians, for the will of the people and a great state goal," he stressed.
(Alliance News) - Carnival PLC on Thursday said it has agreed to sell four ships in its Holland America Fleet.

Amsterdam, Maasdam, Rotterdam and Veendam will leave the fleet, the cruise ship operator explained.

"The ships have been sold in pairs, with the S-Class Maasdam and Veendam transferring to one company in August 2020, while the R-Class Amsterdam and Rotterdam will move to another company in fall 2020," Carnival said.

The names of the buyers and the sale prices were not disclosed.

"Guests with bookings on future sailings of these ships will be notified that these cruises will be cancelled or changed," Carnival added.

Also on Thursday, the FTSE 250 cruise operator priced about USD1.26 billion worth of senior secured notes.

It will offer USD775 million of 10.500% notes and EUR425 million of 10.125% notes, with both issues due in 2026.

Carnival said it expects to "use the net proceeds from the offerings of the notes for general corporate purposes".

Last Friday, Carnival reported a bruising net loss of USD5.16 billion for its first half ended May 31.

Revenue came in at USD5.52 billion, down 42% year-on-year from USD9.51 billion.

Carnival shares were 0.4% higher at 1,059.50 pence each in London on Thursday morning.

By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Daniels Deeds and the Palace of Everywhere: a gripping narrative about survival, battles, and darkness as Daniel faces his destiny. Daniels Deeds and the Palace of Everywhere is the creation of published author Dane Stivers, a writer who grew up in Orange County, California. He has been privileged to spend the majority of his childhood in the social services system.

Stivers shares, Daniel lives a life of safe complacency, or so it seems. Born to satisfy a faceless government that tells him all is and always will be well (until it isnt), Daniel is spoon-fed a reality that he has no other choice but to accept, and he gladly does.

That is, until the Man sustaining him no longer appears, and the government cuts him off to leave him to die. What then?

Beyond the walls of his home is a reality that only his next-door neighbor, Holly Sprint, is capable of leading him through into a glorious life that he was truly created for.

But there is a dark presence ruling Daniels world, one that has an age-long plan to punish Daniel for his retaliation from the life that had always been his to lose

Daniels Deeds and the Palace of Everywhere represents the first book in a series of an eventual five. The Daniels Deeds series will continue in 2020.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Dane Stiverss new book is a remarkable fight for goodness and justice that will give the readers an exciting ride along Daniels journey towards his purpose.

View a synopsis of Daniels Deeds and the Palace of Everywhere on YouTube.

Consumers can purchase Daniels Deeds and the Palace of Everywhere at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Daniels Deeds and the Palace of Everywhere, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
One of the hallmarks of recent history has been the accelerated time frames in which political identities can shift. George W. Bushs acceptance speech at the 2000 Republican convention reads like a document from a lost civilization, said Stuart Stevens, a former adviser to Mr. Bush, Mr. Romney and a host of other Republican presidential candidates. Its like something from the Mayans. The speech was all about humility and compassion. Mr. Bush ostensibly ran in 2000 as a moderate healer with an impulse for consensus-seeking, even as his presidency would go on to feature a host of partisan and deeply divisive actions, among them the invasion of Iraq and an attempted overhaul of Social Security.

A fervent critic of Mr. Trump, Mr. Stevens has a book out this month, It Was All a Lie, which charts what he describes as the Republican Partys decades-long spiral into racism, nativism and ultimately Trumpism. He said descendants of political families might feel burdens of virtue more acutely than others do. He mentioned George Romneys protest against what he considered the partys lack of commitment to civil rights at the Republican National Convention in 1964. To me, you can take a direct line from there to Mitt saying Black Lives Matter in 2020, he said.

Until recently, no one would have ever described Mitt Romney as a leading dissident within his party. But the Trump years have imposed a distinct set of character tests upon elected Republicans at every level.

Mr. Romney idolized his father, to a point where he would write Dad on a sheet of paper at his lectern before big political speeches and debates. As he has navigated the lonely terrain of a defiant Republican in the Trump era, Mr. Romney said his father had loomed as a powerful example.

Its not as if I stop to consider What would Dad want me to do? Mr. Romney said. As he has gotten older and embarked on what will most likely be the last chapter of his career, in the Senate, Mr. Romney said, it has become easier to heed the lessons of his forebears rather than the demands of political expediency.

Ive learned that if you dont follow your conscience, it haunts you for a long, long time, Mr. Romney said. At this stage in life, Im not going to do that anymore.

He predicted, correctly, a follow-up question about what actions he was talking about. Im not going to tell you, Mr. Romney said, chuckling.
LEASING

Sydney

J.Hutchinson Pty Ltd has leased an unrenovated 171.5 sq m office at Suite 62/Level 6, 104 Bathurst Street from G & J Drivas Pty Limited at $500 per sq m gross. The tenant required project space in the immediate vicinity and leased the premises as is to fit out themselves. The lease term is 18 months. John Skufris Ray White Commercial South Sydney, negotiated the lease.

Silverwater

Eczanes Pharmaceuticals has leased a 508 sq m industrial warehouse / office at 100-108 Asquith Street Silverwater from Kimo International for $144 per sq m net. The lease is to accommodate the fast growing business needs and will provide a hub location for warehousing and distribution of medical and health products. Phillip Bradac, Colliers International negotiated the lease.
Facebook's European headquarters in Dublin's Grand Canal district. Photo: PA

The European Unions top court on Thursday found that a key framework used to transfer user data by technology giants to the US was invalid, ruling that it does not provide adequate privacy protection to EU citizens.

The European Court of Justice nevertheless partially sided with Facebook (FB) by ruling in favour of key contracts used to transfer the data of the blocs citizens to other countries, even as it opened up the social media giant to further challenges and called into question their use for transfers to the US.

The invalidation of the framework, known as the Privacy Shield, is a blow for the EU, which had hoped that it would afford EU citizens the protections outlined within the blocs charter of fundamental rights while still allowing data transfers to firms in the US.

READ MORE: Apple wins appeal in top court against 13bn EU tax ruling

The core of the issue was on the contradiction between US law, which requires social media firms to hand over user data to national security agencies, and both the charter and the GDPR regulation, which give every EU citizen substantial data privacy rights.

It covers about 5,000 US companies, including Facebook, Google (GOOG), and Twitter (TWTR).

The European Court of Justice found that contracts known as standard contractual clauses  which are far more routinely used for data transfers than the Privacy Shield  were valid, however.

But the court also outlined ways in which specific clauses could be struck down, ruling that such clauses are legal only if the data protections they promise can be assured under the laws of the countries where the data of EU citizens is sent.

Everyone is focusing on Facebook as a familiar household name, but in reality, this is a massive strengthening of the EUs regulatory power in order to enforce its human rights-based vision of data processing, Simon McGarr, one of Europes top data protection experts, told Yahoo Finance.

Mass surveillance in the US

Story continues

Referencing mass surveillance programmes in the US, the court said that US law was not circumscribed in a way that satisfies requirements that are essentially equivalent to those required under EU law, raising serious doubts about whether standard contractual clauses can be used for transfers to the country.

The validity of the clauses, the court said, depends on whether there are effective mechanisms that make it possible to ensure compliance with the protections required by EU law.

The court said that technology firms had an obligation to verify, prior to any data transfer to a country outside the bloc, that the data would be afforded the same level of protection as within the EU.

"They've created an entire system around standard contractual clauses which has to be relied upon, said McGarr.

Its now incumbent on both the company sending the data and the company receiving the data, and EU data regulators, to do their own examination of the enforceability of those contracts under local laws of every single receiving country, he said.

READ MORE: UK employers have shed almost 650,000 jobs since crisis began

The case began as a complaint to Irelands Data Protection Commission against Facebook by Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems, and was referred to the blocs top court by the Irish High Court.

The courts decisions relating to US protections are clearer than any other third-party country, in that it has made it extremely difficult to see how the Data Protection Commission can avoid making a decision that would lead to a halting of data transfers to the US, said McGarr.

Facebook said in a statement that it was carefully considering the findings and implications of the decision.

We will ensure that our advertisers, customers and partners can continue to enjoy Facebook services while keeping their data safe and secure, said Eva Nagle, an associate general counsel at the company.

In a statement, Schrems said he was very happy with the judgement, calling it a total blow to Facebook and the Irish Data Protection Commission.

It is clear that the US will have to seriously change their surveillance laws if US companies want to continue to play a major role on the EU market, he said.

As part of a previous case taken by Schrems, the court in 2015 struck down the Privacy Shields predecessor agreement, known as Safe Harbour, for similar reasons.
President Donald Trump and Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping arrive at a state dinner at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Nov. 9, 2017. (Thomas Peter/Getty Images)

Trumps Road to Victory Is Through China

Commentary

Brad Pascale is out as campaign manager, meaning something is rotten in the State of Trump.

That something is the poll numbers, trust them or not. The president cannot afford to rely on the assumption the country is filled with closet Trump voters loath to admit their preference lest they suffer retribution that these days can range from job loss to (no exaggeration) rigor mortis.

Pascale is being replaced by GOP veteran Bill Stepien but the election wont be decided by campaign managers. It will be decided by the candidates.

Trump has to resist the temptation to relive the glory of 2016, as amazing a campaign as it was. As a television personality, he should realize its a new season. He needs a fresh approach.

But first he must abandon, at least for now, what I called his signal-to-noise problem. No more pointless tweets attacking the likes of Joe Scarborough. Who cares? No distractions in general.

As Magic Johnson used to say, this is winnin time.

And the road to winning is through Communist China.

They are the ones causing all the trouble in the world today, especially in the USA, but basically everywhere. Almost every contemporary problem stems from China in some manner, if you examine it carefully.

The novel coronaviruswe still dont know whether man made or accidentalemanating in secrecy from that country has created a global health and financial calamity that in turn helped instigate (through unemployment and a frustrated, locked-up public) the escalating violence and murder in most of the major cities in the United States.

The law and order problems we are having would not be occurring were it not for China and what it brought us. New York wouldnt be having a murder epidemic. The madness in Portland and Seattle wouldnt be happening, at least to the extent it has, were it not for China.

In a very real sense, the defund the police movement is due to Communist China. No one thought of that before the CCP virus came calling.

Even the issue of whether our kids should be going to school this fall is due to the CCP, if you examine how all this came to be.

China, at this time, is an adversary far greater and ultimately more threatening than even the Soviet Union in its heyday.

They have infiltrated our finest educational institutions to an astonishing degree that we are only beginning to understand. In a very real way, they have been propagandizing us for years with the acquiescence of officials of our greatest universities.

We have all been lied to about China again and again and again.

The president must make that one hundred percent clear to the American public that has been brainwashed by a media that will say anything that would aid in his defeat.

Its not an easy assignment in a short time.

Successfully done, however, this will win the election for Trump because, as luck would have it, or perhaps its something more sinister than that, his opponent, Joe Biden, has been tied intimately to our failed, corrupt and highly dangerous Communist China policy for years.

President Donald Trump at a campaign rally at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla., on June 20, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

The former vice president was high up among the many officials of our country that have been selling us out to China for decades.

Only a few months ago Joe was pooh-poohing the idea that China was our competition. You may have seen the video. He went so far as to say their success was important to the world and would make things better. (Perhaps he meant his sons bank account.)

Trump can make a case for being the first president to confront Communist China in any serious way because he was and is.

Tie China to the plagues of today, make it clear what that meansits not that difficultand he will have a second term.

Roger L. Simon is an award-winning novelist, Oscar-nominated screenwriter and the co-founder of PJ Media.

The views expressed herein are solely those of the author. As a nonpartisan public charity, The Epoch Times does not endorse these statements and takes no position on political candidates.
ROME  The Vatican has told bishops around the world to report cases of clerical sex abuse to civil authorities even where local laws dont require it  a step that abuse victims and their advocates have demanded over the decades in which the scandal has roiled the Roman Catholic Church.

The Vatican also urged bishops to investigate even abuse claims that seem to be doubtful, or are made anonymously, rather than dismissing them outright.

But the new instructions are not binding and were not enshrined in the churchs canon law, prompting criticism that the Vatican still gives bishops too much leeway in judging the conduct of their priests. The instructions were instead part of a new handbook intended to guide bishops and religious superiors who may have little experience handling abuse cases.

What is important to remember today is that it is still allowable under canon law for a bishop to not report a priest who is raping a child; it is still allowed for thousands of the worlds bishops, Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a victims advocacy and research group, said in a telephone interview.
The Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) has given the federal government a 21-day ultimatum to address pending issues or risk industrial action.

The union listed the pending issues to include the refusal to effect third party-deductions in most colleges of educations (COEs); double standard deployed by the ministries of labour and education against the COEs relative to other tertiary institutions and imposition of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

In a statement on Wednesday, the president of COEASU, Nuhu Ogirima, said the government had failed to address the plight of the colleges one year after it sent a memo detailing the deplorable state of the institutions.

The union also said most state governments have equally copied the federal government in the poor handling the affairs of the COEs.

Consequently, administrative impunity and rights deprivation reign supreme in most of these COEs. The Expanded National Executive Council (ENEC) at its meeting of 8th July, is, therefore, forced to challenge the government to shut the teacher education industry since the quality of infrastructure, welfare and service delivery takes no preference in the scheme of governance at all levels, he said.

According to him, the ENEC wishes that you take notice hereby that should the government refuse to redress all the issues in contention within 21 days, the union would have no other option than to declare a nationwide industrial action.

In August 2019, the association transmitted a memo passionately requesting the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), to intervene in addressing the plight of the public COEs system, he said.

He said the memo was predicated on decades of utter neglect of the COE system, which the federal ministry of education could not successfully address.

In response to our follow-up correspondences, both FME and FML &E had indicated that they were awaiting the Presidents response. Sadly, we all are still awaiting the response, almost one year after the memo was received at the Presidency, the system further degenerates, COEASU added.

Mr Ogirima said the trust COEASU had in the government was misplaced as none of the pledges it (FG) made had been fulfilled.

Even a paltry fraction of N15 billion (was paid), only as a palliative, out of N486 billion required as at 2017, to cushion the effects of the non-implementation of NEEDS Assessment; and others have not been fulfilled till date.

The COEASU in the spirit of patriotism had suspended the 2018 strike after the FG made some pledges, the union said.

IPPIS

Mr Ogirima said the imposition of IPPIS on the COE system bedevilled the payment of emoluments of staff with anomalies, infractions and deprivations.

Third party-deductions are not being affected in most colleges, he said. A number of our members on sabbatical and study leaves have not been included on pay-roll, and worst of all check-off dues have been withheld, unremitted to the union since February 2020, ostensibly to stifle the union of funds and cripple her activities.

The IPPIS is the governments software that has been made compulsory for all public institutions, mainly for personnel payroll to ensure accountability.

COEASUs counterpart in universities, ASUU (lecturers) and SSANU (senior staff) also opposed the implementation of the IPPIS, arguing that it does not take into consideration the unique operations of the institutions.

This has led to confrontations between the unions and the government over the last few months.

Although SSANU had initially supported the IPPIS initiative, it later said its trust in the system was eroded by irregularities it noticed in the payment of their February salaries.

Though the nations tertiary institutions have been grounded since the emergence of COVID-19, the ASUU earlier embarked on a strike on March 23 over similar issues.

The last time COEASU embarked on strike was October 9, 2018, and it was over the non-implementation of agreements especially NEEDS assessment report.

It suspended the action on December 5, 2018.
Hackers linked to Russias state intelligence are attempting to steal secret research on coronavirus vaccines from UK labs, the National Cyber Security Centre has said.

In a co-ordinated announcement with security agencies in the US and Canada, the NCSC pointed the finger at an established hacker group known as APT29, Cozy Bear or The Dukes.

And for the first time since the shady groups existence became known, the allied agencies said that APT29 is almost certainly operating as part of Russian intelligence services. Although neither the NCSC nor the US National Security Agency explicitly accused president Vladimir Putin of ordering the group's activities, it is thought that there is awareness of its operations at the highest levels of the Russian administration.

It is believed that vaccine research facilities at Oxford University and Imperial College London are among institutions targeted by the hackers, who are thought to operate by exploiting weaknesses in VPN and external mail services used by researchers.

The attacks form part of a pattern which has seen both state and criminal organisations shift cyber activity to target potentially valuable intellectual property relating to vaccines and treatments for Covid-19 during the pandemic.

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

NCSC director of operations Paul Chichester said: We condemn these despicable attacks against those doing vital work to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

Working with our allies, the NCSC is committed to protecting our most critical assets and our top priority at this time is to protect the health sector.

We would urge organisations to familiarise themselves with the advice we have published to help defend their networks.

Known targets of APT29 include UK, US and Canadian vaccine research and development organisations.

The group uses a variety of tools and techniques, including spear-phishing and custom malware known as WellMess and WellMail.

The campaign is not believed to be related to a separate attempt by unidentified Russian actors to interfere in Decembers election by disseminating details of the governments trade talks with the US, revealed by foreign secretary Dominic Raab today.

Speaking after the NCSC announcement, Mr Raab called for an end to cyber attacks by Russian intelligence services.

It is completely unacceptable that the Russian intelligence services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic, said the foreign secretary.

Foreign secretary Dominic Raab (REUTERS/Hannah McKay) (Reuters)

While others pursue their selfish interests with reckless behaviour, the UK and its allies are getting on with the hard work of finding a vaccine and protecting global health.

The UK will continue to counter those conducting such cyber attacks, and work with our allies to hold perpetrators to account.

It is unclear whether hackers have been successful in obtaining any scientific information from UK labs in the attacks, which are still believed to be ongoing. The NCSC has not stated what level of success the group had achieved, saying that its purpose is to heighten awareness of the risk which it poses and the need to take protective measures.

But it is not thought that they have targeted the personal information of individuals working in the institutions.
Mr Qayoom, now 76 years, has been lodged at Delhis Tihar jail since August 2019

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Jammu & Kashmir government as to why J&K Bar Association president Mian Abdul Qayoom is under detention beyond the detention period of one year under the J&K Public Safety Act (PSA).

Mr Qayoom, now 76 years, has been lodged at Delhis Tihar jail since August 2019, following the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution.

The poser from the Supreme Court came in the course of the hearing of a plea by Mian Qayoom challenging the J&K high court's order upholding his detention.

Pointing to his old age, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul told solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for J&K government, He is 73. We want to know on what basis you like to detain him in Tihar (Jail). His detention as per the order has already expired. It set next hearing for July 23, 2020.

The J&K high court had on May 29 accepted the state plea that Mr Qayoom should declare and establish by his conduct that he has shunned his separatist ideology.
Some bars and restaurants are finding a way to bypass Pennsylvanias latest COVID-19 orders.

Its all about 50 cent appetizers, small plates, complimentary snacks, hot dogs and Uncrustables packaged peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Following new restrictions announced Wednesday by Gov. Tom Wolf, several central Pennsylvania restaurants, bars and breweries are rejiggering their menus and adding food options in hopes of remaining compliant, and in some cases, keeping their doors open.

Under the new orders, restaurants, bars and breweries must dial back capacity limits from 50 to 25 percent. In addition, seating around bars is prohibited and establishments are no longer permitted to serve alcoholic beverages unless patrons order sit-down, dine in meals.

Because beverage sales are a main revenue source for many neighborhood bars and craft breweries, the new orders could translate into a loss of sales, and even worse, closure. To stay afloat, many licensed establishments have discovered a possible loophole allowing them to continue to cater to drinkers.

Theyre adding inexpensive, and even complimentary, menu choices.

READ MORE: Coronavirus in Pa.: 781 new cases reported, statewide total rises to 98,446

Starting today, customers at Als of Hampden in Hampden Township receive breadsticks with every beverage transaction. Champs Bar in Highspire has introduced $1 chips and pretzels, while craft brewery Boneshire Brew Works in Swatara Township announced its selling hot dogs.

Mellow Mink Brewing in Hampden Township added $1.50 hot dog with an optional side of chips for an additional 50 cents. Sturges Speakeasy and McGraths Pub in Harrisburg are ready to roll out small plates menus.

Owner Adam Sturges said there are those customers who just want to stop in for a drink and not spend a lot of money or eat anything too heavy.

We are playing along and doing things the right way and its just lighter options, he said.

At the Roadhouse Cafe & Grill in Swatara Township, head manager Matina Moka said they are considering adding more appetizers or snacks, such as bagged potato chips or peanuts, to entice customers who ordinarily would stop by for only drinks.

Overall, Moka said the states latest orders feel unfair, given people can shop for an hour and a half at a Walmart but cant sit inside a restaurant and order a drink.

It is really frustrating, because I feel like they are kind of putting everything on restaurants and bars, she said.

Nick Dunphy, owner of the Caddy Shack in Hampden Township, said the regulation will be hard to enforce.

What is classified as eating? Are they only allowed to sit there as long as food is in front of them? he asked.

Matina Moka, manager of Rod's Roadhouse Cafe Bar & Grill in Swatara Township on July 16, 2020. The cafe closed the bar due to new regulations announced by Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday. Joe Hermitt | jhermitt@pennlive.com

As establishments scramble to tweak menus, questions linger over the legality of the loophole. Does a bag of chips or soft pretzel constitute a meal? And do those establishments without regular food service and kitchens have to receive food inspections through the state Department of Agriculture?

The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board said it will issue more detailed guidance soon. Chuck Moran, executive director of the Pennsylvania Licensed Beverage & Tavern Association, said they are awaiting answers.

I feel Im pretty certain, given what I know about the urgency in which this new order was crafted that I highly doubt that the terms used were thought through as to having legal meaning, said Theodore J. Zeller III, general counsel for the Brewers of Pennsylvania.

The LBCs Liquor Code defines a meal as food prepared on the premises, sufficient to constitute breakfast, lunch or dinner; it shall not mean a snack, such as pretzels, popcorn, chips or similar food.

Zeller called it an obscure definition and if snacks are not considered a meal, then some breweries will have to temporarily close.

So the regulation on breweries, you at least have to be able to serve snacks, and thats typically a prepackaged snack. So do snacks count as a quote unquote meal? My concern is the definition of a meal, Zeller added.

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Shamima Begum, who left London to join the Islamic State (IS) as a schoolgirl in 2015, has won the right to return to the UK to challenge the Home Secretary's decision to revoke her British citizenship, in person.

The court of appeal had partially overturned a February 2020 ruling by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) which had held that the stripping of her UK citizenship rights, while she was in war-torn Syria, was legal since she was entitled to Bangladeshi citizenship and was not rendered 'stateless' by the UK Home Office decision.

Begum, who was 15 years old when she fled from Bethnal Green in east London in February 2015 and married a Dutch Muslim convert as a so-called ISIS "jihadi bride" in Syria, had in early 2020 lost her first stage of appeal against the decision of the UK Home Office to revoke her British citizenship at the UK's Special Immigration Appeals Commission, according to The Guardian.

ALSO READ: British ISIS bride Shamima Begum's newborn son has died in Syria

The UK Court of Appeal has now held that she had been denied a fair hearing because she could not fight her case from the Syrian camp.

The earlier judgement

The February judgment by the Siac against Begum's stripping of UK citizenship rights, was based on three preliminary grounds.

The primary one was that she wasn't deprived of the citizenship rights unjustly.

It was said in the ruling that when she was stripped of her UK citizenship, Begum was a citizen of Bangladesh by descent, by virtue of [Bangladeshi nationality legislation]. She held that citizenship as of right. That citizenship was not in the gift of the [Bangladesh] government and could not be denied by the [Bangladesh] government in any circumstances.

Her lawyer argued that Begum, who remains in the camp in northern Syria, could not effectively challenge the decision of revoking her citizenship while she was barred from returning to the UK.

The court of appeal agreed and partially overturned the earlier decision and allowed her to return to the UK to challenge the Home Office's decision.

According to the Guardian, Lord Justice Flaux, with the endorsement of two other judges, decided that Notwithstanding the national security concerns about Ms Begum, I have reached the firm conclusion that given that the only way in which she can have a fair and effective appeal is to be permitted to come into the United Kingdom to pursue her appeal, fairness and justice must, on the facts of this case, outweigh the national security concerns.

UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid had stripped Begum of her British citizenship in 2019.

His successor as the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, also backed that decision and ruled out the prospect of her return to the UK.

"We cannot have people who would do us harm allowed to enter our country ... and that includes this woman," said Patel, in reference to Begum, who had pleaded with the authorities to allow her to return to her family in the UK.

Under UK law, a person can legally have their citizenship revoked but they cannot be made stateless.

(With inputs from PTI)
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- The Gerald R. Ford International Airport has deployed a robot that uses a disinfecting solution as part of its aggressive sanitation efforts amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Pratt Miller Mobility presented a live demonstration of its new large area autonomous Disinfecting (LaaD) robotic vehicle at the airport on Wednesday, July 15.

The robot autonomously surveys and dispenses an FDA-approved disinfecting solution on high-contact surfaces within the airport including seating, gates and vending machines.

It was created to disinfect large areas, airport terminals such as this, large retailers, other large facilities to rebuild confidence and provide safer environments for everyone, said Christopher Andrews, director of mobility and innovation for Pratt Miller, during the demonstration.

The machine visually documents any missed areas so staff members may go back and disinfect manually, a benefit manual disinfecting does not have, officials say.

Stephen Clark, airport business development manager, said the robotic vehicle will begin sanitizing the airport tonight.

In May, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) announced grants to five companies to help solve mobility issues from the coronavirus pandemic, including $50,000 to New Hudson-based Pratt Miller for the airport project.

PlanetM, is the states mobility initiative, making awards through its technology activation grant program.

A total of $286,000 was awarded to the companies in total to aid in the development and deployment of solutions that address the mobility challenges COVID-19 presents.

Whether thats keeping bus drivers safe, keeping travelers through airports safer, combating the virus, we knew it was time to step up and we knew there were Michigan companies that could design, develop and deploy new solutions just like Pratt Miller has done here, Charlie Tyson, technology activation manager for Planet M, said Wednesday.

In May, Tyson also said the resiliency and innovation that these companies are displaying in the face of the global pandemic will make a significant difference as the industry comes together to fight the virus.

According to Simon Dean, vice president of engineering and mobility for Pratt Miller Mobility, the LaaD vehicle can disinfect one terminal in approximately five minutes and the entire airport in roughly an hour.

While the solution is not harmful to humans, officials say airport staff will likely use the machine at night when foot traffic is slow.

Based on data gathered during this pilot program, the airport will be able to compare the benefits, cost, time and effort of using the machine to that of regular manual cleaning.

Pratt Miller Mobility officials say they plan to evaluate the efficiency of their new technology in the next four to five months and begin to plan to implement the device in other large spaces. This may include shopping centers, casinos and other airports around the state of Michigan.

More information is available at prattmiller.com/laad.

The other four state grant recipients are:

GHSP ($80,000) is a Grand Haven-based engineering firm developing a first-of-its-kind mobile UV-C treatment, grenlite. Using high-and-low dose UV-C light, the system is able to sense when there are occupants in a shared vehicle space and will disinfect the air and high-touch surfaces following their exit, reducing COVID-19 and other disease-causing germs for those on the front lines. The technology was first integrated into May Mobilitys autonomous shuttle fleet as part of the Grand Rapids Autonomous Vehicle Initiative

Gatik ($100,000), a California-based autonomous delivery company, is working with one of the states largest retailers to automate their on-road transportation network, according to the state. The pilot involves deploying autonomous delivery vehicles on predetermined, fixed routes throughout Grand Rapids and Rochester, Mich. This partnership will help reduce human-to-human transmission channels of COVID-19 via contactless delivery, minimize personnel-based disruptions to the supply chain and transform the way groceries, health products and other everyday goods.

Penske Vehicle Services ($28,000) is working with the city of Detroit. A current mobility challenge facing the city is transporting passengers while protecting transit workers against COVID-19. Troy-based Penske started production on temporary vehicle occupant safety partitions, which are portable, clear vinyl barriers designed to increase physical separation between front seat drivers and back seat occupants of passenger vehicles.

RCO Engineering ($28,000) will develop and pilot partitions to help offer some additional level of comfort for the drivers tasked with transporting residents to and from their destinations. The partition will not be designed to permanently alter the vehicles in any way. The city of Detroit will provide vehicles to be outfitted with RCOs partition solution.

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A study conducted by scientists at Sao Paulo State University's Institute of Geosciences and Exact Sciences (IGCE-UNESP) in Rio Claro, Brazil, has identified 19 asteroids of interstellar origin classified as Centaurs, outer Solar System objects that revolve around the Sun in the region between the orbits of Jupiter and Neptune.

An article on the study titled "An interstellar origin for high-inclination Centaurs" is published in the Royal Astronomical Society's Monthly Notices. The study was supported by Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) - FAPESP.

"The Solar System formed 4.5 billion years ago in a stellar nursery, with its systems of planets and asteroids. The stars were close enough to each other to foster strong gravitational interactions that led to an exchange of material among the systems. Some objects now in the Solar System must therefore have formed around other stars. Until recently, however, we couldn't distinguish between captured interstellar objects and objects that formed around the Sun. The first identification was made by us in 2018," Maria Helena Moreira Morais , one of the two coauthors, told.

Morais graduated in physics and applied mathematics from the University of Porto (Portugal) and earned a PhD in Solar System dynamics from the University of London (UK). She is currently a professor at IGCE-UNESP. The other coauthor is Fathi Namouni, a researcher at Cote d'Azur Observatory in Nice, France.

The first identification to which Morais referred was the asteroid 514107 Ka'epaoka'awela, as reported by Agencia FAPESP in 2018.

The name Ka'epaoka'awela is Hawaiian and can be roughly translated to "mischievous opposite-moving companion of Jupiter". It has occupied the path corresponding to Jupiter's orbit for at least 4.5 billion years but revolves around the Sun in the direction opposite to that of the planets, i.e., it is a retrograde co-orbital asteroid of Jupiter.

"When we identified it as an object that came from outside the Solar System, we didn't know whether it was an isolated case or part of a vast population of immigrant asteroids," Morais said. "In this latest study, we recognized 19 Centaurs of interstellar origin."

Similar to Ka'epaoka'awela, the Centaurs identified in the study have highly inclined orbits with respect to the orbital plane of the planets. "To investigate the origin of these objects, we built a computer simulation that works like a time machine, running their trajectories backwards by 4.5 billion years. The simulation enabled us to find out where these objects were at that time," Morais said.

The planets and asteroids that originated in the Solar System emerged from a thin disk of gas and dust that once orbited the Sun. For this reason, they all moved in the plane of the disk 4.5 billion years ago. If the Centaurs originated in the Solar System, they should also have moved in the plane of the disk at that time. "However, our simulation showed that 4.5 billion years ago, these objects revolved around the Sun in orbits perpendicular to the disk's plane. In addition, they did so in a region distant from the gravitational effects of the original disk," Morais said.

These two findings showed that the Centaurs did not originally belong to the Solar System and must have been captured from nearby stars during the period of planet formation.

Star nursery

The discovery in the Solar System of a population of asteroids of interstellar origin is a major step in the understanding of the differences and similarities between objects that formed in the Solar System and objects in the Solar System that were originally extrasolar. Future astronomic observations and possibly space missions will deepen this understanding. "Studies of this population will bring to light information about the star nursery from which the Sun emerged, the capture of interstellar objects in the primordial Solar System, and the importance of interstellar matter to the chemical enrichment of the Solar System," Morais said.

With regard to chemical enrichment, it is worth recalling that the primordial Universe mainly comprised hydrogen and helium. The lightest natural elements in the periodic table were created by nuclear fusion inside stars and were then spread out through space. The region in which the Solar System is located was chemically enriched by these elements, which contributed to the composition of the human body.

###

About Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

The Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. You can learn more about FAPESP at http://www.fapesp.br/en and visit FAPESP news agency at http://www.agencia.fapesp.br/en to keep updated with the latest scientific breakthroughs FAPESP helps achieve through its many programs, awards and research centers. You may also subscribe to FAPESP news agency at http://agencia.fapesp.br/subscribe.
16.07.2020 LISTEN

$142 billion dollars was stolen during the Jonathan presidency, from my exhaustive professional financial analysis, and only $2.5 billion dollars have been recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). This is a paltry 1.6 % of the estimated stolen funds. In Nigerian educational and employment standards, 40 % are pass mark and1.6 % is monumental failure.

After five years of Buhari regime, all the EFCC and Independent Corrupt Persons Commission (ICPC) could recover was 1.6 % or $2.5 billion dollars ie N980 billion naira. Therefore, based on performance index, the sack of Ibrahim Magu as EFCC head is long overdue.

I have written in 2014 and made more additions in 2015 facts outlining how the $142 billion dollars was looted through oil deals, oil bunkering, oil theft, and more. Some of the analysis in the piece

Stolen $142 billion dollars in five years-in the Midst of National Poverty and a follow up Additional Mathematics  where I listed some of the $142 billion dollar leakages to include;

(1) $20 billion dollars missing in 18 months =$1.1 billion monthly x 60 months =$ 66 billion dollars

(2) $ 30 dollars per barrel above budget benchmark of $ 79 dollars not accounted for meant for excess crude account = $27 billion dollars

(3)$5 billion dollars lost annually to oil thieves =$0.41 billion monthly x 60 months=$ 25 billion dollars

(4) $1.5 billion dollars (N263 billion naira) lost to suspicious waiver on petroleum products in 9 months=$0.16 billion monthly x 60 months= $ 9.6billion dollars

(5) Subsidy Scam of 2011=$ 6.8 billion dollars

(6) Swiss-NNPC Oil Scam of 2013=$ 6.8 billion dollars

(7) Malabu Oil Scam of 2011=$1 billion dollars

Total probable missing/ stolen or unremitted Oil funds in 60 months = 142.2 billion dollars.

I restated in another analysis that Diezani Madueke loot alone is over $6 billion dollars.

I do not want to go into the reasons why Magu failed, and though I commended President Buhari for the Magu probe, in the piece titled Magu Probe: Buhari and Unrecovered $142 billion dollars stolen Funds however, the President has provided a weak link in the supervision of persons under him.

If 1.6 % of stolen funds is recovered, using the Nigerian Factor, as the basis of the additional mathematics, it follows that about 8 % of the stolen funds are in the pockets of Buharis appointees.

This is the mathematics; a high profile political thief is caught through audit of embezzling N10 billion naira. The thief settles EFCC and high powered influencers with 10% of the stolen sum, the graft body recovers 2% of the stolen sum into the government coffers, the rest 88% is left for the thief to enjoy. If it is a low profile thief, the remittances to corrupt officials are upped to about 20%, 4% returned to the government and the looter has 76% to him.

Thus a thief caught with $10 billion naira, settles the graft bodies and influencers with N1 billion naira, returns N200million to the government accounts, and keeps N8.8 Billion naira to himself.

Therefore, using the estimate for the high profile thievery, for every billion recovered by the EFCC, the crook settled them with 5 times the amount, and went home with the rest for the future generations.

Therefore, if EFCC recovered only N980billion naira-following the mathematical trend of relooting in Nigeria-N980 billion x 5= N3.9 Trillion naira was used to settle high profile officials either in the office of the President, Vice-President, Attorney General or EFCC . Who collected all the trillions PDP looters gave as bribes to high profile government cronies.

Information at my disposal shows that at some points in time, some persons in the office of the Chief of Staff, Secretary to Government of the Federation, Vice President, Attorney General of the Federation, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and influential Emirs in the North collected various sums of bribes to ensure that the PDP looters go scot free, while remitting pittances, in the form of seized cash, properties, jewelries to the Federal Government.-all these without the knowledge of Buhari.

I want my international friends and partners who have expressed worries over the fate of the graft war in Nigeria to me in private, that my response to Buharis anti-graft war is as listed;

1. $142 billion dollars stolen under Jonathan, $2.5 billion recovered by Buhari = 1.6 percent

2. Relooted funds is five times of recovered funds-$2.5 billion x 5= $11.4 billion dollars or 8 percent

3. Unrecovered Funds is 90.4 % x $142 billion =$128 billion dollars

In conclusion, the anti-graft body recovered a paltry N980 billion naira, High profile government cronies and appointees, together with the anti-graft accomplices relooted N4.9 Trillion naira and left the thieves with N48 Trillion naira to themselves, families, concubines, and political malfeasance. These calculations are at the forex rate of N38 to a dollar.

Therefore, Buhari was either sick, sleeping or snoring while the relooting of recovered funds continued under his slumbering nose. Therefore, the fight against corruption is 1.6% successful.

President Buharis only achievement in the anti-corruption war was the Treasury Single Account TSA which mopped up to N1.3 trillion naira of annually stolen funds through various criminal accounts. I stated in the write-up titled Plot to Oust Buhari: Vultures are Gathering over Murder of CAN Chairman that

All these alliances against Jonathan ended the moment the Buhari presidency introduced the Treasury Single Account, TSA. TSA swallowed up over two thousand government accounts. NNPC alone reportedly had over 100 accounts, FIRS had over 50 accounts while Customs had over 70 through which the national treasury is piped to the private accounts of choice cabals including retired Presidents, retired military officers, traditional rulers, Emirs, top politicians and opinion leaders.

I want my international partners to know that I pretend not to know those who relooted over $11.4 billion dollars, and gave the government a paltry $2.5 billion dollars, and allowed the remaining thieves to keep the remaining loot of $128 billion dollars while borrowing $ 22 billion dollars to solve Nigerias problem.

There is no economic sense in allowing looters to possess $128 billion dollars while begging the world for $ 22 billion dollars loan. There is no sense in using high profile government cronies and traditional rulers to reloot $11.4 billion dollars while seeking for double of the relooted sums as foreign loans.

President Buhari should wake up and fight corruption. He has slept enough, he has snored enough. Failure to do so urgently, the Buhari legacy built upon anti-corruption from his military days will be thrown into shit hole by appointees, friends, cronies and associates. The recovery of $2.5 billion dollars out of $142 billion dollars is a failed war against corruption.

Obinna Akukwe , Columnist, Financial Expert via [email protected],@obinnaakukwe

cc: Secretary General, United Nations

Managing Director, International Monetary Fund

President, World Bank
P ictures of a shark's fin in the River Thames was a hoax by a group of friends who wanted to "trick the media", said London's Port Authority.

Social media users were baffled on Tuesday when pictures emerged online of what appeared to be a shark fin in the River Thames in front of the London Eye and Houses of Parliament.

One social media user who shared a picture said on Twitter: "Walked through central today and looked in the river.. is that a shark in the thames??!"

Another picture of a grey fin cutting through the Thames in Hammersmith caused further speculation on social media.

"Wow you can clearly see its fin #riverthamesshark," said one Twitter user in response to the pictures.

Others were quick to cotton on that there was something not quite right with the images.

"It's fake," said one Twitter user in response to the pictures.

However Martin Garside from Port London Authority told the Evening Standard a young man admitted the images were part of a hoax organised by him and his friends.

"He phoned us late last night to say it was photoshop," said Mr Garside.

"He said he was trying to hoax the media and called to apologise that it took up some of our time."

Mr Garside explained that the prank was "pointless" as sharks and harbour porpoises have been spotted in the River Thames before.

"It's a bit juvenile as we do get sharks in the River Thames, mainly in the Thames Estuary - though it is unusual," said Mr Garside.

"But if you see a fin like that, we get them all the time. If it's a dorsal fin it's most likely a harbour porpoise."

It comes after a humpback whale was spotted in the River Thames in October last year.

Multiple sightings of the 26ft mammal were initially reported between Rainham and Greenhithe in Kent and some enthusiasts even managed to capture the creature on camera.
VICTORIABritish Columbias minister of advanced education has announced new supports for post-secondary students, including expanded online resources and funding to help students with disabilities.

Melanie Mark says $1.5 million will be distributed equally between 20 public post-secondary schools to strengthen supports for students with cognitive, mental health or physical disabilities.

She says the province is investing $275,000 in the new BCcampus website to further develop online resources and tools focused on well-being for students, staff and faculty.

The resources include videos and webinars on topics such as adapting to online learning, stress management and navigating financial supports.

Mark says the province is also providing another $400,000 to support the development of more resources covering a wide range of courses and subjects in B.C.s growing open textbook collection.

The minister says students may also now apply to StudentAid BC to be automatically considered for a free access grant announced in this years provincial budget.

She says the grant means more than 40,000 eligible low- and middle-income students could receive up to $4,000 per year to help with costs associated with degree, diploma and certificate programs.

This is double the funding and the number of students who were supported through grants under the former government, Mark said at Camosun College on Wednesday.

The B.C. access grant is open to part-time students, she added.

The amount students receive would depend on their family income, the length of their program and whether its full or part time.

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Resident doctors working at the COVID-19 isolation centre at Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Ogun State, have embarked on an indefinite industrial action.

Members of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) in the hospital, comprising resident doctors, medical officers and house officers, had on July 1 begun the strike but doctors at the isolation centres were exempted.

The strike action followed letters issued to the state government and a series of protests over the refusal of their demands by the state government.

Some of the doctors' demands include non-implementation of the new minimum wage, hazard allowance, inappropriate remuneration, low entry-level and absence of a life insurance policy for its members.

According to the doctors, the alleged refusal of the state government to appropriately attend to previous warning letters had shown that the government was less concerned about their plight.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the doctors left the isolation centre following the directive by the Association of Resident Doctors, OOUTH, Sagamu.

They were instructed to leave their duty posts at the isolation centre and join the indefinite strike.

This was confirmed in a statement jointly signed by ARD's president, Popoola Mutiu, and the secretary, Osundara Tope.

The association in the statement said it has rescinded its decision to continue work and asked its members to leave the isolation centre in protest against the alleged maltreatment of its members by the state government.

"Since the government has chosen to simply rub the issues without any form of real commitment, our members working at the COVID - 19 Isolation Centre will henceforth join the Industrial action.

"We expect the government not to dethrone reasoning or shirk from responsibility expected of a considerate, sincere and truthful government. We call on the Ogun State government not to leave us up a creek without a paddle.

"Our service to the people should not be abridged by the ineptitude of the government. We work for the common good and sound health of the people of Ogun State," the statement reads.
Paducah, KY (42003)

Today

Morning light rain followed by a mix of rain and snow in the afternoon. Some sleet may mix in late. Morning high of 47F with temps falling to near freezing. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Snow accumulations less than one inch..

Tonight

Snow in the evening will give way to partly cloudy conditions overnight. Low 16F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 70%. Snow accumulations less than one inch.
16.07.2020 LISTEN

Depending on the scope, estimates of the size of the digital economy ranges from 4.5% to 15.5% of the global GDP with the United States and China accounting for close to 40% of the world total as revealed by the Digital Economy Report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in 2019. The report further indicates that the United States and China have contributed more to developing the information and communication (ICT) sector than any other country although many countries are benefiting from the sector  from 2010 to 2015, global employment in the ICT sector increased from 34 million to 39 million with digitally deliverable services exports amounting to $2.9 trillion in 2018, thus 50% of global services exports.

The United States and China, the two largest economies have contributed immensely in developing digital technology. Today digital platforms are considered to be an indispensable component of the world economy as the combined value of digital platform companies with a market capitalization of $100 million was estimated to be more than $7 trillion in 2017, a colossal increase of 67% over 2015  Facebook has evolved into a top social media platform in more than 90% of the worlds economies, accounting for two-thirds of the global social media market whiles Google also holds about 90% of the market for internet searches.

In the area of electronic commerce, Amazon accounts for almost 40% of the global online retail activity but in the Chinese market, WeChat, a multi-purpose social media and mobile payment platform that has more than 1 billion active users and Alipay have virtually captured the mobile money market with Alibaba estimated to have 60% of the Chinese e-commerce market. The advent of digital technology has radically transformed the world economy, giving developing countries the capacity to leapfrog decades of traditional industrial development. In the case of Sub-Saharan Africa, the region evinced the capacity to harness technology when mobile telecommunication revolution was embraced in the 2000s. Although smartphone ownership is increasing in Sub-Saharan Africa, the area has the lowest rate of smartphone ownership in the world. A study conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2017 shows that in Senegal, 34% of adults own a smartphone, representing 13% increase from 2013. Between the same duration, the ownership of smartphones has increased significantly in Nigeria and South Africa, the two largest economies on the African continent. Other countries such as Ghana and Kenya also recorded noteworthy increase in the ownership of smartphones but the ownership of smartphones in Tanzania has been relatively stable and low since 2014.

Source: Pew Research Center

A large percentage of the population in six countries in Sub-Saharan Africa own a mobile phone with basic phones being the most common type.

A study published in the volume 43, Issue 1 of the Telecommunications Policy (Elsevier) in 2019, investigated the impact of mobile phone penetration on per capita income, using a panel data of 40 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa  the results show that a 10% growth in mobile phone penetration increases per capita income by 1.2%, ceteris paribus. Clearly showing that improving access to mobile phones in Sub-Saharan Africa can play a critical role in reducing the level of poverty in the region.

In the report of the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), published in 2019, there were 456 million unique mobile subscribers in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2018, an increase of 20 million over the previous year  the subscriber base is projected to be more than 600 million by 2025, thus about half the population of the region. Concurrently, the number of smartphone connections was 302 million in 2018  Forecasts made by GSMA indicates that there will be close to 700 million smartphone connections by 2025 in Sub-Saharan Africa  Nigeria and Ethiopia will record the fastest growth rates between now and 2025, at 19% and 11% respectively. As highlighted by the GSMA, in 2018, mobile technologies and services generated 8.6% of GDP in Sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for over $114 billion of economic value added.

The mobile ecosystem supports almost 3.5 million jobs (directly and indirectly) with about $15.6 billion raised via taxation - the informal economy accounts for a large part of the mobile ecosystem in Sub-Saharan Africa as 1.2 million out of the 1.7 million, directly employed by the mobile ecosystem are informally employed in the distribution and retail of mobile services. By 2023, mobile technologies and services will contribute $185 billion thus 9.1% of GDP as countries in Sub-Saharan Africa continue to benefit from improvement in productivity that is brought about by mobile services. Digital technology is improving agricultural productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially for smallholder farmers who have access to less than two acres of land but produce more than 80% of food in the region.

Agriculture accounts for 23% of Sub-Saharan Africas GDP, with more than 60% of the population being smallholder farmers, as shown in Winning in Africas agricultural market a study published by McKinsey & Company in 2019.

In 2011, the World Bank estimated that Sub-Saharan Africa has 200 m hectares of arable land  this is more than the cultivated land area in the United States (U.S) yet the U.S is the largest exporter of food in the world. In 2016, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reported that there were 224 million undernourished people in Sub-Saharan Africa, an increase of 22.7% over 2015. The region hosts more than half of the worlds extremely poor population  living on less than $1.90 a day. Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa is plagued with several challenges but notable on the list is inadequate funding.

The report of the USAID and the Bureau for Food Security, shows that accessing credit for agricultural purposes is extremely difficult, especially for the youth who in most cases do not have the requirements or collateral for accessing credit from local banks but FarmDrive, a startup the uses data and machine learning to close the critical data gap that usually discourages financial institutions from lending to creditworthy smallholder farmers in Kenya has demonstrated that with the aid of digital technology the youth bulge in Sub-Saharan Africa, who are the youngest population in the world, according to the International Labour Organization, can now access credit from financial institutions which will enable them invest adequately in their agricultural activities  since 2014, the startup has made available more than $300,000 in loans to smallholder farmers with at least 37% of them being young farmers.

In Ghana, Esoko, a social enterprise that serves over 1 million farmers by relying on digital technology in providing essential services such as agronomic advice, weather forecast, market linkages and insurance coverage via SMS, voice SMS and a call centre to the rural community is aiding in increasing the income of smallholder farmers. In a research conducted by the World Bank, Natural Resources Institute and the Food and Agriculture Organization Missing Food: The case of post-harvest grain losses in Sub-Saharan Africa, postharvest losses in Sub-Saharan Africa for all grains is $4 billion per year. This exceeds the value of food aid the region has received in the last decade and further equates to the annual value of cereal imports to the region as indicated by the World Bank.

For many decades farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa have stored grains in traditional storage contraptions made of mud, grass and wood in their homes but this deplorable condition is set to improve as Solar Freeze, an agric-technology company in Kenya is providing solar-powered mobile cold storage units to smallholder farmers  the storage facilities have been of immense importance to 3000 female farmers in rural areas with no electricity, increasing agricultural yield by more than 150% since 2016 albeit an environmental friendly feature of the device.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the use of digital technology in banking has impacted economic growth via inclusive finance, enabling the unbanked to access retail electronic payment platforms and virtual savings and credit supply technological platforms. A recent Global Findex (World Bank) report shows that the size of adults with an account with a financial institution in Sub-Saharan Africa has increased by four percentage points between 2014 to 2017  within the same duration the share of mobile money accountholders had grown about twice as fast, increasing by nine percentage points with 21% of mobile money accountholders being adults, making Sub-Saharan Africa, the global leader in the use of mobile money. According to GSMA, the region was responsible for about 45.6% of mobile money activity in the World, representing an estimate of $26.8 billion in transaction value in 2018  this figure excludes bank operated solutions in the same year.

Source: Global Findex

Widespread use of mobile money has transformed the delivery of financial services in Sub-Saharan Africa  between 2011 and 2014; the region recorded an increase of almost 20% in mobile money penetration and accounted for close to 20% of GDP in transactions.

Source: IMF Access Survey

Note: LATAM=Latin America; MENA=Middle East and North Africa; SSA=Sub-Saharan Africa

The increase in mobile money account penetration is attributed to ongoing financial innovation but financial intermediation and financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa is comparatively lower than other developing regions of the world, despite the progress the region has made in recent years  according to the International Monetary Fund, underinvestment, poor infrastructure and low levels of financial literacy have contributed to the region being unbanked.

Key Financial and Development Indicators Sub-Saharan Africa Low & Middle Income High Income Bank or Mobile Money Account (% of Population ages 15+) 43 63 94 ATMs (per 100,000adults) 6 27 68 Commercial Bank Branches (per 100,000 adults) 5 9 20 Fixed Broadband Subscriptions (per 100 people) 1 9 31 GDP per capita, PPP (Current International $) Mobile Cellular Subscriptions (per 100 people) 3,730 73 10,345 96 45,789 126

Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators database

The region lags behind the rest of the world in technological readiness; the margin of improvement is large but addressing the infrastructure gap in Sub-Saharan Africa, can increase the use of digital technologies.

About the Authors

Alexander Ayertey Odonkor is a chartered financial analyst and a chartered economist with a stellar expertise in the financial services industry in developing economies. He has carried out the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) program on Financial Programming and Policies  with a masters degree in finance and a bachelors degree in economics and finance, Alexander also holds postgraduate certificates in entrepreneurship in emerging economies and electronic trading on financial markets from Harvard University and New York Institute of Finance, respectively.

Emmanuel Amoah-Darkwah is an economist with specialization in economic policy analysis and an ambassador for the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Emmanuels work has been covered by the BBC, Bloomberg, CGTN, CNBC Africa and other major domestic news outlays in Africa.
ST. LOUIS and NEW YORK, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Centene Corporation (NYSE: CNC) and Quartet Health today announced a nationwide expansion of their existing partnership to help members quickly and easily access the behavioral health care they need.

Centene and Quartet first began their partnership in June 2019, launching in Illinois and Louisiana. The nationwide expansion will enable members to seamlessly access quality behavioral health care from providers located in their areas who serve their unique clinical needs. To support members who want access to care from their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, all scheduled appointments will be with providers who support virtual care.

Across the United States, behavioral health care needs are on the rise. In March, more than two-thirds of Americans reported feeling anxious or depressed, according to a survey by McKinsey & Company. The following month, three times as many adults reported psychological distress as they did two years prior.

"During this difficult time of a worldwide pandemic, we are seeing a dramatic rise in behavioral health needs for our members," said Michael F. Neidorff, Chairman, President, and CEO of Centene. "Centene is pleased to partner with Quartet to leverage its national network of locally-based behavioral health providers, allowing our members to quickly be matched to the care they need in a setting that is comfortable for them."

Quartet's national network of care options includes virtual tele-psychiatry and tele-therapy, enabling members to access the care they need safely from their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Virtual care can also lower the stigma associated with accessing behavioral health care services in person. In May 2020, nearly 80% of the appointments that Quartet scheduled for patients were for virtual care.

"COVID-19 has highlighted and exacerbated our mental health care crisis. Quartet is excited to partner with Centene to meet their members where they are in these unprecedented times. We've been working tirelessly to help people with mental health conditions quickly and easily get access to the right high-quality mental health care," said David Wennberg, MD, MPH, CEO of Quartet. "Our partnership will help ensure that Centene's millions of members will get the behavioral health care they need through a network of mental health providers that have virtual care capabilities, and are local to their area."

Quartet's HIPAA-compliant technology platform will integrate with Centene's population health software, making it simple for Care Managers and Utilization Managers to refer members to Quartet for behavioral health care, track member progress, and collaborate with the referred behavioral health providers -- all within their existing workflows.

"We are pleased to expand our partnership with Quartet and further equip Centene's Care Managers with the resources they need to support our members' whole health," said Brett Hart, Chief Behavioral Health Officer of Centene Corporation. "In Illinois and Louisiana, we have seen success with Care Managers using the Quartet platform to help members get the behavioral health care they need, including cutting down the time it takes for members to attend a behavioral health appointment by 41%."

About Centene Corporation

Centene Corporation, a Fortune 50 company, is a leading multi-national healthcare enterprise that is committed to helping people live healthier lives. The Company takes a local approach  with local brands and local teams - to provide fully integrated, high-quality, and cost-effective services to government-sponsored and commercial healthcare programs, focusing on under-insured and uninsured individuals. Centene offers affordable and high-quality products to nearly 1 in 15 individuals across the nation, including Medicaid and Medicare members (including Medicare Prescription Drug Plans) as well as individuals and families served by the Health Insurance Marketplace, the TRICARE program, and individuals in correctional facilities. The Company also serves several international markets, and contracts with other healthcare and commercial organizations to provide a variety of specialty services focused on treating the whole person. Centene focuses on long-term growth and the development of its people, systems and capabilities so that it can better serve its members, providers, local communities, and government partners.

About Quartet Health

Quartet Health is a healthcare technology and services company on a mission to improve the lives of people with mental health conditions. We connect people to the right care at the right time. Our collaborative technology and range of services bring together physicians, mental health providers, and insurance companies to effectively improve patients' health and drive down healthcare costs. Backed by $160.5MM in venture funding from top investors like Oak HC/FT, GV (formerly Google Ventures), F-Prime Capital Partners, Polaris Partners, Deerfield Management, Centene Corporation, and Echo Health Ventures, Quartet is headquartered in NYC and is currently operating in several markets across the United States  Pennsylvania, Washington, Northern California, New Jersey, North Carolina, Louisiana, and Illinois.

Forward-Looking Statements

All statements, other than statements of current or historical fact, contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. Without limiting the foregoing, forward-looking statements often use words such as "believe," "anticipate," "plan," "expect," "estimate," "intend," "seek," "target," "goal," "may," "will," "would," "could," "should," "can," "continue" and other similar words or expressions (and the negative thereof). Centene (the Company, our, or we) intends such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe-harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and we are including this statement for purposes of complying with these safe-harbor provisions. In particular, these statements include, without limitation, statements about our future operating or financial performance, market opportunity, growth strategy, competition, expected activities in completed and future acquisitions, including statements about the impact of our recently completed acquisition (the WellCare Acquisition) of WellCare Health Plans, Inc. (WellCare), other recent and future acquisitions, investments and the adequacy of our available cash resources. These forward-looking statements reflect our current views with respect to future events and are based on numerous assumptions and assessments made by us in light of our experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions, business strategies, operating environments, future developments and other factors we believe appropriate. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are subject to change because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future, including economic, regulatory, competitive and other factors that may cause our or our industry's actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are based on information available to us on the date hereof. Except as may be otherwise required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date hereof. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, as actual results may differ materially from projections, estimates, or other forward-looking statements due to a variety of important factors, variables and events including but not limited to: the impact of COVID-19 on global markets, economic conditions and the healthcare industry and our results of operations, which is unknown; uncertainty as to our expected financial performance following completion and integration of the WellCare Acquisition; the possibility that the expected synergies and value creation from the WellCare Acquisition will not be realized, or will not be realized within the expected time period; the risk that unexpected costs will be incurred in connection with the integration of the WellCare Acquisition or that the integration of WellCare will be more difficult or time consuming than expected; unexpected costs, charges or expenses resulting from the WellCare Acquisition; the inability to retain key personnel; disruption from the completion of the WellCare Acquisition, including potential adverse reactions or changes to business relationships with customers, employees, suppliers or regulators, making it more difficult to maintain business and operational relationships; the risk that we may not be able to effectively manage our expanded operations; our ability to accurately predict and effectively manage health benefits and other operating expenses and reserves; competition; membership and revenue declines or unexpected trends; changes in healthcare practices, new technologies, and advances in medicine; increased healthcare costs; changes in economic, political or market conditions; changes in federal or state laws or regulations, including changes with respect to income tax reform or government healthcare programs as well as changes with respect to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act, collectively referred to as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and any regulations enacted thereunder that may result from changing political conditions or judicial actions, including the ultimate outcome in "Texas v. United States of America" regarding the constitutionality of the ACA; rate cuts or other payment reductions or delays by governmental payors and other risks and uncertainties affecting our government businesses; our ability to adequately price products on the Health Insurance Marketplaces and other commercial and Medicare products; tax matters; disasters or major epidemics; the outcome of legal and regulatory proceedings; changes in expected contract start dates; provider, state, federal and other contract changes and timing of regulatory approval of contracts; the expiration, suspension, or termination of our contracts with federal or state governments (including but not limited to Medicaid, Medicare, TRICARE or other customers); the difficulty of predicting the timing or outcome of pending or future litigation or government investigations; challenges to our contract awards; cyber-attacks or other privacy or data security incidents; the possibility that the expected synergies and value creation from acquired businesses, including businesses we may acquire in the future, will not be realized, or will not be realized within the expected time period; the exertion of management's time and our resources, and other expenses incurred and business changes required in connection with complying with the undertakings in connection with any regulatory, governmental or third party consents or approvals for acquisitions; disruption caused by significant completed and pending acquisitions, including, among others, the WellCare Acquisition, making it more difficult to maintain business and operational relationships; the risk that unexpected costs will be incurred in connection with the completion and/or integration of acquisition transactions; changes in expected closing dates, estimated purchase price and accretion for acquisitions; the risk that acquired businesses will not be integrated successfully; the risk that we may not be able to effectively manage our operations as they have expanded as a result of the WellCare Acquisition; restrictions and limitations in connection with our indebtedness; our ability to maintain or achieve improvement in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Star ratings and maintain or achieve improvement in other quality scores in each case that can impact revenue and future growth; availability of debt and equity financing, on terms that are favorable to us; inflation; foreign currency fluctuations; delays in costs associated with development and occupancy of our new East Coast headquarters in Charlotte; economic conditions in the Charlotte metropolitan area and risks and uncertainties discussed in the reports that Centene has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This list of important factors is not intended to be exhaustive. We discuss certain of these matters more fully, as well as certain other factors that may affect our business operations, financial condition and results of operations, in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K. Due to these important factors and risks, we cannot give assurances with respect to our future performance, including without limitation our ability to maintain adequate premium levels or our ability to control our future medical and selling, general and administrative costs.

SOURCE Centene Corporation

Related Links

http://www.centene.com


West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has launched a frontal attack on governor Jagdeep Dhankar following his assertion that the education system in the state was in a political cage and accused him of talking like a political party and not following his constitutional role.

The latest face off between Banerjee and Dhankar relates to a tussle over state universities. The trigger was provided by the absence of most state university Vice Chancellors from a meeting called by Dhankar on Wednesday to assess the academic situation in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic.

I find there is tightening of this political cage in the education scenario in West Bengal, Dhankar was quoted as saying by PTI following the absence of VCs from the virtual meet.

Also Read:One held for murder of BJP MLA, Mamata Banerjee writes to President Kovind

He added that the VCs opposed the meeting tooth and nail for the reasons known to all.

The chief minister soon launched a counter-attack accusing him of acting like a political party representative.

A governor cant talk like a political party, she said, while accusing him of not abiding by the constitution.

He is not abiding by the Constitution, not following the PM and home ministry, the agency quoted Banerjee as saying.

She also extended support to the VCs over the issue when asked about Dhankars stated intention to seek explanation for their absence.

We respect VCs, they have our 100 per cent support, Banerjee said.

Also Read: Admission to colleges for under-graduate courses via online mode this year: West Bengal education minister

The West Bengal government had recently amended the rules relating to the governors power as the chancellor of universities, significantly reducing Raj Bhawans role in their functioning.

All communications between the governor and the universities, now, have to be routed through the higher education department of the state as per the revised rules.

Another such meeting called by Dhankar had failed to take off in January this year following the state governments reported objection to its convening without keeping the government in the loop.

Dhankhar claimed the unwholesome situation was the creation of the state government.

Dhankhar accused the government of apathy towards students whose futures were in jeopardy due to the unprecedented crisis. He added that the students were getting increasingly restive with each passing day and that the graduate and postgraduate students needed degrees to pursue further studies and secure suitable jobs through competitions.

The saddest element in the entire gamut is that they completely forgot the students crisis amidst the pandemic, he was quoted as saying by PTI.

The tussle also assumes significance in the backdrop of chief minister Mamata Banerjees recent letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, opposing HRD ministry and UGC guidelines for holding college and university exams by September 2020. She had cited risks to the students from the coronavirus disease and universities decision to evaluate students on the basis of previous semesters and internal assessments.

Denying degrees means denying academic progression and jobs. Degrees cannot be given without evaluation which happens to be in the form of examinations. Exams can be held only when the courses have been completed, Dhankhar said in an apparent reference to the issue.

Dhankhar said he wanted to know during the meeting what steps the universities intended to take in that direction.

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GIS  16 July 2020: A total of 133 families received their cheques amounting to a total of Rs 9,972,650 which represent funds disbursed by the Government under the Roof Slab Grant Scheme for the casting of roof slabs to help vulnerable families complete their housing construction.

A cheque presentation ceremony was thus held, yesterday, at the Plaza Hall, in Rose Hill, in the presence of the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Housing and Land Use Planning, Minister of Tourism, Mr Louis Steven Obeegadoo.

In his address, DPM Obeegadoo underlined that this financial assistance is a concrete show of Governments support and expression of solidarity towards the most vulnerable members of the population.

He observed that everyone dreams to have his own residential property and that home ownership is an aspiration which is entrenched in the Mauritian culture. The construction of a house, however, demands huge investments, sacrifices and efforts, he indicated. The DPM also deplored that, nevertheless, the most vulnerable ones face even more constraints in this endeavour.

Hence, he said, through this financial assistance, Government seeks to support low-income families to undertake the construction of their house, while emphasising that its priority remains helping the most vulnerable.

Among the beneficiaries, Mr Obeegadoo indicated, there are 73 families earning a monthly salary of less than Rs 10,000, 41 with earnings in a range of Rs 10,000 to

Rs 15, 000, and the remaining earning between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000.

DPM Obeegadoo further stated that the support scheme has been subject to changes over the years, since its introduction in 1997, to extend assistance to more families by widening the salary scale. He indicated that since 2015 up to now, some 7477 families have benefited from the scheme, for which a sum of Rs 496.7 million has been disbursed, and a total of 60,000 beneficiaries over the last 23 years necessitating a Governmental support of three billion rupees.

He also spoke about the current dysfunctional housing market situation whereby many are faced with difficulties to find affordable housing units to buy or rent. The DPM recalled that 2020-2021 budgetary measures seek to boost the construction sector to remedy to that.

According to Mr Obeegadoo, now is the time for urgent action to tackle social housing issues, for which Government is taking a series of initiative and offering an array of facilities to help those in financial difficulties to secure decent housing.

Furthermore, he highlighted Governments decision to leverage the construction industry as the engine of the countrys recovery from the post Covid-19 economic crisis, while recalling its unprecedented financial commitment to provide for the construction of 12,000 houses over a period of three years.

In addition, he pointed out that 850 housing units will be handed over to eligible beneficiaries this year, some other 1700 in 2021 and an additional 1400 in 2022.
Captain America gave his support this week to another hero, a young boy in Wyoming who rescued his little sister from a vicious dog attack.

Massachusetts native and blockbuster actor Chris Evans, well known for his role as the patriotic Marvel hero, told 6-year-old Bridger Walker in a video uploaded to Instagram on Wednesday that he would be tracking down the boys address and sending him an authentic Captain America shield.

The boy reportedly saved his 4-year-old sisters life on July 9 when he stood between her and a charging dog, according to social media posts from his aunt, Nicole Walker.

In the process of rescuing his sibling, Bridger was bitten several times on the face and head, suffering wounds that required 90 stitches and a skilled plastic surgeon, the young boys aunt noted.

Still, the 6-year-old child apparently said later on, If someone had to die, I thought it should be me.

Evans, who is from Sudbury, commended the boy for his courageous actions.

I read your story. I saw what you did, and Im sure youve heard a lot of this over the last couple days, but let me be the next one to tell you, pal, youre a hero, Evans told Bridger. What you did is so brave, so selfless. Your sister is so lucky to have you as a big brother.

Clad in a Captain America costume, Bridger can be seen in the video watching Evans message as he sat in a hammock with his sister.

Keep being the man you are. We need people like you, the actor said. Hang in there. I know recovery might be tough, but based on what Ive seen, I dont think theres much that can slow you down.

After watching the video and being asked what he thought about being given Captain Americas shield, Bridger appeared too stunned to speak, but his little sister can be heard saying, You can take it wherever you go!

I dont think thats a good idea, the 6-year-old boy replied.

In another Instagram post from July 12, Nicole Walker wrote that her nephew was recovering at home and was in great spirits, with his awesome personality intact.

The Walker family has no resentment toward the owners of the dog that attacked the young boy, her post read.

If anything, theres only been an increase of love between our families as a result of this incident, she said.

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Materna IPS has implemented the installation together with Toyo Kanetsu K.K.

DORTMUND, Germany, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Tokyo International Airport (HANEDA), Japan's fastest growing airport by passenger numbers, has increased its capacities through new terminal extensions. The 4th biggest airport in the world commissioned the Japanese provider Toyo Kanetsu K.K. (TKK) and the German provider Materna IPS (Intelligent Passenger Solutions) with the provision of a unique self bag drop solution at the Terminal 2 international facilities and in Terminal 3. It was planned to start up the fully automated bag drops just in time for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in summer 2020. The new facility at Tokyo International Airport (HANEDA) was successfully opened in April 2020 with 68 self bag drop units. A total of 104 units will be installed this year. Japan Airlines (JAL) is already using the solution for their passengers while All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Delta Airlines (DAL) as well as many other airlines will follow shortly.

Flex.Go solution by Materna IPS enables a unique passenger journey

With the revolutionary Materna IPS system Flex.Go, TKK has installed an innovative baggage conveyor system in the futuristic departure hall of the new terminal building. The self-service solution reflects the design language and specific requirements of the airport and offers passengers a pleasant and efficient travel experience. Materna IPS self bag drop units provide a simple and quick way for passengers to drop off and insert luggage into the baggage handling system. Functions such as fully automated baggage classification, weighing and scanning will help to ensure that luggage can be dropped off within seconds. In addition, Materna IPS and TKK will be integrating the solution into the planned One ID biometric journey at Tokyo International Airport (HANEDA) to create a truly seamless travel experience.

Dr. Georg Oschmann, Managing Director Materna IPS, emphasizes that Materna IPS are honored to bring the latest technology in passenger processing to Tokyo International Airport (HANEDA), which is the main gateway to and from Japan and one of the most modern airports in the world. He confirms that everybody involved is excited about this project that has created a unique experience and a new state of the art.

With implementing the major project at Tokyo International Airport (HANEDA), Materna IPS continues its market entry in Japan and is expanding its international growth.

Materna IPS

Materna IPS (Intelligent Passenger Solutions) as one of the most renowned suppliers for airports and airlines around the world, delivers solutions for automated passenger handling at airports. In addition to the European market, Materna's Intelligent Passenger Solutions portfolio also has a focus on the North-American market with its own subsidiary in Orlando (Florida) as well as the Indian and Japanese market.

Materna IPS is part of the Materna group, that currently employs more than 2,300 people around the world and generated sales of 323,8 million euros in 2019. Materna covers the entire service spectrum of a full-service provider in the premium segment: from consultation and implementation through to operations. Materna advises and assists companies and the public sector in all aspects of digitization and provides tailor-made technologies for agile, flexible and secure IT. Its customers include IT organizations and user departments in companies and the public sector.

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The partner of a Belfast cancer patient has called on the Health Minister to change "heartbreaking" rules preventing her from accompanying her to appointments.

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, she questioned why the infection control rule was still necessary when many other lockdown measures have been relaxed.

Her partner, who wishes to remain anonymous, works as a nurse and was diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer in April.

Despite living together, the cancer patient attended a CT scan alone at the Ulster Independent Clinic in Belfast on Monday, which will determine if her condition is terminal.

Her partner commented: "She's a much stronger person than me and I know I couldn't do it by myself.

"I would be apoplectic sitting there on my own so I just think it's very cruel when you consider these people are undergoing chemotherapy and are left on their own for hours.

"Expectant parents are now allowed to attend scans with their partners - there's no parity there.

"I appreciate that pregnancy and childbirth are important times in your life, but this is equally important.

"I know there are infection control measures, but in reality the people that would be with them already live with them."

She said the effects of chemotherapy also made it harder for her partner to retain information.

"Often she'll forget details from appointments, so how can she be expected to retain reliable information about her prognosis or what medication to take?" she asked.

"It's impossible without someone there who isn't going through chemotherapy.

"She's quite traumatised by any sort of hospital visit at the moment, which makes my being there even more essential."

The couple will find out the results of a scan next week, but do not expect good news.

"We will be told if surgery is an option, which seems unlikely, and just a further prognosis, but it's not looking very positive at the minute."

Addressing Health Minister Robin Swann, she said: "I would ask him to review the system. It's not working for cancer patients.

"We have seen very elderly patients with nobody with them all the time and it is heartbreaking.

"As a nurse, my partner knows what's going on, but it's just so ironic that the system can't look after the people like her who have devoted 25-30 years of their life to the NHS."

The Department of Health said it recognised the impact the guidance had on loved ones, but that it remained a key measure against the pandemic.

Updated guidance for visitors was also made available online on July 6, it added.

"The overriding principle underpinning the current guidance is for the protection of all patients, families and health care workers by reducing the transmission of Covid-19," it said.

"These restrictions will not stay in place longer than is absolutely necessary."

Last week Mr Swann urged the public to show patience as the health service in Northern Ireland recovers from Covid-19.

He unveiled a three-month plan to restart vital treatment for cancer patients and other services.

Meanwhile, DUP MLA Pam Cameron also called for clarity for partners attending pregnancy scans in different health trusts.

He said she was increasingly concerned about reports it had not been restored in "a consistent or fair fashion".
During a press conference in Brussels, a representative of the European Commission refused to comment on the threat of possible US sanctions with regard to Nord Stream 2 and said the European Union has always supported and stays true to transparency and strict observance of the European and international energy legislation.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday reported that the Department of State has made recommendations within the scope of the law on countering Russia through sanctions, including in the document Nord Stream 2 and the second thread of Turkish Stream.

First, we dont interpret comments or threats. The EU imposes sanctions on almost all companies that are involved in unlawful activities. The EU has always supported transparency and observance of European and international energy laws, the European Commission representative said.
The European Union extended its travel ban on Americans on Thursday, as coronavirus infections continued to rise across the United States.

The EU first started lifting international travel restrictions on July 1, welcoming visitors from 14 countries, including Canada, South Korea and Australia. The U.S. was left off that initial list and Americans remain barred from visiting the bloc for at least another two weeks under Thursday's decision, announced by the European Council.

The announcement came after EU officials conducted their first biweekly review of travel restrictions, examining coronavirus trends and containment measures in each country to determine whether to add or narrow the list of permitted travelers.

The key measurement: The pandemic outbreak in a given country needs to be equally contained  or better  than in the EU.

Reopening borders: Tourists in Europe, US face restrictions amid fears of new virus spikes

The U.S. has surpassed 3.4 million cases with over 137,400 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. Globally, there have been 13.5 million cases and more than 584,300 deaths as of Thursday. Per USA TODAY data, there have been more than 692,000 new cases cases reported nationwide in the past 14 days.

According to EU data, the bloc  which includes the European Economic Area (EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) and the United Kingdom  had 1.6 million total cases. Over the same 14-day period, those 33 countries combined recorded just over 57,100 cases. The U.S. only had five days below that number.

European Union member countries reopened to international travelers from 14 countries on July 1 but Americans weren't among them. U.S. citizens are banned for the time being due to this country's high COVID-19 infection rate. If the EU's decision scuttled your European vacation plans, scroll ahead for American substitutes that still offer a continental vibe.

In Thursday's decision, the EU said residents of 12 countries could visit the bloc, which includes France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Austria.

Canada, South Korea, and Australia remain on the list of approved nations while Montenegro and Serbia were removed. No new countries were added.

Thursday's decree does not apply to travel to Britain, which left the EU in January.

But those from the U.S. and many other nations will be barred from the EU as too risky because of spiking coronavirus cases in their home countries. Chinese travelers will be allowed to visit if that country's government confirms a policy of reciprocity, the council's announcement said.

Story continues

The United States still has its own travel restrictions in place, even though the EU and other countries have made significantly more progress in containing the virus. The State Department has maintained its Level 4 travel advisory from March urging Americans to avoid all international travel because of COVID-19.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was recently asked if the Trump administration was seeking reciprocity from the EU in deciding when or whether to lift U.S. travel ban on the EU.

He said the discussions about how to lift travel restrictions were not political.

"We are in complex conversations around how to get the science and the epidemiology of this right and how to make sure that we reduce risk," Pompeo said during a July 9 news conference. "We know there is a deep need and desire to get the global economy back going, and that involves people hopping on airplanes, traveling all across Europe and across the Atlantic, and indeed all around the world."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: EU extends travel ban on Americans amid spike in US coronavirus cases
Solving Madisons alarming rash of gun violence wont be easy. But this much is clear:

Madison definitely needs to maintain its professional police department for quick responses and investigations into reckless gun play. At the same time, promising efforts to deescalate tension  including the Focused Interruption Coalition, which counsels victims at hospitals and promotes peace between rivals in the streets  deserve renewed support and not further cuts from the mayor or City Council.

Gunfire has killed two people, injured others and pelted at least nine homes and nine cars with bullets over the last two weeks, according to police. Most of the homes hit by bullets were occupied, and some had children inside. In one incident, an empty crib was struck. Its amazing more innocent bystanders werent hurt.
In a photo provided by The Autry Museum of the American, a journal submitted to the Autry Museum by Tanya Gibb, who came down with COVID-19 symptoms on March 5, 2020 (The Autry Museum of the American West via The New York Times)

Lesley MM Blume

A few weeks ago, a nerdy joke went viral on Twitter: Future historians will be asked which quarter of 2020 they specialize in.

As museum curators and archivists stare down one of the most daunting challenges of their careers  telling the story of the pandemic, followed by severe economic collapse and a nationwide social justice movement  they are imploring individuals across the country to preserve personal materials for posterity and for possible inclusion in museum archives. Its an all-hands-on-deck effort, they say.

Our cultural seismology is being revealed, said Anthea M. Hartig, director of the Smithsonians National Museum of American History of the events. Of these three earthshaking events, she said, The confluence is unlike most anything weve seen.

Museums, she said, are grappling with the need to comprehend multiple pandemics at once.

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

Follow our LIVE Updates on the coronavirus pandemic here

We Are All Field Collectors

In August, Dr. Erik Blutinger joined the staff of Mount Sinai Queens as an emergency medicine physician. He knew that his first year after residency would be intense, but nothing could have prepared him for the trial by fire that was COVID-19.

Aware that he was at the epicenter not only of a global pandemic, but of history, Blutinger, 34, began to take iPhone videos of the scenes in his hospital, which was one of New York Citys hardest hit during the early days of the crisis.

Everyone is COVID positive in these hallways, he told the camera in one April 9 recording that has since been posted on the Mount Sinai YouTube channel, showing the emergency room hallways filled with hissing oxygen tanks and the surge tents set up outside the building. All you hear is oxygen. Im seeing young patients, old patients, people of all age ranges, who are just incredibly sick.

He estimated that he has recorded over 50 video diaries in total.

In Louisville, Kentucky, during the protests and unrest that followed the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, a Louisville resident, filmmaker Milas Norris, rushed to the streets to shoot footage using a Sony camera and a drone.

It was pretty chaotic, said Norris, 24, describing police in riot gear, explosions, and gas and pepper bullets. He said that at first he didnt know what he would do with the footage; he has since edited and posted some of it on his Instagram and Facebook accounts. I just knew that I had to document and see what exactly was happening on the front lines.

About 2,000 miles west, in Los Angeles, Nina Gregory, 45, an NPR producer, had set up recording equipment on the front patio of her Hollywood home. In March and April, she recorded the absence of city noise. The sound of birds was so loud it was pinging red on my levels, she said.

Soon the sounds of nature were replaced by the sounds of helicopters from the Los Angeles Police Department hovering overhead, and the sounds of protesters and police convoys moving through her neighborhood. She recorded all this for her personal records.

Its another form of diary, she said.

Museums have indicated that these kinds of private recordings have critical value as public historical materials. All of us, curators say, are field collectors now.

A National Reckoning

In the spirit of preservation, Hartig from the National Museum of American History  along with museum collectors across the country  have begun avid campaigns to collect the moment.

I do think its a national reckoning project, she said. There are a multitude of ways in which we need to document and understand  and make history a service. This is one of our highest callings.

Some museums have assembled rapid response field collecting teams to identify and secure storytelling objects and materials. Perhaps the most widely publicized task force, assembled by three Smithsonian museums working in a coalition, dispatched curators to Lafayette Square in Washington to identify protest signs for eventual possible collection.

The collecting task force went into action after June 1, when President Donald Trump ordered Lafayette Square cleared of protesters so he could pose for photos in front of St. Johns Episcopal Church, clutching a Bible. Shield-bearing officers and mounted police assailed peaceful protesters there with smoke canisters, pepper bullets, flash grenades and chemical spray. The White House subsequently ordered the construction of an 8-foot-high chain link fence around the perimeter, which protesters covered in art and artifacts.

Taking immediate moves to preserve these materials  much of which was made of paper and was vulnerable to the elements  amounted to a curatorial emergency for the Smithsonians archivists.

Yet with many museums still closed or in the earliest stages of reopening, curatorial teams largely cannot yet bring most objects into their facilities. It is falling to individuals to become their own interim museums and archives.

The Ordinary is Extraordinary (Even Your Shopping Lists)

While some curators are loath to suggest a laundry list of items that we should be saving  they say that they dont want to manipulate the documentation of history but take their cues from the communities they document  many are imploring us to see historical value in the everyday objects of right now.

Whatever were taking to be ordinary within this abnormal moment can, in fact, serve as an extraordinary artifact to our childrens children, said Tyree Boyd-Pates, an associate curator at the Autry Museum of the American West, which is asking the public to consider submitting materials such as journal entries, selfies and even sign-of-the times social media posts (say, a tweet about someones quest for toilet paper  screengrab those, he said.)

To this end, curators said, dont be so quick to edit and delete your cellphone photos right now. Snapshots are valuable, said Kevin Young, director of New York Citys Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. We might look back at one and say, This picture tells more than we thought at the time.

At the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, the curatorial team will be evaluating and collecting protest materials such as placards, photos, videos and personalized masks  and the personal stories behind them.

One activist found a tear-gas canister, and he gave it to us, said Noelle Trent, a director at the museum. Were going to have to figure out how to collect items from the opposing side: We have to have the racist posters, the Make America Great stuff. Were going to need that at some point. The danger is that if we dont have somebody preserving it, they will say this situation was not as bad.

And there is perhaps no article more representative of this year than the mask, which has become a really powerful visual symbol, said Margaret K. Hofer, vice president and museum director of the New-York Historical Society, which has identified around 25 masks that the museum will collect, including an N95 mask worn by a nurse in the Samaritans Purse emergency field hospital set up in New Yorks Central Park in the spring. (The museum also collected a set of field hospital scrubs, and a cowbell that the medical team rang whenever they discharged a patient.)

The meaning of masks has shifted over the course of these past several months, Hofer said. Early on, the ones we were collecting were being sewn by people who were trying to aid medical workers, when there were all those fears about shortage of PPE  last resort masks. And theyve more recently become a political statement.

Document the Backstories, Too

Curators say that recording the personal stories behind photos, videos and objects are just as crucial as the objects themselves  and the more personal, the better. Museums rely on objects to elicit an emotional reaction from visitors, and that sort of personal connection requires knowing the objects backstory.

For us, really the artifact is just a metaphor, and behind that artifact are these voices, and this humanity, said Aaron Bryant, who curates photography and visual culture at the Smithsonians National Museum of African American History and Culture, and who is leading the Smithsonians ongoing collection response in Lafayette Square.

Curatorial teams from many museums are offering to interview donors about their materials and experiences, and encourage donors to include detailed descriptions and backstories when submitting objects and records for consideration. Many are also collecting oral histories of the moment.

How to Donate to a Museum

Many museums have put out calls for submissions on social media and are directing would-be donors to submission forms to their websites. The National Museum of African American History and Culture site has a thorough form that covers items significance, dimensions, condition and materials. The Civil Rights Museum is looking for archival materials, books, photographs, clothing/textiles, audio visual materials, fine art and historic objects that share civil rights history. The New-York Historical Society is seeking Black Lives Matter protest materials.

We review material, we talk about it, and we respond to everyone, said William S. Pretzer, a senior curator of history at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. We cant collect everything, but were not limiting ourselves to anything.

Gathering materials from some communities is proving challenging, and curators are strategizing collection from individuals who may be unlikely to offer materials to historical institutions.

A lot of our critical collecting and gathering of diverse stories weve been able to do because of directed outreach, said Hofer of the New-York Historical Society. Were trying to capture the experience of all aspects of all populations in the city, including people experiencing homelessness and the incarcerated.

We want to make the barrier to entry on this very low, said Nancy Yao Maasbach, president of New Yorks Museum of Chinese in America, which began collecting materials relating to pandemic-related racist attacks on Asians and Asian Americans in late winter, and personal testimonies about experiences during the pandemic and protests. Because museums may not necessarily be obvious repositories for many immigrant communities, Maasbach said, the museum is making translators available to those who want to tell their stories.

Were trying to make sure were being accessible in creating this record, Maasbach said.

Keep Documenting

Curators recognize that their story-of-2020 collecting will continue for years; we are in the midst of ongoing events. They are asking us to continue to document the subsequent chapters  and to be as posterity-minded as one can be when it comes to ephemera.

We dont know what the puzzle looks like yet, said Hartig of the National Museum of American History. Yet we know that each of these pieces might be an important one.

Some museums are exhibiting submitted and accepted items right away on websites or on social media; others are planning virtual and physical exhibits for as early as this autumn. The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, for example, is collecting masks and oral history testimonies from Native American communities and is considering the creation of a rapid response gallery, said the museums vice president and chief curator, Elisa G. Phelps.

If art is being sparked by something very timely, we want to have a place where we can showcase works and photos, she said, adding that this process differed from the elaborate, formal exhibit development process.

Some donors, however, may not be among those to view their materials once they become part of institutionalized history  at least not right away. Even though Blutinger said that he sees the historical value of his emergency room video diaries, he has yet to revisit the peak-crisis videos himself.

Im almost scared to look back at them, he said. Im worried that theyll reignite a set of emotions that Ive managed to tuck away. Im sure one day Ill look back and perhaps open up one or two clips, but I have never watched any of them all the way through.

c.2020 The New York Times Company
T he Russian Embassy in London warned that any unfriendly actions will not be left without a proper and adequate response.

In two bombshell accusations today, the UK Government said a cyber group linked to Russian intelligence is targeting Covid-19 vaccine research in the West and other Russian actors sought to interfere in last years General Election in Britain.

UK security officials slammed despicable attacks by Russian hackers against organisations helping to develop a coronavirus vaccine. They are suspected of seeking to steal vaccine secrets.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also hit out at Russian actors for pushing on the internet leaked reports on UK-US trade talks ahead of the election last December.

Ministers and intelligence chiefs published details of both incidents to show Moscow that the UK is aware of the source of cyber attacks and to make people aware of the threats from abroad. But the Russian embassy said Moscow has not and will never interfere in the internal affairs of the UK.

Vladimir Putin / Getty Images

It also denied targeting efforts to develop a coronavirus vaccine.

We have also taken note of the Foreign Secretarys suggestion that the UK Government reserves the right to respond with appropriate measures in the future, a statement said.

In this regard, we would like to state once again that any unfriendly actions against Russia will not be left without a proper and adequate response.

Britain, the USA and Canada jointly accused Russian cyber actors APT29 of targeting government, diplomatic and healthcare organisations to steal valuable intellectual property.

The British cyber experts warned that the APT29 group almost certainly operates as part of Russian Intelligence Services / AFP via Getty Images

The UKs National Cyber Security Centre has published details of the cyber espionage group, also known as The Dukes and Cozy Bear, which they claim have exploited organisations globally.

The British cyber experts warned that the APT29 group almost certainly operates as part of Russian Intelligence Services.

NCSC director of operations Paul Chichester said: We condemn these despicable attacks against those doing vital work to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

A person being injected as part of human trials in the UK for a coronavirus vaccine at the start of Oxford University vaccine trials / PA

Working with our allies, the NCSC is committed to protecting our most critical assets and our top priority at this time is to protect the health sector.

We would urge organisations to familiarise themselves with the advice we have published to help defend their networks.

Known targets of the group include UK, US and Canadian vaccine research and development organisations.

The group uses a techniques including spear-phishing and custom malware known as WellMess and WellMail.

Hopes for coronavirus vaccine raised amid reports from Oxford of double protection

A report by the NCSC said: Throughout 2020, APT29 has targeted various organisations involved in COVID-19 vaccine development in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, highly likely with the intention of stealing information and intellectual property relating to the development and testing of COVID-19 vaccines.

In its conclusion it warns: APT29 is likely to continue to target organisations involved in COVID-19 vaccine research and development, as they seek to answer additional intelligence questions relating to the pandemic.

Reacting to the announcement, Mr Raab, said: It is completely unacceptable that the Russian Intelligence Services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

Russians almost certainly tried to interfere in general election, says Raab

While others pursue their selfish interests with reckless behaviour, the UK and its allies are getting on with the hard work of finding a vaccine and protecting global health.

The UK will continue to counter those conducting such cyber attacks, and work with our allies to hold perpetrators to account.

The NCSCs announcement comes just after Mr Raab made a separate bombshell accusation that Russian actors sought to interfere in last years General Election by amplifying leaked documents on trans-Atlantic trade talks.

A criminal investigation has been launched into the acquisition of the documents. They are said to have been obtained illicitly.

Mr Raab told the Commons in a written statement: On the basis of extensive analysis, the Government has concluded that it is almost certain that Russian actors sought to interfere in the 2019 General Election through the online amplification of illicitly acquired and leaked Government documents.

Sensitive Government documents relating to the UK-US Free Trade Agreement were illicitly acquired before the 2019 General Election and disseminated online via the social media platform Reddit.

When these gained no traction, further attempts were made to promote the illicitly acquired material online in the run up to the General Election.
analysis

Lagos lagoon is the largest of four lagoon systems off the Gulf of Guinea. Several rivers and waterways empty into it, and it plays an important role in the West African coastal ecosystem as well as the Nigerian economy.

Several aquatic organisms in the lagoon are commercially important species, providing food and income for surrounding communities and beyond. The fish caught here represent more than half of Nigeria's fisheries production of nearly 800,000 metric tonnes. This unique brackish water environment also plays significant roles in ecosystem stability and as a breeding ground for aquatic species.

Unfortunately, the lagoon receives enormous amounts of largely untreated industrial and other wastes. Lagos State accounts for most of the country's industries and is home to an estimated 20 million people.

The Ogun, Osun, Ona and Yewa rivers empty large volumes of water from inland and coastal cities. This water is generally polluted by industrial, domestic and agricultural activities. The lagoon also receives a large quantity of pollutants from manufacturing and municipal activities in the greater Lagos metropolis. They include organic and inorganic pollutants which produce potential health risks for fish, shrimps and crabs - and people who eat them.

We conducted a study to evaluate the effects of these pollutants on fish food and the environmental health of the Lagos lagoon. We aimed to provide environmental health management authorities with scientific data for effective protection of marine ecosystems and human health. We used a novel method for analysing sediment samples, to understand how the different pollutants distribute within the lagoon ecosystem and affect the organisms that live there.

We found that the complex combination of pollutants in Lagos lagoon interferes with fish and mammal biology - especially their endocrine systems - and is potentially harmful to humans.

How we tested the effect of pollutants

The growth and industrialisation of big cities such as Lagos contribute many pollutants to water and land ecosystems. A number of pollution hotspots have also been identified in the area, including the city of Ikorodu, the slum area of Makoko and Idumota market. Plastic products, used tyres and car parts are some of the waste items that end up in the Lagos lagoon, through inappropriate waste disposal methods, dumping, and industrial and agricultural activities.

The end-station for these pollutants is the bottom of the lagoon. The sediments store pollutants and release them during heavy rainfall, winds and underwater turbulence. Bottom-dwelling organisms, particularly invertebrates, also stir up sediments during feeding and interactions between predators and prey, returning contaminants to the water.

In our study we tested three of the ways in which contaminants are released into the water in nature. This gave us a better understanding of how contaminants affect organisms in water.

The first method was elutriation, a process which simulates the natural process of mixing bottom soil and water, for example when boats disturb the water. In this process, pollutants are re-suspended in the water.

The second was polar extraction, which isolates pollutants that can dissolve in water and remain there in high concentrations.

The third was non-polar extraction. This method was used to evaluate the effects of pollutants that are transferred from sediment to organisms when they feed on particles of the bottom soil. Snails, earthworms, crabs and some fish can take in pollutants this way.

The different extraction methods produce results that are comparable to what happens in the natural environment. They allowed us to learn more about the complex interactions between water and bottom soil pollutants. We could also learn about the effects of pollutants on aquatic organisms, including the threat to their growth and reproduction.

We then exposed fish cells and rat cells to the pollutants extracted from the lagoon bottom soil.

Using animal cells (fish and rat) is a new way to avoid using live animals for research. It resolves the ethical dilemma associated with animal use in research and provides a deeper understanding of several biological processes. The molecular analysis of these cells can give an early warning of damage to animal and environmental health. Steps can then be taken to reduce harm.

What we found

Our assessment of contaminant loads at various parts of Lagos lagoon revealed a wide range of priority pollutants. These are pollutants with significant toxic potential for wildlife and humans. They include heavy metals such as mercury and cadmium, as well as organic compounds PCBs, phenols, PAHs and organotins. Some of these contaminants are known endocrine disrupting chemicals. They also induce enzyme systems that may alter the pollutant into a less harmful chemical and eliminate it from the body.

We reported that they produce hormonal imbalances with disruptive effects on the endocrine and chemical transformation systems of fish, crabs, shrimps and crocodiles. Such effects may lead to changes in reproductive organ development and result in gender confusion or the intersex condition. Documented effects on wildlife populations include reductions in fish species.

Our findings showed that exposing cells to low concentrations of the pollutants extracted from Lagos lagoon sediments not only killed the cells, but also activated the enzymes that metabolise these pollutants. Ultimately, this reduces the ability of the cell to break down pollutants properly, with further consequences for growth and reproduction.

Pollutants from industrial and domestic sources in the Lagos lagoon represent a cocktail of environmental contaminants. They are capable of interfering with the growth and reproduction of fish and mammals that depend on the stability of the lagoon ecosystem.

These findings imply that there are potential risks for harmful effects on human health. The pollutants are potentially transferred to humans from aquatic food resources. They become more concentrated along the food chain. Given that the hormone systems of vertebrates are similar, pollutants that affect fish will potentially affect humans in similar or comparable ways.

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This indicates possible negative health consequences for people who depend on the lagoon as a food source.

The heavy pollutant load may also be contributing to the observed decrease in fish catches at the lagoon in recent times. This effect may arise from the inability of enough fish eggs and young fish to develop into adults. Or it could be from damage to food and nursery habitats for young fish.

What needs to happen

Until now, a lack of scientific information about pollution in the lagoon has made it difficult for regulatory bodies to develop and enforce water and food safety regulations. The information provided by our studies could contribute to developing protocols for treating industrial effluents. This is also in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14, on the protection of life under water.

We recommend that regulatory agencies develop and adopt a Nigerian version of REACh (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals), the European Union Regulation 1907/2006/EC regarding chemicals. They should also do more to enforce the legal protection of natural habitats.

Government and industrial facilities should work together to find ways to reduce pollution before effluents reach the lagoon.

And finally, scientists need to routinely monitor the environment to see how species are responding.

Aina Adeogun, Professor of Aquatic Toxicology, University of Ibadan
Okinawa, Japan  The biggest coronavirus outbreak within the U.S. military anywhere in the world continues to grow. U.S. Forces Japan confirmed Wednesday another 36 infections among troops on the Japanese island of Okinawa, bringing the total to at least 136 since the U.S. military reported its first cases there last week.

Until then, all of Okinawa had seen only 148 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since February, with Japanese authorities managing to contain the spread of the virus that causes the disease.

Japanese scientists say ventilation key to fighting COVID

In a sign of the growing tension between Japanese officials and the U.S. military in Okinawa, Defense Minister Taro Kono has pointed to "several problems" with the U.S. response to the pandemic. He notably avoided giving specifics when pressed by reporters earlier this week.

Local media in Okinawa have reported that July 4th celebrations, both on and off the U.S. bases, which hundreds if not thousands of people attended, may be at least partly to blame. But medical experts warn the virus may have spread through multiple other vectors.

"Okinawa residents are extremely anxious" about the spread of infection at U.S. military bases, said Okinawa governor Denny Tamaki, who flew to Tokyo Wednesday for a meeting with Defense Minsiter Kono to air his island's grievances.

"We're extremely concerned," Kono told the governor. "We'll deal with it."

U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper (L) and Japanese Defense Minister Taro Kono speak to the media at the Pentagon, on January 14, 2020 in Arlington, Virginia. / Credit: Mark Wilson/Getty

Nearly half of the U.S. military's 50,000 troops in Japan are stationed on Okinawa, a subtropical island sometimes referred to as Japan's Hawaii with an area about one third the size of Rhode Island.

Among Washington's military establishment, Okinawa has been called America's "keystone" in the Pacific. The island sits closer to Taiwan's capital, Taipei, than it does to Tokyo. It's a pivotal foothold for Washington, both to protect Asian allies including Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, and to project U.S. power and be able to react to increasingly-aggressive military moves by China in the region, and the ever-present threat from North Korea.

Story continues

As of Wednesday, at least some restrictions had been imposed on five affected U.S. bases on Okinawa, with the two hardest-hit under de-facto lockdowns. All American troops and their families on the island have been barred from leaving bases without approval, and banned from local restaurants and public transport.

Stretching along a 25-mile swath of road on Okinawa's southern half, U.S. installations with confirmed coronavirus infections include Camp Kinser, Marine Corps Airbase Futenma, Marine Corps Airbase Kadena, Camp McTureous and Camp Hansen.

U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey aircraft are seen at the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Ginowan, on Japan's southernmost island of Okinawa, March 24, 2018. / Credit: ISSEI KATO/REUTERS

Futenma has the most infections, with at least 71 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Kadena is the U.S.' biggest base in Asia. Both bases are within five miles of the town of Chatan, a popular nightlife destination for U.S. troops that has an area called the "American Village," geared to the tastes of soldiers and tourists.

The area has been at the center of previous crimes involving U.S. service members, and it has been a thorn in the side of Okinawa's prefectural government.

The coronavirus outbreak has only fueled that anger, which rose further with confirmation this week from U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, on the Japanese mainland, that an American couple and their 10-year-old daughter had tested positive for the virus after arriving from the U.S.

The family flew in on a commercial flight from the U.S. to Tokyo's Haneda airport on Sunday, and like all other international arrivals they were given COVID-19 tests. But before getting the results of those tests, the family reportedly boarded a domestic flight  against rules barring newly-arrived passengers from public transport  to get to the Marine base.

Health officials are now racing to track down and contact all people the family may have come into contact with during their travels.

The Japanese capital, meanwhile, has raised its alert back to the highest possible level after the average rate of new daily infections exceeded the number reached under the state of emergency in April.

CBS News' Lucy Craft in Tokyo contributed to this report.

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Telehealth visits surge amid COVID-19 pandemic
Iran's growing proximity to China may have also played a part, report Shine Jacob and Megha Manchanda.

IMAGE: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani inaugurates the first phase of Chabahar port in the southern Iranian coastal city of Chabahar December 3, 2017. Photograph: Kind courtesy president.ir

Iran has ended its agreement with India for two key projects, the second phase of Chabahar port and development of the Farzad-B block, reflecting the souring relations between the once strong allies.

The West Asian country will fund and develop a rail link under the second phase of the Chabahar port on its own while the contract for developing the Farzad-B block is likely to be handed over to a local company following slow progress by ONGC Videsh,

In the historic New Delhi Declaration signed on January 25, 2003, both countries had decided to jointly develop the Chabahar port complex and the Chabahar-Fahranj-Bam railway link.

Since then, the Chabahar project, along with the Farzad-B block deal, has been something that forced India to play a balancing act between the US and Iran.

In 2020, both projects appear to be out of India's hands.

While the first phase of the Chabahar port was developed by India, US sanctions stopped progress in the second phase.

Though the initial agreement was signed in 2003, a contract was signed between India and Iran to develop the 628-km railway line along the Iran-Afghanistan border, in 2016.

"The idea of Chabahar port was brought back on the table in 2014," says former shipping secretary Vishwapati Trivedi. "Several exchanges happened between the two countries before finalisation of the infrastructure development by India in Iran."

The initial agreement signed in May 2015 translated into a formal 10-year contract.

Both the Kandla port and the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust were entrusted with the job of developing Chabahar port.

The then chairman and managing director of the Shipping Corporation of India was given charge of Indian Ports Global -- a special purpose vehicle for execution of the contract.

A revenue-sharing pact with a minimum guarantee throughput (MGT) was agreed upon, based on which Iran wanted India to increase traffic at Chabahar port.

MGT is the lowest number of cargo and passengers that can pass through a port on a daily basis, from arrival at the port to loading onto a ship.

Now, Iran has indicated it will provide $400 million from the Iranian National Development Fund for the railway line.

As part of the deal, Indian Railways's arm IRCON was supposed to provide $1.6 billion for the rail project.

People in the know said IRCON could not move ahead with the project because of US sanctions on Iran.

In addition, Iran's growing proximity to China may have also played a part. Iran and China are set to sign a deal worth $400 billion, lining up an investment roadmap for the next 10 years.

Even when US sanctions were on a high, India had kept the project on the discussion table. However, strengthening India-US relations under US President Donald J Trump forced India to go slow on Iran projects.

A prime example was the halt in oil imports from Iran following the recent US sanctions.

Earlier in 2006, India and Iran had conducted a joint naval exercise prior to then US president George W Bush's visit to India.

During the drill, a top official had termed Chabahar as key to maritime relations between both countries, addressing 220 sailors.

Iran grew sceptical of India's diplomatic ties with the US and is believed to have delayed certain regulatory clearances that, in turn, affected the project.

Just like the Chabahar railway line, US sanctions came in the way of Farzad-B gas field. Last week, Masoud Karbasian, MD, National Iranian Oil Company, said the deal for development of the field would be signed soon.

An Indian official source, aware of the development, says, "There is no development at present on Farzad-B. It seems Iran is trying to rope in a local player."

hough India had been looking to secure a contract for the gas field since 2009, the sanctions against Tehran played spoilsport.

Around 75 per cent of the deal was finalised by May 2018 when the US unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal and announced sanctions on Iran.

The Farzad-B block has gas reserves of 21.6 trillion cubic feet. The major dispute between India and Iran was over setting up of two pipelines, and also over money to be quoted on the development plan, says the source, adding that the Indian firm wanted only one pipeline.

The contract for the block was signed on December 25, 2002, by the consortium comprising ONGC Videsh, Indian Oil Corporation, and Oil India for carrying out exploration in the Farsi offshore block.

The contract expired in June 2009 after declaration of commerciality of the block, based on the gas discovery of Farzad-B gas field.

When the US sanctions were lifted following the nuclear deal with then president Barack Obama, Iran had increased its demands with Indian negotiators for Farzad.

Iran's administration had even hinted about giving the project to a Russian or Chinese firm. In August 2019, Iran indicated that it may not wait for India now.
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Victoria has recorded 428 new cases of coronavirus today, along with three further deaths from COVID-19.

It is the biggest daily increase in infections since the pandemic began and the 12th day in a row of triple-digit increases in daily infections.

The previous highest daily tally in Victoria was yesterday with 317 new cases.

The 428 new cases for Victoria are just shy of the nationwide daily record for new cases of 457 on March 28.

Of those 428, 57 are connected to known outbreaks, one is a returned traveller in hotel quarantine and 370 are under investigation.

Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed three people had died of coronavirus since yesterday - a man in his 80s, a man in his 70s and a woman in her 80s.

"I can offer no further information about those three tragedies, but we send our best wishes and our thoughts," he said.

A total of122 Victorians are in hospital, including 31 receiving intensive care.

A total of 24,409 tests for coronavirus were carried out yesterday, Mr Andrews said.
The Great Lakes have hit a record-breaking 80F for this time of year, almost as hot as bathwater.

The increase comes during a heatwave along the east and the US border with Canada which has produced algae blooms which are harmful to water creatures.

Lake Erie, the southernmost and shallowest of the five lakes, has been by far the warmest; on July 10 its average was 79.52F - 41F above normal and its joint hottest on record for that time of year.

It means that Erie is warmer than the Pacific Ocean beloved by surfers in California and only marginally cooler than the seawater off Florida.

Lake Ontario was clocking temperatures of 77.18F on July 10, that's about 42.8F higher than normal and also a record for any month of the year.

Lake Erie, the southernmost and shallowest of the five lakes, has been by far the warmest; on July 10 its average was 79.52F - 41F above normal and its joint hottest on record for that time of year

Aerial view of Port Huron on Lake Huron with its sandy pink beach and turquoise blue water

WHAT ARE THE RISKS OF ALGAE BLOOMS? Technically called cyanobacteria, the ancient class of organisms that create the blooms are present nearly everywhere water is found, but thrive in warm, still bodies like lakes and ponds. They also create a unique class of toxins, the impact of which on humans is only partly understood. Long linked to animal deaths, high doses of the toxins in humans can cause liver damage and attack the nervous system. In the largest outbreaks, hundreds have been sickened by blooms in reservoirs and lakes, and officials in some areas now routinely close bodies of water used for recreation and post warnings when blooms occur. But less is known about exposure at lower doses, especially over the long term. Small studies have linked exposure to liver cancer - one toxin is classified as a carcinogen, and others have pointed to potential links to neurodegenerative disease. Advertisement

Lake Huron was searing at 72.14F on July 9, also 42.8F over its norm and the hottest ever temperature for July.

To the west, Lake Michigan was at 75.02F on July 8, it too around 43F above what would be considered normal by scientists.

Lake Superior was the only one which didn't smash the 70F threshold, it being at the highest altitude of the five.

The temperatures are 'abnormally high compared to the most recent years,' Andrea Vander Woude, manager of the Great Lakes CoastWatch program said.

'Last year was really cold and there was a lot of rain. This year there hasn't been as much rain, and it's been persistently hot,' she told The Washington Post.

Water temperatures soared in the last week before a cold front over the weekend brought in frigid storms which helped to cool the lakes.

But temperatures usually peak in August and Vander Woude told the paper she expects it to rise significantly higher: 'We havent even reached the tip of that curve that usually occurs later [in the summer].'

She added that NOAA aircraft had noted blue-green algae or cyanobacteria on Lake Erie which has previously affected the water supply in Toledo.

'This is the second earliest weve seen [the algae] in our data since 2002,' Richard Stumpf, an oceanographer with NOAA, told the Post in an email. 'The earliest was in late June in 2018.'

The cyanobacteria can produce a liver toxin called microcystin that is harmful to humans and animals.

The level of toxicity at a given time isn't connected to the size of the bloom, because toxins in a larger mass may be less concentrated than in a smaller one.

Chicago skyline and waterfront of the Chicago River, Illinois, which flows in from Lake Michigan

NOAA and other U.S. and Canadian agencies have set a goal of reducing the Lake Erie bloom to a 3 on the index, which was last seen in 2012.

In addition to the algae, Stumpf said that fish do not do well in overly warm water because they swim to the cooler parts of the lake, thereby diminishing oxygen levels in those areas.

Climate Central, a science communications nonprofit, noted that the increasing temperatures were part of a trend.

Last year it wrote: 'Every Great Lake has warmed at least 1.5F since 1995 (when data became available for all lakes), led by Lake Ontario at 2.2F.'
The execution of a murderer whose lawyers claim is suffering from dementia can go ahead, the US Supreme Court ruled Thursday, overturning a lower court that put a stay on the process. President Donald Trump last month ordered a resumption of federal executions after a 17-year hiatus, and the Supreme Court's decision means Wesley Ira Purkey, 68, could be the second federal inmate to be executed this week. Purkey, of Kansas, was convicted in 2003 for the 1998 rape, murder and dismemberment of 16-year-old Jennifer Long. He was also found guilty of beating an 80-year-old woman to death with a hammer. He had been scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Wednesday at Terre Haute prison in the midwestern state of Indiana. But Purkey's lawyers sought to prevent his execution by arguing he was mentally impaired and unable to understand why he was being put to death. Although a District Court judge on Wednesday blocked his execution to allow for a hearing on his mental competency, this was overturned by the Supreme Court overnight, court documents showed. "The application for stay of execution of sentence of death... is denied," the ruling said, paving the way for Purkey's execution to go ahead. The ruling was a narrow one, however, as four of the Supreme Court's nine justices disagreed with the decision. - 'No rational understanding' - Rebecca Woodman, one of Purkey's attorneys, described him as a "severely brain-damaged and mentally ill man who suffers from advanced Alzheimer's disease and dementia." "Though he has long accepted responsibility for his crime, he no longer has a rational understanding of why the government plans to execute him," Woodman said. Daniel Lewis Lee, 47, a former white supremacist convicted of the 1996 murders of a family of three, was put to death by lethal injection on Tuesday at the same Indiana prison where Purkey is scheduled to die. Another federal inmate, Dustin Lee Honken, 52, is to be executed on Friday for five murders, including those of two girls aged 10 and six. The death penalty was reinstated at federal level in 1988 but had only been carried out three times before the execution of Lee -- the last time in 2003. More than 1,000 US religious leaders urged Trump last week to abandon plans to resume federal executions. But the US President, who faces a tough re-election battle in November, has called for stepped-up capital punishment, especially for drug traffickers and killers of police officers. Only a handful of US states, mainly in the conservative South, still carry out executions. In 2019, 22 people were put to death. Most crimes are tried under state laws, but federal courts handle some of the most serious cases -- including terror attacks, hate crimes and racketeering cases. Among the most notable recent federal executions was that of Timothy McVeigh, who was put to death by lethal injection in 2001 for the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma that killed 168 people.
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According to Stratistics MRC, the Global Instrument Calibration Services Market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 9.4% during the forecast period. The factors driving the market growth are rising protective maintenance and quality awareness. However, high competition among competitors is restraining the market.



Instrument calibration is a process used to maintain the accuracy of an instrument. The services through which one can minimize or eliminate the factors that cause inaccurate capacity are known as instrument calibration services.



By Service, electrical calibration service refers to the process of verifying the presentation of or adjusting, any tool that measures or tests electrical parameters. This regulation is usually referred to as DC and low frequency electrical metrology. Based on the geography, Europe is significantly growing owing to the rising use of instrument calibration services in the electronics manufacturing sector in this region.

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Some of the key players in the Instrument Calibration Services market are ABB Group, Consumers Energy, Endress+Hauser, ESSCO Calibration Laboratory, GE Kaye, General Electric, Keysight Technologies, Inc, Lockheed Martin, Micro Precision Calibration, Optical Test and Calibration Ltd, Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co KG, Siemens AG, Technical Maintenance Inc, Tektronix, Tradinco Instruments, Transcat, Inc and Trescal, Inc.



Services Covered:

 Electrical Calibration Services

 Mass Standards Calibration Services

 Temperature Calibration Services



End Users Covered:

 Pharmaceutical/Biomedical

 Industrial & automotive

 Electronics

 Communication

 Aerospace & Defense

 Other End users



Regions Covered:

 North America

o US

o Canada

o Mexico

 Europe

o Germany

o UK

o Italy

o France

o Spain

o Rest of Europe

 Asia Pacific

o Japan

o China

o India

o Australia

o New Zealand

o South Korea

o Rest of Asia Pacific

 South America

o Argentina

o Brazil

o Chile

o Rest of South America

 Middle East & Africa

o Saudi Arabia

o UAE

o Qatar

o South Africa

o Rest of Middle East & Africa



What our report offers:

- Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments

- Market share analysis of the top industry players

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- Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)

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 Company Profiling

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o Benchmarking of key players based on product portfolio, geographical presence, and strategic alliances

More Info of Impact Covid19 @ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/covid-19-analysis/12082
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil on Wednesday reported 39,924 additional novel coronavirus cases in a day as the country's total tally inched closer to 2 million, the health ministry said. Brazil now has 1,996,748 confirmed cases and 75,366 deaths, 1,233 more than on Tuesday.

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil on Wednesday reported 39,924 additional novel coronavirus cases in a day as the country's total tally inched closer to 2 million, the health ministry said.

Brazil now has 1,996,748 confirmed cases and 75,366 deaths, 1,233 more than on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Marcelo Rochabrun; Editing by Christian Plumb)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
16.07.2020 LISTEN

The NDC Greater Accra Regional Zongo Caucus Coordinator, Ismaila Ali Horoya has descended heavily on some officials at the office of the National Chief Imam (ONCI) of Ghana for using that office to promote their partisan interests.

According to him, Zongo people were never dependants of rice, sugar and ablution buta, rather politicians who out of their selfish agenda distribute such items to the people.

The Office of the National Chief Imam (ONCI) says it has observed the changing pattern of politics in the Zongos ever since Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia assumed office as Vice President.

In a Facebook post to express gratitude to Dr. Bawumia for his show of respect to the National Chief Imam for officially visiting him to inform him of his re-nomination as running mate for the NPP , the Office of the National Chief Imam commended the Vice President for transforming politics in the Zongos to development based.

Mr. Horoya expressed worry that some individuals at the ONCI were using the respectable office to prosecute their selfish partisan political agendas.

He opined that such individuals clothed themselves religiously to use ONCI to promote the NPP.

The NDC Regional Zongo Caucus Coordinator who was speaking in an interview with the ghanaidemand.com stated that the Zongo Development Fund was a good initiative but was badly implemented and utilized.

He said since the inception of the fund, residents in these areas could not see any meaningful project being executed from it.

He appealed to the National Chief Imam to stop those turning his office into a propaganda tool to sell a candidate.

The Greater Accra Regional Zango Caucus Coordinator reminded those propagandists that using His Eminences office for their agenda, that the Zongo communities of today is no longer interested in the NPPs politics of deceit, especially when it approaches festive seasons but rather scholarships, employment for its graduates, vocational skills for its drop-outs and entrepreneurship/empowerment trainings that will translate into development of Zango communities.

As part of their penchant, these individuals have over the years promoted NPPs deceit agenda in the Zongo communities, but the people of Zongos are wide awake and will not kotow to this propagandist agenda, he added.

---Ghanaiandemocrat.com
Euro Forecast Overview:

The tone of the July ECB press conference was cautiously optimistic, with ECB President Christine Lagarde stressing that an ambitious and coordinated fiscal stance remains critical .  Politicians are gathering this weekend to iron out details for the European Recovery Fund.

The main EUR -crosses, EUR/JPY and EUR/USD , continue to rally within the context of their recent bullish breakout attempts.

Per the IG Client Sentiment Index , the Euro remains well-positioned to continue its rally.

Euro Rally Undeterred by ECBs Governing Council

Ahead of the July ECB meeting it was noted that The ECB does not need to do much this week to keep investors heads cool regarding the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Now, the Euro has emerged on the other side of the July European Central Bank meeting in the same position from whence it entered: undeterred, even buffeted, by policymakers.

ECB President Christine Lagardes optimism regarding the early signs of recovery were counterbalanced by quips such as saying the outlook remains highly uncertain. But we would still argue that even just a marginally supportive ECB is seen as enhancing the efforts made by fiscal policymakers, allowing the Euro more breathing room for strength over a longer-term horizon. Markets seem to agree: all seven of the major EUR-crosses were positive after the July ECB meeting.

ECBs "Tough Love"

It can be argued that the ECBs stance of recent, particularly under Christine Lagarde, has been that akin to the tough love that parents show their children. As previously noted, ECB President Lagardes comment that were not here to narrow spreads  a suggestion that it wasnt the ECBs job to reduce sovereign credit risk in the periphery relative to the core  may have been one of the sparks that ignited Germany and other core countries to embrace jointly-issued debt.

This is a far departure from former ECB President Mario Draghis whatever it takes moment in July 2012  but it has helped pave way for the stability (and strength) that the Euro is enjoying in recent weeks. And ECB President Lagarde was eager to remind fiscal policymakers, ahead of their summit this weekend to iron out details for the Recovery Fund, that an ambitious and coordinated fiscal stance remains critical. The ECBs tough love is consistent: politicians will finally have to do their job; and it is this accountability to fiscal responsibility that has the Euro outperforming its peers.

EUR/USD RATE TECHNICAL ANALYSIS: DAILY CHART (June 2019 to July 2020) (CHART 1)

In the Euro rate forecast ahead of the July ECB meeting, in context of the symmetrical triangle formed in June, it was noted that gains towards the June high at 1.1423 should not be ruled out, nor should an attempt at the yearly high established at 1.1514. A break of the daily 5-EMA would warn that the current impulse higher is fading. EUR/USD rates have broken the June high at 1.1423, and the initial pullback has produce a bullish hammer candle at the daily 5-EMA  a sign that bullish momentum remains firm.

It still holds that this is not a second failed breakout attempt from the multi-year downtrend like the move in early-March. EUR/USD rates continue to rally above EMA envelope, with the daily 5-, 8-, 13-, and 21-EMA envelope in bullish sequential order. Daily MACD is issuing a trending higher in bullish territory, while Slow Stochastics have risen into overbought territory. Bullish momentum remains strong and gains towards the yearly high at 1.1514 still cant be ruled out.

IG Client Sentiment Index: EUR/USD Rate Forecast (July 16, 2020) (Chart 2)

EUR/USD: Retail trader data shows 27.16% of traders are net-long with the ratio of traders short to long at 2.68 to 1. The number of traders net-long is 0.60% lower than yesterday and 15.74% lower from last week, while the number of traders net-short is 5.67% higher than yesterday and 24.02% higher from last week.

We typically take a contrarian view to crowd sentiment, and the fact traders are net-short suggests EUR/USD prices may continue to rise.

Traders are further net-short than yesterday and last week, and the combination of current sentiment and recent changes gives us a stronger EUR/USD-bullish contrarian trading bias.

EUR/JPY RATE TECHNICAL ANALYSIS: DAILY CHART (June 2019 to July 2020) (CHART 3)

Ahead of the July ECB meeting, it was noted that the triangular consolidation taking place in EUR/JPY rates during June has now yielded a topside breakout. EUR/JPY rates remain above the rising trendline from the May and June swing lows, holding at said trendline as well as the daily 5-EMA earlier this week in establishing support during the bullish momentum move to the topside.

It still holds that, by clearing out near-term triangle resistance, EUR/JPY rates have also retaken the 23.6% retracement of the 2020 low/high range at 122.06. Gains through this area would increase the likelihood that EUR/JPY rates are primed for a return to what has proven to be a significant area of interest in recent years, between 123.65 and 123.88  the area that proved to cap price action during the EUR/JPY rally in late-May/early-June.

For now, with EUR/JPY rates holding above their daily 5-, 8-, 13-, and 21-EMA envelope, daily MACD issuing trending higher in bullish territory, and Slow Stochastics having risen into overbought territory, the path of least resistance remains higher for EUR/JPY rates.

IG Client Sentiment Index: EUR/JPY Rate Forecast (July 16, 2020) (Chart 4)

EUR/JPY: Retail trader data shows 42.43% of traders are net-long with the ratio of traders short to long at 1.36 to 1. The number of traders net-long is 5.88% higher than yesterday and 13.42% lower from last week, while the number of traders net-short is 9.69% higher than yesterday and 49.20% higher from last week.

We typically take a contrarian view to crowd sentiment, and the fact traders are net-short suggests EUR/JPY prices may continue to rise.

Traders are further net-short than yesterday and last week, and the combination of current sentiment and recent changes gives us a stronger EUR/JPY-bullish contrarian trading bias.

--- Written by Christopher Vecchio, CFA, Senior Currency Strategist
BOGOTA - Illegal armed groups are imposing strict COVID-19 quarantines in parts of Colombia where the state has a weak presence, threatening and even killing those who dont comply, Human Rights Watch warned Wednesday.

At least nine people have been assassinated in recent months for either refusing to abide by the restrictions or actively opposing them.

One man, community leader Edison Leon, was killed in June after sending a letter alerting local authorities that members of a group called La Mafia were forcing residents to staff a health checkpoint in Putumayo.

I am not willing to continue sending my people to death, he wrote.

Days later he was killed.

Draconian punishments imposed by armed groups to prevent the spread of COVID-19 mean that people in remote and impoverished communities across Colombia risk being attacked and even killed if they leave their homes, said Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director for Human Rights Watch.

Vivanco said the groups  which include rebel dissidents of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation Army, among others  are using the pandemic to assert their control and gain legitimacy in the eyes of the public  but also acting out of fear of the virus itself.

Many of the rural areas where the groups operate do not have hospitals equipped with ventilators to treat those who become severely ill.

There is a genuine fear of an outbreak within their ranks, Vivanco said.

COVID-19 cases have been steadily increasing in Colombia, with 165,169 confirmed as of Wednesday evening. The nation is facing the pandemic at the same time that it is grappling with a host of other issues, including massive coca production, drug trafficking, and the killing of social leaders and former guerrillas in the aftermath of Colombias historic 2016 peace accord.

Colombias unemployment rate is at about 21% and officials estimate that 4.7 million people will become newly poor by the end of the year.

Human Rights Watch said its investigation found illegal armed groups are imposing rules to halt the spread of COVID-19 in at least 11 of Colombias 32 states. In at least five, they are using violence to exert control. The warnings arrive to citizens through paper pamphlets or WhatsApp messages.

One pamphlet released the National Liberation Army rebels in northern Colombia earlier this year said fighters have been forced to kill people in order to preserve lives and warned only those working in food stores, bakeries or pharmacies are allowed out.

In one case, three civilians were killed and four injured in southwestern Colombia after being gunned down while in a public park. In another incident, two Venezuelan migrants were killed while drinking alcohol at a cellphone repair shop.

In both instances, prosecutors or humanitarian workers believe the victims were killed for breaking quarantine rules.

Though many crime indicators have fallen in Colombia and other parts of Latin America during the pandemic, violence against vulnerable communities including peasants, social leaders and ex-rebels has continued.

The quarantines being established by the illegal armed groups are even stricter than those imposed by the government, Human Rights Watch found. Whereas the nationwide quarantine allows for residents to leave home to seek medical care, some illegal armed groups refuse even that.

The organization is calling on Colombias government to protect civilians and ensure their access to health care, food and drinking water.

This abusive social control reflects the governments long-standing failure to establish a meaningful state presence in remote areas of the country, including to protect at-risk populations, Vivanco said.
A few guys who love barbecue started the Nebraska Barbecue Council in 2017.

The goal of the group is to support local restaurants and promote barbecue in general. Its a nonprofit right now, but they might start to sponsor competitions and sell T-shirts or other items in the future.

We feel that Nebraska barbecue is underrated and underappreciated, said Jake Van Lent of Lincoln, the councils president. People think of Dallas, Kansas City and Memphis. We feel Nebraska is under the radar.

To change that, the three-man council has created a barbecue rating system. Their first list, ranking Lincoln restaurants, came out two years ago. Now theyre releasing the 2020 Omaha Barbecue Ratings.

Barbecue can be a polarizing thing, Van Lent said, so its not surprising that the Lincoln list caused a lot of conversation when it was printed in the Lincoln Journal-Star. Council members hope the Omaha ratings do the same.

They visit each restaurant at least once, and usually twice or more. They dont claim any expertise  no culinary degrees or ties to any barbecue joint  but instead say theyre guys who love barbecue and represent the common diner.
The situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border may affect security in the entire region, Russian Deputy FM Andrey Rudenko told TASS.

"We are very concerned about what is happening. The [Russian] Foreign Ministry issued a statement and called on the parties to an immediate ceasefire and start talks to prevent a repeat of these incidents," Rudenko noted.

Russia is making every possible effort in contacts with the foreign ministers and chiefs of the General Staffs of both countries to put an end to the incident, he said.

According to Rudenko, it "can affect the security of the entire region."

At present, intensive contacts are underway with the involvement of, naturally, both the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides. We hope the efforts will lead to concrete results," the Deputy FM said.
Frederick Mutual, a Frederick, Md.-based insurance company, has promoted Paul Stenbjorn to chief information officer.

Stenbjorn has been a technology management professional for more than 25 years. He has previously held senior positions, including chief technology officer and executive director of the D.C. Board of Elections, director of Election Services and IT manager for the Virginia Department of Elections, and president of Election Information Services LLC.

He originally joined Frederick Mutual Insurance Company in 2019 as vice president of Information Technology responsible for Information Services and Technology.

Source: Frederick Mutual

Topics Maryland
Unidentified hackers broke into the Twitter accounts of technology moguls, politicians, celebrities and major companies Wednesday in an apparent Bitcoin scam.

The ruse included bogus tweets from former President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and a number of tech billionaires including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Celebrities Kanye West and his wife, Kim Kardashian West, were also hacked. The fake tweets tweets offered to send $2,000 for every $1,000 sent to an anonymous Bitcoin address.

There is no evidence that the owners of these accounts were targeted themselves. Instead, the hacks appeared designed to lure their Twitter followers into sending money to an anonymous Bitcoin account. The Biden campaign, for instance, said that Twitters integrity team locked down the account within a few minutes of the breach and removed the related tweet.

Obama's office had no immediate comment.

In a tweet, Twitter noted only that it was aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. The San Francisco company said it is investigating and promised an update shortly. It did not reply immediately to requests for comment.

The apparently fake tweets were all quickly deleted, although The Associated Press was able to capture screenshots of several before they disappeared.

Bezos, Gates and Musk are among the 10 richest people in the world, with tens of millions of followers on Twitter. The three men are worth a combined $362 billion, according to the latest calculations by Forbes magazine.

The same bogus offer cropped up a second on Musk's account, which has a history of sometimes befuddling tweets from the eccentric billionaire. Tesla didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gates, who has become one of the worlds leading philanthropists since stepping down as Microsoft CEO, confirmed the tweet wasnt from him. This appears to be part of a larger issue that Twitter is facing, a spokesperson for the billionaire said in a statement.

Among the political figures targeted, the hack mostly appeared to target Democrats or other figures on the left, drawing comparisons to the 2016 campaign. U.S. intelligence agencies established that Russia engaged in coordinated attempts to interfere in those U.S. elections through social media tampering and various hacks, including targeting the various campaigns and major party organizations.

--The Associated Press

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 20:14:23|Editor: huaxia

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COLOMBO, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) said on Thursday that it will extend its support to the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and hotels in the tourism sector to seek COVID-19 health certification to host tourists in the future.

In a statement, the SLTDA said SMEs are considered to make up over 60 percent of the country's tourism industry as over 50,000 SME entities are involved in tourism and contribute to the economy by providing employment and foreign exchange to the country as well as a diverse experience to the visitor.

The statement added that most of the SMEs in the past were unable to register due to strenuous documentation requirements. To assist them in obtaining a provisional license, they would now need to submit an online application with limited documentation together with photos and a registration fee.

The SLTDA is also developing a process to ease and relax some of the guidelines without compromising the quality.

"Tourism is undoubtedly one of the most affected industries in the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic and to help the industry, the cabinet approved a series of relief measures to tourism service providers registered with Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority," the statement said.

Sri Lanka's tourism suffered a severe blow, as authorities closed the country's international airports in March to prevent a further spread of the COVID-19 virus, which has to date infected over 2,600 people in the country.

Authorities said it is considering re-opening the airports next month after completion of the repatriation process and by bringing the COVID-19 spread completely under control. Enditem
Ardern said the epidemic was now "exploding" outside New Zealand and countries that had been models in the fight against COVID-19 had now experienced further community outbreaks.

The government released a new framework on how it intended to fight the virus in the event of new cases, with elimination still the central strategy.

"No system is 100% fool proof and around the world we are seeing even the most rigorous measures being tested by the virus," she told reporters in Wellington.

The South Pacific nation last reported a case of community transmission two-and-a-half months ago. It has recorded 22 deaths from nearly 1,200 confirmed cases as of Wednesday.

New Zealand had vowed to eliminate, not merely contain, the virus, which meant stopping transmission for two weeks after the last known case was cleared.

Officials in Australias most populous state of New South Wales said elimination is no longer possible there due to fresh outbreaks following the easing of lockdown restrictions.
SPRINGFIELD  Police confiscated an untraceable ghost gun and arrested a Holyoke man after a foot chase in the Six Corners neighborhood.

Darnael Alvarado, 21, of Beech St., was charged with carrying a loaded large-capacity firearm on a public way, carrying a firearm without a license, possession of a high-capacity magazine, breach of peace while armed and resisting arrest, said Ryan Walsh, police spokesman.

Police responding to a report of a gun call at about 4 a.m., Sunday, identified Alvarado as a man who matched a witness description of the person carrying a weapon on School Street.

When he spotted officers, Alvarado fled while holding what police believed was a gun. Police chased him to Union Street, where Alvarado tripped, allowing officers to catch and handcuff him, Walsh said.

After the arrest, officers located a firearm in the spot where Alvarado fell. The gun was described as a ghost gun  which is typically made with different parts and untraceable. It was loaded with a 15-round magazine and 13 rounds of ammunition. Another 30-round magazine was also recovered, he said.

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A dental nurse battered by her abusive boyfriend brought him to justice after capturing him on tape threatening her.

Tiana Crawford, 20, was left with a broken nose after she was punched and grabbed by the throat by Dontae OConnor.

OConnor, 21, also gave her a black eye, but he lied to police she caused the the injures herself.

Despite being five months pregnant brave Miss Crawford, of Gorton, Manchester, telephoned him about the slur and recorded their conversation.

She asked him why he assaulted her if he loved her but although he insisted she had hit herself then added: I don't give a sh*t and dont care- it is gang sh*t.

You think its a joke, dont go to police because you dont understand how serious this is, if you take me to court obviously I am going after you.

Tiana Crawford, 20, helped get evidence that convicted her boyfriend Dontae O'Connor, 21

Armed with the new evidence she went to police again who arrested him and this time he confessed.

Her ingenious trap was revealed in Manchester Crown Court where O'Connor admitted assault, occasioning actual bodily harm as well as witness intimidation.

He also confessed to assaulting an emergency worker, resisting a constable and criminal damage.

He was given 21 months jail suspended for two years due to his age and lack of previous convictions.

The court heard when Miss Crawford first called police he told her do it you little tramp, what are they going to do, but if you do Ill f*ck you up.

She said in a statement he now suffers from anxiety and depression and her injuries still cause her pain, while she awaits hospital treatment delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Dental nurse Tiana Crawford, 20, secretly taped Dontae O'Connor, 21, threatening her

Miss Crawford added: The whole incident and relationship has made me feel tiny. He was the first person I have loved in a serious relationship.

My mental health has become worse as a result and I am on medication for depression and anxiety. No one should ever have the things he said to me said to them.

I put up with a lot because I loved him but it went on for far too long. I want him to understand how I feel. I am concerned he is making me out to be crazy.

I am anxious in my social and work life and he terrified me into believing he would carry out the threats. He tried to belittle me and made me feel more and more scared. It was hard coming forward for the first time and even harder for the second time despite knowing it was the right thing to do.

The court heard O'Connor, also of Gorton, started dating her three years ago but he became controlling and would trawl through her social media when she was asleep.

He would then slap her when she woke up if he found content she posted which he didnt like.

Dontae O'Connor, pictured giving a rude gesture to the camera, had his call secretly taped

He would also demand she wash his hair, cook food and clean his room.

Prosecutor John Richards said: The relationship had initially been good but it got worse with the defendant asking her to wash and cook. He was controlling and did not allow her to speak to anyone without his consent, told her to delete her social media.

They argued at times when out shopping and he grabbed the back of her neck. She was five months pregnant when he pushed her to the floor, grabbing her by the throat and stopping her breathing for two to three seconds. They broke up in September 2018 for seven months but then got back together. He would call her a slag and objected to her being on social media.

He would go through her mobile phone when she was asleep and would hit her in the face when she woke up after finding things he did not like.

He punched her and stamped on her a number of times between September and December last year but these were never reported to police.

On the day of the assault on December 12 she went to his home because she owed him money. He had been with friends and was abusive towards her before punching her causing significant bleeding. She said she was going to report this to police. He said do it you little tramp what are they going to do?

O'Connor admitted a series of charges at Manchester Crown Court after he was arrested again

She went to the bathroom and he followed her. She was on her phone and ran outside before feeling something hit her in the face. He then hit her nose and she felt her nose and mouth bleed.

She went for an MRI scan which found a possible nasal fracture. She was bleeding from her nose for an extended period of time and has a deformity to her nose shape as well as a black eye. She also had tenderness in her lower orbital wall and a nasal fracture was likely.

She was due to have surgery but it has been delayed due to the pandemic. Her nose causes her pain when outside in cold weather and she is unable to breathe through her right nostril because the cartilage is bent. This has impacted her confidence in her appearance and she no longer allows people to take pictures of her. She hates the way she looks.

She has had anxiety and depression in the past and these have become worse since the incident. She has a suspected fracture to her skull below her eye and was also told to wait six months for her nose to heal.

Police told her the defendant suggested she had caused the injuries to herself and she decided to ring him. On December 27 she contacted him just before 10.25pm and asked him why he assaulted her if he loved her. He denied this and said she hit herself.

He said he didnt give a sh*t and didnt care- when she asked about something else he said it was gang sh*t. He told her you think its a joke, dont go to police because you dont understand how serious this is and said if you take me to court obviously I am going after you.

The defendant was arrested and when he was told he was being arrested he shut the door and tried to prevent police entering while being abusive towards them. One officer struggled to handcuff him and struck PC Johnston.

He continued to be abusive as he was taken to the police station and urinated himself while making comments about his penis. He denied the assault saying he only restrained her.

In mitigation defence lawyer Alexandra Sutton said O'Connor was young when they had started the relationship.

Sentencing Judge Nicholas Dean QC told him: You behaved in an immature, bullying and violent way towards your former partner. She did nothing at all to provoke you in this way. You displayed unpleasant immaturity towards her and made unpleasant threats which did not stop her from coming to court to give evidence. Perhaps you recognised your immaturity when you pleaded guilty to these matters.

She has grown up and but it seems you have not.

OConnor was also banned from contacting Miss Crawford her for five years under the terms of a restraining order. He must complete a rehabilitation programme for domestic abusers, 20 more general rehabilitation days and 120 hours of unpaid work.
Confronting footage has emerged of the moment police shot dead a man suspected of trying to kill a woman in a knife attack in a Melbourne park.

Officers rushed to John Coutts Reserve in Gladstone Park, in the city's north-west, at about 3.30pm on Thursday following multiple frantic Triple-0 calls.

They arrived to find a woman being brutally assaulted by a knife-wielding man in what they described as a 'frenzied attack'.

The man refused to comply with police orders to stop assaulting the woman and officers opened fire within 30 seconds of arriving.

Disturbing footage shows the man pinning the woman to the ground and repeatedly stabbing her as officers arrive at the scene.

Two officers surround the attacker and draw their guns before two gunshots are heard.

The man gets to his feet, before another shot is fired and he falls backwards to the ground.

A man has been shot dead by police in Gladstone Park on Thursday afternoon. Pictured are police vehicles at the scene in a quiet suburban street

The shooting unfolded in front of a local resident on his afternoon walk in the park.

The man aged in his 30s died at the scene.

The older woman was rushed to Royal Melbourne Hospital in a critical condition suffering from facial stab wounds so horrific she is yet been identified by police.

The woman and the man were known to each other - with police investigating whether they are from the same family.

'It was not a random attack,' Police Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius said.

'They may be family members, but that is subject to investigation.'

Assistant Commissioner Cornelius said the man was known to them but didn't have a criminal record.

'We've had recent contact with him, but there was nothing in that recent contact with him that indicated to us that the events of today might have occurred,' he said.

Officers called to the scene were not physically injured but have been left 'terribly shaken' by the incident.

Katrina Drive in Gladstone Park remain cordoned off on Thursday night as police investigate

'No member goes to work expecting to have to take the life of another person and that is a very difficult and, thankfully, a decision that does not happen too often,' Assistant Commissioner Cornelius said.

'But when a police officer does make that decision, of course it has a terrible impact on that member and also, of course, generates significant concern for the wider community.'

Assistant Commissioner Cornelius has backed the officers' actions to open fire.

'I understand that those members have acted appropriately. They've been decisive, they've taken action and they have acted in a way to keep the community safe and stop what was a frenzied attack from continuing,' he said.

'And my heart really goes out to those members. These were junior members, early in their career, and they found themselves having to make one of the worst-possible decisions that any member has to make in their career.'

Paramedics treated a man in his 30s and an older woman at the scene in John Coutts Reserve. The man couldn't be revived

Police remain at the scene where officers were forced to open fire at a man who stabbed a woman in John Coutts Reserve in Melbourne's north-west

Aerial footage captured by Nine News shows two people being treated at the scene by paramedics.

Dozens of police and paramedics remain at the scene in a quiet suburban street on Thursday night.

The man's body remained lying on the grass in the reserve, metres away from houses.

John Coutts Reserve is a popular park with an off-leash area for dogs.

'I've never seen anything like it, it looked like a war zone,' witness Blake told the Herald Sun.

'It was so loud. There were that many sirens.'

Homicide Squad detectives are investigate the incident which resulted in the death of a man

Tina Gatt added: 'It is usually pretty quiet here. When I saw the police, I thought 'I hope it is not drugs or bikies', but this is terrible. It is out of the blue for this to happen.'

Other residents told the ABC they heard arguing and yelling from the park before they heard four gunshots.

'I heard the shooting. My husband, my son, ran to the fence. They were shooting on the fence. Usually I always hear noises. Then we realised someone shooting for real,' one woman told the ABC.

Another man added: 'I feel sorry for the police officer that had to do it.'

Dozens of police and paramedics remained at the scene late Thursday afternoon

Officers remain in Katrina Drive to examine the crime scene and speak to local residents

Homicide Squad detectives will investigate the incident, which will be overseen by the Professional Standards Command.

Witnesses are urged to come forward.

'We understand there were numerous witnesses to this incident and we are very keen, of course, to identify and speak to any witnesses to what occurred this afternoon,' Assistant Commissioner Cornelius said.

'There is a tragic event and, as I say, we're very keen to have that support from the community in relation to allowing us to thoroughly investigate what is a horrendous crime.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Residents said they heard arguing coming from the park (pictured) before hearing gunshots
A long-awaited meeting of Indian officials with Kulbhushan Jadhav ended inconclusively on Thursday after Pakistan refused to give them unimpeded consular access, the external affairs ministry said on Thursday evening. New Delhi has lodged a formal protest with Islamabad.

Indian officials had made nearly a dozen requests to Islamabad over the last one year for unimpeded, uninterrupted and unconditional consular access to the former Indian naval officer in line with the verdict of the International Court of Justice. Jadhav, a former naval officer turned businessman, was quietly sentenced to death by a military court in April 2017. He had gone missing the previous year from Iran and turned up in the custody of Pakistani security agencies some time later who accused him of espionage.

Thursdays consular access to Jadhav was the second time that he had been allowed to meet Indian officials. The first was on September 2, 2019.

As had happened the first time that Pakistan gave Indian diplomats access to Jadhav, Pakistani officials with an intimidating demeanour were present in close proximity of Shri Jadhav and consular officers despite the protests of the Indian side.

Officials also spotted a camera that was being used to record their conversation. Officials also reported that Jadhav was visibly under stress and indicated that clearly to the consular officers.

The arrangements did not permit a free conversation between them. The consular officers could not engage Shri Jadhav on his legal rights and were prevented from obtaining his written consent for arranging his legal representation, the government statement said.

In the light of these circumstances, the Indian officials concluded that the consular access being offered by Pakistan was neither meaningful nor credible. They left the venue after lodging their protest.

In May 2020, Pakistan passed an Ordinance, ostensibly to comply with the order of the International Court of Justice. It envisages the consular officer of the Indian High Commission filing a petition before a high court to seek review of Jadhavs death sentence. In that context, the contacts and conversations between the consular officer and Jadhav assume great importance, the external affairs ministry said.

Any conversation between them must necessarily take place in privacy and without the presence of any Pakistani official or recording by Pakistan. It is only then that Shri Jadhav can speak freely without any concerns of reprisal as he remains in Pakistani custody after the meeting, the statement said, pointing that it was already evident that Jadhav has been repeatedly intimidated in the past.

It is clear that Pakistans approach to this matter continues to be obstructive and insincere. It has not only violated its assurance to the ICJ to fully implement the 2019 judgement, but also failed to act in accordance with its own Ordinance, New Delhi said.

Indias focus on getting Jadhav legal representation comes against the backdrop of claims by Islamabad that Kulbhushan Jadhav had refused to file an appeal in the Islamabad high court against the death sentence ordered by a military court despite an offer to do so.

New Delhi had responded angrily, accusing Pakistan of continuing with a farce that it had been playing for the last four years. New Delhi says Jadhav was sentenced to death at a farcical trial by a military court.

Over the past year, India has requested Pakistan more than twelve times to provide unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional consular access to Shri Kulbhushan Jadhav, who remains incarcerated in Pakistani custody since 2016.
MBABANE  Is government overwhelmed or is it just pure negligence on some health personnels part?

This question comes to the fore following healthcare workers who were confirmed positive for COVID-19 taking almost a week to be moved to a facility for purposes of isolating and receiving treatment. While waiting to be transported, there are suspicions that they may have exposed their relatives to the virus. Two nurses, who tested positive for the virus, found themselves in a tight corner, fearing that they could spread it to their loved ones after governments failure to isolate them on time. The nurses, who will not be named due to the sensitive nature of the matter, had to isolate within their shared apartments at the nurses home.

Roommates

In an interview with one of the nurses working at one of the prominent hospitals, *Sihle, she said she had to live like an outcast for three days as she feared infecting her roommates whom she was currently sharing with at the nurses home. My results were communicated to me on Sunday and I have been calling the emergency response team since then as per the doctors advice, without any assistance, Sihle said. According to Sihle, her roommates would cook and place her food at the door leading to her bedroom, where she took it once everyone had left the house. She said likewise as the toilet is shared, she would make sure that her roommates had all left and then get the opportunity to use the toilet which she would disinfect before and after use. This, she said, became her way of life to minimise the spread of the virus to the others.

Hospital

She stated that she eventually got hold of the emergency preparedness response (EPR) team in the late afternoon on Monday, who requested her details and promised to move her to a quarantine centre on Tuesday, stating that the quantum ferrying COVID-19 positive patients had already left for the Lubombo Referral Hospital. According to Sihle, there were two other colleagues who had also tested positive whom she was also communicating with. I was so disappointed to find out that my colleagues had been moved to the facility on Monday while I remained behind, she said.




U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue testifies during a House Agriculture Committee hearing in the Longworth House Office Building in Washington on March 4, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Trump Administration Invests $153 Million In Rural and Low-Income Communities

The Trump administration has announced an investment of $153 million in Americas rural regions, with a particular focus on small and low-income communities.

The funds will be disseminated through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and are expected to benefit nearly two million rural Americans, the agency said in a statement on Wednesday.

Through a combination of low-interest loans and grants, which may be combined with commercial financing, the money will be used to improve critical community facilities in 23 states.

Rural America needs safe, modern infrastructure to help residents and businesses achieve greater prosperity and have access to essential services, USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development Bette Brand said.

Rural areas with no more than 20,000 residents are eligible for the program. It uses a priority point system to award funds, based on population and median household income.

Small communities with a population of 5,500 or fewer are given priority, as are low-income communities with a median household income below 80 percent of the state nonmetropolitan median household income.

Under the leadership of President Trump and Agriculture Secretary Perdue, USDA continues to be a strong partner with rural communities, because we know that when rural America thrives, all of America thrives, Brand said.

The aim is of the program is to provide affordable funding for facilities that provide essential services to rural communities. Essential community facilities that are eligible for the funding include health care facilities such as hospitals, nursing homes, or assisted living facilities. Community support services like child care centers, community centers, fairgrounds, or transitional housing can also apply.

One recipient of a $735,000 loan and $172,700 grant under the current round of funding is the Monroe Family Health Center, which provides health services to some 3,500 rural residents of the community of Woodsfield, Ohio. The money will go towards the construction of a new 12,000 square-foot building to replace an accessibility-challenged, inadequately-sized facility, allowing the center to expand services and reach more residents in need.

These investments are a big deal for the communities I represent, said Congressman Bill Johnson (R-Marietta), in a statement. This money will go directly towards improving public health and safety. The USDA, under the Trump Administration, continues to support rural communities that have been left behind by previous administrations.

Congressman Fred Keller (R-Pa.) announced awards for grants for two projects in his district.

Too often in rural communities, local officials are left to make do with inadequate resources. I am glad to see that we are bringing our rural communities into the fold and investing in critical projects that will improve the standard of living in these areas, Keller said in a statement.

A fact sheet shows that 94 projects received funding under this round of the program (pdf).
The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) yesterday launched the Emancipation Day 2020 celebration and Do Ghana Travel Festival in Accra.



The programme which was organised under the auspices of Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture was in collaboration with the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL).



The Emancipation Day 2020 celebration which was launched virtually via Zoom was on the theme, Our Heritage, Our Strength; Leveraging Our Resilience, Black Lives Matters.



Speaking at the launch, Chief Executive Officer of GTA, Akwasi Agyeman, said this years event was aimed at rekindling the flame of unity among blacks and highlight the inter-connected nature of their struggles here on the mother continent and in Europe and America.



He said the celebration would open to see domestic arrivals performing insight from various industries and interact with each other in a meaningful way.



The Director of Marketing and Sales of the GCGL, Mr Franklin Sowa explained that, the Do Ghana Travel Festival was intended to be a follow up to the Year of Return which opened Ghana up to Africans in the Diaspora.



He said the event was also to afford businesses in the tourism and food industry the opportunity to boost business and recover after being hit by the COVID-19.



Mr Sowa was optimistic that the initiative would contribute substantially to the economy of Ghana and would help encourage industries to promote made in Ghana products.



We believe that together we would revive our sector and create a new acceptance in domestic tourism and travel to improve our tourism system in the country, he added.



Dr Diblim Iddi Barri, Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture on his part called on Ghanaians to rekindle their commitment to the total emancipation and progress of Africa.



Emancipation Day should remind us once again that, the African family has been separated and that the different factions of the family both on the mother continent and in the Diaspora have suffered from this brutal and traumatic separation.



The persistent police brutalities and the criminalisation of the judicial system against African American males and the recent killing of George Floyd, an African American, all point to an enduring, pervasive and bigoted world view fuelled by feelings of racial superiority among sections of the Caucasian population, he added.



He, therefore, called for a shared heritage as we use the vehicle of tourism and the creative arts to strengthen the bonds of brotherhood between our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora.

Source: The Ghanaian Times









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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T he NHS will get an extra 3 billion in funding to prepare for a possible second wave of coronavirus, Boris Johnson is set to announce.

In the wake of a dire warning of the consequences of Covid-19 rebounding, Number 10 said the funding will allow extra hospital capacity and routine treatments and procedures to continue.

The Prime Minister will also use a Downing Street press conference on Friday to commit to a new target of reaching the capacity for 500,000 coronavirus tests a day by November.

The funding for the NHS in England will allow private hospital capacity to be used and for Nightingale hospitals to be maintained until the end of March.

Matt Hancock updates the House on coronavirus figures

It comes after a report commissioned by the Government's chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, warned there could be 120,000 hospital deaths in a "reasonable worst-case scenario".

Winter always places a great strain on the health service, but there are concerns a resurgence of the virus during the annual flu season could be crippling.

A Downing Street spokesman said: "Thanks to the hard work and sacrifices of the British people, the virus is under control and we have eased restrictions in a cautious, phased way.

"But the Prime Minister is clear that now is not the time for complacency, and we must make sure our NHS is battle ready for winter.

"Tomorrow, he will set out a broad package of measures to protect against both a possible second wave, and to ease winter pressures and keep the public safe."

The spokesman said the immediate funding for England was new and not previously allocated, while expenditure will be set out for the devolved nations in due course.

Mr Johnson is also expected to publish an additional chapter to the Government's "road map" for recovery from the crisis.

NHS Providers, which represents NHS organisations, welcomed the financial support to prepare with the "triple whammy of pressures" from winter, a possible second surge and trying to recover from the strain of the pandemic so far.

Pubs reopen in Scotland after coronavirus lockdown - In pictures 1 /18 Pubs reopen in Scotland after coronavirus lockdown - In pictures Barman Dejah Hajdukovic serves a whisky at The Piper's Rest pub in Edinburgh as pubs, bars and restaurants reopen PA Some of the first customers enjoy a drink at The Piper's Rest pub in Edinburgh PA Crieff Hydro Hotel CEO, Stephen Leckie and his sons, Richard and Charlie play the bagpipes alongside daughter Louisa on the snare drum and highland dancer Ella Rose as they give a special welcome back to guests as they open for the first time since March. Getty Images A member of staff places a safety sign on the door of The Scotsman's Lounge pub PA George McDonald, from Clemiston, is the first customer to be served at The Scotsman's Lounge pub PA George McDonald, from Clemiston, is the first customer to be served at The Scotsman's Lounge pub PA George McDonald, from Clemiston, is the first customer to be served at The Scotsman's Lounge pub PA Crieff Hydro Hotel CEO, Stephen Leckie and his sons, Richard and Charlie play the bagpipes alongside daughter Louisa on the snare drum and highland dancer Ella Rose as they give a special welcome back to guests as they open for the first time since March. Getty Images People wait for opening outside The Scotsman's Lounge pub in Edinburgh as pubs, bars and restaurants across Scotland reopen PA Ivor Birnie (left) and John Lynch, some of the first customers to be served at The Scotsman's Lounge pub PA Crieff Hydro Hotel CEO, Stephen Leckie and his sons, Richard and Charlie play the bagpipes alongside daughter Louisa on the snare drum and highland dancer Ella Rose as they give a special welcome back to guests as they open for the first time since March. Getty Images John Lynch, one of the first customers to be served at The Scotsman's Lounge pub in Edinburgh PA Bill Day, aged 70, one of the first customers to be served at The Piper's Rest pub in Edinburgh PA Barman Matthew Williams serves drinks at Scotts in South Queensferry PA

But deputy chief executive Saffron Cordery called for "urgent clarity" over what the funding will cover, saying funding is already in place for the Nightingale hospitals and private beds.

"Trusts need more than that. They have got to recover the lost ground of the last four or five months and put measures in place to manage the additional activity that always happens in winter," she added.

"Sadly what we do know won't be included is social care.

"Social care across the country is in a critical condition and the Government has still failed to commit to providing the sector with the funding it needs to be fully sustainable."

Earlier this week Mr Johnson was warned in the report by the Academy of Medical Sciences that action must be taken now to mitigate the potential for a second peak, including scaling up the Test and Trace system.

The research said capacity for 350,000 tests per day will be needed to test individuals as they show symptoms of either Covid-19 or flu.

The latest Government figures say capacity stood at nearly 338,000, but Mr Johnson will commit to increase this to half a million by the end of October to bolster Test and Trace.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has already announced plans for the "biggest flu vaccination programme in history", with eligibility for free injections likely to be extended.

Non-urgent operations were suspended to free up hospital beds as the UK was plunged into a lockdown during the first wave.

But Downing Street says the new plans to be announced by the PM will allow them to go ahead where possible as ministers target efforts on local lockdowns.

Mr Hancock announced a partial easing of the prolonged lockdown measures in Leicester, but said Covid-19 rates in the city remained too high to allow pubs and restaurants to reopen.

But Leicester mayor Sir Peter Soulsby accused the Government of penalising businesses and residents in a city that predominantly votes Labour.

It is not yet clear what the PM's update to the "road map" will be, but he is eager to get employees back to their workplaces if they are safe.

TODO: define component type apester

The official Government advice is still "work from home if you can", but Mr Johnson has said people should be talking to their bosses about "looking to come back to work in a safe way".

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But Sir Patrick, his top scientific adviser, showed some resistance to the change on Thursday, saying working from home remained a "perfectly good option" and there was "absolutely no reason" to change the advice.
New amateur radio satellite guidance for Brazil Brazil's National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) has published a new webpage providing regulatory information for small amateur radio satellites



IARU Region 2 say:



According to Anatel, the reductions in the cost of manufacturing and launching small and non-geostationary satellites increased the national demand for this technology, requiring the creation of a guide to orient those interested in Brazil.



The Brazilian National Amateur Radio Association (LABRE) was consulted during the first phase of the guide development and received the support of its Space Communications (LABRE/AMSAT-BR) and Spectrum Defense and Management (LABRE/GDE) working groups.



LABRE stressed the need to respect the precepts and scopes of each telecommunication service as specified in ITU, reinforcing the principles of the Amateur Radio Service, as well as the need to observe regulations, practices and authorizations issued in Brazil, leveraging the educational satellite activities in a more integrated relationship with amateur radio.



According to Anatel: The exploration of satellites should be carried only in frequencies assigned to satellite services, as well as to services compatible to the applications which the builder wants to develop. In the case of small satellites (for example, cubesats), if placed in the amateur radio service bands, they must be used for own training, intercommunication and technical investigations carried out by amateur radio operators, not seeing any monetary or commercial objective. To meet this demand, Anatel created a manual that contains information and instructions to comply with regulatory procedures.



LABRE/AMSAT-BR has already collaborated with several Brazilian educational satellite projects like NanosatC-BR1 (INPE), AESP-14 (ITA), SERPENS-1 (UnB), Tancredo-1 (Tancredo Neves Municipal School, Ubatuba/SP), ITASAT- 1 (ITA), Floripasat-1 (UFSC) and NanosatC-BR2 (INPE). LABRE is also active in the working group of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) focused on the Coordination of Satellite Frequencies.



Anatel's new website with forms and manuals is available at:

https://www.anatel.gov.br/setorregulado/pequenos-satelites



In English at

https://tinyurl.com/BrazilSatelliteRegs
Many an actress has justifiably complained about having difficulty finding work after a certain age.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 16/7/2020 (552 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Many an actress has justifiably complained about having difficulty finding work after a certain age.

That problem never seems to have been an issue for Wendy Crewson. As a Canadian performer, the Hamilton-born, Winnipeg-raised Crewson has enjoyed a busy career in Canadian film and television, going back to an episode of The Littlest Hobo in 1981, and continuing in notable projects such as the made-in-Winnipeg telefilm The Many Trials of One Jane Doe (2002), Away from Her (2006) and Who Loves the Sun (2006).

If Crewson looks familiar to the average moviegoer, that may be because she played the wives of famous men in a trifecta of 90s hits, including the 1997 thriller Air Force One (playing the endangered first lady to President Harrison Ford), the 1994 family comedy The Santa Clause (playing the confused ex-wife of Tim Allens Santa designate) and in the 2000 cloning thriller The Sixth Day (playing the confused and endangered wife to a matching set of Arnold Schwarzeneggers).

Notwithstanding her Hollywood movies, Crewson, 64, has remained busy after moving back to Toronto from California in 2000. In the past few years, the Westwood Collegiate alumna has shown up in series including Frankie Drake Mysteries, When Hope Calls and Workin Moms.

She does feature films too, of course, but in the current COVID-19 climate, those films are bypassing theatres and going directly to on-demand options. That is the case for the comedy From the Vine, in which Crewson plays the wife of an auto exec (Joe Pantoliano) who, upon getting his pink slip, heads to his remote Italian birthplace and finds a personal mission in reviving his grandfathers disused vineyard.

On the phone from her Toronto home, Crewson is modest while explaining her ability to stay in demand, which she attributes to her manager-agent, Perry Zimel, "who likes to keep me working."

"Honestly, he handles my career in such a lovely way. Im always happy when a job comes along. I dont say no very often to anything. I like to be working. I like to be on a set."

Mythic Productions Wendy Crewson seized the opportunity to shoot a film in a picturesque mountaintop town in southern Italy.

Crewson says it made no discernible difference to her career when she publicly came out as a lesbian in 2014.

"I thought maybe it would matter but no, it hasnt made any difference that I know of," she says. "I havent stopped working.

"I dont think it means what it once did. In my generation, it seemed like a big deal but for this generation now, it just seems like nothing."

However, it was crucial for Crewson personally.

"Authenticity is the most important thing and I feel like in a business where you are in the public eye, it feels hard to grow and change as you want to," she says. "As long as my family was OK and my kids were OK, then I was OK.

"It may be one of the most interesting things about me," she laughs. "It was a very smooth transition. But I was in a very privileged position. Ive got a supportive family. Im in the arts. If not me then, who?"

Crewson was busy enough that she almost took a pass on taking the work in From the Vine, until producer Paula Brancati campaigned to entice her to join a project that took her to the charming mountaintop town of Acerenza in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata.

Brancati called and presented her with what she calls "the most seductive offer I have ever had" for the low-budget, independent feature, sending the script, the music for the film, and pictures of Acerenza.

"It was a funny thing because I had like three weeks in my schedule and I decided I wasnt going to work," Crewson recalls. "But I couldnt resist. It just felt like this little magical thing that somebody had just handed me the key for. How could you ever turn this down?

"So we went and lived in this tiny mountaintop town. You drove into the clouds and mist into this walled medieval town. It was one restaurant. No one spoke English. We were transported back in time and it was thrilling. We had the most incredible time shooting that movie."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?rel=0&wmode=transparent" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

Crewson acknowledges it was a bit of a novelty to play the romantic partner to Pantoliano, an actor whose career has generally rested in macho roles (The Sopranos, Bad Boys, The Matrix).

"Thats been the most gratifying thing," she says. "Hes a very dedicated actor and it was a big movie for him to carry in that role. Hes not used to being a leading man, and it was sweet that he was a bit nervous about it."

Crewson says a romantic winemaking scene she shared with Pantoliano stood out for her.

"Joes wife was there, she had come to visit, and she said, See, you finally get to kiss the girl," Crewson recalls.

"So that was fun to be able to do that. For all his tough-guy stuff, thats not who Joe is at all.

"What a sweet film this was to make."

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @FreepKing

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WWE NXT North American Champion & WWE NXT Champion Keith Lee opened this weeks show by thanking the WWE Universe for the support. He then called out his friend Dominik Dijakovic and revealed that he considers Dijakovic his biggest rival. He then challenged Dijakovic to a title match which the NXT superstar accepted. The two delivered a TakeOver-quality match filled with incredible moments. In the end, Keith Lee retained his title but was confronted by Scarlett who delivered a message from Karrion Kross.

According to various reports, Keith Lee will soon start a feud with the Ultimate Heel and the two will end up facing each other for the titles at an upcoming PPV. Fans are speculating that Keith Lee will defeat Karrion Kross in the future and go on to start feuds with other A-list superstars. Some also claim that Tommaso Ciampa could return and go after Keith Lees title.

Also Read l WWE NXT results: Keith Lee retains his title; Io Shirai defeats Tegan Nox: WWE News

WWE NXT results: Keith Lee defeats Dominik Dijakovic, retains his titles

The two powerhouses started the match by hitting each other with some vicious chops. The challenger soon found an opening and tried to take down Keith Lee, but the champion executed a rolling senton off the second rope. Dominik Dijakovic soon recovered and grounded the champion with a big Blockbuster which earned him two counts. He then tried to deliver a frog splash, but Keith Lee caught him mid-air and slammed him onto the mat. Keith Lee then executed the Big Bang Catastrophe to win the match and retain his titles.

Also Read l WWE NXT results: Lee defeats Balor, Gargano; Lumis defeats Strone: WWE News

WWE NXT results: Scarlett confronts Keith Lee on behalf of Karrion Kross

Keith Lee and Dominik Dijakovic hugged afterwards and celebrated Lees huge win. Right then, the lights went out and Scarlett walked down the ramp. She entered the ring and placed the shattered remains of the hourglass which Keith Lee broke while feuding with Adam Cole. Karrion Kross iconic Tick-Tock music hit to end the segment. Later, Dominik Dijakovic confronted Karrion Kross but ended up getting attacked by the monstrous heel. After the show, WWE announced that Karrion Kross will face Dominik Dijakovic on the next WWE NXT episode.

Also Read l WWE NXT Results/highlights: Lee vs Gargano vs Balor announced; Banks and Bayley win

Also Read l WWE NXT results and highlights: Gargano, LeRae win; Kross sends a message to Cole

Image Source: WWE.com
We are living through the largest real-world experiment of our time. As the COVID-19 crisis goes on, our homes have become a distributed platform from which we continue to perform our jobs while maintaining the necessary social distancing.

This experiment threatens to explode in our collective faces. During the COVID-19 emergency, business continuity and productivity have deteriorated significantly. Many people are working from home for the first time in their lives, employed by organizations that have not adapted their roles, processes, or tools to support that mode of operation.

Universal working from home may not be the new normal

What were experiencing right now is a mad scramble in which everybody is doing whatevers necessary to keep the economy from running off the rails.

If your work life is anything like mine, youve noticed that many organizations are struggling to manage even the most mundane processes as rapidly, accurately, or efficiently as they did before the pandemic hit. For example, I have had to put up with painful delays and screwups on several fronts of my lifefinancial, medical, legal, and technologicaldue to the fact that the involved personnel were suddenly required to work from home.

If these confused administrative processes are the new normal, then heaven help us. Those in the RPA (robotic process automation) market are positioning their technology as the best solution for this new age, but Im not at all sure it is.

RPA adds value in work-from-home processes but is no panacea

At first glance, RPA seems aligned with the work-from-home movement. One might regard RPA as the Trojan horse of the citizen programmer. It involves using configurable software to emulate how people carry out tasks when interacting with digital systems. By enabling knowledge workers to build applications from external interfaces, the technology requires little or no changes to existing IT systems. Consequently, it can be a surgical drop-in to application development and process design initiatives, enabling workers to boost their productivity by implementing lightweight orchestrations among built-up applications.

By the same token, RPA seems aligned with the trend toward pervasive automation as a means for controlling human-borne infectious diseases. Indeed one can attribute some recent tech-industry acquisitions, including IBMs of WDG Automation and Microsofts of Softomotive, as partly motivated by the need to accelerate the automation of administrative workflows that execute entirely or partly across work-from-home environments.

However, organizations are playing with fire if they drop RPA into the middle of the COVID-19 work-from-home scramble. Knowledge workers are already pulling their hair out trying to figure out how to do their jobs under standard operating procedures while working from home. Expecting those beleaguered workers to rethink and reprogram those processes from home feels like a recipe for disaster.

RPA can offer value in the current emergency by providing yet another channel for remote collaborative coding of administrative processes by IT personnel, not by the end-users who handle manual tasks in those processes. If you keep your RPA tools in the hands of traditional developerswho may themselves be working from homethey can avoid the chaos that comes when each individual worker is encouraged to automate his or her limited personal segment of a business process.

RPA can be key to business continuity

Another core use for RPA during the pandemic can be to ensure that both business and IT processes can weather any staff shortages that may result from particular workers taking sick time, being quarantined at home, or being locked out indefinitely from their usual offices.

In fact, the actual use cases reported by the RPA industry during this period are primarily for those situations, not for retooling these processes for a supposed new normal of everybody working from home. Indeed, RPA has been an essential tool for helping organizations maintain business continuity during this critical period even as their own personnel become sick or are quarantined. Automation Anywhere has solutions to help businesses allow their customer service agents to collaborate, communicate from anywhere, as well as ensure business continuity through aggregated contact-tracing data displayed on a health-status dashboard.

By the same token, the company is helping automate manual processing of World Health Organization clinical case forms to assess employee risks for managing COVID-19 in mainland China and to direct citizens in Macao to vital information through a public service dashboard.

No one knows the future

Lets not rush historys judgment on what will constitute the new normal of work when the pandemic wanes. People may be so worn out by social distancing that in-person social intimacy (brick-and-mortar retail, big splashy physical events, travel for business and pleasure) will come back in vogue. There may be a mass migration of workers back to normal multiperson offices, albeit ones that are disinfected regularly and rearranged for greater social distancing.

The current emergency has demonstrated how a mass contagion can endanger every aspect of a traditional business continuity plan. In the event of a stay-at-home order, primary and secondary disaster-recovery sites may all become equally off-limits to IT staff. Building and administering the software, hardware, and services that sustain business operations must be conducted at a distance. And by making in-person encounters potentially deadly, viral outbreaks make it difficult to complete day-to-day activitiesamong business and IT personnel equallythat involve such interactions.

In the likely future, organizations may continue to use RPA and other intelligent process automation solutions, but partly as business continuity enablers in case pandemics and similar emergencies require distributing key work processes yet again.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16

Trend:

Azerbaijan certainly is a rich and self-sufficient country but it will not waste money, Spokesman for Azerbaijans Defense Ministry, Colonel Vagif Dargahli said, Trend reports on July 16.

Dargahli was commenting on the information disseminated by representative of the Armenian Ministry of Defense Artsrun Hovhannisyan that resident of Chinari village of Armenias Tavush district Aramayis Hovakimyan was allegedly injured as a result of a strike by a combat drone of the Azerbaijani army.

"Firstly, as I said earlier, we never fire at the settlements, the spokesman said. Secondly, there are more important goals for our UAVs than a mere peasant, such as, for example, the positions of the Armenian army. Thats what we are doing."
The man who functioned as the chief of police for the Ansar Dine extremists who took over the historic Malian city in 2012, destroying medieval shrines and manuscripts and terrorizing the citys inhabitants, has been formally indicted at the International Criminal Court. Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoude declined to enter pleas on 16 charges.  BBC
A woman rides past the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on July 13, 2020 at Wall Street in New York City.

Here are the companies making headlines in midday trading:

Morgan Stanley  Shares of the bank rose 2.5% after it reported strong trading revenues and better-than-expected earnings for the second quarter. CEO James Gorman told CNBC that the bank was well-positioned to possibly increase its dividend and resume buybacks in 2021.

Peloton  Shares of the stationary bike maker fell 2.9% following a downgrade to neutral from buy at UBS. The Wall Street firm said the stock is fairly valued and UBS sees limited upside for the stock that has already gained more than 120% this year.

Twitter  Twitter fell more than 1% after several high-profile accounts were hacked as part of a digital currency scam. The accounts of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, presidential candidate Joe Biden and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

American Airlines  Shares of the airline fell more than 7% after sending 25,000 workers warnings of potential furloughs, amid the drop in air travel demand due to the pandemic. American also announced a partnership with JetBlue Thursday that will allow the airlines to sell seats on each other's planes.

Bank of America  The financial institution's shares fell 2.7% despite beating expectations on the top and bottom lines for the second quarter. Bank of America did increase its provisions for credit losses by $4 billion and saw interest income decline by 11% during the quarter.

Nikola  Shares of the electric vehicle company fell by 3.8% after Deutsche Bank initiated coverage of the stock with a hold rating. The bank said in a note that the stock's valuation represents the mid-term potential of the company "without necessarily discounting the risks."

Tesla  The volatile electric vehicle stock fell by 2.9% more than 4% on Thursday. Citi bank nearly doubled its price target for the stock, but the new price was still more than $1,000 below where trading closed on Wednesday.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings  The cruise stock plunged more than 15% after Norwegian announced a new round of financing to help it stay afloat during the pandemic. The financing includes a secondary stock offering of $250 million.

Alcoa  Shares of the aluminum company rose 6.3% after it reported a smaller-than-expected loss for the second quarter. The company reported an adjusted loss of 2 cents per share, which was in the range of guidance given last week. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv had expected a loss of 38 cents per share.

Sleep Number  The mattress stock dropped 9.2% after the company reported a 20% decline in net sales year-over-year for the second quarter. The company did not issue new guidance, citing the ongoing uncertainty caused by the pandemic.

 CNBC's Maggie Fitzgerald and Fred Imbert contributed to this story.
Florida reported the largest one-day rise in deaths since the pandemic began and its second-largest increase in cases.

The US has passed 3.5 million total infections on Thursday morning and recorded more than 137,000 reported deaths.

Indias coronavirus cases have surged another 32,695, taking the nation closer to one million and forcing a new lockdown in the popular western beach state of Goa two weeks after it was reopened to tourists.

Brazils President Jair Bolsonaro is again touting the supposed benefits of malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19, as he tests positive for the virus again.

More than 13.5 million people around the world have been diagnosed with COVID-19, while more than 7.5 million have recovered and more than 582,000 have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Here are the latest updates.

Thursday, July 16

23:39 GMT  Most Americans think it is unsafe to reopen schools: Poll

Only one in four Americans think it is safe for public schools to reopen as US coronavirus cases climb, and four in 10 parents say they would likely keep their children home if classes resume, a new Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll shows.

The response was split along party lines: half of Republicans said they thought schools were safe, compared with only one in 10 Democrats.

More on this story here.

22:24 GMT  Doctors in Colombia warn that health system is close to collapse

Doctors in Bogota, Colombia are calling for a return to a strict city-wide quarantine to slow coronavirus infections in the nations capital, warning that medical services are close to collapsing, a leading medic said on Thursday.

The Andean country has reported over 165,000 cases of the coronavirus and around 6,000 deaths. Bogota accounts for more than a third of the countrys total cases and over 20 percent of its deaths.

Were in a critical situation, the president of the Bogota College of Medicine, Herman Bayona, told the Reuters News Agency. We are close to collapse.

Colombian President Ivan Duque declared an ongoing quarantine to slow the spread of the coronavirus in late March.

20:35 GMT  More US states mandate masks to staunch coronavirus pandemic

More US state governors required residents to wear face-coverings in public, siding with the view that mask mandates are necessary to fight a worsening coronavirus pandemic rather than simply a matter of personal choice.

Shoppers wearing face masks are pictured in the parking area of a Walmart Superstore [Mario Anzuoni/Reuters]

The Democratic governor of Colorado, Jared Polis, announced he was requiring most people to wear face coverings in public indoor spaces, such as stores and businesses.

The Republican governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson, issued a similar statewide mandate, while Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, also a Republican, widened his earlier directive to include more people.

About half of the 50 US states have now put face-covering mandates in place.

20:20 GMT  Defiance grows as Georgia governor blocks local mask rules

Mayors in Atlanta and other Georgia cities deepened their defiance of Governor Brian Kemp, saying they want their requirements for people to wear masks in public to remain in place, even after the Republican governor explicitly forbade cities and counties from mandating face coverings.

Officials in at least 15 Georgia cities and counties, including Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, had ordered masks during the coronavirus pandemic, and many are venting outrage at Kemp swatting down their efforts.





Kemp does not disagree, saying he strongly supports mask-wearing to combat the spread of COVID-19 infections. He travelled the state earlier this month to encourage face coverings.

But he has maintained for weeks that cities and counties do not have the authority to require masks in public places, saying no local order can be more or less restrictive than his statewide mandates.

Georgia, overall, had nearly 128,000 confirmed infections and nearly 3,100 deaths overall as of Wednesday, although experts say many more people contract the illness but are never tested.

18:45 GMT  US announces borders with Mexico, Canada to stay shut to August 20

US Homeland Security Acting Secretary Chad Wolf announced that borders with Mexico and Canada would remain shut to most travel to stem to spread of the coronavirus for another month to August 20.

Confirming reports days earlier from Canada that Washington had renewed the four-month-old shutdown, Wolf said the decision represented the success of collaboration on the COVID-19 pandemic.

But it also comes as new US confirmed infections hit a record 67,632 on Wednesday and deaths surpassed 137,000, underscoring the failure of the US government to get the disease under control.

In Canada, the leaders of several provinces had spoken out against reopening the border with the US due to its surge in cases.

Canada has recorded more than 8,800 deaths and more than 108,000 cases, while Mexican cases have topped 317,000 and the number of deaths is nearing 37,000.

18:30 GMT  Brazil nears 2 million coronavirus cases, with 75,000 dead

The country hit at least 75,000 confirmed deaths on Wednesday and is expected to report two million confirmed cases of COVID-19 by Thursday evening.

Even as cases wane somewhat in the biggest and hardest-hit Brazilian cities, the virus is peaking in new locations across the largest country in Latin America.





Experts blame denial of the virus deadly potential by President Jair Bolsonaro and lack of national coordination combined with scattershot responses by city and state governments, with some reopening earlier than health experts recommended.

Brazils roughly 7,000 COVID-19 deaths in each of the last seven weeks are equal to several aeroplanes packed with Brazilians crashing every day, former Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta told AP.

With nearly two million cases, Brazil is second only to the US and experts believe the number to be an undercount due to widespread lack of testing.

18:03 GMT  UK begins easing lockdown in COVID-19 hotspot Leicester

The British government eased lockdown restrictions imposed upon the COVID-19 hotspot of Leicester, but said the English city was still suffering above-average infection rates and some restrictions must remain.

Were now in a position to relax some, but not all of the restrictions that were in place, Hancock said. The situation would be reviewed again in two weeks, he added.

17:40 GMT  Virus was direct cause of death for 89 percent of Italian COVID-19 victims

The new coronavirus has directly caused the death of nine out of 10 of Italian COVID-19 victims, a study released said.

Since discovering its first infections in February, Italy has reported some 35,000 COVID-19 fatalities.

The study published by the Superior Health Institute and National Statistics Institute ISTAT showed the coronavirus was the direct cause of death for 89 percent of the 4,942 victims in the sample.

A patient is carried on a stretcher from a nursing home to a hospital [Remo Casilli/Reuters]

The remaining 11 percent had coronavirus but died as a direct result of other medical conditions, including heart disease, cancer and dementia.

However, the virus might have aggravated their condition and accelerated their death.

The study was based on deaths reported at the end of May, when Italy had already loosened its rigid lockdown rules.

17:35 GMT  Filipino Nurses: New Yorks Frontliners

An estimated 150,000 Filipino nurses work in the US, earning up to 30 times more than they could back home.

But at what cost?

Many nurses work long hours, some juggling multiple jobs to support their families. Others are exploited, intimidated and forced into indentured labour.

Now Filipino nurses are on the front lines of New Yorks COVID-19 crisis, some losing their lives as they battle to keep Americans alive. Meanwhile, the Philippines is facing a dire shortage of medical workers at this critical time.

Al Jazeeras 101 East investigates the price of chasing the American Dream.





15:50 GMT  Florida reports biggest one-day increase in COVID-19 deaths

Florida reported the largest one-day increase in deaths from the novel coronavirus since the pandemic began and its second-largest increase in cases ever.

Florida announced 13,965 new cases, bringing the total number of cases in the state and the centre of the latest outbreak to over 315,775, according to the state health department.

Floridas COVID deaths rose by 156 to a total of 4,782, surpassing its previous one-day record of 133 new deaths on July 12.

Hospitalisations of patients with COVID-19 was the highest ever reported at 8,626 currently hospitalised, up 321 in the past 24 hours, according to a state agency.

15:15 GMT  EU puts Serbia and Montenegro on virus warning list

European Union members removed Montenegro and Serbia from a list of countries deemed to have the coronavirus outbreak under relative control, effectively reintroducing a travel ban.





Governments have restricted inbound travel from outside the EU in order to slow the spread of the epidemic, but on July 1 began reopening their borders to travellers from certain areas.

The list of countries that meet the criteria  where the 14-day number of new cases is stable or falling and lower than the EU average  includes Canada, South Korea and Japan.

But it does not include the US, which has the worlds biggest outbreak, and China will only be confirmed on condition that it reciprocally opens up to EU-based travellers.

15:10 GMT  Zimbabwe doctors to join nurses on strike as virus cases rise

Senior doctors in Zimbabwes public health service have threatened to walk out over low pay and lack of coronavirus protective gear, in the latest dispute to plague the countrys battered health system.

Some 15,000 nurses have been on strike for two weeks over wages that have been hit by galloping inflation.

Coronavirus infections are rising rapidly, reaching 1,089 cases including 20 fatalities, according to official figures.

We are finding it difficult to continue offering services in our work stations because of a number of challenges  for which no solution has been proffered, the Zimbabwe Senior Hospital Doctors Association said.

Its notice to strike, seen by AFP on Thursday, takes effect in two weeks.

14:37 GMT  Portuguese officers raid clinics claiming ozone therapy cures COVID-19

Portuguese police detained five people after raiding health clinics allegedly exploiting the coronavirus pandemic by claiming ozone therapy prevents or cures the disease.

In a statement, Portugals criminal investigation police agency, the PJ, said the suspects allegedly took advantage of the fragility and vulnerability of people afraid of the virus or even infected.

The clinics  not named by the PJ  may have contributed to the spread of the disease, the police said, adding they also conducted various tests, namely to detect the coronavirus, without holding a licence or meeting the required standards.

14:05 GMT  Republicans to limit national convention attendance in Florida

Republicans will significantly limit the number of attendees at the partys national convention in Jacksonville, Florida, in August, as coronavirus cases continue to spike sharply across the state.

Only the approximately 2,500 regular delegates will be permitted to attend the first three nights of the four-night event, according to a Republican source with knowledge of the plans.

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On the final evening, when President Donald Trump is scheduled to formally accept the Republican presidential nomination and address the convention, delegates will be allowed to bring one guest, and alternate delegates will also be invited, bringing the crowd to around 6,000 to 7,000 people.

The bulk of the convention had already been moved from Charlotte, North Carolina last month after the states governor refused to permit a full-capacity crowd.

Since then, however, Florida has seen an explosion of coronavirus cases. The state has limited indoor gatherings to 50 percent of a venues capacity.

13:53 GMT  UK, US, Canada accuse Russia of hacking virus vaccine trials

The United Kingdom, the United States and Canada have accused Russia of trying to steal information from researchers seeking a COVID-19 vaccine.

The three nations alleged that hacking group APT29, also known as Cozy Bear and said to be part of the Russian intelligence service, is attacking academic and pharmaceutical research institutions involved in coronavirus vaccine development.





It is completely unacceptable that the Russian Intelligence Services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement.

While others pursue their selfish interests with reckless behaviour, the UK and its allies are getting on with the hard work of finding a vaccine and protecting global health.

TASS cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying Russia had nothing to do with any alleged hacker attacks on pharmaceutical companies and research institutes in the UK.

RIA cited Peskov as saying the Kremlin rejected Londons allegations, which he said were not backed by proper evidence.

Read more here

12:35 GMT  France imposes indoor public mask-wearing

France will make the wearing of face masks compulsory in indoor public spaces from next week, the government has said, as officials noted signs of an uptick in the coronavirus outbreak.

Already obligatory gear on collective transport, masks will also become mandatory in shops and other indoor places frequented by the public, Prime Minister Jean Castex said in the Senate.

The wearing of a mask, along with barrier measures (such as social distancing and regular hand-washing) is an effective method of prevention and protection, he said.

12:20 GMT  Netanyahu faces pushback on money-for-all coronavirus plan

Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a lukewarm reception from his main coalition partner and the head of the central bank to a plan to grant money to all Israelis to revive the economy during the coronavirus crisis.

Netanyahu announced the six billion shekel ($1.75bn) package amid public anger and protests over his handling of the pandemic

Under the plan, which requires cabinet approval, individuals and households without children will receive one-time payments of just 750 shekels ($218), while families will receive roughly $600 to $900, depending on the number of children they have.

But the Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, of the centrist Blue and White party that has partnered with Netanyahus Likud in the government, said the money should instead be targeted at the poorest citizens.

Read more here.

12:05 GMT  Peru president reshuffles cabinet as COVID-19 takes its toll

Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra has reshuffled his cabinet as the country desperately tries to get on top of its worsening coronavirus crisis.

The number of deaths is rapidly rising, and it is hitting disadvantaged Peruvians the hardest.

Al Jazeeras Mariana Sanchez reports from Lima, Peru:





11:45 GMT  Africa CDC wants local vaccine manufacturing

As the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic crashes across Africa, the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the intellectual property from any effective vaccine should be made available for local manufacturing and swifter distribution.

John Nkengasong also told reporters that Africas 1.3 billion people have all kinds of differences in genetic makeup, so we want to be sure that we are participating fully in vaccine trials.

Africa has had more than 644,000 confirmed virus cases, nearly half in South Africa alone.

11:15 GMT  Ukrainians tired of lockdown, says president

Ukrainians are fed up with the coronavirus lockdown and the government should be cautious about extending it beyond August, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday.

Everyone is tired of this quarantine, the presidential press service quoted him as telling government officials.

Ukraine imposed strict restrictions in March but partially eased them in May to allow economic recovery.

Ukraine imposed strict restrictions in March [File: Reuters]

11:00 GMT  Jordan says to reopen airport for commercial flights next month

Jordan has said it will partially resume commercial flights from August to a limited number of European and Asian countries on an internationally approved safe list.

Government spokesman Amjad Adailah told state-owned Al Mamlaka TV that regular commercial flights from Alia international airport, suspended since March, could begin in the first or second week of August.

Passengers from the safe country list that includes Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Greece, Hong Kong and Thailand would be allowed into Jordan and the list could extend depending on the state of the pandemic, he added.

10:45 GMT  Chinas Sinopharm begins late-stage trial of COVID-19 vaccine in UAE

Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical company Sinopharm has begun Phase III clinical trials of a COVID-19 vaccine in Abu Dhabi using up to 15,000 volunteers, the government in the capital of the United Arab Emirates said on Thursday.

The human trial is a partnership between Sinopharms China National Biotec Group (CNBG), Abu Dhabi-based artificial intelligence and cloud computing company Group 42 (G42) and the Abu Dhabi Department of Health.

10:30 GMT  Malta marks a week without new coronavirus cases

Malta has marked a week without new coronavirus cases, the first since the virus was detected there for the first time on March 7.

Health Minister Chris Fearne confirmed in a tweet that no new cases had been detected for a week. The last was a single case on July 9.

We must continue to be prudent to maintain our success, he said.

Malta saw 674 cases and nine deaths in almost four months but now only has four active cases of the virus, the rest having recovered. The Mediterranean island has benefitted from its small size by employing a high rate of testing  with some 20 percent of the population tested  and contact tracing.

The Mediterranean island has benefitted from its small size by employing a high rate of testing [File: Reuters]

10:15 GMT  Spains football fans unlikely to return in September

Spains health minister has expressed doubt about the prospect of spectators returning to football matches in September due to the threat of a resurgence in COVID-19 infections.

The governments department for sport and organising body La Liga had hoped to let fans back into stadiums at a reduced capacity when the new season starts in September, increasing to 50 percent in November before full capacity returned in January.

Yet a spike in infections since Spain lifted a national state of emergency in June has led some regions to impose localised lockdowns and limit activities, threatening the return to normality.

Barcelonas Lionel Messi reacts, as play resumes behind closed doors following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease [File: Albert Gea/Reuters]

10:00 GMT  Russia to mass-produce experimental COVID-19 vaccine

Russia plans to produce 30 million doses of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine domestically this year, with the potential to manufacture a further 170 million abroad, the head of the countrys sovereign wealth fund told Reuters.

The first human trial of the vaccine, a monthlong test on 38 people, ended this week. Researchers concluded that it is safe for use and induces an immune response, though the strength of that response is as yet unclear.

A larger Phase III trial involving several thousand people is expected to begin in August, said Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) head Kirill Dmitriev.





09:45 GMT  Hungary cancels national holiday celebrations due to pandemic

Hungary has cancelled celebrations and fireworks scheduled for the August 20 national holiday due to the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Viktor Orbans chief of staff Gergely Gulyas said.

Hungary lifted most of the restrictions it introduced to curb the spread of the coronavirus in May. Concerts and festivals with crowds of more than 500 people will not be allowed until August 15.

The celebrations on August 20 normally attract tens of thousands of people in Budapest.





09:30 GMT  India to allow Hindu pilgrims to Kashmir despite coronavirus risk

Authorities in Indian-administered Kashmir have decided to allow Hindu pilgrims to visit the Himalayan cave shrine of Amarnath, a decision Kashmiri analysts say contradicts the governments coronavirus lockdown policy.

The annual Amarnath Yatra (journey), which receives hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from across India, will likely begin on July 21, but this year it has been shortened to two weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Read more here.

Hindu pilgrims undertake their journey towards the sacred Amarnath Caves [File: Tauseef Mustafa/AFP]

09:15 GMT  Indonesia reports 1,574 new coronavirus infections, 76 new death

Indonesia has reported 1,574 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of infections to 81,668 its health ministry said.

Indonesia also reported 76 new coronavirus deaths, taking the overall death toll to 3,873, ministry official Achmad Yurianto told a televised news briefing.

09:00 GMT  Pakistan reports lowest number of daily deaths

Pakistan has reported its lowest number of daily COVID-19 deaths in about a month.

It recorded 40 deaths in the past 24 hours on Thursday, compared to the highest single-day toll of 153 on June 19.

Pakistan has recorded 257,914 confirmed cases, including 2,145 in the past 24 hours, and 5,426 fatalities.

Until weeks ago, Pakistan had witnessed a 20 percent infection rate as a result of daily testing [File: The Associated Press]

08:45 GMT  Social distancing, lockdowns linked to reduction in COVID-19 cases: Study

Earlier implementation of lockdown has been associated with a larger reduction in the incidence of COVID-19, a new study by the BMJ found (PDF).

Data from 149 countries showed that the incidence of COVID-19 cases decreased by an average of 13 percent in association with physical distancing interventions, the study read.

According to the research no evidence was found of additional benefits from the closure of public transport when four other physical distancing measures  school closures, workplace closure, restrictions on mass gatherings and lockdown  were in place.

Data from 149 countries showed that the incidence of covid-19 decreased by an average of 13% in association with physical distancing interventions, finds this natural experiment #BMJResearch https://t.co/hLJyOFUt3p  The BMJ (@bmj_latest) July 16, 2020

08:30 GMT  Uzbek leader chides officials over deplorable COVID-19 situation

Uzbekistans president has criticised his health minister and the mayor of Tashkent over their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, warning that the situation in the capital was deplorable and causing popular discontent.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyevs comments were the first official acknowledgement that Central Asias most populous nation is having problems coping with the new coronavirus.

The former Soviet republic of 34 million imposed a second nationwide lockdown this month and has confirmed 14,581 COVID-19 cases, with 71 deaths.

FILE PHOTO: Uzbek president Shavkat Mirziyoyev attends a news conference with his Kazakh counterpart Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in Tashkent, Uzbekistan April 15, 2019. REUTERS/Mukhtar Kholdorbekov/File Photo

08:15 GMT  China becomes first economy to grow since virus pandemic

China has become the first major economy to grow since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, recording an unexpectedly strong 3.2 percent expansion in the latest quarter after antivirus lockdowns were lifted and factories and stores reopened.

Growth reported Thursday for the three months ending in June was a dramatic improvement over the previous quarters 6.8 percent contraction  Chinas worst performance since at least the mid:1960s. But it still was the weakest positive figure since China started reporting quarterly growth in the early 1990s.









08:00 GMT  Trump administration distances itself from latest attack on Fauci

The White House has distanced itself from a scathing attack made on the countrys top infectious diseases expert by a senior adviser.

It follows an oped in the US media criticising Dr Anthony Fauci. President Donald Trump said he has a good relationship with Fauci and the article was unacceptable.

Al Jazeeras Mike Hanna reports from Washington, DC :





07:45 GMT  Russias coronavirus case tally passes 750,000

Russias official coronavirus case tally has reached 752,797 on Thursday, the fourth largest in the world, after authorities reported 6,428 new cases in the last 24 hours.

In their daily readout, officials said 167 people had died overnight, pushing the official death toll to 11,937.

07:30 GMT  Dakar Youth Olympics postponed by four years to 2026

The 2022 Dakar Youth Olympics have been postponed by four years, in further fallout from delaying the Tokyo Olympics to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said the decision was discussed two days ago in a telephone conversation with Senegal President Macky Sall. It means Africa will have to wait until 2026 for the continents first Olympic hosting duty.

This was really too heavy workload for everybody, Bach said during an online news conference, citing the 2020 Tokyo Olympics now opening one year later.





07:15 GMT  Spain pays tribute to virus victims

Spain is paying homage to the nations victims of the new coronavirus and workers who put their lives at risk during the worst of the pandemic, with a solemn ceremony in Madrid.

Relatives of around 100 people who died during the pandemic, representatives of medical personnel, police and other essential workers are joining King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, government authorities and officials from the European Union and the World Health Organization at an esplanade in Madrids Royal Palace.





06:45 GMT  Venezuela tightens antivirus measures in capital

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has announced a tightening of coronavirus containment measures in the capital Caracas and neighbouring Miranda state.

In spite of being one of the least affected in Latin America in the early stages of the pandemic, Venezuela has seen an alarming rise in cases and deaths recently.

This week Venezuela surpassed 10,000 confirmed infections, although the opposition and organizations such as Human Rights Watch believe the true numbers are much greater.

Maduro announced he would authorise the transformation of the Poliedro de Caracas  the countrys largest entertainment centre  into a COVID-19 field hospital [File: AFP]

Hi, this is Elizabeth Melimopoulos in Doha taking over the live updates from my colleague Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur.

04:45 GMT  Novartis to provide no profit COVID-19 drugs to developing countries

Swiss drugmaker Novartis will provide 15 generic drugs for treating the symptoms of coronavirus to developing countries on a not-for-profit basis.

The drugs range from antibiotics to steroids and pills for diarrhoea, and will be provided to 79 low and lower-middle-income countries.

We shouldnt underestimate the stress that COVID puts particularly on fragile health systems, Chief Operating Officer Lutz Hegermann told Reuters news agency in an interview.

04:30 GMT  Worlds biggest medical glove maker faces US trade sanctions over forced labour allegations

US Customs and Border Protection said two of Malaysian medical glove maker Top Gloves units will be subject to Detention Orders, meaning all their exports to the US must stop, and products already en route will be seized and destroyed.

Top Glove has been under fire over its treatment of migrant workers amid allegations that the recruitment fees the workers have to pay leave them in debt bondage.

Top Glove did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The two subsidiaries together employ about 6,525 non-Malaysian workers, according to labour rights activist Andy Hall.





3:30 GMT  China economy bounces back after virus plunge

Chinas GDP rose by 3.2 percent in the three months ending in June compared with the same period a year ago, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics.

The economy slumped 6.8 percent in the previous quarter  the first such contraction since 1992.

Its very much a story of government stimulus-led recovery, Rodrigo Catril, a foreign exchange strategist at NAB in Sydney told Reuters. The consumer remains very cautious.

03:05 GMT  Bangladesh arrests hospital owner over fake tests

Bangladesh has arrested 42-year-old Mohammad Shahed, a hospital owner accused of faking thousands of coronavirus test results, after nine days on the run, AFP news agency says.

He was arrested from the bank of a border river as he was trying to flee to India, AFP quoted Rapid Action Battalion spokesman Colonel Ashique Billah as saying. He was wearing a burqa.

Shaheds hospitals claimed to have conducted 10,500 tests, but only 4,200 were genuine, the spokesman said, while the rest were issued negative certificates without running the test. More than a dozen people have been arrested over the alleged scam.

Read more here.

Hospital owner Mohammad Shahed accompanied by RAB officers after his arrest [AFP]

02:50 GMT  Tokyo facing record daily high in cases

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike says daily cases in the capital are likely to top 280 on Thursday. That would be the highest since the start of the outbreak.

Its still incomplete, but Im hearing the number will be above 280, she told reporters. More than 4,000 tests are being conducted, she added.

02:35 GMT  China gives approval for early-stage human trials of vaccine

China has given the green light to phase-one clinical trials of a potential coronavirus vaccine using BioNtechs technology.

Fosun Pharma says it plans to start the trial of BNT162b1 as soon as possible once it is ready.

This is the ninth potential vaccine to move into various stages of human testing in China.

02:15 GMT  Japans domestic tourism campaign under fire

Officials in Japan are questioning the governments plans to boost domestic tourism amid a surge in coronavirus cases in the capital.

Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike questioned the wisdom of the plan on Wednesday and rural officials also weighed in. On Thursday, a panel of experts is due to discuss the multibillion-dollar Go To promotion, which would offer subsidised travel to people visiting areas outside Tokyo and is due to start on July 22.

The governor has just announced the latest number of new cases in the capital.

BREAKING: Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike reports at least 280 new cases of COVID-19 pic.twitter.com/lYvgMjLCS0  The Japan Times (@japantimes) July 16, 2020

01:15 GMT  Australian state of Victoria reports record daily cases

The Australian state of Victoria has just given its daily update on coronavirus, reporting 317 new cases  a record for Australia. Two men in their 80s were also confirmed to have died from the disease.

#BREAKING: VIC has recorded 317 new cases of COVID-19  the biggest daily increase in any jurisdiction since the pandemic began. 28 linked to known outbreaks, 289 under investigation. Two men in their 80s have also died, taking the national toll to 113. @abcnews @COVID_Australia  Chelsea Hetherington (@chelsea_hetho) July 16, 2020

00:30 GMT  Bolsonaro touts unproven drug, tests positive for coronavirus again

Brazils President Jair Bolsonaro continues to tout hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for coronavirus even though there is little evidence that it works.

Bolsonaro, who tested positive for COVID-19 for a second time on Wednesday, shared a video on social media extolling the benefits of the controversial malaria drug.

Scientists are not so convinced about the benefits. Doctors warn of serious side effects, and a study in May found a higher risk of death in COVID patients.

Brazils President Jair Bolsonaro observes a ceremony to lower the Brazilian flag for the night at the Alvorada Palace as he continues to battle the coronavirus [Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters]

23:00 GMT  Spain cracks down on partying tourists

Authorities on the Spanish island of Majorca have ordered bars on popular party streets in Magaluf and Palma to close, for fear that congregating tourists will trigger a surge in coronavirus cases.

The island is popular with German and British holidaymakers, and the regional government had already introduced heavy fines for anyone organising illegal parties or flouting rules on physical distancing and face masks.

It ordered the closures after video emerged of mainly German tourists carousing around bars and terraces as if no one had ever heard of the corona pandemic, according to the German-language publication Mallorca Zeitung.

::::

Hello and welcome to Al Jazeeras continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Im Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur.

Read all the updates from yesterday here.
In a bill that could expand bankruptcy laws, U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D., Pa.) is expected to introduce federal legislation Thursday that would allow student debtors hurt financially by the coronavirus to file for bankruptcy and discharge their college loans.

Why are we providing protections to banks and servicers of student loans? Given where were at now, it has to change, said Scanlon, whose district includes Delaware County and parts of South Philadelphia and Montgomery County.

The intent [of the bill] is to create bankruptcy relief to Americans already struggling with debt who are affected during this immediate crisis.

The bill, called the COVID-19 Student 5 Loan Relief Act of 2020, would apply to all Americans affected by the pandemic, whether they hold federal or private student loans. That makes Scanlons bill more fine-tuned than legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadlers Student Borrower Bankruptcy Relief Act of 2019.

Currently, about 44 million Americans carry student loan debt, totaling about $1.6 trillion. Roughly 34 million Americans have filed for unemployment.

 READ MORE: Federal student loan payments are officially suspended through early fall as Senate Democrats seek to extend relief to private loans

Would students game the system [by filing when they dont qualify]? Theres no evidence to support that. Its crazy that this is the case in our current economic climate, even before COVID, said Scanlon. Current cosponsors are all Democrats, including Nadler of New York, David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Alma Adams of North Carolina, Jesus Chuy Garcia of Illinois, and Juan Vargas of California. Scanlon said she hopes to get Republican House sponsors. But the bill would need more bipartisan support to pass the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate.

Today, bankruptcy laws typically dont offer Americans any chance of debt relief for student loans.

Scanlons bill would amend Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code to allow federal and private student loans to be dischargeable for any American whose income has been reduced during, or as a result of, the COVID-19 outbreak, or who has had a primary income earner in their family member die, or become permanently disabled, as a result of COVID-19.

The full text is available here: https://scanlon.house.gov/UploadedFiles/CSLRA_Bill.pdf.

There are income limits to prevent wealthier Americans from using the bankruptcy option: Income must have declined by at least 20%, and the prior years income of the debtor must have been less than $75,000; or income fell by at least 30%, and the prior years income totaled $75,000 to $125,000; or income dropped by at least 40%, and the prior years income was equal to or greater than $125,000.

 READ MORE: Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro to host Philly meeting on student debt crisis

Henry Sommer, a Philadelphia lawyer on the legislative committee for the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, said Scanlon has a history of being involved in consumer issues and student loans.

Before 1978, he said, student loans were dischargeable in bankruptcy, but over time that eroded. By 1997, Congress eliminated the discharge of government loans, unless there was undue hardship, and then in 2005 private student loans also became nondischargeable.

The average number of households seeking personal bankruptcy in a typical year comes to about 700,000, he said. Thats down from about 1.5 million during the 2008-2009 financial crisis.

Student loan debt in Pennsylvania is among the highest per capita in the nation, averaging about $36,000 per graduate, in part because colleges here are more expensive and get less state support.

Its an enormous drag on the economy, Sommer said. Those indebted include older Americans whose Social Security benefits may be garnisheed to pay off student loans.

 READ MORE: How these Philly adults manage college debt of up to $229,000 | Debt Valley

The Scanlon bill is a moderate remedy compared to forgiveness, for example, because under this bill, you still have to meet the requirements to file for bankruptcy, including passing a financial means test, he said.

Even some of the nations largest student loan servicers, including Navient, of Wilmington, have expressed tacit support for bankruptcy reform.

We recognize that some student borrowers face long-term financial challenges, wrote Navient CEO Jack Remondi in 2017. This is why, for several years, Navient has recommended bankruptcy reform that would allow federal and private student loans to be dischargeable in bankruptcy after making a good-faith effort to repay.
The Federal Government on Wednesday opened a fresh bid to select contractors to provide potable water in oil spill impacted Ogoni communities in Rivers State.

The Project Coordinator, Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), Marvin Dekil, said at the opening of the bid in Port Harcourt that the Project was an initiative of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Report on Ogoniland.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that UNEP in 2011 recommended the provision of running water for Ogoni communities whose underground water got polluted by decades-long oil spills.

Mr Dekil said that HYPREP, under the Federal Ministry of Environment, would coordinate the water projects in Eleme, Gokana, Khana and Tai areas covering Ogoniland to ensure early completion.

"So, today we are opening bids for six lots to six competent companies to provide potable water to various locations in the four local government areas of Ogoniland.

"We are optimistic that we will secure contractors that will immediately be mobilised to sites within the next three to five weeks.

"The water project will be done simultaneously with remediation works currently ongoing in 57 sites spread across the areas," he said.

Mr Dekil said that no fewer than 40 companies had submitted their expression of interest to participate in the bidding for the project.

He said that the Minister of Environment, Mohammed Abubakar, and HYPREP had agreed to spread the project to communities not directly impacted by oil spillage.

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"In addition, the water that we are going to provide in Ogoni communities will meet the United Nations and World Health Organisation standards.

"Ogali, Kpean, Nsisioken, Korokoro, K-Dere and B-Dere communities in Ogoni are the communities that UNEP identified for the water projects.

"So, these communities will get the six lots in the first phase of the water project, while others will benefit from subsequent phases as we progress.

"At the end, we will have a central borehole from which water will be reticulated to the impacted communities and many others our budget can carry," he added.

The project coordinator assured that the bidding process would be done in line with guidelines of the procurement act with collaboration from Rivers State Ministry of Water Resources.

According to him, the exercise will adhere strictly to protocols on COVID-19 to safeguard participants. (NAN)
A teenager who snuck out of school to kill his grandfather claims the victim had been 'creepy' to his sister - as he's thrown behind bars for 16 years.

The 17-year-old stabbed the elderly man 24 times at the front door of his Melbourne home in August, 2019.

The boy who can't be identified, was 16 years old at the time, and returned to school just moments after the vicious attack.

Upon confessing to the murder, the teen said his sister told him their grandfather had stood naked in front of her and given her beer when she was just a child.

A 17-year-old boy has been jailed for 16 years after stabbing his grandfather to death at his home in Melbourne. Pictured forensic detectives at the scene

One the morning of the attack, the teen had arrived at his grandfather's house armed with a knife and a black hoodie over his school uniform.

He then punched the elderly man in his face as he tried to run to the neighbours' home for help.

The teenager then attacked his grandfather in the front yard, stabbing him in the neck, back and shoulders.

By the time a neighbour ran out to help, the teenager had fled back to school at about 9.20am, dumping his hoodie in the toilets.

It was two months before he was identified as the attacker when classmates were shown CCTV footage by police.

The schoolboy was later found to have googled 'how many years imprisonment for murder in Australia'.

Upon searching his home, eight knives were found in the teen's bedroom including one with his grandfather's DNA on it.

The 17-year-old on Thursday was sentenced to 16 years in prison at the Victorian Supreme Court.

During a police interview, the 17-year-old confessed to the murder.

'He wasn't exactly a nice man. He was also a bit of a creep and he did some things that were creepy to my sister,' he said.

'He didn't put his hands on her but some of the things he did shouldn't have been done.

'You don't mess with my sister, no way. I did what I had to do.'

Justice Paul Coghlan said mental health experts explained the teenager held hatred towards his mother's side of the family which includes his grandfather, after his parents' divorce.

'He considers his grandfather and  people who sexually abuse children to be worthless,' Justice Coghlan said, News.com.au reported.

Justice Coghlan said he believed the stabbing wasn't premeditated but that it was a 'brutal murder borne out of anger'.

'Unlike the predominant majority of young men who come before this court, you have no experience with the criminal justice system,' he said.

Justice Coghlan said the boy regretted the pain he caused his father and sister but had limited regret for his mother and her extended family for the death of her father.

The 17-year-old will be eligible for parole in 11 years.
LOCAL news outlets, including ours, are currently awash with news items and commentaries on issues related to Tanzania's General Election slated for October this year.

And since, metaphorically put, Tanzania is not an island detached from the rest of the world but part of it, and to which the "world is a global village" characterization is pegged, foreign media outlets are also demonstrating considerable interest in the goings on in the Land of Kilimanjaro.

The interest, at home and beyond the borders, is understandable, because it is from the election that every democratic country gets men and women who compose the major components of the machinery that is at the core of national governance.

It is the election that produces the President, who is head of the executive, and members of parliament who compose the legislature.

Lately, one of the issues on which much attention is focused is the emergence of several individuals who are picking forms for seeking the endorsement of the ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) to become flag bearers in polls in various constituencies.

The turnout is phenomenal. This is alright as it is the democratic right of every member who wishes to become a flag bearer of one's party to participate in the exercise.

What would follow, however, are processes under CCM's officially endorsed machinery, whereby, the applicants would be duly screened, and ultimately, it is those who would be deemed to be best suited to facilitate the party's victory in the finals, who would get its blessings.

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Of course those who would not pass the test wouldn't get the opportunity to forge ahead. This, by way of a reminder, is what democracy is all about - to give chances to all interested applicants.

It is a credit to CCM, which has been manifested throughout the period that Tanzania has been under the multi-party political dispensation.

It may be recalled, for instance, that, during the 2015 election season, more than 40 aspirants eyed the presidential seat, and no-one was laughed off as a joker!

However, the figure was trimmed in various stages, the process ultimately zeroing in on three top contenders, from which one candidate, Dr John Pombe Magufuli, emerged, and proceeded to emerge as the victor.

To its credit, CCM is very transparent, a credible attribute from which the opposition constituency should pick lessons, more-so those who project themselves as champions on that front but are in reality the extreme opposite.
Shutterstock

For the past three years, Dior has been providing education to thousands of young women all over the world through their Women@Dior mentorship program. This year, due to the unrelenting COVID-19 pandemic, they are working to grow and build upon the program with a partnership with UNESCO. The program, structured around four core values, works to build autonomy, inclusion, creativity and sustainability, and will help to grow the opportunities available to these women.

Their program has worked with women students from the best business, engineering, art and fashion schools across 20 countries. In the mentorship, they are partnered with employees from Dior who teach and guide them in an environment where they can gain invaluable experience. In their new partnership with UNESCOs Global Education Coalition, the house be opening the Women@Dior program to 100 female students from Niger, Ghana, Tanzania, Jamaica, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.

Shutterstock

Dior is no stranger to controversy when it comes to the role of fashion in female empowerment, noted Diors Director of Human Resources Emmanuelle Favre in a statement. We are proud to have been in the front row for some of the most pivotal moments in womens history. As new waves of feminism continue to break, we are determined to make a difference.

The brand hopes that this new initiative will give disadvantaged female students the opportunity to receive a higher education focused on inclusion. The expansion of the program comes at a particularly critical time in light of the pandemic, which has jeopardized young womens access to education all across the globe. With the new partnership, each of the 100 new students will receive mentorship from a Dior employee, be enrolled in a 10-month educational program (which is currently held online), and will then take part in the Dream For Change initiative, a local project which focuses on empowering young women.

Shutterstock

Additionally, the program puts a heavy emphasis on the support of women in more authoritative roles in the fashion industry as leadership positions are still overwhelmingly male-dominated. A 2108 study noted that only 14 percent of fashion houses were led by women.

"Out of education comes freedom," Diors Creative Director of Womenswear Maria Grazia Chiuri said. "For me, it seems essential to help young girls develop their self-confidence: the confidence to dare, to be independent and to do things. This initiative is more essential than ever in order to create the world of tomorrow."
Cohen has said the data is showing increasing community spread of the virus by individuals "when they feel completely fine and they don't know they have it" and by workers in more high-risk jobs, such as meat-processing facilities and long-term care facilities.

Data collection changes

Cohen commented Thursday on the decision by the Trump administration to require hospitals to report COVID-19 data directly to a third-party vendor, rather than to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Associated Press reported that TeleTracking Technologies, based in Pittsburgh, will now collect that information.

However, if hospitals are directly reporting to state health departments, such as N.C. DHHS, they can get a written release from the state to keep doing that.

"This is a very abrupt change," Cohen said. "I'm all for more efficiency, but I don't think we got any warning it was coming.

"We checked in with our hospital partners and decided it was better and quicker for them to now do the direct reporting to the federal government on their own."
Illustrative image (Photo: Reuters)

Hanoi - All Nippon Airways Co. said on July 14 it will resume some international routes next month, including one connecting Tokyo and Ho Chi Minh City.

It will also resume flights linking Tokyos Haneda airport to Taipei, Washington, and Paris in August 2020.

ANA said, however, that roughly 90 percent of its international services will remain suspended, the same level for this month amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- A specter is haunting Western democracies. No, it is not the surging pandemic, mass death or catastrophic unemployment. It is, if you believe Donald Trump and some of his critics, the end of free speech and the advent of cancel culture.

Trump defined the new menace to civilization in his speech at Mount Rushmore, claiming that far-left fascists were driving people from their jobs, shaming dissenters and demanding total submission from anyone who disagrees.

Days later, a group of well-known writers including Salman Rushdie and J.K. Rowling published an open letter in Harpers magazine agreeing that the forces of illiberalism were rampant on the left as well as the right, and that the free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted.

Given the bizarre timing and nature of the complaint, it does not feel rude to ask: What are they on about?

Institutions and businesses have long been able to fire employees at will. A few may have acted even more hastily in recent months out of fear of being publicly shamed, or the desire to appear in tune with the anti-racist zeitgeist.

But the handful of firings on political grounds, which neither Trump nor his critics care to specify, are dwarfed by the immense human tragedy unfolding before our eyes: hundreds of millions of people losing their jobs and dignity for no fault of their own.

Moreover, free speech has never been more widely available than it is today. So much so that the cacophony of voices liberated by digital media too frequently drowns out well-informed and sensible opinion. Trump, who blurts out several hot takes every day, is himself an example of the verbal incontinence enabled by Twitter in recent years.

It is also true that historians, economists and sociologists are able to hold Twitter discussions of a quality that shames much of what appears in the pages of major newspapers and magazines.

Story continues

This is not to say that speech has become restricted in the traditional media. After nearly 25 years of publishing in a broad ideological range of mainstream journals and specialist periodicals, I can attest that conversations about almost everything, from political economy and international relations to literature and gender relations, have never been more vibrant. Nor have they featured such a wide range of voices, from the East and South as well as the West and North.

Back in the 1990s, when I started out, African-American writers and thinkers were hard to find in mainstream periodicals and there were hardly any voices from India, let alone the non-Anglophone parts of Asia. One or two writers resident in the West were tasked with articulating the experiences of whole nations, even continents (as in the New York Times praise for Rushdie: a continent finding its voice).

Today, conservative as well as liberal and left-wing outlets feature a multiplicity of opinion and analysis. Much more variety is still needed  human experience is always growing  and many book and magazine publishers are sincerely trying to achieve it.

Given this necessary progress, the picture that Trump and highly prominent writers draw of narrowed and darkened intellectual horizons seems wholly unrecognizable, even paranoid.

Could it be that increasingly diverse voices and rich conversations are a threat to their free speech  more accurately, the prerogative of famous and powerful people to speak at length on all sorts of things without interruption or disagreement? For instance, Rowling seems intent on tweeting her disapproval of transgender people. Certainly, a closer examination of the critics of cancel culture confirms the suspicion that many of these self-appointed defenders of free speech prefer monologue over dialogue.

Trump, who routinely advocates sackings and boycotts of his detractors, is the worlds leading exponent of the very thing he attacks. But commitment to liberal values is also not widely upheld among the anti-Trump signatories of the Harpers letter.

They include writers who have campaigned against academics on political grounds (Bari Weiss, Cary Nelson), a human-rights professor (Michael Ignatieff) who outlined permissible forms of torture, journalists (Paul Berman, David Frum, Anne Applebaum) who championed the illegal war on Iraq, a political scientist (Yascha Mounk) who hailed the recent military coup in Bolivia as a triumph of democracy and a novelist (Martin Amis) who proposed a Muslim ban (including strip searches and mass deportations) much harsher than the one enforced by Trump.

If those culpable for todays abysmal moral and political climate sense anger and frustration against them among younger people, it is because they have never been held accountable. Nor are they likely to face any professional consequences in the future, notwithstanding their overheated claims that cancel culture is another pandemic.

Trump might be voted out in November. The writers, journalists and academics guilty of cruel blunders and terrible misjudgments will remain as entrenched as ever.

No doubt this networked minority will continue to protect its privileges by invoking various dangers to free speech. But no one should mistake its fear of obsolescence and irrelevance for any kind of liberalism.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Pankaj Mishra is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. His books include Age of Anger: A History of the Present, From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia, and Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet and Beyond.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion

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Bubba Wallace, the sport's only black full-time driver, was at the event

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A plane protesting NASCAR's ban on the Confederate flag flew over Bristol Motor Speedway Wednesday.

Images of the aircraft flying the banned symbol also featured the website for the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The group claimed it had paid for a similar banner over Talladega last month.

NASCAR in June banned the flag at its events, but protesters at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama also paraded past the main entrance waving them from their vehicles on June 21.

Wednesday's race would likely be the largest sporting event in the United States since March, organizers have said.

The All-Star Race was moved from Charlotte Motor Speedway for just the second time since its 1985 inception because Tennessee officials allowed Speedway Motorsports to sell up to 30,000 tickets.

A Confederate flag is pulled behind a plane over Bristol Motor Speedway before the NASCAR All-Star auto race Wednesday

Bubba Wallace, the sport's only full-time Black driver, was at the event Wednesday. It was at last month's race at Talladega that a crew member reported finding a noose in the team garage stall

Wednesday's race would likely be the largest sporting event in the United States since March, organizers have said. The All-Star Race was moved from Charlotte Motor Speedway for just the second time since its 1985 inception because Tennessee officials allowed Speedway Motorsports to sell up to 30,000 tickets

Bubba Wallace, the sport's only full-time Black driver, was at the event Wednesday. It was at last month's race at Talladega that a crew member reported finding a noose in his team's garage stall.

Wallace was shown a photograph of the noose, never personally saw it, and was told by NASCAR officials he was the victim of a hate crime.

Despite that, President Donald Trump then wrongly accused Wallace of perpetrating 'a hoax' after federal authorities ruled the noose had been hanging since October and was not a hate crime.

NASCAR and the FBI have exclusively referred to the rope  which was used to pull the garage door closed  as a noose. It was the only garage pull out of 1,684 stalls at 29 inspected NASCAR tracks to be fashioned as a noose.

And NASCAR President Steve Phelps has bristled at suggestions the noose was a hoax.

The Talladega Superspeedway protest plane pulled a flag that also read 'Defund NASCAR,' a play on the 'defund the police' slogan of some protesting racial injustice.

Images of the aircraft flying the banned symbol also featured the website SCV.org. The Sons of Confederate Veterans of Columbia, Tennessee, claimed it had paid for a similar banner over Talladega last month

A vendor displays a confederate and Trump 2020 'Make America Great Again!' flag prior to the race on Wednesday

Ty Dillon, driver of the #13 GEICO Hump Day Chevrolet, races Corey LaJoie, driver of the #32 Trump 2020 Ford, during the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Open at Bristol Motor Speedway

A fan poses in front of a replica of the #32 Trump 2020 Ford, driven by Corey LaJoie

Bristol can hold about 140,000 people. Speedway Motorsports has those in attendance socially distanced through the grandstands and masks were only required upon entrance. Fans were told they could remove them once in their seats

'Has @BubbaWallace apologized to all of those great NASCAR drivers & officials who came to his aid, stood by his side, & were willing to sacrifice everything for him, only to find out that the whole thing was just another HOAX?' Trump tweeted. 'That & Flag decision has caused lowest ratings EVER!'

Wallace responded on Twitter with a note to 'the next generation and little ones following my foot steps' in which he urged people to use their platform and not be detracted by 'hate being thrown at you.'

'Love should come naturally as people are TAUGHT to hate,' Wallace tweeted. 'Even when it's HATE from the POTUS .. Love wins.'

A Confederate Flag with the words "Defund NASCAR" is flown over Talladega Superspeedway on June 21

Trump has also has criticized NASCAR for banning the Confederate flag, blaming the decision for the sport's 'low ratings,' although TV ratings for NASCAR have been up since racing resumed.

Bristol, dubbed 'The Last Great Colosseum,' can hold about 140,000 people. Speedway Motorsports has those in attendance socially distanced through the grandstands and masks were only required upon entrance. Fans were told they could remove them once in their seats.

Because the speedway is privately owned, attendance numbers will not be released.

It appeared at least 20,000 spectators were socially distanced throughout the grandstands.

Concession stands were open, but typical shopping opportunities were limited and independent street-side souvenir stands along Speedway Boulevard hawked driver items and even a few Confederate flags.

After crashing Wednesday, Wallace climbed from his car and gave a thumbs-up to a contingent of fans cheering for him. Roughly two dozen organizers from Justice 4 the Next Generation traveled from Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia in an effort to diversify NASCAR.
Global race: Several countries are rushing to test a vaccine, which it has emerged may be delivered as multiple injections. Photo: Reuters

A possible breakthrough vaccine for Covid-19 is likely to involve people getting more than one dose and it is still unclear how long its protection against the deadly virus would last, a leading scientist said yesterday.

Kingston Mills, professor of experimental immunology in Trinity College, was commenting after studies have sparked debate on how vaccines against the virus might work.

A global race is on to develop a vaccine and in an optimistic forecast Dr Anthony Fauci, of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said one could be ready at the end of the year.

Prof Mills said: "Several different approaches are being developed. If one of them works it would be great, and it would be unfortunate if none worked."

One of the studies which has led to debate on how long a vaccine might work involved 96 people who were tracked by a team at King's College in London.

It found 60pc had a strong antibody response at the height of their infection. This dropped to 17pc three months later and in some the antibodies were not detectable.

The question for researchers now is that if natural antibodies fall off, what impact will that have on how effective vaccines will be?

Prof Mills said it will not be possible to know how long a vaccine will last until data from clinical trials is available.

"All the early data is based on short-term testing after immunisation," he said. "You would not know for a year or two after using the vaccine how quickly the immune response drops off."

He said the likelihood is that people will need "at least two doses" of the vaccine.

Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday that Moderna will start the final stage of human trials for its vaccine candidate on July 27.

This follows promising results from earlier testing. The study should run until October 2022 but preliminary results should be available well before then.

The company aims to enrol 30,000 adults in the clinical trial, which is designed to test whether the vaccine works to prevent Covid-19.

The trial will also examine the vaccine's safety.

Those who take part in the trial will either receive the vaccine or a placebo.

They will be tracked for two years to see whether they get Covid-19 or have any negative reactions to the vaccine.

The researchers will also periodically measure participants' antibody levels.

Moderna has also published data from its phase one clinical trial in the 'New England Journal of Medicine'.

That trial, which involved 45 volunteers, was aimed at testing the new drug's safety, not its effectiveness.

But the company said results from all 45 participants showed they developed antibodies key to fighting the virus at levels up to four times the amount found in patients who got sick and then recovered from the virus.

Researchers point out that while the findings are promising, scientists have not yet shown that Covid-19 antibodies lead to immunity, and if so, how long it lasts.

Everyone involved in the trial receives two shots of the vaccine, 28 days apart.

The most common side effects were fatigue, chills, headache and weakness, the study found.

The company said it is committed to advancing the clinical development of the vaccine "as quickly and safely as possible while investing to scale up manufacturing so that we can help address this global health emergency".
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 13:23:13|Editor: huaxia

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CANBERRA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government has announced a multi-billion dollar scheme to give people looking for work access to new skills by retraining and upskilling them into growth sectors as the economy recovers from COVID-19.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday announced the 2 billion Australian dollars (1.4 billion U.S. dollar) "JobTrainer" skills package.

Under the scheme, 1.5 billion Australia dollars (1.05 billion U.S. dollars) will be spent to expand the wage incentive to help keep apprentices in work.

Around 180,000 apprentices and 90,000 small and medium businesses that employ them will now be supported, with the program extended by six months to March 2021, according to the media release from the prime minister.

The remaining 500 million Australian dollars (350.1 million U.S. dollars) will fund retraining and reskilling courses for about 340,000 training places to help school leavers and job seekers develop new skills in growth sectors and create a pathway to more qualifications.

"JobTrainer will ensure more Australians have the chance to reskill or upskill to fill the jobs on the other side of this crisis," Morrison said on Thursday.

"The jobs and skills we'll need as we come out of the crisis are not likely to be the same as those that were lost."

The package is the first element of wider economic stimulus measures expected to be announced by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg when he delivers an economic update on July 23.

"Our nation has faced many challenges, and it is critical that we keep our apprentices in jobs and help those looking for work," Michaelia Cash, minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business, said.

"This package will be essential as the economy rebuilds so that people looking for work can reskill and upskill for in-demand jobs, provide school leavers with a pathway into their careers, and ensure businesses are able to get the skilled workers they need."

Cash also said the National Skills Commission would play a critical role in identifying current and future skills needed in a challenging and changing labour market. Enditem
Bhopal, July 16 : The case of police atrocity on members of a Dalit family in Guna district has heated up the politics of Madhya Pradesh. The Congress has gone belligerent on the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government accusing it of persecuting Dalits and the poor, even as the administration in a strong move removed the IG of Gwalior division, the Guna Superintendent of Police and the District Magistrate.

The Dalit family was brutally beaten up by the police during an anti-encroachment drive. Videos on social media showed a man, his wife and two children at the receiving end of the police action. The man was seen being dragged by the police after being beaten up as the woman and the children begged and grovelled in the dust of the open field, where he was engaged.

The man faced the brunt of police action for occupying the piece of land meant for college building in Cantt area of Guna. This incident dates back a few days ago. The Dalit couple had then consumed insecticide. The video of the incident went viral on the social media and now, the matter has taken on political hue with the Congress targeting the state government for being anti-Dalit.

The government also swung into action and removed the administrative staff after ordering an inquiry.

Political analysts say that the incident happened in the area from where Jyotiraditya Scindia, who moved to the BJP in March after toppling the Congress government, has been MP and the assembly bypolls are going to be held in 16 constituencies in the Gwalior-Chambal division soon.

It is for this, the Congress has started training guns at the Shivraj government.

Former Chief Minister Kamal Nath, who is also the MPCC president, has questioned the excesses that were inflicted to the Dalit family and asked, "Will Shivraj government show such courage to redeem thousands of acres of government land occupied by the so-called public servants and influencers in these areas? Such an incident cannot be tolerated. Immediate action should be taken against the culprits, otherwise the Congress will not remain silent."

Retweeting a tweet of the Congress party, the former chief minister said, the Congress has always supported the poor and farmers in their fight against injustice. "This inhuman act of the Shivraj government has exposed the dictatorship in him. This is the beginning of the end of the Shivraj government in Madhya Pradesh," he said.

Jyotiraditya Scindia, now Rajya Sabha MP from the BJP, quickly damage controlled with the statement that Guna SP and Collector have been removed, and the incident is being investigated. "I am confident that action will be taken against all those responsible for this heinous crime," he said.

Home Minister Narottam Mishra said that there is a rule of law in Madhya Pradesh. "As soon as we came to know about the unfortunate incident in Guna, we took prompt action. This is not the Congress government. Immediate action was taken in this case. IG, Collector, and SP have been removed as soon as we came to know of the incident," Mishra said.

Former Madhya Pradesh Congress president and former Union Minister Arun Yadav said that the police are ruthlessly attacking the unarmed Dalit farmers in the state while big criminals roam freely. The cries of these innocent poor people will lead to the fall of the Shivraj government, he said.

-- Syndicated from IANS
New Delhi: India on Thursday got second consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav, who had been arrested by Pakistan on alleged espionage charges and is languishing in jail. This is the second time in a year.

The meeting took place between Jadhav and two Indian officials. The time for the meeting was given for two hours and will end around 5.30 pm (IST).

Earlier in July, Pakistan had announced that it will give second consular access for Jadhav, inviting his father and wife to meet him. India has called for "unimpeded and unconditional" access, unlike what happened last time.

In September 2019, India got the first consular access for Jadhav in three years with Indian Deputy High Commissioner (DHC) Gaurav Ahluwalia meeting him in Islamabad for two hours. The Indian diplomat found Jadhav under "extreme pressure to parrot a false narrative to bolster Pakistans untenable claims", according to a release issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

Pakistan earlier in July had also said that Jadhav has refused review petition that was offered to him by the Pakistan government and instead he will go for mercy petition.

Pakistan's Addl Attorney General Ahmed Irfan had said, "Kulbhushan Jadhav was invited to file a petition for review and reconsideration of his sentence and conviction. Exercising his legal right he refused to file a petition for review and reconsideration of his sentence and his conviction."

On May 20, Pakistan had enacted an ordinance to implement the International Court of Justice's order under which appeal can be made to Islamabad High Court within two months. Jadhav was given a chance to file a review petition on June 17. Pakistan even claimed that it has "repeatedly" written to Indian High Commission inviting them to file a review at Islamabad High Court and initiate the review and reconsideration process.

India has slammed Pakistan's claim that Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav, who had been arrested on alleged espionage charges and languishing in its jail, refused to initiate review petition as "continuation of farce". The MEA stated that Jadhav has been sentenced to execution through a farcical trial. He has clearly been coerced to refuse to file a review in his case, added the MEA.

The MEA had stated, "Pakistan's claim that Jadhav, who is incarcerated in Pakistan's custody, has refused to initiate review petition is a continuation of the farce that has been in play for the last four years. Jadhav has been sentenced to execution through a farcical trial. He remains under custody of Pakistan's military. He has clearly been coerced to refuse to file a review in his case."

India maintains that Jadhav was abducted by Pakistani agencies from Iran and New Delhi was first informed about his custody by Pakistani authorities on March 25, 2016. Jadhav, the 49-year-old retired Indian Navy officer, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of "espionage and terrorism" in April 2017.

India has categorically rejected Pakistan`s allegations about Jadhav`s involvement in spying and subversive activities and said he was kidnapped from the Iranian port of Chabahar where he was running a business. Jadhav was arrested on March 3, 2016, and sentenced to death on charges of espionage and terrorism in April 2017. In May 2017, India moved the ICJ against the farcical trial by Pakistans military court.
The Centcom commander visited Afghanistan on Tuesday to discuss the status of U.S. forces there. He said drawdowns from the current level of about 8,600 would be conditions based, and would depend on the Taliban meeting its promises to reduce violence, check al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, and conduct peace talks with the Afghan government. Another official told me the Pentagon is weighing withdrawal of another 4,000 troops, which would keep at least 4,500 there on Election Day, but McKenzie wouldnt discuss numbers.
The model, which will compete with the likes of Hyundai Verna, Maruti Suzuki Ciaz and Skoda Rapid, now features smart devices ecosystem including Alexa remote capability and 32 connected features as standard feature across all variants with a five-year free subscription.

Japanese auto major Honda on Wednesday launched the new version of its mid-sized sedan City in India priced between Rs 10.9 lakh-Rs 14.65 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

The fifth generation version of the popular model, which in its current form is longer and wider than the fourth generation City, comes with BS-VI compliant petrol and diesel powertrains.

The 1.5-litre petrol versions with manual transmission are priced at Rs 10.9 lakh, Rs 12.26 lakh, and Rs 13.15 lakh, while the 1.5-litre diesel trims are tagged at Rs 12.40, Rs 13.76 lakh, and Rs 14.65 lakh.

The 1.5-litre petrol automatic trims (CVT) on the other hand are priced at Rs 12.20 lakh, Rs 13.56 lakh and, Rs 14.45 lakh (all prices ex-showroom Delhi).

The model, which will compete with the likes of Hyundai Verna, Maruti Suzuki Ciaz and Skoda Rapid, now features smart devices ecosystem including Alexa remote capability and 32 connected features as standard feature across all variants with a five-year free subscription.

The company said it will also continue to sell the BS-VI compliant fourth generation City along with the new version.

"City is synonymous with Honda brand in India. It is the most important model for us," Honda Motor India Ltd (HCIL) president and CEO Gaku Nakanishi told PTI.

Being a pillar of the company's business in India for the last 22 years, the company expects the new City to bring in more volumes as compared to the last versions, he added.

The company has sold 40 lakh City units cumulatively across the globe till date with around 8 lakh units in India.

Each generation of the City has raised the bar on design, technology, quality, driving pleasure, comfort and safety, and has come with several industry firsts or segment first features, Nakanishi said.

"Our vision has been to offer our customers with a new value that is unprecedented in the history of City and we are confident that the All New City will create fresh excitement in the mid-size sedan segment," he added.

Besides domestic market the company is also looking to enhance exports of the City to new markets, including left-hand car regions.

"Regarding City, we are looking at expanding the export volume. We are looking to more than doubling the overseas shipments," Nakanishi said.

In 2019-20, the company exported around 3,800 units from India mainly to South Africa and some neighbouring countries.

Elaborating further HCIL senior vice president and director sales and marketing Rajesh Goel said the exports will begin later this year and new destinations will be covered with the new City.

"We can't disclose the export markets right now as all have their own launch plans.

What we can tell is that we are also going to start the export of left-hand cars," he noted.

Commenting on the domestic market, Goel said: "We know SUV segment is growing here but with Civic we saw that it revitalised the segment in which it is offered, sales jumped.

So, we are hoping that with City we will achieve similar results in the mid sized sedan segment."

When asked about the logic of continuing the sales of fourth generation City with with the new version, Goel said the earlier version is also BS-VI compliant and has contemporary design language.

"We want to give broader choice to customers," he noted.

The BS-VI petrol trims of the fourth generation City are priced between Rs 9.91 lakh-Rs 14.31 lakh.

Goel said the new City could be produced at both its Greater Noida and Tapukara (Rajasthan) plants and is currently being rolled-out of the former.

"Later, we can also roll it out from the Tapukara facility," he said.

The new City has been developed at Honda R&D Centre located in Tochigi, Japan, following extensive market surveys in India, ASEAN countries and other markets for peoples driving needs and lifestyles.

The company said the sedan now comes with ASEAN N-CAP 5 Star equivalent safety rating and many first in class segment features like full LED headlamps, 17.7 cm HD full color TFT meter with G-meter, lane watch camera, vehicle stability assist (VSA) with agile handling assist (AHA) among others.

The petrol variants of the new City will come with 1.5-litre powertrain mated with six speed manual and seven speed continuously variable transmission (CVT).

The manual trims will return fuel efficiency of 17.8 km/litre while the CVT trims will deliver 18.4 km/litre, the company claimed.

The diesel trims, which will come with 1.5-litre engine mated to a six speed manual transmission, will deliver fuel efficiency of 24.1 km/litre, it added.

Honda said the vehicle will come with 20.3 cm touchscreen display audio system with smartphone connectivity, sunroof, six airbags, multi-angle rear camera, tyre pressure monitoring system, among others.

HCIL said it will start deliveries of the petrol variants of the model immediately across the country while the deliveries for the diesel variants would begin from next month.

The car offers low cost maintenance with service interval of one year or 10,000 km whichever is earlier, it added.

The City model is currently sold in 60 countries.

The first generation Honda City was introduced in India in January 1998.

Photograph: Courtesy, Honda Cars India
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has condemned the killing of a Rwandan peacekeeper serving under the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Central African Republic (MINUSCA).

According to Guterres, the Central African Republic must spare no effort while investigating the circumstances in which the Rwandan peacekeeper died.

The Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) soldier was killed in an attack on July 13 in Central African Republic.

According to a statement issued Tuesday, July 14, the attack was allegedly carried out by the Return, Reclamation and Rehabilitation (3R) armed elements who targeted a MINUSCA convoy in Gedze, Nana-Mambere prefecture in the northwest of the country.

As a result, the Rwandan peacekeeper was killed while two others whose identity was not revealed, were wounded.

As a condolence message to the victims of the attack, Guterres said that attacks against United Nations peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law.

"He (Guterres) calls on the Central African Republic authorities to spare no effort in identifying the perpetrators of this attack so that they can be brought to justice swiftly," reads part of the statement.

Besides, the Secretary-General reaffirmed that the United Nations will continue to support national efforts to advance peace and stability in the Central African Republic, working closely with the country's international partners.

MINUSCA, the UN peacekeeping operation in the Central African Republic, has been working to protect civilians and support transition processes.

The authorities and 14 armed groups, which included 3R, signed a Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in February 2019.

Currently, Rwanda is the leading contributor of peacekeepers to MINUSCA, with about 1,357 troops and 420 officers.
Denver, Colo., July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Jeff Wilke, CEO of Worldwide Consumer at Amazon, knows the difference technology can make. As a boy growing up in Pittsburgh, he learned to code. That skill took Wilke from public school to Princeton and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, opening doors to his current leadership role. Wilke and his wife, the writer Liesl Wilke, both supporters of the American Indian College Fund for more than 20 years, are now giving Native American students computer science opportunities at selected tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) with a $1 million gift for The TCU Computer Science Initiative.

The timing could not be better. The outbreak of the Corona virus hit Native communities harder than others. The pandemic underscored the ways in which technology keeps communities connected and allows people to continue their work and educationbut also highlighted the digital divide impacting Native communities.

The TCU Computer Science Initiative will address the TCUs urgent need to create or expand computer science programs to meet Native communities needs, including improved education quality and opportunities, social and economic development, better managed health care systems, and career opportunities. The initiative will begin by bringing qualified computer science faculty to the TCUs to increase, improve, and expand computer science programming to Native communities.

Liesl and Jeff Wilke said, We are thrilled to see this initiative taking shape and moving forward so that it can deeply impact Native communities. The demand for computer science in many fields of work and study accelerates every year. We hope to help meet the needs of Native communities to flourish in the digital age, whether that means access to more jobs or the ability to program health care applications for a reservation or to preserve language, impact safety, or improve communication among community members according to their unique needs and desires. The opportunities are massive and very exciting.

Cheryl Crazy Bull, President and CEO of the American Indian College Fund, said, We are so appreciative, on behalf of Native students and their families, of The Wilke Family Foundation and its willingness to invest in our communities. We know that computer science education is foundational to many aspects of modern life  everything from databases to mapping our lands to creating technology resources that improve our quality of life. This investment helps create a thriving indigenous future.

The College Fund will facilitate a selection process to choose four TCUs which can support hiring computer science faculty and program development. Each TCU will receive $250,000 over a four-year period to include the costs of faculty salary and benefits, professional development, coursework integration, and other costs.

About the Wilke Family Foundation The Wilke Family Foundation supports organizations in the areas of education (with a focus on minority and underprivileged students, and both technology and art programs), health care (with a focus on research and models that disrupt whats not working), and community support (with a focus on providing meals, housing, and safety for women and children, especially in new ways that have a longer-term focus when possible).

About the American Indian College Fund Founded in 1989, the American Indian College Fund has been the nations largest charity supporting Native higher education for 30 years. The College Fund believes Education is the answer" and provided $7.72 million in scholarships to 3,900 American Indian students in 2018-19, with nearly 137,000 scholarships and community support totaling over $221.8 million since its inception. The College Fund also supports a variety of academic and support programs at the nations 35 accredited tribal colleges and universities, which are located on or near Indian reservations, ensuring students have the tools to graduate and succeed in their careers. The College Fund consistently receives top ratings from independent charity evaluators and is one of the nations top 100 charities named to the Better Business Bureaus Wise Giving Alliance. For more information about the American Indian College Fund, please visit www.collegefund.org.

Reporters: The American Indian College Fund does not use the acronym AICF. On second reference, please use the College Fund.

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Third new major contract for Brunvoll!

In a short time, and despite an ongoing pandemic, Brunvoll has secured a third major contract for the delivery of thruster systems to so-called DP2 Shuttle Tankers, which will operate, among other things, using Dynamic Positioning (DP).

Long-term investment has given Brunvoll a dominant role as the preferred supplier to this segment worldwide. Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea has ordered thruster systems for the construction of another three DP2 Shuttle Tankers for a leading sea transport supplier to the international oil industry. We have experienced a boom in the construction of DP2 Shuttle Tankers over the past two years, and Brunvoll has secured deliveries to 21 vessels in the same category during this period. Our deliveries extend to the end of 2021 with these orders that secure Brunvolls continued production stability and further market visibility. Brunvoll's presence in the market has been a trigger for our success at the construction sites in the Far East. We provide extended technical support to shipyards and shipping companies in the planning and construction phase, as well as the operational phase of the vessels whether they are in Brazilian- or here in the North Atlantic waters. Brunvoll put great emphasis on having our own, highly skilled staff present in South Korea during the pandemic period the first half of 2020, and this gave us even greater confidence in both shipping companies and shipyards. We have always been committed to following the authorities' advice and taking care of our employees, both locally and during assignments. After careful considerations, we have sent a few service technicians on assignment in South Korea for up to three months, which is the maximum stay for tourist visas. Our employees have been followed up closely by our local representatives, who are also important partners in the trust relationship with our customers. It has been a very challenging time for the whole world so far in 2020. The ongoing pandemic, has been a tough experience, also for Brunvoll. However, despite massive restrictions, we have experienced the best half of the year with order intake at New Sales ever since 2012. Our unique position as the preferred partner in the Shuttle Tanker segment has once again been rewarded in the form of large contracts. This makes us confident that we deliver what the customers expect, and that we can be a solid player in this market for a long time to come. We want to thank our customers and partners for this trust, but of course also our employees and agents who once again make us "Trusted World Wide", says Kare yvind Vassdal, CEO of Brunvoll Group. The three new Shuttle Tankers SHI shall deliver are each at 153,000 dWt and have a length of 279 meters. During loading and unloading the vessels are operated using Dynamic Positioning (DP), and the positioning is ensured by two tunnel thrusters and three retractable azimuth thrusters in total 13,500 kW (18,360 HP) from Brunvoll. This is another very valuable contract that adds to several other deliveries to the same ship segment in the last six months. The fact that this and other shipping companies prefer Brunvoll affirms our position as a serious and quality-conscious partner for leading players with operations in both the North Atlantic and Brazilian waters, says Per Olav Lkseth, Executive Vice President Sales & Marketing at the Brunvoll group in a comment. We are confident that our system solutions for both propulsion and maneuvering are optimised for the next generation DP2 Shuttle Tankers, all built to stringent environmental requirements. We focus on sustainability in the manufacture of our products, resulting in lower energy consumption and lower emissions for the operator of these vessels. Sustainability is also important for shipping companies and operators. Brunvoll's products provide good predictability through their unmatched quality and thus low lifetime costs, which is highly valued. We aim to make our clients systems last. We would also like to emphasize that it is the long-term strategy and targeted work across the organization that has, over time, helped to build our position as a preferred partner in the Shuttle Tanker segment. The fact that several shipyards and shipping companies repeatedly order new vessels with our propulsion and thruster systems confirms that Brunvoll's products deliver expected results and quality, concludes Lkseth.




Gov. Kay Ivey announced today $2.9 million in grants to help companies bring high-speed internet access to seven communities.

The governor awarded the grants through the Alabama Broadband Accessibility Fund, which the Legislature created to help companies extend high-speed internet to access to unserved and underserved areas.

The COVID-19 pandemic further emphasized how essential broadband services are to the unserved and underserved residents of Alabama, Ivey said in a press release. Thanks to the Broadband Accessibility Fund and broadband providers, we are making progress in ensuring that Alabamians have access to high-speed internet services, but there is no question we have a long way to go on completing this mission.

Unserved areas are those that have download speeds of less than 25 megabits per second and upload speeds of less than 3 megabits per second.

Ivey has awarded about $18.5 million in broadband grants this year, mainly to unserved rural areas.

The grants announced today:

Butler County

Hayneville Fiber Transport Inc. (Camellia Communications) - $128,797 to provide service availability to 48 households and four community anchors in the Sherling Lake community, northwest of Greenville.

Choctaw County/Washington County

Millry Telephone Co. Inc. - $954,902 to extend broadband service in the third phase of a project covering south Choctaw and north Washington counties. The project includes 559 households, 16 businesses and two anchors including Millry City Hall and Millry School.

Cleburne County

Gigafy - $178,782 to provide access availability to 486 households and 38 businesses near Heflin.

Cullman County

Cyber Broadband Inc. - $1.33 million to provide service availability to 1,600 households, 125 businesses and 50 community anchors in the vicinity of the Baileytown and Joppa communities in eastern Cullman County.

Dallas County

Spectrum Southeast - $55,481 to extend broadband service availability to 55 households in the Deerfield subdivision west of Selma.

Lee County

Spectrum Southeast - $8,407 to provide high-speed cable access to eight households along Lee County Road 279 near the Halawaka community.

Tallapoosa County

Spectrum Southeast -$245,567 to extend service availability to 316 households in the Marina Marin area of Lake Martin near Alabama Highway 50.
Armenia and Turkey have accused each other of seeking to destabilize the South Caucasus in a continuing war of words over the latest deadly clashes on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

Turkey was quick to blame Armenia for the fighting, which broke out at a volatile border section on Sunday, and reaffirm Turkish support for Azerbaijan. The Armenian government denounced Ankaras provocative attitude on Monday.

On Tuesday Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan added his voice to the Turkish criticism of Yerevan while his defense minister, Hulusi Akar, vowed continued military assistance to Baku.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry responded by issuing on Wednesday another, more strongly-worded statement that branded Turkey a security threat to Armenia and the region.

Invoking its historical mission and ethnic or religious affiliations, Turkey has already destabilized the situation in a number of neighboring regions: the Middle East, Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa, causing immeasurable suffering to the peoples of those regions, said the statement.

The ministry again accused Ankara of undermining international efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with its pro-Azerbaijani stance.

We observe that Armenia now tries to resort to a hypocritical smear campaign against Turkey in an effort to cover up its aggressive actions against Azerbaijan, the Turkish Foreign Ministry hit back on Thursday.

A ministry statement said Armenia itself prevents the conflicts resolution by illegally occupying Azerbaijani territory for many years. Armenian authorities need to come to their senses and comprehend, as soon as possible, that they should be part of the solutions, not problems, in the South Caucasus, it added.

Meeting with Azerbaijans visiting Deputy Defense Minister Ramiz Tahirov later on Thursday, Akar said that Armenia will be brought to account for its attack on Azerbaijan.

They will be drowned under this plot and certainly pay for what they have done, Hurriyet Daily News quoted the Turkish defense minister as saying. He did not elaborate.

Successive Turkish governments have lent Azerbaijan full support throughout the Karabakh conflict, reflecting close ethnic and cultural ties between the two Turkic nations. They have made the establishment of diplomatic relations with Armenia conditional on a Karabakh settlement acceptable to Baku.

Armenia has always rejected this precondition. It has forged close military ties with Russia to counter what many Armenians see as a serious security threat emanating from Turkey.

From Yerevans perspective, the presence of thousands of Russian troops in Armenia precludes Turkeys direct military intervention in the Karabakh dispute on Azerbaijans side.
FILE PHOTO: A logo of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) is seen at its headquarters in Hsinchu

By Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) said quarterly net profit surged 81% to a record level and predicted hefty revenue gains for the third-quarter on robust orders for advanced chips.

High-performance chips used in 5G telecommunications and other new technologies have been in strong demand, particularly as more people work from home and companies scramble to add more bandwidth amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The world's largest contract chipmaker estimated third-quarter revenue could climb as much 22% from a year earlier to $11.5 billion, a forecast that comes despite losing Huawei Technologies Co Ltd as a customer after the United States slapped a ban on selling to the Chinese company.

It now sees revenue this year up more than 20%, compared with an April target of "mid- to high-teens" percentage growth.

"We expect our business to be supported by strong demand for our industry-leading 5 nanometre and 7 nanometre technologies, driven by 5G smartphones, high-performance computing and IoT-related applications," Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang told a briefing.

April-June net profit came in at T$120.8 billion ($4.1 billion), 8% ahead of market expectations, while revenue for the quarter climbed 34.1% to $10.4 billion.

Underscoring its bullish outlook, it lifted capital spending plans for this year to $16-$17 billion from a prior estimate of $15-$16 billion. It spent $14.9 billion in 2019.

TSMC, which counts Apple Inc and Qualcomm Inc among its customers, said it has made decent progress in filling up capacity since the loss of Huawei orders. It stopped taking new orders from the Chinese telecommunications and smartphone giant in May and does not plan to ship wafers after Sept. 15.

TSMC unveiled plans for a $12 billion plant in Arizona in May, a move widely seen as currying favour with the United States as Washington spars with over Beijing over trade and Huawei.

Story continues

The plant will make advanced 5 nanometre chips and is due to start operating in 2024, targeting production of 20,000 wafers per month, the company said on Thursday.

TSMC also said it expects the global market for contract chip manufacturing to show mid- to high-teens percentage growth this year, up from a previous forecast of a high single-digit to low teens percentage growth.

TSMC shares have risen about 10% this year, giving it a market value of $320 billion, overtaking U.S. rival Intel Corp which now has a market value of $249 billion.

($1 = 29.4490 Taiwan dollars)

(Reporting by Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
The Vatican told bishops around the world on Thursday they should report cases of clergy sex crimes to police even when not legally bound to do so, in its latest effort to compel church leaders to protect minors from predator priests.

The Vatican issued a long-awaited manual for bishops and religious superiors on conducting in-house investigations into allegations of priests who rape and molest minors and vulnerable adults. While the Vatican has had detailed canonical norms in place for two decades, the laws continue to be ignored by some bishops who dismiss allegations by victims in favor of protecting their priests.

While the manual doesnt have the force of a new law, it goes beyond the current Vatican policy about cooperating with law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and police. That policy requires bishops and religious superiors to report allegations of sex crimes with minors only where local laws requires it.

The manual says: Even in cases where there is no explicit legal obligation to do so, the ecclesiastical authorities should make a report to the competent civil authorities if this is considered necessary to protect the person involved or other minors from the danger of further criminal acts.

And it says church leaders must comply with legitimate" subpoena requests.

No excuses not to report abuse

The manual, issued in a half-dozen languages, appears aimed in part at depriving bishops and religious superiors of their frequent excuses not to carry out preliminary investigations into accused priests or cooperate with law enforcement.

The manual states, for example, that anonymous allegations should not be dismissed outright, and that even hearsay and social media posts can constitute the basis on which to launch a preliminary probe.

In addition, the manual says bishops should not ignore allegations just because they fall outside the churchs statute of limitations, since the Vatican can at any time decide to waive the time limit.

Story continues

The only justification for dismissing an allegation outright, the manual says, is if the bishop determines the manifest impossibility of proceeding, such as if the accuser wasnt under age 18 at the time or the priest wasnt physically present when the alleged crimes took place.

For any bishop not knowing, it makes clear that the type of crimes that fall under sexual abuse is quite broad and includes not only sexual relations but any physical contact for sexual gratification. The manual lists exhibitionism, masturbation, pornography production and conversations and/or propositions of a sexual nature that can occur through a variety of means of communication as crimes that must be investigated.

And it warns that bishops can themselves be prosecuted canonically for negligence if they fail to take allegations seriously and investigate them.

Point-by-point instruction on investigating crime

The manual was published by the Vatican office that investigates priestly sex crimes, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and was issued in Italian, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese and Polish, with a German edition expected.

Its origins lie in Pope Francis 2019 sex abuse summit, in which the presidents of all the worlds bishops conferences came to the Vatican for a four-day tutorial on abuse. Francis summoned them after he himself botched a notorious case of abuse and cover-up in Chile, and after he realized that many bishops around the world still didnt understand or take seriously the depth of the abuse problem in the church.

On the first day of the summit, Francis issued 21 points of reflection going forward, with the first point a recommendation that the Vatican issue a handbook to help bishops investigate and prosecute sex crimes. While the Vatican has issued a variety of abuse-related documents over the years, the new manual provides a point-by-point instruction on how to conduct investigations, from start to finish.

The No. 2 at the Vatican office responsible, Monsignor Giacomo Morandi, acknowledged that no new norms are being promulgated. The real novelty, however, is that for the first time the procedure is described in an organized way  from the first report of a possible crime to the definitive conclusion of the cause, he told Vatican Media.

The Vatican has long refused to flat-out require bishops to report abuse allegations to police, arguing that such a universal law could lead to unjust treatment of priests in countries where Catholics are a persecuted minority. Survivors and advocates have long blasted the position, arguing that the Vatican could make a universal reporting mandate with certain exceptions if needed.

(AP)
A McDonald's customer has filmed himself clashing with police after being told he couldn't sit down in the dining room of a Melbourne fast food store.

The anonymous man shared footage of his heated encounter with the two officers to YouTube on Tuesday.

Police were called to the venue after reports of a potential COVID-19 breach after the man sitting in the closed seating area of the store refused to leave.

A man has claimed to police (pictured) that coronavirus safety sanctions are not law and cannot be enforced

The man claims he was verbally abused by a McDonald's manager for insisting that coronavirus restrictive measures have not been passed through government and cannot be enforced as law.

'So you're going to attempt to enforce something you haven't even personally seen written out and you're going to enforce it as though its law?' the man asks police in the video.

'I believe in respecting people in their fear, but I don't believe that we should be controlled based on people's fear which always comes from insufficient correct evidence.

'Just because I do my research correctly and have the right information to know what's going on out there, does not mean that when I come into a shop an employee who hasn't bothered to do the research has the right to boss me around.'

The man acknowledges he was sitting in a closed section of the restaurant, before relating COVID-19 government sanctions to Nazi Germany.

'I'm willing to take a stand because if people don't understand the history then they wont understand why Nazi Germany got away with what it did,' he says.

'If we don't stand up now and do things in a lawful manner in order to put a stop to it, we will walk into the same environment.

'I'm not allowed to sit in a store without having police sent to me, that's pretty Nazi like isn't it?'

He claims law enforcement have been deceived into breaking laws themselves through coronavirus restrictions.

'If we have people who are not informed correctly in uniforms running around and enforcing something they have been deceived into enforcing but are actually being the lawbreakers themselves, that is not a healthy and correct system to be living under,' he says.

The man filmed a broad conversation with police in a McDonald's restaurant in Victoria, where he claimed police are breaking laws themselves through coronavirus restrictions

'Police should be in a place where they only are to enforce the law that they are confident that they understand.'

The man left the store without giving his details or receiving a fine.

All government sanctions in relation to coronavirus are enforced for public safety in an effort to stem the spread of the disease.

A Victoria police spokesman told Daily Mail Australia while restrictive measures are not actual law, strange times call for drastic measures.

'When the chief health officer creates restrictions, it is police job to enforce them,' they said.

Victoria recorded 317 new cases of coronavirus on Thursday - its worst ever daily figure - as the state's outbreak continues to get worse.
BOSTON, Mass. -- As Confederate monuments keeping coming down, from Richmond to there in my home state of Alabama, Ive been pausing more often to ponder the Union monument here in the Boston neighborhood where my wife Margie and I live.

The figure atop the arched, Gothic base is a familiar style  an infantry soldier gazing down on passersby, his hands resting on the barrel of his musket, a touch of melancholy on his face. Ive seen similar sentinel soldiers all around New England, along with obelisks and victory columns, many of them in honor of those who died in the war of the rebellion.

Thats how the Civil War is remembered up here. Not with equestrian bronzes of dashing generals, or with outsized carvings like the ones at Stone Mountain in Georgia. Union monuments express sacrifice, not gallantry.

Im a child of the segregated South. So is Margie. We know all too well how the South remembers the Lost Cause. Ive been a lifelong student of the Civil War, but until I moved to Massachusetts 32 years ago I had no good idea how the winning side remembered it. So Ive sought out Union monuments wherever weve traveled, from Maine to Connecticut.

The single-soldier monuments would look familiar to Southerners. The same Northern manufacturers produced them for the South, too. One of the first Massachusetts memorials we encountered decades ago presents an utterly different image. In a patch of park at a road intersection in a town west of Boston, a cloaked marble maiden with an armful of roses reverently extends a single blossom above the base, where the names of local men who died for the defence of the Union are chiseled  farmers and laborers who didnt return to bloom as they would have.

The earliest New England monuments were dedicated while the war was still a fresh grief and memory, decades before the devastated South could produce them. (And put white supremacy on display.) The monument in our neighborhood was dedicated in 1871, just five years after Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox. Cambridge unveiled one of the most unusual in 1872  a massive granite, female-faced Sphinx in Mount Auburn Cemetery, with the inscription American Union Preserved-African Slavery Destroyed on the base in English and Latin. The Sphinx wasnt designed as a symbol of the Exodus story of Israelite slaves being freed from Pharaohs bondage, but thats what I think of every time I see it.

A few miles away on the Boston Common, locals and tourists stop for what to me is the most moving of all Union memorials  an Augustus Saint-Gaudens bronze bas-relief that honors the all-Black 54th Massachusetts Regiment and their white commander, Col. Robert Gould Shaw. The 54th was the first Black combat unit to be recruited in the war, and the 1897 sculpture inspired the 1989 film Glory. The life-size figures of Shaw and the marching soldiers make the monument approachable, almost intimate. You feel that they knew more than anyone what they were fighting for.

At that scale, the Saint-Gaudens memorial is the complete opposite of the operatic dimensions of Stone Mountains Lost Cause veneration. Its the Confederacys Mount Rushmore. As Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis ride their steeds up on the rock face, their distant, set features seem to say: We lost, but we were more noble. Even if we owned slaves.

That notion still has yet to be truly dead and buried, Im sad to say, though white Southerners growing public support for monument removals is encouraging. Contrary to what their defenders claim, taking them down isnt erasing history. Battlefield parks tell the Confederacys story quite well, and there are plenty of monuments. Ive seen them.

New Englands Union monuments will stay where they are, as they should. The men the statues honor knew they were saving the nation, and that cause was noble enough. They also saved the Confederacy from itself. As a son of the South, it took me a long time to see that. Now I do.

Lane Lambert is a retired journalist and a descendant of a Confederate Army veteran.
The Late Late Toy Show host Ryan Tubridy revealed some good news for the children (and adults) of Ireland on RTE Radio One this morning.

Speaking on The Ryan Tubridy Show on RTE Radio 1, Tubridy announced that The Late Late Toy Show 2020 will take place this year and that it will be "the most important yet".

"I've got some really good news for you," Ryan told listeners to his show.

"The Toy Show 2020, it's happening. It's going to be arguably the most remarkable Toy Show we have ever put together."

With everything that has gone on in 2020, losing a staple of the Irish calendar like The Late Late Toy Show would have been a disaster to Irish public. The 2019 Frozen-themed spectacular had an average audience of 1.35 million on the night, with the opening numbers and performances from show becoming the stuff of legend in recent years.

Ryan said that he had been speaking to pivotal members of the team this week and that it's full steam ahead with plans for the show.

"I was talking to some people who are critical to the programme itself, and I was so blown away by their ideas, and their passion and their sense of mission. It's arguably going to be the most important Toy Show I have done, and by 'I', I mean 'we'."

One listener remarked that she "welled up" upon hearing Tubridy's announcement this morning, adding that "the children need some sunshine".

Another listener, 66-year-old Pat Burke Walsh from Ballymoney, got in touch to say: "I'm a retired school principal and that announcement you made about the Toy Show has given me a great lift."

In more good news for fans of the show, last week RTE announced a Late Late Toy Show Singalong will air this Sunday, July 19, on RTE One at 6.30pm. During the show, Ryan will take viewers back through some of his favourite opening performances, as well as stand-out songs from children around the country, with lyrics on screen, so that all of the family can gather round and singalong!
The Trump administration is considering a sweeping ban on travel to the United States by members of the Chinese Communist Party and their families, according to people familiar with the proposal, a move that would almost certainly prompt retaliation against Americans seeking to enter or remain in China and exacerbate tensions between the two nations.

The presidential proclamation, still in draft form, could also authorize the United States government to revoke the visas of party members and their families who are already in the country, leading to their expulsion. Some proposed language is also aimed at limiting travel to the United States by members of the Peoples Liberation Army and executives at state-owned enterprises, though many of them are likely to also be party members.

Details of the plan, described by four people with knowledge of the discussions, have not yet been finalized, and President Trump might ultimately reject it. While the president and his campaign strategists have been intent on portraying him as tough on China for re-election purposes, Mr. Trump has vacillated wildly in both his language and actions on the Chinese government since taking office in 2017. He has criticized China on some issues, particularly trade. But he has also lavished praise on President Xi Jinping, pleaded with Mr. Xi to help him win re-election and remained silent or even explicitly approved of the repression in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.

There are practical issues as well. The Chinese Communist Party has 92 million members. Almost three million Chinese citizens visited the United States in 2018, though the numbers have plummeted because of the coronavirus pandemic and the current ban on most travelers from China. The U.S. government has no knowledge of party status for a vast majority of them. So trying to immediately identify party members to either prevent their entry or expel those already in the United States would be difficult.
Having sold Hals Harley-Davidson to Sara and Eric Pomeroy, it was an exceedingly difficult and emotional process to sell it on their behalf through bankruptcy. "

Performance Brokerage Services, a new car and Harley-Davidson dealership broker announces the sale of Iron Town Harley-Davidson in New Berlin, Wisconsin from H2D Motorcycle Ventures, LLC to Lone Star  Cardinal Motorcycle Ventures VIII, LLC. ) The dealership known as Hals Harley-Davidson was family owned for over 40 years when it was purchased by Sara and Eric Pomeroy in 2016. The dealership was renamed to Iron Town Harley-Davidson after a naming raffle by the employees of the newly acquired dealership.

Over the last 5 years, Performance Brokerage Services has represented for sale over 250 automotive and motorcycle dealerships making it the highest volume automotive and motorcycle dealership brokerage firm in North America. George C. Chaconas, the exclusive agent for this transaction and the head of the National Harley-Davidson and Powersports Division for Performance Brokerage Services commented, Having sold Hals Harley-Davidson to Sara and Eric Pomeroy, it was an exceedingly difficult and emotional process to sell it on their behalf through bankruptcy. After a long marketing and auctioning process, we successfully sold it to Ozzie Giglio of Windy City Group. Unfortunately, the dealership will remain closed. The surrounding dealerships will provide support to the current riders.

Buyer, Ozzie Giglio is a seasoned dealer owning fourteen stores throughout Illinois and Wisconsin.

The dealership will continue to remain closed.

The buyer in the transaction was represented by Stephen E. Ryd of Ryd Law.

The seller in the transaction was represented by Jonathan S. Pasternak and Robert L. Rattet of DHC Legal.

About Performance Brokerage Services

Performance Brokerage Services, an auto dealership broker, specializes in professional intermediary services to buyers and sellers of automotive, commercial truck, Harley-Davidson and Powersports dealerships.

The company offers a different approach by providing complimentary dealership assessments, no upfront fees, no reimbursement of costs and is paid a success fee only. Performance Brokerage Services gets paid only after the client gets paid.

With nearly 30 years of dealership brokerage experience, the company utilizes an extensive network of industry related accountants, attorneys, hundreds of registered buyers and enjoys longstanding relationships with most of the auto manufacturers. The intermediaries at Performance Brokerage Services have been involved in well over 700 transactions. Pledging loyal and unwavering representation, confidentiality is vigilantly protected during the selling process and after the transaction closes.

With corporate offices in Irvine, California, 5 regional offices in Utah, Florida, Texas, Virginia and New Jersey, a dedicated Harley-Davidson and Powersports Division, and a dedicated Commercial Truck Division, Performance Brokerage Services provides its clients national exposure with local representation. For more information about the services offered by Performance Brokerage Services, visit https://performancebrokerageservices.com.
As the demand for alcohol has increased dramatically, we are working diligently to source and supply alcohol for our customers needs as quickly as possible.

Our team at Ultra Pure had been working remotely since March 13th and doing a terrific job with the changes and new format of working outside of a regular office environment. Effective June 15th 50% of our staff has returned to the office per State of Connecticut rules and regulations.

While monitoring the State of Connecticut COVID 19 guidelines, it is likely we will be at 50% staff in the office and the balance working remotely for the foreseeable future and switching every week between the 2 groups. We want to provide a safe and healthy location for our staff while they continue to support our customers growing needs for alcohol.

As the demand for alcohol has increased dramatically, we are working diligently to source and supply alcohol for our customers needs as quickly as possible. While this has increased lead times for some products, please stay in touch with your sales representative as we increase our supply to fill the new demands from these recent events. With the recent openings of new west coast distribution facilities, we are still able to deliver quickly anywhere in the country.

We are very proud to be a part of the solution in fighting COVID 19 with a substantial part of our ethanol volumes going towards the production of Hand Sanitizer. We look forward to continuing to supply our customers with this critical commodity during and beyond this pandemic.

Niels van der Kloot

President  Ultra Pure

Founded in 2006 Ultra Pure is located in Darien, Connecticut and is the leading supplier of bulk high proof alcohols. Ultra Pure supplies premium quality bulk ethanol & high proof spirits for varying uses and industries. These products include Grain Neutral Spirits, Organic Certified Alcohol, aged Bourbon, Unaged Whiskey, Rum, non-GMO Sugar Cane Alcohol and all specialty denatured Alcohols. Ultra Pure services not only the Industrial and commercial industries but also Food and Beverage.

https://www.ultrapure-usa.com.

Check out the NPR planet Money Episode 826 The Vodka Proof https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/02/23/588346329/episode-826-the-vodka-proof
Deniz Yucel sentenced in absentia to jail for two years and nine months for terrorism propaganda, lawyer says.

A Turkish court has handed down a prison sentence in absentia to German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel for terrorism propaganda, his lawyer said, in a case that has strained ties between Ankara and Berlin.

The court convicted Yucel on Thursday and sentenced him to two years and nine months in jail for spreading propaganda for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), lawyer Veysel Ok said, adding he will appeal against the decision.

Yucel, who has denied the charges against him, returned to Berlin in February 2018 when he was released from custody after being kept in jail for a year without indictment.

The court ruled he was not guilty of sedition or of spreading propaganda for the network of Fethullah Gulen, a US-based religious leader accused by Ankara of plotting a failed coup in 2016.

The court also decided to file two separate criminal lawsuits against Yucel at the Istanbul chief prosecutors office for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish state.

German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel is seen in the newsroom of Die Welt in Berlin, Germany [Marlene Gawrisch/Die Welt/via Reuters]

I regret nothing

In an op-ed for Die Welt, Yucel condemned the political ruling and rejected the new accusations as a scandal.

Either way, the Turkish state was going to embarrass itself today. And this it did, Yucel wrote for the newspaper, under the headline, I regret nothing.

The ruling changes nothing about what I knew from the moment of my arrest: I was captured because I was doing my work as a journalist, he said.

He told the dpa news agency that with this ruling, the court has ignored the Turkish constitutional court. This shows once again what the Turkish justice system is like, namely pitiful.

The managing director of the German branch of Reporters Without Borders called the charges absurd and described the ruling as political and arbitrary.





Rising tensions

Yucels case  along with the incarceration of several other German nationals in Turkey  has raised tensions between Ankara and Berlin.

190706100813375

Shortly after his arrest, Berlin banned Turkish ministers from speaking to rallies of expatriate Turks, while Ankara accused Germany of supporting Gulens network.

Erdogan had repeatedly slammed Yucel, in one instance dubbing him a terrorist agent.

Last June, Turkeys Constitutional Court ruled in a unanimous decision that Yucels year-long pre-trial detention was unlawful.

In May last year, Yucel told a Berlin court that Turkish officers tortured him while in prison, a charge Ankara denies

Erdogans international critics have questioned the independence of Turkeys judiciary, especially since a crackdown after the attempted coup in 2016.

They say the government used the coup as a pretext to quash dissent, with Turkey one of the biggest jailers of journalists globally.

Erdogan and his AK Party say the measures are necessary given the security risks Turkey faces, and courts make independent decisions.

Ok said Turkeys highest court had already ruled that articles written by Yucel on which the charges were based were within the remit of his freedom of speech, and the lower court had violated the law by not abiding by that ruling.

[Judges] convict anyone who writes news on topics the ruling party does not want  on Kurds, on Armenians. This is confirmation that there is no press freedom in Turkey, he said.
Marcotte was arrested in 2019 on charges that he sexually abused a child in 2017 and in 2018. The archdiocese previously said that it learned of the allegations in early February 2019, when the group suspended the priest.

Lloyds lawsuit stated that the father of the victim had notified an archdiocese victim assistance coordinator that he intended to sue on February 13, 2020. Months after the father made known his intention to sue, the archdiocese applied for an insurance policy.

During the application process for the insurance, the archdiocese was questioned whether it knew of any facts, circumstances, or allegations that may result in claims being made against you, and the archdiocese answered no, Lloyds alleged.

Indianapolis Star reported that Lloyds has asked a judge to rescind the insurance policy and render it void.

In an email statement to the Associated Press, archdiocese spokesperson Mike Krokos said that the group has not yet been served the lawsuit.

Therefore, we cannot respond until we have the opportunity to thoroughly examine the lawsuit, the spokesperson said.
A world-renowned neurosurgeon found not guilty of assaulting his model wife is now back at work after finally having his medical registration reinstated.

Dr Timothy Robert Steel, 56, was suspended by the Medical Council of New South Wales on February 11 after being charged with a string of domestic violence offences stemming from an alleged incident with his wife Emma Steel on December 13, 2019.

The Sydney doctor lodged an appeal at the NSW Civil and Administrative Complaints Tribunal, arguing his suspension was not in the 'public interest' and failed to take into account the effect it would have on his patients.

While NCAT found the medical board was within its rights to suspend Dr Steel, that same board has now allowed him to return to work.

Their decision comes off the back of the high profile NSW Local Court case in which Dr Steel was cleared of assaulting his wife, who was described by a magistrate as an 'inconsistent witness'.

Dr Timothy Robert Steel, 56, (pictured) will return to work after having his medical registration reinstated by the medical council of NSW

Dr Steel had been suspended after being charged with assaulting his wife Emma (pictured) but after four days of evidence Downing Centre Local Court magistrate Vivien Swain found there were inconsistencies in her evidence and dismissed all charges

Dr Steel was found not guilty of punching, slapping and kicking Emma the morning after a Christmas party last year.

She had also accused him of financial abuse, despite the court hearing she had a monthly allowance of more than $24,000.

In a video tendered to court Mrs Steel told police: 'He grabbed my hair, pulled my hair, ripped out my hair extensions.

'He's kicking me, he's pushing me, I fell on the floor a couple of times and I was calling out for help.'

Dr Steel had faced charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, common assault and damaging property.

After four days of evidence Downing Centre Local Court magistrate Vivien Swain found there were inconsistencies in Mrs Steel's evidence and dismissed all matters.

Dr Steel's solicitor, Paul McGirr, had described Mrs Steel as a witness of 'very little credit' and an 'unhinged person' who made up allegations against her husband.

'I relation to her, she will make up anything to suit herself,' Mr McGirr told the court.

'The catalyst for all this is money. She was treating Dr Steel like a walking ATM.'

In the video tendered to court Mrs Steel told police: 'He grabbed my hair, pulled my hair, ripped out my hair extensions.' Pictured: Mrs Steel on police body camera footage

Dr Steel is pictured with bruises and scratches to his arm during an interview with police on December 13, 2019

Pictured: Dr and Mrs Steel lived in a glamorous home in the eastern suburbs of Sydney

The former model's 19-year-old son from an earlier marriage to jockey Shane Dye also gave evidence against her, describing Mrs Steel's obsession with money.

Jack Dye said his mother regularly complained Dr Steel did not give her enough funds, despite being paid an allowance of at least $20,000 a month.

As well as making allegations of domestic violence, Mrs Steel had claimed her husband was having an affair and suggested he cut up a lacy red pair of her underwear.

'Dr Steel was the victim of her vicious attacks,' Mr McGirr said.

'Poor old Dr Steel is the one getting his reputation sullied. Emma Steel is a woman who is playing the system and playing the victim.'

Dr Timothy Steel is pictured leaving the Downing Centre in Sydney on June 29, 2020
Germany's federal and regional governments on Thursday agreed on tougher, more targeted lockdown measures to contain local outbreaks and ward off the threat of a second coronavirus wave. The new rules allow for a ban on travel "in and out of the affected areas" to limit the spread of the virus, according to an agreement adopted by federal and local authorities. It comes as countries across the world are reimposing curbs on public life in response to a surge in new infections. Germany, which has been less affected by the pandemic than many of its neighbours, aims to respond to new clusters with hyper-local lockdowns and rapid contact tracing and testing, rather than blanket lockdowns of whole towns or districts. The need for clear rules was highlighted last month when a COVID-19 outbreak at a slaughterhouse in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia led to Germany's first renewed lockdowns, covering two neighbouring districts. However a local court later ruled that the lockdown was too broad, and locals from the districts on holiday elsewhere in Germany complained about being turned away from their accommodation. Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday voiced support for travel bans in and out of coronavirus hotspots. She said that it was "better for citizens" to have certainty rather than being denied entry to a hotel upon arrival. - Calling in the army - The text agreed on Thursday states that a travel ban should be imposed "if the numbers continue to rise and there's no certainty that the chain of infection has been broken" in the affected area. Anyone wanting to leave a localised lockdown for another state must be able to show a negative coronavirus test that is less than 48 hours old, the agreement said. Merkel's chief of staff Helge Braun told the ZDF broadcaster that the goal was to fight the virus with "faster, smaller and more precise" curbs rather than the larger lockdowns that have caused such economic devastation. He said the military could even be called in to help ensure locals in an affected area get tested as quickly as possible. Germany's Association of Towns and Municipalities (DStGB) welcomed the agreement, with CEO Gerd Landsberg calling local lockdowns "the right way forward". "This also means that lockdowns are not drawn out over months or weeks, but ideally last only a few days," he told the Funke media group. The new rules also come as Germany is anxiously eyeing the return of holidaymakers from abroad this summer, fearing they could be bringing the virus back with them. Video footage of German tourists partying in Spain's Mallorca -- without face masks or keeping the recommended 1.5 metres apart -- has caused particular alarm. - 'Reckless behaviour' - Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned Germans not to undo the progress made in combatting the virus. "Such behaviour is not just dangerous, but inconsiderate towards all those who would like to enjoy their holiday safely," he told the Funke group. "We've only just managed to open borders in Europe again. We must not jeopardise this with reckless behaviour." The Toennies slaughterhouse that was the source of the local outbreak in North Rhine-Westphalia reopened on Thursday after four weeks, prompting a protest from Greenpeace activists against mass meat production. Germany has recorded just over 200,000 coronavirus cases to date, and 9,078 deaths, according to the Robert Koch Institute for disease control. The country has credited early, widespread testing and its world-class healthcare system for keeping the fatality rate relatively low. Germans have also generally complied with rules on social distancing and wearing face masks. More than 15 million people have also downloaded Germany's coronavirus warning app aimed at alerting people who've been in close proximity to an infected person.
Companies leading the way in various categories of disability inclusion

Alexandria, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Disability:IN is pleased to recognize the eleven recipients of the 2020 Inclusion Awards. Announced last night, during the virtual Disability:IN Conference, the eleven award recipients were invited to take the virtual stage and provide remarks. The Inclusion Award winners are recognized as visionary brands and individuals that are advancing disability inclusion in business.

This year, the Disability:IN Conference & Expo turned virtual due to COVID-19 concerns. This event, taking place July 13-16, brings an opportunity to bring even more business professionals together  over 3,000 from nearly 20 different countries from around the world.

Disability:IN recognizes these companies and individuals as those at the forefront  leading the way in corporate disability inclusion and challenging those around them to do more, said Jill Houghton, President and CEO, Disability:IN. Each year the Inclusion Awards become more competitive, and we are excited to support the healthy competition to drive inclusion in business.

Disability:IN also launched a campaign during the conference- Are You IN?, a call-to-action for CEOs, companies, investors, and business professionals to join in and commit to advance disability inclusion in business.

Winners of the 2020 Disability:IN Inclusion Awards are certainly IN! See below for the Inclusion Award winners and award descriptions.

2020 Top Corporation for Disability-Owned Businesses: Wells Fargo

The Top Corporation for Disability-Owned Business recognizes a corporation that has demonstrated outstanding inclusion of Disability:IN certified disability-owned businesses (including businesses owned by service-disabled veterans), and demonstrated commitment to disability business inclusion in their supply chain processes and corporate supplier diversity programs.

2020 John D. Kemp Leadership Award: Chad Jerdee, Accenture

Story continues

The John D. Kemp Inclusion Award recognizes an individual who has developed or influenced the development of significant company disability employment programs and/or services that resulted in measurable, tangible and positive outcomes that dramatically improved disability employment opportunities.

2020 ERG/BRG of the Year: Google Disability Alliance

The Employee/Business Resource Group of the Year recognizes a corporate employee resource group (ERG) or business resource group (BRG) as having exemplary programming and practices for its employee group that provides business value to the company and professional growth for its members

2020 NextGen Alum of the Year: Zarin Hamid, PNC Financial Services, Inc.

The NextGen Alum of the Year recognizes an alumnus who has gone above and beyond after participating in Disability:INs NextGen Leader Initiatives. This alumnus has not only demonstrated corporate leadership, but has also paid the way forward for future NextGen Leaders.

2020 Supplier Diversity Advocate of the Year: Rondu Vincent, Bristol Myers Squibb

The Supplier Diversity Advocate of the Year recognizes a procurement champion who has demonstrated outstanding commitment to the utilization and growth of disability-owned businesses. Vincent has also provided exceptional support for certified Disability-Owned Business Enterprises- DOBEs, Veteran-Disability Owned Business Enterprises (V-DOBEs) and Service-Disabled Veteran Disability-Owned Business Enterprises (SDV-DOBEs).

2020 Supplier of the Year: Dragonfli

The Supplier of the Year recognizes a certified Disability-Owned Business Enterprises- DOBEs, Veteran-Disability Owned Business Enterprises (V-DOBEs) or a Service-Disabled Veteran Disability-Owned Business Enterprises (SDV-DOBEs) supplier that has provided excellent service and serves as a role model for disability business inclusion in the supply chain.

2020 Marketplace Innovator of the Year, Product Category: Starbucks

The Marketplace Innovator of the Year, Product Category recognizes an innovative product(s) that is inclusively designed, to be used for people of all abilities.

2020 Marketplace Innovator of the Year, Advertising & Marketing Category: Voya Financial

The Marketplace Innovator of the Year, Advertising & Marketing Category recognizes a visionary corporation for an advertising or marketing strategy that highlights people with disabilities.

2020 Employer of the Year: Merck

The Employer of the Year recognizes exemplary policies, strategies and initiatives that have resulted in measurable results in the areas of disability inclusiveness in the workplace, marketplace and supply chain.

2020 ERG/BRG Executive Sponsor of the Year: Elizabeth Pinkham, Salesforce

The ERG/BRG Executive Sponsor of the Year Award recognizes an Executive Sponsor of a companys disability ERG/BRG who has had a measurable impact on disability inclusion at the company and champions disability inclusion across the enterprise.

2020 Affiliate of the Year: Disability:IN North Carolina

The Affiliate of the Year honors a Disability:IN Affiliate that has demonstrated exemplary efforts in promoting the vision, mission and spirit of Disability:IN. This Affiliate helps their territory understand, utilize, and benefit from the valuable resources that people with disabilities present in the workplace, supply chain and marketplace.

About Disability:IN

Disability:IN is the leading nonprofit resource for business disability inclusion worldwide. Partnering with more than 220 corporations, Disability:IN expands opportunities for people with disabilities across enterprises. The organization and 30 affiliates raise a collective voice of positive change for people with disabilities in business. Through its programs and services, Disability:IN empowers businesses to achieve disability inclusion and equality, with the goal of advancing inclusion to the point when the organization is no longer necessary.

Elaine Kubik

Disability:IN

elaine@DisabilityIN.org


India has rejected the bids from two Chinese companies that emerged as the lowest bidders for stretches of the upcoming Delhi-Mumbai expressway. The projects were regarding two stretches of the upcoming expressway.

The two companies were subsidiaries of Jiangxi Construction Engineering Corporation. According to a government official, the bids have been rejected on issues of security clearances, as mentioned in a report in The Economic Times. The Ministry of Highways and Road Transport has rescinded the projects entailing Rs 800 crore.

The official said that they have denied letters of award to the two Chinese companies. The contracts will now be offered to the second-lowest bidders. If their bids match the Chinese companies, the contract will be awarded to them.

The move comes after Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari recently said that Chinese companies would be barred from highway projects. He had said that they would not be allowed even as joint ventures. "We will not give permission to joint ventures that have Chinese partners for road construction. We have taken a firm stand that if they (Chinese companies) come via joint venture in our country, we will not allow it," he had said in an interview.

Indian Railways had also recently cancelled a Rs 471 crore signalling contract awarded to Beijing National Railway Research & Design Institute of Signal & Communication in 2016. The company was working on signalling and telecommunication work in the 417-km long Kanpur-Deen Dayal Upadhyay section. The decision was reportedly taken as the company had completed only 20 per cent of the total work.

These announcements come after the India-China clash in the Galwan Valley that resulted in the death of 20 Indian soldiers. India also banned 59 Chinese apps, including TikTok, UC Browser, Shein over security concerns after the border clash.

Also read: Govt needs to put more money in hands of poor, says Abhijit Banerjee
FRANKLIN PARK, Ill., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Moss has moved into its new 180,000+ sq. ft. global headquarters and manufacturing facility in Franklin Park, Ill. near Chicago and O'Hare International Airport. The space accommodates all U.S. operations, bringing together Moss's core capabilities, expertise, and production volume together under one roof to provide the Ultimate Partnership Experience.

"We have both the mindset and the facility to deliver the most diverse and imaginative range of possibilities in the most efficient way," said Moss President and CEO Dan Patterson. "Our new state-of-the-art facility enhances Moss's sustainability, agility and speed, which are all critical as brands look to emerge into the new normal with reliable, value-creating partners."

Moss's experts in materials, technology and technique can partner on intricate projects and design for manufacturing more quickly than ever. "For our customers," noted Moss Executive Vice President and COO Sarah Browning, "it means their ideas become reality with speed, clarity, and the knowledge that the people of Moss are invested as extensions of their team. As manufacturing designers, we have also optimized our facility for efficient workflow, fast turn times, and unmatched capacity across the board."

The new headquarters can safely accommodate a socially-distanced headcount capacity of 200+ employees as permitted or desired. Moss continues to follow CDC and State of Illinois guidelines on workplace safety practices, including work from home strategies.

"What we have is a high-performance facility that galvanizes our manufacturing diversity and highlights a culture of inventiveness, partnership and quality," said Patterson. "While it's been nearly two years in the making, it comes amid very challenging times. As we look forward to a more stable horizon, our new headquarters stands ready to support whatever the Moss customer needs."

New Address

Moss

Global Headquarters and Manufacturing

10501 Seymour Ave. Suite 200

Franklin Park, IL 60131

800.341.1557

Features

180,000+ sqft

20 departments

113 stock materials

35' ceilings

14,000 sqft print room

13 printers including 4 Durst Rhotex 325 units

2,000 sqft cut room

3-shift/24-hour face mask production

9 conference/huddle rooms

88 workspaces with adjustable desks

Temperature-controlled production areas

Sustainability Features

100% renewable energy electricity

All motion-sensor, LED lighting

Water-conservation fixtures

Waste-generated gas converted to energy by EPA Landfill Methane Outreach Program

About Moss

Traditionally, Moss has partnered with brands around the world to tell their story through compelling experiences. Across three continents, we continue to sustainably blend materials, technology and technique for these brand presentation endeavors - and now also to solve critical public health needs. Through global sourcing, fabrication, printing and technical design, Moss creates powerful communication and safety solutions for communities.

Contact: Mel Marzan

[email protected] | 773.243.9778

SOURCE Moss

Related Links

www.mossinc.com


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Linkedin Guy Faulconbridge and Martin Quin Pollard (Reuters) London, United Kingdom/Beijing. China  Thu, July 16, 2020 12:45 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666c2b32 2 World UK-China,UK,Huawei,5G,bilateral-spat,bilateral-tension Free

China warned British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday that his decision to ban Huawei from the 5G network would cost Britain dearly in investment, casting the move as the result of politicized pressure from US President Donald Trump.

Hours after Johnson ordered Huawei equipment to be purged from the nascent 5G network by the end of 2027, Trump claimed credit for the decision and said that if countries wanted to do business with the United States they should block Huawei.

But China, whose $15 trillion economy is five times the size of Britain's, warned the decision would hurt investment as Chinese companies had watched as London "dumped" the national telecoms champion.

"Now I would even say this is not only disappointing - this is disheartening," Chinese Ambassador Liu Xiaoming told the Centre for European Reform, adding that Britain had "simply dumped this company".

"The way you are treating Huawei is being followed very closely by other Chinese businesses, and it will be very difficult for other businesses to have the confidence to have more investment," he said.

As Britain prepares to cast off from the European Union, fears over the security of Huawei have forced New York-born Johnson to take sides in the rivalry between the United States and China.

In Beijing, the foreign ministry cast Britain as "a relatively small place" that was becoming subservient of the United States.

"Does the UK want to maintain its independent status or be reduced to being a vassal of the United States, be the US's cats paw?" Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said. "The safety of Chinese investment in the UK is being greatly threatened."

Chinese money

Britain has become increasingly reliant on Chinese imports. Some 9% of all goods imported into Britain in 2018 - worth 43 billion pounds ($54 billion) - came from China, double the proportion from 15 years earlier.

But British companies have also invested increasingly in China. Between 2013 and 2018, they more than doubled their investment position in the world's No.2 economy to 16 billion pounds, according to official British data.

By contrast, Chinese investment in British companies stood at 1.8 billion pounds in 2018 - far below that of the United States, which is the biggest single foreign investor in Britain.

Trump identifies China as the United States' main geopolitical rival, and has accused the Communist Party-ruled state of taking advantage over trade and not telling the truth over the novel coronavirus outbreak, which he calls the "China plague".

Washington and its allies say Huawei technology could be used to spy for China. Huawei has denied this.

"We convinced many countries, many countries - I did this myself for the most part - not to use Huawei, because we think it's an unsafe security risk, it's a big security risk," Trump told reporters in the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday.

"I talked many countries out of using it: if they want to do business with us, they can't use it. Just today, I believe that UK announced that they're not going to be using it."

Britain has said that its ban on Huawei is motivated by its own security concerns and by worries that supplies of Huawei gear could be interrupted by US sanctions.

It denied that Trump alone was responsible for the Huawei ban. Asked about the comments, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: "Well, we all know Donald Trump, don't we."
A Nigerian Professor, Charles Egbu, has been appointed Vice-Chancellor of Leeds Trinity University.

According to a statement on the UK Varsity website, he will take over from Margaret House, who will be stepping down after seven years.

Mr Egbu will return to Leeds, a city in which he studied and taught, to begin his new role on November 1, 2020.

Reacting to his appointment, Mr Egbu was quoted as saying: I am honoured to be joining Leeds Trinity; a University whos values and ethos around widening participation, offering a personalised approach and encouraging all students to achieve their best, align with my own.



The University has an impressive track record in learning, teaching and employability, and I am looking forward to building on the strong foundations established under the leadership of Professor House.

I have already been impressed by the sense of community at Leeds Trinity and I am looking forward to engaging with students, colleagues and alumni as we shape the future strategy of the institution. I am also looking forward to returning to Leeds; the city in which I spent much of my early academic life.

With more than 25 years experience in higher education, he was previously Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education and Experience at the University of East London.

He is also a member of various external bodies, including the Advance HE Pro Vice-Chancellor Network and QAA Panel of Experts.

Prior to this, he was Dean of the School of Built Environment and Architecture at London South Bank University and Head of the School of Built Environment at the University of Salford. He held academic posts at University College London, Glasgow Caledonian University and Leeds Beckett University (formerly Leeds Metropolitan).

Mr Egbus research interests focus on project management, construction management and sustainable development.

He has written 12 books and contributed to more than 350 publications in various international journals and conferences. He has strong links with industry, professional bodies and policy makers, and has managed several large multi-disciplinary research projects.

Meanwhile, Jamie Hanley, Chair Designate of the Board of Governors at Leeds Trinity University, said, Professor Egbu brings with him a wealth of experience and extensive knowledge of the higher education sector. His energy and vision stood out throughout a very competitive recruitment process, and it is clear that he recognises Leeds Trinitys strengths and values, as well as bringing with him a detailed understanding of the opportunities and challenges faced from across the higher education sector. I very much look forward to welcoming him to Leeds Trinity University.

Mrs House will continue in her role as Vice-Chancellor until the end of October, when Mr Egbu will join the university.

Follow Us on Facebook  @LadunLiadi; Instagram  @LadunLiadi; Twitter  @LadunLiadi; Youtube  @LadunLiadiTV for updates
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16

By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend:

Turkmenistan has confirmed its readiness to support the activities of the World Health Organization (WHO) at the international level, Trend reports with reference to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan.

This was stated during a meeting of representatives of a number of ministries of health of the country and WHO, held in Turkmen MFA.

The representatives of the The WHO Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe) mission thanked the Turkmen government for organizing the work of the delegation, and also informed about its visit to two regions and the capital of the country - Ashgabat.

Also, representatives of WHO presented a report on the work of the mission in Turkmenistan.

As it was reported earlier, Senior Emergency Officer at the WHO Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe) Catherine Smallwood said that WHO approves and supports all measures taken by Turkmenistan to prevent the coronavirus outbreak into the country.

Earlier, Turkmenistan received medicines from WHO/Europe to prevent the coronavirus spread in the country.

The WHO mission to Turkmenistan has been in Turkmenistan since July 6 to support the country in preparedness and response to COVID-19.

To date, Turkmenistan has reported no coronavirus cases.

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.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @JeilaAliyeva
A group of civil rights leaders is urging Congress to condition new K-12 pandemic relief aid on state legislatures cutting most drastically from their wealthier school districts budgets first, rather than impose flat funding cuts they say have a disproportionate impact on the nations most-impoverished school districts.

While looming state and local budget cuts are inevitable, policymakers at all levels have significant control over how and where those cuts are made, wrote Emma Vadehra, the executive director of Next100, a progressive think tank, and Ary Amerikaner, the vice president of EdTrust, an advocacy group that pushes for more greater accountability and more equitable K-12 spending. Congress, in particular, is well positioned to ensure that high-poverty schools and districts dont again bear the brunt of belt-tightening.

The coronavirus pandemic has caused state revenue to crater, and school districts now are bracing for an estimated $200 billion budget deficit over the next two years, according to many fiscal analysts. Congress is bracing for a debate over whether and how much additional emergency funding to provide states and districts to cope with the pandemic.

Under most states school funding formulas, districts serving the highest number of poor students are the most reliant on aid from the state . Wealthier districts are more reliant on property tax revenue, a much more stable source of revenue (see how reliant your school district is on state aid here ).

During the last recession, states made flat cuts to their K-12 aid, which ultimately tripled the funding disparity between wealthier and poorer districts, according to a study conducted by David Knight, a school finance professor at the University of Washington.

Vadehra and Amerikaner are urging Congress not to make the same mistake. They want any new pandemic-relief aid to require states receiving the money to cut from their wealthiest districts first, ban teacher layoffs within impoverished districts, and require district administrators to cut most drastically from their wealthiest schools.

Not all cuts are created equal, Amerikaner said in an interview. States shouldnt make cuts that disproportionately fall on the backs of students with the greatest needs.

Former Secretary of Education John King who currently serves as president and CEO of EdTrust endorsed the maintenance of equity plan in a letter sent to congressional leaders.

According to an analysis EdTrust has conducted, Amerikaner estimates that a maintenance of effort clause could spare heavily impoverished districts from collectively having to cut more than $5 billion out of their budgets.

That could buy a Chromeook for every student, Amerikaner said. It could save hundreds of thousands of teacher jobs across the country.

State lawmakers have urged Congress to not place any strings on extra federal revenue they receive and have previously protested a maintenance of effort clause that would prevent them from making any cuts to K-12 spending. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos waived the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Acts maintenance of effort clause.

New Mexico, Ohio, and Utah have all attempted in recent months to cut first from their wealthiest districts. Such moves are politically difficult to get the general public behind and can be mathematically complicated.

Stephen Dyer, an education policy fellow at Innovation Ohio and a former legislator who has studied Ohios funding formula, said while so-called progressive funding cuts are admirable, poor districts still have a difficult time recovering from any sort of budget cuts.

According to his analysis of Ohios most recent budget cuts, poor districts have to come up with almost 25 percent more local funding than the wealthier districts. And they have to come up with that money by asking taxpayers who barely make half as much money.

What this demonstrably proves is that there simply isnt enough money in wealthy districts to offset the disproportionate pain felt by our states poorer communities when cuts come, Dyer wrote.

Follow us on Twitter @PoliticsK12 . And follow the Politics K-12 reporters @EvieBlad @Daarel and @AndrewUjifusa .
When Alexander Hamilton stepped foot in New York City in 1772, the then-village of Brooklyn was more agricultural than artisan, more traditional than trendy.

Thanks to a collection of nearly 1,500 maps introduced online today on the Brooklyn Historical Societys website, modern Brooklyn residents can now locate their homes and apartments on an 18th-century grid of fields and farmland. They can track the evolution of their neighborhoods and use old subway maps (which used to be laid out horizontally rather than vertically) to trace which 20th-century subway routes they could have taken from their homes to Ebbets Field, where Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers once played.

But the maps arent just targeted at those familiar with the area, or even at researchers and scholars: Anyone can get a glimpse at the regions history and evolution. The voluminous resource includes maps for other New York City boroughs, Long Island, New York state, New Jersey and areas throughout the Eastern United States.

The collection, which is sourced from the historical societys archives, includes maps from 1562 to 2015  including transit maps, topographical maps, cultural maps and nautical charts, as well as plans for Central Park and Prospect Park. Marcia Ely, the executive vice president of the historical society, recommends searching by neighborhood.
PokerStars Stadium Series Round Up: Almost $10.8 Million Already Paid Out

July 16 2020 Matthew Pitt

PokerStars has paid out almost $10.8 million across the completed Stadium Series tournaments and theres still another two weeks worth of events to go, including the $5 million guaranteed Main Event!

The first Weekly Finals crowned their champions on the evening of July 14. Brazils BK AK 171 triumphed in the $5.50 Low edition, which attracted 22,379 entrants. The Brazilian came out on top and banked an impressive $15,401 for their $5.50 investment.

Argentinas McFadden92 was the $55 Medium champion. This event also attracted a five-figure crowd with 10,297 players creating a $514,850 prize pool. The Argentinian saw their $55 buy-in turn into a most impressive $69,030.

Mike munchenHB Telker took down the $530 High edition and added $157,004 to his lifetime winnings tally. You can read all about Telkers superb victory in its own dedicated article.

The first six-figure prize of the Stadium Series went to Austrias klem90 who was the last man standing from the 1,597-strong field in the Stadium Series Heat 01-H: $530 NLHE 8-Max. The eight-handed final table was ridiculously stacked, with the likes of Niall Firadlo87 Farrell and Thomas WushuTM Muehloecker present and correct.

Muehloecker eventually fell in second-place and secured an $87,252 prize, leaving klem90 to secure the $121,806 top prize.

Place Player Country Prize 1 klem90 Austria $121,806 2 Thomas WushuTM Muehloecker Austria $87,252 3 Mastermandel Austria $62,500 4 BirdUp4 Netherlands $44,770 5 Tudor tdr01 Cristian Romania $32,070 6 Niall Firadlo87 Farrell United Kingdom $22,972 7 James OP-Poker James Mackenzie United Kingdom $16,456 8 Luckbox1326 Romania $11,787

Read about Telker's Massive Weekly Final Victory

Stadium Series Heat 02-H: $530 NLHE Progressive KO

Before taking down the high buy-in edition of the weekly final, Mike munchenHB Telker got his hands on the Stadium Series Heat 02-H: $530 NLHE Progressive KO title. Telker outlasted 1,258-opponents to bag the $41,416 top prize plus $37,664 worth of bounties for a combined score of $80,080.

Telker defeated Austrias Faboulus888 heads-up to secure the victory. The Austrian runner-up walked away with $53,048 when bounties were taken into consideration.

A special mention has to go to third-place finisher KingKomeron of Estonia who added $10,899 worth of bounties to the $25,903 main prize pool prize. Only Telker locked up more from the bounty prize pool.

Place Player Country Prize Bounties Total Prize 1 Michael "munchenHB Telker Costa Rica $42,416 $37,664 $80,080 2 Faboulus888 Austria $42,415 $10,633 $53,048 3 KingKomeron Estonia $25,903 $10,899 $36,802 4 mirel06 Romania $18,804 $5,906 $24,710 5 Gratitude Estonia $13,651 $8,386 $22,037 6 Jon luckyfish89 Clark United Kingdom $9,910 $6,613 $16,523 7 lcl1988 China $7,194 $2,523 $9,717 8 copag holdem Brazil $5,223 $1,109 $6,332 9 777acenace777 Canada $3,791 $5,125 $8,916

Stadium Series Heat 06-H: $530 NLHE 8-Max Progressive KO

British superstars Conor 1_conor_b_1 Beresford became a Stadium Series champion by triumphing over 914-opponents in the Stadium Series Heat 06-H: $530 NLHE 8-Max Progressive KO event. Beresfords victory weighed in at $38,604 plus an additional $28,017 worth of bounty payments for a combined score worth a cool $66,621.

All but one of the eight finalists padded their bankrolls with five-figure prizes, a superb return on a $530 investment. The champion aside, the biggest score went to Ukraines MountainRo$e who netted a combined $50,486 for their runner-up finish.

Place Player Country Prize Bounties Total Prize 1 Conor 1_conor_b_1 Beresford United Kingdom $38,604 $28,017 $66,621 2 MountainRo$e Ukraine $38,603 $11,883 $50,486 3 mahairong China $22,904 $4,125 $27,029 4 addionutz United Kingdom $16,327 $1,500 $17,827 5 Dachish Russia $11,638 $6,059 $17,697 6 ludako123 Bulgaria $8,296 $2,777 $11,073 7 corresao Argentina $5,913 $1,421 $7,334 8 Chrobson Poland $4,215 $7,966 $12,181

Stadium Series Heat 09-H: $1,050 NLHE

The Stadium Series Heat 09-H: $1,050 NLHE event attracted a 515-strong field and ended in a four-way deal that saw the final quartet share almost $250,000!

Francisco Tomatee Benitez finished in fourth-place and won $54,919 before Russias needdollarz fell in third and banked $72,572, which was the largest prize awarded. Heads-up pitted Matas NoTilit Cikinas and BC1989RF of Hungary in a one-on-one battle. The latter emerged victoriously and got their hands on $61,295, leaving Cikinas to collect $60,600.

Earlier at the the final table, Marty TheLipoFund Mathis saw his tournament end in eighth-place, a finish worth $12,233 while Team PokerStars Pro and Twitch legend Lex L. Veldhuis Veldhuis finished in sixth-place for a $21,712 addition to his bankroll.

Place Player Country Prize 1 BC1989RF Hungary $61,295* 2 Matas NoTilit Cikinas Lithuania $60,600* 3 needdollarz Russia $72,572* 4 Francisco Tomatee Benitez Uruguay $54,919* 5 RPILON Canada $28,925 6 Lex. L. Veldhuis Veldhuis Netherlands $21,712 7 Juan Manuel proggrezive Copani Argentina $16,297 8 Marty TheLipoFund Mathis Mexico $12,233 9 BRzRoll Netherlands $9,182

*reflects a four-handed deal

The Stadium Series Grand Final Has $5M Gtd

Stadium Series Heat 10-H: $1,050 NLHE 6-Max Progressive KO

PKO events are action-packed at the best of times but go crazy when play is at six-handed tables. This was the format for the Stadium Series Heat 10-H: $1,050 NLHE 6-Max Progressive KO which drew in a 443-strong crowd who played for a share of $500,000.

Any of the six finalists would have made a worthy champion, but only one of them could claim that title, as is tournament pokers nature. That person was UK-based Spaniard Javier que_te_crio Fernandez Alonso who defeated Diego Mr.Bittar Valadares Bittar heads-up. Alonso collected a combined $87,696 with Bittar scooping $55,305.

Before that heads-up clash, Aleks Better and Those_Bros fell in sixth and fifth-place respectively. Claas SsicK_OnE Segebrecht was the fourth-place finish while Nathan SneakyBeakyL Schmitt collected the $32,548 third-place prize.

Place Player Country Prize Bounties Total Prize 1 Javier que_te_crio Fernandez Alonso United Kingdom $42,702 $44,994 $87,696 2 Diego Mr.Bittar Valadares Bittar Brazil $42,702 $12,603 $55,305 3 Nathan SneakyBeakyL Schmitt Austria $25,627 $6,921 $32,548 4 Claas SsicK_OnE Segebrecht Austria $18,400 $6,437 $24,837 5 Those_Bros Canada $13,211 $2,843 $16,054 6 Aleks Better Russia $9,485 $4,062 $13,547

We're Live Reporting the Stadium Series Weekly Finals here

How To Get Involved in the Stadium Series

Stadium Series tournaments run every day and continue to do so up until August 2. Head to the PokerStars tournament lobby and buy in now if you have the bankroll for those events. If you dont have the bankroll for the bigger events, or you simply want to save yourself some cash, there are plenty of other routes into the biggest Stadium Series games.

The Stadium Series Heats are the daily tournaments. The top finishers in these tournaments receive a free ticket to the coveted weekly Stadium Series Sunday Finals. Reach the final tables of these finals and PokerStars gifts you a $5,200 ticket to the Grand Final where youll play for a share of a guaranteed $5 million.

Spin & Go specialists can try their luck in the special edition Spin & Gos. These come with buy-ins of $4 and $22 and award a mixture of cash and Stadium Series tournament tickets.

Dont forget you can also complete the Stadium Series Trials via the Challenges Window of your PokerStars account. Start the challenge then play real money multi-table tournaments. You earn one leaderboard point for every $1 spent on tournament buy-ins. Finish in the top 25 of the leaderboard when the promotion ends on August 1 and a $5,200 Grand Final ticket is all yours. Finish in 26-125th place and bank a free Stadium Series Fast track Final ticket worth a cool $1,050.

Last, but certainly not least, is the Stadium Series Fast Track program. These are a series of sit & go and MTT tournaments where you can buy into at any stage, but only Stage 4 awards Grand Final tickets.

Step 1: $1 Sit & Go Tournament (12 players)

Step 2: $11 Sit & Go Tournament (21 players)

Step 3: $109 MTT Tournament

Step 4: $1,050 MTT Tournament

Keep an eye on your email inbox and in the PokerStars lobby for the many planned giveaways. PokerNews has learned PokerStars is giving away more than $2.5 million in Stadium Series tickets and by adding some serious value via other giveaways to make it possible for every player to have a shot at Stadium Series glory.
Layoffs, loss-making hotels, coronavirus and now a fresh round of litigation, trouble has resurfaced for Oyo Hotels and Homes, as hoteliers accuse the Softbank-backed hospitality firm of failing to honour contracts and breach of trust.

The hospitality industry has been the worst hit by the viral outbreak that has halted travel and movement of people. But, the Guruguram-based company was facing headwinds even earlier. It reported a six-fold increase in losses at $330 million on revenue of $951 million for the financial year 2019, according to regulatory filings.

On July 15, the Madras High Court asked Oyo to respond before August 12 to a petition by a Chennai hotel seeking a compensation of Rs 75 lakh for breach of contract.

"The matter is sub judice and hence cannot comment. However, while we will defend the matter in the Honble Court, we endeavour to resolve all issues with one-on-one mutual engagement," an Oyo spokesperson told Moneycontrol when asked about the case in the Madras High Court.

Its lawyers say that Hotel Sakthi Park, 100 km from Chennai, in July 2019 signed a contract with Oyo that guaranteed a minimum income every month for three years. Oyo paid six-month rent in advance but nothing after that, said G Vairava Subramanian, one of the lawyers representing the hotel.

Recently, the Delhi High Court asked Oyo for a list of its unencumbered assets (properties free of debt or other liabilities) in response to hospitality firm Anam Datsec Pvt Ltds plea seeking Rs 8 crore in damages for non-payment of dues.

A similar court battle awaits the company in Bengaluru. Betz Fernandez, who owns Roxel Inn, moved court after Oyo stopped paying him the promised Rs 7 lakh a month, media reports have said.

This is not the first time that Oyo is facing angry hoteliers. A group representing hotel operators in Bengaluru called for a criminal probe against the company for withholding money, news agency Reuters reported late last year, adding several hotels had severed ties with the company. Two police complaints were also filed against Oyo for deceitfully increasing commission while some hotel groups organised protests as well, the report said.

Also read: Coronavirus impact | Oyo founder Ritesh Agarwal to forego salary for rest of the year

Founded in 2013 by 19-year old Ritesh Agarwal, Oyo was a novel conceptoffering budget hotel rooms at a discounted price. Indians were travelling and holidaying more and in a price-sensitive market, Oyo found ready customers.

Riding high on its success at home, the company expanded into China, Europe, Southeast Asia and the United States, making Oyo one of the worlds biggest hospitality brands by room count.

It also got into the food and beverages industry, with the launch of cloud kitchen and high-margin coffee chain The French Press in 2019.

Having raised around $3.2 billion from investors such as Softbank and AirBnb, Oyo till early this year was valued at $10 billion. The sudden change in valuation happened after Agarwal bought back shares from investors to up his stake to 30 percent from around 10 percent a few months ago. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son reportedly backed a $2-billion loan to let Agarwal buy back the shares.

But the last few months have seen the company retreat, as the business took a hit. It started restructuring in late 2019, ditching loss-making properties abroad. In April 2020, the company let go of hundreds of employees and sent many more on furloughs. It also resorted to salary cuts.

Agarwal does see policy changes as a sticking point but says Oyo is helping partners grow.

In a recent interaction with Moneycontrol, Agarwal said more than 43,000 hotel partners and 50,000 plus additional homeowners had joined Oyo. The company had provided partners with at least 30-40 percent jump in occupancy.

He said the company kept the partners abreast of policy changes. " we have found out that some percentage of our partners are not able to access these mediums(emails and messages). And if they are able to access, they do not fully understand or have an expectation of being able to speak to us or our team members directly," he said. To resolve the problem, managers were working with the partners, he said.

Though the talk of Oyo being the next WeWork, another favourite of Sons, may seem exaggerated, the companys problems are more than just a communication gap.

It is not just the new partners who are unhappy.

Rajat Pahwa, who owns several budget hotels in Delhi and has been with Oyo since 2017, told Moneycontrol that two of his properties were virtually abandoned by the company.

The two hotels were part of the so-called manchise (management plus franchise) model but Oyo didnt send staff to run and manage the properties, forcing him to hire guards to take care of the properties.

The accusation was inaccurate and misleading, the spokesperson said. Every hotel that has partnered with us and is operating as per the terms of our agreement, and following the government guidelines on lockdowns, etc, when open for business, is fully supported by Oyo," the spokesperson said.

The company claims to have a 150-member service account management team that stays in touch with property owners to address their problems.

Through its Co-OYO app, partners could raise any concerns at any time and there were several tools that allowed them to keep tabs on booking, tariff, etc., the spokesperson said.

Oyo, which started as a budget hotel chain, follows various revenue and franchise models. Under the Manchise  model, the property is handed over to Oyo, which keeps it running and is also responsible for its upkeep.

"Since March, I don't think there has been any clear leadership in Oyo. There have been multiple changes in management. Many Oyo executives we were in touch with no longer seem to be working with Oyo, which has left a huge communication gap," Pahwa said.

He was perhaps referring to Aditya Ghosh. A former president of budget airline IndiGo, Ghosh was in December 2018 appointed the chief executive for India and South Asia amid much fanfare but a year later, he was shifted to the board and replaced by Rohit Kapoor.

New deal

Pahwa said the company was asking them to renegotiate contracts.

A Gurugram-based hotelier, who has had a long association with Oyo, said the company was facing transparency issues.

"We work with Oyo on a revenue-share basis. However, it was only in January we realised that Oyo was not giving us our share in full but was deducting a specific amount in the name of 'Oyo branding charges'," he said, requesting anonymity. "They can say whatever they like but this is clearly a breach of trust."

The company had different types of commercial agreements, tailored to the needs of its partners. Branding fee is not charged by Oyo as commission. It is the channel costs incurred when Oyo generates demand from third-party channels...," the spokesperson said, adding it was part of the contract.

Oyo has been in touch with several hotels to renegotiate and offer new contracts.

It has created a new entity that proposes to take the properties under its umbrella, promising owners a fixed minimum guarantee or 30 percent commission, whichever is higher, another hotel partner, who didnt wish to be identified, said.

"While this entity will get 40 percent of the revenue, Oyo will keep 30 percent and the remaining 30 percent will go to the owners. In return, this entity will take care of the maintenance, electricity and most of the expenses of the property," the hotelier said.

Oyo didnt share the name of the new entity but told Moneycontrol it followed an asset-light model and partnered with external investors to support hotel partners with capital and financing options, when needed.

We are already working towards simplifying deal contracts and reconciliation statements, creating more robust channels for communication and also aligning them more frequently on price-volume equations," an Oyo spokesperson said.

It had offered fiscal support and discount to partners to tide over the present crisis, the spokesperson said.

But trust deficit stays and several partners are reluctant to sign new terms with Oyo.

Globally, 98 percent of its assets follow the revenue-sharing model, the company said. The remaining two percent were on the minimum guarantee. The change from MG to revenue-sharing model is an economic reality of the post-COVID world, the company said.

The revenue-sharing arrangement would be fair and incentivise partners substantially, the spokesperson added.

The company claimed it had a $1-billion war chest as it offered deep discounted ESOPs, promotions and rolled back salary cuts in June. Oyo will need all the ammunition it has to fight the legal battles and win back the trust of its hotel partners.
SIOUX CITY -- Leaders of area nonprofit organizations remembered philanthropist Gertrude Virginia "Ginny" Peterson for her dedication to the needs of women, families and children in the region.

Peterson, 88, died Monday of complications of Alzheimer's disease.

Art Silva, the president and CEO of the Boys and Girls Home (one of many causes championed by Peterson), had known her for about 30 years. Peterson had been involved with the Boys and Girls Home for roughly 40 years.

Silva described Peterson as someone who cared about others.

"She was funny, very interested in life, what you were doing, how your life was going," Silva said. "She was very interesting to talk to. She could really connect with people. And when Ginny was talking with you, you were the focus.

"She used her time, her talent, and her treasure, to help kids. And she did so many things above and beyond, and very quietly, very quietly. She was one of those quiet, strong leaders that didn't want the publicity. This is how she lived her life," he added.

Peterson and her husband, Bob, had given vast sums to numerous entities in the area, including some which they had little connection with until they became benefactors. Briar Cliff University, which annually awards five students the Bob & Ginny Peterson Foundation Annual Scholarship, would be one of these entities.

"She really, prior to being a part of our board of trustees, she didn't have a very strong connection to Briar Cliff. She's not an alum, but she had attended an event honoring another woman, and she learned about Briar Cliff's mission," said Briar Cliff President Rachelle Karstens. "And then that's when she, and Bob also, really just became dedicated to supporting Briar Cliff."

Born in Omaha on May 19, 1932, Peterson met Robert L. "Bob" Peterson while attending the University of Nebraska. The pair wed in 1952.

Bob Peterson was named president and chief operating officer of IBP in July 1977, and became chairman and CEO in 1981, serving until the company was sold to Tyson Foods in 2001. He died in 2004.

In addition to providing financial resources, Peterson gave her time and energies to the causes she believed in. She didn't just cut checks to organizations and leave it at that -- frequently she became a board member.

"When she would talk about something that she was passionate about, you could see the sparkle in her eyes," said Terri Dooley, executive vice president of development at the Boys and Girls Home.

From time to time, she would hold small parties and gatherings in her home for some of the girls of the Boys and Girls Home; Dooley said several of the kids regarded her as something like a surrogate aunt, or a grandmother.

"The girls, they came to think of her as, a part of their family," Dooley said.

Peterson helped spearhead the Boys and Girls Home's $6 million effort to develop a new mental health campus, at the site of the former Indian Hills Shopping Center. Currently the Boys and Girls Home is situated in the more-than-century-old former St. Joseph Hospital. The plan is to move into the new campus, which is named for Peterson, in the next few years.

"She just did the right thing, all the time," Silva said.

Mandy Engel-Cartie, executive director of Girls Inc. in Sioux City, said Peterson was a longtime donor and volunteer with the organization. "She was involved with Girls Inc., as far as I know, from the beginning, which was 1986."

"When I think of Ginny, I think of her commitment to the community. And specifically to girls. She was very interested in what was going on with girls, and making sure that they were successful, and very interested in their academic success and their personal success," she said. "And I think of her as having very high standards, and living up to those standards herself. She was an excellent role model."

Katie Colling, the executive director of Missouri River Historical Development (MRHD), held back tears briefly while describing Peterson's generosity. Colling came to know Peterson when she was the executive director of Women Aware.

Peterson was the recipient of a Women Aware Marilyn Murphy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. The award was in recognition of her longstanding commitment to advocating for women, families and the community.

"I really adored her, and I really came to deeply admire her," Colling said.

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The Kano State House of Assembly has begun a process to further amend the State's Penal Code amendment (No.12), Law of 2014 to provide for castration as punishment for rape in the state.

The Assembly took the decision following a motion presented on Wednesday by a member, Nuraddeen Alhassan (APC-Rano), seeking for the review of the law.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the plenary was presided over by the Speaker, Abdulazeez Gafasa, and the lawmakers were unanimous in the decision.

Mr Alhassan, who called for the review of the law to further reflect a harsher punishment for rapists in the state, said the present 14 years jail punishment was not enough.

"Therefore, I am calling on the House to recall the law and amend it, to provide castration punishment for rapists.

"I believe this is the only measure to be taken to end the rampant cases of rape in our society, as it is so worrisome.

"I also want to appeal to the House to look into the security issues, so as to strengthen their efforts in tackling the rape cases in the state," he appealed.

According to him, if parents can desist from sending their children for hawking, such can also contribute to reducing the menace in their communities.

He said that most of the rapists used such hawking opportunity to lure the children to rape them, especially at the construction sites or abandoned buildings.

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Mr Alhassan also asked the House to find out how the rape cases were being handled by the courts in the state.

The lawmakers after deliberations on the issue adopted the motion and ordered for the recall of the extant law.

The Assembly also called on the government to, as a matter of urgency, look into the issue of abandoned or uncompleted buildings in the state.

The legislators also urged the government to ensure that any abandoned building in the state was completed.

During the plenary, the Assembly also called on the government to construct a road linking four major communities in Tsanyawa Local Government Area.

The member representing Kunchi/Tsanyawa constituency Garba Gwarmai called on the Assembly to call on the government to construct the road.

According to him, the bad condition of the road has seriously affected the education, business and agricultural activities in the affected areas. (NAN)
New Delhi: A day after a 23-year-old Delhi Police woman constable was found dead at her rented house in southwest Delhis Palam village, police on Thursday arrested a 27-year-old Border Security Force (BSF) constable for the murder.

Police said the two were living together in Palam for past one week and the murder was fallout of a dispute.

Deputy commissioner of police (southwest) Devender Arya said that on Wednesday around 12:12 pm, they received a call reporting that a woman constable had been found dead at her house in Palam Village.

On reaching the crime scene, a police team found Preeti Beniwal, a native of Rewari in Haryana, unconscious on a bed. Her body also bore strangulation marks.

During an inspection of the scene of crime, the mobile phone of the girl was found missing from the room. Arya said, During preliminary inquiry, it came to light the deceased had been staying at her newly rented room with a man. Our teams checked CCTV footage and the same man was spotted leaving the womans house early Wednesday morning. Further enquiry revealed the identity of the man as one Naresh, from Alwar in Rajasthan. We learnt that he is a constable in the BSF, Arya said.

The DCP said teams were sent to conduct raids at all possible hideouts of the suspect. With the help of technical surveillance, our teams managed to zero in on Naresh and he was arrested from Dwarka while he was on his way to meet his advocate, the DCP said.

The officer said, during interrogation, he said he was in a relationship with Beniwal and they lived together. He said the man disclosed the for the past few days, he suspected Beniwal of having an affair with another person. He said they often used to fight and following one such argument on Wednesday night, he strangled her, the DCP said.
The Maharashtra government will be implementing solar mega power projects for clean and renewable energy with an aim to protect the environment.

State Energy Minister Dr Nitin Raut said this while addressing a review meeting on the proposed solar power projects by Maharashtra State Power Generation Co Ltd (Mahagenco) under EPC mode and the Ultra Mega Renewable Energy solar park scheme at Mantralaya on Tuesday.

The meeting was presided over by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar who is the Finance and Planning Minister.

During the meeting, Pawar and Dr Raut issued directives to the Mahagenco for implementation of various solar power projects of 602 MW capacity under Engineering Procuring Commissioning (EPC) on the lands owned by the company at various locations in the state.

Accordingly, these projects will be developed in three stages.

As a part of the first stage, a total of 187 MW capacity solar projects at Kaudgaon (50 MW), Latur (60 MW), Thermal Power Station land at Bhusawal, Koradi, Parli, Nashik (52 MW) and Sakri (25 MW) will be developed through the balance loan of KFW Bank and equity which was approved earlier by the Government of Maharashtra.

The proposal for cabinet approval of these projects will be submitted immediately.

As a part of the second stage, a total of 390 MW capacity solar projects at Washim (170 MW), Yavatmal (75 MW) and Kachrala in Chandrapur district (145 MW) will be developed through a fresh KFW Bank loan and equity infusion by the Government of Maharashtra. The proposal for cabinet approval and equity sanction of these projects will be submitted shortly.

During the third stage, 25 MW capacity Sakri II project would be developed by using domestic loan of the lowest rate of interest and equity infusion by the Government of Maharashtra.

In accordance with the Ultra Mega Renewable Energy Solar Park Scheme, solar parks of 2500 MW capacity would be developed in the state through the Joint Venture Company (JVC) of NTPC and Mahagenco. Solar projects will be developed by individual companies as per their share in the Joint Venture Company.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-15 16:33:00|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese authorities on Wednesday unveiled a guideline to support the healthy growth of new business models, in the latest move to boost consumption and create jobs.

Efforts will be made to further strengthen the digital economy, said the guideline jointly released by 13 central government departments, including the National Development and Reform Commission.

The country will work to nurture more independent business owners and support self-employment, amid measures to spur new types of private businesses to create new space for consumption.

According to the guideline, costs will be further lowered for individuals to start businesses online to offer diversified job opportunities.

New individual businesses are expected to create more jobs and vitality for the country's transforming economy. The Internet Society of China estimated that China's e-commerce market exceeded 2 trillion yuan (about 285.79 billion U.S. dollars) in 2019, employing over 48 million people.

Efforts will be stepped up in promoting the micro economy and encouraging the innovation of side businesses, the guideline said.

The guideline highlighted endeavors to promote employment based on diversified channels including social media, e-commerce, short-video and live-streaming platforms.

Measures to explore new modes of online services, accelerate the digital transformation of industries and foster new models of the sharing economy were also listed in the guideline. Enditem
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The President of the Presidential Council of the Government of National Accord (GNA), Fayez Al-Sarraj, on Thursday received the Italian Interior Minister, Luciana Lamorgese, at the Council headquarters in Tripoli as part of consultations and coordination between the two friendly countries on security cooperation and the fight against illegal migration
An Accra Circuit Court on Thursday sentenced Sowah Nortey, a car dealer, to a fine of GHC4,800.00 for stealing a Hyundai Tucson vehicle.



In default, he will serve 18 months jail term.



Nortey was also ordered to refund GH70,000.00 being the value of the car to the complainant.



He pleaded not guilty to the offence but was found culpable after trail.



The Court, presided over by Mrs Ruby Naa Aryeetey, a High Court Judge sitting as an additional Circuit Court Judge, did not give Nortey a custodial sentence because he is a first time offender.



Police Chief Inspector William Nyadikor had earlier told the Court that the complainant, a retired Civil Servant, was introduced to Nortey by one Mr Emmanuel Larbi, who works with Vanguard Assurance.



Prosecution said on August 14, 2016, the complainant gave her Huyndai Tucson to Nortey to sell.



The convict later told the complainant that the car had been sold on credit and would be paid in October, same year, thereafter he blocked the complainants cellular phone line.



Chief Inspector Nyadikor said the complainant then caused the arrest of the convict on November 2, 2016 but Nortey could not lead police to the said buyer.



He said Nortey issued a post-dated cheque, which was dishonoured at the bank when presented.



Prosecution said, the convict later claimed that it was difficult selling the car, which he described as outmoded, and only managed to sell it some illegal miners at Tarkwa on credit.



Nortey also told the police that the complainant directly gave the car to the buyers and that he did not sell the vehicle.



Investigations revealed, however, that the car had been sold and registered in the name of one Frank Kwame Owusu.



The Court found that prosecution had given enough evidence and Nortey was found guilty and convicted accordingly.

Source: GNA









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New Delhi: The Indian government said on Thursday that its officials in Islamabad have met Kulbushan Jadhav after they were assured "unimpeded and unconditional consular access" to the former naval officer, who has been sentenced to death by a Pakistan military court for his alleged involvement in espionage activities in 2016.

Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said: "India has been requesting for an unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional consular access to Kulbushan Jadhav. On the basis of assurances provided, our officials have proceeded for the meeting today."

However, the government said it will assess the situation after the consular officials return and provide a report from Islamabad.

Earlier, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry in a statement said that it provided second consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav at India's request.

First consular access under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR) 1963 was provided by Pakistan on September 2, last year. The mother and wife of Jadhav were allowed to meet him on December 25, 2017.

The Pakistan government on Thursday claimed, "Two consular officers of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad were provided unimpeded and uninterrupted consular access to Commander Jadhav at 3 p.m."

The statement said that Jadhav is in Pakistan's custody following his arrest from Balochistan "in a counter-intelligence operation on March 3, 2016".

The Pakistan Army has alleged that Jadhav is an Indian spy, involved in violent activities in Pakistan. In April 2017, Jadhav was sentenced to death by a military court. However, a month later in 2017, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) stayed the hanging of Jadhav. Last year, the ICJ directed Pakistan to allow consular access and effectively review the death sentence but rejected India's appeal for Jadhav's release.

On Thursday, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said that it remains committed to fully implementing the ICJ's judgment of July 17, 2019. "It is hoped that India will cooperate with the Pakistan court in giving full effect to the said judgment," the statement said.
MaaT Pharma announced today the appointment of Claude Bertrand, PharmD, PhD, as an independent member to the company's Board of Directors and welcomes John Weinberg, MD, as new Chief Medical Officer. As an experienced executive in leading research and development efforts in senior positions at major international pharmaceutical companies such as Servier, Ipsen and AstraZeneca, Dr. Bertrand will provide his broad expertise in advancing novel therapeutics from discovery towards commercialization. Dr. Weinberg has over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and will use his expertise in microbiome-based therapeutic development and immune-modulation to oversee MaaT Pharma's clinical activities and direct clinical development strategies.

"We are honored to add Dr. Bertrand to our Board, who brings with him decades of high-level leadership in pharmaceutical R&D, as we move towards late-stage development for our microbiome restoration therapeutics," said Herve Affagard, co-founder and CEO of MaaT Pharma. "We also welcome John Weinberg to our leadership team. John has a proven track record of guiding and managing clinical development programs for microbiome therapeutics which will be critical as we accelerate the development of MaaT013 and expand our portfolio with our capsule formulation, MaaT033."

Dr. Bertrand commented on his appointment: "MaaT Pharma is pioneering an important approach to improving clinical outcomes in oncology through safe and effective microbiome-based biotherapeutics and has taken a leadership position in the rapidly evolving regulation and manufacturing of microbiome products. I look forward to working alongside my fellow board members to guide and support the development of the company and its exciting pipeline."

Dr. Weinberg stated: "I am convinced of the therapeutic potential of MaaT Pharma's approach to restore the balance between the patient and their microbiome, especially in diseases in which immune modulation plays a key role; therefore, I am very excited to join as the company is poised to expand its therapeutic focus beyond hematological cancer indications. My goal is to define an innovative clinical development program and contribute to the continued growth of the pipeline."

Since 2017, Dr. Claude Betrand holds the position of Executive Vice President of R&D and Chief Scientific Officer at Servier, France's largest independent pharmaceutical company, with a product portfolio addressing cardiovascular, immune-inflammatory and neuropsychiatric diseases, cancer and diabetes. Prior to this, he served as Executive Vice-President of R&D at Ipsen Pharma for over seven years and as Global Senior Vice President for Respiratory Inflammation Research Area at AstraZeneca for more than five years. His career also includes senior positions at Novartis, Roche, and Pfizer. Dr. Bertrand studied pharmacy and obtained his PharmD and PhD from Strasbourg University in immuno-pharmacology and neurogenic inflammation.

Prior to joining MaaT Pharma, Dr. John Weinberg held the position of Chief Medical Officer at the microbiome-focused company 4D Pharma PLC, where he was responsible for building and managing the clinical development program and initiating multiple Phase I/II studies. With more than 25 years in the pharmaceutical industry, he has held various senior positions at Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Novartis Pharmaceuticals and Enzon Pharmaceuticals, gaining a breadth of international experience in clinical development of various oncology, hematology and transplantation therapeutics. Dr. Weinberg holds an MD from University of the Witwatersrand School of Medicine in Johannesburg, South Africa and an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.

About MaaT Pharma

MaaT Pharma, a clinical stage company, has established the most complete approach to restoring patient-microbiome symbiosis to improve survival outcomes in life-threatening diseases. Committed to treating cancer and graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), a serious complication of allogeneic stem cell transplantation, MaaT Pharma has already achieved proof of concept in acute myeloid leukemia patients and a Phase 2 clinical trial in acute GvHD is ongoing. Supporting the further expansion of our pipeline into larger indications, we have built a powerful discovery and analysis platform, GutPrint, to evaluate drug candidates, determine novel disease targets and identify biomarkers for microbiome-related conditions. Our therapeutics are produced through a standardized cGMP manufacturing and quality control process to safely deliver the full diversity of the microbiome. MaaT Pharma benefits from the commitment of world-leading scientists and established relationships with regulators to spearhead microbiome treatment integration into clinical practice.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200716005359/en/

Contacts:

For MaaT Pharma

Herve Affagard, CEO

Phone: +33 4 2829 1400

E-Mail: haffagard@maat-pharma.com

Media Requests for MaaT Pharma

Gretchen Schweitzer or Laura Mittmann

Trophic Communications

Phone: +49 89 2388 7735

E-Mail: maat@trophic.eu
The S.E.C.s own investor advocate also voiced concerns about the potential for confusion. Customers will be harmed if the rule is not enforced rigorously enough to demand behavior that matches customers expectations, the advocate, Rick Fleming, said in a statement when the rule was proposed last year.

If you want to be certain youre working with a financial professional who is truly putting your interests first, advocates suggest asking him or her a question: Are you acting as a fiduciary 100 percent of the time? Then ask for a signed oath saying as much. The broker should be able to fully explain how he or she is compensated.

The new best-interest rule could also have implications for your retirement money. In the complementary action, the Department of Labor proposed regulations concerning how financial professionals acting as fiduciaries must conduct themselves when handling their customers retirement accounts.

Under federal law, fiduciaries are generally prohibited from accepting payments that would pose conflicts of interest. The proposed rule would provide an exemption, allowing financial professionals to receive such payments, like commissions, as long as they adhere to a best-interest standard that generally aligns with the new S.E.C. rule.

The proposal tries to clear up any uncertainty created after a federal appeals court overturned, in 2018, an Obama-era rule that was challenged by a team of lawyers led by Eugene Scalia, the current labor secretary. The overturned rule had allowed fiduciaries to accept commissions and similar payments only if they entered an enforceable best-interest contract with the investor and eliminated or more significantly reduced conflicts of interest, legal experts said. The contract, along with other protections, would not be required under the newly proposed regulation.

Emily Weeks, a spokeswoman for the Labor Department, said any firms or financial professionals who relied on the exemption would still need to acknowledge that they were acting as a fiduciary and adhere to these stringent fiduciary standards as well as other consumer-protective standards.

But the proposal package also confirmed that fewer investment professionals are required to act as fiduciaries when handling their clients retirement money, according to retirement law attorneys.
In mid-April, less than a month after the coronavirus first took hold in the U.S. and colleges sent students home, Chandler Goodman and John-Crawford Counts launched their contact-free business selling essentials like meat, pasta, and sanitary gloves.

Their Pop Up Pantry, which was founded out of the Goodman family's window tinting and paint store in Oklahoma City, allowed customers to either shop for items through the company's website or request goods at the drive-up window. Goodman or Counts would assemble the order and place it in the trunk of a person's car. Pop Up Pantry's inventory came mainly from Sysco, a food distributor where Counts's father works.

While the business is no longer operating--it shut down after the window tinting shop reopened in late April--it grossed $7,900 in sales over the period. Goodman says the money mostly went back into buying inventory, so they didn't book a profit. But that wasn't the point anyway, say the founders. "We were giving people a safe alternative during this crazy time."

They weren't alone. Faced with the devastation wrought by the coronavirus, which is currently resurging in Southern and Western states in the U.S., a number of college students are trading their typical summer jobs for social entrepreneurship.

While the college founders say they don't expect these pandemic-inspired companies to last beyond the summer--and indeed, some, like Pop Up Pantry, have already closed--they say the experience of starting a company and helping their communities has proved invaluable. Plus, some say it whet their appetite for future opportunities in entrepreneurship.

Future Founders

In Los Angeles, Claire Monro and Claire Fisher are turning T-shirts into small-business grant money. After witnessing the plight of local businesses near their University of Southern California campus, on March 24 the two business majors created a souvenir T-shirt, which says, "Fight on...line" on the front and "USC spring 2020" on the back. They planned to direct the proceeds to local businesses.

The duo began posting their fundraiser on social media, which helped to spread the campaign, and got their shirts in the school's online bookstore. It also landed the attention of a local nonprofit, which helped open up another avenue to the founders.

In late April, the Figueroa Corridor Partnership Foundation, a nonprofit aimed at promoting and developing the neighborhood around USC, got wind of the project. The foundation offered to match the money Monro and Fisher made, up to $10,000, and turn the proceeds into grants for small businesses in the area. Collectively, they've helped make $18,199 available to area businesses.

The deadline to apply for the matching funds ended last Friday, so businesses should find out soon if they get any aid through the program, says Monro, who along with Fisher graduated in May. "I can't wait to see how the money can help [businesses] during this difficult time," she adds.

Monro says she and her co-founder hope to be back in the fall with more product to sell. They'll trade T-shirts for sweatshirts, however.

"Weight of the World"

Founding a company in the middle of a pandemic isn't for the faint of heart--even if you know you're not in it for the long term.

On March 20, Sudarshan Sridharan and Jack Feinstein, two Clemson University students, launched SaveMAPS--so named for "mom and pop shops"--a site that lets customers buy gift cards for restaurants to help keep them afloat.

Sridharan, a sophomore entrepreneurship major, and Feinstein, a freshman computer science major, met last year at a networking event hosted by their school. After classes went digital in mid-March, the pair created SaveMAPS with just about $1,000 in combined savings. They focused their early efforts on the struggling community around their campus, which is located in Clemson, South Carolina.

While the two co-founders wound down their business at the end of May because the costs associated with operating the site became too much for the students, they made a real dent, says Sridharan. In its short tenure, SaveMAPS worked with 1,280 businesses in 93 cities, helping facilitate the purchase of about 1,100 gift cards.
Mary Trump, the niece of President Trump, said in a new interview about her blockbuster book that her family engaged in casual bigotry throughout her childhood.

'Growing up, it was sort of normal to hear them use the n-word or use anti-Semitic expressions,' she told The Washington Post.

She said the president is 'clearly racist,' which she said was both a product of his upbringing, but also politically motivated.

Mary Trump said of the Trump family in a new interview with The Washington Post that it was 'normal to hear them use the n-word or use anti-Semitic expressions.' Here she's captured during her first TV interview, with 'Good Morning America'

Mary Trump said President Trump (pictured) is 'clearly racist,' which she said was part of his upbringing, but he also uses racism politically 'to score him points with the only people who are continuing to support him'

Mary Trump's book 'Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man' came out Tuesday and is already a best-seller

In the book, Mary Trump recalls her grandfather Fred Trump Sr. (left) using phrases like 'Jew me down,' and said her grandmother, also named Mary (right), called Elton John an anti-gay slur

Mary Trump writes in the book about her father Freddy Trump (center) joining a historically Jewish fraternity and wonders if he did so as a 'conscious rebuke' to Fred Trump Sr.'s anti-semitism. Pictured are all five Trump children: Robert, Elizabeth, Freddy, Donald and Maryanne

Mary Trump (left) sat for her first interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos (right). In a new interview with The Washington Post, she calls President Trump 'clearly racist' and said it was part of his upbringing, but it's also politically motivated

Mary Trump, seen sitting at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office during an April 2017 visit to the White House to celebrate the birthdays of two of her aunts. She opens the book with that White House trip

'It comes easily to him and he thinks it's going to score him points with the only people who are continuing to support him,' Mary Trump said.

She told The Post that she hasn't been surprised by the president's racist language nor policies, including separating children from their parents at the southern border.

'No, the more divisive the better, the cooler,' she said.

She described what her family engaged in as 'a knee-jerk anti-Semitism, a knee-jerk racism.'

'Homophobia was never an issue because nobody ever talked about gay people, well, until my grandmother called Elton John' an anti-gay slur, she also told The Post.

That anecote was one of many memorable moments in Mary Trump's new book, 'Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man.'

In the book, she decribes her grandmother Mary calling the choice to have John sing at the funeral of Princess Diana 'a disgrace' and said he was a 'little' six-letter slur.

She said that led to her decision not to come out to her family.

Mary Trump was secretly engaged to a woman, but had to push back her wedding because her grandfather, Fred Trump Sr., had died.

She recounts her grandfather using terms like 'Jew me down.'

She said her father, Freddy Trump, who died at age 43 in 1981 after suffering from alcoholism, joined the historically Jewish fraternity Sigma Alpha Mu as a young man, and pondered in the book whether it was a 'conscious rebuke' of Fred Sr.'s anti-Semitism.

She described President Trump's 2016 campaign as being racist several times in the book.

'He did tap into a certain bigotry and inchoate rage, which he's always been good at doing,' she wrote, pointing to the 1989 New York Times ad the president took out demanding that the Central Park Five - a group of five black suspects who were cleared of assault and rape charges - be executed.

Mary Trump wrote about the Department of Justice case that accused Fred Trump Sr. and President Trump of not renting apartments to black people, though she called them allegations because she didn't have evidence to back them up.

While not mentioned in the book, there's long been speculation that Trump used the n-word behind-the-scenes during the filming of 'The Apprentice,' but the tapes have never surfaced.

She also recalled the odd scene at Ivanka Trump's wedding to Jared Kushner when Kushner's father, who'd been released from prison three years prior, spoke about how 'when Jared had first introduced him to Ivanka, he had thought she would never be good enough to join the family.'

'It was only after she had committed to converting to Judasim and worked hard to make it happen that he had begun to think she might be worthy of them after all,' Mary Trump wrote.

The author took offense to this, adding, 'Considering that Charles had been convicted of hiring a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, taping their illicit encounter, and then sending the recording to his sister at his nephew's engagement party, I found his condescension a bit out of line.'

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's wedding marked the first time Mary Trump had seen her living aunts and uncles in 10 years after her grandfather - and then grandmother - cut Mary Trump and her brother out of their wills, since their father had died.

It kicked off Mary Trump having a closer relationship with her eldest aunt, Maryanne, who's quoted in parts of the book.

She also said that led to her decision to visit the White House in April 2017, as the family was celebrating aunt Maryanne and also aunt Elizabeth's birthdays.

Still, Mary Trump had been a Hillary Clinton supporter and says she will vote for Joe Biden this time around, while having supported Sen. Elizabeth Warren in the Democratic primary.

She told The Post that she didn't think her cousin Ivanka was enough of a steadying force in the administration.

'She doesn't do anything. She spouts bromides on social media, but either she tries to ahve an impact and fails, or just isn't interested in having an impact,' Mary Trump said. 'I can't think of one thing she's done to show that she's moderate or a moderating influence.'

And so she decided to make her own mark by putting out the book a mere four months before voters head to the polls.

'Id seen enough in the last few years to know that no one thing is going to make a bit of difference,' she told The Post. 'This is going to be - using the expression loosely - death by a thousand lashes, right? And maybe in this case it's going [to] take a million lashes, so it's more about adding to the record of egregious things that have happened and for which there has been no accountabilty.'

'But more than that,' she continued. 'I also felt a responsibility to make sure that people are as informed as possible when November comes, because I do not believe that was the case in 2016 at all.'

When asked what will happen if her uncle wins a second term, she told the paper, 'I may be in the Caribbean.'
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 19:06:19|Editor: huaxia

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ADDIS ABABA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Thursday said it's facing a critical funding gap to meet the COVID-19 related needs of refugees in Ethiopia.

A monthly fact sheet published by UNHCR said it has only received 3.4 million U.S. dollars out of 34.7 million U.S. dollars required to meet the basic health, medical supplies as well as general COVID-19 preventive and response needs of refugees in Ethiopia.

"The funding shortfall coupled with delayed delivery of international procurement orders for Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs), medicines and medical supplies are among the key challenges hampering the response efforts," said the UNHCR monthly fact sheet.

As of June 2020, the UNHCR has registered 766,563 refugees and asylum seekers in Ethiopia, most of whom are housed in refugee camps in six regional states.

Ethiopia currently hosts the second-largest refugee population in Africa, next to Uganda. Refugees in Ethiopia primarily come from Eritrea, South Sudan, Somalia, and Sudan, according to figures from the Ethiopian government.

Conflict and drought in neighboring countries continue to force people to seek refuge in Ethiopia, which has a long tradition of hosting refugees.

Ethiopia has also in recent years hosted an increasing number of refugees fleeing conflicts in Yemen and Syria.

Ethiopia's confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 8,475 after 294 new COVID-19 positive cases were confirmed, the Ethiopian Ministry of Health (MoH) said on Wednesday evening.
The new policy makes MetLife the first major US life insurer to adopt a policy on coal investing. However, MetLife is just the latest insurance company to shift its capital away from fossil fuels. To date, 19 global insurers have adopted policies restricting coal underwriting, and nearly 30 major insurers have adopted policies on coal investments, according to advocacy group Insure Our Future.

However, MetLifes new policy fails on numerous counts, Insure Our Future said. The group pointed to loopholes for existing coal holdings and third-party assets, as well as what it called an inadequate definition of a coal company. For instance, MetLifes definition doesnt take into account how much power electricity producers generate from coal, it said.

The best metric to reflect the climate impact of coal power companies is to measure the share of coal in their power generation as opposed to their coal-related revenue, particularly given how unprofitable coal is, Insure Our Future said.

The advocacy group also said that MetLife should commit to lowering its coal company thresholds to zero to support a full exit from coal by 2030 in European countries and by 2040 elsewhere.

The new policy also fails to address MetLifes investment in oil and gas companies, which can include tar sands, oil and fracking concerns. MetLife and its subsidiaries have invested $14.4 billion in oil, gas and utilities, according to the California Department of Insurance.

Even with the new policy, MetLife remains a global laggard on climate action, Insure Our Future said. Other insurers, including AXA, The Hartford and Liberty Mutual have enacted much more aggressive policies regarding divestiture from fossil fuels.

As one of the biggest life insurers in the US, MetLife has a unique responsibility to address its historic complicity in fueling the climate crisis, said Elana Sulakshana, energy finance campaigner for the Rainforest Action Network. The new coal policy, which has none of the ambition of MetLifes US and global peers, does not meet that responsibility.
Nigeria reported 643 new confirmed cases of coronavirus over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections to 34,259, the countrys infectious disease outfit, NCDC, announced early Thursday.

Of the 643 new cases, Lagos, Nigerias most populous city, reported 230 infections, bringing the total number of infections there to 12,941.

The new national figure shows a significant increase from the 463 infections found on Tuesday.

Apart from Tuesdays figures, Nigeria recorded over 500 cases in the past five days.

According to the new figures from the NCDC, six more people have died in the past 24 hours, pushing the total death tally to 760 in a country of over 200 million.

Meanwhile, nearly 14, 000 people have recovered from the contagion.

Lagos, epicentre

This development is coming few days after doctors in the frontline downed tools in Lagos. Authorities in the state described their action as insensitive.

About 175 deaths and nearly 2, 000 recoveries have been recorded in Lagos which is still Nigerias epicentre of the disease.

The NCDC in a tweet said the new cases were reported in 19 states including Lagos-230, Oyo-69, FCT-51, Edo-43, Osun-35, Rivers-30, Ebonyi-30, Kaduna-28, Ogun-27, Ondo-23, Plateau-20, Benue-17, Enugu-16, Imo-10, Delta-6, Kano-4, Nasarawa-2, Kebbi-1, Ekiti-1.

All 36 states and the FCT have recorded at least a case of the disease. For more than 50 days, Zamfara State has not reported a single case. The state has reported only 76 cases thus far.

Nigeria is the West African nation most impacted by the coronavirus.

The country has tested almost 200,000 of its 200 million population. According to worldometer.info, the test ratio per million of the countrys population is 903.

The government eased virus restrictions on June 30 by permitting inter-state travel. Domestic flights resumed a week later.

The current nationwide curfew, 10 p.m.  4 a.m., and restrictions on mass gatherings and sporting activities, however, still remain in effect. Use of masks in public spaces is also mandatory.
The covid-19 pandemic, with its disproportionate impact among communities of color, is just the most recent example of the critical need for CDC to address this issue urgently. Failing to address racism as a fundamental cause of health disparities is a key reason why we have witnessed little progress in reducing many of these disparities in the United States over the past 50 years. The health of the nation urgently demands we do better, it said.
A planning board member took the advice of two lawyers and said he will recuse himself from voting on several proposed warehouse developments in Warren County.

White Township Planning Board member Michael Grossmann said he will not vote on controversial land development plans for proposed 1,800,000-square-foot and 800,000-square-foot warehouses.
WASHINGTON  Because of his incontinent use of it, the rhetorical mustard that the president slathers on every subject has lost its tang. The entertainer has become a bore, and foretelling his defeat no longer involves peering into a distant future: Early voting begins in two states (South Dakota and Minnesota) 61 days from Sunday, which is 107 days before Election Day.

Never has a U.S. election come at a such moment of national mortification. In April 1970, President Richard Nixon told a national television audience that futility in Vietnam would make the United States appear to the world to be a pitiful, helpless giant. Half a century later, America, for the first time in its history, is pitied.

Not even during the Civil War, when the country was blood-soaked by a conflict involving enormous issues, was it viewed with disdainful condescension as it now is, and not without reason: Last Sunday, Germany (population 80.2 million) had 159 new cases of COVID-19; Florida (population 21.5 million) had 15,300.

Under the most frivolous person ever to hold any great nations highest office, this nation is in a downward spiral. This spiral has not reached its nadir, but at least it has reached a point where worse is helpful, and worse can be confidently expected.

The nations floundering government is now administered by a gangster regime. It is helpful to have this made obvious as voters contemplate renewing the regimes lease on the executive branch. Roger Stone adopted the argot of B-grade mobster movies when he said he would not roll on Donald Trump. By commuting Stones sentence, Stones beneficiary played his part in this down-market drama, showing gratitude for Stones version of omerta (the Mafia code of silence), which involved lots of speaking, but much lying. Because the pandemic prevents both presidential candidates from bouncing around the continent like popcorn in a skillet, the electorate can concentrate on other things, including Trumps selection of friends such as Stone and Paul Manafort, dregs from the bottom of the Republican barrel.

Longing on a large scale is what makes history, wrote Don DeLillo in his sprawling 1997 novel Underworld about America in the second half of the 20th century. Today, there is a vast longing for respite from the 21st century, which  before the pandemic, two inconclusive wars, and the Great Recession  began with a presidential election that turned on 537 Florida votes and was not decided until a Dec. 12 Supreme Court decision. Given the presidents reckless lying and the supine nature of most Republican officeholders, it is imperative that the Nov. 3 result be obvious that evening.

This year, the pandemic will be an accelerant of preexisting trends: There will be a surge of early and mail voting. So, an unambiguous decision by midnight Eastern time Nov. 3 will require (in addition to state requirements that mailed ballots be postmarked, say, no later than Oct. 31) a popular vote tsunami so large against the president that there will be a continent-wide guffaw when he makes charges, as surely he will, akin to those he made in 2016. Then he said he lost the popular vote by 2.9 million because millions of undocumented immigrants voted against him. Making a preemptive strike against civic confidence, Trump has announced that the 2020 election will be the most corrupt in U.S. history.

The 2020 presidential selection process began with Iowas shambolic Democratic caucuses, a result not of corruption but incompetence, an abundant commodity nowadays. It is scandalous that in many places casting a ballot requires hours of standing in line. Larry Diamond of the conservative-leaning Hoover Institution at Stanford discerns another scandal:

The hard truth is that there has been a rising tide of voter suppression in recent U.S. elections. These actions  such as over-eager purging of electoral registers and reducing early voting  have the appearance of enforcing abstract principles of electoral integrity but the clear effect (and apparent intent) of disproportionately disenfranchising racial minorities. One example was the decision of Georgias Republican Secretary of State (now Governor) Brian Kemp to suspend 53,000 predominantly African American voter registration applications in 2018 because the names did not produce an exact match with other records.

This nation built the Empire State Building, groundbreaking to official opening, in 410 days during the Depression, and the Pentagon in 16 months during wartime. Todays less serious nation is unable to competently combat a pandemic, or even reliably conduct elections. This is what national decline looks like.
President Donald Trump is weighing a sweeping travel order banning members of the Chinese Communist Party and their relatives from entering the United States, according to news reports that citied officials.

The New York Times reported the order could target a narrower group of the 25 members of the politburo or a wider list that includes members of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) and state-owned enterprises.

The potential presidential proclamation, which was likened to the controversial 2017 Muslim travel ban that targeted citizens from certain Muslim-majority countries, was said to be in the draft stage. Trump could still reject it as a final decision is yet to be taken.

If approved, the proclamation will use the same statute in the Immigration and Nationality Act, which was used by the administration to bring in the Muslim travel ban.

The proclamation will be a marked escalation in tensions between the two countries, with the US announcing a slew of punitive measures against China in recent weeks, targeting it over Uighur Muslims, a new security law in Hong Kong, and the handling of the coronavirus disease pandemic.

China wants to stick with U.S. trade deal

Earlier on Thursday, China said it will stick to the Phase 1 trade deal it had reached with the US earlier this year, but warned it will respond to bullying tactics and hit out at Washington over its actions targeting Huawei.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying also invited secretary of state Mike Pompeo to come to China and visit the Xinjiang region to see that there are no human rights violations, responding to US sanctions over abuse of Uighurs living there.

Asked whether the recent US sanctions would impact the trade deal, Hua said China hopes it can still be implemented.

We always implement our commitments but we know that some in the US are oppressing China and bullying China, she said. China must respond to the bullying practices by the US side; we must say no, we must make responses and take reactive moves to it.

Hua slammed the US clampdown on Chinese telecom giant Huawei as dirty play.
The Northern Coal Trading Joint Stock Company, a member of the Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Holding Corporation (Vinacomin), has received the first batch of more than 21,700 tonnes of coal imported from the US.

The vessel carries the first batch of coal from the US in Quang Ninh (Photo: baochinhphu.vn)

The imported coal was provided by IMI FUELS LLC and carried by MV NORD YILAN vessel which departed from Benicia Port, California and arrived at Cua Ong Port, Quang Ninh province in early July. The imported coal will be processed into forms appropriate for domestic use.

According to Vinacomin, the arrival of the first batch of coal imported from the US laid the ground for further ties between the two countries in coal and energy.

The corporation has been looking for partners to import coal to increase supply for the domestic market, which has a strong demand for coal for electricity production.

It expects to receive another batch of coal from the US in September.

Vinacomin estimated Vietnam must import 12 million tonnes of coal for electricity production in 2020, 30 million tonnes in 2025 and 50 million tonnes in 2030.

Vietnam imported 43.85 million tonnes coal, worth 3.79 billion USD in 2019, representing rises of 91.8 percent and 48.4 percent respectively against 2018. VNS

Hanoi speeds up to end use of coal stoves The number of coal stoves in Hanoi has reduced by 72.8% to 15,000 stoves after three years.
Announcement of Periodic Review: Moody's announces completion of a periodic review of ratings of Fukuoka Prefecture

Global Credit Research - 16 Jul 2020

Tokyo, July 16, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has completed a periodic review of the ratings of Fukuoka Prefecture and other ratings that are associated with the same analytical unit. The review was conducted through a portfolio review in which Moody's reassessed the appropriateness of the ratings in the context of the relevant principal methodology(ies), recent developments, and a comparison of the financial and operating profile to similarly rated peers. The review did not involve a rating committee. Since 1 January 2019, Moody's practice has been to issue a press release following each periodic review to announce its completion.

This publication does not announce a credit rating action and is not an indication of whether or not a credit rating action is likely in the near future. Credit ratings and outlook/review status cannot be changed in a portfolio review and hence are not impacted by this announcement. For any credit ratings referenced in this publication, please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for the most updated credit rating action information and rating history.

Key rating considerations are summarized below.

The credit profile of Fukuoka Prefecture is expressed by a baseline credit assessment of a2 and a rating of A1. Fukuoka Prefecture's A1 rating is the same as the Government of Japan (A1)'s rating, reflecting our view that the rating of the central government as well as those of the regional and local governments (RLGs) in Japan should be the same because of their close links.

The considerable level of oversight and supervision exercised by the central government, as well as the well-developed equalization system of transfers through the local allocation tax (LAT) system, ensures that any credit issues at the RLG level are identified and addressed early. We also assess that there is a very high likelihood that the Japanese government would step in to provide immediate assistance in the event of an acute liquidity crisis. Fukuoka Prefecture's rating also reflects its diversified regional economy, its favorable operating margin and debt structure, but also a high debt burden.

Story continues

This document summarizes Moody's view as of the publication date and will not be updated until the next periodic review announcement, which will incorporate material changes in credit circumstances (if any) during the intervening period.

The principal methodology used for this review was Regional and Local Governments (Japanese) published in January 2018. Please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

This announcement applies only to EU rated and EU endorsed ratings. Non EU rated and non EU endorsed ratings may be referenced above to the extent necessary, if they are part of the same analytical unit.

This publication does not announce a credit rating action. For any credit ratings referenced in this publication, please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for the most updated credit rating action information and rating history.

Hiroe Yamamoto Analyst Sub-Sovereign Group Moody's Japan K.K. Atago Green Hills Mori Tower 20fl 2-5-1 Atago, Minato-ku Tokyo 105-6220 Japan JOURNALISTS: 81 3 5408 4110 Client Service: 81 3 5408 4100 Marie Diron MD - Sovereign Risk Sub-Sovereign Group JOURNALISTS: 852 3758 1350 Client Service: 852 3551 3077 Releasing Office: Moody's Japan K.K. Atago Green Hills Mori Tower 20fl 2-5-1 Atago, Minato-ku Tokyo 105-6220 Japan JOURNALISTS: 81 3 5408 4110 Client Service: 81 3 5408 4100

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(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 16 - It is necessary for Italy to keep its ambassador in Cairo to keep Egyptian authorities "involved" in solving the torture and murder of student Giulio Regeni, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio told parliament Thursday.

The parents of the 28-year-old Cambridge doctoral researcher, found dead in a ditch outside the Egyptian capital a week after disappearing on the city metro on January 25, 2016, have demanded the envoy be recalled after Egypt again failed to hand over 10 Egyptian security officers which Rome prosecutors have implicated in the case.

"We believe it is necessary to constantly involve at the Cairo authorities at the highest level," Di Maio told the parliamentary foreign affairs committees.

He said it was "misleading to believe that having our ambassador in Cairo means not seeking the truth, and vice versa it is misleading to think that withdrawing him is necessary to arrive at the truth".

Di Maio said "the whole government understands the grief of the Regeni family but the ambassador's presence is part of the government's strategy, also for those who like (Egyptian Bologna university student) Patrick Zaky are still there".

A few months ago the Rome prosecutors named major Magdi Ibrahim Abdel al-Sharif, captain Osan Helmy, and three other members of the Egyptian National Security Agency as being suspected of having had a hand in Regeni's death.

Earlier this month they said they wanted to quiz another five security officers.

Regeni's parents, Claudio Regeni and Paola Deffendi, described the latest meeting between Rome and Cairo prosecutors as a flop and also said the sale of two frigates to Egypt must be stopped, as well as pulling the envoy.

Regeni, was found dead on February 3 2016 a week after disappearing on the Cairo metro on January 25, the heavily policed fifth anniversary of the uprising that ousted former strongman Hosni Mubarak..

He had been tortured so badly that his mother said she only recognised him by the tip of his nose.

When Rome prosecutors placed the first five members of Egypt's security apparatus under investigation for the murder, Cairo stopped all significant cooperation in the probe into the Friuli-born researcher's death.

At various times Egypt has advanced various explanations for his death including a car accident, a gay lovers' tiff and abduction and murder by an alleged kidnapping gang that was conveniently wiped out after Regeni's documents were planted in their lair.

Regeni was researching Cairo street sellers unions for the British university, a politically sensitive subject. The head of the street hawkers union had fingered him as a spy.

Amnesty International and other human rights groups have said Regeni is just one of thousands disappeared every year by the Egyptian regime.

They have recently voiced concern over Zaky, who has allegedly been tortured after being accused of epsionage. (ANSA).


A volunteer receives a COVID-19 test vaccine injection developed at the University of Oxford. (PA)

Hopes for a coronavirus vaccine as early as this year have been given a boost after human trials are reported to have shown promising results.

Researchers at the University of Oxford believe they have made a breakthrough after discovering the jab could provide "double protection" against the virus, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Health secretary Matt Hancock said teams were working towards a "best case scenario" of a vaccine being made available sometime this year, although conceded it was more likely in 2021.

The best-case scenario is sometime this year, but the more likely is next year

@matthancock tells @peston that the Oxford vaccine for COVID19 probably wont be ready by September as reported earlier today. Watch the full interview at 1045PM @ITV #Peston pic.twitter.com/7pVfZWaSCx  Peston (@itvpeston) July 15, 2020

Speaking on ITV's Peston on Wednesday evening, Hancock said: "We're all working towards the best case scenario, we're all giving AstraZeneca and the team at Oxford, and the Imperial vaccine, every possible support, we're working with the other potential vaccines around the world, in America, and Germany, and the Netherlands.

"We're working with them to ensure that if they come off first, that we'll get access to them here.

"But this is an inexact science and it's at risk.

He said the most clinically vulnerable, such as the elderly, and healthcare workers would be the first to get the vaccine, and added that he is expanding the list of professionals who can legally vaccinate, which will include not just GPs but also technicians, nurses and pharmacists.

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Nurses and pharmacists can already administer certain vaccinations without a prescription from a doctor.

According to the Daily Telegraph, the phase one trial in healthy adult volunteers, which began in April, showed the vaccine generated an immune response, with blood samples indicating it stimulated the body to produce both antibodies and "killer T-cells.

The combination of the two responses "will hopefully keep people safe", a source told the paper.

A person working inside the lab working on a potential COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine at Oxford University. (AP)

David Carpenter, chairman of the Berkshire Research Ethics Committee, which approved the Oxford trial and continues to work with scientists on amendments, told the paper that the team were "absolutely on track.

He added: "Nobody can put final dates things might go wrong but the reality is that by working with a big pharma company, that vaccine could be fairly widely available around September and that is the sort of target they are working on.

Coronavirus: what happened today

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Evidence was destroyed relating to a fatal officer-involved shooting in June that sparked protests for increased police accountability in Vallejo, California, the city confirmed Wednesday.

The evidence was of the bullet-riddled windshield from the unmarked police truck from which the officer fired the fatal shots.

As a result, a city employee who has not been identified was placed on administrative leave and the city said it would ask that the destruction of the windshield be part of any criminal investigation into the shooting.

The city has also retained an outside investigator to look into the incident and is in contact with the FBI as it requests an outside agency to investigate the wider case.

The city said in a statement that the police truck had been "placed back into service without prior consultation with the Police Chief or City Attorney's Office."

Melissa Nold, an attorney for the family of the man who was killed  Sean Monterrosa, 22, of San Francisco  said she had wanted to examine the windshield as part of evidence for a criminal investigation and civil lawsuit, but was surprised to learn from the city attorney's office this week that it not had been preserved.

"I was outraged when I inquired about the truck and found out that they destroyed a critical piece of evidence," Nold said. "This is the perfect example of why police departments should be forbidden from investigating themselves."

Bodycam video from the scene outside of a Walgreens in Vallejo made public last week shows an officer in the back seat of the truck firing through the front windshield. The video, however, did not show the moments leading up to the shooting or Monterrosa getting hit  footage that attorneys for his family say could help clarify whether he appeared threatening to officers, as they have claimed, or was crouched down surrendering.

Nold said that reviewing the windshield was necessary for an accurate scene recreation and to help determine the trajectory of the bullets, especially since bodycam video does not show Monterrosa until he was already lying on the ground.

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Image: Sean Monterrosa (Wendy Tavares / GoFundMe)

Gregory Hagopian, a former prosecutor in the Tulare County District Attorney's Office in California and now a defense lawyer, said it's always better to preserve as much physical evidence as possible, which allows all sides to properly build their case and can be better than relying on photos or memory.

"When you've got a case like this where they should know there's going to be an inquest and there's going to be controversy, they should have thought to themselves we want to be as above board as possible," Hagopian said. "When police seem to be hiding things, when they act shady, it just makes the negative perception of police worse."

Vallejo police said the officers were responding to a report of looting after midnight when they encountered Monterrosa in the parking lot.

There was a previous incident at the scene in which a police car was rammed and officers described seeing "potential looters" get into cars and flee, authorities said. When the other officers arrived, Monterrosa began running toward a car, then stopped and got into a half-kneeling position facing them, according to officers' accounts.

One of the officers told investigators he believed Monterrosa had a gun in his sweatshirt pocket and was kneeling "as if in preparation to shoot," moving his hands toward his jacket at their approaching vehicle.

That officer fired his weapon five times through the windshield, striking Monterrosa, according to authorities.

Police discovered that the object inside Monterrosa's pocket wasn't a gun, but a long hammer.

The Vallejo Police Department has not identified the officer who fired his weapon.

At a news conference last week, Police Chief Shawny Williams called the incident "tragic" but said that it would be "inappropriate" for him to comment about the officer's decision to shoot from the back seat of a vehicle and through a windshield.

Monterrosa's death was the 18th fatal police-involved shooting in Vallejo since 2010, with the majority of those killed being Black and brown men, records show. Monterrosa was Latino.

While the California Department of Justice announced last month that it will undertake an "expansive review" of the Vallejo Police Department because of its history of policing complaints, Attorney General Xavier Becerra has declined to independently investigate Monterrosa's shooting, leaving it to the Solano County District Attorney's Office to determine whether charges are warranted.

Community activists called for an independent investigation led by an agency outside of Solano County. Earlier this month, District Attorney Krishna Abrams announced she would recuse her office from the case, and said, "I, too, am listening and hearing their pleas for an independent investigation."

Abrams' office did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday about leading an investigation or the destruction of evidence, while the state Department of Justice had no comment.

Nold said that one of the two agencies will have to investigate Monterrosa's death, and as of now, "the Monterrosa family has been robbed, not only of Sean, but of an independent investigation."
She continued to host Good Morning Britain amid the coronavirus lockdown.

And Charlotte Hawkins opted for a casual look as she arrived to Global Studios in London to present her Classic FM show on Thursday.

The TV presenter, 45, looked windswept as she headed for work, donning a white shirt with a red lobster print and a pair of navy skinny jeans.

Out and about: Charlotte Hawkins, 45, opted for a casual look as she arrived to Global Studios in London to present her Classic FM show on Thursday

The broadcaster added height to her frame with a pair of heels while she carried a cream handbag.

Letting her blonde locks fall loose down her shoulders, Charlotte looked in good spirits as she geared up to present her show.

Charlotte has been working at Classic FM since 2018 while she first joined the team at Good Morning Britain in 2014.

It comes after Charlotte admitted it would be 'really hard' to send her five-year-old daughter Ella back to school after Boris Johnson first announced that primary schools would be opening on June 1.

Outfit: The TV presenter looked windswept as she headed for work, donning a white shirt with a red lobster print and a pair of navy skinny jeans

Style: The broadcaster added height to her frame with a pair of heels while she carried a cream handbag

Speaking ahead of the return, she said: 'My daughter's going back next week and I've had to explain to her, "You're not going to be necessarily with all your friends, you'll be in a group of 15 and you can't go and see the others even if you want to."

'She said: "I'll wave from a distance".

'But it's really hard - you put them in a room together, they haven't seen their friends in two months.'

Co-host Ben Shephard, 45, said: 'You know what we're like - a nightmare!'

And Charlotte replied: 'Two meters away at all times, obviously.'
MONTREALThe leader of the Bloc Quebecois is categorically denying allegations that were made against him Tuesday night in an anonymous Facebook post.

Yves-Francois Blanchet reacted today through his spokeswoman, Carolane Landry.

Landry says in a statement that Blanchet unequivocally denies the allegations, adding the Bloc leader is inviting the person who published the post to make an official complaint to authorities.

Landry says it is Blanchets continued wish that the justice system be used to protect real victims of criminal acts.

She says Blanchet will continue his professional activities as Bloc leader and will not make any further comment on the allegations.
Dubai-based airline flydubai landed in Kyivs Boryspil International Airport (KBP) in Ukraine on July 8, marking the start of scheduled services following the lifting of flight restrictions that were implemented in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Flydubai flight FZ 727 departed from Terminal 2, Dubai International (DXB) at 09:20 and landed in Kyivs Boryspil (KBP) at 14:10 where it was welcomed by officials from the airport. Onboard the aircraft were 12 Business Class passengers and 155 Economy Class passengers.

Jeyhun Efendi, Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations for flydubai, said: We would like to thank the authorities and members of the travel industry for their involvement in supporting the resumption of our scheduled flights to Kyiv. These combined efforts have enabled Kyiv to be one of the first destinations to open on our network and we look forward to bringing more passengers to Ukraine.

Flydubais passenger experience has been redesigned to enable travel in a safe environment that minimises crew and passenger contact, and every passenger will receive a complimentary snack or meal onboard. During a flight, air is exchanged in the cabin every two to three minutes and is sterile when it enters the cabin after passing through high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters. Flydubais aircraft are disinfected every day with manufacturer-certified cleaning products.

From July 7, Dubai has been ready to receive visitors and has implemented stringent public health and safety measures to ensure that visitors feel safe when they arrive.

Efendi added: We have been hard at work to redesign our passenger journey in order to minimise the risk of transmission of Covid-19, and these efforts are to ensure that visitors feel safe when they arrive in Dubai. To realise the benefits of travel, flydubai is committed to offering passengers flexibility in their travel arrangements and we look forward to welcoming passengers onboard this summer.

Flydubai offers the flexibility to make a change to the date of travel, rebook to another flight or destination without any penalties. Any differences in fare may apply and tickets are subject to flydubais terms and conditions.

Flydubai flights are available to be booked on flydubai.com, initially to 24 destinations around its network. Destinations and flight frequencies will continue to be added to the schedule over the summer. Flydubai is operating to the following destinations, subject to government approvals: Addis Ababa (ADD), Alexandria (HBE), Amman (AMM), Beirut (BEY), Belgrade (BEG), Bucharest (OTP), Dubrovnik (DBV), Juba (JUB), Kabul (KBL), Khartoum (KRT), Kiev (KBP), Krakow (KRK), Sarajevo (SJJ), Sofia (SOF), Tbilisi (TBS), Yerevan (EVN).

Flight bookings can be made on flydubai.com. Passengers are required to make sure that they are up to date with the regulations from the IATA Travel Centre for their whole journey. - TradeArabia News Service
In the ongoing fight about systemic racism in America, a pro-life group has seized the momentum in New York to promote the message that black babies in utero have lives that matter. This message contrasts sharply with the ACLU's bizarre claim that, because white doctors 150 years ago tried to drive black midwives out of business to have a monopoly over childbirth, aborting black babies is one of the best ways to take a stand against systemic racism.

The Frederick Douglass Foundation of New York, a Christian, pro-life, pro-American organization, took note of the fact that Mayor Bill de Blasio dedicated taxpayer money to paint the words "Black Lives Matter" on the street in front of Trump Tower, a building in which President Trump no longer lives. The Frederick Douglass Foundation concluded that if New York City streets are now billboards for political advertising, it had a different message to share.

On July 4, the organization went to a Planned Parenthood and, on the street in front of it, using yellow letters to match de Blasio's, wrote "Preborn Black Lives Matter":

AWESOME: Pro-lifers in New York paint the words "Preborn Black Lives Matter" in front of a Planned Parenthood abortion center.https://t.co/pJE5P9y7EO pic.twitter.com/J3oVu2poaP  LifeNews.com (@LifeNewsHQ) July 14, 2020

According to Peter Vazquez, president of the Frederick Douglass Foundation, Americans cannot fight racism without acknowledging the prevalence of abortion in black communities:

"A fight against racism without addressing the number one killer in Black America is self-defeating," said Peter Vazquez, president of the foundation. "The pro-life community continues to be ignored by those in positions to effectuate change; for too long community and even some faith leaders have squandered opportunities to focus on life, education and growth as a means to enrich our families and neighbors."

Reading those words, I was reminded of an ACLU article that's been circulating among leftists for the past couple of weeks. It makes the peculiar argument that killing black babies is the antidote to America's history of slavery and the horrors 19th-century doctors visited on black women, including their effort to end midwifery in America.

The article, entitled "The Racist History of Abortion and Midwifery Bans," contends that the anti-abortion movement is rooted in white supremacy. It is simply the endpoint of America's history of exploiting black women and putting women's bodies into men's service.

As the author sees it, before the Civil War, abortion and contraceptives were not only legal, but the purview of female midwives, most of whom were black or Native American. When the Civil War ended, and modern medicine began, white male gynecologists decided to drive these minority women out of business.

According to the ACLU, the doctors' goal was pure misogyny and white supremacy. Indeed, having made this point, the article goes into an extended, discursive riff about all the horrors whites inflicted on minorities. The vast panoply, scope, and success of the American experiment is reduced to a list of bad things against minorities. It's as if racial hatred were all that Americans did, day in and day out, for two hundred years, without pause for other concerns or activities.

The article then loops back to the main point: the pro-life movement is racist because over a hundred years ago, male medical doctors, in an orgy of white supremacy, wanted to destroy black midwives who performed abortions. The fact that the doctors were pushing for an economic monopoly doesn't occur to the author.

The author appears unaware of the fact that Margaret Sanger, like other eugenicists of her time, saw abortion and birth control as a way to purge America of undesirable races to leave room for a pure Anglo-Saxon race  which is why she ended up with speaking gigs for the KKK.

What's most ironic about the article is that it quotes Sojourner Truth mourning the children that slavers seized from her:

I have borne 13 children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

Those are powerful words from a woman who lost her children because of her and their race. It's hard to imagine that she would approve of a movement that encourages black women to destroy their babies, so much so that a black baby is more likely to be killed in utero in New York than to be born. It seems more likely that she would smile upon an organization that wants to help black women keep their babies, not lose them.

(Final note: This black abortion rate may explain the staggering rates of black-on-black murder. If leftist culture urges black women toward abortion, why should others in the community place a higher value on black lives than these mothers do?)

Image: Twitter screen grab.
July 15, 2020

News

By David Vergun , DOD News

Defense.gov

General Praises U.K.'s Partnership With U.S. in Space Operations

The United States doesn't go to war alone on land, on the sea, in the air, in cyberspace and most certainly in the space domain, the Space Force's top officer said, citing the United Kingdom as a key ally in effective space defense over the last 50 years.

Gen. John W. "Jay" Raymond, chief of space operations and commander of U.S. Space Command, delivered a virtual keynote address at the London Air & Space Power Conference today.

The United States and its allies and partners rely on satellites to provide communications; precision navigation and timing; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; and missile warning, the general said. Safeguarding those space systems also is important to the global economy, he noted, citing transportation and financial markets that rely on GPS and the speed of information transfer.

But space superiority and the information advantage it provides are no longer a given, Raymond said. "Strategic competitors such as China and Russia have the means to attack space operations wherever they occur, kinetically and non-kinetically," he said, "on Earth, in orbit, in cyberspace and in the electromagnetic spectrum."

Defending space assets in the future will depend less on individual capabilities and more on close and rapid integration with allies and partners, especially the United Kingdom, he said.

"We are stronger together, especially in the space domain," he said. "The United States does not go to war alone. I cannot imagine a better friend and ally than the Royal Air Force. Our alliance serves as an anchor for peace and stability around the globe."

The United Kingdom has personnel  including people in key leadership roles  at the Combined Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, where the coalition continuously coordinates, plans, integrates, synchronizes and executes space operations to support commanders around the globe, he said, and Canada and Australia also are represented there.

The Defense Department also is interested in supporting the Royal Air Force's Team Artemis program, a transatlantic collaboration that includes the delivery of small military satellites, Raymond said. DOD also is investigating partnerships with the U.K. on projects involving satellite communications systems, he added.

Raymond praised the Royal Air Force, which he said is "the world's oldest air force, resilient and respected since 1918."

About 3,000 RAF pilots were engaged in the Battle of Britain 80 years ago, he noted, one of the most significant air battles in history. The RAF achieved a remarkable victory despite being outnumbered 4.5 to 1.

The United States and the United Kingdom have fought alongside each other in both world wars and subsequent wars, including today's war on terror, Raymond added. "This unity remains so important today."

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Stand Up To Cancer today announced a new $5 million grant from Bristol Myers Squibb to fund research and education efforts aimed at achieving health equity for underserved lung cancer patients, including Black people and people living in rural communities. Despite recent progress in treating lung cancer, the disease remains the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. with particularly high death rates in rural communities and among Black men.

The research efforts funded by the three-year grant will consist of supplemental grants to current Stand Up To Cancer research teams. The supplemental grants will focus on identifying new and innovative diagnostic and treatment methods for lung cancer patients in need. These supplemental grants will be designed to jumpstart pilot projects at the intersection of lung cancers, health disparities and rural healthcare, for instance increasing clinical trial enrollment among historically under-represented groups.

In early 2021, a Stand Up To Cancer Innovation Summit will launch the project, bringing together lung cancer experts with researchers specializing in health equity and access. The competitive grant application and selection process for proposed projects will be overseen by Stand Up To Cancer's Scientific Advisory Committee.

Stand Up To Cancer's portfolio already includes 17 team science projects in lung cancer, and 24 lung cancer clinical trials have been funded to date. With this comprehensive lung cancer network and the dedication to diversifying cancer clinical trials, Stand Up To Cancer will leverage the Bristol Myers Squibb grant to reach lung cancer patients who have historically been marginalized by our health care system." Nobel Laureate Phillip A. Sharp, PhD, chair of the SU2C Scientific Advisory Committee, and Institute professor, David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"Despite the remarkable recent progress in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, the disparities in care experienced by underserved patient populations are persistent and acute," said Adam Lenkowsky, general manager and head, U.S., Oncology, Immunology, Cardiovascular, Bristol Myers Squibb. "As a company focused on transforming patients' lives through science, we are dedicated to improving health outcomes for all patients. Our support of Stand Up to Cancer's work to address the burden of lung cancer among diverse and rural communities is another extension of our long-standing commitment to ensuring that every patient has access to quality care."

Since 2014, Bristol Myers Squibb has provided funding for important Stand Up To Cancer research initiatives. Bristol Myers Squibb was the inaugural donor for SU2C Catalyst, supporting research and clinical trials targeting a wide range of cancers, including non-small cell lung cancer, metastatic melanoma, smoldering multiple myeloma, pediatric hypermutant cancers, pediatric brain tumors and pediatric neuroblastoma. Funding has also supported Convergence Grants, which harness computational science to understand fundamental cancer biology, Innovative Research Grants focused on immuno-oncology, as well as Dream Teams focused on lung cancer.

Stand Up To Cancer's Health Equity Initiative formalizes requirements that will apply to all future teams seeking Stand Up To Cancer funding. The requirements include addressing recruitment and retention of patients from different ethnic groups and underserved communities to improve diverse participation in cancer clinical trials. To improve cancer clinical trial education, outreach and recruitment in underserved communities, Stand Up To Cancer is collaborating with advocacy and community-based organizations such as the Black Women's Health Imperative and Friends of Cancer Research.

Bristol Myers Squibb has long been committed to promoting heath equity and continues to forge collaborations and invest in programs to increase the reach of medical innovation to diverse and heavily burdened populations. An important example of the company's commitment in this area is the work of the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation, which for more than 20 years has launched initiatives around the world to improve the health outcomes of those disproportionately affected by serious diseases. This includes initiatives focused on underserved populations in the Southeast United States where the lung cancer burden is the highest, with a tailored focus on innovative models of prevention, detection, and education while helping people with lung cancer access and navigate cancer care and support services. From 2014-2019, the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation committed $35 million to expand the scope of community-based resources and cancer survivorship support programs to underserved populations in the U.S.
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Landslides, triggered by incessant overnight rains, have blocked a national highway (NH) leading to Badrinath, a Char Dham shrine, since Thursday morning.

The Uttarakhand government announced on Thursday morning that the Rishikesh-Gangotri NH was blocked for traffic, as debris had fallen from mountains near Bhatwadi in Uttarkashi district.

The Rishikesh-Yamunotri NH was blocked for traffic near Dabur Kot.

However, both the Yamunotri and Gangotri highways were opened by Thursday afternoon.

The 108 emergency service officials from Uttarkashi district said a portion of a house got damaged due to heavy rain near Brahmakhal area, leading to the fall of debris on a car that also got damaged.

Locals alleged that houses in the area are prone to collapse due to faulty construction work carried out on the all-weather road.

Suraj Bhandari, a resident of Brahmakhal Bazaar, alleged many houses developed cracks during the rainy season because of faulty construction work on the all-weather road.

Laxman Bhandari, a former district panchayat member, said that if the construction work was done in compliance with norms, then such unnecessary losses could have been avoided.

Akash Joshi, sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) of Dunda, under which Brahmakhal Bazar falls, said: According to the report of the revenue sub-inspector, the portion of the house got damaged due to incessant overnight rain and not because of faulty construction work on the all-weather road. The damaged vehicle will be covered under insurance.

The NH leading to Badrinath was blocked near Lambagad, which is a landslide-prone area and faces frequent traffic disruptions during monsoon every year.

In Tehri Garhwal district, the road from Muni ki Reti Tapovan toward Devaprayag was blocked near Timalu amid falling boulders from mountains.

In the remote Pithoragarh district, the Tawaghat road was blocked near Lakhanpur. The road leading to Ghatiyabagad and Sobla from Tawaghat was also closed for vehicular traffic.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Thursday at 1 pm predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall would occur at isolated places in Dehradun and Tehri Garhwal districts.

The IMD forecast, which is valid for the next 24 hours, has predicted that heavy rainfall is likely to occur at isolated places in Pauri Garhwal, Nainital, Bageshwar, Chamoli and Rudraprayag districts of the Himalayan state.

The weather bureau has predicted heavy rainfall over the next two days in all the districts of the Kumaon region.

The IMD has issued a yellow alert, which implies to be on guard, and predicted that heavy rainfall is likely to occur at isolated places in Pithoragarh, Bageshwar, and Nainital districts on Friday.

Light to moderate rain or thundershowers are likely to occur at most places in Champawat, Udham Singh Nagar, Dehradun, Pauri, Tehri, Almora, Rudraprayag, Chamoli, Uttarkashi, and Haridwar districts on Friday.

(with inputs from Vipin Negi in Uttarkashi)
HICKSVILLE, NY, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Can B Corp (OTCQB: CANB) (Can B Corp or the Company), a diversified health and wellness company, announced today that their Pure Leaf Oil brand products are available at Bargain Barns Inc. d/b/a United Grocery Outlet (UGO) , www.myugo.com.



The initial product offerings are 3 oz. Roll-On pain relief products, and the first order has been delivered and sold out in several stores. Pure Leaf Oil, a product of Pure Health Products, LLC, is fulfilling reorders currently. Mr. Pat Ferro, President of Pure Health Products LLC, commented, Im very pleased with this initial order; our team has been working to develop our white label business offerings and this is another step in growing this segment. We look forward to developing our relationship with UGO, as well many other white label clients.

About United Grocery Outlet:

In business since 1974, United Grocery Outlets are a highly reputable closeout grocery merchant buying and selling most products sold in supermarkets.

They specialize in handling inventory imbalances, closeouts, packaging changes, close-dated product, factory seconds, and trial run products. From our distribution center in Athens, Tennessee, we operate retail outlets in Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia, and Alabama.

The company currently operates 38 stores in 6 States.

About CanB Corp.

CanB Corp is a Health & Wellness company dedicated to delivering the highest quality CBD products, nutritionals, consumer products, and related medical equipment. Products are sold to consumers online, via retailers, marketing partners, events, and through doctors and other medical and health & wellness organizations. Our products are designed, grown, and produced to the highest industry standards to promote wellness and reduce pain, inflammation, anxiety, sleep disorders and related issues. Further, we are committed to serving our customers and marketing partners, with not only the best products, but the best service and experience in the marketplace now and in the future.

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CanB Corp owns and operates a manufacturing facility under Pure Health Products in Lacey, Washington where all CBD based products are blended and packaged. CanB Corp owns and operates Duramed Inc, which sells medical supplies and devices. CanB Corp owns and operates NY Hemp Depot and Green Grow Farms, which are licensed to grow and cultivate Hemp in the State of New York.

For more information about CanB Corp., please visit www.CanBCorp.com

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Drunken tourists on the Spanish island of Mallorca have prompted authorities to order the closure of three popular party streets.

That's to prevent tourists from breaking restrictions and risking fresh outbreaks.

The move comes after videos emerged showing German and British tourists partying in packed bars without face masks and, in one case, jumping up and down on a parked car.

Shops, bars, and restaurants located in Magaluf and the Palma beach area -- notorious for attracting young, rowdy Britons --- will be closed for an undetermined period of time.

For German tourists, Julia and Anne -- the news is disappointing.

JULIA: "So we were here yesterday and there was nothing happening anyway and we didn't really see many people. In a way we can understand the measures, but it still somehow seems unnecessary."

ANNE: "Yeah it is a real shame when you come here. OK people didn't stick to the rules, but there is nothing going on now and it has now been closed, it is a shame."

The Balearic Islands are home to some of Spain's most popular tourist destinations -- attracting nearly 14 million visitors in 2019.

Since European borders were reopened in July, the regional government has sought to market the islands as a safe destination, particularly to the German and British tourists.

Last week it became the second Spanish region to make face masks compulsory even when social distance can be guaranteed.

But in Germany, the videos of loutish behavior raised concerns holidaymakers were risking infection, which could then be imported back home.

Germany's Health Minister warned on Monday that the risk of a second wave was still real and the public should not become overconfident.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo downplayed the possibility of another summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un before the US presidential election, saying Trump would only want to engage if there were real prospects of progress.

Pompeo's comments during a forum in Washington on Wednesday followed repeated North Korean statements insisting it would no longer gift Trump high-profile meetings he could boast as foreign policy achievements when it's not being substantially rewarded in return.

"The North Koreans have given mixed signals, but the truth is President Trump only wants to engage in a summit if we believe there's a sufficient likelihood that we can make real progress in achieving the outcomes that were set forth in Singapore," Pompeo said during the event hosted by The Hill, referring to the first Trump-Kim summit in June 2018.

"You need to have a willing partner, and the North Koreans have chosen at this point in time not to engage in a way that can lead to a potential solution. We hope they'll change their mind."

Trump and Kim have met three times since embarking on high-stakes nuclear diplomacy in 2018, beginning with their meeting in Singapore where they issued vague vows for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula without describing when and how it would occur.

But negotiations have faltered since their second summit in February 2019, where the Americans rejected North Korean demands for major sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of its nuclear capability.

Some analysts believe North Korea will avoid serious talks with the Americans for now before attempting an eventual return to negotiations after the US election in November.

They say North Korea likely doesn't want to make any major commitments or concessions when there is a chance US leadership could change.

But others say another Trump-Kim meeting wouldn't be impossible. Trump could opt for something dramatic to improve his sliding poll numbers while Kim could see a window of opportunity closing with a Trump presidency and attempt a quick exchange between reversible denuclearization steps and hard-to-reverse sanctions relief.

In a statement last week, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of the North Korean leader, said she doesn't expect another summit with the United States this year, insisting that such a meeting would be "unpractical" for the North.

But she also said "you never know," saying that a meeting would depend on the determination of the two leaders, and called for major concessions from Washington to keep alive the nuclear diplomacy.

The prolonged stalemate in nuclear talks have raised doubts on whether Kim Jong Un would ever agree to fully relinquish the nukes he likely sees as his strongest guarantee of survival. Some experts see him as trying to shape the diplomacy as an arms reduction negotiation between nuclear states rather than talks that would culminate in a surrender of his nuclear programme.
GEORGE Kistiakowsky was there on the morning of July 16, 1945 when the first atomic bomb (Trinity) was detonated by the U.S. Army in the New Mexico desert. Kistiakowsky was a science professor at Harvard University and part of the Manhattan Project that developed the bomb.

He witnessed the power of the weapon that would be used to destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan and end World War II. The Cold War arms race with the Soviet Union would follow, with even more powerful nuclear weapons.

Kistiakowsky warned in 1963: I do not believe that we or any other nation can find any real security in a continuing arms race. ... Perhaps even more threatening is the prospect of an increasingly large number of countries having nuclear weapons, with the concomitant increase in the probability that some will be used, and that uncontrolled escalation will follow.

Today we are heading toward a new arms race with Russia and China. President Trump has withdrawn from arms control treaties and is even considering a nuclear test, according to a Washington Post report. Rivals India and Pakistan each have nuclear weapons that could lead to a devastating war. North Korea still has nukes and is the most recent nation to test explode one in 2017.
The massive departure of workers in the industry in the last five months has caused problems for business executives, who will have to find qualified workers in the post-pandemic period.

The general manager of a luxury hotel in Nha Trang resigned from his post in early May after the hotel experienced theee months of difficulties because of Covid-19.





The manager understood that it would be better for him to leave so the owner could hire a local manager at lower costs.



Theres nothing to do now, so there is no need to hire experienced managers, he commented.



The number of resignations has been increasing recently. Junior workers left soon after the epidemic broke out, while senior workers, including heads and deputy heads of divisions, have left recently.

The massive departure of workers in the industry in the last five months has caused problems for business executives, who will have to find qualified workers in the post-pandemic period.

Other hotels in Nha Trang reported the same problem. More and more workers at travel firms, hotels and restaurants have given up their jobs.



Ngo Minh Duc, president of HG Group, complained that though he has been trying his best to retain qualified workers by sending them to other divisions which still can bring revenue, his workers have still decided to leave.



In inbound and outbound divisions alone, 60 percent of our workers have quit their jobs, he said, adding that the figure may increase in the time to come because the tourism sector is predicted to continue to decline, especially when the summer season finishes.



HG Group covers many business fields, from aviation and travel to hotel and yacht services. Some months ago, the managers of the group still hoped they could begin receiving foreign tourists at year end and prepared for a comeback. However, things have changed.



Its highly possible that the international tourism segment will only recover the next year end. So, there will be further layoffs because travel firms cant retain workers and wait until that time,  Duc said.



In April, when the tourism industry had not fallen into such a deep crisis, the Tourism Advisory Board joined forces with the Committee for Private Economic Development Research and Grant Thornton Vietnam to conduct a survey on the impact of the epidemic on tourism firms.



Eighteen percent of surveyed businesses said they had laid off all workers, while 48 percent of businesses haf laid off half of workers.



TAB cited a report from the World Tourism and Travel Council as showing that there are 4.9 million workers in Vietnams tourism industry.



Tourism firms will face a labor crisis after the epidemic, Duc of HG Group warned.

Mai Lan

Travel companies find it hard to get bank loans Several travel companies admitted that although they are struggling due to the Covid-19 pandemic, its hard for them to secure bank loans because banks classify them as high-risk businesses.
Kolkata, July 16 : West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday criticised the state's education system saying the quality of education here is rapidly declining due to political control and affiliations.

"It is unfortunate that in our state the education is politically controlled. Politically controlled education system can never serve the wholesome purpose. What I find now is that the political grip on education is tightening in Bengal. It will hurt the students. It will hurt the education scenario. It will hurt the society at large," the Governor told a press conference here.

He said that the importance of education is finished in society. If a country has grown it has grown on the basis of quality education. "Education is important and it is the soul of the society as it passes from one generation to another. Neglect of education will hurt generations after generation," he said.

"I am here for a year now and I am trying to improve the education system. I have interacted with former vice-chancellors. I have interacted with students, guardians and academicians. They all share my anguish that the state of West Bengal which is gifted with finest and oldest institutions is rapidly declining in quality of education on account of political control and political affiliations," Dhankhar pointed out.

The Governor said that during Covid-19 he had scheduled a virtual conference with the vice-chancellors. "You will be shocked. The government said there is no provision for virtual conference. Can you ever imagine in changing India the virtual conferences are being held day in and day out by the chief ministers, the government has the audacity to write to the Governor saying that there is no rule," he said.

He said students can do well only if the education system is good.

"If I am raising the issue of quality education, if I want students to get the best of education I do not understand why the government is objecting to this," he added.

The Governor's reactions came a day after the state government had refused to give permissions to all vice-chancellors to attend a virtual meeting called by Dhankhar on July 15, citing the on-going Covid-19 pandemic situation.
Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker hilariously attempted a Kiwi accent during a Zoom call from her hometown of New York this week.

The 55-year-old actress appeared in a virtual wine blending session, where she put her twang to the test.

SJP was celebrating making her second batch of sauvignon blanc with New Zealand-based winery, Invivo and Co.

Getting Carrie-d away! Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker hilariously attempted a Kiwi accent this week as she launched a wine made in New Zealand

I'm a student in a masterclass,' Sarah Jessica told winery partners Tim Lightbourne and Rob Cameron during the call.

She then tried to pronounce the word 'blending' in a kiwi accent.

The trio then went on with the wine tasting.

Sipping away! The 55-year-old actress appeared in a virtual wine blending session, when she put her twang to the test

At one point, her Hollywood star husband Matthew Broderick, 58, appeared on the screen and helped her smell the wine.

SJP then told her Kiwi friends: 'I look forward to the next occasion we can be together, sooner than later, in New Zealand, that's my dream. Thanks for all your guidance.'

Last year the blonde beauty - who played Carrie Bradshaw on Sex and the City - released her first wine with Ivivo and Co Winery, which is based in New Zealand.

Go girl! The actress is not only a famed actress, but also a sharp businesswoman. The Failure to Launch star has her own shoe range called, the SJP Collection, and even has a flagship store near her home in New York. She also has her own perfume range

Despite her star status, the wine is surprisingly affordable and costs approximately $25.

SJP is not only a famed actress, but also a sharp businesswoman.

The Failure to Launch star has her own shoe range, called the SJP Collection, and even has a flagship store near her home in New York. She also has her own perfume range.

She and husband Matthew married in 1997 in Manhattan. They welcomed son James Wilkie, 17, in 2002 and fraternal twin daughters, Marion and Tabatha, 11, in 2009 via a surrogate.
BUCKS COUNTY, PA  More than 63,000 Bucks County voters have asked to continue voting by mail, a number that has officials hoping they'll have some leeway with how ballots are counted in November's presidential election.

On Friday, Bucks County Clerk Gail Humphrey said that, of the roughly 100,000 Bucks County voters who requested mail-in ballots for the primary election on June 2, 63,603 asked to become permanent mail-in voters.

In all, about 78,000 people sent ballots in by mail for the primaries, which came as Bucks election officials, like their counterparts across Pennsylvania, were called upon to hold an election during the coronavirus outbreak.

The deluge of voting by mail caused official Bucks County results to be delayed by the better part of a week. Cognizant of Pennsylvania's role as a swing state in the presidential race, local officials are pushing for ways to make the count quicker in November  when they expect the number of votes by mail to far outnumber June's tally.

Humphrey pointed to a handful of proposals currently before lawmakers in Harrisburg.

"I don't think it's going to happen shortly, (but) there may be some changes that come about by the fall," Humphrey said. "We're very hopeful."

Like other Pennsylvania counties, Bucks was flooded with mail-in ballot requests for the primary due to concerns about the coronavirus. By law, election workers were not allowed to begin counting those ballots until polls closed on election night.

In comparison to the more than 78,000 mail votes, Bucks County received about 6,000 ballots by mail in the last presidential primary in 2016.

County Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo was one of five members of a Bucks County task force that studied vote-counting issues and made recommendations to state lawmakers.

"They are aware up in Harrisburg of what changes we'd like to see," said DiGirolamo, who served as a state representative before joining the commission.

Story continues

He said action on one of several bills before the legislature could happen by the end of July or early August.

Among the proposals lawmakers will consider include allowing election workers to start counting mail-in ballots early on Election Day.

Potentially complicating matters is the fact that President Donald Trump has sued Pennsylvania to block voting by mail in the state. Trump claims that widely allowing mail voting opens the door to voter fraud, while supporters call the lawsuit an effort to suppress the vote in a key battleground state.

This article originally appeared on the Yardley Patch
NORTH WALES  It may be a few months later than normal, but roadwork season could be starting soon in the borough.

Council voted unanimously on Tuesday night to post a bid package for the towns 2020 road paving program, with several scenarios possible.

There is a very extensive list. We are a little bit late to the drawing board, if you will, said Borough Manager Christine Hart.

Road repaving in 2020 was discussed during the towns budget season last fall, and Hart told council Tuesday night that a tentative to-do list had been prepared before the arrival of COVID-19 in the region in March.

This plan, we started on pre-COVID, but it obviously was halted. Weve kept up on following through with the engineering, in looking at the priorities  of what roads needed to be put in such a priority, she said.

The approved 2020 budget includes $150,000 for pavement patching and road repaving, allocated from the towns liquid fuels funding that is derived from state fuel taxes. Separate budget line items include $125,000 for infrastructure: grants, projects, etc from the boroughs capital improvement fund, and another $25,000 for road paving from the towns highway improvement fund, all of which Hart said she and staff have been reevaluating in the wake of the pandemic.

Because of the timeliness of this project, and the responsibility we have to advance this item, and then allow for review and pre-bid meetings, the anticipated start date, at the earliest, would be September 1, she said.

Blacktop plants typically close around October 31st. However, in the past two to three years, weve had very mild winters, where they have been extended, Hart said.

To just err on the side of caution, if the weather does become very severe, that we will break this down into three phases, she said.

Making one a priority for 2020, and then, depending on the funding and the weather, well be able to be a little more advantageous in looking for bids, she said.

The tentative bid package, included in the boards meeting materials packet for July 14, says the base bid will include roughly 8,800 square yards of milling and resurfacing, with 23 handicap ramps to be replaced and two new ones to be installed. Streets included in the base bid package include parts of Pennsylvania Avenue between Highland and Washington Avenues; Pennsylvania between the driveway to North Wales Elementary and W. Montgomery Avenue; the 100 block of W. Montgomery; W. Montgomery between Swartley Street and Center Street; Summit Street between S. Eighth Street and S. Fifth Street; Summit between S. Second and S. Main Street; and ramps at Beaver Street and N. Main and School and Second.

The alternates add 8,955 square yards of repaving, with 13 replacement ramps and three new ramps; streets included are S. Second Street between E. Prospect and Summit; S. Tenth Street between E. Montgomery Ave. and Walnut Street; S. Fourth Street between Church Street and E. Montgomery; S. Sixth Street between Church and E. Montgomery; S. Fifth between Church and E. Montgomery; and ramps at Church and E. Montgomery.

If time, weather, and funding all come together, this will be accomplished in 2020. We will not know that until we put it out for advertisement, and secure bids, she said.

Council then voted unanimously to authorize the posting of the paving program for bids, and Hart said shell bring updates back at future meetings. During her managers report, Hart also said she and councils finance committee plan to meet next week to continue talks begun in recent months on a possible long-term borrowing through the Delaware Valley Regional Finance Association that could cover the costs of further infrastructure repairs, and said that would be discussed in more detail at upcoming full council meetings.

North Wales borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on July 28; for more information visit www.NorthWalesBorough.org.
Bengaluru, July 16 : Several private hospitals in the city are facing acute shortage of doctors, nurses, ward boys and helpers amid the raging Covid-19 pandemic, an official said on Thursday.

"There is actually acute shortage of manpower in Bengaluru hospitals, especially nurses, ward boys and aayahs (helpers). Even before Covid, we had a little shortage but after Covid they all left in droves," Karnataka chapter Indian Medical Association (IMA) official Ravindra told IANS.

He roughly estimated the shortage to be 6,000 doctors and about 12,000 - 18,000 nurses and ward boys.

A major reason Ravindra cited for the shortage is the fear of contracting the virus amid the pandemic as they discharge duties in hospitals.

"Some of them cannot work because they are pregnant or above 55, diabetic or other health problems. Some of them are not coming to work although they did not leave the job," he said.

Besides the scare of getting infected, the IMA official said some of the health workers themselves are already Covid positive, quarantined or admitted in hospitals.

In case of support staff, he said most of them are migrant workers from Gulbarga and other districts who panicked after seeing some videos of Covid victims being dumped and buried.

"They said if I have to die, I don't want to die in Bengaluru. I will die and get buried in my native place. After those videos went viral, quite a few have left," explained Ravindra, deciphering the social media impact as well.

Similarly, the virus has also sent the doctors and health workers' duty schedules haywire, prohibiting them from working continuously.

"Duty schedules are also changing. As per government guidelines, they cannot work continuously. So if they work for two weeks and even if they are alright, one week they have to be compulsorily on leave. Because of this, we are facing a huge shortage of manpower, especially nurses and ward boys," said Ravindra, who is also a doctor.

Amid spiking infections everyday, the state health department has created a new duty roster for healthcare workers to ensure continuous availability of services in Covid Care Centres (CCCs.) Accordingly, all doctors, nursing staff, paramedics and other support staff working in CCCs will have 10 days duty at a stretch, followed by four holidays.

Likewise, to ensure their safety and others, all of them will also be made to undergo a rapid antigen test after their 10-day-long duty.

According to Ravindra, the impact of shortage of doctors is pronounced more on smaller hospitals, resulting in up to 20 per cent of them not reporting to work.

"In smaller hospitals, some of the doctors have just disappeared. In large hospitals, especially the elderly, above 55 are not coming to work. Youngsters, many of them have elderly parents at home or small children so they are also not coming," pointed out Ravindra.

Meanwhile, to instill some sense of security in the employees, many hospitals bought insurance cover for all of them.

"We have all taken insurance, most of the hospitals. Most of the hospitals have almost doubled the salaries of doctors, nurses and wards boys," said Ravindra about the huge expenses hospitals are incurring.

Likewise, private hospitals have also asked the government to provide some sort of insurance or death benefit which Ravindra said the government has extended to government hospital staff.

To overcome the staff shortage, private hospitals have asked the government to supply manpower, such as deputing post graduate medical students, nursing students and others as the hospitals have beds and infrastructure but not sufficient manpower.

Recently, the city civic body has initiated the process to recruiting 1,700 medical professionals, doctors, staff nurses and support staff to scale up its workforce to establish 30,000 Covid care beds To establish and run 30,000 Covid care beds, 1,800 doctors and 3,600 nurses are required.

The health department has calculated that one doctor per shift is needed for every 100 patients and one staff nurse for every 50 patients. Similarly, two supporting staff and three Group D employees are needed per shift for every 100 patients.

Generally, a day is divided into three shifts of eight hours each.

According to the director of medical education, there are 25,000 nursing students who have completed GNM and BSc Nursing courses and pursuing higher education.

Likewise, there are 3,231 medical, dental and Aayush interns while MD and MS postgraduate students have been identified to be 1,613, in Bengaluru colleges.

However, according to Ravindra, most of the students have returned home, forcing the government to issue orders that if they do not return, action would be initiated against them.

"All the college post graduate students have left. So the government is saying if you don't come back, we will have to take action, that is the only weapon the government has now," he highlighted.

Bengaluru is the epicentre of Covid in Karnataka, grappling with 22,944 cases, out of which 17,051 are active.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
A group of teenagers now share a fishing tale theyll be talking about for quite some time. And this one is true.

Martin Scanlan, 16, Griffin Buckwalter, 16, and Wyatt Morse, 17, reeled in a 700-pound bluefin tuna off the coast of Maine earlier this month, according to WMTW. The catch took them seven hours to bring in.

The thing popped out of the water and I was completely shocked. It was just enormous, Buckwalter told the news station.

Buckwalter captured the entire event on video.

According to the report, a seafood distribution company in Portland, Maine, has already bought the tuna for $2,000.

You can see photos of the catch in the post below.

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.

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MONTREALQuebec Premier Francois Legault said Thursday he is concerned by the rise in COVID-19 infections as the province reported the highest single-day increase in confirmed cases since June.

Legault said the provinces director of public health is analyzing the situation and will make a recommendation soon about whether to close bars and nightclubs following a recent string of outbreaks in the Montreal area linked to those venues.

At this moment, we havent ruled out closing the bars, Legault told reporters in Carleton, Que., in the Gaspe region.

Quebec reported 142 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday and 10 new deaths, nine of which occurred in the previous 24 hours. The province has now reported a total of 57,001 COVID-19 cases and 5,646 deaths since the pandemic began.

Hospitalizations continue to drop in the province, however. The number of patients being treated in hospital fell by eight, for a total of 277, including 20 people who are in intensive care, the same number as Wednesday.

Authorities said they conducted 12,887 COVID-19 tests Tuesday, the last day for which data is available.

The rise in infections comes after authorities recently identified at least 30 cases of COVID-19 linked to nine Montreal-area bars, prompting health officials last weekend to instruct anyone who had gone to a bar in the city since July 1 to get tested.

Quebec last week tried to reduce COVID-19 exposure at bars by ordering them to limit capacity to 50 per cent and stop serving alcohol at midnight.

We tightened the rules, Legault said Thursday. But yes, I have concerns.

The government was criticized this week after people said they had to wait several hours to be tested for COVID-19 at drop-in clinics in Montreal.

Quebec said late Wednesday it would increase testing capacity in the city by 1,000 additional tests per day to meet demand.

The provinces health minister, Christian Dube, said Thursday that he had not yet seen a definitive link between the increase in COVID-19 cases and bars.

But he said he asked the public health agency for more information to understand where the cases are coming from and what further action may be needed.

I want to be careful between perception and the facts, but I can tell you that in the next few days well have a very clear idea of our decision, Dube told reporters.

Bar owners and bar owners associations have raised concerns about another potential shutdown, saying hundreds of establishments across the province could be forced to close.

Dr. Horacio Arruda, Quebecs public health director, said the province is mulling several options, from leaving things as they currently stand to closing specific bars only, ordering a shutdown of bars in a particular region or closing establishments across Quebec.

All those hypotheses are possible, Arruda said at a news conference on Thursday.

But he said public health officials need to do a thorough analysis of the data before making any recommendations on the bars, because there may be other sources of COVID-19 infections, such as private parties.

We cant wait until its too late. But we also cant act too soon and penalize a sector that isnt necessarily the only source of the problem, Arruda said.

Gopinath Jeyabalaratnam, a senior policy analyst at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said one in 10 small and medium businesses in Quebec faces bankruptcy as a result of the pandemic.

A recent study by the federation found that the average debt burden these businesses have accumulated so far due to COVID-19 is $127,000, Jeyabalaratnam said in an interview.

Bars were among the first businesses to close in Quebec and among the last to reopen, he said, and many are already struggling to pay their rents, bills and employee salaries with the existing restrictions.

If they have to shut down again for a couple of months during the summer  the most (busy) period for them  it would be catastrophic, he said.

Jeyabalaratnam said that if the Quebec government orders the bars to close, it should provide the businesses with economic support in the form of subsidies and tax deferrals to help them stay afloat.

(The bars) are responsible for a lot of jobs in Quebec ... so it is important for the government to keep that in mind.

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It seems Kenyan musicians are all about Kutesa this week. In addition to Nadia Mukamis Tesa featuring Khaligraph and Fena Gitu, new kids on the block -Halisi Nation  have also dropped a track titled Tesa.

Tesa is the first release by the all-male Afro-pop trio under the management of P-Unit and features the groups member Frasha.

Unlike Nadias Tesa which is all about getting lit, Halisi Nations Tesa is a mellow Afro-pop love song about an infatuation with a girl.

It is produced by House Of Dillie while the video was shot by Kashkeed Kenya.

This track comes less than a month after Frasha announced the signing of the group comprising Galvin Leting, Lucky Misoi and Elly Okoth.

I have signed Halisi, now called Halisination, purely because of their talent, discipline and hard work. I have watched them for some time now. We will be working together to create content that is locally accepted but internationally acclaimed, said the rapper.

Tesa has been receiving positive feedback from music lovers and it is indeed a solid re-introduction into the industry by Halisi Nation.

Rating 9/10.
EPB has announced Marie Webbs promotion to senior vice president Human Resources and chief Talent & Inclusion Officer. In her expanded role, Ms. Webb will have responsibility for leading Diversity & Inclusion and Community Workforce partnerships in addition to her existing responsibilities in leading Human Resources.

According to David Wade, president and CEO of EPB, the promotion reflects Ms. Webbs continuing efforts in developing and recruiting a talented and diverse workforce along with EPBs increased focus on these areas.

As part of our mission to enhance quality of life for the people we serve, its critical that EPBs workforce genuinely reflects and benefits from richness and diversity of our whole community, Mr. Wade said. Marie has led the way with a number of innovative projects like EPBs Future Ready Institute of Technology and Networking at Tyner Academy as well as our On-Ramp program at Chattanooga State to provide opportunities for working adults to develop their skills.

Mr. Wade also pointed out that the time was right to build on previous efforts. At a time, when our community is striving to face issues of racial injustice more honestly, EPB is re-doubling our diversity and inclusion efforts with added focus under Maries leadership, Mr. Wade said.

In her new role, Ms. Webb plans to build on previous efforts. I am particularly energized by initiatives that help close the talent gap by supporting local people in developing the skills they need to advance in their careers, Ms. Webb said. From working with students and adults through community-based talent development initiatives to building stronger career development ladders within EPB, we want to create a holistic approach to inclusive talent development and recruitment.

Ms. Webb joined EPB in 2009, bringing 15 years of human resources experience at the Staples Corporation, the Social Security Administration, and Premier Manufacturing. Originally from Ohio, Ms. Webb received her Bachelors degree from Denison University in Granville, Ohio and her Masters Degree in Human Resource Development from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Ms. Webb participated in Harvard Business Schools Young American Leaders Program, which brings together leaders from across the country to study and explore community collaborations. In addition to her degrees, she holds numerous Human Resources and behavioral certifications. She is currently a member of the First Things First Board of Directors (former Board chair), the Public Education Foundation, Urban League of Greater Chattanooga, and serves as a trustee on the UC Foundation at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga. Helping others identify, strengthen, and use their God-given talents to inspire change is Ms. Webbs true passion. Ms. Webb and her husband, Aaron, have three daughters and love calling Chattanooga home.




A Connecticut drug trafficker was sentenced to 5 years in prison Monday following an investigation that included court-authorized wiretaps, controlled purchases of narcotics and physical surveillance, according to federal authorities.

Pedro Rivera, also known as Heavy, 42, of Hartford, also was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Michael P. Shea in Hartford to five years of supervised release, for trafficking narcotics, federal authorities said in a release.

The Drug Enforcement Administrations Hartford Task Force launched an investigation in Aug. 2017 into a drug trafficking organization that was selling large amounts of heroin, fentanyl, cocaine and crack cocaine in that city Hartford, the release said, attributing the information to court documents and statements made in court.

Julio Oliveras, also known as Cuzzo Jay, was identified as the leader of the organization, the release said. The investigation, which included approximately six months of court-authorized wiretaps, controlled purchases of narcotics and physical surveillance, revealed that Oliveras and his associates supplied distribution quantities of narcotics to several Hartford-area drug dealers, including Rivera, and used multiple locations in Hartford to process, store and distribute narcotics, the release said.

Rivera was regularly intercepted on wiretaps ordering fentanyl and heroin, typically in 50-gram or 100-gram quantities, and wholesale quantities of cocaine, from Oliveras.

Rivera, Oliveras and other members of the organization were arrested on July 19, 2018 and investigators executed 10 search warrants, seizing about 2.7 kilograms of fentanyl, one kilogram of heroin, approximately 500 grams of crack cocaine, 100 grams of cocaine, eight firearms, more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition, cash, and other evidence of narcotics trafficking activity, federal authorities said in the release. The drugs and firearms were found at a stash house Oliveras maintained, a storage unit he rented, and the residences of his associates.

A grand jury returned an indictment charging Rivera, Oliveras and 14 co-defendants with various offenses on Aug. 2, 2018, according to federal authorities.

Rivera has been held since his arrest and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute heroin, fentanyl and cocaine on Aug. 29, 2019, the release said.

Oliveras pleaded guilty to narcotics and firearm offenses and, on January 15, 2020, was sentenced to 186 months of imprisonment.

This is Riveras second federal conviction. In September 2004, he was sentenced to 60 months of imprisonment for distributing large quantities of crack cocaine. His sentence was subsequently reduced to 48 months of imprisonment pursuant to changes in the federal sentencing guidelines for crack cocaine offenses.

The Drug Enforcement Administrations Hartford Task Force includes personnel from the DEA Hartford Resident Office and the Bristol, Hartford, East Hartford, Manchester, New Britain, Rocky Hill, Wethersfield, Windsor Locks and Willimantic Police Departments. Agencies assisting the investigation include the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Connecticut Department of Correction, and the East Hartford, New Britain, Newington and West Hartford Police Departments.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey M. Stone.




COVID-19 community infections are increasing sharply, with health experts warning of higher statistics if Zimbabweans fail to take heed of health advice.





There has been a spike in local transmission cases over the past weeks, partly owing to Covid-19 positive patients escaping from quarantine centres and interacting with communities.





Health experts say intensified mass testing will help in arresting the spread of the virus in the country.





Bulawayo and Harare remain the worst affected provinces in the country, followed by Matabeleland South and the Midlands provinces. What is worrying is that the source of most of the local transmissions cases is not known.





As of Wednesday, Zimbabwe had a total of 346 community infections and 743 imported cases.





On that day, 22 new local transmission cases were recorded and only one is a contact of a known confirmed Covid-19 patient, while the source of infection for the rest were not known.





Between March and May, local transmissions were very low as most Covid-19 cases were being reported from people with a travel history.





On March 28, Zimbabwe had seven Covid-19 cases from returning residents and their contacts. The trajectory continued into April and May when most cases were being reported from people with travel history.





However as from June the tables turned.





The number of local transmissions started rising, with the highest numbers of local transmissions being reported in July.





Last Saturday, 30 local transmission cases were recorded in one day, while 10 cases were reported from returning residents.





The following day, 49 people tested positive, with 28 returning residents and 21 cases from local transmissions. On Monday, another 30 Covid-19 cases were reported: 16 local transmissions and 14 imported cases.





The director of epidemiology and disease control in the Ministry of Health and Child Care Dr Portia Manangazira, during a live-streamed update on the pandemic, said it was worrying that community infections were on the rise.





Dr Manangazira urged people to stay at home if they had no business outside of home.





She said what was more worrying was a sense of false immunity to the virus amongst people in shared community spaces such as offices, supermarkets and other workplaces.





We witness a very worrying trend in terms of the increase in the number of cases, but also a different epidemiological trend when we compare to March when we confirmed our first case. During that time, we would report up to a maximum of four cases per day. However, as we came to the end of May, it seems as though we have not had a single day where we have had no new cases. In the last five days, we have had an average of 20-25 new cases per day. The majority of the cases have been imported, but our local transmission cases are also growing rapidly. Recently most cases are being reported from local transmissions and not returning residents, which is also quite worrying, she said.





On 5 July there was a report of 18 new cases, however on July 7, the figure jumped to 53, and on July 8 we had 98 cases added, of which 47 were local transmissions. We really need to tighten up our prevention and control measures. We continue to see new cases; we have to talk about prevention and control even within the home.





Dr Manangazira expressed worry that such a trend may result in more patients needing intensive care services and ventilators than what is available.





This is the time to plan for surge capacity, where our patients in need of ventilators and ICU will exceed the number of life saving units available, we need to plan on that now. In the event that those ten ventilators or ICU beds are exceeded, we need to plan on what to do with the overflow. People are still moving willy nilly, even when there is nothing pressing. Our key message remains, please stay at home. Even those with exemptions, do your work and go back home. Wear your mask properly, wash your hands. We appeal to everybody to observe those preventive measures because the cases are rising alarmingly, said Dr Manangazira.





Mpilo Central Hospital Clinical director and Acting CEO, Dr Solwayo Ngwenya said the rising community infections called for a different stance in fighting Covid-19, one which requires active individual effort to stay safe.





The Covid-19 fight must now be fought at individual level. Now that we know about community infections, it means that Covid-19 is no longer far away but is all around us. While health authorities can do so much, the individual must also ensure that they do as much as possible to protect themselves from this virus. The highest standards of hygiene must be maintained. Hand washing, social distancing, properly wearing the mask in public and staying at home as much as possible to stay safe, said Dr Ngwenya.




Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2020) - Aurania Resources Ltd. (TSXV: ARU) (OTCQB: AUIAF) (FSE: 20Q) ("Aurania" or the "Company") is pleased to report that grades of up to 7% copper with 55 grams per tonne ("g/t") silver have been found in the Tsenken N1 target area in its Lost Cities - Cutucu Project ("Project") in southeastern Ecuador.

Dr. Keith Barron, Chairman and CEO of Aurania commented, "We're delighted to have found high-grade copper-silver at Tsenken N1 in what appears to be a very large breccia body. This represents a relatively simple target that is likely cylindrical in shape - and this will be readied for scout drilling using an ultra-lightweight rig as soon as possible behind the drilling that is planned for the Tsenken N2 and N3 targets. We are seeing a common theme in this area: we have copper-silver in breccia, sedimentary-hosted mineralization, and also in intrusive rocks. The combination of copper with silver without significant enrichment of other metals is unusual - and hence we believe that all three "types" of mineralization are likely linked. We expect to provide further updates on the Tsenken targets as our understanding of the mineralization evolves."

The next steps at the Tsenken target area are more detailed mapping and sampling, soil sampling, and a heliborne Mobile MT geophysical survey is being considered to provide more detail on the possible shape of the mineralized breccia and to further investigate the rest of the 5km wide Tsenken magnetic feature. The intention is to ready the target for scout drilling with an ultra-lightweight drill rig. Drilling is expected to commence at Tsenken targets N2 and N3 prior to the end of Q3, and the N1 target to be drilled immediately thereafter.

Details of the Copper-Silver at Tsenken N1

The high-grade copper-silver has been found in boulders protruding from beneath the jungle floor over an area of 500 metres ("m") by 400m on the northern margin of the large magnetic feature at Tsenken - and this target is termed Tsenken N1 (Figure 1). The host rock is "breccia" - a rock that consists of rock fragments within a fine-grained matrix. Importantly, the matrix of the breccia is mineralized, not just the fragments, and hence the whole breccia body is a target for copper-silver (Figure 2).

Story continues







Figure 1. Location of breccia with high-grade copper-silver from the Tsenken N1 target area shown on a background of magnetic data (negative reduction to the equator, which is roughly equivalent to reduction to the pole ("RTP").

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2477/59869_a2af9aa0d4238ac5_001full.jpg







Figure 2. Photo of a piece of Sample Y991449 showing green copper mineral (malachite) in the matrix as well as in fragments in the breccia. The sample contains 7.10% copper and 55g/t silver. Scale bar is in centimetres.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2477/59869_a2af9aa0d4238ac5_002full.jpg

Details of the Breccia Target at Tsenken N1

The breccia occurs in deep jungle-cover - and contains poorly-sorted, polylithic clasts up to 15cm in diameter that range from angular to rounded in shape. The rock fragments are supported by a matrix of sand-sized granules and rock flour. Copper minerals include malachite, chrysocolla, chalcocite and traces of bornite. Mineralization is primarily in the matrix, but also extends into the fragments along fractures, which suggests that mineralization occurred after the breccia was formed - and therefore that the breccia body itself is the target.

This is different from the situation at the Yawi target where fragments of mineralized rock were found in an otherwise unmineralized breccia. These fragments were plucked off the side of the breccia pipe and detailed geophysics is required to determine where those fragments came from, and how much of the associated mineralized systems remains intact on the edge of the diatreme.

Update on Field Work in Ecuador

Aurania's exploration teams re-entered the field in mid-June and the first teams deployed have now returned safely to base. Other teams have rotated into the field, doing two-week exploration campaigns in isolated areas. The Company is strictly complying with the government-imposed COVID restrictions that require a maximum 50% capacity in the field office at any one time. Exploration teams are working in six target areas including Tsenken N3, Tsenken N4, Tiria, Kirus, Awacha and Crunchy Hill. Teams are also working on the establishment of the remote camp from which scout drilling at Tsenken N2 and N3 is planned to be undertaken.

Sample Analysis & Quality Assurance / Quality Control ("QAQC")

Laboratories: The soil samples were prepared for analysis at MS Analytical ("MSA") in Cuenca, Ecuador, and the analyses were done in Vancouver, Canada.

Sample preparation: The rock samples were jaw-crushed to 10 mesh (crushed material passes through a mesh with apertures of 2 millimetres ("mm")), from which a one-kilogram sub-sample was taken. The sub-sample was crushed to a grain size of 0.075mm and a 200 gram ("g") split was set aside for analysis.

Analytical procedure: Approximately 0.25g of rock pulp underwent four-acid digestion and analysis for 48 elements by ICP-MS. For the over-limit samples, those that had a grade of greater than 1% copper and 100g/t silver, 0.4 grams of pulp underwent digestion in four acids and the resulting liquid was diluted and analyzed by ICP-MS.

QAQC: Aurania personnel inserted a certified standard pulp sample, alternating with a field blank, at approximate 20 sample intervals in all sample batches. Aurania's analysis of results from its independent QAQC samples showed the batches reported on above, lie within acceptable limits. In addition, the labs reported that the analyses had passed their internal QAQC tests.

Qualified Person

The technical information contained in this news release has been verified and approved by Jean-Paul Pallier, MSc. Mr. Pallier is a designated EurGeol by the European Federation of Geologists and is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators.

About Aurania

Aurania is a mineral exploration company engaged in the identification, evaluation, acquisition, and exploration of mineral property interests, with a focus on precious metals and copper in South America. Its flagship asset, The Lost Cities - Cutucu Project, is located in the Jurassic Metallogenic Belt in the eastern foothills of the Andes mountain range of southeastern Ecuador.

Information on Aurania and technical reports are available at www.aurania.com and www.sedar.com, as well as on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/auranialtd/, Twitter at https://twitter.com/auranialtd, and LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/aurania-resources-ltd-.

For further information, please contact:

Carolyn Muir

VP Investor Relations

Aurania Resources Ltd.

(416) 367-3200

carolyn.muir@aurania.com

Dr. Richard Spencer

President

Aurania Resources Ltd.

(416) 367-3200

richard.spencer@aurania.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.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain forward-looking information that involves substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties, most of which are beyond the control of Aurania. Forward-looking statements include estimates and statements that describe Aurania's future plans, objectives or goals, including words to the effect that Aurania or its management expects a stated condition or result to occur. Forward-looking statements may be identified by such terms as "believes", "anticipates", "expects", "estimates", "may", "could", "would", "will", or "plan". Since forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Although these statements are based on information currently available to Aurania, Aurania provides no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Risks, uncertainties, and other factors involved with forward-looking information could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, Aurania's objectives, goals or future plans, statements, exploration results, potential mineralization, the corporation's portfolio, treasury, management team and enhanced capital markets profile, the estimation of mineral resources, exploration and mine development plans, timing of the commencement of operations and estimates of market conditions. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, failure to identify mineral resources, failure to convert estimated mineral resources to reserves, the inability to complete a feasibility study which recommends a production decision, the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results, delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, regulatory, environmental or other project approvals, political risks, inability to fulfill the duty to accommodate indigenous peoples, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, changes in equity markets, inflation, changes in exchange rates, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in the development of projects, capital and operating costs varying significantly from estimates and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, and those risks set out in Aurania's public documents filed on SEDAR. Although Aurania believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. Aurania disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/59869
New Delhi India on Thursday said technical and financial issues yet to be finalised by Iran were holding up New Delhis participation in the Chabahar-Zahedan railway project, a key component of the trade and transit hub centred round the Iranian port.

Reacting to media reports suggesting that Iran had dropped India from the railway project that will link Chabahar port to Zahedan, along the border with Afghanistan, external affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said New Delhi was waiting for Tehran to nominate an authorised entity to finalise outstanding technical and financial issues. He didnt give any more details.

India sees the port in the Gulf of Oman as key to its strategic plans to access both Afghanistan and Central Asian states. Though the US issued a waiver in 2018 sparing Chabahar from sanctions imposed on Iran, Indian entities and foreign financial institutions have been reluctant to back either the port or the railway project.

The leadership of India, Afghanistan and Iran signed a tripartite agreement on the development of the port during Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Tehran in May 2016. At the same time, Indias Ircon and Irans Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructure Company (CDTIC) signed a MoU for building and financing the Chabahar-Zahedan railway link at an estimated cost of $1.6 billion.

Srivastava said Ircon was tasked by the Indian government to assess the feasibility of the project, and had completed site inspection and review of a feasibility report. Detailed discussions were thereafter held on other relevant aspects of the project, which had to take into account the financial challenges that Iran was facing.

These issues were also reviewed at the India-Iran Joint Commission meeting in Tehran last December.

An Iranian official, who declined to be named, said Tehran had decided to construct the railway project with Iranian funding and engineering capacities in the absence of an active Indian engagement and partnership.

Chabahar port and the railway link to Zahedan are part of the International North-South Transit Corridor and it was expected India could play a more crucial role in funding and constructing this strategic transit route from Chabahar to Zahedan and from Zahedan to Sarakhs at the border with Turkmenistan, the Iranian official said.

Srivastava said Chabahar port has made significant progress despite the difficulties posed by the sanctions situation. An Indian company, which has operated the port since 2018, has scaled up traffic. Since December 2018, 82 vessels have been handled there, including 52 in the last 12 months alone. The port handled 1.2 million tonnes of bulk cargo and 8,200 containers, he said.

Proactive measures are currently underway to increase the usage of Chabahar port, both for Afghanistan and Central Asia, he added.

Srivastava also clarified that Iran informed India in January that Tehran would develop the Farzad-B gas field on its own and would involve New Delhi appropriately at a later stage. He added, This matter remains under discussion.

Indias ONGC has been involved in negotiations in the discovery stage of Farzad-B gas field. Follow-up bilateral cooperation was, however, impacted by policy changes on the Iranian side, Srivastava said.

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PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc (Photo: chinhphu.vn)



It suggested flights to priority areas, including Guangzhou (China), Seoul (Republic of Korea), Tokyo (Japan), Taiwan (China), Vientiane (Laos), and Phnom Penh (Cambodia) be repopened, with one flight per week for each.



In line with these plans, each week will see between 2,500 and 3,000 passengers enter the country.

The Ministry of Transport, therefore, has assigned the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam to work with partners to discuss conditions for the transport of passengers between the two sides.

The first flight is expected to take off in early August.

According to the ministry, all international airports in Vietnam have returned to normal operations.

Foreign airlines such as Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines resumed international routes from and to Vietnam in June. Meanwhile, Emirates, Qatar Airways, China Airlines, Eva Airways, Asiana Airlines, and Korean Air resumed flights from and to Vietnam this month. /.
By Trend

Armenian armed forces opened fire on the Dondar Gushchu village of Tovuz district in Azerbaijan, Head of the press office of Azerbaijans Defense Ministry, Colonel Vagif Dargahli told Trend on July 16.

He said that as a result of the attacks, artillery shells fell on residential houses and into household areas in the village, causing serious damage.

No casualties among civilians were reported.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
The war on white privilege is permeating the entire world. As a white person, I am anxiously aggrieved by the obsessive persecution of my fellow whites, and I'm feverishly in fear that my white privilege will be looted from me like a loaf of bread taken from a New York deli. How will I survive without the constant assistance that this white supremacist system provides me? Out of pure self-preservation, we need to shift the focus of the mob toward another group that has been stealthily benefiting from their privilege unscathed: the Nigerians.

Perhaps you are unaware, but Nigerians are one of the most successful demographics in the United States. While the average household income in the United States is $61,937, the median income for households of Nigerian ancestry is $68,658.

In fact, 10% of Nigerian-headed households earn over $140,000 annually, and 25% earn over $90,000 annually.

Nigerian immigrants rank in the top ten for both the percentage of persons 16 and older who are employed and the percentage with college degrees.

Nigerians are also one of the most educated demographics in the country. Of people over the age of 25, 37% of Nigerians hold a bachelor's degree and 29% hold an advanced degree, compared to 20% and 11% of the total U.S. population, respectively.

Of the black student population at Harvard, a quarter are Nigerian. And the first black woman president to ever be elected to the Harvard Law Review...a Nigerian.

And while Nigerians make up less than 1% of the total U.S. population, they are nearly nonexistent in the criminal justice system...except for the two men who ruthlessly assaulted Jussie Smollett.

Now, how is all this humanly possible? I have it on good authority from the progressive left that every institution in America operates under structural racism. This structure is perfectly crafted with the levers and pulleys that raise whites and demote blacks accordingly. Additionally, our entire society is constructed to inundate blacks with relentless white racism at every point of contact, whether that be an innocuous encounter at Chipotle or computing the simplest of math problems.

How are Nigerians circumventing the perfectly laid minefield of oppression IEDs that our forefathers built in order for whites to reign supreme?

Are we to accept that this Nigerian exceptionalism is due to merit? That the Nigerian diaspora are kicking ass and taking names by their own accord?

Is there some sort of reverence for education and fiscal responsibility in Nigerian households? An emphasis on a strong nuclear family with a father in the home? A rejection of gang culture and sexual degeneracy?

Can't be. It's just Nigerian privilege.

Sarah is an American writer living in Switzerland who blogs at redstateabroad.com.
KEARNEY  A Kearney woman has pleaded guilty to selling drugs to an undercover police officer in Kearney and has entered the Central Nebraska Drug Court.

Nicole Rhodes, 31, of Kearney admitted to distribution of methamphetamine, morphine sulfate and amphetamine, and prohibited acts, all felonies, in a Nov. 27 incident in Kearney.

By pleading guilty Rhodes was admitted into the 18-month, voluntary drug court program, which allows defendants to have their cases dismissed in exchange for completing substance abuse treatment, and other conditions. Drug court operates under a team approach where a judge, prosecutor, defense counsel, community supervision officer, law enforcement and treatment providers work together to design an individualized program for the offender.

Compliance with treatment and court orders is verified by frequent alcohol and drug testing, close community supervision and interaction with a judge during non-adversarial court review hearings.

If a defendant successfully completes the program, the conviction is removed from their record.

Rhodes, also known in court records as Nicole Sesna, was arrested Nov. 27 after allegedly selling the suspected drugs to an undercover police officer in the 2500 block of Third Avenue in Kearney.
BRONX, N.Y. -- The body of a man was found Wednesday morning wrapped in a plastic bag on the roof of a McDonalds in the Bronx, The New York Post reported.

The corpse was discovered around 6 a.m. on top of the fast food restaurant at East 149th Street near the Grand Concourse, police told the Post. The man has not yet been identified, according to the report.

The Post reported that the NYPD was looking for surveillance footage to determine if the body was placed there or if it fell from a nearby building.

A local resident believed the body had been there for several days, because flies surrounded the corpse and the body was wet from recent rain, the report said.

The city Medical Examiners Office will determine the mans cause of death.
Even though Wall Street is showing strength after a stupendous rally last quarter, surging new coronavirus cases has raised questions over continued recovery in economic activities, thereby making investors jittery (read: 5 ETF Areas Hitting Highs on Resurging Coronavirus Cases).



Additionally, the International Monetary Fund lowered its global growth forecast for this year, citing that the pandemic has caused an unprecedented decline in global activity. It now expects the economy to shrink 4.9%, down from 3% contraction predicted in April. If the forecast comes true, it will represent the worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, far worse than the financial crisis of 2008-2010.



Further, tensions between the United States and China have been flaring up as the country is weighing a sweeping travel ban on Chinese Communist Party officials, according to the New York Times. China recently imposed travel restrictions on U.S. lawmakers, including Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.



Apart from these, weak second-quarter earnings expectation has undermined investors confidence. Total S&P 500 earnings are expected to be down 44.9% from the same period last year on 10.5% lower revenues. This would be the biggest quarterly profit decline since the financial crisis. All of the 16 Zacks sectors are expected to experience earnings declines and four sectors will likely lose money (declines in excess of -100%) (read: Q2 Earnings Likely To Plunge: Invest in These Sector ETFs).



However, the Federal Reserves Beige Book survey showed that U.S. saw an uptick in business activity in the beginning of July as states eased restrictions to contain the novel coronavirus pandemic. The slew of fiscal and monetary stimulus is expected to provide upside to the stock market.



Against such a backdrop, investors should focus on high-quality investing.



Why Quality Investing?



Quality stocks are rich in value characteristics with a healthy balance sheet, high return on capital, low volatility, elevated margins, and a track record of stable or rising sales and earnings growth. These products thus reduce volatility when compared to plain vanilla funds and hold up rather well during market swings. Further, academic research shows that high-quality companies consistently deliver superior risk-adjusted returns than the broader market over the long term.



Given this, we have highlighted five ETFs targeting this niche strategy. These could enjoy smooth trading and generate market-beating returns in the current market environment.



iShares Edge MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF QUAL



This fund provides exposure to large and mid-cap stocks exhibiting positive fundamentals (high return on equity, stable year-over-year earnings growth and low financial leverage) by tracking the MSCI USA Sector Neutral Quality Index (read: 5 ETF Ideas for a Winning Portfolio in the Second Half).



Expense Ratio: 0.15%

AUM: $18.5 billion

Average Daily Volume: 2 million shares



Invesco S&P 500 Quality ETF SPHQ



This fund tracks the S&P 500 Quality Index, a benchmark of S&P 500 stocks that have the highest-quality score based on three fundamental measures  return on equity, accruals ratio and financial leverage ratio.



Expense Ratio: 0.15%

AUM: $2 billion

Average Daily Volume: 972,000 shares



Barron's 400 ETF BFOR



This ETF seeks to track the performance of the rules-based and fundamentals-driven Barrons 400 Index. The benchmark uses the MarketGrader's fundamental analysis to select Americas highest-performing stocks based on growth, valuation, profitability and cash flow.



Expense Ratio: 0.66%

AUM: $106.8 million

Average Daily Volume: 13,000 shares



FlexShares Quality Dividend Index Fund QDF



This ETF follows the Northern Trust Quality Dividend Index and maximizes exposure to quality and dividends while maintaining a beta near 1.



Expense Ratio: 0.37%

AUM: $1.3 billion

Average Daily Volume: 159,000 shares



SPDR MSCI USA StrategicFactors ETF QUS



This fund offers exposure to stocks that have a combination of value, low volatility and quality factor strategies. This is done by tracking the MSCI USA Factor Mix A-Series Index.



Expense Ratio: 0.15%

AUM: $778.7 million

Average Daily Volume: 104,000 shares



Bottom Line



Quality ETFs often provide hedge against market volatility. Adding any of the above-mentioned products to ones long-term portfolio could be a good move given their credit worthiness and soundness.



Want key ETF info delivered straight to your inbox?



Zacks free Fund Newsletter will brief you on top news and analysis, as well as top-performing ETFs, each week. Get it free >>



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



Invesco SP 500 Quality ETF (SPHQ): ETF Research Reports



SPDR MSCI USA StrategicFactors ETF (QUS): ETF Research Reports



BARRONS400 ETF (BFOR): ETF Research Reports



iShares Edge MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF (QUAL): ETF Research Reports



FlexShares Quality Dividend ETF (QDF): ETF Research Reports



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Im a cash kind of guy. I still use it more than my debit card whenever possible. I may have to change this old habit, just another example how our lives have had to change again and again due to COVID-19. Youd think by now, in the fifth month of this crisis, wed feel more secure or educated. We are, for just a minute, and then everything gets twisted again.
Following is a transcript of the conversation. It has been lightly edited for clarity.

Lloyd Minor: Welcome to StanfordMed LIVE. Im Dr. Lloyd Minor, dean of medicine at Stanford University. Im delighted to be joined today virtually by Dr. Anthony Fauci. Before we jump into todays discussion, I want to express my gratitude to Dr. Fauci for his leadership as a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. His expertise and role as a public spokesperson have been invaluable these past several months. In fact, a recent poll showed that Americans cite Dr. Fauci as the most relied upon official for information regarding the COVID-19 pandemic  and for very good reasons. Having served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, or NIAID, for more than 35 years, Dr. Fauci has led our nations response through a number of health crises. In the 1980s, for example, his work was instrumental in addressing the HIV/AIDS crisis, which hit our Bay Area community especially hard. Today we will discuss the state of the COVID-19 pandemic, our progress against this disease and what the future of health care will look like in its wake. Dr. Fauci, thank you for being with us today. Weve received over 2,000 questions submitted in advance of todays fireside chat, and weve tried to organize them into several themes. Now, lets get started. Dr. Fauci, youve been called Americas doctor. Youve advised six different presidents. We hear reports of 18-hour workdays, which must be filled with countless demands on your time. Do you have time to reflect on the unprecedented nature of what youre managing? How are you dealing with the stress or confines of the pandemic given how much youre in the spotlight?

2:03

Anthony Fauci: Well, thats an interesting question. Thank you for having me here with you. Yes, this is unprecedented. One thinks about the worst nightmare of an infectious disease person whos interested in global health and outbreaks: Its the combination of a new microbe that has a spectacular degree of capability of transmitting, and has a considerable degree of morbidity and mortality. And here it is, its happened  your worst nightmare, the perfect storm. Its one of those things where youre really just functioning on adrenaline. This is a really serious problem. It is truly historic. We havent even begun to see the end of it yet. Its still globally threatening. Some countries are doing better than others, but until you get it completely under control, its still going to be a threat. So, it is truly unprecedented. Were doing what we can, and Im sure were going to get into this with the other questions, but as you mentioned in the introduction about HIV, of all the emerging infections that Ive had to deal with in the 36 years that Ive been the director of the institute  starting from HIV in the early 80s, with Ebola and Zika, and anthrax attacks  this is clearly the most challenging. Its the most challenging because its so pervasive. I mean, it is truly a global pandemic, and really when I say unprecedented, I mean dating back to the 1918 historic pandemic, which was called the Spanish flu. I think 50 years from now, people are going to be reflecting historically on this, the way we used to reflect on the 1918 outbreak.

3:53

Minor: Perhaps we could start with a level set on where we are right now with this pandemic. Were all concerned about the increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases. What are your thoughts about how we navigate this surge? And what are your predictions about the COVID-19 pandemic and how its going to evolve in our country and the world in the months ahead?

4:13

Fauci: Good question. If you put aside for a moment the issue of how things could be completely turned around when we get a safe and effective vaccine, and talk about whats happening today in the absence of a vaccine  what we can foresee in the immediate future is very clear. We know from countries throughout the world that you can physically separate people to the point of not allowing the virus to transmit, and the only way to do that is by Draconian means of essentially shutting down a country. We know that we can do that if we shut down. The Europeans have done it. People in Asia have done it. We did not shut down entirely, and thats the reason why, when our cases went up, we started to come down and then we plateaued at a level that was really quite high, at about 20,000 infections a day. Then as we started to reopen, were seeing the surges as we speak, in California, your own state; in Arizona; in Texas; in Florida and in several other states. So that when you try to reopen, if youre not handling the surgency well, what youll see is what were seeing right now. So we need to drop back a few yards and say, OK, we cant stay shut down forever economically. There are secondary unintended consequences on health and on a variety of other things that make it completely untenable for us to stay completely shut down for a very prolonged period of time. So youve got to shut down but then gradually open. And we made a set of guidelines a few months ago, with good, what we call, checkpoints. We had situations where you do entry, and you would have phase one, phase two and phase three. Unfortunately, it did not work very well for us in an attempt to do that. But we can get a handle on that  I am really confident we can. If we step back, you dont necessarily need to shut down again. But pull back a bit, and then proceed in a very prudent way, of observing the guidelines of going from step to step. All you need to do is look at whats on TV  people in some states who went from shut-down to completely throwing caution to the wind, such as bars that were crowded, people without masks. There are things you can do now: physically distancing, wearing a mask, avoiding crowds, washing hands. Those things, as simple as they are, can turn it around. And I think we can do that. And thats what weve got to do, looking forward.

7:15

Minor: Understood. If we look six months from now, if we do the things you recommend  and thatll transition us into discussing therapeutics and ultimately a vaccine  but whats your outlook for six months to a year from now? And how hopeful are you about therapeutics that may come on board before we get an effective vaccine or vaccines?

7:39

Fauci: Your points are very well taken. Right now, weve shown through randomized, placebo-controlled trials that there were two interventions that clearly have a significant benefit in people with advanced disease. When youre dealing with dexamethasone with patients either on a respirator or requiring oxygen, and when youre dealing with remdesivir, which best affects patients who are not on ventilator but may have low-flow oxygen requirement, what we really need, and were on the track of getting, are interventions that can be given early in the course of disease to prevent people who are vulnerable from progressing to the requirement for hospitalization. And those are direct antiviral drugs, convalescent plasma, hyperimmune globulin, monoclonal antibodies and a number of direct-acting antiviral agents. I believe we are on a good track to get there reasonably soon. I already mentioned the two drugs for advanced disease, but we really want to get stuff early. Vaccines, as you know  there are multiple candidates that are in various stages of clinical trial. One or two of them will go into phase three, for efficacy, literally at the end of this month. So were pretty cautiously optimistic that at the end of the year, beginning of this coming 2021, we will have one, and maybe more, vaccines that will be available.

9:12

Minor: Dr. Fauci, youre known for your candor. Hows the Bay Area doing in terms of our response? Can you give us a grade?

9:20

Fauci: No. (Laughs.) I get into trouble when I grade people. Its a little bit presumptuous to do. California, being the large state that it is, is a bit of a mixed bag. You know, relatively speaking, the Bay Area is doing better than other areas in the southern border with Mexico, where were seeing a lot of a situation where the surge is really rather significant there. So I think it really is a big difference because when you get a state like California or like Texas, its so large, you cant unidimensionally make a statement about it. But I can tell you one thing is true  on a positive note: Ive worked with Governor Gavin Newsom throughout these last few months, and he really has his handle on it and understands what he needs to do, and I believe is doing a really very good job, as are several of your mayors, actually.

10:22

Minor: Thank you. As you know, in early March, Stanford was one of the first academic medical centers in the U.S. to develop its own diagnostic test, which helped make testing available in Northern California in those early and very trying months. What role can academic medical centers play in the current crisis? And how can we advance pandemic preparedness moving forward coming out of COVID-19?

10:46

Fauci: Well, thats a great question. And Im glad that you asked that. We have such extraordinary talent in our academic medical centers. We really need to begin to leverage them more. Several such as in New York City  New York Presbyterian, Cornell and Columbia and places like that, NYU  they really got involved and were very contributory to getting our arms around the outbreak. California has a number of world-class academic medical centers. I mean in the Bay Area alone, you have UCSF and Stanford, right there, two among others that are some of the best in the world. And I think getting them involved, which they are actually, many of them. You mentioned the idea about the diagnostic test. I think if the rest of the country would leverage their academic medical centers to get involved, wed be much better off.

11:46

Minor: Dr. Fauci, you are a physician-scientist and an exemplar of the physician-scientist role model. What are your thoughts about the training of the next generation of physician-scientists? What can we be doing to encourage that training, make it more effective and make sure were prepared in the future when pandemics like this arise?

12:07

Fauci: Well, thats a great, great question. Training physician-scientists in multiple disciplines  I cant hit every discipline  but the discipline of response to outbreaks, I think is so important that so many of our people now are just amazingly performing and just doing a great job. Were learning on the fly, learning on the job, building the plane as theyre flying it. I think what we really do need, and Ive been saying this, quite frankly, for a couple of decades, we really need to have a very solid pandemic-preparedness plan and operational capabilities, because this is not something that is going to go away and never happen again. Weve had outbreaks before, none as serious as this, but weve really got to use this as a lesson to be prepared for the next one as we learn our way through this one.

13:08

Minor: What types of things do we need to do to be better prepared? If we look at all the way along the spectrum from basic research, translational research clinical trials, the public health infrastructure in United States, its a vast topic. But can you share some ideas about the tangible next steps that we need to be planning for now, so we dont run into this predicament a decade or anytime in the future?

13:31

Fauci: You know, I could address it from multiple vantage points. But let me take the one that Im most familiar with as a physician-scientist. That is, what can we do from a scientific standpoint? There are many things that you could do that would be applicable to a response to any outbreak, things that we started to do, and I think have fared us well, in the rapidity of our response in the arena of vaccine development. And that is to develop new avant garde upfront, really sophisticated platform technologies, where you can hit the ground running with vaccine development and not have to worry about growing out the pathogen and inactivating it or attenuating it. We have a number of platform technologies that the more you perfect them, the easier you can make the transition from an unknown agent into a vaccine thats operational. Thats one thing.

The other thing is to study what you call prototype pathogens. In other words, to get really good at understanding a particular family of potentially threatening microorganisms. Ill give you an example: the coronaviruses. This is the third pandemic weve had in the last 18 years with coronaviruses. We had SARS in 2002. We had MERS in 2012. And now in 2019 and 2020, we got COVID. So it just makes sense that if you want to create something like a universal vaccine for something like a coronavirus, weve got to do that now. And when we get through this, the same thing has to be done for flaviviruses, such as Zika and West Nile and Japanese encephalitis. Weve got to be able to do universal therapies and universal platform technologies for these. Thats the fundamental basic science. I wont do it, but I could use up all the time just talking about building a better public health infrastructure, too. We have let the local public health infrastructure in our country really go into tatters. Its one of those things where youre a victim of your own success. We were so good at controlling smallpox, polio and tuberculosis that we let the infrastructure locally, essentially, go unattended. And it attenuated and attenuated, and now when we need good local public health capability, its not optimal. Its not as good as it should be. Weve got to build it up again.

16:35

Minor: When you look at the data in the communities hardest hit by the coronavirus, it really highlights issues of health care inequality and access to care in our country. What can we be doing now and in the future to better address this situation?

16:51

Fauci: Good question. And I like the fact that you said now and in the future. There are things we can do now by concentrating resources in those demographic areas which are suffering the most. Its like a broken record; its the same thing. Minority populations are disproportionately negatively impacted by diseases like this. And in your state, its mostly African Americans and Latinx, with some Native Americans. And when I say its like a broken record, its because Ive been through this now in two major ways. HIV  which is what I started off with in the early 1980s  now today in our country, 13% of our population is African American, and 45% or more of the new cases are among African Americans. Of them 65% are men who have sex with men. Of those, 75% are young. Take COVID-19  same thing. If you look at the incidence of infection on the basis of how, in general  you dont like to generalize, but here you have to generalize  how the African American population and the Latinx population find themselves with jobs that dont allow them to properly protect themselves. As everybodys locking down, theyre doing the essential jobs that require their physical presence. So theyre immediately at more risk of getting infected. When they do get infected, when you look at the prevalence and incidence of co-morbidities that make you at higher risk for a poor outcome, they have most of them, more than the Caucasian population: hypertension, diabetes, obesity, chronic lung disease, kidney disease. Its striking how disproportionately they are disadvantaged.

19:00

Minor: We recently held our annual rite of commencement for the 2020 School of Medicine graduating class. What advice do you have for the next generation of physicians, scientists, researchers  not just at Stanford, but across the country?

19:15

Fauci: Well, you know, I mean, Im obviously quite prejudiced on this because its what Ive been doing. But the opportunities in medicine, if you just want to do medicine, and just see patients, thats an incredibly noble profession. And you could tell right now with what were going through, how important those frontline health care workers are. If youre interested in the scientific bent to what you want to do, never before in history have the scientific opportunities been so spectacular as they are right now. So much so that I often fantasize  I like to turn the clock back and be 25 years old again, starting all over again. I know many of the young people would say, this guy is crazy to want to do that. But the fact is, its so exciting that things even now with my experience and what Ive done, I still am in awe at whats coming out from a scientific standpoint.

20:18

Minor: Dr. Fauci, youve mentioned already several times about the HIV/AIDS pandemic, your important role and the important role of your institute. One role that that you and the institute have played very importantly, in HIV/AIDS, and now with COVID-19, is in clinical trials. In fact, you were instrumental in redesigning the clinical trials infrastructure in our country during HIV/AIDS. How do you think about now, with COVID-19, the structure we have for clinical trials? You mentioned before  and perhaps well cover in a little bit greater detail now  the focus on outpatient therapeutics, but is our structure of the way it should be? What do we need to tweak? What are we learning in real time from this pandemic about what needs to be changed moving forward about the clinical trials infrastructure, its funding, its oversight in our country?

21:10

Fauci: I think whats very clear, and I just am so pleased that were able to show it: Not too long ago, there was the incorrect assumption that you cant do research in the middle of a pandemic, or an epidemic outbreak, because its very important to whatever treatment you have, whether its proven or not, get it to the people because they need it and its better than nothing. Thats an understandable approach. But it really is flawed. Because the best research you can do is in the middle of an outbreak because you want to help the people who are experiencing the outbreak, but you want to learn from it, so that you can help that many more. Until recently, it was felt that ethically, even, you shouldnt do research in an outbreak. And we proved that wrong in the Ebola outbreak. We did randomized placebo controlled trials, we proved that a couple of therapies worked, a vaccine was developed, and now already with COVID-19, the two drugs that have now definitively shown to be beneficial in advanced disease were proven by a randomized placebo-controlled trial. So clinical research and clinical research infrastructure is a very important part of the response to outbreaks. And weve already proven that, and I think we need to make sure we appreciate that going forward.

22:45

Minor: If we think about those clinical trials and focus for a moment here in the outpatient setting, you mentioned before briefly some of the things that are being developed, maybe we could discuss those in a bit greater detail. There are monoclonal antibody therapies being developed and in early stage trials now. There are also trials looking at repurposing of other antiviral agents to see if theyre effective in COVID-19. What are you most enthusiastic about? And what are your thoughts about the pace of these trials and whether or not maybe by the fall or winter, we will have a regimen that could be beneficial in the outpatient setting, to a person newly diagnosed with COVID-19? Fortunately, not sick enough to go into the hospital but hopefully increasing the probability that they wont have to go into the hospital and that their recovery time will be shortened. Where are you most hopeful? Where do you see the progress being made?

23:37

Fauci: Well, given the experiences that weve had with Ebola and monoclonal antibodies, I think that thats almost a sure bet: monoclonal antibodies directly against the virus, to be given in a single or a couple of intravenous infusions to people early in the course of disease, to prevent the necessity of their going into the hospital in advance. So right away thats up front  theyre going into multiple clinical trials now doing that. Convalescent plasma, I think we need to have some caution about that; you want to make sure you do it right, youve got to get the right titer of antibody, because theres amazing variability in titer of antibodies in people. So the best way to get that done  its a little bit more work  is to get the convalescent plasma and do hyperimmune globulin that you could titrate and know exactly what youre giving to people. The thing Id like to see more of, and we will see it, is screening of molecules that are pure antivirals that can be given early on. You know remdesivir is an antiviral, but there are polymerase inhibitors and protease inhibitors, and things like that very similar to what we did with HIV that Id like to see pursued a bit more. So I think by your timeline that you mentioned, sometime in the fall, I think we could conceivably have a couple of more good antivirals as well as anti-inflammatories.

25:07

Minor: You discussed work toward a vaccine or vaccines earlier in our discussion today. Perhaps we could follow up on that by you giving us your thoughts on when a vaccine or vaccines are available. There will be a massive push for distribution for immunization. What type of an allocation methodology should be set up? And how are you thinking about bringing online and distributing throughout the United States and in the world the vaccines as they move through the various stages of trials and hopefully get to FDA approval?

25:44

Fauci: Well, one of the encouraging aspects about the approach to these multi-candidate vaccines is that the companies that are involved, with substantial financial help from the federal government, are making a commitment to start producing large numbers of doses of the vaccine even before its definitively proven to be safe and effective. So the risk is a financial risk. Because if you make a lot of doses and its not safe and effective, youve lost a few hundred million dollars. If you make a lot of doses ahead of time and it proves to be effective, youve gained multiple months in the process. So assuming, now, Id like to make a reasonable assumption that sometime at the beginning of 2021 we have a couple of vaccines that are safe and effective. The distribution will have to be done in an as equitable way as possible. Obviously, you ultimately want to vaccinate everybody, but as doses come online, youre going to have to prioritize. And thats where you put together committees of people who understand vaccinology; community representatives; and, above all, ethicists, who can make sure your decisions about distribution are based on ethical principles of justice and fairness, etc.

27:17

Minor: Of course, having a vaccine thats been shown through rigorously controlled trials as effective is a necessary first step. But we also know that in America today, theres a lot of skepticism about vaccines. What can we as physician-scientists, as leaders, do to reassure and regain public trust in vaccines, which, as youve said, are almost certainly going to be essential to the control of this pandemic?

27:46

Fauci: Well, it can be stated in a few words: community engagement. We did that with HIV when we had treatments and prevention. Weve got to engage the community, to get out there and be people who have boots on the ground, who look like and are like the people that theyre trying to convince of the importance of getting vaccinated, particularly in this era of antivax and anti-science. We now have a network of community workers who are getting ready and prepping them up, to go into the community, and try and convince people why its important for them, and for their families, to get vaccinated. But youve got to do it in a way that fits the community. As I often say, you dont really want a lot of white guys in suits like me, going into a mostly minority community, and convincing them about something that theyre very deeply skeptical of. Youve got to get people that the community trusts.

28:51

Minor: Dr. Fauci, if you could look at the scientific unknowns today about this virus and about its disease, COVID-19, what are the top four or five things that if we knew today, we would be much better off in the future, recognizing that the knowledge continues to evolve and the entire pace of this pandemic I think is unprecedented for all of us in terms of first showing us how little we understood about the virus and about its manifestations as COVID-19. We know more now, but theres still a lot of questions to be answered. I was wondering what your thoughts are on what the critical questions are at this juncture.

29:32

Fauci: Sure. The critical question, obviously, you just mentioned a little while ago: Will we get the body to induce a durable response that can protect you, whether that response is following recovery from natural infection and/or induction of immunity by a vaccine? Is it possible to have durable, effective immunity? I think it is, but its still an unanswered question that we need to prove. Number two, what about the chronic long-term effects of people recovered? Were only six months into it. Were getting lots of anecdotal information, which needs to be verified by large cohort, follow-up studies. When people recover, how soon until they get back to normal? Youre hearing about people who get sick, go to the hospital, come out, and then it takes weeks, if not months, for them to begin to even feel slightly normal. Thats the second thing. The other thing we want to know is what is the full extent of the clinical manifestations? We learn things every week, like this bizarre inflammatory syndrome, multi-inflammatory syndrome in children. Thats really important. MIS-C its called. And then, finally, what about therapy? Are we going to be able to get a good antiviral, the same way as you can essentially shut it off completely, so the second you get a diagnosis, you take a few pills, or you get an injection, and youve actually suppressed the virus? Those are the four areas that I really want to know about as we go forward.

31:25

Minor: Returning to a point that we discussed earlier on public health and public health departments within communities, within states and the public health infrastructure across the country  you know, we are a nation founded on the principle of federalism where things are distributed between the federal government, states and then local communities. And yet, this virus doesnt know the difference between one county or one state or indeed one country and another. You talked very passionately about reconstructing, rebuilding our public health infrastructure in the United States. How do we need to think about balancing the local public health departments, where the work is actually being done with people, and then a broader infrastructure related to public health at the state and national level?

32:14

Fauci: Well, thats the $64,000 question thats being debated right now. And our response, you know, theres arguments back and forth: Should the government, the federal government, provide resources, direction, guidance, and then pull back and let the states do it? Or should they direct it federally? You know, you can get arguments on both sides. Many of the states say, give us the resources; well take care of it. Others say, tell us what to do, and well do it. So were a big country. We have 50 states; we have 3,007 counties. So it really is an ongoing argument. And there are pros and cons of each approach. I mean theres some advantage of a federally dictated and mandated approach. But theres also advantages of a delegating it to the states approach. And to be honest with you, I dont have a good, firm answer for you, except youve got to figure out on a case-by-case basis, what the best approach would be.

33:22

Minor: Are there topics we havent covered or points youd like to make today or would like us to keep in mind moving forward?

33:29

Fauci: I just always make the point because I try to get it articulated as often as I possibly can: This is a bit of a confusing virus, because Ive never seen one in which the protean manifestations are so extreme. You get 20% to 40% of the population that can be asymptomatic infection. They dont even know theyre infected unless they get tested. Then you get some that get minor symptoms, moderate symptoms, severe symptoms, hospitalization and death. Weve got to convince  because right now the people who are getting infected during the surge are young people about a decade and a half younger than the group that got infected in the first couple of months of the outbreak  weve got to convince them that just because they get infected, and the likelihood that theyre not going to get seriously ill, doesnt mean that their infection is not a very important part of the propagation of the outbreak. So youve got to think not only out of your vacuum, and think of not only your personal responsibilities, but your societal responsibilities. Because although you may not get sick, almost certainly youre going to infect somebody else, who almost certainly infects somebody else. And then you will get a vulnerable person who will be sick, who will go to the hospital, who might die. So the best way to reopen the country and to get back to normal is to be very prudent in protecting yourself from getting infected. Thats a difficult message when people dont take something seriously, but weve got to hammer that home.

35:14

Minor: Well, Dr. Fauci, thank you very much. And thank you to all whove joined us today for this fireside chat with Dr. Fauci. Be safe, be well and take care of yourself and take care of each other. Thank you.
Creatives Questionnaire is an interview series where artists, writers, filmmakers, and other creatives talk about their work, the challenges that they face, and their inspirations.

Manila (CNN Philippines Life)  The global pandemic has many of us reckoning with the concept of time. With most of us pushed indoors, our routines and habits taken away from us, time seems to stretch  days bleeding into each other, weeks that look no different from the last  and then suddenly contracts. Blink and four months have passed.

It is perhaps the best time to read something like Simon Jimenez debut novel The Vanished Birds. The epic space opera spans centuries, jumping from one moment in time to decades, even centuries later, as the novel follows the interwoven stories of a farmers son who is drawn to the otherworlders who show up on his planet every 15 years; a starship captain whose decades-long travels feel only like months to her; a child who mysteriously falls from the sky; and a thousand-year-old scientist who saved the Earth, among others. Stories that are built around and beyond the strange nature of time, placelessness, and home.

Going through the first 40 or so pages  which reads more like a short story or a novella than the opening to a sci-fi epic  Im hit with that familiar pang of times ability to stretch and contract before my very eyes. We live through the entire life of Kaeda, a farmers son who is believed to be destined for great things, as he awaits the return of the otherworlders, interplanetary traders who distributed their crops.

Jimenez prose stretches and contracts too, sometimes lingering on intimate moments between childhood sweethearts, then jumping forward in time, years later, to a familiar yet also distant future. Describing his work, Jimenez says, my writing tends to play with time, and characters perception of it, stretching time out so that a moment lasts many paragraphs, or squeezing it so that as many paragraphs can cover centuries. Im interested in a sentences capacity for maximalism. I often write about intimacy; about a characters desire for it, and fear of it.

The Filipino-American writer chooses not to pigeonhole himself into a specific genre. Im a novelist who likes writing in multiple genres, he says. Ill probably not settle on one genre or the other, because what Im interested in is in perpetual flux. He does, however, seek to write for and about a certain type of character  one sideline by history across genres.

After a lifetime of looking for people like myself in the fiction Ive loved, and finding such characters lacking, Im driven to make them central to the narrative, he says. Primarily, and most personally, non-stereotypical gay male characters. Characters whose arcs are not dependent on the usual tropes, like coming out, self-denial, and unrequited love, while also not letting those arcs ignore those characters physical, sensual relationship with the world and people around them.

Following his debut novel, which has been hailed by Locus Magazine as the most impressive debut of 2020, hes now working on a fantasy novel inspired by the likes of Princess Mononoke and Mad Max Fury Road with a romance between two men at its heart.

Wee got to know more about Simon Jimenez and spoke to him about writing the stories he wished he had growing up and coping in the midst of a pandemic. The interview has been edited for clarity.

What do you think are the essential traits of a creative person, especially in your field?

The only essential trait I can think of is a willingness to do the work. Anything more specific would be too prescriptive, I think. There are as many ways to be a creative person as there are ways to be a human in the world. The only observable difference Ive found is that a creative person has at some point created something.

What is the core philosophy that guides your work?

To write the stories I wish I had growing up. Adventures, fantasies, and emotional explorations as told through perspectives more closely aligned with my own, where the romantic hearts of grim adventures and space operas arent assumed to necessarily be heterosexual. Thats what it comes down to in the end: to join the current wave of new fiction in presenting stories that operate on a different set of assumptions than the prior accepted canon.

And how does that relate to your current project?

Speaking of stories I wish I had when I was younger, Im currently working on a fantasy novel. Its about two warriors who must escort a dying god across a country ruled by a tyrant. In terms of interest and past inspiration, Ive been pulling from stories that Ive loved that have employed a similar brand of gestural and mythic world-building, like Princess Mononoke and Mad Max Fury Road. Its a very physical story, both in terms of violence and intimacy, at the heart of which is a romance between two men. Itll probably be out sometime next year.

Do you have a mentor? Do you think it's important to have one?

I do not have a mentor currently. Im not sure if Ive ever really been a part of a mentorship, though there have definitely been professors in my life whove guided me in pretty essential ways. Some who readily come to mind are Marcelle Clements and Frederick Reiken, as well as Kim McLarin, my thesis advisor, who helped me greatly with my first book. But in my mind a mentorship has a more personal, reciprocal bent to it than what Ive experienced.

As for whether or not it is important to have a mentor, Id say that yes, it seems important; not essential, but important nonetheless. I speak purely as someone from the outside looking in: such relationships seem formative and emotionally enriching, and I cant see the downside to having someone behind you, who will support your creative efforts, give feedback that you trust, and guide you towards possible contacts they might have in the industry.

How important is social media in your work?

Not remotely. I try to keep as far away from social media as possible. I dont have the healthiest relationship with self-perception. I doubt social media would help with that, or my anxiety in general.

What skills do you wish you had?

I wish I spoke a second language. Ill always regret not making more of an effort to learn a second language fluently when I was younger.

What do you think are the biggest challenges faced by people in your field today? How do you overcome them?

Getting your work noticed, and making a living wage. I really dont know how to overcome these challenges. Its almost all luck, meeting the right person at the right time. The only control you have over the situation is what you create, and whether or not you make an effort to put that creation out there for someone to notice.

What myth(s) about your field of work would you like to debunk?

That being a writer means that you are a wise and empathetic person. There is nothing inherently virtuous about the position. The ability to write sharply honed and intentional prose, or to craft moments of well-observed human interaction, does not necessarily disqualify you from being a close-minded dipshit. I include myself in the latter half of that statement. Im still learning.

What have you learned from work that you've applied to other areas of your life?

If anything, I have a better understanding of what it takes to finish a long-term project. Im better able to approach situations with greater patience and acceptance that not everything will be solved immediately.

How is this pandemic changing how you approach your work?

There havent been any concrete changes. Writing still happens at the desk, only it has slowed down a lot. Like many people, I find it hard to gather the motivation to be creative these days.

What kind of changes do you think are essential to ensure the kind of work that you do can thrive, while still protecting the people who do it?

Its the same answer as almost every other industry: better support for local businesses. Neighborhood bookstores and libraries. Thereve been recent movements to open up online platforms that make it easier to purchase books from local stores, but more still needs to happen in that same vein where there is less friction between someone who wants to buy a book and the store that wants to sell them. Theres also like a million other things that need to change in the publishing industry, but thats just the one that comes most readily to mind.

***

"The Vanished Birds" is available at Fully Booked.
Covid parties explained

By:Wu Jiaqi | From:english.eastday.com | 2020-07-16 15:45

I think I made a mistake, I thought this was a hoax, but its not.

This came from a 30-year-old man dying of the Coronavirus on July 13th, shortly after attending a trendy covid party in Texas. A covid party, given by CNN, NPR, and New York Times, is a party in which masses would invite diagnosed Coronavirus patients and try to maximize contact with the virus - as a rebellion, supposedly, against governments suppression of freedom by catching the disease.

Even intuitively, this doesnt make sense. But since pop culture seems to embrace those who take risks - knowing fully the consequences - and deems them as cool, the popularity of such rebellious acts is reasonable. All in all, people see this as an act in which they practice the freedom their constitution grants them.

Or so they say.

There are largely two levels in which these participants are wrong.

Firstly, going to these parties does not exactly correlate to having more freedom, but actually can be counter productive.

A very apparent example would be the extent by which freedom is granted by law. I have the freedom of choosing my own music when I go into the shower, but I do not have the freedom of choosing who lives to see the next sunrise.

Although the legislation prohibits murder verbatim, the spirit of the law should still apply to ones attending such covid parties. At the moment in which one actively puts their life on the line along with many others, the act should be morally impermissible, especially when taken into consideration that this is a pandemic. Furthermore, since there is no significant end that these parties can possibly achieve - unlike the civil rights movement - these risks are all harm, no good.

Secondly, lets take a step back and concede to the possibility of parties empowering the participants.

It comes down to a matter of priorities.

Professor Jonathan Schell of Yale University once did a comparison between death and all other risks in 1982. The main idea was that every risk, in the case of the current pandemic a proportionate loss of freedom, is contained within the framework of continued life, so death shatters that frame.

Once dead, one will be deprived of all rights, including freedom. The impacts of which, even with only a small probability of death, should be significantly larger than a rebellious and ignorant practice of freedom.

The young man who died stands for much more than the result of individual ignorance but rather an indicator of a systematic fault. The US has never been a role model when handling the pandemic, and although these covid parties are not government organized, the Trump administration is far from innocent.

This covid party is not a singular case. The fact that no restrictions have been put into place to limit such gatherings until there has been a death is a signature move by the Trump administration on matters of public health: inactive until absolutely necessary. This lack of decisive action all throughout the country has already led to a low average recognition of the pandemic, not to mention the presidents numerous confusing tweets.

The symptoms of this lack of action against the pandemic are on a devastating scale. With the help of many refusing to wear masks, breaking quarantine and ignoring social distancing, America now has more than 2.7 million cases of diagnosed corona patients and growing.

From the anti-mask rallies where coughing in each others faces is encouraged to the covid parties resulting in at least one verified untimely death but likely far more thanks to the ease of transmission, is this simply the ignorance of the few, or a conscious, systematic neglect? At present the latter seems more likely, so let this be a lesson to all of mankind, and hope that these mistakes can be rectified soon.

(The views expressed within this article are the author's own.)


The organisation is also collaborating with Chandigarh-based BioBridge Healthcare Solutions and BioNEST Bioincubator, Punjab University to further its efforts

While India's hopes for an early vaccine against COVID-19 got delayed by a year, there's another beacon for cost-effective COVID treatment. A Karnataka based pharma company Vinodbadgu Pharmaceutical Pvt. Ltd. (V B Pharma) specializing in plasma technology has revealed that it is already working on research to synthesise a more effective plasma-based treatment for COVID patients.



"Since May 2020, we're on a mission to develop a safe, efficient and cost-effective treatment for COVID 19 patients in India", said Prashant Karulkar, director, Vinodbadgu Pharmaceutical Pvt. Ltd. (V B Pharma).



"So far, we've evaluated donor plasma from COVID-recovered patients and identified different kinds of COVID strains across India. By our count, this number is 12. Our sample strengths are from Solapur. We've been able to identify specific antigens for the COVID strains from here and the most common antibodies against them", added Karulkar.



Dr Vinodkumar Badgu, the managing director, Vinodbadgu Pharmaceutical Pvt. Ltd. (V B Pharma), shares Karulkar's enthusiasm. Sharing some of his observations on the research, Dr Badgu said, "Out of the 12 common COVID-19 strains, we've identified one common antibody which all recovered patients have created within themselves to fight against the virus. In total, we've observed seven kinds of antibodies that these patients hold."



What's the next step? "The next step for us is antibody mapping, which usually spans 2-3 months and biopanning. Biopanning is where we will take a strain of the active virus and verify whether these antibodies will eliminate it. Once we're all successful, we will begin coding the winning antibody on a molecular level and recreate it artificially", Dr.Badgu explained.



The plasma products company is on the same track as many other international organisations working on plasma-based solutions for COVID-19. The Houston Methodist Hospital in Houston, USA, the Pisa University Hospital, Italy and Sinovac in China are carrying out plasma-based research too.



The organisation is also collaborating with Chandigarh-based BioBridge Healthcare Solutions and BioNEST Bioincubator, Punjab University to further its efforts. They're seeking multiple corporate partners and government support for resources, infrastructure and funding to expedite the research.



"Right now, we appeal to corporates, industry bodies and the government to help us with funds to carry out this experimental work. We need to augment our infrastructure for equipment, instruments and talented resources. We also need regulatory support to expedite approvals through this process", said Karulkar.



"We will partner with someone with the facilities for large-scale, lab production of monoclonal (artificially created) antibodies", added Dr Badgu.



Plasma treatment has turned into an important treatment for COVID-19, especially in India. Multiple states have approved its use for critically ill patients. Delhi has also begun the first Indian plasma bank and is requesting recovered patients to donate to it.
Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, announced Wednesday that he re-introduced legislation that would expand the state's pool of potential jurors.

Senate Bill 592 would mandate that jury pools be expanded from registered voters, licensed drivers and identification card holders to include state tax filers.

Wiener argued the change would make jury pools more reflective of California's diversity, whereas current jury pools are whiter, wealthier and less diverse than the state as a whole, he said.

"Our current process for selecting jury pools undermines our ability to ensure people have a jury of their peers," Wiener said. "We need to include all Californians on our jury lists, not just those who are registered to vote who have a driver's license."

The co-authors of the bill include Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, and Assembly members Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, and Ash Kalra, D-San Jose, according to Wiener's office.

"We have a constitutional right to a jury that is a representation of our community in all of its diversity, and this measure gets us much closer to achieving that right," Kalra said.

Wiener first proposed the bill earlier this year and said he was reintroducing it in light of civil rights protests across the country over the last six weeks.

"Trial by jury of one's peers is fundamental to a fair and non-racist criminal justice system and a representative jury pool is crucial to making that principle a reality," Wiener said. "We must change our broken and racist criminal justice system."

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
A 32-year-old Fort Laramie, Wyoming, woman died Tuesday in a fatal crash.

According to information from the Wyoming Highway Patrol, troopers were dispatched to the area for a fatal motor vehicle collision at about 6:49 a.m. that occurred around milepost 27 on Highway 26 near Fort Laramie, Wyo.

An investigation determined that the driver of a 2008 Toyota Rav 4 had been traveling west on Highway 26 and had come upon a 1998 Ford Taurus stopped along the side of the roadway. The driver of the Toyota moved partially into the eastbound lane to drive around the stopped Ford. For reasons unknown, the driver of the Ford attempted a U-turn in the roadway as the Toyota begin to pass by, causing both vehicles to collide.

The driver of the Ford has been identified as 32-year-old Fort Laramie resident Amanda Wilhelm. She was wearing a seat belt and succumbed to her injuries at the scene of the crash.

The driver of the Toyota has been identified as 48-year-old Torrington resident Evan Brooks. Brooks was wearing his seat belt and transported to the Community Hospital Torrington for injuries sustained in the crash.

Driver inattention and cell phone use on the part of Wilhelm is being investigated as possible contributing factors.

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MOUNT PLEASANT, MI  Police have released the name of a recent homicide victim in Mount Pleasant.

Police have said 33-year-old Chad Kuzma was the man they found shot to death in the 500 block of South Bradley Street.

Officers responded at 2:53 a.m. on Wednesday, July 15, after receiving a report of a homicide. They also found a 25-year-old man at the scene suffering from a gunshot wound.

The younger mans name has not been released, though as of Thursday morning, police say hes been released from an area hospital.

Police are following leads to identify a suspect. The investigation is ongoing.

Police did not disclose additional details.

Related:

Police investigate homicide in Mount Pleasant

Mount Pleasant mom convicted in toddlers death has chance to avoid felony

21-year-old fatally shot at Mt. Pleasant apartments; suspect in custody
New York, July 16 : A Bangladesh origin tech entrepreneur and CEO has been murdered and his body dismembered in a luxury flat in New York city, according to media reports.

Fahim Saleh's sister found the body on Tuesday afternoon when she went to his $2.5 million-flat to check in on him, CBS, local New York TV channel, reported on Wednesday.

His killer may have been interrupted by her as he was cutting up the body with an electric saw.

The TV station reported that police said they have a video of her arriving at the apartment and his alleged killer was leaving about the same time after probably being interrupted by her ringing of the bell from the lobby.

It said that police are looking into the possibility that a business dispute was behind the killing.

According to his LinkedIn profile, he was the founder of Pathao, a Bangladesh-based company valued at $100 million that provides transportation and food delivery and offers a payment system.

He also lists himself as the founder and CEO of Gokada, a Nigerian company, which provides delivery service and motorcycle taxi service. It claims investments of $6.9 million.

New York Post said that Saleh was born in Saudi Arabia to Bangladeshi parents and grew up in Poughkeepsie in New York state.

It quoted unidentified sources as saying that the killing appeared to be a "professional" job and his limbs and head cut with "surgical precision".

The newspaper said that a surveillance video showed a man dressed in black following Saleh into his flat and tasering him after a dispute.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter at @arulouis)
Malaysia on Wednesday called for countries to refrain from military posturing amid tensions in the South China Sea, two days after Washington announced a tougher stance on Beijings territorial claims in the contested waterway.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein called for cooperation among Southeast Asian nations in solving tensions in the maritime region as he made his first public comments on the South China Sea in nearly three months.

We have to avoid military posturing as it is not going to help in solving the problem, and we need all the ASEAN countries to agree on that  Right now we seem to be on the same page and thats the only way we can face off with China and the U.S., he said during a news conference about a range of issues on the sidelines of a parliamentary session in Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia is too small to be able to find solution to this on our own.

In recent weeks, both China and the United States have conducted naval exercises or maneuvers in the South China Sea. In early July, the U.S. Navy sailed two aircraft carrier groups into the waterway after Chinas navy staged an exercise in the Paracel Islands.

On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that the world would not allow Beijing to treat the contested waterway as its maritime empire, and Washington stood with its Southeast Asian allies in protecting their sovereign rights to offshore resources.

The next day, Beijing shot back. Its embassy to the United States accused Washington of continuing to interfere in the South China Sea issue and stirring up tension and inciting confrontation in the region as well as flexing its muscles under the pretext of preserving stability.

Malaysia and three other member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc  the Philippines, Vietnam and Brunei  along with China and Taiwan have contending claims in the sea region, where Beijing has been building artificial islands and military installations in areas it occupies.

[M]y stand is very clear we will not compromise of our sovereignty, the geopolitics of [the] superpower [rivalry] between the U.S. and China, that is for them to settle and it is not a simple matter. It is a very complex matter, said Hishammuddin, who became Malaysias top diplomat after the Periktan Haripan government took power in early March.

The new government has kept relatively quiet on the South China Sea issue, even as international tensions rose in or near Malaysian territorial waters in April after a Chinese survey ship deployed close to a Malaysian-contracted oil exploration vessel, the West Capella. The Chinese ship was escorted by ships from the China Coast Guard. In response, the United States and Australia sent warships to the area.

At the time, Malaysias coast guard said it was monitoring the survey ships movements, but it had not done any activities that break the laws.

A few days later, Hishammuddin issued a statement saying that territorial issues in the sea region should be solved peacefully based on the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

On Wednesday, he echoed a comment he made back in April by saying he feared that military posturing could lead to incidents or accidents happening on the high seas that [could] end up in war.

At the news conference, the foreign minister also said that there are no more China ships in our waters, when a reporter asked him about an auditor-generals newly published report, which revealed that Chinese navy or coast guard ships had intruded into Malaysian waters off Borneo Island 89 times between 2016 and 2019.

Despite the latest comments by the foreign minister, vessel tracking data shows that Chinese ships have been intruding into Malaysias exclusive economic zone for months.

The China Coast Guard (CCG) vessel 5204 was patrolling around the Luconia Shoals, from May 22 to July 7, according to the data. China claims the shoals, which sits within 200 nautical miles (370 km) off Malaysias coast, as part of its territory.

The Chinese ship was subsequently replaced by CCG vessel 5202, which sailed into Luconia Shoals on the same day that the 5204 left. The 5202 was still in the area remains as of Wednesday morning.

However, while responding to a follow-up question from a reporter, Hishammuddin acknowledged that both Chinese and American ships had been in Malaysian waters recently.

Yes, they were there and the U.S. was ship was also there. So what do we do? In that sort of situation we just have to make sure that  they dont collide and they dont stay in our waters. Thats the best diplomacy that we can do, he said.

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.
The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy 's first Type 075 amphibious assault ship, will soon make its maiden voyage, Chinese media reported on July 14 2020, at a time when Taiwan island is holding its annual Han Kuang exercises.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy 's first Type 075 amphibious assault ship, will soon make its maiden voyage, Chinese media reported on July 14 2020, at a time when Taiwan island is holding its annual Han Kuang exercises.

Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link

Artist impression of Type 075 amphibious assault ship. (Picture source: /Wikipedia)

Judging from the photos, the construction of Type 075 is progressing on schedule. So it is not likely related to the ongoing Han Kuang exercises.

Recently, a full-scale model for an unknown type of drone helicopter was recently spotted on Type 075 in Shanghai. Regarding this element, we might think that China's Type 075 amphibious assault ships, will receive drone helicopters that can significantly expand their combat capability by providing strong situational awareness.

Furthermore, this type of vessel can also be used to safeguard territorial integrity and sovereignty in the South China Sea, the expert said.

The launch of Type 75 big-deck amphibious in Shanghai on. PLAN Photo(Picture source: Chinese Navy/PLAN)

About Chinas Type 075 LHD:

China has already launched two Type 075 amphibious assault ships, one in September 2019 and the other in April 2020. They are undergoing outfitting work at the Shanghai-based Hudong Zhonghua Shipyard.

As for its specifications, the ship will have a displacement of 36,000 tons, a capacity of 30 helicopters, diesel engine with the 9,000 kW 16PC2-6B and four CIWS including two HHQ-10 and two H/PJ-11.

In term of size and tonnage, Type 075 class is estimated to be larger than the Australian Canberra class or French Mistral-class and second only to the U.S. Navy's Wasp-class and America class on the world stage.

Type 075 compared to similar vessels. (Picture source: Chinese Internet/Weibo)
Washington, DC. Kenya's Ambassador to the US, Lazarus Amayo, is set to present his credentials to President Donald Trump at the White House this Friday.

Mr Amayo finally reported for duty in Washington, DC mid this week, more than a year since he was appointed and re-assigned from the United Nations in New York.

He will be accompanied at the White House by only his wife.

"Because of Covid-19, Ambassador Amayo will only be accompanied by his spouse," David Gacheru, the Deputy Chief of Missions who has been acting in the absence of a fully accredited envoy, said.

The former Karachuonyo MP takes over the key post in Washington that was once held by Robinson Njeru Githae who left for Austria.

It's understood that Mr Amayo could not report immediately after his appointment last year due to what Kenya's Foreign Affairs Ministry described as "procedural matters."

Principal Secretary Macharia Kamau previously told KSN News, an online news aggregator published by BMJ Murithi, that he was held up by other matters.

"The man has been busy with other matters in New York, including our push for a seat on the UN Security Council. Besides, we have a very able Ambassador running the Washington DC office in the name of David Gacheru."

It's also believed that further delay was caused by the advent of the coronavirus pandemic.

He takes office at a time when the Kenyan embassy, located on R Street, is closed to the public in an effort to contain the spread of Covid-19.

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Mr Amayo, arguably one of Kenya's most decorated envoys, has been serving as Kenya's permanent representative to the UN since 2018.

Previously, he was Kenya's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2014 to 2018, serving also as Permanent Representative to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the Commonwealth.

From 2010 to 2014, he was the Director of the Division for Europe and the Commonwealth at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Between 2006 and 2010, Mr Amayo served as High Commissioner to Zambia and Malawi, and as Permanent Representative to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa).

From 2004 to 2006, he was the acting Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as the acting Director of Administration and Head of International Organizations and Conferences in that Ministry.

He has served as High Commissioner of Kenya to India with concurrent accreditation to Malawi, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Singapore from 1999 to 2004.

Prior to his diplomatic service, he was elected as member of parliament for Karachuonyo Constituency from 1989 to 1992 on a KANU ticket.

He also served as Assistant Minister of Education in the same period.

He holds a Masters of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Delhi in India and a Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree from Spicer Memorial College in India.

Additional reporting by BMJ Murithi
Russia definitely won't support Armenia in a cross-border military conflict with Azerbaijan, leading analyst of the Agency for Political and Economic Communications Mikhail Neyzhmakov said in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza, commenting on Yerevan's appeal to the CSTO demanding to respond to the artillery battles provoked by the Armenian army on the border of the Tovuz region of Azerbaijan and Tavush region of Armenia.

Russia is undoubtedly interested in settling the conflict by diplomatic means as soon as possible, and this approach does not imply direct public support for one of the parties. The very restrained commentary regarding these events by the CSTO secretariat on July 14 (despite the presence of participants clearly sympathetic to Baku in the bloc) was probably agreed on with Moscow, the expert noted.

At the same time, there is evidence that Armenia did not count on the intervention of Russia or military support from the CSTO. Although the statement of the representative of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia Artsrun Hovhannisyan that his country does not consider it necessary to appeal to the CSTO for interference or any action due to the local scale of the conflict was made after the comment of the Secretariat of the CSTO, during the first stage of aggravation Nikol Pashinyan showed that he is determined to respond to key political challenges as publicly as possible, he said.

If Pashinyan counted on Moscows military intervention and the escalation of the conflict, he would become much more active in making public steps and statements with the message our country in danger and demonstrate close personal involvement in preparing for war. This would include, for example, holding constant public meetings with the security forces from the very beginning of the development of events, actively focusing his attention on the military threat, possibly departing for the combat zone. But in reality, on the contrary, quite a lot of attention in Pashinyan's public activities in recent days has been paid to the non-military agenda," Mikhail Neyzhmakov explained.
The Cambodia Microfinance Association and Association of Banks released an open letter Wednesday night asking three civil society groups and a workers union to revise their false reports immediately. The letter alleged that the reports were lacking scientific evidence, transparency and misses representative significance.



These baseless and incomplete reports provide the opportunity to some badly-intended people to take this opportunity to publish and share in an inciting manner, provoking social chaos and affects the reputation and dignity of financial institutions, which is the backbone of the national economy, reads the Khmer version of the letter.



However, the English version of the letter, published by the CMA on its Facebook page, leaves out the terms inciting manner and provoking social chaos.



The two industry groups are referring to three reports released by human rights group Licadho, labor rights advocate Central, land rights organization Sahmakum Teang Tnaut and workers union Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions in the last 12 months.



The letter, however, does not list out specifics that need to be changed in these reports. Prior statements from the CMA have criticized sample sizes and quality of the responses used by the groups, with CMA countering a Licadho report on migration, by alleging the rights group had staged and misrepresented interviews used in a video associated with the report.



In response, the four groups released a joint statement rejecting the request to change any of the reports and stood by the accuracy of their research.



We will continue to share those voices, even when it means highlighting human rights issues linked to the microfinance and microloan sector in Cambodia, reads the statement.



They also repeated demands made in each of the reports to refrain from using land titles for loans and microloans from poor Cambodians, publish the number of land titles financial institutions held in the country, and facilitate independent investigations into industry practices.



Kaing Tongngy, a spokesperson for the Cambodia Microfinance Association, said the group had found irregularities in the civil society report on migration, which is why they considered it to be unreliable. We sent them this letter to ask them for correction. We have evidence to prove their report [on migration] is wrong, he said.



The irregularity, the association alleges, relates to two interviews in the Licadho video, which CMA contends were misrepresented because one of the subjects was not indebted.



Taing Tongngy said if the corrections were not made, CMA would consider a future course of action, but denied using legal recourse for now.



We are not looking into this option yet, he said.



In Channy, the president of the Association of Banks in Cambodia and president of Acleda Bank, could not be reached for comment on Thursday.



On July 2, Acleda Bank, one of Cambodias big commercial banks and recently listed on the Cambodia Securities Exchange, also criticized a report about indebtedness among garment factory workers affected by the pandemic, saying the NGO was curtailing the rights, freedoms, honor and dignity of the Cambodian people.



The bank questioned the research findings, saying they were baseless and not professional and called for the authorities to take action against anyone inciting persons or groups that deal with financial institutions.



Am Sam Ath, the deputy director for rights monitoring at Licadho, said the civil society groups were standing by their reports, adding that media reports had found similar practices in the financial sector.
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Linkedin Dono Widiatmoko (The Jakarta Post) Derby, United Kingdom  Thu, July 16, 2020 08:33 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666aa89c 3 Opinion COVID-19,pharmaceutical-industry,drugs-distribution,developing-countries,pandemic,Research-and-Development,remdesivir Free

United States President Donald Trump has announced an extraordinary deal to ensure that Americans have access to the first authorized drug treatment for COVID-19: remdesivir, the first drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to treat COVID-19 that is made by American pharmaceuticals company Gilead Sciences. The deal was announced as it became clear that the US epidemic was spiraling out of control.

At the same time, Anthony Fauci, the countrys leading public health expert who is leading the nations COVID-19 response, testified before the Senate that the US was sliding backward in its mitigation efforts.

Gilead holds the patent for the drug, which was invented for Ebola but failed in human trials against that disease, which means that no other company can make it. The first 140,000 doses that were supplied for drug trials around the world have been used up, while the Trump administration has bought more than 500,000 doses  all of Gileads production for July and 90 percent of its August and September output.

Data shows that despite its ability to shorten the recovery time for some COVID-19 patients, remdesivir has not been found to significantly improve an individuals chances of surviving the disease.

This America first attitude in stockpiling the drug means that there is likely to be very little supply for the rest of the world over the next several months. The US allies are already criticizing the action for undermining the global effort against the pandemic. UK business undersecretary Nadhim Zahawi has been quoted as saying that the US was not helping the global effort by buying up the entire stock of remdesivir.

In contrast, the UK has been working in a responsible manner to deal with the pandemic in a way that will help the entire world. Earlier this month, researchers at the University of Oxford announced that the affordable steroid, dexamethasone, had been found in studies to reduce the risk of death by up to one-third in coronavirus patients with severe respiratory complications.

When a superpower country sees a political need to be ahead of the competition, this will have even greater impacts for developing nations. If we were to draw a spectrum of pandemic mitigation, on one end of the extreme would be governments focusing their efforts on saving lives at all costs by issuing total lockdowns; on the other extreme would be governments focusing on saving the economy by adopting very loose restriction policies.

Most developing nations have no other choice but to balance these two extremes by imposing partial or semi-lockdowns. The governments of these nations cannot afford to impose total lockdowns because their economies are still growing. To make matters even more complicated, these nations have limited research and development capabilities.

Although this has not stopped them from coming up with solutions, it would be very pragmatic for them in this extraordinary situation to count on leading nations to come up with the solutions first.

Indonesia is one such example. Already quoted by many as a new epicenter of the pandemic, the country is struggling to cope with identifying COVID-19 cases across the more than 17,000 islands of the archipelago. It was very slow to develop testing capacity before the Joko Widodo administration ramped up mass testing capabilities. Nevertheless, the reported cases in Indonesia are still thought to be just the tip of the iceberg. Without a nationwide serological survey, the true scale of COVID-19 infection in Indonesia cannot be determined.

Treating COVID-19 patients among is large population will be hugely expensive. With an already limited budget for the entire health sector, conquering the epidemic will be simply impossible. And with Trumps decision to purchase almost the entire stock of remdesivir, the price of the drug will predictably swell and, in the end, will deny potential access to the drug to other countries, including Indonesia.

As we are dealing with human lives, our common enemy is clearly the coronavirus. To quote Winston Churchill: The discoveries of healing science must be the inheritance of all. That is clear. Disease must be attacked, whether it occurs in the poorest or the richest man or woman, simply on the ground that it is the enemy.

***

Senior lecturer at University of Derby; member of Indonesian Public Health Association (IAKMI). The views expressed are his own.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
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Health bosses have today released an interactive map breaking down new coronavirus cases by postcode in an effort to keep a lid on local outbreaks.

The map of England, which will be updated each week, paints a clear picture showing the Covid-19 crisis in cities, towns and even small villages being hit hard by the virus.

Data showed Colwall, Cradley and Wellington Heath in Herefordshire was the worst-hit place in England last week, recording 68 new cases between July 6 and 12.

The area is home to vegetable producer A S Green and Co, a farm on the outskirts of Malvern which was locked down because of an outbreak. Ninety-three crop-pickers have now tested positive for the infection.

And Department of Health data revealed the next four worst-hit middle super output areas  small geographical areas used for statistics  were all in Leicester.

Meanwhile new data from Public Health England today revealed huge spikes in Pendle, Lancs, Herefordshire, as well as East Staffordshire.

It comes as Matt Hancock today declared Leicester must remain in lockdown except for its schools and nurseries, which will be allowed to reopen from next Friday, July 24.

The city has now been under stricter rules than the rest of England for two weeks and it must mostly remain so for another fortnight, the Health Secretary announced in an urgent statement to the House of Commons.

He said the coronavirus infection rate in the city is still too high for lockdown to be lifted, claiming it has dropped to 119 new cases per 100,000 people in the past week.

Mr Hancock revealed Leicester will stay sealed off and the city's 330,000 residents must still avoid non-essential travel out of the area, stick rigorously to social distancing rules and not enter other people's homes.

In other coronavirus developments in Britain today:

The UK, US and Canada accused Russia of trying to steal coronavirus vaccine research by sanctioning 'despicable' cyber attacks against medical organisations and universities;

Britain announced just 66 more coronavirus deaths  meaning the daily average number of fatalities has now dropped to the lowest level since March;

NHS Test and Trace is still failing to find a more than a fifth of patients who test positive for Covid-19  despite launching almost two months ago;

The number of people on the payroll has plunged by 650,000 since UK's coronavirus chaos erupted as shock data revealed 2.6million are now on benefits;

Figures revealed the stark divide between the fortunes of the public and private sectors, with public sector pay surging during the crisis but incomes plunging for private workers;

Pharmacists will be able to give out Covid-19 jabs to speed up a nation-wide roll out when one is eventually approved, Health Secretary Matt Hancock revealed.

WHERE ARE THE 10 AREAS OF ENGLAND THAT HAVE RECORDED THE MOST CASES IN THE PAST WEEK? Colwall, Cradley & Wellington Heath (HEREFORDSHIRE): 68 Spinney Hill Road (LEICESTER): 51 Belgrave South (LEICESTER): 43 Undercliffe (BRADFORD): 24 Belgrave North West (LEICESTER): 24 Evington (LEICESTER): 24 Northfields & Merrydale (LEICESTER): 23 Kingsway (LUTON): 22 Central Braintree (ESSEX): 21 Nelson West (BURNLEY): 20 Stoneygate North (LEICESTER): 19 Wakefield St John's (WAKEFIELD): 18 Batley Carr & Mount Pleasant (YORKSHIRE): 17 Bastwell (BLACKBURN): 17 Crown Hills (LEICESTER): 17 Advertisement

Pressure had been mounting on the Government to be more transparent about rolling Covid-19 data in local areas, to prevent other towns and cities being hit by local lockdowns.

It was accused of not sharing the data quickly enough with public health officials in Leicester, which was forced to revert to lockdown on June after a spike in cases.

The public are able to access the interactive map themselves to gain insight into Covid-19 cases near their home. But it is not possible to identify individuals by name and address.

Local public health bosses in each region will also be given positive test data and contact tracing figures each day after mounting pressure on officials to provide more data intelligence.

Leicester mayor Sir Peter Soulsby has been fiercely critical of the 'blanket' restrictions placed on the whole city  which still has the highest infection rate in the country.

He believes locking down specific neighbourhoods in the city which are particularly badly-hit by Covid would be a less economically crippling way to tackle the disease.

As it was revealed that Leicester must stay under lockdown, the council of Blackburn with Darwen in Lancashire has limited visits to one household and two members from a separate household.

The measures differ from the strict national guidance, which says two households of any size can meet inside to start to return to normality after spending almost four months in lockdown.

The authority fears a local lockdown like that of Leicester is becoming a 'real possibility'. Up to 85 per cent of new cases are among its South Asian population, a health chief claimed yesterday.

People are also being urged not to hug anyone from outside their own household and to get regularly tested at new mobile centres.

Residents in Blackburn with Darwen and Pendle  another Lancashire borough  have been asked to wear face masks inside to avoid being stung by local draconian restrictions.

The map of England, which will be updated each week, paints a clear picture showing the Covid-19 crisis in cities, towns and even small villages being hit hard by the virus

It comes as PHE figures revealed the rate of new cases in Pendle in the seven days to July 13 had doubled when compared to data from the seven days leading up to July 6, going from 28.4 cases per 100,000 people to 65.6.

Herefordshire, where there has been an outbreak at a vegetable farm, has seen figures jump from 3.1 per 100,000 people to 43.2 per 100,000, while East Staffordshire saw a large rise, from 7.6 per 100,000 to 28.7 per 100,000.

According to the data, Leicester's case rate is on the decline, going from 126.7 per 100,000 in the seven days to July 6 to 99.7 per 100,000 in the seven days up to July 13.

Today Matt Hancock 'paid tribute' to the 'fortitude' of people living in Leicester and said it was their co-operation that would help stamp out the virus.

He said: 'The latest data shows that the seven-day infection rate in Leicester is now 119 cases per 100,000 people and the percentage of people testing positive is now at 4.8 per cent.

The Health Secretary compared the figures to when the lockdown was imposed and the seven-day infection rate was 135 and 10 per cent of tests were positive.

Mr Hancock added: 'Some say the local lockdown is unnecessary. I wish this were true but sadly it remains vital for the health of everyone in Leicester, and the rest of the country, that these restrictions stay in place.'

Leicester mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said earlier today that he was 'angry and frustrated' with the far-reaching rules in place across the city and that 90 per cent of the area was not a danger.

The rate of new cases in the seven days to July 13 compared to July 6 # Local Authority July 13 July 6 1 Leicester 99.7 126.7

2 Pendle 65.6 28.4 3 Blackburn With Darwen 48.3 36.3 4 Herefordshire 43.2 3.1 5 Bradford 35.4 36.7 6 Oadby and Wigston 31.5 36.8 7 Rochdale 30.0 35.9 8 Peterborough 29.3 21.4 9 East Staffordshire 28.7 7.6 10 Luton 27.6 14.9

Speaking on Sky News this morning, Sir Peter criticised what he described as the Government's 'blanket political-led lockdown' of the whole of the city, and said he was angry and frustrated.

He said: 'Frankly we have not been involved in any of the decision-making about this. We have been told what the political decisions will be, and we will be told again what the political decision will be.'

The mayor had said inner-city areas of Leicester with high levels of deprivation are the 'most significantly' affected by coronavirus and keeping the remaining 90 per cent of the city under lockdown is no longer justified.

Leicester became the first place in the country to have tight measures re-imposed on June 30 following a rise in coronavirus infections.

It comes as new NHS Test and Trace data for England shows the system is still failing to reach targets  despite the system launching almost two months ago.

More than a fifth of patients who test positive for Covid-19 are not being tracked down, shocking figures show.

Of the 3,579 Covid-19 patients in England referred to the contact tracing programme between July 2 and July 8, just 2,815 were actually tracked down (78.7 per cent).

A total of 618 people with the disease could not be reached at all by the tracers  who phone, text and email someone up to 10 times a day to get hold of them.

And communication details were not provided for another 146 Covid-19 patients, so their close contacts will have also slipped under the radar.

Scientists have warned contact tracing programmes need to catch at least 80 per cent of infections to keep the outbreak under control.

On top of this, people are still not receiving their Covid-19 test results within 24 hours, considered vital to keep the tracing system up to speed.

The proportion getting results from a so-called 'in-person' test  at a mobile testing site for example  has fallen week-on-week.

Some 87.7 per cent of people received the result within 24 hours in the week ending July 8, down slightly from 90.7 per cent in the week ending July 1.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson last month pledged to get the results of all in-person tests back within 24 hours by the end of June.

He told the House of Commons on June 3 he would get 'all tests turned around within 24 hours by the end of June, except for difficulties with postal tests or insuperable problems like that'.

Turnaround times for home tests are not as fast because people post their kits back at their own leisure.

Some 3.3 per cent of people who took a Covid-19 test using a home test kit in the week ending July 8 received their result within 24 hours - up slightly on the previous week (1.8 per cent).
(Newser)  Johnny Depp's security chief is backing the actor's claims that ex-wife Amber Heard abused him, as opposed to the other way around. In a witness statement released Thursday as he appeared at UK High Court, Sean Bett, a former Los Angeles sheriff's deputy who's worked for Depp for a decade, noted "Heard was verbally and physically abusive" throughout their relationship. He wrote that he'd seen Heard "throwing bottles, glasses and other objects" at Depp, per the Guardian. She "often behaved in this way when she had been drinking," he wrote, adding Depp would typically "remove himself from the situation" and never responded in kind. Depp is suing News Group Newspapers, publisher of the Sun, and the paper's executive editor over a 2018 article that called him a "wife-beater." The Sun is relying on Heard's 14 claims of abuse from 2013 to 2016.

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Bett submitted a March 23, 2015, photo showing Depp with a bruised cheek. The Sun's lawyer, Sasha Wass, admitted Heard caused it, but said she only "punched Mr. Depp in defence of her sister." When Bett noted he'd never seen any bruises on Heard, Wass suggested he was lying to cover for his boss. "Ma'am you can call me a liar 100 times. I'm not a liar," he said, per the AP. Depp's former partners Vanessa Paradis and Winona Ryder were expected to appear this week. But Depp's lawyer, David Sherborne, said Thursday that they were no longer needed as the Sun doesn't dispute the claim that Depp wasn't violent with them. On Wednesday, Heard's former assistant Kate James testified that the actress had stolen details of James' own rape to include in a witness statement. "She twisted it into her own story," James said, per the AP. Heard has yet to testify. (Read more Johnny Depp stories.)
Millions of people faced new coronavirus restrictions on Wednesday as infections surge, but in one sign of hope, an American firm said it would soon start final-stage human trials for a possible vaccine. Countries around the world re-imposed lockdowns and curbs to contain new outbreaks, as global cases surged past 13.2 million with more than 576,000 deaths. Parts of the Asia-Pacific region, which had been somewhat successful in fighting the pandemic, provided fresh evidence of the deadly threat still posed by the virus. Hong Kong's bars, gyms, and beauty salons closed again on Wednesday and a ban on gatherings with more than four people came into force as the city battled a fresh outbreak after months of impressive success against the virus. Most of the city's residents voluntarily adopted facemasks as a barrier against the virus when it was first detected in mainland China late last year, but the Hong Kong government now requires passengers on public transport to wear them or risk a US$650 fine. There was alarm in Japan too, where Tokyo's governor warned that the capital was on its highest coronavirus alert level after a spike in infections. That came after the Indian state of Bihar, with a population of around 125 million, announced a 15-day virus lockdown starting Thursday. India's IT hub Bangalore has already started a week-long lockdown. Authorities in Australia, meanwhile, pleaded Wednesday with the public to heed social distancing guidelines, with roughly five million people in Melbourne in lockdown since last week in a bid to contain a new outbreak. That request came just days after a group was fined Aus$26,000 (US$18,200) when their house party was exposed by an unusually large order of KFC. "A particular concern for us is the ongoing parties and gatherings -- people playing poker, people holding parties," said Rick Nugent, acting assistant commissioner of Victoria state. "Please stop." - 'You are part of the problem' - Such pleas from experts and authorities have been ignored and even mocked in many of the world's most populous parts, including the United States -- the worst-hit nation in the world. Tens of thousands of cases are now being reported every day in the US as authorities scramble to roll back reopenings. The national 24-hour infection count was more than 63,000 on Tuesday, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, again warned Americans against carelessness -- especially young people who may feel they are not vulnerable and would rather be "sipping my margarita at a bar in a crowd". Given asymptomatic transmission, such young people "need to understand that given the nature of this outbreak... You are inadvertently propagating the pandemic, you are part of the problem and not the solution", Fauci said at an online Georgetown University event on Tuesday. Hopes rose, however, when American biotech firm Moderna said it would start the final stage of human trials for its vaccine candidate on July 27, after promising results from earlier testing. Moderna is considered to be in a leading position in the global race to find a vaccine, and while its study should run until October 2022, preliminary results should be available long before then. - 'Less work, less money' - With no vaccine or effective treatment widely available, experts have advised lockdowns and social distancing measures in some form to prevent the deadly pandemic from gaining even more momentum. Face masks will become compulsory in England's shops and supermarkets from next week, while South Africa reimposed a nationwide curfew to prevent a "coronavirus storm". Authorities worldwide are under immense pressure to ease the economic pain caused by the widespread lockdowns, however, with the poorest hit the hardest. In Cairo, Zeinab, a young mother, was struggling to survive by selling tissues when the coronavirus hit -- leaving her and thousands of other homeless people and street children even more vulnerable. With fewer people in the streets, she said, "we have less work and less money". burs-qan/fox
U.S. Department of Justice has filed a civil forfeiture complaint seeking the forfeiture of a Maryland property acquired with approximately $3,500,000 in corruption proceeds by the ex-president of The Gambia, Yahya Jammeh, through a trust set up by his wife, Zineb Jammeh.

According to the complaint, Yahya Jammeh corruptly obtained millions of dollars through the embezzlement of public funds and the solicitation of bribes from businesses seeking to obtain monopoly rights over various sectors of the Gambian economy.

The complaint further alleges that Yahya Jammeh conspired with his family members and close associates to utilize a host of shell companies and overseas trusts to launder his corrupt proceeds throughout the world, including through the purchase of a multimillion-dollar mansion in Potomac, Maryland, which the United States seeks to forfeit through the filing of the civil forfeiture complaint.

Yahya Jammeh is a former president of The Gambia who allegedly plundered hundreds of millions of dollars from his country and laundered part of those funds to corruptly acquire real estate in the United States, said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt.

Our action today highlights the tireless work of the Criminal Divisions Kleptocracy Initiative and their global law enforcement partners to protect the integrity of the U.S. financial system and recover the ill-gotten gains of corrupt officials.

Ex-Gambian President Yahya Jammeh and his wife thought that they could hide funds stolen from the Gambian people by buying a mansion in Potomac, Maryland, said U.S. Attorney Robert K. Hur for the District of Maryland.

This action demonstrates that the United States will not allow criminals to profit from their crimes and will seek justice for crime victims both here and abroad.

The seizure of this property is just another example of our continued efforts to protect the U.S. financial infrastructure by denying a safe haven for foreign kleptocrats, said Acting Executive Associate Director Alysa Erichs of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

HSI will not tolerate our country being used by foreign officials to hide their corrupt activities and launder their illicit proceeds.

The investigation was conducted by HSIs Illicit Proceeds and Foreign Corruption Group in Miami, with the assistance of the HSI Office of the Special Agent in Charge for Baltimore and the HSI Attache Office in Dakar. HSI established this group in 2003 to conduct investigations into the laundering of proceeds emanating from foreign public corruption, bribery and embezzlement. HSIs goal is to prevent foreign-derived, ill-gotten gains from entering the U.S. financial infrastructure.

The case is being handled by Trial Attorneys Steven Parker and Kaycee Sullivan of the Criminal Divisions Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Wine for the District of Maryland.

READ ALSO:

Substantial assistance was provided by the government of The Gambia and Michael Quinley of the Criminal Divisions Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance, and Training.

HSI Miami Illicit Proceeds and Foreign Corruption Investigations Group was established in 2003 to target corrupt foreign officials around the world that attempt to utilize U.S. financial institutions to launder illicit funds. Since inception, the group has seized over $500 million in ill-gotten gains traced to foreign corruption. To report suspicious activity, reach out to your local HSI office or call 1-866-347-2423.

The Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative is led by a team of dedicated prosecutors in the Criminal Divisions Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, in partnership with federal law enforcement agencies, and often with U.S. Attorneys Offices, to forfeit the proceeds of foreign official corruption and, where appropriate, to use those recovered assets to benefit the people harmed by these acts of corruption and abuse of office.

A civil forfeiture complaint is merely an allegation that money or property was involved in or represents the proceeds of a crime.

These allegations are not proven until a court awards judgment in favour of the United States.
Don't like road trips? You might just after you read this.

The distance between Delhi airport to Chandigarh could soon be covered in just two hours, reported Times of India. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is promising that this idea will become a reality by June 2023 when the Dwarka Expressway and Urban Extension Road in Delhi, Trans-Haryana and the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressways would be completed.

Also read: You Can Cross Highway Toll For Free If Scanner Can't Read FASTag On Your Car

TOI

The new expressways will reduce the distance between the two points by 20 km and bring down the total distance to 240 km from 260 km on the Delhi-Chandigarh link. The travel time will be reduced by half as commuters will travel through five expressways. An NHAI official said, At permitted speed of 120 kmph on expressways, a car can cover this 240 km in just two hours."

Highways minister, Nitin Gadkari has said the web of expressways in this part of the country including the Delhi-Mumbai one will transform the way people travel on roads. NHAI chairman K K Sandhu said the completion of the projects will result in seamless connectivity across the region.

Also read: NHAI Will Impound And Auction Off All Illegally Parked Vehicles On National Highways

Times Now

The report further added that adequate information through signage will be placed right from Dwarka Expressway which is the take-off point from the airport to guide the commuters till their destination.

He added the commuters will need to travel on Dwarka Expressway and a spur from Urban Extension Road to reach the already completed KMP expressway at Bahadurgarh. This will be a 40-km drive. Then after covering about 10 km of KMP expressway they will take the Delhi-Katra expressway for approximately 80 km. Finally they will take the Trans-Haryana Expressway to reach Ambala to head towards Chandigarh. All interchanges have been designed to make the travel smooth, another NHAI official told ToI.



Also read: In The Battle Between Man VS Wild, Highways & Railway Lines Emerge As New Challenges

TOI

What's worth mentioning here is that the NHAI will award the 60 km signal free link between DND flyway in Delhi and Mumbai Expressway at Sohna next month. We have received bids and the process of evaluation has started. The target is to complete all these projects by middle of 2023, an NHAI official said.
A San Antonio dad has gone viral on Twitter for his stylish ways after turning his pocket inserts into a face mask to match his work tie.

Kiana Montgomery posted pictures of her fashionable father Steve Montgomery with his matching masks and ties on her Twitter account on Wednesday, not knowing so many people would love it. The tweet has more than 8,000 retweets and around 58,000 likes as of Thursday.

"I didn't think it would get that viral, I thought it would be a few people," Kiana told mySA.com. "I don't have that many followers so I was shocked."

READ ALSO: Downtown San Antonio 'Up' house picks up attention thanks to viral TikTok video

Her father told mySA.com he was also "stunned" that people loved his idea. He only recently started matching the two pieces of clothing a few days ago. He said his girlfriend created his face coverings by using his pocket inserts and materials, like the nose bridge and elastic strings, from other masks.

"I'm known for matching and I criticize people at work for not matching, so I really wanted to make this happen," he said. "I just didn't think I would go viral. My daughter told me I was going viral and I was like 'what does the even mean.'"

Several people commented on Kiana's tweet, writing that Steve's matching sets are "cute" and "creative."

"I like where this dad is going. Like yes. Let's make it a thing where men have to match their mask with their tie. 2020 fashion for the win," one person commented.

"Dad is bringing the Wholesome dad vibe this pandemic needs," another wrote.

Kiana said her followers should stay tuned as her dad will be sending her more photos of his matching sets later this week.

Priscilla Aguirre is a general assignment reporter for MySA.com | priscilla.aguirre@express-news.net | @CillaAguirre
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Global Goat Cheese Market: Overview

Cheese is an old dairy product prepared from milk of cow, sheep and goat. In the last decade or two, goat cheese has grown up as the most promising market worldwide. Goat cheese is great for digestion and provides low calories unlike bovine cheese which is heavy to digest, high in cholesterol and fat. Goat cheese also contains more vitamins especially vitamin A, B1, B2, B3 and is rich in Calcium and Phosphorous. Goat cheese also provides sufficient amount of Proteins. Over the years the market has evolved from consuming bovine cheese to goat cheese. However, one of the major restraints in the market is the shorter shelf life of these products. Goat cheese is highly perishable product, can sustain maximum 60-90 days. Advances in the technology has been evolving over the years to keep it intact and maintain its flavor.

Get free sample copy before purchase this report@ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/17227

Global Goat Cheese Market: Drivers and Restrains

The fastest growing market for goat milk is majorly in the production of cheese owing to its increasing demand. Most of the manufacturers for goat cheese are based in US. The volume produced is small and almost half of the raw material is consumed for the production of the cheese and are imported. Further, U.S. goat cheese manufacturers been able to compete well in the gourmet market of cheese and have also received multiple gold medals in the international market. There are more than 100 manufacturers of goat cheese in US, which includes both artisanal and commercial goat cheese manufacturers. Consumers are preferring artisanal goat cheese owing to the factor such as artisanal producers tend to raise their own goats and utilize the milk to further process into end products such as cheese, yogurt, and others.

Due to change in food habits, there is growth in obesity and cholesterol issues across the globe. Consumers are becoming health conscious day by day, leading to increasing in demand and consumption of goat cheese. Goat cheese has come up as a significant alternative to bovine cheese and is anticipated to grow at an accelerated rate during the forecast period. Moreover, technological advancement in production of cheese, and increasing quality breeds of goat are few factors driving the market.

However, the goat cheese are expensive than any other cheese available in the market and this is one of the major restraint for the growth of market. Another restraint in the market is the challenging process. Goat cheese is made at very low temperatures with a desired quantity of rennet used therefore a proper care has to be taken while preparing goat cheese. Goat cheese is also highly perishable in nature.

Global Goat Cheese Market: Segmentation

Base on the product type, the goat cheese market is segmented into:

processed

unprocessed

Based on the flavor, the goat cheese market is segmented into:

Earthy

Tangy

Tart

Based on the form, the goat cheese market is segmented into:

Soft cheese

Semi-soft cheese

Firm cheese

Ripened cheese

Aged cheese

Based on the distribution Channel, the goat cheese market is segmented into:

Modern Trade

Convenient Stores

Online Retailers

Others

Global Goat Cheese Market: Segment Overview

The global goat cheese market is segmented into product type, flavour, form, distribution channel, and regions. Further, on the basis of form, the market is sub segmented into, soft cheese, semi-soft cheese, firm cheese, ripened cheese, and aged cheese. Soft cheese is expected to dominate the market.

Global Goat Cheese Market: Regional Overview

Geographically, the goat cheese market is segmented into seven regions, namely North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan, and the Middle East and Africa (MEA). Eastern Europe especially France is leading the global goat cheese market production owing to its traditional Dairy industries. Greece, Italy, Spain also has a substantial production of goat cheese. North America is the second largest contributor to the global goat cheese markets mainly due technological advancements in the production process in goat cheese. North America also raises the best quality of goat breeds, and so the cheese produced from this milk is also of best quality. Cheese market in Asia Pacific has grown tremendous over the years as a result of population growth in India and China, change in their food habits and increase in consumer spending thus lead to higher consumption of goat cheese. The Middle East and Africa are demonstrating an increased use of cheese mostly the processed cheese.

You can buy this report from here@ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/17227

Global Goat Cheese Market: Key Players

Some of the players identified across the value chain of the goat cheese market are:

Carmelis Goat Cheese

Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy

Montchevre

Laura Chenels Chevre, Inc.

Cherry Glen Goat Cheese Co.

Avalanche Cheese Company

Amsterdam Cheese Company

DeJong cheese company

Hillsborough Cheese Company

Few of the strategies adopted by the key players in the market are partnership and collaboration with other operators, expansion into the untapped market, and joint ventures with the organizations in emerging countries to gain the strong foothold in the market. The research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also includes projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to market segments such as geographies, and application.
Youtube star Jake Paul is under fire and facing action from the local mayor after he threw a massive party at his Calabasas mansion despite skyrocketing COVID-19 cases in California.

The 23-year-old actor rose to fame on the now-defunct app Vine and is known for posting reckless and adventurous videos on YouTube.

Videos have emerged from Paul's wild party on Saturday, where dozens of people packed in the home without wearing masks or social distancing.

People were seen drinking, playing beer pong, and swinging off a construction backhoe at the gathering.

Calabasas mayor Alicia Weintraub was left outraged after learning of the party and says she's looking into 'all options' for penalties for Paul.

The party was thrown in spite of California Gov. Gavin Newsom's desperate plea for people to be wary of the virus as the state broke a one-day new case record on Tuesday with 11,000 infections.

YouTuber Jake Paul, 23, threw a massive party at his Calabasas, California mansion on Saturday despite concerns surrounding the pandemic. Pictured above on his Instagram page

Videos from the party show dozens of people packed into his home, drinking, playing beer pong, crowding on the stairs and swinging from a construction machine

A man who appears to be Paul is seen in this video where a crowd of people surround a table filled with red solo cups and drinks

At the party wild attendees were seen swinging from a construction backhoe in the backyard

NEW: The mayor of Calabasas & neighbors tell me theyre outraged after they say YouTube celebrity @jakepaul threw a massive party at his mansion on Saturday. They call it irresponsible, selfish, & say its businesses & workers who pay the price for this w/ lockdowns. 10pm @FOXLA pic.twitter.com/COiVleuDH2  Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) July 15, 2020

Overall in the state there are 356,178 cases and 7,345 deaths from the virus, as of Thursday.

California, like other states that reopened up, is now reeling from a spike of fresh cases that forced the state to reclose bars and restaurants in some counties.

'I was very upset that somebody would hold such an outrageous gathering in our community,' Mayor Weintraub said.

'We're trying to do everything we can to get our numbers down and keep our community safe, and something like this just does the opposite,' she said to ABC News Thursday.

Locals near the Calabasas party reported seeing 'tons of people walking on the street unmasked and then gathering.'

One of the videos posted on social media shows a crowd of people in what appears to be the living room of the home, where revelers were seen drinking as music played in the background. People were crowded close together on a staircase.

Another video shows hordes of people around a table filled with red solo cups of drinks. Yet another video shows people playing beer pong outside.

Footage uploaded by Pauls friend Tana Mongeau on TikTok shows people dangling from a construction backhoe in the backyard as the crowd cheers.

'I was very upset that somebody would hold such an outrageous gathering in our community,' Mayor Weintraub said Thursday. She said the citys looking into 'all our options' regarding penalties for Paul

Partiers pictured above not wearing amsks and ignoring social distancing guidelines

Video from the gathering shows people gathered around the staircase and ignoring social distancing measures. California, like other states that reopened up, is now reeling from a spike of fresh cases that forced the state to reclose bars and restaurants in some counties. Overall in the state there are 356,178 cases and 7,345 deaths from the virus, as of Thursday

A group of people were seel playing drinking games in the backyard of Paul's mansion

A vehicle that appears to be an $127,000 Mercedes Benz G Wagon was parked inside the home, where attendees gathered on top of it to talk

Mayor Weintraub said that as of Wednesday night the city of Calabasas adopted a fine of $100 for people caught not wearing a mask.

She said she's working with the Lost Hills Sheriff's station to ensure no more similar house parties take place.

Paul has not commented on the party but shared a tweet from YouTuber Tyler Oakley who reshared videos from the raucous party with the admonishing caption 'f**k you, @jakepaul'.

Pauls friend Tana Mongeau shared this video of him standing on a machine in his backyard

She added another video of a person swinging from a construcion backhoe in the backyard

This isnt Pauls first run-in with trouble.

In June he allegedly took part in looting and riots and was charged with criminal trespassing and unlawful assembly for entering the Scottsdale Fashion Square mall when it was closed.

The incident took place amid peaceful protests decrying police brutality and systemic racism.

He was identified to police through tips and videos sent in.

Paul denied looting and said he wanted to 'share our experience and bring more attention to the anger felt in every neighborhood we traveled through.'

His brother Logan Paul, another YouTube star, is also no stranger to controversy.

He came under fire in late December 2017 into early 2018 when he uploaded a vlog on his YouTube channel about a trip to Japan in which he visited a 'suicide forest' near Mount Fuji, a place where people were known take their own lives, and depicted a recently deceased corpse. The video was removed from YouTube and Paul issued a public apology.
You might consider class held in massive circus tents a little unconventional, but Rice University believes it's a perfect social distancing strategy.

When Rice University plans to resume its on-site classes in August, students will be bringing their laptops and chairs into nine large tents and temporary buildings in order to manage social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to officials.

"Reducing population density will require us to use spaces in non-traditional ways and increase the number of large venues on campus," the Rice University statement read.

According to Rice University's director of news and media relations, Doug Miller, the plan calls for five (40 x 60 foot) tents which are currently on order. These will hold anywhere from 25 to 30 students. In addition to the tents, there will be four temporary buildings which are designed to accommodate 50 students and an instructor with the requisite 6 feet of distance maintained.

"In order to make best use of all our outdoor spaces, we will ask students who have portable chairs to bring them when they return to augment those already around the campus. We will also purchase a number of lightweight, portable camping-style chairs for student use," the statement read.

Yes, Houston is scorching hot in August, but not to worry. The temporary structures will be "lighted, cooled, heated and ventilated," according to Rice University officials.

"Being in Houston, we can be outdoors the entire academic year," Kevin Kirby, Rice's VP for administration and chair of its Crisis Management Advisory Committee told the Houston Chronicle. "As we've all learned about coronavirus, the risks decrease when you're outside."

"So...students pay tuition to sit under tents with masks to listen to lectures in the Texas heat with high humidity. I just don't know if that will work--maybe November to March (Unless we have a crazy front - tropical weather)," wrote Debra Cerasa Courville on Facebook.

"Mosquitoes!" wrote Nancy Caraway Tucker Chambless on Facebook.

"Winter should be nice," wrote Sandy Hawkenson on Facebook.

The concept was first noted by New York Times columnist David Leonhardt who touted this open-air plan as uniquely innovative.

"Students and professors will decorate the spaces with murals and video projections," Kirby told the New York Times.

Kirby added this was a testament to Houston as a community.

"We are creative. We're resilient. And we do what matters," Kirby said.

alison.medley@chron.com
Police in Cincinnati are asking the public for help in identifying the man who poured red paint on the block-long Black Lives Matter mural in front of city hall.

Police have released surveillance video from early Sunday morning showing a man with his face covered at the scene. It appears that the man or someone else then drove over the wet paint, leaving tire tracks, news outlets reported.

The mural was officially dedicated June 19 amid protests across the nation against racial injustice and police brutality following the May 25 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. It was created by teams of dozens of Black artists.

Red paint marred Black Lives Matter mural in front of City Hall, Wednesday, July 15, 2020, in Cincinnati, Police in Cincinnati are asking the public for help in identifying the man who poured red paint on the block-long mural in front of city hall. The mural was officially dedicated June 19 amid protests across the nation against racial injustice and police brutality following the May 25 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. It was created by teams of dozens of Black artists. (AP)

The Black Lives Matter mural in Cincinnati is one of several around the country to have been vandalized in recent weeks.

New York City police on Tuesday released surveillance photos and video of a man seen Monday splashing red paint on the Black Lives Matter street mural in front of Trump Tower.

Red paint marred a Black Lives Matter mural in front of City Hall, Wednesday, July 15, 2020, in Cincinnati. (AP)

Last week, two people were charged with hate crimes after defacing a city-sanctioned Black Lives Matter mural in Northern California.

Murals in Park City, Utah; Orlando, Florida; Charlotte, North Carolina, and outside Vermonts statehouse have also been damaged.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)

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By PTI

KOLKATA: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar is not authorised to call any meeting of vice-chancellors of state universities, the higher education department said in a letter to the Raj Bhavan on Thursday.

Dhankhar, who is also the chancellor of state universities, had on Wednesday taken to Twitter to say that it was "unfortunate" that vice-chancellors chose to stay away from a virtual meeting, which he had convened to discuss the problems faced by the students owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

During a press meet on Thursday, he also said that the education system in West Bengal is "politically caged", and the "unwholesome situation was created by the state government".

The department, however, asserted that Dhankhar does not have the right to call a meeting of vice-chancellors, as the West Bengal State Universities Rules of 2019 does not provide for any such provision.

In a strongly worded letter addressed to the officer on special duty of Dhankhar, the special secretary of the department maintained that the rules mandate "every communication proposed to be made by the chancellor to any state-aided university will have to be routed through the higher education department.

" "I am further directed to mention that the government is surprised to see this tweet, because it has not endorsed any plan for any such video conference between the hon'ble Chancellor and the Vice Chancellors," the department said.

Drawing Dhankhar's attention to section 8 (5) of the West Bengal State Universities Rules 2019, the letter said, "It is respectfully submitted that the aforesaid course of conduct by the chancellor is beyond jurisdiction and contrary to specific statutory and delegated legislative provisions.

" The governor had said on Wednesday that the new legislation that forbids him from convening a vice-chancellors' meeting "does not have any legal validity".
Of course, the majority of All Lives Matter people only use the retort to denigrate the Black Lives Matter movement, to dismiss the very real protests of Black Lives Matter without having to address the discrepancies in American life. We know because they never say All Lives Matter after Blue Lives Matter.

If you still dont get it and have the reflexive urge to respond to the statement, I have a simple compromise. Just put them together with All Lives Matter and Black Lives Matter, too. Then join in the fight for a world where all lives really do matter.

Adam Corey

Clemmons

Hunker down

I am an 83-year-old Emeritus Professor of Medicine from the Wake Forest Sticht Center. For the last more than three months, Ive been hunkered down with my new 87-year-old life partner in our apartment while trying to keep up with the valiant efforts of my colleagues at the medical center through virtual communication. We are acutely aware of our own vulnerability to becoming victims of COVID-19 by virtue of our advanced age, but we seem to remain in good health while practicing social distancing and using face masks when outside our apartment. Here the good news is so far, so good.
Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung talks to reporters in front of his office in Suwon, Thursday morning. / Yonhap



By Kim Se-jeong



Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung will be able to retain his position after the Supreme Court sent his case back to an appeals court, Thursday, which had previously found him guilty of violating the Election Law.



The ruling also cleared the way for Lee to pursue a presidential bid on the ruling Democratic Party of Korea's (DPK) ticket in 2022.



In a 7-to-5 vote, the court ruled that he had not violated the Election Law.



"The law can't punish Lee Jae-myung for disseminating false information (at the debate) unless he actively declared the false claim was a fact. Some of Lee statements in the debate were simply made to deny claims made by his opponent and this cannot be seen as a deliberate act to disseminate false information," Chief Justice Kim Myeong-su  who wrote for the majority  said during the session which was televised on TV and livestreamed on YouTube.



Usually, four judges hear the case at the top court, but in Thursday's session, 12 attended because a four-justice hearing had failed to arrive at a decision. Two judges abstained from voting.



Supporters filled the courtroom and also had a heavy presence outside the court, and they cheered when the ruling was announced.



The governor thanked the court for "delivering a fair and correct judgment."



"I am thankful to be able to continue to work," he said via Facebook following the ruling.



Lee was elected to lead Gyeonggi Province, with a constituency of 13 million people, in 2018. Prior to that, he served two terms as mayor of Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. Political commentators consider him as one of the leading candidates for the 2022 presidential election.



He attracted many supporters with his straightforward speeches and policies that had an immediate impact on residents' lives.



Lee was the first elected officer to start a basic income program for young adults in Seongnam. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, he also became the first to offer Gyeonggi Province residents relief funds, and filed a criminal complaint against a religious sect blamed for spreading the virus.



The governor was indicted last December for having his older brother forcibly committed to a psychiatric care facility in 2012. The prosecution also claimed he violated the Election Law by lying about the brother in a nationally televised debate with other election candidates in 2018.



A lower court found him not guilty on both charges, but the high court overturned these verdicts and fined him 3 million won. The relevant law stipulates an elected public official is stripped of their position and banned them from political office for five years if a court fines them over 1 million won or sentences them to more than a year in prison.


A policeman who spent years investigating fatal car crashes has opened up about the daunting job of telling families their loved ones had been killed.

Queensland Police Sergeant Steve Gollan investigated about 100 crashes over two years that were all either fatal or serious.

Despite the countless horror scenes Sergeant Gollan visited, he admitted he can never forget the faces of those killed.

The 20-year veteran policeman said he always rehearsed before delivering a 'death message' to the families.

A policeman has opened up about his job in telling families their loved ones had been killed in car crashes. Pictured car crash after four teenagers were killed in Townsville on June 7

'I will always say "and as a result of the accident, they've died". You don't say gone, or passed away. You have to be clear. I always use the word "died",' he told the Courier Mail.

'What you say will be in their memories for the rest of their lives. They always remember the person who told them their son, daughter, husband has died.'

The police officer said a haunting scene that stayed with him was the death of a newlywed in Toowoomba.

The young woman lost control of her car and smashed into a tree on the side of a road.

Sergeant Gollan said when they checked the CD holder the woman had been listening to her wedding compilation - having gotten married just two weeks prior.

'I can still picture every person from every fatal crash I've been to,' he said.

There have been 127 lives lost on Queensland roads so far this year.

Thirty people were killed within the last two months.

Lucias Baira-Hill (pictured, left) and Rayveena Coolwell (right) were identified as victims of the horror car crash in Townsville in early June

In early June four teenagers were killed when the Kia Sorrento they were travelling in hit a light pole in Townsville after it was allegedly spotted at least 120km/h'.

Lucias Baira-Hill, 13, Cayenne Nona, 14, Rayveena Coolwell, 15, and Aaliyah Tappa Brown, 17, were found dead at the scene.

Just days later tragedy struck again when a father-of-three was killed in a horror car crash after leaving his 24-year-old son's birthday party early to help move house.

Michael Edward Wells, 54, was pronounced dead on the scene of the horrific pile-up in Logan.

The father had left his son Challenge's party early to continue packing when his car and two other vehicles collided at the intersection of Fletcher and Logan River roads in Bethania.

Michael Edward Wells, 54, was pronounced dead on the scene of the horrific pile-up in Logan, Queensland last month (pictured with wife Linda)

One of the vehicles in the collision with Mr Wells rolled over and caught fire

Witnesses say a total of five cars were affected by the horrific crash.

On June 28 another man was killed in a crash that left his wife fighting for life and his two-year-old daughter facing the prospect of being orphaned.

Tamzyn Rodda, 21, was thrown through the front windscreen together with her partner Slayde Collins, 24, after Mr Collins lost control of his Toyota Hilux on Chambers Flat Road in Brisbane's south.

It is believed the pair were dropping two friends home when their vehicle rolled near a notorious blackspot and they were flung through the windshield on to a grassy verge in front of a Chambers Flat property.

Mr Collins, a dedicated father to the couple's two-year-old daughter Grace Marie, died at the scene.

Mr Collins' partner Tamzyn had been sitting in the front passenger seat at the time of the crash and was critically injured.
Its anyones guess what free agency will look like when we get there at the end of the 2020 season. Odds are, it wont be particularly lucrative for older first basemen. But Astros first bagger Yuli Gurriel is among the top players available and could draw wide interest if hes able to repeat his productive 2019 effort.

To the extent Gurriel is pondering his future, hes thinking more about where hell be than how much hell make. If he gets his way, Gurriel told reporters including Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle (via Twitter), hell return to the Houston organization.

This is actually the fourth anniversary of the Stros announcement of their five-year, $47.5MM deal with Gurriel. The long-time Cuban star was considered a clear MLB talent, though there were questions about how productive hed be at a relatively advanced age.

There have been a few ups and downs, but Gurriel has generally provided strong offensive output. He was at his best in 2019, when he launched 31 home runs and slashed .298/.343/.541 in 612 plate appearances.

Gurriel could have opted into arbitration this past offseason, but instead negotiated a $300K boost over and above the $8MM salary he was already promised. His contract still provides for termination at the end of the 2020 season, thus preventing the Astros from retaining him through arbitration.

It remains to be seen if the Houston club will share Gurriels interest in a reunion. Cost efficiency will surely be a primary consideration for the data-driven club, which will be looking to account for the departure of numerous big bats. We havent had any opportunity to see the roster-building proclivities of new GM James Click. The former Rays exec certainly came up in a culture that rewarded creative tinkering over big splashes.
BRANFORD  Fifteen minutes after pediatrician Gary Wanerkas family surprised him with a drive-by retirement party of former and current patients and staff in front of Branford Town Hall, it seemed to be over.

No surprise, arguably. Already upwards of 15 cars, jeeps, and SUVs festooned with signs and balloons had drawn to a stop in front of the Town Hall. Already dozens of well-wishers had handed flowers, cards, and gift bags and offered thanks to the man known as Doc Gary on this mild evening.

Wanerkas family, including his wife Christine, their children John and Laura and their spouses, grandchildren Trey and Reese, and Simon, a half Australian shepherd and Catahoula leopard dog, posed for pictures on the steps of the building.

That was nice, said daughter-in-law Megan Wanerka, who organized the parade, looking up at the overcast sky. And the rain held off.

Then, from a distance, came the sound of a horn. Then another. And more, overlapping each other. Look, Reese said, pointing across the Green to Main Street.

A line of cars stretched from G Cafe Bakery past Common Ground and down toward the high school, moving at a snails pace.

For the next 45 minutes or so, they kept coming.

My daughter had bacterial meningitis when she was two months old, said New Havens Wendy DeMarco, who noted Wanerka was also her grandchildrens doctor. It was touch and go. Doc Gary stayed at the hospital with me until 4 in the morning, went home, showered and changed, and was back in my room at 6:30 a.m.

Vicki Andersons two daughters were patients from the time Wanerka, 79, first opened Branford Pediatrics on 784 E. Main Street in 1982. A Wesleyan graduate who did his residency at Yale, hed been recruited to the newly-established Community Health Care Plan in New Haven after serving four years as an Air Force doctor in Bitburg, Germany.

Healthy memories

He made us feel like we were his only patients, Anderson recalled, as the procession of cars inched around the Green. And he had a lot of patients.

A lot, said his wife Christine, who was viewing the parade from a lawn chair. At one time, his practice had a panel of more than 10,000 patients. The two met in a seventh-grade class while growing up in Wantagh, Long Island near Jones Beach.

He always was turning around to see if I got a better grade than he did, she said with a smile.

It was Christine who, Wanerka said, made it all possible by never complaining about the fact that I was getting up from the dining room table to see a kid with an earache or leaving on Christmas Eve to see someone who needed to be treated for asthma, or whatever.

One of those house calls was for Beth Spencer.

My daughter had a rare nerve disease called reflex sympathetic dystrophy, and Doc Gary wasnt on, he and his wife were out to dinner, but he just wanted to check on us, said Spencer.

Getting to that diagnosis had been a steep challenge.

I was in extreme pain, I couldnt bear any weight on my left leg, her daughter Becky Hastings, now a writer and mother of three in Guilford, recalled.

RSD is a disease that dates back to the Civil War, but 30 years ago, no one knew anything about it in the medical community, Spencer said. Doc Gary told me I dont know what to do, but Im going to trust your instincts as a mother, and were going to figure this out together.

Wanerka credited renowned pediatrician and bestselling author Dr. Benjamin Spock, his professor at Western Reserve Medical School, for imbuing him with the idea of parents as partners in their childs health care.

Dr. Spock taught me the joy of working with children, and also how you could really be an important part of a little life and a very important part of the parents being able to make that life a healthy and happy one, he said.

Another beneficiary of that influence was Branfords Jean Kelley, who approached the town hall about halfway through the second wave of cars. All four of her children were Wanerkas patients, she said. When her youngest, Brian, was 6, he crashed into a woodpile while sledding.

It didnt knock him out, it just stunned him a little, she said. Gary gave him a very thorough physical and noticed his reflexes were off so he sent us to Yale for a CT scan just to be safe.

Further scans showed demyelination in his brain that had been there since birth, she learned. It turned out that he had adrenoleukodystrophy, a rare and ruthless genetic disorder that commonly strikes boys between the ages of 4 and 8 and causes rapid and irreversible degeneration of the nervous system.

By Gary detecting the abnormality in his reflexes that identified ALD before he was even more symptomatic, we were able to have a bone marrow transplant that ultimately saved Brians life, Jean Kelley said.

Having reached Wanerka, she rolled down her window. 32 strong, she called out. Brian, she said, was about to celebrate his 32nd birthday.

On top of everything, hes just a damn good old-fashioned doctor, said Dr. Paul Fortgang, an ENT in Guilford, who strolled over to the town hall steps to offer his socially distanced congratulations.

Fortgang said he met Wanerka soon after arriving in Connecticut in 1988 and worked with him for 30 years. They also played racquetball together.

He cares for his patients any time of day or night, he said. Nothing is too much for him, and thats made him a good role model for me and other younger doctors, he said.

And still the cars kept coming. He was my pediatrician and then he became my sons allergist and its been night and day, said one mother with a sign in her window that read YOU CANT RETIRE FROM BEING AWESOME. He moved mountains for us, said another. He made a huge impact on my life, said a third.

Im just here to pay my taxes, quipped Chuck Donaruma, who drove up in a Cadillac Eldorado convertible with his wife and kids, before thanking Wanerka for treating his sons allergies.

Then came the newly retired Susan Judge, Wanerkas receptionist for 37 years. I started on November 1, 1983, and we joked that we would retire on the same day and we did, she said. Hes one of a kind.

Forty-five minutes after the initial lull, the last car rolled away, a balloon reading HAPPY RETIREMENT, DOC GARY! bobbing on its trunk.

As she helped organize the mountain of cards, gift bags, and flowers, Laura Wanerka Leo recalled, as a child, accompanying her father on house calls or on rounds at the hospital on weekends.

Even back then, he was a rock star, she said, pausing a moment to pet Simon the dog. And now he has grandkids of patients, so you can never go anywhere without someone calling him Doc Gary, not Dr. Wanerka.

As to what explained the hour-long parade of well wishes, she had a simple answer.

He believes in people, he believes in love, and he believes that when you love people, you bring out the best in them.
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Linkedin Toriq Rahmansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 16, 2020

The House of Representatives ratified the Indonesia-Swiss Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement in Criminal Matters (MLA) on Tuesday. The bilateral agreement creates a basis in international law upon which justice authorities in the two countries can cooperate in detecting and prosecuting criminal acts, particularly corruption and money laundering.

Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly said the MLA could also be used to combat tax crimes so that taxpayers fully complied with tax rules and avoided tax fraud.

It is encouraging to know that Swiss authorities also agreed to apply a retroactive clause in the agreement, which means it can be used to handle criminal acts committed before the agreement was signed and ratified.

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Instacart has sued Cornershop, the grocery-delivery startup Uber acquired last year to expand its food footprint. The company alleges Cornershop stole product images and other intellectual property. In a legal brief, Instacart says Cornershop tried to hide the origin of its catalog images by modifying their file names. The company also shared the image below, comparing listings on both Instacart and Cornershop.

Instacart Cornershop comparison

Instacart claims it spent "tens of millions of dollars" and "and a tireless amount of effort" to build its catalog, which features items from more than 30,000 stores across its footprint. "While we welcome competition and innovation, what Cornershop is doing is illegal," Instacart said.

The lawsuit comes just over a week after Uber announced it would add grocery deliveries to its main app courtesy of Cornershop. As part of the move, Cornershop is slated to expand to Miami and Dallas, its first US cities, sometime later this month. Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, demand for grocery deliveries has also surged in the US.

"Instacart is facing a new challenge in the US from a Chilean upstart, and it's unfortunate that their first move is litigation instead of competition," a spokesperson for Uber told Engadget. "Cornershop will be responding to this complaint but won't be deterred in bringing grocery delivery to more customers in the US."

Depending on how the case develops, it wouldn't be the first time Uber has gotten into trouble thanks to one of its acquisitions. In 2017, Waymo accused the company of stealing trade secrets after it bought Otto, a self-driving truck startup founded by former Waymo engineer Anthony Levandowski, in 2016 for $680 million. One year later, Uber agreed to pay Waymo $245 million to settle the case. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who wasn't with the company when the acquisition went through, said it "should have been handled differently."
Sean Hannity interviewing Mark Cuban on Tuesday: (Fox News)

Fox News host Sean Hannity, the conservative media commentator often credited as one of president Donald Trumps closest confidantes, hinted on live television he may one day launch his own bid for the White House.

The comments came as Hannity opened his show on Tuesday night while exchanging jokes with Fox News Brian Kilmeade, who quipped about taking over his popular nightly programme.

A few year years, its all yours, Hannity said in response. Who knows, I might run for president. You never know!

To be clear, Hannity appeared to be making the statement in good humour and did not reveal any specific intentions to run for elected office  still, the comments were sure to add fuel to previous reports that suggested Hannity was eyeing a future in politics after his media career ends.

A New York Magazine profile of the TV host said he has expressed openness to the idea of running for office after Mr Trumps electoral upset victory in the 2016 presidential election. Hannity has also previously joked about running for office with his executive produce Lynda McLaughlin, claiming he was being vetted more than Obama.

Brian Kilmeade jokes about taking over Hannitys show.



Hannity: "A few years, it's all yours. Who knows, I might run for president. You never know!" pic.twitter.com/Uoj9f29gW6  Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) July 15, 2020

In response to Hannity suggesting he may run for president, Kilmeade shrugged and responded: Everyone else is.

While Hannity might only be a television host, he appears to have a direct line to the president, frequently speaking with Mr Trump about his White House agenda and pushing for him to take action on certain issues, according to reports. Mr Trump regularly calls into Hannitys show, occasionally going on long tangents about his apparent enemies and the mainstream media as he did in an interview last week.

Mr Trump used his time on Hannitys show last week to undermine one of the nations top infectious disease experts, Dr Anthony Fauci, as a nice man who has made a lot of mistakes while simultaneously saying about wearing face masks to prevent the spread of Covid-19: I have no problem with masks, its really up to you.
India on Thursday got its second consular access to former Indian Navy personnel Kulbhushan Jadhav, who has been sentenced to death for alleged espionage in Pakistan. According to TV media reports, two Indian High Commission officials were given 4 pm (PST) as the time for the meeting.

However, India expressed its disappointment over Pakistan not providing an unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional consular access to Jadhav.

"Pakistan did not give unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional consular access to Indian death row convict Kulbhushan Jadhav in violation of an order by an international tribunal and its officials left the meeting venue after lodging a protest," the Ministry of External Affairs said.

The MEA said Jadhav was "visibly under stress" and indicated that clearly to the Indian consular officers, adding the arrangements did not permit a free conversation between them.

The ministry said the consular officers could not engage Jadhav on his legal rights and were prevented from obtaining his written consent for arranging his legal representation.

"The consular officers were not given unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional access to Jadhav. On the contrary, Pakistani officials with an intimidating demeanour were present in close proximity of Jadhav and consular officers despite the protests of the Indian side," the ministry added.

The MEA said it was also evident from a camera that was visible that the conversation with Jadhav was being recorded.

"In the light of these circumstances, the Indian consular officers came to the conclusion that the consular access being offered by Pakistan was neither meaningful nor credible. After lodging a protest, they left the venue," the MEA said.

The latest development comes just four days before the deadline for Jadhav to file a review petition in his case ends. However, Pakistan had claimed that Jadhav had refused to file a review petition but only follow up on the mercy petition to the President of Pakistan.

Earlier, New Delhi had asked Islamabad to give "unconditional consular access" to Jadhav, as per sources.

"Last time what they did was insulting to his mother, father and wife and insulting to India as a whole. So we want that consular access should be unconditional," Arvind Singh, Kulbhushan Jadhav's childhood friend, told ANI.

India had also charged Pakistan of coercing Jadhav into forgoing his right to seek the implementation of International Court of Justice's verdict, which was in his favour.

In July 2018, the ICJ overwhelmingly had upheld India's claim of Pakistan committing an egregious violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations on several counts in Jadhav's case.
Palghar : , July 16 (IANS) A day after the Maharashtra CID filed its charge sheet in the sensational Palghar lynching case in which three people were killed, a Magistrate Court in Dahanu, has set the date for hearing in the matter to July 28, official sources said here on Thursday.

The charge sheets signify the end of the investigations into the sensational case in which two 'sadhus' and their driver were lynched near Gadchinchale village in the district.

On Wednesday, the state Crime Investigation Department (CID) Dy. Superintendent of Police Vijay Pawar, filed two separate charge sheets of around 11,000 pages, in two separate cases, naming a whopping 126 accused in both cases, before the Dahanu Magistrate Court, officials said.

The CID has invoked Indian Penal Code, Disaster Management Act, Epidemic Diseases Act, Maharashtra Police Act and Maharashtra Damage to Public Property (Amendment) Act, with charges pertaining to murder, armed rioting, using criminal force to prevent a public servant from discharging his duties, etc.

Among other things, the charge sheets reportedly say that the mob-lynching incident was the outcome of rumour-mongering and there was no religious angle to the crime.

However, CID sources said the probe will still continue into other related aspects of the triple-crime by a mob, on the night of April 16, even as the first charge sheets were duly filed within the 90-day period.

During the long probe, a CID team remained stationed in the region in view of the sensitive nature of the case and ongoing pandemic restrictions, said the sources.

They examined a total of 808 suspects and 118 witnesses to collect strong evidence against the accused and make an air-tight case.

Till date, while 154 persons have been arrested, another 11 juveniles allegedly involved have been detained in the case, but nobody has been enlarged on bail till date.

Both the charge sheets have named a total of 126 persons each in the case, which will now come up for hearing on July 28.

Since there is sufficient evidence vis-a-vis all the juvenile accused, the CID is proceeding against them separately before the Juvenile Justice Board, even as the further probe in the case is continuing, said the sources.

The Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ram Kadam on Thursday questioned how the police -- even without completing the investigations -- could claim that the triple lynchings were an outcome of rumour-mongering.

"The police are echoing the views expressed by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Home Minister Anil Deshmukh soon after the incident in Aprila We reiterate our demand that the case should be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for probe," Kadam demanded.

On that fateful night of April 16, the victims -- Kalpavrikshagiri Maharaj, 70, his assistant Sushilgiri Maharaj, 35, of the Juna Akhada, and their driver Nilesh Telgade, 30, waylaid when they were en route from Mumbai to Surat for a funeral during the lockdown.

Mistaking them to be robbers or kidnappers, a huge mob of tribals and villagers pounced on them with stones, sticks, sickles and the three later succumbed to the grievous injuries.

Thursday's developments came two days after the Additional Sessions Judge D. N. Keluskar rejected the bail pleas by 25 accused in the same case on Tuesday.

Strongly opposing the bail pleas, Special Public Prosecutor Satish Maneshinde said that the prosecution had gathered "multiple evidences against the accused", including videos, mobile Call Data Records, CCTV evidence recorded by the forest department checkpost, bloodstains and possible fingerprints sent for analysis and other technical evidences against the accused.

He said the investigations of these evidences proved the complicity of the accused who were present at the spot during the incident near Gadchinchale village at Kasa in Palghar that night, when a 500-strong mob had beaten to death two sadhus and their driver.

Later, more than 154 people were nabbed, plus 11 minors were detained by Kasa Police and the matter was handed over to the state Crime Investigation Department, as the incident created a nationwide political furore.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: q.najmi@ians.in)
The girls running Revamp Camp.

Revamp Camp

Informal backyard summer camps are popping up on New York's Long Island as professional summer camps close amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Most of the camps are being run by high school and college students who want to help engage kids while they're stuck at home for the summer.

But the legality and health risks of these camps remain unclear.

The New York Health Department told Insider that all camps need to be registered with the state, and experts told Insider that the camps can be risky health-wise.

Backyard camp organizers told Insider that they're putting safety measures in place to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, and that the first couple weeks have been successful.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Brooke Lewitas, a college junior, was home on New York's Long Island after the coronavirus pandemic shut down George Mason University for the rest of the year.

Her mind turned to the summer. Every year, millions of kids go to overnight and day camps, but the pandemic threw a wrench in those plans.

Lewitas and a friend, Emmie Levy, came up with the idea to start The Camp Girls, where they'd host summer camps in the backyards of suburban Long Island homes instead.

"We kind of knew that there was a big need in the community for childcare, and we saw what other people were doing with these backyard camps," Lewitas told Insider. "We realized that she and I could do it really well  we're a little bit older than a lot of the other girls that are offering it, and we have a lot of experience."

Lewitas and Levy's camp runs Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. They're offering activities like tie-dye, arts and crafts, dance and fitness sessions, relay races, water games and more. They also provide supplies and individually packed snacks for each child, at $50 per child per session, which can be held at a backyard "provided and predetermined by parents."

Story continues

A quick search through Nassau County-related Facebook groups finds dozens of high school and college students advertising for such camps through vibrant flyers, promising "color wars," sports, arts and crafts, and more.

The camps typically cost around $50 per child per day, with most organizers saying they'd travel to a backyard anywhere in Long Island's Nassau and Suffolk counties and adhere to safety measures parents are comfortable with. Some make parents sign safety waivers, while others plan on checking kids' temperatures while encouraging them to social distance.

It's not clear if these camps are legal. Organizers can bill their informal backyard camps as babysitting, especially if they're conducting one-day sessions. But most nurseries and professional camps have to be licensed for the liability they take on as long-term caretakers, according to New York state's Division of Child Care Services and Department of Health.

Regardless, backyard camp organizers told Insider that their sessions are filling up.

Lewitas told Insider that children are eager for social interaction after months of not seeing friends during the pandemic.

"These kids haven't gone to school and it can be very isolating, so we're really excited to help them reconnect with their friends with a kind of fun," she said.

Most camps are run by high school and college students, who are also stuck home for the summer

The Camp Girls. This advertisement has been edited by Insider to hide private information.

Brooke Lewitas

Lewitas led her school's chapter of Camp Kesem, a summer camp for kids whose parents have or have had cancer. Levy was a head counselor at a camp in Pennsylvania and planned to take the job up again this year  before the pandemic hit.

For the camp, they're taking any age group, but most kids who have signed up are between eight and 10. They're taking a minimum of four kids to start a day of activities.

Ahead of each session, Lewitas and Levy are giving campers individual camp kits that include everything they'd need for the day so they wouldn't have to share with others. The kits include snacks to eat throughout the day as well as items needed for crafts and other games.

The two founders, who are based in Syosset, New York, have been practicing social distancing and wearing masks since the start of the pandemic, but Lewitas said that the camp's daily organization is partially up to the parents.

"We definitely want input from parents as to what they feel comfortable," she said. "If they're like, 'You can come inside," we would probably say, 'No thank you,' because it's important to us to have that reputation that we've been good."

They are also considering ways to encourage social distancing between kids at camp, including giving each child a hula hoop to stand in for the day.

Emmie Levy and Brooke Lewitas.

Brooke Lewitas

Alyssa Reifer, a high school student in Farmingdale, also on Long Island, is also taking precautions with Revamp Camp, a backyard camp she launched with four friends.

She ordered "Revamp" face masks for the group, and said they're taking kids' temperatures and having families sign waivers to ensure no one's been in contact with anyone who's had COVID-19 in the two weeks leading up to the camp session.

Reifer told Insider that they're only having activities where kids "are safe and having fun at the same time."

"We're also making sure that all our activities are 'COVID-safe,' you could say. None of our activities will have the kids more than 6 feet together," she said. "We're making sure we're not doing activities where they'd be sharing items constantly."

The safety of backyard camps will 'depend on who attends'

Research on children and the coronavirus has drawn renewed attention as the country debates reopening schools in the fall despite the epidemic in the US being orders of magnitude worse than in other developed countries.

Children are at lower risk than adults of contracting the virus, as well as less likely to transmit it to others, though research on the issue remains ongoing.

The safety of each camp will ultimately "depend on who attends," Jessica Justman, an epidemiologist and associate professor of medicine at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, told Insider in an email.

"If the children are all from one family or are already clustering together in one 'bubble,' then the main safety issue to consider will be the organizers/counselors' health as they will be exposed to the children," Justman said. "If the children come from different families and do not normally spend time together, then the safety concerns will expand in proportion to the size of the new 'pod.'"

A Revamp Camp advertisement. Insider edited the flyer to protect private information.

Revamp Camp

Since each camper will go back home at the end of the day, they risk giving the virus to members of their families, Justman said.

"These potential safety concerns are less about the children's health and more about the health of the children's parents and the health of others (e.g., grandparents) as they will be exposed, through their children, to new children attending the camp," she said.

The record so far is a mixed bag.

New York's Department of Education told NPR last month that it had cared for more than 10,000 children at 170 sites throughout the pandemic, primarily for parents who worked on the front lines in what was once the virus's epicenter in the US. The NYDOE told NPR that it has had no reports of coronavirus clusters or outbreaks, and the YMCA, which has cared for thousands of children across the nation during the pandemic, said it hasn't seen outbreaks either.

But professional camps have struggled. In Missouri, one camp for teenagers shut down after more than 80 campers and staffers tested positive for COVID-19.

Yet the demand remains. A recent American Psychological Association survey found that parents thing their children hare having a hard time coping with the pandemic  kids haven't been going to school in person, and haven't been able to socialize with friends as they would normally.

The survey found that 77% of parents are concerned the pandemic has left a long-term impact on their kids, and 60% "have no idea how they are going to keep their child occupied all summer."

One professional camp director says he's concerned about safety protocols at backyard camps

Mark Transport, the president of the Long Island Camps and Private Schools Association as well as the owner of Crestwood Country Day Camp in Melville, New York, is concerned that the safety measures backyard camp organizers are putting in place aren't enough.

He said professional camps go through an "intense amount of scrutiny" and get training on health department protocols and getting licensed and registered.

"I don't think the people who are in these camps understand what kind of liability they have," he told Insider. "If you're running one of these backyard camps, I don't really think that they're doing the health screening, nor do I think they're going to be doing the incredible protocols that registered and licensed camps are doing, in terms of disinfection."

Children drawing with chalk on pavement.

Stephen Simpson/Getty Images

In a statement to Insider, Erin Silk, a spokesperson for the New York State Department of Health told Insider that all camps need to be registered with the agency to be in operation. She also said New Yorkers must follow social distancing and avoid large gatherings as part of a statewide executive order.

Justman said that enforcing social distancing could be a challenge at camps especially because different households may have different norms for how they do it. She said organizers should keep groups small and evaluate each child for symptoms.

"Consider who is in your own family and social network and think about how best to protect anyone in your network who is at risk for more severe COVID-19," she said. "This applies to the camp organizers/counselors as well as the parents of the campers."

The backyard camps have already started  and organizers say they've been successful so far

Lewitas told Insider that her backyard camps have already begun, and so far they've been successful. They've had two weeks of camp sessions, and the kids are "excited to get out of the house," Lewitas said.

"It's really important to bring this camp spirit and energy," she told Insider.

Transport told Insider that his day camps on Long Island have been successful too  he's hired a full staff and they've increased health protocols to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

He issued a camp safety plan online for Crestwood, in which campers and staffers are tested for COVID-19, social distancing has been increased, and adequate PPE materials are on hand.

"A word of the wise to people running these pop-up backyard camps if everything runs smoothly, God bless them... but that doesn't always happen, especially with kids who are unpredictable," he said.

Read the original article on Insider
* U.S.-China tensions keep risk appetite at bay

* South African stocks hit by declines in Anglo American

* Turkish stocks among few gainers as airlines rise

* Russian rouble slips tracking lower oil prices

By Shreyashi Sanyal

July 16 (Reuters) - Emerging market stocks fell to a one-week low on Thursday as tensions between the United States and China and rising coronavirus cases around the world weighed on investor sentiment, while a stronger dollar hit risky currencies.

A broad dispute between Washington and Beijing over the control of advanced technologies and the protection of civil liberties in Hong Kong continued to hit risk appetite.

"The focus currently lies in Hong Kong, but there are fears that the trade dispute between the two superpowers could flare up again at any time," analysts at AxiCorp wrote in a client note.

It also took the shine off data which showed China's economy rebounded more than expected in the second quarter from a record contraction.

While emerging market equities have recovered sharply from a steep downturn in March, surging COVID-19 cases in hotspots like Brazil, India and Russia constantly serve as a reality check for investors hoping for a "V"-shaped recovery.

The MSCI's index for developing world stocks dropped 1.6%, after rising in the previous session on signs of progress in the development of a coronavirus vaccine. The index is now on track for its first weekly decline in three weeks.

"The market reaction to progress on the vaccine shows how critical it is for broader risk appetite to find a cure. The market's definitive shift to 'risk-on' during Q2 was primarily predicated on an economic splurge alongside an emergence from lockdowns," analysts at AxiCorp wrote.

South African stocks slid 2%, with declines from global miner Anglo American weighing.

Anglo American posted an 18% decline in overall second quarter output due to coronavirus lockdowns and stuck to its full-year guidance for copper, other metals and diamonds.

Story continues

The rand slipped 0.5% against the U.S. dollar, which strengthened amid growth concerns and weak Chinese consumption data.

Russia's rouble weakened with a slide in oil prices, while the Turkish lira traded within a tight range.

Turkish stocks rose 1.3%, among few advancers on the day as shares in Turkish Airlines and budget carrier Pegasus Airlines rose more than 3% after Turkey and Russia agreed to resume flights.

Currencies of countries in central and eastern Europe remained rangebound, with Hungary, Poland and Romania trading flat against the euro.

For GRAPHIC on emerging market FX performance in 2020, see http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh For GRAPHIC on MSCI emerging index performance in 2020, see https://tmsnrt.rs/2OusNdX

For TOP NEWS across emerging markets

For CENTRAL EUROPE market report, see

For TURKISH market report, see

For RUSSIAN market report, see (Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
US Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman.

Andrew Harnik/AP

The White House sent the Pentagon a list of allegations against Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman after he testified against President Donald Trump during his impeachment, NBC News reported.

The National Security Council transmitted the list to the Pentagon while Vindman was on track for a promotion to colonel, according to the report.

The list claimed Vindman created a hostile work environment at the NSC but its claims could not ultimately be corroborated.

Trump fired Vindman and his twin brother, Yevgeny, from the NSC after the former testified against the president.

Last week, Vindman announced that he was retiring from the Army following "a campaign of bullying, intimidation, and retaliation" by Trump.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The White House sent the Pentagon a list of allegations against Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman after he testified against President Donald Trump during his impeachment, NBC News reported Wednesday.

Vindman served on the National Security Council as its top Ukraine expert until February, when both he and his twin brother, Yevgeny, were ousted from the White House by President Donald Trump. The president had Vindman removed after he testified against Trump during impeachment proceedings last year pursuant to a congressional subpoena.

According to NBC News, the NSC sent the list of allegations against Vindman to the Pentagon late last year, while Vindman was on track for a promotion to colonel.

The list alleged that Vindman created a hostile work environment at the NSC, including that he was verbally abusive to a colleague. But investigators couldn't corroborate the claims, the report said.

The Department of Defense approved Vindman's promotion earlier this month. But on July 8, he announced that he would retire from the Army after 21 years of service because of a "campaign of bullying, intimidation, and retaliation" by Trump.

His resignation prevented the White House from reviewing Vindman's promotion packet as the final approval authority.

Story continues

Vindman's promotion to the rank of colonel was thrown into uncertainty after he decided to testify against the president.

The Purple Heart recipient directly listened in on a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which Trump asked Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election.

Vindman testified that he was "concerned" by what he heard and that he found the conversation "inappropriate" and "improper."

It was wrong "for the president to request  to demand  an investigation into a political opponent, especially a foreign power where there's at best dubious belief that this would be a completely impartial investigation," he said.

He added: "This would have significant implications if it became public knowledge, and it would be perceived as a partisan play that would undermine our Ukraine policy, and it would undermine our national security."

After Vindman's testimony, Trump baselessly claimed he broke the chain of command and "leaked" details of his conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The president's Republican defenders on Capitol Hill and in the media also made racist attacks against Vindman questioning his loyalty to the US because he and his family are refugees.

Trump previously suggested the military would explore taking disciplinary action against Vindman  which never materialized  before dismissing him and his brother from the NSC.

Following Vindman's resignation, his attorney alleged he was being retaliated against for testifying during Trump's impeachment.

"Through a campaign of bullying, intimidation, and retaliation, the President of the United States attempted to force LTC Vindman to choose: Between adhering to the law or pleasing a President," the attorney, David Pressman, said in a statement.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Counter protestors and police officers at odds during the "We the People Rally" in support of conservative causes at Independence Mall Philadelphia on November 17, 2018. The rally drew several dozen attendees while hundreds of protesters showed. Read more

A Glenside man who punched a Philadelphia police officer during a November 2018 counterprotest of a white nationalist rally on Independence Mall was ordered by a federal judge on Wednesday to write a sincere letter of apology to the officer, but spared him from prison or probation.

Brian Glantz, 25, pleaded guilty to simple assault in December and could have faced a maximum sentence of one year in prison, five years probation, and a $100,000 fine for slugging Capt. John OHanlon.

But after nearly a two-hour hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Lynne A. Sitarski said the two days Glantz spent in federal detention after his arrest and the 19 months hes been under court supervision awaiting sentencing was enough punishment.

She said that Glantz had taken responsibility for his crimes by pleading guilty, that he was a first-time offender, and that he is receiving treatment for autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which contributed to his impulsive behavior.

While the offense was certainly a serious one, the defendant struck a law enforcement officer performing an important law enforcement function of attempting to keep the peace in an extremely volatile environment, the defendant has acknowledged the seriousness of the offense and has accepted responsibility, the judge said during a video hearing.

Glantz, a Temple University film and media arts student, was one of four people charged in the aftermath of the 2018 clash between 50 We the People white nationalists and 500 counterprotesters, including Glantz.

Prosecutors said Glantz pushed on-duty officers at the rally and punched OHanlon in the side of his head.

As he was taken into custody, prosecutors said, Glantz resisted and kicked the officers.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Diviny did not seek a prison sentence but argued that Glantzs actions warranted a probationary sentence to ensure he gets the medical treatment his lawyer and doctor testified that he needs.

I, the government, and I think this court has the obligation to look at the totality of the circumstances, said Diviny, who played a profanity-laced speech Glantz made at the rally to show that he was not as peace-loving as his lawyer portrayed him.

Mr. Glantz is the one who went into that phalanx of police and struck Captain OHanlon in the face, Diviny told the judge.

Defense attorney Susan M. Lin argued that her client was passionate about standing up to the white nationalists, not clashing with police, and only interfered with police because he believed the officer was beating an anti-white nationalist protester with a baton.

The rally was one month after a white, anti-Semitic gunman killed 11 at a Pittsburgh synagogue, and 13 months after a white supremacist drove his car into a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville, Va., killing a woman.

Lin said Glantz had those crimes in mind as he went to the Independence Hall protest to film the event and to speak out against the hate the We the People group was espousing.

Brian did not go there to start anything. He saw somebody being hurt and he tried to help that person, Lin said. He interfered when he shouldnt have interfered, and he understands that now.

Glantz, choking back tears, apologized to his parents, who he said always taught him to respect the law, and to OHanlon and all the officers at the rally. I acted impulsively, he said. I had no intention of hurting anyone. I know Captain OHanlon was just trying to do his job.
By Express News Service

KRISHNAGIRI: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Wednesday exuded confidence that the spread of coronavirus can be controlled within 10 days, provided the public offered its cooperation. He was talking to reporters after taking part in a review meeting on Covid containment measures in Krishnagiri district.

Palaniswami said the government has been taking many steps to reduce the virus spread, and added that the State has emerged as a pioneer in testing in the country by collecting 42,000 samples a day. Listing out Covid control measures in Chennai, including the setting up of 600 fever camps, he said the number of cases in the capital city is seeing a gradual decline.

There are 15,000 health staff engaged in Covid-19 prevention, and 1,800 doctors and 5,270 nurses involved in treating patients across the State. Stating that the Centre and the State governments have together spent around Rs 10,000 crores for Covid-19 prevention and relief work in Tamil Nadu, he said the States contribution was Rs 6,000 crore.

Giving specifics of the spending, he said Rs 312.64 crore was utilized for emergency response and healthcare preparedness, and Rs 46. 95 crore for procurement of medical equipment and others.

Similarly, the Central government has provided Rs 2,115. 90 crore worth foodgrains. The number includes Rs 80.03 crore worth foodgrain provided for inter-state migrant workers in the state, he said. Informing that around 4.19 lakh migrant workers stranded in Tamil Nadu were sent to their home States, he said, 32,850 expatriates were also brought back.

Palaniswami also clarified that the government has not instructed any cooperative bank across the State to put disbursal of loans on hold. Responding to a question on such claims doing the rounds, he said, The banks were just asked to issue loans only within the permissible limit. There were instances in which the cooperative banks did not adhere to this norm. As a result, many farmers were unable to withdraw money from their deposits. Bank loans to the tune of Rs 139 crore were issued to MSMEs in Hosur with the support of the Centres Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan scheme.

The Cabinet has given approval for an e-bike manufacturing company at Hosur, Palaniswami said, adding that the company would be investing Rs 600 crore and employ ingmore than 2,000 people. The government has been following a single-window system to encourage more people to set up new companies in the State. Except in Chennai, industries in other parts of the State can work with 100 per cent strength by following protocols, he said.

Earlier in the day, Palaniswami laid the stone for the International Flower Auction Centre to be constructed in Hosur at a cost of Rs 20.20 crore. The facility would be constructed under the supply-chain management scheme and implemented by the Department of Agricultural Marketing and Agri-Business.He also visited Krishnagiri Reservoir Project Dam to oversee the ongoing shutter works.

Palaniswami, on Tuesday, laid the stone for constructing RDO building and residential quarters for RDO at the cost of Rs 3.25 crore at Arani in Tiruvannamalai district through video conference. The RDO office will be constructed at a cost of Rs 2.75 crore and the residential quarters at Rs 50 lakh.
Antarctica is considered to be one of the last remaining untouched wildernesses in the world despite roughly two centuries of human activity since the continent was officially discovered in 1820.

A study released on Thursday by Australian researchers has shown that despite having no cities, agriculture or industry, the human influence in Antarctica may be having more of an impact than was previously thought.

The team of researchers led by Monash University analysed a data set of 2.7 million human activity records, including historical sources, scientific records and tourism industry data to determine the extent of human activity and potential impact in Antarctica.

They found that with the exception of some large areas mostly in the centre of the land mass, human exploration has spread to nearly every corner of the icy continent.

Co-author, Steven Chown from Monash University, told Xinhua that according to their data, just 32 percent of the continent's surface remained untouched by humans.

"Antarctica as a whole is about twice the size of the Australian continent," Chown said.

"And if you think of all of that ice covered area, to imagine that people have wondered largely all over it is quite surprising."

While human activity in Antarctica such as scientific endeavors and tourism may seem negligible, the team from Monash say that biodiversity is at risk and that the roughly 30 countries with scientific operations there should take that into account.

"Biodiversity generally is defined as the variety in life from different species to different ecosystems, and how they function," Chown said.

"Globally biodiversity is important because it's what makes life possible. It's the whole functioning of life on the planet."

The authors hope their work can act as a guide for nations undertaking scientific studies and other endeavours in Antarctica to protect vulnerable areas.

"We've given evidence now to show where wilderness and really pristine areas are, and we're recommending that policymakers, those Antarctic Treaty Consultative parties, actually now make some decisions to protect these areas into the future," Chown said.
Johanna Ramirez works in her grocery store in Fort Lupton, Colorado, where she is concerned that not enough customers are taking precautions, like wearing masks, to stop the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), April 23, 2020.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis joined a growing list of state leaders to order people to wear masks in public spaces indoors to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

"This is a responsible, bipartisan, common sense step to take," Polis said during a news conference at the Boettcher Mansion in Jefferson County, Colorado, on Thursday. "We have a choice in Colorado, either more mask wearing and more attention to social distancing or more damage to our economy and loss of life."

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The mask order takes effect at midnight for at least 30 days and requires people to cover their faces while at public places indoors where they cannot maintain a distance of at least 6 feet. There are exceptions to the guideline such as children who are 9 years old or under and people with certain medical conditions and disabilities. This mandate also doesn't apply in situations where people are eating, drinking, exercising, partaking in religious worship or speaking to a televised audience.

The executive order comes after the state reported a total of 38,155 confirmed cases as of Tuesday. The seven-day average of daily new cases in Colorado has surged nearly 46% as of Wednesday compared with the prior week, according to CNBC's analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The number of hospitalizations has also steadily increased in Colorado over the past months and the rate of infection has accelerated, according to Dr. Rachel Herlihy, state epidemiologist.

"We need to take this very seriously. Our lives depend on it. Our economy depends on it," said Polis during the conference. "It's clear that at this point in time, this is the least bad of the options that we have at our disposal."

Colorado is among several states that recently issued a mask mandate as governors continue to grapple with coronavirus outbreaks. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced a statewide mask order on Wednesday to contain the spread of the virus.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also issued an executive order earlier this month requiring residents across the state to wear a face covering in public spaces in counties with 20 or more positive Covid-19 cases. Abbott also issued a proclamation giving mayors and county judges the ability to impose restrictions on some outdoor gatherings of more than 10 people.
Popular activewear brand Lorna Jane has been forced to rebrand a new clothing line it spruiked as "anti-virus" after a leading medical expert said the Australian company was exploiting people's fears over COVID-19.

Lorna Jane launched its "exclusive technology" LS Shield earlier this month, releasing a range of leggings and tops it promised would protect wearers from viruses and germs.

Australian fashion designer Lorna Jane Clarkson. A Lorna Jane spokeswoman said the company was working on the new technology well before COVID-19 hit.

"It is applied as a water-based, non-toxic mist and permanently adheres to our garments. Any bacteria that comes in contact with the fabric is terminated when it comes in touch with the LJ Shield particles," the company's website said.

"LJ Shield breaks through the membrane shell of bacteria or germs that come into contact with it, not only killing that microbe but preventing it from multiplying into anymore."
With the oral cortisol synthesis inhibitor osilodrostat (Isturisa), a new therapy option for medical treatment of adults with endogenous Cushing's syndrome is now available in Germany as of July 15, 2020.1 Isturisa can contribute to alleviate the high burden of this rare but serious and potentially life-threatening disease.2 Results of the pivotal, multicenter, randomised withdrawal, double-blind phase III study LINC-3 show that osilodrostat led to a rapid and sustained reduction of cortisol levels accompanied by improvements in comorbidities, clinical symptoms and quality of life. Furthermore osilodrostat was well tolerated.1,3

Cortisol synthesis inhibitor osilodrostat (Isturisa) is now available in Germany as of July 15, 2020, as a promising new therapy option for medical treatment of adult patients with endogenous Cushing's syndrome (CS).1,4 Isturisa was approved by the European Commission on January 9, 2020.

The approval of Isturisa (osilodrostat) is based on the results of the pivotal phase III study, LINC-3, in which the efficacy and safety of osilodrostat in 137 patients with Cushing's disease were assessed. A significantly higher proportion of patients with Cushing's disease treated with Isturisa maintained normal mean urinary free cortisol (mUFC) at the end of the 8-week randomized withdrawal period (week 34) versus placebo (86% vs 29%). Cortisol level control is the primary objective in the treatment of patients with Cushing's disease. Thus, the study successfully met its primary and key secondary endpoint.1,3 Moreover, the results showed that osilodrostat resulted in a rapid and sustained reduction of mean free urine cortisol levels maintained during the 48-week follow-up period. This was accompanied by improvements in clinical symptoms, comorbidity and quality of life.

"Data from the LINC-3 study underline the efficacy and safety of Isturisa in a prospective setting and represent a significant advance in the treatment of patients with Cushing's disease, a serious and potentially life-threatening rare disease," commented Pr. Rosario Pivonello, Professor of Endocrinology at the Federico II University of Naples (Italy). "I would like to thank all patients who participated in the LINC-3 study and their families who helped make this new and welcome therapy option available for this underserved patient population."

The launch of Isturisa is an addition to the Recordati Rare Diseases endocrinology portfolio which also includes Signifor, subcutaneous and intramuscular formulations, available across Europe, indicated for the treatment of adult patients with Cushing's disease for whom surgery is not an option or for whom surgery has failed, and for adult patients with acromegaly for whom surgery is not an option or has not been curative and who are inadequately controlled on treatment with another somatostatin analogue.5

High Burden of Disease and Impairment of Quality of Life

Cushing's disease, the most common form of endogenous CS, is associated with high morbidity and burden of disease.2 As a result, those affected suffer from considerable impairments in their quality of life. In addition, the disease is associated with a large number of significant concomitant diseases as a result of the excessively elevated cortisol levels.2 These include metabolic syndrome, sleep disorders, osteoporosis, increased susceptibility to infections and/or neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety.2 The mortality rate is correspondingly higher, in particular due to cardio-vascular complications. Without proper intervention to normalise cortisol levels, the mortality risk in patients with Cushing's disease is up to five times higher than in the general population.2 Besides, there are indications that negative physical and psychosocial consequences of chronic hypercortisolism can persist a long time after remission.2 Because of these potentially life-threatening risks, rapid diagnosis and treatment are necessary.2,6

Multidisciplinary Treatment with a Need for Optimization

CS or Cushing's disease require experienced multidisciplinary teams and individual treatment.2,7 Therapy goals are normalization of cortisol levels, improvement of clinical symptoms and quality of life as well as reduction of comorbidity-related risks.8,9

The primary treatment for Cushing's disease is the surgical resection of the pituitary tumor. However, about a third of the patients do not achieve remission or present with long-term recurrences and, therefore, they require further therapy. Possible therapeutic options are repeat surgery, radiotherapy, bilateral adrenalectomy or medical treatments. The latter act either centrally on the pituitary gland or peripherally on the adrenal gland by inhibiting steroid synthesis. They are also used to bridge the gap between diagnosis of the disease and surgery or radiotherapy or its onset of action, or when surgical treatment is not an option.2,6,8,9

However, these medical treatments can only be used to a limited extent and/or can be associated with serious disadvantages and risks. For example, up to 50% of patients with Cushing's syndrome fail to reach normal cortisol levels with the currently available medical treatments, which in up to 28% of cases leads to dose adjustment or therapy discontinuation. Thus, there is an unmet need for more effective pharmacological interventions.2,8,9

The introduction of osilodrostat has thus opened up new therapeutic options. The data from prospective studies with a well-planned design indicate that this active ingredient is a promising, effective therapy option which is well tolerated.3,4

About Cushing's Syndrome

Cushing's syndrome (CS) is caused by inappropriate and chronic exposure to excessive cortisol levels. The source of this excessive cortisol can be endogenous or exogenous (ie medication). Endogenous CS is most commonly caused either by an adrenal gland tumor (approx. 15%), leading to an excessive cortisol secretion, or by a pituitary adenoma (ie a tumor of the pituitary gland located in the brain) secreting excessive adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), which accounts for about 70% of cases. Remaining 15% of cases are of other (ectopic) origin.2,10,11 With a prevalence of 40 cases per million inhabitants and an incidence of 1.2 to 2.4 per million per year Cushing's disease is a rare disease.2,11 Women are affected about three times more often than men.2,7 The peak age is between the 4th and 6th decade of life.11 The disease is characterized by various long-term effects of glucocorticoids on organs and tissues and can, therefore, be very heterogeneous. Clinical symptoms include stretch marks on the skin (striae rubrae), obesity, muscle atrophy of the extremities, moon-shaped face, general weakness, osteoporosis, glucose intolerance, arterial hypertension, wound healing disorders, increased bleeding tendency and thromboembolic complications. However, many symptoms are non-specific and also appear in common diseases such as alcohol addiction, obesity or (poorly controlled) diabetes mellitus. Because of the low specificity of symptoms CS is often diagnosed late in the course of disease.6,10

Chronically elevated cortisol levels can lead to serious complications and comorbidities, severe impairment of quality of life and increased mortality.2,6 Therefore, normalizing cortisol levels is the main therapeutic goal.8,9 For most forms of CS surgical resection of the causative tumor is the primary treatment option. In case of a residual tumor or relapse irradiation is possible. However, symptoms decrease with a delay of several months to years. Medical treatments are used to bridge the gap between the diagnosis of the disease and surgery or until radiotherapy begins to work, as well as when there is no remission due to these procedures. A distinction is made between steroid synthesis inhibitors, which primarily act on adrenal gland, and substances, acting centrally on pituitary gland.6,8

About LINC-3

LINC-3 is a prospective 48-week, phase III, multi-center study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Isturisa in patients (N 137) with persistent or recurrent Cushing's disease or with De Novo disease, who are not eligible for surgical therapy. The study consisted of a 12-week open-label dose titration period, followed by a 12-week maintenant period and an 8-week double-blind, randomized withdrawal phase in which eligible patients were randomized to receive 1: 1 osilodrostat or placebo, followed by another 14-week open-label phase with osilodrostat. The primary endpoint was the proportion of randomized patients who maintained complete response (mUFC =ULN with no dose increase above the level at week 26) at the end of the 8-week randomized withdrawal period (week 34). The key secondary endpoint was the proportion of patients with normal mUFC at week 24 and with no dose increase above the level established at week 12.1,3

The primary study endpoint was reached: significantly more patients in the osilodrostat group maintained a normal mUFC value without dose increase than in the placebo group (86% vs. 29%; p 0.001) at the end of the 8-week randomized phase (week 34). More than half of the patients (53%) reached the key secondary endpoint of a normal mUFC value after the first 24 weeks of open therapy with osilodrostat, without increasing the dose after week 12. Two thirds (66%) of the patients had a normal mUFC at the end of the 48-week study. The reduction in cortisol levels was accompanied by improvements in cardiovascular and metabolic parameters (body weight, waist size, HbA1c, blood pressure). At week 48, 86% of the patients for whom data were available showed improvement in at least one physical characteristic of M. Cushing.1,3

Osilodrostat was well tolerated.3 The most commonly observed side effects in LINC-3 were nausea (42%), headache (34%), fatigue (44%) and adrenal insufficiency (51%).1

About Isturisa

Isturisa is a potent inhibitor of 11-hydroxylase (CYP11B1), the enzyme responsible for the final step of cortisol synthesis in the adrenal gland. Isturisa is taken twice daily and is available as 1 mg, 5 mg and 10 mg film-coated tablets. Please see the prescribing information for detailed recommendations for the use of this product.1

About Recordati Rare Diseases

The company's EMEA-headquarters is located in Puteaux, France, and its global headquarters is based in Milan, Italy.

For a complete list of products, visit www.recordatirarediseases.com/products.

You can find more information on our website at www.recordati.com and https://www.recordatirarediseases.com/ or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter for the latest company news.

About Recordati Group

Recordati, established in 1926, is an international pharmaceutical group, listed on the Italian Stock Exchange (Reuters RECI.MI, Bloomberg REC IM, ISIN IT 0003828271), with a total staff of more than 4,300, dedicated to the research, development, manufacturing and marketing of pharmaceuticals. Headquartered in Milan, Italy, Recordati has operations throughout the whole of Europe, including Russia, Turkey, North Africa, the United States of America, Canada, Mexico, some South American countries, Japan and Australia. An efficient field force of medical representatives promotes a wide range of innovative pharmaceuticals, both proprietary and under license, in several therapeutic areas including a specialized business dedicated to treatments for rare diseases. Recordati is a partner of choice for new product licenses for its territories. Recordati is committed to the research and development of new specialties with a focus on treatments for rare diseases. Consolidated revenue for 2019 was 1,481.8 million, operating income was 465.3 million and net income was 368.9 million.

References:

1 Isturisa Fachinformation, Mai 2020

2 Pivonello R et al. Endocrine 2017; 56: 10-18

3 Biller BMK et al. Journal of the Endocrine Society2019; 3 (Supplement 1): OR16-2

4 Ferriere A, Tabarin A. Best Pract Res Clin Endocrinol Metab 2020; 34 (2): 101381

5 Signifor and Signifor LAR Fachinformation, Juni 2018

6 Petersen S. Diagnostik und Therapie des Cushing-Syndroms. In: Endokrinologie Informationen; Sonderheft Marz 2017: 38-43

7 Lacroix A et al. Lancet 2015; 386: 913

8 Nieman LK et alJ Clin Endocrinol Metab2015; 100: 2807

9 Broersen LHA et al. Pituitary 2018; 21: 631

10 Nieman LK et al. Am J Med 2005; 118: 1340-1346

11 Pivonello R et al. Endocrine Reviews 2015; 36: 385-486

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200716005703/en/

Contacts:

For additional information:

Company Contact:

Claudia Limberger

Franchise Head Endocrinology Germany

E-Mail: limberger.c@recordati.com

Tel.: +49 1522 8897110
YEREVAN, JULY 14, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan has sent a congratulatory letter to President of France Emmanuel Macron on the French National Day, the Armenian PMs Office told Armenpress.

The letter runs as follows:

Dear Mr. President,

On behalf of the Armenian people and myself personally I warmly congratulate you and the good people of France of the National Day.

Thanks to the victory of freedom-loving and revolutionary spirit of the French people, the civilizational values of human rights, equality of citizens and enlightenment were put on the core of the historical development of Europe.

Today we are proud to record the presence of a high-level dialogue between Armenia and France which is based on the centuries-old Armenian-French historical and cultural ties and common values. Today, when the world has become unpredictable and full of challenges, we reaffirm our full readiness to continue expanding and deepening the cooperation between Armenia and France both at the bilateral and multilateral levels.

Armenia highly values Frances constructive and balanced mediation involvement to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process within the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair format as a guarantee for regional peace, stability and development.

I am looking forward to hosting you in Armenia on a state visit in the future.

I once again congratulate you on the French National Day, wishing you good health and energy, and to the good people of France  welfare and new achievements.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
Warning: This article includes content that some readers may find disturbing.

The mysterious deaths of over 360 elephants in Botswana are stoking fears that a new public health risk may unfold.

Almost two months after the unexplained deaths around watering holes were first reported in May this year, experts and conservationists remain confounded, as the elephants do not appear to have been killed for their ivory.

Niall McCann, director of conservation for the United Kingdom charity National Park Rescue, told CNN that the deaths were appalling. Underlining the need to discover the cause, McCann said until a definitive cause of death is established, there are several scenarios from an elephant parasite to COVID-19.

What I would like to emphasize is that this has the potential to be a public health crisis, McCann said.

So far, the elephant deaths have been concentrated in the Okavango Delta, within the area of around 8,000 square kilometers home to some 18,000 elephants, according to Reuters.

Botswana, home to the largest population of African elephants on the continent, is now testing the carcasses to determine the cause of the deaths. For now, it appears that only elephants have been struck down by this mystery illness; other species in the same areas as the elephant deaths remain unaffected.

The Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources, Conservation, and Tourism said in a statement they are waiting for further test results on the samples they sent to Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Canada, but preliminary results have ruled out any known disease.

However, Reuters stated, based on the government report seen by it, that live elephants have also been seen and appeared physically weak.

Several live elephants that we observed appeared to be weak, lethargic and emaciated. Some elephants appeared disorientated, had difficulty walking, showed signs of partial paralysis or a limp, the report said. One elephant was observed walking in circles, unable to change direction although being encouraged by other herd members.

Mmadi Reuben, the principal veterinary officer at the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, told Reuters that a virus, vegetation, overnutrition following last years drought, or anthrax could be blamed. No similar elephant deaths have been reported in southern Africa. Locals have been told to stay away from the carcasses.

We are not dealing with a common thing, it looks like its a rare cause, Reuben said.

Botswana, a landlocked nation, is a major range country for elephants in southern Africa and borders South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. It is believed to have an elephant population numbering 130,000, the largest in Africa.

Last year, Botswana had decided to scrap its 2014 ban on elephant hunting, which was greeted with international condemnation. Therefore, poaching has not been ruled out as it is not unknown for criminal gangs to poison elephants rather than shoot them.

With so many of the dead elephant bodies lying in the bush, the experts fear the carcasses will become a magnet for criminal gangs, ivory smugglers, who could also potentially become infected by whatever killed the elephants.

Elephant tusks are a precious commodity on the black market, with China, Thailand, and Vietnam being the main markets. The illegal trade in ivory has been ongoing for decades, ever since a worldwide ban was imposed in 1989. According to the International Union for Conservation of Natures (IUCN) Red List, African elephants remain vulnerable.

McCann emphasized while talking to CNN that it was important to identify what was killing elephants in such numbers, as the loss of elephants in Botswana was already globally significant.

Until a conclusive cause of death is established in Botswana, experts believe these elephant deaths could, as feared, be the next public health issue for this African nation. Not to mention the significant hit to elephant conservation efforts.

We would love to hear your stories! You can share them with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.nyc
(Natural News) Campus police say that the student who discovered notes containing racial slurs and abusive messages on his car last month likely placed them there himself. In a report by the Epoch Times, Isaih Martin, a senior at Texas A&M University, first reported that he found three hand-written notes attached to the windshield of his car, which was parked outside an on-campus apartment building.

The notes, Martin said, were filled with intimidating messages and a slur against the Black community.

The discovery of the notes immediately prompted an investigation, with the school offering a $1,200 reward to anyone who could provide leads and valid information to the authorities regarding the incident.

Those who promote hate, discrimination and disrespect are not welcomed at this institution. We are tired of bigoted members of our community marring the experiences of students of color, Texas A&M University President Michael K. Young said.

The final police report on the case, however, said that Martin might have staged the entire scenario.

A report released to KBTX said surveillance footage from a nearby pool camera showed that Martin, after parking his car at his apartment complex on George Bush Drive, walked into a nearby residential building and only went back to his car after an estimated 90 minutes.

As detailed in the report, Martin, upon his return, was seen toward the front of his vehicle with what looked to be white specks near his chest area. Martin, according to the police, spent a total of 75 seconds in front of his car, presumably to take photos and videos, before getting in his car and driving away. (Related: Democrats TERRORIZE themselves with endless parade of fake hate crime hoaxes and made-up fake news.)

In their report, campus police maintained that while footage from the same pool camera showed several people walking near Martins vehicle, the individuals were only near the car for a few seconds each.

No other person had enough time to place the messages on Martins car other than himself, the report concluded, adding that the District and County Attorneys Office, upon reviewing the initial findings, determined that no crime was committed as the notes found on Martins car did not contain a threat and that the incident fell under the 1st Amendment free speech protections.

Martin, in response to the police, said he is utterly disappointed and that there are several things that the police allegedly failed to include in their report.

I have no idea who it could have been and I stopped communicating with the cops. I wish they found who did this so they could be held accountable, he added.

Are campus hate crime hoaxes on the rise?

This is not the first hate crime hoax to be committed on a university campus, with a similar incident reported to have happened at the University of La Verne in California.

Last year, Anayeli Dominguez Pena, a former student at the university, was behind a series of at least 10 reported threats against members of a student group, one of which  the discovery of a backpack emitting smoke inside an unlocked vehicle in a dormitory parking lot  resulted in the cancellation of classes, according to a report by CBS Los Angeles.

An investigation by the La Verne Police Department, however, revealed Pena created fake messages and email accounts last spring and used them to fake threats against herself and several campus activists who, according to authorities, were unaware of the scheme.

Every single one in this photo will get what is coming to them, one of the messages  sent via Instagram direct messages  said, accompanied by a black-and-white group photo campus activists and other students of color who were well-known for organizing anti-racism protests on campus.

The police, in a statement, added that Pena, after reporting the threats to the authorities, applied for victim compensation from the California Victim Compensation Board.

According to the police, Pena now faces one felony count each of criminal threats and perjury by declaration as well as six misdemeanor counts of false report of a criminal offense and one misdemeanor count of internet/electronic impersonation.

Pena has entered a not guilty plea. Her bail, authorities said, was set at $136,000.

If convicted on all charges, Pena, according to the police, could face up to eight years in state prison.

In response to the development of the case, University of La Verne President Deborah Lieberman said they will take steps to improve inclusivity and diversity in the university within the upcoming months by implementing discussion with both staff and faculty.

Lieberman, in a statement, noted that Penas actions threaten to undermine the work that the university and its community is doing to address the issues of race and social justice.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

DailyMail.co.uk

KBTX.com

LosAngeles.CBSLocal.com

Newsweek.com

APNews.com

LVCampusTimes.org
Labor Party documents detailing allegations of corruption, forgery and branch stacking were removed from an ALP staffers garage and dumped in the bin behind an outer suburban chicken shop just weeks after Victorias anti-corruption commission announced a sweeping probe into similar allegations facing Andrews government ministers.

Before being dumped, the trove of old documents had been stored in the garage of Labor staffer Tony Peng, an employee of former Victorian government minister Marlene Kairouz.

Ms Kairouz was one of the ALP powerbrokers whose alleged misconduct sparked the biggest branch-stacking scandal in recent Labor history and forced her to resign from cabinet and move to the backbench.

Mr Peng is a long-time electorate officer for Ms Kairouz, who resigned in June following an investigation by The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes into branch-stacking allegations involving her and disgraced former minister Adem Somyurek.
A Los Angeles County superior court judge on Thursday dismissed a case against four social workers charged in the death of 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez.

Stefanie Rodriguez, 35; Patricia Clement, 69; and their respective supervisors, Kevin Bom, 41; and Gregory Merritt, 64, were charged in 2016 with one felony count each of child abuse and falsifying public records in connection to the May 2013 death.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said in a statement on Wednesday that the case was expected to be dismissed. A spokesperson for the county's superior court confirmed to NBC News on Thursday that Judge George Lomeli tossed out the case during a hearing earlier in the day.

A photo of Gabriel Fernandez is shown in the Netflix documentary series

In Lomeli's ruling, the judge found that the social workers were "factually innocent" of the crimes, according to NBC Los Angeles.

The Department of Children and Family Services issued a statement on Facebook saying it respect's the court's decision.

"Over the years, the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services has taken significant steps to mitigate risk and improve our capacity countywide in order to best serve vulnerable children and families and as a department we remain committed to ensuring that reform continues," the agency said.

The dismissal was expected after an appellate panel ruled in January that the social workers cannot be prosecuted in Gabriel's death because they did not have custody of Gabriel and could not have controlled the abusers' actions, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Gabriel died in May 2013 in Palmdale, north of Los Angeles, after he was brutally abused and tortured by his mother and her boyfriend. His skull was fractured and 12 of his ribs were broken, prosecutors said, and he was forced to eat cat feces and sleep bound and gagged in a cabinet at his home.

His mother, Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced in June 2018 to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Her boyfriend at the time, Isauro Aguirre, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Aguirre is still on death row.

Story continues

Prosecutors said at the trial that Aguirre "liked torture" and abused Gabriel because he thought the boy was gay.

During his sentencing, Aguirre said that "I want to say I'm sorry to my family for what I did. I wish Gabriel was alive," and "every day I wish that I made better choices," according to NBC Los Angeles.

The case was the subject of a Netflix documentary series in February, "The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez."
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Linkedin Mardika Parama and Riska Rahman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 16, 2020 13:12 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666c3fed 1 Business Garuda-Indonesia,mandatory-convertible-bond,PEN-pemulihan-ekonomi-nasional,economic-recovery,pandemic,PMN Free

The House of Representatives has given the green light for the government to provide Rp 8.5 trillion (US$583 million) for pandemic-hit national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, in the form of a mandatory convertible bond (MCB).

The MCB will require conversion of the said bond into stocks in accordance with the contractual conversion date. The MCB for the airline is expected to have a tenor of three years, with state-owned infrastructure financing company PT Sarana Multi Infrastruktur (SMI) projected to act as a buyer for the bond and eventually a shareholder of the company.

The legislature made the decision after a working meeting with State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Erick Thohir on Wednesday, citing the reason that Garuda could not receive state-capital injections (PMN) as it is a publicly listed company.

We proposed that Garuda receive MCB that could be converted for three years, as Garuda has been hit hard by the [COVID-19 pandemic] like other airlines around the world, Erick said.

The nations aviation industry has been severely impacted by the ongoing health crisis, with restrictions discouraging people from traveling. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has stated that 2020 will be the worst year in history for airlines, with global airlines expected to face a combined US$84.3 billion in losses.

The MCB scheme is part of the governments national economic recovery (PEN) program, to support the recovery of the virus battered economy. The government expects the fiscal deficit to reach 6.34 percent this year as it allocates Rp 695.2 trillion in stimuli, partially to bolster the economy amid the pandemic.

Under Government Regulation No. 23/3030 on the national economic recovery program, the government has allocated more than Rp 152 trillion to bail out SOEs through PMN, among other mechanisms, of which Garuda is set to receive Rp 8.5 trillion.

Garuda Indonesia service and business development director Ade R. Susardi said on a separate occasion that the company was in dire need of government funding as it had been operating at a loss since the COVID-19 outbreak hit Indonesia.

Our flight occupancy rate currently stands at around 40 percent, which cannot even cover the operation cost. We hope that Garuda can receive funding in the form of MCB, he said during an online webinar held by The Habibie Center on Wednesday.

Garudas flight traffic has also fallen to around 40 daily flights as of July from the average rate of 330 daily flights before the crisis, Ade added.

As the number of passengers fell, Garuda saw a 30 percent year-on-year slump in revenue to $768.12 million in the first quarter from $1.1 billion in the same period last year. The company also booked a $120 million loss in the first quarter this year, compared to $20.48 million profit in the January-March period of 2019.

Read also: Garuda books $120m net loss in Q1 as travel industry hit hard by COVID-19

Amid its financial woes, the company recently secured a three-year extension on $500 million worth of global sukuk (global Islamic bonds) that were due in June, as a result of liquidity problems caused by the pandemic.

We are now trying to increase the number of passengers in order to help Garuda by convincing passengers that it is safe to fly. With the rising number of passengers, we can boost our cash flow, Ade said.

Convincing the public about the safety of air travel has become a major challenge for the aviation industry, as in a recent survey conducted by state-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura I, 84 percent of respondents said they were still taking a "wait-and-see" approach toward using air transportation.

Garuda was previously embroiled in an incident on June 27, when a passenger was allowed to board a Garuda Indonesia flight from Jakarta to Sorong, West Papua, despite having recently tested positive for COVID-19.
The Presidential Task force (PTF) on COVID-19 has revealed that 63 per cent of hand sanitisers sold in Abuja have no NAFDAC registration.

The Chairman of the PTF and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, stated this while Speaking at the daily briefing of the PTF COVID-19 on Monday in Abuja,

Mr Mustapha said As part of the non-pharmaceutical measures, we recommended in line with global practice, the use of hand sanitiser. Ordinarily, that ought to stimulate local production because of increased demand.

We regret to inform you that a survey conducted by the Nigeria Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD), to check the influx of substandard goods into the market, revealed that 63 per cent of alcohol-based sanitiser in Abuja do not have NAFDAC registration numbers.

There could also be similar situations around the country. The Hon. Minister of Health has consequently issued an advisory to the general public to procure their sanitiser and other pharmaceutical products from credible sources, he said.

Mr Mustapha equally appealed to the patriotic spirit of Nigerians and requested that they should desist from manufacturing sub-standard goods, which could further endanger other unsuspecting Nigerians who innocently purchase them.

Now is the time to turn adversity into victory by growing our entrepreneurial skills and industrial base.

Let us find growth at the end of the pandemic. Today, we have been compelled to add the fight against fake products to our national response. he said.

The SGF also frowned at violation of COVID-19 protocol at the airports by some VIPs and warned against such actions.

The chairman said You will all recall that the Aviation sector reopened for domestic operations on 8th July, 2020. Dry runs were carried out and guidelines meant to protect all travellers were issued.

You also recall that we identified and pleaded even before now, with certain classes of persons, particularly VIPs, to desist from flouting such guidelines.

READ ALSO:

Unfortunately, we have received reports about violations by some dignitaries who failed to follow the protocols at our airports.

 We believe leaders must lead by example. In truth, as leaders and followers, we must change our behaviour if we must overcome the pandemic.

This virus does not discriminate by status, age, tribe, creed or colour. All we require is diligent compliance and vigilance. the chairman added.

(NAN)
A Twitter hack on Wednesday affected the operations of the National Weather Service (NWS), preventing some offices from using the service to disseminate severe weather warnings. In one case, local NWS Twitter feeds were unable to alert users of the popular social media platform to a sizable tornado in central Illinois.

The Twitter incident, which was the biggest security breakdown in its history, demonstrated the problems that can arise if people rely on only one method of receiving weather warnings.

The security breach plastered high-profile accounts with solicitations for followers to participate in a cryptocurrency scam. It allowed false tweets to be posted on the timelines of politicians and celebrities, and led Twitter to temporarily limit the functionality of all verified accounts, which were unable to tweet between about 6:20 p.m. and 8:40 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday. That affected the accounts of National Weather Service forecast offices, some of which were in the midst of severe-weather coverage. The National Weather Service office covering parts of Illinois, for example, was tracking a large tornado at about 5 p.m. Central time.

The NWS's St. Louis forecast office tweeted several warnings and interacted with followers to take in storm reports through 5:06 p.m. Central time; the next tweet came more than two hours later, at 7:35 p.m.

That office was unable to tweet a tornado warning issued at 5:13 p.m. for portions of Clinton, Monroe, St. Clair and Washington counties in south-central Illinois. No tornado touched down with that storm.

Meanwhile, a second dangerous storm was brewing farther north. The St. Louis office issued a tornado warning at 4:38 p.m. Central time for northern Macoupin and Montgomery counties, and it was able to tweet that to its nearly 32,000 followers - along with several updates. A tornado was first reported in Macoupin County, which is located in the St. Louis office's county warning area.

But by the time that storm - including a tornado - moved into the territory covered by the NWS forecast office in Lincoln, Ill., that office appeared to be unable to tweet any warnings to its nearly 18,000 followers. Between 4:49 p.m. and 6:53 p.m. Central time, no tweets emanated from the office.

Typically, NWS offices use Twitter to disseminate warnings and receive storm reports, but the agency, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), views Twitter as a supplemental way of distributing potentially lifesaving weather alerts, rather than a primary way to reach the public.

The tornado affected parts of central Illinois south of Springfield. The National Weather Service in Lincoln issued a tornado warning for portions of Christian and Sangamon at 5:26 p.m. Central time, but the office's Twitter feed remained silent. Weather spotters had confirmed a damaging tornado before the warning's issuance.

"I was doing the warnings yesterday, so when I issued the initial warning, I said 'confirmed spotter reported tornado,' " said Ed Shimon, an NWS meteorologist at the Lincoln office.

Tornado warnings were still disseminated via the emergency alert system, wireless emergency alerts, and local broadcasters.

One official NWS Twitter account, a verified "bot" that tweets computer-generated graphics of tornado watches and warnings along with their expiration times, appears to have continued tweeting relatively unimpeded during the outage.

The @NWSTornado automated account tweeted the 5:38 p.m. tornado warning the moment it was issued at 5:37 p.m., specifically mentioning Divernon, Ill. - where the large tornado was seen - in the tweet.

The Lincoln office did employ a workaround when partial functionality appeared to allow it to retweet other tweets. The office previously had constructed an unverified Twitter bot that tweets warnings in parallel to whatever the office issues. The main NWS Lincoln verified account retweeted a dozen warnings, updates, and storm reports from that unverified account between 6:53 p.m. and 7:36 p.m. Central time.

"The bot is usually our automated way to get it out," said Shimon. "We had to manually retweet that."

The tornado does not appear to have caused much damage and has not yet been assigned an intensity rating. "The emergency manager drove all the way through there. He said he didn't see any corn crop damage," Shimon said.

The agency stressed that social media is one of myriad avenues it uses to get warnings to the public.

"People can receive weather forecasts and warnings in a number of ways," wrote Susan Buchanan, a public affairs specialist at the National Weather Service, in an emailed statement to The Washington Post. "[This includes] Wireless Emergency Alerts on their cell phones, weather.gov, the NWS mobile site, NOAA Weather Radio, local television and radio stations and their websites, private weather companies and apps, and on social media."

Buchanan noted that the Twitter outage "did not affect . . . forecast operations," and that warnings flowed normally through other channels.

On the weather.gov website, the National Weather Service lists Twitter as "a supplemental service," stating that posts were made "on a time-available basis."

The National Weather Service stated that it does not have plans to create any non-verified emergency accounts in response to the Twitter hack.

Earlier this month, NOAA suffered a security breach when mPING, a weather-reporting application operated through a joint venture between the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory and the University of Oklahoma, was compromised and displayed numerous false reports of weather conditions. That service remains temporarily offline.
This global coronavirus pandemic has exposed how much power the executive and judicial branches of state government can hold over the legislative branch, particularly in emergencies  and in the minds of the lawmakers, its time for some re-shifting.

Some proposed changes to the state constitution have been approved this week by the Legislature this week to assert themselves as a co-equal governmental branch by giving state legislators more say during emergency declarations.

Another proposed constitutional amendment aimed at providing more geographic diversity on the states appellate courts would give legislators the power to draw up maps establishing judicial districts from which the states appellate court judges and justices are elected.

Supporters of the proposed amendments maintain these reforms are intended to put these key decisions in the hands of elected state officials who closest to the people or voters themselves. Democratic opponents countered they saw both measures as political power grabs by the Republican majority.

The proposed constitutional changes have completed the first leg of the constitutional amendment journey. Identical legislation would need to be approved again by both the House and Senate in the 2021-22 legislative session that begins in January.

If it gains both chambers support, it would go to the voters for approval. Gov. Tom Wolf would have no opportunity to veto legislation containing a proposed constitutional amendment.

Republican lawmakers have been frustrated with Wolfs COVID-19-related restrictions, a recent state Supreme Court ruling that rejected a legislative effort to end the governors disaster declaration and other appellate court battles they lost. Democrats hold a majority on the state Supreme Court.

Given all of those factors, its possible voters could be asked to consider a ratification vote on these amendments as soon as the spring primary.

Specifically, the proposed constitutional amendments would:

Limit a governors disaster declaration to 21 days. Currently, those declarations last 90 days. It would allow the General Assembly to extend a disaster declaration past that timeframe upon its expiration but a governor would not be permitted to declare a new state of emergency for the same reason without the General Assemblys consent.

Clarify a constitutional provision to allow the legislative branch to terminate or extend a disaster declaration through a majority vote of both houses through a concurrent resolution that would not require the governor to sign off on it.

Provide protection against racial or ethnic discrimination.

Move to regional elections of Commonwealth and Superior judges and Supreme Court justices, who are currently elected on a statewide basis. Lawmakers would be in charge of drawing the judicial district regional boundaries. Judges would be required to residents for at least a year of the district they represent.

Both measures drew impassioned debates in both chambers and passed mostly along party lines.

During Wednesdays Senate committee debate on limiting a governors emergency disaster declaration to 21 days, Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa of Allegheny County said shortening the timeframe to three weeks from the current three months would make it impossible for a governor to do what needs to be done in a disaster.

The work Governor Wolf and [state Health] Secretary [Dr. Rachel] Levine have done with regard to managing this pandemic has been tremendous, Costa said. To limit their ability to be able to do so before coming back to the Legislature to get permission to be able to continue to be able to do that to me is extremely unreasonable.

Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre County, countered that argument, saying given the recent court decision he considers this amendment to be appropriate. Further, he said he believes the General Assembly have the ability to work with a governor to provide whatever resources are needed in emergencies.

Right now, we have a unilateral government: the governor. Thats it. What the governor says goes. And I dont think any designer of democracy, at least representative democracy, considered that, Corman said. I think this is a time for us to stand up this institution that we all serve."

Sen. Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland County, who sponsored the legislation, agreed that the way state government has functioned through this pandemic has created a backslide of our representative republic from at-home orders to school closings to business shutdowns, all of these decisions have been made unilaterally without legislative input.

She said this proposed amendment will give our constituents a voice as to how they want their government to function during a state of emergency.

But Sen. Sharif Street, D-Philadelphia, said he sees this proposed constitutional amendment as having the potential of wrongly giving the majority party that controls the House and Senate the authority to end a disaster.

During the House debate on this same proposed amendment on Tuesday, Rep. Russ Diamond, R-Lebanon County, argued that reasserting the legislative branchs authority in those situations is necessary to restore checks and balances between governmental branches.

In future disaster emergencies, he said the governor would have to give us a sales pitch to tell us why we should allow this to continue. If he doesnt do that, the disaster emergency ends.

Opponents in that chamber, meanwhile, called it an unwise decision. Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, D-Philadelphia, said it creates the potential for an untenable situation in times of emergency.

You cant allow 253 people to deal with an emergency when were learning things every single day when things are changing, he said. I think that this vote will be one that we will seriously regret, tying the hands of our executive at a time when we need singular leadership.

The House passed this measure on Tuesday by a 115-86 vote. The Senate voted 33-17 on Wednesday to approve the proposed amendment.

The other constitutional amendment dealing with switching to regional elections of appellate court judges was just as controversial.

It would divide the state into nine Commonwealth Court districts, 15 Superior Court districts, and seven Supreme Court districts. Each region would be required to have as equal as possible population and each district would be required to be compact and have contiguous geographical boundaries.

Supporters argued that 11 other states select appellate judges in this way but Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, pointed out none elect their state Supreme Court justices through regional elections. He referred to the measure as judicial gerrymandering and a pure political power grab by the Republican majority that controls the House Senate.

Sen. Judy Ward, R-Blair County, said it was offensive to her to hear opponents call it judicial gerrymandering.

This is about fairness, she said. Fairness for rural parts of the state to get a fair shake to deal with their issues on a fair basis with judges who understand their rural issues.

Sen. Kristen Phillips-Hill, R-York County, elaborated on that point during Mondays Senate committee discussion of the proposed amendment. She said the current statewide election of appellate court judges has resulted in her home county not having a judge or justice serve on the Commonwealth, Superior or Supreme Court bench in 51 years. Meanwhile, she said 55% of all judges came from Philadelphia and Allegheny counties, despite the fact those counties make up 22% of the states population.

Sen. Katie Muth, D-Montgomery County, argued this proposed change disenfranchises voters in the commonwealth by limiting their vote to one member of each appellate court and takes away their ability to vote for all appellate judges.

Further, she said the Philadelphia Bar Association opposes this change, in part because it makes appellate court judges beholden to the legislative branch which is responsible for drawing the proposed 31 judicial district boundaries after each census.

Beyond that, the Pennsylvania Association for Justice opposes it because it forces judges to favor local politics over the rule of law.

The Senate narrowly voted 26-24 on Wednesday to approve this proposed constitutional amendment. The House passed it in December by a 102-95 vote.

Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.

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BRIDGEPORT  Declan Kot had been hammered, according to his statement to police.

He had consumed six alcoholic drinks on a friends boat on July 4 and his girlfriend ended up having to drive his Dodge Ram pickup truck while he slept it off in the passenger seat. But, police said, after dropping his girlfriend off at her home in Fairfield, Kot, 22, said felt well enough to drive to his home in Easton.

Marileidy Morel-Araujo never saw Kot speeding towards her.

On Wednesday, Kot was arraigned in state Superior Court for the 32-year-old Morel-Araujos death.

Standing beside his lawyer, John R. Gulash, before a video camera in a separate courtroom because of pandemic precautions, Kot pleaded not guilty before Judge Kevin Doyle to evading responsibility involving a fatality, misconduct with a motor vehicle, tampering with evidence and motor vehicle charges. He and his lawyer also asked for a jury trial.

Supervisory Assistant States Attorney Cornelius Kelly told the judge the state may add manslaughter charges as the investigation unfolds. He said they have additional evidence that Kot had been drinking before the crash.

Doyle denied a motion from Gulash to take off the restriction, which bans Kot, who is free on bond, from driving.

I understand part of the investigation reveals there was drinking that day but the court could satisfy any concerns by requiring he have an ignition locking device. He certainly would be willing to have that as a condition, Gulash argued.

But Kelly said he and the victims family, who he has been in contact with, would object to allowing Kott to continue driving.

The judge continued the case to July 30.

We are going to take it one step at a time, Gulash commented as he and Kot left the Fairfield County Courthouse.

Morel-Araujo and her boyfriend, Daniel Fernandez, had gone to Fairfield from their home in Pennsylvania for a 4th of July barbecue with Fernandezs sister, Denise Fernandez, who has a home on Redding Road.

At 7:30 p.m. on July 4, police said Morel-Araujo took her dog, Coal, for a walk on Redding Road.

A Fairfield man, who had gone out for ice cream with his girlfriend, was driving home to his house on Redding Road when his girlfriend spotted Morel-Araujo bleeding in the roadway. She shouted, Oh my god, stop there is a woman in the road, police said.

The couple stopped their vehicle and went to check on Morel-Araujo, soon joined by a Bridgeport man who happened on the scene a minute later. The Bridgeport man got out of his car and held Morel-Araujos hand until help arrived, police said.

Meanwhile, Denise Fernandez noticed flashing emergency lights at the end of her driveway and went out to investigate. Police said Fernandez saw emergency personnel hovering over the body of a young woman in the street. A little white dog was wandering around near the womans body and Fernandez thought it looked very much like her brothers dog Coal.

A short time later officers arrived at the Fernandez home with the sad news.

Police said there was confusion when witnesses initially identified the striking vehicle as a dark green Jeep with an American flag streaming from the back.

Video from adjacent homes, as well as pieces of the striking vehicle left at the scene, determined it was a white Dodge pickup, a large American flag affixed to its rear bumper. They said video showed the truck had swerved across the yellow line on Redding Road and the passenger side mirror had struck Morel-Araujo in the back of the head causing her to fall face forward onto the pavement.

On July 7, Fairfield Police Officer Virgil Procaccini was on routine patrol when he spotted a pickup matching the description and pulled it over. The driver, Kot, agreed to go to police headquarters.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit, Kot admitted he had been driving his pickup after consuming six alcoholic drinks.

He drove off the road near some bushes/trees and heard a loud bang on the side of his vehicle which startled him; he thought he hit a tree branch at the time, police stated in the affidavit, noting the area of the collision does not have any shrubbery or trees.

According to the affidavit, Kot said when he got home, he noticed missing pieces on his passenger side mirror and replaced the mirror.

During this interview, Kot began to cry and, the affidavit states, he was internally totally panicked. Then, police said, Kot admitted seeing the victim on the side of the road.
A suspect in the June homicide of a 70-year-old man who was shot and killed after being caught in crossfire in southwest Birmingham is set to be transported from Tennessee to Jefferson County after an arrest warrant was obtained for the mans arrest, police said.

Birmingham resident Brandon Parker, 36, who is currently in the custody of the Sevier County Jail in Tennessee on unrelated charges, is scheduled to be transferred to the Jefferson County Jail on a murder warrant in connection with the death of 70-year-old Larry Pettway.

Pettway was found unresponsive on the sidewalk of 17th Street S.W. and Jefferson Avenue on the night of June 5. He was taken to UAB Hospital where he later died. According to the preliminary investigation into the incident, Pettway appeared to have been caught in the crossfire as shots rang out on the street, police said.

Parker is expected to be held in the Jefferson County Jail on $50,000 bond.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) incubated start-up Modulus Housing, has developed a portable hospital unit that can be installed anywhere within two hours by four people, said a statement from the institute on Thursday.

Called MediCAB, it aims to decentralize the approach to detect, screen, identify, isolate and treat COVID-19 patients in their local communities through these portable microstructures.

MediCAB has been launched recently in Wayanad District of Kerala where the units are being deployed to treat COVID-19 Patients, the statement said, adding that the startup is developing micro-hospitals that can be deployed rapidly across the nation. The Medicab is foldable and is composed of four zones  a doctor's room, an isolation room, a medical room/ward and a twin-bed ICU, maintained at negative pressure.

Founded by two IIT alumni in 2018, Modulus Housing was supported by IIT Madras Incubation Cell and has a vision to revolutionise housing through modular prefab structures. They have re-purposed their designs to support the fight against COVID-19.

Modulus said that it is working on a dual design where these can be rapidly launched as COVID-19 isolation wards. Post-COVID-19, these can be transformed into micro-hospitals or clinics in rural India where the medical infrastructure needs to be augmented. Modulus Housing has set up its manufacturing unit at Chengalpet (located about 35 kms from Chennai).

India has 0.7 beds per 1,000 persons. Innovations such as the MediCAB will help boost the healthcare infrastructure in India as it can be rapidly transported, the statement said.

This deployment in Kerala has been undertaken with grant funds from Habitat for Humanitys Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter.

The startup collaborated with Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) who provided inputs on the certifications and customizations necessary for the project. A demonstration video of the MediCAB can be obtained by visiting

https://fromsmash.com/IIT-Madras-MediCAB-Demo.
The most virulent scourge affecting the United States today is not the Wuhan coronavirus; rather, its the politicization of the pandemic by leftist Democrats to remove a duly elected President. History has never witnessed a more concerted effort to negate the will of the American electorate. Donald J. Trump has endured this unprecedented onslaught of vitriol, hate, and falsehoods perpetrated by leftist Democrat politicians, mainstream propagandists, and liberal progressives. Consequently, the government has been at a virtual standstill as Democrats inflict one manufactured crisis after another on the American people with the goal of removing the President.

Case in point, the U.S. response to the Wuhan coronavirus has been gratuitously overblown. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the current infection fatality rate for the virus is less than 0.26%. The inordinate response to the virus resulted in the contraction of a once robust economy by 5% during the first quarter of 2020 thus ending the longest period of economic expansion in our nations history. An unemployment rate under 4%, the best in half a century, jumped to over 13% in a matter of weeks. Six months after the first U.S. case of coronavirus was identified in Washington state, the country still languishes in a state of limbo between opening the economy and keeping the economy shut down.

This irrational response to a virus lethal to only a small segment of Americans, was meticulously orchestrated. In August 2019, Democrats first realized their best hope of beating Donald Trump in 2020 was a recession. Not just an economic downturn; but, a full-fledged, violent contraction of the mighty U.S. economy with all of its commensurate baggage including massive unemployment. Democrats understood Americans could not be compelled to vote for a party bereft of tangible ideas unless the country was suffering. Numerous liberal media outlets quickly chimed in with opinion pieces supporting this hypothesis including the Washington Post, New York Times, The Atlantic, the Boston Globe, The Hill and CNBC.

Still in the midst of a pointless impeachment of the President, Democrats had already concluded the coronavirus was on deck to become the next national crisis. After all, the Ukraine debacle immediately replaced the Russia hoax when Robert Mueller couldnt come up with any dirt. Luckily for Democrats, the Wuhan coronavirus showed promise as the best vehicle to quickly undo three years of economic progress under Donald Trump.

After a partisan House vote to impeach the President took place on December 18, 2019, Speaker Nancy Pelosi did something strange. She delayed sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate for nearly a month, citing fears the Senate would not conduct a fair trial. Coincidently, during the delay, the coronavirus spread outside China and begin to infect people worldwide.

The first Chinese case of coronavirus was reported in Wuhan on December 1, 2019 fully two weeks before the impeachment vote. Two days after the virus was detected outside China and four days before the first confirmed U.S. case, Pelosi turned impeachment articles over to the Senate. Without enough Democrat votes in the Senate to convict Trump of the ludicrous charges dreamt up by Jerry Nadler and his cronies, Pelosi had positioned the Democrat party to begin the next phase (and theres always a next phase) to remove the President after his anticipated acquittal.

As the coronavirus began to infect Americans, the President was advised to curtail economic activity on a nationwide level by medical experts who, to this day, still peddle fear and uncertainty. The Democrat machine kicked-into action to ensure the shutdown would be long, excruciating, difficult and Trumps fault. Without a thought for their constituents, Democrat politicians at the local, state, and national level, used fear to keep the country from moving past the crisis.

Never have so few done so much to debilitate so many Americans. The medical experts issued frequent contradictory and increasingly draconian guidelines adding to the prevailing fear. Dont wear a mask. Wear a mask. Go to the grocery store; but, dont go to church. Protest, riot, loot, shoot, burn and run rampant through the streets of cities; but, dont go to school. No swimming, fishing, commuting, traveling, working, eating out, going to bars, partying or sunbathing until a vaccine is developed. Stay in your homes. Socially distance. Eat contact free pizza and tacos. Be together alone. Dont pay your bills. Go bankrupt. Do your part because were all in this together!

When several states decided enough was enough and began to re-open businesses, an increase in testing identified numerous asymptomatic coronavirus infections and people with antigens. While the number of infections increased, deaths and hospitalizations did not return to previous highs. Democrats, once again, lambasted those governors who had the audacity to re-open prior to the November election calling them reckless, callous, selfish and greedy. Bending to the caterwauling, some governors reinstituted mitigation measures. But the increase in infections highlighted an inconvenient truth -- the more infections identified, the lower the infection fatality rate. This fact was buried by the propagandists in the media for failing to progress their narrative of fear.

According to the latest CDC statistics, 1 in 107 Americans have contracted coronavirus. That statistic is misleading since up to 75% of individuals infected with the virus are asymptomatic. The number of Americans infected with coronavirus is likely much higher than reported since people without symptoms typically dont get tested. Statistics also indicate approximately 1 in 2,500 Americans died due to coronavirus complications. Yet, when variables such as age, sex, medical conditions and commitment to social distancing are factored into the equation, the odds of death by coronavirus are significantly reduced. For example, if you are under the age of 25, your odds of being infected and dying of coronavirus are 1 in 1.8 million.

In response to the infection uptick, many local governments mandated the wearing of masks in public despite knowing that no face mask can completely filter out all coronavirus virions, which range in size from 0.06 to 0.14 microns in diameter. One study concluded cotton face coverings block only 28% of particles, surgical masks capture 80%, and a fit-tested N95 mask can block up to 99.7% of particles. If the goal is to protect the public from coronavirus infection, wouldnt mandating the wearing of N95 masks in public be more effective? Of course, it would; but, N95 masks are reserved for healthcare professionals. Though only partially effective, the wearing of face masks makes an unknowing populace feel safer. Government must be seen to be doing something even if those actions are only partially effective.

The President has his back against the wall enduring death by a thousand cuts as Democrat lies, misinformation and fearmongering continue to influence the electorate. When coronavirus infections diminish as expected in the coming months, Democrats will, once again, pull out their knives to make the next cut -- probably another impeachment. As we get closer to the November election, these new crises will undoubtedly make coronavirus and the violent riots against systemic racism pale in comparison.

Michael J. Mueller, MAEd, is a writer, eLearning developer, and former all-source intelligence analyst/reporter with the U.S. Navy.
Our world is full of Gods beauty and His designs in nature. There are: giant trees in California, the many beautiful lakes in Texas, glorious fall tree colors in the Carolinas, the mountains in Montana and in the Smokies, as well as the seas and oceans bordering our country on three sides. All were made in the beginning of our land. John, Jesus disciple, explains it in this manner:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God

and the Word was God. John 1:1.

Our world was created just for us. We are all Gods handiwork - made by His creation.

As Americans, we love to be able to visit Gods beauty in nature, made for us to enjoy. We may only be able to take short trips, but there is much beauty to enjoy, even an hour or two from our homes. With a few different items like our picnic lunch, our masks, and plenty of hand sanitizer, and gloves (for pumping gas!) we can take in some new countryside in our beautiful land. As we come back home, we could stop and star-gaze if its late enough. It may be a different vacation, but one to remember.

God, in His word, has given us some ideas about the beauty of where He and all the saints livein heaven. He tells us about our natural body there:

It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there a natural body,

there also a spiritual body. First Corinthians 15:44.

Not only are our beautiful friends and family there, but we are told of many more lovely things there, which God created in heaven for us. He tells us this:

just as it is written, Things which eye has not seen and ear

has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all

that God has prepared for those who love Him.  First Corinthians 2:9.

We see in Revelation 21 and 22 (the last two chapters), God gives us some idea of the beauty we will see in His Holy City where we will live as we experience heaven. There are beautiful jewels in its foundation, gates of pearl, and streets of goldjust to mention a few.

Many years ago, I read a tiny article in the newspaper of a test pilot who flew a new jet farther and faster than any other jet had ever been. He had reached warp speed and looked out his side window. This is the way he told it. As he looked, he saw this:

I saw a huge building just hanging in the air. It was a castle-like

structure just hanging there in the sky. Being far away, I couldnt

see small details, but it had many tall towers coming up from the

castle walls. It was sparkling all over with a golden light. I didnt

move closer, but it just hung there, brilliant and just waiting for

something to possibly pull it toward the earth.

Could that have been the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride for her husband? One day, well know the answer.

Comments welcomed to gailbox@consolidated.net
Rutgers University will cut a campus fee by 15% as it continues to hold classes mostly online this fall, the school announced Thursday.

The university has already said tuition will remain flat for the 2020-2021 academic year, even as it faces a budget shortfall of $160 million. And its new president, Jonathan Holloway, said he would take a 10% pay cut.

Cutting the campus fee, which supports student services and the library, among other resources, will save students at least $300 this fall, Holloway said in a statement.

Colleges came under fire for charging full tuition during the spring semester as they moved classes online to combat the spread of the coronavirus. Some families brought class action lawsuits seeking refunds, and a state lawmaker introduced a bill that would require schools to give 25% of tuition costs back to students.

The Rutgers news comes after Princeton University said it would reduce tuition by 10% and The College of New Jersey eliminated several fees, allowing students to save 2.5% to 3.5% of the total cost. Rowan University has offered scholarships of up to $5,000 for some students who enroll in all-online courses.

Holloway said Rutgers has already furloughed workers. But further tuition discounts are not so feasible, as the university must use tuition to pay salaried employees as they teach remotely or work to maintain the campus.

New Jersey has suffered immensely from the virus and its devastating effect on our economy, Holloway said. No one in the Rutgers community has been immune from the impact of the pandemic.

Rutgers remains committed to doing everything it can to help our students, our community, and our state persevere through this crisis, he said.

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Amanda Hoover may be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj.
Press Release

July 16, 2020 Stem enrollment drop, provide more financial aid to students, teachers: Pangilinan AS THE pandemic caused enrollment to drop for the coming school year, Senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan on Thursday urged the Department of Education (DepEd) to make available more financial aid and other assistance to both students and teachers. Local government units, through their Special Education Fund and other programs, should offer a wide range of support such as scholarships for their constituents who want to study under the new normal setup. He also urged the public to donate smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers to Vice President Leni Robredo's campaign to assist in distance learning. At the same time, Pangilinan also encouraged young people to study agriculture and go into farming and help make the country food-secure, especially during the pandemic. "Ang edukasyon ay para sa lahat. Pero dahil sa maraming nawalan ng trabaho, milyon na ang nag-d-drop out sa pag-aaral. Para makapag-aral pa ang mas marami ngayong pandemya, tulungan nating itawid ang mga mag-aaral at titser nating walang mga device na maaaring magamit para sa blended learning sa darating na pasukan," he said. Donations may be coursed through the Vice President's FB page here: https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2930340530416929&id=283945495056459, where she also requested for chargers that came with the device. Earlier, Pangilinan has recommended that the Department of Information and Communications Technology ensure Internet connection for distance learning. "Ayaw nating manganak pa ng krisis ang pandemya kung mag-d-drop out ang marami. Mas pangmatagalan ang impact nito," he added. As of 8 a.m. July 9, enrollment deadline, enrollment at public schools was 19.14 million (or 84.8 percent of last year's total) and at private schools, 1.5 million (or 24.3 percent of last year's), according to the Department of Education (DepEd). Total public and private school enrollment of 20.22 million was just 72.7 percent of the 2019-2020 enrollment figure, it said. Pangilinan said this would mean that many private school teachers would be losing their jobs. "Kaya hinihikayat natin ang DepEd na palawakin ang mga programang maaaring kailanganin ng serbisyo ng mga private school teachers," he said. Pangilinan, a lawyer and educator himself, said the DepEd should carefully recalibrate its proposed budget for 2021 to cover the needs for online and blended learning that would keep children in their homes while studying amid the health crisis. When the budget bill reaches them, he said the Senate will thoroughly assess the proposed appropriations of agencies to see to it that money goes to the most pressing needs such as education. According to the group Save the Children, the pandemic has caused an "unprecedented education emergency" with up to 9.7 million children worldwide affected by school closures at risk of never going back to class. With many young people required to work or girls forced into early marriage to support their families, this could see between 7 million and 9.7 million children dropping out of school permanently, the group said in a Reuters report.
The two out of three Lebanon County Commissioners who voted to reopen the county during the coronavirus pandemic before they got the directive from the state should have listened to the rules, Gov. Tom Wolf said at a press conference on Thursday.

The county is losing out on $13 million in federal funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, known as the CARES Act, according to a letter written by Lebanon Valley Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Karen Groh.

Approved by Congress in March, the act was passed to help ease the looming financial burden of businesses, nonprofits, and government entities from state-required shut down orders meant to flatten the novel coronavirus curve. Lebanon didnt wait for the governors administrations approval to reopen.

Lebanon County made the threat, I mean there were other counties that made the threat, but they actually didnt go through with it, Wolf said.

County governments are eligible to receive COVID-19 County Block Grant Program funding through the state department of Community and Economic Development. The latest update on federal funds to Lebanon County shows that there isnt any in the pipeline for the rest of the year.

U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser also supports the same efforts as Groh. He wrote a letter to Wolf on July 15 saying withholding available funds from Lebanon County is a contradiction of the acts purpose.

While Act 24 outlines that all counties shall receive formulaic funding based upon population, DCED added additional requirements requiring counties to follow all state-issued closure orders to guarantee eligibility, he wrote. This is in direct conflict with the legislative intent of the parameters of the County Relief Block Grant program.

All counties should stand to receive the financial support, Meuser wrote.

Sixtysix of 67 counties have received their funding and are working quickly to infuse it into their local economies, helping thousands of businesses, nonprofits, municipalities, and more, Groh wrote. Lebanon County is the only one left in Pennsylvania that has not received the money as promised by the Federal Government.

State department of health officials said Lebanon County got ahead of Wolfs reopening strategy. They said that was evident in the number of increased cases reported there of people contracting COVID-19. Lebanon was among the last of Pennsylvanias 67 counties to be allowed to lift restrictions.

Wolfs message to the countys leaders, OK, then dont come say you want something from the state, uh, when you havent followed the rules. He also said it isnt punishment.

There are consequences, and these are the consequences, Wolf said. I think Im being consistent here.

But, Lebanons business community is pushing back.

This is an unacceptable exclusion of just one county, Groh wrote. This money, close to $13 million, is desperately needed to help our business community continue to recover and survive the ongoing restrictions and added costs to follow CDC guidelines. Tourism, small business, nonprofits, and more have been patiently waiting to apply for this grant money as announced by the state. To take that away is an unfair punishment.

She concluded: We implore you to reconsider this decision as Lebanon County deserves every right to provide this recovery funding as the other 66 counties in Pennsylvania.

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BEIJINGA 15-year-old boy has died in western Mongolia of bubonic plague after eating an infected marmot, the countrys health ministry announced.

Two other teenagers who also ate the marmot were being treated with antibiotics, ministry spokesperson Narangerel Dorj said.

The government imposed a quarantine on a portion of Gobi-Altai province, where the cases occurred. The health ministry said 15 people who had contact with the boy who died were quarantined and are receiving antibiotics.

Plague is found in marmots, large rodents that live in burrows in the sprawling North Asian grassland, and some other wild animals in parts of Mongolia, northwestern China, and eastern Russia.

The Mongolian government warned the public not to hunt or eat marmots.

In an unrelated case, a patient who was infected with plague in Chinas northern region of Inner Mongolia is improving, according to Chinas state-run Xinhua News Agency.

An official announcement earlier said a warning for the public in the Bayannur region of Inner Mongolia to avoid eating marmot and to report dead animals would last through the end of 2020.

The plague is caused by bacteria transmitted via flea bites and infected animals. During the Black Death in the Middle Ages, some 50 million people in Europe died from the plague over a several-decade span of time.

The bubonic plague is one of the three forms of the disease. It causes fever, coughing, chills, and swollen lymph nodes.

Some experts said reports of the plague in China dont mean that it will spread across the world like the COVID-19 disease, which is caused by the novel coronavirus and emerged late last year in Wuhan, China, spreading across the world and reportedly infecting more than 10 million people.

Bubonic plague is a thoroughly unpleasant disease and this case will be of concern locally within Inner Mongolia, said Dr. Michael Head, a researcher at the UKs University of Southampton, according to the Daily Mail.

He added, However, it is not going to become a global threat like we have seen with COVID-19. Bubonic plague is transmitted via the bite of infected fleas, and human to human transmission is very rare.

Epoch Times reporter Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
Two adults returning from Bangladesh are announced Covid-19 free on July 16 at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi. Photo by VnExpress/Chi Le.

Two Vietnamese adults and a child returning from abroad were confirmed Covid-19 free by a Hanoi hospital Thursday.

The three patients were announced to have recovered after treatment at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

The 12-year-old boy patient returned from Europe last month and tested positive for the novel coronavirus on June 19.

The other two recoveries are a 26-year-old man and a 36-year-old woman who got back to Vietnam from Bangladesh on July 3 and were confirmed as patients three days later.

Each has tested negative twice. All three will remain at the hospital for medical monitoring over 14 more days to ensure none experience a relapse.

Vietnam has recorded 381 Covid-19 patients so far, with only 25 still under treatment after 356 have recovered.

The nation has gone 91 days without a single case caused by community transmission, and recorded no Covid-19 death.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education released more guidance Thursday for schools reopening in the fall, including that masks must be worn by students and staff at school and on buses.

Meanwhile, the president of the states teachers union is calling on the governor to push for schools to prepare for online classes.

We all agree opening schools in the fall is so very, very important, but it is critical to provide schools with the tools they need to do safely within this global pandemic, Department of Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said.

On the July 1 mask order requiring masks in all public places, Levine said, I understand this will be very challenging for schools.

Its up to each school whether classes resume in-person, remotely or a combination of both options.

A hybrid approach is a good model, Department of Education Secretary Pedro Rivera said Thursday.

Pennsylvania is a diverse state and a single cookie-cutter approach to safely reopen schools would not and could not be effective, he said.

The additional recommendations say parents, guardians, caregivers, or students themselves should perform a symptom screening and temperature check daily before heading to school or to the bus stop.

Asked if schools will be required to perform temperature checks, Rivera said it would be up to the schools if they do temperature checks on campus.

Students should wash their hands or use hand sanitizer before or immediately after entering the school building.

Once in school, hallways should have one-way traffic patterns, class times should be staggered to limit the number of students in the halls, and, if possible, students should stay in classrooms and the teachers should be rotated.

Social distancing, including 6 feet between desks and other seating, is encouraged, as well as holding classes in gyms, auditoriums, other large spaces or even outdoors.

Student seats should all face the same direction.

For lunch time, the state Department of Education said schools should serve individual meals and students should eat in classrooms or alternatives to a cafeteria.

If a cafeteria must be used, students must wear masks when walking to and from the room, and while getting their food, but do not have to wear masks while eating.

Students eating lunch must sit at least 6 feet apart, sit in staggered patterns to avoid sitting across from other students, and must wash their hands or use hand sanitizer before and after eating.

Because of two-week quarantine recommendations, schools should be lenient in absenteeism from classes and extra-curricular activities for students and staff, and transition to remote learning and work.

Asked if the state would block reopening some or all schools, or close schools after they reopen depending on the COVID-19 caseload, Levine said the emphasis right now to limit the spread of the virus: wear a mask, practice social distancing, and wash hands.

On Wednesday, Gov. Tom Wolf said hes willing to pull the plug on school reopening if a new surge of COVID-19 infections continues to grow.

In a letter to Wolf and Rivera sent Thursday, Pennsylvania State Education Association President Rich Askey called on the governor to direct school districts and other entities to develop online instruction models.

The state should plan for possible increases in COVID-19 cases that will make it impossible to safely reopen schools for in-person classes, he said.

That is why it is absolutely essential that every public school entity in Pennsylvania is prepared to deliver online instruction, Askey wrote. School entities that have not already developed plans for online instruction must immediately create them. So, I ask that you use your executive authority to direct school entities to work with their local education associations and develop thorough, complete, and well-reasoned online instruction models.

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Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com.
Close to where I live in south-west London a top City trader has set up his lockdown office in his vast suburban home with a bank of trading screens as his window on the world.

Across town at Canary Wharf just 10,000 workers have returned to the gleaming towers occupied by the elite of world banking which normally host up to 120,000 people.

They support not just wealth creation for the City but jobs in restaurants, supermarkets, upmarket fashion stores and outlets from gyms to dry cleaners.

Vital sector: Just 10,000 workers have returned to work in the gleaming towers of Canary Wharf occupied by the elite of world banking which normally hosts up to 120,000 people

Financial services are a powerhouse of the UK economy, employing 1.1m citizens, generating 10 per cent of national output and contributing 75.5billion annually to the Exchequer.

It is worrying that, as Britain emerges from the pandemic, the towers of Canary Wharf are nearly empty and that City traders and the sellers of financial services are still working from their own homes.

They seem blissfully unaware that if a return to work in the City is delayed until September there may be less to do.

Energetic financial workers in Singapore, Tokyo and on Wall Street largely are back at work and nibbling away at potential income.

The concern must be that when City firms do decide to go back in it will trigger a big jobs cull. Britains biggest bank, HSBC, has reinstated a pre-pandemic decision to reduce its global headcount by 35,000.

A new survey by City recruiters Morgan McKinley shows the number of UK financial sector vacancies fell 60 per cent in the quarter ending in June and salary rises took a beating.

Moreover, some 14,200 financial firms  41 per cent  decided to use the furlough scheme at a cost so far of 246million to the taxpayer.

Some 71,000 have been on furlough, or 7 per cent of the workforce, in the sector. A proportion of all furlough jobs likely will vanish.

In many ways the Government did its job too well by encouraging home working and discouraging use of public transport.

The idea of furlough and the various Covid-19 corporate lending schemes was to limit the scarring to the economy.

Every day away from the office in a dynamic and highly mobile sector will mean there is less revenue to be generated.

Fashion sense

Fast fashion group Asos recognises that alleged supply chain abuses at rival Boohoo could give pause to consumers.

It acknowledges the online fashion industrys problems in terms of abuse and modern slavery, and has done its best to clean up its own act.

Reliance on Leicester sweatshops has been cut back and Asos says it only works with seven audited factories.

That is encouraging. But Boohoo made many of the same claims of ethical compliance and audit before exploitative conditions were revealed.

During lockdown the online fashion outfits have been a godsend for consumers. It is gratifying that they have re-shored some manufacturing to the UK and created distribution jobs.

But the public will need a great deal more assurance that the boom in low-cost, lockdown leisurewear has not been built on the misfortune of others.

Asos did not emerge totally unscathed from the pandemic, with the GMB union claiming in March that the companys Barnsley warehouse was neglecting social distancing.

Chief executive Nick Beighton says that the problem has been dealt with. He also underlined the firms ethical underpinnings by paying back furlough funds.

After an initial lockdown dip Asos managed a 10 per cent lift in sales in the four months to June, taking in 1billion of revenues.

This was less than the market had pencilled in and well below the 45 per cent jump reported by Boohoo.

But maybe we shouldnt go there.

Tax break

You have to feel some sympathy for courageous European competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who dared challenge tax avoidance by the Silicon Valley giants.

Her 12billion assault on Apple failed to find favour in Europes second-highest court. She wasnt helped in that Ireland, the alleged victim of the tax avoidance, aligned itself with Apple and against the Commission.

Ireland may have had little choice, given one in ten jobs there have been created by its tax-friendly regime for tech giants.

The decision illustrates how difficult it is going to be for the Organisation for Economic and Co-operation and Development to ever reach an accord on a much-debated common digital levy. Pity!
The Nigerian senate has urged President Buhari to direct the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity to set up a Committee to review the age limit for job seekers.

This decision was taken by the upper chamber to ensure that competent applicants are employed by the ministries, departments and agencies of government, the motion was sponsored by Senator Ibrahim Gobir.

Senator Gobir said;

Age barriers inadvertently excludes and marginalises skillful and competent prospective applicants from participating in such exercises. Due to the high unemployment rate in the country, many graduates spend up to 10 years seeking employment and this puts them in a disadvantaged position by no fault of their own. Many individuals resort to falsifying their age all in a bid to fall within the required age limit for them to be gainfully employed. This development, where a person believes he is unemployable, can lead them to embracing criminal activities and further increase the growing crime rate and insecurity in the country.

Senator Bala Ibn NaAllah also recalled how the federal government placed an embargo on employment over 13 years ago. According to him, this must be taken into consideration by the labour ministry.

NaAllah said;

I think the motion is apt and timely. The major basis for the Senate to proceed on that request lies in the fact that, as an institution, we must take notice that the federal government on its own placed embargo on employment for over thirteen years now. The period that there have been embargo by the federal government in itself should be considered in the review of age limit. For example, if the age limit is 23, we must now add the 13 or 14 years of embargo on employment to the age already earmarked for employment, so that the age will be plus thirteen because it is the government on its own that placed the embargo on employment. There cannot be justification for you to place embargo on employment, then at the same time expect graduates to remain at the age they were during the period of the embargo. I think in the review, that has to be taken into account, and therefore, the age limit can now be raised in addition to the established age. That should be the legal verdict for the review.

Commenting on the motion, the Senate President Ahmad Lawan decried the discrimination against job seekers as a result of the barrier imposed by the prescribed age limit.

Lawan said;
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 16)  Cebu City residents are now more conscious in complying with health and safety protocols, the citys vice mayor said on Thursday.

Vice Mayor Mike Rama noted that residents are now frequently wearing face masks and observing other minimum public health and safety standards including physical distancing.

It is now a better setup than we used to be," Rama told CNN Philippines Rico Hizon on The Final Word. "Stakeholders are very much connected and the trust is down to the sitios."

Rama said the stricter enforcement of quarantine protocols in the city was spearheaded by COVID-19 government response overseer Roy Cimatu, appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte on June 23 to lead the containment of virus transmissions there.

Cebu City reverted to the strictest enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) on June 16 due to the sudden spike in COVID-19 cases in the area. But on Wednesday, Duterte downgraded the city's status into modified ECQ at least until July 31.

Despite being in MECQ starting Thursday, Rama emphasized the city government is still implementing strict stay-at-home orders among its residents and limited transportation and business activities to further curb the virus.

We can ease, but not much as we were before when we were in general community quarantine, he said.

Rama assured the local government, business sector, medical sector, and the religious sector in the city are constantly communicating to create solutions in gradually reopening their economy without compromising the health and safety of the residents from the virus.

The vice mayor also revealed that the city is now prioritizing the isolation of probable COVID-19 patients, those who have mild symptoms, those who are awaiting test results, and those infected but asymptomatic patients.

We cannot just, test, trace, and treat," he said. "We must also isolate so that we can contain and curb the transmission of the virus."

To date, Cebu City has 7,782 confirmed cases along with 3,158 active infections. It also recorded 405 deaths and 4,219 recoveries from the virus.
The Republican Party of Texas kicked off its suddenly all-virtual statewide convention on Wednesday with many technical glitches and a jab at Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner for blocking its plans for an in-person event at the last minute.

Party chairman James Dickey apologized to convention-goers for glitches in the audio and video feed, and for delays in getting credentials to Republicans trying to attend party events online.

This is not the kickoff that I was expecting for the convention that weve been working for and planning on for three years and that one Democrat mayor worked to unravel, Dickey said, referring to Turner.

The convention was supposed to start at 9 a.m., but started closer to 10 a.m. and then was plagued by long stretches of livestream crashes. When it did work, the audio had an echo that made speakers hard to hear.

Just before 6 p.m., Dickey announced the convention would shut down early for the day.

Due to the extenuating circumstances and technical issues, this body will adjourn and reconvene at noon tomorrow, Dickey said.

Turner ordered Houston First Corp., the city-owned nonprofit that manages the George R. Brown Convention Center, to cancel the GOP event last week, warning that it could further spread the coronavirus in Houston, which has already been hit hard.

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No one wanted to step in and be the heavy and say no, and then run the risk of being accused of being political, Turner said then, adding that as mayor he had to react to the public health threat.

The result has been that convention speeches typically done in person before a packed audience have instead been pushed online through video messages, including one from Gov. Greg Abbott, who defended his actions on COVID-19 as some Republicans Party leaders have voted to censure him for going too far in requiring most Texans to wear masks.

Now I know that many of you all are frustrated  so am I, Abbott said in the message. I know that many of you do not like the mask requirement  I dont either. It is the last thing that I wanted to do  actually the next to the last. The last thing that any of us want is to lock Texas back down again.

Abbott warned them the facts on the ground have gotten worse each day.

Many regions are running out of ICU beds, Abbott said. And deaths have almost quadrupled, reaching more than 100 in one day last week. If we dont slow this disease quickly our hospitals will get overrun and I fear it will even inflict some of the people that Im talking to right now.

Abbott also pushed back at critics in the party who have argued his actions have been unconstitutional. He reminded them that he was once the attorney general of Texas and fought in court for the constitutional rights of Texans.

I will never abandon the constitution, Abbott said. And I havent here.

Beyond speeches to the party faithful, the Republican Party of Texas Convention is also when party leaders will build a party platform and decide who will be chairman of the party for the next two years. Former Florida Congressman Allen West and Waxahachie Republican activist Amy Hedtke are challenging Dickey, who has led the party since 2017.

The convention could also take up a censure of Abbott for his handling of COVID-19. So far, eight county Republican Party executive committees have passed resolutions to censure Abbott for imposing mask rules and other restrictions hes imposed in a bid to slow the spread of the virus. Those county censures can now be taken up at the state convention.
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WASHINGTON - The White House is insisting that Congress include a payroll tax cut as part of the next coronavirus stimulus package, potentially complicating talks with lawmakers by pushing a measure that President Donald Trump has tried but failed to advance for almost a year.

"As he has done since the beginning of this pandemic, President Trump wants to provide relief to hardworking Americans who have been impacted by this virus and one way of doing that is with a payroll tax holiday," White House spokesman Judd Deere said. "He's called on Congress to pass this before and he believes it must be part of any phase four package."

Trump's renewed push for a payroll tax holiday comes as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., prepares to unveil legislation next week that he hopes will launch negotiations on the next major coronavirus bill.

Key Republican senators have been cool to the idea of a payroll tax cut in the past, partly because it only helps workers who are actually employed. Congress has rebuffed Trump's previous demands for a payroll tax cut for individuals, instead approving a round of checks to individual Americans as part of the $2 trillion Cares Act in March.

But now, as Congress and the administration prepare to write what will likely be the last major coronavirus spending bill before the November election, Trump is again demanding a payroll tax cut. He and some allies view the policy as an effective way to stimulate the economy and quickly give workers a boost.

"High-ranking White House officials have told me that we will not sign a phase four deal without a payroll tax cut," Stephen Moore, a White House economic adviser, said in an interview Thursday. "I have talked to several high-level people in the White House who said the president will not sign [the legislation] if it does not include a payroll tax cut."

It is unclear if McConnell will bend to Trump's demands and include a payroll tax cut in the legislation he intends to roll out next week. A McConnell spokesman declined to comment.

The payroll tax is the 7.65% tax that is taken out of workers' paychecks and goes to fund the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. President Barack Obama at one point temporarily reduced the tax, but Trump wants to eliminate it entirely for some period of time.

Lawmakers of both parties have been anticipating that the upcoming coronavirus bill will contain a new round of checks to individuals, something Trump has signaled public support for.

But it's unclear whether the legislation could include a new round of stimulus checks and a payroll tax cut, especially since McConnell has been aiming to keep the overall pricetag at around $1 trillion -- a figure Democrats say is much too low. In the past, lawmakers have compensated for lost payroll tax revenue by diverting other money from the Treasury Department to continue funding the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. The government's response to the pandemic so far, though, has already led to a giant budget deficit, and some lawmakers are starting to raise concerns that some of the tax cuts and spending increases might be misguided and lack desired impact.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other Democrats have repeatedly voiced opposition to a payroll tax cut. If included in McConnell's bill, or demanded by the White House, it would become just one more point of contention between the two parties. Democrats and Republicans are already at odds over multiple issues, including liability protections for businesses and others that McConnell says must be in the bill; enhanced unemployment insurance that is expiring in late July; whether to send more aid to cities and states; and how much funding for education to include and whether to tie it to schools reopening.

Complicating matters for Republican lawmakers is that senior Trump officials appear at odds over the administration's top priorities. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said the administration is pushing the payroll tax cut but is viewed internally as prioritizing another round of $1,200 stimulus payments, according to three people in communication with administration officials.

It is unclear if the White House officials seeking to make the payroll tax cut a redline demand will be able to block an agreement that does not have it. Mnuchin has to this point served as the administration's lead negotiator with Congress and has worked well with Democrats. Conservative groups fear Mnuchin will cut a deal with congressional Democrats that includes the stimulus payments but leaves out their top priorities, including the payroll tax cut and curbing the $600-per-week unemployment benefit approved by Congress in March.

Trump has also frequently threatened to veto congressional deals - such as those that left out funding for his border wall with Mexico - before caving.

Economists and lawmakers of both parties have raised concerns about how helpful the payroll tax cut would prove. In March, Congress delayed payment of the payroll taxes collected from employers, which helped firms escape some of their short-term tax burden. Congress could make that deferral permanent, or extend that delay to the payroll taxes assessed by the federal government for workers - both options pushed by conservatives.

Moore and other conservatives have pointed to bipartisan support for the payroll tax cut under prior administrations and argued the president needs to reduce the 11% national unemployment rate to boost his election odds.

Other economists, including conservatives, have viewed those claims skeptically. Kyle Pomerleau, a conservative economist at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, said struggling businesses are suffering primarily from a collapse in revenue due to new spending patterns caused by the pandemic. Firms are already benefiting from the deferral in the taxes, which gives them two years to pay that money back to the Internal Revenue Service.

"What matters right now is that cash-flow of firms," Pomerleau said. "It's not very good economic relief."

A payroll tax cut could also prove difficult to implement in the middle of the year, rather than at the start of the calendar before company payrolls are set. And some economists have expressed concern about weakening the Social Security and Medicare trust funds by cutting the amount of tax revenue that gets paid into them - even if that money would be made up out of the Treasury Department's general fund.

Suspending all employer and employee payroll taxes from April to December would increase the deficit by $840 billion, according to an estimate in March by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a non-partisan think-tank. More limited versions of suspending the tax, such as doing so for three months, would cost closer to $300 billion -- still eating up much of the GOP's spending bandwidth for the next stimulus package.

"I have not talked to a single office that has expressed enthusiasm for payroll tax cut," said Brian Riedl, a tax and budget expert at the Manhattan Institute, a right-leaning think-tank. "If we want to keep it under $1 trillion, a payroll tax cut is not a good use of that funding."
George Floyds family filed a wrongful death lawsuit Wednesday against the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the four police officers charged in his death that set off weeks of worldwide protests against police abuse of minorities.

Floyd, an African American, died May 25 after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, held him face down on a city street for nearly eight minutes, pressing his knee on Floyds neck as Floyd pleaded that he could not breathe.

Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder, while the three other officers who witnessed the scene have been charged with aiding and abetting the killing. All were fired the day after the incident, which was precipitated after a convenience store clerk accused 47-year-old Floyd of trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill.

In the days and weeks that followed, U.S. demonstrations against police brutality, some of them violent clashes between protesters and police, occurred in cities large and small from coast to coast. Many of the demonstrations took place across the street from the White House.

The lawsuit did not specify the amount the Floyd family was seeking, but Ben Crump, their lawyer, said they are seeking compensation "that makes it financially prohibitive for police to wrongfully kill marginalized people  especially Black people  in the future."

At a news conference, Crump said, It was not just the knee of officer Derek Chauvin on George Floyd's neck. But it was the knee of the entire Minneapolis Police Department on the neck of George Floyd that killed him."

Crump alleged that the city of Minneapolis has a history of policies, procedures and deliberate indifference that violates the rights of arrestees, particularly Black men, and highlights the need for officer training and discipline."

City leaders have proposed disbanding the police department in favor of an agency that deals with public safety issues and underlying social concerns that foments crime.
Pottsville, PA (17901)

Today

More clouds than sun. High 42F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Showers in the evening then changing to light snow overnight. Some sleet may mix in. Low around 30F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precip 70%.
WHEN she returns to her studies at the University of Limerick in September, Riona Maguire will spend three of the 12 weeks of the new semester on the university campus.

While some students are opting to commute rather than pay for accommodation, Riona, who lives in Cavan, doesnt have that option.

I live three hours away so commuting won't be possible. I'm not sure whether I'm expected to pay for a full semester in rent or if there will be options provided to me. she said.

Riona studies Journalism and New Media and is going into second year.

She got a taste of online learning last semester when UL closed in March to adhere to government public health guidelines.

I received PowerPoints as a form of lectures and I felt it was difficult to ask lecturers to explain concepts via email, Riona concluded.

In an email from UL it was stated that the new approach next semester is to allow as many students as possible back on campus, while also protecting the health of the campus and wider community. We have also incorporated feedback from students and staff on your experience last semester.

On campus facilities such as the Glucksman Library will be available to students during their on campus weeks.

Final year student Natasha would like to see priority given to students who are in the final phase of their undergraduate programme. Maybe more prioritised access to the library [for fourth year students], she said.

Natasha doesn't see having just three weeks on campus as a massive issue but would welcome clarification on how Final Year Project (FYP) dates will be affected. It could be harder to meet supervisors, said Natasha who plans to commute to college from her hometown of Clonmel.
OAKVILLE, Ontario, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Saint Jean Carbon Inc. (Saint Jean or the Company) (TSX-V: SJL) (OTCQB: TORVF), a carbon science company engaged in the design and build of green energy storage, green energy creation and green re-creation through the use of carbon materials. Is pleased to announce the companys shares will resume trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange Venture (TSX.V) on Friday, July 17th, 2020.

About Saint Jean Carbon

Saint Jean is a publicly traded carbon science company, with specific interests in energy storage and green energy creation and green re-creation, with holdings in graphite mining claims in the province of Quebec in Canada. For the latest information on Saint Jeans properties and news please refer to the website: http://www.saintjeancarbon.com/.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

Saint Jean Carbon Inc.

Paul Ogilvie, CEO and Director

Information Contact:

Email: info@saintjeancarbon.com

Tel: (905) 844-1200

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.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: This news release contains forward-looking statements, within the meaning of applicable securities legislation, concerning Saint Jeans business and affairs. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as plans, expects or does not expect, intends budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Such forward-looking statements include those with respect to: (i) the belief that the market would not support the acquisition at this time; and (ii) the date when the shares of the Company will commence trading. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, and are naturally subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances that may cause actual results to differ materially.

Although Saint Jean believes that the expectations represented in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that these expectations will prove to be correct. There are risks which could affect Saint Jeans future results and could cause the results to differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements including closing failure or delay, the impact of general economic conditions in Canada and globally and the risk that they will deteriorate, industry conditions, including fluctuations in the price of supplies and the risk that they will increase, that required consents and approvals from regulatory authorities will not be obtained and the liabilities and risks inherent in Saint Jeans operations.

Statements of past performance should not be construed as an indication of future performance. Forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether or not such results will be achieved. A number of factors, including those discussed above, could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Any such forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.

All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking information is provided as of the date of this press release, and Saint Jean assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.
No Ukrainian army casualties were reported over the past day.

Russia-led forces on July 15 mounted 12 attacks on Ukrainian positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine.

"On July 15, the Russian Federation's armed formations violated the ceasefire 12 times, using 120mm mortars, which are banned under the Minsk agreements, as well as weapons installed on infantry fighting vehicles, grenade launchers of various systems, large-caliber machine guns, and rifles," the press center of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) Headquarters said in a morning update on Facebook on July 16.

Read alsoDonbas war escalation: Seven Ukrainian soldiers wounded amid 18 enemy attacks on July 14

Hot spots were the towns of Maryinka and Avdiyivka, the villages of Talakivka, Hnutove, Vodiane, Novoluhanske, Orikhove, and Novotoshkivske.

In particular, Russia-led forces used hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers to lob POM-2 mines into Novoluhanske. One of the unexploded mines was found on an area belonging to a local agricultural enterprise. It will be disposed by units of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.

Ukraine's Joint Forces fired back, using available weapons. According to an intelligence update, two enemy troops were eliminated on July 15.

No Ukrainian army casualties were reported over the past day.

From 00:00 to 07:00 Kyiv time on July 16, the enemy did not open fire.
A significant fraction of Canadian business tenants are considering further staffing actions, closure or bankruptcy within the next six months due to declining sustainability, according to a new Statistics Canada survey.

Around 20% of businesses said that taking their current revenues and expenses into account, they will have to shut down in half a year. The COVID-19 pandemic was a major driver of this trend, with StatsCan data showing that around 33% of businesses saw their April revenues drop by more than 50% annually.

The impact of the outbreak saw nearly 40% of Canadian businesses paring down their working hours, and around 28% downsizing their staffing.
Each year on July 4, the United States celebrates independence won by those whose ancestors did not draw their first breath on American ground. Nearly 89 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed, a day of delayed emancipation was celebrated on June 19, 1865, (Juneteenth) for those whose ancestors drew their first breath on the African continent.

This year on July 4, I celebrated the holiday by watching the much-anticipated streaming of Hamilton. The Broadway hit, inspired by Ron Chernow's 2004 biography of Alexander Hamilton, is a musical adaptation of the life of a Caribbean immigrant who survived all odds to become a hero of the American Revolution. Prior to the meteoric success of the play, Hamilton's legacy remained largely unsung for more than 200 years after his untimely death in a duel with Aaron Burr. With the exception of his portrait on the $10 bill, Hamilton's dramatic life story had been less celebrated than those of some of our nation's other founding fathers.

When Lin-Manuel Miranda conceived the idea of composing a hip-hop album about the life of Alexander Hamilton in 2008, his friends thought it was a drunken joke. But a year later, his ensemble received a standing ovation from those assembled in the East Room of the White House after performing excerpts from the developing musical that would debut on Broadway in 2015.

Among the many brilliantly crafted songs were four that ignited my desire to write this post.

"My Shot"

On Nov. 2, 2015, President Barack Obama walked onto the stage of the Richard Rodgers Theater in New York to give his remarks after having seen the completed production of Hamilton.

"One measure of America's health is how warmly it embraces the diverse souls who live here," he said.

The musical he had witnessed was a story of an American Revolution as told by a racially diverse cast of characters. As I watched this particular portion of the play, the lyrics, "Im just like my country. I'm young, scrappy and hungry. And, I'm not throwing away my shot, reverberated in my consciousness.

In 1776, the Second Continental Congress issued a statement citing 27 grievances against King George III. This Declaration of Independence was an urgent message regarding "the causes which impel[led] them to the separation" from the status quo of British tyranny. But my thoughts were met with the present-day reality of the up to 26 million protesters (the largest movement in U.S. history) who had risen up to express their collective frustration that the unalienable rights of all Americans had not yet been realized after 244 years of waiting. Too many of our citizens are still awaiting their shot to be warmly embraced by unfettered opportunities.

The AAFP, along with hundreds of other government and private-sector organizations, issued a statement in late May declaring racism a public health crisis. Unlike the colonists' declaration, our statement is not a contemporary political message, and it is not an attempt to cast blame on any individual or group for the inequities HHS continues to objectively confirm each decade in its Healthy People publications -- the latest being Healthy People 2020.

We are all to blame if we fail to assist in exorcising the implicit and explicit biases insidiously hardwired into all of our social systems. Failure to do so provides additional fuel to feed the fire of diminished opportunities for any human being. Silence is not an option. The AAFP could not throw away its shot of advocating for the Americans we so faithfully serve.

"History Has Its Eyes On You"

During a pivotable point in the play, General George Washington captures a teachable moment with Hamilton to share the story of his disastrous first command. He tells a restless young Alexander, "I know that greatness lies in you." But he admonishes him to always remember that "history has its eyes on you."



In 2019, the AAFP celebrated family medicine's 50 years as a medical specialty. We entered this new decade with the bold intention of leading our nation forward toward improved health care outcomes for all Americans by using the intellectual principles of primary care as the stable foundation to build national health care reforms.

Historical decisions that impact our members' abilities to provide medical services to all populations were made this summer when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to preserve Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and to uphold the right of trained physicians to provide legal reproductive and maternity health services without unnecessary interference. The AAFP welcomed both rulings.

We also supported preserving and strengthening protections provided by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, including those for patients with limited English proficiency, those who are transgender and those with disabilities.

The Academy has a proud history of striving to fulfill our vision statement to: "Transform health care to achieve optimal health for everyone."

"The Room Where It Happens"

In the second act of Hamilton, Aaron Burr questions how this "immigrant" had dinner with Thomas Jefferson and James Madison one evening and emerged with the nation's financial power situated in New York (Hamilton's home state). Allegedly, while confined in the room, the three men also hatched a secret agreement to build our nation's capital in Virginia. Burr laments the fact that no one but Hamilton, Jefferson and Madison had any say in the matter because he had not been in the room where the deals were made.

Family physicians provide our nation with 192 million office visits each year. We are truly in the rooms where essential health care is being delivered.

Not unlike the cast members of Hamilton, who can sing, dance, act and rap, our members are multiskilled. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many of our members have been enlisted to expand their professional services to cover hospital emergency rooms, intensive care units, nurseries, extended care facilities and more. These services are being provided by family physicians in addition to -- or to the exclusion of -- their ambulatory care practice duties.

The AAFP has not paused during this era of social distancing. To the contrary, we have made a conscious effort to use innovative technologies to virtually move closer to our members. During this unprecedented time, the Academy has continued to equip members with resources and advocate on their behalf.

For years, AAFP members have been a chorus of powerful voices advocating in numerous social media outlets and in the rooms where influential decisions are made about our nation's health care systems. CMS has heard our voices and recognized the foundational relevance of primary care to our nation's health. Earlier this year, CMS took decisive action by recommending an update to evaluation and management coding that will yield our members a 12% increase in reimbursement for primary care services -- effective Jan. 1.

"Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story"

The final song of the musical ends with each character briefly appearing in the spotlight to sing a verse that tells the unique story of how their individual lives were woven together to create the tapestry of a nation's history.

In the final analysis, the value family medicine has contributed to our nation and our respective communities -- both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic -- is our story to tell. This is our once-in-a-generation opportunity to not just tell our story, but to demonstrate in real time how we are providing guidance to a health care system in desperate need of a torchbearer.

By working together, we will tell generations to come how we took a world turned upside down by a pandemic and turned it right side up again to support the health care needs of an entire population. The year is not over, but the historical events we have witnessed thus far have left us breathless with anticipation of the stories yet to be written about those who lived, those who died and those who will tell the story of this new American health care revolution.

Gary LeRoy, M.D., is the president of the AAFP.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 781 new coronavirus cases Thursday as the state closes in on 100,000 cases.

The new cases raise the statewide total to 98,446 cases. More infections are being reported in recent weeks and state officials say they are particularly concerned about the uptick among younger adults. The state has averaged nearly 800 new cases a day over the past week, compared to about 500 per day four weeks ago.

Across Pennsylvania, 6,973 deaths have been tied to COVID-19, including 16 new fatalities reported Thursday, according to the health department. More than two-thirds of the states coronavirus deaths have occurred in long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes.

Citing the recent spike in cases, Gov. Tom Wolf imposed new restrictions on bars, restaurants and other businesses. Wolf issued an executive order limiting bars and restaurants to 25 percent of capacity; the order also bars sales of alcohol unless customers are also ordering food.

Under the order, businesses are directed to have employees work remotely unless it cant be avoided. Indoor gatherings are now limited to just 25 people, while outdoor events cannot exceed 250.

Wolf said the order is needed to prevent a repeat of the spring, when the state regularly saw more than 1,000 cases per day.

The governor also said the order is crucial to help ensure schools can offer face-to-face instruction when classes resume next month. Wolf said hes willing to stop the reopening of schools and move to remote instruction if necessary, but also said parents wont send their kids to school if they dont feel safe.

Were at a tipping point where we have to act, Wolf said Wednesday.

Over the last seven days, the state has administered 142,176 COVID-19 tests, including 20,413 tests Wednesday. There are 885,195 people who have tested negative.

The health department data show the increase in cases over the past four weeks.

June 19-25: 3,534 new cases, an average of 504 per day

June 26-July 2: 4,304 new cases, an average of 614 per day

July 3-9: 4,793 new cases, an average of 684 per day

July 10-16: 5,579 new cases, an average of 797 per day

Dr. David Rubin, a pediatrician and director of PolicyLab at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, said Wednesday the virus is starting to show a resurgence in the northeast, including Pennsylvania. In a news conference with Wolf, Rubin said plans to open schools in the fall largely depend on suppressing the spread of the virus.

We are seeing now widespread community transmission throughout the northeastern area, Rubin said.

The health department reports 652 patients with the coronavirus are being treated in hospitals, well below the peak of about 2,800 in the spring.

About 76 percent of all those in Pennsylvania who have been infected are considered to be recovered, the health department said. The state considers patients to have recovered when they are 30 days past the date of infection or the onset of symptoms.

Allegheny County, which has seen a spike in cases in recent weeks, reported an increase of 140 cases and Philadelphia reported 132 new cases.

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Shimla, July 16 : The annual pilgrimage to the oval-shaped glacial-fed Manimahesh Lake, dedicated to Lord Shiva, located at an altitude of 13,500 feet in Himachal Pradesh's Chamba district, scheduled next month has been cancelled owing to the coronavirus pandemic, officials said on Thursday.

This year the fortnight-long pilgrimage was planned from August 11. However, all religious traditions and customs relating to the pilgrimage will be performed in a limited symbolic manner.

The decision to cancel the pilgrimage, which is considered as arduous as the trek to the Amarnath cave shrine in Jammu and Kashmir, was taken at a meeting of the Sri Manimahesh Trust at Bharmour in Chamba district on Wednesday.

For big and small "shahi snan", only limited permission would be given to three-four people each from Chamba's Dashnam Akhada, Charpat Nath and Chaurasi temple complex to proceed towards the Manimahesh Lake.

Every year, people trek to the lake in the Bharmour Valley to catch a glimpse of Mount Kailash, believed to be the abode of Lord Shiva, and offer prayers.

The uphill journey starts at around 6,000 feet in Hadsar.

The commencing of the pilgrimage coincides with Janmashtami, the festival celebrating Lord Krishna's birth.

It is believed that the devotees can view Mount Kailash only if the Lord is pleased. When the peak is hidden behind clouds, it is a sign of the lord's unhappiness, believers say.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Millions of Americans have lost employer-sponsored health care coverage since the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S., causing a recession and widespread job losses.

Nearly half of all Americans receive their health insurance through their employer. And amid coronavirus layoffs, some states have seen a massive uptick in the number of uninsured adults.

Read more: How to file for Medicaid if you lose your job

According to a report by Families USA, a non-profit public health organization, nine states and the District of Columbia have more than a 30% increase in the number of uninsured from February to May 2020, compared to 2018. Overall, the percentage increase of uninsured in the U.S. is at 21%, with 5.3 million people losing health care coverage between February and May.

The Northeast has been hit particularly hard by health care coverage losses. (Graphic: David Foster/Yahoo Finance)

Massachusetts saw a 93% increase in the number of uninsured adults compared to 2018. Next highest was Hawaii at 72%. The state relies heavily on tourism, an industry thats been devastated by the pandemic due to travel restrictions put in place across the world.

Rhode Island and Michigan followed at 55% and 46% respectively. Michigan was among the states that was hit by the virus early on and had to implement stay-at-home orders before most other states because of the high case count. Nevada, at 34%, is another state that relies heavily on tourism and hospitality, mainly because of its major city, Las Vegas.

A woman wearing a facemask enters a building where the Employment Development Department has its offices in Los Angeles, California on May 4, 2020. (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

An imperfect safety net

According to a new report from the Urban Institute, more than 10 million Americans are expected to lose employer-sponsored health coverage between April and December 2020.

The report stated that 3.3 million of those individuals will regain coverage by being added to a family members policy, 2.8 million people will enroll in Medicaid, and 600,000 people will enroll in the individual market, mainly via the Affordable Care Acts marketplace. There will still be 3.5 million people remaining uninsured.

Read more: How to get ACA health insurance if you lose your job

Story continues

Helping people keep their insurance through a public health crisis surprisingly has not gotten much attention, Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told The New York Times. This is the first recession in which the ACA is there as a safety net, but its an imperfect safety net.

And with job losses and coronavirus infections continuing to grow, the number of workers losing employer-backed health insurance will also grow.

Coronavirus is surging in southern U.S. (Graphic: David Foster/Yahoo Finance)

The Kaiser Family Foundation has estimated that at least 27 million Americans so far have lost their employer-sponsored health insurance as a result of layoffs from the coronavirus pandemic.

As people continue to lose their jobs, which we expect that they will do unfortunately, were going to see losses in health insurance coverage, Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), previously told Yahoo Finance. Thats because in the United States, weve chosen as a country, unfortunately, to tie access to health insurance with employment.

If we avoided that, he added, if we made sure everybody was covered, everybody has access to health insurance regardless of their employment status, we wouldnt be in this kind of predicament.

People walk along Broadway as the coronavirus keeps financial markets and businesses mostly closed on May 08, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Options for the uninsured

Those who have lost their health care coverage due to layoffs are eligible for a special enrollment period (SEP), which allows them to sign up for health care through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) outside of open enrollment.

According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), approximately 487,000 people gained coverage through a special enrollment period from the ACA, which is a 46% increase year over year.

Normally, like your employer insurance plan, you can enroll during the open enrollment period, but then you cant enroll during other periods of time or change your coverage unless you have a qualifying event, like getting a new job, having a baby, losing a job, getting married, Dr. Katherine Baicker, dean of the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, told Yahoo Finance.

A health department worker checks in a man wearing a mask to be tested for COVID-19 at a drive through testing site at Osceola Heritage Park. (Photo by Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Baicker continued: So if you lost your job because of COVID, you would be able to enroll in a non-group insurance plan because losing your job counts as one of those events that lets you enroll outside of an open enrollment period.

President Trump has the authority to declare an SEP in states that have a federally-run Obamacare marketplace, which is all but 12 states  California, Colorado, Connecticut, D.C., Idaho, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington  and Washington D.C.

A COVID-19 Unemployment Assistance Updates logo is displayed on a smartphone on top of an application for unemployment benefits on May 8, 2020, in Arlington, Virginia. (Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)

However, in March, the Trump administration decided against creating a nationwide SEP, instead promising a cash payment to hospitals that treated uninsured patients for coronavirus. But this doesnt extend to individuals who need health care for other issues and dont have the insurance to cover it.

For people in those states that dont have an SEP, their other options include seeing if theyre eligible for Medicaid (if their income is low enough) or signing up for COBRA, which means the individual continues the same health care coverage they had under their employer-based health insurance.

Read more: COBRA insurance: How to file if you lose your job

However, COBRA has higher premium payments since there is no longer an employer contribution.

Adriana is a reporter and editor covering politics and health care policy for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @adrianambells.

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After George Floyds death, protests in Louisville, Ky., erupted as they did in the rest of the country. But in Louisville, people were mostly chanting a different name  Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old emergency medical technician who was shot and killed at her home in the city by the police during a no-knock warrant.

Maxwell Mitchell, one of the many protesters who went downtown, pulled out his phone to start livestreaming on May 28. Six years ago, he had wanted to go to Ferguson, Mo., but didnt have enough money to make the trip.

This time, the protests were in his hometown. As people have continued marching every day, so has Mr. Mitchell. And this is how the protests looked through his lens.

Protesters have been demanding action against the police officers involved in Ms. Taylors shooting. So far, only one of the officers has been fired. No criminal charges have been filed.

Initially police officers in riot gear deployed tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades to disperse crowds. The National Guard arrived. Local officials declared a curfew. A Kentucky National Guard member shot and killed David McAtee, a local barbecue shop owner, triggering more protests.

After the first week, the curfew was lifted and the protests took on a new rhythm.

People gathered downtown daily at Jefferson Square Park, which became a protest rallying point. Then they marched for miles. Some days, a dozen would show up. On other days, hundreds gathered, like on Ms. Taylors birthday, when many brought balloons.

The city took some steps in response. The police chief stepped down. The Louisville Metro Council voted unanimously to ban no-knock search warrants. Officials ordered the removal of a statue of a Confederate soldier from the Cherokee Triangle. On this night, protesters celebrated atop the block where the statue had stood.

But people continued to march every day, demanding justice in Ms. Taylors case.

In June, tents began to appear at Jefferson Square Park, which has become a more permanent place for the community to gather and to mourn. At the center, a memorial for Ms. Taylor was set up. There was a first aid post and water stations. People brought grills and offered free meals.

On June 27, the peace at the park was broken when one person there shot and killed a protester. That night, the Louisville Metro Police Department dismantled the tents and the supply stations, and said that the park was to be closed nightly at 11.

Still, the next day, protesters returned, determined to continue the movement. People lingered at the square past the 11 p.m. curfew. A few nights later, more than a dozen people were arrested in and around the park.
Chinese state-run firm China Power holds 70 percent share in the consortium that will build the dam, which is expected to be completed by 2028.

Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday kicked off construction work at the Diamer-Bhasha dam in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, notwithstanding India's objection to the China-backed mega project.

Addressing a public gathering in Chilas in Gilgit-Baltistan, Khan said the Diamer-Bhasha will be Pakistan's third largest dam after Tarbela and Mangla dams.

The project will generate 4,500MW electricity and provide at least 16,000 jobs. It is expected to be completed by 2028.

The Pakistan government in May signed a whopping Rs 442 billion contract with a joint venture of a Chinese state-run firm and a commercial arm of Pakistan's powerful military for the construction of the Diamer-Bhasha dam.

Chinese state-run firm China Power holds 70 percent and the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), a commercial arm of the Armed Forces of Pakistan, 30 percent share in the consortium that will build the dam.

In May, India took strong note of Pakistan awarding the contract to build the dam, saying carrying out of such projects in territories under Pakistan's illegal occupation was not proper.

"Our position is consistent and clear that entire territory of the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh have been, are and will continue to be integral and inalienable part of India," MEA Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said.

"We have consistently conveyed our protests and shared concerns with both Pakistan and China on all such projects in the Indian territories under Pakistan''s illegal occupation," he said.

Pakistan's Council of Common Interests (CCI) approved the project for construction in 2010, but it suffered delays because of international lending agencies which remained associated with the project but later backtracked because of opposition from India as major part of the dam is located in Gilgit-Baltistan.

In his address, Khan lamented that building of this dam was delayed while the previous governments started building thermal power stations.

"The decision to build this dam was taken 50 years ago. There can be no better site for constructing a dam, it is a natural dam. Forty, 50 years ago this was decided, and work on the project has begun today, he said.

He announced plans to build more dams on rivers to get cheap energy and decrease the pressure on foreign exchange to buy foreign fuel.

The completion of the dam would increase Pakistan''s storage capacity from 30 to 48 days and make power generation facilities an attractive future investment by the private sector to add 4,500MW of additional electricity to the national grid, according to a report in Dawn newspaper in May.

Prime minister Khan said that hydropower projects would also be helpful to reduce global warming.

He was accompanied by Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and ISI chief Lt Gen Faiz Hamid besides Minister for Water Faisal Vawda and other senior officials.
Sir Kenny Dalglish will present the Premier League trophy to Liverpool next week in a special ceremony that will be staged on the Kop.

An occasion that was always going be hugely special will carry added significance as Dalglish was the last Liverpool manager to oversee a title-winning campaign in 1990.

Not only that, Dalglish signed Liverpool's captain Jordan Henderson  who will receive the trophy after the Chelsea game on Wednesday  in June 2011 during his second stint in charge.

Liverpool players Joe Gomez and Virgil van Dijk will finally get their hands on the trophy

Dalglish will be joined at the ceremony  during which medals will be presented to Jurgen Klopp's squad  by Richard Masters, the Premier League's chief executive.

This will be a different kind of ceremony to the ones that usually take place at the end of a campaign, when presentations tend to be on the pitch.

Only Manchester United, in 1993, did something different when they received their prize after walking up steps behind the dugout at Old Trafford into the stand. Liverpool have started the preparations for the occasion by removing a huge section of seats towards the front of the Kop and the event will have strict health and safety protocols in place.

Nobody envisaged Liverpool would be crowned champions inside an empty stadium but the club are working to ensure that fans can be involved interactively.

'The supporters have always been there, right beside the club,' Dalglish said recently. 'It's fantastic and they thoroughly deserve it. Everyone who is there appreciates what each other is doing. They will enjoy this and when you enjoy something you want to do it again.'

Liverpool will be presented with the Premier League trophy in a special ceremony at Anfield

Liverpool legend Sir Kenny Dalglish will present the Premier League trophy and medals
UPPER THUMB  As of July 15, Huron County had added 15 new confirmed coronavirus cases over the past week, reaching 75 total cases since the pandemic began, and the county Health Department says there are 11 probable cases.

Tuscola County meanwhile had two new positive cases and one new death.

The new cases in both counties are not related to any known outbreaks and are considered community acquired infections, said Huron and Tuscola County Health Officer Ann Hepfer.

Hepfer also provided updates as to how many people in both counties have been tested. In Huron County, 2,959 people have had viral testing done and 163 people had antibody testing completed. In Tuscola County, 7,115 people have had viral testing done and 360 had antibody testing completed.

Hepfer said that when a person has a retest due to a follow-up after testing positive and have another positive result, those cases are combined to mean one positive case. If they have recovered and it has been at least nine weeks since their last positive result, they would be a new case depending on an investigation.

As many health officials have been doing the last several weeks, Hepfer stressed the importance of wearing a mask in public to help prevent the spread of the virus.

Wearing a mask is an effective and low-cost way to protect ourselves and our families from a deadly disease, Hepfer said in a statement. It should be  and is  the responsibility of every Michigander.

Hepfer further said the states new executive order, which requires everyone to wear a mask, also requires businesses to refuse entry or service to people who refuse to wear a face covering. There is a $500 penalty for not wearing a mask and for a business not enforcing mask wearing.

She also addressed a myth that someone who is COVID-19 positive, but dies in a car accident, will have their death certificate say the cause of death is COVID-19. This is false, as the cause of death is whatever injuries have resulted from said car accident, she said.

Every death in the state of Michigan that is declared a COVID-19 death has its medical records reviewed by the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that it meets the CDC case definition for COVID-19, Hepfer said. The numbers are then corrected on the states website once a week.

Hepfer asks that people continue wearing masks, practicing social distancing, and washing hands. While the number of confirmed cases is beginning to increase again, hospitals are able to manage the number of cases they are receiving.

We expect to continue to see surges throughout the state over the next few weeks, Hepfer said. This would follow the trends we have seen across the U.S. We need our numbers to remain flattened. We want our children to be able to return to school safely. Your school leaders are working tirelessly in preparation for your children to return this fall. Public health is working with them and answering questions and providing guidance.

Testing in Huron County is from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at the Great Lakes Bay Health Care Center in Bad Axe.

Testing in Tuscola County is from 8 to 10 a.m. on Thursdays at the Tuscola County Health Department parking lot.

The testing is open to anyone who lives in a rural county with or without symptoms. Those going to get tested need to provide the following information:

 Full name

 Date of Birth

 Address

 Telephone number

 Insurance information and numbers
MANILA, Philippines  President Rodrigo Duterte has decided to deliver his fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 27 at the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City, according to Senate President Vicente Sotto III.

I just received word today that the President has decided to deliver his SONA in the Batasang Pambansa, the House of Representatives, on July 27, Sotto announced during an online conference with Senate reporters.

But due to the continuing threat of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19), they will limit the number of people who will be allowed entry to the Congress plenary hall.

Sotto said only 50 people will be allowed to attend  25 from the executive and 25 from the legislative departments, which include office staff and security personnel.

And unlike the previous SONA, there will be no invited audience.

Sotto added that only nine members of the House of Representatives (HOR) and eight senators are expected to attend physically.

Sotto said he will be joined by Senate Majority Leader Miguel Zubiri, Senators Panfilo Lacson, Francis Tolentino, Ronald Dela Rosa, Christopher Bong Go, Sherwin Gatchalian and Pia Cayetano.

The Senate President said he agrees with the decision of the Palace.

I agree with that decision of the executive department. We must give the country and the public and the people the semblance that your government is up and about and ready to continue with its job, he said.

Sotto said attendees in the SONA are all expected to undergo rapid testing and comply with the health protocols to be implemented during the event.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, on the other hand, said it is not yet confirmed whether the President will personally appear in Congress or will just do a video telecast emanating from Malacanang.

The venue is confirmed, it is Batasan pero ang alam ko po, hindi pa po 100% sure kung physically maga-attend ang president or mag-broadcast po from Malago to Congress, Roque said.

Under the Constitution, the President is mandated to deliver his SONA before a joint session of Congress every fourth Monday of July.  (with inputs from Harlene Delgado) /mbmf

The post Duterte to deliver 5th SONA at Batasang Pambansa  Sotto appeared first on UNTV News.
Beerenberg Australian Strawberry Jam has been named the country's best jam by expert taste testers

The nation's most highly-rated strawberry jams have been revealed - and an Australian-made jam has been crowned the best of them all.

Out of 16 commercially-distributed jams surveyed by consumer advocacy group Choice, Beerenberg Australian Strawberry Jam was ranked at the top of the list with a score of 75 per cent.

The Adelaide Hills-based jam maker's $1.57 offering was praised by expert taste testers for its 'glossy, natural colour' and acidic strawberry flavour.

Beerenberg describes their jam as being made from a 'traditional home style recipe' using ripened sweet strawberries.

Second in the list was the Aldi Grandessa Signature Strawberry Premium Jam with a score of 74 per cent - priced at 54c.

The jams were all available in major supermarket chains and bought between May and June 2020.

An unlikely contender in Woolworths Essentials Strawberry Jam came in third with a score of 74 per cent, while Bonne Maman came in fourth

An unlikely contender in Woolworths Essentials Strawberry Jam also came in with a score of 74 per cent.

The own-brand product was the cheapest in the list priced at just 28c.

The study's taste testers said the jam's star quality was its 'nice strawberry' chunks and also praised its 'pleasant, subtle, sweet strawberry fragrance'.

AUSTRALIA'S MOST HIGHLY-RATED JAMS Beerenberg Australian Strawberry Jam - 75 per cent Aldi Grandessa Signature Strawberry Premium Jam - 74 per cent Woolworths Essentials Strawberry Jam - 74 per cent Bonne Maman Strawberry Conserve - 71 per cent IXL Strawberry Jam - 71 per cent Rose's Strawberry Conserve - 70 per cent Woolworths Macro Certified Organic Strawberry Spread - 68 per cent Woolworths Strawberry Jam - 66 per cent Coles Strawberry Jam - 62 per cent St Dalfour Strawberry Spread - 61 per cent Advertisement

Second in the list was the Aldi Grandessa Signature Strawberry Premium Jam - priced at 54c

Coming in fourth was the Bonne Maman Strawberry Conserve - easily recognised around the world for its chequered red lid.

'Lovely bright, vibrant colour. Beautiful clean, fresh strawberry flavour. Not a subtle jam. Love the big strawberry chunks in this one,' the testers said.

The score was comprised of 90 per cent taste and 10 per cent nutrition, Choice journalist Rachel Clemons said.
A former executive director at the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Ezekiel Agaba, was guilty of laundering N1.5 billion belonging to the agency, a Lagos Division of the Federal High Court ruled on Wednesday.

Ibrahim Buba, the judge, sentenced the official to seven years in prison on each of the seven counts, totalling 49 years.

The sentences, however, are to run concurrently.

"The sentence runs with effect from today (Wednesday)," Mr Buba added.

The judge said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the convict stole the sum from NIMASA while he was in charge of Maritime, Safety and Shipping.

The court declined to grant the application of EFCC counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, for the forfeiture of property allegedly bought by Mr Agaba from the proceeds of the crime.

The judge agreed with the convict's lawyer, E.D. Oyeneke, that the property is the subject of another suit at the federal high court.

During the trial, a witness said Mr Agaba bought a land in Lekki for N70 million

Earlier, Mr Oyeneke had pleaded that the court order non-custodial sentencing for Mr Agaba. The lawyer said his client's age places him at a high risk of contracting COVID-19 in prison.

Mr Buba did not grant the plea.

"In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, counsel should consider approaching the state for pardon for the convict," he added.

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The EFCC had in 2015 arraigned Mr Agaba alongside a former NIMASA Managing Director, Patrick Akpolobokemi; a former NIMASA staff, Ekene Nwakuche; and the chairman of Ndokwa Local Government Area (LGA) of Delta State, Juan Amechee, for allegedly laundering N2.6 billion.

They pleaded not guilty.

Mr Akpobolokemi filed a no-case submission but Mr Buba, on October 16, 2017, dismissed it.

It was, however, was overturned by the Court of Appeal which unanimously discharged and acquitted the NIMASA boss.

Following the appellate court's decision, the anti-graft agency on October 10, 2019, withdrew the charges against Messrs Amechee and Nwakuche.

But the EFCC maintained an amended charge against Mr Agaba.

The Commission told the judge that between December 23, 2013, and March 13, 2014, in Lagos, Mr Agaba converted the N1.5bn in tranches of N437,726,666.60; N66,800,000; N21,802,000; N402,480, 000; N525,000,000; N70,000.000; and N176, 000,000.

The funds were laundered through Seabulk Offshore Operator Ltd, Ace Protehesis Limited, Extreme Vertex Nigeria Limited and Aroward Consulting Limited.
Spain keeps putting off its state reforms as it gradually turns into a picturesque, irrelevant has-been in Europe. The news of the downfall keeps piling up fast and furious without eliciting the sort of public outrage that you would expect in a working democracy where the public is faced with abuse and reacts accordingly. Instead, the standards of Spains political system continue to slip.

Spain is hardly the first democracy to have skeletons in its closet and, as a matter of fact, at one point Francois Mitterrand had the French secret service spy on his favourite actress, Carol Bouquet, on a whim. Likewise, Spain is not the first democracy to have corrupt political parties or a monarch that keeps mistresses and has dubious funds stashed away in a Swiss bank account, under the Treasurys radar.

Furthermore, Spain is not the only country where the judiciary is politicised and dissidents are persecuted and jailed. Spain is hardly a unique case, but it is a European exception in that the abuse of power has become the norm and its public opinion whose anti-political sentiment runs deep remains somewhat unfazed, amid widespread pessimism about the economy.

We knew that the political Transition [following General Francos death] was a pact that wiped the slate clean, prevented accountability and did not lead to the sort of shared, mature interpretation of history that would have allowed us to move on.

Yet today we also know that the Transition was a pact built on top of a massive cesspool that has now burst and, unless urgent repairs are made, the stench will become unbearable for many, not only for half the Catalan people.
VALLEJO (BCN)

Vallejo officials investigating the fatal police shooting of Sean Monterrosa on June 2 have discovered that the windshield through which Monterrosa was shot has been destroyed and the police vehicle it belonged to is back on the street, according to a statement late Wednesday from the city manager's office.

Neither the police chief nor the city attorney was consulted, according to the statement.

In addition to asking the Solano County District Attorney, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and the FBI to conduct a criminal investigation of the shooting itself, the city is now asking that destruction of evidence be included.

The case has garnered national and international outrage. An officer shot Monterrosa while he was kneeling outside a store that had been vandalized; the officer has since been put on leave, but the city has not released the officer's name and no other official action has been taken.

Police released video a month later, but the circumstances surrounding the shooting remain unclear.

Civil rights attorney John Burris, who represents about 20 people with claims against the Vallejo Police Department, has said that "Vallejo police officers' standard operating procedure is to alter or destroy evidence."

Copyright  2020 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
Two dozen boys read verses of the Koran aloud on the dilapidated veranda of one of the thousands of informal Islamic schools studding northern Nigeria's biggest city Kano.

To some in this conservative region, the centuries-old system -- known as almajiri locally -- is an invaluable bastion of tradition and religious learning.

But critics have long condemned the institutions for squalid conditions, forcing children to beg and denying them a proper education.

Now the spread of coronavirus has sparked renewed efforts from the authorities to close down the schools and send the pupils home to their families.

Governors of 19 states across northern Nigeria in May announced a ban on the informal Islamic centres over fears they would become hubs for spreading the disease.

"We are prohibiting that system. We want every child to be with his parents," Kano governor Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai explained recently during a virtual conference on the issue.

He said the aim was ultimately to replace the schools with a hybrid Islamic and modern education system regulated by the authorities.

"The COVID-19 pandemic provided a window of opportunity to have the almajiris in a fixed location, document them, test them and repatriate them."

'Pretext to destroy system'

Leaders in Nigeria have repeatedly spoken about the need to reform the system -- but so far there has been little progress toward changing the deeply ingrained practice.

For generations it has been tradition in Muslim-majority northern Nigeria for parents to send their sons from as young as six to local clerics to learn the Koran.

The lessons are free but the children must fend for themselves -- meaning many end up begging in the streets or doing menial jobs.

Crowds of young boys pleading for money or food in tattered clothes are a common sight on Kano's roads.

They often sleep rough or on the floors of the overcrowded dormitories provided by their teachers with poor or no sanitation.

Scandal: Hundred of young men were rescued by police last year from a school in Kaduna, northern Nigeria, where many were chained and abused. By - (AFP)

Last year there was a brief outcry when police raids uncovered hundreds of men and boys trapped in atrocious conditions at such facilities, which often double as so-called "rehabilitation centres" for drug users.

The United Nations estimates that in Kano state alone -- with a population of some 14 million -- there are some 1.5 million child beggars, but local officials say the number could be twice that.

Across the whole of northern Nigeria it is reckoned there are millions more.

After the ban was announced in May officials in Kano and nearby Kaduna state began rounding up child beggars, students and teachers.

The authorities in Kano said they were determined to send back over 250,000 boys to their parents.

But the moves drew protests from clerics -- who complained the government's response was heavy-handed.

"We see the recent ban as a pretext to destroy the traditional Koran education system," said Jibril Salihu, who runs one of the schools.

"It is not possible to ban or reform a system that has existed for centuries overnight."

Awwalu Abdullahi was brought to an almajiri by his parents five years ago and insists he wants to finish learning the Koran.

"We feel the government is unfair to us," Abdullahi, now 20, told AFP.

"If we are taken back home we will join the league of our peers who are there living in illiteracy."

'Shambles'

The clerics' protests appear to have put the brakes on the authorities.

So far only around 1,500 pupils have been sent home from Kano -- and the state government has said schools could remain open if they provide proper board and lodging.

Yusuf Hassan, who runs the Almajiri Foundation charity, agreed the system needs reforming but insisted banning it was not the solution.

"It is the right step but in the wrong direction," he said.

"Even if you take the children back to their parents nothing will change for the kids because they don't have schools in their communities."

Child beggars queue for food in a rich neighbourhood of Kano. By AMINU ABUBAKAR (AFP/File)

A major obstacle is the woeful condition of Nigeria's state school system.

Primary education is nominally free and compulsory in Africa's most populous country, but some 10.5 million children aged 5-14 are permanently out of school.

Successive governments have been accused of severely underfunding the sector -- and the system is in no state to handle a sudden influx of millions more children.

"The formal education system is in shambles," said social analyst Saminu Dala.

"The public schools are saturated, classes are overpopulated and teachers are inadequate."
Forget it, Jake. Its Chinatown, says an old friend to Jack Nicholson as the mother is killed, the little girl is handed over to the bad guy and the police wash their hands of it at the end of the 1974 classic film Chinatown.

The movie was about the triumph of power and the futility of hoping for justice. Chinatown was just a metaphor, and any other place where justice is denied would do as well. Which is probably why today I feel like saying Forget it, Mehmetcik. Its the Balkans.

Saturday was the 25th anniversary of the massacre of Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) in Srebrenica toward the end of the 1992-95 war in Bosnia. It was the Bosnian Serbs who began the war, seeking to break up Bosnia and unite with next-door Serbia, and since Bosniaks and Serbs lived side by side in many places there was much ethnic cleansing. But this was special.

Srebrenica was then a Muslim-majority town, and when Bosnian Serb forces captured it 20,000 Muslims took refuge with the Dutch troops who were there to protect a UN-declared safe area. But the Dutch soldiers handed them over to the Bosnian Serb forces.

When soldiers talk about having signed a contract of unlimited liability, this is what they mean: when the circumstances demand it, you must be willing to lay down your life. In fact, this is what gives dignity to the military profession  but the Dutch soldiers had apparently not read the contract.

Knowing what was coming, most of the Muslim men and boys fled into the woods, but about 2,000 who had taken refuge with the Dutch UN troops were handed over to the Serbs. The Serbs separated those men and boys from the women and girls, chased down most of the men who had fled into the woods, and murdered them all  8,000 of them.

It took 10 days, even with bulldozers to scrape out the mass graves. (Later the Serbs dug up the graves and moved them to better hidden areas, but after 25 years of searching all but 1,000 have been found.)

Twenty years later, a special UN war crimes tribunal sentenced the Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, to life in prison for genocide. But few of the Bosniaks driven from their homes have been able to go back  and denial reigns in both the Bosnian Serb Republic and in Serbia proper.

For the Serbs its all fake news, a fabricated myth in the words of Milorad Dodik, the Serb member of Bosnias three-person presidency. The president of Serbia, Alexander Vucic, doesnt go quite that far, but denies that there was a genocide. Its all very Balkan.

From great tragedy and vile lies to mere churlishness: next week, in Istanbul, there will be Muslim prayer services in Hagia Sofia for the first time since 1934. The massive cathedral overlooking the Bosphorus, built almost 1,500 years ago, was the worlds largest building for almost 1,000 years.

When the Ottoman emperor Mehmet II conquered the city in 1453, he was much taken with the building and had it converted into a mosque. All the Christian symbols and relics were destroyed, four minarets were built at the four corners, and for the next half-millennium only Muslims prayed there.

Fair enough. Conquest was the business, and thats how business was done in those days. The Ottoman Empire went on to conquer almost all of the Balkans, so nobody in the Christian world seriously dreamed of getting Hagia Sophia back. But the centuries passed, and eventually the empire collapsed.

The Turkish republic that Ataturk rescued from the wreckage was a secular state, and in 1934 he declared that this ancient Christian church should no longer be used as a mosque. It became a museum, open to all  and remained so until Turkeys current president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, decided to turn it into a mosque again.

Theres no shortage of mosques in Istanbul. Indeed, theres another one right beside Hagia Sophia, almost as big, much more beautiful, and with six minarets, not four. Erdogan is only doing this because his popularity is waning: his proxy wars arent going well, his party has split, and the economy is on the rocks. So do something spiteful to the neighbours. It should play well at home.

Its 500 kilometres from Bosnia to Istanbul, but were still in the Balkans.
Despite the backlash Meghan Markle faces outside of the royal family and the UK, all of the hate doesn't stun her according to her body language.

The former "Suits" actress was seen on Tuesday for giving her first public speech alone since quitting her royal duties in January.

In a pre-recorded video for the online global summit of the Girl Up campaign, Meghan Markle urged young women to challenge authority.

According to a body language expert, the 38-year-old mom has a whole new level of confidence and power.

Judi James spoke to Mirror and revealed that Meghan's passionate delivery of her speech was "deceptively subtle."

"This speech seems to show her at the peak of her confidence and inspirational power so far, but overall her tone is calm, measured, warm and encouraging, and even loving at the end."

Talking about Meghan Markle's body language, James believes that the Duchess of Sussex's speech was calm, measured, warm and encouraging, and even loving at the end."

She added, "Meghan's body language seems to be the tool she uses to add the emphasis and authenticity."

James also mentioned how her speech didn't have any shouting or anger or unnecessary arm-waving.

Despite the speech being "about challenging the norms and having 'meaningful influence over the structures of power,'" Meghan Markle's gestures, pauses, and meaningful eye contact and elongated blinking made her words very memorable who were watching.

"As an influencer for change, Meghan's delivery seems geared to make her look more like a wise guru than an angry rebel."

In late March, Meghan Markle, her husband Prince Harry, and their one-year-old son Archie moved to the US after dropping the bombshell announcement in January that they want to leave the royal family.

The couple sent shockwaves through the UK, and even the entire world, when they quit their royal duties and initially had plans to stay in Canada to live a simple life.

But even before leaving the royal family, the former celebrity had always been a good speaker.

In November, she has been hailed as inspirational and powerful after posting a video of a speech she did on her royal tour.

Meghan Markle spoke about changing the world.

Speaking of her lawsuit on the Associated Newspapers for unlawfully publishing a handwritten letter she wrote to her father, Thomas Markle, the Duchess said, "In a world that can seem aggressive, confrontational and dangerous, you should know that you have the power to change it."

"You have the power within you to change things, and that begins with how you connect to others."

Back then, the video posted on their Sussex Royal Instagram racked up over 250,000 likes in less than 24 hours.

The comment section of the video was also full of praises for the Duchess.

"Your message is so powerful, and so are you," one person commented.

However, the same can't be said about Prince Harry.

The 35-year-old Prince was noticed not to be good at giving speeches, especially when compared to his wife.

In a previous video call that he starred in with Meghan, many commentators said he looked awkward, with a body language expert revealed that he looked like a "hostage."

READ MORE: The Heartbreaking Reason Why Princess Diana Stopped Wearing Her Favorite Luxury Brand
PHOENIX, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Silverware, Inc. announced the availability of Silverware Quality Control (QC) on Microsoft AppSource, an online cloud marketplace providing tailored line-of-business solutions, earlier this year. Silverware Quality Control recently earned a Microsoft preferred solution designation.

Bob Silver, chief operating officer of Silverware Inc.

Silverware, Inc. became a Microsoft partner in 2002 and helps outfit businesses throughout the U.S. with customized enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions. The company was an early adopter of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and opened an additional division to serve the cannabis industry and its growing software needs.

During its work in highly regulated environments, Silverware consulted on significant process improvements that helped businesses support an adaptive QC process. Silverware leveraged this expertise into an application for Business Central, Silverware Quality Control, to help businesses manage their testing data in a single location. Silverware's QC app also facilitates the monitoring and inheritance of test results from raw material to finished good, then traces results backward from sold good to raw material in the event of a product recall. Additionally, its strong quarantine process prevents untested material from entering production.

Silverware QC users can further define testing ranges and group tests into test groups, then apply them to multiple items. More power over testing gives users greater control and visibility over the QC process that is suitable for highly regulated industries and fast-moving consumer goods.

"After working with cannabis clients, we discovered a number of ways to streamline the quality control process in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central," states Bob Silver, COO of Silverware, Inc. "The ability to manage test data in a single place, pass inherited results all the way to a finished good, trace results back to the raw material, and manage a quarantined product leads to a more protected quality process. We feel that our quality control app can help many companies that are dealing with these same issues, so we encourage companies and their partners to contact us to see how they can benefit."

Silverware QC received a Microsoft preferred solution designation, a status given to a cloud application "selected for its quality, performance, and ability to address customer needs in a certain industry vertical or solution area."

Kirsten Edmondson Wolfe, Senior Director, AppSource Product Marketing, Microsoft Corp. says, "We're pleased to welcome Silverware Quality Control to Microsoft AppSource, which gives our customers access to the best solutions available from our extensive partner ecosystem. Microsoft AppSource offers partner solutions such as Silverware Quality Control from Silverware, Inc. to help customers meet their needs faster."

Learn more about Silverware Quality Control at its page on AppSource.

About Silverware, Inc.

Silverware, Inc. is a Microsoft Gold Partner for enterprise resource planning (ERP) based in Phoenix, Arizona. The company has an additional office in Seattle, Washington. Silverware also operates a specialized division, Silver Leaf CBC, that implements cannabis ERP for Business Central. Together, the Silverware team builds solutions that help manufacturers and distributors realize a better future through ERP. To learn more about Silverware and the Silverware Quality Control app, visit silverw.com/software-quality-control.

For more information, press only:

Juliet Straker, marketingWorx PR, 480.874.1524, [email protected]

SOURCE Silverware Inc.
NEW YORK, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Amynta Group, a leading insurance services provider of property & casualty and warranty protection products and services, has acquired the surety operations of Aspen Insurance, the Insurance Segment of Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited. The business will now operate as Amynta Surety Solutions. As part of the transaction, Amynta has entered into a strategic partnership with Crum & Forster, a leading national property and casualty insurance company and wholly owned subsidiary of Fairfax Financial, whereby Crum & Forster will provide the underwriting capacity for the business and assume Aspen's in-force surety portfolio. Amynta Surety Solutions will be the exclusive writer of large commercial surety bonds for Crum & Forster.

Formed in 2011, Amynta Surety Solutions offers unparalleled underwriting expertise across the commercial surety market. The company focuses on the Fortune 1000 market, large private account business and specialty market niches where risk selection and loss mitigation are critical. Amynta Surety Solutions will be headquartered in Glastonbury, CT, and will continue under the leadership of Michael Toppi, Chief Executive Officer of Amynta Surety Solutions.

"We are very excited to welcome Michael Toppi and the entire surety team to Amynta, forming the foundation of our surety practice. The business brings a well-established surety team with a proven underwriting track record and culture of delivering creative solutions for clients," said Robert Giammarco, Chairman and CEO of Amynta Group. "We are thrilled to be partnering with Crum & Forster to support the growth of Amynta Surety Solutions. Crum & Forster has a strong surety practice and offers excellent security to our clients."

"The team and I are excited about the opportunities ahead with Amytna. This transaction provides us with a great opportunity to continue delivering innovative solutions and the highest quality of service to our broker partners and clients with the support of Crum & Forster, our "A" rated carrier partner," said Michael Toppi, Chief Executive Officer of Amynta Surety Solutions.

Aspen Chairman and CEO, Mark Cloutier, said "We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Amynta and Crum & Forster. As we continue to seek ways to achieve our long-term value creation objectives through actions including reviewing our product set, reducing complexity and improving efficiency, we always strive to solve for the needs of our trading partners and our people. Our surety business has enjoyed strong underwriting performance and delivered profits to Aspen, creating strong valuation in a competitive marketplace that includes a quota share arrangement as part of our ongoing relationship. This agreement facilitates continuity for both our clients and colleagues with a strong partnership in place that is focused on strategic growth, which was a key consideration in our decision. More than that, this agreement creates a lasting trading relationship of shared benefit and value-add for all three organizations involved."

"We look forward to the long-term opportunities anticipated from this strategic partnership with Amynta. The team's expertise and respected reputation in the commercial surety space are keys to its success, and we are proud to support the growth of this operation," said Anthony Slimowicz, COO and Division President at Crum & Forster.

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP served as legal counsel to Amynta. GC Securities, a division of MMC Securities LLC, served as financial advisor to Aspen and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP served as legal counsel.

About Amynta

Amynta Group is a premier insurance services company with more than $3.5 billion in managed premium and 2,000 associates across North America, Europe, and Australia. An independent, customer-centered and underwriting-focused company, Amynta serves leading carriers, wholesalers, retail agencies, auto dealers, OEMs, and consumer product retailers with innovative insurance and warranty protection solutions. Amynta operates through three segments: Managing General Agencies; Warranty, including automotive, consumer and specialty equipment; and Specialty Risk Services. For more information, please visit amyntagroup.com.

About Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited

Aspen provides reinsurance and insurance coverage to clients in various domestic and global markets through wholly-owned subsidiaries and offices in Australia, Bermuda, Canada, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. For the year ended December 31, 2019, Aspen reported $12.6 billion in total assets, $7.0 billion in gross reserves, $2.7 billion in total shareholders' equity and $3.4 billion in gross written premiums. Aspen's operating subsidiaries have been assigned a rating of "A-" by Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC, an "A" ("Excellent") by A.M. Best Company Inc. and an "A2" by Moody's Investors Service, Inc. For more information about Aspen, please visit www.aspen.co.

About Crum & Forster

Crum & Forster is a leading national property and casualty insurer, providing specialty insurance products through its admitted and surplus lines insurance companies. Founded in 1822, Crum & Forster is one of the oldest U.S. insurance companies, and today has more than 2400 employees across the country conducting business through a network of independent agents, brokers and wholesalers. Crum & Forster had $2.8 billion in gross written premium in 2019 and is rated "A" Excellent by A.M. Best. United States Fire Insurance Company (one of Crum & Forster's admitted companies) has a 2020 U.S. Treasury listing of $125.9 million. For more information about Crum & Forster, please visit www.cfins.com.

Amynta Media Contact:

Brenna Tetley

Phone: +1.646.887.9498

Email: [email protected]

Aspen Media Contact:

Cecile Locurto

Phone: +929.265.3687

Email: [email protected]

Crum & Forster Media Contact:

Hilary Senner

Phone: +973.490.6467

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE The Amynta Group

Related Links

www.amyntagroup.com


TOKYO and LONDON, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sosei Group Corporation ("the Company") (TSE: 4565) today announces the successful completion of an International Offering of new shares and euro-yen denominated convertible bonds due 2025 that has raised a total of approximately $200 million. Further details of the International Offering can be found in the Company announcements made on 30 June 2020.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the International Offering as follows:

The majority of funds will be used to pursue strategic growth initiatives including:

- a potentially transformative acquisition to secure long-term revenue growth;

- investments in novel technologies that complement and future-proof its drug discovery platform;

- expansion of its drug candidate discovery and early development into new target classes; and

- in-licensing late-stage clinical assets to develop for the Japanese market.

Any balance of funds will be used to support organic growth initiatives, such as investments in current research activities and general corporate purposes.

Shinichi Tamura, President and CEO of Sosei Heptares, commented: "I am pleased that we have successfully completed this International Offering led by our finance team and I would like to thank all of the investors who subscribed for their support. The US$200 million that we have raised will allow us to pursue our growth strategy, which includes potential transformative acquisitions, more aggressively. We have an excellent track record of making transformational acquisitions: the purchases of both Heptares Therapeutics and Arakis have played a key role in shaping our current business and delivering significant value to our shareholders. With this enhanced level of financial resources, I am looking to the future with great confidence and look forward to updating you as we execute our growth strategy."

Chris Cargill, EVP and CFO of Sosei Heptares, added: "This International Offering to new and existing shareholders was highly successful, given the uncertain global economic outlook, and has secured the long-term growth capital we require to execute our corporate ambition. This significantly improved level of financial flexibility enhances our strategic options. We can now look at exciting ways to accelerate Sosei Heptares' long-term revenue growth, including a potentially transformative acquisition, as well as investments that enhance our own world-leading capabilities to generate novel drug candidates targeting serious diseases."

BofA Securities acted as sole bookrunner and lead manager for the international offering, and Mizuho International and Nomura acted as co-managers. Nishimura & Asahi acted as legal counsel to Sosei Heptares.

About Sosei Heptares

We are an international biopharmaceutical group focused on the discovery and early development of new medicines originating from our proprietary GPCR-targeted StaR technology and structure-based drug design platform capabilities. We are advancing a broad and deep pipeline of novel medicines across multiple therapeutic areas, including CNS, immuno-oncology, gastroenterology, inflammation and other rare/specialty indications.

We have established partnerships with some of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies, including AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Genentech (Roche), Novartis, Pfizer and Takeda, and additionally with multiple emerging biotechnology companies. Sosei Heptares is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan with R&D facilities in Cambridge, UK.

"Sosei Heptares" is the corporate brand and trademark of Sosei Group Corporation, which is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (ticker: 4565). Sosei, Heptares, the logo and StaR are trademarks of Sosei Group companies.

For more information, please visit https://www.soseiheptares.com/

LinkedIn: @soseiheptaresco | Twitter: @soseiheptaresco | YouTube: @soseiheptaresco

Forward-looking statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about the discovery, development and commercialization of products. Various risks may cause Sosei Group Corporation's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including: adverse results in clinical development programs; failure to obtain patent protection for inventions; commercial limitations imposed by patents owned or controlled by third parties; dependence upon strategic alliance partners to develop and commercialize products and services; difficulties or delays in obtaining regulatory approvals to market products and services resulting from development efforts; the requirement for substantial funding to conduct research and development and to expand commercialization activities; and product initiatives by competitors. As a result of these factors, prospective investors are cautioned not to rely on any forward-looking statements. We disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Enquiries:

Sosei Heptares

Shinichiro Nishishita  VP Investor Relations

+81 (0)3 5210 3399 | [email protected]

Candelle Chong  VP Corporate Strategy and Communications

+44 (0)1223 949 392 | [email protected]

Citigate Dewe Rogerson

Yas Fukuda  Japanese Media

+81 (0)3 4360 9234 | [email protected]

Mark Swallow, David Dible  International Media

+44 (0)20 7638 9571 | [email protected]

SOURCE Sosei Heptares

Related Links

https://soseiheptares.com/


Mayank Singh By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: India's resolve to go ahead with projects of strategic road infrastructure even after China tried to rake up controversy is catching strength.

Border Roads Organisation has decided to go ahead with the important road infrastructure in Arunachal Pradesh following a review meeting on Thursday.

The official Twitter handle of Chief Secretary, Arunachal Pradesh Tweeted, "A meeting was held via video link between Lt Gen Harpal Singh, DG Border Roads and Naresh Kumar, Chief Secretary, Arunachal Pradesh to ensure faster progress of infrastructure development projects in the State."

Sources said all the four BRO Project Chief Engineers of Arunachal Pradesh were in attendance. The development comes after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held a review on the progress of infrastructure projects of BRO on July 7.

Issues of land acquisition, forest clearance, allocation of quarries, joint surveys, among others were addressed by them. Additional stress has given on infrastructure along the borders has gained more attention after the standoff with Chinese PLA began early May.

The Chief Secretary Arunachal Pradesh had given assurance to DG Border Roads that full cooperation of all departments of Arunachal Govt will be rendered to ensure that momentum of road construction is maintained.

An official termed the meeting as very useful and said that this will set the stage for BRO to complete the road infrastructure in Arunachal Pradesh within the set timelines.

Keeping the strategic importance of Arunachal Pradesh, four projects of BRO -- Vartak, Arunank, Brahmank and Udayak, are committed to construct and maintain the indispensable road infrastructure necessary for the people and to maintain troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Project Vartak is handling strategically important Se La Tunnel. The tunnel once complete will give an all-weather link to the militarily significant town of Tawang.

India and China share 1126 kilometres of the 3488 kilometer long LAC.

Earlier, the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) in April completed 430 feet long crucial Daporijo bridge over the Subansiri river in Arunachal Pradeshs Upper Subansiri district. The bridge is the sole link to 451 villages and approximately 3,000 security force personnel deployed along the India-China border with disputed areas of Asaphila and Maza under it.
Lenovo recently went a little wild by cramming a 64-core Ryzen Threadripper PRO into an unassuming workstation, but we assume one of those won't be landing on your desk any time soon. (If one does, let us know how it runs!) For AMD fans hankering for more affordable powerhouses, though, Lenovo's spate of new Legion gaming PCs may fit the bill.

Perhaps the most notable of Lenovo's new US-bound releases is the Legion 5, which comes in 15.6 and 17.3-inch variants. No matter which screen size speaks to you, both machines can be configured with up to an octa-core Ryzen 7 4800H processor and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 GPU. That, along with the 144Hz refresh rate display, should be plenty for solid 1080p gaming, though it's worth noting the Legion 5's max memory allotment tops out at 16GB of DDR4-3200 RAM. And -- for better or worse -- the Legion 5s lack the sort of in-your-face bravado of many other gaming notebooks. Both model feature relatively conservative chassis designs, though the RGB backlit TrueStrike keyboard is still probably a dead giveaway for its gaming credentials.

If that all sounds your speed, you can get a 15.6-inch Legion 5 with a GTX 1650 Ti GPU right now for $760. Those with slightly upmarket tastes are in for a bit of a wait, though: The GeForce RTX 2060 GPU option won't be available until sometime in August, and the $1,090 17.3-inch model with that same GPU won't start shipping until September.

Lenovo

Also on deck is a seemingly potent budget rig, the IdeaPad Gaming 3. Yes, another one: Lenovo released an Intel-powered laptop with a very similar name earlier this year. If you can get past the nomenclature, you'll find a machine with a 15.6-inch, full HD display you can trick out with the Ryzen 7 4800H, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti GPU, up to 32 GB of DDR4-3200 RAM and up to 1TB of SSD storage. (That's right, you can squeeze more RAM into this thing than the Legion 5.)

For those with a little more wiggle room in their budget, bumping that standard display up to a 120Hz panel is an option, though Lenovo hasn't confirmed to us exactly how much that screen swap will cost. Cost-conscious gamers may wind up skipping out on that, though, especially since its base price is tantalizing as-is: These AMD models will go on sale this month starting at $660.
Technavio has been monitoring the well abandonment services market and it is poised to grow by USD 1.09 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of over 5% 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/20200716005327/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Well Abandonment Services 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. Acteon Group Ltd., Calfrac Well Services Ltd., Expro Holdings UK2 Ltd., General Electric Co., Halliburton Co., NexTier Oilfield Solutions Inc., Oceaneering International Inc., Schlumberger Ltd., TechnipFMC Plc, and Weatherford International Plc 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.

Maturing oil and gas fields has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market.

Well Abandonment Services Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Well Abandonment Services Market is segmented as below:

Application Offshore Onshore

Geography Europe North America MEA APAC 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=IRTNTR44048

Well Abandonment Services 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 well abandonment services market report covers the following areas:

Well Abandonment Services Market size

Well Abandonment Services Market trends

Well Abandonment Services Market analysis

This study identifies regulatory requirements for well abandonment as one of the prime reasons driving the well abandonment services market growth during the next few years.

Well Abandonment Services Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of vendors operating in the well abandonment services market, including some of the vendors such as Acteon Group Ltd., Calfrac Well Services Ltd., Expro Holdings UK2 Ltd., General Electric Co., Halliburton Co., NexTier Oilfield Solutions Inc., Oceaneering International Inc., Schlumberger Ltd., TechnipFMC Plc, and Weatherford International Plc. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the well abandonment services 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.

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Well Abandonment Services Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist well abandonment services market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the well abandonment services market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the well abandonment services market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of well abandonment services 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 Application

Market segments

Comparison by Application

Offshore Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Onshore Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by Application

Customer Landscape

Geographic Landscape

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024

North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

MEA Market size and forecast 2019-2024

APAC 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

Vendor landscape

Landscape disruption

Industry risks

Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

Acteon Group Ltd.

Calfrac Well Services Ltd.

Expro Holdings UK2 Ltd.

General Electric Co.

Halliburton Co.

NexTier Oilfield Solutions Inc.

Oceaneering International Inc.

Schlumberger Ltd.

TechnipFMC Plc

Weatherford International Plc

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/20200716005327/en/

Contacts:

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

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Email: media@technavio.com

Website: www.technavio.com/
Shamima Begum has appealed the decision to revoke her British citizenship. (PA Images)

Shamima Begum should be allowed to return to the UK to challenge the revocation of her citizenship, judges have ruled.

The now-20-year-old, who travelled as a schoolgirl to live under Isis, wants to appeal the Home Office decision to revoke her citizenship and claimed it made her stateless and exposed her to real risk of death or inhuman or degrading treatment.

Sajid Javid, the then-home secretary, made the decision on national security grounds in February 2019. Begum had not been allowed to return to appeal the decision.

On Thursday, judges at the Court of Appeal said the only way in which she can have a fair and effective appeal is to be permitted to come into the United Kingdom to pursue her appeal.

Lord Justice Flaux  sitting with Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Singh  said: Fairness and justice must, on the facts of this case, outweigh the national security concerns, so that the leave to enter appeals should be allowed.

In its ruling, the court said Begum could be arrested and charged upon her arrival in the United Kingdom and remanded in custody pending trial if thought necessary.

Begum was a teenager when she went to Syria in February 2015 to live under the terror groups rule for three years before being found pregnant in a refugee camp last year.

She was one of three schoolgirls from Bethnal Green Academy in London who left their families to join Isis.

Begum made her way to Raqqa, which was heavily damaged during Isis occupation. (AP)

They flew via Gatwick to Istanbul before travelling to Raqqa, Isiss declared capital. She claimed she married a Dutch convert, Yago Riedijk, 10 days after arriving in Isis-controlled territory.

She told The Times she left the city in January 2017 with her husband and children, who have both since died. Her third child died shortly after being born.

Begum is now in the al-Roj camp in Syria. She has since said she regrets her actions and was brainwashed by Isis, and pleaded for a second chance.

The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) ruled in February that the decision to revoke her citizenship was lawful because she was a citizen of Bangladesh by descent at the time.

Story continues

Her bid to return to the UK to pursue her appeal was also rejected by the High Court.

Begum travelled with two others to live under Isis rule. (PA/Met Police)

Her barrister, Tom Hickman QC, told the Court of Appeal in a previous hearing that removing Begums citizenship meant she faced being sent to Bangladesh or Iraq, where she faced extra-judicial killing at the hands of the police or a wholly unfair and predetermined trial and an immediate sentence of death.

He said Javid was told Begum could not have a fair appeal when he decided to revoke her citizenship, and an appeal should be permitted because it cannot be pursued in a manner that satisfies even minimum requirements of fair procedure.

Hickman has also said the situation at al-Roj was incredibly fragile and dangerous and described conditions there as wretched and squalid.

Sir James Eadie QC, for the Home Office, said previously that Begums inability to fully engage with the appeal procedure was a result of her decision to leave the UK, travel to Syria against Foreign and Commonwealth Office advice and align with Isil.

Judges made the ruling at the Court of Appeal on Thursday. (PA Images)

He added: This led to her being held in conditions akin to detention in a foreign state at the hands of a third party, the Syrian Defence Force.

It was not the result of any action by the secretary of state and the deprivation decision did not have any causative impact on the appellant in this respect.

Begum has previously spoken of how her world fell apart when her previous appeal for citizenship was rejected.

Lord Justice Flaux said: With due respect to SIAC, it is unthinkable that, having concluded that Ms Begum could not take any meaningful part in her appeal so that it could not be fair and effective, she should have to continue with her appeal nonetheless.

He added: It is difficult to conceive of any case where a court or tribunal has said we cannot hold a fair trial, but we are going to go on anyway.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: This is a very disappointing decision by the court.

We will now apply for permission to appeal this judgment, and to stay its effects pending any onward appeal.

The governments top priority remains maintaining our national security and keeping the public safe.
President Donald Trump traveled Wednesday to the new political battleground of Georgia to blast away at one of the nation's cornerstone conservation laws, vowing to speed construction projects by limiting legally mandated environmental reviews of highways, pipelines and power plants.

One day earlier, his Democratic presidential rival, Joe Biden, took a different tack, releasing a $2 trillion plan to confront climate change and overhaul the nation's infrastructure, claiming he will create millions of jobs by building a clean energy economy.

In that period, the major party candidates for the White House displayed in sharp relief just how far apart they are ideologically on infrastructure and environmental matters of vital importance to many American voters, particularly in critical battleground states, including Pennsylvania and Florida.

Biden is trying to win over young voters and supporters of his vanquished rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, by showing an aggressive awareness of climate change and promising to move urgently to combat it. At the same time he has sought to maintain his promised connection to white, working-class voters, especially in the Upper Midwest, who swung to Trump four years ago and are leery of what they see as threats to their livelihood, especially jobs in the oil and gas industry.

The president, in contrast, is pretty much where he has been for more than a decade: intermittently acknowledging global warming and calling it a hoax; making spurious accusations that windmills cause cancer, energy-efficient appliances are "worthless" and zero-emissions buildings "basically have no windows." At every turn and on every regulatory decision the administration embraces business over environmental interests.

"Biden wants to massively regulate the energy economy, rejoin the Paris climate accord, which would kill our energy totally; you would have to close 25 percent of your businesses and kill oil and gas development," Trump said Wednesday as he announced a "top to bottom overhaul" of the National Environmental Policy Act, a bedrock environmental law since its passage in 1969. He offered no evidence to back up his statistics.

"When I think about climate change, the word I think of is 'jobs,' good-paying union jobs that will put Americans to work, making the air cleaner for our kids to breathe, restoring our crumbling roads and bridges and ports," Biden said Tuesday as he outlined his plan.

The events captured the two candidates' radically different beliefs about the global threat of the planet's warming and offered a glimpse of how they would lead a nation confronting a climate crisis over the next four years. For Trump, tackling global warming is a threat to the economy. For Biden, it's an opportunity.

The Trump administration's latest overhaul to the National Environmental Policy Act highlighted their differences still more.

The changes finalized Wednesday include a limit of two years to conduct exhaustive environmental reviews of infrastructure projects. They also revoked a requirement that agencies consider the cumulative environmental effects of projects, like their contribution to climate change.
Versameb AG, a Basel, Switzerland-based biopharmaceutical company developing innovative ribonucleic acid (RNA) therapeutics, closed a CHF 6m seed financing round.

The company intends to use the funds to progress its lead asset towards clinic by the end of 2021 and advance additional applications in therapeutic areas.

Led by Prof. Dr. Friedrich Metzger, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, Versameb is a preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused of novel RNA-based therapeutics. Its proprietary VERSagile technology platform enables development of functional mRNA molecules in multiple disease areas with high unmet medical need including dermatology, oncology and myology.

The platform has been validated for these therapeutic targets and preclinical proof of principle has been established with its lead asset in animal models.

Versameb appointed Dr. Klaas P. Zuideveld as Chief Development Officer to advance its lead molecule into clinical development. Most recently, Dr. Zuideveld held the position of Vice President Pharmaceutical partnerships at Caris Life Sciences, where he was responsible for the companys first companion diagnostic partnership and precision medicine led clinical trials. Prior to that, Dr. Zuideveld held leadership positions in drug development and consulted for Pharsight (acquired by Certara), F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Mosaic Biomedicals (acquired by Northern Biologics) and Therachon (acquired by Pfizer). He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Leiden, The Netherlands.

FinSMEs

16/07/2020
Thirteen ships are set to leave the Carnival Corporation fleet as the worlds largest cruise company accelerates the withdrawals of less efficient vessels that were already scheduled to find new homes.

Its not very complicated. Look, a number of ships would be rotating out over time anyway, said CEO Arnold Donald, in an interview with Cruise Industry News.

They are less efficient; youre not to going to put the capital into them because you wont get the returns. They are fine right now in terms of resonating with guests.

In total, the 13 ships expected to leave the fleet represent a nearly nine percent reduction in capacity for Carnival Corporation.

They are less efficient because they were built at a different time in a different way and they are more challenging in terms of generating returns. Youre not going to put a lot of capital into something like that if it makes your task that much greater when you can bring in the new capacity which is far more efficient, Donald said.

Carnival announced on Wednesday that four Holland America Line ships would leave the company, going to undisclosed buyers.

On Thursday morning, Celestyal Cruises announced it had purchased the Costa neoRomanitca.

In addition, the 1994-built Pacific Aria and 1991-built Pacific Dawn, both operating for P&O Australia, have been sold and will move to Cruise & Maritime Voyages in 2021. Those ships will be replaced with bigger and more modern tonnage as the Golden and Star Princess will transfer to the P&O Australia brand. The moves will result in a net increase of 2,344 berths for P&O Australia.

Also, the Costa Victoria and P&O Oceana have left Carnivals umbrella recently, with unknown futures. Both brands are slated to get new LNG-powered ships with capacity for over 5,000 guests.

In 2018, China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) announced it had bought the Costa Atlantica and Mediterranea for its joint venture with Carnival Corp. with those ships scheduled to transfer in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

Carnival has typically exited around two ships a year, for example, selling 28 ships between 2006 and 2018.

New ships will help the company command a higher ticket price. New vessels are more efficient to operate, and are said to generate higher onboard revenue performance metrics.

If we were sailing guests now, those ships would be cash flow positive and be making a contribution, Donald said, speaking about the ships the company is retiring.

But the reality is, when we look at it, and we dont know when wed be able to come back full slate; and these will be the last ships we will bring back anyway. Then you look at the timeframe it would take to do that, and then you look at the costs associated with maintaining those ships. Then you make the decision  take the cash, reduce the cash burn  which we need to do.

Recent Carnival Corporation Secondhand Transactions:

Cruise Ship Brand New Operator Tonnage Capacity Built Price/Terms Delivery neoRomantica Costa Celestyal 53,048 1,578 1993 N/A TBD Maasdam Holland America Unknown 55,575 1,258 1993 N/A August 2020 Veendam Holland America Unknown 57.092 1,350 1996 N/A August 2020 Amsterdam Holland America Fred. Olsen 62,725 1,380 2000 N/A Fall 2020 Rotterdam Holland America Fred. Olsen 61,849 1,404 1997 N/A Fall 2020 Oceana P&O UK Unknown 77,499 2,016 2000 N/A July 2020 Victoria Costa Unknown 75,166 1,928 1996 N/A June 2020 Pacific Dawn P&O Australia CMV 70,285 2,020 1991 N/A March 2021 Pacific Aria P&O Australia CMV 55,819 1,258 1994 N/A May 2021 Atlantica Costa CSSC 85,619 2,114 2000 N/A Q4 2019 Mediterranea Costa CSSC 85,619 2,114 2003 N/A Q4 2020 Pacific Jewel P&O Australia Zen Cruises 70,250 1,590 1990 N/A March 2019 Prinsendam Holland America Phoenix Reisen 38,484 835 1988 N/A Summer 2019 Oriana P&O UK CTS 69,153 1,822 1995 N/A Summer 2019

Stay tuned to the Cruise Industry News website for more in a multi-part interview with Arnold Donald.
Following reports that Germany and other countries are restricting entries from Luxembourg due to a growing number of COVID-19 cases in the Grand Duchy, a mysterious new government official has announced that the number of cases of COVID-19 here is actually zero.

The correction was delivered late Wednesday night at a press conference attended by a few sleepy journalists who had been hastily assembled.

Good evening, my name is Javier Betelo and Im from the Office of Corrections, he said, adjusting his nose which appeared to be sliding down his face. My office has the final say about information released by the government, even if it comes from Prime MInister Xavier Bettel himself.

Betelo admits that the government has been reporting alarming figures, but he insists these figures are false.

We might have said we had 100 new cases in 24 hours, but thats not what we meant, Betelo said. We meant 100 new faces. Lots of new faces in Luxembourg these days. Lots of people moving here.

Betelo says the government might have also reported a rise in the overall number of infected people, but that this was based on a misunderstanding.

Its like that old telephone game, where you sit in a line and whisper something to the next person, and she whispers it to the next, and so on, he said. And by the time the last person hears the message, its all jumbled.

Which is what happened in the case of our reporting, he continued. The health official didnt say, were experiencing a rise in the number of infected people.

He said, those who make good pies are highly respected people.

Betelo went on to say that were all quite healthy here, thank you very much, and that theres no reason for any country to worry.

Do we have new COVID-19 cases in Luxembourg? he said. No cases, actually, None at all. Guess Germany will have to open up those borders again, eh?

Read more at wurst.lu

Photo credit:iStock
Two people were killed after a ground plus two-storey structure Chawl in Malvani area of Mumbais Malad collapsed on Thursday. The incident took place around 2:35 pm on plot no.8 at Abdul Hamid Marg in Malvani. Four fire engine and one rescue van was sent to the spot.

Prabhat Rahangdale, Chief Fire Officer of the Mumbai Fire Brigade, said After arriving at the incident, it was noticed that a ground plus two floor chawl had collapsed. Of the total injured, two were rescued by the Fire Brigade and sent to the hospital. Two more people were already sent to a nearby hospital by locals before our team arrived.

In all, 15 people were rescued and sent to a nearby hospital. The two deceased have been identified as Faizal Wahid Sayyad (18) and Anjum Shahabuddin Shaikh (23) and the rest of the 13 people were treated and discharged, according to the BMC.

More details awaited.
Vietnam performed its role as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) well in the first half of this year,

contributing to creating an international and regional environment conducive to national development and bolstering ties with countries for the common goal of peace, stability, and prosperity, Deputy Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung has said.

At a UNSC meeting

In a recent article, he further said that over 200 meetings at the ambassadorial level and hundreds of working sessions considering 59 agenda issues and adopting 81 documents are impressive figures posted during Vietnams first six months at the UNSC.

On the back of an external policy of independence and self-reliance, he wrote, Vietnam has actively joined and played its role in multilateral mechanisms, especially at ASEAN and the UN in its dual role as a non-permanent member of the UNSC and the ASEAN Chair 2020.

In his two messages on the occasion of Vietnams election as the ASEAN Chair 2020 in January 2020 and a UNSC non-permanent member for 2020-2021 in June 2019, Party General Secretary and State President Nguyen Phu Trong highlighted the need to consider it as one of the most important tasks of the Vietnamese Party and State in order to fulfil tasks assigned by the international community.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has also affirmed that Vietnam will do its best to perform its role as a UNSC non-permanent member well in an article written in June 2019. He also stressed that Vietnam supports multilateral cooperation in general and the UN and the World Health Organisation (WHO) in particular in an address to the online meeting of the 73rd World Health Assembly on May 19.

In a spirit of partnership for sustainable peace, Trung said Vietnam always observes the UN Charter and basic principles of international law; supports the seeking of solutions to regional and global disputes and conflicts via negotiations, considering the legitimate interests of the parties concerned; and stands ready to share its experience in national development and regional and global integration.

Vietnam offered two initiatives, he said, including holding a ministerial-level open debate on observing the UN Charter, which attracted the attention of representatives from 106 countries raising their voices, adopting the first Chairmans Statement on the UN Charter, and organising the first meeting between the UN and ASEAN to discuss enhancing collaboration.

In complex cases, the country took a balanced and constructive approach, meeting the legitimate interests of parties concerned and the international community while protecting its stance and interests on important peace and security issues.

In coordination with Indonesia, Vietnam delivered joint speeches spotlighting ASEANs role and presence at the UNSC, especially at a time when it also assumed the ASEAN Chairmanship 2020.

Vietnams responsible contribution and stance on issues in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East have also been welcomed by the international community, he said, adding that countries listened to its opinion on the settlement of complicated issues in Iran, Hong Kong (China), and Rakhine in Myanmar, among others.

World media and scholars also offered positive feedback on Vietnams contributions to the UNSC, saying it is at the heart of global attention with its dual role this year.

Concluding his article, Trung wrote that Vietnam stays determined to fulfil its tasks, making further contributions to the UNSCs common effort for peace, global security, stability, and sustainable development. VNA
BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The signing of the so-called "Hong Kong Autonomy Act" into law on Tuesday by the White House is yet another example of Washington's reckless decisions to meddle in China's internal affairs.

According to the new piece of legislation, Washington seeks to sanction foreign individuals and entities allegedly involved in extinguishing freedoms in Hong Kong.

The new U.S. law, as those that came before it, once again tramples on international law and the basic norms of international relations, turns a blind eye to the Chinese government's legal jurisdiction in Hong Kong, and tries to delegitimize Beijing's efforts to maintain national security in the Chinese city.

All sanctions are a double-edged sword. Hong Kong is one of the world's most dynamic financial and trade hubs, and home to tens of thousands of foreign firms. Hurting Hong Kong means hurting foreign businesses.

Take the United States for example. The country has vital interests in Hong Kong. It has more than 1,300 enterprises, including almost all of America's major financial firms, operating in the Chinese city. Also, Hong Kong was the source of America's largest bilateral trade surplus last year, at 26.1 billion U.S. dollars, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

Thus, if Washington goes ahead with its sanctions, its own interests are at stake.

The newly signed legislation does not come as a surprise. In recent months, China hawks in Washington have launched a ferocious campaign against Beijing. They have left no stone unturned in their attempts to interfere in China's domestic affairs.

Utilizing a variety of pretexts, like freedom in Hong Kong and human rights in Xinjiang, the purposes are the same: to divert public attention from the widespread protests against racial discrimination and Washington's failure to control the COVID-19 crisis; to flex some political muscle with presidential elections merely four months away; and to stymie China's development.

Imagine if China were to sanction the United States for the brutal treatment of its African American population or its catastrophic attempt at home to contain COVID-19, a threat to the common health of the entire world.

In the case of Hong Kong, China hardliners in Washington want to encourage extremist violence there, thereby severely compromising Hong Kong's social stability and economic viability. As long as their own political interests are met, who cares about the people of Hong Kong.

The Declaration on Principles of International Law, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1970, clearly notes that no country or group of countries has the right to directly or indirectly interfere in the internal or foreign affairs of any other country for any reason.

It is not up to Washington to decide the degree of autonomy in Hong Kong.

Moreover, the law to safeguard national security in Hong Kong has clearly demonstrated China's resolve to ensure a steady and sustained implementation of the "one country, two systems" principle, a high degree of autonomy, and the long-term stability and prosperity of the global financial center in order to better protect the freedom and rights of people working and living there.

Washington should not test China's determination to safeguard its national security on its own territory. Those who try to inflict damage to Hong Kong should not expect Beijing to sit on its hands and watch as its sovereign rights are eroded.

The Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday that China would appropriately respond and impose sanctions on relevant personnel and entities of the United States.

A stable and prosperous Hong Kong is a prerequisite for the Chinese city to continue functioning as an international financial and trade hub and serve U.S. and other foreign interests seeking to benefit from the city's economic vitality. If Washington continues to meddle in China's internal affairs and compromise its sovereignty, it will prove to be a dead end.
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It took a pandemic, but fashion and retail may be ready to put technology to work in the realm of fit.

Vadim Rogovskiy, cofounder and chief executive officer of 3DLook, started the company in 2016. He envisioned it first as a passport of ones personal body data, but soon decided to focus it as a mobile-based tech offering for quick consumer body scanning aimed at apparel manufacturers, which could use it to actually make apparel based on the real sizes of customers.

But even winning last years LVMH Innovation Award at VivaTech Paris, which helped with exposure for the company, didnt do as much for its business as the coronavirus pandemic.

Weve seen a big surge in demand from uniform manufacturers and fashion retailers, because its critical now for them to provide recommendations in a contactless way, so people dont have to go into a fitting room, Rogovskiy said, speaking from Odessa, Ukraine. He returned at the start of the pandemic this spring from New York to Ukraine, where 3DLooks operations and tech team are based.

Beginning in April, inbound requests for the fit tech were so many, Rogovskiy said, that he had to pull together a quick round of pre-Series A financing of $1 million. The investment was led by ICU Ventures, also based in Ukraine. But model Natalia Vodianova is another investor, and was one of the companys first angel investors last year. Later this year, Rogovskiy said he plans to start working the VC circuit for a true Series A round with a goal of raising $10 million by the first quarter of next year.

The 3DLook tech for mobile body scanning and fitting, which only requires a person to submit two photos (front and side, dressed in single-layer clothing, automatically anonymized) to scan for the complete measurements, is set to soon roll out in more than 1,000 stores of a major multibillion dollar retailer in the U.S. But Rogovskiy is unable to reveal the name of the company at this time.

Story continues

As for Vodianova, who was introduced to Rogovskiy by her business partner Timon Afinsky, (although she is also the romantic partner of Antoine Arnault, an LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton executive and the son of LVMH titan Bernard Arnault), her investment is based on what she called 3DLooks technological superiority and real magic of simplicity.

When she first had her due diligence team look under the hood of the company, they were still confident that the idea and the offer was too crazy to be true, yet, now they knew it was actually working and doing exactly what 3DLook was promising.

And she sees this kind of fit tech for fashion being something thats a long time coming.

The fashion industry is one of the most conservative and not-disruptive, Vodianova said, noting that the standard production cycle can take years. Everything changed in the last few months because of the pandemic.

Given the fast pace of adaptive change driven by the pandemic, Vodianova plans to keep investing in tech-driven companies. She also is advising and has invested in Wannaby, an AR app that lets people try on sneakers virtually, as well as Voir, an app that allows virtual makeup try-on.

Today, Vodianova said, is the most exciting time to invest in start-ups in the fashion and beauty space.

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As the Canadian province of Quebec experiences its #MeToo moment with charges flying on social media, the latest to face allegations of sexual misconduct is a federal MP who leads one of the countrys principal Opposition parties.

Yves-Francois Blanchet, leader of the Bloc Quebecois, the third largest party in the countrys House of Commons, has denied the allegations that were posted in a Facebook community page called Hyenes en jupons. Translating to Hyenas in Petticoats, the page belongs to a feminist collective.

The allegations date back to 1999 when Blanchet managed the rocker Eric Lapointe, and were said to have occurred at a bar in the city of Montreal in the Francophone province.

A spokesperson for Blanchet issued a statement in French on his behalf saying he unequivocally denies the charges, adding, Yves-Francois Blanchet will continue with his professional activities. No further comments will be made.

According to the Montreal Gazette, the statement in French also invited the accuser to file an official complaint in this regard. The outlet also interviewed the woman, who remains anonymous, and she said she only realised recently that the person who had allegedly sexually harassed her 21 years earlier was now the leader of the Federal party and one of the most powerful men in Ottawa.

These allegations come even as there has been a spate of allegations against celebrities in Quebec in recent weeks, many of whom are connected to the music industry as Blanchet once was.

There was no comment from the office of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the matter. Quebecs Premier Francois Legault has recently been supportive of those emerging with these allegations of sexual impropriety and has directed the provinces Justice Minister to assist the victims.
Multiple workers receiving unemployment payments through the state of Arizona were stunned on Saturday to learn that their unemployment payment accounts, accessible via debit cards provided by Bank of America, had been closed without warning, withdrawing funds from their accounts and cutting off their access to much needed funds.

The rescinding of payments by the Arizona Department of Economic Security (DES) has affected workers who live out of state but had been employed in Arizona. The agency has not confirmed how many workers had their accounts closed over the weekend.

In response to worried and now destitute workers calls for answers, the DES said on Twitter As part of its increased fraud detection efforts, DES closed accounts with suspicious account information and activity located out of state. The majority of claims identified are believed to be fraudulent. Closed in this instance means that all the funds that were already received and still in workers bank accounts had been clawed back by the state.

While the state claims fraud is rampant in the system, it is notoriously difficult to obtain unemployment in Arizona in the first place, with many workers having to wait for payments for two months. Furthermore, payments are capped at a meager $240 dollars a week, which is less than half what someone would make working for minimum wage in Arizona.

The legality of what the state is doing is questionable at best. The DESs claim that the majority of claims that they closed are believed to be fraudulent has not been backed up by any evidence. Given the massive loss of jobs during the pandemic this could be a matter of life or death for many workers.

Since March, when measures were implemented across the US in an effort to limit the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, more than 768,000 workers have filed an initial unemployment claim in Arizona, with less than halfjust under 323,000receiving payments as of July 4.

Despite the real possibility that the states supposed effort to root out fraud is condemning many to destitution, and maybe even death, there is not even the notion of due process, with the unemployment agency instead operating under the notion of guilty until proven innocent. Putting the burden of proof on workers and requiring them to prove their continued eligibility, the DES stated, Impacted cardholders who believe they are eligible for benefits should contact DES directly.

Those who reached out to the help line were given non answers, told to wait 2 weeks, or simply ignored. The payment system has been fraught with glitches and errors that have delayed payments to workers. Angry workers took to Twitter to denounce the DESs action and blatant indifference to claimants survival. Jake Brown said Stop messing with our livelihoods. This is the third time in a month youve messed up our payments and wait hours and hours to provide any information.

Speaking directly against the gas-lighting, Erin Reed said This is ridiculous! We are a real, it wasnt fraud your system messed up and now we are the ones [that] have to pay for it... You stole our money!!! You knew who I was when you were taking my unemployment tax out of my checks!!

Caren Kolb, talking to ABC15, stated My money was zeroed out, I had zero dollars in my account I was just kind of panicked. How did this evaporate? Who has authorization to take it? Kolb lost $4,100 to the closing of her account.

Paul Rodriguez-Bigby, a former Arizona school worker now living in California told the Arizona Republic that he had $2,100 withdrawn from his bank account and that it would take the DES 21 business days to address his claim for reinstatement.

I dont know how Ill be surviving the pandemic now, Rodriguez-Bigby told the Republic. Im not sure where that money went. Heres the kicker, I was trying my hardest not to spend that money because I knew I wasnt going to get it forever.

As of publication, Doug Ducey, the Republican Governor of Arizona, had not made a single mention, let alone released a statement, on the social crime that is being perpetrated by the DES.

State governments across the US, along with the federal government, have made sure that unemployment benefits are exceedingly difficult to access, with an April survey published by the Economic Policy Institute noting that for every 10 workers who applied and received benefits, 3 or 4 would not receive benefits. This is not unintentional, but rather part of a deliberate policy.

The goal of making workers jump through various hoops and putting through repeated ordeals under the guise of combating fraud, is to remove them from the unemployment rolls and limit payments, forcing workers back on the job, even as the coronavirus pandemic explodes out of control in the United States. Cases have erupted in Arizona since June, when the lifting of all economic restrictionspushed by President Donald Trump and supported by Ducey began in earnest. There are now more than 128,000 confirmed infections and 2,337 deaths from COVID-19 in Arizona as of Tuesday.
Amaravati, July 16 : The COVID-19 tally in Andhra Pradesh rose to 38,044 on Thursday with the highest single-day spike of 2,593 cases, while the death toll reached 492 after 40 patients succumbed to the disease, health officials said.

The officials said that twelve districts with COVID cases have been running into triple figures.

Kurnool reported the highest tally of 590 positive cases, while East Godavari followed with 500 cases. Chittoor with 205 cases and West Godavari with 195 cases also ranked among the high incidence districts of the state.

Some of the other districts that reported high Covid numbers in the last 24 hours include Anantapur with 174 cases, Guntur with 139 cases, Krishna with 132 cases, Kadapa and Nellore with 126 cases, Srikakulam with 111 cases, Prakasam with 104 and Vizianagaram with 101 cases.

However, Visakhapatnam with 81 cases, was the only district to report fresh infections in double digit figures.

On Thursday, the state reported 40 deaths, slightly lower as compared to the high of 44 deaths. The fatalities were reported in 11 of the 13 districts.

The day's high of eight deaths each, were reported from East Godavari and Prakasam districts. Chittoor and Kadapa reported five and four deaths respectively.

Four districts -- Anantapur, Guntur, Nellore and Visakhpatnam -- reported three deaths each, while one death each was reported from Kurnool, Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts.

As of Thursday morning, 943 persons were discharged from hospitals and treatment centres.

Andhra Pradesh currently has 18,159 active cases, while 19,393 persons have been discharged till date.

Over the past 24 hours, only nine positive cases were detected among returnees from other states to Andhra Pradesh.

Of these six cases belonged to people returning from Telangana, while two positive samples were of Karnataka returnees, and one case was from Tamil Nadu.

In all, 2,453 persons have tested positive for coronavirus among the persons who returned from other states. The active cases tally in this category is 407, while 2047 persons have recovered till date.

On a brighter note, no new cases were reported from persons with a travel history to foreign countries. The cumulative tally of Covid patients in this category stands at 432, while 372 persons have been discharged after recovery.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Dear Editor:

The Champlain Hudson Power Express, a transmission line proposed 10 years ago to carry hydropower from Quebec to New York, is looming again. But there are better ways to bring renewable power to New York markets.

Hydropowers image as renewable energy is better than its messy reality. Mega-dams from which the CHPE would bring power are ecological and human rights nightmares. They have flooded boreal forests, peatlands and other ecosystems, emitting toxic methylmercury and tons of greenhouse gases from decaying organic matter. The dams have confiscated and destroyed thousands of acres of Indigenous lands.

In addition, the CHPE is a direct current line which would only work for Canadian hydropower. It would not allow upstate wind and solar power producers to plug in and get their power downstate, thus discouraging local renewable power development. The CHPE would slash its way through the Hudson Valley terrain and even run cables under the Hudson River.

Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio should reject the CHPE and instead prioritize upgrading the transmission grid we already have. New York Energy Solutions is a viable proposal underway to do just that. It would carry alternating current to ameliorate the current transmission bottleneck in the Capital District and Mid-Hudson region and improve transmission reliability and resiliency in an environmentally friendly manner.

New York Energy Solutions would create local jobs in itself and foster development of New Yorks own large-scale renewable energy generation, a vitally important objective. To meet New Yorks climate goals, we need New York solutions.

JoyAnn Savino

Highland, N.Y.

The writer is program chair of the Sierra Clubs Mid-Hudson Group.
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As authorities across Vietnams Central Highlands attempt to reign in the ongoing diphtheria outbreak by vaccinating at-risk populations, their efforts are met with serious public pushback.

Diphtheria is an infection caused by strains of bacteria, called Corynebacterium diphtheria, which produce toxins that can in turn cause difficulty breathing, heart failure, paralysis, and even death, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At least 82 diphtheria cases have been reported in the Central Highlands provinces of Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Dak Nong, and Dak Lak so far this year  four times Vietnams annual average, according to the Ministry of Health.

In 2019, the disease only broke out in Dak Lak, but this year three other Central Highlands provinces have reported diphtheria rising cases, said the ministry.

Health officials are becoming increasingly alarmed by the anti-vax trend that seems to have taken a stranglehold on the region, particularly amid its worst diphtheria outbreaks on record.

The regions health reports reveal that immunization rates in ethnic minority areas are relatively low, with the lowest found in Hmong communities, where just 40-50 percent of the population are vaccinated.

Authorities say that percentage needs to jump to 95 percent for the vaccine to be truly effective in protecting the population.

In Quang Hoa Commune, Dak Glong District, Dak Nong Province  the regions main diphtheria hotspot  less than 50 percent of the community has agreed to receive a diphtheria shot.

Health workers are in such disbelief that they have begun asking those who refuse the vaccination to write letters of confirmation as evidence when there is any inspection by their superiors.

A letter written by 26-year-old T.T.M. in January 2019 declared that she did not want to be vaccinated despite health workers visiting her home to persuade her.

Another resident, H.T.S., stated in a letter written in February 2020 that she was reluctant to be vaccinated and pledged that she would take full responsibility for the consequences of that decision.

Nguyen Thi Thanh Nga, head of the communes health center, admitted that oftentimes the letters are written by the local health workers themselves and are simply signed by the anti-vaxxers  mainly ethnic minority residents in remote villages.

Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong, director of the Health Department in Dak Nong Province, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that health workers use the letters as proof of their efforts to call for vaccination and evidence of the lack of cooperation from local people.

Huong also noted that these letters began emerging in 2019 and early 2020, well before the current diphtheria outbreak.

A child receives treatment for diphtheria at a health center of Cu Mgar District in Dak Lak Province, Vietnam. Photo: Vietnam News Agency

In the past, Huong said, vaccination campaigns had workers visit public spaces in villages and communes to offer jabs.

When their efforts began being met with opposition, they started making visits to individual households to explain the benefits and dispel fears of side effects.

Still, many locals bluntly refuse the vaccination and health workers are occasionally threatened for showing up.

In 2013, the Vietnamese government issued a decree on administrative sanctions in the health sector stating that those who fail to undergo vaccination against infectious diseases will face fines.

That decree seems not to have been enforced in Dak Lak, where authorities have yet to issue a single fine, said Trinh Quang Tri, deputy director of the provincial Center for Disease Control.

Local people refuse to cooperate so [we] arent able to give them the vaccine, he said, adding that the only way to increase vaccination rates is to drum up public support.

Huynh Thanh Huynh, who leads the Health Center of Dak Glong District, said the Hmong people live far and wide, and have a tendency to bear many children.

Men work on farms for several days, or even a week before returning home, so their wives are primarily responsible for bringing up their children, Huynh added.

He said these mothers are often unable to speak Vietnamese, making it difficult for health workers to persuade them to vaccinate their children.

As a solution to the language barrier, the director said health officials often team up with pastors, religious leaders, village elders, and other trusted people in the community to get in contact with locals.

He added that leaflets and posters on dangerous, vaccine-preventable infectious diseases have been printed in six minority languages, including Rade and Mnong.

More than ten million shots of the diphtheria vaccine will be made available to the four Central Highlands provinces, and around 4.7 million locals between two months and 40 years of age will be vaccinated, the health director said.

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Indian vaccine makers are in no hurry to tie up with US biotech major Moderna to bring its mRNA vaccine candidate to India. Most players that Business Standard spoke to said they would be concentrating on their own vaccine candidates or the current tie-ups that they have.

Punes Serum Institute, which has tied up with AstraZeneca-University of Oxford for the AZD-1222 candidate, said that it already had a better m-RNA candidate. Two other vaccine players said they would rather watch keenly how the Moderna vaccine develops after it goes to phase 3, and are in no ...
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department on Thursday carried out the second federal execution this week, following another set of Supreme Court orders issued in the dead of night saying the lethal injection could proceed.

Federal officials in Indiana executed Wesley Purkey, 68. He was pronounced dead at 8:19 a.m., they said. Purkey was convicted in 2003 of raping and murdering 16-year-old Jennifer Long and had also killed Mary Ruth Bales, an 80-year-old woman, court records show.

Asked whether he wanted to make a statement before the lethal injection, Purkey apologized to Long's family and his daughter, saying he "deeply" regretted the pain he caused to all of them. His final words addressed his imminent execution.

"This sanitized murder really does not serve no purpose whatsoever," he said, according to a reporter. "Thank you."

Purkey's death by injection came two days after federal authorities executed Daniel Lewis Lee, who was sentenced to death for his role in killing a family of three, at the same penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind.

Before this week, the last federal execution was in 2003. The Justice Department had pushed to resume carrying out federal death sentences since last year, adopting a new lethal-injection protocol and announcing plans to carry out a series of executions. The department has said it needs to carry out lawful sentences, which were sought and won during Republican and Democratic administrations.

The Justice Department's plans have been blocked before by the courts, with legal battles between the federal government and death-row inmates, victims' relatives and spiritual advisers.

Purkey's execution, like Lee's, was carried out after the case arrived at the Supreme Court. In various cases, Purkey's attorneys argued that he was not competent to be executed and had poor counsel in the past; he joined with other death-row inmates challenging the new lethal-injection protocol; and his spiritual adviser asked to delay the execution, citing the coronavirus pandemic.

Purkey's execution was first planned for Wednesday afternoon, but by that morning it was blocked by three orders from two courts. The Supreme Court jettisoned one of those orders Wednesday afternoon, while two more remained pending.

In a burst of orders issued just after 2:45 a.m. Thursday, the court ruled in favor of the government in the remaining cases. It acted similarly about the same time early Tuesday, allowing Lee's execution to proceed later that morning.

One injunction blocking Purkey's execution - and the scheduled Friday lethal injection of Dustin Lee Honken, who was convicted of killing five people - was vacated in an unsigned order. Another stay request from Purkey was denied, as was a stay request from his and Honken's spiritual advisers, who said the novel coronavirus made it dangerous for them to minister; neither order was signed.

In the fourth case, the court's sharp divisions over capital punishment burst forth, much as they did two days earlier in Lee's case.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan of the District of Columbia blocked Purkey's execution on Wednesday, saying his arguments that he was not competent to be executed necessitated "a fair hearing."

One of Purkey's attorneys, Rebecca Woodman, had described him as "a severely brain-damaged and mentally ill man who suffers from Alzheimer's disease" and said he did not understand "why the government plans to execute him." The Justice Department, in its responses, said Purkey understands the reasoning for his execution and pushed against that claim.

Early Thursday, the court vacated Chutkan's injunction with a 5-to-4 order decided by the five conservative justices. The four liberal justices, much as they did in Lee's case, wrote two dissenting opinions.

Justice Stephen Breyer, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, wrote a dissent repeating his call for the court to consider whether the death penalty itself is unconstitutional.

Breyer said the two cases this week raised questions of arbitrariness, delays inherent in the death penalty and legal procedure. He also wrote that the issues highlighted in federal and state cases suggest problems with "the punishment itself" rather than any particular prosecutor, defense attorney or jurisdiction.

In another dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan, Ginsburg and Breyer, said Chutkan was not tasked with answering whether Purkey could understand why he was being executed. Instead, Sotomayor said, Chutkan had to determine whether Purkey met the burden of showing he warranted a competency hearing. Sotomayor wrote that Chutkan "correctly concluded" that he did.

Sotomayor said she knows the government and relatives of Long have an interest in seeing Purkey punished, but the public and he also have their own interest in making sure his punishment is constitutional.

She wrote that "proceeding with Purkey's execution now, despite the grave questions and factual findings regarding his mental competency, casts a shroud of constitutional doubt over the most irrevocable of injuries."

Though the high court's orders were issued before 3 a.m., Purkey's execution did not proceed for several hours, because of another legal challenge.

Kerri Kupec, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said in a statement that Purkey "was afforded every due process of law under our Constitution" and "has finally faced justice."

Shortly before 8 a.m., the curtain shielding the execution chamber from view opened to show Purkey, his arms strapped down and an IV in his right arm, a media witness recounted in his report.

After Purkey's final words, the lethal drug was injected and Purkey took several deep breaths. He eventually stopped and remained motionless for several minutes before his time of death was announced.

"This morning's execution, following Danny Lee's on Tuesday, marks a truly dark period for our country," Cassandra Stubbs, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Capital Punishment Project, said in a statement.

Stubbs denounced what she called "a rushed and truncated review" and said "the courts abandoned the constitutional prohibition on executing people who lack rational understanding of the reason for their execution."

Unlike Lee's lethal injection, which some relatives of his victims opposed and denounced after it happened, a relative of Purkey's victim spoke to reporters Thursday morning to say he awaited the execution for a long time.

William Long, Jennifer Long's father, told reporters after Purkey was pronounced dead that he had been "dreaming" of it for years. He denounced the length of time it took for Purkey's sentence to be carried out, saying "there's monsters out there . . . they need to be put down like the dogs they are."

"It has been a long time coming," Long said of the execution, according to the pool report. "He needed to take his last breath. He took my daughter's last breath. . . . There is no closure and there never will be because I won't get my daughter back."

- - -

The Washington Post's Tim Elfrink contributed to this report.
WEST HAVEN  Mayor Nancy R. Rossi is commissioning a special committee to create, organize and oversee events for West Havens 100th anniversary next year. The West Haven Centennial Committee will celebrate the 1921 birth of Connecticuts youngest town with a series of commemorative events 100 years in the making.

The centennial will include a kickoff ceremony and other events that observe West Havens rich and diverse heritage, Rossi said.

In addition to Rossi, the committee members are city Human Resources Commissioner Beth A. Sabo, mayoral aide Ruth G. Torres, Public Works Commissioner Tom J. McCarthy, city Treasurer Michael P. Last, Charter Revision Commissioner Rohan Smith and West Haven Historical Society President Jon E. Purmont.

The honorary members are state Sens. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, and James Maroney, D-Milford; state Reps. Charles J. Ferraro, R-West Haven, Michael A. DiMassa, D-West Haven, and Dorinda Borer, D-West Haven; City Council Chairman Ronald M. Quagliani, D-at large; and council members Bridgette J. Hoskie, D-1, William X. Conlon, D-2, Elizabeth K. Johnston, D-3, Mitchell L. Gallignano, D-4, Robbin Watt Hamilton, D-5, Peter V. Massaro, D-6, Trenee McGee, D-7, Chrystal Fanelli, D-8, Robert Bruneau, D-9, Barry Lee Cohen, R-10, Gary T. Donovan, D-at large, and Colleen OConnor, R-at large.

Rossi said the committee will meet in the coming months to plan various centennial events for 2021. The committee will announce the events once they are finalized, she said.

West Haven, now a city, incorporated as Connecticuts youngest in 1961, is also one of the states oldest communities.

In 1648, West Haven, then known as West Farms, was settled by farmers from the New Haven Colony. West Farms became the separate parish of West Haven in 1719 through a petition granted by the General Assembly. In 1822, the parish united with North Milford to form the town of Orange before separating from Orange in 1921 to become the town of West Haven.

According to the Historical Society, West Haven was founded by several New Haven Colony leaders who recognized the value of the extended shoreline, unadulterated forests and potential farmland. The historic crossing into West Farms was by horse bridge over the West River near New Haven Harbor. The West River Crossing is an event that is commemorated to this day both in ceremony and in a master mural in the post office on Campbell Avenue.

Soon after, according to information on the societys website, guilds built six large post-medieval houses within a short distance of the communitys central Green, a common grazing and meeting site. The earliest settlers shared the lands with three major Native American tribes that historically summered in West Farms, using the resources of forests, three tributaries and a shoreline abundant with both freshwater and saltwater life.

Scouts launch remote summer camp

MILFORD - Boy Scouts Connecticut Yankee Council is introducing an innovative way to camp this summer. Camp Phoenix is a remote camping experience that allows Scouts to safely camp from their backyards and connect remotely for official Scouting activities and programs.

Camp Phoenix brings what Scouts love from traditional camping to their backyards, said Michael Morrell, director of camping, Connecticut Yankee Council. This is a creative and innovative way to camp and work on merit badges, accept Firebird challenges, join in camp lore and other official Scout programs. We may be physically apart, but this is a way to connect during these challenging times.

Registered Scouts will experience hikes, runs and walks as well as community service and other initiatives utilizing their Scout training to meet challenges and complete programs. Scouts can choose from 60 merit badges to complete ranging from astronomy, photography, landscape architecture, music and more. Scouts also will learn basic Scout Skills while working on advancement requirements. Topics of instruction include knots, first aid, physical activities and many more. In addition, Scouts will receive a creative swag bag a t-shirt, patch and other camp-related items.

Above all else, this is about having fun and enjoying the outdoors safely this summer versus being tethered to televisions, smart devices or video games, added Morrell. In fact, up to 60 percent of the activities for Camp Phoenix take place offline.

Registration is now open and camps run weekly starting June 28. For more information and to register, please visit: http://www.ctyankee.org/camp-phoenix

Program awards $2.98 million in grants

NEW HAVEN - The Community Foundation for Greater New Havens 2020 responsive grant program has awarded $2.98 million to local nonprofit organizations working for the benefit of the community. The 36 local organizations receiving the awards provide a broad range of services to Greater New Haven residents including emergency food and shelter, mental and physical health care, early childhood and youth programs, education and the arts.

The Community Foundations annual responsive grant program is a competitive process open to nonprofits serving Greater New Haven. As part of its larger response to the unprecedented hardships resulting from COVID-19 and the economic shutdown, The Foundation changed its timeline to make the responsive grant awards this spring. The awards in past years were made in the fall.

The grant awards all provide general operating support, giving the organizations flexibility in how to best use the resources in support of their missions. Both single-year and multiyear grants were awarded. A total of $1.28 million will be distributed in the first year.

The responsive grant awards are in addition to the $2 million that was distributed in April and May from the Greater New Haven COVID-19 Community Fund, a joint philanthropic effort with United Way of Greater New Haven. Responsive grants at The Community Foundation are funded by unrestricted funds and preference funds.

Two of the grants, to Literacy Volunteers of Greater New Haven and Massaro Farm, are partnership grants with support from both The Community Foundation and the Valley Community Foundation.
The spread of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has spared neither male nor female, old nor young, and many pregnant women have fallen victim to it as well. However, the impact of this infection on the pregnant mother and the baby are as yet uncharacterized.

Now, a new study published on the preprint server medRxiv* in July 2020 reveals evidence of placental infection and hypoxia, despite the lack of serious symptoms in the mother. This could indicate the need for a more rigorous analysis of possible fetal hypoxic damage in future research, as well as helping to shape policy guidelines in pregnant women.

Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 This scanning electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 (yellow)also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19isolated from a patient in the U.S., emerging from the surface of cells (blue/pink) cultured in the lab. Image captured and colorized at NIAID's Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) in Hamilton, Montana. Credit: NIAID

The Study: Normal Pregnancy Outcomes with COVID-19

The current study deals with a pregnant woman aged 29 years, a multigravida, admitted past 40 weeks for induction of labor. She had experienced muscle pain a couple of days prior to presentation and was tested for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), which was positive.

The patients parents were known to be positive for the infection. They were self-isolating, while her husband had been in contact with a workplace outbreak but tested negative and was asymptomatic for the disease.

The pregnancy had been uncomplicated so far, and the patient remained healthy throughout pregnancy, with normal muscle pain being relieved before admission. She delivered a baby boy weighing about 3,500 g. Both mother and baby were discharged 36 hours from birth. At 24 hours post-birth, the RT-PCR was negative for the baby, and at one week, the infant was breastfeeding normally without any symptoms suggestive of COVID-19.

Abnormal Placental Histopathology

Histopathological examination of the placenta showed evidence of acute uterine hypoxia as shown by subchorionic laminar necrosis, with underlying chronic uterine hypoxia, shown by extravillous trophoblasts and focal chronic villitis. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis showed the presence of SARS-CoV-2 antigens extensively distributed throughout the placenta. These were present under the umbilical cord, in both central and peripheral placenta, in the endothelial cells of the chorionic villi, and uncommonly within trophoblasts.

Placental vasculopathy in a pregnant woman with mild COVID-19 disease. Placental membranes showed decidua with scattered arterioles with thickened smooth muscle, consistent with hypertrophic arteriolopathy (vasculopathy) (Figure 1a  umbilical cord and placental membranes) and subchorionic laminar necrosis (Figure 1b  placental parenchyma under the umbilical cord). Placental disc showed focal areas of lympho-histiocytic inflammation consistent with chronic villitis (Figure 1c  central placental parenchyma) and scattered islands of extravillous trophoblasts (Figure 1d  peripheral placental parenchyma).

Prior Research on COVID-19 IN Pregnancy

Until now, the 12 case series published in COVID-19 literature with respect to this disease in pregnancy report that severe COVID-19 is not typical in pregnancy. In fact, out of 431 cases, 36 had a serious or critical disease and required ICU admission. Other studies have confirmed the low risk in pregnancy.

However, two studies, one from Sweden and one from the USA, indicate a less rosy picture. In the first, the risk of ICU admission was fivefold, and the risk of mechanical ventilation fourfold, relative to nonpregnant women, four times higher.

In the US study, carried out on almost 330,000 women in the reproductive years who were positive for COVID-19, they found that pregnant women were about 50% more likely to be admitted to the ICU, and 70% more likely to receive mechanical ventilation. This comes to an absolute risk of 1.5% that pregnant women will need ICU care. Overall, the maternal mortality is 0.2% from this disease.

The Traces of COVID-19 in the Placenta

Vertical transmission from mother to fetus also appears to be low, but several reports have shown the presence of the virus on fetal membranes. In the placenta, COVID-19 is thought to infect the endothelial cells leading to a procoagulable state.

This can cause microthrombi to form, which in turn can cause inadequate perfusion of the blood flow through the placenta. This is evidenced by accelerated villous maturation, infarction, intervillous thrombi, lesions of extravillous trophoblast, and subchorionic laminar necrosis.

The effect on the fetal circulation is reflected by clots within the larger vessels, villous sclerosis, and breakdown of the endothelial cells within the villous stroma. A placental study showed impaired perfusion from the fetal side in 8/20, and maternal side in 3/20 placentas. Another study showed that placentas of COVID-19 patients were commonly marked by decidual arteriopathy and intervillous thrombi.

The important thing is that the signs of fetal and maternal malperfusion are not specific for COVID-19, being seen in other hypercoagulable states like lupus anticoagulant, protein C or S deficiency, gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia, or even in otherwise normal pregnancies.

Current Recommendations for Pregnant Patients

The continuing surge in COVID-19 cases in the USA has caused a great deal of concern about the possibility of viral mutations. In accordance with its earlier report, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) published recent recommendations about pregnancy in COVID-19.

These include recommendations to stay away from others as much as possible, to protect oneself against COVID-19 in case of unavoidable interactions, and also a warning that some babies have tested positive for the virus. However, the timing of infection remains unclear.

Placental Infection in Mild Maternal COVID-19

The current paper is the first to describe the results of IHC of placental tissue from women with mild COVID-19, though there are six which report the presence of the virus in the placentas of women with moderate to severe disease. The patient in this study had no fever, cough, or shortness of breath, typical symptoms of the infection.

She did have a history of contact with sick people and myalgias. Even so, the placental tissue showed the possibility of vascular involvement. This is among the most serious of placental issues since it can lead to fetal growth restriction, pre-eclampsia, and vertical transmission if the mother is infected in early pregnancy.

The current paper describes that the virus made its way across the placenta and the presence of placental vascular disturbances. This resulted in poor perfusion on the maternal side of the placenta, with lesions of the extravillous trophoblast and subchorionic laminar necrosis.

However, fetal malperfusion was not seen. Despite the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in the placenta, the virus was absent in the newborn. This is not a generalizable finding since the woman tested positive for the virus later in pregnancy. Early or multiple exposures could have different effects. This will require more research, including these specific conditions.

Implications

The study concludes: Evidence of placental COVID-19 raises concern for placental vasculopathy and potential vertical transmission. Our report raises the question of whether future pregnancy guidance should include even stricter pandemic precautions, such as prenatal screening for a wider array of COVID-19 symptoms, increased antenatal surveillance recommendations, and possibly COVID-19 testing on a regular basis throughout pregnancy.

*Important Notice

medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Authorities in Majorca have ordered the closure of bars and nightclubs in beachfront areas popular with foreign visitors.

Arguing the need to stop the spread of the coronavirus, regional authorities issued the order for all establishments along "Beer St" and "Ham St", as the popular party areas near the beach of Palma de Mallorca are known, and another boulevard in nearby Magaluf.

The Ballearic islands' tourism minister, Iago Negueruela, said they want to shake off their reputation as a wild party destination.

"We don't want uncivil tourists in our islands, we don't want them to come," Mr Negueruela said at a press conference, announcing that the establishments should close as of Thursday until further notice.

Scenes of boozy Majorca visitors ignoring social distancing rules and going without face masks went viral on social media in recent weeks and made headlines in Germany and the UK, home to many of the tourists that the islands typically court.

Spanish regional authorities are also banning straws and glasses containing more than 0.5 litres of alcoholic drinks because they want to stop them being shared by different people, as well as bar stools that might tempt party-goers to linger.

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Mr Negueruela warned that authorities would take action against tourists who disregard the regulations.

"We are not going to allow this lack of control," he said.

It is not the first that the popular Balearic Islands have attempted to curb binge-drinking. Earlier this year, the regional government passed a law prohibiting the organisation and promotion of pub crawls and publicising alcohol sales by means of "open bars" and "happy hours".

They also banned the practice of jumping from hotel balconies into swimming pools, a practice known as "balconing" that has led to many injuries and several deaths.

The archipelago is trying to brand itself as a safe destination for tourists after a three-month halt on all economic activity during the coronavirus pandemic. More than 30% of the islands' economy depends on tourism.

Spain has recorded at least 28,400 Covid-19 deaths and is grappling with dozens of fresh outbreaks after the country started to reopen last month.
MOSCOW  An unlikely protest movement has become the first major challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin after he secured his political future in a contentious vote this month  and it may spell more trouble in the days ahead.

Residents of Khabarovsk, a large city near Russia's border with China, have been up in arms for days protesting the arrest of their governor on 15-year-old murder charges.

The governor whom the protests are defending, Sergei Furgal, is himself no hero.

As a member of one of Russia's two Kremlin-sanctioned opposition parties  the Liberal-Democratic Party, a nationalist outfit that is neither liberal nor democratic  Furgal has spent most of his two years as governor more or less toeing Moscow's party line in the far east, not causing any trouble. He was, essentially, a loyalist.

But Furgal committed an unforgivable sin against the regime: In the 2018 gubernatorial elections, he rebuffed Kremlin calls to fold and allow the favored United Russia party candidate to win. He then went on to legitimately win a popular contest. Many residents of Khabarovsk say they see his arrest last week as punishment.

Image: Rally for Sergei Furgal (Aleksandr Kolbin / Reuters)

But more important, they say they see the arrest as a usurpation of local political will. Furgal managed to do a few genuinely popular things in his two years in office, a 25-year-old office worker said on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisal for taking part in the protests.

"This was a governor that was honestly elected by the people, which is unusual in Russia," she said. "He was in power for just two years, but he did a lot for the people: He fixed the region's budget, repaired the roads, gave schoolchildren free breakfast. And he was removed on unfair charges. There are so many injustices in the far east, and this was the last straw."

And so, on Saturday, 30,000 people took to the streets of Khabarovsk to demand his release. Protests have continued every day since. Demonstrators have held banners saying "Free Sergei Furgal," while others have called on Putin to resign.

Story continues

"How can a person who has been in politics for so many years hide murders for 15 years? At all stages, civil servants are checked, and it is impossible to hide such a thing," the office worker said, reflecting a sentiment shared by other protesters across social media. "Either he didn't do it, or he did and the Kremlin covered for him for 15 years while it was beneficial for them."

The Kremlin appears to have been at least slightly taken aback by the public response. Putin has yet to publicly comment, and state television has avoided coverage.

Although Furgal, 50, has been under arrest in Moscow since July 9, the Kremlin hasn't yet formally removed him from his post. But a Kremlin envoy dispatched to meet with local government officials has doubled down on the charges, claiming that the security services wouldn't have made a move were they not 100 percent confident.

Furgal is charged in the deaths of several businessmen in 2004 and 2005, when he was a businessman himself with interests in importing consumer goods, timber and metals before he got into politics. He denies the charges. Before becoming governor in 2018, he spent a decade in the State Duma, Russia's lower house of Parliament.

The reaction to Furgal's arrest reveals local tensions between Moscow, as a political center, and the regions it presides over in an increasingly centralized manner. But the arrest is also part of a broader crackdown on opposition voices of all types  from the most radical to the most conformist  that in many ways feels like a settling of old scores.

The Kremlin declared victory July 1 in a referendum on constitutional amendments that, among other things, reset Putin's term limits  allowing him to rule Russia until 2036 if he chooses. Since then, there has been almost daily news of repressive actions.

The Central Election Commission reported that 78 percent of voters supported the changes, with a record 68 percent turnout. Opposition leaders such as Alexei Navalny have slammed the referendum as the most fraudulent election in Russia's post-Soviet history. The Kremlin has praised it as a "triumphal referendum on confidence in President Putin."

Image: Sergei Furgal (Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP)

Last week, opposition activists were detained and their apartments were searched. A former investigative journalist, Ivan Safronov, was arrested and charged with treason without any evidence presented publicly. And a young spokesman for a medical group that has blown the whistle on the Kremlin's poor COVID-19 response was arrested and drafted into the army.

Furgal is perhaps the highest-profile victim of the Kremlin's crackdown, considering his standing in government. And in a piece published by the Carnegie Moscow Center over the weekend, political commentator Andrey Pertsev argued that the case  and indeed the broader wave of repression  shows that the Putin regime no longer sees a need for a loyal opposition or even public consent in its rule.

"Voting on the constitutional amendments appears to be the last point where the mood and preferences of citizens were somehow taken into account. The Kremlin will achieve the desired election results by other methods  electronic voting, multiday voting, voting anywhere and at any time," Pertsev concluded, referring to massive fraud allegations around the vote.

"You may be against it, but no one is asking what you think anymore."

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The Kremlin rarely caves in to public pressure, so it seems unlikely that Furgal will return to his post. On Monday the Liberal-Democratic Party chief, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, floated what appeared to be a way for the Kremlin to save some face: appoint a different party member as governor of Khabarovsk. The party has even forwarded three names.

But Zhirinovsky struck a more defiant tone Tuesday in a tweet that declared that "the arrest of Sergei Furgal is a mistake by the Kremlin."

"The unrest in Khabarovsk will not subside until [he] returns to the region. He will return and continue his work as governor. If I were in the president's position I would remove the envoy [and] place one man at the head of the Far East  Furgal," Zhirinovsky wrote.

Zhirinovsky's sentiments appear to be in line with those of some of the protesters, who for the moment appear to be undeterred and resolved to keep marching.

"While we ourselves do not know what the outcome will be," the office worker said, "demonstrations are scheduled for the coming week. We do not know whether or not this will help, whether Furgal will be freed or not or whether things will get better or worse from these actions. But the people are not going to stand down  everyone is riled up."
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Digihost Technology Inc. (Digihost or the Company) (TSXV: DGHI) announces that further to its news release of May 27, 2020, the Company has filed its quarterly financial statements and accompanying managements discussion and analysis, and related CEO and CFO certifications for the three months ended March 31, 2020 (collectively, the Quarterly Filings). Readers should refer to the July 15, 2020 Managements Discussion and Analysis, and the consolidated interim financial statements for complete information, which are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com .



The Company continues to focus on its cryptocurrency mining operations and on improving its gross profit by focusing on improving the efficiency of its digital currency mining. The Company is evaluating its options to lower electricity costs of its operations and continues to evaluate opportunities for expansion and diversification into other cryptocurrency related businesses.

Update on PPE Distribution

Further to its news release of April 16, 2020, the Company wishes to provide an update on its operations with regards to personal protective equipment (PPE). The Company has entered into a distribution agreement for FDA approved masks for sale to customers in North America. After review of current market conditions and demand, at this time it is not the Companys intention to engage in manufacturing PPE. The Company will continue to import and distribute PPE as dictated by demand and as opportunities present themselves. To date, the Company has imported 210,000 units of PPE for distribution and revenue from the PPE business is immaterial to the Company.

About Digihost Technology Inc.

Digihost Technology Inc. is a growth oriented blockchain company. The Companys operating facility is located in Buffalo, New York, with over 70,000 square feet and a 115,000 KVA outdoor substation under a five-year lease and an option to lease additional facility space totalling 240,000 square feet after 3 years. The Company focuses on validation through mining, hosting solutions and blockchain software solutions.

Additional Information

For further information, please contact:

Digihost International, Inc.

Michel Amar, Chief Executive Officer

Email: michelamar@me.com

T: 917-242-6549

Cautionary Statement

Trading in the securities of the Company should be considered highly speculative. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. 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.
LUND, Sweden, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hansa Biopharma, the leader in immunomodulatory enzyme technology for rare IgG mediated diseases, today announced its business update and interim report for January - June, 2020.

Highlights for the second quarter 2020

CHMP/EMA has adopted a positive opinion, recommending conditional approval of Idefirix (imlifidase) for the desensitization treatment of highly sensitized adult kidney transplant patients with a positive crossmatch against an available deceased donor. An approval by the European Commission is expected in Q3 2020.

In the US, Hansa Biopharma submitted the proposed study protocol for the randomized controlled study with imlifidase in kidney transplant to the FDA on June 17, 2020 . The trial is planned to be initiated in Q4 this year.

. The trial is planned to be initiated in Q4 this year. Pipeline: The first data read-out from the phase 2 study in anti-GBM is expected in Q3 2020 as previously guided. In the AMR and GBS phase 2 studies, 4 of the targeted 30 patients have been enrolled in each of the respective studies. Enrollment in the AMR and GBS studies is expected to be completed in H1 2021 and H2 2021, respectively.

On June 1, 2020 Achim Kaufhold, M.D. was announced as new Chief Medical Officer and member of the Executive Committee of Hansa Biopharma. Dr. Kaufhold is a highly experienced senior leader in immunology, infectious diseases and oncology and will support the Company's expansion outside transplantation.

Achim Kaufhold, M.D. was announced as new Chief Medical Officer and member of the Executive Committee of Hansa Biopharma. Dr. Kaufhold is a highly experienced senior leader in immunology, infectious diseases and oncology and will support the Company's expansion outside transplantation. Hansa hosted its 2020 Annual General Meeting on June 23, 2020 . All resolutions except articles 18b and 19b were approved, and the entire board of directors was re-elected for the period until the end of the next AGM.

. All resolutions except articles and were approved, and the entire board of directors was re-elected for the period until the end of the next AGM. Investments in R&D and SG&A increased in the second quarter to SEK 53m (Q2'19: SEK 46m ) and SEK 49m ( SEK 39m ), respectively. Cash position was SEK 400m at the end of June 2020 . Cash flow from operating activities for the second quarter ended at SEK -77m ( SEK -78m ).

Events after the end of the reporting period

On July 2, 2020 Hansa announced an exclusive agreement with Sarepta Therapeutics to develop and promote imlifidase as pre-treatment ahead of gene therapy in select indications. The agreement with Sarepta triggers a USD 10 million upfront payment and will potentially generate milestone payments to Hansa totaling up to USD 397.5m plus royalties on the sales of Sarepta gene therapy products enabled by imlifidase. All imlifidase sales will be booked by Hansa.

Hansa announced an exclusive agreement with Sarepta Therapeutics to develop and promote imlifidase as pre-treatment ahead of gene therapy in select indications. The agreement with Sarepta triggers a upfront payment and will potentially generate milestone payments to Hansa totaling up to plus royalties on the sales of Sarepta gene therapy products enabled by imlifidase. All imlifidase sales will be booked by Hansa. On July 8, 2020 Hansa Biopharma raised SEK 1.1bn ( USD 121m ) in a directed share issue of 4.4 million ordinary shares. The share issue was multiple times oversubscribed due to high demand from US, European and Swedish institutional investors including Redmile, Consonance, HBM and Fonden TIN Ny Teknik. The capital raised will help finance the development and expansion of the Company's R&D pipeline as well as to fund the potential launch and commercialization of imlifidase in kidney transplantation.

Sren Tulstrup, President and CEO of Hansa Biopharma, comments

"Hansa Biopharma's evolution into a fully integrated commercial stage biopharmaceutical company has taken a major step forward with the recent achievement of two landmark milestones.

On June 25, 2020 Hansa Biopharma received a positive opinion from the CHMP of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), recommending conditional approval of Idefirix (imlifidase) for the desensitization treatment of highly sensitized adult kidney transplant patients with a positive crossmatch against an available deceased donor.

We are very excited about this recognition from the CHMP/EMA. The recommendation by the CHMP and the expected launch of imlifidase towards the end of this year brings hope to the thousands of highly sensitized patients across Europe waiting for a life-saving kidney transplant and takes Hansa Biopharma a major step forward to becoming a commercial stage biopharmaceutical company.

A week later, on July 2, 2020, Hansa Biopharma announced the achievement of another landmark milestone with the exclusive agreement with Sarepta Therapeutics to develop and promote imlifidase as a potential pre-treatment prior to the administration of gene therapy in Duchenne muscular dystrophy and Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy in patients with neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) to adeno-associated virus (AAV).

We are very excited to partner with Sarepta, a leading player in the field, to use the unique features of imlifidase to potentially enable gene therapy treatment in patients who today aren't eligible for these breakthrough therapies due to pre-existing neutralizing antibodies in two indications with a very high unmet medical need. The agreement with Sarepta also serves as a validation of our enzyme technology as we expand beyond transplantation and acute autoimmune diseases.

I look forward to keeping you updated on the progress of Hansa Biopharma's journey as we take the next steps towards commercialization of imlifidase in Europe and the transformation of Hansa Biopharma into a global biopharmaceutical company".

Upcoming milestones and news flow

Q3 2020 Kidney transplantation EU: Adoption of Conditional Approval

Q3 2020 Anti-GBM Phase 2 study: Data read out

Q4 2020 Kidney transplantation EU: Commercial launch

Q4 2020 Kidney transplantation US: First patient dosed / RCT

H1 2021 AMR Phase 2 study: Complete enrollment

H1 2021 NiceR candidate: Completion of GMP process and IND-enabling tox studies

H2 2021 GBS Phase 2 study: Complete enrollment

H1 2022 AMR Phase 2 study: Data read out

2022 Kidney transplantation US: Complete enrollment / RCT

H2 2022 GBS Phase 2 study: Data read out

2023 Kidney transplantation US: 12 months follow-up on eGFR completed / RCT

2023 Kidney transplantation US: BLA submission

Conference call details

Hansa Biopharma will host a telephone conference today Thursday July 16 at 2:00 p.m. CET.

The presentation will be held in English and be hosted by Hansa Biopharma's CEO, Sren Tulstrup, and CFO, Donato Spota.

Slides used in the presentation will be live on the company website during the call under "Events & Presentations" and will also be made available online after the call.

To participate in the telephone conference, please use the dial-in details provided below:

SE: +46-8-56-64-27-07

UK: +44-333-300-92-65

US: +1-833-249-84-07

The webcast will be available on https://hansa.eventcdn.net/20200716/

The interim report and latest investor presentation can be downloaded from the Hansa Biopharma web

Interim report January - June 2020

Hansa web - Interim Report

Investor road show presentation Q2, 2020

Hansa web - Presentations

SAVE-THE-DATE

Hansa Biopharma expects to organize a Capital Markets Day on Oct 29, 2020. Further details to follow shortly

This is information that Hansa Biopharma AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation.

For further information, please contact:

Klaus Sindahl, Head of Investor Relations

Hansa Biopharma

Mobile: +46(0)709-298-269

E-mail: [email protected]

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/hansa-biopharma-ab/r/hansa-biopharma-interim-report-jan-jun-2020,c3154841

The following files are available for download:

SOURCE Hansa Biopharma AB
Authorities in Hong Kong have refused to renew the work permit of New York Times journalist Chris Buckley, in another indication that the city's reputation for press freedom is likely a thing of the past.



Buckley was required to leave mainland China in May after Chinese authorities declined to renew his journalists visa, and had been working out of Hong Kong, which formerly ran a separate immigration policy from that of China, and which only recently began expelling foreign journalists.



Hong Kong's Immigration Department declined to renew his application to work in the city last week, without giving a specific reason, The New York Times said.



"The denial is an apparent violation of the Basic Law that guarantees Hong Kong residents freedom of the press," the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a statement.



"Barring a New York Times journalist from working in Hong Kong violates the fundamental promise of press freedom given repeatedly to the Hong Kong people," CPJ Asia program coordinator Steven Butler said in a statement on the group's website.



"We urge Hong Kong immigration authorities to reverse this decision, which undermines the free flow of information critical to Hong Kongs success," he said.



The paper has said it is relocating some of its Hong Kong-based operations to Seoul, South Korea, after the ruling Chinese Communist Party imposed a draconian new security law on the city.



Buckley, an Australian national, declined to comment when contacted by RFA on Thursday. The Immigration Department said it couldn't comment on individual cases.



'Hong Kong has no powers left'



Hong Kong Journalists' Association (HKJA) chairman Chris Yeung said he was disappointed, but not surprised, by the refusal of Buckley's work permit.



"I wonder if the Hong Kong government actually has any powers left at all now," he said of the apparent merging of the city's decision-making processes into those of Beijing.



"If the [Chinese] foreign ministry or the central government have already said that certain foreign journalists won't be allowed to work in Hong Kong, then what power does the Hong Kong government actually have?" he said.



"[We need to know] if the Hong Kong government still welcomes foreign media organizations to set up offices in Hong Kong, to send journalists here to report on events," he said. "Or will the central government just refuse to issue visas to a certain few who aren't welcome?"



Yeung called on the Hong Kong government to clarify the situation, but said he believes the move could lead to self-censorship.



In 2018, Hong Kong immigration authorities refused a work visa renewal application from Financial Times Asia news editor Victor Mallet after he hosted a luncheon with a pro-independence guest speaker at the city's Foreign Correspondents' Club.



Later in the year, Mallet was turned away at the airport when he tried to enter Hong Kong on a visitor entry stamp.



Retaliatory moves



Bruce Lui, senior journalism lecturer at Hong Kong's Baptist University, said the refusal of Buckley's visa indicates an overall change in the environment for press freedom, which is moving closer to that in mainland China, where government censors limit news organizations to state-approved copy.



"We see for example that the foreign ministry refuses to renew work permits, expelling U.S. journalists, and then we see the same measure being implemented in Hong Kong, as a form of retaliation," Lui said.



"Hong Kong no longer has a high degree of autonomy, not truly," he said. "If journalists are seen to have crossed a line, they too will adopt visa sanctions like non-renewal."



The United States and China have been engaged in a series of retaliatory actions involving journalists in recent months, amid increasing tensions over a range of issues from the coronavirus pandemic to Hong Kong.



China in March effectively expelled around a dozen U.S. journalists from The New York Times, the News Corp-owned Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post in retaliation after the U.S. State Department designated a number of top state-run media organizations "foreign missions," and required them to hand over their details of their U.S. personnel and financial information relating to their operations on U.S. soil.



Reported by Lau Siu-fung for RFA's Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
LONDON, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As many small businesses tentatively reopen, new figures from Amaiz, the small business banking app, has revealed that nearly half (47%) are now more worried that there will be another lockdown than anything else. This worry beats cashflow (44%) and being in debt (20%) as owners fear the detrimental impact that another lockdown could have on sales, customer relationships and paying staff and bills. The research was carried out for Amaiz by 3Gem.

Alexander Seaton of Alexander Chocolate, an awarding winning bean to bar chocolatier, explained why it is his top concern: "We're a luxury chocolate brand, so predominantly serve the hospitality industry. The lockdown was devastating; we lost 90% of our sales overnight. That business is now returning. I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that I would be in tears if, after all the struggles of the last few months and surviving on almost no income, we had to halt the business again."

Verity Clarke of Verity Clarke Hair agrees; "The lockdown meant I was not able to do what I love, hairdressing. I received no government support at all, so I only just survived thanks to the support of my loyal customers who agreed to buy gift vouchers from me. As an industry, I think the mental-health impact on business owners in my sector having to go through it all again would be huge."

The government put in place a number of measures to help small business affected by the lockdown. However, many, like Alexander Chocolate and Verity Clarke Hair, didn't qualify for government help. This could be for a variety of reasons. In the case of both Alexander Chocolate and Verity Clarke Hair, they had not been in operation long enough, so both were left with nothing but outgoings.

Matt Goddard, Head of Acquisitions at Amaiz sympathised; "Alexander Chocolate and Verity Clarke Hair are just two of the numerous small businesses we've spoken to, during the lockdown, about their struggles, and it is has been heart-breaking to see successful businesses, run by hard-working owners, reduced to nothing. Most are resilient, they have to be to run a business, but a second lockdown, like the one we saw in Leicester, is a terrifying nightmare for many of them."

Salisbury-based Alexander Chocolate is optimistic about the future, provided the easing of restrictions continues: "One of the first orders after 'super Saturday' was for 62.9kg of chocolate, which, coincidently, is exactly my body weight. I hope it is a sign that we'll bounce back. We're relieved and grateful that our customers are loyal and are returning to us."

Colchester based Verity Clarke is also optimistic: "I'm busier than ever and I think that will continue. I offered advice, via Zoom, to people wanting to style and cut their own hair during lockdown, and this helped to nearly double my social media followers."

Matt concluded: "As businesses start up again it is more important than ever to be well-prepared for any challenges ahead. That means ensuring your business administration is up-to-date, particularly the accounts. It is also important to review the implications of different business scenarios so you can manage worst case, best case and expected scenarios efficiently. If you can, pay your suppliers, you don't want them to struggle, or close, due to cashflow issues."

The Amaiz banking app was launched in March 2020, just before the pandemic, and helps small businesses by combining banking with bookkeeping. The premium account is available at 9.99 per month. However, there is a free version that charges just 20p per outgoing transaction. The app comes with numerous unique features that make it possible for business owners to manage their bookkeeping quickly and easily between customers. There is also the option to include a contactless card reader for a low set up fee and transaction charge. To set up their account a business owner simply has to download the app then prove their ID and their right to work in the UK. There is no credit check so the process can be done at home very quickly.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1165475/Amaiz_Logo.jpg
Police in New York City are appealing to the public for help in locating a group of masked gunman who were seen on surveillance video ambushing and shooting a man five times on a Brooklyn street.

The violent attack took place on Vermont Street in the East New York section of Brooklyn shortly after 8pm on Wednesday.

According to a tweet from NYPD Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison, officers from the 75th Precinct responded to a call about a man shot.

Ambush: Armed men wearing masks are seen jumping out of a red sedan on Vermont Street in the East New York section of Brooklyn on Wednesday evening

Police say multiple attackers opened fire on a 28-year-old man as he was getting into an Uber

The victim was shot in the back five times but survived. He was listed in stable condition

An investigation has revealed that while the 28-year-old victim was getting into an Uber near 620 Vermont Street, several unknown attackers jumped out of two vehicles and opened fire on him.

Video released by the police shows two of the masked suspected firing their guns three times in front of terrified neighbors, sending them rushing back inside their home.

The recording then shows four attackers climbing into the two getaway vehicles - a red Honda and a white Infiniti with stolen Pennsylvania license plates - and speeding away from the scene.

The victim sustained five gunshot wounds to the back but survived, PIX11 reported. He was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.

Surveillance video shows at least four attackers getting into these two getaway vehicles

Police say the white Infiniti SUV (right) had stolen Pennsylvania license plates

The shooting in East New York came amid a surge in gun violence in New York City.

On Monday, five people were shot in three drive-by attacks in a span of 20 minutes in Brooklyn. All the victims survived.

A day prior, a one-year-old boy was shot dead during a family cookout at a playground in Brooklyn.

Data from the NYPD show that as of July 12, there had been 634 shootings in 2020, up from 394 a year ago.

Police are asking anyone with information about the Vermont Street shooting to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.
Two gas workers have been charged over the massive explosion which ripped through a house in Christchurch, leaving six people injured.

The force of the blast in July last year sent roof tiles raining down on neighbouring houses in the suburb of Northwood, and blew bricks off a home next door.

Six people were rushed to hospital, one suffering critical injuries.

Five people were injured (pictured) in a gas explosion at a home in Christchurch, which reduced the house to matchsticks. The home blew out, scattering roof tiles and insulation up to 100m away

Energy Safety of Worksafe NZ has been investigating cause of the devastating explosion.

On Thursday the organisation confirmed charges have been filed under the Gas Act 1992 against two defendants.

WorkSafe would not comment further on the case as it is due to be heard in the Christchurch District Court later this year.

One gas worker spoke to first responders shortly after the explosion, suggesting that police or fire investigators might want to talk to him.

The New Zealand Herald reported residents had been experiencing issues with their gas in the lead up to the incident.

Shocking footage from the scene shows the house reduced to rubble, with the snapped timber beams of the home burning while roof tiles, guttering and insulation are seen scattered up to 100m in every direction.

Locals helped the occupants of the home get to safety before reaching for a nearby hose as they waited for emergency services to arrive.

People thought to have been inside the home are seen shortly after they were evacuated being treated by paramedics, with blankets placed over them.

The rubble was seen burning as emergency services swarmed the street and neighbours were evacuated

Emergency services flooded the street, and power was quickly turned off in the area

James Looyer, who filmed the extensive damage, said he had helped evacuate people aged between 50 and 70 from the rubble.

None could hear him, all had bloodshot eyes, and some were missing patches of skin, he said.

'We were trying to talk to [the people there] and they were just stone cold,' he told Stuff.

'They were pretty much deaf, they can't even hear anything we were saying just looking straight at us.'
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"You send $1000, and I'll send you $2000 back!" It's a classic. The only thing more transparent would be "I'm an admin and your account information has been compromised. Please chat with us in this private forum and send us your password one letter at a time like this - p a s s..."

Dmitri Alperovitch, who co-founded the cyber-security company CrowdStrike, has called this "the worst hack of a major social media platform yet." It's basically like if SPECTRE infiltrated MI6 to settle their parking violations. I mean these hackers could have caused an international incident or tanked the economy or started a war. They could have had Joe Biden call Vladamir Putin a shitweasel. They could have made Jeff Bezos promise to blow up the moon. You want to make more money than $120,000? Hack Warren Buffett's account and say you're running an Onlyfans.

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Ah, well. A wasted opportunity for supervillains everywhere, but a decent payday of $120,000 I guess. Maybe it'll be enough to keep them going as they hide from the FBI for the rest of their lives.

Support Dan on Twitter and he will talk about his life with you in lieu of getting a therapist.

Top Image: Pe3k/Shutterstock


BOSTON, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- DeepBench Inc. ("DeepBench"), a Boston-based expert network software platform, is pleased to announce strategic partnership and private placement from VisasQ Inc. ("VisasQ") (TYO: 4490), a publicly traded knowledge platform based in Tokyo, Japan.

DeepBench's proprietary advisor search technology will enhance VisasQ's capabilities. DeepBench will help VisasQ provide its clients with more efficient and optimal access to global knowledge.

VisasQ has also invested an undisclosed amount in DeepBench to fund future growth. DeepBench will use this capital to expand its team, further develop its platform, and expand into new markets.

About DeepBench

Founded at MIT in 2016, DeepBench helps businesses gain critical insights by sourcing and managing access to expert advisors. DeepBench's technology-driven expert search platform leverages proprietary software to provide search services with narrower focus, faster time to market, and lower cost than competing solutions.

The firm works with everyone from Fortune 100's & investment funds to consulting firms & design researchers. DeepBench sources experts from any industry, role, or geography to help companies make better informed business decisions.

Hidetoshi Uriu, COO & Head of Global Business Development, VisasQ

"We have built up a track record of overseas matching and have steadily grown our overseas business. We are pleased to have this opportunity to partner with DeepBench who has the same vision with us, and take an important step to further expand our overseas business in line with our strategy at the time of our IPO. By combining DeepBench's technology-driven systems and our proprietary technologies and matching system, we are looking forward to realizing together a world of "Connecting Insights and Aspirations Across the Globe."

Yishi Zuo, CEO & Co-Founder, DeepBench

"DeepBench has heavily invested in technology since our inception in 2016. We are uniquely positioned in the global expert network service industry. I deeply empathize with VisasQ's vision, and I am very excited to work with Eiko (VisasQ's founder & CEO), who is also an MIT Sloan alum. We look forward to collaborating with VisasQ, which has built a formidable position in Japan. Together, DeepBench and VisasQ will continue to spearhead innovations in connecting global expertise via our proprietary technologies."

CONTACT:

Alden French

[email protected]

SOURCE DeepBench

Related Links

http://www.deepbench.io


In America, you should always get a little suspicious when politicians suddenly start calling you a hero. Its a well-worn trick; theyre buttering you up before sacrificing you to the gods of unconstrained capitalism and governmental neglect.

A few months ago, it was nurses, doctors and other essential workers who were hailed as heroes  a perfectly accurate and heartwarming sentiment, but also one meant to obscure the sorry reality that the worlds richest country was asking health care workers to treat coronavirus patients without providing adequate protective gear.

Please dont call me a hero, a nurse in Brooklyn wrote on a protest sign at the time. I am being martyred against my will.

Now, its Americas parents and teachers who are being valorized for doing a job that really should not require putting their lives on the line.

At a White House event last week to encourage the nations schools to reopen, Vice President Mike Pence laid the heroism on thick. Parents and teachers, he said, were two categories of heroes that emerged in the crisis. Since the pandemic is all but over, at least in the magical thinking of the Trump administration, Pence wants parents and teachers to again put on our capes and save the day. To open up America again, we got to open up Americas schools, he said.

I want schools to reopen as much any parent does. My wife and I were driven to the verge of breakdown this spring while trying to home-school our kids while working from home, and I am freaking out about having to do that again in the fall.

But parents and teachers would be wise to reject any invitation to unnecessary heroism. I dont want educating my kids to be a heroic act of American defiance  I want it to be ordinary. And Id rather not sacrifice my childrens teachers, either, so that Americas economy can begin humming once more.

Again and again in this crisis, the federal governments callous incompetence has left Americans with no good options. Early research on school reopening suggests that classrooms can be safe when the virus is contained or declining, and as long as schools take necessary precautions to minimize the chance that classrooms become superspreaders. But in much of the nation, the virus remains uncontained, and so we face a grim future. There will likely be danger and chaos if the schools do not reopen, and there will be danger and chaos if they do.

The needs of children and working parents have long been ignored by American lawmakers, but Ive never felt the governments neglect as viscerally as in its inability to make school safe again during a pandemic.

Shouldnt getting our kids back to school have been a primary goal of the federal government throughout the summer? What possible excuse can anyone muster for falling down on this job?

Experts say there are many ways to mitigate the risks of the coronavirus while reopening the schools. The most obvious of these would have been to reduce the spread of the virus, but you know how well thats going.

The federal government could have provided the hundreds of billions of dollars that school district officials say is necessary to remake education during a pandemic. We could have funded hazard pay for teachers and paid time off for parents, and come up with a plan to repurpose office buildings or gyms for the space required to teach students while social distancing.

In May, Democrats in the House passed a bill that calls for $58 billion in new funds for schools. But the Republican Senate has not taken up the measure, and President Donald Trump has done little more than post several all-caps tweets demanding that they reopen. In cable-news interviews this weekend, Betsy DeVos, the education secretary, refused to say if schools should follow the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions health guidelines, which calls for strict social distancing, masks and the installation of physical barriers and improved ventilation to reduce the spread of the virus.

DeVos plan, like Trumps, appears to be little more than wishful thinking: Go to school. Dont worry about it. Things will be fine. Youre a hero!

Forgive me if I feel less like a hero than like a chump. This week several large school districts, including Los Angeles and San Diego, announced that its too dangerous to open for in-person instruction. I expect that well see a wave of others deciding the same, leaving parents across the country in an impossible bind.

There is a danger that frustrated parents blame teachers for the crisis. After all, distance learning has been a disaster. Its unfair, and likely impossible, for kids to learn by themselves off a screen, and in my experience, remote learning requires a great deal of parental oversight, which is difficult or impossible for most overburdened parents.

But as I tried and failed to educate my kids during months under quarantine, I gained new appreciation for my childrens teachers, and Im wary of asking more of them. Teachers shouldnt have to be heroes to do their jobs; educating our children should be heroism enough.

@fmanjoo
[July 16, 2020] TELUS International Named a 'Leader' and 'Star Performer' in the Everest Group PEAK Matrix for a Second Consecutive Year TELUS International, a leading provider of customer experience (CX) and digital IT solutions for global and disruptive brands, has been named a 'Leader' and 'Star Performer' by leading global research and advisory firm Everest Group in its 2020 Customer Experience Management (CXM) - Service Provider Landscape with Services PEAK Matrix Assessment. This is the second consecutive year the company has achieved both statuses. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200716005067/en/ Everest Group's 2020 Customer Experience Management (CXM) - Service Provider Landscape with Services PEAK Matrix Assessment. (Photo: Business Wire) Everest Group selected 37 organizations to evaluate and compare for their 2020 report based upon the service provider's market success, vision and strategy, service focus and capabilities, digital and technological solutions, domain investments, and buyer feedback. Companies that demonstrate strong upward movement in successive reports are recognized as Star Performers. "We are honored to be named a Leader and Star Performer on Everest Group's CXM PEAK Matrix for the second consecutive year as recognition of our team's ongoing efforts to further advance our digital agenda and provide exceptional customer experiences for our clients that drivebrand loyalty, leading to top-line growth," said Jeff Puritt, President and CEO, TELUS (News - Alert) International. "These accolades also recognize the significant progress we have made on our digital transformation journey, leveraging innovative next-gen technologies and our remarkable organizational agility to constantly realign to market demand, and evolving consumer sentiment and behavior to always provide value at every stage of the customer journey and client lifecycle."

The report by Everest Group highlights TELUS International's advanced digital capabilities in automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), omnichannel, and analytics, and how the company is driving innovation beyond technology by targeting areas such as consulting to offer a more compelling value proposition to its clients. The report also discusses how TELUS International strengthened its market position over the past year through its acquisition of Competence Call Center, which strengthened its position in the European market and substantially increased agent strength, delivery locations, client base, and revenue. According to Everest Group, Leaders identified in the report, including TELUS International, have managed to perform better than their peers across both new-age and traditional KPIs, been able to develop more sophisticated digital solutions and have garnered greater success in implementation across their client base. Driving innovation beyond technology, the group of Leaders also has been more consistent in targeting a broader spectrum of innovation in areas such as outcome-based pricing, work at home agents (WAHA), and consulting, to offer a more compelling value proposition to their clients. Those in the Leaders category also have better client satisfaction scores due to greater domain expertise, access to a better talent pool, and proactiveness in their engagements. "Many service providers are experiencing a steep rise in demand for digital services as brands seek to meet their customers' rapidly growing and evolving expectations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and its profound ripple effects across industries," said Skand Bhargava, Practice Director, Everest Group. "TELUS International has boosted its digital capabilities with the development of innovation labs, Cloud Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solutions, and an intelligent bot platform while also offering value-added services beyond technology, such as consulting services, customer journey mapping and process implementation and improvement that together enable the company to better serve its clients." About the PEAK Matrix The Everest Group PEAK Matrix is a proprietary framework for assessing the relative market success and overall capability of service providers based on Performance, Experiences, Ability and Knowledge. Each service provider is comparatively assessed on two dimensions: market success and delivery capabilities. Market success is measured by revenue, number of clients and year-over-year growth. Delivery capability is measured by scale of operations, scope, technology and innovation, delivery footprint and buyer satisfaction. The resulting matrix categorizes service providers as Leaders, Major Contenders, and Aspirants. Companies that demonstrate strong upward movement in successive reports are recognized as Star Performers. About TELUS International TELUS International focuses on the value of human connection to design, build and deliver high-tech, high-touch customer experiences powered by next-gen digital solutions. With almost 50,000 team members and delivery centers across North and Central America, Europe and Asia, TELUS International empowers customer experience innovation through digital enablement, spirited teamwork, agile thinking, and a caring culture that puts customers first. The company's solutions cover customer experience, content moderation, digital transformation, work-from-home, IT lifecycle, advisory and digital consulting, trust & safety, and back-office support. Fueling any stage of company growth, TELUS International partners with some of the world's most disruptive brands from fast-growing tech, financial services and fintech, games, travel and hospitality, healthcare, and ICT industries. The company serves clients in over 50 languages. Learn more at: telusinternational.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200716005067/en/

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Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd is to leave prison earlier than expected after having 78 days cut from his sentence.

Three judges have decided the 78 days he spent in custody awaiting extradition from Georgia to the UK should count as time served.

Shepherd, 32, originally from Exeter, Devon, is serving a six-year sentence following the death of Charlotte Brown, 24.

Miss Brown died after being thrown from Shepherds speedboat when it capsized on the River Thames during their first date in December 2015.

Shepherd then hit the headlines after going on the run ahead of an Old Bailey trial.

He was convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence in his absence, in July 2018, and later extradited back to the UK from Georgia.

Shepherd is also serving a consecutive four-year sentence after admitting wounding a barman during an attack in 2018.

Lord Justice Fulford, Mr Justice Holgate and Sir Roderick Evans made the decision to reduce his sentence at a Court of Appeal hearing in London on Thursday.

Lawyers representing Shepherd mounted an appeal after arguing that the 78 days had wrongly not been taken into account as part of the wounding sentence.

Recommended Speedboat killer given extra jail time for glassing barman

Judges, who said prosecutors had not objected, allowed the appeal.

Shepherd did not appear at the hearing.

He had been given the four-year sentence at Exeter Crown Court in 2019 after admitting wounding with intent.

The court heard that he struck David Beech with a vodka bottle in March 2018 after being asked to leave The White Hart Hotel in Newton Abbot, Devon.

Reporting by Press Association
Katy Keene star Lucy Hale multi-tasked by drinking her morning coffee while walking her dog Elvis in Los Angeles' Studio City neighborhood on Thursday.

The Memphis-born 31-year-old did not protect herself with a cloth mask or face covering, which California Governor Gavin Newsom made mandatory for all public outings on June 18.

As of Thursday, there have been over 143K confirmed COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles County, which has lead to 3,943 deaths - according to Johns Hopkins University.

Multi-tasker: Katy Keene star Lucy Hale drank her morning coffee while walking her dog Elvis in Los Angeles' Studio City neighborhood on Thursday

Hale - who was homeschooled through high school - sported a red NYU sweatshirt with black shorts and matching leather KOIO slides for her sunny stroll.

Lucy (born Karen Lucille) has been practically inseparable from her fuzzy white quarantine buddy, whom she adopted in 2016.

'Did someone get groomed?' the BLM protester - who boasts 38.4M social media followers - asked via Instastory on Wednesday.

'Oh my goodness, Elvis, you look so handsome. I can't! I love this creature.'

Unprotected: The Memphis-born 31-year-old did not wear a cloth mask or face covering, which California Governor Gavin Newsom made mandatory for all public outings on June 18

Pandemic: As of Thursday, there have been over 143K confirmed COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles County, which has lead to 3,943 deaths

Hale - who was homeschooled through high school - sported a red NYU sweatshirt with black shorts and matching leather KOIO slides for her sunny stroll

Maltese pup: Lucy has been practically inseparable from her fuzzy white quarantine buddy, whom she adopted in 2016

The BLM protester gushed via Instastory on Wednesday: 'Did someone get groomed? Oh my goodness, Elvis, you look so handsome. I can't! I love this creature'

For her upcoming role as 'pornophobic' violinist Lucy Neal in A Nice Girl Like You, Hale revealed she attended a sex convention.

'We went to an actual sex convention. It was wild. Stuff I'd never seen before!' Lucy told E! News' The Daily Pop on Wednesday.

'There are some things in the movie that I had never heard of or done. So it broadened my horizons.'

The Pretty Little Liars alum was most likely referring to sexually-charged cons like Adultcon, Sex Expo, or eXXXotica.

'It was wild': For her upcoming role as 'pornophobic' violinist Lucy Neal in A Nice Girl Like You, Hale revealed she attended a sex convention

Lucy told E! News' The Daily Pop on Wednesday: 'Stuff I'd never seen before...There are some things in the movie that I had never heard of or done. So it broadened my horizons'

Which one was it? The Pretty Little Liars alum was most likely referring to sexually-charged cons like Adultcon, Sex Expo (pictured in 2018), or eXXXotica

Hale (R) explained: 'I read the whole script and I was so embarrassed and blushing the whole time. I'm not as inhibited as my character but...It made me feel uncomfortable, like really uncomfortable, so I knew I had to do it to break me out of my shell'

Streaming this Friday VOD! Mindy Cohn and Jackie Cruz also act in Chris and Nick Riedell's rom-com, which is based on Ayn Carrillo Gailey's 2007 memoir Pornology (pictured in 2018)

'I read the whole script and I was so embarrassed and blushing the whole time,' Hale explained.

'I'm not as inhibited as my character but...the whole time I was reading it, I was just laughing my butt off. It made me feel uncomfortable, like really uncomfortable, so I knew I had to do it to break me out of my shell.'

Mindy Cohn and Jackie Cruz also act in Chris and Nick Riedell's rom-com - streaming this Friday VOD - which is based on Ayn Carrillo Gailey's 2007 memoir Pornology.

And while The CW canceled Lucy's musical drama series Katy Keene on July 2, UK viewers can stream the 13-episode first season starting July 25 on BBC iPlayer.
The country is in free fall; more than 130,000 Americans have lost their lives in months, millions more their livelihoods; and a new wave of shutdowns is underway (as other countries are getting back to normal) because there is no plan and never was one coming from a president that has been MIA for months. As a result of all of this calamity that has resulted from the daily chaos emanating out of the White House, Americans, by increasingly large margins, are saying not only the country is on the wrong track, but theyd like someone else, Joe Biden, to be the one to steer it out of this rolling national disaster. In response, on Wednesday night, President Donald Trump chalked up voters take on the current state of national affairs to a framing issue and fired his campaign manager Brad Parscale.

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Of course, Trump apparently didnt fire Parscale himself, because he cowers from any meaningful confrontation that isnt digital, and sent his son-in-law Jared Kushner to do the deed. Parscale is staying on as an adviser, but is being sidelined in favor of deputy campaign manager and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie aide Bill Stepien. Parscale headed the 2016 Trump campaign digital effort and slid into the top spot on the Trump reelection push that started 2 years ago in February 2018, just 12 months into Trumps actual presidency. Parscale, like every comet in Trumps orbit, was always an unconventional and largely self-dealing figure: He has no previous political experience, speaks in memes, and bolstered his own profile along with the presidents as a bombastic co-headliner of Trump fundraising events and, inconceivably, of Trump television ads.

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Parscales proximity to the president and his campaign, like other Trump world barnacles, appears to have made him wealthy as well as a MAGA celebrity. The Trump campaign paid for ads on Parscales personal Facebook page and poured money into his firm that, in turn, handed a bunch of it right back to Trump family members. [Parscales] strength from the start of the 2016 campaign, in addition to his digital know-how, was his close relationship with Trumps older children, the Washington Post notes. His firm, Parscale Strategy, bills for the campaign salaries of Lara Trump and Kimberly Guilfoyle, the wife and girlfriend respectively of Trumps two oldest sons, Eric and Donald Jr.

But with the presidents job performance and poll numbers continuing to plummet, the grift of rinsing cash for Trump family members didnt seem to cut it anymore. The Trump campaign, as much as there is oneand it doesnt really appear that there is by normal standardsseems to have drawn a blank on how to convince Americans that Donald Trump isnt exactly what he is: a fraud, a cataclysmic president, and now a direct danger to their lives and livelihoods. The tipping point appeared to have been the sparsely attended Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally, for which Parscale was blamed. The event was dangerous and ill-advised, but that wasnt Trumps issue with it; the real problem was that the campaign looked gassed. In Tulsa, the American people got a midpandemic glimpse at a campaign, much like the Trump presidency, that after years of furious spinning had finally been spun dry.

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So now theres a new Trump enabler running the campaign, and, if historys any indicator, he surely wont be the last. Along with Stepiens ascension to the top spot, the Trump team is getting a bunch of the 2016 band back together. What they are facing this time around, however, is not an optics problem, a question of presentation and positioning; its a product problem. The president is defective, and the opportunity to change that reality is not in ad buys in Arizonaits already passed.

For more of Slates news coverage, subscribe to What Next on Apple Podcasts or listen below.
President Donald Trump announced Wednesday night that he is replacing Brad Parscale, his campaign manager, with his longtime political aide Bill Stepien.

The president's announcement on Wednesday night was made after the result of the recent polls showing that he is falling behind Joe Biden in the presidential race. However, Brad Parscale will remain as a senior adviser focusing on digital and data strategies.

Meanwhile, Trump's longtime political aide and the deputy manager Bill Stepien will take over as the new campaign manager, according to a published article in The Guardian. The President's announcement was publicly made through his official social media accounts.

It was reported that Parscale was under pressure because of the turn out of Trump's rally in Tulsa. The rally held in June was only participated by around 6,200 individuals. Meanwhile, the President's daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner were reportedly pissed because Parscale promised huge crowds.

In a recent Quinnipiac national poll released on Wednesday, Trump's Democratic opponent and former Vice-President Joe Biden lead 15 points. One of the reasons seen why Trump lags behind Biden is due to the administration's response towards the effect of the global pandemic.

However, it is important to note that the administration is doing everything to provide stimulus checks, food aide, and more to the citizens. In fact, the Republican lawmakers are now planning again for another round of stimulus that will help the vulnerable goups most especially those who filed unemployment claims.

Moreover, Jared Kushner was the one who recommended Brad Parscale to become the campaign manager of Trump back in 2018. However, since that time, Parscale was alleged that he is profiting from Trump's campaign.

The new campaign manager Bill Stepien was Trump's campaign field director in 2016. He was also known as the top aide of the former New Jersey Governor and a one-time presidential candidate Chris Christie.

However, Stepien was expelled from Christie's after the controversy that involved him in the aftermath of the bridge lane closures at the George Washinton Bridge in 2013. It was known at that time as Bridgegate but Stepien as not accused of any criminal wrongdoing and in fact, made a comeback on Trump's campaign 2016.

Parscale's clickbait campaigns on Facebook have also been criticized. In can be remembered that in one of his interviews with a national news outlet, he told Kushner that the President has to harness Facebook if he wants to be the next president. He also said, "Give me the power, and I can help you win."

In January this year, Parscale also told The Guardian that he always saw himself as kind of a CEO and as a business leader. He also asserted that he wanted to be successful and always wanting to adapt but he knew that he wanted more.

Sometimes, Parscale exaggerated his qualifications and dramatized the story of his life. He once said that he was a farm boy from Kansas when in fact he actually grew up in the suburbs.

Now that Pres. Trump has a new campaign manager, there are expectations and pressures. An expectation that will lead to Trump's victory and pressure that the same thing would not happen during Parscale's time.

Check these out!
KALAMAZOO, MI  Doreen Gardner, Sarah O. Joshi and Meredith Place are facing off for the Democratic nomination for the Kalamazoo County Clerk and Register of Deeds in August, and will face lone Republican Mona Lisa Watson in the November election.

Doreen Gardner said she is a communication coordinator. She attended Moody Bible Institute, Cornerstone University and International Theological Institute. She lists 25 years of management at AT&T among her qualifications and experience for the office.

Sarah O. Joshi is currently the Deputy County Clerk and Elections Specialist. For education, she lists MPA, Western Michigan University. BA, public relations and journalism, Western Michigan University. Accredited Election Official, State of Michigan Bureau of Elections. She said she has proven skills in planning, management, and performance improvement, and a strong work ethic.

Meredith Place is the Kalamazoo County Commissioner for District 11, and a contract administrator at the Clerical - Technical Union of Michigan State University. Place said she has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Iowa and she has experience in local government and being accountable to voters.

County Clerk Tim Snow previously announced his retirement from the position when his current term expires at the end of the year. Snow will not seek reelection in 2020, but will oversee the renovation of the clerks office and this years four elections.

MLive Media Group has again partnered with the League of Women Voters of Michigan Education Fund to provide candidate information and other voting resources to our readers. Each candidate was asked to answer a series of questions about their policy stances.

Information on all state and federal races and many of Michigans county and local races will be available at Vote411.org.

What are your top three priorities for the office you seek? What do you hope to accomplish?

Doreen Gardner

1. Convenient hours / Customer service: Implementing some exception hours that will accommodate those working normal business hours 2. Opportunities: Technological improvements, review the integrity of our voting processes and vital records. 3. Partnerships with other community groups to help communication and growth in our community.

Most people don't have any idea what the County Clerks office does other than vital records. In addition to providing exceptional service, I I will explore ways to connect and collaborate with key organizations to impact economics, communication and discimination of information in our community.

Sarah O. Joshi

1. Increasing staff diversity. Diversity strengthens a staff, improves problem solving, and enables us to best serve our diverse community. 2. Participating with the Bureau of Elections Risk-Limiting Audit pilot. This state-of-the-art process tests results and recently found a .00006% margin of error locally. I commit to continuing this important work by helping this become the statewide standard. 3. Adding value to the Clerk/Registers services by connecting clients to business services. I have successfully established effective programs with minimal resources in the past, and I can shore up local businesses by implementing similar methods.

Meredith Place

1)Improve access to and participation in our democracy- As Clerk Ill implement Prop 3 and will work to establish satellite offices in densely populated areas where we see voter suppression giving new registrants another place to register-in person and make voting more convenient. 2)Expand voter outreach and engagement- Ill work with already established groups, neighborhood associations, and local clerks to coordinate voter education efforts and innovative ways to make voting easier. 3)Modernize the Clerk/Registers office- I will prioritize the security and integrity of our elections while utilizing technology to improve other services.

The current pandemic illustrates the importance of preparing for unexpected events. Describe one type of unexpected event that would seriously disrupt Kalamazoo County government services. How would you prepare for it?

Doreen Gardner

The thing that first came to my mind was a fire. Safe guarding vital records would be my first consideration. I would make sure that in the event any catastrophic event that ALL systems are securely backed up, so in case of a fire or any other catastrophic event, we would not suffer any loss. With technology today and cloud storage I would have dual backup systems for all platforms. I would establish regular and unscheduled random checks to ensure all systems are updating properly. Additionally I would establish office protocol for all documents to be scanned each day to ensure there is absolutely no loss, even documents in progress.

Sarah O. Joshi

The integrity of election results is paramount, so being the target of a cyber attack is a significant concern. I guard against this by engaging with the National and State Elections Infrastructure Sharing & Analysis Centers and keeping my training current. I also train election inspectors to follow proper security protocols and am active in a Bureau of Elections pilot program to implement a rigorous election audit procedure with the help of national partners. By ensuring security at the hardware, software, and personnel levelsand by working with leaders at all levels of governmentwe can be alerted to threats and ensure election integrity.

Meredith Place

Participation in our democracy, secure and safe elections, accessing vital records and recording of deeds should not be compromised even during unexpected events. The Clerk has a responsibility to provide services to county residents and should be prepared at all times, which starts by creating an emergency preparedness plan that includes standard operating procedures in times of crisis. By modernizing and utilizing resources already afforded to us at Kalamazoo County, no one should be left wondering if their request for a marriage license or birth certificate was received and no one should have to choose between their health and their vote.

Describe an example of how someone in the office you seek should work effectively with other governmental departments and officials. What skills and talents qualify you to be the best person to play such a role?

Doreen Gardner

This office by nature has to work in coordination and cooperation with many offices. Voting is one example of how this office must communicate and coordinate with multiple other offices. I believe in value of relationships, valuing other people and the gifts/talents they bring to the table. My strengths are connectedness and I am relational. I have the ability to build relationships, collaborate, while seeing opportunities for improvement. I embrace change and l love looking for ways for continued growth and opportunities to improve. My love for people and the fact that I value people are key assets to work with and for the people.

Sarah O. Joshi

I am known for building bridges among a variety of people. My reputation for professionalism and integrity has resulted in broad-based, bipartisan support for my candidacy. I am known for providing excellent service and consistently going above expectations to serve as a resource for local residents, clerks, and candidates. In 2018, my efforts were recognized with the Countys award for excellent customer service. Serving effectively in this role requires experience in the field; it is not an entry-level position. I strive to provide the best service for this County, and it is my pleasure to serve the public in the Clerk/Registers office.

Meredith Place

Within 60 days of the US census figures, the County Apportionment Committee comprised of the Clerk, Prosecutor, Treasurer, and chairperson of the 2 political parties, convenes to apportion the county into county commission districts. As Clerk, I will work collaboratively to ensure our new county commission districts are fair and accurately represent the population and diversity of our county. I am an experienced negotiator and mediator, as it has been my responsibility for the last 5 years to negotiate and administer union contracts. My background, deeply rooted in organizing, has led me to become a skilled listener with intellectual empathy.
By Kim Sun-ae





If you receive  for example  500,000 won every month as basic income, how will your life change? Seeing a homeless man on the street one day, I thought about how his life would change if he received basic income. Perhaps he will be able to find a room to live in, even if very small. Perhaps he will be able to take care of himself a little better due to the guaranteed income.



In Korea, about 50 percent of old people are poor. Are they poor because they didn't work when they were younger? I don't think so. Too many old people are poor, although they've worked hard all their lives. This means that the current social system has problems.



Article 1 of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights." In reality, however, many people do not have enough social and economic rights due to inequality. Also, because the existing social welfare system has blind spots, there are people in need who cannot receive benefits. In this situation, it is needed to guarantee the minimum income for everyone's survival by providing basic income.



According to the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), a basic income is "a periodic cash payment unconditionally delivered to all on an individual basis, without means-test or work requirement."



In his book, "I Have the Right to Dividends from the Government," Ha Seung-su argues that all members of a social community have the right to receive dividends from their government. Natural resources such as land are not created through human labor. Therefore, all members of society have an equal right to share benefits from these common properties.



For example, land was originally shared by everyone, but was privatized later. Is it just that only certain individuals have all the profits from land?



There has been controversy over whether basic income is affordable. Nonetheless, is the point really affordability? Now the world's richest 0.9 percent holds half of the world's wealth. While many people don't even have one house, some people own two or more houses. The point is whether the people who have more than enough will share some of their wealth with their neighbors. We all come to this world empty-handed and leave this world empty-handed.



Nobody can become rich without other people. As Guy Standing, a British professor and co-founder of BIEN, says, everyone's wealth and income are mainly due to the efforts and achievements of others, especially our ancestors. Thus, all members of society have the right to share part of the wealth which resulted from public knowledge, social services, natural resources among others.



Seeing an old man in my neighborhood who collects paper boxes for a living, I imagined a society which provides a basic income for everyone. A basic income will help build a social system which enables all people to lead a decent life.





Kim Sun-ae (blog.naver.com/dancinglf) wrote a book of illustrated essays, "Old Potato, New Potato."




New South Wales could be hit with tighter restrictions in the coming days, but Premier Gladys Berejiklian says she has no plans to put the state in lockdown.

The state government is expected to reduce numbers at mass gatherings including those at churches, funerals and weddings.

The reductions are only expected to be minor as there is yet to be a coronavirus outbreak sparked by those activities, Seven News reported.

It comes as stricter measures are being enforced on pubs and clubs across NSW.

New South Wales could be hit with tighter restrictions in the coming days following a surge in cases. Pictured COVID-19 testing clinic in Picton, Sydney

Despite a jump in COVID-19 cases, Premier Gladys Berejiklian refuses to put NSW back into lockdown. Pictured diners at Speedos Cafe in Bondi

From midnight on Thursday, venues will have a maximum number of 300 people and will halve group bookings from 20 to ten.

Marshalls will also be required at venues to ensure they are following a COVID-safe plan.

Every pubgoer will also have to sign in on arrival and provide their details in the event contact tracing needs to be carried out.

On Thursday, New South Wales recorded ten new cases across the state, which included four returned travellers and three infections linked to the Crossroads hotel.

The source of the three other cases remains a mystery and they are currently under investigation by NSW Health.

The Crossroads Hotel outbreak which has spread to 40 people arose after an infected Melbourne man attended the hotel on July 3.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard on Thursday revealed that one of the cases from the hotel had the highest number of virus particles inside his body that authorities have seen to date.

The NSW government is expected to reduce numbers on gatherings inside churches. Pictured photographs of members of Mary Immaculate Church are seen on chairs when church services were banned in April

'Weve got a young bloke from that latest cluster  he had one of the highest infection levels we've ever seen,' Mr Hazzard told Ben Fordham on 2GB.

'His viral load was quite capable of spreading it to anybody near him  we all need to be on high alert.'

But despite the jump in cases, Ms Berejiklian is adamant the state will avoid a second lockdown.

'We can't keep going into lockdown and that is something we need to avoid at all costs,' she told KIIS radio.

Asked if Sydney would be locked down if it saw the same infection numbers, Ms Berejiklian said: 'We would avoid that happening.'

She also ruled out suburb-by-suburb lockdown as tried in 12 postcodes in north-west Melbourne.

Ms Berejiklian said locking down a suburb where an outbreak happens is ineffective because people who may have been infected there travel 'all over Sydney'.

'It's all or nothing. You can't lockdown a suburb, because [people who have passed through] live elsewhere,' she said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 09:11:51|Editor: huaxia

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KAMPALA, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Uganda's Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga on Wednesday announced that all the 457 legislators and 400 parliamentary staff will start on Thursday to get tested for COVID-19.

"I am glad to inform you that since the ministry of health has completed the screening of all cabinet ministers, mass testing will be done here at the parliament," Kadaga said in a statement issued by the parliament here.

The testing will be done in clusters to avoid overcrowding, starting with lawmakers, followed by parliamentary staff and service providers.

The parliament said that it has no information regarding a lawmaker who reportedly tested positive for the virus.

"The parliament treats information related to one's status as a confidential issue until one chooses to reveal it," said the statement.

Uganda's parliament has been operating in accordance with the ministry of health's guidelines, with lawmakers working in shifts outside the parliament building in open air tents and the majority of staff working from home.

Uganda has so far reported 1,043 cases of COVID-19, 1,004 recoveries and no virus related deaths, according to the ministry of health. Enditem
What is the Dharavi model, which will be replicated in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) to curb the rising number of cases?

The Dharavi model is most apt for locations where social distancing and home quarantining of patients and high-risk contacts is not possible, mostly slums. Aspects of this model can be used in dense urban areas with high cases, such as organising fever camps, early detection, quarantining suspected Covid cases and institutional quarantine of a large number of high-risk contacts.

WHO or ICMR direct contact-tracing on a massive scale. But in Dharavi, contact-tracing is difficult because 5,000 people are using one toilet block. The only thing in our control is proactive work. We are chasing the virus, as opposed to people identifying they are unwell, doing a test and coming to us. We arrange a large number of fever camps, screen residents, identify suspected Covid-19 cases and shift them to institutional quarantine facilities. When we aim to conduct maximum fever camps and tests, we will identify more cases and high-risk contacts and will need more institutional quarantine facilities. We acquired schools, colleges, installed beds and doctors monitored the facilities 24x7, supplied free medicines and gave free meals.

How will you be involved in helping municipal commissioners of the MMR to implement the Dharavi model?

I presented the Dharavi model before the municipal commissioners of MMR when I accompanied Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray, on his request. The main point is augmenting capacity at institutional facilities, and ensuring they have good amenities. When a person is agreeing to leave his home and stay at a quarantine facility, it is our job to ensure he is comfortable. The more high-risk contacts you remove from the community, the faster the spread of infection stops.

Public-private partnership and community participation are crucial. The Dharavi model is about community support too. The support government received from private doctors, hospitals, NGOs, volunteers and elected representatives was excellent.

What is the present situation in Dharavi?

Our active cases are a two-digit number, hardly 97, and 2,070 people have been discharged. There are 2,415 cumulative positive cases. Doubling rate of Dharavi is 345 days. The infection growth rate is 0.4%.

Dharavis mortality is high with over 200 Covid deaths at least?

In G-North ward, including Dadar, Mahim, and Dharavi, there were 72 deaths in April, 167 deaths in May, 33 deaths in June, and two deaths in July. We are using early detection, hospitalisation and treatment.

Beyond this, mortality figures are not in the ward officers hand once the patient goes to a hospital.

A death is reported by the hospital to the epidemiology cell, which verifies it and then confirms it as a Covid death.

As the unlock process starts in Dharavi, what is the most challenging aspect?

The situation is very dynamic. Labourers who had left Dharavi in March and April are returning after seeing relief in the area. Many factories have started.

There are many house helps and sanitary workers, who work across the city, staying in Dharavi. There is a possibility cases will surge again, or they may not.

My only worry is this success should not go in our heads, and we should not assume we have tackled the virus for good, and no more cases should show.

We will keep screening and testing. We are working on behavioural change of residents for cleanliness and sanitary habits, especially while using community toilets.

I also want to create a permanent Covid health care infrastructure in Dharavi, like we built a 200-bed hospital in front of Maharashtra Nature Park, with oxygen supply beds in a record 15 days in April.

This will be converted into a permanent structure.
Detectives investigating the murder of Lyra McKee have charged a 27-year-old man with possession of a firearm in suspicious circumstances.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland said he has also been charged with possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.

The man is due to appear at Londonderry Magistrates' Court on Thursday via video-link.

Journalist Lyra McKee was shot dead during riots in the Creggan district of Londonderry in April last year

Ms McKee, 29, was allegedly shot dead by dissident republicans in Derry in April 2019 as she observed rioting in the Creggan area of the city.

The extremist group that styles itself the New IRA is allegedly responsible for the murder.

Last month, police found the handgun they believe was used to kill Ms McKee.

The Hammerli X-Esse .22 pistol was discovered during searches in the Ballymagroarty area of Derry.

In February, a 52-year-old man appeared in court in the city charged with the author's murder.

Guns were fired and petrol bombs thrown during the riots in Londonderry in April 2019

Ms McKee's death cause widespread condemnation across the world, with the incident helping to kick-start political talks surrounding the Stormont powersharing early this year.

The journalist's funeral in April 2019 was attended by the then Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, President Michael D Higgins and former British prime minister Theresa May.

Her mother died in March, just five weeks before the first anniversary of her daughter's murder.

Ms McKee had regularly visited her mother in north Belfast (pictured together) to look after her before she was killed

Police found a Hammerli X-Esse .22 pistol, thought to have been used to kill Lyra, during searches in the Ballymagroarty area of Derry in June

Joan Lawrie passed away in a Belfast hospital almost one year after her daughter was shot dead while observing a riot on Londonderry's Creggan estate in April.

A family member said on Twitter: 'My wee Mother In Law, passed away last night of a broken heart. Unable to live without her baby Lyra.

'My Wee mother in law whom I loved with all my heart, I will love you to beyond eternity. Mother and daughter rest in forever peace. #Lyramckee#Joanmckee.'

In February, a 52-year-old man appeared in court in the city charged with the author's murder.
By Aisha Jabbarova

Armenian armed forces have sought to resume attack on Azerbaijani positions on the state border in the direction of Tovuz region since July 16 morning, the Defence Ministrys press service reported today.

Armenian forces have also shelled Aghdam, Dondar Gushchu and Vahidli villages in Tovuz using large-caliber weapons and mortars, the ministry said, adding that there are no casualties among civilians.

Currently, there is fighting in the area and Azerbaijan is in control of the operational situation.

Head of the press office of Azerbaijans Defense Ministry, Colonel Vagif Dargahli told Trend on July 16 that Armenian armed forces have opened fire on the Dondar Gushchu village of Tovuz district in Azerbaijan

He said that as a result of the attacks, artillery shells fell on residential houses and into household areas in the village, causing serious damage.

In the meantime, Azerbaijani MP Arzu Nagiyev who is presently in Tovuz, has told Trend that Armenian forces opened fire at villages in Tovuz at around 4 am on July 16.

"Armenians continue shelling the villages of Agdam, Dondar-Gushchu, Alibeyli and Hacali. About 20 artillery shells hit the village of Dondar Gushchu. Two of the shells hit the yards of civilians. One of the shells destroyed an auxiliary building in the courtyard of one of the villagers. There is no panic among the civilian population, although the situation remains tense. Armenians have mainly bombarded the village of Agdam. There are no casualties among civilians. Units of the Azerbaijani army are in control of the situation," the MP said.

__

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNews
Over 6.87 lakh Indians have returned from abroad after the government launched the "Vande Bharat" evacuation mission on May 7 in view of the coronavirus pandemic, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday.

The fourth phase of the Vande Bharat mission, which is currently underway, has been augmented with the addition of around 120 flights between July 15-31, MEA Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said at a media briefing.

"These additional flights will cater to the demand for repatriation from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Malaysia, Singapore, the UK, Europe, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine," Srivastava said.

With this augmentation, this phase now has 751 international flights catering to 34 airports in India, he said. "If feeder flights to different states are included, there would be a total of 926 flights under the fourth phase. These include around 180 flights by Indian private carriers IndiGo, GoAir and SpiceJet," Srivastava said.

"As of 15th July, 6,87,467 Indian nationals have returned. 1,01,014 nationals have returned from Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh by land borders. The number of returnees by Indian naval ships from Maldives, Sri Lanka and Iran stands at 3,789," the MEA Spokesperson said.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Thursday announced that they would be starting bilateral air bubbles between India and the US, Germany, France and the UAE, Srivastava said.

This will allow airlines of both sides to carry passengers to each other under defined conditions, he said. Some of these air bubbles have been finalised, while others are under negotiation, he added.

"This would help movement of people between these countries and India till international air travel is restored to normalcy," the MEA Spokesperson said.

The ministry is in regular contact with India's missions and posts abroad to monitor the demand of repatriation of stranded Indians and for arranging Vande Bharat Mission flights as required, Srivastava said, adding that it was doing this in discussion with the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The first phase of the mission was carried out from May 7 to 15. The second phase of the evacuation mission was scheduled from May 17 to 22. However, the government had extended it till June 10.

The third phase of the evacuation exercise was scheduled from June 11 to July 2. Currently, the fourth phase of the evacuation mission is going on.

(Photo credit for representation: PTI)
Catholic Charities - Diocese of Laredo will host a Humanitarian Relief Distribution Event on Saturday, July 25 at Sames Auto Arena at 6700 Arena Blvd.

The drive-thru event will serve 1,300 families beginning at 9 a.m. Each family will receive a box of fruit and vegetables and cleaning supplies.

In order to best assist all who attend, and for the safety of all involved, the following are required: Face masks must be worn by every person in the vehicle (age 2 and over); no walk-ins will be allowed; a maximum of two families per vehicle will be served; any type of ID must be presented; and all items will be loaded into the trunk of the vehicles.

Catholic Charities - Diocese of Laredo is committed to serving the emergency needs of the indigent and believe that all people have the right to live in an environment that is free of abuse, violence, fear and oppression and said, We look forward to providing some relief to families throughout Laredo who have been negatively affected by COVID-19.

Follow the Diocese of Laredos social media sites for more information.
Recently there have been a number of incidents in Iran where unexplained fires or explosion have destroyed some infrastructure:

Since June, fires or explosions have erupted at six factories and other facilities, two of them military in naturethe Parchin missile-production plant and the Natanz nuclear site.

There was an explosion of a gas tank near a missile assembly facility in Khojir, some trouble at a transformer station near Tehran and some other incidents. Most remarkably was an explosion and fire at the centrifuge assembly facility in Iran's nuclear complex in Natanz.

While the incident in Natanz certainly smells of active sabotage the other incidents, like a recent explosion of gas cylinders at a hospital, look more like plain old accidents.

Someone is amplifying a number of rather normal accidents that occur in any large industrialized country in an attempt to sow fear and uncertainty in Iran.

Today a fire broke out on a shipyard in Bushehr. Some Twitterati immediately speculated that it was part of the incident chain and related it to Iran's nuclear reactor near that city.

Such speculation is nonsense. Fires on shipyards break out all the time. Just ask the U.S. Navy who's USS Bonhomme Richard has now been burning for three days after a fire broke out during yard maintenance. That fire turned a one billion dollar ship into 40,000 tons of feedstock for a blast furnace. Today's yard fire in Iran slightly damaged seven laid up dhows (vid), small civilian freight ships build from wood and used for coastal traffic in the Persian Gulf.

Israel has indirectly claimed responsibility for the Natanz incident:

[A] Middle Eastern intelligence official with knowledge of the episode said Israel was responsible for the attack on the Natanz nuclear complex, using a powerful bomb. A member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps who was briefed on the matter also said that an explosive was used.

I have my doubts about such self serving Israeli claims. It is more likely that the CIA has its fingers in these games.

There is a rather intense CIA program being run against Iran. Trump has not only appointed the aggressive Michael D'Andrea, the 'Prince of Darkness', to head the CIA's Iran Mission Center but he gave the CIA wide ranging new powers to run cyber attacks against the country:

The Central Intelligence Agency has conducted a series of covert cyber operations against Iran and other targets since winning a secret victory in 2018 when President Trump signed what amounts to a sweeping authorization for such activities, according to former U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the matter. The secret authorization, known as a presidential finding, gives the spy agency more freedom in both the kinds of operations it conducts and who it targets, undoing many restrictions that had been in place under prior administrations. The finding allows the CIA to more easily authorize its own covert cyber operations, rather than requiring the agency to get approval from the White House.

...

The very aggressive finding gave the agency very specific authorities to really take the fight offensively to a handful of adversarial countries, said a former U.S. government official. These countries include Russia, China, Iran and North Korea  which are mentioned directly in the document  but the finding potentially applies to others as well, according to another former official. The White House wanted a vehicle to strike back, said the second former official. And this was the way to do it.

This was another stupid step taken by the current administration. Letting the CIA run an unsupervised war against the basic infrastructure of other countries will likely come back to haunt it:

The finding has made it easier for the CIA to damage adversaries critical infrastructure, such as petrochemical plants, and to engage in the kind of hack-and-dump operations that Russian hackers and WikiLeaks popularized, in which tranches of stolen documents or data are leaked to journalists or posted on the internet. It has also freed the agency to conduct disruptive operations against organizations that were largely off limits previously, such as banks and other financial institutions. Another key change with the finding is it lessened the evidentiary requirements that limited the CIAs ability to conduct covert cyber operations against entities like media organizations, charities, religious institutions or businesses believed to be working on behalf of adversaries foreign intelligence services, as well as individuals affiliated with these organizations, according to former officials.

...

The CIA has wasted no time in exercising the new freedoms won under Trump. Since the finding was signed two years ago, the agency has carried out at least a dozen operations that were on its wish list, according to this former official. This has been a combination of destructive things  stuff is on fire and exploding  and also public dissemination of data: leaking or things that look like leaking.

Such lose definition of allowed targets will inevitably lead to operations that should be out of bounce.

The big danger here is that all sides can play such games. The U.S. does not have a monopoly or even a large advantage in waging cyber wars. It is in fact more vulnerable than others. Edward Snowden provided proof that the NSA is unable to protect its own secrets. Wikileaks published Vault 7, the CIA's own secret cyber attack tool collection. If even the NSA and the CIA can not protect their systems one can only imagine how bad the security situation is in private institutions like U.S. banks, media organizations, charities, religious institutions or businesses.

If the CIA targets such institutions in other countries counter attacks on similar U.S. entities become legitimate.

The CIA's operations like the Natanz explosion only increase instability. Iran has more facilities where it can assemble its centrifuges. The attack will not hinder its progress in enrichment technologies. But the explosion created suspicion in Iran that the inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who visit these facilities, are U.S. directed spies. In consequence Iran may limit their access to its nuclear sites. That again would decrease the knowledge about what Iran is or is not doing in its nuclear facilities.

That should not be in anyone's interest.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 23:46:09|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese mainland spokesperson said Thursday that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are part of the same China and should jointly safeguard China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the overall and fundamental interests of the Chinese nation.

Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, was replying to a reporter's question on recent comments on the South China Sea from Taiwan's authority in charge of external ties, following a statement from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

"China has indisputable sovereignty over the islands and reefs in the South China Sea and their adjacent waters," said Zhu, noting that the Chinese foreign ministry has repeatedly stated its position and refuted the erroneous remarks made by the United States. Enditem
International students may be attracted to Ireland due to its handling of Covid-19, Simon Harris said (PA)

Ireland is still open to international students and they may be encouraged to study in the country due to its handling of coronavirus, Higher Education Minister Simon Harris has said.

He said it remains his departments priority to get as many students back to college as possible, but public health concerns may mean students study online.

The priority now is getting people back into college and getting as much face-to-face time as possible because I do strongly believe the importance from a mental health point of view that people need to interact with others, face-to face, he said.

He also said international students can come to the country to study despite the quarantine rules for travellers.

The current regulations state people must self-isolate for two weeks when they arrive in Ireland.

Expand Close Simon Harris said Ireland could be an attractive destination for international students due to its handling of coronavirus (PA) PA / Facebook

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Whatsapp Simon Harris said Ireland could be an attractive destination for international students due to its handling of coronavirus (PA)

He said: I am hearing from some universities that some international students will be able to travel into Ireland, quarantine for the two weeks. Maybe link in with the colleges online during that period of time and they will be happy to do that because they will be here for a year, not just a week or two.

Im also hearing from universities that theres a little bit of encouragement in that people are now looking internationally at Ireland and they believe that Ireland is a country that handled Covid-19 well and they see us as a country that takes public health seriously.

Therefore, if youre living in another country youre more likely perhaps to encourage your children to travel to that country to study and then perhaps other countries that didnt.

Ireland is absolutely open to international students and there is no travel ban, but lets be clear  if youre coming to Ireland for any reason we expect you to self-isolate for two weeks.

Mr Harris said he will seek to address high drop-out rates if there is less face-to-face interaction at colleges.

That is something that we are going to have to monitor very closely. I have no information or data to suggest that is an immediate problem, but I think if people are 17 or 18 and their choices are accidentally narrowed, he said.

Mr Harris said further education courses are sometimes seen as the Cinderella of the higher education sector and more people will be encouraged to explore further education options rather than going straight to university.

Higher Education Minister @SimonHarrisTD says further education and training should no longer be seen as the Cinderellaof the education sector. pic.twitter.com/Ks6TRsqp1r  Aine McMahon (@AineMcMahon) July 16, 2020

I think culturally we narrow our education choices too early, he said. Universities are brilliant and they have done an amazing job and we want to keep up the high numbers of people going there.

But Mr Harris said a person aged 17 or 18 who is unsure about what they want to study should sign up for a shorter further education course.

Going and doing a relatively short course or signing up for a year to try something might work better for some people than taking the plunge into something for four or five years when theyre not yet sure what they want to do, he said.

So you go to the institute of further education, do a course for a year, see how you get on. If you get on well and you like it then you get your qualification and you can seamlessly move on to university.

Mr Harris also said despite the expected shortfall in third level and international student numbers, student fees will not increase.

Let me be very, very clear. The Programme For Government is crystal clear on that. There will be no increase to student fees in the lifetime of this Government.
Public and government aided schools have requested to be charged lower prices on water they consume, arguing that the current tariffs are high.

They say that water expenditure is projected to rise in September 2020 when they are expected to reopen because they will need to use more water in a bid to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This issue was also exposed by the report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, ICT, Culture and Youth which was approved by Parliament on June 12, 2020.

The report was based on the assessment tours that the Committee made from February 03 to 14, 2020 in provinces and the City of Kigali in order to evaluate and monitor issues in education.

Speaking to The New Times, Nicodeme Twahirwa, the head teacher of Ecole des Sciences Louis de Montfort Nyanza in Nyanza District said that the school has 678 students and that it spends between Rwf600,000 and Rwf700,000 on water per month.

The school consumes more than 50 m3 per month, and it is classified in the non-residential category.

The current water tariffs set by Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) are based on the monthly water consumption by cubic metre (m3) whereby a flat rate of Rwf323 is charged on a m3 for public tap, while water for non-residential category ranges from Rwf877 a m3 for water use that does not exceed 50 m3, and Rwf895 a m3 for water that is above 50 m3 per month.

Such tariffs exclude value added tax (VAT). Twahirwa said that when VAT of 18 percent is included, the school pays more than 1,000 a m3.

"Water is costly for us. Schools are considered as commercial institutions that make a lot of profit like hotels where customers pay more on water such as on use of swimming pools," he said.

"We should be classified in the category of public tap," he appealed, indicating that a lot of water is consumed at schools to meet students' drinking water needs, washing clothes, and preparing meals.

He also said that the hygiene practice mainly consisting of washing hands frequently in order to prevent Covid-19 pandemic, is likely to drive water consumption higher.

Martin Mbonigaba, the head teacher of Groupe Scolaire Muhoza in Musanze District of Northern Province said that the school has more than 2,200 students in both primary and secondary levels.

He said that the school spends about Rwf90,000 on water per month because it's a day school, pointing out that the expenditure would be far higher if it was a boarding one.

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But, he indicated that expenses will significantly increase when students return to school in September as a larger amount of water will be needed to meet hygiene needs to combat Covid-19.

"All students will have to wash hands when they enter the school. As a result, the school will incur more expenses from increased water volume," he said, estimating that the costs could reach Rwf300,000 per month.

MP Damien Nyabyenda, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, ICT, Culture and Youth told The New Times that the issue was identified in different schools, pointing out that they need support to get the water charges lowered.

"High water tariffs make some schools pay more than Rwf500,000 on water monthly. The schools should be put in the public tap category so that they pay less per water used," he said.
If you are a fan of Hallmark movies then this saccharin film is for you. I belong to a group of women I call my game night group. Several of the women watched the movie and suggested I review it. They liked it and thought it was sweet.

Alec Bailey is a gambling, womanizing bankrupt entrepreneur who owns an electrical repair shop. Worse yet, hes in debt to the Russian mafia who want to extract blood. In deep trouble, Bailey learns he has an uncle who will pay all his debts if he goes to Halifax, Nova Scotia for one year. He has never met this uncle before and wonders where he had been all of his life, especially when his twin brother died of cancer.
Virtual grand juries limit the cross-section of jurors selected because some residents may not have access to technology because of social and economic inequities. The secrecy of a grand jury proceeding is undermined when held virtually. The technological issues and glitches that often arise on a video conference could impact the presentation and the jurors understanding of the case.

(TNS)  The coronavirus pandemic has upended how the criminal justice system operates, turning routine face-to-face hearings into virtual adventures.The latest courthouse procedure to go virtual in New Jersey? Grand jury proceedings.The states Administrator of the Courts recently launched a virtual grand jury pilot program in an effort to speed up the criminal justice process and limit gatherings in courthouses in Bergen and Mercer counties. So far, nearly 50 indictments have been handed up since June 18.Given that we have no way of knowing when this health crisis will end, virtual grand juries are our best alternative if we are to move cases forward in a manner that allows all citizens to participate in the jury process, Judge Glenn A. Grant, acting administrative director of the court, said in a statement last week. Justice cannot be served if the criminal justice process is stalled.But criminal defense attorneys and county prosecutors across the state have banded together and publicly raised concerns over how the virtual grand jury proceedings are playing out and the long-term consequences the new process could have on defendants. A grand jury decision is the first step in the criminal justice process after a complaint is filed.The sanctimony of the criminal justice system is under attack, Matt Adams, vice president of the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey (ACDL-NJ), said about the virtual grand juries.In a statement released this week, the County Prosecutors Association of New Jersey (CPANJ), whose prosecutors present evidence to a grand jury, echoed the concerns raised by the ACDL-NJ, which called virtual grand juries unconstitutional and simply wrong earlier this week.Both organization raised three main concerns:There are certain lines in the administration of justice that cannot be crossed, the county prosecutors said in a statement. Given our sworn obligation to seek justice, we cannot stand by and fail to advocate for the protection of Constitutional rights, privacy rights, and the safety of all participants in our criminal justice system, including defendants and victims.Prosecutors in both counties where the pilot program is being utilized are members of the county prosecutors organization who denounced virtual grand juries, though their offices continue to convene them.A spokeswoman for Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Mussella said the county will continue to present cases to a virtual grand jury as requested by the judiciary. She said the prosecutors office had not encountered any issues presenting cases virtually.Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo J. Onofri, who is the president of the organization, did not respond to a request for comment.The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) said a number of safeguards were put in place to make sure the proceedings continued lawfully, but also efficiently in its new virtual setting.In the pilot program, the court system has provided jurors with tablets that have broadband access or with web cameras in order to not exclude those without the proper technology from sitting on a grand jury. No jurors were turned away because they lacked the space or technological equipment to participate, according to the AOC. Jurors access the virtual proceeding through a secure login and are given headphones to wear so others in the home do not hear the proceedings.Additionally, the court has supplemented its standard grand jury charge and secrecy oath with an oath that specifically addresses the requirements of participation in a virtual proceeding.Just as we do with live grand juries, we rely on virtual grand juries to honor the oath they are sworn to follow, Judge Grant said.Grand juries have long been a staple of the criminal justice system. In New Jersey, before a criminal case moves forward, every defendant has a right to have their case heard by a grand jury. A grand jury is made up of 23 people who determine whether there is sufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against a person. In a typical year, grand juries across New Jersey return nearly 27,000 indictments in criminal cases, according to the Attorney Generals office.The state Supreme Court authorized in May that the AOC could hold grand jury proceedings virtually with the intent of speeding up the process for more than 1,800 defendants in county jails awaiting indictment while also not crowding courthouses with potential jurors.Originally, virtual proceedings were to be conducted for defendants who consented to them being held virtually to assist in identifying early cases for presentation to a grand jury, said Peter McAleer, a spokesman for the AOC.However, no defendant consented to a virtual grand jury. The county prosecutors organization said the lack of consent should have been a red flag for the judiciary and it expects defendants to consistently challenge indictments returned by a virtual grand jury.The courts proceeded with the virtual grand juries without the defendants consent, as they would have proceeded with grand juries pre-pandemic. Judge Grant said the courts had to explore the best immediate option for restarting our criminal justice process.Under the pilot program 47 indictments have been secured through virtual grand juries in Bergen and Mercer counties as of July 13. In three cases, the grand juries declined to indict on all of the proposed charges, McAleer said.The ACDL-NJ is describing the process as Wi-Fi indictments that has stripped down the extensive grand jury process to expedite cases at the expense of the least powerful party involved.Make no mistake, the pandemic is being used as an excuse to fundamentally reshape the entire landscape of the criminal justice system in a way that diminishes rather than enhances the protections of human beings in the state of New Jersey, said attorney Michael Baldassare, a member of ACDL-NJ.Both the ACDL-NJ and the county prosecutors organization have urged the AOC to shut down the virtual grand jury proceedings and come up with a strategy to hold in-person grand juries in larger spaces where social distancing is possible, which other jurisdictions across the country have instituted.Given that we have no way of knowing when this health crisis will end, virtual grand juries are our best alternative if we are to move cases forward in a manner that allows all citizens to participate in the jury, McAleer said.The pilot program will next be expanding to state grand juries, as requested by Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, who has been working with the judiciary to expand the virtual pilot program.We cannot indefinitely halt the criminal justice process and allow a backlog of cases to develop while individuals are detained and the memories of witnesses fade, a spokeswoman for Grewal said. This situation requires that we act boldly and creatively to safeguard our criminal justice system during this difficult time.Adams said if the virtual grand juries continue, the ACDL-NJ will explore all options, including litigation, in order to stop the program that he said has altered the first step of the criminal justice process in a way that defense attorneys and prosecutors have said is not an appropriate way for grand juries to be held.If they will do it with this, they will do it with anything, Adams said.
Prime Miniter Narendra Modi will deliver the keynote virtual address at this year's high-level segment of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) session. The event will be held on Friday, July 17 at the UN headquarters in New York. According to Indian Standard Time (IST), the session will start at 9:30 am. PM Modi will be speaking at the valedictory session along with the Prime Minister of Norway and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

This is the first time PM Modi will be addressing a large group of UN members since India's election as a non-permanent member of the Security Council on June 17 for the term 2021-22. The theme of this year's high-level segment has been decided as 'Multilateralism after COVID-19: What kind of UN do we need at the 75th anniversary".

This year's theme resonates with the proposition for 'reformed multilateralism in a post-COVID-19 world' that India had raised in the Security Council earlier.

The annual high-level segment of the session sees a diverse group of high-level representatives from different sections coming together to discuss important matters. These sections include - governments, private sector organisations, civil societies and academia.

As the session has been organised in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis it will focus on the pandemic. Representatives will focus on "critical forces shaping the course of multilateralism and explore ways to bolster the global agenda through strong leadership, effective international institutions, a broadening of participation and enhanced significance of global public goods," according to a government press release.

India has a long history with the ECOSOC as Sir Ramaswami Mudalair was selected as the first president of the council back in 1946. PM Modi had earlier delivered the keynote address virtually at the 70th anniversary of ECOSOC in January 2016.

Also Read: Crackdown on Chinese imports: Amazon India makes 'country of origin' display mandatory

Also Read: Mukesh Ambani to steer Reliance Industries to a green future; cut in CO2 emission top priority
A cyber group linked to Russian intelligence is targeting Covid-19 vaccine research in the West while other Russian actors sought to interfere in last years General Election in Britain, the Government said today.

In two bombshell accusations this afternoon:

UK security officials slammed despicable attacks by Russian hackers against organisations helping to develop a coronavirus vaccine. They are suspected of seeking to steal vaccine secrets.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab hit out at Russian actors for pushing on the internet leaked reports on UK-US trade talks ahead of the election last December.

Ministers and intelligence chiefs published details of both incidents to show Moscow that the UK is aware of the source of cyber attacks and to make people aware of the threats from abroad.

Britain, the USA and Canada jointly accused Russian cyber actors APT29 of targeting government, diplomatic and healthcare organisations to steal valuable intellectual property.

The UKs National Cyber Security Centre has published details of the cyber espionage group, also known as The Dukes and Cozy Bear, which they claim have exploited organisations globally.

The British cyber experts warned that the APT29 group almost certainly operates as part of Russian Intelligence Services.

NCSC director of operations Paul Chichester said: We condemn these despicable attacks against those doing vital work to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

Russian President Vladimir Putin / AP

Working with our allies, the NCSC is committed to protecting our most critical assets and our top priority at this time is to protect the health sector.

We would urge organisations to familiarise themselves with the advice we have published to help defend their networks.

Known targets of the group include UK, US and Canadian vaccine research and development organisations.

The group uses a techniques including spear-phishing and custom malware known as WellMess and WellMail.

A report by the NCSC said: Throughout 2020, APT29 has targeted various organisations involved in COVID-19 vaccine development in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, highly likely with the intention of stealing information and intellectual property relating to the development and testing of COVID-19 vaccines.

The hack is targetting government, medical and diplomatic organisations working on the vaccine / AFP via Getty Images

In its conclusion it warns: APT29 is likely to continue to target organisations involved in COVID-19 vaccine research and development, as they seek to answer additional intelligence questions relating to the pandemic.

Reacting to the announcement, Mr Raab, said: It is completely unacceptable that the Russian Intelligence Services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

While others pursue their selfish interests with reckless behaviour, the UK and its allies are getting on with the hard work of finding a vaccine and protecting global health.

The UK will continue to counter those conducting such cyber attacks, and work with our allies to hold perpetrators to account.

The NCSCs announcement comes just after Mr Raab made a separate bombshell accusation that Russian actors sought to interfere in last years General Election by amplifying leaked documents on trans-Atlantic trade talks.

A criminal investigation has been launched into the acquisition of the documents. They are said to have been obtained illicitly.

Mr Raab told the Commons in a written statement: On the basis of extensive analysis, the Government has concluded that it is almost certain that Russian actors sought to interfere in the 2019 General Election through the online amplification of illicitly acquired and leaked Government documents.

Sensitive Government documents relating to the UK-US Free Trade Agreement were illicitly acquired before the 2019 General Election and disseminated online via the social media platform Reddit.

When these gained no traction, further attempts were made to promote the illicitly acquired material online in the run up to the General Election.

Dominic Raab / REUTERS

The Cabinet minister said there was no evidence of a broad spectrum Russian campaign against the General Election and nor did he say the Russian state was involved.

But he added: Any attempt to interfere in our democratic processes is completely unacceptable. It is, and will always be, an absolute priority to protect our democracy and elections.

There is an ongoing criminal investigation and it would be inappropriate for us to say anything further at this point.

The Government reserves the right to respond with appropriate measures in the future.

The leaked documents detailing the trans-Atlantic trade talks were seized on in December last year in the run-up to the election on the 12th by then Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to claim that the Government was prepared to put the NHS for sale as part of post-Brexit trade talks.

They are understood to have been posted on Reddit more than a month earlier.

But when they did not gain traction, Russian actors are then said to have sought to push them on Twitter posts, blogs, and single-use burner accounts on social media.

Reddit suspended 61 accounts which it said were part of a co-ordinated effort.

Downing Street denied the cyber incidents were being published ahead of a report by Parliaments Intelligence and Security Committee into alleged Russian interference in the UK.
Related: replace this text with your teaser head and add hyperlinkCourtesy /Courtesy

Friends and family remembered Bexar Countys affable emergency management coordinator as a natural leader Wednesday, whether calming youth gangs during his career with the sheriffs department or shepherding a trail ride on horseback with his family for the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo.

Kyle Colemans death on Tuesday shocked many who knew him.

Having lived in southeast Bexar County most of his life, the 69-year-old Coleman served his hometown through law enforcement and emergency management, and most recently was focused on helping San Antonio get through the novel coronavirus pandemic.

He helped with testing and coordinating distribution of masks, body suits and other personal protective equipment and was involved in setting up an area of Freeman Coliseum as a field hospital.

Bexar County officials, with permission from Colemans wife, Edna, revealed he had COVID-19, which contributed to a heart attack.

County public information officer Monica Ramos said Coleman had been working from home because he wasnt feeling well, and went to get tested Sunday. A positive result was returned Tuesday  the day he died.

At the regular city-county novel coronavirus briefing Wednesday evening, County Judge Nelson Wolff praised Coleman and brought a message for the public.

Edna wanted to leave one comment for everybody, Wolff began. She said, It is my hope that this will bring attention to the importance of wearing masks and practicing safe distance.

He talked about working with Coleman, a nearly 40-year county employee, through numerous natural disasters and called him a great, great public servant.

Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert, whose precinct includes the area where Coleman grew up and lived, said he had just talked to him on the phone and exchanged emails in recent days.

Coleman was always accessible and helpful, the commissioner said, a jolly good man with a lot of networks, and a lot of connections, paired with invaluable knowledge and experience.

Even when he was on vacation, he was still looking out for San Antonio, Calvert said.

On ExpressNews.com: Head of Bexar County emergency management dies

Mark Chadwick, emergency management specialist with the county, is acting emergency management coordinator. Bexar County commissioners are scheduled to receive an update on the local COVID-19 response today at a meeting set to begin at 11 a.m. in the Double-Height Courtroom of the Bexar County Courthouse.

Nathan Kyle Coleman and a sister, Janie, were reared by Peggy and Jimmy Coleman, who ran a Mobil Station on W.W. White Road for 25 years on the Southeast Side. His mother also was co-manager at the Pioneer Hall of Old Trail Drivers Museum for 15 years, and a lifelong member of the Stock Show & Rodeo, serving on the trail ride and horse show committees.

Through a family tradition, Kyle Coleman became the longtime trail boss of the Alamo Trail Ride, which he often touted as the most authentic ride building up to the rodeo. He was known to awaken riders at predawn with music blaring from the bed of his pickup.

On ExpressNews.com: Early morning Cattle Call song kicks off family tradition trail rides

A graduate of Sam Houston High School, Coleman began working for the county in 1982 and rose through the ranks of the Bexar County Sheriffs Office. He led the departments gang unit as a sergeant in the 1990s, when San Antonio experienced a prolonged epidemic of drive-by shootings and other crimes involving youth gangs.

Charlie Calderon, a longtime friend and retired City Public Service electrical foreman, worked with Coleman on weekends as a deputy reservist. He said Coleman was one of the finest people I ever worked for.

We got ourselves into some pretty deep stuff sometimes, Calderon recalled. But he said Coleman was skilled and instinctive in his actions, leading his officers like the Pied Piper.

It was a rough time back then. We made a lot of arrests and took lot a guns off the streets; solved a lot of crimes, Calderon said. I dont think there was anybody who couldnt get along with Kyle. The guy would give you the shirt off his back.

Coleman sometimes hosted reunion barbecues of the old gang unit, and hoped to have another one soon, once the pandemic was under control, Calderon said.

We were looking to get together again, he added.

Coleman was later reassigned and promoted to lieutenant, often responding to major wrecks and disasters, and providing updates to the media.

Wolff said Coleman started building the countys emergency management department in 2005 and, in 2012, was named emergency management coordinator.

On ExpressNews.com: Bexar emergency coordinator visits wildfire academy

Eight days before his death, Coleman spoke to the Express-News about his counterpart in Atascosa County, David Prasifka, who days earlier had been diagnosed with acute leukemia and tested positive for COVID-19. Prasifka, 58, died July 4 in a San Antonio hospital, two days after being admitted.

Speaking by phone, Colemans voice broke as he described how Prasifka, who was from Jourdanton, was out helping the community. And he loved that community down there.

Coleman said his staff is very, very careful to avoid contact with people picking up PPE. But it only takes a short lapse of vigilance to be exposed, he said.

Its one of those things where all you have to do is slip out once, Coleman said last week.

On ExpressNews.com: Emergency manager who led COVID-19 response dies of the disease

Bexar County officials have not offered a theory on how Coleman might have been exposed, instead emphasizing the legacy Coleman leaves behind in these dire and uncertain times.

Calvert called him a Precinct 4 homeboy whose caring and compassion showed through his dedication.

Posting on Twitter late Tuesday, Wolff said Coleman was an exceptional leader and worked tirelessly to help us navigate through many crises over the years  such as floods, hurricanes and now COVID-19. Commissioner Justin Rodriguez, on Facebook, said Coleman was on the frontlines over the past four months.

Whether he was helping with our small business PPE program or our testing site at Freeman, Kyle gave his all. A true public servant, Rodriguez wrote.

In another Facebook post, Bexar County Clerk Lucy Adame-Clark said Coleman was a mentor to me for many years, even during my elected time in office.

Arrangements for a memorial service are pending, and officials of the Alamo Trail Ride said a memorial ride or other event may be held in the future.
(Natural News) The great state of Missouri is one of the enduring bastions of liberty and freedom in America, but it, too, has its blue spots, and one of them is St. Louis, which has been ruled by Democrats for eons.

And thats too bad for a St. Louis man, who  along with his wife  decided to defend their home with guns against a mob of Black Lives Matter protesters who had broken into their property.

Lawyer and home defender Mark McCloskey appeared for a second time on Fox News Tucker Carlson program Tuesday to not only defend his very legal actions (under the states Castle Doctrine) but to note that in spite of the law, hes looking to be indicted by a Leftist prosecutor, even as the media is mischaracterizing what happened to him and his wife and is siding with their ideological soulmates in the BLM movement.

In particular, McCloskey called out CNNs Chris Fredo Cuomo for siding with BLM over a homeowner defending his property.

Newsbusters notes:

Aside from being outraged at the citys leftist district attorney for targeting his guest for gun confiscation and possible prosecution, FNC host Tucker Carlson also wanted to look at how the media were abusing them.

Watch CNNs resident bodybuilder explain the new standard, Carlson said, noting the left was working to make it unacceptable to defend yourself from an attacker. And speaking of Fredo, Carlson astutely reminded his viewers to Keep in mind as you watch, that the guy doing the lecturing in this tape has repeatedly threatened violence against others for invading his personal space. But he gets to do that. His brother is the governor.

What do you make of the medias response? Carlson asked.

Well, you know, the traditional media is right behind the mob, McCloskey said, before adding, sardonically, were not allowed to use that word anymore.

The loud crowd of angry people. And are supporting these entities which are, from my understanding, Marxist and oppose everything I stand for and I hold dear and near, he continued.

McCloskey noted that while he and his wife, Patricia, have gotten hate messages and threats, most correspondence now is positive.

Weve gotten tremendous support from ordinary people. My phones and my emails are running about 90 percent positive now. Weve gotten calls from all over the world. I got a nice letter from a lady in Ireland this morning who congratulated us for taking a stand against the violence. And so, I think the vast majority of Americans wish they could do something, he said.

And I think its time for people to take a different stand. To actually stand up and have some risk. I mean, Patrick Henry said give me liberty or give me death, and now everybody is so afraid of losing their job, he added.

And there is a lot of truth to that.

In the same interview, McCloskey said he expects to be indicted shortly for standing his ground (and again, lets recall it was private property the BLM thugs had invaded  and the couple was threatened, which is why they armed themselves to begin with).

My attorney advised me not to be on the show tonight because the rumor is that we are going to be indicted shortly, McCloskey said. (Related: Armed St. Louis lawyer who defended his home against BLM mob sets the record straight: Im a lifelong Republican who doesnt support Marxist movement.)

Having said that, this is the same circuit attorney that released 35 of the protesters that torched and looted in downtown St. Louis but now she wants to indict me, he continued.

I didnt shoot anybody. I just held my ground, protecting my house, and Im sitting here on television tonight instead of dead or putting out the smoldering embers of my home.

That said, the McCloskeys have some friends in high places  including the governors office.

Im a firm believer in an individuals right to bear arms and stand their ground, Gov. Mike Parsons (R) wrote on his Facebook page.

I helped write & pass Missouris Castle Doctrine which became a model for the nation. No one has a right to destroy personal, private, or public property. Its appalling when the St. Louis City prosecutor is targeting the McCloskeys for defending their own home, he added, noting he will be working with President Trump to keep violent crime down in the state.

Sources include:

NewsBusters.org

TrendingPolitics.com

NaturalNews.com
The head of Russias space organization criticized the current United States plan to return astronauts to the moon as a big political project, saying his country is instead speaking with China about establishing a lunar base of operations, CNBC writes in the article Top Russian space official dismisses NASAs moon plans, considering a lunar base with China instead.

NASA last year announced its Artemis program, the agencys plan to fulfill President Donald Trumps order in 2017 to return Americans to the surface of the moon by 2024. Additionally, NASA in May unveiled the Artemis Accords  a set of principles it seeks to use as the basis of international agreements with other countries about using and operating in space, especially as the U.S. returns to the moon.

But Dmitry Rogozin, the leader of state-backed space corporation Roscosmos, said Russia does not intend to join any such U.S. partnership. CNBC translated Rogozins comments from an interview with Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda, published on Monday. For the United States, this right now is a big political project. With the lunar project, we are observing our American partners retreat from principles of cooperation and mutual support, which formed in collaboration with the [International Space Station]. They are perceiving their program not as an international one, but one resembling NATO, Rogozin said. NASA and the White House did not respond to CNBCs requests for comment on Rogozins remarks. Rogozin declared that Russia is not interested in participating in NASAs Artemis, but hinted that there are other projects that interest us. One such possibility for Roscosmos: Joining China in building a base on the moons south pole. Rogozin emphasized that he recently spoke with the leadership of Chinas space agency about shaping such a partnership. We agreed to begin the first steps toward meeting each other halfway, namely by determining the contours and value of a lunar scientific base, Rogozin said.

While he did not rule out partnering with other countries, including Americans, Rogozin said that Russia and China intend to lead the development of a lunar base. That effort would in essence compete with NASAs Artemis plan, which aims to establish a continued presence on the surface of the Moon within the next decade. Despite the recent track record of U.S.-Russia cooperation in space, Rogozin declared China a deserving partner for his country. Today the relationship between Russia and China is very good. Thats why China, yes, is certainly our partner, Rogozin said. The Chinese have grown tremendously in the last few years.

China has been steadily accelerating its space program in recent years, such as successfully landing a lunar rover on the far side of the moon in a historic first last year.

Despite the shift in Russias intentions, Rogozin said existing agreements with the U.S. continue to be a valuable bridge for cooperation. He emphasized his good relationship with NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine, which he hopes continues.

I trust that this collaboration will persist and will be to a less degree subject to the impact of a dumb political environment, which, unfortunately, is what comes out of Washington today, Rogozin said.

NASA published comments from Bridenstine about the Artemis programs goals of international collaboration on Tuesday, a day after Rogozins interview. Bridenstine highlighted that Japan, Canada and the European Space Agency are each partnering with NASA. Bridenstine addressed Rogozins comments in a statement to CNBC on Wednesday, emphasizing the overwhelming support NASA has received from both emerging and traditional international space agencies for Artemis.

Building on our solid relationship with Roscosmos aboard the International Space Station in low-Earth orbit, Im hopeful there are opportunities for NASA and Roscosmos to expand our collaboration farther into the solar system, including the Moon, Bridenstine said in the statement.

SpaceX is just at the beginning

The launch of SpaceXs first mission with NASA astronauts in May marked historic firsts for both the company and space agency. But for Russia, the SpaceX mission is the beginning of the end of nearly a decade of U.S. dependence on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to send astronauts to the International Space Station. Those Russian flights have come at a steadily increasing cost for the U.S. since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011, recently rising to more than $86 million per NASA astronaut.

Rogozin downplayed the SpaceX accomplishment, instead pointing to the track record of the Soyuz spacecraft. No matter what is said by the media or our American colleagues, they are only just at the beginning of the challenge of their new manned spacecraft, Rogozin said. Right now there is only one space transportation system that has monumental statistics of successful launches, with a proven emergency rescue system -- this is Soyuz MS.

In comments more pointedly directed at Elon Musks space company, Rogozin emphasized that he believes space is more about function than sleek design. In space, one must run not after beautiful goods with wonderful labels, under the music of Bowie, but one must lean, first and foremost, on well-functioning systems. Especially there where it comes to peoples lives, Rogozin said.
The novel coronavirus pandemic has now killed more than 589,000 people worldwide.

Over 13.7 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 or downplaying the scope of their nations' outbreaks.

The United States has become the worst-affected country, with more than 3.5 million diagnosed cases and at least 138,291 deaths.

Latest headlines:

US sets new daily record for cases, most deaths since late May Georgia governor sues Atlanta mayor over mask mandate Dog in South Carolina had COVID-19 Florida has 54 hospitals with no ICU beds Arizona reports 24.5% positivity rate

Here is how the news is developing today. All times Eastern. Check back for updates.

9:05 p.m.: Democrats tell members of Congress, delegates not to travel for convention

Democratic National Convention organizers have informed members of Congress and party delegates not to travel to Milwaukee next month due to concerns over the coronavirus.

"We have been working closely with state and local public health officials, as well epidemiologists, and have come to the hard decision that Members of Congress should not plan to travel to Milwaukee," Chasseny Lewis, a senior adviser to the convention committee, wrote in an email obtained by ABC News Thursday. "No delegates will travel to Milwaukee and Caucus and Council meetings will take place virtually."

The letter was first reported by The New York Times.

PHOTO: Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a 'Build Back Better' Clean Energy event on July 14, 2020, at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Del. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)

Most of the convention is expected to take place virtually amid safety concerns. Organizers informed state delegations last month that they should no longer plan to travel to Wisconsin. Last week, the secretary of the Democratic National Committee outlined how delegates would partake in remote voting from Aug. 3 to 15, before the in-person portion of the gathering began Aug. 17. Presumptive nominee Joe Biden intends to accept the nomination in person, organizers announced last month.

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Following reports of the letter Thursday, a spokesperson for the convention committee released a statement saying "this communication reiterates our guidance from several weeks ago that all members of state delegations -- including elected leaders -- should plan to conduct their official business remotely."

The Republican National Committee has also scaled down plans for its convention next month in Jacksonville, Florida, according to a letter obtained by ABC News sent to party members Thursday morning.

8:40 p.m.: LA County hits record high of new cases

Los Angeles County broke the record set two days ago for new COVID-19 cases.

On Thursday, the county health department reported a high of 4,592 new daily cases, for a total of 147,468 confirmed cases.

There were also 59 new deaths reported, for a total of 3,988.

People between the ages of 18 to 40 are being hospitalized at a higher rate than ever seen during the pandemic, the health department said, comprising 20% of the current 2,173 COVID-19 hospitalizations.

6:56 p.m.: Georgia governor sues Atlanta mayor over mask mandate, coronavirus restrictions

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemps office filed a lawsuit against Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms' recent mask mandate and coronavirus restrictions. Members of the city council are also named as defendants in the lawsuit.

The suit challenges recent executive orders by Bottoms that mandate facial coverings in public and prohibit gatherings on city property due to increasing COVID-19 cases.

"This lawsuit is on behalf of the Atlanta business owners and their hardworking employees who are struggling to survive during these difficult times," Kemp said in a statement. "These men and women are doing their very best to put food on the table for their families while local elected officials shutter businesses and undermine economic growth."

PHOTO: In this July 17, 2019, file photo, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms speaks during a Senate Democrats' Special Committee on the Climate Crisis on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Andrew Harnik/AP, File)

"We will fight to stop these reckless actions and put people over pandemic politics," he added.

Attorney General Chris Carr, whose office the lawsuit was filed, said on Twitter the state still urges citizens to wear masks, and that the lawsuit "is about the rule of law." Kemp has executive power for the state, he said, and Atlanta "cannot continue to knowingly enter orders that are unenforceable and void."

The court filing states that Bottoms' executive orders on July 8, 10 and 13 "purport to impose more restrictive terms" than Kemp's executive order.

Bottoms responded to the lawsuit on Twitter, saying, "3104 Georgians have died and I and my family are amongst the 106k who have tested positive for COVID-19. ... A better use of tax payer money would be to expand testing and contact tracing."

3104 Georgians have died and I and my family are amongst the 106k who have tested positive for COVID-19. Meanwhile, I have been sued by @GovKemp for a mask mandate. A better use of tax payer money would be to expand testing and contact tracing. #ATLStrong pic.twitter.com/z4hpTrCS1B  Keisha Lance Bottoms (@KeishaBottoms) July 16, 2020

There have been at least 333 deaths in Fulton County, which includes the city of Atlanta.

Kemp had previously issued an executive order banning cities and counties in the state from issuing mask orders, a move the mayor of Savannah said Thursday was "reckless."

6:39 p.m.: US records new daily record for COVID-19 cases

The U.S. saw a record 71,229 new cases on Thursday, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

There were 977 new deaths nationwide, the highest number since May 29. More than 500 were reported in the South, a new high for the region, according to the project.

Our updates is published. States reported a record number of tests (831k) and cases (71k). At 977, the reported death count is the highest since May 29. Patients hospitalized with COVID-19 rose to a level we havent seen since April 23. pic.twitter.com/wiybSfnetX  The COVID Tracking Project (@COVID19Tracking) July 16, 2020

There are 57,369 patients currently hospitalized, a level not seen since April 23, it reported.

5:55 p.m.: Texas sees record death toll

Texas reported its highest number of deaths from COVID-19 yet on Thursday.

There were 129 new fatalities, for a total of 3,561, according to state data. It's previous record was set just yesterday.

The state reported 10,291 new cases, for a total of 292,656. The test positivity rate was 16.89% as of Wednesday, tying the previous record.

There are 10,457 people currently hospitalized, with 865 ICU beds remaining statewide.

4:40 p.m.: CDC extends no-sail order until end of September

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has extended its no-sail order for cruises until Sept. 30. The order was previously set to expire at the end of July.

Most major cruise lines previously said they would suspend trips until the fall.

4:20 p.m.: Savannah mayor fires back after governor bans cities from requiring masks

The mayor of Savannah, Georgia, is firing back after Gov. Brian Kemp issued an executive order banning cities and counties in the state from issuing mask orders to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

MORE: Asymptomatic and presymptomatic people transmit most COVID-19 infections: Study

"Governor Kemp is overstepping his authority," Mayor Van Johnson said at a news conference Thursday, calling his actions "reckless and irresponsible."

PHOTO: Chris Heithaus wears a mask as he wraps silverware at a Waffle House restaurant in Savannah, Ga., April 27, 2020. (Russ Bynum/AP, File )

Masks will be provided for free to anyone in Savannah who wants them, Johnson said.

"We will continue to wear them," he said, adding, "We will continue to require them in our city."

"We want to be consistent. So the difference between yesterday and today is nothing in Savannah," Johnson said.

The Savannah area saw more COVID-19 cases in the first 13 days of July than all of March, April, May and June combined, Johnson said.

"Masks are not a political statement -- masks are a public health tool," said Johnson, a Democrat.

PHOTO:COVID-19 safety information signs are seen along the Atlanta Beltline pedestrian and bike trail in Atlanta, July 1, 2020. (Erik S Lesser/EPA via Shutterstock)

"I do not care about politics, perceptions, opinions, beliefs or emotions," Johnson went on. "I am solely concerned and obsessed at this point with keeping Savannah and Savannahians safe."

Wednesday night's executive order from Kemp, a Republican, outlawed mask mandates but "strongly" encouraged all residents and visitors in Georgia to "wear face coverings as practicable while outside their homes or place of residence, except when eating, drinking or exercising outdoors."

3:45 p.m.: US borders with Canada, Mexico remaining closed to non-essential travel through Aug. 21

The U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico will remain closed to non-essential travel through Aug. 21, Canadian officials confirmed Thursday. Mexico confirmed on Tuesday.

The closure was first enacted in late March. There have been multiple extensions and the latest agreement was set to expire on July 21.

"We're going to keep working closely with our American neighbors to keep people safe on both sides of the border," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday.

Mexico has 317,635 coronavirus cases while Canada has just 110,911 cases.

3:15 p.m.: Parents without masks pack meeting on mask rules

In Utah County, Utah, parents rallying for the right to send their children to school without masks packed into a county commission meeting side-by-side Wednesday, ignoring social distancing and face covering rules, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

PHOTO: Angry residents react when the Utah County Commission meeting was adjourned before it even started, July 15, 2020, in Provo, Utah. (Rick Egan/AP)

PHOTO: Protesters listen as commissioner Bill Lee speaks during a rally protesting face masks being required in schools, before the Utah County Commission meeting in Provo, Utah, July 15, 2020. (Rick Egan/AP)

When the meeting began, Commissioner Tanner Ainge told the crowd, "This is the exact opposite of what we need to be doing."

MORE: Doctors, nurses warn of another protective gear shortage as coronavirus surges

"We are supposed to be physically distancing, wearing masks," Ainge said, which was met by boos from the residents.

"All of our medical experts, our Department of Health, everyone is encouraging us to do that," Ainge continued, as the crowd interrupted and yelled.

MORE: Young people of color with preexisting conditions face elevated COVID-19 risk

Ainge made a motion to continue the meeting to another day, and when another member voted in his favor, Ainge walked out, The Tribune reported.

Utah County has 5,637 people who have been diagnosed with coronavirus, including 30 residents who have died.

1 p.m.: Dog in South Carolina had COVID-19

A dog in Charleston County, South Carolina, is confirmed to have SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, according to Clemson University's Public Service and Agriculture.

The dog -- an 8- or 9-year-old shepherd mix with a chronic health condition -- was tested by a private veterinarian after one of its owners was confirmed to have coronavirus, Clemson said.

The dog was euthanized because of his chronic condition, state veterinarian Dr. Boyd Parr said.

12:45 p.m.: Arizona reports 24.5% positivity rate

Coronavirus cases are surging in Arizona, where the positivity rate stands at 24.5%, the state's Department of Health Services said Thursday.

PHOTO: A man gets tested at a drive thru coronavirus testing site at South Mountain Community College in Phoenix, July 9, 2020. (Ross D. Franklin/AP)

PHOTO: Shoppers wait at the entrance of a supermarket in Chinle, Ariz., June 24, 2020, while keeping a distance from each other. (Kyodo/Newscom)

Arizona has 3,454 patients in hospitals. The state's ICUs are 89% full, the health department said.

Over 134,000 people in Arizona have tested positive and at least 2,492 people have died.

12 p.m.: California's spike 'more than we anticipated,' Lt. Gov. says

In California, the recent spike in cases has been "more than we anticipated," Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis told ABC News on Thursday.

PHOTO: A test kit is passed through the car window at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, Calif, July 11, 2020. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

"We expected that there would be some increase when we started to loosen that stay at home order. What's happened, however, is that the spike is more than we anticipated, and it's too much," she said.

It appeared "the culprit for the resurgence is that people aren't taking those precautions seriously enough," Kounalakis said.

As cases rose, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday he was closing all bars and all indoor restaurants statewide. Also among the indoor businesses ordered to close were wineries, movie theaters, zoos, museums, family entertainment centers and card rooms.

Those closures will remain "until we can basically flatten that curve again," Kounalakis said.

PHOTO: Melissa Acosta checks Rudy Pulido's temperature checked before a haircut at Orange County Barbers Parlor in Huntington Beach, Calif., in July 15, 2020. (Ashley Landis/AP)

California has 347,634 diagnosed cases and at least 7,227 fatalities.

But Kounalakis said she's confident in the hospital systems' capacities.

MORE: Inside the grueling front lines of COVID first responders

In the first few months of the pandemic, California added 50,000 more hospital beds and now has 250 million masks in storage, she said.

"Parts of the state are now more impacted than others. So we have been moving patients around from Imperial County for instance, down on our border, we're bringing patients up to Northern California where there are fewer cases," she said.

PHOTO: The Intensive Care unit at the empty St. Vincent Medical Center building near downtown Los Angeles is being leased by the State of California to operate as a healthcare facility during the COVID-19 outbreak in Los Angeles County. (Damian Dovarganes/AP, File)

And as students gear up for the new school year, Kounalakis said each of California's 1,000 school districts is working on its own back-to-school plan.

"Several of the largest have said, you know, 'we're just going to do the fall in distance learning, because trying to bring students back is not looking feasible for us,'" she said. "Other school districts have a different approach. So every one of those school districts has to work it out."

Kounalakis added the state has worked hard to close the "digital divide" and providing students with the computers, iPads and internet access they need to learn at home.

11:15 a.m.: Florida has 54 hospitals with no ICU beds

Of 309 facilities being tracked, Florida has 54 hospitals with no available ICU beds and 32 hospitals with just one available ICU bed, according to the state's Agency for Healthcare Administration. These numbers will fluctuate throughout the day.

MORE: Too little too late: The story of how Florida shattered the country's single-day COVID record

Florida's positivity rate stands at 12.94%, according to data released from the state's Department of Health Thursday. The national average is 9%.

PHOTO: A woman receives a swab test at the COVID-19 walk-up testing service provided by the National Guard, partnered with the City of Miami Beach and the Florida Department of Health, at Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beach, Fla., July 15, 2020. (Cristobal Herrera-Ulashkevich/EPA via Shuttertock)

The Department of Health reported 156 new deaths Thursday -- a daily record. Florida's death toll now stands at 4,782.

At least 315,775 Florida residents have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

PHOTO: Two women enter the coronavirus walk-up testing service run by the National Guard, partnered with the City of Miami Beach and the Florida Department of Health, at the testing Location at Miami Beach Convention Center in Florida, July 15, 2020. (Cristobal Herrera-Ulashkevich/EPA via Shutterstock)

Among the hardest hit areas are Miami-Dade County, which includes Miami, and Broward County, home to Fort Lauderdale.

Miami-Dade's positivity rate stands at 18.5% while Broward County's is at 16.6%, the Department of Health said Thursday.

10:50 a.m.: At least 24 coronavirus cases linked to church in West Virginia

At least 24 coronavirus cases have been linked to the North Charleston Apostolic Church in Charleston, West Virginia, according to the local health department. Congregants are asked to isolate, the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department said.

The church will be closed for three weeks for deep cleaning, the department said.

MORE: Can you get COVID-19 twice? What the experts say

"Please consider attending services electronically, especially if youre at high risk for complications from COVID-19," Dr. Sherri Young, health officer and executive director of the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, said in a statement.

10:08 a.m.: Dozens of Miami cops have coronavirus

In hard-hit Miami, there's a surge of COVID-19 within the city's police department, with 79 officers testing positive, ABC Miami affiliate WPLG reported.

PHOTO: Miami Beach Police officer talks to a shop owner during patrol on Ocean Drive on in Miami Beach, Fla., July 15, 2020. (Johnny Louis/Getty Images)

"In the first few months, we had about 30 officers that were COVID positive throughout that entire time. In the last few weeks  a month or so  we have 68 officers that are COVID positive and about 11 civilian employees, Chief Jorge Colina told WPLG.

MORE: Union officials warn of 'dire' situations at South Florida federal prisons from Coronavirus

Colina tested positive for COVID-19 in April, WPLG reported.

As a precaution, 151 officers are quarantining at home, the chief said.

9:30 a.m.: Republican convention in Jacksonville will be scaled back

Next month's Republican National Convention in Jacksonville, Florida, will be scaled back, according to a letter obtained by ABC News.

Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel sent a letter to party members Thursday morning informing them of the new plans.

MORE: Republican National Convention in Florida to be scaled back

Regular delegates are the only ones allowed to attend the first three days of the convention, the letter said, according to a Republican familiar with planning.

On the final day, when President Donald Trump gives a speech and accepts the nomination, "each delegate, their guest, and alternate delegates will be permitted to attend," the letter said.

The convention will be held Aug. 24 to Aug. 27. Health protocols like on-site temperature checks, personal protective equipment and available COVID-19 testing will be implemented, according to the letter.

"We expect there to be evening programming each night, along with some daytime events and festivities," the letter said. "We plan to utilize a number of indoor and outdoor venues."

9 a.m.: 'Absolutely no way' to open schools safely in high virus areas: Former CDC director

Dr. Richard Besser, former acting director of the CDC and ABC News' former chief health and medical editor, spoke to "Good Morning America" Thursday about the reopening of schools and the possibility of long-term health effects on children with COVID-19.

"As a pediatrician and parent I know that children need to be in school ... but it has to be done safely. Not just for the children," Besser said, "but teachers and staff have to be safe."

PHOTO: Social distancing dividers for students have been placed in a classroom at St. Benedict School, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Montebello, near Los Angeles, July 14, 2020. (Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

PHOTO: Instructor Chablis Torres reads to children in a pre-school class, wearing masks at desks spaced apart per coronavirus guidelines, during summer school sessions at Happy Day School in Monterey Park, Calif., July 9, 2020. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

"And we have to make sure that every school is safe -- not just those in wealthy neighborhoods that have the money to retrofit classrooms and hire staff to do cleaning and hire staff to do screening," Besser said.

He went on, "If you have widespread transmission in the community, like what is going in on in so many places, there's absolutely no way to safely open schools. You have to get it under control in the community first and then get your schools open ready to open."

PHOTO: Amid concerns of the spread of COVID-19, Alma Odong wears a mask as she cleans a classroom at Wylie High School in Wylie, Texas, July 14, 2020. (Lm Otero/AP)

Besser also addressed the possibility of long-term impacts on children who have COVID-19.

While most children with COVID-19 will do well, that's not the case for every child, Besser said, and the possible future health effects are "one of the big concerns when there is a new infectious disease."

MORE: Some hospitals see rise in younger admissions for COVID-19, raising doctors' concerns

Many adults who had COVID-19 still have fatigue and trouble breathing two months out, Besser said.

"There are a number of infections. If you get them in childhood, you get on into adulthood [and] they can have consequences," he said.

8:15 a.m.: NJ nursing homes allowing visitors

Family members, legal guardians and support people can now visit residents at New Jersey's long-term care facilities, the state's Department of Health announced Wednesday.

I understand how stressful and heartbreaking it has been for so many families not to be able to visit their loved ones in person for more than three months now, Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said in a statement. Reuniting families with their loved ones in these facilities is a critical step for the mental, physical, social and emotional well-being of these residents.

PHOTO: An exterior view of Elizabeth Nursing and Rehab Center on April 16, 2020 in Elizabeth, N.J. (Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images, FILE)

Visitors must wear masks, be screened for symptoms, get their temperature checked and maintain social distancing from other residents and staff.

The long-term care facilities can only allow visitors if no COVID-19 cases have been reported on site for 28 days (two incubation periods), the department said.

6:58 a.m.: Tulsa City Council passes mandatory mask ordinance

The Tulsa City Council in Oklahoma has issued a mask mandate less than a month after President Donald Trump held a reelection rally at an arena in the city.

The ordinance was passed with a 7-2 vote and is expected to be signed by Mayor G. T. Bynum on Thursday.

"I am very grateful for the broad support of the City Council in approving this important ordinance. Our local health care leaders made clear how important this is, and the City of Tulsa listened, Bynum said in a statement Wednesday night. "This pandemic continues to present us with difficult decisions that no elected official would ever want to make, but we will continue to do what we have to do to protect our local health care system."

The ordinance requires anyone over the age of 18 who will be in public places where social distancing is challenging to wear a mask.

The science is clear that the use of cloth face coverings are most likely to reduce the spread of COVID-19 when they are widely used by people in public settings," Tulsa Health Department Executive Director Dr. Bruce Dart said in a statement. "Wearing a mask not only considers others, but also allows us the freedom to go about our day during this new normal.

Tulsa's face-covering mandate comes just a day after Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, who attended Trump's rally without wearing a mask, announced he has tested positive for the coronavirus.

Oklahoma has more than 22,000 diagnosed COVID-19 cases, with at least 432 deaths.

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

ABC News' Jamie Aranoff, Jesse Convertino, Matt Fuhrman, Ahmad Hemingway, Kendall Karson, Rachel Katz, Mina Kaji, Amanda Maile, Josh Margolin, Kirit Radia, Darren Reynolds, Lataya Rothmiller, Will Steakin and Scott Withers contributed to this report.

Coronavirus live updates: Georgia governor sues Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms over mask mandate originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he is switching campaign managers amid a reelection effort beset by a series of problems including an underwhelming turnout at a rally in Oklahoma and numerous polls showing Trump trailing the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

Trump announced on Facebook that Bill Stepien, a former White House political director, would become his campaign manager. Stepien replaces Brad Parscale, who will continue to oversee digital and data strategies and will serve as a senior adviser.

"I am pleased to announce that Bill Stepien has been promoted to the role of Trump campaign manager," Trump posted. "Both were heavily involved in our historic 2016 win, and I look forward to having a big and very important second win together."

The shakeup comes as the Trump campaign has sought a reset amid a coronavirus pandemic that wreaked havoc on a once booming U.S. economy  a key argument to the president's reelection strategy  and a national reckoning over race in the wake of George Floyd's death.

Parscale, the president's fourth campaign manager over the course of both campaigns, has faced growing pressure as the face of a campaign that Trump has been desperate to restart since it was sidelined by the coronavirus in late March.

Parscale has been on shaky ground after he admitted in June that he didn't vote for his boss in the 2016 election  or vote at all. Election documents reviewed by CBS News showed Parscale voted in the 2016 primary but not the general election. The then-Texas resident said he was working on Trump's digital campaign in New York and cited problems with his absentee ballot.

He voted by absentee ballot in the 2018 midterm election.

Relations between the president and Parscale reportedly soured in recent weeks after national polls consistently showed the president trailing Biden. Biden leads Trump nationally by 8.6 percentage points, according to the most recent average of polls by RealClearPolitics.

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Much of the blame for a poor turnout at the president's highly anticipated rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, fell to Parscale after he boasted of 1 million requests for tickets to the event. The campaign also built an overflow section to accommodate what was expected to be a massive audience but was forced to abruptly scrap plans for remarks at the outdoor stage after the crowd dwindled just before the vice president arrived.

Inside the BOK Center, 6,200 people filled the lower part of the 19,000-seat arena, according to an estimate by the Tulsa Fire Department, leaving large sections of empty blue seats exposed and dealing a major blow to the campaign's relaunch plan less than five months before Election Day.

Coronavirus: Dr. Fauci says attending rallies, protests is risky

Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale (C) watches as people enter the BOK Center to attend a campaign rally for U.S. President Donald Trump on June 20, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The president reportedly lashed out at Parscale in late April after he was presented with flagging poll numbers, even threatening to sue his campaign manager, according to a New York Times report. The Trump administration has grappled with both the economic fallout caused by the ongoing coronavirus, which brought his campaign rallies to a halt in March, and nationwide protests and unrest over the death of George Floyd.

'World's tallest campaign manager'

The Kansas native's relationship with the Trump family dates to 2011, when his digital marketing firm Giles-Parscale was hired by the Trump Organization to build websites and develop media strategies.

Trump hired Parscale before announcing his presidential bid in 2015 to build a campaign website for $1,500, he told CBS's "60 Minutes" in 2017, but the San Antonio-based web designer quickly ascended the ranks to become a member of the president's inner circle in the span of just a few years.

Brad Parscale, campaign manager for President Donald Trump, tosses a hat to supporters before Trump speaks at a campaign rally, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2019, in Manchester, N.H.

The bearded 44-year-old has a penchant for three-piece suits and was a political novice when he joined the campaign, unlike his predecessors Kellyanne Conway, Paul Manafort and Corey Lewandowski.

He was promoted to digital director in June 2016 after managing a successful digital operation, largely based on Facebook, that drove Trump's election 2016 win. Two years later, he was promoted to campaign manager, taking the helm of the president's 2020 reelection bid.

Once described by his boss as the "world's tallest campaign manager"  he is 6-foot-8  Parscale has emerged as the face of Trump's 2020 campaign, which began when the president filed for reelection just hours after he was sworn in as commander-in-chief in 2017. Parscale often appears as a warm-up act at Trump rallies and mirrors the president's Twitter persona, echoing hardline rhetoric and attacks on Democrats.

2020 debates: Biden campaign commits to three, rejects Trump team's call for more as 'distraction'

Parscale's departure is part of an ongoing campaign reshuffle that has seen White House principal deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley leaving the West Wing to become Trump's 2020 national press secretary. Gidley will fill the role left open by Kayleigh McEnany, who was named White House press secretary in April. The campaign also tapped Stepien, a former White House political director, and rehired Jason Miller, a 2016 campaign aide.

Contributing: John Fritze

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: President Trump's campaign manager Brad Parscale is out
Irvine School District Defies OC Board, Will Require Students to Wear Face Masks

IRVINE, Calif.The Irvine Unified School District (IUSD) Board of Education voted unanimously on July 14 to require that students wear face coverings when schools reopen, contradicting recommendations made by the Orange County Board of Education (OCBE) a day earlier.

We are following guidelines that have been passed down by health expert agencies, Superintendent Terry Walker said during the meeting.

The IUSD guidelines align with those approved by the California Department of Public Health and the Orange County Health Care Agency, but counter the OCBEs recommendations, which are not binding on the countys 28 school districts.

The OCBE voted 4 to 1 on July 13 to approve guidelines which recommend not enforcing the use of masks and social distancing by students, saying school-age children represent the lowest risk for COVID-19. The OCBE guidelines emphasize the importance of in-person learning, but school districts throughout the county are differing in their approaches to reopening.

The IUSD board recommended a hybrid model that includes both virtual and in-person learning, along with strict safety protocols while children are at school. The guidelines mandate that staff, students, and visitors must wear face coverings at all times, unless maintaining a physical distance of 6 feet or more, or when drinking, eating, or participating in recess. Students with medical issues would be exempt.

The Irvine school board emphasized the importance of a physical classroom setting and safety guidelines based on evidence, not politics, but also acknowledged the necessity for ongoing adaptability.

The landscape is going to continue to change, and were going to have to adapt quickly, said Cassie Parham, an IUSD assistant superintendent. We need to create models that serve our students and respond to the needs of our community, and support the safety of all students and staffand thats no small undertaking.

The OCBE released its Recommendations for the Safe and Effective Reopening of Orange County Schools in a July 13 white paper that included input from a number of medical experts.

Requiring children to wear masks during school is not only difficultif not impossible to implementbut not based on science. It may even be harmful and is therefore not recommended, the paper stated.

The OCBE called remote learning an utter failure thats frustrating for parents, students, and teachers. The American Academy of Pediatrics has also pushed for the physical reopening of schools nationwide, stating that the benefits of an in-person classroom setting on physical and mental health greatly overshadow the risk of COVID-19.

Many county school districts plan to feature virtual learning, despite the OCBEs concerns. The Santa Ana Unified School District has committed entirely to distance education to start the upcoming school year; two districts in Fullerton and the Tustin Unified School District will offer students a choice of either hybrid or total virtual learning. Other districts, including those in Anaheim, are expected to decide soon.

For the hybrid model, youre going to be receiving most of your instruction with the teacher, Walker said. On distance learning days, the IUSD program offers plentiful resources and independent activities that have been curated, he added.

The hybrid model also makes it much more likely for those students who are choosing a fully online path to dip their toes in the water of coming back to schools, Walker said.

The IUSD program also emphasizes thorough cleaning and disinfecting protocols. The custodial staff is being trained in COVID-19 cleaning protocols, according to the guidelines, and students will be taught how to safely move through classrooms and hallways. Nearly 100,000 masks are already available, and more have been ordered.

The IUSD educates over 36,000 students in grades K-12, and includes 24 elementary schools, six middle schools, and six high schools. Schools in the district are scheduled to reopen on Aug. 20.
Despite a general decline in U.S. tobacco use since the 1950's, tobacco use is still prevalent and a significant threat to public health. Previous research has shown that flavored cigarettes largely appeal to and are disproportionately used by underage smokers. Nearly 90% of smokers begin smoking by age 18, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. To reduce long-term health consequences and improve public health, preventing smoking initiation is key as is reducing the draw of flavored tobacco products.

On September 22, 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's national ban on flavored cigarettes products went into effect. This banned the sale of flavored cigarettes other than menthol, but there was little information about the potential impact of this ban on youth smoking.

New research led by George Mason University's College of Health and Human Services found that the flavored cigarette ban was linked to a significant reduction in smoking among youth and young adults.

Dr. Matthew Rossheim, assistant professor of global and community health, led the study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health. Researchers found that the flavored cigarette ban reduced smoking among youth (ages 12-17 years) by 43% and young adults (ages 18-25 years) by 27%.

"Our study suggests that the ban of flavored cigarettes was extremely effective at reducing smoking among young people," explains Rossheim. "This shows incredible promise for future comprehensive bans of flavored tobacco products, including those in e-cigarettes, which to-date have received significant exemptions. Policymakers should take note of the evidence from this study and pass legislation to extend flavor bans to other tobacco and nicotine products."

Rossheim and colleagues examined cigarette use among young people and adults from the 2002-2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health data. This included nationally representative data collected every quarter each year, providing a more sensitive measure to detect changes in smoking behaviors than previous research, as well as an adult comparison group to test whether there was an overall reduction in smoking that could have been a result of other factors.

Rossheim and colleagues did not see a similar reduction in smoking among older smokers, which suggests that this ban was effective at reducing smoking specifically among young people and that the reduction was caused by the ban and not by other influences.

"We observed an increase in smoking of menthol cigarettes among youth right after the ban took effect," adds Rossheim. "It appears that young people smoke menthol cigarettes more when other flavor options are no longer available."

Menthol flavor was excluded from the 2009 ban. Prior research has also shown that menthol-flavored tobacco products are disproportionately used by African Americans, which may explain observed health disparities.

Rossheim and colleagues suggest that, to maximize their effectiveness among young people and to avoid increasing health disparities among African Americans, flavor bans should include all flavors and tobacco products.
A survey of farming businesses has highlighted the key concerns and lessons learned around the re-opening of farm attractions following the lockdown.

Farm attractions across the UK are now allowed to reopen after businesses received the green-light from devolved governments.

From a survey of farms offering attractions, Saffery Champness has compiled a list of key points that those re-opening may find of benefit as the UK eases out of lockdown.

Martyn Dobinson, partner at the accountancy, said there were a 'number of recurrent themes' from its rural clients who were re-opening and welcoming the public back.

Whilst everyone is eager to get back to normal, that isnt going to happen whilst any social distancing restrictions remain in place," he said, adding that expectations around re-opening needed to be 'realistic'.

"A dash for cash should be avoided in favour of a more controlled slowly and safely approach," Mr Dobinson said. He added that reviews from the first visitors back would be 'critical'.

The following are some of the main points that have been fed back to Saffery Champness:

1. Information in advance builds confidence, so make sure that your website explains what steps you have taken to ensure the safety of those visiting, and what they should do to stay safe and make sure others around them are safe.

2. On the website, and on site, there should be clear advice on what is (and isnt) open to the public, and that the full visitor experience may not be available, to avoid disappointment and negative feedback.

3. An advance booking system is a good way to demonstrate that extra steps are in place to take care of visitors, rather than having visitors just turning up on the day. Allocation of specific timeslots can be a real help too.

4. It is advised that new systems should be trialed with limited numbers initially. Much will be different and its essential to have a system that works. A soft opening gives you time to make changes before opening more widely.

5. Toilets are a major issue and websites again should advise whether toilets are available. Once visitors are on site, special steps will be needed to control numbers in/numbers out, and an elevated cleaning and disinfecting regime is needed.

6. Catering and cafes/restaurants are another area of significant concern requiring a modified regime to assure visitors that they are welcome, and equally, safe.

7. In many areas, social distancing restrictions will need to be imposed, such as queuing for tickets, toilets, cafe etc. Appropriate signage will be required to ensure adherence to the rules.

8. Staff returning to work may find that they have different duties to deliver a safe visitor environment. Make sure that staff are properly briefed so that they know what is required of them and the additional measures that they need to take, including the wearing of visors, masks, gloves etc.

9. Undertake thorough and regular risk assessments. Make modifications, appraise systems regularly and keep the assessment and precautionary measures up to date.

10. Talk to your insurers about what you are doing and about your plans.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

The trade turnover between Turkey and Iran in May 2020 decreased by over $640.9 million compared to the same month of last year, having made $86.2 million, Turkish Trade Ministry told Trend.

"In May 2020, Turkeys export to Iran amounted to $43.8 million, and import from Iran was $42.3 million," the ministry said.

At the same time, in the first five months of this year, trade turnover between Turkey and Iran declined by over $2.7 billion compared to the same period of 2019, having stood at $809.7 million.

"From January through May 2020, Turkeys export to Iran amounted to $478.2 million, and import from Iran  $331.4 million," the ministry said.

Turkey's foreign trade turnover in May 2020 amounted to over $23.3 billion.

In the reporting month, Turkey's exports dropped by 40.9 percent compared to May 2019, having stood at $9.9 billion.

Meanwhile, imports of Turkey in May 2020 went down by 27.8 percent compared to May of last year and amounted to $13.3 billion.

According to the ministry, in the first five months of this year, Turkeys trade turnover exceeded $144.1 billion.

"From January through May 2020, Turkish exports decreased by 19.7 percent compared to the same period in 2019, reaching $61.5 billion," the ministry said.

It was also noted that Turkish imports decreased by 5.2 percent compared to the same period in 2019, having amounted to $82.5 billion.

The foreign trade turnover of Turkey in 2019 made up $374.2 billion.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Nairobi  The Ministry of Health now says that four healthcare workers have so far succumbed to coronavirus in the line of duty since the first case was reported in the country mid-March.

Health Chief Administrative Secretary Dr Rashid Aman on Wednesday said the government was getting increasingly concerned on the safety of healthcare workers, and committed to adequately protect them.

"There has been noted that the transmission of the disease among healthcare workers is associated with lack of established practices of infection control and poor implementation of infection and prevention control guideline protocol while in other situations is due to lack of knowledge of this virus," Aman said, on the week Kenya the first medical doctor to the virus. Dr Doreen Lugaki was buried last week in Western Kenya.

He revealed that as of Wednesday, 450 healthcare workers had tested positive for the virus and assured that the government is prioritizing their safety as they continue to work in the frontline in the fight against COVID-19.

"The occupational health risk to healthcare workers posed by COVID-19 has attracted global and national concern. The government will continue to place extreme importance on protection of health care workers. When healthcare workers are at risk, we are all at risk," Aman added.

On Wednesday, Kenya recorded 461 new coronavirus infections raising the total number of those who have been infected by the virus in the country to 11, 252.

Dr Aman said 461 new infections were recorded on Wednesday fro 4,261 samples tested since Tuesday.

"On a positive note," he said, "51 patients have been discharged after recovering from this virus."

3,068 people have recovered from coronavirus since mid March when the virus was first detected in the country, sending panic and grounding the economy.

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Nairobi County still continues to be the epicenter of the virus after it recorded 248 cases alone of the new infections recorded on Wednesday.

Machakos County followed with 97 while 20 infections were recorded in Kiambu County.

"Of the new infections, a one-year old infant tested positive for the virus with the oldest being an 86-year-old man," Dr Aman said.

With the infection rate in the country on the rise, Dr. Aman emphasized the need for Kenyans to comply with the set containment measures aimed at preventing the spread of the virus.

Kenya remains on a night curfew imposed three months ago, until August 6 when President Uhuru Kenyatta will issue new directives.

Bars remain closed, with restrictions also imposed on any large gatherings or political meetings or rallies.

And even though churches were allow to re-open under strict guidelines on number of worshippers and social distancing, many remain closed due to fear of COVID-19 infections.

Schools will also remain closed until next year.
China is firmly opposed to and strongly dissatisfied with the so-called statement concerning the South China Sea released by the US Department of State on Monday.

The statement, in total disregard of the efforts made by regional countries to safeguard peace and stability in the region, is an arbitrary distortion of facts about the South China Sea and international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). It heightens the tension in the region, deliberately drives a wedge between China and its neighbors, and makes groundless accusations against China.

This irresponsible statement only exposes the US neglect of the history and facts of the South China Sea, and violated the US governments commitment of not taking sides on relevant disputes.

The activities of the Chinese people in the South China Sea date back to over 2,000 years ago. China is the first to have discovered, named, explored and exploited Nanhai Zhudao (the South China Sea Islands) and relevant waters, and the first to have exercised sovereignty and jurisdiction over them continuously, peacefully and effectively.

Chinas sovereignty over Nanhai Zhudao and relevant rights and interests in the South China Sea have been established in the long course of history, and are solidly grounded in history and law, which is in accordance with the international law, including the Charter of the United Nations and the UNCLOS.

The Chinese side holds a clear and consistent position on the South China Sea issue, and always treats countries in the region as equals and exercises maximum restraint when safeguarding Chinas sovereignty, rights and interests in the South China Sea.

Pursuant to the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) signed by China and the ASEAN Member States in 2002, China is committed to resolving territorial and jurisdictional disputes through friendly consultations and negotiations with sovereign states directly concerned and to jointly maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea with ASEAN countries.

Currently, with the joint efforts of China and ASEAN states, the situation in the South China Sea is basically stable, and shows a good development momentum. China and ASEAN states have made much progress in cooperation in maritime search and rescue, marine conservation and scientific research. The talks on a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC) are proceeding smoothly and speedily, with the second reading of the text already begun.

In the Joint Communique of the 52nd ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting, the ten foreign ministers of the ASEAN states welcomed efforts to complete the first reading of the Single Draft COC Negotiating, and said they were encouraged by the progress of the substantive negotiations. They also stressed that jointly safeguarding peace and stability benefits all parties.

Amid the ongoing global efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, China has worked with ASEAN states to fight the public health crisis in good faith. Both sides have assisted and supported each other, and further strengthened mutual trust.

Ships and planes carrying anti-epidemic supplies sail in and fly over the South China Sea, a body of water thats witnessing mutual assistance and cooperation between China and ASEAN.

The US, as a country outside the region, wishes nothing but chaos in the South China Sea so that it can gain from the muddied waters. To this end, it goes to great lengths to stoke troubles and sow discord between China and other regional countries.

It flexes its muscles by sending the most advanced aircraft and vessels to the South China Sea, and frequently jeopardizes regional peace and stability with its navigation hegemony practices. Without doubt, it is the US who started to militarize the South China Sea, sabotages and interferes in peace and stability of the region.

Under the pretext of the South China Sea issue, the US drives a wedge among regional countries, which runs counter to the regional countries pursuit of peace.

Recently, the US has purposely sent powerful military force to the relevant waters for large-scale exercises, which only revealed its malicious motives to promote militarization of the South China Sea. Relevant countries must remain highly alert.

Peace and stability in the South China Sea is vital to the security, development and prosperity of the countries and the well-being of the people in the region. To realize peace, stability, prosperity and development in the South China Sea is a shared aspiration and responsibility of China and ASEAN Member States, and serves the common interests of all countries.

China will stay committed to safeguarding its sovereignty and security, maintain the friendly cooperative relations with regional countries, and resolutely safeguard peace and stability in the region. The US tricks to stir up troubles will be in vain, and so will its motive to muddy the waters in the South China Sea.

(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by Peoples Daily to express its views on foreign policy.)
LUDLOW  Inmates in the York Street Industries vocational training program at the Hampden County Correctional Center have made 67,000 face masks as well as hundreds of protective face shields and gowns for the fight against the coronavirus.

And on Wednesday they got a visit from U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal congratulating them on their efforts and handing out award certificates.

"We are going to get you back on your feet," Neal, D-Springfield, said to the inmates when he first arrived in the sewing shop.

There, inmates were at sewing machines making gowns out of reusable  cleanable and able to be sanitized  medical fabric.

Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi recalled inmates coming to him early on in the coronavirus pandemic.

You said, I want to be part of the solution. That is what you said. I want to be part of the solution, Cocchi said before reassuring them that they have been just that. What you do is saving lives.

Neal, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said the work he witnessed continues the great reputation for rehabilitation the Hampden County Sheriffs Department developed under former Sheriff Michael Ashe.

What it is they are doing in terms of masks and gowns, in the opportunity to quarantine, Neal said. Its about humanity.

Cocchi and his staff in April created the First Responder Recovery Home for frontline workers diagnosed with COVID-19.

At York Street Industries, inmates made enough personal protective equipment not only to meet the departments needs but also to supply all the sheriffs departments in the state of Massachusetts, as well as for health care providers, businesses and cities and towns.

At its peak, mask production was two shifts a day for 16 hours of work, both at the mens facility in Ludlow and at the Western Massachusetts Regional Womens Correctional Center in Chicopee.

On Wednesday in Ludlow, Neal also visited the graphic arts, woodworking, upholstery and welding programs.

After checking out new Adirondack-style outdoor chairs in the woodshop, Neal said these are just the type of skilled tradespeople in demand in the job market.

When I had a chance to talk with those offenders, they are ready for the next step in life, he said.

According to the Sheriffs Department, there are 49 inmates actively working in the industrial arts programs at the jail, with 72 on the waiting list. They earn between 50 cents and $1 per hour as a stipend.

The Sheriffs Department said the inmates are already housed, fed and provided medical care at an annual cost to taxpayers of $57,000 per inmate.

All inmates in the program are volunteers.

Coronavirus testing at the Ludlow campus in May revealed 12 cases. All those individuals have since recovered.

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"PFCU is proud to introduce this year's scholarship winners," according to Betty Fallos, Director of Member Experience. "We are delighted to support these students as they transform today's dreams into tomorrow's realities. We look forward to great things from this tremendous group of future leaders."

Students awarded The Shooting Star $3,000.00 scholarships: Megan Lowe, (Crystal Lake South High School) who will be attending Illinois State University in the fall and Maria Frech (Fenwick High School) who will be attending the University of Notre Dame.

All scholarship applicants were evaluated based on academic performance, financial need and leadership abilities, including community involvement. To be eligible, applicants or their parent/guardian must have been a Member of PFCU, the applicants must also be on track to graduate by June 2020. The Committee had an especially challenging task this year, with over 50 applicants.

For more information about PFCU's scholarship program, please contact Betty Fallos, Director of Member Experience at Partnership Financial Credit Union.

Partnership Financial Credit Union (PFCU) is a member-owned financial institution with offices in Morton Grove, Barrington, Des Plaines, Evanston and opening soon in Glenview. PFCU was established in 2014 when four Chicago-area credit unions joined, whose origins date back to the 1950's. PFCU remains dedicated to maintaining close, personable relationships with members while delivering the best possible products and services. Along with CEO Mary Ann Pusateri's long tenure of over 31 years, PFCU has many team members with 20 plus years of service with the credit union. Learn more about PFCU at www.mypfcu.org.

SOURCE Partnership Financial Credit Union (PFCU)

Related Links

https://www.mypfcu.org/


The William Warren Group (WWG) is thrilled to welcome James Preacher as the new Director of Real Estate for the Florida and East Coast Region. James brings nearly two decades of experience to the team in self storage development and will focus on development, acquisitions and management procurement for the company.

"We are thrilled to get another seasoned storage expert on our team and look forward to expanding our presence in the Florida Gold Coast and beyond", said Tim Hobin, WWG Executive Vice President, Real Estate. "James will work with our existing expert, Kendall Jones, who will continue to represent the company throughout the rest of the Florida market."

James has significant experience leading teams to meet or exceed aggressive production goals in highly competitive markets. Hes been Involved in over 2 million square feet of ground-up self storage development in South Florida and Los Angeles, CA. He came to WWG recently from Westport Properties Inc. / US Storage Centers in Irvine, CA as the Director of Development. Prior to his tenure at Westport Properties James worked in Land Acquisitions for Miami City Self-Storage (MCSS) Miami, FL and as the Development Manager for Extra Space Storage in Cottonwood Heights, UT.

James can be reached by email: jpreacher@williamwarren.com or on his cell: 305.479.7663.

About William Warren Group & StorQuest Express Self Storage. StorQuest Express Self Storage, owned by The William Warren Group, Inc., owns and operates a thriving network of modern, innovative self storage properties across the United States. StorQuest is focused on delivering the highest-quality storage solutions backed by the best service in the industry, at an affordable price for all customers. To learn more visit: http://www.williamwarren.com and http://www.storquest.com.


He's been enjoying some much-needed sunshine and relaxation on the French Riviera, after recovering from COVID-19.

And Andrea Bocelli, 61, was the picture of health and fitness on Thursday, when he was spotted donning blue swimming trunks as he took a dip in the ocean off the shores of ritzy St Tropez.

The Italian musician was joined on his luxury yacht by his glamorous wife Veronica Berti, 36, who wowed in a black string bikini as she joined him in the ocean.

Having a good time on the French Riviera: Andrea Bocelli and his wife Veronica Berti were spotted sunning themselves off the shores of St Tropez on Thursday

Andrea looked relaxed and happy as he chatted with his wife while floating next to their luxury sea vessel in the welcoming azure waters.

Veronica, who also serves as Andrea's manager, turned heads in her black swimwear of choice, which included contrasting white straps.

Going makeup free for her leisurely day in the sunshine, the brunette beauty wore her lustrous locks in voluminous curls, which fell beyond her shoulders.

Swim: The Italian musician, 61, wore a pair of blue swimming trunks as he relaxed on the yacht

Family affair: The couple have been holidaying with their daughter Virginia, eight, and his sons Amos, 25, and Matteo, 22, from his first marriage to Enrica Cenzatti

Dip: Andrea looked relaxed and happy as he chatted with his wife while floating next to their luxury sea vessel in the welcoming azure waters

She opted to keep her eyes shielded while she swam in the ocean, donning a pair of blue goggles, which she later removed once back on board.

The couple have been holidaying with their daughter Virginia, eight, and his sons Amos, 25, and Matteo, 22, from his first marriage to Enrica Cenzatti.

In May, musician Andrea admitted he was himself a carrier of the virus, having contracted it - and recovered from it - in March.

What's more, he is donating his blood plasma to researchers who are looking at effective ways to battle the illness.

Much-needed relaxation: He's been enjoying some much-needed sunshine and relaxation on the French Riviera, after recovering from COVID-19

Observing: He was seen dipping his toes into the water as he watched his family enjoy a swim

He told Good Morning America at the time: 'The pandemic which has shaken the world has also affected  albeit mildly  me and certain members of my family.

'Out of respect for those for whom contracting the virus has had more serious consequences, I decided it would be best not to share the news.

'I certainly didn't want to unnecessarily alarm my fans and also wished to protect my family's privacy.

'Given the chance to donate blood to help find a cure for COVID, my response was an immediate 'yes'. A modest  but fundamental  gesture, through which I am playing my small part.'

Revelation: In May, musician Andrea admitted he was himself a carrier of the virus, having contracted it - and recovered from it - in March
DENVER, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Morris Animal Foundation is looking for healthy golden retrievers over 12 years of age to help answer why some dogs get cancer and others don't. Enrolled Golden Oldies will participate as controls for the Foundation's Golden Retriever Lifetime Study, which seeks to determine potential risk factors that may lead to the development of cancers common in the breed.

The Study's scientific team will compare the genetics of dogs in the Study that died from cancer with older golden retrievers that have successfully avoided cancers. Because a small percentage of the Study's currently enrolled dogs are just entering their senior years, the enrollment of new dogs over the age of 12 for this project will help speed up scientific inquiry and outcomes.

"These older dogs will allow us to expedite our process so we can share meaningful results faster with veterinarians, dog owners and researchers," said Dr. Janet Patterson-Kane, Morris Animal Foundation Chief Scientific Officer. "Just one veterinary visit from each of these Golden Oldies could make a world of difference to their breed and potentially every dog around the world."

The genetic comparison between the two groups of dogs will help identify regions in the dog genome that may contribute to cancer susceptibility and allow the team to start analyzing Study cancer samples much sooner. Team members anticipate the information gained could help lead to genetic screening tests, targeted therapies for treatment and recommendations for informed breeding that might help reduce cancer rates in golden retrievers and other dogs over time.

The Foundation will begin recruiting later this summer. To participate, dogs must be purebred golden retrievers, from within the continental United States, and preferably be registered with the American Kennel Club. For DNA extraction, each dog will have a blood sample drawn by their family veterinarian. Owners will complete a brief survey to sign up and then, if selected, fill out a short questionnaire.

Though staff are primarily examining the older dogs' genetics, some questions will cover the dogs' environments and lifestyles. For instance, did they live in rural, urban or suburban areas most of their lives? What were their jobs were before retirement? A hunting dog living on a farm will have different environmental exposures than a companion pet living in a city.

The University of California, Davis, College of Veterinary Medicine, is providing additional samples to the Golden Oldies project through their ongoing longevity study  Understanding the Genes Behind Old Age and Longevity in Large Breed Dogs  for which there are existing samples.

The Golden Retriever Lifetime Study is one of the largest studies of its kind ever undertaken in veterinary medicine. Its purpose is to identify the nutritional, environmental, lifestyle and genetic risk factors for cancer and other diseases in dogs. Each year, with the help of veterinarians and dog owners, the Foundation collects health, environmental and behavioral data on more than 3,000 enrolled golden retrievers.

Morris Animal Foundation, headquartered in Denver, is one of the largest nonprofit animal health research organizations in the world, funding more than $155 million in studies across a broad range of species.

About Morris Animal Foundation

Morris Animal Foundation's mission is to bridge science and resources to advance the health of animals. Founded by a veterinarian in 1948, we fund and conduct critical health studies for the benefit of all animals. Learn more at morrisanimalfoundation.org.

SOURCE Morris Animal Foundation

Related Links

http://www.morrisanimalfoundation.org


China to reciprocate US sanctions after Trump ends Hong Kong special status

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 15 July 2020 5:12 AM

China says it will slap retaliatory sanctions on the United States over President Donald Trump's decision to end Hong Kong's special status and impose sanctions on Chinese officials in relation to the semi-autonomous city.

Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order that he said would end the preferential economic treatment of the semi-autonomous Chinese city. Washington is angry at the application of a uniform national security law to the city by the government in Beijing.

"No special privileges, no special economic treatment and no export of sensitive technologies," Trump said after signing the executive order on, among others, sanctions against banks doing business with Chinese officials involved in the implementation of the new security law in Hong Kong.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that Beijing strongly opposed Trump's move, urging his administration to stop interfering in China's internal affairs.

"Hong Kong affairs are purely China's internal affairs and no foreign country has the right to interfere," the ministry said.

It said Beijing would impose retaliatory sanctions on US individuals and entities.

Trump's move came two weeks after Hong Kong enacted a national security law that criminalizes sedition, secession, and subversion against mainland China and allows Chinese national security institutions to operate in the city for the first time since 1997, when Hong Kong returned from British to Chinese rule.

The US, Britain, and other Western countries have criticized the law and have moved to take action against Beijing and Hong Kong. China, however, insists that Hong Kong is a purely internal Chinese affair.

Relations between the United States and China have hit the lowest level in decades. The two are at loggerheads over a range of issues, including trade, human rights, the South China Sea, arms sales to Taiwan and the coronavirus pandemic.

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Matthew Brown / Hearst Connecticut Media

A Connecticut prosecutor was disciplined after making a remark about his boss, Hartford State's Attorney Gail Hardy, during a Zoom call last month.

According to letter obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media from Chief States Attorney Richard Colangelo Jr., senior assistant states attorney Mark Brodsky was reprimanded for an incident of "misconduct" that occurred during Hardy's reappointment hearing last month.
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Linkedin Tri Indah Oktavianti and Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 16, 2020 19:34 551 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666dc44f 1 National djoko-tjandra,National-Police,Idham-Azis,Immigration-Office,Corruption-Eradication-Comission,corruption-case,bank-bali-case Free

Watchdogs and a lawmaker have urged the National Police to take stern action against police officers allegedly involved in helping fugitive and graft convict Djoko Soegiarto Tjandra travel across the country.

The National Police have removed from his post the head of the Civil Servant Investigation Supervisory and Coordination Bureau of the Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim), Brig. Gen. Prasetyo Utomo, after an investigation by the polices Internal Affairs Division (Propam) found he had issued a letter permitting Djoko to travel in Indonesia.

The decision was based on a police telegram signed by National Police chief Gen. Idham Azis.

We have detained him at Propam for 14 days, National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Argo Yuwono said on Wednesday as reported by kompas.com.

The investigation, he explained, had revealed that Prasetyo had issued the permit on his own initiative in a move unrelated to his position at the police force. Argo further said that Prasetyo had not reported the matter to his superior.

Prasetyo, a one-star police general, signed a travel permit for Djoko on June 18, allowing him to fly from Jakarta to Pontianak in West Kalimantan on June 19 and return on June 22 for a business purpose.

The letter reportedly allowed the graft convict to travel without having to pass security checks throughout his trip. Argo explained that that kind of letter was usually issued by the Bareskrim chief or deputy chief for a police officer on duty.

Democratic Party lawmaker Benny K. Harman said the penalty was insufficient.

Prasetyo must be dismissed from the police institution and sent to prison. The police also need to further investigate the other officers involvement in the matter. They need to be given harsher punishment, he said on Thursday.

Read also: House seeks answers about escape of Djoko Tjandra

Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) also called for the National Police to take serious action in response to the high-ranking officers involvement in helping Djoko Tjandra, who was found guilty in the high-profile Bank Bali corruption case.

The National Police chief should have dismissed Brig. Gen. Prasetyo Utomo from the institution and started legal proceedings in the case, ICW spokesperson Tama S. Langkun said through a statement released on Thursday.

The NGO also condemned the removal of the Red Notice status for Djoko Tjandra, as well as the issuance of an e-ID card for the fugitive and questioned the immigration authorities who allegedly issued a passport for Djoko and allowed him to enter and travel across the country.

The Corruption Eradication Commission [KPK] must investigate the indication of bribery, which might involve several parties that helped and facilitated fugitive Djoko Tjandra go back and forth to Indonesia undetected, Tama added.

The NGO Indonesia Police Watch (IPW) on Thursday demanded that the National Police chief investigate Brig. Gen. Nugroho Wibowo, the current secretary of the National Central Bureau (NCB)-Interpol Indonesia, for allegedly removing the Red Notice status for Djoko Tjandra, so that he could travel back to Indonesia.

Interpol issued a Red Notice against Djoko in 2009, requesting that law enforcement authorities worldwide locate and arrest him. Djoko was then put on Interpols most-wanted list in 2015.

Neta alleged that Nugroho submitted a notification letter dated May 5 to the Immigration Directorate General saying that the Red Notice against Djoko had been revoked in 2014. Previously, Anna Boentaran  Djokos wife  had sent a request to the NCB Interpol on April 16 regarding the removal of the Red Notice status for her husband.

The immigration authority responded to Nugrohos notification by removing Djoko from its border crossing detection system on May 13.

Seeing these facts, the IPW suspects a conspiracy between several officers to protect Djoko Tjandra, Neta said as quoted by magazine Tempo.

Argo said Propam was currently questioning Nugroho regarding the accusation, wartakota.com reported on Thursday.

Djoko Tjandra was sentenced to two years of imprisonment and ordered to pay Rp 546 billion (US$54 million) in restitution by the Supreme Court in 2009 for the Bank Bali corruption case in 1998. He escaped to Papua New Guinea and his whereabouts remained unclear, but he has reportedly traveled across the country undetected for the past three years.

He obtained an e-ID card from the South Grogol subdistrict in Jakarta and filed a request for a case review with the South Jakarta District Court on June 8.

He obtained a passport on June 27.
LOS ANGELESMichael Avenatti, the former lawyer for Stormy Daniels who became an overnight cable news superstar in 2018 with his media campaign against Donald Trump on Daniels behalf, was convicted in February of attempting to extort the Nike Corporation out of $20 million, a conviction that carries a maximum 42-year prison term. But Avenatti has been trying to delay that sentence ever since, and his latest attempt came Wednesday.

Avenatti was released from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, where he was awaiting his sentencing hearing as well as a trial on the separate charge that he swindled Daniels out of nearly $300,000, in April due to concerns that he could contract coronavirus infection behind bars.

He has been under confinement at the home of a friend in Venice, California. But he was supposed to return to New York for a June 17 sentencing hearing. That hearing was delayed by a judge, with the approval of government prosecutors.

Now, Avenatti is slated to return for that hearing on August 19. But on Wednesday, his Miami-based lawyer Scott Srebnick filed court papers asking for a new, 50-day delay, until the week of October 5.

Srebnick noted in the filing that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has imposed a requirement that any person traveling from a coronavirus hot spot such as California or Florida, must remain in quarantine for 14 days upon arrival in the state. Because Avenatti would be coming from California and Srebnick from Florida, this would place an unnecessary burden on undersigned counsel, Mr. Avenatti, and any attendees from one of the 22 states, named as coronavirus hot spots, Srebnick wrote in his request for a new delay.

Miami is now considered the epicenter of the virus in the United States, Srebnick told Judge Paul Gardephe in the filing. Trends in Florida and California are not encouraging.

Avenattis release from the New York jail was scheduled to end in July 24 anyway. But earlier this month, a different federal judge allowed him to remain under home confinement and out of jail for an additional 60 days, despite prosecutors contention that the disgraced lawyer had violated the terms of his release by using an internet-connected computer.

In addition to his trial on the charges that he embezzled from Daniels in New York, Avenatti also faces charges in California that he defrauded a series of his other, less-famous clients as well.

Photo By Real Time With Bill Maher YouTube Screen Capture
Northrook, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/16/2020 -- According to the new market research report "Digital Shipyard Market by Shipyard Type (Commercial, Military, Technology (AR VR, Blockchain, Digital Twin, Additive Manufacturing, IIoT), Capacity (Large, Medium, Small Shipyard), Process, End Use, Digitalization Level, and Region - Global Forecast to 2030", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Digital Shipyard Market is estimated to be USD 693 million in 2020 and is projected to reach USD 3,967 million by 2030, at a CAGR of 19.1% from 2020 to 2030.



Intelligent technologies and processes are driving the digital shipyard market in the marine sector. Modernization and procurement plans across the commercial and military shipyards are contributing to the digital transformation of shipyards across the globe. Additionally, with the rising need for shipbuilding companies to overcome barriers of unprecedented change, disruption, expensive program costs, and expanding international opportunities, shipyards are adopting digital reinvention using innovative technologies to bring about digitalization, waste reduction, a greener environment, and faster growth. Stringent rules and standards from regulatory bodies with respect to harmful emissions, reduction in the overall operational costs, etc., are some of the factors driving the growth of the digital shipyard market during the forecast period.



Request for PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=6854923



Commercial shipyard segment is estimated to account for the largest share of the digital shipyard market in 2020



Based on shipyard type, the digital shipyard market is segmented into commercial and military shipyards. These shipyards differ in terms of ship size & complexity, design & construction, acquisition process, workforce, client involvement, and business models. An increase in demand for upgradations in shipyards in Asia Pacific is driving the market for military as well as commercial digital shipyards.



Robotic Process Automation segment is estimated to account for the largest share of the digital shipyard market in 2020



Based on technology, the robotic process automation segment is expected to witness faster growth in the digital shipyard market by 2030. Robotic process automation technology is widely used in the shipbuilding industry for processes such as design & engineering and manufacturing & planning. The technology is adopted by various system integrators and shipbuilders to reduce the operational time & cost and increase the efficiency and reliability of products & services.



Manufacturing & planning segment is estimated to account for the largest share of the digital shipyard market in 2020



Based on process, the manufacturing & planning segment is expected to witness higher growth in the digital shipyard market by 2030. Design & engineering is an important phase and plays a vital role in the implementation of the concept of a digital shipyard. The process involves the use of various intelligent technologies such as additive manufacturing, robotic process automation, cloud computing & master data management, and Blockchain.



Browse in-depth TOC on "Digital Shipyard Market"

111  Tables

39  Figures

207  Pages



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Asia Pacific region is estimated to account for the largest share of the digital shipyard market in 2020



The Asia Pacific digital shipyard market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2020 to 2030 Countries in the Asia Pacific region are undergoing development, procurements, and modernizing various capabilities in the field of digital transformation of shipyards, which offers significant potential for system integrators and technology providers of the marine sector. A rise in demand for the procurement of modernized and sophisticated marine vessels equipped with high-end technologies in military shipyards is one of the factors driving the growth of the market in the Asia Pacific. Additionally, the increasing marine expenditure and expansion of technological networks in emerging economies such as India and China are expected to drive the demand for digital shipyards in the region.



The digital shipyard market has been gaining traction over the last few years due to the presence of several established companies as well as startups. Some of the major players in this market include Siemens (Germany), Dassault Systemes (France), AVEVA Group Plc (UK), Accenture (Ireland), and SAP (Germany), among others.



Related Reports:



Autonomous Ships Market by Autonomy (Fully Autonomous, Remote Operations, Partial Automation), Ship Type (Commercial, Defense), End Use (Linefit, Retrofit), Solution (Systems, Software, Structures), and Region - Global Forecast to 2030



Connected Ship Market by Application (Vessel Traffic Management, Fleet operations, Fleet Health Operations), Installation Type (Onboard, Onshore), Ship Type (Commercial, Defense), Fit (Linefit, Retrofit), Region - Global Forecast to 2023



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The Vigilance Investigation Bureau (VIB) of Bihar lodged second FIR against a serving IAS officer of 1991 batch, three retired IAS officers and six others for their alleged involvement in Bihar Mahadalit Vikash Mission (BMVM) scam in which funds to the tune to more than Rs 17 crore were embezzled, originally meant for the upliftment of mahadalit youths.

The FIR was lodged based the statement of VIB inspector Sanjiv Kumar against IAS officer SM Raju (suspended); former BMVM directors Raghwendra Jha, Raj Narayan Lal, Ramashish Paswan; Debjani Kar, then missions state programme director; Anil Kumar Sinha (OSD); Shashi Bhusan Singh(co-ordinator); Harendra Shrivastava (OSD); Birendra Chaudhary (assistant director) and Dr Birbal Jha (director, British Lingua).

The FIR was lodged under sections 406/409/420/467/468/471/477a/120b of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act. The mission came into force in 2010. The scam continued till 2016.

Also read: Now, dont blame rats: Bihar oppositions dig at CM over collapse of newly inaugurated bridge

According to the FIR, on October 4,2011, the BMVM had published an advertisement to impart knowledge about 22 trades including MS Office, Tally, spoken English and other courses to mahadalit youths through funds allocated under state governments Dashrath Manjhi Skill Development Scheme and with special assistance from central government.

During an investigation, the VIB found that British Lingua Director Dr Birbal Jha hatched a conspiracy with the connivance of BMVM officials and withdrew Rs 17 crore between 2012 and 2016 financial year on fake paper.

In the FIR enclosure, the VIB revealed that the BMVM claimed, he had trained 14,826 students. But in the investigation, the bureau found that most of the students attended separate trade during same session and period.

During investigation, it also surfaced that students whose names were in the list of firms as candidates who were imparted training and certification never really took any such course. Such youths had given a written statement that they had never been into any such training, reports said.

Raju, who was suspended in January 2017, was in the thick of controversy in 2003. The then leader of opposition in Bihar, Sushil Kumar Modi, had sought his dismissal over corruption charges. Modi had advised the government not to accept his following his suspension in Karnataka where he had gone on deputation.

In December 2016, the VIB lodged an FIR against the IAS officer, along with 15 other officials for alleged irregularities in the disbursement of post-matric scholarship among SC/ST students pursuing technical education outside Bihar.

In April 2019, the VIB submitted charge sheet against IAS officer SM Raju, two retired IAS officers and five others for alleged involvement in scam wherein funds to the tune to more than Rs 5.55 crore were embezzled.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 19:21:24|Editor: huaxia

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PHNOM PENH, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Three local people were killed and 10 others got injured after a passenger mini-bus veered off the road and overturned several times in northeast Cambodia's Mondulkiri province on Thursday, a local police chief said.

The fatal crash happened on National Road 78 in Koh Nhek district, said Khlout Sokhea, police chief of Koh Nhek district, adding that reckless driving was blamed for the accident.

"Three people were pronounced dead at the scene and 10 others were injured, including one in severe condition," he told Xinhua.

Among the dead were two men and a woman, he said, adding that for the injured, they had been rushed to the provincial hospital.

Casualties from road traffic accidents remain high in the Southeast Asian nation. During the first six months of 2020, a total of 861 people were killed and 2,449 others were wounded in road crashes across the kingdom, according to a government report. Enditem
Photo credit: Anadolu Agency - Getty Images

From House Beautiful

If you're searching for wholesome content (a.k.a. adorable videos of baby animals), look no further. Tonight, you can live stream a sea turtle release from home. That's right, you can watch baby turtles make their way into the ocean in real time right on your phone. It's turtle nesting season, and the Fairmont Mayakoba in Mexico is inviting everyone to virtually attend a turtle release on its property, live streaming the event on social media. The property's ecology manager will be overseeing the release.

The Fairmont Mayakoba estimates that about 85 baby turtles will make their way to the sea tonight. The turtle species being released? The Loggerhead sea turtle, which is the largest of all hard-shelled turtles, according to National Geographic. Their name comes from their large heads and strong jaws. They can grow to about 36 inches, and adult males typically weigh around 253 pounds.

Want to watch one of nature's most beautiful events? You can live stream the sea turtle release on Fairmont Mayakoba's Instagram and Facebook pages. The live stream scheduled to start at 7 p.m. At the start of the event, there will be a quick speech about what the release entails. Just be sure to tune in on time because the release will last for just 10 to 15 minutes.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 19:27:34|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on March 4, 2020 shows the skyscrapers of the Central Business District (CBD) in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)

"According to our forecasts, quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year growth will be positive in 2Q 2020," says Aditya Bhave, senior global economist at Bank of America.



NEW YORK, July 16 (Xinhua) -- China is on track for impressive economic recovery from the COVID-19 shock thanks to the nation's effective efforts to contain the outbreak, experts said.

"We think the economic recovery is well on track," Lucy Qiu, emerging markets strategist at UBS Global Wealth Management, told Xinhua on Tuesday.

"Effective containment of the pandemic and proactive policy support have supported Chinese economy's early recovery vs. the rest of the world," said Qiu.

Industrial production and fixed asset investment, property and infrastructure investment in particular, have led the recovery so far, said the analyst.

Tourists admire the skyline view of Lujiazui area at the Bund in Shanghai, east China, Jan. 6, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Xiang)

Export growth returned to positive in June while consumption remained weak, she noted, adding the country is capable of unleashing the potential of the sector with targeted policies,including support for micro and small enterprises and policies focused on protecting jobs.

Experts expect China's GDP growth to stage noticeable progress in the second quarter and beyond, buoyed by effective virus control and policy stimuli.

"According to our forecasts, quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year growth will be positive in 2Q 2020," Aditya Bhave, senior global economist at Bank of America, told Xinhua on Tuesday.

While "it is too early to characterize the shape of the Chinese recovery," so far it has been relatively V-shaped as the economy has transitioned out of lockdowns, Bhave noted.

Mehran Nakhjavani, emerging markets strategist at research firm MRB Partners, told Xinhua that China's economic readings for May and June have recovered, and "we see this pace continuing in the second half of the year."

Aerial photo taken on May 23, 2018 shows Zhuhai Hengqin International Financial Center under construction and Hengqin new area financial island in south China's Guangdong Province. (Xinhua/Liang Xu)

The Institute of International Finance (IIF), a global association of the financial industry based in Washington D.C., said in a research note last week that China has been on the path to normalization with industrial production and manufacturing posting a strong rebound.

Noting "normalization in the retail sector could be an uphill battle," IIF analysts said they "are confident that overall activity is staging a V-shaped recovery."

Meanwhile, experts noted that headwinds remain for China's economic recovery with weak external demand among the key challenges, as other countries are mainly lagging behind in virus containment and a second wave would postpone the global reopening process. Some also cautioned against risks from renewed U.S.-China trade tensions.

Looking ahead, experts said that a combination of fiscal and monetary policies will continue to bolster the momentum in the world's second largest economy.

"China's experience suggests a strong recovery in industry might be feasible in countries where virus containment measures are effective," said IIF analysts. 
As if the coronavirus pandemic response wasnt chaotic enough, now Russian hackers are involved. On Thursday, American, British, and Canadian officials announced that a group of hackers targeted academic and health care organizations that are working to develop coronavirus vaccines. Per a report from the U.K.s National Cyber Security Centre, these hackers almost certainly operate as part of Russian intelligence services.

The Russian government denies its involvement in the hacka throwback to 2016, when the Kremlin shrugged off accusations of hacking the Democratic National Committee.

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The suspected hacker group is APT29, otherwise known as Cozy Bear. As far as Russian-affiliated hacker groups are concerned, Cozy Bear is top brass. Along with the group Fancy Bear, it was linked to the 2016 DNC hacking. Now, by way of malware and spear-phishing, its hackers are attempting to access COVID-19 vaccine research and information on medical supply chains.

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The cybersecurity director of the National Security Agency, Anne Neuberger, warned, APT29 has a long history of targeting governmental, diplomatic, think-tank, health care, and energy organizations for intelligence gain so we encourage everyone to take this threat seriously.

But as of yet, the U.S. government hasnt stated whether the hack has damaged vaccine research efforts. Associate professor Mike Chapple, who teaches cybersecurity at the University of Notre Dame, told the New York Times, The potential harm here is limited to commercial harm, to companies that are devoting a lot of their own resources into developing a vaccine in hopes it will be financially rewarding down the road.

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This isnt the first time something like this has happened. Back in May, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI accused Chinese hackers and spies of stealing American vaccine research. Iranian hackers likewise set their sights on COVID-19 treatments, and South Korea, Vietnam, and several other countries deployed state-run hackers to gather information on the coronavirus, the New York Times reported.

A coronavirus vaccine is (fingers crossed) on the horizon, though global public health officials have expressed concern that the U.S. could corner the market, leaving out the rest of the world. Earlier this month, the U.S. government made a $1.6 billion deal with Novavax to advance its work on a COVID-19 vaccine. If clinical trials of the vaccine are successful, Novavax will produce 100 million doses by the beginning of 2021. And just this week, a potential vaccine from the biotech company Moderna triggered immune responses in every participant who received it in the early trial stages. The last trial stage of Modernas vaccine will begin later this month. After that, itll be up to regulators to decide whether the vaccine is ready to hit the market. In a Tuesday press release, Moderna claimed its on track to be able to deliver approximately 500 million doses per year, and possibly up to 1 billion doses per year, beginning in 2021. But a celebration isnt in order just yet. Experts caution that a lot of work needs to be done before any vaccine becomes widely available. They also fear that a premature vaccine release could yield devastating consequences.

And as it happens, Russia just ended its first human trial of an experimental coronavirus vaccine. It hopes to manufacture 30 million doses domestically this year, although Russia may have the potential to produce an addition 170 million for people abroad, Reuters reports.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
Description

GIS  16 July 2020: The Prime Minister, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, effected two site visits, yesterday, at the A1-M1 Link Road (Grand River North West (GRNW) Valley site) and the A1-A3 Link Road (Coromandel to Gros Cailloux) to take stock of the progress of work on these two major road decongestion projects. He was accompanied by the Minister of National Infrastructure and Community Development, Mr Mahendranuth Sharma Hurreeram, and the General Manager of the Road Development Authority (RDA), Mr N. Mowlabaccus. The Prime Minister, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, effected two site visits, yesterday, at the A1-M1 Link Road (Grand River North West (GRNW) Valley site) and the A1-A3 Link Road (Coromandel to Gros Cailloux) to take stock of the progress of work on these two major road decongestion projects. He was accompanied by the Minister of National Infrastructure and Community Development, Mr Mahendranuth Sharma Hurreeram, and the General Manager of the Road Development Authority (RDA), Mr N. Mowlabaccus.

The A1-M1 Link Road will be an approximately 1 km long dual carriageway. It will link Port Louis-St Jean Road (A1) at Chebel through an approximately 330 m long bridge spanning over the GRNW valley to Motorway M1 and the existing Ring Road Phase 1 at Soreze. To the tune of Rs 2.79 billion, the project is expected to be completed in January 2022. As at date, 32% of the A1-M1 bridge has been completed, Chebel (53%), and Soreze (61%).

As for the A1-A3 Link Road, it will connect the Port Louis-St Jean Road (A1) to the Black River Road (A3). With upcoming development in the region, this link will provide a rapid link connection between the West and Port Louis/North and vice versa. The road will start from its intersection with A1 Road at Coromandel with tie-in with RDA roundabout thereat, and will end with a signalised junction at A3 road at Gros Cailloux. The project, which will cost around Rs 295 million, is expected to be completed in December 2020. Some 65% of the works have already been completed.

In a statement, Prime Minister Jugnauth recalled that these two major projects will link Soreze to Chebel and Chebel to Gros Cailloux. He expressed satisfaction that works have progressed significantly although they have been delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. He added that part of the project will be completed by December this year. Furthermore, he underlined that Government is determined to continue to work towards the path of development and progress for the country.

Challenges in the wake of Covid-19

Acknowledging the exemplary manner that Mauritius has tackled the Covid-19 pandemic, the Prime Minister stated that Government has been proactive and taken all the necessary precautions in terms of acquisition of personal protective equipment such as masks as well as ventilators. He expressed satisfaction that the situation has been dealt with in a very satisfactory way adding that the population is in security today and that Mauritius is one of the rare countries in the world where its citizens can circulate freely. He also reassured the population that we are Covid-safe in Mauritius.

As regards the emergency procurement of medicines and ventilators, Mr Jugnauth has stated that the Pack and Blisters company will deliver these equipment to the country and are aligned to international norms.

The challenge now, he said, is how to boost the tourism industry, which is extremely important for the country in terms of revenue and employment, without jeopardising the health and security of the population. The opening of our borders remains an extremely complicated issue and when they will be opened, there will be risks, he added.

A1-M1 Link Road

The A1-M1 Link road will improve the distribution of traffic within the network of the A1 Road and M1 Motorway and will provide an alternative access to the city of Port Louis for traffic originating from Rose Hill, Beau Basin, Chebel, Chapman Hill, upper Coromandel. Ultimately the traffic congestion will be reduced to a significant level along the A1 Road and M1 Motorway and at locations such as Reduit and Ebene.

In order to connect A1-M1 Bridge with A1 road, a new roundabout will be built near Gamma Civic Ltd at Chebel and improve the accessibility to Port Louis and Beau Bassin. The Chebel Roundabout will be connected with A1-A3 Link Road whereby vehicles from Port Louis will be able to move to the west of the country via Ring Road and A1-M1 Link Road.

For the connection between M1 motorway and A1 road, an extra-dosed bridge with a total length of 330 m will be constructed at the Grand River North West Valley. It is expected that the bridge will be ranked as the most aesthetic structure of Mauritius and play an important role as a national landmark in Mauritius.

A1-A3 Link Road

The A1-A3 Link Road crosses the Metro Express alignment. A bridge has already been constructed under the Metro Express project. The A1-A3 Link Road will be connected to the new GRNW Bridge, through a Grade Separated at Beau Bassin on the A1 Road.
A group co-founded by Donald Trumps campaign manager for the 2020 presidential election has released a new election ad that only features the president for a couple of seconds.

The new ad titled, America Back To Work, was published by non-profit organisation, America First Policies, on Wednesday and features vice president Mike Pence discussing the Trump administrations job policies.

A speech Mr Pence gave at an event for the organisations Great American Comeback Tour is played over images of him meeting workers and detailing policies put in place by the administration.

Mr Trump is only shown in the ad once and is featured for two seconds - signing an updated free trade agreement with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The US president is also briefly mentioned by Mr Pence, who says: Weve all passed through very challenging times over the last several months. Its because of what youve done, because of the leadership of the president provided  we are going back to work. Were going back to worship.

He adds: And I promise you in the days ahead were going to continue to create a solid foundation for whatever challenges may lie ahead. And were going to do it in a way that puts America back to work. A great American comeback has begun.

ABC News chief White House correspondent Jon karl posted the video to Twitter and asked: Is Pence running for President or is Donald Trump?

He added: You would think its Pence watching the new ad by a well-funded pro-Trump outside group (co-founded by Brad Parscale). Lots of Pence here....and just a few blurry seconds of Trump.

Mr Parscale was the digital media director for Mr Trumps 2016 presidential campaign, and now serves as manager for his 2020 reelection campaign.

The ad is part of a $4m (3.17m) cable and broadcast buy from the organisation, and will run until 22 July.

Recommended New book claims Pence spox unaffected by migrant child separation camp

The president has seen a decline in support in numerous polls over the last few months, after his responses to the coronavirus pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests, were criticised.

Meanwhile, the Democratic nominee for the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden, has seen his support in polls rise in the same period, and On Wednesday, the former vice president opened up his biggest poll lead over the president since his nomination was confirmed.

A new national survey by Quinnipiac University showed that voters backed Mr Biden over the president 52-37 per cent.
Rio Tinto Chief Executive J-S Jacques said "We delivered a strong performance, particularly in iron ore and bauxite, demonstrating the underlying resilience of our business and ability to adapt in difficult conditions. Our iron ore assets are performing well in a strong pricing environment and we are on track to meet our 2020 iron ore guidance. Despite various COVID-19 related challenges, all our assets have continued to operate, with our first priority to protect the health and safety of all our employees and communities.

"Our focus is to maintain a business as usual approach with many safeguards at a very unusual time. Our operational teams are continuing to run our assets safely so we can continue to contribute to local and national economies and serve our customers. We remain even more committed to our relationship with communities, following the Juukan Gorge events in the Pilbara, and we are engaging extensively with Traditional Owners around our operations and across Australia.

"We are executing our value over volume strategy to drive performance, productivity and free cash flow per share. We will remain agile and ready to adapt to the changing operating and macro environment."

Production* Q2 2020 vs

Q2

2019 vs

Q1

2020 H1 2020 vs

H1

2019 Pilbara iron ore shipments (100% basis) Mt 86.7 +1% +19% 159.6 +3% Pilbara iron ore production (100% basis) Mt 83.2 +4% +7% 161.1 +3% Bauxite Mt 14.6 +9% +5% 28.4 +8% Aluminium kt 785 -2% 0% 1,568 -2% Mined Copper kt 132.8 -3% 0% 265.7 -5% Titanium dioxide slag kt 262 -13% -10% 555 -7% IOC iron ore pellets and concentrate Mt 2.8 +9% +8% 5.3 +6% *Rio Tinto share unless otherwise stated

Q2 Operational update

We continue to prioritise the health and safety of our employees and communities during this turbulent period. We achieved an all injury frequency rate of 0.37 for the first half of 2020, trending positively compared with a rate of 0.42 in 2019. We have now fully embedded our rigorous COVID-19 health and hygiene controls as we adapt to the new operating conditions. Our operational sites and offices are moving ahead with the implementation of fit for purpose COVID-19 screening as an additional measure to protect our people and communities.

We remain even more committed to our relationship with communities, following the Juukan Gorge events in the Pilbara. We are engaging extensively with Traditional Owners, including the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people, and indigenous leaders in the Pilbara and across Australia. On 19 June 2020, we announced a board-led review of our heritage management processes within Iron Ore to be completed by October 2020. We will also contribute to the Inquiry by the Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia that will report to the Senate and we will continue to support the West Australian government's planned reform of the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (WA).

Overall, we achieved a robust production performance with volumes up 1% compared with the second quarter of 2019 on a copper equivalent basis despite significant global challenges, restrictions related to COVID-19 and the impact of the earthquake at Kennecott, Utah.

Pilbara iron ore shipments of 86.7 million tonnes (100% basis) were 1% higher than the second quarter of 2019 despite the impact of COVID-19 related operational controls. With 1.7 million tonnes of port sales in the second quarter, we continue to grow our portside business steadily, looking to better serve our existing customers and open opportunities to sell to new customers who do not participate in the seaborne market.

Bauxite production of 14.6 million tonnes, 9% higher than the second quarter of 2019, continued the first quarter trend following the successful ramp-up of Amrun in 2019, and higher production at the non-managed CBG joint venture in Guinea reflecting good progress on the ramp-up of the expansion.

Aluminium production of 0.8 million tonnes in the second quarter was 2% lower than the second quarter of 2019 primarily due to pot relining at Kitimat, the decision to operate the ISAL smelter at 85% capacity, and the curtailment of the fourth pot line at our New Zealand Aluminium Smelter (NZAS) in April 2020 due to COVID-19 impacts.

On 9 July 2020, we announced the wind-down of operations and eventual closure of NZAS following the conclusion of the strategic review.

Second quarter mined copper was 3% lower than the same period of 2019 due to lower head grade at Kennecott. Second quarter refined copper was 67% lower than the same period of 2019 due to the impact from the 5.7 magnitude earthquake in the first quarter resulting in an unplanned flash converting furnace rebuild at Kennecott, in addition to the planned 45-day smelter shutdown in May/June.

On 29 June 2020, we announced an agreement with Turquoise Hill Resources and the Government of Mongolia on the preferred domestic power solution for Oyu Tolgoi that paves the way for the Government to fund and construct a State Owned Power Plant at Tavan Tolgoi. Parties will work towards finalising a Power Purchase Agreement by March 2021.

The new Oyu Tolgoi mine design announced on 3 July 2020, confirms that the caving method of mining remains valid. We are targeting first sustainable production between October 2022 to June 2023 and development capital of $6.6 to $7.1 billion based on the updated mine design of Panel 0. Material contained in pillars retained on either side of Panel 0 have been reclassified from Ore Reserves to Mineral Resources. Part of the material contained in these pillars is expected to be recoverable at a later stage following additional studies which are currently underway.

Titanium dioxide slag production of 262 thousand tonnes was 13% lower than the second quarter of 2019 partly due to COVID-19 restrictions in Quebec and South Africa.

Production of pellets and concentrate at the Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) was 9% higher than the same period of 2019 with continued focus on concentrate feed to match market demand.

Governments are gradually lifting restrictions on the movement of goods and people as part of their COVID-19 recovery plans. However, some restrictions remain in place or are being reintroduced. As a result, there continues to be an impact on projects in general although to a lesser degree than earlier in the year.

Capital expenditure is expected to be around $6 billion in 2020 (previously $5 to $6 billion) due to an appreciation in our major operating currencies against the US dollar since the first quarter and a reduced impact of COVID-19 on both sustaining and development expenditure. Capital expenditure for 2021 and 2022 is expected to be around $7 billion per year (previously $6.5 billion). This includes spend from 2020 that has been re-phased as a result of COVID-19 restrictions. Further details can be found in the Investments, growth and development projects section below.

We made a final payment of US$1.0 billion in Australian income tax in June 2020 with respect to 2019 profits.

COVID-19

Our markets

In China, conditions have improved through the second quarter and appear to be stabilising. While employment and trade uncertainties remain, the construction and infrastructure sectors are performing well; house prices and stock markets are also recovering, lending support to consumer confidence. The United States and Europe have started to re-open and recover. A second wave of infections remains a key threat for advanced economies.

China's demand for iron ore continues while the recovery in Japan and Europe is yet to begin meaningfully and is likely to be subdued when it does.

The automotive sector is showing initial signs of recovery from a very low base, supporting demand for aluminium value-added products (VAP).

There has been limited impact on bauxite demand to date.

China's copper concentrate market remains favourable; however, the US market is weaker. COVID-19 related supply disruptions are between 3 to 4% of annual copper supply currently, in addition to normal industry supply disruptions, and could increase further.

Our assets

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have implemented strict protocols globally across the business. These measures are in line with government guidance and directives, and advice from leading medical experts and international health organisations on best practice to keep our employees, contractors and partners healthy and safe. These range from physical distancing to travel restrictions, roster changes and team splits, to flexible working arrangements, rapid screening and personal hygiene controls.

While uncertainties continue to exist in our business environment, we are focused on our underlying resilience and ability to adapt in a fast-moving environment. Key updates are outlined below and full details of initiatives taken to date can be found on our website.

Operations and Workforce

With the de-escalation of health restrictions in Western Australia, we are progressing the return to normal rosters at our Iron Ore operations, construction and exploration projects. We expect this transition to be completed by August 2020.

Our office-based employees are beginning to return to offices in regions where permitted. In most cases, employees are returning to offices in alternate teams to reduce the risk of widespread transmission and ensure business continuity.

We have introduced screening programmes across sites as a control to stop the spread of COVID-19. For the Pilbara fly-in-fly-out workforce, we have conducted more than 50,000 checks through facilities we established at Perth and regional airports as an enhanced control for employees boarding flights to site.

At our copper assets in Mongolia and the US, our teams have used virtual technology to overcome some challenges related to COVID-19 travel restrictions. At our Oyu Tolgoi underground project in Mongolia, the use of virtual reality glasses has helped gain access to global experts to support project progression during construction and commissioning stages.

At Richards Bay Minerals (RBM), furnaces are gradually ramping up production following easing of restrictions in South Africa. However, we are managing the situation carefully in the challenging South African environment.

Products

In the second quarter, we continued to focus on the optimisation of IOC product mix to match market demand, moving from pellet to concentrate.

In aluminium, in response to market conditions we have reduced the proportion of primary metal being produced as VAP, which represented 40% of primary metal sold in the first half of 2020 (first half 2019: 54%).

Production Guidance

Rio Tinto share, unless otherwise stated 2019 Actuals H1 2020 (YTD) 2020 Pilbara iron ore (shipments, 100% basis) (Mt) 327 159.6 324 to 334 Bauxite (Mt) 55 28.4 55 to 58 Alumina (Mt) 7.7 4.0 7.8 to 8.2 Aluminium (Mt) 3.2 1.6 3.1 to 3.3 Mined copper (kt) 577 265.7 475 to 520 Refined copper (kt) 260 74.1 165 to 205 Diamonds (M carats) 17 7.7 12 to 14 Titanium dioxide slag (Mt) 1.2 0.6 Lower end of 1.2 to 1.4 IOC iron ore pellets and concentrate (Mt) 10.5 5.3 10.5 to 12.0 Boric oxide equivalent (Mt) 0.5 0.26 ~0.5

Production guidance remains unchanged across all commodities from the First Quarter Operations Review.

We will continue to monitor and adjust production levels and product mix to meet customer requirements in 2020, in line with our value over volume strategy, government imposed restrictions related to COVID-19, and any other potential COVID-19 related disruptions.

The full second quarter production results are available here

This announcement is authorised for release to the market by Rio Tinto's Group Company Secretary.

LEI: 213800YOEO5OQ72G2R82

Classification: 3.1 Additional regulated information required to be disclosed under the laws of a Member State

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200716006077/en/

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Category: General
U.S. Accuses Russian-Backed Mercenaries Of Mining Libya In Violation Of UN Arms Embargo

By RFE/RL July 15, 2020

The United States military command in Africa has accused the Kremlin-connected military contractor Vagner Group of violating a United Nations arms embargo and endangering the lives of innocent Libyans by laying land mines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in and around Tripoli.

U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) said in a statement on July 15 that it had "verified photographic evidence" showing "indiscriminately placed" booby traps and minefields around the outskirts of Tripoli down to Sirte, a coastal city about 450 kilometers to the southeast.

"The Russian-state sponsored Vagner Group is demonstrating a total disregard for the safety and security of Libyans," said U.S. Marine Corps Major General Bradford Gering, director of operations of U.S. Africa Command.

"The Vagner Group's irresponsible tactics are prolonging conflict and are responsible for the needless suffering and the deaths of innocent civilians. Russia has the power to stop them, just not the will," it added.

It's not the first time the United States has accused Russia of violating the embargo in the country's civil war.

The Pentagon has said Russia introduced MiG-29 fighter jets into the conflict.

Russia, mainly through the Vagner Group, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt have backed eastern Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar in the battle against the National Accord government, which is recognized by the United Nations and supported by Turkey.

Russia's alleged introduction of land mines, booby traps, attack aircraft, and their continued support of the 2,000-person strong Vagner Group in Libya changes the nature of the current conflict and intensifies the potential risk to noncombatants, AFRICOM said.

"Our intelligence reflects continued and unhelpful involvement by Russia and the Vagner Group," said Rear Admiral Heidi Berg, AFRICOM's director of intelligence.

"Imagery and intelligence assessments show how Russia continues to interfere in Libyan affairs. Vagner Group's reckless use of land mines and booby traps are harming innocent civilians," he added.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/u-s-accuses-russian- backed-mercenaries-of-mining-libya-in-violation- of-un-arms-embargo/30727935.html

Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Karl Stefanovic has grilled Scott Morrison over Victoria's failure to contain its massive coronavirus outbreak which is threatening to sweep across the country.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has been slammed for his handling of the crisis due to a number of government bungles - including breaches in hotel quarantine and issues around contact tracing - adding to the problem.

But as the virus continues to spread, with 317 new cases reported on Thursday night, the prime minister refused to add to the mud-slinging.

While appearing on the Today Show on Friday, Stefanovic pushed the prime minister to reveal how he feels about Mr Andrews leadership.

'It's not about how I feel, it's about what I do and what I do is give Victorians support to get this job done,' Mr Morrison said.

'The only thing that matters is getting on top of this. And I will give Dan Andrews every support he needs to be able to achieve that.

'If Victoria isn't successful then Australia isn't successful and we need Melburnians to win here.'

Under pressure: Premier Daniel Andrews (pictured) has been slammed for his handling of the crisis due to a number of government bungles

'It does matter how you feel,' the host replied.

Mr Morrison said: 'No, not for me. It doesn't, mate. I'm sorry. Prime ministers don't get that indulgence. We have a job to do and get on with it.'

Stefanovic asked if he still had faith in the Victorian government to handle the crisis.

The prime minister said he fully supports Mr Andrews.

He said the quarantine breaches were a 'reminder to continue with social distancing'.

Stefanovic continued to grill Mr Morrison about his thoughts on the premier's failings.

'Great leaders own their mistakesotherwise how do we know they're not going to make them again.

'You're a straight shooter, you must've been filthy.'

He responded saying: 'Of course we're all accountable for our own decisions, nothing changes that, but it's not about that, it's about what's needed now on the ground and the task that needs to be done.

'This is a national effort and that's what Victorians can have confidence in that the whole country is working together to help them in this time of this crisis.'

Victoria reported its highest ever daily spike of coronavirus cases on Thursday, with 317 infections

NSW has ramped up its testing after an outbreak at the Crossroads Hotel in Casula (pictured: A nurse administering COVID-19 tests to people in their cars)

The whole of Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire north of the city were placed back into lockdown last week after Victoria's cases spiked.

Residents are now only allowed to leave their homes for food and supplies, receive or provide care, exercise, and study or work for six weeks.

The move came after it was revealed there were several blunders within the hotel quarantine procedure, including allegations that security guards were having sex with the guests.

Other allegations include security firms engaging in 'ghosting' - a practice which involves inflating the amount of guards listed on duty to charge the government and taxpayer more for their services.

Karl Stefanovic has grilled Scott Morrison over Victoria's failure to contain its massive coronavirus outbreak which is threatening to sweep across the country

While appearing on the Today Show on Friday, Stefanovic questioned the prime minister about how he felt about Mr Andrews leadership

Subsidised housing towers at 510 Lygon Street, Carlton. Victoria's health department revealed a coronavirus outbreak there on Sunday - but there is evidence they knew two months ago

Mr Andrews has launched an inquiry into the matter.

There has also been issues with contact tracing in the state, with some residents waiting up to two weeks for confirmation they could have been exposed to coronavirus.

The delay may have led to number of residents unaware they might be spreading the virus.

Mr Morrison has urged all Australians to use the COVIDSafe contact tracing app to assist in slowing the spread of the virus.

Medical workers are seen giving coronavirus tests in Sydney's Bondi (pictured) amid fears the Melbourne outbreak may spread to NSW
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Industry Report Antibiotics Market Research Report - Global Forecast till 2025 provides a clear picture of the Current Market Scenario which includes past and estimated future size with respect to value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the Digital Commerce Platform market.

Market Synopsis

Supportive government legislations, such as the implementation of the Generating Antibiotics Incentives Now (GAIN) Act in the US, are expected to accelerate the drug approval process in the antibiotics market.

Key Players

Some of the key players in the Global Antibiotics Market are Novartis AG (Switzerland), Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (US), Astellas Pharma Inc. (Japan), F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd (Switzerland), Pfizer Inc. (US), Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc. (US), Abbott Laboratories (US), GlaxoSmithKline PLC (UK), Sanofi (France), Bayer AG (Germany), Eli Lilly and Company (US), and Merck & Co., Inc. (US).

Segmentation

The global antibiotics market has been segmented based on drug class, spectrum of activity, drug origin, and end user.

The market, based on drug class, has been divided into cephalosporins, penicillin, fluoroquinolones, macrolides, carbapenem, aminoglycosides, sulfonamides, and others. The carbapenem segment is likely to be the fastest growing during the review period due to the increasing incidence of pneumonia, urinary tract infections, which would increase the usage of the carbapenem class of antibiotics. Thus, the rising usage of carbapenem will substantially drive the growth of the antibiotics market.

The global antibiotics market has been bifurcated, based on spectrum of activity, into broad-spectrum antibiotics and narrow-spectrum antibiotics. The broad-spectrum antibiotic segment is expected to hold the majority share of the market as this broad-spectrum antibiotic act against a wide range of diseases, which helps to fight against microbial resistance.

Get Full Report @ www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/antibiotics-market-8447

Regional Analysis

The market has been divided, by region, into the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. The Americas is expected to be the largest market owing to the increasing adoption of antibiotics. The antibiotics market in the Americas has further been branched into North America and Latin America, with the North American market divided into the US and Canada. The European antibiotics market has been categorized as Western Europe and Eastern Europe. The Western European market has further been classified as Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Spain, and the rest of Western Europe.

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences on the demise of Acharya Shree Purushottampriyadasji Swamishree Maharaj the death of spiritual leader of the Shree Swaminarayan Gadi Sansthan.

Taking to Twitter, PM Modi recalled the spiritual leader's compassion and his hard work to alleviate human suffering.

"We will always remember Acharya Shree Purushottampriyadasji Swamishree Maharaj for his noble service to society. He worked hard to alleviate human suffering and further compassion. He will be remembered by countless people, not only in India but globally," he wrote.

We will always remember Acharya Shree Purushottampriyadasji Swamishree Maharaj for his noble service to society. He worked hard to alleviate human suffering and further compassion. He will be remembered by countless people, not only in India but globally.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 16, 2020

PM Modi also said that the acharya was blessed with immense wisdom and that his emphasis on community service, education and women empowerment will always be remembered.

"I will never forget my many interactions with him. Om Shanti," he wrote in another tweet.

Shree Purushottampriyadasji Swamishree Maharaj had positive for coronavirus and succumbed to the infection on Thursday in Surat, Gujarat.

He was the fifth spiritual leader in Lord Shree Swaminarayans divine lineage and was a successor of Gurudev Shree Muktajeevan Swamibapa, and current Acharya of Shree Swaminarayan Gadi. The last rites of the acharya took place today and was broadcast live from 7 am to 8 am.
KC-10 Extender tail #86-0036 receives a traditional water salute before it flies to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona, on July 13, 2020.

US Air Force/Staff Sgt. Sean Evans

The first of 59 KC-10 Extender aerial refueling tankers was retired by the Air Force on July 13, with aircraft #86-0036 being sent off to the service's "boneyard" in Arizona.

Congress approved the first KC-10 retirements during the 2020 fiscal year, setting the stage for what the Air Force says is replacement by the new KC-46A Pegasus tanker.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, New Jersey  The 305th and 514th Air Mobility Wings bid farewell to the first KC-10 Extender set for retirement during a ceremony July 13 at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey.

The ceremony recognized the aircraft for its contributions to the Air Force over the span of more than 33 years of service, and marked the first retirement of 59 Extenders intended for eventual replacement by the KC-46A Pegasus.

"Today, we solemnly, and with an immense amount of pride, say 'farewell' to the first KC-10 in the McGuire fleet to make its journey to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group  more commonly known as the 'Boneyard,'" said US Air Force Col. Scott Wiederholt, 305th Air Mobility Wing commander.

The aircraft was the first of three identified KC-10s from the Air Force's Backup-Aircraft Inventory that were congressionally approved for retirement during Fiscal Year 2020.

A KC-10 Extender during refueling operations.

Wikimedia Commons

Following the ceremony, the aircraft was flown to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, where it will continue to support the remaining Extenders with spare parts as they are flown for several years while the KC-46A is integrated into Air Mobility Command's Total Force tanker enterprise.

"This aircraft, like all the aircraft in our KC-10 fleet, has served honorably and provided life-saving fuel to warfighters executing global reach," Wiederholt said. "[The aircraft] ensured that all missions, whether combat, re-supply or humanitarian, were executed in a manner like no other nation in the world is capable of doing."

Story continues

According to the 305th AMW historian Stuart Lockhart, the aircraft, tail number 86-0036, originally entered service at Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina, in December 1986. After its involvement in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, the aircraft temporarily relocated to Travis AFB, California, before finding its permanent home at JBMDL in 1997.

Altogether, the aircraft flew 33,017 flight hours supporting missions in six different continents and refueled more than 125,000 aircraft from 25 different countries, Lockhart said. He also stated that nearly 11,000 aircrew members have flown the aircraft, while another 12,000 maintainers took care of it.

KC-10 Extender #86-0036 takes off on its final mission after its retirement at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, July 13, 2020.

US Air Force/Staff Sgt. Sean Evans

"Airmen of both the 305th and the 514th have flown this airplane in the face of our nation's enemies," said US Air Force Col. Thomas Pemberton, 514th Air Mobility Wing commander. "Without fail, they enabled the strategic effects of combatant commanders, extended the powerful reach of the National Command Authorities and enabled soldiers and Marines in enemy contact a safe haven as KC-10s refueled their air support and air cover overhead."

For nearly four decades, KC-10s have helped secure global reach for America, providing in-flight refueling to US and coalition aircraft, from Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm to Operation Inherent Resolve.

The retirement comes as the Air Force begins preparing for integrating the KC-46 into the Total Force tanker enterprise. Select portions of the legacy tanker fleet will be gradually divested, which allows for the recapitalization of the aging tanker fleet, while also maintaining its aerial refueling capability and capacity for the warfighter.

"Thank you for your dedication to this mission, aircraft and to all the Airmen who played a role in ensuring its prominent place in the finest Air Force in the world," Wiederholt said. "This is an exciting time to be part of our Air Force, and I look forward to watching this total force team soar to new heights in the coming years."

Read the original article on Business Insider
By Azernews





By Aisha Jabbarova

Armenian armed forces have sought to resume attack on Azerbaijani positions on the state border in the direction of Tovuz region since July 16 morning, the Defence Ministrys press service reported today.

Armenian forces have shelled Aghdam, Dondar Gushchu and Vahidli villages in Tovuz using large-caliber weapons and mortars. There are no casualties among civilians.

Currently, there is fighting in the area and Azerbaijan is in control of the operational situation, the ministry said.

In the meantime, Azerbaijani MP Arzu Nagiyev who is in Tovuz now has told Trend that Armenian forces opened fire at villages in Tovuz at around 4 am.

"Armenians continue shelling the villages of Agdam, Dondar-Gushchu, Alibeyli and Gadzhali. About 20 artillery shells hit the village of Dondar Gushchu. Two of the shells hit the yards of civilians. One of the shells destroyed an auxiliary building in the courtyard of one of the villagers. There is no panic among the civilian population, although the situation remains tense. Armenians have mainly bombarded the village of Agdam. There are no casualties among civilians. Units of the Azerbaijani army are in control of the situation," the MP said.
Apple Inc said on Thursday it was working with 10 additional historically Black universities and colleges to become "hubs" that will teach computer programming and app design skills in their regions.

Apple started a community education initiative last year to provide iPads, Mac computers, teaching curricula and access to its staff and engineers for schools that serve under-represented minority students. The company said Thursday that the program now includes 24 universities, half of which are historically Black schools, with plans to add 10 more historically Black schools this year.

Apple has worked with Tennessee State University, which has become a national hub for training teachers from other historically Black colleges and universities to start offering courses in their own schools as well as secondary and elementary schools in their surrounding communities.

The 10 schools Apple said will become new hubs are Arkansas Baptist College, Central State University in Ohio, Claflin University in South Carolina, Dillard University in Louisiana, Fisk University in Tennessee, Lawson State Community College in Alabama, Morehouse College in Georgia, Prairie View A&M University in Texas, Tougaloo College in Mississippi and Southern University at Shreveport, Louisiana.

The expansion in Apple's schools program follows its creation last month of a $100 million racial justice initiative after the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.




By Jung Min-ho







Korea's population will halve in 80 years and by then two Asian countries  Indonesia and the Philippines  are expected to outgrow its GDP, according to a study in the medical journal Lancet.





The analysis, published Tuesday, shows that Korea's population, which was estimated at 52.67 million, including foreigners, in 2017, is projected to reach a peak of 54.29 million in 2031, before plunging to 26.78 million in 2100.





Meanwhile, the country's GDP ranking will fall six spots to 20th place behind Nigeria (9), Indonesia (12) and the Philippines (18), the report says.





The world population will reach a peak of 9.73 billion in 2064 before decreasing to 8.8 billion in 2100, about 2 billion short of the United Nations' projection.





Populations in 23 countries, including Korea and Japan, are forecast to decline by more than half, with 34 countries, including China, expecting a drop of more than 25 percent.





These population shifts have economic and fiscal consequences that will be challenging. The report says fewer people in the working age group could mean more much than slow GDP growth rates.





"For example, having fewer individuals in these age groups might reduce innovation in economies and fewer workers in general might reduce domestic markets for consumer goods, because many retirees are less likely to purchase consumer durables than middle-aged and young adults," the report says.





For high-income countries with fertility rates lower than the replacement level (2.1), such as Korea, the optimal strategy for economic growth, fiscal stability and geopolitical security is liberal immigration with effective assimilation into these societies, the report says.





The study was conducted by researchers from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington's School of Medicine. For comparisons, they used data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017.


(Newser)  A Russian prankster posing as the UN secretary-general managed to reach Polands president on the telephone and rendered him speechless with questions about Ukraine, Russia, and his reelection on Sunday. The prankster, Vladimir Kuznetsov, known as Vovan, posted a recording of the 11-minute call on YouTube. President Andrzej Duda's office confirmed Wednesday that it was authentic, the AP reports. At various points in the conversation, conducted in English, Duda sounds surprised at the line of questioning but still refers to the impostor as "Your Excellency." Duda tweeted Wednesday that he realized "something was not right" during the conversation, which took place Monday afternoon while the president awaited official word of his election victory.

story continues below

Duda said he was suspicious because the real UN chief, Antonio Guterres, does not pronounce the name of Polish vodka brand Zubrowka as well as the caller did. But he conceded the "voice was very similar." The president ended his tweet with an emoticon of tears of laughter. Polish security is investigating how the call got through and whether Russia's secret services were involved. At one point, the caller congratulated Duda on his reelection but took the president to task for his hostile campaign comments about the LGBT community, drawing Duda's assurance that he has huge respect for every human being. Duda also rejected a provocative suggestion that Poland would seek to claim back the Ukrainian city of Lviv, which was part of Poland before World War II. No! No! This is Ukraine, Duda emphasized.

(Read more prank call stories.)
The registration for the academic year 2020-21 will be conducted online in Pune, Mumbai, Nashik, Aurangabad, Amravati and Nagpur.

The registration process for admissions to First Year Junior College (FYJC) or Class 11 in different cities of Maharashtra will commence from 26 July. The registration for the academic year 2020-21 will be conducted online in Pune, Mumbai, Nashik, Aurangabad, Amravati and Nagpur, reported The Indian Express.

Those who want to apply can do so through the official website pune.11thadmission.org.in.

From today (16 July), the education department will allow students to fill mock practice forms, which will be deleted when the actual admission process starts. For the first time, students can avail of mock practice forms, Students are being allowed demo registration for the first time.

According to The Times of India, students will have to generate a user ID and password unlike last year when they received an information booklet containing the two.

Students will have to upload their documents on the website, which will be verified by the schools.

Those who are going to take admission in Class 11 must use the demo option to make sure that they do not make mistakes while filling the final form.

As per Hindustan Times, students in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region will be able to fill Part 1 of their application forms, which consist of basic details, from 26 July. However, they will get to fill Part 2 of the form after the declaration of SSC (Class 10) result.

Forms can also be filled by visiting the official website of the deputy directorate at https://mumbai.11thadmission.org.in.
William A. Darity Jr., a professor of public policy at Duke University in Durham, N.C., wrote in an email on Wednesday night that he was deeply skeptical about local or piecemeal actions to address various forms of racial inequality being labeled reparations.

For reparations to be effective, he wrote, they would have to close the pretax racial wealth disparity in the United States, which would cost about $10 to $12 trillion  three to four times more than total state and municipal spending.

So piecemeal reparations taken singly or collectively at those levels of government cannot meet the debt for American racial injustice, he wrote.

As part of the resolution passed by the Council, city leaders in Asheville called on the state of North Carolina and the federal government to provide funding for reparations.

Councilwoman Sheneika Smith, who is also Black, said during the Councils meeting that she had heard from residents who challenged the reparations measure.

A lot of the feedback that weve gotten so far by email is that you know, Why should we pay for what happened during slavery? Ms. Smith said. And my pushback against that is reparations is more than restitution for what happened during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It is a dark evil sin of chattel slavery that is the root of all injustice and inequity that is at work in American life today.

The developments in Asheville came after nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism, which were catalyzed by Mr. Floyds killing in late May. A Minneapolis police officer kept his knee on Mr. Floyds neck for more than eight minutes in an episode that was captured on video by bystanders. The officer and three other officers involved were fired and charged in Mr. Floyds murder.
The Port of Wilmington wants to build a giant container port on the former Chemours Edgemoor on the Delaware River, about five miles south of the Pennsylvania border. Pennsylvania and New Jersey officials want to block legislation that would give the Wilmington Port an "unfair competitive advantage" over other ports along the river. Read more

Pennsylvania and New Jersey officials are stepping up a campaign to block legislation that they say would give the Port of Wilmington and its foreign-owned private operator a lucrative advantage over rival Delaware River ports, and potentially siphon cargo business away from Philadelphia.

Opponents complain that the legislation, co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Thomas Carper (D., Del.), would simplify environmental permitting for a new container port in Edgemoor on the site of a former chemical factory, and allow the operator to use federal disposal facilities for dredged material at minimal to no cost compared with the expenses that competing port facilities must pay.

The unprecedented language is designed to provide the Port of Wilmington and the proposed Port of Edgemoor in Delaware an unfair competitive advantage over other ports along the Delaware River, U.S. Reps. Brendan F. Boyle, a Democrat, and Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican, said in a letter to congressional leaders that was co-signed by nine other representatives from Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

I admire creativity, but this is beyond the pale, given the sizable impact it could have on the environment, and the very problematic precedent it sets, said Jerry Sweeney, the chairman of PhilaPort, regional port authority. Its a serious issue.

The Delaware proposal particularly irritates officials from Pennsylvania, whose taxpayers paid $140 million of the $400 million cost to deepen the Delaware River channel from 40 feet to 45 feet to accommodate larger vessels. Delaware and New Jersey opposed the project, and declined to pay for it, but Boyle and Fitzpatrick said Wilmingtons current expansion plan is only possible because of the deeper channel.

The legislation would benefit Gulftainer, a United Arab Emirates port operator that in 2018 won a 50-year lease to run Wilmingtons port. Gulftainer promised to invest $584 million over 10 years to improve the existing Wilmington port, including $410 million to build a new deepwater port in Edgemoor, a former DuPont chemical plant.

The governors of Pennsylvania and New Jersey cited Gulftainers foreign ownership in a letter last month to leaders of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which is negotiating provisions in the bill. The benefits to the Wilmington port are included in the Senate bill, Americas Water Infrastructure Act of 2020, which Carper co-sponsored.

We strongly request your support in this matter because U.S. workers and entities should not be jeopardized by foreign competitors at taxpayer expense, and because federal legislation should require that all similarly situated organizations compete under the same rules, Gov. Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania and Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey wrote to the House committee.

The bill was approved last month by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, on which Carper is the ranking Democrat. Supporters of the legislation say the provisions will benefit ports across the nation. Carper said Wilmingtons expansion will benefit Pennsylvania and New Jersey as well as Delaware.

The Port of Wilmington expansion will not only create more jobs in the short-term, in the long-term, it will enable more commerce to be facilitated through the port, creating more jobs and economic activity for the entire region, Carper said in a statement Wednesday. Its a win for our entire regional economy.

The dispute is the latest clash between neighboring jurisdictions over the Delaware River that dates to 1682, when Englands Duke of York set the boundaries for the Delaware colony. He included most of the submerged lands beneath the Delaware River, allowing Delaware to exert control over fishing and some development to the rivers eastern bank, much to New Jerseys enduring frustration.

In 2016, the state-owned Diamond State Port Corp. bought the 114-acre former DuPont site in Edgemoor and conducted an extensive search to privatize and modernize its port. It chose Gulftainer, which operates 13 ports worldwide, including Port Canaveral in Florida

Gulftainer made no secret about its expansion aims when it signed the Wilmington lease in 2018, saying the Edgemoor site would be a state-of-the-art container port with direct access to rail and highways that would shave valuable transit times for container ships bound for Philadelphia or New York.

This is going to be a hard thing for people north of us to swallow, because this is going to be the place where people want to come, Peter Richards, chief executive of Gulftainers U.S. arm, GT USA, said at the time.

Sweeney, the PhilaPort chairman who is also chief executive of the Brandywine Realty Trust, said Gulftainer has not identified new shippers of container traffic. Rather, they plan on cannibalizing the existing book of business, he said.

Its one thing if there was a coordinated public policy and business approach where the three states would work collaboratively to grow overall volumes within the ports that are served by the Delaware River, Sweeney said. This is clearly just an attempt to to take away from the traffic.

Wilmington now handles about 350,000 container units a year, and Gulftainer aims to expand it to 1.2 million units per year in a decade with the Edgemoor project. The Port of Philadelphia, which underwent a $300 million state-funded upgrade, last year loaded and unloaded 548,000 container units, and is aiming to expand its capacity to 1 million units a year.

The legislation introduced by Carper contains provisions that Pennsylvania opponents say would put pressure on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to approve and issue development permits for the Wilmington Ports without the required studies and analysis required of similar port projects.

The 305-page Senate bill would also allow the non-federal Wilmington ports to use U.S. Army Corps of Engineers confined disposal facilities for dredged material. (CDFs) at minimal to no cost as compared to the significant expenses incurred by other ports for their maintenance dredge material.

If the Senate bill amendments become law, the new facilities would effectively be federally funded without undergoing the normal review processes, Govs. Wolf and Murphy wrote in their letter. They would not be required to undergo the cost of future maintenance of their project. They would be relieved of the need to plan for and safely dispose of their maintenance materials. And they would enter the regional maritime market with significant cost and time savings over every other port.

The provisions in the law allowing a port operator to skirt some reviews undermines environmental protections, said Peter Winslow, president of A SMART Collaboration LLC, a coalition of environmental groups.

Its a terrible precedent from an environmental standpoint, short-cutting the way in which permitting is done and dredging is conducted, and where the tailings are deposited, said Winslow.
People in Britain today know little or nothing of their country's record of "national iniquity against China" which, in the words of 19th century Prime Minister William Gladstone, "cover this country in permanent disgrace." Schools now teach children about the British Empire and the slave trade, but China is largely ignored.



Now the British public is being told by Boris Johnson's government that China is crushing democratic rights in Hong Kong. China's new law on safeguarding national security in Hong Kong, it is claimed, blatantly violates the 50-year agreement between Britain and China on the future of Hong Kong after the handover in 1997.

On its own, this is unlikely to have a major impact on public opinion in Britain. Many television viewers were shocked to see the damage inflicted by Hong Kong protesters on shops, public buildings and members of the press and public who did not agree with them. It is difficult to imagine the authorities in Britain tolerating the destruction of airport facilities  let alone the chamber of the House of Commons  without responding with maximum force to quell such disruption.

As for China's new security law in Hong Kong, its main provisions are already exercised by the Western countries rushing to denounce China. There is very little in the structures, powers, offences, exemptions or safeguards proposed by the security law which does not already exist in Britain.

Furthermore, the ordinary police and their Special Branch in Britain have extensive powers to enter and search domestic and commercial premises and to arrest suspected criminals, all of which can be done even without a warrant when national security is supposedly at stake.

The new Committee for Safeguarding National Security of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is being established on a statutory basis  unlike Britain's secret and intelligence services which operated outside the law for many decades until the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Enactment of the new Hong Kong security law by the National People's Congress is not a violation of the former's autonomy. Hong Kong is not a separate nation. They have the devolved powers of a special administrative region rather than the right of a nation to self-determination.

No sovereign country divides ultimate control of its national security policy between its constituent regions.

Thus, for example, the main provisions of Britain's Aviation and Maritime Security Act (1990), Terrorism Act (2006), Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures Act (2011), Counter-Terrorism and Security Act (2015) apply fully across England, Scotland and Wales as well as Northern Ireland. They can be extended by government ministers to the autonomous Isle of Man and Channel Islands at the stroke of a pen in the secretive and non-elected Privy Council.

Certainly, they allow no autonomy in national security matters to the populated islands of Anglesey, Orkney and Shetland or the Isle of Wight  least of all as the result of some treaty with a foreign power.

Most people in Britain realize that acts of terrorism and violent subversion have to be combated within the law. Free from the misinformation against China, they would also understand that Hong Kong cannot be allowed to become a haven for violent subversion or dangerous criminals wanted for serious offences on the Chinese mainland.

Instead of hypocritically condemning the Chinese authorities for taking the necessary steps to safeguard national security, the British government would do better to end Britain's long record of interference in Chinese affairs.

So far, the Chinese government and the Hong Kong authorities have shown far more restraint in the teeth of the violent provocations in Hong Kong.

There is no reason to believe that China's policy of restraint will change, although action will rightly be taken against those who plot and commit serious crimes.

In the meantime, Boris Johnson's government should concentrate on doing what the majority of people want, according to recent YouGov public opinion polls  namely, maintaining good relations between Britain and China.

Robert Griffiths is a former Senior Lecturer in Political Economy and History at the University of Wales and currently the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Britain.

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

If you would like to contribute, please contact us at opinion@china.org.cn.
The government has imposed limits on import of power tillers and components with an aim to target China and discourage inbound shipments of these products. "Import policy of power tillers and its components is amended from free to restricted," the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has said in a notification on Thursday. Following this move, the importer would have to seek a license from the directorate for the imports of power tillers and components including engine, transmission, chassis and rotavator.

DGFT, in its public notice, has laid out a procedure for giving import licenses. According to new rules, the cumulative value of authorisation issued to any firm or all firms in a year would not be exceeding 10 per cent of the value of power tillers imported during FY20 by that company.

Chinese power tillers and components are much cheaper than Indian-made ones. It puts local companies at a disadvantage when compared with China's.

The cap of 10 per cent would also be applicable for components of power tillers. The applicant should have been in the business for at least three years and should have sold a minimum of 100 power tillers in the past 3 years, it said. "Only manufacturers are eligible for applying for an import authorisation for import of power tillers or its components. The applicant should have satisfactory and proven infrastructure for training, post sales service and spare parts," it added.

India has taken a slew of retaliatory measures in the past few weeks as a part of its economic offensive against China amid the ongoing border tensions between the two Asian neighbours.

(With PTI inputs)Also read: BT Buzz: Why India is becoming main hub for smuggled gold

Also read: Two Chinese companies' bids for Delhi-Mumbai expressway projects rejected
The White House indicated on Wednesday that a decision on Chinese mobile applications, including TikTok, could be taken within weeks and not months. "I do not think there is any self-imposed deadline for action, but I think we are looking at weeks, not months," White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters aboard Air Force One, flying with President Donald Trump form Atlanta. "There are a number of administration officials who are looking at the national security risk as it relates to TikTok, WeChat and other apps that have the potential for national ...

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New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2020) - Mariner Investment Group, LLC ("Mariner"), the global alternative investment manager, announced today that it has completed the management buyback by Curtis Arledge, Mariner Chairman and CEO, William Michaelcheck, Mariner Founder, Partner and Co-Chief Investment Officer and other senior members of the firm from ORIX Corporation USA ("ORIX USA"). As an independent company, Mariner is 100 percent employee-owned and will continue to provide its investors with fixed income relative value and credit strategy offerings.

"This is a significant milestone for our company and presents an exciting opportunity to build on our longstanding success as an investment manager," said Arledge. "As a 100 percent employee-owned company we will have the flexibility to continue to capitalize on the evolving investment landscape for our clients."

The transaction was originally announced in April 2020.

About Mariner Investment Group, LLC

Mariner Investment Group, LLC, is a longstanding investment adviser with significant experience in providing clients with a broad array of unique trading and investment strategies with a particular focus on fixed income relative value and credit offerings. Founded in 1992, Mariner and its affiliates have offices located across seven geographies including New York, London, and Tokyo. For more information, visit www.marinerinvestment.com.

For Media Inquiries:

Mariner Investment Group

David Press

david@feverpress.com

917.721.7046

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/59967
LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / July 16, 2020 / You probably know Andy Ta Kong as the Chief Operations Officer of Project Wifi. We know that he is a hard-working entrepreneur but how exactly did he get there?

Kong was very young when he started working and came from the small community of Danville, Virginia. He loved keeping busy and helping out his family when he could.

Kong started working when he was only nine. He worked with his family at their family-owned restaurant and nail salons.

As others his age played sports, he never really got that same opportunity as he was caught in a pattern of going to school and then working when he wasn't learning.

His parents weren't fluent in English and so Kong was an asset in the business as he had stronger skills in this language.

After school and on weekends he would go to his father's restaurant to help out and would alternate between that and his mother's nail salons. Not only did he do the labor work, but he was also involved in creating online ads. This was his first experience with learning how to make money online and would later inspire him to create businesses of his own as an adult. All of these skills and work ethic that he had learned at such a young age would help build him into the man that he is today.

Kong started selling on Amazon with the FBA Private Label business model. He later worked with Kyle Buckner, owner of designskinz.com. Shortly after that, he joined the team and was given the COO position and gained exposure to e-commerce and branding in 11th grade.

As his career evolved, Kong learned about Amazon Dropshipping from a kid he found on Instagram. This kid inspired him and showed him the possibilities that his future could hold. He just had to give it a try.

When his Amazon store got suspended, he viewed this experience as a life lesson and learned from his mistakes. Later on, he created Project WiFi, an Amazon management company with his partners, Marcello Cantu, Paul Parker, and Mohammed Shakaoat. This Project has proven to be a huge success amongst Amazon sellers.

Kong says, "The biggest challenge when starting a business is getting someone to believe in you." His parents always baffled him about focusing on school and their retail business. He understands how a lot of people are afraid of new things, and it's okay for them to be afraid.

He wants to encourage you to believe in yourself, even when no one else does. He says that if you stop at any minor inconvenience or roadblock along the way, you will never succeed. He pushed through and did things for himself even when his loved ones discouraged it. If he hadn't pushed forward with it, he wouldn't be as happy and financially secure as he is today.

Kong plans to continue to build up his business which currently has over 55 clients who each make thousands and thousands of dollars each month. He and his team plan on building an empire while encouraging others to do the same.

For more on Kong, you can find him on Instagram by clicking here

Kiley Almy

Kiley@nextwavemktg.com

Next Wave Marketing

SOURCE: Andy Kong

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/597756/Andy-Ta-Kong-Says-its-Okay-to-be-Uncertain
A spot in the prestigious Tennessee Governors One-Shot Turkey Hunt in 2021 is among the prizes in the turkey hunting package for a lucky winner in the 2020 Tennessee Conservation Raffle sponsored by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Foundation.

The turkey hunting package is one of the seven, priceless outdoor experiences available to win this year.

The winner of this package will have the opportunity to hunt in the annual Governors One-Shot at a private farm in Middle Tennessee and will be competing with about 100 other hunters and guides. The lucky winners guide will be Preston Pittman, a five-time World Champion Turkey Caller and a member of the National Outdoor Hall of Fame. After the hunt, the winner and guest are invited to attend the banquet at The Factory in Franklin for a dinner, silent auctions, and door prizes.

Two nights lodging are also included.

In addition to participation in the Governors One-Shot, the winner will receive a Retay Masai Mara Turkey XT 12-gauge shotgun. There is also a Pack Rabbit Elite Turkey Game Carrier and Chest Vest, full collection of Preston Pittman Game Calls, choice of LaCrosse hunting boots, and hunting clothing from Longleaf Camo. Tickets are available online at https://raffle.twrf.net/.

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.

In addition to the turkey hunting package, other packages available this year include an elk hunting package including a tag to participate in the 2020 Tennessee elk hunt; a fishing package which includes a day of fishing with the legendary Bill Dance; deer hunting package including a deer hunt on Presidents Island with crossbow and gear; off-road package with a 2020 Honda Pioneer UTV; waterfowl hunting package; and a camping package. All the packages feature additional items and a complete list of the prizes can be found at https://raffle.twrf.net/.

A single ticket is $20, three tickets for $50, and 10 for $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 great 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.

TWRF is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting habitat conservation, responsible land stewardship, and Tennessee's hunting and fishing heritage for the benefit of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and Tennessee's outdoor enthusiasts.
Test if cough persists, say no to steroids: New COVID-19 guidelines

Failure to vaccinate everyone will give rise to new variants, says UN chief

Faith vs safety in burials: COVID-19 remains in dead bodies for 9 days says Centre

Fact check: Does Vodka prevent COVID-19

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, July 16: A letter from a famous US hospital, St Lukes has re-surfaced again, claiming that drinking alcohol, especially Vodka can help reduce the risk of getting COVID-19.

A similar letter had done the rounds in March, during the peak of the outbreak. However, this was debunked by the hospital in March itself. The hospital said that it had not released any such letter.

"False reports are circulating that say drinking alcohol can reduce the risk of COVID-19. THIS IS NOT TRUE. Saint Luke's follows CDC guidance," a post by the hospital read.

Fact check: Has Russia actually found coronavirus vaccine

On the other hand, alcohol can impair the immune responses in your respiratory pathways, which increases the risk of getting respiratory infections. It also reduces the number of white blood cells in your lungs, which impacts the activity of macrophages, the white blood cell that fights viral infections.

Bihar bridge collapse: Rs 263 crores washed away in 29 days, who is responsible? | Oneindia News

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC), USA only recommends topical use of alcohol in the form of hand sanitisers to prevent COVID-19. It also says that you must wash your hands with soap and clean water for 20 seconds.
A Spanish beach campsite has been put in lockdown with 250 tourists barred from leaving after two holidaymakers tested positive for coronavirus.

The Talai Mendi campsite in Zarautz, on the Spanish Basque coast, was immediately shut after one person came down with the deadly bug.

A second person tested positive shortly after and tests have now been ordered on all 250 mostly-young people - including children - inside.

Police have been called in to prevent anyone from entering or leaving without permission.

A spanish beach campsite in Zarautz has been put in lockdown with 250 tourists barred from leaving after two holidaymakers tested positive for coronavirus. Pictured: Police outside the campsite

The Talai Mendi campsite in Zarautz, on the Spanish Basque coast (file image of town, pictured), was immediately shut after one person came down with the deadly bug

The camp site had only just reopened after the coronavirus lockdown when the first diagnosis was confirmed.

Medics started the tests yesterday and it is hoped the first results will come through today.

Tourists will then be given the choice of either going home or staying inside the closed campsite to quarantine for between seven and 14 days.

The Mayor of Zarautz, Xabier Txurruka said most of the clients were young people, including children, because of the popularity of the location and he 'didn't think there were many tourists from outside the region'.

Police have been called in to prevent anyone from entering or leaving without permission. Pictured: Police outside the campsite

However, it has not been specified where the 250 people come from or their nationality.

Staff at the campsite are also being tested. The bar and restaurants inside have been closed but local hotels and cafes are helping out by sending in food for the tourists.

One of the few people who was able to leave was a cook living in Zarautz

She told local media: 'It took us all by surprise. Once my workday was over, I was supposed to leave at 3pm but couldn't take the test until 6pm.

The Talai Mendi campsite in Zarautz (file image of the town), on the Spanish Basque coast, was immediately shut after one person came down with the deadly bug

'Those of us from here have been allowed to leave but the rest must stay in the campsite. The results should be announced on Thursday morning. Let's see what happens.'

Locals said they were very worried that the incident might lead to an outbreak in the region as infected campers could have unknowingly visited bars and restaurants during their stay.

It is understood one of the two positive readings was a young woman on holiday from outside the area.

The campsite is a favourite with Brits who have praised its facilities on TripAdvisor, with one UK visitor posting: 'Very easy to find, high up on a hillock with sweeping views of the ocean and the beaches.'

The campsite's website this morning showed 'temporarily closed'
The UK government has banned mobile providers from purchasing new 5G equipment from Chinese company Huawei after December 31. Existing Huawei equipment must be removed by 2027.

The announcement is a major reversal of Britains decision just six months ago to allow the company to provide up to 35 percent of the kit in the UKs 5G network periphery. It follows a concerted international campaign waged by the United States to pressure its allies into refusing any Huawei involvement in the development of new telecommunications infrastructure.

President Donald Trump reportedly subjected Prime Minister Boris Johnson to an apoplectic phone call after he informed him of the UKs initial decision. A few days later, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a two-day meeting with Johnson and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. A series of veiled threats were made to cancel or restrict US intelligence sharing with the UK security services, and to put the brakes on a post-Brexit trade deal. The final push came with the implementation of sanctions barring the use of American-patented technology in Huawei equipment, forcing Britain to use other suppliers if it continued to work with the Chinese company.

Huawei at Mobile World Congress 2016 (Image Credit: Karlis Dambrans/Flickr)

Trump was quick to boast of his administrations responsibility for the UKs volte face, responding to the announcement in a White House press conference: We convinced many countries, many countriesand I did this myself for the most partnot to use Huawei because we think its an unsafe security risk, its a big security risk.  If they want to do business with us, they cant use it.

This left UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock to make a pathetic denial in an interview with Sky News, saying Trump was wrong to claim credit for the move. We all know Donald Trump dont we. But I think this is a sensible decision. All sorts of people can try to claim credit for the decision, but this was based on a technical assessment by the National Cyber Security Centre about how we can have the highest quality 5G systems in the future.

In reality, Britains ban on Huawei marks another lurch towards the trade and military war camp of US imperialism, aggressively advocated by a group of Tory hardliners. It will have major political and economic repercussions.

Speaking for the concerns of large sections of the British ruling class, the Financial Times drew attention to the shift from the so-called golden decade of Anglo-Chinese relations begun by former Prime Minister David Cameron, to the deep freeze of today. While it endorses the governments decision, based on the changed security assessment and commercial constraints, the papers editorial warned that it would come with substantial cost. In the immediate term, it could delay the rollout of 5G networks in Britain by two years, as well as add up to 2bn to its cost. Operators may well demand compensation

Shutting the door on Huawei threatens to provoke economic reprisals. Economic ties between China and the UK have grown substantially in recent years, with China investing $79.5 billion between 2010 and 2019twice as much as in the next European recipientand Britains exports to China tripling between 2008 and 2018.

Chinese state-aligned newspaper the Global Times responded to the ban on Huawei with an editorial stating, It is necessary for China to retaliate against the UK, otherwise would we not be seen as easy to bully. Such retaliation should be public and painful for the UK.

Zhao Lijian, foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing, said, Its a litmus test for the direction where the UK market would go after Brexit, and whether the UK businesses in China will be provided with an open, fair, and non-discriminate environment.

The FT cautions, As the world fractures, and Britain charts its own course after Brexit, it would be damaging to be drawn into President Donald Trumps new cold war with China. Realistic, constructive engagement with Beijing is the priority. It quotes former Labour government cabinet member and now head of the Great Britain-China Centre, Peter Mandelson, saying, If we are going to cut ourselves off from our privileged access to the European market and if we recognise that the US economy operates in quite a protectionist way, are we going also to isolate ourselves from China, the biggest source of growth in the world? Where are we going to make a living?

But these are little more than words on a page. Political power is in the hands of hardline Brexiteers, seeking to use the UKs break with the European Union to secure a closer economic and geostrategic alignment with US imperialism. Johnson may yet face a rebellion of up to 60 Tory MPs, led by former Tory party leader Iain Duncan Smith, demanding even faster and more extensive moves against Huawei. Smith asked in the House of Commons why its removal from the 5G network could not be accomplished by 2025 and if theyre a risk to us in 5G, why are they not a risk to us generally [in 4G and 3G networks]?

With these forces dominant in the Tory party and the Labour Party in a catatonic stateShadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy applauded the governments welcome, long-overdue stepsections of the ruling class in favour of a balancing act between America and China based on Europe are left writing ineffectual press commentaries as a US-led war drive proceeds.

The HMS Queen Elizabeth, Britain's largest warship, anchors near the Lower New York Bay, Saturday, Oct. 20, 2018, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

The same day the new decision on Huawei was announced, military chiefs revealed the UKs new 3 billion aircraft carrier, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, would be making its maiden voyage to the Far East next year. According to the Times, the carrier will lead a strike group including four frigates, 24 F-35B Lightning II jets, and a nuclear submarine. It will participate in US-Japanese military exercises in the region to counter the emerging threat of China, according to one government source.

This all takes place just one month after the British government used Beijings crackdown on protests in Hong Kong and the imposition of an authoritarian National Security Law as a platform to support Washingtons economic assault on Chinavia sanctions on the Chinese-controlled territory. In this case, too, the UK is acting against the interests of many major British companies, more than 300 of which have regional headquarters or offices serving Hong Kongs domestic market and the region.

These actions have a relentless logic. British imperialism is in a state of immense crisis following the Brexit vote of 2016, with the final pullout due to be effected at the end of this year. That the government is prepared to sacrifice the UKs short and medium-term economic interests in its recent dealings with China is an indication of how closely it perceives the solution of that crisis to be tied to the fate of the US. The ban on Huawei demonstrates its strengthening commitment to a Washington-led reshaping of the world economy through protectionism and military aggression.
Dublin, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Salmon Fish Market: Insights & Forecast with Potential Impact of COVID-19 (2020-2024)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



Presently, the overall industry is experiencing growth with the ongoing research & development activities conducted by the key fish breeding corporations to improve their respective smolt (young salmon fish) harvest volume.

The global salmon fish market is expected to reach US$21.52 billion in 2024, witnessing growth at a CAGR of 7.72%, over the period 2020-2024.

The growth of the market is supported by factors such as growing population, increasing fast-casual restaurants, escalating smolt releases, growing tourism industry and rising healthcare awareness. However, market growth would be challenged by growing carbon dioxide emissions and an outbreak of salmon induced disease. To overcome the challenges in the market, a few notable trends like emerging salmon fish harvesting projects, accelerating demand for smoked salmon, mounting penetration of online food orders, increasing per capita consumption of fish and technological advancement are expected to boost the market in future.

The fastest-growing regional market was Europe owing to the decline in the occurrence rate of marine animal diseases such as Sea Lice, Pancreas Disease & Salmonid Rickettsial Septicaemia in key revenue contributing areas and high adoption of the recirculation aquaculture system by the seafood companies. However, the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has caused a major trade disruption worldwide, leading to a significant decline in the demand for salmon fish, impacting the growth of the market globally.

Scope of the Report

The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the global salmon fish market with the potential impact of COVID-19.

The major regional markets (Norway, Chile, the U.K., Canada) have been analyzed.

The market dynamics such as growth drivers, market trends and challenges are analyzed in-depth.

The competitive landscape of the market, along with the company profiles of leading players (Mowi ASA, Austevoll Seafood ASA (Lery Seafood Group ASA), SalMar ASA, Grieg Seafood ASA, Bakkafrost P/F and Norway Royal Salmon ASA) are also presented in detail.

Story continues

Key Topics Covered



1. Market Overview

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Types of Salmon Fish

1.3 Production Cycle of Salmon Fish

2. Impact of COVID-19

2.1 Decline in Fishing Activity

2.2 Impact on Food Purchase Preferences

2.3 Impact on Seafood Industry

2.4 Impact on Salmon Prices

3. Global Market Analysis

3.1 Global Salmon Fish Market by Value

3.2 Global Salmon Fish Market Forecast by Value

3.3 Global Salmon Fish Supply Volume

3.4 Global Salmon Fish Supply Volume Forecast

3.5 Global Salmon Fish Demand Volume

3.6 Global Salmon Fish Demand Volume Forecast

3.7 Global Salmon Fish Consumption per Capita by Region

4. Regional Market Analysis

4.1 Europe

4.1.1 Europe Salmon Fish Supply Volume

4.1.2 Europe Salmon Fish Supply Volume Forecast

4.1.3 Europe Salmon Fish Supply Volume by Country

4.1.4 Europe Salmon Fish Demand Volume

4.1.5 Europe Salmon Fish Demand Volume Forecast

4.1.6 Europe Salmon Fish Demand Volume by Country

4.1.7 Norway Salmon Fish Supply Volume

4.1.8 Norway Salmon Fish Supply Volume Forecast

4.1.9 The U.K. Salmon Fish Supply Volume

4.1.10 The U.K. Salmon Fish Supply Volume Forecast

4.1.11 Germany Salmon Fish Demand Volume Forecast

4.1.12 Germany Salmon Fish Demand Volume by Product Category

4.1.13 France Salmon Fish Demand Volume Forecast

4.1.14 France Salmon Fish Demand Volume by Product Category

4.2 The Americas

4.2.1 The Americas Salmon Fish Supply Volume

4.2.2 The Americas Salmon Fish Supply Volume Forecast

4.2.3 The Americas Salmon Fish Supply Volume by Country

4.2.4 Chile Salmon Fish Supply Volume

4.2.5 Chile Salmon Fish Supply Volume Forecast

4.2.6 Canada Salmon Fish Supply Volume

4.2.7 Canada Salmon Fish Supply Volume Forecast

4.2.8 The U.S. Salmon Fish Demand Volume

4.2.9 The U.S. Salmon Fish Demand Volume Forecast

4.2.10 The U.S. Salmon Fish Demand Volume by Category

4.2.11 The U.S. Salmon Fish Imports Volume

4.2.12 The U.S. Salmon Fish Imports Volume by Country

4.2.13 Brazil Salmon Fish Demand Volume

4.2.14 Brazil Salmon Fish Demand Volume Forecast

5. Market Dynamics

5.1 Growth Drivers

5.1.1 Growing Population

5.1.2 Increasing Fast-Casual Restaurants

5.1.3 Escalating Smolt Releases

5.1.4 Upsurge in Economic Growth

5.1.5 Growing Tourism Industry

5.1.6 Rising Healthcare Awareness

5.2 Key Trends and Developments

5.2.1 Emerging Salmon Fish Harvesting Projects

5.2.2 Accelerating Demand for Smoked Salmon

5.2.3 Mounting Penetration of Online Food Orders

5.2.4 Increasing Per Capita Consumption of Fish

5.2.5 Technological Advancement

5.3 Challenges

5.3.1 Growing Carbon Dioxide Emissions

5.3.2 Outbreak of Salmon Induced Disease

6. Competitive Landscape

6.1 Global Market

6.1.1 Revenue Comparison of Key Players

6.2 Norway

6.2.1 Salmon Fish Market Share Comparison by Key Players

6.3 Chile

6.3.1 Salmon Fish Market Share by Key Players

7. Company Profiles

7.1 Mowi ASA

7.1.1 Business Overview

7.1.2 Financial Overview

7.1.3 Business Strategies

7.2 Austevoll Seafood ASA (Lery Seafood Group ASA)

7.3 SalMar ASA

7.4 Grieg Seafood ASA

7.5 Bakkafrost P/F

7.6 Norway Royal Salmon ASA



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/k8vsot

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ROCKVILLE, Md.

July 16, 2020

Maryland's

January 1, 2021

Maryland's

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Maryland's

Santiago, Chile

/PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Shady Grove Fertility (SGF) is proud to support the revisions toinsurance laws that increase access to care for those seeking fertility treatment. Effectiveinfertility insurance law no longer has a marriage requirement, and the 2-year "waiting" period has been reduced to 1 year of unprotected sexual intercourse or three attempts of artificial insemination in the course of a year.SGF applauds RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, of whom Shady Grove Fertility is a visionary partner, for their advocacy work. The Governor and thelegislature are updating the state's insurance lawwhich was the first infertility insurance law in the country in 1985to cover unmarried patients and more closely align with the guidelines of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM).Many Marylanders have an advantage over residents of other states when it comes to infertility insurance legislation, known as the Maryland Mandate, aswas the first state in the nation to enact infertility insurance legislation and was the third state that also covers fertility preservation prior to cancer treatment.Currently, 19 states have passed laws that require health insurance coverage be offered for or actually cover an infertility diagnosis and/or fertility treatment, and ten states have fertility preservation laws for iatrogenic, or medically induced, infertility. Read more about State Fertility Insurance Laws.Over 90 percent of SGF patients with insurance have coverage for their initial consult, and at least 70 percent have some level of coverage for testing and/or treatment. For those without adequate insurance coverage, SGF offers unique financial programs such as its Shared Risk 100% Refund Program, which guarantees patients take home a baby or receive 100% refund, and income-based Shared Help Program, among other discount programs, that aim to make treatment affordable to all.To learn more aboutfamily building advocacy efforts, visit RESOLVE.To learn more or to schedule a virtual physician consultation with an SGF physician, call 1-888-761-1967 or visit ShadyGroveFertility.com.About Shady Grove Fertility (SGF) SGF is a leading fertility and IVF center of excellence with more than 85,000 babies born and counting. With 38 locations throughout FL, GA, MD, NY, PA, VA, D.C., and, we offer patients virtual physician consults, individualized care, accept most insurance plans, and make treatment affordable through innovative financial options, including treatment guarantees. More physicians refer their patients to SGF than any other center. Call 1-888-761-1967 or visit ShadyGroveFertility.com.SOURCE Shady Grove Fertility
A line of Goya Foods products lay on the Resolute desk, symbolic as the seat of power inside the White House, as President Donald Trump flashed a smile and offered a double thumbs-up in a photo shared to his Instagram account on Wednesday.

The image - the latest show of support from the administration for a company facing boycott calls after its chief executive praised Trump - was a breaking point for CNN host Chris Cuomo, who noted Wednesday night that the president's Goya promotion comes as coronavirus cases continue to spike nationwide.

"You tell me how a president, in the middle of a pandemic, has got time for this b-------. Are you kidding me? Hawking products?" Cuomo asked, with the expletive airing unedited. He added, "Resolute desk! This is what he's resolute about."

Questioning the president's "pandemic priorities" on "Cuomo Prime Time," the CNN host showed the viral photo of presidential adviser and first daughter Ivanka Trump holding up a can of Goya black beans earlier this week, which prompted concerns about whether she was using her government position to endorse a private business. Cuomo accused the administration of "marketing for a brand," while the number of reported coronavirus cases in the U.S. now stands at nearly 3.5 million.

Staff/afp/TNS

"On your dime, in the middle of a pandemic, they're selling beans," said Cuomo, who recovered from covid-19 in the spring. "Are you kidding me? Seriously? Seriously?"

Cuomo's criticism capped off a seventh day of backlash against America's largest Hispanic-owned food company after chief executive Robert Unanueproclaimed "we're all truly blessed" to have Trump as president at a White House event last week.

Trump, his children and White House officials have taken to social media to offer support for the brand. Earlier on Wednesday, the president tweeted that Goya was "doing GREAT," adding, "The Radical Left smear machine backfired, people are buying like crazy!" Donald Trump Jr. posted on Instagram late Wednesday to emphasize that his dinner featured "a lot of Goya products."

"I'm actually drinking my Goya Malta, supporting some people who have some guts in the culture war," said Trump Jr., showing off the nonalcoholic malt beverage. "[I] like those that have guts, it's sort of nice. Unfortunately, it's lacking these days, but it's okay. When we win, we'll be able to enforce that a little bit better."

As The Washington Post's John Wagner reported, Ivanka Trump faced bipartisan criticism this week over the photo of her holding Goya beans - with the caption, "If it's Goya, it has to be good" - with many claiming the photo was an ethics violation. Federal ethics laws prevent federal employees, such as Ivanka Trump, from using their positions "to endorse any product, service or enterprise."

White House spokeswoman Carolina Hurley pushed back against Ivanka Trump's critics in a statement to The Post Wednesday morning.

"Only the media and the cancel culture movement would criticize Ivanka for showing her personal support for a company that has been unfairly mocked, boycotted and ridiculed for supporting this administration - one that has consistently fought for and delivered for the Hispanic community," Hurley said. "Ivanka is proud of this strong, Hispanic-owned business with deep roots in the U.S. and has every right to express her personal support."

On CNN, Cuomo pinged the White House for anonymously disseminating a list of negative talking points about Anthony S. Fauci, the nation's top infectious-disease expert. While the White House sought to distance itself from the USA Today op-ed penned by trade adviser Peter Navarro that blasted Fauci, Cuomo said Trump needed to show greater action in his support of Fauci instead of shifting the blame toward states and health officials.

It's also why Trump peddling for Goya goes far beyond identity politics, he said.

"This is not left and right; this is reasonable, my brothers and sisters," Cuomo pleaded. "The guy is sitting on the Resolute desk with a bunch of Goya products." He added, "Proof positive of why we need many Faucis, but we only have one. The idea of him messing with Fauci when he's selling magic beans is crazy."

On social media, Trump critics praised Cuomo's commentary, with The Lincoln Project, a super PAC that has become a loud voice in the "Never Trump" resistance among Republicans, sharing the video.

"Chris Cuomo is all of us," the group tweeted.
Pacific Drilling S.A. (NYSE: PACD) will issue a press release on Thursday, August 6, 2020 announcing its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2020 following market close. The earnings announcement press release will be available on the Company's website at pacificdrilling.com.

Pacific Drilling CEO Bernie Wolford will hold a conference call to discuss the second-quarter results on Friday, August 7, 2020, beginning at 10 a.m. US Central Time.

To access the conference call, participants are invited to register in advance by visiting bit.ly/Register2Q2020Call. Once registered an email will be immediately sent with dial-in and access code details. A replay of the call will be available the following day on the company's website or by dialing +1 866-583-1035 and providing access code 9928370#.

About Pacific Drilling

With its best-in-class drillships and highly experienced team, Pacific Drilling is committed to exceeding our customers' expectations by delivering the safest, most efficient and reliable deepwater drilling services in the industry. Pacific Drilling's fleet of seven drillships represents one of the youngest and most technologically advanced fleets in the world. Pacific Drilling has its principal offices in Luxembourg and Houston. For more information about Pacific Drilling, including our current Fleet Status, please visit our website at pacificdrilling.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200716006070/en/

Contacts:

Investor:

James Harris

Pacific Drilling S.A.

+1 713-334-6662

Investor@pacificdrilling.com



Media:

Amy Roddy

Pacific Drilling S.A.

+1 713-334-6662

Media@pacificdrilling.com
President Donald Trump on Wednesday shook up his reelection team with less than four months until Novembers vote, replacing his campaign manager, Brad Parscale, in an acknowledgment of the presidents diminished standing in nearly all public and private polling since the spring.

Parscale, who was named campaign manager unusually early, in February 2018, will step out of the job and Bill Stepien, currently the deputy campaign manager and a veteran political operative, will take over. Parscale will stay on with the campaign, becoming a senior adviser for data and digital operations.

The move comes as Trumps advantages as an incumbent president have eroded in the face of a pandemic that has killed over 137,000 Americans and battered the nations economy  once Trumps most powerful argument for reelection. The president has been heavily criticized for his handling of the coronavirus and the halting federal response to it, and Trumps own public comments have deepened the hole in which he finds himself in national and battleground state polling.

Several new polls released Wednesday showed Trump trailing the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, by double digits, and in one of them, 62 per cent of respondents said they believed Trump was hurting rather than helping efforts to combat the pandemic.

I am pleased to announce that Bill Stepien has been promoted to the role of Trump campaign manager, Trump said in a statement. Brad Parscale, who has been with me for a very long time and has led our tremendous digital and data strategies, will remain in that role, while being a senior adviser to the campaign. Both were heavily involved in our historic 2016 win, and I look forward to having a big and very important second win together.

Trump is often described as his own campaign manager, and his political operation, which is overseen by Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and a senior White House adviser, has been tailored to his desires.

In recent weeks, as the Trump team has tried to regain its footing, Trump brought back Jason Miller, a communications and political strategist who was a key figure on his 2016 campaign. The president also elevated Stepien, who had been a top adviser, to deputy campaign manager in May, giving him a more expansive role in operations. Stepien maintains a low profile, which Trump prefers, and something Parscale did not do.

Miller and Stepien have been working closely with another 2016 veteran, Hope Hicks, a senior adviser to Trump in the White House who handles his schedule. Another veteran of 2016 whom Trump likes, Susie Wiles, a Florida-based Republican operative, was recently brought back to the campaign.

A person familiar with the planning said there might still be another addition to the team, such as a campaign chairman.

Kushner, in a brief interview, described Parscale and Stepien  both of whom he hired  as key pieces of the 2016 campaign as well as the current one. Parscale was a digital adviser in 2016. Stepien, who had been a top political adviser to Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, joined as the Trump campaigns national field director in August 2016.

That year, Trump cycled through several leadership teams, starting with Roger Stone and then Corey Lewandowski and Paul Manafort. The final shake-up came in August 2016, when Kellyanne Conway became the campaign manager and Steve Bannon became the campaign chief executive.

Throughout the 2020 reelection effort, Kushner has served as the de facto campaign manager, according to several people involved in the effort. He was a key figure in replacing Parscale.

Parscale is closely connected to various aspects of the campaign that he built along with the Republican National Committee. Among the campaign components that Parscale set up was the digital fundraising apparatus, which gave the president a cushion over the last few months, when in-person, high-dollar events were impossible to hold because of the virus.

But for over a year, Parscale has been the focus of intense scrutiny and news coverage about his operation and whether he was making an outsize amount of money from the campaign. Those articles have focused attention on his purchases of property and cars in Florida, where he lives, and became a source of irritation for the president, who saw them as a distraction.

Parscale was also visible in ways that campaign managers typically arent, appearing in a campaign ad and having his name listed on fundraising events.

The president at times berated Parscale over real and perceived transgressions, sometimes screaming at him and once threatening to sue him.

Parscale, who was hand-picked by Kushner and who is close to the Trump family, lasted longer in the job than most of the people who led various iterations of Trumps 2016 campaign. And campaign aides emphasized that Parscale was being asked to stay on, unlike others who have been let go from the Trump orbit.

Bidens campaign seized on the Trump teams move. Almost 140,000 Americans have lost their lives and millions more have lost their jobs because of Donald Trumps failed leadership, Andrew Bates, a campaign spokesman, said in a statement. The Trump campaigns game of musical chairs wont fix this.

But Parscale has no background in politics, and he suffered something of a mortal wound in the role three weeks ago when a much-hyped rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to reboot Trumps campaign was sparsely attended. After boasting of nearly 1 million ticket requests, just over 6,000 people attended the June 20 event, an embarrassment that Trump could not let go of.

The campaign changes had been settled on over the last two days and were set to be announced Thursday at a 10 a.m. staff meeting, but word of the moves began reaching reporters on Wednesday evening. Parscale was said to have been caught by surprise, and learned of them only a short time before they became public.

Other senior staff members were also caught by surprise.

Read more about:
On-site, home furniture, home decor and home textiles, outdoor furniture, office and hotel furniture and commercial furniture, as well as furniture machinery and raw materials, will be on display in Areas A, B and C of the Complex. CIFF Guangzhou has also partnered with several key industry leaders this year to host a series of events and themed exhibitions.

2020 Global Furniture Industry Trend Conference, which will be held concurrently with the exhibition, will bring together leading international players across the industry. They will provide forward-looking guidance with a focus on how to apply a professional and market-oriented approach to expand the industry further globally.

"Design Spring" Contemporary Chinese Furniture Design Fair will be held in Area A, Hall 3.2 to which many leading furniture and home decor designers have been invited as co-curators. The focus will be on how to integrate art, design and life to re-examine and discover the unique cultural, artistic, model and brand value of contemporary Chinese furniture design to release the charismatic nature inherent in the design of Chinese furniture to the world.

The inaugural 2030+ International Future Office to be held in Area B, Hall 11.2, will integrate image, text, light, shadow, sound and multimedia to create an exciting spatial experience intertwined with real-world scenarios and virtual interactions.

The Fair will also gather well-established and emerging designers to connect with exhibitors during the forums directly, building out a communication platform specially crafted for designers.

With COVID-19 remaining a global challenge, CIFF Guangzhou 2020 will combine online and on-site experiences to create a cloud-based interactive and beneficial platform supported by several high-traffic online networks. Through an enhanced audience experience, the Fair will help exhibitors expand their marketing channels by organizing events (promotions, exhibitions, presentations, online forums), building a platform connecting exhibitors with visitors.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1201876/CIFF_2.jpg

SOURCE China International Furniture Fair (Guangzhou)
LOS ANGELES, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Six years ago, the first cohort of sixth-grade students was admitted into the Campbell Scholars Program, a 10-year tuition-free college access and success program designed to support underserved, high-achieving first-generation college aspirants along the college and career pathway. The Program extends the core resources, learning philosophy, and opportunities of the Campbell Hall independent school experience to students enrolled in Title I schools from the end of sixth grade through college graduation.

Campbell Scholars Program is a 10-year tuition-free college access and success program designed to support high-achieving first-generation college aspirants along the college and career pathway.

This past June, all 15 scholars from the program's inaugural cohort were accepted to four-year colleges or universities with 100% of their financial need met. Nine of the scholars come from homes where both parents did not graduate from high school.

Campbell Scholars begins with three summers of academic enrichment at Campbell Hall. While in high school, scholars engage in workshops and learning that build on the program's core competencies. The program also offers support to families and scholars year-round, providing a robust suite of wrap-around services to ensure each scholar's success. Rather than focus on academic content and performance, the program believes that mindset, resilience, well-being, and community are the keys to long-term academic and professional success.

Each scholar applied to at least 10 colleges, including at least four private colleges. In addition to Federal Pell Grants, Stafford Loans, and work-study offers, Campbell Scholars were awarded a combined total of over $1 million in merit and need-based scholarships from colleges they were admitted to across the country.

"We are so proud of each scholar's hard work, determination, and accomplishments. They will continue to have support from the Campbell Scholars Program throughout their collegiate journey and, as the first cohort of the program to go to college, serve as role models for all of our younger scholars," said Campbell Scholars Executive Director John Rue. "This is a group of scholars who are intellectually curious, creative, and resilient. They have set and accomplished goals, meeting challenges and overcoming obstacles along the way. We look forward to continuing our work with this cohort as they make their way through college and into professional life."

ABOUT CAMPBELL HALL

Campbell Hall is a leading private all-gender day school for grades K-12 located in Studio City, California. For more information and to find out more about the Campbell Scholars Program, visit www.campbellhall.org/campbellscholars.

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Campbell Scholar proudly wearing her college sweatshirt

Campbell Scholars Program is a 10-year tuition-free college access and success program designed to support high-achieving first-generation college aspirants along the college and career pathway.

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Campbell Scholars learning in the classroom

Campbell Scholars Program is a 10-year tuition-free college access and success program designed to support high-achieving first-generation college aspirants along the college and career pathway.

Related Links

Campbell Scholars Program

Campbell Hall

SOURCE Campbell Hall
Only God can save us, said B Sriramulu, Karnataka's Health Minister. He added that COVID cannot be wiped out without practicing social distancing, sanitation, and wearing masks.

Only God can save us, said B Sriramulu, Karnatakas Health Minister, who also heads the states Covid-19 task force. On Wednesday, he struck a note of despair over the increase of cases. He added that COVID cannot be wiped out without practicing social distancing, sanitation, and wearing masks.

Instead of trying to calm the nerves of the people, he created a flutter among the general public after passing a fatalist statement. He responded to criticism about the states handling of the pandemic and said that stopping the spread was not in anybodys hands.

To contain the spread of the virus, the B.S. Yediyurappa-led state government has imposed a week-long lockdown in its capital Bengaluru. It is trying to revamp its whole COVID-19 response.

Also read: Sourav Ganguly home quarantined after elder brother tests Covid-19 positive

Also read: Over 8,000 migrant workers find support in YourDOST to make important life decisions

The minister also said that Congress leaders are involved in political defamation at this time.

Congress state chief DK Shivakumar and former chief minister Siddaramaiah accused the B.S. Yediyurappa-led state government of failing to control the coronavirus spread due to lack of coordination and differences between ministers.

Cases are doubling indiscriminately all over the world. All of us should be alert, said B Sriramulu.

Karnataka replaced Gujarat as the fourth-worst affected state in the country after Maharashtra (2.75 lakh cases), Tamil Nadu (1.51 lakh cases), and Delhi (1.16 lakh cases).

Karnataka has logged over 47,000 patients so far. The number of deaths in the state is past 900.

Karnataka was lauded earlier for keeping a check on the rise in cases.

Also read: IPL 2020 likely to take place in United Arab Emirates: BCCI

For all the latest National News, download NewsX App
France will make wearing masks indoors compulsory from next week amid 'signs of a resurgence' of coronavirus.

Obligatory only on public transport until now, masks will also become mandatory in shops and other indoor places frequented by the public, Prime Minister Jean Castex said in the Senate.

It is not clear whether there will be any penalties for not wearing a mask.

The country's R rate - the number of people an infected person can pass the disease onto - is edging above one, health authorities warned last week.

Keeping the rate below 1 is considered key to easing lockdown because it means the outbreak is shrinking as not everyone who catches it passes it on.

In the latest official data, released Wednesday, France had seen 133 new coronavirus patients hospitalised in 24 hours, and 17 new admissions to intensive care.

France will make wearing masks indoors compulsory from next week after a rise in coronavirus cases

France has seen a total of 210,568 confirmed cases of the killer bug, and 30,123 deaths

This was down from a high of 4,281 people hospitalised in one day in April.

Health Minister Olivier Veran earlier noted 'weak signs of a resurgence' in the coronavirus epidemic that has claimed over 30,000 lives in France to date.

'We are witnessing in certain hospitals in Paris weak signs of an epidemic resurgence, which is why I urge the French to remain particularly vigilant, active, against the virus,' he told public radio.

Veran said an uptick in hospital admissions and telephone calls to emergency services were indicators, not yet worrying, that require 'special attention' to the possibility of an epidemic upturn.

Obligatory only on public transport until now, masks will also become mandatory in shops and other indoor places frequented by the public, Prime Minister Jean Castex said in the Senate (pictured today)

France has all but emerged from a weeks-long countrywide lockdown to contain the Covid-19 epidemic, which placed immense pressure on its hospital system.

While the stay-at-home orders helped flatten the infection curve, it caused what Castex described Thursday as 'the most severe recession since the creation of the national accounts'.

France's economic contraction for 2020 is predicted to be about 11 percent, he said.

While most businesses in France have reopened, some group activities remain restricted and the government has appealed to its citizens to behave responsibly to prevent a damaging second infection wave.

On Tuesday, President Emmanuel Macron (pictured yesterday) said masks should become compulsory in public places with effect from August 1

France, like many other countries, counselled against mask-wearing at the start of the epidemic, urging members of the public to reserve limited masks for healthcare workers.

The country has since embarked on a mass production campaign, and on Tuesday, President Emmanuel Macron said masks should become compulsory in public places with effect from August 1.

The announcement was widely welcomed even though some questioned the need for a two-week delay.

Castex said Thursday that an August 1 start date appeared 'late' to many, and announced 'the decree will enter into force next week.'

Regarding mask-wearing in office buildings, the premier said employers will need to consider 'an evolution of health protocols governing the activities concerned.'

France has seen a total of 210,568 confirmed cases of the killer bug, and 30,123 deaths.

Authorities in the northwestern French region of Mayenne today ordered people to start wearing face masks after a rise of coronavirus infections there.

France, like many other countries, counselled against mask-wearing at the start of the epidemic, urging members of the public to reserve limited masks for healthcare workers (visitors wearing face masks in Disneyland Paris)

The Mayenne prefecture said masks would be compulsory in its main city Laval as well as five other municipalities.

French health minister Olivier Veran told France Inter radio: 'In Mayenne, the situation is problematic today.'

Up to now, France has required people to wear face coverings on public transport and in public spaces where social distancing is not possible, but has not mandated the wearing of masks in shops.
Acting Police Commissioner McDonald Jacob has been given notice by leader of The First Wave Movement, Umar Abdullah, that there will be two more peaceful marches this month.

It comes on the heels of Abdullah being charged on Monday for leading a march around the Queens Park Savannah without permission from the acting police commissioner.
Purplebricks Canada officially earned its Canuck title Wednesday after being bought by financial co-operative Desjardins Group.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/7/2020 (552 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Purplebricks Canada officially earned its Canuck title Wednesday after being bought by financial co-operative Desjardins Group.

Desjardins Group bought the real estate brokerage and DuProprio, a real estate company in Quebec, from United Kingdom-based Purplebricks Group for $60.5 million.

CNW Group/Desjardins Group Desjardins Group bought the real estate brokerage from United Kingdom-based Purplebricks Group for $60.5 million.

Over 500 people across Canada work for DuProprio and Purplebricks Canada. More than 300 live in Quebec, and the rest reside in Manitoba, Ontario and Alberta. Both companies existing teams will continue to run the organizations by their business plans.

Purplebricks Canada is a fixed-fee real estate brokerage that advertises it will save customers thousands in commission. It provides services throughout Manitoba, Ontario and Alberta and has offices in Winnipeg, Hamilton and Edmonton. DuProprio operates solely in Quebec, with offices in Levis and Montreal. The business offers real estate services without an agent.

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"Its great news for our company, our clients and our employees to have ownership of the company back in Canada," said Randall Weese, broker of record at Purplebricks Canada, in a written statement. "With Desjardins, were going to continue our work helping consumers get the most out of the sale of their property."

Yellow Pages Limited owned DuProprio and Purplebricks Canada, then called ComFree, in 2018. That year, Purplebricks Group bought the companies. They rebranded ComFree as Purplebricks Canada in 2019.

Desjardins Group acquires the two businesses amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The financial cooperative conducted a study of Ontarios and Quebecs real estate markets during the pandemic  they found Quebec has avoided a price drop so far, and Ontario is bouncing back after a period of decline.

"As a co-operative organization, it was a natural fit for us to acquire Purplebricks holding in Canada," Guy Cormier, Desjardins Groups president and CEO, said in a written statement. "Through our competitive mortgages and thanks to this acquisition, we will keep on supporting people, whether they choose a commission structure, a fixed-fee service or support without an agent."

Desjardins Group has assets of $326.9 billion.

gabrielle.piche@freepress.mb.ca
Plymouth, Massachusetts--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2020) - Plymouth Rock Technologies Inc. (CSE: PRT) (OTC: PLRTF) (FSE: 4XA) (WKN# A2N8RH) ("Plymouth Rock", "PRT", or the "Company"), a leader in the development of cutting-edge threat detection technologies, is pleased to announce a strategic alliance with Hummingbird Drones ("Hummingbird")fire AI. (Artificial Intelligence) for wildfire analysis from PRT's fleet of drones.

Fire AI. is a division of Hummingbird Drones, an infrared service provider in Canada, and has been used as their in-house hotspot detection platform for wildfires for the past three years.

"Live actionable data is precisely what the PRT unmanned aviation platforms were designed to deliver," stated Carl Cagliarini, Chief Strategy Officer of PRT. "This partnership is a further step in our mission centric focus. To date, commercially adapted Drones have used Wi-Fi frequencies with a limited range, usually under 2-3 miles. The X1 has both short-range capabilities, along with an optional military-grade system that enables high bandwidth data feeds up to 60 miles. These capabilities combined with best in class artificial intelligence applications such as fire AI. will deliver essential data when moments matter."

In the pursuit of providing the highest quality of intelligence, Hummingbird developed a wildfire-focused, data analytics software known as fire AI.. Bringing fire AI. to the public provides the global community with the highest quality of wildfire data analytics. Maximizing the potential of infrared data sets, fire AI. specializes in high resolution hotspot maps, providing precise locational data for fire crews in pursuit of heat. These aerial maps provide fire managers with higher levels of confidence and fire crews with more effective, accurate data to extinguish and efficiently reallocate resources.

"We believe that the analytic capability of fire AI. combined with the overall capabilities of the Plymouth Rock UAS platform will prove itself as a formidable tool," stated Robert Atwood, CEO and Founder at Hummingbird Drones Inc.

Due to the vast data analysis combined with data download constraints of almost all UAS platforms, fire AI. is currently a post-processing service, where the ground is scanned and footage data is removed from the drone and uploaded to the fire AI. portal, which after process delivers fast data analytics results to the fire management authorities. This service has been an invaluable tool in helping incident commanders and fire crews tackle blazes more effectively. The incorporation of the fire AI. into the X1 and XV platform will involve using this tried and tested method, whilst also utilizing PRT's high speed VPN data capabilities that will enable a connection directly to fire AI. servers to get analytics to the fire fighters as close to real time as possible.

The fire AI. capability will be a standard configuration on all firefighting X1 and XV platforms for immediate benefit. This will include PRT assets deployed within the USA and Australia.

About Hummingbird Drones Inc.

Hummingbird Drones was founded in 2014 by then students and Initial Attack wildfire fighters Robert Atwood and Richard Sullivan. Seeing the untapped potential of drones to affect the way wildfire suppression efforts were conducted, they sought to make it a reality.

In 2015, after a year of product development and beta testing, Hummingbird was engaged for a trial by the BC Wildfire Service. Since then, Hummingbird has worked across western Canada, providing data and intelligence to support a variety of fire-line operations.

About Plymouth Rock Technologies Inc.

We are on a mission to bring engineering-driven answers to the most critical problems that threaten our safety. We work with government, law enforcement and military to innovate solutions for national security, defense and space systems.

The Company is developing the next generation of threat detection solutions. The PRT X1 is a purpose built multirotor Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). The unit contains an integrated sensor package that combines Thermal detection with 4K HD real-time Air-to-ground streaming. Our advanced threat detection methods fuse artificial intelligence with augmented reality interfaces to eliminate human operating error. Plymouth Rock products, both Airborne and land-based, will scan for threat items at greater "stand-off" distances than current existing technologies. Our unique radar imaging and signal processing technology creates new opportunities for remotely operated, none intrusive screening of crowds in real time.

Plymouth Rock's other core technologies include: (1) A Millimeter Remote Imaging from Airborne Drone ("MIRIAD"); (2) A compact microwave radar system for scanning shoe's ("Shoe-Scanner").

www.plyrotech.com

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Dana Wheeler

President and CEO

+1-603-300-7933

info@plyrotech.com

Investor Information:

Tasso Baras

+1-778-477-6990

Forward Looking Statements

Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding future financial position, business strategy, use of proceeds, corporate vision, proposed acquisitions, partnerships, joint-ventures and strategic alliances and co-operations, budgets, cost and plans and objectives of or involving the Company. Such forward looking information reflects management's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to management. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "predicts", "intends", "targets", "AI.ms", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. A number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause the actual results or performance to materially differ from any future results or performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. These forward - looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions and dependence upon regulatory approvals. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by securities laws.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/59890
Beachfront homes on the state's Central Coast are at significant risk of structural collapse after large and powerful surf smashed the beaches on Thursday.

Police, the State Emergency Service and NSW Fire and Rescue were called to homes on Ocean View Drive in Wamberal on Thursday night following reports of serious beach erosion at the properties.

Erosion due to wild weather at Wamberal Beach on the Central Coast. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

The NSW coast was hit by a low pressure system, with large swells and a high tide damaging the region's beaches and leaving some homes perched dangerously close to collapsing into the ocean.

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Bimal Kc said waves at the beach were up to 7.8 metres high.
Hong Kongers Vow to Continue Pro-Democracy Pursuits Despite New Security Law

By VOA News July 15, 2020

Residents in Hong Kong say an atmosphere of trepidation has permeated the Asian financial hub since the enactment of a sweeping national security law imposed by China. But activists say despite new concerns of a clampdown on certain freedoms they will continue their pro-democracy pursuits.

The law passed by China's legislature on June 30 and enacted in Hong Kong on July 1, punishes crimes of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.

Since the enactment of the law, banners and posters that call for independence or even those critical of the government have disappeared from Hong Kong's bustling streets. The government claimed the protest slogan "Liberate Hong Kong; revolution of our times" was illegal under the new law, accusing it of being pro-independent, secessionist and subversive.

Books written by opposition figures have been suspended from public libraries as the education authorities implored schools to remove books that might endanger national security. Ten people were arrested on national security charges in a protest on the day the law was enacted for carrying materials deemed "secessionist" and "subversive."

National security agents can now operate openly in the former British colony. A hotel was converted into a new national security headquarters last week. Meanwhile, the new law empowered police to conduct searches without warrants, restrict suspects' movements and freeze their assets as well as intercept communications for national security cases.

Shops and restaurants that supported the anti-government protests quickly took down pro-democracy posters and flyers for fear of breaching the law after police warnings. Several young political groups closed hours before the law passed. The founder of one of them, Nathan Law, fled the city after testifying about the new law before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs on July 1, the day it took effect.

Admitting they now need to cautiously negotiate their pro-democracy campaigns within very limited space, political activists say they are however determined to carry on their missions, even though they must face the bleak prospect of jail.

Veteran activist and lawyer Albert Ho said: "We would evaluate the risks, but we need to speak from our conscience."

"Democracy comes with a price," said the former chairman of the Democratic Party and the vice-chair of the group Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which has organized the candlelit vigil to commemorate the 1989 crackdown on the Tiananmen pro-democracy movement for 30 years until it was banned this year, purportedly due to Covid restrictions.

He and 14 other prominent pro-democracy figures in Hong Kong were arrested on illegal assembly charges in late April. Under the new law, he and other activists would be particularly at risk of being charged with national security crimes for "inciting hatred" of the Chinese and Hong Kong governments for slogans such "end the one-party dictatorship" and "account for the [Tiananmen] massacre."

"I might be jailed and they might suspend my legal practice, but I can't leave," he said. "We had been too pampered in the past because our risks in Hong Kong had been small. Resistance has more meaning now that we have to fight under suppression."

Legal experts have criticized the national security law, passed by China's legislature, as being too broad and vague in its definitions of crimes and incongruent with Hong Kong's common law tradition. A Chinese official said last week that the law seemed intended to hang over potential troublemakers "like the sword of Damocles."

"The law lacks logic, certainty and accuracy," said Lawrence Lau, the defense lawyer for the first national security case in a Hong Kong court. "When people are uncertain about when they'd breach the red line, they would self-censor."

A 60-year-old retiree, who requested anonymity citing fears under the new law, said she is now too scared to take part in protests: "Hong Kong is no longer a normal society."

"Now it is as if they're going back to the era of 'burning books and burying the scholars.' We have to be so careful with what we say and do," she said, referring to the dictatorial reign of the Qin Emperor in 221 BC  210 BC.

Despite the mood of despondency, Hong Kongers are still showing their defiance, however.

An estimated 600,000 people took part in an informal vote in the primary elections for the pro-democracy camp over the weekend, hoping to capture a majority in the legislature in the September election. China on Monday declared the primaries illegal and Hong Kong's top leader, Carrie Lam, warned they might have "fallen into the category of subverting state power." Officials also say candidates who oppose the law may be disqualified.

Pro-democracy legislator Roy Kwong said despite all odds, Hong Kong people are still using their actions to show their democratic aspirations.

"No one knows what will happen in the future, what we can do is to show our strength today," Kwong said. "First, we have to protect and preserve ourselves. But we can't worry too much, we'll deal with things as they come along. I believe Hong Kong people will tackle things intelligently."

Andy Chui, a district councilor who was a candidate in the primaries, said "we still need to reflect public opinions and not be silenced."

"I just want Hong Kong to be still our Hong Kong," he said.

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AKRON, Ohio  The few visitors who showed up Thursday morning for the reopening of the Akron Art Museum were greeted by the highly unusual spectacle of a picket line in front of a major Northeast Ohio cultural institution.

More than a dozen members of the self-proclaimed Akron Art Museum Accountability lined up at the driveway entrance to the museum at One S. High Street for the 11 a.m. reopening, which followed the museums closure in March in response to coronavirus pandemic.

The protesters shouted slogans and carried signs that said Resign, Resign, Resign,' Accountability Now! Akron Deserves Better,' and Decolonize AAM.'

Passing motorists honked in support, although one driver heckled the group. Inside the museums glassy main lobby, several employees stood behind a reception desk and watched the demonstration, but there was no contact between the protesters and the employees inside.

The protest was the latest expression of discontent over the museums handling of allegations of racist and sexist behavior and bullying of employees by management that preceded the May 18 resignation of museum director Mark Masuoka.

Masuoka has denied the allegations leveled against him.

The accountability group was started by 27 current and former employees who delivered an unsigned letter of complaint to the museums board in 2019, outlining alleged workplace violations.

The museums board of trustees said they addressed the complaints by hiring an Akron law firm to investigate and recommend changes last year. The trustees then followed up with corrective actions, without specifying those changes publicly because they involved personnel.

The accountability group, which now has hundreds of followers on social media accounts, is not satisfied with the museums responses.

We tried to go to the board and to keep it out of the press, and keep it in house,' said Chris Harvey, a maintenance worker who was laid off from the museum in March. Theres way too many people beyond our group that have been hurt by this place.

The group organized Thursdays protest to coincide with the first day the museum reopened for members. The group plans to protest again on July 23, when the museum opens to the general public.

The group last week released a list of 10 demands addressed to the museum. The group wants a public apology over the alleged workplace violations, and a plan about how the museum will prevent discriminatory behavior in the future.

The group is also seeking the resignation of the executive committee of the museums board of trustees, and of current senior staff members.

Last week, Dr. Drew Engles, president of the museums board, released a statement saying he considered resigning because in his words, many people had asked him to do so.

But he said: I too am invested in this process of improvement. I too want to be part of the solution; and I care too deeply about the institution and its role in our community.

Engles said the board has developed what he called a formal relationship with the United Way of Akron and Janus Small & Associates, a Cleveland-based consulting group, to advise the museum on diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion.

He said the consultants will also advise the museum on the structure of its board and training for board members, plus human resource policies and employee engagement.

Engles said the work would take one to two years to complete. He also issued an apology to museum members and donors and the Akron community, without specifying what he was apologizing for. He declined to amplify his statement in response to an email from cleveland.com.

Chrissy Marquardt, one of the protestors on Thursday, said Engles apology was classic abuser language,' because it was intended to focus blame for the turmoil at the museum on its critics and the news media, rather than the actions of the museums board.

Marquardt, the museums former collections manager and exhibition registrar, resigned in April after the institution transitioned her to part-time work and reduced her authority.

Shouting into a bullhorn, she said the museums leadership only wants to work with inexperienced staff, whom she called sheep who do not question them'' and who do not grasp how unethical, unprofessional and just wrong the leaderships actions are.

Im tired of seeing this happen,' she said. The museum cannot go on like this. We need full reform. Leadership needs to step down because obviously they are not going to change.

Amy Buller, a docent at the museum, was one of three visitors who entered the institution during the first hour of the protest. She spoke to Harvey before visiting the museum.

I really support this group because Ive seen problems in the museum,' she said. I love being a docent, but some stuff was so hurtful that was going on. Im glad theyre making noise, and maybe it can be fixed.
The Indian Army on Thursday stated that the disengagement process at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China is intricate and "requires constant verification". It also emphasised that India is taking the de-escalation process forward through "regular meetings at diplomatic and military level".

During a 15-hour long deliberation which started on Tuesday and ended on Wednesday, Indian and Chinese military delegates reviewed the progress on "implementation of the first phase of disengagement and discussed further steps to ensure complete disengagement" at Eastern Ladakh, a statement issued by the Army said.

Indian delegate's main agenda of the meeting was complete pull back of Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) from Pangong Lake and Depsang areas in Eastern Ladakh.

The talks started at 11.30 a.m. on Tuesday and ended at 2 a.m. on Wednesday. Indian delegates asked Chinese troops to completely withdraw from Pangong Lake and Depsang.

The Indian Army stated that India and China have been engaged in discussions through established military and diplomatic channels to address the prevailing situation along the LAC.

"Commanders from PLA and Indian Army held a meeting at Chushul, on Indian side, for the fourth round of talks, on 14 July 2020," the army said. The meeting took place between 14 Corps commander Lieutenant General Harinder Singh and South Xinjiang Military District chief Major General Liu Lin in Chushul.

The third meeting in June was on for almost 12 hours when India put across a strong message that the PLA have not abided by the disengagement consensus.

The fresh statement issued by the Indian Army stated that the engagement was consistent with the consensus reached between the Special Representatives of India and China earlier, on July 5, to discuss complete disengagement -- Ajit Doval, National Security Advisor of India and Wang Yi, State Councillor and Minister of Foreign Affairs of China spoke on telephone then.

"The Senior Commanders reviewed the progress on implementation of the first phase of disengagement and discussed further steps to ensure complete disengagement," the statement said.

It also said that the two sides remain committed to the objective of complete disengagement. "This process is intricate and requires constant verification. They are taking it forward through regular meetings at diplomatic and military level," said the force.

India and China have been locked in a 10-week-long standoff at multiple points, hitherto unprecedented along the border. They are now engaged in military and diplomatic deliberation to de-escalate the situation at the border areas.

Last week, diplomatic meeting took place between both the countries delegates. The meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) was held on July 10 where Indian delegation was led by Joint Secretary (East Asia) from the Ministry of External Affairs and Chinese by Director General of the Boundary and Oceanic Department of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The two sides recalled the agreement reached between the two foreign ministers on June 17, as well as the agreement between two Special Representatives during their telephonic conversation on July 5, and reaffirmed that both sides will ensure complete disengagement of the troops along the LAC and de-escalation from India-China border areas for full restoration of peace and tranquility in the border areas in accordance with bilateral agreements and protocols.

They also agreed that for the overall development of bilateral relations it was essential to maintain enduring peace and tranquillity in the border areas.

A total 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese troops were killed on June 15 in their worst clash in four decades at another disputed border area -- Galwan Valley. China attempted to change the status quo at the border at various places moving inside the Indian territories. India has objected to it and is taking up the matter with China at all levels.
The National Association of Police Organizations has endorsed President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, citing his 'steadfast' support for law enforcement in a climate of anti-police protests.

NAPO President Michael McHale announced the endorsement in a public letter to Trump on Wednesday, after leaders of the group met with the president on Monday.

'Our endorsement recognizes your steadfast and very public support for our men and women on the front lines, especially during this time of unfair and inaccurate opprobrium being directed at our members by so many,' the letter read.

'We particularly value your directing the Attorney General to aggressively prosecute those who attack our officers,' he wrote.

NAPO President Michael McHale (left) announced the endorsement in a public letter to Trump on Wednesday, after leaders of the group met with the president on Monday

The NAPO is an umbrella group representing more than 1,000 police associations and 241,000 sworn officers nationwide.

The group declined to endorse a candidate in the 2016 presidential election.

However, it did endorse President Barack Obama's ticket with Joe Biden in 2008 and 2012.

Trump has made 'law and order' a signature issue of his campaign, as calls mount to defund police departments and protests over the in-custody death of George Floyd have spilled into violence nationwide.

Protesters hold up signs as they block the freeway during an anti-police protest in LA

On Wednesday, at least four NYPD officers - including the citys highest ranking uniformed cop, Chief of Department Terence Monahan - were hurt and 37 demonstrators were arrested, police said.

In footage of the incident tweeted by the NYPD Wednesday, a protester is seen swinging a long object down at the heads of a group of officers from a pedestrian walkway as they attempt to arrest someone at 10am.

Police photos of the aftermath showed a lieutenant with a bloodied face, a detective holding a bandage to his head, and a bicycle officer helping another officer dress a head wound. Their injuries are all said to be serious.

Monahan meanwhile, who is seen the video dressed in a white shirt, suffered a fractured his finger in the scuffle and other minor injuries, officials said.
With movies like Infinity War and Endgame, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has shown that it can make some great movies that feature a great villain like Thanos.

That said, Marvel has infamously not been so lucky with many of its other movies. For better or worse, one of the most common criticisms about Marvel movies has been that the villains arent great and they keep dying after one movie.

While the MCU Spider-Man movies have been a clear improvement over the other Spider-Man films, unfortunately, the same thing happened in Spider-Man: Far From Home. Heres a look at why Mysterios plan was just doomed from the start.

A recap of Spider-Man: Far From Home

Jake Gyllenhaal | Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images

Just like the first MCU Spider-Man movie, Far From Home takes place from the perspective of a young, high-school-age Peter Parker. Peter is on a school field trip to Italy when, out of nowhere, a creature attacks him and his classmates. Since hes Spider-Man, he suits up to save the day, but before he can do that, a mysterious man named Mysterio does it for him.

Mysterio claims to be from another universe, and he tells Peter that they have to stop those creatures before Peters world gets destroyed like Mysterios. This becomes the basis of their relationship, as the two keep fighting bigger and bigger creatures. However, everythings not as it seems.

Who Mysterio really is

RELATED: MCU: Did the End of Far From Home Secretly Reveal the Plot of WandaVision?

Later in the movie, its revealed that Mysterio is actually just a regular guy named Quentin Beck. He used to work for Tony Stark, and he specialized in making holographic projections. However, Stark fired him, and this made him angry, angry enough to form a revenge plan.

Unlike other villains, Mysterios revenge plan didnt involve killing the person who wronged him. Instead, Mysterio wanted to take the one thing that Stark still had in the world, since, at the time of the movie, Stark was already dead. Mysterio wanted to replace Iron Man and become the greatest superhero in the world, and hed do that by using his holograms to create big, disastrous events, and then hed swoop in and save the day.

This plan however, needed one thing that Mysterio didnt have available. Its one thing to make holograms, but in order for those holograms to be believable, they actually need to do some damage. This is where E.D.I.T.H. comes along. E.D.I.T.H. was a piece of tech that Stark left for Peter to use, and it basically gave him control of satellites, drones, and missiles.

Mysterio wanted control of E.D.I.T.H. since it would allow him to make massive events, the stuff that Thanos would be capable of. But, instead of needing the Infinity Stones to stop those events, Mysterio would just save the day as usual. This plan, however, was doomed from the start.

Why Mysterios plan was doomed to begin with

As Marvel fans on Reddit said, Mysterios plan falls apart the moment he even thought about using E.D.I.T.H. This is because E.D.I.T.H. is an incredibly powerful piece of technology, something that the Avengers would be monitoring. Stark may have entrusted E.D.I.T.H. to Peter, but it would be a massive oversight if Stark didnt inform anyone else about E.D.I.T.H. and its capabilities.

Anyone who knows about E.D.I.T.H. and what it can do will then realize that its not the kind of technology that should fall into the wrong hands. As a result, the Avengers, or at the very least, S.H.I.E.L.D., were definitely monitoring E.D.I.T.H. and wouldve stopped Mysterio eventually. But of course, Peter overcomes his issues and beats Mysterio by himself, so the Avengers didnt need to step in.

With that said, the main flaw with Mysterios plan was scope. If Mysterio didnt care about E.D.I.T.H., then theres a pretty good chance that nobody wouldve seen through his illusions to begin with.
Sachin Pilot and other Congress rebels moved the Rajasthan high court on Thursday against the disqualification notice issued by assembly speaker CP Joshi to disqualify them as MLAs. The ruling Congress has sought their disqualification from the assembly for anti-party activities. The notice issued stated disqualification of the MLAs from assembly under the Tenth Schedule of the constitution of India. The MLAs were asked to respond to the speakers notice by Friday.

The MLAs deliberately absented themselves from the Congress legislature party meeting held on July 13 and 14.

If the rebel MLAs are disqualified, the majority mark will drop, making it easier for chief minister Ashok Gehlot to win a floor test. The majority mark in the 200-member assembly is 101. Gehlot has accused his former deputy of hobnobbing with the BJP to bring down his government. The BJP, with just 72 MLAs, has been gingerly watching the developments.

Despite Pilot categorically ruling out joining the BJP amid the power tussle within the Rajasthan unit, the Congress has alleged that he was colluding with the opposition party to topple the state government.

On Tuesday, the Congress sacked Pilot - credited with leading the partys successful campaign in the 2018 assembly elections - both as deputy chief minister and also from the Pradesh Congress Committee chief posts. His two loyalists were also sacked as ministers.

On another track, the party has been making overtures with Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala calling upon Pilot and his supporters to stop all conversations with the BJP and return to Jaipur to thrash out differences.

Rajasthan Congress in-charge Avinash Pande too after Pilots remark that he is not joining the BJP tweeted that the party doors are not shut on him. He also wished that lord would grant the leader the good sense and comes out of the elusive trap of the BJP.

Since his removal from the state cabinet, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has been in touch with Pilot while Rahul Gandhis brief to his emissary KC Venugopal was to try to hold Pilot back.

The fight between the two leaders reached a tipping point when Pilot was asked to record his statement with the Special Operations Group team of the Rajasthan police in an alleged case of bribing MLAs for a coup by the BJP.

The Pilot camp has maintained that they are fighting for dignity and are not after posts or positions.
MONTREAL, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - BCE Inc. (TSX: BCE) (NYSE: BCE) will hold its second-quarter 2020 results conference call with the financial community on Thursday, August 6, 2020 at 8:00 am eastern.

Participants will include Mirko Bibic, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Glen LeBlanc, Chief Financial Officer. Media are welcome to participate on a listen-only basis.

To participate, please dial toll-free 1-866-696-5894 or 416-641-6150 and enter passcode 7959145#. A replay will be available until midnight on September 4, 2020 by dialing 1-800-408-3053 or 905-694-9451 and entering passcode 4511636#.

A live audio webcast of the conference call will be available on BCE's website at BCE Q2-2020 conference call .

About BCE

BCE is Canada's largest communications company, providing advanced Bell broadband wireless, TV, Internet and business communications services alongside Canada's premier content creation and media assets from Bell Media. To learn more, please visit Bell.ca or BCE.ca .

The Bell Let's Talk initiative promotes Canadian mental health with national awareness and anti-stigma campaigns like Bell Let's Talk Day and significant Bell funding of community care and access, research and workplace leadership initiatives. To learn more, please visit Bell.ca/LetsTalk .

Media inquiries:

Marie-Eve Francoeur

514-391-5263

[email protected]

Investor inquiries:

Thane Fotopoulos

514-870-4619

[email protected]

SOURCE Bell Canada

Related Links

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By Aisha Jabbarova

Azerbaijani army units have downed a tactical unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) "X-55" belonging to Armenia, the Defence Ministrys website reported on July 16.

The ministry said that on July 16 in the morning, the units of the armed forces of Armenia, using the UAV, attempted to carry out a reconnaissance flight over the positions of the units of Azerbaijan Army in the direction of the Tovuz district of the Azerbaijan-Armenia state border.

Due to the vigilance of our units, the enemys UAV was immediately detected and destroyed, the ministry said.

Eearlier, head of the press office of Azerbaijans Defense Ministry Vagif Dargahli denied as fake Armenian Defense Ministrys claim that 13 Azerbaijani UAVs have been allegedly shot down during the fighting in the Tovuz direction.

"We declare that all UAVs owned by units of the Azerbaijani army are in service, and none of them were shot down," Darghli told Trend.

__

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNews
The House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education and Services has resolved to approach President Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) on the need to fix a date for the 2020 West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSSCE).

The Chairman of the Committee, Julius Ihonvbere (APC-Edo), expressed the resolution at the committee meeting with stakeholders in the education sector on Thursday in Abuja.

He said there was a need for stakeholders to be on the same page and to commence diplomatic efforts to get the other countries in the region on Nigerias side concerning the yet-to- be agreed examination date.

He said in the interest of the 1.6 million candidates that registered for the exams, there was a need to agree on a date for the regional examination as time was running out for the country.

The Head of WAEC National Office in Nigeria, Patrick Areghan, told the committee that it required time to print question papers and that other convoluted logistic considerations might come into play.

Mr Areghan said Ghana had wanted to have the examination in June because it is an election year in the country, but shelved it because of Nigeria.

He also revealed that it took a presidential directive for The Gambia to shelve its desire to have the examination before now.

Nigeria should decide on if it wants to give its candidates a COVID-19 exam certificate or a WAEC certificate in concert with the other countries.

Getting parents to pay another set of fees might be difficult if the September date is missed; if the November option is considered, someone has to pick the bills, he said.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, said WAEC is one of institutions that espouses regional cooperation.

READ ALSO:

Mr Echono explained that having a stand alone examination would defeat the element of unity it portrays.

He said if there is adequate funding, it should not take more than a week to get the examination ready logistically for the 19, 000 examination centres across the country.

The lawmakers deliberated on the need to use Nigerias power as provider of about 60 per cent of the finances for the exams to dictate a date.

However, stakeholders present eventually agreed that it would be better to be democratic in arriving at a decision.

(NAN)




A CRUNCH meeting between Government and striking nurses over salaries ended in deadlock with health workers representatives maintaining their stance of demanding salaries pegged in United States (US) dollars before resuming work.





Nurses embarked on a nationwide strike last month, crippling public institutions in the wake of Covid-19 which has killed 18 people so far.





The nurses strike enters day 26 today. Acting Health and Child Care Minister Professor Amon Murwira told Parliamentarians on Wednesday that Government engaged nurses on Monday.





We have chosen a path of making sure that we have dialogue with the nurses. To this end, we have been having conversations and the last conversation that we had was a very productive conversation which was on Monday starting from half past eight in the morning ending at half past one, continuously talking and engaging, said Prof Murwira.





He said the engagement will bring normalcy for the effectiveness of the health system as well as containing the spiking covid-19 cases.





Prof Murwira said the continued engagements with nurses was going to yield a positive result as soon as possible.





As soon as possible might mean today in the afternoon or tomorrow in the morning but conversations are taking place. There are people that have to sit together and map the way forward based on the availability of resources. So, the answer is very simple which is as soon as possible and it could be now.

Zimbabwe Nurses Association president Mr Enock Dongo said his members had rejected Governments offer of local currency salaries.





We did meet with Government representatives on Monday and they clearly told us that despite our request, there was no way they would pay us in US$. They also asked us to suggest a salary offer in the local currency which our members rejected, said Mr Dongo.





He said the association has since written a letter to Government with feedback and was hoping to get a response but nurses will not resume their duties before they are paid in US dollars.





We met with the acting Minister, his deputy, Health Services Board and other executives to discuss the ongoing strike. The ministry asked us to provide a comparative renumeration trend of other nurses which would be used to determine how much we could be offered in the local currency, said Mr Dongo.





According to him, nurses in South Africa earn about R20 000 monthly and this increases with experience one has.





Converted to USD, this means a nurse in South Africa earns about $1 200 and when we compare to our salary using the RBZ rate, ours are only getting $60. If we quantify our basic needs in Zimbabwean dollars, it amounts to about $30 000 excluding school fees, he said.





Mr Dongo said nurses were still waiting for the US$75 which Government had promised to pay civil servants as an allowance.





He said the association was worried about the increasing number of nurses who are testing Covid-19 positive.





We did try to engage the Ministry on that issue and they said there were efforts to get more personal protective equipment for nurses. Our nurses were forced to work without PPEs as officials said the only available stock was for nurses dealing with confirmed cases. At the moment, student nurses are reporting for duty without PPEs and that is a human right violation, said Mr Dongo.




Lalitha Ranjani By

Express News Service

MADURAI: While Lady Luck smiled on T Marichamy and P Thiagarajan as they got the job as archakars, their fellow students at padasalas are painting a dull picture, for they have been waiting for more than 12 years to follow their passion.

V Ranganathan (32) from Tiruvannamalai who works as graphic designer in Chennai said that the students at the padasala in his native place had to face many a problem. "Two months into the course, a brahmin priest-teacher fled owing to threats from fellow priests at Arunachalesvara temple. Though a 90-year-old Brahmin priest - Ramakrishna Jeeva - came down to Tiruvannamalai from Bengaluru to teach us, he was attacked by an angry mob a few weeks later and had to be hospitalised," he said.

While many who studied at the six padasalas have switched careers, nearly 50 per cent have stuck to their passion.

Ranganathan who is also State Coordinator of Tamil Nadu Government Trained Archakars Association said, "In Tamil Nadu, there are nearly 38,000 temples that are under the control of HR&CE department. The post of archakars in most of these temples are passed on to the heirs of retiring brahmin archakars, making it primarily a hereditary appointment. Only in the past few years, vacancy in the post, especially in small temples are being notified through advertisements in dailies."

Pointing at instances where Marichamy kept his appointment a secret even among close circles for about five months out of fear of repercussions, Ranganathan said that the government should publicly announce such landmark appointments.

Meanwhile, Marichamy, who was appointed in a temple two years ago, said that an archakar is not entitled to the privilege of promotion. "Vacancy comes only when a priest retires or moves to another temple. This is also a reason for the less number of opportunities for the trained non-brahmins," he said, adding that the State government should take a policy decision to give priority in appointing qualified priests and initiate steps to reopen the padasalas for non-brahmins.

M Sivagnanaprakash (34), whose family migrated to Melur from Sri Lanka at the time of civil war in the island nation said that he had completed MSc and BEd and was working as a teacher before joining the padasala in Palani. "Nearly six years ago, while I was working as a temporary staff in a state-run temple in Coimbatore, I applied for a job of archakar. During the interview, I could sense the panel's reluctance to take me aboard. It ended in an altercation. The post at the temple is still lying vacant," he said. Today, Sivagnanaprakash is working as a priest in a temple in his neighbourhood.

It takes a maximum of six years for Brahmins to finish priesthood training and many usually drop out after three years, he said. "But, government issued an order, allowing non-brahmins to study for one year. Most vacancies for archakars require a priest who had undergone at least three-year training, making us ineligible to apply. Marichamy was able to get through since the Ayappan temple sought priests with a minimum of one-year training," Ranganathan said, adding that in 2008, the government had plans to extend the training period of non-brahmins from one year to three years, but it never materialised.

G Balaguru (35), belonging to Scheduled Caste community and a native of Pallipathu village in Tiruchendur said that there is a long way to go in completely breaking the glass ceiling.
HELSINKI, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Wood is a renewable and strong construction material that stores carbon, yet it accounts only for a very small fraction of global construction. Open Source Wood is a collaboration platform for architects, engineers, students and professionals in wood construction to share their innovations in modular wood construction. Open Source Wood offers innovation, ideas and a library of element and module designs, freely available to everyone. Now, Open Source Wood also offers easy access to structural calculation tools.

The methods and regulations in construction are often very localised, and there is no one tool that can serve all areas and markets. The newest addition to Open Source Wood platform is a "Tools" listing, which has been developed to serve engineers and other professionals seeking help in structural calculations, design or finding the software tools for the task.

The Tools page offers a collection of useful tools suitable for wood construction. Most of the tools are developed by external third parties, and the list also identifies the ones that are compatible with the local National Annexes.

In the launch phase, the site has some basic tools, but it will evolve over time to house more versatile tools, both in function and geographically. Currently the listing includes:

basic calculators for wooden nail, screw and bolt connections

fire safety design tools

design software list with their National Annexes

pre-design span tables for LVL structures

The development of the Open Source Wood platform has been supported by the Wood Building Programme of the Finnish Ministry of the Environment. The aim of the project was to connect the content of Open Source Wood with the software and tools that designers and engineers use daily. The first phase of the project focused on modelling tools and making the first Open Source Wood design objects available to AutoCAD, Revit, ArchiCAD and SketchUp design software. The second phase provides a listing of useful tools for designers to use.

The project is partly funded by:Open Source Wood is continuously looking for new ways to help knowledge-sharing in wood construction. If you have ideas or tools that can help modular wood construction to grow and develop, join the initiative and start sharing at opensourcewood.com.

Visit Tools site at Open Source Wood.

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I do everything I can to shop online for something I need. And then if I have to get groceries, Ill go right before closing at somewhere thats open till midnight. When youre there at like 11 p.m., theres no one else in the grocery store so you can keep social distance. And then I take all my groceries home, and I sanitize them with vinegar.
Johnson & Johnson is in talks with the government of Japan and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation about locking up allocations of its potential Covid-19 vaccine as it prepares to kick off human trials, the companys Chief Financial Officer Joseph Wolk told Reuters in an interview.

More than a hundred vaccines are under development to try and stop the Covid-19 pandemic, and drugmakers including J&J are working to ramp up supply for their vaccines in the face of unprecedented demand.

J&J has already agreed to prioritize an allocation to the United States as part of its funding agreement with the U.S. governments Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), Wolk said.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would focus on allocating any vaccine it acquired to developing countries, Wolk added. Reuters previously reported that J&J is also in talks with the European Union.

Nothing has been finalized yet. We continue to have those discussions, Wolk told Reuters. People from the countries and the organizations we mentioned want to lock in a certain minimum level of capacity that they would get.

Wolk said that the general construct of the discussions is likely to take a form similar to AstraZeneca Plcs deal with the U.S. government, which provided $1.2 billion in drug development aid to the U.K. drugmaker in exchange for locking in a delivery of around 300 million doses for fall 2020.

AstraZeneca has also signed a contract with France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands for up to 400 million doses of its potential vaccine. It has also partnered with non-profits to ensure distribution to developing countries.

Wolk added that these discussions will help Johnson & Johnson determine pricing for its vaccine, which the U.S. drugmaker intends to sell on a not-for-profit basis during the pandemic.

The more demand we have the better and lower that cost would potentially be, Wolk said.

The company aims to begin manufacturing the vaccine later this year, depending on its success in clinical trials, he added.

In its Thursday earnings call, J&J said it plans to start its first human trials of its Covid-19 vaccine on July 22 and could kick off late-stage studies as soon as September.
The Alberta government is investing $25 million to build five new addiction treatment centres based on a model used in Portugal and dozens of other countries.

The evidence-based model is known as a recovery or therapeutic community that offers holistic, long-term, residential treatment for mental health and substance abuse disorders.

Locations are still being finalized but the recovery communities will provide 400 additional treatment beds  increasing capacity by 30 per cent  where participants can stay from three months to a year.

"They take a holistic approach to treatment, focusing on the mind, body and spirit," Jason Luan, associate minister of mental health and addictions, said at the announcement Wednesday.

"Participants at the facility have the opportunity to relearn and re-establish social functioning, employment skills and positive community and family ties  encouraged by their peers ... where participants support one another in their path to recovery.

After completing treatment, participants will be connected with ongoing support to help ensure long-term recovery.

More than 65 countries use the evidence based approach  including the highly regarded model in Portugal, Luan said.

Beating addiction requires a long term commitment. - Sheldon Bailey, person in recovery

Sheldon Bailey said the focus on long-term health and wellness will help change lives for Albertans battling addiction, and their families.

Bailey said his downward spiral into cocaine, crystal meth and fentanyl began after a doctor prescribed clonazepam to help him cope with anxiety in the corporate world.

In December 2015, Bailey hit rock bottom and decided he no longer wanted to hurt himself or his loved ones.

Bailey checked into a detox centre followed by 18 days of treatment. When he relapsed, he went to a second treatment centre. This time he stayed connected for a year.

"I realized that beating addiction requires a long-term commitment," Bailey said. "There I learned that peer support from others in recovery is vital. Sadly far too many people have not been given the opportunity for long-term care."

Story continues

Earl Thiessen was once homeless and addicted to alcohol and pharmaceuticals.

Twelve years later he is the director of Oxford House Foundation of Canada  a peer supported recovery and housing organization based in Calgary.

"It's a method of recovery that helped save my life," Thiessen said.

He said living with like-minded individuals in recovery allows participants to open up about the trauma and reasons that led to using alcohol and drugs.

Nathan Gross/CBC

"Recovery communities are going to provide people with the opportunity to develop self-esteem, self-worth and the ability to make thoughtful, beneficial decisions to move forward in their lives," Thiessen said. "And how to deal with pressure situations with a positive response instead of a negative reaction."

The sites will be operated by non-profit, accredited agencies. The program is publicly funded.

Construction is part of more than $10 billion in infrastructure spending announced as part of the province's recovery plan, Luan said.

The government anticipates that the centres will start accepting patients early next year.

The province says about 400 people will be employed during the construction of the centres and each recovery community will employ 35 to 50 people.
Toronto-area tenants are on the move again, with lease activity rebounding significantly in June from the standstill of the early COVID-19 lockdown.

Rents declined across the region and most dramatically in the Toronto core, according to a second-quarter report from market-research firm Urbanation.

An overall decline in demand and a boost to supply has helped the regions vacancy rate continue to inch up to 1.8 per cent in the second quarter from 1.1 per cent in the first. Year over year, the second quarter vacancy rate has risen from 0.9 per cent.

Lease activity in June was up 79 per cent compared to April. But year over year the number of leases signed was down 31 per cent in the second quarter.

Urbanation president Shaun Hildebrand said rents, which have been softening for months, likely havent hit bottom yet and downtown Toronto is seeing the biggest shift in the cost of renting.

There are about four months of supply downtown versus three months in the Greater Toronto Area. That has to do with reduced demand for higher-priced rentals and also more units coming in as furnished, he said.

There were 13,358 purpose-built apartments under construction at the end of the second quarter, said Urbanation  a 17 per cent increase from the same time in 2019. Two-thirds of those units under construction this year were in the City of Toronto.

Students who would be in the market for downtown units have gone home to shelter with their parents during the public-health crisis, the tourists that feed the short-term rental market arent travelling and people are re-evaluating the value of being in the core against the expectation that working from home could be permanent, said Hildebrand.

But, he said, As immigration begins to normalize  and were starting to see some signs of that  it will help support demand through the rest of the year.

Rents on purpose-built apartments  those built since 2005 and occupied for at least a year  fell 3.7 per cent year over year to an average of $2,420.

Condo rents declined 3.6 per cent year over year in the second quarter to $2,453.

On a per-square-foot basis that average includes a six per cent annual decline in downtown Toronto versus 1.8 per cent in the 416 suburbs and only a one per cent drop in the 905.

Listings for furnished rentals  units that were likely on the short-term rental market pre-COVID-19  grew 52 per cent in the second quarter compared to the first. But there was a 24 per cent annual drop in the number of leases of those units and a 12.5 per cent decline in the rent to $2,492.

Other rent studies show similar rent declines and demand moving outside downtown. Rental site PadMapper reported an 8.3 per cent year-over-year decline in Toronto one-bedroom rents in June (and 3.7 per cent drop from May 2020). Meantime, Barrie rents increased 7.6 per cent over the same 12 months.

Another website, Rentals.ca saw a 9.3 per cent rent drop over the past year on a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto, including a 1.9 per cent decline from May to June 2020. But there were some areas where rents were up, notably a 30 per cent year-over-year increase in Hamilton and a 15.3 per cent rise in Scarborough.
New clashes erupted Thursday on the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia following a day-long lull, dashing hopes of a rapid end to a flare-up in fighting.

Azerbaijan said another of its soldiers had been killed, bringing to 17 the number of dead on both sides since fresh fighting broke out between the arch-rivals on Sunday.

The two ex-Soviet republics have been locked for decades in a conflict over Azerbaijan's southwestern separatist region of Nagorny Karabakh, which was seized by ethnic Armenian separatists in a 1990s war that claimed 30,000 lives.

The recent fighting has been unusual as it broke out hundreds of kilometres from Karabakh, in the northern regions of Tovuz in Azerbaijan and Tavush in Armenia.

Local villagers on both sides of the border told AFP their homes had come under fire and they feared for their lives.

"An artillery shell hit our yard, 10 metres from the house," resident Shain Abiyev said in the Azerbaijani village of Dondar Quscu near the border.

"Fortunately my family was not at home, but if they had been in the house there would have been a tragedy."

In Aygepar on the Armenian side, 70-year-old Evelina Hovhannisyan said she had spent eight hours in her bathroom while the village was under fire.

'This Is Our Land'

"I could not go out because they were firing. No matter what happens, this is our land, we will not leave our land, our home," she said.

The clashes broke out on Sunday, with the two sides exchanging artillery and mortar fire for three days until a pause on Wednesday after international calls for restraint.

The two countries' defence ministries said shelling had resumed in the early hours of Thursday, with both sides blaming each other.

Armenian defence ministry spokeswoman Sushan Stepanyan said Azerbaijani forces were "shelling Armenian villages with mortars and howitzers" in Tavush.

The defence ministry in Baku blamed Armenian forces for the renewed fighting, saying in a statement that clashes started in the north after "Armenians shelled Azerbaijani villages with large-calibre weapons."

Eleven Azerbaijani troops and one civilian were killed in the first three days of clashes, as well as four Armenian soldiers, according to the two countries.

Azerbaijan's defence ministry said that another of its soldiers had been killed in Tovuz on Thursday.

Raising the stakes, Azerbaijan threatened to strike Armenia's atomic power station if Yerevan attacked strategic facilities.

"Our high-precision missile systems are capable of striking the Metsamor nuclear power station in Armenia," Azerbaijani defence ministry spokesman Vagif Dyargahly told journalists.

Foreign Minister Sacked

In a surprise move on Thursday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev sacked his long-serving foreign minister, Elmar Mammadyarov, after denouncing his performance during the crisis. He was replaced by the education minister, Jeyhun Bayramov.

The fighting has prompted calls for an immediate de-escalation from the United States, the European Union and regional powerbroker Russia. Turkey has spoken out in support of its ally Azerbaijan.

It is unclear what ignited this summer's flare-up, but analysts say it could have been a small incident like a cross-border shooting that quickly escalated.

Olesya Vartanyan, senior South Caucasus analyst for the International Crisis Group, told AFP a major confrontation would draw in big regional players Russia and Turkey.

But she said it seemed unlikely the crisis would escalate, as "neither side has territorial claims" on northern border areas and the fighting had not spread to Karabakh itself.

Talks to resolve the Karabakh dispute -- one of the worst conflicts to emerge from the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union -- have been largely stalled since a 1994 ceasefire agreement.

France, Russia and the United States have mediated peace efforts as the "Minsk Group", but the last big push for a peace deal collapsed in 2010.

Flush from years of oil revenues, energy-rich Azerbaijan has invested heavily in its military and repeatedly vowed to retake Karabakh by force. Armenia has said it will defend the territory, which has declared its independence but relies heavily on Yerevan.

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India has established individual bilateral bubbles with France and the US that will allow airlines of each country in the pact to operate international flights, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Thursday, adding that similar arrangement with Germany and the UK will soon be permitted.

IMAGE: Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri addresses the media on July 16, 2020. Photograph: ANI Photo.

Air France will be operating 28 flights between Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Paris from July 18 to August 1, the minister said at a press conference, adding that American carrier United Airlines will be flying 18 flights between India and the US from July 17 to July 31.

"They (United) are flying a daily flight between Delhi and Newark and a thrice-a-week flight between Delhi and San Francisco," Puri noted.

The minister said India is planning to establish a bubble with the UK soon under which there would be two flights per day between Delhi and London.

"We have got a request from the Germans also. I think the arrangement with Lufthansa is almost done...We are processing that request," Puri said.

"Now we have many demands for air bubbles, but we need to be careful. We should permit that many only that we can handle," the minister noted.

From India, Air India will be operating flights to France and US under these bubbles.

An air bubble is a bilateral arrangement with a set of regulations and restrictions in which the carriers of the two countries can operate international flights.

Scheduled international passenger flights have been suspended in India since March 23 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

After nearly two months of suspension to combat the coronavirus outbreak, the government resumed scheduled domestic passenger flights on May 25.

However, it had then allowed the airlines to operate maximum 33 per cent of their pre-COVID domestic flights. The MOCA increased the limits on June 26 from 33 per cent to 45 per cent.

"We are assuming that by the time Diwali comes this year, we would have 55-60 per cent of pre-COVID domestic flights operating in India," Puri said at the press conference.
Press Release

July 16, 2020 SP's Priority bills SENATE President Vicente Sotto III wants the Senate to fasttrack in the second regular session of Congress legislative action on five measures that he has filed which seek to improve current government systems and uplift the labor sector. Sotto yesterday said he would push for priority discussions on his proposal to enact a Medical Scholarship Act, Presidential Drug Enforcement Authority Act, Hybrid Election Act, Anti-False Content Act and the 14th Month Pay law. "I will move for speedy but comprehensive committee and plenary discussions on these five priority measures which I believe can make a huge impact on the lives of the Filipino people. The variety in the objectives of these measures would hopefully bring about needed reforms in governance, which at this time are essential to tip the scale in favor of public welfare over political, corporate or personal interests," Sotto said. Top in the Senate President's list is the proposed Medical Scholarship Act (Senate Bill No. 1) which was already under plenary deliberations when Congress adjourned sine die last June. The measure proposes the grant of scholarships to deserving medical students to address the twin issues of scarcity and maldistribution of physicians in the country. Sotto said the move will encourage financially-challenged students to take up medicine and eventually increase the number of physicians in the country. Under the proposed legislation, medical scholars will be required to work in the country for five years after graduation, two years of which shall be rendered in a government hospital or office where the scholar resides. Sotto noted how the country's healthcare system teetered on the brink of collapse under the medical weight of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic due to the lack of health professionals to attend to the surge in the number of sick patients when local ttansmission went out of control. Sotto is likewise seeking speedy debates on his proposed Presidential Drug Enforcement Authority Act (SBN 3), which aims to strengthen the government's fight against illegal drugs by unifying its four major programs - enforcement, prosecution, prevention and rehabilitation - into a single agency. Another priority measure is the Hybrid Election Act (SBN 7), which pushes for an electoral system that would use manual voting and counting at the precinct level and electronic transmission and canvassing. The mixed mode is aimed at ensuring credible, accurate and transparent elections. Sotto is also appealing for immediate committee hearings on the proposed Anti-False Content Act, or the Anti-Fake News bill (SBN 9). The measure prohibits and sanctions the publication and proliferation of false online content and promotes the responsible use of the internet. The Senate chief is also urging his colleagues to act on his bill mandating the grant of an additional Christmas pay to workers in the private sector, or the proposed 14th Month Pay law (SBN 10). "Times are difficult, especially with the impacts of the COVID-19 nightmare likely to haunt us for a long time. We need a break. These measures would, hopefully, give our people something to look forward to. Government needs to ramp up on its effort to uplift the lives of Filipinos, especially in the aftermath of this horrifying crisis," Sotto said.
Upcoming political events in the Bay Area. Events take place online unless otherwise noted:

SATURDAY

WPA works in Berkeley: A virtual tour of Works Progress Administration landmarks in Berkeley, hosted by Harvey Smith, author of Berkeley and the New Deal. Sponsored by LaborFest. 10 a.m. More information is here.

Angel Island: The military, political, economic and social legacy of Angel Island, one-time site of the West Coast immigration station. Hosted by park volunteer, maritime worker and activist James Dexter-Lee. Sponsored by LaborFest. 2 p.m. More information is here.

SUNDAY

Labor rights: A forum of workers on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border on how labor and human rights are coming under attack during the pandemic. Sponsored by the Labor Council for Latin American Advancements Sacramento chapter as part of LaborFest. 6 p.m. More information is here.

MONDAY

Strike for Black lives: Actions in the Bay Area and nationwide in support of ending racism and bringing about changes in the workplace and the rest of society. More information is here; list of events by ZIP code is here.

TUESDAY

Climate change: A discussion on reimagining peoples role in creating climate-change solutions, with Eric Holthaus, author of The Future Earth, and Project Drawdown Vice President Katharine Wilkinson. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. Noon. More information is here.

David Gergen: CNN political commentator and former White House adviser in conversation with retired Superior Court Judge LaDoris Cordell at the Commonwealth Club. $15 for nonmembers. 3:30 p.m. Registration is here.

WEDNESDAY

Elder justice: A discussion of ageism, aging and elder abuse as public health issues, and older peoples rights. With Lisa Nerenberg, executive director of the California Elder Justice Coalition, and Bill Benson, co-founder and president of the International Association for Indigenous Aging. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. 9 a.m. More information is here.

Alcatraz and mass incarceration: Troy Williams, founder and director of Restorative Media, and a National Park Service ranger at Alcatraz discuss mass incarceration and the former island prisons part in it. Hosted by the San Francisco Public Library. 7 p.m. More information is here.

Victor Arnautoff murals: A look at the history of Victor Arnautoff murals, including those at George Washington High School in San Francisco, and the modern-day community response to them. Hosted by LaborFest. 7 p.m. More information is here.

THURSDAY

Rep. Ro Khanna: Fremont Democrat holds a town hall meeting. Noon. Submit questions in advance here; join meeting here.

Black voters and the election: A discussion of suppression of Black peoples voting power. With Tiffany Cross, co-founder and managing editor of the Beat DC and author of Say It Louder! Black Voters, White Narratives, and Saving Our Democracy, and She the People co-founder and president Aimee Allison. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. 3 p.m. More information is here.

Suffrage movement: Diversity and division in the suffrage movement  a discussion with Ari Berman, author of Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America, and Ann Ravel, former chair of the Federal Election Commission. Sponsored by the Mechanics Institute and the League of Women Voters. 5 p.m. More information is here.

Police reform: San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin and Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., on the future of police reform. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. 6 p.m. More information is here.

JULY 29

Nuclear war: The history of the nuclear arms race and presidential launch authority, with former Defense Secretary William Perry and Tom Collina, policy director of the Ploughshares Fund. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. 12:30 p.m. More information is here.

Women in politics: Dismantling patriarchal systems that block womens progress  a discussion with Jennifer Palmieri, former Hillary Clinton campaign adviser and author of She Proclaims: Our Declaration of Independence from a Mans World, and She the People founder and president Aimee Allison. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. 4:30 p.m. More information is here.

JULY 30

Robert Reich: UC Berkeley public policy professor and former U.S. labor secretary on how to restore confidence in the political and economic systems. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. $15 for nonmembers. Noon. More information is here.

To list an event, please email Chronicle politics editor Trapper Byrne at tbyrne@sfchronicle.com
Both groups will continue to sell their brands under their current names, with Stellantis to be applied at a corporate level only. The FCA and PSA merger comprises no fewer than 12 major automobile brands.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and Peugeot S.A. (Groupe PSA) confirmed that they will be entering a 50:50 merger. The new corporation will be called Stellantis and the merger is expected to be finalized in the first quarter of 2021.

Whats with the name?

Don't know what Stellantis mean? Well, it's not even a word, but FCA and PSA explain tat it has origins in the Latin verb "stello," which means "to brighten with stars."

The companies go on to explain that it also "draws inspiration from this new and ambitious alignment of storied automotive brands and strong company cultures that in coming together are creating one of the new leaders in the next era of mobility."

The Stellantis name will be used exclusively at the group level, as a corporate brand. It will get its own logo, but you dont have to worry about finding this name on the groups cars. All 12 major auto brands will continue to operate under their own names in the merger.

How will the Stellantis merger work?

There are no specific details as to how Stellantis will operate in the near future, but its safe to assume that the two entities will share technology and platforms. Its also likely that they will also use badge engineering for a few models, so expect Dodge and Chrysler, which offer only a handful of vehicles in the United States, to introduce new vehicles based on European designs soon.

It's not yet confirmed, but the merger could also bring new car brands in the United States.

There have been rumors that Citroen wants to launch its premium DS division in the U.S., and this merger seems like the proper time to do it. Peugeot could also cross the pond with a few models, although they could also be imported and sold with Chrysler badges. Whats more, the Opel-based vehicles once sold as Buicks under GM ownership could return to the States as Chryslers.

This isnt the first merger between an American and a French brand

Stellantis wont be the first corporation that includes an American and a French company. American Motors Corporation had a partnership with French carmaker Renault before being purchased by Chrysler in the 1980s. The alliance was announced in 1978 and resulted in AMC receiving $200 million in cash injections and credits, as well as rights to build Renault models in the U.S. The partnership ended in 1987 when Chrysler purchased AMC and turned it into its Jeep-Eagle division, which eventually developed into the Jeep brand we know today.

12 big car brands under one roof

The Stellantis merger will bring 12 major automobile brands under the same roof. There are four brands controlled by Fiat, four from Chrysler, and another four automakers under the PSA Group.

Heres the complete list:

Alfa Romeo

Chrysler

Citroen

Dodge

DS

Fiat

Jeep

Lancia

Maserati

Opel/Vauxhall

Peugeot

Ram Trucks

Fiat also controls a commercial vehicle division (Fiat Professional) and the high-performance Abarth brand. The PSA Group also owns the Ambassador brand, purchased from India-based Hindustan Motors. PSA also purchased Opel and Vauxhall Motors from General Motors in 2017.

All the brands above produce more than 50 different cars, SUVs, vans, and trucks between them as of 2020.
A woman pregnant with twins has called for her NSW city to become 'a temporary part of SA' while the border is closed.

Beauty therapist Katrina Pagano, 31, is 26 weeks pregnant and due to give birth in October in the outback city of Broken Hill in far west NSW, which is just a 30 minute drive from the SA border.

But Ms Pagano's partner Jason works as a tradesman in Adelaide and is required to isolate for two weeks in the city after visiting Broken Hill, putting him out of work.

The last time Ms Pagano saw Jason in person was six weeks ago in early June and now that the border is closed indefinitely, she is unsure about whether she will be giving birth in Broken Hill or Adelaide.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on Thursday, Ms Pagano said Broken Hill is already practically part of SA since they rely on much of the state's facilities.

Beauty therapist Katrina Pagano (left), 31, and her partner Jason at a friend's wedding earlier this year. Ms Pagano is pregnant with twins and lives in Broken Hill, cut off from Jason, who lives and works as a tradesman in Adelaide

'Personally, I would love to see Broken Hill become a temporary part of SA by moving the border over to the other side of Broken Hill,' Ms Pagano said.

'I understand the fear of another outbreak in SA but we're in the same boat here. We're a small community and have only had two cases.

'Everyone that needs surgery in Broken Hill goes to Adelaide for treatment, a lot of children go to school there as well.

'I'm not asking them to open up the border to all of NSW, just us.'

As it stands, SA allows people from all other states to pass its border, except for Victoria, which is currently going through its second wave of COVID-19.

Those from NSW and the ACT are required to quarantine for two weeks upon entry.

Ms Pagano and Jason take a selfie. He last visited Ms Pagano in Broken Hill for two days in June and was out of work for two weeks when he returned to Adelaide due to mandatory self isolation

Ms Pagano's partner Jason last visited Broken Hill for two days in June and was out of work for two weeks when he returned to Adelaide.

'When he got home (to Adelaide) he had to isolate for two weeks before returning to work and just life, really,' she said.

'Even with the necessary paperwork he still had to isolate. He's a tradie as well so it's not like he can work from home. So coming across the border all the time is not possible really.'

The couple were banking on the NSW-SA border reopening on its previously-scheduled date, July 20 - but it has since been postponed indefinitely.

'They've given no date as to when we're going to reopen, it's all up in the air. Just to be able to have some form of a plan would be nice,' Ms Pagano said.

Ms Pagano wants to give birth in Broken Hill but may have to give birth in Adelaide so her partner can be there. She also may be flown to Adelaide should any birthing complications arise.

A Facebook post after Ms Pagano found out she was having twins. Ms Pagano wants to give birth in Broken Hill but may have to be flown to Adelaide should any complications arise

Broken Hill is a six-hour drive to Adelaide but a 13-hour drive to Sydney. In addition, Broken Hill is in the same timezone as SA and has the same phone area code - 08.

The city is also cut off from its closest regional centre, Mildura, which is in the isolated Victoria.

Working as a beauty therapist, Ms Pagano talks to many people in Broken Hill who agree that their city should be an exception to SA border restrictions.

'Yeah, I would say definitely (people agree). Most people, even my clients at work, want it (the border) to be changed,' she said.

'If there's an outbreak here, we're going to send patients to hospital in Adelaide anyway. We need to protect them under the same border.'

Broken Hill is currently cut off from Adelaide, which is where many people go for medical appointments. It is also cut off from the nearest regional centre Mildura in Victoria

Broken Hill mayor Darriea Turley agreed and said there needs to be 'more clarity' over border restrictions since 'there's confusion about what is and isn't acceptable'.

'This is a battle we've taken on since about mid-March. It is every day our community in Broken Hill faces these challenges with the border, particularly in health,' Ms Turley told Daily Mail Australia.

'Unless NSW wants to refer our health services to Sydney, which they don't, then something needs to be done about this border situation.

'One family doesn't know how they will bring their 80 year old relative back over the border and another couple haven't seen their daughter since February.

'I call on the premier of NSW and the premier of SA to have a discussion about this because I really haven't seen anything so far.'

Broken Hill mayor Darriea Turley agreed with Ms Pagano and said there needs to be 'more clarity' over border restrictions since 'there's confusion about what is and isn't acceptable'

NSW Cross Border Commissioner James McTavish said he is working on putting a case forward for Broken Hill to the two state governments.

'We're continuing to work with the South Australian Government and other parts of the NSW Government to put our case,' Mr McTavish told ABC News.

'They're very worried about the possibility of there being further COVID spread within NSW.'

Meanwhile, the SA Government said it could consider granting an exception to Broken Hill and other border communities 'in the future'.

'The State Government remains concerned about the growing number of cases within Victoria and NSW,' a spokeswoman said in a statement.

For now, the border remains closed indefinitely.
The construction of the first Hindu temple complex in Islamabad was intended to be a powerful symbol of tolerance towards Pakistans largest non-Muslim religious minority.

Instead, it has become yet another example of persistent discrimination faced by the beleaguered Hindu community in Pakistan, a Muslim-majority South Asian nation of 220 million people.

Weeks after the first foundation stones were laid, the government capitulated to pressure from Islamic hard-liners to halt work on the temple complex. Days after the governments decision, it was torn down by a Muslim mob.

Those who oppose the construction of the temple are extremists, says Om Parhar, the head of the Pakistan Hindu Ithad, an Islamabad-based organization that defends the rights of Hindus. I want to tell them that Hindus are also Pakistanis.

Religious discrimination and violence have increased in Pakistan, a mainly Sunni-Muslim country, with attacks against Shia, Christians, Hindus, and Sikhs in recent years.

Numbering an estimated 8 million, Pakistans Hindu community has become the target of the rising violence. Hindu burial grounds, temples, and homes have all come under attack.

The community says authorities have done little to stem the assaults.

'Equal Citizens'

In June, Prime Minister Imran Khan approved the disbursement of about $1.3 million in government funds for the construction of the temple complex, a long-standing demand of Islamabads estimated 3,000-strong Hindu community.

The complex was to include a crematorium, accommodation for visitors, a community hall, and a large area for parking.

Khan, who came to power in 2018, had vowed to protect freedom of religion for the countrys religious minorities.

I want to warn our people that anyone in Pakistan targeting our non-Muslim citizens or their places of worship will be dealt with strictly, Khan said in February. Our minorities are equal citizens of the country.

Khan announced his government was hoping to restore some 400 Hindu temples across the country as part of its plan to showcase the heritage of minorities, particularly Hindus and Sikhs.

The plan to build the Islamabad temple complex was approved in 2017 under former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. But construction has been delayed until this year by administrative barriers.

The first foundation stones of the Shri Krishna Mandir, or Krishna temple, were laid during a ceremony on June 23. The development was welcomed by rights activists and Hindus.

'Against The Spirit Of Islam'

But the move provoked a severe backlash from hard-line Islamic clerics, politicians, and even media outlets that launched a public campaign to scupper the project.

Critics said a Hindu temple should not be built in the Islamic country and should not be funded by taxpayer money.

The Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e Azam (PLM-Q), a small centrist political party in Khans ruling coalition, said the temple project should be cancelled, claiming it was against the spirit of Islam.

The Jamia Ashrafia, an Islamic institution based in Pakistans eastern city of Lahore, issued a fatwa, or Islamic decree, against the temples construction, stating it was non-permissible under Islam.

Facing growing pressure, the government on July 3 reversed its pledge to fund the project.

The government then halted work on a wall that was being built around the temples plot of land. Days later, on July 5, an angry mob tore down the wall.

But an Islamabad court on July 7 dismissed a set of petitions that sought to stop the construction of the temple.

The government has referred the issue to the Council of Islamic Ideology, the country's top Islamic guidance body. The council is expected to announce its recommendations in September -- including whether the temple can be constructed and if public funds can be used.

Religious Affairs Minister Pir Noorul Haq Qadri claimed that the Capital Development Authority, responsible for providing municipal services in Islamabad, halted work on the temple because it had yet to approve the blueprints.

He told lawmakers that the government would fully safeguard the rights of the religious minorities.

But Islamic hard-liners have continued to push for the project to be scrapped.

Islam does not permit the construction of a new place of worship by religious minorities in a Muslim country, claimed Maulana Amir Zaman, a member of a faction of the Jamiat-e Ulema Islam party led by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, a puritanical Islamist.

And when it comes to the taxpayers money, it is absolutely not allowed, Zaman, a former minister and lawmaker, told RFE/RL. Only Muslim places of worship can be constructed with that money.

Parhar, the head of a Hindu organization in Islamabad, said he could not talk openly about the issue because of fear of retaliation.

My question is -- is it only Muslims who pay taxes in Pakistan? he said.

'Act Of Bigotry'

Mehdi Hassan, the head of Pakistans Human Rights Commission, told RFE/RL it was the governments responsibility to ensure the minorities rights.

The majority of Pakistanis do not oppose the construction of the Hindu temple in Islamabad, Hassan said. Those who do not accept minority rights or oppose the construction of non-Muslim places of worship are in the minority.

Amnesty International said on July 7 that the governments decision to halt the construction was an unconscionable act of bigotry that must be reversed immediately.

Everyone has a right to freedom of religion or belief, a right that is guaranteed in Pakistans constitution and its international obligations, it said.

WATCH: The Long Road To Cremation From Peshawar

In a landmark speech on religious freedom, Pakistans founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah said in 1947: You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or any other place of worship in the state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed -- that has nothing to do with the business of the state.

But for the past four decades, Pakistans political and military elite have promoted a conservative Islamic identity in the country.

Religious minorities have become increasingly marginalized as the spread of Islamic Shari'a law has resulted in discriminatory legislation and excluded non-Muslims from the mainstream.

'Forced Conversion'

Human rights groups say the Hindu community faces increasing marginalization.

They say Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws make it dangerous for non-Muslim religious minorities to express themselves freely or engage openly in religious activities.

Blasphemy is a highly serious and sensitive charge, and even unproven allegations can lead to vigilante justice and violence by lynch mobs.

The blasphemy laws prescribe the death penalty for insulting the Islamic Prophet Muhammad or Islams Holy Koran.

But rights groups say the blasphemy laws have been consistently misused by Muslims in order to settle a dispute or vendetta with a member of a religious minority.

In recent years, they have faced increasing marginalization, with individuals facing false accusations of blasphemy -- a crime that carries a mandatory death penalty in Pakistan -- attacks on temples and shops, and the horrific abduction, forced conversion, and forced marriage of hundreds of young Hindu women, Amnesty International says.

In two separate incidents during 2019, Muslim mobs attacked Hindu properties and places of worship in the southern province of Sindh, where the vast majority of the countrys Hindus live.

The mob violence occurred after allegations of blasphemy were raised against a Hindu school principal and a Hindu veterinarian.

Unable to practice their faith freely or to live without fear, a growing number of Hindus are migrating to the neighboring Hindu-majority country of India, Pakistans archrival.
Sachin Pilot has filed a plea against speaker's notice at Rajasthan High Court. His plea will be heard at 3 pm today.

The political crisis in Rajasthan isnt nearing its end anytime soon. On the contrary, the rumble, which was earlier confined to Jaipur, is now approaching the court. Dejected by Rajasthan Congresss high command, Former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot has now moved Rajasthan high court against speakers notice. His plea will be heard at 3 pm today.

Ashok Gehlots camp, on the other hand, is too exploring their means. As per NewsX sources, they are likely to approach the cops to file a complaint against Pilot for hoarding MLAs in a resort. We are also informed that the complaint could be filed by rebels kins.

After expelling Pilot as Rajasthan Dy CM, Ashok Gehlot on Wednesday claimed that he has proof that horse-trading was being done in Jaipur. While speaking to the media, Gehlot said that they had to keep people at a hotel for 10 days. If they hadnt done that, Jaipur would have faced the situation as Manesar.

Prithviraj Meena, MLA supporting Sachin Pilot, moves Rajasthan High Court challenging state Assembly Speaker's disqualification notice to them; matter to be heard at 3 pm today. Harish Salve & Mukul Rohatgi to represent them. pic.twitter.com/715UbUx09o  ANI (@ANI) July 16, 2020

Also Read: India, EU affirm commitment to combat terrorism

Also Read: India demands unconditional access to Kulbhushan Jadhav

He added that he has been in politics for 40 years. The new generation has become central ministers, state presidents. Had they walked their path, they would have understood. Further taking a dig at Pilot, Gehlot added that speaking good English, giving good bytes and being handsome isnt everything. Ones ideology, policies and commitment also matter.

Sachin Pilot, on the other hand, has maintained that he is not joining BJP. Soon after Rajasthan Congress decided to dispel him off his post, the minister tweeted, Truth can be disturbed, not defeated.

Also Read: Outrage over Guna incident escalates: Mayawati, Rahul Gandhi demand strict action

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By Trend





The fierce battles on the Armenian-Azerbaijani borders area in Tovuz direction are ongoing, Azerbaijani MP Arzu Naghiyev who is currently in the district told Trend.

He said that the Armenian armed forces use D-30 howitzers, mortars, and the artillery cannonade does not stop.

"I express my deepest condolences to the families of the deceased servicemen and wish them patience. There are wounded servicemen as well. They were immediately provided with medical care, and their lives are safe," he said. "The key question is that the Azerbaijani army resolutely prevents Armenian forces' attempts by opening retaliatory fire. Various military equipment, battle means, a command post, reserves in the depth of Armenian sides defense destroyed and hundreds of Armenian servicemen were killed.

"In this night alone, the Armenian side lost dozens of people, but it hides the losses. Using artillery, the Armenian forces began shelling civilians and houses in villages. Despite this, there is no panic among the civilian population," Naghiyev added.

Starting from noon on July 12, units of the armed forces of Armenia, grossly violating the ceasefire in the direction of Azerbaijans Tovuz district along the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border, opened artillery fire at Azerbaijani positions.

Azerbaijan's armed response forced the Armenian army to retreat suffering losses.

The tensions in Tovuz district on the Azerbaijan-Armenia state border continued July 12 night. During the night battles, by using artillery, mortars and tanks, the Azerbaijani armed forces destroyed a stronghold, bombshells, vehicles and servicemen on the territory of the Armenias military unit.

Servicemen of the Azerbaijan Army, non-commissioned officer, sergeant Vugar Sadigov and senior soldier Elshad Mammadov died in holding off an Armenian attack. Despite the efforts of Azerbaijani doctors, a badly wounded serviceman of the Azerbaijan Army, soldier Khayyam Dashdamirov also died.

On the night of July 12-13, tensions continued on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border in the Tovuz districts direction.

In the night battles involving artillery, mortars and tanks, Azerbaijani military divisions destroyed the stronghold, artillery installations, automotive equipment and manpower of the Armenian military unit.

During the battles, the senior lieutenant of the Azerbaijani army Rashid Mahmudov was killed.

On the night of July 13-14, fierce battles also took place on the territory of the Tovuz district. During the fighting, Major General Polad Gashimov, Colonel Ilgar Mirzoyev, Major Namig Ahmadov, Major Anar Novruzov, Ensign Ilgar Zeynalli, Ensign Yashar Babayev, non-commissioned officer, soldier Elchin Mustafazadeh died heroically.
Justice Landing Sanneh of the Basse High Court has on Monday, 13th July 2020 made an order for the arrest of one of the accused persons in the Koina caste system case after the case failed to proceed as a result of his failure to appear.

If readers can recall, the arraignment of these accused persons before the Court came as a result of a clash between people of different caste in Koina on Saturday 25th May 2019, resulting in injuries after houses were set ablaze.

The defendants are charged with unlawful and willful assault causing actual bodily harm and arson.

The accused persons are now Hagie Jabbi, Ousman Gumanneh, Musa Kanuteh, Essa Gumbally, Bangally Gumanneh, Mary Conateh, Omar Gumanneh, Abdou Gumanneh, Essa Jarra, Dawda Gumbally, Banta Gumanneh, Saikou Lenmeh Gumanneh and Dembo Touray

When the case was called for plea taking, Dembo Touray was not present and this was why the other accused persons couldn't take their plea.

The preceding judge then adjourned the case to 5th August 2020 and made an order for Dembo Touray to be arrested and be detained pending their appearance in August.

"The accused number 13, Dembo Touray is not in court today therefore, the rest of the accused present cannot take their plea," the Judge said as he gave instruction for Touray's arrest.

The matter was then adjourned to on the 5th, 6th, 10th, 11th, and 12th of August 2020, for hearing.

Justice Sanneh cautioned the other accused persons who were present that whosoever is absent on the aforesaid dates, his bail would be revoked.

" This is to warn all the accused that whoever is absent henceforth his bail would be revoked and would be taken to Janjanbureh because this case must proceed", he cautions.
The parents of four young women tragically killed in 2015 when the limo they were riding in was struck by a suspected drunk driver in Long Island claim a lawsuit they filed has revealed an investigation 'cover up' involving a previously undisclosed witness at the scene.

Brittany Schulman, 23, Lauren Baruch, 24, Stephanie Belli, 23, and Amy Grabina, 23, all lost their lives in July 2015 when Steve Romeo's pickup truck hit their limo with such force that it was almost split in two.

The women had been enjoying an afternoon out at a winery for a friend's birthday in Cutchogue with four other friends in the moments leading up to the crash.

Their driver Carlos Pino made a U-turn at a blinking traffic light to head west on Route 48 when Romeos red truck T-boned the limo at an intersection.

Romeo was initially charged with a DUI in the hours after the crash, however he later pleaded not guilty and avoided jail time after striking a no-contest plea deal with prosecutors in 2017. His drivers license was suspended for 90 days and he was ordered to pay a $500 fine.

The parents of four young women tragically killed in 2015 when the limo they were riding in was struck by a suspected drunk driver in Long Island claim a lawsuit they filed has revealed an investigation 'cover up' involving a previously undisclosed witness at the scene (Felicia Baruch, mother of Lauren Baruch shown left)

Victims: Stephanie Belli (left) and Brittany M Schulman (right) were both killed in the crash

Victims: Lauren Baruch (left) and Amy R Grabina (right) were also killed in the crash

Crash Scene: Romeo's truck struck the limo after limo driver Carlos Pino made an illegal U-turn, prosecutors said. Though Romeo had been drinking he tested under the legal limit

Citing half a decade of trying to find closure over their daughters deaths, the parents of the four women now say they believe theyve found evidence of a cover-up in the District Attorneys investigation into the crash.

The stunning allegation was made by attorney Richard Sullivan during a Thursday press conference outside Smithtown High School West, where all four of the girls went to school together.

The event was held as a road in Smithtown was renamed in honor of the crash victims. The families tied a ribbon to the street sign during the ceremony, and spoke about the mystery that still surrounds their deaths.

Steve Romeo's pickup truck hit their limo with such force that it was almost split in two

According to Sullivan, a civil suit the family filed over the wreck has uncovered the existence of an ambulance report detailing that there was allegedly a passenger in Romeos pick-up at the time of the crash, something not not previously been disclosed by police.

The report, authored by Southold EMT Janet Auer, identifies that passenger as Michelle Canberg.

It states that she checked Canbergs vitals at the scene before she refused further medical attention. The report states she was wearing a seat belt and was not injured, Sullivan said.

[Patient] states she was in red pick up truck front passenger seat that impacted limo, Auer wrote in the report, according to the Suffolk Times. So we took her inside the police command unit.

The information was compiled as part of an ambulance report on the crash that evening, however the official police report states that Romeo was alone when his pick-up truck plowed into the side of Pinos limo.

This was all kept a secret, Sullivan said of Canberg never being identified as a passenger. Why?

Sullivan alleged that Canbergs presence at the scene wasnt initially revealed as a favor to Romeo, who he said is a very well-known, popular guy in Southold.

Its a clear cover-up and theres been a cover-up in this case from Day One, Sullivan said, according to the New York Post.

Susan Arundel, mother of survivor Alicia Arundel, is comforted by Felicia Baruch, mother of victim Lauren Baruch

The parents of Amy R Grabina console one another as they head towards the ceremony, with badges baring their daughter's face pinned to their chests

Canberg, 39, however, contests she was not a passenger in Romeos car and was not present at the initial scene of the accident.

On her version of events of what happened on July 18, 2015, Canberg said she had been driving to work with her daughter when she passed by a horrific accident on Route 48.

Canberg told the Suffolk Times how she raced over to the wreckage to find a group of women, some badly injured, some lifeless, inside.

I just pulled over to do the right thing, Canberg told the outlet. I pulled up 45 seconds after the crash. I pulled right into the median I walked to the front [of the limo] and it was not a good scene.

Canberg then says she crouched down next to the mangled limousine, and sat with the four survivors, Joelle DiMonte, 25, Melissa Angela Crai, 23, Alicia Arundel, 24, and Olga Lipets, 24, trying to help them remain conscious until paramedics arrived.

She later befriended the four women, telling them the same story how she stumbled across the crash that day.

In the years since, court records show that Canberg has twice been served with a subpoena to give a deposition in the case but has so far refused to testify.

Canberg, who is married, denied being in Romeos truck again on Wednesday when speaking to the Times, insisting she has never met him and hadnt heard of him until after the incident.

She added that she didnt want to be take part in any deposition because she doesnt want to be a part of any lawsuit because shes for the girls.

In a deposition last June, Romeo testified once again that he was alone when the crash occurred.

During the proceedings, Romeo was shown a photograph of a woman, and, when asked if he knew the person depicted, he replied: No  doesnt ring a bell. This is the person that was in my car allegedly? he asked.

I dont recognize that person, he later added when pressed by an attorney. The transcript of that deposition does not indicated who was depicted in the photograph. Romeo was never asked directly about Canberg.

One of the victims' mother's wears a badge on her chest with all eight of the girls pictured together

The event was held as a road in Smithtown was renamed in honor of the crash victims. The families tied a ribbon to the street sign during the ceremony, and spoke about the mystery that still surrounds their deaths

Family members of the young women who were in the tragic limousine crash from five years ago, embrace outside of Smithtown High School

According to Sullivan, a civil suit the family filed over the wreck has uncovered the existence of an ambulance report detailing that there was allegedly a passenger in Romeos pick-up at the time of the crash, something not previously disclosed by police. The report, authored by Southold EMT Janet Auer, identifies that passenger as Michelle Canberg

It comes down to this, Sullivan said. He says she wasnt [in the truck.] Why would an ambulance attendant fill out an ambulance report that says patient states she was in the red pick up truck front passenger seat. Who do you believe?

Canberg admits she was checked out by an EMT at the instructions of Southold Town detective Kenneth Richert, who she described to the Times as a friend.

That evaluation did take place inside the mobile command unit, as specified in the ambulance report, she conceded.

Canberg says she voiced concern about being spotted at the scene to EMTs but only because her family believed she was at work.

[The EMT] asked me that day if I was in the truck, Canberg said. I said, No. I said I was just here. I remember I was all foggy, but I was like Im just a person passing and I had nothing to do with this.

Canberg further explained to the outlet that her car wasnt found at the scene moments after the crash because she didnt want it to get too barricaded in.

She said another man at the scene drove her daughter to Deep Water Grille, a restaurant in Greenport where they both worked. After spending time with the victims, Canberg says she was later driven to the restaurant by an EMT.

Canberg reached out to the survivors a month later and befriend them all. She spent time with their families, attended Joelle DiMontes wedding, and would regularly meet up with the survivors mothers.

On the first anniversary of the crash, she contacted friends at the Southold Town Police Department to shut down the intersection so the four survivors could visit. She documented the visit, posing with pictures of each of the four women, on her Instagram account, the Times said.

I would always tell them when they would say thank you that I didnt do much, I couldnt do much.

Canberg said her communication with the survivors was swiftly cut off when she was informed by one of the mothers that her attorney advised she no longer speak to her.

Sullivan, meanwhile says that while Canberg did nothing to cause the accident, the lack of any mention of her in a police report points toward a cover-up, in his opinion.

Survivors: Olga Lipets (left) and Alicia Arundel were among those injured in the crash on Route 48

Joelle DiMonte (left) survived the deadly crash

In addition to the police report, Sullivan says he has uncovered emails that town officials regularly ignored complaints from concerned residents years earlier that the intersection where the fatal crash happened was an accident waiting to happen.

A 2012 email shows that Cutchogue resident Bill Shipman wrote to a Southold town official asking how many injuries will occur at the intersection outfront the since-shuttered Vineyard 48 winebar.

0-16 in the limo? 4 in the other car? how many cars at 55 mph+? those are answers none of us would like to see, Shipman eerily wrote, three years before his worst fears would be borne out, as reported by the NY Post.

This guy predicted the accident three years before it happened and neither the town of Southold nor the county of Suffolk did a thing, not one thing, Sullivan said. They didnt give a damn  its that simple.

In their suit, the families of the four victims are requesting that the town, county, limo company and both drivers in the crash take responsibility for the accident.

Sullivan said while the limo company has made an offer on a settlement, the town and county has so far refused to do so.

Lauren Baruch's father Steven speaks during Thursday's ceremony with his wife, Felicia

In addition to criminal charges being filed against Romeo following the crash, limo driver Carlo Pino, had also been charged with negligent homicide for attempting the ill-fated, illegal U-turn.

However, those charged were dismissed in October 2017, after a Suffolk County Judge dismissed the charge, citing prosecutors improperly presenting evidence to the grand jury.

Prosecutors reached the deal with Romeo after holes emerged in the DUI case they'd hoped to build against the man.

When he was tested an hour and 40 minutes after the crash, Romeo's blood-alcohol level was 0.066, below the legal limit, although prosecutors argued it would have likely been above New York's 0.08 limit at the time of the crash.

Ultimately, the state's own forensic reconstruction cast doubt on the prosecution's case.

The Suffolk County Executives Office and the Suffolk District Attorneys Office have not yet responded to a DailyMail.com request for comment.
By Tarek Amara and Angus McDowall TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh stepped down on Wednesday, plunging the country into a political crisis as it tries to weather the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. Fakhfakh presented his resignation to President Kais Saied, a government statement said.

By Tarek Amara and Angus McDowall

TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh stepped down on Wednesday, plunging the country into a political crisis as it tries to weather the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

Fakhfakh presented his resignation to President Kais Saied, a government statement said. Political sources told Reuters Saied had asked him to do so as momentum grew in parliament to oust the prime minister over an alleged conflict of interest.

Saied must now choose a new candidate for prime minister, but parliament is deeply fragmented among rival parties and a failure to build another coalition would trigger an election.

The collapse of Fakhfakh's government less than five months after it was formed will further delay urgent economic reforms and complicate efforts to handle any new surge in coronavirus cases after Tunisia brought a first wave under control.

Western countries have hailed Tunisia for its comparatively successful transition to democracy since the 2011 revolution that ended decades of autocratic rule despite periodic crises, but many Tunisians are deeply frustrated.

Since the revolution, the economy has stagnated, living standards have declined and public services have decayed while political parties often seemed more focused on staying in office than addressing a long list of problems.

Deep ideological splits in Fakhfakh's government had made it harder to agree on the urgent economic reforms demanded by foreign lenders to bring Tunisia's fiscal deficit and public debt into a more sustainable trajectory.

The pandemic has worsened those problems. Tunisia now expects the economy to shrink by 6.5% this year and forecasts a deficit equivalent to 7% of gross domestic product. It has asked four countries to delay debt repayments.

In poorer parts of the country, protests have been building to demand more jobs and state aid to help them cope with the economic fallout, sometimes blockading exports by state industries.

Mouna Kariem, a law professor, said Saied would now have 10 days to name a new candidate for prime minister who would have a month to form a government.

The last parliamentary election in October led to a chamber in which no party held more than a quarter of the seats, complicating efforts to form a stable government.

The biggest party, the moderate Islamist Ennahda, failed in its own attempt to build a coalition late last year and though it joined Fakhfakh's government it has since been tussling for influence with President Saied.

Fakhfakh's resignation came as Ennahda sought signatures for a vote of no confidence in the government. If that process had succeeded then it would have given Ennahda, rather than Saied, the right to nominate a new prime minister.

Ennahda's push for a confidence vote was triggered by a report that Fakhfakh was guilty of a conflict of interest by owning shares in companies that had received state contracts. He denies any wrongdoing.

Two opposition parties, media mogul Nabil Karoui's Heart of Tunisia and the conservative Karama, joined Ennahda in seeking the vote of confidence in Fakhfakh. By the time he had resigned, they had gathered 105 of the 109 signatures needed to trigger the vote.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Alison Williams and Nick Macfie)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
A spike in coronavirus disease (Covid-19) positive cases in Tirumala, the abode of Lord Venkateshwara in Andhra Pradeshs Chittoor district, has triggered an uproar in the shrine, as a section of employees and even the honorary chief priest have demanded that the temple be temporarily closed again for darshan for pilgrims.

The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which manages the countrys richest shrine, held an emergency meeting of officials and priests on Thursday, but turned down the demand for a temporary suspension of darshan for devotees.

There is no question of closing the temple again for darshan, as the situation is under control, said YV Subba Reddy, chairman, TTD.

Earlier on Thursday morning, AV Ramana Deekshitulu, the honorary head priest of the temple, lashed out at the TTD officials for their insistence on allowing darshans, despite a surge in Covid-19 cases in Tirumala.

Deekshitulu tagged Andhra Pradesh (AP) chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and tweeted that 15 out of 50 archakas (priests) had tested Covid-19 positive and were quarantined, while still 25 results are awaited. But TTD executive officer and joint executive officer refuse to stop darshans.

Deekshitulu, who was forced to retire in 2018 by the then Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government on attaining the superannuation age of 60, was back in the shrine after the YSR Congress party (YSRCP) government came to power in June 2019.

Initially, he was made Agama (a code of conduct for temple management) advisor to the Tirumala in November, and later appointed as the honorary chief priest of the shrine.

He alleged that the TTD officials were embracing the anti-hereditary archaka and anti-Brahminical policies of TDP, led by former CM N Chandrababu Naidu. Disaster if this continues. Please take action, he requested CM Reddy.

On Wednesday, the TTD Staff and Workers United Front, affiliated to the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), had submitted a representation to TTD executive officer Anil Kumar Singhal, requesting that darshan at the temple be temporarily suspended because of the viral outbreak in the Tirumala hills.

The TTD staff pointed out that over 1,000 Covid-19 positive cases were reported in Tirupati town and around 100 TTD employees had contracted SARS-CoV-2, which causes the viral disease.

These employees can end up infecting devotees, when they go up the Tirumala hills to perform their religious duties. We are very worried, they said.

They also requested the TTD to allow employees to work in shifts in a bid to comply with social distancing norms, as only 33% of the staff would work on a day.

The TTD chairman, however, said there was no possibility of temporarily suspending darshans again. It is true that 140 TTD employees had tested Covid-19 positive since the temple was opened on June 11 for darshan. They include security persons, priests, and workers of the temple kitchen. More than half of them have already recovered from their viral infection, he said.

Subba Reddy said none of the devotees, who had come for darshan, had tested positive in the random tests being conducted by the TTD authorities. He, however, announced that the restrictions on the number of pilgrims being allowed for darshan would persist.

At present, only 12,000 pilgrims are allowed daily because of the pandemic.

The TTD chairman said all facilities would be provided to the priests of the shrine in a bid to ensure that they dont get infected by the pathogen.

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'Baby Gammy' is now a happy, healthy and growing six-year-old boy - and is believed to be unaware that his biological father has died halfway across the globe.

David Farnell, the convicted Australian sex offender who found himself at the centre of a global surrogacy scandal, is dead, it was revealed Wednesday night.

The exact circumstances of Mr Farnell's death are unknown but he had long been fighting an asbestos-related illness from exposure as a young tradesman.

Gammy was famously left to live in Thailand with his birth mother six years ago, while his healthy sister flew home to Australia to live with Mr Farnell and his wife Wendy.

And Gammy - now known by the nickname 'Grammy' - is thriving, with pictures showing he has grown considerably.

Gammy - now known by the nickname, Grammy - appears both happy and healthy in this photograph with a teacher at his school in Thailand, from March 2020

The little boy with Down Syndrome lives with his birth mother, Pattaramon Chanbua, and attends school thanks to the support of an Australian charity

Peter Baines, the founder of the Hands Across The Water charity which raised $240,000 to secure the boy's future, said staff checked in on Gammy every couple of months.

'I visited them last year year before lockdown and the family is going really well,' he said. 'Gammy is great - a happy, healthy boy.'

Recent pictures, obtained independently, appear to show just that.

Mr Baines said he was unaware of Mr Farnell's death until Daily Mail Australia called on Thursday morning.

He said Gammy's birth mother was not in regular contact with Mr Farnell's family.

'I highly doubt she would be aware (of the death),' he said, adding he would notify the charity's manager in Thailand.

Mr Baines said his charity remains in contact with the clan and checks in with them every couple of months.

In this photo released by the Hands Across The Water charity in 2017, Gammy is seen playing with blocks. He was born premature, with Down syndrome and a congenital heart problem

Baby Gammy: The little boy's Thai surrogate mother, Pattaramon Chanbua with Gammy in August 2014, shortly after the controversy erupted

In 2014, 'Gammy' was left with his Thai mother, Ms Chanbua, while his parents David and Wendy Farnell took his healthy sister home to Bunbury, Western Australia.

The family's situation sparked global outrage that August when unfair claims surfaced alleging that the parents had 'abandoned' Gammy and kept his sister.

The outrage was further stoked when it was revealed Mr Farnell had historical child sex abuse convictions dating back to the 1980s.

The judge was scathing about Mr Farnell on sentencing, saying he had 'robbed' two young girls of their childhoods by molesting them in 1982 and 1983.

The couple found themselves in the eye of a media storm, hiding in their home as journalists and photographers camped outside.

Mr Farnell eventually gave an interview to 60 Minutes's Tara Brown, where he insisted he did not have 'urges' to abuse children anymore.

He said his daughter 'will be 100 per cent safe. I will do everything in the world to protect my little girl.'

David John Farnell and his wife Wenyu 'Wendy' Li (pictured) made world headlines six years ago when they took one of their surrogate's babies home, but not the other

BABY GAMMY SAGA: HOW SCANDAL BROKE Baby Gammy and his sister were born in Thailand in December 2013 to surrogate mother, Pattaramon Chanbua. Gammy was premature, had Down Syndrome and suffered a heart condition. Gammy's parents, David and Wendy Farnell, took his healthy sister back home to Bunbury, Western Australia. Claims, later disproven, emerged that the Farnells had 'abandoned' Gammy in Thailand. A public furore was stoked by revelations Mr Farnell had child sex abuse convictions. Mr Farnell defended his right to parent in the media and to government investigators. He, his wife and daughter have lived a quiet life together since. Advertisement

It was later revealed that the reason Gammy had stayed with his biological mother was because she wanted to keep her.

A fortune teller has reportedly told her that Gammy would bring 'good fortune'.

The Farnells have lived a quiet life with their daughter in Bunbury, Western Australia, ever since.

Last year, Daily Mail Australia revealed Mr Farnell was suing an asbestos manufacturer.

He claimed he had breathed in the company's poisonous fibres while working as an electrician in the late 70s and early 80s.

As a result, Mr Farnell said in a statement of claim that he had suffered 'asbestos related disease, mesothelioma and/or pleural disease, respiratory degeneration, pain, shock and psychological reaction.'

A West Australian courts spokesman said the case was 'completed' by consent in April, following a mediation conference in January.

The date of Mr Farnell's death and circumstances surrounding it have not been confirmed.

As for Gammy, he is now known by the nickname 'Grammy' and has benefited from the' extraordinary generosity of Australian donors in Thailand.

More than $240,000 was donated to support the little boy and his mother and it was spent to buy a permanent home for him to live in, to be held in trust until he is 21.

In 2017, his mother, Pattaramon 'Goy' Chanbua, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation the money 'made all the difference'.

'He got a new house to live in.

'He's able to go to kindergarten and live in better conditions.'
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16

By Samir Ali  Trend:

The provocation of Armenia in the direction of Azerbaijans Tovuz district is a disqusting act against Azerbaijan, Assistant to the Azerbaijani president, Head of the Department of Foreign Policy Affairs of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration Hikmat Hajiyev said.

Hajiyev made the remark at the press-conference in Baku, Trend reports on July 16.

The relevant international organizations were informed about this, assistant to the Azerbaijani president added.

"The UN, the Non-Aligned Movement, the OSCE, as well as other international organizations were provided with the necessary information, assistant to the Azerbaijani president added. Turkey immediately reacted. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) also expressed its position. The Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States, 57 OIC member-states, Iran, Saudi Arabia supported us. However, the OSCE Minsk Group must voice a concrete position on the act of Armenias military aggression. Unfortunately, we again receive standard answers."

Armenia is trying to shift responsibility for the committed provocation onto Azerbaijan, Hajiyev added.

However, Armenias intentions were exposed thanks to the timely steps taken by the Azerbaijani president, Hajiyev said. Armenians conceal their losses. The international community is closely monitoring these actions.

There are no problems with staffing the Azerbaijani army, Hajiyev added. Today, the Azerbaijani army uses the highest technologies. But for this purpose, it is extremely important to conduct exercises and courses. Such courses are held at the highest level."
New Delhi/Kathmandu, July 16 : The intervention of China in Kathmandu's internal politics and Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli's hostility towards India has left the top leadership in the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) at loggerheads with each other, as their talks failed to resolve their differences for the eighth time on Thursday.

Nepali media said that senior leaders of NCP, Madhav Kumar Nepal, Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Prime Minister Oli made no headway in their meeting at the PM's residence in Baluwatar on Thursday.

The concerns about China's interference in Nepal's internal affairs erupted when it became public that the Ambassador of China to Nepal, Hou Yanqi, has held several meetings with former PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Madhav Kumar Nepal, another NCP leader Jhala Nath Khanal and many other senior leaders in the party.

The meetings triggered speculation that China is exerting its influence over Nepal's ruling party and its internal politics.

Newspapers in Kathmandu reported that in June, Dahal and Nepal, along with the standing committee members, had asked Oli to quit one of the two posts that he holds -- Prime Minister and the party chair. However, the PM had refused outright.

Analysts in Kathmandu believe that these differences along with Oli's unrestrained bitterness against India have brought the NCP at the verge of a split.

In an offensive remark, Oli on Monday had said that Hindu lord Ram was born in Nepal and not in Ayodhya. He called the Ayodhya origin of Ram a 'fake' Indian narrative. The statement evoked widespread outrage in India, with even the opposition members condemning Oli's remark.

Former Congress MP Karan Singh said in a statement that Oli was "trying to do whatever he could, even going to the extent of an absurd statement regarding Ayodhya and Sri Ram, to widen the distance between India and Nepal".

"This outrageous statement will hurt the sentiments of a billion Hindus living not only in India and Nepal, but around the world. The statement could have been dismissed as the gymnastics of a distorted mind, except that it comes fast on the heels of Oli's unfortunate unilateral action regarding a territorial dispute with India," Singh said.

In Nepal, opposition Nepali Congress spokesperson Bishwo Prakash Sharma had said on Wednesday that Oli has "lost the moral and political basis" to rule the country. Vice-president of the Nepali Congress, Bimalendra Nidhi, termed Oli's remark as "baseless, irrelevant and objectionable".

Oli is also facing strong opposition from his own party leaders. Senior leader of the ruling NCP, Bam Dev Gautam, has asked Oli to withdraw his controversial remarks, according to media reports from Kathmandu.

Deputy chief of the Publicity Committee of the ruling party, Bishnu Rijal, said in a strong reaction against Oli, "Such senseless and irrelevant remarks made by a person of high position will damage the country's prestige." The members of the NCP are asking for Oli's resignation over his autocratic style.
Washington:

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter warned on Sunday that the fight to wrest control of Raqa, the Islamic State group stronghold in Syria, will not be easy.



The effort to isolate, and ultimately liberate, Raqa marks the next step in our coalition campaign plan, Carter said in a statement.



As in Mosul, the fight will not be easy and there is hard work ahead, but it is necessary to end the fiction of ISILs caliphate and disrupt the groups ability to carry out terror attacks against the United States, our allies and our partners, he said, using an alternative name for the jihadist group.



The international coalition will continue to do what we can to enable local forces in both Iraq and Syria to deliver ISIL the lasting defeat it deserves, the US defense chief added.



Carter issued his remarks as US-backed Kurdish-Arab forces launched an offensive on the Islamic State groups de facto Syrian capital Raqa, increasing pressure on the jihadists who are already battling Iraqi troops in Mosul.



The start of the assault by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) came as Iraqi forces fought inside Mosul for the third day running, with the jihadists putting up fierce resistance.The two cities are the last major urban centers under IS control after the jihadists suffered a string of territorial losses in Iraq and Syria over the past year.



The US-led coalition battling IS is backing both assaults, hoping to deal a knockout blow to the self-styled caliphate the group declared in mid-2014.



The operation, dubbed Wrath of the Euphrates, involves some 30,000 fighters and began late on Sunday.

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ATLANTA  Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is suing Atlantas mayor and city council to block the city from enforcing its mandate to wear a mask in public and other rules related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kemp and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, in a suit filed in state court late Thursday in Atlanta, argue that Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has overstepped her authority and must obey Kemps executive orders under state law.

Governor Kemp must be allowed, as the chief executive of this state, to manage the public health emergency without Mayor Bottoms issuing void and unenforceable orders which only serve to confuse the public, the lawsuit states.

Kemp on Wednesday clarified his executive orders to expressly block Atlanta and at least 14 other local governments across the state from requiring people to wear face coverings.

Kemps order was met with defiance Thursday by Bottoms and some other mayors, who said they would continue enforcing the order. The lawsuit forces that showdown, resolving an ambiguous situation with Kemp denying local governments could order masks, but local governments arguing it was within their power.

Bottoms said Thursday during a video news conference that the citys order is still in effect.

As of today, 3,104 Georgians have died and I and my family are amongst the 106,000 who have tested positive for COVID-19, Bottoms said in a statement after the lawsuit was filed. A better use of taxpayer money would be to expand testing and contact tracing. If being sued by the state is what it takes to save lives in Atlanta, then we will see them in court.

The state asks a judge to overturn Bottoms orders that are more restrictive than Kemps, block her from issuing any more such orders, instruct the City Council not to ratify Bottoms actions or adopt any ordinances inconsistent with Kemp, to force Bottoms not to make any public statements claiming she has authority that exceeds Kemps, and to require city officials to enforce all provisions of Kemps existing orders.

In filing the lawsuit, Kemp combined a previous dispute with Bottoms over policing in the city with coronavirus control. He said he was suing to protect business owners and employees in the same way he called out the National Guard last week to protect state office buildings and the governors mansion after an 8-year-old girl was fatally shot July 4 by armed men at a site where a white Atlanta police officer shot and killed a Black man who had grabbed a stun gun and ran.

The shooting of Rayshard Brooks prompted unrest, including the burning of the fast food restaurant at the site, and complaints that armed people were blocking traffic with no police intervention. The city struggled at times to provide officers after many called in sick when a prosecutor, over Bottoms objection, criminally charged the officers involved.

Kemp also alleged in his lawsuit that Bottoms has forbidden police from enforcing Kemps earlier orders against gatherings of more than 50 people.

Officials in at least 15 Georgia cities and counties had ordered masks during the coronavirus pandemic, and many were angry at Kemp for swatting down their efforts.

How can we take care of our local needs when our state ties our hands behind our back and then says Ignore the advice of experts?' Savannah Mayor Van Johnson asked in a news conference.

Bottoms last week made statements that people had to return to sheltering at home and forcing restaurants to return to only offering takeout and delivery. Kemp quickly swatted those claims down, and Bottoms on Thursday described them as guidelines. But Kemps lawsuit says the court should set Bottoms straight on those statements as well, and forbid her from making more claims about her power to reporters.

Kemp says he strongly supports mask-wearing to combat the spread of COVID-19 infections. He traveled the state this month to encourage face coverings. But he has maintained for weeks that cities and counties cant require masks in public places, saying local actions cant be more or less restrictive than his statewide orders.

Wednesday, in an otherwise routine renewal of rules governing business operations and ordering medically vulnerably people to stay home, Kemp made that prohibition explicit. He also said local governments could not order masks on their own property, which would include Atlantas massive airport.

Although national health officials have called on people to use masks, President Donald Trumps administration has not issued any nationwide guidance. Twenty-six states and the District of Columbia now require masks.

Kemps stance  not only shying away from a statewide order but trying to bar local governments from instituting their own  leaves him standing virtually alone. In the South, Republican governors in Tennessee, South Carolina and Florida have resisted statewide mandates but allow local jurisdictions to implement them. Republican governors in Alabama, Arkansas and Texas and Democrats in Kentucky, Louisiana and North Carolina have issued statewide mask requirements.

Thursdays numbers showed more than 2,800 people hospitalized statewide with the COVID-19 respiratory illness, the highest on record. The state reported that 84% of hospitals critical beds were filled.

Georgia overall had more than 131,000 confirmed infections and more than 3,100 deaths overall as of Thursday.

Some business groups are supporting Kemp. Georgia Restaurant Association CEO Karen Bremer said Thursday that a statewide mandate isnt appropriate considering Georgias size and diversity. But she also said local rules would be confusing and businesses should make their own decisions about requiring customers to wear masks.

For businesses to grapple with 535 different municipal ordinances and 159 different county ordinances is madness, Bremer said. Having one set of guidelines is very important.

__

The story corrects the name and title of the leader of the Georgia Restaurant Association. She is CEO Karen Bremer, not executive director Kelly Bremer.

___

Nadler reported from Marietta, Georgia. Associated Press writer Haleluya Hadero contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.
South Africa: Manhunt launched in Matsena's murder

National Police Commissioner, General Khehla Sitole, has ordered a manhunt into the ghastly murder of Gauteng Legislature Safety and Security Portfolio Committee chairperson, Mapiti Matsena.

This comes after the provincial legislator was fatally stabbed in the chest in his Doornpoort, Pretoria, home on Wednesday evening.

In a statement, Sitole said he had tasked the Gauteng SAPS management to immediately mobilise the 72 Activation Plan to bring to book the perpetrators.

It has been determined from preliminary investigations that a lone assailant entered the house and stabbed Matsena while he was in his bedroom, police said in the statement.

At this stage it does not appear that anything was taken by the suspect.

General Sitole in the statement assured the Matsena family that the murder was being thoroughly investigated.

I have tasked the Acting Provincial Commissioner of Gauteng to ensure that this case be investigated by the Provincial Investigation Unit and that critical resources, including Crime Intelligence and Forensic Services, be mobilised to identify and arrest those responsible for the murder of Matsena, said General Sitole.

Police have appealed to anyone who may have any information on this case to contact the SAPS via Crime Stop on 086 00 10111. Information may also be provided via the MySAPSApp, an application which can be downloaded on any android or iPhone.

All information will be treated with strictest confidence and callers may remain anonymous.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2020-07-16. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 20:43:42|Editor: huaxia

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by Mao Pengfei, Nguon Sovan

PHNOM PENH, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade pact, once realized, will create the world's biggest free trade zone and serve as a new booster for regional development, Cambodian officials and experts have said.

The RCEP, initiated by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2012, is a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the 10 member states of ASEAN, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, and their six ASEAN FTA partners -- China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India.

During the 36th ASEAN Summit, held via video conference last month, ASEAN leaders welcomed the progress made for the full conclusion of the negotiations of the RCEP and looked forward to the signing of the deal by the end of 2020.

Cambodia's Commerce Ministry Secretary of State and Spokesman Seang Thay said when the agreement is signed, confidence in the regional framework will be further strengthened economically and politically as well as in other areas.

"For Cambodia, we want to see the RCEP free trade agreement be signed at the earliest possible time," he told Xinhua on Monday. "It will be a driving force to accelerate trade volume among the participating countries and will help rebuild economies in the region during the post-COVID-19 era."

The RCEP will provide the participating countries with greater market access, Thay said, adding that he believes that through it, relations in economy, trade and investment between ASEAN and their six FTA partners will be further broadened.

"Once signed, the RCEP will be the world's largest FTA by population. All countries will benefit from it," he said, adding that the pact will promote trade liberalization in the region.

The RCEP accounts for 45 percent of the world population, 40 percent of global trade and around one third of the world's gross domestic product (GDP).

As logistics systems, production and transport infrastructure in some countries are still not strong enough to compete in the RCEP, Thay said the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) can play a crucial role to help those countries address these matters.

Chheang Vannarith, president of the Asian Vision Institute, a think tank in Phnom Penh, said the RCEP would provide economic impetus for regional countries to bounce back together from the economic recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It will send a clear signal that regional economic integration in Asia remains robust and vibrant although protectionism and unilateralism are on the rise in the United States and other regions," he told Xinhua.

He said the challenges lying ahead include how to convince people of the benefits deriving from the RCEP and how to empower and enable people and local small and medium-sized enterprises to fairly benefit from this regional trading arrangement.

Private corporations, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, must be enabled to grasp the benefits from the RCEP, he stressed.

Vannarith said that it is important to build synergy between the RCEP and other regional initiatives such as the BRI, adding that the BRI has been playing a vital role in strengthening regional infrastructure development and connectivity, which are the key elements to support trade and attract investment.

Mey Kalyan, senior advisor to the Supreme National Economic Council, said the RCEP will definitely have great importance at a time when the global economy is losing its balance due to the pandemic, protectionism and unilateralism.

"In the current context, the RCEP is extremely crucial for countries in the Asian region," he told Xinhua on Wednesday. "Asian countries have to stay together to survive and prosper, and it's a win-win situation to maintain and upgrade the RCEP system for a long-term benefit to all participating countries."

He said the RCEP will provide a lot of opportunities to Cambodia to boost its trade volume with other member countries. Meanwhile, he added, Cambodia has to work hard to seize these opportunities.

Kalyan said the BRI will help Cambodia develop a logistics system and infrastructure connectivity as well as accelerate industrialization so as to improve the kingdom's competitiveness in the future.

"The BRI is instrumental to connect participating countries with China, and within each country, hard and soft logistics have to be improved. For Cambodia, the country needs lots of improvement of its internal logistics," he said.

Joseph Matthews, senior professor at the BELTEI International University in Phnom Penh, said that there is no iota of doubt that the RCEP will be one of the most important regional free trade arrangements in the world.

"In my view, the RCEP will definitely be enlarged as it has potential and will act as a driving force to accelerate the trade volume within the ASEAN bloc and beyond," he told Xinhua on Tuesday.

He said that the RCEP partner countries need to act as beacons of open and inclusive regionalism and advocates of multilateralism, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and uncertainties caused by the rise of anti-globalization sentiment, protectionism, unilateralism and populism.

"ASEAN leaders have already taken a clear and united stand against the protectionist policy by forging ahead with deepening regional economic integration," Matthews said. "The retreat of the United States from the multilateral system has affected its role, influence, and image in the region."

He said that promoting an open and inclusive multilateral trading system, especially the conclusion of the RCEP, is critical to maintaining the dynamics of regional economic integration.

The professor added that the RCEP, once realized, will significantly contribute to the flow of goods and services in the region, but the biggest challenge would be infrastructure development in such countries as Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar.

"Here, the BRI can play a very important role in the bloc. Without effective communication and connectivity, the RCEP cannot flourish and economic potential cannot be utilized by partner countries," he said. "The BRI involvement in infrastructure development and enhancing the logistic capability of the region is a prerequisite for any further progress in the bloc."
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 19:15:45|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on July 14, 2020 shows the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

Cyrus Vance, the Manhattan district attorney, has been seeking Trump's financial records in part to investigate a hush money payment arranged by the president's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen -- now convicted and jailed -- to porn actress Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal, who claimed to have had affairs with Trump, allegations that the president denied.



WASHINGTON, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Lawyers for U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday the president will continue his fight to shield his tax returns and financial records from a federal prosecutor who subpoenaed them, days after the Supreme Court ruled the president is not entirely immune to criminal investigation.

In a status report filed to a Manhattan federal judge overseeing the case, Trump's lawyers said they planned to argue that the subpoena issued by Cyrus Vance, the Manhattan district attorney, seeking eight years of Trump's personal and corporate tax returns in a criminal probe, is too broad and politically motivated.

"The President should not be required, for example, to litigate the subpoena's breadth or whether it was issued in bad faith without understanding the nature and scope of the investigation and why the District Attorney needs all of the documents he has demanded," the lawyers wrote to Victor Marrero, the judge who scheduled a hearing for Thursday.

The new filing came less than a week after the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 to reject the president's claim that he has absolute immunity to investigative subpoenas such as the one issued by Vance, a Democrat.

Trump's lawyers noted in the Wednesday filing that the Supreme Court in its ruling said Trump may argue that the subpoena seeks too much information, or intends to impede the president's constitutional duties or harass, manipulate or retaliate against him. "The President intends to raise some or all of these arguments," the lawyers wrote.

U.S. President Donald Trump walks to board Marine One to depart from the White House for a rally in Ohio, in Washington, D.C. Jan. 9, 2020. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

Lawyers for Vance's office, for their part, said in a joint filing Wednesday that Trump's lawyers -- who argued that the case requires a more thorough factual record -- are demanding beyond what they are allowed, and that Vance could enforce the subpoena immediately but would give Trump until July 27 to file an amended lawsuit.

Trump's lawyers told Marrero, who initially handled the case and to whom the Supreme Court returned the case after last Thursday's ruling, that "further proceedings are necessary," and that an amended lawsuit would soon be filed.

Vance has been seeking Trump's financial records in part to investigate a hush money payment arranged by the president's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen -- now convicted and jailed -- to porn actress Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal, who claimed to have had affairs with Trump, allegations that the president denied.

Trump hasn't disclosed his tax returns since taking office in 2017, breaking both his promise made during the 2016 presidential campaign and a tradition kept by U.S. presidential candidates for decades.

A Reuters/Ipsos public opinion poll released Wednesday showed that two in three Americans wanted to see Trump's tax returns.

Trump said in November 2019 that he would make public his financial records before Election Day 2020, which falls on Nov. 3. The disclosure, he claimed, would only serve to prove that he is much richer than people thought. 
(Newser)  Last week, the CEO of Goya Foods publicly praised President Trump. That led to calls for people, especially Latinos, to boycott Goya's beans and other products, and videos on social media of people dumping their Goya goods. The Trump camp is pushing back, however, and, as Marc Caputo of Politico sums up, "The culture war is officially a food fight." Coverage:

Trump: On Wednesday, Trump posted an image on Instagram of himself at his Oval Office desk, giving the thumbs-up to several Goya products in front of him. Ivanka Trump previously posted a similar image. The president also tweeted that Goya "is doing GREAT. The Radical Left smear machine backfired, people are buying like crazy!"

story continues below

Late night: The hosts of late night are weighing in, and not in Trump's favor. "I mean, I'm glad the president is using his desk for probably the first time in months, but come on guysyou've got to admit, this is pretty embarrassing," Trevor Noah said on the Daily Show, per Mashable. "The dude doesn't look like a president, he looks like a local athlete who retired 15 years ago and is desperate for money." On the Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon joked that Trump got it wrong: "Americans are like, 'We're buying canned food like crazy because we're living in the apocalypse!," per Rolling Stone.

The hosts of late night are weighing in, and not in Trump's favor. "I mean, I'm glad the president is using his desk for probably the first time in months, but come on guysyou've got to admit, this is pretty embarrassing," Trevor Noah said on the Daily Show, per Mashable. "The dude doesn't look like a president, he looks like a local athlete who retired 15 years ago and is desperate for money." On the Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon joked that Trump got it wrong: "Americans are like, 'We're buying canned food like crazy because we're living in the apocalypse!," per Rolling Stone. Cuomo's rant: CNN's Chris Cuomo was particularly riled up Wednesday night, notes TVLine. "You tell me how a president, in the middle of a pandemic, has got time for this bull----. Are you kidding me? Hawking products?" Fellow CNN host Anderson Cooper called the image "grotesque," adding: "137,000 Americans dead, and this is our self-proclaimed wartime president's answer to it."

CNN's Chris Cuomo was particularly riled up Wednesday night, notes TVLine. "You tell me how a president, in the middle of a pandemic, has got time for this bull----. Are you kidding me? Hawking products?" Fellow CNN host Anderson Cooper called the image "grotesque," adding: "137,000 Americans dead, and this is our self-proclaimed wartime president's answer to it." Counterpoint: Ivanka, in particular, took much flak for her post, prompting White House spokeswoman Carolina Hurley to say: "Only the media and the cancel culture movement would criticize Ivanka for showing her personal support for a company that has been unfairly mocked, boycotted and ridiculed for supporting this administrationone that has consistently fought for and delivered for the Hispanic community." Critics say Ivanka violated ethics rules that prohibit government officials from endorsing products, notes the AP, but White House chief of staff Mark Meadows says no repercussions are likely.

Ivanka, in particular, took much flak for her post, prompting White House spokeswoman Carolina Hurley to say: "Only the media and the cancel culture movement would criticize Ivanka for showing her personal support for a company that has been unfairly mocked, boycotted and ridiculed for supporting this administrationone that has consistently fought for and delivered for the Hispanic community." Critics say Ivanka violated ethics rules that prohibit government officials from endorsing products, notes the AP, but White House chief of staff Mark Meadows says no repercussions are likely. The politics: Trump's camp hopes the controversy, and the call for a boycott, will persuade Hispanic voters that Democrats are "too radical" and have over-reached, writes Politico's Caputo. The theme is seen in a tweet from the campaign's Latino Twitter account: "Not even croquetas would be safe in Joe Biden's America. Pass it on."

(Read more President Trump stories.)
Michelle Keegan and Mark Wright have had their 1.3 million Essex home demolished, in order to start building their dream home.

On Thursday, the diggers were drafted in to tear down the existing property - a four-bedroom Essex farmhouse - leaving just a mass of rubble.

Snaps taken above the home saw the property lines boarded up with temporary fences, a full skip and a rocky ditch where the house once stood.

Demolished! Michelle Keegan and Mark Wright have drafted in the diggers to knock down their existing property - a four-bedroom Essex farmhouse - leaving just a mass of rubble

This is to pave the way for the new home - which will feature a huge swimming pool, a bar and a make-up room.

Floor plans posted on the Epping Council website showed that the couple's blueprints also feature a playroom for any future children.

The project is being designed by Essex-based company MP Architects.

The duo, both aged 33, bought the home for 1.3 million in October and it was revealed in January that they plan to demolish the house to create the sensationally lavish new house with 'classical design'.

Plans: The couple plan to start building their dream home

Aerial view: Snaps taken above the home saw the property lines boarded up with temporary fences

Scrapped! There was a full skip positioned at the front of the site

Debris: A rocky ditch where the house once stood was all that was left

Earlier this year, they submitted plans to knock down their home and replace with a sprawling Georgian-style mansion - details of which can be seen online.

While the couple had no objections from neighbours, they withdrew requests for 'demolition of an existing stable building' to build a 'one-bedroom annexe'.

Images of the ground floor show the home is set to give a nod to both their love of work and play, with a gym and bar placed either side of the huge kitchen.

The hub of the home is certainly the kitchen, which runs the entire length of the back of the house and includes a living area and island.

Before: The house is pictured prior to being demolished

Building site: This is to pave the way for the new home - which will feature a huge swimming pool, a bar and a make-up room

Fenced off: The diggers have cleared the site out for the new house

Work in progress: The property was impressive but Mark and Michelle want more

Wow! Floor plans posted on the Epping Council website showed that the couple's blueprints also feature a playroom for any future children

Stunning: Images of the ground floor show the home is set to give a nod to both their love of work and play, with a gym and bar placed either side of the huge kitchen

Huge: The first floor meanwhile shows an equally impressive plan, with a balcony extending from the master bedroom, which includes a dressing room and make-up room

The first floor meanwhile shows an equally impressive plan, with a balcony extending from the master bedroom, which includes a dressing room and make-up room.

Every bedroom features an en suite while cupboards are littered through the floor. The first floor features three bedrooms.

Second floor plans show two more bedrooms and further en suites.

Set on sprawling grounds, the rear of the house boasts a swimming pool plan while the vast drive is set to accommodate a plethora of cars.

Sprawling: Second floor plans show two more bedrooms and further en suites

Exciting times! Set on sprawling grounds, the rear of the house boasts a swimming pool plan while the vast drive is set to accommodate a plethora of cars

Their planning agent previously said: 'This new house has been carefully designed so that it is similar in area and volume to what is currently on the site.

'The new house will sit further back on the site and will create a much more functional family dwelling for our clients.

'The existing house has been extended several times and is not functional, therefore a new house would be a better use of the site.'

On starting a family after moving into their dream home, Mark previously said: 'We say we're going to try [for a baby] every year but something comes up with work...

'So it'll be Michelle filming in South Africa and then I got the job in Los Angeles  so we think, right, we'll try next year. It'll be around December or January, we'll talk about it and we'll go from there.

'With kids, I used to want three or four. But now, I'm 31, we're not having kids any time before 32. I think we could have two or three. Twins would be great because you're getting two out of the way at once!
"That demonstrates in NSW how effectively the states can respond to this," he said. "You can continue to move forward in the way that NSW is demonstrating by building that capability for tracing and testing and so on, and that's been quite effective in this case, and hopefully we will see that situation continue to improve as well." Dr Chant said on Thursday that authorities were working to track whether the state's three cases with unknown origin were at any of the venues now linked with the Casula outbreak. We will be re-interviewing cases and trying to ascertain any contact points and updating the community about additional actions," she said. Those cases include a western Sydney woman in her 40s, a south-western Sydney woman in her 40s, and a man in his 30s from the Wollongong area. NSW Health said all three were isolating at home.

Hurricane's Grill at Brighton Le Sands has been closed for deep cleaning. Credit:Peter Rae At this critical time I just urge all people  please just reflect, maintain that social distancing, don't go out with your group of friends if you have the mildest symptoms, Dr Chant said. Ten of the cases confirmed on Thursday were in the official reporting period of the 24 hours to 8pm Wednesday, and included four people in hotel quarantine. Five other cases were confirmed after that reporting period. An older teenager who attended Hurricane's Grill in Brighton Le Sands on July 11 between 6 and 8pm with another previously identified COVID-19 case who was infectious at the time of that outing. That venue has been closed for deep cleaning. A Victorian who flew into Ballina on July 12 on board Jetstar flight JQ 466 has also been diagnosed with COVID-19.

The person was wearing a surgical mask and was self isolating, but we are doing contact tracing in relation to that flight, Dr Chant said, adding that person was screened at Ballina airport and later developed symptoms. The three other cases were linked to the Crossroads outbreak, Dr Chant said. NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant provides a COVID-19 update on Thursday. Credit:Jessica Hromas One of those cases was in a man in his 30s who had been to Casula's Planet Fitness gym. He is the third person to be infected at that facility, after a man who was infected at the Crossroads Hotel attended the gym. The gym was deep cleaned on July 12 but remains closed. Several other venues in the area attended by Crossroads cluster cases remain under investigation, including Mancinis Original Woodfired Pizza in Belfield and Rashays in North Wollongong.

The outbreak has also affected the courts. Jury trials in NSW will not resume in the Albury and Campbelltown District Courts on 27 July, as originally planned, owing to the increase in community transmission of COVID-19 in these areas. Loading The court will continue to consult with NSW Health over coming weeks and will monitor the risk, the NSW Bar Association advised its members on Thursday. Dr Chant said people needed to be aware their household contacts and social networks were the groups most likely to infect you.

We have the impression that the people we're associating with day in, day out, are safe and we might let down our guard, she said. "Dont have the perception that youre safe in that environment."

"We need to sustain those high rates and testing in south-western Sydney, were asking the community to come forward for testing and this will ensure that we can identify the cases of COVID-19." On Wednesday, Dr Chant said cases in the Casula cluster were becoming infectious as soon as one day after contracting the coronavirus. She said while the incubation period for COVID-19 is usually within 14 days, "people have developed the symptoms, more towards the one-day period than the 14[days]". "It gives you very little time for the contact tracers, because you've got to get your cases diagnosed and then you've got to lock down those contacts," Dr Chant said. "If you've got a sore throat today, don't wait for two days to get it diagnosed. Work with us. Go get tested day one because every day you can give us allows us to to stop that spread."

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard on Thursday warned young people not to become complacent about the threat of coronavirus as they are often the least ill but "can be the most infectious". Loading "[There was] a young bloke who had one of the highest infection levels we've ever seen. His viral load was capable of spreading to anyone near him," Mr Hazzard told 2GB. "The health tracers tell me young people get out and about in the evening, and they go to lots of places. If you're sick, for heavens' sake stay home. You're putting everybody at risk. "We really need young people to wake up, they can be extremely deadly to their elderly relatives."
Technavio has been monitoring the women's intimate care products market and it is poised to grow by USD 299.26 mn during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of 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/20200716005453/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Women's Intimate Care Products 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. CCA Industries Inc., Combe Inc., Essity Aktiebolag (publ), Prestige Consumer Healthcare Inc., Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc, Sanofi, The Honey Pot Company LLC, The Procter Gamble Co., Unicharm Corp., and Wet and Dry Personal Care Pvt. Ltd. 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.

The premiumization of products has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. However, concerns around the disposal of intimate wipes will challenge the market growth.

Women's Intimate Care Products Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Women's Intimate Care Products Market is segmented as below:

Distribution Channel Offline Online

Geographic Landscape APAC Europe MEA North America 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=IRTNTR40251

Women's Intimate Care Products 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 women's intimate care products market report covers the following areas:

Women's Intimate Care Products Market size

Women's Intimate Care Products Market trends

Women's Intimate Care Products Market industry analysis

This study identifies the introduction of intimate care products with natural ingredients as one of the prime reasons driving the women's intimate care products market growth during the next few years.

Women's Intimate Care Products Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the women's intimate care products market, including some of the vendors such as CCA Industries Inc., Combe Inc., Essity Aktiebolag (publ), Prestige Consumer Healthcare Inc., Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc, Sanofi, The Honey Pot Company LLC, The Procter Gamble Co., Unicharm Corp., and Wet and Dry Personal Care Pvt. Ltd. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the women's intimate care products 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

Women's Intimate Care Products Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist women's intimate care products market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the women's intimate care products market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the women's intimate care products market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of women's intimate care products 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

Market segmentation analysis

Value chain analysis

PART 04: MARKET SIZING

Market definition

Market sizing 2019

Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market outlook

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 DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL

Market segmentation by distribution channel

Comparison by distribution channel

Offline Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Online Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by distribution channel

PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE

PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024

North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

APAC 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

PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK

PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES

Market drivers

Market challenges

PART 11: MARKET TRENDS

Introduction of natural intimate care products

Adoption of omnichannel retailing

Brand loyalty among customers

PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Overview

Landscape disruption

Competitive scenario

PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

CCA Industries Inc.

Combe Inc.

Essity Aktiebolag (publ)

Prestige Consumer Healthcare Inc.

Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc

Sanofi

The Honey Pot Company LLC

The Procter Gamble Co.

Unicharm Corp.

Wet and Dry Personal Care Pvt. Ltd.

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/20200716005453/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 YORK - The dismembered body of a 33-year-old tech entrepreneur was found inside his luxury Manhattan condo where an electric saw was left behind, police said Wednesday.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/7/2020 (552 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A New York Police cruiser is parked at 265 East Houston Street Wednesday, July 15, 2020, in New York. Police say the dismembered body of a 33-year-old tech entrepreneur has been found inside his luxury Manhattan condo. Fahim Saleh was found at around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday inside his apartment on the Lower East Side. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

NEW YORK - The dismembered body of a 33-year-old tech entrepreneur was found inside his luxury Manhattan condo where an electric saw was left behind, police said Wednesday.

The victim, identified as Fahim Saleh, was found at around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday inside his luxury seventh floor apartment on the Lower East Side. There have not been any arrests in connection with Saleh's death.

A relative called police after going to check on Saleh and making the gruesome discovery. Responding officers discovered a clothed torso, bags containing a head and arms and the electric saw in the living room, police said.

Investigators also recovered security video showing Saleh exiting an elevator that leads directly into the full-floor, two-bedroom apartment earlier Tuesday afternoon closely followed by someone dressed entirely in black, including a mask, according to a law enforcement official who was briefed on the case. It also shows a struggle between the two ensuing at the entrance to the apartment, said the official, who wasn't authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Police believe that the relative may have interrupted the intruder before that person fled out a back exit.

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The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide after an autopsy found the cause of death was multiple stab wounds to the body.

Saleh was the chief executive officer of a ride-hailing motorcycle startup called Gokada that began operating in Nigeria in 2018.

The company confirmed his death on Twitter Wednesday and said, Fahim was a great leader, inspiration and positive light for all of us.

Investigators were exploring whether the killing could have been related to Saleh's business dealings. They also were checking security camera video from the neighbourhood to try to locate the suspect.

Saleh's LinkedIn biography described him as a self-taught businessman who founded Gokada building on his experience of first seeing an opportunity in his parents native country of Bangladesh and starting that country's largest ride-sharing company. It said he also was invested in a similar venture in Colombia.

Apartments in the 10-story building where Saleh's remains were found sell for more than $2 million. The building was completed in 2017 as part of a wave of gentrification in the neighbourhood.
JACKSON, MI  An effort to change the citys official seal is moving forward after the Jackson City Council asked an arts commission to begin public discussions for a new seal.

The council voted unanimously at its Tuesday, July 14 virtual meeting, to have the Jackson Public Arts Commission engage in a redesign of the seal that features former U.S. President Andrew Jackson waving his hat in the air while riding a rearing horse much like the Jackson Monument near the White House.

Jackson, the nations seventh president, is one of several historical figures for which criticism has come into public discussions of systemic racism and treatment of minorities in the U.S., sparked by the nationwide George Floyd protests in May and June.

Andrew Jacksons history raises questions about Jacksons official city seal

Some Jackson residents wonder if the former presidents representation in the citys seal is appropriate based on Jackson being a slave owner and signer of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which led to the forced western relocation of multiple Native American tribes along the Trail of Tears from the southeastern U.S.

City Council directed the arts commission to get public input on a potential redesign. The commission will begin discussions at its 5:30 p.m. meeting Tuesday, July 21, city spokesman Aaron Dimick said.

Mayor Derek Dobies said he is open to having a different city logo and a city seal for more official documents like proclamations and ordinances. The city has used a new logo for its website, social media and other communications for about five years, Dimick has said.

The logo Jackson City Council picked to grace two raised water towers within the city in 2014.Courtesy of City of Jackson

Some have suggested the seal could depict an image that is more specifically about the city, such as an Oak tree to reference the historical site of the founding of the Republican Party in July 1854 or former Michigan Governor Austin Blair, a Jacksonian, Dobies said.

I dont have any particular affinity for a statue that exists in a different district, he said, referring to the Jackson statue in Washington, D.C.

MORE JACKSON NEWS:

Drug bust in Adrian results in one arrest

Jackson County sees 61 new cases of coronavirus halfway through July

Heres what youre missing with no Faster Horses Festival this weekend

Smoking now banned in Jacksons public parks
By PTI

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to make an announcement of Rs 1 crore and a job for the family of COVID warriors who died in the line of duty.

He said his party salutes their service to the nation.

"The state government should immediately make policy announcement of Rs 1 crore and a job for the family of corona warriors, who are saving people from coronavirus and putting their lives in danger. Samajwadi Party salutes service of corona warriors," Yadav said in a tweet in Hindi.

Uttar Pradesh has reported record 34 COVID-19 deaths and highest single-day spike of 2,061 cases, taking the toll to 1,046 and the number of cases to 43,444.
The baby boys are doing fine, thank you -- and yes, life has changed a lot since Alabama twin sisters made their debut on the online series 9 Months with Courteney Cox.

The second season of the Facebook Watch show comes to an end Thursday, July 15, when the 20th and final episode is unveiled on Facebook at 4 p.m. Central. Its second episode, first shown on May 14, introduced 28-year-old sisters Tiesha and Dienesha of Loxley -- or as they call themselves in their ongoing YouTube video series, The McKinney Twins.

They were among a rather large cast of characters: Like the first season of the show, the second featured 10 couples, each of whom had to contend with various complications. Despite a brisk format that features a good deal of footage shot by the subjects themselves -- a feature that became a real asset during the COVID-19 shutdown -- its simply not possible for producers to update every story in every episode. And it was only recently, in episodes 17 and 18, that viewers saw how things turned out for these twin sisters who unexpectedly found themselves pregnant at the same time.

Way back in Episode 2, Dienesha and her five-year-old daughter Gabriella were living with Tiesha and her fiancee Erika. So theres a lot of female energy going on here, commented Tiesha, with some understatement. Erika and Tiesha were trying to conceive through IUI. Shortly after they succeeded, Dienesha found to her surprise that she was pregnant as well.

The sisters had always been unusually close, so they saw this development as a blessing. Ironically, it also led to increased space between them when Dienesha opted to move back in with her boyfriend Jamal, Gabriellas father.

It was, Im not going to lie, it was hard on me, said Tiesha. Because Im so used to having Dienesha with me and Im so used to having her daughter Gabriella with me as well since she was two years old, and shes about to be six now.  When she told me that she had to move out, it was kind of like me going through a divorce, it really was.

Adding a pandemic on top of a pregnancy journey will test these families in ways they never thought possible. 9 Months with Courteney Cox is all-new tomorrow at 2 pm PST / 5 pm EST, only on Facebook Watch. Posted by 9 Months with Courteney Cox on Wednesday, July 8, 2020

They had the same due date, but as viewers eventually learned, things didnt work out that way. Tieshas water broke about two weeks early, a development attributed to a spike in her blood pressure, and her son Kingland was born after more than 30 hours of labor. About a week later, induced labor didnt work out for Dienesha and her son Kyler was delivered by C-section.

Theyre absolutely perfect, Tiesha said Wednesday. Theres literally nothing wrong with them. Theyre the best babies.

Its made clear in the show that the coronavirus pandemic caused stress by limiting the number of family members the women could have with them in the hospital. Since then, it hasnt been that much of a problem, they said, though it puts a damper on the natural urge to show off the babies.

They have been getting plenty of time together, however. Asked if they want their sons to be as close growing up as they were, the sisters answered in perfect unison, Absolutely!

I think Kingland has more of a very outspoken personality, said Tiesha. Hes going to be the happiest, friendlies, most talkative  Dienesha says all the time how when the boys go to school that he is going to get into trouble all the time. Since he was two months, all he does is talk. And I think that Kyler is going to be the more laid-back baby, the one who is going to reel King in, like, You need to calm down, King, were going to get in trouble.

Kyler can look at King and automatically start laughing, said Dienesha. Its like he knows.

Tiesha, who said that she and Erika are now married, acknowledged that it once would have been risky to open her story of same-sex motherhood to the world.

I feel like if I was going to go through this probably like, I would say, three years ago, I would have had a lot of backlash, she said. I kind of feel like I got good feedback, a lot of positive feedback. People were excited.

Im now on the journey to helping other same-sex marriages, same-sex people, have babies as well, she said. I think Im on my seventh couple, to help them have a baby the way I had a baby. I think that is a blessing in itself, that I can be a support system to somebody else thats trying to have a baby or trying to live a relatively normal livestyle, like I am.

Its a new normal, just like wearing a facemask is the new normal, she said. I think LGBT is the new normal now. Some people dont like it, some people agree with it. Youll never have the whole world agreeing on one thing, is how I see it.

The sisters said their takeaway from the show is a new appreciation for the fact that every pregnancy is unique. Tiesha said that the other stories of Season 2 -- including a pregnant firefighter, a pregnancy being carried by a surrogate and another woman trying to have a baby despite having cerebral palsy -- drove that home.

Every pregnancy is literally different  watching the show you see it firsthand, she said. At the end its all different, but its all amazing.

It was the best journey and I want to think everybody who was on the journey with us, Tiesha said, as well as everyone who was on the journey with all the cast of 9 Months.

Cox, the actress known for her roles in Friends, Cougar Town and the Scream movies, was born in the Birmingham area and graduated from Mountain Brook High School. The first season of 9 Months debuted in January 2019, joining a slate of original content that Facebook has been presenting since 2017 via Facebook Watch.
New Delhi: The Tamil Nadu Board Class 12 Results 2020 will be declared on Thursday (July 16) in just a few minutes.

Tamil Nadu's Directorate of Government Exams (DGE) will declare the results online at 9:30 AM. Students can head to the official websites - dge.tn.gov.in, dge1.tn.nic.in, tnresults.nic.in to check the results.

Here's how to check Tamil Nadu Board Class 12 Results 2020 online:

Step 1: Visit official result portal of TN Board i.e. tnresults.nic.in

Step 2: Find and Click on the Link for TN HSE / +2 Result 2020 on the homepage

Step 3: You will be redirected to a new page with input fields

Step 4: Enter your Exam Registration Number in the first field

Step 5: Input your Date of Birth, as mentioned on the hall ticket or admit card in the second one

Step 6: Verify all the details and submit them on the website

Step 7: Your TN Plus Two Result will be displayed on the screen

Step 8: Download the Scorecard in PDF / Softcopy format

Step 9: Take printout of the e-statement of marks for future reference

Students can view the results on the official Mobile Apps also. HSE(+2) Result, TN HSE(+1) Result and TN SSLC Result are all available on Google Play store and Apple App Store.

The Tamil Nadu government had cancelled Class 10 board exams on June 15 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami had announced that all students would be promoted in 2020.

Over nine lakh students were scheduled to appear for exams at 12,690 centres. The government had announced that for Class 10 students, the marks would be based on their quarterly and half yearly exam performance.
BJP to start Bijli Jan Andolan from tomorrow

New Delhi, Thu, 16 Jul 2020 NI Wire

New Delhi, 16th July . Delhi BJP President Shri Adesh Gupta presided over the meeting held at the State Office today, in which State Organization General Secretary Shri Siddharthan, Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Shri Ramvir Singh Bidhuri alongwith State office bearers, MLAs and District Presidents were present.

At the meeting, Delhi BJP President Shri Adesh Gupta said that people of all sections in Delhi are worried about electricity bills. During the lockdown, industry and business were closed but due to the fixed charge and other surcharges, they are getting huge bills and notices are being sent for disconnection if the electricity bill are not paid. Similarly, domestic consumers are being sent average bills and billing is done in such a way that they are not getting the benefit of any subsidy. Last week, the Delhi BJP President interacted with the RWAs, Traders Association and the Industrial associations through video conferencing in which everyone presented their problems regarding huge electricity bills.

The Delhi BJP President said that Delhi BJP will start the Bijli Jan Andolan from tomorrow regarding the problems of the people. State General Secretary Shri Kuljeet Singh Chahal will be Convenor and Yuva Morcha President Shri Sunil Yadav will be the Co-convenor of the Bijli Jan Andolan.

Shri Kuljeet Singh Chahal said that tomorrow the Bijli Jan Andolan will be held at the power offices located in all the 70 assembly constituencies and the main venue of the Bijli Jan Andolan will be the office of DERC located in Malviya Nagar and Delhi BJP President Shri Adesh Gupta along with LOP Shri Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and MLAs and other party office bearers will take part in the Bijli Jan Andolan following social distancing.

Shri Sunil Yadav said that all the MPs will lead this Bijli Andolan in their respective areas and the state, district office bearers, assembly candidates, councillors and Mandal Presidents will also participate in the Bijli Jan Andolan.

--Source: BJP
Q: Im a married daughter, 35, of a widowed mother whos moving in with a man, and Im feeling worried, scared and upset.

Help! I need guidelines on how to handle my mothers love life!

She met my father while in high school, and he in University. They were married for over 50 years, raised me and my sister in a very happy home, often filled with friends and relatives.

We lacked for nothing but had to do chores, be devoted to our studies, aim for productive lives and land decent jobs.

Mom, however, was a community volunteer but took it as seriously as any job. Dad died of cancer four years ago and she was devastated, but kept up her commitments.

Her friends tried to connect her with widowers but she brushed them off. Then one man called and said maybe they should just have dinner together to share their thoughts and confusion about living alone after years of long, happy marriages.

Now, three years later, theyre talking about sharing her home (hell sell his, and pay for half of hers).

What if it doesnt work out and he refuses to give up his half? Or sells it? Or leaves it to his adult children?

When I visit Mom, will we still have our private time, or will I always have to relate to him too?

Do his children become part of our extended family for special occasions?

Need Rules of Engagement

A: There are no rules, only open discussion with decent intentions.

Your mothers entitled to a life of companionship and caring, no matter her age.

In many ways, its a tribute to the love she shared with your father and their happy home life, for her to welcome a trusted partner again.

Of course, at her age and with property and different sets of adult children involved, trust must be grounded in legal agreements.

Make sure that she and her partner have separate lawyers and complete mutually signed documents before they start fully cohabiting.

Stay close to your mother during this change period to assure that theres been no undue pressure on her.

Once thats not a concern, be welcoming to him and his family too, as you get to know them better.

For those seniors fortunate to be living longer and healthier (but for COVID-19) than past generations, there are still choices.

For many, theres no joy in being lonely.

Q: For my daughters 12th birthday, she invited a friend over  her first play date since the March lockdown, because my mother-in-law who lives with us has a weak immune system.

Our kids know its why our home quarantine has been strictly maintained.

My daughter chose one friend among her posse of four, all of whom knew about my mother-in-law, and I called the girls mother.

Once here, I noticed the girl had little sense of social distancing, so I stayed nearby.

I overheard her say that shed been feeling very sick and was tested for Covid, as was her whole family. When? Last week. Everyone was negative, the girl said.

There was nothing I could do, other than handwashing and sanitizing surfaces.

What should I say to her mother about this?

Annoyed and Uncomfortable

A: That girls family was likely very upset by her illness. The mother mayve forgotten about your mother-in-laws condition.

Just say youre sorry for her scare. The good news is that the girls negative, but since she doesnt distance, dont invite her until youre more comfortable.

Ellies tip of the day

When parents move on after a loss to another mutually-desired relationship, be supportive.
EO Company invited various speakers from academic, business and investment circles to share their thoughts on the status quo and the future of intelligent urban systems and the global technology landscape overall. China's ' new infrastructure ' plan, essential trends in hardware, software and at the interface of the two, various applications of machine intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT) and other topics were touched upon many times on site.

Below are the essential details of what the guests were discussing. The quotes are in chronological order.

You Tianyu, vice president at EO Company, head of EO Intelligence: "China's 'new infrastructure' is not a from-zero-to-one process, but a long-standing trend that results from years of technological development."

Tao Dacheng, fellow of Australian Academy of Science: "The 'new infrastructure' will be the main carrier of livable cities, bearing various aspects of urban construction, such as smart security, smart transportation, and smart medical care."

Lee Der-Horng, fellow of Academy of Engineering Singapore: "Localized, unmanned, and lightweight travel modes will be the key direction to solving the problem of urban traffic resilience."

Marco Landi, ex-COO and ex-president of Apple Computer: "It's time to start building a human-centric Artificial Intelligence system."

Wu Minghui, founder and CEO of MiningLamp: "A city, much like human beings, is a living body composed of various cells; it needs to be constantly evolving."

Chen Ye, founder and CEO of Tigerobo: "Compared to the 'consumer Internet,' the breakthrough of the 'industrial Internet' is great, but it will be more difficult to implement."

Zheng Wenxian, vice president at Intellifusion: "The 'new infrastructure' is not just a new version of the traditional infrastructure that was built the past, it is an entirely new, data-driven system."

Zhang Rong, COO at Westwell: "How to keep a port city alive? Digitalization and automation are making unmanned terminals' operation possible."

Zhang Yong, principal scientist at Keda Technology: "Edge computing is a promising concept in the public safety sphere  it will play a greater role and become a very important tool in the field."

SOURCE EO Company

Related Links

https://equalocean.com


India said its diplomats protested, left a meeting with Indian spy sentenced to death on charges of spying.

India said its diplomats protested and left a meeting arranged by Pakistan in Islamabad with an Indian man sentenced to death on charges of spying, saying an agreement to allow unimpeded consular access had not been honoured by Pakistani officials.

Former Indian Naval Commander Kulbhushan Jadhav was arrested in 2016 in Pakistans southwestern province of Balochistan and convicted of espionage and sabotage by a Pakistani military court a year later.

India took the matter to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which ordered a stay on Jadhavs execution in 2019, as well as consular access for India.

Pakistan was also ordered to conduct an effective review of the death penalty.

Two consular officers of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad were provided unimpeded and uninterrupted consular access to Commander Jadhav at 1500 hours, Pakistans foreign office said in a statement on Thursday.

The meeting between Jadhav and Indian officials was the second since the ICJ ruling.

200709045304400

However, according to Indias Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the consular officers left after protesting that the access did not permit free conversation as was agreed a few days earlier with Pakistan.

Pakistani officials with an intimidating demeanour were present in close proximity of Shri Jadhav and Consular Officers despite the protests of the Indian side, the MEA said in a statement, adding that the conversation was also recorded.

Indian officials say they were prevented from obtaining Jadhavs written consent to arrange legal representation, necessary for a review of his case.

Earlier this month, Pakistan invited India to file a review against the death sentence in light of the ICJ judgement.

During investigation, Commander Jadhav confessed to his involvement in terrorist activities inside Pakistan that resulted in loss of many precious human lives, Pakistans foreign office statement added.

Already tense diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars, have deteriorated since they expelled half of each others diplomatic staff last month.

Islamabad accuses New Delhi of backing separatist groups in Balochistan, a charge New Delhi denies.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has blamed India for last months attack on the Karachi stock exchange, which one of the separatist groups claimed to have launched.
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Linkedin John Miller (Reuters) Zurich, Switzerland  Thu, July 16, 2020 21:00 551 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666de362 2 World novel-coronavirus,Novartis,drugmakers,coronavirus,coronavirus-prevention,COVID-19,COVID-19-vaccines,pandemic,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona Free

Novartis's Sandoz division will not profit from 15 generic drugs it is making available to developing countries to treat symptoms of COVID-19 for the pandemic's duration, the Swiss drugmaker said on Thursday.

Novartis's pledge to provide the antibiotics, steroids and diarrhea pills to 79 countries on the World Bank's list of low- and lower-middle income nations prompted the Doctors Without Borders non-governmental organization (NGO) to call for more transparency on drug pricing and for the industry to follow "no profiteering" initiatives for new COVID-19 medicines.

While Novartis has not seen supply chain disruptions for these medicines, Novartis Global Health Chief Operating Officer Lutz Hegemann told Reuters the program aimed to help vulnerable healthcare systems in Africa, Asia, South America and Eastern Europe from becoming overloaded.

"We shouldn't underestimate the stress that COVID puts particularly on fragile health systems," Hegemann said, adding Novartis hoped to work with health authorities, faith-based organizations and NGOs to eliminate big mark-ups. "We are not targeting classical commercial distribution channels, but very direct channels."

Novartis's brand-name drugs have had little application in treating the new coronavirus, while its older malaria drug hydroxychloroquine has flopped in some scientific trials against the disease.

But Sandoz generics are among medicines commonly used to treat symptoms of those hospitalized.

The 15 drugs include several antibiotics, the steroid dexamethasone that has seen some success in treating severe COVID-19 cases, heart failure drug dobutamine, antifungal fluconazole and lung drug salbutamol, among others.

Hegemann did not give the "no profit" cost of the drugs, compared with commercial prices.

The medicines have been around for decades and are comparatively cheap to make.

"Novartis should publish the actual 'at cost prices' for these medicines, as well as any costs of R&D and costs of production for all of their medicines," a Doctors Without Borders spokesperson said. "Additionally, we hope that corporations like Novartis will follow similar 'no profiteering' initiatives for any new COVID-19 products."
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], July 16 (ANI/NewsVoir): A rare liver auto-transplant was successfully performed at Apollo Hospitals, Bengaluru recently.

The patient, a 46-year-old mother of two from Kolkata, had a malignant tumour in her liver which was inoperable due to the tumour's location, and that made conventional surgery risky. Dr. Sanjay Govil, Consultant - Gastrointestinal Surgery, Hepatobiliary & Pancreatic Surgery, Liver Transplantation at Apollo Hospitals Bengaluru performed the complex surgical procedure that involved removing the liver, cutting out the cancerous tumour and re-implanting the liver back into the patient.

The successful completion of the liver auto-transplant makes Apollo Hospitals one of only few hospitals in the world to have successfully performed this procedure.

The patient, Mrs Srijitha had visited Apollo Gleneagles Hospital, Kolkata with complaints of severe stomach pain since a few months that had worsened with the patient falling unconscious multiple times on the same day. Tests revealed a malignant tumour in her liver that would require to be resected or cut out. However, while not large, the tumour's hard-to-reach location that involved several small and large blood vessels in close vicinity made a conventional approach and surgery risky and with uncertain success.

Dr Sanjay Govil, Consultant - Gastrointestinal Surgery, Hepatobiliary & Pancreatic Surgery, Liver Transplantation said, "A radical resection or cutting out of the tumour or liver transplantation is the best treatment for patients with advanced hepatic cancer. The advantage of a liver auto-transplant is that it eliminates the need for a donor liver or any immunosuppressive therapy after the surgery. In the patient's case, we had an additional challenge of the tumour being difficult to reach, so it was decided to go in for an auto-transplant."

"The eight-hour-long surgery involved removing the liver, resecting the tumour from the liver outside the patient's body, and transplanting the healthy liver without the tumour back into the patient. Extensive experienced teamwork is required for the technical challenges during surgery as well as pre and postoperative management."

The patient's husband expressed his happiness on the successful surgery, "I started looking for the best treatment option & meet a lot of doctors in Kolkata, and I found out that very few surgeons in India are capable of performing this surgery. A few of my reference led me to Dr. Sanjay Govil in Bangalore. I had immediately made the travel arrangements after taking an appointment. I am glad we made the trip as my wife now has got a new lease of life."

The patient began oral feeding the day after surgery and made an uneventful recovery. She was discharged on 15th June 2020. Back at the hospital during her weekly check-up, a smiling Mrs. Srijitha said, "Within five minutes of interacting with Dr. Govil, I knew he was my surgeon. I could put my complete trust and faith in him. We are thankful to the doctors and the team at Apollo Hospitals, Bengaluru for their timely intervention to get my life back on track again. I can't wait to go back to Kolkata and meet my family!"

YouTube Link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVXIj6h46Vw.

Mr Davison P K, Chief Executive Officer, Apollo Hospitals Group - Karnataka Region said, "With the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, access to medical care has become a greater challenge for several cancer patients. In fact, reports have stated that nearly 60% of cancer surgeries in India were postponed during the peak 12 weeks of the epidemic. Each year, India reports more than a million new cancer cases, emphasising the need for better accessibility and implementation of advanced technologies for cancer care. The case in hand had introduced new challenges and risk factors along with the health threat of the ongoing pandemic. I'm proud to announce that our team of experts headed by Dr. Govil and the Apollo Hospitals transplant team has redefined cancer care in India, by successfully performing a path-breaking liver auto-transplant surgery."

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)

DISCLAIMER

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The suspended chairman of the anti-graft agency, EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, has again written to the Ayo Salami investigative panel, debunking media reports linking him to corruption and published while he was being detained.

Mr Magu, through his counsel, Wahab Shittu, also accused the panel of not giving him adequate time and facilities to defend himself.

In a letter directed to the investigative committee on Wednesday, Mr Magu also insisted that the panel is yet to serve him the petitions containing the allegations against him, as well as a copy of the report of the Presidential Committee on Audit of Recovered Assets (PCARA).

The PCARA was inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 and it submitted its report in 2018. Its content, as it relates to Mr Magu, were only recently leaked to the media.

Mr Magu is currently being interrogated by a panel headed by the former president of the appeal court, over allegations of corruption and insubordination levelled against him by the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami.

He was arrested last week and released on Wednesday after spending ten days in detention.

Trumped-up charges

Based on the above circumstances, our client was not given adequate time and facilities for his defence and his demand for a copy of the allegations against him has not been honoured till date.

The charges against our client are trumped-up allegations designed to tarnish his image and rubbish the credibility and image of EFCC which has been stellar and outstanding under our clients watch.

We appeal to the panel to consider the above and uphold the fundamental rights to a fair hearing of our client, the counsel said.

False media reports

Numerous claims of corruption and high-handedness against Mr Magu have since been circulated and published on various media platforms, many of which the counsel denied.

For instance, Mr Magu was accused of giving N4 billion to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and that he stole interests accruing to recovered looted funds. Both claims have been challenged.

Mr Osinbajo has denied receiving such funds from the embattled official and threatened legal action against the newspaper which published the report.

Also, in a recent PREMIUM TIMES report, some Nigerian officials said forfeited funds attracted no interests on them as such could not be stolen as the funds were placed in a dedicated account at the CBN.

Similarily, Daily Trust newspaper quoted the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris, on Monday confirming that looted public funds kept in the Treasury Single Account (TSA), do not yield interest.

Ex-military Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar

A former presidential aide, Segun Adeniyi, in his column, also accused Mr Magu of harassing a former head of state, Abdulsalami Abubakar, and a retired General, Theophilus Danjuma, while still in office. Both men have denied the allegations.

Theophilus Danjuma

Addressing the series of allegations against him, Mr Magu denied paying any money to the vice president and a lawyer, Femi Falana as reported in the media.

He refuted reports that the panel quizzed him over 322 recovered properties.

Mr Magu described the reports as totally false.

On the issue of the vice president, Mr Magus lawyer explained: Our client strongly denies this falsehood against the respected Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Our client has never given the sum of N4billion or any sum at all to Prof. Yemi Osinbajo SAN, GCON, Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as wrongly reported. This allegation is complete falsehood designed to tarnish the hard-earned reputation of the Vice President and our client.

On Mr Falana, Mr Magus lawyer also said, Our client never gave N28 million or any amount to Mr Femi Falana SAN as maliciously reported. Our client also denies any link with a Kaduna-based Bureau De Change Operator as alleged.

Mr Magu also dismissed reports accusing him of keeping N500 billion recovered loot in a deposit account.

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He said, The alleged transaction never featured in the proceedings before this honourable panel. Our client was never confronted with any such allegation in the proceedings before this panel and the news is a blatant falsehood.

On claims he diverted over N700 million set aside for training of EFCC officials, he denied this.

The allegation that this panel requested our client to account for the sum of N700 million meant for the commissions operatives is not true. Our client has not been confronted with such allegation by this panel. Our client does not disburse any such funds in the EFCC.

Mr Magus lawyer, while reeling out the numerous allegations published against him in the media, again reiterated that his client was innocent.

Read the full text of Mr Magus defence below:

Attention: Hon Justice Isa Ayo Salami (Rtd)

Gentlemen:

PUBLICATIONS PREJUDICIAL TO THE PROCEEDINGS OF THIS HONOURABLE PANEL

We act as Counsel of Choice to Mr Ibrahim Mustafa Magu, the suspended Acting Chairman of the EFCC hereinafter referred to as Our Client and on whose behalf and specific instructions we write as follows:

This is a follow-up to our letter dated 10th July, 2020 on behalf of our client.

Please be advised that the attention of our client has been drawn to serial falsehood publications in the media in respect of matters which never featured in the proceedings of this Honourable Panel.

These falsehood publications being orchestrated in the media include the following:

NFIU SUBMITS REPORT ON MAGUS FOREX TRANSACTIONS TO PANEL (SEE THE PUNCH OF TUESDAY, JULY 14, 2020) This report was published in The PUNCH on Tuesday July 14, 2020.

Our client states categorically that he has not been confronted on alleged illegal transactions and no such report was tendered by NFIU in any proceedings before this panel involving him till date.

Our client states categorically that the maximum forex transactions he has been involved in is the sum of $10,000 (Ten Thousand Dollars) till date.

Our client also wishes to place on record that he has no link with Kaduna-based Bureau De Change Operator as erroneously reported in the publication.

ALLEGED N573 MILLION NAIRA DUBAI PROPERTY LINKED TO MAGU

This allegation is outright falsehood and is denied by our client in unmistakable terms. It is instructive to state that the General Overseer of Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministries, Prophet Emmanuel Omale, in a pre-litigation letter addressed to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Monday 13th July, 2020, denied the allegations that he bought a property in Dubai worth N573 million on behalf of our client. Our client challenges his accusers to provide details of such property and proof of ownership by our client. Instructively, The PUNCH at Page 8 of Tuesday July 14th, 2020 had published the denial of Prophet Emmanuel Omale to set the record straight.

ALLEGED DIVERSION OF INTEREST ON RECOVERED FUNDS (SUNDAY PUNCH EDITION OF 12TH JULY, 2020)

This Publication on Front Page of Sunday Punch Edition of 12th of July, 20320 is outright falsehood.

Our client states that all recovered funds are lodged with TSA Account with Central Bank of Nigeria. It is elementary that funds in TSA Account lodged with CBN do not generate interest. It is therefore falsehood to publish that our client placed N500 billion (Five Hundred and Fifty Billion) recovered loot into deposit account.

Headquarters of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)

The alleged transaction never featured in the proceedings before this Honourable Panel. Our client was never confronted with any such allegation in the proceedings before this panel and the news is blatant falsehood.

DAY 6: PANEL QUIZZES MAGU ON N700 MILLION TRAINING FUND (VANGUARD, TUESDAY 14TH JULY, 2020)

The allegation that this Panel requested our client to account for the sum of N700 million meant for the commissions operatives is not true. Our client has not been confronted with such allegation by this Honourable Panel. Our client does not disburse any such funds in the EFCC.

The immediate Director of Finance and Administration (DFA) summoned by the Panel must have furnished details on this as the custodian of the funds. Our client denies this allegation completely. Funds earmarked for training was properly utilised by the Commission. The DFA and the Director of Audit will explain the utilisation of the funds meant for training with supporting documentations.

ALLEGED BID TO SPIRIT MAGU AWAY BUSTED (VANGUARD, JULY 14TH 2020 PG. 5)

The allegation that there were plans by some associates of our client to spirit him out of detention as published above is complete fabrication. Since our client has been in detention Nine (9) days ago, he has cooperated maximally with Law Enforcement Agents. Our client is only allowed very few restricted and fully screened visitors.

No such incident took place as reported and this is an attempt to bring our client on collision course with the authorities he respects enormously. Our client, as a commissioner of police, will never escape from custody as he remains innocent and a patriotic citizen.

SALAMI PANEL GRILLS MAGU, EFCC DIRECTORS AGAIN (DAILY TRUST, TUESDAY 14TH JULY, 2020 PG. 3)

The allegation that our client was grilled by the Panel on Monday, 13th July, 2020 as reported above is complete falsehood. The correct position was that our client and his Counsel (Mr. Wahab Shittu) arrived the venue of the ongoing Investigations on Monday 13th July, 2020 by 9am. Our client and his Counsel were kept at the waiting room of the venue of the sittings unattended to from 9am to 9pm when our client was taken back to custody.

This followed the same pattern on Thursday and Friday last week when our client waited for 12 hours without being called upon by the Panel to partake in the proceedings. Witnesses called by the Panel were interrogated by the Panel without the participation of our client or his Counsel in the proceedings. This was also the pattern on Tuesday, 14th July, 2020. Our client chose to wait patiently on the panel.

ALLEGED PAYMENT OF N4 BILLION TO PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO SAN, GCON, VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo [PHOTO: Presidency]

Our client strongly denies this falsehood against the respected Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Our client has never given the sum of N4billion or any sum at all to Prof. Yemi Osinbajo SAN, GCON, Vice President of Federal Republic of Nigeria as wrongly reported. This allegation is complete falsehood designed to tarnish the hard-earned reputation of the Vice President and our client.

ALLEGED PAYMENT OF N28 MILLION TO FEMI FALANA SAN

Femi Falana (SAN) writes about Buharis misleading reasons for rejecting electoral bill 2021.

This allegation is complete fabrication. Our client never gave N28 million or any amount to Mr Femi Falana SAN as maliciously reported. Our client also denies any link with a Kaduna-based Bureau De Change Operator as alleged.

SEARCH OF OUR CLIENTS HOUSE  NO INCRIMINATING EVIDENCE FOUND

Our client confirms that his House was searched last Monday in his absence while in custody, but no incriminating evidence was found. It is untrue as reported that some dollars and expensive jewelries and wrist watches were found. Our client states that the search into his house did not reveal any incriminating evidence or materials. The cars removed from his residence were official vehicles assigned to our client as acting Chairman of EFCC.

DENIAL OF COPIES OF ALLEGATIONS AGAINST OUR CLIENT

Our client is spending the 9th day in custody without being given copy of the allegations against him to enable him formally respond to same. Our client is ready to formally respond to allegations and furnish documentary evidence in support if served with the copy of the allegations.

Our client respectfully demands the following:

a) A copy of the report of the Presidential Audit Committee

b) A copy of the memo of HAGF to the President on our client

c) Individual Petitions submitted to the Panel against our client.

Our client observes that rather being afforded copies of the allegations against him, some of these allegations are flying round on Social Media platforms with prejudicial consequences. Our client requests that these allegations be formally served on him to enable him respond to same immediately.

Our client observes that the Panel has issued official statement to the effect that it did not authorise the detention of our client. We request the Panel to recommend to the Inspector General of Police in whose custody our client is to release him from custody to enable him adequately prepare his defence and attend to his failing health. We plead with the authorities to release our client from custody.

QUESTIONS OVER ALLEGED N5BILLION ELECTION FUND (VANGUARD, MONDAY, JULY 13, 2020)

Our client denies receiving from INEC or anybody the sum of N5billion Election Fund as maliciously reported above. Our client has never been confronted with the alleged N5billion Election Fund by this Panel.

INEC

This outrageous sum quoted above is outright falsehood. Funds released by INEC to EFCC were disbursed directly to the beneficiaries who participated in the electoral process.

This information can be verified from the INEC Chair, the Director of Finance and Administration EFCC and Director of Audit respectively. Our client has absolutely nothing to do with the sum disbursed as Electoral Fund and never benefitted from the disbursement. The story is complete fabrication designed to tarnish the image of our client.

ALLEGED FAILURE TO SUBMIT EFCC AUDITED ACCOUNTS FOR FOUR (4) YEARS (THISDAY, MONDAY, JULY 13, 2020).

This publication above is complete fabrication. The truth is that EFCC under our clients watch is not in arrears on the submission of Audited Accounts. EFCC has complied in the submission of Audited Accounts for four years running. The Audited Account for 2020 will be due statutorily for submission in September, 2020 by virtue of Section 37 of the EFCC Act, 2004.

DSS, POLICE GO AFTER NFIU OFFICE BURGLARS (DAILY SUN, MONDAY, JULY 13, 2020).

Our client denies any link in the alleged burgling of the office of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), located at No 12, Ibrahim Taiwo Street, Aso Villa. Our client has no link with the Kaduna-based Bureau De Change (BDC) as reported. Our client states that an attempt to link him with the burglary or the Bureau De Change is a cheap blackmail. Our Client calls for investigation to unravel the truth.

SUSPENDED EFCC BOSS ALLEGEDLY QUERIED OVER 322 RECOVERED PROPERTIES DAILY SUN JULY 13TH, 2020

It is untrue that this Honourable Panel queried our client over 322 recovered properties. In the interrogation of our client so far this has never featured even if the head of Assets Forfeiture of the EFCC has appeared before the Penal. Our client has also not been given a copy of the report of the Presidential Committee on Audit of Recovered Assets (PCARA). This publication is complete fabrication. The truth is that EFCC under our clients watch is ready to respond to this allegation if obliged a copy of PCARA.

There has been no mismanagement of and certainly, there is no lack of transparency in the management of recovered assets under the leadership of our client. Our clients detailed explanations are as follows:

SEIZED PROPERTIES ALLEGEDLY CORNERED BY TOP EFCC OFFICIALS, MAGUS FRIENDS  PANEL (THE PUNCH, JULY 13TH, 2020)

The above publication is outright falsehood. Our client requests answers to the following:

a) Who are the EFCC officials who cornered the properties?

b) What specific properties were cornered? And by who?

c) Who were these Magus friends who cornered these properties?

Our client insists that these imputations attributed to the Panel are outright falsehood. Our client states that these allegations never featured in the proceedings of the panel.

GENERAL COMMENTS

The charges against our client are trumped-up allegations designed to tarnish his image and rubbish the credibility and image of EFCC which has been Stellar and outstanding under our clients watch.

Based on the above circumstances, our client was not given adequate time and facilities for his defence and his demand for a copy of the allegations against him has not been honoured till date.

We appeal to the Honourable Panel to consider the above and uphold the Fundamental Rights to fair hearing of our client.

Kindly find attached, copies of these newspapers for ease of reference.

Please accept our best Professional Regards.

Wahab Shittu (Esq)

WK SHITTU & CO
Reporter

Stephanie Earls is a news reporter and columnist at The Gazette. Before moving to Colorado Springs in 2012, she worked for newspapers in upstate NY, WA, OR and at her hometown weekly in Berkeley Springs, WV, where she got her start in journalism.
Harvested corn is seen after it was taken from a field at the Hansen Family Farms in Baxter, Iowa on October 12, 2019. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

China Purchases Record Amounts of US Farm Goods, Likely Due to Food Shortages: Commentator

China on July 14 booked its biggest single-day U.S. corn purchase on record.

It also bought 129,000 metric tons of soybeans.

Four days prior on July 10, China ordered its second-largest single-day U.S. corn purchase on record, in addition to a large order of U.S. wheat.

Li Kuiwen, spokesman of Chinas General Administration of Customs, said that this was part of the Chinese regimes fulfillment of the U.S.-China Phase One trade agreement, signed on January 15.

In the Phase One trade deal, Beijing committed to buying $200 billion worth of additional U.S. goods and services over the next two years, including $40 billion to $50 billion of agricultural goods each year.

Commentators analyzed that the Chinese regime wanted to resolve two crises via these orders. China has a food shortage due to a series of natural disasters this year. It also faces a deteriorating U.S.-China relationship triggered by Beijings decision to implement a national security law for Hong Kong; human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims; and Beijings threats over Taiwan and the South China Sea.

Largest Single-Day Order

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported on July 14 that China bought 1.762 million metric tons of corn for shipment in the 2020/21 marketing year that begins on Sept 1.

The sale eclipsed the previous single-day record sale to China of 1.45 million metric tons of corn, set in December 1994, according to USDA data.

The deal follows a sale of 1.365 million metric tons of yellow grainthen the largest single-day purchaseto China last Friday.

That day, China bought 765,000 metric tons of corn for shipment in the current marketing year ending on Aug. 31 and 600,000 metric tons for shipment in the following year, according to the USDA.

It also booked 130,000 metric tons of U.S. hard red winter wheat and 190,000 metric tons of U.S. hard red spring wheat.

The USDA did not assign a value to the deals.

A combine is used to harvest the corn at the Hansen Family Farms in Baxter, Iowa on October 12, 2019. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Why Buy?

I think Beijing has two motivations to buy agricultural products from the U.S., U.S.-based China affairs commentator Tang Jingyuan told The Epoch Times on July 15.

China is likely suffering from a food shortage.

From late January to early March, almost the whole country, including farmers, were not allowed to go outside, owing to government lockdown measures to prevent the CCP virus from spreading. Then, heavy hail storms hit northern China and severe floods inundated 27 Chinese provinces. The latest disaster occurred in Yunnan and Hubei provinces, which reported locust invasions.

It cant be avoided that China will face a food shortage this year, Tang said. The Chinese regime has to book grains now.

Compared with corn and soybeans from South America, U.S. grains are better quality and cheaper, Tang added.

The second reason, Tang noted, is that China wants to improve its relationship with the United States.

China-U.S. relations are facing the most serious challenge since diplomatic ties were established [in 1979], Chinas foreign minister Wang Yi admitted during the China-U.S. Think Tanks Media Forum on July 9.

Wang said: China has never intended to challenge or replace the U.S., and it has no intention of confronting the U.S. comprehensively.

Tang said the series of new policiessuch as revoking Chinese military-affiliated graduate students visas, sanctioning the Chinese officials who were involved in violating human rights, freezing these officials U.S. bank accountsthat the U.S. government released recently scared Beijing authorities.

The Chinese regime wants to show its compromise by purchasing U.S. agricultural products, Tang said.

A farmer holds soybean from the 2018 harvest at her farm in Scribber, Nebraska on May 5, 2019. (JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images)

Zhou Li, Chinese senior economist, commented on June 22 that China is facing six enormous challenges, which include food shortage and deteriorated U.S.-China relationship.

Reuters contributes to this report.
On Monday, it was the South China Sea. On Tuesday, it was Hong Kong. On Wednesday, Huawei and human rights.

The Trump administration appears to be accelerating a push to define China as a strategic threat, a worrying trend for the country's leaders as the ambitions of a rising economic and military power collide with America's.

A senior official accused the US this week of using the Hong Kong issue to try to obstruct China's development.

Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang told US Ambassador Terry Branstad in a meeting in Beijing that threats of US sanctions and the withdrawal of special trading privileges for Hong Kong are not about democracy and freedom in the semi-autonomous territory but an attempt to contain China.

I want to warn the US sternly that any bullying and unfairness imposed on China by the US will meet resolute counterattack from China, and the US attempt to obstruct Chinas development is doomed to failure, he said, according to an account carried by state media.

Behind the tough words is growing concern. Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a speech last week that US-China relations face their most severe challenge since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1979. He asked if bilateral relations will be able to stay the course after a more than four-decade voyage.

At one level, the Trump administration's attacks on China are seen as election-year politics, an attempt to woo voters and distract them from problems at home. President Donald Trump has sought to blame the coronavirus outbreak on China, rather than on any shortcomings in how his government dealt with it.

But America's differences with China go beyond Trump. The tone could change if he is not re-elected in November, but the underlying issues will remain.

Ahead of the election, the factors leading to a possible free-fall in relations are becoming more intense, said Shi Yinhong, an international relations professor at Renmin University in China.

After the US elections, a window might emerge for serious dialogue, but ... the overall situation will not be reversed, he said. He added that he doesn't see a strategy the two governments could adopt to ease tensions.

The two countries have a fundamental divide in their thinking. The US has always hoped that China would become more democratic as its interactions with the rest of the world grow. China's long-ruling Communist Party says the two should respect their differences.

China and the US should not seek to remodel each other, Wang said in his speech. Instead, they must work together to find ways to peaceful coexistence.

The divide is playing out in Hong Kong, where the US and other Western democracies have grown increasingly concerned over Chinas imposition of a security law that is seen as a threat to freedom of speech and the right to protest.

China views outside pressure on Hong Kong and other human rights issues as interference in its domestic affairs.

Branstad expressed to Zheng deep American concern about Chinese decisions that erode fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong, according to a statement posted on the US Embassy website Thursday.

It said Branstad explained the Trump administration's finding that the city of 7.5 million people is no longer sufficiently autonomous from China to merit special treatment in trade. He also called on China to restore Hong Kong's liberties.

Trump signed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act on Tuesday, a law that sanctions officials who undermine the citys autonomy, as well as an executive order affirming an earlier decision to eliminate the preferential trade treatment.

That followed a declaration by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday that the US would not recognize most of China's maritime claims in the South China Sea. On Wednesday, Pompeo said the US would ban employees from Huawei and other Chinese companies who aided alleged human rights abuses in places such as China's Xinjiang region.

The US has interfered with Chinas internal affairs and harmed Chinas interests on the issues of Xinjiang, Tibet and the South China Sea, further exposing its nature of naked hegemony," Zheng told Branstad.

While Zheng urged the US not to go further and further on the wrong path, Branstad called on China to refrain from any further erosion of Hong Kong's autonomy.

Chu Yin, a professor at the University of International Relations, offered a glimmer of hope. He said frictions between nations always rise during times of economic slowdown.

"Chinas foreign diplomacy is facing grave and complicated challenges, but the situation will improve a lot with the easing of the epidemic situation and the recovery of the economy," he predicted.
The Islamist group Hamas has blocked two Saudi-owned news networks, Al-Arabiya and Al-Hadath, from operating in the Gaza Strip over allegations of false reporting, multiple sources said Thursday.

Hamas's interior ministry and Al-Arabiya both confirmed the ban, which was imposed over a report saying that Hamas had arrested several of its members for collaborating with Israel.

A journalist who works with Al-Arabiya, who requested anonymity, said the order bars "anyone or any business from providing services" to either network.

Al-Arabiya's office in Gaza was previously closed over a report concerning ties between Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

But it and Al-Hadath, which are Saudi-owned but based in Dubai, still work with freelancers in the Palestinian enclave.

Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007, relies on substantial aid from Qatar, which remains the target of a Saudi-led regional blockade.

In a statement, the Palestinian journalists union denounced the reporting ban, saying "restrictions on press freedom and repeated shutdown of media" in Gaza were "contrary to national values and principles".

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While the said staff members have been admitted for treatments, as needed, the BMC has cordoned off Rekhas home as a containment zone

Its the talk of the town. In a probable case of tantrum throwing, actress Rekha refused to allow the BMC officials from sanitising her home.

Rekha lives on this sprawling bungalow called Sea Springs which overlooks the Arabian Sea at Bandra, a stones throw away from Shah Rukh Khans Mannat.

One of the watchmen in her bungalow was tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday evening and it was being said that the BMC wanted to sanitise and then seal the bungalow apart from getting the veteran actress and the former Rajya Sabha MP to test for the virus.

But according to media reports, the Umrao Jaan actress has been refusing to let BMC officials enter her bungalow for sanitising it.

Rekha too has refused to get the COVID-19 tests done. While the said staff members have been admitted for treatments, as needed, the BMC has cordoned off Rekhas home as a containment zone.

Apparently, Rekha stated she would get tests done in a private COVID facility. However, the veteran actress has yet to submit her reports!
Circumstances conspired to make Micheal Martin's first official visit to Northern Ireland as Taoiseach an overwhelming anti-climax.

The black face mask that he whipped off and on as he exited and entered the ministerial car told its own story.

Covid-19 seriously restricted the day's events, and it all felt fairly flat.

Three years ago, Leo Varadkar had delivered a lecture to a huge audience of the great and the good in Queen's University on his first official cross-border visit.

Coronavirus meant Martin wasn't even able to shake hands with Arlene Foster and Michelle O'Neill who came down the steps of Stormont Castle to greet him at lunchtime.

Read More

There's no love lost between the new Taoiseach and Sinn Fein, but nobody was being petty on Thursday and the Deputy First Minister gave him a genuinely warm welcome.

The meeting that followed was described as "pleasantly standard".

A source said the "edge" that was present during DUP encounters with the previous administration was gone.

Martin lacks the electricity and energy that Varadkar brought to these occasions publicly.

But behind closed doors, he impresses those who meet him.

Read More

"He was far more chatty, more conversational with Arlene and Michelle than Leo would ever have been," a Stormont insider said.

"Leo was a very shy person.

"He could be a bit socially awkward."

Next, the Taoiseach was off to Stormont House for a tete-a-tete with Secretary of State Brandon Lewis.

Then, it was over to the Stormont Hotel for meetings with Alliance, the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP.

All three parties gave him a big thumbs up yesterday.

UUP leader Steve Aiken didn't try to hide his disdain for the previous government. This was the opportunity to "reset relations", he said.

Alliance deputy leader Stephen Farry said: "Micheal Martin is already well known to us over the past decade but this was him reintroducing himself in his new role as Taoiseach and relating his vision and his priorities."

Alliance stressed the fragility of the devolved institutions to him. The party said that while they weren't in danger of collapsing, vigilance was needed.

With his very authentic interest in Northern Ireland and his attention to detail, Martin is not likely to be complacent in that regard.

The Fianna Fail-SDLP partnership means that Colum Eastwood needs no convincing of Martin's merits, and the Foyle MP was understandably enthused by the Taoiseach's visit.

Still, it was all a tad unspectacular as a media event. There were no great lines or pictures, or interesting exchanges.

Arlene and Michelle couldn't even manage a joint press conference afterwards. The First Minister headed off home to Fermanagh to join a virtual joint ministerial committee meeting to discuss a white paper on the UK's internal market post-Brexit transition.

It was an important meeting, yet the real reason for Foster's departure was surely that she thought it far too soon after the Bobby Storey funeral controversy to be standing shoulder-to-shoulder (or as close as social distancing will allow) with Sinn Fein.

The Deputy First Minister put a brave face on it, but she cut a forlorn figure as she addressed journalists alone under the shadow of Sir Edward Carson's statue.

That joint ministerial committee meeting that Foster joined proved to be a lively affair with the Scots tearing strips off Cabinet Office Minister, Michael Gove.

It was, by all accounts, spirited stuff compared to a well-meaning but monotonous day in Belfast.
The lawsuit comes on the same day that a court allowed public viewing by appointment of video from the body cameras of Lane and Kueng. A coalition of news organizations and attorneys for Lane and Kueng have been advocating to make the videos public, saying they would provide a more complete picture of what happened. The judge hasnt said why hes not allowing the video to be disseminated more widely.
California Is Hooking Small Businesses Up With Free E-Commerce, Online Marketing Help

Gov. Newsom says he wants to help small businesses. Combined, they are a major economic engine in the state. He wants them to get online quicker and expand their markets to reach new customers in cyberspace. This is as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to hammer their bottom lines and change the way we shop.

To that end, the governor declared July 2020 California for All Small Business Month in a proclamation issued July 8.

With local businesses across the state working to meet unprecedented challenges during the COVID-19 crisis, California for All Small Business Month is an important time to recognize their essential contributions to our state, and each do our part to help Californias diverse small businesses recover and thrive, reads the proclamation.

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African American business owners and advocates across the state are optimistic. The much-needed assistance Gov. Newsom has announced in a time of crisis, they say, will enable them to remain competitive in a rapidly changing global marketplace.

95% of the world customers are outside of the United States. As small businesses learn to pivot as a result of the Covid pandemic, it is imperative that they have the online presence and access to capital to reach those potential clients, said Gene Hale, president of the Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce (GLAAACC).  Supporting local businesses will help stimulate those communities and invigorate job growth.

The Small Business Month proclamation coincided with the start of Calling All Californians: #ShopSafeShopLocal, a new campaign the governors office is leading.

The #ShopSafeShopLocal campaign encourages shoppers in California to help small businesses operate safely during the pandemic. It also provides small business owners with resources to help them improve their online presence, including free website development and digital marketing.

The Governors Office of Business and Economic Development has partnered with leading tech companies in the state, including Google, eBay, Square and Yelp, to provide services to small businesses, including free online advertising, free websites, and COVID-19 relief. They will also connect California businesses with under 750 employees to shipping companies that can help them set up e-commerce deliveries.

Local has taken on a new meaning and Californias beloved small businesses need our help now more than ever, said Isabel Guzman, co-chair of the Small Business Subcommittee and Director of the states Office of the Small Business Advocate, in an OpEd she co-authored with Sarah Friar, who is co-chair of the Small Business Subcommittee and CEO of San Francisco-based Nextdoor. The Press Enterprise, a Riverside County media outlet, published their statement.

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Nextdoor is a San Francisco-based company that provides a hyper-local social networking platform to connect people with each other and to businesses and resources in their community.

Supporting nearby stores, business owners, and local employees, as they modify operations to slow the spread of COVID-19, is an essential commitment to our community, Guzman and Friar wrote.

In addition to resources from business partners, the campaigns website includes links to state and county industry guidance, free business consulting, and the California Manufacturers and Technology Associations personal protective equipment (PPE) marketplace. The online portal links California businesses with COVID-19 safety equipment.

Californias small businesses are adapting to the new marketplace, integrating technology at higher rates than ever, developing creative ways to connect with clients digitally and repurposing to serve their communities with innovations that meet the moment, said Gov. Newsom. California remains committed to helping all of our diverse small businesses become more resilient and thrive.

There are nearly 4 million small businesses in California. In good times, they make up over 99% of all businesses in the state and employ nearly half of the states workforce  over 7.1 million people, according to U.S Small Business Administrations 2018 numbers.

Before the pandemic, across the United States, African-American and Latino women-owned businesses were experiencing the fastest growth, according to 2012 U.S. Census Bureau data.

But COVID-19 is presenting new financial and operational challenges, especially for businesses owned by African Americans and other ethnic minorities in California.

According to the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, in the last 4 months, there has been a 15 percent drop of active business owners across the nation, Guzman and Friar shared. That decrease is nearly double for Black-owned and operated businesses at 26%, and at 19% for Latino, 21% Asian, and 25% immigrant.

The governor also emphasized the importance of maintaining social distancing protocols while shopping.

Critically, amid the ongoing emergency, we must all do our part to keep small business employees, owners, and others safe by wearing face coverings when we go out, practicing safe shopping and following public health protocols.
Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot on Thursday (July 16) approached Rajasthan High Court to challenge disqualification notice issued by Assembly Speaker CP Joshi. The Rajasthan HC will hear the matter at 3 PM.

Rajasthan Assembly Speaker Joshi issued notices on Wednesday (July 15) to Pilot and 18 other Congress MLAs for not attending Congress Legislative Party meetings.

The notice was issued under Article 191 of Constitution and the 10th Schedule as per the provision of Disqualification Rules 1989 on a petition submitted by Dr Mahesh Joshi, the Chief Whip of the Congress in Rajasthan.

Pilot and 18 other MLAs have been asked to attend the proceedings on July 17 at 1 PM in the chamber of Assembly Speaker CP Joshi. The notice has also been pasted on the official residences of all these MLAs and they have been asked to submit written reply to the notice by July 17.

Sources said that Pilot may approach the top court saying the disqualification notices issued to him and 18 other Congress MLAs have no legal basis and were issued by Speaker Joshi on the diktats of Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot.

It may be recalled that Pilot was sacked as Rajasthan deputy chief minister and Pradesh Congress Committee chief on Tuesday for revolting against Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and not skipping two meetings of Congress Legislative Party.

After being removed from the post of Deputy Chief Minister and the state president, Sachin Pilot merely said that truth can be disturbed but not defeated. It is to be noted that Pilot has not yet resigned from the Congress. The Tonk MLA asserted on Wednesday (July 15) that he was not planning to join the BJP and people are spreading this news only to malign his image.
HAMILTON  Talk about pain and suffering.

At least two women have been attacked at the Hamilton Township Animal Shelter earlier this year by a pit bull named Lucky.

Lucky previously bit a woman at the notorious animal shelter on Feb. 29, The Trentonian has learned. The victim of that attack suffered a puncture, bruising and inflammation, documents show.

More recently, Lucky aggressively chomped on a womans forearm during the afternoon of May 12, resulting in serious injury and a tort claims notice.

In an interview with The Trentonian on Wednesday, attorney Stan R. Gregory said his client suffered a severe injury at the Hamilton Township Animal Shelter.

They knew two things, Gregory said of the shelter employees. One, they knew Lucky had bitten somebody on Feb. 29, 2020, and No. 2, they knew he was not a friendly dog.

They had the dog since September 2019, Gregory said. In April, somebody said, This dog isnt friendly. And in May, my client comes in and gets bitten by this dog, suffering a severe injury. Severe.

They are gonna have to do a better job, Gregory said of Hamilton Township, especially given their history. They have to do a better job than that.

The New Jersey Department of Health previously performed an unannounced sanitary inspection of the townships shelter in July 2018 and discovered unsanitary conditions and evidence the township had euthanized numerous stray and surrendered animals before waiting the state-mandated seven days, according to the DOH inspection report that was released in August 2018.

Authorities arrested former township employees Jeff Plunkett and Todd Bencivengo last year on allegations they prematurely euthanized approximately 236 cats and 93 dogs between January 2016 and October 2018 at the Hamilton Township Animal Shelter.

Plunkett has been indicted and pleaded not guilty, while Bencivengo entered the Pretrial Intervention program on an accusation.

The DOH and criminal investigations forced Hamilton Township to make a series of shelter improvements. The facility also moved toward what is commonly referred to as a no-kill animal shelter model, which may partly explain why Hamilton Township still attempted to place Lucky up for adoption in May despite his documented history of bad behavior.

Barbara Cristofaro suffered severe flesh wounds to her left forearm, according to a photograph and documents obtained by The Trentonian under New Jerseys Open Public Records Act.

The Hamilton Township Animal Shelter filed an incident report of the vicious attack, which The Trentonian obtained Wednesday through an OPRA request.

The township redacted the names of Barbara Cristofaro and husband Gerard Cristofaro in the incident report, which confirms the couple arrived at the shelter about 1:30 p.m. May 12 for a meet and greet with Lucky.

Before the dog approached the couple, the report states, they were advised to go slow with Lucky, so they let the dog approach them.

The report appears to corroborate all of the facts from the tort claims notice.

Lucky bit and vigorously shook the victims arm, according to the report.

Animal Control Officer Anthony Agabiti called an ambulance to tend to her wound upon noticing the severe damage to the victims arm, the report says. The ambulance arrived and transported the woman to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at Hamilton for treatment.

Adrienne Carson, a professional dog trainer and behavior consultant, conducted a behavior report for Lucky dated June 11.

The report, obtained by The Trentonian, concluded that Lucky poses a danger to both people and to other animals based on his behavioral history. While some dogs are uniquely aggressive towards animals but not towards people, Lucky does demonstrate the propensity to be dangerous toward people when other dogs are visible.

The wound Barbara Cristofaro suffered could be described as a high level 4 bite on the Dunbar Bite Scale, according to Carsons report.

Pet adoption

By all accounts, Lucky was unfit for adoption.

Before the May 12 bite incident, Hamilton Township partnered with Petango.com to advertise pets available for adoption. One of the online advertisements listed Lucky, a medium-sized male pit bull.

Hi, my name is Lucky and here is a little bit of information about me! The advertisement said. I am about 2-3 years old. I really love people, sometimes I get so excited I cant help but to jump on you! Giving kisses and getting hugs are the best.

Barbara Cristofaro relied upon that listing when she and her husband went to the Hamilton Township Animal Shelter on May 12 with an interest to meet and potentially adopt Lucky as a pet, according to her tort claims notice.

When the Cristofaros visited the shelter that afternoon, Barbara Cristofaro stood next to her husband as he patted the dogs head, according to her tort claims notice. The dog suddenly turned around and bit her on the arm several times, causing so much damage that a plastic surgeon had to be called to the hospital to repair the wounds.

The incident took place immediately outside of the front doors of the shelter at the entryway, according to the notice.

Lucky had been residing at the Hamilton Township Animal Shelter since about Sept. 10, 2019  long enough to observe his behavior and any aggressive tendencies, the notice states. However, the website advertised that he really love people.'

Under New Jersey state law, a tort claims notice must be filed within 90 days of an incident if a party wants to reserve and retain the right to sue a public entity or public employee in a court of law for damages related to an incident that resulted in injury or death.

Hamilton Township received Barbara Cristofaros notice last month through her attorney Stan R. Gregory.

Lucky has recently been put down, The Trentonian has learned.

Staff writer Isaac Avilucea contributed to this report.
Self-employed workers earn less than their counterparts on company payrolls but are healthier and happier, a new study has found.

For those who move into solo self-employment directly from employee jobs, earnings remain lower and poverty rates higher for at least two years after entry, according to analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

But despite the lower incomes, running a business without employees has been found to improve well-being across a number of areas, including job satisfaction.

Self-employed workers earn less than their counterparts on company payrolls but are healthier and happier, a new study has found (file photo)

Despite the lower incomes, running a business without employees has been found to improve well-being across a number of areas, including job satisfaction. This graphic shows the difference in earnings between those who are solo self-employed and those on a company payroll

The IFS study looked at incomes and well-being for those who go into 'solo self-employment' - or, running a business without employees

The IFS study looked at incomes and well-being for those who go into 'solo self-employment' - running a business without employees.

It found many use solo self-employment as a back-up plan after being dismissed or made redundant from their previous job.

While their earnings take a dip for up to three years, the study found a sustained rise in job satisfaction.

Some 87% of self-employed workers at the end of 2019 were in solo self-employment, up from 74% two decades ago.

Rising solo self-employment accounts for over a quarter (26%) of the total increase in employment since the financial crash of 20081. The rise in owner-managers without employees (who are classed as employees for tax purposes and in many surveys) accounts for a further 11% of the increase.

While those who are solo self-employed find their earnings may take a dip for up to three years, the study found a sustained rise in job and life satisfaction

This graph shows which industry are most likely to see people go into solo self-employment between 2009 and 2019

This comes as official figures show UK workers on company payrolls have fallen 649,000 during lockdown as the coronavirus crisis claimed another 74,000 jobs last month.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said early estimates showed the number of paid employees fell by 1.9% year on year in June to 28.4 million, and by 0.3% compared with the previous month.

It said the pace of job losses appeared to have slowed in June, while claims under Universal Credit by the unemployed and those on low incomes also fell by 28,100 between May and June to 2.6 million.

The ONS said unemployment fell 17,000 between March and May to 1.35 million, with the rate unexpectedly unchanged at 3.9%.

Experts said this masked a sharp fall in employment, down 126,000 in the quarter to 32.95 million, with the rate dropping to 76.4%.

The figures show that vacancies fell 463,000 between March and May to a record low of 333,000 as companies froze hiring in the face of the pandemic.
[July 16, 2020] Soracom Introduces IoT Subscription Containers for Advanced Multi-IMSI Capability SEATTLE, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Soracom, Inc., a global provider of smart connectivity for the Internet of Things (IoT), today announced the release of Subscription Containers for IoT SIMs and eSIMs operating on the Soracom Air global data service. This advanced Multi-IMSI capability extends profile management capabilities to any Soracom SIM or eSIM connected with Soracom's standard global data plan (plan01s), including those already deployed in over 2 million devices around the world.

Since the eSIMs often used in IoT cannot be physically swapped, they generally use a technology called eUICC to change operator profiles over the air (OTA). This allows devices to choose between multiple networks for best signal strength, lowest cost, or both, wherever they may be located. However, this approach can come at a cost, especially for large IoT deployments. eUICC SIM cards require higher performance and greater storage capacity than standard UICC SIMs, and the price difference can have a significant impact on project ROI.



Likewise, downloading multiple carrier profles across an entire network of devices can consume large amounts of data, may not be supported by all device modems, and may not be feasible in areas with weak connections. SMS downloads offer an alternative, but require devices to receive many messages over a long period of time and may fail if messages are lost in transit. By applying a container model, Soracom Air Subscription Containers enables lightweight subscription management that can be used on standard UICC SIMs and eSIMs. This removes the need to download and store large volumes of data when adding profiles, and lets IoT devices add subscriptions even when using non-eUICC SIMs. Subscription containers make it easy to add multiple profiles on demand, over the air, even when IP data bearers are unavailable. To take advantage of this new capability, Soracom has also released two new data plans, planX1 and planP1, that offer improved pricing for devices operating in the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan. "Every successful IoT project begins with a belief in what's possible when you can connect a device to the cloud from anywhere in the world," said Soracom Co-Founder and CTO Kenta Yasukawa. "Soracom Air Subscription Containers give IoT developers the benefits of over-the-air subscription management in a future-proof format open to non-eUICC SIMs." For complete details and documentation, please visit www.soracom.io . About Soracom

Soracom is a global provider of smart IoT connectivity, offering cloud-native wireless service designed specifically for the needs of connected devices. Founded in 2015, Soracom now serves over 15,000 customers across all industries, from global enterprises to fast-growing start-ups. Customers trust Soracom for affordable, reliable connectivity that accelerates speed to market and makes it easy to connect to the cloud. More information is available at www.soracom.io . Media Contact:

Jake Martin

Soracom

jake@soracom.io

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YEREVAN, JULY 15, ARMENPRESS. The Foreign Ministry of Latvia is concerned over the escalation of situation between the armed forces of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Tavush Province and reciprocal shootings, ARMENPRESS was informed from the official website of Latvias foreign ministry.

''Those incidents create serious challenges for peace and stability that claimed lives from both sides. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls on the sides to immediately stop military operations and restore the ceasefire regime. Armenia and Azerbaijan should avoid from future operations or announcements that can lead to future escalation of the conflict.

The position of Latvia on Nagorno Karabakh is known. Latvia supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of each country as defined in the Helsinki Final Act Charter of Paris. Latvia thinks Nagorno Karabakh conflict can be solved only through peaceful ways in the sidelines of the OSCE Minsk Group based on the principles of the international law.

The Foreign Ministry fully supports the OSCE Minsk Group and its 3 Co-chairs in their efforts to restore the ceasefire regime. The Foreign Ministry expects that the two sides will refrain from use of force and will work in the direction of a peaceful settlement'', reads the statement.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan
Pakistani authorities said Thursday they had confirmed the credentials of almost all Pakistani pilots working for foreign airlines, as the country battles a scandal over aviator licences.

Airlines in 10 countries had demanded proof of valid flying licences for their Pakistani pilots after it emerged about a third of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) aviators were holding "bogus or suspicious" licences.

In all, the foreign airlines asked for proof of 176 Pakistani pilot licences.

Of these, 166 "have been validated as genuine and certified by the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) Pakistan as having no anomaly," the agency said in a statement.

The "process for the remaining 10 shall be concluded by next week," it added.

Pakistan's aviation minister sent shockwaves through the industry last month by revealing that some 260 pilots had dubious licences.

About 150 worked for state-owned PIA -- almost one-third of the airline's staff of 434 pilots.

The announcement came a month after a PIA plane crashed into houses in Karachi, killing 98 people.

Investigators have largely blamed the crash on the pilots, though both had valid licences.

The 10 airlines asking for proof of valid Pakistani pilots' licences were from Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Turkey, Malaysia, Vietnam and Hong Kong, according to the CAA.
And when the time was right, that grandfather, an Army cook back in the big war, would open the kitchen window, raise a .22 rifle to his shoulder and pop those corn-fed squirrels, then magically turn them into the best-tasting gravy that was ever ladled on a pile of mash potatoes. And that young, squirrel-fed boy grew up to be an expert on squirrels because he ate em and they were good.

Q. Thats horrible! If I wanted to read about gun-toting, squirrel-eating hillbillies, I would turn to the comics page for the hilarious antics of Snuffy Smith, if he still appears in this publication. Back to the matter at hand, which is the plague squirrel. Will this eventually kill a one-third of our population?

A. Not likely. Plague is an infectious disease caused by a bacterium,, and can be contracted by humans and household animals if proper precautions are not taken, according to a news release from Jefferson County Public Health.

Plague usually occurs somewhere in Colorado every year, health officials said in the news release. While plague can be deadly to humans, it is very rare for humans to get it and there are effective treatments. It is more commonly transmitted to pets through fleas, and can be especially harmful to cats.
Antarctica is considered one of the Earth's largest, most pristine remaining wildernesses. Yet since its formal discovery 200 years ago, the continent has seen accelerating and potentially impactful human activity.

How widespread this activity is across the continent has never been quantified. We know Antarctica has no cities, agriculture or industry. But we have never had a good idea of where humans have been, how much of the continent remains untouched or largely unimpacted, and to what extent these largely unimpacted areas serve to protect biodiversity.

A team of researchers led by Monash University has changed all of that. Reporting today in the journal Nature, using a data set of 2.7 million human activity records, they show just how extensive human use of Antarctica has been over the last 200 years.

With the exception of some large areas mostly in the central parts of the continent, humans have set foot almost everywhere.

Although many of these visited areas have only been negligibly affected by people, biodiversity is not as well represented within them as it should be.

Only 16% of the continent's Important Bird Areas, areas identified internationally as critical for bird conservation, are located within negligibly impacted areas. And little of the total negligibly impacted area is represented in Antarctica's Specially Protected Area network.

High human impact areas, for example some areas where people build research stations or visit for tourism, often overlap with areas important for biodiversity.

Lead author, Rachel Leihy, a PhD student in the Monash School of Biological Sciences, points out that "While the situation does not look promising initially, the outcomes show that much opportunity exists to take swift action to declare new protected areas for the conservation of both wilderness and biodiversity."

Steven Chown, the corresponding author based at Monash University, adds "Informatics approaches using large data sets are providing new quantitative insights into questions that have long proven thorny for environmental policymakers."

"This work offers innovative ways to help the Antarctic Treaty Parties take forward measures to secure Antarctica's Wilderness."

###

The transdisciplinary team delivering this work includes researchers from Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and South Africa.

Learn more about this research via video at the YouTube clip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG0cbCT5W3U&feature=youtu.be

Further information:

Steven L Chown: steven.chown@monash.edu

Media enquiries

Silvia Dropulich

Marketing, Media & Communications Manager, Monash Science

T: +61 3 9902 4513 M: +61 435 138 743

Email: silvia.dropulich@monash.edu
The Gauhati High Court on Thursday granted bail to Assam peasant leader and founder of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) in three cases lodged against him by Assam Police in connection with his involvement in the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests in the state last year.

Two other cases lodged against him by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) are still pending. The court has set July 20 as the next date of hearing for the two cases.

Gogoi,who was lodged in the central jail in Guwahati, tested positive for Covid-19 recently and is undergoing treatment at the Guwahati Medical College Hospital (GMCH) where he was admitted on July 11. He is stated to be asymptomatic and is recovering well.

He was arrested in Jorhat on December 12 last year for his role in the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which seeks to fast track Indian citizenship for Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Parsi, Buddhist and Jain refugees from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Gogoi was later handed over to NIA and a court here sent him to 10 days custody of the agency on December 17. He was taken to New Delhi the same day for questioning.

Gogoi was brought back to Guwahati on December 25 and has been in judicial custody since then. Several demonstrations seeking his release following reports of his deteriorating health had taken place both in Assam and outside.

The NIA has lodged a case under sections 120B, 124A, 153A, 153B of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 18 and Section 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act (UAPAA).

The charges pertain to criminal conspiracy, sedition, promoting enmity between groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language etc., assertions against national integrity, support to terrorist organization etc.
Hong Kong Police raise the blue flag warning protesters, press and pedestrians to disperse during demonstrations against the national security law proposed by Beijing in the Causeway Bay district in Hong Kong.

There has not been any "significant" flows of money and business activity from Hong Kong into Singapore, according to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the country's financial regulator and central bank.

"As we've said before, we've seen increased flows into Singapore from a variety of destinations, of sources, and that includes Hong Kong. But the amounts are not large," Ravi Menon, managing director of MAS, said on Thursday.

"There are more enquiries as you would expect when there is greater uncertainty, but actual fund flows are not very large. Flow of activity of businesses also not significant," he added.

Menon was speaking at a media conference to release the central bank's annual report. He was responding to a question on whether Singapore has seen any moves of financial activity from Hong Kong.

China introduced a new national security law in Hong Kong last month. The move sparked concerns about the uncertainties surrounding the semi-autonomous Chinese territory, and some say it could impact Hong Kong 's status as a business and financial hub in Asia.
Thats why he and city officials are trying to make it easier for those who do not have access to a computer to fill out the forms online, or for those who may need help for some other reason.

Census assistance is available at City Hall on any weekday.

Just call us at 348-2602 or stop by my office at City Hall and one of our staff members will be happy to help you complete your census, Cooper said.

He also asked everyone to remember his challenge. A retired educator and band director, Cooper still enjoys playing his trumpet. Consequently, he has agreed to play the trumpet in a very brief concert in front of City Hall in August if the citizens come through with a good census count.

I really do want to play my trumpet for you, so please fill out your census, he said. It only takes a few minutes of your time, but it will mean 10 years worth of benefits to you, our city and our state.
HT Media, one of Indias oldest and largest media groups, known for its quality, innovation, and integrity across different forms of Media  Print, Radio and Digital, has one more offering in the digital sector now. Leveraging its editorial prowess and catering to its ever-growing readership in Bengal, HT Media has launched HT Bangla  a one-of-its-kind mobile-first Bangla News Website.



HT Bangla, with a focused product concept, is not just another Bangla News website, its a new-age news platform for today's Bengali youth, about things that matter to them, served in a decluttered manner. That is reflected in the way the content is presented and the site is designed.

The response has been overwhelming. Just a few months after its launch, HT Bangla is already logging 10 Million+ monthly page views and 4 million monthly users. Over 66% of the readers belong to the age category of 18-34 years, a testament to how the fresh content has instantly grabbed eyeballs of the youth.

Also Read: HT Smartcast launches Webinar Series on Podcasts

Catering to the millennial and Gen Z crowd, the platform has specially curated topics and information along with the local and global news sections. The sections  Sports, Personal Finance, and Job Opportunities  have made a mark among the active readers. This has also made the average page per visit to 3, higher than the industry average. The bounce rate of the website is amazingly low compared to industry standards, which means people are really engrossed with the offering.

HT Bangla's editor Arghya Prasun Roychowdhury is upbeat about the future of the website. He said, "This is just the beginning. In times to come, we will significantly add to the bouquet of offerings, ramp up our video inventories to give readers the news, sights, and sounds from Bengal and across the globe. Staying true to HT ethics, we will highlight the issues that matter to the people."



Hindustan Times Chief Revenue Officer for the East who will also look after HT Bangla, Amitava Bhattacharya, said With HT Bangla, a brand targeted for the youth, we want to reach out to potential partners who would look to leverage our product to reach the Bangla-speaking millennials and GenZ in Bengal and beyond.



HT Bangla is also in the process of greater integration with the Fever FM Network. Check out this video.

HT Bangla from inception has been present on social media platforms Facebook and Twitter and has now made forays into YouTube and Instagram. For all discerning Bengali readers, who want a dash of cutting edge all-encompassing coverage from Noam Chomsky to Nandan, from Modi to Mamata, bangla.hindustantimes.com is your one-stop destination.
The Tamil Nadu government has said that a trial by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)s tuberculosis institute, to study the efficacy of the BCG vaccine in the fight against COVID-19, has begun.

State Health Minister C Vijayabaskar said the approval was given after ICMR sought Tamil Nadu government's permission to study the efficacy of the Bacillus Calmette-Gurin (BCG) vaccine in senior citizens at its National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis (NIRT) at Chetpet.

Screening individuals aged 60 and above and administering them with the BCG vaccine has started, a senior official said.

The objective of the multi-centric study, in which elderly people not affected by the novel coronavirus are vaccinated, is to see whether this immunisation drive reduces mortality rate and helps cut down COVID-19 incidence.

Follow our LIVE blog for the latest updates of the novel coronavirus pandemic

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

Following vaccination, those immunised would be followed up. If some of them get infected with COVID-19, it would be assessed if the BCG vaccination stood them in good stead when compared with others of the same age group who were not vaccinated.

A senior NIRT official told news agency PTI that the sample size is "sufficient and adequate" to meet the trial's goal and the duration is "about six months and it could well get extended further as all the vaccinated people needed to be followed up for outcomes."

Besides Chennai, the BCG-COVID trial, under the auspices of ICMR would be held in five other centres and "they are in the process of starting and it is going to start soon," the official said.

The Health Minister is hoping that vaccinating high-risk groups with time-tested BCG would help reduce the intensity of COVID-19, admissions at hospitals and mortality rates.

Vijayabaskar said anti-viral measures will be further stepped up. The NIRT, under the ICMR, is an internationally recognised institution for TB research.

Click here for Moneycontrol's complete coverage of the coronavirus pandemic

(With inputs from PTI)
Amid a pandemic that is ravaging the United States, HBO Max wants to help everyone relax, enlisting celebrities like Mahershala Ali, Idris Elba and Oscar Isaac to read bedtime stories, in a new series done in partnership with the sleep app Calm.

Described as a television experience that combines mesmeric imagery with narration, the series, titled A World of Calm is a collaboration between the makers of Calm and Nutopia, the team behind Nat Geos One Strange Rock.

Additional celebrities include Nicole Kidman, Zoe Kravitz, Lucy Liu, Cillian Murphy, and Keanu Reeves.

Also Read: Michael Che to Star in Sketch Comedy Series at HBO Max

Heres how HBO Max describes the series:

A timely antidote for our modern lives, each half-hour episode takes audiences on an immersive visual journey into another world. Building on the record-breaking success of Calms Sleep Stories  bedtime stories for grown ups with over 250m listens  each relaxing tale is designed to transform how you feel. Transporting the viewer into tranquility through scientifically-engineered narratives, enchanting music and astounding footage, to naturally calm your body and soothe the mind. Each story is brought to life by a different iconic voice.

With the considerable amount of stress and chaos we are all experiencing at this particularly challenging time, we could all use a bit of guided relaxation and A World of Calm is here to help, said Jennifer OConnell, executive vice president of non-fiction and kids programming for HBO Max. With soothing imagery and tranquil narration, this is one HBO Max original that we hope becomes part of your daily routine.

The series is co-produced by Calm and Nutopia with Jane Root, Nicola Moody, Michael Acton Smith and Chris Advansun serving as executive producers, and Sara Brailsford and Fiona Caldwell as co-executive producers.

Read original story Mahershala Ali, Idris Elba and Oscar Isaac Will Read You Bedtime Stories in HBO Max Series At TheWrap
Laois-Offaly Fianna Fail TD Barry Cowen was sensationally relieved of his duties as Minister for Agriculture on Tuesday evening after just a 17-day term - will he still be entitled to a ministerial pension?

The Clara native has been at the centre of a drink-driving scandal dating back to 2016 when he was found to be over the legal limit and driving on a learner permit on his way home to Offaly having attended the All-Ireland final at Croke Park.

Further details emerged in last weekend's Sunday Times suggesting Deputy Cowen turned away and attempted to avoid the Garda checkpoint. He refutes the accuracy of this detail and GSOC is now investigating how the pulse file related to the matter made its way to the media.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin said the garda report on the incident raised a number of other issues and he terminated the Offaly man's position as a member of government in the Dail chamber on Tuesday evening.

So, will he still be entitled to a "ministerial" pension?

In short, no.

A number of positions such as taoiseach, tanaiste, minister, minister of state, ceann comhairle, leas-cheann comhairle, cathaoirleach, leas-chathaoirleach, leader of the Seanad and deputy-leader of the Seanad all attract a pension entitlement over and above that earned by a TD or senator.

However, in order to receive this pension entitlement the TD has to have served for at least two years in one of these offices.

Deputy Cowen will still be entitled to his normal TD pension which averages at approximately 48,000 for 20 years of service based on the current TD salary. To work out a TDs basic pension, divide his or her salary by 40 and then multiply it by the number of years theyve served in the Dail. A cap of 20 years service applies.

Had deputy Cowen remained as Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, he would have been entitled to an additional salaried allowance of 79,510 on top of his basic salary 96,189, making a combined annual salary of 175,699 - which Cowen's newly-announced successor Dara Calleary will receive.

The ministerial pension is calculated as 20% of their annual ministerial salary after two years, and increases by 5% for each year of additional service thereafter up to a maximum of 60%after 10 years. This is in addition to their normal TDs pension.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 21:08:13|Editor: huaxia

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NANNING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- At around 6 a.m. every morning, Jiao Shengding rides his motorbike to a local market to buy ingredients for preparing lunches, before heading to the school where he teaches.

Jiao, 52, is the only teacher at the school in Zhangji village in Aidian Township of Ningming County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The tiny school accepts pupils below the third grade from Zhangji and two nearby hamlets.

The three small villages, whose residents are people of the Yao ethnic group, perch on the Gongmu Mountain on the border between China and Vietnam.

China offers a nine-year compulsory education for students, even in the most remote areas. In addition to 160,000 regular primary schools, there are about 96,500 teaching sites like Jiao's nationwide to ensure all children can enjoy the benefits of education.

Jiao began teaching at age 22 here in his home county of Ningming, and has been working at the school ever since.

Dilapidated bungalows, peeled blackboards, broken tables and chairs, and stained walls were the first things that greeted Jiao when he arrived at his classroom for the first time 30 years ago.

"There was no dormitory, tap water, or electricity," he recalled. "That was a bumpy start."

Back in the 1990s, the towering mountains and rocky landscape kept locals locked in extreme poverty. Due to their traditional views and poor family conditions, many parents did not send their children to school.

Jiao went from door to door along the rugged mountain trails and persuaded parents to let their kids receive an education.

"Every child deserves to be educated. Well-educated children can lift their families out of poverty and change their own fates," he said.

At present, there are eight students in one class; two first-graders, and six second-graders. When they are old enough to go to Aidian Primary School on their own, the only regular primary school 4 km away in the township, they will be enrolled in higher grades.

Jiao teaches for six hours every day; four hours in the morning and two in the afternoon. He teaches Chinese and math and cooks lunch with his wife for the kids at school. After class, he helps the students with their homework.

As an ethnic Yao himself, Jiao often teaches students ethnic folk customs. He also organizes children to participate in various ethnic cultural events, such as the "Dujie" ceremony, a special coming-of-age ritual for Yao boys to greet their journey into adulthood.

Being the only teacher, Jiao is not only in charge of the children's studies, but also cares about their lives.

During a home visit, Jiao learned that a student named Zhao Xiaomei led a difficult life, as her father, the breadwinner of the family of five, died in a cliff fall. Jiao bought her health insurance and school supplies, and sought donations to cover her living expenses.

In the spring of 2014, Jiao was injured while riding a motorcycle. He left the hospital only seven days after an operation and hurried back to the children.

"My students couldn't attend school for a week because of me. I could walk and write with my left hand, so it was okay to teach," Jiao recalled. He taught classes with steel plates holding his fractured bones in place, and had bandages around his right arm.

Supported by the local government, Jiao and some villagers built a new school, half-way up the Gongmu Mountain in 2002.

In recent years, local authorities paved the roads linking the school and households and installed modern teaching hardware like audio equipment, sliding blackboards, and LED touch screens.

Over the years, Jiao got offers from several better-off schools in the county, but he turned all of them down.

"Who's going to teach my students if I leave?"

Eight years from retirement, Jiao thinks his time is limited and he should spend as much of it as possible on the children.

"The better foundation I lay for them, the brighter future they can have through further study," he said.

Jiao's perseverance has paid off. During the past three decades teaching in the border village, he has taught more than 400 pupils, many of whom have left the mountains to start their own businesses. Some students have entered universities, including his daughter Jiao Lingxia.

After graduating from a college in 2016 in the city of Baise in Guangxi, she returned home to teach Chinese at Aidian Primary School.

"My father set an example for me in that education can change the fate of children," said Jiao Lingxia, 24. "I will carry on his cause and devote myself to lighting up the way ahead for these rural children." Enditem
Ebonyi state government has announced that schools within the state will reopen in phases for academic activities between August and September. Schools in the state have been closed since March as part of measures to contain the spread of COVID19 in the state.

The State Governor, Dave Umahi, announced the reopening at the virtual Executive Council Meeting in Abakaliki, the state capital today July 15. He said the reopening will be done in phases.

The public should note that Ebonyi state will reopen her schools immediately, not in the month of July, we have to start the process that will lead us probably to reopen our schools between August and September. And the process will be, the king David academy will be starting first, I am directing that all the coordinators, the chairmen of all the 13 LGAs , traditional rulers, town union presidents, should use local people to clear all the secondary schools, primarily schools.They should clear that, it has been happening before, everything is not government. So let us get them cleared when we do that I want Commissioner for Education, SSA Higher education, to note very specially that this is the time to develop e-syllables, starting with the teachers, this is the opportunity to develop e- learning that we have been talking about, he said

Governor Umahi said before the reopening, all the schools will be fumigated while the teachers will be made to undergo compulsory COVID-19 tests.

Reopening of schools will start with cleaning of the schools, and every school we clean, we will fumigate it, and then do random test on the teachers. We will also deploy health workers to mount awareness within the communities where the school is situated. When school start we will have trained personnel to teach the children on Covid-19 protocols at least for the first one week. This covid is real and we need to be very careful. It is not just to start school and all that, even if Nigerians should miss one academic year and stay alive,it worth it. The essence of everything we are doing is life, and we wouldnt want our children to start school without proper awareness. Governor Umahi said

Ebonyi state currently has 615 confirmed cases of COVID-19. The governor is one of those infected with the virus.
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Linkedin Norman Harsono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 16, 2020 15:08 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666d1214 1 Business PLN,state-budget,PMN,infrastructure,electrification Free

State-owned electricity giant PLN is slated to receive Rp 9.6 trillion (US$695 million) in state capital injections (PMN) from the government this year to develop power infrastructure in Indonesia and increase the countrys electrification ratio.

The capital comprises Rp 5 trillion from the 2020 state budget and Rp 4.6 trillion diverted from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry budget. PLN will use the capital to develop renewable energy power plants, power lines and substations.

The funds allocation is stipulated in Government Regulation No. 37/2020 and No. 36/2020, both of which were issued on July 7.

We will use the funds as equity and reduce PLN loans, PLN president director Zulkifli Zaini told House of Representatives lawmakers in Jakarta on Monday evening.

His presentation and the regulations show that 86 percent of the capital is slated to develop transmission infrastructure, including high-voltage power lines and substations, all in western Indonesia except for several projects in Sulawesi.

The countrys heavy investment in the infrastructure of electricity distribution is part of Indonesias efforts to achieve a 100 percent electrification ratio this year. The ratio  a measure of the proportion of communities with electricity  reached 98.89 percent last year.

However, Zulkifli said the latest capital injection was insufficient to meet Indonesias power infrastructure targets. He said that meeting such targets would cost an estimated Rp 15.2 trillion, funds that the company has been raising through bank loans and global bonds.

PLN slated 3 percent of the working capital injection to be used for electricity distribution infrastructure and 11 percent for renewable energy power plants in Sulawesi, Kalimantan, Aceh, Papua island and East Nusa Tenggara. The latter two are Indonesias most impoverished regions.

The [3 percent] capital is only for renewables. Not for fossil fuels, added Zulkifli.

Energy analyst Fabby Tumiwa said the use of renewable energy was cost-effective, as the state capital injections would be used to electrify 433 remote villages, most of which were located in West Papua and Papua.

Many of the targeted villages in Papua are located in densely forested mountain areas.

Read also: Indonesia to electrify 433 remote eastern villages

The most cost-effective solution to provide electricity there [in Papua and West Papua] is through the use of local energy, the renewable energy sources. An even better option is to distribute the plants electricity with a mini-grid or micro-grid, he said.

In electrifying the villages, PLN plans to expand electricity networks, build renewable energy power plants and distribute handheld Talis battery packs. PLN estimates the electrification program would cost at least Rp 1.26 trillion.

For PLN, expanding its electricity networks is also a strategy to weather a domestic electricity oversupply that strains the companys cash flow due to the lower demand during the pandemic.

The electricity giant is particularly focused on expanding its network to high industrial activity regions such as manufacturing-heartland Java and mineral-rich Sulawesi.

PLNs spending on privately owned power plants (IPPs) is projected to exceed its own fuel spending by 2021, due to the oversupply, warns a recent Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) study.

IEEFA director Melissa Brown, who authored the study, said the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the financial problem as electricity domestic demand collapsed yet PLN remains obligated to buy a certain amount for electricity from IPPs.

The COVID-19 crisis has upended Indonesias financial settings and PLNs dealings with the Indonesian public and global markets will need to be adjusted to face the new reality, she said in a statement on April 7.

PLN booked a net loss of Rp 38.9 trillion in this years first quarter, down from a net profit of Rp 4.12 trillion in the same period last year, after the rupiah exchange rate fell to a record low against the greenback in March.
It was an image evocative of an earlier era, when Donald Trump was pitchman, not president. On Wednesday, he posted to his personal Instagram account a grinning, two-thumbs-up image of himself sitting at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office behind kidney beans, coconut milk and chocolate wafers.

The taunting post was the latest volley in a battle raging over Goya Foods Inc., a company best-known a week ago for wholesome and cheap quarantine staples and now being shunned and touted in the endless fight over Trump himself.

The controversy erupted last Thursday when Goya's Chief Executive Officer Robert Unanue said at a White House ceremony for the President's Hispanic Prosperity Initiative that the country was "truly blessed" to have such a leader.

Liberal Latinos, furious at Trump's anti-immigrant comments and policies, took to social media with the hashtag #Goyaway, urging a boycott.

"Hamilton" star Lin-Manuel Miranda tweeted about a beloved Latino sauce: "We learned to bake bread in this pandemic, we can learn to make our own adobo con pimienta. Bye." Others showed themselves chucking Goya products in the trash.

Trump supporters were quick to counter, urging their followers to "buy Goya." Daughter Ivanka Trump posted a photo of herself holding a can of black beans with the company's slogan, "If it's Goya, it has to be good," in English and Spanish.

The president sent one of his own, stating Goya is "doing GREAT" and "people are buying like crazy!"

The U.S. Office of Government Ethics may investigate Ivanka for what many consider a breach, but ultimately it'll be up to the president to apply any penalty.

"It's not entirely clear what the consequences would be because all of it depends on enforcement," Delaney Marsco, an official with the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan ethics watchdog group said by telephone. "And this administration has not been particularly quick to enforce consequences."

The White House dismissed the fracas. "Only the media and the cancel culture movement would criticize Ivanka for showing her personal support for a company that has been unfairly mocked, boycotted and ridiculed for supporting this administration -- one that has consistently fought for and delivered for the Hispanic community," spokeswoman Carolina Hurley said.

Unanue went on "Fox and Friends" to say that he had joined Michelle and Barack Obama at the White House during their time there and had no regrets over what he did or said about Trump.

At his White House appearance last week, Unanue compared Trump to his own grandfather, saying they were both builders. There is a noteworthy similarity between the two families, the offspring of ambitious immigrants who produced prosperity and fierce internal feuds.

Goya describes itself as America's biggest Hispanic-owned food company and it's one of the few in the industry to remain family-owned, having flourished by targeting the country's 60.6 million-strong Hispanic population.

The history and story of Goya is about "achieving the American dream," asserts the company's website. Unanue's grandparents, Don Prudencio and Carolina, founded the business in 1936 after immigrating from Spain by way of Puerto Rico. Starting with a single Manhattan storefront selling olives and sardines to local Hispanic families, the business grew into a dried-foods juggernaut as the country's Hispanic population exploded and it figured out how to deliver directly to food stores big and small.

Goya generated just over $1 billion in operating revenue in 2018, according to private company database, Orbis. The New York Post reported last year that private equity firm Carlyle Group Inc. explored a bid for the business at around $3 billion to $4 billion but negotiations fell apart after they couldn't agree with the family on price.

The business is split among three branches of the Unanue family and valued at $1.7 billion according to Bloomberg calculations. A Goya spokesperson couldn't be reached for comment.

In an industry rife with consolidation, Goya is notable for remaining independent although family harmony has often proved elusive.

In 2004, current CEO Robert and his cousin Francisco brought a court case against their uncle Joseph, then chairman, and cousin Andrew, seeking to enforce their removal from the company due to alleged autocratic and unprofessional behavior.

Joseph and Andrew were ultimately ousted from the business and Andrew now runs a private equity firm focused on Hispanic or family-owned consumer businesses. He briefly campaigned for the Republican nomination for New Jersey's U.S. Senate seat and served on former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's transition committee. He did not respond to multiple emails requesting comment.

Trump's promotion of the brand may harm Goya's business in the near term, according to Neeru Paharia, a professor at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business.

"Their customers are probably more likely to be in the demographic that might be offended by some of Trump's comments," she said. "It's a good way to kind of vote with your dollar."

CEO Unanue donated $3,000 each to the Republican National Committee and to WinRed, a conservative political action committee, last year but hasn't donated specifically to Trump, Federal Electoral Commission data shows. In 2012 Goya partnered with Michelle Obama and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to launch a healthy-eating initiative. Its website boasts of being lauded by President Barack Obama for its commitment to the Hispanic community.
It has been six years since the City of Brandon last had to conduct mosquito fogging and things have since changed.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/7/2020 (552 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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It has been six years since the City of Brandon last had to conduct mosquito fogging and things have since changed.

Both the product used for the fogging and the method through which it is administered have evolved as technology has advanced.

To get an idea of what the fogging process will be like when city staff conduct it tonight and Thursday evening, the Sun spoke with the citys director of community services, Perry Roque, on Tuesday afternoon.

Fogging devices will be carried in the back of four municipal pickup trucks with two city staff in them  one to drive the vehicle and one to operate the fogger.

Since 2014, the city has changed its fogging chemical from malathion, which has since been declared "potentially carcinogenic" by the World Health Organization to DeltaGuard 20EW, which Health Canada has said is unlikely to be carcinogenic and wont hurt other insects, animals, plants or mammals.

"There were lots of concerns with malathion," Roque said. "The DeltaGuard is much safer."

DeltaGuard 20EW is made by Bayer, the manufacturer of Aspirin and RoundUp brand herbicides. Its also what the City of Winnipeg has been using for its mosquito fogging during the last few years. Roque said that Winnipeg officials have called the new product "very effective" in conversations he has had.

As the trucks drive through the city, the fogger dispenses the mosquito-killing chemical. Some houses are protected by a 90-metre buffer zone where fogging cannot take place, and the fogger takes them into account.

GPS co-ordinates are fed into a computer in the truck and it automatically stops dispensing the chemical when entering a buffer zone and automatically restarts when leaving one. As of Mondays city council meeting, there were 12 established buffer zones in Brandon.

"Well have staff coming in to start setting up equipment at 9 p.m. and the equipment will roll out of our compounds around 10 oclock at night, and we anticipate that if everything goes well, well be done around 3 a.m.," Roque said.

 cslark@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @ColinSlark
Expanding our agile transformation service offerings with Jira Align is another important step in our long-standing partnership with Atlassian and most importantly, in our ability to bring the best solutions to our customers.

As an Atlassian Platinum Enterprise Solution Partner since 2008, Praecipio Consulting has the knowledge and expertise to successfully empower teams across all sectors through a diverse portfolio of process frameworks and technology solutions that allow organizations to achieve operational excellence, deliver world-class results, and execute their strategic vision. Over the last decade, Praecipio Consulting has supported hundreds of enterprise clients in helping them scale their businesses and adapt to the ever-changing marketplace demands. The consulting firms strong knowledge of the scaled agile framework (SAFe) has provided key industry leaders with capabilities to facilitate faster, well-informed decision-making, improved organizational efficiency, strategic alignment and better business outcomes.

Expanding our agile transformation service offerings with Jira Align is another important step in our long-standing partnership with Atlassian and most importantly, in our ability to bring the best solutions to our customers. As agile practices have become paramount for an organization to thrive in the digital world, we look forward to integrating this powerful and robust platform into our solutions portfolio, said founding and managing partner Christian Lane. Jira Align will allow Praecipio Consulting to enable its clients to focus their resources on higher-return activities, leaving space for greater innovation and organizational growth, he continued.

Jira Align is a platform that scales Agile principles across the entire organization and aligns work execution with strategic objectives, resulting in accelerated decision-making cycles, improved responsiveness, and increased profitability. By providing leaders with greater visibility, Jira Align helps organizations quickly adapt to an increasingly complex marketplace while simultaneously yielding superior organizational performance and exceeding customer expectations.

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Hundreds Protest In Moscow Against Constitutional Changes That Could Extend Putin's Rule

By Matthew Luxmoore July 15, 2020

MOSCOW -- Several hundred people turned out in Moscow on July 15 to protest recently approved constitutional changes that could allow President Vladimir Putin to serve two more terms until 2036.

Protesters chanted "Putin resign" and "Putin's a thief" amid a heavy police presence in Pushkin Square on a rainy evening in the Russian capital.

Demonstrators turned out officially to sign a petition against the raft of constitutional changes that were passed in a national, nonbinding plebiscite conducted between June 25 and July 1.

Among other changes, the amendments allow Putin to seek two more presidential terms after his current second, consecutive presidential term ends in 2024.

Katya Grishunina, who works at the Nuzhna Pomoshch (Help Needed) NGO, compared the recent plebiscite to the vote in Crimea in March 2014 on Russia's forcible annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.

"I didn't vote for their constitutional changes. The vote was rigged, just like the referendum in Crimea," Grishunina explained to RFE/RL at the demonstration.

"Elections are a trigger for people who want real change," she added. "But I don't know if we can effect any change right now."

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/hundreds-protest -in-moscow-against-constitutional-changes-that-could- extend-putin-s-rule/30728801.html

Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Leaders of Serbia and Kosovo are meeting in Brussels for their first face-to-face talks in 20 months under a European Union-mediated dialogue process aimed at normalizing relations between the two Balkan neighbors.

Following a virtual meeting organized by EU officials last weekend, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo's Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti came to talk face-to-face in Brussels on July 16.

"Today I expect a constructive discussion on their first element of our talks, which will contribute to the comprehensive normalization of the relations between Kosovo and Serbia," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a video statement.

Borrell, who is chairing the Brussels talks with EU special envoy Miroslav Lajcak, called on both sides to approach today's talks in the spirit of compromise and pragmatism and with the European future for their people in Kosovo and Serbia in their minds."

Kosovo, a former province of Serbia, declared independence in 2008 in a move rejected by Belgrade.

EU-backed negotiations between Pristina and Belgrade broke down in November 2018 over reports of a proposed land swap and after Kosovo imposed a 100-percent tax on Serbian imports.

Both Kosovo and Serbia, which aspire to join the EU, have been facing mounting pressure from the West to reboot negotiations.

On July 10, both sides agreed to resume talks after a video summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In those talks, Vucic and Hoti held firm to their positions. The Serbian president said the EU-backed process will be meaningless if they focus on whether Belgrade should recognize Kosovos independence. Kosovos prime minister said mutual recognition between the two countries is the only way to normalize relations.

Hoti and Vucic attended another virtual meeting on July 12, in which they agreed to hold talks in the Belgian capital on July 16.

The new push comes after prosecutors in The Hague charged Kosovar President Hashim Thaci with war crimes, leading to the postponement of a planned June 27 White House summit between Thaci and his Serbian counterpart.
Nigerian actor, John Okafor aka Mr Ibu, has shared his opinion about Coronavirus, saying that the virus is not in Nigeria.

In a recent interview with The Nation, Mr Ibu reportedly said he does not believe that COVID-19 exists in Nigeria nor does he care about its existence. According to him, he doesnt know anyone who has been infected or has died from the novel viral disease.

Nigeria, we are not supposed to be involved in this COVID-19, I see no reason why we should be involved. Only Nigerians in diaspora will have to partake in this devilish program. We at home are oblivious, we are not supposed to be involved in any ceremony in trying to pretend or in trying to avoid. My brother, COVID-19 or 20 is not here, I dont care. Why would China give us sickness and America embellish the technicality and then sell it to the world and people now begin to die when they know its killing. Thank God we have hot weather, the thing sef dey fear us. I no dey fear anything I dey wear cloth waka on my own. Nothing dey here, nobody don die for this whole area, if you go another area nobody don die, go to stadium nobody don die. Lets be sorry for ourselves. Im telling everybody not just the government this, say only what you know do not exaggerate it. Na we dey take our mouth call sickness by im own, sickness dey pass on its own but na we dey call am for Nigeria. You wont see COVID-19 because its not here.

On the rising numbers of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria and activities of the NCDC, Mr. Ibu said,
A private security guard at the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) was arrested on Wednesday morning in connection with the rape of a minor girl and for molesting another girl at the hospitals isolation ward the previous night.

The accused, Mahesh Singh, has been sent to jail.

The two girls were brought to PMCH by child rights activists on July 8 after they showed symptoms for coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

The incident came to light, when the girls narrated their ordeal to child rights activists, who visited them at the hospital on Wednesday morning.

Singh was arrested on the basis of the girls statement. A

case has been lodged with womens police station under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, said Arti Jaiswal, Station House Officer (SHO), womens police station, Patna.

She said the accused was posted at PMCH for the last four months.

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Biostatistician Bhramar Mukherjee

Helping India manage the pandemic

by Cynthia Furlong Reynolds

From the July, 2020 issue

"I'm the black sheep of my family, the outlier," Bhramar Mukherjee says, laughing. "I had to hide my math books inside comic books so my family wouldn't criticize the way I was spending my time."



Born in Kolkata into a family renowned in India's theater world, Mukherjee recalls dinner table conversations centering on the arts, theater, literature, and music--"things that were not quantifiable, raising questions that couldn't be resolved objectively. I preferred puzzles and problems with answers."



So instead of the arts, she studied statistics. After earning degrees in India, she won a scholarship to study in America, where she enrolled in master's and doctoral programs at Purdue.



Already married, she gave birth to her only child, a daughter, when she was twenty-four, juggling marriage and motherhood with graduate work while living half a world away from her support network and family of origin. (She and her husband subsequently divorced; her daughter is now a grad student and aspiring writer at the University of Chicago.)



After teaching at the University of Florida, Mukherjee was recruited by the U-M's biostatistics department in 2005. "Michigan offered me a chance to work with its schools of medicine and public health," she explains. "I enjoy translating complex social problems into mathematics, so it was a perfect fit for me."



Now the John D. Kalbfleisch professor of biostatistics, Mukherjee holds a dual appointment in global health and epidemiology and is chair-elect for the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies. But she is especially proud to be the first woman to head the U-M biostatistics department.



By the end of last year, she had published more than 240 journal articles, most on the development and application of statistical methods in epidemiology, environmental health, and disease risk. But until Covid-19, she had never worked on infectious disease models.



That changed in early March, when Mukherjee was quarantined at home after contact with someone who tested positive for the novel coronavirus. She says she felt helpless,

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with her family far away and global travel restrictions. Because India had limited contacts with China, it lagged behind other countries in Covid-19 cases, but she knew it was only a matter of time."The slums of India are so densely packed, and migrant workers move from the city throughout the countryside to find work, so stopping the spread of coronavirus was a tremendous challenge for a country like India," she explains. "On top of Covid, India was hit by a cyclone that caused tremendous devastation. The times look apocalyptic."---With friends and colleagues, she formed the COV-IND-19 Study Group. They researched how the disease had spread in China and Italy, and sketched a statistical picture of India in the grip of the novel coronavirus.A biostatistics colleague, Peter X. K. Song, had built an epidemiological model for the pandemic's epicenter, Hubei province in China. "He told me he couldn't change policy in China because the pandemic was well underway," Mukherjee recalls, "but he suggested I use this model for India."When Mukherjee posted news of the project on medium.com , graduate students and colleagues offered to help--"particularly Indian students still on campus." When the group realized they needed economic expertise, a friend from the Delhi School of Economics signed on, as did an economist at U Mass Amherst."We really wanted to get the data out there immediately, hoping it would make a difference in India," Mukherjee says. Using Song's model and software, the volunteers completed a thirty-page report in an astounding four days. "We barely slept," she said. "We had a purpose, though none of us previously had modeling experience involving infectious diseases."Released on March 22, the report was featured in media around the world. Its conclusion: "a man-made disruption" must be implemented to stop the burgeoning tide of Covid-19 cases before the virus decimates the slums and cities of India.At the time, India had only 536 reported cases and eleven deaths. But the response was immediate and dramatic. On March 24, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi announced a nationwide lockdown. The work of Mukherjee's volunteer group in Michigan had ramifications half a world away."You can't call this a typical success story for a biostatistician," says one colleague admiringly."I'm a data scientist," says Mukherjee. "I cannot go to the front line and cure people or work on developing drugs. I can only try to unravel the patterns that are hidden in the data and help the public."The lockdown saved the lives of countless people, but "ultimately it wasn't as effective as we had hoped," she adds. After two months, India's economy was struggling so dramatically that the lockdown was ended. Through mid June, India had counted more than 300,000 cases and 8,500 deaths.---Along with worldwide attention, the COV-IND-19 study generated "a strong feeling of social solidarity" among its members, Mukherjee says. "In the worst of times, it's wonderful to see people rise to the occasion and share a common mission for greater good."Many grad students put their dissertations on hold to work with the group. "I'm finding it hard to get back to my research, too," she admits. "As statisticians doing this project, we were working on the ground for an immediate impact on tomorrow, not on theoretical cases. That was very satisfying."Away from work, Mukherjee has immersed herself in Ann Arbor's theater, music, film, and art communities. "In truth, it was the Law Quad and Michigan Theater that especially attracted me to Ann Arbor at first," she says. "Ann Arbor is very liberal, very charming, and the arts here are a real draw. I'm so happy when I can watch and experience art."Her father, a renowned actor, dreams of playing King Lear with his daughter starring on the stage with him. "I probably have a modest baseline ability to act because of my father's genes, but I never worked on it," the professor says. "My father is eighty years old now. I live and work in the United States. And the world is facing a pandemic, so I am sad to say he may not realize that dream."She adds, "I don't think it was until the COV-IND-19 report was released, when my parents saw me on television, that they finally understood what I do for a living. Such is the hyphenated identity of an immigrant scholar, who balances a life across two continents." [Originally published in July, 2020.]
PHOENIX  Arizonans who can't pay their rent will get more time before they face eviction.

Gov. Doug Ducey announced Thursday afternoon that he is extending his order blocking people affected by COVID-19 from being evicted from their homes. That protection, which had been set to expire, now goes through Oct. 31.

But renters will face an additional hurdle.

Right now they need to provide evidence to the property owner that they have specific reasons for not paying their rent. These range from a requirement to be quarantined to job loss or reduction of income.

Under the new plan, they will have to certify to the landlord by Aug. 22 that they have applied for rental assistance from one of the state, county, city or private organizations that provide it.

That keeps the landord at bay, even if they don't have the assistance by that time.

Ducey's order also is designed to provide financial relief to at least some property owners. It sets aside $5 million in grants that they can use to forestall foreclosure by those who hold the mortgage.

Aides to the governor said this is being crafted to be available only to those with one or just a few properties and not for owners of apartment complexes.

The order also provides $650,000 to go to community agencies which process applications for housing assistance.

Ducey said there is about $80 million available. But he said that distribution has been hampered because these community agencies have not had the staff to process the applications.
WESTFIELD  Daniel OConnells Sons Inc. of Holyoke has been selected to serve as construction manager on Westfield State Universitys $40 million renovation of Parenzo Hall.

The announcement was made Thursday by the university and Massachusetts Division of Capital Assets Management and Maintenance.

We are pleased to select Daniel OConnells Sons through a competitive procurement process to carry out this significant enhancement to Westfield States facilities, said DCAMM Commissioner Carol Gladstone in a statement. Through this infrastructure project, we will help support the Western Massachusetts economy by creating new space for advanced and hybrid learning for students and young adults, while also partnering with a local construction business.

The Construction Manager Selection Committee received 12 responses to the states request for qualifications and eight final proposals for the project. The final construction manager selection was made based on the firms qualifications, experience, past performances, and reviews of performance records in comparison to the others.

The renovation is expected to begin next summer and take two years.

The 64-year-old Parenzo Hall is the oldest building on campus. Renovations will include the creation of two new centers: the CSSE, or Center for Student Success and Engagement, and the Collaboration Laboratory, CoLab.

The CSSE will address the universitys goals of increasing retention and graduation rates, as well as reducing achievement gaps and the continuing decline in the number of working-age adults.

The CoLab will serve as a nexus for innovative collaboration in Western Massachusetts, partnering with school districts, community colleges, and industry partners. It will teach students and community partners how to productively engage in online-hybrid environments that increase flexibility for students, facilitate co-enrollment, expand course choices, and provide a bridge to employment. The CoLab will work with community colleges to ease the transfer process by offering financially supported hybrid-style programs and boot camps. It will work with chambers of commerce and economic development boards to broker relationships, inform curriculum, and secure support.

The renovation project is a strategic investment for Westfield State, which has been on its master plan as a top priority, according to Westfield State Vice President for Administration and Finance Stephen Taksar.

In addition to improving our primary instructional space, it will also significantly reduce the deferred maintenance on campus, he said.

Renovation of swing space to relocate current Parenzo Hall tenants is underway and expected to be completed this winter, according to the university.

The state is helping to finance the project via a $21.25 million spending bill that was signed by Gov. Charlie Baker during a July 2018 visit to campus.
DETROIT  The fury surrounding the start of summer school in Detroit this week offers a preview of the emotional battles that could hit many more communities this fall.

The citys main public school district made the unusual decision to open classrooms for in-person summer learning starting Monday in hopes of helping children catch up four months after the coronavirus forced schools to close.

While the district says it took safety precautions to prevent the spread of the virus and stressed that no students or teachers were forced to participate in face-to-face instruction, the first two days of classes were met with protests. Activists blocked school buses from leaving a bus depot. A civil rights lawyer, who used the word genocide to describe the effect of the districts decision because the student population is 96 percent Black or Latino, says she plans to seek an injunction to close the schools. The head of the city teachers union called in-person summer school a mind-boggling decision. And some parents expressed grave reservations about whether their children would be safe.

Im scared, said Kim Martin, 50, who was picking up her son, Allyn, an eighth grader, from his summer school classes at the Brenda Scott Academy on Detroits east side Monday. I dont want my son to get sick. Hes an asthmatic.

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

Across the country, many districts are embroiled in what has become a highly politicized debate about school reopenings, with President Donald Trump threatening to withhold funding from schools that dont offer in-person instruction. On Monday, two of the nations largest districts  Los Angeles and San Diego  said they will not offer in-person instruction when they reopen for the new school year because of rising COVID-19 case numbers in California.

Detroit, where roughly 500 students attended classes at 23 schools Monday, isnt the only city to hold in-person summer school. Some districts, though, including in Connecticut and Iowa, have already had to shut down because of confirmed or suspected cases of the virus.

Story continues

Evidence suggests that children are not as susceptible to the virus as adults, but some children have died, including a 5-year-old girl in Detroit. Teachers have also raised concerns about the dangers they face in returning to work.

But Detroit Schools Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said the citys children, the vast majority of whom are classified as economically disadvantaged by the state and have test scores showing theyre far behind their peers academically, cant afford to miss much more school.

Our children need us, he said. People have to get off the sidelines and get on the field and figure out what the new normal looks like with school under COVID-19.

He rejected critics who say the district should have stuck with online instruction, both because many children in Detroit do not have computers  a major philanthropic effort announced in April to distribute tablets or computers to every Detroit student has so far only reached high school students  and because students needs cant be fully met online.

A lot of children will not be able to stay focused and engaged and receive the support they need academically and socially, emotionally, he said.

COVID-19 has pummeled Detroit, where 1,461 people have died from the virus since March. The school district lost about 10 employees, Vitti said, and he believes that nearly every student and staff member was affected by the virus.

While some say thats another reason to keep classrooms closed, Vitti argues that its a reason to open them for students whose parents feel comfortable with the idea.

We fill the hurt that those children and their families have, he said.

The district is taking safety measures, including limiting class sizes to 15 students, checking temperatures of all students and staff members and cleaning all schools daily, Vitti said. Teachers have been tested for the virus, but students have not  in part because some parents said they didnt want their children tested and in part because the district doesn't have access to enough tests that could quickly return a result, he said.

A teacher conducts a class during the first day of summer school in Detroit on July 13, 2020. (@Dr_Vitti via Twitter)

He added that the plan was crafted in a series of virtual meetings with teachers, students, parents and district staff and was presented at two school board meetings.

Some parents said they were comfortable with the districts measures.

Everybodys wearing their mask, said Shallena Cummings, 22, who is sending her daughter Zarha, 6, to summer school at Brenda Scott so shell be better prepared for first grade. My child got hand sanitizer and everything.

Cummings had some reservations when she saw that Michigans case numbers have started climbing again after coming down from their peak in April.

I was honestly about to change my mind, she said. But then Im like, OK, she got to go back to school at some point. I had to get past it.

Martin, though, remains concerned. Her uncle and a cousin died from COVID-19. She has diabetes, and as her son goes to summer school, she worries about his health, as well as the possibility that he could bring the virus home.

But Allyn needs to pass an English class so that he can advance to high school, and online classes arent an option because he has no computer at home, she said.

Terrence Martin, who leads the Detroit Federation of Teachers, the city teachers union, said he doesnt see a need to put students or staff members at risk. He said the district should focus on beefing up online instruction instead, in case schools cant open in the fall.

Theres been a rise lately in the state. Its just not wise, he said. I certainly understand the districts response to parents saying We want our kids to have an opportunity and we don't want them to come into the next school year at a deficit. But he thinks online classes would be safer.

Martin signed a letter of agreement with the district about summer school after hearing from teachers who wanted summer school positions. He negotiated pay and working conditions, making sure the jobs would be voluntary.

So far, he said, he hasnt heard any major safety complaints from his members, but he says hell be watching closely to see what happens  and what lessons can be learned for the fall.

Civil rights lawyer Shanta Driver, the national chair of the activist organization By Any Means Necessary, which led the protests at the bus depot Monday and Tuesday, said she planned to file suit on behalf of Detroit children Wednesday. The suit in the states Court of Claims, against district and state officials, would seek an injunction to force the district to close summer school.

Workers sit amid dozens of idle school buses after demonstrators blocked the driveways of the Detroit Public Schools West Side Bus Terminal on the first day of summer school on Monday. (David Guralnick / The Detroit News via AP)

We can predict that some young people are going to get infected with the virus this summer because of this reopening, and everybody deserves protection from that, she said.

She questioned why Detroit was opening schools to face-to-face instruction when most other districts in the state are offering summer school only online, if at all. She compared the decision to the infamous Tuskegee study that began in the 1930s and left hundreds of African American men with untreated syphilis for decades, saying she felt Detroits students were similarly being subjected to a dangerous public health experiment.

We dont need another racist attack against Detroit or for Detroit to be used this summer as a Tuskegee experiment to determine whether or not schools can reopen in the fall.

Vitti said hes not concerned about lawsuits. We feel that we are implementing all federal and state requirements for face-to-face instruction, he said. Weve gone above and beyond safety protocols and requirements and will be well prepared to defend them in court, he said. A spokesman for the state Education Department declined to comment on the lawsuit threat.

Download the NBC News app for full coverage and alerts about the coronavirus outbreak

Driver questioned the districts safety precautions. She connected a reporter with a school bus driver, Kenshawn Siebert, who says he reported for work at the depot where Driver was protesting Monday to discover that there were no masks or hand sanitizer for buses.

Siebert, who has driven a school bus for the city for five years, told NBC News that he was given no training for how to keep children safe on his bus. He was not tested for the virus. And after losing four friends to COVID-19 in the last few months, he said he refused to drive his route Monday and doesnt plan to go back.

I dont want to see my child on a ventilator, Siebert, a father of four, said, and I don't want to see somebody elses child on a ventilator.

Edward Flavin, a spokesman for National Express and Trinity Transportation, where Siebert worked, said all drivers completed a training, and students are required to wear masks and use hand sanitizer on buses.

The safety, health, and well-being of our passengers and employees will remain our No. 1 priority, he said.

Driver has been involved in civil rights and immigration issues for years but asserted that the decision to open schools this summer is the closest thing in my lifetime that I have seen that smacks of genocide.

The reopening, she said, is horrifying and needs to be stopped.
BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The lander and rover of the Chang'e-4 probe have resumed work for the 20th lunar day on the far side of the moon.

The lander woke up at 5:48 a.m. Wednesday (Beijing Time), and the rover awoke at 12:53 p.m. Tuesday. Both are in normal working order, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration.

The Chang'e-4 probe, launched on Dec. 8, 2018, made the first-ever soft landing on the Von Karman Crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon on Jan. 3, 2019.

A lunar day is equal to 14 days on Earth, and a lunar night is the same length. The Chang'e-4 probe, switching to dormant mode during the lunar night due to the lack of solar power, has survived about 559 Earth days on the moon.

The rover Yutu-2, or Jade Rabbit-2, has worked much longer than its three-month design life, becoming the longest-working lunar rover on the moon.

On the 20th lunar day, the neutron radiation detector and low-frequency radio spectrometer on the lander will be switched on.

The rover, based on the lunar surface image data obtained earlier, will continue to move northwest toward the basalt area or the impact craters with high reflectivity.

The near-infrared spectrometer, panoramic camera, neutral atom detector and lunar radar on the rover will continue to carry out planned scientific exploration.

Through the analysis of the Chang'e-4 radar data, researchers recently found a multi-layer underground structure in the landing area and confirmed that multiple lava-infilling events occurred in the Von Karman Crater.
HARTFORD  If one Black Lives Matter-related proposal is likely to be revised before the wide-ranging bill on police reform and accountability is debated in the General Assembly next week, its a provision that would end the immunity that shields cops from civil lawsuits for improper actions on the job.

Negotiations on the full extent of the bill, one of four that the House and Senate will have before them during the special session, could result in the immunity proposal getting dropped entirely from the legislation. Or it could be revised to include only the most-egregious kinds of incidents, such as the injury or death of those detained by police.

State Rep. Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, deputy House minority leader, said Wednesday since people with complaints about police behavior can sue the municipality or police department, the provision is less needed, particularly since other provisions are in the bill to end the careers of rogue law enforcement figures by terminating their professional certifications.

Contributed photo /

Eliminating qualified immunity doesnt accomplish much, Candelora said. I dont think that achieves the goal when you want to make sure that bad actors dont remain on the force. I think our focus should be addressing the grievance process.

Candelora said he understands the national movement to end the immunity, along with a list of other items included in the pending bill, including local civilian review boards with subpoena power; outlawing chokeholds; a new inspector general; and mandatory dashboard and body cameras for police.

But negotiations to widen support for the bill, including among more Republicans, could focus on the controversial immunity piece. A public hearing on the bill is scheduled for Friday. The House would take it up July 23, with the Senate meeting the following week under a plan outlined Tuesday.

We put a lot of things on the table with this bill, so undoubtedly there will be some revisions, said state Rep. Steve Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport, co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee, who along with state Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, will lead the planned 12-hour-long, virtual public hearing on the bill Friday from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m.

Brian A. Pounds / Hearst Connecticut Media

Placed on the legislative calendar as a listening session, the committee is seeking public testimony for the Zoom meeting, in which participants will be given a place in the speaking order and will be informed of their approximate time for testifying for a three-minute limit.

The Rev. Stephen A. Cousin, Jr., pastor of the Bethel A.M.E. Church in New Haven, a member of the state Police Transparency and Accountability Task Force, said after a Wednesday news conference in favor of the overall reforms held by local leaders of African Methodist Episcopal Churches on the steps of the state Capitol, that he understands that there are many voices that will be heard and that the bill is likely to change.

But a key component would be the regular mental-health assessments for law enforcement personnel, he said.

I know one of the issues that are being presented is about qualified immunity, Cousin said in an interview. And so for our position, we know its a sensitive subject, especially for the feelings of the police officers who feel that they are not being protected. So it cant just be a one-sided conversation. We all need to feel valued and we all need to feel protected in our lives, our work and in our personal spaces. For us, we actually welcome the debate on qualified immunity. For me, its not a deal-breaker if its actually not in the bill, where it can actually be referred back to the task force, for them to further review it.

Ken Dixon /Hearst Connecticut Media /

During the news conference in which about a dozen church leaders stressed the need for better police accountability, the Rev. Kevin T. Taylor, pastor of the Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church in Hartford, said that congregations throughout the state this weekend will be asked to support the police reforms.

Cousin, during the news conference, said he would support both raising the minimum age for police officers from 21 to 24 or 25, and increasing the educational requirements from the current high school diploma, to at least a an associates degree.

He said its an important moment.

It is rare in history where we are talking about the same issues and Democrats and Republicans alike are coming to the table to ask what can we do to make a change? Cousin said. This is so necessary for communities of color to begin the healing process and start building trust between law enforcement and communities. We understand that there is much to be discussed in this bill. There are some issues that need to be ironed out, but we are in a rare moment in time. History has its eyes on us.

Three other pieces of legislation for which Gov. Ned Lamont is expected to issue the call and scope of the special session would be mail-in balloting for the November election; capping prices on insulin; and broadening the allowable uses of telemedicine.

In behind-the-scenes lobbying, statewide union officials have been attempting to insert provisions to allow front line personnel in the coronavirus pandemic the presumption Workers Compensation coverage if they contract COVID-19.

And state Sen. Douglas McCrory, D-Hartford, co-chairman of the Education Committee, has proposed a 10-year, $1 billion proposal to invest in the urban centers in a campaign to end poverty and promote minority economic interests.

Lamont has stood fast to the limited scope of the special session, stressing that a follow-up special session in September could be held for those issues, plus the annual school-construction and land-transfer bills.

kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT
Armenians protested in front of Yerevan's Ukrainian embassy on Wednesday, accusing the country of siding with Azerbaijan in the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Some threw borscht, Ukraine's national dish, at the embassy building, in a symbol of outrage.

On Monday, the Ukrainian foreign ministry issued a statement urging the two sides to de-escalate the situation.

It added that Ukraine respects the "sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan in its internationally recognized borders."

In recent days, Armenian and Azerbaijani forces have fought with heavy artillery and drones, leaving several people killed on both sides, including an Azerbaijani general.

It's the worst outbreak of hostilities in years.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan's capital was rocked by a large rally on Tuesday night, with thousands marching to show their support for the military.

A group of people stormed into Baku's National Assembly building, an attempt thwarted by riot police, who used water cannons to disperse the crowd.

A criminal case has been launched by authorities.

The two neighbors in the South Caucasus have been locked in conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan that has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a war there ended in 1994.

International efforts to settle the conflict have stalled.
Antilia bomb scare: NIA files charge sheet against Waze, Sharma, eight others

Lakhimpur Kheri violence: Cong leader Sachin Pilot en route to Sitapur by road from Delhi

Rajasthan Cabinet Expansion: 'If change needed, should be made', Sachin Pilot tells Sonia Gandhi

Rajasthan Cabinet Reshuffle: 15 new ministers take oath; Pilot camp gets 5 berths

HC defers hearing on Pilots petitions challenging disqualification

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, July 16: Hearing on the petition filed by Sachin Pilot and the other rebels has been deferred. The court has asked Pilot to file a fresh petition tomorrow against the Speaker's disqualification notice.

The hearing was initially held up due to technical issues. However, the Pilot camp sought time to make some amendments to the petition.

The Rajasthan Speaker had issued notices to Sachin Pilot and 18 other rebel Congress MLAs after the party sought their disqualification from the state assembly.

Disqualification notice to Sachin Pilot, 18 MLAs brings issue of Speaker's power to fore

Sacked deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot and the other MLAs were asked to respond to the notices by Friday. The notices were issued on Tuesday.

International flights: Bubble travel with US & France, flights to resume from tomorrow|Oneindia News

The MLAs had defied a whip and did not attend its legislature party meetings held on Monday and Tuesday.

"Notices have been issued to 19 rebel MLAs, including Sachin Pilot, yesterday," Speaker C P Joshi told PTI to Wednesday.

Sources said the notices were sent after the chief whip of the Congress in Rajasthan Assembly, Mahesh Joshi, wrote to the Speaker, seeking proceedings against the rebel MLAs in accordance with the 10th Schedule of the Constitution.

The Congress also cited past Supreme Court rulings to seek their disqualification.

Among those sent notices are Vishvendra Singh and Ramesh Meena, who were sacked along with Pilot from the state cabinet after their rebellion against Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.
The Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council has directed workers of the Kumasi Depot of the Metro Mass Transit aka Kufour bus to return to work as it takes steps to get management address their concerns.

This was after a meeting with the leadership of the workers union and management of the company over issues relating to conditions of service.

The workers laid down their tools for the second time to protest unpaid salaries which have been in arrears for three months.

The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah after meeting management of the company, the leadership of the workers union and the Labour Commission appealed to the workers to go back to work.

The Minister directed the Labour Department, the Labour Commission and the Trades Union Congress to look into other concerns raised by the workers.

He also asked management to reinstate the interdicted local chapter Chairman of the Junior Staff Association who was investigated for allegedly inciting workers.

Industrial Relations Officer for the General Transport Petroleum and Chemical Workers Union, Paul Kofi Adu gave highlights of the meeting.

---citinewsroom
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Britons last night partied in Magaluf's Punta Ballena strip hours before it was shut down for the rest of the summer.

Tourists threw one last booze-fuelled party in the resort on the Spanish island of Majorca before the shock closure of the party strip - which hosts dozens of bars and clubs - following earlier scenes of bad behaviour.

The closure - until at least September 15 - is being enforced after images and a video emerged of revellers jumping on cars and ignoring the island's coronavirus social distancing regulations.

Two other party strips in Playa de Palma, south-east of the Majorcan capital Palma, have also been shut down, known locally as Ham Street and Beer Street - or calle del Jamon and calle de la Cerveza in Spanish.

The enforced closures will be disappointing for thousands of Britons who were set to make the journey to take advantage of the hive of bars and clubs. Many of them will now be shut for most of the holiday season.

Energetic Britons partied in Magaluf's Punta Ballena strip hours before it was shut down for the rest of the summer

Tourists threw a booze-fuelled party in the town on the Spanish island of Majorca before its shock closure following earlier scenes of bad behaviour

The closure is being enforced after images emerged of revellers jumping on cars and ignoring the island's coronavirus social distancing regulations. Pictured: A group of revellers pose for a group photo on Wednesday

Later on in the early hours of Thursday, tourists locked out of their favourite holiday haunts were spotted with alcohol from supermarkets.

One man his Union Jack beach towel still draped round his neck as he walked along the road in a pair of bright orange shorts and flip-flops with a carrier bag in his right hand.

Elsewhere local police and Civil Guard maintained a visible presence in the area as officers went round businesses informing them about the closure decision.

The closures came as regional governors warned the tourists it blames for putting peoples' health and the image of the Balearic Islands at risk: 'Don't try to take your party elsewhere on the islands.'

The closure of the famous party destination's clubs comes after British yobs were last week videoed dancing on the roof of a car on the Punta Ballena strip

Later on in the evening on Wednesday, tourists locked out of their favourite holiday haunts were spotted with alcohol supermarket carry-outs

Elsewhere local police and Civil Guard maintained a visible presence in the area as officers went round businesses informing them about the closure decision

Balearic Islands Tourism Minister said as he announced the three street closures: 'The businesses in those three streets have been closed.

'I think it's a sufficiently clear message to those practicing the type of tourism of excesses we don't want here that they shouldn't come because those types of establishments are not going to be able to open.

'If those holidaymakers go to other areas, and if there are businesses that promote that type of clientele, they will also be closed and they will also be prohibited.

'We will not hesitate a single second when it comes to doing everything we need to to guarantee the health security of our citizens and our economic reactivation.

'We are a safe destination. The vast majority of our citizens, business leaders and holidaymakers who are making a great effort do not deserve the sort of images we have seen over the past few days and they do not deserve those types of holidaymakers and those types of businessmen.'

A spokesman for Calvia Council, which includes Magaluf and has spent years trying to improve the resort's image and curb the worst Punta Ballena excesses, said of the party strip closure ordered by the higher regional government: 'It's a difficult and tough measure but one that is necessary because of the potential for putting public health and the economy at risk.'

Police were on hand to ensure any last-minute partying did not get out of hand

Tourists took the opportunity to buy drinks from bars and clubs ahead of the new closure of the businesses

Which parts of Magluf are being closed and what does it mean for my holiday? The Magaluf closure orders are only directed at businesses on the famous Punta Ballena strip - which hosts numerous bars and clubs . Although two other party strips in Playa de Palma, south-east of the Majorcan capital Palma also have to shut. These are known locally as Ham Street and Beer Street - or calle del Jamon and calle de la Cerveza in Spanish. But despite the closures, businesswoman Nicky Smith, who manages the Magaluf Rocks bar, urged Britons not to cancel their holidays. She said: 'It's sad and we feel it's very unfair but we want to send the message to British holidaymakers who were due to come out to Magaluf not to cancel their holidays. 'It's [Punta Ballena] a well-known part of Magaluf obviously but it's not the only place.' Regional health minister Patricia Gomez echoed the message by adding: 'It's important not to scare off those tourists who do respect the rules.' Responsible Britons will therefore still be able to take advantage of bars and clubs elsewhere in Magaluf and Majorca and will still be able to buy alcohol from shops Advertisement

Referring to footage such as the video of Brit youngsters jumping on a car outside a fast food takeaway in Punta Ballena Street in the early hours of last Friday morning, the council added: 'There are images that have appeared over the past few days, linked to drunken tourism, that put public health and the economy at risk.

'We have spent many years fighting against this type of tourism and this year it has an added component which is protecting public health.

'The decisions we take today will determine not only what happens this holiday season but next year as well.

'In Calvia we want tourism of course but we don't want the type of tourist that only comes here to commit excesses, only those holidaymakers who come here to enjoy themselves responsibly and who have a guarantee they will find security here as well.'

Balearic Islands President Francina Armengol said: 'The health situation is positive and we will not tolerate an anti-social and irresponsible minority putting it at risk.

'Our health and the economy are at stake.

'We will act where necessary and we will be forceful against excesses.

'Zero tolerance with those who threaten the safety of us all.'

Regional health minister Patricia Gomez said of the three street closures: 'You have to look at the evidence. Where are the Covid-19 outbreaks? We see everywhere they are the result of people massing in groups in small spaces for some time without protective measures.'

She added in an interview with local media: 'We can't put a police officer on each tourist to avoid that happening and believe me, in areas like the streets we have closed, it's very easy for 20 to 30 people to group together in a second, do something stupid and post it on social media.

'We don't want that image of the Balearic Islands abroad.

'It's important not to scare off those tourists who do respect the rules.'

It is not yet clear if any of the businessmen affected by the closures will appeal.

Nicky Smith, who manages Magaluf Rocks, said: 'It's sad and we feel it's very unfair but we want to send the message to British holidaymakers who were due to come out to Magaluf not to cancel their holidays.

'There's a lot of places in Magaluf and Palmanova that are open. It's only Punta Ballena that's closing. It's a well-known part of Magaluf obviously but it's not the only place.'

British yobs filmed jumping on top of a parked car in Punta Ballena last Friday around 2am were criticised by locals on social media.

One took to social media to rage: 'Total chaos in Punta Ballena. Hundreds of sons of b##ches from Great Britain.

'No face masks on, jumping on top of cars, drunk, drinking alcohol in the street. A disaster. Where's the police? A f##king disgrace.'

One of the men filmed jumping up and down on the parked car, which was badly damaged, was arrested but released after several hours in custody.

None of the holidaymakers filmed were wearing any face masks, despite the fact there was no guaranteed social distancing and on Monday rules on their use were tightened throughout the Balearic Islands.

Many tourists who had ventured to Magaluf despite the coronavirus pandemic were seen wearing masks
They said the St. Charles plant was already in the process of beginning rolling closures April 19, nearly a week before it was ordered to fully close by the health department. In a statement at that time, they said the plant would not receive raw materials for two weeks, and departments would close on a staggered basis in the weeks following for roughly a week and a half each.
WASHINGTON - State health leaders, public health experts and hospital officials warn that an abrupt change in how the Trump administration requires them to report coronavirus data will increase the burden on facilities already strained by the pandemic and could impede the distribution of critical medicines.

The opposition came after the Department of Health and Human Services notified governors and hospital leaders this week that it was changing the protocol for sending the federal government daily information about coronavirus patients, supplies and bed capacity. Administration officials say that replacing a data-collection system run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would streamline reporting and lead to more efficient distribution of therapeutics, testing supplies and protective gear.

Officials also suggested that states might want to get the National Guard to assist hospitals - an idea the industry has condemned.

The new rules took effect Wednesday and will determine the allocation starting next week of critical supplies from the federal government, including protective gear and remdesivir, an antiviral medication that is one of the only approved treatments for covid-19 patients. Senior HHS officials contended Wednesday that the switch was made with the agreement of the CDC, which no longer is a recipient of the information.

Critics, however, say they fear the elimination of the CDC's role as a main data-keeper for the pandemic will be damaging, depriving states, hospitals and others of frequent analyses of data about the virus's path in their communities. Smaller hospitals, in particular, are ill-equipped to suddenly adopt new data methods, critics said, though the industry has pledged to comply with the change.

"Especially when we are trying to be saving lives . . . it can be quite an undertaking," said Carrie Kroll, vice president of advocacy, quality and public health for the Texas Hospital Association, many of whose members are overwhelmed as the virus surges in that state.

She said the order Wednesday to shift to the new data-reporting method happened with little notice or time for retraining. "On Monday we were alerted it was happening, On Tuesday, hospitals got an email as to what would change."

Until Wednesday, Texas hospitals sent to the state all coronavirus data requested by state health officials and the federal government, and the state forwarded it to Washington. Suddenly, with the federal requirements expanded, hospitals must return to sending data separately to both places.

During a telephone call between federal and state leaders Tuesday, several state health officials raised concerns about the additional burden placed on hospitals and the potential that late reporting would jeopardize allocation of critical medicine.

"The fact the federal government chose to change the reporting requirements right in the middle of the day, before the allocations are done, and therefore we don't get allocation that we need based on the burden of disease that we have, that's going to be really problematic for everybody," said one state official from Texas. The Washington Post obtained a recording of the call but was unable to identify the official.

A Tennessee representative told HHS officials that the short turnaround time could affect patient care. Not all hospitals have the same personnel do data reporting, she said. In places where resources are stretched thin, "they have to pull somebody from somewhere, which could very easily impede patient care and patient flow," she said. "So I'm also kind of floored by the short turnaround time and some of the stuff we have to report."

Coast Guard Vice Adm. Daniel Abel, part of the HHS team overseeing the federal response to the pandemic, assured callers that federal officials know "your folks are overwhelmed with patients and you're doing the best you can."

In a briefing for journalists Wednesday, HHS and CDC officials said the change was necessary because hospitals will have to report additional data in the weeks and months ahead. When new treatments for covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, are available, federal officials will need to know which areas have greatest demand so they can be distributed in a timely way, said CDC Director Robert Redfield.

Under the new system, hospitals can report directly to the federal contractor, called Teletracking, or to their state health departments.

Under the reporting system that ended Wednesday, about 3,000 hospitals - or the health systems that own them - sent detailed information about covid-19 patients and other metrics to the CDC's long-standing hospital network, the National Healthcare Safety Network, or NHSN. CDC staff analyze the data and provide tailored reports to every state twice a week and multiple federal agencies every day, according to a federal health official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss policy deliberations.

Some health experts said they are worried the change will cut off their access to important data about covid-19 that has been housed until now by the CDC.

"We're all very frustrated and very concerned. We use the [CDC system]," said Saskia Popescu, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at the University of Arizona. "We can pull data from [it] and extract reports. I have yet to hear if that's possible for" the federal contracting system.

Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, predicted that the data-reporting switch, "is not going to happen as easily or as well as they think."

"I'm fundamentally against making changes in the middle of a disaster," he said. "Changing data reporting, asking people to do a new task doesn't go down easily."

Benjamin represents one of six public health organizations that issued a statement Tuesday condemning the change.

In a letter to the nation's governors this week, HHS Secretary Alex Azar and Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force's response coordinator, said the data that hospitals report Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week will form the basis of federal distribution next week of remdesivir and other therapeutics and supplies. Hospitals were told that for the first days, they could focus on just seven of about 30 required data elements, including how much remdesivir they were using, along with admissions, adult patients and adults in intensive care with confirmed or suspected covid-19 cases.

Benjamin said he was doubtful the daily reporting would lead to more precise and efficient allocation of resources. The distribution "will fail," he predicted. "Most of the people you are asking to give you the data will not have a clue what to do. The process has to get to the people who push the buttons, who write things in. That takes weeks of training."

In the meantime, he said, "it means bad data in, bad distribution on the other end."

Tom Nickels, the American Hospital Association's vice president for government relations, said that although his members would comply with the change, hospitals are frustrated with repeated federal rule changes since the pandemic began. "It's unfortunate they keep changing their mind," Nickels said.

John Brady, vice president and chief financial officer for the Connecticut Hospital Association, said the latest change in requirements, on top of earlier ones, "is burdensome on hospitals, certainly those who are experiencing a crush of very ill patients from covid."

- - -

The Washington Post's Frances Sellers and Isaac Stanley-Becker contributed to this report.
Guilty plea: Twins Edel (left) and Bernadette Dowd both received 240 hours' community service in lieu of an 18-month custodial sentence. Photo: North West Newspix

Two twins glassed a man in a bar during an unprovoked attack after they had been drinking all day after attending a confirmation.

Bernadette and Edel Dowd (25) appeared at Letterkenny Circuit Court in Co Donegal, having pleaded guilty to the attack.

Both women, with an address at Donegal Road, Ballybofey, had been drinking in the town after a confirmation celebration on May 6, 2017.

Shortly after midnight on May 7, a row broke out at Cheers Bar on Main Street.

Innocent bystander Christopher Gallagher, who was out with his parents, was sitting opposite the sisters.

He was initially struck on the forehead with a glass thrown by Edel Dowd, causing him to bleed.

As he reached up to feel the blood coming down his face he was struck on the cheek by another glass, thrown by Bernadette Dowd.

He was taken to Letterkenny University Hospital, where he received stitches to both wounds and was told that he would be left with a permanent scar on his cheek.

When interviewed by gardai, both women admitted throwing the glasses which struck Mr Gallagher.

The court was told both women were from Tallaght in Dublin and had moved to Ballybofey 10 years ago.

Both had fallen in with bad company in recent years and had been drinking too much.

However, the sisters said they were trying to turn their lives around since the incident, had not drunk alcohol in almost a year, were eating healthily and were going to the gym.

Fiona Crawford, barrister for Edel Dowd, said her client was easily led but was a very decent person when she did not have drink taken. Edel Dowd told the court: "I'm genuinely sorry to Mr Gallagher and all his family, I really didn't mean it.

"It was the drink and that's the main reason I'm off drink today.

"I shouldn't have acted like that - it was shocking behaviour, it really was.

"I'm still ashamed and really am embarrassed by the way I behaved and I always will be."

Peter Nolan, barrister for Bernadette Dowd, said his client and her sister had learnt a lesson and understood that this type of behaviour would not be tolerated.

Bernadette Dowd told the court: "I'm sorry to Mr Gallagher and everyone in the pub. We had an early day drinking and celebrating a confirmation and it got out of hand. We're keeping our heads down, going to the gym and we have turned ourselves around."

Judge John Aylmer said that while both women had previous minor convictions, this incident was uncharacteristic of them.

He said he put it in the mid-range of such offences, which could result in a sentence of two years in prison, before considering mitigating circumstances.

However, he said he would reduce this to 18 months considering their early guilty plea and genuine remorse.

He wanted to encourage their rehabilitation and suggested custodial sentences may be counter-productive in their cases.

Instead, he imposed 240 hours' community service in lieu of 18 months in jail.
Platform gives smaller investors access to top-tier private equity and alternatives funds

Backed by more than 30 investors and advisors with experience from leading organisations, including CVC, EQT, Hg Capital, Morgan Stanley and Bain Co

Investment Advisory Board consists of CIOs of leading ~$10b family offices and funds, including Thomas Schleicher and Oliver Burgel

For GPs, Titanbay facilitates access to a ~$50tn underserved pool of capital from smaller institutions, family offices and private investors

We are pleased to announce today the launch of Titanbay, a next-generation online platform enabling small and medium-sized institutional and professional private investors to easily access and strategically invest in a curated selection of top-tier private equity funds.

Based in London, Titanbay has been launched by a team of industry insiders with extensive experience from a range of leading funds and institutions. The management team is led by serial entrepreneur Thomas Eskebaek, who has run multiple companies, from technology to investing, and previously worked at Bain Company and Eight Roads. The team also includes COO Laura Heely, who moved into technology strategy after beginning her career in investment advisory at J.P. Morgan, and Head of Investor Relations Adam Harrison, former Managing Director at Capital Group, and previously Standard Life.

Titanbay is backed by more than 30 investors and advisors with combined more than 100 years of industry experience and extensive networks acquired at leading firms including CVC, EQT, Hg Capital, Morgan Stanley and Bain Company. Members of the advisory board include Thomas Schleicher, the CIO of KIRKBI, the Kirk Kristiansen family's private holding and investment company, Marcello Bottoli former CEO of Samsonite and Operating Partner for Advent International and Jussi Nyrola, a former Senior Director at EQT.

Titanbay's innovative technology platform provides access to allocations in leading private equity funds, removing the barriers to entry of high minimum commitments and onerous investment processes that typically exclude smaller investors. Qualified investors can access the same top-tier private equity funds as the largest institutional investors with low investment minimums and low fees, giving them complete control and flexibility over where and how much to invest.

For General Partners (GPs), Titanbay adds value by opening a new $50tn underserved pool of capital from smaller institutions, family offices and private investors, while handling all of the operational complexities that come with smaller investments. Titanbay is a first-close LP, with fast and straightforward investment decision-making processes.

Fund selection is led by Titanbay's Investment Advisory Board, which includes Thomas Schleicher, CIO of KIRKBI, and Oliver Burgel, former Chief Executive of Barings Europe.

Investors are further supported by Titanbay's proprietary portfolio analysis tool, which helps small and medium financial institutions create intelligent, thoughtful PE investment strategies that meet their particular investment criteria. It also facilitates investors' allocation decisions by enabling them to view their portfolio in several different ways such as by strategy, sector and geography, providing information on NAV and cash flow projections and running simulations that visualise how potential new investments could affect their portfolio.

Titanbay launched to a closed network in spring this year and has already successfully completed its first investments. The company aims to curate a diversified selection of around eight to 12 new funds a year onto its platform.

Thomas Eskebaek, CEO of Titanbay said: "Our digital platform opens up strategic private equity investing to a whole new class of investors. We believe investing well in private equity requires access, diversification and discipline. We estimate that the cost to smaller institutional investors such as pension funds, trusts, charities, institutions and family offices of being effectively excluded from strategically investing in private equity runs into hundreds of billions of dollars per year. Titanbay sets out to redress this by providing our members with access to the top-performing funds and the analysis tools they require to construct a thoughtful private equity and alternatives portfolio akin to those of leading large investors. Alternatives and private equity's illiquid nature drives enhanced returns and, with a thoughtful, strategic and diversified investment approach, can help investors to create a more balanced portfolio and weather broader market turbulence effectively."

ENDS

For more information about Titanbay please visit www.titanbay.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200715005427/en/

Contacts:

Media Enquiries:

Instinctif Partners on behalf of Titanbay

Noemie de Andia

Noemie.deAndia@instinctif.com

+44 7900 456 213

Nick Corrin

Nick.Corrin@instinctif.com

+44 7794 008 712
"I'm incredibly honored to be joining the team at Ad Age," said Peres. "The brand and its journalists have always represented the gold standard, and I look forward to working with the talented editors and reporters to define what's next for Ad Age. The publication has such a rich history, and I'm excited to be a part of its future."

Peres was editor in chief of Details magazine for 15 years until the highly regarded publication was shuttered by Conde Nast in 2015. Since then, he has expanded his considerable purview with his own strategic consulting practice focused on delivering brand, marketing, content and social media strategies for emerging and established brands. Peres was also poised to helm the much-anticipated relaunch of Gawker in 2019 before plans were scuttled by Bustle Digital Group.

"Dan is a remarkable talent," said Ad Age President and Publisher Josh Golden. "His history of creative ingenuity and cultural fluency will move Ad Age in promising new directions that connect directly with what our audience is seekingknowledge and understanding with a hint of what is around the corner. Dan comes at a time when our industry needs Ad Age's news and insights more than everour robust audience and subscriber growth has proven that. I am thrilled to welcome him to the brand."

Peres comes onboard as Ad Age prepares for a slate of upcoming virtual events, including Inside American's Hottest Brands, Small Agency Conference & Awards, Women to Watch Conference & Awards and Ad Age Next: Food and Beverage. In addition to delivering critical news, Ad Age's exceptional reporting remains centered around the rapid changes taking place across verticals, including media, retail, sports, health care and travel. Ad Age's award-winning Campaign Trail series, led by Ad Age Datacenter, also continues to heat up as election season gets ever closer.

Peres began his career as an editor at W magazine and Women's Wear Daily. He is most recently the author of As Needed for Pain, a memoir published by HarperCollins in February of this year.

About Ad Age

Ad Age is a daily must-read for an influential audience of decision makers and disruptors across the advertising, marketing and media landscape.

Created in 1930 to cover a burgeoning industry with objectivity, accuracy and fairness, Ad Age is built on a bedrock of journalistic integrity. Today, Ad Age is a global media brand focused on curated creativity, data and analysis, people and culture, and innovation and forecasting. Ad Age is Important to Important People.

SOURCE Ad Age
Mary Trump on Tuesday published a book about her uncle Donald Trump, titled "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man."

AP

In an exclusive interview with ABC News on Tuesday, Mary Trump, the niece of President Donald Trump, called on him to resign in her first public appearance since publishing a scathing tell-all about the president and the Trump family.

Three years ago, Mary Trump told her uncle not to let his critics "get you down" after seeing how he was "strained by the pressures" of the presidency, she said.

"I just remember thinking, he seems tired. He seems like this is not what he signed up for, if he even knows what he signed up for," Mary Trump said, recalling the three times she visited her uncle in the Oval Office.

"I thought his response was actually more enlightening than my statement: He said, 'They won't get me,'" she continued. "And so far, looks like he's right."

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Four months into Donald Trump's presidency, his niece Mary Trump told him not to let critics "get you down."

Three years later, she has only one word of advice: "Resign."

Mary Trump made the comments in an exclusive interview with ABC News on Tuesday, her first public appearance since publishing a scathing tell-all about the president and the Trump family, titled "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man."

"Four months in, he already seemed very strained by the pressures," she told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos. "You know, he'd never been in a situation before where he wasn't entirely protected from criticism or accountability or things like that."

She said that she was sincere in her advice to the president, but not in the sense of "I want you to keep doing what you're doing and get away with it."

Recalling the three times she visited her uncle in the Oval Office, she said: "I just remember thinking, he seems tired. He seems like this is not what he signed up for, if he even knows what he signed up for.

Story continues

"And I thought his response was actually more enlightening than my statement: He said, 'They won't get me,'" she added. "And so far, looks like he's right."

But now, three years later, she would call on her uncle to step down as president, she said. She told ABC News that Trump was "perverted" by the family's "issues," causing him to become someone "utterly incapable of leading this country."

"I saw firsthand what focusing on the wrong things, elevating the wrong people can do  the collateral damage that can be created by allowing somebody to live their lives without accountability," she said. "And it is striking to see that continuing now on a much grander scale."

Mary Trump's father, Fred Trump Jr., who died in 1981, was Donald Trump's eldest brother. In her book, she said that she and her brother were cut out the will of their grandfather, who died in 1999 and whose assets were primarily divided among his surviving children.

She wrote that while she and her brother filed a lawsuit to claim part of their grandfather's assets, it prompted the rest of the Trump family "to cause us more pain and make us more desperate" by cutting off their access to medical insurance through their grandfather's company.

Mary Trump faced pushback from her other uncle, Robert Trump, Donald Trump's younger brother, who twice tried to block the publication of her book. However, a New York judge earlier this month lifted a temporary restraining order against the publisher, saying the book was in "legitimate public interest." On Monday, another judge lifted a gag order against Mary Trump, allowing her to discuss the book.

Representatives from the White House did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

A White House deputy press secretary, Sarah Matthews, previously said: "Mary Trump and her book's publisher may claim to be acting in the public interest, but this book is clearly in the author's own financial self-interest. President Trump has been in office for over three years working on behalf of the American people  why speak out now?"

Read the original article on Business Insider
Spanish police shut down a popular Marbella club after hundreds of people descended on the venue, cramming together and disregarding social distancing.

Nightclub Olivia Valere sold 350 tickets for an event they say was organised with all Covid-19 social distancing rules in place.

But things rapidly got out of hand when huge crowds of lockdown-weary revellers proved to much for the 30 private security guards hired to keep the peace and the event was shut down in the early hours of Monday morning.

Spanish police shut down a popular Marbella club after hundreds of people descended on the venue (pictured), cramming together and disregarding social distancing

Footage taken by Algerian dancer and a rapper Soolking - who performed in the venue - shows the massive crowds crammed closely together ignoring social distancing

Up to 150 young people without tickets were able to sneak in through emergency-exit doors after ticketed partygoers opened them up from the inside, Spanish online news outlet Diario Sur report.

Footage taken by Algerian dancer and a rapper Soolking - who performed in the venue - shows the massive crowds crammed closely together ignoring social distancing.

Huge crowds of lockdown-weary revellers proved to much for the 30 private security guards hired to keep the peace and the event was shut down in the early hours of Monday morning. Pictured: Footage showed the huge crowds

Up to 150 young people without tickets were able to sneak in through emergency-exit doors after ticketed partygoers opened them up from the inside. Pictured: Footage taken that night shows the massive crowds

Police intervened shortly before 3am and closed the club, reports suggest.

A proposal for sanctions was put forward by police to the Spanish government who will make the final decision on a potential fine, El Mundo reported.

The club's owner Olivia Valere said: 'After three months of confinement, youth need to go out and have fun, but there are some who are a bit wild and crazy.'

The club said some of the measures it put in place include limits on numbers and tables with hand sanitiser placed over the dance floor.

In Andalusia - home to Malaga, Granada and Seville - facemasks must be worn indoors and nightclubs can only operate at 40 per cent capacity.
Story Highlights Democrats now hold 11-point advantage in party affiliation

Republicans held a two-point edge in January

Democratic lead similar to what it was in 2018

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Since January, Americans' party preferences have shifted dramatically in the Democratic Party's direction. What had been a two-percentage-point Republican advantage in U.S. party identification and leaning has become an 11-point Democratic advantage, with more of that movement reflecting a loss in Republican identification and leaning (down eight points) than a gain in Democratic identification and leaning (up five points).

Line graph. Fifty percent of Americans identify as Democrats or are independents who lean toward the Democratic Party while 39% are Republicans or Republican leaning independents. In January, 47% were Republicans or Republican leaners and 45% were Democrats and Democratic leaners.

Currently, half of U.S. adults identify as Democrats (32%) or are independents who lean toward the Democratic Party (18%). Meanwhile, 39% identify as Republicans (26%) or are Republican leaners (13%).

These results are based on monthly averages of Gallup U.S. telephone surveys in 2020.

In January and February, the months in which the U.S. Senate tried and acquitted President Donald Trump on impeachment charges brought by the House of Representatives, slightly more Americans preferred the Republican Party to the Democratic Party.

In March, as the nation began to deal with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, Democrats gained a slight two-point advantage, which persisted in April and May.

The greatest movement occurred in June -- likely because of increased attention to racial injustice that followed the death of George Floyd while in police custody on May 25, as well as increased U.S. struggles to contain the coronavirus spread.

In June alone, there was a three-point increase in Democratic identification and leaning, and a corresponding five-point drop in Republican identification and leaning.

Double-Digit Advantages Are Uncommon

Democrats typically hold an advantage over Republicans in party affiliation, which has averaged five points since Gallup regularly began measuring party identification and leaning in 1991. Double-digit Democratic advantages have been relatively uncommon.

The party last held an advantage of 10 points or more in January 2019 (51% to 39%), when Democrats were installed as the majority party in the House of Representatives after their success in the 2018 midterm elections. Democrats and Democratic leaners also outnumbered Republicans and Republican leaners by 10 points or more in several months in 2018, including in October (51% to 41%) just before those elections.

Other times when Americans' party preferences favored Democrats by more than 10 points over Republicans were:

in December 2012, after Barack Obama was elected to a second term and the nation dealt with the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting tragedy.

throughout much of George W. Bush's second term as president, when his job approval ratings were low. In fact, in the calendar years 2006, 2007 and 2008, Democrats' average edge in party affiliation was 10 points or more. During this time, Democrats scored major victories in the 2006 and 2008 elections, which led to them having control of the White House and large majorities in both houses of Congress in 2009.

during Bill Clinton's second term, when the economy was strong -- but particularly from December 1998 to February 1999, when he was impeached by the House and acquitted by the Senate. This included 13-point Democratic advantages in December 1998 and January 1999 and an 11-point edge in February 1999.

near the end of George H.W. Bush's term, beginning in the summer of 1992 after the Democratic convention that year, through the first full month of Clinton's presidency in 1993. Clinton defeated the incumbent Bush in the November 1992 election by tying him to the struggling economy.

The Republican Party has yet to average a 10-point or better advantage in party identification or leaning for an entire month since Gallup began regularly measuring independents' political leanings in late 1991. There were multiple Gallup polls with 10-point GOP advantages in March 1991 after the U.S. victory in the Persian Gulf War, but Gallup did not measure independents' political leanings in other polls taken that month, so the data are incomplete. The largest GOP advantage Gallup has measured for a complete month was eight points in December 1994, after the major Republican victories in that year's midterm elections.

Implications

Four months before Election Day, Democrats appear to be as strong politically now as they were in 2018 when they reclaimed the majority in the House of Representatives and gained seven governorships they previously did not hold. If the strong current Democratic positioning holds through Election Day, Democrats could build off those 2018 successes to possibly win the presidency and Senate in 2020. Many GOP senators up for reelection this year were last elected in 2014, a favorable year for Republicans, and appear to be facing a much more challenging political environment than six years ago. At the same time, Trump -- with a job approval rating currently below 40% -- appears vulnerable to being denied a second term.

This year has been an eventful one, politically. Trump's impeachment acquittal and a strong economy in January and February seemed to benefit the Republican Party. The coronavirus pandemic changed things suddenly, but the public initially rallied behind its leaders. After the public became critical of Trump's handling of the situation and Floyd's killing made racial injustice a major public issue, Americans became increasingly likely to align themselves with the Democratic Party. Whether the current political environment holds or takes another unexpected turn will help determine the balance of power in 2021.

Learn more about public opinion metrics that matter for the 2020 presidential election at Gallup's 2020 Presidential Election Center.

Learn more about how the Gallup Poll Social Series works.
A Melbourne teenager who wagged school and stabbed his own grandfather 24 times before heading back to class has been sentenced to 16 years in custody for murder.

The 17 year old, who was sentenced in the Supreme Court under the pseudonym Hayden Wentworth, was 16 when he left school one morning last year, walked two kilometres to his grandfather's home with a knife and stabbed him 24 times.

Wentworth punched the man in the face when he answered the door, then chased the victim and repeatedly stabbed him to the head, neck and back as the man ran towards a neighbour's home. The grandfather's wife was out at the time.

The grandfather, who cannot be named so not to identify the teenager, died at the scene despite the efforts of neighbours and ambulance paramedics to save him.

The grandson walked back to school after the attack and arrived there at about the same time that his grandfather died.
SHELTON  The Planning and Zoning Commission has denied a request for a zone change that would have allowed the construction of 272 apartments at 710 Bridgeport Ave., a site that also houses PerkinElmer.

The commission, in its decision on Wednesday, cited concerns about the projects density, with residential and industrial uses mixed on the site, and an increased traffic burden on Bridgeport Avenue.

The proposed development would also be inconsistent with the citys Plan of Conservation and Development and, if approved, would hurt the ongoing downtown development, the commissioners said.

This may result in a variety of land use conflicts, the commissions resolution said of integrating residential apartment units with the existing industrial, office, warehouse and retail development.

There is currently an extensive existing supply of similar approved-but-not-yet constructed apartment units in the immediate vicinity, the resolution said. A substantial addition to this inventory of units and its marketing effect may adversely impact the ongoing revitalization of downtown Shelton.

The plan had called for four buildings and 272 units with 10 percent of the units  27 total  listed as affordable housing. The structure where PerkinElmer is located was to remain, with the four buildings built in the present parking area.

According to the resolution, the applicants marketing study information and data was compiled before the coronavirus crisis began.

No one knows what the potential drawbacks of occupying high-density housing might be, and the effects it may have on market demand for multi-story high-density residential apartments as proposed, stated the resolution. It has been speculated that many more people may favor alternative lower-density development formats, unit design features and building arrangements to address social distancing and other concerns. Such concerns may negatively impact anticipated market absorption rates until more is known.

The property owners were seeking a zone change for 710 Bridgeport Ave. to a Planned Development District in order to add the apartments to the location, which already has offices, light industry and warehouse space. PerkinElmer is the main tenant, and representatives from that company stated that they support the application.

We do not need an additional 300 to 400 apartments on Bridgeport Avenue, commissioner Jimmy Tickey said. If approved, the traffic study will sit on a shelf, while we all experience the very real traffic problems that are growing every day on Bridgeport Avenue.

Tickey said the commission is making the right decision to maintain the zoning as-is to allow for a future office and warehousing use. If COVID-19 has shown us anything, it is a growing need for fulfillment and distribution centers.

The city should protect remaining appropriate sites for smart economic development, he said.

The commission should think strategically and follow the lead of Stratford, Trumbull and North Haven, which have successfully secured Amazon and other fulfillment centers, which provide long-term good paying jobs for people, Tickey added.

Some residents had opposed the application, voicing concerns about density, and some city officials and developers said more apartments along Bridgeport Avenue would hurt downtown development.

Owners of The Mark, a nearby luxury apartment complex, have also voiced opposition.

Among those opposed were some members of the Board of Aldermen, most notably board President John Anglace Jr., who called on the commission to just say no to the plan.

brian.gioiele@hearstmediact.com
BEIJING - China became the first major economy to grow since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, recording an unexpectedly strong 3.2% expansion in the latest quarter after anti-virus lockdowns were lifted and factories and stores reopened.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/7/2020 (552 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FILE - In this April 13, 2020, file photo, a worker assembles gearboxes at the Kofon factory in Huanggang in central China's Hubei province. Chinas economy rebounded from a painful contraction to grow by 3.2% over a year earlier in the latest quarter as anti-virus lockdowns were lifted and factories and stores reopened. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

BEIJING - China became the first major economy to grow since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, recording an unexpectedly strong 3.2% expansion in the latest quarter after anti-virus lockdowns were lifted and factories and stores reopened.

Growth reported Thursday for the three months ending in June was a dramatic improvement over the previous quarters 6.8% contraction  Chinas worst performance since at least the mid-1960s. But it still was the weakest positive figure since China started reporting quarterly growth in the early 1990s.

We expect to see continuous improvement in the upcoming quarters, Marcella Chow of JP Morgan Asset Management said in a report.

China, where the coronavirus pandemic began in December, was the first economy to shut down and the first to start the drawn-out process of recovery in March after the ruling Communist Party declared the disease under control.

The national economy shifted from slowing down to rising in the first half of 2020, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.

Economists say China is likely to recover faster than some other major economies due to the ruling Communist Partys decision to impose the most intensive anti-disease measures in history. Those cut off most access to cities with a total of 60 million people and suspended trade and travel  steps later imitated by some Asian and European governments as the virus spread.

A delivery man transports beer on the streets of Beijing on Tuesday, July 14, 2020. China's economy rebounded from a painful contraction to grow by 3.2% over a year earlier in the latest quarter as anti-virus lockdowns were lifted and factories and stores reopened. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Manufacturing and some other industries are almost back to normal. But consumer spending is weak due to fear of possible job losses. Cinemas and some other businesses still are closed and restrictions on travel stay in place.

The pandemic is creating winners and losers, said Bill Adams of PNC Financial Services Group in a report. Manufacturing is leading Chinas recovery.

Private sector analysts say as much as 30% of the urban workforce, or as many as 130 million people, may have lost their jobs at least temporarily. They say as many as 25 million jobs might be lost for good this year.

The ruling party promised in May to spend $280 billion on meeting goals including creating 9 million new jobs. But it has avoided joining the United States and Japan in rolling out stimulus packages of $1 trillion or more due to concern about adding to already high Chinese debt.

China reported 4,634 coronavirus deaths and 83,611 confirmed cases. It has not reported any domestically transmitted cases since an outbreak in Beijing that infected more than 330 people before it faded early this month.

On Tuesday, the government eased some curbs on domestic tourism after China reported no new locally acquired infections in nine days. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism said tourist sites can allow 50% of their daily visitor capacity, up from 30%, and tours from one province to another can resume.

In the three months ending in June, factory output rose 4.4%, rebounding from the previous quarters 8.4% contraction after factories that make the worlds smartphones, shoes, toys and other goods reopened.

Retail sales shrank by 3.9%, but that was a marked improvement over the previous quarters 19% contraction while millions of families were confined to their homes and shopping malls were shut down. Online retail sales rose 14.3%, up from the previous quarters 5.9%.

June exports grew by an unexpectedly strong 0.4% but still are off 3% for the first half of the year. Imports rose 3%  including a 10.6% jump in purchases of U.S. goods despite a tariff war  but are down 3.3% so far this year.

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Forecasters warn exporters are likely to face another decline in demand as sales of masks and other medical supplies taper off and U.S. and European retailers cancel orders.

This suggests sustained pressure on employment, currently the governments foremost policy priority, said JP Morgans Chow.

A potential stumbling block is worsening relations with the United States, Chinas biggest national export market, over disputes about trade, technology, human rights and Hong Kong.

The two governments signed an agreement in January to postpone further tariff hikes in their fight over Beijings technology ambitions and trade surplus. But most increases already imposed remained in place.

___

National Bureau of Statistics (in Chinese): www.stats.gov.cn
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 13:11:53|Editor: huaxia

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Residents wade through flood water with their belongings after flash flood hit Luwu Utara, Indonesia, July 16, 2020. The flash flood death toll in Indonesia's South Sulawesi province's district of Luwu Utara rose to 24 and 69 others were missing in the natural disaster, district head Indah Putri Indriani said Thursday. (Photo by Khaizuran Mucthamir/Xinhua)

JAKARTA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The flash flood death toll in Indonesia's South Sulawesi province's district of Luwu Utara rose to 24 and 69 others were missing in the natural disaster, district head Indah Putri Indriani said Thursday.

At present there are 39 centers for the displaced people including those located in mountainous areas which can only be reached by two-wheeled vehicles to deliver logistics, Indriani was quoted by Detik.com website as saying.

"There are some points that can only be reached by two-wheeled vehicles, such as those in mountainous areas in Masamba city where the access is cut off, " she said, adding as bridges in the areas are broken down, the rescuers are trying to find alternative roads through other mountainous areas.

Separately, Head of the District Disaster Mitigation Agency Muslim Muchtar said that at present his agency is still focusing on searching for missing victims with a joint team led by the National Search and Rescue Agency.

"We are still looking for missing people. The available data show that 69 people are missing and 24 people were found dead," he said, adding that the displaced people now need fast foods for the next two to three days. Enditem
US Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School students at Civil Affairs Specialist and Psychological Operations Specialist Graduation at Fort Bragg, North Carolina December 18, 2019.

US Army/K. Kassens

The US Defense Department enacted sweeping plans to address gaps in "diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunities" for all the military branches.

"As a military, we succeed by working together, hand in hand, side by side," Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in a statement. "Diversity and inclusivity in the ranks are not merely aspirations, they are fundamental necessities to our readiness and our mission success."

The memo also stated the military was planning to implement additional training to address unconscious bias, pregnancy-based discrimination, hairstyle and grooming policies.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The US Defense Department enacted sweeping plans to address gaps in "diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunities" for all the military branches, changes that come in the wake of social unrest following the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement across the country.

"The purpose of this approach is to promote the morale, cohesion, and readiness of the force," Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in a memo dated Tuesday. "Each effort aims to identify actions the Department can take within policies, programs, and processes to improve diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunity for our service members."

"As a military, we succeed by working together, hand in hand, side by side," the memo added. "Diversity and inclusivity in the ranks are not merely aspirations, they are fundamental necessities to our readiness and our mission success."

The cultural reckoning unfolding across the US has prompted veterans to come forward to report their own abuse. West Point cadets said they felt "shunned" for reporting racism. And women veterans have described being sexually harassed in the wake of news that a 20-year-old Army specialist was killed by a fellow soldier, according to Army investigators.

Story continues

The actions in the memo are outlined in three separate initiatives  a "short-term 'sprint' for immediate actions," the creation of a diversity and inclusion board to "dive deeply into our policies," and the formation of a longer-term advisory committee "to provide an independent and enduring review and assessment that will strengthen our efforts in this area for generations to come."

The initiative, parts of which were already expected to go into effect, will ban photographs from a service member's promotion packet starting in September. US service members often submit a dossier of their personal information to a board of senior members for promotion consideration, information that includes their physical fitness scores; aptitude in their respective jobs; and a photograph of them in uniform.

"The prejudice and bias that exist within our force are not always transparent," the memo said, adding that the Defense Department will use additional surveys throughout the military to look for "harassment and discrimination, extremist groups and activities."

The memo also stated the military was planning to implement additional training to address:

Bias awareness and bystander intervention

Unconscious bias

Pregnancy-based discrimination

Hairstyle and grooming policies

Many Black women in the military have long demanded changes to hair standards that were discriminatory  braids and ponytails were banned in the US Navy until 2018 and Black women were not allowed to wear their natural hair.

The changes come as the military explores other avenues to curb symbols that evoke racial tension. The Defense Department has enacted several panels to investigate the effects of Confederate symbols, such as the Confederate flag and the names of US Army bases, within the military. Both the US Navy and the Marine Corps have issued directives to ban the Confederate flag on all of its installations.

House lawmakers are also attempting to allocate $1 million in a defense spending bill to rename US Army bases that honor Confederate leaders during the Civil War. The total $695 billion bill, one of a dozen scheduled to be considered by House Appropriations subcommittees, includes provisions that would allocate the funds "for expenses for the renaming of Army installations, facilities, roads, and streets named after confederate leaders and officers."

Read the original article on Business Insider
"This development will serve as a striking new addition to Chicago's Michigan Avenue. We are extremely proud that financing has successfully crossed the finish line despite the pandemic," said Andy Gloor, CEO of Sterling Bay . "Our ability to originate multiple loans from industry-leading lenders  as well as from a diverse group of individual investors  at a time when capital is at a premium is a testament to our team's excellent track record for success in commercial property development."

As an award-winning, well-capitalized company with a growing portfolio of commercial real estate projects in Chicago and various emerging markets across the country, Sterling Bay has assembled a best-in-class team to lead development at 300 North Michigan Avenue. Alongside Sterling Bay's development partner Magellan, Chicago-based general contractor Linn-Mathes will oversee the construction process slated to begin in August, ensuring compliance with the City of Chicago's mandates for equitable contractor engagement, and local design firm bKL Architecture will serve as lead architect.

"Magellan has a commitment not only to high-quality construction and innovative design, but also to enriching the communities in which we build. We are excited about this project and to be partnering with Sterling Bay; it will be a great fit for the Chicago market," said Brian Gordon, Executive Vice President of Magellan Development Group.

Sterling Bay's capital structure includes senior-secured financing from Bank OZK, a bold regional bank that valued the project's long-term potential from its onset, as well as mezzanine financing from Pearlmark Real Estate and Monroe Capital, and a crowd-sourced equity component fundraised through CrowdStreet.

"Bank OZK is delighted to provide financing for 300 North Michigan Avenue, a state-of-the-art mixed-use development in downtown Chicago. Sterling Bay's development embodies the high standards Bank OZK consistently seeks in its project financings  marquee real estate, strong market fundamentals, and top-tier sponsorship," stated Ako Dickson, Executive Vice President of Originations at Bank OZK's Real Estate Specialties Group. "Andy Gloor, David Carlins and their respective teams at Sterling Bay and Magellan are creating a better place to live, work and play in their hometown. We appreciate the opportunity to participate in this project and look forward to a very successful execution."

"Securing a construction loan of any dollar amount in today's business climate is a feat, but to secure financing of this magnitude  especially for a property that includes significant involvement of a hotel operator  is almost unheard of," said Stephen Quazzo, CEO of Pearlmark. "We are confident in Sterling Bay and Magellan's reputations as industry innovators and Pearlmark, along with Monroe, look forward to partnering with their team and Bank OZK to bring this exciting project to life."

"Sterling Bay is one of the more innovative and inspiring developers on the scene today, not just in Chicago but across the country. 300 North Michigan Avenue was an exciting offering for the CrowdStreet Marketplace as our investors are responding well to national sponsors like Sterling Bay, and we certainly look forward to bringing more of their offerings to our fast-growing investor base," said Tore Steen, CEO of Crowdstreet.

Sterling Bay's 300 North Michigan Avenue presents an opportunity for the City of Chicago to continue developing world-class properties that deliver important economic opportunities to the community. The development of 300

North Michigan Avenue will create over 500 on-site construction jobs over the course of development, approximately 70+ permanent on-site jobs in residential and hotel operations once complete, and include a $3.9M payment by Sterling Bay into Chicago's Neighborhood Opportunity Fund  a fund used by the City to support small businesses in underserved neighborhoods on the South and West sides.

ABOUT STERLING BAY

Sterling Bay is a Chicago-based real estate investment and development company with expertise spanning all aspects of real estate ownership. Known for creating world-class urban campuses for companies such as Google, McDonald's, WPP, Pinterest, Dyson and Tyson Foods. Sterling Bay is consistently recognized for award-winning projects that transform space, enhance communities and strengthen a company's culture and brand. Sterling Bay's team of more than 200 professionals is responsible for a portfolio exceeding $5 billion, and a development pipeline of more than $9 billion. For more information, visit www.sterlingbay.com.

SOURCE Sterling Bay

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The coronavirus-induced pandemic has changed the rules for a lot of things and restrictions on gathering of large crowds is one of them. However, people are still failing to grasp the concept of staying home and maintaining distance from others which is landing them into massive trouble.

31 people were arrested for partying at a nightclub in Paschim Vihar on the night of July 14, reported Times of India. Police officials discovered that the club was hosting the party as well as serving hookah and liquor which is banned during the pandemic.





TOI

Also read: Consequences Of Defying Lockdown - As Many As 5,146 People Held And 1,018 Vehicles Seized



The club named 'Playgue' was being run under the facade of a restaurant with a takeaway facility. Police officials were tipped-off about the social gathering after several cars were parked outside the venue. When the cops reached the club, they found people dancing, and tables were occupied by guests who were smoking and drinking.



Four quarters and seven bottles of liquor were seized by the authorities along with 77 beer bottles and eight hookas.

We have sealed the club and will conduct a Covid-19 test on all the visitors. If any of them are found positive, they will be booked for additional violations under various sections of IPC, said a police officer.

TOI

Also read: Romania Collects Lockdown Violation Fines Worth 69 Mn Equal To Country's Corporate Tax For Feb



The owners of the club - Lavish Khurana and his brother, Kashish Khuran - were also present at the party. They have been booked under IPC Section 188 (violation of government order) and various other sections of Excise Act, Epidemic Diseases Act, Disaster Management Act and Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act. The club also does not have a license to serve liquor.

TOI

During interrogation, it was discovered that the club had formed a WhatsApp group of customers who had visited earlier and a message was sent on Monday that the club would be open for select people. The music was played at a low volume to avoid attracting any attention from the neighbourhood. However, that did not work out since the plan got busted.

Also read: Gujarat Woman Cop Forced To Quit After Stopping Minister's Son For Breaking Lockdown Rule


The lead investigator in the case of missing Connecticut mom Jennifer Dulos (pictured) has said he is confident she will be found more than a year after she disappeared

The lead investigator in the case of missing Connecticut mom Jennifer Dulos says he is confident she will be found more than a year after she disappeared.

Sergeant Kenneth Ventresca of the Connecticut State Police gave his first major TV interview about the case in a Dateline special airing next Monday.

In a preview for the episode, Ventresca confirmed that police are still 'actively' investigating Jennifer's disappearance and said: 'We still have a lot of stuff we are doing and I'm confident we are gonna find her.'

Jennifer, 50, is presumed dead after she vanished on the morning of May 24, 2019, after dropping her five children off at school.

Police believe that Jennifer's husband Fotis Dulos - with whom she was embroiled in a bitter divorce and custody battle - attacked her in the garage of her rented home in New Canaan before he allegedly discarded her body with the help of his then-girlfriend Michelle Troconis.

While police have yet to find Jennifer's remains, they did discover pools of blood in her garage which someone had attempted to mop up and clean. They also found traces of her blood in her car - which was later found abandoned in a parking lot.

Fotis denied any involvement in Jennifer's disappearance up until he committed suicide in January while awaiting trial on murder charges.

Connecticut State Police Sergeant Kenneth Ventresca (pictured) gave his first major TV interview about the case in a Dateline special airing next Monday. In a preview for the episode, Ventresca confirmed that police are still 'actively' investigating Jennifer's disappearance and said: 'We still have a lot of stuff we are doing and I'm confident we are gonna find her'

Police alleged that Jennifer's husband Fotis Dulos (pictured) attacked her in the garage of her rented home in New Canaan before he allegedly discarded her body. Fotis denied any involvement in Jennifer's disappearance up until he died by suicide in January

Fotis' death came as a devastating blow to Jennifer's relatives who are still awaiting answers on what happened to her and the location of her body - but Ventresca says he still believes the truth will come out.

'We're going to search everything and anything,' the sergeant told Dateline. 'And if someone calls us and says: "Hey I think I might have found photos on my property last year, can you guys come take a look?" - sure, we'll come out, absolutely.'

Connecticut Chief State's Attorney Richard Colangelo also spoke with Dateline's Dennis Murphy, who asked the prosecutor: 'Where do you think she is?'

Colangelo replied: 'You know, I have theories. I have ideas. There's a lotta property up there that Mr. [Fotis] Dulos owns, you know, in Farmington, Avon area.'

Last month authorities conducted a second search at an empty mansion in Avon that Fotis had been waiting to tear down.

The property - which was not owned by Fotis but his construction group had a contract to demolish it after it was damaged by flooding - was initially searched weeks after Jennifer's disappearance last summer.

For the second search - which police said was prompted by a 'media generated theory - investigators brought in cadaver dogs and asked a septic tank company to come in and drain a 2,000-gallon, 16-foot-deep tank on the property.

The investigators said they didn't find anything, but the property's current owner claimed they promised to return at a later date.

Asked where he thinks Jennifer is, Connecticut Chief State's Attorney Richard Colangelo (pictured) told Dateline: 'You know, I have theories. I have ideas. There's a lotta property up there that Mr. [Fotis] Dulos owns, you know, in Farmington, Avon area'

Last month authorities conducted a second search at an empty mansion in Avon (pictured) that Fotis' construction group had been waiting to tear down. The investigators said they didn't find anything but promised to return at a later date

Jennifer and Fotis were embroiled in a bitter divorce and legal battle over the custody of their children (pictured with Jennifer) at the time of her disappearance

About a week after that police search, a group of people were seen removing items from Fotis' home in Farmington.

Neighbors told DailyMail.com they believed one of the women present at that time was Fotis' ex-girlfriend Troconis, who is out on bail while awaiting trial on charges of conspiracy to commit murder.

Troconis was implicated in the case after police said surveillance video from hours after Jennifer disappeared showed her and Fotis dumping trash bags at various locations in Connecticut which were later found to contain traces of the mother's blood.

Fotis' former girlfriend Michelle Troconis (pictured) was charged with conspiracy to commit murder in Jennifer's disappearance. Troconis spoke out in May and insisted she did not know where Jennifer was

Detectives also found traces of Jennifer's blood in her car and another vehicle Fotis had borrowed from a friend the same day she vanished.

Troconis initially gave her boyfriend an alibi and said they had been together all morning.

She then flipped her story in a second interview with police and, according to arrest affidavits, said he'd given her an 'alibi script'.

Troconis - who has pleaded not guilty and maintained her innocence - broke her silence on the case in May and said she regretted trusting Fotis.

The dual American and Venezuelan citizen released an audio statement in Spanish, in which she decried the cruel things people have said about her and expressed frustration at not being able to tell her side of the story.

'Whether or not Fotis Dulos was capable of doing the things the police and prosecutors accused him of doing, I do not know,' she said.

'But based on what I have learned in the last year, I think it was a mistake to have trusted him.'

A group of people were seen removing items from Fotis' home in Farmington on June 18. Neighbors told DailyMail.com they believed one of the women present at that time was Troconis, who is out on bail while awaiting trial

Also in May, police released new details about Fotis' 'meticulously planned' suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in a report which included the woman he was dating at the time - Anna Curry.

Curry had been living at the home where Fotis gassed himself by sitting inside his running SUV with the garage door closed on January 28. He died two days later.

The 42-year-old wealth manager told police that she was supposed to drive Fotis to court in Stamford for his emergency bail hearing that morning, but he'd asked her to go to the bank and make a withdrawal for him beforehand.

While she was out, Fotis called her at 10.59am and sounded out of breath as he told her that he was going to drive himself to court so he wouldn't be late, according to the report.

Fotis was dating and living with Anna Curry (pictured) at the time of his suicide. Curry told police that Fotis asked her to go to the bank and withdraw money the day he gassed himself with carbon monoxide

Curry said that she returned to the house at around 11.15am, she found computers inside that Fotis had told her were in his car, so she assumed he had forgotten them in his rush to leave.

She told police she never checked the garage - where officers found Fotis minutes later unresponsive inside his car.

As she was driving to the court to meet Fotis, one of his attorneys, Kevin Smith, called her to ask where he was and said his GPS showed he was still at home.

The report quotes an officer as saying: 'Anna said that, at that moment, she knew that Fotis must have done something to harm himself.'

Curry said she told Smith to call 911 and get an ambulance. She said he refused to do so because he did not want to cause more problems for Fotis in case he'd removed the court-mandated GPS.

The report says Curry told Smith: 'Fotis wouldn't have done that and asked him again to call for an ambulance,' but he still said no.

Smith denied Curry's allegations to NBC4 after the report was released.

'The idea that I told anyone not to call 911 because I didn't want to cause more problems for Fotis if he had removed the GPS device is absurd on its face,' he said.

Smith said Fotis' legal team was expecting the judge to revoke his $6million bond and have him taken into custody.

'It never occurred to me that Fotis might have cut off his GPS bracelet, and I had no indication that he was not going to meet me at court,' Smith said.

'My only worry was that he was going to get a speeding ticket trying not to be late to court, as I had cautioned him when we last spoke.'

Police are seen at Fotis' home after he was found unconscious inside his garage on January 28

Police are seen performing CPR on Fotis after they found him slumped inside his running car in his garage. Fotis died at a hospital two days later on January 30

Smith said at the time that he was talking to Curry on the phone he was with State's Attorney Richard Colangelo, and that Colangelo told him police were on their way to Fotis' house.

'Anna called back and said she couldn't get Fotis to answer his phone, and she asked me should we call 911, I told her probation and PD were already on the way and asked her if she thought he'd harmed himself,' Smith explained.

'She said no, asked again if we should call 911, I reiterated that [law enforcement] was already on the way and would coordinate with medical if they were needed but that she should call 911 if she wanted or had some reason to believe Fotis had harmed himself, but she told me she did not and I hung up.'

Smith added: 'Fotis's death was tragic and devastated me. I would have done anything possible to save his life.'

He and other members of Fotis' legal team insisted that they had no idea he was planning to take his own life.

Curry told police that she asked Fotis' lawyer Kevin Smith (right) to call 911 minutes before he was found unresponsive in his garage, but the attorney refused. Smith denied Curry's claims

When asked why she didn't call 911 herself, Curry told police that she didn't think of it at the time and was focused on getting to the house to check on him, the report states.

She arrived back at the house to find that law enforcement had already forced their way in and discovered Fotis slumped in the front seat of his Chevy Suburban, which had filled the garage with a haze of exhaust.

He was not breathing and did not have a pulse as officers pulled him out of the vehicle and began administering CPR.

An officer at the scene described hearing glass breaking and Curry yelling for someone to call 911 while medical personnel were already on the way.

While officers treated Fotis, Curry called people close to him to tell them what happened.

Police executed search warrants the following day and found that the carbon monoxide detector inside the house had been taken down.

Photos of Fotis and his five children, a bottle of Tylenol PM and electrical tape were found inside the suburban, along with a note signed by him.

'If you are reading this I am no more,' Fotis wrote. He said that he did not want to spend 'an hour more in jail for something I had NOTHING to do with enough is enough'.

At the end of the letter, Fotis wrote: 'Above all Anna Curry, I am sorry for letting you down and not continuing the fight.'

Fotis died at a hospital in the Bronx on January 30, two days after his suicide attempt.

A judge agreed dropped the charges against Fotis in light of his death.
A black man has claimed he was racially profiled by Liverpool police who put him in handcuffs during a stop-and-search as he helped his cousin park his car.

Video which was uploaded to social media shows Jared Yankiah, 24, being handcuffed and held against a wall by officers on July 1.

Mr Yankiah said he had been in Anfield for only a few minutes when he was approached by the officers and has been left 'shaken' by the encounter.

An investigation into the incident is now ongoing after Mr Yankiah and his father complained to Merseyside Police and Mayor Joe Anderson, who told the Police and Crime Commissioner Jane Kennedy about the incident.

Mr Yankiah believes he was stopped because of racial profiling, saying: 'This kind of thing has happened to me multiple times, but I've never got it filmed before. I've got dreadlocks and I'm dark skinned - a black man in a predominantly white area.'

A spokesman for Merseyside Police told MailOnline that the complaint is being investigated and that it would be 'inappropriate' to comment further.

MailOnline has approached the IOPC police watchdog for comment.

Video shows Jared Yankiah, 24, being handcuffed and held against a wall by officers in Anfield on July 1. Mr Yankiah said he had been in Anfield for only a few minutes when he was approached by the officers, and has been left 'shaken' by the encounter

What is a Section 1 'stop-and-search' order? And why is it controversial? 'Stop-and-search' is a police power to stop, question and search a person who is suspected of doing something illegal, including carrying drugs. Section 1(2)(a) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 provides police officers with the power to stop and search any person, vehicle, or anything which is in or on a vehicle, for stolen or prohibited articles, points and blades, or fireworks. Prohibited articles include offensive weapons and articles with which a person is going equipped to steal or cause criminal damage. Section 1(2)(b) gives the accompanying power to detain individuals and vehicles for the purpose of conducting a search. Section 1(3) specifies that the power only applies where the officer has reasonable grounds to suspect that the relevant article will be found. In 2017-18 there were 3 stop and searches for every 1,000 white people, compared with 29 stop and searches for every 1,000 black people. Advertisement

Mr Yankiah said: 'I'd been in Anfield no more than a few minutes and was helping my cousin to reverse. I was on the pavement and he was reversing.

'A black car pulled up behind and waited for him to reverse. When he had parked, the car passed and stopped.

'An officer got out and asked me what I was up to in this area. He came close to my face and wasn't wearing masks or gloves.

'He asked me what am I up to and I said what I was up to, helping my cousin reverse a car. He said why are you in this area - I said I was helping with the car.

'The other officer got out the car, telling me to stop where I was.

'They then handcuffed me but I was able to pass my phone to my cousin and told him to film it as they were doing it.'

He claims he was searched under Section 1, a regulation under the Police and Criminal Evidence (PACE) Act which gives police powers to stop and search people if they have reasonable grounds they have or are in the process of carrying out offences including carrying illegal drugs, a weapon, stolen property or something which could be used to commit a crime.

When carrying out a stop and search, officers are required to document the search, including stating the grounds for the search - information which should then also be provided in written form to the person who has been stopped.

Mr Yankiah said officers told him they had received a 'public nuisance call' and has claimed that he was provided with no documentation.

But when his father Charles Yankiah, who works in the public sector in Liverpool, contacted Merseyside Police to complain about the incident, he says he was told there was no record of such a call in the area at that time.

Charles told of his pain on watching the video, saying he was 'very upset' by the incident and it had brought 'tears to my eyes'.

He added: 'I'm just fed up of it really. I don't say it much. But, I have a younger son who will soon be going to university in the city, and if it happens to his older brother it could also happen to him as he is also black.

Mr Yankiah said he believes he was stopped because of racial profiling: 'I've got dreadlocks and I'm dark skinned - a black man in a predominantly white area'

'I worry about my family - and I'm a taxpayer - it's angered me. We're residents of Merseyside, we're through and through Liverpudlians and this is just really hurtful.'

Mr Yankiah and his father have lodged a complaint with Merseyside Police and are in the process of receiving legal advice.

Mr Yankiah said officers told him they had received a 'public nuisance call' and has claimed that he was provided with no documentation. But when his father Charles Yankiah, who works in the public sector in Liverpool, contacted Merseyside Police to complain about the incident, he says he was told there was no record of such a call in the area at that time

Charles also contacted Mayor Anderson, who told the ECHO: 'I received a complaint to me from Jared's dad Charles and I asked to see the video footage.

'My advice was to take legal advice and seek access to body-cam footage if there is any. I am concerned at what I was told about events and that Jared was questioned about what he was doing in the area.

'I contacted the Police and Crime Commissioner to let her know my concerns and there is now an inquiry underway. I hope it is treated quickly.'

A spokesman for Merseyside Police said: 'We can confirm we have received a complaint in relation to an incident in Twyford Street, Anfield on 1 July this year.

'The complaint is currently being investigated and as such it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.'

Police and Crime Commissioner Jane Kennedy told MailOnline: 'Merseyside Police had already received a formal complaint about the police actions and the Professional Standards Department of the force was undertaking an investigation.

'I advised Mayor Anderson of this and the investigation is being progressed. The first person who will be notified of the outcome will be the complainant.

'Until the investigation has concluded it would be improper for me to comment on the incident. I have confidence in the internal investigation process and the quality of the staff in that department. It is important to let that process run its course.

'If complainants are dissatisfied with the outcome then they will be advised how they can take the matter further.

'For those of us who hold public office and carry the responsibility of holding the Chief Constable to account it is wise to wait until such an incident has been thoroughly investigated before passing comment.'
TORRINGTON  In the mid-1800s, Torrington was home to a craftsman who put the United States on the map as a producer of guitars.

The shop, owned by James Ashborn, was on Newfield Road. Between 1848 and 1864, Ashborn made thousands of guitars that were sold to musicians around the country, according to musician and potter Guy Wolff of Bantam and Torrington Historical Society Director Mark McEachern.

Ashborn brought the guitar into the 19th century, Wolff said. Its important to Torrington because when you get into the high strata of instruments, for collectors, the Ashborn is one thats very well known. People come to Torrington from around the country, wanting to know where the shop was.

The historical society this week marked the former home of Ashborns guitar shop with a detailed sign that honors the makers craft and the citys contribution to the music industry.

The sign has a QR codethat visitors can scan with their cellphones and be directed to the historical societys website, where they can hear Wolff play one of the few remaining Ashborns in the U.S. and learn more about its history.

The narrative on the sign was written by David Gansz, who wrote about Ashborn in the book Inventing the American Guitar: The Pre-Civil War Innovations of C.F. Martin and his Contemporaries. Illustrations were provided by David Oakes, Peter Szego, co-editor of Inventing the American Guitar, and the Torrington Historical Society.

McEachern credited Wolff with jump-starting the effort to recognize Ashborn and install the sign.

Guy told me the story about people not being able to find the location of the factory, he said. I didnt even know anything about Ashborn until about 15 years ago. It came to my attention when someone acquired an Ashborn guitar and wanted to give it to the museum. We have two of them. One is very plain, and the other has more detail and veneer work. Theyre beautiful.

Wolff also had an Ashborn and didnt know it. He was working with a family estate, finding homes for a collection of instruments, and happened upon the societys Ashborn during a visit to the museum. I saw the case (like the one he had) and said, I have one of those, Wolff recalled.

I said, Thats an Ashborn. It was made here in Torrington, McEachern said.

Wolff also has a recreation of an Ashborn banjo made by Oakes, of Woodbury, which he calls the finest banjo he has on loan. He said there are only 11 remaining Ashborn banjos left in the world.

This thing is just incredible, Wolff said, after playing a short song on the banjo. Ashborn was crazy ahead of his time.

He was an amazing figure in guitar history, right here in Torrington, McEachern said. Thats why we put the sign up.

Ashborns story

Ashborn, born in England in 1816, came to the United States as a young man and worked for Firth, Pond and Hall, an instrument company. In 1842, he comes to Litchfield, because the companys buying flutes from a company in a section of Litchfield known as Fluteville, Wolff said. That company was owned by Asa Hopkins, and thousands of instruments were made in this factory.

Firth, Pond and Hall wanted to start a guitar factory, so in 1852, Ashborn ends up moving to Torrington, Wolff said. He makes 12,000 guitars during his time in Torrington, basically triple the number of guitars that Martin made, which was the big company at the time. Hes the guy who popularized the guitar for America.

The story doesnt end there. One of Flutevilles early neighbors was clockmaker Seth Thomas, who had taken the idea to make a clock with precise parts that can be interchangeable, Wolff said. So Ashborns guitars followed that idea, and every single one of his guitars are exactly the same in size ... different materials, but in specific sections with only a few pieces of wood. It was unheard of to put veneers on the neck of a low-end guitar.

Wolffs Ashborn is one of the makers simpler models, and probably sold for about $2. Wolff estimated that a high end Ashborn sold for about $25.

According to McEacherns research, Ashborn also was an inventor. He patented a moveable guitar capo (1850) and improved friction tuning pegs (1852) for banjo and guitar. He also was Americas first known manufacturer of guitar strings. He machined his own guitar tuners from brass produced at the nearby Wolcottville Brass Co., co-owned by John Hungerford, the father of his business partner, Austin Hungerford. Ashborns fanciest guitars featured backs and necks veneered with exotic Brazilian rosewood.

McEachern said Ashborn used the newly completed Naugatuck Railroad to ship his guitars, banjos and strings in wholesale batches from Wolcottville  the principal village in Torrington  to select retailers in New York City beginning in 1849. His mass production techniques ensured that his guitars sold for half the price of other makers, and contributed greatly to the instruments popularity.

In 1863, Ashborn was elected to the Connecticut legislature, according to McEachern, and in 1866 sold his factory building to the newly incorporated Excelsior Needle Co., which eventually would become an industrial giant in Torrington. Ashborn continued to make guitars out of his Torrington home until his death in 1876.

A group effort

Honoring such a craftsman was a group effort, McEachern said. The donors that helped financially were Guy Wolff, Barron Financial, Jim Thibault and J. Fenton Williams, he said. We were thrilled to put that sign up. We have a tradition of taking history out of our archives and putting them out into the community, and we have granite markers around town, and the audio walking tour; we have signs in Coe Memorial Park, to highlight the history of the park and the Coe Family. So this sign is another effort to get history out there, where people can see it.

Ashborn was the largest guitar maker in the country before the Civil War, McEachern said. He was the first to mass produce guitars, but he didnt sacrifice quality, and they stood the test of time.

McEachern hopes to hold a musical performance at the historical society, featuring music on the Ashborn instruments. We talked about it last year and shelved it for now, but Id like to make that happen, he said.

For more information, go to www.torringtonhistoricalsociety.org or call 860-482-8260. The society is holding a number of outdoor events, starting July 31 with Margaret Gibson, Connecticut Poet Laureate.
Syracuse, N.Y.  New York state has gone from being the nations coronavirus epicenter to having among the lowest infection rates in the country.

And the state wants to keep it that way. So, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has issued an order requiring anyone traveling to New York from states with high coronavirus infection rates to self-quarantine for 14 days.

But what exactly is a traveler required to do?

How does it work?

There are a lot of questions out there and weve got answers:

What states are on the list of restricted states?

There are 22 states on the list, which is based on a seven-day rolling average of positive tests in excess of 10%, or the number of positive cases exceeding 10 per 100,000 residents:

Alabama

Arkansas

Arizona

California

Florida

Georgia

Iowa

Idaho

Kansas

Louisiana

Minnesota

Mississippi

New Mexico

North Carolina

Nevada

Ohio

Oklahoma

South Carolina

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Wisconsin

The list changes as states improve or get worse. You can check the list here.

When does the 14-day clock start?

The 14-day quarantine starts from the last day a person traveled within one of the designated states.

What if I just passed through a designated state?

The quarantine requirement does not apply to anyone who has passed through a designated state for less than 24 hours, such as stopping at rest stops, or layovers for air travel, bus travel or train travel.

Why 14 days?

Thats how long after exposure it can take to contract Covid-19, the sometimes-deadly respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

If I test negative for the coronavirus before the 14 days is up, can I be released from the quarantine?

No, because it can take up to 14 days to develop Covid-19 after exposure to the virus.

What if I plan to be in New York for less than 14 days?

You may leave the state prior to the end of the 14-day quarantine period. But to protect the public wherever you are, New York recommends that you complete the remainder of the quarantine period in your home upon return to a designated state.

What does self-quarantine mean?

The individual must not go out in public or otherwise leave the home where they are staying during the 14 days.

What about for doctor appointments?

You can leave the home, to the extent necessary, for any health care procedure or appointment scheduled in New York that cannot be postponed.

What about others living in the same household?

Others living in the home are not required to quarantine, but the individual or individuals who are quarantining should have separate quarters with a separate bathroom. Food must be delivered to the individuals quarters.

What if the person quarantining develops symptoms of Covid-19?

As soon as the person develops a fever or other symptoms, that person must quarantine in a separate room with a separate door. And since an exposed person might become ill while sleeping, they must sleep in a separate bedroom from household members.

How is the quarantine being enforced?

Its pretty much based on the honor system. However, the state Department of Health and the local health departments reserve the right to issue a formal quarantine order, if needed. And anyone who violates such an order may be subject to a civil fine of up to $10,000 or imprisonment up to 15 days.

Is there a form I need to fill out?

Travelers arriving in New York from any of the designated states must fill out a form detailing their contact information, where they came from and where theyre going. Those who fail to complete the form are subject to a $2,000 fine.

Cuomo has sent enforcement teams to airports around the state to greet passengers arriving from designated states and to ask for proof they have completed the form, which is being distributed by airlines. Travelers coming to New York from designated states through other means, such as trains, buses and cars, must fill out the form online.

Will police be stopping vehicles with out-of-state license plates?

No, Cuomos order does not direct police to stop people solely due to an out-of-state license plate.

Can I report someone who is violating the quarantine?

Yes. The state has set up a hotline, 833-789-0470, and has an online complaint form. The state says people may also file a complaint with their local department of health.

Rick Moriarty covers business news and consumer issues. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact him anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148
Long before Sachin Pilot, there was his equally charming father, Rajesh Pilot. In 1997, Pilot senior decided to take on octogenarian Sitaram Kesri for the Congress presidents post to save the party. Its a battle he knew he could not win as Kesri had managed the electoral college. But Rajesh Pilot was undeterred. He lost the election but stayed on in the Congress. If Rajesh Pilots ambitions were couched in lofty principles, son Sachin Pilots battle is a fairly open power struggle between him and Ashok Gehlot for the chief minister (CM)s kursi (chair) in Rajasthan.

Thats not the only difference between father and son. Long before Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi spoke in public of his chaiwallah (tea seller) past, Rajesh would speak in private about his doodhwallah (milk seller) credentials. He told us how he started life selling milk on a bicycle in Lutyens Delhi. He was a self-made man, a squadron leader in the Indian Air Force who strayed into politics in 1980, and then climbed his way slowly to a ministerial position in Rajiv Gandhis government in 1985.

By contrast, Sachin has had a relatively cushy landing than many who have had to wait decades for any recognition. Wharton-educated, he was suddenly pushed into politics after his fathers tragic death in a car accident. A Member of Parliament (MP) at 26, a Union minister at 31, a state Congress president at 36 and a deputy CM at 40, his has been a remarkably fast-track ascent in politics. He has been part of the privileged elite in the Congress, a cosy club of dynasts who have inherited a political legacy almost as if by birthright, benefitting from their close proximity to the Gandhi family. As Rahul Gandhi candidly admitted when Jyotiraditya Scindia quit the party, He is the only one who can walk into my house at any time... he was in college with me.

And yet, while Sachin, too, has been an undoubted beneficiary of this entitlement raj, he is also a good example of what a dynast should do to shake off the silver spoon tag. In the complex caste dynamics of Rajasthan, Sachin could have easily been stereotyped as a Gujjar leader like his father was, with little cross-caste support. But he has taken risks, contesting from a non-Gujjar territory in Ajmer and winning in 2009. After losing the seat in 2014, he took up an even bigger risk: Abandoning the comfort zone of Lutyens Delhi to become the Rajasthan Congress chief, a move that suggested a willingness to take the road less travelled. He may not have Gehlots grassroots connect, but as a charismatic young politician who could bridge the divide between the Khan market set and the rural heartland of a Dausa, Sachin is perhaps an even greater asset to a struggling Opposition than his father. In a party with very few popular figures who can connect with a new India, media-savvy Sachin has struck a chord.

Remember Sachin and Rajesh Pilot belong to very different eras in Indian politics. Rajesh cut his political teeth in the age of Congress dominance while his son is now doing his politics in the age of a rampant Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) when the Congress has been seriously downsized. Which is why Sachins possible exit from the party is seen as another wake-up call for a fossilised organisation.

A pugnacious Rajesh was unafraid in taking on the powerful like the VVIP godman Chandraswami, who he jailed. He even took on the BJP after the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992 at a time when other members in the PV Narasimha Rao government were willing to compromise. By contrast, while Sachin has maintained that he has no secret deal with the BJP, the possibility of him being attracted by the idea of flirting with the BJP to topple the Gehlot government cant be ruled out. Sachin versus Gehlot is, after all, a collision of both generation and culture: The 42-year-old urbane sophisticate versus the 69-year-old rustic son of the soil.

Interestingly, both Gehlot and Rajesh were beneficiaries of a generational change in the Congress effected by Rajiv Gandhi in the 1980s. The then PM consciously sought out talented young leaders like a Gehlot in Rajasthan, a Digvijaya Singh in Madhya Pradesh, an Ahmed Patel in Gujarat, all of them then in their 30s and gave them the space to build successful political careers. Rajiv himself had become PM at 40 suggesting a marked demographic shift in Indias politics. His team was packed with dynamic young ministers such as Pilot senior, P Chidambaram and Arif Mohammed Khan. In his initial years as Congress president, Rahul Gandhi, too, tried to give the Congress a more youthful flavour but couldnt quite make it work. Sachin was, in a sense, the last survivor, and now, he too is gone  further evidence that the old guard has reasserted itself.

But if there is one thing that the father and son have in common, it is their fierce ambition and a rebellious, if slightly impetuous, streak: Neither succumbed to the Congress sycophantic culture . Which is why just as Rajesh kept bouncing back from every setback, expect Sachin not to give up so easily. Oh yes, there is another unifying factor: The media-friendly Rajesh Pilot would host an annual kisan lunch for journalists in the capital, a tradition which the son has faithfully followed right down to serving delicious makki di roti and sarson da saag!

Post-script: Since we started the column with Sitaram Kesri, lets end with him too. When Rajesh Pilot took on Kesri, I asked the veteran Congressman how he viewed the 52-year-old Pilots challenge: Garam khoon hai, theek ho jayega! was the ever-smiling response. Guess the hot-blooded instinct for a joust runs in the family!

Rajdeep Sardesai is a senior journalist and author

The views expressed are personal

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Technavio has been monitoring the network security firewall market and it is poised to grow by 2.17 bn during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of about 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/20200716005483/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Network Security Firewall 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. Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., Cisco Systems Inc., Dell Technologies Inc., Fortinet Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., Huawei Investment Holding Co. Ltd., International Business Machines Corp., Juniper Networks Inc., Palo Alto Networks Inc., and SAP SE 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.

Next-generation network security solutions have been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. However, shortage of skilled workforce will challenge the market growth.

Network Security Firewall Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Network Security Firewall Market is segmented as below:

Deployment On-premises Cloud-based

Geographic Landscape APAC Europe MEA North America 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=IRTNTR40238

Network Security Firewall 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 network security firewall market report covers the following areas:

Network Security Firewall Market size

Network Security Firewall Market trends

Network Security Firewall Market industry analysis

This study identifies the growing demand for SMS Firewalls as one of the prime reasons driving the network security firewall market growth during the next few years.

Network Security Firewall Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the network security firewall market, including some of the vendors such as Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., Cisco Systems Inc., Dell Technologies Inc., Fortinet Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., Huawei Investment Holding Co. Ltd., International Business Machines Corp., Juniper Networks Inc., Palo Alto Networks Inc., and SAP SE. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the network security firewall market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Network Security Firewall Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist network security firewall market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the network security firewall market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the network security firewall market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of network security firewall 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

Market segmentation analysis

Value chain analysis

PART 04: MARKET SIZING

Market definition

Market sizing 2019

Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market Outlook

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 DEPLOYMENT

Market segmentation by deployment

Comparison by deployment

On-premises Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Cloud-based Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by deployment

PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE

PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024

APAC 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

PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK

PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES

Market drivers

Market challenges

PART 11: MARKET TRENDS

Emergence of product launches

Strategic partnerships and acquisitions among vendors

Growing demand for SMS firewalls

PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Overview

Landscape disruption

Competitive scenario

PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.

Cisco Systems, Inc.

Dell Technologies Inc.

Fortinet Inc.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.

Huawei Investment Holding Co. Ltd.

International Business Machines Corp.

Juniper Networks Inc.

Palo Alto Networks Inc.

SAP SE

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.

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Germany has introduced tougher, more targeted lockdown measures to contain local coronavirus outbreaks and ward off the threat of a second wave.

The new rules allow for a ban on travel 'in and out of the affected areas' to limit the spread, according to an agreement adopted by federal and local authorities.

It comes as countries across the world are reimposing curbs on public life in response to a surge in new infections.

Germany, which has been less affected by the pandemic than many of its neighbours, aims to respond to new clusters with hyper-local lockdowns and rapid contact tracing and testing - rather than blanket lockdowns of whole towns or districts.

The country has recorded just over 200,000 coronavirus cases to date, and 9,078 deaths, according to the Robert Koch Institute for disease control.

Germany has credited early, widespread testing and its world-class healthcare system for keeping the fatality rate relatively low.

But 534 new cases were identified in the past 24 hours along with seven more deaths.

The need for clear rules was highlighted last month when a Covid-19 outbreak at a slaughterhouse in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia led to Germany's first renewed lockdowns across two neighbouring districts.

The headquarters of the meat processing company Toennies in Rheda-Wiedenbrueck, western Germany

However a local court later ruled that the lockdown was too broad, and locals from the districts on holiday elsewhere in Germany complained about being turned away from their accommodation.

Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday voiced support for travel bans in and out of coronavirus hotspots.

She said that it was 'better for citizens' to have certainty rather than being denied entry to a hotel upon arrival.

The text agreed today states that a travel ban should be imposed 'if the numbers continue to rise and there's no certainty that the chain of infection has been broken' in the affected area.

Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday voiced support for travel bans in and out of coronavirus hotspots

Anyone wanting to leave a localised lockdown for another state must be able to show a negative coronavirus test that is fewer than 48 hours old, the agreement said.

Merkel's chief of staff Helge Braun told the ZDF broadcaster that the goal was to fight the virus with 'faster, smaller and more precise' curbs rather than the larger lockdowns that have caused such economic devastation.

He said the military could even be called in to help ensure locals in an affected area get tested as quickly as possible.

Germany's Association of Towns and Municipalities welcomed the agreement, with CEO Gerd Landsberg calling local lockdowns 'the right way forward'.

'This also means that lockdowns are not drawn out over months or weeks, but ideally last only a few days,' he told the Funke media group.

The new rules also come as Germany anxiously eyes the return of holidaymakers from abroad this summer, fearing they could bring the virus back with them.

Video footage of German tourists partying in Spain's Mallorca - without face masks or keeping the recommended 1.5 metres apart - has caused particular alarm.

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned Germans not to undo the progress made in combatting the virus.

'Such behaviour is not just dangerous, but inconsiderate towards all those who would like to enjoy their holiday safely,' he told the Funke group.

'We've only just managed to open borders in Europe again. We must not jeopardise this with reckless behaviour.'

The Toennies slaughterhouse that was the source of the local outbreak in North Rhine-Westphalia reopened on Thursday after four weeks, prompting a protest from Greenpeace activists against mass meat production.

Germans have also generally complied with rules on social distancing and wearing face masks.

More than 15 million people have also downloaded Germany's coronavirus warning app aimed at alerting people who've been in close proximity to an infected person.
The American-born Black Lives Matter movement has garnered global support. Recent protests in London have brought the U.K.s racist history to the forefront of social discussion, particularly in the financial sector. The U.K. abolished slavery in 1833, but slaves received nothing and had to remain apprentices for several years. Slave owners, however, were compensated by the government from a fund that was equivalent to 40% of the annual budget then, a payout that amounted to multiple billions of dollars in todays money. Researchers at UCL uncovered the slave-based origins of some the countrys most influential companies. In response, two firms, Lloyds of London and Greene King have announced what some have called reparations in the form of investments into Black, Asian, and minority ethnic communities.
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A handful of surfers were brave enough to take on terrifying waves at a little-known Sydney break on Wednesday as Australia's east coast was battered by damaging winds and monster swell for the third day in a row.

Incredible footage captured by Sydney photographer Luke Duce showed surfers risking their lives at Deadman's Reef off Shelly Headland, south of Manly Beach.

Huge open ocean swells of more than ten metres were seen slamming into the shallow rock ledge just metres away from the rocky shoreline.

Daredevil surfers have battled death-defying waves as an east coast low continues to batter the New South Wales coastline

Terrifying footage captured by Sydney photographer Luke Duce shows keen surfers risking their lives to tackle the waves

Mr Duce told Daily Mail Australia there was a massive crowd of people on the cliff watching as the surfers battled the waves

A surfer rides a wave at 'Deadmans' off Shelly Headland on Thursday as monster swells continue to batter the coast

Mr Duce told Daily Mail Australia there was a massive crowd of people on the cliff watching as the surfers battled the waves.

'It didn't really look like Sydney to be honest,' he said.

'We get lots of big swells but this was a rare swell, we don't get much of this. There were super, super brave surfers out there.

'There were definitely some of the biggest waves I've ever seen ridden in Sydney.

'I saw at least 15 surfboards get broken and surfers had to paddle all the way in because of their boards.'

The photographer described the swells as 'super hectic' and said there was a great 'vibe on the cliff' with lots of cheering and whistling.

'Everyone in the water was the same - cheering each other on and making sure everyone was always safe,' Mr Duce said.

The brave board riders were filmed tackling the powerful surf conditions off Shelly Headland, south of Manly Beach

A surfer rides monster waves as the intense weather system brings huge swells to the New South Wales coast

Huge open ocean swells of more than ten metres were seen slamming into the shallow rock ledge just metres away from the rocky shoreline

A handful of surfers were brave enough to take on terrifying waves at a little-known Sydney break on Thursday

Avalon Beach filmmaker Spencer Frost described one of the waves as 'hands down the best I've ever seen ridden in Sydney' on his Instagram.

'I'm not sure who the surfer is but he must be pretty damn stoked with this one,' Mr Frost said, sharing three photographs of a surfer deep in a barrel twice the size of him.

'I've been wanting to shoot this angle of this wave for a few years now - and today the stars finally aligned. Stoked to see everyone pushing it - what a wild day of waves,' he added.

Surfaid CEO Doug Lees was one of the brave surfers who paddled out on Wednesday.

'Best day I have ever seen there, and I cannot believe how many people were charging,' he told Coastalwatch.

'When I was growing up in Manly hardly anyone surfed there, and if you did you were hanging on the edge. Yesterday I counted 34 guys in the line up and most of them charging.'

Mr Duce told Daily Mail Australia there was a massive crowd of people on the cliff watching as the surfers battled the waves

A surfer rides a large wave at Warriewood Beach on Wednesday as wild weather batters NSW

People are seen watching the large swell from atop North Curl Curl Headland, as a wave impacts and explodes below

The low pressure system is seen off the coast of New South Wales, causing damaging surf and wind

A large low pressure system dubbed the 'Tasman Low' was behind the wild surf conditions on Wednesday, with waves causing significant erosion along the coast.

'The Tasman Low is making her exit quite dramatic,' NSW Incident Alerts wrote on Facebook.

A hazardous surf warning remains in place for Thursday and Friday from Byron Bay to Eden along the NSW Coast as huge swells and damaging winds batter Australia's eastern seaboard.

A peak wave height off the Sydney coast overnight reached 11.6metres, with the NSW police marine area command advising people to stay out of the water and avoid surf-exposed areas.

Police have advised people planning to do coastal activities including rock fishing, boating, and swimming to reconsider.

A peak wave height off the Sydney coast overnight reached 11.6metres, with the NSW police marine area command advising people to stay out of the water and avoid surf-exposed areas (Sydney Harbour Bridge pictured)

A video from near Terrigal shows taken on Wednesday morning (pictured) shows huge waves continuing to pound the coastline

Two people walk through heavy rain and wind at Bondi on Tuesday, as severe winds gushed onshore (pictured)

The hazardous south-east swell rolled into Australia's east coast on Tuesday and will begin to ease into the weekend, with beach users told to remain wary of the waves.

'A deep low pressure system is centred over the central Tasman Sea,' the Bureau of Meteorology website reads.

'This system is whipping up blustery winds and powerful waves along parts of the New South Wales coast, with conditions gradually easing later in the week as the low moves east towards New Zealand and a high pressure ridge moves over the state from the west.'

The weather bureau issued a separate warning about damaging and powerful wind gusts.

A gale warning remains in place on Thursday and Friday for the Byron Coast, Coffs Coast, Macquarie Coast and Hunter Coast, and a strong wind warning for Sydney Closed Waters, Sydney Coast, Illawarra Coast, Batemans Coast and Eden Coast.

Swell rose up to 11.6m as an east coast low swept wild weather across the NSW coastline (pictured, large waves hit onlookers at Bronte pool in Sydney on Tuesday)

A man's umbrella was turned inside-out as wild weather lashed Sydney on Tuesday (pictured)

The chilly weather is set to barrel into the weekend, with a low pressure system and troughs sweeping strong winds, large waves and heavy showers across eastern NSW from Wednesday.

Sydney is forecast to be windy with some rain and a top of 17C and is unlikely to warm until Saturday, which would make this the longest spell below 18C in several years.

The Harbour City will dry up over the weekend, remaining partly cloudy, with a low of 8C and high of 20C on Sunday.

Canberra woke to frost on Thursday morning with a low of 1C, slowly climbing to the low-teens.

Queensland remains sunny but a hazardous surf and swell warning is in place and people are urged not to do any coastal activities including are rock fishing, boating, and swimming.

A lifeguard looks out across Coogee Beach as huge swell continues to pound the coast in Sydney on Wednesday

Sightseers check out the huge swell pounding the coast at Clovelly Beach in Sydney on Wednesday

The surf warning is in place Thursday and Friday for Fraser Island Coast, Sunshine Coast Waters and Gold Coast Waters.

Surf Live Saving Queensland is urging people to stay out of the water and avoid walking near surf-exposed areas.

Brisbane is going to be mostly sunny on Thursday with a temperature high of 22C.

In Western Australia, a strong cold front is blowing blistery winds and showers across the state's southwest.

Western Australia also has gale warnings in place through to midnight on Thursday for the Leeuwin Coast, and a strong wind warning through midnight tonight for Perth Local Waters, Lancelin Coast, Perth Coast, Bunbury Geographe Coast, Albany Coast and Esperance Coast.

Perth will be experiencing showers with a possible storm and highs of 21C.

A man is engulfed by a breaking wave as he walks along the cliff top at Clovelly Beach in Sydney on Wednesday

A map shows the low and troughs along the New South Wales coast line bringing more wet weather conditions over coming days

Melbourne woke to fog on Thursday morning, slowly clearing throughout the day with a top of 12C.

It will remain chilly and cloudy heading into the weekend with the mercury dipping to 5C and only topping a moderately cool 15C.

Showers will increase from Sunday, leading into a wet start to next week.

The low and troughs will bring showers in eastern Victoria as well as alpine snow.

A frost warning is in place for Victoria's Mallee, Wimmera, Northern Country, North Central, North East, South West and Central forecast districts, with temperatures down to -2 degrees forecast.

South Australia is seeing mostly sun on Thursday with a frost warning also in place for the Mid North, Riverland, Murraylands, Upper South East and Lower South East forecast districts, with temperatures down to -1 degree are forecast.

Adelaide will remain sunny and see top temperatures of 16C.

Hobart will also shiver through cool conditions, dropping to 3C on Friday and Saturday morning. The temperature won't climb far- reaching a high 12C over the weekend, when showers are expected.
TERRE HAUTE, Ind.  The United States on Thursday carried out its second federal execution in three days following a hiatus of nearly two decades, killing by lethal injection a Kansas man whose lawyers contended he had dementia and was unfit to be executed.

Wesley Ira Purkey was put to death at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was sentenced to be executed for kidnapping and killing a 16-year-old girl, Jennifer Long, before dismembering, burning and dumping her body in a septic pond. He also was convicted in a state court in Kansas of using a claw hammer to kill an 80-year-old woman who had polio.

After Purkey was strapped to a gurney inside the execution chamber, a prison official removed a mask from his face and asked if he wanted to make a final statement.

He leaned his head up slightly from the gurney and said: I deeply regret the pain and suffering I caused to Jennifers family. I am deeply sorry.

He also expressed remorse for his own adult daughters suffering from his actions. I deeply regret the pain I caused to my daughter, who I love so very much, he said.

His last words were: This sanitized murder really does not serve no purpose whatsoever. Thank you.

As the lethal chemical was injected, Purkey took several deep breaths and blinked repeatedly, laying his head back down on the gurney. His time of death was 8:19 a.m. EDT.

Jennifers father, William Long, and her stepmother were there. Long said delays since the 2003 trial were excruciating and he was glad it was over.

He said he hoped Purkey rots in hell.

We took care of today what we needed to take care of, Long said. It has been a long time coming. He needed to take his last breath; he took my daughters last breath. And theres some resolve. There is no closure, and there never will be because I wont get my daughter back.

The Supreme Court cleared the way for the execution to take place just hours before, ruling in a 5-4 decision. The four liberal justices dissented, as they had for the first case earlier this week.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that proceeding with Purkeys execution now, despite the grave questions and factual findings regarding his mental competency, casts a shroud of constitutional doubt over the most irrevocable of injuries. She was joined by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan.

The Supreme Court also lifted a hold placed on other executions set for Friday and next month. Dustin Honken, a drug kingpin from Iowa convicted of killing five people in a scheme to silence former dealers, is to be put to death at the prison on Friday.

While Purkeys final words were lucid and contrite, his lawyers say his mental health had seriously deteriorated to the point he didnt have the stamina for long visits with his legal team and often forgot key facts and dates.

Purkeys was the federal governments second execution after a 17-year hiatus as the Trump administration pressed for a resumption. Daniel Lewis Lee was put to death Tuesday after his eleventh-hour legal bids failed. Both executions were delayed as legal wrangling continued late into the night and into the next morning.

The Justice Department has been questioned for holding the executions in the middle of the worsening coronavirus pandemic, prompting lawsuits over fears those who would travel to the prison could become infected. The decision to resume executions after nearly two decades was also criticized as a dangerously political move in an election year, forcing an issue that is not high on the list of American priorities considering the 11% unemployment rate and the pandemic.

A Justice Department spokeswoman on Thursday said a just punishment had been carried out.

After many years of litigation following the death of his victims, in which he lived and was afforded every due process of law under our Constitution, Purkey has finally faced justice, spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said.

Purkeys lawyers had argued his condition had deteriorated so severely that he didnt understand why he was being executed. They said he was repeatedly sexually assaulted as a child and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other mental health conditions.

The issue of Purkeys mental health arose in the run-up to his trial and when, after the verdict, jurors had to decide whether he should be put to death in the killing of Jennifer in Kansas City, Missouri. Prosecutors said he raped and stabbed her. He was separately convicted and sentenced to life in the beating death of 80-year-old Mary Ruth Bales, of Kansas City, Kansas.

Purkey had a long history of childhood trauma, was sexually abused by family members and a Catholic priest and was beaten by other family members, said Liz Vartkessian, a mitigation specialist who worked with Purkeys legal team and visited him dozens of times in the last five years.

His case is replete with instances where he has expressed a deep remorse, she said in an interview earlier this month.

______

Gresko reported from Arlington, Virginia. Associated Press writers Colleen Long in Washington and Michael Tarm in Chicago contributed to this report.
Ambassador of Greece in Cairo Nikoaos Garilidis says that the maritime demarcation agreement between Greece and Egypt is being finalised

Nikoaos Garilidis is the new ambassador of Greece to Egypt, the country where he was born in July 1958 and where he lived until the early 1970s when he went back to Athens to study law and join the Greek diplomatic service.

This is his first year in Cairo as ambassador, and during it he is hopeful that he will see the completion of a long-negotiated deal on the demarcation of maritime borders between Egypt and Greece.

We are close, very close, to a deal, Garilidis said in an interview with Al-Ahram Weekly at his office in Cairo earlier this week.

The process of negotiating exclusive economic zones (EEC) between Egypt and Greece was launched over three years ago during a visit of President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi to Athens, where he and then Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras agreed that to help each country benefit from the possible resources of its national waters an agreement needed to be signed.

A proper negotiation process on the demarcation of maritime borders between Cairo and Athens had never been seriously initiated before, as Cairo had wished to accommodate Ankara whose dispute with Athens and Nicosia over Cyprus had prohibited a maritime demarcation between Turkey and both Athens and Cyprus.

Given the 2016 decision by Cairo to bypass this matter, political directives were issued for the negotiating teams to start the process.

According to Garilidis, during the past three plus years 13 rounds of negotiations have been held between Cairo and Athens. The last round of talks ended in Athens on Tuesday, he added.

Garilidis said that there might be another round or two of talks between technical delegations, but that at the end of the day both sides will have to depend on the wisdom of the respective political leaderships to get the deal done.

Last month, Nikos Dendias, the Greek foreign minister, was in Cairo for talks on the matter and on the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean.

President Al-Sisi met with Dendias, who also met with Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri. Shoukri and Dendias attended the 12th round of talks on the EEC agreement.

Dendias visit to Cairo came a little over a week after Greece and Italy signed an agreement on maritime boundaries on 9 June, establishing an EEC between the two countries and resolving long-standing issues over fishing rights in the Ionian Sea.

Such agreements will pave the way for the Mediterranean countries to embark on the full use of their EECs, including for gas drilling and fishing. Egypt has already signed an EEC agreement with Cyprus, but it has no agreement with Turkey.

In the assessment of the Greek ambassador to Egypt, the EEC is a matter that should be done this summer. He said there could be electronic signing, or the empowerment by the countries respective leaders for their ambassadors or foreign ministers to sign.

Once the text is agreed, the detailed protocols will be decided, he said.

The signing of an EEC agreement between Greece and Egypt will not be to the liking of Turkey, which has for months been sending messages to Egypt indicating its wish to sign an agreement on the demarcation of maritime borders, especially after last years signing of an agreement between Ankara and the Islamist-dominated Government of National Unity (GNA) in Libya.

Greece has criticised the agreement signed in November 2019 and said it grants Turkey more than its legitimate rights. The position of Turkey on this deal, Garilidis argued, was part and parcel of a bigger question on the role of Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Garilidis previously headed the Turkey desk at the Foreign Ministry in Greece for three years before arriving in Cairo to replace Michael-Christos Diamessis, who is now representing his country in Ankara.

Diamessis was recently summoned by the Turkish Foreign Ministry in protest against alleged Greek violations of Turkish national waters.

According to Garilidis, an agreement between Cairo and Athens will help manage unresolved EEC issues in the Eastern Mediterranean.

He spoke before Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu suggested in press statements that there were behind-the-scenes talks between Turkey and Egypt over the issue of maritime borders after the agreement that Ankara and the GNA signed between Turkey and Libya, Egypts western neighbour, over a year ago.

Garilidis said that no country in the Mediterranean wanted to pick a fight with Turkey. Greece, he added, had been on-and-off pursuing an agreement on maritime borders with Turkey.

He said it was up to Turkey to pursue good relations with its neighbours. The underlying problem between Turkey and many of its neighbours, he said, was that the current political regime in Ankara perceived the vast majority of these as former Ottoman wilayats (provinces).

It is better for all of us to cooperate  Greece, Egypt, Turkey, Israel, the Palestinians, Syrians and everyone else, Garilidis said. But this cannot happen if somebody wants to control us. This would not be good because it would turn everybody [else] against them, he added.

If Turkey were to abandon its Ottoman ideas, Garilidis said, Greece would help Ankara find a way forward on further economic cooperation in the Eastern Mediterranean, including on natural gas projects.

Turkey is not a member of the East Mediterranean Gas Forum, which brings together the other Eastern Mediterranean countries, including Israel and the Palestinians. The latter still have a long way to go on the demarcation of their maritime borders and those between them and their Mediterranean neighbours.

Garilidis added that what Turkey is doing in Libya, for example, is not just about its wish to pursue natural-resource cooperation with Libya, but more about its wish to establish itself as a top player in the region.

This would not be accepted by most countries in the Mediterranean, he said.

For example, Egypt has legitimately said that it cannot let Libya be a toy for the militias brought into Libya [by Turkey] and that is fully understood, Garilidis said. Clearly, this is an issue that influences security not just for Egypt, but for all of the countries of North Africa and all the countries around the Mediterranean.

What Turkey needed to do was to pursue agreements with its neighbours according to international law, Garilidis said.

On Monday, the European Union criticised Turkeys drilling for natural gas and oil in the Eastern Mediterranean. The warning came after Ankara announced that the drilling would start soon.

On 9 July, Karalambos Petrides, the Cypriot minister of defence, discussed the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Cyprus EEC during meetings with the ambassadors of Greece, France, and Italy.

Garilidis said that his mandate as Greek ambassador in Egypt would be based on enhancing all forms of cooperation on as many fronts as possible and not just the natural resources that the two countries are committed to through their membership of the East Mediterranean Gas Forum and possibly the Eastern Mediterranean gas pipeline.

Garilidis is particularly keen on boosting cultural cooperation, and he is considering options to enhance cooperation in archaeology, among other joint projects.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 16 July, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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By Gabriela Baczynska and Robin Emmott

WARSAW/BRUSSELS, July 16 (Reuters) - EU countries nudged towards an agreement on a mass stimulus scheme to kickstart economies hammered by the coronavirus but disagreements persisted over the scale and access to funds before Friday's summit.

The 27 national EU heads will meet face-to-face for the first time since COVID-19 pushed Europe into a sweeping lockdown. They will haggle over their next budget proposed at 1.074 trillion euros ($1.22 trillion) for 2021-27 and an attached recovery fund of 750 billion euros in grants and loans.

The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Austria - the wealthy but thrifty net contributors to the bloc's joint coffers - want to lower the scale of funding, favour loans over grants for their southern peers hit harder by the pandemic and demand economic reforms as preconditions for accessing the money.

Differences also linger over procedures to assess and approve, or reject, applications for handouts from the 750 billion new fund as well as framing conditions on respecting democratic values and fighting climate change to win aid.

"Rationally speaking, a deal is possible, but summits are not always rational," said one senior EU diplomat ahead of the talks planned for Friday and Saturday.

"The only thing that the frugals have not entirely accepted is the grants and loans split... they want to reduce the amounts, as well as insist on issues of governance, rebates, the overall balance."

European Council President Charles Michel, who will host the Brussels talks, has put forward a compromise plan that goes some way to assuaging the concerns of the frugal camp, weary of bankrolling peers they see as fiscally reckless and wanting to keep their EU budget reductions.

Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orban has tightened the noose around academics, media and civil society, pushed back against new mechanisms that would allow the freezing of funds for countries undercutting the rule of law, a point of principle for the wealthy net payers.

Story continues

Eyes are also on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, standing at the helm of the biggest EU economy, who has thrown her weight behind pushing for a deal despite gaps needing to be bridged.

The coronavirus has come as the latest existential challenge to the EU, which has lurched from one crisis to another in recent years, from the financial meltdown that started more than a decade ago to a spike in uncontrolled immigration and then Brexit.

Bickering between member states over money, medical supplies and border closures exposed divisions in the world's largest trading bloc though it has since managed to agree on half a trillion euros of immediate economic relief.

"It is possible to have an agreement this weekend and it is desirable," a French presidency source said. "There is an expectation for a European solution."

ING said in a note this week that a deal seemed within reach: "A deal now would be huge, but any sign of further progress on the remaining contested issues would also still be positive." ($1 = 0.8781 euros) (Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, Robin Emmot, Elizabeth Pinneau, Andreas Rinke, Writing by Gabriela Baczynska, Editing by Nick Macfie)
As the wind blows through the trees and tall, dry grasses of Buffalo Park, a lizard scurries across the path to seek safety under a lichen-dotted rock. The drone of insects fades into the background as birds call to one another and dirt trails crunch beneath feet and bike tires. Summer wildflowers add pops of yellow and red to the green landscape. Here, the natural world returns to the rightful forefront of the mind, the turmoil of the human world briefly forgotten.

All thy fellow birds do sing,

Careless of thy sorrowing.

Excerpt from Passionate Pilgrim

Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival, entering its sixth season, is turning a creative eye to Flagstaffs public spaces with Walkin with Will: Sonnets, Trails & Trees, an interactive program that invites participants to ponder the beauty of the world paired with some of the Bards famous sonnets and monologues that reference a variety of nature themes.

The two-mile loop trail at Buffalo Park is a familiar friend to runners, families with young children, casual walkers and dog owners, with room to distance. Near the entrance just off the main path, along an offshoot of the Arizona Trail, a stone bench dedicated to the memories of Dale, Richard and Margaret Shewalter rests under the shade of an alligator juniper tree. Although the mercury reached 90 degrees Fahrenheit at Flagstaff Pulliam Airport over the weekend, the wind carries with it memories of a cooler season, teasing much-needed rain. A black swallowtail butterfly floats along the current, flitting through the low branches as a fluffy white cloud briefly obscures the sun. What freedom it must be to wander aimlessly through the days, pollinating plants at will.

This our life, exempt from public haunt,

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,

Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

I would not change it.

Duke, As You Like It, Act II, Scene I

Wheeler Park, the Flagstaff Urban Trail System and Francis Short Pond make up three more of the eight locations paired with sonnets for Walkin with Will, but a meandering path offers even more wonders to behold than traveling as the crow flies through these community landmarks. A brief detour north of Wheeler Park at the corner of Humphreys Street and Cherry Avenue presents a path along sunflower-lined sidewalks where plump bumblebees kiss the pollen from the centers.

Ill be a park, and thou shalt be my deer;

Feed where thou wilt, on mountain or in dale:

Graze on my lips; and if those hills be dry,

Stray lower, where the pleasant fountains lie.

Excerpt from Venus and Adonis

Enter the welcome shade of the urban trail established alongside the Rio de Flag, which leads directly to the colloquially-dubbed duck pond. Later in the evening, the fluffy clouds have mostly dissipated, but the cool breeze remains, leaving ripples across the water. People along the shore cast fishing lines, finding comfort in the repetitive activity with nothing but their thoughts as companions. As the sun gets lower and lower on the western horizon, clouds of small gnats congregate above the pond and birds swoop down to catch their dinner. The sky bursts into shades of pink and orange, proving there can be beauty in endings.

[Time] feeds on the rarities of Natures truth,

And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow.

Sonnet 60

There is no single or exact path one must take to appreciate the Flagstaff summer through Walkin with Will. Time is unimportant, too. Whether one prefers to visit one location each day at the same time or check them all off over the course of a few hours, the curated locations and sonnets implore us to slow down and pay attention to the little things. Thats where moments of peace can be found, even when all else feels uncertain.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

From July 16-26, participants who sign up for Walkin with Will: Sonnets, Trails & Trees will have access to the map of locations, the list of sonnets and monologues and a video playlist featuring professional actors reading each selection. Find the event on Facebook to purchase a map. Record yourself reading your favorite lines at three different corresponding locations and post to Facebook or Instagram with #walkinwithwill and @flagshakes, or send to executive director Dawn Tucker at dtucker@flagshakes.org. Submit your entry by 8 p.m. on Sunday, July 26, to be eligible to win prizes like two day passes to Lowell Observatory and a signed first edition copy of Walking Flagstaff by George Breed. Three winners will be announced Monday, July 27, at 5 p.m. live on Flagstaff Shakespeare Festivals Facebook page. Participants can also receive 50 percent off any size gelato from the Sweet Shoppe Candy Store through July 26.

MORE FROM FLAGSTAFF SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL

Sonnet writing workshop

Devon Glover is a teacher, rapper, poet, playwright and actor from Brooklyn, New York, who performs Shakespeares sonnets through hip-hop as The Sonnet Man in schools and theaters around the world. He has appeared on NBC, MSNBC, BBC and at conferences and Shakespeare festivals worldwide, including in the Bards hometown, Stratford-upon-Avon. He has written adaptations of Shakespeare for various theater companies and was commissioned to write a hip-hop adaptation of Twelfth Night. Now, he will be sharing what he knows with fans of FlagShakes through a two-part sonnet writing workshop.

A series of events begins with a performance and introduction to Glover Thursday, July 16, at 7 p.m. on Facebook Live @flagshakes. Then, the first part of the writing workshop will be held via Zoom on Saturday, July 18, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Students will meet The Sonnet Man, and discuss the process of writing an Elizabethan-style sonnet, as well as iambic pentameter, couplets and quatrains. Participants will prepare to create their own sonnet, to be performed at an outside location of their choosing in Flagstaff. Throughout the week, Glover will be available for advice and to help edit pieces. The second part of the workshop will be held Saturday, July 25, via Zoom from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., when participants will begin sharing their pieces for critique. Musical compositions and instrumentals created by The Sonnet Man will be available for use.

Tickets to attend the Glover workshops are $30, $15 for Walkin' with Will participants. The July 16 performance is free.

Spoon River Anthology

Spoon River Anthology, a collection of poems written by Edgar Lee Masters, adapted for film by Dawn Tucker, paints the colorful picture of a fictional town along the Spoon River at the turn of the 20th century. Told through the eyes of the towns departed residents, the anthology gives us insight into the characters lives, their deaths and how they intertwine.

The play was filmed at Riordan Mansion State Historic Park and features 10 Arizona actors along with original music by Flagstaff musician Sean Golightly. Episodes will be released weekly from July 31-Aug. 21. Visit www.flagshakes.org for more information.

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Contact tracers need to catch 80 per cent of infections and test suspected patients within three days to keep coronavirus epidemics squashed, a study has found.

Researchers from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands said the reproduction R rate can be kept under one as long as only two in 10 patients slip under the radar.

Any more than that risks driving the R - the average number of people each coronavirus patient infects - to the point at which the crisis could spiral again.

And people need to be swabbed and given results within three days to ensure they aren't tempted to go outside and mingle with others when results don't come back.

Dutch researchers used mathematical modelling to predict how contact tracing systems with varying success could influence epidemics.

It found that if testing is delayed by three days or more, even a system that is able to trace 100 per cent of contacts with no delays cannot bring the R value below 1.

Today it emerged that the UK's contact tracing system is only finding 78 per cent of patients who test positive - despite launching two months ago.

More than four thousand people every week who receive a coronavirus test are waiting more than 72 hours for a result, Government data shows.

The Government's own scientific advisers have been banging the drum about the need to catch 80 per cent of infections throughout the crisis.

Contact tracers need to catch 80 per cent of infections and test suspected patients within three days to keep coronavirus epidemics squashed, another study has found

Utrecht researchers used mathematical modelling to calculate how contact tracing systems with varying success influenced epidemics.

In the absence of a strategy to reduce transmission, an infected person will transmit the virus to an average of 2.5 people, while the introduction of physical distancing measures reduce it to 1.2, the study said.

Assuming that 40 per cent of transmission occurs before a person develops symptoms, the model showed the R can be reduced from 1.2 to 0.8 through contact tracing in the 'most optimistic scenario'.

More than one in five Covid-19 patients are still not being contacted by NHS Test and Trace NHS Test and Trace is still failing to find a more than a fifth of patients who test positive for Covid-19  despite launching almost two months ago, shocking data revealed today. Of the 3,579 Covid-19 patients in England referred to the contact tracing programme between July 2 and July 8, just 2,815 were actually tracked down (78.7 per cent). A total of 618 people with the disease could not be reached at all by the tracers  who phone, text and email someone up to 10 times a day to get hold of them. And communication details were not provided for another 146 Covid-19 patients, so their close contacts will have also slipped under the radar. Scientists have warned contact tracing programmes need to catch at least 80 per cent of infections to keep the outbreak under control. It means the Government is still to hit the bare minimum target, despite launching the programme nearly 50 days ago, on May 28. The news comes as scientists behind a coronavirus symptom tracking app warned the UK's outbreak could be starting to grow again. Advertisement

It found that contact tracing will only keep the R value below 1 if 80 per cent of people with coronavirus receive a positive test result on the same day they develop symptoms.

There can be no delays in testing after the onset of symptoms, and at least 80 per cent of contacts must also be identified on the same day as test results are received.

The research - published in the Lancet Public Health journal - found that if testing is delayed by three days or more, even a system that is able to trace every single close contact with no delays cannot bring the R value below 1.

Study author Professor Marc Bonten, from the University of Utrecht, said minimising testing delays had the largest impact on reducing transmission, and was therefore the 'most critical factor' in the success of the tracing system.

Reacting to the findings, Dr Daniel Lawson, a statistician at the University of Bristol, said: 'This study explores some harsh mathematical truths about contact tracing.

'Simply put, if the tracing system is not fast enough then it becomes useless, as onward transmission has already occurred when contacts are isolated.

'The numbers in the study are heavily dependent on assumptions, and should not be over-interpreted.

'It uses generic estimates for the reproduction number, overly simplifies the transmission network, and does not address population variation. However, the key message is robust: it is a mathematical truth that contact tracing must be fast to be effective.'

It comes as new NHS Test and Trace data for England shows the system is still failing to reach its 80 per cent target  despite the system launching almost two months ago.

Twenty-two per cent of patients in the UK who test positive for Covid-19 are not being tracked down, a report by the Department of Health revealed today.

Of the 3,579 Covid-19 patients in England referred to the contact tracing programme between July 2 and July 8, just 2,815 were actually tracked down (78.7 per cent).

A total of 618 people with the disease could not be reached at all by the tracers  who phone, text and email someone up to 10 times a day to get hold of them.

And communication details were not provided for another 146 Covid-19 patients, so their close contacts will have also slipped under the radar.

Of the 3,579 Covid-19 patients in England referred to the contact tracing programme between July 2 and July 8, just 2,815 were actually tracked down (78.7 per cent). A total of 618 people with the disease could not be reached at all by the tracers  who phone, text and email someone 10 times a day to get hold of them. And communication details were not provided for another 146 Covid-19 patients

The proportion getting results from a so-called 'in-person' test  at a mobile testing site for example  has fallen week-on-week.

Some 87.7 per cent of people received the result within 24 hours in the week ending July 8, down slightly from 90.7 per cent in the week ending July 1.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson last month pledged to get the results of all in-person tests back within 24 hours by the end of June.

He told the House of Commons on June 3 he would get 'all tests turned around within 24 hours by the end of June, except for difficulties with postal tests or insuperable problems like that'.
Sushant Singh Rajput Death: Shekhar Suman Says Press Conference In Bihar Wasn't His Idea, Uncomfortable By Family's Silence
Will the name Turners be eliminated from the Montague village of Turners Falls just as the Indian mascot was removed from Turners Falls High School?

An online petition requesting the name change because it honors a man who led a massacre of Native Americans has garnered more than 2,500 signatures, while another seeking to preserve the status quo has more than 1,300 backers.

Neither petition is in the form required to place a special article on a town meeting agenda or for a non-binding referendum on an election ballot, said Montague Town Administrator Steve Ellis.

The select board discussed a possible name change for the village at a July 13 meeting and asked Ellis work with legal counsel to determine what the process would entail.

Turners Falls as a place was not created by a formal process in the naming of the villages that we are presently aware of, Ellis told The Republican. That notwithstanding, Turners Falls is a recognized place (with a postal code and named on passports and other documents). It could potentially be legally complex, so the recommendation from counsel would be to pursue special legislation at the state level if the town were to pursue such a change.

One online petition calls for a stop to honoring the slaughter of Nipmucs  a reference to Capt. William Turners 1676 raid during the King Phillip War on a Nipmuc group camped by the falls between what are now the village of Turners Falls and the town of Gill.

Turner led a group of about 145 armed civilians and professional soldiers from Hadley and made a surprise attack on a Native American encampment located near the falls, according to Montagues town website. The attack on a sleeping village of Native Americans on the Gill side of the falls lasted several hours and resulted in the death of many women and children. The area by the falls was traditionally shared by the Pocumtuk Confederacy, the Narragansetts, the Nipmucs, the Wampanoag and the Wabanaki tribes because of the abundance of salmon and shad available there.

The Turners Falls massacre often is viewed as a turning point in the King Phillip War.

What occurred here was a systemic slaughter of unarmed Indigenous peoples. Is that what you want our village to stand for? asks the petition, which favors renaming the village Great Falls.

Petition signer Judi Cavalear wrote, I was raised in Turners Falls and never knew the actual history of it. After learning the true story of what really happened, I am appalled and disgusted at how the Nipmuc people were treated. I was sickened to hear how they were attacked and murdered. We never should have honored a man who would commit such a horrific act. Its time to change that and make it right! Rename Turners Falls to Great Falls; its way overdue!

A second petition to keep the village name has emerged.

I was born and raised in Turners Falls and believe the name should stay as it is, petition signer Charlene Strysko wrote. You already took the Indians (mascot) away from us! That should not have been changed either!
New Delhi: Skygazers have a once in a lifetime opportunity to watch comet NEOWISE, also known as C/2020 F3, from the Earth for the next 20 days. The comet will be visible to the naked eye each day for 20 minutes, according to reports.

The occasion is considered a lifetime experience for Skygazers as the comet comes back only once every 6,000 years, according to NASA report.

The NEOWISE comet will be the closest to Earth on July 22, and the distance at that point will be roughly 103 million kilometers from Earth.

Those who want to watch this celestial phenomenon should know that the comet will be visible an hour before dawn for the next few days. With the passage of this month, the comet will reportedly be visible in the evening before it fades in the next month.

In coming days, the comet will become increasingly visible shortly after sunset in the northwest sky. If youre looking at the sky without the help of observation tools, Comet NEOWISE may look like a fuzzy star with a bit of a tail.

Earlier NASA said, "Right now, the comet is relatively easy to observe with binoculars or a small telescope, provided you have a clear view toward the horizon."

If you are also interested to catch a glimpse of Comet NEOWISE, here's what you need to do:

1. You need to first find a spot away from city lights with an unobstructed view of the sky

2. After sunset, try to look below the Big Dipper in the northwest sky

3. You should bring binoculars or a small telescope to get the best views of this celestial object

Odisha planetariums Deputy Director, Dr Subhendu Pattnaik told ANI, From July 14, C/2020 F3, a comet discovered on March 27, will be clearly visible in the north-western sky. It will be visible after sunset for around 20 minutes for the next 20 days. People can observe it from naked eyes.

In the evenings to follow, the comet will rapidly climb higher in the sky and will be visible for a longer period, Dr Pattnaik added.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16

By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:

Shelling of positions of the Azerbaijani army by Armenian armed forces and the killing of Azerbaijani military servicemen is a crime, Hasan Amili, representative of Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Ardabil province, said, Trend reports on July 16 citing Iranian IRIB news agency.

According to Amili, the Armenian side has chosen the wrong path, therefore regional and international circles condemn its crimes.

He added that the state and people of Iran have always supported the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, and all regional and international circles point out the importance of returning 20 percent of the occupied Azerbaijani territories, including Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan.

He expressed condolences to the Azerbaijani people in connection with the death of military servicemen.
Canada Urged to Use Magnitsky Sanctions on Chinese Officials Who Have Persecuted Falun Gong

A group of current and former parliamentarians and rights activists are asking Ottawa to use the Magnitsky Act to sanction 14 Chinese officials responsible for the persecution of Falun Gong adherents in China.

Canada must use this legislation to sanction the communist government officials who are committing the gross human rights violations of imprisonment, organ harvesting, and murder of Falun Dafa members, said Conservative MP James Bezan, who was one of the champions of Canadas Magnitsky legislation.

The Falun Dafa Association of Canada said that as the group marks the 21st anniversary of the start of the persecution campaign against adherents in China on July 20, 1999, it has submitted a list of 14 officials to Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne to be sanctioned under the Act, along with nearly 300 pages of supporting documents.

Conservative MP James Bezan speaks during question period in the House of Commons on June 8, 2016. (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)

The list of 14 Chinese officials includes former CCP [Chinese Communist Party] leader Jiang Zemin, the main perpetrator and architect of the persecution, who sought to eradicate Falun Gong because of its popularity, and the groups refusal to surrender to CCP control, the association said in a statement.

In the campaign against Falun Gong, the CCP exercised and continues to exercise extralegal powers to bring about arbitrary arrests, torture, killing, and even forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong adherents on a large scale.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline consisting of five meditative exercises and moral teachings. In the 1990s, an estimated 70-100 million people were practising Falun Gong across China. After the launch of the persecution campaign in 1999, tens of thousands were rounded up and detained in prisons, labour camps, brainwashing centres, and psychiatric wards, where many were abused and tortured in an effort to force them to quit the practice. Falun Gong adherents continue to be detained and persecuted in these facilities today.

For outsiders it is strange that a loose organization promoting a spiritual practice, one based firmly on traditional Chinese qi gong (the slow-flowing moving meditation) and with no political aims, should have provoked such a ruthless crackdown, Australian academic Clive Hamilton writes in his 2018 book Silent Invasion.

But CCP leaders felt threatened by a movement with more members than the party and attracting greater devotion, the book said, adding, In modern times, no group in China has been more severely and tirelessly persecuted than Falun Gong.

Irwin Cotler, a former Liberal minister of justice who also joined the call to impose Magnitsky sanctions on Chinese officials, said Falun Gong adherents have been subjected to extrajudicial killings and torture in a CCP-orchestrated eradication movementfor nothing other than espousing ancient spiritual values of truth, compassion, and tolerance.

Irwin Cotler, former minister of justice and former attorney general of Canada, speaks during a press conference on Parliament Hill in this file photo. (Matthew Little/The Epoch Times)

We encourage the Canadian government to use the Magnitsky Act to sanction, at the very least, 14 Chinese government officials identified and responsible for gross human rights violations, said Conservative MP Peter Kent, the co-chair of Parliamentary Friends of Falun Gong.

Adding his voice to the chorus, Conservative Sen. Thanh Hai Ngo said, The time has come for Canada to reclaim its leadership as a defender of human rights on the world stage by imposing Magnitsky sanctions on Chinese officials.

Last year, an independent tribunal in London, England, found that the CCP continues to kill Falun Gong adherents and sell their organs for profit. The tribunal was headed by Sir Geoffrey Nice, who previously led the prosecution of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes at the International Criminal Tribunal.

Canada passed its Magnitsky Act in 2017. The Act, many versions of which have been passed in different countries, is named after Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who uncovered the largest tax fraud in his countrys history and subsequently died as a result of torture in 2009 while detained in Moscow.

The legislation gives Ottawa the ability to sanction foreign individuals responsible for gross human rights violations. Examples of sanctions could be barring the targeted individuals from entering Canada, or engaging in financial transactions in Canada or with Canadians outside of Canada.
Iran reaffirms commitment to JCPOA, warns of reciprocity to irresponsible parties

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, July 15, IRNA -- Iran's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday reaffirmed commitment to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of action and warned of reciprocity to the irresponsible parties to the international agreement endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

The Foreign Ministry issued a statement to mark the fifth anniversary of signing a 2015 landmark nuclear deal  known a JCPOA  between Iran and six world powers.

Signaling Iran's readiness to help save the deal, the statement, however, noted that Iran will not tolerate excessive demands of other parties to the accord.

The statement said that US failure to adhere to its commitments under the deal and lack of determination of other European parties to keep the deal balanced has caused Iran not to be able to benefit from the deal, including the lifting of nuclear-related sanctions stipulated by the UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

Referring to Iran's constructive cooperation with the UN nuclear agency, the statement said that any effort to abuse the agency by exerting pressure on Iran runs counter to the provisions of JCPOA and will tarnish the credibility of the UN agency.

The statement made it clear that there is no alternative for the JCPOA.

It added that if the international community, the remaining parties to the deal, in particular, are determined to save the accord, they have to focus on a balanced implementation of the deal in good faith.

The statement added that Iran is thankful of China and Russia for their efforts and constructive stances before the UN Security Council, IAEA Board of Governors and the joint commission of JCPOA to help save the deal.

Full text of the Statement of the Islamic Republic of Iran on 5th Anniversary of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as follows:

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) as an important achievement of multilateral diplomacy, which has been strongly supported by the international community, is in jeopardy on its fifth anniversary. Unless the international community shall ensure the balanced implementation of all participants in good faith, it could be another victim of the US unilateral and unlawful approach. The US and its allies should bear the responsibility for the consequences of such policies.

The international, legal, technical, strategic and political capital of this agreement has been deeply eroded on its fifth anniversary, due to the destructive and illegal actions of the United States. The remaining Participants of the JCPOA are aware of this and by consensus are of the view that the root cause for the current situation is the continuous violations of UNSCR 2231 and the JCPOA, and ultimately the unilateral withdrawal of the United States from an agreement reached after years of hard multilateral negotiations. The US significant non-performance to its obligations under UNSCR 2231, and the lack of will on the part of remaining Participants to restore the lost balance to the JCPOA, have complicated the current situation around JCPOA and effectively impeded the Islamic Republic of Iran to adhere to its undertakings. As a result of this malign policy of the US, Iran cannot benefit from the effects of JCPOA sanctions lifting.

Unfortunately, the situation has developed in such a way that we must once again remind the remaining Participants of the JCPOA, as well as the Member States of the United Nations, of the rights and obligations contained in this agreement, which was endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2231; from the emphasis of Resolution 2231 on "promoting and facilitating the development of normal economic and trade contacts and cooperation with Iran" and "its full implementation on the timetable established in the JCPOA" and UNSCR 2231, to the importance of the JCPOA sanctions lifting as one of the main pillars of the agreement.

The JCPOA was a negotiated diplomatic solution to the peaceful settlement of an artificial crisis over the Islamic Republic of Iran's peaceful nuclear program, which is comprehensive and final in nature. Iran entered the negotiations seriously, with a forward looking approach, and implemented the outcome of the negotiations in good faith. Transparency and voluntary confidence-building measures, beyond the obligations under the Safeguards Agreement, was part of the Islamic Republic of Iran's efforts to reassure the international community of the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear program, in return it was supposed inhuman sanctions imposed under the pretext of the nuclear program be lifted. Unfortunately, not only the Islamic Republic of Iran did not enjoy the economic benefits of the JCPOA sanction lifting, but once again the opponents of the JCPOA actively based on unsubstantiated allegations on past safeguard issues that was supposed under the JCPOA once for all be closed, trying to fully destroy the achievements of the JCPOA.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has so far had a constructive and extensive cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the statistics on the number and volume of inspections and verifications carried out in the Islamic Republic of Iran attest this fact. Any attempt to misuse the IAEA to put pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran is inconsistent with the letter and spirit of the JCPOA, and undermining the IAEA's credibility as the only competent international technical body to monitor States' nuclear activities; it also could negatively affect the current safeguards implementation. Furthermore, any companionship of some remaining participants of the JCPOA with US conspiracies against the agreement, particularly to destruct and undermine of the very text of the UNSCR 2231, inter alia, lifting of arms restrictions in the fifth year of adoption of the JCPOA in October 2020, is matter of grave concern, and as has been repeatedly emphasized, the renegotiation of the provisions of JCPOA and amending of the sanctions lifting regime will not be tolerated under any circumstances, and the response of the Islamic Republic of Iran will be firm and decisive. The comprehensiveness and finality of this agreement, which has been achieved with difficulty and after two years of intensive negotiations at the highest levels, with all the details and with a precise time frame, should not be compromised in any way. There is no alternative to this agreement; therefore, if there is a political will of the international community, especially the remaining participants of the JCPOA, to preserve this agreement, it is essential to contemplate on ensuring the balanced implementation of the agreement in good faith.

The Islamic Republic of Iran appreciates the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation for their constructive actions and positions which have been exercised in good faith at the Security Council, the Board of Governors and the Joint Commission for the preservation and implementation of the JCPOA, and hopes that the continuity of these efforts provide the necessary ground for the full implementation of the JCPOA.

Finally, while reiterating its readiness to preserve and fully implement the provisions of the JCPOA by all participants to this agreement, in particular, the need for Iran to fully benefit from the economic effects of the lifting of sanctions regime, as envisaged in the JCPOA, the Islamic Republic of Iran is determined to take decisive action against any exaggeration and irresponsible behavior, and strongly urges the E3 to adhere to their commitments, and to preserve and fully implement the UN Security Council instead of moving in the direction of the US maximum pressure policy.

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Scotlands dairy farmers are being asked to attend online Zoom meetings and voice their opinions on 'once in a generation' consultation.

The governments consultation on dairy contract reform is seen as an opportunity for farmers to have their say in shaping a more effective supply chain with fairer terms.

A number of other nations have introduced regulations in an attempt to stabilise markets and address systemic imbalances.

In the EU, thirteen member states including France and Spain have introduced laws on compulsory written milk contracts between farmers and processors.

But the Covid-19 pandemic has further highlighted the difficulties sometimes faced by dairy farmers, most notably in relation to sudden price changes.

In response to the consultation, NFU Scotland are hosting a series of online Zoom meetings, giving attendees an overview of the consultation and the issues it covers.

It will also give Scottish dairy producers an opportunity to raise concerns and issues around the consultation.

Along with the meetings, the union has also created a website for the consultation as well as guidance on how to fill it out.

NFU Scotland milk chairman, Gary Mitchell said the consultation was the most important consultation in the 'last thirty years', and an opportunity for farmers to 'reform an uneven supply chain'.

We see that there is a huge opportunity to change the structure of dairy to make it more sustainable, progressive and improve the way farmers and processors work together for common goals," he said, adding that it was 'vital' for farmers to have their say.

I would encourage every dairy farmer to sign up to one of the four meetings we have scheduled for the end of July as well as filling out the actual consultation."

When are the Zoom meetings?

All Scottish dairy farmers have been encouraged to join a meeting which are scheduled as follows:

 Monday 27 July, 7pm

 Tuesday 28 July, 12 noon

 Tuesday 28 July, 7pm

 Wednesday 29 July, 7pm
Russian illegal armed formations have again used POM-2 anti-personnel mines, which are prohibited by international conventions and threaten the life and health of civilians in Donbas.

"On July 15, 2020, Russian-occupation forces opened fire on the residential buildings of Novoluhanske village, Bakhmut district, Donetsk region, from the uncontrolled village of Dolomitne. The enemy used RPG-7 rocket anti-tank launchers, substituting a grenade with a POM-2 mine," the press service of the Joint Forces Operation Headquarters reports with reference to the information from the Ukrainian side of the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination (JCCC) on the ceasefire and stabilization of the demarcation line.

Having arrived at the site of the attack, the monitors from the Ukrainian side of the JCCC took photos and found a POM-2 mine on the territory of the CJSC Bakhmut Agrarian Union as a result of Russian occupiers attack. The mine was not activated. Further disposal of ammunition by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine is planned. Several of these mines are likely to be found in the surrounding area.

The Ukrainian side of the JCCC emphasizes that this type of mine has been banned by the Ottawa Treaty since 1997 and now is manufactured exclusively in the Russian Federation.

The JFO Headquarters stressed that illegal armed groups of the Russian Federation continued to deliberately disregard the Minsk agreements, violating the rules of humanitarian law, and their bold actions indicated an interest in further escalation of the armed conflict.

"The facts shown above show yet another serious crime and clearly demonstrate the involvement of the Russian Federation in the systematic supply of this type of mines to the territory uncontrolled by Ukraine, with a view to their further use by the occupiers in residential areas of Donbas. The enemy constantly disregards international legal norms and principles applied during the war in accordance with international humanitarian law and acts irresponsibly, endangering the lives of civilians on both sides of the contact line," the statement reads.

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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joined the world leaders in demanding equitable access to coronavirus disease vaccine when it is developed.

He co-authored an article on the issue along with leaders of Spain, New Zealand, South Korea, Ethiopia and three other countries which seeks cooperation from various countries in manufacturing and distributing a Covid-19 vaccine.

Also read: Zydus Cadila begins human dosing in trials of Covid-19 vaccine candidate

Vaccines save lives. Thats why were working here at home and with partners around the world to find one. And when we do, we must keep working together to make sure that people everywhere have access to it - because where you live should not determine whether you live, Trudeau tweeted on Thursday morning.

Vaccines save lives. Thats why were working here at home and with partners around the world to find one. And when we do, we must keep working together to make sure that people everywhere have access to it - because where you live should not determine whether you live.  Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) July 16, 2020

In his second tweet, the Canadian PM tagged world leaders urging cooperation on the issue.

We - @SahleWorkZewde, @MoonRiver365, @JacindaArdern, @CyrilRamaphosa, @SanchezCastejon, @SwedishPM, @ElyesFakhfakh, and myself - are calling on global leaders to commit to an equitable distribution of an eventual COVID-19 vaccine, Trudeau said in the second tweet. The article (an opinion piece) has been published in the Washington Post.

Calling vaccine as the most powerful public health tool, the leaders said in the article that they cannot allow its access to increase inequalities between or within countries.

They also said that vaccine distribution, if managed successfully, will be a cornerstone of strengthening multilateralism for the future.

This comes a day after two frontrunners presented positive news on the Covid-19 vaccine front. A report said on Wednesday that University of Oxfords potential Covid-19 vaccine is in large-scale Phase III human trials to assess whether it can protect against the coronavirus disease. The vaccine could be announced as early as Thursday, the report further said.

Also read: First Covid-19 vaccine tested in US poised for final testing

Biotech firm Moderna also sparked optimism on Wednesday by saying initial tests for its Covid-19 vaccine were a success. Moderna said it will enter the final stage of human trials for its Covid-19 vaccine on July 27.

More than 100 vaccines are being developed and tested around the world to try to stop the Covid-19 pandemic, which has killed hundreds of thousands and ravaged the global economy.
MUMBAI: The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) declared the much-awaited Maharashtra HSC Class 12 results 2020, which was made available on the board's official website at 1 PM on Thursday (July 16). After the official declaration, the links for results are now available on MSBSHSE's official websites: mahahsscboard.maharashtra.gov.in, mahresult.nic.in.

MSBSHSE has shared the result statistics according to which 90.66% of regular students have passed the Maharashtra HSC board exam. According to the board, the overall success rate (freshers and repeaters) for the state is 87.69% up from last years 83.18%. The freshers recorded a success rate of 90.66% while only 39.03% of repeaters passed.

This year again, girls in all the nine divisions have outscored boys in the Maharashtra HSC Class 12th 2020 exam. In the overall performance of fresh students, 88.04% boys and 93.88% girls have cleared the exam.

This year, students of the science stream of the Maharashtra Board have recorded the highest pass percentage in the Maharashtra HSC 2020 exam with 96.93 percent.

In the Commerce stream, Maharashtra Board students have recorded a pass percentage of 91.27 in the MSBSHSE Maharashtra HSC Class 12 Results 2020. The pass percent saw an increase by 2.99 percent from last year. In 2019, the pass percentage in the Commerce stream was at 88.28. Science students have recorded the highest pass percentage of 96.93% followed by Commerce students (91.27%), Arts students (82.63%) and MCVC (86.07%).

Konkan division has once again topped among districts with 95.89 per cent. The Pune division with 92.50 per cent bagged the second position. The Aurangabad has recorded the lowest pass percentage with 88.18 per cent. Last year, Aurangabad was at the 4th position.

Lakhs of students who appeared in the Maharashtra HSC Class 12 exam were earlier advised to keep their MSBSHSE Maharashtra HSC 12th Admit Card 2020 ready and mobiles, laptops charged to check marks on mahahsscboard.maharashtra.gov.in, mahresult.nic.in.

A total of 15.05 lakh students appeared for Maharashtra HSC Class 12 exam in 2020, which were conducted before the imposition of the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus COVID-19 in the country.

Students can now check the performance of Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Nagpur, Nasik, Aurangabad, Amravati, Satara, Solapur, Kalyan schools on mahresult.nic.in, mahahsscboard.maharashtra.gov.in, boardmarksheet.maharashtra.gov.in, DigiLocker app.

Here's how to check Maharashtra HSC Result 2020 online:

1. Students should first visit the official website: mahahsscboard.maharashtra.gov.in

2. They should click on MSBSHE HSC Result 2020 link on the homepage

3. Now enter your roll number and other details and click on submit

4. You can see your result on your computer/ smartphone

5. Now download your result and take a printout for future reference

The result will show the student's name, subject-wise marks, and total score secured by him/her.

The students can also check their Maharashtra Board SSC and HSC result 2020 via SMS. They just need to opt message option on their phone, and type MH<exam name> <Seat No> and send it to 57766.

The Maharashtra HSC exams were held from February 18 to March 18. Out of the 15 lakh registered students, 3.39 lakh students are from Mumbai division alone, which consists of Thane, Raigad and Palghar. A total of 1,919 students with special needs were registered for the MSBSHSE exams.

According to reports, the evaluation of answer sheets of Maharashtra HSC Class 12 exam was started by on May 6 and around 42 lakhs out of approximately 50 lakh answer sheets were reportedly evaluated for the Mumbai division till July 19.

In 2019, Maharashtra SSC and HSC results were declared on June 8, 2019.
BOSSIER CITY, La. (AP)  Police in Louisiana were able to reel in a man captured on video swimming through a fish tank at a sporting goods store.

Kevin Wise, 26, told KSLA-TV that he plunged into the indoor aquarium at a Bass Pro Shop in Bossier City last week to follow through on a promise he made to followers on the social media platform TikTok.

"I said that if I got 2,000 likes I would jump in the tank," Wise said. "I got way more than that and didn't want to be a liar."

A video captured by shopper Treasure McGraw showed Wise swimming through the tank before climbing out and running from the store with wet clothes.

"We heard a big splash and I thought it was one of the fish," McGraw told the news outlet. "My fiance was like 'somebody is in the tank' and we saw the guy swimming."

Bass Pro Shops filed a complaint with the Bossier City Police Department Friday, saying it cost them money to empty out the 13,000 gallon aquarium and clean it after Wise's swim, KTAL-TV reported.

Wise was charged with simple criminal damage to property and released with a citation to appear in court, police said.

He told KSLA-TV he planned on continuing to make videos for his followers, but cautioned others against doing similar "spur of the moment" pranks.
Remind me again why were supposed to think Republicans are against science?

As an antidote, see John McWhorters article in The Atlantic out today attacking the whole white fragility narrative, and especially Robin DiAngelos prominence at the moment. Some samples:

I have learned that one of Americas favorite advice books of the moment is actually a racist tract. Despite the sincere intentions of its author, the book diminishes Black people in the name of dignifying us. This is unintentional, of course, like the racism DiAngelo sees in all whites. Still, the book is pernicious because of the authority that its author has been granted over the way innocent readers think. . .

DiAngelos book is replete with claims that are either plain wrong or bizarrely disconnected from reality. . .

An especially weird passage is where DiAngelo breezily decries the American higher-education system, in which, she says, no one ever talks about racism. I can get through graduate school without ever discussing racism, she writes. I can graduate from law school without ever discussing racism. I can get through a teacher-education program without ever discussing racism. I am mystified that DiAngelo thinks this laughably antique depiction reflects any period after roughly 1985. . .

A corollary question is why Black people need to be treated the way DiAngelo assumes we do. The very assumption is deeply condescending to all proud Black people. In my life, racism has affected me now and then at the margins, in very occasional social ways, but has had no effect on my access to societal resources; if anything, it has made them more available to me than they would have been otherwise. Nor should anyone dismiss me as a rara avis. Being middle class, upwardly mobile, and Black has been quite common during my existence since the mid-1960s, and to deny this is to assert that affirmative action for Black people did not work.

White Fragility is, in the end, a book about how to make certain educated white readers feel better about themselves. DiAngelos outlook rests upon a depiction of Black people as endlessly delicate poster children within this self-gratifying fantasy about how white America needs to thinkor, better, stop thinking. Her answer to white fragility, in other words, entails an elaborate and pitilessly dehumanizing condescension toward Black people. The sad truth is that anyone falling under the sway of this blinkered, self-satisfied, punitive stunt of a primer has been taught, by a well-intentioned but tragically misguided pastor, how to be racist in a whole new way.
Mumbai, July 16 : Jailed Telugu activist-poet Pendyala Varavara Rao (79) -- one of the prime accused in the Bhima- Koregaon and Elgar Parishad cases -- has tested positive for Covid-19, official sources said here on Thursday.

The 79-year old Leftist revolutionary was nabbed by the Pune Police in August 2018 in connection with politically sensitive cases, along with around a dozen other activists from all over India, and has been lodged in the Taloja Central Jail, Raigad, since the past few months.

On July 13, he was taken to Sir J.J. Hospital in Mumbai for treatment of various illnesses and old-age related problems. He also underwent a Covid test which turned out to be positive on Thursday, an official said requesting anonymity.

Last week, his family in Hyderabad had held a press conference to raise concerns over Rao's health, urging the government to provide necessary medical attention to him.

Rao's family, including his wife P. Hemalatha, daughters P. Sahaja, P. Anala and P. Pavana, issued a public appeal from Hyderabad while several other human rights groups and individuals have also called for his release in view of his frail health.
Los Angeles Responds to High Demand for Testing Availability; DHS Looks to Open New Testing Sites in Disproportionate Areas

Wednesday, July 15, Los Angeles Public Officials disclose new updates regarding the escalation of positive COVID-19 in the County. This week the community has seen closures of businesses and outdoor activity since the numbers have spiked, new orders from the state has cause alternations to take place within the Safer at Home Order.

There is a critical need for plan to accommodate the rise in demand for testing, Los Angeles Director of Health Services Christina Ghaly shared what the county plans to do to meet increase testing capacity. There will be new testing sites coming line in East Los Angeles Community College, El Monte, and the Pomona Fairplex. The city of Azusa, Montebello, and South Gate will also have new testing areas in the coming week.

The symptoms of COVID-19 seem to range in different hosts. Supervisor Hilda Solis shared details of a specific individual experiencing blood clots, seizures, heart palpitations, and shortness of breath. Los Angeles is in critical condition and all residents are advised to remain vigilant and in the house whenever possible.

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Conversations are being had around school sectors reopening; the final decision will be left in the hands of each school district. Public officials stress the precaution needed to consider putting both students and faculty at risk. Solis Stated, This virus is unpredictable, so unfortunately we need to adapt and do so quickly. If a district is not able to comply with the safety protocols and if there is too much community transmission, then it should continue in distance learning.

The Los Angeles Public Health department has been monitoring all the state ordered benchmarks throughout this pandemic, there has been concerning spikes in multiple measurements including hospitalization, community transmission, and death rates. July 14 had record breaking numbers in new positive cases reported. There were 73 fatal cases recorded, which is slightly less than the highest report of 76 deaths in May.

Latest numbers surrounding coronavirus shared on July 15, reflected 44 additional deaths, 27 of these individuals were between the ages of 65 and over, 25 of them with underlining health conditions. 13 people who died were between the ages of 41-65, eight victims had preexisting health concerns. one individual was below the age of 40, with underlining medical conditions, this brings the total COVID-19 related deaths in the L.A. County to 3,932.

The relationship between COVID-19 infection and ethnicity were provided. The racial background collected from 3,598 fatal cases shown 11% were African American, 16% were Asian, slightly less than 1% were Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 45% were LatinX, 26% were white, and 1% identified as a different race or ethnicity. 93% of those who died due to COVID-19 had preexisting health concerns.

Ferrer disclosed on Wednesday, there were 2,758 new COVID-19 reports. In summary, there is a total amount of 143,009 coronavirus cases in the Los Angeles region. 5,849 incidents were reported in the city of Long Beach and 1,580 cases in the city of Pasadena. Amid the unsheltered, there were 833 positive cases, 303 victims were temporarily housed in a shelter and have been properly isolated.

Department of Health Services are working swiftly to cover areas that are being disproportionately affected by COVID-19. There is a geographically approach to add new testing site locations. Test results are showing that the Black and LatinX community are experience more fatal cases than other ethnicities.

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Access to testing is a factor DHS has considered and are looking to respond to those gaps with a demographic- based lens based off the data that is portraying a surge in certain communities. Ghaly stated, With that in mind, we are expanding the countys testing sites by 65% over the next couple of weeks with the entirety of that expansion focused on areas of high need.
(Photo : Screenshot from: International Aids Society Youtube Page ) India Can Bring Worldwide COVID-19 Vaccine Doses for All, Says Bill Gates (Photo : REUTERS/Dado Ruvic) A small bottle labeled with a "Vaccine" sticker is held near a medical syringe in front of displayed "Coronavirus COVID-19" words in this illustration taken April 10, 2020.

India's population is estimated at over 1.3 billion people. In the times of coronavirus, this has been one major issue. But, Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Bill Gates thinks otherwise. He believes that one of the world's most populated countries will produce the COVID-19 vaccine that can treat people anywhere they are in the world.





Where to get the COVID-19 vaccine?

Have you asked yourself? Where do we get the COVID-19 vaccine once scientists finished making it? Apparently, billionaire Bill Gates has the answer.

Through the documentary - COVID-19: India's War Against The Virus - that will be premiered on Discovery Plus this week, the Microsoft co-founder barged into the topic of India's actions against the spread of the virus.

He said that although India is an Asian country that has billions of population until now, Gates believes that the dependency of the world to the COVID-19 vaccine lies in the hands of Indian pharmaceutical companies.

"India has a lot of capacity there - with the drug and vaccine companies that are huge suppliers to the entire world. You know, more vaccines are made in India than anywhere - starting with Serum Institute, that's the largest," said Gates in the interview.

Other than that, Gates also thinks that the pandemic will end soon once the Indian companies build the vaccine that will make these all go away. Meaning that he believes India can and will produce a million doses needed to treat everyone that has a COVID-19, around the globe.

"I am excited that the pharmaceutical industry there will be able to produce not just for India but also for the entire world. (This is) What we need to reduce the deaths and make sure we are immune, which is how we end the epidemic."

Do we have the vaccine?

The very first COVID-19 vaccine in the United States was already tested by humans positive with the virus.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government's top infectious disease expert, told The Associated Press that Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine is now on its final trial phase and was proven to boost the immune system of those injected with the serum.

"This is an essential building block that is needed to move forward with the trials that could actually determine whether the vaccine does protect against infection," said Dr. Lisa Jackson of the Kaiser Permanente Washington Research Institute in Seattle, who led the study.

For now, there are still no assurances that the vaccine will work for everyone in the country. Though as Fauci describes, "no matter how you sliced it, its a good news."

And it was actually great news.





ALSO READ: Oxford University 80% Confident their Breakthrough COVID-19 Vaccine Could Be Ready By September

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A German man who was dubbed 'Rambo' after disarming four police officers at gunpoint before going on the run is thought to have penned a manifesto found by police.

The manifesto, titled 'The Call of the Wild', is thought to have been written by Yves Etienne Rausch, 31, who has gone on the run in Germany's Black Forest.

It was found in a bar shortly after Rausch 'suddenly and completely unexpectely' pulled a gun on police officers who carried out an ID check on him in a hut near Oppenau in Baden-Wurttemberg. He made the police hand over their weapons before running away.

The discovered manifesto argues that people who live close to nature are superior to modern city-dwellers.

Rausch spent time in prison for shooting his girlfriend with a bow and arrow, local media reports.

Around 200 officers are combing the Black Forest with the help of special forces, helicopters and sniffer dogs in the search for Rausch, who fled on Sunday.

His mother told Baden Online the police should 'withdraw all their forces' because he will 'come out of the forest by himself'.

Special forces and helicopters are being used huge manhunt for a camouflage-wearing Yves Etienne Rausch, 31, (pictured) who disarmed four officers at gunpoint in Germany

Local newspaper Badische Zeitung has reported that the forest area cannot be cordoned off and each officer involved in the search is carrying a backpack weighing up to 66 pounds (30kg).

The paper added that Rausch could survive by eating wild plants and insects and by drinking spring water.

There are also local vegetable plots which he could raid at night, they claimed.

Rausch has been likened to the fictional Rambo made famous by Hollywood star Silvester Stallone. Stallone's character is a violent Vietnam war veteran who flees from US police.

Police in Oppenau earlier warned local residents to stay at home and not pick up any hitchhikers.

Authorities said Rausch is carrying several firearms and known to be violent.

Around 200 officers are combing the Black Forest with the help of special forces, helicopters and sniffer dogs in the search for Yves Etienne Rausch, who fled on Sunday

The manifesto, titled 'The Call of the Wild', is thought to have been written by Rausch. Pictured: Police during their initial hunt for Rausch on Sunday

Four officers were sent to a hut which Rausch was living in in the forest on Sunday morning following reports of a suspicious man.

The suspect cooperated at first, but suddenly threatened them with a firearm, leaving the officers 'no time to react to the dangerous situation,' police said.

The man made the officers hand over their weapons before running away, 'presumably' taking their firearms with him.

Rausch's mother said he was evicted from his rented flat last year.

It is not clear if this is the same flat above a local guest house which Bild reported Rausch had lived. He had reportedly set up a shooting range in the attic.

Weapons were also found, according to reports.

His mother told Baden Online the police should 'withdraw all their forces' because he will 'come out of the forest by himself'. Pictured: One officer during the search for Rausch

Rausch's mother said he had gone to his aunt's after being evicted but then went to live in the forest.

She said he is a 'woodsman' and 'wanted to escape into nature, to be free.'

His mother added that she had had a coffee with him on July 8 where he had appeared 'perfectly normal'.

A police spokesman was cited as saying the man was in a state of 'psychiatric emergency' and should not be approached.

The police weapons were P2000 semi-automatic pistols that can hold up to 16 bullets each, according to Bild, meaning the man could have an extra 64 shots at his disposal.

Rausch is described as being around 5-foot, 7-inches tall, bald, with a goatee beard and wearing camouflage clothing and possibly glasses.
SARASOTA, Fla., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- INVO Bioscience, Inc. (OTCQB: INVO), ("the Company", "INVO") a medical device company focused on creating alternative treatments for patients diagnosed with infertility and developers of INVOcell, the world's only in vivo Intravaginal Culture System, received product registration approval for INVOcell in Turkey, paving the way for commercialization efforts to begin in the country.

In November 2019, INVO Bioscience and Orcan Medical, a leading medical distributor to large medical device companies including St. Jude Medical, Cooper Surgical, and Clarus within Turkey, entered into an exclusive commercial partnership for INVOcell in Turkey. The agreement required product registration within country which has now been received. The exclusive agreement with Orcan Medical for Turkey is contingent upon minimum purchase and other requirements.

Turkey, and the Eurasia region, has a growing middle-class population, yet is experiencing a multi-decade decline in birth rate according to The World Bank. The decline in fertility rates in Eurasia at large, and Turkey in particular, has pushed governments to allocate more resources to combating the issue. According to research, an estimated 15% to 20% of the Turkish population suffers from the difficulty of conceiving.

Steve Shum, CEO of INVO Bioscience, commented, "We are pleased to have achieved this important registration approval for Turkey which enables our distribution partner, Orcan Medical, to now begin commercialization efforts in the country. Similar to other regions around the world, the people of Turkey are faced with increased infertility rates and challenges to receiving treatment, including access to care and cost of treatment. As the world's only Intravaginal Culture System, INVOcell, a streamlined treatment solution, is uniquely positioned to address the challenges within the infertility industry."

The INVOcell System

The INVOcell system is a novel fertility treatment that uses a woman's own body as a natural incubator for the incubation of eggs and sperm during fertilization and early embryo development. INVO Bioscience believes this process is cost-effective and has shown highly effective pregnancy rates and may have the ability to significantly increase patient access. The Company further believes the INVOcell system helps eliminate the need for costly infrastructure and overhead associated with IVF, one of the primary hindering factors to fertility treatment capacity. The Company's unique in vivo fertilization process also has the potential to serve as a powerful motivator for many patients with religious and/or cultural concerns.

Fertility Treatment Market

Worldwide, the fertility treatment market is severely underserved. Currently, only 1% to 2% of the estimated 150 million infertile couples worldwide are treated, with the primary prohibiting factor being cost and access to treatment.

About INVO Bioscience

INVO Bioscience, Inc. (OTCQB: INVO) ("INVO") is an innovative medical device company developing solutions for the global infertility industry. INVO's goal is to increase access to care and expand fertility treatment across the globe while seeking to lower the cost and increase the availability of care. INVO's lead commercial product, the INVOcell, is a patented Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) used in the treatment of infertility. The INVOcell device and procedure is unique as the first Intravaginal Culture (IVC) system in the world used for the natural in vivo incubation of eggs and sperm during fertilization and early embryo development. As an alternative to traditional in Vitro Fertilization (IVF), the revolutionary in vivo method of vaginal incubation offers patients a more natural and intimate experience. INVO Bioscience is headquartered in Sarasota, FL. For more information, please visit http://invobioscience.com/.

Safe Harbor Statement

This release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The Company invokes the protections of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements regarding our expected future financial position, results of operations, cash flows, financing plans, business strategies, products and services, competitive positions, growth opportunities, plans and objectives of management for future operations, as well as statements that include words such as "anticipate," "if," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "could," "should," "will," and other similar expressions are forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control, which may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from anticipated results, performance, or achievements. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include those set forth in our filings at www.sec.gov. We are under no obligation to (and expressly disclaim any such obligation to) update or alter our forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE INVO Bioscience, Inc.

Related Links

https://invobioscience.com/


A torrent of evictions loom in the coming months for millions of Americans who have been unable to pay rent during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Housing researchers and activists are warning that millions of people risk becoming homeless if the government doesn't extend measures, both federally and locally, that were put in place during the pandemic to protect renters.

According to the latest weekly Census Bureau data, 11.6 million people live in households that missed their last rental payments.

More than 22 million Americans also have no, or only slight confidence, that they will be able to make next month's rental payments, the figures show.

People who rent have largely been able to survive the initial months of the pandemic due to eviction moratoriums put in place in most states, as well unemployment and federal relief checks.

Those measures, however, have had a cascading effect within the housing market as landlords who cannot collect rent struggle to cover their own bills.

A torrent of evictions loom in the coming months for millions of Americans who have been unable to pay rent due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Pictured is a sign that reads 'No Job No Rent' hanging from the windows of an apartment building in Washington in May

As part of the $2 trillion coronavirus aid package, Congress put a 120-day nationwide eviction moratorium on certain rentals.

It meant that renters who live in a federally subsidized building or one with a federally backed mortgage could not be evicted through July 25.

Landlords also could not charge fees or penalties for nonpayment during this time as well. About one third of renters across the country were covered by this federal moratorium.

Meanwhile, various other state and citywide eviction moratoriums were put in place to protect other renters.

They too are now expiring or have already run out.

While the rules vary in different states, rent is not canceled under the moratoriums and people still have to pay. But many local moratoriums have rules in place that mean landlords cannot charge late fees for missed payments.

When the moratoriums expire, landlords can start evicting tenants who have not paid or own rent. In some states, like Nevada, the moratoriums also apply to commercial tenants.

States from Nevada to Virginia have recently lifted or are about to end moratoriums on rent payments and foreclosures designed to get people through the pandemic and its economic fallout.

Pennsylvania recently announced it will extend its moratorium until the end of August, while Boston will keep its ban on most public housing evictions until the end of the year.

Arizona's 120-day order ends July 22.

One in four tenants in New York City haven't paid rent at all since March when the coronavirus pandemic began, according to a report from the Community Housing Improvement Program. Pictured above are protesters in Brookly, New York

Demonstrators gather outside of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker's home in Chicago to demand a lift on the Illinois rent control ban and a cancellation of rent and mortgage payments during the COVID-19 pandemic

Housing advocacy groups in Arizona have joined lawmakers in lobbying Gov. Doug Ducey to extend his coronavirus-related moratorium on evictions and allow authorities to start removing hundreds of renters in the state that's become a national hot spot for infections.

Advocates in Arizona also say it's too early to end the ban because most of the government money set aside to help pay rents and mortgages still hasn't been doled out.

A report released earlier this month revealed that nearly one third of American families were unable to make full payments for July.

The survey by Apartment List, an online rental platform, found that 32 percent of US households did not make their full payments on time this month.

It marked the fourth month in a row that a 'historically high' number of households were unable to make the payments on time and in full - up from 30 percent in June and 24 percent in April.

About 19 percent of survey respondents said they made no payment at all during the first week of the month and 13 percent paid only a portion of their rent or mortgage.

In June, about 90 percent of households were able to pay some or all of their payments, but a large sum of those payments appeared to have been made at the end of the month, the report found.

With late fees added on, the struggle to make payments is becoming a vicious cycle that's likely to persist as the pandemic continues to surge.

'Delayed payments in one month are a strong predictor for missed payments in the next,' the report says, noting that 70 percent of households who were late in May were also late in June.

A report released earlier this month revealed that nearly one third of American families were unable to make full payments for July

A different report found that one in four tenants in New York City hadn't paid rent at all since March when the coronavirus pandemic began.

The Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP), a trade association for owners of rent-stabilized properties, estimates that 25 percent of the 5.4 million people renting in the city had not made a payment in four months.

A New York state law that prohibits landlords from evicting tenants who are facing financial hardships as a result of the pandemic has had a cascading effect within the housing market as landlords who aren't bringing in rent struggle to cover their own bills and the city braces for millions of dollars in delinquent property taxes.

A June survey by CHIP found that 39 percent of building owners could only make partial property tax payments for July, while six percent were unable to pay any at all.

Also weighing on Americans trying to make rent is that fact the extra $600 in federal unemployment benefits ceases at the end of July.

Another 1.3 million Americans filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the total number of people thrown out of work during the coronavirus pandemic to nearly 50 million.

Figures released by the Labor Department on Thursday shows that weekly claims have steadily been dropping but remain at an historically high level that indicates many companies are still cutting jobs as the COVID-19 outbreak intensifies.

There is no agreement yet between the White House and Congress on a second federal relief package.

Democrats are pushing to provide more money to prevent evictions: $100 billion in rental assistance and $75 billion for homeowners paying mortgages.

The Democrats' bill would extend federal eviction moratorium through March 2021.
Mumbai Polices crime branch arrested Harish Kalyandas Bhavsar alias Harikrishna alias Paresh Zhaveri alias Boby, 53, a resident of south Mumbai who had been absconding for 23 years. A detention order was issued against him under Cofeposa (Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities) Act in 1997 after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) found him involved in smuggling diamonds from Singapore.

According to police, Bhavsar used to import raw gold and diamond from Singapore but did not pay due taxes, following which ED started an inquiry and found that he was involved in smuggling.

A detention order was served to the preventive branch of Mumbai Police to nab the culprit and send him to jail. However, when the unit 1 of crime branch, under the directive of preventive branch, visited Bhavsars residence he was not there.

Since then, police visited his house many times, but Bhavsar had moved to Khetwadi in south Mumbai, said inspector Vinayak Mer of unit 1.

Following information about his new address, he was nabbed on Wednesday and was handed over to the preventive branch for further process, added Mer.

Bhavsar has approached the Bombay high court which is pending in the court.
Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday said that no other option is left with Air India but to go in for privatisation. Replying to a question during a press briefing on civil aviation issues, the minister said that the airline cannot depend on state funding to survive.

He cited that due to the COVID-19-induced economic turbulence the Centre might not be in a position to support the airline as massive financial resources have been deployed to safeguard the vulnerable sections of society. Furthermore, the minister without naming anyone said the airline should be left to those who know how to run it. He was replying to question on sharp political reactions that have been received on social media regarding the airline's 'Leave without Pay' policy.

Recently, the national carrier has instituted a scheme whereby employees can opt to take "leave without pay" ranging from six months to up to five years. Additionally, the airline's management will also have the option to send any employee on leave.

An Air India staff notice read, "The Board of Directors in its 102nd meeting held on July 7, 2020, has approved a scheme whereby employees can opt to take 'leave without pay' ranging from six months or for two years and the same can be extended to up to five years.

"The scheme also authorises the CMD to pass an order on behalf and in the name of the company whereby an employee could be sent on leave for six months or for a period of two years extendable to up to five years."

However, this provision can only be exercised depending upon factors such as "suitability, efficiency, competence, quality of performance, the health of the employee, an instance of non-availability of the employee for duty in the past, as a result of ill health or otherwise and redundancy".

The Air India unions are yet to decide on the future course of action. An Air India union leader said: "LWP has to be across the board for all employees and burden has to be shared by all employees. This is not market standards. This is cherry-picking by the top management."

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According to Air India PIM document, as on November 1, 2019, the airline on a standalone basis (without subsidiaries) had around 14,000 employees, including fixed-term contract staff. The development comes as the Centre has re-initiated the airline's divestment plan with new norms.

Puri, further said that the airline's management is in touch with all sections of employees and if privatisation does not takes place then "everyone" might lose their jobs. Besides, he said that privatisation might save the passenger carrier from the fate that many airlines around the world have recently suffered.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump finalized a major overhaul Wednesday of one of the country's most consequential environmental laws on the grounds that it has slowed the construction of highways, pipelines and other major projects across the country.

The sweeping changes to the 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act, which opponents have vowed to fight in court and reverse if Democrats regain control of the executive and legislative branches this fall, underscore the stakes in this year's election.

"This is a truly historic breakthrough," Trump said Wednesday afternoon at an event at a United Parcel Service hub in Atlanta where he announced the move. He added: "Together, we're reclaiming America's proud heritage as a nation of builders and a nation that can get things done."

The law requires the federal government to analyze the impact of a major project or federal action on the environment - and to seek public input - before approving it. Trump and his allies in business and industry argue that the law has proved costly and cumbersome to developers. But supporters say it provides Americans - particularly those in poor and minority neighborhoods that bear the brunt of many polluting industries - with a say on proposals that will affect them for decades to come.

Trump chose Georgia, which has emerged as a battleground state in this year's presidential and Senate elections, as the site for unveiling his move. At Wednesday's event in Atlanta, he noted that his action is expected to cut down the length of time for a highway expansion plan there to two years from the original seven.

"We're going to give every project a clear answer: Yes or no," Trump said to applause. A White House official said the move will benefit the UPS hub by reducing congestion and promoting economic development in the region.

Kym Hunter, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, said in a phone interview that it was hard to say the law had delayed Atlanta's Interstate 75 expansion because it was still in the early stages.

The president can't amend the law, but he intends to change the rules governing the way it is implemented. He wants to exempt some projects and activities from environmental review altogether while speeding up the time frame for reviews for other projects. In one of the most contentious changes, federal agencies would be told not to consider "indirect" climate impacts. While this category is not yet defined, experts said, it could potentially include emissions from burning oil and gas shipped through a new pipeline or increased traffic on an expanded highway.

Mike Sommers, president and chief executive of the American Petroleum Institute, predicted that the changes would speed up the construction of "not only the modernized pipeline infrastructure we need to deliver cleaner fuels but highways, bridges and renewable energy."

Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, said in a statement, "A brighter future awaits countless projects, including planned offshore wind farms up and down the Atlantic Coast with the billions of dollars of investment and tens of thousands of American jobs they will bring."

But critics warned that the White House is going beyond its legal authority by trying to change a law without congressional authorization.

"Trump can't change the statute, and Congress and the courts have laid out clear parameters for what the federal government must do before approving or funding a project," said Sharon Buccino, director of lands for the Natural Resources Defense Council, in an email. "If the Trump administration tries to ram through polluting projects without the appropriate review and public comment, we will be right there ready to take them to court. As we have seen with the recent pipeline and drilling cases, the administration's attempts to rush this process have led to lawsuits - and more rather than less delay."

Depending on how many days Congress remains in session this year and the results of the fall election, Democrats may be able to overturn Trump's move through the Congressional Review Act next year, or craft a new rule to replace it if the party gains control of the White House.

Matt Hill, a spokesman for former vice president Joe Biden, said in an email that the presumptive Democratic nominee would reverse the new rule if elected and focus instead on providing additional resources to underserved communities.

"No one should be fooled that Donald Trump is attempting to destroy a bipartisan, cornerstone law to distract from the fact that 'Infrastructure Week' never happened and never will happen as long as he is president," Hill said. "Joe Biden knows what it's like to inherit an economy on the brink of collapse and has successfully overseen a recovery that gets people back to work quickly and with certainty - and he's going to do it again."

Outside groups have managed to either halt or delay several of the Trump administration's most high-profile energy projects and environmental rollbacks by invoking NEPA, including the Keystone XL and Atlantic Coast pipelines. They have also deployed it to scuttle lesser-known proposals, including a large trash incinerator slated to be built on a flood plain in Arecibo, Puerto Rico.

Hunter said that it made no sense to scale back the law at a time when marginalized communities were demanding greater input into decisions affecting their public health.

"This is a blatant and transparent effort from the Trump administration to further silence communities that are not as well connected, not as wealthy, not as valuable to the White House as others," Hunter said. "And the fact that it is happening now, when so many in our communities are crying out for equity and fairness, is particularly appalling."
With coronavirus cases spiking and tourists streaming in, the city of Bend is once again asking visitors to stay home.

The Bend City Council voted Wednesday to reissue a coronavirus travel advisory, first issued in March, that asks people to avoid any non-essential travel in the area, and encourages hotels and other temporary lodging facilities to refrain from booking new reservations.

City officials allowed the original order to expire June 6, when Deschutes County entered Phase 2 of the states reopening plan. The reissued order will be effective through Labor Day.

We just want to send the message to really caution people before booking their trip here, Bend city manager Eric King said. We are seeing a pretty high number of visitors and I think our community is concerned about that.

Other tourist towns in Oregon have faced similar struggles this summer. In Hood River, officials told visitors to comply with coronavirus restrictions or make other plans. Cannon Beach, meanwhile, is attempting to create a culture of safety amid the pandemic.

In Bend, its already been a busy start to summer. Occupancy rates in town were as high 95% over the Fourth of July weekend, King said  normal for any given summer, but more crowded than officials expected given the pandemic. Thats a sharp increase from the Memorial Day weekend, he said, when occupancy rates were closer to 65%.

At the same time, Deschutes County has seen a spike in COVID-19 cases in July, and reported the countys first death Tuesday. The increase in cases mirrors a troubling statewide trend in Oregon, which reported a record 437 new and presumptive cases Thursday.

While Deschutes County hasnt seen nearly as many cases as more populated areas like Multnomah and Washington Counties, and hasnt been a rural hot spot like Umatilla County, the rise in cases has local leaders concerned.

The response from Bend will be a strongly worded plea for caution aimed at tourists and hotels, albeit one with no plan for enforcement. The reissued travel advisory is expected to be officially issued before the weekend, King said, and will take effect immediately.

During the 4-3 vote Wednesday, council members and city officials made it a point to avoid making tourist activities illegal or to take action that would force hotels and other businesses to close.

I think well get plenty of people as it is, we dont need to shut down things, city councilman Bill Moseley said at the meeting. I dont want to get to a point where we actually have to take some extreme position.

The bigger issue was one of messaging, council members said, with criticism directed at the Visit Bend website, which presently shows a warning about COVID-19 just above tourism recommendations for those looking to visit.

As the city council agreed to reissue the travel advisory, council members also made an agreement to ask Visit Bend to tamp down their pitch to tourists. The tourism organization is independent, but is partially funded by lodging taxes and promotes the area on a contract with the city, King said.

In response to the vote, Visit Bend said it has aggressively used its website and social media channels to encourage responsibility during the pandemic, and for weeks has told visitors to wear masks and practice good hygiene. But following the city councils action, it plans to step up that effort.

We fully support the reinstatement of travel restrictions, and were adding additional messaging to the website underscoring the importance of staying home and staying safe, spokeswoman Tawna Fenske said.

--Jamie Hale; jhale@oregonian.com; 503-294-4077; @HaleJamesB

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Police Forensic Team interrogating Junior Georges, the officer appointed as Acting Director of Public Works after Director Allan Faerua was suspended. Photo: Supplied
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 22:59:47|Editor: huaxia

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DOHA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Qatar's health ministry on Thursday announced 494 new infections of COVID-19, increasing the total number of confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 105,477.

"Some 531 people recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 102,168, while only one died, raising the fatalities to 152," the official Qatar News Agency reported, quoting a statement by the ministry.

A total of 430,661 people in Qatar have undergone lab tests for COVID-19 so far, it added.

China and Qatar have offered mutual help during the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

On Feb. 21, five Qatar Airways cargo freighters flew to China carrying approximately 300 tons of medical supplies donated by the airline.

On July 8, Chinese health officials and medical experts held a video conference with their Qatari counterparts to share experience and expertise in fighting COVID-19.

The two sides also held in-depth exchange of views on the issues that Qatar is most concerned about, including coronavirus prevention and control, test analysis, clinic care, vaccine development and social management. Enditem
CHICAGO  With the number of COVID-19 cases continuing to rise nationally, Illinois PIRG and Open Safe Illinois released its new weekly trends and risk assessment report, grading Illinois as caution warranted when it comes to meeting COVID-19 containment criteria.

This is the third week the coalition provided a snapshot of Illinois coronavirus efforts.

As a result, Open Safe Illinois is calling on state and local governments to maintain all current restrictions, and consider implementing additional containment measures to prevent COVID-19 cases from rising further.

Illinois continues to improve on testing, and weve made great progress in controlling the spread of COVID-19 in recent months, said Abe Scarr, Illinois PIRG director and a coordinator of Open Safe Illinois, a coalition of 25 health, labor, aging and public interest organizations supporting public health-driven decision making.

But some states currently experiencing uncontrolled spread were recently in a similar position, he said. We must remain vigilant, including being prepared to quickly reinstate additional containment measures in line with the Restore Illinois plan.

These findings are based on an evaluation by CovidExitStrategy.org. The nonpartisan group of public health and crisis experts ranked Illinois based on an analysis of the states performance on metrics including four Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-recommended benchmarks: 14-day decline in influenza-like illness; declining COVID positive cases; diminishing percentage of COVID positive cases; and, appropriate hospital capacity.

This week, in response to the severity of the problem in many states, CovidExitStrategy.org added a new category to its scorecard: uncontrolled spread. Currently, 18 states fall in this category, including neighboring Iowa. CovidExitStrategy.org also slightly changed how it weighs metrics to determine a states overall grade. Illinois was given its caution warranted grade based on its new cases per 100,000 per day. Illinois received better marks on testing and hospital capacity.

We continue to learn more about the virus and what actions work best to contain its spread, said Tom Hughes, executive director of the Illinois Public Health Association.

State and local leaders should continue to follow the Restore Illinois plan and be prepared to take action if virus numbers worsen in Illinois.

Nationally, only four states were graded trending better as of July 13.
Belfast City Council's internal report notes that Bobby Storey's hearse arrived at Roselawn Cemetery at 15.54 and that CCTV footage shows it leaving 24 minutes later.

Dissecting the details of somebody's cremation is an unsightly business. Sinn Fein gave the IRA leader a public funeral, but his cremation should have remained a private matter for his family and friends.

The only reason that justifies it being scrutinised is the disgraceful discrimination against eight ordinary families whom the council effectively made sit at the back of the bus.

It can never be put right no matter how loudly City Hall apologises or what compensation is paid. It's not like messing up a birthday, anniversary or some other occasion. It doesn't get more traumatic than a funeral.

It's hard enough to summon the strength to stand in that cemetery and say a final goodbye to someone you loved. To find out that the person precious to you was denied the same rights as another who was deemed more important is a body blow from which it's hard to recover.

Sinn Fein says that such discrimination was the last thing Bobby Storey would have wanted because he was committed to equality, so it's hard to fathom why the party doesn't back an independent investigation into events.

It wasn't Sinn Fein that made the decision not to let these families have the 30 mourners that Bobby Storey (right) was granted.

If there is nothing to hide, then support an impartial outside investigator looking at it all. Sinn Fein usually rejects internal inquiries as inadequate on a whole range of issues. Why is that not the case now? It is wholly inappropriate that the institution responsible for the wrong at Roselawn is the only one allowed to investigate it.

If Sinn Fein is genuinely angry on behalf of the families treated unequally, then why isn't it demanding that those corporately responsible are held to account and face censure?

The party is singing the praises of council chief executive Suzanne Wylie and director of city and neighbourhood services Nigel Grimshaw, so who does it blame for the hurt inflicted on these families on June 30?

Why is the party talking about a "witch-hunt" rather than asserting that truth and transparency are vital for public confidence?

For me, the issue is not what happened inside the cemetery after Bobby Storey's hearse arrived.

I don't buy into the wild claims that republicans took control of the cemetery or that staff were intimidated and harassed. I think that's a ridiculous sideshow.

There were no paramilitary trappings at the funeral. Neither was there a flag nor guard of honour. Some of those who would be outraged at the idea of a tricolour in Roselawn don't have a problem with various loyalist emblems on display there. Much of the feverish speculation comes from those who just don't want a republican about the place.

The chain of events leading up to the cremation is where the focus should be. Why, for example, did Sinn Fein twice ring Ms Wylie the week before the funeral?

The report says that the caller requested details of the numbers who could attend the cremation.

Why did they do that? Funeral regulations were already in the public domain - they're published on the Executive's website. Any Sinn Fein elected representative would have known that. If in doubt, they could have checked with their party's own ministers. Why involve the council's chief executive? Who in Sinn Fein made those calls?

An independent investigation must focus not just on how senior council officers behaved but on what interventions, if any, were made by members of Belfast City Council or other politicians.

City Hall's internal report says that the decision to let 30 mourners into the Storey cremation, which was denied to the eight families earlier ones that day, was made by the director of city and neighbourhood services, the former PSNI commander Nigel Grimshaw.

The internal report is vague on why he did so. Apparently, he made an "operational decision" and decisions were taken "in the context of managing potential issues if numbers arrived and demands for access were made".

Is that a roundabout way of saying he feared a riot? If so, that means that somebody reckoned that mourners for the previous eight cremations would be less assertive about getting in - and that worked against them.

The report says there appears to have been a focus of Storey's funeral "as a profile event", but death should know no VIPs.

The image I can't get out of my head is of nurse Lynn Paul breaking down in tears during a UTV interview.

She explained how she wasn't allowed into Roselawn for her mother's funeral on the same day as Bobby Storey's.

"It's not nice to watch a hearse drive away from you thinking, 'That's my mummy in the back... she raised me, she cared for us'," Lynn said.

She accepted the situation because she thought that the same rules applied to everybody. She felt heartbroken and humiliated when she found out that was not so.

"How can one person or one family matter more than the rest? For my family, we feel like we don't matter. I feel disgusted and angry - really, really angry," she said.

Those emotions about events at Roselawn Cemetery are entirely justified. The gates should either be open or locked to all. Nobody should be left to stand alone outside.
The Boris Johnson government has expressed concern over opposition in Pakistan to the construction of a new Hindu temple in Islamabad and has raised the issue of freedom of religion or belief with the countrys authorities at a senior level.

Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, speaker of the Punjab assembly, is among several elements who have opposed the proposed Shri Krishna temple after the Imran Khan government allocated 100 million for its construction. They contend that it is against the spirit of Islam.

Tariq Ahmad, minister in the Foreign Office, told crossbench peer David Alton, who raised the issue in the House of Lords, that the government is in contact with Hindu community groups in Pakistan and is monitoring the situation closely.

Ahmad said: We are concerned by any comments which suggest that there should be restrictions on Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) We engage at a senior level with the Pakistani Government on our concerns about FoRB and the mistreatment of religious and ethnic groups.

Our High Commission in Islamabad frequently engages with the Hindu community to understand their needs. I raised our concerns about FoRB and the protection of minority religious communities with Pakistans Human Rights Minister, Dr Shireen Mazari, on 5 June.

The UK High Commissioner to Pakistan raised our concerns about FoRB with Pakistans Human Rights Minister on 8 June. We will continue to urge the Government of Pakistan at senior levels to guarantee the fundamental rights of its citizens, regardless of their belief, in accordance with international standards.

Alton, a former Liberal Democrats MP from Liverpool and now a member of the House of Lords, asked the government what assessment it had made of the statement by the Punjab assembly speaker opposing the temple.

(What) representations they intend to make to the government of Pakistan about (1) the obligations under Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and (2) the freedom of religion or belief, he asked.

Besides opposition from Elahi and religious groups, the row over temple construction has also reached Pakistans courts. A partially built boundary wall as part of the temple construction has reportedly been demolished.

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The UK and the EU have until 31 December to agree on their future relationship (Picture: Getty)

Germany's Europe Minister has said the UK has shown insufficient realism about what can be achieved in Brexit talks.

Michael Roth was speaking before a meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers on Wednesday where he admitted the talks would be a major topic of European Union business from September

Roth, who will act as chair since Germany holds the EU's rotating presidency, said: There has been a shortage of realism on the British side.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen warned the UK last month it needed to obey EU principles in order to achieve a Brexit future relationship deal.

German minister of state for Europe Michael Roth (Picture: Getty)

Von der Leyen said both sides had to bridge wide divergences which remain to be solved.

She added: The topics are known: level playing field, fisheries, governance, the scope of our police and judicial co-operation.

These are important points for the EU because these are principles  fair competition, rising social standards, protecting our citizens and the rule of law  at the heart of the EU.

The SNPs Ian Blackford said on Wednesday Brexit during the coronavirus pandemic is self-induced madness as he demanded an extension to the transition period.

The SNP leader in the House of Commons claimed the risk of a second wave of infections hitting the economy meant refusing to seek an extension would be the ultimate act of self-harm.

Last month, Michael Gove formally confirmed the UK wouldnt look to delay the end of the transition period.

Blackford used an opposition day debate about the impact of COVID-19 on Brexit negotiations to insist it would still be possible to legislate for an extension.

He told the Commons on Wednesday: The EU has expressed its ongoing openness to extending the transition period for negotiations. The UK government now needs to accept that offer.

Britain continues to participate in many EU structures until the transition period ends on 31 December, by which time a new agreement on ties must be in place if serious commercial and logistic disruption is to be avoided.
We are excited to offer EBizCharge integration with Microsoft Dynamics, said Bob Rook, president of Captiva. EBizCharge offers the best price and performance of any integrated credit card processing system for Business Central, and has the power to support small, medium, and large organizations.

Century Business Solutions is excited to announce its partnership with Captiva, a software and information technology consulting firm, to allow credit card processing directly within Microsoft Dynamics Business Central.

The credit card integration will use Centurys proprietary payment gateway, EBizCharge, to provide credit card processing for thousands of merchants across the country.

The powerful EBizCharge payment gateway is designed to lower processing fees by submitting line-item details directly to the bank. EBizCharge is fully PCI compliant and offers advanced data encryption and tokenization technology to ensure maximum transaction security within Microsoft Dynamics Business Central.

EBizCharge is compatible with over 50 leading ERP and accounting systems and major online shopping carts. The cloud-based payment gateway provides unlimited transactions and batch history for reporting purposes.

We are excited to offer EBizCharge integration with Microsoft Dynamics, said Bob Rook, president of Captiva. EBizCharge offers the best price and performance of any integrated credit card processing system for Business Central, and has the power to support small, medium, and large organizations.

With EBizCharge, users can run custom reports, sort through transactions by category, and immediately release funds when issuing refunds.

The partnership between Captiva and Century Business Solutions will help streamline workflow, eliminate double data entry, and make payment processing more efficient within Microsoft Dynamics Business Central.

About Captiva

Captiva helps our clients achieve long-term success through information technology. We partner with our clients to plan and deploy solutions for Microsoft Dynamics, Azure, and Microsoft 365. Our core values guide our actions and empower our teams to perform at their peak to realize our customers visions. We are humbled by the trust our customers place in us. For more information, please visit https://www.captiva-inc.com/.

About Century Business Solutions

Century Business Solutions is reinventing the way companies accept credit card payments with their all-in-one payment solution, EBizCharge. EBizCharge is one of the top payment gateway alternatives to its more expensive and inefficient counterparts and is specifically designed to reduce payment processing costs and inefficiencies. EBizCharge integrates seamlessly with over 100+ accounting, ERP, CRM, and shopping cart systems, including QuickBooks, Sage, SAP B1, Microsoft Dynamics, Acumatica, Magento, and WooCommerce. Century is partnered and certified with Microsoft Dynamics, Acumatica, SAP, Oracle, QuickBooks, WooCommerce, Magento, and many more. For more information on Century Business Solutions, visit https://www.centurybizsolutions.net.


Coronavirus infections were surging across the globe on Wednesday, forcing several countries to put the brakes on reopening or imposing new restrictions on their weary populations.

The number of COVID-19 cases worldwide topped 13.4 million and more than 579,000 deaths have been reported since the virus emerged late last year in China.

With the situation predicted to worsen in the United States, Walmart, the world's largest retailer, said it would require customers to wear masks at all its stores to help stop the virus spreading.

Venezuela, four days after announcing a loosening of restrictions, became the latest country to reimpose localized lockdown measures, including a "radical quarantine" in the capital Caracas.

In Ireland, Prime Minister Micheal Martin delayed the end of the lockdown because of a surge in new cases.

Ireland had been set to enter the fourth and final stage of relaxing restrictions on Monday, which would have allowed pubs that do not serve food to reopen.

Tourists visit Governors Island in New York Harbor after it reopened to visitors. By Angela Weiss (AFP)

The current restrictions will remain in place until August 10 and the government will also mandate the wearing of facemasks in shops.

Tens of thousands of cases are being reported every day in the United States, which has the world's highest death toll at 136,000, and officials are scrambling to roll back reopenings meant to revive economies.

'Let's stop this nonsense'

Some US states are rolling back reopenings after a spike in virus cases. By Frederic J. BROWN (AFP)

The latest research models show the number of US deaths projected to rise to over 150,000 by next month.

"When you look at the numbers, obviously, we've got to do better," said Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert.

"We've got to almost reset this and say, 'Okay, let's stop this nonsense," Fauci told The Atlantic.

In the US state of Oklahoma, the Republican governor, Kevin Stitt, said he had tested positive for COVID-19.

Stitt, 47, attended an indoors campaign rally by President Donald Trump in the western state last month but said it was unlikely he contracted the virus there.

Stitt has often declined to wear a mask at meetings and did not wear one at the Trump rally, but he is urging residents to take precautions.

The use of facemasks to slow the spread of the virus has become a political flashpoint in the US, where Trump had resisted wearing one until recently and at times mocked the trend.

Walmart said it will require shoppers to wear masks starting on July 20, joining a growing group of US businesses in mandating the protection as coronavirus cases have spiked.

Graphic looking at countries with the highest coronavirus death tolls, and their respective death rates.. By John SAEKI (AFP)

"While we're certainly not the first business to require face coverings, we know this is a simple step everyone can take for their safety and the safety of others in our facilities," Walmart's US chief operating officer Dacona Smith said.

The company has more than 5,300 Walmart and Sam's Club stores in the United States and is a giant presence in many of the southern and western states that have seen increases in cases.

Vaccine candidate trials

Hong Kong was one of the places where restrictions are being reintroduced to halt a spike in cases. By Anthony WALLACE (AFP)

Amid the grim forecasts, American biotech firm Moderna said it would start the final stage of human trials for its vaccine candidate on July 27, after promising results from earlier testing.

Moderna is considered to be in a leading position in the global race to find a vaccine, and while its study should run until October 2022, preliminary results should be available long before then.

In the Asia-Pacific region, where several countries had been somewhat successful in fighting the pandemic, there was fresh evidence of the deadly threat still posed by the virus.

Hong Kong's bars, gyms, and beauty salons closed again Wednesday and a ban on gatherings of more than four people came into force as the city battled a fresh outbreak after months of success against the virus.

Most of the city's residents voluntarily adopted facemasks as a barrier against the virus when it was first detected in mainland China, but the Hong Kong government now requires passengers on public transport to wear them or risk a US$650 fine.

Many countries are opening up but keeping in place strict social distancing measures. By Yasuyoshi CHIBA (AFP)

There was alarm in Japan too, where Tokyo's governor warned that the capital was on its highest virus alert level after a spike in infections.

That came after the Indian state of Bihar, with a population of around 125 million, announced a 15-day virus lockdown starting Thursday.

- 'Please stop' -

Hong Kong's bars, gyms, and beauty salons closed again and a ban on gatherings with more than four people came into force. By Anthony WALLACE (AFP)

Authorities in Australia, meanwhile, pleaded Wednesday with the public to heed social distancing guidelines, with roughly five million people in Melbourne in lockdown since last week in a bid to contain a new outbreak.

"A particular concern for us is the ongoing parties and gatherings," said Rick Nugent, acting assistant commissioner of Victoria state. "Please stop."

Face masks will also become compulsory in England's shops and supermarkets from next week, while in South Africa, where the number of cases topped 300,000, a nationwide curfew was reimposed.

Disneyland Paris, Europe's biggest private tourist attraction, reopened its gates, but also with limited access, a ban on hugging the famous characters and no princess makeovers.
At 2:22, pray for our friends in blue, Johnson said. We are going to pray for not only local law enforcement, but law enforcement across the country.

At 3:33, attendees will pray for community unity, and at 4:44, for more healing and safety.

Johnson said, while planning the event, he felt led to pursue all three topics.

Look across the fabric of the country, he said. (The topics) are paramount to the safety of our citizenry. We are being torn. We need to walk toward unity.

After coordinating with and vetting by the Central District Health Department, Johnson said, masks and social distancing will be encouraged, but not required.

If someone comes without a mask, they will not be turned away, he said.

Masks and opportunities to clean hands will be made available to all attendees, Johnson said.

For more information on the 24-hour day of worship and prayer or other events from Awaken the Dawn-Nebraska, visit facebook.com/awakenthedawnnebraska/.

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.
Villagers transport sandstone bags to a ship to help with flood control in Wangjiang County, east China's Anhui Province, July 14, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Junxi)

The government has pulled out all stops to reduce the loss of property and life as China is grappling with massive floods along the Yangtze River.

BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The recent flooding along the Yangtze River has caused great loss of property and human life, challenging China's economic recovery from the COVID-19 impact. But the disaster cannot stop the country's progress toward achieving the goal of eliminating absolute poverty as scheduled.

There have been worries that China could encounter disastrous flooding as it did in 1998, but statistics show water levels in major hydrological stations in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze are currently below those of that year.

Even though the rainfall in the Yangtze River basin has been 51 percent above normal, the possibility of months-long concentrated precipitation as in 1998 is not great this year, said Vice Minister of Emergency Management Zheng Guoguang at a press conference on Wednesday.

Photo taken on July 13, 2020 shows a pavilion submerged by the Yangtze River with rising water level in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu)

As China's flood control and disaster relief capability improves, the loss of property and life has significantly decreased compared to the same period in the past five years.

The country has more than 98,000 reservoirs, 110,000 hydrological stations and over 300,000 km of major levees to guard against floods. The detailed scheduling of water discharges from reservoirs, particularly the Three Gorges project, has been effective in controlling floods. China's flood forecasting and risk monitoring capabilities have also been strengthened, providing strong support for rescue and relief work.

Adopting concrete measures against the floods, the government is determined to keep people safe and away from the clutches of poverty.

Governments at all levels are strengthening supervision of the impact of flooding on poverty-stricken regions to prevent any local families from falling back into poverty.

Armed police officer Ma Paishan washes his face with a bottle of water in Poyang County, east China's Jiangxi Province, July 13, 2020. (Xinhua/Hu Chenhuan)

Rescuers and local government officials are evacuating and relocating flood-affected residents. Houses and roads are being repaired and rebuilt, drinking water ensured, and agricultural production resumed in a timely manner. The government is also providing new jobs and helping promote the sales of local products to increase farmers' income.

The effectiveness of these efforts stems from China's ability to pool all possible resources to address major problems, and its economy is resilient enough to withstand the shock of disasters.

China has overcome many hardships on its path to development. It has every reason to be confident that its mission to eradicate absolute poverty will not be derailed by floods or any other challenges that lie ahead.
In her statement, Stothert said members of city advisory boards are appointed to improve the quality of life for everyone in Omaha.

Members are of course entitled to their own opinions, but paying tribute to the killer of police officers is an opinion that has no value to the good work and outcomes of our boards, she said.

Our Omaha police officers put themselves in harms way every time they come to work, she continued. Their jobs give them the opportunity to change lives and save lives. They understand and accept the risks and rewards of police work. My thanks to every officer for their dedication to our city and the citizens they serve.

Fox criticized Stothert for releasing a statement calling for his resignation to the press before speaking with him. He said she failed to use her power to protect recent protesters from prosecution or to hold Omaha police officers accountable for inflicting violence on protesters.

She wasnt courageous enough to stand up for her constituents, he said. Unless those constituents wear a gun and badge, of course. The bias is not new or unexpected, but just made so much more obvious because of this time of social unrest.
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Alcoa Corporation (NYSE:AA)

Q2 2020 Earnings Call

, 5:00 p.m. ET

Contents:

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Alcoa Corporation's Second Quarter 2020 Earnings Presentation and Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to James Dwyer, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

James Dwyer -- Vice President of Investor Relations

Thank you and good day everyone. I'm joined today by Roy Harvey, Alcoa Corporation, President and Chief Executive Officer; and William Oplinger, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. We will take your questions after comments by Roy and Bill.

As a reminder, today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements relating to future events and expectations that are subject to various assumptions and caveats. Factors that may cause the company's actual results to differ materially from these statements are included in today's presentation and in our SEC filings. In addition, we have included some non-GAAP financial measures in this presentation. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures can be found in the appendix to today's presentation. Any reference in our discussion today to EBITDA means adjusted EBITDA. Finally, as previously announced, the earnings release and slide presentation are available on our website.

With that, here's Roy.

Roy C. Harvey -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Jim. And thanks to everyone for joining our call today. As we previewed last week, Alcoa is progressing on each of our operational and strategic programs, acting with resolve and urgency to deliver safe and healthy operations, improved stability and a stronger future for this company. And this quarter's strong outcome is a result of the dedication and focus of each of our teams as we face the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic downturn. We may not be able to control the macroeconomic factors that drive the price of our products, but we are aggressively executing on the items within our control. And while uncertainty continues, I'm confident that our teams will innovate and improve to adapt to future situations.

Before we get into the details though, I want to begin as I always do with safety, our most important metric and vital for our continued success. We had no serious injuries this quarter, and we continue to manage the risks from the pandemic and to maintain healthy, safe and stable operations. Of course, one principle of our safety program is that we must never rest comfortably, especially with the risks posed by this virus and the increasing case counts in some jurisdictions where we have important operations such as the United States and Brazil. We are confident, however, that we've put the right measures in place to protect our people, and we have well-developed reaction plans if the situation should worsen.

To put these latest financial results in context, it's important to remember that we have established three simple strategic priorities for this company, to reduce complexity, drive returns and advance sustainably. And they have helped us navigate this period from a position of relative strength.

Late last year, before the pandemic started its global spread, we laid out a plan to improve our cost structure with the new operating model, which is now fully implemented and started to review of our global asset portfolio, including our existing production capacities and non-core assets. This plan will improve our portfolio and allow us to remain competitive in a fast-evolving marketplace and to succeed in a world that is becoming more focused on sustainably and responsibly produced products. It offers us a road map to follow as we manage the impacts of the current market, while not losing sight of our longer-term strategy.

Next, I would like to highlight the resilience and strength of our operations teams as evidenced by a number of achievements in the second quarter. Overall, our production is up year-over-year in all three segments. In Bauxite, we realized a production record for the first half of the year. And in Alumina, we recorded a quarterly record for average daily production.

In our Aluminum segment, our Becancour restart continues to advance, and we are progressing with the safe and orderly curtailment of the Intalco smelter in Washington State. We reached an agreement with the workers' union for severance to help mitigate the impacts of this decision, which was necessitated by significant structural issues that made the facility uncompetitive. Meanwhile, we are currently in the midst of a 30-day consultation with the Works Council that represents employees at the San Ciprian aluminum facility in Spain. No formal decisions will be made until we complete this negotiation process.

During this pandemic, we worked across our company to help create a safe, healthy and productive environment in our operations. This teamwork, in conjunction with our supply chain, commercial and financial teams, helped to drive our cash balance to $965 million to good operating performance and smart management of our working capital.

Also, last week, we issued $750 million of senior notes with a coupon of 5.5%, a rate lower than any of our other debt. This will provide even greater liquidity during these uncertain times and will allow greater flexibility to potentially accelerate our portfolio review, including making sure that non-core asset sales are executed at the right time and the right price to deliver maximum value.

Put simply, through actions taken across our company to generate cash and by tapping the debt markets at a favorable time, we are in a stronger position to do what we've said, complete our portfolio review as soon as possible over the next several years, generate cash from non-core assets and reduce net debt.

Before we begin a deeper discussion of markets, I'd like to provide some additional information on our response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As I mentioned earlier, all of Alcoa's global locations continue to operate stably whether it'd be a bauxite mine, alumina refinery, aluminum smelter or rolling mill. Importantly, we have been able to maintain the stability because of our focus on the health and safety of our workforce. Globally, approximately 2% of our employees and contractors have been affected by the virus. Thankfully, most have already recovered and returned to work.

The fact that we've had a relatively low number of cases among our workforce is a testament to the measures we implemented early and, of course, what we continue to do. For example, we were one of the first companies to restrict travel for our global employees. In February, as the global risks started becoming more apparent, we triggered our global crisis response team and implemented our crisis management plan. By early March, we had deployed a comprehensive approach to protect health, while simultaneously conducting supply and staffing contingency planning.

On the left hand of this slide, you will see a chart that gives a glimpse of the very robust approach we've used to manage through this pandemic. First, we have a global crisis management plan that provides a solid framework to guide decision-making and protect our company. That supplemented in this case with a health prevention response plan developed with best practices and with input from our own medical experts and external sources. We also have business continuity plans for our locations. They are designed to ensure continued critical supplies, logistics and operational needs. This feeds into our global, regional and location crisis response teams and allows them to anticipate potential risks and ensure response plans are utilized whenever appropriate. We have playbooks on how to effectively operate based on increasing levels of stress.

We consider leading indicators such as the number of employees who are self-quarantine and isolating, infection rates in the local community and inventory levels of critical raw materials. Lagging indicators include items such as cases of coronavirus infections among location employees, absenteeism, government directives and other factors. From all of this, we assign a response level and deploy additional and appropriate actions. As of today, we have locations that have reached Level 2 during this current health crisis, but due to our effective response, none have progressed to implementation of all Level 3 actions. While this is a simplified depiction of our COVID-19 response, the team's actions to date have made a real difference and have helped us to avoid any significant impact to our operations for our supply chain.

But this crisis continues, and we will not let up our guard as we remain focused on protecting the health and safety of our workforce. Importantly, throughout this pandemic, we've also responded to assist the communities where we operate, both through the Alcoa Foundation and our company's resources. I'm proud of the work that has taken place on a humanitarian level as it further illustrates our Alcoa values in action.

Next, we'll discuss our three segments and how they've performed in this quarter. As noted earlier, our change in operating model and selective strategic priorities have been designed and executed with an eye to strengthen our operational performance. Across all segments and despite the disruption of a pandemic, we have improved operational stability this year and that is driving increased output and improved productivity. This has been achieved through strong collaboration across our operations and centralized resources, leveraging our technological expertise, information systems and the creativity of Alcoans to accelerate our productivity program. Our centers of excellence are supporting sustainable cost-saving improvements that can be leveraged globally. Key focus areas include reducing raw materials usage and energy consumption, improving maintenance strategies to increase availability and rigorous cost control.

In Bauxite, production is improving year-on-year. The segment had a first half production record in our Juruti mine in Brazil at a quarterly shipment record.

For the Alumina segment, we are seeing improved stability at the refineries when compared to 2019. In fact, the segment had a record rate from metric tons per day in the quarter. Meanwhile, both the Wagerup refinery in Western Australia and the Alumar refinery in Sao Luis, Brazil set first half production records.

In our Aluminum segment, improved operational stability is helping to drive increased output. Contributing to the increase is the ongoing restart of the ABI smelter in Becancour, which is now approximately 90% complete and should be finished in the third quarter.

From a commercial perspective in our Aluminum segment, we discussed last quarter the year-over-year decrease in value-added aluminum products as a result of the economic impact of the pandemic, which includes specific foundry alloys or shapes such as rod, billet and slab. This volume shifted to commodity-grade ingot. While value-added product sales are expected to remain relatively flat in the third quarter and continue to be depressed from the prior year, we are seeing some improvement in foundry alloy orders as automotive production in Europe and North America resumes after widespread production outages due to the pandemic.

Finally, on this slide, we continue to monitor the discussions regarding the United States 232 tariffs on aluminum. We believe that tariffs do not address the fundamental challenge of the industry, which has been unfairly subsidized aluminum overcapacity in China.

Now, let's review our markets. Aluminum demand is starting to show some signs of recovery based on monthly data for some key end-use sectors, particularly in China. For example, Chinese passenger vehicle production was up more than 11% in both May and June when compared with the same months last year. The most recent data on construction activities in China are also better than the monthly levels in May of 2019.

Aluminum scrap shortages also supported a temporary boost in primary aluminum consumption in China in Q2. The shortages have been a result of China's import quota system for scrap, as well as earlier COVID-related disruptions to scrap supply chain. The scrap shortages and the increases in aluminum end markets like automotive and construction all contribute to the recovery in Chinese primary aluminum demand, which has also been supported by general improvements in domestic macroeconomic outlook and government stimulus announcements. Outside of China, high-level manufacturing at aluminum end market data also showed signs of improvement in North America and Europe in May and June as automotive plants got back to work, and manufacturing orders continued to recover.

From a supply perspective, there had been some curtailments globally that not enough to starch the rise of aluminum inventories in the first two quarters of 2020. In the first half of this year, smelters cut a little more than 1 million tonnes of annualized capacity in China; of which, 400,000 tonnes has restarted, leaving 700,000 tonnes of annualized capacity still down. Outside of China, we have seen cuts of 600,000 tonnes of annualized capacity, including Intalco. Of that total, 100,000 tonnes have restarted in Brazil, leaving 500,000 tonnes of net cuts.

With the recovery in demand, the pace of the inventory build slowed in the second quarter relative to the first quarter, and inventories decreased substantially in China with close to 1 million tonne drawdown in total stocks, given the strong demand rebound. Given these dynamics, Chinese aluminum prices have led the charge during the second quarter in the price recovery, although we noted across-the-board improvement relative to April's lows. Higher Chinese aluminum prices have brought significant levels of aluminum smelting production back into cash-positive territory. In the month of June, only 1% of Chinese smelters were cash-negative.

While prices have increased from April lows, costs have also increased over the last two months, keeping 15% of ex-China smelting capacity and global refining capacity in cash-negative territory in June. Of course, the market remains fluid. It will be important to monitor supply, demand, inventories and pricing dynamics. As we discussed in our last earnings call, the ability to deliver aluminum into inventory provide a needed outlet in times of oversupply, but can quickly become a long-term drag without any reaction to basic demand fundamentals.

Looking forward to the second half of 2020 and beyond, what is clear is that the ultimate market balances and industry fundamentals will be determined by a few factors. First and foremost, how well the spread of COVID-19 is managed around the world. If the number of virus cases increases substantially in a prolonged first or potential second wave, a new round of strict lockdown orders would likely cause the current demand recovery to reverse course.

Second, assuming COVID-19 remains under control, the speed of economic recovery will be influenced by levels of government stimulus and the resumption of activity after lockdowns or other restrictions. This quarter, we saw signs of demand recovery well on its way in China and turning the corner outside of China in data across aluminum's broad set of end use markets, which includes transportation, construction, packaging, machinery, electrical and consumer durables.

Third, how industry players independently react to the pricing and demand environment as it shifts and changes, and the resulting build or release of global inventories.

Next, before Bill discusses our second quarter numbers, I want to very quickly recap the programs we've laid out, both before and during this current crisis to improve Alcoa. I'm pleased that we started deploying many of these actions early to help us navigate through uncertain times and contribute to a stronger future. At the top, we announced in October key strategic actions that included a new operating model, a plan to generate additional cash from the sale of non-core assets and a review of our production portfolio, focused on 4 million metric tons of global refining capacity and 1.5 million metric tons of smelting capacity. As noted earlier, we are making progress on many of these actions.

Next, in the middle of this chart, in February of this year, before the coronavirus became a global pandemic, we announced plans to drive leaner working capital and implement annual productivity improvement. There too, we are making strong progress.

And finally, we continue to manage cash to mitigate the economic impacts associated with COVID-19. All of these initiatives are expected to total $900 million in cash actions this year and consist of projects and ideas of all sizes. What is certain is that Alcoans around the world are focused on the right things, health, safety and the stabilization and improved productivity of this company.

So, with that, I'll pass it to Bill.

William F. Oplinger -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Roy. This Monday, we closed on a $750 million 5.5% coupon senior notes issue. Given our strong liquidity position, I want to provide additional color regarding the rationale behind the new debt issue. This debt issuance provides increased financial flexibility to meet the short-term challenges of these uncertain times, while we continue to hold to our capital allocation framework, using excess cash to achieve our mid-term proportional net debt target, return cash to shareholders, transform the portfolio or invest in value-creating growth projects.

Now, let's look at the quarter. Second quarter 2020 revenue was down $233 million sequentially on lower aluminum and alumina prices. The net loss attributable to Alcoa Corporation was $197 million or $1.06 per share. The adjusted net loss was $4 million or $0.02 per share. Special items in the quarter included interim tax impacts due to changing assumptions of full year profitability and the resulting tax rate, the Intalco curtailment and Becancour restart costs. Also on an adjusted basis, the second quarter operational tax rate was 178.3%, primarily due to a true-up of the prior quarter tax rate to the new full-year tax rate. Adjusted EBITDA, excluding special items, was $185 million, generating an EBITDA margin of 8.6%.

Let's look closer at factors driving adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA, excluding special items, declined $136 million in the second quarter. Market price impacts totaled negative $215 million and included lower metal prices, lower alumina prices and a weaker US dollar due to a partial reversal last quarter's favorable revaluation impact. All other factors netted to positive $79 million and reflect strong operating results.

Lower production costs, favorable raw material and energy costs and improved volumes were partially offset by weaker sales mix in both aluminum and alumina. Other improvements of $25 million included lower SG&A costs due to implementing the new operating model, favorable inter-segment eliminations and reduced transformation spending.

In the operating segments, Bauxite EBITDA improved $11 million sequentially on higher shipments. In Alumina, lower alumina index pricing and unfavorable contract mix combined with unfavorable currency revaluation to drive the change, while on the operating side, lower raw materials and energy costs and lower production costs were favorable partial offsets.

In the Aluminum segment, lower realized metal prices and value-added product sales were partially offset by substantially improved production costs, as well as lower input costs including alumina, smelter energy and carbon.

EBITDA impacts outside the segments improved $54 million, led by a $38 million sequential improvement in inter-segment eliminations primarily due to lower alumina prices, lower other corporate costs because of reduced overhead and transformation spending control.

Moving to cash. Overall, cash performance was very strong. We generated $288 million of cash from operations, $211 million in free cash flow and ended the quarter with $965 million on the balance sheet, up $136 million from the first quarter and $131 million from the year-ago quarter.

A quick review of our major cash sources and uses for the first half of 2020. Our total cash sources were $830 million, consisting of $506 million in adjusted EBITDA, $199 million in net proceeds from asset sales and $125 million from working capital reductions. Largest outflows of cash were $168 million of capital expenditures, $123 million of tax payments, including $47 million in payments of prior year income tax and net distributions to our joint venture minority interest partner of $90 million.

Now, let's take a look at other financial metrics. First half 2020 free cash flow, less non-controlling interest distributions, improved to negative $60 million as second quarter free cash flow less NCI distributions was positive $152 million. One reason for the cash flow improvement was favorable working capital sequential reductions of $275 million. This improvement was even better than expected, and our days working capital decreased seven days both sequentially and year-over-year to 24 days.

Another improvement with capital spending control. Our first half 2020 capital expenditures totaled $168 million. Second quarter capex was $14 million lower than the first quarter.

Our key balance sheet metric, proportional adjusted net debt, remained at $3.3 billion. Remeasurement of all pension and OPEB assets and liabilities typically occurs at year-end. However, due to plan changes related to the Intalco curtailment, approximately 40% of our pension liabilities was remeasured as of April 30th, 2020, and was the key driver increasing the net liability $100 million as of June 30th. Year-to-date, our pension asset returns have been approximately 0% and discount rates are down roughly 35 basis points for pension and 60 basis points for OPEB. If asset returns are at targets in the second half of the year and discount rates and all other factors do not change, we would expect the pension and OPEB net liability to increase approximately $200 million from the current $2.4 billion.

Turning to our $900 million cash actions program. We are continuing to make solid progress on our announced cash action. In key strategic actions, we are pleased to see the run rate savings from the new operating model reflected in lower second quarter SG&A and R&D costs, which declined $19 million compared to the first quarter. The non-core asset sale program continues, and while COVID-19 has impacted some sales activities, we are holding to our timeline and cash proceeds targets. The Intalco curtailment is under way, and we expect to have the full curtailment completed in the third quarter. The San Ciprian smelter formal consultation process is also under way, and we expect the outcome to be determined within the next several weeks.

On the 2020 programs, we have made excellent progress on working capital reduction, and as you saw in our strong second quarter cash flow, are already substantially ahead of our full-year target. Our production costs and operations efficiency program is gathering steam, being led by volume-based cost reductions. On COVID-19 response, our capital expenditure and environmental and ARO spending targets are on track. We are deferring US pension funding in the 2021 as planned and other cost reductions or deferrals are also on target.

Finally, let's review our full-year outlook for 2020. Our full-year 2020 outlook has only modest adjustments and is our best current estimate notwithstanding the evolving COVID-19 situation. On earnings, below the EBITDA line, we expect depreciation expense to improve to $665 million due to foreign currency rates and lower capital spending. We expect interest expense to increase to approximately $150 million as a result of our new debt issuance. We are not providing an outlook for the full-year operational tax rate. However, based on recent prices, we expect operational tax expense in the third quarter to be approximately $150 million.

For cash flow impacts, we are adjusting slightly our capital expenditures estimate, increasing return-seeking capital $10 million to $35 million as we wind down those projects and reducing sustaining capital spending $10 million to $340 million. Our prior year and current year cash taxes remain the same as in our previous outlook, but do not include the deposit of $74 million or $44 million Alcoa share expected to be made with the Australian Tax Office to contest a recent tax assessment. We expect no further cash impacts from that assessment until it is ultimately resolved.

In the appendix, we also list additional considerations expected for the second quarter. They include: in the Bauxite segment, adjusted EBITDA is expected to be $5 million lower, primarily due to lower export volume; in the Alumina segment, we are expecting higher energy costs in Australia to be partially offset by higher sales volume and lower costs, netting to $15 million lower sequential EBITDA impact; in the Aluminum segment, lower alumina costs are estimated to produce a sequential benefit of $10 million. Aside from potential metal price or currency impacts, other factors are expected to be flat sequentially.

So with that, let me turn it back to Roy.

Roy C. Harvey -- President and Chief Executive Officer

In closing, I want to step back and reinforce the reason behind all of this act, a brief look at our destination. During this pandemic, we had a relatively strong second quarter. And despite the current situation, we are not losing focus on our strategy or objective. While many things are difficult to predict today, Alcoa is unwavering in its commitment for continued improvement.

Our three strategic priorities provide a road map for the future. We reduce complexity, so we can be low cost. We drive returns with a focus on improved margins across our products, and we intend to advance sustainably in all aspects of our business, economically, environmentally and socially. As we advance, we are driving for actions to strengthen our balance sheet, create a cycle-proof portfolio of assets and build upon our strong reputation for environmental and social excellence, including demonstrating the value we bring to our communities and our commitment to a diverse and inclusive workplace.

In terms of our portfolio, we will continue to drive value through our extensive, high-quality bauxite reserves, sustainable mining practices in our low-cost portfolio of efficient mines. We will maintain our position as the lowest per ton carbon producer in alumina and protect our first quartile cost position in this segment. With our portfolio review, we will improve the cost structure of our Aluminum business and become the lowest per ton carbon producer in smelting. The goal is to drive Alcoa to be sustainable, both financially and environmentally.

There are three major points I want to leave you with. First, we will continue to prioritize the health and safety of our global workforce. This commitment allowed us to deliver solid performance in the quarter, despite the challenges the world faces from COVID-19.

Second, we remain committed to continuous improvement regardless of the circumstances. We're already improving our costs, boosting our output, driving gains in working capital and implementing sustainable year-over-year improvements in productivity. We are also focused on continued management of cash, evidenced by our balance of $965 million at the end of the quarter.

Third, we will act smartly and use our increased liquidity to navigate through these times, while we strengthen our portfolio of core assets and improve our balance sheet in accordance with our capital allocation framework. While the pandemic has changed much in how the world currently works and interacts, we remain steadfast in our commitment. Thank you.

Bill and I will welcome your questions now. Operator?

Questions and Answers:

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] And our first question will come from Chris Terry with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Chris Terry -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Hi, Roy and Bill. Thanks for taking my questions. I hope [Phonetic] you're well. First question I had is just on the tax ruling, the ATO, just start to some more details on the actual announcement from last week and also whether you could talk about both the principal and the interest part of that in the context of potentially using the interest as a tax shield later on.

And my second question is around the guidance for the Bauxite was obviously quite a lot different to what you provided at the end of 1Q and that's primarily driven by the volumes. So I just wondered if you could comment on that as well exactly some of the moving parts and how that was so strong in the quarter. Thanks.

William F. Oplinger -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Roy, do you want to address the preliminary comments on the tax ruling?

Roy C. Harvey -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. I can't. I wasn't sure if it was headed in the financial direction or more in general.

William F. Oplinger -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, and I'll take it from the financial direction.

Roy C. Harvey -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Perfect. So from a ruling standpoint, I think, it's a -- it stretches pretty far back in time, and so that is what is driving both the principal calculation and then the interest calculation. I'll leave that to Bill to talk through.

The important thing here, Chris, and I appreciate the question is that we are at the start of a process by which we plan to very much object to how that reached this conclusion. And it's very basic, we simply don't agree with their assessment. We don't agree with the way that they've chosen to calculate it nor that there has been any underpayment of taxes over these years. And so, that is -- this will be a process that takes place over the next period of time, and we fully believe that we can reach a positive conclusion on this.

And, Bill, maybe you want to jump in on the financials?

William F. Oplinger -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, let me just address some of the numbers, Chris. And these are US dollar numbers, not Aussie dollar numbers, but obviously the assessment and the interest is in Aussie dollar, but we converted it to US dollars for the purposes of our disclosure. The 100% basis would be $147 million on the assessment, $488 million on the tax, both of those are the 100% AofA numbers. If you then translate those to Alcoa share, that would be $88 million of tax and $293 million of interest. As part of the process, we will, I should say, Alcoa of Australia will be paying part of the tax upfront. So they will be making a payment of $74 million in the third quarter; of which, Alcoa share is $44 million.

Just to reiterate Roy's points, we will be disputing this. I speak for AofA. AofA will be disputing this. It could take years to resolve and we will dispute it all the way through. So we don't feel that their position is correct and therefore we will dispute it.

And I'll address your second item. As far as Bauxite, Bauxite did turn out better than what we had signaled. The Bauxite was really driven by two things. One is inter-company shipments were better and that's because the refineries are running well. And then secondly, our minority partnerships did a little bit better in the quarter than what we had anticipated, specifically CBG. So overall, the results of the Bauxite segment were pretty strong.

Chris Terry -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Okay. Thanks. And so just for the interest of the $488 million is -- can you start using that as a tax deduction and can you use that to forward settled.

William F. Oplinger -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

I should have addressed that, Chris. I meant to address it. Yeah, the tax is deductible immediately upon the assessment. So we will start using that AUD700 million as a tax deduction in AofA and that will, ultimately, drive a better tax position in the near-term for AofA.

Chris Terry -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

And then, if you successfully overturning this, you'd then have to reverse that, so you stop getting deduction even before there's settlement on that?

Roy C. Harvey -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Exactly. And the other piece that I should have probably noted is that we have not accrued anything for this simply because we think we're more likely than not to prevail. So no accrual was taken in the second quarter associated with this assessment.

Chris Terry -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

So what's the sort of timeline of events here? When should we expect the next update and how does it likely play out? How many more steps are there in that process?

Roy C. Harvey -- President and Chief Executive Officer

There is a number of steps in the process. I would tell you at this point, Chris, we are evaluating what our next alternatives are and we'll keep you updated as we go through the process.

Chris Terry -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Okay. Thanks, guys.

Roy C. Harvey -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Chris.

Operator

Our next question will come from Alex Hacking with Citi. Please go ahead.

Alexander Hacking -- Citigroup -- Analyst

Yeah. Thanks, Roy and Bill. I guess just to follow up on Chris's question there on the taxes, not sure if you can answer this, but the High Court in Australia ruled against BHP Billiton on kind of a transfer pricing issue related to their operations in Singapore a year or two ago. I mean, does that create a precedent or you guys can also kind of take this all the way to the High Court in Australia, if necessary? Thanks.

Roy C. Harvey -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Alex, let me answer that one. So, I think, each case has its own set of specific circumstances. And so, for this particular case, I think it has a very different set of -- it's a very different market first of all. And number two, our approach to transfer pricing has been very transparent through time. And so, with aluminum pricing has developed through time, those pricing mechanisms. And so we'll be continuing to discuss that with the tax authorities. And we believe that we will continue to go through those various stages and levels as Bill had alluded to and that if it continues finding against us, then we will take it all the way through to the Supreme Court. So I think it's -- there are no precedents that would say that this is a pre-decided case.

Alexander Hacking -- Citigroup -- Analyst

Okay. Thanks very much. And then a second question, if I may. Maybe you could comment on your Brazilian operations and how you're finding the COVID situation down there. Obviously, there's a lot of headlines about some of the challenges Brazil has been facing, but looking at your results, it seems like you're able to keep your operations going. So maybe some comments there would be helpful. Thanks.

Roy C. Harvey -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, Alex. And so, we have multiple operations in various parts of Brazil. So I can give a little color on each of them, but much of it's going to be the same. Particularly, in Northern Brazil, where we have the Sao Luis joint venture, the Alumar plant and then, we have the Juruti bauxite mine, and then the joint venture that we're not operating on but partners in at the MRN mine just across the Amazon River.

Across all of those locations, we are being extremely careful and extremely watchful, because we have had, particularly, in the northern cities some community spread of the virus. And so, we have put into place a bunch of reaction plans in order to make sure that we are carefully keeping people social distanced in our operations and that is the same for our contractors as it is for our employees. We also have a series of mechanisms in place where we changed shift structures, so that we can isolate as much as possible to keep people not necessarily mingling and therefore, that gives us a lot of strength inside of how we're running the operations.

I'd also say is that there has been a lot of effort put into place to make sure that we're keeping our workforce up-to-date on what's happening, talking to them about what they need to do as far as preventing this happening inside of their homes, although obviously we don't reach into their homes. And I would say that we have done a very good job of keeping our folk at work and actually coming and doing their jobs and doing it safely.

So from an absenteeism perspective, we're continuing to see improvements. We did sort of at the very beginning of the outbreaks in Brazil start to see those numbers creep up some. And that really includes both people that are quarantined, because they might have been exposed or people that have other similar symptoms that could either be the flu or COVID. And so, we've been very careful to make sure that people could choose not to come to work and could isolate themselves and that then keeps it from spreading inside of our working population. And we're now seeing those absenteeism rates come down.

And so, from a Juruti standpoint or Sao Luis standpoint, both have some spread of COVID inside of the communities, I'd say that the actual occurrence inside of our plants themselves is significantly more modest than what we're seeing out in the communities. And we have seen no impacts to production, and in the end, I think it's a joint effort of all of our operators, all of our mechanics and our management. So I'm very proud of the team.

Alexander Hacking -- Citigroup -- Analyst

Thanks. That's very helpful. Good luck.

Roy C. Harvey -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks. Thanks, Alex.

James Dwyer -- Vice President of Investor Relations

Operator, do we have another question?

Operator

Yes, sir. Our next question will come from Carlos De Alba with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Carlos De Alba -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Thank you very much. Good afternoon, Roy and Bill. I hope you guys are doing well. So the progress year-to-date on working capital has been quite impressive. I wonder you can comment a little bit more what exactly you were able to do to achieve these results. And also you mentioned I think I heard that you are ahead of your target. Do you expect to keep these gains that you have been able to book or to print or do you expect maybe to give back some of that as the year progresses?

And then my second question would be in terms of what -- maybe Roy, what have you heard in terms of the potential restatement of Section 232 tariffs on Canadian smelting imports into the US. So -- I mean, you already mentioned that you don't think that, that should be applied, but have you heard of any feedback in your conversations with people in Washington?

William F. Oplinger -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Let me take the first one, Carlos. We did have really good performance in working capital in the second quarter. And there's really three things that were driving that performance. And I'll start with, to me, what's probably the most important. The new operating model that we launched at the -- toward the end of last year has allowed us to look at working capital from end to end. And it starts with purchasing of raw materials and it ends with receivables from customers. We got a commercial organization that is looking at the entirety of working capital throughout the entire system and that has allowed us to aggressively pursue all three levers of working capital: payment terms both on the customer and the supplier side, and inventory. So that's -- that would I would say the item number one.

The other two items, which are large impacts also is clearly with the decline in prices, raw material prices, finished goods prices that has had a favorable impact on working capital. And then, thirdly, the shift away from value-add products, which is on a margin perspective, not a positive impact for us, but on a cash flow impact, the shift to selling commodity-grade P1020 means that we get cash quicker. So all three of those things added up to the impact in the second quarter.

As far as whether we will do better in the second half, that first item that I addressed, the new operating model, we'll continue to work to looking for improvements even from these low levels of working capital. But I would say, if anything, they may be working against higher prices. If we continue to see this trend of pricing being higher, they will have to work to offset some of the higher prices. So we're sticking with our target of $75 million to $100 million of days working capital improvement even though we've at this point beaten that through the first half, but we'll be offsetting some of these better market conditions.

And Roy, I'll turn the 232 question over to you.

Roy C. Harvey -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Absolutely. And, Carlos, I'd love to be able to give you a definitive answer on where we're going to land from a 232 perspective, but the fact is that we continue to hear very different potential outcomes on a daily or even hourly basis. Stepping back and looking at what Alcoa's position has been through this, what we would really like to do is ensure that we are driving to fix the root problem, which is very much the fact that we have an overcapacitized environment, particularly in China and that subsidization goes all the way through the value chain is simply overwhelming from a Chinese perspective.

And so, stepping back and trying to address the underlying issues at play is what we have been -- what we have been trying to message and drive over the course of these years really as a stand-alone company and probably before that. We've been trying to be as clear as possible with -- and this is through the Aluminum Association or through the Canadian Aluminum Association or directly with the administration and anybody who listen that really the solution here is to try and work on those deeper problems and that from a Canadian tariff standpoint, because of the close relationship and in many ways symbiotic relationship between products produced in Canada and the US and the customers across the US and in Canada, of course, is simply doesn't make sense that there is a tariff that that tariff that 10% is reinstated there.

So again, I don't think I have a -- I wouldn't hazard a prediction at where we land, nor what the rules of that potential reinstatement could look like because I've also heard a lot of different potential options there. But in the end, Alcoa is going to keep talking about what is the underlying issues at stake and looking for ways to address those across multiple jurisdictions.

Carlos De Alba -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

All right. Good luck. Thank you very much.

Roy C. Harvey -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Carlos.

Operator

Our next question will come from Lucas Pipes with B Riley, FBR. Please go ahead.

Lucas Pipes -- B.Riley FBR -- Analyst

Hey, good afternoon, everybody, and good job on managing this very difficult environment and liquidity so successfully last week. I was a little surprised just kind of given what happened during the second quarter that in two of your segments for Q3, you're guiding to kind of modestly lower performance. And I wondered is there a degree of conservatism, pricing lags, would it be possible to give a little bit more color as to what exactly is going on there kind of quarter-over-quarter? Thank you.

William F. Oplinger -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. So, Lucas, in the Bauxite segment, we had a really strong second quarter. So we're projecting it to be $5 million lower. We do have an outage at the Juruti facility in the third quarter, that will limit some volumes. So that's really probably the biggest impact between the second and the third quarter.

In the Alumina segment, one of the big changes that is going on is that, you know that we have -- that a number of years ago, we entered into long-term gas contracts associated with our Western Australian refinery. Those gas contracts are coming to in effect in the third quarter. Those gas contracts will have a negative impact on the segment approximately on a third quarter versus second quarter look of about $40 million. So when we're projecting the Alumina segment to be $15 million lower, and I should say that $15 million lower, exclusive of any changes in alumina pricing, but -- and that's how we always projected. The segment itself is projecting pretty strong performance, because it is looking to at least partially offset some of those higher gas costs that will be rolling through in the third quarter. So that's what's going on in those two upstream segments.

Lucas Pipes -- B.Riley FBR -- Analyst

Very helpful. I appreciate that. Then for my second question, I wanted to touch on something that you had discussed previously. Now, during the quarter, there has been an announcement that the LME has launched green aluminum contracts. And have you had qualification discussions and do you think this could help open up a premium for green aluminum quicker than previously expected?

Roy C. Harvey -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, Lucas, and it's a good question. The fact is, I think, it's very much still under development. I would argue that the way that they're approaching it is sensible. We have been -- we've been trying to think through how best we can make this whole green aluminum market really start to move into a premium environment, because, as you well know, we're one of the lowest carbon per ton producers of aluminum and are quickly running toward ensuring that we are the lowest whether that's through portfolio change or through the ELYSIS work that we're doing as well.

So I think the LME work is going well, and from a qualification standpoint, I think. And it depends upon the specific plant in question, but I would argue that we are very well positioned for that. I'd also say that the ASI, the Aluminum Stewardship Initiative is also something that is very much on our radars as a way to look through the entire value chain, which from our perspective, because we go from bauxite to alumina and to aluminum, we think is quite important, because it can help drive the right behavior across all lines of that value change.

And I would add one more piece to it as well, which is also the fact that I think the market and whether it's being driven by consumers or more and more driven by investors and not just European investors, but also our US investors now, I think there is a quicker drive to demand more accountability and that in the end, still can't say when will that green premium develop, and when will lower carbon emitters have the benefit of that lower carbon story. But I would argue that we're seeing the stars align very quickly to make that more and more important, which just reiterate the fact that our shift in our portfolio and our -- are very much targeting both financial, but also very much environmental sustainability is -- helps to get us in the right place to benefit from that the most.

Lucas Pipes -- B.Riley FBR -- Analyst

I appreciate all the color and continue best of luck. Thank you.

Roy C. Harvey -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Lucas.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question will come from John Tumazos with John Tumazos Very Independent Research. Please go ahead.

John Tumazos -- John Tumazos Very Independent Research -- Analyst

Thank you. You correctly predicted three months ago, the high value markets would weaken. Looking at your ingot realization in the quarter, it looks like it's a $0.01 less than a $0.09 Midwest Premium Plus ingot -- LME ingot lagged one month. So is it fair to say that there were no high value-added shapes like extrusions and no high value purity and alloys and maybe some kind of transportation costs settlement or provisional pricing or some negative penny adjustment?

William F. Oplinger -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

I don't think so, John. There was -- the value-add shipments in the second quarter were substantially less than what was in the first quarter. The value-add shipments went what we had historically talked about percent of value-add from the -- to be approximately 50% to 55% and that we've seen a 20% reduction in value-add. So we continued to ship value-add in the second quarter and are actually seeing, I think, as Roy alluded to in his comments, a little bit of strength and things like the foundry markets going into the third quarter. I would suggest to you that when you're doing that math that the lags aren't completely perfect and you can't necessarily take a 15-day lag on the LME and make it quite that precise, but there was still value-add products being sold in the second quarter, just not nearly as high as first quarter.

John Tumazos -- John Tumazos Very Independent Research -- Analyst

Thank you.

William F. Oplinger -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, John.

Operator

And for our last question today will come from Paretosh Misra with Berenberg. Please go ahead.

Paretosh Misra -- Berenberg Bank -- Analyst

Hi, Bill and Roy. Just a question on demand and order book. So, can you talk about what are some of the signs of demand improvement that you're seeing in your Aluminum business and how is the order activity progression in the last two, three months, including what you've seen in early July versus what's maybe typical for this time of the year?

Roy C. Harvey -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. And Paretosh, I'm going to have to give you some qualitative answers to that, because I think we're just starting to see some of that positive movement. And so, let me first make one quick caveat that as we think about our primary markets, and much of them is in the US, of course, and Canada, but then also into Europe. And so, it's in both of those places where you're starting to see a lot of reopening activities, you're seeing a lot of -- or we are seeing a lot of our customers come back and start to demand and there are some that we're still buying through the downturn and some of that is contractual, some of it was actual demand. And so you have to work your way through some built-up inventories inside of our customers.

But as we look where we stand right now in July, I'd argue that both in Europe and in North America, we really are starting to see those "green shoots" and we are starting to see that our customers are talking about more and more ability to reconnect with their automotive customers with the different parts of the end -- aluminum end markets that happen to be there.

The one concern that I would voice is that I think everybody is still waiting to see how from a US perspective how from -- in various European countries, how we can make sure that we're taking the right steps, so that we don't see a relapse or don't see some additional closures because of COVID becoming more serious in different parts of the world. But right now, I think what we look to in an optimistic case is to see as much of an economy roaring back much like it did in China. We're still a few months behind that, but it would be nice to see that both North America and Europe can follow a similar type of curve to what we've seen really in China up until now. I'm very pleased with how China has gotten all of it's sort of aluminum end use markets very much in line and very much productive again.

Paretosh Misra -- Berenberg Bank -- Analyst

Thanks. Thanks for the detailed color. That's very useful. And maybe a follow-up on how does the oil price impact you, like, what are the main derivatives that you buy? And are you already benefiting from that or is that more of that to come in the second half of this year?

William F. Oplinger -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

So, Paretosh, we actually provide a sensitivity to oil price in the appendix. I'm looking to see what chart it's on, but there is a breakdown of our cost structure and how oil prices impact our results on a quarterly basis.

Paretosh Misra -- Berenberg Bank -- Analyst

Great. Thanks, guys.

Roy C. Harvey -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Paretosh.

Operator

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Roy Harvey for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Roy C. Harvey -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Thank you, operator. I'd like to thank everyone for their time and attention today. I know there's a lot going on. So I really do appreciate the fact that you take a few minutes to look through what's happening in Alcoa. I'm very pleased with Alcoa's response in these unprecedented times. I'm proud to be part of a moment where we can truly accelerate some of our actions and where we can have very -- a very clear side of focus on where we're going and what we need to do in order to make this company more competitive, but also more sustainable for the long term. So I look forward to explaining more and talking more about how that is developed at our next earnings session and would like to ask everybody to please be safe, healthy, and we'll talk to you soon. Thank you.

Operator

[Operator Closing Remarks]

Duration: 59 minutes

Call participants:

James Dwyer -- Vice President of Investor Relations

Roy C. Harvey -- President and Chief Executive Officer

William F. Oplinger -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Chris Terry -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Alexander Hacking -- Citigroup -- Analyst

Carlos De Alba -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Lucas Pipes -- B.Riley FBR -- Analyst

John Tumazos -- John Tumazos Very Independent Research -- Analyst

Paretosh Misra -- Berenberg Bank -- Analyst

More AA analysis

All earnings call transcripts
The president noted Ukraine had lost part of its territory.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine must have all Russia-occupied territories back.

"Today, for the sixth year in a row, we are defending our sovereignty from Russian aggression. We pay the highest price for this  the lives of our citizens. Today, the entire civilized world recognizes that Ukraine is doing everything to achieve such a cherished peace. A fair peace. Peace in our understanding of this word. Peace where state sovereignty will prevail in reality, not on paper," he said at a solemn session of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Declaration of State Sovereignty, according to the president's press service.

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The president noted Ukraine had lost part of its territory.

"Yes. We lost part of the territory. We lost our people. And, unfortunately, we cannot bring back the dead. But we must return all our territories. Restore faith in truth and justice. So that what our heroes died for never turns out to be useless," Zelensky said.

"I am convinced that we, Ukrainians, have a chance to achieve this only in one case  if we all unite. Just like 30 years ago," he added.




Haiti - Justice : Former Deputy Belizaire faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison





Wednesday, the examining magistrate Annie Fignole in charge of the file of the former Deputy Arnel Belizaire rendered his order, sending Belizaire and his two accomplices to the criminal court to be tried confirmed Jacques Lafontant, the Government Commissioner of Port-au-Prince, who as a prosecuting authority does not intend to appeal the decision of the investigating judge.



Note that Belizaire is accused among other things of illegal possession of weapons of war, of Conspiracy against the internal security of the State, and also against the American Embassy and the Brasserie la Couronne https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29383-haiti-flash-the-former-deputy-arnel-belizaire-accused-of-conspiracy-against-the-security-of-the-state.html . If convicted during his criminal trial, former eputy Arnel Belizaire faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.



Reminder of facts. On November 30, 2019 at Carrefour La Vallee (North entrance of Jacmel) around 1:00 a.m. Arnel Belizaire who was under a warrant to bring in for the first time successfully escaping from the police https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29391-haiti-flash-former-deputy-belizaire-escapes-the-police.html was arrested while traveling in convoy with 7 other accomplices in 3 vehicles. During a search in a hotel belonging to Belizaire located in Lakou New York (Jacmel), the police discovered and seized a real war arsenal including, among other things, 3 assault rifles, several pistols, 12 magazines for pistols, 8 magazines for rifles assault, more than 1,000 munitions of various calibers and an Austrian offensive grenade with fragmentation https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29399-haiti-flash-belizaire-arrested-in-possession-of-an-arsenal-of-war.html



Me Marc-Antoine Maisonneuve the lawyer for Belizaire and his accomplices is confident that his client will be released at the end of his trial qualifying his detention as unfair ...



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29475-haiti-flash-arnel-belizaire-and-5-of-his-accomplices-in-prison.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29436-haiti-justice-arnel-belizaire-rejects-the-charges-against-him.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-29416-icihaiti-gonaives-mandates-to-bring-against-a-score-of-activists-of-the-opposition.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29399-haiti-flash-belizaire-arrested-in-possession-of-an-arsenal-of-war.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29391-haiti-flash-former-deputy-belizaire-escapes-the-police.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29383-haiti-flash-the-former-deputy-arnel-belizaire-accused-of-conspiracy-against-the-security-of-the-state.html



SL/ HaitiLibre


















Jaipur: Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala asked Sachin Pilot to return to the family and discuss grievances. He also said that BJP has failed in its conspiracy to topple the elected government in Rajasthan. If Sachin Pilot doesn't want to join BJP, he should refuse Haryana government's hospitality, added Surjewala.

Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala on Wednesday said if dissident leader Sachin Pilot is not joining the BJP, he should stop accepting that party's hospitality in Haryana.

The reference was to reports that MLAs close to the rebel leaders are holed up in hotels in Gurgaon in Haryana, where the BJP is in power.

He also repeated the party's appeal to Pilot, asking him to come back to the family.

I have seen Pilot's statement in the media that he will not join the BJP. If you do not want to go to the BJP, stop accepting the hospitality of the BJP immediately, he said.

He told reporters that Pilot should free the Congress MLAs who are staying in two luxury hotels and under the security of the Haryana police.

Surjewala said the party leadership spoke to Pilot several times but he and the other Congress MLAs did not come to attend the Congress Legislature Party meetings.

Pilot was sacked Tuesday as Rajasthan's deputy chief minister and the president of the state unit of the Congress.
About half of Ukrainian citizens recognize the activists of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) as fighters for Ukraine's independence, according to a nationwide survey conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation together with the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.

The results of the poll were presented during an online press conference at Ukrinform on Thursday, July 16, according to the agency's correspondent.

"Regarding the attitude to the decision to recognize the activists of the Ukrainian People's Republic as fighters for the independence of Ukraine, here we see a really positive consensus among Ukrainians. About half of our citizens have a positive attitude to it - 48%, and only 16% are negative about that. The others replied that they were indifferent or could not answer. That is, these are people who can change their minds and who need to be worked with," an analyst at the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation, Serhiy Shapovalov, said, presenting the study.

The nationwide survey was conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation together with the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology from April 17 to 22, 2020 in all regions of Ukraine, except for Crimea and the occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. A total of 2,000 people were interviewed. The poll's margin of error does not exceed 2.2%.

The survey was funded by the Matra program of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

op
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled on the cases of Azerbaijani human rights defenders Leyla and Arif Yunus.

Leyla Yunus, the director of Institute of Peace and Democracy, and her husband Arif Yunus living in political emigration in the Netherlands appealed against their pre-trial arrest in Azerbaijan, linking the criminal prosecution with their criticism of the authorities.

The two were detained in 2014 while flying from the Baku airport. Searches were carried out in their office and apartment. Arif Yunus has become unwell and has been hospitalized during this time.

Azerbaijani courts ignored the spouses' complaints about the illegality of these actions. Following this, in August 2014, they were arrested on charges of fraud, tax evasion, and embezzlement.

A year later, Leyla and Arif Yunus were sentenced to 8.5 and 8 years in prison, respectively.

The ECHR recognized a violation of their rights and ruled that the Azerbaijani government is obliged to pay monetary compensation of EUR 20,000 each and another EUR 11,438 for legal fees.

The applicants considered that the reason for the persecution was their active citizenship and criticism of the government. The Court agreed with their arguments.
Twitter is rocked by its worst-ever cyber-attack. The hacking incident seems more serious than what it is.

Twitter-verse was rocked by a major cybersecurity incident which saw accounts of major global politicians, tech billionaires, and many others hacked in a major bitcoin scam. Even as these accounts are back to normal, the damage has been done. The incident, however, has far more serious implications.

According to a report, hackers grabbed over $100,000 in the first hours of the attack. The figures could be higher. For now, the cyber-attack did cause a financial loss, but things could have been murkier.

Let us look at some of the people whose accounts were hacked. US presidential front-runner Joe Biden, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and so on. These verified handles had millions of followers and a reach that is not just limited to the US.

Twitter-verse is known for provocative tweets from some users including the likes of Donald Trump and Elon Musk. What if hackers chose to use the hack to simulate a new political tussle. A damage control thereafter could be more difficult than you can imagine.

Twitter is a Silicon Valley-based, digitally native company with its average employees being hands-on with technology, and even then it gets targeted by such an attack only shows how vulnerable companies around the world can be. People/Employees are generally the entry point for most cyberattacks and once a hacker gets access to the systems, they try to move laterally exploiting vulnerabilities of systems, Saket Modi, Co-founder & CEO, Lucideus told Hindustan Times.

Therefore, looking at technology holistically and objectively across people, process, and technology in real-time is the need of the hour. It's time when organizations have employee wise risk profiles, monitoring their behaviour, awareness, and threat profile of the devices they have access to, he added.

Twitters panic

Jack Dorsey says it was a tough day at his office. The timeline of events shows it was more than tough. Soon after accounts were hacked and malicious tweets were sent out, Twitters first reaction was to silence all the verified accounts.

A Reuters report reveals that these hackers may have gained to Twitters internal infrastructure. It is highly likely that the attackers were able to hack into the back end or service layer of the Twitter application, Michael Borohovski, director of software engineering at security company Synopsys, told Reuters.

If the hackers do have access to the backend of Twitter, or direct database access, there is nothing potentially stopping them from pilfering data in addition to using this tweet-scam as a distraction, he added.

Were continuing to limit the ability to Tweet, reset your password, and some other account functionalities while we look into this. Thanks for your patience.  Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 15, 2020

Explanation and ownership

As Casey Newton writes in The Verge, Twitter had it coming. His report points out scamsters have long targeted Elon Musks tweets to conduct a bitcoin scam. And these go back to as old as 2018. The hackers have time and again used Musk's name and likeness to ask for Bitcoin.

These kinds of scams have happened in the past. But never at this scale. It was a well-coordinated attack where multiple accounts got hacked at the same time, with the same tweets directing users to the same scam site. Unfortunately, more than 373 users fell for the scam, losing a total of 89 lakh rupees before the Tweets were removed by the Twitter authority. The hacker had complete access to Twitter. He could post anything from any of the official accounts. But he chose to seek Bitcoins through false promises. People should be more careful. There is no easy money, and most Crypto giveaways that ask for contributions are scams. We hope this brings awareness, and Twitter users do not fall for these kinds of scams again," Arjun Vijay, Co-Founder and COO of Giottus Cryptocurrency Exchange said.

Already, the US is headed for a presidential election. Social media, just like the last time, is going to play a big role. Twitters inability to keep this attack at bay does not give any assurance.

Could this be Twitters Cambridge Analytica-moment? Facebook had to make a barrage of changes to the platform to prevent its platform from getting misused for social networking platform. Are we looking at a new series of lawsuits and trials? We shall find out soon.
HOUSTON, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Western Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE: WES) ("WES" or the "Partnership") announced that the board of directors of its general partner declared a quarterly cash distribution of $0.311 per unit for the second quarter of 2020. WES's second-quarter 2020 distribution is payable August 13, 2020, to unitholders of record at the close of business July 31, 2020.

The Partnership plans to report its second-quarter 2020 results after market close Monday, August 10, 2020. Management will host a conference call Tuesday, August 11, 2020, at 1 p.m. CDT (2 p.m. EDT) to discuss WES's quarterly results. The full text of the release announcing the results will be available on the Partnership's website at www.westernmidstream.com.

Second-Quarter 2020 Results

Tuesday, August 11, 2020

1 p.m. CDT (2 p.m. EDT)

Dial-in number: 877-883-0383

International dial-in number: 412-902-6506

Participant access code: 2048166

To participate in WES's scheduled second-quarter earnings call, refer to the above-listed dial-in number and participant access code. To access the live audio webcast of the conference call, please visit the investor relations section of the Partnership's website at www.westernmidstream.com. A replay of the conference call also will be available on the website for two weeks following the call.

ABOUT WESTERN MIDSTREAM

Western Midstream Partners, LP ("WES") is a Delaware master limited partnership formed to acquire, own, develop, and operate midstream assets. With midstream assets located in the Rocky Mountains, North-central Pennsylvania, Texas, and New Mexico, WES is engaged in the business of gathering, compressing, treating, processing, and transporting natural gas; gathering, stabilizing, and transporting condensate, NGLs, and crude oil; and gathering and disposing of produced water for its customers. In addition, in its capacity as a processor of natural gas, WES also buys and sells natural gas, NGLs, and condensate on behalf of itself and as agent for its customers under certain of its contracts.

For more information about Western Midstream Partners, LP and Western Midstream Flash Feed updates, please visit www.westernmidstream.com.

Note regarding Non-United States Investors: This release is intended to be a qualified notice under Treasury Regulation Section 1.1446-4(b). Brokers and nominees should treat one hundred percent (100.0%) of Western Midstream Partners, LP's distributions to non-U.S. investors as being attributable to income that is effectively connected with a United States trade or business. Accordingly, Western Midstream Partners, LP's distributions to non-U.S. investors are subject to federal income tax withholding at the highest applicable effective tax rate.

WESTERN MIDSTREAM CONTACTS

Kristen Shults

Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications

[email protected]

832.636.6000

Abby Dempsey

Investor Relations Supervisor

[email protected]

832.636.6000

SOURCE Western Midstream Partners, LP

Related Links

http://www.westernmidstream.com


Massachusetts health officials said on Thursday that another 11 people have died from coronavirus. The death toll now stands at 8,163.

Officials also confirmed another 143 cases of the virus, for a total of at least 106,271. Thats based on 12,880 new molecular tests reported on Thursday.

There are currently 557 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, and 77 cases in intensive care. Of those, 38 are presently intubated, the Department of Public Health data shows.

There were 91 new probable cases reported on Thursday, bringing that figure up to 6,310. Patients with a positive serology from an antibody test and are showing symptoms of the virus, or were likely exposed to it, are counted as probable cases.

Patients who did not have a laboratory test, but were exhibiting coronavirus-like symptoms, and were likely exposed to COVID-19, are also counted as probable cases.

On Thursday, Gov. Charlie Baker urged residents to continue to do their part in containing the spread of the virus by wearing a mask and practicing social distancing, particularly as cases across the United States continue to spike.

Its very clear from the research and the data that face-coverings are the most important and significant way to stop the spread, Baker said during his daily briefing. The Lt. Governor and I are incredibly grateful for the role that the people of Massachusetts have played in containing the virus, and this is not time to let down our guard.

Baker said the statewide positive test rate has hovered at around 2% for the past several weeks, but noted there have been slightly higher averages in a number of communities, where testing rates have declined.

This week, researchers at Cambridge-based Moderna Inc. and the National Institutes of Health reported that an experimental vaccine that has been in development for months helped boost peoples immune systems in the way scientists had hoped. Toward the end of July, the vaccine will be administered to 30,000 people as part of a final trial to see if it protects against the coronavirus.

The availability of a vaccine will be required before the state moves into the final phase of reopening: Phase 4. The third phase of states reopening plan, called the vigilant phase, began July 6, and will last significantly longer than the other phases so officials can monitor the impact the third phase will have on the public health data.

On Monday, Baker unveiled a new website for residents to report businesses not complying with the states health and safety guidelines during the pandemic.

The website, mass.gov/covidcompliance, instructs anyone wishing to file a report of non-compliance to contact their local Board of Health. They can also contact the Massachusetts Department of Labor Standards, by email or by phone, with any issues.

If the Department of Labor Standards believes an investigation is warranted, the agency will call or email the complainant within 72 hours, the website says. At which point, the agency will open an investigation into the business in question in partnership with local health officials.

Here are the cases listed by county:

Barnstable County: 1,596

Berkshire County: 616

Bristol County: 8,593

Dukes County: 57

Essex County: 16,596

Franklin County: 386

Hampden County: 7,077

Hampshire County: 1,015

Middlesex County: 24,685

Nantucket County: 25

Norfolk County: 9,588

Plymouth County: 8,847

Suffolk County: 20,445

Worcester County: 12,738

Unknown location: 317

Related Content:
New Delhi:

Mahatma Gandhias grandson and a former NASA scientist, 87 year old Kanu Ramdas Gandhi died in a private hospital in Surat after prolonged illness on Monday evening. He is survived by his wife Shivalaxmi.

Kanu had earned fame as the young boy who had walked ahead of his grandfather Mahatma Gandhi holding his stick on Dandi villageas beaches during the legendary Salt Satyagraha of March April 1930.

He was suffering from poor health since a long time and had suffered a heart attack and brain haemorrhage on October 22.

Pained by the demise of Kanubhai Gandhi, the grandson of Gandhi Ji. Remembering my various interactions with him. May his soul rest in peace a Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 7, 2016

The brutal attack had left his body paralysed and he had lapsed into a coma. Sadly, he could never recover from this situation.

Deeply saddened to know about passing away of Shri Kanubhai Gandhi,Mahatma Gandhi's grandson.Deep condolences to his family,may his soul RIP a Suresh Prabhu (@sureshpprabhu) November 7, 2016

Sad to learn of the passing away of Kanubhai Gandhi, grandson of Gandhiji. My heartfelt condolences to his family a Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) November 7, 2016

Kanu Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi passes away. May his soul rest in peace. a Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) November 7, 2016

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
LOS ANGELESAVN Media Network is pleased to announce plans to launch the Most Mouthwatering Booty Contest on AVN Stars at midnight on July 17.

This three-day, 72-hour, fan-voting contest starts at midnight PDT on July 17 and goes until 11:59 p.m. PDT on July 19.

All AVN Stars are eligible to enter and the Top 10 vote-getters will each receive cash prizes with the winner taking home $750! To enter, simply go into your Settings and click on the Contests tab. You may upload your image from there.

To join AVN Stars for free, visit stars.avn.com.

Designed specifically for the needs of adult entertainers, AVN Stars is a subscription-based community where creators can monetize their content without the fear of censorship, discrimination, suspensions or shadow-bans. Creators may charge a subscription fee or make their posts available free of charge.
Taoiseach Micheal Martin has accepted the decision to delay the lifting of restrictions until August 10 is a hammerblow to publicans and other business owners.

But he said the warnings from the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) that the reproduction number has now gone above 1 and the body was very clear about increased cases and such warnings cannot be ignored.

Confirming the decision to delay the move to Phase 4, Taoiseach Micheal Martin said he is aware that the news will be a disappointment to many but it must be done given the increase in the spread of the virus.

He outlined a number of new measures which will come into effect in a fresh bid to supress the virus, which include:

Face coverings to be worn by all in shops

Pubs, bars, nightclubs to remain closed until August 10

Social visits to homes to be limited to 10 people

Limit of larger gatherings extended to Aug 10

Greater checks and tracking of visitors arriving into Ireland will come into effect.

Mr Martin said the previous decisions to re-open the country was done on evidence but there was always a realisation there was a flexibility in the roadmaps when they were announced.

We will be learning on an ongoing basis to live with Covid-19 for sometime to come. We have made significant progress but we take seriously the advice from NPHET, he said.

It is very disappointing for publicans in particular and hopefully some of the schemes we will announce will ease those difficulties, he said.

The government approved Mr Martins travel to the EU summit this weekend which he said is an essential trip. He said he will travel only with a small number of people. He said a range of measures including testing on his return from Brussels will operate and he will be tested again after seven days.

Acting Chief Medical Officer, Dr Ronan Glynn said he would welcome more measures to help contain the virus but said NPHET has not recommended mandatory testing for those coming into the country.

He said NPHETs advice was that restaurants could open but that pubs that opened must operate as restaurants.

Hammer blow as pubs to stay closed until August 10

Pubs not serving food will not be allowed open until August 10 after the Government delayed the lifting of the Covid restrictions.

Ministers are meeting in Dublin Castle to formally approve the delay to phase 4 of the easing of Covid-19 restrictions.

The Irish Examiner understands that the wearing of face coverings is expected to be made compulsory in shops and other indoor public spaces.

The Government has delayed the further opening of pubs until August 10.

Ministers have confirmed that the planned move to the fourth and final phase of the plan to ease coronavirus restrictions will not now take place on July 20.

As a result, all pubs which do not serve a substantial meal to customers will now remain closed until August 10.

The Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) described the decision to delay the opening at "shocking" and a "hammer blow".

VFI Chief Executive Padraig Cribben said: This is a shocking decision not to proceed with the planned reopening of pubs and will be a hammer blow to thousands of pubs and their local communities around the country.

We are in a situation where restaurants and pubs already open are having to cope with larger crowds.

"Opening all pubs would allow for better social distancing and reduce the risk of infection.

Publicans are reeling from this news.

"They did everything asked of them by remaining shut for over four months and our members had a reasonable expectation the sector would reopen next Monday.

"All other phases went smoothly so to now tell publicans they cant open like the rest of the hospitality sector makes little sense.

This is a decision made by politicians who appear divorced from reality about life in rural Ireland.

Senior government sources have also said that concerns around foreign tourists entering Ireland mean the current guidance advising against non-essential overseas travel is due to be extended.

Regulations requiring people to wear face coverings on public transport came into force on Monday, with fines of up to 2,500, or six months imprisonment, for those who fail to comply.

The union representing retail workers has called for the introduction of compulsory face coverings for customers in shops and supermarkets.

The Mandate trade union said an agreed protocol drawn up in consultation with government should be put in place for the mandatory wearing of face coverings.

Mandate general secretary John Douglas said it was  imperative we act collectively to ascertain the exact high level of risk posed to shop workers in Ireland by the spread of coronavirus, as well as acting swiftly to ensure mandatory face covering measures are implemented and compliance ensured for the protection of shop workers health.
Campbell, N.Y.  The 79-year-old man escaped from his burning home to tell a neighbor his house was on fire.

Then, he ran back inside to save his beloved cat. He did not make it back out.

Howard Marshall, of Campbell, Steuben County, died in the fire. He was overcome by smoke, said the New York State Police.

The fire at 51 Pine Drive was reported at 4:07 p.m. Wednesday. Troopers, along with firefighters from six departments and EMTs from American Medical Response and Bath Ambulance, responded.

Firefighters rushed into the burning home to rescue Marshall, the state police said. Troopers and paramedics then tried to revive the man at the scene. But he could not be saved, state police said.

The fire was sparked by an electrical problem, troopers said, and started under the center of the home.

Staff writer Samantha House covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? Reach her at shouse@syracuse.com.
Tirupati, July 16 : A row has erupted over Tirumala temple's honorary chief priest A.V. Ramana Dikshitulu raising concern over the temple remaining open despite the growing number of Covid-19 cases among priests. He even warned of "a disaster".

He tweeted on Thursday that 15 out of 50 archakas (priests) tested positive while results of 25 others are awaited. Tagging Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, he wrote that the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) Executive Officer and Additional Executive Officer refused to stop 'darshan' and alleged that they are following "anti hereditary archaka and anti-Brahmin policy" of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and its chief Chandrababu Naidu. "Disaster if this continues. Please take action," he wrote.

TTD chairman Y.V. Subba Reddy, however, differed with the honorary chief priest and claimed that the situation does not warrant closure of the temple for darshan.

Subba Reddy told reporters after a meeting with priests that Ramana Dikshitulu should have conveyed his opinion to the TTD board instead of making a comment in social media.

He said it was not proper to give political colour to priests testing positive. "Making such comments before the media is not good. After our government came to power, the honorary chief priest was appointed and he is being paid the honorarium," said Subba Reddy, who is the maternal uncle of the Chief Minister.

He asked EO and Additional EO to call Ramana Dikshitulu and discuss the issue with him.

He said since the re-opening of the temple for darshan, 140 TTD employees have tested positive for Covid and they include 14 priests.

The TTD Chairman said 60 of those tested positive are the security personnel who were drawn from the Andhra Pradesh Special Police (APSP) battalion. Those who contracted the virus also include 16 employees who prepare 'prasadam'.

Subba Reddy said 70 of the affected employees have recovered, living a normal life and have even resumed duties.

He claimed that none of the pilgrims visiting the temple was infected by the virus.

Tirumala temple had re-opened for pilgrims on June 8 after remaining closed for 80 days due to the Covid-19 induced lockdown.

Initially, the temple was allowing only 6,000 pilgrims per day with strict adherence to the Covid-19 protocol. The number of pilgrims was later doubled.
Head of the press office of Azerbaijans Defense Ministry, Colonel Vagif Dargahli has denied as false Armenian defense ministrys claims that the Armenian armed forces have allegedly taken out an Azerbaijani tank.

"This is false information. All the tanks of the Azerbaijani army are in service. The armored vehicles of the Azerbaijani armed forces are not on the front line. Azerbaijani tanks are beyond the reach of the Armenian armed forces' weapons," Dargahli told Trend.
U.S. Slaps More Sanctions On Kremlin-Linked Businessman Prigozhin For 'Destabilizing Global Activity'

By RFE/RL July 15, 2020

WASHINGTON -- The United States has imposed fresh sanctions on the interests of an influential Russian businessman close to President Vladimir Putin.

The State Department announced July 15 that it sanctioned five companies connected to Yevgeny Prigozhin as well as three individuals in the latest bid to stop the financier's "destabilizing global activity."

The companies are located in Sudan, Hong Kong, and Thailand, the statement said.

"Prigozhin relies on a network of front companies and facilitators" in an attempt to evade sanctions, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. "Prigozhin's global malign activities are well-documented, as demonstrated by his designation under multiple U.S. sanctions authorities."

The United States has already imposed sanctions on Prigozhin as well as his previously known companies, including Internet Research Agency and Vagner Group, a Russian military contractor force active in Libya, Syria, and Africa.

The Internet Research Agency engaged in online media influence operations during the 2016 U.S. presidential election as part of Russia's attempt to influence the vote.

The State Department said in the July 15 statement that it had sanctioned M Invest and Meroe Gold. Prigozhin uses the two companies as cover for Vagner's operations in Sudan. It also sanctioned the companies' leaders, Andrei Mandel and Mikhail Potemkin.

"Prigozhin's role in Sudan highlights the interplay between Russia's paramilitary operations, support for preserving authoritarian regimes, such as that of former Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, and exploitation of natural resources," the statement said.

Hong Kong and Thailand-based front companies Shine Dragon Group Limited, Shen Yang Jing Cheng Machinery Imp&Exp. Co, and Zhe Jiang Jiayi Small Commodities Trade Company Limited were also sanctioned for helping Prigozhin's business interests.

The State Department said the companies "facilitated more than 100 transactions exceeding $7.5 million" during 2018 and 2019 that were sent in the interest of Prigozhin.

The United States also sanctioned Igor Lavrenkov, who oversaw the Asian businesses.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ us-new-sanctions-russian- prigozhin/30728970.html

Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - An innovation award will help a Purdue University-affiliated bio-analytics startup commercialize instrument technology for pharmaceutical antibody manufacturers.

Novilytic LLC, a company that secures lifesaving drugs and medical devices and is based in the Purdue Research Park West Lafayette, has been awarded a Phase II SBIR contract by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, one of the National Institutes of Health.

The $1.4 million Phase II contract will allow Novilytic to continue the research, development and commercialization of its new Proteometer. The new instrument technology is being created for process chemists and engineers who need to develop better process quality and control. The instrument is designed to test antibody purity in process.

"The Proteometer represents a truly disruptive technology that will allow process research and manufacturing chemists and engineers to monitor and control antibody growth in process," said Fred Regnier, CTO and co-founder of Novilytic, and the former J.H. Law Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Purdue. "There is no technology available to do this currently. Novilytic is currently focused on the pharmaceutical bioreactor market that produces monoclonal antibodies, one of the most important biopharmaceuticals used to treat many cancers, diseases and viruses."

The company, which also is launching a seed round funding opportunity, will be opening new laboratories and hiring additional scientists in the coming months. Through the support of the Purdue Research Foundation and Purdue Foundry, Novilytic will continue to grow in the West Lafayette area.

"We are very grateful to the NIH and its support of our various developments," said Paul Dreier, CEO of Novilytic. "This marks our sixth straight SBIR grant. Initial grants led to the commercialization of patented medical devices. This award signifies our commitment to developing strong technology and patented instruments here in Indiana."

###

Research reported here was supported by the National Institute Of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award No. R44GM137713. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

About Novilytic LLC

Novilytic is a biochemistry analytics company that secures lifesaving drugs and medical devices. The company is backed by very strong partnerships with large analytical companies, artificial intelligence leaders, and pharmaceutical consortiums. Our potency is extended by the Novilytic Team, which includes multiple Ph.D. chemists and engineers who have helped us secure significant patents and other IP. Our business plan will increase those forces to insure we meet customer, market, and regulatory demands. Learn more at https://www.novilytic.com.

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

Source: Paul Dreier, pdreier@novilytic.com, 317-752-3116
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 21:36:41|Editor: huaxia

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Damaged buildings are seen at Maarat al-Numan Museum in Idlib province, northwestern Syria on Feb. 18, 2020. (Photo by Ammar Safarjalani/Xinhua)

MAARAT AL-NUMAN, Syria, July 16 (Xinhua) -- In Maarat al-Numan museum in Syria's Idlib province, sandbags are used to protect historic mosaic paintings that date back to the second century.

Maarat al-Numan, the second-largest city in the countryside of Idlib province in northwestern Syria, has seen the intense military showdown between the Syrian army and an array of rebel groups.

As Idlib is the last major rebel stronghold in the country, the intensity of the battles is obvious. Following intense battles, the army captured the city of Maarat al-Numan in January.

The Maarat al-Numan museum is one of the city's landscapes as the building itself is a historic one that was built in the 16th century as a hotel for travelers at first before becoming a museum.

The museum is largely damaged, but when entering the big halls, sandbags are placed on top of one another. The historic treasures of the mosaic paintings, which date back between the second and seventh century, are hidden behind the sandbags.

Some paintings were largely covered with sandbags while others were half exposed.

For officials, the most important items in the museum are the mosaic paintings, as their damage is irreparable.

Ghazzy Alolo, archeology manager of Idlib, told Xinhua at the museum that things got out of control in 2012 when the rebels were spreading in Idlib.

He said that small artifacts were moved into basements while the mosaic paintings were protected with the help of the local community, as young men in Maarat al-Numan helped in placing the sandbags on the mosaic paintings.

Alolo noted that the biggest damage has befallen the glass pieces as a result of the shelling and battles while the potteries were less damaged.

When entering the museum for the first time after the army retook Maarat al-Numan, Alolo said he was happy that the paintings were largely safe and sound.

"With the help of the local community of Maarat al-Numan and some of the workers in the antiquities department, we protected these paintings and hid them by using sandbags," he said.

Alolo added that they also covered the paintings "with a layer of fabric and that's why these paintings became isolated and protected from bombings that took place in the museum or nearby areas."

Alolo pointed out that the museum has been largely damaged and is in urgent need of reparation.

"The building was seriously damaged. Some walls and corridors cracked, and there are holes in the ceilings. So this building needs an emergency operation to salvage it and repair what was destroyed," he remarked.

Restoration can be done with local expertise and Syria has trained teams to fix the damage, the manager said, adding that the damage has been documented for the search of solutions.

"Restoration can be done as we have expertise and capabilities," he said, pointing out that if the paintings were damaged, there is no way to restore them.

"So these sandbags protected the largest chunk of the mosaic paintings in the museum," Alolo noted. Enditem
The opposition Congress party in Manipur on Wednesday demanded a CBI inquiry into the 2018 drug smuggling case and the resignation of the chief minister on moral ground to deliver justice. Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader and former chief minister O Ibobi Singh and Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC-I) president Moirangthem Okendro conveyed the demands during a press conference in Imphal.

Were demanding to hand over the case to the CBI, MPCC-I president Okendro said. Were also demanding the chief minister to resign on moral ground.

The MPCC(I)s demands came a day after chief minister N Biren Singh had informed the media that the BJP-led governments initiative war against drugs will continue and the government will not spare anyone, be it party members, family, friends or officials, if they are found involved in drug smuggling cases.

Also read: Newly-promoted Subedar Major Jitu Rai doing duty in Manipur, says ever ready to serve country

Birens statement came following a media report in which a lady police officer in Manipur Police department, in her affidavit to the High Court of Manipur, alleged that politicians and top police officers were involved in the said 2018 drug smuggling case.

The lady police officer is facing a suo motu contempt case for her remarks on Facebook, allegedly undermining the judiciary after the alleged drug smuggler was granted bail.

In June 2018, Manipur Police team seized 4.595 kilograms of contraband heroin and 2.80 lakh World is Yours (WY) Amphetamine tablets worth around Rs 27.79 crore in the international market from eight persons including the then chairman of Autonomous District Council (ADC), Chandel during an operation in and around Imphal.

Reacting to the said media report published on July 14, the Manipur Police Department in a press release on Tuesday clarified that there was no pressure from any quarter to the investigation officers in the case connected with the drug haul from former chairman of ADC, Chandel in 2018.

After a thorough investigation, the charge sheet of the case was submitted as laid down under the provision of law on October 6, 2018, PRO Manipur Police said in the release.

Maintaining that it has been working sincerely and relentlessly in the ongoing war against drugs, the release said right from the time of arrest of the accused person of the mentioned case till the submission of charge sheet, it has been taking up all requisite legal action to ensure that all the involved accused person are booked in accordance with the law.
South Australia has recorded its first case of coronavirus in 17 days after a woman who underwent hotel quarantine in Melbourne tested positive in Adelaide.

The woman returned from overseas to Victoria and was quarantined for two weeks.

She tested negative twice before she was released and allowed to fly home to Adelaide.

But upon arriving home the woman then tested positive.

South Australia has recorded its first case of coronavirus in 17 days after a woman who did hotel quarantine in Melbourne tested positive in Adelaide (pictured, people wearing masks in Melbourne on Thursday)

The woman returned from overseas to Victoria and was quarantined for two weeks (pictured, people wearing masks in Melbourne on Thursday)

A medical worker (centre left) speaks to people queueing outside a COVID-19 coronavirus testing venue at The Royal Melbourne Hospital

Experts say she had a very low level of virus in her system and was not infectious on her domestic flight.

The woman's close contacts have been tested and returned negative results.

Premier Steven Marshall announced the news on Thursday afternoon.

'We have one new case to report today she undertook her two weeks of her mandatory supervised quarantine in Victoria where she returned two negative tests,' he said.

'It is a low positive, she is not contagious.'

Deputy chief public health officer Dr Michael Cusack said the woman was probably not contagious on the flight.

'The remainder of her family have been tested and tested negative.'

'I think we can say with confidence that she was not infectious on her flight'.

Victoria recorded 317 new cases of coronavirus on Thursday - its worst ever daily figure - as the state's second wave continues to grow.

Two men in their 80s died overnight, taking the state's death toll to 29 and the national death toll to 113.

There are 109 people in hospital in Victoria, with 29 in intensive care.

Just 28 of the new cases announced on Thursday were connected to known outbreaks, while the sources of the other 289 were unknown - suggesting widespread community transmission.

Melburnians exercise along Elwood Beach on Tuesday (pictured) as the city suffers a six-week lockdown due to a spike in infections

A man and woman wearing a facemask walking along Lygon Street in Melbourne on Wednesday (pictured) as Victoria endured an 11th straight day of triple-digit infections

Where are the cases? Al-Taqwa College: 157 cases HWL Ebsworth lawyers: 6 cases Somerville retail service: 37 cases Menarock aged care facility: 31 cases St Basil's homes for the aged: 5 cases Glendale aged care: 23 cases Estia health aged care: 21 cases JBS abattoir: 29 cases Advertisement

The state has 160 outbreaks ongoing, including in offices, aged care homes and schools.

There are 157 cases now linked to Al-Taqwa College and six cases linked to HWL Ebsworth lawyers in Melbourne.

Premier Daniel Andrews was not yet prepared to move to draconian Stage-4 lockdowns but said Melburnians must be vigilant if that was to be prevented.

'It's well too early for us to be moving to a whole new stage,' he said.

'If you want to make that less likely, if you want to get out of these sort of restrictions as fast as as possible, then we all have to play our part.'

Victoria Police issued $107,000 in fines in 24 hours leading up to Thursday's announcement, many to people who were at illegal parties. Gatherings of more than two are banned in Melbourne.

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the numbers may get worse.

'We not have hit our peak,' he said.

But he was hopeful that the figures will come down once the lockdown kicks in.

'I expect it to turn around this week. But as I always said, it's no guarantee,' he said.

Meanwhile, New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian has vowed to avoid locking down her state despite fears Victoria's outbreak is spreading north of the border.

'We can't keep going into lockdown and that is something we need to avoid at all costs,' she told KIIS radio.

Victoria has suffered a triple-digit increase in cases for the past ten days.

Asked if Sydney would be locked down if it saw the same infection numbers, Ms Berejiklian said: 'We would avoid that happening.'

With around one million Australians on the dole, the premier is desperate to avoid the economic damage that further lockdowns would bring.

She also ruled out suburb-by-suburb lockdown as tried in 12 postcodes in north-west Melbourne.

Sydney residents have been warned to watch for symptoms if they have visited one of these places, which were attended by people who have tested positive

Ms Berejiklian said locking down a suburb where an outbreak happens is ineffective because people who may have been infected there travel 'all over Sydney'.

'It's all or nothing. You can't lockdown a suburb, because [people who have passed through] live elsewhere,' she said.

Health officials are trying to control an outbreak linked to the Crossroads Hotel in Casula, south-west Sydney.

The outbreak is understood to have began when an infected freight driver, known as Patient Zero, went to a work party at the pub after driving from Melbourne.

But Ms Berejiklian said her concern was that community transmission was happening before the border shut down, without being picked up on.

Melbourne is suffering 160 separate outbreaks. Pictured: Map showing some of the outbreaks on Wednesday

'Our case numbers are relatively low but what we don't know is if there was community spread months ago when people from Sydney and Melbourne were moving in and out.

'Things can get out of control very quickly,' she warned.

The premier said Victorian officials failed to spot community transmission was happening before it was too late.

'They didn't pick it up early enough. People who should have stayed at home didn't know they had to stay at home or didn't stay at home and then that spreads through the community

'We're hoping that hasn't happened here in New South Wales.'

An empty Flinders Street Station is seen on Thursday (pictured) as Melbourne endures its second coronavirus lockdown

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA: 27,244 Victoria: 20,269 New South Wales: 4,273 Queensland: 1,161 Western Australia: 692 South Australia: 473 Tasmania: 230 Australian Capital Territory: 113 Northern Territory: 33 TOTAL CASES: 27,244 ESTIMATED ACTIVE CASES: 269 DEATHS: 897 Updated: 5.31 PM, 11 October, 2020 Source: Australian Government Department of Health Advertisement

NSW Health reported 10 new COVID-19 cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Wednesday from almost 23,000 tests, with six cases locally acquired.

Three-of-the-six cases - a child of a known case, a man in his 30s who was a contact of a known case and a male patron in his 80s - are connected to the Crossroads Hotel in Casula, which an infected Melbourne man attended on July 3.

At least 21 of the 37 known cases in the cluster were hotel patrons.

NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said two other cases had arisen since 8pm on Wednesday, including a teen who attended the Hurricane Grill in Brighton-Le-Sands on July 11 with a known case. The site has been closed for cleaning.

Another case involved a NSW man who returned to Ballina from Melbourne on Jetstar flight JQ466, with all passengers on that flight being contact traced.

'Obviously we are concerned when we find cases that can't be linked back because it does indicate we have missed a chain,' Dr Chant told reporters on Thursday.

Dr Chant this week warned COVID-19 clusters would pop up because of the 'stealthy' nature of the virus and the rapidity with which the virus could spread.

NSW Health on Wednesday confirmed the 'patient zero' of the outbreak was most likely a Melbourne freight company employee who attended the Crossroads Hotel on July 3 for a work party. Six of his colleagues have since caught COVID-19.

The man entered NSW on June 30, before the state's border with Victoria closed.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard warned it was unrealistic to expect the state to frequently record zero COVID-19 cases as the virus could bubble away under the surface.

Mr Hazzard told 2GB radio on Thursday that young Australians in particular needed to keep in mind the consequences of their actions amid the pandemic.

Medical workers are seen giving coronavirus tests in Sydney's Bondi on Tuesday (pictured) amid fears the Melbourne outbreak may spread to NSW

'If they happen to have the virus they can be super-spreaders with great skill and acumen,' he said.

'We've got a young bloke from that latest cluster ... he had one of the highest infection levels that we've ever seen.'

NSW Health on Wednesday also named several venues where confirmed COVID-19 cases spent time including the YMCA at Revesby, Wests Leagues Club at Leumeah, Macarthur Tavern in Campbelltown and Casula Kmart.

The Milky Lane burger joint in Parramatta and the Bavarian Macarthur restaurant in Campbelltown were later added to the list as well as Woolworths in Bowral.
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She has been enjoying a sun-soaked trip to Ibiza with her friends, after getting married to husband Michael Fassbender there in 2017.

And Alicia Vikander looked sensational as she enjoyed a day at the beach with her friends at the beach on the Spanish island on Thursday.

The Tomb Raider star, 31, showed off her slender figure in a chic black bikini while topping up her tan, and her ensemble paired a scalloped top with high-waist bottoms.

Stunning: Alicia Vikander showed off her slender figure in a chic black bikini as she enjoyed a day at the beach in Ibiza with her friends on Thursday

Alicia's ensemble highlighted her toned abs and slender legs as she relaxed on a sun lounger underneath a straw umbrella at the picturesque location.

Her brunette locks were pulled back into a messy bun and she used a natural palette of make-up for the occasion, while she shielded her eyes in a pair of stylish shades.

Adding a chic touch to her look, Alicia accessorised with a pair of shell-shaped dangling earrings while she covered her torso in her orange floral-print dress as she lounged.

Legs for days! Alicia's ensemble highlighted her slender legs as she relaxed on a sun lounger underneath a straw umbrella at the picturesque location

Looking good: Alicia's brunette locks were pulled back into a messy bun and she used a natural palette of make-up for the occasion, while she shielded her eyes in a pair of stylish shades

Stylish: Alicia wore a loose-fitting black beach dress over her bikini while walking around on the beach

Talkative: Alicia and her friend could be seen enjoying each other's company while out at the beach

Pretty: Adding a chic touch to her look, Alicia accessorised with a pair of shell-shaped dangling earrings

Keeping up-to-date: Alicia could be seen scrolling on her phone as she relaxed

While she was at the beach, Alicia wore a loose-fitting black beach dress over her bikini and the ensemble appeared to have been her friend's as she was wearing the outfit when they arrived.

The revealing dark ensemble had spaghetti straps and a pleated skirt to show off her bikini underneath, while it also highlighted her sun-kissed skin.

Alicia was also seen in a stylish orange floral-dress maxi dress during her outing, which she teamed with a pair of comfy brown sandals.

Swapping outfits: While she was at the beach, Alicia wore a loose-fitting black beach dress over her bikini and the ensemble appeared to have been her friend's as she was wearing the outfit when they arrived (right)

Delighted: Alicia could be seen showing her friend something on her phone after taking some snaps of the beach

Sensational figure: The revealing dark ensemble had spaghetti straps and a pleated skirt to show off her bikini underneath, while it also highlighted her sun-kissed skin

Catching up: After spending time at the beach, Alicia was seen chatting with a friend in a parking lot

Farewell: Alicia and her friend hugged as they said goodbye to each other during the outing

Alicia and husband Michael, who married in Ibiza in 2017, don't appear out in public together too frequently, and are known to enjoy their privacy.

Alicia and Michael made their public debut on the red carpet of the Golden Globe Awards in 2016 after meeting on the set of their film, The Light Between Two Oceans.

The couple were most recently seen together in March, when they stepped out together for the premiere of Calm With Horses Dublin International Film Festival.

Summer chic: Alicia was also seen in a stylish orange floral-dress maxi dress during her outing, which she teamed with a pair of comfy brown sandals

Essentials: Alicia appeared to have bought a large bag of apples and a punnet of eggs during her trip to the shops
Zindzi Mandela, the daughter of South African anti-apartheid leaders Nelson and Winnie Mandela, tested positive for coronavirus the day she died.

Her son Zondwa Mandela today revealed his mother did have the disease  but it may not be what caused her death aged 59 in Johannesburg on Monday.

Zindzi is the worlds highest profile victim of coronavirus, which has killed more than 4,400 people in South Africa alone.

Her son Zondwa Mandela told state broadcaster SABC: My mother did in fact test positive for Covid-19 on the day of her passing.



Although, this doesnt therefore mean that she died of Covid-related complications, but simply that she tested positive for it.

He added: Simply by the virtue that there was a positive test, we are therefore obligated to function and work within the framework of the existing regulation related to such cases.

Zindzi Mandela, the daughter of South African anti-apartheid leaders Nelson and Winnie Mandela, died on Monday morning in hospital.

Zindzi rose to international prominence when she read out Nelson Mandelas rejection of then-president P.W. Bothas offer for freedom in 1985.

The white minority government offered to release Nelson Mandela from prison if he denounced violence perpetrated by his movement, the Africa National Congress, against apartheid.

She read his letter rejecting the offer at a packed public meeting which was broadcast around the world.

The 59-year-old was serving as South Africas ambassador to Denmark.

Zindizi and her father, Nelson Mandela on her wedding day. [Both are late now]

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 07:22:48|Editor: huaxia

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SAN FRANCISCO, July 15 (Xinhua) -- A number of high-profile Twitter accounts were simultaneously hacked on Wednesday by attackers to spread a cryptocurrency scam, according to a report by Tech Crunch.

Twitter has responded to the incident in the afternoon. "We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly," Twitter Support said in a tweet, adding that users may be unable to tweet or reset passwords while they review and address the incident.

The scammer's website was quickly pulled offline. Kristaps Ronka, chief executive of Namesilo, the domain registrar used by the scammers, told Tech Crunch that the company suspended the domain "on the first report" it received.

The accounts being hacked included technology company @Apple, ride-hailing company @Uber, Democratic presidential candidate @joebiden, Former president @BarackObama, Amazon co-founder @jeffbezos, Tesla and SpaceX founder @elonmusk, Microsoft founder @billgates, and legendary investor @WarrenBuffet. Some of the accounts were quickly back under their owners' control and the tweets sent out when those accounts were compromised were quickly deleted, the report said.

According to the report by Tech Crunch, security researchers found that the attackers had fully taken over the victims' accounts, and also changed the email address associated with the account to make it harder for the real user to regain access.

Tech Crunch said in the report that these kinds of scams are common. Scammers take over high-profile Twitter accounts using breached or leaked passwords and post messages that encourage users to post their cryptocurrency funds to a particular address under the guise that they'll double their "investment." Enditem
LOS ANGELES - Two men were charged Wednesday with kidnapping a Chinese national from a Los Angeles-area shopping mall in a $2 million ransom scheme that went wrong when the victim died from his injuries, authorities said.

Anthony Valladares, 28, of Pasadena and Alexis Ivan Romero Velez, 24, of Azusa were arrested Tuesday and could face life in prison if convicted, according to a statement from the U.S. attorneys office.

It wasnt immediately known whether they had attorneys.

Federal prosecutors contend that Valladres was hired as muscle and Velez to be the driver of a minivan in the July 16, 2018, kidnapping of Ruochen Tony Liao from a mall parking lot in suburban San Gabriel.

Valladares told investigators that he was to be paid $1,000 for his role in the kidnapping and said he hired Romero as the driver, according to an FBI affidavit.

Liao owned a Southern California car dealership that sold high-end cars such as Porches and Bentleys.

Liaos parents in China were sent ransom demands and ordered to deposit payment in Chinese bank accounts, according to court documents.

However, the money wasnt paid, authorities said.

Liao was badly beaten and repeatedly shocked with a stun gun during the snatching. He was believed to have been held in a closet at a home in Corona and died the day after the kidnapping and was buried in the Mojave Desert authorities said.

His remains were identified last year.

Two Chinese citizens who had been living in West Covina have been charged with orchestrating the crime. Guangyao Yang, 26, and Peicheng Shen, 34, are being held in China on charges filed there related to the kidnapping, the U.S. attorneys office said.

It was believed that the men arranged the kidnapping to collect a debt from Liao, according to court documents.
The ruling could require EU regulators to vet any new transfers due to concerns that the US can snoop on peoples data.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has invalidated an agreement that allows big tech companies to transfer data to the United States.

Thursdays ruling against Privacy Shield could require regulators to vet any new transfers due to concerns that the US government can snoop on peoples data for national security reasons.

It will no longer simply be assumed that tech companies like Facebook will adequately protect the privacy of its European users data when it sends it to the US.

Rather, the EU and the US will likely have to find a new agreement that guarantees that Europeans data is afforded the same privacy protection in the US as it is in the EU, which has some of the toughest standards in the world.

The case began after former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed in 2013 that the US government was snooping on peoples online data and communications.

The revelations included detail on how Facebook gave US security agencies access to the personal data of Europeans.

The Schrems case

Austrian activist and law student Max Schrems that year filed a complaint against Facebook, which has its EU base in Ireland, arguing that personal data should not be sent to the US, as many companies do, because the data protection is not as strong as in Europe.

Though the legal case was triggered by concerns over Facebook in particular, it could have far-reaching implications for all tech companies that move large amounts of data over the internet if regulators find that US privacy protections are insufficient and block the transfers.

Things like email, flight and hotel reservations would not be affected.

Schrems said the ruling amounted to a victory for privacy.

The US will have to engage in serious surveillance reform to get back to a privileged status for US companies, he wrote on Twitter.

Companies use legal mechanisms called standard contractual clauses that force businesses to abide by strict EU privacy standards when transferring messages, photos and other information.

Companies like Facebook routinely move such data among its servers around the world, and the clauses  stock terms and conditions  are used to ensure the EU rules are maintained when data leaves the bloc.

Legal uncertainty

The ECJ ruled on Thursday that those clauses are still valid. However, it declared invalid the umbrella agreement between the US and the EU on data transfers, called Privacy Shield.

The court said in its rulings that there are limitations on the protection of personal data arising from the domestic law of the United States on the access and use by US public authorities of such data transferred from the European Union to that third country.

Alexandre Roure, a senior manager at Computer and Communications Industry Association, said the decision creates legal uncertainty for the thousands of large and small companies on both sides of the Atlantic that rely on Privacy Shield for their daily commercial data transfers.

We trust that EU and US decision-makers will swiftly develop a sustainable solution, in line with EU law, to ensure the continuation of data flows which underpins the transatlantic economy, he said.
From left are NongHyup Bank Chief Digital Officer Lee Sang-rae, KB Financial Group Chief Data Officer Yoon Jin-soo, Shinhan Bank digital R&D center head Jang Hyun-ki and Hana Institute of Technology Director Kim Jeong-han / Courtesy of each company



By Park Jae-hyuk



Shinhan, KB, Hana, Woori and NH financial groups are shifting their focus to outside their companies in hiring a larger number of data specialists amid the growing importance of the use of data in the financial industry and the government's move to boost the data economy.



According to the nation's five-largest banking groups, the number of employees working in their big data businesses rose to 172 at the end of June, up 64 percent from 105 a year earlier, a result of their continuous digital transformation efforts.



They have been especially aggressive in seeking leaders for their data businesses, including from among Samsung executives; the company having served as a fertile environment for the development of leaders in the data industry over the past few years.



NongHyup Bank is the latest example of a commercial bank that has scouted "Samsung men" to head up its digital division.



The NH Financial Group's banking unit, which had previously been reluctant to hire outside experts for senior positions, appointed former Samsung SDS executive Lee Sang-rae as its chief digital officer, July 1. He majored in statistics at Kyungpook National University and directed solution consulting, data analysis and digital marketing at Samsung SDS.



On the day of his appointment, NongHyup also launched its data business department to hold the dominant position in the government-led "MyData" business which will enable licensed financial, IT and telecommunication firms to receive their customers' credit information from conventional financial firms, if their customers allow them to do so.



"With the outside digital expert, we will push ahead with digital-related new businesses and speed up efforts for our digital transformation that has been made more urgent because of the COVID-19 pandemic," a NongHyup Bank official said.



KB Kookmin Bank's data business is led by KB Financial Group Chief Data Officer Yoon Jin-soo, who has worked at Samsung SDS, Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Card. He joined KB in April last year.



Having majored in computer engineering at Seoul National University and earning a doctorate in computer science at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), he directed the development of KB ALBERT, an artificial intelligence (AI) that can understand and analyze financial terms through natural language processing.



"We will enhance our capabilities in coping with new technologies and analyzing data with an expert who worked for tech and financial companies," a KB Kookmin Bank official said.



Shinhan Bank hired Jang Hyun-ki in 2017 for its AI business which relies heavily on big data technologies. The AI expert, who is serving as the bank's digital R&D center head, worked for Samsung Electronics, IBM Korea and SK C&C.



Hana Financial Group's data business is currently led by Park Geun-young, who has overseen the bank's data processing over the past 30 years.



But his predecessor, former Samsung Electronics software research institute director Kim Jeong-han, who joined Hana in 2017, is still working to improve the group's competitiveness in the data industry, as the director of the Hana Institute of Technology established in 2018 for AI and big data research.



Woori Financial Group hasn't any former Samsung employees among its executives in charge of data business, but its data business is also led by Hwang Won-cheol, who joined the financial group in 2018 after working for Hewlett-Packard, KB Securities and Hana Financial Investment.



"We will continue to hire outside IT experts regardless of their previous workplaces," a Woori Financial Group official said.



Data experts from outside firms such as Samsung will likely be more popular with Korean banks facing severe challenges from "Big Techs," such as Naver and Kakao, which have expanded their presence in the financial industry.



The Bank of Korea recently advised domestic banks to make more efforts to develop personalized financial products using big data, if they want to enhance their profits and stability.



The Financial Services Commission (FSC) also launched a working group to boost the use of AI in the financial sector, in line with the administration's Korean New Deal that pursues the use of data and AI technologies across industries.



Samsung SDS sent one of its engineers to the working group comprised of government officials, professors and financial and tech firm employees, to share its expertise in data and AI technologies with financial firms.


By PTI

KOLKATA: The education system in West Bengal is "politicaly caged", an anguished Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar said on Thursday, a day after the vice-chancellors of the state's 23 universities did not attend a virtual meet called by him to discuss the academic situation amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

Dhankhar told a press conference he will seek an explanation from the truant VCs for ignoring his letter calling the meeting.

Only one vice chancellor had attended the virtual conference with the governor who is also the chancellor of state universities.

Dhankhar told reporters he will also ask the VCs, who were absent, about the academic problems being faced by students because of the outbreak of the disease.

"I find there is tightening of this political cage in the education scenario in West Bengal," he said, apparently referring to most VCs staying away from the meeting.

"I wanted to fathom the problems the universities and colleges are facing by calling a virtual meeting of VCs which they opposed tooth and nail for the reasons known to all," he said.

Amid frequent run-ins with the governor, the West Bengal government recently amended the relevant rules relating to the powers of the governor as the chancellor of universities.

he new rules have vastly reduced the governor's role in the functioning of universities.

Under the fresh set of rules, all communications between the governor and the universities have to be routed through the higher education department.
The Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) is "delaying" the identity confirmation of their 12 citizens stranded at the India-Bangladesh international border (IB) in Tripura for the last six days, the Border Security Force said on Thursday.

The Tripura frontier of the BSF issued a statement in Agartala, saying despite providing "evidence" to their counterparts -- the BGB -- about the vital details of the stranded Bangladeshis, held up along the IB in the Sepahijala district of the state, the border force of the neighbouring country has not responded "positively." The Bangaldeshi group -- comprising 4 females, a male and a 7 children -- was intercepted by a BSF patrol on July 11 along the IB.

The BSF said it had handed over, after a battalion commander level meeting on July 14, supporting documents as evidence that proved the identity of the 12 stranded Bangladeshi nationals.

The documents included their photographs, home address, family tree chart and a CD that contained voice and video conversation between one of the stranded Bangla citizen Kulsum Bibi (60) with her son who resides in Bangladesh, the BSF said.

"But, still BGB did not respond with some positive outcome. As per the understanding between the BSF and BGB, women and children apprehended at the international border have to be handed over or accepted by the either force subject to confirmation of their nationality, immediately after apprehension, treating them as victims of human trafficking." "However, Bangladesh authorities have been delaying such confirmation despite evidences handed over to BGB by BSF during the Commandant level flag meeting," the BSF said.

Hence, it said, the 12 Bangladeshi nationals are still stranded on the border and they are being provided basic amenities by BSF and locals on humanitarian grounds.

The BSF said a company commander level meeting was also held on the day of their apprehension (July 11) at the BGB post named 'Kasba'.

"The BGB commander denied to accept the 12 Bangladeshi nationals that day as they were not in possession of any valid documents to establish their identity as Bangaldeshis." "However, BGB assured that verification of their addresses will be carried out and thereafter suitable decision will be taken," the BSF statement said.

The BSF subsequently escalated the issue to a senior BGB commanders of the area and they were asked to "take back" the 12 people on the basis of their home address revealed by them.

"However, no satisfactory reply was received from BGB," the BSF said.

The BSF said all the 12 people belong to Harikula village under Chandina police station of Cumilla district in Bangladesh.

As per the BSF, the youngest member of this group is 2-year-old.
The mortgage crunch for homebuyers with small deposits is easing, but the return of more home loans comes at a cost.

After the Chancellors stamp duty holiday gave the property market a boost last week, Nationwide stepped back into the 10 per cent deposit mortgage market.

Britains biggest building society was joined to some extent by Coventry BS and Co-op Bank, through their arms that deal with mortgage brokers.

But Nationwide has also revealed that its 90 per cent mortgages will return at a higher rate and it will be raising rates on 85 per cent mortgages too - with two-year fixes rising by up to 0.3 per cent and five-year fixes rising by up to 0.45 per cent.

In the Office of Budget Responsibility's downside scenario house prices fall almost 15% over two years, but in its upside scenario the housing market suffers a small blip and gets back on track - will the slight return of 90% mortgages and a stamp duty cut be enough for the former?

At the start of March, Nationwide had a 90 per cent first-time buyer mortgage at 1.84 per cent - now its new deals for those with a 10 per cent deposit start at 2.49 per cent.

That's still an astonishingly low mortgage rate by historic standards, but with many borrowers already needing to stretch as far as they can to get on the property ladder - taking on mortgages with 35 or even 40 year terms - that bumping up of rates will affect affordability calculations and hamper their chances.

Its clear that the mortgage landscape remains very different to how it looked at the start of March before the coronavirus crisis and lockdown hit.

What's similarly obvious is the challenges the economy faces as Britain tentatively navigates its way out of lockdown and job losses keep coming with more forecast when the furlough scheme ends.

Less than five months ago, Britain was in the grip of a fierce mortgage price war.

Banks and building societies were battling it out to take rates ever lower right across their mortgage ranges.

If you had a big deposit you got the best deal, but if you only had 10 per cent or 5 per cent to put down then there was still plenty of choice.

As Britain went into lockdown and the property market went into the deep freeze this abruptly changed.

Lenders took the axe to their smaller deposit mortgages. The difficulties of working from home and the need to deal with a rush of customers asking for mortgage holidays took the blame for this, but there was another major factor at play  the fear of falling house prices.

Nobody could ever remember the property market being unceremoniously paused before, so no one was quite sure what would happen.

A best guess was that this pause, combined with widespread furloughing, economic shock and a wave of job losses, did not spell good news for house prices.

Fearing that anyone borrowing with a 10 per cent deposit or less would be highly exposed to the prospect of negative equity soon, banks and building societies staged a dash to safety and pulled those mortgages en-masse.

As it turns out, the UK property markets Terminator-style qualities  whatever you think is going to kill it off, it just keeps coming back  mean that since it was unfrozen and viewings, listings and valuations could get start again, things have looked rosier than most thought.

A good barometer of the market is how many reduced price property listings you see on Rightmove and there is a steady stream of those coming through at the moment

Speak to many English estate agents and they will tell you that theyve been pleasantly surprised with how things have been (I am writing about England here, because Wales and Scotland have had different lockdown timetables and Northern Ireland has a distinctly different property market).

At the upper end of the market, particularly in Englands rural areas and popular country towns and villages, agents will tell you that things are buoyant.

Albeit, thats only for some homes. A good barometer of the market is how many reduced price property listings you see on Rightmove and there is a steady stream of those coming through at the moment.

Rishi Sunaks decision to remove stamp duty from the first 500,000 of a home purchase has given the better-than-expected property market another shot in the arm.

But questions still remain as to whether this will be enough to dodge the most pessimistic forecasts for house prices, such as the Office of Budget Responsibilitys downside outlook of a 2.4 per cent decline this year and 11.7 per cent decline in 2021.

To be clear this is its most pessimistic outlook, but last week in the wake of the stamp duty holiday economists at the Cebr said even taking that into account they expected house prices to fall 5 per cent this year and 11 per cent in 2021.

Big mortgage lenders such as Nationwide seem to think the stamp duty cut help and have been inspired to ease slightly the mortgage crunch hitting small deposit borrowers.

Nonetheless, those 90 per cent mortgages could be pulled again at any time and remain substantially more expensive than a home loan for someone with 25 per cent or 40 per cent to put down. This echoes the scenario after the financial crisis.

And while if house prices do drop 15 per cent, not being able to get a 10 per cent deposit mortgage now might end up doing you a favour, the problem is that after the price drops have come a lack of finance in the future will mean first-time buyers cant take advantage of cheaper property.
Bradley Lane, 28, pictured, was jailed for 30 months after he admitted causing death by dangerous driving after a collision on the M1 at St Albans Crown Court

A driver who took cocaine to stay awake lost control of his vehicle on the M1 motorway and crashed into a car on the hard shoulder killing a young woman and injuring two others.

Nineteen year old Chloe Palmer, who was sitting in the rear of the stationary Renault Twingo, suffered a severe brain injury when the Isuzu D-Max driven by Bradley Lane ploughed into it.

She died in hospital six days later.

Two other young women in the car suffered serious injuries in the collision.

A fourth woman, who had got out of the vehicle and was leaning against a metal barrier beside the car, was uninjured.

All the women had been out clubbing that night in Watford and were making their way home when the crash occurred in the early hours of Saturday, November 25, 2017 close to junction 6.

The court heard they had been heading north towards St Albans when the car pulled over onto the hard shoulder just south of junction 6, which was the Bricket Wood exit.

At St Albans Crown Court today, Lane, 28, from Basildon, Essex, admitted causing the death of Chloe by his dangerous driving.

He also admitted two further charges of causing serious injury to the other women by his dangerous driving.

The 19 year old driver had been flung out of the car in the impact and suffered serious injuries.

Another young woman seated next to Chloe on the back seat suffered a head injury and an injury to the right side of her chest wall.

The court was told that Lane had admitted that the crash happened as he was driving home after working a double shift as a driver, during which time he had taken cocaine some eight hours before the crash to help him stay awake.

The court heard the crash had occurred when tiredness eventually caught up with Lane during his drive home and a loss of concentration and alertness meant he drifted across the carriageway and onto the hard shoulder colliding with the stationary car.

Judge Michael Simon, hearing the case, was told Lane had immediately admitted his guilt to police when they interviewed him.

St Albans Crown Court heard Lane apologised to the family of Chloe Palmer who died, and her friends who were injured in the crash

The court heard Ms Palmer was sitting in the back of a Renault Twingo which was stopped on the hard shoulder of the motorway when it was rear-ended by Lane's Isuzu D-Max

At his first appearance before magistrates in May 2019 he had asked to be remanded in custody and since then had been held in Bedford Prison.

His barrister Malcolm Galloway said his client wanted to make a heartfelt apology to the family of Chloe, who lived in north London.

He said he had taken the cocaine not for recreational purposes, but for it to act as a stimulant and help him stay away as he completed a double shift as a driver.

Passing sentence, Judge Simon told Lane he should never have got behind the wheel of his vehicle that night to drive home and said his tiredness meant he was not in a 'fit state' for the journey.

He jailed Lane for 30 months and disqualified him from driving for two years.

Because of the time Lane has spent on remand, the sentence means he will be released from prison in the next few weeks.
In the world of nation-state hacking groups, APT29, or Cozy Bear, has kept a relatively low profile, focusing on gathering intelligence rather than creating a stir.

That changed on Thursday, when the hacking group tied to the Russian government was accused of using a combination of known security vulnerabilities and custom-made malware to infiltrate organizations involved in developing a vaccine for covid-19, according to the U.K. and U.S. cybersecurity agencies.

The group, also known as The Dukes, has long been affiliated with Russian intelligence agencies, including the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), according to researchers. APT29 has a history dating to 2008 and has targeted dozens of governments, research institutes and corporations around the world in an effort to gather intelligence that may inform Russian government policymaking, according to researchers who have studied the group.

On Thursday, governments in the U.K., U.S. and Canada jointly announced that they concluded that APT29 had targeted "various organizations involved in Covid-19 vaccine development." The governments didn't identify specific victims of the hacking campaign. The hackers were probably acting "with the intention of stealing information and intellectual property relating to the development and testing of Covid-19 vaccines," according to a statement from the U.K.'s National Cyber Security Centre.

The Kremlin denied the accusations. "Russia has nothing to do with these attempts," said spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Artturi Lehtio, director of strategy and corporate development for Finnish cybersecurity company F-Secure, said that targeting Covid-19 research projects possibly marked a change in approach for the hacking group. "They traditionally go after intelligence that would inform policy and their interactions with other nations," Lehtio said. If the allegations are true, he added, it "suggests Covid-19 is such a major national security priority" for Russia that the group's "capabilities are being retasked."

It's not clear whether the hackers' efforts were successful in stealing information about Covid-19 research. Technical details released by the U.K.'s National Cyber Security Centre alleged on Thursday that the hackers used a combination of methods to break into their victims' computers.

The hackers scanned organizations' computer systems for vulnerabilities. They exploited security weaknesses in Citrix Systems Inc. software and virtual private network products from companies including Pulse Secure Inc. and Fortinet Inc., according to U.K. cybersecurity officials. Security vulnerabilities in those products had been publicized in 2018 and 2019, but some organizations may not have updated their software, leaving them open to attack, the officials said.

Citrix didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Pulse Secure or Fortinet.

The hackers also sent out spearphishing emails -- which typically include malicious code hidden in an attachment -- in an attempt to obtain login credentials for websites associated with the Covid-19 organizations. And they created customized malware -- named SoreFang, WellMail, and WellMess -- to steal data from infected computers, according to U.K. officials.

Over the last decade, APT29 has been accused of hacking governments and political organizations in the U.S., Georgia, Turkey, Uganda, Norway, and the Netherlands. Most famously, the group was behind the attack on the Democratic National Committee's servers, according to the cybersecurity company Crowdstrike, resulting in embarrassing leaks of internal emails in the run-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Another Russian group, APT28, or "Fancy Bear," got more attention in that episode because of its role in influence and disinformation operations.

Confirming who's behind hacks can be difficult, due to methods the hackers can use to conceal their identity. In 2014, however, the Dutch intelligence agency turned the tables on APT29 by hacking their computers and using their webcams to spy on them, identifying them as members of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service. Later, Dutch intelligence operatives were able to use the access they obtained to watch members of APT29 planned and carried out their hack on the Democratic National Committee.

According to the U.K. government, it's 95% sure that APT29 is part of the Russia's intelligence services. British authorities said they have concluded that it's "highly likely" the group had targeted medical research and development organizations to gather information on Covid-19 vaccine research. "The U.K. will continue to counter those conducting such cyberattacks, and work with our allies to hold perpetrators to account," the U.K. government's foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said in a statement on Thursday.

John Hultquist, senior director of intelligence analysis for FireEye Inc., said APT29 had not received as much public attention because it tends "to quietly focus on intelligence collection," unlike other Russian hacking groups, which have carried out destructive attacks and disinformation operations.

"It's no surprise that cyber espionage capabilities are being used to gather intelligence on a cure," Hultquist said. "The organizations developing vaccines and treatments for the virus are being heavily targeted by Russian, Iranian and Chinese actors seeking a leg up on their own research. We've also seen significant covid-related targeting of governments that began as early as January."
Television host and actor Shekhar Suman has gone back on his decision to take a backseat in the movement demanding a CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) probe into the death of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput. After initially saying that he was backing off as the silence of Sushants family made him uncomfortable, Shekhar said that he has reconsidered and could not let down the emotions of so many people.

On Thursday, Sushants girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty urged the home ministry to transfer the case to the CBI. Shekhar applauded her for this and said, Finally Rhea has also come forward.Finally..slowly but surely ppl are showing up.its a gud sign. He added that he was convinced that it was a homicide not suicide and would continue to fight for justice.

I thought about it again and i realized i can't let down the emotions of so many ppl..i will have to continue leading the fight from the https://t.co/uc40yiZG5Z wat if the family is not coming forward..Sushant was a public figure and we are fighting for him.  Shekhar Suman (@shekharsuman7) July 15, 2020

Finally Rhea has also come forward.Finally..slowly but surely ppl are showing https://t.co/02g9YzD6LB's a gud sign.#justiceforsushanthforum #hastenCBIenquiryforSushant  Shekhar Suman (@shekharsuman7) July 16, 2020

It's our conviction"Homicide not Suicide".Hasten up the process for #CBIEnquiryForSushant before it's too late.The voices will not slow down till he gets justice.we shall go on fighting for what we think is right and what we know is our right.  Shekhar Suman (@shekharsuman7) July 16, 2020

Also read | Richa Chadha says same directors who posted condolence messages have replaced actresses who refused to sleep with them

Shekhar claimed that the movement demanding justice for Sushant was gaining momentum and would blow the lid off many ugly truths. Beware,it will engulf you and punish you if you stay silent or are guilty.Beware,this storm will not subside till the culprits are exposed and brought to books.#justice, he added.

Beware,the voices are turning into a storm which will blow the lid off many ugly truths.Beware,it will engulf you and punish you if you stay silent or are guilty.Beware,this storm will not subside till the culprits are exposed and brought to books.#justice  Shekhar Suman (@shekharsuman7) July 16, 2020

On Wednesday, Shekhar had tweeted that Sushants family was completely silent on a CBI probe, and he wished to back off as it was their prerogative. But i will be there behind all of you as a silent force.you have to just summon me and i will be there.i will be the happiest wen Sushant gets justice, he added.

Sushant died by suicide on June 14. Shekhar, who started the Justice for Sushant Forum travelled to Patna last month and met the late actors family. Since then, he has been trying to reach out to politicians to amplify the demand for a CBI inquiry into the death. The case is currently being handled by the Mumbai Police.

If you need support or know someone who does, please reach out to your nearest mental health specialist. Helplines: Aasra: 022 2754 6669; Sneha India Foundation: +914424640050 and Sanjivini: 011-24311918

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Canada makes huge changes to help international students Canada will fast-track study permit processing and is introducing a temporary 2-stage study permit process.

Canada makes huge changes to help international students Canada will fast-track study permit processing and is introducing a temporary 2-stage study permit process.

Canada makes huge changes to help international students Canada will fast-track study permit processing and is introducing a temporary 2-stage study permit process. Kareem El-Assal Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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IRCC has just announced several major changes to help international students pursue their education in Canada.

International students offer significant social and economic benefits which is why Canada seeks to attract them to the country. Prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada hosted over 640,000 international students.

In a news release issued today, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said that it will help international students as follows:

IRCC will prioritize the processing of study permits for students who have submitted a completed application online so that their permits are processed as soon as possible

IRCC is introducing a temporary 2-stage approval process for international students who can not yet submit a completed study permit application and who want to begin their Canadian educational program online. This temporary process is available to students who want to begin their program this fall and who submit their study permit application by September 15, 2020

As previously reported by CIC News in May, IRCC is also enabling students to begin their Canadian studies online while they are still abroad and having that time count towards their Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) eligibility so long as they have submitted a study permit application and if at least 50 per cent of the program is completed in Canada.

While IRCC has not stated this, the first bullet of their news release strongly suggests that those who have already submitted a completed study permit application (e.g., prior to the start of the pandemic in March) should expect IRCC to process the application in the near future, and in time for the September 2020 academic year.

See if you are eligible to study in Canada in fall 2020

Why IRCC is helping international students

IRCC says it is rolling out these measures to help students begin their programs in time for the fall 2020 academic year.

IRCC recognizes that the global coronavirus crisis is creating uncertainty for international students. In addition, the pandemic has impacted IRCCs ability to process study permits.

However these new changes will help students begin their programs online this fall at a Canadian designated learning institution (DLI).

There are numerous benefits to IRCCs changes.

Benefits to international students

International students can take comfort in being able to start their Canadian program online which will protect their health and safety and enable them to achieve their various study, career, and immigration objectives.

If they wish to begin their Canadian studies this fall, IRCC will do its best to process their study permit as soon as it can. Even if the student is unable to submit a completed study permit application, IRCC will pre-approve them if they meet the conditions outlined below.

Students want to come to Canada due to its high-quality of education. In addition, they are attracted by the opportunities to work in Canada during and after their studies, and potentially obtain permanent residence to become the Canadian citizens of the future.

IRCCs new policies are meant to help international students pursue such goals.

See if you are eligible to study in Canada in fall 2020

How to get a pre-approval for a study permit

IRCC will provide an approval-in-principle for study permits if students pass the first stage.

In an email to CIC News, IRCC explained:

The two-stage assessment process will be applied to applicants at all levels of study whose program is starting in the fall semester or earlier and who submit, or have already submitted, a study permit application online on or before September 15, 2020. At the initial eligibility stage, officers will assess: Letter of acceptance

Certificat dacceptation du Quebec (for those destined for a learning institution in Quebec)

Proof of funds

That the applicant is a bona fide student who will leave Canada when they no longer have legal temporary or permanent status

Family ties to Canada For the admissibility stage, before a final decision is made, officers will review the following: Immigration medical examination

Security-Police certificates

Biometrics

Upon receiving final approval for their study permit, students will be able to travel to Canada once international travel resumes.

Win-Win Situation

International student attraction is hugely beneficial to students themselves and Canada.

Students are able to pursue an excellent standard of education in one of the worlds most open and diverse countries. It is also less expensive to study in Canada compared with countries such as the United States. Students can work while at a Canadian DLI, which can help them support their living expenses in Canada and also save for the future.

After completing their education, they can gain a PGWP to work in Canada for up to three years. The professional work experience they gain in Canada can help them obtain permanent residence and eventually citizenship. Express Entry, the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), and many other pathways are available for international students who want immigration status.

Nearly 60,000 former international students become immigrants each year, according to IRCC.

International students enrich the learning experience at colleges and universities across Canada and help enrich Canadian society even further. They also contribute $22 billion annually to the economy which supports 170,000 Canadian jobs.

See if you are eligible to study in Canada in fall 2020

 2020 CIC News All Rights Reserved
CROWN POINT  A former day care worker was sentenced last week to three years in prison followed by a year in a work-release program for breaking a 5-year-old boy's arm.

Mack A. Giles III, 23, pleaded guilty April 1 to neglect of a dependent resulting in bodily injury, a level 5 felony.

Lake Criminal Court Judge Samuel Cappas accepted Giles' plea during a sentencing hearing July 9, records show.

Giles was accused of injuring the boy Aug. 2 at A is for Apple Learning Center, 1510 173rd St., in Hammond, and submitting a false report with his employer that stated the boy "tripped with both arms out to brace the fall," according to court documents.

In a sentencing order, Cappas wrote Giles had no criminal history and noted a letter written on his behalf that said he was an honest person.

However, Cappas wrote Giles lied about the incident and was in a position of trust when it occurred.

A letter from the boy's mother said he continues to receive counseling because of the injury, records show.
Xisha Islands in the South China Sea Photo: VCG

By Wei Zongyou

On July 13, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a strong-worded statement about Washington's position on maritime claims in the South China Sea. It declares most of China's maritime claims in the South China Sea as unlawful.

Pompeo also vowed to stand with Southeast Asian allies and partners in "protecting their sovereign rights to offshore resources." He says the US "reject(s) any push to impose 'might make right' in the South China Sea or the wider region."

Why stir things up and also agitate regional countries against China? What impacts might the latest US actions cause for the regional maritime order and China-US relations?

First, the US is forcing Southeast Asian countries to take its side, not China's. To any unbiased observers, the situation in the South China Sea has greatly improved over the past several years due to China's restraints and the efforts of other claimants.

Despite China's three Nos (no participation, no recognition, and no acceptance) positions on the 2016 Arbitral Tribunal's decision, which is very biased against China, China has shown great restraints. It has reached out to the Philippines to calm down tensions. As a result, China's relations with the Philippines and ASEAN as a whole have steadily improved in the past several years despite the still unresolved maritime disputes.

However, as the Trump administration defined China as a strategic competitor and long-term challenger to the US and launched a trade war with China, it has churned the waters of the region with confrontational tactics.

What's more, the US is inciting nationalism in Southeast Asia by declaring China's claims "unlawful" to force other claimants to take a hard position toward Beijing in the disputes.

Second, the US is opening a new fighting front against China. Since 2019, the Trump administration has dramatically ratcheted up its rhetoric and tactics toward China. The US congress has initiated or passed numerous domestic acts on Taiwan, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Tibet, and the South China Sea.

The Trump administration also imposed sanctions against a number of Chinese Hi-tech companies, started a diplomatic offensive to block Huawei in 5G construction, restricted visas to Chinese students and scholars, and restricted or prohibited science and technology exchanges or cooperation programs between China and the US. The hardliners inside and outside the Trump administration argue that China has become the US' top competitor - and the US must fight on all fronts now, not later, if they are to have any chance of winning the competition with China.

Third, by declaring unambiguously and specifically some of China's claims in the South China Sea as "unlawful", it gives the green light for further and bolder US activities in the South China Sea.

With flailing trade negations with China, the Trump administration found the disputes in the South China Sea a useful card in its Indo-Pacific Strategy.

As a result, the Trump administration has strengthened its "freedom of navigation" activities in the South China Sea. It even regularly sends coast guards ships to the South China Sea to pay port visits and "enforce law".

The US position on the South China Sea will no doubt have serious negative impacts on regional maritime order and China-US relations.

First, The US is stirring up the water and endangering regional maritime order. Hopefully, China and ASEAN will finalize the COC negotiation in the South China Sea by 2021 and make the South China Sea a region of stability and prosperity. By singling out China and declaring China's claims unlawful, the US sends wrong signals to the relevant parties and only encourages hotheads in the region.

Second, it may create a geopolitical fault line in Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia experienced severe impact of the Cold War in history. This is also one of the reasons why Singapore Prime Minister calls for China and the US to pull back from a new cold war.

Third, it will further push China-US relations toward confrontation.

Beijing has said time again that China does not want confrontational relations with the US and has no intention of replacing it. But at the same time, China also makes it clear that we will not be bullied and will definitely safeguard our sovereignty, security, and development interests.

If the US escalates military activities in the South China Sea and even dangerously intrudes the territorial waters of China in the South China Sea, it may lead to unexpected incidents no one wants and spiral China-US relations out of control.

The author is professor, Center for American Studies, Fudan University.
According to a former personal assistant of actress Amber Heard, she used her employee's story and twisted it into her allegations as she orchestrated giving false evidence in court.

Kate James, who worked for the "Aquaman" star for three years, gave evidence in support for Depp and said that she told Heard that she was raped with a machete being pointed to her in Brazil about 25 years ago.

In an explosive spell in the witness box for Johnny Depp's hearing as he sues News Group Newspapers, the publisher of The Sun, and executive editor Dan Wootton, James said she was shocked and outraged when she found out Heard misrepresented and exploited what happened to her.

"She referred directly to a violent rape that occurred to me 26 years ago, and she twisted it into her own story, and she used it for her own use," James said from a video call from Los Angeles.

James added how Heard stole the narrative and said it just to benefit herself in court, after confiding in the actress that she was brutally raped.

The former PA recalled that in 2013, her former boss overheard her discussing the attack with a friend and called James to her office to ask questions about it.

She alleged, "We sat on her couch, and she questioned me about it. She was curious about how I coped with it on a daily basis and suggested I buy a gun."

Hearing of the 34-year-old's suggestion, she was shocked and wasn't even considering it as she had a small child at her home.

Instead, Kate James said that she chose to see herself as a "rape survivor" and not a "rape victim."

However, in an attack with Sasha Wass QC, The Sun's barrister, James was accused of lying on behalf of Depp.

"You have been influenced by Mr. Depp and his associates who have encouraged you to give this vicious evidence," she said.

But James denied her Wass' claims she was there for her own reasons.

She added, "I am a sexual violence survivor, and that's very, very serious about taking that stance if you are not one."

Kate James has also agreed to give testimony in the upcoming defamation battle between Amber Heard and Johnny Depp.

The "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" actor is suing her ex-wife for $50 million for writing an op-ed article for the Washington Post about surviving domestic violence.

But James' explosive testimony wasn't just that.

She has also claimed in her evidence that the blonde bombshell drank massive amounts of alcohol and would regularly send her a barrage of drunk and abusive tests in the early hours of the morning.

James also revealed that Johnny Depp wasn't the abuser at all.

Kevin Murphy, who was the former estate manager of Johnny Depp, has claimed that Heard pressured him to commit perjury about bringing her dogs to Australia illegally or losing his job.

Murphy alleged that in the paperwork that wasn't completed, "Heard wanted me to say essentially that it was my fault in one way or another so that I could take the blame for her."

In 2015, "The Rum Diary" star was charged in 2015 for bringing her two Yorkshire terriers to Australia illegally, and in 2016, has pleaded not guilty and escaped conviction after showing remorse.

READ MORE: Beyonce True Colors: Kelly Rowland Reveals Why Being Queen B Bandmate Was TORTURE
Bollywood actress Rhea Chakraborty, who was a friend to the late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, has been the subject of online abuse ever since Sushant died by suicide on June 14. They were rumoured to be dating during the final days of the actor, however, the two never confirmed their relationship.

Rhea chose to stay silent about the whole situation and had limited comments on her Instagram account all this while, but now she has opened up about the "toxicity and harassment" she had been facing online. The actress, through a social media post, said that she has been at the receiving end of a lot of hatred and was called a gold digger and a murderer and was slut-shamed too but she remained silent. She further alleged that she is being threatened with rape and death.

"I was called a gold digger ..I kept quiet. I was called a murderer ....I kept quiet. I was slut shamed ....I kept quiet. But how does my silence give you the right to tell me that you will get me RAPED and MURDERED if I dont commit suicide @mannu_raaut (sic)," she wrote in an Instagram post along with a screenshot of a threatening message she received yesterday from an account named mannu_raaut.

"Do you realize the seriousness of what you have said? These are crimes, and by law no one, I repeat NO ONE should be subjected to this kind of toxicity and harassment (sic)," she added.

Concluding her post by writing, "enough is enough" she requested cyber cell to look into the matter.

Earlier, a complaint was filed before a court in Bihar accusing actress Rhea Chakraborty of having abetted the deceased actor's suicide. She was accused of "financial and mental exploitation" of Rajput. She was also quizzed by the Bandra police for more than ten hours in connection with the late actor's suicide case that is currently undergoing investigation.

A month after Sushant's suicide, the actress had shared two pictures with him on her Instagram account and had penned down a heartfelt post in his memory.

This news piece may be triggering. If you or someone you know needs help, call any of these helplines: Aasra (Mumbai) 022-27546669, Sneha (Chennai) 044-24640050, Sumaitri (Delhi) 011-23389090, Cooj (Goa) 0832- 2252525, Jeevan (Jamshedpur) 065-76453841, Pratheeksha (Kochi) 048-42448830, Maithri (Kochi) 0484-2540530, Roshni (Hyderabad) 040-66202000, Lifeline 033-64643267 (Kolkata).
Hands are seen on a keyboard in front of a displayed cyber code in this picture illustration taken Oct. 4, 2018. (Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters)

Russian Cyber Espionage Group Targets CCP Virus Vaccine Development

A Russian cyber espionage group is highly likely to have been trying to steal information on CCP virus vaccines, the British national cybersecurity centre (NCSC) has said.

The NCSC on Thursday published an advisory report (pdf), detailing the recent tactics, techniques, and procedures Russian group APT29 used to target different organizations.

Throughout 2020, it has targeted COVID-19 vaccine development in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, highly likely with the intention of stealing information and intellectual property relating to the development and testing of COVID-19 vaccines, the report stated.

The report said the NCSC and Canadas Communications Security Establishment (CSE) assess that APT29 (also known as the Dukes or Cozy Bear) is a cyber espionage group, almost certainly part of the Russian intelligence services, and the United States National Security Agency (NSA) agrees with this attribution and the details provided in this report.

In a statement, the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab condemned the Russian cyber attacks.

It is completely unacceptable that the Russian Intelligence Services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic, he said.

While others pursue their selfish interests with reckless behaviour, the UK and its allies are getting on with the hard work of finding a vaccine and protecting global health.

The advisory report laid out the techniques used by APT29 to target think-tanks and governmental, healthcare, and energy organisations to obtain intelligence.

By exploiting existing IT system vulnerabilities, the group are able to gain access to specific target organisations. They can then create a permanent access to the systems and use malware such as WellMess and WellMail to carry out further operations on the compromised systems.

The NSCS recommended that any organisations involved in vaccine research check their systems for compromise or vulnerabilities to prevent loss of sensitive information.
Brian Kemp, the governor of Georgia, has voided local government rules mandating that people wear face masks in public to prevent the spread of covid.

Today I issued Executive Order 07.15.20.01, which extends the gatherings ban of more than 50 people, renews business restrictions, protects the medically fragile, and strongly encourages Georgians to wear masks in public.https://t.co/CKFdrW4C3M  Governor Brian P. Kemp (@GovKemp) July 16, 2020

As summarized by Twitter:

Local governments in the state will not be able to order people to wear masks in public places, according to a new executive order issued by Kemp on Wednesday, which also extended many COVID-19 provisions. The Republican governor's previous COVID-19 orders have for months banned cities and counties from taking more restrictive steps than the state but the new rules explicitly specify for the first time that the state's local governments can't enforce mask mandates.

He's willing to risk the lives of everyone in Georgia to show fealty to Trump. It's a death cult.
Everyone remembers the iconic AAMI adverts that began in 2012 featuring star-crossed lovers Rhonda and Ketut.

And the insurance company confirmed this week that the fictional couple 'are still together and doing well' despite the coronavirus pandemic.

In a Facebook exchange, which has since gone viral, an AAMI spokesperson offered a cheeky response when asked by a fan how the pair were doing.

Still on! Rhonda and Ketut from the iconic AAMI adverts are 'still together' eight years later, the insurance company confirmed this week. The star-crossed lovers were portrayed in the ads by actors Mandy McElhinney and Kadek Mahardika

'Hi there so it's 2020 and I just wanna know if Rhonda and Ketut are still together during COVID,' the fan asked.

AAMI replied: 'Hey there Matt, thanks for checking in on them! Rhonda and Ketut are still together and doing well.

'Naturally, they've had to cancel some holiday plans but are using the time to relax at home. Stay safe!'

'Still together and doing well': In a Facebook exchange, which has since gone viral, an AAMI spokesperson offered a cheeky response when asked by a fan how the pair were doing

Actors Mandy McElhinney and Kadek Mahardika portrayed Rhonda and Ketut in the famous AAMI commercials.

Mandy, 49, is also known for her roles in television shows including Love Child and Bad Mothers.

Kadek, 34, is a family man these days. He shares two young children, Mila and Lenny, with his wife, Laura Jack.

He also has an older son, RJ, from a previous relationship.

Remember this? The Rhonda and Ketut adverts first appeared in 2012 to promote AAMI's safe driver insurance. In the series of ads, Rhonda meets her younger lover while on holiday in Bali, before their summer fling becomes a long-term relationship

Working actress: Mandy, 49, is also known for her roles in television shows including Love Child and Bad Mothers. Pictured at the Logie Awards in Melbourne on May 8, 2016

The former actor is believed to be working as a building site administrator in Melbourne, where his family is based.

The Rhonda and Ketut adverts first appeared in 2012 to promote AAMI's safe driver insurance.

In the series of ads, Rhonda meets her younger lover while on holiday in Bali, before their summer fling becomes a long-term relationship.
Confirmed: US Cyber Attack On Russia In 2018

President Donald Trump has, for the first time, confirmed that the US conducted a covert cyber-attack in 2018 against Russia's Internet Research Agency (IRA) a so called 'troll farm' blamed by the US for helping to facilitate interference both in the 2016 presidential election and the 2018 midterms.

Trump gave the confirmation during an interview in the Washington Post when he was asked he had launched a cyber-attack. Trump replied, "Correct."

US Cyber Command was elevated to the status of a unified command in 2017 and given new authorities to conduct offensive cyber operations in 2018. The cyber-attack appears to have been the first that was designed to frustrate Moscows attempts to interfere with a US election.

Russian interference in the 2018 midterm elections was serious and pervasive and President Trump criticised former President Obama for not doing enough to address the interference ahead of the 2016 elections, saying Obama "knew before the election that Russia was playing around.... And the reason he said nothing was that he didn't want to touch it because he thought (Hillary Clinton) was winning because he read phony polls. So, he thought she was going to win. And we had the silent majority that said, 'No, we like Trump.' "

Trump claimed that unlike his predecessor, he acted on intelligence the US had about Russia's election interference by launching the cyber-attack.

However, President Obama did announce sanctions against Russia n December 2016 and expelled some Russian diplomats in retaliation for Russia's interference in the US presidential election. The operation against the Russian organisation, was carried out in order to prevent any interference in the 2018 midterm elections and according to sources, senior US officials also confirmed that the strike occurred and was effective, taking the Internet Research Agency offline.

In the interview, Trump said the cyber-attack was part of a broader policy to confront Russia. When questioned in a separate TV interview as to why he didn't confirm the attack before, Trump said "because they don't like me to talk, intelligence says, 'please don't talk intelligence,' you know sometimes intelligence is good, and sometimes you look at James Comey, and you look at John Brennan and you look at James Clapper, and I'm supposed to believe that intelligence? I never believe that intelligence."

The US intelligence community has concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a cyber campaign in 2016 to interfere in the presidential election and it believes the IRA works at the direction of the Kremlin.

CNN reported in October 2018 that the US military's Cyber Command had begun targeting Russian operatives believed to be attempting to influence the 2018 midterm elections, as part of a broad effort in coordination with several government agencies, an administration official has confirmed.

CNN: Washington Post: New York Post: Guardian:

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Russian FSB Hacked: "Largest data breach in its history":
Twitter appears to have banned bitcoin addresses from being posted on its platform after a major hack saw high-profile accounts hijacked by cryptocurrency scammers.

Billionaires Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Elon Musk were all targeted in the attacks, as well as politicians Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Messages posted to their accounts requested cryptocurrency donations, promising to send back double the amount donated.

The tweets included a bitcoin address to which the payments could be sent via digital transfer. Within hours of the attack beginning, the address had received more than 350 payments, totalling around 95,000.

The Twitter accounts targeted were briefly suspended from posting on the platform but they have since been returned to their owners and are functioning normally again.

However, it seems to be no longer possible to include bitcoin addresses in tweets.

Attempts made by The Independent resulted in a message stating: "We're sorry, we weren't able to send your tweet."

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment over whether it had changed its policy regarding cryptocurrency addresses.

In a series of tweets following the hack, Twitter said the attack was the result of a "coordinated social engineering attack" by cyber criminals targeting employees who had access to internal systems. The firm stated: "We are investigating and taking steps to fix it."

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey added: "Tough day for us at Twitter. We all feel terrible this happened. We're diagnosing and will share everything we can when we have a more complete understanding of what happened."

Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Satoshi Nakamoto creates the first bitcoin block in 2009 On 3 January, 2009, the genesis block of bitcoin appeared. It came less than a year after the pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto detailed the cryptocurrency in a paper titled 'Bitcoin: A peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System' Reuters Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin is used as a currency for the first time On 22 May, 2010, the first ever real-world bitcoin transaction took place. Lazlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins  the equivalent of $90 million at today's prices Lazlo Hanyecz Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Silk Road opens for business Bitcoin soon gained notoriety for its use on the dark web. The Silk Road marketplace, established in 2011, was the first of hundreds of sites to offer illegal drugs and services in exchange for bitcoin Screenshot Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures The first bitcoin ATM appears On 29 October, 2013, the first ever bitcoin ATM was installed in a coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada. The machine allowed people to exchange bitcoins for cash Reuters Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures The fall of MtGox The world's biggest bitcoin exchange, MtGox, filed for bankruptcy in February 2014 after losing almost 750,000 of its customers bitcoins. At the time, this was around 7 per cent of all bitcoins and the market inevitably crashed Getty Images Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Would the real Satoshi Nakamoto please stand up In 2015, Australian police raided the home of Craig Wright after the entrepreneur claimed he was Satoshi Nakamoto. He later rescinded the claim Getty Images Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin's big split On 1 August, 2017, an unresolvable dispute within the bitcoin community saw the network split. The fork of bitcoin's underlying blockchain technology spawned a new cryptocurrency: Bitcoin cash Reuters Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin's price sky rockets Towards the end of 2017, the price of bitcoin surged to almost $20,000. This represented a 1,300 per cent increase from its price at the start of the year Reuters Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures What goes up... Bitcoin price crashes spectacularly, losing half of its value in a matter of days Getty Images Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin plunges The cryptocurrency eventually bottoms out below $4,000 in 2019 before slowly rebuilding momentum to outperform more traditional assets Getty Images

One Twitter discovered a workaround to the bitcoin address block. Jane Manchun Wong was able to post her bitcoin address by adding a single dot to the middle of the address.

It also appears possible to post a picture of a screenshot of a bitcoin address.

Twitter has been a target for bitcoin scammers for several years, though most previous attempts have involved impersonating prominent figures rather than directly taking over their accounts.

Security experts warned people to be vigilant online, particularly when presented with too-good-to-be-true offers involving cryptocurrency.

"The incident is a great reminder to always exercise caution when viewing messages on social media, no matter who posts them," said George Glass, head of threat intelligence at UK-based cyber security firm Redscan.

"This is a serious breach and another prime illustration of how no organisation, including a Silicon Valley giant, is immune to cyber attacks."
MANZINI  Rejected!

The flat rate of the cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA) proposed by public sector associations (PSAs), was rejected by the government negotiations team (GNT). The proposal, that would have seen all civil servants benefitting the same amount of about E440 per worker, was yesterday rejected during the joint negotiation forum (JNF). This is the third rejection of proposals tabled by the representatives of the civil servants. In the initial proposal by the PSAs, they had sought that the least paid public service worker should get a higher percentage, while the highest paid employee got the minimal increment. After this formula was rejected, the PSAs came up with an alternative wherein they (PSAs) wanted to share equally the E227 million allocation for CoLA. This proposal was rejected by government yesterday. According to the Secretary General of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), Sikelela Dlamini, the GNT reported that Cabinet was only interested in three per cent CoLA across the board.

Rejected

On a solemn note, were upset by the tenacious posture taken by government on the issue of CoLA as weve now reverted to the initial stance which our members heartily rejected, for obvious reasons. For the first time though, government conceded the fact that civil servants had a 19 per cent corrosion in their respective salaries since 2016, Dlamini said. He said since the agenda on CoLA began, PSAs had presented three proposals which government disregarded, without any economic data substantiating their position. Worth noting is that public servants last received a cushion on their salaries in 2016 from the salary review exercise which was a recommendation by LCC Capital. Dlamini further said the delay in negotiations derailed progress on the preparations for the 2021 Salary Review as contained in the July 6, 2016 collective agreement (CA) which was made an order of the court.

We couldnt be swayed into what the GNT offered today as our members soundly rejected the three per cent offer which Cabinet wants to force down our throats as it favours them, he said. Following the developments of the JNF yesterday, Dlamini said PSAs would engage their members and forge a way forward. He said they would soon issue a formal communication on how they could meet with their members since from Saturday (July 19, 2020), gatherings of 100 people shall be permitted, thus the possibility of calling a general council. What saddens us is that they (government) did not bring a counter-offer to what we had submitted; so we shall consult our members as PSAs to see what we need to table when we meet next, he said.
Ndenge Godden Zama Ndenge Zama

Godden Ndenge Zama, Limbe I Electoral District Chairman of the Social Democratic Front, SDF, says the ongoing demolition of makeshift structures in the city that started yesterday is an attack on the vulnerable masses.

In a dispatch Thursday, the opposition politician said the demolition being led by municipal authorities is entirely disgusting, lacks empathy, is void of considerateness and is totally uncalled for at a time as crucial as this.

Zama insists that the demolition of semi-permanent houses and makeshift business structures under the pretext of restoring urban order is nothing but a wicked, soulless, brutal and selfish attack on the poor and most vulnerable in Limbe. He only fell short of enumerating the difficulties locals go through as a result of the conflict in the countrys North West and South West Regions and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is with a lot of pity that we have observed the Council breaking and destroying small businesses along the streets in Limbe. Yes! That is what they are, small businesses. Those businesses support partially or entirely more than 80% of households in the municipality, said Zama. The city council and the government have had enough time to build an economy that works for everyone, an economy that can create jobs and carry the hopes and aspirations of everyone in the municipality. But they have failed! They have taken their failure and anger and are venting it on young Cameroonians.

The SDF District Chairman says their frustration about this is the same today as it was in 2016 when the council started this exercise.

His words: The council is renting out dilapidated structures in her markets and the same council has been collecting taxes and rents from these small businesses. Why has the council not destroyed and rebuilt her rundown market stalls or stopped collecting taxes and rents from these small businesses? Why benefit from them and turn around and stab them in the back when they are doing everything to survive in a very bad economy?

We are living in an existential crisis and the actions of the council must be considerate and compassionate. If anything, the council should start by breaking down its rundown stalls in the markets that stink of filth. We would have thought the council would be providing small credit schemes for the many who are struggling to do business and feed their families on a daily basis but instead they are busy destroying businesses that people have gone into loans to set up.

As a way out, Zama says the council must immediately reconsider its path and engage actions that will bring profound joy to the poor and vulnerable in society because that is the task they have at hand.

Cameroon-Info.Net recalls that Zama was arrested on Wednesday, February 3, 2016, on the instructions of the then Senior Divisional Officer, SDO, for Fako, Zang III after he led a protest against demolitions at the time.

Indeed, a 48-hour administrative detention was slammed on the local opposition party leader for protesting the demolition of semi-permanent and makeshift structures in the town of Limbe.

Zama had confronted local administrative officials who were supervising the demolition exercise at the Cassava Farms neighborhood with a placard on which he called for the demolition of some structures at the Limbe Markets constructed with temporal materials.

Go and demolish temporal structures at the Limbe Markets before moving to demolish privately owned structures, the placard read.

According to the SDO, Zamas action was intended to incite the population to disobey public authorities and by extension call for a rebellion.

Like in 2016, Zama remains unbending, urging the City Council to create employment opportunities for youths rather than demolish houses left for them by their fathers and grandfathers.
Two teenagers were almost wiped out by massive swells after ignoring severe weather warnings.

The pair were spotted on the promenade on a bike and scooter in Newcastle in New South Wales on Wednesday as monster waves threatened to smash them.

Footage shared to social media shows the pair attempting to make their way toward the end of the walkway.

The pair were spotted on the promenade on a bike and scooter in Newcastle in New South Wales

One of the boys suddenly turned around as he tried to escape the huge swell coming in toward them.

The other teenager continued to cycle slowly on his bike before another enormous wave crashed into the footbridge.

Earlier in the day, the Bureau of Meteorology issued a hazardous surf conditions for the state's coastline, with 11metre swells expected.

However, this did not deter the teenagers who continued to make their way toward the edge of the footbridge.

Upon realising they were not going to get any further, the pair turned around and slowly made their way back to safety.

The footage then cuts to show the cyclist alone on the footbridge before realising his mistake and attempts to escape before being pushed off his bike.

The footage then cuts to show the cyclist alone on the footbridge before realising his mistake and attempts to escape before being pushed off his bike

Social media users were not impressed with the pair's actions and called them out for their recklessness.

'Natural selection right there. Cant save them all,' one person wrote.

'Risking the lives of other people. Completely selfish,' another commented.

'There really should be a fine for stupidity,' someone else commented.

A large wave impacts the coast at Clovelly Beach on July 16, 2020 in Sydney

A man watches as large waves impact the coast at Clovelly Beach on July 16

The surf warning is in place for Wednesday and Thursday from Byron Bay to Eden due to huge swells and damaging winds.

The swell has been generated by a large low pressure system parked off of NSW, with waves causing significant erosion along the coast line.

A peak wave height off the Sydney coast overnight reached 11.6metres, with the NSW police marine area command advising people to stay out of the water and avoid surf-exposed areas.

Police have advised people planning to do coastal activities including rock fishing, boating, and swimming to reconsider.

The hazardous south-east swell rolled into Australia's east coast on Tuesday and will begin to ease into the weekend, with beach users told to remain wary of the waves.

A sightseer checks out the large swell impacting the coast at Clovelly Beach on July 16

'A deep low pressure system is centred over the central Tasman Sea,' the Bureau of Meteorology website reads.

'This system is whipping up blustery winds and powerful waves along parts of the New South Wales coast, with conditions gradually easing later in the week as the low moves east towards New Zealand and a high pressure ridge moves over the state from the west.'

A gale warning is in place for Thursday on the Byron coast, Coffs coast, Macquarie coast, Hunter coast, Sydney coast and Illawarra coast, with a strong wind warning for Sydney closed waters, Sydney coast, Illawarra coast, Batemans coast and Eden coast.
(Bloomberg) -- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. raised its outlook for 2020 revenue and spending, counting on global 5G smartphone and high-end computing demand to stay strong despite growing signs of a second coronavirus wave.

Apple Inc.s main iPhone chipmaker is now projecting more than 20% growth in sales, up markedly from an earlier forecast for a mid- to high-teens percentage rise. It expects to spend $16 billion to $17 billion on technology upgrades and expansion this year, up about $1 billion.

TSMC, a bellwether for the industry because of its critical role in crafting silicon for everything from mobile devices to high-powered computers, raised both forecasts after June-quarter profit beat analysts estimates by the widest margin in six years, surprising analysts whod factored in a hit from the pandemic and U.S. curbs on No. 2 customer Huawei Technologies Co.

Taiwans largest company is betting on 5G smartphone demand to take off during coronavirus lockdowns, when people treat their devices as lifelines to entertainment and essential needs. High performance computing or HPC will remain a growth driver given resilient demand for semiconductors in datacenters hosting that surge in online activity. It expects the multiyear 5G and HPC application mega-trend to continue to drive demand for our advanced technology for several years, Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang said on a conference call.

Read more: TSMC Shrugs off Huawei Ban and Shows Whos King: Tim Culpan

What Bloomberg Intelligence Says

Sales of Asian contract chipmakers TSMC, SMIC and others may beat consensus in 2H despite the longer-than-expected Covid-19 pandemic, due to rising semiconductor demand for cloud processing and video conferencing amid social-distancing requirements.

- Charles Shum, analyst

Click here for the research.

Shares of the chipmaker fell 1.5% on Thursday in Taipei, after having surged to a record earlier this week. They are still up about 44% from their March lows. On Thursday, TSMC reported net income of NT$120.8 billion ($4.1 billion), exceeding the NT$110.6 billion analysts expected. Thats on previously reported revenue of roughly NT$311 billion.

Story continues

In the longer term, it will still have to contend with uncertainty surrounding Huawei, as the Trump administrations ban on the use of American chipmaking gear for the Chinese company threatens a business relationship that accounts for about 14% of TSMC revenue.

TSMC, the primary producer of cutting-edge chips for Huawei, hasnt taken any new orders from the Chinese customer since mid-May. It doesnt plan on shipping wafers to Huawei after Sept. 14, pending a final ruling from the Commerce Departments Bureau of Industry and Security, Chairman Mark Liu said Thursday. He acknowledged the company will face a short-term hit from the sanctions imposed on Chinas largest tech company.

But over time, other customers may step in to help fill the breach, said Jeff Pu, an analyst at GF Securities.

Apple is adding more orders for its upcoming phones, while MediaTek will also place more orders in the fourth quarter as Huawei tries to procure chips from them, he said.

TSMC executives also affirmed plans to build a plant in Arizona, saying that the U.S. administration and the state of Arizona closed the cost gap for building the fab. The company had previously said the $12 billion facility will begin construction in 2021, with production targeted to begin in 2024.

Read more: TSMC Scores Subsidies and Picks Site for $12 Billion U.S. Plant

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Promethera Biosciences S.A. ("Promethera, Promethera Group"), global innovator in cell-based medicines and liver diseases, and Hao Tian Development Group Limited (HKEX Stock Code: 0474, "Hao Tian Development" or "the Group") a diversified investment holding company, through its subsidiary Aceso Life Science Holding Limited ("Aceso"), today announced that the companies have entered into an agreement to form a joint venture ("Joint Venture Company").

Aceso and Promethera hold 60% and 40% of the equity in the Joint Venture Company, respectively. The Joint Venture Company is vested with the exclusive right to develop, register, distribute and commercialize Promethera's therapeutic products (cell therapies and antibodies developed by Promethera Group) in China and Southeast Asia. Indications in which the products will be deployed include; Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure (ACLF), Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH), Urea Cycle Disorder (UCD), liver cirrhosis and various autoimmune diseases and cancers. Promethera will manufacture and supply the therapeutic products, and provide ongoing technical support during development and commercialization. The Joint Venture Company will seek opportunities for cooperation with Itochu Corporation.

The Asia-Pacific region is home to some of the world's highest liver disease incidence and mortality rates. The number of deaths from liver cirrhosis reached 1,32 million globally in 2017, with China contributing 100,000 deaths and 7 million new patients annually. In addition, in 2018 there were 390,000 new cases of liver cancer in China, along with 370,000 liver cancer deaths, accounting for 47% of global liver cancer deaths. The formation of the Joint Venture Company and the subsequent introduction of leading global cell therapy and antibody assets for the treatment of a wide variety of diseases in China and Southeast Asia marks a major milestone for Promethera

"Today marks another important step in bringing patients life-saving treatments for end-stage liver diseases. The agreement with Hao Tian Development will provide the necessary platform for the development and commercialization of Promethera Group's cell-based and biologicals-based therapies targeting end-stage liver diseases and beyond in China and Southeast Asia. We are very pleased, thanks to the support of our shareholder Co-High, for achieving this major corporate milestone which expands our business presence in Asia and we look forward to a prosperous and long term partnership with Hao Tian Development" said John Tchelingerian, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Promethera Group.

ABOUT PROMETHERA BIOSCIENCES S.A. (PROMETHERA GROUP)

Promethera Biosciences is a global innovator in liver therapeutics whose mission is to bring life-saving treatments to reduce the need for liver transplantation. Our lead clinical program, derived from our patented cell technology platform HepaStem, is designed to benefit from its immune-modulatory and anti-fibrotic properties. In addition to our cell-based pipeline we develop antibody technologies, such as the antiTNF-R1 antibody Atrosimab, to complement and diversify our therapeutic options. We are a team of international experts operating out of facilities in Mont-Saint-Guibert and Gosselies, Belgium, Durham, NC, USA, Tokyo, Japan and Basel, Switzerland.

ABOUT ACESO LIFE SCIENCE HOLDING LIMITED

Aceso Life Science Holding Limited is a joint venture company established by Hao Tian Development Group Limited and Co-High Investment Management Limited, who hold 51% and 49% of the joint venture equity, respectively. Aceso Life Science's primary business goal is to introduce leading global life science assets to Greater China and Southeast Asia by acquiring intellectual property and undertaking R&D, distribution and commercialization.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200716005364/en/

Contacts:

For Promethera Biosciences SA:

ALEXANDRA SCHIETTEKATTE Global Senior Director Communications

info@promethera.com



For Media MacDougall:

MARIO BRKULJ +49 89 2420 9345



SHAI BIRAN, PhD +1 781-235-3060

promethera@macbiocom.com
HANOI/BANDAR LAMPUNG, Indonesia -- Vietnams domestic coffee prices held unchanged from a week earlier on Thursday capped by weak demand, while Indonesian premiums narrowed due to abundant supplies.

Farmers in the Central Highlands, Vietnams largest coffee growing area, sold coffee at 32,000 dong ($1.38) per kg, flat from a week earlier.

Though domestic supplies are running low, prices cannot increase as buyers are focusing their purchases from Brazil, where a harvest is going on, said a trader based in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak.

Traders said baby coffee beans at farms in Vietnam are growing well thanks to good weather conditions, promising a bumper harvest that will begin in October.

Traders in Vietnam offered 5% black and broken grade 2 robusta at a $200-$220 premium per tonne for the September contract, down from a $240 premium last week.

September robusta coffee settled up $11, or 0.9%, at $1,226 a tonne on Wednesday.

Vietnams coffee exports in the first half of this year rose 2.2% from a year earlier to 941,057 tonnes, government customs data released this week showed.

Meanwhile, Indonesias Sumatran robusta beans were offered with $250-$280 premiums to the September contract this week, narrowing from last weeks $300-$325 premium, a trader in Lampung province said.

The price edged down this week because of the increase in supplies during the main harvest season, the trader said. But demand from exporters remains strong.

Another trader said beans were being offered with a $330-$350 premium for September to October contracts, slightly firmer than a $300-$350 premium last week.
HP unveiled HP Amplify, a first-of-its kind global channel partner program optimized to drive dynamic partner growth and deliver consistent end customer experiences. Built on a single, integrated structure, HP Amplify provides the insights, capabilities and collaboration tools needed to drive growth as digital transformation and customer purchasing behaviors continue to evolve. The new program goes into effect November 1, 2020 for commercial partners with retail partners slated to transition in the second half of 2021.

By consolidating HPs best partner products, tools and trainings into one intuitive program, HP Amplify removes complexity, making it easier for partners to take advantage of its many benefits and engage customers on a deeper level. Now comprised of just two distinct tracks  Synergy and Power  with clear compensation levels, HP Amplify provides partners with the flexibility to invest in value-added services and capabilities. The more a partner invests in these capabilities, the higher the rewards.

Todays buyer expects streamlined, automated and personalized experiences. To thrive in this changing environment  with data as the new currency  requires a combined shift to relate to our customers as individuals, not markets, said Christoph Schell, HP Chief Commercial Officer. HP Amplify not only makes it easier for partners to do business with HP  it provides partners with a clear path to ready their business and succeed in todays environment and beyond  to capitalize on emerging trends and play a central role in the evolving customer buying journey.

Currently, HP has over 1400 commercial partners under its India market which also includes business operations of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Through these partners, HP engages with customers from the government and enterprise segment and in some cases, they work with customers from SMB and SOHO segments as well.

Experiences at the Speed of Digital

Customers have dramatically altered how they research and buy technology and how they engage with brands, buying more products and services through digital channels, such as e-commerce, partner portals and marketplaces. At the same time, technology and digital transformation are advancing at an astounding pace while business models are shifting from simple transactions focused on selling products to contractual relationships.

For the IT industry overall, and the channel specifically, it means business as usual is no longer an option. With the introduction of HP Amplify, HP is taking decisive actions to capitalize on these shifts, arming partners for future growth and to deliver a more satisfying customer experience.

Gurpreet Brar, Head, Channel Sales & Distribution, HP India market, said, HP and its partners have a tremendous opportunity to reinvent our route to market approach and the way we engage with our customers. In order to address these opportunities, there is a need to embrace a new digital-first business model. Were making this leap together, by investing in our ecosystem to strengthen our shared capabilities.

Performance, Capabilities & Collaboration

Designed to enable progressive go-to-market strategies that cater to a combination of transactional, contractual and hybrid selling models, HP Amplify focuses on three core pillars: performance, capabilities and collaboration.

Performance

As the traditional sales model has been upended, so has the traditional channel compensation model. While the new program will continue to reward partners based on goals and volume, HP Amplify features an innovative measurement and reward system that accounts for the many strategic efforts partners employ throughout the holistic sales process, from registration volume to average sales value and account retention.

Capabilities

Beyond sales revenue alone, HP Amplify measures rewards based on new capabilities, including improving digital skills, service delivery capabilities, e-commerce/omnichannel experiences and secure data collaboration.

Capabilities will be specialized and tailored to the sectors customers operate within, creating more personalized experiences and driving invaluable outcomes. HP Amplify rewards partners who invest in the capabilities to compete  and win  in a world dominated by e-commerce and digital-led customer journeys and experiences. The more capabilities around secure data collection, routes to market, services and specializations, the more access and benefits partners will receive.

Collaboration

Collaboration between HP and its partners is critical to our shared success. HP Amplify is designed to turn data analytics into deeper insights that inspire new strategies and steer innovation. HP will collaborate closely with partners to hone their digital skills, such as automated quotes and ordering, to provide a more consistent customer experience across multiple channels and equip partners with valuable research on the most important pain points in the customer journey.

Armed with this added opt-in customer intelligence, partners will have more of a competitive edge, with the intrinsic ability to anticipate and enable more positive customer outcomes. As a result, partners will be able to serve customers more seamlessly through automated inventory updates, product returns and holistic data intelligence. These experiences will continue to build upon the long-standing bonds between customers, partners and HP.

HP Amplify Impact

HPs dedication to sustainable impact through technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere has long been integral to its business strategy and operations. Together, HP and its partners can make a lasting difference by acting in lockstep to further fuel innovation and growth in these areas.

For this reason, as an extension of the companys new global program, HP is introducing HP Amplify Impact, inviting all partners to join HP its pledge to address:

Planet: Working toward a circular, low-carbon economy

People: Respecting human rights, enable people across the value chain to thrive; and cultivate a diverse and inclusive culture

Community: Unlocking educational and economic opportunity while improving the vitality

and resilience of local communities

For partners who choose to join this opt-in pledge, HP will provide training and support, and help identify potential gaps in the goals partners wish to set and provide guidance on how to achieve those goals. HP will provide more details closer to the launch of HP Amplify on November 1, 2020.
Recently, people have wondered: Is it safe for me to go see my doctor? Should I keep that appointment with my dentist? What about that knee replacement I put on hold: Should I go ahead with that?

These are pressing concerns as hospitals, outpatient clinics, and physicians practices have started providing elective medical proceduresservices that had been suspended for several months.

Late last month, Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) reported that 48 percent of adults had skipped or postponed medical care because of the pandemic. Physicians are deeply concerned about the consequences, especially for people with serious illnesses or chronic medical conditions.

To feel comfortable, patients need to take stock of the precautions providers are taking. This is especially true for older adults, who are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. Here are suggestions that can help people think through concerns and decide whether to seek elective care:

Before You Go



Give yourself at least a week to learn about your medical providers preparations.

You want to know in advance whats expected of you and what you can expect from your providers, said Lisa McGiffert, co-founder of the Patient Safety Action Network.

Merryweather-Argess organization, Project Patient Care, has developed a guide with recommended questions. Among them: Will I be screened for COVID-19 upon arrival? Do I need to wear a mask and gloves? Are there any restrictions on what I can bring (a laptop, books, a change of clothing)? Are the areas Ill visit cleaned and disinfected between patients?

Also, ask whether patients known to have COVID are treated in the same areas youll use. Will the medical staffers who interact with you also see these patients?

If youre getting care in a hospital, will you be tested for COVID-19 before your procedure? Is the staff being tested and, if so, under what circumstances?

Hospitals, medical clinics, and physicians are offering this kind of information to varying degrees. In the New York City metropolitan area, Mount Sinai Health System has posted a comprehensive Safety Hub on its website featuring extensive information and videos.

Mount Sinai also encourages physicians to reach out to patients with messages tailored to their conditions. People want to hear directly from their providers, said Karen Wish, the systems chief marketing officer.

Dont hesitate to press for more details, says Dr. Allen Kachalia, senior vice president of patient safety and quality at Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Where people get in trouble is when theyre afraid to bring their concerns forward.

Seeking Care

Wendy Hayum-Gross, 57, a counselor who lives in Naperville, Illinois, had been waiting since mid-March to get blood tests that would help doctors diagnose the underlying cause of a new condition, a goiter. A few weeks ago, she decided it was time.

The hospital lab she went to, operated by Edward-Elmhurst Health, told Hayum-Gross to wear a mask and gave her a number to call when she arrived in the parking lot. Outside the front door, she was met by a staffer who took her temperature, asked several screening questions, and gave her hand sanitizer.

Once I passed that, a phlebotomist met me on the other side of the door and took me to a chair that was still wet with disinfectant. She wore a mask and gloves, and there was no one else around, Hayum-Gross said. When I saw the precautions they had put in place and the almost military precision with which they were carrying them out, I felt much better.

Marjorie Helsel DeWert, 67, of Athens, Ohio, was similarly impressed when she visited her dentist recently and noticed circular yellow signs on the floor of the office, spaced 6 feet apart, indicating where people should stand. Staffers had even put pens used to fill out paperwork in individual containers and arranged to disinfect them after use.

DeWert, a learning scientist, came up with a patient safety checklist and distributed it to family and friends. Among her questions: Can necessary forms be completed online before a medical visit? Can I wait in the car outside until called? What kind of personal protective equipment is the staff using? And is the staff being checked for symptoms daily?

Bringing a Caregiver

Some medical centers are allowing caregivers to accompany patients; others are not. Be sure to ask what policies are in place.

If you feel your presence is necessaryfor instance, if you want to be there for a relative who is frail or cognitively compromisedbe firm but also respectful, said Ilene Corina, president of the Pulse Center for Patient Safety Education & Advocacy.

Be prepared to wear a gown, gloves, and mask.

Youre not there for yourself: Youre there to support the health care team and the patient, said Corina, whose organization offers training to caregivers.

In Orland Park, Illinois, Debi Ross, an interior designer, and her sister live with her 101-year-old mother. Eight years ago, when her mother had a tumor removed from her colon, Ross and her sister wiped down every electric socket, cord, surface, and door handle in her mothers hospital room.

Unless Mom absolutely needs [medical] care, were not going to take her anywhere, Ross said. But I assure you, if she does have to go see somebody, were going to clean that place down from top to bottom, I dont care what anybody says.

If you arent allowed into a medical facility, get a phone number for the physician caring for a loved one and make sure they have your number as well, Merryweather-Arges said. Ask that you be contacted immediately if there are any complications.

Afterward

Patients leaving hospitals are fearful these days that they unwittingly may have become infected with COVID-19. Ask your physician or a nurse what equipment youll need to monitor yourself. Will a pulse oximeter and a thermometer be necessary? Will you need masks and gloves at home if someone is coming in to help you out with the transition? Can someone provide that equipment?

Family caregivers need instructions that are clear, said Martin Hatlie, chief executive of Project Patient Care. They need to know who to call 24/7 if they have a question. And they need clear guidance about infection control in the home.

If home care is being ordered, ask the agency whether they have trained staff to recognize COVID symptoms. And have home care workers been tested for COVID-19 or had symptoms?

If follow-up care is being provided via telehealth, make sure the setup works before your loved one comes home. Ask your physicians office what kind of equipment you will need, which service they use (Zoom? Skype?), and whether you can arrange a test in advance.

Finally, as you resume activities, help protect others against COVID-19 as well as yourself. When you go out into the world again, mask up, socially distance, and wash your hands, said Kachalia of Johns Hopkins. And if youre sick or have symptoms, by all means, let your doctors office know before you come in for a checkup.

Judith Graham is a contributing columnist for Kaiser Health News, which originally published this article. KHNs coverage of these topics is supported by The John A. Hartford Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and The SCAN Foundation.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16

Trend:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received in a video format Jeyhun Bayramov due to his appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The head of state made a speech at the video meeting.

Speech of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev

- I am appointing you to the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs today. I am sure that you will justify this high confidence placed in you. Although this area is new to you, you have quite a lot of managerial experience, have worked in various positions, including that of a minister.

Along with this, I have repeatedly determined the main directions related to the foreign policy of Azerbaijan and made statements about this. Our foreign policy is open. We openly declare our foreign policy priorities and pursue a consistent policy to achieve our goals. Building equitable relations with all countries based on mutual respect and trust is one of our main priorities. I believe that Azerbaijan has made great strides in this area in recent years. Azerbaijan is a worthy member of the world community. Respect for us in the world is growing. This is evidenced by the support that the international community provided to Azerbaijan at different times. Our role in the world is growing. The implementation of any project in the region is impossible without the participation of our country and respect for its interests. Thanks to our policy, Azerbaijan has been acquiring more and more friends over the years. It is no coincidence that our international positions are quite strong today.

Of course, I will once again highlight the main priorities related to foreign policy today. But first I want to say that, first of all, it is necessary to improve the situation in the ministry's system. First of all, it is necessary to analyze it and take tangible measures to eliminate the shortcomings. In the area of personnel policy, preference should be given not to personal acquaintances, sympathies or friendships, but professionalism, patriotism and national values. It is necessary to nominate professional people attached to the Motherland, educated and capable of adequately defending the interests of Azerbaijan. The ministry should ensure adequate coordination between different departments, including senior officials. I will wait for your proposals on additional measures related to the ministry's activities.

It is necessary to seriously analyze the work of our foreign missions and determine the efficiency of our embassies. People working in our embassies are sometimes indifferent to their work, are passive, cannot protect and ensure the interests of our country at the proper level. They cannot communicate the truth about our country to the general public or do not want to do so. They cannot give a proper answer to the slanderous accusations that are periodically leveled against Azerbaijan or do not want to do so. Therefore, all these questions, of course, should take an important place in your daily activities. Our representatives abroad, diplomats must fully ensure the interests of the country. I can say that most of our diplomats working abroad meet high criteria. But when analyzing the situation, first of all, you should pay attention to shortcomings. Our embassies should be in close contact with Azerbaijani communities living and operating abroad. They should contribute to the coordination of diaspora organizations so that both diaspora organizations and embassies ensure the interests of Azerbaijan and communicate Azerbaijani realities.

Close contacts with foreign media are necessary. It is necessary to respond to the false reports sometimes published about Azerbaijan immediately and effectively, not for the sake of formality, but in many cases we do not see this. Without my intervention, the rumors about our country that are deliberately circulated and have no basis are not refuted. They either do not want to do this or they receive other instructions. It is no secret that an organized and coordinated dirty campaign is being waged against Azerbaijan these days. The people of Azerbaijan are well aware of the source and reasons for this campaign. There are many reasons for this, and one of them is that we pursue an independent policy based on national interests and our conduct is dignified. Is there an adequate response to this campaign? There is not. Some anti-national elements abroad with their activities, dirty deeds and statements grossly violate the laws of the countries in which they live, call for terror and strive to change the constitutional order. All these are issues enshrined in the legislation, including the Criminal Code, not only of Azerbaijan, but also of many countries. Therefore, the people committing these crimes should be prosecuted.

But do our diplomatic missions abroad pay any attention to this issue? I can say that they dont. They dont want to get involved or spoil relations with someone. Sometimes they protect the interests not of Azerbaijan, but of the countries they work in, in order to show their good side to their high-ranking representatives.

I want to say again that we are taking specific steps to form normal friendly and partner relations with all countries. But this does not mean that the interests of our own country and people should remain on the sidelines. Some of our diplomats abroad are turning into envoys of the countries in which they work. This must end. This is also a manifestation of erroneous personnel policy. Some diplomats have betrayed the state, committed treason and are not concealing it. They are controlled by the secret services of the countries they live in. We have sufficient information. The overwhelming majority of elements that are currently waging a dirty campaign against Azerbaijan and posing as Azerbaijanis but actually act worse than the Armenians are controlled by secret services of the countries they live in. They receive money and instructions from them. We have enough information on this issue. Our intelligence agencies have repeatedly informed the intelligence agencies of partner countries about this. We say that we know that you are directing such a person, have given someone a home and the dirty speeches of such a person are written in your institution. We know all this. I want to say again that this is evidence of the hypocrisy of these countries. I have spoken about this many times. On the one hand, they send us friendly signals, talk about partnership in person but actually campaign against us. The purpose of this is to weaken Azerbaijan, shake it up, tarnish and spread utter lies about the leaders of Azerbaijan. But life is already showing that it is absolutely pointless because the Azerbaijani people know everything perfectly well. They know that the interests of the Azerbaijani people are above everything else for us. This is probably why such dirty methods are sometimes used against us. You know, the content and form of such methods have changed at different times. At one time, we were attacked through independent nongovernmental organizations. Everyone is well aware of the sources financing these non-governmental organizations. They are financed by foreign policy bodies of large states. For a certain period of time, a dirty campaign against us was carried out by the media of foreign countries  both electronic and print media. We know what sources finance these media. This did not give them anything. On the contrary, the Azerbaijani public was well aware and understood that the objective of this was to weaken Azerbaijan, create chaos in the country, return it to the early 1990s and then, taking advantage of the situation, use these opportunities in their own interests. When this did not work either, they resorted to other dirty methods. The anti-national elements which represent Azerbaijanis but have actually turned into a symbol of moral ugliness, under the leadership of foreign secret services, are waging a dirty campaign against Azerbaijan. This is a thought-out policy the purpose of which is to undermine national values the Azerbaijani people have preserved over the centuries, undermine our moral foundations because the mentality of the Azerbaijani people is against this. Never before in our history have such dirty methods, lies and slander been used against us. This is imported here from outside. Therefore, our diplomats need to act against this. You cannot work according to the principle do not touch me and I will not touch you. Unfortunately, this principle has recently played a major role in our Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

I have said that our diplomacy should be offensive, it is necessary to fully ensure our national interests. However, we often see the opposite. We see that the principle of conciliation is taken as a basis,that efforts are made to please someone at the expense of our national interests. I have sufficient information about this. Therefore, keep these questions in the spotlight. We need diplomats who have professionalism, national spirit, are attached to national values and can defend our country.

As for our main priorities related to foreign policy, I must note that I have spoken quite a lot about them. I want to say that again today. As a new minister, you should hear this from me again, and so should the Azerbaijani public. Relations with neighboring countries are a priority for us. They are built on a very sound basis. Life and the course of events show that this is a very correct policy. The policy of neighboring countries towards Azerbaijan is also very positive. We have built this policy on the principles of friendship and good neighborliness. Thus, we have no problems with any neighboring state, of course, with the exception of Armenia. The problems left over from the past have been resolved. Certain circles in some countries have tried to artificially invent some problems, but this is also absolutely useless.

Our relations with neighboring states are of a strategic nature. We live in the same region, we are neighbors and this neighborhood will be eternal. At the same time, the Azerbaijanis living in neighboring countries, of course, occupy a special place in these relations and their tranquility is naturally very important for us. From this point of view, relations with neighboring countries are also of particular importance. These relations can be assessed highly in all spheres  political, economic, energy, transport, cultural. I can say that our relations with neighbors are exemplary, as the processes taking place in the world show that relations between neighbors may be a problem.

As you know, we also carry out activities with neighboring countries in the format of trilateral cooperation. I must say that we also initiated the trilateral format. Today, the format of trilateral cooperation in various configurations is carried out with all our neighbors, which, on the one hand, has a positive impact on regional security and, on the other, creates a fertile ground for the implementation of economic, energy and transport projects. Therefore, relations with neighboring countries will continue to be a priority in the activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

We also have very good relations with the member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Azerbaijan is a part of the Muslim world and Muslim countries receive the greatest support from us in international organizations. They also support us the most. Recently, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation issued a statement in connection with yet another military provocation of Armenia and supported the fair position of Azerbaijan. We highly appreciate that. Many events have been held in Azerbaijan under the auspices of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. I have participated in many summits and paid attention to the development of cooperation, solidarity in the Islamic world in my speeches and activities. I made effort for this. Azerbaijan is making every effort to soften or eliminate the differences between some Muslim countries. In some cases, these efforts lead to good results because, first of all, the Muslim world needs solidarity so that we can build our future with traditional friends on a sound basis.

Turkic-speaking states are brotherly countries for us. We have excellent relations with all Turkic-speaking states. As you know, Azerbaijan is currently chairing the Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States. I should also note that the summits of Turkic-speaking countries have been held for many years. Summits began to be held immediately after Azerbaijan and other post-Soviet countries gained independence. The Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States as an organization was established in the city of Nakhchivan. The organization was established at one of the summits held in Azerbaijan, Nakhchivan, and is currently building up its potential. I should also note that the Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States also issued a statement in support of Azerbaijan in connection with the recent border conflict.

Our ties with the European Union also rest on a solid foundation. Azerbaijan has signed documents on strategic partnership with nine member states of the European Union. This is one third of the European Union. Currently, work is underway on a new agreement between the European Union and Azerbaijan. A significant part of the agreement has been agreed. You will address this issue immediately and pay attention to issues that have not yet been agreed upon. I believe that Azerbaijan has shown maximum constructivism. There are still some uncoordinated issues today. I can say that it will be very difficult and meaningless for us to accept this in its current form, because I said that we must sign a new agreement in order to better protect and ensure our interests, just like the opposite side. They want to sign this agreement with Azerbaijan in order to protect and secure their own interests. And this is natural. However, these interests must be combined. In other words, we will never sign an agreement that does not suit us or that could create a problem for us. This is meaningless and doesn't matter. We must inform the Azerbaijani people about why we are doing this. We are doing this so that there are better conditions, better opportunities for cooperation, so that there are more opportunities for our people. It would be wrong to sign an agreement just for the sake of signing it. Our position is absolutely open. I am declaring this to the entire public today.

I believe that there is room for a compromise. But this requires good intention and mutual determination. The Azerbaijani side has this determination. I do hope that the negotiations continue successfully. It is also necessary to take into account that a new composition of the European Commission has emerged now and we, of course, should more accurately determine for ourselves the status of the attitude of the European Union to Azerbaijan. From the very beginning, we adhered to the position that you should not set unrealistic goals for yourself, because when you do not achieve these goals later, this causes disappointment and mutual distrust. Therefore, it is necessary to set goals that can be achieved, and these goals should be in our interests. I believe that further activities in this direction will also be successful.

Naturally, our relations with the United States of America are of great importance. They have a long history. There are excellent results in the political, economic, energy and security spheres. America appreciates the efforts Azerbaijan is making in the peacekeeping missions in Afghanistan. As you know, a very important transport corridor called the Northern Transport Corridor passes through Azerbaijan. In fact, this is an air corridor, and safe transportation of goods is very important for any country today.

As for the development of our political relations, I believe that these relations are at a very good level today. Many letters President Trump has sent me reflect the good attitude of the United States of America towards Azerbaijan. In his latest letter, he noted that our two great states will continue to interact.

The letters I have sent to President Trump also highlight the importance of our relationship. I am confident that these ties will continue to develop successfully in the future. I believe that the future of these ties is very positive.

Great Britain is our strategic investor. We also have a very close partnership with the UK. Earlier we analyzed and assessed these relations through the prism of the European Union. But Great Britain is no longer a member of the European Union now. Our mutual interest in each other is growing every day. British company BP is our strategic partner. Last year we already celebrated the 25th anniversary of this partnership and will interact for at least another 25-30 years. Of course, this has had a positive impact on bilateral relations. But both sides believe that we should work more in the non-oil sector. In a word, these connections are also very important for us.

As you know, we are currently chairing the Non-Aligned Movement and secured this chairmanship by a unanimous decision of 120 countries. When accepting the chairmanship, I said that it would not be formal in nature. We will support the interests of the member states of the Non-Aligned Movement, as well as international law and justice, in all international organizations, and have really done that. During the pandemic, summits of the Non-Aligned Movement and the Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States were held on our initiative. We have provided humanitarian assistance to the member countries of the Non-Aligned Movement, both directly and through the World Health Organization. On behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, we initiated the holding of a special session of the UN General Assembly. As you know, more than 130 countries have joined this initiative. I consider this yet another political success of ours.

Of course, the bulk of your work will be associated with the resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. This is the key issue for us, it is a national issue. As a result of the measures taken in recent years, all international organizations have expressed their position on this issue. Whereas during the conflict the UN Security Council adopted four resolutions, subsequently all other organizations also adopted similar decisions and resolutions: the OSCE, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Non-Aligned Movement, NATO and other organizations. The Partnership Priorities document initialed between the European Union and Azerbaijan two years ago also contains a special clause related to the territorial integrity, sovereignty and inviolability of our country's borders. So the legal framework is fully secured.

As for the settlement of the conflict, as I have already noted, there can be no changes in our position. Nagorno-Karabakh is our historical land, and the territorial integrity of our country must be restored. This is unambiguous, and no country recognizes the self-styled Nagorno-Karabakh republic. The so-called elections held there recently confirmed this once again because all leading states, neighboring states and leading international organizations have made statements in connection with the non-recognition of these elections.

As far as the negotiations are concerned, I want to say again that we do not intend to conduct negotiations for the sake of negotiations or to hold pointless video conferences. There must be a meaning to that. I said that the Minsk Group should be very active. As part of their mandate, it should not only deal with ensuring a ceasefire on the line of contact or on the state border, but make sure that negotiations are held on the substance, and there is already a framework that has formed over many years. However, Armenia undermines the structure of all these negotiations with its destructive actions, non-constructive statements and war crimes on the border and the line of contact. Armenia is trying to change the format of negotiations and disrupt their essence. In other words, Armenia today is undermining the negotiations and everyone can see that. Suffice it to look to the statements of the Armenian leadership. Their military leadership is trying to intimidate us. It is trying to intimidate us with the occupation of new lands. But I think that the lesson we taught them the other day will be remembered for a long time. Azerbaijan will restore its territorial integrity. There is a limit to the patience of the Azerbaijani people. Therefore, negotiations should be carried out on the substance. If we see that the negotiations are meaningless, then we will take our actions in accordance with this and make statements.

It is possible to say that I have outlined the main issues related to our foreign policy. Of course, it is impossible to cover all other issues in this meeting. However, I am sure that your experience in management will allow you the opportunity to get to the heart of the matter very quickly. As I have already noted, the foreign policy of Azerbaijan will have its say to fully ensure the interests of our country. I wish you success in your work.

Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said:

- Dear Mr. President, first of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to you for this high confidence. Mr. President, I want to assure you that I will make every effort to ensure the systematic and sustainable activities in accordance with the ideas you have just expressed, attend to the shortcomings in the activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the main directions and tasks in the field of ensuring the strategic interests of our country and fulfilling the tasks. Although, as you noted, this area is new to me, I will channel all my knowledge and skills into this work, analyze the situation more deeply and present to your attention a number of proposals in a short time. Interaction between the central office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and our diplomatic missions and embassies will be ensured. As you have noted, the main goal is to ensure and protect the strategic interests of our country. We will build our work in the direction of further strengthening the international image and authority of our country, which has been growing under your leadership in recent years, and further strengthen the positions of Azerbaijan in the international arena.

Mr. President, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the fact that during the time when I was Minister of Education, you treated this area with attention and care. All education workers feel this. During this period, as a result of the numerous orders and government programs you signed, hundreds of new schools were built, the education infrastructure was modernized, the salaries of education workers were increased, their social situation was constantly improved and the number of student vacancies was increased. Taking this opportunity, on behalf of the entire educational community, I want to express my deep gratitude to you for this. I would like to note once again that I will make every effort to justify the high confidence placed in me. I will make every effort to fulfill the assigned tasks and systematically resolve the issues you have noted.

President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you, congratulations, and I wish you success!
Italy's Campania region seeks UNESCO recognition for the Neapolitan culture surrounding espresso coffee.

The regional council of the Campania region, whose capital is Naples, is seeking to have the "culture of Neapolitan espresso coffee" registered on the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The bid, signed by Campania president Vincenzo De Luca, has been sent to Italy's Commission for UNESCO, reports Italian news agency ANSA.

"Coffee in Italy is not only a drink but it expresses a true culture, an entirely Neapolitan ritual that has given birth to traditions spread everywhere, such as that of caffe sospeso that evokes the sense of hospitality, solidarity and conviviality."

The tradition of caffe sospeso is an anonymous act of generosity in which the customer pays for an additional coffee to be enjoyed later by a stranger who cannot afford it.

The UNESCO bid, drawn up by a group of expert university professors and anthropologists, underlines the identity and value of coffee culture, "for the Neapolitans, the people of Campania, and all Italians," reports ANSA.

"After the art of the Neapolitan pizza maker, the culture of Neapolitan espresso coffee also deserves the prestigious UNESCO recognition", concludes the statement from Regione Campania.
To say that China is not a sleeping giant is a wrong assumption, because the Yellow titan has awaken from its slumber. The entire world is now realizing the consequences of China's dominance.

The emergence of Beijing in the world stage has sent shockwaves that shook many nations. Now, China poses a threat as it flexes its muscles in assertive dominance, an act which is opposed by the US in all fronts.

China has long cemented its hold through economic agreements that made it the producer of cheap goods, and foreign firms earn a chunk of revenue from its large market. They have gained a foothold in the world, but at what expense? Here are the five instances that shows what the world is in for.

1. The PRC is now part of the superpower club with US and Russia.

Marshal Billingslea, the special envoy of President Trump, has encouraged Beijing to join Trilateral talks that include the US and Russia as the premiere superpowers. The US envoy expressed the need to have a new treaty about nuclear talks, stressing that to keep nuclear arms from going wild and out-of-control, Chinese participation is a must. But, the communists want to hold onto their nukes.

Also read: Starting 2021 the US Will Cease to Be a Member of the World Health Organization

2. In the South China Sea, they have claimed several districts without any resistance.

The United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea, the People's Liberation Army Navy, and Air Force has been actively pilfering territory that is not Chinese territory. Using the 9-dash line, they have been coercing and bullying Asian neighbors with a better navy. But the US Navy and Air Force are involved in freedom of navigation operation and overflight that have scare off the Chinese military. Recently, the US Navy had three carrier strikes group to ward off Beijing.

3. It is one of the biggest economies compared to the US.

One of the biggest trade blocs in Asia is China. There are many industries in this nation that is profitable for international companies all over the world. Right now, the US is in a trade row with Beijing, that is costing both countries a lot in revenue. This is only one of the many tensions that the US needs to address soon.

4. Countries are careful not to displease the Chinese Communist Party.

Beijing has the habit of doing what it wants, just like giving a big headache for the US. But other nations cannot afford to anger the Chinese Communist Party, which can easily cause economic lashes to smaller countries. For these small nations, the option is to either follow the dotted line or have problems later on.

5. Xi Jinping has quelled the assertions that his country has something to do with coronavirus pandemic.

Recently, the US-led attack on the collusion of the WHO and China about the coronavirus should have ended in China's shame. Instead, the World Health Assembly praised Beijing despite surmounting evidence about its hand on the coronavirus pandemic. Later, President Trump responded by announcing the disassociation of the US from WHO on July 2021.

Related article: China-US Relations: Trump Administration Will Not Allow Chinese Airlines Flights Into the US



@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Confirmed cases of coronavirus are on the rise in both regime and opposition held area, but efforts to stop the spread are not be heeded by the general population reports Al-Modon.

Coronavirus infection rates continued to rise in Syria for the sixth consecutive day, with both the regime and opposition governments confirming that new infections were recorded during the past 24 hours.

In the areas under regime control, the Ministry of Health said that 22 new cases were confirmed on Tuesday, raising the number of infections in these areas to 439.

The ministry added that two of those infected with the virus died in the past few hours, bringing the number of deaths in regime-controlled areas to 22. Recoveries rose to 138, after two people recovered, according to the ministrys statistics.

Despite doubts about the figures provided by the regime government, the past few days have witnessed an acknowledgment by the government of a noticeable increase in the number of daily infections, which confirms the assumption that the actual numbers might be greater than the ones announced.

Many believe that the regimes negligence in imposing preventive measures has increased the likelihood of infections, especially with citizens being forced to queue up to obtain basic goods, in addition to the Peoples Assemblys electoral candidates holding crowded assemblies without taking any precautions whatsoever.

In the opposition-held areas in the north, the interim governments Ministry of Health said that, three new infections in Idleb were confirmed after the specimens collected were tested in Turkey.

This brings the number of people infected with the coronavirus in the governorate to eight since the first infection was confirmed on Friday by a doctor working in Bab al-Hawa Hospital, which forced medical staff who interacted with the infected into quarantine.

Over the past five days, samples were sent to Turkey for all people working in hospitals in the region where the first case was discovered, which led to the spread of rumors that dozens were actually carriers. However, the Ministry of Health in the interim government strongly denied this, and stressed that the confirmed number of injuries as of Wednesday morning was, in fact, eight.

Despite the panic caused by the confirmation of infections in opposition-held areas, compliance with safety measures remains weak. Al-Modons correspondent in Idleb said that markets, restaurants, and cafes remain packed amid the crisis.

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.
Occurred on January 22, 2020 / Cambutal, Panama



Info from Licensor: "Adam was fishing out back of Los Buzos Kayak Fishing Resort in Panama when he hooked this 500-pound black marlin from his kayak. He had paddled from the beach out to the fishing grounds and within 2 hours he was hooked up and getting pulled out. He radioed his friends Robert, Darret and Captain Pio to bring a boat to assist. They caught up to him shortly after and followed alongside in case Adam needed help. They went so far out that another boat had to be sent with more gas to ensure they made it back to land. The marlin ended up towing Adam about 12 miles over nearly 5 hours. The marlin is the largest documented gamefish ever landed by a kayaker."
TORONTO - A new report that ranks North American cities on their ability to attract tech talent has put Toronto at No. 4, giving it the top spot in Canada.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/7/2020 (552 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new report has named Toronto the fourth largest city for tech employment growth leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. Birds swim in the waters of Lake Ontario overlooking the city of Toronto skyline in Mississauga, Ont., Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

TORONTO - A new report that ranks North American cities on their ability to attract tech talent has put Toronto at No. 4, giving it the top spot in Canada.

Commercial real estate firm CBRE reached that conclusion by assessing 50 cities on 13 attributes, including tech-talent supply, cost of living, educational degrees and real estate prices.

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.

Toronto's ranking was down one spot from last year, as Washington, D.C.  chosen in 2018 to be host of Amazon's second quarters  jumped two spots to No. 2 after the San Francisco Bay Area.

Seattle  home of Amazon's original head quarters  slipped one notch to No. 3 and New York City stayed at No. 5.

Vancouver retained its 12th position in the rankings, Ottawa jumped five spots to No. 14, Montreal dropped three levels to No. 16 and Calgary made its debut in the Top 50 in the 34th slot.

CBRE said Toronto gained 66,900 or 36.5 per cent more tech jobs over the past five years, the second-most after the Bay Area over that time frame.

The report says the average tech worker salary in Toronto rose by 11.2 per cent to reach $84,986, keeping it a much more affordable market for talent than many U.S. cities it studied.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 15, 2020.
By Trend





The Armenian armed forces continue to make provocations, Assistant to the Azerbaijani president, Head of the Department of Foreign Policy Affairs of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration Hikmat Hajiyev said.

Hajiyev made the remark at the press-conference in Baku, Trend reports on July 16.

"Azerbaijan's army gives adequate response to the provocations, assistant to the Azerbaijani president added. "Azerbaijans society is united. The lands occupied by Armenia must be liberated. These provocations continue because international organizations do not exert pressure on Armenia."

Hajiyev said that some individuals willing to undermine the solidarity of the Azerbaijani people began to resort to various provocative actions, and these issues will be dealt with.

He also said that Azerbaijani youth chanted the slogans expressing the desire to join the armed forces.

I would like to inform you that the Azerbaijani army has been fully provided with armament and it gives the Armenian armed forces an adequate response, assistant to the Azerbaijani president said. While in Armenia, confidence in the army leaves a lot to be desired, there are serious problems with staffing. Mercenaries serve in Armenian army.

The patriotism of Azerbaijani youth is highly appreciated by the state, Hajiyev said. The Azerbaijani president said that everyone may apply to the State Service for Mobilization and Conscription.

In case of necessity, they will be attracted to the service, assistant to the Azerbaijani president said. We highly appreciate this initiative of the Azerbaijani youth. In case of necessity, these individuals will be drafted into the army."
National Right-to-Work Chief Challenges Biden to Disavow Support From Corrupt UAW

Former Vice President Joe Biden should disavow the support he has received as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee from the United Auto Workers (UAW), according to National Right to Work Committee (NRTW) President Mark Mix.

Ten senior officials of the UAW have pled guilty to federal crimes, including embezzlement, racketeering, and labor law violations, Mix told Biden in a July 15 letter obtained by The Epoch Times.

Former UAW President Gary Jones, who himself only pled guilty just over two months ago, admitted to scheming with at least six [  ] union officials to spend over a million dollars in union treasury money, much of it forced dues extracted from workers in non-Right-to-Work states, Mix wrote.

Mix said its important for Biden to disavow UAW support because the continuing corruption probe by the Department of Justice has uncovered shocking corruption and rampant misconduct in the UAW, spanning at least a decade.

The current UAW top brass failure to cooperate is likely to lead to a government takeover of the union, much like what happened to the Teamsters just over 30 years ago, Mix said.

Disturbingly, however, it seems as though UAW officials are deliberately stalling in a cynical ploy to run out the clock on the Trump Justice Department, in the hopes that your administration will let them off the hook.

Mix says its thus no coincidence that UAW officials are currently spending millions to get you elected. Ordinary Americans have ample reason to suspect that there is a connection between UAW President Rory Gambles enthusiastic endorsement of your presidential bid on April 21 and his nonchalance in the face of U.S. Attorney Schneiders warnings about a federal takeover of the UAW.

Matthew Schneider leads the DOJ investigation and prosecution of the UAW.

A media spokesman for joebiden.com didnt immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

Gamble said in his April endorsement of Biden: In these dangerous and difficult times, the country needs a president who will demonstrate clear, stable leadership, less partisan acrimony, and more balance to the rights and protections of working Americans.

UAW Members need a federal government that ensures that members have both a good job to go to, and that they come home to their families at night having earned a fair days wage in a safe and secure place.

The UAW has long been one of the Democratic Partys most dependable sources for contributions and campaign volunteers. Thus far in the 2020 campaign, the UAW has made nearly $2.7 million in contributions, with 98 percent of the total going to Democrats, according to opensecrets.org.

As The Epoch Times reported in June, former UAW President Gary Jones confessed to conspiring with other top officials of the storied labor organization to embezzle more than $1 million in member dues in an attempt to further racketeering and tax evasion activities.

Jones, 63, pled guilty to one count of conspiring to embezzle UAW dues money and conspiring to use a facility of interstate commerce to aid racketeering crimes between 2010 and September 2019, the DOJ announced June 3.

He also pled guilty to a separate count of conspiring to defraud the United States by evading the payment of taxes on embezzled funds and causing the UAW to file false tax returns during the same period of time, the DOJ said.

Mix warns Biden that if you are elected, a refusal to stand up to the UAW would taint your Justice Department from day one, sending a clear message to American workers that union boss malfeasance will continue to go unpunished so long as Big Labor has greased the right palms.

Twenty-seven of the nations 50 states have Right-to-Work laws guaranteeing individual workers the right to keep their jobs without being forced to pay union dues.

Contact Mark Tapscott at Mark.Tapscott@epochtimes.nyc
Former Prime Minister Pierre-Damien Habumuremyi will be arraigned in Gasabo Primary Court in Kibagabaga on Thursday, July 16 on charges related to breach of trust and issuing bounced cheques.

The development was confirmed on Wednesday by Faustin Nkusi, the spokesperson for National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA).

Habumuremyi was arrested earlier this month by Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB), and according to available details, he is in debts amounting to over Rwf1.5bn owed to different creditors including suppliers, employees and commercial banks among others.

The debts are said to also include statutory obligations like taxes and employee contributions to Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB) were accrued from Habumuremyi's business, Christian University Kigali (CHUR).

He is said to have committed the alleged crimes between 2018 and 2019 when he was the rector and owner of the university, which had two campuses; one in Kigali and another in Karongi.

Beginning 2018, Habumuremyi's university faced financial stress, failing to pay suppliers of school equipment and forcing the Chairperson of the Chancellery for Heroes, National Orders and Decorations of Honour (CHENO) to take debts from different creditors.

Before the university was closed recently by the education ministry, their Kigali campus was using the premises of Saint-Paul, which is owned by the Catholic Church.

But it wasn't until recently that creditors and suppliers had enough of him and decided to drag him to courts.

Others had been given cheques which bounced after finding no money on the accounts belonging to the university.

Alleged crimes

Habumuremyi who has business units in hospitality is alleged to have issued bounced cheques on a number of occasions which he issued to his creditors.

A cheque is considered bounced or rubber, in most cases, when an individual, group account holder or company issues it as a mode of payment against a bank account with insufficient funds on it.

On May 30, 2019, he issued a bounced cheque worth Rwf28 million, on November 30 during the same year he issued another one worth Rwf38 million.

The following year, 2020, on March 4, he issued a rubber cheque worth Rwf17.5 million, and on June 30 during the same period, he issued another cheque of Rwf10.7 million.

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According to reports Habumuremyi was on several occasions summoned by different entities, advising him to address the issues he had with creditors and stop the habit of issuing bouncing cheques but this persisted.

Habumuremyi is also accused of breach of trust.

The same investigation established that he awarded a tender to a local supplier to procure ICT equipment to his school. The supplier was requested to deposit collateral of Rwf10 million.

The former premier is believed to owe up to Rwf1.5 billion, which includes some Rwf452 million in rental arrears and a total of Rwf300 million comprising debts he owes to his employees and the tax body.

There is also some evidence to show Habumuremyi owes local banks up to Rwf530 million, as well as some Rwf200 million he owes suppliers of different equipment to his university.

Before being named Prime Minister, Habumuremyi was the Minister of Education and prior to that, he was a member of the East African Legislative Assembly.

He has also previously served as the Executive Secretary of the National Electoral Commission.
You are here: Business

Trip.com Group, China's largest online travel agency, has inked a strategic cooperation deal with Xigaze in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region to promote local tourism, the group said.

According to the contract, Trip.com Group will participate in formulating a three-year action plan for the high-quality development of the culture and tourism industry in Xigaze.

Both sides will jointly build a smart tourism system in the city, including a smart tourism service platform, smart tourist attractions, and smart travel agencies.

They will jointly promote diversified tours, and facilitate the cooperation between online and offline sales channels.

Key cultural and tourism projects will be developed to promote the local economy, upgrade tourism facilities and boost employment.

Trip.com Group will also cooperate with local schools to train drivers, tour guides and hotel staff to support the city's tourism development.

James Liang, executive chairman of Trip.com Group, said Xigaze boasts rich and diversified cultural resources and has great tourism potential.
US imposes visa bans on Huawei employees citing human rights abuses

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 15 July 2020 5:23 PM

US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has announced visa restrictions on a number of employees of Huawei Technologies Co. and some other Chinese companies over what he described as complicity with their government's human rights abuses.

"The State Department will impose visa restrictions on certain employees of Chinese technology companies like Huawei, that provide material support to regimes engaging in human rights violations and abuses globally," Pompeo said in a statement on Wednesday.

He further called Huawei as "an arm of the CCP's surveillance state that censors political dissidents."

"Telecommunications companies around the world should consider themselves on notice: If they are doing business with Huawei, they are doing business with human rights abusers," Pompeo claimed.

He did not elaborate over the details, including the exact number of people who would be affected.

The former CIA chief further praised the United Kingdom for barring Huawei from operating its 5G network.

"We were happy about it," he said. "Faster is always better to get this equipment out of their system, it's a security risk. It isn't about commercial interest, this is about protecting the information in this case, of the United Kingdom's people."

In another part of his statement, Pompeo also announced that Washington is moving toward sanctions against the EU companies that are involved in the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany.

"Get out now or risk the consequences," he said.

The US claims that the 1,200-kilometer (745-mile) pipeline will give Moscow excessive control over energy supplies to Europe, but Germany says it will provide the country with necessary resources.

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A MAN who survived Covid-19 has spoken of his heartbreak at emerging from a coma only to discover the virus had claimed his 83 year old mother in the same ward of an Irish hospital.

Ian O'Sullivan was a full-time carer for his adored mother, Mary, in Cork.

Last March 14, Ian had felt unwell and arranged for a Covid test while carefully self-isolating.

He strictly adhered to Government guidance and was nine days in self-isolation before suddenly feeling desperately unwell.

"I didn't feel 100pc. The following day I wasn't feeling good and it was that day the country was shutting down. I was aware of the virus.

"I had been out and about (in Cork) that week in a few pubs to watch the Cheltenham racing - I don't know if that was it. It is the million dollar question. But I just don't know," Ian told RedFM's Neil Prendeville Show.

"I felt a bit exhausted - flu-like symptoms. I can get tonsillitis so my throat can be sore and it was very niggly.

"I followed all the virus stuff on the media so I went into lockdown. Because of my mother's age I was very worried about her. At the time the protocol was to self-isolate and to get tested.

"I did just that - I stayed at home in my room. Friends dropped medicines to my house. I was like that for nine days. I was in the bed most of the time - it really knocked me, I was exhausted.

"I was trying to stay away from my mam but also look after her to the best of my ability. I was cooking for her as best I could. I didn't leave the house - my sisters brought food to the house as well. But no one came in. I didn't leave the house."

On the tenth day, he was rushed to the Mercy University Hospital (MUH) in Cork and became its first Covid-19 case.

"I woke up on day ten at home and felt like there was someone sitting on my chest. I couldn't catch my breath. It felt like there was a weight on me. In all that ten day period I did not hear back about the (Covid-19) test. I was waiting for a phone call for the test - I hadn't heard."

He rang his GP and she immediately organised an ambulance to rush him to hospital.

"I wasn't well enough to have a conversation (with my mam). I kind of said goodbye to her with my eyes. I even had (personal protective equipment) on me leaving the house."

Ian was eventually placed in an induced coma at MUH.

His mother was rushed to the same hospital just 48 hours later having become seriously ill.

She died while Ian was still unconscious on April 2.

MUH doctors attempted to bring Ian out of the coma on April 3 but he became seriously ill and he had to be kept unconscious.

Eventually, on April 6 Ian was successfully brought out of the coma - and some time later learned via FaceTime that his mother had passed away.

"I found out my mother took ill two days later and followed me into the same ward, St Joseph's. She was in a room directly across the hall from me," he said.

"She had been shifted in by ambulance. I was firstly on a gas mask but was getting gradually worse. I couldn't talk.

"They eventually told me they had to put me into an induced coma, maybe for two weeks. Straight away I got upset but I just couldn't breath.

"I was going to get the best of care - I was the first person there with Covid. I was scared but I knew I had to do it."

Ian admitted his joy at his survival was tempered by the realisation he had lost his mother.

"I came around and I was asking for my daughter and my mother - my sisters didn't want the news coming from anyone but a family member. They couldn't get into the ward in person. My sister video-called me and broke the news about mam.

"I relive it quite a bit. She died four days before I came out of the coma. I will take it to my own grave that I couldn't go to my own mother's funeral. I was so close to her but I couldn't see her.

"The funeral was so, so surreal for my entire family. My mother died on April 2 and she was in Kilcully (cemetery) just 26 hours later. It was (Covid-19), 100pc. No-one (from the family) saw my mother again (once she went into MUH). It was horrific for my family.

"I left my home fighting for my life and I never saw my mother again."
The community of saints in Haridwar has asked the Uttarakhand government to retract an order over declaring a stretch of the Ganga as an escape channel after former chief minister Harish Rawat apologized on Wednesday for the mistake of his administration.

I seek an apology from the saint community and Ganga Sabha over the decision taken by the state government under my chief ministership. I urge chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat to take back this decision and announce Har-Ki-Pauri as part of main holy Ganga river, Rawat said Wednesday during his meeting with saints and Akhil Bharatiya Akhada Parishad office bearers along with representatives of Ganga Sabha, the body that manages the affairs of the ancient sanctum sanctorum of Brahma Kund Har-Ki-Pauri Ganga ghat in Haridwar.

This controversial order was passed to safeguard the interests of local traders and commercial activities but later I realized it was a mistake. It was a decision taken with certain aspects taken into consideration but now this decision should be nullified. A large number of saints, teerth purohits and Ganga activists met me in this regard recently after which I realised my mistake, said Rawat who is also a former MP from Haridwar.

Many priests, pandas, traders, shopkeepers, hoteliers and politicians living in and around Har-Ki-Pauri had then urged Harish Rawat to pass the order saying Har-Ki-Pauri is not the mainstream Ganga but a secondary part of Ganga canal stream.

Rawat said that if the state government doesnt take any decision in this regard, then he will ensure that this order is taken back if the Congress returns to power in 2022,

Terming it as a genuine realisation of a major mistake Mahant Durga Das of Shri Panchayati Akhada Bada Udasin said that after Rawat publicly accepted the mistake, the ball is now in the court of the state government.

Ganga Sabha president Pradeep Jha said that sentiments of Ganga devotees continued to be hurt as in official records Har-Ki-Pauri part of the Ganga is deemed as a channel of the main river.

We have already submitted three memorandums in this regard to the state government to nullify the previous Congress government order. Brahamkund, Har-Ki-Pauri has since antiquity been believed to be the sacred place where tug-of-war took place between deities and demons and nectar fell at that place, said Jha.

The Congress-led government had issued an order declaring part of Ganga from Sarvanand Ghat, Bhoopatwala till Shri Daknesheswar Mahadev temple, passing through sanctum sanctorum of Brahama Kund, Har-Ki-Pauri as an escape channel on December 14, 2016. This meant Har-Ki-Pauri ghat is not on the main river Ganga course and thus did not come under NGT directive that prohibits construction activities within 100 metre of the Ganga river.

The order of the then Congress government meant construction activities could go on, bringing relief to many ashram owners, hoteliers, dharamshala owners and shopkeepers whose establishments were coming under 100-metre belt.

Earlier this week Ganga Sabha had threatened to move to the Supreme Court if the state government didnt turn down this order.

The BJP government in Uttarakhand is ambivalent about the demand of the saints.

Madan Kaushik, state cabinet minister and state government spokesperson blamed the previous Congress government for this situation but did not say why the BJP government had not scrapped the order or cleared its stance on the matter in the last three and a half years.

Chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat had stated during his first visit as CM to Har-Ki-Pauri that mistakes and wrongdoings of previous Congress government will be washed away. It is good that finally Harish Rawat has realised his mistake but it wont be easy for people of Haridwar to forget his acts, said Kaushik.
Speaking in the measured, authoritative tones of an expert, Andrew Wakefield delivered his considered judgment on the coronavirus pandemic.

It was, said the disgraced British former doctor, one big hoax: a cynical plot by pharmaceutical giants  aided by governments, scientists and the media  to force the world to be unnecessarily and dangerously vaccinated.

People must fight it  even, he suggested, to the death.

'It is a very, very alarming time,' he told a recent online 'Health Freedom Summit'.

Immune to the facts: Andrew Wakefield, with his girlfriend, businesswoman Elle Macpherson

For Wakefield, it's not just an alarming time but also a heartening one. A poll found nearly a third of British people are either unsure or definitely wouldn't take a vaccine for coronavirus.

The survey was conducted for the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, which also found that almost 60 million people in the UK and U.S. subscribe to anti-vaxxer content on social media.

For the so-called anti-vaxxers  for whom Wakefield remains a hero  a world forced to communicate largely on the internet is a world particularly vulnerable to their scientific lies and twisted conspiracy theories.

Sue Pilkington, head of standards for the Society of Homeopaths, re-posted on social media several tirades by anti-vaxxers, including one that described vaccines as 'poison'.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock says he is meeting Facebook PR chief Sir Nick Clegg this week to increase pressure on the social media giant to crack down on anti-vaccination propaganda that is 'putting lives at risk'.

Anthony Fauci, the chief U.S. coronavirus expert, has warned that the anti-vaccine movement deserves much of the responsibility for America's abysmal Covid-19 record, and polls showing a third of the population would refuse to be vaccinated. The anti-vaxxers could thwart any hope of the U.S. developing herd immunity, he fears.

An anti-vaccination campaigner

In one survey in America, 44 per cent of Republican voters and 19 per cent of Democrats said they believed the absurd theory that Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, who has spent almost $8 billion fighting infectious diseases, would use Covid-19 jabs to implant microchips in people to track their movements and collect data to further his own power.

These are terrifyingly gullible times  the perfect environment for Wakefield, who is still shamelessly preaching the same dangerous anti-vaccine message a decade after it was discredited by British medical authorities.

During a 'health freedom' summit in May, Wakefield, the boyfriend of supermodel Elle 'The Body' Macpherson, looked cool and relaxed in a black yoga T-shirt as he chatted by video link to an adoring blonde interviewer.

'One of the main tenets of mandatory vaccination has been fear, and never have we seen fear exploited in the way we do now with the coronavirus infection,' he said.

Citing what he called 'unambiguous' evidence that the coronavirus is no more deadly than seasonal flu, and claiming that the pathogen's death toll had been greatly exaggerated, Wakefield said the crisis had led to 'a destruction of the economy, a destruction of people and families, and unprecedented violations of health freedom... and it's all based upon a fallacy'.

Describing vaccines as 'intrinsically unsafe', this valiant truth-teller called on free-thinking people to refuse to be vaccinated against Covid-19 if and when a jab becomes available.

'We have to stand and fight,' the 63-year-old intoned. 'As Nelson Mandela said at his trial, there are ideals worth dying for . . . I don't want to get too dramatic, but better to die as a free man than live as a slave . . . We have to fight to preserve [our] freedom because it will be surely stripped from us in a very short space of time if we don't.'

Stirring words, yet they come from a man whose views on vaccines  indeed, on anything to do with medical science  should make him the very last person on the planet that anyone should listen to.

'Dr' Wakefield, as his American followers inaccurately call him, is of course the gastroenterologist who once worked at a top London teaching hospital and was struck off in the aftermath of his sensational claims some years ago that the three-in-one measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine was causing an epidemic of autism in children.

His research was revealed to be fraudulent while, in a breach of ethics, he had concealed payments from solicitors who wanted to bring cases against vaccine manufacturers.

Dr. Joseph Varon, top with JV on shield, leads a team as they tried without success to save the life of a patient inside the Coronavirus Unit at United Memorial Medical Center, Monday, July 6

He was stripped of his licence by Britain's General Medical Council in 2010, meaning he could no longer call himself a doctor, and fled to the U.S., where he found a more receptive audience among a population rich in conspiracy theorists who instinctively mistrust whatever government tells them.

Convincing his disciples that he was the victim of a conspiracy by the pharmaceutical industry, medical establishment and media, Wakefield now neatly argues that the same shadowy cabal are lying to the public about coronavirus.

Having terrified one generation of parents  leading, some believe, to a spike in measles among children and a number of deaths in countries where a minority have promoted his claims  Wakefield is spreading fear and misinformation again.

And the anti-vaxxers are proving alarmingly successful, say experts who fear these science-deniers could seriously undermine efforts to tackle coronavirus effectively.

A new report by America's George Washington University says anti-vaxxers are adept at manipulating social media, often infiltrating networks. This enables their views to drown out more measured, evidence-based voices and dominate sites such as Facebook.

The researchers say they also found evidence of growing links between anti-vaxxer groups and far-Right extremists.

Mass vaccination programmes have been protecting people from infectious diseases such as smallpox and influenza for decades, saving untold lives. And some of the biggest successes have been against viruses similar to the coronavirus, such as polio, yellow fever and measles.

Doctors and scientists almost unanimously agree that a vaccine will be the most important tool in combating the current and any future pandemic.

Anti-vaxxers' claims  that vaccines are harmful, ineffective and a fraud perpetrated by Big Pharma for financial gain and by shadowy 'Establishment' forces  have been repeatedly debunked. Critics also dismiss their hysteria about 'compulsory' vaccination as a red herring: this is illegal in Britain and has not been proposed in America.

Despite this, and the fact that more than 138,000 people have so far died in the U.S. from Covid-19, Wakefield and other anti-vaxxers are having an alarming impact in America.

Polls show that between a fifth and a third of Americans wouldn't have a coronavirus vaccine if one became available.

Even before any vaccine is available, anti-vaxxers in America and Europe have been demonstrating alongside anti-lockdown protesters. Remarkably, this small but fanatical band now frame their cause as a human rights issue, preferring to be called 'pro-choice' rather than 'anti-vaxx'.

A poll found nearly a third of British people are either unsure or definitely wouldn't take a vaccine for coronavirus (File image)

The 'UK Freedom Movement'  a loose collective of anti-lockdown protesters, anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists  have held dozens of illegal gatherings in British parks. Posters read: 'We say no to the coronavirus bill, no to mandatory vaccines, no to the new normal and no to the unlawful lockdown.'

Rule-breaking picnics are one thing. In the U.S. however, some anti-vaxxers have brought guns to demonstrations, while a popular Facebook page run by diehard anti-vaxxer Larry Cook encourages its visitors to buy firearms.

Interviewed for a TV series misleadingly called The Truth About Vaccines, Wakefield claimed that vaccines 'are going to kill us' and urged supporters to protest 'in numbers that are sufficient to terrify the politicians into doing the right thing'.

Activists have been happy to plant any unfounded rumour, for example that microbiologist Dr Elisa Granato died while taking part in a vaccine trial in Oxford. The 32-year-old is alive and well.

While not championing every bizarre conspiracy, Wakefield has been happy to pour petrol on the flames and take credit for the movement's growth.

His arguments rely on a string of debunked claims. For instance, he cited a 'very worrying' Pentagon study claiming that having the flu jab substantially increased the chances of being infected by coronavirus. But he omitted to mention the coronaviruses concerned in that study were the ones that cause the common cold, not the one the world is now tackling.

'The [drugs] industry is desperate to secure its markets and profits, and therefore is forcing the mandatory vaccination agenda,' claimed Wakefield in his interview with the 'Health Freedom Summit'.

Wakefield's own 'profits' have been healthy, thanks to his vaccine scaremongering. The three-day teleconference at which he and other leading anti-vaxxers spoke cost 56 to attend, with an undisclosed percentage of the takings going towards his next anti-vaxx project, a film called 1986: The Act, which will cover American laws limiting the liability of vaccine manufacturers in injury claims.

Wakefield is handsome, charismatic and charming, and it's no coincidence most of his supporters are women, often well-educated and well-heeled mothers. Several female benefactors have helped him generously since he moved from Britain to Texas.

These include Jane Johnson, of the Johnson & Johnson empire and a scion of the sixth-richest family in America. (How ironic that Johnson & Johnson is now working hard to develop a Covid-19 vaccine.)

For the past two years, Wakefield, who divorced his British wife and mother of his four children last year, has been in a relationship with the Australian Macpherson, who is estimated to be worth some 50 million. Her views on vaccines remain a mystery, although it's hard to imagine her putting up with her beau's pariah status if she wasn't sympathetic to his cause. But there are plenty of other celebrities who have questioned vaccines.

These include actors Robert De Niro, Jim Carrey and Jessica Biel, and the activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr, nephew of the late American president, who caused outrage by comparing vaccination to the Holocaust. (He later apologised.)

Earlier this year, Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic said he was 'opposed to vaccination', while the British rapper M.I.A., real name Mathangi Arulpragasam, referred to the embedded microchip conspiracy, nonsensically opining: 'If I have to choose the vaccine or chip I'm gonna choose death.'

The formerly mask-averse Donald Trump once supported the MMR-autism connection, but now insists the U.S. is working flat-out to find a coronavirus vaccine. Public health experts believe most people want to see a vaccine against Covid-19 as soon as possible. But the anti-vaxxers have influence, and scientists are anxious nothing goes awry as new vaccines are tested.

The rush to mass vaccinate children against polio in the 1950s had disastrous consequences in America, when several batches of the treatment proved defective, causing 40,000 cases of the disease, killing ten children and paralysing 200. A similar tragedy would play right into the hands of Wakefield and his deluded friends.

While credulous celebrities are not exactly thin on the ground, anti-vaxxers have been delighted to welcome a more valuable ally in their efforts  an immunologist at University College Dublin named Prof Dolores Cahill. She gave an hour-long interview to an Irish video blogger in which she echoed pretty much all of Wakefield's claims.

Dismissing the 'hysteria' over the pandemic, Cahill claimed that if people boosted their immune system with vitamins C and D and zinc supplements, 99 per cent could experience 'just normal flu symptoms' from Covid-19 and then be immune to the virus.

Politicians and the media, she added, were using the bug as a 'fear-mongering propaganda tool' to 'take away rights from people and to make them more sick and to force vaccinations on us'.

She further claimed that vaccines contain harmful ingredients such as aluminium or mercury, and instead touted the 'miracle drug' hydroxychloroquine  which President Trump says he's been taking  as an effective treatment for Covid-19.

It's unlikely those who watched the Cahill interview were bothered by the revelation that, as chairman of the Irish Freedom Party, she was hardly your impartial boffin.

Wakefield lends arguments to people exasperated by the lockdown seeking to justify their rebellion against it, said Tara Smith, an infectious disease expert at Kent State University in Ohio, who has researched the anti-vaccine movement.

She wasn't remotely surprised that Wakefield has latched on to coronavirus.

'That's what he does now. He's lost his medical licence, he doesn't publish as a scientist so it's what he's left with,' she added.

'He has a huge following, it's almost cult-like.

'Despite everything he's done, they adore him.'
Croatia's president on Thursday handed Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic the mandate to form a new government after his conservative party prevailed in a July 5 parliamentary election.

Plenkovic's Croatian Democratic Union, or HDZ, came first in the election, held amid a renewed spike in new coronavirus infections, but failed to gain an outright majority in the 151-seat parliament, winning 66 seats.

However, it garnered the support of another 10 lawmakers from smaller parties and minority groups. The exact composition of the future Cabinet will be known next week.

There are many difficult challenges ahead for Croatia," Plenkovic said. These challenges are of a political, economic, financial nature  and of course they also concern public health.

HDZ prevailed over the main liberal opposition party that won 41 seats, while in third place was a party that challenged Plenkovic from the right-wing pole of the political scene.

President Zoran Milanovic on Thursday granted Plenkovic the mandate to form his new government after a total 76 lawmakers formally pledged to support him.

The new assembly is expected to convene next week. Plenkovic has announced that his new government will have fewer ministries, to ensure greater efficiency.

European Union-member Croatia has been struggling to salvage its key tourism season that's been ravaged by the virus outbreak. Authorities have made wearing face masks in shops and other closed areas mandatory.

A country of 4.2 million people, Croatia is known for its stunning Adriatic Sea coast.
Ablekuma North Member of Parliament Nana Akua Owusu Afriyie

16.07.2020 LISTEN

The Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Ade Coker, has called for the arrest of the Ablekuma North Member of Parliament Nana Akua Owusu Afriyie, for flouting the COVID-19 protocol.

A statement signed by Mr Ade Ckoer said : The MP, on July 13, 2020 is captured on videos, without regard to our electoral laws and the ECs directives for strict adherence to covid19 protocols, touring some registration centres and turning same into campaign platforms for the failed Akufo Addo government.

While it cannot be gainsaid that the reckless conduct of the MP is a product of a desperate move to remain relevant and also remind the powers that be in the NPP that she has not jump ship after losing the Parliamentary primaries, it is an act that flies in the face of the advocacy against the spread of the coronavirus and electoral regulations, and as such the EC must not remain tight lipped on it.

More so, we do not expect the EC to exhibit its usual lukewarm posturing without calling out the MP and reprimanding its officials who allowed her and her entourage to the centres to disregard its own rules regarding combating the spread of covid19.

What is even more worrying is that, the obviously and visibily frustrated MP had her nose mask pulled under her chin while some EC officers, instead of throwing her out of the centre, cheered her on when she charged those gathered there to vote for President Akufo Addo and Sheila Bartels.

It is worthy to note that it is the EC, and not the NDC, that through its Director of Public Affairs, Sylvia Annor, said on May 20, 2020 that people coming to register will be given hand sanitizer before they enter the registration centre, you need to wear a face mask, without a face mask, you cannot enter a registration centre. There will be no crowding at the registration centre, I can assure you.

Aside the video recordings available to us, we have in our possession a statement issued by one Owoahene Akwasi Acheampong Kwakye, believed to be assign of the MP, on his Facebook wall on July 14, 2020 which stated categorically that the MP toured all the registration centres within the Constituency to monitor the ongoing registration exercise and to CAMPAIGN for His Excellency Nana Akuffo Addo and the PC elect.

This is something she does always since the voter ID registration exercise started. (emphasis is mine). For ease of reference, the MP toured registration centres in the following areas: Sakaman, Akwei Bu Otaten, Been tu, Awoshie, Kwashie Bu, Twuim, Odorkor, Darkuman West Darkuman East Nyamekye, Kwashieman Zone 2 and Amoana Electoral Areas.

Although the EC has so far demonstrated its unashamed bias in favour of the NPP, we believe this is yet again another opportunity for the Commission to regain the trust and confidence of Ghanaians by acting decisively and swiftly on this matter. We therefore demand that the EC, within 24 hours, calls out the MP and condemn her reckless behavior and warned her not to engage in this shameful conduct again, failure of which she would not be entertain at any of its registration centres.

We also call on the EC to take disciplinary action against its officials at the aforementioned registration centres. Failure to do this within 24 hours, we will have no option than to instruct our Parliamentary Candidates and supporters to also start campaigning at the registration centres while observing all the covid19 protocols.
The bike stations on the Far South Side are the first phase of a citywide plan to bring Divvy bikes to every Chicago neighborhood. The city said it plans to complete the 66 docking stations by September and build more on the West Side later this year, as well as additional stations on the Northwest Side by the middle of 2021. Plans call for the addition of 10,500 more electric-assist bikes throughout the city by 2021.
A state-owned Chinese company is boasting that about 30 employees, including top executives, received experimental shots even before the government approved testing in people as the global race to make a coronavirus vaccine heats up.

'Giving a helping hand in forging the sword of victory,' reads an online post from SinoPharm with pictures of company leaders it says helped 'pre-test' its vaccine.

SinoPharm's claim that 30 'special volunteers' rolled up their sleeves even before the company got permission for its initial human study has raised ethical concerns.

The company's post cites a 'spirit of sacrifice' and shows seven men in suits and ties - a mix of scientists, businessmen and one Communist Party official with a background in military propaganda.

'The idea of people willing to sacrifice themselves ... is pretty much expected in China,' said Yanzhong Huang, a global health expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, a US nonprofit organization.

But with corporate and government officials getting vaccinated, other employees 'might feel pressure to participate. That would violate the voluntary principle' that is a bedrock of modern medical ethics, Huang said.

The first round of human testing - a Phase 1 trial - requires permission from a country's drug regulators, who decide whether there is enough laboratory and animal evidence to justify the attempt.

An online post by SinoPharm shows pictures of workers it says got vaccinated with a COVID-19 experimental shot. The words on the post read: 'Giving a helping hand in forging the sword of victory'

A staff member tests samples of the COVID-19 inactivated vaccine at a vaccine production plant of China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) in Beijing in April

SinoPharm, which declined to comment, is testing two vaccine candidates that received government permission for Phase 1 trials in mid to late April.

In a post on its subsidiary's official WeChat account, the company says it conducted its 'pre-test' at the end of March 'to make the vaccines hit the market as early as possible'.

Giving the experimental shot early to SinoPharm's employees 'sends a signal to the Chinese people, "You guys should not worry about the safety of the vaccine,"' Huang said.

China has positioned itself to be a strong contender for creating a coronavirus vaccine. Eight of the nearly two dozen potential vaccines in various stages of human testing worldwide are from China, the most of any country.

Both China and SinoPharm have invested heavily in a tried-and-true technology - an 'inactivated' vaccine made by growing the whole virus in a lab and then killing it, which is how polio shots are made.

Whether it's viewed as heroic sacrifice or a violation of international ethical norms, the claim underscores the enormous stakes as China competes with US and British companies to be the first with a vaccine to help end the pandemic - a feat that would be both a scientific and political triumph.

'Getting a COVID-19 vaccine is the new Holy Grail,' said Lawrence Gostin, a global public health law expert at Georgetown University.

'The political competition to be the first is no less consequential than the race for the moon between the United States and Russia.'

Leading Western competitors use newer, less proven technology to target the 'spike' protein that coats the virus.

That protein is 'a good place to make our bet,' Dr Gary Nabel, chief scientific officer of the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi, said at a US biotechnology industry meeting.

'It's good to have some diversity. I like the fact that there is an inactivated, whole vaccine. That provides an alternative in case one of these should fail.'

It would not be the only shortcut China is taking. In late June, the government gave special approval for the military to use an experimental vaccine made by another company, CanSino Biologics, skipping the final testing needed to prove if it really works. CanSino now says its in talks with four other countries about doing that research.

With a COVID-19 vaccine, national pride is at stake. President Xi Jinping (pictured in March learning about coronavirus research) pledged that any Chinese-made vaccine would be a 'global public good'

Some participants in the first CanSino clinical trial in March said in social media posts that researchers on the project claimed they had been injected February 29, before regulators gave the study the go-ahead.

A researcher said team leader Chen Wei, a renowned military virologist, was the first to receive the experimental vaccine, one of the participants told state-owned Beijing News.

CanSino and Chen's Academy of Military Medical Sciences turned down requests for information and interviews. The National Medical Products Administration, which approves vaccine trials, also declined to comment.

In May, a Russian scientist told the RIA Novosti news agency that he and fellow researchers also had vaccinated themselves ahead of approved studies. 'Its self-defense in order for us to continue working' on a vaccine, said Alexander Gintsburg of the Moscow-based Gamaleya research institute.

'Everyone is alive and well and cheerful,' he added.

Russia's Association of Clinical Research Organizations condemned the action as a 'crude violation of the very foundations of clinical research, Russian law and universally accepted international regulations'.

But about a month later, Russia launched its first vaccine study, using the Gamaleya product.

Examples of scientists experimenting on themselves abound in medical history.

Around 1900, Pierre Curie, Marie Curie's husband, deliberately burned his arm with radium as part of their radiation experiments.

In the 1950s, Jonas Salk tested his ultimately successful polio vaccine on himself and his family. In the 1980s, Australia's Dr Barry Marshall drank a bacteria-laden broth as part of his quest to prove germs, not stress, cause stomach ulcers. He was right.

Both China and SinoPharm (employees pictured in April) have invested heavily in a tried-and-true technology - an 'inactivated' vaccine made by growing the whole virus in a lab and then killing it, which is how polio shots are made

And in China in the 1970s, a researcher named Tu Youyou, working in a secret military program, discovered an important anti-malaria drug that she first tested on herself. In 2015, she won a Nobel Prize.

With a COVID-19 vaccine, national pride is at stake. President Xi Jinping pledged that any Chinese-made vaccine would be a 'global public good'.

All this is taking place as China strives to overcome years of drug scandals - the latest coming in 2018 when authorities recalled a rabies vaccine and later announced batches of children's DPT vaccines, for diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus, were ineffective.

Scientists vehemently debate self-experimenting because what happens to one or a few people outside of a well-designed study is anecdote, not evidence.

More than 600,000 US schoolchildren had to be given Salk's vaccine or a dummy shot to prove polio protection. It took almost another decade to validate Marshall's ulcer germ theory, which earned him a Nobel as well.

Modern international ethics rules require participants in medical research to be fully informed and to freely consent. In the U.S., studies involving people must receive approval from an 'investigational review board,' and most US research institutions explicitly state there is no exception to board approval for self-experimenting.

'Employees may not be the best volunteers because employees are in a relationship which is not equal,' said Dr Derrick Au, bioethics director at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Still, he said questions about China's medical ethics might disappear if one of its COVID-19 vaccines ultimately proves to work. 'It's difficult to argue against success,' Au said.

William Lee of the Milken Institute, a think tank in Santa Monica, California, that is tracking COVID-19 vaccine progress, said that because of Chinas past scandals, 'if they are successful as being the first with a workable product on the market, it had better be so pristine, so pure that people who are outside of China would be willing to buy into it'.
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Coronavirus is wreaking havoc on schools, stores, businesses and events. With in-person concerts, talks, comedy shows, food festivals and other gatherings cancelled, we have turned our events column into a "nonevents" column. It will remain this way as long as social distancing and stay-at-home orders are in effect.

During this difficult time, please consider contributing to your local arts organizations or to individual artists and performers.

Celebrate Disneyland's 65th anniversary online. Listen to emerging Mexican musicians talk about their sonic explorations. Participate in a found poetry project. Watch a classic horror film. Take a ghostly tour. Or learn Japanese business etiquette.

Friday, July 18 - Saturday, Aug. 29



Amy Kim Keeler, Future Jupiter

Lowell Ryan Projects

4851 West Adams Blvd., West Adams

The gallery presents a solo exhibition of 16 works by L.A.-based artist Amy Kim Keeler. Each piece is hand-stitched in cotton thread on corrugated cardboard. The artist's practice is influenced by Anthroposophy, a 20th century philosophical movement that posits every person's actions, thoughts and feelings directly impact our collective future. The exhibition and gallery are open by appointment only.

COST: FREE; MORE INFO

Mickey and Minnie stand in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland. (Paul Hiffmeyer/Paul Hiffmeyer)

Friday, July 17; noon - 5 p.m.



Disneyland's 65th Anniversary Special

The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco holds a day of Disneyland-centric virtual programming to celebrate the anniversary. There's a segment with voiceover artists and producing partners Bill Rogers and Camille Dixon; rare home videos from the theme park's 1955 opening day; a talk and Q&A with Imagineer Chris Crump; and a feature on the Disneyland model in the museum. The program will be streamed live on the museum's Facebook page and YouTube channel.

COST: FREE; MORE INFO

Friday, July 17; 7 p.m.



El Son de la Nueva Generacion: Creating New Music with Traditional Mexican Instruments

LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes' En Casa con LA Plaza virtual series continues with a focus on young Mexican artists who've been exploring the mix of traditional music, jazz and classical genres. Journalist Betto Arcos interviews three musicians at the vanguard of this sound: Ik'Balam, Pablo Emiliano and Vico Diaz.

COST: FREE with RSVP; MORE INFO

The 18th Street Arts Center hosts a talk on the themes explored in the exhibition 'Las Hijas de los Dias -- 7 Female Views from the Margins.' ( Eunice Adorno, Falda Dinamita (Dynamite Skirt) 2019. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Kenji Barrett )

Friday, July 17; 1 p.m.



Las Hijas de los Dias: Postfeminism in the Diaspora

The 18th Street Arts Center hosts an online conversation (via Zoom and Facebook Live) about the themes explored in the group exhibition Las Hijas de los Dias -- 7 Female Views from the Margins, currently on view at the organization's Airport Gallery. Frida Cano moderates a conversation and Q&A with art historians Fiamma Montezemolo and Sara Solaimani who'll discuss the historical and anthropological context of the works.

COST: FREE with RSVP; MORE INFO

Friday, July 17; 2 p.m.



Found Poetry Project

The Muckenthaler Cultural Center's 2020 artist-in-residence Katharine Zaun invites community members to send in their found poetry for an outdoor installation in August. Zaun holds an instructional workshop over Zoom this week supplying participants of all ages with suggestions and prompts. Mail or drop off submissions by July 31 to be included in the poetry display.

COST: FREE; MORE INFO

Friday, July 17 and Saturday, July 18; 7 p.m. PDT



Grease: Summer Weekend Drive-In at the Roadium

The Roadium Open Air Market

2500 West Redondo Beach Blvd., Torrance

The Rydell High kids return to the big screen and you can catch them under the stars. Food, movie snacks and other treats will be available for purchase. Theater management asks that guests watch the film from their cars and follow health protocols. (If watching from a flatbed/pickup truck, please wear a mask.)

COST: $25 per car; MORE INFO

Opening Friday, July 17



2020 Virtual OC Fair

While it's not the same as eating deep-fried Snickers or Twinkies in 100-degree heat, the fair moves online to ocfair.com and its social media channels. Watch videos of favorite performers or photo galleries from past summer fairs. Check out the site for family activities, contests and details on the OC Fair Fun Run 5K, which is also going virtual this year.

COST: FREE; MORE INFO

Scott Hove's 'The Beauty War' at Cakeland Gallery opens this weekend by appointment only. (Courtesy of Scott Hove, Cakeland Gallery)

Friday, July 17 - Thursday, Dec. 31



The Beauty War

Cakeland Gallery

936 Mei Ling Way, Chinatown DTLA

Scott Hove's latest immersive, fine art exhibition reflects on today's turbulent social, economic and environmental climate. The battle of light-meets-dark is imagined in Hove's signature "hallucinatory cake" creations. The exhibition and gallery is open by appointment only.

COST: FREE; MORE INFO

Friday, July 17; 10 a.m. PDT



How Japanese-Style Business Culture Applies to Today's New 'Business Normal'

Japan House hosts a live, online discussion about Japanese culture through the lens of business communications. Learn about the best ways to convey controversial information, the importance of verbal agreements and how to bow in a video conference call. The session is led by Japan House LA President Yuko Kaifu and is moderated by Institute for the Future Research Director Mark Frauenfelder.

COST: FREE with RSVP; MORE INFO

Saturday, July 18; 7:30 p.m. PDT



Paul Bartel's Shelf Life

American Cinematheque presents an online discussion and Q&A about Bartel, a Roger Corman collaborator, and his last film. Guests include actors-writers O-Lan Jones, Andrea Stein and Jim Turner, who are joined by filmmaker Alex Mechanik. The film will be available to view before the discussion beginning on Thursday. RSVP to receive a link to the Zoom discussion. The link will be sent on Sunday.

COST: FREE with RSVP; MORE INFO

Saturday, July 18; 8 p.m. PDT



The Wicker Man Watch Party

The Secret Movie Club holds a Netflix watch party of the 1973 horror classic. To join in the fun and chat during the film, download Netflix Party on a Chrome browser. SMC will email the link 30 minutes before showtime. Follow the directions to make sure that your viewing is in sync with everyone else's. The Wicker Man starts promptly at 8:05 p.m.

COST: By donation; MORE INFO

Saturday, July 18; 8 p.m.



Haunted Santa Ana Ghost Walk

Various locations

Listen to Santa Ana's secrets and nearly forgotten tales of execution, murder and haunting spirits. Join a 90-minute guided walk through the city's historic district. Meet up at the Howe-Waffle Mansion (120 Civic Center Dr.).

COST: $24 per person; MORE INFO

American Cinematheque presents a book club installment focusing on 'The Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties The Films Together' with Q&A. (Courtesy of American Cinematheque)

Sunday, July 19; 5 p.m.



The Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties The Films Together

The American Cinematheque's book club continues with a look into the work of Joel and Ethan Coen, starting with their 1984 debut Blood Simple then moving through Raising Arizona, Fargo and No Country for Old Men. Join in a Zoom discussion with film critic and author Adam Nayman.

COST: FREE; MORE INFO

Sunday, July 19; 6 p.m PDT



Silents Under the Stars

The Hollywood Heritage Museum turns the series into a virtual screening event, presenting the 1920 silent comedy, The Deadlier Sex, starring Blanche Sweet, Mahlon Hamilton and Boris Karloff in his first feature role. In the film, the daughter of a railroad magnate kidnaps her business rival to save her father's company and show him money can't buy everything.

COST: FREE, but donations accepted; MORE INFO

Sunday, July 19; 2 to 8 p.m.



Grand Park's Sunday Sessions

The online celebration of house music pays tribute to SoCal's underground party scene and crews of the 1990s. Presented in partnership with Map Pointz, a subculture digital archive documenting Latino youth from the era, the afternoon includes archival photographs and video footage during sets by DJ Irene, DJ Hi-C, Frankie Z, Jungle George, Modern Romance and Pachuco.

COST: FREE; MORE INFO

The Getty Villa presents its first virtual theater presentation, 'The ODDssey,' in collaboration with the Troubadour Theater Company. (Courtesy of The Getty and the Troubies)

Sundays, July 19 - Aug. 16; 3 p.m.



The ODDyssey

The Getty Villa presents its first virtual theater presentation in collaboration with the Troubadour Theater Company (aka the "Troubies"). Tune in to the Getty Museum YouTube channel each Sunday as the theater company performs a whimsical retelling of Homer's 24 books in five episodes of 15-20 minutes each.

COST: FREE; MORE INFO





Dine & Drink Deals

Who doesn't miss going out to eat or stopping by a bar for a drink? Here are a few options from restaurants and bars as we work our way back toward normal.
Nearly four months after officials declared a public health emergency in response to COVID-19, thousands of residents in Bexar County and across Texas continue filing jobless claims each week.

Last week, 105,000 Texas workers filed for unemployment. That was down from 117,000 claims the week before, but still a historically high level of new jobless claims. In 2019, Texas averaged roughly 13,400 unemployment claims each week, according to the Department of Labor.

In the week ending July 4, 7,300 workers in Bexar County filed for unemployment, up from 5,700 claims the week prior. Data on county-level unemployment figures lag a week behind state and national figures.

The data released Thursday on unemployment claims in Bexar County reflect the first full week after Gov. Greg Abbotts June 26 order closing bars and reducing restaurant capacity in Texas.

Since the onset of the pandemic in mid-March, 163,000 workers in the county have filed for unemployment. Thats about 18 percent of the countywide workforce.

OnExpressNews.com: Report identifies available, good-paying jobs in San Antonio

Nationally, another 1.3 million U.S. workers filed a jobless claim last week. As of July 4, 17.3 million workers in the U.S. were receiving unemployment benefits  or about 11 percent of the national workforce.

The spike in unemployment claims locally comes as federally-expanded unemployment benefits are set to expire at the end of next week, on July 25.

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, Congress in March agreed to give unemployed workers $600 per week on top of their state unemployment benefits to help them weather the crisis.

The benefits were extended through the end of July, but the Texas Workforce Commission is unable to pay benefits for a partial week, meaning unemployed workers wont see that additional $600 after next week.

Federal lawmakers have indicated theyll craft another round of stimulus funding when they reconvene next week, but what form that may take remains unclear.

Workers in Texas are still eligible to collect state unemployment benefits for up to 59 weeks, an increase from 26 weeks pre-pandemic. The average weekly state unemployment benefit in Texas as of the end of March was $432, according to the Labor Department.

In its Beige Book survey released Wednesday, the Federal Reserve said economic conditions improved in June compared to April and May, but activity remained well below pre-COVID levels.

READ ALSO: Texas seeks millions from unemployed workers after state overpaid benefits

Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, which encompasses Texas, southern New Mexico and northern Louisiana, said activity in the manufacturing and service sectors rebounded somewhat in June. Retail spending was also up, and home sales improved markedly.

Even so, businesses surveyed by the Dallas Fed reported pessimism related to the sharp rise in COVID-19 cases in Texas and the looming possibility of another economic shutdown.

Outlooks improved, the Dallas Fed said, but a weak economy, depressed activity in the energy sector, the resurgence of COVID-19 infections, and a pause in the reopening of the district economy were causing concern among contacts.

diego.mendoza-moyers@express-news.net
Fewer people with COVID-19 were in San Antonio hospitals Wednesday, but health officials reported another seven residents died from the disease.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg said the deceased were five men and two women, ranging in age from the 40s to the 80s.

The Bexar County death toll stands at 208. Deaths have occurred every day since the end of June, and most days have seen multiple deaths.

All these numbers we report to you is a life lived, Nirenberg said, and someone who is missed.

Of the total deaths, 22 of the victims died at home, without medical care, and were discovered to have had coronavirus after they died.

On ExpressNews.com: Were all fearful of what could happen as hospitals pushed to limits

The deceased included a Hispanic man his 50s with underlying conditions who died at home, and a white man in his 80s, who died at the Audie Murphy VA Hospital. Three people died at a Methodist hospital: a white man in his 60s, a Hispanic woman in her 70s and a Black man in his 60s. All had underlying conditions.

A white woman in her 40s died at a Baptist hospital, and a Hispanic man in his 80s died at Metropolitan Methodist. They also had underlying health conditions.

Every time I look at these numbers ... thats really scary, said County Judge Nelson Wolff, who lost two friends in the last five days to COVID-19. Its hard getting through this.

Area hospitals, which have their own morgues to store bodies before funeral homes collect them, have been running out of space. The city and county have brought in two refrigerated trucks for extra storage, and three more are on their way.

Our emergency rooms are not overwhelmed, in fact our emergency rooms are very quiet. And that makes us very nervous, said Dr. Paul Hancock, chief medical officer for Methodist Healthcare in San Antonio.

He said he worries people arent going to the hospital for other illnesses and injuries out of fear that they will be exposed to the coronavirus. He urged residents to still seek medical care if they need it.

The number of new cases was lower than it has been in recent days; 479 new novel coronavirus cases were reported Wednesday, down from 854 cases recorded the day before. The total number of cases reported since the pandemic began here in March climbed to 21,546

Officials have joined leaders from communities across the state and Texas health officials in urging Gov. Greg Abbott to reinstate stay-at-home orders, given the growing outbreak of cases the declining number of available hospital beds.

The positivity rate  the number of tests that are positive  in Bexar County is now at 24.2 percent, meaning nearly one in every four people tested is infected with the virus.

The resurgence occurred soon after Memorial Day weekend and the reopening of businesses, despite appeals by public health officials to wait. The governor has since issued new orders limiting gatherings to no more than 10 people, but there are numerous exemptions, including amusement parks and youth sporting events. He also issued a statewide face mask order.

On ExpressNews.com: Get the latest update on coronavirus and a tracking map of U.S. cases

On Wednesday, 1,231 people with COVID-19 were in San Antonio hospitals, down six from Tuesday. But more were in intensive care units and on ventilators. Nirenberg said 438 were in intensive care, up from 417 Tuesday, and 274 were on ventilators to help them breathe, up from 260.

That leaves 11 percent of staffed hospital beds and 43 percent of ventilators available.

A month ago, about a quarter of the beds were still available for patients.

Officials warned that about a third of coronavirus patients at the hospitals did not have underlying conditions, so residents who are physically healthy should not consider themselves protected from the disease.

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
President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday appointed a former police officer once accused of gun running, drink driving and a deadly anti-apartheid bombing to head South Africas foreign intelligence unit.

Robert McBrides appointment is one of the critical steps towards the journey to rebuild the agency said State Security Minister Ayanda Dlodlo.

McBride was director of the police watchdog from 2014 until 2019 when parliament controversially refused to extend his contract.

The main opposition Democratic Alliance welcomed his appointment, saying he had transformed the police watchdog to become a more credible institution than under his predecessors.

As a member of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the African National Congresss military wing, McBride was convicted by the apartheid government for a 1986 bar bombing in Durban that killed three people.

He was later granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

In 1998, while working for South African intelligence, he was arrested and detained for six months in Mozambique for suspected gun-running.

In 2011, he was convicted of drink driving and attempting to defeat the ends of justice after crashing his car following a Christmas party.

He was sentenced to five years in prison and removed from the police force, but the case was later overturned on appeal at the High Court.
New Delhi, July 16 : Amid the ongoing political crisis in Rajasthan, after rebel Congress leader Sachin Pilot was removed from the posts of the Deputy Chief Minister and the state party president following a tussle for power with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, the state BJP is in a fix over Pilot's next move.

Though Union Minister Gajendra Shekhawat, senior BJP leader Om Mathur and Rajasthan BJP chief Satish Punia have offered Pilot to join BJP, yet former state Chief Minister and BJP leader Vasundhara Raje has not uttered a word on the ongoing political drama in the state.

According to sources, after he was removed from the post of Deputy Chief Minister and State Congress President in Rajasthan, the main opposition BJP in the state has its eyes fixed on Sachin Pilot and the party is awaiting his decision.

Sources said that the BJP wants to induct Pilot in the party to strengthen its position in the state. But it is not possible for the high command to do so at the moment over the indifference of Raje.

According to sources, the BJP central leadership is not at ease about some things on this issue. On the other hand, the party is also uncomfortable with the silence of Raje. There is no response from Raje on the ongoing deadlock in the state.

She did not reach the meeting held in the state office on Wednesday. This clearly indicates that Raje is not happy with the party's stand on Pilot. Raje dominates the Rajasthan BJP. In such a situation, the high command has to consider all aspects before Pilot is inducted into the party.

Senior party leader and spokesperson Vijay Sonkar Shastri says, "Any leader who believes in BJP's policy and principles is welcome in the party. As far as the leader of the particular area is concerned, if he comes to the party, then the Centre will take a decision with the consent of the state leadership." He said that there has been such a tradition in the party that both the central and state leaderships have been welcoming the arrival of any leader in the party.

It is however obvious that before Pilot's entry into the BJP the party has to take Vasundhara Raje into confidence. If Pilot joins the party there is bound to be a boost in the leadership.

Pilot was the Deputy CM in the Gehlot government, in such a situation it is difficult for him to even accept the post of Deputy CM in a BJP government. On the other hand, if the BJP selects Sachin Pilot as the CM candidate, then the party leaders will be angered.

In such a situation, the BJP high command is constantly monitoring the developments in the Congress. The BJP is currently in a state of 'wait and watch'. The BJP wants to evaluate the profit and loss before deciding on further action.

Significantly, Sachin Pilot, along with his 22 supporting MLAs, has been staying in a hotel in Manesar, Haryana, a BJP-ruled state, for the last six days. These include 19 Congress MLAs including Pilot and three Independent leaders.
Seven Vessels Reportedly Catch Fire at Bushehr Port in Iran - Videos

Sputnik News

12:32 GMT 15.07.2020(updated 18:32 GMT 15.07.2020)

Iran has seen a wave of explosions and fires around its military and industrial facilities since last month.

At least three ships are on fire at an industrial ship plant in Iran's southern city of Bushehr, according to the official IRNA news agency.

The Tasnim agency says the number of ships that caught fire is seven.

Videos from the scene have been shared online.

No injuries have so far been reported. The cause of the fire is still unknown.

Last week, a container ship caught fire in Ameri Port in Tangestan County, also in Bushehr.

A series of fires and explosions have taken place at Iran's industrial and military facilities since late June.

On 2 July, a blast occurred at the Natanz nuclear site, which is Iran's primary uranium processing facility.

No casualties or leaks of radioactive materials were reported after the blast. However, reports emerged citing unnamed Iranian officials suggesting that Israel was responsible for the blast at Natanz.

A Sputnik

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As monuments and sculptures across the country come under scrutiny, Native American advocates in Massachusetts revived a push for a change of the state flag and seal before the end of the two-year legislative session.

The time is now. Its past overdue. Its colonization and genocide to continue to have these Native American mascots represented to our native youth, said Stefanie Salguero, a speaker of Native American descent at a rally Thursday morning pushing for multiple bills to preserve Native American heritage. It is a genocide of their culture.

Salguero was part of rally organized by United American Indians of New England and the North American Indian Center of Boston. Sen. Jo Comerford and Sen. Jason Lewis, as well as Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa joined to support the states Native American tribes.

The rally was one of three that took over the front steps of the Massachusetts State House Thursday morning. The advocates were flanked by Back the Blue demonstrators to the left and by opponents of a bill to expand the eviction moratorium to the right.

One of the three bills Native American activists and allies are pushing for is a change of the state seal, which shows a hand holding a sword over the head of a Native American with the Latino motto that translates to, By the sword we seek peace.

Stefanie Salguero, a Native American speaker, addresses activists and allies at a rally to promote a bill to change the state seal.

The legislation, H.2776/S.1877, would create a commission to review and recommend changes to the seal. The Senate bill is on the agenda, said Lewis, a Winchester Democrat and one of the lead sponsors. Senators discussed the bill during caucus at noon. The movement forward comes less than two weeks before the impending end of the legislative session as the Legislature debates major bills on police reform, COVID-19 funds and transportation.

Were very hopeful that we will see these bills come to the floor for debate and hopefully pass it in the very near future, but we need you to stay committed, stay focused, he said.

Sabadosa, a Northampton Democrat who filed the House bill with Rep. Nika Elugardo of Boston, said the bill would likely be taken up in the Senate and then, if approved, would go to the House Ways and Means Committee.

Were hopeful that it will come over to the House and that we will time to pass it in this side of the building as well, Sabadosa said.

The legislation would create a special commission that would include the executive director of the Commission on Indian Affairs or a designee, five members appointed by the commission who are of descent of local tribes and several state and legislative officials. Under the bill, the commission would be tasked with reviewing the seal, recommending a revised or new design and proposing an educational program on the history and meaning on the seal and motto.

In these times, we must deeply ask ourselves, what symbols do we want to uphold and which do we want to abolish in order to promote the values of a forward-thinking, multicultural state? said Anaelisa Jacobsen of Manos Unidas Multicultural Educational Cooperative in Pittsfield, which has pushed for the bill to change the flag and seal. We must seek symbols that instill pride, not shame and prejudice, symbols that unite, not separate.

Jean-Luc Pierite, president of the North American Indian Center of Boston, said in November that the figure depicted in the seal is not of any one Native American person, but rather a composite of different figures. It features Thomas Little Shell, an Ojibwa chief, an excavated skeleton and the sash of King Philip. Philip, or Metacom, led a major rebellion against English settlers and was beheaded. His head was displayed on top of a stake.

The sword on the seal symbolizes the sword of Myles Standish, an English militia leader in the 1600s who attacked Native American settlements. He hung one warriors head on a stake for years as a message to Native Americans not to rise against the English.

That sword continues to hang over the head of Native people in Massachusetts. Its not just symbolism. Thats literally what happened to the leader of our people, said Hartman Deetz of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, in a statement. He was beheaded.... and we continue to live under that threat today, from continued genocide, from continued dispossessions, from continued oppression, here in Massachusetts and all across the country. This is a symbol of white supremacy.

When asked about the proposal to change the seal on the flag, Gov. Charlie Baker said Thursday he was open to having conversations.

Theres a conversation thats going on in states and municipalities and in some cases at the national level about many symbols and historical emblems, and if people here in Massachusetts want to pursue discussions with respect to some of those, wed be open to talking to them about it, the Republican governor said. Obviously, its the sort of thing that would have to be done in conjunction with our colleagues in the Legislature, but wed be open to those conversations.

Activists outside the State House Thursday also called for legislators to pass a bill to ban the use of Native American mascots in Massachusetts public schools. They also rallied for a bill that would expand the Native Americans Graves Protection Act to include all publicly funded entities across the state, meaning sacred or funerary objects from tribes would be repatriated to them.

Some school districts in Massachusetts have changed their mascots after facing opposition from local tribes. The Grafton School Committee recently voted to remove the Indian mascot for the school district, citing opposition from students and the local Nipmuc tribe, the Worcester Telegram reported. The Nashoba Regional School Committee voted earlier this month to remove the Chieftain logo as the high schools mascot, according to CBS Boston.

Salguero, a Lakota-Sioux Native American, said her mother was adopted by a white family in the 1960s. When her mother found her biological father, who was Lakota-Sioux, Salguero said he knew nothing about his culture.

Even when she found her father, who was a Native American, he knew nothing, nothing to pass down to me, nothing I can pass down to my children, said Salguero, 23, of Billerica. This is the success of colonization and why we have to fight back.

A graduate of Billerica Memorial High School, Salguero said she grew up with the mascot of the Indian head not knowing what it stood for or that the figure shows a Plains Native American rather than one from a northern tribe.

Years later, Salguero calls the mascot a racist depiction of a Native American. She wondered aloud at the rally how many other native students wear the mascot as athletes or join in on dances and chants because they werent educated about the mascots history.

I will not let another Native American student go through this. I will continue to fight, she said. We must remove the seal of the state flag, we must ban all native mascots. It is a mockery. It is a mockery of our strength and of our bravery, and we cannot stand for it any more.

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STAMFORD  Stamford Police have told demonstrators occupying Latham Park to pack up their belongings and leave the public area.

You are in violation of city regulations, Police Capt. Susan Bretthauer told a group of the protesters Wednesday.

She and a partner delivered a short statement, from the mayors office and police department, which they also provided in writing

We are ordering you to pack up your tents and to leave the park with your tents and belongings, the statement read.

Protesters, who have been camped in the park since Saturday, did not respond directly to the officers before they left.

But organizers later said they planned to remain in the public park, despite receiving the evacuation order, even if it meant arrest.

We have a list of people who are willing to take (that) risk and people who are not, one stated.

Assistant Police Chief Tom Wuennemann in an interview said if protesters dont leave police will remove them.

He said that for security reasons he would not say when officers would return. About 20 to 30 protesters have taken part in the multi-day demonstration.

I dont want confrontation. If we do arrest people ... I would prefer to arrest as few as I can, Wuennemann said. But were looking for voluntary compliance and I think, up to this point, we have been very agreeable and tried to work with them

Several hours later, in response to the police warning, demonstrators temporarily blocked traffic on Bedford Street. Police responded, and the group moved back into the park. Police officials at that time delivered another warning.

Protesters formed the Latham Park encampment on Saturday afternoon, following a march demanding additional answers into the death of Steven Barrier, a 23-year-old man, who died in Stamford police custody in October.

The park protesters, who maintain they do not need a permit to be in the park as they are exercising their speech rights, have promised to remain there until city leaders adhere to several demands, which include removing funds from the Stamford Police Department, demilitarizing the police department and making more transparent internal police investigations.

City leaders have met with protesters.

On Wednesday afternoon, before the demonstrators were advised to leave the area, some nearby community members voiced their support.

I have a little baby and I bring her outside for a walk every evening and I have never felt uncomfortable or anything else, said Aleezay Fatima, a Stamford woman living in a nearby apartment building.

She said protesters have not been a problem, and theyve remained peaceful during their time at the park.

(The protest) might be not important for some people, so they have issues (with the protesters). But for the people that think this is a priority... they wouldnt mind having them here, Fatima said.

A manager at Mecha Noodle Bar, a restaurant near the encampment, echoed Fatimas sentiments. He donated $350-worth of food to the protesters on Tuesday.

I feel like everybody should have a voice, so if theyre going to stand there for as many days as they need to, at least they should be fed, said the manager, Luis Taveras, who lives in an apartment facing the encampment.

As humans, I feel like there should be more decent human beings out there, just to help each other out, without an expectation in return, he said.

But a spokesman from the mayors office said the city has received roughly 100 calls and emails about the park protest, most from nearby residents and business owners.

How is it that we tolerate the group in Latham park, who seem to be heavily populated by non stamford residents, occupying our public land while tax paying law abiding citizens with permits to use the park are turned away from it? one complainant wrote to the mayors office.

Local organization, including a yoga group, with permits have not been able to use the park this week, police have said.

Why do you even listen to the demands of non-Stamford people? wrote another resident.

Wuennemann said the Police Department has received an equal number of complaints and inquiries questioning when officers will remove the protesters.

Protest organizers said some demonstrators are from Stamford while others are from around Fairfield County.

A lot of people were just touched by Stevens (Barriers) story and just wanted to join us, an organizer, who would only give her first name, Maria, said.

It should matter more that individuals from other areas feel compelled to protest in Stamford, she said.

Owners of several establishment on Bedford declined to speak about the encampment Wednesday.

But Giovani Gentile, owner of Capriccio Cafe, said a few of his regular customers have declined to visit his restaurant because they felt the encampment was causing tensions.

Wuennemann said protesters could potentially be charged with unlawful assembly or with violating curfew or public gathering ordinances. Tents could be confiscated, he said.

It all depends on what happens. I would hope that people would voluntarily leave. I would hope that they would not resist, he said.

Quite honestly, the ball is in their court.

tatiana.flowers@thehour.com @TATIANADFLOWERS
President Donald Trump has orchestrated a shakeup of his struggling reelection campaign with less than four months to Election Day, elevating Bill Stepien to campaign manager and demoting Brad Parscale, who had been serving in that role.

Trump posted to Facebook on Wednesday evening that Parscale will remain on the campaign as a senior adviser.

The move comes amid falling poll numbers and mounting worries over the presidents political prospects, with Trump himself expressing concern that hes losing to Joe Biden. Parscale has been under the microscope in recent weeks, particularly following Trumps half-capacity rally in Tulsa, Okla. Parscale was blamed internally for the rally after boasting beforehand that over 1 million people had signed up to attend. In private, the president repeatedly criticized Parscale for the episode.

Replacing Parscale is a classic move from the Trump playbook: The president replaced two campaign managers during his 2016 campaign before his surprise victory, and he has cycled through four chiefs of staff in less than four years in the White House.

But the type of attention-grabbing shakeup Trump has long favored doesn't address the fundamental problems he faces with 111 days left until the election: Americans are dying, sick and out of work as coronavirus spreads throughout the nation, and voters have harshly judged his response to the pandemic, sending his popularity lower than it's been for most of his presidency. Meanwhile, Biden has established wide leads in national polls and surveys of key swing states, threatening to not only flip back the Midwest but challenge Trump in longtime Republican strongholds in the South and Southwest, like Arizona and Georgia.

Trump began informing advisers of the shakeup Wednesday before making the announcement official. Replacing Parscale had been under consideration for about a month prior to Wednesday's announcement, people close to the president said.

Story continues

Senior advisers point out that, unlike past Trump campaign managers, Parscale has been asked to remain on the campaign. Parscale has spent the past decade working for the Trump organization, has been a favorite of the presidents family and was placed in the campaign manager role by senior adviser Jared Kushner.

Parscale, who managed Trump's digital advertising during the 2016 campaign and was named campaign manager in 2018, spent months building a more professionalized reelection campaign that was in stark contrast to the chaotic 2016 operation. Under his leadership, the campaign had remained largely stable until recently, as the president turned his eye more and more to the election. Some party officials were stunned by the suddenness of the shakeup.

Parscale will remain focused on his specialty areas, digital politicking and data management, according to people briefed on the campaign shakeup. The former campaign manager has played a key role in building up Trump's campaign into a small-donor juggernaut, raking in millions of dollars per month via email and other digital appeals in addition to big-dollar events starring Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and others.

Stepien is a longtime Trump adviser. After joining the presidents campaign in the summer of 2016, he went on to become White House political director. After the 2018 midterms, he left the White House to join the reelection effort as a consultant. He was recently promoted to deputy campaign manager, a move intended to bolster Parscale amid the campaigns struggles. Like Parscale, Stepien is close to Kushner.

Prior to joining Trumps orbit, Stepien served as a top political adviser to ex-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who cut Stepien loose over emails in which he dismissed the George Washington Bridge scandal as fine and mocked the mayor of Fort Lee, N.J. as an idiot. Another Christie aide later testified that he told Stepien about the "Bridgegate" scheme, which was designed to snarl traffic in Fort Lee as political retribution against the mayor. Stepien has denied knowing about the plan and was not charged with a crime.

Stepien's elevation is the latest in a series of moves the president has made to revamp his faltering campaign in recent weeks, as his closest confidants sounded the alarm about his standing. Last month, the president had dinner with Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus, a Republican megadonor, who suggested he make changes.

Trump recently rehired Jason Miller, who was a top aide in 2016, and in late June, Trump loyalist Michael Glassner was replaced as chief operating officer by 2016 campaign adviser Jeff DeWit. Meanwhile, Trump's son-in law, Kushner, has been asserting more control over the presidents political apparatus behind the scenes. Kushner has been a key player in orchestrating the recent staff moves.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 18:53:48|Editor: huaxia

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KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia reported three new COVID-19 infections, bringing the national total to 8,737, the Health Ministry said on Thursday.

Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah told a press briefing that one case is imported and the remaining two are local transmissions.

Another 12 cases have been released, bringing the total cured and discharged to 8,538 or 97.7 percent of all cases.

Of the remaining 77 active cases, three are being held in intensive care and one of those are in need of assisted breathing.

No new deaths had been reported, leaving the total deaths at 122.

Meanwhile, the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition (LIMA) scheduled from March next year, has been cancelled over concerns related to the outbreak, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

First launched in 1991, the biennial airshow has grown into a major arms and technology showcase, drawing hundreds of companies from dozens of countries and regions. Enditem
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In these trying times, kids have to deal with a lot of stuff they werent prepared for: a significant loss of weeks of education, damaged GPAs, and no assurance theyll be going back in the fall.

However, some schools were able to pivot because they already had implemented remote programs that were mature, easily implemented, and designed by teachers for teachers. Thats because some school districts have a critical mass of students who are widely spread geographically, or for other reasons cant make it to school.

These schools deployed LanSchool, a little known tool and service that Lenovo recently  perhaps prophetically  bought. As a result, they are doing fine.

Ill share some observations about this approach to education and close with my product of the week: Lenovos new VR Headset that offers the performance and ruggedness needed for use in education.

The Problem With Remote Education

Faced with an unanticipated lockdown, the only tool many schools could use readily was something like Zoom, which turned out to be woefully unsecure even though it was impressively easy to use. Another issue with Zoom is that it was never designed to be an education solution  it merely allows one person to talk remotely with many others.

That undoubtedly is part of the problem. To keep kids focused and interested in remote lessons, its critical to have tools that go beyond ordinary communications to help teachers ensure better student attention and performance.

The problems with remote schooling are similar to those associated with working from home, with a few exceptions. Students usually arent as mature, and most lack the attention span of an adult. They dont have their careers to or income to worry about, so they tend to be less focused, in general, on accomplishing their tasks.

With a solution like Zoom, which is just a communications tool, its likely that the lessons wont work, because the students arent engaged. The level of acting out in the classroom will make it virtually impossible to hold class, let alone instill any knowledge.

Tech companies sell to schools, but they typically dont create focused educational tools. Generally, they sell PCs that are priced lower for the market but are specified by the school itself, and there isnt much engagement beyond that.

Lack of engagement makes it difficult for those companies to offer effective help when a school has to pivot to remote operations, because their answers typically will be to buy new Windows PCs, Chromebooks or iPads. While these tools are critical to remote learning, they fall well short of what a solution should be.

Lack of engagement speaks to why so many schools, after trying to operate remotely, gave up. Their programs werent working.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Lack of engagement likely impacted sales to the education market as well. Lenovo came up with the idea of buying a company  LanSchool, created by teachers for teachers  and selling its product to schools to increase engagement. Lenovo realized that while technology was becoming more prevalent in schools, the OEMs werent advancing as quickly in understanding the changes affecting education and werent positioning effectively.

Approaches to education have changed a great deal in recent years. Teachers responsibilities have shifted from teaching core STEM to helping students develop life skills like critical thinking, collaboration and digital literacy. (Schools also are teaching kids to use technology  which means that older folks typically will rely more on younger ones to help them get their tech to work.)

Lenovo also knows from market data that schools were moving to the cloud to reduce costs and improve security. They already knew that schools were using Chromebooks heavily in K-12 (16 percent penetration) but that purchasing was problematic. When many schools recently tried to buy PCs at once, they found they were unable to.

The LanSchool Approach

LanSchool is a classroom orchestration solution provider. Classroom orchestration goes well beyond managed hardware to include all aspects of education. LanSchool is a complete offering that was created from scratch over time, specifically to address the problems school districts and teachers faced with remote learning. The teachers who were in the middle of the problems developed the approach.

Those teachers, particularly in disaster areas, learned the hard way that continuity was essential. Their experiences made them uniquely qualified to set up a program designed to ensure that schools not only stayed operational but also remained effective.

LanSchool has 12 million global users. It operates in 75-plus countries, and supports 14 languages. Thanks to its international scope, lessons learned both from schools that had to shift to remote early, as well as from those that have shifted back to their traditional models, have propagated across borders to help others prepare better.

Many teachers using the system have expressed that the most significant benefit to them is that they feel like teachers again instead of like failing babysitters.

The software in the program empowers teachers to accelerated the application of technology in these new virtual classrooms. It avoids the need for aggressive behavior management by using a combination of interaction tools and security monitoring, providing a decent balance between instruction and technology.

What is interesting is that based on teacher testimonials, it is so easy to use that it takes the fear of technology out of the process, liberating teachers to focus on teaching.

Individual components of the solution include a comprehensive, secure communications suite for personal and group communications across a variety of mediums. The teacher can even control the students hardware remotely, doing things like blocking websites and blanking their screens when they are misbehaving, or just to get their attention.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Collaboration tools include easy-to-use screen sharing, digital material distribution, quiz and poll administration, and methods to reward students for outstanding work. Multitasking tools enable teachers to manage multiple classroom activities. There are customization options to addree the unique needs of the teacher using the system.

One recent change was the launch of LanSchool Air, which better supports educations move to the cloud and is particularly well suited for schools to continue providing students with an education despite having to shut down their campuses.

Wrapping Up: Kids Are Our Greatest Asset

Our kids are our greatest asset, and they have been hard hit by COVID-19. With all of the other drama going on, it is easy to forget that we are not ready for our kids to return to school. We know that most of the remote learning shifts that we attempted at the end of spring failed. We can assume that unless the problem is approached more capably, trying again without better working tools will have a similar outcome.

School districts suddenly sweating bullets should consider an approach like LanSchool. Efforts to meet the challenges of remote learning on their own could increase the odds of another failure.

Virtual reality headsets mostly have been junk, with complex installations, high prices and low resolution. They have the added benefit of not being very robust either. In other words, they sucked on all fronts.

Now VR is essential to education, because the headset ties the student more tightly to the teacher, who can control what the student sees and hears almost absolutely. If you need to engage deeply and command the full attention of younger students, a VR solution is compelling.

However, if the headset optics are of low quality, children wont be able to wear it for long  nor would you want them to. If a headset is fragile, kids being kids will end it. In short, most headsets in the market suck at what they are supposed to do, and theyll break doing it  but that may be a positive feature.

The Lenovo Mirage VR S3 is designed for the professional market. It is robust enough for multiple users, it has optical performance that is in line with best-in-class (4K), and it has a hands-free control that is ergonomically designed and can be held by young or old hands.

Lenovo Mirage VR S3 Standalone Headset with ThinkReality

It is wireless, so there are no cords to break or trip over. It has a hygienic faceplate  kind of critical for multiple users right now  as well as integrated sound and three hours of battery life. Its not a good idea to stay in VR for longer than three hours.

The price is US$450, which is not that much more than the cheap VR headsets weve been seeing in the consumer market. Because the Lenovo Mirage VR S3 headset is an excellent tool for the education market, it is my product of the week. (Now you can justify getting one.)

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ECT News Network.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has stated that despite the huge funds deployed to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the region has continued to perform below expectation.

The speaker said this on Wednesday during the investigative hearing on the alleged financial mismanagement in the NDDC.

The House had on May 5 deliberated on a motion on the need to conduct the investigation.

A lot of controversies have emerged in the commission in the past one month.

Due to criticisms of the operations of the commission, the president had in 2019 ordered a forensic audit of the operations of the organisation from 2001 to 2019.

The commission is saddled with the responsibility of developing the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

One of the core mandates of the commission is to train and educate the youths of the region to curb hostilities and militancy, while developing key infrastructure to promote diversification and productivity.

Failed enterprise

Mr Gbajabiamila in his remark said in the 20 years of existence of the commission, the people of the region have not benefited significantly from it.

In the over two decades since, that promise has not been kept. Despite its critical importance and the vast sums that have been appropriated by the Federal Government, the Niger Delta of Nigeria continues to score exceptionally low on many of the major human development indices.

These statistics reflect the reality of disease and deprivation, lack of opportunity and broken dreams that is the plight of many of our fellow citizens in the region.

It is therefore particularly disturbing and quite frankly, embarrassing that every other news report about the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) seems to centre around escalating allegations of corruption and malfeasance, he said.

He said the purpose of the investigative hearing is to ask why the failure persists and to do so with a determination to understand the causes of that failure so that the parliament can act to redeem the NDDC and remove those factors that imperil the commissions noble mission.

The Niger Delta Development Commission [Photo Credit: Nsima ekere]

We will examine the allegations of corruption and malfeasance that have dogged the commission, he said. We will do so with neither fear nor favour, confident in the assurance that we have both a constitutional duty and moral obligation to ensure that the enormous sums of money appropriated to the NDDC over the years are appropriately accounted for by those whose responsibility it has been to manage this important and all too essential public trust.

The speaker said the success of the investigation will depend on the willingness of the various stakeholders in the commission, within government and in the local communities to cooperate with the committee.

I encourage all the stakeholders to consider this investigative hearing as a last-ditch effort to save the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and to engage with this committee in a patriotic partnership to break the jinx of underdevelopment in the Niger Delta region, he said.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the committee, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, said despite the needless distractions, the committee has remained focused.

Because of the investigative nature of the House resolution, the past weeks have been spent on working tirelessly on gathering the necessary data and analyzing same, he said.

He also said he is aware of the sensitivity of the matter and how, if not well managed, might tend to degrade, incriminate or defame the person or persons involved.

Please note that the House has not condemned anyone, else there would not be the need for investigation as directed. We are not hypercritical or condemnatory but open without prejudice.

We enjoin everyone to give this committee the maximum cooperation as the impact of this shall be far reaching results.
Shenandoah, IA (51601)

Today

Cloudy early with partial sunshine expected late. Much colder. High 16F. Winds N at 15 to 25 mph..

Tonight

Bitterly cold. Mostly clear skies. Low -4F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph.
(Natural News) On July 14, Best Buy said that it will now be requiring shoppers to wear face masks upon entering their stores. This policy, which comes into effect July 15, applies to all of the companys approximately 1,000 stores across the United States.

Best Buy, the Richfield, Minnesota-based retailer that specializes in selling consumer electronics, is the latest company in the United States to enforce a mask mandate upon its customers.

This new requirement, which starts July 15, will help protect not only our shoppers and communities, but also the tens of thousands of Best Buy employees working to serve our customers each day, said the company in a press release on Tuesday.

Best Buy to provide masks for those who dont have any

In their announcement, Best Buy stated employees will be on hand to provide maks to customers who dont have one. Exemptions to this mask mandate will be given to small children and people unable to wear a face-covering for legitimate health reasons.

For customers who have concerns about the mandatory wearing of face masks, the company said that they should consider shopping online and through their smartphone app. Customers who do so will be able to get their products delivered straight to their home, or they can avail of the curbside pickup option available at all of their locations.

A representative from Best Buy said that the company will be employing a designated, specially-trained employee at each store who will be welcoming customers and reminding them of the companys policy about wearing masks if they do not meet the exemption criteria.

Best Buy believes relevant statewide policies requiring masks are an appropriate public health response in protecting frontline retail workers and customers from the growing spread of COVID-19, the companys press release further stated.

Other companies also mandating masks

Best Buy joins a growing list of corporations that have imposed mask mandates on their customers. Some of these corporations include Costco, which began requiring its members to wear masks at the beginning of May, and Starbucks, which announced that they will be requiring customers to wear facial coverings upon entering all of their over 9,000 stores in the U.S. starting on July 15.

Meanwhile, on July 13, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said that enforcing a mask mandate was on their minds and that they were heavily considering doing so.

Industry groups and labor unions begging for mask mandates

As companies look to implement mask mandates for shoppers in their stores, labor unions and industry groups are also calling for state governments to implement the same.

Among the loudest voices lobbying these mandate are members of the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), a trade group that represents a number of major businesses in America  including Best Buy  and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which represents around 1.3 million workers from a variety of industries including retail, meatpacking and food processing, in both the U.S. and Canada.

The RILA recently published a letter sent to the National Governors Association, asking the latter to mandate the wearing face coverings by customers at all times inside their stores. (Related: Harvard doctor wants U.S. to enforce national mask mandate; Surgeon General says order may lead to REBELLION.)

They said that the patchwork of different regulations around the country is confusing shoppers about whether or not they have to wear a mask. This in turn has led to an escalation in the number of heated  and sometimes physically violent  altercations between workers trying to enforce store rules and customers who feel that their individual rights have been violated.

Retailers are alarmed with the instances of hostility and violence frontline employees are experiencing by a vocal minority of customers who are under the misguided impression that wearing a mask is a violation of their civil liberties, said Brian Dodge, president of the RILA.

One such incident led to the killing of a security guard at a Family Dollar store in Flint, Michigan after a customer got angry over being told that his daughter needed to wear a mask.

While the federal government has not instituted any form of national mask mandate, many agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recommended that everybody should wear some kind of cloth face-covering whenever they are out in public.

Currently, less than half of U.S. states have instituted some kind of mask mandate, and while some county and city governments have issued their own mandates, these are not as comprehensive as a statewide order.

The National Governors Association said that its members were discussing the letter and other similar pleas from other retail groups.

Learn more about measures to stop the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus by following Pandemic.news.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

USAToday.com 1

Edition.CNN.com

CBSNews.com

UFCW.org

NYTimes.com 2

KSLNewsRadio.com

NYTimes.com 2

USAToday.com 2
Netflixs Unsolved Mysteries features the dark and tragic story of Frances Dupont family, whose patriarch, Count Xavier Dupont de Ligonnes, is believed to have disappeared after murdering his wife and four children. But by revisiting the case, the true-crime series is starting to generate new leads. And showrunner Terry Dunn Meurer recently revealed that fans may have just spotted Dupont in Chicago.

Unsolved Mysteries, House of Terror  Xavier Dupont De Ligonnes and his son | Netflix

The Dupont murders are featured on Episode 3 of Unsolved Mysteries

Unsolved Mysteries third episode, House of Terror, examines the horrific 2011 murder of the Dupont family. The family patriarch, Xavier Dupont, comes from a noble French family and was running multiple failing businesses in France.

Xaviers friends reveal that he was a good husband to his wife Agnes, and a loving father to his four children  Arthur, Thomas, Anne, and Benoit. But when the entire family abruptly went missing, friends and family insisted police check on their home.

Eventually, the Nantes police found the graves of all four children, Agnes, and the two family dogs under the terrace of the Duponts home. But Xavier was nowhere to be found.

RELATED: Unsolved Mysteries: Fans Believe They Know How Alonzo Brooks Was Killed

Xavier Dupont goes on the run after murdering his family

As shown on Unsolved Mysteries, after finding the graves, investigators determined that Xavier had killed his family by drugging them with sleeping pills and then shooting them with his fathers rifle. After the murders, Xavier was caught on multiple security cameras around France, withdrawing money from ATM machines, eating at restaurants, and staying at motels.

Xavier was last seen on parking lot security footage, which put him near a Roquebrune-sur-Argens motel. He was seen carrying a large bag, which looks like it may contain a rifle. French authorities believe that Xavier either died by suicide or is on the run, but either way, he has never been found.

Unsolved Mysteries showrunner says Xavier DuPont may have been spotted in Chicago

In an interview with Variety, Unsolved Mysteries executive producer Terry Dunn Meurer said that the new Netflix series is generating a number of leads in the Dupont case. She also revealed that one fan may have spotted Xavier living in Chicago.

Xavier, we got the most interesting tip, Meurer said. Somebody was actually in Chicago, I think they were on Lake Shore Drive, and they heard this guy talking French and they looked at him and they had just seen the episode. They sent us a photo, and it really did look like Xavier. It was striking.

"House of Terror" was how media outlets described the events uncovered at 55 Shuman Boulevard. How could the home of a noble-French family turn so horrific? #unsolvedmysteries #murdermystery pic.twitter.com/c0J2bqOehN  Unsolved Mysteries (@Unsolved) July 4, 2020

Meurer said that she sent the tip to authorities, but cant confirm if its really him or not. She adds that for his case, investigators will need a very specific lead.

In the Xavier case, what were hoping for is that hes remarried or he has a girlfriend or he lives next door to somebody or he has a coworker who absolutely 100% knows thats him, she added. Xavier looks so much like so many other people. With Netflixs global reach, if Xavier is going to be found, were really hoping that the Netflix audience will find him. If hes alive, thats the mystery.
Huntsville police say it would be unsafe to release information about the tear gas and other crowd control gear that was used on protesters during downtown demonstrations last month.

The city denied a public records request from AL.com seeking documents and data about the force police used to break up protests on June 1 and June 3.

HPD informs me that it would be detrimental to the public safety, to release data regarding the amount of any protective equipment, tools, gear, or in general, any information on inventory of items used to protect the public, or the police in performing their various duties, Assistant City Attorney Eddie Blair wrote in an email to AL.com.

As such I have no records responsive to your June 10th request, Blair wrote.

AL.com sent public records requests to the Huntsville Police Department and the Madison County Sheriffs Office, seeking documents related to tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, flash bangs and smoke canisters that were deployed during the protests.

The requests sought inventories of the gear and weapons that police used during the protests, purchase records for those items and documents regarding the chemical composition of the chemical agents.

[View the requests here or at the bottom of this story]

While Huntsville declined to release the records, the countys legal department hasnt responded to the request. Phone calls and emails to Madison County Attorney Jeff Rich seeking the same information from the sheriffs office have gone unanswered since June 19.

At the June 3 protest, police and deputies from multiple agencies broke up the crowd. The law enforcement response was led by Huntsville police Chief Mark McMurray and Madison County Sheriff Kevin Turner.

[Read more: Rubber bullets, tear gas, pepper spray: What happened in Huntsville through the eyes of protesters]

McMurray last month gave a two-and-a-half-hour presentation to the Huntsville City Council about how his department responded to the protests. Turner has said that he would be willing to give a similar report to the county commission, but a date hasnt been scheduled.

In the aftermath of the protests, questions have remained about which law enforcement agencies deployed the various weapons that were used. McMurray has said Huntsville police officers dont use rubber bullets, but he declined to say which other agency deployed them at the June 3 protest.

Turner hasnt provided an accounting of all the gear used by his deputies.

A sheriffs office spokesman didnt respond to an email and text message today seeking Turners comments on the public records request.

AL.com requested public records about the protests in an attempt to inform the public about which agencies used the various gear and how much law enforcement paid for the gear with public money.

Evans Bailey, a lawyer for the Alabama Press Association, said public access to government spending records is among the key reason why Alabamas Open Records Law exists.

If the rubber bullets are being used on the public then the public should have a right to know how much the rubber bullets cost when they get shot with them, he said. I think it should be a public record.

McMurray and Turner have both defended the actions by police in response to the protests. In his presentation to the city council, McMurray cited questionable claims of antifa and looting to justify the use of force.

But McMurray didnt account for all of the gear that was used by law enforcement during the clashes with protesters, nor did he give a count of the number of weapons or rounds that were deployed.

Read more:

Heres how to submit comments to the group reviewing the Huntsville protests

We did the right thing: Huntsville law enforcement says tear gas, rubber bullets kept city from burning

Protests, monuments, rubber bullets, arrests: The week that reshaped Alabama

Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle seeking way forward for police after protests, use of tear gas
(Natural News) The authors of a study which found no racial bias in police shootings asked for the study to be retracted. The main findings were:

(Article by Sovereign Man republished from ZeroHedge.com)

1) As the proportion of Black or Hispanic officers in a [fatal officer-involved shootings] increases, a person shot is more likely to be Black or Hispanic than White, a disparity explained by county demographics; 2) race-specific county-level violent crime strongly predicts the race of the civilian shot

But the authors dont want the study to be retracted because their findings were wrong. The data is sound.

Rather, the authors of the study now feel that it is being used improperly in the debate about police killings. They dont like that people are using their study to discredit the Black Lives Matter narrative.

What this means:

A professor who helped fund parts of the study was the victim of the Twitter mob a couple weeks ago. We talked about how Stephen Hsu was fired from his position as Vice President of Research and Innovation at Michigan State University, essentially for supporting academic freedom.

We are all for police reform.

Weve discussed many of the needed reforms: ending qualified immunity, reigning in police unions, ending civil asset forfeiture, ending the drug war, and so on. But weve always been skeptical of the argument that the way police behave is all about race.

And we are especially skeptical of movements like Black Lives Matter, which goes way beyond racial injustice and promotes a Marxist agenda.

Getting power out of government hands is the best solution, especially if racial prejudice is built into the system.

* * *

Bill in Senate would reform Civil Asset Forfeiture

What happened:

Senator Rand Paul and others have introduced a bill called the Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration, or FAIR Act. If passed, the law would put due process back into civil asset forfeiture.

Civil asset forfeiture is when authorities take property suspected of being involved with or obtained through criminal activities, without convicting or even charging the owner with a crime.

The legislation requires a court date in front of a judge within two weeks from a seizure. Right now, victims of forfeiture are often forced into an administrative appeal with whatever department seized the property, not an actual court.

The bill also would require the property to have been knowingly involved in criminal activity, as opposed to incidentally. In the past, vehicle owners have had their cars seized when someone else was driving, sometimes without permission.

The bill would also end equitable sharing where state and local police keep 80% of property seized for federal agencies an obvious conflict of interest.

The bill also gives the owner of the seized property the right to counsel, guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment.

What this means:

Reading what the bill changes, most people would be shocked to hear that these are standard practices in law enforcement right now.

Many of these practices with civil asset forfeiture so obviously violate due process and the rights of the accused. Its unbelievable they have gone on so long.

There are a lot of people demanding criminal justice reform right now.

But somehow it seems like the bills introduced by libertarian-leaning politicians like Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Justin Amash (ending qualified immunity) arent getting much traction

* * *

Read more at: ZeroHedge.com
UPDATED: There is one new case of COVID-19 in managed isolation today.

The case is a child of two people who have previously tested positive, says Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield.

The people arrived from Italy on July 4 and are staying at the Commodore Hotel in Christchurch, he says.

We wish the family a full and speedy recovery, says Ashley.

It has been 76 days since a case of the virus was acquired locally from an unknown source and there is no evidence of community transmission, he says.

One person has recovered from the virus so the number of active cases in New Zealand remains at 27.

The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 is now 1,198.

Ashley says there was an increase in testing yesterday with 2899 tests carried out, of which 726 were in managed isolation.

There has been 426,233 tests now completed.

Ashley reminded people there is no charge for the tests.

Health Minister Chris Hipkins says there have been a flurry of activity on the NZ COVID tracer app with 11,000 new registrations overnight.

He reminded businesses they should have their QR code on display.

"Great to see the increase in registrations yesterday, will be good to see that continue," Ashley added.

He says the app is adjunct to having a really good contact tracing system in place and the value of the app is to notify people rapidly.

EARLIER: The Minister of Health Chris Hipkins and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield will provide an update on COVID-19 today at 1pm.

There were two new cases in managed isolation announced yesterday.

The first case is a man in his 60s who arrived in New Zealand on July 10 from Pakistan via Dubai. He is staying at the Sudima Hotel in Rotorua and tested positive around day three of his time in managed isolation.

The second case is a woman in her 50s who arrived in New Zealand on July 10 from Dublin, via Dubai. She is also staying at the Sudima Hotel in Rotorua and also tested positive around day three as well.

These cases bring the total number of active cases in New Zealand to 27 and the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 is now 1,197.

There is no one in New Zealand receiving hospital-level care for COVID-19.

Yesterday laboratories completed 2,061 tests. Of those, 902 were conducted in managed isolation or quarantine facilities around day three or day 12.

That brings the total number of tests completed to date to 433,324.
Bay Area, I know you.

I know how much you love to complain about the rent and the traffic and BART and that one time it got actually cold, but you don't know how good you've got it.

When you move away from the Bay Area, here are twenty things you might miss  after recently returning after a 13-year East Coast hiatus, I can personally attest to all of them.
Supermarkets in China have been helping heart-broken parents search for their missing sons and daughters by selling bottled water labelled with missing child advertisements.

Footage shows packs of the products, printed with pictures and information of the disappearing youngsters, being displayed at a grocery shop in the north-western Chinese city Xi'an.

Child abduction is a serious issue in China. Around 200,000 boys and girls are estimated to be missing every year, according to reports.

Supermarkets in China have been trying to reunite lost sons and daughters with their desperate parents by selling bottled water labelled with missing child advertisements

Footage shows packs of the products, printed with pictures and information of the disappearing youngsters being displayed at a grocery shop in the central Chinese city Xi'an

Since 2017, the organisation has been working with Lanxiang, a Chinese beverage company, to sell the soda water labelled with information about disappearing youngsters, reports say

Among those missing children, only 200, or 0.1 per cent, would be able to find their parents at some point in their lives, according to a Chinese news report.

The bottled water carrying missing child advertisements is a campaign initiated by Bao Bei Hui Jia, or 'Baby Come Home', a major Chinese charity that helps families find their missing children.

Since 2017, the organisation has been working with Lanxiang, a Chinese beverage company, to sell the soda water labelled with information about disappearing youngsters, reported Chinese media.

The campaign was brought to light once again after the products were recently spotted at a supermarket in Xi'an of Shaanxi province.

Footage released by Shaanxi Television today shows packs of the bottled water being sold at the price of one yuan (0.11) at the grocery store.

Child abduction is a serious issue in China. Around 200,000 boys and girls are estimated to be missing every year, according to reports. The picture shows the bottled water carrying missing child advertisements at a supermarket in Chinese central province Shaanxi's Xi'an city

The picture shows one of the bottle labels containing a picture of one of the missing children, along with the location and date when the youngster disappears and his date of birth

The bottled water carrying missing child advertisements is a campaign initiated by Bao Bei Hui Jia, or 'Baby Come Home', a major Chinese charity helping families find their missing children

The bottle label contains a picture of the missing child, along with the location and date when the youngster disappears and their date of birth.

The advertisement wrote: 'No matter who you are, please help our children return home.'

The Chinese charity told the local station that people had contacted them with tips about missing children after the bottled water started being sold at supermarkets.

Information on the labels gets updated regularly and will be removed once the child is found, says the Shaanxi TV channel.

The organisation has also been working with other Chinese businesses to help expand the search radar for missing children by displaying those advertisements, according to their website.

Human trafficking has been a serious issue in Chinese society. Although there are no official figures, media reports suggest that between 20,000 to 200,000 youngsters are snatched away from their families in the country every year.

Some are bought, some are simply stolen. They end up as labourers, in forced marriages or as the adoptees of wealthy families, either in China itself or overseas.

The news comes as a 60-year-old Chinese mother has been reunited with her 34-year-old son who was abducted at the age of two after she searched for him tirelessly for over three decades.

The parent, Li Jingzhi, had spent the last 32 years travelling across China on a quest to look for her child, nicknamed Jia Jia, after he was kidnapped on the street in 1988, reported Chinese media in May.
ROSEMONT, Ill., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The OrthoForum, a nationwide network of privately owned orthopaedic practices known for its pillars of benchmarking, networking, innovation and advocacy, announced a collaboration with the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), naming the AAOS Registry Program as the organization's recommended registries for its members. The four registries include the American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR), the Shoulder & Elbow Registry, the Musculoskeletal Tumor Registry, and the American Spine Registry, which is a collaboration with the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and AAOS. All of the AAOS Registries support the OrthoForum's mission of providing orthopaedic group practices with access to the latest best practices and benchmarking tools needed to advance their local market presence.

"The OrthoForum's new relationship with the AAOS Registry Program will allow our members to demonstrate their high-quality outcomes and clinical efficacy to support the ongoing building of a national orthopaedic provider network," said Glenn Sumner, OrthoForum CEO.

The AAOS Registry Program will be an important part of OrthoForum members' internal quality programs. In addition to providing scale, objectivity, subspecialization and patient-reported outcomes, the AAOS Registry Program will help the OrthoForum raise patient, benefit plan advisor and employer awareness about the importance of measuring Patient Reported Outcomes within each practice. Even more, the Registry Program presents the opportunity for the 4,700+ physicians in 45 states of the OrthoForum, and its sister organization, OrthoConnect, to review their cases against a growing list of national statistics and analytics. Whether through access to more than two million hip and knee replacement procedures available through the AJRR or through future learnings about COVID-19's impact on musculoskeletal care, the AAOS Registry Program continues to evolve and grow to meet the needs of orthopaedic surgeons.

"We are thrilled to be partnering with the OrthoForum to continue to improve our members' quality of musculoskeletal care through registry data," said Bryan D. Springer, MD, FAAOS, chair of the AJRR Steering Committee. "With the AAOS' growing family of registries, we continue to deliver on our strategic goal of equipping members to thrive in value-based environments and advance the quality of orthopaedic care. Becoming the designated Registry Program of the OrthoForum will further launch us into the future of bone and joint health analytics, benefitting not only surgeons, but patients across the country."

Gerald R. Williams Jr., MD, FAAOS, chair of the Shoulder & Elbow Registry Steering Committee added, "The strengthening of the relationship with the OrthoForum and OrthoConnect is especially important to the future growth of the Shoulder & Elbow Registry given that many of the procedures that we collect are performed in the outpatient setting."

To enroll in a registry, contact an AAOS Registry engagement associate via email [email protected] or phone 847-292-0530.

About the OrthoForum

The OrthoForum is a national specialty physician network whose membership includes many of the largest privately owned orthopaedic practices in the United States. Established to meet the unique challenges that independent orthopaedic group practices face in today's musculoskeletal health care environment, the OrthoForum selects its members individually to participate in activities that advance each group's presence throughout their markets. These activities include benchmarking, innovation, business ventures, networking and best practices. Follow the OrthoForum on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

About the AAOS Registry Program

The mission of the AAOS Registry Program is to improve orthopaedic care through the collection, analysis, and reporting of actionable data. It seeks to encompass all the musculoskeletal and anatomical areas for orthopaedics through comprehensive data and technology resulting in optimal patient outcomes. The AAOS Registry Program is comprised of four distinct programs: The American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR), the world's largest national registry of hip and knee joint replacement data by annual procedural count with more than 2 million procedures contained within its database; the Shoulder & Elbow Registry; the Musculoskeletal Tumor Registry; and the American Spine Registry, a collaborative effort between the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and the AAOS.

About the AAOS

With more than 39,000 members, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons is the world's largest medical association of musculoskeletal specialists. The AAOS is the trusted leader in advancing musculoskeletal health. It provides the highest quality, most comprehensive education to help orthopaedic surgeons and allied health professionals at every career level best treat patients in their daily practices. The AAOS is the source for information on bone and joint conditions, treatments and related musculoskeletal health care issues, and it leads the health care discussion on advancing quality. Follow the AAOS on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

SOURCE American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons

Related Links

http://www.aaos.org


Army on Thursday killed a terrorist and foiled an infiltration bid in north Kashmirs Keran sector, a spokesperson said.

Army spokesperson said that suspicious movement of unidentified persons was detected across the Line of Control at Keran Sector, Kupwara this morning. Terrorists were trying to infiltrate and were intercepted by own troops and contact was established and the infiltration bid was foiled, he said adding that one terrorist was killed and an AK recovered.

This is the second time in the last five days when army claimed to have averted an infiltration bid on the Line of Control in Kupwara district.

Army on Saturday morning had killed two infiltrators on the Line of Control in north Kashmirs Naugam sector.

GoC 19, Infantry Division, Major General Varendra Vats soon after killing of two militants had said that there are indications that launching pads in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir are active and 250 to 300 militants are waiting on the launch pads in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.
The Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED) has successfully launched its new website, added.gov.ae, in cooperation with the Abu Dhabi Digital Authority (ADDA).



The move comes as part of ADDED's continuing efforts to meet the requirements of the economic community, including government and private sectors, investors, businessmen, entrepreneurs, consumers, academics, as well as economic and media researchers, reported state-run news agency Wam.



Mohammed Ali Al Shorafa, Chairman of ADDED, said that the first phase of the new website reflects the vision and strategic goals of the Department to achieve sustainable economic development, in line with Abu Dhabi Governments directives to enhance the competitiveness of the emirates economy in the non-oil sectors and increase their contribution to Abu Dhabis gross domestic product (GDP).



Al Shorafa added: "Through ADDEDs new website, we look forward to enhance the strategic partnership with our partners from the government and semi-government sectors, private companies and organizations, as well as consumers and community members. The website provides an important electronic platform offering a database of economic information and initiatives that promote and empower the private sector in its key role as one of the major drivers of the local economic system in Abu Dhabi."



Al Shorafa commended the technical support provided by ADDA, which helped in the launch of the Department's latest website. He noted the key features of the website such as easy navigation and access to a rich database of information designed to benefit all stakeholders and partners within UAE and abroad.



He reiterated that the new electronic platform enhances ADDEDs role in leading Abu Dhabis economic system as the primary source of economic information within the emirate and a major partner of the UAE federal government in the economic sector.



Rashed Abdul Karim Al Balooshi, Undersecretary of ADDED, revealed that the new website focuses on areas that enable the private sector to take advantage of the initiatives, programs, and projects being implemented by the Department. The move follows the digital transformation of 100 per cent of ADDEDs services through the Abu Dhabi Government Services ecosystem TAMM.



Al Balooshi pointed out that the centres, offices, and sectors of ADDED will take advantage of the new website, providing them with an important platform to launch projects and programs as well as facilitating their communication with their strategic partners in all relevant fields. In this regard, the Department seeks to provide an integrated package of services that would meet the needs of all customers within the UAE and abroad.



Al Balooshi added that the home page of the website provides the business sector with key information about competitiveness, business, industry, support for exports, investment, analytical studies, reports, economic indices, and access to ADDEDs related entities such as the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), Abu Dhabi Council for Economic Development (ADCED) and the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development (KFED). These advantages will contribute to making the website a key reference for all the departments customers.



He further stated that as part of the next stage, the website will be equipped with internal interactive pages that provide integrated and updated information and data for users. Leading initiatives and projects launched by the Department and the Abu Dhabi Government will be further displayed on the homepage.



Al Balooshi said that the website also provides easy access to all news and press releases issued by Department as well as quick access to its social media channels while also comprising promotional videos and content aimed at maintaining continuous interaction with the public. He further stated that ADDED is looking forward to provide a brand new website that sheds light on its range of services offered to the public and serves as a platform offering an integrated economic ecosystem for the emirate of Abu Dhabi.






Chinese scientists set off for the 11th Arctic expedition Wednesday aboard Xuelong 2, the country's first domestically built polar icebreaker, departing from Shanghai.



It is the first scientific expedition to the Arctic for Xuelong 2, or Snow Dragon 2, after it completed its first Antarctica expedition in April. It is expected to return to Shanghai in late September after a trip of 12,000 nautical miles.

The expedition, organized by the Ministry of Natural Resources, plans to conduct a series of investigations into biodiversity and ecosystems, ocean acidification and chemical environment, and new pollutants in areas including the Chukchi Rise, Canada Basin, and the central Arctic Ocean.

It will further improve China's scientific understanding of climate change in the Arctic, and lay a solid foundation for the country to better respond to global climate change.
Janak Bhakta, 17, from Tustin, had hoped to travel internationally for his gap year, but now he's joining a conservation program this year instead. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Janak Bhakta, a soft-spoken 17-year-old from Tustin, had big plans for 2020. He wanted to spend time away from academics to learn, grow and mature by traveling the world. Then the coronavirus pandemic struck and turned those plans to dust.

The ideal plan was to travel internationally, but obviously that's not going to happen, Bhakta says about his planned gap year. He filled out applications for Outward Bound Costa Rica and NOLS Baja , two leading outdoor and leadership organizations, but both summer programs were canceled due to travel restrictions and health concerns.

Bhakta was still able to find the perfect fit with the Colorado-based High Mountain Institute, which puts gap-year participants in national parks to assist in local conservation efforts. This new plan will cover only the first few months of Bhaktas yearlong journey.

That's what I'll be doing for the fall and then the winter, he says. The spring is still up in the air.

Bhakta is far from alone in wanting to take the year off from higher education. As more and more colleges and universities move online because of coronavirus safety, the appeal of a year off has been growing as well. An April survey commissioned by the American Council on Education shows that one in five college students was unsure about their plans for re-enrolling in school for the fall. Although taking a gap year isnt high on young Americans to-do lists, the current COVID-19 climate has left many wondering if a year off from academics is still an option.

Janak Bhakta will join Colorado-based High Mountain Institute, which puts gap-year participants in national parks to assist in local conservation efforts. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Heres what those interested in socially distancing from college for a year need to know.





What is a gap year?







According to Knight, a growing number of people are searching for gap year online as an alternative to going back to school right now.

We were seeing a 300% traffic increase on certain pages and, broadly speaking, roughly 150% increase over the whole site, Knight says of the traffic to the Gap Year Assn. website, gapyearassociation.org.

Story continues

However, he wants to make one thing clear: that his own definition of a gap year may be too rigid. He says a gap year doesnt have to be taken so literally as a one-year commitment.

"Its not one size fits all, Knight says, noting that young people can spend a few months, a semester, or a year or longer on a gap experience.

Gap year gets thought of as a thing, and I like to suggest that it's more a recipe, he says, adding that a good gap year has four basic ingredients: a healthy heaping of volunteering, a bit of internship experience, a dash of paid work and a sprinkling of free-radical time.

Leave a little bit of space for the unknown, he says, because, partially, what you're doing is exploring whether this thing that you love to do could potentially be the thing that you're paid to do for the rest of your life.

Also, there's one more important thing to note. You dont have to be a teenager to take a gap year. If you feel you need a transition, no matter what stage of life youre in, odds are theres a program for you. Just ask Samantha Warfield, a representative for the Corporation for National and Community Service, which runs AmeriCorps, the program that's essentially synonymous with the American gap year.

You don't have to be 18 or a college-age student to do AmeriCorps, she says. We have lots of programs for everyone.





Will my school allow a gap year?







This year, many schools are taking away the option to defer, or theyre adding in-depth rules for freshman deferrals. Cal State Fresno, for example, will allow incoming freshmen to defer until spring 2021, but students aren't permitted to take college or university classes at other schools during this time. If they do, their deferral will be voided, and those individuals will have to reapply as transfer students.

The University of Southern California (where, full disclosure, this reporter works as an adjunct professor) is a bit more stringent. As its undergraduate admissions website explains, In specific cases relating to medical issues, religious obligations or required military/national service, admission deferrals may be available. However, deferral requests for other reasons will not generally be granted.





What programs are available?







We believe every American should have a chance to serve, Warfield says. If you decide to give a year of service through something like AmeriCorps, weve got something for you.

That list of programs available through her organization includes the well-known AmeriCorps NCCC, through which participants perform such work as clearing trails at national parks or building homes for those in need. It also includes AmeriCorps State and National, which acts as the matchmaker of national service.

Mateo Bolado hikes at Tilden State Park in Berkeley, with his 5-year-old sister, just before taking his gap year from school. (Mateo Bolado)

Those who are actively seeking service programs or work can search through hundreds of options on the AmeriCorps State and National website. Open programs currently include photography volunteers in Vermont and data analysis volunteers in Washington, D.C., as well as mentors for middle-school students in central Texas. Interested gappers can also search for programs still accepting applications through the Gap Year Assn.s search portal .



However, thats far from an exhaustive list of options. Students such as Mateo Bolado from Berkeley, Calif., are exploring career options through internship programming online and in person.

As more and more of my friends decided to go to college, I kind of just followed them, Bolado says. But as soon as I got to school, I felt this deep sense of regret.

Before the coronavirus pandemic took hold, Bolado knew he wanted to take time off to discover more about himself and his potential future. Hes currently working as a virtual intern for a biotech company and exploring options for the spring, including global travel and language immersion programs.

COVID only made me feel more secure in the decision I made, the infectiously self-assured 19-year-old says.





Can I make money?

AmeriCorps volunteers work on a roof project. For people wanting to take a gap year, there are opportunities for adventure available through various organizations, along with the possibility for housing and paid work. (AmeriCorps)

This month, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released an analysis that said taking a gap year could cost people $90,000 of lifetime earning potential by delaying college, thus their careers, a year. However, the analysis didnt take into account the social and mental benefits of a gap year. Nor did it take into account the fact that you can still make money or earn college credit while taking a gap year.

Knight and Warfield want to make it clear that taking a gap year for travel, learning or service isnt reserved for the elite who can afford it. Its an opportunity for everyone, and people can find housing and paid work too. As Warfield explains, there are several AmeriCorps programs that come with monthly stipends. That extra cash can come on top of free housing and a daily food stipend.

When people complete their gap year of service, theyll also become eligible for a Segal AmeriCorps Education Award, which can be used to pay for qualified higher-education costs. That could include traditional two- or four-year schools or certification programs, or the award could be used to pay back student loan debt.

Beyond cash, gap year participants may also be able to obtain college credits for their time. The Gap Year Assn. works with organizations that qualify through its stringent accreditation program to offer college credit at Portland State University in Oregon. According to Knight, students can earn up to 12 semester credits through their gap year, depending on what program they select.





What will I really gain?







According to a survey by the Gap Year Assn. and Temple University in Philadelphia, those who participated in a gap year on average had shorter times to graduation and higher GPAs compared with national norms. These results appeared long-lasting into adulthood.

Another possible bright side to a gap year? According to the survey, 86% of gap-year participants reported that they are satisfied or very satisfied with their jobs; 63% reported participating in the 2014 election cycle; and 89% reported participating in community service  all far outpacing national averages. Also, more than 80% of survey participants said theyd recommend taking a gap year to someone considering it.

The survey authors concluded that these benefits make it imperative that gap-year programs appeal to and recruit more diverse participants. The survey found that the majority of its participants were white, native English-speaking women from families with an estimated household income of more than $100,000 a year. Additionally, 35% of gap-year participants attended private schools.

The survey also found that gap-year participants considered being in a new and different environment the most meaningful part of the experience. Bolado says that was paramount in his decision to take a gap year.

In the journey into adulthood, there's so much anxiety and so much worry, he says, noting that many of his peers find comfort in the straight-to-college path with their lives a bit more plotted out for them. For him, this is a year, despite the coronavirus, to become more mature, curious and motivated.

I gave myself a year to mature and become a little more independent, he says, and then go back to school with the right mind-set.
Since President Uhuru Kenyatta created the office of the Nairobi Metropolitan Services(NMS) a little over 100 days ago, there is a growing consensus that NMS Director-General Maj. General Mohammed Badi has done more for Nairobi than Governors Sonko and Kidero combined.

Just this week, the mere presence of the no-nonsense army man at a construction site on grabbed public land in Parklands sent workers scampering as DG Badi reclaimed the Ksh2 billion property that Sonko had failed to wrestle from land cartels.

Badis efficacy is perhaps why Governor Mike Sonko is crying foul that the NMS Director-General is hell-bent on portraying him as a failure.

During a sitting of the County Public Accounts and Investment Committee on Wednesday, Sonko told Senators that the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) is undermining his leadership and role as an elected leader.

Sonko alleged that Mohammed Badi has been blackmailing him with impeachment threats and even blocking him from attending any NMS functions.

We are operating under a lot of blackmail because of NMS which has been declared as an illegal entity by the court, he said.

The governor said even though he supports the Presidents agenda of transforming Nairobi County, he will not go out without a fight and allow Badi to tarnish his name.

I am not a failure as Badi and team want to portray me. I have done a lot for this county and I dont want to be portrayed as a failure I know Nairobi might not be a County after constitutional changes, I might want to vie in Machakos, Mombasa Kilifi or even Kwale, what will I tell the people if they think that I couldnt perform in Nairobi? Sonko posed, adding: I will not allow people to tell me that I failed Nairobi.

Sonko, who had been summoned to respond to audit queries for 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18 Financial Years, appeared without any documents or evidence required to back the agendas session. He said he has no access to the county office after he was barred by the courts.

I was charged in court and barred from accessing office or interacting with staff. This ruling has really affected my work.

NMS has been seconding staff illegally, interrupting my operations and therefore I have been unable to get the documents to table before this committee, he said.

The meeting was adjourned until when Sonko will be able to access financial records from City Hall.
A pact allowing thousands of companies to transfer EU citizens' data to the US has been ruled invalid by Europe's highest court because it allows the American Government to snoop on people's data.

The European Court of Justice today invalidated Privacy Shield in a move set to complicate business for some 5,000 companies - including Facebook.

Companies such as Facebook routinely move such data among their servers around the world and the practice underpins billions of dollars in business.

But will no longer simply be assumed that tech companies will adequately protect the privacy of its European users' data when it sends it to the US.

Rather, the EU and US will likely have to find a new agreement that guarantees Europeans' data is afforded the same privacy protection in the US as it is in the EU.

An agreement allowing thousands of companies to transfer EU citizens' data to the US has been ruled invalid by the European Court of Justice (stock image, pictured) because it allows the American Government to snoop on people's data

Privacy activists hailed the court ruling as a major victory, while business groups worried about the potential to disrupt commerce, depending on how the ruling is implemented.

Max Schrems, an Austrian activist whose complaints about the handling of his Facebook data triggered the ruling after years of legal procedures, said the US will have to make changes to its surveillance laws to continue operating in Europe.

He said: 'It is clear that the US will have to seriously change their surveillance laws if US companies want to continue to play a major role on the EU market.'

He first filed a complaint in 2013 after former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed the US Government was snooping on people's online data and communications.

The revelations included detail on how Facebook gave US security agencies access to the personal data of Europeans.

Though the legal case was triggered by concerns over Facebook in particular, it could have far-reaching implications not only for tech companies but also businesses in sectors like finance and the auto industry.

Things like email, flight and hotel reservations would not be affected in the short-term, experts say.

Cloud services by providers like Microsoft will also continue, pending any intervention from a regulator.

Companies use legal mechanisms called standard contractual clauses that force businesses to abide by strict EU privacy standards when transferring messages, photos and other information.

The clauses  stock terms and conditions  are used to ensure the EU rules are maintained when data leaves the bloc.

The European Court of Justice today invalidated Privacy Shield in a move set to complicate business for some 5,000 companies - including Facebook (stock image pictured)

The court ruled on Thursday that those clauses are still valid in principle but it declared invalid the Privacy Shield agreement over concerns the US can demand access to consumer data for national security reasons.

It said that in cases when there are concerns about data privacy, EU regulators should vet, and if needed block, the transfer of data.

That raises the prospect that EU regulators will block Facebook, for example, from transferring any more European data to the US.

The European Commission said it is studying the ruling and stressed a system is needed to allow data transfers while also protecting privacy.

It said it is in touch with its counterparts in the US on how to proceed.

European Commission vice-president Vera Jourova said: 'I see it as an opportunity to engage in solutions that reflect the values that we share as democratic societies.'

Former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden (pictured) revealed the US Government was snooping on people's online data and communications

US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said it is 'deeply disappointed' by the ruling.

Experts said the full impact on businesses will largely depend on how authorities respond.

'EU regulators will need to adopt a pragmatic approach to enforcement, allowing businesses a period of grace in which to implement alternative arrangements,' Bridget Treacy, data privacy partner at Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP in London, said.

Government surveillance of personal data is something the US in its turn accuses China of doing through tech companies like Huawei.

It highlights the growing importance of data as the basis of modern business and politics globally.

Data drives much of the world's biggest companies, such as Facebook, Google and Amazon, and is also prized for national security to prevent extremist attacks, for example.

Mining large sets of people's data has also become crucial to winning elections, such as the use of Facebook data for Donald Trump's presidential victory in 2016.

Alexandre Roure, a senior manager at Computer & Communications Industry Association, said the decision 'creates legal uncertainty for the thousands of large and small companies on both sides of the Atlantic that rely on Privacy Shield for their daily commercial data transfers'.

He added: 'We trust that EU and US decision-makers will swiftly develop a sustainable solution, in line with EU law, to ensure the continuation of data flows which underpins the transatlantic economy.'
Warrenton, VA -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/16/2020 -- Appy Pie, the app maker setting new standards in the mobile industry, provides auction feature allowing users to create Android and iOS mobile apps for auctions in a jiffy, with zero coding. Using auction feature, anyone with no programming skills can kick start their auction business on mobile in a few minutes.



Auction apps built on Appy Pie AppMakr are hosted on highly secure cloud servers and have multiple innovative features like one-tap access, offline editing, etc., making it easy for the app owners to manage their apps. Better user engagement, time and cost saving, 24/7 presence, and improved audience reach are some of the benefits of creating auction apps. What's more interesting is that auction houses can even convert websites into apps and go mobile in just a few minutes.



Moreover, app publishers can also add multiple other features such as contact, push notifications, social network, etc. to their auction app, making it more engaging.



"Our app building software was made for all businesses and industries  regardless of size and scale. With auction feature, app owners will have complete control over the auction process, helping them deliver better customer experience and receive payments, without any hassle," said Abhinav Girdhar, Founder Appy Pie.



With a combined staff of more than 200 people, Appy Pie's sole aim is to empower small businesses and help them achieve success in this competitive environment. Appy Pie operates in a wide range of languages including Arabic, French, Portuguese, German and many more, to serve their customers in the best possible manner. The company offers 24X7 dedicated support lines to the app makers in all the mentioned languages.



About Appy Pie

Appy Pie, a Trademark of Appy Pie LLP, is the unrivaled leader in the no-code applications market. Appy Pie helps SMBs, enterprise companies and organizations transform their ideas into reality, without any technical or coding knowledge. With products like App Builder, Website Builder, Chatbot Builder, Live Chat and Workflow Builder, any size business or organization can create, connect, and deploy applications & technologies to change how they fundamentally work and increase productivity with easy to use no-code business solutions. Appy Pie has headquarters in Warrenton, Virginia and Noida, India. They serve customers in over 150 countries.



For more information, please visit: https://www.appypie.com/app-builder/appmaker



Media Contact

Abhinav Girdhar

sales@appypie.com

+1 888 322 7617
Republican lawmakers assailed Gov. Tom Wolfs new restrictions on bars, restaurants and other businesses, saying they will kill some small businesses struggling to survive during the coronavirus pandemic.

Citing a spike in COVID-19 cases, Wolf announced a new executive order limiting bars and restaurants to 25-percent of occupancy limits - down from 50 percent. And he said restaurants and bars could only serve alcohol with meals or for takeout. Clubs and bars that dont serve food wont be allowed to open.

The governor also is directing businesses to allow employees to work remotely if all possible, unless work can only be done onsite. Wolf said the measures are necessary to try and avoid the surge seen in the spring and to ensure schools can open for in-person classes next month.

GOP lawmakers, who control both chambers of the General Assembly, denounced the Democratic governor and said hes acting without consulting the legislative branch. They also said his actions could wipe out small businesses.

New House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, R-Centre, criticized Wolfs continued overreach and misuse of power. He cited such actions as the reason Republican lawmakers are trying to amend the state Constitution to limit Wolfs emergency powers.

The irreversible impact of his countless, confusing orders cannot be overstated, Benninghoff said in a statement. Gov. Wolfs decision today will close the doors of some small businesses forever and devastate the livelihoods of so many Pennsylvanians who were just beginning to feel hopeful for the future.

Sens. Ryan P. Aument and Scott Martin, both Lancaster County Republicans, issued a joint statement faulting the governors approach. Saying hospitalizations and infections have declined in Lancaster County, they said the governor should be focusing on the regions where cases are spiking instead of issuing statewide restrictions.

Make no mistake, this will be the final blow for countless businesses in the hospitality industry, a hit from which they will not recover, Aument and Martin said in their statement. It will cause irreparable harm and permanently hamstring the communities these businesses serve.

Pennsylvania has slowed the rate of infections since the early spring but cases have been rising in recent weeks. The state Department of Health reported 994 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday. The state has reported an average of 788 new daily infections over the last seven days. In mid-June, the state reported less than 500 cases per day, on average.

More than 97,000 people in Pennsylvania have contracted the coronavirus and more than 6,900 deaths have been tied to COVID-19, according to the state Department of Health.

Republican lawmakers said they want to protect public health but also ensure more businesses dont fail. More than 2 million Pennsylvanians have lost their jobs during the pandemic, according to state figures.

State Sen. David Argall, a Schuylkill County Republican who represents part of Berks County, said Wolf is acting like King Tom the First, without the approval of lawmakers.

The Governor doesnt understand rural Pennsylvania, Argall wrote on Facebook. We heard it firsthand during my four Policy Committee hearings in the last few weeks: Rising numbers of COVID 19 cases in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia do not mean the Governor should hurt restaurant and bar employees in Sinking Spring, Womelsdorf and Shenandoah.

The new rules could be the final stake in the heart for many small business employers and thousands of employees in the small towns which I represent, Argall said.

Gene Barr, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, issued a statement expressing his frustration that statewide measures are coming in response to localized outbreaks. He said businesses now must struggle to comply with an order that has been handed down without notice, and which leaves them with more questions than they have answers.

We all want to control the spread of the virus while balancing the needs of Pennsylvanians to live productive lives, Barr said in a statement. Unfortunately, todays order is a major setback in our collective efforts to bring Pennsylvania back.

More from PennLive

Pa. restaurants, bars and social clubs cited for not abiding by COVID-19 guidelines

Dickinson College changes fall 2020 plans, will move all courses online

Where are Pennsylvanias 97,665 coronavirus cases? July 15 map, county-by-county breakdown
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 15:02:31|Editor: huaxia

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PHNOM PENH, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia collected 2.95 billion U.S. dollars from all sources of taxes in the first half of 2020, down 1.6 percent from 3 billion dollars over the same period last year, according to official statements on Thursday.

The Southeast Asian country has two institutions responsible for collecting taxes. One is the General Department of Customs and Excise (GDCE), which collects taxes on goods entering and leaving the country, and the other is the General Department of Taxation (GDT) focusing on interior taxes such as income tax, salary tax, value-added tax, and property tax.

GDCE's director-general Kun Nhim said in a statement that the institution made 1.27 billion U.S. dollars in customs and excise revenue during the January-June period this year, down 16 percent compared to the same period last year.

"Revenue collected from tax on automobiles and construction materials dropped by 31.7 percent and 28.2 percent respectively, while revenue earned from tax on petroleum and general goods increased by 5.5 percent and 3.1 percent," he said.

According to Nhim, the kingdom's export volume fell by 0.7 percent due to COVID-19, as its import declined by 9.4 percent during the first half of this year.

GDT's director-general Kong Vibol said in a separate statement that the organization earned 1.68 billion dollars in tax revenue during the first six months of this year, up 12 percent compared to the same period last year.

He said the GDT has achieved 59 percent of its self-imposed target in 2020. Enditem
Shilajit Mitra By

Express News Service

Virginity films are their own comic sub-genre. From Losin It to Easy A to The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Hollywood has varyingly ribbed the hunt for your first time. Hindi titles have been few - Rahul Bose played a virgin ad executive in Mumbai Matinee (2003) - and fewer still have been films from a female perspective. Worse, its treated as a taboo: a sign of embarrassment (for men) and moral sanctity (for women).

The new ZEE5 release, Virgin Bhanupriya, looks to put a spin on this mindset. Directed by Ajay Lohan, the film stars Urvashi Rautela as a conservative young girl in Mumbai. When an astrologer declares she will always remain a virgin, she sets out to prove him wrong. Joining the cast are actors Gautam Gulati, Rumana Molla, Archana Puran Singh, Brijendra Kala, and others.

"Its important to realise that virginity is circumstantial. Every person carries different ideas of what love means to them. So while we are not saying that sexuality should be silenced, we should remove the taboo around virginity," Urvashi says.

In the film, Bhanupriya is pressured into leading an active sex life. She propositions several men but it never works out. Her parents are separated, which further affects her notions of love and companionship. "There are 4-5 guys that come into her life but she finds it extremely hard to make love. Virginity, in the end, is a personal choice. It shouldnt be the catalyst to make you do something that you find uncomfortable," Urvashi shares.

In the past, Urvashis films like Great Grand Masti and Hate Story 4 have been criticised for catering to the male gaze. The actor, while not commenting on her previous work, says its great that female desire is being acknowledged. "I take immense pride that this is my second female-centric film, that too for an OTT platform. It has made me a more responsible artiste. Although Im playing a conservative character, shes someone who approaches love on her own terms. Im grateful that writers today are penning strong female characters," he added.

Actor Rumana Molla plays Urvashis best friend in the film. Her character, Rakul, is an independent woman whos upfront about her needs. "She is the female version of the womanizer weve always seen on screen. She likes to run Bhanus life and steer it according to her wishes. Its an endearing, albeit slightly unbalanced, relationship," Rumana says.

The trailer shows her spouting blunt one-liners, including a reference to Rajinikanths bones. Rakul doesnt speak like a normal person, she throws punchlines. Its her way of selling her points and manipulating others. Both actors refuse the tag of an adult comedy. I never perceived it as a sex comedy, Rumana says. After all, its about virginity which implies a lack of it. But I do understand why its being perceived that way. When people watch the film, it will clarify everything.Urvashi adds, Theres not a single scene that you cannot watch with friends or family. Weve communicated our message without losing a sense of sophistication. In cinema, you can tell stories without being raw or in-your-face all the time.

Rumana has appeared in films like Ek Villain and Pyar Ka Punchnama 2. Her 2017 release, Irada, starring Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi, won the National Film Award for Best Film on Environment Conservation/Preservation. After Virgin Bhanupriya, she has two more projects in the pipeline. One is called Zindagi 3 Din directed by Nikhil Agnihotri. The second is How To Kill Your Husband, directed by Akhilesh Jaiswal. Besides that, theres the second season of Dev DD.

Urvashis upcoming release is the Hindi remake of Thiruttu Payale 2. Directed by Susi Ganeshan, the film also stars Viineet Kumar and Akshay Oberoi. It was shot in Lucknow and Varanasi, and sees her in a small-town avatar. Previously, Urvashi had starred in the 2015 Kannada film Mr. Airavata. On her plans to return to the south industries, the actor says, I would love to do a film with Allu Arjun or Prabhas. I love the way Allu Arjun dances. I have quite a few favourite actors down South Id like to work with.
NEW YORK, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Seventy-three percent of Americans support the Black Lives Matter movement.1 Yet stories about the BLM movement, the murder of George Floyd, and the everyday experiences of Black people are regularly (even if unintentionally) being censored in the media.

How? Advertisers use keyword exclusion lists to ensure that their brands don't appear alongside content that doesn't align with their values, or show up alongside stories where an ad may seem out of place. But this has unintentionally led to a lack of financial support for hard news and critical stories, despite high reader interest. Some sources estimate that U.S. publishers lost a total of $2.8 billion in revenue in 2019, due to incorrect blocking of safe content.2 And in recent weeks, several publishers and technology companies have publicly shared how keywords around Black lives are disproportionally being affectedall of which leads to demonetization, and then censorship, of Black voices.

Mindshare, the global media agency network that's part of WPP, is launching a Black Community private marketplace (known as a PMP) to financially support Black journalism and community voices across the U.S., with one in the United Kingdom soon to follow. The agency began work on this PMP in the spring, curating a list of Black publishers, content creators, and artists across the Black diaspora. It is the second in a series of "Inclusion PMPs" that the agency has launched this year to help underrepresented communities in journalism; the first was a LGBTQ PMP launched in February.

"U by Kotex is a brand that stands for championing progress and we know first-hand what the difference between being an ally and an advocate can do," says Brian Clayton, General Manager for U by Kotex North America. "Our goal with being a launch partner for this PMP is to create real action and support for Black voices and communities, and this is a concrete way to do that. You can't fight against racism and structural inequality if Black voices are being silenced, and we're proud to invest in Black journalists, content creators, and artists."

The Black Community PMP is launching with 25 publishers spanning digital, audio, and video across the U.S. And crucially, while marketing to people in the Black community has largely in the past been referred to as simply "African American" or "AA" in the U.S., Mindshare's PMP is focused on inclusivity of voices across first-generation African, Caribbean American, and American Afro-LatinX.

"Working in media for eight years, I've always been passionate about 'inclusivity' over just 'diversity,' because the latter creates a silo, an unawareness of different cultures and communities," says Sherine Patrick, Manager, Digital Investment, Mindshare USA, who is leading the launch of the Black Community PMP in the U.S. "The goal of this PMP is to help tell and amplify Black stories and voices across journalism and the arts, and to drive real inclusivity in media. Supporting these publishers with ad dollars is critical to that."

"I am proud of Mindshare's leadership to support Black voices and create programs that drive increased investment for creators of color. We're excited to have Pod Digital Media's network of more than 400 podcasters be included in their new Black Community PMP," says Gary Coichy, Founder and CEO, Pod Digital Media, the first Black owned and curated podcast network.

In addition to the U.S., a similar PMP to support the Black Community will soon launch in the U.K. as part of a wider global initiative. This second "Inclusion PMP" also comes on the heels of, and works in tandem with, numerous other initiatives on the Mindshare and GroupM level designed to support underrepresented voices and promote the diversity and health of the media marketplace. GroupM recently launched the Multicultural Marketplace, a comprehensive list of Black and Hispanic owned and/or focused publishers across the U.S. The holding company also recently became the first to join TripleLift's "Help Journalism" programmatic initiative, which drives clients' ad dollars to local news publishers.

More Information: How Keyword Exclusion Lists WorkAnd Have Contributed to This Problem

Today's advertisers have hundreds to over a thousand words on keyword exclusion lists. These lists tell automated digital advertising models not to put a brand's advertising alongside content that could be potentially non-brand safe, based on specific words or phrases. But in an effort to avoid their brand appearing alongside topics or content that could be potentially inflammatory, stories of hard news and underrepresented voices wind up unintentionally flagged and demonetized, despite consumer interest. Words like "dope" or "bomb" can be flagged as stories about drugs or violence, but they're everyday jargon in Black culture.

While there has been progress made in this area around semantic keyword processing, there's still much to do  and thus exclusion lists are often unintentionally blocking content that some brands would like to support. In turn, this moves money away from publishers that need it, and has created a form of digital censorship in which ad dollars dictate what we do and don't read.

The Black Community PMP leverages an inclusion list of publishers that Mindshare works with and have guaranteed brand safety standards for advertisers.

Sherine Patrick is a member of The Collective, a diversity, equity, and inclusion advocacy group within the agency. The group has two areas of focus: creating new resources and conversations around DE&I for employees, and driving digital offerings for clients that make media more diversesuch as Mindshare's LGBTQ PMP launched earlier this year.

About Mindshare:

We were born in Asia in 1997, a WPP start up designed to make media exciting, fun and life changing. For the last 20 years our values of Speed, Teamwork, and Provocation have guided us in a world where everything begins and ends in media. We are the Cannes Lions Media Network of the Year 2019 and WARC Media 100 #1 Media Network 2020, with the top 3 most creative campaigns of the past year  so basically, statistically the best media agency in the world!

Our 10,000 people work with some of the world's best brands and companies to challenge convention. In 116 offices across 86 countries we integrate brand and demand, ruthlessly focus on outcomes and create the unexpected. We manage $17.8bn in billings and are the largest media agency in GroupM, WPP's Media Investment Management arm, which is the #1 media holding group globally with billings of $50bn (Source: COMvergence 2019).

Hear our stories (and join us) at www.mindshareworld.com and follow us on Instagram (@mindshare_usa), Twitter (@mindshare_usa), Facebook (facebook.com/mindshareusa), and LinkedIn (LinkedIn.com/company/mindshare).

1 Source: Mindshare, "U.S. COVID-19 Insights: Wave 12," June 2020

2 Source: University of Baltimore and Cheq, "The Economic Costs of Keyword Blacklists for Online Publishers"

SOURCE Mindshare
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 16) Malacanang on Thursday once again allayed concerns over the governments recently launched Oplan Kalinga program, saying COVID-19 patients up for transfer to local isolation facilities will not be treated harshly.

I think we can still compel them, but I dont think it will be in the nature as if they are being treated as criminals, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque told CNN Philippines The Source.

But make no mistake about it, if the person is completely adamant, and he is there infected and could be a spreader, then I think he can still be forcibly brought to an isolation center, if need be, he added.

The national government recently launched the "Oplan Kalinga" program wherein COVID-19 patients who cannot comply with the home quarantine protocols will be fetched from their houses and brought to government quarantine facilities to control the transmission of the viral disease.

Officials want to scrap the home quarantine option for patients who don't have a separate room and bathroom. Home quarantine will also not be allowed for those living with children, elderly, pregnant women, and those with preexisting health conditions.

Critics have argued that the program had glaring similarities to Oplan Tokhang, the Philippine National Police's anti-drug operations program, wherein officials knock on homes to ask suspects to end their drug use or turn themselves in.

However, Roque earlier clarified the new initiative does not require a house-to house search only reporting from the suspected patients, their family members, or barangay officials. He likewise shrugged off comparisons of the program to the widely-criticized Tokhang, stressing that local officials will only provide transport and assistance to concerned residents.

READ: Police say no home searches for COVID-19 patients as critics warn of new 'Tokhang'-style program
Kiccha Sudeep recently informed his fans about continuing to work on his next project. The Sandalwood star shared photos from the sets of his next, Phantom and said that they resumed shooting of the film.

Taking to Twitter, Kiccha Sudeep wrote, "#PhantomStartsRolling at hyd. Every minute precautions've been taken care of by the production n its nicer to see great spirits and enthusiasm on set. Each available person is taking every necessary step to remain safe. Hoping for everything to sail through smoothly."

In the above tweet, one can see all the people from the unit wearing a mask and taking all precautionary measures amid the Coronavirus scare. The makers don't want to take any chance, hence, they are making sure that everyone on the set takes all the necessary steps to remain safe and work smoothly. Notably, Phantom becomes the first Kannada film to resume shooting amid COVID-19 crisis.

Kiccha Sudeep further stated, "Also happy tat though its a minimized crowd we were allowed to have acc to the govt rules tats been laid,, Every member on set, may it be Technical,Unit,Production,Art etc are from KFI. Intention was to provide work to as many members as we could from the family of KFI."

Well, Kiccha Sudeep is known for doing social work without making much noise about it. Earlier, we had reported that the actor has adopted four government schools in Karnataka to facilitate better education for children. His fans can't stop praising their favourite star for showing such a noble gesture.

Also Read : Kiccha Sudeep Adopts Four Government Schools In Karnataka For Betterment Of Students

On a related note, Phantom is being helmed by Anup Bhandari. The film also features Nirup Bhandari playing an important role. Apart from Phantom, Kiccha Sudeep will also be working on another Kannada film, Kotigobba 3 which is directed by Shiva Karthik.

Also Read : Kiccha Sudeep On KGF 2: I Wouldn't Have Done What Sanjay Dutt Sir Is Capable Of
(Natural News) Prolonged exposure to ionizing radiation emitted by medical devices and nuclear facilities is associated with an increased risk of high blood pressure.

This finding came from a cohort study recently published in the journal Hypertension. In it, researchers found that the incidence of high blood pressure was higher in people who were exposed to low doses of radiation for long periods.

What is ionizing radiation?

Ionizing radiation is a form of radiation that can break apart and damage molecules. This emission is often released in the form of electromagnetic waves or particles.

Light, sound and radio waves are all examples of radiation. But these forms of radiation cannot pass through solid objects. Ionizing radiation, on the other hand, can penetrate the human body and enable images of bones and organs to be printed.

For this reason, ionizing radiation is an invaluable tool in the field of medicine. Medical professionals make extensive use of ionizing radiation in diagnostic exams to detect abnormalities, such as tumors, and possible health issues.

In addition, the sterilizing effects of ionizing radiation are useful for keeping medical tools free from germs that can cause disease or contamination. This ensures that medical equipment are safe and can be relied upon.

Ionizing radiation can also be found in multiple natural sources. For instance, there are more than 60 radioactive materials (radionuclides) found in soil, water and air.

Radon, in particular, is a natural gas that emanates from rocks and soil. It is one of the major sources of radiation in nature. But unlike most natural radioactive materials, radon releases higher levels of radiation that pose serious health risks.

In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States.

Ionizing radiation raises blood pressure

Ionizing radiation disrupts the atoms and molecules in our bodies. For this reason, experts warn against the extensive use of ionizing radiation regardless of dose. Multiple studies have found that ionizing radiation poses certain health hazards despite its beneficial applications.

A team of researchers from the Southern Urals Biophysics Institute (SUBI) in Russia found that prolonged exposure to ionizing radiation leads to an increased risk of high blood pressure.

High blood pressure happens to be a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases (CVD), including cerebrovascular disease, rheumatic heart disease and peripheral arterial disease.

According to lead author Tamara Azizova, radiation exposure is often associated with cancer development. However, the link between radiation exposure and heart disease is yet to be fully explored.

To understand this relationship, the team examined the health records of 22,377 employees hired between 1948 and 1982 by Mayak Production Association (PA), the first large-scale nuclear enterprise in Russia.

The employees worked an average of 18 years at the nuclear facility. All of them received comprehensive health exams and routine health checkups throughout their employment.

Upon analysis of their health records, the team discovered that 8,425 employees had blood pressure readings that hit 140/90 or higher. This is considered high blood pressure as per the American Hear Associations guidelines.

Furthermore, the team noted that the incidence of high blood pressure among the workers was higher than that found among Japanese survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. (Related: Massive Fukushima radiation cover-up as government-funded scientists now claim radiation wont hurt you.)

On the other hand, the team found that workers of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant who started clean-up operations in the area following the explosion in 1986 still had the highest incidence of high blood pressure.

Based on these findings, the researchers concluded that prolonged exposure to low-dose radiation increases the risk of high blood pressure.

The findings also underscore the fact that even low doses of ionizing radiation can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Learn more about the impact of radiation on human health at RadiationScience.com.

Sources include:

Heart.org

AHAJournals.org

WTAMU.edu

WHO.int

CDC.gov

Heart.org
Advertisement

Wealthy buyers looking for a property with the ultimate man cave now have the chance to turn their dream into reality.

The lavish four bedroom apartment in Melbourne comes with a six-car garage, soundproofed office, bar, wine rack and a cards table in the basement.

Nicknamed 'Manland', the space also has cabinets used for the owner's collection of model cars and sprawls across the basement level of the property.

1/32 Grange Road, Toorak, is currently listed for sale with Kay & Burton's Gerald Delaney - for a whopping $14million.

The 1200sq m property - located at 1/32 Grange Road Toorak - is currently listed for sale with Kay & Burton's Gerald Delaney

The five-apartment complex was built by the owner about seven years ago, who retained the ground floor for himself to live in

The authentic Art Deco style home, which resembles 'a New York hotel built in the 1930s', is also decked out on the upper levels.

It also has four bathrooms and two kitchens, with one commercial-grade and having a Wolf stove.

The 1200sq m property's main bedroom is also complete with a dressing room, and comes with an alfresco terrace and temperate-controlled 'pet room'.

The ultimate man cave boasts a soundproofed office, six-car garage, bar, wine rack, a proper cards table and built-in cabinets

Nicknamed 'Manland' by the 1200sq m property's current owner, the space sprawls across the basement level of the home

RT Edgar Toorak director Warwick Anderson told realestate.com.au the property was 'bigger than most houses'.

'The owner has two cats', Mr Anderson told realestate.com.au.

'Their room is completely self-contained, self-heated and cooled, (and features) bedding and access for food.'

The five-apartment complex was built by the owner about seven years ago and designed to resemble a 1930s New York hotel

RT Edgar Toorak director Warwick Anderson told realestate.com.au the 1200sq m property was 'bigger than most houses'

The five-apartment complex was built by the owner about seven years ago.

He retained the ground floor for himself and designed it to resemble a 1930s New York hotel.

Mr Anderson told realestate.com.au the 1930s hotel design was so grand and true to style it fooled a National Trust member

Inside one of the bedrooms at the $14million mansion, which is currently listed for sale with Kay & Burton's Gerald Delaney

Mr Anderson told realestate.com.au the design was so grand and true to style it fooled a National Trust member.

'The detail is phenomenal,' he said.

The four-bed property has four bathrooms, an alfresco terrace and lavish main bedroom complete with its own dressing room

'The joinery isn't just wood, it's encased in bronze. The internal doors are bronze as well, and the glasswork and lights were all made specially in absolutely correct Art Deco style.

'The vendor had bronze work done in China, and the joinery work came from Budapest in Hungary.'

Mr Anderson told realestate.com.au the internal doors are bronze, and the glasswork and lights were all made Art Deco style
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 15:36:03|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- In a mountainous village in northern Beijing's Miyun District, Zheng Yan's villa, decorated with lanterns, flowers and swings, attracted some holidaymakers over the past weekend as the COVID-19 epidemic is waning in the capital.

"I am living a quite fulfilling life here," said 37-year-old Zheng. "None of the residents in my village worry about food or clothing."

Zheng is a bed and breakfast (B&B) operator as Zhangjiafen Village is moving forward with rural tourism. She sank her teeth into B&B seven years ago, with a current annual income of about 80,000 yuan (11,426 U.S. dollars). Around 40 households in the village are running the same business.

Zhangjiafen Village is so off the radar that many Chinese may not know it exists. Its recent popularity can be partly attributed to Deng Yufen, who was recognized as a "heroic mother," and the story of her family over 80 years ago.

A few kilometers away, shattered stone hovels are scattered on a forested mountain which used to be the old site of the village. In 1933, the Japanese aggressors invaded Miyu. So the villagers hid on the mountain and built stone hovels to flee from the persecution. Deng was among them.

Deng sent five of her seven sons to the battleground, and four of them lost their lives. She was later overwhelmed by the news that her husband also died in the war.

"My great-grandma was grieved but never crushed. She was determined to do more to safeguard her motherland," said Ren Hongwei, great-grandson of Deng.

In 2012, a statue of Deng was set up by the government of Miyun District to commemorate her sacrifices and contribution to China's resistance war against the Japanese aggression.

"Her spirit has encouraged all the villagers here, and they are working hard toward a better life despite difficulties and hardship. In the meantime, inspired by her story, many tourists come to visit this village, which further helps boost the tourism industry while increasing our incomes," Zheng said.

Boasting a magnificent natural environment and cooler summers, Zhangjiafen Village has seen booming agritainment in recent years. Last year, the village received around 30,000 tourists from home and abroad.

"Nestled in the hills and surrounded by water, this place has drawn a great deal of visitors from home and abroad. In 2010, some villagers came up with the idea of running B&B so that tourists could stay over rather than rushing to leave before nightfall," said Zheng Yunlong, Party chief of Zhangjiafen Village.

He said the idea evolved with support from the village and the township government which helped set up a tourism cooperative, empowering more local residents to start B&B business.

Thanks to its rapid development, the per capita net income of the village reached around 29,000 yuan in 2019, with all the villagers moving to new villas.

"Our village has witnessed history and tremendous changes in China over the past decades. We will continue to contribute to China's goal to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects," Zheng Yunlong said. Enditem
BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has been placed under home quarantine after his elder brother Snehashish tested COVID-19 positive.

Sourav went into self-isolation on Wednesday hours after Snehashish's report came positive and was admitted to the Belle Vue hospital in Kolkata.

Sourav went into home quarantine as part of the standard procedure to protect himself from the deadly virus.

Snehashish had moved into his family's ancestral home in Behala, where Sourav also lives, after his wife and in-laws at his Mominpur residence came out positive for COVID-19 earlier in June.

Snehashish had a temperature for the last few days after which he was tested for coronavirus.

"He was suffering from fever for the last few days and his test report came positive today. He's been admitted to Belle Vue Hospital," a CAB official told PTI.

The former India captain was, however, unavailable for a comment on the development.

Recently, during an interview with India Today, Sourav spoke about how life around him has changed, making people more vulnerable.

"My brother visits our factories every day and he is more at risk," the former batting star had said.
AUSTIN, Texas - Signs in the Texas Panhandle urged voters to wear masks. Polling precincts were already staffed thin because some election workers backed out of the states primary runoffs, cautious about the coronavirus that socked the rural meatpacking region in May.

By and large, most voters covered their faces, even though Texas mask mandate exempts polling locations. Others adamantly made clear they wouldnt.

Its kind of along the same lines you see in other parts of Texas  there is a faction theyre not going to wear a mask unless absolutely required, said Melynn Huntley, Potter Countys elections administrator. And even then, theyre going to try not to.

Two weeks after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott ordered most of the states 30 million residents to wear masks, Texas is still scrambling to contain one of the biggest coronavirus surges in the U.S., and Abbott is stressing that the widespread use of face coverings could avoid another lockdown - one he hasnt ruled out. On Wednesday, Texas again set a new high with nearly 10,800 new cases, along with a record 110 deaths.

The rising toll includes 35 deaths that officials on the Texas-Mexico border said happened Wednesday morning alone in Hidalgo County. That was more than twice the number of new deaths reported in Harris County  which has five times the population  and where Texas largest school district decided that Houston public schools would not only postpone the first day of class but conduct the first six weeks of learning online.

For those people who think this virus is a joke, that its made up, not real, that its not having an impact, I want you to take a look at that chart, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said, waving to a graphic listing biographical details about the new deaths.

Although it remains too early to tell the impact since Texas mask order was announced before the Fourth of July weekend, other former holdouts to requiring face coverings continued relenting Wednesday. Republican Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama announced a statewide mask order just a few weeks after saying enforcing one would be next to impossible.

Walmart also said it will require customers to wear face coverings at all of its namesake and Sams Club stores, and the companys clout as the largest retailer in the U.S. is expected to push others to issue similar mandates.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been consistent about recommending people cover their mouth and nose when around others to help reduce the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. But mask mandates have been highly politicized by President Donald Trump and many of his ardent supporters. Some Texas sheriffs have said they wont enforce Abbotts orders.

Others in Texas lament that residents still dont know the rules. On the border, Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino relayed with exasperation how he watched a video on social media of a family celebrating a birthday and priding themselves on social distancing, but saying they didnt need to wear masks because they were all relatives.

Therein lies the problem, he said.

But he and other local officials in Texas say a mask mandate is not enough given Texas trajectory and have called on Abbott to restore their powers to shut down local businesses. On Wednesday, officials in the Rio Grande Valley learned that a Christian relief charity that set up a field hospital in New York during the early days of the pandemic would not be putting one up on the border, even after the organization headed by the Rev. Franklin Graham toured the area this week.

I think we need to shut it down for two weeks, take control of the situation, Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez told The Monitor newspaper in McAllen. Yes theres going to be financial consequences and other consequences to it, but how can you let this go?

Abbott has pushed back.

If we were to shut down for two weeks, as some people are asking, once we open back up you would then see things begin to spread again, Abbott told Houston television station KTRK on Wednesday. Until there are medications to slow the spread of the coronavirus, there is only one thing that can slow the spread and that is by people adopting the use of wearing a face guard of some sort whenever they go out.

____

Lozano reported from Houston.
Houston Texans wide receiver Kenny Stills was arrested Tuesday night during a protest for Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, according to multiple reports.

Stills was among the 87 protesters who were arrested and face felony charges after protesters marched to the home of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron to demand action against the police officers who shot and killed Breonna Taylor in March. Taylor was killed when she was shot eight times by police after officers broke down the door to her Louisville apartment while executing a no-knock warrant in a narcotics investigation on March 13.

Taylors death, along with death of George Floyd in May, has sparked protests about police brutality and racial injustice across the country.

Stills was charged with intimidating a participant in the legal process, a felony, as well a second-degree misdemeanor disorderly conduct and third-degree criminal trespass charges. He was released Wednesday morning.

Stills was among the protesters who sat on Camerons lawn and refused to leave when told by police, according to a statement by the Louisville Metro Police Department.

Due to their refusal to leave the property and their attempts to influence the decision of the Attorney General with their actions, each person was charged with Intimidating a Participant in a Legal Process (Class D felony), Disorderly Conduct 2nd Degree (Class B misdemeanor), and Criminal Trespass 3rd Degree. (Violation).

Stills posted on his Twitter account that he was Arrested for peacefully protesting. While Breonnas (sic) Taylors murderers are still out on the street.

Good trouble with my brothers and sisters- organized by @untilfreedom.



Arrested for peacefully protesting. While Breonnas Taylors murderers are still out on the street.#ArrestTheCops #JusticeForBreonna#BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/GmJUjl7Ezv  Kenny Stills (@KSTiLLS) July 15, 2020

-- Geoffrey C. Arnold | @geoffreyCarnold
CAIRO - The U.N. environment chief said Wednesday that time is running out to avert an environmental, economic and humanitarian catastrophe from a deteriorating oil tanker loaded with 1.1 million barrels of crude oil that is moored off the coast of Yemen.

Inger Andersen told the U.N. Security Council that an oil spill from the FSO Safer, which hasnt been maintained for over five years, would wreck ecosystems and livelihoods for decades.

Prevention of such a crisis from precipitating is really the only option, she said. Despite the difficult operational context, no effort should be spared to first conduct a technical assessment and initial light repairs.

Houthi rebels, who control the area where the ship is moored, have denied U.N. inspectors access to the vessel so they could assess the damage and look for ways to secure the tanker by unloading the oil and pulling the ship to safety. But the rebels recently signalled they would approve a U.N. mission to the ship, according to the U.N.

Internal documents obtained by The Associated Press last month show that seawater has entered the engine compartment of the tanker, causing damage to pipes and increasing the risk of sinking. Rust has covered parts of the tanker and the inert gas that prevents the tanks from gathering inflammable gases, has leaked out. Experts say maintenance is no longer possible because the damage to the ship is irreversible, according to an AP report June 26.

The U.N. humanitarian affairs chief, Mark Lowcock, said a leak in the tanker in May brought us closer than ever to an environmental catastrophe.

He expressed skepticism about last weeks Houthi offer to allow a U.N. mission to the ship. He recalled that the Houthis announced a similar initiative in August, only to cancel it on the night before the planned visit.

We have, of course, been here before, he said, urging the rebels to take steps that will spare millions of their fellow citizens from yet another tragedy.

The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels control western Yemens Red Sea ports, including Ras Issa, 6 kilometres (3.7 miles) from where the FSO Safer has been moored since the 1980s. They are at war with the internationally recognized government, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition and the United States.

The Japanese-built tanker was sold to the Yemeni government in 1980s to store up to 3 million barrels pumped from oil fields in Marib province before it was exported. The ship is 360 metres (1,181 feet) long with 34 storage tanks.

The U.N. environment program chief, urged the international community to come up with a response plan should an oil spill occur. The tanker could release four times more oil than the notorious Exxon Valdez disaster did, off Alaska in 1989, she said.

Time is running out for us to act in a co-ordinated manner to prevent a looming environmental, economic and humanitarian catastrophe, Anderson said.
Yew Grove Reit says its annual rent roll has increased to 11.1m from 10.6m following a number of lettings including Birch House, Millennium Park in Naas.

The Naas property has been let to retail giant Aldi over a 15 year period, with a break option at 10 years and will provide the Dublin-listed company with around 690,000 in annual rent.

The company has also recently agreed a number of other lettings, including a vacant retail space in the Bridge Centre, in Tullamore to an Irish financial institution for 10 years with an annual rent of 25,000.

On the back of this activity, vacancy across Yew Grove Reits portfolio has reduced to 7.8pc from 10.5pc, according to a trading update.

Meanwhile, the company said it expects 98pc of its third quarter contracted rent to be paid in the current quarter, with 97pc of rent for the period already collected.

Jonathan Laredo, CEO of Yew Grove, said: "Despite the strains imposed on businesses by the crisis, the strength of our tenant covenant continues to be reflected in the robust performance of our rent roll and the stability of our portfolio valuation and I am pleased that the strong performance we saw in the second quarter has been repeated.

Yew Groves portfolio has a current market value of just over 141m, a reduction of 15,000 from the year end valuation at December 31 on a pro forma basis.

The Government, foreign direct investment firms, and large businesses account for around 95pc of the group's rental income, with the remainder coming from small and medium firms (SMEs).

Commenting on the statement from Yew Grove, Colm Lauder,analyst at Goodbody, said it is a very solid update from YEW which has out performed our expectations for the period.

He added that the letting of Birch House in Naas is a strong vote of confidence for the location and for the continued level of demand for high quality regional office space, that a large multinational is willing to close a transaction of this size at a rental level that is in line with pre-Covid expectations.
The reality is weve been working at this for two years and bills are coming due, Sanders said. Theres only so long you can get free rent or hold off the bank. If I could wait until things calmed down a bit and everyone was ready, would I? Yes. Absolutely. The reality is were incapable of doing so.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian urged Baghdad on Thursday to "dissociate" itself from boiling regional tensions, hinting at dissatisfaction with unilateral Iranian and American strikes on Iraqi territory.

Iraq has been caught for years in the power struggle between its two main allies Washington and Tehran, but has had to walk an increasingly fine line since 2018, when the US began a "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran.

In January, a US drone strike on Baghdad killed top Iranian and Iraqi officials, and Tehran retaliated with strikes against American troops based in western Iraq.

Baghdad "should dissociate itself from regional tensions," Le Drian warned after meeting with his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein.

France has been a top member of the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group, which Iraq declared defeated in late 2017 after three years of warfare.

"The world should not drop its guard against the Islamic State group," Le Drian said.

"The coalition's aim at its core is to fight IS, and it should for no reason be derailed from this central mission," he added.

His comments appeared to hint at widespread frustration among Western diplomats at Washington's unilateral strikes against Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq.

They fear that these attacks would prompt a backlash against the coalition as a whole, not just US soldiers.

Following the US killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in January, Iraq's parliament voted to oust all foreign troops.

Le Drian is the first Western diplomat to visit Baghdad since Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi took office in May, although he has travelled to Iraq on many occasions.

He is also expected to meet Kadhemi and Iraqi President Barham Saleh on his one-day visit.

He said France "backed (Kadhemi's) first decisions," including efforts to fight government corruption and rein in rogue groups firing rockets at foreign troops and diplomats.

France would also facilitate $1.1 billion for "major projects in construction, transportation, energy and water," Le Drian announced.

Iraq's public infrastructure has been worn down by years of warfare and poor investment, but low oil prices have forced it to cut state spending on improving services.

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- Ces Drilon announced sad and shocking news with her fans and followers on Twitter

- Drilon revealed that she has lost her job on ABS-CBN after the network was refused a franchise renewal by the Congress

- She was heading ABS-CBNs lifestyle ecosystem and serving as the executive editor of the ANC-X website before she lost her job

- The journalist admitted that the day she learned about the unfortunate news was one of the toughest days in her life

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Photo from Ces Drilon's Instagram

Source: Instagram

Ces Drilon took to social media to share a sad news with her fans and followers on Twitter.

KAMI learned that Drilon announced that she has lost her job on ABS-CBN after the network was refused a franchise renewal by the Congress.

The veteran journalist was heading ABS-CBNs lifestyle ecosystem and serving as the executive editor of the ANC-X website before she lost her job.

She admitted that the day she learned about the unfortunate news was one of the toughest days in her life.

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This was one of the toughest days I had to face.

Telling fellow kapamilyas that they would lose their jobs by end of August. I lost mine too, Drilon tweeted.

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The ABS-CBN shutdown is one of the most controversial issues in the Philippines these days. Supporters of the network claim that the ABS-CBN is being unfairly targeted for political reasons.

Many famous stars have expressed their reaction to the closure of the Kapamilya network. Angel Locsin admitted to getting emotional over the decision against the network.

Anne Curtis also admitted to getting heartbroken over what happened to ABS-CBN. As for Vice Ganda, he walked out during the opening segment of Its Showtime since he could not contain his emotions.

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!

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The wines of Henri Jayer: the godfather of Burgundy

As a rare six-magnum case of 1er Cru Cros Parantoux comes to Christies London on 28 July, International Director and Master of Wine Tim Triptree celebrates the legendary vintner who produced it

Henri Jayer (1922-2006) was one of the worlds most influential winemakers, a name on a par with Dom Perignon, Emile Peynaud, Lalou Bize-Leroy and Anne-Claude Leflaive. His wines are highly sought after, not only because they are among the most delicious, beguiling and extraordinary red wines ever produced, but also because they were made in tiny volumes from his small holdings of some of the best terroirs in and around Vosne-Romanee in the Cote de Nuits region of Burgundy. Jayers first vintage dates back to 1945; between then and 2001, he would produce 56 more. Since his death in 2006 at the age of 84, his silky and seductive Pinot Noirs have grown ever rarer, creating a cult following among connoisseurs and collectors the world over. His wines are certainly among the finest I have ever tasted, particularly the Richebourg, Echezeaux and Cros Parantoux, says Christies International Director of Wine, Tim Triptree MW.

A true believer that care of the vineyard was fundamental to producing fine Burgundy, Jayer was meticulous in tending his vines and vinifying his wines. He minimised treatments, oversaw rigorous grape selection, kept yields low, and harvested at optimum ripeness. To extract as much fruit intensity as possible, while also adding colour and flavour, he insisted on total de-stemming, as well as four or five days of cold maceration at 15C before fermentation. He used only natural yeasts, thereby adding complexity and individuality to his wines. And he refrained from filtration, retaining nuance, multi-levelled complexity, texture and concentration. Jayer was also responsible for the resurrection of the Cros Parantoux vineyard, which was in a sorry state after the Second World War. Beginning in the 1950s, he managed to purchase small plots from its myriad owners and replant the vineyard with Pinot Noir.

Cros Parantoux at Vosne-Romanee, with a wall of rocks that Henri Jayer cleared from the vineyard himself. On the left of the wall is Richebourg. Photo:  Jon Wyand

By 1978, he deemed the vines old enough and the grapes of sufficiently high quality to produce his first Cros Parantoux vintage; before this, the grapes had been used for his Vosne-Romanee Village. Cros Parantoux is next to Richebourg and above Les Brulees, which gives it ideal eastern exposure. At only 1.01 hectares, the Cros Parantoux Premier Cru vineyard is one of the smallest appellations in the entire Cote dOr region, but the quality and reputation of the wines produced under Jayers stewardship match any of the more illustrious Grand Cru wines.

1978 was one of the most beautiful vintages I vinified. Undoubtedly, one of the best in the century  Henri Jayer

The 1978 vintage turned out to be one of the best ever for red Burgundy. Jayer himself recognised it as one of the most beautiful vintages I vinified. Undoubtedly, one of the best in the century. He produced his last Cros Parantoux vintage in 2001.

Christies International Director of Wine, Tim Triptree MW

Jayers wines are world-famous for their intensity of flavour and extraordinary complexity, and Cros Parantoux is arguably the most sought-after example. On 28 July Christies London is offering an extremely rare six-magnum case of Henri Jayer, Vosne-Romanee 1er Cru Cros Parantoux 1996 in the Finest and Rarest Wines and Spirits sale. It could well be the final opportunity to secure six extremely rare magnums of this legendary wine. Henri Jayer: six of his finest wines Henri Jayer revolutionised viticulture and winemaking in Burgundy. Many other winemakers have subsequently adopted his techniques  and some have become standard practice. Below are six of his most sought-after creations.

The late Henri Jayer at his Echezeaux vineyard, Vosne-Romanee, in 1996. Photo:  Cephas / Mick Rock

Echezeaux Grand Cru: A jewel of the Henri Jayer estate. Jayer owned several parcels: the thin, stony soils of Les Cruots were planted with his oldest vines and provided his wines with body, richness and structure, while the deeper soils of Les Treux imparted finesse. Together, they were a match made in heaven. Vosne-Romanee 1er Cru Les Brulees: A vineyard below Cros Parantoux and Richebourg that produces powerful, structured wines. The last vintage made by Henri Jayer was in 1987, when Meo-Camuzet took over.

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BOSTON  At least three different groups of protesters took to the streets outside the State House Thursday to rally for different causes. Native American groups called for Massachusetts to change the state flag and seal, "Back the Blue" protesters opposed a police reform bill, and a group of landlords spoke out against two bills that would enact rent control for the first time since 1994.

State Flag Protest

Calls to change the state flag were renewed by Native American advocates, legislators and supporters.

Supporters have argued the Massachusetts flag is the last of the 50 states to still depict an image of white supremacy, now that Mississippi has retired the Confederate battle flag. The Massachusetts flag features a colonial broadsword held over the head of a Native American.

Advocates for changing the flag held a news conference during the protest arguing that the Black Lives Matter movement was a spark for change across the United States.

"What COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter demonstrate in plain terms is that our current social systems need structural and foundational change," said Jean-Luc Pierite, president of the Board of the North American Indian Center of Boston.

State Sen. Jason Lewis added "it's our responsibility to tell our history truthfully" and replace images and symbols that reinforce racist stereotypes and white supremacy.

'Back the Blue' Protest

"Back the Blue" protesters opposed a police reform bill following the death of George Floyd.

Another group flocked to the State House to protest a police reform bill that passed the Senate earlier this week. Protesters carried signs with a variety of messages such as "Back the blue" and "Stop the madness. Defend first responders."

The Senate bill, which was developed after weeks of public protest around the country in response to the death George Floyd in Minnesota, would impose a new level of oversight on police that has been proposed for years on Beacon Hill but has failed to gain traction until now.



Story continues

The bill would also scale back legal protection for police and other public employees that currently shields them from civil lawsuits unless there was a clearly established violation of law. Democratic leaders, including U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, weighed in to support the effort of Senate leaders to limit qualified immunity, while the state's largest police union singled out that provision as one that would leave police officers second-guessing themselves on the job.



The thrust of the bill is to create a new independent commission  the Police Officer Standards and Accreditation Committee  that would certify all law enforcement officers and give the independent agency the power to renew, revoke or otherwise modify their licenses.

The new committee could also conduct investigations into allegations of misconduct, including excessive use of force. Police would need to be recertified every three years and the state would maintain a searchable database for police departments hiring new officers to review an applicant's history.

Protest Against Rent Control

Landlords met at the State House in Boston to protest rent control bills. (Courtesy of Lauren Pespisa.

The smallest faction of protesters was a group of landlords opposed to two bills that would impose rent control to help renters amid the coronavirus pandemic.



The state Legislature's Joint Committee on Housing endorsed two bills that would give local governments the ability to cap annual rent increases:

A bill filed by Cambridge David Rogers would let cities and towns put limits on how much landlords can increase rents each year for tenants who make 80 percent or less of the area's median income.

A bill co-sponsored by Reps. Mike Connolly of Cambridge and Nika Elugardo of Boston would use rent control as one of several options towns and cities can use as tenant-protection policies.

Gov. Charlie Baker, who has said rent control is "exactly the wrong direction we should go" to solve the state's housing crisis, opposes the bills. Baker has instead proposed lower voting thresholds for local zoning changes to increase new housing construction.

This article originally appeared on the Boston Patch
WASHINGTON  After winning a commutation from the president, Donald Trump's longtime ally Roger Stone alleged two of Trump's top defenders advocated against clemency for him, naming Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in multiple interviews.

A spokeswoman for Stefanik said Thursday the congresswoman did not intervene in the case.

"Congresswoman Stefanik has never advocated on any pardoning matters with the president," Stephanie McBath said. "Stefanik believes that all pardoning issues are the president's decisions to make."

Stone, who was convicted on charges of lying to Congress and threatening a witness, told conservative Charlie Kirk on his podcast that Stefanik and McCarthy opposed his pardon because "it might cost the Republicans seats." Stone claimed Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, stood up for Stone privately and publicly as Trump considered the pardon.

Stone also told FoxNews Radio, "Kevin McCarthy and Elise Stefanik were lobbying the president against any act of clemency. They, I guess, wanted me to die in a fetid, squalid hellhole in Georgia of coronavirus."

Politico cited an anonymous source who confirmed a pardon or commutation for Stone was discussed when Stefanik and McCarthy flew with Trump to Florida for the SpaceX launch. The source said Stefanik and McCarthy advised Trump to wait until after the election. Stefanik's spokeswoman said the article was "inaccurate."

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Stefanik served on Trump's impeachment defense team and has campaigned for his re-election around the country. McBath said Stefanik believes the investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who examined links between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia and uncovered the crimes of multiple Trump associates including Stone, was "corrupt and political."

Stone's comments represent a rare rebuke of Stefanik from the Trump team. Trump has in the past called her a "rising star."

Trump commuted Stone's sentence on July 10, erasing his prison time. Stone was scheduled to start his 40-month prison sentence this month.
As a young mother, Cunningham was devoted to her firstborn child, now 20, for the first several years of his life and even was a licensed foster parent for a brief time in 2011 for another boy. But, according to public records and courtroom testimony, her life had begun to unravel not long afterward amid a volatile 2012 divorce and the protracted custody battle with her mother in 2013 over the oldest son.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Yale pharmacology professor Barbara Ehrlich and her team have uncovered a mechanism driving a rare, lethal disease called Wolfram Syndrome and also a potential treatment. Their findings appear in the July 6 edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Wolfram Syndromea progressive degenerative disease that affects about one in 500,000 people worldwideis characterized by the onset of diabetes in childhood, and, in teen years, psychiatric symptoms, loss of vision, deafness, and incontinence. Most patients die in their 30s. There are no treatments.

The new study confirms that calcium inside the body's cells play a key role, and proposes a potential treatment involving two existing drugs.

Specifically, Ehrlich's team confirmed that when the protein Wolframin is lost in cells in the pancreasthe organ that produces insulin, which regulates blood sugar"calcium signaling goes awry," Ehrlich said. This, the team found, results in reduced cell viability and lower insulin secretion, which, in turn, triggers the debilitating symptoms of the disease.

The researchers tested a number of compounds for their effectiveness in restoring calcium signaling and improving cell functions, and found two drugs that workedibudilast and a calpain inhibitor. Ibudilast has been approved for nearly 20 years to treat asthma in South Korea and Japan. It is now being tested in a number of clinical trials in the U.S., including for possible treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and, in a trial underway at Yale, for COVID-19.

Some 99% of the body's calcium can be found in the bones and teeth. The other 1%found in solution inside cells and bodily fluidssupports a variety of critical biological functions, said Ehrlich. It is this latter form of calcium that her lab has scrutinized in relation to Wolfram Syndrome. This fluid-based calcium is necessary for muscle contraction, nerve function, and insulin secretion, she said.

"Calcium is a signaling molecule," Ehrlich said. "It will signal, for instance, when insulin should be secreted."

Calcium signaling, in turn, is regulated by calcium-binding proteins, including neuronal calcium sensor-1 (NCS-1), a protein Ehrlich's lab has studied for the past 20 years. When a research group from Europe proposed that NCS-1 was involved in Wolfram Syndrome pathology, Ehrlich started investigating the disease.

"The first step was to better understand what the protein Wolframin does," said Tom T. Fischer, a medical student from Germany working in Ehrlich's lab. "In our cell model that is lacking Wolframin, we measured intracellular calcium and found that calcium signaling as well as calcium-dependent cell functions, particularly insulin secretion and cell viability, were disrupted."

They then tested a number of drug compounds and found that ibudilast and the calpain inhibitor restored intracellular calcium and cell functions, Fischer said.

With support from the Blavantik Fund for Innovation at Yale, Ehrlich's team will begin a mouse study within the next six months to further confirm the effectiveness of the drugs in correcting calcium signaling and preventing the progression of Wolfram Syndrome. If the results of the animal study show promise, the researchers said, they could move quickly into human trials.

Although Wolfram Syndrome is a rare disease caused by genetic mutations in a single gene, it is tied to a number of other diseases that could be viable targets for this treatment, including diabetes and bipolar disorder, the researchers said.

"Some people with bipolar disorder also have mutations in Wolframin," Ehrlich said. "This might be one of the first genetically identified mood disordersand we will definitely be exploring this more."

Explore further Mitochondrial dynamics impair nervous system development in Wolfram syndrome

More information: Lien D. Nguyen et al. Calpain inhibitor and ibudilast rescue  cell functions in a cellular model of Wolfram syndrome, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2020). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Lien D. Nguyen et al. Calpain inhibitor and ibudilast rescue  cell functions in a cellular model of Wolfram syndrome,(2020). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2007136117
Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister on Wednesday virtually launched the world's most affordable RT-PCR based COVID-19 diagnostic kit "Corosure" developed by IIT Delhi, and approved by the and DCGI.

Speaking on the occasion, the minister said that "Corosure"-- COVID-19 Diagnostic Kit developed by is a step towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a self-reliant India, read a release.

He said that the country requires cheap and reliable testing which can help to control the pandemic.

"The Corosure Kit has been developed indigenously and is much cheaper than other kits. Our Prime Minister has always been encouraging the youth of the country to come forward and ensure a healthier India especially in the times of COVID 19 pandemic with their innovative research. The kit has received approval with the highest score and DCGI approved with a very high sensitivity and specificity," Pokhriyal said.

He said that the affordable detection kit will help the country amid the ongoing crisis.

Pokhriyal stated that "Corosure", the probe-free diagnostic kit has been manufactured by Delhi NCR-based Newtech Medical Devices.

The minister appreciated that a leading educational institution under MHRD and a private company have joined hands during this epidemic in the interest of the nation.

Pokhriyal informed that the diagnostic kit developed by IIT Delhi, which will be now available for use by the authorised testing labs with this launch, will significantly bring down the cost of COVID-19 RT-PCR testing.

"The base price of the RT-PCR assay is Rs 399. Even after adding the RNA isolation and laboratory charges, the cost per test will be considerably cheaper compared to currently available kits in the market," the release said.

The minister said that has given license to 10 companies to manufacture COVID-19 diagnostic kit using the technology developed by its researchers.

MoS for HRD Sanjay Dhotre, Secretary, Higher Education, Amit Khare and senior officials of the Ministry were present during the launch.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
(Representative Image: AP/Manish Swarup)

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Even as millions of workers have gone back home from cities amidst the lockdown, there hasnt been much of an impact on many establishments in these locations.

However, once demand picks up during festive season, the pinch will be felt, says said Lohit Bhatia, President-Workforce Management, Quess Corp.

In an interaction with Moneycontrol, Bhatia said that there has been a massive exodus of about 25 million workers. About 110-120 million people in Indian cities are migrants. The government had said that about one-fourth of these migrants have gone back home. When we enter the festive season from August onwards, when the economy usually picks up, establishments will feel the crunch, he said.

Right now, since factories and establishments are working with truncated daily hours, the shortage is not visible. But once the working hours are extended, there will be staff shortage.

Also, with instances like workers contracting COVID-19 in manufacturing plants, as in the case of Bajaj Auto recently, migrant workers may be reluctant to move back to cities.

Only 33 percent workers are allowed to come to the workplace right now, as per the standard operating protocols for commercial units issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Further, these units have to ensure that workers have full access to safety products like masks, sanitisers and gloves. Canteens and assembly areas, too, have to maintain a distance of at least 6 feet between employees at all times.

Formalisation of labour

Currently, about 85 percent of the 495 million workers in India belong to the unorganised sector, with informal jobs and no social security. Bhatia believes that the Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSME) package announced by the government will pave way for the formalisation of labour.

The MSME definition has been tweaked to categorise companies based on their turnover rather than investment. Further, the Rs 3 lakh crore collateral-free loans for 4.5 million MSMEs would help them to expand their business. Once business expands, hiring will increase. With higher number of employees, there will be a need to formalise daily business operations, including hiring, he added.

When it comes to formalisation of jobs, he said that it is still early days. Look at a storekeeper in a kirana store versus one working at a store in a mall. The government has called for proper employment records, with ESIC/medical insurance across all establishments. Once this is implemented, by say, having surprise visits by labour commissioners to kirana stores and surprise checks of ESIC/medical insurance for workers, it would be successful, he added.

Bhatia is of the view that instead of spending several crores in schemes like MGNREGA (rural employment guarantee), Ayushman Bharat (health insurance) or food distribution, there is a need to formalise employment and have social security schemes for workers.
Victoria has recorded 317 new cases of coronavirus - its worst ever daily figure - as the state's second wave continues to grow.

Two men in their 80s died overnight, taking the state's death toll to 29 and the national death toll to 113.

There are 109 people in hospital in Victoria, with 29 in intensive care.

Just 28 of the new cases announced on Thursday were connected to known outbreaks, while the sources of the other 289 were unknown - suggesting widespread community transmission.

Melburnians exercise along Elwood Beach on Tuesday (pictured) as the city suffers a six-week lockdown due to a spike in infections

A man and woman wearing a facemask walking along Lygon Street in Melbourne on Wednesday (pictured) as Victoria endured an 11th straight day of triple-digit infections

Where are the cases? Al-Taqwa College: 157 cases HWL Ebsworth lawyers: 6 cases Somerville retail service: 37 cases Menarock aged care facility: 31 cases St Basil's homes for the aged: 5 cases Glendale aged care: 23 cases Estia health aged care: 21 cases JBS abattoir: 29 cases Advertisement

The state has 160 outbreaks ongoing, including in offices, aged care homes and schools.

There are 157 cases now linked to Al-Taqwa College and six cases linked to HWL Ebsworth lawyers in Melbourne.

Premier Daniel Andrews was not yet prepared to move to draconian Stage-4 lockdowns but said Melburnians must be vigilant if that was to be prevented.

'It's well too early for us to be moving to a whole new stage,' he said.

'If you want to make that less likely, if you want to get out of these sort of restrictions as fast as as possible, then we all have to play our part.'

Victoria Police issued $107,000 in fines in 24 hours leading up to Thursday's announcement, many to people who were at illegal parties. Gatherings of more than two are banned in Melbourne.

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the numbers may get worse.

'We not have hit our peak,' he said.

But he was hopeful that the figures will come down once the lockdown kicks in.

'I expect it to turn around this week. But as I always said, it's no guarantee,' he said.

Meanwhile, New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian has vowed to avoid locking down her state despite fears Victoria's outbreak is spreading north of the border.

'We can't keep going into lockdown and that is something we need to avoid at all costs,' she told KIIS radio.

Victoria has suffered a triple-digit increase in cases for the past ten days.

Asked if Sydney would be locked down if it saw the same infection numbers, Ms Berejiklian said: 'We would avoid that happening.'

With around one million Australians on the dole, the premier is desperate to avoid the economic damage that further lockdowns would bring.

She also ruled out suburb-by-suburb lockdown as tried in 12 postcodes in north-west Melbourne.

New South Wales recorded 13 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, with ten of those cases coming from the Crossroads Hotel outbreak (pictured)

Sydney residents have been warned to watch for symptoms if they have visited one of these places, which were attended by people who have tested positive

Ms Berejiklian said locking down a suburb where an outbreak happens is ineffective because people who may have been infected there travel 'all over Sydney'.

'It's all or nothing. You can't lockdown a suburb, because [people who have passed through] live elsewhere,' she said.

Health officials are trying to control an outbreak linked to the Crossroads Hotel in Casula, south-west Sydney.

The outbreak is understood to have began when an infected freight driver, known as Patient Zero, went to a work party at the pub after driving from Melbourne.

But Ms Berejiklian said her concern was that community transmission was happening before the border shut down, without being picked up on.

Ms Berejiklian wants to avoid having to shut down gyms (pictured in Sydney on Monday) and other businesses even if virus cases continue to grow

Melbourne is suffering 160 separate outbreaks. Pictured: Map showing some of the outbreaks on Wednesday

'Our case numbers are relatively low but what we don't know is if there was community spread months ago when people from Sydney and Melbourne were moving in and out.

'Things can get out of control very quickly,' she warned.

The premier said Victorian officials failed to spot community transmission was happening before it was too late.

'They didn't pick it up early enough. People who should have stayed at home didn't know they had to stay at home or didn't stay at home and then that spreads through the community

'We're hoping that hasn't happened here in New South Wales.'

NSW Health reported 10 new COVID-19 cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Wednesday from almost 23,000 tests, with six cases locally acquired.

Three-of-the-six cases - a child of a known case, a man in his 30s who was a contact of a known case and a male patron in his 80s - are connected to the Crossroads Hotel in Casula, which an infected Melbourne man attended on July 3.

At least 21 of the 37 known cases in the cluster were hotel patrons.

NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said two other cases had arisen since 8pm on Wednesday, including a teen who attended the Hurricane Grill in Brighton-Le-Sands on July 11 with a known case. The site has been closed for cleaning.

Another case involved a NSW man who returned to Ballina from Melbourne on Jetstar flight JQ466, with all passengers on that flight being contact traced.

Pictured: The Crossroads Hotel in Casula, in Sydney's south-west which has become a coronavirus cluster

'Obviously we are concerned when we find cases that can't be linked back because it does indicate we have missed a chain,' Dr Chant told reporters on Thursday.

Dr Chant this week warned COVID-19 clusters would pop up because of the 'stealthy' nature of the virus and the rapidity with which the virus could spread.

NSW Health on Wednesday confirmed the 'patient zero' of the outbreak was most likely a Melbourne freight company employee who attended the Crossroads Hotel on July 3 for a work party. Six of his colleagues have since caught COVID-19.

The man entered NSW on June 30, before the state's border with Victoria closed.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard warned it was unrealistic to expect the state to frequently record zero COVID-19 cases as the virus could bubble away under the surface.

Mr Hazzard told 2GB radio on Thursday that young Australians in particular needed to keep in mind the consequences of their actions amid the pandemic.

Medical workers are seen giving coronavirus tests in Sydney's Bondi on Tuesday (pictured) amid fears the Melbourne outbreak may spread to NSW

'If they happen to have the virus they can be super-spreaders with great skill and acumen,' he said.

'We've got a young bloke from that latest cluster ... he had one of the highest infection levels that we've ever seen.'

NSW Health on Wednesday also named several venues where confirmed COVID-19 cases spent time including the YMCA at Revesby, Wests Leagues Club at Leumeah, Macarthur Tavern in Campbelltown and Casula Kmart.

The Milky Lane burger joint in Parramatta and the Bavarian Macarthur restaurant in Campbelltown were later added to the list as well as Woolworths in Bowral.

A man wearing sunglasses and a facemask walks towards parliament house in Melbourne

Scott Morrison announces new $1BILLION JobTrainer scheme to help 340,000 Australians to find jobs - and expands plan to cover apprentices' wages

Thousands of Australians will be able to take new courses to help them get a job under Scott Morrison's $1billion JobTrainer plan which he will announce on Thursday.

Dozens of new short courses at TAFE and other registered training organisations will be available from September as around one million Aussies look for work during an economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The free or low-cost courses will prepare workers for jobs in expanding sectors including healthcare, social care, transport, postal services and warehousing, manufacturing and retail.

Alongside the scheme, the Prime Minister will expand the apprentice wage subsidy to cover half the wages of eligible apprentices by up to $530 per week until March 2021.

Thousands of Australians will be able to take new courses to help them get a job under Scott Morrison's $1billion JobTrainer plan. Pictured: A retail worker at a Sydney shopping centre

The federal government will hand over $1.5billion - in addition to the $1.3billion already pumped into the scheme - to pay 50 per cent of apprentices' wages.

At the moment the program helps 47,000 small-business employers keep 81,000 apprentices and trainees in work and training.

The policy will now extend to medium businesses with fewer than 200 employees, meaning the scheme will help around 90,000 businesses employing around 180,000 apprentices.

The program will also be extended by six months to cover wages paid up to March 2021.

It is estimated that 340,000 Australians, including up to 250,000 teenagers who are leaving school this year, will take the new TAFE courses.

The federal government is contributing $500million towards the JobTrainer scheme and the states and territories will together tip in another $500million.

The courses, which will be free or low cost, will prepare workers for jobs in expanding sectors including healthcare, social care, transport, postal services (pictured) and warehousing, manufacturing and retail

Mr Morrison discussed the plan with state and territory leaders at the National Cabinet meeting on Friday and talks are ongoing to work out a full list of courses and their fees.

The new National Skills Commission will provide a list of skills that are in demand to help unemployed people chose a course that will lead to a job.

'JobTrainer will ensure more Australians have the chance to reskill or upskill to fill the jobs on the other side of this crisis,' the Prime Minister said.

'COVID-19 is unprecedented but I want Australians to be ready for the sorts of jobs that will come as we build back and recover.

'The jobs and skills we'll need as we come out of the crisis are not likely to be the same as those that were lost.'
But a full-scale second wave could arrive as early as mid-September, a specter that is troubling to experts and advocates. They urge that steps be taken now to curb the number of future deaths, and in interviews they recommend seven staffing policies that they say could protect residents and staff.

"There are certain things that would cost more to do, but the real cost is loss of life for the failure to do things, says Elaine Ryan, AARP vice president for state advocacy and strategy integration. AARP is urging Congress to require COVID-19 testing of staff and residents, provide personal protective equipment (PPE) to staff and have enough staff to meet residents needs.

Several sources mentioned the story of a small assisted living facility in Bristol, Connecticut. In mid-March, Tyson Belanger, owner of Shady Oaks Assisted Living, brought 22 staff members to live on-site full time to prevent them from carrying in the virus as they went about their lives in the community between Hartford and Waterbury.

The last live-in staff members left after 70 days, and the home had no coronavirus cases, he said in a telephone interview. As of July 7, the facility continued to have no cases, according to a report from the Connecticut Department of Public Health.

This won't work for most places  Belanger spent about $250,000 of his own money on payroll and supplies  but Belanger's experience shows how employees play a key role in the health of residents in long-term care. To date, 1,071 cases and 371 deaths have been reported among Connecticut assisted living residents; 8,850 cases and 2,755 deaths among the state's nursing home patients.

"Research shows the prevalence of COVID-19 in skilled nursing facilities is correlated to the COVID-19 rate in the community, the size of the facility, and proximity to an urban area, but not staffing ratios or other quality metrics, officials at the American Health Care Association, the largest nursing home trade group, wrote in response to staffing questions from AARP. So the more a surrounding community has COVID-19 in the general population, especially in densely populated communities, the more it is likely to end up in a nursing home."

Here are seven practical changes that can protect staff members and improve their working conditions.

1. Increase pay

Workers should be paid more so they need to work only one job to make ends meet, say several experts, including Sal Rosselli, president of the California-based National Union of Healthcare Workers. The need to work at two or three places to equal full-time pay potentially spreads the virus.

Nonunion nursing home workers often make only minimum wage, and union workers $18 an hour, Rosselli says. Nursing assistants make a median wage of $12.84 an hour, one report found.

2. Start paying for sick leave

Many nursing homes do not give staffers a paid day off when they're sick. So ailing employees may feel financial pressure to work.

This year's Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which requires certain employers to provide workers with up to 80 hours of sick leave at their regular pay rate and up to 80 more hours at two-thirds pay related to COVID-19, allows health care providers, including nursing homes, to opt out. Also part of the law that exempts health care providers: up to 10 weeks of family and medical leave at two-thirds pay.

New York enacted a more expansive state law in March that includes health care workers. Colorado officials also adopted an emergency rule the same month that includes nursing home staffers. Those provisions are in addition to laws in 12 states and the District of Columbia that offer paid sick leave to many employee groups, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Although those recovering from COVID-19 are supposed to stay home until they're free of symptoms  no fever, no cough  for 72 hours, they may decide to return early when it's unclear whether they're still contagious. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., has proposed a bill requiring at least two weeks of paid sick leave for nursing home workers.

3. Improve staffing ratios



A federal law enacted in 1990 requires facilities to have a registered nurse working eight consecutive hours daily, and licensed nurses on hand 24 hours a day. Stricter rules are needed, Charlene Harrington, professor emerita of sociology and nursing at the University of California, San Francisco, said via email.

She recommends at least one registered nurse on duty during the day for every 28 residents during the day shift, for every 30 residents in the evening and for 40 residents at night. And a June study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that among homes with at least one confirmed virus case, every 20-minute increase in registered nurse staffing was tied to 22 percent fewer confirmed cases.
The Trump administration said Wednesday it will impose travel bans on employees of the Chinese technology giant Huawei and other Chinese companies the US determines are assisting authoritarian governments in cracking down on human rights, including in Chinas western Xinjiang province.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also said the administration is finalizing plans to minimize data theft from the popular Chinese video streaming app TikTok, although he stopped short of saying it would be banned outright.

Pompeo made the announcements a day after the British government said it would ban Huawei from its 5G networks over concerns that sensitive data could be compromised by the Chinese Communist Party.

Pompeo told reporters at a State Department news conference that Huawei employees found to be providing material support to regimes engaging in human rights violations and abuses globally would be hit with sanctions.

Companies impacted by todays action include Huawei, an arm of the CCPs surveillance state that censors political dissidents and enables mass internment camps in Xinjiang and the indentured servitude of its population shipped all over China, he said. Certain Huawei employees provide material support to the CCP regime that commits human rights abuses.

Telecommunications companies around the world should consider themselves on notice: If they are doing business with Huawei, they are doing business with human rights abusers, Pompeo said.

Huawei said it was disappointed in the decision, which it called unfair.

Huawei operates independent of the Chinese government, it said in a statement. We are a private, employee-owned firm. We are disappointed by this unfair and arbitrary action to restrict visas of our employees who work tirelessly to contribute to technological innovation in the US and around the world.

At a later event sponsored by The Hill newspaper, Pompeo said the administration was also looking at how to prevent data theft from TikTok and other Chinese companies.

Whether its TikTok or any of the other Chinese communications platforms, apps, infrastructure, this administration has taken seriously the requirement to protect the American people from having their information end up in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party, he said. And so we are working through a process where all the relevant agencies and the private sector are getting to say their piece. We hope to have a set of decisions shortly which will reflect this central understanding.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters on Air Force One that administration officials are looking at the national security risks associated with TikTok, WeChat and other apps gathering information on American citizens. He said there is no deadline for action, but said it was likely weeks, not months.

It is not clear how many Huawei employees would be affected. Huawei says on its website that it has more than 194,000 employees in more than 170 countries and regions.

The US has led a worldwide campaign to convince foreign governments, particularly those in allied nations, to bar Huawei from their advanced telecommunications networks, arguing that allowing them into those systems would lead to violations of their citizens privacy.

The US has also threatened NATO and other allies with curtailments or suspensions in intelligence sharing and cooperation should they allow Huawei components or technology in their high-speed networks.
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Kaia Gerber and fellow model Cara Delevingne got VERY hands-on with one another when they were reunited at a Black Lives Matter rally held outside the Hall Of Justice in Downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday.

The pair had been in a self-professed 'quarantine crew' with some of their closest Hollywood pals at the start of the coronavirus pandemic but then spent some time apart.

The supermodel friends put on a very affectionate display as they joined the protest, holding hands and embracing, with Cara, 27, wrapping her arm around 18-year-old Kaia's waist.

Close: Kaia Gerber, 18, and pal Cara Delevingne, 27, got very hands-on with one another when they were reunited on Wednesday at a Black Lives Matter rally held outside the Hall Of Justice in Downtown Los Angeles

Affection: The supermodel friends put on a very affectionate display as they joined the protest, with Cara holding onto Kaia's waist

This isn't the first time the two models have been spotted putting on a cosy display, and in June, the duo were pictured getting hands-on at another BLM protest at Los Angeles City Hall.

In the photos, Kaia was seen with her arm around Cara as she affectionately stroked her hair while the actress leaned in to her.

The two models put on a cosy display as they raised their hands in the air and chanted with the crowd at the demonstration.

Navigating: Gerber and Delevingne held hands as they made their way through the crowd with Cara leading the way

Back in June: This isn't the first time the two models have been spotted putting on a cosy display, and in June, the duo were pictured getting hands-on at another BLM protest at Los Angeles City Hall (pictured)

Cosy: In the photos, Kaia was seen with her arm around Cara as they raised their hands in the air and chanted with the crowd

On Wednesday, Kaia showed off her slender frame in a green, floral patterned mini dress with spaghetti straps. Her bleach blonde hair was neatly parted down the middle and she appeared to be wearing minimal makeup for the outdoor event.

The daughter of Cindy Crawford, 54, had a brown designer handbag tucked under her arm and she wore a pair of white sneakers. She also appeared to be sporting a fresh manicure as she held onto Cara's hand.

At one point, Kaia stopped to talk with a fellow protester who was clinging to the back of a truck.

Chic: On Wednesday, Kaia looked stunning in her green floral mini dress and trainers, showing off her recently dyed blonde hair

Memories: The girls had been in a self-professed 'quarantine crew' with some of their closest Hollywood pals at the start of the coronavirus pandemic

Embrace: Kaia embraced Cara as they watched the protest from the crowd and placed her hands on her arms

Stylish: Cara wore a white vest top, black shorts and trainers with a bumbag which had a pride rainbow strap

Cara let her blonde strands flow out from underneath a black cap that had the phrase 'inspire or retire' embroidered on the front.

She flaunted her toned midriff in a cropped tank top and a pair of black distressed shorts that buttoned up the front.

The model had a plain black bag slung across her body and she had a fanny pack strapped to her waist which had a rainbow strap to celebrate Pride.

Careful: Both ladies were very safety conscious in their face masks due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic

Inspire or retire: Cara let her blonde strands flow out from underneath a black cap that had the phrase 'inspire or retire' embroidered on the front and showed off her inkings

Safety first: Both, Cara and Kaia, donned face masks as they stood in solidarity with protesters in the packed street

Discussion: Cara listened closely as Kaia whispered something in her ear

Cute: The models looked in great spirits as they enjoyed a cosy chat at the rally

Delevingne completed her ensemble with a pair of white trainers and some royal blue socks. Both Cara and Kaia, donned face masks as they stood in solidarity with protesters in the packed street.

The pair appeared blissfully happy in one another's company as they shared a joke and stared in each other's eyes.

They held hands throughout the day and led one another through the packed crowds.

Edgy: Cara flaunted her toned midriff in a cropped tank top and a pair of black distressed shorts that buttoned up the front

Powerful: The energy was high at the protest as they joined the crowds in fist-pumping the air

Meeting up: Cara and Kaia scoured the crowd for their actress pal Margaret Qualley, whose mother is Andie MacDowell

Finishing touches: Delevingne completed her ensemble with a pair of white trainers and some royal blue socks

Solidarity: Cara raised her fist in agreement during one of the event's many speeches

The fashion forward pair, eventually, met up with actress Margaret Qualley, 25, who was sitting in the bed of a truck. Cara greeted Margaret with a huge hug.

The Once Upon a Time in Hollywood star, whose mother is American actress Andie MacDowell kept it casual for the protest in a pair of denim overalls and a plain white tank top.

She had her lengthy brunette tresses tied up into a bun and she concealed the majority of her face with a medical grade face mask.

Brief separation: Kaia and Cara briefly separated as they ran into other people they knew at the protest

Found: The fashion forward pair, eventually, met up with Qualley who was sitting in the bed of a truck

Hugs: Cara greeted Margaret with a huge hug as they appear to go way back

Incognito: Qualley had her lengthy brunette tresses tied up into a bun and she concealed the majority of her face with a medical grade face mask

Cara joined Margaret on the truck, while Kaia remained on the sidewalk with her phone in her hand.

Cara's impromptu hangout with Kaia and Margaret in Downtown Los Angeles, comes two-months after her shocking split from Pretty Little Liars star Ashley Benson, 30.

Benson is now in a romantic relationship with rapper G-Eazy, 31.

Kaia was most recently dating SNL star Pete Davidson until December and he spoke about their time together recently.

He said: 'We were dating for a few months. Shes very young, and Im f***ing going through a lot and it was before I went to rehab,' continued the comic.

Casual: The Once Upon a Time in Hollywood kept it casual for the protest in a pair of denim overalls and a plain white tank top

United: The pair showed off their face masks as they attended the rally

Good to see you: Cara embraced Margaret in her denim dungarees and sweater

Chatty: At one point, Kaia stopped to talk with a fellow protester who was clinging to the back of a truck

'Its just like, she should be having fun. She shouldnt have to worry about some dude that just has issues and s***. She should be enjoying her work.'

He also spoke of Kaia's parents, former models Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber, saying, 'Her parents were really helpful and stuff, so theyre cool.'

Last December, Rande was heard telling his wife that Davidson was 'freaking out.'

He was snapped outside of his daughter's apartment, coming down to his waiting wife, where he was heard saying that the person upstairs - believed to be Pete Davidson - was 'freaking out' and had 'scratched eyes.'

Davidson was later seen leaving the apartment in a car down the street after his girlfriend's parents had talked.

Davidson and Kaia had started dating in October, but during the last episode of Saturday Night Live in 2019, Davidson hinted at going to rehab.

He later confirmed he'd sought treatment at the Sierra Tucson treatment center in Arizona.

Joining in: Cara joined Margaret on the truck, while Kaia remained on the sidewalk

Animated: Cara was seen gesturing at a friend as she crossed the road

Support: Kaia and Cara showed their support as they attended the rally
Netflix announced a significant leadership change Thursday, appointing Ted Sarandos, the content chief, as its co-chief executive alongside Reed Hastings.

I am excited to announce that we have appointed Ted Sarandos to be Netflix co-C.E.O. with me, and also elected him to our board of directors, Mr. Hastings said in a statement. Mr. Sarandos, 55, will continue as head of content.

The change in many ways formalizes Mr. Sarandoss role in the company. His compensation for the last few years has been equal to that of Mr. Hastings  each received about $30 million in compensation in 2019  and he has often been the face of Netflix at public events.

Mr. Sarandos said he was originally skeptical of Netflix when he was approached to join the company 20 years ago, but agreed to come aboard because of the persistence of Mr. Hastings. Im excited and honored to have been appointed co-C.E.O. of Netflix, he said in a statement.
The United Nations held an unusual session Wednesday to express fears of "catastrophe" if a decaying oil tanker abandoned off Yemen's coast with 1.1 million barrels of crude on board ruptures into the Red Sea. A breach of the 45-year-old FSO Safer, anchored off the port of Hodeida, would have disastrous results for marine life and tens of thousands of impoverished people who depend on fishing for their livelihood. The UN Security Council said it had sent details of a plan for an inspection team to conduct light repairs and determine the next steps to the Iran-backed Huthi rebels, who control Hodeida, on Tuesday. On Sunday, the UN said the Huthis had agreed in principle to the assessment. But they did the same in the summer of 2019, only to cancel a UN mission from Djibouti at the last minute. The tanker's "condition is deteriorating daily, increasing the potential for an oil spill," Inger Andersen, head of the United Nations Environment Programme, told the Council. "Time is running out for us now to act in a coordinated manner to prevent a looming environmental, economic and humanitarian catastrophe," she said. The Security Council issued a communique expressing its "deep alarm at the growing risk," and called on the Huthis to move ahead with granting access to the tanker "as soon as possible." Effectively a floating storage platform, the Safer has had virtually no maintenance for five years since war broke out in the country where the Huthis have seized much of the north from the internationally recognized government. The tanker could break up or explode, causing a disaster that experts have said could take up to 30 years for the area's ecology to recover from. A leak in the engine room had been plugged in May, but the British mission to the UN insisted that "a permanent solution is urgently needed." UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock said he hoped a UN assessment mission would be carried out "within the next few weeks." "I have briefed you 15 times over the last 15 months on the Safer tanker," he added, hinting at frustration over the lack of action. Like other economic and aid issues in Yemen, the plight of the tanker has become a bargaining chip, with the Huthis accused of using the threat of disaster to secure control of the value of the cargo. In June, the Huthis said they wanted guarantees the vessel would be repaired and that the value of the oil on board used to pay salaries of their employees. But the Yemeni government has said the money for the oil should be used for health and humanitarian projects in the shattered country, which is again on the brink of famine after long years of conflict. Hodeida port is a lifeline for northern Yemen, with 90 percent of all supplies coming through it.
China to sanction relevant US personnel and entities over Hong Kong Autonomy Act: FM

Global Times

Source: Global Times Published: 2020/7/15 10:21:23

China will impose sanctions against related US personnel and entities in response to the Hong Kong Autonomy Act signed by the US government, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

Disregarding China's solemn representations, the US side signed into law the so-called Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which maliciously smeared the national security law for Hong Kong and threatened to impose sanctions on China.

The act seriously violated international law and basic norms governing international relations, and grossly interfered in Hong Kong's affairs and China's internal affairs. The Chinese government firmly opposes it and strongly condemns it, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed into law the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which imposes sanctions on Chinese officials and banks.

The US attempt to obstruct the implementation of the national security law for Hong Kong will never succeed.

To safeguard China's legitimate interests, China will impose sanctions on relevant US personnel and entities, the statement said.

We urge the US side to correct its mistakes, refrain from implementing the act and stop interfering in China's internal affairs in any way. China will firmly respond if the US goes ahead, the statement said.

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US President Donald Trump has axed his longtime campaign manager amid sinking poll numbers that showed him trailing further behind Democratic candidate Joe Biden with less than four months to go before the November 3 election.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Trump said campaign manager Brad Parscale would be replaced by Bill Stepien, who has been the deputy campaign manager. Parscale will shift to a role focused on digital and data strategy, the president said.

A leadership shake-up had long been rumoured. Parscale was blamed internally for a botched Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally last month that drew a much smaller crowd than he predicted. A subsequent coronavirus outbreak forced Parscale and other campaign officials who attended to self-quarantine for two weeks.

Brad Parscale was blamed internally for a botched Tulsa rally that drew an unexpectedly low crowd [File: Carlo Allegri/Reuters]

Stepien, a longtime Republican strategist, was political director at the White House before moving to the campaign.

In his statement, Trump credited both Parscale and Stepien for their involvement in his 2016 victory in the US presidential election and predicted that he would glide to a second term in office.

This one should be a lot easier as our poll numbers are rising fast, the economy is getting better, vaccines and therapeutics will soon be on the way, and Americans want safe streets and communities, Trump wrote.

Sinking poll numbers

The move came as the latest national Quinnipiac University poll showed Biden running 15 percentage points ahead of Trump. That is nearly double the margin Biden had in the same poll last month.

Another poll by NBC News-Wall Street Journal showed Biden ahead of Trump by 11 points among registered voters, while a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Biden leading by 10 points.

Trumps standing among voters has sagged this year as the coronavirus has killed more than 135,000 Americans and thrown millions out of work. Biden has blamed Trump for not taking more dramatic steps to curtail the pandemics spread.

Republicans are struggling to recalibrate as restrictions on large, in-person events have mostly sidelined Trumps preferred campaign rallies.

Plans for his nominating convention in Jacksonville, Florida, remain up in the air with little more than a month before it is scheduled to begin. Republican officials are planning to move most activities there outdoors. Democrats are paring back their in-person event significantly.





Trump advisers have privately levelled criticism that the campaign lacks a central message. The president has offered no substantive policy proposal, opting instead for heated rhetoric on race, crime and socialism aimed at his most loyal supporters. Biden, meanwhile, is releasing a growing number of proposals touching on topics including trade and climate change.

Policy agenda

Some Republicans said Trumps preference to focus more on messaging than a policy agenda reflects the challenge of asking voters for another term amid overlapping public health and economic crises.

During a re-election campaign, you basically are making the argument that the status quo is really good and that the challenger is insufficient to do the job. And for more than three years, he could credibly make that argument about the economy, said Mike DuHaime, senior adviser to former New Jersey Governor Chris Christies 2016 presidential campaign.

The problem comes when the status quo isnt good and there is hard data  both on the economy and with COVID  that shows that, DuHaime told The Associated Press news agency, referring to the coronavirus.

That makes it much harder to make an argument about the next four years.





When asked for the presidents second-term agenda, the White House pointed to Trumps response to COVID-19 but offered little in the way of specifics.

As the president continues to lead a whole-of-government response to a global pandemic, restore law and order to our communities, and rebuild the economy, spokesman Judd Deere told AP, the White House is engaged in an ongoing policy process for a bold second-term agenda that continues the Transition to Greatness that ensures we are a safer, stronger, more prosperous America.

White House officials also pointed to promises of better trade deals and maintaining law and order, but the lack of details gave Bidens team an opening.

This presidents inaction to get the virus under control has cost thousands of lives and millions of jobs. Why should voters continue to let him lead during this once-in-a-generation crisis? said Biden national campaign spokesman TJ Ducklo. Dont ask him, he doesnt have an answer.
LONDON, July 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Prescient, a biopharma product and portfolio strategy partner, announces the recent appointment of three new senior members to its Intelligence & Insight business: Dr. Anuj Gupta, Rob Littlefield and Dr. Emmanuel Reyes-Cortes. They join the existing Intelligence & Insight team shaping the competitive strategy of Prescient's clients through enhanced decision support.

Prescient Intelligence & Insight

Anuj joins Prescient after several years in leadership roles across several advisory firms. He has a Bachelor's degree in dental surgery and Master's degree in business administration. Prior to joining Prescient, he helped global pharmaceutical companies launch drugs, define pricing strategies, optimize supply and distribution chains, and re-engineer DTC campaigns and patient engagement strategies. He has authored multiple articles in reputed publications and has been featured in industry debates on leading television networks. At Prescient, Anuj will lead our client engagements by leveraging his broad experience and strategic mindset.

Rob joins Prescient after more than 10 years of biopharmaceutical commercial strategy, market insights, data and analytics, business reporting and competitive intelligence experience. He earned his MSc in biomedical engineering from Columbia University and his BASc in biomedical engineering from Bucknell University. Prior to joining Prescient, he drove the new drug selection process and market review at Juniper Pharma and led enterprise information management and analytics at Intarcia Therapeutics. His pharma market analysis has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Thomson Reuters. At Prescient, Rob will leverage his oncology, women's health, rare diseases and diabetes expertise to lead client projects, expand our Boston presence and support professional development among the team.

Emmanuel joins Prescient after spending several years supporting preclinical and clinical research as a trial manager in both large US medical systems and within the biopharmaceutical industry. He also co-founded a consulting firm to help integrate the use of technology into the practice of medicine. He holds an MD from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and an MSc in immunology from the Medical University of South Carolina. At Prescient, Emmanuel will deploy his clinical and research experience to support our hematology/oncology and infectious and rare disease clients as they navigate the complexities of bringing new therapies to patients in need.

"Our clients require a thought partnership built around disease area, functional and market expertise and the ability to deliver unrivalled competitive and market insight," said Dr. Rakesh Verma, Prescient's President. "Anuj, Rob and Emmanuel bring extensive industry, drug development and commercialization experience to help our clients in their endeavors to develop differentiated medicinal products which resonate with stakeholders."

Biographies and contact information for the Prescient Intelligence & Insight team can be found on www.PrescientHG.com.

About Prescient

At Prescient, science is at the core of everything we do. We are a biopharma product and portfolio strategy partner that specializes in turning the science of molecules into optimal patient outcomes and client value. Across therapeutic areas, we help develop winning strategies. When companies partner with us, a molecule in their hands has greater potential for success than the same science in the hands of their competitors.

Contact:

Christina Maffei

+1 908 342 3556

[email protected]

Prescient Intelligence & Insight, a Prescient Healthcare Group business, offers best-in-class biopharmaceutical intelligence by providing impactful insight and decision support to product and portfolio teams from early clinical development through to loss of exclusivity.

Prescient has been a portfolio company of Baird Capital since 2017. For more information, please visit: www.PrescientHG.com.

SOURCE Prescient Healthcare Group

Related Links

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Northern accents are becoming more similar as the number of educated city-dwellers rises, according to research.

Linguistic experts from the University of Manchester found evidence of a general northern English accent being spoken among middle-class northerners living in urban areas.

Analysis of the speech patterns of people from major cities in the north of England, conducted using machine learning, found it difficult to distinguish between the accents of people from Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield.

There were still some differences between cities  Liverpool and Newcastle in particular were found to be more distinct  but researchers found that the way in which the accents differ has changed.

Some traditional features of the dialect were not present, but there were distinctive northern features in the use of short vowels in words like glass and bath, and pronouncing crux like crooks.

Dr Patrycja Strycharczuk, who worked on the research, said: I often hear statements like Im from Liverpool or Manchester or Sheffield, but I dont have the accent  however, there is very little systematic evidence that general northern English really is a coherent variety, so thats the question we asked ourselves.

It may seem as though local accents are dying out, but we believe were actually seeing a new variety becoming established  educated, urban and northern.

I think its prestige has increased, and people are now less tempted to lose their accent if theyve been to university or they do a lot of public speaking.

The question is whether general northern English also has the same status for those who dont speak it  can a speaker be perceived as standard in London? I dont think were there yet, but the shifting attitudes in the north are a first step.

Additional reporting by Press Association
By Kerry Drake

Wyofile.com

The Wyoming Republican Partys recent convention in Gillette demonstrated that the radical rights takeover of the GOP is now complete.

It wasnt just that officials ramrodded through wholesale bylaw changes that punish county organizations and candidates who dont follow the orders of the partys central committee.

Or even that the partys last-minute Senate-race straw poll  taken after many delegates walked out in disgust following the bylaws fiasco  selected a little-known, far-right candidate over a staunchly conservative, four-term Wyoming...
The Japanese capital on Thursday recorded its highest number of daily coronavirus infections since the pandemic began, and the lack of an aggressive government response has prompted businesses to undertake their own prevention efforts.

Tokyo's 286 new confirmed cases surpassed the record of 243 reported July 10. The total number of infections in the metropolitan area has reached 8,640.

Despite the rise in cases, the national and metropolitan governments remain reluctant to take stricter public health measures, which would dampen economic activity. Companies look to strike a balance between staying in business and preventing infections.

Chat app provider Line has notified employees at Tokyo sites to avoid nonessential trips outdoors, reversing a policy of requiring workers to show up at the office at least once a week.

G-Tekt, an auto parts supplier, has created a four-stage alert system concerning the outbreak. The company placed itself in the second-highest level, which mandates that only 30% of employees can come to headquarters, down from 40%.

Camera maker Nikon advises all departments to refrain from group dining. Building materials supplier Lixil Group now requires supervisor approval and efforts to ensure safety for any group dining with outside personnel. Lixil limits such gatherings to nine people, with no after-parties.

Toshiba generally forbids domestic and international travel for business purposes, while G-Tekt banned work travel between the Tokyo and Osaka areas.

Yet some companies have loosened restrictions in the absence of stay-at-home requests by the government.

"If we tighten restrictions when the government has not requested voluntary restraint, the complaints from our employees will complicate the response," said a representative at a food manufacturer.

The surge in coronavirus infections comes ahead of the planned July 22 start of the government's Go To Travel campaign, which many in the leisure industry had hoped would breathe life into the sector. The tourism ministry has said Tokyo will be excluded from the promotion, and critics are seeking a delay.

The record cases come just a day after Tokyo raised its virus alert to the highest level following a resurgence in infections. Gov. Yuriko Koike called on residents to refrain from nonessential travel outside the capital and to avoid visiting restaurants and nightclubs that are not taking sufficient safety measures.
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Linkedin Tri Indah Oktavianti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 16, 2020 06:45 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666a1cea 1 National omnibus-bill-on-job-creation,labor-rally,labor-union,protest,house-of-representatives,deliberation,KSPI,Airlangga-Hartarto Free

Labor groups and activists are planning to take to the streets to protest the omnibus bill on job creation, which is currently under deliberation at the House of Representatives in a process the government hopes to conclude by early September.

The Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions (KSPI) announced on Tuesday a plan to hold massive nationwide rallies against the bill early next month, claiming that hundreds of thousands of workers across the country were willing to participate.

"The KSPI is currently [coordinating] the matter with other labor groups to hold a nationwide massive protest in early August," KSPI president Said Iqbal said.

He added that labor groups from several regions, including Banten, West Java, Central Java, East Java, South Kalimantan and Lampung, had confirmed their participation. Meanwhile, the protest in Greater Jakarta would be concentrated around the House of Representatives building in Central Jakarta.

Apart from the omnibus bill, labor groups would also protest the wave of employment termination during the COVID-19 pandemic, Said went on to say.

Previously, the KSPI and several other labor groups reportedly walked out from the technical team formed by the Manpower Ministry to discuss the labor section of the omnibus bill following mounting demands to involve those groups in the bills deliberation.

The team also includes representatives of business associations, including the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) and the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), which reportedly turned down the labor groups' demands in the bill.

Read also: Govt expects deliberations on job creation omnibus bill to finish in August

The omnibus bill, which contains 15 chapters and 174 articles on more than 1,000 pages and seeks to revise 79 prevailing laws and more than 1,200 articles, is expected to be fully deliberated by the end of July. Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto said lawmakers had finished deliberating "half of the chapters" in the draft.

Opposition to the omnibus bill has been rising recently as religious minority groups and human rights defenders joined the campaign by arguing the bill would promote further discrimination and other human rights violations against minorities.

A coalition including the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), the traditional faith group Sunda Wiwitan and the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) particularly condemned Article 82 of the bill, which grants the police the authority to prevent and contain the propagation of beliefs that are deemed to be undermining national unity.

"Such a provision can be misused to limit the rights of religious minorities. It would only preserve years of stigma, alienation, discrimination and human rights violation against the minorities," the coalition wrote in a statement on Tuesday.

A group consisting 104 clerics from various churches across the country also expressed opposition to the omnibus bill, calling the deliberation "undemocratic".

"The deliberation is undemocratic, as it precludes public participation. The bill only prioritizes the interests of corporations rather than society and the environment," the groups spokesperson, Adventus Nadapdap, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Read also: Guide to omnibus bill on job creation: 1,028 pages in 10 minutes

The group highlighted Article 19 of the bill, which allows companies with permits to use coastal areas for business activities without environmental impact considerations. "That would destroy the ecosystem of coastal area, the sea and small islands. Furthermore, it would disturb residents living in coastal areas."

Adventus went on to say that the bill would lead to the criminalization of farmers, workers, urban poor and fishermen voicing their opinions against corporations and investors.

With the country facing an economic crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, President Joko Jokowi Widodo is pushing for the omnibus bill to be passed to propel economic activity by attracting more investment to the country.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- As coronavirus (COVID-19) cases continue to soar across the country, despite declining numbers in New York, some of the countrys largest chains are now requiring all customers to cover their face, regardless of local health guidance.

Heres a look at chain stores on Staten Island with face mask requirements in place.
ONAWA, Iowa -- With goats, sheep and rabbit judging contests taking place at the Monona County Fair midday Wednesday, it was understandable some might think a same-old, same-old fair was transpiring.

However, a closer look revealed only a few immediate family members could view the judging, the judges had hand sanitizer on tables, a few people wore face masks, and posted displays reminded people to wash their hands.

Out of concerns for community spread of the novel coronavirus, the Iowa State Fair in August has been called off, and many other Siouxland county fairs won't be held. Officials of the Monona County Fair put their heads together and determined a scaled-back fair could be pulled off in a safe fashion, fair board Vice President Curtis Sturgill said, so events began Wednesday and run through Sunday, in the fairgrounds on the north side of Onawa.

While events such as concerts, demolition derbies and animal judging contests won't be happening this year at the larger Clay and Woodbury county fairs, those are taking place this week at the Monona County Fair. That made Arrissa Gunlogson, of Castana, happy, since so much of her senior year of high school was wiped out over recent months, due to the virus.

"It is always great to come out here and show our projects that we've worked on for a while," Gunlogson said, a few minutes after showing two rabbits in a contest. Over four years of fair participation, she has nabbed two Best In Show prizes.

Sturgill said Monona County public health officials were asked for input, and the board decision to hold the fair wasn't unanimous. Two votes were held, with a 15-0 outcome in the first one, then finally with at least five dissenters, after subsequent news of some positive coronavirus cases in Ute, Iowa, he said.

As of Tuesday, there had been 78 positive coronavirus cases in Monona County and no deaths from COVID-19, a far cry from Woodbury County to the north, which has nearly 3,400 cases and 45 deaths.

Jen Collison, an Onawa Chamber of Commerce official and county fair official, said her family has a long history of taking part in the fair, first for herself showing animals and now for her children being in 4-H.

Collison said "it is very important" to have the fair, so the 8,700 residents of Monona County have an enjoyable summer tradition to enjoy.

"We are taking all the precautions we can, but giving our community something they can do," she said.

Collison said she knows some people will stay away from the fair due to coronavirus concerns.

"There are mixed feelings, but the majority are happy we are doing it," Collison said.

Sturgill said the fair board worked diligently to pull off the fair, working with volunteers to make sure that precautions for events would work out. Social distancing is strongly encouraged, and people who are having symptoms of ill health are asked to not come to the fair.

"We have signs that say masks are recommended. They are not required," he said.

Cameron Brennerm, of Mapleton, was selected as Monona County Fair queen in 2019. On Monday, in an event captured for the county fair Facebook page, Sturgill crowned Brenner again as queen for a second year, continuing her reign for 2020. That's because the Little Miss and also Queen contests have been canceled.

The list of items not held this year is plenty long, including there being no indoor vendor booths, kids carnival or other children's activities. While there are displays and judging of 4-H projects, they aren't open for public viewing.

However, there are still food vendors, and the biggest number of events will be held on the two weekend days, when music and clown shows will be held, along with a parade, corn hole tournament and demolition derby. The week kicked off with a Wednesday night outdoor movie, the 1989 Iowa-based classic "Field of Dreams."

Sturgill said food vendors at the fair include some outside businesses again this year, but the community-operated stands won't be open, as many had older volunteers who declined to work this year amid the pandemic.

He said the fair sees 500 or 600 people on afternoons most years, with the grandstand evening events being a bigger pull. Sturgill said even on a good year, grandstand ticket sales only hit about 50 percent of capacity, so he envisions social distancing while watching will transpire.

Gunlogson, who participated in a pushed-back July 12 MVAOCOU High School graduation ceremony in which only parents could watch, said she felt safe Wednesday with the fair precautions taken.

"We were lucky enough to have it," Gunlogson said.

PHOTOS: Whiting Fourth of July parade
The reality of recent days makes us believe that Baku has chosen the military option of settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by openly attacking Armenia, said the mayor of the French city of Valence Nicolas Daragon.

"We are very concerned about the situation of our Armenian friends and especially our sister city of Ijevan," he noted.

"In this region, which is a real powder keg, subject to the whims of peace talks on a peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict, any forceful action can plunge everyone into chaos," he noted.

"A few days ago, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev spoke about the war in the context of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict's settlement. The reality of recent days makes us believe that Baku has chosen a military option for resolving the conflict by openly attacking Armenia."

"I strongly condemn the Azerbaijani aggression against Armenia and the violation of the borders established and recognized by international law, which is an act that must be condemned."

"I hope that our national authorities will demand that Baku stop its military operations against Armenia, and I hope that the international community will decisively oppose this aggression, which could overturn the unstable balance in the South Caucasus region."

"The last international summit of the French-speaking countries was held in Armenia - the country with which France has historically had the closest ties. The inaction of our country would be an unacceptable signal of tolerance for aggression," he concluded.
US authorities on Wednesday slapped sanctions on entities linked to Russian financier Yevgeniy Prigozhin over attempts to suppress and discredit democratic reforms in Sudan.

Yevgeniy Prigozhin and his network are exploiting Sudans natural resources for personal gain and spreading malign influence around the globe, said US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The action targets five companies located in Sudan, Hong Kong and Thailand and three individuals who are involved in furthering Prigozhins operations in Sudan.

The US Treasury said Prigozhin's role in Sudan demonstrates the relationship between Russias paramilitary operations, support for authoritarian regimes and exploitation of natural resources.

US authorities noted how Russia had developed a relationship with Sudans former president Omar al-Bashir, offering military assistance and getting involved in oil, natural gas, agriculture and gold.

Bashir was ousted in April 2019 and a transitional government installed. The US Treasury said new sanctions would stop Prigozhin from interfering with Sudans democratic transition and allow the new government an opportunity to regain control of Sudans national assets.

The ongoing theft of Sudans natural resources is a scandal that the civilian-led government should end immediately, said Suliman Baldo, senior advisor at The Sentry, a non-profit organisation supported by actor George Clooney.

The continued presence of these Prigozhin-linked companies in Sudan represents a threat to the fledgling democratic transition in the country, said Baldo, in a statement reacting to the newly announced sanctions.

'Putin's chef'

Prigozhin is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, described by some as the man responsible for the Kremlins push into Africa.

He is a former hotdog seller, who grew up in in Putins home city of Leningrad, and served time in jail before setting up an elite restaurant, according to the Guardian newspaper.

Story continues

After serving the Russian premier at his restaurant in 2001, he got to know Putin and began helping to organise his parties, earning himself the nickname, Putins chef.

"Putins chef got government contracts to provide childrens school dinners and foodstuffs to the Russian military, becoming rich in the process.

After gaining the presidents trust, Prigozhin allegedly supported and financed internet troll networks that interfered with the US elections. He is said to fund the Wagner Group, a Russian private military contractor operating on the African continent.

US authorities previously targeted Prigozhin for supporting the Internet Research Agency, a group that is accused of using fake social media profiles to spread disinformation in an effort to influence the 2018 US midterm polls.

The US Treasury Department in September 2019 targeted Prigozhins property, slapping sanctions on companies supposedly used to manage three private jets and one yacht.

Sudanese gold for Russian mercenaries

Russian investigative website The Bell previously reported on how ties between Sudan and Russia were developed in November 2017 with the deployment of Wagner Group contractors and a company connected to Prigozhin started to prospect for gold in Sudan.

Putin and Bashir met in Sochi, according to the The Bell, and discussed setting up a Russian naval base on the the Red Sea.

An agreement was also signed between the two governments paving the way for a company called M Invest to secure a gold concession.

M Invest is owned or controlled by Prigozhin and serves as a cover for Wagner Group forces operating in Sudan, according to the US Treasury. A subsidiary of M Invest, Meroe Gold, is responsible for mining gold in Sudan.

Besides M Invest and Meroe Gold, the US has targeted Shine Dragon Group Limited, Shen Yang Jing Cheng Machinery Imp&Exp. Co., and Zhe Jiang Jiayi Small Commodities Trade Company Limited, for their role in transferring more than $7.5m seemingly in Prigozhin's interest.

Sanctions will also hit Andrei Mandel, who works as M Invests director general, and Mikhail Potepkin, acting as M Invests and Meroe Golds regional director in Sudan.

US authorities said Prigozhin uses a vast network of financial faciliators and front companies to evade sanctions and carry out transactions in US dollars, despite being blocked from the US financial system.

The new US sanctions raised the ire of Moscow, the TASS news agency reported on Thursday.

We always feel highly negative about any sanctions regarding Russian citizens, Russian legal entities, said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
Senate Seeks Removal Of Age Limit For Job Seekers

The Nigerian senate has urged President Buhari to direct the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity to set up a Committee to review the age limit for job seekers.

The decision taken by the upper chamber to ensure that competent applicants are employed by the ministries, departments and agencies of government, stemmed from the motion sponsored by Senator Ibrahim Gobir.

Gobir said;

Age barriers inadvertently excludes and marginalises skillful and competent prospective applicants from participating in such exercises.

Due to the high unemployment rate in the country, many graduates spend up to 10 years seeking employment and this puts them in a disadvantaged position by no fault of their own.

Many individuals resort to falsifying their age all in a bid to fall within the required age limit for them to be gainfully employed.

This development, where a person believes he is unemployable, can lead them to embracing criminal activities and further increase the growing crime rate and insecurity in the country.

Senator Bala Ibn NaAllah also recalled how the federal government placed an embargo on employment over 13 years ago. According to him, this must be taken into consideration by the labour ministry.

NaAllah said;



I think the motion is apt and timely. The major basis for the Senate to proceed on that request lies in the fact that, as an institution, we must take notice that the federal government on its own placed embargo on employment for over thirteen years now.

The period that there have been embargo by the federal government in itself should be considered in the review of age limit.

For example, if the age limit is 23, we must now add the 13 or 14 years of embargo on employment to the age already earmarked for employment, so that the age will be plus thirteen because it is the government on its own that placed the embargo on employment.

There cannot be justification for you to place embargo on employment, then at the same time expect graduates to remain at the age they were during the period of the embargo.

I think in the review, that has to be taken into account, and therefore, the age limit can now be raised in addition to the established age. That should be the legal verdict for the review.

Commenting on the motion, the Senate President Ahmad Lawan decried the discrimination against job seekers as a result of the barrier imposed by the prescribed age limit.

Lawan said;

It is not through a fault of theirs that people are discriminated against. Theyll tell you only 30 years limit, meanwhile, someone graduated ten years ago. This is a very good motion.


WASHINGTON, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Lupus Foundation of America announced six recipients of the 2020 Gina M. Finzi Memorial Student Summer Fellowship Program. This grant and mentorship program plays a critical role in cultivating an interest in lupus research among young scientists and establishing the next generation of lupus researchers.

"The Finzi Fellowship fills an important gap in lupus research funding by supporting the lupus researchers of the future," shared Trine N. Jorgensen, PhD, and 2020 Finzi Fellow Mentor. "Fostering an interest in lupus research early on in an aspiring scientists' career is extremely important, and the Finzi Fellowship Program offers a unique opportunity for these students to pursue lupus research and encourages them to stay in the field."

Throughout the program, the 2020 Finzi awardees are mentored by an experienced lupus investigator, a critical component ensuring that the young scientists receive support and guidance as they establish themselves in lupus research.

The Gina M. Finzi Memorial Student Summer Fellowship Program has supported the work of nearly 200 young scientists in North America with past recipients becoming distinguished lupus scientists and leading the way on innovative research in the field. The Finzi program, established in 1984, was created to honor Gina M. Finzi, the late daughter of former Lupus Foundation of America President Sergio Finzi, PhD.

"Supporting young scientists is critical to growing the lupus research field with the best and the brightest minds. We have seen many scientists that received their first funding through the Gina M. Finzi Memorial Student Summer Fellowship Program make incredible contributions to the lupus research field and make it their lifelong mission to help end lupus," said Stevan W. Gibson, president and CEO, Lupus Foundation of America.

The research by the awardees will contribute to various areas of lupus research ranging from new therapies, disease management and furthering the understanding of lupus. This year's fellows are:

Zarina Brune

Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research

Project Title: A novel role for IRF5 in CD4+ T cell metabolism drives autoimmunity

Mentor: Betsy Barnes, PhD Investigator Head, Laboratory of Autoimmune and Cancer Research Professor, Departments of Molecular Medicine and Pediatrics

Meera Dhodapkar

Yale School of Medicine

Project title: Reactivity of VH4-34 IgG Autoantibodies to Commensal Bacteria in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Mentor: Eric Meffre, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Immunology and Medicine

Sayra J. Garcia

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Project title: Investigating the Role of Lipocalin-2 in Neuropsychiatric SLE

Mentor: Chaim Putterman, MD, MBA, Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology

Jennifer He

University Health Network

Project title: Improving the assessment of cognitive function in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: Insight into intraindividual variability across neuropsychological tests and its association with cognitive impairment

Mentor: Zahi Touma, MD, PhD, FACP, FACR Clinician-Scientist and Staff Physician, University Health Network

Jessica Jones

Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute

Project title: Investigation of the differentiation of male and female derived stem cells to pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cells in a chimeric lupus mouse model

Mentor: Trine N. Jorgensen Dept. of Inflammation & Immunity, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation Associate, Director of Research, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at CWRU

Olivia Solomon

University of California, Berkeley

Project title: Genetic ancestry impacts on differential outcomes of systemic lupus erythematosus

Mentor: Lindsey A. Criswell, MD, MPH, DSc Professor of Medicine and Orofacial Sciences Chief, Division of Rheumatology Jean S. Engleman Distinguished Professor in Rheumatology

To learn more about the 2020 Gina M. Finzi Memorial Student Summer Fellowship award recipients, click here.

About Lupus

Lupus is an unpredictable and misunderstood autoimmune disease that ravages different parts of the body. It is difficult to diagnose, hard to live with and a challenge to treat. Lupus is a cruel mystery because it is hidden from view and undefined, has a range of symptoms, strikes without warning, and has no known cause and no known cure. Its health effects can range from a skin rash to a heart attack. Lupus is debilitating and destructive and can be fatal, yet research on lupus remains underfunded relative to diseases of similar scope and devastation.

About the Lupus Foundation of America

The Lupus Foundation of America is the national force devoted to solving the mystery of lupus, one of the world's cruelest, most unpredictable and devastating diseases, while giving caring support to those who suffer from its brutal impact. Through a comprehensive program of research, education, and advocacy, we lead the fight to improve the quality of life for all people affected by lupus. Learn more about the Lupus Foundation of America at lupus.org.

Contact:

Mike Donnelly

[email protected]

(202) 349-1162

SOURCE Lupus Foundation of America

Related Links

http://www.lupus.org


Of all combat systems to take out, US Navy aircraft carriers are not soft target and all the bluster of the PLA Navy is all hot air. Another is, the Chinese may be willing to expend resources to take out a US flat tops.

But it is not yet known whether America's enemies are willing to take on the damage that might be costly. Imagine trying to pierce through a perimeter of defense that bristles more than a hundred miles outward, reported National Interest.

A Chinese admiral said that the communist can drive the US away from the South China Sea easily. All they need to do is kill two US flat tops and kill ten thousand America, and destroy American resolve.

This is not just a baseless threat but Rear Adm. Lou Yuan's Chinese military have devised ways to take out US Flat tops. However, they need a knockout hit to take out these ships hardened for combat.

The Chinese admiral took to time to tout that the Chinese Navy can take on the US naval forces on Dec. 20, 2018, at the Military Industry List summit, cited News.

He added that the US fears to incur the deaths of the enlisted personnel on these ships. He is staunchly anti-American and is part of the PLA Academy of Military Science.

In 2005, a mothballed carrier America was pummeled by weapons and it took punishment but sank when the superstructure was attacked internally. It took four weeks before it sank to Davy Jone's locker.

Also read: US Navy Sends Two Carrier Strike Groups as Show of Force Against PLA Naval Exercises

Beijing boasts that it can hurt the US by surely knocking out an American aircraft carrier, here is what defends them.

The PLA Navy must deal with a carrier strike group that has 50 strike aircraft, destroyers, cruisers, and submarines that will take out any adversary. All ships are bristling with missiles for all targets not stealthy enough. Under the waves are the US sea wolves or submarines that take out noisier Chinese subs. All attackers must be ready to pay dearly, cited Aviation.

China or another adversary will run the gauntlet and chose to save naval tonnage by attacking with subs, cruise missiles, and anti-ship ballistic missiles.

In 2017, Robert Farley wrote that enemies will confuse the CSGs to score against US counters. The enemy will do everything to keep the US fleet from reaching the target, at cost.

He added that enemies like China will crown a missile or torpedo will take out a US flat top easily. But how can the delivery system fire if it cannot break the wall.

It will be foolish to even attempt an attack when the defense will throw everything accurately at the intruder, mentioned National Defense Magazine.

The attacker have to pay for sinking any US flat top, when the US will call on all the power of remaining carrier strike groups to bear down on the offending agressors.

Nations like domineering China are one of those ready to take out any American aircraft carrier and face the steel rain coming next. The US Navy is ready to take on any adversary.

Related article: Lethal US Navy Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) Prove Their Worth in the Pacific in Repulsing Chinese Navy

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Machine Gun Kelly gushed that his new love Megan Fox has the 'most beautiful' feet in existence, while discussing her appearance in his recent music video for Bloody Valentine.

In a video interview for Teen Vogue, the 30-year-old rapper recalled a number of behind-the-scenes moments with his Midnight In the Switchgrass co-star, who made cameos on both the single' music video and cover art.

'It's no secret. I think feet are beautiful,' he told the outlet on Monday. 'And I think Megan has the most beautiful feet that exist.'

Behind-the-scenes: Machine Gun Kelly gushed that his new love Megan Fox has the 'most beautiful' feet in existence, while discussing her appearance in his recent music video for Bloody Valentine

He added: 'I was like, 'Megan, you already know what I'm about to ask you. And she was like, 'Yea, I literally got a pedicure just 'cause I knew you were gonna ask me that.'

In one eye-catching scene, her feet are put on full display, as the camera pans to an up-close shot of her pressing them against the Nerve actor's face.

In addition to praising Fox's sultry performance, Kelly revealed the video for Bloody Valentine was his 'favorite' to work on, due to 'other more personal reasons.'

Upon reading a fan's positive comment about the Jennifer's Body actress, he described her acting as 'a testament to her art as an existing human.'

Having fun: In a video interview for Teen Vogue , the 30-year-old rapper recalled a number of behind-the-scenes moments with his Midnight In the Switchgrass co-star, who made cameos on both the single' music video and cover art

More than friends: Upon reading a fan's positive comment about the Jennifer's Body actress, her on-screen presence is 'a testament to her art as an existing human'

The video dropped on May 20 and a few weeks later the pair were seen flashing some major PDA, effectively making their relationship official.

Kelly and Fox met the set of their upcoming thriller, Midnight in the Switchgrass.

'Megan and MGK have gotten more serious and are officially dating and referring to one another as boyfriend and girlfriend,' an insider told Us Weekly.

Happy in love: In addition to praising Fox's performance, Kelly revealed the video for Bloody Valentine was his 'favorite' to work on, due to 'other more personal reasons'

'They're enjoying spending more and more time together and have a strong connection.'

They recently spent a romantic weekend in Palm Spring's with friends LaLa Kent and her fiance Randall Emmett.

Both MGK and Fox are parents - the rapper is dad to 12-year-old daughter Casie and Megan has three children, Noah, seven, Bodhi, six and Journey, three.

Moving on: Megan recently split from her longtime husband Brian Austin Green, 46, after 10 years of marriage

Megan recently split from her longtime husband Brian Austin Green, 46, after 10 years of marriage.

Green said of Kelly on his podcast: 'I've never met him, but Megan and I talked about him and they're friends at this point. And from what she's expressed, he's a really just nice, genuine guy. I trust her judgment. She's always had really good judgment.'

Green recently appeared to confirm his budding relationship with Australian model Tina Louise by holding hands on a lunch date at Sage Vegan Bistro in Agoura Hills, California on Monday.
Sicilian capital hit by flash floods as firefighters continue to search for missing people in underpass.

Firefighters in Palermo have spent all night searching for people who may be trapped in a car in a flooded underpass in Palermo, the capital of Sicily, during the most violent rainstorm since 1790, reports Italian news agency ANSA.

Italian media initially reported that two people had drowned, following the testimony of an eyewitness who says he saw a couple trapped in their submerged car in the Viale della Regione underpass on the evening of 15 July.

However, as the search continues, police have stated that they have received no missing persons report.

The rain, which fell intensely for several hours, caused widespread flooding in Palermo and resulted in the hospitalisation of two small children - the youngest of whom is nine months - for hypothermia, reports ANSA.

The children were reportedly trapped in a car with their parents in the same submerged underpass, as motorists left their vehicles to stand on car roofs or swim to safety through the water and mud.

As roads turned to rivers, firefighters worked tirelessly to save people and police handed out blankets and thermal sheets from hospitals to those rescued.

Palermo mayor Leoluca Orlando says the city did not receive any warning of the violent rainfall, with no weather alert issued by the civil protection agency in advance.

"Over a metre of rain has fallen in Palermo in less than two hours" - said Orlando - "The most violent rain in the history of the city since at least 1790, equal to that which falls in a year."

Orlando said that if the city had received advance warning "procedures would have been activated which, despite the extraordinary nature of today's events, could have mitigated the risks."
A girl who had earlier been a victim of gang-rape, and her mother, were mown down and crushed to death by a tractor driven by one of her attackers in India.

The mother and daughter, 17, were flattened by Yashveer Rajput as he drove his tractor over them on their way home from visiting the market in Amapur, Uttar Pradesh, the Deccan Herald reported.

Local police said members of the victims' family murdered Yashveer's father four years ago and two are currently in prison for the crime.

The mother then accused Rajput and two of his friends of kidnapping and gang raping the 17-year-old a few months ago.

The two women died at the scene yesterday and a crowd formed to demand the suspect be arrested, but he escaped soon after committing the savage crime.

The mother and daughter (not pictured), 17, were flattened by Yashveer Rajput as he drove his tractor over them on their way home from visiting the market in Amapur, Uttar Pradesh. Pictured: Two women wear face masks walk in Delhi

Yashveer drove over the victims as revenge for his father's murder and to avoid imprisonment for the rape case, the Deccan Herald reported.

The news comes just days after an enraged father strangled his 17-year-old daughter to death in her sleep in India when he found out she was pregnant after being raped.

The girl, who was from Mantoli village in India's northeastern Uttarakhand state, was murdered by her father to preserve the 'family honour', according to police, adding they suspect the girl had been raped.

The girl lived with her grandparents, who discovered the pregnancy while escorting her on a hospital visit last week.

Indians protest against rape and sexual violence in December following the case of a 27-year-old vet who was gang-raped and murdered in Hyderabad

They informed the father who later turned up at the grandparents' house in a state of rage, but left shortly after. He returned to the house at five in the morning and strangled the girl as she slept.

Following the murder, the next morning the father told villagers that the teen had killed herself and that he'd already buried her.

Last month a 14-year-old girl who fought off two rapists was burned to death when her attackers became enraged at her resistance.

The middle school student was admitted to hospital in Raipur with burns covering 80 per cent of her body. She told police the identities of her attackers on her deathbed.

There were some 40,000 rapes reported in India in 2016, according to the most recent official figures available.

In 2018, the Indian government buckled under public pressure and approved capital punishment for repeat offenders and for individuals who rape children under the age of 12.

Activists claim the 40,000 number is just the tip of the iceberg as many victims are afraid to report the crimes due to threats by perpetrators or the social stigma attached to sexual assaults.

Before the coronavirus outbreak, a string of violent sex attacks prompted outrage and nationwide protests.
The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an appeal made by an artist against a lower court ruling that found her guilty of obscenity for distributing 3D scans of her own genitalia to supporters in 2013 and 2014.

The top courts No. 1 Petty Bench turned down a claim of innocence by 48-year-old Megumi Igarashi, who works under the pseudonym Rokudenashiko (Good-for-nothing girl), that the distribution was part of her artistic activities. She will be fined A400,000 ($3,740) as ordered by the lower courts.

Igarashi claimed that the data distribution provided an opportunity for supporters to create something with the data and participate in producing artwork through donations, and was therefore artistic.

Whether the data was obscene should be determined after making (the images) visible through projecting them onto a screen or printing them out, the Supreme Court said.

Upholding the Tokyo District Court and Tokyo High Court rulings in 2016 and 2017, the top court added the supporters participation should not be placed under consideration.
The Police Command in Rivers said it has discovered the decomposing corpse of Ereba Dinabari, 38, who was recently abducted from his residence in the Woji area of Port Harcourt.

The commands spokesperson, Nnamdi Omoni, confirmed the development to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in an interview on Thursday in Port Harcourt.

Mr Omoni said the victim was kidnapped on May 5, in Woji and forcefully taken to a forest in Alesa community, Eleme Local Government Area of the state.

Dinabari was taken to a forest and made to pay N1million as ransom for his release. But his abductors later refused to release him after collecting the ransom, Mr Omoni said.

According to him, the police made the discovery after operatives attached to the commands Anti-Kidnapping Unit arrested two suspects allegedly linked to the crime.

The commander of the anti-kidnapping unit, who led operatives, stormed Alesa community and arrested two male suspects aged 23 and 25 years.

The suspects later led police operatives to a forest in Alesa community, where we found the victims decomposing body tied to a tree.

Operatives afterwards recovered a Toyota Spider vehicle that belonged to the victim, he added.

The police spokesperson noted that the suspects had, during interrogation, confessed to have kidnapped several other residents around Woji, Abuloma, Peter Odili areas in Port Harcourt, as well as in Eleme communities.

He said the suspects would be charged to court at the end of investigation.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of Eleme Council, Philip Okparaji, has condemned the killing of Mr Dinabari and called on the police to ensure justice for the deceased victim.

Mr Okparaji said that the council would work closely with security agencies to ensure that criminals were rooted out from the area.

We believe that such collaboration with security agencies will give the people of Eleme a new lease of life, he said.

The council boss condoled the family of the deceased.

(NAN)
A Bangladesh hospital owner accused of issuing thousands of fake negative coronavirus test results to patients at his two clinics was arrested on Wednesday while trying to flee to India in a burqa, police said.

The arrest marked the end of a nine-day manhunt for Mohammad Shahed over allegations of issuing fake certificates to patients saying they were virus-free without even testing them.

Shahed, 42, was one of more than a dozen people detained by authorities over the past few days in connection with the scam.

Experts warn the false documents have worsened the already dire situation in the country of 168 million people by casting doubt about the veracity of certificates issued by clinics.

He was arrested from the bank of a border river as he was trying to flee to India. He was wearing a burqa, Rapid Action Battalion spokesman Colonel Ashique Billah told the AFP news agency.

His hospitals carried out 10,500 coronavirus tests, out of which 4,200 were genuine and the rest, 6,300 test reports, were given without conducting tests.

Shahed is also accused of charging for the certificates and COVID-19 treatments even though he had agreed with the government that his hospitals in the capital Dhaka would provide free care.

A well-known doctor and her husband were also arrested by police and accused of issuing thousands of fake virus certificates at their Dhaka laboratory.

The alleged scams could badly hurt migrant workers seeking to go abroad and whose remittances are key to Bangladeshs economy, said Shakirul Islam of migrant rights group OKUP.

Italy last week suspended flights to Rome from Bangladesh to stem the spate of coronavirus cases. Several passengers arriving from Dhaka had tested positive for COVID-19.

Fearing possible infections in the Bangladeshi immigrant community, authorities in Lazio region conducted blanket testing for the coronavirus. Italy is home to more than 100,000 Bangladeshis, according to national statistics institute ISTAT.

Some of the Bangladeshis who were tested positive in Italy were allegedly carrying negative COVID certificates from Bangladesh, Islam claimed.

The government must ensure quality of COVID-19 tests in local laboratories for the sake of its overseas job market.

Nearly $19bn was sent back to Bangladesh by an estimated 12 million migrant workers last year, according to the central bank.

Bangladesh has reported just more than 193,000 infections and 2,457 deaths so far.

But medical experts say the real figures are likely much higher because so little testing has been carried out.

The South Asian country has restarted economic activities after lifting a months-long virus lockdown at the end of May, even as the number of cases continues to rise.
Visitors to the Vietnam National Museum of History (Source: CPV)

Over the past 6 months, the museum has organized and successfully completed its professional activities, including carrying out archeological research and excavation activities; Maintaining well the work of preserving and managing artifacts; Promoting display, education and communication activities; Successfully organizing thematic exhibits as planned, and; Enhancing education and communication activities in the online form, overcoming limitations and difficulties caused by the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic.

Exhibitions such as "90 years of Communist Party of Vietnam - Historical milestones (February 3rd, 1930 - February 3rd, 2020)"; "President Ho Chi Minh and the working class and Vietnam Trade Union" and excavations of relics in Hai Duong, Thanh Hoa and Bac Ninh were held.

In addition, the museum has conducted adjustment of artifacts, synthesizing materials, completing reports on excavation and restoration of Go Ba Canh relics (Tan Hung district, Long An province), ancient relics of Luy Lau (Thuan Thanh district, Bac Ninh province); Continue to carry out excavations and adjust artifacts at the relics of Ngu Dai Pagoda (Chi Linh city, Hai Duong province); Survey and complete the report on surveying ancient ceramic monuments in Hai Duong province, and; Survey and collect data on the tombs of the kings and queens of the Le Dynasty at Lam Kinh historical monument in Thanh Hoa province.

From July to December, 2020, the museum will continue to effectively implement key activities such as improving the adjustment of artifacts, making reports on the results of the survey and excavation at relics in Hai Duong, Bac Ninh, Quang Ngai, Thanh Hoa and Long An provinces; Coordinate with relevant agencies to organize the exhibition "Traditional costumes of ASEAN countries 2020"; Organize an exhibition on Vietnam's Cultural History on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the August Revolution (August 19th) and the National Day (September 2nd) in Ba Ria - Vung Tau, and an exhibition on Vietnam Marine Heritage in Quang Ninh province, and; Research and apply technology in introducing and building interactive 3D virtual display./.
North Macedonia faces coalition talks that could drag on for weeks in order to form a government and start EU talks.

North Macedonias Social Democrats have secured a razor-thin parliamentary election victory over nationalist rivals, highlighting deep faultlines in a country preparing to start European Union membership talks.

Official election results showed on Thursday that the centre-left Social Democrats won only about 35.8 percent of the vote, which means they will face tough coalition talks that could drag on for weeks in order to form a government.

If the Social Democrats fail to form alliances, the right-wing VMRO-DPMNE, just behind with about 34.5 percent of the vote, would get a chance to build a government.

Our path to progress is confirmed, assured Social Democrat leader and former prime minister Zoran Zaev in a victory speech.

The citizens went out and voted for a clear future, for unity and solidarity, for economic patriotism, for law and order and to choose a better present and a better future, he said, adding that his camp had a three-seat advantage in the 120-member assembly.

At opposition headquarters, VMRO-DPMNE Secretary-General Igor Janusev insisted the vote still showed that people want change.

Blackmail

The Social Democrats top options for partners are parties representing the ethnic Albanian minority, who make up about a quarter of the two million population.

The Democratic Union for Integrity (DUI) was ranked third, with about 12 percent of the vote, followed by another rival Albanian camp with about 9 percent.

DUI, the traditional kingmaker, has this year demanded their candidate be named prime minister in exchange for an alliance.

Zaev and the leader of VMRO-DPMNE, Hristijan Mickoski, have previously shot down the proposal as blackmail.

The polls were held to replace a caretaker government that took over after Zaev stepped down [Husamedin Gina/Anadolu]

The Wednesday vote was the first parliamentary election since the Social Democrats added North to the Balkan countrys name last year  a move that ended a decades-old dispute with Greece but was highly controversial at home.

The historic accord ushered the Balkan state into NATO and opened the door to future EU membership.

But critics are still bitter about conceding a part of their identity to appease Athens, which claimed exclusive rights to the name Macedonia for its own neighbouring region.

The elections were held to replace a caretaker government that took over after Zaev stepped down six months ago following the EUs initial failure to open accession talks  a promise Brussels had made in exchange for the name change and other reforms.

The bloc later gave the green light in March, although Skopje is still waiting for a date to start formal negotiations.
MALTA  A Latham man is facing felony and misdemeanor charges after a drunken driving crash that injured the occupant of one of the cars he struck Wednesday morning, Saratoga County sheriff's deputies said.

The crash happened shortly before 6:30 a.m. on Route 67 near Raymond Road in the town of Malta. Police say William M. Biette, 44, was driving east when he crossed the center lane, striking one car traveling the opposite direction then a second car also heading west. One of those drivers was trapped in the car and had to be removed by emergency personnel before being taken to the hospital with a chest injury, authorities said.
Kyiv's Dnipro Hotel sold for US$41 mln  SPF

16:29, 16.07.20 2177

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was pleased with the auction.
New Delhi, July 16 : The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) on Thursday reserved its judgement on Vodafone Idea's petition against the TRAI's directive blocking its premium 'RedX' plan.

The verdict is likely to be announced by Friday.

Defending its directive, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) told the tribunal that its action of blocking the plan was a prudent and proportionate exercise of statutory power.

Citing violation of norms and likely impact on the quality of services for other subscribers out of the concerned plans, the regulator, through a letter to both Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel last week, blocked their respective plans of 'RedX' and 'Platinum', that offer faster data speeds and priority services to high-paying postpaid customers.
Photo credit: Chris Jackson - Getty Images

From Cosmopolitan

Prince Andrew's website has been taken down and now redirects to the official royal family site (royal.uk), which features biographies of all the key family members, including the charities they're patrons of.

Notably, Andrew's page begins with a short message explaining that he stepped away from his public duties in November 2019, along with a link to his full statement on that decision. It's widely known that this move came about after his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell (who was denied bail this week) came under public scrutiny. Both of The Duke of York's social media accounts (Twitter and Instagram) remain online, despite not being active since November, and he denies any wrongdoing with regards to Epstein's sex trafficking crimes.

Royal expert Victoria Howard first tweeted about the website being removed yesterday, saying that she initially noticed it had disappeared while searching for information about Andrew's two daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie.

"The Duke of York's site (thedukeofyork.org) has been taken down; it is now forwarding to the main royal.uk site and its page on him, which includes his statement on stepping down. (I was looking for Beatrice and Eugenie's pages...)."

The Duke of York's site (https://t.co/VjkT7wOCmu) has been taken down; it is now forwarding to the main https://t.co/Jrx9Ir0mm6 site and its page on him, which includes his statement on stepping down.



(I was looking for Beatrice and Eugenie's pages...) pic.twitter.com/8nLJweKuON  Victoria Howard (@TheRoyalExpert) July 15, 2020

It's unclear exactly when the website was taken down or why, but many are speculating that it's due to Prince Andrew's involvement with the Epstein case and accusations that he slept with a seventeen-year-old, Virginia Roberts Giuffre (who the Duke says he has no memory of ever meeting). US prosecutors said in a recent press conference that they'd welcome a statement from Andrew, implying that the Prince has not cooperated with their investigation so far.

Story continues

The Duke of York's legal team released a statement in response to this denying that he'd been evading authorities and said instead that he'd attempted to make contact with them multiple times. "Far from our client acting above the law, as has been implied by press briefings in the US, he is being treated by a lower standard than might reasonably be expected for any other citizen."

Ghislaine Maxwell's trial has now been slated for July 2021 and many are wondering if her other well known associates, including not only Prince Andrew, but Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, will be required to give evidence.

In his statement on relinquishing his senior working role in the royal family, the Duke of York said:

"It has become clear to me over the last few days that the circumstances relating to my former association with Jeffrey Epstein has become a major disruption to my familys work and the valuable work going on in the many organisations and charities that I am proud to support. Therefore, I have asked Her Majesty if I may step back from public duties for the foreseeable future, and she has given her permission.

"I continue to unequivocally regret my ill-judged association with Jeffrey Epstein. His suicide has left many unanswered questions, particularly for his victims, and I deeply sympathise with everyone who has been affected and wants some form of closure. I can only hope that, in time, they will be able to rebuild their lives. Of course, I am willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required."

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By Trend





The provocation of Armenia in the direction of Azerbaijans Tovuz district is a disqusting act against Azerbaijan, Assistant to the Azerbaijani president, Head of the Department of Foreign Policy Affairs of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration Hikmat Hajiyev said.

Hajiyev made the remark at the press-conference in Baku, Trend reports on July 16.

The relevant international organizations were informed about this, assistant to the Azerbaijani president added.

"The UN, the Non-Aligned Movement, the OSCE, as well as other international organizations were provided with the necessary information, assistant to the Azerbaijani president added. Turkey immediately reacted. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) also expressed its position. The Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States, 57 OIC member-states, Iran, Saudi Arabia supported us. However, the OSCE Minsk Group must voice a concrete position on the act of Armenias military aggression. Unfortunately, we again receive standard answers."

Armenia is trying to shift responsibility for the committed provocation onto Azerbaijan, Hajiyev added.

However, Armenias intentions were exposed thanks to the timely steps taken by the Azerbaijani president, Hajiyev said. Armenians conceal their losses. The international community is closely monitoring these actions.

There are no problems with staffing the Azerbaijani army, Hajiyev added. Today, the Azerbaijani army uses the highest technologies. But for this purpose, it is extremely important to conduct exercises and courses. Such courses are held at the highest level."




NEW DELHI

Members of the Sikh community on Thursday held a protest near the Pakistan high commission in New Delhi against ISI for backing pro-Khalistan activities and the Referendum 2020, police said.

The protest, led by former Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) president Manjit Singh GK, began around 11.30am, a senior police officer said.

There were around 50-60 Sikh protestors who tried to march towards the Pakistan high commission from Teen Murti. However, they were stopped near Chanakyapuri police station, he said. The protestors were shouting slogans against Pakistans spy agency ISI for promoting pro-Khalistan activities and supporting the Khalistan Referendum 2020, an online campaign to demand a separate homeland for the Sikhs.

The Referendum 2020 is an initiative of pro-Khalistan group Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), which has been banned by the Indian government for advocating a separate homeland for the Sikhs.

The Centre in a July 10, 2019, notification had declared SFJ as an unlawful association and had banned it for five years, saying the groups primary objective was to establish an independent and sovereign country in Punjab and it openly espouses the cause of Khalistan, challenging the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India.
Goa governor Satya Pal Malik asked the chief minister and other senior officials to plug the shortfalls of the state administration in fighting the spread of Covid-19, in an extensive meeting at the Raj Bhavan on Thursday.

The meeting is seen as a run-in between the governor and the chief minister over the handling of the crisis. Chief minister Pramod Sawant, who is under fire from opposition parties as well as civil society, also found himself under the scanner, with the governor questioning the error of judgement in not locking down Vasco da Gama, the epicentre of the virus in the state, due to which the entire state is under threat.

I have raised several issues during the meeting. Wherever they have done a good job, I commended, and where they have fallen short, I have also pointed it out. Wherever there was a need like food supply, the quality of food, menu, the cleanliness of the Covid centres  bathrooms are overflowing  shortage of ambulances, the shortfalls were discussed. To a great extent, the health secretary has spoken and clarified what steps are being taken, Malik said, addressing a local TV station.

As far as the tests are concerned, Goa is doing very well, management is fine too. But what happened here is that we became satisfied too early when we shouldnt have. We relaxed the lockdown, and now, when the cases are rising, we are locking down again. When people were saying that Vasco should have been locked down, we didnt do it. It has grown a lot and now we are doing it. There was an error of judgement, Malik said.

The governor had called for a meeting with the chief minister, chief secretary, health secretary and other officials due to the rise in number of cases, deaths as well as reports in the media over poor condition of Covid Care centres.

The governors comments are in sharp contrast to the chief ministers, who said the governor told them that the realised he was misinformed by media reports. He was getting wrong information from the media and social media and we have given him the right information. In fact, he told us that what we are doing is very good. Social media, print media and electronic media are showing the wrong picture. Thats what he said. He said that the good side should be shown, Sawant said.

The governor, however, refuted the statement. It is definitely wrong to say that I have blamed the press. The issue of the press (coverage) didnt come up (during the meeting). I have definitely not criticised the press. The press is our strength, through which we get feedback and only then can we go forward. The CM has said that I have said this, but I havent. He shouldnt have said that. I definitely didnt say that, Malik said.

This isnt the first time there were perceived differences between the Goa governor and the chief minister. In May, the governor was forced to clarify as being in bad taste news reports which he said portrays differences and divergences between him and the chief minister in handling the crisis.

Goa has seen a spike in cases of the coronavirus and deaths with nearly 3,000 cases and 19 deaths.
Palghar: The Maharashtra CID on Wednesday filed a chargesheet in a court here against 126 accused in the Palghar lynching case in which two monks and their driver were beaten to death by a mob near here exactly three months ago.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) filed the 4,955-page chargesheet in the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) at Dahanu taluka in Palghar district located adjoining Mumbai, the probe agency said.

The team probing the incident examined 808 suspects and 118 witnesses to collect strong evidence against the accused, the CID said in a release.

In all, 154 persons were arrested and 11 juveniles in conflict with law, were detained. None of the accused has been released on bail so far, the release said.

"The chargesheet was filed by Deputy Superintendent of Police (CID) Vijay Pawar, the investigating officer in the case, at the JMFC court in Dahanuagainst126 accused," it said.

Besides sections of the IPC, the accused were charged under relevant provisions of the Disaster Management Act, the EpidemicDiseases Act (since lockdown was in force during the incident), the Maharashtra Police Actand the Maharashtra Damage to Public Property (Prevention) Act, the release said.

They were charged with murder, armed rioting and using criminal force to prevent a public servant from doing is duty, among other offences.

"Since there is adequate evidence against two juveniles in conflict with law, separate proceedings against them are being initiated before the Juvenile Justice Board," it said, adding further investigation was in progress.

The voluminous document is being scrutinised by court officials, a CID official said.

Once the scrutiny is done, charges will be framed against the accused by the court, the official said.

Two monks and their driver were lynched by a mob at Gadchinchale village in the district on April 16 when they were travelling in a car to Surat to attend a funeral amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown, police have said.

The brutal mob attack took place amid rumours that child-lifters were roaming in the area during the lockdown, they have said.

The case was later handed over to the CID for probe.

Noted lawyer Satish Maneshinde has been appointed the Special Public Prosecutor in the case.

The victims were identified by the police as Chikne Maharaj Kalpavrukshagiri (70), Sushil Giri Maharaj (35) and their driver Nilesh Telgade (30).

After the incident caused an uproar, the state government suspended Kasa police station in-charge Anandrao Kale, under whose jurisdiction the crime took place, and some other policemen, including sub-inspectors.

Also, more than 35 police constables and personnel of other ranks were transferred in the wake of the mob attack.

The government had also sent the then Palghar district police chief, Gaurav Singh, on forced leave and replaced him with Dattatraya Shinde.

In all, three FIRs related to murder, armed rioting and other charges were registered in connection with the incident.

The Dahanu court has rejected bail application of 25 accused arrested in the case.
The United States Imposes Sanctions on Russian Financier's Global Sanctions Evasion Network

Press Statement

Michael R. Pompeo, Secretary of State

July 15, 2020



Today, the United States took action to further limit Yevgeniy Prigozhin's destabilizing global activity by designating entities that have enabled his ability to evade sanctions  this time, in Sudan. These designations include Private Military Company (PMC) Wagner's apparent cover entity in Sudan, M Invest, its subsidiary Meroe Gold, and their leaders, Andrei Mandel and Mikhail Potepkin. Prigozhin's global malign activities are well-documented, as demonstrated by his designation under multiple U.S. sanctions authorities. Prigozhin serves as the financier of the Internet Research Agency (IRA), the Russian troll farm designated by the United States for attempts to interfere in U.S. elections, as well as the PMC Wagner, a U.S. designated Russian Ministry of Defense proxy force expanding Russian influence abroad.

Prigozhin relies on a network of front companies and facilitators, including three companies and an individual designated today based in Hong Kong and Thailand  Shine Dragon Group Limited, Shen Yang Jing Cheng Machinery Imp&Exp. Co, Zhe Jiang Jiayi Small Commodities Trade Company Limited, and Igor Lavrenkov. Between 2018 and 2019, these entities facilitated more than 100 transactions exceeding $7.5 million that were sent in the interest of Prigozhin.

Throughout the course of this financial activity, Lavrenkov was the director and owner of Shine Dragon Group Limited and also a director at Shen Yang Jing Cheng Machinery Imp&Exp. Co. and Zhe Jiang Jiayi Small Commodities Trade Company Limited.

Prigozhin's role in Sudan highlights the interplay between Russia's paramilitary operations, support for preserving authoritarian regimes, such as that of former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, and exploitation of natural resources.

Today's actions will further limit attempts by Prigozhin and his backers to foment disorder or undermine democratic reforms in Sudan.

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INDIANOLA, Miss.  Chad and Kelsey Dowell, both doctors in this small, impoverished town in the Mississippi Delta, have cried a lot in recent weeks. The reason is the same every time: the coronavirus.

Sometimes, they find themselves weeping when a patient carrying an oxygen tank is finally able to leave the South Sunflower County Hospital, where they work. Sometimes, they tear up on their back porch when they think of the few options left for another COVID-19 case. Sometimes, the couple, both 32, are overcome at the dinner table while their two young kids argue in the next room over what movie they want to watch.

Their emotions are stretched thin by the flood of patients they see struggling to breathe, their own inability to respond to the pandemic with the limited resources at their rural hospital, the immense nursing and staffing shortages they face, the resistance members of their community feel to keeping themselves safe during the outbreak and the rising number of deaths from the disease that seem to come as a result.

Indianola, best known as the hometown of B.B. King, and the state as a whole shut down from the beginning of April until the end of May, when Gov. Tate Reeves announced that all businesses could reopen. Since then, masks, social distancing and other acts of vigilance disappeared, while resistance to taking the disease seriously has only continued to grow.

Image: (Andrea Morales / for NBC News)

To everybody in town that I see posting on Facebook about how this isn't real and that its a political scheme, I'm like, Oh, my God, come intubate these patients, Kelsey Dowell said from the back porch of her home. Come see what we see. It's real.

Mississippi and Sunflower County, where Indianola is located, have seen the virus grow precipitously in recent weeks since Reeves gave his reopening order  a decision he made even though the number of cases across the state continued to trend upward.

The spread in this area is particularly scary because of how vulnerable the people who live here are. This county sits within the Mississippi Delta, a region that is predominantly Black. Longstanding health and social inequities have led to coronavirus hospitalization rates among black people to rise five times higher in the United States than for white people, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last month.

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And while the Delta served as the center of numerous struggles during the Civil Rights Era, the work that started then isnt nearly complete. Organizers say that the Mississippi Delta, among the most socioeconomically disadvantaged areas in the country, is often an afterthought for state leaders.

Image: (Andrea Morales / for NBC News)

"Mississippi hasn't put resources in our hospitals to take care of folks in the Delta, and I'll tell you why: It's because they ain't white," said Arekia Bennett, the director of Mississippi Votes, a progressive organization that aims to engage state voters, especially its disenfranchised Black population. "We have to do better as a state when it comes to public health, and we need to start now."

On Tuesday, Mississippi hit single-day highs in the number of cases, patients in intensive care units and patients on ventilators, according to the Mississippi State Department of Health. The state also saw 18 more coronavirus deaths on Wednesday, bringing its total to 1,290. More than half of the people who have died are Black.

Reeves has since reversed course, mandating masks Monday for the 13 counties with the highest rates of infection, including Sunflower County.

Despite the governors insistence that Mississippians now need to wear masks and take social distancing seriously, his new stance appears to have come very late. Hospitals across the state, including the one where the Dowells work, had already said they were overwhelmed. Five of the states largest hospitals reported last week that they had run out of ICU beds and four others reported having fewer than 5 percent of their ICU beds available.

Aggravating the situation further is the fact that Mississippi is one of the states with the fewest health care resources in the country and it doesnt have enough medical workers to contend with the huge influx of patients, which includes coronavirus cases and people who put off their elective procedures during the shutdown.

Image: (Andrea Morales / for NBC News)

Medical institutions in Mississippi have long seen a staffing shortfall, especially with nurses, even prior to the pandemic. But now, with medical workers testing positive for the disease and a growing turnover rate, these hospitals are beginning to have to limit the number of beds they can responsibly oversee  even if they have the space for more patients.

Only about 40 percent of Mississippis more than 51,000 registered nurses report working in hospitals and just 15 percent are trained in critical, trauma or emergency care, according to the Mississippi Board of Nursing. Registered nurses in Mississippi are also some of the lowest paid in the country, making approximately $14,000 less than the national median of $73,300, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Turnover at the states hospitals and long-term care facilities was already a problem before the pandemic, and it has only continued to grow in Mississippi since the virus has spread, said Kim Hoover, a registered nurse who now works as the chief operating officer of the hospital association.

To be honest with you, some have just said, if I'm going to work and possibly be exposed to COVID-19, maybe take things home to my family or friends, then I'm going to go where I can make the most money, Hoover, the former dean of the University of Mississippi Medical Centers School of Nursing, said.

She said she has a meeting with the hospitals chief nurse executives to discuss staffing challenges. Theyre looking at ways of using medical and nursing students to shore up their gaps and avoid costly staffing agencies, which can provide registered nurses to fill gaps but at a premium price that many medical institutions in this state cannot afford.

They are tired  theyre scared

South Sunflower County Hospital is well aware of the staffing shortfall the state faces. At night, it sometimes only has one nurse for up to 11 patients because so many nurses have called out sick or are unable to work because of the coronavirus.

Hoover said the ratio should be closer to 1 nurse for every 2 ICU patients or 1 nurse for every 3 to 5 patients who need a normal amount of care.

Image: (Andrea Morales / for NBC News)

There was limited backfill at the hospital in Indianola even prior to the pandemic, and now nursing supervisor Ricky Pate is often left to do everything he can to ensure that patients are comfortable, from fetching protein shakes to watching their breathing  all while sweating profusely under numerous layers of personal protective equipment.

Trying to get people to come to work outside of their normal rotation is hard, he said. Money will not even hardly motivate them to come in because they are tired, and theres quite a bit of anxiety and stress that comes with this. Theyre scared, and they want to spend as much time as they can with their family.

Image: (Andrea Morales / for NBC News)

The patient load has buried medical workers across the Mississippi Delta.

Dr. Satwinder Singh, the only epidemiologist in the region  an area slightly smaller than the state of New Jersey  said hes never seen so many patients coming into the Delta Regional Medical Center where he works, a hospital in Greenville, about 23 miles west of Indianola.

Singh said he began pushing local leaders to respond to the pandemic after seeing warning signs of the disease in March.

It was frustrating because I have no authority to control things, he said. I can tell someone that something is coming and were going to need help, like Dr. [Anthony] Fauci is, but I cant force anyone to respond.

Now the area is overwhelmed with cases, and while the hospital where Singh works is larger than the one in Indianola, it recently had to cut its number of ICU beds in half  from 16 to eight  because so many of the nurses had been infected.

Singh also noted that the Delta and Mississippi as a whole have limited testing capacity. With a low number of tests being sent out and a backlog at labs creating untenable delays for results, Singh said that there is no understanding of how far the infection has reached  even among his colleagues.

Image: (Andrea Morales / for NBC News)

There are nurses who we have now that we dont know if theyre positive or not, he said. There are a lot of asymptomatic people, and we dont have enough tests to test everybody. So because they cannot be tested, you don't know who has the disease. But it's way more, maybe 10 times more, than what we are counting now.

The limited beds and staffing in other parts of the state add to the bad news for patients here who are in need of treatment and already face limited health care resources in one of the poorest regions in the country.

Many others will perish

Kelsey Dowell, who is currently taking a tour leading the hospitals coronavirus response here in Indianola for two weeks, recently spent more than three hours calling 13 different hospitals hoping to find a medical institution that could take one of her COVID-19 patients who was in critical condition. One person who answered her call at another Mississippi hospital laughed when she asked for a bed.

The patient was on 10 liters of oxygen, and then she burst her bowels, Kelsey Dowell said. So she needs an ICU bed, surgery and shes COVID positive, like, everybody's laughing at that when I tried to ship her.

Her husband, Chad, was in a similar boat a few weeks ago when he was in charge of responding to the hospitals coronavirus cases.

Image: (Andrea Morales / for NBC News)

He reflected on one patient who began struggling to breathe. Aware of his hospitals lack of resources, Chad said he knew full well that he needed to move the man to another facility. So he began to call medical centers across the state.

There I am: Cant get the guy in any hospital, he said. And If that guy stays here, hes gonna get a tube, but I cant wash his lungs out  I cant do any of that s---. If he stays here, hes gonna die.

He was finally able to get the patient moved to a larger hospital in Tupelo, more than 150 miles to the northeast. A family member of the patient told him a few days later that the person had got control of his breathing and was getting better.

The next morning, Chad woke up to a text that the man had died.

He just had this black-green gunk all over his vocal cords, and of course I know its all in his lungs and thats why we couldnt get him to oxygenate, he said. It just killed me because we got him there. He was getting better over four or five days, reading on his own even, and then I wake up to that message.

Both Dowells said their hospital is not equipped to deal with the standard of care many patients require, adding that its particularly scary in a region of the state facing massive health inequities and outcomes. The Mississippi Delta has the highest rates of heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity and stroke in the country  all conditions that can make someone particularly vulnerable to COVID-19  according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The two doctors said they are tired, morale is low at the hospital and some have had to take pay cuts because of the low number of patients. Seeing people in their community not wear masks or practice social distancing amid the outbreak only makes things worse.

Some locals have even mentioned herd immunity to the Dowells, dangled casually as a solution on the horizon  a concept particularly popular among those who aim to dismiss the size and the scope of the diseases outbreak. Experts say relying on herd immunity could lead to millions of deaths.

Its a point of view that even the Mississippi governor has pushed back against. Reeves, a former banker, used his finance and mathematics background to explain why Mississippians shouldnt depend on herd immunity in a series of tweets that went viral, warning that the state would need to increase its worst single-day number of infections threefold every 24 hours for a year to get anywhere close to herd immunity.

That ignores the fact that the states hospital system is already overwhelmed, he said.

But Singh does not have much faith that the Mississippi Delta, the state or the country will be able to pivot in time to stop the spread of the infection, especially as the response to the virus has become politicized within the region's white community.

The epidemiologist said that because of the resistance here to masks, social distancing and staying home, many will undoubtedly die and hospitals will be overrun.

Image: (Andrea Morales / for NBC News)

Thats why we may end up with herd immunity he said. Only the strong  or the people who take it seriously  will survive and many, many others will perish. I hate to say it, but were almost at natural selection at this point.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 14:53:57|Editor: huaxia

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PHNOM PENH, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia on Thursday confirmed one more case of COVID-19, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 166, said a Health Ministry's statement.

The latest case was a 25-year-old Cambodian man, who arrived in Cambodia on July 10 from Saudi Arabia, with a connecting flight in Malaysia, the statement said, adding that he was on the same flight with another 24 positive cases found on Sunday and Tuesday.

"The man's samples were tested for the third time by the Pasteur Institute of Cambodia, and the results released Wednesday night showed that he was positive for COVID-19," the statement said.

He has been admitted to the Chak Angre Health Center in southern Phnom Penh for treatment, it said, adding that the remaining 69 passengers on the same flight are still undergoing a 14-day mandatory quarantine at a quarantine center in Phnom Penh.

The Southeast Asian country has recorded a total of 166 confirmed COVID-19 cases to date, with 133 patients cured and 33 remained hospitalized. Enditem
A teenage drug addict who started drinking as a pre-teen and was hooked on meth by 15 has called for more support for young users as she fights to stay clean.

Cheyenne Gillon-Gibson, 16, has battled her inner demons for as long as she can remember and turned to hard drugs and alcohol after being mercilessly bullied at school.

As a youngster who watched her family - from Timaru near Christchurch, New Zealand - battle addiction to drugs, she told herself that she wouldn't go down the same path.

But when her relatives told her she wasn't allowed to visit a close friend in hospital before her 12th birthday, she was handed two cans of beer.

After downing them both, she felt her sadness, anger, anxiety and depression vanish.

Cheyenne told Daily Mail Australia what started as sneaking alcohol quickly spiralled into a battle with substance abuse and addiction.

Cheyenne Gillon-Gibson, (pictured at the age of 12) turned to hard drugs and drink after being mercilessly bullied at school

'I started self-harming around the age of 12 just after I started drinking, and was a heavy drinker by the time I was 14,' she shared.

'When I did drink I would be black-out drunk and confused and didn't know where I was.'

The teenager would guzzle up to 18 cans of beer every weekend, supplied by older friends, to ease her mounting mental health issues.

Cheyenne is a long-time sufferer of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder and drank to mask her pain.

'It worked at first, but the feelings always came back and I soon started craving something stronger,' she explained.

When a friend offered her marijuana in Year 9, she accepted because 'in our lives, it was normal'. By then, her life had started crumbling.

The teenager had asked her school principal if she could to sit alone in a classroom to quietly complete her work every day - away from the harassment and humiliation she suffered at the hands of her peers for her weight and learning difficulties.

Cheyenne (pictured while under the influence of meth) is a long-time sufferer of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, using drugs to mask her pain

The teenager's family were also drug users and she became addicted to meth by the age of 14

While she granted her request, she became unable to cope with the relentless bullying in the schoolyard and dropped out at 15.

She started drinking more and smoking large quantities of cannabis - and tried crystal meth for the first time just after New Year's Eve - three months after quitting school.

'It was offered to me by someone who wanted to be friends with my family,' Cheyenne said.

'She filled my head with lies to get me to try it because she knew my family wanted me to have a better life than they did, and they didn't want me to try it.'

Exhausted by the pressure to test the highly-addictive drug, Cheyenne gave in.

'I thought it would be OK if I only did it once, but it wasn't. I became addicted really quickly and I really spiralled,' she said.

The teen became suicidal as the drug wore off and she knew she needed more.

'I thought I needed it and my tolerance became really high,' she said.

Cheyenne moved into her mum's house and began dating a 24-year-old ice addict when she was still only 15.

'We would use together, and then it got worse at mum's place because I knew everyone in the town and could get drugs easily,' she admitted.

While Cheyenne's mother didn't want her daughter to use meth, she had to accept it because 'she knew I would do it anyway'.

Cheyenne is pictured with sister Destiny

'I would try and use as much as I could in a day - sometimes it was a little, sometimes it was a lot,' she said.

While partying one night, she was offered Gabapenton - a muscle-relaxant prescribed by doctors to treat epileptic seizures.

The recommended dosage for is one 300mg tablet for adults aged between 18 and 64 and is not prescribed to minors.

The 15-year-old took 14 tablets in a single night, which completely paralysed her until they wore off.

'I swear the crystal meth in my system was the only thing keeping my heart beating that night,' she said.

Her life continued to spiral out of control until just before her 16th birthday when she was hospitalised after intentionally overdosing on pills for the second time.

'The health care workers sent me to a mental health and drug addiction place. I failed the drug test, obviously, and they brought in a drug and alcohol professional,' she said.

Cheyenne initially refused the substance addiction expert's first suggestion of rehabilitation - she didn't want to leave her mother and said the pair had co-dependency issues.

While everyone around her advised against rehab, the teenager said no one else could see how bad her addiction really was.

She accepted treatment and was sober for the first time in years on December 10, 2019.

The teen was sober for the first time in years on December 10, 2019

Cheyenne excelled in rehab and agreed to continue with her schooling through online courses.

While she managed to join outreach programs, such as narcotics anonymous, she has also been knocked back from help facilities because of her age.

'There are a lot of educational programs for people under 18, but if you've already had addiction problems, you don't need that - you're already educated on drugs,' she said.

She also had access to counselling services, but received extensive counselling and life skills training at rehab and needed a long-term service.

Two facilities refused to admit her due to age restrictions - recovering addicts needed to be 18 to attend one centre, and 20 at the other.

'Young people need somewhere they can go at all times for help - I want there to be more variety, and for age restrictions to be lower,' she said.

Cheyenne now lives with her father and said her whole family, including her mother, have been very supportive of her rehabilitation.

'My whole family does drugs, but they're really supportive and they try not to do it around me,' she said, adding: 'I don't mind if they do because I know I'll never use again, but it means a lot to have their support.'

Her goal is to become a mental health worker to help teenagers like herself.

'I want to go work at rehab to help youth that have been in the place that I have been in. I don't want to see anyone go through what I went through. If I can do it, so can they.'
CLEVELAND, OH / ACCESSWIRE / July 16, 2020 / Mace Security International Inc. (MACE) stockholders elected Jayne E. Juvan, partner of Tucker Ellis LLP, to its board of directors at the annual meeting of stockholders held on July 2, 2020. Juvan will serve on the board's corporate governance committee.

"We are excited to welcome Jayne to our board of directors. She brings leadership in key areas that are critical to our future operations and strategy," said Gary Medved president and CEO of Mace Security International Inc. "Jayne's counsel and expertise will strengthen Mace's ability to serve our stockholders, employees, and customers."

"Jayne is an expert on corporate governance and compliance matters that drive board effectiveness. Both are significant areas of focus for the board. In her legal practice, she serves as an advisor to investors, boards of directors, and management teams on corporate transactions. She is also a frequent speaker on women's leadership and is a super networker. We are excited and confident that she will provide valuable perspectives as we execute our strategy and enhance stockholder value. We look forward to her insights and are excited to have her on the board," said Sanjay Singh, executive chairman of Mace Security International Inc.

As a partner at Tucker Ellis, Juvan serves as chair of the Mergers & Acquisitions and Securities & Capital Markets practice groups. Juvan counsels public and high-growth private companies, private equity firms, and venture capital firms from initial formation through all stages of the business life cycle.

Juvan's election brings Mace's total board membership to seven. She replaces Cheryl McMillan, who served on the board since 2018.

About Mace Security International, Inc.

Mace Security International Inc. is a globally recognized leader in personal safety products. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, the Company has spent more than 30 years designing and manufacturing consumer and tactical products for personal defense and security under its world-renowned Mace Brand - the original trusted brand of pepper spray products. The Companies other leading brands include Tornado Brand stun guns and pepper spray, and Vigilant Brand alarms. The Company also offers aerosol defense sprays for law enforcement and security professionals worldwide through its Take Down Brand.

Story continues

Mace Security International distributes and supports its products and services through mass-market retailers, wholesale distributors, independent dealers, e-commerce channels and through its website, www.mace.com. For more information, please visit www.mace.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements and information included in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Federal Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this press release, the words or phrases "will likely result," "are expected to," "will continue," "is anticipated," "estimate," "projected," "intend to" or similar expressions are intended to identify "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to certain risks, known and unknown, and uncertainties, including but not limited to economic conditions, dependence on management, our ability to compete with competitors, dilution to shareholders, and limited capital resources.

Contacts:

Gary E. Medved

President and Chief Executive Officer

gmedved@mace.com

SOURCE: Mace Security International Inc.





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/597721/Mace-Announces-New-Election-to-Board-of-Directors




Comet NEOWISE is getting rave reviews from astronomers that have viewed it this week. Here are some tips from those astronomers.

Brian Ottum, amateur astronomer in Ann Arbor, was taking pictures of the comet NEOWISE over the past few days.
Wearing face masks in shops is already mandatory in a number of EU countries, including Germany, Spain and Italy

Face coverings will have to be worn by all customers in shops and shopping centres, the Taoiseach has announced.

Retail staff must also wear face coverings if they cannot keep a distance of two metres from other customers, or in the absence of a partition.

Regulations with details about enforcing and penalties are currently being drafted.

Earlier yesterday, Mandate had called for compulsory face coverings in shops and supermarkets to protect retail workers from catching the coronavirus.

"Decisions to protect the lives of retail workers must be taken without unnecessary delay," said Mandate general secretary John Douglas.

"Therefore it is imperative we act collectively to ascertain the exact high level of risk posed to shop workers in Ireland by the spread of coronavirus, as well as acting swiftly to ensure mandatory face-covering measures are implemented and compliance ensured for the protection of shop workers' health."

However, wearing face coverings is "not a substitute" for hand washing or good respiratory etiquette, he warned.

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"Rather, the wearing of face masks in shops and supermarkets will be an added protective measure taken to ensure we can keep retail workers as safe as possible.

"Wearing face coverings in shops and supermarkets should be seen as a reasonable mitigation against the unprecedented risk posed by the coronavirus to those brave frontline workers," added Mr Douglas.

However, he said enforcing the wearing of face masks cannot be left to workers.

"We are very clear that workers must be free from forcing public compliance on the wearing of face coverings and that employers must put in place measures to protect staff against abusive behaviour in that regard," he said.

Yesterday the UK's health minister Matt Hancock announced wearing face masks would be mandatory in shops in England from July 24 to protect shop workers.

However, the new rule will not apply to retail staff.

A customer can be refused entry if they are not wearing a face mask and the police can also be called if they fail to comply. Anyone caught breaking the rules can be fined up to 100 (110).

Mr Hancock said: "Sadly, sales assistants, cashiers and security guards have suffered disproportionately in this crisis.

"The death rate of sales and retail assistants is 75pc higher amongst men and 60pc higher amongst women than in the general population.

"There is also evidence that face coverings increase confidence in people to shop," he added.

Wearing face masks in shops is already mandatory in a number of EU countries, including Germany, Spain and Italy.

Mask-wearing has been compulsory on public transport in England and at NHS facilities across the UK since June 15.


By Mo Ibrahim





ABUJA  Last month, the African Union launched the Africa Medical Supplies Platform to facilitate the production and provision of vital medical equipment  the latest achievement in an already impressive response to the COVID-19 crisis.



Yet, in the same week, it was revealed that most of Nigeria's federal government revenue was going to debt-service payments, and the country would be cutting public-health spending by 40 percent  even as COVID-19 infections continue to climb.



The contrast is as tragic as it is stark. The world's youngest continent is itching not only to stand on its own two feet, but also to provide global leadership. And it remains hamstrung by an old foe: debt. If Africa is to achieve its potential, its creditors must set it free.



Debt relief works. Fifteen years ago, the G8 issued the Gleneagles declaration, relieving 18 "highly indebted poor countries"  Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia  of debt totaling more than $40 billion.



No longer saddled with massive debt-service costs, countries were able to invest more in their own economies and people. Many of the countries that had received debt relief, such as Ethiopia and Rwanda, subsequently experienced significant upticks in economic growth.



Standards of health care, access to education, and employment opportunities improved markedly. And countries improved their governance and benefited from greater stability  crucial to sustaining long-term growth.



This progress is now at risk of unraveling. Though Africa has so far recorded a relatively low number of COVID-19 infections, it faces a severe economic crisis, with potentially far-reaching social and political implications.



External demand, oil prices, tourism and travel revenues, and remittances have all collapsed. Investors have pulled $100 billion from emerging markets since the beginning of the pandemic  the largest-ever capital outflow in such a short period. This is contributing to a deepening  and highly dangerous  liquidity crisis.



African governments urgently need capital to stabilize economies hit by cumulative external shocks and to finance an adequate public-health response. Yet, unlike the eurozone or the United States, most African countries cannot print money to get them through the crisis.



Moreover, their fiscal space remains limited, not least because they must continue to make large debt payments. This leaves their leaders with an impossible choice: cut spending on crucial services, as Nigeria has done, or default.



Debt relief would save countries from this bleak scenario, freeing up the capital needed to fight the pandemic and stabilize the economy. World leaders already recognize this. In April, G20 leaders agreed to suspend some debt repayments for the world's poorest countries for the rest of 2020.



But it is nowhere near enough. Pledges must now be swiftly implemented and significantly expanded. Specifically, all creditors  bilateral, multilateral, and private  must implement an immediate debt-service standstill for all African countries until the end of 2021.



As Vera Songwe, the executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, has proposed, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) could also be created, modeled on the repurchase ("repo") facilities that American and European central banks often use to support the smooth functioning of markets.



This new lending vehicle, backed by the G20 central banks, would not only expand access to cheap liquidity; if designed well, it could also support the shift toward a more sustainable growth model.



The International Monetary Fund also has an important role to play. The creative use of its reserve asset, Special Drawing Rights, could go a long way toward supporting fragile economies.



The world's wealthiest economies have responded to the COVID-19 crisis with unprecedented fiscal measures. African countries must do the same. Ensuring that they can is not charity; it is a matter of shared interest.



If African governments lack the resources to respond effectively to the crisis, the hard-won gains of recent decades will be wiped out; poverty will skyrocket; the virus will become increasingly difficult to contain; and social unrest will grow, particularly in countries like Sudan that are already struggling to end decades-long conflicts. This would exact a massive human and economic toll, and leave all of us living in an increasingly insecure world.



The COVID-19 pandemic is a shared global challenge, and it demands a shared global response that addresses both the health and economic dimensions of the crisis. Debt relief for Africa is an essential feature of any such response.





Mo Ibrahim is chair and founder of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. His article was distributed by Project Syndicate (www.project-syndicate.org).




The federal relief fund known as the PPP, or Payment Protection Program, was designed to benefit small businesses and relieve some damage done by the economic crisis in response to closing businesses across the country to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Along with the thousands of businesses in New Jersey that benefitted from the program are dozens of firms tied to lawmakers and to lobbyists, who received millions of dollars in low-interest, forgivable loans, according to data released by the U.S. Treasury and Small Business Administration.

The PPP was part of Congress $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act to aid businesses that suffered from coronavirus restrictions, which included the shuttering of all non-essential businesses, by providing low-interest, forgivable loans to help keep workers on payroll.

More than 140,000 small businesses in New Jersey were granted PPP funds, totaling more than $17.2 billion and saving about 1.5 million jobs, the Small Business Administration said, covering about 81% of payroll of the states small businesses.

But while the federal program was made to elevate small businesses and mom-and-pop shops bleeding money in the flailing economy  some of which have been allowed to reopen but still are suffering  nationwide thousands of firms and businesses that arent typical small businesses also received loans.

And in New Jersey some small businesses associated with at least 12 legislators from both political parties and six lobbyists were named on the list, receiving between $150,000 and $3 million.

Among the beneficiaries is New York-based communications company Cohere Communications, which Gov. Phil Murphy holds a stake in, and received a loan of $350,000 to $1 million. Murphy said during a press briefing that he played no role whatsoever in the loan process.

The list also includes Gibbons PC, where former Gov. Chris Christies long-time adviser, Bill Palatucci, serves as special counsel. Sills Cummis, which has represented real estate development firm Kushner Companies, and was hired to investigate how Murphys administration handled a rape allegation against Albert J. Alvarez, who later left his post, is also on the list.

None of the firms responded immediately to request for comment.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

Public Strategies Impact, which was paid $7 million to lobby in 2019, was listed as receiving a loan between $350,000 and $1 million. Managing partner Roger Bodman said the firm applied for the loan and was approved, but never accepted it.

Other than retail shops, construction companies and agriculture businesses, some New Jersey businesses included publicly traded corporations and charities, such as Kars 4 Kids. In other cases, nonprofit organizations, including all five of New Jerseys Catholic Dioceses and private schools, received money, the list detailed.

The partial data was only released after weeks of pressure from watchdog groups, auditors and lawmakers. The U.S. Treasury Department released the names of the 650,000 companies which received relief funds of $150,000 or more through PPP.

Theres about three weeks left to apply for PPP funds, after Congress extended the program through August 8. Roughly $130 billion is still available.

Heres a breakdown of lawmakers and lobbyists from New Jersey on the list.

NJ Advance Media staff writers Brent Johnson and Ted Sherman contributed to this report.

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Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him at @JDSalant.

Sophie Nieto-Munoz may be reached at snietomunoz@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her at @snietomunoz.

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Kapil Sibal takes a swipe at Sachin Pilot, questions about 'ghar wapsi'

India

oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P

New Delhi, July 16: Taking a swipe at Sachin Pilot over his claim that he is not joining the BJP, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Thursday asked what happens to his 'ghar wapsi' and whether Rajasthan's dissident legislators are vacationing in Haryana under the "watchful eye" of the saffron party.

Pilot has been sacked by the party as Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister and PCC chief after he openly revolted against Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. As speculation mounted about his next steps, Pilot said he is not joining the BJP.

Were paid to join Congress: Team Sachin Pilot hits back at Ashok Gehlot

"False rumours spread to malign. Pilot said, "I am not joining BJP". I guess then legislators at a hotel in Manesar is merely a vacation in Haryana's comfort zone under BJP's watchful eye. What about 'ghar wapsi'," Sibal asked on Twitter.

Bihar bridge collapse: Rs 263 crores washed away in 29 days, who is responsible? | Oneindia News

Sibal had earlier said he was worried for the party and asked the party leadership if it will wake up after the horses have bolted. "Worried for our party. Will we wake up only after the horses have bolted from our stables," he had asked.

Rajasthan crisis: Worried for Congress, says Kapil Sibal

Sibal's remarks about 'ghar wapsi' come after the Congress once again said the dissident MLAs can still return to the Congress fold. AICC general secretary for Rajasthan Avinash Pande and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala have urged Pilot and other dissident legislators to return to the Congress fold if they are not joining the BJP.
Photo: (Photo : Instagram/sterlingheights_pd)

Police Officer Cameron Maciejewski saw on Thursday late at night an upset family holding a baby who was not breathing. According to the Facebook post of Sterling Heights Police Department, the officer took the baby in his arms and performed back thrusts until he saved the three-week-old baby.

The department released the tense footage showing Maciejewski trying to clear the infant's airway. After he performed first aid treatment, the baby's airway is cleared, causing the parents to be relieved. The baby's mom collapsed and broke into tears after everything was well.

Caught on camera

The Sterling Heights Fire Department brought the child to a hospital for evaluation. The Police Department reviewed the events that were caught through their dashcam video. It explained on their Facebook page how the officer tried to save the infant.

It wrote that Officer Maciejewski calmly took the baby into his arms and performed back thrusts. Upon doing so, the infant coughs up the object of obstruction and finally starts crying.

Thanks to the officer's calm and quick act

The department complimented the officer's quick heroic acts. It said that the outcome of the incident could have ended tragically if Maciejewski had not shown calm, quick, and life-saving actions. The department also shared that apart from saving the baby, the officer did an excellent job of consoling the infant's family.

The department then concluded that they strive to give the best service to its citizens, especially at times that matter the most.

Sterling Heights Police Officer Saves Three-week-old Baby Upon pulling up to the home, the officer was rushed by the family who were holding their three week old baby girl, who was not breathing. Ofc. Maciejewski calmly takes the baby in his arms and performs back thrusts in attempts to clear the babys air way. When doing so, the baby coughs up the obstruction, and begins to cry. The baby was then turned over to the Sterling Heights Fire Department who transported the baby to the hospital for evaluation. If it wasnt for Ofc. Maciejewskis quick, calm, lifesaving actions, the outcome of this incident could have been tragically different. Not only did the officer save the baby, but the officer did an outstanding job consoling the family. Once again, the Sterling Heights Police Department strives to provide the best service to our citizens, especially when it matters most! Posted by Sterling Heights Police Department on Monday, July 13, 2020

People applauded his heroic deeds

People wrote their comments about the heroic deeds of the Michigan officer. One wrote that Maciejewski is a good officer because he maintained his cool so well. The commenter wrote that he would have freaked out like the mother if it happened in his presence. He ended the comment sending his prayers to bless him for saving the baby's life.

Another one wrote that the officer was a true hero for being amazingly confident and calm throughout the incident. He then thanks to the SHPD and officer Maciejewski for serving their city. One commenter wrote that officers like Maciejewski make the world a better place to live.

After the incident, the officer credits the department for his quick thinking and calm demeanor. He thanks the police training for making him alert. During an interview, he said that his acts would affect the victim's family. He said that it would escalate quickly with the family if he could not keep his cool or start freaking out.

When we are struggling to live due to the pandemic, some people do good at times like this. Police officers like Maciejewski, who do heroic acts, help restore faith in humanity. It just shows that no matter how hard our life is today, there is still a lot to be thankful for.

Other inspiring stories:

Selfless mom died of car crash after helping in another car accident

Police Officer Jumps Into Pond, Saves Teens Trapped Inside a Sunken Car

Police Officer Helped Black Mom Find Son's Grave Four Years After He Died [An Inspiring Story]

Officer Bravely Jumped Off Cliff to Save Two-Year-Old Twins [Father Drove Them to Fall]
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has adopted the resolution on the appointment of Oleh Urusky as Vice Prime Minister - Minister for Strategic Industries of Ukraine.

The corresponding decision was supported by 250 lawmakers, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"To appoint Oleh Urusky to the position of Vice Prime Minister - Minister for Strategic Industries of Ukraine," the resolution reads.

Oleh Urusky is Doctor of Engineering Science, laureate of the State Science and Technology Prize, academician of the International Academy of Aeronautics.

In 1993-1996, Urusky headed the department at the State Space Agency of Ukraine; in 1996-2000 - the department in the staff of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. In 2000-2003, Urusky held the position of First Deputy Chairman of the State Commission for Defense and Industry of Ukraine. In 2003-2005, he headed the department at the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers. In 2005, Oleh Urusky was appointed as the First Deputy Industrial Policy Minister. From January 21 to August 19, 2015, Urusky became the Head of the State Space Agency of Ukraine. In April 2020, he headed the Progrestech-Ukraine engineering company.

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On July 8, the American Civil Liberties Union and Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs filed an amendment to their class action lawsuit on behalf of Black Lives Matter DC and other groups against the government officials involved in the clearing of protesters from Lafayette Square Park on June 1.

The suit was filed last month following the Trump administrations violent attacks on peaceful protesters in Lafayette Park outside of the White House. The clearing of the park by police and federal agents marked a new stage in the American ruling classs slide toward authoritarianism and dictatorship. Peaceful protesters were met with tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and flash bangs as they defenselessly fled the advancing walls of riot shields and projectile weapons clearing the way so that Trump could pose for a photo-op in front of a nearby church.

The amended suit adds the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) of the District of Columbia Peter Newsham to the list of defendants that already includes several federal officials alongside Trump, including: Attorney General William Barr, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and US Park Police Acting Chief Gregory Monahan.

Metro DC Police in riot gear (Image credit: Elvert Xavier Barnes Photography)

The case alleges police and federal agents, acting on direct orders from Trump, Barr and Newsham, brutally repressed peaceful demonstrators and seeks damages for violations of the First and Fourth Amendments, as well as charging the government with conspiracy to violate civil rights.

In the latest development, it emerged last week that the United States Park Police failed to record radio communications between agents that day as they helped sweep protesters away from the area. The loss or lack of any recorded audio among the Park Police that day was likely intentional in order to remove the prospect of accountability. As University of South Carolina criminology professor Geoff Alpert told the Washington Post, These are things that are just inexcusable in 2020 because Its all youve got. Memory and reasoning can be clouded. They can be manufactured.

While the Trump administrations fascistic actions have made clear its views about democracy, the amended allegations against the MPD implicate the Democratic administration of Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser in the assault.

According to plaintiff Dustin Foley, he and his 15-year-old daughter were attacked by MPD officers wearing riot gear, standing shoulder-to-shoulder, blocking off the street as protesters fled from Lafayette Square. MPD officers began firing tear gas canisters at the demonstrators, including Mr. Foley and [his daughter] who were fleeing Lafayette Square down 17th Street NW, states the affidavit.

Both Mr. Foley and [his daughter] immediately felt the severe effects of the tear gas fired by the MPD officers, including burning eyes and difficulty breathing. [Foleys daughter] experienced significant symptoms, and had difficulty opening or seeing out of her eyes.

There have been multiple reports since the incident of MPD officers being captured on video at the scene, lined up in riot gear around the intersection of 17th Street and H Street NW. Local CBS News affiliate WUSA-TV reporter Nathan Baca, for instance, tweeted on June 4 that police canisters gathered by @wusa9 crews Monday night show federal police DID use artificial CS tear gas in addition to natural OC gas on #BlackLivesMatter. Reporters from the Post and Vox have also covered the active presence of MPD officers in the area that day.

For his part, MPD Chief Newsham has denied more than once that any of DCs police officers took part in the clearing of the area around the park right outside the White House grounds.

Following the June 1 assault, the Democratic Party establishment and media have also sought to promote Mayor Bowser as a champion of civil rights. [O]verall and so far  the city [of Washington, DC] and its police force have performed well, respecting and protecting protesters First Amendment rights while ensuring public safety, said the Washington Post in a typical comment in the days after the attack.

This has coincided with an effort to flood the public discourse with racialist identity politics in order to direct justified anger at the police toward white people in general and divide the multiracial protests that swept hundreds of cities across the world last month.

The addition of MPD to the suit confirms that it is not only elements within the Trump administration deploying state violence against the demonstrations of working class anger, but the capitalist state as a whole at the national and local level. It exposes the absurdity of the claims by Democratic Party politicians around the country that they represent popular opposition to the Trump administration and the defense of democratic rights.

Overwhelmingly, the response of Democratic and Republican officials to peaceful protests was to institute curfews, call in the National Guard, and attack the protesters themselves as fringe extremists or outside agitators, a slander regularly used by segregationists against civil rights activists during the 1950s and 1960s.

Such actions also explain the relative silence within the establishment since the Trump administrations June 1 assault on the protests and his attempted coup against the Constitution.

Democrats should if anything be doing far more to get to the bottom of what happened [on June 1] than they have so far, states a worried comment published in the Post this week. The opinion, headlined A protester was shot by police in Oregon. Democrats should demand answers, notes actual violent clashes are happening, as the Portland shooting shows Yet remarkably, its not being treated as a major controversy by the Democratic Party.
Punjab CM okays health insurance cover for 9.5 lakh farming families for 2020-21

Nearly 5 lakh such families were covered in the previous year under the Ayushman Bharat Sarbat Sehat Bima Yojana

HT Correspondent

Chandigarh: Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday gave the go-ahead to bringing 9.5 lakh farmers and their families into the ambit of the health insurance cover under the Ayushman Bharat Sarbat Sehat Bima Yojana for 2020-21, as against 5 lakh covered in the previous year.

The scheme, launched by the state government on Rajiv Gandhis birth anniversary on August 20, 2019, with 45 lakh families covered for 2019-20, has proved to be beneficial to people of Punjab during the Covid crisis. The state government has also capped charges for Covid-19 treatment in hospitals empanelled under the Ayushman Bharat Sarbat Sehat Bima Yojana.

The chief minister said that beneficiaries can approach any of the 546 empanelled private hospitals and 208 government hospitals for treatment facility of up to Rs 5 lakh for 1,396 diseases, including surgical treatments such as heart surgery, cancer treatment, joint replacement and accident cases under the health insurance scheme.

The number of farmers covered during the first year of the scheme stood at around 5 lakh, as these had been issued J forms in 2015 by the Mandi Board. With 8.7 lakh farmers and 80,000 cane growers now registered with the Mandi Board as J form holders, having sold their agricultural produce on/after January 1, 2020, and from November 1, 2019, to March 31, 2020 sugar season, respectively, the farming families eligible for cover during 2020-21 has now gone up to 9.5 lakh.

With the Chief Minister approving their inclusion in the scheme, all 9.5 lakh will be covered with effect from August 20, 2020, according to an official spokesperson.

The Mandi Board will pay the entire premium for the insurance cover of all farmers, who will get cashless treatment facility up to Rs 5 lakh per annum. All the eligible farmers having J forms and sugarcane weightment slips would be required to submit their duly filled self-declaration, along with the other necessary documents, at the market committee office or with the commission agent (Arhtiya) till July 24, 2020. The chief minister has asked Mandi Board chairman Lal Singh to direct the market committees to facilitate every farmer to avail this cashless treatment facility.

ACS, development, Anirudh Tewari said that the Mandi Board has invited applications from eligible farmers to ensure that every farmer is benefitted. The interested farmers can collect the self-declaration form either from the office of market committee or commission agents (arhtiyas) or download the same from the website of the Mandi Board, www.mandiboard.nic.in.

The Mandi Board shall upload the data on specially designated portal after receiving applications from farmers and subsequently health insurance cards will be issued to eligible farmers. The scheme is cashless and all ailments that require hospitalisation of more than 24 hours or listed day care procedure are covered under the scheme.

Tewari said that besides the family head, husband/wife, father/mother, unmarried children, divorced daughter and her minor children, widowed daughter-in-law and her minor children would be considered eligible to derive benefit under the scheme. Further information can be sought from the toll free no. 104 in this regard.
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Dan Peres, the former longtime editor in chief of Conde Nasts Details, is heading back to his business-to-business roots.

Advertising trade publication Ad Age has unveiled Peres as its new editor in chief, overseeing editorial across print, digital, social, video, podcasts and events. He will also work with Ad Age Studio 30, the companys studio specializing in subscriber and custom content.

Im incredibly honored to be joining the team at Ad Age, Peres said. The brand and its journalists have always represented the gold standard, and I look forward to working with the talented editors and reporters to define whats next for Ad Age. The publication has such a rich history, and Im excited to be a part of its future.

Peres was editor in chief of Details magazine for 15 years until it was shuttered by Conde in 2015, citing cost-cutting reasons. After that, he worked as a media consultant and had a brief stint as editor in chief of Gawker, which is owned by Bustle Digital Group. He was tapped to relaunch the site, but BDG ended up changing course and it is still dormant.

Peres also recently published a HarperCollins memoir As Needed for Pain, which shines a light on the first half of his 15-year-long Details reign, during which he had a 60-a-day opiod addiction that he concealed from everyone. He has been sober since.

He began his career at Fairchild mens fashion trade DNR, before joining WWD and eventually becoming Paris bureau chief of its then-sister publication W.

Ad Age president and publisher Josh Golden said: Dan is a remarkable talent. His history of creative ingenuity and cultural fluency will move Ad Age in promising new directions that connect directly with what our audience is seeking  knowledge and understanding with a hint of what is around the corner.

Gold added that the appointment of Peres comes at a time when the advertising industry needs 90-year-old Ad Ages news and insights more than ever  our robust audience and subscriber growth has proven that. He was no doubt referring to the recent drop off in advertising as firms cut marketing budgets amid the global pandemic.

Ad Age claims to have more than 61,000 print subscribers and 2 million-plus unique monthly users.

Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
An employee at a Nestle factory in north Melbourne tested positive to coronavirus, forcing the venue to close to undergo a deep clean.

All staff at the Campbellfield factory have been ordered to self isolate at home and present for testing if they begin displaying any COVID-19 symptoms.

Some employees will be able to work from home in the interim, but those who aren't able to will be put on indefinite leave until the factory is safe to reopen again.

Nestle spokeswoman Margaret Stuart confirmed contact tracing is underway at the facility, in line with guidelines set by Department of Health and Human Services.

An employee at a Nestle factory (pictured) in north Melbourne tested positive to coronavirus , forcing the venue to close to undergo a deep clean

'Over recent months, we have taken a number of steps to help keep our employees and their families safe, adapting our activities on site to maintain two metres social distancing and increasing cleaning and sanitising,' Ms Stuart said.

'Wearing masks in the factory has been mandatory for some weeks, and masks have also been available for direct family members.

'In line with our commitment, each and every one of us will continue to strictly adopt all the government recommended measures to keep our colleagues, business partners and consumers safe.'

It comes as health officials confirmed at least six protesters who attended a recent Black Lives Matter rally in Melbourne have since tested positive to coronavirus.

Healthcare workers walk with testing supplies into a public housing tower (pictured on July 8)

But the department has refuted claims the June 6 protest is linked to an outbreak cluster in Melbourne's public housing towers, which has contributed to a second wave of new infections.

Victoria is struggling to control a horror outbreak, with the state recording a triple-digit increase for a tenth consecutive day on Wednesday with 238 new cases.

On Thursday, officials announced a record 317 new cases, the highest daily total of any Australian state since the outbreak began.

Two men in their 80s have died overnight, taking the state's death toll to 29 and the national death toll to 113.

There are 109 people in hospital, including 29 fighting for their lives.
Michael Bang Petersen, Mathias Osmundsen, and Kevin Arceneaux, a team of political scientists, dont concern themselves with what people believe. Belief is a private act, they say. People tend to believe information not because its factual, not because its based on expert opinion, but because it aligns with their existing worldview. What interests these scientists is the moment when belief turns to public actionwhen people click share.

In the 2016 election cycle, Arceneaux, Osmundsen, and Petersen observed a proliferation of hostile political rumorsan umbrella term encompassing conspiracy theories, misinformation, and malicious amplification of scandals. Many of the rumors circulating online had a political targetObama is a Muslim, or the Democrats secretly operate a pedophilia ringbut they contained a larger accusation as well, one that went beyond politics and seemed to call the entire political class and social order into question. The stories seemed to be saying: The system is rigged.

In other words, the motivation for much of the misinformation and rumormongering online wasnt only partisan or strategic in nature. Something else was going on. The scientists concluded that a primary driver was the desire to inflict chaos.

After disinformation was shown to have had effects on the outcome of the US presidential election and the Brexit referendum, Arceneaux, Osmundsen, and Petersen decided to create a system to measure the desire to create chaos. Last summer, their resulting work, A Need for Chaos and the Sharing of Hostile Political Rumors in Advanced Democracies, received the award for best political psychology paper from the American Political Science Association.

In the paper, which is currently making its way through the review process for publication, the scientists identify a personality trait they call Need for Chaos. To measure it they conducted surveys with 5,157 participants in the United States and 1,336 in Denmark. (Petersen and Osmundsen are professors at Aarhus University in Denmark; Arceneaux is a professor at Temple University in the United States.) One survey question asked:

I need chaos around meit is too boring if nothing is going on. Agree or disagree?

Another:

I get a kick when natural disasters strike in foreign countries. Agree or disagree?

And:

When I think about our political and social institutions, I cannot help thinking just let them all burn.  Agree or disagree?

In response to this last question, 40 percent of respondents did not disagree. The percentage who agreed with other nihilistic statements was also high. Arceneaux, Osmundsen, and Petersen were shocked.

Their work seeks to understand why this nihilism is so widespread. Their paper gives credit to pop culture for picking up on an ambient craving for chaos before political scientists got there. They quote the character Alfred in the 2008 movie The Dark Knight, speaking about the Joker: Some men arent looking for anything logical, like money. They cant be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.

Likewise, in Fight Club, released in 1999, Tyler Durden rails against consumerist culture: Were the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War, no Great Depression. Our Great Wars a spiritual warour Great Depression is our lives. Weve all been raised on television to believe that one day wed all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars. But we wont. And were slowly learning that fact. And were very, very pissed off.

In June 2017, Richard Spencer rehashed similar rhetoric at a rally for Identity Evropa, a neo-Nazi white-supremacist group:

As the Cold War ended, liberalism and Americanism lost its enemy. It lost its boogeyman. And it began to feel that history was over. You have no future. Youre an individual, bouncing around on the internet between various consumer choices, social lifestyles, and sexual orientations. We arent fighting for freedom. We arent fighting for the Constitution. We are fundamentally fighting for meaning in our lives. We are fighting to be powerful again in a sea of weakness and hopelessness. That is our battle.

In their paper, Arceneaux, Osmundsen, and Petersen dont draw a necessary connection between Need for Chaos behavior and white supremacy or violence. The survey results are based on the thoughts and behaviors that people are motivated to entertain when they sit alone (and, perhaps, lonely) in front of the computer, they write. But the scientists do associate the urge to share hostile political rumors with stronger animosity against the target group.

Seven weeks after Spencers end of history speech, the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, exploded in violence. This spring, online disinformation about the covid-19 pandemic gained traction amid the lack of a unified government response, and rumors formed about violent and disruptive instigators in the turmoil of protests sparked by the death of George Floyd. Now the country approaches a divisive presidential election, and the potential for those who crave chaos to wreak havoc is greater than ever. I spoke with Kevin Arceneaux about where the Need for Chaos comes from, how the pandemic is influencing disinformation online, and how journalists can best cover chaos agents in the lead-up to the presidential election. This interview has been condensed from multiple conversations and edited for clarity.

Darrach What do you know about these agents of chaos?

Arceneaux We know that they tend to be younger, a bit more male, a bit better off socioeconomically, like middle class or upper middle class. The racial demographics are overwhelmingly white. So they occupy what people on the outside would see as a privileged place in society, but they dont feel privileged. In fact they feel abandoned by society, like theyve lost out.

People high on Need for Chaos dont have one state. There are lots of ways by which people get there. The one thing they have in common is they want respect and they feel like they dont have it. They feel marginalized. Even if an outsider might think, Hey, wait a second, you live in a nice house. You have all these privileges. Why dont you feel respected? they will tell you, I dont.

Darrach Why do they feel marginalized?

Arceneaux Maybe in part because social progress has involved recognizing minorities and women, these folks feel like theyre losing the respect that they deserve. The trigger is a feeling of The way the world was before, it would have been my oyster, and now thats slipping away from me.

On a psychological level, people who tested high on Need for Chaos also tend to be higher on certain other measures. For instance, one is Social Dominance Orientation, which is a fancy way of saying somebody who has a worldview that divides the world into strong and weak groups and who wants their group to be the dominant one.

These folks like inequality. They like hierarchies. They look out into the world and they say, My group should be at the topwhy isnt it? Why do I perceive it slipping?

Another track we see is people high in valuing reputation and status, but who perceive that theyre low status. So perhaps theres a socially awkward loner kid. He is in some sense marginalized, but by his peer group, not by society.

Darrach I read you Spencers end of history speech. He wasnt selling his cause as a political fight, but rather as a fight to reclaim meaning in life. Does that strategy seem to be directed toward a similar demographic?

Arceneaux We see that people who score higher in Need for Chaos are more likely to share hostile rumors or to behave in nihilistic ways. Thats true even if we account for personality disorders. Its not explained away by saying theyre all sociopaths or weirdos.

Just because you win the Cold War and youre well off doesnt mean youre happy. Theyre the kind of folks who are bouncing around on the internet, searching for their identity and feeling excluded. So that discourse keys into exactly the kind of animus that these people are feeling.

As the country approaches a divisive presidential election, those who crave chaos may wreak more havoc than ever.

Darrach You included a question on boredom in your survey. Do you tie that back to the feeling that a meaningful connection to the world is absent?

Arceneaux Its interestingit doesnt seem like this is some sort of groundswell thats coming from actual deprivation, or being on the outskirts of society, or being marginalized in an economic or racial sense. If you have to work two, three jobs to put food on your table, you dont have time to be bored.

One thing I learned from having to move all my instruction online really quickly is that a number of my students didnt have reliable access to the internet once they left campus. So even the ability to sit around in your underwear and forward hostile political rumors is also kind of a luxury.

Darrach And instigating chaos will break up the boredom? Give life meaning?

Arceneaux These people seem to have a special sense about chaos having a potential to play a positive, strategic role. Other people would say chaos is a bad thing. These people have a tendency to say, No, chaos can be useful to me.

Its not that they want there to be chaos all the time. Bullies, for example, use different tactics to get people to do what they want. Need for Chaos is a character adaptation. It falls in the middle ground between a personality trait, which is super stable, and a state people have that changes from context to context. People have a disposition thats triggered by a context. So for people who really care about their reputation, really care about dominance, if you put them in a place where they feel marginalized, this turns on for them.

In a very minor way, what we did was to create the feeling of marginalization in an experimental setup. Psychologists have done this. We had people play a game of catch on a computer screen. At some point, the people theyre playing catch with exclude them. We found it moved people up a little bit on the scale of Need for Chaos. Exclusion makes you feel bad, and maybe you want to get back at people. But among the people who were high on the scale of Need for Chaos, when you put them in the marginalized position, they really act out.

Darrach Is this trait a unique product of the moment we are living in? How much does political and social context play in?

Arceneaux It exists in all times. Think about Holden Caulfield. There are people who are predisposed to say, I want to throw the Man off, whoever the Man is. And the way I do that is screw up everything.

Look at whats happened over the past century or so: as inequality increases, you see an increase in discontent, and that discontent isnt just among people who find themselves at the bottom of the economic ladder.

Fight Club is this interesting story at the end of the 1990s, which now we can sort of look back on almost as a reincarnation of the 1950sgood times were here again, the economy was roaring, the Cold War had ended. But there was also all this dark stuff going on underneath, in terms of banks and the beginning of the growth in income inequality becoming apparent. Fight Club is about taking on these evil corporate entities that are trying to control us through consumerism. Its a really interesting zeitgeist from that period.

Darrach We are still sifting through the disinformation that played into the 2016 election. Do you identify any social context from that time that would have triggered Need for Chaos actors?

Arceneaux I think that it has to do with the continuing increases in income inequality for the middle class. In this time period were seeing things like Gamergate, the rise of white nationalism. People who are directly making the argument, We used to be in this dominant positionwe being white or maleand now we perceive that its slipping. We have to rip the system down and build it back up in a way that puts us back on top. I mean, thats what these people are asking for.

So in some ways these two trends over the past twenty years, of increasing income inequality and also increasing diversity, could be responsible for triggering the same sort of outcome.

Darrach Does it also stem from the Obama presidency, then?

Arceneaux I think the data agrees with that, but I should say that the Need for Chaos doesnt mean the individual supports Trump. I should be really clear about that. What were finding, just in terms of chaos, is it doesnt seem like its owned by one political group. Its broader than politics; it goes beyond politics.

Among those who care about politics, if the status they worry about is being a white male, yeah, I think that we can make the argument that those folks are going to be the people that gravitate to Trump.

Darrach Gravitate to Trump and away from Obama?

Arceneaux I would say away from Obama as well as away from the other establishment Republican candidates. So Jeb Bush, too.

If you want to talk about specific people and their concerns and their worries about why theyre marginalized, I think I can make a case that those particular people would see someone like Trump, or even someone like Sanders, as Yeah, lets burn it all down. But theyre going to be very different people, right? They might both be high on Need for Chaos. But the Trump voter might be different than the Sanders voter.

Darrach Did the agents of chaos you identified affect the result of 2016?

Arceneaux If what we found is correct since 2016, then the answer would be yes, in the sense that these would be the folks spreading all sorts of fake stuff on social media. Not just about Hillary Clinton, but also about Trump. Creating noise. These people would be the exact right people for amplifying Russian propaganda. People still debate about how much of an effect that had on the outcome of the 2016 election, but we certainly know that it was an aspect of the 2016 election.

Darrach And what about the conditions now, in 2020? We are living through a global pandemic, preparing for another election.

Arceneaux We live in a world that has internet and social media and allows rumors and vile memes to travel at light speed. Now put that in a context with an immense amount of uncertainty, and an immense amount of pain, both economic pain and a disease thats causing death and destruction. I think this might be one of those situational triggers for people that pushes them over the edge and triggers a latent Need for Chaos. I think the pandemic can exacerbate it. You have more people than before feeling marginalized, sitting at their computer, and seeing this as a way to create chaos.

This is going to be a very weird election. You can imagine rumors about the role that China has to play in this, whether or not this virus was invented to take down Trump, whether or not voting is really secure. Im pretty sure that state agents of chaos, such as Russia, are going to try to do again what they did in 2016. And, in part because of the pandemic, they might have a larger army of folks willing to pass along that misinformation, which then will be dutifully reported on by the mainstream mediaspreading it further.

Darrach Much of the recent coverage of the Black Lives Matter uprisings against police brutality has depicted them as chaotic rather than largely peaceful. Minnesota governor Tim Walz referred to the protests as wanton violence and wanton destruction. Many conservatives blamed antifa members for the rioting that took place, though that has been disproved. What do you think of claims that people are infiltrating the protests for the purpose of instigating violence?

Arceneaux I would say that people who are higher in Need for Chaos do support whats been termed violent activism, which includes fighting with the police, looting, these kinds of things. Whether they are actually doing that here, I dont think we can say without data. I would be willing to wager money that people who are high Need for Chaos might have gone out just to create chaos. But, given the broad turnout at these protests, they would be a minor element.

We developed this concept to understand why people share hostile political rumors online, and not why people do other kinds of political activities, such as protests. So a lot more thought has to be put into how Need for Chaos translates into more visible political actions.

Darrach Do you have any sense of what kind of media chaos agents consume?

Arceneaux They tend to sample from all over, not just left or right. They tend to traffic extremist websites that essentially peddleconspiracy theories. Sites Id never heard of.

The mainstream sites are boring. Youre not going to get that crazy story to spread that says that Warren Buffett invented the coronavirus, or the QAnon stuff. Where the hell does that stuff come from? The New York Times isnt writing those stories. They come from chat rooms like 4chan and 8chan. Those are the places where those things are born, and then they get a life by people posting them on blogs and then spreading them on social media.

Some use conspiracy theories as a tool to hammer away at the foundations of a system that they think needs to fall. They dont care if its true or not.

Darrach What have you seen on social media since this pandemic started that bears the hallmarks of high Need for Chaos?

Arceneaux Right now its conspiracy theories about the origins of the coronavirus, about how powerful and secretive elitesincluding the media, of courseare blowing this out of proportion and its not as bad as theyre saying, blah blah blah. Those are the things that are going to spread like wildfire.

Im quite sure that our Need for Chaos folks are sharing those, whether or not they believe them, because they can get eyeballs and create chaos. But it fits their worldview, too. These faceless, horrible elites, trying to screw them overlets create chaos so that we ruin the plans.

People ask me sometimes why people would believe this crazy stuff when its obviously ridiculous. Well, some of them believe it. Some people say, This is b.s. I shouldnt be cooped up in my house, I shouldnt have to wear a face mask. But some of them just use this as a tool to hammer away at the foundations of a system that they think needs to fall. They dont care if its true or not.

Darrach Were so polarized right now. You either believe that science is sacrosanct or you believe that this is a plot to dethrone Trump, and theres not much room in the middle. Does that create more space for high Need for Chaos actors to share hostile political rumors that people will actually believe?

Arceneaux Yes, it does. We know this from our work on ethnic riots. When youre in a polarized political or even social situation, an us versus them situation of intense competition, hostile rumors are more likely to gain traction. Thats largely because there are people who just hate the other side, so either they believe that the other side is doing horrible things or they see, Ah, this is a useful tool. I can mobilize others to fight against people who are evil, whether I believe this or not. Hillary Clinton probably doesnt have a child sex ring up in a pizza parlor. But what if I can get people to believe that?

Even in a pandemic, where you would hope wed say, Okay, lets put all this stuff aside, were all human beings and Americans, lets face this threat together, there are some people who feel the world is still divided into Team D and Team R. If anything, the pandemic makes it worse.

You have to separate out the people who are high on the Need for Chaos. Theyre in their own special box. The rest of us, were trapped up in this us-versus-them warfare. And so we can be sometimes used as dupes by these folks who are high Need for Chaos. They are trying to spread rumors, so sometimes they get people who are partisans to believe and transmit their rumors. The motivation of a partisan is an urge to show the world how bad those crappy Republicans, or Democrats, are. The motivation of someone who is high Need for Chaos is just to spread chaos.

Darrach How can the media better respond to chaos agents?

Arceneaux The media focuses on political tactics rather than substance, and that increases political distrust. There is also evidence that when there is a lot of coverage using the term fake news, it drives down trust in the media. Then misinformation is no longer the story. More dangerous is the circulation of half truths, or stories where theres an element of truth with different, tactical framingits powerful in the same way propaganda is powerful. Most importantly, fact checks dont help except among a very small segment of readers. The real problem is people offline, so it is more effective when the media focuses coverage on whos spreading misinformation and what their motives are, rather than framing the rumors they spread seriously. Otherwise, mainstream journalists play into the hands of chaos agents. Instead, invert the script. See it as all coming from the same noise machine, and write about the noise machine.

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Amanda Darrach is a contributor to CJR and a visiting scholar at the University of St Andrews School of International Relations. Follow her on Twitter @thedarrach.
Netflixs new fantasy action series, Warrior Nun, is centered on a brave young woman who unwillingly ends up in the middle of a war between heaven and hell. Alba Baptista makes her Hollywood debut as Ava on the show. But what many may not know is that shes actually a seasoned telenovela star.

Alba Baptista in Warrior Nun | Netflix

Who is Alba Baptista and what else has she been in?

Baptista is a Portuguese actor who started her career at the age of 15, starring in short films like Amanha e um Novo Dia and Miami, for which she earned the Festival Iberico de Cines Best Actress Award. Shes starred in numerous films since then, including Caminhos Magnetykos, Imagens Proibidas, and Patrick, which premiered and competed in the San Sebastian International Film Festival in 2019.

But in Portugal, Baptista is most known for her popular telenovelas. She had recurring roles on six TV series  Jardins Proibidos, A Impostora, Filha da Lei, Madre Paula, A Criacao, and Jogo Duplo. The 23-year-old actor was also featured on episodes of Sim, Chef! and Pais Irmao.

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How did she get her role on Warrior Nun?

After establishing a successful film and TV career in Portugal, Baptista landed her first major English language role in Netflixs Warrior Nun. To cast the lead, showrunners put out an international casting call, but Baptistas audition stood out from the very beginning.

We had casting directors in LA, in London, and in Spain, showrunner Simon Barry told Decider. Alba really popped up in our radar very early in the process. Our UK casting director was really taken with her, and said, I think youve got to look at this girl, shes got this quality. We immediately saw what she saw. We sent her some sides to do an audition, and the audition came back and it was phenomenal.

I just was really immediately locked in, he added. The intelligence she brought, the talent she had. She could play the funny, the dark. It was immediate for me. I didnt have to second guess it.

Baptista was drawn to the fresh aspect of her Warrior Nun character

Netflixs Warrior Nun is loosely based on Ben Dunns 1993 manga comic, Warrior Nun Areala. However, Baptistas character, Ava, was created just for the series and does not appear in the comic books. In an interview with Hollywood Life, the actor said she really enjoyed having the freedom to mold the character from scratch.

This character is just so special in the way that the preparation for the character was so different because, usually, you have to do some sort of research for every character, she explained. With this one, I really just needed to get loose of all of my insecurities and all of my perfectionism.

Avas innocence and naivety is not something generally seen in comic book heroes. And its this fresh approach that really drew Baptista into the role.

Avas inner child is so present throughout the whole show, and I think thats such a special characteristic for a character, she added. That made me fall in love with her instantly, just her naive state of mind and purity in a way. Its a very different lead character I would say, especially for a series that has the sort of genre of fantasy and comic action, its very unpredictable.

You can see Baptista as Ava on Season 1 of Warrior Nun, which is currently streaming on Netflix.
Chinese troops yet to return to pre-April positions, must disengagement at LAC, says Indian Army

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, July 16: Amid simmering tensions between India and China at Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, Indian Army has said that the process of complete disengagement of troops in eastern Ladakh is "intricate" and requires constant verification.

The two sides remain committed to the objective of complete disengagement. This process is intricate and requires constant verification. They are taking it forward through regular meetings at diplomatic and military level," noted the statement.

China threatens to hit back US with sanctions

The army said senior commanders of the Indian and Chinese military reviewed the progress on implementation of the first phase of disengagement and discussed further steps to ensure complete withdrawal of troops in the region.

According to reports, while there has been a pullback of Chinese troops from most areas, they are yet to return to pre-April positions.

International flights: Bubble travel with US & France, flights to resume from tomorrow|Oneindia News

The commanders held 15-hour-long negotiations in Chushul on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control(LAC) from 11 AM on Tuesday to 2 AM on Wednesday during which modalities for the complex disengagement process were extensively discussed.

"The senior commanders reviewed the progress on implementation of the first phase of disengagement and discussed further steps to ensure complete disengagement," the Indian Army said in a statement.

"The two sides remain committed to the objective of complete disengagement. This process is intricate and requires constant verification. They are taking it forward through regular meetings at diplomatic and military level," it said.

The Indian delegation was led by Lt Gen Harinder Singh, the Commander of the Leh-based 14 Corps, while the Chinese side was headed by Major General Liu Lin, Commander of the South Xinjiang military region.

The army also said the talks between the two sides were consistent with the consensus reached between the Special Representatives of India and China on July 5 to discuss complete disengagement.

Discussed India-China border clash with Jaishankar, we speak 'frequently: Pompeo

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval held telephonic talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on July 5 on the disengagement process. Doval and Wang are special representatives on the boundary question between the two countries.

It should be noted that during the 15-hour-long negotiations in Chushul on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control(LAC) on Wednesday, China had made it clear that it would not back off from Finger 4. Both India and China had reached an agreement to disengage in Galwan Valley, Hotsprings and Gogra and India has been demanding that Chinese troops must disengage from all the areas.
Hearing a plea challenging the validity of a Kerala law that prohibits animal sacrifice for appeasement of deity in temples, the Supreme Court on Thursday said that there was an apparent contradiction in our laws which allow killing of animals for consumption but prohibit such killing when it comes to offering the meat as sacrifice for deity and then consuming it.

Heading the three-judge bench, Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde said,There is a dichotomy in law. Killing animals and consuming is allowed. But killing animals, offering to deity and then consuming is not permissible.

Killing of animals for consumption of their meat is allowed as per the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. However, the law which is under challenge in the present case, the Kerala Animals and Bird Sacrifices Prohibition Act, 1968 (Act), prohibits killing of animals for appeasement of deity in temples and temple precincts even though such meat is later consumed by humans.

The court issued notice to the Kerala government, central government and Animal Welfare Board in the plea. The case is now likely to be heard on August 10 along with similar cases from Himachal Pradesh and Tripura concerning validity of animal sacrifice in temples.

The Kerala Animals and Bird Sacrifices Prohibition Act was challenged on the ground that it violates right to equality guaranteed by Article 14 and the right to practice religion and manage religious affairs under articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution.

The petitioners, who are followers of Shakthi worshipping tradition, claimed that appeasing deity through animal sacrifice is an essential religious practice mandated by religious texts and scriptures followed by them and they should, therefore, be permitted to do the same.

In Shakthi worship as per its scriptures and practices popularly known as pramanas, animal sacrifice is essential and unavoidable for the propitiation of the deity, the petition filed through advocate A Karthik stated.

The Act was earlier challenged before the Kerala high court, which on June 16 dismissed the plea. The Act imposes ban on sacrifice of animals and birds in temples for propitiation of deity and criminalises the same. Violation of the law attracts jail term of upto 3 months and fine of Rs. 300.

The petitioners claimed that the Act violates right to equality because identical practices by other religious communities are not prohibited by the Act.

Further, it was also contended that the Act only penalizes killing of animals for propitiation of deity and animal or bird sacrifice for all other purposes including personal consumption within temple precincts is not prohibited.

If the object of the law were to ensure preservation and protection of animals, it would demand its uniform application across all religious communities, the petition stated.

The petitioners also submitted that the law enacted by the central government to prevent cruelty to animals, Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960 specifically permits sacrificing animals as ritual in Hindu temples throughout India.

Kerala Animals and Birds Sacrifices Prohibition Act, 1968 is repugnant to the provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 insofar as the Act operates in the same entry and criminalizes an act which the Union Legislation chooses explicitly not to criminalize, the plea added.
Chinese alumina refining and metal smelting technologies have emerged as a match for the best anywhere in the world. In fact, Vedanta and Hindalco have bought technologies from China.

Our aluminium makers will be haunted by twin fears of rising imports and low metal prices squeezing margins over a long time.

Aluminium is among the few major industries in the country where enough capacity has been created over the years to the point of what Prime Minister Narendra Modi describes as aatmanirbhar (self-reliant).

A smelting capacity of around 4.2 million tonnes (mt) with adequate upstream linkages to refining of intermediate chemical alumina and further upwards to mining of bauxite, of which the country has rich resources, could easily take care of domestic demand in normal circumstances.

But taking advantage of low tariff barriers and also our free trade agreements (FTAs) with Asean countries, imports have usurped a share of 58 per cent of the domestic market.

Even while the three primary producers, namely, Hindalco, Vedanta and Nalco would prefer to sell their metal in the domestic market for better value realisation they are left with no alternative but to export a major portion of their production.

They are beaten by competition from imports, which have the benefit of comparative low energy cost, particularly when hydel and gas power is employed in smelters, and also of overt and covert subsidies when the metal originates in China.

Niti Aayog says that the Indian aluminium industry will remain under pressure due to surplus global aluminium capacity and the support Chinese producers receive from the government.

China sells 30 times more of the silvery white metal to India than it buys from here creating a big trade deficit on aluminium account for us, says the report.

Already smarting under unrestrained imports, which peaked at 2.318 mt in 2018-19 - the fall in imports to 2.17 mt last financial year was because of demand contraction in major aluminium-user sectors and also the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in the final month of March - Indian metal makers are worried by an International Aluminium Institute report that China raised its annualised aluminium production in the first five months of calendar 2020 by 718,000 tonnes.

The rise in Chinese output occurred when the rest of the world, coping with demand-destructive impact of Covid-19, cut annualised production by 612,000 tonnes.

Indian policymakers must not lose sight of the fact that as early as 2006, Beijing recognised aluminium as one of the nine pillar industries that with government support would become globally dominant.

Eye-popping growth in capacity of primary metal and in value-additive downstream alloys and flat rolled products was aided by a bevy of benefits, including low-cost finance, electricity at subsidised rates and tax breaks for new facilities and those in western China.

With government support, Chinese aluminium makers defy their growing dependence on foreign-origin bauxite - imports of the mineral in 2019 grew nearly 22 per cent to over 100 mt from 82.57 mt in 2018 - to secure a dominant position in the global industry.

What is more, the Chinese alumina refining and metal smelting technologies have also emerged as a match for the best anywhere in the world.

In fact, Vedanta and Hindalco have bought technologies from China.

The rest of the world, including India, has reasons to sit up when China with a share of 57 per cent of global aluminium output so far this year is accelerating production when the demand for metal is down everywhere.

According to Hindalco managing director Satish Pai, Global aluminium demand in 2020 will see a sharp fall of 8 per cent against the backdrop of Covid-19.

"A major slowdown in manufacturing, particularly in the automotive industry, will likely lead to a 13 per cent demand shrinkage in the world, excluding China.

"At the same time, the worlds largest producer and consumer of the metal will see consumption dwindling by 4 per cent.

"In China, however, some green shoots are noticed, thanks to demand recovery in the auto and construction sectors.

Aluminium is experiencing the crisis that visited it during 2008-09 recession.

As Pai points out, 2019 saw a steep fall of 15 per cent in aluminium price to $1,791 a tonne from $2,100 in the previous year.

To add to the industrys woes, in this years first quarter, the price fell further to $1,690 a tonne.

At the time of writing this, the three-month price on London Metal Exchange breached $1,600 a tonne.

This is too low a price for smelters, particularly those using coal-fired electricity to stay in the black at the primary metal point.

Incidentally, all aluminium smelting in India uses thermal power.

Energy accounts for around 35 per cent in the industrys cost of production here.

Pai says slowdown in all major aluminium industries from electrical to construction to automobile caused Indian demand to fall 6 per cent to 3.7 mt in 2019-20, after growing impressively at over 9 per cent in the previous two years.

New Delhis stimulus package of Rs 20 trillion equal to nearly 10 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) and its accent on infrastructure development and construction hold the promise of demand revival.

But Pai feels that the demand for the metal will remain subdued in the current financial year.

What will logically follow are attempts by Chinese groups to ship out their surplus to the world market to minimise inventory costs.

An emerging prospect, therefore, is the surrender of domestic markets to Chinese imports, either directly or through countries enjoying FTA-linked nil import duty.

If global supply this year exceeds demand, aluminium prices may well take a long time to return to pre-Covid-19 levels.

So our aluminium makers will be haunted by twin fears of rising imports and low metal prices squeezing margins over a long time.

It is high time New Delhi revisits import duties on white metal and scrap.

The industry now wants trade action and no more bluster from New Delhi.

Photograph: Reuters
If youve been missing out on baby bump updates from Gigi Hadid, fear not. The model, who is expecting her first child in September with Zayn Malik, has assured fans that she will be sharing stuff in the future.

During an Instagram Live for her Gigi Journal Part II with V magazine, Hadid took a moment to talk about her pregnancy - and share the first glimpse of her baby bump.

Since her mother, Yolanda Hadid, first let the news slip in April (followed quickly by a confirmation from Gigi herself), the 25-year-old has been quiet about her pregnancy.

Getty Images

Last week, Hadid took to Twitter to clarify that she was not trying to hide her bump following a headline from British Vogue that claimed the model was trying to disguise her pregnancy. And ahead of her discussion about her latest work with V magazine, Hadid took a moment to clear the air and give fans an update.

I think a lot of people are confused [about] why Im not sharing more, but Im pregnant through a pandemic, Hadid said after thanking her fans for their messages of support. Obviously, my pregnancy is not the most important thing going on in the world, she continued, citing the pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement as more pressing issues.

I have been taking a lot of pictures of my bump and sending it to friends and family, its been really cute and exciting - and Ive been trying to document it well, she continued, adding, I will be sharing stuff like that in the future. Im just not rushed to do it and I feel like right now I just want to experience it.

Hadid joked about her pregnancy brain" and also shared that her pregnancy style has mainly consisted of coordinated sets from the brand Holiday. All I want to wear is loose stuff, she confessed before pointing to her olive check linen set from Holiday.

I can wear the drawstring pants below my belly, she said, noting that her comments werent sponsored. They let my belly air out because its just so hot, she added, later confirming that she does indeed have a bump as she showed it off to her fans.

Zayn Malik and Gigi Hadid / Getty Images

Hadid, of course, went on to discuss her Gigi Journal Part II with V magazine, which was a follow up to her 2017 Gigi Journal. Available now, Hadid served as a guest editor and the creative director for the magazines latest issue.

The magazine features visual and written work from various artists that Hadid hand-selected following more than 20,000 submissions through social media. The concept was quaran-time, Hadid said, noting that it was the artists choice to create work based on their own time in quarantine or honoring essential workers.

Hadid contributed as well, providing the Journals cover art, which was printed with solar-activated and glow-in-the-dark ink so that it changes from white in the shade to a golden yellow in the sun.

The model also shared that a portion of the magazines proceeds would be donated in support of the Black Lives Matter movement to the NAACP, ACLU, Campaign Zero and Black Lives Matter organizations. Ill also be matching in donation everything thats raised in the sales, she said.
Vietnam brought back 350 of its nationals from Japan Wednesday night on what was the sixth repatriation flight from that country amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The flight arrived at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi with children, old people, pregnant women, sick people, workers whose employment contracts had expired, students who had no accommodation due to closure of dormitories and others facing difficult situations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Wednesday.

Safety and hygiene protocols were in place on the flight, and immediately on landing the passengers were placed under medical supervision and quarantined.

This is the sixth repatriation flight from Japan, following the first in April, one in May and three in June, according to Vietnam's Foreign Ministry.

Thousands have also returned from the U.S., South Korea, Africa and South Asia due to the pandemic, and more are set to be brought back.

The Transport Ministry recently proposed that commercial flights to some Asian destinations, including Japan, should recommence in August, with passengers quarantined on arrival.

Vietnam has recorded 381 cases of Covid-19 so far, including eight Russian experts who arrived on July 11. The country has not had any community transmission for three months.

Japan has had over 22,000 cases and 984 deaths. The global death toll is over 580,000.
An occupational therapist has built a DIY stairlift to help her three elderly rescue dogs tackle the stairs.

Elderly pugs George, 13, and Bodhi, 10, plus Boston terrier Sam, 10, can now travel in style and comfort at their home in New Orleans.

Sonya Karimi, 31, decided to build the mini lift two months ago when she adopted Bodhi, who had a torn knee ligament.

Video footage shows the clever motorised lift in action, carrying the pooches up and down the stairs.

Sonya Karimi, 31, from New Orleans, built a wooden stairlift to help her elderly rescue pugs George, 13 (centre right), Bodhi, 10 (left), and Boston terrier Sam, 10 (right). But her four-year-old pug Emery (centre left) also enjoys using the stairlift with her older friends

The dogs can queue for the clever motorised stairlift using an easily accessible ramp at the bottom of the stairs (left) before being safely carried upstairs in a enclosed cart (right)

One of the pugs walks into the little wooden box and the hatch is shut behind the pooch, keeping it from jumping out halfway through the journey.

After the button on the remote control is clicked, the dog sets off down the stairs, looking very calm as it moves slowly down the wooden ramp.

As the cart comes to a stop at the bottom of the stairs, the dog easily steps out of the box on to an easily accessible connecting ramp.

Ms Karimi's younger pug Emery, four, also enjoys travelling in the stairlift, even though the contraption was designed for his older friends.

Sonya, who owns the four rescue dogs with her fiance Zach, said: 'Our most recent foster dogs Bodhi and Sam grew up together and are both around ten years old.

'I noticed Bodhi was walking strange after we adopted him and found out he had a torn ACL. The surgery was going to cost around $3,000 (2,700) and we didn't know if he would do well under anaesthesia.

Sonya Karimi, who owns the four rescue dogs with her fiance Zach (both pictured above), decided to build the stairlift for her dogs when she adopted Bodhi, who had a torn knee ligament, two months ago

All four of the dogs love using the stairlift and Sonya is planning to paint the stairlift like the famous New Orleans streetcars so her pampered pooches can travel in luxury

'It only really bothered him when he was walking up and down the stairs - I've worked with geriatrics in the past and I have geriatric dogs so I thought there had to be some way to make it easier for them to get upstairs.

'At work, I've seen how helpful stairlifts are to people so I was surprised there wasn't anything similar for dogs with all the different products that are available for pets nowadays.

'So I thought that we might be able to create something ourselves for our dogs to use.

'They've adapted to it so quickly, I thought I'd have to train them for a while to get used to it but they just get on it as if they've had it for years!

'The two older pugs love it especially - they won't use the stairs, they will sit there and wait until the ride is ready for them and it's so cute.'

The clever DIY project took around three months to complete, with Zach's retired engineer parents helping the couple with the wiring, which is neatly tucked beneath the stairs.

The couple built the DIY stairlift using a powerful motor meant for a car (above) so they were able to sit more than one dog in the cart at a time, speeding up the time waiting for the dogs to travel up the stairs

Sonya, who works as an occupational therapist, saw how helpful stairlifts could be for humans and embarked on the three-month long project to build her own doggie stairlift (left), fully kitted out with a ramp (right) to stop her pets from having to jump the last few steps

The family spent many weekends making the wooden structure and wiring, using a motor meant for a car so they could sit more than one dog in the cart.

Sonya said: 'Both of my fiance parents are living with us right now so we came up with a rough sketch of what we wanted, to show them and see if it was possible.

'We took a lot of trips to home improvement stores and it was all trial and error - even something as simple as putting wheels on the cart was tricky because they didn't make wheels small enough for what we needed.'

Once the stairlift was completed, the couple used treats to persuade the dogs to use the cart, before securing the latch and transporting them when needed.

Sonya said: 'It was funny after we initially did the training because they would just sit in a line by the elevator thinking they would get a treat for it.

'We're proud that we were able to do it all from scratch.

The couple had help from Zach's retired engineer parents (pictured with Sonya and Zac) when building the lift. They aided them with building the mechanism to run the stairlift safely

'I was so shocked there's nothing out there like it, with a range of pet products and money we're all willing to spend on our pets nowadays.'

The quirky idea received an overwhelmingly positive reaction from family, friends and even strangers online, after Sonya first posted adorable pictures of her pets loving the lift on Facebook on July 11.

Sonya is now planning to paint the stairlift like the famous streetcars in their home city of New Orleans, so her beloved pets can ride in style.

She added: 'I did wonder if I was going overboard with the idea but once we posted about it, the amazing feedback I got confirmed even more that we did the right thing for our pets.

'If you're not a pet person you might think it's crazy but our dogs are like our children so we're willing to do anything we can to make their lives easier.'
Shen Yueyue, Vice-Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and President of the All-China Women's Federation, attends a symposium with representatives of the women's federations at all levels in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, on July 6. [For Women of China]

Shen Yueyue, Vice-Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and President of the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), attended a symposium with representatives of the women's federations at all levels in Southwest China's Yunnan Province on July 6, to study the spirit of the important speeches on poverty alleviation delivered by General Secretary Xi Jinping. The participants also discussed how to unite and lead women to contribute to winning the battle against poverty.

Shen urged that the women's federations at all levels should lead women to work hard, create a better life with their own efforts and focus on quality in winning the battle against poverty, ensuring that no impoverished woman is left behind in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

Shen Yueyue, Vice-Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and President of the All-China Women's Federation, delivers a speech at the symposium in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, on July 6. [For Women of China]

The women's federations at all levels were required to implement the Women's Action for Poverty Alleviation, support the stable development of women's poverty-alleviation factories, workshops and demonstration bases and combine traditional handicrafts with modern business management, helping impoverished women get jobs in places close to their homes and become rich through their craft-making skills.

Shen also noted that great attention should be given to women and children in the areas with extreme poverty, especially disabled women, impoverished single mothers and women who fell into poverty due to COVID-19, diseases or the recent flood disasters, and greater efforts should be made to alleviate poverty through education and healthcare.

Shen emphasized that efforts should be made to combine the tasks of ensuring stability in employment, financial operations, foreign trade, foreign investment, domestic investment, and expectations and

ensuring security in job, basic living needs, operations of market entities, food and energy security, stable industrial and supply chains, and the normal functioning of primary-level governments, as well as rural revitalization, with winning the battle against poverty.

Shen called for advancing the activity of looking for the most beautiful family, giving full play to the role of family and family education and traditions in social governance, and facilitating the social etiquette and civility, and the transformation of outmoded habit and custom in rural areas.

Some of the participants of the symposium shared their measures on lifting impoverished women out of poverty, including implementing the Women's Action for Poverty Alleviation, promoting the relocation in areas with extreme poverty, improving women's comprehensive qualities, cultivating healthy living habits and building service platforms of entrepreneurship and innovation.

(Source: China Women's News/Translated and edited by Women of China)
A New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) report says the coronavirus outbreak that has afflicted nursing homes throughout the state may have resulted from staff and visitors unknowingly infecting residents early in the pandemic.

Unfortunately, we did not understand the disease early on, we did not realize how widespread it was within our community, and therefore, it was able to be introduced into a vulnerable population, said Dr. Howard Zucker, New York State commissioner of health, in a NYSDOH press release.

According to data submitted to NYSDOH by New York nursing homes, approximately 37,500 nursing home staff members, or one in four of the states approximately 158,000 nursing home workers, were infected with COVID-19 between March and early June 2020.

During the same period, more than a third of the states nursing home facilities had residents that were sick with the virus, the report said. Of the infected nursing home staff members, nearly 7,000 were working in facilities in the month of March.

Other studies suggest even higher numbers. A May 2020 serological study, conducted by the lab BioReference, of roughly 3,500 nursing home employees in New York state found that 29% of the nursing home staff tested positive for the COVID-19 antibodies. This means up to 45,820 nursing home staff were infected by May, or nearly one in three workers.

It is likely that thousands of employees who were infected in mid-March transmitted the virus unknowinglythrough no fault of their ownwhile working, which then led to resident infection, the NYSDOH report stated.

There had been speculation that the high infection rate at New York state nursing homes was due to the facilities admitting COVID-positive residents, however, the report said that is unlikely as state law requires that a nursing home only accept a COVID-positive patient if the facility can provide adequate care. In this instance, that specifically speaks to a nursing homes ability to properly isolate patients and follow protective procedures, according to the report.

In cases where nursing homes cannot provide adequate care and protective measures for COVID-positive patients, various alternative facilities are available throughout the state, the report added.

There was no need for nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients if they could not provide adequate care in a safe environment, as required by state law, as there were alternatives available facilities for such patients, the report said.

The report instead suggested the viral outbreak in nursing homes was likely due to a lack of knowledge early on about how the virus is spread through nursing home employees and visitors.

In March, the federal governments Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did not suspect asymptomatic people were likely to spread the infection, the report explained. With this in mind, the CDC issued guidance on March 7 stating certain asymptomatic healthcare employees exposed to others with the virus were not restricted from work.

This early, and ultimately erroneous, understanding of viral spread allowed many nursing home COVID-positive employees to continue working, the NYSDOH report stated. It was not until much later, as the true number of asymptomatic cases became clear, that evidence based upon contact tracing established definitively that asymptomatic people were in fact capable of spreading the virus.

Additionally, the CDC issued March 16 guidance stating nursing home employees who were symptomatic but not tested should wait only three days after the symptoms had passed to return to work and only seven days after the COVID-19-like symptoms first appeared.

COVID-19 Hits Already-Troubled Nursing Home Insurance Market Not surprisingly given the pandemic, the cracks in the long term care industry insurance market that were already evident have been getting worse. Carriers in the space had pulled back on capacity and coverage due to increasing claims frequency and severity since the beginning of the year. Before March, going into 2020 the market was already distressed for long term care providers. Now I would say its about as difficult of a market that Ive ever seen, said Michael Spaan, president of Inlight Insurance Services of Oklahoma, which specializes in commercial healthcare risks, writing about $30 million in premium in the space.

As more was learned about the virus, the CDC issued updated guidance on April 13 for asymptomatic workers and April 30 for symptomatic workers. The guidance increased isolation to 10 days, however, data show the disease was already at its peak in New York nursing homes by that point, the report stated.

It is likely that a significant percentage of both mildly symptomatic and asymptomatic employees were advised to continue working during March and April and thus unknowingly spread the disease within the facility, the report said. The entire situation was further compounded by the lack of testing nationwide capacity in March, making it impossible to have an accurate assessment of which nursing home staff were COVID positive.

Beyond the risk posed by COVID-positive employees was the risk from COVID-positive nursing home visitors. The report explained that prior to nursing home visitation being suspended in New York state on March 13, there was no tracking or testing of family and friends within nursing homes. At that point, any asymptomatic or symptomatic visitor could have been granted access, the report contended.

Given what we now know about how widespread the virus was in New York prior to testing availability in February and early March, there is a high likelihood that COVID-positive visitors entered nursing homes, although there is no specific data to support this assumption, the report added.

NYSDOH later issued updated guidance to nursing homes asking them to examine their supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) and mandating staff temperature checks at the beginning of each shift and staff use of face masks. The guidance also mandated that nursing homes cancel all congregate activities.

Additionally, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order banning all nursing home visitation statewide, expanding on an order issued days earlier on March 7 in New Yorks first known hot spot, New Rochelle.

On May 10, New York state mandated twice-weekly testing of staff for nursing homes in regions of the state in phases I and II of reopening, and once-weekly testing for all nursing homes in phase III and beyond.

As Deaths Rise to 20,000, Care Homes Seek Immunity from Lawsuits At least 15 states have enacted laws or governors orders that explicitly or apparently provide nursing homes and long-term care facilities some protection from lawsuits arising from the crisis. One-Third of All U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Are Nursing Home Residents or Workers: NY Times At least 27,700 residents and workers have died from the coronavirus at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities for older adults in the United States, according to a New York Times database. The virus so far has infected more than 150,000 at some 7,700 facilities. In 15 states, the number of residents and workers who have died accounts for more than half of all deaths from the virus.

NYSDOH surveyors and epidemiologists conducted calls, video assessments, and in-person assessments to determine compliance, and nursing homes found to be in non-compliance had the potential to lose their operating license, the report stated.

Our analysis brings to the forefront the possibility of transmission from staff as an important mode of transmission, the report said. If states had accurate information about COVID transmission at an earlier time and had the testing capacity to detect asymptomatic but infected individuals, other procedures might have been taken.

New York state has approximately 100,000 nursing home residents in 613 nursing home facilities statewide. Although an analysis conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation in 2017 found that New York state has more nursing home residents than any state in the U.S. despite being the nations fourth most populous state, New Yorks nursing homes fatalities are not disproportionate to the rest of the country, the report said.

Indeed, the report pointed to a New York Times analysis which found that New York state ranked 46th in the nation in terms of its percentage of total deaths in nursing homes. This means 45 U.S. states have had a greater percentage of COVID fatalities within nursing homes so far, the report stated.

These are national issues that must be addressed (e.g. better training of staff, enhanced and rapid testing, and better coordination with other healthcare facilities) as nursing homes and other congregate settings will pose a continued risk for the coronavirus or another public health threat in the future that attacks older adults, according to the report.

New York state identified its first case of COVID-19 in an international traveler on March 1. Since then, congregate settings such as nursing homes have been particularly vulnerable to the virus. In New York, the first known introduction of COVID-19 within a nursing home occurred on March 5 when a nursing home staff member tested positive, and the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in a nursing home resident occurred on March 11.

When we saw the rise in deaths in the nursing homes, the public health leader, scientist, the doctor in me, and most importantly, the son with his own recent memories, kept asking himself, What happened?' Zucker said. It is important to know why, because it matters. It matters for New York, it matters for the nation, it matters to prevent repeating behaviors, and it matters to bring closure for families.

Topics COVID-19 USA New York Homeowners
Labour has accused the government of handing out lucrative Covid-19 contracts to Conservative friends and warned that equipment has not been delivered.

Ministers were urged to explain how deals worth more than 830m have been awarded to at least 12 different companies for personal protective equipment (PPE)  which has never materialised.

In the Commons, Labour also demanded answers over a contract handed  without any public tender process  to Public First, a company run by a former aide to Michael Gove and associate of Dominic Cummings.

It was owned by friends of the prime ministers most senior adviser, Helen Hayes, a Cabinet Office spokesperson said  and justified as part of the coronavirus response but appears to relate to Brexit.

The flexibility required by extraordinary circumstances is no excuse for reducing transparency or abandoning any attempt at due diligence, Ms Hayes protested.

Penny Mordaunt, a Cabinet Office minister, did not deny that PPE had not been delivered, but insisted every MP knew a senior employee at Public First  who was a former much-loved deputy speaker of the Commons.

If the honourable lady has serious concerns about these contracts, other than insinuations, there are very clear processes to go through, and I would urge her to do so, she said.

The row comes as the government faces a court case over the awarding of emergency contracts, outside of normal rules, alleging breaches of procurement law and apparent bias to longstanding associates.

It has been launched by the Good Law Project, which instigated important legal challenges, and is crowdfunding for resources.

Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Show all 18 1 /18 Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jack Dodsley, 79, with a carer in PPE at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jackie Wilson, a healthcare assistant, wearing PPE before going into rooms Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jack Dodsley, 79, speaks to a carer at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Carers working at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A care worker wearing PPE opens a drink carton Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jack Dodsley, 79, sits with a carer Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jack Dodsley, 79, with a carer in PPE Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A care staff member wearing PPE Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A staff member at Newfield Nursing Home looks after a resident SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A carer wearing PPE uses a speaker Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A carer helps Jack Dodsley, 79, from his chair Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A carer wearing PPE helps Jack Dodsley, 79 Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A staff member at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A carer brings food to a resident at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jack Dodsley, 79, with a carer in PPE Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A staff member puts on PPE at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Jackie Wilson, a healthcare assistant, puts on PPE before she enters a room SWNS Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside A bench at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS

Controversy surrounds a 32m contract handed to a pest control company called PestFix to source surgical gowns, although it has listed net assets of only 18,000.

In legal papers the government revealed that at the start of this month, no gowns had been delivered to the NHS  almost three months after the contract was awarded.

Meanwhile, Public First was given 840,000 to assess the effectiveness of the governments coronavirus advice, although it was also listed as being to prepare for completing Brexit.

The company is co-owned by James Frayne, who was employed by Mr Gove when he was education secretary, alongside Mr Cummings  now the prime ministers chief aide.

Critics have protested the work was not advertised, there was no competition and that no official notice of the award has even been published.

Labour has now written to the National Audit Office asking for an investigation into the way contracts have been awarded under the emergency procedures.

The government has published details of outsourced contracts worth around 3bn, while the true figure is likely to be many multiples of that, said Rachel Reeves, Mr Goves shadow.

Asked if he supported such an inquiry, Mr Gove replied: Absolutely.

And defending the processes, Ms Mordaunt added: Authorities are allowed to procure goods and services in extreme emergency situations  that doesnt mean that scrutiny or value for money principles go out the window.
A narrow traffic bottleneck in Callan is set to become one-way under a new road safety scheme.



As part of the draft plan there will be changes for traffic on all four main streets in the town centre - Bridge Street/ Green Street and Mill Street/ West Street.



Bridge Street is set to become one-way, in a north to south direction, under this proposed plan.



The plan will also see a change with the prioritisation of traffic flow along Mill Street/ West Street at the junction with Green Street/ Bridge Street.



The plan was set out at the recent meeting of Callan Thomastown Municipal District meeting by Acting Senior Executive Engineer Declan Murphy.



Mr Murphy said the Low Cost Safety Scheme design will allow additional space for pedestrians and cyclists.



Before any changes are made there will be a period of public consultation. Funding for the work has been applied for under the Town and Village Renewal special application for accelerated measures in response to Covid-19. If the funding application is successful the layout can be tried on a trial basis, the meeting was told.



Cllr Joe Lyons said some local residents had concerns about speeding and asked if ramps would be included in the plan.

Mr Murphy said as the carriageway is being narrowed that in itself usually slows traffic down, but they can review the plan if needed.



Mary Mulholland, Director of Services, said to keep in mind that ramps can cause noise.
Politics is believed to be a game of chance and others think it's a dirty game because the players disguise themselves with lofty promises while milking the masses to enrich themselves.



Ace broadcaster and actor, Mikki Osei Berko, who has 26 years of experience in showbiz and is one of Ghana's seasoned actors, is nursing political ambitions but does not want to be called a politician.



His reason is he strongly believes in the school of thought that there is no politician with credibility.



Although Mikki Osei Berko would want to enter the political space, he wants to serve the people with a clean conscience and clean hands.



He says he doesn't want a political tag on him but desires to be known by his character when he finally makes up his mind to contest a political seat in the nation.



''I don't want to be [called] a politician...I don't find a person who's described as politician credible enough'', he said in an interview with Nkonkonsa.com.











Watch the interview below:



Watch the interview below:



Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Surprise, surprise, its going to be hot today.

But the humidity may tick upward a notch and that has prompted heat advisories to be issued for parts of Alabama.

Air temperatures are expected to be in the low to mid-90s for many areas, and those combined with dew points in the 70s will make it feel especially unpleasant for those stuck outside during the afternoon hours.

There are two separate advisories, one for part of central Alabama and one for part of north Alabama. Both will be in effect through Friday.

The heat advisory for north Alabama will run from noon today until 7 p.m. Friday.

5am |  Heat Advisory: Noon Today-7pm Friday

 Heat Index Values: 100-105 Today & Friday.

 Heat will continue into next week. #HeatSafety Tips:

 Drink lots of water

 #LookBeforeYouLock 

 Seek shade, take breaks#HUNwx pic.twitter.com/HOiqjg1V4I  NWS Huntsville (@NWSHuntsville) July 16, 2020

The counties affected are Lauderdale, Colbert, Franklin and Lawrence.

The heat index is expected to reach as high as 105 degrees this afternoon, and Friday afternoon as well, according to the National Weather Service in Huntsville.

To make matters worse, forecasters arent expecting much heat relief after the sun goes down. Lows across north Alabama will only fall into the mid-70s tonight, and the heat index will hover in the upper 70s to 80-degree range.

A separate heat advisory has also been issued for west-central Alabama.

The counties affected are Marion, Lamar, Fayette, Winston, Walker, Pickens, Tuscaloosa, Sumter, Greene, Hale and Marengo.

It will also be in effect from noon today until 7 p.m. Friday.

Heat indices expected to be in the 105-108 degree range for western portions of Central AL this afternoon and again Friday afternoon. Take precautions if you have outdoor activities planned! #alwx pic.twitter.com/ZEfRfow9TE  NWS Birmingham (@NWSBirmingham) July 16, 2020

The National Weather Service in Birmingham said the heat index is expected to range between 105 and 108 degrees in the advisory area.

Some could see a shower or storm this afternoon, but the chances are on the lower side and could mainly affect eastern Alabama, according to forecasters.

Hot weather is expected to persist through the weekend and into next week as well, as the state remains stuck under the influence of a ridge of high pressure to the west.

The weather service said some models show that high starting to weaken next week, possibly bringing increased rain chances.
Bajrangi Bhaijaan is Kabir Khans most loved film and it is also that one movie he has watched maximum number of times thanks to his daughter who loves to catch it during its multiple TV runs.

Children love the message of unity that the film tries to convey in the guise of an India-Pakistan drama, which is what Khan said he set out to do by casting Bollywood superstar Salman Khan as a simple-minded Hanuman devotee, Pawan, who crosses path with a mute girl, Munni, from Pakistan after she strays accidently into India.

Kabir said the strength of the film was that it was greatly enjoyed by children.

Rest of the story of the much-loved blockbuster, which completes five years on Friday, revolves around Pawan's, also known as Bajrangi, (Salman) attempts to unite the child, played by Harshali Malhotra, with her parents across the border.

There is a fairytale element to the story, which is a cross-border drama about the neighbouring countries on the surface, but also a metaphor for the artificial boundaries that people put up around them, Khan said.

"When I was writing the film, it was not about cross-border. It was about the borders that we put within our country. The first half is about his (Salman) prejudices about a different religion; it is about how we as human beings put artificial boundaries and segregate people on artificial lines, Kabir told PTI in an interview.

"It is all unnatural whether it is (on the basis of) religion or caste or nationality. These are man-made boundaries that we have put up, he added.

The director, who grew up admiring the composite culture of the country and still believes it to be an intrinsic part of India, said Bajrangi Bhaijaan was his response to the growing religious discrimination.

The film was lauded for its sensitive portrayal of India-Pakistan relations, while retaining its sharp political commentary.

The filmmaker said he believes common people from both the countriesIndia and Pakistan should not let politicians or politics hamper the love and peace between them.

"Unfortunately, we get swayed by the politics of two countries. Politicians will always be hostile and they will play this game for thousands and thousands of years.

"But politics should not come into the life of a common man. Why should we carry the hostility and burden of politicians and unnecessarily start hating people whether it is of different communities or nationalities. That is what basically the film was talking about," he added.

As a filmmaker, Kabir said "Bajrangi.." was a reflection of what he had observed in the society around him.

"There is sad polarisation that is happening in our society, the unnecessary division of people on the lines of religion. It is definitely not what India stands for. We have to celebrate what India stands for. One of the strengths of India is its composite culture. It is inherent, you cannot take it away," he said.

"'Bajrangi...' is a reaction to the fact that polarisation has happened more and more and I felt I needed to address that in my film," he added.

As a politically-aware filmmaker, Kabir said he cannot make a film without a social or political context.

"All of us have some politics in us and we look at the world in a certain way and we react to it (accordingly). Politics is not about which party to vote for, that is a very narrow way of looking at it. Politics is about the way we look and react to the world," the Jamia Millia Islamia and Delhi University alumnus said.

Kabir further said all his films have a certain tone -- either fairytale, fantasy, real or logical. With "Bajrangi...", he wanted to create "fairytale-ish" quality about a man of good heart.

"Bajrangi Bhaijaan" opens with the shots of snow-clad mountains. For the films climax, Khan created India-Pakistan border in Sonmarg, Jammu and Kashmir with around 7,000 people. Kabir said as it was a Salman-starrer, the end needed a grand setting.

"This is the fairytale part of the film. It is where you want people from both the countries to come together. In reality, thats not possible. But in the film, I was trying to show the goodness in people so the Pakistani guard steps back, seeing the huge number of the common people and allows them to break the fence for Pawan to enter India.

Talking about the casting of the film, Kabir said Salman as Pawan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Chand Nawab were his initial and only choices.

When writer K V Vijendra Prasad, who wrote the story, brought the idea to Kabir for developing the screenplay, he wanted Salman as he has this magical connection with children and if I can capture that with Munni, it will fly and I also know that Salman feels strongly about the politics of the film.

Image credit: Salman Khan Films

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President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday in Abuja met with the leadership of the National Assembly to address some issues affecting the executive and legislative arms of government.

At the end of the closed door meeting, Senate President Ahmad Lawan, said the two arms of government would continue to collaborate to ensure speedy transformation of the economy and enhance Nigerians livelihood.

Mr Lawan, who was in company of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, expressed the hope that from the outcome of the meeting the citizens are likely to see some changes in the conduct of some of the ministers.

There was an impasse between the National Assembly and Minister of State for Employment, Festus Keyamo, over the proposed recruitment of 774,000 workers.

Mr Lawan, however, stated that all appointees of the president must put into consideration the position and attitude of the president towards the National Assembly.

He said the National Assembly will take exception to any attitude or disposition that is not in support of the harmony in the relationship between the two arms of government.

We have come to see Mr President on behalf of the members of the National Assembly and this is supposed to be a continuous engagement between the Legislature and the Executive arm of government.

Whatever well do to ensure that the administration works for Nigerians, we will do that and this is to enhance the relationship between the Executive and the Legislature to commit ourselves to ensuring that we work together.

Both the Legislature and the Executive must at all time work in the interest of the people of this country. We cannot afford not to do this because essentially, the government is for people to have service.

The essence of this particular visit is to ensure that the Legislature, the National Assembly and the Executive arm of government, led by Mr President, continue to work together to ensure that the relationship that we have, which has been working for this administration to deliver services to Nigerians is sustained.

The Senate President expressed delight over the kind of support the legislature has been receiving from the Buhari administration.

Mr President has always respected the Legislature, he has always commended the National Assembly members for always being there to ensure that the requests by the Executive, in the national interest, are processed.

READ ALSO:

We are sure that every member of the National Assembly has always been there to ensure that we do the right thing for this country.

Mr President is in full support of our position that this relationship must be sustained at all times for the benefit of the people of Nigeria. From the outcome of the meeting, we are likely to see some changes in the conduct of some of the Ministers.

Let me say that this National Assembly has been very supportive, very friendly with the Executive arm of government and theres no doubt in my mind that the President has been quite supportive of the Legislature as well.

(NAN)
Fordham Student Punished Over Instagram Posts Supporting 2nd Amendment, David Dorn

Austin Tong, a rising senior at Fordham University in New York, has been restricted from campus and forced to undergo what he described as political reeducation over Instagram posts deemed hateful and threatening by university officials.

In a June 14 letter Austin Tong shared with The Epoch Times, Fordham University Dean of Students Keith Eldredge notified Tong that he had been found in violation of regulations relating to bias and/or hate crimes and for threats/intimidation because of two Instagram posts he made last month.

One of the two posts in question was made on June 3, following a weekend marked by violence sparked by the death of a black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis police custody. The post features a picture of David Dorn, a black 77-year-old retired police officer who was killed trying to defended a pawnshop from looters during the Floyd riots. Yall a bunch of hypocrites, Tong wrote in caption, expressing frustration that the tragedy didnt receive the public attention that Floyd, a convicted felon, received.

View this post on Instagram Yall a bunch of hypocrites. A post shared by Austin Tong (@comrademeow) on Jun 3, 2020 at 6:44am PDT

The other post shows Tong holding a rifle, which he legally purchased. The caption reads Dont tread on me. #198964, referencing the event known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre of June 4, 1989, during which Chinas communist regime ordered troops to open fire on hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing.

View this post on Instagram Dont tread on me. #198964  A post shared by Austin Tong (@comrademeow) on Jun 4, 2020 at 2:38pm PDT

Tong, a U.S. citizen from a Chinese immigrant family, explained to The Epoch Times that it was not his intention to threaten or harm anyone with the image of him holding a rifle, but to mourn the lives lost to the bloody crackdown 21 years ago and to celebrate the right to bear armsa right that is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution but absent in China under communist rule.

Yet, Tong soon found his posts flooded with comments from outraged Fordham students accusing him of inciting anger, failing to show unity with our black brother and sisters, and hurting minority groups.

It has nothing to do with Black Lives Matter. Its about appreciation of this countrys rights, but they dont care, Tong said. I had hundreds of comments, and then what happened was, the school made a comment in my post that they would look into this.

On the night of June 4, hours after Tongs posts gained the universitys attention, a group of public safety officers paid Tong an unexpected visit, questioning him about his possession of a firearm and his intention behind those posts. A university investigation into Tongs alleged violation of its code of conduct ensued over the following month, with it concluding that Tongs action should be punished.

As part of his disciplinary probation, which will remain in effect until he graduates, Tong is banned from representing the university in any extracurricular activities or running for or holding leadership roles in student organizations. Tong can no longer enter the university campus without the deans permission, and he has to finish the remainder of the school year through remote learning. In what Tong described as a Soviet nightmare, the university is also demanding him to complete implicit bias training with the Office of Multicultural Affairs and write an apology letter.

If I dont do those stuff, I will be expelled or suspended, Tong said. He argued that even though Fordham is not bound by the First Amendment as a private institution, it is still failing its own promise to allow freedom of expression.

Coming to this country as an immigrant, one would think that America is a nation of law and free speech. Yet that is no longer the case, Tong wrote in a June 14 letter addressing Fordham leadership. I was forcibly silenced, faced verbal and assaulting harassment from mobs, and subjected to Soviet-style interrogation and punishment by a Jesuit university that claims in its own code of conduct, that it protects freedom of expression and the open exchange of ideas.'

Tong told The Epoch Times that at Fordham, where President Donald Trump briefly attended, students are feeling pressure to conform to the prevailing left-leaning bias on campus.

If you write that you support Trump, or anything that isnt mainstreameconomically, sociallyyou can get penalized, he said, adding that a number of students sent him messages expressing support, but they chose not to do it publicly due to the fear of communist mobs.

Tong said he is considering legal action against Fordham unless the university retracts the punishment and offers an apology. I will fight to the end, even if it means fighting to the U.S. Supreme court, he wrote in the letter. This is not the time to retreat in the dread of fear, this is the time to fight in the name of democracy.

Last year, a group of Fordham students won a free speech lawsuit against the university, which tried to prohibit them from forming a pro-Palestinian club on campus. New York State Supreme Court Justice Nancy Bannon ruled (pdf) in favor of the students, deciding that Fordham violated its own rules when Dean of Students Keith Eldredge denied recognition to the club.

While she agreed that Fordham was not expressly subject to First Amendment limitations, Bannon noted that universitys mission statement ultimately invalidates Eldredges effort to reject the application of the Palestinian rights club based on its potential for raising issues or taking positions that might be controversial or unpopular with a segment of the university.

The consideration and discussion of differing views is actually part of Fordhams mission, regardless of whether that consideration and discussion might discomfit some and polarize others, Bannon wrote in the court opinion.
The issue received bids for 64.87 crore shares and it was subscribed 79.37 times.

The initial public offer (IPO) of Rossari Biotech received bids for 64.87 crore shares yesterday as against 81.73 lakh shares on offer, as per the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) website data at 17:00 IST as on 15 July 2020. The issue was subscribed 79.37 times.

The qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) category was subscribed 85.26 times. The non-institutional investors category was subscribed 239.83 times. The retail individual investors (RIIs) category was subscribed 7.23 times.

The issue opened for bidding on 13 July 2020 and closed on 15 July 2020. The price band for the IPO was set at Rs 423-425 per share.

The IPO comprised of a fresh issue of equity shares aggregating upto Rs 50 crore and an offer for sale of upto 1.05 crore equity shares by the selling shareholders.

The company on 10 July 2020 raised Rs 148.87 crore from anchor investors, ahead of its initial share sale. The company allotted 35.02 lakh shares at a price of Rs 425 per share to a total of 15 anchor investors, including 12 mutual funds, through 48 schemes.

The anchor investors included Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, HDFC Mutual Fund, Axis Mutual Fund, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, SBI Mutual Fund, Sundaram Mutual Fund, HDFC Life Insurance Company and Goldman Sachs India.

The net proceeds from the issue will be utilised in repaying debt, funding working capital requirements and general corporate purposes.

On a consolidated basis, Rossari Biotech generated total income of Rs 603.81 crore and a net profit of Rs 65.25 crore in fiscal 2020.

Rossari Biotech is a specialty chemicals manufacturing company. Its business is organized in three main product categories: home, personal care and performance chemicals; textile specialty chemicals; and animal health and nutrition products. It operates in India as well as in 17 foreign countries including Vietnam, Bangladesh and Mauritius.

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The report on the Oskaloosa home said the certified nursing assistant had a fever and vomited on April 24. She called in sick that day to her second health care job, which ordered her to stay away for at least two weeks.

But the aide kept showing up to work at Crystal Heights in the following days and reporting that she was symptom-free.

While at work May 4, she said she began experiencing more symptoms, feeling feverish, headaches and weakness but finished her shift. She was tested for coronavirus on May 9. Two days later, she showed up for a shift while awaiting the results. She completed the self-assessment and claimed that she was symptom-free, noting that she didnt want to call in sick, the report said.

But the homes director of nursing found out that the aide had been tested and reported the fever April 24 to her other job, the report said. The aide was confronted at the door and sent home, and she learned the next day that she had tested positive.

Three other staff members called in sick that day and soon tested positive. The first residents started showing symptoms on May 15, the report said. By May 20, 62 residents and employees had received confirmed positive tests.
Iqbal Ansari, a plaintiff in the Babri title suit, said: "If Lord Hanuman gets angry on this issue, he will destroy Nepal with one stroke of his mace. After all, wherever Ram goes, Hanuman follows him."

Lucknow, July 15 (IANS) After Nepal Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli's statement on 'real' Ayodhya being in Nepal, drew flak from Hindu saints and related outfits, it is now the Muslims leaders who have spoken out against the statement.

He said that the Nepal Prime Minister probably was not aware of the importance of Ayodhya in the country and in the world.

"If he comes to Ayodhya, he will realise its importance and significance," he said.

Muslim cleric, Maulana Saif Abbas, also condemned the statement made by Oli and said that it was 'unfortunate and unacceptable'.

He claimed that the Nepal Prime Minister was making such statements at the behest of China and Pakistan in an attempt to create unrest in India.

"Oli should not allow himself to become a puppet in the hands of others," he said.

The Maulana demanded that Oli should immediately withdraw his statement and offer an apology.

--IANS

amita/in
On June 26 at 12:01 a.m., Delaware County entered the green phase of Gov. Tom Wolfs COVID-19 reopening plan. The green phase eased the various restrictions, including the stay at home and business closure orders, that were put in place to minimize the spread of the disease.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce has made it their top priority to be an advocate for the local business community. Although this has been the chambers objective for more than 100 years, COVID-19 has made a significant impact on what being an advocate for business is as the local economy has experienced an unprecedented disruption.

Since March, when Gov. Wolf and the Pennsylvania Department of Health announced the statewide guidance that closed non-essential businesses, the chamber immediately responded by launching, housing and consistently updating a coronavirus landing page on their website. The page serves as a central location for Delaware County businesses to gather and research information, updates and guidance as it pertains to business operations and funding opportunities that were made available to offset the financial disposition that the business owners were experiencing as a direct result of the state mandated closures.

In addition to the website, the chamber has coordinated and hosted various webinars using the platform Zoom. During these webinars, the business advocacy organization invited various guest speakers to provide an in-depth overview of guidance that was put in the place for the business community, loan availability and grants that focus on providing relief to establishments that were forced to close their doors and abruptly shut down their operations. For example, speakers from the Small Business Administration (S.B.A.) focused on the CARES ACT relief, leaders from the Delaware County Commerce Center shared an overview of the Delco Strong Grant, local lawyers shared an overview of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act.

Delaware County joined 12 other counties entering the green phase on June 26.

Its a testament to the many residents and businesses that have sacrificed over the past three months to stay home and adhere to the guidance the state has provided to protect lives and livelihoods, Gov. Wolf said during a press conference June 26. As we begin to reopen, I urge everyone to stay alert and continue to follow social distancing to maintain the momentum of the mitigation we have in place.

The chamber, along with the rest of the community, is very excited for the local economy to restart and for our businesses to reopen their doors, said Trish McFarland, Delaware County Chamber of Commerce president. It has been a tumultuous ride to get to this point, and we want to congratulate the business owners for their tenacity and willingness to disrupt their livelihoods to protect our community.

These shutdowns will have a lasting impact on Delaware County, but the chamber wants to reiterate that they will continue to be a resource for our businesses as they take this next step in what is being considered our new normal.
The group of around 40 international students who are currently quaratined in a Malaga residence have tested negative in the initial coronavirus tests carried out earlier this week. Four results are still pending after the tests had to be repeated due to an error.

The students have been confined in the Arunda residence in La Paz district of the city since last weekend when one French student tested positive. She had raised the alarm after hearing from her boyfriend in France that he had the virus.

The group is made up of French, British and Danish students, some of them minors, in Malaga for a Spanish course.

Despite these first negative results, the students will have to remain in quarantine in the residence until a second test is done to confirm. It appears that if the new tests are negative the youngsters will be able to leave the residence.

The student who was found to have the virus has spent the week in a Malaga hospital although her symptoms were described as mild.
An Australian woman jailed with her British DJ boyfriend for beating a Bali policeman to death was freed Thursday after nearly four years in prison on the Indonesian holiday island. Sara Connor, 49, left Kerobokan prison and was placed in the hands of immigration authorities to await deportation, Bali officials said. Connor and David Taylor were convicted in 2017 of fatally assaulting officer Wayan Sudarsa, whose battered body was found in the popular tourist area of Kuta the previous year. Sudarsa's blood-soaked body was covered with dozens of wounds on his neck, chest and head. Connor was given early release from her five-year term for good behaviour, while Taylor is serving a six-year jail sentence for his role in the attack. Taylor, whose stage name was DJ Nutzo, had admitted getting into a fight with Sudarsa on the beach after accusing the officer of stealing Connor's handbag, and admitted hitting him with items including binoculars and a beer bottle. However, Taylor claimed at trial that he had feared for his life and acted in self-defence during the late-night brawl. Mother-of-two Connor had maintained her innocence, insisting she only intervened to try to break up the fight. This claim was rejected by a Bali court that said she held down the victim as Taylor beat him. The pair fled the scene but Connor's driving licence and ATM card were found next to the body. After police launched a massive manhunt for the couple, they took refuge in the Australian consulate in Bali but later handed themselves over to local authorities. At trial, prosecutors said the pair, who were tried separately, should not be convicted of murder because they did not intend to kill the officer.
The Englewood in Hershey is ready to jam.

Ten years of dreaming about opening a live music venue, partners Rick Russell and Jeffrey Sharp are closer to unveiling the multi-level facility to the public. The venue with restaurant and brewery opens July 20 at 1219 Research Blvd. in a historic renovated barn.

For the partners, both music enthusiasts who play instruments, it has been a labor of love. They invested more than two years on the multi-million dollar project, part of Hershey West End mixed-use development.

It has been a bit of a dream with nightmarish qualities to it, but were on the homestretch right now and excited to get it open, Russell said last month via a Facebook video update.

They restored the 1861 barn, added two build-outs, a new roof, patio and parking lot. Most of the woodwork was completed by builders in the Pennsylvania Dutch community.

A tavern with bar fills a former dairy parlor on the lower level with an open prep kitchen adorned with a brick pizza oven. The tavern opens up to a massive patio and deck with fire pit.

The main barn mixes traditional architectural elements such as a high ceiling and original beams with cob blasted distressed walls. Clair Global in Lititz installed a highly-engineered sound and lighting system.

They plan to attract a wide array of musicians, including local groups as well as capturing national musicians on tour in the Boston to Austin corridor, Russell said. However, in the beginning, Englewoods creative director Ang Moramarco said they will stick to small live bands and acoustic music on the patio.

Moramarco stressed they will practice stringent protocols to keep customers and staff safe during the coronavirus pandemic. Tables will be spaced and customers will be required to wear masks when entering the venue.

The restaurant is managed by Tom Scott, former owner of McGraths Pub and Scotts Grille in Harrisburg. Chef Matt Miller is heading Englewoods upscale, yet casual menu.

Entrees cover shrimp and grits, cedar plank salmon, grilled filet mignon and wild mushroom ravioli and there are options for lighter fare such as sandwiches and pizzas. A Barn Burgers is made from a house blend short rib, brisket, chuck, thick cut bacon, smoked cheddar cheese on a brioche bun. There are Cuban sandwiches, walnut lentil burgers and grilled chicken sandwiches.

Jesse Prall, former founder/brewer for Rubber Soul Brewing, is head brewer. He has worked at Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Delaware and Appalachian Brewing Co. in Harrisburg.

Prall will produce a variety of beers on a seven-barrel system, including four or five core brands and some less familiar styles. Englewoods beer names will draw inspiration from the music theme with Jam Session IPA and Ghost beat IPA.

Basically, I will have a few IPAs, and being in Hershey Ill have a chocolate milk stout, Prall said.

Englewoods hours are: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. SundayThursday and 11 a.m.-midnight Friday-Saturday. Kitchen closes at 10 p.m. Phone: 717-256-9480.

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Young Australians are turning away from alcohol, drugs and cigarettes, consuming them less than their parents' generation in a trend that has public health experts baffled.

The Australian Health and Welfare Institute's National Drug and Alcohol Survey 2019, which canvassed the habits of 22,274 people, found that two-thirds of 14 to 17-year-olds had never consumed a full standard drink - more than double the proportion in 2001.

Allegra Beaumont, 20, says her friends mainly drink when they go out, rather than drinking at home like people their parents' age. Credit:Simon Schluter

Among 20-to-29-year-olds, 22 per cent said they did not drink any alcohol, up from 8.9 per cent, and just 22 per cent of 14-to-19-year-olds reported having used an illicit drug, down from 38 per cent in 2001.

Allegra Beaumont, 20, from St Kilda in Melbourne, said she had noticed a difference between her parents' drinking habits and those of her friends.
Millions across the globe are still incorporating the drastic changes in lifestyle amid unforeseen circumstances, there is a lot of gloominess among people but it also paved the way for some kind and inspirational gestures. From COVID-19 outbreak to Black Lives Matter protests, from the horrors of police brutality to constant paranoia of maintaining personal hygiene, theres a lot that goes through an individuals mind these days.

But still, confined to their homes, people have managed to come up with unique challenges and 'adorable' videos of their pets that have uplifted moods for others. To dial down on the negativity, many people have been voluntarily searching for good news. Therefore, here is a compilation of five heartwarming stories that are unique as well as uplifting. From Chennai group's Hula Hooping World record to a man calling out brand against gender stereotypes, these are five best from today.

Chennai Group bags multiple Guinness world records in hula hooping

A talented group of hula hoopers called the Chennai Hoopers recently won multiple Guinness World Records titles. A video shared on YouTube shows the group achieving their records and acing numerous moves. According to the clip shared, four members of the group managed to set a world record in four categories.

Read: Chennai Group Bags Multiple Guinness World Records In Hula Hooping, Watch Video

Rare sight of 15 lioness drinking water

A user on Twitter recently shared a video from Gir forest, Gujarat in which 15 lionesses can be seen quenching their thirst. The 1:28 minute-long video starts with a lioness drinking water from the lake, and two more comes ahead. Soon they are joined by several other lionesses who are coming slowly towards the lake. In the end, the video gives a closer look at the lionesses where all of them are seen side by side drinking water, except one Lioness who is sitting away from the group. The video currently has more than 2k views. Check it out below.

A rare sight of 15 lionesses drinking water in Gir forest. Beautiful! pic.twitter.com/ecnRx557Yz  Sunil Alagh (@sunilalagh) July 15, 2020

Read - 15 Lionesses Drink Water At Gujarat's Gir Forest In A 'rare Sight': Watch Video

Man calls out Scotch-Brite for 'regressive' bindi clad symbol

A communications strategy consultant, Karthik Srinivasan recently took to LinkedIn to call out Scotch-Brite for the gender marker in their logo. While stereotyping gender roles is an outcome of a deep-rooted patriarchal mindset, Srinivasan noted that Scotch-Brites logo features a vector image of a woman with a bindi. The communications strategy consultant said that he understand that back in 1990 the period was different, however, he added that in 2020 such gender markers seem awkward and out of place.

Read: Man Calls Out Scotch-Brite For 'regressive' Bindi Clad Symbol, Firm Assures Logo Change

Google CEO's take on 'Instagram vs Reality'

Sundar Pichai took to Instagram to share two pictures of himself in which he hilariously demonstrated the difference that exists between Instagram and reality. The popular concept of Instagram vs Reality is something that has entertained netizens for a long time. Hence, following the trend, Google CEO Sundar Pichai too had his hilarious take.

Read: Google CEO Sundar Pichai Hilariously Demonstrates 'Instagram Vs Reality'; Netizens Go ROFL

Chile training four dogs to sniff COVID-19

Three golden retrievers and one Labrador in Chile are being trained to detect people infected with COVID-19. According to reports, while the deadly coronavirus has no smell, the virus causes a change in a persons body and that can be picked up in their sweat and that is what the dogs are all being trained for.

Read: Chile Training Four Dogs To Sniff Out Infected COVID-19 Patients
A growing number of Australians support legalising cannabis. Credit: www.shutterstock.com

A growing number of Australians support the legalisation of cannabis, while almost three in five back the idea of pill testing, according to a new national survey.

The 2019 National Drug Strategy Household Survey also shows Australians are drinking and smoking less, but some illicit drug use is on the rise.

Importantly, this national snapshot, released on Thursday, shows the Australian community is becoming more open to less punitive measures around drug use.

Changes to drug use

The National Drug Strategy Household Survey is conducted every three years. The 2019 results showed an increase in illicit drug use from 2016.

This includes the proportion of Australians who used cannabis (up from 10.4% to 11.6%), cocaine (2.5% to 4.2%), ecstasy (2.2% to 3.0%) and ketamine (0.4% to 0.9%).

The increase in cocaine use was notable, particularly among young men. The proportion of males in their 20s using cocaine in the 12 months before the survey almost doubled, from 7.3% to 14.4%.

There was also a drop in the non-medical use of painkillers and opioids (like codeine and morphine) from 3.6% to 2.7%. This coincided with codeine switching to a prescription-only drug in 2018.

Smoking and drinking

The 2019 survey recorded the lowest rate of daily smoking ever at 11% (down from 12.2% in 2016), mostly driven by young people not taking up the habit.

Risky drinking remained stable, but there was an increase in the number of people who don't drink at all (8.9%, up from 7.6% in 2016).

The number of 14 to 17 year-olds who have never had a drink also increased to 66%, compared to only 28% in 2001.

The legalisation debate

For the first time in the survey's history, more Australians support the legalisation of cannabis (41%) than oppose it (37%). This is almost double the level of support in 2007 (21%).

This is significant, because while there has been overwhelming community support for removing criminal penalties for cannabis possession (sometimes referred to as "decriminalisation"), this has not been the case with legalisation.

The ACT, Northern Territory and South Australia decriminalised cannabis for personal use three decades ago. Most other states and territories have some kind of de facto decriminalisation in place already through police diversion. This is where people arrested for possession of small amounts of cannabis can be diverted to education or treatment.

According to the 2019 survey, fewer people thought possession of cannabis should be a criminal offence, compared to previous years (down from 26% to 22%). And fewer people supported an increase in penalties for the sale or supply of cannabis (down from 50% to 44%). Most people (54%) thought it should only attract a caution, warning or no action.

Interestingly, if cannabis were legal, 78% of surveyed Australians said they would not use it. Only 3% said they would increase their use.

Multiple jurisdictions around the world, including Uruguay, Canada and a number of states in the United States, have already legalised the sale and possession of cannabis. New Zealand is set to hold a referendum on the issue this year.

This year, the ACT allowed people to legally grow cannabis for personal use.

A number of government inquiries in Australia have recommended legalisation of cannabis and some other drugs, including a 2019 Queensland Productivity Commission's report into imprisonment and recidivism.

After many decades of operation, illicit drugs policy has failed to curb supply or use. The policy costs around $500 million per year to administer and is a key contributor to rising imprisonment rates  Evidence suggests moving away from a criminal approach will reduce harm and is unlikely to increase drug use.

One of the most significant harms from cannabis is the risk of contact with the criminal justice system. More than 70,000 people are arrested for cannabis offences each year. More than 90% of those are for possession.

Safe injecting facilities

The survey asked about safe injecting rooms for the first time.

Just under half of Australians surveyed support "supervised drug consumption facilities", with 47% in favour and 32% opposed. Support was strongest among people under 40.

Drug injecting rooms have been a controversial community issue, although a 2017 Victorian parliamentary inquiry saw 46 out of 49 submissions in support of a Melbourne facility.

These health services give people who inject illicit drugs access to clean equipment and a place off the street to use their drugs under the supervision of doctors and nurses. There are more than 100 of these services around the world. They reduce fatal overdose and improve access to treatment.

There are currently two supervised drug consumption facilities in Australia. One in Sydney's Kings Cross has been operating for 20 years. Another in Melbourne's North Richmond opened in 2018. A second Melbourne facility has been announced by the Andrews government.

Evaluations of safe injecting rooms around the world have shown these facilities can decrease criminal activity, such as robbery and property offences. They also reduce public injecting and discarded needles.

Pill testing

This was also the first time the survey asked about pill testing or drug checking.

More than half of the Australians (57%) surveyed supported drug checking, with only 27% opposed. The greatest support came from 14-39 year olds (61%), but there was still significant support from people over 40 (52%).

This is consistent with polls on the topic, with a 2018 Essential poll finding 59% of Australians suppport pill testing.

These facilities allow people who intend to use illicit drugs to get them tested by a chemist using special lab equipment. Usually, they also speak to a health worker. Testing can occur where people are likely to use the drugs (such as festivals) or separate from where people will use the drugs (for example, a health facility).

Although this service is common in the United Kingdom and Europe, it is very contentious in Australia.

However, the recent inquest into the deaths of six young people at various NSW festival the coroner recommended the state government introduce drug checking.

Lessons for policy makers

The survey also asked people how they would allocate $100 between education, treatment or law enforcement to reduce illicit drug use. For the first time, respondents allocated more money to education than law enforcement ($36.00 compared with $34.80).

This is at odds with government spending on alcohol and other drugs. A 2013 reportfound the majority was spent on law enforcement (66%), with only 22% to treatment and the rest to prevention (10%) and harm reduction (2%).

The results of the survey suggest an important shift in the community's thinking, particularly about illicit drugs. Australians have moved further away from viewing drugs as a law enforcement issue and are open to a less punitive approach to drug policy.

Policy-makers should know they have the support of the Australian community to bring us in line with best practice around the world.

Explore further Decriminalisation of drug use a sound and pragmatic public health policy

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Sergio Perez's manager is reportedly looking around for an alternative seat for the Mexican driver.

The revelation, claimed by ESPN Mexico, follows reports that Ferrari refugee Sebastian Vettel is poised to race alongside Racing Point team owner Lawrence Stroll's son Lance at the new Aston Martin team in 2021.

The source adds that Vettel's contract could be announced at Silverstone on August 2.

However, Racing Point has told us that reports Vettel, 33, has signed a deal are untrue.

Vettel is quoted by Blick newspaper: "Everything is still open. It's great that so many people care about my future, but I decide everything for myself."

ESPN Mexico says Perez's manager Julian Jakobi, who famously worked with Ayrton Senna, has been looking around at options for weeks, even though the Mexican driver has a firm contract for 2021.

Germany's Bild newspaper claims that contract can be bought out for a seven-digit sum by Racing Point if it is done by July 31.

"In Formula 1, it is usually the case that once these issues are being discussed, they are often already done," F1 legend Gerhard Berger told Servus TV.

(GMM)
Section Head (Operational Safety Section), Vienna, Austria

Organization: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

Country: Austria

City: Vienna, Austria

Office: IAEA Vienna, Austria

Grade: P-5

Closing date: Wednesday, 29 July 2020

Section Head (Operational Safety Section) (P5)

( 2020/0121 (012971) )

Organization: NSNI-Operational Safety Section

Primary Location: Austria-Vienna-Vienna-IAEA Headquarters

Job Posting: 2020-07-08, 12:08:22 PM

Contract Type : Fixed Term

Regular

Probation Period : 1 Year

This is a re-opening of the vacancy. Candidates who already applied do not need to re-submit an application.

Organizational Setting

The Department of Nuclear Safety and Security (NS) formulates and implements the IAEAs nuclear safety and security programme, which encompasses the IAEAs activities to protect people and the environment from radiation exposure, and responds to the needs of its Member States related to nuclear safety and security.

The objective of the Division of Nuclear Installation Safety (NSNI) is to achieve and maintain a high level of safety of nuclear installations worldwide that are under design or construction or in operation. The Division does this by establishing standards of safety for the protection of health, including standards for nuclear power plants and other nuclear installations and facilities, and by providing for the application of these standards through, among other things, support for the IAEAs Technical Cooperation programme, the rendering of safety review services, the promotion of education and training, the fostering of information exchange and the coordination of research and development. In addition, the Division helps ensure safety at nuclear installations by promulgating international safety instruments such as the Convention on Nuclear Safety and the Code of Conduct on the Safety of Research Reactors. NSNI comprises five Sections:

External Events Safety Section

Operational Safety Section

Safety Assessment Section

Regulatory Activities Section

Research Reactor Safety Section

The main aim of the Operational Safety Section (OSS) is to enhance Member States capabilities to improve the operational safety of nuclear power plants through operational safety review services, the use of IAEA safety standards and continuous self-assessment. Its activities include assessment of operational safety performance, long-term operation and operating experience; promotion of management for safety and safety culture; and maintaining the international reporting system database for nuclear power plants.

Main Purpose

Reporting to the Division Director, the Section Head is the manager and team leader of the Operational Safety Section responsible for initiating, developing and implementing the IAEAs policy and programme on operational safety. He/she leads the Sections activities to ensure the efficacy and efficiency of the IAEAs programme on a global level, and manages the Sections financial and human resources.

Role

The Section Head is: (a) a programme manager in a specialized, multilateral environment, finding practical solutions and presenting arguments that can achieve results; (b) an adviser, providing analysis and background information to the Division Director on the formulation of strategies and policies related to the Sections technical responsibilities, and facilitating their implementation; (c) a managerial team leader, planning, managing, coordinating and supervising the activities of the Section in accordance with IAEA policies and programmes and Member States needs and ensuring that programmes and tasks are implemented effectively; (d) a safety review services mission team leader, planning and leading complex safety reviews, preparatory meetings and follow-up missions; (e) a promoter, conveying to multiple audiences the IAEAs vision and mission in this area; (f) a substantive technical expert contributor, managing and implementing projects of particular complexity and/or sensitivity; and (g) a facilitator of cooperation with other organizations and with other Departments in the IAEA dealing with this area of work.

Functions / Key Results Expected

Plan, initiate, develop, implement, coordinate and supervise the activities of the Section.

Provide technical and managerial leadership to (a) develop or revise IAEA Safety Standards for all types of nuclear installations which are under the responsibility of the Section; (b) enhance the capability of Member States in relation to the application of the IAEAs Safety Standards by carrying out operational safety review services; and (c) coordinating and supporting education and training activities, and conducting Coordinated Research Projects to enhance technical skills in Member States.

Broaden knowledge of operational safety, operating experience feedback, long term operation and safety culture through: organizing scientific meetings and programmes, contributing to the preparation and of scientific publications, and collaborating with relevant international organizations, committees and scientific societies.

Plan, manage and lead the development, review and publication process of IAEA Safety Standards for all types of nuclear installations which are under the responsibility of the Section.

Tags civil servants human resources information exchange nuclear physics nuclear power nuclear power plants nuclear safety power plants programme priorities project management radiation protection radioactive materials research and development safety and security safety regulations safety standards scientific societies technical cooperation

Plan, organize and lead complex safety review missions, including preparatory and follow up visits and assessment of Member States needs. Provide technical input and coordinate the preparation of mission reports.

Identify strategies and analyse information to enhance the capability of the Sections programme to address Member States needs and lead the IAEAs activities related to supporting the further strengthening of the international safety regime in the assigned technical areas.

Coordinate the Sections provision of specialized technical input to technical cooperation projects in the subject area.

Provide support and relevant expertise for the Incident Emergency System (IES) and participate in associated training and exercises.

The incumbent may perform his/her work in areas involving exposure to radioactive materials. Therefore, as an Occupationally Exposed Worker, he/she must be medically cleared by VIC Medical Service and is subject to an appropriate radiation and health monitoring programme, in accordance with the IAEAs Radiation Safety Regulations.

Competencies and Expertise

Core Competencies

NameDefinition

Planning and Organizing

Sets clearly defined objectives for himself/herself and the team or Section. Identifies and organizes deployment of resources based on assessed needs, taking into account possible changing circumstances. Monitors teams performance in meeting the assigned deadlines and milestones.

Communication

Encourages open communication and builds consensus. Uses tact and discretion in dealing with sensitive information, and keeps staff informed of decisions and directives as appropriate.

Achieving Results

Sets realistic targets for himself/herself and for the team; ensures availability of resources and supports staff members in achieving results. Monitors progress and performance; evaluates achievements and integrates lessons learned.

Teamwork

Encourages teamwork, builds effective teams and resolves problems by creating a supportive and collaborative team spirit, remaining mindful of the need to collaborate with people outside the immediate area of responsibility.

Functional Competencies

NameDefinition

Analytical thinking

Applies business analytics to establish programme priorities. Makes rational judgements from the available information and analysis.

Client orientation

Examines client plans and develops services and options to support ongoing relationships. Develops solutions that add value to the IAEAs programmes and operations.

Judgement/decision making

Consults with and seeks advice at the appropriate managerial level when making complex decisions. Facilitates dialogue and development of best practice to support judgement/decision making, in full compliance with the IAEAs regulations and rules.

Required Expertise

FunctionNameExpertise Description

Nuclear Safety

NPP Conduct of Operations

Experience in the conduct of operation of nuclear power plants, including operation, maintenance, operating experience feedback, radiation protection, chemistry, accident management and emergency planning and preparedness.

Nuclear Safety

Nuclear Installation Safety

Expertise in all aspects of safety of nuclear installations, including siting, design, construction, commissioning, operation and decommissioning.

Nuclear Safety

Operational Safety Assessment

Expertise in assessing operational safety performance of nuclear power plants, including leadership and management and culture for safety.

Human Resources

Project Management

Excellent project management skills and work experience in multidisciplinary and multi-cultural environment.

Qualifications, Experience and Language skills

Advanced university degree in engineering or physical/nuclear sciences.

Minimum of 10 years of experience in nuclear related applications, out of which 5 years should be in a senior or managerial level in international or regulatory settings.

Experience at the international level, including the development of the IAEA safety standards (either directly or indirectly) and/or providing for their implementation through participation in IAEA Safety Review Services or IAEA Technical Workshops.

In-depth knowledge of such complementary fields as nuclear physics, and reactor design and operation.

Excellent oral and written command of English. Knowledge of other official IAEA languages (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) is an asset.

Remuneration

The IAEA offers an attractive remuneration package including a tax-free annual net base salary starting at US $88162 (subject to mandatory deductions for pension contributions and health insurance), a variable post adjustment which currently amounts to US $ 35177*, dependency benefits, rental subsidy, education grant, relocation and repatriation expenses; 6 weeks annual vacation, home leave, pension plan and health insurance

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Applications from qualified women and candidates from developing countries are encouraged

Applicants should be aware that IAEA staff members are international civil servants and may not accept instructions from any other authority. The IAEA is committed to applying the highest ethical standards in carrying out its mandate. As part of the United Nations common system, the IAEA subscribes to the following core ethical standards (or values): Integrity, Professionalism and Respect for diversity. Staff members may be assigned to any location. The IAEA retains the discretion not to make any appointment to this vacancy, to make an appointment at a lower grade or with a different contract type, or to make an appointment with a modified job description or for shorter duration than indicated above. Testing may be part of the recruitment process
MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI  At least four people who attended a Fourth of July beach party with reportedly dozens of teens in attendance have since tested positive for COVID-19.

Health officials confirmed three identified COVID-19 cases linked to the Norton Shores party, and one case linked to both the party and a local restaurant, Muskegon County Public Health Director Kathy Moore told MLive Wednesday, July 15.

Moore said all four cases were residents under the age of 21.

Connie Maxim-Sparrow, a Norton Shores resident whose daughter attended the party, told MLive there were reportedly around 70 people at the party.

The event took place in an area known as Whiteys Woods, a forested portion of Lake Harbor Park, 4635 Lake Harbor Road, popular among Mona Shores High School students, Maxim-Sparrow said. The mom said she believes many of the attendees on July 4 were Mona Shores students.

She posted in a private Norton Shores Facebook page, warning parents to get their kids tested for COVID-19 if they were there.

Its just a mess and I was just trying to get the word out, Maxim-Sparrow told MLive. Just trying to be a good citizen and get some information out there.

Maxim-Sparrow said her daughter attended the event with friends on July 4, not knowing it would be a huge group. The next week, she said, her daughter reportedly received a Snapchat saying one of the attendees had tested positive.

The Norton Shores mom said it was a challenge to get her teenage daughter tested, since she is currently asymptomatic.

She told MLive on Monday, July 13, that she had inquired at several testing sites in Muskegon County, but was unable to receive testing due to a lack of testing swabs or appointment availability. Her daughter was tested for COVID-19 on Tuesday, July 14, but they have not yet received the results.

I know that a lot of the kids that had exposure are having a hell of a time getting a test, she said.

Muskegon County has conducted a total of 25,385 coronavirus tests since mid-March. There have been a total of 934 confirmed cases and 52 deaths linked to the virus, according to data posted by the health department. The countys positive test rate is 3.6%.

Of the total cases, 85 cases have been confirmed in residents under the age of 19, and 149 cases have been found among local residents in their 20s.

There have been 693 recoveries, meaning there are currently 241 active cases in Muskegon County.

Elsewhere in the state, a Northern Michigan health department labeled an annual Fourth of July weekend party at Torch Lake, called Torch Fest, as a potential exposure site after several people who were there tested positive. Thousands of people are estimated to have attended the Torch Lake festivities.

More on MLive:

Several people at massive Torch Lake July 4 party have tested positive for coronavirus

Large Saline-area house party causes coronavirus outbreak in Washtenaw County

Possible coronavirus exposures cancel football workouts around state

Sherwood Forest knockoff festival deemed coronavirus exposure site
By Express News Service

IDUKKI: A 74-year-old man from Tamil Nadu who died while on home quarantine at Pethotty near Santhanpara last night was found coronavirus positive by the health authorities in Idukki on Thursday.

The deceased, identified as Pandyan, who is a Tamil Nadu native, had been staying at Pethotty where he owns nearly an acre of land, after the death of his wife Leelavathy.



However, before the government announced statewide lockdown, Pandyan went to his son's home in Tamil Nadu and got stranded there.

Later, he managed to reach Choondal in a vegetable truck from Tamil Nadu to Pethotty on June 28.

Upon being informed by some local people of his arrival, the health authorities quarantined him at his home in Pethotty.

Although he had completed 14 days in isolation since then, the next day he was down with fever and cough and took medical assistance at a private hospital in Santhanpara.



As the hospital authorities suspected the possibility him having contracted coronavirus infection, they further informed the health department authorities, who collected his swab sample for testing two days ago, the test result of which came positive on Thursday.



Meanwhile, the man's condition worsened and he succumbed to the virus on Wedensday night. Pandyan was found dead by some local residents, who went to see him on Thursday morning, which was later confirmed by health authorities.



Further proceedings are underway.
On Wednesday, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf announced some updated restrictions to the dining and drinking industries in light of an uptick in coronavirus cases across the state

Indoor dining capacity was opened at 50% once counties hit the green phase, but Wolf is rolling that number back to 25%, though outdoor seating remains a possibility. For restaurants that have bars, alcohol can only be served to those dining in that are seated at a booth or table  no bar service.

Any establishment thats solely a bar or nightclub may have enjoyed the couple weeks of reopening, but now Wolf is mandating them to close back up. Though curbside cocktails have become a popular trend for pubs and clubs, its now their only option.

All this news comes much to the chagrin of bars, clubs and restaurants around the Lehigh Valley. The pandemic has taken its toll on almost every industry in one way or another, but the world of food and drink has taken punch after punch.

After the announcement, a number of local establishments, including restaurants, breweries and bars, took to social media to express their frustration and skepticism with the rules, or to simply inform their customers of the sad news.

Some places, including Eastons Boser Geist Brewing Co. and Bethlehems TheMINT Gastropub, questioned the idea that a meal is required to order an alcoholic beverage.

#funwhileitlasted  #bars and #restaurants need #support now more than ever. #thisisntgood #and... Posted by TheMINT Gastropub on Wednesday, July 15, 2020

The Colony Meadery in Allentown offered its stance on the new rules in a thoughtful blog post that offered some perspective on Wolfs decision from that of an independent, local alcoholic beverage producer.

A couple of restaurants, Apollo Grill in Bethlehem and Pints & Pies in Wilson Borough, offered some reassurance to patrons that while the new guidelines are another hurdle, theyre for the best, and customers service, safety and enjoyment is still priority number one.

We are believers in following the guidelines. We understand this virus is serious. We are doing everything we can to... Posted by Apollo Grill on Wednesday, July 15, 2020

We will not let this beat us! It looks like a couple adjustments need to be made to comply with todays new guidelines,... Posted by Pints & Pies Neighborhood Pub on Wednesday, July 15, 2020

A trio of some of the Lehigh Valleys favorite breweries sounded off as well, some with confusion on how they can still operate. Weyerbacher Brewing Co. has been hosting food trucks throughout the pandemic, which fortunately falls into the food requirement to serve their beer. Other bars and breweries around the Lehigh Valley have been partnering with mobile food companies too. New restrictions could make that the go-to business model.

STILL LOST! Thanks to you!... Hey Fam...you all hopefully know weve been operating as safely as possible, since the... Posted by Lost Tavern Brewing on Wednesday, July 15, 2020

According to Governor Wolfs order yesterday, all alcohol consumed on site must be on the same check as a meal. We are... Posted by Funk Brewing Company on Thursday, July 16, 2020

Seven Sirens Brewing Co. in Bethlehem is already adjusting with a bit of good-hearted nostalgia.

Other Lehigh Valley establishments affected by the update will have to find a way to overcome the new restrictions, like Seven Sirens already has. But if the last few months have done nothing else, theyve been good preparation to adapt to the ever-changing hurdles.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to Lehighvalleylive.com.

Connor Lagore may be reached at clagore@njadvancemedia.com.
Cargo ships keep getting bigger - and Brendan Keating is positioning Cork to become their first Irish port of call.

The sprawling operations of the Port of Cork Company already host the largest weekly arrival of any cargo ship to the island, the Maersk service from Central America carrying bananas and other fruits sold by Fyffes, Keelings and other food distributors nationwide.

Cork is a key arrival point for Ireland's oil and animal feed, too.

But Keating sees a near future when Cork becomes Ireland's main port for much bigger shipments from continental Europe and America. That vision is taking shape right now at Ringaskiddy.

He has spent much of his 18 years as Port of Cork chief executive seeking to develop that deep-water facility 20km south-east of Cork city into the port's main hub.

After nearly a decade of planning and two years of sometimes fractious relations with primary contractors BAM Civil, Keating expects the new 86m Cork Container Terminal to open by early 2021.

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He describes the facility, with a 13.5-metre depth and 360-metre berth, as a game-changer. The transatlantic cargo vessels which, for decades, have passed Ireland without stopping will finally have a sufficiently long and deep dock to accommodate them.

"Hand on heart, this will be the biggest transformational change in the port sector on the island of Ireland for the next 10 to 15 years," Keating says. "Dublin Port can't do what we'll be able to do. We'll attract much larger vessels."

While Brexit threatens to constrain UK trade on many fronts, it could make Cork more valuable as ships seek new harbours and logistical hubs along shipping lanes which will soon lose UK ports from their EU supply chains.

"We will have a geographical advantage, particularly in shipping lines trading between Europe and the Americas," Keating says. "We have major shipping corridors passing the mouth of Cork Harbour. With the new facilities we'll be able to attract a dramatically increased level of business activity."

This decade promises much wider change in a semi-State company overseeing disparate assets: berths along the River Lee, the cargo terminals at Tivoli, Ireland's only oil refinery at privately owned Whitegate, a future bulk terminal in Marino Point, the cruise line hub of Cobh, and a sister port in Bantry.

Keating says the company is discussing with a key financial backer, the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, on how best to redevelop Tivoli on the north bank of the River Lee.

That 160-acre site for decades has been the port's main access point for cargo ships but, increasingly, today's vessels are too big and their hulls too deep to get there. Keating estimates even moderately large cargo ships would hit the seabed long before crossing the Jack Lynch Tunnel, never mind reaching the Lee.

"They would probably run aground on the approaches into Lough Mahon," he says.

Understanding the Port of Cork's future starts with TEUs, the standard unit for measuring cargo and short for 'twenty-foot equivalent unit'. A small container is one TEU, a more common 40-foot container two.

While Tivoli can take vessels with maximum cargo of around 1,200 TEUs, Keating says, Ringaskiddy will take ships bearing loads five times as large. These so-called 'Panamax' class ships are small enough to fit through the Panama Canal but still much too big for Irish ports.

These ships carry at least 5,000 TEUs. They require harbours that are at least 13 metres deep.

For now, the single deepwater berth at Ringaskiddy - used mainly for handling bulk cargo including animal feed, scrap and fertiliser - is used to accommodate the few arriving Panamax-sized vessels, chiefly the weekly Maersk service from Central America launched in 2012. But it lacks the fixed cranes, sufficient dockside storage and logistical support that many operators want for efficient discharging and loading of container ships.

Once the Cork Container Terminal at Ringaskiddy opens, operations at Tivoli will be phased out. Keating says that site, 7km east of central Cork, is likely to become home by 2030 to at least 4,500 housing units, a business park and new riverside tourism amenities and berths for leisure craft.

Ringaskiddy, in turn, will become a magnet for European cargo operators which normally stop in England but go right past Ireland. The first to make the 'right turn' into Ringaskiddy is Independent Container Line (ICL), which in June launched a weekly service connecting Ireland directly with ports in Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

For now ICL, like Maersk, uses the 'bulk' dock with its slower mobile crane and relatively cramped space.

The Port of Cork originally planned to have the Cork Container Terminal running by the spring of 2020, but faced immediate difficulties with the winning 46.3m bidder for the main works contract, BAM Civil. Soon after its 2017 award, BAM told the port it had identified an "arithmetical error" in its tender that omitted 12m in costs. The port took BAM to the Commercial Court to enforce the contract. Work began months late in 2018.

Disputes have continued to delay completion, including most recently for construction of a new jetty at Ringaskiddy.

"We've had delays, absolutely," Keating says. "We had an initial legal dispute with the contractor. And yes, there is an issue at the moment with regard to the construction of a jetty. But we're in discussions with BAM about that as we speak. I'm very confident that the facility will be completed and operational within six months."

When asked to describe the current difficulties, he says: "There's an issue of design and an issue of finance. But we're in discussions. I'm confident it will be resolved."

The headline cost for the new terminal has grown by 6m in the past two years to 86m, though Keating says that higher figure includes the cost of two Liebherr ship-to-shore gantry cranes erected in February. The project is being jointly financed by AIB, ISIF, the European Investment Bank and the port itself.

Keating cites the development of Ringaskiddy as his proudest achievement from a career that started, like his father, in local government.

Brendan Keating is the eldest of nine children. His family lived all along Ireland's Atlantic coast as their father, Seamus, worked his way up the local government ladder from Tralee, Co Kerry to Lifford, Co Donegal, finishing up as county manager of Galway.

Brendan spent six years boarding at Rockwell College, his father's alma mater in Cashel, Co Tipperary, where he was a sprinter and on a national champion relay team. He played as a winger, too, on Rockwell's senior cup rugby squad which lost the Munster schools final in 1973 to Christian Brothers Cork.

"Christians were the bane of our lives," he recalls with a laugh. "I'm very often reminded of that defeat as I spent my last 18 years in Cork!"

After graduating from NUI Galway with a degree in business and commerce, he went to work for Sligo Corporation - and met his wife, Aileen, at the local AIB branch on Stephen Street.

"I'd go in to lodge my cheque. I always waited for her window to come open," he says, noting they were wed in 1981 after he relocated to Portlaoise to work in the roads and planning divisions of the Laois council.

The couple both worked for a decade in Co Meath - he for the county council in Navan, she at the AIB branch in Ashbourne - before he gained a big 1994 promotion to be assistant city manager for Cork. He helped develop the council's plans for the Jack Lynch Tunnel, during which he worked closely with port officials.

He won promotion again to become city manager of Limerick in 1999. The family, now grown to include daughters Claire and Niamh and sons Eoin and Niall, resettled in Ballyclough south of the city.

In 2002, the top post at the Port of Cork came open. In the 18 years since, Keating has overseen doubling of cargo to 240,000 TEUs last year, the purchase of the former Irish Fertiliser Industries site at Marino Point in 2017 to be developed as a new deep-water bulk terminal, and the modernisation of Cobh berths that hosted nearly 100 cruise liners carrying 243,000 visitors in 2019.

Cruise traffic was scheduled to grow even more this year - until Covid-19 arrived ahead of St Patrick's Day.

"That's decimated. All gone. We've lost over 100 calls," he says. "As long as the 14-day quarantine remains, it's going to be impossible and most of the cruise liners are in US waters, not Europe. So we're looking at 2021 before we can hope for any recovery there."

That lost tourism means the Port of Cork expects to see its revenues fall by at least 25pc this year, including a potential 5pc drop in cargo. The company reported turnover of 35.4m in 2018.

Keating sees the port's fortunes tied to growth in cargo traffic at Ringaskiddy. That will mean building warehouse and logistics capacity on the 120-acre site and neighbouring lands. He wants its logistics centre at least doubled in size to 200,000 square feet.

It won't all happen on his watch - because Keating retires on August 31. "While I still have this job," he says, "I'm loving it and enjoying it."
The father of baby Gammy, who made global headlines at the centre of an international surrogacy scandal, has reportedly died.

David Farnell, a convicted sex offender, was the biological father of baby Gammy who was controversially conceived by a surrogate mother in Thailand in 2013.

Pattaramon Chanbua from Chonburi province, southeast of Bangkok, agreed via an agent to be a surrogate for Mr Farnell and his wife Wendy, for a fee of $16,000.

She gave birth to twins  a boy and a girl. However the couple from Bunbury, south of Perth, separated the twins and returned home only with the girl.

The boy, dubbed baby Gammy, was born sickly and with Down syndrome.

The story captivated and angered many Australians. Source: Nine

It was later revealed the WA man and biological father of the twins was a convicted child sex offender.

According to The West Australian, Mr Farnell died recently. He was in his early 60s.

It was previously reported that Mr Farnell had been battling asbestos-related illness, and his death comes less than a year after he lodged a lawsuit against asbestos supplier Amaca Pty Ltd.

It is not known if his death is linked to his illness.

In a 2014 TV interview, the couple said they felt they had little choice but to leave Thailand with Gammy's healthy sister and leave the boy behind.

We wanted to bring him with us, Mr Farnell told the Nine Networks 60 Minutes program.

They said they returned to Australia with Gammys sister Pipah as the surrogate mother had told them if we try to take our little boy, shes going to get the police and shes going to come and take our little girl and shes going to keep both of the babies, he said.

The couple were criticised for appearing to reject the boy, who also had a hole in his heart and had to be treated for a lung infection in a Thailand hospital.

Thai surrogate mother Pattaramon Chanbua, a 21-year-old food vendor, poses with Gammy at nine months. Source: AAP

The plight of the baby saw Australians raise more than $240,000 for the infant who stayed with his surrogate mother.

The story led to countless headlines and sparked heated debate over surrogacy laws, as well as prompting investigations into the commercial surrogacy industry in Thailand.

Story continues

During this time it was revealed that Mr Farnell was previously convicted in 1997 of more than 20 counts of child sex offences stemming from the 1980s and early 1990s, as well as well as three counts of procuring a girl under the age of 13 to indecently deal with him.

He was jailed for three years and was convicted of further crimes, adding 18 months to his sentence.

Baby Gammy is reportedly doing fine in Thailand as he begins school.

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.
The people of Azerbaijan have gotten bored of these pointless negotiations  President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has stated this several times in the past and reiterated it during a government session yesterday.

Those who are dealing with this issue and are currently bringing up the proposals of the mediators should think about the fact that the people of Azerbajian cant always be patient, Aliyev declared, referring to Russia first.

In the past, Moscow has been the first to declare its willingness to help reduce tension, and it has also declared its willingness now.

Aliyev is also reprimanding the two other mediators of the OSCE Minsk Group, that is, France and the US. Since Azerbajians aggression, the Co-Chairs have issued two statements calling on maintaining the ceasefire regime. In response, Aliyev has declared that the negotiations are pointless.
New Delhi, July 16 : While the entire world is busy discussing the new normal when it comes to fashion in the COVID-19 era, designer Tarun Tahiliani leads the way for the industry. Tahiliani presented his Festive and Bridal 2020 collection with a live showcase on the social media platform, Instagram, on Thursday evening, 16th of July.

People from across the globe got front row access to the phygital showing, which was shot at his atelier in Delhi. The show featured models in a mAlange of the designer's signature drapes and silhouettes. The collection titled 'Pieces of You' had models walking the runway dressed in the veteran's signature drape-sari and draped sari-gowns in pastel shades of lemon, mint green and lavender.

"In spite of the dreadful pandemic which is galloping on us we decided the show must go on; craft, fashion, life must go on... So we are putting out our first digital virtual show, shot right here in our wardrobe with all safety measures and precautions to bring you back what you are used to and what you enjoy and expect every July-- a beautiful Fall-Winter Festive bridal collection. Enjoy it and give me your feedback..." posted the designer on his Instagram handle.

Tahiliani hasn't allowed the downsizing of the big fat Indian wedding to dampen his spirit, the ensembles being ornate and embellished but in keeping with the "studios commitment to lightness." Anarkalis featured intricate chikankari work and lehengas replete with thread and zari embroidery allowed for the shimmer of pearls and sitaras.

The designer commented, "The show is dedicated to every bride and groom who want to celebrate their individuality on their big day. Here's to you finally coming home."
THE Mayor of Limerick, Cllr Michael Collins has promised to make sure Dr Tony Holohan is honoured locally in the proper way.

It comes as Dublin City Council unveils plans to confer the Freedom of the capital city on the chief medical officer, who until recently, was an ever present on daily broadcasts updating the nation on the state of Covid-19.

Dr Holohan, who was educated at Sexton Street CBS, has taken time out of the role to care for his wife, and Mayor Collins says he wants to wait until later in the year to decide how he should be honoured in Limerick.

Although born in Dublin, the physician grew up in Limerick, Before he was at Sexton Street, his formative years were spent at Monaleen National School.

And, as revealed by this newspaper back in March, his family lineage goes back to Cappamore, and the Ryan Luke family, with the young doctor a frequent visitor to his mothers home place.

Mayor Collins said he was already weighing up honouring Dr Holohan before Dublin made its announcement  and had discussed his plans with management at Limerick City and County Council.

I want to wait until later in the year after this crisis has passed, he said, I, as mayor, will deal with it at a time when I feel it is appropriate. In time, when I feel the moment is right, and the time is right, we will honour him.

Asked about the potential of affording Dr Holohan the Freedom of Limerick  an accolade very rarely handed down  the mayor declined to comment on that specific.

I don't want to pre-empt something that might not happen. But it's something that I as mayor would like to appropriately honour the work that he has done over the course of the pandemic. He has a huge Limerick connection obviously and it's great we should be honouring people who do extraordinary things for their country. I would put him in that category, he told the Limerick Leader.

The Newcastle West man feels since he stepped down as chief medical officer, people have stopped watching the daily updates, as the coronavirus appears, mercifully, to be tailing off.

He [Dr Holohan] had this calming effect on the whole country. When he would tell you to do something, then you'd actually do it. I think people like familiarity, and he was a familiar face for the HSE and the Department of Health during this pandemic, he said.

Despite leading Irelands fightback to the deadly disease, Dr Holohan still last month managed to find time to congratulate the Leaving Certificate students at Castletroy College through a virtual graduation ceremony.

He said then: You are attending a fantastic school in an area I know well. I grew up for a good part of my childhood in Castletroy. In my time the school you were in was green fields. I used to walk across them as a short cut to visit my friend.

I never experienced the school directly but I know about the school and community. For a relatively new school has had significant impact - academically, sporting and in terms of inclusivity and how it deals with community and supports students, said Dr Holohan.
The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) is appealing to the National Media Commission (NMC) to urgently intervene and stop the Communications Minister from reducing its channels.

GBC says any reduction of its channels will pose serious financial and Human Resources challenges.

The Ministry of Communications is expected to reduce the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) channels on the National DTT platform from six to three.

Director-General of GBC, Prof. Amin Alhassan, made this known in a letter to the Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC).

According to the letter, Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, informed GBC via a virtual meeting and followed up a letter.

It said the Minister has given GBC a 60-day period to comply with her instruction.

GBC currently operates GTV, GBC, GTV Sports, GBC Obonu, GTV Life and Ghana Learning TV, the letter revealed.

But GBC says Complying with the directive will mean GBC reducing its operations by half.

This request will also impose budgetary and human resource challenges on the operations of GBC and indeed, can collapse the Public Service Broadcaster, it said.

---Daily Guide
This story was originally published on Oct. 3, 1936, in the Winona Republican-Herald, a predecessor of the Winona Daily News.

Samuel Rinnah Van Sant, 92, former governor of Minnesota and one-time Winona resident and businessman, died at Attica, Ind., early today from acute dilation of the heart, according to an Associated Press dispatch.

Mr. Van Sant was en route by automobile to Florida where, as usual he planned to spend the winter. He had stopped at an Attica hotel when he became ill. He was accompanied by Edna Danielson, his nurse and housekeeper. They left the Van Sant home at Minneapolis Thursday and were bound for Green Cove Springs, Fla.

The former Minnesota chief executive was governor from 1901 to 1905 and was grand commander of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1909 and 1910.

His fight against the North Pacific railroad merger and the Great Northern Railroad (known as the Northern Securities Company) and other of his outstanding deeds marked him as one of the most famous governors in the nation at the time.

Came here in 1883Mr. Van Sant was for many years identified with the transportation and lumber interests of the Mississippi River valley and in 1883 moved his business headquarters to Winona. For a number of years he was one of the largest operators in river transportation.

He operated from eight to 12 or more steamers and had about 200 men in his employ. In some seasons as much as 200,000,000 feet of logs and lumber were handled through his agency.

He served as president of the Van Sant Navigation Company, the Johnson-Van Sant Company, the Van Sant Investment Company, the Northern Steam Boat Company and after leaving the governors chair devoted his time to the Van Sant Company, dealing in farm mortgages.

Mr. Van Sant was a Winona resident until he assumed the governors chair, after which he moved to Minneapolis. His last visit here was during the state encampment of the United Spanish War Veterans July 14, 15 and 16, 1935, when he brought greetings from the GAR to the soldiers of a later war. He spoke at the Lake Park band shell.

Fifteenth governor

Fifteenth governor of Minnesota, Mr. Van Sant was the last veteran of the Civil War to occupy the gubernatorial chair.

Previously, he served in the state legislature as a member of the House of Representatives from 1892 to 1896. He was Speaker of the House in his last year of service there.

In all his years, Gov. Van Sant always displayed a lively interest in matters of advancement of the commonwealth and the citizenship. During his term as governor, he promoted plans for increased usefulness of educational and benevolent institutions of the state; insisted upon wise economy of state administration, and inaugurated the legal proceedings for the dissolution of the then-Northern Securities Company, a plan for railway consolidation proposed by James J. Hill, St. Paul.

The latter was a scheme for the combining of the Hill lines, but the governor held the consolidation to be inimical to the public interest.

Born at Rock Island

Van Sant was born at Rock Island, Ill., May 11, 1844. He was the son of John Wesley Van Sant, of a family of Hollanders originally known as Van Zandt, the first of whom came to America in 1607.

Young Van Sant went through high school and attended Knox College at Galesburg, Ill. When the Civil War broke out. he enlisted Aug. 1, 1861, in Company A, 9th Illinois Cavalry and enjoyed a war record of which he was always proud.

Never missing an engagement of his unit, Van Sant was not once wounded, was never in an army hospital for any cause and was never taken prisoner.

After the war, he engaged in the lumber and steamboat business first at Le Claire, Iowa, and then at Winona. At the former place, he was given the appellation of Captain Van Sant and it was there that he met Miss Ruth Hall, whom he married in December 1863.

Active in GAR

Van Sant was active in GAR circles. He was commander of the Winona post in his first years at Winona; commander of the Minnesota department in 1894 and commander-in-chief of the National Encampment In 1909.

He was prominent as an opponent of the liquor interests. In 1917, he accepted the chairmanship of the Minneapolis Dry Federation. In April 1916, when the Republicans were casting about for a choice for the United States Senate, a group of Republicans supported Van Sant and urged his nomination by the convention, but when Sen. F. B. Kellogg was named, he promptly gave his entire support.

In October 1920, from a sick bed in a Rochester hospital, the former governor sent out an appeal to oust Townleyism from the state, and in a statement, urged the support of Gov. J. A. O. Preus.

He was appointed a member of the board of trustees of the State Soldiers home by Gov. J. A. A. Burnquist in August 1920.

Of the three children born to him and his wife, only Grant grew to maturity; two children, Paul and Gertrude, dying at the age of two years.

In recent years, Gov. Van Sant engaged in the land and loan business with offices both at Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Burial was tentatively planned for Le Claire, Iowa.

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Armenian armed forces have again opened fire in the direction of Azerbaijan's Tovuz district on the border with Armenia, as the fighting is currently taking place, according to the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.



This morning, the Armenian armed forces again attempted to attack Azerbaijans positions in the Tovuz district direction of the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border.



At the same time, the villages of Aghdam, Dondar Gushchu and Vahidli of the Tovuz district underwent fire from large-caliber weapons and mortars, head of the press office of Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry, Colonel Vagif Dargahli said, adding that no civilian casualties were reported as of yet.

In the meantime, Azerbaijani MP Arzu Nagiyev, who is in Tovuz now, said that Armenian forces opened fire at villages in Tovuz at around 4 am.



"Armenians continue shelling the villages of Agdam, Dondar-Gushchu, Alibeyli and Gadzhali. About 20 artillery shells hit the village of Dondar Gushchu. Two of the shells hit the yards of civilians. One of the shells destroyed an auxiliary building in the courtyard of one of the villagers. There is no panic among the civilian population, although the situation remains tense. Armenians have mainly bombarded the village of Agdam. There are no casualties among civilians. Units of the Azerbaijani army are in control of the situation," the MP said.

Starting from noon on July 12, the Armenian armed forces violated the ceasefire in Azerbaijan's Tovuz region on the border with Armenia by artillery fire and tried to capture Azerbaijan's positions.

Member of the Bundestag's Committee on Foreign Affairs Nicolas Lobel has expressed concern over the recent escalation of the tension on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

"The latest border clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan concern me deeply. After a longer period of relaxation, the use of military force demanded military and civilian casualties over the course of the last couple of days. The difficult situation in both states, aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic, doesnt help in this scenario. The protests in Azerbaijan, that mourns high-ranking military losses, are a direct example of the current domestic tensions in the region. Russia, supporting Armenia in military and diplomatic affairs, as well as Turkey that declared its unconditional support of Azerbaijan, are called upon to use their influence to ease the conflict and seek a peaceful solution. . But Germany must not stay silent either. German Foreign Minister Hayko Maas is not in a position, especially considering the current German presidency of the UN Security Council, to leave this conflict uncommented. This frozen conflict, going on for far too long, is in need of a peaceful solution. Armenia is still in violation of international law by its de facto annexation of Nagorno-Karabakh. With international mediation, we need to find a way out of this conflict," he tweeted on Wednesday.
The Census Bureau is facing mounting criticism over the Trump administration's addition of two political appointees last month to its senior staff even as it scrambles to complete the decennial census in the midst of a pandemic.

In letters this week to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Senate and House Democrats criticized the hiring of Nathaniel Cogley, an assistant political science professor at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas, as the bureau's deputy director for policy, and Adam Korzeniewski, a former consultant to a pro-Trump YouTube personality and political candidate, as his senior adviser. Last week, the inspector general asked the bureau to provide more information about the two positions by July 20.

Neither position had existed previously. A statement from the bureau when the hiring was announced said the new officials would "help the Census Bureau achieve a complete and accurate 2020 Census and study future improvements."

But the timing of the appointments, after the 2020 Census had undergone years of planning and the count was already underway, along with the men's relative lack of census experience, raised concerns among census experts and some lawmakers that the White House was trying to influence the outcome of the count to benefit Republicans and red states.

"The Trump Administration has failed to adequately set forth its motives for this action, identify the specific needs it is trying to address, explain why it needs more political appointees running the Census than previous Administrations, or justify why the American taxpayers should be forced to pay for these partisan appointees running what should be an ideologically neutral count of the people in our country," said a sharply worded letter Monday from Democratic Reps. Carolyn Maloney of New York, Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Yvette Clarke of New York, Jimmy Gomez of California and Gerald E. Connolly of Virginia. The Census Bureau is overseen by the Commerce Department.

The letter referred to reports that the two men have repeatedly questioned why the bureau wants to focus on improving response rates in hard-to-count areas, which include low-income and minority communities.

A draft of a letter from Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, asks Ross and Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham specifically how much access the appointees will have to sensitive census and IRS information and records and what meetings they will be included in, and it warned that the appointments could harm the survey.

"Even an appearance of political interference could impact the willingness to respond to the decennial census, depressing the count in hard-to-count communities across the country - such as immigrant, non-English speaking, Native American, and urban communities," Schatz wrote.

In a letter on July 7, Inspector General Peggy Gustafson asked Dillingham for descriptions of the two new positions and how much they are paid and requested the men's resumes and any documents or disclosures relevant to their employment by this Friday - an unusually quick turnaround for such a request. A bureau spokesperson said the bureau plans to respond to the letter.

Lawmakers have also challenged the appointments in other ways. A bill approved Tuesday by the House Appropriations Committee stipulated that "none of the funds made available in this or any other Act . . . may be used for the salaries or expenses of more than five political and presidential appointees in the Bureau of the Census." The appointment of Cogley and Korzeniewski brings the total number of appointees at the bureau to six; the House is expected to vote on the bill this month.

A retired senior census official said he has heard from "over half a dozen former colleagues who are gravely concerned about the kinds of questions and the motives behind the questions that are being asked about detailed census operations - things that make people very nervous, like what is the imputation methodology, which is pretty arcane, and I'm not sure why political appointees would want to know."

The questions included "Why do you advertise in all these languages?" and "Why do you still advertise when self-response is almost done?" said the retired official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the topic.

Self-response refers to the period before non-responding households start getting visits from census enumerators. These households typically include hardest-to-count populations such as minorities, immigrants, renters, lower-income households and children and tend to lean Democrat.

Some census employees say they plan to record Zoom calls with the new appointees and to ask them to put any requests in writing, he said.

Critics have long accused the Trump administration of trying to politicize the decennial census, which is used to determine congressional apportionment, state redistricting and $1.5 trillion a year in federal funding.

In 2018, the administration attempted to add a question about citizenship to the survey, sparking lawsuits that said it would harm the accuracy of the count; the question was blocked last year by the Supreme Court. The administration was also in contact with a now-deceased Republican strategist who had determined a citizenship question would result in a structural electoral advantage for Republicans and non-Hispanic whites.

The government has said it will seek information on citizenship from other sources; this week, NPR reported that South Dakota has joined Nebraska in agreeing to share driver's license information with the administration, although such data is often obsolete and many states have refused to share it.

The scrutiny of the appointees comes as the bureau prepares to start sending workers door-to-door on Thursday in select parts of the country, asking households to respond to the census. Temporary employees in protective gear will fan out to homes in Idaho, West Virginia, Maine, and parts of Louisiana, Missouri and Oklahoma for a "soft launch" of the door-to-door knocking scheduled to kick off across the United States in August. A second part of the soft launch will begin on July 23 in Crystal City, Va., and parts of Connecticut, Indiana, Kansas, Pennsylvania and Washington State.

The goal is to count the roughly two-fifths of households that haven't responded online, by mail or by phone. This phase had originally been slated to run from May through July, but it was delayed because of the novel coronavirus pandemic and will now run from Aug. 11 through the end of October.

The bureau postponed in-person visits as the pandemic spread in the spring and has asked Congress to approve a four-month delay in reporting deadlines for apportionment. It has urged people to fill out the form online, an option that had not been available in previous decennial counts. So far, 62.1% of households have self-responded.

When announcing the soft launches earlier this month, the bureau said it had selected the locations in part based on "the ability of Census Bureau staff to safely resume operations" in a given area.

But since then, caseloads have surged in many parts of the country, with recent spikes in some of the states designated for soft launches. A bureau spokesperson said the bureau would monitor the covid-19 situation and "adjust operations as needed."

The bureau is providing workers with reusable masks and bottles of hand sanitizer and directing them to stay six feet away from respondents and not enter their homes.

On Tuesday, the bureau announced that it will also send more than 3,000 employees into communities with the lowest response rates to encourage and assist with filling out the form. They will go to places such as grocery stores, food banks, laundromats, restaurants, unemployment offices, back-to-school drives, places of worship and libraries. The bureau has also said it may send out text messages or emails in an effort to boost the response rate.
Black business owners in Pennsylvania have unique experiences in how they manage the challenges to their success. PennLive is telling their stories in a special series: Black-owned Businesses: Stories of Struggle and Success.

Three black business owners will tell their own stories at 2 p.m. Thursday on Live On with Joyce Davis, on PennLives Facebook page. They include Amma Johnson, owner of Amma Jo in Strawberry Square; Chad Scott, owner of The District in Midtown Harrisburg, and Tim White, one of three partners seeking to open Harris Family Brewery, which will be Pennsylvanias first Black-owned microbrewery. They will talk about their motivations for starting their own businesses, the obstacles they face and how theyre overcoming them.

The coronavirus pandemic has brought economic hardship to many businesses, but surviving has been especially difficult for African Americans who battle systemic racism that blocks their success.

Join us today at 2 p.m. for PennLives Facebook Live discussion with black business owners as part of PennLives Black-owned Businesses: Stories of Struggle and Success.

Thanks for visiting PennLive. 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!
The world's first Yangtze finless porpoise bred in captivity was recently released into the wild, and follow-up tracking will identify whether it can survive, experts revealed.



The 4-year-old female mammal, named Bei Bei, was released last week into the Tian'ezhou National Nature Reserve in Shishou, Hubei province, according to Hao Yujiang, an expert from the Institute of Hydrobiology under Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Bei Bei had been reared in a net cage purpose-built within the reserve. Her parents are two wild Yangtze finless porpoises, one of whom was injured in 2008 by ice in the Tian'ezhou oxbow, an old 21-kilometers course of the Yangtze River, and was rescued by researchers from the reserve.

The Yangtze finless porpoise is one of the very few porpoise species that live in fresh water. Scientific research on the species released by the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs in 2018 shows that its population was just 1,012fewer than the giant panda.

In 1990, the institute initiated the conservation of the species outside its natural habitat. Currently, there are more than 80 wild finless porpoises living in the oxbow.

According to Hao, researchers have successfully released two Yangtze finless porpoises that had been rescued. One was a Yangtze finless porpoise name A Bao, who was born in the wild, raised in captivity in the institute for seven years and sent back to the wild in 2011.

"A Bao now has a big family, with 10 grandchildren and at least two great-grandchildren," Hao said.

However, the training for Bei Bei is more challenging as she had no experience in the wild, according to Hao. Before her release, she received about two months of training aimed at helping her adapt.

"Weighing about 60 kilograms, Bei Bei is going to be mature sexually. To release her to the wild now is very important because it will help her to mate successfully," Hao said.

Training therefore plays a crucial role in the process. According to Hao, researchers had helped her get used to the taste of fresh fish and taught her to catch them.

"It was difficult at the very beginning as she was used to the taste of frozen food. Sometimes, she was irritated and flew into a rage," he said.

Moreover, the net cage she used to live in at the reserve was replaced by an open-water area covering 20,000 square meters that was surrounded by nets.

"It will help familiarize her with the water environment in the wild," Hao said.

The Yangtze finless porpoise is found in the main Yangtze River channel in central and eastern China and in two lakes, Dongting and Poyang, which are naturally connected to the river. The porpoise's small size and cute 'smile' make it a much-loved animal in China and beyond.

Over the past 40 years, the porpoise's numbers have declined dramatically due to, among other factors, climate change and habitat loss, according to Zhang Xinqiao, senior program manager of the World Wide Fund for Nature in China.

However, he said the population of the species has shown stability in recent years as a result of joint protection from government organs, research institutes and other social organizations.

According to the institute, researchers from the reserve will monitor Bei Bei and help her if necessary, and data collected on her will be constructive to breeding research and conservation of the species.

"The release was an important step to save this endangered animal. Whether it can be successfully done will provide data and experiences to the artificial breeding of the species, which will further contribute to its protection," Zhang said.

On Monday, Hao said workers in the reserve have noticed an animal, which looks "very like" Bei Bei, at a spot about 1 km from the net cage where she used to live.

The finless porpoise and the Baiji dolphin (Yangtze River dolphin), both members of the cetacea family and the only two mammals in the Yangtze, were designated as "critically endangered" on the red list of threatened species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2013.

However, in 2006 the Baiji dolphin was declared functionally extinct, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature. The destruction of the dolphin's food supply, which was mainly the result of overfishing, was central to its extinction.

The finless porpoise is widely believed to be an important indicator of the ecology of the Yangtze, which stretches over 6,300 km and boasts rich and complex terrains and climates along its basin and has one of the highest levels of biodiversity in the world.

Data showed that there are more than 4,300 kinds of aquatic life living in the Yangtze River Basin, including more than 400 types of fish.

In April, the country released a guideline on improving sewage treatment through the use of price leverage to improve the prevention and control of water pollution in the Yangtze.

To further preserve biodiversity along the river, China also began a 10-year fishing moratorium from the beginning of this year in 332 conservation areas in the Yangtze River Basin, which will be expanded to all the natural waterways of the country's longest river and its major tributaries no later than Jan 1.
michael barbaro

Hey. Its Michael. This week, were revisiting people we met in the early weeks of the pandemic, listening back and hearing whats happened to them since our original conversations. Today: Jasmine Lombrage, a restaurant owner in Baton Rouge. Its Thursday, July 16.

[music]

michael barbaro

From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. When Louisianas stay at home order expires today, restaurants across the state can begin allowing customers back inside at their own discretion. That decision now lies with restaurant owners, like Jasmine Lombrage. Its Friday, May 15.

jasmine lombrage

Hello?

michael barbaro

Hi.

jasmine lombrage

Hi, how are you?

michael barbaro

Oh, good. You sound great right now.

jasmine lombrage

Wonderful, wonderful. Hi. Im Jasmine Lombrage.

michael barbaro

Hi, Jasmine. Im Michael Barbaro.

jasmine lombrage

Hi, nice  nice to meet you this way.

michael barbaro

Very nice to meet you this way. Where exactly am I reaching you?

jasmine lombrage

I am at the Bullfish Bar Plus Kitchen here in Baton Rouge, La.

michael barbaro

Thats your restaurant?

jasmine lombrage

Yes.

michael barbaro

So how long have you lived in Baton Rouge?

jasmine lombrage

Me, personally, about 17 years. My husband has been here over 20 years. And we have two girls, two beautiful girls, Gaby  shes turning 11 next month  and we have our gorgeous Angelle. Shes nine.

michael barbaro

How did you and your husband meet?

jasmine lombrage

[LAUGHS] Its an old love story. We met at school. I was in dental hygiene school, and he was in culinary school. And he was working at that cafeteria. My friends said that they have good food over there, and they wanted to go. And so we went over there, and he was a quiet guy in the corner doing his own thing. I said, excuse me, what do you have here that is good and healthy that I can eat? And he looks up, and he said, Nothing is good enough for you.

michael barbaro

Oh, jeez.

jasmine lombrage

And then I turned to walk away, and he said, But if you come back tomorrow, Ill make something for you.

michael barbaro

Mm-hmm.

jasmine lombrage

And I just kind of smiled and said, No, thank you. And I had a few friends who are like, Yes, were coming back tomorrow. So the next day, he made something for me. He made stir fry, and my friends  I had one of my crazy friends. She said  I said, Im not going to eat. I dont know if this guy is some kind of psycho or crazy and hes going to put something in my food. Shes like, Well, Im going to eat. If nothing happens to me in a few minutes, then you  you can try it. So thats what happened. And he came back and asked, how was everything? I said, it was good. And then we started talking. Then  no then he said Im going to be his wife, and I said, Im sorry. Thats not going to happen. You know, and he said, well, hes a praying man. He always gets his heart desire.

michael barbaro

[LAUGHS]

jasmine lombrage

Yes, 10 years later, we ended up married.

michael barbaro

So when you  when you two met, you were a dental hygienist student. He was training to be a chef.

jasmine lombrage

Yes.

michael barbaro

And so how did you end up in the food industry?

jasmine lombrage

Well, growing up, my mom always cooked, you know, for many people. So it was always a passion. I grew up cooking also with mom and just family and aunts. We just  that was just something we did. And then Angel, my husband, Chef Angel, my husband, you know, we  he was the executive corporate chef that started Voodoo BBQ & Grill, which is a restaurant here in the South. And he was known as the Pitmaster. And so what we did, we started Jazz City then, Jazz City was a catering company. And we were  he was like, well, this is what I love to do. And we wanted to do something  we have two young kids. We know that, you know, you can work hard for anyone and everyone, but really, if you want to leave that  create something for your family, you need to create something so that it can stay down and passed down for generations and generations and possibly grow. And that is our goal is to have it grow and flourish. And we ended up here at the Bullfish, and Bullfish was already  it was a restaurant previously owned by someone else. And when we came here, we made it our own by bringing new menu items. And this is the only place you can come in Louisiana and find an authentic Caribbean and Southern fusion cuisine. What hes done, what Chef has mastered, hes taken the fresh herbs that we have in the Caribbean, and then hes merged it with the wonderful spices that we have here in Louisiana. And he  theres a fusion of jerk, fish, and Southern barbecue shrimp.

michael barbaro

Mm.

jasmine lombrage

Yes. And the paella  you know, Chef makes a paella with  you know, he uses scallops. And the crawfish, which is from Louisiana, he infuses that with the andouille sausage, and then he puts the shrimp in there and the crab meat. And so its just the different twist that he puts on all of the dishes. Its just magic in your mouth.

michael barbaro

Mm.

jasmine lombrage

And I dont know if you heard the music in the background a little. We kind of use a lot of Caribbean kind of music from different parts of the Caribbean, and we play different music from here. The vibe is just so, I dont need a passport, but I can get away here. Does that makes sense?

michael barbaro

Mm-hmm. Its funny you keep calling your husband chef. Is that how you refer to him?

jasmine lombrage

At work, we keep it professional. At home, well, when we get in a car, its honey. But when were at work, we refer to each other  I refer to him as Chef, and he would just say whatever he had to say to me or, OK, yes, maam, and that would be it.

michael barbaro

Got it.

jasmine lombrage

Yes.

michael barbaro

And when did you take over the restaurant?

jasmine lombrage

That was last year, 2019, May 22, 2019.

michael barbaro

OK. So just about  just about a year ago.

jasmine lombrage

Yes. And this restaurant, the Bullfish, it is personal for us, because our home is connected to the Bullfish.

michael barbaro

Huh.

jasmine lombrage

Yes. So thats why this pandemic  I personally have spent many nights not sleeping, because I know our home is connected to it. Its not like we have 5, 6, 7, 20 locations. This is all we have. In our home, we have two kids. My daughter, my oldest, Gaby, shes autistic. I dont know  I mean, I dont know whats going to happen, but for now, shes depending on us to care for her. So as she grows, the home is  before we committed our home to the Bullfish  was part of the security blanket that we had. In the event something happened, she would have that.

michael barbaro

Tell me what you mean when you say that your home is connected to Bullfish. You mean physically or emotionally or what?

jasmine lombrage

Well, whenever you get a loan, you have to give some kind of guarantee, like a personal guarantee. And thats what we did, you know. We took that leap of faith and decided that we were going to put 100 percent in here to make it work. So we have to make the Bullfish work.

michael barbaro

So if something were to happen to the restaurant, it would mean potentially losing your home?

jasmine lombrage

Yes.

michael barbaro

And it sounds like that house is something you plan on passing on to your daughter, whos autistic.

jasmine lombrage

Yes, well, both of our girls, but we know her, at least, we can have somewhere for her in case she needed somewhere to be, and then we can have that there for her. That is something that always gets me emotional talking about, because 

michael barbaro

Mm-hmm.

jasmine lombrage

[CRYING] Im sorry.

michael barbaro

I understand.

jasmine lombrage

Its  you know, and shes standing in front of me looking at me now. And we want to do whatever it takes to make it work. You know, we just have to make it work. So when this pandemic started, it really gave us a scare, because if were not able to pay for everything, and we default on our loan, well, we understood the consequences, you know.

michael barbaro

Was there a moment when you felt that you had really kind of made it with this place, having bought it and started to make it your own?

jasmine lombrage

Yes. About a month before the pandemic, we were like, yeah, this was a good choice. My husband and I, we usually go to early morning service for church, and afterwards, we came here for brunch. And then before we were open, we had people waiting outside for us.

michael barbaro

Wow.

jasmine lombrage

It was wonderful. And we were like, OK, wow, this is really going to work. This is really working. And wow, honey, this is our baby, and were going to grow it, and were going to be able to pay up the loan, and were going to be able to just blow this thing out of the park. And then the pandemic started. And yes.

michael barbaro

When did you first start to notice that the pandemic was impacting the restaurant?

jasmine lombrage

OK, early March  early March, because it was February was good with Valentines Day. Early March is when everything started changing, and as March went on, the governor shut down the state. This is when, you know, you started losing staff members saying theyre not coming out. I mean, you cannot blame them. We also started doing curbside delivery, and we were doing social media posts and putting up signs, handwritten signs offering discounts, letting people know that curbside pickup is available, just getting different yard signs made.

michael barbaro

So you have to put up signs in the windows or outside telling people, were still around, you just need to call in.

jasmine lombrage

Yes, yes, yes. And then about maybe the second week after the state was closed, we would be lucky if we got two people that would call for curbside pickup. And we would just be sitting here the entire day, 11 to 8, and theres no one that would come by or no one that would call. So then I started calling the restaurant phone a couple of times to make sure the phone was working, because it never rang. We were there for hours.

michael barbaro

So you called the restaurants main number with your cell phone just to see if it was working.

jasmine lombrage

Yes. [LAUGHS]

michael barbaro

Wow

jasmine lombrage

And, you know, I started reaching out to third party  third party delivery providers to see if I can sign up with them, like Uber Eats and Waitr and DoorDash and ChowNow. And theyre charging  some of them are charging from 25 percent to 35 percent.

michael barbaro

Per order?

jasmine lombrage

Yeah, thats your food costs. Yes. You know, in addition to that, were not able to buy in bulk anymore, because weve wasted so much food. Weve thrown away so much stuff, so now were having to go ourselves, Chef and I, to different mom and pop stores that are open, and were having to purchase items. Of course, now youre paying more money for them, because youre not buying the same quantity anymore, and youre buying from a local retailer. So, you know, and then we have a bar here, and we werent  no one was coming out to drink anymore, so that went away. So yeah, the pandemic, you know, its been hard on us.

michael barbaro

Mm-hm. Im so sorry.

jasmine lombrage

Yes.

michael barbaro

So with these delivery apps, these new sources of orders, how much money do you make off of any individual customer percentage-wise?

jasmine lombrage

Right now, you dont, because the fact that were buying things from not just local distributors but smaller volume  were buying things in smaller volume, so our profit margin is smaller. So were basically not making anything. Youre keeping the doors open, but youre not making anything from it.

michael barbaro

Can you give us a sense of where your daughters have been throughout this period? At what point was their schooling interrupted?

jasmine lombrage

Maybe March. Angelle, when did school close? March or April?

angelle lombrage

[FAINT] It closed in March.

jasmine lombrage

OK, school closed in March.

michael barbaro

Mm-hmm.

jasmine lombrage

I used to bring my  I still do bring my two girls, so I can homeschool them, because school  they are out of school. So I use a corner of the restaurant, and I do schooling there for my girls. But it was a challenge. The change was not welcomed and open for the girls, especially my oldest, Gaby.

michael barbaro

What do you mean?

jasmine lombrage

You know, with autism, everything has to be  you need to have something  everything scheduled and everything has a plan you need to follow through. And this whole pandemic kind of just went haywire for her in the beginning. She was not sleeping. She was more agitated. And my youngest, Angelle, she kept saying she wanted to go back to school, so I had to find other ways to help them. So 

michael barbaro

And Jasmine, I think I hear your daughters in the background. Is that right?

jasmine lombrage

Yes, you do.

michael barbaro

Do you think there was a point where your daughters picked up on what has been happening for you and your husband, but beyond the stresses that theyre experiencing, you know, from not being at school and social distancing, that they understood that you and your husband are struggling with this business and struggling financially?

jasmine lombrage

I think so. There is one incident. My daughter, my youngest, she  you know, she gets allowance, and someone gives her money or whatever. And she saved the money, and one day, she wrote a note. And then she left a note on the bed, on my bed. I was taking a bath, and I came out, and she had a note saying that, Mom, I know you and Dad are working really hard, and things are really tough. I have some money saved. I hope this helps for you to pay for stuff.

michael barbaro

Oh, wow.

jasmine lombrage

Yes. That was hard. That was hard.

michael barbaro

How old is this daughter who left you 

jasmine lombrage

Angelle was 8 when she did that. She just turned 9 in April. So she had a pandemic birthday.

michael barbaro

Can I ask how much she gave you?

jasmine lombrage

I think it was like $57 she had.

michael barbaro

Wow. And what did you do with it?

jasmine lombrage

I still have it saved. I still have it there. I try not to use it. It was just such a touching moment, and just to see, you know, that they realize, kids realize more than you let them know. And knowing that theyre here like almost every single day with me, and 

michael barbaro

They see everything.

jasmine lombrage

Yes.

michael barbaro

How bad are things, financially speaking, right now?

jasmine lombrage

Not close at all to where we want to be. Not good at all. Not good at all. We have applied for a lot of, you know, small business loans, and were just waiting to hear back.

michael barbaro

Have you been able to cover all the payments that you owe to the bank?

jasmine lombrage

I havent. I think finance is one of the things people dont like to talk about, but I havent been able to meet a lot of  I had to ask for abatements. So well see what happens.

michael barbaro

Mm-hmm. I mean, do you think there is a situation that you could imagine using that money from your youngest daughter, that $57?

jasmine lombrage

I dont want to  I dont want to, because its hers. Even though she gave it to me, its hers. I do not want  I dont want to.

michael barbaro

Right.

jasmine lombrage

I  Im just afraid to  Im just afraid to even think about a situation like that.

[music]

michael barbaro

Well be right back. Jasmine, for listeners who dont know what the rules are in Louisiana, what was announced earlier this week?

jasmine lombrage

Well, restaurants  commencing Friday, you can, restaurants can be open for 25 percent of the capacity.

michael barbaro

So you can seat up to 25 percent of what would normally fit inside the restaurant. So how many people do you think that is?

jasmine lombrage

Well, we can seat about 90 people comfortably in here. And so about 25 percent of that now is what were allowed to do.

michael barbaro

So if you can only put, you know, 20 or so people inside, can you make money?

jasmine lombrage

I dont see how thats going to happen, to be honest with you, because 20 percent  having 20 percent of people inside the business is not enough to sustain, and I dont know how long thats going to go on for.

michael barbaro

Right.

jasmine lombrage

So [SIGHS] its hard. Its a hard thing to digest right now.

michael barbaro

But you have decided that youre going to let people back inside?

jasmine lombrage

Honestly, me, personally, no. So it is still an open debate. We  actually, after Im done with this interview, were going to sit down and weigh our options, the pros and the cons, and see if its something that we want to do.

michael barbaro

Can I ask you what you see as the cons and the pros?

jasmine lombrage

Yeah, the pros  that, you know, well have 25 percent more revenue than what were seeing now. And then the cons is knowing that someone will  Im afraid that, oh, my god, somebodys going to come out, and theyre a carrier of Covid-19, and they infect somebody else. So I have no way of controlling that.

michael barbaro

Have you heard from customers about their opinions on whether its time to go back inside the restaurant?

jasmine lombrage

Yes, I have. Ive had mixed reviews. We tend to ask customers, whenever theyre picking up or, are they ready for everything to open back up. Thats normally the question we would ask. And I feel that Im getting more nos than yes, though, in my opinion.

michael barbaro

Mm.

jasmine lombrage

Yes.

michael barbaro

Those who have told you, Jasmine, that they do want to come out, what did they say is their reason for wanting to come out, to come back and eat in a restaurant?

jasmine lombrage

They want to get out of the house. You know, sometimes its just the fact that you cannot do something makes you want to do it.

michael barbaro

[LAUGHS] Yes. Yes, the forbidden fruit. Yes.

jasmine lombrage

Yes. My point, thats exactly. Like, oh, you tell me I cannot eat this? OK, Im going to. So yes, thats what I feel Im getting.

michael barbaro

I wonder, for you, if you didnt run a restaurant, would you go out and eat right now? Would you walk into a restaurant, sit down, order food?

jasmine lombrage

I would probably go out on a weekday, because weekdays are usually less busy, because I have a child that has a compromised immune system. So Im usually very careful to go out. I dont want to take something home to her, so that would be another reason that I personally will not go out. And if I did go out, minus my daughters situation, I would have definitely found the seat  ask to be seated in the area that is far away from everybody else.

michael barbaro

I mean its interesting to hear you say that, that you wouldnt want to go to a restaurant unless it was specifically at a slow time because of the health of your daughter, because youre talking about yourself reopening a restaurant. So its quite a weird conundrum.

jasmine lombrage

Yes, but its honest.

michael barbaro

I just want to make sure I understand which of your daughters is immunocompromised.

jasmine lombrage

Gaby is.

michael barbaro

Is that the daughter who is autistic?

jasmine lombrage

Yes, because she was a former premature baby. I ruptured at 14 weeks when I was pregnant with her, and she had a lot of health challenges. They said, you know, that Gaby would never walk, talk, see, or hear. She was not via  she does not have any viability of life, and that she would never make it out of the hospital alive, you know. We were told that we were making a mistake for her. She coded, and it was even pronounced, and she came back. And she had a trach before, and she was on a ventilator before. She was on oxygen for the first  almost the first four years of her life. You know, she started talking late, walking late, and she had to do therapy, and, you know, she had a walker. So she had a lot of challenges to see where she is now and where she came from. So Im always careful, you know. A typical cold for you and I is just a cold, but for her, it can lead to pneumonia, or weve lost her. Weve had her stop breathing a couple times, and nothing  I dont even know how to explain that.

michael barbaro

Mm. Given your daughters health, are you worried that youre going to basically be in the kind of situation it sounds like youre afraid of kind of all the time, because people are going to be coming into your restaurant, and they could potentially get you sick, and you could potentially get your daughter sick?

jasmine lombrage

Yes. You know, I dont know what I would do if I find myself bringing something to my child. So I find myself in a very difficult position as a business owner.

michael barbaro

That would be very hard to live with. I understand.

jasmine lombrage

That would  yes. You know 

michael barbaro

I mean, it sounds  it sounds like that 

jasmine lombrage

[SIGHS]

michael barbaro

 that has to  that has to be weighing on you as youre making this decision.

jasmine lombrage

Yes, it is. It is. It is. This is personal. This is not like, oh, OK, well, Im just going to open and make the money. Its not that situation for me. I have to be careful for it. I am responsible for her, and Im also responsible for my customers, making sure they have the best experience. And Im also responsible for my team that are coming to work. So 

michael barbaro

And youre also responsible for that house 

jasmine lombrage

Yes!

michael barbaro

 that is connected to this 

jasmine lombrage

Right!

michael barbaro

 restaurant.

jasmine lombrage

Yes.

michael barbaro

Yeah.

jasmine lombrage

So my hands are tied. Like, yes. It  yes, Im just  Im just in a bind. Yeah, Im just in a bind right now. And say hi, Gaby.

gaby lombrage

Hi.

michael barbaro

Hi, Gaby.

jasmine lombrage

Say hi. Its OK.

gaby lombrage

Hi.

michael barbaro

Oh, I want to see you on the video. Nice to meet you, Gaby.

jasmine lombrage

Can you see her? I dont know how this works.

michael barbaro

Mm-hmm. I can see her. Yeah, shes got a great  shes got a leopard patterned sweater on.

jasmine lombrage

Yes. Are you going to talk?

gaby lombrage

Hi.

michael barbaro

Hi. Gaby is waving.

gaby lombrage

How are you doing?

michael barbaro

Im doing well. Your mom was just telling us about you. She  she loves you.

jasmine lombrage

Yes. [LAUGHS] Yes.

michael barbaro

She loves you  she loves you very much.

jasmine lombrage

I do. I love you, Gab.

gaby lombrage

I love you, too.

jasmine lombrage

OK.

michael barbaro

Well, that was  that was a nice gift.

jasmine lombrage

Yes, she walked up, so. [SIGH] Im sorry.

michael barbaro

Yeah, just give me a sec. Oof.

jasmine lombrage

Im sorry. I didnt mean that 

michael barbaro

No, I 

jasmine lombrage

Hence the reason why Im torn up. For someone that was 1 pound, 3 ounces when she was born, she is like  shes like  I mean shes beautiful. Shes doing so well. And then this is so scary.

michael barbaro

Yeah.

jasmine lombrage

This is so scary, you know. And then its a hard decision. I  we dont open up, then to get customers to come in, were putting our house more at risk. We open up, and then something happens, then Im putting my childs life at risk. I dont want  I dont even want to be me right now.

michael barbaro

Yep. Im going to be really eager  were all going to be very eager to understand what decision you make. And I want you to know that we really enjoyed getting to know you and talking to you, and were rooting for you and for your family.

jasmine lombrage

Thank you. Thank you so very much. Thank you.

michael barbaro

Thank you, and please give our best to your husband and to the rest of your family.

jasmine lombrage

Thank you.

gaby lombrage

Bye.

jasmine lombrage

Gaby says bye.

michael barbaro

Bye, Gaby.

jasmine lombrage

Say bye.

gaby lombrage

Bye.

jasmine lombrage

OK, thank you, guys.

michael barbaro

Bye.

[music]

Hours after we spoke with Jasmine, she, her husband and their staff decided that they would reopen the restaurant for indoor dining. They then quickly changed their mind, delaying that service because of health concerns. Since then, infections have surged across Louisiana, more than doubling. As a result, the state has required that everyone over eight years old wear a mask or face covering when in public, closed all bars and capped indoor dining at 50 percent capacity. The Bullfish Bar and Kitchen, however, is still not open for indoor dining, but has continued outdoor service and takeout. After the episode aired, Daily listeners began reaching out to Jasmine with offers of financial support, with prayers and with food orders.

jasmine lombrage

(CRYING) I mean, the amount of calls. I would never forget the people that called from all over the world just to let us know that theyre praying for us, theyre with us and theyre supporting us. And Im just so happy that mankind is  just so many good people in this world. Im just thankful. And I pray that the numbers decrease if we do our part as human beings to protect ourselves and protect each other so we can nip this virus in the bud, really. And bad things are happening. And I have no control over that. You have no control over that. But we have control of what we do, each person individually. And just showing me and my family and others that difficult does not mean impossible. You cant imagine how grateful and thankful I am. Im just  oh, my god. My family, were so thankful.

michael barbaro

Jasmines daughter Gaby turned 11 a few weeks ago, an event that the family celebrated with a socially distant party using Zoom. Well be right back. Heres what else you need to know today. The Times reports that coronavirus infections are now increasing in 41 different states and that conditions nationwide are beginning to resemble the darkest days of the pandemic back in March. On Tuesday, California and Texas set new daily records with more than 10,000 new infections each. In both Texas and Florida, more than 130 people died, a record for both. And in Oklahoma on Wednesday 

kevin stitt It just kind of feels achy, like maybe the start of a little cold is what it feels like right now. But really, I feel fine.

michael barbaro

The governor, Kevin Stitt, said that he had tested positive for the virus, becoming the nations first governor to disclose an infection.

kevin stitt So you just never know where it is. Its a virus thats in the United States. Its in Oklahoma. And thats why its the new normal.

michael barbaro
Kayleigh McEnany asserted Thursday that President Donald Trump will not let 'science stand in the way' of his push to reopen schools in the fall in the midst of the coroanvirus pandemic.

The White House press secretary claimed during her press briefing that science is on the side of reopening schools amid a massive spike in cases and said the U.S. is the 'outlier' of Western societies in not moving to get students back in the classroom.

'The science is on our side here,' McEnany told reporters gathered in the James S. Brady Briefing Room Thursday afternoon.

'We encourage for localities and states to just simply follow the science, open our schools  it's very damaging to our children,' she continued.

McEnany also railed against any partial measures on reopening.

'When he says open, he means open and full  kids being able to attend each and every day at their school,' she insisted of the president's push. 'The science should not stand in the way of this.'

A new poll released Thursday morning shows that 72 per cent of parents of kindergarten through twelfth grade students are against reopening.

The Yahoo News/YouGov poll also shows that nearly two-thirds of American adults, parents or otherwise, are against Trump pressuring schools to restart in-person classes in the fall.

While coronavirus cases continue to surge in a recent spike in infections rate in the U.S., the Trump administration has begun a push for an end to school lockdowns and announced last week that the Centers for Disease Control will soon be issuing new guidance toward reopening.



White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Thursday afternoon that 'science should not stand in the way of' schools reopening in the fall  claiming that the data is on Donald Trump's side

The comments come as the Trump administration makes a push for in-person classes to restart  but 72 per cent of parents of students K-12 say they don't want classes to resume

A new poll released Thursday shows that only 25 per cent of American adults feel that Trump should be pressuring schools to reopen, while 63 per cent are against the demands

The July 11-14 survey shows that only 25 per cent of Americans feel the president should be putting the pressure on schools to reopen and 12 per cent of respondents are unsure how they feel.

When the poll is adjusted to look at the results by party affiliation, only 10 per cent of Democrats feel Trump should be putting the pressure on schools and 83 per cent in the party feel he should not.

Republicans have a much smaller split, with 48 per cent feeling Trump should be asserting his influence over the school's reopening schedule, and 39 per cent feel he should not.

The majority, if not all, of public schools closed during the Spring and transitioned to full online or remote classes and learning as coronavirus spread across the U.S.

There are now indications that the educational institutions could remain closed until the winter as the infection rate continues to surge in several states.

There are now more than 3.5 million confirmed cases in the U.S., far more than any other country has reported, and the death toll has surpassed 137,000.

Of the 1,504 American adults polled, only 30 per cent believe the Trump administration is doing everything in its power to mitigate and stop the incessant spread of the virus.

Seventy-seven per cent of respondents assert that Washington's priority should be to limit the spread of COVID-19, but another 23 per cent say that the focus should be on reopening schools, regardless of the risk it could pose to public health.

The comments from the White House and insistent push from the president to reopen public schools comes as the rate of coronavirus infections continue to surge

A whopping 95 per cent of Democrats polled agree that reopening schools should be put on the back-burner to focus more on public health.

McEnany revealed Thursday that while Vice President Mike Pence and CDC Director Robert Redfield revealed new guidelines would be coming this week, she is unsure when the documents would be released.

'We really would like to see schools open, as has been clear,' McEnany said. 'We don't think our children should be locked up at home with devastating consequences when it's perfectly safe for them to go to school as is emphasized by many medical experts.'

She added: 'So the president is very keen on seeing school's reopen, it's the only thing that's fair to America's children.'

Teachers, school administrators and parents are looking for the CDC guidance, which is supposed to be coming this week in form of five documents, to be able to get students back in the classroom come the fall.

Redfield also asserted during a press conference at the Department of Education last Wednesday that the guidance should not be used as a rationale for schools to remain closed.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 10:16:48|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

SHANGHAI, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Shanghai reported one new imported COVID-19 case and no increase in domestically transmitted cases on Wednesday, the municipal health commission said Thursday.

The imported case was a Chinese national working in Zambia. The passenger departed from Zambia on July 13 and arrived at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport via Ethiopia on July 14.

The passenger was put under quarantine upon arrival and showed symptoms during the isolated observation period and was later confirmed as a COVID-19 patient.

All the 26 close contacts of the patient have been put under quarantine.

As of Wednesday, Shanghai had reported 390 confirmed imported cases and 342 locally transmitted cases. Enditem
Vietnam welcomes other countries stance on the East Sea issue in line with international law, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang said on July 15.

Regarding US Secretary of State Mike Pompeos statement on the US position on maritime claims in the East Sea, Hang said peace, stability, cooperation, and development in the sea is the aspiration and goal of countries in the waters and the region as well as the international community.

The respect of maritime legal order and the full and responsible implementation of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS) are significant in realising these goals, she said.

Hang reiterated the view contained in the statement issued at the recent 36th ASEAN Summit that the 1982 UNCLOS is a legal framework on all activities at sea.

Vietnam hopes that countries will make efforts to contribute to maintaining peace, stability, and cooperation in the East Sea and settle disputes through dialogues and other peaceful measures, in accordance with international law and for the common interest, the spokesperson stressed.

Vietnam always actively and responsibly contributes to the process, she said.VNA
WASHINGTON, July 16, 2020--Since 2011 the U.S. Department of Education has published two annual lists of higher education institutions with the highest percentage changes in tuition and fees and average net price. A study published today found that inclusion in either of these College Affordability and Transparency Center (CATC) lists does not affect institutional pricing policies or students' enrollment decisions. The findings appear in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association.

VIDEO: Watch Author Dominique J. Baker discuss study findings and implications--https://youtu.be/OtSFYiZDNMw

"This attempt by the federal government to hold colleges and universities accountable by 'naming and shaming' them does not appear to be effective at changing institutional or student behavior," said study author Dominique J. Baker, an assistant professor at Southern Methodist University. "The Education Department is required by federal law to publish these lists, but there is little evidence they are having the intended effect."

"Many higher education observers have long questioned the value of these lists and expressed concerns about the ability of students and institutions to use the data," said Baker. "My findings are in line with these concerns."

Congress amended the Higher Education Act in 2008 to mandate that the Education Department publish annual lists of institutions that rank in the top five percent of their sector of U.S. colleges and universities in terms of absolute published tuition price or average net price, and percentage increase in published tuition and required fees or average net price (published tuition minus student aid). Sectors are identified by sorting institutions by control (public, private, and nonprofit) and level (four-year, two-year, less-than-two-year). Baker's study looked at just the percentage increase lists.

To analyze the effect of inclusion on these CATC lists on subsequent tuition and net price decisions and on student enrollment, Baker compared institutions that were within the top five percent cutoff to those that had just missed it, from 2014 to 2017. The Education Department dataset she used for her analysis is also used by the department to calculate its CATC lists. She found little evidence that institutions included on either list differed from those that were not included, in terms of student enrollment and institutional affordability in the subsequent two years.

"These policy efforts are built on the assumption that with the right information, potential students will be able to make better informed choices," Baker said. "However, the lists did not discourage students from attending institutions with larger increases in average net prices. And institutions did not modify their pricing."

Baker noted that her study is one of the few that has produced causal evidence regarding the effectiveness of low-stakes, non-punitive federal accountability policies focused on higher education.

The findings provide evidence that simply relying on students to seek out and review affordability information is unlikely to influence their behaviors, Baker noted. This may be due partially to confusion caused by the lists relying on percentage increases rather than absolute dollar amount increases. Some institutions with large dollar changes over time are not included on the lists because the changes are measured as a percentage of what was charged in the previous year.

"For example, in 2017, Carver Bible College was included in the change-in-tuition list while Loyola Chicago was not," Baker said. "As a result, one might expect that Carver Bible College would be significantly more expensive than Loyola. In actuality, the 2015-2016 tuition and fees for Carver were $9,860, while that same year the tuition and fees for Loyola were $40,426."

"Not only is it difficult to understand what these lists are actually telling students about institutions' affordability, but also, the fact that an institution is included on these lists does not mean it is automatically a good or bad place to pursue higher education," said Baker.

According to Baker, weak sanctions attached to being included on the CATC lists--at most being required to complete additional paperwork explaining the large change--did not create enough negative media attention or other disincentives for institutions to change their pricing decisions for future years, even when institutions had the autonomy to do so.

"With the United States now in a recession, it is likely that more students and their families will struggle with affording college in the fall," Baker said. "The federal government has to be concerned with finding ways to ensure that institutions remain or become more affordable. This study suggests that at least one of the key policies that is supposed to be holding institutions accountable does not appear to be effective."

"The next update of the Higher Education Act needs to either remove this policy or revise it," said Baker. "Until then, it is not clear why college administrators or Education Department staff are required to compile data and complete reports on this."

"As federal policy leaders engage in discussions about ensuring that higher education is affordable during the pandemic, it is important that they holistically assess current policies and their efficacy," Baker added. About AERA

The American Educational Research Association (AERA) is the largest national interdisciplinary research association devoted to the scientific study of education and learning. Founded in 1916, AERA advances knowledge about education, encourages scholarly inquiry related to education, and promotes the use of research to improve education and serve the public good. Find AERA on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
- The study was carried out based on data from 414,201 participants in the UK Biobank which tracks people's health over many years

- Obesity and the walking pace were found to have a greater influence on the severity of COVID-19

- The death rate is high among individuals with a combination of low Body Mass Index (BMI) and slow walking pace

A recent research study by a UK-based firm has suggested that slow walkers are at a high risk of severe COVID-19 regardless of whether they are obese or not.

According to the study published on July 11 by the UK Biobank, which is yet to be reviewed, having higher body biomass also increases the risk of severe cases of the dreaded respiratory disease.

READ ALSO: HELB non-beneficiaries to get compliance certificates for free

Kenyans walking in the streets of Nairobi. Photo: Daily Nationa

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Governors considering lockdown for counties experiencing surge in COVID-19 cases

Slow walkers are presumed to have other underlying medical conditions that make their movement difficult which in turn increases the chances of exhibiting severe COVID-19 symptoms.

"Slow walkers had the highest risk of severe COVID-19 regardless of their obesity status, with normal weight, overweight or obese slow walkers all having over twice the risk of severe COVID-19 compared to normal weight brisk walkers," read the research report.

To arrive at their conclusion, the researchers analysed data on 414,201 participants in the UK Biobank which tracks people's health over many years, to determine if there was a correlation between walking pace, obesity and COVID-19.

As of June 20, 2020, there were 972 cases of severe COVID-19 that had occurred within the cohort, the scientists wrote.

People with slow walking pace combined with obesity were found to be highly severe to COVID-19. Photo: Getty Images

Source: Getty Images

READ ALSO: Chuo Kikuu cha Nairobi chathibitisha wafanyakazi 3 waliangamizwa na COVID-19

Whereas obesity was found to be one of the key risk factors for COVID-19, the walking pace was also found to influence the risk of contracting the disease.

The research indicated that people with normal body weight who usually walk at a slow pace of less than 4.8km per hour had high chances of developing severe COVID-19 than those with similar weight who walk 6.4km per hour.

Further, the death rate is high among individuals with a combination of low Body Mass Index (BMI) and slow walking pace.

READ ALSO: Moses Kuria under fire for leaking private conversation with journalist after his interview was cancelled

The analysis was based on the understanding that the manner and speed of walking is often used to determine the physical fitness of an individual and to predict risk of future disease, disability ad death.

"Walking pace is a complex functional activity, with many factors influencing pace, such as motor control, musculoskeletal health, cardiorespiratory fitness, habitual activity levels, cognition, mental health, and environment factors.

"These factors together may act to give individuals greater resilience to SARS-CoV-2 infection and therefore a lower risk of severe disease," read the report.

Do you have an inspirational story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Follow us on Telegram: Tuko news

Source: TUKO.co.ke
The more than 30 tonnes of medical aid included: 10,000 test kits; 7,000 sample taking sets and transportation; 100,000 medical masks; 100,000 antibacterial gauze masks; 2,000 protective suits; over 1,000 boxes of VICOREDU medicine; and over 1,000 PROTECVICOR boxes.

The medical supplies were given to Cuban Ambassador to Vietnam Lianys Torres Rivera.

Speaking at the ceremony, Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh affirmed that international cooperation in Covid-19 prevention and control is also an important mission of Vietnam.

Since the outbreak of the epidemic, Cuba has presented treatment medicine to Vietnam, sent experts to support Vietnam and organised online conferences to exchange experiences in Covid-19 prevention and control.

In the current context, the supports of medicine, medical equipment and other supplies is a vivid testament for the brotherhood, sharing and solidarity between the two countries, with many important implications for their bilateral relations.

For her part, the Cuban Ambassador to Vietnam extended her sincere thanks to the Vietnamese Party, State, Defence Ministry and people for their support of Cuban people during the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

The two countries will organise many activities to mark the 60th anniversary of their diplomatic ties, contributing to illustrating the special friendship and cooperation to the youngergenerations, she added.
The Queensland opposition has again referred former treasurer and deputy premier Jackie Trad to the state's corruption watchdog, this time over allegations about her role in the hiring of a senior Treasury official.

Deputy LNP leader Tim Mander told Parliament on Thursday morning he had asked the Crime and Corruption Commission to look into claims from a "whistleblower" that Ms Trad had interfered in the under treasurer recruitment process in 2019.

Jackie Trad in 2015, just weeks after she became deputy premier. Credit:Robert Shakespeare

Mr Mander said the independent recruitment process had initially chosen former Commonwealth Bank executive Leon Allen for the role but ended up being awarded to Frankie Carroll, who has since moved on to another department.

"This type of behaviour can not be tolerated," he said.
Contractors remove the statue "A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) 2020" by artist Marc Quinn, which had been installed on the site of the fallen statue of the slave trader Edward Colston, in Bristol, England, on July 16, 2020. (Ben Birchall/PA via AP)

Bristol Removes Black Lives Matter Statue

Bristol City in southwest England removed a statue of Black Lives Matter protester Jen Reid on Thursday morning, after it was erected a day earlier.

The city council wrote on Twitter that the statue will be held at our museum for the artist to collect or donate to our collection.

This morning we removed the sculpture. It will be held at our museum for the artist to collect or donate to our collection. Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees issued a statement yesterday about the need for a democratic process where the people of Bristol decide the future of the plinth  Bristol City Council (@BristolCouncil) July 16, 2020

Black lives matter protester Jen Reid poses for a photograph in front of a sculpture of herself, by local artist Marc Quinn, on the plinth where the Edward Colston statue used to stand, in Bristol, England, on July 15, 2020. (Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)

The resin statue was created by artist Marc Quinn, who was inspired after seeing a photo of Jen Reid posing on the empty plinth where the statue of 17th century English slave trader and Bristol benefactor Edward Colston used to stand, until it was pulled down and thrown into the harbour by protesters on June 7.

The protest was part of the aftermath of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. The Edward Colston memorial has since been retrieved from the water, and Marvin Rees, mayor of Bristol, said it would be displayed in a museum alongside Black Lives Matter placards.

Protesters tear down a statue of Edward Colston in Bristol, Britain, on June 7, 2020. (Mohiudin Malik via Reuters)

The statue of 17th century slave trader Edward Colston falls into the water after protesters pulled it down and pushed into the docks, during a protest against in the aftermath of the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Bristol, Britain, on June 7, 2020. (Keir Gravil via Reuters)

Rees posted on Twitter that its for the people of Bristol to decide what, if anything, will go on the now-empty plinth.

I understand people want expression, but the statue has been put up without permission. Anything put on the plinth outside of the process weve put in place will have to be removed. The people of Bristol will decide its future. https://t.co/dEsZF9kNRt  Marvin Rees (@MarvinJRees) July 15, 2020

The mayor said during a live Q&A on Facebook that he would work with a history commission to tell the full story of Bristol, and that it is important to honour that process.

He also said he would commit to build[ing] a future which brings the city together, because we all live here, none of us is going to disappear.

We have to have a city that is a home for all [people with different opinions], he added.

Reuters contributed to this report
Amber Heards former personal assistant claimed she told the actress about a violent sexual assault she had endured, only for Heard to 'twist' the story for her own use.

Amber Heards former personal assistant claimed on Wednesday, 15 July, that she told the model-actress about a violent sexual assault she had endured, only for Heard to twist the story for her own use.

Kate James gave dramatic testimony at Johnny Depps libel trial against a British tabloid newspaper that accused the actor of abusing ex-wife Heard during their relationship.

(Also read on Firstpost: Johnny Depp denies claims of domestic violence against Amber Heard; a timeline of their legal battle)

Depp is suing News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, and the papers executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an April 2018 article that called him a wife-beater. He strongly denies abusing Heard.

James, who worked for Heard between 2012 and 2015, gave evidence in support of Depp, and said she had told Heard that she was raped at machete-point in Brazil about 25 years ago.

She said she was shocked to learn that in a witness statement, Heard misrepresented and exploited the incident.

She referred directly to a violent rape that occurred to me 26 years ago and she twisted it into her own story and she used it for her own use, James said by video link from Los Angeles.

I am a sexual violence survivor and thats very, very serious to take that stance if you are not one, she added.

Heard is due to give evidence in the case later this week.

Heard, 34, has made 14 allegations of violence by 57-year-old Depp between 2013 and 2016, in settings including his private island in the Bahamas, a rented house in Australia and a private jet. He denies them all.

Depp and Heard give wildly differing accounts of their volatile relationship, which began after they met on the set of the 2011 comedy The Rum Diary. They married in Los Angeles in February 2015. Heard filed for divorce the following year, and the divorce was finalized in 2017.

Also on Wednesday Depps former estate manager accused Heard of asking him to lie under oath after she was charged with bringing her two dogs to Australia illegally.

Kevin Murphy claimed Heard pressured him to commit perjury about the traveling terriers or risk losing his job.

She wanted me to say essentially that it was my fault in one way or another that the paperwork wasnt completed, so that I could take the blame for her, Murphy said.

Heard was charged in July 2015 with bringing Yorkshire terriers Pistol and Boo to the country illegally earlier that year. She pleaded guilty in April 2016 and escaped a conviction after expressing remorse.

In a written witness statement for Depps libel case, Murphy said Heard asked him to falsely claim that she didnt know it was illegal to bring the dogs to Australia, which has strict animal quarantine rules. Murphy claimed Heard said I want your help on this. I wouldnt want you to have a problem with your job.

Murphy gave evidence to the case at the High Court Wednesday in London by video link from Chicago. He was accused of lying by The Suns lawyer, Sasha Wass, who pointed out that he had subsequently made a misleading declaration in the Australian court case. Murphy said he did so at Heards request because he was afraid of losing his job.

Why on Earth did you not go to Mr Depp to ask him to intervene rather than just lying on oath? the lawyer asked.

Murphy said, Because Amber wielded a lot of power and would have made my life miserable.

Murphys account was backed by James, who was Heards personal assistant between March 2012 and February 2015.

In a written witness statement, James said Heard ignored advice from her and Murphy that taking the dogs to Australia would be problematic.

She said Heard deliberately smuggled the dogs into Australia. As in several circumstances which I observed, it was as if she felt that she was above the law.

James described Heard as a demanding employer, saying she received incoherent, abusive text messages from Heard between 2 am and 4 am on an almost daily basis.

Wass, The Suns lawyer, suggested James had colluded with Depp to tell lies that made Heard look bad.

Thats simply not true, James said.
Case of Moscow lawyer accused of $15 mln embezzlement to be heard on July 23

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

17:23 15/07/2020

MOSCOW, July 15 (RAPSI)  The Meshchansky District Court of Moscow is to examine the merits of the criminal case against Sergey Yuryev, the president of Moscow's bar association Mezhregion charged with embezzling 1 billion rubles (about $15 million), on July 23.

Yuryev and two other defendants in the case are charged with grave embezzlement and accessory in embezzlement.

Investigators allege that in 2008, the State ATM Corporation signed a contract for legal services with a bar association. The bar chairman using his connections with a former colleague and an official of the Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) submitted a conclusion with a write-up value of legal services for the completion of tender documentation. The signed agreement has been repeatedly prolonged in violation of the established procedure.

The overpricing of a state contract resulted in the fact that the bar association has unlawfully gained over 1 billion rubles in the period from 2008 to 2018, investigators claim.

Yuryev pled not guilty. He is in detention.

Members of the Federal Chamber of Lawyers Council and heads of several regional bar associations have repeatedly stood bond for Yuryev. He is an honest and reputable attorney, the Chambers statement reads. One of the lawyers bail bondsmen was Chair of the Federal Chamber of Lawyer Yury Pilipenko.

Sergey Yuryev is a reputable lawyer who has been in profession for over 25 years, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Lawyers, a member of the Russian Association of International Law; he was decorated with Honorary Lawyer merit badge and honored with the highest profession award Themis, the Federal Chamber of Lawyers reminds.
MESICK, MI  Two men who fought about payment for leeks were arrested and charged with assault and domestic violence in Wexford County.

Gene Anthony Crandall, 23, of Mesick, is accused of assaulting and strangling 29-year-old Martin James Shafer, of Mesick. The altercation allegedly occurred Shafer confronted Crandall about what he believed to be unfair payment for his work collecting leeks, according to a news release from Michigan State Police.

Crandall is suspected of punching and choking Shafer during the confrontation at a residence on M-115 in Antioch Township near Mesick on May 13, police said. Crandall told police that Shafer struck him first. Both are facing charges.

A woman who lives at the residence with Crandall and Shafer sprayed the men with a hose to break up the fight, police said. Crandall then fled the scene on foot and Shafer called police.

Troopers from the MSP Cadillac Post were dispatched to the scene around 8:15 p.m. on May 13. Police used a K9 unit to track down Crandall. Both Crandall and Shafer were arrested.

Crandall is charged with one count of assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison or a $5,000 fine; and one count of domestic violence, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 93 days in jail and/or a $500 fine.

Shafer is charged with one count of domestic violence.

Both men were arraigned last week in the 84th District Court in Wexford County and released on personal recognizance (PR) bonds.

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By Rajendra Jadhav MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's soybean production is set to jump by at least 15% in 2020 from a year earlier as farmers are increasing the oilseed's acreage due to timely arrival of monsoon rains and as New Delhi raised the minimum buying price. Increased production of India's main summer-sown oilseed could help the world's biggest vegetable oil importer trim costly purchases of palm oil, soyoil and sunflower oil from Indonesia, Malaysia, Argentina and Ukraine

By Rajendra Jadhav

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's soybean production is set to jump by at least 15% in 2020 from a year earlier as farmers are increasing the oilseed's acreage due to timely arrival of monsoon rains and as New Delhi raised the minimum buying price.

Increased production of India's main summer-sown oilseed could help the world's biggest vegetable oil importer trim costly purchases of palm oil, soyoil and sunflower oil from Indonesia, Malaysia, Argentina and Ukraine.

It could also revive Indian exports of animal feed ingredient soymeal to places such as Bangladesh, Japan, Vietnam and Iran.

"Farmers are expanding area. If monsoon remains good, I am expecting at least 15% rise in the output," said Angshu Mallick, deputy chief executive of Adani Wilmar, a leading edible oil refiner.

Farmers have planted soybean on 10.15 million hectares as on July 10, compared with 5.17 million hectares a year earlier as the monsoon covered the entire country nearly two weeks earlier than usual, according to the farm ministry.

India produced 9.3 million tonnes of soybean in 2019.

The central state of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra in the west account for more than 80% of India's total soybean output. Both states received 15% above average rainfall since the start of monsoon season on June 1, weather department data showed.

India raised the minimum buying price for soybean by 4.6% from a year earlier to 3,880 rupees per 100 kg, even as prices came under pressure in the last few months due to weak demand for soymeal from poultry industry.

The bumper crop would put additional pressure on local soybean prices as the country is expected to start the new marketing year with carry forward stocks of 1.28 million tonnes, up from 170,000 tonnes a year ago, said Davish Jain, chairman of the Soybean Processors Association of India.

"Local demand is weak and soymeal exports are not picking up. The government needs to restore 10% incentive for soymeal exports to support soybean prices," Jain said.

(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
At BabySav, we understand that our daily lives, routines and responsibilities to our children are constantly changing, stated BabySav founder Lou Molinari. While hot car deaths among children and pets is still a serious concern, we felt the need to support another pressing issue impacting children and those who care for them by donating these much-needed face coverings to this deserving child care facility.

The masks have two messages to support two important missions: 1) Help stop the spread of COVID-19 and keep daycare workers, children, and families safer and 2) Continue to raise awareness among those to care for children about the dangers of leaving children inside a hot car.

BabySav is committed to alleviating hot car deaths, says Molinari. These face masks can help protect these dedicated caregivers and the children they care for, while at the same time, reminding parents and guardians not to leave loved ones in the car.

The face coverings provided by BabySav have two layers of fabric with a pocket that can be used to fill with a pm2.5 filter for extra protection.

We are so grateful for Baby Sav and all their positive efforts to save lives of young children. Lou has been very supportive of our school and we appreciate the kindness and effort to bring awareness to our community. The mask donation will go directly to the student and families at our school and help fight against the spread of COVID 19... Thank you Baby Sav! Amanda Flowers, Operations Manager, Best Friends for Kidz Learning Laboratory.

About BabySav

BabySav was founded in 2003 with a single mission to stop children and pets from dying in hot cars through awareness and a simple sticker. Every year, nearly 40 children are left in hot cars to die. The question is why?

Its a senseless and devastating tragedy, but happens to nice, responsible people who love their children. They simply get distracted. The question is why and how can we stop it?

The answer first came by developing a simple sticker or sign placed at the entrances of public buildings, offices, stores and even your own home as a reminder not to leave your child in the car. That has since expanded to keychains, car sunshades, shopping cart signs, and now, face coverings.

The more ways we can get the word out, the bigger impact we can have, says Molinari. But it all comes back to the caregiver taking action to prevent this devastating tragedy from occurring.

To purchase a face mask, sign, or other item, or to make a donation to help support BabySavs mission, simply visit their website at https://babysav.org/.
Bruce Cassidy has time, but not a lot of time before he and the Boston Bruins enter the NHLs postseason bubble in Toronto and hes got decisions to make.

Before the team departs on July 26, hes got to sort out combinations, what goes well together before the seeding games and eventually the playoffs.

Hes not talking about who to play with who, but what to pack. The Bruins goal is to make another deep postseason run. That could mean nine weeks away from his closet. He knows hell carry 10 defensemen, 19 forwards, four goalies and how many suits?

Typically during the year, you have a number of suits. Well youre not going to bring your whole wardrobe, Cassidy said. So Im going to get critiqued for looking like Im wearing the same thing every day and thats probably going to be accurate. Cause Im not bringing 10 different suits. Its going to be a pretty generic wardrobe. Hopefully I come out of it with a lucky tie or two.

Cassidy will have his full roster available for the first time since the start of what hes calling Return to Play Camp on Thursday. On a day where most of the Bruins regulars were off, David Pastrnak and Ondrej Kase each skated for the first time Wednesday since returning from the Czech Republic and going through testing/isolation protocols. Pastrnak will return to his regular post alongside Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand on the first line.

Kases landing spot wont be as obvious. After being traded to Boston in late February, Cassidy was tinkering with where his best spot was before the league shutdown on March 12. Kase could join David Krejci and a to-be-determined wing (probably Jake DeBrusk to start with) on the second line or play with Charlie Coyle on the third line.

Krejci and DeBrusk have a history of chemistry, but theyd been slumping before the pause causing Cassidy to break them up. He planned to have the practice together early on.

Sometimes absence makes the heart grow fonder, so maybe theyll reconnect after a little time away. Theyve had good chemistry in the past, Cassidy said Tuesday. So were going to go back to it. If we dont like what we see in some of the round-robin or practices, then Jake goes back with Coyle and we try probably Ritchie (with Krejci) or somebody else. But were going to give it a look and see where its at. ... My guess is, if the pause hadnt happened, we probably would have gone back to Krech and DeBrusk at some point after a little time apart. So were doing it now.

Related content:

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BENCH WARRANT ISSUED FOR TAMMY SYTCH IN PA

The State of Pennsylvania issued a bench warrant authorizing the arrest of WWE Hall of Famer Tammy "Sunny" Sytch, PWInsider.com has confirmed. The bench warrant comes one day after a motion was filed in Carbon County Court to revoke Sytch's February 2020 parole on Tuesday 7/14.

All of that legal movement comes in the the wake of Sytch's arrest in New Jersey on the morning of Monday 7/13 in Middletown, NJ. Sytch remains incarcerated at the Monmouth County Correctional Institution, charged with with the following:

*Operating a Motor Vehicle during a second license suspension.

*Eluding a Police Officer.

*Contempt/Violation of a Domestic Violence Restraining Order.

If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!
The Prince of Wales put on a cheerful display when attending a socially-distanced RAF graduation ceremony earlier today.

Decked out in number one RAF full ceremonial dress, Prince Charles, 71, was captured beaming while planting a lime tree in recognition of RAF College Cranwell's centenary.

He was the reviewing officer for the institute's parade in Lincolnshire, attended by RAF cadets who have completed their initial officer training.

Speaking at the event, Charles, who is himself a graduate of Cranwell, said he was 'immensely impressed' as he praised those who had continued their schooling during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Prince of Wales (above) put on a cheerful display when attending a socially-distanced RAF graduation ceremony earlier today

Decked out in number one RAF full ceremonial dress, Prince Charles, 71, was captured beaming while planting a lime tree in recognition of RAF College Cranwell's centenary (above)

The royal, pictured centre, was the reviewing officer for the institute's parade in Lincolnshire, attended by RAF cadets who have completed their initial officer training

He inspected the ranks and presented course prizes to top-performing cadets, with no handshakes involved and winners collecting their awards from a table.

The prince said in his speech to around 150 cadets: 'I am immensely impressed that you have all managed to continue with your training and reach this stage, given the complexities that the coronavirus pandemic has brought to every aspect of life.

'I know that this will not have been easy and is a testament to the flexibility and determination, not only of the staff, but of every one of you.

Speaking at the event, Charles (pictured right), who is himself a graduate of Cranwell, said he was 'immensely impressed'

The royal inspects the graduates during the Graduation Ceremony of the Queen's Squadron at RAF College Cranwell, Lincolnshire

Charles (pictured speaking to graduates) praised those who had continued their schooling during the coronavirus pandemic

'This same dedication, adaptability and willingness continually to push yourselves will be required time after time in your future careers.'

Family and friends of the graduating cadets were unable to attend the ceremony due to social distancing restrictions.

After a parade and flypasts of a Typhoon and the Red Arrows, Charles spoke to cadets gathered in circles at a socially-distanced outdoor reception.

Charles (pictured speaking with cadets) inspected the ranks and presented course prizes to top-performing cadets, with no handshakes involved and winners collecting their awards from a table

Charles, above, spoke to cadets gathered in circles at a socially-distanced outdoor reception

After a parade, the event featured flypasts of a Typhoon and the Red Arrows (pictured above)

Flying Officer Annabelle Smith receives The Sword of Honour from the Prince of Wales during the Graduation Ceremony of the Queen's Squadron at RAF College Cranwell

The Prince of Wales, who is known to shake hands with every tree he plants 'to wish it well', then planted a lime tree in recognition of the college's centenary.

Commandant of the Royal Air Force College, Air Commodore Suraya Marshall, said: 'The graduates have endured the most challenging of training periods.

'This is a truly unique occasion, of which all participants can be justifiable proud.'

Family and friends of the graduating cadets (seen speaking to the royal) were unable to attend the ceremony due to social distancing restrictions

Charles, seen inspecting the cadets, graduated from Cranwell in Lincolnshire and was awarded his RAF pilot's wings in 1971

The Prince of Wales salutes the Colours during the Graduation Ceremony of the Queen's Squadron at RAF College Cranwell

Charles (pictured) last visited the station in 2008 for the Duke of Cambridge's graduation ceremony, when Prince William become the fourth successive generation of the monarchy to become an RAF pilot

Charles, seen right, was appointed to the rank of Marshal of the RAF in 2012, the highest rank in the British Royal Air Force

Charles graduated from Cranwell in Lincolnshire and was awarded his RAF pilot's wings in 1971.

He last visited the station in 2008 for the Duke of Cambridge's graduation ceremony, when Prince William become the fourth successive generation of the monarchy to become an RAF pilot.

Charles was appointed to the rank of Marshal of the RAF in 2012, the highest rank in the British Royal Air Force.
(Bloomberg) -- Japan Display Inc., the struggling supplier of screens to Apple Inc., says it is in talks with customers on possible joint investments in next-generation organic light-emitting diode displays. Shares of JDI posted their biggest gain in 19 months.

JDI is developing a technology that will deliver OLED screens that are sharper, less power hungry and are easier to produce, the companys Chief Executive Officer Minoru Kikuoka said in an interview. While JDI is a few technical milestones short of deciding whether to push ahead, it has already started talks with some customers on investing in the new technology, Kikuoka said, declining to name specific companies.

The launch of Apples first OLED iPhone in 2017 was seen as the beginning of the end for the long reign of liquid crystal displays - a dire threat for JDI because that is its core business. The company relies on Apple for about 60% of its revenue was falling behind in technology and lacked the funds needed to ramp up production. But forecasts of LCDs demise missed the mark, giving JDI the breathing room to develop a smaller OLED for use in the Apple Watch. It is now considering entry into the smartphone market, a move which will pit it against Samsung Electronics Co. and Chinese manufacturers.

We have no intention of getting into a capex war with rivals, Kikuoka said. There is already tremendous interest in partnering with us on commercialization.

The shares surged as much as 37.5% to 66 yen, the biggest intraday gain since December 2018. They were at 62 yen at the midday break in Tokyo. Thursday mornings gains helped recoup some of the 40% in market value JDI had shed this year.

JDI intends to use a different manufacturing technology than the evaporation method used by rivals, Kikuoka said. Whether to advance to mass production will depend on its ability to raise output yields and customer needs at the time. He estimated that the company could commence full-scale manufacturing in Japan or abroad as early as 2022.

Story continues

Constituted from the remains of numerous ailing Japanese display makers in 2012, JDI mistimed large investments in LCD capacity and found itself struggling against abler competition from South Korean and Chinese rivals. Six straight years of losses have sent it in search of a capital infusion from overseas, but the list of potential suitors continued to dwindle. When Kikuoka took the helm in September, the company had just reached a new low, warning that if its not able to raise fresh capital it may face difficulties continuing its business.

Since then, it secured a lifeline that included about 50 billion yen ($466 million) raised from Ichigo Trust and a refinancing scheme by Innovation Network Corp. of Japan, a state-owned fund that remains JDIs largest shareholders. Apple has also pitched in by buying some of its manufacturing equipment.

While the threat of insolvency has lifted, the company is still struggling to return to profit. It booked a 38.5 billion yen operating loss in the year ended March, after sales plunged 21%. JDI forecast sales will decline as much as 20% this fiscal year, citing the impact of the coronavirus outbreak and slump in demand for screens in smartphones and cars.

The industrys looming shift to OLED is another factor weighing on its shares, which trade at less than a tenth the level when it listed in 2014. While Apples 2019 phone lineup included one LCD model and another was added in the first half of this year, the expectations are building that this year will mark a complete shift to OLED. Still, Kikuoka says the alarm is unwarranted.

It is more than a customer-supplier relationship, more akin to that of a co-developer supplier, he said. I dont see our relationship diminishing.

(Adds JDIs year-to-date share performance in fifth paragraph.)

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

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2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 16)  Heads up, surfers! Driving to the surfing capital of the north may be faster than ever as the San Miguel Corporation looks to extend the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway to San Juan, La Union in the next two years.

On Wednesday, SMC opened the last 11-kilometer stretch of the original expressway linking provinces in Northern Luzon. The listed firm said the four-lane toll road will cut travel time from Metro Manila to Baguio City to just 3.5 hours from up to six hours previously, while driving from Tarlac to Rosario, La Union  where the toll road ends  will take just an hour.

SMC earlier bared plans to further extend the existing road network all the way to San Juan town, which will involve building a four-lane toll road spanning 59 kms. by the end of 2022.

"Once na binigyan tayo ng go signal, tuloy-tuloy kaagad ang trabaho, wala nang mobilization. Kaya sabi ko sa mga contractor, yung mga heavy equipment, wag niyong alisin dahil kapag binigyan tayo ng approval ni Secretary [Sonny] Dominguez, tuloy-tuloy na yan," SMC President and Chief Operating Officer Ramon Ang told reporters.

[Translation: Once we are given the go signal, we will immediately start construction and there will be no need for mobilization. I told our contractors not to remove the heavy equipment on site anymore since we will push through as soon as we get the approval of Finance Secretary Sonny Dominguez.]

The conglomerate has received original proponent status for the 24.1-billion project. Rules require a Swiss challenge, or a call to other contractors if they are interested to build the same project at a cheaper or more favorable terms, before the contract is officially awarded to SMC.

Future plans also include building an adjacent toll road that will link San Juan all the way to Laoag in Ilocos Norte, which are currently six hours drive apart.

TPLEX has 10 interchanges and 11 toll plazas located in Tarlac City, Victoria, Pura, Ramos, Anao, in Tarlac; Carmen, Urdaneta, Binalonan, Pozorrubio, Sison in Pangasinan, and Rosario in La Union. An exit point at Sison, Pangasinan is being completed, SMC said.

The three sections of the TPLEX cost 35 billion to build and has a 35-year concession period, according to the Public-Private Partnership Center.

The diversified conglomerate is also taking on other major infrastructure projects such as the Skyway Stage 3 linking southern Metro Manila to the North Luzon Expressway, the Metro Rail Transit line 7, and construction of a new international airport in Bulacan.
- Ghana has recorded 178 new COVID-19 cases as of Thursday, 16 July 2020

- The country's total caseload is now 25 430

- The number of recoveries is 21 511 and the death toll is 139

Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has announced an additional 178 new coronavirus (COVID-19) cases, taking the national tally to 25 430.

The latest update from the GHS said:

"A total of 178 new cases were reported on July 12, 2020. These are samples that were taken from the period 22 June to 10 July 2020, but reported from the lab on July 12."

The Director of Health Promotions at the Ghana Health Service, Dr Aboagye DaCosta Source: Facebook/Information Ministry.

Source: Original

READ ALSO: Fact check: WHO has not confirmed COVID-19 to be airborne

The recoveries have increased to 21 511 as the death toll remains at 139.

According to the GHS, 25 people are currently in severe condition and eight remain in a critical situation, with four others on ventilators.

Regional breakdown:

Greater Accra Region  13 986

Ashanti Region  5 277

Western Region  2 190

Central Region  1 131

Eastern Region  962

Volta Region  441

Upper East Region  282

Northern Region  271

Bono East Region  206

Western North Region  200

Oti Region  138

Bono Region  107

Ahafo Region  103

Upper West Region  70

Savannah Region  57

North East Region  9

Meanwhile, on the back of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases, parents, politicians, and loads of professional bodies have called on government to close down schools and up its game in the fight against the pandemic.

But the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, has also served notice that the government would not be pressured to shut down senior high schools over COVID-19 fears.

READ ALSO: 21 year old final SHS student dies in the Western Region

He said the current number of cases recorded in some schools was not enough ground to send the students back home and that government was determined to deal with the outbreak and protect all students in affected schools.

The minister told journalists, after inspecting some hospital projects in the Ashanti Region, that closing down schools is defeatist and a cowardly persons approach to solving problems."

YEN.com.gh also earlier reported that experts at the University College London (UCL) said COVID-19 could lead to neurological complications.

These complications include stroke, nerve damage, and potentially fatal brain inflammation.

Senior Minister, Osafo-Maafo tests positive for COVID-19:

Got a national or human interest story you think we should know? Get interactive via our Facebook page.

Source: YEN.com.gh
BRISTOL, Va. -- Bristol Virginia School Superintendent Keith Perrigan released the school systems plans to reopening for the 2020-2021 school year during a news conference this afternoon.

The plan titled Recover, Reimagine, Return was developed by over 60 stakeholders including leaders, teachers, support staff, parents, students, and community members. Under the current plan classes will start on Aug. 20 and students will be allowed to attend classes in person or remotely if they have health issues or their families have concerns.

Additionally regular in class instruction will occur Mondays through Thursdays with online learning occurring on Fridays. For families that cannot get or cannot afford childcare on Fridays, schools will offer enrichment programs, remediation and other opportunities.

Under the plan it is recommended that staff as well as students 10 years and older wear masks. Parents of students who are 10 or older will be able to complete a form that will opt their child out from wearing a mask. Parents with children under the age of 10 will also have the option to indicate whether or not they want their child to wear a mask. BVPS will provide at least one face covering for each student and staff member the plan states.

Social distance of six feet between each person will also be in place whenever possible. Students that are less than four feet away from each other will be required to wear masks, unless their parent has signed an opt out form. Masks will only be required on bus rides if there are more than 11 students on the bus.

The plan also requires all students to be screened daily before riding buses or enter the schools. Students with a temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit or higher will not be allowed on school buses or allowed to attend classroom instruction.

Teachers, other staff and visitors will also be screened. Teachers and staff members will have their temperatures checked daily and will have to inform their administrator and secure a substitute if their temperature is 100 degrees or higher. Visitors with a temperature of 100 degrees or higher will not be permitted entry into schools.

The plan also calls for an increased cleaning and sanitation, minimized grouping of students and a dramatically modifies the transportation schedule.

Contingency plans are in place for how the 2020-2021 school year will start should current circumstances of the pandemic change.

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BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - French stocks fell sharply on Thursday as virus fears lingered and investors kept an eye on rising tensions between the United States and China. Huawei said today the U.S. visa restrictions on its employees over the human rights abuses committed by the Chinese Communist Party in the Xinjian region of northwest China were 'an unfair and arbitrary action'. Earlier, China accused the U.S. of 'gangster logic' after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered an end to Hong Kong's special status under U.S. law. The focus is on the European Central Bank's meeting later in the day, with economists expecting no new measures. The benchmark CAC 40 was down 49 points, or 0.95 percent, at 5,060 after rallying 2 percent the previous day. Alstom SA shares advanced 1.3 percent. After reporting a 27 percent fall in first-quarter sales, the company reiterated its previous outlook and said it expects a fast recovery in the rail market. Peugeot S.A. shares dropped half a percent. The automaker reported that worldwide sales volume for the first half declined 45.7 percent to 1.03 million units from last year's 1.90 million units. 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.
SNYDER The Texas Workforce Commission awarded Western Texas College (WTC) a Skills Development Fund Special Initiative Grant for $50,000. The renewable grant allows the College to offer workforce training and skills to the unemployed and employers.

Many employers in WTCs ten-county service area who operate essential services or businesses that have been negatively impacted by Covid-19 will qualify for the grant. WTCs service area for the grant includes the counties of Borden, Dickens, Fisher, Jones, Kent, Mitchell, Nolan, Runnels, Scurry and Stonewall.

Training is a very broad category, said Margo Mitchell, Director of Workforce Development and Continuing Education at Western Texas College.

Training can be classes we already offer like Commercial Driver License, welding, and computers, or it can be training customized for the business.

Mitchell added that the College has the resources to create specific training for employers either online or in-person. Any business that would like to diversify or expand their workforce or one that is experiencing difficulty hiring skilled employees can benefit from this grant.

The College can also offer funding for businesses that provide on-the-job training.

We have courses developed right now for hospitality workers, housekeepers, and food service workers. In the near future, we plan to offer OSHA Health and Environmental Safety training for industrial workers, emergency preparedness and first aid training, and healthcare occupations such as phlebotomy and home health aides.

Online courses will also be available for high-demand occupations in the region.

The Skills Development Fund is Texas' premier job-training program providing local customized training opportunities for Texas businesses and workers to increase skill levels and wages of the Texas workforce. The Texas Workforce Commission administers funding for the program.

Success is achieved through collaboration among businesses, public community and technical colleges, Workforce Development Boards, and economic development partners.

This is a golden opportunity for businesses and the unemployed in our area to get the training they need at little to no cost, Mitchell noted.

Employers and unemployed people interested in applying for training should contact Mitchell at College on the Square, Western Texas Colleges Workforce Development and Continuing Education arm.

College on the Square is located at 1806 26th Street in Snyder. Mitchell can be reached at 325-574-6581 or through email at margo.mitchell@wtc.edu.
As the topic of face masks continues to be a focal point for many across Texas, Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough said Thursday that focus on face coverings has led residents to abandon other important precautions to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

The first-term judge made headlines in April after announcing he would not follow Harris Countys lead and issue a mask order for residents citing no legal basis for a government to enforce such a mandate.

While Keough has maintained his stance on the issue, a spike in cases both locally and statewide prompted him to urge residents to follow all CDC guidelines to stay healthy during the current health crisis.

On Thursday, the Montgomery County Public Health Department confirmed 177 new cases. That brings the total number of cases in the county to 4,501. Of those, 2,088 are active. Health officials also confirmed the countys 46th death. The Magnolia man in his 60s was hospitalized at the time of his death. Total hospitalizations, both county and non-county residents, is 233 with 65 of those in ICU.

MORE FROM THIS AUTHOR: Montgomery County judge takes aim at Abbotts order to close bars, calling it 'ludicrous'

The CDC has given us some reasonable guidelines, he said in a video statement posted on social media. As I go around Montgomery County, I see people wearing masks everywhere. But what I have noticed is with the emphasis on masks, we have forgotten about some of the other elements of the CDC guidelines.

The CDC recommends the following measures in a public place: stay at least six feet from others at all times; wear a cloth face covering to help protect yourself and others; wash hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom, before eating, and after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing; and bring hand sanitizer with at least 60 percent alcohol to use if soap and water are not available.

Its this easy, he said. Coronavirus is not going away. Are we going to let the culture die? Are we going to move toward a shutdown? Are we going to do a slow bleed until we close down? Or are we going to practice those things we know will help us articulate through this difficult time?

Here is what I am asking you to do, practice those (guidelines).

Keoughs message comes on the heels of health officials announcing a backlog in cases causing the number of reported cases to skyrocket. Montgomery County Hospital District spokeswoman Misti Willingham said the health department will now report all cases it receives from area labs, not just the cases staff has investigated for more information such as sex, age, location and most importantly, the status of the person.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Coronavirus live updates: Paxton says religious schools can defy local restrictions

As a result, some of the positive cases confirmed could include people who have already recovered from the virus.

For Keough, the more residents that follow all the CDC guidelines, the sooner the number of cases will decrease.

If we all work at this together, we are going to keep Montgomery Count strong, we are going to stay open and we are going to get through this, he said. But we need your help. You and me, we have the power to keep Montgomery County open and beat this virus.

For those needing to be testing, MCPHD has launched an online registration process for its voucher program for both symptomatic and asymptomatic. The testing is for Montgomery County residents only.

To get a voucher, go to mchd-tx.org or mcphd-tx.org and click on the need to be tested link. Fill out the information. A voucher will be emailed. Once you have the voucher, make an appointment at your choice of testing center and get tested.

For more information, the MCHD/MCPHD COVID-19 Call Center is open from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday-Friday. Call 936-523-5040.

cdominguez@hcnonline.com
WARSAW, Poland - Polands main opposition party lodged a protest Thursday to a top court against the recent presidential election in which its candidate narrowly lost to conservative incumbent Andrzej Duda.

The liberal Civic Platform party said the whole electoral process was not fair. The Supreme Court has 21 days to review all protests and rule whether any of them undermine the validity of the election.

The challenge is seen as unlikely to succeed, in what will be the first big test for the Supreme Court. The courts new president was appointed in May with the backing of the ruling Law and Justice party that also backed Dudas re-election.

It was not a fair election, said Barbara Nowacka of the Civic Platform, before filing the protest.

The party claimed that Duda got an unfair campaign boost from the government and from state-run media, who were allegedly praising the president and trying to discredit his opponent, Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski.

It also said that many voters abroad were not able to cast their ballots because they did not get them on time, due to poor organization by some of Polands diplomatic missions.

The OSCE body overseeing democratic processes has said the July 12 voting was organized professionally on the whole, but noted the public broadcasters being used as a campaign tool for Duda.

There are also some 780 other challenges, mostly from individual people.

The State Electoral Commission announced Monday that Duda won a second five-year term with 51.03% of the vote, against 48.97% for Trzaskowski.

____

This story has been corrected to show that Trzaskowski won 48.97% of votes, not 48.07%.
Thirty-six people, including three paramilitary personnel and two army jawans, tested positive for Covid-19 in Himachal Pradesh on Thursday, taking the states tally to 1,377, officials said.

Eighteen cases have been reported in Solan, five each in Kangra district and Una, three in Mandi, two in Hamirpur and one each in Shimla and Sirmaur.

Kangra deputy commissioner Rakesh Kumar Prajapati said 51-year-old paramilitary personnel from Vaidi village near Kangra has tested positive for the virus. He had returned from Chennai on July 9. Another 20-year-old paramilitary personnel from Tiara village of Shahpur sub-division has contracted the contagion. He returned from Leh on July 7.

A 35-year-old from Bassa Gudyala village of Nurpur is the third paramilitary jawan to have tested positive. He came from Arunachal Pradesh on July 5.

Besides, a 39-year-old army jawan from Paniyal village of Dehra sub-division, having travel history to Nagaland has tested positive.

The fifth patient in Kangra is a 45-year-old man from Raja-Ka-Bagh area. He is the primary contact of a Covid-19 patient.

An 18-year-old youth from Takoli village in Mandi is among two cases in the district. He came back from Delhi on July 8 and was institutionally quarantined. A 37-year-old man, who returned from Jammu and Kashmir has also tested positive in the district. One more case was detected in the district late evening.

In Shimla, a taxi driver from Delhi has tested positive. He ferried a delegation of four people who were to meet chief minister Jai Ram Thakur. The driver has been shifted to Covid-care centre and his contact history is being traced. People who travelled with him have been quarantined.

FACTORY WORKERS INFECTED IN SOLAN, COP IN UNA

Eighteen fresh cases were reported in Solan late evening of which 14 are workers of a textiles unit. Three more factory workers have tested positive for the virus.

In Una, two police personnel and a home guard are among five cases. An army jawan also tested positive in Sirmaur district. Two cases have been reported in Hamirpur district.

Special secretary (health) Nipun Jindal said active cases have gone upto 382 while 971 patients have been cured till date. The recovery rate in the state is 70.5%.

Kangra is the worst-hit district with 319 cases, followed by Solan with 286 cases. Hamirpur has 278 cases, Una 151, Chamba 71, Shimla 63, Bilaspur 63, Sirmaur 48, Mandi 44, Kinnaur 36, Kullu 14 and Lahaul-Spiti district four.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 23:59:34|Editor: huaxia

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Officials from Angola and China attend an online contract signing ceremony in Luanda, Angola, on July 16, 2020. Angolan government and China Shenzhen BGI group held the online contract signing ceremony on Thursday to boost its COVID-19 detection capacity. Angola will entrust BGI with the construction of five Huoyan, or Fire Eye, laboratories for the detection of novel coronavirus across the country, with a total daily detection capacity of 6,000 samples. (BGI Group/Handout via Xinhua)

LUANDA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Angolan government and China Shenzhen BGI group held an online contract signing ceremony on Thursday to boost its COVID-19 detection capacity.

Angola will entrust BGI with the construction of five Huoyan, or Fire Eye, laboratories for the detection of novel coronavirus across the country, with a total daily detection capacity of 6,000 samples.

Angola's Foreign Minister Tete Antonio said at the event that the agreement signed will not only bring Angola to the necessary virus detection capacity, but will also give Angolan cadres the opportunity to learn advanced technology.

Angola's Minister of Health Silvia Lutucuta said she thanks China for providing assistance in fighting the epidemic, adding that Angola and other countries in the world have learned a lot from China's experience in fighting the epidemic.

"Detection capacity is the basis for the formulation of prevention and control policies, and Angola needs to continue to improve large-scale detection capabilities. Angola decided to entrust the Chinese company BGI with the construction of 5 laboratories, which will create a new period of opportunity to prevent and control the epidemic." She said.

According to Yang Huanming, co-founder of the BGI group and chairman of the BGI Board Gene, the BGI Huoyan laboratory has played an important role in the practice of anti-epidemic diseases in China and around the world and has proven to be very effective.

"More than 20 countries and regions have started or are in negotiations with more than 70 Huoyan laboratories, with the total daily test volume expected to exceed 300,000 tests. Brunei, the United Arab Emirates, Serbia, the Philippines, Gabon and other countries have been put in place," He said.

Yang added that Huoyan laboratory made by BGI is equipped with automated equipment for the extraction of high-performance nucleic acids to improve the efficiency of large-scale detection. Currently, MGI automation equipment has also been shipped to more than 30 countries and regions around the world.

Under the cooperation agreement, BGI will build five new laboratories in Angola, including a greenhouse laboratory, with a total result of 6,000 samples per day, which will be in a relatively short period for the country's national testing capacity to be increased for 10 times. Enditem
Downing Street has defended the appointment of Tony Sewell to lead the new racial disparity commission, despite his belief that the absence of black fathers is the root cause of knife and gang crime.

Mr Sewell has also previously claimed that evidence of the existence of institutional racism was 'flimsy'.

He was confirmed by the Government as chairman of the new Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities on Thursday.

The international education consultant has previously worked with Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2013 when he led the then mayor's education inquiry into the capital's schools, which resulted in the creation of the London Schools Excellence Fund.

Writing in Prospect magazine in 2010, Mr Sewell said: 'Much of the supposed evidence of institutional racism is flimsy.'

In an interview with the Times newspaper last year, the former teacher suggested that the root cause of knife crime and gang culture among black youths was absent fathers, citing figures showing that about 50 per cent of black children grow up without a father.

Tony Sewell is the chairman of the new Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, it was confirmed today

'People often say I'm 'brave' to say that. It's so patronising,' he told the paper.

According to the Office of National Statistics in 2007, 48 per cent of black Caribbean families have one parent, as do 36 per cent of black African households.

Defending the decision to appoint Mr Sewell, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'In terms of Dr Sewell CBE, he has supported many young people from diverse backgrounds into stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers.

'The PM knows very well his work and how it has improved access to education across London.

'The PM is confident that he shares his commitment to maximising opportunity for all.'

Mr Johnson announced the establishment of the commission after a series of anti-racism protests on British streets triggered by the death in the US of George Floyd while in police custody.

The 10-person group, comprised of representatives from the fields of science, education, broadcasting, economics, medicine, policing and community organising, will look to deliver a report on race disparity within the health, education, criminal justice and employment sectors by the end of this year.

Mr Sewell has previously claimed that evidence of the existence of institutional racism was 'flimsy'

Mr Johnson announced the establishment of the commission after a series of anti-racism protests on British streets

The early stages of setting up the commission drew controversy after Mr Johnson gave Munira Mirza, head of the Number 10 policy unit, a major role in its creation.

Ms Mirza had previously questioned the existence of institutional racism and hit out at a 'culture of grievance' among anti-racism campaigners.

Dr Tony Sewell: The Brixton boy awarded the CBE for services to education Dr Tony Sewell CBE is the head of the charity Generating Genius and has been appointed as the chairman of the new racial disparity commission. His charity works with BAME children to prepare them for careers in science and technology. He was born in Brixton in 1959 and has previously said 'scouts and the Church were important' to him growing up. His family attended a white majority Anglican church, which Mr Sewell said made him realise he wanted to go to university. Mr Sewell later moved to Essex and Sussex to go to University, before returning to London to teach. However, he became disillusioned and moved to Jamaica, before returning to the UK after two years. He then worked as a teacher and education consultant on a freelance basis, as well as setting up his charity. The international education consultant previously worked with Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2013 when he led the then mayor's education inquiry into the capital's schools, which resulted in the creation of the London Schools Excellence Fund. Writing in Prospect magazine in 2010, Mr Sewell said: 'Much of the supposed evidence of institutional racism is flimsy.' In an interview with the Times newspaper last year, the former teacher suggested that the root cause of knife crime and gang culture among black youths was absent fathers, citing figures showing that about 50 per cent of black children grow up without a father. Advertisement

Mr Sewell, currently head of education charity Generating Genius, said: ' I am delighted to be chairing this new Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities. I have spent my entire career in education striving to help all students achieve their full potential.

'I know however that inequality exists, and I am committed to working with my fellow commissioners to understand why.

'Together we will set out recommendations for action across Government, public bodies and the private sector, and will seek to inform a national conversation about race, led by the evidence.'

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: 'Today I am establishing an independent Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities. This cross-government Commission will examine inequality in the UK, across the whole population.

'I am thrilled we have assembled a group of ten talented and diverse commissioners, who each bring a wealth of experience from across a range of important sectors.

'This new Commission will be led by Dr Tony Sewell CBE. Tony has supported many young people from diverse backgrounds into STEM careers. I know well how his work has improved access to education across London, and I am confident that he shares my commitment to maximising opportunity for all.

'The Commission will be inclusive, undertaking research and inviting submissions where necessary. It will set a positive agenda for change.'

Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch said: 'This Commission demonstrates this government's mission to level up opportunity for everyone whatever their background.

'Our expert Chair and Commissioners will make evidence-based recommendations to change lives for the better. Their work will be crucial in informing and improving the national conversation on race.'

The other commissioners include space scientist and broadcaster Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, chairman of the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales Keith Fraser, ex-BBC journalist Dr Samir Shah, professor of surgery at University College London Lord Ajay Kakkar, economist Dr Dambisa Moyo, academies trust chief executive Martyn Oliver, co-founder of UKGovChat Naureen Khalid, Muslims for Britain co-founder Aftab Chughtai, and commentator Mercy Muroki.

Two representatives from the Windrush Working Group - director of Voice4Change Kunle Olulode and Blondel Cluff, chief executive of the West India committee - will attend meetings where relevant, No. 10 confirmed.
The emergency room is still running at about 80% percent of normal and hospital beds are similarly underused at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

At times during the past few months, those levels have been far lower at Penn State Health and virtually all other hospitals in Pennsylvania. Health systems say the lack of patients devastated them financially and caused major medical consequences for people who delayed care.

It resulted from two things: The statewide ban on non-urgent surgeries and treatments that was intended to free up beds for COVID-19 patients; and people avoiding hospitals and medical offices out of fear of catching COVID-19.

Now an alarming new wave of COVID infections is hitting Pennsylvania, prompting new statewide restrictions on restaurants and bars. If the wave doesnt recede, it threatens to keep many people away from such establishments because of fear of getting sick and interfere with reopening schools in six weeks, Gov. Tom Wolf warned.

Still, Wolf and state health secretary Dr. Rachel Levine say theres no imminent threat of hospitals running out of room for COVID-19 patients. Even after announcing the new restrictions, they gave their blessing to hospitals efforts to encourage people to seek out elective surgery and whatever health care they need.

But fear lingers, resulting in officials at Penn State Health and most other hospitals mounting an effort to convince people its safe to seek health care.

Moreover, they are stressing that for people with conditions such as heart disease, cancer or stroke or heart attack symptoms, the danger of avoiding medical care is greater than the danger posed by COVID-19.

They are emphasizing new, wide-ranging processes intended to eliminate COVID spread within their facilities. They also stress they know more about COVID and how to deal with it than they did earlier in the pandemic.

At Penn State Health, doctors this week said they are aware of no instances of any patient catching COVID-19 at the hospital.

They described the many steps they are taking to make sure it doesnt happen. That includes screening and testing all patients so people with COVID are immediately identified and isolated, extra cleaning and disinfecting, and enforcing social distancing and use of protective equipment.

They were similarly adamant about the health risks of avoiding medical care. They stressed, for example, that someone experiencing a mild stroke who delays care can suffer a serious loss of brain cells and put themselves at risk of a major stroke in the near future.

Dr. Ray Reichwein said there has been a 30 to 50% percent drop in stroke cases, and its mainly because people choose to stay home.

Theres unfortunate irony in the fact that, during the worst health crisis in decades, the health care system has been largely underused, with health care providers saying theyve lost billions and that some might be forced out of business.

During Pennsylvanias initial wave that began in early March and peaked in late spring, there were never more than about 2,800 people hospitalized with COVID at once.

In recent weeks, the number at times fell below 600, although its rising again as Pennsylvania experiences the resurgence. Levine noted hospitalizations numbers lag behind positive case counts.

But even after announcing the restrictions, Wolf and Levine said they said they see no imminent threat of hospitals being overwhelmed. Wolf expressed support for hospitals campaign to entice patients to return and to convince them its safe to do so. They noted the new restrictions tie in with the goal of preventing hospitals from being overwhelmed.

With COVID surging in many parts of the country, regular and intensive care beds in areas such as Miami and Phoenix were dangerously close to filling up this week.

However, Pennsylvania officials stressed those areas, unlike Pennsylvania, didnt take sufficient early steps to control COVID, and reopened more quickly and less judiciously.

Dr. David Rubin, a pediatrician at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia who is involved with tracking and modeling COVID-19 spread, said those states made the mistake of allowing case counts to explode before worrying about preserving hospital capacity.

If hospitals are 85% full and cases are growing exponentially, its too late to prevent them from being overwhelmed, Rubin said.

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Niagara Falls will partner with the federal and provincial governments on a $10-million reconstruction of Drummond Road, Portage Road and Gallinger Street.

The city applied through the Investing in Canada Infrastructure program to reconstruct Drummond from Thorold Stone Road to Morrison Street, Portage from Elizabeth Street to Althea Street, as well as Gallinger.

Staff learned recently the project was approved for funding and may receive up to $4.1 million. The city also anticipates receiving funding from Niagara Regions Wet Weather Management program, bringing external contributions to $4.2 million.

Total project costs over several years are estimated at $9.9 million, meaning the city will have to come up with the remaining $5.7 million.

Through the ICIP program, successful projects will receive maximum funding of up to 50 per cent from the federal government and 33.33 per cent from the province, based on a maximum $5 million in eligible costs.

Staff said the citys $5.7-million contribution will come from previously approved budgets, and could be spread out through the 2021, 2023 and 2025 capital budgets.

During Tuesdays meeting, council approved preauthorizing $4.2 million from 2021 capital budget to expedite construction works, and to confirm its commitment to fund future phases.

The project area has been broken up into three phases that are proposed to be constructed separately.

The first phase includes Drummond Road from Thorold Stone Road to Cherrywood Road.

The second includes Drummond Road from and including the intersection with Cherrywood Road to and including the intersection of Morrison Street. The third phase includes Portage Road from and including the intersection with Elizabeth Street to Althea Street, and Gallinger Street.

Project scope for each phase will include underground replacement work, including the replacement of aging watermain; repair of deficient sanitary or storm sewers, and separation of combined sewers  including installation of a new storm system where needed  as well as streetlight upgrades; full road reconstruction; and improvements to active transportation route linkages such as bike lanes, sidewalks and trails.

Erik Nickel, the citys director of municipal works, said the municipality plans to begin some of the work later this fall or early winter with relocation of some utilities. Underground infrastructure and road work will begin in 2021 with phase one.

We expect completion of all phases of the project in 2026, he said.

Mayor Jim Diodati said the Drummond Road project is good news for people who have long complained about the condition of infrastructure in that area.

Coun. Victor Pietrangelo said he particularly likes the idea of adding bike lanes, as part of councils directive that any new major road project includes them, eventually making for a fully functional bike-friendly city.

Its so much easier to request bike lanes from the Region if were putting them on all of our major collector (roads), he said. It is of great importance to a lot of people to have those bike lanes.

Diodati said a $3.2-million contribution from both the federal and provincial governments will help create a multi-modal transit hub on Bridge Street.

At the Bridge Street station, its going to fully integrate transit inside and outside of the city. Its an entrance point for hundreds of thousands of people right in our downtown. Theyre going to be building new bus platforms, parking, grounds-transportation facilities, station enhancements and technology solutions.

He said the projects are going to help with the jobs necessary as part of the COVID recovery.

Theyre good signs for continued transit, and infrastructure growth in the city.
In this article JIORX

YouTube/Jio

A new entrant has emerged in the race to develop smart glasses that provide consumers with mixed and augmented reality experiences. India's Jio, part of the Reliance Industries conglomerate, announced a new mixed reality headset at its annual general meeting on Wednesday called Jio Glass. Kiran Thomas, president of Reliance Industries, said Jio Glass already works with over 25 applications. The black headset connects to the internet via a cable that must be plugged into the owner's smartphone, he said. It weighs 75 grams and has a camera in between the left and right lenses. It's unclear how much the device will cost or when it will go on sale. The executive demoed Jio Glass being used to hold a work meeting in a virtual office with two colleagues. One of them appeared as an avatar while the other appeared in 2D form.

Jio

Thomas also showed how the technology could be used in an education setting. "With Jio Glass, the traditional way of learning geography will now be history," he said, showing how students and teachers could make virtual visits to the Taj Mahal in India, the pyramids of Giza in Egypt, and the Colosseum in Rome. Jio is entering a market that others have failed to crack. Google Glass, Microsoft HoloLens and Snap Spectacles are arguably the three best known efforts, while Magic Leap has also been working on a device in secret for years. None of the offerings have gained mass adoption.

The Reliance beast
New Delhi, July 16 : Similar to Alibaba and Tencent which created tech-based ecosystems in China, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is best positioned to create a similar ecosystem in India, according to BofA Securities.

It said that RIL is best positioned to create tech eco-system in India. "Similar to Alibaba and Tencent which created tech-based ecosystems in China, we find RIL best positioned to create a similar ecosystem in India," it added.

"In 2-3 years, we expect RIL to have a captive mobile base of 500 million users, fixed broadband users of 15 million and SME base of 5-7 million. The company has also acquired stakes in 25 start-ups and is looking to lead India's 4th Industrial Revolution," the report said.

"We also find the company well placed to create Super-App (have 4-5 successful apps) and lead SME and kirana digitization. Also Jio unlike Bharti and Vodafone Idea, doesn't use Chinese vendors," the report said.

The Indian government in the last few months has tweaked some rules impacting China's presence in India telecom, media and technology (TMT) space.

The key changes are amended the FDI policy for countries sharing a border with India by moving from the earlier automatic approval to the government, banned 59 Chinese apps to counter potential threat posed on sovereignty and security, asked e-com platforms to display the country of origin on products. Also, it has begun consultations on whether it needs to ban Chinese vendors for 5G.

"We expect these changes to potentially lead to a freeze/reduction of Chinese investments in India's tech ecosystem. We don't see much impact as there seems to be adequate liquidity chasing these start-ups," the report said.

"We note that China has invested $4 billion in the Indian start-up ecosystem and 13 out of the total 28 Unicorns have been China funded. As of now, we also don't see much impact on companies which are funded by Chinese investments," it added.

These are companies run by Indian founders and largely agnostic to where the capital comes from as long as reputation of investor is good. Over time, Chinese ownership may be diluted with capital coming from other investors. The current bans by the Indian government suggest that focus is more on software/apps that challenge India's sovereignty and where there are concerns that data may be shared outside India.

India is the fastest growing internet market in the world, with 19 billion app downloads in 2019. "Post China apps ban, we are seeing alternate apps gaining traction quickly. India's PE/VC ecosystem is looking to fund some of these Indian apps to capitalize on this opportunity. This aligns well with the govt focus on "Aatmanirbhar Bharat" (Self-reliant India)," it said.

Most traction by Chinese apps was in 'Bharat' (Indians in tier 2/3 cities). For instance, Tiktok has more users in rural India and apps like UC browser, ShareIt etc work well in low bandwidth areas.

A few Indian apps that have gained traction since the ban are Roposo, Chingari, ShareChat and DailyHunt. "We also see Instagram/YouTube/Snap attracting most of TikTok's influencers or users," the report said.
Taiwanese domestically-built Indigenous Defense Fighters take part in the live-fire, anti-landing Han Kuang military exercise, which simulates an enemy invasion, in Taichung, Taiwan, on July 16, 2020. (Ann Wang/Reuters)

Taiwan Holds Drills to Beat Back Invasion Amid China Tensions

TAICHUNG, TaiwanTaiwans air, sea, and land forces conducted live-fire exercises simulating the repulsion of an invading force on July 16, with President Tsai Ing-wen saying it showed their determination to defend the democratic island.

The Chinese regime considers Taiwan part of its territory despite the self-ruled island having its own government, military, and currency. It has stepped up pressure on Taiwan in recent years, including with regular air force intrusions into Taiwan airspace and naval exercises held near Taiwan.

On July 16, F-16 and domestically made Ching-kuo fighter jets launched strikes and tanks raced across inland scrub, firing shells to destroy targets on the beach. About 8,000 personnel took part in drills, held on a coastal strip near Taichung in central Taiwan.

The drills, dubbed Han Kuang, are Taiwans main annual exercises. This years come as China has stepped up its military activity around the island, including flying fighters and bombers close to what Beijing calls its sacred territory.

The Han Kuang exercises are a major annual event for the armed forces, evaluating the development of combat abilities. Even more, it lets the world see our determination and efforts to defend the countrys territory, Tsai told the troops.

An AH-1 Cobra helicopter fires during the live-fire, anti-landing Han Kuang military exercise, which simulates an enemy invasion, in Taichung, Taiwan, on July 16, 2020. (Ann Wang/Reuters)

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen leaves the annual Han Kuang military drill in, Taichung, Taiwan, on July 16, 2020. (Ann Wang/Reuters)

Tsai, who won reelection by a landslide in January, pledging to stand up to China, has made military modernization a priority. Taiwan unveiled its largest defense spending increase in more than a decade last year.

As I have said, national security does not rely on bowing and scraping but on solid national defense. All our officers and soldiers are the core of that, she added.

Although Taiwans military is well-trained and well-equipped with mostly U.S.-made hardware, China has huge numerical superiority and is adding advanced equipment such as stealth fighters and new ballistic missiles.

China sees Taiwan part of one China and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control.

Taiwan is one of a growing number of flashpoints in the U.S.China relationship. Beijing routinely denounces Washingtons support for the island.

By Ann Wang. The Epoch Times contributed to this report.
In February this year, Shilpa Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra left everyone pleasantly surprised when they announced the arrival of their baby girl, Samisha via surrogacy. The actress had shared the news on her Instagram page, and written, "We are thrilled to announce the arrival of our little Angel, Samisha Shetty Kundra, Born: February 15, 2020." The couple also have an eight-year old son Viaan Raj Kundra.

In a recent interview with Mumbai Mirror, the Dhadkan actress opened up about embracing motherhood for the second time. Speaking about it, Shilpa told the leading tabloid, "I flew private to bring Samisha home because there was no way in hell that I'd bring a baby born three weeks prematurely, with masks and all. A few days later, the nationwide lockdown was announced and I'm grateful for this time with my baby, which, as an actress, I wouldn't have got otherwise."

Shilpa said that it isn't easy to be a mother at 45. The tabloid quoted the actress as saying, "It feels surreal when people ask me how my 'children' are doing. At 45, to have a newborn, takes guts. The first time around, you are breastfeeding and tired all the time. You feel like a cow. I also went through postpartum depression, though I bounced out of it in about two weeks."

Earlier in an interview with Pinkvilla, Shilpa had revealed that she tried having a second child after Viaan, as she didn't want him to grow up as a single child. However, things didn't turn in their favour because of her miscarriages due to an auto immune disease called APLA.

Later, while speaking about the surrogacy process, Shilpa told Hindustan Times, "We had been trying for second child for five years. I had signed Nikamma and had committed my dates to Hungama when I got the news that in February, we were going to be parents again. We cleared our work schedules for the whole month."

ALSO READ: Shilpa Shetty Turns Vegetarian; Netizens Say They're Amazed By Her Choice

ALSO READ: Shilpa Shetty's New Picture With Her Daughter Samisha Shetty Is All About The Eternal Love!
On July 14, Joe Biden gave a summary of one of his proposals to destroy the U.S. economy. This one would eliminate the use of oil. He said science says we have only nine years left to address the problem.

"If I have the honor of being elected president, we're not just going to tinker around the edges. We're going to make historic investments that will seize the opportunity, meet this moment in history," Biden said in a speech unveiling the plan.

It appears that Biden determined his policy after reading an almost 100-year-old newspaper in his basement. In November 1922, the Washington Post had a front-page story saying temperatures were rising, oceans were dying, icecaps were melting, and coastal cities would soon be gone. We have heard these same dire predictions for almost 100 years but no matter how wrong they have been, we are told that the science is settled. Debate is not allowed. We also were told in 1970 that we only had a few years left because of global cooling.

It is the same with COVID-19. No matter how far off the predictions have been and how wrong the pronouncements have been from the "experts," we are told the science is settled.

Most of the media along with other Americans are rightfully excited that the U.S. will again send American astronauts into space from U.S. soil instead of being required to hitch rides with the Russians as they have for nine years.

So what happens to the space program if we elect Biden and enact the Democrats' proposed policies to stop using oil?

What happens to the Hawaiian economy and travel and leisure industries if Democrats get their way?

What do we do for farmers and others when their equipment becomes worthless without oil?

What will we do for financial institutions when their collateral of cars, trucks, planes, and farm and construction equipment becomes worthless?

Where are the junkyards to handle the hundreds of millions of cars, trucks, trains, planes, motorcycles, and other equipment powered by oil?

How do we produce, transport, and install solar panels and wind turbines without machines powered by fossil fuels?

How would we have mobilized for the pandemic without oil?

How do we defend ourselves against Russia, China, and Iran without oil?

Haven't the length and quality of life increased substantially since the advent of fossil fuels? Why would we want to go backwards? Why would we call policies that move us backwards progressive?

Why are we having a heat wave this summer when oil use is so far down? I would think that if oil consumption were the problem, all the cars, trucks, planes, and ships not being used, along with offices and malls not using A.C. and electricity, would have caused a temperature drop if there was a correlation. Wouldn't it also help that the glorious masks are trapping all that heat causing CO2?

The truth is, there is no scientific data that shows a direct correlation between temperature and oil use or population. The temperature has always fluctuated. A little ice age ended around 1850, and a little warming would always be normal after an ice age ended.

The truth is that the Democrats' energy policies and other policies have never been about science. They are all about the government controlling the people. The founders envisioned that the government should work for the people, but the Democrats believe that the people should obey the government no matter what they do.

I saw this morning that Lee Greenwood's decades-old song "God Bless the USA" hit number one for the first time. Hopefully we don't elect someone whose intent is to remake and destroy the greatest and most generous country that ever existed.

Why do most journalists reflexively support Democrat policies without asking questions? They essentially have become campaign workers for Democrats instead of being watchdogs for the people.

Image credit: Screen shot from a camera aimed at a television set, processed with FotoSketcher.
Powerhouse Energy Group plc

("Powerhouse" or the "Company")

Change of Directorate

Powerhouse Energy Group plc (AIM: PHE), the UK technology company commercialising hydrogen production from waste plastic, is pleased to announce that, further to the announcement of 26 June 2020 and the completion of the acquisition of Waste2Tricity Limited, the appointment of Tim Yeo as a non-executive director of the Company commences with immediate effect.

Mr Yeo has wide experience in government, serving in the Environment and Health Departments, and subsequently as Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in the Shadow Cabinet. He is currently the chairman of the New Nuclear Watch Institute, Honorary Ambassador of Foreign Investment Promotion for South Korea and since 2007 has been a non-executive director of Getlink SE, operator of the Channel Tunnel whose market capitalisation on the Paris Bourse exceeds 6 billion.

On joining the Board of Powerhouse Tim Yeo said:

"I am delighted to join the board as this exciting new era in Powerhouse's history begins. Our technology is capable of both producing affordable clean hydrogen and addressing the global problem of plastic waste. It will thereby deliver two important environmental benefits simultaneously."

"I look forward to working with my new Powerhouse colleagues, and with our partners Peel Environmental, to bring this technology successfully to commercialisation."

Cameron Davies, Chairman of PowerHouse, said:

"On behalf of the Directors I would like to warmly welcome Tim to the Board at a transformational moment for Powerhouse Energy. Tim's background and experience is strongly aligned with our strategic vision and will undoubtedly be of real value as we see our DMG technology become a first of a kind commercial reality at Protos in Cheshire followed by its broad roll out across the UK and into potential waste plastic to energy markets internationally."

Further regulatory disclosures:

Other than as disclosed below, there are no further disclosures to be made in accordance with AIM Rule 17 and paragraph (g) of Schedule Two of the AIM Rules for Companies:

Name: Timothy Stephen Kenneth Yeo

Age: 75

Tim Yeo is, or has during the last five years been, a director or partner of the following companies and partnerships:

Current Directorships

Getlink SE

Anacol Holdings Limited

Rivermill Partners Limited

General Securities Register Limited

New Silk Road Energy Limited

Past Directorships within the last five years

AFC Energy Plc

Waste2Tricity Limited

Education Link Trust

TMO Renewables Limited

TMO Bio Tech Limited

Adeppt Limited

Clean Energy Solutions Africa Limited

Clean Energy Solutions Africa (Holdings) Limited

Mr Yeo was a director of TMO Renewables Limited from 24 November 2010 until 8 February 2017. The company entered administration on 19 December 2013, after which he took no part in its management. It entered creditors' voluntary liquidation on 8 December 2014.

Mr Yeo was a director of ITI Energy Limited from 13 November 2006 until 2 April 2013. The company entered into administration on 14 November 2013 and into creditors' voluntary liquidation on 29 October 2014.

In 1976 Mr Yeo was a director of London Plastic Packaging Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Talbex Group Limited, a fully listed public company of which he was a director from 1975 to 1978. A receiver was appointed over London Plastic Packaging's assets in 1976.

Mr Yeo holds 9,155,179 Ordinary Shares in the Company which represents 0.26% of its issued share capital. Mr Yeo's wife, Diane Yeo, holds 62,716,780 Ordinary Shares which represents 1.78% of its issued share capital.

For more information, contact:

Powerhouse Energy Group plc Tel: +44 (0) 203 368 6399 David Ryan, Chief Executive Officer WH Ireland Limited (Nominated Adviser) Tel: +44 (0) 207 220 1666 James Joyce / Lydia Zychowska Turner Pope Investments Ltd (Joint Broker) Tel: +44 (0) 203 657 0050 Andrew Thacker / Zoe Alexander Ikon Associates (Media enquiries) Tel: +44 (0) 1483 271291 Adrian Shaw Mob: +44 (0) 7979 900733

About Powerhouse Energy Group plc

Powerhouse has developed a proprietary process technology - DMG - which can utilise waste, unrecycleable plastic, end-of-life-tyres, and other waste streams to efficiently and economically convert them into syngas from which valuable products such as hydrogen, chemical precursors, electricity and other industrial products may be derived. The Powerhouse technology is one of the world's first proven, modular, hydrogen from waste (HfW) process.

The Powerhouse DMG process can generate up to 2 tonnes of road-fuel quality H2, and more than 58MWh of exportable electricity per day.

The Powerhouse process produces low levels of safe residues and requires a small operating footprint, making it suitable for deployment at enterprise and community level.

Powerhouse is quoted on the London Stock Exchange's AIM Market under the ticker: PHE, and is incorporated in the United Kingdom.

For more information see www.powerhouseenergy.net
Indianapolis opened an application for rent assistance on July 13. Three days later, more than 10,000 people applied for help, and the city is now operating a waitlist until it can process those applications.

The website, indyrent.org, gives a notice that the application process is temporarily suspended, but renters can still enter contact information to receive notifications when applications open again.

Processing is expected to last through next week.

 Related: Black renters have some of the heaviest burdens in Marion County

We are proud that Indianapolis is offering one of the most generous municipal-based rental assistance programs in the country, Mayor Joe Hogsett said in a statement. And we are thankful to the many community organizations that helped connect residents to the program, increasing the flow of assistance to those who need it most.

The rent assistance program is funded by $15 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds and a grant from Lilly Endowment.

News In Brief
A wooden serving pan that was supposedly used by a female fare evader to hit a taxi driver at around Prinsep Street on 15 July 2020. (PHOTO: Kelvin Chua/Facebook)

SINGAPORE  A 20-year-old Singaporean woman has been arrested after she allegedly assaulted a 71-year-old taxi driver with a wooden serving pan and evaded her taxi fare.

The police said in a statement on Thursday (16 July) that the incident is being investigated as a case of rash act causing hurt.

The man filed a police report on Wednesday, saying the assault took place after she had taken his taxi and alighted at Prinsep Street. The woman was also allegedly not wearing a mask and left after refusing to pay her taxi fare. She is believed to be involved in other cases of fare evasion.

The woman, who was arrested on Thursday afternoon along Kitchener Road, will also be investigated for breaching COVID-19 safe distancing measures.

The offence of rash act causing hurt carries a jail term of up to one year or a maximum fine of $5,000 or both. The offence of fare evasion is a fine of up to $1,000 for a first offence, and a maximum fine of up to $2,000 or a jail term of up to six months or both for a subsequent offence.

A Facebook user, Kelvin Chua, posted about the incident supposedly involving his father and a female passenger who was not wearing a mask. The woman allegedly boarded the taxi driven by Chuas father at Ang Mo Kio Ave 10. During the journey to Prinsep Street, the woman asked to borrow the mans mobile phone. Chua said his father lent the phone to the woman who then used it to make multiple calls.

A heated argument took place when the woman refused to return the phone to Chuas father. When she alighted without paying for her fare, the man followed her. She allegedly took a pizza board from a restaurant and swung it at the man who managed to block the attack but the impact broke his watch.

The woman also later walked back to the taxi, grabbed the NETS machine inside it and threw it at his father, according to Chua. The machine was damaged as a result, he added.

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Hunter Capoccioni has used such creative concepts as For Your Ears Only, Shall We Dance and Vive la France in the last 14 years to attract concertgoers for the Cedar Valley Chamber Music Festival.

Iowans Are Everywhere seemed like a given for this seasons concert series featuring resident and native Iowan musicians from around the country live-streaming their performances, beginning July 17.

Virtual offerings are a sign of the times during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the idea also speaks to the festivals original mission to showcase Iowans playing music in diverse and unusual venues, said Capoccioni, the festivals artistic director and founder.

Many patrons still remain uncomfortable about attending a concert. Musicians, who customarily converge on the Cedar Valley to perform at the festival, are struggling with the need to play music for a living and having to travel considerable distances to perform.

So instead of coming to Iowa, weve reached out to artists who have played with us in the past and asked them to perform digitally and say hi to our patrons. Its going to be pretty cool, and its really opened the door to a lot of artists to pick their own programming.

I want them to play music theyre comfortable with and deliver something that is meaningful and passionate, Capoccioni explained. Free performances will be live-streamed from Chicago, Houston, Orlando, Fla., Sacramento, Calif., and Malaysia. Some performances may be pre-recorded.

All concerts are free to stream at A440.live/artists/iowa.

This is supposed to be our 15th anniversary season. Its disappointing that it didnt get to happen the way we wanted. But the board and I are still committed to it. Classical music, out of necessity, has been pioneering in reaching out to audiences because we have to be, and thats inspiring, Capoccioni said.

A double bassist and Waterloo native, Capoccioni now lives in Houston and is coordinator of chamber music for the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.

There are literally are talented Iowans everywhere. Thats a tribute to what Ive noticed as I travel as an artist. Its amazing how often I run into someone who is connected to Iowa, either they were born or grew up here, went to school or have an uncle who lives in Fort Dodge or someplace. Its part of the fabric of who we are.

The festival begins at 7:30 p.m. July 17 with Hammer + Bow: Music for Violin and Percussion, featuring Cedar Falls native Tara Lynn Ramsey, violinist, and Chicago-based percussionist Kyle Flens. Subsequent performances are: Iowa, This is Houston, Do You Copy? (Part I), 7:30 p.m. July 18, and Part 2, 7:30 p.m. July 25 ; Duo Pangelica: Music for Harps, 3 p.m. July 19; From Florida With Love, July 20, 7 :30 p.m. ; and Beethoven at 250 Years and 9,000 Miles, 7:30 p.m. July 24, featuring violinist Tim Peters, an Iowa City native now appearing with the Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestra.

Other featured musicians include Yvonne Smith, Teresa Procter, Ellie Choate, Brian Suits, David Bjella, Max Geissler, Loo Bang Hean, Ingrid Gerling, Ross Monroe Winter, Jacquelyn Venter and Hannah Sun.

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Wesley Purkey executed after Supreme Court cleared the way for second federal execution since 2003 (CNN) -- Wesley Purkey was executed Thursday morning after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the second federal execution since 2003. Early Thursday morning, the Supreme Court cleared the way for his execution, lifting injunctions from a federal judge in Washington, DC, who halted his execution and ordered further evaluation of claims about Purkey's mental competency.

Follow-up on a 1998 murder . . .Several juries and judges didn't show the con much sympathy and eventually he was convicted in a Kansas City rape, kidnapping and fatal stabbing of 16-year-old Jennifer Long.Here's the aftermath following claims of dementia didn't stop the execution:
After viruses and bacteria invade a human host, they are assisted by a molecule that dampens the immune response, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered. Strategies that suppress that immunological brake may help fight infectious disease.

The researchers showed that within 24 hours of a viral or bacterial infection, infected cells start expressing more of a molecule called CD47, a dont eat me signal that prevents them from being engulfed by immune cells called macrophages. Stanford researchers previously discovered that cancer cells increase their expression of CD47, thereby evading attack from the immune system.

We wondered whether the mechanism activated by all cancer cells to avoid being destroyed could also be used by persistent infections, so that the microbes can hide inside cells to evade immune cells, said professor Irving Weissman, MD, director of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine and the Virginia and D. K. Ludwig Professor in Clinical Investigation in Cancer Research. Amazingly, we found that to be true, and blocking the CD47 signal helped the body get rid of more infected cells.

The paper describing this research was published June 23 in the journal mBio. Weissman and Kim Hasenkrug, PhD, of the National Institute of Health, are co-senior authors of the paper.

Blocking the CD47 signal helped the body get rid of more infected cells.

It has been known for some time that the response to infection by the adaptive immune system, which includes T and B cells, includes a mix of immune boosters and immune suppressors that rein in the immune system, ensuring it doesnt overreact and cause more damage than the invading pathogen. For instance, some flu or coronavirus patients are killed not by the activity of the viruses, but by a cytokine storm, a flood of immune signals released when the body cant eliminate the virus. Its a scorched earth defense by the immune system that can cause severe damage to healthy tissues.

CD47 regulates innate immune system

In the paper, the researchers showed that the very early response of the innate immune system, a more primitive but still important immunological system involving cells like macrophages, is also regulated by the immunologically suppressive CD47 molecule. Both mouse and human cells showed increased expression of CD47 on their surfaces when infected by a pathogen, the researchers found. SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus variant responsible for COVID-19, is one of the viruses that causes increased production of CD47, they said.

Its probably important for the innate immune system to have a balance of activating and suppressing forces, but pathogens seem to have co-opted this mechanism for their own purposes, said Michal Tal, PhD, an instructor at the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine and a lead author of paper. We showed that if we play with that balance a little bit, we can clear some pathogens faster.

To test whether negating the CD47 signal could boost the immune response to viruses, the scientists infected mice with a meningitis-causing virus called LCMV and gave some of them an antibody that blocks CD47. The mice given the antibody had significantly lower viral loads at all points in the experiment compared with the control group, which did not receive the antibody. The researchers also exposed a mouse missing the gene for CD47 to tuberculosis-causing bacteria. CD47-deficient mice showed significantly more resistance to infection by the bacteria and better survival compared with mice that could make CD47.
The National Media Commission (NMC) has tasked workers of the New Times Corporation (NTC), publishers of Ghanaian Times and The Spectator newspapers, to put aside their differences and work towards improving the fortunes of the company.



The Chairman of the Commission, Mr Yaw Boadu Ayeboafoh, who made the call yesterday in Accra, said, the growth of the corporation could only be realised through a united front and urged them to eschew petty squabbles which had the potential to derail all efforts to make the entity profitable.



The meeting was the first of its kind to be held between the Board, Management and Staff of the Corporation, since the reconstitution of the Board in January this year.



Addressing workers, management and members of the Board of the state owned corporation, he noted that, there was the need for workers to recognise the contribution of each individual and to create a working environment which would spur co-operation and creativity.



Relating the advise in a parable, Mr Ayeboafoh, said this is the cow whose milk we are all drinking; we can kill that cow or nurture it to continue to give us milk. Since our survival is on this milk, lets all do well to nurture it.



Each one of us has a contribution to make and nobody should discard anybodys contribution, he stated.



Within the next three to four weeks, he said, the NMC, in consultation with the government, would announce a new Managing Director for the NTC.



He, however, noted that, the appointment of a new Managing Director would not mark an end of the Corporations challenges and called for support from workers to drive growth.



The appointment of a substantive Managing Director is not a panacea to the problems of this corporation, if every one of us would not resolve to work as hard as possible, even if we bring you Christ Jesus who can turn water into wine, and you refuse to co-operate with him, you will not succeed, he added.



Chairperson of the Board of NTC, Very Reverend Ama Afo-Blay, reiterated the need for unity and cooperation to change the fortunes of the corporation for the better.



She said a united staff had the capacity to address challenges confronting the corporation saying that we are capable of turning things around if we put in our best and channel our efforts towards working for the good of our corporation.



Mr. Martin Adu-Owusu, the Acting Managing Director, in a welcome address described the meeting as unique because it was the first time the board was interacting with workers since their appointment.



He commended the NMC and the Board members for making time to discuss internal issues with the workers with the view of encouraging them to work hard.

Source: The Ghanaian Times









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He forged a tumultuous romance with fellow contestant Olivia Attwood on the 2017 edition of Love Island, only to split up six months after leaving the villa.

But Chris Hughes appeared to see the funny side of things three years later as the show aired a special best bits edition featuring the franchise's iconic rows on Wednesday evening.

The reality star, 27, tweeted 'sit back down' as he mocked the moment he demanded his then-love interest, 29, to stay in their bedroom in a bid to hash out their issues.

Tumultuous: Chris Hughes appeared to see the funny side of his rows with ex Olivia Attwood three years later as Love Island aired a special best bits edition on Wednesday evening

As their relationship was filled with ups and downs, the compilation episode documented the on-off couple's numerous break ups and make ups.

One stand-out clip saw model Chris attempt to calm the former Motorsport Grid Girl down as she declared: 'I'm done with the conversation now'.

'Don't walk away, sit back down', the hunk boldly ordered, before the blonde beauty snarked back: 'I'm sat'.

Fans took to Twitter to poke fun at the heated discussion, after Chris referred to the throwback moment by writing: 'Sit back down'.

Stepping back in time: The reality star, 27, tweeted 'sit back down' as he mocked the moment he demanded his love interest, 29, to stay in their bedroom in a bid to hash out their issues

Viewers penned: 'Forgot how funny you were.

'Olivia and Chris were a nightmare couple at times but were so funny and entertaining at the same time too #LoveIslandUK #LoveIsland

'Sorry but nobody will ever top Liv and Chris on #LoveIsland... Olivia & Chris were toxic together! #LoveIsland #AllTheDramz.' (sic)

Uh oh: One stand-out clip saw model Chris attempt to calm the former Motorsport Grid Girl down as she declared: 'I'm done with the conversation now'

Bold: 'Don't walk away, sit back down', the hunk ordered, before the blonde beauty snarked back: 'I'm sat'

'Forgot how funny you were': Fans took to Twitter to poke fun at the heated discussion

2018 contestant Georgia Steel and Jack Fowler's kissgate drama was also revisited, in which the former drama student, 22, lied about kissing her pal Laura Anderson's love interest.

Comedy legend Paul Chuckle, 72, proved to be a surprise fan of the series as he tweeted: 'Don't you know Georgia's #loyal @LoveIsland #AllTheDramz #Not.'

Others were left divided by the scene as they said: 'Forgot how manipulative Georgia was! But after all she is loyal #LoveIsland.

There's three sides to every story: 2018 contestant Georgia Steel and Jack Fowler's kissgate drama was also revisited

'Don't you know Georgia's loyal? Not!' Comedy legend Paul Chuckle, 72, proved to be a surprise fan of the series

'Georgia telling porkies to Laura, remembered it well #kissgate Face with tears of joy #LoveIslanduk #LoveIsland.

'Georgia was a funny one werent she lol #loveisland... Georgia spiced up this series a lot #LoveIsland.

'Yesssss Georgia. Loads of people hated her but she made the series #LoveIsland.' (sic)

Love Island: All The Dramz will be followed by All The Feels on Thursday and All The Lols on Friday.
The association of maize farmers in Nigeria said its members have reduced their 25 million metric tons production target for 2020 by 30 per cent due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and insecurity in the country.

The chairman, Maize Association of Nigeria Nigeria (MAAN), Abubakar Bello Funtua, reportedly said this Wednesday while briefing journalists, BusinessDay newspaper reported.

The official said the 2020 farming season was faced with serious challenges due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and insecurity in the country, leading to more agricultural losses.

The association said the initial target of 25 million metric tons of production planned for 2020 planting season has been affected by the current situation in the country, forcing them to make a reduction in their target.

Our target for the year 2020 planting season was 25 million metric tons, but with the prevalence of insecurity as well as the COVID-19 pandemic which has disrupted our activities, we had to make a 25/30 per cent reduction of this target, Mr Funtua said.

Maize is a cereal crop that is grown widely throughout the world in a range of agroecological environments. Since its introduction to Africa in the 1500s, it has become one of Africas dominant food crops.

Nigerias annual need for maize is estimated at 15 million metric tons while the countrys local production is 10.5 million tones.

The association said they were able to produce about 20 million metric tons of maize in 2019, but expecting less this year due to the situation in the country.

With the outbreak of the coronavirus disease in Nigeria especially during the planting season, the sector has suffered a huge setback in terms of production. Farmers are scared of doing their normal planting work in order not to be infected by the disease.

As of Thursday, Nigeria had recorded a total of 34,259 confirmed cases with about 760 deaths.

PREMIUM TIMES had earlier reported how Nigerias importation of maize did not decline from 400,000 tonnes for two years despite calls by farmers for its restriction. Farmers have argued that they have the capacity to meet local demand.

A day after the report, the Central Bank of Nigeria on Monday placed a ban on the importation of maize. The decision according to CBN is to boost local production in the sector.

Meanwhile, Mr Funtua said the decision by the government to ban maize is good as it will benefit farmers in the sector immensely.

This ban will bring immense benefits to maize farmers and other critical stakeholders, he was quoted as saying. This 2020 planting season, the CBN has supported the whole value chain of maize production. From the provision of all needed inputs to land preparations, to harvesting, aggregation and storage.
Kim Yo-jong has returned to the fold of the North Korean leadership this year - JORGE SILVA/AFP

Seoul prosecutors have opened an unprecedented probe into North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister over Pyongyang's blowing up of a liaison office last month, officials said.

The move is likely to infuriate the nuclear-armed North, which has repeatedly condemned South Korea in recent months, including directing personal insults at President Moon Jae-in.

Seoul Central District prosecutors received a criminal complaint against Kim Yo-jong from a Seoul-based lawyer and had started an investigation, a spokeswoman told AFP.

Last month, Pyongyang blew up an inter-Korean liaison office on its side of the border, days after Kim Yo-jong - one of her brother's closest advisers - had said the "useless" property would soon be seen "completely collapsed".

Before the demolition, it had issued a series of vitriolic condemnations of South Korea over anti-North leaflets that defectors send back across the heavily-militarised border - usually attached to balloons or floated in bottles.

It raised pressure further by threatening military measures against Seoul, but later said it had suspended those plans in an apparent sudden dialling-down of tensions.

In his complaint, lawyer Lee Kyung-jae claimed the now-demolished liaison office was South Korean property as it was renovated using South Korean government funds, despite its being located in the North.

A photo from the North Korean government shows the demolition of an inter-Korean liaison office building in Kaesong, North Korea - KCNA /KNS

Kim "used explosives to destroy" the South's "quasi-diplomatic mission building that served the public interest", he said in the complaint.

Lee also filed a complaint against Pak Jong-chon, chief of the general staff of the North Korean military.

Under South Korea's criminal code, he stressed, damaging property or disturbing the peace using explosives was punishable by death, or a prison sentence of at least seven years.

Capital punishment remains on the statute books in South Korea, although it has not executed anyone since 1997.

In practice, it would be virtually impossible for Seoul officials to punish Kim Yo-jong or Pak, but Lee told the South's Yonhap News Agency that he wanted to "inform the North Korean people of their leader's hypocrisy".

The announcement came a week after a Seoul court ordered Pyongyang's leader to compensate prisoners of war who spent decades in North Korea, in a move that could set a far-reaching legal precedent on the divided peninsula.

Inter-Korean relations have been strained following the collapse of a summit in Hanoi between Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump early last year over what the nuclear-armed North would be willing to give up in exchange for a loosening of sanctions.
For decades, Studio Ghibli has broken mold after mold of what we expect films for kids to be.

The Japanese animation house  founded by the filmmakers Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and Toshio Suzuki  has spent 35 years telling winding, complex stories that stretch the bounds of what animation can do. In one, a treacherous battle rages between humans and the deities of a forest fighting to maintain the balance of nature. Another tale pits sorcerers against each other and questions the supernatural ethics of using magic in warfare. And one story opens up a transcendent and terrifying spirit world, in a work heralded by New York Times critics as one of the best films of the 21st century.
Investigators in Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas have said they are still in the dark about mysterious drone swarms that plagued the night skies earlier this year, flying in formation around a strange 'mother ship'.

Administrators with the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) even joked about them being UFOs.

In a December 31, 2019 email, FAA administrator Steve Dickson told FAA chief of staff Angela Stubblefield: 'not too long ago we would have called these 'UFOs'.'

Stubblefield responded 'Yep! Now everything is a drone!'

A swarm of drones was apparently captured on camera a few miles outside Omaha, Nebraska

Up to 50 drones would be seen on any given night from December 2019 until early January.

Some of the drones were ten feet wide, and had bright lights as they flew silently in formation.

Their owners and operators remain a mystery.

Senior FAA officials were able, however, to conclude that 'there is high confidence these are not covert military activities,' according to a detailed report in The War Zone.

The site published the work of Douglas D. Johnson, a volunteer researcher affiliated with the Scientific Coalition of UAP Studies - UAP referring to Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena.

Johnson utilized the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to obtain many hundreds of pages of emails and other pertinent documents from the FAA and other federal agencies.

He found that the drones were spotted widely across the region.

Drones sightings were reported in Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska in December and January

In December, Stubblefield wrote in an email that several ranchers and farmers in Nebraska had reported sightings of the drones.

On December 31, Michael Sanford, FAA aviation officer wrote in a report: 'The drones are reported to have 6' wingspans and there are several reports that indicate the drones are operating in coordination with a 'Big Drone' that may be stationary in the area.

'There is also an unverified report of the larger 'drone' potentially landing and taking back off from an airport in Imperial, Nebraska (Chase County).

'This larger drone, also described as a 'Mother Ship', is said to hover while all the others fly around in close proximity.

'The large drone, as described, is about 5-6 feet in diameter with a cylindrical shape and a red front.'

On the same day Special Agent Michael Bumberger of the FAA reported that a sheriff's deputy in Chase County, Nebraska, observed 30 to 50 flying independently of each other, with a larger 'mothership' hovering for hours.

'The deputy stated it the larger drone appeared to be way over 55 pounds,' he wrote.

On January 5, Bumberger said his team spoke to sheriffs in 16 counties in Colorado and Nebraska and 'each agency contacted advised at least one deputy has witnessed the activity.'

He reported seeing the drones 'flying a grid type pattern and remaining airborne for several hours at a time'.

Farmers, ranchers and sheriffs all reported seeing the strange aerial formations

Bumberger said the number of drones ranged between two and 16, flying for up to three hours at 200-300ft.

Around the same time, in early January 2020, a lieutenant in the Kansas Highway Patrol described a sighting 'by one of our K-9 Troopers' near Oakley, Kansas.

'He said one of the drones had a really bright light on it, like a spot light,' the lieutenant wrote.

'That drone stayed relatively stationary at that location. He then said there were anywhere from 10 to 15 drones that flew all kinds of patterns around that stationary drone.

'At one point one of those drones flew directly over his house.

'He had his night vision with him so he tried to look at it. Some of the lights on the drone drowned out a good picture with the NVG's, but he said he thought he saw 4 rotors on the drone as well as a horizontal stabilizer or wing.

'The wing appeared to be about 10 foot in length.

'He said the drone was about 200 feet in the air and made absolutely no sound at all, even though the wind was calm.'

Debris from the drones was even located.

One email showed that they had found 'space potatoes'.

According to an FAA email: 'FBI from North Platte advised the strange items referred to as space potatoes have been identified as Tracklogs.

'The gel is made up of poly-chloride tablets in a mesh stocking.

'When they get wet they form a log which replaces the dirt that was displaced by the pivot machine's wheels.'

'Space potatoes' turned out to be a gel substance used to replace dirt in the wheels of the craft

The documents Johnson obtained reveal a high level of interest in the investigation on the part of U.S. Senators Cory Gardner, a Colorado Republican, and Deb Fischer, another Republican from Nebraska.

'I've been in contact with the FAA and I'm encouraged that they've launched a full investigation to learn the source and purpose of the drones,' Gardner said in a December 31 press release.

'I will continue to closely monitor the situation.'

Gardner's office staff reported concerns from the local farm bureau that the drones 'have been disturbing cattle operations and may have caused injuries, and that the drones are flying closely to some of the general aviation airports in the area.'

They were also worried about how long it was taking to identify the controller of the drones.

Gardner made his concerns public on January 8.

In one email two FAA employees joked about the drones being a UFO

'I think this shows a significant gap in our understanding and national security understanding of the threat drones pose,' he said.

'If we can't find out who they are, how they are being controlled, who is controlling them, what is to keep a nation like Iran or North Korea from looking at this instance and saying 'Boy now we should come out and do the same thing with cameras and sensor equipment to find out the kinds of things that would help with international security' - so I think it is a concern.'

A closed-doors meeting attended by 77 people was convened by Morgan County Sheriff Dave Martin in Brush, Colorado, on January 6.

Those attending included representatives of the FBI, FAA, Gardner's office, and counties across Colorado and Nebraska.

Bumberger wrote that 'the meeting did not provide an answer or new leads' but that 'several good things came from it.'

After the meeting, however, the sightings of the drones tapered off.

The FAA initially thought it could be related to pipelines in the area.

But in January, a memo to FAA Administrator Dickson summarized the results: 'We have contacted entities (UAS companies, pipeline operators, colleges, etc.) that have received permission to operate UAS in these areas, but to date, none of these approved operators have been determined to be the source of the UAS operations.'

The emails also show that the FAA monitored mystery-drone-related Facebook groups for reports and leads.

No one is yet to provide a definitive answer as to who was behind the strange phenomena.
Alabama is still shattering coronavirus records. On Wednesday - the same day Gov. Kay Ivey announced a statewide mask ordinance - the state saw several more records fall.

The coronavirus has picked up pace at a startling rate in Alabama this month. Through the first 15 days of July, the state has confirmed 20,689 new cases - more than in any previous month.

[Cant see the chart? Click here.]

The July case total now accounts for 36 percent of all confirmed cases in Alabama since the pandemic began.

The state has set new coronavirus records nearly every day in July. The Alabama Department of Public Health reported 1,784 new cases overnight, bringing the 7-day average for new reported cases to 1685.9, the highest its ever been.

The 1,784 new cases represent cases reported between 10 a.m. on July 14 and 11 a.m. on July 15. Gov. Kay Ivey reported that for Tuesday, July 14, 2,140 virus cases were confirmed, the most ever for one calendar day. That discrepancy is a result of the way the state reports the daily data.

[Cant see the chart? Click here.]

Alabama added at least 1,000 new coronavirus cases in 11 of 15 days so far in July. Before this month, it had added over 1,000 just three times. There have now been 58,225 confirmed cumulative virus cases in Alabama since March, with more than 25,700 presumed to have recovered.

Deaths are also rising this month.

ADPH reported 47 deaths overnight, a new single-day high, breaking the record set one day before. The 7-day average for reported deaths rose past 20 for the first time on Wednesday, up to 21.6.

[Cant see the chart? Click here.]

July is on pace to be Alabamas worst month for reported virus deaths, though there is a significant lag between when a death occurs and when it is officially reported as a virus death. So far the state has reported 257 deaths through 15 days in July. The high for deaths reported in a month is 356 in May.

Alabama is on pace to eclipse 600 reported coronavirus deaths in July.

The state set new records for hospitalizations in July, too. State Health Officer Scott Harris said in Wednesdays press conference announcing the statewide mask order that the states hospitals are currently treating 1,477 inpatients with confirmed coronavirus cases, significantly more than at any other time during the pandemic.

[Cant see the chart? Click here.]

Harris also said 541 inpatients are currently being tested to determine whether they have the virus, meaning the state could have over 2,000 virus patients in its hospitals. Ivey and Harris each indicated that the states ICUs could be filling up, too. Each said only about 12 percent of current ICU beds are available.

Testing has ramped up in July - the state is now averaging more than 10,000 tests a day for the first time. But tests have not kept pace with the rate that cases have grown. Harris said the recent spike in cases is not due to more testing.

Our percentage of tests that are positive continues to go up, Harris said. Clearly we have more disease circulating in our community.

The percentage of tests that come back positive stood at 16.3 percent on Tuesday. Before July, it had never been that high.

Do you have an idea for a data story about Alabama? Email Ramsey Archibald at rarchibald@al.com, and follow him on Twitter @RamseyArchibald. Read more Alabama data stories here.
With temperatures soaring, children throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware have been dreaming about getting into the water.

Govs. Phil Murphy, Tom Wolf and John Carney helped make those dreams a reality when they announced that indoor and outdoor pools were able to reopen, providing they follow the appropriate COVID-19 safety protocols. Taking care to address concerns, the requirements for reopening pools were put in place through close coordination with local public health officials and industry best practices. The governors should be commended for this decision as these facilities provide a life-saving resource  swim lessons  that protect our children from potential tragedy.

Simply put, swim lessons save childrens lives. Drowning is the leading cause of accidental death for children under age 4, and the second highest cause for children under age 14. New Jersey is no exception, with 11 of its 89 drowning deaths in 2018 being children under 14. A prolonged halt to learn-to-swim programs could have caused these incidents to increase.

The governors had a hard decision to make, but, recognizing that access to pools is essential to equipping our children with the lifesaving and developmental skills they will need this summer, they made the right one.

Tristan Formon, Gillette

Editors note: The writer is general chair of the statewide organization New Jersey Swimming Inc., and the CEO of Berkeley Aquatic Club in New Providence.

Borrowed $9.9 billion would go to unions, well-paid N.J. pols

Who is going to pay back the up to $9.9 billion the state is now planning to borrow to cover revenue losses linked to COVID-19?

I will tell you who: you and I, while the politicians collect their salaries from state and local positions, and their retirement benefits,

No significant savings have been proposed to go along with the borrowing. The nearly $10 billion would help only public-worker union leaders and elected officials, while senior citizens, young people and millionaires leave New Jersey for states with lower taxes.

I blame only the voters who continually elect the same people to govern us.

Anyway, the state constitution requires such borrowing to be approved by voters, which is not being sought here. If this bond financing ultimately does go on the ballot  minority Republicans are suing to require it  I, for one, will not support it.

It is time to negotiate labor agreements that help the taxpayers, not bury them under a pile of debt.

Luis M. Perez, Glassboro

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Send a letter to the editor of South Jersey Times at sjletters@njadvancemedia.com

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An idyllic private holiday island once named after XXXX beer has gone up on sale for $25million.

Pumpkin Island, located 14km from Yeppoon in central Queensland, is on the market for the second time since 1961.

The 6ha island, in the Keppel Group of Islands on the Southern Great Barrier Reef, boasts pristine beaches and eco-friendly accommodation for up to 34 guests.

Pumpkin Island (pictured), off Yeppoon in central Queensland, has hit the market for $25m

The private holiday island (pictured) is located in the Keppel Group of Islands on the Southern Great Barrier Reef and has gone up for sale for the second time since 1961

Pictured: Pumpkin Island boasts eco-friendly cabins and bungalows for up to 34 guests

Sojourn Properties is selling the island after it purchased the rolling lease in 2003.

Laureth Rumble, who owns and manages the island with her husband Wayne Rumble, said the new buyer would own the island on a rolling lease until 2046.

'Most other island resorts are just a part of land on a bigger island but here you have the whole island to yourself which is quite unique'

'It's just a beautiful place, with beautiful beach surroundings and is very private and secluded,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

Pumpkin Island first opened to guests as a private island escape in 1964.

It was leased by Castlemaine Perkins brewery between 2012 and 2015 and renamed XXXX Island as part of a promotional campaign.

XXXX Island hosted 3,000 competition winners over the three years and was marketed as a men-only getaway.

The island has now returned to its roots as one of Queensland's most sustainable boutique tourist destinations.

Pumpkin Island boasts five fully self-contained oceanfront guest cottages and guests can also reside in two bungalows with open-air kitchens and bathrooms.

Pumpkin Island (pictured) was renamed XXXX Island for a Castlemaine Perkins brewery promotion between 2012 and 2015 and was visited by over 3,000 competition winners

The island also offers pristine beaches, a lookout building and a helicopter landing pad

Pumpkin Island won the award for Australasia's most sustainable hotel in 2018

It is the first beyond carbon neutral island in Australia, completely powered by solar and wind energy, and offsets 150 per cent of its annual greenhouse gas emissions.

Pumpkin Island also won Australasia's most sustainable hotel at the World Boutique Hotel Awards in 2018.

Mrs Rumble said the island could provide security and privacy for anyone seeking an escape from the real world.

'It's ideal during a pandemic, you can live on the island and there's so much freedom because you're already isolated anyway.

'We had a whole load of inquiries from family groups that wanted to isolate on the island during the pandemic,' she said.

The island also features a double-storey lookout building, a helicopter landing pad, a bar lounge area, a childrens playground, a custom built 36-person catamaran and two registered moorings.

An oyster lease can also be sold with the property and allow the owner and guests to shuck their own oysters on the island's rocks.

The solar and wind-powered island offsets 150 per cent of its greenhouse gas emissions
Around 100 doctors and nurses at the HCMC Childrens Hospital, Childrens Hospital 1 and 2, Cho Ray Hospital and others in HCM City on July 15 took part in a successful operation to separate conjoined twins.

Doctors have successfully separated conjoined twins at the City Childrens Hospital in HCM City.( Photo courtesy of the City Childrens Hospital)

The twins are 13 months old and weigh 15 kilogrammes, and are in good health. Because their development indexes are the same as healthy children, doctors said the surgery was now safe to perform.

Doctors said they would perform additional operations on the children, including plastic surgery.

Professor Tran Dong A, 79, is one of nine key doctors performing the operation. He said the chances of the children making a full recovery was very positive thanks to advanced surgical techniques and equipment.

Doctors have prepared scenarios and predicted risks since June 2019 when the twins were born, he said.

Professor A successfully performed an operation to separate Vietnamese twin boys in 1988.

When the twins were delivered in June last year, the citys Childrens Hospital said they were joined at the pelvis and all four lower extremities were present and oriented at right angles to the axis of the common trunk. The twins, who weighed 3.2kg at the time, were then brought to the citys Childrens Hospital.

Last year, when the woman's pregnancy reached 16 weeks, doctors detected that the twins shared one umbilical cord. At 33 weeks, doctors decided to operate and deliver the twins.

The rate of conjoined twins worldwide is 1 per 200,000 live births. Among the rate, only 6 percent are classified as ischiopagus tetrapus conjoined twins, which means they were joined at the pelvis.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Acting Minister of Heath Nguyen Thanh Long on July 15 evening sent a special congratulation message to the team of doctors who carried out the surgery and at the same time passed on their best wishes to the two baby sisters.

Around 100 doctors and nurses at the Ho Chi Minh City Childrens Hospital, Childrens Hospital 1 and 2, Cho Ray Hospital and others in HCM City takes part in a successful operation to separate conjoined twins (Photo: Ho Chi Minh City Childrens Hospital)

When the twins were delivered in June last year, the citys Childrens Hospital said they were joined at the pelvis and all four lower extremities were present and oriented at right angles to the axis of the common trunk (Photo: Ho Chi Minh City Childrens Hospital)





Doctors have prepared scenarios and predicted risks since June 2019 when the twins were born (Photo: Ho Chi Minh City Childrens Hospital)



Last year, when the woman's pregnancy reached 16 weeks, doctors detected that the twins shared one umbilical cord (Photo: Ho Chi Minh City Childrens Hospital)





At 33 weeks, doctors decided to operate and deliver the twins (Photo: Ho Chi Minh City Childrens Hospital)



Doctors said they would perform additional operations on the children, including plastic surgery (Photo: Ho Chi Minh City Childrens Hospital)





Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Acting Minister of Heath Nguyen Thanh Long on July 15 evening sent a special congratulation message to the team of doctors who carried out the surgery and at the same time passed on their best wishes to the two baby sisters (Photo: Ho Chi Minh City Childrens Hospital)

VNS/VNA/VNN

Newborn survives complex heart surgery and recovery process The Children's Heart Centre under the National Paediatrics Hospital has successfully treated a 15-hour-old newborn in Hanoi with a congenital heart defect.
While we may have suffered the cancellation of the annual celebration of all-things-aviation which was due to begin next week at AirVenture Oshkosh, the Experimental Aircraft Association will be re-opening their spectacular EAA Aviation Museum at the beginning of August. There will of course be some restrictions, but hopefully this will bring a little respite to those fortunate enough to visit. The following press release contains more details about the EAAs plans

EAA AVIATION MUSEUM REOPENING TO PUBLIC AUGUST 3

Some areas to remain closed for public health and safety

EAA AVIATION CENTER, OSHKOSH, Wisconsin  (July 15, 2020)  The EAA Aviation Museum in Oshkosh, which has been closed since late March because of the COVID-19 outbreak, will reopen on a limited basis beginning Monday, August 3, at 10 a.m.

The museum will have limits on the size of groups and total number of visitors allowed in the facility at any time. In addition, high-touchpoint areas and exhibits will remain closed and higher levels of cleaning and disinfecting are part of the reopening process throughout the facility.

Ever since we closed the museum in late March, we have received many questions each day on when we would be open to the public again. We appreciate that interest and support, as weve missed everyone for the past several months as well, said Ron Connolly, EAA Aviation Museum director. As we reopen, we are very aware of the need to keep the health and safety of our visitors and staff as the top priority, so we will move toward full operations gradually based on the best information available.

Among the temporary changes in effect at the museum as it reopens are:

 The KidVenture, Sikorsky/Johnson Wax exhibit, and the Willan Space Gallery areas will remain closed. Theaters inside the museum will be modified to ensure proper distancing.

 Touch screens and video players at exhibits will not be operative.

 The hangars at Pioneer Airport will be open daily through Labor Day, weather permitting. However, there are no flight operations or tram service at the facility. Museum visitors will be able to access Pioneer Airport by walking from the museum to that facility.

 Vending areas will be closed.

 All visitors and staff will be temperature checked as they enter the EAA grounds, and are required to wear masks while in the facility and maintain physical distancing.

 While cash is still accepted for admissions and purchases, use of credit and debit cards is encouraged.

Since the museum was closed in late March, the collection has added a Huey helicopter that is a veteran of three tours in the Vietnam War. That helicopter is part of a new exhibit that will be open in the Eagle Hangar. A formal dedication of that exhibit is planned for later this year.

Additional information regarding the museums reopening and temporary restrictions is available at EAA.org/museum.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 21:18:39|Editor: huaxia

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Farmers pick daylily flowers in Yanchi County, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, July 16, 2020. In recent years, Yanchi County has been developing daylily planting as a characteristic industry to help local people get rid of poverty. With an annual output value of 250 million yuan (35.7 million U.S. dollars), the industry raises yearly income per household by about 20,000 yuan (2,858 U.S. dollars) among over 3,000 planters. (Xinhua/Feng Kaihua)
Vancouver police are asking for the publics help in finding a man who attacked a woman Wednesday at a running track after an argument over masks and social distancing, officials said.

About 10:30 a.m., the victim was at the track between Clark College and Hudsons Bay High School when she got into an argument with the man because he wasnt wearing a mask or practicing social distancing, police said in a statement. At some point in the altercation, he was photographed smiling and using both hands to make an obscene gesture.

Masks are required in all public spaces in Washington where keeping a physical distance of 6 feet is not possible, per a statewide order from the health department.

The victim left the track, but the suspect followed her to her car, where he struck her multiple times and kicked her in the head after she fell to the ground, according to police.

After the attack, the suspect fled with a woman in a black SUV, police said.

The victim was taken to a nearby hospital and had been released by Thursday afternoon.

Investigators asked anyone who recognizes either the male suspect or the woman he was with to contact Vancouver police.

-- Kale Williams; kwilliams@oregonian.com; 503-294-4048; @sfkale

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Pressed by frustrated restaurant owners around the borough, Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R,C,I-Brooklyn, Staten Island) has asked Mayor Bill de Blasio to clarify outdoor dining regulations in New York City.

Businesses forced to offer outdoor dining on sidewalks and in street spaces have been subject to inspections by multiple agencies, says Malliotakis. She maintains that owners face lofty fines for failing to comply with various regulations, despite a lack of clarity with a number of stringent measures.
Senate Judiciary Committee member Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) attends the confirmation hearing of Attorney General nominee William Barr at the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 15, 2019. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Hawley Seeks Civil Rights Probe of Confiscation of St. Louis Couples Firearms

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is calling for Attorney General William Barr to open a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation to determine if St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardners confiscation of firearms owned by Mark and Patricia McCloskey violated their civil rights.

The McCloskeys became national figures June 28, when hundreds of protesters poured into their private, gated community while allegedly threatening to kill the couple and burn down their home.

When help from the police or from nearby security failed to arrive, this family, the McCloskeys, did what any reasonable person would do: they retrieved their lawfully owned firearms and defended their property and their lives, Hawley says in a July 15 letter to Barr.

A DOJ spokesman didnt immediately respond to an emailed request by The Epoch Times for comment.

St. Louis police reported multiple protesters were also armed; no shots were fired in the incident.

We were told that we would be killed, our home burned, and our dog killed. We were all alone facing an angry mob, Mark McCloskey told police.

Unfortunately, this family is facing new threats, not from demonstrators but from the local government, Hawley writes. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner is now threatening to prosecute not the trespassers, but the McCloskeys, and she is using the powers of her office to target them.

Her office has seized their firearms, and police have applied for warrants in the case, with an indictment believed to be imminent. This is an unacceptable abuse of power and threat to the Second Amendment, and I urge you to consider a federal civil rights investigation into the St. Louis Circuit Attorneys Office to determine whether this investigation and impending prosecution violates this familys constitutional rights.

The St. Louis incident followed the May 25 death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. The death of Floyd, a black man, at the hands of a white officer, sparked a nationwide wave of demonstrations, violent protests, and repeated confrontations between local law enforcement, National Guardsmen, and radical members of Antifa, a far-left group that incites riots, and Black Lives Matter (BLM), a group led by trained Marxists calling for the defunding of police across the country.

There is no question under Missouri law that the McCloskeys had the right to own and use their firearms to protect themselves from threatened violence, and that any criminal prosecution for these actions is legally unsound, writes Hawley, who was Missouris attorney general before being elected to the Senate in 2018.

The only possible motivation for the investigation, then, is a politically motivated attempt to punish this family for exercising their Second Amendment rights, Hawley continues. Indeed, this is part of a troubling pattern of politically motivated prosecutorial decisions by the St. Louis Circuit Attorney, who has not seen fit to prosecute many violent offenders, and who has expressed hostility to gun rights in the past.

Justice Department Spokeswoman Kerri Kupec told The Epoch Times we have received and are reviewing Senator Hawleys letter.

Gardner, a Democrat, was elected St. Louis circuit attorney in 2016 amid controversy over the heavy financial and organizational support she received from New York financier George Soros, and organizations aligned with him.

As the first black chief prosecutor in St. Louis history, Gardners tenure has been tumultuous, because of her 2018 indictment of then-Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican, for felony invasion of privacy in allegedly taking a photograph of his scantily clad girlfriend.

The indictment was withdrawn and Gardners chief investigator was subsequently indicted after evidence emerged casting serious doubt on the credibility of the charge against Greitens, who had resigned.

Investigators now allege the Greitens prosecution, which forced the governor to resign less than two years into his tenure, was built on lies that included perjury and hiding exculpatory evidence that would have helped demonstrate Greitens innocence, court documents show, according to Just the News.

Most significantly, testimony transcripts and court records obtained by Just the News show the woman Gardner built her case around, beautician Katrina Sneed, testified she was asked unsolicited by Gardners office to come forward as a witness, and that she was actually reluctant to accuse Greitens because the entire story of a photo on his mobile phone may have been a dream, Just the News reported.

Contact Mark Tapscott at Mark.Tapscott@epochtimes.nyc
The UKs National Cyber Security Centre on Thursday announced along with its counterparts in the United States and Canada that hackers based in Russia have been targetting research teams and organisations involved in developing a vaccine for coronavirus.

The coordinated charge by the three countries identifies a group called APT29 (also known as the Dukes or Cozy Bear) and concludes that the cyber group is almost certainly part of the Russian intelligence services.

The UK centre released a report, revealing IP addresses and other details, adding that similar conclusion has also been reached by Canadas Communications Security Establishment (CSE) and United States National Security Agency (NSA).

Two major vaccine trials are underway at the University of Oxford and Imperial College London.

The Foreign Office called for an end to what it called irresponsible cyber attacks by the Russian intelligence services, who have been collecting information on vaccine development and research into the Covid-19 virus.

Foreign secretary Dominic Raab said: It is completely unacceptable that the Russian Intelligence Services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic. While others pursue their selfish interests with reckless behaviour, the UK and its allies are getting on with the hard work of finding a vaccine and protecting global health.

The UK will continue to counter those conducting such cyber attacks, and work with our allies to hold perpetrators to account, he added.

The UK cyber security centre said the Russian group uses a variety of tools and techniques to predominantly target governmental, diplomatic, think-tank, healthcare and energy targets for intelligence gain.

Throughout 2020, APT29 has targeted various organisations involved in Covid-19 vaccine development in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, highly likely with the intention of stealing information and intellectual property relating to the development and testing of Covid-19 vaccines, it said.

In a separate statement, Raab alleged that Russian actors sought to interfere in the December 2019 UK general election. It is the first time a minister has claimed that Russia tried to interfere with the workings of British democracy.

On the basis of extensive analysis, the government has concluded that it is almost certain that Russian actors sought to interfere in the 2019 general election through the online amplification of illicitly acquired and leaked government documents, Raab said in a written statement to parliament.
First-class is not dead but it is dying. Even in 2019 the super-rich were opting more for private jets, while the leaps and bounds made in business class enticed wealthy leisure travellers to walk deeper into the plane.

Of course, as a pandemic swept the globe at the start of 2020, all airlines faced a harsh reality check. Carriers cut operations substantially and even now, as we begin the bumpy road to recovery, only some have the financial and geopolitical heft to keep operating international flights in the face of such limited demand.

Qatar Airways is one of them.

Not only is Qatar Airways servicing more than 40 destinations from its Doha hub, but Qatar Executive, a luxurious subsidiary of Qatar Airways, has now launched a program that could see even more eyes wander from first class.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Qatar Executive (@qatarexecutive) on Apr 21, 2020 at 3:39am PDT

Qatar Executive is a fleet of first class jets, created in 2009, which caters to global business travellers. Yesterday Qatar introduced a new feature to this Executive program, which it calls The Diamond Agreement.

An Unparalleled Private Jet Travel Programme, Qatar Executives new Diamond Agreement claims to offer maximum flexibility at industry leading pricing. How? Customers are now able to pre-purchase flight time at fixed-hourly rates on state-of-the-art long-range and ultra-long-range private jets.

The Diamond Agreement is precisely tailored to the individual customers needs and requirements, offering a truly unique flying experience.

To join this program, customers purchase a minimum of 50 hours flight time, without any associated membership fees. The all-inclusive and fixed-hourly rates cover both flight hours and taxi time.

Designed to simplify private jet travel, pre-purchased Diamond Agreement hours have no minimum annual usage and no maximum carry-over, making the Diamond Agreement program unrivalled in terms of its flexibility. Qatar Executives customers are also offered guaranteed availability for reservations booked from just 72 hours in advance.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said: As part of Qatar Airways Group, Qatar Executive offers an exceptional travel experience for private jet customers. With the Diamond Agreement, we can now offer even more flexible and bespoke travel options for Qatar Executive passengers, who can continue to expect our high levels of service and safety onboard our state-of-the-art aircraft.

Qatar Executives Acting Executive Vice President, Mark Hardman, said: We are truly delighted to launch our bespoke Diamond Agreement, which is tailored to suit the exact travel profile of both corporate and private clients. The programme offers the ultimate in flexibility at a fixed price. Furthermore, we understand that as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, clients are looking for versatile, high-quality services from a reputable and financially secure operator.

During these unprecedented times, travel requirements often change and as such, our customers can rely on us for a bespoke service, with unused hours being refundable at any time.

Qatar Executive currently operates a fleet of 18 state-of-the-art private jets and includes Gulfstream G650ERs, Gulfstream G500s, and Global 5000 aircraft. It is the proud launch customer for Gulfstreams flagship jet, the Gulfstream G700. The new aircraft brings an unprecedented combination of performance, technology and cabin size to Qatar Executives fleet.

Qatar Executive says it has maintained a robust and agile network over the last few months despite the challenging operational environment.

Professor Rico Merkert from the USYD Professor of Transport and Supply Chain Management told DMARGE Qatar Airways is still operating in These Challenging Times for two main reasons: to grab market share and to make the most of infrastructure.

Only airlines such as Qatar have the means do that (grabbing market share but at significant financial losses) in this current environment with the border situation less than certain.

Yes, its great for brand building It is harder to gain customers than to lose them in this business (once loyalty schemes and a decent product come into play).

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Qatar Executive (@qatarexecutive) on Jun 22, 2020 at 7:56am PDT

They also understand the importance of aviation to their economy (as a hub with some pretty new and expensive infrastructure sitting there and lots of competition from the UAE and other places), Professor Merkert added.

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Officers in the southern Vietnamese province of Dong Nai are hunting a group of four who they say killed a 200-kilogram gaur in a national park.

Forest protection officers were patrolling Cat Tien National Park, located at the borders of Dong Nai, Lam Dong, and Binh Phuoc Provinces, on Monday night when they stumbled upon the scene of the incident.

Officers say they attempted to apprehend one of the men but the other three fought back using pepper spray.

The four escaped although the officers fired two warning shots.

They also left behind four bags containing 140kg of gaur meat and several tools.

Officers believe the killed gaur weighed 200kg. The meat was still fresh at the time of the finding but had started to decompose by the time local authorities arrived.

Authorities are carrying out an investigation into the case and a manhunt has been initiated for the suspects.

Tools left behind by four men suspected of having killed a 200-kilogram gaur at Cat Tien National Park in Dong Nai Province, Vietnam, July 2020. Photo: Bich Lien / Tuoi Tre

Gaurs, whose scientific name is Bosgaurus, can grow to up to 1.9 meters tall and weigh up to one metric ton. The animal is classified as a rare specifies and requires strict conservation.

Zoological experts believed that gaurs found in Vietnam are among the largest in the world.

The Southeast Asian country is currently home to less than 300 gaurs, 110 inhabiting the 720-square-kilometer Cat Tien National Park.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Mumbai, July 16 : Director Pannaga Bharana says his upcoming Kannada film "French Biriyani" will leave a positive impact on the audience.

"We are delighted about the upcoming launch of 'French Biriyani', as we endeavour to bring to our viewers a light-hearted action-packed comedy thriller that will surely leave an everlasting positive impact on the audience," Bharana promised.

The action comedy drama stars comedian Danish Sait as Asgar, a Bengaluru autorickshaw driver, and Sal Yusuf as Simon, who is visiting the country for the first time. Their fates cross lines under unexpected circumstances. The film will be out on July 24.

"Danish Sait and Sal Yusuf bring so much to the table in terms of their sheer comic prowess and quirkiness. I truly believe that there could not have been a better choice than them to play the two lead roles. With the movie releasing on Amazon Prime Video, we are glad that it will reach a global audience, enabling them to revel in Kannada cinema," added the filmmaker.

"If one can laugh out their heart and at the same time love the narrative, then it's a win for us. 'French Biriyani' is one such movie from our house, which will serve this purpose very well. The Kannada film industry is known to have rolled out some of the most-entertaining movies of all time and 'French Biriyani' too will uphold the tradition," said producer Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
A dramatic recreation of capitalism giving birth.

Eh. My guess is no. I mean the tablet costs $600 and, while it seems to be able to Zoom pretty nice -- it has three built-in wide-angle cameras for high-resolution video and an 8-microphone array -- it doesn't seem to be able to do much else. I mean, let me throw Angy Birds on this puppy and maybe I'll think about it, but why would I get a tablet with Zoom that does nothing else when I can already get a tablet with Zoom that does everything else? It's like paying $600 just to save yourself a trip to the app store.

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The product is being marketed as a tool to help remote workers with Zoom CEO Eric S. Yuan saying in a statement:

"After experiencing remote work ourselves for the past several months, it was clear that we needed to innovate a new category dedicated to remote workers. I'm so proud of the team for continuing to think outside the box and prove why Zoom is the best unified communications platform that can meet the needs of all types of users."

Again, I'm a remote worker and my laptop has been handling Zoom calls just fine, but I guess if you're a high-rolling CEO that wants to outfit all of your employees with a Zoom tablet to stress to them just how high-rolling you are, then I get it. Enjoy your Zoom calls on the crapper as you wipe your ass with gold-plated toilet paper and subject your workers to the sounds of your rich, powerful farts because you're the boss, dammit, and you bought them a phone app for $600 so the least they can do is listen.

Otherwise, I don't see the appeal to the average consumer. But that's just my thought process on it and hell, if I could predict tech trends then right now you'd be talking to the CEO of the premier Neopets battle-betting website. So who knows? Probably a pandemic or two later and Zoom will rule the world.

Support Dan on Twitter and he will talk about his life with you in lieu of getting a therapist.

Top Image: Zoom DTEN ME
- The Council of the Ghana Stock Exchange has appointed Abena Amoah as the deputy managing director

- The exchange announced her appointment in July

- Abena will begin her new role as deputy managing director of the exchange on 1 August

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The Council of the Ghana Stock Exchange has named Abena Amoah as the deputy managing director of the exchange.

Her appointment was announced in July and she has already received support as she prepares to take on her new role.

Abena Amoah will be in charge of operations at the exchange, including trading and surveillance, listings and new products, the Ghana Fixed Income Market, and the IT systems of the exchange.

Her role will also including working with the current managing director in defining and implementing the exchanges corporate strategies and plans, among other responsibilities.

READ ALSO: Moses McCormick: Meet the Black man who speaks over 20 languages

Abena Amoah/Photo credit: UGC

Source: UGC

The accomplished businesswoman brings to the job her rich experience on many landmark transactions from over two decades.

Myjoyonline.com reports that Abenas experience covers stock market listings and trading, mergers and acquisitions, advisory, and other expertise across various sectors.

The ambitious woman has served on boards of companies, both publicly listed and non-for-profit, such as Access Bank PLC, Africa Womens Development Fund, Ghana Stock Exchange, and other prestigious companies.

Abena has also served as an advisor to the Government of Ghana and financial sector regulators in West Africa on the deepening of financial markets.

READ ALSO: PHOTOS: Homeless man receives complete transformation after kind barber gives him free haircut

Until her appointment she worked with BlackIvy Group LLC where she spearheaded the development of the 400-acre WestPark Industrial Park at Shama in the Western Region.

She also worked with the Renaissance Group as the CEO of New World Renaissance Securities Limited and as the Head of Investment Banking & Finance in West Africa (ex-Nigeria) for Renaissance Capital and other renowned companies.

Abenas appointment has received support from within and outside the exchange.

The out-going chairman of the exchange, Albert Essien, noted that he is excited about Abenas appointment.

He said her "rich and diverse experience is what the exchange needs at the moment.''

The managing director of the exchange, Ekow Afedzie, also chipped in saying her appointment comes at a critical time for the exchange.

Afedzie indicated that he is thrilled to welcome Abena and her work:

Im thrilled to welcome Abena and work with her as the exchange modernises and transitions from a frontier market to an emerging market.

Abena Amoah will commence her role as the deputy managing director of the exchange on 1 August 2020.

YEN.com.gh recently reported that technology giant, IBM Corporation, has named Angela Kyerematen-Jimoh as the new regional head for their North, East, and West Africa divisions.

Kyerematen-Jimoh will be responsible for IBM operations in over 40 countries in Africa, including Morocco, Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, Uganda, Ghana, and Tunisia.

Until her appointment, Kyerematen-Jimoh was the chief of staff to the senior vice president in charge of global markets and sales in IBMs corporate headquarters in New York.

READ ALSO: Humble boss: Ghanaian man boldly storms town carrying mom's smoked fish in pan

Faces of Ghana: 21-year-old female boxer's dream of becoming a world champion:

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Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition?

Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our page.

Source: YEN.com.gh
The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) disown one Emmanuel Awuah purported to be a student of the University.

Mr. Emmanuel Awuah is in police custody for allegedly killing an Uber driver.

According to police at Tafo-Pankrono in the Ashanti Region, Emmanuel confessed to killing the deceased driver after he was arrested.

Police say the deceased, Thomas Danso who owed the suspect an amount of GHS1,200 was unable to repay after he was approached by the suspect on several occasions to settle his debt.

Earlier reports suggested that the 23-year-old Emmanuel Awuah was a final student of KNUST.

But the University in a statement issued on Thursday, July 16, 2020, said the accused person has not registered with the school in the last two academic years.

Our records indicate that Master Emmanuel Awuah did not register for the 1st and 2nd semesters of the 2018/2019 Academic Year. He again did not register for the 1st and 2nd semester of the 2019/2020 Academic Year. He did not defer his programme, neither did he indicate any reasons(s) for abandoning his programme of study at the University. Per the Universitys regulations, a student who abandons his course for one full academic year without any cause ceases to be a student of the University. In this case, the said student abandoned his course for the academic years and can, therefore, not be referred to as a KNUST final year student.

The University further urged the media to check properly before referring to the school with such cases or face legal action.

Management strongly urges the media to cross-check facts properly with the Universitys public relations office before tarnishing the hard-won reputation of the University or risk legal actions, the statement further added.

Meanwhile, the University has condemned the actions of Emmanuel Awuah and urged the Ghana Police Service to ensure that he is made to face justice for his action.

---citinewsroom
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Linkedin (Reuters) Washington, United States  Thu, July 16, 2020 11:20 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666bcdb8 2 World Donald-Trump,election-campaign,US,Campaign-teams Free

President Donald Trump replaced his campaign manager on Wednesday as he faces a gap in the polls against presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden with less than four months to Election Day.

Trump said on Facebook he would replace campaign manager Brad Parscale with Bill Stepien, who has been the deputy campaign manager.

"Both were heavily involved in our historic 2016 win, and I look forward to having a big and very important second win together," Trump said. "This one should be a lot easier as our poll numbers are rising fast, the economy is getting better, vaccines and therapeutics will soon be on the way, and Americans want safe streets and communities!"

Parscale, whom Trump said would shift to a role focused on digital strategy, was blamed internally for the botched Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally last month that drew a much smaller-than-expected crowd and led to a coronavirus outbreak that forced Parscale and other campaign officials who were there to self-quarantine for two weeks.

Trump advisers have also privately leveled criticism that the campaign lacks a central message. But they said Trump shared the blame because he lacked discipline on how to communicate their message and agenda for a second, four-year term.

Trump, a Republican, trails Biden by 10 percentage points among registered voters in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, which has shown voters souring on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. The virus has also derailed his normal strategy of holding massive campaign rallies.
Raipur: The Chhattisgarh government has appointed 25 Congress legislators as parliamentary secretaries and to various posts in statutory bodies, boards, and commissions in the last three days, sparking criticism from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that linked the appointments to infighting within the ruling party and the ongoing turmoil in Rajasthan.

On Tuesday, the Congress appointed 15 MLAs as parliamentary secretaries to assist 12 cabinet ministers. On Wednesday, six more lawmakers were named as chairmen and vice-chairmen of two development authorities. And, on Thursday, four legislators were appointed to state boards and commissions.

With this, 38 of the Congresss 69 legislators in the 90-member assembly now hold ministerial berths or other government posts. Chief minister Bhupesh Baghel has a 12-member cabinet.

BJP leader Brijmohan Agrawal said the government hurriedly made the appointments as it fears a political crisis like the one in Rajasthan, where former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot and MLAs close to him rebelled against chief minister Ashok Gehlot.

There is a huge discontentment among Congress legislators. The ruling party decided in a hurry to appoint them as parliamentary secretaries. This is a fallout of what happened in Madhya Pradesh and might happen in Rajasthan. The Congress is afraid... Agrawal said.

The Congress returned to power in 2018 after 15 years of BJP rule.

Congress leader RP Singh dismissed Agrawals comments, saying the BJP has only 14 members in the state assembly and the party needed to understand where it stood. He said the list of these appointments was prepared before the Rajasthan crisis. It is a coincidence that it has been announced now.

Another BJP leader, Ajay Chandrakar, said a growing rift between Congress leaders in Chhattisgarh is well known.

Shailesh Nitin Trivedi, Congresss communications head, said Chandrakar and Agarwals are two major factions in the BJP since 2000. Now, they are talking about rift and infighting. They need to first get their house in order.

Political commentator Parivesh Mishra said using posts in government-owned corporations and bodies to placate the disgruntled people has been a practice common across party lines in various states. In Chhattisgarh, the appointments were long due. The timing coincided with political events in Rajasthan...

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Two crew members were killed in a helicopter crash Thursday as Taiwan's military held drills across the island -- including one simulating coastal assaults from China.

Thursday's climax of the five-day drill aimed to test how democratic Taiwan's armed forces would repel an invasion from its giant neighbour.

Beijing regards Taiwan as part of its territory and has vowed to one day seize it -- by force if necessary.

Thursday's main simulation saw Taiwan fighter jets, warships and ground troops repelling an enemy attempt to land on a beach in the central city of Taichung in an operation involving some 8,000 service members.

The military said a Bell 0H-58D helicopter crashed as it returned to Hsinchu airbase from one of the exercises, killing the pilot and co-pilot.

Taipei has lived with the threat of invasion by China since the two sides split in 1949 after a civil war.

In recent decades it has found itself increasingly outnumbered and outgunned by China's enormous People's Liberation Army.

Beijing has piled military, economic and diplomatic pressure on Taiwan since President Tsai Ing-wen came to power in 2016 because she refuses to acknowledge its stance that the island is part of "one China".

Tsai won a landslide re-election in January in what was seen as a strong rebuke to China's strong-arm tactics against the island.

Last year President Xi Jinping gave an especially bellicose speech about Taiwan, warning unification was coming.

"I think it's inevitable that the People's Republic of China will realise the reunification of the motherland," Beijing foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters when asked about Taiwan's drills.

In recent months Chinese warplanes have started buzzing Taiwan with unprecedented frequency, repeatedly breaching its air defence zone and prompting Taipei to scramble its own fighter jets.
The Turkish defense minister Hulusi Akar has reiterated its support to Azerbaijan.

During the meeting with the Azerbaijani delegation led by deputy defense minister General Ramiz Tahirov, Akar noted that all necessary measures will be taken amid the recent developments, Anadolu reported.

According to him, they strongly condemn the dastardly attack on the Tovuz region of Azerbaijan and the death of the Azerbaijani military will not remain unanswered.

He added that Turkey has been and remains a friend of Azerbaijan.
With biopharmaceutical development heavily focused on specialized therapeutics, drug sponsors are increasingly turning to expert outsourcing partners to meet growing demand for complex fill and finish solutions. Vetter, a leading global Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) is further investing in additional capacity to meet that growing global demand with the purchase of a clinical manufacturing site located in Austria.

CDMO addressing growing customer demand

Investment in additional clinical filling options in Europe

Planned go live in 2021

As the healthcare environment continues to evolve, the global shift towards specialized medications, complex molecules, and smaller batch sizes has rapidly expanded the role of the manufacturing partner. An ever-growing number of pharmaceutical and biotech companies are seeking manufacturing partners who provide comprehensive clinical manufacturing resources as well as customized and product specific support with their development strategy, says Senator h.c. Udo J. Vetter, Chairman of the Advisory Board. The new site expands our European footprint and can be seen as counterpart to our existing US clinical manufacturing site near Chicago.

The production site was purchased along with its existing inventory including a vial filling line and a freeze dryer for liquid and lyophilized products as well as material preparation and laboratory equipment. Thomas Otto, Managing Director, Vetter explains: With the additional site we will further support our capability for early clinical development in Phase I and Phase II. Over the coming months the facility will be evaluated and modified to the extensive Vetter quality and process standards in aseptic fill and finish for injection systems. Only an hours drive from Vetters headquarters in Ravensburg, Germany, the new site is well-positioned for a successful integration into our existing clinical operations.

Vetter Development Service Rankweil (VDS-R) plans call for the start of operations in the second half of 2021.
Thanks to a generous donation from Procter & Gamble, Hispanic Star will distribute basic hygiene items to over 50,000 South Texas area residents. "What Procter & Gamble has done for Hispanic Star is what I call a true testament to helping and unifying Hispanic communities in this country against this devastating pandemic. We are so grateful for this truly generous donation which will help Latino families in a very significant way.

More than 50,000 South Texas area residents hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic will receive much-needed basic hygiene essentials thanks to a very generous donation made by Procter & Gamble, a Cincinnati-based multinational consumer goods corporation to Hispanic Star in its Hispanic Month of Action campaign.

Hispanic Star, a collective platform to unify Hispanics in the US and celebrate their contributions to the country. Engaged Hispanic Star Hub Leaders of several major American cities during the Month of Action activated a recovery plan or launch charitable projects to support the Hispanic community. Love Soldiers, a McAllen, Texas-based nonprofit is the Hispanic Star's operational and fundraising arm.

The company recently donated 200,000 personal hygiene itemsdeodorants, diapers, shampoos, conditioners, body washes, female hygiene products and baby essentials among othersto the Hispanic Star Hub that covers South Texas Rio Grande Valley region. In total Procter & Gamble donated over 1 million items to six other Hispanic Star Hubs.

These items came to Hispanic Star on behalf of Matthew 25: Ministries, a Cincinnati-based international humanitarian aid and disaster relief organization.

Procter & Gamble will be supporting these communities that are suffering through the hardships of COVID-19, said Hispanic Star National Hub Leader and Love Soldiers Founder Perla Tamez. Hispanic Star and Love Soldiers will be donating these items to other organizations throughout South Texas. We are also promoting the 2020 Census and are encouraging residents to actively participate to be counted.

Tamez, who knows the South Texas area very well, added the items couldnt come at a better time as that particular area is now considered a COVID-19 hot spot.

Unfortunately, South Texas is at the epicenter of a COVID-19 outbreak which makes it almost impossible to do in-person donations, she explained.

To assist in performing a safe donation distribution to those most in need, she said Hispanic Star is partnering with elected officials from corresponding cities, congressmen and directors from nonprofits such as Catholic Charities in the Rio Grande Valley area, Valley AIDS Council of South Texas and Council of South Texas. Grande Produce and Taco Palenque are partners in this effort as they help donate to charities and hospitals that they support.

Tamez said that she is planning a future press conference to discuss these partnerships and the companys support.

What Procter & Gamble has done for Hispanic Star is what I call a true testament to helping and unifying Hispanic communities in this country against this devastating pandemic, Tamez said. We are so grateful for this truly generous donation which will help Latino families in a very significant way.

For more information about the Hispanic Star, please visit

http://hispanicstar.org/.

ABOUT WE ARE ALL HUMAN

The We Are All Human Foundation is a registered 501(c) 3 non-profit devoted to equity, diversity and inclusion. Made up of an experienced group of marketers and sustainability activists with backgrounds from the United Nations, global affairs, media, and the corporate world, our team is committed to making change through collective action. Our purpose is to maximize the volume of diverse voices, facilitate action-oriented conversations with input from all stakeholders, research the gaps for areas of continuous improvement and support the creation of inclusive environments. For more information, please visit:

http://hispanicstar.org/.

ABOUT LOVE SOLDIERS

Based in McAllen, Texas, Love Soldiers is a nonprofit organization that creates strategic alliances with other nonprofits, groups and community organizations to bring resources to underprivileged communities around the United States. The nonprofit's mission is to activate Love Soldiers to do acts of kindness in their communities. For more information, visit

http://www.thelovesoldiers.org.
Delhi might be one of the worst coronavirus-hit regions in the country but the number of Covid-19 patients recovering in the national capital far exceed the rate of fresh infections or active cases. Delhi has faired well this month as compared to June concerning the coronavirus situation.

By July 15, Delhi was expected to witness 2.25 lakh coronavirus cases but only 1.15 lakh cases have been reported till date. It was estimated that 34 thousand beds would be needed across hospitals but around 10 thousand beds are currently unoccupied across various hospitals in Delhi. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said this is the result of collective efforts by all, adding that while the infection seems to be under control, the administrations preparedness is necessary.

A host of factors have contributed to Delhis strong hold on the spread of coronavirus. Heres taking a look at some of them as reported by Live Hindustan.

Ramped up testing

Coronavirus cases were rapidly increasing in Delhi in the first week of June. At that time, around 5,500 tests were being done daily in the national capital which has now been increased to more than 21 thousand.

Increased number of beds

In the first week of June, there were only 700 corona beds in eight private hospitals. Today, Delhi has 15,000 beds, out of which more than 10 thousand beds are unoccupied. The administration also launched a mobile application through which patients can easily monitor the availability of beds at various hospitals.

Pulse oximeters - the protective shied

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said that the national capital has been able to minimise deaths of Covid-19 patients in home isolation with the help of pulse oximeters. The chief minister described it as a protective shield or suraksha kavach. If patients detect their oxygen is falling, they reach out to us for help. We immediately send oxygen concentrators to their home or take them to a hospital, Kejriwal had tweeted.

Response time of ambulance

The response time of an ambulance was previously two hours which has now come down to 30 minutes. A war room was created for ambulance management wherein over 400 ambulances were dedicated for Covid-19 patients.

Plasma banks

The government introduced plasma therapy for serious Covid-19 patients. A total of 84 patients were provided the therapy, of which 80 were cured. The first plasma bank was set up at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS). Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday inaugurated the national capitals second plasma bank for Covid-19 patients at government-run Lok Nayak Hospital.

According to government data, the administrations home isolation model has also helped a great deal in the speedy recovery of patients with mild symptoms or those who are asymptomatic. Delhi has reported over 1.1 lakh coronavirus cases till date of which over 95 thousand patients have beaten the virus. Delhis active cases stand over 17,000 while more than 3,000 people have succumbed to death.
The Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) has been ordered to number more than 10,000 copies of the evidence he intends to rely on in the Sh357m corruption case against Governor Mike Sonko as the pre-trial hearing flopped today.

Anti-Corruption Court chief magistrate Douglas Ogoti directed the DPP to mark the 10,238 exhibits for ease of reference saying "they are jumbled up and cannot be followed."

JUMBLED EVIDENCE

"The evidence availed to this court is jumbled up. Even the prosecutors themselves find difficulties in locating particular exhibits in the bundle of documents given to the court and the accused," Mr Ogoti noted.

He therefore directed the DPP to number all the documents he intends to rely in evidence in the Sonko case with clarity for ease of reference at the hearing.

The magistrate said it has been eight months since Sonko was charged and the accused are still complaining that they find difficulties in following the evidence presented by the DPP as they prepare their defences.

The magistrate was forced to intervene to calm both defence and prosecuting counsel who had engaged in a shouting match over the said evidence.

Mr Ogoti gave the new directive after dismissing an application by the DPP to be allowed to prosecute an application which he had not served the 12 defence lawyers led by Cecil Miller, George Kithi Prof Tom Ojienda, Harrison Kinyanjui and Wilfred Nyamu.

"If this court is inclined to allow the DPP to prosecute the application which he filed on June 24 and failed to serve us then grant us permission to apply for the termination of the case against Sonko and 16 others for want of prosecution," Mr Miller argued.

Miller said its eight months since Sonko was charged and the DPP has not furnished them with evidence in accordance with the law.

FORMAL APPLICATIONS

Prof Ojienda said some of the lawyers have not even been supplied with statements. He termed the actions of the DPP a clear manifestation that he is not ready to prosecute the case and out to delay the determination of the case.

Mr Nyamu urged the magistrate to allow the accused persons to file formal applications to have the case filed against Sonko and others last December to be terminated.

But Mr Kihara denied the allegations that the DPP is delaying the prosecution of the case against the suspects.

The magistrate directed the case be mentioned for pre-trial on August 26, 2020 and directed the DPP to avail a fresh set of evidence by August 20, 2020.

He also allowed Mr Kihara to appeal against the application to suspend the trial of Sonko but directed the case to proceed.

All the defence lawyers were directed to furnish Mr Kihara with their emails and telephone numbers for ease of communication.

Sonko is facing a total of 19 charges in two separate files, with the prosecution claiming that he conspired with business people and senior county government officials to embezzle more than Sh300 million from the county coffers.

CHARGES AGAINST SONKO

The charges against him range from conspiracy to commit an offence of corruption, conflict of interest to money laundering, and acquisition of proceeds of crime.

"Between May 24, 2018 and March 28, 2019 in Nairobi City County, being the governor, you jointly conspired with the co-accused to commit an offence of corruption namely embezzlement of public funds in the sum of Sh357,390,229 from Nairobi City County Government," the charge sheet reads.

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In the second file, the governor, alongside Fredrick Odhiambo, Web Tribe Ltd, Danson Muchemi, Robert Muriithi, Zablon Onyango, ROG Security Ltd and Anthony Otieno are accused of embezzling Sh24.1 million through a contract for an electronic revenue collection and payment solutions.

Other persons who are facing charges alongside the governor are Mwaura, Njeri, Peter Mbugua, Patrick Mwangangi, Wambua Ndaka, Andrew Nyasiego, Samuel Mwangi, Edwin Kariuki, Lawrence Mwangi and Preston Mwandiki.

All the accused persons are out on bond.

Meanwhile, as the case was being mentioned hundreds of Sonko's supporters kept chanting slogans in support of the governor outside the Milimani Law Courts.
Around 88% of Class 12 students who wrote the states Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exams this year passed, a jump of 4.51 percentage points from last year, even as Mumbai division slipped to the last position among the nine divisions in the state.

The Mumbai division, which also consists of Thane, Raigad and Palghar, recorded a success rate of 85.83%, a jump of 5.25 percentage points from 2019, as the number of top scorers, too, went up. Konkan division stood first with a 95.74% success rate.

The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) declared the HSC results at 1pm on Thursday. Over 15 lakh students had appeared for the exams which were conducted in February and March. Of these, 3.38 lakh students were from Mumbai division alone.

Both the city and state saw a significant jump in the number of students scoring 90% and above, thus indicating a tough competition for seats in coveted colleges of the city during the coming days. In the state, 7,344 students scored 90% and above, a jump of 64% from 2019.

In the Mumbai division, 3,109 students managed to achieve the feat, thus seeing a rise of about 41% as compared to the previous year.

Shakuntala Kale, chairperson of the state board said overall scores of students had risen this year. This year, the paper pattern for science had changed with more options for physics, chemistry, mathematics and biology, and a lot of students might have benefitted from the change. It is a good sign that the results have improved, added Kale.

The Arts stream saw the biggest spike in pass percentage across all streams. It recorded a 78.35% success rate as compared to 72.75% in 2019. Science and commerce streams recorded 95.30% and 88.56%, a jump of 3-4 percentage points from last year. Over the last few years, many high scorers even from other boards are coming to the Arts stream. Students from the other boards were earlier not used to the HSC pattern, but over the years, even colleges have realised how to train them for the format of the board exams, which might be a reason for the streams overall performance, said Ashok Wadia, principal, Jai Hind college, Churchgate.

At St Andrews College, Bandra, a 100% result was recorded for both Arts and Commerce streams. Until a few years ago, Arts was the last choice for students, but now more students are opting for the course and faring better, which is a very good sign, said Marie Fernandes, principal of the college.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 20:43:01|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese law enforcers confiscated more than 132,000 illegal publications for children in the first half of this year, according to official sources on Thursday.

More than 6 million items of harmful online information containing pornographic, violent, or vulgar contents were deleted during the period, according to figures released by the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications.

Regulators across the country handled over 70 cases involving the online spread of child porn, and producing and selling illegal publications for children, said the office.

The office vowed to step up crackdowns on offenses in fields such as short videos, online games, and social networks. Enditem
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Ronnie Fieg is no stranger to collaborating with Asics on the Gel-Lyte 3. And yesterday, the Kith founder teased what could be his next project with the brand, a shoe that appears to be inspired by one of his first-ever releases.

Fieg shared teaser shots on his Instagram account last night of a new Asics Gel-Lyte 3 color scheme with the photo captioned 252.1. This suggests that a sequel for the vibrant color scheme from the original Gel-Lyte 3 252 pack released 13 years ago could be releasing soon.

More from Footwear News

The shoe appears to feature a predominately black color scheme and is contrasted by a peach suede mudguard and a red perforated toe box. Capping off the look in the photo is a black Gel-cushioned midsole and a multicolored outsole. The shoes also appear to be equipped with different laces for customization.

Although Fieg shared an image of the collab, he did not provide a release date or a price tag.

The original Gel-Lyte 3 252 pack released in 2007 when Fieg was still at New York-based sneaker store David Z and consisted of three styles inspired by Japans fashion and footwear. Only 252 pairs were made, which is where the pack fittingly gets its made from.

Its one of my projects that are most difficult for me to wear today, Fieg recalled on his Instagram story about the 252 pack. The shoes were made of faux materials and I always look back to see what changes I would make.

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India and the EU exchanged views on the common threat of terrorism on Wednesday and Pakistan was discussed in the light of the current attacks against India and other countries in the region and on the context of global terrorism.

India and EU on Wednesday exchanged views on the shared challenge of terrorism and Pakistan came up during discussions in the context of activities it has been continuing against India and other countries in the region as well as in the context of global terrorism.

Briefing reporters about the meeting, MEA Secretary (West) Vikas Swarup said both sides went into considerable detail in exchanging views on the shared challenge of terrorism. Pakistan came up in the context of activities it has been continuing against India &other countries in the region as well as in the context of global terrorism, he said.

The joint statement issued after the summit reaffirmed India and EUs strong commitment to global peace and security, disarmament and non-proliferation and to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, including its financing and countering radicalization.India and the EU will intensify exchanges and cooperation in this regard, it said.

PM @narendramodi co-chairs 15th #IndiaEUSummit virtually with @eucopresident Charles Michel and President of @EU_Commission @vonderleyen. India-EU strategic partnership has gained strength from regular interactions between the leaders at the highest levels. @IndEmbassyBru pic.twitter.com/Bg3OnLMMuX  Anurag Srivastava (@MEAIndia) July 15, 2020

"The EU and India are the world's largest democracies. We must work even more closely to promote and protect our shared interests, based on multilateralism, the rule of law, and human rights." Statement by President @vonderleyen following the EU-India videoconference  #EUIndia  European Commission  (@EU_Commission) July 15, 2020

The summit was co-chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and by the President of the European Council Charles Michel and the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

The two sides agreed to launch a dialogue on maritime security and consultations on security and defence, and to enhance naval cooperation.

They underlined the need to preserve safety and stability in the Indian Ocean.

The statement said they welcomed the launch of negotiations on a working arrangement between the Central Bureau of Investigations and Europol to support law enforcement authorities of India and the Member States of the EU in preventing and combating organised crime and terrorism.

They confirmed their full support to an open, free, stable and secure cyberspace, and their commitment to foster the responsible and liable behaviour of all the actors in the cyberspace. They underlined the need to increase global cyber resilience, including the health sector, the statement said.

The statement said India and the EU will continue to cooperate on international and regional issues of common interest including Iran and Afghanistan.

Swarup said that there is no set time frame for the conclusion of the Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) but India and the European Union (EU) have to take the discussions forward.

The leaders on both sides affirmed their strong interest and full commitment to develop the India-EU strategic partnership to new depths. They adopted the strategic partnership roadmap to 2025 as the new framework to upgrade the relationships in diverse fields, foreign policy, security, trade and investment, economic collaboration, cooperation on innovative and climate-friendly solutions, digital technologies and connectivity of the broad-based trade and investment agreement.

The leaders recognised that post-COVID economic recoveries offer opportunities to unleash the full potential for their economic ties including discussion on supply chain linkages between India and Europe, Swarup said.

He also said that the Prime Minister has invited European companies for boost FDI in India taking into account efforts to improve ease of doing business, regulatory environment and the aim to integrate India with supply chains.

He said the relationship with the EU is active covers all dynamics and is underpinned by strong people-to-people ties.

The EU is our largest trading partners of goods with trade exceeding USD 100 billion. We also have a large services trade of approx USD 40 billion. The EU is one of the largest investors in India with a cumulative investment of over USD 91 billion. The EU is also an important source for technology innovation and best practices, he said.

Swarup said that the summit was held in a very cordial atmosphere marked by mutual respect.

The discussions covered the joint response to the pandemic, strengthening India-EU strategic partnership and its various dimensions as well as our convergences and our collaborations on the global arena covering multilateralism, international organisations and contemporary developments, he said.

He also informed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi appreciated the EUs global coronavirus initiative for accelerating access to COVID-19 tools, vaccines, treatments and diagnostics.

Recognising each others strengths and mutual synergies such as our roles in pharmaceuticals and research, EU and India agreed to intensify cooperation and response to the coronavirus including on accessibility and affordability of COVID-19 tools. Both European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen greatly appreciated the timely assistance provided by India in terms of providing medicines to EU countries, he said.

They sought Indias active engagement in the initiative of universal and affordable vaccines for all, he added.

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Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  Thu, July 16, 2020 15:00 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666d06d3 2 SE Asia Malaysia,1MDB,embezzlement,corruption Free

A Malaysian court on Thursday granted an interim order to stop Saudi energy firm PetroSaudi International (PSI) from using more than $340 million in funds in Britain, which Malaysian prosecutors believe was siphoned from state fund 1MDB.

US and Malaysian authorities say about $4.5 billion was stolen from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) in an elaborate scheme that spanned the globe and implicated former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and US bank Goldman Sachs, among others.

Najib has denied wrongdoing. In February, three units of Goldman Sachs pleaded not guilty in a Malaysian court to charges of misleading investors regarding $6.5 billion in bond sales the US investment bank helped raise for 1MDB.

High court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali imposed a temporary freeze on the funds in Britain held by PetroSaudi, which has links to the Saudi royal family, pending the outcome of an Aug. 28 hearing on an application by Malaysian prosecutors seeking an order to prohibit the company and four others from accessing it.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), which filed the application under anti-money laundering legislation, said it would extend the interim order to British authorities via mutual legal assistance to ensure the assets remain frozen until the court comes to a decision on the case.

The Free Malaysia Today news site quoted a lawyer for the MACC, Muhammad Nizamuddin Abdul Hamid, as saying Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) had advised Malaysian authorities to seek a Malaysian court order so the NCA could enforce it there.

Others named in the application were PSI co-founder Tarek Obaid; PetroSaudi Oil Services (Venezuela) Limited; Clyde & Co LLP, which is holding $500 million of PetroSaudi funds in escrow; and an account under the name Temple Fiduciary Services, which Malaysian prosecutors say allegedly belongs to Tarek.

Lawyers representing Tarek and PetroSaudi Oil Services opposed the order in court.

They declined to comment on their clients' position on the case when approached by reporters outside the court.

Co-founded by Najib in 2009, 1MDB entered what would ultimately become a failed joint-venture with PetroSaudi to develop oil fields that year, with $1 billion paid up front by the Malaysian fund.

Topics : Malaysia 1MDB embezzlement corruption
Deutsche Bank's incoming Asia-Pacific chief executive Alexander von zur Muehlen is relocating to Singapore in keeping with the lender's "dual hub" structure for region. His predecessor was based in Hong Kong for the past four years.

Muehlen, one of the architect's of the lender's massive restructuring last year that included the closing of its equity sales and trading business, is set to succeed Werner Steinmueller on August 1. Steinmueller, who joined the bank in 1991, will continue to serve in an advisory role until the end of the year.

Deutsche Bank routinely splits its executive teams in the region between the financial hubs, with Steinmueller's co-CEO predecessors based in Singapore and in Hong Kong between 2012 and 2016. Steinmueller was the first from the region to serve as a member of the bank's management board.

"We have - and always have had - and remain committed to a dual hub structure for the region," a Deutsche Bank spokeswoman said on Thursday.

The company's wealth management, asset management and corporate finance functions operate primarily out of Hong Kong, whilst its fixed-income and commercial banks operations are primarily run out of Singapore. The bank's new environmental, social and governance head relocated to Singapore from Washington in June.

Bloomberg reported the Muehlen move earlier on Thursday.

Muehlen's move comes at a challenging time for Hong Kong, which has found itself at the centre of rising tensions between the United States and China in recent months following the passage of a controversial national security law tailored by Beijing for the city.

Alexander von zur Muehlen, Deutsche Bank's incoming Asia-Pacific chief executive. Photo: Handout alt=Alexander von zur Muehlen, Deutsche Bank's incoming Asia-Pacific chief executive. Photo: Handout

The decision comes as questions are rising about whether the new security law will affect Hong Kong's standing as an international financial centre and lead to a flight of capital and talent. Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan has sought to reassure global investors in recent weeks that the city's Basic Law guarantees there will be no restrictions on capital flows in and out of the city.

Story continues

Following its passage, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that the security law had destroyed Hong Kong's "autonomy" from China.

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump signed into law the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which requires sanctions against individuals found to have helped end Hong Kong's "high degree of autonomy" from mainland China, as well as foreign financial institutions that engage in "significant" transactions with them. Trump also signed an executive order that ends Hong Kong's preferred trading status. Beijing vowed to respond with its own sanctions.

This week, Bloomberg reported that Carl Huttenlocher, a veteran hedge fund executive in the region, will relocate to the US next year, as part of a move to make his fund more globally focused, but will keep his offices in Hong Kong and Singapore open.

Huttenlocher did not cite the security law as a reason for his decision in the interview, but said increased US-China tensions were a reason he planned to shift the geographical weighting of his fund from an Asia focus to a global focus.

Speaking at the Hong Kong stock exchange's commodities forum on Thursday, Charles Li, the chief executive of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX), said the national security law brought "peace and order" to the city after months of anti-government street protests and the bourse has been working with the international community to ease their anxieties over the law.

Li, also known as Li Xiaojia, said he did not believe the passage of the Hong Kong Autonomy Act would "fundamentally change" the city.

"In this environment with the US and China growing more and more further apart from each other, I think Hong Kong's function of being the connector, being the translator, being the converter is extraordinarily important," he said.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2020 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
A man sits outside of the Seattle Police Department's vacated East Precinct in the area known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) in Seattle on June 26, 2020. (David Ryder/Getty Images)

Man Charged With Setting Fire to Seattle Police Precinct During CHOP Protest

A man set fire to the Seattle police building that officers abandoned just before occupiers turned the area into a so-called autonomous zone, according to a new federal court filing.

Surveillance video from around 3 a.m. on June 12 showed a man, later identified as 35-year-old Isaiah Thomas Willoughby, carrying a red container believed to be full of gasoline and dumping the contents onto a pile of debris lying next to the Seattle Police Departments East Precinct.

The man left the scene, returning approximately 23 seconds later. After lighting something in his hand, he throws the lit item onto the debris pile, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Washington said in a criminal complaint.

As the man fled the area, bystanders rushed to extinguish the fire.

Because of the ongoing occupationknown as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP)firefighters were unable to respond to the crime scene.

A plainclothes detective went into the area about eight days later to take photographs of where the fire was started.

A witness posted photographs of the suspect on Twitter, and a bulletin using the pictures was distributed by a Seattle police detective.

An anonymous caller who said they knew Willoughby said the man posted on Facebook that he burned the East Precinct before deleting the post as media coverage of the incident increased.

The unique design on the shirt that the suspect was wearing appeared to be on items that are part of a clothing line that Willoughby represents, Sneaker Warz, the caller said.

Police soon received a tip from a second anonymous caller that Willoughby was the suspect. His aunt then called the police, and said: The person who started the fire is my nephew. Come and get him.

Concrete barriers are situated outside of the Seattle Police Departments vacated East Precinct inside the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) zone in Seattle on June 30, 2020. (David Ryder/Getty Images)

Willoughby lived with his aunt and uncle in Tacoma, Washington, and was participating in protests in Seattle on June 11 and June 12, the relatives told police. They came to learn that the suspects brother helped him delete posts from Facebook and Instagram.

Willoughbys aunt and uncle confronted him over the fire and he admitted he set it.

When asked why, the suspect said it was because he was angry about the way he had been treated by officers at the East Precinct during a prior arrest, according to the criminal complaint.

Before calling the police, Willoughbys relatives told him to leave the house so as not to bring trouble with law enforcement to the residence. They threatened to call the police if he didnt.

Do what you have to do, Willoughby replied, refusing to vacate the premises.

A search warrant turned up a piece of clothing that matched the shirt worn by the suspect and open-source research showed Willoughby linked to Sneaker Warz.

On one Facebook page linked to Willoughby, officers found the statement: This why Iam [sic] on the front lines of this Regime change in America if you support my parties then we need you on this Iam burn it down.

Willoughby Complaint (PDF)

Willoughby Complaint (Text)

In a picture on the same page, Willoughby posed for a selfie while wearing a red bandana and a white T-shirt with the phrase Endangered Species emblazoned across it.

Willoughby was arrested on July 14 and made his first court appearance on July 15.

Those who worked to turn protests into riots will not escape accountability for their criminal conduct, U.S. Attorney Brian Moran said in a statement.

We support every Americans right to protest, said Mickey French, acting special agent in charge of the Seattle field division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).

But when someone turns to an act of violence, putting many lives in danger, ATF will work to ensure he or she is held accountable.

The suspect was charged with arson. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Morans office has charged two others with crimes related to the civil unrest in Seattle. A 25-year-old Tacoma resident was charged with setting fire to five police department vehicles, while a 25-year-old former resident of North Carolina was charged after allegedly striking a police officer with a large can.

After tolerating CHOP for weeks, Seattle officials cleared the space on July 1.
The hack could have been much worse than an obvious bitcoin scam shared by several influential accounts. Imagine all the damage the hackers could have done if they coordinated messages about an impending economic collapse, a new pandemic or even war. Luckily, President Donald Trump's account did not tweet the bitcoin scam, so it appears to have been unaffected by Wednesday's attack.

If that's the case, it would be the second known time Twitter was allegedly infiltrated from the inside. Late last year, the Department of Justice charged two Twitter employees with providing private information from Twitter accounts to Saudi Arabian nationals.

But a report from Vice on Wednesday described a much darker scenario. Vice's reporter said he spoke anonymously with at least some of the hackers involved in Wednesday's attack on Twitter, and they claimed to have paid off a Twitter employee to gain access to a tool that provides deep control over high-profile Twitter accounts.

So far, all we know for sure from Twitter is that at least one of its own employees was involved in the attack. Twitter described it as "social engineering," which typically means a hacker is able to trick someone into providing their login credentials for access. Twitter has not provided more information on the hack but said more will come as its investigation continues.

The hackers were able to gain access to influential accounts for Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Apple and others and share a scam asking for bitcoin.

Wednesday's Twitter hack wasn't just unprecedented, it was a shocking revelation that the company is ill-equipped to handle the security of a platform that's the backbone of breaking news, government policy and market-moving events on the internet.

And it's clear Twitter wasn't prepared to stamp out an attack of this magnitude. The company is lucky it was just a bitcoin scam and not something actually dangerous. Twitter might not be so lucky if it happens again.

The company's shares were down about 3% Thursday morning.

With all that in mind, Twitter has a lot of questions to answer about the security of its systems in the coming days. The whole fiasco has shown how important Twitter is to the flow of news, information and even government policy around the world. It's not unusual for President Trump to dictate policy, fire officials or make market-moving announcements with the push of a "tweet" button, after all.

Here are the biggest lingering questions Twitter will have to answer:

Did the Twitter employee(s) cooperate with the hackers? If Vice's report is true, then there was some level of coordination between the hackers and at least one employee inside the company. Given the case from last fall involving Saudi Arabia and the hack on Wednesday, Twitter needs to disclose how it vets employees before giving them access and what safeguards it has in place to make sure that access doesn't leak out. If there was no coordination, how did the hackers trick an employee into giving up access and what's being done to prevent this from happening again?

Why did it take hours to stop the hackers from tweeting? High-profile accounts were still tweeting out the bitcoin scam hours after it first started. Twitter attempted to slow it down by blocking verified accounts from tweeting, but that was well after the damage was done. Again, it was just bitcoin scam, but what if it evolved into something worse? Why did it take so long to stop the infiltration?

Does Twitter have a "circuit breaker" to pause the service if things get out of control? With so much market-moving and political information breaking on Twitter, does the company have the ability to pull the plug and pause tweets until the issue is resolved?

Were the hackers able to access any private data from accounts? We know they were able to send tweets from accounts run by the likes of Elon Musk, Joe Biden and Bill Gates. Were they also able to access other private information about those people, such as email addresses, phone numbers or private messages?

Was President Trump's account impacted in any way? The implications of a Trump account takeover are obvious. Are there special safeguards around that account and the accounts of other government officials? If so, why aren't those safeguards used for all accounts?

Twitter said it would share more information as its investigation into the issue continues, but for now there needs to be more visibility and transparency into how Twitter's security systems and employees are prepared for future attacks.
Attorney General Maura Healey is suing an online e-cigarette company called Puff Bar for selling disposable flavored tobacco products in Massachusetts in violation of state law, her office on Thursday.

The complaint, filed in Suffolk Superior Court on Wednesday, alleges that Puff Bar and Cool Clouds Distribution, Inc. continued advertising and selling disposable flavored tobacco products after they were banned in Massachusetts in November 2019.

This companys practices  selling flavored products and delivering products to minors  are plainly illegal under Massachusetts law, Healey said, in a statement. These products are dangerous, addictive and particularly appealing to young people, which is why Massachusetts moved quickly to regulate them. Companies that blatantly violate these laws will face legal action from my office.

Healey is also seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent the sale of any more illegal products while the case is playing out in court. The suit alleges that Puff Bar violated An Act Modernizing Tobacco Regulations, the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act and the AGs e-cigarette regulations.

Massachusetts was the first state in the U.S to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and e-liquids. The law was implemented on June 1, 2020, which included the prohibition of all menthol flavored tobacco products.

The law also imposed a 75% excise tax on e-cigarettes, a rate similar to the tax on traditional cigarettes. Insurers will be required to cover smoking cessation counseling and products without copays.

Though retailers are no longer able to sell flavored nicotine vapes, sales will be allowed to continue under the new law at smoking bars, which are age-restricted and require users to consume the products on-site.

But unflavored vapes can still be sold in Mass. New regulations adopted by the Department of Public Health days after Gov. Charlie Baker signed the new law specify that convenience stores and gas stations can continue selling unflavored nicotine vapes so long as their nicotine concentration is less than 35 milligrams per milliliter of vaping solution.

Unflavored vapes with nicotine concentrations of more than 35 milligrams per milliliter of vaping solution can only be sold at licensed, adult-only retail tobacco stores and smoking bars, according to the new regulations.

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The headmaster of the Presbyterian Boys SHS, (PRESEC) Legon, Mr David Odjidja has disclosed that the school has not recorded any COVID-19 case since the final years and the second year gold track students returned to school.



He made this assertion when a delegation of the 1980-82 Sixth Form year group (80-82 ODADEAs) called upon the school to make a donation of COVID-19 related assorted items to the staff and students of the school on behalf of the year group.



The items included Dustbins, Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs), paper tissues, rubbing alcohol, hand sanitizers among others.



Presenting the items on behalf of the group, a representative of the old students who is also the Chief Director at the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, Prof. Patrick Agbesinyale noted that the items were meant to supplement the allocations from the government in the fight against the pandemic.



He expressed the hope that the items would be put to good and proper use to protect both staff and students from contracting the virus.



The Headmaster called on the support of all stakeholders in order for the school to maintain its COVID-19 free status. He also commended the old students for their continuous support to the school.



He thanked the 1980-82 year group in particular for their kind gesture and called on other benevolent organizations including other year groups to extend their support to the school.

Source: daily guide









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A modeling study by Dr. Peter Ellis from the University of Kent indicates that ABO incompatibility between infected patients and susceptible individuals may actually decrease the transmissibility of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by 60% or more. His detailed investigation of such "ABO-interference" can be found on the medRxiv* preprint server.

Certain aspects of an ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by SARS-CoV-2, is still baffling population-level epidemiologists. Meanwhile, researchers across the globe are racing to find an effective treatment or vaccine.

Previous work on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), measles, and enveloped viruses, in general, showed that the viral spread might be reliant on the ABO blood type compatibility between an infected person and the susceptible individuals they encounter.

COVID-19 and blood type

Accordingly, several preprints and studies published recently have hinted that the prevalence of COVID-19 can vary significantly by blood type, with type A being relatively susceptible to the disease, and type O being less susceptible.

News Medical recently reported on extensive genetic analysis that also showed how individuals with blood type O seemed to be protected against the severe forms of the disease. In contrast, blood type A can predispose them to complications related to the viral infection. However, the pertinent question is whether we can incorporate these findings into prevailing epidemiological models.

In this paper, Dr. Peter Ellis, a Lecturer in Molecular Genetics and Reproduction at the University of Kent School of Biosciences in Canterbury, UK, develops a theoretical model in which ABO transfusion incompatibility basically reduces the chance of transmitting SARS-CoV-2 from a patient to an incompatible recipient.

Super-spreaders and super-recipients

"The model presented here shows that if ABO-interference is the cause of the widely observed bias in SARS-CoV-2 infection rates among different blood types, then ABO incompatibility reduces SARS-CoV-2 transmission by at least 60% and potentially more", explains Dr. Ellis.

However, it is vital to take into account that no blood type necessarily confers high-risk or low-risk, as the nature of any protection is entirely context-dependent.

More specifically, the existence of a diverse blood type mix within any given community (i.e., in the pool of individuals that freely mix and may consequently transmit the virus to each other) provides significant protection. The opposite is valid for communities with limited blood type diversity.

Generally speaking, such heterogeneity in transmissibility indicates that the risk to non-O (in particular type AB) individuals in most countries will be higher than the risk to type O individuals, whereas individuals with type O are more infectious than non-O ones. This pinpoints both "super-spreaders" and "super-recipients."

"This study also showed via modeling that ABO-interference could reduce the progress of an epidemic dependent on the magnitude of the block to the transmission and the local population structure," says Dr. Ellis.

Testing the model

The key experiment in testing this model will be to directly appraise whether A or B antigens can be found on the virus envelope and whether A- or B-specific antisera can neutralize the virus from patients with appropriate blood types.

But other testable predictions may be addressed with the use of existing epidemiological data. For example, in studies of super-spreading events, all index cases should be disproportionately blood type O.

Moreover, in countries that have a high frequency of blood type B (such as India), those individuals should be at higher risk in comparison to type A. Also, direct contact-tracing data should generally follow the blood transfusion rules.

Optimizing the vaccine strategy

In any case, any vaccination strategy that will be introduced in the future should not disrupt the intrinsic protection afforded by ABO-interference. It seems logical that a well-devised strategy of reducing infection rates might prioritize the vaccination of type O super spreaders before type A.

Nonetheless, once all type O individuals are immunized, the protective effect of ABO-interference is eliminated as the remaining ones are now exclusively type A. And any infected type A individual is able to transmit the infection to any prevailing susceptible individual freely.

This is becoming increasingly important, as promising vaccine candidates already entered phase III clinical trials. Therefore, similar modeling approaches are needed to avoid overly simplistic vaccine strategies that may result in skewed herd immunity estimates.
In the meeting held the Tadepalli camp office today, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy announced the extension of total number of medical procedures. He also said that if hospital bills exceed Rs 1000, the government will pay the entire cost.

Andhra Pradesh chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy today announced the extension of total number of medical procedures increased from the existing 1059 to 2200, benefiting 6 more districts in the state. This includes 54 medical procedures pertaining to oncology (cancer).

The scheme is made available to those people whose medical treatment expenditure amount crosses Rs 1000. It was implemented as the first pilot project in West Godavari district on January 3, 2020 and now the scheme will be extended in Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, Guntur, Prakasam, Kadapa and Kurnool districts. The State has also cleared the previous governments dues to network hospitals worth Rs 680 crore.

Here are some of the takeaways from the meeting held today at the Tadepalli camp office:

 16 new teaching hospitals will be set up by the government, increasing the number of hospitals to 27.

-This scheme is also applicable to those earning up to Rs 5 lakh per annum

-Rs 16000 crore has been allotted for the entire revamping of the healthcare services

 After the patient gets discharged, they will also receive Rs 225 per day/Rs 5000 per month as a part of YSR Asara scheme

 State to come up with nearly 13000 YSR Village clinics , thereby creating a strong network of decentralized public health care all the way to the grassroot level.

 CM has instructed officials to expedite all Arogyasri bills via the green channel.

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Victoria Beckham is reportedly making moves to launch a health and lifestyle brand in the US, which is set to rival Gwyneth Paltrow's $250 million Goop empire.

The former Spice Girl, 46, has been given the green light to sell 'beauty and well-being products' across the pond, according to The Sun  and has trademarked 'Victoria Beckham' and 'VB' for legal protection.

A source told the publication: 'The Beckhams are huge in the States. Victorias products are likely to be lapped up and provide her with a lucrative leap into the international market.'

Big business: Victoria Beckham, left, is reportedly making moves to launch a health and lifestyle brand in the US, which is set to rival Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop empire

MailOnline has contacted representatives for Victoria Beckham for comment.

Victoria already boasts a host of beauty products to her name, after launching an eponymous brand to complement her fashion label.

Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth, 47, made waves when she launched her Goop brand back in 2008 while living in London with her then-husband Chris Martin.

Sharing her insights on health and wellness, the star has also promoted and sold a number of eyebrow-raising products, including her most recent candle, This Smells Like My Orgasm, which followed on from This Smells Like My Vagina.

Waves: Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth, 47, made waves when she launched her Goop brand back in 2008 while living in London with her then-husband Chris Martin. Pictured in January

Victoria's latest venture could prove to be a shot in the arm for her business finances, after it was recently claimed by The Sun that she had been loaned a 6.4 million lifeline to save her ailing fashion empire.

The Spice Girl turned fashion designer's company has allegedly racked up 42 million worth of losses over the past four years.

Mother-of-four Victoria will reportedly be able to keep control of her flagship Victoria Beckham Ltd, after being 'backed by a private investment agreement'.

The Sun reported that London Investments Sarl will have its cash converted into shares if they are not repaid.

The Luxembourg-based company is said to have put 30 million into the fashion empire in 2017 for a 28 per cent share.

Reports: It was recently reported that Victoria had been loaned a 6.4 million lifeline to save her ailing fashion empire. Pictured with husband David Beckham

Ouch: The Spice Girl turned fashion designer's company has allegedly racked up 42 million worth of losses over the past four years (flagship store pictured in London)

The newspaper also claimed that Victoria and her husband David control '48.4 per cent of shares' and pal Simon Fuller has 23.6 per cent.

MailOnline contacted both Victoria and David Beckham's representatives for comment at the time.

In November 2019, it was reported that Victoria's fashion business plunged almost 36 million into the red after making losses of 12.5 million in 2018.

Her company Victoria Beckham Holdings Limited filed accounts for 2018 which showed she had failed to turn round the troubled fashion empire. It has now made losses for every year since 2013.

The news came as profits from her husband David's company DB Ventures halved over the span of a year, from 23.2 million in 2017 to 11.5 million in 2018.

'Control': Victoria, 46, will reportedly be able to keep control of her 'flagship Victoria Beckham Ltd' after being 'backed by a private investment agreement' (pictured in February)

David, 45, is thought to have lent wife Victoria some 600,000 for her Victoria Beckham Ltd business, after he bailed out his wife's company with a 23 million cash injection in January 2019.

But it's not all woe: the couple were ranked 372 on last year's Sunday Times Rich List, with a combined wealth of some 355 million and were named among Britain's 50 biggest taxpayers in The Sunday Times Tax List.

David has endorsement arrangements with brands including Pepsi, Samsung, H&M, Haig whisky and Adidas which give him a cut of rising sales.

The Beckhams' property portfolio includes a 31.5 million mansion in west London and a lavish 6 million country abode in the Cotswolds.

Losses: Graph shows how losses have mounted up for Victoria Beckham Ltd since it launched in 2013, the 2018 figures show that the company lost 42.3 million

Revenue for Victoria's holding company went down from 42.5 million in 2017 to 35.8 million last year as the company was restructured.

Overall losses for the company have risen from 23.5 million to 36 million. The Sun claims they are now at 42 million.

Documents also revealed that the company breached the terms of a 10 million HSBC bank loan 'several times' but for the time being 'HSBC has remained supportive by allowing time to explore the options available to the group and shareholders'.

Despite the devastating figures, the report insisted that changes were being made to turn the company round and to make it more in line with Victoria Beckham's 'aesthetics and values'.

Business: In November 2019, it was reported that Victoria's fashion business plunged almost 36 million into the red after making losses of 12.5 million in 2018 (pictured in February)

The accounts said: 'Whilst revenues and profits were down in 2018, the business performed in line with shareholders' expectations by cutting costs, focusing on its digital channels and refining its products to more closely reflect Victoria Beckham's aesthetics and values.'

It also said that the company had 30 million in new investments which had been ploughed into the appointment of a 'world class leadership team'.

The documents said the investment was targeted at digital marketing and other strategies to enable the company to distribute to over 120 companies.

It said the strategy was paying off and sales were increasing in 2019 in 'certain segments' as well as a reduction in losses.

Victoria recently launched a new make-up range, it includes a 180 Cell Rejuvenating Power Serum and 92 Cell Rejuvenating Priming Moisturiser.

Impressive: The Beckhams' property portfolio includes a 31.5 million mansion in west London and a 6 million country abode in the Cotswolds (Cotswolds property is pictured in 2017)

The Sun claimed that David paid 11.1 million from his profits in the family company Beckham Brand Holdings which he and Victoria co-own.

It was also reported that David's lendings to Victoria's fashion company now total 16 million.

MailOnline contacted representatives for David and Victoria Beckham for comment at the time.

In 2016, the former England captain reportedly bailed out Victoria's fashion empire with 5.2 million after her designer brand lost 3.8 million in a year.

Victoria's losses were previously blamed on 'design, marketing and sales' spending by a spokesperson for the Victoria Beckham brand.

Aid: It has been claimed that David's loans to Victoria's fashion company now total 16 million

In contrast David, who is one of the directors at DB Ventures Ltd, made a profit of 23.2 million the same year and paid himself 18.75 million in dividends.

The fashion label has a flagship store in Mayfair, London and sells items such as coats for up to 2,900 each.

In 2016, the firm was 8.4 million in the red and 4.7 million the year before that.

In April, Victoria was met with public backlash following her decision to furlough her staff, which she later reversed.

Pricey! Victoria recently launched a new make-up range, it includes a 180 Cell Rejuvenating Power Serum and 92 Cell Rejuvenating Priming Moisturiser

The star, whose family is worth 335million, had planned to use the Government's COVID-19 scheme to pay 80 per cent of the wages of some of her staff.

The fashion brand, which employs 120 people, sent letters to 30 members of staff warning them that they were going to be furloughed under the Government's scheme for two months.

She told The Guardian: 'We will not now be drawing on the government furlough scheme. At the beginning of the lockdown the shareholders agreed with senior management to furlough a small proportion of staff.

'At that point we didn't know how long the lockdown might last or its likely impact on the business. The welfare of my team and our business means everything to me.'
Taiwan's AH-64E Apache attack helicopter launches flares during the 36th Han Kung military exercises in Taichung City, central Taiwan, Thursday, July 16, 2020. (AP)

Taichung: Taiwans military fired missiles from the air and the islands shore facing China on Thursday in a live-fire exercise to demonstrate its ability to defend against any Chinese invasion.

Assault helicopters launched missiles and fighter jets dropped bombs on targets at sea, while tanks and missile trucks fired from a beach to deter a simulated invading force.

We want the world to see our determination and efforts to protect our country. President Tsai Ing-wen said, observing the exercise in a helmet and green military uniform.

The drill was part of a five-day annual exercise that ends Friday.

China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province that is part of its territory. The self-governing island of 24 million people lies 160 kilometers (100 miles) off Chinas southeast coast across the Taiwan Strait.
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida, speaks to members of the media as he walks through the Senate Subway on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, May 19, 2020.

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said Thursday that shortages of a coronavirus treatment being reported in Florida's hospitals are due to a "bad disconnect" with the Trump administration about his state's needs.

Rubio, whose state is grappling with a massive surge in Covid-19 cases, said on Twitter that he's heard reports as recently as "late last night" that "several hospitals" in Florida have "low or no supplies" of remdesivir, an antiviral drug developed by Gilead Sciences.

Shipments of the drug to Florida are coordinated by the federal government, Rubio tweeted, and "we have a bad disconnect between what they think we need & what we really need."

Rubio TWEET

In the past week, the administration has sent Florida two shipments of remdesivir  an amount that "was not based on the recent increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations" and will not be enough to tide the state over until the next expected delivery on July 27, a spokesman for Rubio told CNBC.

"Hospitals are still seeking additional supplies of Remdesivir, as well as better communication with the federal government and a shorter lag time between submitting requests and having those requests fulfilled," the spokesman said.

"Senator Rubio and our office have spoken with the White House and HHS, and we are working to ensure Florida's hospital system receives the necessary resources it needs to deal with COVID-19 patients."

Neither the Department of Health and Human Services nor the White House provided a response to the senator's tweet.

Rubio, a frequent defender of President Donald Trump, said Monday that several Florida hospitals had recently voiced concerns about a "potentially critical shortage of Remdesivir."

"I am in contact with federal officials in hopes of addressing this matter immediately," Rubio tweeted then.

The reports emerged days before the Trump administration revealed it had ordered hospitals to start sending its data on coronavirus patients directly to HHS. The information had previously been posted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency within the HHS that officials say used an outdated data collection system.

On Wednesday, HHS spokesman Michael Caputo said the CDC's data tracking system, the National Health Safety Network, led to a one-week lag in data that was driving administration decisions compared with the reality in hospitals. During the Covid-19 pandemic, such a lag could cost lives as HHS officials use the data to make potentially life-saving decisions such as how to distribute the country's scarce supply of remdesivir.

While no vaccine is available for the coronavirus, some studies of treatments like remdesivir have shown promising results. A study from Gilead published Friday found remdesivir reduced the risk of death for severely sick patients by 62% compared with standard care alone.

In June, the Trump administration announced a deal with Gilead to supply the U.S. with more than 500,000 treatment courses of remdesivir for its hospitals through September. That figure represents nearly all of Gilead's projected production for the next three months, according to HHS.

Florida is in the midst of a record-breaking spike in coronavirus cases. On Sunday, it reported more than 15,000 new cases, marking the highest single-day total of any state.

The virus' spread in the Sunshine State comes months after other hot spots around the country, such as New York, managed to clamp down on transmission. Other states, including California, Texas and Arizona, are also experiencing a significant increase in Covid-19 cases.
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Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) London, United Kingdom  Thu, July 16, 2020 11:11 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666bbefc 2 World English,UK,Britain,coronavirus,coronavirus-restrictions,COVID-19,COVID-19-infection,infectious-diseases,pandemic,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus Free

The reproductive number of COVID-19 in England may been lower than previously thought in May, research published by British scientists said on Wednesday, suggesting the government's COVID-19 lockdown worked to reduce infection rates.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson first eased England's lockdown on June 1, and has since re-opened more of the economy.

The research showed the rates of infection fell during May, the last month of full lockdown, halving every eight to nine days.

The study - which is a "pre-print", meaning it has yet to be peer-reviewed - found there were on average 13 positive cases for every 10,000 people, with an overall reproduction number of 0.57.

That is lower than the government's official figures for that time, estimating a so-called "R" number of 0.7-0.9 when lockdown was eased. An R number of less than 1 indicates an epidemic is shrinking.

"Our level of adherence in the UK, and the overall average behavior was very effective at reducing transmission of the virus," Steven Riley, Professor of Infectious Disease Dynamics, Imperial College London, told reporters.

Over 120,000 volunteers were tested as part of the study, which health minister Matt Hancock said showed the government took the "right actions at the right time".

The research also found that young adults were more likely to test positive than other age groups, indicating the need for them to follow social distancing even if their symptoms are often less severe than for older people.

It also said that people of Asian ethnicity were more likely to test positive, which might account for higher death rates in that group.

A separate pre-print study of a pilot test-and-trace scheme on the Isle of Wight found that it had reduced total incidence of infections and the R number faster than in other areas of the UK.
It was sometime in the 1950s when a visionary newspaperman who was also a savvy businessman decided his offices and printing plant on Castleton Avenue in West Brighton werent big enough, or modern enough, to enter the Staten Island of the 1960s.

After all, there was talk of building a gigantic bridge  the longest span in the world! -- connecting New York States most southern island and New York Citys most spacious and bucolic borough, to the hustle and bustle of the rest of the Big Apple. That meant a lot of things. Among them: More homes, more people, more businesses  and more business for his newspaper.

That visionary was S.I. Newhouse, and the Staten Island Advance was his first newspaper. He purchased the paper  founded in 1886 -- in 1922.

S.I. (as in Samuel Irving) was publisher and his nephew, Richard E. Diamond, associate publisher. Dick was the day-to-day, on-the-scene guy.

They found a piece of property on Fingerboard Road in Grasmere for sale that was Harmony Park, a sort of picnic grounds. There really was nothing else around. Across the street were woods that are now the Stonegate development, and next door is a catering hall, the Island Chateau.

The property bordered the Staten Island Railway. Newsprint  the huge rolls of paper on which the Advance is printed -- was delivered by rail back then. The newsprint-laden trains could be diverted to a short spur connected to the property.

A very modern  by 1950/60s standards -- three-story brick building went up, professionally landscaped with boxwood hedges and hundreds of spring tulips. It held a then-state-of-the-art printing press  one that printed color, almost unheard of in the industry back then.

The Verrazzano Bridge grew out of the Narrows, the community grew and the newspaper grew. So much so that in the 1980s, Publisher Diamond decided his newspaper on Fingerboard Road wasnt big enough, or modern enough, to enter the Staten Island of the 1990s. If Dick entertained the notion of moving, he didnt tell me.

Instead, he OKd the addition of two floors atop the existing brick building  these all glass  and not long after, a new state-of-the art-computer-driven printing press that printed magnificent color.

By now, Caroline Harrison joined her dad at the Advance as general manager.

Life was good on Fingerboard Road. We had our choice of smart young college grads looking to begin their career at a local newspaper. Advertising was strong. Print readership was booming. Until a lot of that changed.

Im not breaking news here as to the whys. Something called the internet surfaced, and with it digital journalism. Mix in a U.S. financial meltdown in 2007-2008 and the newspaper industry was in upheaval.

SILive.com outpaced print in the number of readers, but with two unfortunate caveats: Readers read for free, and online advertising dollars did not reach the level of print advertising dollars. This was not unique to Staten Island, of course. The industry faces challenges all over the country and fact is, the Advance and SILive.com are doing better than many other publications because of the strong support in our community.

But still, its a challenge.

Its now 2020 and Publisher Caroline Harrison (her dad died in 2004) has decided that her Fingerboard Road building is tired and in need of renovation. And its too big. During the early days on Fingerboard Road, well over 500 people worked in the building. Technology and consolidation with other Advance properties reduced that number dramatically.

To put it simply: We just dont need the 108,000 square feet any longer.

The decision has been made for the Advance family to leave Fingerboard Road. The building and property will be put up for sale. The news reporters, photographers, editors and sales people will find a home on Staten Island in leased space. The press operation will be consolidated with other Advance newspapers in Montville, N.J.

Allow me to stress as strongly as possible: The Staten Island Advance and SILive.com ARE NOT leaving Staten Island. Were just relocating to a new home in the borough. The Advance will just be printed at a New Jersey plant. Everything else will originate from Staten Island.

Much the same is happening at another Advance property in Grand Rapids, Mich. There, press operations will consolidate at an Advance printing facility in Cleveland.

Our press and packaging crews have done heroic work printing the paper without interruption during the pandemic, said Harrison, the publisher who is also CEO of Advance Local, which publishes newspapers and operates websites in markets across the country.

I am extremely grateful to them, she said. There will be opportunity for a number to move with the printing operation to New Jersey, and I hope they will. The reality is print publications have gotten smaller around the country as operations straddle the print and digital worlds. Many print sites have been consolidated, and it makes sense for the Advance to move its printing to New Jersey. For the customer, there will be no change in quality, or the excellent service you get from your carrier.

Nothing good has come out of the coronavirus crisis we are living through. Nothing. But we have learned a lot. One is the ability to work outside an office setting. Its the way reporters should work.

Even though we will have a home base on Staten Island, our reporters, photographers, videographers, social media people and our sales team will be out among you seven days a week.

Over the years, our processes have become far more automated than what the building was designed for, said Harrison. Today our reporters and sales people do their best work out of the office. Reporters and photographers submit their stories live from the scene. Sales people partner with their clients and develop sales plans on the spot. As tough as it will be to leave the nostalgia behind, we work differently today -- maybe better -- and the time has come to move to more suitable space on Staten Island, she said.

A lot of thought  and emotion  went into the decision. Imagine leaving your home after 60 years. Imagine the memories. For us, we think of the great Staten Island stories we broke from the Fingerboard Road plant. The list is almost endless. The talented young reporters who walked into 950 Fingerboard Road green, who learned their craft by writing American Legion and Rotary meeting notices, and obituaries. Who went on to win Pulitzers, or write for major national publications like the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. Who published best-selling books. Some going into the corporate world. The world of television and movies.

But in so many ways the world is changing and a newspaper is a living and breathing part of it. We need to adapt and be smart financially.

Thats what we are doing. We are leaving a home we love, but doing it for the right reason: To be fiscally prudent and ensure that our journalism not just continues, but thrives to be better, to serve you, our Staten Island neighbors.

(Brian Laline is executive editor of the Staten Island Advance and SILive.com)
This is only a stay while the states appeal is ongoing. Its disappointing because many people wont be able to vote in the primary next month, but were still hopeful that they will be able to do so in November, said Julie Ebenstein, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, which is among the groups representing felons seeking to regain their right to vote.
Vietnamese citizens check in before boarding (Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

Hanoi  Vietnamese authorities, representative offices in the US and the national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines coordinated with the US side in conducting a flight bringing Vietnamese citizens there back home on July 15-16.

Vietnamese representative offices in the US actively supported the citizens. The Consulate General in San Francisco sent officials to the airport to help them complete all necessary procedures.

Preventive measures against COVID-19 were implemented seriously during the flight.

Upon landing at Van Don international airport in northeastern Quang Ninh province, all passengers and crew members had their body temperature checked and were quarantined as regulated.

However, according to Vietnam Airlines, a male passenger, born in 1947 had an accidental fall after using the restroom when the plane had been flying for over 13 hours and was cruising at an altitude of 33,000 feet (about 10 km). Crew members and passengers who are doctors on the flight actively provided him with the first aids, but he had died before the plane landed at the airport.

The airline informed the incident to the aviations relevant agencies.
The second-largest teachers union in the U.S. called to defund the police and place a moratorium on charter schools in a research paper recommending that Los Angeles city schools stay closed at the beginning of the fall semester.

United Teachers Los Angeles released its study on school reopenings on July 9, recommending that schools only open once a set of safety precautions and funding conditions are met. On Monday, the Los Angeles and San Diego school districts announced they would not reopen for the near future.

This is a painful decision, but we have to keep health and safety first, L.A. schools superintendent Austin Beutner told the local Fox affiliate on Wednesday. Theres no substitute for being in school, we understand that. But we can only be in school when all at the school are safe.

As it stands, the only people guaranteed to benefit from the premature physical reopening of schools amidst a rapidly accelerating pandemic are billionaires and the politicians theyve purchased, the UTLA study concludes.

We must shift the astronomical amount of money devoted to policing, to education and other essential needs such as housing and public health, the study reads. The study also supported a moratorium on charter schools, saying they drain resources from district schools and received federal small business bailout loans even though state funding did not decline this school year.

The Los Angeles school board voted on Wednesday to cut $25 million from the budget for school police. Todd Chamberlain, the school district police chief, resigned the next day, writing in his resignation letter, I cannot support modifications to my position, the organization and most importantly, the community (students, staff and families) that I believe will be detrimental and potentially life-threatening.

President Trump slammed the closure of Los Angeles and San Diego schools, threatening to withhold federal funding from the districts. Meanwhile, the school board of Orange County, which neighbors Los Angeles, voted to allow schools to reopen even without social distancing or mask requirements in place. However, all the school districts in Orange County that have published reopening plans online have implemented mask and social distancing requirements.

More from National Review
Chinas economy grew by 3.2 percent between April and June, a sign of substantial recovery following a record slump in the first quarter where the second-largest economy in the world shrank for the first time in decades because of the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

It is the first major world economy to show growth following the impact of the pandemic.

The Chinese economy was also the first major economy to gradually reopen after bringing the outbreak under control even as it rages worldwide.

Chinas gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 3.2 percent year on year in the second quarter of 2020, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Thursday.

The new economic figures will be closely monitored globally as Beijing restarts its economy after lifting Covid-19-related lockdowns and resumes manufacturing full-throttle.

In the first half of this year, the countrys GDP stood at 45.66 trillion yuan (about 6.53 trillion U.S. dollars) amid Covid-19 impact, down 1.6 percent year on year, official news agency, Xinhua reported quoting NBS data.

In the first three months of the year, the $14 trillion Chinese economy shrank 6.8%, the worst decline for a single quarter on record since China started publishing GDP figures in 1992.

It was also the first time China reported an economic contraction since 1976.

The fundamentals of Chinas long-term sound economic growth have not changed and will not change, Chinese President Xi Jinping told global CEOs in a letter published in state media.

The second-quarter performance was better than expected, as production on the supply side picked up and investment caught up. The economy in the latter half of the second quarter moved from post-virus recovery to periodic climbing up to a certain extent, Tian Yun, vice director of the Beijing Economic Operation Association, told state media.

Earlier, the IMF had projected that only a few economies including Chinas would grow by 1 percent in 2020.

We are projecting that only a very small number of economies in Asia and the Pacific will actually grow this year, including China by 1.0 percent. Most economies in the region are expected to contract in 2020, and some quite sharplyKorea by around 2 percent, India by 4.5 percent, Japan by 5.8 percent, and some other economies by even more, given their dependence on remittances, tourism, and/or commodities, Tao Zhang, IMFs deputy managing director said on July 10.

In May, Premier Li Keqiang had pledged a package of 4 trillion yuan (US$559 billion) in 2020, the largest economic rescue plan in its history, in an effort to save jobs put at risk by the pandemic.
Iran facing 2nd Wave of COVID-19: Rouhani

Tehran, Jul 15 (UNI) Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday admitted that his country was presently in the midst of a second wave of COVID-19, he also expressed optimism that Iran would overcome this crisis thanks to the country's collective efforts.

The Iranian authorities have previously claimed that despite a surge in new cases of COVID-19 across the country after a brief period of decline, Iran was still fighting the first wave of the pandemic.

As per Mr Rouhani, the first wave of the pandemic, lasted between February and mid-April, this affected the northern and central parts of the country. The second wave he said started in mid-June, and it mostly hit the country's southern regions and border areas.
Sony's A7s II has been capturing mesmerizing low-light photos and videos ever since it was released in 2015, but five years is a long time to wait for a sequel. (That is, unless you're a Star Wars fan.) That wait is thankfully nearing its end, though: Sony tweeted a not-so-cryptic teaser earlier today all but confirming that the A7s III would make its official debut at 10AM Eastern on July 28th.



The news wasn't all that surprising to fans and industry watchers -- the company confirmed the camera's existence and summer launch in an interview with DPReview at the end of June. At the time, Kenji Tanaka, Senior General Manager of Sonys Digital Imaging Group, told the publication that the company had embarked on a "complete redesign of the whole system, including the image sensor." Unfortunately, Tanaka's conversation was a little light on the technical detail.



In the meantime, Sony Alpha Rumors has been dutifully chronicling new spces and features passed along by sources who claim to have been the camera's early testers. If those claims hold true, the A7s III will pack a new 12-megapixel sensor (not a 15-megapixel sensor as earlier reports suggested), 15 stops of dynamic range, a super high resolution electronic viewfinder, and a new cooling system that should prevent overheating and obviate the need for video recording limits altogether. That last bit is especially crucial as the A7s II quickly become a fan-favorite of filmmakers and YouTube alike.



While we're on the subject of shooting footage, the A7s III is said to shoot 4K at speeds as high as 120fps, and is reportedly capable of 10-bit 4:2:2 recording. For low-light shooters, the Mk. III is expected to keep the same 409,600 max ISO for video found in the older model. And if you're more of a vlogger, Sony's new Alpha cam is expected to pack the same articulated LCD screen found in the company's recent ZV-1. In other words, the A7s III was designed to serve a very specific purpose, but there's still a little something there for everyone. At least, that's what it sounds like right now -- we'll have to wait a week and a half to be sure.


Rantoul, IL (61866)

Today

Overcast. Morning high of 30F with temps falling to near 20. Winds NW at 15 to 25 mph..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies early will become partly cloudy late. Low 8F. Winds NNW at 15 to 25 mph.
Jose Alvarez-Castillo, 21, shares a Westwood apartment with six roommates. Castillo, a UCLA student who lost two on-campus jobs in mid-March due to the coronavirus outbreak, has been using expanded unemployment benefits to cover his rent. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Even before he lost both of his part-time jobs in March, Jose Alvarez-Castillo was just barely getting by.

The 21-year-old senior at UCLA was sharing a three-bedroom apartment with six roommates near the Westwood campus. His share of the rent was $800 a month. When the pandemic hit, his jobs as a handyman and receptionist for on-campus gyms went away. Alvarez-Castillo feared hed have to max out his credit cards, take out more loans and still fall behind on his rent.

But then came an unexpected boon: Alvarez-Castillo's unemployment check.

Unemployment really saved me, Alvarez-Castillo said. This extra money was amazing.

Like tens of millions out of work across the country, Alvarez-Castillo is receiving expanded unemployment benefits passed as part of the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic in March. The program gives those who have lost their jobs an extra $600 a week on top of regular state unemployment payments, a cash influx helping people pay their bills in ways that many hadnt expected at the beginning of the crisis. Chief among them is rent.

More than 94% of renters paid at least part of their rent in April, May and June, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council, a Washington-based landlord trade group that surveys owners of 11.4 million apartments, or about a quarter of the nations rental market. Those figures are only a few percentage points behind what renters paid during the same months in 2019, according to the survey.

But those expanded unemployment benefits are scheduled to expire at the end of July, leaving tenants, landlords and housing advocates worried about a wave of evictions in the coming months as renters lose much of their incomes.

What youre asking renters to do is impossible for them to do, said Doug Bibby, the multifamily housing councils president. Which is do it again, but without the resources youd given them.

Currently, nearly all evictions in California are on hold because the state court system is not processing cases except for those deemed urgent. But those provisions are set to expire three months after the coronavirus state of emergency ends, and court leaders have indicated they may speed up that timeline. Without a blanket eviction prohibition, tenants will have to navigate protections that vary by city, with many requiring those who fall behind on rent to go to court to remain in their homes.

Story continues

Its hard to get a complete picture of how tenants are faring with their rents right now. The multifamily housing council data skew toward higher-end apartments because they survey only those with professional management companies. Even so, other statistics show that renters in the state are treading water  with expanded unemployment benefits a key reason why.

In California, nearly 85% of adults living in rental homes reported paying their rent last month in a U.S. Census Bureau survey conducted July 2-7, with the percentage slightly lower in the Los Angeles area.

An analysis by the Urban Institute, a Washington think tank, estimated that more than one-fifth of renter households in California had at least one person lose their job during the pandemic. Yet, despite the massive increase in those out of work, the percentage of families in the state burdened by high rents remained the same once the increased unemployment benefits were factored in.

The federal unemployment benefits are really going a long way, said Sarah Strochak, a research analyst at the Urban Institute and the reports lead author. Its improving affordability for a lot of people, particularly at the lower income levels.

To be sure, the additional cash available to those out of work has not made it affordable to rent in California, nor has it eased the financial burdens of everyone dealing with the economic fallout from the coronavirus.

The Urban Institute study found that more than half of renter households in California are still spending more than 30% of their income on housing, even with the extra unemployment insurance. Additionally, nearly 2 million workers in the state have yet to receive their unemployment benefits as the California Employment Development Department has struggled to process claims. Others, including those in the country illegally, are prohibited from receiving any unemployment benefits  expanded or otherwise.

Because Alvarez-Castillo was able to get his unemployment checks starting in April, hes not only current on his own rent but also able to lend money to roommates who havent received benefits. Alvarez-Castillo also sent some cash to his mother who lost her housecleaning work.

Other financial relief programs for renters arent coming close to the projected need. The city of Los Angeles is planning to spend $100 million on subsidies for low-income tenants affected by the coronavirus  the largest municipal program in the country  yet even City Council members who passed the plan say federal and state government will need to shoulder a greater financial burden to keep tenants housed.

The gaps in the safety net for renters point to a need for Congress to not only renew expanded unemployment benefits but also provide broad rental assistance and other protections for tenants, said Diane Yentel, president and chief executive of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, an advocacy group.

Its been clear to us from the beginning that, without a significant federal intervention, there would be a wave of evictions and a spike in homelessness at some point during this crisis, Yentel said. Expanded unemployment insurance, she said, has been significant, helpful and its not enough.

After weeks of Senate Republicans saying they were unwilling to continue the $600-a-week subsidy, Congress is in the early stages of negotiating a compromise to include in the next coronavirus stimulus package. One possibility is reducing the unemployment benefit and making up at least part of the difference by sending out another round of $1,200 stimulus checks that were also part of the March package. In late June, the House approved $100 billion for rental assistance, but it is unclear whether it will be included in any deal.

Its not just renters who are benefiting from expanded unemployment payments. Nearly half of the tenants in the 16-unit apartment complex Kim Pierce owns in Echo Park are behind on their rent, Pierce said. She was able to defer her $10,000-a month mortgage for six months. But after that, her lender is adding the missed payments to her monthly bill over the next year.

Had I not gotten the help, for sure I would have gone bankrupt, Pierce said. I could not possibly have hung on.

Pierce is concerned that the expiration of the expanded unemployment benefits means even more of her tenants will fail to pay just as shes needing to make up her missed mortgage payments.

Im headed toward a cliff, she said. And if something doesnt give, were all going over.

As for Alvarez-Castillo, with future unemployment benefits uncertain, hes considering trying to find new work. But his options seem limited. He doesnt have a car so he cant stray far from campus. He has underlying health conditions and two of his roommates have asthma, so the idea of working at a grocery store is scary.

I am very worried, he said. I was able to put a little something away. But its not enough.

Times staff writer Sarah D. Wire contributed to this report.
A New York man has been charged with robbing a 77-year-old man who was attacked as he visited a grave in a Passaic County cemetery, authorities said Thursday.

The robbery occurred about 3:30 p.m. on June 12 at East Ridgelawn Cemetery off Main Avenue in Clifton, according to police.

Police said an attacker threatened the man, pushed him to the ground and then entered the victims vehicle and removed his wallet and cellphone before running away.

The robber later used the victims credit cards to make fraudulent purchases in Bergen County, police said.

Todd Scott Allen, 57, of Brooklyn, New York, was arrested by a Clifton police detective after being detained by police in Fairview. He was charged with robbery with bodily injury, burglary and credit card theft.

Police said they have linked Allen to other cemetery robberies in northern New Jersey.

Allen was held in the Bergen County Jail pending a court hearing, according to jail records.

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Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Bernadette and Edel Dowd told the court they were trying to turn their lives around by quitting alcohol

Twin sisters from Dublin glassed a man in a bar during an unprovoked attack after they had been drinking all day after a confirmation.

Bernadette and Edel Dowd (25), appeared before Letterkenny Circuit Court in Co Donegal, having pleaded guilty to the assault.

Both women, who are originally from Tallaght, had been out drinking in Ballybofey after the confirmation celebration on May 26, 2017.

Shortly after midnight, a row broke out at Cheers Bar on Main Street.

Innocent bystander Christopher Gallagher, who was out socialising with his parents, was sitting opposite the sisters.

He was initially hit on the forehead by a glass thrown by Edel Dowd.

As he reached up to feel the blood coming down his face, he was then hit on the cheek by another glass, thrown by Bernadette Dowd.

He was taken to Letterkenny University Hospital, where he received stitches in both wounds and was told he would be left with a permanent scar on his cheek.

Both women were later interviewed by gardai and admitted throwing the glasses.

The court was told both women had moved to Ballybofey with their mother and other family members 10 years ago.

The twins, with an address at Donegal Road, Ballybofey, had fallen in with bad company in recent years and had been drinking too much.

Both took to the witness stand and said they were trying to turn their lives around, had not drunk alcohol in nearly a year and were eating healthily and going to the gym.

Edel Dowd's barrister, Fiona Crawford, said her client was easily led, but she was a very decent person when she did not have drink on her.

Dowd told the court: "I'm genuinely sorry to Mr Gallagher and his family. I didn't mean it. It was the drink, and that's the main reason I'm off drink today.

"I shouldn't have acted like that. It was shocking behaviour, it really was. I'm ashamed and really embarrassed by the way I behaved and I always will be."

Bernadette Dowd's barrister, Peter Nolan, said his client and her sister had learned a less-on, and this type of behaviour would not be tolerated and it could lead to incarceration.

Bernadette Dowd told the court: "I'm sorry to Mr Gallagher and everyone in the pub. We had an early day drinking and celebrating a confirmation and it got out of hand.

"We're keeping our heads down, going to the gym and we have turned ourselves around."

Convictions

Judge John Aylmer said that while both women had previous convictions, they were of a minor nature and this incident was uncharacteristic of them.

He said he put it in the mid-range of such offences, which could result in a sentence of two years in prison, before considering mitigating circumstances.

However, he said he would reduce this to 18 months considering their early guilty plea and genuine remorse.

He added that he wanted to encourage their rehabilitation and suggested a custodial sentence might be counter-productive in their cases.

Instead, he imposed 240 hours of community service in lieu of 18 months in jail and put them under the supervision of the probation service.

He also ordered them to remain off alcohol and not to make contact with anybody with a criminal record, apart from those within their family.
Death Miscount Etched Into History

President Clinton and veterans from across the nation will gather in somber remembrance this afternoon at the Korean War Veterans Memorial, where it is carved into stone that 54,246 Americans died in the war that began 50 years ago today.

For decades, the number has been enshrined in almanacs, histories, memories and monuments, cited as proof of the war's cost. But nearly one-third of those deaths--17,730--occurred elsewhere, often half a world away from Korea, in places ranging from the United States to Germany. The actual number of Americans killed in the Korean War theater of operations is 36,516, the Pentagon acknowledged this month.

"If you were walking down the street in Washington, D.C., and were hit by a car, you'd be considered a casualty of the Korean War," said Burt Hagelin, a Korean War veteran who helped uncover the mystery.

The error was blamed on an anonymous government clerk who in the 1950s mistakenly added all noncombat deaths worldwide to the total, and the correction was credited to revised reporting procedures, according to news accounts reporting the Pentagon's clarification. That is not the real story, according to veterans and others who have pushed for years to correct the number.

"Fifty years later, they're trying to drop it all on one clerk," said Richard Kolb, publisher of VFW Magazine, a Veterans of Foreign Wars publication that several times has urged the number be corrected. "They had the facts all along. Now they're acting like it's a new revelation."

Some Pentagon officials have for years considered the 54,000 figure inflated, and they believed before the memorial was dedicated in 1995 that engraving that number in black granite would be misleading, according to interviews. But at the insistence of the veterans committee that oversaw the memorial's construction, the figure was used.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Triple-S Management Corporation (NYSE: GTS) today announced the appointment of Dr. Stephen L. Ondra to its Board of Directors, effective October 1, 2020. Dr. Ondra has served as the Chief Executive Officer of North Star Healthcare Consulting, a healthcare technology consulting company, since 2017.

Dr. Ondra's appointment will increase the size of Triple-S Management's Board of Directors from eight directors to nine directors.

"We are pleased to welcome Dr. Ondra to our Board," said Cari M. Dominguez, Chair of the Corporate Governance and Nominations Committee of Triple-S Management's Board of Directors. "Dr. Ondra's vast medical and healthcare technology expertise is a perfect complement to our current Board as we continue to enhance the healthcare industry experience and support the creation of a unique value proposition for our current and prospective members. We believe Dr. Ondra's considerable insight will further strengthen the Board and provide considerable value as we continue to execute on our long-term strategy."

Prior to joining North Star Healthcare Consulting, Dr. Ondra served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Health Care Service Corporation ("HCSC"), the largest customer-owned health insurance company in the United States, which operates as Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. Before joining HCSC, Dr. Ondra was Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he had previously been a Professor of Neurosurgery and Residency Program Director at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, and the interim chair of Neurological Surgery.

In 2009, Dr. Ondra was appointed by President Barack Obama as the Senior Policy Advisor for Health Affairs at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He also served at the White House in the Executive Office of the President. At the White House, he served in several positions, including co-chair of the National Science and Technology Council for Health Information Technology, member of the Federal Health Information Technology Policy and Standards Committees, and member of the Implementation Deputy Group for the Affordable Care Act. Dr. Ondra currently serves as a Trustee of Illinois Wesleyan University and as a director on the board of directors of ElectroCore, Inc., a bioelectronic medicine company. He has also served on the board of TriWest Healthcare Alliance, the Louis B. Sullivan Institute for Healthcare Transformation, and chaired the scientific advisory boards for the Defense Spinal Cord/Column Injury and the Spine Blast Injury for the Department of Defense.

"I am excited at the opportunity to join Triple-S's remarkable Board and contribute to the preeminent managed care organization in Puerto Rico," added Dr. Ondra. "I look forward to collaborating with the Board on guiding the company's strategic initiatives in order to further generate additional long-term shareholder value."

About Triple-S Management Corporation

Triple-S Management Corporation is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. It is one of the leading players in the managed care industry in Puerto Rico. Triple-S Management has the exclusive right to use the Blue Cross Blue Shield name and mark throughout Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Costa Rica. With 60 years of experience in the industry, Triple-S Management offers a broad portfolio of managed care and related products in the Commercial, Medicare Advantage, and Medicaid markets under the Blue Cross Blue Shield marks. It also provides non-Blue Cross Blue Shield branded life and property and casualty insurance in Puerto Rico. For more information about Triple-S Management, visit www.triplesmanagement.com or contact [email protected].

Forward-Looking Statements

This document contains forward-looking statements, as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include information about possible or assumed future sales, results of operations, developments, regulatory approvals or other circumstances. Sentences that include "believe", "expect", "plan", "intend", "estimate", "anticipate", "project", "may", "will", "shall", "should" and similar expressions, whether in the positive or negative, are intended to identify forward-looking statements.

All forward-looking statements in this news release reflect management's current views about future events and are based on assumptions and subject to risks and uncertainties. Consequently, actual results may differ materially from those expressed here as a result of various factors, including all the risks discussed and identified in public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In addition, the Company operates in a highly competitive, constantly changing environment, influenced by very large organizations that have resulted from business combinations, aggressive marketing and pricing practices of competitors, and regulatory oversight. The following factors, if markedly different from the Company's planning assumptions (either individually or in combination), could cause Triple-S Management's results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements shared here:

Trends in health care costs and utilization rates

Ability to secure sufficient premium rate increases

Competitor pricing below market trends of increasing costs

Re-estimates of policy and contract liabilities

Changes in government laws and regulations of managed care, life insurance or property and casualty insurance

Significant acquisitions or divestitures by major competitors

Introduction and use of new prescription drugs and technologies

A downgrade in the Company's financial strength ratings

Litigation or legislation targeted at managed care, life insurance or property and casualty insurance companies

Ability to contract with providers consistent with past practice

Ability to successfully implement the Company's disease management, utilization management and Star ratings programs

Ability to maintain Federal Employees, Medicare and Medicaid contracts

Volatility in the securities markets and investment losses and defaults

General economic downturns, major disasters, and epidemics

This list is not exhaustive. Management believes the forward-looking statements in this release are reasonable. However, there is no assurance that the actions, events or results anticipated by the forward-looking statements will occur or, if any of them do, what impact they will have on the Company's results of operations or financial condition. In view of these uncertainties, investors should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which are based on current expectations. In addition, forward-looking statements are based on information available the day they are made, and (other than as required by applicable law, including the securities laws of the United States) the Company does not intend to update or revise any of them in light of new information or future events.

Readers are advised to carefully review and consider the various disclosures in the Company's SEC reports.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:





AT THE COMPANY: INVESTOR RELATIONS: Juan Jose Roman-Jimenez Mr. Garrett Edson EVP and Chief Financial Officer ICR (787) 749-4949 (787) 792-6488

SOURCE Triple-S Management Corporation

Related Links

http://www.triplesmanagement.com


Adam Parker has covered many beats and topics for The Post and Courier, including race and history, religion, and the arts. He is the author of "Outside Agitator: The Civil Rights Struggle of Cleveland Sellers Jr.," published by Hub City Press.
2615 Tarpon Road, Naples, Fla. The single-family housing market is on fire. We are seeing limited inventory because there is a surplus of buyers who are making the switch from condos to single-family homes for increased square footage, and those from northern states who want more desirable weather and space.

Engel & Volkers today announced the record-breaking sale of 2615 Tarpon Rd, a single-family home in Royal Harbor. License Partner and Private Office Advisor, Ryan Chiodo of Engel & Volkers Olde Naples and Engel & Volkers Bonita-Estero represented the buyer in the purchase of the highest-priced listing the Royal Harbor community has ever seen.

The single-family housing market is on fire, said Chiodo. We are seeing limited inventory because there is a surplus of buyers who are making the switch from condos to single-family homes for increased square footage, and those from northern states who want more desirable weather and space.

The nearly 9,000 square-foot home features five bedrooms plus a den, five full bathrooms, three half bathrooms, chefs kitchen, breakfast nook, family room, formal living room with a wet bar, wine cellar and elevator. The homes second level offers a secondary family room with a wet bar, media room and study along with three bedrooms. A sprawling outdoor living area features an outdoor kitchen, bar and dining area, saltwater infinity-edge pool with swim-up bar and saltwater spa.

The home had been on and off the market since 2018, when it was originally listed for $7,950,000, prior to the latest entry into the market. Most recently, the home had been on the market for 20 days when Chiodo brought the buyer to the table and the sale went pending. It has since sold for a record-breaking price of $7,200,000, a whopping $4,800,000 above the communitys median home value of $2,400,000. Philip N. Collins, PA with William Raveis Real Estate represented the seller in the transaction. The buyers are recreational vehicle park owners.

Royal Harbor, a Naples neighborhood located on the eastern shores of Naples Bay with connecting channels to the bay and the Gulf of Mexico, contains just over 400 single family homes and select condos. The median list price per square foot is $431, $196 higher than the Naples average.

###

Press contact:

Linzee Werkmeister, Director, Public Relations & Franchise Support

Email: Linzee.Werkmeister(at)evrealestate.com

Tel: (239) 348-9000

About Engel & Volkers:

Engel & Volkers is a global luxury real estate brand. Founded in Hamburg, Germany in 1977, Engel & Volkers draws on its rich European history to deliver a fresh approach to luxury real estate in the Americas with a focus on creating a bespoke, white-glove concierge client experience at every stage of the home buying or selling process for todays savvy homeowner. Engel & Volkers currently operates approximately 175 shop locations with more than 4,000 real estate advisors in the Americas, contributing to the brands global network of over 12,000 real estate professionals in more than 30 countries, offering both private and institutional clients a professionally tailored range of luxury services, including real estate, yachting and aviation. Committed to exceptional service, Engel & Volkers supports its advisors with an array of premium quality business services; marketing programs and platforms; as well as access to its global network of real estate professionals, property listings and market data. Each brokerage is independently owned and operated. For more information, visit evrealestate.com.

About Engel & Volkers Florida:

Engel & Volkers Florida is the Master License Partner of the global luxury real estate brand Engel & Volkers in the state of Florida. Recognized for uniquely recruiting, training and equipping some of the top professionals in the real estate industry, Engel & Volkers Floridas exclusive franchise model positions its license partners at the top of the premium market to gain market share and support their bottom line. The company represents franchise locations in: 30A Beaches, Belleair, Boca Raton, Bonita Springs-Estero, Cape Coral, Clermont, Delray Beach, Destin, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers Downtown, Gainesville, Islamorada, Jacksonville, Jacksonville Beach, Jupiter, Leesburg, Madeira Beach, Marco Island, Melbourne Central, Melbourne Downtown, Miami Coconut Grove, Olde Naples, Orlando Downtown, Orlando-Winter Park, Palm Beach, Palm Coast, St. Augustine, St. Pete, Stuart, Wellington, and Windermere.

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Massachusetts House leaders will open the Senate police reform bill up to comment public this week, accepting written testimony until Friday morning, according to a hearing notice sent out Wednesday.

Rep. Aaron Michlewitz, a Boston Democrat who heads the House Committee on Ways and Means, and Rep. Claire Cronin, an Easton Democrat and chair of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary, issued a notice soliciting public comments on S.2800. The polarizing police reform bill stalled in the Senate for several days and passed early Tuesday morning after an all-night session that centered around questions about public input and the impact of limiting qualified immunity for police officers.

Michlewitz and Cronin plan to accept written testimony via email until 11 a.m. Friday. They ask lawmakers and members of the public to email comments to Testimony.HWMJudiciary@mahouse.gov and include their name, organization and phone number.

While several components of the legislation have undergone a public hearing, the massive omnibus bill  combining proposals on facial recognition, body-worn cameras and qualified immunity  has not. The issue of qualified immunity, which was at the heart of the Senate debate earlier this week, was the focus of a bill filed by Rep. Mike Day in 2019. The bill, H.3277, did have a public hearing and received a favorable report earlier this year from the Joint Committee on the Judiciary.

Still, state legislators have pushed through other bills in response to the coronavirus pandemic without a public hearing, citing the urgency of responding to the global public health crisis.

House Speaker Robert DeLeo, who had previously said the House was finalizing its own police reform bill, said in a statement Monday he hoped to have a virtual hearing on the Senate bill this week. He said the House Ways and Means Committee and members of the House Judiciary Committee would jointly solicit feedback because the legislative session comes to a close on July 31.

Despite a changed timetable, House leadership remains committed to working with the Black and Latino Legislative Caucus and House colleagues to take decisive action through omnibus legislation. We look forward to reviewing the Senates engrossed bill and the work ahead, the Winthrop Democrat said.

Protests erupted across the country after the May 25 death of George Floyd, a Black man whose neck was knelt on for nearly nine minutes by a Minneapolis police officer. The incident was captured in a video that went viral. DeLeo and Senate President Karen Spilka pledged to act in the wake of Floyds death and Breonna Taylors death by Louisville police during a raid in her apartment.

Gov. Charlie Baker unveiled a bill to create a Peace Officer Standards and Training or POST system that would certify police officers. The bill would create monetary incentives for officers who obtain certain levels of training and require that the board overseeing certifications investigate officers who have been criminally convicted or had multiple sustained complaints.

Spilka created a racial justice advisory group, led by Sen. Sonia Chang Diaz and Senate Pro Tempore William Brownsberger. The advisory group drafted a much more expansive bill that not only created a certification system, but would also temporarily ban facial recognition, bar an officer from firing his gun at a fleeing vehicle, unless its to prevent imminent harm, make school resource officers optional and limit qualified immunity, the last of which was at the center of the Senate debate on the bill.

Sen. Ryan Fattman, a Sutton Republican, delayed voting on the bill last week because the bill did not have a public hearing and had almost no input from constituents, including police unions. The debate stretched on over the weekend and into an all-night session Monday and Tuesday morning with Sen. Dean Tran and other Republicans calling the bill politically motivated.

Law enforcement groups called for a pause on the Senate debate, which they say had no input from the Massachusetts Association of Minority Law Enforcement Officers. The Senate is missing a tremendous opportunity to create uniform guidelines and training standards to improve policing into the future, said Lawrence Calderone, president of the Boston Police Patrolmens Association.

The debate continued throughout Monday and into Tuesday morning. Sen. John Velis delivered his inaugural Senate speech late Monday night pushing for the Senate to hold off on limiting qualified immunity and studying that component of the bill instead. The Westfield Democrat called the criticism of law enforcement a fad of the present day and said changes to qualified immunity need a closer look.

What I find curious about this debate is that I have yet to hear a law enforcement officer attempt to justify the horrific events in Minneapolis, said Velis, one of seven senators who voted against the bill. Nobody hates a bad cop more than a good cop. Each time I see officers in these ride alongs, their professionalism stands out to me. Police officers put their lives on the line to protect communities.

Sen. Cindy Friedman, an Arlington Democrat, said limiting qualified immunity is about closing a loophole that enables problem cops to remain on the streets. She said lawmakers have the power to act quickly and fix any issues that come up in the future.

Nobody is saying that we dont support our cops. Nobody is saying that. I love my police forces in my town. They are decent people. Except for the two of them that the chief cant get rid of because some little rule or law he didnt follow, Friedman said. Why doesnt that matter to us? We cannot say that what we do is because we dont like our cops. That is not what we are saying. And I am troubled that keeps coming up. That is the dog whistle.

The bill passed after 4 a.m. Tuesday, 30-7. In a statement, Spilka said the legislation meets the urgency of this moment.

The State Police Association of Massachusetts issued a statement Wednesday night thanking the seven state senators who voted against the bill and three who voted present.

The votes cast do not detract from or reject police reforms, but rather focus attention on those that are sound, attainable, and well-reasoned, the statement reads.

Now its up to the House to take up the bill, but not before Michlewitz and Cronin accept public testimony.

The Legislature has two weeks before the end of the two-year legislative session. Lawmakers said their true deadline is as soon as July 20 as they seek to give Gov. Charlie Baker a full 10 days to review a police reform bill. The Legislature, however, typically needs 10 business days to ensure they have time to override a potential veto, which would make the deadline July 17.

Material from the State House News Service was used in this report.

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One of the questions most-searched on Google these days is where to get tested for COVID-19 near me.

It can be difficult to figure out when and where you can get tested for the coronavirus with the vast number of providers offering tests across the region. As of July 15, there are more than 240 sites administering coronavirus diagnostic and antibody tests within 100 miles of downtown Houston, according to the Texas Division of Emergency Management.

Heres where you can get tested for COVID-19 in the Greater Houston area.

The two types of tests

COVID-19 diagnostic tests determine whether you currently have the virus. A trained medical professional uses a long swab to reach deep within your nostril, collecting mucus from the top of the throat. Some sites will provide saliva-based tests, which so far seem to be accurate, according to researchers at the University of Chicago.

You qualify to take a COVID-19 diagnostic test at most places as long as you fall under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for testing priorities. That means youve shown symptoms such as loss of taste or smell, fever, cough, shortness of breath, chills, sore throat, muscle pain, vomiting, and/or diarrhea, or your doctor or a public health official has asked you to get tested.

A few test sites will test you if you have been exposed to someone who was diagnosed with the virus.

COVID-19 antibody tests look at whether youve had the virus. After drawing a blood sample, clinicians look for proteins produced to fight off COVID-19. The antibodies are in your blood for several weeks after recovering from COVID-19, but dont tell you if youre currently infected, according to the CDC.

A RISE IN CASES: Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner in favor of a 'step back,' two-week shutdown to reduce COVID-19 spread

More Information What is this? I'm Gwendolyn Wu, and I'm writing "Houston How To," a series on how to navigate the city and its complexities. Humans have an innate drive to improve themselves, and we're always striving to live better, smarter and more efficiently by throwing countless dollars and hours at our problems. The Houston Chronicle wants to simplify that for you. As a reporter, I usually ask the questions, but I can't be the only one wondering how something works. What are things you need to know how to do, Houston? You can find me on Twitter at @gwendolynawu or by email at gwendolyn.wu@chron.com. See More Collapse

People are taking antibody tests to see if they can donate plasma to treat current coronavirus patients, or to see if they may have been previously infected.

Genalyte, a San Diego, Calif.-based diagnostics company, is doing antibody testing at the Toyota Center. Testing is available for the next two weeks, with the possibility of an extension, according to Genalyte. Some private hospitals and clinics also offer this test.

Health insurers, including private and government-subsidized insurance, generally pay for the cost of a diagnostic test as long as your doctor deems it medically necessary. The Texas Department of Insurance recommends calling your primary care physician to order a test, and avoiding private hospitals or emergency rooms if its not urgent.

Test results can take some time to get back; Quest Diagnostics, a private lab company processing 125,000 test kits daily, said in a statement that hospital patients and symptomatic health care workers are receiving results in just over a day, while everyone else can expect results in seven or more days.

Government-run testing sites

There are several options for city and county-run testing sites in Harris County. The city manages two large test stadiums: Butler Stadium and Delmar Stadium.

Each site can process 650 tests a day. To get an appointment, call the city at 832-393-4220 to get a code for same-day testing. If they run out of codes for the day, youll have to try again the next morning. Most days, the city sites finish testing by the early afternoon, said Scott Packard, a Houston Health Department spokesman.

The city also sets up mobile test sites travel to at-risk neighborhoods in Houston and administer the tests. A schedule of mobile test sites is available on the Houston Health Department website.

Test results come from a federal contractor, and wait times have recently shot up from within five days to more than a week.

City test sites are open to everyone regardless of symptoms or testing priority at this time.

While we still generally encourage people to go to their medical provider, we recognize COVID-19 testing is not always widely offered by medical providers, Packard said. Our sites and partner sites are an option for everyone.

Harris County Public Health and the Texas Division of Emergency Management also operate a number of sites within the county. People looking to get tested at Harris County Public Health sites, which usually reach capacity in the mornings or early afternoons, must take the online COVID-19 self-assessment. To get a test at a TDEM site, patients must make an appointment online at texas.curativeinc.com.

For now, these test sites are partially run with federal help. Gov. Greg Abbott announced last week that U.S. government support for test sites in Texas has been extended to July 31. As of late June, the federal government had sent Houston $73 million in relief funds to cover the costs of the sites in the future, according to Assistant U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Brett Giroir.

Retail clinics

Cant get an appointment at one of the city sites? Theres always your neighborhood drugstore or big-box retailer. CVS Health, Walgreens and Walmart have also gotten into the COVID-19 testing space.

As of the week of July 13, there are 16 CVS Health drive-thru testing sites in Houston and more than 20 others in the Greater Houston region. Walgreens has also opened COVID-19 test sites in the parking lots of two stores in Harris County.

Test costs should be covered by your insurer, or by the federal program funding tests for uninsured people across the country.

The increase in cases of COVID-19 in certain areas of the country is causing extremely high demand for tests across the board, said Monica Prinzing, a CVS Health spokesperson.

The kits are going to independent, third-party labs for diagnosis. At CVS Health, it can take an average of 6-10 days for processing right now, and as coronavirus rates soar, those wait times could be longer, Prinzing said.

Walgreens did not respond to requests for comment on how long test results take.

MORE HOW TO: What to do about your drivers license, car registration and more during the pandemic

Walmart operates 18 drive-thru testing sites in the Greater Houston region at no-cost to the person getting tested. Test results are returning within between three to six days, according to the retailer.

To get an appointment at any of these testing sites, visit the retailers website.

Clinics and private medical centers

Some clinics and hospitals offer coronavirus testing. Patients who are going in for certain procedures or treatments may be asked to take a COVID-19 test before their appointment.

United Memorial Medical Center offers free testing at multiple sites in Houston. Federally qualified health clinics, which provide care to low-income communities in Houston, are also testing people regardless of insurance. Patients are given a price based on income level and family size. HOPE Clinic, Spring Branch Community Health Center, El Centro de Corazon, Avenue 360 Health and Wellness, Lone Star Circle of Care and Legacy Community Health are making appointments for COVID-19 tests.

Similar to other sites, theyre beholden to the same test delays from national lab providers.

The 24-hour independent emergency rooms around the Greater Houston area may offer COVID-19 diagnostic testing, and some may even do antibody tests. Under the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, they have been authorized to provide emergency care to Medicare patients during the pandemic, meaning that those on government insurance can go to one for testing without being charged.

However, note that some freestanding emergency rooms do not accept private insurance, nor are they all approved to accept Medicaid. Call ahead if you plan to stop by for a COVID-19 test and want to know the costs.

gwendolyn.wu@chron.com

twitter.com/gwendolynawu
Burma Ethnic Chin Armed Group Tells AA: Leave Chin State, End Fighting With Myanmar Military

Chin National Front leaders at the central executive meeting in Camp Victoria. / CNF

YANGON The Chin National Front (CNF) has issued another warning to the Arakan Army (AA), asking the armed group to withdraw from Chin States Paletwa Township, which the AA has used as a base to fight the Myanmar military.

The CNF held its second central executive committee meeting of the year from July 7-15, after which it repeated its demand that the AA leave Paletwa.

The CNF was formed in March 1988 and is dedicated to achieving self-determination for ethnic Chin people and to working for democracy and a federal Union. It is based in Camp Victoria, in Thantlang, Chin State, and has around 200 members in its armed forces, according to Myanmar Peace Monitor. It entered into peace talks with the previous government in late 2011 and singed a bilateral ceasefire in January 2012 and the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement in October 2015.

We have not talked with the government troops about the AA, said CNF spokesman Salai Htet Ni. What is important is that the two sides stop fighting. We are asking the AA to leave Paletwa so that clashes do not happen.

The groups central executive committee discussed the ongoing peace process, assistance for internally displaced people in Paletwa and Rakhine State and the clashes between the Myanmar military and the AA in Paletwa.

At the meeting, the CNF decided to take measures to prevent the AA from establishing bases and undertaking military operations on Chin territory.

The government says our troops can be stationed anywhere in Chin State except Paletwa. If we were allowed to station them in Paletwa, the situation would not have been this bad. But as things have happened now, we will do our best to prevent the AA from establishing bases, Salai Htet Ni told The Irrawaddy.

In an interview with the Chin Cable Network Channel, AA chief Major General Tun Myat Naing said that the AA inevitably has to enter Chin State to achieve military victory because the two states share a border.

We cant fight only in Rakhine State. It is a matter of life and death. We have to enter [Chin State] because we have no choice, whether we want it or not. To win a war, this is inevitable. As the two states are bordering, even though we are speaking of Chin territory and Rakhine territory, in fact, our social lives are inseparable. Thats why we continue to operate [in Paletwa], the AA chief was quoted as saying.

The AA was formed in 2009 by a group of fighters in Laiza, the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Army in Kachin State, and has been in heavy military engagement with the Tatmadaw since it tried to establish its base in Rakhine State in 2015. Continuous fighting in Paletwa, just over the border from Rakhine, has affected some 100,000 local residents.

CNF Chairman Pu Zing Cung said on January 26 that the CNF would openly drive the AA out if the armed group does not heed the CNFs warning not to conduct military operations on Chin territory.

When asked about what the CNF chairman means by driving out, Salai Htet Ni said, We cant say whether we will solve this militarily or politically. To drive them out of our state, it is possible to use military means as well as political dialogue. It can be interpreted differently.

He said that when the CNF met AA leaders in 2016 and requested that the AA not fight in Chin State, the AA refused, and that therefore the CNF will not negotiate again.

The Myanmar military and the AA have been fighting around a strategic hill where Myanmar military troops are stationed near Meewa Village in Paletwa Township. The hill is strategic as it overlooks the Kaladan River, which flows through Rakhine and Chin states and is used to goods and people.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
The STAR-Ghana Foundation on Thursday launched the Ghana Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) COVID-19 Response Coordination Platform to promote the synergy of actions to complement governments efforts in fighting the pandemic.



The platform is a network of independent, non-partisan CSOs and citizens coordinating around a structured response to the COVID-19 pandemic.



Alhaji Ibrahim-Tanko Amidu, the Executive Director of STAR-Ghana Foundation, who launched the network, said it would promote coordination and synergy of actions, build capacities, complement efforts and avoid duplication of work.



It is also expected to enhance the effectiveness of civil society actions around COVID-19 response and post-pandemic recovery.



The launch was on the theme: The Fight Against the COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges and Opportunities for Deepening Transparency, Accountability and Responsiveness of Stakeholders.



Representatives of CSOs in Ghana, state actors, donors and the private sector participated in the virtual launch and panel discussion.



Discussants include Mr Anthony Akoto Ampaw, a private Legal Practitioner, Nana Yaa Afadzinu, the Executive Director of the West Africa Civil Society Institute, and Mr Enoch Oti Agyekum, Health Economist at the World Bank.



Others were Mr Franklin Cudjoe, Founding President and Chief Executive Officer of IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, and Mrs Linda Ofori-Kwafo, the Executive Director, Ghana Integrity Initiative.



Madam Teiko Sabah, the Head of Programmes, STAR-Ghana Foundation, said the Platform brings together the collective experiences, expertise and skills of stakeholders to ensure citizens were at the forefront of a sustainable response to the COVID-19 challenges now and into the future.



We seek to support a more inclusive and responsive approach by Government to the pandemic and its future impact on citizens, she said.



We seek to actively engage with state actors and authorities for transparency and accountability on resource utilisation, allocation and monitoring.



We shall coordinate actions and activities of CSOs whose work continue to mitigate the socioeconomic impact of COVID-19 on the vulnerable populations and their resilience.



Madam Sabah said working through a network of five thematic clusters, the platform would coordinate actions around policy influencing and the futures, as well as COVID-19 expenditure tracking and anti-corruption.



It would also coordinate socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable populations and CSOs and access to information on the pandemic.



The Platform launch marked an opportunity to deepen the relationship between CSOs and the state on issues of national concern such as the Right to Information (RTI) Act and other social policy works, Madam Sabah said.



She said members would continue to be involved in various aspects of support from debunking fake news, instituting transparency and accountability measures, and tracking spent, quality, and value for money support for the poor and marginalised.





She called on the relevant duty bearers to join in efforts to fight the common enemy  the COVID-19.

Source: GNA









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Featured Video
CAMH and the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences to assess the effects of alcohol control policies in the Baltics

A new international research project launched in Lithuania will assess the effects of alcohol control policies implemented in the Baltic States and investigate the impact they have had on people's health and the countries' economies. The project is funded by the US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and brings together Baltic and Canadian researchers working in close collaboration with WHO European country offices. They will not only gather valuable data, but also identify the best practices for lowering alcohol-related harm across Northern Europe and beyond.

The "Evaluation of the impact of alcohol control policies on morbidity and mortality in Lithuania and other Baltic states" project will last five years and could ultimately benefit the health and economies of all of the Baltic States.

The US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) of the National Institute of Health (NIH) has awarded a nearly $2 million USD grant to make this research possible. The project will be led by experts from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and the Health Research Institute of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, in association with researchers and institutions from Latvia and Estonia.

"Alcohol use is responsible for about 3 million deaths worldwide each year," said Dr. Jurgen Rehm, Senior Scientist, Institute for Mental Health Policy Research and Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute at CAMH. "But It is very clear from previous data that most of these deaths are preventable by implementing alcohol control policies. Other countries who implemented alcohol control policies have shown marked decreases in consumption and related increases in life expectancy."

Lithuania shows the effects of taking action

Lithuania's experience is at the centre of the research - its concrete actions to control alcohol consumption present a so-called 'natural experiment' with a wide range of measures implemented over a short period of time. Lithuania was as one of the heaviest drinking countries in the WHO European Region in 2010, with a total alcohol consumption was 15.1 litres of pure alcohol per capita, more than twice the global average. As early as 2008-2009, Lithuania introduced a series of WHO 'best buy' policies, increasing the price of alcoholic beverages, reducing its availability, and limiting its advertisement. In the period following 2014, further bans on alcohol sales in gas stations, major excise tax increases and other WHO-recommended fiscal regulations were put into place.

It is therefore crucial to have abundant data from Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia for researchers to be able to compare the Baltic States' performance in tackling alcohol-related health risks and assess the cost-effectiveness of these measures. Lessons learned from the project will be important for all countries of the WHO European Region and beyond.

"Research on alcohol policy is developing fast. While we know that policies such as raising prices and taxes, and restricting marketing and availability are effective in reducing alcohol consumption, we must deepen our knowledge regarding what will also work with regards to neighbouring countries, and what levels of health and economic gains can be achieved," said Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe.

"The findings of this newly-launched project will help policy-makers to move from what - to understand how alcohol control policies are best implemented and enforced, as well as their impact on people's health. This practical approach is fundamental to the new European Programme of Work, 'United Action for Better Health in Europe', he added.

The "evaluation of the impact of alcohol control policies on morbidity and mortality in Lithuania and other Baltic states" project will have three main objectives:

to measure the effectiveness of the alcohol control policy interventions implemented in Lithuania between 2016 and 2018;

to measure the return on investment of the alcohol control policy interventions implemented in Lithuania between 2016 and 2018;

to compare the trends in alcohol-attributable harm in Lithuania with surrounding countries for the years 2010-2020.

The findings will be presented at a series of expert workshops and conferences, as well as in peer-reviewed publications and media events. An early result of the project has shown that the tax increase on alcohol on March 1 2017 had a positive impact on all-cause mortality the following year--resulting in 150 fewer lives being lost.

The results of this project is important for countries in North America as well. Lithuania has been one of few high income countries implementing these strong and recommended alcohol policies. Other high income regions of the world will learn from these studies, not only how many lives can be saved if alcohol becomes more expensive and less available, but also the economic consequences of such moves.

"We are glad that the US government supports this research," said Dr. Rehm. The results will also be helpful for Canada, where we struggle with alcohol control policies, and where it is erroneously assumed that such policies automatically impact negatively on the economy. Our research will be able to give results not only in terms of lives saved, but also on detailed economic impacts for societies as a whole."

###
U.S. To Impose Visa Bans On Chinese Tech Firms Over Rights Abuses In Xinjiang, Elsewhere

By RFE/RL July 15, 2020

The United States says it is imposing travel bans on employees of the technology giant Huawei and other Chinese companies Washington has accused of facilitating human right violations around the world, including in China's western province of Xinjiang.

In a statement on July 15, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described Huawei as "an arm of the [Chinese Communist Party's] surveillance state that censors political dissidents and enables mass internment camps in Xinjiang and the indentured servitude of its population shipped all over China."

Separately, the secretary of state told reporters that Huawei employees found to be providing "material support to regimes engaging in human rights violations and abuses globally" would be hit with sanctions.

It is not clear how many Huawei employees would be affected.

Pompeo said in his statement that telecommunications companies around the world "should consider themselves on notice: If they are doing business with Huawei, they are doing business with human rights abusers."

The administration of President Donald Trump has led a campaign to convince foreign governments to bar Huawei from their advanced telecommunications networks, arguing that the Chinese company provides a gateway for Beijing to spy on and potentially attack countries that use its equipment.

On July 14, the British government said that Huawei equipment must be purged completely from Britain's 5G network by the end of 2027, claiming the company poses a national security threat.

Huawei denies it spies for Beijing and accuses Washington of trying to impede its growth.

Pompeo's announcement comes amid an intensifying U.S. effort to pressure China over gross human rights abuses reported in the Xinjiang region, where Beijing is accused of placing more than 1 million Uyghurs and members of other mostly Muslim ethnic groups in internment camps and prisons where, since early 2017, they have been physically abused, subjected to ideological discipline, and forced to denounce their religion and language.

China says the camps are reeducation and training centers needed to combat separatist terrorism and extremism.

On July 9, Washington imposed sanctions on senior Chinese officials for "horrific and systematic" human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

The U.S. sanctions were imposed amid already high tensions between Washington and Beijing over issues including China's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the tightening of its grip on Hong Kong.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/u-s-to-impose-visa- bans-on-chinese-tech-firms-over-rights-abuses-in- xinjiang-elsewhere/30728729.html

Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Einst war Tichitt ein wichtiges Handelszentrum. Heute jedoch verfallt die Stadt im ostlichen Mauretanien aufgrund ihrer abgelegenen Lage. Der Fotograf John Wessels hat die Menschen dort besucht und ihren Alltag dokumentiert.

Zwei Manner laden Sacke mit Salz von den Feldern um Tichitt auf ein Kamel. Die Region beheimatet eine lange Formation von Sandsteinklippen, die die nordliche Grenze der Hodh-Senke markieren, in der Nahe eines alten Sees namens Aoukar. Das Aoukar-Becken ist eine naturliche Trockenregion mit Sanddunen und Salzebenen. Bild: John Wessels/AFP

Der kleine Ort Tichitt am Fue des Tagant-Plateaus im ostlichen Mauretanien erinnert an eine Geisterstadt. Wo zwischen dem elften und neunzehnten Jahrhundert ein lebendiger Handel mit Gold, Salz und Stoffen florierte, finden sich heute verwitterte Steinhauser. Vermutlich aufgrund der extremen Trockenheit wurde das Gebiet um 500 v. Chr. aufgegeben. An den ehemaligen Status Tichitts, eine bedeutende Station auf der trans-saharischen Karawanenroute zu sein, erinnert nichts mehr. Obwohl die Oasenstadt ein Krankenhaus sowie eine Grund- und Oberschule hat, zieht aufgrund ihrer isolierten Lage kaum jemand her. Selbst Touristen bleiben aus, da keine geteerte Strae nach Tichitt fuhrt.

Der sudafrikanische Fotograf John Wessels, Jahrgang 1987, hat fur die Nachrichtenagentur AFP Ende Januar den Weg nach Tichitt auf sich genommen. An seiner Seite befanden sich ein Kollege und ein Archaologe. Die Erfahrung war fantastisch, sagt er, etwas Vergleichbares haben wir noch nie erlebt. Einige der eindrucksvollsten Fotografien, die wahrend Wessels Besuch entstanden sind, zeigen wir hier.

Unsere Fragen hinsichtlich seiner Motivation fur diesen Essay, seiner Ausbildung und des beruflichen Werdegangs beantwortete Wessels wie folgt:

First of all wed be interested to know what you experienced during your photo journey and what made you pick that particular theme?

The idea of going on a trip through the Sahara came after a colleague and friend of mine based in Bamako, Mali, met the archeologist we travelled with. It was the archeologist that planted the seed for the trip. We were planning on going to Mauritania in any case to do other stories concerning the border security situation with Mali. And so after months of planning we managed to get on the plane.

The experience was fantastic. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, all we knew is that we had to get a house in a small village in central Mauritania and meet the archeologist, hoping he would arrive. From there we followed signs through the desert until we arrived in the town of Tichitt. All three of us working on the story have travelled and lived as correspondence in many different places but had never seen anything like that and to think that the next day we would take camels for five days further into the desert from there was quite daunting. Five days walking through the desert is an amazing thing. Sleeping under the stars and learning about the ground around you.

When and where were you born, where have you been educated and what are stages of your professional career?

I was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, on February 14, 1987. Grew up and did my schooling in Durban, South Africa. I studied and worked as a Survey Engineer for 5 or 6 years through out Africa before taking the step towards photojournalism in 2018. I did a years documentary and photojournalism course in Johannesburg at the Market Photo workshop, from there I did a months internship with Agency France Press Johannesburg office and started to freelance for AFP and other medias in Southern Africa. After around two years I got the opportunity to head to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, I was based there for two and a half years covering the DRC for AFP and working for NGO's, the UN and other mostly french media. Around nine months ago I decided to move from Kinshasa, DRC, it was getting a little tiering the context of the work there. I am now based on Dakar, Senegal, coverning West Africa for AFP and other media.

What is your standard camera equipment? Is there any special or favorite gear?

My standard equipment is a Canon mark4 with a 35mm lens but my favourite camera is my phone camera. Easy to use, very quick and you never know how the image will come out.

How do you process / edit your images? What particular darkroom technique, software or apps do you utilize?

Processing images is one of my favourite things to do, my image managing software is Photo Mechanic, it is a lifesaver that software, from there I do some global edits in Lightroom and if needed I finish off some specific localized lights and darks in Photoshop. The time I take on the edit depends on the job at hand. If I have to send ASAP etc I have a preset that I put on all the images I import into lightroom and it speeds things up nicely. If there isnt much of a deadline I will take as much time as possible with each image.

Do you have photographic role models?

There are truly many photographers whose work I admire, but if Im looking for inspiration I will often look at Lorenzo Meloni's work or the work of Paolo Pellegrin.

Is there a portfolio or photobook that inspired you?

One of my favourite books is by Guy Tillim's Departures.

Instagram: @johngingerwessels

Website: https://johnwessels.photoshelter.com/
Australia announced Thursday Aus$2billion ($1.4 billion) to retrain workers impacted by the coronavirus fallout, as unemployment rose to its highest level in more than two decades.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the new funding would create more than 300,000 places in training programmes that aimed to funnel graduates and the newly jobless into "growth" sectors.

"It is upsetting for many Australians that the industries and places where they'd been working, they will find it very difficult to find new employment in those sectors," he said.

"And so we want to ensure they have the opportunity... to find employment in other sectors, potentially, so they can actually move forward with their own lives."

The unemployment rate rose from 7.1 percent to 7.4 percent in June, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, bringing the jobless total to almost one million in a country of 25 million.

It is the country's highest unemployment rate since 1998 and comes as Australia heads into its first recession in nearly 30 years.

The conservative government has spent billions on propping up the economy since a nationwide shutdown that began in March, including wage subsidies for worst-hit businesses and boosting support for welfare recipients.

With those subsidies due to expire in September, Thursday's announcement was an early indication of how Morrison plans to follow them up.

Morrison said the Australian economy was "fighting back", with most of the country easing restrictions in recent weeks since curbing the virus spread.

But a growing outbreak in Melbourne is casting a pall over economic recovery hopes, with a fresh lockdown imposed on Australia's second-biggest city last week expected to cost the economy Aus$6 billion.

Morrison acknowledged a record 317 cases detected in Victoria state over the previous 24 hours was "a big setback", saying he expected July's unemployment figures to be impacted as a result.

Story continues

Thursday's new cases pushed the national daily total to its highest level since late March, as the outbreak continues to frustrate Australia's early success in suppressing COVID-19.

Seven coronavirus patients have died since Friday, bringing Australia's total fatalities to 113, out of nearly 11,000 infections.

Health officials are now focused on restricting the virus to Victoria, which has been effectively sealed off from the rest of the country.

However, a cluster centred on a popular pub in Sydney has been traced back to a man visiting from Melbourne, raising concerns it is already spreading.
Radio star Roman Kemp and his neuroscientist girlfriend Anne-Sophie Flury have split up after three years together.

The couple only moved in together in January but things went downhill during lockdown and they 'weren't able to make things work'.

Roman, 27, met Swiss scientist Anne-Sophie on Tinder - and he is said to already be back on the dating apps to take his mind off the split.

Dead air: Radio star Roman Kemp and his girlfriend Anne-Sophie Flury have reportedly split up, after three years together

A source told The Sun: 'Roman loved Sophie and things had been going really well for them. But being in lockdown is tough for any couple and they just werent able to make things work, which has been upsetting and tough for them both.

'His pals have encouraged him to move on and have got him on [dating app] Raya, which is packed with attractive and creative women.'

The source also added that he has made a nod to his father Martin's band - Spandau Ballet - on his profile.

'Hes set up a profile with his best photos and has set the music on his page to the song Gold, by his dads band. Hes having fun with it.'

Done! The couple only moved in together in January but according to The Sun things went downhill amid the UK's lockdown

Beauty and brains: Roman met Swiss scientist Anne-Sophie on Tinder

MailOnline has approached Roman's rep for comment.

The couple seemed inseparable until now - even co-owning a pet dog together, called Luna.

Reports believe Anne-Sophie has kept the pooch - who would occasionally appear alongside Roman on Celebrity Gogglebox, but who has been absent of late

Roman took part in I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! 2019, and it was Anne-Sophie who flew to Australia to wait for him to come out of the jungle.

In and out: The pair are seen after moving into their new home on January 7

It's always hardest on the kids: The couple seemed inseparable until now - even co-owning a pet dog together, called Luna

He was left famously red-faced in December when Lorraine Kelly asked him, via video link, what he and his girlfriend got up to when they got back to their hotel room.

And on their return from Oz, they posed up a storm in a very cosy magazine shoot for Hello! in which they discussed marriage and children.

Roman said: 'We're both very family-orientated so marriage and kids is a natural progression for us. But before any of that, we want to focus on having fun, exploring the world and making memories.'

He added: 'Every time I see a child, I get broody. Soph is so good with kids and you notice those things when you're in a relationship.'

Anne-Sophie said: 'I knew pretty quickly that I loved him. I wasn't looking to be emotionally invested but it just happened. After a couple of weeks, we both knew.'

The couple had been in a relationship since 2017, and spent eight months of their relationship apart because Anne-Sophie lived in Hong Kong.

Roman had said while on I'm A Celebrity that the couple had been used to spending time apart so weren't worried about him being on the show.

During his appearance, Anne-Sophie had written on Instagram: Im so proud of ur achievements and the exciting places your life is taking you.

'I cant wait to watch your experience in the jungle unfold and to be able to admire your face, your kindness, perseverance and your wit every single day.

'I literally cannot contain my excitement can we fast forward to 9pm already [three laughing face emojis] I love you.'

Roman had told OK! that he would miss her while on the show but that he had no worries about anything because they were so strong.

He said: 'But she's so supportive. We live together so she's going to hold down our little fort until I'm back.'

He was also keen to stress that Anne-Sophie has nothing to worry about in terms of any sort of TV romance.

He said: 'My parents have instilled the value of respect and loyalty in relationships into me.

'Ive seen the best husband in my dad and you cant build something similar if you go on TV and flirt with someone else.'
HANOI -- Vietnam has imported the first shipment of coal from the United States, state-owned coal miner Vinacomin said on Wednesday, days after the two nations marked the 25th anniversary since they established diplomatic relations.

The 21,700 tonnes of coal bought from IMI Fuels LLC arrived at a port in northern Vietnam, Vinacomin, formally known as Vietnam National Coal-Mineral Industries Corp, said in a statement on its website.

The Southeast Asian country, which has become more reliant on imported coals for power generation in recent years, said this week its imports of the fuel surged by more than 50% in the first half of 2020 from a year earlier to reach a record high.

Most of the coal imported in the January-June period came from Indonesia and Australia.

The delivery of the first coal shipment will pave the way for more coal imports from the United States in the future, Vinacomin said, saying the second batch was scheduled to arrive in September.

Vietnam has been seeking to import more U.S. goods, including coal and liquefied natural gas (LNGO), to help narrow a trade gap after President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on its products amid the Chinese-U.S. trade war.

Vietnams trade surplus with the United States, Vietnams largest export market, widened to $24.46 billion in the first half of this year from $20.58 billion a year earlier, according to Vietnams customs data.
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: 16 July 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 1,807 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 1,992 pence 25.13 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 1,974 pence 24.90 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 1,984 pence 25.03 USD Trading Venue: Euronext Amsterdam Ticker: PSH Date of Purchase: 16 July 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 6,464 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 25.10 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 24.85 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 24.93 USD

PSH will hold these Public Shares in Treasury. The net asset value per Public Share related to this buyback is 35.14 USD 28.00 GBP which was calculated as of 14 July 2020 (the "Relevant NAV"). After giving effect to the above buyback, PSH has 194,958,095 Public Shares outstanding, or 200,907,636 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 15,998,655 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/20200716005991/en/

Contacts:

Media

Camarco

Ed Gascoigne-Pees Hazel Stevenson +44 020 3757 4989, media-pershingsquareholdings@camarco.co.uk
A Chinese farmer dubbed the 'folding man' can finally walk again after spending six months recovering from four consecutive, high-risk operations to fix his hunched back.

Li Hua, 46, was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a rare type of arthritis, at the age of 19. But his impoverished family from rural China could not afford to treat him.

He had been unable to stand upright, eat or walk properly for more than 25 years before the life-changing surgery, and had had to rely on his elderly mother to look after him.

Li Hua (left, pictured at the age of 18) was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a rare type of arthritis, when he was 19. His had lived with his face pressed tightly against his thighs - with just a 0.7 inches gap in between - due to his severe illness (right, pictured before the surgery)

In the decade before the treatment, Mr Li's condition had been so severe he had lived with his face pressed tightly against his thighs - with just a 1.86 centimetre (0.7 inches) gap in between.

Surgeons performed the series of surgical procedures from June to December last year to 'open up' Mr Li's body, said the Shenzhen University General Hospital in southern China.

Accompanied by his 71-tear-old mother, Mr Li had travelled nearly 500 miles from his home village in Yongzhou, southern China's Hunan Province, to cosmopolitan Shenzhen to seek medical attention.

A team of specialists at the hospital came up with a sophisticated, four-step plan to help Mr Li to stand up straight, and eventually walk again.

Mr Li had been unable to stand upright, eat or walk properly for more than 25 years before the life-changing surgery (left). Surgeons in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen performed the series of surgical procedures from June to December last year to 'open up' his body (right)

Prof Tao Huiren, Director of the Department of Spine Diseases at the Shenzhen University General Hospital, headed Mr Li's surgery (left). The patient received recovery treatment (right) for six months following the operations and was discharged from the hospital last month

Medics had to remove the dead part of Mr Li's thigh bones before breaking up and straightening up different sections of his spines - around the neck, chest and waist - to help him raise his head and correct his posture.

At the end of the third procedure in September, he was able to lie down flat and look at his beloved mother properly for the first time in 26 years.

Surgeons then gave Mr Li a total hip replacement in the final operation to enable him to learn to walk again.

Li Hua is now able to walk slowly with the help of a walking frame and do gentle exercises with his arms. He has largely recovered from the medical procedures, according to Prof Tao

In the following six months, Mr Li remained in the hospital for recovery treatment.

One video supplied to MailOnline by the patient shows him training to lift his right leg while holding on to a walking frame after tying the limb to his hospital bed.

Another recent clip from the man shows him walking slowly outdoors, also with the help of a walking frame, and doing gentle exercises with his arms.

Prof Tao Huiren, Director of the Department of Spine Diseases, told MailOnline that Mr Li was discharged from the hospital last month after mainly recovering from the surgery.

He has returned to his home village and even opened up a small shop there to make a living while continuing with his recovery.
WEXFORD COUNTY, MI  A 53-year-old man is accused of sexually assaulting a young child during a trip to a Northern Michigan sand dune.

Richard Erwin Ensing, 53, of Manton has been charged with one count of first degree criminal sexual conduct of a person under 13 and one count of second-degree CSC of a person under 13.

The investigation into Ensing began when a trooper from the Michigan State Police Cadillac Post spoke with a concerned mother in Wexford County on July 10.

The mother told the trooper that her child disclosed a sexual assault that occurred on the evening of Thursday, July 9 while Ensing and her child were together near a local sand dune. Ensing was arrested after a short investigation.

His cash bond was set at $50,000. His next scheduled court appearance is on July 21.

READ MORE:

Northern Michigan man faces child sex assault, pornography charges

Man dies after firefighters pull him from burning U.P. home
Kylie Jenner has been slammed by fans on social media for buying her two-year-old daughter Stormi a Louis Vuitton mini bag.

The makeup mogul, 22, shared a snap of the tot sitting by the pool with her new designer handbag at her side.

The bag, featuring Louis Vuitton's famous logo, is described as a 'perfect miniature version of Louis Vuitton's iconic Speedy bag' and would have cost Kylie $1,180 (941).

Unimpressed: Kylie Jenner, 22, has been slammed by fans on social media for buying her two-year-old daughter Stormi, 2, a Louis Vuitton mini bag

In the photo, Stormi is facing away from the camera with her hair slicked back in a tight bun with a bright coloured scrunchie.

Kylie captioned the snap: 'coolest baby to ever do ittt' and also shared it to her Stories, writing: 'My love'.

However, some took issue with the reality star spending so much money for a designer bag for a toddler.

One user wrote: 'The cost of her handbag could feed the hungry children in LA. Just saying!'

Luxury: The bag, featuring Louis Vuitton's famous logo, is described as a 'perfect miniature version of Louis Vuitton's iconic Speedy bag' and would have cost Kylie $1,180 (941)

Another said: 'I don't know how you people could just live that life in this day and age?! That bag could've been a month meal for someone out there.

'If she needs it ok I get it she doesn't even know wtf it is,' to which another user replied: 'exactly'.

Louis Vuitton's multicoloured mini speedy bags are only available these days pre-owned and are highly coveted items on the re-sale market.

Reaction: However, some took issue with the reality star spending so much money for a designer bag for a toddler

Stormi has been treated to designer bags in the past, with Kylie previously sharing a snap of her holding a bag her aunt Kim Kardashian bought her from Japan.

At the time, Kylie posted a video of the baby picking up the bag and immediately swinging it over her shoulder.

'Daddy dropped off a new chair for Stormi,' Kylie captioned her video. 'And omg this girl threw the bag over her shoulder I cant.'

Gift: Stormi has been treated to designer bags in the past, with Kylie previously sharing a snap of her holding a bag her aunt Kim Kardashian boug ht her from Japan

It comes soon after Kylie got 'Stormi's Mom' engraved into her Rolls Royce.

The social media sensation shared a snap of the sleek engraving onto her Instagram stories on Wednesday, where it shone in the sunlight inside her high-end car.

Kylie welcomed Stormi into the world February 1, 2018 with Travis Scott and the mother-daughter duo are inseparable.
The other day, I mentioned to my son, Cameron, something I heard the great economist Thomas Sowell say.

Sowell had reminded the Black Lives Matter protesters who were indiscriminately toppling statues and defacing monuments around the country that a lot of white people were instrumental in ending slavery.

Not just Ulysses Grant, Abraham Lincoln and the hundreds of thousands of Northern soldiers who died in the Civil War, but also many abolitionists who were fighting to end slavery long before the shooting started.

Thats funny, Cameron said, Ive been doing research on Moms side of the family. You wouldnt believe how famous and influential they were.

Really? The Sterns?

Oh, my God, Dad, Cameron joked. Your father was just president of the United States. Moms family founded the United States.

Cameron is a stay-at-home dad with a lot of time on his hands.

He was discovering a lot of information we didnt know about my wife Colleens historic family, the Sterns, who trace their origins back to the English immigrant Isaac Stearns.

Isaac Stearns, who had an a in his last name, was not only among the original Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He and his two brothers came over in 1630 on John Winthrops boat, the Arabella.

Cameron told me Charles River in Boston was named after Isaacs brother, Charles Stearns, when he fell overboard into the unnamed channel.

Youre kidding, I said, not knowing that all of Americas Stearns/Sterns, poet T.S. Eliot and some guy named Richard Nixon are direct descendants of Isaac Stearns.

Cameron was only getting started, however.

Next he told me about Charles Luther Stearns, an American superstar who built a fortune as a merchant and industrialist in the Boston area and in the 1840s became a prominent leader in the Norths anti-slavery movement.

Stearns was no limousine abolitionist. He financed the settlement of anti-slavery homesteaders in Kansas. He turned his estate into a stop on the Underground Railroad that helped escaped slaves get to Canada. Harriet Tubman was a regular visitor there.

Stearns was also a member of the Secret Six that supplied radical abolitionist John Brown with weapons for his failed attack on Harpers Ferry.

And during the Civil War, he pushed for the enlistment of Black soldiers in the Union Army.

Working with his state, he recruited the Black infantrymen for the 54th and 55th Massachusetts regiments featured in the movie Glory. He also provided schools for the kids of the soldiers and jobs for their families. In his spare time founded several magazines, including the Nation.

After emancipation, Stearns pushed hard to advance civil rights for Blacks until he died at age 58 in 1867.

Its no accident that his friends included Henry David Thoreau and Frederick Douglass, and Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered his eulogy.

Three decades later, Booker T. Washington, the most famous Black man in America, honored Stearns by name at the dedication of the spectacular bronze sculpture created for the 54th Regiment Memorial in Boston Common.

As Cameron quipped, Ronald Reagan who?

Its been great to learn that my wifes ancestors played such an important part in the birth of the country, the history of Boston and the fight to abolish slavery and help the freed slaves.

But my story about the proud history of Colleens family has a sad ending.

On June 3, exactly 123 years after Booker T. Washington dedicated it, the 54th Regiment Memorial was painted with four-letter words and phrases like Black Lives Matter, No Justice, No Peace and Police are Pigs.

Like the statues of Ulysses Grant, Frederick Douglass and other forgotten abolitionists who fought for the freedom of blacks, the 54th Regiment Memorial was desecrated by a mob of white and Black protesters and professional vandals.

It would have been nice if before those social justice warriors defaced the memorial and roughed up 15 other statues on Boston Common they had studied a little history.

Theyd learn its not as black-and-white as they think.

Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant and the author of Lessons My Father Taught Me: The Strength, Integrity, and Faith of Ronald Reagan. Send comments to Reagan@caglecartoons.com.
The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, has told Nigerian doctors planning to emigrate to the United Kingdom to take note of the f...





The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, has told Nigerian doctors planning to emigrate to the United Kingdom to take note of the fact that they will not be paid hazard allowance if they do so.





Ehanire said this during the briefing of the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 on Thursday.





The minister was responding to a question regarding the failed attempt of 58 doctors to travel to the UK last week.





Checks by our correspondent showed that until June, medical doctors in Nigeria earned N5,000 or $12.95 as monthly hazard allowances





The 58 doctors, who had received provisional employment in the UK, were stopped by the Nigeria Immigration Service at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, last week because they did not have visas.





Ehanire said, I think we are one of the few countries giving hazard allowance. This UK where they are going, there is no hazard allowance, they dont give doctors hazard allowance but you just get you salary, that is all because I have spoken to the doctors there.





They say it is part of your job and that is what you are trained for. They dont pay you anything but here apart from your salary we try to add something to it with the hope that you will stay. We also appeal to state governments to prioritise employment of doctors some of whom have not been employed.





The minister said he was also informed that doctors were migrating from the UK hence it was not only a Nigerian challenge.





Even in the UK they are losing doctors to other countries so they think there is a movement but I think we have to look at our own situation the best way we can, he said.

The minister said Nigeria would not stop doctors who wanted to emigrate but they must ensure that they have visas.





Ehanire stated, With regards the 58 doctors, we were all surprised to hear that they were at the airport and it was irregular in that many of them did not have visas. I dont know what evidence you have whether they have left the country but no one should leave the country without visa.





He argued that Nigerians who became doctors through subsidised education and scholarship ought to remain in the country and give back to their community.





The minister said this remained an obligation that should take precedence above financial consideration.





Ehanire said, Those who were trained through scholarship or whose training was subsidised and have jobs here actually have a moral responsibility to give back because even now we have large numbers of Nigerian doctors in the UK, the US and Europe who apply to come here every year and serve even though they werent trained here or at the states expense.





It is just a moral obligation. They are called the Diaspora Health Professionals Initiative. Some spend their own money, come with their own equipment even though they owe the country nothing.








China's civil aviation regulator has announced that a Thai Lion Air's Bangkok-Guangzhou flight, as well as a Thai AirAsia X's Bangkok-Tianjin flight, would be suspended after several passengers tested positive for COVID-19 on recent flights.

Six passengers tested positive on Thai Lion Air's SL117 flight on July 7, while there were five positive cases on Thai AirAsia X's XJ808 flight on July 10, according to a statement posted Wednesday on the website of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

The decision was made Tuesday.

The suspension of the two flights will last for one week, starting July 20, and is the second of its kind ever imposed on overseas airlines. On July 6, the CAAC announced the suspension of a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight from Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, to Guangzhou.

To further contain the spread of COVID-19, a reward and suspension mechanism was introduced by the CAAC on June 4.

According to the CAAC policy, if all inbound passengers on an airline test negative for novel coronavirus for three weeks in a row, the operating airline will be allowed to increase its number of flights to two per week.

If the number of passengers testing positive reaches five, the airline's flights will be suspended for a week. The suspension will last for four weeks if the number of passengers testing positive reaches 10.

The CAAC also said that Thai Lion Air and Thai AirAsia X are not allowed to transfer the original quota for SL117 and XJ808 to other routes.
She is pregnant with her first child with fiance Artem Chigvintsev of Dancing With The Stars fame.

And Nikki Bella proudly bared her baby bump in a pajama top with a starry night sky print for an Instagram picture and video on Thursday.

The 36-year-old former WWE fighter revealed in her caption that she had arrived at '37 weeks' into her pregnancy.

Mother to be: Nikki Bella bared her baby bump in a pajama top with a starry night sky print for an Instagram picture and video this Thursday

She turned this way and that in the video, allowing her more than nine million Instagram followers see the bump from several angles.

The San Diego native is pregnant by Chigvintsev, a dancer who has performed on Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing With The Stars.

On Wednesday Nikki posted an Instagram picture with her future husband and wrote in the caption: 'Mama is about to pop!'

She wrote a message on her Insta Stories to the baby this week: 'SLEEPLESS NIGHTS ARE WORTH IT THE CLOSER I GET TO MEETING YOU.'

Almost there: The 36-year-old former WWE fighter revealed in her caption that she had arrived at '37 weeks' into her first pregnancy

Nikki is expecting her baby boy at the same time that her twin sister Brie Bella is pregnant with her own second child by her husband Daniel Bryan.

The two couples went into lockdown together amid the coronavirus pandemic along with Brie and Daniel's three-year-old daughter Birdie.

Nikki's latest post comes a week after she and Brie paid a second visit to their mother Kathy Laurinaitis who is recovering from brain surgery.

The Bella twins previously revealed there was 'a mass on our mother's brain stem as big as a blueberry' which had to be excised.

Coverage: She turned this way and that in the video, allowing her more than nine million Instagram followers see the bump from several angles

Family matters: The San Diego native is pregnant by her fiance Artem Chigvintsev, a dancer who has performed on Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing With The Stars

Posting a snapshot of herself and Brie visiting Kathy in what appeared to be their mother's home, Nikki shared a health update.

'Her balance and walking has gotten better. Her speech has gotten better. Even though her face hasnt yet, with all of your love, support and prayers you have given her so much hope and strength to have a full recovery! I cant ever thank you all enough for that!! Gigi you got this! We love you so incredibly much!!!' she wrote.

The surgery actually occurred late last month and Brie said: 'We're just so happy that she has a light at the end of the tunnel.'

So excited: On Wednesday Nikki posted an Instagram picture with her future husband and wrote in the caption: 'Mama is about to pop!'
Easing of coronavirus lockdowns helped worlds number two economy grow by 3.2% in Apr-Jun after plunging in Jan-March.

It would probably be hard to find a clearer example of what economists describe as a V-shaped recovery as the figures China released on Thursday.

Chinas economy beat most analyst expectations and posted a rapid rebound in the second quarter as coronavirus lockdowns were eased, allowing factories, shops and restaurants to resume operations.

But continuing weakness in retail sales and investment, coupled with surging numbers of cases in one of Chinas main export markets  the United States  and rising political tensions with Washington, mean Beijings path back to a tangible economic recovery for the majority of the countrys people could be a bumpy one.

Chinas gross domestic product (GDP), the most commonly used measure of economic performance, expanded by 3.2 percent in the April-June period compared with the corresponding quarter last year. That was faster than the 2.5 percent average growth forecast in a poll of economists by Reuters news agency, according to data provider Refinitiv. A Bloomberg poll had predicted a growth rate of 2.4 percent.

The latest figure follows a historic 6.8 percent year-on-year plunge in the first three months of 2020. That was Chinas first economic contraction since at least 1992, when it began publishing quarterly GDP data.

The national economy overcame the adverse impact of the epidemic in the first half gradually and demonstrated a momentum of restorative growth and gradual recovery, further manifesting its development resilience and vitality, Chinas National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement accompanying the figures.

Mounting external risks

But it added a note of caution.

However, we should also be aware that some indicators are still in decline and the losses caused by the epidemic need to be recovered. Given the continuous spread of the epidemic globally, the evolving huge impact of the epidemic on the global economy and the noticeably mounting external risks and challenges, the national economic recovery was still under pressure, the agency said.

V for victory over the coronavirus? Some analysts say the economic chart for rest of the year could look rather flatter than this [Bloomberg]

Those declining indicators included retail sales, which fell by 1.8 percent in June compared with the same month last year, the fifth straight month of contraction and a worse performance than analyst projections of a mild recovery.

Fixed asset investment  the amount of money organisations spend on machinery, buildings, land or new technology, and which includes government infrastructure spending  fell by 3.1 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2020.

But many economists say the overall picture for Chinas economy is brightening.

The Q2 [second quarter] GDP outturn was very positive, showing that Chinas economy has rebounded robustly from the severe impact of the pandemic in Q1 [first quarter] 2020. The manufacturing sector is now growing at a strong pace, with industrial output rising by 4.8% y/y [year-on-year] in June, Rajiv Biswas, chief economist for the Asia Pacific region at research firm IHS Markit, told Al Jazeera.

China is leading the global economic recovery from the pandemic, although the EU and US also showed a significant rebound in manufacturing and services output in June, according to the latest PMI surveys, he added.

Analysts noted that even though retail sales posted another drop in June, the pace of declines appears to be slowing from a 16.2 percent contraction in March.

Employment improvement

Another source of optimism that domestic consumption could rebound in the coming months was an improvement in the unemployment data.

Chinas urban unemployment rate has recovered to nearly pre-coronavirus levels but many people remain reluctant to boost spending, analysts say [File: Thomas Peter/Reuters]

The urban unemployment rate fell to 5.7 percent in June, compared with 5.9 percent a month earlier.

Research firm Capital Economics says the latest figure means the governments headline unemployment rate is just half of one percentage point higher than its level at the end of last year.

More importantly, migrant workers, who are not properly captured in the surveyed rate yet make up a third of the urban workforce, have mostly resumed employment with the number working in urban areas less than 3 percent below pre-virus levels at the end of [the second quarter] compared with the 30 percent year-on-year decline at the end of February, Capital Economics senior China economist Julian Evans-Pritchard said in a note sent to Al Jazeera.

But others were not quite as optimistic.

Banking giant HSBC said much of the growth in economic activity was a result of higher exports, mainly due to shipments of medical products and electronics such as laptops. Meanwhile, imports have been shrinking, especially in April and May, reinforcing the argument that domestic demand for goods and services remains weak.

And other factors are also likely keeping a lid on Chinas economic performance, including a build-up of unsold goods or components in factories, together classified as inventory.

We think high inventory pressure, weak profit growth and continued uncertainties over COVID-19 and US-China tensions are the main factors dampening the willingness of private sector businesses to expand investment, Jingyang Chen, Greater China economist at HSBC, said in a note sent to Al Jazeera.

V anished into thin air

And with many parts of the world experiencing a resurgence in coronavirus cases, exports alone are unlikely to be able to sustain Chinas growth over the rest of the year, some analysts say.

Once again, China will have to rely on its own devices to keep growth up  The growth driver for [the second half of 2020] is unlikely to be external, said Daiwa Capital Markets economists Kevin Lai and Eileen Lin.

High-water mark? Worsening political relations between the US and China could threaten the phase-one trade deal the two signed earlier this year, say Daiwa Capital Markets analysts [File: Evan Vucci/AP]

In addition to the ongoing pandemic, Beijings worsening relations with Washington could threaten a phase-one trade deal signed between the two in January, and dampen Chinas recovery, analysts say.

Further trade talks have stalled completely. There is a risk that both sides will ditch the phase one deal, as tensions have expanded to include disputes over areas such as the pandemic, South China Sea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Iran, the Daiwa analysts said in a research note sent to Al Jazeera.

A new security law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing has resulted in US President Donald Trump revoking Hong Kongs special trading status in a retaliatory move against the Chinese government.

Meanwhile, one of Chinas most important technology companies, telecommunications equipment giant Huawei, is being shut out of key markets in the US and, most recently, the United Kingdom, as they roll out their next-generation 5G mobile networks. Other US allies may be forced to follow suit.

National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot said on Wednesday that Trump has not ruled out further sanctions against top Chinese officials, including Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, in response to their handling of the political unrest in the semi-autonomous territory

The Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which Trump signed on Tuesday, allows him to impose sanctions and visa restrictions on Chinese officials and financial institutions involved in the imposition of Chinas new national security law in Hong Kong.

The atmosphere for both sides to take stock of what was written under Phase One and to look at what should be on the agenda for Phase Two has vanished into thin air, in our view, Daiwas analysts added.
China's new security law in Hong Kong has caused an American-British advisory member that handles the country's sovereign-wealth fund to relinquish her post amid fears of persecution over the new legislation.

New security law

DeAnne Julius wrote in a letter dated July 10 addressed to the chairman of the fund saying she was regretfully stepping down from her position at the International Advisory Council of China Investment Corp., as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Julius noted that recent developments in mainland China and Hong Kong, which has caused several international governments to criticize Beijing over its actions, had made it challenging for her to maintain her position in authority.

The new security law was passed by Beijing in Hong Kong last month that gave Communist Party officials the power to punish anti-government movements and violence severely. It also enabled them to regulate international media and online platforms more easily to monitor foreign activities within the city.

Julius is among the first top-position Western advisers involved with a Chinese establishment to relinquish her post due to concerns of retaliation from the Chinese government. The decision comes amid the anxiety of Hong Kong businesses operating under the new security law.

Since then, however, Beijing has reassured that the new legislation would increase the city's security. A recent survey, however, showed that most of the 183 respondents felt the law made them less secure, and it also revealed 76 percent expressed their severe doubts. In contrast, less than 50 percent noted it would adversely affect their businesses.

Also Read: US Sanctions China for Allegedly Abusing Muslim Uighurs, Placing Them in Detention Camps

The president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, Tara Joseph, said the figures clearly indicated the amount of concern and worry that the new legislation has given the citizens of Hong Kong. She also noted that many of the survey respondents said the law was not in-depth, adding more cause for concern.

Caution over illegal activities

According to CNN, China is calling the primary election held in Hong Kong by the democratic opposition illegal under the new legislation. The announcement came only two weeks after the new controversial law was passed in the city.

Over the weekend, more than 600,000 citizens took part in the voting, which aimed to cut down on the number of pro-democracy political candidates during the city's September elections.

Beijing's new security law has made secession, subversion, terrorism, and conspiring with foreign forces illegal since it was passed on July 1. Government officials stated the legislation would only affect a small number of Hong Kong residents as critics worry over the law's vague and general details.

Beijing's top representative in Hong Kong, the Liaison Office, issued a statement on Monday saying the primary election broke the law, suggesting the hundreds of thousands of people that participated to be punishable by the government.

The office said the event was an apparent and severe provocation of the electoral system implemented within the city and severely affected the fair and just elections of the Legislative Council.

Related Article: Chinese Official Warns UK of Interference Over Providing British Citizenship to Nearly 3 Million Residents

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(Natural News) A study published in the journal Acta Neurologica found that the gut may be the starting point of Parkinsons disease. According to researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark, disease-causing proteins called alpha-synuclein travel up to the brain from the gut. Eventually, they make their way to the heart, as well.

The findings of the study represent a significant step toward detecting and managing the disease as early as twenty years before its actual onset.

We probably cannot develop effective medical treatment that halts the disease without knowing where it starts and how it spreads  so this is an important step in our research, said Per Borghammer, one of the authors of the study.

Parkinsons-related protein spreads from the gut

In Parkinsons disease, alpha-synuclein proteins misfold and accumulate in toxic clumps. These clumps damage the cellular components of neurons which can lead to the disease.

In 2003, Heiko Braak and his colleagues at the Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany showed that in Parkinsons patients, parts of the central nervous system that regulate gut function have an abnormal aggregation of alpha-synuclein. Braak hypothesized that the proteins may have traveled up through the nerves that connect the gut to the brain.

In the Aarhus study, the researchers tested Braaks hypothesis by using rats that had been genetically modified to be manifest Parkinsons-like symptoms. They then injected these rats with alpha-synuclein proteins in the small intestine.

The researchers noted that everything happened in a very predictable manner. The proteins climbed up to the brain through the peripheral nerves after two months. After four months, the magnitude of the pathology got greater.

In addition, they also noticed that the structures known to be affected by Parkinsons in humans were also affected in the rats.

Prior to this study, researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine also tested Braaks hypothesis and found similar results. They discovered that alpha-synuclein proteins highjack the vagus nerve that connects the brain to the gut.

The Aarhus study, however, also found that the proteins can reach the heart. The proteins seem to take a bidirectional route: They travel from the gut to the brain, and from the brain, they can travel to the heart.

For many years, we have known that Parkinson patients have extensive damage to the nervous system of the heart and that the damage occurs early on. Weve just never been able to understand why. The present study shows that the heart is damaged very fast, even though the pathology started in the intestine, said Borghammer.

New frontiers in Parkinsons research

The researchers are hopeful that the results of their study could open up potential ways to detect Parkinsons early and consequently slow its progression. At present, the disease is only detected after a persons brain has suffered from extensive neuronal damage. There are also no reliable treatments for Parkinsons. (Related: Is the cure for Parkinsons just a supplement away? Researchers say vitamin B12 can inhibit a key Parkinsons enzyme.)

Early detection of the disease is key to dealing with Parkinsons, and the findings of the Aarhus study suggest that this is not an impossibility. The team points out that it is possible to detect pathologic alpha-synuclein in the gut as early as 20 years before clinical diagnosis.

However, despite the growing evidence of the guts role in the development of Parkinsons, research involving humans is needed to verify findings, as studies, thus far, have only been conducted on rodents. Moreover, more research needs to be done to ascertain whether the alpha-synuclein aggregates found in the gut are biochemically similar to those found in the brain.

For the latest on Parkinsons research, visit Brain.news.

Sources include:

Nutraingredients.com

CureParkinsons.org.UK

PsychologyToday.com

Springer.com

MayoClinic.org

MedicalNewsToday.com
WASHINGTON, D. C. - Hotels are hurting for business because of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, many people who have tested positive for the potentially fatal virus have trouble isolating themselves at home, particularly if they live in close quarters with a multi-generational family group.

A trio of Northeast Ohio Congress members are proposing legislation that would address both these issues by establishing a federal program that would give states money to lease hotel properties in order to temporarily house individuals with coronavirus who cant quarantine in their own homes but wish to voluntarily isolate themselves.

Republicans Anthony Gonzalez of Rocky River and Dave Joyce of Bainbridge Township and Democrat Tim Ryan of the Niles area on Thursday teamed up with a pair of Democratic legislators from other states to introduce the Isolate COVID-19 Act.

Their bill would authorize $1 billion for the suggested program, which is modeled on similar efforts in other countries. Their legislation would make sure that states have in place proper workplace safety standards and hotel cleaning protocols and would require having at least one health care professional on site or on call at all times to monitor the health of individuals being housed at the hotels.

Opening up hotels for voluntary isolation will help protect our families who need it the most, especially low-income Americans, wage workers, and minorities who are unable to effectively self-isolate in their homes, said a statement from Gonzalez, the bills chief sponsor. Until we can widely administer a vaccine for COVID-19, we need every tool at our disposal to help suppress the spread of the virus, including improving our ability to voluntarily isolate infected individuals.

A statement from Ryan said that with nearly 80% of states seeing a rise in coronavirus cases, its important to find a way to decrease transmission between family members.

To beat this crisis, economic measures and health measures have to work hand-in-hand, Ryans statement said. If we dont get transmission of the virus under control, we will not only continue to lose precious lives, but well continue to prolong the economic downturn that has already hurt so many working class families.

A statement from Joyce noted that to date, Ohio has had more than 69,311 reported cases of coronavirus while more than 100,000 workers have lost hotel-related jobs. He said the bill would help slow the spread of COVID-19 while providing a lifeline for some of Ohios hardest hit businesses.

By isolating individuals who have been infected away from their homes, we can dramatically reduce COVID-19 transmission in our communities and create much-needed revenue for struggling hotels and those they employ, Joyce said.

The bill is endorsed by organizations including the Ohio Hotel & Lodging Association, Asian American Hotel Owners Association, and American Hotel and Lodging Association and several Northeast Ohio health care providers issued statements to endorse the bill.

At Summa Health, we have served more than 500 patients year-to-date with positive cases of COVID-19, said the organizations president and CEO, Dr. Cliff Deveny. Hotel access for members of the community will aid in curbing COVID-19 cases and support positive outcomes for prevention and treatment.

University Hospitals Vice President of Government and Community Relations Heidi Garland called health care disparities caused by poverty and structural racism a public health crisis.

University Hospitals commends the bill sponsors and joins in support of the Isolate COVID-19 Act that provides compassionate support and will help reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus and improve health equity, Garland said.

Ohio Hotel and Lodging Association Executive Director Joe Savarise said owners of more than 600 of the states 1,500 hotels have agreed to consider temporarily using their properties as health care facilities if its needed during the pandemic. He said participating hotels would exclusively house coronavirus patients, and theyd undergo a rigorous cleaning and disinfecting process before they transition to accommodating regular customers.

He said around 30,000 of the states 43,000 hotel and lodging industry employees were laid off at the height of the pandemic, and an estimated 86,000 hotel-supported jobs, like outside landscaping companies that maintain hotel grounds, were also lost. He said just 10% to 15% of the hotel workers who lost their jobs have returned to work because reopened hotels have far less business than they used to.

While hotels that convert to housing COVID patients would not employ as many workers as they previously did, Savarise said the temporary use would provide a lifeline that could keep properties from closing permanently if the pandemic drags on.

We hope not have to use properties this way, but it makes sense to be prepared, said Savarise. I hope we have all learned that lesson.

More coverage:

Rep. Tim Ryan makes up lost fundraising ground while Rep. Jim Jordan takes in nearly $3.5 million

Millions lost health insurance during coronavirus pandemic, report says

Rep. Anthony Gonzalez seeks Confucius Institute crackdown

Republicans slam the Ohio Democratic Party for getting federal Paycheck Protection Program loan

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown to skip Democratic convention over COVID-19 concerns

Donald Trump and Joe Biden backers spar as Biden unveils his economic plan

Ohio Democrats pleased with U.S. Supreme Courts decisions that Trump cant withhold his financial records from investigators

Rep. Tim Ryan leads charge to remove Confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol

Sen. Sherrod Brown wants Clevelands baseball team renamed the Buckeyes

Toledo Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur tries to block Trump administration from conducting nuclear tests

Ex-Cleveland mayor and congressman Dennis Kucinich still riffs on the he was right theme

President Donald Trump slams possible Cleveland Indians name change in tweet

President Trump plugs Christina Hagans congressional campaign on Twitter

Presidential electors must vote as their states dictate, U.S. Supreme Court decides

Coronavirus outbreak at Elkton prison is waning, says U.S. Sen. Rob Portman

Ohios U.S. Senators back renaming Confederate-named military bases, despite Trump veto threat

Sen. Rob Portman calls for sanctioning Russia if outrageous bounty reports are true

U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Louisiana abortion law, similar to Ohios, requiring doctors to have agreements with nearby hospitals

Senate Democrats including Ohios Sherrod Brown thwart consideration of GOP police reform bill
NEW YORK, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Further traversing the digital landscape and leveraging its ability to reach more clients looking to buy or sell property, Casandra Properties, Inc. is pleased to announce the completion of construction of its state-of-the-art podcast studio which will be used to launch its free, weekly real-estate podcast series. Having evolved from a boutique firm 30 years ago to a full-service brokerage representing over $1 billion dollars in transactional real estate, Casandra Properties' continued investment and focus on emerging technology has substantially facilitated its growth over the last decade and secured its position as an industry leader.

Casandra Properties Podcast Logo

Employing digital marketing techniques across an array of platforms ensures that Casandra Properties' listings receive maximum exposure. "As we emerge from the coronavirus pandemic, it's important to look for the silver linings. Many of the investments we've made in the digital space over the past several years are now more than ever delivering value to our customers," said James Prendamano, CEO of Casandra Properties. In addition to the recent launch of free weekly podcasts, Casandra Properties' digital salvo also includes Matterport virtual tours, chatbots, and geo-targeted lead sourcing, just to name a few.

Hosted by CEO James Prendamano, the new podcast series focusing on both commercial and residential real estate is well underway with the premiere of its third episode. Just a few weeks old, the series has already garnered listeners, reaching locals; the tristate area; Essex Junction, Vermont; Fargo, North Dakota, as well as international listeners from Italy, Chile, and Pakistan. Topics so far have included the coronavirus and its impact on the world and the industry moving forward and a deep-dive into digital marketing. To date, featured guests have included real estate professionals Rebecca Matulonis, Peter Gambino, and John Vernazza.

Be sure to catch up on past episodes, and tune in weekly for new episodes!

Casandra Properties Real Estate Podcast

Subscribe on Apple Podcast

Subscribe on Google Podcast

About Casandra Properties, Inc:

Casandra Properties is Staten Island's premier real estate brokerage firm providing clients with outstanding service in both the residential and commercial marketplace. We employ cutting-edge marketing techniques to ensure that our listings receive maximum exposure and sell at the highest possible price. Our holistic approach to buying, selling, leasing and developing land has made us a leader in our trade area.

Casandra Properties is a New York State Certified Woman-Owned Business that evolved from a boutique firm into a full-service real estate brokerage representing more than $1 billion in transactional real estate. Our intimate knowledge of our trade area, combined with our financial and development experience, gives us a distinct advantage over our competitors when representing our clients' assets.

Press Contact: Rebecca Matulonis, [email protected]

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A team from the Office of Security Cooperation at the U.S. Embassy in Ghana led by Maj. Michael W. Kummerer, donated items including PPE and medical supplies to the Ghana Armed Forces' COVID-19 treatment facility at El Wak Stadium in Accra on July 14.

This donation, facilitated by U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), is a follow-up to the donation of two state of the art Level II Field Hospitals to the Ghana Armed Forces by the US Ambassador to Ghana, Stephanie Sullivan on February 4 this year on behalf of the United States.

One of the two field hospitals is currently being used for COVID-19 response at El Wak Stadium.

The donation on July 14 of medical supplies and PPE is in furtherance of the partnership between the United States and Ghana in the fight against COVID-19.

Ambassador Sullivan underscored the importance of Ghana-US joint efforts to combat the pandemic, saying: Now more than ever, the United States is pleased to work together with the government, armed forces, and people of Ghana. This mobile hospital will directly serve those most in need. I also echo His Excellency President Akufo-Addos call for all Ghanaians and residents of Ghana to stay home as much as possible at this time, as one of the most effective ways to combat the pandemic and flatten the curve. Together, we will emerge from this stronger and more united.

---classfmonline
Harris County Democrats produced record turnout in Tuesdays primary runoff election, easily outpacing prior election cycles even amid a recent escalation of the COVID-19 crisis.

The pandemic, in fact, may have helped boost turnout locally and across the state. Voters had five extra days to cast votes before Tuesday after Gov. Greg Abbott extended the early voting period, and in Harris County, absentee turnout nearly doubled from the March primary after Clerk Chris Hollins made the unprecedented move of sending mail ballot applications to all registered voters aged 65 and older.

More than 40 percent of Harris Countys runoff turnout came from people who voted early at one of the countys polling sites, a record in recent history. Renee Cross, senior director of the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston, attributed that outcome largely to the longer early voting period.

I think people felt there was a good chance, particularly in the heat of the summer in Houston, that there wouldn't be people swarming early vote locations, Cross said. So, people probably felt somewhat comfortable going to vote in person. And for quite awhile now, we've had greater numbers go out to vote early than actually on Election Day.

Some 159,000 voters participated in the Harris County Democratic primary runoffs, more than the last four runoffs combined. This years Democratic primary, which featured a U.S. Senate runoff between former Air Force pilot M.J. Hegar and state Sen. Royce West, also surpassed the turnout of about 136,000 in the 2012 Harris County Republican primary, when conservative upstart Ted Cruz defeated then-lieutenant governor David Dewhurst.

Statewide, Republicans cast more than 1.1 million votes in that years runoff, which remains the high-water mark in Texas after about 956,000 Democrats turned out for Tuesdays Senate contest, according to unofficial results from the Texas Secretary of States Office. Still, that marks Texas Democrats second-highest runoff turnout yet, behind only the 1990 contest between Ann Richards and Jim Mattox.

After the results came in Tuesday evening, the state Democratic Party framed the turnout as a signal they are in position to deliver the states 38 electoral votes to presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden over President Donald Trump.

In the middle of a pandemic, Texas Democrats showed we are ready to win with nearly a million Texans doing whatever it takes to have their voice heard, party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said in a statement. Texas is the biggest battleground state in the country. There is unprecedented energy across our great state, and Texas Democrats are putting in the hard work to turn Texas blue in November.

The Texas Republican Party, meanwhile, did not have a statewide contest on Tuesdays ballot, though the party was quick to declare that Hegar is heading into a general election battle against U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in a diminished state after narrowly defeating West, despite getting boosted by a flood of outside money.

"The heated Texas Senate Democrat Primary race the past few months exemplifies the disarray and lack of unity throughout the Democrat Party across Texas and the nation," Harris County Republican Party Chairman Paul Simpson said in a statement.

Some 65,000 voters cast ballots in the Harris County Republican primary runoff, which featured about a third as many races as the Democratic contest and no marquee statewide matchup. Statewide, both parties cast more than 2 million votes during the March primaries, with the Democratic primary slightly outpacing the Republican contest.

Though recent polls have shown Cornyn is starting with an advantage over Hegar, the state of the race between Biden and Trump appears far closer, with Biden polling within the margin of error or leading Trump in four of the five statewide polls conducted between June and July, according to RealClearPolitics.

Hollins, a Democrat who was appointed clerk in May, said he again plans to send mail ballot applications to every registered voter who is 65 and older for the general election. Democratic primary runoff voters mailed in more than 51,000 absentee ballots, compared to the roughly 28,000 who voted by mail in March.

Hollins said mailing out ballot applications unsolicited, which has never been done before in Harris County, is aimed at protecting older voters from COVID-19, which has hospitalized and killed seniors at higher rates than other age groups. Also, Hollins said, expanding mail voting could allow people to cast ballots in person more efficiently.

Voting by mail is certainly more convenient than standing in a five-hour-long line, Hollins said. The more people who vote by mail, the shorter those lines get for everybody else."

Republicans, including state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, have criticized the move as a waste of money and argued that the parties should be responsible for mailing out ballot applications.

Houston Democratic strategist Keir Murray said sending out mail ballot applications for the general election could swing the outcome in a narrowly decided contest, in part because Republicans no longer have such an overwhelming advantage over Democrats statewide.

If the state is close, which there are a lot of indications that it will be, it could be tremendously important, Murray said. The problem for Republicans is that they're just running out of room for error here. You start driving up turnout, you can see how their margin could disappear very quickly, because there's been no growth in the rural parts of the state where Republicans dominate.

jasper.scherer@chron.com
The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday decided to cancel exams of all state universities, except those of final year and last semester. The decision has been taken in the wake of a spike in coronavirus cases in the state.

Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma told reporters that students of other classes will be promoted on the basis of internal assessment.

All undergraduate and postgraduate exams, except those of final year or last semester, have been cancelled, the minister added.

He said the final year and last semester exams will be completed by September 30, either through offline, online or mixed mode by following set protocols.

The results of undergraduate and postgraduate classes will be declared by October 15 and 31, respectively, the UP Deputy CM said. If any student could not appear for the last year/semester examinations, he will be given another chance. As per the convenience of the universities, another examination will be held for such students. This provision will be applicable for this academic year only, Sharma said.

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Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike has rushed to the residence of a former acting Managing Director, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Joi Nunieh, in Port Harcourt following massive presence of armed policemen in the compound.

The armed security operatives besieged the residence of Nunieh on a day she was billed to travel to Abuja to testify before an ad-hoc committee of the House of Representatives investigating the alleged malfeasance in the NDDC.

Nunieh has been engaged in allegations and counter allegations with Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, over corruption and mismanagement of resources that accrued to the commission.

The armed policemen, who reportedly came in dozens as early as 4am on Thursday, were said to have surrounded the house attempting to gain entrance into the main building.



A source said the policemen banged the gate repeatedly and later forced it open but could not enter inside the house where Nunieh took refuge.

Nunieh confirmed that armed security operatives were in her premises located at 3, Owuru Creek view, off Herbert Macaulay Street, Old GRA, Port Harcourt, on Thursday.

Disturbed by the development, it was gathered Wike, who had earlier warned against harm coming the way of Nunieh, moved in to monitor the development.

Sources from the Government House confirmed that the governor was at the residence but failed to disclose the actions he took when he arrived the area.

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After candidates in the northern region of Sri Lanka for next months general election complained about military harassment, Sri Lankan Army commander Shavendra Silva has reacted by insisting that the allegations are false, but has failed to produce a shred of evidence to substantiate his assertion.

Silvas statement was published in the Tamil-language Lanka Sudar website on July 8 and quoted in the main Jaffna-based Tamil language dailies. Silva declared that Tamil politicians and candidates have been making false allegations against the soldiers without any evidence.

The army commanders comments followed complaints by the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) that army intelligence officers had visited the homes of SEP members, including Rasenthiram Sutharsan, Paramuthirugnana Sampanthar and Rajaratnam Rajavel in Jaffna, and had questioned them. Sampanthar leads the SEP slate for the Jaffna district in the forthcoming general election.

Intelligence officers later visited the home of two other SEP members.

Both the SEP and leaders of independent groups contesting the general election complained about military harassment at a meeting held at the regional election commissions office in Jaffna on July 6.

While Silva issued his unsubstantiated statement, Sri Lankan Defence Secretary retired Major General Kamal Gunaratne has not replied to a June 20 letter sent by SEP General Secretary Wije Dias about the harassment of SEP candidates by military intelligence.

Diass letter provided detailed information about the actions of the military intelligence officers, including the dates, times and some of the names given by the army intelligence officers who visited the SEP candidates.

In his media statement, army commander Silva also cynically declared that, Tamil politicians must act responsibly. The allegations must be substantiated. Silvas refusal to acknowledge the detailed evidence provided by the SEP and his demand that Tamil politicians must act responsibly is a veiled threat against all election candidates in the North.

The Rajapakse regime, which faces a deepening economic crisis exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and rising anti-government sentiment from workers and the poor, is attempting to consolidate its power via a presidential dictatorship. Using claims that it is countering the reemergence of terrorism in the North and the East, the government is attacking the elementary democratic rights of parties in these regions.

The SEP has been singled out by the military because of its uncompromising struggle against the ongoing military occupation of the North and the East and for the partys principled struggle to unite workers across all ethnic lines in the fight for a Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and Eelam as part of the struggle for international socialism.

We appeal to workers, youth, students and all those who uphold democratic rights to support the SEPs campaign against the military harassment as part the broader struggle to defend the democratic rights of all working people.

Your protest letters should be sent to the Secretary of the Ministry of Defence, with copies sent to the Chairman of the Election Commission and the Socialist Equality Party.

The Secretary of the Ministry of Defence

Email: secdefence@defence.lk

Fax: +94 11 2541529

Chairman of the Election Commission

Email: chairman@elections.gov.lk

Fax: +94 11 2868426

Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka)

Email: wswscmb@sltnet.lk

Fax: +94 11 2869239

We publish below protest letters sent to the Secretary of the Ministry of Defence:

SP, retired worker from Australia

I am a retired worker from Australia who has supported the principled fight of the SEP Sri Lanka for over 30 years for the unification of the Tamil, Sinhalese and Muslim workers for genuine socialism.

I am demanding that you call off the intimidations and harassments of members of the SEP, which is a lawfully registered election party, by members of your military personnel and immediately answer the questions of Cde. Dias in his first correspondence with you. The military has no place in interfering with supposed democratic elections.

This campaign is being widely fought for around the world. Hands off!!

LM, US

I am sending this email to protest the harassment and intimidation by Sri Lankan military intelligence of Socialist Equality Party candidates Mr. Rasenthiram Sutharsan, Mr. Paramuthirugnana Sampanthar and Mr. Rajaratnam Rajavel, as well as other SEP members and their families.

The SEP is legally entitled to the democratic right to participate in the Sri Lankan elections and advocate for international socialism to the Sinhalese and Tamil working class and the poor in Sri Lanka.

The militarys blatant violation of the SEPs democratic rights is an attack on free expression and basic democratic rights. I denounce this harassment of SEP candidates and I join others in Sri Lanka and worldwide in demanding its end.

RP, Sri Lanka

Recently three Social Equality Party candidates contesting the general election in the Northern Province have been questioned by the military personnel from the intelligence section of the Army without any proper basis to do so. This is a heinous act against the freedom of citizens and a breach of human rights that people should have for their protection.

The SEP is in the forefront of fighting in the coming general election in three districts, namely Colombo, Kandy and the Northern Province.

We have experienced throughout Sri Lankas political history this sort of anti-democratic and provocative harassment and other fetters to suppress peoples movements which have erupted against social injustice created by the prevailing regimes.

While intimidating citizens by these methods will produce a bad result we feel that this is what the government wants to do in order to fulfil its divide-and-rule strategy against the working class. The ruling class, who are clearing the path for a stratocracy, are threatening us to keep mouths closed. The working class in this country should pay proper attention to this and understand that it faces mortal danger.

MM, UK

I am writing from the UK to register my protest against the harassment of Socialist Equality Party members Rasenthiram Sudarshan, Paramuthirugnana Sambanthar and Rajaratnam Rajavel, who are standing in the forthcoming elections in the Upper Jaffna District.

Visits by intelligence officers and attempts to question and photograph them are in violation of their democratic rights. It is also an attempt to intimidate and silence them and their supporters, who have a long history of intransigent struggle to unite Tamil, Sinhalese and Muslim workers against racialist/communalist politics.

The Socialist Equality Party is a well-respected party in Sri Lanka and throughout the world for its part in the international struggle for world socialism. Consequently, the working class in the UK is following events in Sri Lanka closely.

I do not therefore just speak for myself when I say I am concerned about the security of Sudarshan, Paramuthirugnana Sambanthar and Rajavel, especially following the disappearance of two Socialist Equality Party members in 2007, a presumed crime which has never been resolved. Socialist Equality Party candidates have never been subjected to interference by the military before? Why now?

This harassment must end immediately.

KK, Workers Steering Committee at Glenugie Estate, Up Cot, Sri Lanka

The homes of the Socialist Equality Partys Jaffna district candidates Paramuthirugnana Sampanthar, Rasenthiram Sutharsan, Rajaratnam Rajavelin the coming general election were visited by two army intelligence officers who asked for their personal and family details. These are undemocratic illegal activities. We strongly condemn this and request you to stop this harassment with immediate effect.

The SEP is part of the world party based on a socialist program that consistently fights for the unity of Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim workers across the lines of race and religion. We consider an attack on the SEP as an attack against the whole working class, including plantation workers.

FJ, scientist in UK

I would like to express my outrage at the attempt by Sri Lankan military intelligence officers to intimidate Socialist Equality Party candidates in your upcoming elections. I am a scientist in Britain, and can tell you that the work of these esteemed comrades in uniting workers in Sri Lanka against ethnic and religious division, as well as with their fellow workers internationally, has won them respect and support throughout the world.

In a democracy, the military has no right to question candidates standing for election for any reason, let alone to demand personal information and make barely veiled threats. The harassment that the comrades of the SEP have suffered shows that the military, and the class interests it serves, are terrified of the power that a united and independent working class would wield.

The intervention of the military in the election must cease immediately, and the Sri Lankan workers and peasants be allowed to freely exercise their right to vote and stand for the only party which represents their interests.

SK, immigrant Sri Lankan worker from Saudi Arabia

I have learnt through the World Socialist Web Site that during the past few weeks, intelligence officers from the military have subjected three leading members of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) contesting the Jaffna district in the forthcoming parliamentary election to questioning.

The three SEP members who have been subjected to questioning are Messrs. Sampanthar, Sutharsan and Rajavel. We know that these comrades have been in the fight against the racialist division of the population along Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslims lines and are fighting for the international unity of the working class on the perspectives of the SEP. We consider the actions of the military as a threat to the lives of the SEP comrades living in the North and a violation of the fundamental rights of the legitimate political party, the SEP.

I strongly condemn the harassment launched against the SEP by the military and demand that such harassment is stopped.
There were two problems with that strategy. First, the administration rejected the pleas from Britain, France and Germany (who, along with Russia and China, were also party to the original deal) to try and improve the agreements terms together. Indeed, in the months before Trump announced his decision to withdraw, the three European countries worked with U.S. officials to strengthen key aspects of the deal. They were close to an agreement when Trump decided to walk away.
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Fredrik Widlund became the CEO of CLS Holdings plc (LON:CLI) in 2014, and we think it's a good time to look at the executive's compensation against the backdrop of overall company performance. This analysis will also evaluate the appropriateness of CEO compensation when taking into account the earnings and shareholder returns of the company.

See our latest analysis for CLS Holdings

How Does Total Compensation For Fredrik Widlund Compare With Other Companies In The Industry?

Our data indicates that CLS Holdings plc has a market capitalization of UK835m, and total annual CEO compensation was reported as UK1.1m for the year to December 2019. We note that's a small decrease of 3.5% on last year. While we always look at total compensation first, our analysis shows that the salary component is less, at UK430k.

On examining similar-sized companies in the industry with market capitalizations between UK317m and UK1.3b, we discovered that the median CEO total compensation of that group was UK1.1m. From this we gather that Fredrik Widlund is paid around the median for CEOs in the industry. What's more, Fredrik Widlund holds UK381k worth of shares in the company in their own name.

Component 2019 2018 Proportion (2019) Salary UK430k UK378k 40% Other UK648k UK739k 60% Total Compensation UK1.1m UK1.1m 100%

On an industry level, roughly 54% of total compensation represents salary and 46% is other remuneration. It's interesting to note that CLS Holdings allocates a smaller portion of compensation to salary in comparison to the broader industry. If total compensation is slanted towards non-salary benefits, it indicates that CEO pay is linked to company performance.

CLS Holdings plc's Growth

CLS Holdings plc has seen its earnings per share (EPS) increase by 12% a year over the past three years. In the last year, its revenue is up 4.0%.

Story continues

Overall this is a positive result for shareholders, showing that the company has improved in recent years. It's also good to see modest revenue growth, suggesting the underlying business is healthy. Moving away from current form for a second, it could be important to check this free visual depiction of what analysts expect for the future.

Has CLS Holdings plc Been A Good Investment?

CLS Holdings plc has generated a total shareholder return of 7.1% over three years, so most shareholders wouldn't be too disappointed. But they probably don't want to see the CEO paid more than is normal for companies around the same size.

In Summary...

As we touched on above, CLS Holdings plc is currently paying a compensation that's close to the median pay for CEOs of companies belonging to the same industry and with similar market capitalizations. But earnings growth for the company has been strong over the last three years, though shareholder returns in comparison haven't been as impressive. As a result of these considerations, we would suggest the compensation is reasonable, but looking ahead shareholders will likely want to see healthier returns.

It is always advisable to analyse CEO pay, along with performing a thorough analysis of the company's key performance areas. We did our research and identified 3 warning signs (and 1 which can't be ignored) in CLS Holdings we think you should know about.

Important note: CLS Holdings is an exciting stock, but we understand investors may be looking for an unencumbered balance sheet and blockbuster returns. You might find something better in this list of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt.

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.



Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
Samsung is reportedly looking to hold and make gains in the mid-range market by introducing OIS to its offerings. Specifically, reports indicate that will start out in the upper reaches of the category with the Samsung Galaxy A72. The still-unannounced follow-up to the Galaxy A71 is expected to launch at some point in 2020.

There are no other details presently available on the Samsung Galaxy A72 as of this writing. The device will almost certainly deliver 5G, following the arrival of a next-gen networking A71 5G this year. Although Samsung could choose to hold off to leave room for that handsets sales to grow. Regardless, the specs should be improved over that mid-ranger.

The handset will be likely be joined by a Samsung Galaxy A82, in addition to the Galaxy A92 in 2020. Thats if prior reports about Samsungs plans for the year are proven accurate. And those handsets would undoubtedly see OIS added as well since they are pricier, more premium-focused smartphones. Thats if Samsung opts to skip over the Galaxy A81 and A91, which are also still unannounced.

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What would OIS bring to the Samsung Mid-Range?

Now, OIS in a Samsung mid-range smartphone camera doesnt necessarily equate to the same technology in more expensive phones. Thats because OIS  or optical image stabilization  is a family of methods rather than a single solution. So it may not be the best experience available on the companys less costly products as its top-tier gadgets.

In general, OIS is a technology that reduces blurring in photos or videos as theyre being snapped by a camera. It accomplishes that by compensating for the pan and tilt of the camera hardware. That, in turn, reduces the visibility of camera shake and other, similar motions in the final shot. By contrast, EIS  electronic image stabilization  can additionally compensate for rotation.

In both cases, the technology works by essentially countering the movement of the camera. So if the user shakes to the right or left, it tilts or pans in the opposite direction to keep the sensor stable.

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This wont necessarily arrive in 2020 though

Although the smartphones in question have been hinted at arriving in 2020, that may not turn out to be the case. The reports pointing to OIS in Samsung mid-range smartphone cameras indicate that 202 is more likely. Or, at the very least, 2021 is when Samsung is considering the prospect.

Samsungs smartphone sales have dwindled in recent months, however. So it may ultimately choose to launch the devices sooner since the mid-range is a larger market.
Two thirds of children and young people have their first sexual activity unexposed to herpes but risk catching it in adulthood, say researchers

Two thirds of children and young people have their first sexual activity unexposed to herpes but risk catching it in adulthood, say researchers

Fewer people are being exposed to herpes simplex type 1 - also known as oral herpes - in their childhood and the prevalence amongst the population in Europe is falling by 1% per year, suggests research published in the journal BMJ Global Health.

The prevalence of the virus, which often manifests itself with cold sores, appears to be declining in younger people but it could be increasingly likely to be transmitted sexually.

Herpes simplex type1 (HSV-1) is mainly transmitted by oral-to-oral contact during childhood, causing oral herpes, but it can also cause genital herpes. The other form of the virus (HSV-2) is sexually transmitted and causes genital herpes.

Both forms of the virus are lifelong and the World Health Organization estimates there are 3.7 billion people under age 50 (67%) who have HSV-1 infection globally and 491 million people aged 15-49 (13%) worldwide with HSV-2 infection.

Previous research data focused on North America and Europe has suggested that there is a decrease in acquisition of HSV-1 in childhood, a decline in its population prevalence in youth, and an increase in genital herpes cases that are caused by HSV-1.

A team of researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar of Cornell University set out to examine the epidemiology of HSV-1 in Europe.

They systematically reviewed HSV-1 related publications, conducted various meta-analyses, assessed pooled prevalence rates in populations, and estimated pooled proportions of HSV-1 viral detection in clinically diagnosed genital ulcer disease and in genital herpes.

Their analysis gathered information from 142 suitable previous publications.

From these publications, they extracted 179 overall population prevalence measures, four overall proportions of HSV-1 in genital ulcer disease, and 64 overall proportions of HSV-1 in genital herpes.

The results showed that more than two-thirds (67.4%) of the population in Europe tested positive for HSV-1, which is far lower than the historical level of universal infection in childhood in other parts of the world, such as Africa. Around 32.5% of children and 74.4% of adults were infected in Europe.

Prevalence in the population increased steadily with age, being lowest in those aged below 20 years and highest in those aged over 50 years.

Population prevalence in Europe was declining by 1% per year, and the contribution of HSV-1 to genital herpes was rising, also by 1% per year.

As many as two-thirds of European children were reaching their first sexual activity unexposed to this infection and were at risk of acquiring the virus sexually in adulthood, said the researchers.

They speculated that reasons for falling prevalence rates of HSV-1 could include a general decrease in both family size and school crowding, as well as improved hygiene and living conditions.

The results also showed that half of first episode genital herpes cases in Europe were already due to HSV-1, as opposed to HSV-2 infection.

The authors acknowledged that their systematic review had some limitations, primarily the unavailability of data for 25 of 53 European countries, and had comparatively less data for genital ulcer disease and genital herpes than population prevalence.

Nevertheless, these limitations did not appear to have posed a barrier to the interpretation of the results of the study, they said.

They conclude: "HSV-1 epidemiology in Europe is in transition and shifting away from its historical pattern of oral acquisition in childhood.

"HSV-1 transition in Europe is leading to more heterogeneous and variable transmission by age and geography, and an increasing role for HSV-1 in genital herpes and as a sexually transmitted disease.

"The findings highlight the importance of disease surveillance and monitoring of HSV-1 seroprevalence and genital herpes aetiology, and strengthen the case for an HSV-1 vaccine to limit transmission."

###

Peer reviewed? Yes

Evidence type: Systematic review and meta-analyses

Subjects: People
A 29-year-old woman who arrived in Western Australia from Victoria last month did not follow directions to self-quarantine and instead attended a birthday party and socialised with a number of elderly people, police say.

On arrival at the airport the woman was issued with a self-quarantine direction as per border rules, requiring her to isolate within her home for 14 days.

WA's border has been closed since April 5, with no plans to reopen any time soon. Credit:WA Government

The woman, from Eaton, has been charged with one count of Failed to comply with a direction.

News of the quarantine breach comes as 29 people fight for their lives in Victorian intensive care units amid a serious spike in COVID-19 cases.
Fishing vessels operating in East Sea (Source: VNA)

Hanoi - Australia will continue to strongly advocate the freedom of navigation through the South China Sea (called the East Sea in Vietnam), Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on July 16.

Australia will continue to adopt a very consistent position, Morrison told a media briefing in Canberra when asked about Australias stance on US Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeos latest statement on the South China Sea issue.

On July 13, Pompeo affirmed that the United States champions a free and open Indo-Pacific, and the Chinas claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful.

Regarding Pompeos statement, the Vietnamese Foreign Ministrys spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang said on July 15 that Vietnam welcomes other countries stance on the East Sea issue in line with international law.

Peace, stability, cooperation, and development in the sea are the aspiration and goal of countries in the East Sea and the region as well as the international community, she said, adding that the respect of maritime legal order and the full and responsible implementation of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS) are significant in realising these goals.

Vietnam hopes that countries will make efforts to contribute to maintaining peace, stability, and cooperation in the East Sea and settle disputes through dialogues and other peaceful measures in accordance with international law, for the common interests and in line with the aspiration of regional nations and the international community. Vietnam always actively and responsibly contributes to the process, stated Hang.
China promises help for 300,000 people hit by Yangtze River fishing ban

by Viola Zhou

July 16,2020 | Source: SCMP

The Chinese government has promised to help 300,000 fisherpeople find new jobs after banning fishing in the Yangtze River at the start of the year in a bid to protect its biodiversity and dwindling stocks.



Beijing imposed a 10-year ban on January 1 at 332 conservation sites along the river, which at 6,300km (3,900 miles) is the longest in Asia and third-longest in the world. It also said it would extend the restriction to the main river course, key tributaries and major lakes linked to it by January 1 next year.

The ban has devastated communities that for generations have made a living fishing the Yangtze, and their search for alternative employment has been hit by the economic downturn caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.



Running from the Tibetan plateau to the East China Sea near Shanghai, the Yangtze and its tributaries run through an area of China that is home to 459 million people, or about the populations of the United States and Japan combined.



The river has a rich biodiversity and is home to a large number of rare species, but decades of overexploitation have led to the near-complete depletion of its fisheries.



The Yangtze once accounted for 60 per cent of Chinas freshwater fish production, but that figure is now less than 0.2 per cent, according to government figures.



The fishing ban is the most aggressive action taken so far to restore the rivers ecosystem, but it has also devastated communities that have relied on it for generations.



At a press conference on Wednesday, government officials said more than 100,000 fishing boats would be retired and 300,000 people would have to give up fishing as a result of the ban. The number does not include unlicensed workers who fish the waters illegally.



As of July, about 80,000 fishing boats had already stopped operating and 100,000 people had left the profession, officials said.



Most fisherpeople are relatively old and do not have many other skills, said Song Xin, an official from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.



With the impact of the coronavirus, they have difficulty finding new jobs. We can indeed empathise with them.



Song said the government would arrange vocational training to prepare people for new jobs in the construction sector and in factories, while those wishing to start their own businesses would receive subsidies or low-cost loans.



He did not specify where the new jobs would come from, given China is already facing an employment crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, but said some former fisherpeople would be able to work as water patrols to help enforce the fishing ban.



The government would also develop eco-friendly industries such as fish-farming and recreational fishing to generate jobs along the Yangtze, he said.



According to Chinese media reports, some fishing families said they had struggled to find jobs that provided them with a comparable income, while others said they now had nowhere to live after existing for decades on their boats.



Others acknowledged the problem of dwindling fish stocks in the river, saying their catches had been steadily dwindling and fish had been getting smaller over the years.



Experts have said that aquatic life is facing a dire situation due to dam-building, pollution, overfishing, river transport and dredging, despite seasonal moratoriums.



Several rare species, like the Chinese sturgeon, are now classed as endangered.



The government said the 10-year fishing ban was urgently needed to revive the biodiversity in the Yangtze.



At the press conference, officials said illegal fishing remained rampant in some areas, even six months after the ban was introduced.



A public security official said police would step up their efforts to enforce the law by targeting sellers of banned fishing equipment.

Theme(s): Fisheries Development and Aquaculture.
Massachusetts health officials announced another 27 coronavirus deaths on Wednesday, bringing the statewide total to 8,152.

Officials also confirmed another 142 cases of the virus, for a total of at least 106,128. Thats based on 10,424 new molecular tests reported on Wednesday. In addition, the state reported 170 new probable cases of the virus and one probable COVID-19 death. Probable cases are those where patients had a positive antibody test and either COVID-like symptoms or likely exposure to COVID-19.

The number of patients in the hospital with COVID-19 stands at 580, an increase of 20 patients from Tuesday.

The latest statistics come as cases across the country continue to spike, with many states setting new records on a daily basis. The U.S. is approaching 3.5 million cases of COVID-19; the majority of new cases are being reported out of California, Florida and Texas.

This week, researchers at Cambridge-based Moderna Inc. and the National Institutes of Health reported that an experimental vaccine that has been in development for months helped boost peoples immune systems in the way scientists had hoped.

Toward the end of July, the vaccine will be administered to 30,000 people as part of a final trial to see if it protects against the coronavirus.

No matter how you slice this, this is good news, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. governments top infectious disease expert, told The Associated Press.

The availability of a vaccine will be required before Gov. Charlie Baker moves Massachusetts into the final phase of reopening: Phase 4. The third phase of states reopening plan, called the vigilant phase, began last week, and will last significantly longer than the other phases so officials can monitor the impact the third phase will have on the public health data.

On Monday, Baker unveiled a new website for residents to report businesses not complying with the states health and safety guidelines during the pandemic.

The website, mass.gov/covidcompliance, instructs anyone wishing to file a report of non-compliance to contact their local Board of Health. They can also contact the Massachusetts Department of Labor Standards, by email or by phone, with any issues. If the Department of Labor Standards believes an investigation is warranted, the agency will call or email the complainant within 72 hours, the website says. At which point, the agency will open an investigation into the business in question in partnership with local health officials.

Baker also announced $16.1 million in coronavirus relief for 32 special education residential schools. The funding adds to the $3 million the Department of Early Education and Care made available in April to support the residential education school system, officials said.

Here are the cases listed by county:

Barnstable County: 1,593

Berkshire County: 615

Bristol County: 8,558

Dukes County: 57

Essex County: 16,564

Franklin County: 385

Hampden County: 7,056

Hampshire County: 1,012

Middlesex County: 24,652

Nantucket County: 25

Norfolk County: 9,560

Plymouth County: 8,832

Suffolk County: 20,411

Worcester County: 12,724

Unknown location: 303

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When Windstar Cruises returns to service, the ships will have new HVAC systems, stringent cleaning and onboard protocols, and wont operate at 100 percent occupancy, said Chris Prelog, COO, who oversaw the companys holistic Beyond Ordinary Care program.

We certainly wont go to 100 occupancy and will have a set of suites set aside for isolation, he said, in a phone interview with Cruise Industry News.

Occupancy percentages will be determined by regulations, Prelog said.

As for resuming service, the company will have the 148-guest Wind Spirit back in service in Tahiti on September 10, with the company's five other ships following between late 2020 and next July.

The big changes are coming on the HVAC side of the operation, with new installations across the fleet.

HEPA filters and UV-C lights will be installed. UV-C lights will provide an opportunity to zap the air with UV-C light (germicidal irradiation) before the air recirculates on the ship. When air passes the UV-C light, microbes such as bacteria and viruses not trapped in the HEPA filter will be destroyed, according to company literature.

And if you put a finer filter (HEPA) aboard you will need stronger motors and fans to push (the air), Prelog said. We are not just installing filters and lights, there is a whole lot more going on from the perspective on upgrading the HVAC systems.

Embarkation will be staggered, but homeport hours wont need to be adjusted due to Windstars small passenger contingent.

Omboard, there will be constant cleaning, additional protocols and more crew assigned to specific cleaning tasks.

The Seattle-based company will use EvaClean with PurTab for disinfecting surfaces via sprayers.

Without a full passenger load, Windstar will still carry a full crew count, making more crew available to help with cleaning, noted Prelog, who was named COO in February.

There will also be more medical staff aboard and a bigger HVAC engineering support squad, Prelog said, to monitor the HVAC plants and new air conditioning infrastructure.

Following the Wind Spirit, the Wind Surf plans to be back in operation on Nov. 29 in the Caribbean, while the Wind Star will debut in mid-January in Costa Rica.

Windstars Star-class trio are undergoing a major renovation adding additional suites, new restaurants, an expanded pool deck and other amenities during their ship stretches at Fincantieri in Palermo.

The Star Breeze will set sail on October 27 in the Mediterranean, the Star Legend on March 1, and the Star Pride on July 5 (2021).
IRVINE, Calif., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc. have reached a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) to develop innovative compact and robust telescopes for nanosatellites.

The four-year, $2 million CRADA will combine LLNL's Monolithic Telescope (MonoTele) technology with Tyvak's expertise producing high-reliability spacecraft. In the future, the advanced optical imaging payloads may be employed to collect information for remote sensing data users.

The MonoTele consists of a space telescope fabricated from a single, monolithic fused silica slab, allowing the optic lens to operate within tight tolerances. This approach does not require on-orbit alignment, greatly simplifying spacecraft design and favorably affecting spacecraft size, weight and power needs.

"I'm excited about this technology transitioning from LLNL to space demonstration and eventual commercial use," said Alex Pertica, the deputy program leader for LLNL's Space Science and Security Program (SSSP).

Tyvak will provide the spacecraft and payload, consisting of the MonoTele, sensor, and electronics, ensuring survivability in a demanding vibration environment during launch and wide-ranging temperatures on-orbit.

LLNL will then apply its knowledge of novel optical payloads to develop, test, and process data gathered from the sensors.

"We are delighted to have formalized this collaborative effort with LLNL to demonstrate and commercialize advanced optical imaging technology," said Anthony Previte, Tyvak's CEO. "Together we will enable end users to achieve their mission goals in many space-based markets."

Developed by LLNL over the past eight years, the MonoTele space telescopes range in size from one inch (called the mini-monolith) to 14 inches.

The MonoTele technology provides imaging for nanosatellites, about the size of a large shoebox and weighing less than 22 pounds, and microsatellites, about the size of a dorm refrigerator and weighing up to several hundred pounds.

LLNL researchers undertook the development of the tiny one-inch, mini-monolith for use in star trackers, a component that every satellite has one or more of, and is used to find the satellite's "attitude" or orientation. Attached to the satellite's body, the star trackers compare the satellite's position relative to the position of the stars to determine their orientation.

"Several telescopes with the MonoTele technology have flown in space. They've performed very well," Pertica said, adding that the one-inch, mini-monolith version is now flying aboard Tyvak-0129. The technology's first space mission was the GEOstare satellite, which launched in January 2018.

Typically, space telescopes have two optical mirrors  a larger primary mirror and a smaller secondary mirror  that face each other. If the mirrors go out of alignment, the image becomes fuzzy.

To keep the mirrors in alignment, a metering structure is typically employed to maintain the mirrors in place. But metering structures can be expensive and can go out of alignment.

To solve this problem, LLNL optical scientist Brian Bauman came up with the idea of the MonoTele  replacing the two mirrors and metering structure with one solid piece of glass, with optical shapes and reflective coatings at both ends of the glass.

The MonoTele concept was inspired by the design of the mirrors used for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope that is under construction in Chile, due to come online in 2023 and expected to image some 20 billion galaxies.

Under this CRADA, LLNL and Tyvak expect to develop additional MonoTele-type telescopes capable of operating in other wavelength bands, such as ultraviolet and short-wave infrared, and as a spectrometer instrument.

The telescopes, which would be demonstrated in space, also would feature compact and low-power focus mechanisms for missions requiring agile optics technology.

The MonoTele nanosatellite imaging payloads can be used across multiple applications and will serve Earth observation, space situational awareness, and satellite navigation initiatives.

"Partnering under a CRADA with outside industry was the natural next step for commercializing the technology," said David Dawes. "We look forward to working with Tyvak."

"The CRADA gives Tyvak the option to license LLNL intellectual property (IP) or joint IP developed under this collaboration, in addition to any of the Lab's existing background IP required to practice the subject inventions," Dawes added.



About Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)

Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (www.llnl.gov) provides solutions to our nation's most important national security challenges through innovative science, engineering and technology. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.



About Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc.

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Irvine, California, Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc. is an industry leader, delivering optimized, end-to-end satellite solutions. For more information, please visit www.Tyvak.com or follow the Company @TyvakNanoSat

Media Contacts:

LLNL

Stephen Wampler

[email protected]

+1 (925) 423-3107



Tyvak

Taylor Cantwell

[email protected]

+1 (949) 439-6153

SOURCE Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc., a Terran Orbital Corporation

Related Links

http://www.tyvak.com


Deep Longevity, a San Diego, CA-based biotechnology company focused on improving longevity R&D through AI-discovered biomarkers of aging, raised a seed funding round of undisclosed amount.

The company has just come out of stealth from Insilico Medicine, the AI for drug discovery company recognized for its breakthroughs in generative chemistry, and generative biology.

The round was led by ETP Ventures and Human Longevity and Performance Impact Venture Fund, with participation from Bold Capital Partners, Longevity Vision Fund, Oculus co-founder and former chief software architect Michael Antonov through Formic Ventures, and LongeVC, as well as undisclosed investors including celebrity investors in artificial intelligence and some of the most prominent U.S. biotechnology investors.

Led by Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, founder and CEO, Deep Longevity specializes in deep learning for aging research specializing in the development of deep biomarkers of aging using clinical blood tests, transcriptomic, proteomic, epigenetic, microbiome, behavioral, wearable, imaging, and multiple other data types. The company holds exclusive licenses to a comprehensive IP portfolio including both granted and pending patents. In the first partnership, the company will deploy its technology in a collaboration with Human Longevity, a genomics-based, health intelligence leader with a large database of sequenced genomes and phenotypic information.

FinSMEs

16/07/2020
While Living Grace is hosting the activities, France said it was important to set up The Woods as a 501(3)(c) with its own leadership because he did not want to see the nonprofit run in a parochial manner. He said pastors have a tendency to be possessive of their congregations, and that attitude may not help empower others in this case.
Police are investigating the death of Roma rights activist Laszlo Bogdan, who was the independent mayor of Cserdi in Baranya County, in southern Hungary.

The mayors office was informed about his death earlier on Tuesday, Gizella Papp, a local municipality employee, said.



His family has asked that no further details be published, she said.



Bogdan, aged 46, was the mayor of the village since 2006 and was the deputy mayor and local representative in the preceding four years.



He received the Raoul Wallenberg award in January this year in recognition of his efforts to promote the peaceful coexistence of members of the minority and mainstream.



Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony expressed his condolences to Bogdans family and Cserdis residents.



Karacsony wrote on Facebook that Bogdan had carried on his shoulder our shared burdens: poverty, discrimination, hopelessness and dogmas. Burdens we should have long freed ourselves from.





MTI Photo: Zoltan Balogh
SHERMAN  If the outcome of the 2020 presidential race came down to the amount of campaign contributions from Sherman residents, it would be a close call  but the winner would be Democrat Joe Biden.

Seven Sherman residents contributed a total of $1,883 to Bidens campaign, while four residents gave close to $1,189 to the campaign of incumbent Republican Donald Trump, according to Federal Election Commission filings data.
KV Navya By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: 'Avoid touching surfaces' has been a constant warning right from the beginning of the pandemic. Though this is slowly becoming the new normal, the life of people from the visually challenged community who depend on these very surfaces for mobility, has come to a standstill.

32-year-old Menaka from Ashok Nagar said she has not stepped out of her house since more than 100 days now. "I have literally been staying amid four walls for more than three months now since there is no way out. Touch is an integral part of how we function. We need the help of surfaces or people to help us cross roads and search for items in shops. But everybody is so hesitant to hold your hand and help nowadays since nobody knows who is affected. As a result, I am trapped. Not just me, most other visually challenged people," she said.

They say though they can use a walking stick to cross the road, it also increases the risk of accidents.

There are not many mobility devices available in the market too. While normal walking sticks are priced at Rs 150, sticks with voice automation and vibration detecting facilities cost anywhere between Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000.

"Given the current economic situation, it is nearly impossible to buy such devices. The government must ensure that they either provide monetary support or come up with mobility devices driven by artificial intelligence. I have met at least 500 families during the lockdown to provide relief material and was shocked to find that most of them have only been sitting at their home unable to even come out for a minute. The kind of suffocation affects mental health," said P Manoharan, member of Tamil Nadu Differently Abled welfare board.

Manoharan further added that the visually challenged depend on touch for affection. "Since you cannot see the other person's expression, we hold their hand while talking, to express ourselves. However, that too is not possible now, so the mental health has definitely taken a beating."

42-year-old P Raja who is living alone in Egmore is experiencing just that. Since his wife and daughter left for Madurai just before the lockdown, he has been staying alone. "Volunteers come and drop the materials and leave. I have not even spoken to anyone properly since my phone too is under repair. Once public transport begins, it will be even more difficult if nobody helps us. We cannot stay at our homes when we do not know when the pandemic will end," he said.

One common thing that most of the people that spoke to Express said is that while people are getting adapted to the 'new normal', there is nothing normal or even little inclusive for the people of this community. They seek government intervention and some innovation so that they too can lead a new normal life.
MCALLEN, Texas, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- El Milagro Clinic today announced it has launched rapid COVID-19 testing, together with CVS Health, at its clinic in the Rio Grande Valley. CVS Pharmacists and pharmacy employees will staff the testing operation. Testing will be provided at no cost to patients.

"We are very excited to be teaming up with CVS Health to increase the much-needed COVID-19 testing services in our region." said Marisol Resendez, Executive Director, El Milagro Clinic. "This collaboration comes at a most appropriate time as we are experiencing an exponentially increasing amount of positive COVID-19 cases. We know that it is the uninsured and underserved in our community that are at a higher risk from getting severely ill from this virus, and this partnership highlights our commitment to providing healthcare services to the most vulnerable. We are grateful for CVS Health's vision to expand access to testing to those that need it most."

Testing at the El Milagro Clinic, located at 901 E. Vermont Avenue in McAllen, will be open to the public by appointment beginning Friday, July 17. Patients will need to pre-register in advance by calling 956-213-6400, to schedule a time slot for testing. Testing at the site is conducted inside the clinic; a personal vehicle is not required and results will be provided on-the-spot. To be eligible for testing, patients will need to meet criteria established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in addition to age guidelines.

"Working with partners like El Milagro Clinic is an important part of our comprehensive strategy to increase access to COVID-19 testing," said Dr. Garth Graham, Vice President, Community Health and Chief Community Health Officer, CVS Health. "This joint effort allows us to tap into the network of a trusted organization with strong community ties to further expand testing in areas of greatest need."

The CVS Health Foundation, a charitable entity associated with CVS Health, has a longstanding relationship with the National Association of Free & Charitable Clinics, providing more than $9 million over the last six years to help clinics nationwide, like El Milagro Clinic, to increase access to care for underserved populations.

"Accessible, abundant, efficient and accurate testing is critical to reining in the surge of COVID-19 in South Texas," said Congressman Vicente Gonzalez (TX-15). "CVS Health will be an enormous resource and expand access to testing for our vulnerable populations. I am grateful for CVS Health for stepping up and answering our community's call for help."

El Milagro Clinic has provided comprehensive primary, disease prevention and behavioral health care services to Rio Grande Valley residents who are medically indigent since 1996.

"Hidalgo County has been identified as one of the nation's hotspots for COVID-19 with more than 7,000 known positive cases. Testing is essential to contain the spread of the virus," said Roberto M. Garcia, El Milagro Clinic Board Chair. "Mass testing is taking place at several locations throughout the county; however, these efforts are presently overwhelmed. We welcome the opportunity to partner with CVS Health for COVID-19 testing in the battle against the spread of this virus in our community."

In addition to offering testing together with several community partners across the country, CVS Health is offering drive-thru testing at more than 1,400 CVS Pharmacy locations nationwide. Nearly sixty percent of these CVS Pharmacy test sites serve communities with significant need for support, as measured by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Social Vulnerability Index.

Media Contact:

Monica Prinzing, (831) 241-8294

[email protected]

SOURCE CVS Health
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 10:38:21|Editor: huaxia

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MANILA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday said it has approved a 200 million U.S. dollars (430 million Fijian dollars) policy-based loan to boost investment in Fiji's private sector to help the country's economy cope with, and rebound from, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Manila-based bank said the loan will help create a more conducive environment for private investment and business owners. It will also support reforms to improve the management of public finances and strengthen the performance of state-owned enterprises, which will have benefits for the private sector, it added.

The ADB said the assistance is the third phase of a program developed in partnership with the governments of Australia and New Zealand, the World Bank Group, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

It said financial and technical support for the program was provided by ADB, the governments of Australia and New Zealand, the World Bank Group, and the International Monetary Fund's Pacific Financial Technical Assistance Centre.

The ADB said the program supports reforms that will help Fiji's tourism-dependent economy to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and build resilience to future economic and fiscal shocks. Reforms include strengthening investor rights and streamlining the investment approval process, the bank said.

According to the ADB, access to finance will be improved through the activation of the ADB-supported Personal Property Securities Registry, which makes it easier for people to secure loans to start or grow a business using moveable assets.

The ADB said this reform will particularly benefit women who are unlikely to have fixed assets such as land. Simplifying the application process for construction permits will also improve the country's ease of doing business process, it added. Enditem
Shamima Begum, who left London as a teen to join the Islamic State (IS) in Syria, should be allowed to return to her home country to challenge the UKs decision to revoke her citizenship, a British court said Thursday.

The UK Home Office maintains that Begum, who lived under IS rule for several years, is a threat to national security and called the Court of Appeal judgment disappointing.

"We will now apply for permission to appeal this judgment," a Home Office spokesperson said in a statement. "The governments top priority remains maintaining our national security and keeping the public safe."

Whether to repatriate and prosecute those like Begum who traveled to the region to join the terrorist group has proven to be a thorny issue for Western governments, many reluctant to get involved in what can be a politically unpopular subject at home. More than 2,000 suspected foreign fighters, along with their wives and children, remain in a sort of legal limbo under the custody of the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces in northeast Syria.

British journalist Anthony Lloyd tracked down a nine-months pregnant Begum in a Kurdish-run Syrian refugee camp in February 2019. Just four years earlier, she and two classmates from east Londons Bethnal Green neighborhood boarded a flight to Istanbul and from there slipped across the border into Syria.

Shortly after arriving in the IS capital of Raqqa, then-15-year-old Begum married a Dutch militant. They had three children, all of whom died as infants, she said.

In her interview with Llyod, Begum said she wanted to return to the UK but didnt regret having traveled to IS territory. She later told Sky News the experience under IS made her stronger and that people should have sympathy for her.

Begums seeming lack of remorse in the British press sparked a heated debate among those who said Begum knew what she was signing up for and should face the consequences. Others pointed out she was a minor at the time.

I think she had an idealistic idea of a utopian caliphate, and of course when she got there, she found something very different, said Anne Speckhard, director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism.

She was a schoolgirl and impressionable  I think we can even say groomed by what she was reading over the internet, said Speckhard, who met with Begum twice during visits to Syria.

In February 2019, then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid stripped Begum of her citizenship. Doing so is only legal if a person can obtain citizenship in another country.

The UK government said that because both of Begum's parents are citizens of Bangladesh, she too was entitled to citizenship in the South Asian country. But Bangladeshs Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the England-born teen was not one of its citizens, had never visited the country and there is no question would be denied entry.

Lawyers for Begum appealed a decision from the UKs Special Immigration Appeals Commission that found that Javid's decision to revoke her citizenship was lawful and did not render Begum stateless.

The case is less about Shamima Begum now and more about what does citizenship really mean, said Tasnime Akunjee, a lawyer representing Begums family.

Is there now a two-tier system in the UK where if your parents come or hark from a different country, despite you being born here, then your citizenship is of a lower quality than somebody whose parents dont come from another country? Akunjee asked.

Begums legal team had argued she was unable to mount an effective case from Syria as she cannot speak with her lawyers confidentially and cell phone service in the region is intermittent at best.

On Thursday, the Court of Appeal agreed the only way in which she can have a fair and effective appeal would be from the UK and that national security concerns could be managed.

Begums family, Akunjee said, is heartened by the news but knows this is still a very long road ahead.
While India decided independently to ban more than 50 Chinese apps recently as part of its campaign to punish Beijing for the Galwan clashes, the United States on Wednesday indicated it played an enabling role with its ongoing effort to assist New Delhi with information it needed to make the right choices.

No details were forthcoming . But the United States has been considering a ban on some of these same apps such as TikTok, a video sharing app, as has been said by both President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as they ratchet up their attacks on China over a growing list of disagreements.

Weve been working closely with the Indians across a broad spectrum of the  the full range of international partnership with them to assist them in making sure they had all the information they needed to make good decisions, Secretary of State Michael R Pompeo said in an interaction hosted by the Economic Club of New York, a non-profit.

Pompeo was responding to a question if America was alone in confronting China over its trade thievery, using his own words, lies in the South China Sea, and its attempt to leverage its outsized clout in the WHO to escape accountability for the Covid-19 pandemic that started in Wuhan last December.

They made the decision that they were going to pull 50 or so Chinese applications off the systems that were operating inside of India, the secretary of state said of the Indian decision on the Chinese apps, and added, They didnt do that because the United States told them to. They did it because they could see the threat to the Indian people from the Chinese Communist Party.

Pompeo, who is spearheading the Trump administrations growing hawkishness on China, went on to indicate the United States may have played a similar enabling role in United Kingdoms ban on Huawei from its 5G network Tuesday, reversing its long-held position that had caused frustration in the United States which has declared the telecommunications giant with links to Beijing a national security risk.

The United Kingdom changed its policy with respect to its 5G technology, Pompeo said not because America browbeat them but because it conducted a thorough analysis based on a set of information, some of which we certainly were helpful as part of the Five Eyes coalition to collect and disseminate.

Five Eyes is an intelligence sharing alliance of the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Defense ministers of the member countries called last month for a stable, rules-based, global order, using a phrase that is deployed by foreign ministries around the world as a rallying cry against the Chinese.

A response was awaited from the state department to a request for more details about the assist from the United States, as indicated by Secretary Pompeo.
Ly Son Island off the coast of Quang Ngai Province in Central Vietnam is said to be the azure island as the seawater is so azure and pure that it gives visitors a feeling of seeing through the seabed.
A vaccine additive known as an adjuvant can enhance responses to a vaccine containing the exotic avian flu virus H5N1, so that both rookie and veteran elements of the immune response are strengthened, according to results from an Emory Vaccine Center study.

The findings have implications for the effort to develop vaccines against multiple strains of flu, as well as the current push for vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. The Emory study was a test of what happens when the body sees something new - in contrast to seasonal flu vaccination, which often re-activates the same memory B cells the immune system relied upon in past years.

The study provides guidance on how adjuvants might become part of a proposed "universal" flu vaccine, aimed at protecting people against a wider variety of influenza strains. In addition, vaccine designers are considering how to optimize immune responses against SARS-Cov-2, which few had encountered before 2020.

The results were published online July 13 by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"We saw that an adjuvant makes it possible to efficiently engage both memory and naive B cells, expanding the repertoire of the antibody immune response to influenza," says first author Ali Ellebedy, PhD, who did the study while he was a postdoctoral fellow in Rafi Ahmed's lab at Emory Vaccine Center.

"For a new pathogen like SARS-CoV-2, nobody has immunity," Ahmed says. "So the important thing is to have the vaccine bring out good responses from naive B cells, whose frequency is low."

"For universal flu, the situation is more complicated. You want to bring out both the cross-reactive memory cells and the naive strain-specific cells," adds Ahmed, whose lab is part of a NIH-funded consortium developing flu vaccine candidates. "Looking ahead, adjuvants are going to be an important element of universal flu vaccine research."

The particular adjuvant studied in the paper is called AS03, whose manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline is making it available for COVID-19 vaccine trials. The AS03 adjuvant could be relevant for extending the efficacy of limited doses of protein or viral subunit-based vaccines, but less so for newer mRNA-based vaccines, Ahmed says.

The Hope Clinic study recruited 50 healthy young adults, who were (most likely) exposed to other flu viruses and vaccines earlier in their lives. The H5N1 vaccine, with AS03, was approved by the FDA in 2013 and is part of the national stockpile in case of pandemic flu. More information about the AS03-adjuvanted flu vaccine is available from the FDA.

Emory researchers had previously observed that when the immune system encounters an unfamiliar flu virus, which occurred for many during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the antibodies produced are able to neutralize a broader range of viruses. This came from the skew of the antibodies toward the "stem" (or stalk) region of the viral hemagglutinin protein, versus the "head." The stem region doesn't mutate and change as much as the head from year to year.

A similar phenomenon occurred in the H5N1 study, because the head region of the virus was unfamiliar, but the stem region was not. Without an adjuvant, the immune response to a low dose of the H5N1 flu vaccine was poor, the researchers found.

But with the adjuvant, immune responses changed markedly between the first and second dose. A week after the first adjuvanted vaccine dose, broadly cross-reactive antibodies produced by the immune system were mostly directed against the stem. This first wave came mostly from pre-existing memory B cells. After the second dose, the antibodies were more directed against the head, coming from strain-specific naive B cells.

The researchers also offered an explanation for the shift in the antibody response after the second dose: essentially, the immune system is getting in its own way. After the second vaccination, the antibodies against the stem region are still in the body and they appear to be covering up those parts of the viral hemagglutinin protein, a phenomenon called "epitope blocking."

"This is something that many flu vaccine studies have observed, but now we have a possible mechanistic explanation and good evidence for it," Ahmed says.

###

Collaborators from Stanford University and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai contributed to the paper.

The research at Emory was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (U19AI109946, R21AI139813, U01A1141990, AI117891) and the Centers of Excellence in Influenza Research and Surveillance, via Health and Human Services contracts (HHSN2722019, HHSN272201400004C and HHSN272201400008C).
Key Highlights

India's move to develop Farzad B gas field and a strategic rail link under Chabahar-II in Iran have landed in troubled waters

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) statement says Iran in January this year informed that it will initially develop the field on its own, and involve India appropriately at a later stage

Iran has signalled that it may prefer local companies over Indian firms but no official communication has come so far

While ONGC's overseas arm OVL was frontrunner for developing Farzad B gas field, Indian Railways controlled IRCON had signed MoU to finance and execute Chabahar-Zahedan Railway project

India and Iran have maintained cordial relations despite pressure from the US, but Tehran has now shown its tilt towards Beijing

India's plan to develop two key projects -- Farzad B gas field and a strategic rail link under Chabahar-II -- in Iran has come under a cloud as proximity of the energy-rich nation with China grows.

Highly-placed sources say signals from Iran suggest that the two projects may not be offered to Indian companies. However, no official communication has been received so far.

"Farzad B is a gas field in Iran where OVL (overseas arm of oil and gas behemoth ONGC) is part of the consortium along with two other Indian companies. Exploration was done by OVL and some discoveries were made. In the next stage when extraction had to take place, the discussion was taking place but in the meantime sanctions were imposed by the US on Iran," an official said.

"After that no pact could be reached. Now, Iran wants to develop that block through some local company, which they can do as there is no agreement with our company," he added.

Another official familiar with the rail line project said there is no final word on it, and hence it can be assumed that India is still in the fray.

An official Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) statement says that in January this year Iran had informed that it would develop the field on its own and would like to involve India appropriately at a later stage.

The MEA said that follow-up bilateral cooperation was impacted by policy changes on the Iranian side.

"This matter remains under discussion," the statement said.

On the proposed railway line the MEA said that IRCON had completed the site inspection and reviewed the feasibility report.

"Detailed discussions were thereafter held on other relevant aspects of the project, which had to take into account the financial challenges that Iran was facing. In December 2019, these issues were reviewed in detail at the 19th India-Iran Joint Commission Meeting in Tehran. The Iranian side was to nominate and authorised entity to finalise outstanding technical and financial issues. This is still awaited," the MEA readout noted.

Amid reports that Iran has already dropped India from the Chabahar-Zahedan rail line, Iranian news agency quoted Farhad Montaser, a deputy to Iran's Ports and Maritime Organisation clarified that Iran had not inked any deal with India related to the rail link.

While Montaser has maintained that a deal had not been signed for the rail project, Indian Railways arm IRCON had earlier said that they expected to work on the rail project as it had had also been exempted from US sanctions along with Chabahar port project carried out by India Ports Global Pvt Ltd (a consortium of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and Kandla Port Trust).

On being asked about the progress on the Iran rail project during an investor call on 14th November 2018, IRCON International Chairman and Managing Director SK Chaudhary had said he hoped that work on the proposed line would start.

"Yes definitely, government is studying those things in detail and some meetings are going on and it is not only the port, the railway lines also have been exempted from this. We hope that the work will start," he had said referring to US sanctions.

In its Annual report for 2016-17, IRCON said it had signed a MoU with Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructure Company (CDTIC), a company owned by Government of Iran, for the financing and execution of Chabahar-Zahedan Railway project.

Following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, US and other affected countries have questioned the handling of the deadly virus by China and have cornered it for allegedly hiding crucial information about the contagion. This seems to have divided the world with countries converging around either US or China. In recent months, India has gravitated towards the US and the recent tensions at Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China have further amplified the pull.

While India and Iran have maintained cordial relations despite pressure from the US, the latter has now shown its tilt towards China.

The two countries are reported to have drafted a comprehensive military and trade partnership. The pact is expected to bring Chinese investments worth $400 billion in key sectors including energy and defence over the next 25 years.

Riding strong ties over the years, India has been a strategic trade partner of Iran and participated in the development of the first phase of Shahid Behesti Port in Chabahar. Indian company India Ports Global Ltd took over port operations in December 2018 and has successfully handled cargo since then.

As part of the agreement, India was to extend grant assistance of nearly $85 million and a credit facility of $150 million for Chabahar Port development.

In line with the Tehran Declaration of 2001 and the New Delhi Declaration in 2003, the two countries had agreed to boost regional connectivity, including the development of Chabahar Port.

Accordingly, India participated in the development of Chabahar port and agreed to construct two terminals (five berths) as per the terms under the Inter-governmental MoU with Iran on 5th May 2015. The MoU envisages construction of a multi-purpose cargo terminal (600 mtrs length) and a container terminal (640 mtrs length).

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NEWTOWN  The 10 Sandy Hook families suing Remington in a wrongful death lawsuit are used to the spotlight.

The families court fight against the nations oldest gunmaker over the 2012 shooting of 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School dates to 2014, when wounds were still raw over the crime.

Last week, the families won the latest fight over the right to question Remington executives under oath about internal corporate affairs.

But Remington came right back and filed a request with the court to throw out the families lawsuit, arguing they have shown no evidence that Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza saw Remington advertisements for the AR-15-style rifle used in the crime or that the ads were the contributing factor in the mass shooting.

(The families) remaining claim is focused narrowly on the specific content of any advertisement for the rifle that was seen by Lanza and whether any such advertisement in fact caused him to commit his horrific criminal acts, reads Remingtons latest argument in state Superior Court. (The families) fail to identify any advertisements at all and, importantly, fail to plead the essential factual allegations that (1) Lanza saw an offending advertisement and (2) but for seeing the advertisement, he would not have planned and carried out his crimes.

As the two sides prepare for trial in 2021, here is a timeline of the highly visible case:

December 2012  A 20-year-old named Adam Lanza takes his mothers AR-15-style rifle from an unlocked closet, shoots his way into a locked Sandy Hook School, and kills 20 first-graders and six educators. President Barack Obama would later call that day the most difficult of his eight years in office.

December 2014  The families of nine people killed in the Sandy Hook shooting and a teacher who was shot during the crime file a wrongful death lawsuit against Remington, the maker of the rifle used in the slaying. Observers call the lawsuit a longshot, because a 2005 federal law protects the gun industry from most liability when firearms are misused.

March 2016  The families lawsuit is among the defining issues in the Democratic presidential primary between Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Sanders said he supports the 2005 federal law that shields the gun industry. Clinton, who voted against the law as a senator, said it should be repealed.

October 2016  State Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis throws out the lawsuit against Remington brought by the 10 Sandy Hook families. The families appeal to state Supreme Court.

March 2018  Remington files to reorganize its finances under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, in part due to bad debt Remington took on when investors left the company after the 2012 shooting. In 2012, Remington had net sales of close to $1 billion.

March 2019  The Connecticut Supreme Court overrules part of the 2016 state Superior Court decision that threw out the Sandy Hook families lawsuit against Remington. Remington appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court.

November 2019 - The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear Remingtons appeal of the Connecticut Supreme Court ruling. The U.S. Supreme Courts refusal to hear the case sends the case back to the lower court, which schedules a trial for 2021.

February 2020  The 10 families streamline their case into a single claim: That Remington violated the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act by marketing the AR-15-style rifle used in the Sandy Hook shooting to civilians for criminal purposes, and that the marketing motivated Lanza to commit his crimes

May 2020  A fight by the families to grill Remington executives about its internal affairs takes center stage in state Superior Court in Waterbury.

June 15, 2020  Bellis sides with the 10 Sandy Hook families and denies Remingtons motion to protect its executives from discovery questions Remington considers invasive and improper.

June 17, 2020  Remington files a motion asking Bellis to throw out the Sandy Hook families lawsuit, because it fails to show that Lanza saw the gunmakers advertising or that if Lanza did see Remingtons advertisements, that the ads were the cause of the gunmans rampage.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 07:38:47|Editor: huaxia

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LOS ANGELES, July 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. sailors and civilian fire crews continued to battle the blaze on amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard for the fourth day in a row Wednesday at Naval Base San Diego in California.

A total of 63 personnel, 40 sailors and 23 civilians, have been treated for minor injuries including heat exhaustion and smoke inhalation while fighting the fire as of early Wednesday, according to a statement from the Naval Surface Forces, U.S. Pacific Fleet.

U.S. Navy officials said there are no personnel hospitalized currently.

Helicopter have conducted more than 1,500 helicopter water bucket drops, which is cooling the super structure and flight deck enabling fire crews to get onboard internally to fight the fire, officials added.

"All shipboard fires are difficult to fight," maritime lawyer Rod Sullivan, who served in the Navy, was quoted as saying by a local television station, NBC 7 San Diego.

"It's very difficult to choke off oxygen in open deck spaces," Sullivan added, noting it's not uncommon for ship fires to take days to extinguish.

U.S. Navy officials said they will do a thorough investigation of the incident to include assessing the cause of the fire and damage to the ship. They pointed out that the fire appears to have started in a vast lower cargo area.

Around 160 sailors were aboard USS Bonhomme Richard when the fire was called away at approximately 8:30 a.m. local time on Sunday. The ship, with a crew size of around 1,000, has been docked in San Diego since 2018 undergoing maintenance, according to the U.S. Navy. Enditem
The U.S. Air Force general in charge of the combat air force is visiting flying wings across the country to discuss safety and training practices following a series of jet crashes in recent weeks.

Gen. Mike Holmes, head of Air Combat Command, on Wednesday began the first in a series of meetings with airmen, which will include a probe into both historical and current data that may reveal a common trend among the incidents, according to spokeswoman Leah Garton.

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"The recent incidents involve multiple aircraft types from multiple commands," Garton said in an email Wednesday. "ACC has also distributed updated guidance and safety information to all of our flying units."

She added that Holmes has begun discussing the recent crashes with other major command counterparts. The meetings will continue through next week, Garton said.

Holmes' inquiry follows the fifth crash involving an Air Force fighter jet since May.

On Monday, an F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot landing at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, ejected safely before the jet crashed at the base. The pilot was treated for minor injuries, the 49th Wing said.

The wing ordered a temporary stand-down of local flying operations the following day "to ensure the safety of the airfield and the wellness of the aircrew," officials said in a release.

"There are no indications of any fleet-wide issues. Normal flying operations have resumed fully as of [Wednesday]," the wing said.

Separately, 1st Lt. David Schmitz, of 77th Fighter Squadron at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, was killed while flying a F-16CM during a routine training mission June 30. The cause of that crash is under investigation.

1st Lt. Kenneth "Kage" Allen died when his F-15C Eagle crashed off the coast of Great Britain during a routine training mission June 15. Allen was part of the 493rd Fighter Squadron, 48th Fighter Wing, at RAF Lakenheath, England.

An F-35A Joint Strike Fighter, assigned to the 58th Fighter Squadron of the 33rd Fighter Wing, crashed May 19 upon landing at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. The pilot successfully ejected. Days earlier, an F-22 Raptor crashed during a routine training flight near Eglin. That pilot was also able to eject.

Separate investigations have been launched into each incident, officials have said.

The Air Force saw a spike in aviation mishaps in fiscal 2018, which prompted reviews across major commands and even a "one-day pause" in operations to conduct a safety review. Manned aviation Class A mishaps had increased 48 percent as of May 2, 2018, over the previous fiscal year, according to Air Force data.

The service had lost 18 service members as of that May, including nine WC-130 aircrew in a fatal crash outside Savannah, Georgia.

The Air Force recorded 30 aviation Class A mishaps -- or accidents involving fatalities, severe damage totaling $2 million or more, or a complete loss of the aircraft -- 19 deaths and 12 destroyed aircraft overall that year.

By comparison, the service saw 17 fewer fatalities and half as many destroyed aircraft in 2019.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.

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Kemp's ridley sea turtles at Padre Island, off the Gulf Coast of Texas. (National Park Service)

Every summer, thousands of people travel to Padre Island National Seashore at dawn to cheer on sea turtle hatchlings as they are released into the surf.

Its a huge tourist attraction for this national park on the Texas coast and a conservation success story  the result of a decades-long effort to save the most endangered sea turtle from extinction.

But after more than 40 years of supporting and celebrating the program, National Park Service officials appear to have soured on paying for it.

In a recent report, agency officials proposed sweeping changes to the park's conservation efforts that scientists said would make it significantly more difficult, if not impossible, to establish a thriving population of Kemp's ridley sea turtles on the island.

The report suggested that saving sea turtles was taking up too much of the park's budget and came at the expense of other priorities, like habitat restoration and trash cleanup. It called for decreasing the number of beach patrols to find turtle nests, limiting biologists' research to the park's boundaries, and moving away from the practice of gathering and incubating turtle eggs in order to protect them from predators, rising tides and visitors driving on the beach.

The park's enormously popular hatchling releases are "discretionary," the report said, and "should be reduced" to save money.

"I'm really shocked," said Christopher Marshall, director of the Gulf Center for Sea Turtle Research at Texas A&M University at Galveston. If the agency's recommendations are put in place,"there'll be less scientific study and there'll be less known about sea turtles in general," he said. "I do think the gains we have achieved in the last decade will be undermined."

Donna Shaver is the chief of Sea Turtle Science and Recovery for the National Park Service at Padre Island. (National Park Service)

Lawyers with the nonprofit group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility filed a legal complaint on Wednesday with the National Park Service on behalf of one of the park's employees, Donna Shaver, chief of the Sea Turtle Science and Recovery Program. They called for the report to be rescinded, arguing that accepting its recommendations would violate the Endangered Species Act.

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Pacific PEER Director Jeff Ruch said that since the report's publication in June, Padre Island National Seashore Supt. Eric Brunnemann had ordered the program's budget slashed by 30%. Two federal grants totaling $300,000 for research on threatened green sea turtles have already been canceled, he said. In the agency's report, officials recommended that park staff focus almost entirely on Kemp ridleys, ending their collection and care for green and loggerhead sea turtle eggs.

A park spokesman declined a request to interview Shaver.

In a statement sent after this story was published online, Brunnemann said: "The National Park Service's only plan forward is to strengthen the program, which is built by the support of our employees and volunteers."

The average size of a sea turtle hatchling can be seen in this ranger's hand. (National Park Service)

In 1978, when the Kemp's ridley nesting program at Padre Island began, the species was in such peril that biologists began sending them to zoos and aquariums, convinced the turtles were on the brink of extinction. Though the turtles mainly nested in Mexico, they had been so heavily poached that scientists decided to create a second colony in the United States to improve the species' odds of surviving natural disasters and human interference.

Throughout the '80s, scientists worked to persuade turtles to think of Padre Island as their new home. They transported thousands of eggs from nests in Mexico to the narrow barrier island, releasing hatchlings into the Gulf of Mexico and crossing their fingers that the turtles might come back again.

The entire experiment rested on the then-controversial idea that female sea turtles would return to the beach where they were born to spawn. In 1996, the first ones did.

The Kemp's ridley is still critically endangered, but its numbers have been growing, peaking in 2017 when beach patrollers found 353 nests in Texas.

And with that growth came national attention. The National Park Service increased the turtle conservation program's funding in the mid-2000s, and Shaver won millions of dollars in grant funding to support her work. Earlier this year, she was named a finalist for the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals, better known as the "Sammies" or the "Oscars of Government Service," one of the highest honors for a federal public servant.

Kemp's ridley sea turtle nests are collected and counted at Padre Island National Seashore. (National Park Service)

When the agency issued its report in June, sea turtle scientists in Texas said they were stunned by its calls for budget cuts and restrictions on research.

"It's definitely a money-grab, in my opinion," said Jeff George, the executive director of Sea Turtle Inc, a privately run rescue center on South Padre Island. George, who was interviewed by the report's authors, said they had dismissed the Kemp ridley's numbers in Texas as only a tiny fraction of the species' overall population and downplayed the significance of the park's conservation efforts.

"They don't understand the realities of Texas and just how vast and remote it is. They don't know how tenuous things were in Mexico last year and can be from year to year," he said. "All they see is a lot of money spent for 1% of the population."

Some scientists were especially critical of the report's recommendation that turtle eggs be increasingly left in their nests or placed in protective corrals, rather than excavated and brought to an incubation room.

Kemp's ridley nests are easily invaded by hungry coyotes and fire ants or destroyed by tides that can extend up to the dunes. If beach patrollers don't collect the eggs soon after they're deposited in a nest, they're often too late.

Texas law also poses a unique challenge. Beaches are classified as public roadways and year-round beach driving is allowed at Padre Island.

Yet to agency officials, the program's conservation practices seem excessive. "Whether this level of intensive wildlife management is still necessary is a legitimate scientific question now that Kemps numbers have increased from the low identified in the 1970s that prompted intervention," the report said.

A Kemp's ridley hatchling making its way home to the ocean. (National Park Service)

Marshall and other scientists insist it is. While the species' numbers have increased, many biologists consider the Padre Island nesting site a work in progress that's far from established.

"Because these turtles are so critically endangered, every egg matters," Marshall said. "Why would you take the risk of losing half your nests on the upper Texas coast? Maintaining the alternate colony is very important. It doesn't matter what the percentage is  this is our insurance policy."
Govenor Bill Lee and Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe announced on Thursday that Aviagen will invest $35.3 million to expand in Pikeville with a new state-of-the-art feed mill, a key part of the companys larger expansion plans in the area.

Aviagen plans to create up to 36 new jobs as part of the expansion, which will include a new feed mill to accommodate the companys growth.



Aviagen is a global poultry genetics company that supplies broiler breeding stock to customers in more than 100 countries under the Arbor Acres, Indian River and Ross brands, which are among the most recognized and respected names in the industry. The company currently employs 714 Tennesseans across multiple locations in the state including the Upper Cumberland region.



Since 2015, TNECD has supported nearly 90 economic development projects in Southeast Tennessee, totaling the creation of approximately 12,400 jobs and $3.64 billion in private investment.



Governor Lee said, In recent weeks, we have announced several economic projects across our state that will offer Tennesseans much-need job opportunities. Aviagens substantial investment in Pikeville is welcome news for Bledsoe County and its residents. Together with other recent job announcements, Aviagens expansion promises to help Tennessees economy gain its footing and get back on track.



Commissioner Rolfe said, With many Tennesseans in need of a job, our economic development efforts are as important as ever. TNECD remains committed to supporting private investment and job creation in rural Tennessee, and Id like to thank Aviagen for its decision to expand in Tennessee and create jobs in Pikeville. Alongside our local partners in Bledsoe County, TDOT and the Department of Agriculture were instrumental partners in this project.



Jan Henriksen, CEO of Aviagen, said, With operations in Pikeville, Crossville and throughout the Cumberland Plateau, Aviagen is committed to the great state of Tennessee. Our strategy is to continue to expand our local footprint, contributing to the growth in jobs, while also providing quality breeding stock to our customers throughout the U.S. and around the world. Governor Lee has a proven understanding of agriculture and, in particular, of primary breeders. Through this project, we share a common goal to promote the economic development of the area, while also helping chicken producers everywhere feed their communities with a sustainable and nutritious source of protein.



Pikeville Mayor Philip Cagle said, We are very proud to welcome Aviagen to Pikeville and Bledsoe County. With this expansion to our area, it will bring much needed jobs. We feel they will be a great asset for our community with jobs and the economic impact for the Sequatchie Valley. This will be a great opportunity for the local farmers to be able to produce the much-needed crops that Aviagen will need to produce the feed.



Bledsoe County Mayor Gregg Ridley said, Bledsoe County is an agriculture community, which makes Aviagen a perfect fit for our citizens. I am grateful to Aviagen, a worldwide enterprise, for selecting Bledsoe County to be the home of their latest strategic investment. This is a long-awaited partnership that will prosper the families of Pikeville and Bledsoe County, and will allow Aviagen to successfully achieve their objectives for many years to come.



TVA Senior Vice President of Economic Development John Bradley said, TVA and Sequachee Valley Electric Cooperative congratulate Aviagen on its decision to locate operations in Bledsoe County. Helping to foster new job creation and investment is fundamental to TVAs mission of service, and we are proud to partner with Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, Southeast Tennessee Development District, City of Pikeville and Bledsoe County to help further that mission.



Sen. Paul Bailey (R  Sparta) said, I am very pleased to see such a sizable investment and new jobs coming to Bledsoe County, which is a great location for new and expanding businesses. I congratulate Aviagen as well as our local officials, Gov. Lee, Commissioner Rolfe and all who helped secure this investment. I look forward to continuing to partner with them in our efforts to bring new and better paying jobs to Tennesseans.



Rep. Ron Travis (R-Dayton) said, "I'm very proud to welcome Aviagen to Bledsoe County. As a state, we have created an extremely attractive business climate while preserving our high quality of life. We have the best of both worlds in our community and I'm delighted that Aviagen has chosen to invest here. I thank our local leaders who helped to bring these new jobs to Bledsoe County."


Mortgages and other loans are set to become harder to find over the coming months as the coronavirus pandemic causes banks to pull back from lending.

Experts fear the UK could be heading for another credit crunch as lenders are becoming more reluctant to get money out of the door, despite demand from households and businesses.

Banks predict that loans will become scarcer, costlier and riskier over the next few months, according to a Bank of England survey.

Experts fear the UK could be heading for another credit crunch as lenders are becoming more reluctant to get money out of the door, despite demand from households and businesses

This will pile pressure on home buyers who are seeking a mortgage, or households that have suffered from pay cuts or job losses and need a loan to help make ends meet.

It will also squeeze businesses which have struggled during lockdown, and want to borrow money to help tide them over until they are running at full capacity.

In the Bank of England's latest Credit Conditions Survey, for the three months to May 31, lenders said the supply of secured loans such as mortgages to households had slumped.

They expected this to get worse over the next three months, even though they predicted demand would increase.

The picture was even more grim for unsecured lending, such as personal loans and credit cards.

Sarah Coles, personal finance analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: 'Since we were hit by the Covid crunch, lending has dried up faster than it did during the financial crisis  and things are only going to get worse.

'In the three months to May, worried banks tightened their lending criteria.

'It became much more difficult to get a mortgage with a small deposit, credit card companies slashed credit limits, and interest-free periods shrunk.

Housing's brief reprieve? The housing market roared back to life in June as a record number of offers were accepted, according to research. After months of sluggish activity during the coronavirus lockdown, estate agent Knight Frank said it had recorded the best month for successful offers. The figure for last month was 46 per cent higher than the previous record, in March this year before the lockdown. Knight Frank  who's data goes back 20 years  said this underscored 'how the property market has picked up where it left off before the pandemic struck'. Tom Bill, Knight Frank's head of UK residential research, added: 'Sellers are coming back in meaningful numbers and deals are being agreed at record rates.'

'It goes to show just how worried banks are about the state of the economy, and what could happen to jobs and house prices.'

Pablo Shah, senior economist at the Centre for Economics and Business Research, added: 'Consumer credit dried up in the second quarter, with lenders' assessments of unsecured credit availability falling to their weakest ever level.

'With unemployment projected to spike as the furlough scheme is wound down, default rates are also expected to rise, suggesting we could be approaching a credit crunch towards the end of the year.'

The proportion of consumers defaulting on their loans, or becoming unable to pay back the debt, was already on the rise in the three months to May.

And earlier this week, Treasury body, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), warned as many as 1.9m of the UK's 9.4m furloughed workers may not get their jobs back, raising the prospect of even more defaults.

The gloomy outlook has deterred banks from handing out loans, as they attempt to bolster their own books in the face of the economic downturn.

The picture was mirrored across corporate loans, where default rates are also rising.

The OBR has predicted that 40 per cent of small companies who have taken emergency taxpayer-backed loans under the Government's Bounce Back scheme could end up defaulting.

The default rate for other schemes, such as the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, is likely to be lower.

But they will still leave banks with a chunk of bad debt sitting on their books.

A report from lobby group The City UK and accountant EY has suggested the Government set up a UK Recovery Corporation to help prevent toxic debt from holding back the country's economic recovery.

Businesses which took emergency loans, but become unable to pay them back, could apply to be part of the corporation, the report said.

Depending on their size and prospects, they could then either repay the loan more slowly as a tax on their profits, or have the government-backed debt converted into special financial instruments such as preference shares.

Fast-growing businesses, meanwhile, could take investment from a scaled-up national growth fund.

The City UK, which has been consulting on its proposals with the Treasury and the Bank of England, thinks that 3m jobs could be lost as a result of unsustainable business debt if no steps are taken.
Mr Alfred Mahama

16.07.2020 LISTEN

Businessman and elder Brother of former President John Dramani Mahama, Mr Alfred Mahama has described the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Mr Bernard Antwi-Boasiakos comments that he had fed him before as lies.

Speaking to Bole based Nkilgi FM on 16th July, 2020, Mr Alfred Mahama said he has stopped engaging people who dont think before talking.

The Ashanti Regional NPP, Bernard Antwi-Boasiako popularly called Wontumi described former President John Dramani Mahamas brother, Alfred Mahama as an ungrateful person for speaking against him claiming he had fed him before.

Chairman Wontumi speaking on his Radio station Wontumi Fm in Kumasi said; You (Alfred Mahama) didnt have a car when your brother was President. I used to feed you. I have fed you before and you want to talk bad about me?

But Mr Alfred Mahama in his response stated, Chairman never fed me when my brother was President and in any case is he still feeding me now that my brother is no longer President of Ghana?.

Mr Alfred Mahama said; You people already know me with cars. I had a Landcrusher and discovery Landroverto him cars are important. We have seen cars since childhood.

Mr Mahama also asked; what did he feed me with?"

The elder brother of former President Mahama earlier spoke to Mr Solomon Owusu, the political host of FireOne Radio in Denver, Colorado, USA that the former president never invited Chairman Wontumi to discuss his mining plan, as he goes around bragging on various media platforms.

According to Mr Alfred, Wontumi rather pleaded with him for assistance and he led the young man to the ex-President.

Mr. Alfred Mahama expressed his complete surprise about how Wontumi boastingly talk about a special invitation from the former president, instead of being truthful about how he approached him with humility and in dire need for immediate help on his mining business.

According to him, ex-President Mr Mahama decided to assist Wontumi regardless of his political party affiliation, although he didnt know that Wontumi was a strong NPP member at that time.

Alfred Mahama noted that initially ex-President Mahama declined Wontumi's mining business proposal because of the inclusion of his thousands of Chinese nationals in the small-scale mining operations.

Expressing his disappointments towards Wontumis behaviour, he recounted that he gave audience to the young miner because he believed that Wontumi could make a significant impact in the mining industry although he didnt know or bother about Wontumis political affiliation.

From where I come from, I am always ready to support anybody who has the potentials to advance the name of Ghana in any field, irrespective of which political party or background of that person, he intimated.

Alfred Mahama stressed that in 2012, he with Wontumi booked a flight from Kumasi to Tamale purposely to meet the ex-President Mahama where Wontumi had the opportunity to present his mining proposal to him in person.

According to him, unfortunately, the small-scale miner couldnt technically and professionally convince the former president so he rejected his plan.

He stressed that ex-President Mahama then advised that small-scale mining in Ghana is reserved for only Ghanaian citizens so he would rather be pleased with a proposal that would enable only Ghanaians to operate in an environmentally friendly manner without any foreign national involvement.

Alfred narrated, Wontumi began to insult my brother publicly, after his thousands of Chinese agents were part of the over 7,000 deported illegal Chinese miners from the country. Wontumi is a galamsey kingpin and his party has no control over him.

Mr Alfred Mahama has admonished the NPP Ashanti Regional Chairman to be circumspect in his utterances towards former President John Mahama and his Running Mate, Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyeman in the public domain.

He further cautioned that the vociferous young politician should endeavour to show respect to the elderly in the society, if he wants to progress in his political career and his personal lifelong.

---nkilgifmonline.com
K-12 students in Orange County, California, can return to the classroom this fall without the need to wear face masks or abide by social distancing requirements, the Orange County Board of Education voted Tuesday. The decision comes as the Golden State is seeing a surge of coronavirus cases and Orange County showing the third-highest number of infections in the state.

"K-12 children represent the lowest-risk cohort for COVID-19. Because of that fact, social distancing of children and reduced census classrooms is not necessary and therefore not recommended," the Board explained in a document published online. "Requiring children to wear masks during school is not only difficult  if not impossible to implement  but not based on science. It may even be harmful and is therefore not recommended."

California saw 7,346 new confirmed cases of coronavirus on Monday, a 2.2% increase in a single day, according state health officials. Children and teens up to 17 years old make up more than 8% of the state's cases. Orange County is one of the top areas in the state for the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

California COVID-19, By The Numbers: 7-day average of new cases per day: 8,382 7-day average from the week prior per day: 7,837 Confirmed cases to date: 336,508More information  https://t.co/TLLUGwPGY7 pic.twitter.com/kcnDH2tqLN

 CA Public Health (@CAPublicHealth) July 14, 2020

The Board also cited the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in saying that children "play a very minor role" in spreading COVID-19, and that teachers and staff are in "greater danger of infection from other adults."

However, they did not acknowledge the AAP's statement that students over age 2 and staff wearing face masks can "greatly reduce the risk" of the spread of the coronavirus. In the same statement, the AAP also said social distancing is "fundamental" to lowering the spread risk.

Story continues

For elementary schools specifically, the AAP recommends children wear face masks, desks be placed 3 to 6 feet apart and that schools cohort classes. The organization recommended that middle and high schools enforce face coverings when 6-foot social distancing isn't possible, desks be placed 3 to 6 feet apart, and schools cohort classes, rotate teachers instead of students around classrooms, and utilize outdoor spaces when possible.

To help limit the spread of the coronavirus, the Orange County Board said schools "should" do the following: perform regular temperature checks, send home people who appear sick, thoroughly clean school property each night and "encourage" frequent hand-washing and use of hand sanitizer.

Participation in reopening of public education, the Board said, should be voluntary. They said the decided upon guidelines are not laws or regulations, and that parents "are in the best position" to make decisions about their children's education.

The Board said that Orange County's decision to close K-12 schools in March was "reasonable at the time," according to the meeting agenda, but their experts said "continuing the shutdown despite new science and data ... has been a mistake with disastrous implications for children, their families and community."

California, Florida and Texas are responsible for 1 out of every 5 new cases of coronavirus in the world. California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered on Monday the closure of indoor businesses in the state, including restaurants, bars and movie theaters to limit the spread of the virus.

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"I believe that Minister Alva has had a good performance, especially during the state of emergency. Without a doubt, the economy portfolio has played a very important role and the leadership of the economy minister alongside her entire team is key there ," he told Andina news agency.
Amman had tolerated the group's political arm for decades, but since 2014 authorities have considered it illegal, arguing its licence was not renewed under a 2014 law on political parties

Jordan's top court has dissolved the country's branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational Islamist movement, an official said Thursday, citing the group's failure to "rectify its legal status".

"The Court of Cassation yesterday (Wednesday) issued a final verdict ruling that the Muslim Brotherhood group is dissolved... for failing to rectify its legal status under Jordanian law," the official said, requesting anonymity.

The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, has been outlawed as a "terrorist" group in Egypt and banned in several other countries.

Amman had tolerated the group's political arm for decades, but since 2014 authorities have considered it illegal, arguing its licence was not renewed under a 2014 law on political parties.

It continued to operate, but its relations with the Jordanian state deteriorated further from 2015 when the government authorised an offshoot group, the Muslim Brotherhood Association.

In April 2016, security services closed the Brotherhood's Amman headquarters and several regional offices, transferring their ownership to the splinter group in a step the movement denounced as political.

The original Brotherhood took the case to court in a bid to retrieve the properties, but the court in its verdict Wednesday ordered it dissolved.

The Brotherhood argues that it had already obtained licences to operate under previous laws in the 1940s and 1950s.

Sheikh Hamza Mansur, head of the organisation's ruling council, said the group would appeal against Wednesday's ruling.

"The Muslim Brotherhood ... is a model of moderation and an important element in strengthening national unity, so dissolving it is not in the national interest," told AFP.

The Jordanian breakaway group aimed to sever ties with the Brotherhood in Egypt.

Jordan's Islamic Action Front, a political party aligned with the original Brotherhood chapter there, has had 16 members of parliament since 2016 elections.

It had boycotted polls in 2010 and 2013. Polls are set for later this year but the coronavirus crisis has cast doubt over whether they will take place.

The Jordanian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood has wide grassroots support in the kingdom.

The movement is also banned in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other countries in the region, but is supported by Turkey and Qatar.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online.

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Demographics suggest one possible explanation. Many older leaders belong to the Baby Boom generation, comprising Americans born between 1946 and 1964. For several years after World War II, American boomers dwarfed contemporary generations in other countries.

The 1950s was an extraordinary decade because the rest of the world was a mess, and we were fat and happy and producing babies like nobodys business, said Elaine Kamarck of the Brookings Institution. Sheer numbers, coupled with the countrys midcentury economic prosperity, could have better positioned more Boomers to win and hold office, raising the age of American politicians over time.

Older Americans political power could also stem from how generations interact. Boomers were more politically engaged than the Silent Generation before them and Generation X that followed, radically transforming society, voting at higher rates and producing the last four presidents (if elected, Mr. Biden would become the Silent Generations first).

That dominant-recessive generational pattern isnt found in most other O.E.C.D. countries, said the demographer Neil Howe. The lack of a dominant postwar generation in those countries could have created space for younger political leaders to take power.

The way countries select their leaders offers a third possibility. In most O.E.C.D. countries, the head of government is a prime minister chosen by fellow lawmakers in the national legislature. Because party members pick their leaders, and can recall them at will, parliamentary systems give political parties significant control over whom to elevate, said Kaare Strom, a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego. And parties often have strategic reasons to pick younger leaders: to appeal to particular constituencies or to brand themselves behind more telegenic faces.

Presidential systems, by contrast, give parties less control over who from their ranks will run  and which candidate voters will prefer. The process is more driven by whos out there, whos interested, and what kind of resources they have, said Professor Strom. Theres not the same kind of institutional control and vetting of those candidates that you have in the European parliamentary systems.

Particularly in the United States, he added, national contests can favor candidates with large reserves of personal wealth, like Mr. Trump, or those with long records of public service and national exposure, like Mr. Biden  advantages that often accrue with age.
About 95 percent of hospitals in the City of Miami have reached capacity, Mayor Francis Suarez said on Thursday, as coronavirus cases surge throughout Miami-Dade County, the worst affected part of Florida.

ICU beds in eight Miami-Dade hospitals were fully occupied and only 15 percent (154) available elsewhere out of a total 993.

Suarez said hospitals will have some capacity for about four weeks if the COVID-19 growth rate stays the same.

The state was reporting 315,775 cases (up 13,965 from the day before) and 4,677 deaths (up 157 from the day before) on Thursday. It was a record increase in daily deaths for the state.

City of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said on Thursday that he's considering a shutdown and will speak to business leaders on Friday as the coronavirus pandemic worsens. He is pictured, right, in June

ICU beds in eight Miami-Dade hospitals were fully occupied and only 15 percent (154) available elsewhere out of a total 993

Suarez said in a news conference that the highest infection is rate is among people aged 18 to 34, a demographic that makes up 27% percent of the population

Cases in Miami-Dade were highest with 75,425 (up 3,108) and deaths at 1,246 (up 44).

Suarez added that there was some relief for the City of Miami on Thursday: 'The high point was 125 cases per day. We're down to approximately 60 cases per day.'

However without a shutdown if could be difficult to control the spread.

Suarez said in a news conference that the highest infection is rate is among people aged 18 to 34, a demographic that makes up 27% percent of the population, and he warned young people could be spreading it to the most vulnerable people.

Data verified on Thursday shows that cases are highest in people aged 25 to 34 but hospitalizations and deaths are highest in people over 65 years old.

'They are going back to the home and infecting everybody in the household,' Suarez said, citing a survey which showed 33.7 percent of respondents got COVID-19 from contact with a family member.

The state was reporting 315,775 cases (up 13,965 from the day before) and 4,677 deaths (up 157 from the day before) on Thursday

Data verified on Thursday shows that cases are highest in people aged 25 to 34 but hospitalizations and deaths are highest in people over 65 years old

Hospitals in the city are converting non-COVID beds to COVID beds. Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida is pictured

South Florida mayors gathered earlier this week with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and told him that gatherings of young people were a key factor in the rise in cases that emerged in June in their region.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said younger people were celebrating the end of school or college, in some cases joining street protests.

Otherwise they were just getting together at house parties, underground venues and restaurants that converted themselves into bars late at night in violation of the rules.

With so many close-knit, multigenerational families in the community, spread to older members of families seemed inevitable, he said.

'Since the young kids started infecting each other, now we see the results as more older folks are now going into the hospital,' Gimenez said Tuesday. 'Exactly what we feared - that they were going to take it to their parents, that they were going to take it to their grandparents.'

Hospitals in the city are converting non-COVID beds to COVID beds. Suarez has also been working with the city and state on providing 450 hotel rooms to help people isolate.

'People who are living in one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments, they can't isolate, they have nowhere to go,' he said.

Suarez has also been working with the city and state on providing 450 hotel rooms to help people isolate. Mayor Francis Suarez said hospitals will have some capacity for about four weeks if the COVID-19 growth rate stays the same

Suarez said he planned on meeting with business leaders on Friday to discuss a possible shutdown as the county struggles to contain the spread of the virus.

'I think it's important that we communicate with the business community before making any decisions,' Suarez said. 'If something is not done in the next few weeks to alter our course, we could be in a dire situation.'

According to the Florida Department of Health there are 19,334 hospital beds in the state and 6,137 dedicated to the intensive care unit.

As of Thursday 49 hospitals had reached capacity in Florida, leaving just 16 percent (971) of ICU beds available.

Nassau, Okeechobee and Putnam Counties have already hit maximum capacity.

One third of Florida counties have fewer than 10 ICU beds left.

Fewer than 10 percent of all hospitals in the state have more than 50 beds.

The US Department of Labor also reported a surge in first-time filings for unemployment benefits in Florida. In the week ending July 11, there were 129,408 new filings, an increase of more than 62,000 from the previous week.
Certified Whisky Professional The study programs of THE COUNCIL OF WHISKEY MASTERS have been designed for effective remote format from the beginning, and are the global qualification standard in the world of whiskey.

NAPA VALLEY WINE ACADEMY, the leading wine & spirits school in the United States, is expanding nationwide access to formal whiskey education, as it enters into an alliance with the foremost whiskey education and certification body, THE COUNCIL OF WHISKEY MASTERS. Both organizations are based in California and support students from around the world with online education programs.

As part of the new strategic alliance, NAPA VALLEY WINE ACADEMY obtains the US-nationwide exclusive permission to promote and offer the Councils study program and advise students on the program options.

Christian Oggenfuss, co-founder and CEO of the Academy, states On-boarding the dedicated whiskey certification program of the Council into the Academys repertoire of remote-study options is a logical step for NAPA VALLEY WINE ACADEMY, especially as the current epidemic has created the need for proven distance learning programs. The study programs of THE COUNCIL OF WHISKEY MASTERS have been designed for effective remote format from the beginning, and are the global qualification standard in the world of whiskey.

Aspiring and established whiskey specialists alike enter the study program either through the Certified Scotch Professional or Certified Bourbon Professional tracks, before they broaden to global knowledge scope in the Certified Whiskey Specialist level, and later may advance towards mastery in the Master of Scotch and Master of Whiskey levels.

The Advisory Board of the Council is home to more than 30 of the most respected whiskey experts in the world, including famed whisk(e)y authorities Steve Beal, Dave Broom, Lew Bryson, and Charles MacLean, among many other men and women of exceptionally high reputation in the world of grain-based spirits.

Especially during the coronavirus-related downtime, many sommeliers, hobbyists as well as wine & spirits professionals have been planning their future career path and decided to advance their careers and future prospects through systematic education. NAPA VALLEY WINE ACADEMY has been the trusted education provider for many thousands of individuals, who have been guided successfully through the study programs, all the way to graduation and carrying their new professional titles, explains the executive director of the Council, Dr. Jorn Kleinhans.

Both organizations look forward to equalizing access into promising careers in the whiskey segment of the wine & spirits markets, an industry that has experienced significant growth over recent years. The opportunity is open for individuals regardless of location and prior background.
The coronavirus pandemic has created more stress and anxiety for Americans, including residents in San Antonio, according to a recent study from Wallethub.

The personal finance website released a report Monday ranking 182 U.S. cities from most to least stressed. On the list, the Alamo City came in at No. 50. To determine the ranking, WalletHub researchers used 42 key metrics, including how vulnerable a state is to COVID-19 and the city's divorce, suicide and crime rates, the article said.

In the study, Cleveland, Ohio was ranked as the most stressed city while Lincoln, Nebraska was listed as the least stressed. Four Texas cities, Houston (No. 15) Dallas (No. 36) and Laredo (No. 43) were ranked ahead of San Antonio. Twelve Texas cities were listed after San Antonio, including Corpus Christi, El Paso, Brownsville and Fort Worth.

Kathryn Kanzler, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral health at UT Health San Antonio, told mySA.com Wednesday there is "definitely" an increase of stress in the city as evidence shows crime has increased since the start of the pandemic.

READ ALSO: Rank: The 20 San Antonio ZIP codes with the highest number of COVID-19 cases

"Right now, some people aren't sleeping well, they have a loss of appetite and are not functioning the same way they normally would at work, home, school or in relationships, and that is due to the high levels of stress the city is currently under," Kanzler said. "All ages everywhere, not only in San Antonio, are being affected by stress and anxiety because of the pandemic."

Kanzler said stress can come from a sense of powerlessness or lack of control, causing someone to feel several abnormal symptoms such as changes in appetite and loss in certain interests. In some cases, the stress can evolve into depression and anxiety, which is when the individual should seek professional help, Kanzler said.

To help cope with stress, Kanzler said it's important to take care of yourself. She added people should try to get some sleep, to exercise, and to find activities that are meaningful and calming.

"It's important to acknowledge that it is really hard right now and that it's normal to feel like you are not functioning well," she said. "In fact, it would be pretty weird if you are feeling great. Things are really stressful and this is a tough chapter, but things will get better."

For those who may need help, the following resources are open 24 hours a day: The Texas COVID-19 Mental Health Support Line at 833-986-1919 and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255.

Priscilla Aguirre is a general assignment reporter for MySA.com | priscilla.aguirre@express-news.net | @CillaAguirre

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North Macedonia's Social Democrats on Thursday faced tough coalition talks after a razor-thin win over nationalist rivals, threatening political instability as the country prepares to start EU membership talks. The results of Wednesday's election traced deep fault lines in a small Balkan state that has lurched from crisis to crisis in recent years. It was the first parliamentary poll since the Social Democrats added "North" to the country's name last year -- a move that ended a decades-old dispute with Greece but was highly controversial at home. With some 36 percent of the vote, the centre-left Social Democrats (SDSM) need allies to rebuild a government. Protracted coalition talks could see a leadership void at a time when coronavirus infections are surging and the country's already weak economy is headed towards a pandemic-triggered recession. "We are going into a period of hard party negotiations," said political analyst Nikola Spasov, warning of instability. According to projections by the state election commission, the Social Democrat camp was in line for 46 seats in the 120-member assembly, followed by 44 from their right-wing rivals VMRO-DPMNE. If Social Democrat leader and former premier Zoran Zaev fails to muster the necessary alliances, VMRO-DPMNE would be allowed to try. The nationalist party has been highly critical of the name deal, which opened the door to the EU in exchange for giving Greece exclusive rights to the name Macedonia for its own neighbouring region. Though VMRO-DPMNE has stopped short of calling for the deal's repeal, they have lambasted the accord as "treason". - Albanian kingmakers - The top options for junior partners are parties representing the ethnic Albanian minority, who make up around a quarter of the two million population. In third was the Democratic Union for Integrity (DUI) with some 15 seats, followed by another rival Albanian camp with 12, according to the election commission. But DUI, the traditional kingmaker, has this year demanded that its candidate be named prime minister in exchange for any alliance. Zaev has previously shot down the proposal as "blackmail". Celebrating a victory after results rolled in early Thursday, he said "our path to progress is confirmed". "The citizens went out and voted for a clear future, for unity and solidarity, for economic patriotism, for law and order," the 45-year-old said. Yet opposition leader Hristijan Mickoski insisted the vote still showed an appetite for change. "This is a hard battle and we will win together," he said, noting that his party had won more votes than the Social Democrats themselves, who were in a pre-election coalition with BESA, an ethnic Albanian party. The Social Democrats fared slightly worse than in the last poll in 2016, when they ultimately ended VMRO-DPMNE's nearly decade-long reign, a period marked by repression and corruption under now self-exiled former strongman Nikola Gruevski. Despite the progress with the EU talks, there is a perception that Zaev has "not delivered on some of the key promises, including justice reforms", said Elena Stavrevska, a political scientist at the London School of Economics. Low wages, high unemployment and widespread corruption have also been gnawing away at public faith in politics for years. "We have had enough of promises, now it is time for progress," said 70-year-old Dimitar Sumkovski, a voter in the capital Skopje. - Deadly outbreak - The elections were held to replace a caretaker government that struggled to manage the coronavirus crisis. With nearly 400 deaths, the landlocked country has the highest per capita fatality rate in the Western Balkans, according to official data. The technical government took over after Zaev stepped down six months ago following the EU's initial failure to open accession talks -- a promise Brussels had made in exchange for the name change and other reforms. The bloc later gave the green light in March, although Skopje is still waiting for a date to start formal negotiations. "The citizens went out and voted for a clear future, for unity and solidarity, for economic patriotism, for law and order," Zaev said in a victory speech Masks were mandatory at polling stations, which closed later than normal to allow for more social distancing
Voices of Protest spotlights individuals throughout the Capital Region who play a direct and important role in the activism scene.

Shasha Wallis vows to fight for racial justice and advocate for the Black Lives Matter movement until she dies.

The 18-year-old glistened with sweat as she marched miles through Albanys streets in the June heat, a camelback filled with water strapped to her back. She drove down from her home in Ballston Spa to join the fight.

Voices of Protest: Activist profiles

We are the new and upcoming generation, Wallis said. And because we are, we have to fight for whats right. We have to fight for our freedoms and the freedoms of everybody no matter what gender, sexuality, religion, race  it doesnt matter, we just have to fight for it.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Wallis, who is a person of color herself, is attending SUNY Oneonta in the fall to study criminal justice.

Anybody who disagrees with us, we can educate them, she said. Its not that were trying to get in fights, were just trying to educate people and let them know why were fighting, what were doing, and why were doing what were doing.
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA)  African and European Union leaders on Thursday held important negotiations on the potential of creating a borderless regional bloc to promote balanced relations
Three national political players are looking to put the race in Pennsylvanias 1st Congressional District on the map with new support for Democratic nominee Christina Finello.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on Thursday added Finello, who is challenging U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatricks bid for a third term, to its Red-to-Blue program. That effort arms top-tier candidates with organizational and fundraising support, according to the committee.

U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos of Illinois, who chairs the committee, said the district, which includes all of Bucks County and a slice of Montgomery County, is trending rapidly toward Democrats, giving Finello momentum. Finello is an Ivyland Borough Council member and served as deputy director of the countys Housing and Human Services Department.

The move follows a Wednesday endorsement of Finello by EMILYs List, a Democratic political action committee that calls itself the nations largest resource for women in politics. And NARAL Pro-Choice America, an organization that advocates for abortion rights, endorsed Finello last Friday.

Fitzpatricks campaign took notice, emailing supporters Wednesday to say his fundraising is lagging and to warn of extremists meddling in the race.

Washington elites have already begun trying to spread their socialism further and further into our communities and at this rate, our strong common-sense ideals could become a thing of the past, Fitzpatricks email to supporters said.

Fitzpatricks campaign last week touted the $1.8 million in the bank it said he will show in a federal finance report due Thursday. Finello, who has trailed in resources, last week announced that she had raised $310,000 in the second quarter of this year. Her campaign said it would report $296,000 on hand.

Finello on Wednesday continued to try to link Fitzpatrick to President Donald Trump, accusing the two-term Republican in a digital ad of failing to stand up to the president.

Were looking forward to holding Brian Fitzpatrick accountable for standing silently by while Trump has created chaos and division, failed to protect Americans health and safety, and put corporate profits above hard-working families, Finellos campaign said in an email.

Fitzpatrick, in an interview with The Inquirer in May, said he hadnt decided whether to vote for Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden in the Nov. 3 general election. His Republican primary opponent, Andy Meehan, trumpeted that but still lost the race by more than 26 points.

A Public Policy Polling survey commissioned by Finello last month found the race a toss-up but Fitzpatricks numbers dipped when he was tied to Trumps record in office. A House Majority PAC poll last month also found the race neck-and-neck, Politico reported.

Fitzpatrick on Thursday released his own internal poll, done this month by Public Opinion Strategies, which showed him leading Finello 53% to 39%. Sixty-eight percent of the voters in that poll said they had never heard of Finello. And Biden led Trump by 51% to 42%, the poll found.

Fitzpatrick, who casts himself as a moderate Republican, makes for a likely national target. Democratic voters narrowly outnumber Republicans in the district. Democrats won control of the Bucks County government there last November for the first time in decades. And the district is solidly middle-class, with plenty of college graduates  a demographic that polls show takes a dim view of Trump.
'America's dupe:' China slams UK over ban on Huawei

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 15 July 2020 10:15 AM

China says the remark by US President Donald Trump that he personally convinced the UK government to ban Chinese technology giant Huawei's 5G network equipment shows that the ban is politically motivated and has nothing to do with security.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said during a daily news briefing in Beijing on Wednesday that the comment showed that commercial and trade matters had been politicized.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the UK government's decision to ban Huawei from Britain's 5G network from the end of 2027 on Tuesday.

Shortly afterwards, Trump claimed he had been responsible for that decision.

"We convinced many countries, many countries, I did this myself for the most part, not to use Huawei, because we think it is an unsafe security risk," Trump said. "It's a big security risk and I talked many countries out of using it. If they want to do business with us, they can't use it."

Hua said Trump's comments proved that the UK's decision "is not about national security but political manipulation."

She said China would take all the necessary measures to safeguard its interests following the British decision.

"China will fully and solemnly assess this matter, and will take a series of necessary measures to safeguard Chinese companies' legitimate rights and interests," Hua said.

"Any decisions and actions (by Britain) must come at a cost," the Chinese official added, without elaborating.

She said Britain acted "in coordination with the US to discriminate against, suppress, and eliminate" Huawei, accusing London of becoming "America's dupe."

The ban came nearly two weeks after London described Huawei as a potentially hostile state entity.

Huawei  considered the world leader in superfast 5G equipment and the world's number two smartphone producer  has been under relentless pressure from Washington, which has lobbied allies worldwide to avoid the company's telecom gear over alleged security concerns in a wider US-China trade war.

Trump's administration has blacklisted Huawei to block the company from getting any US telecom equipment contracts and prevent the transfer of American technology to the Chinese firm.

Washington accuses Huawei of helping Beijing spy on communications from the countries that use its products and services. Both the company and the Chinese government have rejected that allegation.

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President Donald speaks during an event on American infrastructure at UPS Hapeville Airport Hub, in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 15, 2020. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo)

Trump Praises New Rule to Speed up Environmental Reviews for Major Infrastructure Projects

President Donald Trump on Wednesday praised a new rule under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to help speed up environmental reviews for major infrastructure projects.

This is a truly historic breakthrough, which means better roads, bridges, tunnels, and highways for every UPS driver and every citizen all across our land, Trump said at a visit to a UPS facility in Atlanta, Georgia, on Wednesday. Together, were reclaiming Americas proud heritage as a nation of builders and a nation that can get things done.

Todays action is part of my administrations fierce commitment to slashing the web of needless bureaucracy that is holding back our citizens, he later said.

NEPA (pdf), a procedural statute enacted in 1970 under the Nixon administration, requires the federal government to assess the impact of major projects on the environment.

Related Coverage Trump to Revamp Environmental Law to Speed Up Infrastructure Projects, Pipelines

The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) said that the regulations have been complex and unnecessarily difficult to understand and navigate, where the result has been excessive paperwork, litigation, and delays.

The council added that its final rule (pdf), titled Update to the Regulations Implementing the Procedural Provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act, is the first time in more than 40 years it has updated the NEPA regulations. The rule will benefit the environment, economy, and every American, it said in a statement (pdf).

The White House said in an announcement that ever since NEPAs enactment, the environmental review process has been burdensome for those seeking permits or approvals for their projects, as well as for the federal agencies conducting the reviews.

The latest rule establishes time limits of two years for completion of environmental impact statements, when required, and one year for completion of environmental assessments.

Federal agencies would take on average about four-and-a-half years to complete full environmental impact reviews, the CEQ noted. In the case of highway projects, that number rises to an average of more than 7 years.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge, a major dual-span bridge in Maryland, is seen at sunset in Stevensville, Maryland, on May 2, 2020. (Eric Baradat/AFP via Getty Images)

Under the last administration, a mere 7 percent of reviews for federal highways were processed within 2 years, Trump said. Now what were doing is the two years wont be the exception; itll be the rule  This will reduce approval times for highways alone by at least 70 percent.

Trump said that the One Federal Decision policy, aspects of which have been incorporated into the final rule, lies at the heart of the reforms. The One Federal Decision policy was established in a 2017 executive order.

It really spells it out when you hear that name: One Federal Decision. Before, applicants for infrastructure permits were forced to spend years and years navigating a labyrinth of federal agencies, and every single one had a power to stop a project. Anytime you went to an agency, they had a power to stop it, the president explained. And it would stop the projectnot only stop it; but right in its tracks it would stop it.

With our reforms, there will be one quick and fair decision. Were going to give every project a clear answer: Yes or no. Yes or no. The 2-year process, where just to submit is 2 years, is not acceptable. Its going to be a very quick yes or no, after study, but the studies are going to go quickly and theyre going to go simultaneously, he continued. So if youre in numerous agencies, youre all going at the same time.

President Donald Trump speaks on the Rebuilding of Americas Infrastructure: Faster, Better, Stronger in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 15, 2020. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump noted that permits for projects may not be approved, but that applicants will not have to devote a lifetime to have a project be under review.

You have to get permits. We want safety. We want to be totally involved with the environment  But youre going to get your answers quickly, Trump said. One way or the other, youre going to get those answers very quickly. And if the answer is a big, beautiful yes, youre going to start construction immediately. Youre not going to wait around for 10, 12, and 20 years.

Our bridges, tunnels, freeways, and airports will no longer be the sight of shame, but theyll be a source of pride. From coast to coast, town to town, were constructing new roads, railways, runways, and waterways  As your president, I am more determined than ever that Americas infrastructure will be second to none, he later added.

Trump said that the infrastructure approval process under NEPA has cost trillions of dollars over the years for our country and delays like you wouldnt believe and hailed his administrations latest actions as a top-to-bottom overhaul of that process.

The CEQ said that in addition to setting a 2-year goal for completing environmental reviews, it will, among other actions, expand public participation and the involvement of tribal governments in the NEPA process through the use of modern technology, and codify certain court decisions to clarify the application of NEPA.
New Delhi, July 16 : Six men gathered at a forested patch in Mehrauli on Wednesday evening to celebrate the parole of one of them, who was now out of jail. Hours later, two of them were shot dead by the other four who then fled the spot. While one succumbed to his injuries on the spot another managed to crawl to a nearby nallah (drain) bleeding profusely. It was around 9 p.m. when a man saw the injured person lying in a pool of blood and called police.

"On receipt of the information Police Staff reached the place of incident and it came to notice that CATS ambulance had already taken the unknown injured to AIIMS hospital where he was declared brought dead," said Atul Thakur, DCP South Delhi.

On inspection of the spot, a lot of blood was found on a slab on the nallah near the wooded area where the injured was reportedly found lying by the caller. A blood soaked mobile was also found there.

The rear end of the nallah leads towards the forested area and blood stains were found all the way to a broken stone wall leading to the forest where also a lot of blood was found.

The analysis of footage from nearby CCTVs established that a total of six persons including the deceased had come there in a white car. After parking the vehicle near a vacant plot, they had proceeded towards the forested area.

Near the broken stone wall there, apart from the blood, empty bottles of liquor, water and cigarettes were also found. On Thursday, the deceased person was identified as Abdul Ali, a resident of Geeta colony.

The car was traced and one of the suspects, Vipin Balyan, a resident of Yamuna Vihar, Bhajanpura, was apprehended and interrogated. During interrogation he came clean about the incident and one more suspect Satender, a resident of Khajuri Khas in Delhi, was also apprehended.

"On the basis of their interrogation further combing in the jungle was done and the help of a drone camera was taken and one more dead body having gunshot injuries was also traced in the jungle," said the officer.

Later, a tatoo which read 'Mahakaal' in HIndi on the hand of the deceased helped police to identify him as Sanjay, also a resident of Geeta colony.

Both the deceased and the suspects apprehended were part of a group of six persons who were identified earlier in the CCTV footage.

The police investigation revealed that both the deceased have criminal backgrounds. Both Abdul and Sanjay were accused in an attempt to murder case registered in Geeta Colony. Sanjay had nine cases registered against him. Police said that while at the 'parole party' they picked up a fight over a witness in one case which resulted in the two murders.

"One of the two absconders had come out on parole recently," said the officer.
Next week the Grand Prix of Hungary is on the calendar. For the Formula 1 teams this means once again that they will have to comply with all kinds of measures, both on and off the track. In Budapest there are even more restrictions than in Austria durinig the last two weeks, but at Red Bull Racing they don't really worry about that.

When the strict lockdown restrictions are broken in Hungary, the drivers and staff of the teams risk a fine of 15,000. Moreover, on paper, it is even possible to end up in prison. For the Formula 1 circus, this means that it is only allowed to travel back and forth between the Hungaroring and the hotel.

Red Bull doesn't worry

"No, not really," Christian Horner answers when asked if Red Bull is worried about the situation. "We have to go racing and if we go out for dinner, it costs us quite a lot of of money. The hotels are very nice there. It's not a major issue. We like to race. We just deal with it."

For the employees of the Austrian race team, the revised calendar of Formula 1 is a mental challenge. "It is tough for them. We just spend three months locked up. We knew it was one of the conditions we had to face in order to return to racing. Given the choice of those conditions or not racing, we all signed up for those conditions. It is not ideal. The situation globally seems to be hopefully improving with more races being announced", says the team boss of Max Verstappen and Alexander Albon in conversation with GPblog.com.

In cooperation with Corwin Kunst
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Linkedin Adrian Wail Akhlas and Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 17 2020

Businesspeople are pushing the government and the House of Representatives to accelerate deliberation of the omnibus bill on job creation, saying the bill  if passed into law  would help businesses to stay afloat during the coronavirus-induced economic downturn.

Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) deputy chairwoman Shinta Kamdani said the bill would be able to boost the countrys competitiveness, adding that it would create much-needed jobs after around 6.4 million workers were laid off or furloughed during the coronavirus pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made the bill even more relevant and essential to support economic recovery, Shinta told The Jakarta Post in a phone interview on Wednesday. We need structural reform and a greater amount of investment to offset the job losses caused by the pandemic.

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A woman pushing a stroller was choked and stabbed by her ex-boyfriend in a shocking attack in New York City.

The woman was attacked on a Bronx sidewalk by Carlos Gonzalez who took her in a chokehold, forced her to the ground and stabbed her 'multiple times', police say.

Surveillance footage shows the moment he assaulted her while her child and stroller were flung to the sidewalk on Sedgwick Avenue.

The 21-year-old mother and her child were both expected to recover in hospital but police are now hunting Gonzalez on assault charges after he fled the scene on Tuesday night.

Lunge: Carlos Gonzalez grabs hold of his ex-girlfriend on a Bronx sidewalk after a 'verbal argument' as they walked along the street

Attack: Gonzalez dragged the 21-year-old woman to the ground, causing her to lose her grip on her stroller which fell to the sidewalk with the baby inside

The CCTV footage shows 25-year-old Gonzalez walking a short distance behind the woman as she pushes the stroller along the sidewalk past a row of parked cars.

According to NBC New York, the pair were having a 'verbal argument' which escalated into violence when Gonzalez lunged and grabbed his ex-girlfriend.

The footage shows Gonzalez grabbing her by the throat and dragging her to the ground, causing her to lose her grip on the stroller which tumbles to the ground.

Police say she suffered multiple stab wounds in the attack shortly after 7pm before Gonzalez fled, wearing a white T-shirt and yellow shorts.

The mother and child were both taken to Saint Barnabas Hospital where police said their condition was stable, but Gonzalez is still on the run.

Assault: The woman was stabbed 'multiple times' on the Bronx sidewalk, police said. She and her child were both expected to recover in hospital

Escape: Gonzalez fled the scene wearing a white T-shirt and yellow shorts, and remains at large but is wanted for assault

Neighbors told News12 that a police car had tried to follow Gonzalez but he is still being hunted on suspicion of assault.

'I was coming from the store and saw the police coming up and next thing you know one of my neighbors told me a woman had been stabbed,' a witness said.

The neighborhood is usually peaceful and the violent incident has left locals 'shaken up', they said.

Gonzalez is said to be 5ft 10in tall with a thin build and long black hair in braids, and lives in Manhattan. Cops did not reveal the woman's identity.

Police are asking anyone with information to call the NYPD on 800-577-TIPS.
Newly-anointed French prime minister Jean Castex on Wednesday placed the fight against unemployment as his government's priority for the remaining 18 months of Emmanuel Macron's term as president.

Castex, who replaced Edouard Philippe 12 days ago as Macron's most senior minister, told French MPs he wanted to instil a sense of solidarity in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed more than 30,000 lives in France.

My first ambition - and it is a big one - is to bring together the many different sides of France. To weld them together and if necessary reeled them together.

Castex unfurled his vision in the Assemblee nationale, a day after Macron pledged an additional 100 billion euros to help the economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

Pledge

The president also promised a referendum on a decision to write the fight to preserve the climate into the constitution.

The prime minister said the cash would come from the European Union and government borrowing.

Our industries have grown weaker, Castex said. We are far too dependant on outside factors and we have no presence in certain strategic sectors. To correct that, we will make 40 million euros available.

Spending

The cash, he told MPs, will be in the form of grants to businesses or loans which help firms revamp their internal technology systems.

Around seven billion euros, he said, would be spent on providing better insulation in schools and medical units. The same amount would be used to make other buildings more eco-friendly.

But the Castex plan failed to impress his political opponents. There is no risk that I will support a government which continues to live in a state of denial and fails to understand what a lot of French people are going through, said the Socialist party leader Olivier Faure.

You basically can't have any confidence in a government where it is more or less the same faces and it's the same path as before, added Damien Abad of Les Republicains.

However, Castex attempted to woo the youth vote. From September, students receiving special grants will only have to pay 1 euro for meals in university canteens.

There will also be more apprenticeship schemes offered to young people looking for their breaks in the world of work.
Popular nightclubs have been slugged $20,000 in fines for breaching coronavirus rules.

The footage of party-goers dancing at Prohibition in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley on on July 3 and 4 emerged just days after venues were allowed to reopen.

Prohibition, along with another business in the same area, were fined $6670 for opening up their dance floors on the same weekend.

A club on the Gold Coast was also fined after they failed collect customer details.

Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath said rogue operators were flouting the rules and risking the health and wellbeing of Queenslanders during the pandemic.

'This great work risks being undone by a small minority who have been taking shortcuts and flouting the rules, potentially endangering other people's health,' she said in a statement.

'CCTV footage from two nightclubs in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley for the weekend of 3 and 4 July clearly showed patrons dancing on what is normally the venue's dancefloor.'

'Insufficient action was taken by security or venue management to stop it and subsequently both licensees received a $6,670 fine.

Several clubs were fined for breaking strict coronavirus rules after CCTV footage showed people dancing over the weekend of July 3 and 4. Pictured are people at Brisbane club Prohibition on the same weekend

Ms D'Ath said the Gold Coast bar fined on the same weekend for not collecting details had received multiple warnings.

She warned more fines could potentially be dished out to more venues as OLGR officers were still investigating other possible breaches.

'Our compliance officers are still investigating a number of matters identified in venues ... it is possible further infringement notices will be issued this week,' she said.

Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said the prosecutions highlight the consequences of failing to heed public health directions which include 'no dancing'.

'It is very clear that dancing is not conducive to social distancing measures,' she said.
An Auditor-General's report into a controversial water buyback scheme in the Murray-Darling Basin found the federal Water Department did not ensure value for taxpayers' money in the $190 million program, but did not find any legal breaches in the so-called "watergate" deals.

The report on the government's purchase of water rights from private irrigators from 2016 to 2019 found the department "did not use a value for money approach for procurement" of water rights, and only ensured it recovered the required volumes and did not pay above market price.

Barnaby Joyce faced criticism over two deals in particular in the $190 million water buyback scheme. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Under the Basin Plan specific water recovery targets were set catchment by catchment to return water to the environment and boost the health of river systems.

Buybacks began under open tenders in 2008 and irrigators offered their water rights for the Department to buy. Voluntary offers started to dry up in 2016, so to ensure it met its targets the federal government began a $190 million program where it actively sought out deals. By 2019 it had purchased about 80 billion litres of water across eight catchments.
Hawley seeks DOJ probe of St. Louis case on couple wielding guns at protesters Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley on Thursday claimed the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office is improperly "targeting" the couple who wielded guns at protesters in their gated community last month, and requested the Justice Department open an investigation into the case.

After spending the past few months talking tech and b-ball . . . The junior Senator finally works his way back to Missouri issues thanks to the ongoing culture war.Read more:
She debuted her brand new nose on Monday after undergoing a non-surgical rhinoplasty procedure.

And Abbie Chatfield, 25, says she cant bear to look at footage of herself prior to getting the 'life-changing' cosmetic procedure.

'Honestly, the hardest thing about last night was watching myself on TV without my new nose,' Abbie told fans during an Instagram Q&A on Thursday.

Bad memories: Abbie Chatfield revealed on Thursday that the hardest thing about watching herself on Bachelor in Paradise was seeing her nose prior to getting a non-surgical rhinoplasty

Turning her head to the side to show off her newly-enhanced profile, Abbie continued: 'I kept being like, 'Oh! Pre non-surgical rhinoplasty! Yuck!''

A non-surgical rhinoplasty procedure involves injecting dermal filler to re-shape the nose.

Abbie, who flew from the Gold Coast to Sydney for the procedure, debuted her transformation on Monday by uploading before-and-after photos to Instagram.

Struggles: Turning her head to the side to show off her new profile, Abbie continued: 'I kept being like, "Oh! Pre non-surgical rhinoplasty! Yuck!"' Pictured left on Thursday, right on Wednesday's episode of Bachelor in Paradise, which was filmed in November

'This is my nose. I feel like I'm wearing a beauty filter,' she enthused in an Instagram Stories video.

'I wanted to get a full rhinoplasty; I've hated my nose for a while now - the hook, the bump... and this is just life-changing!'

The social media influencer admitted she had 'cried from joy' and even hugged her Double Bay doctor after seeing the results.

'It's just life-changing!' Abbie debuted her brand new nose on Instagram after visiting a cosmetic clinic in Sydney on Monday, uploading before-and-after images of her side profile

'I used to not get photos from this angle,' Abbie said, turning her head to one side to reveal her perfect profile.

During a subsequent Instagram Q&A with fans, Abbie clarified how much money she had spent on the procedure.

'It was $990. The consult was $290 - that was taken off the final price - so I paid $700 today and I pre-paid $290,' she said, adding that the dermal filler will last about nine months before it dissolves.
NEW DELHI  The Bangladeshi authorities have arrested the owner of a hospital who they said had sold migrant workers thousands of certificates showing a negative result on coronavirus tests, when in fact many tests were never performed.

The authorities said they caught the hospital owner on Wednesday trying to sneak across the border into India disguised as a woman. Police officers said that when they arrested the owner  a man they identified as Mohammad Shahed, with a long criminal record  he was wearing a black burqa that covered him head to toe.

Over the past week and a half, Bangladeshi investigators pieced together what happened: Mr. Shaheds hospital in Dhaka, Bangladeshs capital, had been selling fake coronavirus certificates  thousands of them, at $59 apiece  indicating that a patient had tested negative, the Bangladeshi authorities said.



There is a huge market for these certificates among migrant workers from Bangladesh hungry to get back to work in Europe, doing jobs like stocking grocery stores, bussing tables in restaurants or selling bottled water on the streets. Many Bangladeshi workers have recently flown to Italy, where they said that employers required such certificates before allowing them to go back to work.
A 98-year-old woman with arthritis is striving to play piano for 100 days to raise money for charity.

Rebecca Parker, a resident of McClymont House care home in Lanarkshire, Scotland, began her challenge in April after taking inspiration from the fundraising efforts of Captain Sir Tom Moore.

The retired teacher has since been playing the baby grand piano at her residential care home every day, with the aim of playing for 100 consecutive days to raise money for Lanarkshire Health Board Endowment Funds.

Having set an initial target of 1,000 for her fundraiser on JustGiving, Ms Parker has since raised more than 6,000.

Ive been overwhelmed to be able to raise such a generous amount of money, she said. Its been incredible.

Recommended Captain Tom Moore to be knighted by the Queen at Windsor on Friday

Ms Parker was filmed playing Loch Lomond on the piano in a video that has been viewed online more than 60,000 times by people around the world.

The nonagenarian said her love of the piano began during her childhood in Skye, Scotland.

She explained that her mother, Isabella MacLennan, was an accomplished pianist and thats who really inspired all of this.

Ultimately she had to give it up because of the demands of family life but I have vivid memories of her playing from early childhood, Ms Parker said.

(NHS Lanarkshire/PA Wire (NHS Lanarkshire/PA Wire)

Ms Parker recollected how she would lie in bed with her two brothers in their home in Broadford, Skye and listen to her in the evenings when we were meant to be sleeping.

It was such a source of comfort and warmth, she stated.

(NHS Lanarkshire/PA Wire (NHS Lanarkshire/PA Wire)

The care home resident expressed her hope that her daily turns on the piano will help provide a similar level of comfort for her fellow care home residents.

I was captivated when I was growing up and my mother taught me how to play, she said. Today, I hope the music can have the same comforting effect on my friends here.

Ms Parker is due to complete her 100-day challenge on Saturday 18 July.
The Prime Minister in the Commons on Wednesday - UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor/REUTERS

Boris Johnson has accused the SNP of attempting to erect trade barriers between England and Scotland as he firmly rejected claims that his government had launched the biggest power grab of the devolution era.

The UK Government will on Thursday unveil plans it says will ensure seamless trade within the UK after the Brexit transition period ends next year.

Under the proposals, which will be put out to consultation, products meeting standards set by legislators in one part of the UK would have to be accepted in the other UK nations.

The measure is designed to provide simplicity for businesses and to make it easier for Britain to strike trade deals with other nations. UK ministers fear trade agreements will be harder to negotiate if foreign companies have to meet different regulations or standards in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

The Prime Minister said that under the changes, which relate to policy areas that are nominally devolved but had previously been decided by the EU, devolved administrations would receive a swathe of new powers. Stormont will receive 157 new powers, Holyrood 111 and the Welsh Parliament 70, the UK Government claimed.

However, proposals to write the principle of mutual recognition - meaning regulations from one part of the UK will be recognised across the country - into law will be strongly resisted by the SNP.

Ian Blackford, the SNP Westminster leader, was outraged by the proposals - House of Commons/PA

SNP ministers say they could be forced to accept lower standards, for example in devolved areas such as food or farming, than they would wish and have accused UK ministers of an attempt to trespass into areas they control.

Challenged over the proposals at Prime Ministers Questions by Ian Blackford, the SNPs Westminster leader, Mr Johnson said his opponent should be celebrating the new powers, previously held by the EU, that would be coming to the Scottish Parliament.

What we are doing is possibly the biggest single act of devolution to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in modern memory, Mr Johnson said. He should be celebrating the 70 powers or more that are going to be transferred to the elected people in Scotland. What he wants, by contrast, is trade barriers between England and Scotland.

Story continues

What he wants is to hand the powers we would give back to Scotland from this parliament, to Brussels, which is neither elected nor accountable.

The row has erupted due to Brexit. When the devolution settlement was written, it was stated that all powers not explicitly reserved to Westminster would be devolved. Areas not reserved include farming, fisheries, the environment and food standards.

However, the authors of the devolution legislation did not envisage the UK leaving the EU. Devolved administrations have claimed jurisdiction over areas not explicitly reserved, which were previously decided in Brussels, but UK ministers fear that the UKs internal market would fracture if different rules were adopted in the different UK nations. They believe this would harm businesses, the economy, and make the UK a less attractive destination for investment.

Alok Sharma, the business secretary, said the changes were needed to protect the UK's internal market, which he said had "functioned seamlessly for centuries". He added: "When we exit the Transition Period at the end of the year, we want to ensure the most successful political and economic union of nations in the world continues to grow and thrive.

Ensuring businesses will be able to continue trading freely across all four corners of the UK without the burden of inconsistent regulation or additional costs will be essential as we fire up our economic engines as we recover from coronavirus.

The proposals, to be set out in a White Paper, will also include a principle of "non discrimination", designed to create a "level playing field" for UK companies regardless of where they are based.

Mr Blackford told Mr Johnson: We reject any attempts of lower standards from one part of the United Kingdom being imposed on Scotland, knowing that this Tory Government is prepared to sell out food and the agriculture industry to his pal Donald Trump. We know this government is undertaking a full scale assault on devolution.
Next Century Spirits, a Raleigh, N.C.-based spirits technology company, closed a $6m Series C funding round.

The round was led by Blue Hill Group, a private equity firm based in Chapel Hill.

The company intends to use the funds to expand staffing and production infrastructure for a wide range of spirits.

Led by Scott Bolin, CEO, Next Century Spirits offers blending expertise to support private brands or labels and bulk suppliers interested in producing customized spirits concepts through its patented post-distillation finishing and filtering technology. The company formulates, blends, and finishes custom-made spirits for distillers and brand owners around the world. The patented post-distillation finishing and filtering technology allows both existing brands and new market entrants to expand their repertoire of taste profiles, improve consistency, and raise overall quality in an economical manner.

FinSMEs

16/07/2020
Clarity given over data spike that sees 286 extra Covid-19 cases attributed to Wrexham over last few months

This article is old - Published: Thursday, Jul 16th, 2020

The Health Minister has said a new reporting method should mean greater clarity and consistency moving forward on coronavirus stats in Wales.

Up to the 13th Wrexham had a total of 886 confirmed cases, however a day later that figure had shot up to 1,172 cases  despite only a +2 day on day increase of reported confirmed cases. The extra 286 confirmed cases appear to have been assigned to dates over the last few months.

In the last seven days Wrexham has seen 21 confirmed cases, the highest in Wales, with Gwynedd being the second highest with 11.

Dr Giri Shankar, Incident Director for the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak response at Public Health Wales, said: Public Health Wales user-friendly data dashboard takes information from a range of different sources. The total number of positive cases now includes those reported from non-NHS Wales laboratories, which are subject to ongoing de-duplication, refinement and reconciliation. This may result in fluctuation of the total positive cases as this process takes place.

It should be noted that the cases from non-NHS Wales laboratories are not new cases, and have been on the dashboard for a number of weeks. They have previously been reported on a separate tab, but are now incorporated into the totals for the local authority area and Health Board area in which the patient resides, to give a complete picture for Wales.

We asked the Health Minister Vaughan Gething about the figures, noting that there has been previous issues with reporting stats, locally a batch of 72 historic confirmed cases related to the Wrexham outbreak being added in one go, and historic death figures also not being reported correctly back in April  something that was admitted to have had an impact on ministerial perception. We asked how important things such as that end up being wrong, and if he was confident in the figures as they stood, and if he was expecting any new data to adjust them further.

The Health Minister said, I wouldnt agree with your statement that the figures are wrong. Its actually the figures we have at the time from the data source we had at the time and youll recall that we didnt take part in the UK testing program for a period of time because these data transfer issues werent resolved at that point in time. Weve now got those figures coming through to us and from this point forward, we should expect to have data flow that means we can give up to date information.

Otherwise, its part of the problem that you set out. Otherwise you have big chunks of data coming in that skew the figures youve got and the understanding you have. We know that actually access to lighthouse lab data was one of the concerns for the Public Health Leadership in Leicester about managing the outbreak there. Were now in a position we have daily data flows, we present all those figures together so we dont have two halves of a story. Were presenting the story all together about testing numbers, positive outcomes, what that then means in terms of confirmed cases that then directly flow into our contact tracing teams as part of the Test Trace Protect service.

So these are actually improvements in the way were delivering data, and it should provide greater clarity and consistency moving forward.

It still means that the evidence we have from the figures is that there is very little prevalence of coronavirus circulating in Wales today, thats very good news. Again, I want to reinforce the message that shouldnt lead to a lack of vigilance and can what were doing another civil distancing, or good hand hygiene, or people getting a test if they do have any of the symptoms of Coronavirus.

New testing turnaround data has been released this week, with the below summary:

Lab capacity in NHS Wales labs was 15,157 as at 12 July 2020. This does not include capacity at UK labs where some Welsh residents samples are processed.

As at 1pm on 12 July 2020, there have been 218,653 tests authorised by NHS Wales laboratories.

As at 7pm on 12 July 2020, there have been 78,667 tests authorised by non-NHS Wales laboratories for samples from Welsh residents.

There have been a total of 97,075 tests performed on critical workers in Wales which have been processed in NHS Wales laboratories.

At the end of 12 July 2020, 50.8% of results were returned within a day and 81.8% of results were returned within two days.

In the latest week, 46.5% of test results authorised in NHS Wales laboratories were returned within a day and 66.3% within two days.

By the end of 12 July 2020, 31,839 antibody tests have been authorised for Welsh residents processed through NHS Wales laboratories with 3,667 positive results.

The Health Minister was asked about the delays stated in the data, with a drop in 24 hour turnaround, and a bigger drop of 82% down to just 66% of two day results.

The Health Minister explained , As the First Minister explained, there was a particular issue in a lighthouse lab in Manchester thats actually serving lots of people in North Wales and the way that the drive through a testing results are being done. Weve seen a significant increase in people accessing drive through centers, people taking the advice weve given them about getting a test because it is quick and easy to book an appointment. There was a technical issue in that lab and thats had a material impact on our turnaround times. Thats not an exercise in blame. Its a simple explanation for the fall in turnaround times.

We remain committed to not just getting a test and having that test quickly, but the quick turnaround and getting that sample from the sampling base to the lab, and weve taken action there to improve that and then the efficiency within our Welsh labs that we have more direct control over.

Therell be some difficult choices for us there about the staff numbers, about increasing that model to make sure we can be more efficient, even with low numbers test coming in at various points in the day, and all of those things are important to improve our testing turnaround.
Pennsylvania reported 781 new cases of COVID-19 as the state rolls back bars and restaurant openings in hopes of combatting a surge in cases.

The new positive tests bring the statewide total to 98,446 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic in March, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Healths daily update. The 16 new deaths reported bring the death toll to 6,973.

Allegheny County continues to account for a large chunk of the new cases -- 140 -- as the southeast region of the state contends with an outbreak. Philadelphia reported an increase of 132 cases.

Pennsylvanias cases have continued to climb -- the daily average over the last week stands at 797 -- as the state eases into life in the green phase.

(Cant see this map? Click here.)

Gov. Tom Wolf announced Wednesday that bars must shut down unless they offer sit-down, dine-in meals and he rolled back indoor dining restaurant capacity. The restrictions dont apply to religious institutions. The state plans to issue more guidance on school openings this afternoon. Masks are still required when you leave your house.

These are your coronavirus updates for Thursday, July 16, 2020.

Coronavirus in Pa.

Contact tracing shows that the coronavirus is spreading across Pennsylvania thanks to three causes: people flouting social distancing and mask wearing mandates in bars and restaurants and travel, both visitors to the state and residents returning from vacations.

Pair these things with the lack of a national strategy to combat the virus and Wolf says Pennsylvanias surge of new cases is on a disturbing trajectory. Worried it could jeopardize the safe opening of schools in a few weeks, Wolf said Wednesdays targeted rollbacks were needed to break this trend.

(Cant see this chart? Click here.)

Out of the 781 new cases reported Thursday, 140 were in Pittsburghs Allegheny County and 132 were in Philadelphia. The states reporting of cases in Philly continues to lag behind the state by several thousand cases. A department spokesman contributed to the delay in issues between reporting systems.

This is the July 16, 2020 COVID-19 Update.



Todays report (5,750) includes 140 new cases, 12 new hospitalizations & 1 additional death out of 2,817 test results. The newest cases range from 2-94 years old with 33 being the median age. Positive tests span June 30-July 14. pic.twitter.com/ccER31U8Xi  Allegheny County Health Department (@HealthAllegheny) July 16, 2020

Pennsylvania is seeing a major shift in the age of those testing positive amongst people 19 to 49, especially among those 24 and younger. The median age of new cases in Allegheny County today was 33, although the sick ranged in age from 2 to 94.

About 17% of new COVID-19 cases in July in the northeast region of the state, which includes the Lehigh Valley, were among 19 to 24-year-olds. That figure was nearly 6% in April.

The county has seen almost 3,000 new cases since the start of July after faring quite well earlier in the pandemic.

Pennsylvania continues to ramp up its testing capacity. The 7-day positivity rate stands at 5.4%, just above the 5% threshold health experts advise. The positivity rate is calculated by dividing the new positives tests by the total positive and negative tests conducted.

From July 9 to July 15, there were 5,517 positive tests out of the 142,176 tests administered. That averages out to 20,311 tests a day.

A positive test represents one person, there is no double counting, but the total tests administered may reflect one person who was tested multiple times, according to the department.

Patients 65 and older still account for the majority of the states hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19.

Nursing-home residents represent about 19% of statewide cases -- a figure thats on the decline -- and 68% of the states 6,973 total deaths. There were 16 new deaths reported today.

Of the 16 deaths added to PA's COVID-19 count today, 7/16:

 1 occurred in April

 0 occurred in May

 1 occurred in June

 14 occurred in July



Right now, we know of 169 deaths that have occurred so far in July.



Full picture yet to come, given reporting lags.



Toll: 6,973 https://t.co/N3N6qxNHX8  sara simon (@sarambsimon) July 16, 2020

The state says 76% of infected Pennsylvanians to-date have recovered, as the majority of people with COVID-19 do.

About 7,337 cases have been in health care workers.

Coronavirus in the Lehigh Valley

Case rates in the Lehigh Valley have remained relatively low over the last month. Lehigh has seen 215 new cases over the last 14 days with 160 in Northampton.

The 49 new Lehigh Valley cases reported Wednesday bring the regions total cases to 8,096. The death toll stands at 613 with no new deaths.

(Cant see this chart? Click here.)

That breaks down to:

4,495 cases and 330 deaths in Lehigh County, with 30 new cases.

3,601 cases and 283 deaths in Northampton County, with 19 new cases.

Northampton has averaged 13 new cases a day over the last seven days, while Lehigh stands at 18.

Theres some good news for Lehigh Valley businesses today as Northampton County officials are opening applications for $4 million in COVID-19 Small Business Assistance grants.

(Cant see the chart? Click here.)

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com.

Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com.
Hundreds of people line up outside a Kentucky Career Center in Kentucky, on June 18, 2020. (Bryan Woolston/Reuters)

Trump Adviser: Unlikely $600 Unemployment Extension Will Happen

An adviser to President Donald Trump said its not likely Congress will allow for an extension of the $600 per week unemployment benefits in the next stimulus legislation.

The single most important thing we have to do going forward is stop the $600 a week [unemployment] payments, Heritage Foundation economist Stephen Moore told Yahoo, adding that the U.S. economy may have lost between 1 million and 2 million jobs due to the unemployment benefits.

Republicans in the Senate and other White House officials have said they do not support extending the extra benefits, saying that it creates an incentive for people not to return to work. The benefits were allowed under Marchs CARES Act, which also authorized direct payments of up to $1,200 and $500 for children.

Democrats in Congress, however, have argued that the extra payments are needed due to the economic fallout caused by the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. The payments would be extended until next year under Democrats HEROES Act, passed several months ago.

Its not clear if lawmakers will come to a compromise on the extra unemployment benefits.

If President Trump were to sign a bill that extended those benefits for another six months, we would have eight to 10 million fewer jobs by the end of the year. Its a very significant negative. We have 30 million unemployed people and they cant get workers back on the job because they are making more money than getting back on the job. That is a very, very economically destructive plan, Moore noted.

The additional unemployment payments are slated to expire at the end of July, but in some states, they will end on the Saturday or Sunday before the end of the month.

Meanwhile, a study found that Americans who received enhanced unemployment benefits due to the coronavirus pandemic spent more than when they were working.

The $600 weekly supplement added to jobless benefits as part of the CARES Act helped unemployed households spend 10 percent more after receiving benefits than they did before the pandemic, according to research by the JPMorgan Chase Institute.

Researchers analyzed transactions for 61,000 households that received unemployment benefits between March and May. Spending dropped for all households as the virus spread and led to business shutdowns, but then rose when households began receiving jobless benefits, the study found.

Our estimates suggest that expiration will result in large spending cuts, with potentially negative effects on both households and macroeconomic activity, the researchers wrote.

Reuters contributed to this report.
The mother of two children who died in a house fire called their grandmother in hysterics while screaming 'my babies have died' after she escaped the 'unsurvivable' blaze.

Nicole Mulligan, her partner Des Cooke and two of their children, six-year-old Lucas and two-year-old Brianna escaped as flames engulfed their Christchurch home about 10.45pm on Tuesday.

But eight-year-old Brayden didn't make it out, and neither did his baby sister, Arianna, who was just nine months.

It is believed Brayden tried to save Arianna after his tiny body was found in fire-damaged doorway of her bedroom.

Brayden's grandmother, Angela Martin, told Stuff she learned of the fire shortly after it tore through the family home.

Ms Mulligan called her in hysterics to tell her half of her family had perished in the fire.

Scroll down for video

Brayden (pictured), eight, and Arianna, nine months, died in the blaze in Christchurch, New Zealand, at 10.45 on Tuesday night

Arianna (pictured) died in the fire. Her mother later said she thought she was 'having a nightmare'

'She said to me, ''my babies have died, I'm having a nightmare'',' Ms Martin revealed.

The grandmother then had to call her son Shaun Gibson, Brayden's biological father, and pass on the news to him.

'I heard his voice and I just started howling on the phone and I had to hand the phone to my husband,' she said.

Ms Martin and her husband arrived at the scene just as Brayden's body was being taken away by an ambulance.

Arianna's father, Des Cooke, visited them in the hospital room where he apologised for not being able to do more for Brayden.

'He walked into the room and just said ''I tried so hard, I'm so sorry, I tried'',' Ms Martin said.

Mr Cooke believed Brayden had already escaped the home when he grabbed Lucas and made a beeline for the exit.

Arianna's father, Des Cooke (pictured), visited Brayden's grandparents in the hospital room where he apologised for not being able to do more for Brayden

Nine-month-old Arianna also died in the blaze. A neighbour said he can't get the children's screams out of his head

Fire area commander Mike Bowden described the blaze, particularly near Arianna's room, as 'unsurvivable'.

Firefighters retrieved the boy from the home, but neighbour Matt Fitzsimmons said 'you could just see it was too late,' he told Stuff.

Mr Fitzsimmons and his wife Theresa had been watching TV in bed when they heard screaming.

When he realised their neighbours' windows were bright orange with smoke billowing from the crevices, he ran outside and grabbed the hose.

As he tried to extinguish the flames, he heard the father yelling 'my baby's inside'.

'The sound, the kids, the flames, the roar, the glass, the guy screaming out my baby ... I was seeing everything firsthand, it's just something I never thought I would ever have to deal with,' he said.

Nicole Mulligan, her partner Des Cooke (pictured together) and two of their children, six-year-old Lucas and two-year-old Brianna escaped as flames engulfed their Christchurch home about 10.45pm on Tuesday

While the father-of-four managed to save his other two children Lucas, age six, and Brianna, age two, he was injured trying to save the other two.

Mrs Fitzsimmons said her eight-year-old son would often play with Brayden and spent the rest of the night vomiting with anxiety induced from the situation.

She checked on her children 'a million times' that night to see if they were still alive and breathing.

When she looked out their window, all she could see was the front room where baby Arianna died.

Lynn Baughan was among the people who tried to help the 'hysterical' father save Arianna, not realising his son was also inside.

'We went in on our knees and had a look around, smoke and fire was everywhere. I told him we had to get out, it wasn't safe.'

Neighbour Corey Dunnill said he 'can't get the screaming out of my head'.

Fire and rescue rushed to the scene but it was too late to save the young children

The 22-year-old grabbed a hose and tried to extinguish the flames, before he saw a body being dragged out of the smoke.

A Give A Little fundraiser page was set up by a relative to raise money for the family who lost two children and all their possessions.

It has already raised nearly $100,000 for the family.

'Your donations will help the family of Brayden and Arianna cover funeral costs and help them get back on their feet without the financial burden that will accompany this horrific loss,' it said.

Vicki-Anne Parker, founder of Christchurch charity NZ Gifts of Love and Strength has created care packages for the family with donations from the community.

'I think it's amazing, once again Christchurch comes out as a resilient city and wants to help people going through a tragedy, it's just so heartwarming,' she said.

A spokesperson from Fire Emergency New Zealand confirmed four crews attended the scene at 10.47pm.

Detectives section the home off to determine the cause of the fire.

'Police and Fire and Emergency New Zealand remain at the scene today,' police said in a statement.
Vietnamese Ambassador to Cuba Nguyen Trung Thanh has received the country friendship medal for his contributions to Vietnam - Cuba relations.

Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez Parilla (R) hands over the friendship medal to Vietnamese Ambassador to Cuba Nguyen Trung Thanh (Photo: VNA)

At the presentation ceremony, Cubas Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Anayansi Rodriguez Camejo emphasised the progress made in bilateral ties across all fields in recent years.

The highlights, she said, include the visit to Cuba by Party General Secretary and State President Nguyen Phu Trong in May 2018 and the visit to Vietnam by Cuban President Miguel Diaz Bermudez the following November.

She praised Vietnams engagement in Cubas strategic growth programmes, particularly those on ensuring national food security, as well as its consistent support for Cubas fight against the US embargo.

She lauded Thanhs contribution to boosting relations over the last three years.

Thanh affirmed that the relations of special friendship between the two Parties, States, and peoples are an invaluable asset for subsequent generations.

He reiterated that Vietnam always stands side-by-side with Cuba and supports its revolutionary cause.

The ambassador said room for bilateral cooperation remains extensive in agriculture, sport, tourism, health, communications, and education.

He spoke highly of Cubas achievements in COVID-19 prevention and control, saying he believes success will also come to the countrys Party, State, and people in the way of national development they have selected./.VNA

Cuban photographer yearns to return to Hanoi Neither the great distance nor the spread of the novel coronavirus stopped Cuban photographer Eloy Rodriguezs from visiting Vietnam for a few weeks in early March.
Update:

Pa. Gov. Tom Wolf has now announced all of the new coronavirus mitigation efforts he is putting into place. See them here.

Original story

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.

Story by Angela Couloumbis of Spotlight PA

HARRISBURG  As coronavirus cases continue to surge in certain parts of the state, Gov. Tom Wolf this afternoon is expected to announce new, tighter restrictions on bars, restaurants and other businesses statewide, according to two sources briefed on his plan.

Bars and restaurants will now only be allowed to seat people indoors at up to 25% of their capacity (currently, seating is allowed up to 50% capacity). Outdoor dining restrictions will not change.

Music and nightclubs must close.

Additionally, businesses will be required to have employees telework, if the work does not need to be done in an office.

Wolf is expected to announce the restrictions at a 3:30 p.m. news conference.

The rollbacks are the first the administration has announced since it began reopening counties in May. All counties currently are in the green phase, but masks are now required in retail and other commercial spaces.

This story will be updated.

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.

Coronavirus in Pa.: 994 new cases reported, statewide total rises to 97,665

Pa. restaurants, bars and social clubs cited for not abiding by COVID-19 guidelines
By Julie Steenhuysen (Reuters) - The leading U.S.

By Julie Steenhuysen

(Reuters) - The leading U.S. expert on infectious diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, predicted on Wednesday the country will meet its goal of a coronavirus vaccine by year's end and was unmoved by the prospect that China would get there first.

While there are no guarantees, "I feel good about the projected timetable," Fauci told Reuters in an interview.

His comments follow promising early stage data for the Moderna Inc's coronavirus vaccine, released on Tuesday, that was developed by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which Fauci directs.

Many experts see a safe and effective vaccine as the only way out of the pandemic that has infected millions and killed more than 575,000 people worldwide.

Fauci said Moderna's results were especially promising because the vaccine appeared to offer the type of protection seen in a natural infection.

In vaccine development, "one of the things that you hope for is that your vaccine induces a response that's comparable to a natural infection, because theoretically, the best vaccine you could possibly ever get is a natural infection."

Moderna's candidate, which is set to enter the last stage of testing on July 27, is just one of more than a hundred vaccines in development globally, but only one of a few contenders that have earned millions of dollars in backing from Operation Warp Speed, the White House program that aims to deliver more than 300 million doses of a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine by January.

Fauci, who has become a popular and trusted figure during the coronavirus outbreak, came under criticism from President Donald Trump and some of his Republican allies as Fauci cautioned against reopening the U.S. economy too soon.

Asked how he copes with the attacks on his character and allegiance to the president, Fauci told Reuters, "I don't let it bother me. What we're doing with vaccines, what we're doing with therapeutics, what we're doing with clinical trials is the real substance," Fauci said.

VACCINE RACE

As U.S. states have begun to reopen businesses and coronavirus infections have soared, some White House officials have pointed fingers at China, where the virus first emerged late last year.

Fauci was unmoved by the prospect that China could cross the finish line first. Although he said he hopes China succeeds, he does not think they will win the vaccine race, at least not by much.

"I think everybody's sort of on the same track." If they do get there, he said, "They're not going to get it particularly sooner than we get it. That's for sure."

Ultimately, he hopes multiple successful candidates prevail. "I don't worry about anybody getting there first."

Even if a vaccine succeeds in provoking an immune response, Fauci said it is still not clear how long that protection will last.

"These are questions that don't have answers right now, because we're only six months into the outbreak." He said it may take a year before that immunity question is answered.

A recent Reuters poll found that a quarter of Americans are hesitant about taking a vaccine, voicing concern that the record pace of development could compromise safety. Fauci said he is aware of such concerns.

"It's understandable, but unjustified," he said. "We're not compromising safety; we're not compromising scientific integrity."

Fauci said the normal development process of waiting for a vaccine to be proven effective before manufacturing begins wastes precious time.

"If the vaccine doesn't work, the only thing you've lost is money."

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Vital data showing whether US hospitals have the resources to deal with the coronavirus pandemic has already vanished from a government website after the Trump administration quietly shifted responsibility for the statistics to another department.

Figures tracking the prevalence of free hospital and intensive care beds, and the number of available health care workers, ventilators and personal protective equipment across the US have been compiled  and published  by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) since the start of the pandemic.

But on Wednesday, it was reported that hospitals had been told they should now send their daily data  not to the CDC  but to a private company in Pittsburgh called TeleTracking Technologies, and that the information would be published instead by the CDCs parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Trump administration officials  who have sought to pass blame to the CDC for the severity of the Covid-19 crisis  insisted the move was merely intended to ensure faster and more streamlined reporting of the data, citing week-long delays. An HHS spokesperson later claimed their agency would provide more powerful insights than the inadequate CDC operation.

While most acknowledged the CDC needed overhauled and would still have access to the data, some analysts and former senior officials voiced concerns that the move could result in less transparency. They appear to have been proven correct.

On Tuesday  even before the change was publicly announced  data-trackers noticed that all of the information had disappeared from the CDC website.

We were surprised because the modules that we normally go to were empty, Ryan Panchadsaram, who regularly uses the data for the Covid Exit Strategy website, told CNBC. The data wasnt available and not there. There was no warning.

By Thursday, the data on hospital bed capacity was once again being displayed on the CDC site, and HHS acknowledged that it had been temporarily removed.

Yes, HHS is committed to being transparent with the American public about the information it is collecting on the coronavirus, said HHS spokesman Michael Caputo in a statement given to CNBC.

Therefore, HHS has directed CDC to re-establish the coronavirus dashboards it withdrew from the public on Wednesday.

However, a notice next to the data on the CDCs National Healthcare Safety Network website stated: This file will not be updated after July 14, 2020 and includes data from April 1 to July 14.

Some accused the Trump administration of trying to obscure the available data from the public.

You cannot sweep this under the rug. You cannot hide the facts, tweeted New York Democratic senator, Chuck Schumer, in response to the news.

 Trump rebukes Navarro over op-ed ripping Fauci: 'He shouldn't be doing that'

More than 130,000 Americans have died from Covid-19. President Trump: Get to work fighting this virus, and stop trying to undermine public health experts.

The CDC, which will still collect data on the number of US-wide cases and fatalities, has historically been the core gatherer and provider of information during health crises.

While most experts agree that the CDC data-collection system is struggling, some suggested that efforts should be directed to shore up the system, rather than shift control to another government agency entirely.

However, CDC director, Dr Robert Redfield, said the change will enable it to focus on collecting other data, such as information from nursing homes, adding that the CDC will still have access to the information.

But Gregory Koblentz, a biodefence expert at George Mason University, said the change appears to be consistent with recent efforts by the Trump administration to sideline the agency from its typical role as the publics primary source of information.

We know the administration has been trying to silence the CDC, he told The Associated Press. Now it looks like the administration might be trying to blind the CDC as well.
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Linkedin On Lee (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 16, 2020 08:35 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666ab046 3 Science & Tech GDP-Venture,COVID-19,pandemic,contact-tracing-tool,digital-technology Free

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, tens of millions of people have lost their jobs globally over the past few months. The economic consequences have been devastating. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recently updated its economic forecasts again and warned that the economy will deteriorate significantly during the pandemic.

Governments need to contain the spread as soon as possible so we can go back to managing the economy effectively and businesses can return to operating at full speed. Meanwhile, we want to stay healthy and safe for ourselves, our friends and family.

Beyond physical safety, the importance of reviving the economy is also of critical importance.

Digital technology serves as one part of the overall solution, however, there are some controversial challenges to using technology during the COVID-19 pandemic:

Safety vs privacy: How do we find the right balance between safety and respecting everyones privacy?

Health or business first?: On the one hand, staying in lockdown too long will damage the economy, which might lead to social unrest and violence. On the other hand, it is dangerous and irresponsible if businesses open without taking the necessary precautions to protect their employees, partners and customers.

Cost: This pandemic has led to reduced budgets, layoffs and even bankruptcies. Spending has slowed down significantly. How can we find a cost-effective solution that scales nationally? Who will pay for it? Government? Businesses? Citizens?

Time: Every day counts because COVID-19 is a highly contagious disease. We have to act swiftly to contain it.

Short-term solutions

Singapore has implemented SafeEntry, which is a national digital check-in system that logs the identity and mobile numbers of individuals visiting hotspots, workplaces of essential services, as well as selected public venues to prevent and control the transmission of COVID-19, through contact tracing and identification of COVID-19 clusters.

At least 26 countries have implemented contact-tracing apps using smartphones by leveraging the Global Positioning System (GPS) and Bluetooth technologies.

Additionally, some countries such as Belgium, Bulgaria, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea have complemented their smartphone solutions with Internet of Things (IoT) devices in a variety of forms, including wristbands and tokens.

Amazon is testing a wearable device that lights up and beeps when warehouse workers get too close to each other. They also have deployed "distance assistants" to notify warehouse workers if they get too close, using CCTV and computer vision.

The current solutions are not optimal yet. The Bluetooth chips on smartphones are draining battery life quickly. Some of them have outdated operating systems, firmware and hardware. Additionally, many young children and elderly people dont use smartphones.

Furthermore, we need to provide strong, secure technology to protect user privacy. Equally important, there should be a protocol on how to track and trace when someone has been infected by COVID-19.

Long-term solutions

Given what we know today, below are some potential long-term solutions.

Smartphones have evolved into digital Swiss Army knives due to that large swath of built-in features. GPS, Bluetooth and their advanced software development environment tools are useful for tracking and tracing COVID-19.

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is a great complement to smartphones given its low energy consumption, flexible physical forms, affordability and interoperability with smartphones.

This data needs to be encrypted using military-grade technology to give the best possible privacy protection.

Some technologies like GPS and BLE should be configurable, depending on each companys policy and government law. Also, the user has to be educated on what data is collected, how it is going to be used and who has access to the data.

CCTV and advanced computer vision can detect crowds, social distancing, people wearing masks, etc. Also, we need to use AI to analyze hundreds of millions of records to provide advanced analytics to advise what actions are needed to track, trace and prevent the spread of COVID-19.

People will leverage the above technologies combined with best-practice protocols to track and trace COVID-19.

At the highest level, we want to both save lives and revive the economy.

We have to set the right mindset. Bill Gates told us we cant restart the economy [] and simply ignore that pile of bodies over in the corner". In other words, we cant run business-as-usual while our employees, partners and customers are sick and dying. Business continuity and productivity follow after containing COVID-19.

We have to put safety first above politics and profits, and set aside our differences. (kes)

***

On Lee has over 30 years of experience in technology. He has built teams in the United States, Indonesia, China and India and is a board member of several AI start-up companies.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
London, July 16 : A hacking group believed to be operating as part of Russian intelligence services is targeting organisations involved in Covid-19 vaccine development, the US, British and Canadian governments said on Thursday.

The threat group, known as APT29, has exploited organisations globally, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) of the UK said in an advisory.

The APT29, also named "the Dukes" or "Cozy Bear", uses a variety of tools and techniques, including spear-phishing and custom malware known as "WellMess" and "WellMail", the NCSC said.

This assessment is also supported by partners at the Canadian Communication Security Establishment (CSE), the US Department for Homeland Security (DHS), the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Security Agency (NSA).

APT29's campaign of malicious activity is ongoing, predominantly against government, diplomatic, think-tank, healthcare and energy targets to steal valuable intellectual property, the advisory said.

"It is completely unacceptable that the Russian Intelligence Services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic," the UK Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, said in a statement.

"While others pursue their selfish interests with reckless behaviour, the UK and its allies are getting on with the hard work of finding a vaccine and protecting global health," the statement added.

The NCSC has previously warned that APT groups have been targeting organisations involved in both national and international Covid-19 responses.

Known targets of APT29 include the UK, the US and Canadian vaccine research and development organisations, the NCSC said.
Dublin, July 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Matcha Market - Growth, Trends and Forecast (2020 - 2025)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The matcha market is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 9.44% during the forecast period.



The rising occurrence of chronic diseases has fuelled the demand for healthy and nutritious food and beverage products. The antioxidant properties and vitamin composition of matcha have further fuelled the matcha demand, across the world.



Additionally, the rising number of health-conscious consumers, along with consumer awareness about the health benefits of matcha ingredient, is expected to fuel the market growth during the forecast period.



Key Market Trends



Increasing Exports of Matcha by Japan



Amongst the various kinds of Japanese tea, matcha has a unique position. Japan's export of green tea has significantly increased. The major importers of matcha from Japan are China, Sri Lanka, India, and the United States. The increasing demand for matcha powdered green tea in the United States drove the exports of green tea, in 2017, by Japan. An economic partnership agreement between Japan and the European Union could give exports of green tea, including matcha, an additional boost. The EU will abolish its 3.2% tariff on portions of green tea weighing less than 3kg. Many large cafe chains in the United States have put green tea lattes using matcha on their menus, and the ingredient is increasingly popular in desserts. Over the last 25 years, matcha sales in the United States have increased five-fold to more than USD 10 billion.



Asia Pacific Has Largest Market Revenue



The Asia - Pacific held the largest share of the global industry revenues in 2018. India is one of the leading markets for matcha in the Asia-Pacific region. As matcha complements both sweet and savory dishes, it has become a common ingredient used in ice-creams, tea cakes, crpes, and even macaroons in Mumbai, India. The restaurants in India are confident that Indian plates are ready for advanced matcha delicacies. Some of them are, steamed and fried mantou bun with a matcha cream cheese and desserts, such as cakes, clairs, mille-feuilles, milkshake, and smoothies. The product entrance in the US market is primarily aligned with the availability of matcha-based products through Japanese retail grocery stores across cities, such as Los Angeles.



Competitive Landscape



Matcha Maiden, AIYA America Inc., Ippodo Tea Co., and Ito En Ltd are some of the companies leading the product innovation in the matcha market, in terms of packaging, particularly teabags. The companies producing matcha, such as Midori Spring Ltd and Encha Life LLC, are increasingly procuring the production techniques, securing technical assistance from the Japanese farmers for the improved production of matcha, and even extracting matcha leaves from Japan. Some of the top brands are Encha Matcha, MatchaDNA, Midori Spring Ceremonial Emerald, Epic Matcha, Enzo's Private Selection, Kiss Me Organics, Zen Spirit, Matcha Konomi, Kenko Tea, and Jade Leaf Matcha among others.



Reasons to Purchase this report:

Story continues

The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format

3 months of analyst support



Key Topics Covered:



1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Study Deliverables

1.2 Study Assumptions

1.3 Scope of the Study



2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY



3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY



4 MARKET DYNAMICS

4.1 Market Drivers

4.2 Market Restraints

4.3 Porter Five Forces Framework

4.3.1 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

4.3.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers

4.3.3 Threat of New Entrants

4.3.4 Threat of Substitute Products and Services

4.3.5 Degree of Competition



5 MARKET SEGMENTATION

5.1 Grade

5.1.1 Ceremonial

5.1.2 Classic

5.1.3 Culinary

5.2 Product

5.2.1 Regular Tea

5.2.2 Matcha Beverages

5.2.3 Food

5.2.4 Personal Care

5.2.5 Other Applications

5.3 Geography

5.3.1 North America

5.3.1.1 United States

5.3.1.2 Canada

5.3.1.3 Mexico

5.3.1.4 Rest of North America

5.3.2 Europe

5.3.2.1 Germany

5.3.2.2 United Kingdom

5.3.2.3 France

5.3.2.4 Russia

5.3.2.5 Italy

5.3.2.6 Spain

5.3.2.7 Rest of Europe

5.3.3 Asia - Pacific

5.3.3.1 China

5.3.3.2 India

5.3.3.3 Japan

5.3.3.4 Australia

5.3.3.5 Rest of Asia - Pacific

5.3.4 Rest of the World

5.3.4.1 Middle East & Africa

5.3.4.2 South America



6 Competitive Landscape

6.1 Most Adopted Strategies

6.2 Market Share Analysis

6.3 Company Profiles

6.3.1 Matcha Maiden

6.3.2 Mizuba Tea

6.3.3 Kissa Tea

6.3.4 AOI Tea

6.3.5 AIYA America Inc.

6.3.6 Midori Spring

6.3.7 Ippodo Tea

6.3.8 DoMatcha



7 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES AND FUTURE TRENDS



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/9g8ncc

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




Abdul Malik Kweku Baako has called on the government to make public their social interventions and stakeholder meetings that preceeded the reopening of schools for Ghanaians to appreciate their efforts.



Kweku Baako believes publishing all that the government has done before the schools reopened and with regard to protecting students against the spread of COVID-19 will help to bring the matters to rest.



He made this comment following calls on President Nana Akufo-Addo to shut down schools after students in some Senior High Schools tested positive for the virus.



Schools like the Accra Technical University, Accra Girls' SHS and others in the Greater Accra and Western Regions have recorded cases of the COVID-19.



Fifty-five (55) students and staff of the Accra Girls' SHS, according to the Ghana Education Service, have tested positive for the virus.



Due to this, the President has been asked to close the schools to curb the disease.



The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has also lambasted the President for refusing to allow the school children to return home and painted a picture that he and his government are cruel and also exploiting the students for political gains.



But, according to Kweku Baako, the government has taken precautionary measures to safeguard the students.



Speaking to host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', Mr. Baako was of the view that the opposition party and critics are trying to trivialize the President's efforts to protect the students, hence wants the government to publicize the processes they went through before reopening the schools.



"The engagements they had, the school authorities they engaged; they should publish, publicize and communicate those things . . . the supplies they have made, the number of sanitizers they've distributed and so forth including the schools they have provided these things.



''Put it out there. Let people know that this is the commitment. This is the management process that's going on. It doesn't mean you have 100 percent solution or everything is fine but people will understand you when they have the info," he advised the President.







Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Linkedin Editorial Board (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 16, 2020 08:22 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666a928b 1 Editorial tax-haven,tax-fraud,switzerland,mutual-legal-assistance,bilateral-cooperation Free

The government can now trace and hope to recover billions of dollars of stolen assets believed to be hidden in Switzerland, formerly notorious as a tax haven, by corrupt Indonesian people and tax evaders over the past decades.

This asset recovery can be realized after the House of Representatives ratified on Tuesday the Indonesia-Swiss Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) in Criminal Matters. Implementing regulations should be enacted soon to make the law fully effective.

The long-awaited agreement, which was initiated in 2010, will serve as the legal basis for the two countries to cooperate in detecting, freezing and confiscating assets gained through such crimes as corruption, drug trafficking and money laundering.

Read also: Indonesia passes mutual assistance treaty with Switzerland into law

The MLA will simplify and accelerate mutual legal assistance procedures, in particular by reducing formal requirements and setting out in detail the requirements for mutual assistance requests.

Yet more significant is that both countries agreed to apply a retroactive clause in the agreement, meaning that it can be used to handle criminal acts committed decades ago, especially in 1967-1998, when Indonesia was under an authoritarian and perceived to be corrupt administration.

The government had earlier signed similar MLA agreements with Hong Kong, China, ASEAN, Australia, China, South Korea, India, Vietnam, United Arab Emirates and Iran.

The MLA will further strengthen the authority of the Directorate General of Taxation to search or track Indonesians and their illicit assets hidden in Switzerland because the government also has signed and ratified the global treaty of Automatic Exchange of Information (AEI) on tax matters.

Tax auditors have been able since September 2018 to check with tax authorities in Singapore, Hong Kong and other countries on whether Indonesians had complied with their tax obligations. Yet more encouraging, banking secrecy has been removed by Law No.9/2017, which authorizes tax officials to access all the financial accounts of taxpayers.

But the tax office still needs to strengthen its intelligence unit to cross-check information with other ministries and government agencies within the country and the tax authorities in the countries suspected to be popular havens for Indonesians to conceal their assets.

Read also: Indonesia-Swiss MLA: Tool to combat tax crime, recover stolen assets

Pursuing illicit funds through such MLA or AEI mechanism often can still be difficult if government investigators are unable to connect the assets discovered with the actual criminal activity. This can be especially challenging given that financial and technical resources to trace funds through complex financial systems are often limited.

The governments failures over the past two decades in tracing and recovering stolen assets from Switzerland have shown that what are legally acknowledged as criminal acts and tax fraud in Indonesia and Switzerland are not entirely the same.

Hence, it is most imperative that the government use more assistance from the United Nations/World Bank Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR Initiative), which was launched in 2007, to help law enforcement authorities develop the legal framework and institutional expertise to recover stolen assets. Under the StAR initiative, the World Bank has been building institutional capacity in developing countries to strengthen their prosecuting agencies.
After five years and two failed attempts, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has now gotten the green-light to have former Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) CEO Charles Tanui and two ex-managers prosecuted over a procurement irregularity that benefited a local firm, Redline Limited.

Two previous attempts by the EACC to charge Mr Tanui, Elias Maina Karumi and Josphat Kipkoech Sirma in 2015 and 2017 failed after a technical hitch on the anti-graft watchdog's board constitution and a Director of Public Prosecutions order to conduct further investigations.

KPC at the time needed three auto-transformers and the state corporation hired France's Agecelec to bring the equipment to Kenya, install and commission them.

Investigators would later find that Redline Limited received Sh30 million for the transformers, before being paid another Sh973,912 in installation and commissioning fees.

Documents provided to KPC and approved by the three bureaucrats, indicated that Redline had done sourced, imported, installed and commissioned the equipment.

But Redline was not mentioned anywhere in the tendering process, which means that there was a procurement anomaly.

Under procurement law, a contracted company must seek permission before subcontracting or altering operation terms of the deal.

EACC detectives believe that Mr Tanui, Mr Karumi and Mr Sirma colluded to ensure that Redline got paid despite not having done any works.

The sleuths argue that the three helped in forging documents to show that Redline Limited had done a good job and ensured that they got a cheque.

The three were initially charged in 2015 and released on bond.

At the same time, former Transport minister Michael Kamau was also facing prosecution over malpractices involving collapsed Moi-era contractor Kundan Singh International.

Mr Kamau sued to quash the EACC investigations, arguing that the anti-graft watchdog did not have the minimum three Commissioners required to make decisions at the time he was charged.

The Court of Appeal agreed with Mr Kamau in 2017 and tossed the EACC investigations and prosecution plans. The ripple effect was that 127 graft cases, involving Sh17 billion in misappropriated public funds, all collapsed.

The KPC trio were among beneficiaries of the Court of Appeal decision as then DPP Keriako Tobiko was forced to withdraw all 127 cases.

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A year later, the EACC now properly constituted, submitted an investigation report to Noordin Haji, who had taken over as DPP.

But Mr Haji asked the EACC to tighten what he felt were loose ends that would stop his office from securing a conviction.

Yesterday Mr Haji, now satisfied with the latest probe report, gave the EACC to arrest and process Mr Tanui, Mr Karumi and Mr Sirma in preparation for prosecution.

Mr Karumi and Mr Sirma were arrested shortly afterwards, but Mr Tanui could not be immediately traced.

EACC CEO Twalib Mbarak has now directed Mr Tanui to surrender himself to officers at the Integrity Centre.

"The EACC established that a total sum of Sh30 million was paid to M/s Redline Limited using false documents whereas the items were never installed, tested or commissioned as per the contract agreement," Mr Mbarak said.

The trio will be charged with abuse of office, making a false document and willful failure to comply with laws relating to procurement.

Their prosecution could now open the door for Mr Mbarak's office to pursue the other 126 cases that collapsed in 2017.
A man wearing a protective face mask walks past the front entrance of John Lewis department store on Oxford Street in central London on the afternoon of March 21, 2020. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP via Getty Images)

UK Job Losses Set to Surge Despite Stable Unemployment Figures

The British labour market weakened at a slower pace in June and unemployment has remained stable, but analysts say the jobs situation is set to deteriorate once the government-backed furlough scheme comes to an end.

Between March and June, the number of employees in the United Kingdom on company payrolls decreased by around 650,000, according to new figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on July 16.

While the number of payrolled employees is still falling, the decline is slowing and unemployment has held at 3.9 percent in the three months to May, the ONS said.

What the figures today show is that the furlough scheme has been effective at protecting millions of people from unemployment, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak told broadcasters.

Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak stands outside No 11 Downing Street and holds up the traditional red box that contains the budget speech for the media,, in London, Britain, on March 11, 2020. (Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP Photo)

To reduce the economic impact of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus, the UK government launched the Coronavirus Jobs Retention Scheme, under which workers placed on leave can receive 80 percent of their pay, up to a maximum of 2,500 ($3,144) a month.

But around half a million people are away from work because of the pandemic and receiving no pay, according to the ONS.

An increasing number of people are out of work but not currently looking for work, and are therefore not counted in the unemployment statistics, which only include people without a job who have been actively seeking work within the last four weeks and are available to start work within the next two weeks.

The new ONS data represents the calm before the storm, said Yael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG UK.

As the Job Retention Scheme unwinds in coming months, the full impact of the recession on unemployment is likely to be revealed, she told Reuters.

The government plans to phase out the scheme by the end of October.

A survey by the British Chambers of Commerce showed 29 percent of companies expected to lay-off staff in the third quarter.

A string of major firms, including John Lewis, Boots, and G4S have announced thousands of job losses.

Britains budget forecasters say the unemployment rate could rise as high as 13 percent this year, exceeding a previous post-war high of 11.9 percent set in 1984.

Reuters contributed to this report.


By Dr. Nehginpao Kipgen and Shivangi Dikshit





Dr. Nehginpao Kipgen Shivangi Dikshit
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Taiwanese soldiers today fought off simulated coastal assaults from China during their biggest annual live-fire exercises of the year today, as Beijing ramps up military pressure on the island.

The five-day drill, which began on Monday, is aimed at testing how democratic Taiwan's armed forces would repel an invasion from its giant neighbour.

Beijing regards Taiwan as part of its territory and has vowed to one day seize it - by force if necessary.

Today's simulation saw Taiwan's fighter jets, warships and ground troops repelling an enemy attempt to land on a beach in the central city of Taichung in an operation involving some 8,000 service members.

President Tsai Ing-wen watched the drill, later tweeting that it 'demonstrated to the world our robust defence capabilities and strong determination to defend Taiwan'.

Two domestically-made armoured vehicles launch smoke grenades during the annual Han Kuang military drills in Taichung today

AH-64E attack helicopters launche flares during the 36th Han Kuang (Chinese Glory) military exercise in Taichung, Taiwan today. The live-fire exercise simulates a response to enemy attacks on major targets in Taiwan

Taiwan's M60A3 Patton main battle tanks fire during the 36th Han Kung military exercises in Taichung City, central Taiwan today

Taipei has lived with the threat of invasion by China since the two sides split in 1949 after a civil war.

In recent decades it has found itself increasingly outnumbered and outgunned by China's enormous People's Liberation Army.

Beijing has piled military, economic and diplomatic pressure on Taiwan since Tsai came to power in 2016, because she refuses to acknowledge its stance that the island is part of 'one China'.

A projectile is launched from a Taiwanese-made Thunderbolt-2000 multiple rocket system during the annual Han Kuang military drills in Taichung today. - The five-day 'Han Kuang' (Han Glory) military drills starting on July 14 aimed to test how the armed forces would repel an invasion from China, which has vowed to bring Taiwan back into the fold -- by force if necessary

Soldiers take part in the live-fire, anti-landing Han Kuang military exercise, which simulates an enemy invasion, in Taichung, Taiwan today

Taiwan soldiers operate US-made M109A2 self-propelled guns during the annual Han Kuang military drills in Taichung today

A US-made F-16V fighter jet fires during the 36th Han Kuang (Chinese Glory) military exercise in Taichung, Taiwan today. The live-fire exercise simulates a response to enemy attacks on major targets in Taiwan

Tsai won a landslide reelection in January in what was seen as a strong rebuke to China's strong-arm tactics against the island.

Last year President Xi Jinping gave an especially bellicose speech about Taiwan, warning its unification was 'inevitable'.

In recent months Chinese warplanes have started buzzing Taiwan with unprecedented frequency, repeatedly breaching its air defence zone and prompting Taipei to scramble its own fighter jets.

The military mismatch has been compounded by Western governments' increasing wariness of selling Taiwan advanced weapon systems, fearful of incurring Beijing's wrath.

That has pushed Taiwan to develop its own hardware, including advanced missiles, boats and a new trainer jet.

Two US-made F-16V fighter aircraft releases flares after dropping bombs during the annual Han Kuang military drills in Taichung today

Taiwanese soldiers take positions alongside domestically-made M110A2 self-propelled guns during the annual Han Kuang military drills in Taichung today

Some of that new hardware, including locally built surface-to-air and hypersonic missiles, was used during this week's drills.

But China's increasingly muscular approach towards the island has also sparked renewed international cooperation with Taiwan.

Under US President Donald Trump, Washington has become far more willing to sell big-ticket items including F-16 fighter jets and other hardware.

Earlier this week, Beijing vowed to impose sanctions on defence company Lockheed Martin in response to the US agreeing to upgrade Taiwan's Patriot missile systems.

France has also angered Beijing by agreeing to upgrade the missile interference systems on frigates Taiwan purchased in the 1990s.

Washington has remained a leading unofficial ally and arms supplier to Taipei despite switching diplomatic recognition to Beijing in 1979.
July 16, 2020

Edwin Paalvast will succeed current Chief of International Markets Henk de Jong, who has been appointed as CEO of Philips Domestic Appliances business, effective August 1, 2020

Amsterdam, the Netherlands  Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG; AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today announced the appointment of Deeptha Khanna as the Chief Business Leader of its Personal Health businesses, effective July 20, 2020, and the appointment of Edwin Paalvast as Chief of International Markets, effective August 1, 2020. Ms. Khanna and Mr. Paalvast will become members of Philips Executive Committee reporting to Philips CEO Frans van Houten.

Ms. Khanna joins Philips from Johnson & Johnson to lead its Personal Health businesses that were temporarily led by Frans van Houten. Mr. Paalvast joins Philips from Cisco Systems, and will succeed current Chief of International Markets Henk de Jong, who has been appointed as CEO of Philips EUR 2.3 billion Domestic Appliances business, effective August 1, 2020. As announced in January 2020, the Domestic Appliances business is being separated from Philips, a process that is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2021.

Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, our purpose and strategy to improve peoples lives through meaningful innovation remain more relevant than ever, said Frans van Houten, CEO of Royal Philips. We see significant opportunities to further strengthen Philips leadership in health technology. Throughout our markets, care delivery is accelerating towards telehealth, virtual care and remote services directly to patients at home. And in the personal health domain, we are seeing an accelerated shift in priorities and buying behaviors towards online. I am pleased that in Deeptha, with her rich consumer health and digital experience, and Edwin, with his strong informatics and solutions expertise, we have found the right leaders to join our team and help us unlock Philips full potential.

Story continues

Moreover, with the planned divestiture of the Domestic Appliances business, we are completing the strategic portfolio pivot to a health technology focus. I am convinced that Henk is the best leader for Domestic Appliances, as this business will embark on a new chapter in its journey to thrive and grow independent of Philips. As a seasoned business leader, Henk possesses a great combination of deep consumer knowledge across many countries, as well as a passion for bringing out the best in his team.

Deeptha Khanna (India-born Singaporean, 1976) most recently was the global President of Johnson & Johnsons Skin Health business and Office of Marketing Value. Through 2015  2019, she held various leadership positions in Asia and globally, during which she successfully drove a comprehensive transformation of the Baby Care portfolio. Prior to this, Ms. Khanna spent 17 years at Procter & Gamble in Asia, where she held various leadership positions in marketing. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Statistics, Mathematics and Computer Science, and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Management.

Edwin Paalvast (Dutch, 1963) joins Philips from Cisco Systems where he was Senior Vice President Global Specialists, leading a global sales force in specialist areas, including the Internet of Things (IoT), networking, data center, cloud, collaboration, cybersecurity and services. Prior to that, he held a variety of senior roles, including that of President of Cisco Systems EMEA. He started his career in 1986 at TNO, the Dutch Institute for Applied Research, where he led research on High Performance Computing and Applied Computer Science. He holds two Masters in Computer Science and Mathematics, and a PhD in Computer Science and Physics.

Henk de Jong (Dutch, 1964) joined Philips in 1990, and after holding various business roles in Floor Care, Coffee and Kitchen Appliances, and leading Philips former Consumer Lifestyle sector in Europe and Asia, he successfully led Philips Latin American market for five years. He has subsequently led Philips International Markets since 2017, delivering consistent year-on-year profitable growth and market share gains. In his new role as CEO of Philips Domestic Appliances, Mr. De Jong will gradually assume end-to-end management responsibility in line with the design and timeline of the carve out process. He will continue to report to Frans van Houten, and remain a member of the Executive Committee.

For further information, please contact:

Ben Zwirs

Philips Global Press Office

Tel.: +31 6 15213446

E-mail: ben.zwirs@philips.com

Derya Guzel

Philips Investor Relations

Tel.: +31 20 59 77055

E-mail: derya.guzel@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 .







He will continue to report to Frans van Houten, and remain a member of the Executive Committee.







Attachments
Lori Vallow pleaded not guilty to three misdemeanor charges in connection with the disappearance of her children on Tuesday

'Cult mom' Lori Vallow has pleaded not guilty to three misdemeanor charges in connection with the disappearance of her children.

Lori was arrested in February on misdemeanor counts for criminal solicitation to commit a crime, resisting and obstructing an officer and contempt of court - as well as two felony counts for desertion and nonsupport of children.

Prosecutors in Madison County, Idaho, dropped the two initial felony counts on July 2 - nearly a month after Lori's children, Joshua 'JJ' Vallow and Tylee Ryan, were found buried in the backyard of her husband Chad Daybell.

Lori was subsequently charged with two new felony counts of conspiracy to destroy, alter or conceal evidence.

Her attorney, Mark Means, filed a motion on Tuesday saying his client is pleading not guilty to the three misdemeanors and wants a jury trial.

Means has also asked a judge to reduce Lori's $1million bond on the grounds that the two felony charges she faced at the time it was originally set have now been dismissed.

The motion came just days after the one-year anniversary of the death of Lori's fourth husband, Charles Vallow, who was shot dead by her brother on July 11, 2019, in Chandler, Arizona.

The Chandler Police Department confirmed this week that Lori remains a person of interest in Charles' death and a new detective has been brought in to lead the case.

The remains of Lori's children Tylee Ryan (left) and Joshua 'JJ' Vallow (right) were discovered on the property of her husband Chad Daybell on June 9 - nine months after they went missing

Lori's not guilty plea came just days after the one-year anniversary of the death of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow (above together), who was shot dead by her brother on July 11, 2019, in Chandler, Arizona. The Chandler Police Department confirmed this week that Lori remains a person of interest in Charles' death and a new detective has been brought in to lead the case

Lori has spent the past five months behind bars at the Madison County Jail amid a multi-state search for her children, who disappeared in September but were never reported missing by their mother.

The search came to a tragic end on June 9 when investigators unearthed JJ and Tylee's remains in Chad's backyard in Salem, Idaho.

Court documents described how 17-year-old Tylee had been partially burned and dismembered. Investigators believe she was buried hours after she was last seen on September 8.

Seven-year-old JJ's body was found wrapped in plastic and duct tape in a grave near his sister's. It's believed he was buried the day he was last seen on September 23.

Lori's husband Chad Daybell (pictured) is behind bars on felony charges for destruction or concealment of evidence

Chad was arrested the same day the bodies were discovered and is now facing four felony charges - two counts for conspiracy to commit destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence and two counts for destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence.

Madison County prosecutors dropped the two felony child abandonment charges against Lori earlier this month in light of the discovery of the children's bodies.

Her attorney, Means, is now requesting a bond reduction hearing so that a judge can re-evaluate her $1million bond in light of the felony charges being dropped.

After Lori was charged on June 30 with two new felony counts for destruction or concealment of evidence in neighboring Fremont County - where Chad's property is located - a judge set an additional $1million bond for the charges there.

Fremont County does not have a women's detention facility, so all female inmates from both jurisdictions are housed in Madison County.

In his motion Means also requested the right to ask at a later date for a change of venue regarding the Madison County trial.

Lori is scheduled to appear for a pre-trial conference in Madison County on July 17. She is then slated to appear for a preliminary hearing in Fremont County on August 10 and 11.

Neither Lori nor Chad has been charged directly over the deaths of her children as the investigation continues.

In this aerial photo, investigators search for human remains at Chad Daybell's residence in the 200 block of 1900 East in Salem, Idaho on June 9

Lori (pictured in court in March) has maintained her innocence in the children's disappearance despite having never reported them missing

Lori is also currently under investigation for the July 2019 death of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, Chandler Police say.

Charles - JJ's adoptive father - was married to Lori for more than a decade before he filed for divorce from her in February 2019. In court documents he claimed that Lori had become obsessed with the end of the world and had threatened to kill him.

Roughly five months later Charles traveled to Lori's home in Chandler to pick up JJ for visitation when he allegedly got into an argument with the mother.

Charles Vallow - JJ's adoptive father - was married to Lori for more than a decade before he filed for divorce from her in February 2019. In court documents he claimed that Lori had become obsessed with the end of the world and had threatened to kill him

Lori's brother Alex Cox, who was visiting at the time, told police he intervened and shot Charles in the chest two times in self defense, killing him.

Police initially declined to press charges against Alex but the case was reopened months later in November when authorities began searching for Lori's children in Idaho, where they had moved a month after Charles died.

Alex himself died aged 51 in Gilbert, Arizona, on December 12. Last month a medical examiner determined that he died of natural causes while he had the overdose drug Narcan in his system.

Probable caused statements filed in support of Lori and Chad's arrests revealed that police believe Alex was likely involved in burying his niece and nephew hours after they disappeared in September.

Earlier court documents from December indicated that Alex was also under investigation for Charles' murder at the time of his own death.

That investigation is still 'open and ongoing' more than seven months later, Lori remains a person of interest, Chandler Police Sgt Jason McClimans told Inside Edition on Wednesday.

McClimans said that Lori remains a person of interest in Charles' death but did not offer any additional details.

Court documents filed in early December indicated that police were investigating a possible 'conspiracy' to kill Charles.

McClimans confirmed that a new detective, Nathan Duncan, had been brought in to lead the case after the previous detective, Nathan Moffatt, was promoted to sergeant in May.

Chilling body camera video released by the Arizona police last month showed Charles pleading with officers to have his wife mentally evaluated because he feared she was going to kill him on January 31, 2019

Chilling body camera video and 911 calls released by the Arizona police last month showed Charles pleading with officers to have his wife mentally evaluated because he feared she was going to kill him on January 31, 2019.

In the video Charles is heard telling the officers that Lori believed she was a prophet and that an evil spirit named Nick Schneider had inhabited his body.

'I want her to get help. She's my wife. I love her to death. Something's gone wrong,' Charles said.

'And if she wants me gone, fine, I can do all that stuff. I just don't want her to hurt [JJ]. I just don't want her to hurt anybody else.

Lori's brother Alex Cox (pictured) died in December, months after he shot dead his brother-in-law Charles

'[She says] she knows then the second coming [of Jesus Christ] is happening. I've tried to support her as much as I could, but it's gotten really really bad lately. She's had a break.

'She says I'm Nick Schneider, I've taken over Charles' body, "Charles has been killed and I'm going to kill you."'

An officer ultimately determined that Lori should be allowed to go to the psychiatric facility on her own rather than being escorted there by police.

The following day the same officer wrote in a police report that the facility told him Lori had checked herself in and was discharged a few hours later.

Lori and her new husband Chad, whom she married in early November just weeks after her children went missing, are also under investigation for murder and conspiracy in the death of Chad's previous wife Tammy Daybell.

Tammy mysteriously died at the home she shared with Chad on October 19, less than three weeks before he and Lori tied the knot.

Her death was initially ruled as natural causes after Chad reportedly denied an autopsy.

But the case was reopened in December after police learned that Chad's new stepchildren, JJ and Tylee, were missing.

The results of an autopsy to confirm Tammy's cause of death have still not been released.

Last month Tammy's relatives spoke to DailyMail.com and expressed frustration that authorities are not providing them with information.
Molina Healthcare, Inc. MOH has been in investors good books, riding on a healthy revenue stream and restructuring initiatives.



Its VGM Score of A is also impressive. Here V stands for Value, G for Growth and M for Momentum, with the score being a weighted combination of all three factors.



The company saw consistent growth in its revenue base in the past several years. Although the top line declined in 2018 and 2019, it again bounced back in the March quarter. Management expects total revenues to grow to $3 billion within a couple of years.



Molina Healthcare has been growing on the back of its Medicaid business. Last month, management informed that its Kentucky health plan subsidiary was awarded a new Medicaid managed care contract. This new agreement is likely to benefit enrollees of the companys Medicaid programs in Kentucky. The leading industry player constantly undertook efforts to expand its presence in the Medicaid market. In line with such initiatives, this healthcare provider inked a deal worth $820 million this April to acquire Magellan Complete Care (MCC), which is yet another managed care organization.



Further, the entire United States is grappling with financial woes due to the rampant COVID-19 pandemic. At a time when unemployment levels are alarmingly high, its Medicaid business is likely to witness increased membership.



The company has been gaining from the restructuring and profitability improvement plan started in 2017. The scheme included streamlining of organizational structure to improve efficiency as well as the speed and quality of decision-making. We expect this initiative to help curb costs going forward. As part of this initiative, the company sold its units, namely Pathways Health and Community Support, LLC and Molina Medicaid Solutions, which will likely allow it to concentrate on core growth areas.



Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the company reaffirmed its initial outlook. Total revenues are expected to be $18.3 billion, suggesting an 8.7% increase from the year-ago reported number. The company anticipates earnings in the range of $11.20-$11.70 per share.



This company has been deploying capital prudently to enhance shareholder value on the back of its balance-sheet strength. It completed its $500-million share repurchase program. Its impressive capital position, which assists in efficient capital management, will attract investors attention. Moreover, as of Mar 31, 2020, the company had cash and cash equivalents worth $2.3 billion, higher than its long-term debt of $1.5 billion. Its times interest earned stands at 12.4X, higher than the industry average of 10.3X. Thus, its solvency level is encouraging.



Its earnings estimate for 2020 stands at $11.91, suggesting an upside of 2.9% from the prior-year reported figure.



Shares of this currently Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company have surged 31.3% in a years time, outperforming its industrys growth of 7.8%.

Story continues





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Finding the cheapest car insurance rate can be easily done by shopping around. By comparing car insurance rates twice per year, policyholders can find out if their current providers offer the cheapest rate, or if its time to look for other providers., said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director

Compare-autoinsurance.org has launched a new blog post that presents how to properly compare car insurance quotes and why it is important.

For more info and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.org/why-drivers-should-compare-car-insurance-quotes/.

Not everyone is excited when it comes to comparing car insurance quotes, but by doing this task drivers can save a lot of money. Although insurers look at similar factors when it comes to setting rates, they use different algorithms. The same driver can get two completely different premiums from two different insurers. To find the cheapest rates, drivers should compare multiple car insurance quotes from different car insurance companies.

To properly compare car insurance quotes, drivers should do the following:



Gather information. Drivers will need to fill in personal information such as the address, date of birth, occupation, driver's license and marital status of everyone they want included on the policy. They will also need to complete vehicle information like make, model, year, mileage, VIN, and data about their driving history in the last five years such as claims, violations, and tickets. If the drivers had completed driving courses, they should mention them. Furthermore, they will have to add the current or previous insurers name for anyone on the policy or in the household.

Choose the right coverage levels. Liability auto insurance protects policyholders from the worst-case scenario by providing a cushion between their assets and the amount theyre on the hook for. Liability coverage has three parts: bodily injury liability, total bodily injury liability, and physical damage liability. For a 100/300/100 limits option, the insurer will reimburse up to $100,000 for bodily injuries per person the policyholder injures in a crash, up to $300,000 total for all bodily injuries caused by the policyholder in a crash, and up to $100,000 for any damage to a property caused by the policyholder. In some states, the policyholders will be required to get personal injury protection (PIP), medical payments coverage (medpay), or uninsured/underinsured motorist coverages.

Decide if full coverage is needed. Besides liability coverage, full coverage contains additional policies like comprehensive and collision coverages. Collision pays for damage to a policyholder's vehicle in an at-fault accident, damage to a vehicle that hits objects like a pole or a fence, damage to a policyholder's vehicle that was caused by another driver. Comprehensive coverage pays for car theft, damage caused by weather like tornadoes, hailstorms, or hurricanes, fire, floods, explosions, falling objects, animal collisions, and vandalism.

Collect as many quotes as possible and compare them. Drivers should compare quotes from at least two or three insurers. When comparing quotes drivers should also include offers from smaller local or regional insurers. To properly compare quotes, drivers should make sure that they compare quotes that each contains the same levels of liability, the same deductibles for full coverage, the same drivers and cars, and the same discounts they are eligible for.

For additional info, money-saving tips and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.org/.

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.
Orlando Bloom is getting ready to welcome his second child, as he and fiancee Katy Perry get closer to the due date.

But a member of the British actor's brood has recently strayed away from the pack, leaving him heartbroken.

He pleaded Wednesday with his 4.1million Instagram followers to help him find his dog Mighty, who's recently gone missing in his Montecito, California neighborhood.

Missing dog! Orlando Bloom pleaded Wednesday with his 4.1million Instagram followers to help him find his dog Mighty, who's recently gone missing in his Montecito, California neighborhood

Man's best friend: The 43-year-old posted some photos of the red labradoodle, writing: 'MIGHTY IS MISSING in Montecito California he is chipped and his collar has a number to call' (pictured in August, 2019)

The 43-year-old posted some photos of the red labradoodle, writing: 'MIGHTY IS MISSING in Montecito California he is chipped and his collar has a number to call.

'If you take him to your local vet or shelter or police station he can be traced back to me for a reward please only send REAL INFO my heart is already broken so please dont add insult to injury.'

He adopted Mighty back in 2017, around the time Katy adopted a nearly identical dog, whom she named Nugget.

Orlando revealed last June that he had his previous dog Sidi's skeleton displayed in his home after the black Saluki mix died in 2016 of liver disease.

Broken heart: He continued: 'If you take him to your local vet or shelter or police station he can be traced back to me for a reward please only send REAL INFO my heart is already broken so please dont add insult to injury'

Happy family: The Lord of the Rings actor adopted Mighty back in 2017, around the time fiancee Katy Perry adopted a nearly identical dog, whom she named Nugget

Furry friend: He constantly features Mighty on Instagram, even bringing him along to Milan Fashion Week back in February (pictured in February, 2020)

He told Dogs Monthly: 'He was a great companion and I was very upset when he died. I had his skeleton mounted so that he stays with me.

'I know that sounds a little odd to some people, but it is quite tastefully done and I still get to say goodnight to him.'

The Lord of the Rings actor added of Mighty: 'He gets star treatment all over the world and enjoys being famous.'

He constantly features Mighty on Instagram, even bringing him along to Milan Fashion Week back in February.

Bloom is just days away from welcoming a daughter with Katy, 35, who announced the pregnancy back in March, revealing her baby bump in the Never Worn White video.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 16)  President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to deliver his fifth State of the Nation Address on July 27 from the Batansang Pambansa in Quezon City, Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto III said on Thursday.

He said this is not yet set in stone, but Malacanang has already reached out to Senate officials for the SONA preparations.

Sotto, in an online media forum, said they will limit attendees to a maximum of 50 persons inside the entire complex amid the ongoing threat of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said only a limited number of lawmakers from Congress and Cabinet members will be allowed to attend physically. He added no audience will be allowed inside the venue to witness the President's penultimate SONA speech.

He also said the few who will be allowed in will first have to undergo a rapid test, saying all health protocols will be strictly observed.

"If I dont think its not safe, I will not go... I agree with that decision of the executive department. We must give the country and the public and the people the semblance that your government is up and about and ready to continue with its job, especially Congress," he said.

Contrary to Sotto's remark, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said there's no final word yet given to him about how the SONA will be conducted. He said Batasang Pambansa will be the venue, but its not yet 100 percent sure whether Duterte will be physically present or not.

Roque previously hinted that the Palace is more inclined to take the virtual route  by delivering the speech from the Malago Clubhouse in Malacanang  as it is the "safe fallback position."

Under the Constitution, the President is mandated to deliver his SONA before a joint session of Congress every fourth Monday of July.

This is a developing story.

CNN Philippines' correspondent Joyce Ilas contributed to this report.
" " (From left) Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor; Philip IV of Spain; and Charles II, the last of the Spanish Habsburg kings all have the Habsburg jaw. Public Domain/HowStuffWorks

If you thought that obsessive royal-watching was a pastime established during the days of Princess Diana, you'd be wrong. As long as there have been people who wear crowns, regular folks have loved speculating, gossiping and paying close attention to every move those monarchs make.

Few royal families have drawn more attention than the Habsburgs, a family that ruled a vast European empire for centuries. And it's nearly impossible to discuss the Habsburg family without pondering the distinctive Habsburg jaw. Before we get into the Habsburg jaw and what caused it, let's explore who this family was and how they came to power.

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Who Were the Habsburgs?

The Habsburgs (spelling it Hapsburg is an Americanization) were one of the most successful ruling families in all of Europe, wielding power in a big way from the 13th century to 1918. At one time, the monarchy's vast empire included Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, Slovenia, Slovakia and Croatia, as well as large parts of Poland, Romania and Italy.

The royal family really began its ascent to power in 1273, when Rudolf I became the Roman German king. Ottokar II Premysl, who was the king of Bohemia, refused to recognize Rudolf, which sparked a royal rivalry. Ottokar became king of Austria, but when he was killed in battle, Rudolf moved in, and granted land to his sons. And that's how the Habsburgs got their start in Austria.

The Habsburgs spent the next hundred years or so empire building. They took over the Tyrol, a region in the Alps shared by Austria and Northern Italy, in 1363. Things really took off in the 1500s, when future emperor Maximilian married Charles the Bold's daughter Mary and gained control of the desirable Burgundy region. This elevated the family to A-list royal status.

The Habsburgs came into their full regal power in the 1600s and enjoyed its fruits through the early 1700s. The Habsburg royal clan included Leopold Wilhelm, an emperor, bishop and patron of the arts; reformer Joseph I whose motto was "by love and fear"; Charles VI who ruled Spain and set up his daughter to take the crown; and Rudolf II, who decided to live in Prague, where he promoted science and art. It was during this era that royal watchers noticed a striking similarity in the jawline of several members of the Habsburg family, and dubbed it the Habsburg jaw.

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What Is the Habsburg Jaw?

Habsburgs including Joseph I, Charles I of Spain, Leopold Wilhelm and Charles II were known for having a very prominent lower jaw. According to a 1988 article in the Journal of Medical Genetics, nine successive generations of the Habsburg family had this pronounced jawline, so it started to be commonly known as the Habsburg jaw.

The medical term for this kind of jaw is mandibular prognathism, which is when the jaw juts so far forward that it causes an extreme underbite. It doesn't just change the shape of the face; the teeth don't line up as they should. Researchers believe the Habsburgs also had a mandibular deficiency, which is a pattern of abnormalities, including skeletal, neuromuscular, occlusal and esthetic conditions that can affect a person's speech and their ability to eat.

In his book "Spain Under Charles the Second", Alexander Stanhope, an 18th-century British envoy, wrote of 35-year-old Charles II:

[He] has a ravenous stomach, and swallows all he eats whole, for his nether jaw stands so much out, that his two rows of teeth cannot meet; to compensate which, he has a prodigious wide throat so that a gizzard or liver of a hen passes down whole, and his weak stomach not being able to digest it, he voids in the same manner.

The trait showed up more often in Habsburg men, though it affected female Habsburgs too, including Mariana of Austria, who was the queen of Spain. Spanish painter Jose Garcia Hidalgo immortalized royal sisters Maria Luisa de Orleans, queen of Spain, and sister Anne Marie de Orleans, queen of Sardinia. The portraits are attractive, but the Habsburg family jaw is unmistakable.

" " Sisters (from left) Anne Marie de Orleans, queen of Sardinia, and Maria Luisa de Orleans, queen of Spain also had the Habsburg jaw, though it's not quite as prominent as it was in the males. Public Domain/HowStuffWorks

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What Caused the Habsburg Jaw?

Researchers now know that the Habsburg jaw was a result of inbreeding, which is when close relatives have children together. A team led by genetics researcher Roman Vilas from the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain confirmed this in late 2019. In the study, which was published in the journal Annals of Human Biology, they analyzed portraits from 66 members of the Habsburg clan, zeroing in on 15 monarchs who had the family's pronounced jawline and underbite. The team found 18 different abnormalities in the Habsburgs' faces, and used the portraits to calculate the degree to which different members of the Habsburg family were inbred.

The researchers found that Habsburgs had both mandibular prognathism and mandibular deficiency. The effects of intermarriage caused deformities that followed a recessive pattern, and showed up in the lower third of the face.

Most societies have long held taboos against incest and inbreeding. These prohibitions often are morally based, but we now know there are vital scientific reasons why inbreeding between first cousins or siblings is a bad idea, says Montgomery Slatkin, a retired genetics professor from University of California, Berkeley.

Each of us has two copies of each chromosome. In order for a recessive trait, like blue eyes or Type O blood to show up, a person needs homozygous alleles. That means you need two sets of chromosomes that both carry the same recessive trait.

"Any condition that's recessive, meaning you need both copies of the allele to have the physical defect, are much more common among inbred children than it is among people who are not inbred," Slatkin says. "It's hundreds of thousands times more common."

When you have children with someone who's not closely related to you, usually most of your genes will be heterozygous, which means they carry different traits. When cousins marry, it raises the odds of similar genetic background  and birth defects.

Royals in the Habsburg era tended to ignore the proscriptions against intermarriage and incest, because they were kings and queens after all. They wanted to consolidate power and property, keeping it in the family. Unfortunately that intensified familial genetic defects and flaws too, to the point that Charles II suffered with many maladies.

Now That's Interesting There are still plenty of descendants of the Habsburg family alive today. A prominent family member is Karl von Habsburg, also known as the Archduke of Austria and the leader of the Habsburg-Lorraine family. The 59-year-old does not have the Habsburg jaw. But he made a splash in March 2020 when he revealed to Hello! that he was the first royal to be diagnosed with COVID-19. Fortunately, it was a mild case that he said felt like the flu.

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Originally Published: Jul 16, 2020
James Jordan has revealed that his beloved dad has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, following four months of health woes and trips to the hospital.

The dancer, 42, took to Instagram on Thursday to share the heartbreaking news, as he also appeared to his followers for help in finding a specialist surgeon for his dad.

In announcing the news, the former Strictly Come Dancing pro shared a video of his five-month-old daughter Ella being doted on by his father, as he admitted: 'Tears are streaming down my face.'

Heartbreaking news: James Jordan has revealed that his beloved dad has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, following four months of health woes and trips to the hospital

James wrote: 'This video is the most precious & personal thing I have in my life right now & Im going to share it with you but with a totally broken heart.

'Over the last 4 months my hero and best mate in the whole world has been in and out of hospital with very ill health.

'We were told several times that 100% he had had a stroke and thats why they were struggling to control his seizures... but after the 3rd time of being admitted to hospital I knew something was not quite right.

Doting: In announcing the news, the former Strictly Come Dancing pro shared a video of his five-month-old daughter Ella being doted on by his father

'So after pushing for more tests and the results being sent to Kings College Hospital for other surgeons to look at unfortunately the results came back that it wasnt a stroke after all.

'It was what I had dreaded, my dad has a tumour and after having a biopsy its come back that its an aggressive cancerous one. The worst kind unfortunately.

'We have been told that its not advisable to operate because of where the tumour is and wouldnt actually make that much difference even if they could.

'The end result is, its terminal. They are saying with chemotherapy and radiotherapy we might be lucky and get a year with him.

'As I write this tears are streaming down my face as Im sure many of you have the same love for your parents. This is honestly the worst time of my life.'

Broken heart: James wrote, 'This video is the most precious & personal thing I have in my life right now & Im going to share it with you but with a totally broken heart'

Support: In reaction to his post, James received a barrage of supportive messages from a host of celebrities, including Shirley Ballas, Peter Andre, Coleen Nolan, and Saira Khan

However, while he expressed his heartbreak over the shocking news, James revealed plans to keep on fighting and not accept the doctor's most recent verdict.

He continued: 'Im posting this and writing to you now as I want to get a second opinion on my father, especially because they misdiagnosed him for the first 4 months which doesnt fill us with confidence.

'So now myself and my family are actually hoping they are wrong this time. Im looking to find the best surgeon to see my father as I want to know Ive done everything possible before I can accept it.'

Appealing to his followers for help, he concluded: 'If anyone that reads this can advise me and my family on who is supposedly the best in this field I would be eternally grateful. My heart is broken. Please DM me if you can help.'

In reaction to his post, James received a barrage of supportive messages from a host of celebrities, including Shirley Ballas, Peter Andre, Coleen Nolan, and Saira Khan.

Help: Appealing to his followers for help, he concluded, 'If anyone that reads this can advise me and my family on who is supposedly the best in this field I would be eternally grateful'

Unfortunate: However, Joe Swash attracted backlash, when he left an upbeat caption about James' dad, after seemingly failing to read the heartfelt caption

However, Joe Swash attracted backlash, when he left an upbeat caption about James' dad, after seemingly failing to read the heartfelt caption.

The actor wrote: 'This vid is amazing!! It So good 2 see your dad doing better xxxxx,' luring a scores of messages from horrified social media users.

Just last month, James paid tribute to his dad in a Father's Day post, sharing a picture of the pair posing together at an outdoor venue.

He wrote: 'Happy Fathers Day to the strongest man I have ever met and the best dad I could ever wish for.... I pray everyday that you will be given a break soon and you can get back on that golf course with me. Love you Dad '

Earlier this month, James also sought help from his Twitter followers over concerns about a rash on his five-month-old daughter's front and back.

Tough times: At the start of this month, James sought help from his Twitter followers over concerns about a rash on his five-month-old daughter Ella's front and back

The dancer and his wife Ola, 37, welcomed their first child, a daughter called Ella, in February after a painful three-year battle with infertility and have since been open about their parenting journey.

He reached out to his 269,900 followers on Thursday, as he voiced concerns over the rash which he insisted doctors had said was not a worry without a fever.

James wrote: 'Hi Guys. My baby has a rash on her front and back. Doctor says not to worry unless accompanied with a fever...

'Its been going on for at least 4 weeks and now spots appearing all over body. Any suggestions of who we can see as I AM worried. Thank you x.'

His love: The dancer and his wife Ola welcomed their first child in February after a painful three-year battle with infertility and have since been open about their parenting journey

Fellow Strictly star Shirley Ballas, who has a son Mark, 34, offered: 'It could be a number of things milk , detergent , food , @The_JamesJordan take her for a checkup ASAP. Take care x', while others urged him to take the tot to the doctor.

Ola recently revealed her heartache at the fact that her parents have yet to meet Ella, with COVID-19 keeping them apart.

The couple admitted in their Hello! magazine parenting column, that it was 'heartbreaking' that Ella hasn't met her grandparents, who live in Poland, with James even predicting the tot could be 'a year old' by the time they meet.

In the publication, the couple opened up on raising their child in the pandemic, with Ola admitting she's 'over' lockdown as is desperate to interact with other people.

Fighting through: Earlier this year, James and Ola admitted that parenting for the first time during the COVID-19 lockdown has been 'surreal' and that they 'panic' about everything

However, the Polish professional dancer revealed that things are more difficult in the fact that her mother and father, Janina and Dariusz Grabowska, have yet to meet their granddaughter due to being unable to fly in from Poland amid the pandemic.

His wife agreed, adding that even if everyone began flying again tomorrow, she still wouldn't want her folks to 'risk' things and insisted that she'd still 'want them to wait.'

With things still uncertain at the moment, the couple then went on to predict that it may be a while before Ola's parents and Ella will finally meet. James said: 'I reckon she's going to be a year old when they meet Ella'.

Ola added: 'I don't know, I would like to hope that they would come for Christmas but I don't know! No one knows. I don't know when I'm going to see them and it's really heartbreaking.'

Earlier this year, the pair admitted that parenting for the first time during the COVID-19 lockdown has been 'surreal' and that they 'panic' about everything.

James and Ola appeared Loose Women via video with little Ella, where they also discussed her recent hospital stint for silent reflux.

Ola said: 'It's quite surreal actually, surreal having a newborn and not knowing what you're doing right or doing wrong is really strange, you just want to ask questions to your friends or family or your sister.'
Huawei and other Chinese tech firms employees are now effectively subject to a new US travel ban. Thats following a newly-reported announcement from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Although technically visa restrictions, as opposed to a traditional travel ban, the move will make it more difficult for Huawei and others to work with US companies.

The ban will be imposed by the US State Department. And it will apply to any companies engaged in or abetting human rights violations and abuses globally.

This travel ban wont impact all Huawei employees the same

The new rules for entering the US wont necessarily affect all Huawei employees in an identical fashion though. US government officials will, presumably comprehensively, determine which individual employees can or cannot enter. As outlined during the announcement of the ban, only certain individuals will be kept from entering.

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The specifics of what will cause a visa to be revoked or entry denied have not been made public knowledge, however. Instead, Mr. Pompeo alluded only to employees engaged in or found to be propping up human rights violations. The associated violations and abuses have not been detailed either.

As noted by the source, that also leaves up to question exactly how many of Huaweis employees will potentially be stopped at the borders. Huaweis website boasts no fewer than 194,000 employees. And those are spread out across more than 170 countries and regions globally.

The language used in the announcement seems to suggest that any of those employees could face the restrictions.

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It also isnt immediately clear how the US government will keep track of so many workers. Or what criteria will need to be met to determine who is or isnt engaged in the violations. Its not immediately clear whether there will be any recourse available to employees who may end up mistakenly flagged.

No response from Huawei yet

Now, Huawei has not yet responded to the new restrictions placed against its company or its Chinese counterparts. It has repeatedly denied spying allegations leveled against it. But this latest restriction doesnt center around those same complaints. The focus here is human rights violations and abuses.

The restrictions likely couldnt come at a more inopportune time for the company either. Huawei was recently denied access to take part in the UKs 5G networking infrastructure build-out. Its also facing an uphill battle sourcing parts for its devices and 5G equipment.
ISTANBUL - A Turkish court convicted a correspondent for Germanys Die Welt newspaper Thursday of engaging in propaganda in favour of Kurdish rebels and sentenced him in absentia to more than two years and nine months in prison.

However, the court acquitted German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel of charges of sedition and propagandizing for the network of a Turkish cleric whom Ankara accuses of masterminding a failed military coup in Turkey four years ago.

The court also called for two new criminal investigations of Yucel for alleged insults to Turkey and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Yucel was arrested in Istanbul as part of a vast government clampdown in the wake of the July 2016 coup attempt and charged with propaganda on behalf terror groups, including the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK. He was held in pretrial detention for a year and has since returned to Germany.

His case led to a diplomatic crisis with Germany, which accused Turkey of conducting arbitrary arrests of German citizens suspected of links to the PKK or the network led by U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.

This is a political verdict, just as the whole story of my arrest was politically motivated, Yucel wrote in an article published on Die Welts website shortly after the ruling. He said the decision once again illustrated the miserable state of the rule of law in Turkey.

Yucel said I was arrested because I did my work as a journalist. I regret nothing about that. And sooner or later, a court will establish that.

Of course an acquittal would have been not just legally mandatory but also a relief, he wrote. But ultimately, I dont care about this verdict -- it also has no practical effects.

Yucels lawyer, Veysel Ok, told the Associated Press that he would appeal the verdict to a higher court. He also complained that the trial court had ignored a decision by the constitutional Court, Turkeys highest court, that said Yucels year-long detention violated his rights.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the verdict sends absolutely the wrong signal, and the announcement of further investigations is not at all comprehensible to me.

This shows that we still have significant differences on protecting the freedom of the press and opinion, Maas said in a statement. This development also doesnt contribute to building confidence in the application of the principles of the rule of law in Turkey.

Maas noted that other German nationals remain in Turkish custody and said that in several cases the accusations against them are not clearly understandable.

We want all of these cases to be resolved, he said. As long as that is not the case, this stands against a normalization of Turkeys relationship with us and the European Union as a whole.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has labeled Turkey one of the worlds top jailers of journalists. The Journalists Union of Turkey says at least 76 journalists and media sector workers remain behind bars.

The Turkish government says the detentions are not based on the journalists work and that most stand accused of terror-related offences.



Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed.
Wealthy Liberal electorates with water views have suffered the sharpest rise in unemployment with the number of recipients on the dole quadrupling in some areas in two just months.

The national jobless rate last month climbed to 7.4 per cent, the highest level since November 1998 with almost one million people now officially without work for the first time ever.

Wentworth, in Sydney's ritzy eastern suburbs, has taken a particularly big economic hit from the COVID-19 shutdowns, data from the Parliamentary Library showed.

The number of people receiving the JobSeeker unemployment benefit surged fourfold from 1,354 on March 20 - days before the coronavirus closures - to 5,688 on May 20, even after lockdowns had eased.

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Wentworth, in Sydney's ritzy eastern suburbs, has taken a particularly big economic hit from the COVID-19 shutdowns. The number of people receiving JobSeeker quadrupled from 1,354 on March 20 - days before the coronavirus closures - to 5,688 on May 20, even after lockdowns had eased

Across Sydney Harbour, former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott's old Warringah electorate saw the number of JobSeeker recipients almost quadruple, from 1,234 to 4,814. Winter Olympian Zali Steggall, an independent MP, holds the seat which takes in Manly beach (pictured) and the millionaire mansions suburb of Mosman

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull's old electorate, now held by Australia's former ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma, takes in Bondi beach and the exclusive, harbour-side millionaires' enclaves of Vaucluse and Point Piper.

Where JobSeeker numbers have surged New South Wales Wentworth, Sydney's east (Liberal): 1,354 on March 20 to 5,688 on May 20 Warringah, Sydney's Northern Beaches and lower north shore (Independent): 1,234 to 4,814 North Sydney, Sydney's lower north shore (Liberal): 1,214 to 4,785 Bradfield, Sydney's upper north shore (Liberal): 1,143 to 4,331 Cook, Sydney's Sutherland Shire (Liberal): 1,871 to 5,568 Victoria Higgins, Melbourne's south-east (Liberal): 2,040 to 6,360 Kooyong, Melbourne's south-east (Liberal): 1,370 to 4,842 Goldstein, Melbourne's south-east (Liberal): 1,747 to 5,108 Queensland Moncrieff, Gold Coast (Liberal): 6,484 to 15,037 McPherson, Gold Coast (Liberal): 4,487 to 11,598 Source: Parliamentary Library on JobSeeker numbers on March 20, 2020 and May 20, 2020 Advertisement

Across Sydney Harbour, former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott's old Warringah electorate saw the number of JobSeeker recipients almost quadruple, from 1,234 to 4,814.

Winter Olympian Zali Steggall, an independent MP, holds the seat which takes in Manly beach and the millionaire mansions suburb of Mosman.

Neighbouring North Sydney, on the northern side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, saw the number of JobSeeker recipients surge from 1,214 to 4,785 in an area that covers the Middle Harbour suburbs of Northbridge and Cremorne.

In the neighbouring Sydney north shore electorate of Bradfield, held by Communications Minister Paul Fletcher, JobSeeker numbers more than tripled from 1,143 to 4,331.

Mr Fletcher's seat covers parts of Chatswood and includes upmarket suburbs from Killara and Lindfield to Turramurra and Wahroonga.

The neighbouring Sydney Northern Beaches electorate of Mackellar, which takes in exclusive Palm Beach, saw its JobSeeker tally also almost triple from 1,352 to 5,093.

On the other side of Sydney in the Sutherland Shire, Prime Minister Scott Morrison's Cook electorate covering Cronulla saw the number of JobSeeker recipients almost triple from 1,871 to 5,568.

Melbourne wasn't immune either with the number unemployed in Treasurer Josh Frydenberg's electorate of Kooyong, covering the upmarket suburbs of Kew and Hawthorn in the city's south-east, more than tripling from 1,370 to 4,842.

In neighbouring Higgins, taking in the millionaire mansion suburb of Toorak, the number on JobSeeker also more than tripled from 2,040 to 6,360 in just two months.

Unemployment almost tripled too in the nearby Port Phillip Bay electorate of Goldstein, covering Brighton, with JobSeeker numbers surging from 1,747 to 5,108.

The Gold Coast saw a big increase in unemployment recipients with the Liberal-held Moncrieff electorate, taking in Surfers Paradise (pictured on July 15, 2020), seeing JobSeeker numbers more than double from 6,484 to 15,037

The tourism-dependent Gold Coast suffered a big increase in unemployment recipients with the Liberal-held Moncrieff electorate, taking in Surfers Paradise, seeing JobSeeker numbers more than double from 6,484 to 15,037.

Unemployment during June amid COVID-19 Australia's unemployment rate climbed from a 19-year high of 7.1 per cent in May to 7.4 per cent in June - the highest since November 1998 Number without work climbed from 923,000 to a record-high 992,300 Close to a million people unemployed for the first time ever - surpassing 960,200 record set in December 1992 Unemployment increased even though 210,800 more people were employed as COVID-19 shutdowns eased That was because the participation rate increased from 62.7 per cent to 64 per cent as more people looked for work Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics labour force data for June Advertisement

In the neighbouring seat of McPherson, covering Coolangatta, the tally of JobSeeker recipients also more than doubled from 4,487 to 11,598.

On April 24, 1.346million Australians were on either JobSeeker or the Youth Allowance but by May 22, that had climbed to 1.641million, Department of Social Services data showed.

Shane Bennett, the acting deputy secretary of the Department of Social Services, last month confirmed another 300,000 people went on welfare in just four weeks.

The numbers included those on the old Newstart allowance for the unemployed, which since March has been known as JobSeeker, along with sickness and bereavement benefit recipients.

Mr Bennett confirmed the number of Australians on benefits was growing at a faster pace than anticipated, with the department not anticipating 1.7million JobSeeker recipients until September.

Australia's national jobless rate climbed from 7.1 per cent in May to 7.4 per cent in June, the highest level since November 1998, as the number of people without a job rose from 923,000 to 992,300, the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed on Thursday.

Australia now has close to one million people without work for the first time ever.

The number unemployed is now higher than in December 1992 when the jobless rate peaked at 11.2 per cent - the highest since the 1930s Great Depression - during the long aftermath of the 1991 recession.
Pakistan: Govt urged to take up new national marine policy

July 16,2020 | Source: The International News

Experts and civil society representatives have shown their grave concerns over least prioritising the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14  Life Below Water that deals with the maritime affairs. They urged the government to take immediate steps to tackle marine pollution, streamline its management in a more sustainable manner by amicably resolving the overlapping mandate of the federal and provincial authorities.



The participants also showed their trepidations and apprehensions for the extremely overlooked revised draft of the National Maritime Policy (NMP) that is lost in the government shelves for over three years. They also suggested establishing a joint policy advocacy, awareness-raising and outreach platform for the maritime stakeholders especially on the SDG14 targets. They were speaking at a multi-stakeholder consultative webinar organised by the Development Communications Network (Devcom-Pakistan) and DTNTV on Tuesday. Well-known environmentalist and Devcom-Pakistan and DTNTV Director Munir Ahmed hosted and conducted the webinar.



Speaking on the occasion, Admiral (r) Asaf Humayun said that Pakistan was signatory to many international treaties and conventions on maritime affairs but we hardly had any significant implementation. Maritime affairs have also divided mandates between the federal and the provinces after the 18th amendment in the constitution. On many occasions, he said, it turned to be quite confusing what role is of the federal and what role should be picked up by the provinces. Being far away from the Centre despite having the federal ministry, often the maritime affairs have no fanfare and sometimes we see duplication of work. The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has all types of globally accepted regulatory frameworks, Pakistan simply adopts it for the sake of marine resource conservation.



Rear Admiral (r) Saleem Akhtar said we have three ports and a very long coastal belt to benefit from the blessings of the ocean but have no adequate policy and action plan to harness the benefits. More than 3000 million gallons of untreated wastewater is drained to the ocean. It has caused severe sea pollution damaging the fisheries. European Union has banned import of fish from Pakistan resulting one-sixth of the catch goes to the poultry feed and part of it consumed locally. He said we need to take immediate steps to stop plastic pollution and flow of untreated liquid waste to the sea. We have defined parameters to check the oil pollution from the visiting ships and those we break in the shipyard. But SOP are hardly implemented in letter and spirit.



Mirza Zeeshan Baig, director general Maritime Affairs, Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, said the Federal SDG Unit in the Planning Commission is effectively coordinating progress with the partners and stakeholders. All tiers of government need to establish horizontal and vertical partnerships for coordinated efforts to achieve meaningful progress on SDGs. To achieve success on SDGs agenda a strong partnership between public and private sector and civil society is needed. He also urged the partners and stakeholders to develop a platform for the SDG 14 to develop an integrated approach to combat the maritime challenges.



Talking about the best practices to tackle marine pollution, the UK-based Pakistani research scholar and Senior Research Fellow Central and South Asia at the East-West Institute Dr Najam Abbas said: Different countries and international forums have devised mechanisms to control marine pollution. SOP defined are religiously followed by the watchdogs. Many countries have taken strict steps to stop untreated water and they have found ways to stop the plastics flowing to the sea.



Highlighting the policy gaps, Karachi-based Staff Officer Research with the National Centre for Maritime Policy Research (NCMPR), Naghmana Zafar said: Maritime affairs are the least priority for the government from policy to action. After 18th amendment, most part of maritime was handed over to provinces without building up their capacity to handle it. Some functions were kept with the Centre. Lack of efficient policies and action agenda, the deep waters are left to the mercy of neglect. The new National Maritime Policy is long awaited but the government is busy elsewhere that shows lack of political commitment.



Khalid Taimur Akram, executive director of the Centre for Global and Strategic Studies (CGSS), said the adverse impacts of Climate Change has been witnessed over the worlds Oceans. They are heating up and causing the worst impact on aquatic life as many species have vanished, fishes are dying while the oceanic system is getting bleak that would not only result in wiping off more species but causing disasters too. Kanwar Javed Iqbal, Sr Research Fellow with Islamabad-based National Institute of Maritime Affairs (NIMA), said: Pakistans maritime agenda, federal government along with provincial governments of Balochistan and Sindh should take necessary steps for the promotion of applied research and its uptake in policies and processes.
ABS-CBN network employees, journalists and other supporters protest a decision by a Philippine congressional committee to not renew the license of the nations largest broadcaster, July 10, 2020.

Days after Congress voted to keep the Philippines largest broadcaster off the air, in a move seen as a major blow to press freedom here, the government said it may take over the networks radio frequency for distance-learning programing.

ABS-CBN Corp., whose radio and television channels reached millions of Filipinos and provided them with critical news coverage, including reporting that had angered President Rodrigo Duterte, on July 10 lost a bid to have its broadcasting license renewed. A committee of the House of Representatives, which is controlled by allies of the president, voted overwhelmingly then to reject a new 25-year franchise for the network.

Taking over ABS-CBNs radio frequency as a distance-learning platform would be subject to approval by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), presidential spokesman Harry Roque said Thursday, shortly after ABS-CBN announced that it would let go of many of its 11,000 employees by the end of August.

Well of course, any frequency can be used for distance learning. So, its up to the NTC. If the NTC says so, we will respect that because it is a quasi-judicial body, Roque said.

The commission was the same telecoms regulatory body that ordered ABS-CBN to go off the air a day after its license expired on May 4.

Earlier this week, House Deputy Speaker Luis Raymund Villafuerte filed a resolution recommending the temporary use of by the government of ABS-CBNs former television and radio frequencies for distance learning, instruction, training and other useful purposes to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on education in the Philippines.

He said information dissemination could help control the spread of coronavirus, which, as of Thursday, had killed 1,643 Filipinos, 29 more than the previous day. The government also confirmed 2,498 new confirmed cases, bringing the total to 61,626.

Villafuerte, an ally of President Rodrigo Duterte, was among the 70 lawmakers who voted to not grant ABS-CBN a new franchise license for its free television and radio network. Only 11 voted to approve the license.

The network continues to operate its cable channel and air on the Internet.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP said the move likely was meant to legitimize the governments takeover of ABS-CBN.

They may use the frequency, but without ABS-CBNs equipment and network of regional stations, which could reach areas others cannot, they have nothing, NUJP said.

Duterte: ABS-CBN besmirched me

On Wednesday night, ABS-CBN said the House decision would force it to cut back on operations involving its 11,000 employees.

The network said it was helping sidelined employees find new jobs, noting that the loss of license compounded the uncertain and perilous impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As much as it hurts us to implement this retrenchment program, this is the only way to ensure the continued employment of the rest of our Kapamilya, ABS-CBN said in a statement, referring to the term it uses for its employees, which means relatives.

For those who are affected, we pray for you and your families, that you may have the strength and guidance to deal with the challenges ahead, it said. For all that you have done for ABS-CBN, thank you.

The broadcaster is the second media entity widely viewed as being targeted by the Duterte administration because of the presidents disdain for their critical coverage.

Maria Ressa, head of the Filipino online news site Rappler which has been critical of Dutertes drug war that has killed thousands, and a former employee, Reynaldo Santos Jr., were convicted of cyber libel last month. Both are appealing but could face lengthy sentences if their appeals fail.

They were convicted following a complaint by a businessman over a 2012 Rappler report, which alleged that he had lent a vehicle to the countrys Supreme Court chief justice.

Duterte, while visiting the southern island of Jolo on Monday, complained about his media critics and boasted that he was on the warpath against the oligarchy  a reference he uses to describe big families who control the wealth in the country.

Edited transcripts of his speech were released to the media, but Rappler has subsequently obtained an audio recording where Duterte could be heard commenting on ABS-CBN.

That ABS-CBN besmirched me. But I had said that if I won, I would destroy the oligarchy in the Philippines. I did it, he said in Filipino, according on the audio recording posted by Rappler.

Asked Thursday about the speech, Roque said he could not comment because he was not there.

Richel V. Umel and Froilan Gallardo in Cagayan de Oro, Philippines, contributed to this report.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 23:45:49|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday called for the setting up of a joint European Union-Africa COVID-19 response strategy.

Kenyatta who spoke in Nairobi during a virtual conference of European and African leaders on the proposed establishment of the Africa-Mediterranean-Europe (AME) Foundation said the EU-Africa COVID-19 strategy should among other interventions pursue the cancelation of debts owed by African countries.

"I, therefore, welcome with enthusiasm the proposal to establish the Africa-Med-Europe (AME) Foundation," said Kenyatta in a statement issued after the meeting.

He said the AME Foundation will complement the existing Africa-European continental cooperation in addressing the emerging global challenges.

Former President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker is championing the setting up of AME Foundation as a platform to enhance development discourse and interactions between Africa, the Mediterranean and Europe.

Kenyatta supported the proposal to establish the Foundation, saying the initiative will help inject new ideas needed to scale up collaboration between the three regions.

He said the foundation should be structured to be a robust platform for the promotion of multilateralism and inclusivity.

"In this context of inclusivity, the Foundation should also recognize the critical role of the private sector, academia and civil society," said Kenyatta.

He said it will also be imperative for the Africa-Med-Europe Foundation to be a voice against unilateralism and be a champion in the promotion of inclusive and consultative decision-making by our continents.

Kenyatta endorsed the proposal to include the setting up of the EMA Foundation as an agenda during the next AU-EU summit scheduled for October this year.

The virtual meeting was also addressed by leaders of Senegal, Niger, Mauritania and Burkina Faso. Enditem
* Cambodia received 1.17 million foreign visitors during the first five months of 2020, down 59 percent from 2.88 million over the same period last year, said a report released by the Ministry of Tourism on Wednesday. China, Vietnam, Thailand, the United States and Republic of Korea were the biggest sources of foreign tourists to the Southeast Asian country during the January-May period this year, the report said.

* A Thai army officer was on Tuesday killed in a bomb blast in Thailand's restive southern province of Pattani, said Maj-General Piyapong Wongchan, Commander of Pattani Special Task Force. Piyapong also ordered road blocks and passages sealed to prevent another incident.

* The Security Council held an in-person meeting on Tuesday (July 14) at UN Headquarters in New York, the first of its kind since mid-March when COVID-19 forced the council to convene virtually. Tuesday's meeting agenda was a heavy one. The council first adopted its annual report to the UN General Assembly before the adoption of two resolutions: one on the UN Mission to Support the Hodeidah Agreement, the other on youth and peace and security. The council then heard a briefing on the peace process in Colombia.

* Chinese health authority said Wednesday that it received reports of six new confirmed COVID-19 cases on the Chinese mainland Tuesday, and all of them were imported. As of Tuesday, the overall confirmed cases on the mainland had reached 83,611, including 284 patients who were still being treated, with three in severe condition. Altogether 78,693 people had been discharged after recovery, and 4,634 had died of the disease, the commission said.

* The total number of COVID-19 cases in India surpassed the 900,000-mark on Tuesday, reaching 906,752, with the total deaths standing at 23,727, said the latest data issued by the federal health ministry. The ministry said 553 new deaths due to COVID-19, besides fresh 28,498 positive cases, were reported during the past 24 hours across the country, taking the number of deaths to 23,727 and total cases to 906,752.

* US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday urged all Americans to wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19. CDC's appeal came days after US President Donald Trump wore a mask publicly for the first time when visiting a hospital in Maryland.

* Brazil on Tuesday reported 1,300 deaths from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in a single day, taking its death toll to 74,133. In the past 24 hours, tests detected 41,857 new cases of infection, taking the total to 1,926,824, the Health Ministry said. Brazil has the world's second-largest outbreak after the United States, in both numbers of deaths and infections.

* Russia on Wednesday reported 6,422 new coronavirus cases, pushing its confirmed national tally to 746,369, the fourth highest in the world. Officials said 156 people had died of the virus in the last 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 11,770.

* The Mexican Health Ministry on Tuesday reported 7,051 new coronavirus infections and 836 more fatalities, with both being among the highest figures the country has registered. The recent increasing trend following gradual and partial resumptions have halted the government's plan to announce weekly updates of reopening in economy and social life. The country so far has accumulated a total of 311,486 confirmed cases and 36,327 deaths. It sought to extend restrictions on non-essential border travel with the United States for an additional 30 days.

* Health experts put Tokyo on the highest alert for coronavirus infections on Wednesday, alarmed by a recent spike in cases to record levels, while the governor of the Japanese capital said the situation was "rather severe". The resurgence of the virus in Tokyo could add to the growing pressure on policymakers to shore up the world's No.3 economy, which analysts say is set to shrink at its fastest pace in decades this fiscal year due to the pandemic.

* Republic of Korea reported 39 more cases of COVID-19 as of 0:00 a.m. Wednesday local time compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 13,551. The daily caseload stayed below 40 for two straight days due to the continued small cluster infections and imported cases. No more death was confirmed, leaving the death toll at 289. The total fatality rate stood at 2.13 percent.

* The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 351 to 199,726, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Wednesday. The reported death toll rose by three to 9,071, the tally showed.

* Venezuela's government on Tuesday decided to reimpose strict lockdown measures in the capital Caracas and the central state of Miranda, after a recent spike in the number of COVID-19 cases. Venezuela has so far reported 9,707 people have contracted the disease, with 2,671 recoveries.

* Chinese State Councilor Wang Yong on Tuesday called for all-out efforts in flood prevention, relief, and rescue work to ensure the safety of people's lives and property. At a video conference on Tuesday, Wang, also head of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, called on relevant authorities to enhance coordination and strengthen monitoring and early-warning systems for heavy rainfall, typhoons, and other severe weather events.

* An Indonesian naval ship named KRI Teluk Jakarta-541 carrying out logistical duties sank to a depth of about 90 meters in East Java province's Masalembo waters on Tuesday at about 8:30 a.m. The Indonesian Navy said that the ship sank due to several leaks at thru-hulls of the vessel in a statement on Wednesday. No casualties were reported in the accident. All the 55 crewmen have been rescued by two civilian ships nearby.

* German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that Germany is willing to compromise on the European recovery fund at the upcoming summit of the European Union (EU) leaders. Back in May, the European Commission proposed a EUR750-billion (US$852 billion) recovery fund to help the bloc emerge from the pandemic-triggered economic crisis. This fund will be the focus of the special EU summit on July 17 and 18 in Brussels.

* In his first Bastille Day interview, President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday promised that France is ready for a second epidemic wave and his team will follow a "new path" based on social dialogue to address the challenges triggered by the coronavirus crisis that has claimed over 30,000 lives and plunged the growth of the euro zone's second largest economy. Macron also confirmed that France would be among the first countries to get access to a potential vaccine being developed by French drugmaker Sanofi.

* The United States has withdrawn its troops from five bases in Afghanistan and maintains its force level in the country at mid-8,000s, fulfilling its obligation under the US-Taliban deal signed in late February, the US Department of Defense said Tuesday. According to the agreement signed on Feb. 29 between the United States and the Afghan Taliban, the United States would reduce its forces in Afghanistan to 8,600 within 135 days till July 13.

* Record month-on-month increases in total industrial production in both the European Union (EU) and the eurozone have been attributed by the EU's statistics office Eurostat to "member states easing COVID-19 containment measures."

* Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced on Tuesday that the Palestinians are ready to resume the stalled peace talks if Israel stops its plan to annex parts of the West Bank. Abbas made his remarks in a telephone conversation with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday night, reported the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

* Turkish and US presidents on Tuesday held talks over the phone about the developments in Libya and bilateral economic ties, Turkey's Communications Directorate said. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his US counterpart Donald Trump agreed to keep coordination for reaching a lasting peace and stability in war-torn Libya, as well as achieving the trade target, it said.

* Tunisia said on Tuesday that 1,200 passengers arriving by a French ship from the port of Marseille will be placed in quarantine after eight cases of COVID-19 infection were found among its crew. As of Tuesday, Tunisia reported four new COVID-19 cases, including one local case, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 1,306.
ANNAPOLIS, MD / ACCESSWIRE / July 16, 2020 / RealTerm Energy, a North American leader in LED & Smart Exterior Lighting conversions since 2013, is expanding into the Smart City and Smart Building space for municipalities, utilities, universities, schools and hospitals. The company's entire service portfolio can now be found on its new website: www.realtermenergy.com.

"We began with LED lighting because we believe it solves many of our clients' challenges from high energy costs to expensive maintenance needs, while promoting ecological protection and improving public safety," states RealTerm Energy CEO Angelos Vlasopoulos. "As we learned more about small to mid-size municipalities and their needs, we developed additional solutions with an aim to save our clients' money while helping them become more efficient, reduce their environmental footprint, make their communities safer, and help city leaders better engage and inform their citizens." The Montreal-based company with its US head office in Annapolis, Maryland, has also extended its offering to utilities, hospitals, universities and schools.

As the COVID pandemic pushes governmental and non-governmental institutions to seek more cost savings, RealTerm Energy's triad of services offers answers. "All of our solutions will help our customers become more efficient and will allow them to save on operating and maintenance costs," explains Vlasopoulos. "With our very attractive financing options, cities can immediately reap the benefits of our solutions and see significant savings in their OPEX budget from year one with little or no capex required."

LED & Smart Exterior Lighting Conversions

RealTerm Energy has been trusted by over 350 communities for LED & Smart Lighting Control projects in the U.S. and Canada since its inception in 2013 and has received recognition from the World Bank for an LED exterior lighting joint-procurement model developed in Ontario.

Converting exterior lights (streetlights, parking lots, parks, etc.) to LED can save 70% in energy costs (up to 90% with Smart Lighting Controls) and up to 80% in maintenance costs.

Smart Cities

RealTerm Energy now offers the only unified Smart City solution for small to medium-sized municipalities, making it easy and affordable for smaller municipalities to become Smart. The solution is comprised of three key components:

The Smart City MyTown App, which facilitates two-way communication between the municipality and its residents/tourists and offers the opportunity to render a plethora of information available to citizens.

The Smart Maps Asset Management Platform, which allows municipalities to revolutionize their asset management and save on operating and maintenance costs, while delivering better services.

The Smart City Knowledge Network, which will allow Smart Cities to share information about the Smart space and add Smart services over time.

Smart Buildings

Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems account for an average of 45% of a building's energy consumption, whereas interior lighting accounts for over 15%. Municipalities, utilities, universities, schools and hospitals can therefore drastically reduce their energy bills, cut maintenance costs, increase occupant comfort and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by increasing the efficiency of their HVAC systems and interior lighting. RealTerm Energy is now offering solutions for both.

RealTerm Energy has partnered with BrainBox AI, a company it incubated, and distributes their HVAC artificial intelligence (AI) technology to the municipal, utility, university, school & hospital markets. BrainBox AI's technology converts existing HVAC equipment into an autonomous system using artificial intelligence and cloud computing. The result? Up to a 25% reduction in total energy costs, a 20-40% decrease in carbon footprint, and a 50% improvement in occupant comfort. All this with quick installation, a 3-month payback and low to no CAPEX.

After years in the exterior LED conversion market, RealTerm Energy is also offering its expert lighting services for building interiors. Interior lighting accounts for 17% of all electricity consumed in U.S. commercial buildings, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration's 2012 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS). That means an upgrade to LED lighting leads to significant energy savings, decreased labor, maintenance and disposal cost, a reduced environmental impact and better lighting quality.

RealTerm Energy's entire portfolio of solutions is now detailed on its new website, www.realtermenergy.com

About RealTerm Energy

Founded in 2013, RealTerm Energy is a North American leader in LED & Smart Lighting with over 300 successful projects across the U.S. and Canada. They are also the only company offering a full-service and affordable Smart City solution to small and medium-sized municipalities. The Smart Building solution they offer is the only one of its kind in the world. The company's success is built on a stellar reputation for smooth and timely delivery, a price for performance beyond compare, and a customer-focused mentality offering quality, efficiency and professionalism every time.

The future is Smart. We can help you get there.

Contacts:

Media interviews:

Caroline Phaneuf

caroline@carolinephaneuf.com

+1.514.778.5092

Sales inquiries:

Militsa Paunova

Sales Operations Director, RealTerm Energy

mpaunova@realtermenergy.com

+1.438.869.1113

+1.410.934.1740 x. 302 (US)

SOURCE: RealTerm Energy

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/597648/RealTerm-Energy-Expands-to-Offer-Smart-City-and-Smart-Building-Solutions
These are certainly trying times! While I hope that everyone is safe and healthy, I understand how sequestering can be highly frustrating. There are some solutions that I can provide!

For those of us who have spent any time at all researching their long-lost relatives, you already know that it can be a time consuming and sometimes difficult task. Maybe sometimes is not the correct word, but I already know that someone somewhere can always use a hint or two!

This month, I decided to list a few very helpful genealogy websites other than Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org. They are both leading-edge websites with phenomenal collections, but we all fall into ruts and forget to think of some of the alternatives.

In the interest of full disclosure, the web addresses I reference here were active on the day this article was written. That is not to say that they wont change at any given time.

This first site is specific to Massachusetts. Digitalcommonwealth.org is a site where you can explore historical collections from libraries, museums, and archives across Massachusetts.

Two sites for Connecticut research include Connecticut Digital Archive and the Connecticut State Library. Connecticut Digital can be found at collections.ctdigitalarchives.org. The description of its purpose is rather long, so for our purposes here, just know that it is a collaboration between the University of Connecticut and the Connecticut State Library, where there goal is preservation of many types of digital resources.

The Connecticut State Librarys website is cslib.cdmhost.com/digital. There are 27 broad collections of digitized books, diaries, photographs, court records, witchcraft trials, newspapers, vital records and more. Some of the collections are limited to Connecticut residents with a Connecticut State Library card.

Aside from the popular site FindAGrave.com, there is a Rhode Island website has a great deal of additional information that you may not find elsewhere. Navigate to rihistoriccemeteries.org, which, in addition to the data, has Helpful Hints of the Day on its home page. There are nine links across the top the page for various categories.

The Vermont History website, vermonthistory.org, is not specifically a genealogy website but is chock full of other information that could prove helpful in your research.

New Hampshires entry here is the New Hampshire Genealogy website. See newhampshiregenealogy.com for links that can direct you back to all the other New England states. In addition, there are links to archives and libraries, cemeteries, directories, New Hampshire genealogy societies, land and maps, military records and other topics.

Last but not least is the site for Maine research. Navigate to digitalmaine.com, which provides helpful links to assist you with your Maine-related research.

Beyond New England, there are useful collections at a wide variety of sites. Archives.gov is a good example. I want to point out that I am not talking about Archives.com, which is a great site, but it is also a paid site.

Archives.gov is the free website of the National Archives and Records Administration. It is a very comprehensive collection of data bases. I recommend that you look at it with the understanding that it can be, at times, overwhelming with its depth and breadth. But dont be shy! Give it a try!

You may very well find links that will take you to paid sites, just be aware. Scroll to the bottom of the home page to see all the categories that you can follow by way of the links provided.

The free cemetery website that Ive used for over 20 years is Findagrave.com. Its relatively simple but comes with the warning that all the data there is uploaded by volunteers. That alone should make you aware that anybody can upload anything. There are safeguards in place for absurd entries, but names, dates, biographies, links to other family members for example might be inaccurate. Many of the entries have photos of the grave marker and sometimes the person buried there. Making corrections or edits is easy if you have better information. The memorial manager is responsible to take your suggestion and edit the page.

The last site Ill mention this month is the Library of Congress which you can access at Loc.gov, another deep well of data thats free for you to browse. Log in, search around, you might be amazed at what you can find there!

Finally, there are several paid sites that have offered free access for a limited time such as MyHeritage.com, FindMyPast.com, and others. I would suggest that you organize exactly what you need to research, sign up for the free week or 10 days thats offered and dig in! Try to get as much research as you can while the site is yours free of charge.

And now, I am sure you will not be bored! Good luck!!

Next month, we dive into the mysterious world of DNA. Stay tuned.

Dave Robison, of Springfield, is an avid genealogist and history docent at the Lyman & Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History. He is the president of the New England Regional Genealogical Consortium which will be holding a conference in Springfield in 2021. An affiliate of the Western Massachusetts Genealogical Society and the New England chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists, he teaches workshops in family history. He may be reached via his website, oldbones.info or email to dave@oldbones.info. His column appears monthly.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Gov. Mike DeWine is expected to release Thursday afternoon the county-by-county color-coded coronavirus maps that describe the outbreaks severity and whether mask-wearing is required.

Currently, 12 counties are red, the second highest level, where masks are required, spread is high and people are encouraged to limit travel. No counties have achieved purple, or the highest level yet.

Thursdays address will be broadcast live on the Ohio Channel at 2 p.m. Watch below.

The address comes after a Wednesday evening speech in which DeWine described Ohio being at a critical juncture in the pandemic in which infections are rising. However, during that speech, he mandated no actions.

As of Thursday, the Ohio Department of Health reported there have been 69,311 cases, an of 1,316 since the previous day.

Other coverage:

Gov. Mike DeWine implores Ohioans to take immediate action to slow coronavirus, but gives no mandates

Ohio coronavirus cases up 1,316 -- approaching 70,000: Wednesday update

New Ohio House bill would make Feb. 26 Dr. Amy Acton Day
Amidst criticisms by many Nigerians and an opposition leader, the Nigerian government has defended its decision not to allow students in the country take part in this year's West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

PREMIUM TIMES reported the government's decision last week amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

The education minister, Adamu Adamu, explained the government's decision last week. He said the government was concerned about the spread of COVID-19 should it allow the students congregate for the examinations, organised by the West African Examination Council (WAEC).

The stance was criticised by opposition leader Atiku Abubakar and the House of Representatives with the lawmakers urging the government to rescind the decision.

However, the federal government reiterated its stance on Wednesday but said it was meeting stakeholders on the matter.

"We are still meeting with parents over the decision of the ministry," the minister of state for education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, told journalists after Wednesday's Federal Executive Council meeting.

"What the minister (Mr Adamu) said reflects the true position of the ministry; we are not confident yet that everywhere is safe. The numbers from the NCDC are still alarming and we have put this before parents and all the stakeholders in the education ecosystem, we are still meeting with them. In fact, there's a stakeholders' meeting convened for Monday.

"WAEC on its own part is also negotiating with other West African countries to look at possible shift in date. Once they are through with that meeting and hopefully when we are through with the consultation with stakeholders, if there's any change in the ministry's position, we will communicate.

"But as it stands, the position of the Honourable Minister, as communicated to you last week, remains the position of the ministry until further evidence to the contrary or further agreements that may alter those arise," Mr Nwajiuba said.
TORONTO - Barrick Gold Corp. is reporting lower production of gold and higher costs at its mines in preliminary second quarter results.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 16/7/2020 (551 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Barrick Gold logo is seen during the company's annual general meeting in Toronto on Tuesday, April 28, 2015. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

TORONTO - Barrick Gold Corp. is reporting lower production of gold and higher costs at its mines in preliminary second quarter results.

The Toronto-based miner says gold production in the three months ended June 30 fell by about eight per cent to 1.149 million ounces from 1.25 million in the previous quarter, mainly due to COVID-19 related disruptions at its Veladero mine in Argentina.

It warns that second quarter gold all-in sustaining costs per ounce are expected to be seven to nine per cent higher than in the first quarter, while copper costs are to rise by four to six per cent.

Barrick says the average market price for gold in the second quarter was US$1,711 per ounce, up from its realized price of US$1,589 per ounce in the first quarter.

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Copper production, meanwhile, rose to 120 million pounds from 115 million in the first quarter, and the average market price was US$2.43 per pound, up from a realized price of US$2.23 in the first quarter.

CEO Mark Bristow says Barrick is positioned well to achieve its guidance for the year.

In May, 2020 gold guidance was adjusted lower by about 200,000 ounces to between 4.6 and five million ounces to account for the suspension of its Porgera gold mine amid a dispute with the federal government in Papua New Guinea.

Barrick is to report its second quarter financial results on Aug. 10.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 16, 2020.

Companies in this story: (TSX:ABX)
HKPF's current riot control uniforms, also known as "Korean boy" is in green color and it was used for more than 10 years. It provides basic flame-resistant protection. However, its thick and loosely fit design has long been complained internally as it doesn't match the current hot weather and threats.

Ricky Cheung, Founder and CEO of XiaoCheung, stated: "I am incredibly grateful for the new technology being deployed. It is an important milestone for the company. Our objective setting up the company is clearly reflected in our slogan - life protection for future. Our product is carefully designed to mitigate the risk of law enforcement officers worldwide. Later this year, FrogSkin will gradually be deployed to most of the law enforcement department in Hong Kong and some of the Latin America, Europe and Asian countries or regions."

SOURCE XiaoCheung
As of 12 p.m. July 16, 2020, the Pa. Department of Health reports that there are 98,446 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in Pennsylvania. There are at least 6,973 reported deaths from the virus.

According to Johns Hopkins University, 74,436 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.

The state is also providing detailed hospital and respirator data here for desktop users and here for mobile users.

The state reported 781 new cases of the coronavirus. Below is a county-by-county breakdown of the additional positives reported.

Adams

There are 409 total cases with 10 new cases reported. 14 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Allegheny

There are 5750 total cases with 140 new cases reported. 201 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Armstrong

There are 96 total cases with 2 new cases reported. 6 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Beaver

There are 893 total cases with 9 new cases reported. 80 total deaths have been reported in the county with 1 new deaths announced.

Bedford

There are 95 total cases with 1 new cases reported. 4 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Berks

There are 4763 total cases with 19 new cases reported. 360 total deaths have been reported in the county with 1 new deaths announced.

Blair

There are 118 total cases with 5 new cases reported. 1 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Bradford

There are 61 total cases with 0 new cases reported. 3 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Bucks

There are 6228 total cases with 39 new cases reported. 572 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Butler

There are 456 total cases with 12 new cases reported. 13 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Cambria

There are 153 total cases with 10 new cases reported. 3 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Cameron

There are 5 total cases with 0 new cases reported. 0 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Carbon

There are 309 total cases with 3 new cases reported. 28 total deaths have been reported in the county with 1 new deaths announced.

Centre

There are 262 total cases with 0 new cases reported. 9 total deaths have been reported in the county with 1 new deaths announced.

Chester

There are 4129 total cases with 21 new cases reported. 335 total deaths have been reported in the county with 1 new deaths announced.

Clarion

There are 67 total cases with 1 new cases reported. 2 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Clearfield

There are 96 total cases with 0 new cases reported. 0 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Clinton

There are 100 total cases with 0 new cases reported. 5 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Columbia

There are 427 total cases with 3 new cases reported. 35 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Crawford

There are 104 total cases with 3 new cases reported. 1 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Cumberland

There are 985 total cases with 3 new cases reported. 68 total deaths have been reported in the county with 2 new deaths announced.

Dauphin

There are 2342 total cases with 17 new cases reported. 150 total deaths have been reported in the county with 1 new deaths announced.

Delaware

There are 7696 total cases with 45 new cases reported. 669 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Elk

There are 32 total cases with 1 new cases reported. 0 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Erie

There are 756 total cases with 9 new cases reported. 13 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Fayette

There are 223 total cases with 3 new cases reported. 4 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Forest

There are 7 total cases with 0 new cases reported. 0 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Franklin

There are 1033 total cases with 14 new cases reported. 46 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Fulton

There are 19 total cases with 0 new cases reported. 1 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Greene

There are 77 total cases with 2 new cases reported. 0 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Huntingdon

There are 263 total cases with 0 new cases reported. 4 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Indiana

There are 174 total cases with 6 new cases reported. 6 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Jefferson

There are 41 total cases with 0 new cases reported. 1 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Juniata

There are 116 total cases with 0 new cases reported. 6 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Lackawanna

There are 1777 total cases with 6 new cases reported. 212 total deaths have been reported in the county with 1 new deaths announced.

Lancaster

There are 4951 total cases with 45 new cases reported. 388 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Lawrence

There are 209 total cases with 2 new cases reported. 9 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Lebanon

There are 1481 total cases with 5 new cases reported. 51 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Lehigh

There are 4495 total cases with 30 new cases reported. 330 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Luzerne

There are 3042 total cases with 6 new cases reported. 181 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Lycoming

There are 259 total cases with 7 new cases reported. 20 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

McKean

There are 20 total cases with 0 new cases reported. 1 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Mercer

There are 208 total cases with 5 new cases reported. 6 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Mifflin

There are 76 total cases with 2 new cases reported. 1 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Monroe

There are 1487 total cases with 5 new cases reported. 114 total deaths have been reported in the county with 1 new deaths announced.

Montgomery

There are 8999 total cases with 27 new cases reported. 835 total deaths have been reported in the county with 3 new deaths announced.

Montour

There are 82 total cases with 1 new cases reported. 2 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Northampton

There are 3601 total cases with 19 new cases reported. 283 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Northumberland

There are 355 total cases with 3 new cases reported. 10 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Perry

There are 96 total cases with 0 new cases reported. 5 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Philadelphia

There are 23395 total cases with 132 new cases reported. 1653 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Pike

There are 509 total cases with 1 new cases reported. 21 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Potter

There are 19 total cases with 0 new cases reported. 0 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Schuylkill

There are 792 total cases with 10 new cases reported. 48 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Snyder

There are 74 total cases with 0 new cases reported. 2 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Somerset

There are 88 total cases with 2 new cases reported. 1 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Sullivan

There are 10 total cases with 0 new cases reported. 0 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Susquehanna

There are 195 total cases with 0 new cases reported. 26 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Tioga

There are 32 total cases with 1 new cases reported. 2 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Union

There are 108 total cases with 0 new cases reported. 2 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Venango

There are 49 total cases with 0 new cases reported. 0 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Warren

There are 11 total cases with 0 new cases reported. 1 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Washington

There are 518 total cases with 24 new cases reported. 7 total deaths have been reported in the county with 1 new deaths announced.

Wayne

There are 144 total cases with 1 new cases reported. 8 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

Westmoreland

There are 1089 total cases with 35 new cases reported. 40 total deaths have been reported in the county with 1 new deaths announced.

Wyoming

There are 48 total cases with 0 new cases reported. 7 total deaths have been reported in the county with 0 new deaths announced.

York

There are 1942 total cases with 34 new cases reported. 67 total deaths have been reported in the county with 1 new deaths announced.

-- Follow Ed Sutelan on Twitter, @EdwardSutelan

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Ghanaian rapper and songwriter, Okyeame Kwame born Kwame Nsiah-Apau, says good management and humility among other things are key to staying relevant as an artiste.



The Rap Doctor, who has stayed relevant in Ghanas music industry close to two decades, was speaking on Atinka FMs AM Drive with host Ekourba Gyasi.



Okyeame Kwame likened an artiste to a vehicle transporting people to another destination and that the people in the vehicle expect more from the vehicle.



He added that the creativity artistes bring on board is not theirs and that they are just harnessing the creativity for the public.



Giving tips on the how to stay relevant in the countrys music industry, Okyeame Kwame asked the new crop of artistes to stay humble and desist from engaging in cyber fights.



According to him, a good management team helps shape a persons craft.



A strong and solid management team is the best. Usually, a brand looks out for humble artiste to invest in. A good management team will help shape an artiste and then ensure a healthy relationship between the artiste and his or her fans. A solid management team also ensures that the finances of an artiste are well taken care of and diversified to ensure that you do not suffer when the music business slows down, he explained.

Source: Akinka 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.

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Linkedin Dian Septiari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 16 2020

The United States has called for China and ASEAN member states to be more transparent in their ongoing negotiations on the Code of Conduct (COC) on the South China Sea, following the US latest declaration that Chinas activities in the disputed waters are completely unlawful.

The US waded back into the heated South China Sea debate after almost a year of disengagement from Southeast Asia, punctuated by a snub of the ASEAN summit in November last year that saw a low-level US delegation attend  a diplomatic faux-pas that has inspired similar moves among ASEAN member states.

Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Beijings claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea had no legal grounds, citing the 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling that rejected Chinas historic rights encompassed by the so-called nine-dash line.

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Want to get paid to help slow the spread of the coronavirus in San Antonio?

The UTHealth School of Public Health is hiring case investigators and contact tracers to track down people who may have been exposed to COVID-19.
The Socialists will submit a proposed legal amendment in September on restricting over-development around Lake Balaton, according to Zsolt Molnar, head of the partys Budapest chapter.

The government and businessmen connected with the governing parties are attempting to take over the Balaton beaches, harbours, and overbuild the coast of the lake, he told a press conference on Tuesday.



Molnar said his party will be actively engaged around the Balaton, at beaches, ports, promenades and shopping centres to collect signatures under the slogan the Balaton belongs to all of us.



He said it is especially important that free beaches remain free; sailing ports remain in state ownership; the Balaton region cannot be overdeveloped; and existing functions should remain  a campsite should remain a campsite, a beach should remain a beach.



MTI Photo: Gyorgy Varga
By Carole Johnson

The COVID-19 pandemic provoked a sweeping economic and health crisis. Businesses closed. Schools shuttered. Suddenly, many families worried about how they would get their next meal.

As part of the Murphy Administrations response to the pandemic, the New Jersey Department of Human Services has been working to ensure new and innovative ways to get food assistance to New Jersey families. Weve worked together with our congressional delegation and the Legislature, food banks and pantries, grocers and bodegas and advocates.

This has had two overarching goals  increase assistance wherever possible and make it easier for residents to receive that assistance. With support from our congressional delegation in accessing additional federal resources, through July, Human Services will have provided nearly $390 million in additional food assistance to New Jerseyans since the start of the pandemic.

Since the start of the pandemic, Human Services has taken the following steps to help New Jerseyans access affordable food during this emergency:

Provided $180.5 million since March in supplemental benefits to most SNAP recipients, ensuring all recipients are receiving the maximum benefits for their income and household size. The supplemental benefits have been directly loaded to electronic benefit cards as part of regular monthly SNAP payments  with no additional action needed by recipients.

Providing $208 million in special food assistance benefits to more than 500,000 New Jersey children who otherwise would have received free or reduced-price school meals if not for COVID-19 school closures. Starting this month, eligible families participating in SNAP are receiving the benefit on their benefits card. All other eligible households are getting a card in their mail. We worked with school districts across the state to make it possible for us to send these dollars directly to families  and not require, as some other states have, families to have to apply individually for this critical benefit. And we also are working with our school partners to identify children who may have become eligible since the schools closed. Our goal in implementing this brand new program remains clear - no child should ever go hungry.

Made it easier to apply for SNAP by waiving the normally required interview and the hard copy signature on applications, so as to reduce the need for face-to-face interactions.

Made it possible for SNAP applicants to upload the documentation needed for applications electronically instead of mailing or dropping off documents to the county enrollment offices. Through a new online tool, available on NJOneApp, applicants can upload documents directly from their phones or computers to submit to the corresponding board of social services to process their application.

Ensured that everyone whose benefits were up for renewal in March, April, May, June and July were extended for six months, meaning nobodys SNAP benefits will be terminated during these extensions for not completing the renewal.

Updated our online system to make it easier for SNAP applicants to track their application.

Launched online grocery ordering for SNAP recipients through Amazon, Walmart, ShopRite and The Fresh Grocer so that SNAP recipients have the same access to delivery services as other consumers during this challenging time.

Developed a guide to educate immigrant families on what benefits are impacted by Public Charge to combat misinformation about benefit enrollment so they can make informed decisions when signing up for benefits including SNAP.

Presented in various virtual forums to update service providers on these critical changes to help get the word out to families in need of food assistance.

These flexibilities to expand food assistance also represent another step forward in our continued effort to make it easier for households to get the nutritional support they need to thrive.

Before the pandemic, Human Services expanded eligibility to make it easier for more community college students to access SNAP. We also expanded access to households in areas with higher unemployment and took action to maximize food benefits to those facing high utility costs. Meanwhile, we fought Trump Administration plans to cut SNAP benefits for thousands of New Jersey families.

Last year, Human Services worked with community partners throughout New Jersey to raise SNAP awareness. We hosted outreach events throughout the state with grocers, counties, food pantries, faith leaders, schools and others

Quite simply  access to food assistance has always been a core value.

Its critical that we continue to provide as much food assistance as possible to eligible New Jersey households during this difficult time, and we encourage residents who need food assistance to visit and apply for SNAP online at www.NJHelps.org.

This work is never done. Fighting hunger is an ongoing challenge, but Human Services and the entire Murphy Administration will continue to look for all available ways to enhance assistance and make it as easy as possible for New Jersey families to receive that critical food assistance. This has always been a top priority and will remain a top priority.

Carole Johnson is Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Human Services.

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Heres how to submit an op-ed or Letter to the Editor. 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.
Sampling drinking water at a California Department of Water Resources event in Willows, Calif. Credit: Florence Low / California Department of Water Resources

It didn't grab headlines, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) decision last month to back away from regulating a rocket fuel ingredient in drinking water points to a dramatic shift in federal oversight. The decision was followed by a proposal to slow the process for reviewing chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and delayed action on hazardous perfluorochemicals, PFAS and PFOA, that have been found in various water systems.

Below, Richard Luthy, the Silas H. Palmer Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford, discusses how the EPA and individual states regulate water, risks for certain communities and related issues.

The EPA has signaled its intention to slow down its review process for chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act. To what extent have chemicals under this act been of concern for water supplies?

TSCA requires reporting of chemicals in commerce to ensure that they are being used safely. The drinking water industry, which has the burden of removing chemicals that may adversely impact drinking water sources, wants the EPA to use its authority under TSCA to prohibit or restrict the use of such chemicals. A better approach is preventing contaminants from entering drinking water sources in the first place.

How could a slowdown in the Toxic Substances Control Act review process affect water systems? About how long should the review process take?

TSCA was revised in 2016 and requires the government to review many chemicals at any time until all chemicals have a safety determination. It's a daunting task to make headway in assessing tens of thousands of chemicals in use, accumulating all the data, amassing the people to do the work and preparing for challenges in determining unreasonable risk. The revised TSCA sets a 3-and-a-half-year period for establishing a list of 20 high-profile chemicals for risk evaluation. Even absent challenges and responses, you can see how long it would take to work through a backlog of chemicals. Presently, environmental groups are suing the EPA over lack of transparency and public input.

Experience shows that it might take 20-30 years or more after a chemical has entered the commercial market to strictly regulate or prohibit its use, as in the case of lead, PCBs and DDT. It's hard to speculate to what extent the EPA's new, slower process might affect this timeline because administrations and priorities change.

Why is EPA missing deadlines for chemical reviews? Specifically, can you discuss the case of PFOA and PFAS?

Although there are no enforceable federal drinking water standards, the EPA has established health advisories for perfluorochemicals. These chemicals are being phased out from consumer products such as nonstick coatings and stain-resistant treatments. Their use in industry or aqueous fire-fighting foams resulted in groundwater contamination, notably at fire-fighting training facilities and military bases. States like California have moved ahead of the EPA to regulate perfluorochemicals.

Unfortunately, the current trend seems to be one of the EPA acting very quickly to repeal regulations, while taking time to protect drinking water. An example is methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), a once-used gasoline additive that was found to contaminate groundwater from gas stations. MTBE still has not been regulated at the national level. Meanwhile, the administration is rolling back its definition of what water bodies deserve protection under the Clean Water Act.

What are the chances of being exposed to perchlorate in water? Is it more likely to be in certain regions or communities? How do we know?

Perchlorate is not commonly found in drinking water supplies. Perchlorate is used in the manufacture of pyrotechnics, highway flares and solid rocket fuel. It is found predominately in soil and groundwater where the manufacture of oxidizers for missiles and rocket propellants took place historically.

Surveys in the U.S. show perchlorate in water in Southern Californiamostly in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside countieswest Texas and along the East Coast from New Jersey to Massachusetts, potentially impacting water to about 10 million people. That said, exposure is decreasing with time due to cleanup and provision of treated or alternative drinking water supplies. We know this because perchlorate has been studied for regulation in drinking water for about 20 years, so there's a lot of monitoring data available.

How does the EPA decide which waterborne contaminants to regulate and how? Why did perchlorate fail that test?

The EPA considers three criteria: Does the contaminant cause adverse health effects if present in drinking water? Is there a substantial likelihood that a contaminant will occur with a frequency and at levels of public health concern? Does the regulation of the contaminant present a meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction?

The main argument against regulating perchlorate is related to the question of frequency and levels. Perchlorate is found only in specific locations, as I noted earlier. Also, there is uncertainty about the level of health concern, whether two or six parts per billionas regulated in Massachusetts and Californiaor 56 parts per billion, as was proposed by the EPA.

Are state legislators and municipal utilities doing enoughwithout EPA oversightto ensure perchlorate doesn't reach customers?

States are ahead of the EPA on regulation of perchlorate in drinking water. California is considering whether the goal should be 1 part per billion based on reduced uptake of iodine into the thyroid gland by infants. Unfortunately, there's quite a bit of variance in risk reduction calculations and whether vulnerable populations are considered.

Why did water utility groups support the EPA move?

Utilities argued that, because perchlorate wasn't frequently found across the country, widespread testing for it is a waste of money. Regardless, there is always the option to monitor for several years and then seek a waiver for further testing. This would seem the more prudent course of action.

Explore further US drops planned limit for toxin that damages infant brains (Update)
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Linkedin Dzulfiqar Fathur Rahman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, July 17 2020

The government expects the House of Representatives to finish deliberating the omnibus bill on job creation by late August or early September, Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto said on Tuesday.

He added that lawmakers had finished deliberating half of the chapters in the bill.

Read also: Key points of labor reform in omnibus bill on job creation: What we know so far

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Paris, France (PANA) - Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned the arrest of two journalists in Niger last month as a serious setback to the gains in press freedom observed in the country in recent years
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Ladakh and delivered a rousing speech to raise the morale of the Indian Army, which suffered losses after a violent conflict with the Chinese army. As many as 20 soldiers had lost their lives and many were injured and the Chinese army also suffered in this conflict.

In his speech, Modi recited a famous poem of eminent poet Ramdhari Singh Dinkar Today, Pain Praise for them to encourage the troops posted in the tough terrain of Ladakh, staring down the enemy along the Line of Actual Control. The lines of the poem he recited were as follows:

Repeatedly burn there ashes

inflame in them sparks,

They walked to the gallows

without valuing a life like gem,

Today! Pen praise for them.

The Prime Minister used this poem to instill veer bhava (feeling of bravery) among the soldiers. Dinkar was a poet renowned for his works that were full of veer rasa (brave mode) as well as an interesting blend of softness. He was hailed as a Rashtra Kavi (national poet) for his inspiring works written during the freedom struggle.

Dinkar remained in the Congress party for his entire political career and was known as a disciple of former Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi.

Considering Dinkars political affiliation, the Prime Minister Modis recital of his poem hence led to speculation where it was merely an instrument to provide confidence to the Army or if it also had any specific political context. Was it only a deliberation device or should it be read in the broader context of BJPs politics on the Indo-China issue?

It is interesting to note that Dinkar despite being a Congressman for life and a disciple of Gandhi and Nehru, had criticised the former PM in 1962 for his handling of the China issue. The Indian defeat in the 1962 war had turned Dinkar a critic of Nehru as he composed poems to slate Nehrus handling of the issue.

So the question emerges whether Modi remembered Dinkar for a dual purposes - to inspire the Indian army and also as a critique of Nehruvian and Congress politics on India-China issues.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly attacked Modi and the BJP for their mishandling of the relationship with China, and this could be Modis own way of replying by just hints and memory reference.

Dinkar had composed his famous poem Parshuram ki pratiksha in which he had criticised Nehru symbolically and with poetic argument for his failure to lead India to victory against China in 1962.

In the poem, Dinkar had disparaged Nehru and said he had made the nation timid and transformed her from a lion to a sheep. He opined that sword which people help in their hands during the independence movement should be melted and be turned into a spinning wheel. In this poem, he also slammed Nehruvian defense and foreign policy, which he said failed to prepare the nation to fight a war against China.

PM Modi and the BJP have been ardent critics of Nehru and the Congress, and this government has tried to project blame on the first PM for laying a weak foundation for the nation, and blamed it for everything from China to Kashmir.

The recent border clashes with China have dented and raised doubts about BJPs claim of its success in projecting India as a strong nation and putting national security first. The opposition has used this to criticse BJP for its failure in foreign and defense policy in the context of China.

The remembrance of Dinkar, could hence, be a memory reference point to remind the Congress of its own failures in the context of Indo-China relationship.
Members of the Chief John Ross Chapter, NSDAR held a commemoration ceremony at the River Park Fallen Five Memorial on the eve of the fifth anniversary of Chattanoogas terrorist attack.

First Vice Regent Jennifer Sawyer Harvey recalled the July 16, 2015 day when the news quickly spread across the city and the nation that a shooting had occurred at the Naval Recruiting Center on Lee Highway and then, within minutes, at the Navy and Marine Corp Reserve Center on Amnicola Highway. Ms. Harvey noted that the unequalled liberties enjoyed in the United States today are the legacy of brave, strong patriots. Five years ago, makeshift memorials appeared and prayer vigils were held as we learned that the attacks had resulted in the deaths of four U. S. Marines and one U. S. Navy Petty Officer. We came together as a community and pledged to stay Chattanooga Strong and We Will Not Forget. Today the members of the Chief John Ross Chapter are demonstrating that we have not forgotten. We honor these men who gave their lives in service to our nation.

Ms. Harvey and CJR member Commander Patty Parks, U. S. Navy [Ret], former Commanding Officer of the Navy and Marine Reserve Center, paid tribute individually to each of the fallen warriors: Marine Sergeant Carson A. Holmquist, Marine Gunnery Sergeant Thomas J. Sullivan, Marine Lance Corporal Skip Wells, Marine Staff Sergeant David Wyatt and Navy Petty Officer, Second Class, Randall Smith. Each of those who died in the attack were posthumously awarded Purple Hearts and Sullivan and Wyatt were awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism at great personal and life-threatening risk.

Following the tributes, a large wreath was placed in the center of the Fallen Five Memorial.

Regent Linda Moss Mines addressed the group regarding the significance of the commemoration, We lay this wreath in grateful recognition of the sacrifice and service these men paid on July 16, 2015. In honoring these Fallen Five, we also pay tribute to all heroic men and women who served our nation with integrity and devotion.

Christine Keefe, Secretary, offered the benediction with a challenge, May the memory of these brave men be a living presence among us.

Later in the evening, U.S. flags were placed on the graves of Staff Sergeant Wyatt and Petty Officer, Second Class, Smith at the Chattanooga National Cemetery.






The decision means that many companies will have to reconsider how they store and collect the data of European customers, including potentially making a choice between setting up costly Europe-based data hubs or curtailing business in Europe altogether. U.S. and E.U. negotiators, meanwhile, will probably have to start new discussions about whether there are legal arrangements that could guarantee that data could be stored on U.S. soil but in compliance with E.U. law.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-07-16 23:52:21|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The UN humanitarian agency on Thursday condemned the recent killing of two aid workers and four civilians by armed gunmen in the Duk county area of northern Jonglei region in South Sudan.

Mohamed Ag Ayoya, interim humanitarian coordinator in South Sudan, condemned the Monday's killing of the aid workers attached with an international NGO and four community members in Duk county.

"I strongly condemn the killing of civilians and aid workers and ask for those responsible to be brought to justice. I call upon the government and all parties to step up efforts to protect humanitarians who are taking significant risks to provide much-needed assistance to people who are living in a state where armed violence is on the rise and the threat of COVID-19 is ever present," said Ayoya in a statement issued in Juba.

He disclosed that the slain aid workers were attacked by an unknown armed group when providing healthcare and nutrition services to mostly women and children in Pajut town center of Duk County.

"The women and children fled in fear and the armed group opened fire on them, killing two aid workers and four members of the community. The two deceased aid workers are South Sudanese nationals," he disclosed.

This incident follows the killing of three aid workers in May, around Pieri town in Jonglei which has been experiencing a spike in inter-communal violence since January.

Ayoya also expressed condolences to the families of the victims and the affected organizations and called for swift action by authorities to ensure the safety and security of aid workers in the country.

He also noted that the affected NGO will continue to provide healthcare and nutrition services in Pajut town despite fear of further attacks.

"The incident is the sixth and seventh aid worker death in South Sudan in 2020 and brings the number of humanitarians killed since 2013 to 122. Most have been South Sudanese nationals," said Ayoya. Enditem
Yara Shahidi is speaking out against scheduled executions of anti-government protestors in Iran with a frank post to her Instagram.

The Grown-ish star, 20, posted a candid and thoughtful statement to her feed on Wednesday, in which she expressed her feelings and also stated the inherent dangers in doing so.

Shahidi, who is the Minneapolis, Minnesota-born daughter of an African-American mother and Iranian father, posted her comments next to a white-on-black text post which read '#StopExecutions' underneath an identical hashtag in Farsi.

Speaking her mind: Yara Shahidi is speaking out against scheduled executions of anti-government protesters in Iran with a frank post to her Instagram; seen here January 5, 2020 at the InStyle and Warner Bros Golden Globes afterparty in Beverly Hills

Yara began with, 'First and foremost: #StopExecutionsinIran,' adding a siren emoji.

'A moment to share: Given that I have family in Iran, as many of us do, I try and take the utmost amount of care and intention when speaking; especially knowing the realities that my words have real repercussions outside of myself,' she also wrote.

'It has been impressed upon me the ways that my past statements in support of my Iranian community could put others in jeopardy who currently live in Iran. I know that this is a reality for many Iranians, and as a twenty year old, these are new stakes that Im learning how to navigate. Stakes that are different in the U. S.

Stop the executions: The Grown-ish star posted a thoughtful statement on Wednesday, in which she expressed her feelings and also stated the inherent dangers in doing so

'I am, of course against capital punishment, and if you know me, you know I value life,' the Black-ish star continued.

'We have a right to not only survive, but to thrive. While not done publicly, my first move before speaking on anything is to turn to mentors and people around me to be as informed and aware as possible.

'That is what Im actively doing' she added, along with the hashtag #edamnakonid and a final plea to 'STOP THE EXECUTIONS' with more siren emojis.

According to the BBC, Iranian authorities have temporarily halted the impending executions of three anti-government protesters, largely thanks to a social media campaign that saw countless posts from celebrities like Yara and others speaking out.

Hashtags pertaining to the executions were used 7.5 million times after it was revealed on Tuesday that the Supreme Court in Tehran had upheld the protesters' death sentences.

But now, a retrial has now been ordered.

The three men  Amirhossein Moradi, Mohammad Rajabi and Saeed Tamjidi  were arrested during demonstrations in Iran last November that saw hundreds of protesters killed.

The three men facing the death penalty have denied the charges made against them.
document

In the 4th century BC Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu wrote: "When a nation is filled with strife, then do patriots flourish." Tzu is also credited with the saying: "Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small.

A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." The two ancient gems best summarise the situation in which President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition leader Raila Odinga found themselves trapped in the wake of the bitterly, divisive, 2017 presidential electoral cycle and their historic decision to bury the hatchet.

Against all expectations and all odds, the two displayed an historic fete of patriotism by agreeing to cede ground and negotiate a peaceful settlement that stunned even close allies and won them much international acclaim.

The nation sighed with relief as the world watched in awe when the historic March 2018 Handshake by the two principals unfolded on the steps of Harambe House.

It later emerged that the handshake was preceded by close to nineteen hours of closely guarded but candid talks between the two former rivals.

The two acknowledged that Kenya was at a crossroads whose short term cause was the outcome of the 2017 polls with long term roots in many accumulated structural and historical problems that lay unacknowledged since independence.

They agreed to launch a public conversation without preconditions that assessed Kenya' history, what ails it, the problems it has gathered along the way and the stumbling block to the dreams of the Founding Fathers.

This was to be done through the ten points of the Building Bridges Initiative BBI that summarised the genesis of Kenya's problems and declared intention to debate them, candidly, to arrive at long a lasting solution.

On November 27 last year President Kenyatta described where Kenya stood days to the Handshake: "After the 2017 polls there was a bid problem. I could say- I am the president and I could rule without hindrance but I realized our country was deeply divided. The citizens were bitterly split even in this capital city and our land was troubled.

Rt Honourable Raila Odinga has confirmed he was also deeply troubled by the slide towards the precipice. At the launch of the BBI Report he said there were hardliners on both sides in the aftermath of the polls.

"On our side our supporters were saying we will pull down Uhuru Kenyatta's portraits, declare a separate state and begin to collect taxes. President Kenyatta on the other side was being told arrest Raila and charge him with treason and hang him.

According to the former prime minister the two principals rejected the extremists on their side to reach the historic compromise. The president later disclosed that it took hours before the two protagonists could gather the nerve to discuss what had brought them together especially because they had exchanged bitter words and called each other names during the electioneering process.

After hours of negotiations the president said: "We realized that our differences are not as big as they have been portrayed because the big issue between us was competition."

What the president was saying, in summary, was that no problem is insurmountable as long as protagonists are willing to meet without preconditions, acknowledge their own shortcomings and past setbacks and bind themselves to long term solution.

Kenya's divisive elections, inability to realise prosperity for all citizens, forge a nation out of our diversity among other challenges that reared their head in violence and economic stagnation every electoral cycle was a matter that troubled him, deeply and he was eager to try his hand in finding a solution.

The president who had campaigned on the agenda of economic transformation-what would later crystallize in the Big 4 Agenda was telling the nation that Kenya's future prosperity lay not in high sounding blueprints, intemperate political speeches and endless tribal/sectarian plots but a new thinking that addressed past mistakes to birth a fresh beginning in which citizens benefitted from policies and felt a sense of belonging.

Clearly, His Excellency the President is seeking a long lasting solution to Kenya's problems beyond his tenure in office and has found a partner in the Right Honourable former Prime Minister. To the chagrin of naysayers Kenyans support the two-the peace has held and unleashed an enabling environment in which reasonable discussions can thrive, graft can be tackled and the ongoing Covid 19 pandemic can be tackled without threatening the very existence of the Kenya nation-state.

The World is watching how this unity of purpose and homegrown solution is going to work in the long run on a continent where leaders are not known not to compromise. Around East Africa and the Horn of Africa lie many countries in ruin with their nationals seeking refuge in our land because when, it mattered leaders put personal ambition before public good.

Our party leader, a keen observer of the region and history, made a conscious decision, to avoid this African Curse and burnish the ghosts that have haunted our land for decades forever. He decided that Kenya's future lies in embracing your opponent and its diversity, treating them with respect and creating an environment in which democracy and economic development could thrive.

To achieve all these it was important to arrest the situation before it tipped over. As shown in the writing of the ancient Chinese philosopher great men and women display their quality during such times. They also grab the opportunity to do good when it avails itself.

Forging a nation or returning it to its cause when it has strayed is no easy task. It requires skill, patience and persuasion and new partnerships that dwell on the positive that unites which the two principals have displayed in abundance. By agreeing to talk, shirk away private interests and naysayers the two principals' love to country has been displayed in abundance.

This unity of purpose requires all sectors in Kenya and beyond our borders to support. The steady steps our leaders have nurtured through the BBI, which seek changes to the manner our motherland is government to secure its future is the unity of purpose required of patriotic Kenyans.

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As the Chinese philosopher wrote many millennia ago nation building is painstaking and often slow but our principals have shown that no matter the risks, setbacks and bottlenecks, the goal of creating a prosperous Kenya at peace with itself, justifies patience and this unity of purpose.

In a speech to the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa on January 27 2007 incoming UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon gave moving rendition of how his native South Korea embraced a unity of purpose to emerge from decades of colonialism, turmoil and oppression.

Said he: "But I also witnessed how, through unity of purpose, my country was able to transform itself from a traumatized nation with a non-existent economy, into a vibrant, productive society and a regional economic power."

Ban Ki-moon said the unity of purposes that Africa needs requires courage and determination by its leaders and civil society to reform society and address challenges then create a sociopolitical environment leading to shared prosperity among the citizens.

According to him Africans embraced this kind of unity to propel the anti-colonial movement and should reembrace it as independent states, with support of the global community to establish thriving and prosperous nations in the manner that South Korea did.

By HON. (Dr.) ADAN KEYNAN, CBS, MP

ELDAS CONSTITUENCY.

SECRETARY, JUBILEE PARTY COALITION.
Who is Saurabh Kirpal? Indias likely to get its first openly gay judge of Delhi high court

Delhi police gets time to go through Sunanda Pushkars tweets

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, July 16: The Delhi High Court has given the police time to go through the Twitter posts of late Sunanda Pushkar.

Pushkar, 51 was found dead in a hotel room on January 17, 2014, following which the police charged her husband, Shashi Tharoor with abetment to suicide.

During the hearing, Justice Manohar Ohri was told by the Delhi police counsel that her tweets were not part of the record or the chargesheet. If Tharoor wanted to rely on them, they were in the public domain and he could access them.

Sunanda Pushkar death case: Delhi Police ordered to handover Hotel Leela suite's possession

Tharoor had sought a direction to the Delhi police to preserve the Twitter account and posts prior to her death. He said that the tweets were part of the electronic record before the trial court in the form of Pushkar's laptop and mobile phone. He said that all the police had to do is to put it up as evidence before the court as an indicator of her state of mind before her death.

Tharoor represented by Vikas Pahwa told the court that the cause of Pushkar's death was inconclusive. He also said that the report was not conclusive on the reason for the death.

He said that if the police relied on the tweets, the case would be closed. Instead they relied on the statements of the witnesses, who had referred to her tweets while commenting on her state of mind.

Bihar bridge collapse: Rs 263 crores washed away in 29 days, who is responsible? | Oneindia News

The court then gave both sides time to file their submissions along with the case law on the issue raised by Tharoor. In his application, Tharoor had said that the tweets and the Twitter timeline were of utmost importance in the case and as she is not alive, there is an apprehension that they may be deleted. If this were to happen, it would deny him the right to exonerate himself from the charges levelled against him.

The police had told the court that Pushkar was suffering from mental agony due to a strained relationship with her husband. The case will be taken up next on September 18.
- HELB has been charging KSh 1,000 before it can produce a compliance certificate to non-beneficiaries seeking them

- The document is used by various institutions to assess someone's integrity and credit score and is also needed by some employers before one can be considered for a job

- The fee charged was described by many as punitive; especially people who never benefited from HELB funds

The Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) has waived the KSh 1,000 it charges non-beneficiaries of the fund before they can be issued with a compliance certificate.

The board said it reached the decision following stakeholder consultations which saw the fee, described as "punitive" especially for many unemployed youths looking for jobs but were not beneficiaries of the fund, scrapped.

READ ALSO: Raila is the man to beat Ruto in 2022 - Herman Manyora

Citizens waiting to be served at HELB offices. Photo: HELB.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Magazeti ya Alhamisi, Julai 16: Mbunge, majaji wawili ni miongoni waliougua COVID-19 kwa siku 60

The HELB Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Charles Ringera noted the move will go a long way in motivating young people to acquire their compliance certificates as they seek job opportunities.

"During various stakeholder engagements where HELB seeks feedback on citizen service delivery, it has repeatedly come to our attention that the charges for non-loanee compliance certificate are perceived to be punitive, especially to the many unemployed youths who did not benefit from the student loans," Ringera said.

READ ALSO: Newcastle vs Tottenham: Kane scores brace to guide Spurs to victory

READ ALSO: Lancet explains conflicting Turi staff COVID-19 results

The HELB boss further noted that the move will be pivotal in creating goodwill and promotion of HELB products among Kenyans.

"Given the foregoing issues raised by Kenyans, HELB has stopped charging KSh 1,000 for issuance of the compliance certificate with effect from Wednesday, July 15, 2020.

The HELB Compliance Certificates will now be free of charge and can be accessed from the HELB website as well as the E-Citizen portal," Ringera said in a statement.

READ ALSO: Barack Obama, Bill Gates among prominent US figures targeted by Bitcoin scammers on Twitter

Chapter Six on Leadership and Integrity of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 requires all people applying for public jobs to present specific compliance certificates as part of the interview process.

The HELB is one of the listed institutions from which interviewees seek compliance certificates from.

The certificate is also used to access someone's creditworthiness, social responsibility and integrity.

Other compliance documents needed during some interviews include certificates from the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (EACC) and certificate of good conduct from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

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.

Couple gives birth to triplets after 21 years of trying | Tuko TV.

Source: TUKO.co.ke
When Spanish speakers in Southeast Texas need help  whether with family services, food banks or even a pandemic  they often turn to Jesus Abrego.

As the Director of Hispanic Ministry for the Diocese of Beaumont, Abrego frequently acts as a facilitator between social service organizations and those who need assistance. Despite a large Hispanic population in the region, many local agencies dont have Spanish speakers on staff  making Abrego an essential middleman in the process.

I feel like Im connecting people to different agencies depending on their needs, said Abrego, who is responsible for helping Hispanics in nine counties. Just being present for these people and getting them help however I can.

During a normal time, Abrego drives to different parishes to meet with groups and social service agencies. However, amid the current coronavirus pandemic, hes confined to his office and fielding calls.

Most of those calls regard Spanish speakers looking for coronavirus care or testing sites. Once figuring out the specific problem, Abrego then works with local emergency management officials to get the proper actions in place.

Abrego said Hispanics in Southeast Texas have been hit especially hard by coronavirus.

Weve been getting a lot of cases with Hispanics getting the virus, he said. A great majority of the immigrant community only didnt work for a couple of weeks at the beginning. Then most of them went right back to work, so they were exposed.

This is hardly Abregos first experience dealing the impact of a devastating disease.

Originally from Monterrey, Mexico, Abrego moved to Beaumont 27 years ago. He started learning English and went to work as a counselor for those with HIV/AIDS.

Working with those patients from 1993-99, Abrego said 68 of the people he helped care for died from the disease.

That was a life-changing experience for me, Abrego said. Back in 1993, if you got HIV, you were going to die.

Abrego then went to work at the Diocese of Beaumont in 1999. He already was an active member of the church, volunteering as a youth director in his parish and conducting retreats for Spanish speakers.

Abrego estimated roughly 40 percent of the population within the diocese is Hispanic.

The large Hispanic population not only in the diocese, but in Southeast Texas, makes Abrego feel like hes doing important work for an underserved community.

I think this is much-needed work in Southeast Texas, he said. Even though Im an American and I love this country, I feel like Im doing missionary work in a foreign country.

mfaye@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/mattGfaye
Are voice assistants such as Amazons Alexa, Apples Siri, and Google Assistant stifling competition when they only let you stream music from a single service, or when then send you to a specific shopping site by default?

Its a fair question, and one that European Union regulators are looking to answer as part of a sweeping antitrust probe, Bloomberg reports.

The European Commission announced the massive probe on Thursday, with EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager warning of a serious risk that Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant, and similar voice assistants could be helping big companies such as Amazon, Apple, and Google push markets beyond the tipping point where competition turns into monopoly.

EU regulators, who are slated to survey more than 400 firms as part of the probe, will be focussing on how users of Alexa, Google Assistant, and other voice assistants may often be presented with an option rather than a full slate of competitive choices, according to Bloomberg.

If a particular voice assistant tends to favor its own products and services over those of a competitor, that might lead to the fast emergence of dominant digital ecosystems and gatekeepers and might present tipping risks, Bloomberg continues.

One doesnt have to look too hard to find examples of voice assistants shunting users toward their own services. If you ask Alexa to buy some laundry detergent, shell put the order in your Amazon shopping cart by default. Apple, meanwhile, only recently began (albeit as part of a beta) to allow third-party music streaming services on the Siri-powered HomePod, which used to play tunes exclusively on Apple Music. And if you ask Google Assistant why dinosaurs died out, youll get the answer via Google Search, not Bing or DuckDuckGo.

Besides the issue of choice, Bloomberg notes that the EU probe will also examine whether the data collected by voice assistants about their users could give companies an unfair leg up over the competition.

It was only last year that privacy became an explosive issue as far as voice assistants are concerned, with Amazon, Apple, and Google all coming clean about who was listening in on voice recordings from Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant queries. Those controversies led to the long overdue rollout of more granular privacy policies and settings, allowing users to opt-in to third-party human review of voice assistant recordings.

Perhaps this new EU probe will drive similar reforms when it comes to opening up smart platforms, thus encouraging competition rather than suppressing it.
Detectives investigating the murder of Northern Ireland journalist Lyra McKee have arrested a 27-year-old man.

Ms McKee (29) was shot dead by dissident republicans in Derry in April 2019 as she observed rioting in the Creggan area of the city.

The extremist group that styles itself the New IRA was responsible for the murder.

The suspect was detained in Derry yesterday under the provisions of the Terrorism Act.

He was taken to Musgrave Police Station in Belfast for questioning. Officers also conducted a search of a house in Derry yesterday.

Last month, police found the handgun used to kill Ms McKee.

The Hammerli X-Esse .22 pistol was discovered during searches in the Ballymagroarty area of Derry.

In February, a 52-year-old man appeared in court in the city charged with the author's murder.

Award-wining journalist Ms McKee was standing near a police vehicle when she was hit by a bullet fired by a masked gunman towards officers.

She was a gay rights activist and an articulate advocate of a new and more tolerant Northern Ireland, having been part of the generation which reached adulthood during peace time.
After the demise of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, Rhea Chakraborty and Ankita Lokhande have been a target of online trolling, and the two actresses have been receiving hatred on the Internet. The two have even limited comments on social media.

Now, a month after the actor died by suicide, celebrity hairstylist Sapna Bhavnani took to Twitter to defend Ankita and Rhea and asked Internet users to focus on Sushant instead of bullying the actresses. She wrote, "These women are going through their own grief and that needs to be respected.. there is no need to bully them. Please Focus on #SushantSingh and pray that justice is served. #RiyaChakraborty AnkitaLokhande.

These women are going through their own grief and that needs to be respected.. there is no need to bully them. Please Focus on #SushantSingh and pray that justice is served. #RiyaChakraborty #AnkitaLokhande (@sapnabhavnani) July 14, 2020

Meanwhile, on the one-month death anniversary of the actor, both Rhea and Ankita too to social media to mourn the loss.

In a moving post, Rhea had shared that she will never come to terms with actor Sushant Singh Rajput not being around anymore, and said she is still struggling to face her emotions. She said that words can't express her real state of emotional turmoil along with two photographers from the happy moments that the two spent together. In the pictures, they are smiling, beaming with joy and looks at peace in each other's company.

"Still struggling to face my emotions.. an irreparable numbness in my heart . You are the one who made me believe in love, the power of it . You taught me how a simple mathematical equation can decipher the meaning of life and I promise you that I learnt from you every day. I will never come to terms with you not being here anymore," Rhea wrote on Instagram.

Ankita, on the hand, posted a picture of a diya. "Child of God," she captioned the image.

On June 14, Sushant was found hanging in his Bandra residence by his domestic help, which left the industry and his fans shocked. He was reportedly battling depression over the past few months and undergoing treatment.
Despite concerns that this would render Ms. Begum stateless, British law allows the home secretary to revoke the citizenship of a single nationality holder if there is reasonable ground to believe that the person can acquire another citizenship elsewhere.

Ms. Begum appealed, but a special tribunal ruled the decision was lawful because she was a citizen of Bangladesh by descent from her mother, who is a citizen of the South Asian nation. Since then, she has pleaded with the British authorities to repatriate her to stand trial in her home country, something the government has vowed never to do.

The authorities in Bangladesh have said that Ms. Begum never claimed citizenship of that nation and that she would not be allowed in Bangladesh.

The ruling that Ms. Begum is entitled to return to Britain to appeal the decision on her citizenship does not mean that she will be successful in having it restored, however.

The case will be reviewed by the special tribunal that initially ruled that removing Ms. Begums citizenship was lawful.

But those opposed to Ms. Begums return to Britain say her repatriation for the citizenship appeal could pave the way for her to remain in the country indefinitely, as it is unlikely she would be sent back to a detention camp in northeastern Syria.

If Ms. Begum does come back to this country, it will prove impossible to remove her, Mr. Javid, the former official who stripped Ms. Begum of her citizenship, said in a statement.
(Newser)  In a move USA Today calls "extraordinary" and CNN refers to as "historic," the city of Asheville, North Carolina, on Tuesday voted to approve reparations for Black residents. The seven-member City Council unanimously voted for the move, with Keith Young, one of the two Black members of the council, saying, "It is simply not enough to remove statues. Black people in this country are dealing with issues that are systemic in nature." The reparations come alongside a formal apology for the state's role in slavery, discrimination, and other racist policies affecting Black people. "(Slavery) is this institution that serves as the starting point for the building of the strong economic floor for white America, while attempting to keep Blacks subordinate forever to its progress," says Sheneika Smith, the other Black council member.

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The resolution calls for "forming policy and programs that will establish the creation of generational wealth," which has been denied to many Black families due to slavery and discrimination. Rather than making payments directly to Black residents, who comprise 12% of the city's population (83% is white), the reparations will be used to make investments in areas where Black people face disparities. Per the resolution, priorities may include "increasing minority home ownership and access to other affordable housing, increasing minority business ownership and career opportunities, strategies to grow equity and generational wealth, closing the gaps in health care, education, employment and pay, neighborhood safety, and fairness within criminal justice." The resolution calls for the state legislature and the federal government to make similar moves. (Read more reparations stories.)
Over 180 universities have already conducted exams for their students while another 234 are planning to hold tests in online in the months of August and September, according to data available with higher education regulator University Grants Commission (UGC).

Shortly after it issued guidelines on exams on April 6, in which exams for final year students were mandated, the UGC had written to different universities seeking to know the status.

Of the 640 universities which wrote back to the regulator, over 450 said they had either conducted the exams or were planning to do so in the coming months.

According to the data, accessed by HT, 182 universities have conducted the exams either in online or offline modes. 234 universities said that they were planning to do the same in August or September. Around 30 universities are waiting for directions from their statutory councils before they hold the exams.

According to information available with the regulator, 177 universities are yet to take a final call on holding these tests. In case of 27 private universities, which were set up in 2019-20, the batches in various courses are yet to enter the final year, so they dont have to hold these exams.

Earlier, the UGC had on the basis of recommendations of a committee headed by Central University of Haryana (CUH) Vice Chancellor R C Kuhad said that universities should conduct the exams for students passing out of various courses in either online, offline or blended more (combination of online and offline).

The UGC has opined that holding exams is important to retain the credibility of the Indian education system and would be in the interest of students.

However, states like Punjab, Maharashtra and Delhi had expressed difficulty in conducting exams in view of the pandemic. The Delhi government had said that it was in favour of cancelling all exams.

Also Read: Covid-19: 6 states against conducting university exams, HRD says student evaluation crucial

The Punjab government, it is learnt, had also written to UGC to reconsider its suggestions. The regulator is learnt to have asked it find a suitable way to hold the tests. The HRD ministry has also released guidelines on how exams can be held.

The ministry has also felt that even state and private universities should abide by the guidelines of the UGC, which is entrusted with maintaining educational standards.

The UGC has sought the data from various universities. In what is a positive sign, a large number of them have either held exams or are in the process. The UGC believes that holding exams for final year students would be greatly beneficial to their long-term prospects, said a person familiar with the developments.

Of the 640 universities from which the UGC has received response were 120 Deemed universities, 229 private, 251 state universities and 40 central varsities. There are around 1000 universities in the country.
French authorities effectively closed the door on themselves forever when they made a second attempt to extradite former journalist Ian Bailey to France, despite a Supreme Court ruling which prohibited the surrender of the Englishman, a court has heard.

Mr Bailey is facing a third extradition process to France, where he is facing a 25-year prison sentence after being convicted in his absence of the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier.

Ronan Munro SC, for Mr Bailey, told the High Court in Dublin that a second request by French authorities to extradite Mr Bailey in 2017 was doomed to fail.

He added that it was also a direct assault on the judgment of the Supreme Court in 2012.

Sophie Toscan du Plantier (Family handout/PA)

Bailey, 63, was arrested last year after a High Court judge endorsed a European Arrest Warrant issued by French authorities.

He is wanted in France for the murder of Ms Toscan du Plantier in Schull, Co Cork, in December 1996.

Bailey, with an address at The Prairie in Schull, was convicted of murder in his absence by a court in Paris in May last year.

The three-judge court imposed a 25-year sentence.

He had no legal representation for the case, did not attend the court and described it at the time as a farce.

He denies any involvement in the French womans death.

Mr Munro told the High Court on Thursday that another attempt to extradite his client was an abuse of process.

He said the court should put a stop to this and let Mr Bailey get on with his life and allow the gardai to get on with their job.

He told the court that there was little consideration given to the prejudicial effects and impact on Mr Bailey by the French authorities.

Mr Munro stated that the authorities in France lost the right to seek another extradition order when the High Court ruled it was an abuse of process in 2017.

He added that the second request to have Mr Bailey surrender was a tactical ploy.

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Mr Munro added: The 2017 extradition process was doomed to fail.

It was a direct assault on the decision of the Supreme Court.

It was saying your Supreme Court got it wrong and when that gamble was taken and lost, they closed the door on themselves forever.

That was the turning point.

They have lost the right to ask for the same thing again, particularly when it was not explained how they saw fit to oppose the application.

Mr Munro also said that the European Arrest Warrants from French authorities against his client will never stop, it seems.

If Mr Bailey isnt being treated equally, then he begins to feel part of the abused process. We are here to restore equality and eliminate the abuse, he added.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that Mr Bailey could not be extradited to France based on the European Arrest Warrant Act because the alleged murder did not happen in the issuing state.

The court was told that in a sworn affidavit, Mr Bailey stated he had nothing to do with the death of the mother-of-one.

Barrister for the State, Robert Barron, told the court that Mr Bailey does not have a vested right not to be surrendered to the French authorities.

Mr Barron made the comment in response to a claim by Mr Munro that a change in the Criminal Law Act last year did not change his clients vested right not to be extradited.

The court heard that a representative of Ms Toscan du Plantiers family is attending court throughout the three-day hearing.

Addressing the woman, Mr Justice Paul Burns said that the submissions of the extradition process may seem cold and dry.

Justice Burns added: Court hearings of any kind can be distressing but the dry nature should not be taken as that anyone has forgotten about the tragic nature of the background of Ms du Plantiers death.

The court wishes to send its condolences to the family of Sophie Toscan du Plantier.

The hearing continues on Friday.
Announcement of Periodic Review: Moody's announces completion of a periodic review of ratings of Niigata Prefecture

Global Credit Research - 16 Jul 2020

Tokyo, July 16, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has completed a periodic review of the ratings of Niigata Prefecture and other ratings that are associated with the same analytical unit. The review was conducted through a portfolio review in which Moody's reassessed the appropriateness of the ratings in the context of the relevant principal methodology(ies), recent developments, and a comparison of the financial and operating profile to similarly rated peers. The review did not involve a rating committee. Since 1 January 2019, Moody's practice has been to issue a press release following each periodic review to announce its completion.

This publication does not announce a credit rating action and is not an indication of whether or not a credit rating action is likely in the near future. Credit ratings and outlook/review status cannot be changed in a portfolio review and hence are not impacted by this announcement. For any credit ratings referenced in this publication, please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for the most updated credit rating action information and rating history.

Key rating considerations are summarized below.

The credit profile of Niigata Prefecture is expressed by a baseline credit assessment of a3 and a rating of A1. Niigata Prefecture's A1 rating is the same as the Government of Japan (A1)'s rating, reflecting our view that the rating of the central government as well as those of the regional and local governments (RLGs) in Japan should be the same because of their close links.

The considerable level of oversight and supervision exercised by the central government, as well as the well-developed equalization system of transfers through the local allocation tax (LAT) system, ensures that any credit issues at the RLG level are identified and addressed early. We also assess that there is a very high likelihood that the Japanese government would step in to provide immediate assistance in the event of an acute liquidity crisis. Niigata Prefecture's rating reflects also its high operating margin and a debt structure with manageable refinancing risk, and a high outstanding debt when rinzai-sai debt is included.

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This document summarizes Moody's view as of the publication date and will not be updated until the next periodic review announcement, which will incorporate material changes in credit circumstances (if any) during the intervening period.

The principal methodology used for this review was Regional and Local Governments (Japanese) published in January 2018. Please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

This announcement applies only to EU rated and EU endorsed ratings. Non EU rated and non EU endorsed ratings may be referenced above to the extent necessary, if they are part of the same analytical unit.

This publication does not announce a credit rating action. For any credit ratings referenced in this publication, please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for the most updated credit rating action information and rating history.

Hiroe Yamamoto Analyst Sub-Sovereign Group Moody's Japan K.K. Atago Green Hills Mori Tower 20fl 2-5-1 Atago, Minato-ku Tokyo 105-6220 Japan JOURNALISTS: 81 3 5408 4110 Client Service: 81 3 5408 4100 Marie Diron MD - Sovereign Risk Sub-Sovereign Group JOURNALISTS: 852 3758 1350 Client Service: 852 3551 3077 Releasing Office: Moody's Japan K.K. Atago Green Hills Mori Tower 20fl 2-5-1 Atago, Minato-ku Tokyo 105-6220 Japan JOURNALISTS: 81 3 5408 4110 Client Service: 81 3 5408 4100

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You are here: Business

The Kangmei Chinese medicinal material price index, a barometer of the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) material market, dropped 0.01 percent to 1,275.53 points Thursday.

Covering more than 500 TCM materials including herbs and minerals from six major markets nationwide, the closely-watched index reflects the overall price trend in the country's TCM material market. It is released daily by Kangmei Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, one of China's major TCM companies.

The index was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission of China in 2012 to offer more timely and accurate reference for TCM material growers, traders and pharmaceutical companies.

Traditional Chinese medicines, often given as oral liquid, granule and pills, typically use the combination of a number of medicinal materials, mostly herbs, to address health problems.
ABBOTT PARK, Ill., July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Abbott (NYSE: ABT) today announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2020.

Second-quarter worldwide sales of $7.3 billion decreased 8.2 percent on a reported basis and 5.4 percent on an organic basis, which excludes the impact of foreign exchange.

decreased 8.2 percent on a reported basis and 5.4 percent on an organic basis, which excludes the impact of foreign exchange. Reported diluted EPS from continuing operations under GAAP was $0.30 and adjusted diluted EPS from continuing operations, which excludes specified items, was $0.57 in the second quarter.

and adjusted diluted EPS from continuing operations, which excludes specified items, was in the second quarter. Abbott projects full-year 2020 diluted EPS from continuing operations on a GAAP basis of at least $2.00 and full-year adjusted diluted EPS from continuing operations of at least $3.25 .

and full-year adjusted diluted EPS from continuing operations of at least . In April, Abbott announced CE Mark approval for its TriClip  heart valve repair system, the world's first minimally invasive, clip-based tricuspid heart valve repair device.

heart valve repair system, the world's first minimally invasive, clip-based tricuspid heart valve repair device. In June, Abbott announced U.S. FDA approval of FreeStyle  Libre 2 as an integrated continuous glucose monitoring (iCGM) system for adults and children ages 4 and older with diabetes, achieving the highest level of accuracy and performance standards. 1

Libre 2 as an integrated continuous glucose monitoring (iCGM) system for adults and children ages 4 and older with diabetes, achieving the highest level of accuracy and performance standards. Last week, Abbott announced U.S. FDA approval of its next-generation Gallant implantable cardioverter defibrillator and cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator devices to help manage heart rhythm disorders. These devices offer Bluetooth technology and a new patient smartphone app for improved remote monitoring and enhanced patient-physician engagement.

"Our diversified business model has proven to be a true strength during this time," said Robert B. Ford, president and chief executive officer, Abbott. "We're a leader in the global COVID-19 testing efforts, we've continued to advance our pipeline and, importantly, we saw significant improvements in growth trends throughout the quarter in the business areas that were initially most impacted by the pandemic."

SECOND-QUARTER BUSINESS OVERVIEW

Note: Management believes that measuring sales growth rates on an organic basis is an appropriate way for investors to best understand the underlying performance of the business. Organic sales growth excludes the impact of foreign exchange.

Following are sales by business segment and commentary for the second quarter 2020:

Total Company

($ in millions)

















% Change vs. 2Q19



Sales 2Q20

Reported

Organic



U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total Total *

2,638

4,690

7,328

(7.4)

(8.6)

(8.2)

(7.4)

(4.2)

(5.4) Nutrition

808

1,075

1,883

2.9

(1.4)

0.4

2.9

3.3

3.1 Diagnostics

857

1,137

1,994

23.2

(5.9)

4.7

23.2

(2.2)

7.1 Established Pharmaceuticals

--

1,013

1,013

n/a

(8.6)

(8.6)

n/a

(0.7)

(0.7) Medical Devices

966

1,457

2,423

(29.0)

(15.0)

(21.2)

(29.0)

(12.7)

(19.9)



* Total Q2 2020 Abbott sales from continuing operations include Other Sales of approximately $15 million.

































% Change vs. 1H19



Sales 1H20

Reported

Organic



U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total Total *

5,494

9,560

15,054

(1.9)

(3.5)

(3.0)

(1.9)

0.0

(0.7) Nutrition

1,620

2,167

3,787

5.7

1.5

3.3

5.7

4.7

5.1 Diagnostics

1,660

2,160

3,820

16.9

(7.1)

2.0

16.9

(3.9)

4.0 Established Pharmaceuticals

--

2,057

2,057

n/a

(2.1)

(2.1)

n/a

4.0

4.0 Medical Devices

2,199

3,161

5,360

(16.6)

(5.2)

(10.2)

(16.6)

(2.7)

(8.8)



* Total 1H 2020 Abbott sales from continuing operations include Other Sales of approximately $30 million.

n/a = Not Applicable.

Note: In order to compute results excluding the impact of exchange rates, current year U.S. dollar sales are multiplied or divided, as appropriate, by the current year average foreign exchange rates and then those amounts are multiplied or divided, as appropriate, by the prior year average foreign exchange rates.

Second-quarter 2020 worldwide sales of $7.3 billion decreased 8.2 percent on a reported basis. On an organic basis, worldwide sales decreased 5.4 percent. First-half 2020 worldwide sales of $15.1 billion decreased 3.0 percent on a reported basis and 0.7 percent on an organic basis.

Nutrition

($ in millions)



























% Change vs. 2Q19













Sales 2Q20

Reported

Organic













U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total Total











808

1,075

1,883

2.9

(1.4)

0.4

2.9

3.3

3.1 Pediatric











484

540

1,024

2.1

(6.4)

(2.6)

2.1

(2.2)

(0.3) Adult











324

535

859

4.2

4.3

4.3

4.2

9.3

7.4





































% Change vs. 1H19













Sales 1H20

Reported

Organic













U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total Total











1,620

2,167

3,787

5.7

1.5

3.3

5.7

4.7

5.1 Pediatric











1,002

1,111

2,113

8.0

(3.6)

1.6

8.0

(1.0)

3.0 Adult











618

1,056

1,674

2.2

7.6

5.5

2.2

11.5

7.9

Worldwide Nutrition sales increased 0.4 percent on a reported basis and 3.1 percent on an organic basis in the second quarter. Strong U.S. and international sales performance of Ensure, Abbott's market-leading complete and balanced nutrition brand, led to global Adult Nutrition sales growth of 7.4 percent on an organic basis. In Pediatric Nutrition, sales were led by U.S. growth of Pedialyte, Abbott's oral rehydration brand, as well as growth in Southeast Asia, which were offset by challenging conditions in Greater China.

For the first half of 2020, worldwide Nutrition sales increased 3.3 percent on a reported basis and 5.1 percent on an organic basis, including organic sales growth of 3.0 percent in Pediatric Nutrition and 7.9 percent in Adult Nutrition.

Diagnostics

($ in millions)

















% Change vs. 2Q19



Sales 2Q20

Reported

Organic



U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total Total

857

1,137

1,994

23.2

(5.9)

4.7

23.2

(2.2)

7.1 Core Laboratory

289

698

987

6.4

(22.2)

(15.5)

6.4

(19.0)

(13.1) Molecular

144

215

359

276.7

209.9

233.6

276.7

222.1

241.4 Point of Care

79

39

118

(30.6)

25.8

(18.3)

(30.6)

29.0

(17.6) Rapid Diagnostics

345

185

530

26.9

(12.6)

9.6

26.9

(9.2)

11.0

















% Change vs. 1H19



Sales 1H20

Reported

Organic



U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total Total

1,660

2,160

3,820

16.9

(7.1)

2.0

16.9

(3.9)

4.0 Core Laboratory

556

1,420

1,976

6.7

(16.9)

(11.4)

6.7

(14.0)

(9.2) Molecular

209

289

498

166.1

111.1

131.1

166.1

118.2

135.7 Point of Care

182

74

256

(18.0)

28.9

(8.4)

(18.0)

31.4

(7.8) Rapid Diagnostics

713

377

1,090

19.3

(10.9)

6.8

19.3

(7.8)

8.1

Worldwide Diagnostics sales increased 4.7 percent on a reported basis in the second quarter, including an unfavorable 2.4 percent effect of foreign exchange, and increased 7.1 percent on an organic basis.

In Core Laboratory Diagnostics, lower routine diagnostics testing due to COVID-19 was partially offset by sales of Abbott's COVID-19 laboratory-based tests for the detection of the IgG antibody, which determines if someone was previously infected with the virus. Core Laboratory IgG antibody testing-related sales on Abbott's Architect and Alinity i platforms were $152 million in the quarter.

Molecular Diagnostics sales increased 233.6 percent on a reported basis and 241.4 percent on an organic basis in the second quarter. Strong growth was driven by demand for Abbott's laboratory-based molecular tests for COVID-19 on its m2000 and Alinity m platforms. Molecular Diagnostics COVID-19 testing-related sales were $283 million in the quarter.

Rapid Diagnostics sales increased 9.6 percent on a reported basis and 11.0 percent on an organic basis in the second quarter. Lower base business sales were more than offset by strong demand for Abbott's point-of-care COVID-19 molecular test on its ID NOW platform. Rapid Diagnostics COVID-19 testing-related sales were $180 million in the quarter.

Established Pharmaceuticals

($ in millions)

















% Change vs. 2Q19



Sales 2Q20

Reported

Organic



U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total Total

--

1,013

1,013

n/a

(8.6)

(8.6)

n/a

(0.7)

(0.7) Key Emerging Markets

--

764

764

n/a

(10.3)

(10.3)

n/a

(0.4)

(0.4) Other

--

249

249

n/a

(2.6)

(2.6)

n/a

(1.5)

(1.5)

















% Change vs. 1H19



Sales 1H20

Reported

Organic



U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total Total

--

2,057

2,057

n/a

(2.1)

(2.1)

n/a

4.0

4.0 Key Emerging Markets

--

1,577

1,577

n/a

(1.7)

(1.7)

n/a

5.9

5.9 Other

--

480

480

n/a

(3.1)

(3.1)

n/a

(2.1)

(2.1)

Established Pharmaceuticals sales decreased 8.6 percent on a reported basis in the second quarter and decreased 0.7 percent on an organic basis. For the first half of 2020, Established Pharmaceuticals sales decreased 2.1 percent on a reported basis and increased 4.0 percent on an organic basis.

Key Emerging Markets include India, Brazil, Russia and China along with several additional emerging countries that represent the most attractive long-term growth opportunities for Abbott's branded generics product portfolio. Sales in these geographies decreased 10.3 percent on a reported basis in the second quarter and decreased 0.4 percent on an organic basis. Sales growth in certain countries, including double-digit growth in China, was more than offset by lower demand due to the increased spread of COVID-19 across several emerging market countries, including Russia, Brazil and Colombia.

Medical Devices

($ in millions)

















% Change vs. 2Q19



Sales 2Q20

Reported

Organic



U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total Total

966

1,457

2,423

(29.0)

(15.0)

(21.2)

(29.0)

(12.7)

(19.9) Rhythm Management

185

216

401

(32.2)

(21.3)

(26.7)

(32.2)

(19.2)

(25.7) Electrophysiology

120

179

299

(37.2)

(25.8)

(30.8)

(37.2)

(24.7)

(30.2) Heart Failure

115

43

158

(22.9)

(15.2)

(20.9)

(22.9)

(13.3)

(20.4) Vascular

168

313

481

(37.6)

(31.9)

(34.0)

(37.6)

(29.9)

(32.7) Structural Heart

91

132

223

(40.1)

(34.2)

(36.7)

(40.1)

(33.0)

(36.0) Neuromodulation

85

21

106

(49.2)

(52.0)

(49.8)

(49.2)

(50.3)

(49.4) Diabetes Care

202

553

755

27.2

24.7

25.4

27.2

28.7

28.3





































Vascular Product Lines:



































Coronary and Endovasculara

155

311

466

(36.5)

(32.1)

(33.6)

(36.5)

(30.0)

(32.3)





a) Includes drug-eluting stents, balloon catheters, guidewires, vascular imaging/diagnostics products, vessel closure, carotid and other coronary and peripheral products.



















% Change vs. 1H19



Sales 1H20

Reported

Organic



U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total

U.S.

Int'l

Total Total

2,199

3,161

5,360

(16.6)

(5.2)

(10.2)

(16.6)

(2.7)

(8.8) Rhythm Management

413

462

875

(21.3)

(14.0)

(17.6)

(21.3)

(11.7)

(16.4) Electrophysiology

284

403

687

(22.2)

(14.4)

(17.8)

(22.2)

(12.9)

(17.0) Heart Failure

267

94

361

(8.6)

1.7

(6.1)

(8.6)

4.0

(5.6) Vascular

398

708

1,106

(25.7)

(21.6)

(23.1)

(25.7)

(19.7)

(21.9) Structural Heart

227

314

541

(21.3)

(19.1)

(20.0)

(21.3)

(17.1)

(18.9) Neuromodulation

222

61

283

(30.7)

(28.1)

(30.1)

(30.7)

(25.2)

(29.5) Diabetes Care

388

1,119

1,507

25.1

30.4

29.0

25.1

34.3

31.9





































Vascular Product Lines:



































Coronary and Endovasculara

366

703

1,069

(23.6)

(21.8)

(22.4)

(23.6)

(19.8)

(21.1)





a) Includes drug-eluting stents, balloon catheters, guidewires, vascular imaging/diagnostics products, vessel closure, carotid and other coronary and peripheral products.

Worldwide Medical Devices sales decreased 21.2 percent on a reported basis in the second quarter and decreased 19.9 percent on an organic basis. Sales growth was negatively impacted by reduced cardiovascular and neuromodulation procedure volumes due to COVID-19. Procedure volume trends improved significantly over the course of the second quarter as both demand for procedures and availability of healthcare resources began to return to more normalized levels.

In Diabetes Care, strong growth was led by FreeStyle Libre, which grew 36.8 percent on a reported basis and 39.9 percent on an organic basis versus the prior year. In June, Abbott announced U.S. FDA approval of FreeStyle Libre 2 as an integrated continuous glucose monitoring (iCGM) system for adults and children ages 4 and older with diabetes, achieving the highest level of accuracy and performance standards.1 The FreeStyle Libre 2 system will be available in the coming weeks at participating pharmacies and durable medical equipment providers at the same price as the currently available FreeStyle Libre 14 day system.

ABBOTT'S GUIDANCE FOR 2020

Abbott projects full-year 2020 diluted earnings per share from continuing operations under GAAP of at least $2.00. Abbott forecasts specified items for the full-year 2020 of $1.25 primarily related to intangible amortization, acquisition-related expenses, restructuring and cost reduction initiatives and other expenses. Excluding specified items, projected adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations would be at least $3.25 for full-year 2020.

ABBOTT DECLARES 386TH CONSECUTIVE QUARTERLY DIVIDEND

On June 12, 2020, the board of directors of Abbott declared the company's quarterly dividend of $0.36 per share. Abbott's cash dividend is payable August 17, 2020, to shareholders of record at the close of business on July 15, 2020.

Abbott has increased its dividend payout for 48 consecutive years and is a member of the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index, which tracks companies that have annually increased their dividend for at least 25 consecutive years.

About Abbott:

Abbott is a global healthcare leader that helps people live more fully at all stages of life. Our portfolio of life-changing technologies spans the spectrum of healthcare, with leading businesses and products in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic medicines. Our 107,000 colleagues serve people in more than 160 countries.

Connect with us at www.abbott.com, on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/abbott-/, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Abbott and on Twitter @AbbottNews and @AbbottGlobal.

Abbott will webcast its live second-quarter earnings conference call through its Investor Relations website at www.abbottinvestor.com at 8:30 a.m. Central time today. An archived edition of the webcast will be available later that day.

 Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 

A Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

Some statements in this news release may be forward-looking statements for purposes of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Abbott cautions that these forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Abbott's operations and financial results, that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Economic, competitive, governmental, technological and other factors that may affect Abbott's operations are discussed in Item 1A, "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2019 and in Item 1A, "Risk Factors" in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2020, and are incorporated herein by reference. Abbott undertakes no obligation to release publicly any revisions to forward-looking statements as a result of subsequent events or developments, except as required by law.

1 Based on FDA iCGM special controls.

Abbott Laboratories and Subsidiaries Condensed Consolidated Statement of Earnings Second Quarter Ended June 30, 2020 and 2019 (in millions, except per share data) (unaudited)





2Q20

2Q19

%

Change

Net Sales

$7,328

$7,979

(8.2)

















Cost of products sold, excluding amortization expense

3,263

3,279

(0.5)

Amortization of intangible assets

553

483

14.7

Research and development

564

577

(2.1)

Selling, general, and administrative

2,276

2,434

(6.5)

Total Operating Cost and Expenses

6,656

6,773

(1.7)

















Operating Earnings

672

1,206

(44.3)

















Interest expense, net

125

146

(15.3)

Net foreign exchange (gain) loss

(1)

(4)

(81.2)

Other (income) expense, net

22

(38)

n/m

Earnings from Continuing Operations before taxes

526

1,102

(52.3)

















Tax expense (benefit) on Earnings from Continuing Operations

(11)

96

n/m 1) Earnings from Continuing Operations

537

1,006

(46.6)

















Earnings from Discontinued Operations, net of taxes

--

--

n/m

















Net Earnings

$537

$1,006

(46.6)

















Earnings from Continuing Operations, excluding













Specified Items, as described below

$1,018

$1,465

(30.5) 2)















Diluted Earnings per Common Share from:













Continuing Operations

$0.30

$0.56

(46.4)

Discontinued Operations

--

--

n/m

Total

$0.30

$0.56

(46.4)

















Diluted Earnings per Common Share from Continuing













Operations, excluding Specified Items, as described below

$0.57

$0.82

(30.5) 2)















Average Number of Common Shares Outstanding













Plus Dilutive Common Stock Options

1,785

1,781









NOTES: See tables titled "Non-GAAP Reconciliation of Financial Information From Continuing Operations" for an explanation of certain non-GAAP financial information. n/m = Percent change is not meaningful. See footnotes below.



1) 2020 Tax expense (benefit) on Earnings from Continuing Operations includes the recognition of approximately $80 million of net tax benefits as a result of the resolution of various tax positions related to prior years and approximately $20 million in excess tax benefits associated with share-based compensation.



2) 2020 Net Earnings and Diluted Earnings per Common Share from Continuing Operations, excluding Specified Items, excludes net after-tax charges of $481 million, or $0.27 per share, for intangible amortization expense, other expenses primarily associated with acquisitions and restructuring actions and charges for equity investment impairments.





2019 Net Earnings and Diluted Earnings per Common Share from Continuing Operations, excluding Specified Items, excludes net after-tax charges of $459 million, or $0.26 per share, for intangible amortization expense and other expenses primarily associated with acquisitions and restructuring actions.

Abbott Laboratories and Subsidiaries Condensed Consolidated Statement of Earnings First Half Ended June 30, 2020 and 2019 (in millions, except per share data) (unaudited)





1H20

1H19

%

Change

Net Sales

$15,054

$15,514

(3.0)

















Cost of products sold, excluding amortization expense

6,544

6,439

1.6

Amortization of intangible assets

1,114

969

15.0

Research and development

1,142

1,249

(8.6) 1) Selling, general, and administrative

4,824

4,912

(1.8)

Total Operating Cost and Expenses

13,624

13,569

0.4

















Operating Earnings

1,430

1,945

(26.5)

















Interest expense, net

246

294

(16.5)

Net foreign exchange (gain) loss

4

2

n/m

Other (income) expense, net

21

(85)

n/m

Earnings from Continuing Operations before taxes

1,159

1,734

(33.2)

















Tax expense (benefit) on Earnings from Continuing Operations

78

56

40.3 2) Earnings from Continuing Operations

1,081

1,678

(35.6)

















Earnings from Discontinued Operations, net of taxes

20

--

n/m

















Net Earnings

$1,101

$1,678

(34.4)

















Earnings from Continuing Operations, excluding













Specified Items, as described below

$2,180

$2,591

(15.8) 3)















Diluted Earnings per Common Share from:













Continuing Operations

$0.60

$0.94

(36.2)

Discontinued Operations

0.01

--

n/m

Total

$0.61

$0.94

(35.1)

















Diluted Earnings per Common Share from Continuing













Operations, excluding Specified Items, as described below

$1.22

$1.45

(15.9) 3)















Average Number of Common Shares Outstanding













Plus Dilutive Common Stock Options

1,783

1,779























NOTES: See tables titled "Non-GAAP Reconciliation of Financial Information From Continuing Operations" for an explanation of certain non-GAAP financial information. n/m = Percent change is not meaningful. See footnotes below.

1) In the first six months of 2019, in conjunction with the acquisition of Cephea Valve Technologies, Inc., Abbott acquired an R&D asset valued at $102 million, which was immediately expensed.



2) 2020 Tax expense (benefit) on Earnings from Continuing Operations includes the recognition of approximately $80 million of net tax benefits as a result of the resolution of various tax positions related to prior years and approximately $70 million in excess tax benefits associated with share-based compensation.





2019 Tax expense (benefit) on Earnings from Continuing Operations includes the impact of a $78 million reduction of the transition tax associated with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and approximately $90 million in excess tax benefits associated with share-based compensation.



3) 2020 Net Earnings and Diluted Earnings per Common Share from Continuing Operations, excluding Specified Items, excludes net after-tax charges of $1.099 billion, or $0.62 per share, for intangible amortization expense and other expenses primarily associated with acquisitions and restructuring actions.





2019 Net Earnings and Diluted Earnings per Common Share from Continuing Operations, excluding Specified Items, excludes net after-tax charges of $913 million, or $0.51 per share, for intangible amortization expense and other expenses primarily associated with acquisitions and restructuring actions.

Abbott Laboratories and Subsidiaries

Non-GAAP Reconciliation of Financial Information From Continuing Operations

Second Quarter Ended June 30, 2020 and 2019

(in millions, except per share data)

(unaudited)









2Q20





As

Reported

(GAAP)

Specified

Items

As

Adjusted

% to

Sales





















Intangible Amortization

$ 553

$ (553)

$ -





Gross Margin

3,512

591

4,103

56.0%

R&D

564

(28)

536

7.3%

SG&A

2,276

(24)

2,252

30.7%

Other (income) expense, net

22

(68)

(46)





Earnings from Continuing Operations before taxes

526

711

1,237





Tax expense (benefit) on Earnings from Continuing Operations

(11)

230

219





Earnings from Continuing Operations

537

481

1,018





Diluted Earnings per Share from Continuing Operations

$0.30

$0.27

$0.57









Specified items reflect intangible amortization expense of $553 million and other expenses of $158 million, primarily associated with acquisitions, restructuring actions and other expenses. See tables titled "Details of Specified Items" for additional details regarding specified items.









2Q19





As

Reported

(GAAP)

Specified

Items

As

Adjusted

% to

Sales





















Intangible Amortization

$ 483

$ (483)

$ -





Gross Margin

4,217

522

4,739

59.4%

R&D

577

(12)

565

7.1%

SG&A

2,434

(46)

2,388

29.9%

Other (income) expense, net

(38)

(16)

(54)





Earnings from Continuing Operations before taxes

1,102

596

1,698





Tax expense (benefit) on Earnings from Continuing Operations

96

137

233





Earnings from Continuing Operations

1,006

459

1,465





Diluted Earnings per Share from Continuing Operations

$0.56

$0.26

$0.82









Specified items reflect intangible amortization expense of $483 million and other expenses of $113 million, primarily associated with acquisitions, restructuring actions and other expenses. See tables titled "Details of Specified Items" for additional details regarding specified items.







Abbott Laboratories and Subsidiaries

Non-GAAP Reconciliation of Financial Information From Continuing Operations

First Half Ended June 30, 2020 and 2019

(in millions, except per share data)

(unaudited)









1H20





As

Reported

(GAAP)

Specified

Items

As

Adjusted

% to

Sales





















Intangible Amortization

$ 1,114

$ (1,114)

$ -





Gross Margin

7,396

1,190

8,586

57.0%

R&D

1,142

(43)

1,099

7.3%

SG&A

4,824

(82)

4,742

31.5%

Other (income) expense, net

21

(110)

(89)





Earnings from Continuing Operations before taxes

1,159

1,425

2,584





Tax expense (benefit) on Earnings from Continuing Operations

78

326

404





Earnings from Continuing Operations

1,081

1,099

2,180





Diluted Earnings per Share from Continuing Operations

$0.60

$0.62

$1.22









Specified items reflect intangible amortization expense of $1.114 billion and other expenses of $311 million, primarily associated with acquisitions, restructuring actions and other expenses. See table titled "Details of Specified Items" for additional details regarding specified items.









1H19





As

Reported

(GAAP)

Specified

Items

As

Adjusted

% to

Sales





















Intangible Amortization

$ 969

$ (969)

$ -





Gross Margin

8,106

1,049

9,155

59.0%

R&D

1,249

(127)

1,122

7.2%

SG&A

4,912

(91)

4,821

31.1%

Other (income) expense, net

(85)

(29)

(114)





Earnings from Continuing Operations before taxes

1,734

1,296

3,030





Tax expense (benefit) on Earnings from Continuing Operations

56

383

439





Earnings from Continuing Operations

1,678

913

2,591





Diluted Earnings per Share from Continuing Operations

$0.94

$0.51

$1.45









Specified items reflect intangible amortization expense of $969 million and other expenses of $327 million, primarily associated with acquisitions, restructuring actions and other expenses. See tables titled "Details of Specified Items" for additional details regarding specified items.





A reconciliation of the second-quarter tax rates for continuing operations for 2020 and 2019 is shown below:









2Q20

($ in millions)

Pre-Tax

Income

Taxes on

Earnings

Tax

Rate

As reported (GAAP)

$526

$ (11)

(2.1%) 1) Specified items

711

230





Excluding specified items

$1,237

$219

17.7%

























2Q19

($ in millions)

Pre-Tax

Income

Taxes on

Earnings

Tax

Rate

As reported (GAAP)

$1,102

$96

8.7%

Specified items

596

137





Excluding specified items

$1,698

$233

13.7%





1) 2020 Tax expense on Earnings from Continuing Operations includes the recognition of approximately $80 million of net tax benefits as a result of the resolution of various tax positions related to prior years and approximately $20 million in excess tax benefits associated with share-based compensation.





A reconciliation of the year-to-date tax rates for continuing operations for 2020 and 2019 is shown below:









1H20

($ in millions)

Pre-Tax

Income

Taxes on

Earnings

Tax

Rate

As reported (GAAP)

$1,159

$78

6.7% 2) Specified items

1,425

326





Excluding specified items

$2,584

$404

15.6%

























1H19

($ in millions)

Pre-Tax

Income

Taxes on

Earnings

Tax

Rate

As reported (GAAP)

$1,734

$56

3.2% 3) Specified items

1,296

383





Excluding specified items

$3,030

$439

14.5%







2) 2020 Tax expense on Earnings from Continuing Operations includes the recognition of approximately $80 million of net tax benefits as a result of the resolution of various tax positions related to prior years and approximately $70 million in excess tax benefits associated with share-based compensation.



3) Reported tax rate on a GAAP basis for 2019 includes the impact of a $78 million reduction of the transition tax associated with the TCJA and approximately $90 million in excess tax benefits associated with share-based compensation.

Abbott Laboratories and Subsidiaries Details of Specified Items Second Quarter Ended June 30, 2020 (in millions, except per share data) (unaudited)





Acquisition or

Divestiture-

related (a)

Restructuring

and Cost

Reduction

Initiatives (b)

Intangible

Amortization

Other (c)

Total

Specifieds Gross Margin

$ 22

$ 15

$ 553

$ 1

$ 591 R&D

(3)

(2)

--

(23)

(28) SG&A

(27)

3

--

--

(24) Other (income) expense, net

(3)

--

--

(65)

(68) Earnings from Continuing Operations before taxes

$ 55

$ 14

$ 553

$ 89

711 Tax expense on Earnings from Continuing Operations (d)

















230 Earnings from Continuing Operations

















$ 481 Diluted Earnings per Share from Continuing Operations

















$ 0.27























The table above provides additional details regarding the specified items described on the tables titled "Non-GAAP Reconciliation of Financial Information From Continuing Operations."

a) Acquisition-related expenses include integration costs, which represent incremental costs directly related to integrating the acquired businesses and include expenditures for retention, severance, and the integration of systems, processes and business activities.



b) Restructuring and cost reduction initiative expenses include severance, outplacement, and other direct costs associated with specific restructuring plans and cost reduction initiatives. Restructuring and cost reduction plans consist of distinct initiatives to streamline operations including the consolidation and rationalization of business activities and facilities, workforce reductions, the transfer of product lines between manufacturing facilities, and the transfer of other business activities between sites.



c) Other primarily relates to the impairment of equity investments and the costs to acquire research and development assets.



d) Reflects the net tax benefit associated with the specified items, the resolution of prior years' tax positions and excess tax benefits associated with share-based compensation.

Abbott Laboratories and Subsidiaries Details of Specified Items Second Quarter Ended June 30, 2019 (in millions, except per share data) (unaudited)





Acquisition or

Divestiture-

related (a)

Restructuring

and Cost

Reduction

Initiatives (b)

Intangible

Amortization

Other (c)

Total

Specifieds Gross Margin

$ 18

$ 21

$ 483

$ --

$ 522 R&D

(7)

(5)

--

--

(12) SG&A

(44)

(2)

--

--

(46) Other (income) expense, net

(7)

--

--

(9)

(16) Earnings from Continuing Operations before taxes

$ 76

$ 28

$ 483

$ 9

596 Tax expense on Earnings from Continuing Operations (d)

















137 Earnings from Continuing Operations

















$ 459 Diluted Earnings per Share from Continuing Operations

















$ 0.26























The table above provides additional details regarding the specified items described on tables titled "Non-GAAP Reconciliation of Financial Information From Continuing Operations."

a) Acquisition-related expenses include costs for tax and other services related to business acquisitions, integration costs which represent incremental costs directly related to integrating the acquired businesses and include expenditures for retention, severance, and the integration of systems, processes and business activities, and fair value adjustments to contingent consideration related to a business acquisition.



b) Restructuring and cost reduction initiative expenses include severance, outplacement, inventory write-downs, asset impairments, accelerated depreciation, and other direct costs associated with specific restructuring plans and cost reduction initiatives. Restructuring and cost reduction plans consist of distinct initiatives to streamline operations including the consolidation and rationalization of business activities and facilities, workforce reductions, the transfer of product lines between manufacturing facilities, and the transfer of other business activities between sites.



c) Other primarily relates to the impairment of an equity investment.



d) Reflects the net tax benefit associated with the specified items and excess tax benefits associated with share-based compensation.

Abbott Laboratories and Subsidiaries Details of Specified Items First Half Ended June 30, 2020 (in millions, except per share data) (unaudited)





Acquisition or

Divestiture-

related (a)

Restructuring

and Cost

Reduction

Initiatives (b)

Intangible

Amortization

Other (c)

Total

Specifieds Gross Margin

$ 45

$ 30

$ 1,114

$ 1

$ 1,190 R&D

(7)

(8)

--

$ (28)

(43) SG&A

(55)

(27)

--

--

(82) Other (income) expense, net

(1)

--

--

(109)

(110) Earnings from Continuing Operations before taxes

$ 108

$ 65

$ 1,114

$ 138

1,425 Tax expense on Earnings from Continuing Operations (d)

















326 Earnings from Continuing Operations

















$ 1,099 Diluted Earnings per Share from Continuing Operations

















$ 0.62























The table above provides additional details regarding the specified items described on tables titled "Non-GAAP Reconciliation of Financial Information From Continuing Operations."



a) Acquisition-related expenses include integration costs, which represent incremental costs directly related to integrating the acquired businesses and include expenditures for retention, severance, and the integration of systems, processes and business activities.



b) Restructuring and cost reduction initiative expenses include severance, outplacement, and other direct costs associated with specific restructuring plans and cost reduction initiatives. Restructuring and cost reduction plans consist of distinct initiatives to streamline operations including the consolidation and rationalization of business activities and facilities, workforce reductions, the transfer of product lines between manufacturing facilities, and the transfer of other business activities between sites.



c) Other primarily relates to the impairment of equity investments and the costs to acquire research and development assets.



d) Reflects the net tax benefit associated with the specified items, the resolution of prior years' tax positions and excess tax benefits associated with share-based compensation.

Abbott Laboratories and Subsidiaries Details of Specified Items First Half Ended June 30, 2019 (in millions, except per share data) (unaudited)





Acquisition or

Divestiture-

related (a)

Restructuring

and Cost

Reduction

Initiatives (b)

Intangible

Amortization

Other (c)

Total

Specifieds Gross Margin

$ 37

$ 43

$ 969

$ --

$ 1,049 R&D

(14)

(10)

--

(103)

(127) SG&A

(87)

(4)

--

--

(91) Other (income) expense, net

(10)

--

--

(19)

(29) Earnings from Continuing Operations before taxes

$ 148

$ 57

$ 969

$ 122

1,296 Tax expense on Earnings from Continuing Operations (d)

















383 Earnings from Continuing Operations

















$ 913 Diluted Earnings per Share from Continuing Operations

















$ 0.51























The table above provides additional details regarding the specified items described on tables titled "Non-GAAP Reconciliation of Financial Information From Continuing Operations."



a) Acquisition-related expenses include costs for tax and other services related to business acquisitions, integration costs which represent incremental costs directly related to integrating the acquired businesses and include expenditures for retention, severance, and the integration of systems, processes and business activities, and fair value adjustments to contingent consideration related to a business acquisition.



b) Restructuring and cost reduction initiative expenses include severance, outplacement, inventory write-downs, asset impairments, accelerated depreciation, and other direct costs associated with specific restructuring plans and cost reduction initiatives. Restructuring and cost reduction plans consist of distinct initiatives to streamline operations including the consolidation and rationalization of business activities and facilities, workforce reductions, the transfer of product lines between manufacturing facilities, and the transfer of other business activities between sites.



c) Other relates to the acquisition of an R&D asset and charges related to the impairment of certain assets.



d) Reflects the net tax benefit associated with the specified items, a reduction in the transition tax associated with the TCJA and excess tax benefits associated with share-based compensation.

SOURCE Abbott

Related Links

http://www.abbott.com


By Azernews





By Akbar Mammadov

Azerbaijani army units have destroyed field control point of one of the units of the Armenian armed forces by an accurate fire as part of punitive measures undertaken to suppress the enemys combat activity on July 15, the Defence Ministry stated today.

The operation took place at 4 pm. Earlier at 3.02 pm, the ministry reported that after the shelling of Azerbaijani positions and settlements in the direction of the Tovuz region of the front, Armenian units became active in the border regions of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.

The ministry noted that Armenian units violated the ceasefire in the direction of Sharur, Babek and Ordubad regions on July 14 from 10:15 pm to 11:55 pm and on July 15 from 01:20 am to the morning using various large-caliber weapons.

A military vehicle moving to the command observation post was destroyed by the accurate firing of our units in order to force the Armenian Armed Forces to cease fire in the direction of Nakhchivan and take punitive measures, the ministry said, adding that Armenia forces were silenced by retaliatory fire.

The defense ministry emphasized that the operational environment is under the control of Azerbaijani troops.

The Azerbaijani army has been taking punitive measures against the Armenian provocation starting from midnight today as the units of the Azerbaijani Army destroyed military equipment belonging Armenian armed forces in order to suppress combat activity of the advisory side. The stronghold of another company of the armed forces of Armenia was destroyed by the accurate fire of our units at 07.30. Later, at 09:35 am, the ministry shared information that another long-range firing point of the Armenian units was destroyed.

The cross-border clashes between the two countries started on July 12, when units of the Armenian armed forces, grossly violating the ceasefire on the direction of the Tovuz region of the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border, fired on positions of the Azerbaijani Army using artillery mounts.

Eleven Azerbaijani servicemen and a civilian have been killed in the hostilities so far.

In the meantime, Azerbaijani Presidential Aide and Head of Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmat Hajiyev said in an interview to the European Euraactiv.com news website today that Armenia had planed the cross-border provocation in advance and on purpose.




Back to school, browsing and book signings are just some of the happy memories Eason customers have shared after the bookseller and stationer announced it intends to close its seven stores here with the loss of 144 jobs.

The Irish-owned retailer, which has been in trouble for some time, blamed Covid-19 and Brexit for the decision.

The company has not reopened its stores in Belfast, Newtownabbey, Lisburn, Bangor, Enniskillen, Londonderry and Coleraine since lockdown restrictions were imposed in March.

Derry crime writer Claire Allan recalled the "amazing moment" she saw her first book on sale in the Foyleside store in 2007.

"I don't think people realise the amount of support Eason's gave to local authors by always making room to stock and push their books," said the author of Her Name Was Rose.

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"They were instrumental in building my career and this closure means my books probably won't be sold in Derry in the future because Eason's was the place to go.

"My daughter is an avid reader and it was her favourite shop. She would always completely fleece me for more books than I was intending to buy."

The Belfast author of 50 Shades Of Red, White And Blue, Leesa Harker, also owes her success to the firm.

"One of the highlights of my life was having my book launched in the city centre store when 200 people showed up. I also did some book signings in the Abbey Centre branch and always found Eason's very supportive of new writers, so this decision is terribly sad," she said.

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Belfast author of The International Glenn Patterson added: "I was a bookseller at Crane's bookshop when I left school and I'd be sent round to the Eason warehouse practically every day.

"If we didn't have a book in stock we would send customers to them, or to Mullan's, Gardiner's, and they would all do the same if it was something they didn't have.

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"It taught me that cooperation is widespread as competition. If one shop or chain goes, everyone suffers."

Political commentator Alex Kane said Eason's was his "go-to place" for newspapers and magazines from around the world. "They always had a very eclectic stock and I'll miss those Saturday afternoons of being able to browse and find something you'd never have expected," he said.

"My daughters Megan and Lilah always loved browsing and Eason's was brilliant for encouraging children to read, so it's a pity my young son Indy won't get the same chance to rummage."

Former West Tyrone Ulster Unionist MLA Ross Hussey bought many books for himself and his late mother Rachel in the Belfast, Enniskillen and Derry stores down the years.

"I'm very much into history so I would always have dandered in because Eason's was the only place you could go and potter about the rows of books and find something of interest," he said.

"My mother was a great Catherine Cookson fan, so coming up to Mother's Day I went to Eason's to get her latest book.

"I always found the staff very helpful and they went out of their way to help."

Strangford Alliance MLA Kellie Armstrong was a regular Eason's shopper from an early age.

"As a child it was the place to go for back to school new pens, pencil cases, novelty erasers and art materials. It was my go-to for my escape, thriller novels too."
The Oregon Employment Department plans to begin requiring employees to wear masks at its call centers and claims processing facilities after a succession of coronavirus outbreaks that infected 13 employees and, last week, shuttered its Gresham facility.

The infections have exacerbated the problems at the troubled agency that has struggled to pay jobless benefits since the pandemic hit Oregon in March. Tens of thousands of claims are outstanding.

We continue to feel the impact of the pandemic and at the employment department were fighting this pandemic on two fronts right now, said interim director David Gerstenfeld, citing the economic impacts as well as the infections among his own staff.

Oregon requires people to wear masks indoors in public settings, like a grocery store, but not in offices. Nonetheless, many other employers have already required masks among their own staff. Gerstenfeld said the department had been following health department advice and encouraged employees to wear masks, but ultimately concluded it needed to do more to stop the outbreaks.

Things that we had hoped would be safe were not stopping the spread of the virus as much as wed hoped, he said on his weekly media call Wednesday. Gerstenfeld said masks will be mandatory once the department has a supply of them to distribute to workers  he said he expects delivery soon.

Gerstenfeld acknowledged that the infections will further slow the processing of claims. But he indicated the impact on the claims system may be modest, since the department began a telework pilot program this week after previously requiring claims processors report to the office throughout the pandemic. Employees from the shuttered Gresham office are the first to work remotely.

Allowing remote work is one of several steps other states employment agencies took early in the pandemic that Oregon is now adopting. Others include:

 Working with Google to improve the claims process: Within the next few days, the department plans to launch a new system developed by Google to process claims for self-employed workers, who are newly eligible for benefits. Gerstenfeld said the Google-based system will provide applicants with more guidance and reduce the number of technical errors that are slowing claims processing.

 Callbacks: The employment departments phone lines have been hopelessly jammed since the pandemic hit in March. But phone calls remain the only way to resolve many claims. Last week, the department posted an online form for people who have had been waiting for many weeks for their benefits to request a call from the department to address specific issues. Gerstenfeld said the new form will enable the department to prioritize those who have been waiting the longest.

 Relief payments: Oregon lawmakers approved a $35 million program Tuesday to make $500, one-time payments to people who have been unable to resolve their jobless claims. But its not clear who will be eligible for the payments, and state administrators say it will be at least six weeks before the program is up and running.

Also Wednesday, Gerstenfeld said the department failed for the second straight week to meet its target for processing benefits claims for self-employed workers, who are newly eligible for benefits under the federally funded Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program. He said changes the department hoped would speed the processing of these new claims havent worked as well as intended.

That leaves approximately 55,000 people waiting for PUA benefits  many have gone without income since Congress created the program in March. However, Gerstenfeld said the department still hopes to meet its goal of clearing that backlog by August 8.

-- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway |

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Supplier News

16 July 2020

Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company (NYSE: HPE), today announced that Nobu Hospitality, a luxury lifestyle brand founded by Nobu Matsuhisa, Robert De Niro and Meir Teper, is standardizing on Aruba as its preferred network infrastructure vendor for three of its new hotels in Chicago, Warsaw and London Portman Square. Using the foundation of Aruba ESP, a combination of Aruba wired, wireless and security solutions, Nobu Hotels is enabling highly secure and reliable Wi-Fi, as well as a range of IoT applications, that help provide a superior experience for its guests, replete with all of the comforts and technologies they have at home.

To accomplish this, the edge - where data is generated, secured, analyzed and acted upon - must serve as the foundation for leveraging actionable analytics from Nobu Hotel's integrated network, business applications and guest preferences, to deliver new on-property guest experiences.

According to Rodney Linville, Global Corporate Director of IT for Nobu Hospitality, Aruba's open, secure and nimble cloud-native infrastructure was the ideal choice to reflect the Nobu Hotel brand.

"The Aruba infrastructure allows us to easily layer services and add applications that will deliver the customer experience our guests are seeking, as well as help our employees become more efficient," said Linville. "The performance, reliability and built-in firewall and security features Aruba offers stood out and will make it easy for our IT team to continually upgrade and provide a superior experience for our guests and hotel teams."

With the help of key integration partners, Nobu is deploying a range of Aruba solutions at its various properties. Among these are Aruba edge and core switches, ClearPass Policy Manager, and Aruba location-ready APs, the latter of which are designed specifically for hospitality and IoT use cases. This is particularly important for Nobu as the IT team is pairing the Aruba Bluetooth beacon and Zigbee radio technology in the APs with solutions from key IoT and analytics partners including the following:

ASSA ABLOY Global Solutions for automating access and identity controls with door locks and enabling contactless check-in, allowing guests to use their smartphones to gain secure room access

React Mobile to create a safe working environment for their staff with an enterprise class Employee Safety Device platform, as required by local or union regulations

Skyfii for improving hotel operations and the visitor experience

The secure Aruba infrastructure also supports the hotel's mobile Point-of-Sale and Property Management Systems which are critical to addressing guests' needs, regardless of where they are located on the property. For example, guests will be able to check in or out of the property, or access concierge services without having to visit the front desk or lobby area.

As Nobu continues to add new services and applications to streamline operations and enhance its guest experience, and expand its global footprint, Linville says that the IT team will continue to rely heavily on its Aruba network infrastructure, and will evaluate additional Aruba solutions such as Aruba Central and SD-Branch.
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
The Zoom Boom is coming to a shareholder meeting near you.

Investors are flocking to virtual shareholder meetings as the coronavirus leads companies to gather online. Amazon.com, for example, drew more than 1000 participants to its online-only affair in May. Fewer than 150 on average attended in person in previous years, a company spokeswoman said.

The change is shaking up annual meetings at a time when stockholders are demanding more transparency. As issues such as employee diversity take centre stage, online gatherings can bolster participation -- providing tech glitches don't get in the way -- but at the expense of getting to grill management face-to-face.

Sign of the times: Billionaire investor Warren Buffett addressed Berkshire Hathaway shareholders in an online meeting this year. Credit:Bloomberg

Increased attendance "may make it easier to get things through that otherwise might get held up," said David Yermack, a professor at New York University.
Why Pak doesn't want this billionaire to be extradited to US. Image Source: IANS News

Why Pak doesn't want this billionaire to be extradited to US. Image Source: IANS News

London, July 16 : Ostensibly at the behest of Islamabad, Pakistani diplomats are going all out to scuttle the extradition process of Karachi born business tycoon Arif Naqvi, who has been accused of global money laundering by the US authorities.

Naqvi, who founded one of the largest private equity firms in Dubai, The Abraaj Group, has close links with Pakistan's top politicians, bureaucrats and big-time hawala operators.

On the request of US federal authorities, the Scotland Yard had arrested Naqvi, who lives with his family in Central London, last year.

Sources said that soon after his release in May 2019 from London's Wandsworth Prison, Naqvi had met Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who was on a state visit to Britain.

Naqvi's family is also said to be close to Pakistan's High Commissioner in London, Mohammad Nafees Zakaria.

The career diplomat from Pakistan, Zakaria had an early stint as Deputy High Commissioner here, and has considerable clout in the British political and legal circles.

Islamabad fears that Naqvi's extradition to the US will spill the beans on the Abraaj Group's connections with some of the most influential people in the government, including Karachi and Dubai based hawala operators with shady backgrounds.

Islamabad also helped Naqvi return all the money the group owed to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and other Americans associated with the funds. On the basis of settling accounts with the Americans, Naqvi's lawyers argued that a trial could now be held in the UK where Naqvi lives.

Sources said that besides a battery of lawyers engaged by billionaire Naqvi, Pakistani diplomats are providing documentation and logistical support to the alleged scamster, accused of misappropriation of funds worth over $230 million. Naqvi, as per records available with IANS, led the Abraaj Group in Dubai which once claimed to manage $13 billion funds, and later got involved in misusing public money, stealing public funds and money laundering.

In Abraaj's healthcare fund, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation also invested large amounts. Initially it was the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which got a whiff of the racket and raised concerns about misuse of its funds, helping trigger the Abraaj Group's demise.

Interestingly, Naqvi's family had earlier established the Aman Foundation, an NGO in Karachi, and went ahead to forge an alliance with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to start a family planning programme with blessings of the state government in Sindh province.

A graduate from the London School of Economics, Naqvi has served in several multinational companies. In 2002, he founded Abraaj Capital, and in 2012 the company merged with Aureos Capital to become The Abraaj Group.

When the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation raised an alarm over misuse of funds, Naqvi quietly stepped down as CEO of The Abraaj Group, as the company became the subject of multiple investigations regarding its fund management practices.

Questions have also been raised over Naqvi's rich collection of arts. Before the collapse of Abraaj, an art work owned by Naqvi was sold through Christie's for 2 million pounds in 2018.
TEHRAN, Iran, July 16

Trend:

There is a relative stabilization in the coronavirus situation in the country and it can be said that we are surpassing Coronavirus peak gradually, said Iranian President.

"In recent weeks, people have followed health protocols; if everyone is cautious and follows health instruction, we will beat the virus," Rouhani said, Trend reports citing IRIB.

"The social distancing has been implemented widely; however, statistics show that social distancing during large gatherings such as weddings and funerals slightly declined in June, although we advised people to avoid large ceremonies," the president said.

"We expect to witness good results in coming weeks following the implementation of protocols," the head of state added.

Earlier, the Governor of Tehran announced that some of social restrictions will be restored for a week to control the coronavirus spread. All the cinemas, theaters, museums, universities, mosques, reception halls, cafes, gyms and beauty salons will remain close.

"Unfortunately, the number of patients in hospitals has increased significantly in past ten days, and there is no other way but to increase introduce restrictions," said Anoushirvan Mohseni-Bandpey.

Iran has implemented new health protocol last week that made wearing mask mandatory, especially in public offices and transportation.
D&AD has announced its 2020 Pencil winners for the Collaborative category, which celebrates long-lasting relationships between clients and their design, advertising and/and production companies that have led to the creation of amazing work over time.

Turner Duckworth & Miller Lite.

Dentsu Inc. & East Japan Railway Company.

Creative excellence thrives on bold thinking, trust and exchange, which we are excited to celebrate through this years two Collaborative Pencils. Where Turner Duckworths ongoing partnership with Miller Lite helped transform an iconic beer brand, Dentsu Inc.s work with East Japan Railway Company highlights creative collaboration as a tool for uniting communities in the wake of a tragedy. As the creative industries undergo significant change, we can all learn from this years Collaborative Pencil winners about the importance of forging enduring relationships to help create a robust and united future.

Since 1962, D&AD has stimulated, celebrated and enabled creative excellence and will continue to support the creative community through this period of unprecedented uncertainty. The 2020 Awards recognise creative excellence from the past year in the belief that great work is always worthwhile, often producing better outcomes for all.The 2020 Collaborative Pencil winners are:Creative Agency CategoryMillerCoors joined forces with Turner Duckworth in 2014. A partnership until the present day which has seen a vast 5% YOY decline halted, shift in consumer perception & creative success with 25+ awards.Further information on the campaign can be found here For more behind the campaign, D&AD interviews the team at Turner Duckworth about the collaboration here Design Agency CategoryGet Back, Tohoku. is an ongoing, nine-year campaign developed for the East Japan Railway Company after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japans Tohoku region. Launched in the wake of tragedy, it required close client-agency collaboration and a relationship of trust to make daring decisions in unprecedented circumstances. Presenting trains as heroic figures that unite people and communities, it has lifted the spirits of a suffering nation and contributed to the recovery of the railway and the entire Tohoku region.Further information on the campaign can be found here For more behind the campaign, D&AD interviews Yoshihiro Yagi, Creative Director at Dentsu Inc. about the collaboration here Todays news follows D&AD's previous announcements for winners across the following categories: Impact, Side Hustle, Next, Craft, Advertising, Culture and Design. Additional Pencil winner announcements are scheduled for 8 September and 10 September.While hosting an in-person ceremony in May was not possible due to coronavirus, D&AD is announcing this years Pencil winners via their website and in a social campaign designed by Studio Dumbar.Dara Lynch, COO at D&AD, commented:Bruce Duckworth, chief creative officer and chief executive officer of Turner Duckworth, commented: Thank you D&AD, its so rewarding for the team to win this award. They have tirelessly delivered creative excellence for the brand time after time. And also for our client too, who has backed us and believed in our work for the last 6 years.Yoshihiro Yagi, creative director at Dentsu Inc., commented: JR East assumes a large role in Japan's social infrastructure and businesses that are relevant to local communities. The decade-long 'Get Back, Tohoku' is a campaign that well represents the company's mission. It has continued a conversation with the local people and has continued to send messages to say that they are there for them. It has been a great honour for Dentsu to play a small part in this mission. Creativity is much needed to help local communities thrive and to help residents be proud of the communities they belong to. I hope the client and the agency can continue to work together, making use of technology, design, and most of all creativity, to keep the story alive.
In an exhibit originally planned for the spring, Artspace New Haven will open Revolution on Trial: May Day and The Peoples Art, New Havens Black Panthers @ 50 on Friday, July 24.

The group exhibition features painting, photography, sculpture, installation, and ephemera reflecting on the 1970 murder trial of Black Panther Party national Chairman Bobby Seale, New Haven chapter founder Ericka Huggins and seven other party members.

The show will be on display through Oct. 17, featuring artists Kwadwo Adae, Chloe Bass, Alex Callender, Melanie Crean, Ice the Beef, Paul Bryant Hudson and Miguel Luciano. Artwork will explore the trial and protest movement that erupted around it, the Black Panthers organizing in New Haven and the broader nexus of Black Power politics, according to Artspace release.

Through a critical human rights lens, the artists explore the role of existing historical archives, the narratives they do and do not contain, representations of justice and revolution, manifestations of Black joy and communal care, and global ramifications of the trial.

While Seale and Huggins ultimately were acquitted of the murder of Panther member Alex Rackley, a suspected FBI informant, the 1970 case shook the city and underscored inequities in the legal system and wider social structures, according to the Artspace release. The exhibition places particular focus on May Day, the two-day protest organized by the Panthers in solidarity with local activists and Black student leaders at Yale University to bring national attention to the trials. It was a tumultuous time that days later saw the killings of four student protesters at Kent State two more student protesters at Jackson State University.

Some of the art: Miguel Lucianos bold graphic metal shields, fashioned from slices of the side of a decommissioned school bus, can be mounted on a wall or pedestal; he made them for use by civilians protesting in Puerto Rico. Paul Bryant Hudsons Soundtrack celebrates how music and spoken words create joy, reduce anxiety, enable unity, profess love and mobilize people. Melanie Creans mural project calls for the reimagining of two large-scale 1919 neoclassical paintings in New Havens Superior Courthouse, which center an allegorical white female figure as the paradigm for justice.

The show, complemented by an Artspace podcast on the historic time, offers sustenance for opposing state violence, which continues today through the police as evidenced by the recent killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and others, says Artspace.

For safety in this pandemic, all visitors should observe social distancing and wear cloth face coverings unless doing so would be contrary to their health or safety because of a medical condition. Hours for he opening reception Friday will be noon to 6 p.m. Orange Street will also be blocked to traffic so that guests can walk through the show and have an outdoor space available for socially distanced conversation.
TDT | Manama

Ministry of Labour and Social Development Training and Manpower Development director and National Platform for Bahrain Experts Initiative Executive Team chairman Dr Essam Ismail Al Alawi has announced that the final stage of implementing the initiative has been completed.

The initiative is part of the national plan for the consolidation of national affiliation and values of citizenship Bahrainouna, which includes 105 initiatives81 per cent of which are being implemented by 25 different ministries and institutions within patriotism programmes, public relations campaigns, media initiatives, curriculum initiatives, and legislative and regulatory initiatives.

Dr Al Alawi explained that the initiative aims to launch a national platform that includes a database of all Bahraini experts and specialists in various fields, and document their professional progress, to give a positive impression of the Kingdom. The initiative is implemented by the Labour Ministry, in cooperation with the Information and eGovernment Authority, to enhance values of patriotism and citizenship.
California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis believes her state's recent surge in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations is manageable, and pushed back on CNN host Chris Cuomo's characterization of the situation as an "explosion."

During a Wednesday night appearance on CNN's "Cuomo Prime Time," Kounalakis touted the state's increased hospital capacity and referred to the state's reimposition of restrictions as a "dimmer switch."

"We knew there would be some increase in the number of cases when we started to reopen," Kounalakis said. "What the governor said from the beginning is we're going to treat it like a dimmer switch, that if we are reopening in a way that is increasing the numbers beyond what is safe, we're going to dial back ... We are now just going be back in that place where we're going to have to flatten the curve again. But I will say this: We built enormous capacity as the first state in the country to issue the shutdown, we built enormous capacity during the time that we had including increasing the number of hospital beds, ventilators, PPE. So even though we are having this spike, we are far better able to handle it than we would have been several months ago."

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has said that the state has increased hospital capacity to treat 50,000 COVID-19 patients if necessary. There are currently just over 8,000 patients hospitalized in the state with COVID-19.

Cuomo then pushed back on Kounalakis' description of the situation on the ground in California, stating, "Let's just poke at the metaphor for a second, you said this is like a dimmer switch. To me, it looks much more like a circuit breaker being thrown here. You have an explosion in cases; every metric is bad."

Kounalakis refuted the characterization.

"Let me just say we were at about a 4.5% rate of positivity in the people we were testing about a month ago, it's gone up to a 7.2-7.3% positivity rate, that is a spike, but again, it's in our capability to handle it, which is why we've pulled back to the degree we have," she said.

California's percent positivity figure is significantly lower than the percent positivity numbers in other states that have seen an "explosion" of cases in recent weeks. According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the percent positivity figure is 16.1% in Texas, 18.8% in Florida, and 24% in Arizona.

Kounalakis also revealed the "primary culprit" for virus transmission, according to the state's contact tracers.

"What we have found through the contact tracing is that too many people were getting together primarily in their homes, even in their backyards, but they were letting their guard down, and that seems to be the primary culprit in the increase of the spread," she said. "So we are working really hard to get that message out of how important it is for people to take those personal precautions and take agency in order to prevent the spread."

Cuomo did not ask the lieutenant governor why the state opted to close bars and indoor dining statewide as well as hair salons, gyms, malls and more in counties on the state's watch list if transmission is primarily occurring at social gatherings at home.

You can watch the full interview in the video above.

MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE:

Sign up for 'The Daily' newsletter for the latest on coronavirus here.

 San Francisco's health director discourages 'hard-to-resist' gatherings

 Gauging the early impact of Fourth of July gatherings on Bay Area coronavirus spread

 San Francisco Unified to begin fall semester in August with distance learning only

 Latinos make up half of SF's COVID-19 cases, despite community making up 15% of population

Alameda County allowed to reopen outdoor dining, Oakland Zoo after state approves variance

Eric Ting is an SFGATE digital reporter. Email: eric.ting@sfgate.com | Twitter:@_ericting
Azerbaijan has losses, the information will be provided later, Defense Ministry spokesman Vagif Dargali told the BBC.

Armenian defense ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan took to her Facebook Thursday morning to share an update on the situation at the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.

According to her, 'around 03:40 at night, positions of the RA Armed Forces noticed enemy movement. Switching to all-around defense Armenian units prevented the enemy's attempt of infiltration.' She added that 'after a hot battle, the enemy was thwarted back suffering losses.'

"Afterwards, at 05:20 the Azerbaijani units started shelling the villages of Aygepar, Movses, using mortars and a D-30 howitzer." "This is the first serious violation of the fragile ceasefire established yesterday at 00:15."

As Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan noted, "the situation is completely under control."

"There are no casualties on our side: neither among the military nor among the civilian population," the PM, in turn, noted.
BANGALORE, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Caltech CTME (Center for Technology and Management Education) announced its collaboration with Simplilearn, a global provider of digital skills training, to offer a specialized Post Graduate Program (PGP) in Cloud Computing . The learning program, which comprises 300+ hours of study, prepares professionals for a career as a Cloud Architect, Cloud Consultant, or Cloud Engineer. Upon successful completion of the program, learners will receive a Caltech CTME Post Graduate certificate. This program follows our recently launched and already popular Post Graduate Program in DevOps. These programs offer learners around the globe access to world-class trainers and the work-ready tools and methods needed in today's professional world.

The program enables learners to master the software architecture, design, and implementation principles required for cloud computing. During the 12-month program, learners will build the core skill sets needed for designing, planning, and scaling cloud implementation on the three top cloud platform providers.

The PGP program in Cloud Computing brings together Simplilearn's blended learning delivery model with the academic excellence of Caltech CTME. The blending learning environment combines live online classes, self-paced learning, labs and projects, extensive peer-interaction, and 24/7 access to Teaching Assistants (TA's).

Along with a comprehensive curriculum that follows industry best practices, the program also provides learners 30 live industry-based projects, Capstone projects in four industry domains, and Masterclasses from experts at Caltech CTME. This blended learning approach ensures that program participants receive an in-depth understanding of the fundamentals and abundant opportunities for hands-on practice and learning.

"Organizations are looking for IT professionals who can seamlessly integrate applications and infrastructure into the Cloud," stated Dr. Rick Hefner, program director, Caltech CTME. "Aspiring cloud professionals must demonstrate the appropriate skills and knowledge to compete favorably in the market, and a Caltech CTME Cloud certificate is the best way to do that. Our collaboration with Simplilearn allows learners to build a strong portfolio of applications to show potential employers. We are excited to offer this practical, hands-on certification program to tomorrow's technology leaders."

Several studies have highlighted the cloud skills shortage in the industry. Speaking on the launch of the program, Anand Narayanan, chief product officer, Simplilearn said, "With increasing data volumes and decreasing data center bandwidth, IT spending forecasts point to continued demand for cloud infrastructure services. Also, with the widespread adoption of work from home, organizations are looking for solutions in cloud technology to support uninterrupted access to work-based data, in turn boosting demand for cloud specialists. At Simplilearn, we strive to offer the most comprehensive learning programs by covering a wide range of subjects with an in-depth analysis of each. Through the PGP in Cloud Computing in collaboration with Caltech CTME, we aim to equip professionals with industry-relevant skills and help advance their career paths in the cloud domain."

On completion of the PGP Cloud program, participants will receive a joint industry-recognized certificate from Caltech CTME and Simplilearn and 30 CEUs (Continued Education Units) that can be applied to professional qualifications and employer requirements. Graduates will receive membership in the prestigious CTME Circle, a network for professionals, and will also be eligible for the job placement assistance, such as Iimjobs.com (India only), an exclusive online recruitment platform.

About Caltech CTME

Caltech is a world-renowned science and engineering institute that marshals some of the world's brightest minds and most innovative tools to address fundamental scientific questions and pressing societal challenges. The Caltech Center for Technology and Management Education (CTME) provides customized training programs to professionals in technology-driven organizations. The Center offers a broad range of certificate programs, interactive workshops, and short courses, including advanced engineering, project management, operations, data analytics, technical marketing, leadership, and innovation. In addition to public classes for individuals, CTME provides customized educational solutions for organizations. For more information about CTME, visit https://ctme.caltech.edu/swe.

About Simplilearn

Simplilearn enables professionals and enterprises to succeed in the fast-changing digital economy. The company provides outcome-based online training across digital technologies and applications such as Big Data, Machine Learning, AI, Cloud Computing, Cyber Security, Digital Marketing, and other emerging technologies. Based in San Francisco and Bangalore, India, Simplilearn has helped more than one million professionals and 1,000 companies across 150 countries get trained, acquire certifications, and reach their business and career goals. The company's blended learning curriculum combines self-paced online learning, instructor-led live virtual classrooms, hands-on projects, student collaboration, and 24/7 global teaching assistance.

For more information, visit Simplilearn.com.

About Caltech

The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) is a world-renowned science and engineering Institute that marshals some of the world's brightest minds and most innovative tools to address fundamental scientific questions and pressing societal challenges. Caltech prizes excellence and ambition. The contributions of Caltech's faculty and alumni have earned national and international recognition, including 38 Nobel Prizes and nearly 60 National Medals of Science. The Institute manages the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for NASA. Details on CTME's programs can be found at https://ctme.caltech.edu.

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WASHTENAW COUNTY, MI  Need to keep the little ones occupied? Two Ann Arbor-area high school students have parents covered with their free online summer camp.

Washtenaw International High School students Adi Orlyanchik and Anusha Gupta started Camp Covid about three weeks ago. What started as a daily set of online educational sessions taught by the two of them has since amassed 30 volunteer counselors, with about 100 kids signed up from around the world.

The idea for the camp came from Orlyanchik watching her younger siblings and seeing how stressful the novel coronavirus pandemic was on them. She said many kids are missing their social outlet right now with staying indoors, and parents are stressed with how to deal with it. Her mom mentioned the idea of a virtual summer camp to help engage kids and she instantly thought of Gupta.

Gupta created a STEM camp curriculum for a school project her sophomore year but it never made it off the ground because it was hard to get a camp going in-person, she said. They used this curriculum for the virtual camp theyre doing together now, with additional creative and physical classes added.

When the opportunity presented itself, we realized it was kind of the perfect chance to materialize that into something that could really help kids and its not as complex as starting a camp in real life, Gupta said.

She said both her and Orlyanchik have a lot of experience working with kids. Orlyanchik currently works at Kumon and another virtual summer camp, and Gupta taught health classes in classrooms. Most of their camp counselors are high school kids, with a few of middle school students helping as well.

Our model is kind of by kids, for kids, Orlyanchik said.

The camp is divided into about 45-minutes sessions from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every weekday. Gupta said parents and their kids can choose from the sessions on offer and recommends a no more than five sessions a day. Sessions are held through the Zoom video conferencing platform. Kids outside of Washtenaw County have signed up from as far away as Egypt, Orlyanchik said.

Pita Bantom, a University of Michigan employee, said this was the fist summer that her kids have not been able to go for summer camp. Camp Covid helped give her children safe and educational engagement.

As a parent, (the camp) is a lifesaver, Bantom said. (Its) the gift of time. We do conference calls, we have emails, we have reports, and I love that I can hear them and know that theyre safe and engaged.

While the camp has an educational goal, Gupta said they still try to keep the sessions loose to a degree where they can keep kids engaged, while also letting the kids have fun and interact with each other.

When the kids are able to compete and interact with each other, I think that allows for a lot of their social energy to be released, Orlyanchik said.

The camp offers 30 programs in subjects such as math, language, literature, science, physical education and cooking. Sessions range from For sessions requiring certain materials to participate (like painting for example) a list of materials will be sent out beforehand.

Palak Choksi signed up her two daughters for the camp after hearing about it from one of founders moms. Her kids like how the sessions taught them new topics and facilitated social interaction.

They learn from each other then they chat on the side, which I was surprised to hear about, Choski said. They are making online friends.

Gupta said they worked to build a camp that is free to parents. However, they also have a GoFundMe where people can donate to the charity, Save the Children.

Currently, Gupta and Orlyanchik plan on running the camp until around Aug. 24  when the two go back to school. However, they would not rule out the possibility of adapting the camp for after school if they see a demand for it.

As far as running a daycare for a career, the two are not entirely sure.

I have always known that I love working with kids so its something that I definitely see in my future one way or another, Orlyanchik said. I dont know if its necessarily going to be through directly running a summer camp, but its definitely something that I really enjoy.

To sign up for a session or learn more about the camp, people can visit the camps website.
The Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi - Vietnam welcomes other countries stance on the East Sea issue in line with international law, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang said on July 15.

Regarding US Secretary of State Mike Pompeos statement on the US position on maritime claims in the East Sea, Hang said peace, stability, cooperation, and development in the sea is the aspiration and goal of countries in the waters and the region as well as the international community.

The respect of maritime legal order and the full and responsible implementation of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS) are significant in realising these goals, she said.

Hang reiterated the view contained in the statement issued at the recent 36th ASEAN Summit that the 1982 UNCLOS is a legal framework on all activities at sea.

Vietnam hopes that countries will make efforts to contribute to maintaining peace, stability, and cooperation in the East Sea and settle disputes through dialogues and other peaceful measures, in accordance with international law and for the common interest, the spokesperson stressed.

Vietnam always actively and responsibly contributes to the process, she said.
Five years ago this week in Vienna, the P5+1 (the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, plus Germany) and Iran agreed to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

To mark the fifth anniversary of that occasion, we should acknowledge a simple reality: without this deal, Iran could have developed nuclear weapons by now, adding yet another source of instability to a volatile region.

Today, the JCPOA is under great pressure on multiple fronts. I am convinced that action to preserve it is not just necessary but urgent, for at least two reasons.

First, it took more than 12 years for the international community and Iran to bridge their differences and conclude a deal.

If the JCPOA is lost, no other comprehensive or effective alternative will be waiting around the corner.

The international communitys concerns about Irans nuclear program go way back.

Discussions to lay the groundwork for a negotiated solution began in 2003 at the initiative of the French, German, and British foreign ministers, and were soon joined by then-EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Javier Solana.

He and his successors, Catherine Ashton and Federica Mogherini  all of whom were supported by the European External Action Service  always kept the door open for a diplomatic solution. And, after many ups and downs, the JCPOA eventually became a reality.

The deal would have not been possible without diplomatic persistence.

It required the full buy-in not just of the United States, but also of Russia, China, and of course Iran. The final agreement was solid.

At more than 100 pages, and with several annexes, it set out all of the details for a clear quid pro quo: Iran would abide by strict limitations on its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions.

The JCPOA is enshrined in international law through UNSC Resolution 2231 (which needs to be fully implemented).

It stands as a prime example of what European diplomacy and effective multilateralism can achieve within the rules-based international order.

But the process leading up to it was lengthy and difficult, all but ruling out another chance at a deal.

Second, the JCPOA is not merely a symbolic success. It delivered on its promises, and proved effective.

Owing to the unprecedented level of access that it provided for the International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA was able to confirm in 15 consecutive monitoring reports between January 2016 and June 2019 that Iran had met all its obligations under the deal.

As such, Europe and other partners lifted sanctions, as specified in the agreement.

Irans international isolation was coming to an end, setting the stage for a restoration of normal economic and trade relations with the rest of the world.

In May 2018, however, the US decided to withdraw from the JCPOA and reinstate sanctions in pursuit of a new strategy of maximum pressure.

Although the restoration of US sanctions clearly had negative effects on Irans economy and people, Iran continued to adhere to the deal for another 14 months.

But now, Iran is once again accumulating worrying levels of enriched uranium and acquiring new nuclear know-how.

The JCPOA is being further eroded, and fears from the past are resurfacing.

In January, France, Germany, and the UK formally expressed their concerns about Irans renewed enrichment activities, and urged it to return to full compliance.

Iran, similarly, has voiced its own concerns, arguing that it has not received the expected economic benefits from the lifting of sanctions.

As the current coordinator of the JCPOA, I will continue to work with all remaining parties to the deal, as well as with the entire international community.

We will do everything possible to preserve what we achieved five years ago, and to ensure that the deal remains effective.

It is important to remember that the Iranian nuclear program remains under tight scrutiny, with its peaceful nature being constantly verified.

Thanks to the IAEA inspections regime, we continue to know a great deal about the Iranian nuclear program, even under the current circumstances.

If the agreement were to be lost, however, we would lose these insights and be set back by two decades.

I firmly believe that the JCPOA has become a key component of the global non-proliferation architecture, which is why I continue to call for all parties to remain committed to its full implementation.

Iran, for its part, must return to full compliance with its nuclear obligations; but it also needs to be able to reap the economic benefits envisioned in the agreement.

The EU will intensify its efforts to build bridges and narrow the gaps among all concerned parties.

I am convinced that if we do manage to preserve the JCPOA and ensure its full implementation, it can become a stepping-stone toward addressing other shared concerns, including those related to regional security.

We need to return to a more positive dynamic. When the moment is ripe, we must be ready to build on the deal.

The EU is willing to do so.

But the first step is to protect the Iran nuclear deal as it is, in its entirety, and for all parties to comply fully with their obligations.

Josep Borrell is EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and a vice president of the European Commission.
Celebrity hairdresser Nicky Clarke says he's had no complaints from clients about the additional fee he's introduced to cover the cost of PPE in his salons.

The hair stylist, 62, from London, appeared on Good Morning Britain today alongside spa owner Tru Powell and bar operator Jonathan Downey, to discuss whether businesses should increase their prices to boost profits as lockdown restrictions ease.

The celebrity hairdresser revealed his salons have introduced a nominal 5 fee to cover the cost of extra safety measures brought in following the crisis, and that none of his customers have mentioned the charge or believe the fee is 'unfair'.

However viewers weren't impressed, and argued that as a celebrity hairdresser who 'already overcharges', his wealthy clients wouldn't be likely to notice the fee, while others branded him 'greedy' for introducing the charge.

Scroll down for video

Celebrity hairdresser Nicky Clarke (pictured) told on GMB this morning that he's had no complaints from clients about the additional fee he's introduced to cover the cost of PPE in his salons

Explaining why he believes extra charges are exploitative, Tru, from Birmingham, said: 'I understand the challenges that businesses face, but I don't think the customer should bear the brunt of that. I think it has to land at the government's door.'

He added: 'We need to treat customers how we expect to be treated. I'm a business owner, but I am also a customer and as a customer, it doesn't sit right with me.'

Nicky responded: 'I think there are times where it didn't sit well with me in the beginning. This was always a trial in a sense. We don't really want to be doing this, but not one person has mentioned it at all and said it is unfair.

'I don't want to be doing these charges, but these are unprecedented circumstances, and as long as it is a nominal charge, that in some form needs to be there in order for all of these services to survive.

However viewers weren't impressed, and argued that as a celebrity hairdresser who ' already overcharges' his wealthy clients wouldn't be likely to notice the fee

But some viewers agreed that additional charges are acceptable because PPE is 'mandatory and important'

He added: 'People always think the higher-end business are rolling in, it but we all run relatively close to the wind and the reduction of people puts a strain on all business.'

Viewers were quick to criticise the fee, with one writing: 'Of course Nicky Clarke and his customers will be fine with a 5 covid fee....him and his customers are celebrities with plenty of money! They dont represent the everyday person.'

Another added: 'Nicky Clarke already charges over the odds for hairdressing. He has a cheek adding 5 for PPE'.

The famous hairdresser revealed his salons have introduced a nominal 5 fee to cover the cost of extra safety measures brought in following the coronavirus crisis

He appeared alongside spa owner Tru Powell (bottom left) and bar operator Jonathan Downey (top right) , to discuss whether businesses should increase their prices to boost profit after the coronavirus pandemic

'Oh Nikki Clarke', wote a third. 'Don't pretend you're hard up. If small salons aren't passing the cost on to customers then you can suck it up too. Stop being greedy.'

However others did sympathise with the hairdresser, with one writing: 'Yes, people should get charged for an appointment at a salon. Y'all who think different don't know how much PPE in salons and products in general are. Keeping everyone safe is mandatory and important. '

Jonathan, from Manchester, agreed with Nicky that prices would have to be increased to allow businesses to survive.

He said: 'I think customers can vote with their feet, each business is different and each makes the best decision for themselves and their customers. We've all been hit by extra costs.

While he is charging a nominal fee, Nicky, pictured in London in 2018, is not asking clients to pay more for services

He added:'There's still a long way for us to get back to business and making money again and it's reasonable for us to charge a little bit more.'

While he is charging a nominal fee, Nicky is not asking clients to pay more for services, and argued that with his capacity down to six clients a day, the nominal fee will help his business recover following the pandemic.

Nicky said: 'I certainly don't think it would be fair to charge more for our services. I think that would be very strange and I have heard people put phenomenal charges on the services they do, but these are things we do on a daily basis.

'So it seems odd to do that, but certainly from the point of view of the measures we put in, we put in a nominal five pound fee to cover screens and PPE etc.'

He added: 'Sometimes I'm down to six people a day and they're much longer days in terms of stretching out appointments and using time to sanitise down, these are literally nominal charges we're trying to put in. '
WASHINGTON  The United States has become overly reliant on Chinese goods and services, including face masks, medical gowns and other protective equipment designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus, Attorney General William Barr said Thursday as he also cautioned American business leaders against promoting policies favorable to Beijing.

The attorney general directly asserted that China had not only dominated the market on protective gear, exposing American dependence on Beijing, but also hoarded supplies and blocked producers from exporting to them to countries in need. He accused hackers linked to the Chinese government of targeting American universities and businesses to steal research related to vaccine development, leveling the allegation against Beijing hours after Western agencies made similar claims against Russia.

Barr's address at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is part of a full-court press by the Trump administration to denounce China, including for its alleged economic espionage. It comes as President Donald Trump tries to fend off criticism of his handling of the coronavirus and to shift the blame back onto Beijing, and as he looks to position himself as tougher on China than Democratic rival Joe Biden.

"The People's Republic of China is now engaged in an economic blitzkrieg  an aggressive, orchestrated, whole-of-government (indeed, whole-of-society) campaign to seize the commanding heights of the global economy and to surpass the United States as the world's preeminent technological superpower," Barr said.

Administration officials in recent weeks have stepped up their rhetoric about China, with a New York Post opinion piece by national security adviser Robert O'Brien and a speech last week in which FBI Director Chris Wray detailed what he said were efforts by Beijing to steal American research and innovation. He said the FBI was opening a counterintelligence investigation related to China about every 10 hours.

 READ MORE: Another 1.3 million sought unemployment benefits in the U.S. last week

Barr's speech amounted to a wide-ranging condemnation of what he said were Beijing's tactics to gain an economic upper hand in the 21st century, and to engage in influence campaigns touching diverse corners of American life, including business, politics and even entertainment.

He specifically warned American corporate leaders against pushing policies favorable to the Communist government, saying they could run afoul of federal foreign lobbying laws if they dont disclose their relationship with China.

As Chinas government loses credibility around the world, the Department of Justice has seen more and more PRC officials and their proxies reaching out to corporate leaders and inveighing them to favor policies and actions favored by the Chinese Communist Party, Barr said. Their objective varies, but their pitch is generally the same: the businessperson has economic interests in China, and there is a suggestion that things will go better (or worse) for them depending on their response to the PRCs request.

Similarly, he warned, universities that welcome Chinese-funded initiatives could unwittingly lose control of academic research. And he alleged that Hollywood had fallen influence to Beijing, too, accusing filmmakers of censoring themselves in line with Chinese propaganda.

"Globalization does not always point in the direction of greater freedom. A world marching to the beat of Communist China's drums will not be a hospitable one for institutions that depend on free markets, free trade, or the free exchange of ideas," Barr said.

Though Trumps administration has condemned China, the presidents own relationship with Beijing has been complicated. He has spoken at times of a productive rapport with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, and former national security adviser John Bolton writes in a new book that Trump asked Xi for help with Trumps reelection bid.
Sweden will take over the OSCE Chair from Albania on January 1, 2021 with Sweden's Minister for Foreign Affairs Ann Linde serving as OSCE Chairperson-in-Office.

Sweden has called a sustainable political solution to the conflict in Donbas its priority for the 2021 OSCE chairmanship.

Read alsoSweden to keep putting pressure on Russia through sanctions

"As Chair we will continue to build on the dedicated efforts of our predecessors in finding a sustainable political solution to the conflict, in line with OSCE principles and commitments. This must be in full respect of the sovereignty, territorial integrity, unity and independence of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders," Sweden's Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Robert Rydberg said on July 16, as he addressed the Permanent Council on the incoming Chair's priority areas.

Rydberg added the crisis in and around Ukraine remains one of the most blatant and recent challenges to the European security order.

Sweden will take over the OSCE Chair from Albania on January 1, 2021 with Sweden's Minister for Foreign Affairs Ann Linde serving as OSCE Chairperson-in-Office.
(Natural News) The alleged spike in Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) cases now being reported in Florida may actually be fiction, as new evidence has emerged to suggest that testing labs all throughout the Sunshine State are churning out an alarmingly high rate of false positives.

Orlando Health has confirmed, as have a number of journalists, that the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) data it reported over the past weekend is erroneous at best. This is due to the fact that more than 50 labs throughout the state are, in some cases, producing 100 percent positive test results.

In other words, 100 percent of the people getting tested for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) at these 50-plus labs are being told that they have the virus, when in reality only a very small fraction, if any, actually have it. Consequently, the official infection numbers for Florida are completely skewed.

Orlando Health, for example, had reported that 98 percent of the people it tested came up positive, when in reality it was actually 9.8 percent (or 9.4 percent, according to other sources). The Orlando Veterans Medical Center had also mistakenly reported a 76 percent positivity rate, when the true figure was a mere six percent.

Local news affiliate FOX 35 attempted to contact the Florida Department of Health for an explanation as to these prolific errors, but has yet to hear back. In the meantime, Governor Ron DeSantis has responded to the false data as if it was real, declaring that it was a mistake to reopen Florida so soon.

With the states handling of the response coming under such intense scrutiny  [these] errors point to a culture of carelessness that Floridians might find extremely discouraging, especially now that their state is home to the new national epicenter (Miami), reports Zero Hedge.

Check out The Health Ranger Report below as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, talks about how America will not survive a second wave of lockdowns:

When will Americans rise up and say ENOUGH to this plandemic madness?

All of this begs the obvious question: So, how many people really have coronavirus in Florida? And while we are at it, how many people in the United States truly have it?

With so much incorrect reporting and erroneous data coming from the authorities these days, it would seem as though nobody really knows anything when it comes to this so-called pandemic. And yet Americans continue to be treated as though everyone has the virus, suffering through seemingly endless lockdowns and face covering restrictions.

We found numerous labs that are only reporting positive test results, so they show a 100 percent positivity rate, stated Charles Billi from FOX 35 about the situation in Florida specifically. That got our attention.

All in all, a shocking 22 labs in Florida have been confirmed as reporting 100 percent positivity rates. Several others are reporting 90-plus percent positivity rates, with the remaining reporting positivity rates of 87.5, 60, 59.23, and all the way down the line to 27.66.

What this means is that Floridas official statewide positivity rate of 12.5 percent is completely false. The 266,119 confirmed cases among Florida residents are also not real cases, or at least a sizeable percentage of them are not.

The whole thing is essentially a scam at this point, at least in terms of the overall number of infections. And yet the mainstream media is barely even giving a nod to this revelation, instead continuing on with its relentless fear-mongering.

Incredible how much evil truly lurks in the medical community, wrote one Zero Hedge commenter. Hospitals, doctors, nurses and labs who have signed up to this extermination plan have all become Dr. Mengele. PURE EVIL. Avoid hospitals at all costs, they are now the KILLING FIELDS.

To keep up with the latest Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) news, visit Pandemic.news.

Sources for this article include:

ZeroHedge.com

NaturalNews.com

Breitbart.com
A visibly angry Gov. Mark Gordon urged Wyomingites on Wednesday to wear face masks and to not minimize the deaths and dangers facing the states most vulnerable residents from the coronavirus.

When somebody sends me a note that says, Well these people are gonna die anyway, theyre just dying sooner, I gotta say, Im offended, he said at a news conference. And as an American, I think most people are going to be offended by the notion that people should just get this COVID-19 and get out of the way. Im sick and tired of that.

Gordon then urged people to be conscientious and to be mindful of our neighbors. His emotional speech came a week after a member of the Natrona County school board uttered a comment nearly identical to the email Gordon quoted: Most of (Wyomings coronavirus fatalities) were people with preexisting conditions or in old folks homes. They were going to die. They just died sooner.

Gordon said later that he was referencing emails hed received, not board member Kevin Christophersons comments. (Christopherson apologized in an interview Monday.) But the governor repeatedly became more animated and frustrated as he talked about Wyomingites dismissing as trivial the deaths of older Wyomingites. It was his most emotional press conference  briefings that hes held almost weekly for months  in weeks; in early April, he chastised the media for covering the medical communitys desire for a shelter-in-place order. A week later, after a Johnson County man became the first coronavirus fatality in the state, Gordon grew emotional and said the deceased was a friend.

On Wednesday, his voice rose as he talked about people risking the lives of their neighbors and residents arguing with businesses that require all customers wear masks.

Its just amazing to me, if somebody has diabetes, does another individual have the constitutional right to make sure they die prematurely? I dont see that, Gordon said.

He referenced another email, in which the writer told him that people needed to be ready to meet the Lord.

Im not sure you need to assist me meeting the Lord, the governor said.

Our Constitution was designed to make sure that we ensure the common good, and thats been tested time and time again, he said as he began to hit his hand on the podium to emphasize his words. Rights do not mean that I dont have any responsibilities. Rights  you can see this in the Federalist Papers, you can see that in the writings of the founders  rights imply responsibilities, and people need to take responsibility.

Christophersons comments, which drew significant heat from within the county and on social media, were made during a school board meeting in which board members and health officials were discussing the reopening plan for Natrona County schools. The majority of that meeting was focused on the reopening plans call for students and staff to wear masks when they couldnt maintain a 6-foot distance. Christopherson and others expressed opposition to the masks.

But at his news conference Wednesday, Gordon said masks would be an important part in keeping schools open. He noted that the virus would not disappear by the fall and that the situation had changed so rapidly in other states that predicting the situation even six weeks from now is impossible.

I will say that masks probably have a place in schools reopening, he said. I just want to make that clear. Masks will help those schools stay open. Masks will help our kids get back to those classrooms where they need to be. And masks will help them get back to education.

Gordon said he wasnt considering a statewide face coverings order, as other states  including Colorado  have instituted. As he has said since the beginning of the pandemic four months ago, the governor repeatedly called on Wyomingites to take responsibility for themselves and don masks without being ordered to.

Last week I got a question that said, Well, weve seen pictures of you not wearing a mask, Gordon said. And I have occasionally not worn a mask. And I have occasionally worn a mask. I am wearing a mask much more conscientiously now, especially as I see these cases tick up.

He defended the businesses who have mask requirements and the businesses constitutional rights in enforcing them.

There is no constitutional right to go infect somebody else, he said. There is no constitutional right that says you can put others in harms way. Lets behave and lets be mindful of our neighbors. Thats the country I grew up in. Thats the neighborhood I grew up in.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases has climbed steadily throughout July; 700 new cases have been identified in the past month alone, Gordon said. Dr. Alexia Harrist, the states health officer, noted that one night at a Uinta County bar where social distancing guidelines werent followed led to scores of cases, businesses and health care centers closing, and those infected becoming ill.

As of Wednesday afternoon, there have been 1,605 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in Wyoming, alongside 380 probable cases. Of the confirmed patients, 1,211 have recovered; of probable patients, 295 have recovered.

Twenty-two Wyomingites have died from the virus, including two in recent days.

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Conjoined 13-month-old twin girls who were fused together at the hip have been successfully separated by doctors in Vietnam.

Truc Nhi (Little Bamboo Tree) and Dieu Nhi (Little Magic) are doing well after a team of 100 medics worked for 12 hours to separate them at City Children's Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.

Over the next three months, doctors will help the babies regrow their digestive and urinary tracts as well as close their individual pelvises.

Conjoined one-year-old twin girls who were fused together at the hip (pictured) have been successfully separated by doctors in Vietnam

The baby girls, Truc Nhi (Little Bamboo Tree) and Dieu Nhi (Little Magic) are doing well after a team of 100 medics worked for 12 hours (pictured) to separate them

The girls were delivered by cesarean section at 33 weeks after doctors realised they were joined at the pelvis.

The babies - who shared an umbilical cord - were severely malnourished and required around-the clock care after they were born.

Hospital director Truong Quang Dinh said: 'Up to now, this can be considered as a successful surgery and this is a first successful step.

Over the next three months, doctors must help the babies (pictured before their surgery) regrow their digestive and urinary tract as well as close their individual pelvises

'The recovery process will be difficult and more challenging for the hospital.

'We will focus and do everything to ensure this is a great success.'

The twins weigh 33lbs and are in good health, hospital staff said.

A core team of nine doctors have been planning the separation surgery since the twins were born in June 2019.

The children's mother Thuy (left) holding the girls alongside their father before the surgery

The girls (pictured in a hospital bed) were delivered by cesarean section at 33 weeks after doctors City Children's Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City realised they were joined at the pelvis

Hospital director Truong Quang Dinh said: 'Up to now, this can be considered as a successful surgery and this is a first successful step.' Pictured: The babies being taken in for surgery

The girls were joined in such a way that if Truc Nhi is sitting, Dieu Nhi must be lying on her back requiring constant monitoring.

Professor Tran Dong A, 79, said: 'The chances of the children making a full recovery are very positive thanks to advanced surgical techniques and equipment.'

The professor successfully performed another operation to separate Vietnamese twin boys in 1988.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and acting minister of heath Nguyen Thanh Long sent a message of congratulations to the team of doctors and asked them to pass on their best wishes to the two baby sisters.

The girls will need more operations to complete the separation, including plastic surgery, the hospital said.
Interpol has issued an arrest warrant for Samuel Adam Foster aka Adam Mahama for prosecution over his role in the Airbus bribery scandal.

He is being charged with accepting a bribe to influence a public officer and acting in collaboration with a public officer for the public officers private profit.

Adam Mahama is facing up to 25 years in prison.

The warrant sighted by Citi News noted that extradition will be sought upon the arrest of the person, in conformity with national laws and/or the applicable bilateral and multilateral treaties.

On January 31, Ghana was cited as one of five countries in which global aerospace group, Airbus SE, allegedly bribed or promised payments to senior officials in exchange for business favours between 2009 and 2015, according to the UK's Serious Fraud Office.

This led to a record 3 billion in settlement by Airbus with France, the United Kingdom and the United States to avoid corporate criminal charges.

President Akufo-Addo later referred the Airbus bribery scandal to the Office of the Special Prosecutor for investigations .

These investigations were expected to be conducted in collaboration with UK authorities, according to a statement from the presidency.

In addition to Ghana, the company allegedly paid bribes to officials in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Taiwan within the same period.

The UK's Serious Fraud Office, however, in its statement of fact did not name the individual Ghanaian officials nor the Airbus agents involved in the crime because investigations were still ongoing.

Payments in Ghana

In the case of Ghana, the UK court found that the company's bribe was to land the contract of purchase of a military transport aircraft.

Between 1 July 2011 and 1 June 2015 Airbus SE failed to prevent persons associated with Airbus SE from bribing others concerned with the purchase of military transport aircraft by the Government of Ghana, where the said bribery was intended to obtain or retain business or advantage in the conduct of business for Airbus SE, the court's statement of offence noted.

The documents indicated that one of the unnamed Ghanaian officials was a key decision-maker in respect of Government of Ghana aircraft orders.

A number of Airbus employees made or promised success-based commission payments of approximately 5 million to one of the Ghanaians implicated in the acts of corruption.

Although no names were listed by the UK's Serious Fraud Office, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has come out to insist that former President John Mahama is the person identified as the elected Government Official 1 named in US and UK court documents.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC), which was in power during the period the bribes were allegedly paid, denied the claims.

---citinewsroom
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 16)  The mayor of a town in Samar province was shot Thursday morning, the police said, prompting Philippine National Police Chief PGEN Archie Gamboa to order an immediate investigation.

A police report said Tagapul-an Mayor Vicente Limpiado Jr. was shot at the back by an unidentified suspect at 8:50 a.m. at the entrance of his farm. He was rushed to a rural health unit.

Police have yet to determine the motive.
Johnson & Johnson Inc is in talks with the government of Japan and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation about locking up allocations of its potential COVID-19 vaccine in advance of it producing any of the medicines, Johnson & Johnson's chief financial officer Joseph Wolk told Reuters in an interview.

It has already agreed to provide an allocation to the United States as part of its funding agreement with US government agency Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would focus on allocating any vaccine it acquired to developing countries, Wolk added. Reuters previously reported that J&J is also in talks with the European Union.
BOSTON, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Museum of African American History (MAAH) announced today that it has been awarded a $1 million grant from the Liberty Mutual Foundation to create new programs that position MAAH at the forefront of today's local and national discourse about equity and civil rights.

"As the country seeks to lift up the narratives of those who have historically been silenced by racism, making our historic buildings, collections, and programming available to a broader audience takes on even greater importance," said MAAH President and CEO Leon Wilson. "With this new grant from our long-time supporter Liberty Mutual, the African Meeting House can once again be a hub of dialogue and activism through which real change is made at the local and national level."

This multi-stage initiative leverages the unique perspective and resources that can only be found at MAAH, which for over 200 years has served as a national platform for those who advocated for freedoms for Black Americans.

"For over 200 years, the African Meeting House has served as one of the nation's most important and influential centers of cultural and political discourse around racial equality," said Liberty Mutual Foundation President Melissa MacDonnell. "Today, the Museum of African American History invokes this important historyin the very place it happenedto open new conversations around racial equity. This investment will enable MAAH to expand its narrative of Black and other social justice activists.  and underscore how their courage, as they united across race and class in the struggle for human rights, ushered in modern democracy."

When the Museum reopens to visitors on July 27th using Covid-19 opening protocols, they will see one-of-a-kind artifacts and learn true stories behind the making of America that have been left out of the textbooks and that explain why we are where we are today and provide context as to where we as a nation need to go. The grant will also support the creation of new educational modules that will allow the Museum to extend its outreach to engage with larger audiences including schools, universities and businesses.

The Museum will also use the grant funds to expand its signature Race in the Public Dialogue programming with a new multi-part series centered on social injustices and disparities faced daily by African Americans. The series, to be produced in partnership with WGBH, will explore the historical roots of systemic racism and its impact on the unrest and the cultural changes so many are fighting for today.

"The African Meeting House has born witness to many of this country's seminal moments and the walls at the Museum of African American History reverberate with stories from across our nation's founding history," said Wilson. "It is these stories of struggle, determination, hope, and celebration that have the power to make people think differently about our own time. A shift in what is told here, shifts the whole narrative."

ABOUT THE MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY

The Museum of African American History inspires all generations to embrace and interpret the authentic stories of New Englanders of African-descent, and those who found common cause with them, in their quest for freedom and justice. Through its historic buildings, collections, and programs, the Museum expands cultural understanding and promotes dignity and respect for all.

SOURCE Liberty Mutual Insurance

Related Links

www.libertymutual.com


The release this week of the Palace letters between governor-general John Kerr and the Queens private secretary has understandably focused attention on what role if any was played by the monarch and her personal staff in the dismissal of the Whitlam government.

The disclosures bring little additional information on that front, yet the real inquiry should be much closer to home. Less of the spotlight has so far fallen on the role of Sir Garfield Barwick, the chief justice of Australia's High Court, and the grave implications for an independent judiciary.

The Queen with then-Governor-General Sir John Kerr in 1977. Credit:Archive

Sir John Kerr always maintained he did not involve the Queen in the controversy because the responsibility was his. In his autobiography, Matters for Judgment, Kerr wrote: "I did not tell the Queen in advance that I intended to exercise these powers on I I November [1975]. I did not ask her approval ... to inform Her Majesty in advance ... would be to risk involving her in an Australian political and constitutional crisis in relation to which she had no legal powers; and I must not take such a risk."

However, the papers released by the National Archives disclose an exchange about six weeks before the dismissal. On September 12, Kerr wrote to Sir Martin Charteris, the Queen's private secretary: "I am also keeping my mind open as to the constitutional issues. If the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition get into a battle in which the Senate has defeated the Budget, the Prime Minister refuses to recommend a dissolution, my role will need some careful thought though, of course, the classic constitutional convention will presumably govern the matter."
Armenian soldiers killed during the clashes took full responsibility, laying on the altar of the homeland the most valuable thing a person has, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Thursday during the funeral of Major Garush Hambardzumyan, who died on July 14 while repelling the Azerbaijani aggression.

They also laid the lives of their family members, relatives, because their life will no longer be the same," he noted.

Four Armenian soldiers - Major Garush Hambardzumyan, Captain Sos Elbakyan, junior sergeants Smbat Gabrielyan and Grisha Matevosyan - have been killed in clashes amid the aggravation of the situation at the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.
P olice are appealing for information after a man was shot in the chest in Camden.

A 23-year-old man arrived at a north London hospital just after midnight last Thursday.

He had gunshot wounds to his chest, which were not life-threatening or changing, Scotland Yard said.

The victim was shot by an unknown assailant a short while earlier while he was with a group of friends in Castlehaven Park.

He then ran into the road and flagged down a passing motorist, who took him to hospital.

A crime scene is still in place and no arrests have been made.

Detectives are also trying to trace the driver as a potential witness.

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101 or contact via Twitter @MetCC, quoting CAD 670/16Jul, or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Two faculty members at Emory Universitys Candler School of Theology have been looking ahead to the time when churches begin to grapple with how to reopen worship. They decided that the best way to support these efforts was to seek out and compile the best and latest thinking on how congregations can eventually move forward with in-person worship  but do so safely.

Associate professor of worship and liturgical theology L. Edward Phillips and Bishop-in-Residence Larry M. Goodpaster were two of the co-conveners of The Ecumenical Consultation on Protocols for Worship, Fellowship and Sacraments, an interdisciplinary consultation of theologians, scientists, doctors, bishops, pastors and practitioners from multiple denominations who gathered online to develop medically sound and theologically informed recommendations for in-person worship and sacramental practice during the pandemic.

The consultations recommendations  from how to safely pass the peace to how to conduct baptism to Communion and more  are outlined in a document entitled Resuming Care-Filled Worship and Sacramental Life During a Pandemic, which debuted June 8. A Spanish translation of the document, Reanudando el Culto Cristiano y la Vida Sacramental con Medidas Preventivas durante una Pandem, was released to the public on July 15.

Both documents are available at the consultations Facebook page, and on the following websites: the General Board for Higher Education Ministries of The United Methodist Church, Discipleship Minstries of The UMC and Ministry Matters from Abingdon Press.

Phillips, who initiated the project, cautions that with COVID-19 cases on the rise in many places in the U.S., now may not be the time to gather for in-person worship, but churches can begin planning so they are ready when the situation in their area meets the necessary qualifications for reopening noted in the CDC guidelines for reopening.

In most states, the rate of reported cases is rising, Phillips says. The first CDC benchmark for having in-person gatherings of up to 10 people is a clear downward trajectory in the number of reported symptoms, confirmed cases and/or positive tests for COVID-19 for two consecutive weeks. Very few counties in the United States are meeting this benchmark for having any form of in-person worship gatherings indoors at this time.

The consultation is unique in its interdisciplinary approach and its ecumenical and institutional range. This is the first consultation to bring liturgical theology experts into conversation with public health experts, Phillips says.

It involved participants from The United Methodist Church (UMC), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and The Episcopal Church, along with representation from the Pan-Methodist Commission and the Catholic Church, plus scholars from Emory, Boston University, Vanderbilt University and Southern Methodist University.

For the Spanish translation, five members of the original consultation joined with an additional group of 15 Latinx church leaders that included scholars from the Methodist University in Rosario, Argentina, Duke University, Drew University, Southern Methodist University and Wesley Theological Seminary. This second consultation met virtually over three weeks to translate and adapt the protocols for Hispanic churches in the U.S. context.

Goodpaster, a retired bishop in the UMC, says that under the extraordinary circumstances of a pandemic, church leaders know that resuming worship will take extraordinary measures. We were keenly aware that this is a concern that cuts across denominational lines, so we wanted to include leaders from other traditions  The overarching concern was the safety of the community alongside the desire to gather as a community of faith and practice once again.

Phillips notes that this is also the first such project to make visible its deliberations through social media, allowing the public to see the issues and angles discussed as decisions and recommendations were finalized.

Video of the discussions for the both the English and Spanish versions of the guide are available via Facebook Live on the consultations Facebook page, which also will continue to share updates as the pandemic evolves.

As we talked about organizing the consultation, we were clear that we would benefit from a wide range of voices: pastors, musicians, practitioners, bishops and theologians, Goodpaster says. Having those who regularly study and teach liturgical and sacramental theology added to the richness and depth of the conversations. We wanted the document to reflect the best of medical and scientific research related to COVID-19, and the best of liturgy and local church worship practices.

The guidelines are clearly filling a need: within the first 11 days of being posted to the Ministry Matters website, the document had logged nearly 10,000 downloads. And the project is ever-expanding.

Phillips has met virtually with officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services to discuss the resource as these government organizations have provided guidance to churches during the pandemic.

The General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the UMC is working on ways to use the resource and the interdisciplinary process of consultation with global Methodist partners, he says.

And, Phillips says, We are also working on support resources that discuss the social justice impact of church closing/reopening and the infection/mortality disparities among communities of color in the U.S.

Goodpaster says being involved in the consultation was an honor and a learning experience. It was a laboratory of insight and wisdom. My hope and prayer is that those who open and work through these guidelines will receive them as a gift and an opportunity to resume care-filled worship and sacramental life.

The Ecumenical Consultation on Protocols for Worship, Fellowship and Sacrament is funded in part through a grant provided by Candler School of Theology.
By Express News Service

KARIMNAGAR: Ahead of Bakrid festival, AIMIM leader and town president Gulam Ahmed Hussain requested the Muslim community to not sacrifice cows during the month of Bakrid and on the festival say. For the sake of national integrity, government has prohibited cow sacrifices, and we need to respect government acts and rules, Hussain said. He said as per Islam, no programme should hurt other people in the society.

"Prophet Muhammad had also said the same. Every individual Muslim represents the religions tradition and culture, so do not go against Islam, he suggested the community. In view of spread of Covid- 19, Muslims should take precautionary measures. If anyone violates government rules, they will face action as per Disaster Management Act, 1897," town president said.

The leader also requested the District Collector and the Commissioner of Police to take precautionary measures to stop sale of cows at cattle markets. He called upon Muslim community to celebrate Bakrid while adhering to physical distancing. His statement was welcomed by several Hindu religious groups.

Meanwhile, Collector K Shashanka and Commissioner of Police VB Kamalasan Reddy held a meeting with officials over a month-long prohibition on sale of cows and calves. Reddy said, "To stop transportation of cattle, six check posts are set up to work round the clock. If anyone creates ruckus, stringent action will be taken against them. If anyone has information on cows being transported illegally, they can inform the police by dialing 100."
New Delhi, July 16 : The government on Thursday slammed Pakistan for intimidating and distressing imprisoned Indian citizen Kulbhushan Jadhav during the consular access granted to its officials.

Calling Pakistan "obstructive" and "insincere", the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi said that the consular access was "neither meaningful nor credible".

In a statement issued by the ministry, government spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said that the Indian consular officers were not given unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional access to Jadhav.

"On the contrary, Pakistani officials with an intimidating demeanour were present in close proximity of Jadhav and the consular officers despite protests from the Indian side. It was also evident from a camera that was visible that the conversation with Jadhav was being recorded," the statement said.

"Jadhav himself was visibly under stress and indicated that clearly to the consular officers. The arrangements did not permit a free conversation between them. The consular officers could not engage Jadhav on his legal rights and were prevented from obtaining his written consent for arranging his legal representation," it added.

In the light of the circumstances, the consular access being offered by Pakistan was neither meaningful nor credible, the government said, adding that the Indian consular officers left the venue after lodging a protest.

"It is clear that Pakistan's approach to this matter continues to be obstructive and insincere. It has not only violated its assurance to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to fully implement the 2019 judgement, but also failed to act in accordance with its own ordinance," the spokesperson said.

Pakistan Army has alleged that Jadhav is an Indian spy involved in violent activities in Pakistan. In April 2017, Jadhav was sentenced to death by a field general court martial. However, a month later, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) stayed the hanging of Jadhav.

Last year, the ICJ directed Pakistan to allow consular access and effectively review the death sentence, but rejected India's appeal for Jadhav's release.

Over the past year, India has requested Pakistan more than 12 times to provide unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional consular access to Jadhav, who remains incarcerated in Pakistani custody since 2016.

"This consular access is of utmost importance, as it is the basis for a process of effective review and reconsideration ordered by the ICJ in July 2019 of the conviction and sentence of Jadhav by a Pakistani military tribunal." In May 2020, Pakistan passed an ordinance, "ostensibly to comply with the order of the ICJ," the government said. The ICJ verdict allowed for the consular officer of the High Commission of India to file a petition before a high court for relevant review and reconsideration.

"In that context, the contacts and conversations between the consular officer and Jadhav assume great importance. Any conversation between them must necessarily take place in privacy and without the presence of any Pakistani official or recording by Pakistan," the government said.

It is only then that Jadhav can speak freely without any concerns of reprisal as he remains in Pakistani custody after the meeting, the ministry said.

"It is already evident that Jadhav has been intimidated repeatedly in the past, including in being made to express his alleged disinclination to seek a review," it said.

India recently requested the Pakistani side for an unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional consular access to be provided on July 13.

"Pakistan was asked to ensure that the meeting is held in an atmosphere free from fear of retribution and without the presence of any Pakistani official in the vicinity of Jadhav and the Indian consular officers. Pakistan was also requested to not record (video and audio) the meeting," the ministry said.

After extensive discussions, the Pakistani side conveyed that it was ready to organise consular access on July 16. The government said it was assured that the consular access would be unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional.

"On the basis of this assurance by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, two consular officers of the High Commission proceeded to the meeting with Jadhav. Regrettably, however, neither the environment nor the arrangements of the meeting were in accordance with the assurances of Pakistan," the ministry said.

Union External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has apprised the family of Jadhav of the latest developments, the spokesperson said. The government also reiterated its commitment to ensure the safe return of Jadhav to India.
Technavio has been monitoring the smart railway systems market and it is poised to grow by 15.03 bn during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of 14% 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/20200716005367/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Smart Railway Systems 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. ABB Ltd., Alstom Holdings, Bombardier Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., General Electric Co., Hitachi Ltd., International Business Machines Corp., Nokia Corp., Robert Bosch GmbH, and Siemens 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.

The rising adoption of advanced technologies has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market.

Smart Railway Systems Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Smart Railway Systems Market is segmented as below:

Product Solutions Components Services

Geographic Landscape 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=IRTNTR40254

Smart Railway Systems 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 smart railway systems market report covers the following areas:

Smart Railway Systems Market size

Smart Railway Systems Market trends

Smart Railway Systems Market industry analysis

This study identifies the growing need for sustainable, clean, and high-speed transport as one of the prime reasons driving the smart railway systems market growth during the next few years.

Smart Railway Systems Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the smart railway systems market, including some of the vendors such as ABB Ltd., Alstom Holdings, Bombardier Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., General Electric Co., Hitachi Ltd., International Business Machines Corp., Nokia Corp., Robert Bosch GmbH, and Siemens AG. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the smart railway systems market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Smart Railway Systems Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist smart railway systems market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the smart railway systems market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the smart railway systems market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of smart railway systems market vendors

Table Of Contents :

PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT

Preface

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 PRODUCT

Market segmentation by product

Comparison by product

Solutions Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Components Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Services Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by product

PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE

PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024

North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

APAC 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

PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK

PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES

Market drivers

Market challenges

PART 11: MARKET TRENDS

IoT and big data to drive efficiency

Need for sustainable, clean, and high-speed transport

Growing consolidation in the railway industry

PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Overview

Landscape disruption

Competitive scenario

PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

ABB Ltd.

Alstom Holdings

Bombardier Inc.

Cisco Systems, Inc.

General Electric Co.

Hitachi Ltd.

International Business Machines Corp.

Nokia Corp.

Robert Bosch GmbH

Siemens 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.

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Britains National Cyber Security Centre made the announcement, which was coordinated with the US and Canada.

Britain, the United States and Canada accused Russia on Thursday of trying to steal information from researchers seeking a COVID-19 vaccine.

The three nations alleged that hacking group APT29, also known as Cozy Bear and said to be part of the Russian intelligence service, is attacking academic and pharmaceutical research institutions involved in coronavirus vaccine development.

Britains National Cyber Security Centre made the announcement, which was coordinated with authorities in the US and Canada.

It is completely unacceptable that the Russian Intelligence Services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement. While others pursue their selfish interests with reckless behaviour, the UK and its allies are getting on with the hard work of finding a vaccine and protecting global health.

The persistent and continuing attacks are seen by intelligence officials as an effort to steal intellectual property, rather than to disrupt research. The campaign of malicious activity is ongoing and includes attacks predominantly against government, diplomatic, think-tank, healthcare and energy targets, the National Cyber Security Centre said in a statement.

Countries around the world are racing to find a vaccine for COVID-19 [File: Dado Ruvic/Reuters]

It was unclear whether any information was stolen but the centre says individuals confidential information is not believed to have been compromised.

Moscow rejected the allegations.

We have no information on who could have hacked pharmaceutical companies and research centres in Britain, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the TASS news agency.

We can only say this: Russia has nothing to do with these attempts.

The director of operations for the British cybersecurity centre, Paul Chichester, urged organisations to familiarise themselves with the advice we have published to help defend their networks.

The statement did not say whether Russian President Vladimir Putin knew about the vaccine research hacking, but British officials believe such intelligence would be highly prized.

A 16-page advisory made public by Britain, the US and Canada on Thursday accuses Cozy Bear of using custom malicious software to target a number of organisations globally. The malware, called WellMess and WellMail, has not previously been associated with the hacking group, the advisory said.

In recent attacks targeting COVID-19 vaccine research and development, the group conducted basic vulnerability scanning against specific external IP addresses owned by the organisations. The group then deployed public exploits against the vulnerable services identified, the advisory said.

The US Department of Homeland Securitys cybersecurity agency warned in April that cybercriminals and other groups were targeting COVID-19 research, noting at the time that the increase in people teleworking because of the pandemic had created potential avenues for hackers to exploit.

Vulnerable targets include health care agencies, pharmaceutical companies, academia, medical research organisations and local governments, security officials have said.

It is unclear whether any information actually was stolen but the centre says individuals confidential information is not believed to have been compromised [Kacper Pempel/Reuters]

The global reach and international supply chains of these organisations also make them vulnerable, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in an alert published in conjunction with its counterparts in Britain.

CISA said it and the British cybersecurity agency have detected the threat groups scanning the external websites of targeted companies and looking for vulnerabilities in unpatched software. It did not name any of the targeted companies.

US authorities have for months levelled similar accusations against China. FBI Director Chris Wray said last week, At this very moment, China is working to compromise American health care organisations, pharmaceutical companies and academic institutions conducting essential COVID-19 research.
A technical glitch  ongoing for three months, apparently undetected  has finally been identified as the cause of Hamiltonians COVID-19 test result delay grief, according to the provincial body overseeing testing.

The fact the issues now resolved is cold comfort to those who missed out on time with loved ones while waiting for results.

For weeks, Hamiltonians have raised concerns about the long wait times they faced to receive negative COVID test results, some waiting 12 days or more. They needed the results to return to work, visit a loved one in a long-term care home or feel better about hugging a vulnerable family member. All those who spoke with The Spectator were tested at the Dave Andreychuk Mountain Arena drive-thru testing centre.

What is now clear: the Mountain drive-thru was the problem-plagued site; the issue was a technical glitch.

A technical issue has been addressed that was resulting in some test results from the Hamilton lab not appearing in the provincial portal/viewer, said Ontario Health, the provincial agency overseeing COVID testing labs, in an email. Ontario Health can also confirm that this issue was unique to the Dave Andreychuk assessment centre.

The email goes on to say the issue was related to coding between laboratory information systems, dating back to April and that the issue is now fully resolved.

The issues did not affect test processing times nor public healths ability to inform people of positive test results, Ontario Health states.

The whole situation  and the length of time it took to uncover it  raises questions about what else might be going undetected, said University of Toronto infection control epidemiologist Colin Furness.

Is this just a one-off, or is it more systemic? Furness said. It does raise questions on organization and oversight ... Someones just not watching the shop.

He pointed to this incident as yet another example of Ontarios public health data and technical infrastructure being inadequate and embarrassing. The infrastructure shortfalls are longstanding, however, preceding the current government, he said.

Furness added that it appears the not appearing results might not have been counted in any provincial tally.

That would reduce the reported tests carried out which would increase the reported test positivity rate, he said. Thats not dangerous, but it is sloppy.

Meanwhile, it remains unclear who was responsible for the glitch, how many people were affected and what a coding (issue) between laboratory information systems actually entails.

The technical issue was between the provincial lab network and the patient/portal viewer, Ontario Health said when asked for clarification. Upon learning of some test result delays in the region toward the end of June, Ontario Health immediately investigated.

Up until recently, test samples from the Mountain drive-thru centre were sent to either the Hamilton Regional Laboratory Medicine Program (HRLMP) lab, run by the local hospitals, or the Hamilton Public Health lab, run by the province. Public health said last week all samples are now processed by the HRLMP lab.

Thats certainly good news that the issue has been identified and I guess, quote-unquote, fully resolved, said Dr. Ninh Tran, Hamiltons associate medical officer of health, upon learning Ontario Health diagnosed the issue.

Hamilton public health became aware of delays in recent weeks via media reports and calls from frustrated residents, Tran said.

He didnt have more information on the coding issue.

The delays caused a ripple effect in Hamilton. Last week, the medical officer of health discouraged people tired of waiting for their initial results from seeking out second tests, warning it causes testing backlogs.

A stop-gap measure was put in place this week to mitigate drive-thru-affiliated problems  residents can now revisit the Mountain testing centre to access results if theirs arent on the portal within four days  will remain in place for the rest of the week or at least until the issue is fully resolved, Tran said. People should still check the online portal first.

The delays prompted Monique Taylor, MPP for Hamilton Mountain, to demand action from the Ford government during question period Monday.

All these constituents want is confirmation that it is safe for them to interact with their loved ones or to know whether or not their health is in immediate jeopardy, Taylor told the provincial legislature. Why wont this government fix their broken testing system so that these families can finally have some peace of mind?

As for Hamiltonians, theyre still waiting.

Gaye Welch was tested nearly a month ago at the Mountain arena. Her results still arent on the provincial portal. She only knows she tested negative because she called public health 12 days after her test and was verbally informed she was negative.

It just caused so much anxiety, Welch said. She needed a negative result within 14 days to visit her 97-year-old mother in her long-term care home. I was checking three times a day.

Herb Campbell is still waiting, too.

The Ancaster man wanted a negative result before his five-year-old granddaughter came for a visit. He was tested June 30 at the Mountain arena. His results still arent on the portal.

Maybe theyll never appear, he said.
Iran has repaired its six-year-old replica of an American Nimitz Class aircraft carrier. Originally built in 2013-15, the unpowered mockup of the Nimitz hull and flight deck which also had several replicas of American carrier aircraft on the deck. The target barge was built using the materials technology used to build the many Iranian off-shore oil platforms. In short, there was a shell with a metal lattice underneath. Parts of the outer shell could burn, but basically the target barge was built to survive a lot of hit from missiles and bombs, remain afloat and be towed back to port. Thats what happened to the 2015 target barge but nothing was done with the beat-up barge until early 2020 when work quietly began on refurbishing the barge for what appears to be another round of training exercises/propaganda photo-ops.

The barge originally showed up for a three-day Iranian naval exercise in the Strait of Hormuz (the entrance to the Persian Gulf). The February 2015 naval exercise involved over a hundred coastal missile and torpedo craft carrying out mass attacks on a replica of an American nuclear carrier. Also involved were cruise missile attacks from nearby Iranian naval bases and at one point, a group of Iranian commandoes were landed on the carrier deck by helicopter, then removed the same way before the main missile attacks began. At the conclusion of the attack, there was a large explosion on the carrier and the Iranians declared a victory. The propaganda film of the exercises explained that American carriers carry large quantities of aircraft fuel and ammunition for the aircraft as well as the ship.

The Nimitz replica was still afloat and it was towed back to shore where it was expected to be repaired. But nothing happened for five years. The beat-up barge could still be seen from the air, as evidence that it had not been scrapped either. Now the barge is back in action.

During the barge exercises most of the Iranian attackers were small, fast boats between 8 and 27 meters (26 and 88 feet) long and armed with two torpedoes or two locally made anti-ship missiles, or both plus some automatic weapons. The fast attack boats are nothing new for Iran, but the carrier target was. While the target barge was based at Bandar Abbas, the main Iranian naval base right on the Strait of Hormuz, American carrier task forces rarely enter the Gulf. Amphibious carriers (each carrying a battalion of marines as well as helicopters, landing craft and a few F-35B stealth fighters) do enter the Gulf. These sometimes stay at the U.S. Navy facility in the UAE. The largest local U.S. naval facility is outside the Gulf in Oman, where the ports of Duqm and Salalah can already handle very large commercial ships and, due to a 2019 agreement, this now includes nuclear carriers and their escorts. This means even less reason for nuclear carrier task forces to get anywhere near the Strait of Hormuz, except to take part in a major attack on the naval bases at Bandar Abbas and Jast.

While the 2015 Iranian exercise made for great theater, it was seriously lacking as a useful training exercise. The U.S. and other navies in the region have long known of the Iranian mass use of heavily armed speedboats and created countermeasures to deal with it. The Iranian training exercise seemed to ignore all that and had the participants carry on like countermeasures were minimal and not very effective. Perhaps that is realistic as it seems to treat the simulated attack on an American carrier as a suicide mission that, if pursued vigorously in the name of Allah, would end with the spectacular destruction of the kaffir (non-Moslem) warship.

Iran has done some strange things but the barge was a surprise. Starting in 2013 Iran was observed (from the air and space) building a two-thirds replica of an American Nimitz class aircraft carrier. It was basically a barge with the carrier deck and island up top. Included was the number (68) of the USS Nimitz painted on the replica. U.S. Naval intelligence officers who observed the Iranian vessel take shape via satellite photos called it the Target Barge, in the belief that it might be used by Iranian aircraft or boats to practice attacking a full-size Nimitz. Iran has done this before, building mockups of ships and aircraft. Apparently, the U.S. analysts were correct because the practice attack took place, was thoroughly captured on video by the Iranians and shown endlessly on Iranian TV.

Back in 2014 some Iranian media opined that the Target Barge was being built as a prop for a movie about Iran Air flight 655, which was shot down by an anti-aircraft missile fired by an American cruiser in 1988. If that was the case then was a very expensive prop, but it may still be used as one.

That said, the USS Nimitz was not anywhere near Iran when Flight 655 was shot down. Nimitz was then (July 1988) in Washington State preparing to head out on a deployment. Nimitz did not arrive off Iran until October 1988. So maybe the movie involves some kind of payback scenario. That goes over well with Iranian audiences as does any video showing things (preferably non-Iranian) getting blown up. No indications of what the theme of Target Carrier Part Two is all about.
Acayo Rose, 74, stands in front of her home in Gulu, Northern Uganda, July 7, 2020.

Gulu/Palabek, Uganda  Lockdowns have hit distribution of nets and people with malaria symptoms are delaying seeing a doctor for fear of the virus

In her small home in northern Uganda surrounded by the six children she cares for, Acayo Rose, 74, sleeps under a mosquito net she inherited from a dead relative.

"My net has many holes," said Rose, dressed in a t-shirt with the words "never quit", as she gestured towards the bedroom in the old, run-down building in Gulu district where she lives. "All the nets have holes."

Rose has just recovered from malaria, which also infected the two-year-old grandchild she cares for.

She is unemployed and went into debt to pay for the 25,000 Ugandan shillings ($6.80) medication needed to treat both herself and the toddler, whose life she feared was at risk.

"It was really terrible," she said, watching him playing with a stick on the ground.

World Health Organization (WHO) data shows about 405,000 people died from malaria in 2018, with sub-Saharan Africa accounting for 94% of these deaths. More than two-thirds of the victims were under five.

The WHO warned in April that the number of annual malaria deaths in sub-Saharan Africa could almost double this year due the coronavirus pandemic to 769,000 - a level last seen 20 years ago.

The spread of COVID-19 has impacted access to anti-malarial medication, with people wary of going to a doctor, and the distribution of insecticide-treated mosquito nets.

It would not be the first time an outbreak of another disease led to a rise in the number of malaria infections.

North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of Congo saw an eight-fold increase in malaria cases after the 2018 Ebola outbreak there as the focus of medical efforts shifted.

Aware of the risks, many countries are pushing ahead with campaigns aimed at reducing the numbers, concerned about losing gains made in recent years to reach a globally agreed United Nations target to eliminate malaria by 2030.

Uganda is planning a nationwide mosquito net distribution programme this year, the first since 2017, with about 27 million nets to be given out to 43 million people.

WARY OF DOCTORS

The distribution teams have started work, kitted out in protective gear and supported by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Against Malaria Foundation, and USAID.

"Mosquitos are not in a lockdown, they are still free. Why survive COVID-19 and die of malaria?" said Jimmy Opigo, a programme manager at Uganda's Ministry of Health National Malaria Control Program.

"The mosquito net distribution is one of the main means of fighting malaria. We do it every three years because mosquito nets, the long lasting insecticide-treated mosquito nets, last three years."

Uganda has reduced the prevalence of malaria to about 9.2% in 2018 from 42% in 2009 and Opigo said it was key that routine public health interventions continued, despite the pandemic.

"For malaria especially, if you don't respond we can have a resurgence and an epidemic. A reversal and a loss of all the gains we have made," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

But while efforts are under way to distribute bed nets, some healthcare workers fear the government-distributed nets will be too slow to arrive.

"We have some of the worst malaria rates in the world," said Nicolas Laing, co-founder of One Day Health, which runs remote health centres in northern Uganda.

Sally Hayden/Thomson Reuters Foundation Ocen David, a 19-year-old South Sudanese refugee, is recovering from malaria, in Palabek refugee settlement, Northern Uganda, July 1, 2020.

Laing is raising money to buy 5,000 nets, fearing the government ones will come too late.

"Malaria season in Gulu is between April and October and we're due to get our nets in October or November," Laing said.

"It's absolutely crippling ... You have all these children and adults who are anaemic. They have much lower energy than they should."

MALARIA SEASON

Across Africa, where there are now more than 600,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases, healthcare workers fear the pandemic is deterring people from visiting doctors.

"There is a general hesitation to visit any health facility because patients, and also parents of patients, are afraid about getting infected," said Fabio Biolchini, head of a Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) hospital in Sierra Leone's Eastern Province.

Biolchini said they were only seeing a third of the numbers of patients that came this time last year, with parents bringing sick children only "as a last resort".

Instead, MSF is now operating outreach programmes including mobile clinics, where Biolchini said they were seeing "many, many" cases of malaria.

Keziah L. Malm, a programme manager with Ghana's National Malaria Programme, said malaria was a huge public health concern.

"It affects every aspect of the health, social and economic life of the people," Malm said.

Ghana reported its first COVID-19 case in March and now has more than 23,800 confirmed cases - one of the highest numbers on the continent.

Meanwhile admissions for malaria have decreased.

"People will rather stay at home and buy over-the-counter medications and visit the hospitals only when all other attempts at self-medication has failed," said Malm.

In northern Uganda's Palabek refugee settlement Ocen David, a 19-year-old South Sudanese refugee, is recovering from malaria.

"This time the mosquitoes are too much. We're contracting malaria every day," said David, who has lived in the settlement of about 53,000 people since it was set up in 2017.

Ocan Robert, who chairs the Refugee Welfare Council, said nets were last distributed in 2018. More were promised, but have been delayed by the pandemic, he said.

At one of Palabek's health clinics, staff said they were overwhelmed and lacked the resources needed to tackle COVID-19, such as soap and masks or space for social distancing as about 100 refugees waited outside for appointments.

Clinical officer Adong Nancy said many of the patients had malaria or anaemia caused by it, while others had been affected by a scabies outbreak.

Last month one person died in the clinic from malaria, and others died in hospital after presenting with advanced symptoms.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, Nancy said, staff were struggling with the level of sickness. "Most of them come (too) late," she said.

($1 = 3,700.0000 Ugandan shillings)

This story is one in a series supported by The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. www.theglobalfund.org (Reporting by Sally Hayden, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith @BeeGoldsmith; the Thomson Reuters Foundation is the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, and covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
With the eyes and ears of economists and economic commentators glued to GDP growth rate figures, it is easy to overlook other critical macroeconomic parameters that could give us important insights into the condition of an economy. Decades ago, one economist identified one such parameter; the Polish economist Michal Kalecki developed the profits view that focused on the implications of aggregate profits of businesses on the macroeconomy.

Unfortunately, macroeconomists hardly engage in any sustained discussion over it and policymakers pay scant attention to it. While industry leaders, shareholders and stock market participants are concerned over corporate profits, they care more about individual companies than aggregate profits of businesses.

Although we do not have data on aggregate profits of businesses, one can easily infer from general reports that business profits will be adversely affected from the uncertainty unleashed by the seemingly unstoppable spread of the Covid-19 virus as well as the ensuing lockdowns necessitated by the epidemic. Last month, Reliance Industries, Indias largest stock, announced a plunge in profits by almost 40 percent from a year earlier. The reports coming in of a sharp decline in profits of companies like TCS by 13 percent and D-Mart by some 88 percent in Q1 FY21 is worrisome. Overall, corporate profits are expected to show a decline by about 15 percent in FY21. Furthermore, MSME and informal businesses are likely to experience a much greater fall in profits this year.

But what is it that profits (bottom-line) can tell us about the economy that GDP (top-line or sales) cannot? What are the various components of the economy that affect and are affected by this decline in aggregate profits? Kaleckis profits view helps answer these questions.

The profits equation

Michal Kalecki was considered one of the most distinguished economists of the 20th century. Many of his ideas were similar to those of Keynes and said to be conceived of before Keynes theories. However, macroeconomists have chosen to ignore Kaleckis contributions even as economics, which purports to be a study of the free-market capitalism, has no theory of aggregate profits. The argument that a firm can increase its profits by cutting labour costs falls prey to the fallacy of composition because when all firms do so there would be large-scale reduction in total wages paid out, which in turn reduces spending by labour households and an overall shrinking of profits at the aggregate level. Similarly, the assertion that a firm can increase profits by cutting input or raw material costs fails to consider the impact of this on the revenues of other firms and as a consequence, on aggregate profits.

The crux of Kaleckis profits view was to identify the source of profits, not of a single firm, but at the aggregate level, i.e. of all businesses. His discovery was stark and simple but a revelation nonetheless. His simple model assumes there are no savings by households, foreign sector and government and furthermore there are no dividends paid to shareholders.

The economy is divided into two sectors, the consumer goods sector and the investment goods sector. The consumer goods sectors revenue is what the workers in the consumer goods sector spend plus what the workers in the investment goods sector spend on consumer goods. The profits or revenue less costs of the consumer goods sector would then be the revenue earned from the spending by investment goods sector workers. In the investment goods sector, the profits of these businesses are the revenue earned from the total amount of investment goods sold over and above the payment made to workers in this sector. To calculate the overall profits in the economy, the profits of both sectors are added resulting in a rather surprising realization that aggregate profits of businesses are nothing but investment spending on real capital goods by the businesses. As Kalecki put it, Workers spend what they get, capitalists get what they spend.

When this model is expanded to include other components, the profits equation shows that aggregate profits of businesses would be gross investment spending minus depreciation plus inventory investments plus corporate taxes and dividends minus the savings of the non-business sector (households), the savings of the foreign sector (current account deficit) and finally savings of the government sector (taxes less spending). This is Kaleckis general profits equation. For the record, it is important to mention that Jerome Levy, businessman based in New York, had come up with a similar approach earlier so that the equation is often called the Kalecki-Levy Profits Equation.

An alternative view of the current crisis

Private sector investment spending is a key driver of economic growth, innovation and dynamism in capitalist economies. However, businesses are currently caught in a vicious circle. Unless profitability increases, investment may not and unless investment increases, profits will not. If this is the situation, the only way to get businesses to break out of this loop is to see whether other components of the Kalecki equation can be changed.

A major effect of the pandemic is the increased propensity to save due to people losing jobs, salary cuts and uncertainty over layoffs. Increased savings by households will act as a reduction in business profits and this is likely to worsen during the pandemic. It is important to point out that savings usually end up in stock markets and other physical and financial assets, which does not necessarily get converted into real investment, i.e. the key component to raise business profits.

On the external sector front, India is likely to face falling exports as well as falling imports due to lower GDP growth. The net effect is likely to be a balance in our current account.

A cursory analysis of the Kalecki profits equation shows that perhaps the only way to increase business profits at this juncture is to reduce government savings i.e. the government should run a deficit which is greater than the savings of the non-business sector.

The world is going through a tumultuous period due to the Covid-19 pandemic with many countries facing severe economic contractions and with it, high levels of unemployment. India too is caught in this predicament. However, restoring growth may not guarantee aggregate profits of businesses bouncing back. A deeper analysis of the interrelationships between the components of the Kalecki-Levy profits equation can yield important insights into macroeconomic crises and policies to overcome them.
Balipara:

Yoga guru Baba Ramdevs fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) venture, Patanjali Ayurved, is set to hire around 5000 people at its upcoming Rs. 1,300-crore facility in Assam.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal laid the foundation stone of the Patanjali Herbal and Mega Food Park at Balipara in Sonitpur district on Sunday.

"The unit will give direct employment to 5000 people and benefit one lakh farmers. The complete profit from the Food Park will be dedicated for the welfare of Assam by setting up school and skill development centres in each district," Ramdev said at a function.

Also Read: Yoga guru Ramdev owned Patanjali group ready to explore international markets

He said the facility would incur an investment of around Rs 1,300 crore and would be ready by February 2017.

"This Balipara unit of Patanjali will produce Rs 20,000 crore annual production with an annual production capacity of around 12 lakh MT. We target to speed up our construction so as to open the Park formally on February 15, 2017.

"The unit will manufacture wide range of consumer products such as cosmetics, nutritional foods and kitchen essentials among others," Ramdev said.

"I request the local farmers to plant herbal and medicinal plants so that that they can supply their local produce to the unit and reap benefits. The plant will produce rice bran oil from the remains of rice husks," he said.

The Yoga practitioner-cum-entrepreneur said he would soon contemplate of creating a viable market for green tea to facilitate the small tea growers of Assam.

Also Read: Baba Ramdevs Patanjali Yog Peeth textbook to be taught in Goa schools

Stating the moment as historic, Sonowal claimed Patanjali Food Park would be the biggest project ever to be set up in Assam.

Present on the occasion, Bodoland Territorial Council Chief Hagrama Mohillary declared that he would allot 1,000 acres of land to Patanjali Ayurveda in Bodoland for setting up of a similar unit and a 'gaushala'.

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The developer of a heavily criticized demons-themed tourist site in Da Lat, a resort city in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, has closed it for the removal of obscene statues following an inspection conducted by local authorities.

The Quy Nui-Suoi Ma (Mountain Demon-Ghost Stream) tourist area has been temporality shuttered since Wednesday, Ngo Quang Phuc, chairman of Lien Minh Group, the developer of the site, confirmed.

Opened on July 6, the venue is designed with a dark theme and features various types of demons, monsters, and other horrific creatures.

Despite offering free admission, the site has met with a backlash from visitors as well as on social media, for many people thought that the demonic statues displayed at the site are repugnant and not suitable for the general landscape and tourism vibes in Da Lat.

During the shutdown, the developer will focus on removing obscene statues and making necessary adjustments to the tourist area in accordance with the communitys wishes, Phuc stated.

A demonic statue at the Quy Nui-Suoi Ma (Mountain Demon-Ghost Stream) tourist area in Da Lat City, Lam Dong Province, Vietnam. Photo: Mai Vinh / Tuoi Tre

The venue will be reopened when the tasks are complete, he added.

Following the reopening, Lien Minh Group will continue collecting feedback from visitors to make further adjustments if necessary, before officially putting the site back on full stream.

The Lam Dong Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism recently examined the tourist area and required Lien Minh Group to temporarily shut it down.

The department will verify whether or not the statues had been appraised and licensed by local authorities in line with regulations.

On Saturday last week, a Da Lat citizen was attacked by a group of four people after making negative remarks about the Quy Nui-Suoi Ma tourist area on his Facebook account.

One of the attackers was confirmed to be a probationary employee of Lien Minh Group.

However, the firms leaders denied asking him or any of their employees to contact or attack the victim.

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CHATSWORTH, Calif.Following an announcement Tuesday afternoon that cases of COVID-19 infections among performers and crew members had come to its attention, the Free Speech Coalition (FSC) issed the following advisory Wednesday addressing why it has refrained from calling for a halt to adult production:

With news of rising infection rates across the US, including the main production hubs for the adult industry, along with learning about at least a dozen cases of COVID-19 among talent and crew who tested outside of PASS, weve been asked one question more than any other.

- If the pandemic is so bad, why isnt there a mandatory production hold?

Every person in the adult industry, including those of us at FSC, has their own opinion about what should be done about the pandemic and how the adult industry should proceed. In order to remove what personal bias we can, we are relying on experts to guide the decisions we make related to the pandemic.

When we instated the production hold in March, we did so in alignment with orders in the State of California to shut down all non-essential business, which included film production. California was the first state to do this, so we called for a national hold.

When we lifted the production hold in June, we again did so in alignment with orders in the State of California that allowed for the resumption of mainstream film production. We aligned with the reopening of mainstream film production, because a love scene in a mainstream film production has as much potential exposure to COVID-19 as does a sex scene in an adult film production.

We advised against resuming production but provided guidelines for those who chose to do so.

We have stated that if we do call for another production hold related to COVID-19, it will be regional and in alignment with the orders of the regulating agencies in that region, or on the advice of our medical advisory board in response to a specific risk to the production pool.

As bad as the COVID-19 pandemic is now, no jurisdictions have yet called for a shut down of film production, nor do we know of a specific infection exposure that poses an uncontained risk to the production pool. Therefore, we have not called for a production hold in any region.

We cannot state strongly enough or repeat often enough that regardless of governmental orders or the existence of a production hold, we do not believe it is safe to create adult content with anyone outside of your household.
Top 10 foreign doctor-only medical education websites from the US, the UK and Canada have 20 million login sessions from India in June this year

Doctors continuously need to keep themselves updated with regard to medical advancement, new research and latest techniques in the field, and Indian doctors throng foreign doctor-only medical education websites to keep their knowledge base enhanced than Indian ones, reveals an analysis carried out by Doceree, the Worlds Largest Programmatic Physician Engagement Platform, using a leading international web analytics platform.

The data, analyzed for June this year, shows that of the 432 million login sessions of top 10 foreign doctor-only medical education websites from the US, the UK and Canada, a staggering 20 million were from India. During the same span, Indias top 6 doctor-only medical education websites recorded a dismal 43K sessions.

The web analytics site could not record statistics of other Indian medical education websites as it does not capture data if it is below 5K.

India has been bullish on digital healthcare after the Narendra Modi Government put a thrust upon taking the country on the digital path ever since it resumed office in 2014. However, the data paints a very bleak picture when Indian doctors do not have credible and informative Indian digital websites to turn to for knowledge enhancement.

A push towards digital should not imply that it is only for consumers, it must also serve our doctors. At a time when digital healthcare is booming in the country, doctors too should have Indian platforms in the digital space which they can explore to update their medical knowledge. As our analysis suggests Indian doctors majorly turn to foreign sites to keep themselves updated, it is indicative that Indian websites are lagging way behind websites in the western countries. Though disheartening, it can be seen as an opportunity for Indian players to come up with quality medical education platforms not only for our doctors, but also for doctors from across the globe, said Dr. Harshit Jain, Founder and CEO, Doceree.

Doctors consider medical education websites essential for they provide them critical information, including industry best practices, researches, new medical techniques and innovations in the medical field.

One of the reasons for high engagement on foreign sites could be relevancy of content. Doctors prefer visiting sites that has rich and engaging content around topics of their interest and expertise, said Dr Rajiv Kovil, Indias leading Diabetologist and Founder Member and Secretary of United Diabetes Forum (UDF).

The analysis alarmingly also shows that the 520 million login sessions of top 15 medical education websites in the US, the UK and Canada in the month of June was much higher than the combined 943K login sessions of top 15 doctor-only Indian digital platforms such as medical education, telemedicine and doctor networking sites.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.  Several different venues will be utilized for the Republican National Convention in Jacksonville in light of health concerns with the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new email sent by the Jacksonville 2020 Host Committee,

The new memo sent by the Jacksonville Republican National Convention Host Committee revealed an altered plan in light of health concerns with the coronavirus pandemic.

According to an email sent Thursday morning, the committee will limit the number of attendees allowed in venues to solely delegates until the final night. The committee also plans to use multiple indoor and outdoor venues throughout downtown including:

The VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena

The TIAA Bank Field

Dailys Place Amphitheater

121 Financial Ballpark

The note adds that several other venues will be used during the convention, which is scheduled to take place from Aug. 24 through Aug. 27.

Supporters of President Donald Trump wave at the hundreds of boats idling on the St. Johns River during a rally Sunday, June 14, 2020, in Jacksonville, Fla., celebrating Trump's birthday.

These changes follow rumors that span back to the original RNC announcement, that the convention would be scaled back to accommodate safety guidance from the Centers for Disease Control regarding COVID-19.

Instead, the new memo says convention admittance for the first three days will be limited to regular delegates only.

More: Republicans fear coronavirus will force scaling back Trump's Florida convention

For the final day (Thursday, August 27) when President Trump will publicly accept the nomination, we plan that each delegate, their guest, and alternate delegates will be permitted to attend, the memo says.

These changes echo what Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a letter sent Thursday to delegates.

I want to make clear that we still intend to host a fantastic convention celebration in Jacksonville, McDaniel said. The RNC is working around the clock to ensure the convention celebration in Jacksonville is still an exciting, premier event.

McDaniel added that convention planners anticipate nightly programming, along with some daytime events and festivities.

Story continues

Based on the current phase Florida is in  Phase 2  regarding reopening the state, the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena was already expected to operate at half-capacity.

TIAA Bank Field. Jacksonville Jaguars. Opened in 1995.

Earlier this month, the host committee announced that attendees would be tested for COVID-19 ahead of entry and temperature checked daily.

Jacksonville is also currently under a mask-wearing order, something that sparked chatter earlier this week when Vice President Mike Pence met with the host committee and others in Jacksonville  unmasked.

We plan to implement a variety of health protocols in order to ensure a safe event, the host committees new memo said. This plan includes but is not limited to on-site temperature checks, available PPE, aggressive sanitizing protocols, and available COVID-19 testing.

This is a developing story.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: RNC Convention: Jacksonville memo shows multiple venues, fewer people
Dubai, July 16 : The principal of the Indian High School in Ajman has won a million dollars in the Dubai Duty Free (DDF) raffle draw, it was reported.

Malathi Das won a million dollars on Wednesday, after the draw held in Terminal 2 of Dubai International Airport, reports Gulf News.

Speaking to Gulf News, Das said she was grateful for the win.

"In current times, this is a great blessing. Rest assured, the money will be put to good use." Das said she was waiting to head home to India where she would like to help some of her relatives in need of money.

She also said she would like to set aside some money for the school in Ajman where she is currently the principal.

According to the organisers of DDF, Das is the 165th Indian national to win million dollars since the promotions began in 1999.

DDF also said Indian nationals make up the highest number of DDF Millennium Millionaire ticket buyers.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
NEW HAVEN  The Board of Fire Commissioners Thursday terminated Firefighter Marcos Demelo, but tabled any disciplinary action involving a second firefighter.

At the request of the two men, their cases were heard separately by the board in executive, or closed, session with unanimous votes cast when board members returned to open session.

The meeting was conducted on the virtual Zoom platform, with each closed hearing taking about an hour.

The board voted to terminate Demelos employment based on the recommendation of Fire Chief John Alston Jr. No reason was given in the public session as to why Demelo was terminated.

On the second firefighter, when the commissioners returned to open session, Alston said:

After presentations and deliberations, I am going to remove the recommendation and modify it from the level of termination and I will present to the board a modified recommendation of discipline.

The board voted to table action on the second firefighter and then adjourned.

Demelo was arrested by Branford police July 3, 2019 and charged with second-degree breach of peace, third-degree assault, second-degree threatening, third-degree strangulation/suffocation and first-degree unlawful restraint in an alleged domestic violence incident.

The case remains pending, according to online judicial branch records. Demelo pleaded not guilty to all of the charges, records show.

At the time of the arrest, Alston said the department had been informed of the case and that an internal investigation would be conducted.

Demelo already was on administrative leave at the time of the arrest, in connection with a separate matter, Alston said at the time.

The agenda for the fire board meeting contained the firefighters names under the heading Personnel, but no other information.

Tom Hennick, the public education officer for the state Freedom of Information Commission, said agenda items have to fairly apprise the public as to what is going on. He said the public has a right to know a little more detail.

At its meeting on July 7, the board voted to put off decisions on Demelo and the second firefighter for a week, but then discussed two other fire personnel, Battalion Chief Felipe Cordero and Firefighter Robert Crisco.

Cordero was arrested in March 2019 for allegedly violating a restraining order and was put on administrative leave. He was charged with criminal violation of an ex parte restraining order, according to police.

The commission was very critical on the claims against Crisco that he allegedly circulated a doctored photo among some firefighters that showed Colin Kaepernicks head superimposed on that of Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin as he knelt on George Floyds neck.

The caption on the doctored photo read: Well look who showed up to take a knee.

Chauvin has been charged with second- and third-degree murder in the death of Floyd, an incident that has set off nationwide protests over police brutality and started a reckoning on racism in the country.

Both Crisco and Cordero retired before they were brought before the board for possible disciplinary action. They beat the clock, Labor Relations Director Cathleen Simpson said at the July 7 meeting. The administrative charges against the two, which Simpson said were of a serious nature, will remain part of their personnel file.

mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com; 203-641-2577
New Delhi: In Sushant Singh Rajput's suicide case, the Mumbai Police has now recorded the statement of the doctor whom the actor had consulted earlier this year for depression. The doctor's prescription was found at Sushant's home.

The doctor is being questioned about Sushant's depression and how was he being treated for it. Sushant had taken the doctor's advice in January.

As per the police, the doctor was not interrogated before so that they could cross-check his statement with what the others have said during questioning.

The Mumbai Police was informed by Sushant's friends that the actor was under the impression that someone was trying to end his career. He often used to consider himself weak. Hence, the police will now verify if Sushant was actually going through all this and if he had told the doctor about his condition.

Sushant died by suicide on June 14 in Mumbai. He was found hanging in his residence. The actor was just 34. He was said to be under stress and depression for some months.

Apart from the doctor, as many as 35 people, including his family members, girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, close friends and work associates, have been interrogated by the Mumbai Police in the suicide case.

Meanwhile, a section of the internet is also demanding a CBI probe into his death case. Rhea too wrote to Home Minister Amit Shah today urging a CBI enquiry in the "interest of justice".

Sushant will be posthumously seen in 'Dil Bechara', which streams on Disney+ Hotstar from July 24.
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Then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his family are joined by Mike Pence and his family on stage at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 21, 2016. (Rick Wilking/Reuters)

GOP Limits Attendance at Convention Amid Pandemic

GOP officials are restricting the number of attendees at the upcoming convention amid the COVID-19 pandemic, even as some data from Florida agencies is undercut by testing sources, a Republican familiar with the planning confirmed to The Epoch Times.

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Ronna McDaniel told committee members in a letter obtained by The Epoch Times that attendance for the first three days of the convention in Jacksonville will be limited to regular delegates only.

President Donald Trump is scheduled to publicly accept the Republican nomination on the final day of the convention, Aug. 27. For the final day, each delegate, a guest, and alternate delegates will be allowed to attend, McDaniel said.

The number of regular delegates is approximately 2,500.

RNC officials shifted some of the convention from Charlotte after negotiations over crowd size with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, stalled.

The official committee business is still taking place at Spectrum Arena but Trumps speech and a slew of other programming are taking place in northern Florida.

McDaniel said in the new letter that Cooper was playing politics with the convention, prompting the split.

The shadows of delegates are seen on the convention floor during the second day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 19, 2016. (John Locher/AP Photo)

When we made these changes, we had hoped to be able to plan a traditional convention celebration to which we are all accustomed. However, adjustments must be made to comply with state and local health guidelines, she wrote.

I want to make clear that we still intend to host a fantastic convention celebration in Jacksonville. We can gather and put on a top-notch event that celebrates the incredible accomplishments of President Trumps administration and his re-nomination for a second termwhile also doing so in a safe and responsible manner.

The RNC plans to utilize both indoor and outdoor venues in Jacksonville, including the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena, TIAA Bank Field, and Dailys Place Amphitheater.

Attendees in Charlotte and Jacksonville will be tested daily for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19, officials said last week.

Temperature checks and heightened sanitation are among the other measures being put into place to try to prevent the spread of the virus.

Florida has seen an increase in CCP virus cases in recent weeks, along with hospital admissions of people with COVID-19.

The Florida Department of Health reported 112 deaths with COVID-19 on Wednesday, a day after recording a record high of 132 deaths.

Deaths lag behind cases and hospitalizations because symptoms take time to manifest and patients often spend time being cared for before dying.

The state has also seen an increase in its positivity rate, or percent of people testing positive. Hospitals told The Epoch Times that the figures the state lists in its daily report were inaccurate.

The state Department of Health acknowledged inaccurate numbers, saying in an email to The Epoch Times, Smaller, private labs werent reporting negative test result data to the state.
English has emerged as one of the most important languages used for communication. However, since it is not our mother language, we all take time to learn it. As we grow up, a lot of us feel lagging behind in the understanding of the language as compared to others. In India, this is common for students who have not learned English as the first language during their school life.

Indian Forest Service officer Parveen Kaswan recently shared his dilemma while learning the language. He explained that it was a difficult subject for him and at times, he also felt inferior for not knowing the language as good as others.

English was the tough nut to crack in my boards. Given rural background. When I joined college I was surprised to notice that people were not only talking in English but even listening to songs in English. Down the line, I found funny that those things once made me worried. Life, he wrote.

English was the tough nut to crack in my boards. Given rural background. When joined college I was surprised to notice that people were not only talking in English but even listening songs in English. Down the line I found funny that those things once made me worried. Life. Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) July 14, 2020

The tweet soon turned into a meaningful conversation attracting around one thousand replies, with people sharing their struggles with the language.

A user mentioned, This fear/love for English ruining many talents. People feel inferior to someone speaking English. We made English not a language but a symbol of intelligence. That's highly ridiculous.

This fear/love for English ruining many talents. People feel inferior to someone speaking English. We made english not a language but a symbol of intelligence. That's highly ridiculous. Constant Nomad (@khurafatijaat) July 14, 2020

When a user revealed how his struggle with language, being a student of a Hindi Medium school, did not hinder his determination to work with reputed organizations. In reply, Kaswan mentioned that while he was a student of English medium school, it made no big difference.

Mine was English medium only. But small town English medium schools are like Hindi medium only. We dont have exposure. Also all speak in local language. Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) July 14, 2020

Heres what others mentioned:

,                               Ganga Singh (@Ganga_Singh_) July 14, 2020

I studied in a Convent but at home we spoke only Hindi. So it was tough in the beginning to become fluent in English. Still remember some hilarious moments from my college days. But now I can taak English and waak English. Vandana (@VandanaJayrajan) July 14, 2020

Same here Sir.. Schooling Gujarati medium se huyi aur college mei English medium mei shift kar complete kiya..!! Nd most of my classmates were frm English medium..Woh to hanste bhi english mei the.. Nd I was like..       .. !! Payal (@payal_choksi) July 14, 2020

English alphabets - A,B,C.. were taught after std 6 in Government schools. When I had joined English medium school, I had to hold my toilet for 3 periods(3hours) because I couldn't say - May I go to Toilet, Madam. Pankaj (@PankajRamanujan) July 14, 2020

Somehow a mixture of English medium early on and then Bengali med and again English had made me proficient in both the languages. I use to help my class mates, removing their English phobia. A consultive reading of news paper actually did the trick. Some scored better than me Somendra Patranabis (@patranabis) July 14, 2020

In a subsequent tweet, Kaswan expressed his happiness as his single tweet started wholesome conservation around the language.
By Katharine Houreld and David Lewis

NAIROBI (Reuters) - When the new coronavirus hit Tanzania in mid-April, President John Magufuli called for three days of national prayer to seek Gods protection from the scourge. Barely a month later, he claimed victory over the disease and invited tourists to return to his East African nation.

His rush to reopen came despite alarm from the World Health Organization (WHO) over an almost total lack of information on the spread of the virus in the country of 55 million people, which has one of the regions weakest healthcare systems.

The shortage of reliable data afflicts many African nations, with some governments reluctant to acknowledge epidemics or to expose their crumbling health systems to outside scrutiny. Other nations simply cannot carry out significant testing because they are so ravaged by poverty and conflict.

Sharing information is vital to tackling the pandemic in Africa  both for planning the response and mobilising donor funding - public health experts say. As things stand, it is impossible to gauge the full severity of the contagion across the continent.

According to the latest data collated by Reuters, Africa, with a population of 1.3 billion people, had over 493,000 confirmed cases and 11,600 deaths. By comparison, Latin America, with roughly half the population, had 2.9 million cases and 129,900 deaths.

The official numbers make it seem as though the illness has skirted much of Africa, but the real picture is certain to be worse, with WHO special envoy Samba Sow warning on May 25 of a possible silent epidemic if testing was not prioritised.

By July 7, 4,200 tests per million people had been carried out across the continent, according to a Reuters analysis of figures from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a body set up by the African Union in 2017. That compares with averages of 7,650 in Asia and 74,255 in Europe.

Interviews with dozens of health workers, diplomats and local officials revealed not just a scarcity of reliable testing in most countries, but also the lengths some governments have gone to prevent news of infection rates from emerging, even if that meant they missed out on donor funding.

Story continues

We cannot help a country against its own will, Michel Yao, head of emergency operations for the WHO in Africa, told Reuters. In some countries, they are having meetings and not inviting us. We are supposed to be the main technical advisor. Yao declined to single out countries, saying the WHO needed to preserve a working relationship with governments.

For more details, see this graphic: https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/AFRICADATA/dgkplxkmlpb/

TROUBLE IN TANZANIA

Tanzania confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on March 16. The next day, the government convened a task force to coordinate the response with international partners including the WHO, foreign embassies, donors and aid agencies, multiple sources said.

This body never met again with outsiders, two foreign officials familiar with the situation told Reuters, while government officials failed to show up to dozens of subsequent coronavirus-related meetings, they said.

Its very clear the government does not want any information about the state of COVID in the country, said one aid official, who like many of those interviewed by Reuters for this story, asked not to be identified for fear of antagonizing political leaders.

Tanzanias health minister Ummy Mwalimu and government spokesman did not respond to phone calls or emailed questions raised by this article about their handling of the crisis. The spokesman, Hassan Abbasi, has previously denied withholding information about the countrys epidemic.

Tanzania has not published nationwide figures since May 8, when it had recorded 509 cases and 21 deaths. Days earlier, President Magufuli dismissed testing kits imported from abroad as faulty, saying on national television that they had also returned positive results on samples taken from a goat and a pawpaw fruit.

According to three emails seen by Reuters sent between May 8-13, the WHO believed it had reached an agreement with the government to let it take part in joint surveillance missions around the country. However, a WHO spokeswoman said these were all cancelled on the day they were supposed to start, with no reason given.

Donors have released some $40 million to fund Tanzanias coronavirus response, two diplomatic sources involved said. But the countrys lack of engagement meant it had missed out on tens of millions of dollars more, another official said.

By mid-May, the government decided to ease its lockdown, despite doctors and diplomats saying the outbreak was far from contained. The U.S. Embassy warned its citizens on May 13 that hospitals in the main city Dar es Salaam were overwhelmed, an assertion denied at the time by the Tanzanian government.

Tanzanias failure to share information about its outbreak has frustrated its neighbours, who fear that gains won through painful lockdowns in their own countries could be jeopardized as Tanzanians cross porous borders.

The WHO organised a call on April 23 with African health ministers to discuss, among other things, a lack of information sharing, Yao said. He declined to say who was on the call, and Tanzania did not respond to requests for comment as to whether its minister participated.

The United Nations agency cannot compel cooperation and must tread carefully. When WHO officials expressed concern in late April about a lack of measures to contain the virus in Burundi, the tiny East African nation expelled its top representative and three other WHO experts without explanation on May 12.

Burundi was one of the first African countries to shut its borders in March, which seemed to slow the virus spread initially. But the country saw an uptick in suspected cases after rallies were held in the run-up to May 20 general elections, a health care provider said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Burundis 55-year-old president, Pierre Nkurunziza, died in early June amid speculation he had come down with COVID-19. The government said in a statement he had suffered a heart attack. An air ambulance service told Reuters it had flown his wife, Denise Bucumi, to Kenya on May 21 but declined to confirm reports in the Kenyan media that she had sought treatment for the coronavirus. A family spokesman declined to comment.

Burundi's new president, Evariste Ndayishimiye, has promised measures to tackle the pandemic, including mass testing of people in areas suspected of being epicentres of the virus.

Another African state to fall out with the WHO was Equatorial Guinea. It hasnt shared figures with the U.N. agency since late May, when its government accused the WHO of inflating the caseload and demanded that it recall its representative. The WHO blamed a misunderstanding over data and denied any falsification of figures.

Mitoha Ondo'o Ayekaba, Equatorial Guineas deputy health minister, did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the dispute. The Central African country has continued to provide periodic updates to the Africa CDC, which puts the number of confirmed cases there at 3,071 with 51 deaths.

SURVEILLANCE GAPS

While some countries wont share information, others cant: Their health systems are too broken to carry out any large-scale testing, surveillance or contact tracing.

"Even at the best of times, collecting quality data from countries is not easy because people are stretched thin, said John Nkengasong, director of the Africa CDC. Combine that with an emergency, and it becomes very, very difficult.

For example, Islamist militants and ethnic militias operate across vast swathes of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, making it impossible for governments there to establish a nationwide picture of the spread of the illness.

As in other countries, a shortage of kits has led Burkina Faso to largely limit the number of tests it conducts to contacts of confirmed cases and people arriving from abroad. This means there is little data on local transmission, health ministry reports show.

Some countries, like Cameroon and Nigeria, have decentralised testing, but many others have very little capacity outside their capitals, said Franck Ale, an epidemiologist with the international aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).

Democratic Republic of Congo, a nation of 85 million that was already battling Ebola, was quick to suspend international flights and lock down parts of the capital Kinshasa when the virus hit in mid-March.

However, it took three months before the government was able to process tests outside Kinshasa, said Steve Ahuka, a member of Congos COVID-19 response committee, citing a lack of laboratories, equipment and personnel. In many areas, it still takes two weeks to get results, said two doctors.

South Africa, the continents most advanced economy, is one of the few to have rolled out mass testing. But it had a backlog of more than 63,000 unprocessed specimens as of June 10, because global suppliers were unable to meet its demand for laboratory kits, according to the health ministry. South Africas national laboratory service declined to disclose the current backlog.

In the absence of comprehensive testing data in other parts of the world, researchers look to different yardsticks to judge the prevalence of the coronavirus, including reviewing the number of deaths that exceed the average for the time of year.

But even that is not possible in most of Africa because data from previous years is lacking. Only eight countries - Algeria, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Egypt, Mauritius, Namibia, Seychelles and South Africa - record more than 75% of their deaths, according to the United Nations. Ethiopia records less than 2%, the countrys health ministry said.

Without information about how severe an outbreak is and what resources are available to cope with it, nations risk lifting lockdowns too soon or maintaining them too long, said Amanda McClelland of the U.S.-based health policy initiative Resolve to Save Lives.

The big gap for us is really understanding the severity of the outbreak, she said. Without clarity on data, it is very hard to justify the economic pain that shutting down countries causes.

Interactive graphic - Global COVID-19 overview: https://graphics.reuters.com/CHINA-HEALTH-MAP/0100B59S39E/index.html

(Additional reporting by Paul Carsten and Camillus Eboh in Abuja, Hereward Holland in Calstock, England, Ryan McNeill in London, Giulia Paravicini in Addis Ababa, and Alexander Winning in Johannesburg; Editing by Alexandra Zavis and Crispian Balmer)
The execution came after legal claims over the mental fitness of the condemned were denied by the Supreme Court.

The US Department of Justice executed convicted murderer Wesley Purkey on Thursday, a Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman said, in the second federal execution in a week after a 17-year pause, over objections by his lawyers that he had dementia and no longer understood his punishment.

The execution had been blocked by a federal court, but the US Supreme Court on Thursday overruled it, just as it had done in another case on Tuesday.

The courts 5-4 decision, which all five conservative judges joined, allowed the DOJ to execute Wesley Purkey despite the objections of his lawyers that he has dementia and no longer understands his punishment.

The Justice Department had originally planned to execute Purkey at 4pm EDT (20:00 GMT) on Wednesday.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons and the DOJ did not respond to Reuters requests for comment on when they were planning to carry out the execution.

Purkey, 68, was convicted in 2003 in Missouri of raping and murdering a 16-year-old girl before dumping her dismembered and burned remains in a septic pond.

It was the second time this week that the Supreme Court has overturned a lower court decision to block executions.

Anti-death penalty demonstrators gather in front of the US Supreme Court building in 2015 [Jonathan Ernst/Reuters]

A lower court injunction, issued on Monday ahead of the scheduled execution of another convicted child murderer, Daniel Lee, was overturned by the highest court about 2am (06:00 GMT) on Tuesday. Lee was executed a few hours later in the first federal execution in 17 years.

Early on Wednesday, US District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington issued two injunctions, with one of them preventing the federal government from carrying out all scheduled executions.

Purkeys petition was based on mental issues, including Alzheimers, and his being subjected to sexual and mental abuse as a child, his lawyers claimed. At 14, Purkey was diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression and psychosis.

Last week, three mental health organisations urged US Attorney General William Barr to stop Purkeys execution and commute his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The Supreme Courts decision blocked both those injunctions, allowing all of the planned executions to proceed.

Two other men convicted of murdering children  Dustin Honken and Keith Nelson  are set to be executed on July 17 and August 28, respectively.
Mary Trump, President Donald Trump's niece, said that watching the country's leadership devolve into "a macro version of my incredibly dysfunctional family" was one of the factors that compelled her to write her book, "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man."

In an interview Wednesday with The Washington Post, Mary Trump said she blames "almost 100%" her grandfather, Fred Trump -- the family patriarch whom she describes as a "sociopath" in her 214-page memoir of sorts -- for creating the conditions that led to Trump's rise and, ultimately, what she views as his dangerous presidency.

Much like in her extended family, Mary Trump said, a similar dynamic is now playing out on the national stage, with Trump simultaneously possessing "an unerring instinct for finding people who are weaker than he is," while also being "eminently usable by people who are stronger and savvier than he is" and eager to exploit him.

Her book -- which was published Tuesday and became an instant bestseller based on advance orders alone -- so worried her family that the president's brother unsuccessfully tried to block its publication in court. Unlike the bevy of other books critical of Trump, this is the only one written by a family member with firsthand knowledge of the Trump clan, and Mary Trump, who earned a doctoral degree in psychology, uses that background to analyze her uncle and his pathologies.

Assessing the current moment, in which Trump has amplified racism and stoked the flames of white grievance and resentment, Mary Trump said that the president is "clearly racist," but that his behavior stems from a combination of upbringing and political cynicism.

"It comes easily to him and he thinks it's going to score him points with the only people who are continuing to support him," she said.

Mary Trump said that growing up in her family, her experience was one of "a knee-jerk anti-Semitism, a knee-jerk racism."

"Growing up, it was sort of normal to hear them use the n-word or use anti-Semitic expressions," she said.

Mary Trump, who is gay, added dryly, "Homophobia was never an issue because nobody ever talked about gay people, well, until my grandmother called Elton John" a slur.

Within the Trump family, Fred Trump was the chief enabler. But now in the White House, Mary Trump said, she says the blame starts with Trump's daughter Ivanka and his son-in-law Jared Kushner - both senior advisers - but expands more broadly to include his "chiefs of staff who went along thinking that they could have some kind of influence, only to find that they didn't" and even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who is "perfectly willing to put up with all sorts of egregious behavior to get his own agenda through."

Mary Trump, 55, has long been estranged from her family following a dispute over inheritance, among other things, and is hardly a Donald Trump supporter. She was an unabashed supporter of Hillary Clinton in 2016, and said she plans to vote for former vice president Joe Biden in November, although she supported Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., in the Democratic primaries.

The campaign declined to comment and the White House did not respond to request for comment.

She opens the book recounting a family dinner at the White House in April 2017, ostensibly to celebrate the birthdays of the president's sisters, and writes of her family's stunted dynamic unfolding at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., for instance, offered a toast not for his aunts but for his father, "a sort of campaign speech."

In the interview, Mary Trump said at the time she found it striking that Trump Jr. felt the need "to prop up his father."

"I'm not entirely sure why someone in Donald's position, certainly at that time, needed propping up, but he got it anyway," she said.

At the same dinner, Mary Trump recounts the president turning to Lara Trump - his son Eric's wife, who had been in a relationship with him for almost eight years at the time - and saying, "I barely even knew who the [explicative] she was, honestly" until she gave a campaign speech supporting him in Georgia.

In the interview, Mary Trump said that no one in the family tried to correct the president or defend Lara Trump; instead, she explained, "people laughed. That's what we do."

But the moment was revealing of how the president operates, she said. "It's sort of his way of making the story bigger, more interesting, but also kind of owning you if you don't correct him, or he's aware that you're aware that he's lying," she said. "And it's a game and that's how that night felt."

Asked about the perception by some that Ivanka Trump is in some ways a steadying force on her father, Mary Trump said that was not her assessment of her cousin in the slightest.

"I think she's the one who disproves that on an almost-daily basis," Mary Trump said. "She doesn't do anything. She spouts bromides on social media, but either she tries to have an impact and fails, or just isn't interested in having an impact. I can't think of one thing she's done to show that she's moderate or a moderating influence."

In the book, Mary Trump also recounts an anecdote that Trump enlisted a smart kid named Joe Shapiro to take the SATs for him. Although Trump was friends with a man named Joe Shapiro at the University of Pennsylvania, the two met once Trump was already in college and had transferred to Penn from Fordham. And both Shapiro's sister and widow told The Post that in addition to the incorrect timing, he never would have taken a test for anybody, including Trump.

Asked about the discrepancy, Mary Trump said she was not referring to the Joe Shapiro who Trump met in college, but to another "Joe Shapiro from the neighborhood."

"I am confident in my source, who is somebody close to Donald," she said.

In the book, Mary Trump paints a grim and even devastating portrait of both her grandfather and uncle, and she said that nothing Trump has done since taking office has shocked her.

When pressed, she said that not even the president's incendiary - at times racist and misogynistic - language, or even his immigration policy separating children and families at the nation's southern border has surprised her. "No, the more divisive, the better, the cooler," she said, explaining what she views as the president's ethos.

Mary Trump writes that she considered coming forward to try to stop Trump's election during the summer of 2016, and ultimately decided against doing so - a decision she doesn't regret, in part because she believes nothing could have prevented his election then.

Now, however, she is hoping the fortuitous timing of her book - which was originally scheduled for release in April - could help impact the November election. And either way, she said she wants to feel like she did her small part to warn the nation about what she views as the dangers of her uncle.

"I'd seen enough in the last few years to know that no one thing is going to make a bit of difference," she said. "This is going to be - using the expression loosely - death by a thousand lashes, right, and maybe in this case it's going take a million lashes, so it's more about adding to the record of egregious things that have happened and for which there has been no accountability."

She continued: "But more than that, I also felt a responsibility to make sure that people are as informed as possible when November comes, because I do not believe that was the case in 2016 at all."

For now, she said she views this book as her small bit of activism and prefers not to focus on the November election - or the possibility that Trump could win reelection.

If that happens, she said with a laugh, "I may be in the Caribbean."
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Linkedin Kevin Yao (Reuters) Beijing, China  Thu, July 16, 2020 11:02 552 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a40666baf3f 2 Business China,GDP-growth,lockdown,COVID-19 Free

Chinas economy is likely to return to modest growth in the second quarter after a record contraction, as lockdown measures ended and policymakers stepped up stimulus to combat the shock from the coronavirus crisis.

The gross domestic product (GDP) numbers, due early Thursday, will be closely watched around the world, especially as many countries continue to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic even as China has largely managed to contain the outbreak and has begun to restart its economic engines.

Analysts polled by Reuters forecast GDP to have grown 2.5 percent in April-June from a year earlier, reversing a 6.8 percent decline in the first quarter - the first contraction since at least 1992 when official quarterly GDP records started.

However, the expected growth rate would still be the weakest expansion on record.

Rising coronavirus infections in some countries, including the United States, have overshadowed improved demand for Chinese exports while heavy domestic job losses and lingering health concerns have kept consumers cautious.

Chinas services sector, which is dominated by smaller firms, has not rebounded as quickly as factory production, though there are some signs that consumer confidence is gradually improving.

On a quarterly basis, GDP is expected to have grown 9.6 percent in April-June, compared with a decline of 9.8 percent in the first quarter.

Data on Tuesday showed the countrys imports in June rose for the first time this year as stimulus boosted demand for building materials, while exports also edged up as overseas economies reopened after lockdowns.

While Chinas economy is showing a steady recovery, a hard battle still lies ahead as the situation remains severe both at home and abroad, state radio quoted Premier Li Keqiang as saying on Monday.

Along with second-quarter GDP data on Thursday (0200 GMT), China will also release June factory output, retail sales and fixed-asset investment.

Debt risks

Central bank governor Yi Gang has said China would keep financial system liquidity ample in the second half but would need to consider withdrawing support at some point, raising questions among investors over when it may start dialing down stimulus.

A spike in debt risks remain a worry for policymakers, analysts say.

Ruan Jianhong, head of the central banks statistics department, told a briefing last week that Chinas macro leverage ratio jumped 14.5 percentage points in the first quarter and climbed further in the second quarter.

Still, analysts expect policymakers to maintain support for the economy for a while longer to ensure the recovery remains on track, particularly given the fragile global economic conditions.

Credit growth is also expected to remain strong. New bank lending hit a record 12.09 trillion yuan (US$1.72 trillion) in the first half of the year.

The International Monetary Fund has forecast Chinas GDP to expand 1.0 percent for the full year, the only major economy expected to report growth in 2020.
West Chester University's campus. West Chester is one of several state system schools that will not be considered for integration. Read more

Citing years of falling enrollment, the system that oversees Pennsylvanias 14 state universities will use a new state law to conduct a financial review that ultimately could result in fewer schools.

The board of governors of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education on Thursday agreed to allow the chancellors administration to study the financial implications of integrating three pairs of universities in the western and north-central areas of the state: California and Clarion, Edinboro and Slippery Rock, and Lock Haven and Mansfield. Other options also will be explored.

The integration could leave the system with 11 universities, but even if approved, the implementation is at least two years away.

The decision comes as financial challenges mount for the state universities amid a pandemic that has only exacerbated the problem. The schools are expected to use about $260 million of their $724 million in reserves to balance their budgets by 2022. Four universities would be left with less than $10 million each and five others with about $20 million, said Daniel Greenstein, system chancellor.

 READ MORE: Enrollment falls again across Pennsylvanias state universities

The 95,000-student system has seen a 20% enrollment decline in the last decade and forecasts another drop this fall, with a further dip in high school population coming.

The market in Pennsylvania for traditional residential education is shrinking, Greenstein said during an interview this week. It has been for years, and its going to shrink more. How many of our institutions can that market sustain? Thats the question we are trying to address.

The systems exploration could be a harbinger for other colleges struggling with enrollment declines and financial strain.

 READ MORE: Pennsylvania state universities freeze tuition, plan for uncertain fall

Greenstein said the system has to act to continue providing a quality, affordable education for students. A decade ago, he said, the systems annual tuition and room and board cost was about $7,000 cheaper than some competitors; now, at more than $21,000 annually, its only about $1,500 less, he said. The system has frozen tuition the last two years.

The time is now, he said. This can has been kicked down the road for a long time. The road ended a while back.

For years, system leaders have resisted any suggestion of closing a university, and they are not closing one now, Greenstein emphasized. In fact, the law that took effect this month does not allow the system to close a university, but rather gives the power for affiliating or consolidating schools.

 READ MORE: Gov. Tom Wolf signs a bill that makes it easier for Pa. state universities to consolidate or affiliate

Under the proposal to be studied, the affected pairs of schools would integrate in some fashion, Greenstein said. The model proposed would have them using the same staff and faculty and working under one budget and leadership team. Whether they would retain both names or assume a new one and just how each of their campuses would be used are among the topics the review will explore, Greenstein said. The goal, said Dave Pidgeon, a system spokesperson, would be to make sure academic programming remains available in all regions.

Greenstein also said he did not have an estimate of how much money schools would save through integration, noting that would come through the review.

Board members said they understood the need to move forward with the review.

Theres really no other path that would lead us to sustainability, said David Maser, vice chair.

Some had concerns.

Its important if were going to move forward with this that we do work with faculty, staff, with students in making sure they are included in developing the plans for integration, said Alex Fefolt, a student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and the student member of the board. There are a lot of  details, I think, that we tend to miss at this level.

Neil Weaver, another board member, also said communication is key.

Im getting text messages right now from staff who are asking what does this mean, he said.

Jamie Martin, president of the statewide faculty union, said she wants to see what the plan actually will look like and how it will affect members at the six universities.

The process is sure to draw attention and questions from alumni, students, and communities about potentially losing a university name or identity that has been in place for more than a century.

As we are looking at these integrations, those kinds of considerations are absolutely critical, Greenstein said.

 READ MORE: As colleges compete for fewer students, the pressure rises to meet enrollment targets

The intent, Greenstein said, would be for the schools to expand their market or grow into adjacent ones. Clarion and California have a strong online presence and could do more with that, he said. Lock Haven and Mansfield serve communities with a need for nondegree credentials to meet workforce needs, he said, and combining Edinboro with Slippery Rock  the strongest and largest of the six with 8,806 students  could put them in a better market position.

With the exception of Slippery Rock, the schools are the ones we have the greatest concerns about and were also selected because of their proximity to each other, Greenstein said. Mansfield has the smallest enrollment, 1,683 as of last fall. The others are: Lock Haven, 3,162; Edinboro, 4,636; Clarion, 4,703; and California, 6,842.

As the review continues, other state universities could be included for integration, he said. West Chester, the systems largest with more than 17,000 students, and Indiana are the only two exempt from consolidation under the law. Cheyney, a historically Black university that has struggled in the past but projects a strong enrollment gain for the fall amid new partnerships with businesses, is not expected to be considered for consolidation, Greenstein said.

Greenstein said he likely will come back to the board in October with recommendations and if the board decides to pursue integration, it would take about six months to develop plans. If those plans are approved, it would start a 60-day public comment period, with a final decision next summer and implementation for fall 2022.

Change is hard, he said, but the cause is right.
Mayank Singh By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Indian Army has reiterated its call for complete disengagement from the standoff locations with China on Thursday and highlighted the need for "constant verification" of the retreat of the PLA from these points.

"The two sides remain committed to the objective of complete disengagement. This process is intricate and requires constant verification," said the Indian Army.

Indian and Chinese Corps Commanders held a meeting at Chushul on the Indian side for the fourth round of talks on July 14.

The two sides have decided to move back troops in a standoff position to a predefined distance from the present locations.

An Army officer said, "Full disengagement has been achieved from two points (Patrolling Points 14 and 15). Partial disengagement was carried out at Hot Springs and Pangong Tso. Disengagement in the remaining areas is expected in the coming days."

The Depsang standoff still remains a sore point. Chinese troops have entered the Y-Junction along with artillery and armoured forces.

But troops from both sides remain deployed in depth areas.

The senior commanders reviewed the progress on implementation of the first phase of disengagement and discussed further steps to ensure that it is completed.

India and China have been engaged in discussions through established military and diplomatic channels to address the prevailing situation along the LAC.

But it is going to be a long-drawn process, say officers in the Army. Rebuilding mutual trust after the 15th June incident will take time, therefore speedy disengagement may be difficult to achieve. More discussions at military level would be required to achieve complete disengagement, said an officer.

A consensus had been reached between the Special Representatives of India and China earlier, on July 5, to discuss complete disengagement.

Meanwhile, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is scheduled to visit the forward areas of the Line of Actual Control on July 18. He will be visiting the Line of Control with Pakistan before landing in Leh on the evening of July 17.
Change in Annual Homicides: 2014-15

When crime rates began to climb in St. Louis in late 2014, Police Chief Sam Dotson offered an intriguing explanation. A Ferguson effect, following the widely condemned killing of a black teenager by police in a nearby suburb, had led to trepidation on the part of some officers in enforcement situations, and to a feeling of empowerment among offenders.The theory provoked significant interest among law enforcement officials and academics who have since debated its merits in academic studies and in the press. FBI Director James Comey has given it further credence, suggesting police have become more cautious due to a fear of being caught on camera. But nearly two years after Dotsons initial remarks, there is little agreement about what form the Ferguson effect is taking, or even if it exists at all. Nor is there consensus about whether a national crime wave is actually occurring.The latest research on the issue, conducted by University of MissouriSt. Louis professor Richard Rosenfeld for the Justice Department, found a spike in homicides between 2014 and 2015. The number of murders in 56 large cities rose an average of nearly 17 percent in that one year -- the steepest annual increase since at least the 1980s -- and 12 cities recorded spikes exceeding 50 percent. Most striking was the revelation that the 10 cities with the biggest increases were characterized by large African-American populations. The increase is real and worrisome, says Rosenfeld, who now thinks the Ferguson effect theory is plausible.The findings come with several caveats: Its not yet known just how widespread the increase in crime is; the one-year jump in the murder rate follows decades of decline; and recent national trends for other types of crime arent yet available. Overall crime rates in a different sample of 30 large cities reviewed by the Brennan Center for Justice were essentially unchanged last year.The aspect of the Ferguson effect thats received the most attention is the notion that officers are pulling back on enforcement and proactive policing, fueling a crime increase. In Chicago, shooting arrests dropped last year, but gun violence climbed in the months following the release of a video showing the police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. We have allowed our police department to get fetal, and it is having a direct consequence, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said at a meeting in 2015.So far, however, there is insufficient evidence to support the idea that de-policing has led to a nationwide crime wave. In New York, for example, no relationship has been found between crime rates and a reduction in aggressive stop-and-frisk police tactics. The city, which started to curtail the practice drastically in early 2014, has seen overall major felony crimes continue to drop near historic lows. Ronal Serpas, who co-chairs the group Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime and Incarceration, recalls warnings about de-policing when police dashboard cameras proliferated in the early 2000s. De-policing didnt happen then, and its not happening now, he says. Its dangerous when well-informed people keep saying this even though they dont have any proof of it.One prominent official with a different view is Malik Aziz, who heads the National Black Police Association. Following the recent shootings, Aziz has seen and heard of officers not injecting themselves into situations that could provoke controversy. It was only after the murder of Freddie Gray in Baltimore that police were being charged with crimes, and it set a new narrative, he says. They fear a type of engagement that may have some backlash to it.Meanwhile, a second version of the Ferguson theory, one that hasnt received as much publicity, is gaining traction. It contends that heightened racial tensions and a distrust in police are contributing to higher crime rates. L.A. Police Chief Charlie Beck cited the lack of public trust in police as the real Ferguson effect in an op-ed in theearlier this year. Weaker links between law enforcement and the community make police less effective, he wrote.Under this scenario, criminals might feel more empowered to carry weapons and take matters into their own hands, or residents might be less apt to assist in investigations. While the two versions of the Ferguson effect arent mutually exclusive, Rosenfeld thinks concerns around police legitimacy are more plausible. If there is some kind of a Ferguson effect at work, he says, it has got to extend beyond de-policing.Testing this emerging hypothesis, however, is difficult. Research by Yale University professor Tom Tyler suggests that procedural fairness influences the perception of police legitimacy, which in turn acts as a strong determinant of public compliance with laws and a willingness to cooperate with investigations. A July Gallup poll found 67 percent of blacks felt they were treated less fairly than whites by police, a rate thats remained fairly constant over time. Similarly, a recent Pew Research Center poll reported 18 percent of blacks said theyd been stopped unfairly in the previous 12 months, compared to just 3 percent for whites surveyed. While law enforcement agencies have worked to strengthen local ties via community policing efforts, Aziz says, theyve often failed to engage groups of African-Americans with negative perceptions of police.Serpas, a former New Orleans police chief, doesnt think the declining trust version of the Ferguson effect is any more valid than the de-policing argument. He points out that gaps in trust have remained consistent over time. Over 30 years, weve made a lot of changes and havent really moved the needle much, he says. Homicide spikes in some cities, Serpas believes, are more likely a result of factors like more children being born into disadvantaged families or repeat gun offenders not being locked up. The Justice Department report also considered the effects of falling imprisonment rates and expanding heroin markets, but these trends predate the recent rise in homicides.Any effects of recent high-profile shootings involving police are likely playing out differently across cities. Its worth noting that just 10 of the 56 cities reviewed in the Justice Department study accounted for two-thirds of the surge in homicides. Any increase in crime is driven more by local factors, says Ames Grawert, an attorney with the Brennan Center for Justice.Further clarity on the Ferguson effect should come later this fall, when the FBI releases complete 2015 crime data compiled from all participating law enforcement agencies nationwide. Rosenfeld and others argue the FBI should release preliminary numbers more regularly, similar to economic reports, instead of waiting roughly 10 months after the end of each year. The FBI says its redeveloping its systems and anticipates more frequent publications.While local departments track their own stats, its currently difficult to know whether any uptick in crime mirrors whats happening in other jurisdictions. The data cant be used to address crime problems as theyre emerging, says Rosenfeld. Imagine if unemployment was increasing and the Labor Department was utterly silent.
Some Nigerians have reacted to the rescue of Joy Nunieh, a former Director-General of the Niger Delta Development Commission from poli...





Some Nigerians have reacted to the rescue of Joy Nunieh, a former Director-General of the Niger Delta Development Commission from police officers by the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike.





Some police officers had in the early hours of Thursday invaded Nuniehs residence in Port Harcourt.





But Wike had stormed the residence of the former NDDC boss and took her away.





Nunieh had a few days ago accused the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio of sexual harassment and fraud among other things.

Akpabio, however, denied all the allegations leveled against him by the former NDDC MD.





However, Nigerians who expressed their opinion commended Wike for coming to Nuniehs rescue following reports of police invasion of her residence.





Tweets gathered by some Nigerians in response to Wikes action read below:





@SodiqTade: Im not surprised about the whole drama though. That is why this country is Nigeria. She must have been expecting the intimidation as well. Just that Akpabio picked the wrong location. He should have known Wike to be a no nonsense man. For that Niger Delta, Wike is the war.





@PHCinpictures: Whatever you do in this life. Never ever mess with a Governor who carries cutlass.





Wike just rescued former NDDC MD, Joy Nunieh to Government house, Port Harcourt, Rivers State after Nigerian Police raided her house around 4.00am.





@DeeOneAyekooto: Wike did a similar thing when some years back, the DSS stormed the home of judges. He resisted them in Port Harcourt. IGP claimed it didnt order Magus arrest, so who did? People are just behaving like theres no one in charge of the country.





@supergirlwcw: A friend in need is a friend indeed. Rivers People will not be intimidated never! This is who Wike is. If he stands by you, he stands unwavering till the end. I love my Governor. Joi Nunieh fear not! Joi Nunieh is now on her way to Abuja. AkpabioThumbs down.





Reps order arrest of NDDC boss, Pondei NEWS:Reps order arrest of NDDC boss, Pondei

@ayemojubar: NDDC, Akpabio, Joi Nunieh: We are not only in the midst of a pandemic, we are also at the center of heistdemic, scamdenic and hushdemic at every angle under Buharis watch.




The Utah County Commission was supposed to be talking about masks Wednesday - but among the dozens of spectators packed shoulder-to-shoulder in the audience, there were few in sight.

"This is the exact opposite of what we need to be doing," Tanner Ainge, the commission's chair, said over the microphone, as the crowd erupted into boos. "We are supposed to be physically distancing, wearing masks."

One person yelled that Ainge was trying to silence them. Another held up a sign that read, "Let kids be kids, no masks."

But he and another member of the all-Republican council were resolute: The lack of adherence to public health guidelines meant the meeting - on a statewide order requiring masks in schools - would have to be postponed just moments after it started.

After months of partisan debate, it seemed the political tenor on face coverings was starting to align with scientific consensus this week. Republican governors, Mormon leadership and Walmart all came out in support of masks as a necessary precaution against the novel coronavirus, which has killed at least 134,000 people in the United States.

But as parents and teachers look ahead to the new school year, the scene out of Provo, Utah, indicates that some Americans are not done putting up a fight to keep their faces exposed. This time around, they're waging a war about their kids' classrooms.

"This mandate for the children to wear masks is baloney," Cynthia Harding, a Provo resident who attended a protest before the county meeting, told the Salt Lake Tribune. "We have the right to make our own choices."

Doctors and public health officials have insisted for months that wearing face masks in public is the most effective way to contain the pandemic in situations where social distancing is impossible, including on crowded school buses or in busy hallways.

Republican officials in some of the most conservative states in the country have heeded that call. Last week, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, R, said students and teachers in most school districts can return to classes in person on the condition that everyone covers their faces.

Yet in Utah County, which spans three school districts just south of Salt Lake City, Commissioner Bill Lee pushed back. This week, he introduced a proposal to ask state health officials for a "compassionate exemption" from the mask requirement, suggesting that parents, teachers and administrators should have more authority over face masks themselves.

"We've got to have a lot more conversation on this," he told The Washington Post in an interview. "[The order] doesn't really fit the functionality of schools. . . . We've got to have the ability to be compassionate with others."

In an email to constituents this week, he invited them to "peacefully express their concerns" about the mandate outside the county government center in Provo on Wednesday, a half-hour before the commission was set to meet.

"I don't like government mandates," Lee told the cheering crowd, according to the Tribune. Although he showed up to the event with a light blue face covering, he promptly removed it once the protesters shouted for him to "take the mask off!"

As the meeting started, protesters wearing Trump 2020 hats and hoisting small American flags poured into the small boardroom. Tape had been laid on chairs and on the ground to maintain social distancing, but the demonstrators stripped it off, sitting side-by-side and gathering against the walls.

Ainge, the commission's chair, ended the meeting little more than a minute after it began. But even after he got up and left, the protesters got up one by one to rail against the face mask order, rattling off a catalogue of reasons they opposed it.

One mother, Carly Lisonbee, charged that government officials wanted "to override a parent's decision over what they think is best for their child," according to the Provo Daily Herald. Penny Roberts, a second-grade teacher, said she feared that masks would make it more difficult for teachers to determine if students were facing abuse at home.

Ainge, who said he moved to cut the meeting short because of health concerns, told The Post in an interview that the crowd had been directing their message at the wrong government body.

"This had no business being on our agenda," he said. "The county has nothing to do with this. It would be like the school board deciding how much money to give to the sheriff's department."

While Lee and some of the protesters raised concerns about how the mask mandate might affect students with disabilities or be enforced on playgrounds and in lunchrooms, Ainge said state health authorities were working with school districts to flesh out details.

In other parts of the country, the surging pandemic means students may not even make it to school in person. School systems in Atlanta, Los Angeles and San Diego have said the virus is spreading so rapidly they will start the year entirely online. In Utah, Salt Lake City is poised to do the same.

But amid the uncertainty and debate over what classes may look like this fall, some parents seem unwilling to cede any ground.

As he left the meeting, Ainge stopped outside the county government building to speak with some protesters. One woman became so upset while challenging him, the Deseret News reported, that she appeared to have a panic attack and had to be transported to the hospital in an ambulance.
2020 Internet Telephony Product of the Year The defense in depth security strategy that we propose through our association with Redshift Networks brings our customers to the highest security level, with advanced back-end fraud monitoring and user behavior analytics Patrick Bergougnou, CEO of Cirpack

Cirpack, a leader in SBC and IMS core networks and RedShift Networks, an award winning SIP and UC security provider, today announced their technical and business partnership for providing a full protection solution of SIP services for Enterprises and Communication providers. The partnership delivers best in class Voice over IP (VoIP) security capabilities for Enterprise Unified Communication (UCaaS) -- anti DDoS protection, security policies enforcement, intelligent fraud and threat detection, and robocalls elimination. The UCaaS global market size, including enterprise use and communication service provider (CSP) revenue, is expected to grow to USD $24.8 billion by 2024 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9.5 percent.

Cirpacks Session Border Controllers (SBC) and Redshift Networks Unified Communication Threat Management (UCTM) are complementary products allowing communication providers and enterprises to deploy and operate securely advanced communication services accessed not only from the company or SDWAN network, but also by teleworker and nomadic users.

The Cirpack SBC provides SIP services with interoperability, routing, and security. Especially, it handles authentication, and authorization, deep SIP packet inspection, SIP policy enforcement, traffic shaping and DOS attack prevention. In an ever more mobile environment where enterprises and service providers communications get richer, numerous new VoIP attack vectors appear and evolve over time. The defense in depth security strategy that we propose through our association with Redshift Networks brings our customers to the highest security level, with advanced back-end fraud monitoring and user behavior analytics, said Patrick Bergougnou, CEO of Cirpack. Whether cloud, virtual or on-prem, enterprises gain a pro-active security edge for protecting themselves from a new generation of global attacks.

We are very proud to partner with Cirpack since UCaaS and VoIP security are serious matters on par with data security requirements, said Amitava Mukherjee, President, CEO & Co-Founder of RedShift Networks. Cirpacks telecommunication expertise, product reliability and security spirit are a great match for RedShift Networks. Together, we offer UCaaS security protection to block costly and malicious traffic in real-time. With Redshift UCTM Big Data analytics delivering instantaneous insight of VoIP traffic flows and actionable on Cirpack SBC, UCaaS platform administrators can launch or expand their services with confidence and efficiency.

About RedShift Networks:

Headquartered in Silicon Valley, RedShift Networks is the global leader in providing Cyber Security solutions for Global Carrier and Cloud Communications Operators to secure and protect their VoIP/SIP based networks. Our Unified Communications Threat Management (UCTM) software and appliance-based systems deliver VoIP/SIP Security, Threat Intelligence Analytics, and Fraud detection technology. Our Robocall data base, and support for STIR/SHAKEN allow for regulatory compliance while our highly scalable, reliable and patented UCTM software allows for unprecedented real-time visibility into operators VoIP networks allowing our customers to immediately detect and automatically mitigate security attacks and fraudulent events. For more information, visit http://www.redshiftnetworks.com.

About Cirpack:

Headquartered in Paris, France, CIRPACK is a Home and Enterprise markets IP Telecommunications software editor, which allow the construction of scalable and multiservice "Full IP" solutions for the use of telecommunications operators and service providers. CIRPACK software offering is based on highly innovative Core Network technological solutions (SoftSwitch, IMS, SBC, SIP Trunking, Centralized Routing ...) accompanied by associated professional services. CIRPACK is established in France, Mexico, Tunisia, and Vietnam, and operates through a network of value-added partners. More than 60 million businesses and residential customers benefit daily from the advantages of CIRPACK solutions and services.

A specialized subsidiary of the CIRPACK group, AMPLEMENT is a Cloud Unified Communications software editor which provides businesses in SaaS mode with a range of collaboration tools facilitating teamwork and teleworking: its functionalities cover all the necessary needs to the operation of a company or a project team: audio and video calls, instant messaging, videoconferencing, documents sharing, virtual meeting rooms, workgroups all from web or mobile applications. More than 400,000 users, companies and associations benefit daily from the advantages of UNIQUITY and myCollaborate solutions developed by AMPLEMENT. For additional information, please visit http://www.cirpack.com and http://www.amplement.com.
Chennai: Modulus Housing, an IIT-Madras incubated startup has developed and deployed a portable hospital unit called MediCab. It is said that six of these collapsible, customizable structures can fit in a truck. The makers claim that it can be installed anywhere, in under 8 eight hours by four persons.

The MediCab is foldable and is composed of four zones  a doctor's room, an isolation room, a medical room/ward and a twin-bed ICU, maintained at negative pressure.

Made using steel, composite materials and coated with a primer the company claims that the portable hospital unit can serve its purpose for a little over 12 years.

MediCAB has been launched recently in Wayanad District of Kerala where the units are being deployed to treat COVID-19 Patients. The startup is developing micro-hospitals that can be deployed rapidly across the nation.

The 800sq feet model that is being used in Wayaad can house 12 persons and has two in-built restrooms. Modulus is also working on a Dual design where these can be rapidly launched as COVID-19 isolation wards. Post-COVID-19, these can be transformed into micro-hospitals/clinics in Rural India where the medical infrastructure needs to be augmented. Modulus Housing has set up its manufacturing unit at Chengalpet (located about 35 km from Chennai).

When asked about the advantages offered by such structures over existing structures such as large stadia and schools etc, said Shreeram Ravichandran, CEO Modulus Housing that this offering is meant for places in rural areas that lack the basic infrastructure. It is better to isolate Covid-19 patients in negative pressure rooms than to keep them in large halls in schools and colleges. Our model comes with an exhaust, industrial dome which ensures ventilation. After the Covid-19 pandemic, we can reconfigure our structure into a rural health camp or a daycare centre for children, education camp etc, he said.

In Negative pressure rooms, the air pressure inside the room is lower than the air pressure outside the room. This means that when the door is opened, potentially contaminated air or other dangerous particles from inside the room will not flow outside into non-contaminated areas. Instead, non-contaminated filtered air will flow into the negative pressure room. Contaminated air is sucked out of the room with exhaust systems, which are built with filters that clean the air before it is pumped outside of and away from the healthcare facility.

In terms of cost, the company says that the 800sq ft model would cost about Rs 12 lakhs to build. The end product would finally be available at around 15lakhs after electrical fittings, plumbing, flooring and false ceiling are done. The company is said to be in touch with various state governments for scaling up this project.

We can scale up and make a 50-bed hospital in about 2 weeks and the materials are also easily available off the shelf. And our models are like lego bricks and can be expanded easily, Shreeram added.

The company says that they make use of a novel technology of collapsible structures. It comes equipped with a prefabrication modular technology and a telescopic frame that allows the model to be shrunk to 1/5th of its original size, which makes it convenient for storage and transportation. They say that their offerings can be customized based on user needs and that the cost varies based on the specifications demanded by the customers.

Founded by two IIT alumni in 2018, Modulus Housing now has a 15 member team and works with various industry partners and the IIT alumni network.
Something to look forward to: Best yet, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Over the planned seven-year mission, the crafts other instruments are expected to reveal a wealth of additional information about the Sun that scientists will be studying for years to come.

The Solar Orbiter, a Sun-observing satellite jointly funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA to further study our closest star, has sent back its first bit of data.

After multiple delays, the Solar Orbiter finally launched in February of 2020 on an Atlas V 411 rocket. Following months of travel, the spacecraft recently completed its first close pass of the Sun and snapped some stunning photos in the process.

Daniel Muller, ESAs Solar Orbiter project scientist, said they didnt expect such great results so early. Holly Gilbert, NASA project scientist for the mission at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said, These amazing images will help scientists piece together the Suns atmospheric layers, which is important for understanding how it drives space weather near the Earth and throughout the solar system.

The mission was put in jeopardy by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic as it forced all but the most essential personnel to work from home. It was the first time we have ever done that, said Russell Howard, principal investigator for one of Solar Orbiter's imagers. Nevertheless, the team persevered.

For its first rendezvous, the Solar Orbiter flew within 48 million miles of the Sun and fired up all 10 onboard instruments to collect data. The crafts Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) identified the presence of what David Berghmans, an astrophysicist at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Brussels, called campfires.

The campfires we are talking about here are the little nephews of solar flares, at least a million, perhaps a billion times smaller, Berghmans said. When looking at the new high resolution EUI images, they are literally everywhere we look.

NASA notes that while other spacecraft have flown closer to the Sun, none were equipped with Sun-facing imagers.
Kumawood actor, Kwaku Manu has cried in a viral video to advise NPP's Ashanti Regional chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako popularly known as Chairman Wontum, to stop speaking English on TV especially when he's angry.



In a video posted on Nkonkonsa.com on Instagram, Kwaku Manu who was seen relaxing in his bed was lamenting over the issue.



According to the actor, Chairman Wontumi should desist from speaking English on TV when he's angry because he exposes himself to public ridicule on social media.



Kwaku Manu said if he does not advise the chairman, no one else would amid tears that erupted massive laughter from his fans.



The actor said he's standing in as a friend, son, nephew to talk to Chairman Wontumi.



Kwaku Manu, among other things, claimed he has been having sleepless nights over the past few days as people keep posting on social media. Wontumi's recent video wherein the latter infamously declared "Whom mam ii" to wit "who am i?".



Chairman Wontumi is a past student of Kumasi-based Prempeh College who seems to have difficulty in addressing issues in the Queen's language.



However, this has not deterred him as he continues to speak his mind on matters using English as his mode of communication. Not even the mockery all over social media could stop him. He is noted for his famous 'apartheid' speech when he said the NPP government was a 'movement stronger than apartheid'.



Before this, he went viral when he pronounced 'all and sundry' as 'all and sundrial' at an NPP rally.

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.

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Four days after the murder of a 70-year-old woman in Chembur, Tilak Nagar police arrested her nephews wife on Thursday.

The police said the accused, identified as 32-year-old Anjana Patil, hit her husbands aunt Sajanabai Patil on her head with a bat and then strangled her to death. She then dragged the Sajanabais body to the bathroom and ransacked the house to make the murder look like a part of a robbery attempt, said a police officer.

Anjana, her husband Dinesh and Sajanabai used to stay on the first floor of Nav Bharat Cooperative Society. Dinesh is employed at a petroleum firm, while Anjana is a homemaker. Her parents also stay in the same building.

According to the police, the two women used to quarrel frequently over trivial issues. Recently, Anjana took some cash which Sajanabai withdrew the post office, without informing the latter. Sajanabai suspected that Anjana took the money and confronted her over the issue.

On Monday, there was a heated argument between the two women when the victim questioned the accused about the money the issue. In fit of rage, the accused picked up a bat lying in the house and hit the victim on her head repeatedly. She later strangled her with a rope, said deputy commissioner of police Datta Nalawade, in-charge of Zone 6.

She then dragged the victims body to the bathroom and cleaned blood stains from the floor as well from the senior citizens clothes. The accused then hid her own blood-stained gown and ransacked the house and scattered clothes from the wardrobe in the room so that it would seem that the victim was murdered by robbers, added Nalawade. Anjana then left the door open and went to her parents home who live in the same building.

Around 4pm, when the accuseds sister in-law went to her house, she found Sajanabai lying in a pool of blood and alerted the other relatives in the building and the police. The victims body was taken to Rajawadi Hospital, where she was declared dead.

The doctors at the hospital found multiple injuries on the victims head as well as strangulation marks around her neck, following which the police filed a case of murder against unidentified people and questioned all the relatives and neighbours. The police learnt from the neighbours that the two women would often have arguments and that Anjana was in the house at the time of the murder. There were also discrepancies in Anjanas statement, who claimed that the woman fell in the bathroom and died, said the police. After repeated interrogations, Anjana confessed to the crime, following which she was arrested for murder and destruction of evidence, said Nalawade.
Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI), organised a virtual meeting themed Prospects for Trade Cooperation between the Sultanate and India as part of its recently launched initiative (OCCI Global Communication), Oman News Agency (ONA) reported.

Qais bin Mohammed al-Youssef, OCCI Chairman appreciated the participation of the Indian Chambers in this important event, which undoubtedly confirms the common desire of the Sultanate and India to enhance the level of partnership and cooperation in various economic and investment fields in particular.

Dr Qais said: "Available statistics indicate that the volume of trade exchange between the two countries in 2019 was more than RO one billion, equivalent to three billion and forty-two million US dollars. The total imports from India to the Sultanate amounted to approximately RO445 million while the Omani exports during the same year were about RO725 million. The volume of Indian investments registered in the Sultanate until 2019 stood at approximately RO276 million.

He added: The Sultanate during the comprehensive Renaissance led by the late Sultan Qaboos bin Said bin Taimour presented many achievements at all economic and social levels. The data showed that the Sultanates gross domestic product increased to about RO30.5 billion by the end of 2018, which is the highest level since the decline in oil prices in 2014. Thus, the Sultanates GDP has increased by 12 percent, compared to 2017, according to the statistics of the National Center for Statistics and Information (NCSI). Now, under the leadership of His Majesty Sultan Haitham Bin Tarik, growth and prosperity continue under this renaissance, under his wise leadership".

Munu Mahawar, Ambassador of the Republic of India to the Sultanate praised the initiative of OCCI, which started its first activities with India. He also commended OCCI role in strengthening trade relations between the two friendly countries that have had a commercial relationship for years. He also praised the leaders of the two countries who recommend to promote continuous cooperation and lasting support to build partnerships. He added that this interaction leads to more effort, and the two countries have expanded trade engagement.

The Ambassador of the Republic of India to the Sultanate pointed out that there are a number of sectors that India works with the Sultanate in a number of wilayats, such as Sohar and Salalah, including mining, health care, food security and other commercial sectors.

Pankaj Khimji, head of the Omani side at the Omani-Indian Joint Business Council, made a presentation about the changes brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic and the effects of oil prices, as well as opportunities arising from challenges.

He also highlighted the importance of sharing opportunities arising from challenges with business partners, to find a common point that supports trade relations between the two friendly countries. He stressed that these relations extend for thousands of years and are continuing through the conclusion of trade agreements in various fields, such as science and technology, in addition to diplomatic and economic fields, and other areas that reflect the strength of the relationship between the two countries.

The meeting was attended by businessmen from both sides.TradeArabia News Service
A Belgian court on Wednesday ruled that an Iranian diplomat and three others suspected of a planned terrorist attack on a gathering of 25,000 dissidents in Paris in 2018 should be held in Belgium in the coming months.

The Antwerp public prosecutor's office has charged the four suspects including Asadollah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat, of trying to plant a bomb at the venue of the gathering on June 30, 2018, Belgian news agency Belga reported on Wednesday.

The planned attack targeted an annual gathering of the opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) in Villepinte near Paris. The organization which is also known as People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran and its members have been persecuted by the clerical regime since 1981. The group was designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department in 1997 but was delisted in 2012.

Assadi who served as the third secretary of the Iranian Embassy in Austria was arrested in Germany and was extradited to Belgium. He is accused of planning the bombing and providing the explosives to an Iranian couple from Brussels.

The National Resistance Council of Iran (NRCI), a political coalition based in France and Albania in which the MEK plays a big role, in a statement on Wednesday said this was the first time in Europe that a diplomat had been brought to trial for direct involvement in terrorism. The group claims that Assadi was a senior official of the Iranian Intelligence Ministry and the station chief in Austria.

According to DPA, the couple were arrested by Belgian security forces in Brussels before carrying out the attack with 500 grams of the explosive triacetone triperoxide (TATP) and a detonator in a toiletry bag in their car. Another suspect was arrested in France while Assadi who was on a holiday trip in Bavaria was arrested there and turned over to the Beligian authorities as he did not enjoy diplomatic immunity in Germany.

The French Foreign Ministry said Iranian intelligence services were involved in the plans for the foiled terrorist attack and sanctioned two organizations. The French move was welcomed by the European Union.

Iran has always denied the allegations against its diplomat and in July 2018 summoned the French and Belgian ambassadors and Germany's charge d'affaires in protest at his arrest in Germany.
In 2018, Floridas voters amended the states Constitution to end the disenfranchisement of people convicted of felonies, except for murder and rape, upon completion of all terms of sentence, including parole or probation.

The next year, the states Republican-controlled Legislature enacted a law that defined that phrase to include the payment of fines, restitution, costs and fees.

Civil rights groups and voters affected by the law sued, saying that it would require hundreds of thousands of citizens of the state to pay money to vote, in violation of equal protection principles and the 24th Amendment, which barred poll taxes. They added that the state had been unable to calculate how much potential voters owed.

Judge Robert L. Hinkle, of the Federal District Court in Tallahassee, ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, entering a preliminary injunction, and a unanimous three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, affirmed that ruling.

In May, Judge Hinkle, applying the panels reasoning, entered a permanent injunction.

The State of Florida has adopted a system under which nearly a million otherwise-eligible citizens will be allowed to vote only if they pay an amount of money, he wrote. Most of the citizens lack the financial resources to make the required payment. Many do not know, and some will not be able to find out, how much they must pay.
Officials of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government say a record-high 286 new cases of coronavirus infection were confirmed in the Japanese capital on Thursday.

The figure exceeds the past daily high of 243 cases reported on July 10.

The total number of infections in Tokyo now stands at 8,640.

The metropolitan government is calling on residents to refrain from nonessential travel outside the capital even if they have no symptoms.

It is also urging businesses to take thorough steps to prevent infection by following the guidelines.
National Democrats apparently see South Jersey candidate Amy Kennedy as key to their efforts to increase the partys majority in the U.S. House of Representatives come Novembers election.

Kennedy, who is running to unseat party-switching Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew in closely watched race in New Jerseys 2nd congressional district, has been chosen for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committees Red to Blue program, NJ Advance Media has learned.

The program offers fundraising help, staff resources, and other guidance to candidates in House districts the DCCC is aiming to flip from Republican to Democrat.

Kennedys selection comes a little more than a week after she won a tight primary race to score the Democratic nod to take on Van Drew, who is running for a second term representing South Jerseys 2nd congressional district, which includes all of Cape May, Atlantic, Salem and Cumberland counties as well as parts of Gloucester, Ocean, Camden and Burlington counties.

DCCC Chairwoman Cheri Bustos praised Kennedy as an educator with more than a decade of experience working in public schools, a mental health advocate and a mother of five who is committed to addressing the biggest issues facing South Jerseyans.

Shell fight to make health care more accessible, protect workers rights, and safeguard New Jersey against the imminent threat of climate change, Bustos added. With four generations of South Jersey roots and her strong campaign, momentum is on Amys side. Amy is running a strong campaign and is on track to flip this district in November.

Van Drew is a former Democrat who switched parties last year and pledged his support to President Donald Trump. He is one of only two Republicans in New Jerseys 12-member congressional delegation.

Overall, Democrats currently control 233 of the 435 seats in the House, the lower chamber of Congress.

Van Drew is rated as a slight favorite for re-election by the two Washington-based publications that track congressional races, the Cook Political Report and Inside Elections.

Kennedy defeated Brigid Callahan Harrison in last weeks weeks primary, even though Callahan Harrison was supported by the powerful South Jersey Democratic machine. Kennedy was bolstered by an endorsement from Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, a fundraising advantage, as well as her famous last name. She is married to former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island.

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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com.
One in fifty births in Japan are said to be through in vitro fertilization, and many couples remain unable to conceive for reasons unknown. Infertility is also an undesired side-effect of lifesaving cancer treatment in childhood.

Akihiro Tsuchimoto, Masaaki Tone and Seiji Takashima of Shinshu University transplanted testis tissue to observe its effectiveness as a treatment for male infertility. When just the sperm stem cells are transplanted, the germ cells of the recipient (individual who is being treated) needs to be depleted to ensure engraftment and growth of the transplanted stem cells. However, contrary to their expectation, depletion of recipient germ cells actually worsened sperm production in transplanted tissues. They set out to find out why.

The reason for the negative prognosis in testis tissue transplantation was due to the depletion of germ cells which contribute to retinoic acid (RA) synthesis in the testes. In this context, they succeed in ameliorate donor spermatogenesis by RA administration in recipients to produce healthy offspring via intracytoplasmic sperm injection, a typical method in assisted reproductive technology in humans.

Although RA can produce teratogenicity when administered to pregnant mothers, an adverse effect was not observed during this treatment, suggesting that testis tissue transplantation in combination with RA administration on demand is an effective method for preserving/recovering male fertility. The researchers continue their work to preserve and restore male fertility. Testicular tissue transplantation should be uncomplicated to put into application, so the researchers are hopeful. There are still parameters that need to be considered and investigated to be put to use in reproductive technology.

For more information please read, Germ cell depletion in recipient testis has adverse effects on spermatogenesis in orthotopically transplanted testis pieces via retinoic acid insufficiency.

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This research was funded by JSPS KAKENHI (JP16H05046), The Sumitomo Foundation (140785 and 190304), The Naito Foundation (4342-110), The Ito Foundation (Ken 16), The Hokuto Foundation for Bioscience, the Japan Health Foundation (2016-3-145), the Mochida Memorial Foundation for Medical and Pharmaceutical Research, The Ichiro Kanehara Foundation for the Promotion of Medical Sciences and Medical Care, The Uehara Memorial Foundation, the Suzuken Memorial Foundation, the Takeda Science Foundation, Inamori Foundation, and Shinshu Medical Science Promotion Association.
In theory, the new rules -- especially the Cenace ones -- could hit renewable projects across the board. However, they have been suspended them in response to a lawsuit filed by Greenpeace. They were also suspended by the Supreme Court after a request by the countrys antitrust agency Cofece. If enforced, the new rules would hurt new-built plants that need to get tests to start running. Factories now in operation may get hit by new limits to generation (and potentially new tests). Even projects still in the planning stages are subject to new tests. The measures present a departure for Mexico, which had previously tried to boost private participation in the market. Last year, the Lopez Obrador administration suspended a renewable power auction program that had been rolled out in 2016.